[Editor note: This piece, written by Julian Simon (1932–1998) during debate over the BTU tax, is reproduced for its relevance for today’s push by Biden/Harris against affordable, reliable mineral energies in the name of “conservation” and climate change.
As the fight intensifies about an energy tax in the budget bill, some cool heads ought to reexamine the underlying belief that it is good for us to “conserve energy.” We see that belief in headlines such as “The High Cost of Cheaper Energy,” and Washington Post editorials like “A Totally Free Market Leads to Over-Consumption.”
Conservation Isn’t Necessary or Good
Some people simply believe that it is ipso facto a good thing to use less energy and have less economic growth. As Paul Ehrlich put it, “Giving society cheap abundant energy is .…
Continue Reading“The case for a near-term peak in oil demand is certainly more plausible than that of peak oil supply, but its popularity reflects a degree of exuberance that is not warranted by the data.” (— Michael Lynch, below)
With the onset of the Pandemic, the anti-industrial image-makers went to work. The Pandemic was (somehow) climate-related. The shutdowns were a harbinger of a climate-constrained world. The (victimized) oil industry was too vulnerable as an industry and vocation.
And Peak Oil Demand was now here.
Nope. PR aside, oil dominates the transportation market. Get Americans back toward normal, and the planes, trains, and automobiles will be out in force. RVs too, as well as cruise ships.
The recent rebound to $60 per barrel signals a robust fossil fuel world to come as the population gets back to its traditional ways.…
Continue Reading“‘I think ultimately we’re headed for an era in which my grandchildren will be driving electric cars, powered primarily by renewable energy,’ [George W.] Bush said. Oil, he said, brings economic, environmental and national-security problems.
– Kate Galbraith, “W. is for Wind,” Texas Tribune, May 25, 2010.
Let history note that Enron and Texas governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry created an industry that consumers in a free market did not. With the help of the federal Production Tax Credit of the Energy Policy Act of 1992, since renewed 13 times, as well as the $6.9 billion CREZ transmission line, Texas became the wind power state on the backs of national taxpayers and in-state ratepayers.
Bush’s “America is Addicted to Oil” reference in his 2006 State of the Union address did not come out of nowhere.…
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