A Free-Market Energy Blog

Trump on Regulatory Reform at Davos (January 26, 2018)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 27, 2018

“… we have undertaken the most extensively regulatory reduction ever conceived. Regulation is stealth taxation. The U.S. Like many other countries unelected bureaucrats … they have imposed crushing and anti-business and anti-worker regulations on our citizens with no vote, no legislative debate, and no real accountability. In America those days are over.

“I pledged to eliminate two unnecessary regulations for everyone new regulation. We have succeeded beyond our highest expectations. Instead of two for one, we have cut 22 burdensome regulations for everyone new rule. We are freeing our businesses and workers so they can thrive and flourish as never before. We are creating an environment that attracts capital, invites investment, and rewards production. America is the place to do business, so come to America where you can innovate, create and build.”

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‘Wind Turbine Syndrome’ (Science advances, Australia judiciary takes note)

By Sherri Lange -- January 26, 2018

“Next to aesthetic impact, no aspect of wind energy creates more alarm or more debate than noise…. Wind turbines are not silent. They are audible. All wind turbines create unwanted sound, that is, noise. Some do so to a greater degree than others. And the sounds they produce—the swish of blades through the air, the whir of gears inside the transmission, and the hum of the generator—are typically foreign to rural settings where wind turbines are the most often used.”

– Paul Gipe, Wind Energy Comes of Age (New York:  John Wiley & Sons, 1995), p. 371.

“Why is sensitisation to noise and vibration important? From a public health perspective, sensitisation of individuals to noise will predictably lead to worsening individual health outcomes, especially via the well-known disease pathways associated with chronic stress, and chronic sleep deprivation.”

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Malthusianism circa 1948 (running out of oil, etc.)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 24, 2018

“We build into our automobiles more power and greater gas consumption than we need. We use the press and radio to push the sales of more cars. We drive them hundreds of millions of miles a year in pursuit of futility.”

“With the exhaustion of our own oil wells in sight … much of our resource capital has been used up, but we still have our yacht, our stable of horses….”

– William Vogt. Road to Survival (New York: William Sloane, 1948), p. 68.

MasterResource documents the historical record behind the grand energy debate from the vantage points of business, economics, political economy, and history. What was said? When? Why? And to what effect?

One aspect of the debate has been the difference between natural market efficiency/conservation versus its political offshoot,  conservationism, defined as the belief that less usage is per se a moral good or economic necessity.…

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It’s the Weather, Governor Brown (peddling climate hypochondria for political gain)

By Robert Endlich -- January 22, 2018
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National Academy of Sciences: So Wrong on Energy (Bailey on 1980 report)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 19, 2018
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Roy Spencer on the Unsettled Science of Climate Change: A Primer

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 17, 2018
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Creeping Freedom: Oregon Legalizes (Some) Self-Service at the Pump

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 16, 2018
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Anatomy of a Debate: When Renewables ‘Lost’ at The Economist

By Jon Boone -- January 15, 2018
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More Tributes in the Energy and Climate Debate (Part II)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 11, 2018
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‘Dear Daniel Yergin: Give Alex Epstein the Microphone at CERAWeek’ (2016 Idea of Age in 2018)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 10, 2018
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