“Creative destruction results from verdicts at the intersection of supply and demand. Outside of the free market, energy elitism has created a political market, a sub-industry whose activity results from special tax favors, government grants, and/or mandates.”

Creative destruction, a term popularized by Joseph Schumpeter, is the market process whereby bad is eliminated, the better replaces the good, and past performance gives way to new strategies and victors. No firm is forever, and financial loss is a characteristic of capitalism, as is the more used term profit.

Energy is the story of creative destruction. Coal gas and later coal oil replaced a variety of animal and vegetable oils, including whale oil, camphene oil, and stearin oil. Crude (mineral) oil then displaced manufactured (coal) oil, just as later natural gas would displace manufactured (coal) gas.…