It’s time to move the debate past the dogmatic view that carbon dioxide is evil and toward a world view that accepts the need for energy that is cheap, abundant and reliable. (Robert Bryce)

“Despite the endless hype about electric cars, vehicles that plug into the grid remain a niche product that is sold almost exclusively to the affluent…. Lower-income taxpayers should not be subsidizing wealthy motorists who buy EVs. (Robert Bryce)

From time to time, MasterResource has posted on the profiles by DeSmog Blog: climatologist John Christy, Reaching America’s Derrick Hollie, and myself. Strangely, the targets of DeSmog can agree with the profiles in a guilty-as-charged way. The litmus test seems to be that if you do not agree with climate alarmism and forced energy transformation, you are ipso facto wrong.…

Many readers of MasterResource are undoubtedly aware of the ‘Featured Analysis‘ blogs at the Institute for Energy Research (IER). I blog at IER (my employer) in addition to my MasterResource work.

Below, my posts at the IER website are linked. In addition, my ‘Political Energy‘ posts at Forbes.com are listed as a reference guide. Here are the links to my 2017 work for those interested.

IER Posts

“Kathleen Hartnett White: A Scholar for CEQ” (October 18)

“Scary Sea Level Rise? Check Your Science” (September 8, 2017)

“Al Gore’s Energy Problems” (August 25, 2017)

“Climate Optimism, Energy Realism for the Next Generation” (August 11, 2017)

“Milton Friedman on Energy” (July 31, 2017)

‘Deep Decarbonization’ vs. Direct-Use Natural Gas (July 14, 2017)

“James Hansen’s Failed Ultimatums: A Free Market, Anyone?”…

Editor note: Professor Dolan kindly submitted this rebuttal to Robert Bradley’s post yesterday, “Hayek was not a Malthusian or Global Tariff Advocate (link to a carbon tax peculiar, errant).” Bradley’s post, in turn, was a critique of Dolan’s original piece, “Friedrich Hayek on Carbon Taxes.”

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I am happy to comment on the validity of the nine points you raise regarding Hayek and a carbon tax.

1. Hayek was suspicious of scientific ‘consensus,’ given the consensus of Keynesianism and central planning in his lifetime.

I agree with what you say about Hayek’s attitude toward the Keynesian consensus. However, my reading is that he distinguished between social sciences and natural sciences, and between the ability of people to offer informed judgement on fields in which they have specific expert training compared with fields in which they do not have such training.…

Twenty years ago, Rob Bradley, then president and now CEO of the Institute for Energy Research (IER), published a two-volume, two-thousand-page history of hydrocarbon regulation, legislation, economics, and politics from the mid-1800s to the mid-1980s. Titled Oil, Gas & Government: The U.S. Experience, Bradley’s treatise puts many of today’s energy issues in historical context.

On April 1, 1996, I wrote about the book in the newsletter I founded and edited, Natural Gas Week. I started my column, dubbed Perspective, by quoting philosopher George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”

Today, 20 years later, I would urge current legislators and regulators to consider the main takeaways of Bradley’s book before casting another vote or initialing another regulatory memo.

In his book, Bradley said that political motivations for government intervention are “narrow and self-interested, not necessarily in the common good and not necessarily representative of the citizenry.”…