Ed. Note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete Newsletter for this post can be found here.
Unreliables (General):
*** US counties are blocking wind and solar energy: These maps, graphics show how
*** The American revolt against green energy has begun
*** Blackouts, Here We Come
Out Of Transmission Revisited
Planning for climate blackouts
Wind Energy:
*** Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change (referencing 60± studies)
*** A Blow to Big Wind?
*** Hurricane Threats to Ocean Wind Turbines
Nuclear Energy:
*** U.S. Seeks to Boost Nuclear Power After Decades of Inertia
*** The Role of Nuclear in the Global World of Energy
*** On Radiation: Nuclear energy myths versus facts
Fossil Fuel Energy:
*** Biden liquefied natural gas export ‘pause’ hurts Americans and our allies
*** Chinese Control Over U.S.…
Ed. Note: This tribute to the four leading professors among oil and gas law pioneers in academia was presented by the late Joseph W. Morris (obituary below) in 2001. It is reprinted in appreciation of private property rights to the subsoil that has set the U.S. apart from most of the rest of the world.
I bring you four academicians.
He was born in Kingman, Indiana in 1888 and died in 1963. He took his Baccalaureate Degree and his first law degree from the University of Indiana in 1911 and a J.D. Degree from Yale in 1912. He briefly practiced law and then became a Professor of Law at the Universities of Florida and Kentucky and in 1920, joined the faculty of law at the University of Illinois.…
Continue Reading“[Philip] Mango told FERC staff he planned to ‘[d]o this for just a couple of years, make a bunch of money to put kids through school and do all those things, and no one’s hurt’ …. Ketchup Caddy [was] a corporate entity that Mango had created to sell an in-car ketchup holder he invented….” (Utility Drive, below)
Why do the worst often get on top where political entrepreneurship replaces market entrepreneurship? Why does regulation invite gaming where (at best) entrepreneurship is superfluous?
Consider the 1970s oil trading boom, where price-controlled oil was bid up to market levels without any value-added. Robert Sutton, a former trunk salesman, became a regulatory millionaire on that one.
Remember Enron’s gaming of the California hyper-regulated electricity market in 2000/2001? Three authors wrote in Business History Review:
… Continue ReadingEnron’s traders used their knowledge of the newly designed markets to artificially increase or decrease wholesale prices in their favor, which often involved submitting false supply-and-demand information, withholding available electricity, or scheduling energy they did not have.