A Free-Market Energy Blog

Robert Bryce on Oil Speculation

By Robert Murphy -- January 6, 2009

Robert Bryce is one of the leading journalists on energy issues.  He is Managing Editor of Energy Tribune, and in a recent article gave a mea culpa on oil speculators:

Back in June, I wrote a piece for The American in which I argued that oil prices were being driven higher by the immutable law of supply and demand. Today, with prices plunging to near $40 instead of the $145 level seen in mid-July, it’s abundantly obvious that speculators were a key driver, probably the main driver, of the surge in oil prices that occurred between late 2007 and July.


So, to be clear, I was wrong. The leaders of OPEC were right. So, too, was my pal, Ed Wallace. In May, Wallace, a savvy journalist from Fort Worth who writes for the Fort Worth Star-Telegram and Business Week, published several articles [in] which he showed how the unregulated futures market was being used by speculators to push prices upward.

Continue Reading

Hard Questions for T. Boone Pickens

By Mary Hutzler -- January 5, 2009

T. Boone Pickens is holding a town hall meeting on the Pickens Plan tomorrow at Rice University. His presentation, hosted by the James A. Baker III Institute for Public Policy, deserves some hard questions and frank answers. Here are some suggested questions. …

Continue Reading

John Holdren and Anti-Growth Malthusianism (Part IV in a series on Obama’s new science advisor)

By Robert Bradley Jr. --

If there is one quotation by Obama’s new science advisor that every American should hear, it is this:

“A massive campaign must be launched to restore a high-quality environment in North America and to de-develop the United States. . . . Resources and energy must be diverted from frivolous and wasteful uses in overdeveloped countries to filling the genuine needs of underdeveloped countries. This effort must be largely political” (italics added).

Continue Reading

James Hansen, Climate Scientist and Leading Alarmist, Tells Obama His Version of the Truth

By Robert Murphy -- January 4, 2009
Continue Reading

John Holdren on Mineral/Energy Depletion (Part III in a series on Obama’s new science advisor)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 2, 2009
Continue Reading

A Post-Oil Utopia?

By -- January 1, 2009
Continue Reading

The Return of Peak Oil?

By --
Continue Reading

John Holdren on Global Warming (Part II in a series on Obama’s new science advisor)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 31, 2008
Continue Reading

John Holdren on Global Cooling (Part I in a Series on Obama’s new science advisor, ‘Dr. Doom’)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 30, 2008
Continue Reading

Screwing Up the Auto Industry

By -- December 29, 2008
Continue Reading