A Free-Market Energy Blog

Ronald Coase and Business Understanding (Part I: Why Are There Firms?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 5, 2013

[Editor note: Ronald Coase died last week at age 102 (obits here and here). One of the most important economists of the last century, Coase substituted real-world economics for ‘blackboard economics’ to solve some fundamental questions–and to appreciate market processes in place of government intervention.]

“When economists find that they are unable to analyze what is happening in the real world, they invent an imaginary world which they are capable of handling. It was not a procedure I wanted to follow in the 1930s. It explains why I tried to find the reason for the existence of the firm in factories and offices rather than in the writings of economists, which I irreverently labeled as ‘bilge.’” (Ronald Coase)

MasterResource attempts to comprehend markets and government regulation of markets. Undesigned (market) order is compared and contrasted to imposed (government) disorder.

Continue Reading

Hiding “Avian Mortality”: Where ‘Green’ is Red (Part I: Altamont Pass)

By Jim Wiegand -- September 4, 2013

“The wind industry is hiding over 90% of the bird and bat mortality caused by their turbines. This statement is supported by the industry’s own data and reasonable adjustments for its manipulations.”

“The wind industry is … producing faulty, misleading and even fraudulent documents to hide the serious and growing mortality. This situation has continued for years but has been shielded by state and federal agencies and other supporters of wind power.”

A “green energy” wildlife genocide is depopulating wildlife habitats across the world where vital species once found refuge. Industrial wind turbines have invaded these habitats and are devastating bird and bat species.

Rather than avoiding these critical habitats or taking steps to minimize impacts on important species, the heavily subsidized wind industry is responding by producing faulty, misleading and even fraudulent documents to hide the serious and growing mortality.

Continue Reading

The Campaign to Win Hearts and Minds

By -- September 3, 2013

“We all have a stake in the war over fossil fuels, and it’s a war that will ultimately be won or lost depending on whether we can win the moral and environmental high ground.”

As I wrote in Friday’s post, the challenge of persuading the public in favor of fossil fuels is really one of conveying the fact that fossil fuels improve the planet for human life, in such a way that you quickly capture the moral high ground and the environmental high ground—as against taking defensive stands on these issues (or none at all).

At the Center for Industrial Progress, we do a lot to help companies move hearts and minds by applying these ideas to their communications projects, and we’ve also begun a campaign to take our strategy to the public directly.…

Continue Reading

Fossil Fuel Self-Defense

By -- August 30, 2013
Continue Reading

Taking the Environmental High Ground on Fossil Fuels

By -- August 29, 2013
Continue Reading

Taking the Moral High Ground on Fossil Fuels

By -- August 28, 2013
Continue Reading

Fossil Fuels Improve the Planet

By -- August 27, 2013
Continue Reading

AWED Energy & Environmental Newsletter: August 26, 2013

By -- August 26, 2013
Continue Reading

The Ratepayer’s Prayer (Brother Clarkson, petitioner and parishioner)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 23, 2013
Continue Reading

Reasons to Sell Enron Wind (October 1998 memo to Ken Lay)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 22, 2013
Continue Reading