A Free-Market Energy Blog

Twenty More Gulf Rigs at Risk: 'Mikhail Obama, Tear Down This Wall'

By Kevin Mooney -- September 14, 2011

[Editor note: Mr. Mooney’s Collateral Damage: Lost Rigs from Obama Obstructionism appeared last month at MasterResource. His reports originally appear at the Pelican Post, Louisiana news and commentary from the Pelican Institute for Public Policy.]

Up to 20 oil rigs could leave the Gulf of Mexico, in addition to the 11 that have already left, since the Obama Administration imposed a moratorium on deepwater oil and gas drilling in May 2010, a new report from FBR Capital Markets has concluded.

Unless the permitting process is accelerated, FBR analysts anticipate that anywhere from eight to 20 rigs could depart the deep waters within the Gulf. The moratorium was imposed in response to the explosion of British Petroleum’s (BP) Macondo oil well on April 20 of last year. The accident resulted in the death of 11 workers and caused an estimated five million barrels of crude oil to spill into the Gulf.…

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Response to David Appell: Is Climate-Policy Activism Merited?

By -- September 13, 2011

[Editor note: Marlo Lewis’s extensive rebuttal to Scientific American writer David Appell in the comments section to yesterday’s post (Andrew Dessler Challenges Rick Perry: How Should Perry Respond?) is presented as a full post today.]

Yesterday, Rob Bradley excerpted portions of a post I wrote last Friday on whether Gov. Rick Perry’s remarks about global warming at the GOP candidates forum in California were “anti-science.” My objective was to immunize the candidates — and the public generally — against a rhetorical trick that Al Gore and other alarmists have been using to great effect for years.

Alarmists would have us believe that all they have to do is establish that greenhouse gas emissions are warming the planet, and then everything else they say follows as night follows day. If mankind is mainly or even partly responsible for the warmth of recent decades, then, supposedly, we are in the midst of a “planetary emergency” that “threatens the survival of civilization and the habitability of the Earth” (Al Gore’s phrase).…

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Andrew Dessler Challenges Rick Perry: How Should Perry Respond?

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 12, 2011

I try not to play favorites between Republicans and Democrats when it comes to supporting or undermining the ideal of what Ludwig von Mises called the free and prosperous commonwealth. To this end, I have criticized Gov. Perry for his unfortunate windpower positions in Texas (see here and here), and I will do so again to the extent he buys into a government role in “green energy.”

Dessler Weighs In

A current spat is ongoing between Texas A&M climatologist Andrew Dessler and Perry, a front-runner for the Republican nomination for president of the United States, over global warming science and policy.

Dr. Dessler has written two opinion-page editorials published by the Houston Chronicle in recent months (July 10th and September 2nd) arguing that the science is settled in favor of climate alarm, meriting proactive public policy.…

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"The Skeptical Environmentalist": A Ten Year Appreciation (Bjørn Lomborg vindication of the late Julian Simon continues to resonate today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 9, 2011
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Obama Speech Shocker: "Keynesianism, Malthusianism Have Compromised My Presidency" (Credits IHS seminars for his intellectual turnaround)

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U.S. Chamber of Commerce: Free Market Recommendations for Congress & Obama (oil and gas prominent in potential job bonanza)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 8, 2011
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Rapid Sea Level Rise? To the Contrary, Nature Says

By Chip Knappenberger -- September 7, 2011
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Vermont Environmentalists: 'Time Out' to Industrial Wind (Whoa moment in the Green Mountain State)

By Sherri Lange -- September 6, 2011
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Capitalism Vindicated: The Real History of Standard Oil (Part V: Lessons)

By -- September 2, 2011
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The Real History of the Standard Oil Company (Part IV: Pioneering in Big Business)

By -- September 1, 2011
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