Editor’s Note: This book review was published just short of 20 years ago in The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics [Vol. 8, No. 3 (FALL 2005): 93–95] by Pierre Desrochers of the University of Toronto.

“Austrian economists have so far contributed very little to energy studies…. This book could therefore go a long way in providing a new set of concrete economic examples and principles for use in classroom discussions.”

Despite its obvious economic and social importance, energy (broadly understood) is an understudied field. True, among academics, one can find several engineers and geologists, along with some economists, geographers, legal scholars, and political scientists, who devote much of their research efforts to devising and/or analyzing various energy-related technologies, supply sources, markets, and institutions.

By and large, however, very few individuals have tried to understand how all the various parts of the energy puzzle fit—or not—together, and much—if not most—of the public discussion of the issue is agenda-driven and ignorant of basic physical and economic principles.…

“An unlikely coalition of renewables groups, manufacturers and oil & gas companies opposed the bills. ‘It might as well have been the ‘Lobby Employment Act of 2025,’ based on the number of lobbyists hired to fight it,’ wrote state representative Jared Patterson.” (Sheridan, below)

Doug Sheridan is a noted analyst of the climate/energy realism school. With more than 40,000 social media followers, he corrects the bias of the mainstream media in real time. Little surprise that his influence dwarfs that of many prominent ‘magical thinking’ energy pundits, part of a very promising global rethink.

Sheridan’s latest analysis concerns the failure of the Texas legislature to cool the jets of uneconomic, destructive wind, solar, and batteries in the Lone Star State. But how did Texas, of all states, end up where it is today?…

“It is hard to square Meghan Nutting’s parting comments with good, only bad. Her company failed everyone but a few employees, and no one more than founder/CEO John Berger. Her industry has failed its owners and customers too. Her solar journey was a mistake, a mirage, enabled by government.”

Rooftop solar will go down as one of the biggest consumer busts in energy history–and it is just getting started. Sunnova Energy International, with 441,000 rooftop customers, already the subject of mass complaints and lawsuits, can no longer perform on their long-term contracts. So much for promises (still on their website):

25 Years of Protection

Enjoy peace of mind knowing your home solar system and battery are covered by Sunnova Protect®, featuring maintenance, monitoring, repairs, and replacements for 25 years.…

“Our Founder and CEO John Berger reminds us why this event is so pivotal: Sunnova and our dealer partners are uniting to tackle the U.S. power demand shortage with American-made solar solutions.🤝”

Previous posts (here, here, and here) have detailed how a second-hander company, trying to be all things to all people, and living off of special government subsidies, was a liability parading as an asset. Sunnova was never profitable, and the only winners among the countless thousands involved with the company were founder and CEO John Berger (inflated salary and cashouts) and some other executives paid for misallocating resources.

Having been at Enron from the beginning to the end, and seeing the similarities of Enron and Sunnova (both went down with the lights on), and knowing Berger was a Ken Lay-alike, I gathered (below) some pictures of the company’s hyperbole in action.…