A Free-Market Energy Blog

‘Post-ESG Mandate’: More Oil and Gas (Strive Asset Management letter to Chevron)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 8, 2022

“We believe that the looming global supply-demand imbalance for energy creates a generational opportunity for American companies like Chevron to both create significant shareholder value and contribute to human flourishing.”

– Vivek Ramaswamy (Executive Chairman, Strive Asset Management)

It is time for change. Energy companies should embrace consumer-oriented, taxpayer-neutral Good Profit–not bad profit from favorable government intervention. The futile, wasteful “energy transition” needs to be stripped of its government engine to cease. And real energy firms need to push back against climate politics.

Adam Anderson, CEO of Innovex Downhole Solutions, productively called out North Face when the VF Corporation subsidiary refused to fill a shirt order because the customer was in the oil business. Liberty Energy has successfully played offense against the critics of mineral energies and industrial progress.

And don’t forget that U.S.…

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Atlas Shrugged in California: “Green” Electricity vs. Human Comfort and Welfare

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 7, 2022

“A Flex Alert urging consumers to reduce their power use in the late afternoon and evening is also in effect today and tomorrow, marking seven consecutive days the call to cut demand has been issued.” (CAISO, September 5, 2022)

“I’ve lived in California for more than 70 years and seen her go from the prettiest girl in class to a haggard washed-up starlet. She needs an intervention. My grandson deserves nothing less.” ( — California resident Tom Tanton)

It is another example of fiction-to-fact from an Ayn Rand novel. Spiraling government intervention with an essential commodity has predictably created a shortage, then calls for sacrifice and threatened rationing. The narrative is that “historic heat” from “climate change” is the culprit–and fighting climate change requires the population to reset their comfort zone … down.…

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CPUC ‘Emergency Load Reduction Program’: Energy Statism hits Home

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 6, 2022

Ed. Note: The California Independent System Operator (CAISO) has issued statewide “flex alerts” (blackout alerts) for six days running. Today’s post describes the in-place demand reduction program. Part II tomorrow will update the current situation and the familiar reasons why: dilute, intermittent energies being forced on the grid by state and federal policy wounding the reliables generated from mineral energies.

A major theme of political economy is: one government intervention or program leads to another and yet another. In “green electricity” California, supply-side distortions have required demand-side management (DSM) within the central planning exercise of Integrated Resource Planning. That began in the 1980s; today, there is centralized wholesale power grid planning. And supply side mismanagement means demand-side programs and exhortation to use less energy in the peak-demand hours.

It is back to Amory Lovins’s soft energy path within his “whole-systems planning,” whereby a “negawatt” (usage forgone) is as important as a kilowatt (see the conclusion below).…

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Happy Labor-Saving Day (thank modern energy)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 5, 2022
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On the Theory of Interventionism

By Robert Bradley Jr. --
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Simon Kinsella vs. South Fork Offshore Wind (eco-issues aplenty)

By Sherri Lange -- September 1, 2022
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An Exchange on Climate Alarmism/Forced Energy Transformation

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 31, 2022
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Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind: Risks Aplenty ($21 billion, could jump)

By -- August 30, 2022
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Energy and Environmental Review: August 29, 2022

By -- August 29, 2022
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“Not Cheap, Not ‘Green’” at the California Energy Commission

By Tom Tanton -- August 26, 2022
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