The 100th birthday of President Ronald earlier this year brought forth a flood of nostalgia. Americans rightfully love their great man. But enviro-revisionism from some slammed Reagan for his reversal of President Jimmy Carter’s energy program. As Joe Romm puts it, Reagan “almost single-handedly ruined America’s leadership in clean energy.”
Such criticism reflects a extremely selective memory and a fundamental misunderstanding of the nation’s energy challenges.
Carter Was Pro-Coal, Nuclear Too
In recent years, true, some of Carter’s energy policies have been rehabilitated in the name of “energy independence” and addressing the alleged human influence on global climate. The implication—not always stated explicitly—is that Carter’s energy plan was primarily about renewable energies. The solar thermal panels he had installed on the White House roof, indeed, epitomized the differences between him and Reagan—who had the panels removed.…
Continue Reading“The Arab oil embargo was not the cause of the energy crisis in this country: it was merely the straw that showed the camel’s back was broken.” (1)
“There is no ‘natural’ geological crisis; there is an enormous political one.” (2)
– Ayn Rand, “The Energy Crisis,” November 5, 1973.
The highly regulated society depicted by Atlas Shrugged includes many things energy. Her 1957 novel and now movie (Part I out; Part II and Part III to come) has had relevance for U.S. energy policy ever since.
Atlas Shrugged describes oil shortages (342–44, 475), gasoline shortages (pp. 272–73), and electricity blackouts (pp. 669, 671). When the 1970s energy crisis hit, Rand commented:
… Continue ReadingMany readers have been asking whether I intended to write about the energy crisis. I would be tempted to answer: “I already have” – but they anticipate me by adding that things are “just as in Atlas Shrugged.”
[Ed Note: This letter was originally published two years ago today at MasterResource with the permission of the Julian Simon family.]
“So how about it, Al [Gore]? Will you accept the offer? And how about your boss Bill Clinton, who supports your environmental initiatives? Can you bring him in for a piece of the action?”
– Julian L. Simon, May 1, 1995
“EARTH DAY: SPIRITUALLY UPLIFTING, INTELLECTUALLY DEBASED”
– by Julian L. Simon
April 22 [1995] marks the 25th anniversary of Earth Day. Now as then its message is spiritually uplifting. But all reasonable persons who look at the statistical evidence now available must agree that Earth Day’s scientific premises are entirely wrong.
During the first great Earth Week in 1970 there was panic. The public’s outlook for the planet was unrelievedly gloomy. …
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