GE: Contra-Capitalism’s Toll (lightbulb unit sold)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 15, 2020 5 Comments

“In a reset economy, the government will be a regulator; and also an industry policy champion, a financier, and a key partner.” (Jeff Immelt, GE 2008 Annual Report, quoted here)

“What else can be said about how a destructive management philosophy–long warned against by classical liberals–drove a once iconic American company into the bog? Contra-capitalism destroys wealth, not only capitalism.” (below)

A May 27, 2020, piece at EnergyWire (E&E News) reported the latest of how errant leadership, political correctness, and cronyism diminished a once proud, iconic company.

“General Electric Co. cut one of the last remaining links to founder Thomas Edison, as the beleaguered manufacturer wrapped up a three-year process to sell its iconic lightbulb business,” reported Rick Clough. The buyer was the automated ‘smart home’ firm Savant Systems Inc.…

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Houston Chronicle vs. Petroleum: The Latest

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 6, 2020 5 Comments

Oil “worthless”? Under this standard, the commercial airline and cruise industries are worthless, as are the people who can’t effectively work from home.

Normalcy is not the future the anti-oil Houston Chronicle wants to see, an extreme editorial position that combines Green New Deal advocacy with Trump Derangement Syndrome in an election year.

On Sunday April 26, the Editorial Board of the Houston Chronicle published “Remember the People Behind Industry; Put Those Working in Oil and Gas First, Above Free Market Ideology.” The lead Sunday op-ed was meant to soften up the entrepreneurs, politicians, and citizens of the oil capital of the nation and world.

The op-ed was bad, even offensive, penned by a monolithic editorial board (no conservatives or libertarians allowed) that is beholden to climate alarmism and government-forced energy transformation.…

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‘Beyond Petroleum’ Now ‘Big Promises’ at BP

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 20, 2020 7 Comments

“Many inside the company, including Tony Hayward, had long thought that [John] Browne was distracted by his pet issues of climate change and environmentalism, and by his flirtations with the public spotlight. They thought he had been obsessed with branding the company and lowering its carbon footprint at the expense of BP’s real business, producing and selling oil.” – Abrahm Lustgarden, Run to Failure: BP and the Making of the Deepwater Horizon Disaster (2012), p. 203.

“The world’s carbon budget is finite and running out fast. We need a rapid transition to net zero.” – Bernard Looney. CEO, BP, quoted in Financial Times, February 12, 2020

British Petroleum Company, then BP Amoco, then BP, has had a troubled history since it went political in the 1990. That history deserves revisiting given its latest rebranding effort.…

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Exchange with a Climate Alarmist at Desmog Blog (unmasking emotion, anger on the other side)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- November 20, 2019 4 Comments

“The multitude of smoking guns in the Climategate emails made it a war zone. And the ‘missing heat’ raised by Climategater Kevin Trenberth plagues high-sensitivity warmists today.”

“You can be happy and optimistic…. The dense (mineral) energy era (fossil fuels) has been a boom to you, me, and virtually everyone. CO2 is greening the ecosphere while climate-related deaths plummet. And the Paris Climate Accord is failing–a good political outcome for the developing countries in particular.”

A recent post at DesmogUK, titled Why the Climategate Hack was More than an Attack on Science, caught my eye. Funny how the apologists have to defend an event that happened a decade ago! They would love to just ignore it and move on. But in clear words, sentences, and in English, science was tortured in the name of a cause.…

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Halloween: Neo-Malthusian Day

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 31, 2019 1 Comment Continue Reading

A Legacy of T. Boone Pickens: Political Capitalist

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 24, 2019 1 Comment Continue Reading

Energy & Environmental Newsletter: August 29, 2019

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Energy & Environmental Newsletter: July 29, 2019

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James E. Rogers (1947-2018): Political Capitalist

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 18, 2019 5 Comments Continue Reading

FDR’s New Deal with Energy: Part V (Rural Electrification)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 15, 2019 1 Comment Continue Reading