A Free-Market Energy Blog

Green New Deal 2: “A Green Stimulus to Rebuild Our Economy” (the intellectual virus continues)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 26, 2020

“We must also begin planning our economic recovery in a way that protects us from the impact of climate change and … accelerates a just transition off fossil fuels….”

“The ideas here draw on proposals from a range of Democratic primary campaigns, in particular those of Corey Booker, Julian Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Jay Inslee, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, and Elizabeth Warren.”

Reproduced below is an “Open Letter and Call to Action to Members of Congress” by a ad hoc group advertising itself as “climate and social policy experts in academia and civil society.” Signatories include

While fringe, the 5,000-word manifesto is noteworthy as an example of the latest Green New Deal thinking.…

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The SPR: Consumer ‘Insurance’ or Producer Cronyism? (time to privatize)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 25, 2020

Expanding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be throwing good money after bad. Instead of remaining a valuable asset mired in the political swamp, the SPR can be turned into an entrepreneurial asset. The reserve can be privatized by selling off either the entire operation or its individual parts. – RLB (1991)

Good analysis passes the test of time. And since policy activism has a long history, the past is prologue. MasterResource has documented the false claims of energy Malthusianism in this regard.

The excerpt below, nearing a quarter-century of age, concerns the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), a forgotten, obsolete oil stockpile that could disappear tomorrow and hardly be noticed by the market. Created by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975 (one of many energy-crises laws), the SPR began operations in 1977.…

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“How Embarrassing. This Is a National Emergency” Wind and Solar try a 11th hour sneak

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 24, 2020

“Are you kidding me? This is the moment to debate new regulations that have nothing to do with this crisis? … Democrats won’t let us fund hospitals or save small businesses unless they get to dust off the Green New Deal?”

“I’ll tell you what will really lower our carbon footprint — if the entire economy continues to crumble….”

– U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) March 23, 2020)

Whatever your take on the federal stimulus bill, the Malthusian Left, hitching their wagon to the climate ‘crisis’ and the Green New Deal, is determined to fight until the end. And their anti-modernism crusade has hit a new low point in the current Senate debate over the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has had enough and spoke to the nation about where the radical wing of the Democratic Party wants to go in a time of emergency.…

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Energy & Environmental Newsletter: March 23, 2020

By -- March 23, 2020
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Obama’s Trumpian Oil Moment Eight Years Ago

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 20, 2020
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McKibben goes McKibben on COVID-19 (Malthusians get ‘dizzy’ about the human scourge)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 19, 2020
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Normalizing Bill McKibben (New Yorker hands the pen to fringe deep ecologist)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 18, 2020
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We Interrupt This Newsletter: March 16, 2020

By -- March 16, 2020
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Trillion Trees Act = Central Forestry Planning (ready for carbon, sustainability credits?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 12, 2020
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New York’s Cuomo vs. the Grassroots on Wind & Solar

By Sherri Lange -- March 11, 2020
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