A Free-Market Energy Blog

Texas Blackout: Costs, Blame Mount

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 5, 2021

“[Texas] energy infrastructure, overseen by agencies whose top priorities seem to be keeping the energy markets happy, gets neglected. Such neglect, deadly as we have seen, is a crime — or it ought to be.” (Houston Chronicle editorial board, April 4, 2021)

The grand failure of Texas’s power grid under legislative/regulator/expert control is a case study in political economy.

The mainstream narrative combines an Act of God (weather) with private-side failure (non-weatherization). But electricity, while mostly under private ownership, is one of the most highly regulated industries in the U.S. It does not operate in an unhampered market.

Don’t blame God or Market Man–blame the system, the regulated system. Many posts at MasterResource have laid blame, brick-by-brick, on contrived versus real free markets and, more generally, on anti-fossil-fuel planning.…

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Land-Intensive Renewables: Three TW of Wind and Solar = 228,000 sq. miles

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 1, 2021

“[Brian] Ross was stunned by his first look at a map of the Twin Cities region … show[ing] a hypothetical horizon in 2050 filled with new wind farms sprouting less than 40 miles from downtown Minneapolis…. Five other U.S. cities are similarly “mapped”…. ‘Holy moly,’ Ross exclaimed. ‘How on Earth are you going to get people not coming with pitchforks and tar to these siting meetings?'”

“Though [the Princeton] study concludes that ‘adequate land area exists’ to deploy enough wind and solar power … getting there will require building wind and solar units and power lines right now matching the highest annuals levels ever achieved in the United States. And development would only accelerate from there.” (E&E News, below)

Sometimes even the mainstream media gets an inconvenient fact out there amid the hype of a narrative.…

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Where Is Al Gore? (MIA in BidenWorld)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 31, 2021

“When asked how people can object to the scientific findings, [John] Holdren said politicization of global warming started in the 1990s when the GOP realized Al Gore would be the nominee for president. ‘He was Mr. Climate Change … so the other party used it politically,’ Holdren said.”

– Frances Hohl, “Environmental Expert Offers Dire Climate Change OutlookSteamboat Pilot & Today (July 17, 2019).

It’s a heavily scripted world around slow Joe Biden. The handlers are in control, pitching the nice guy as a front for his very bad energy and climate policies.

Have you noticed who is missing in all this? Where is Al Gore? It is as if “Mr. Climate Change” is hiding out with Hunter or in a bunker.

In fact, Al Gore is a PR liability, with his exaggerations and stiff style best closeted.…

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Robert Michaels Interview: From Economics to Energy Economics

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 30, 2021
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Climate Dereg: ‘Energy Independence and Economic Growth’ (Trump’s EO of March 28, 2017)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 29, 2021
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Electricity Planning: Physical vs. Economic (an exchange with Eric Schubert)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 25, 2021
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Civil Society and Natural Gas during the Great Texas Blackout

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 24, 2021
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ERCOT “worked as designed” (architect Hogan gives no quarter)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 23, 2021
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Winning on Offense: Oil Industry Shames North Face (petrochemicals, clothing, and private jets)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 22, 2021
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Biden’s “Existential Threat” Climate Speech (January 27, 2021)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 19, 2021
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