“Price controls cause shortages, and government allocation exacerbates it. This was learned the hard way during the 1970s, particularly with oil, thanks to Republican President Richard Nixon.”

George Melloan’s review of Jane Mayer’s Dark Money: The Hidden History of the Billionaires Behind the Rise of the Radical Right (Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2016) criticized her foray into energy and energy policy:

Ms. Mayer might herself benefit from an economics course. She writes that Richard Nixon imposed economic controls on oil and gas in 1971 to “address the energy crisis.” The Nixon price controls helped to cause the energy crisis.

Intrigued, I bought Dark Money to see exactly what she said.  Here is the passage from Mayer (p. 91) referenced by Melloan:

The fossil fuel industry’s fondest wishes were also fulfilled.

“One of the great mistakes is to judge policies and programs by their intentions rather than their results.”

― Milton Friedman

New York State Attorney General, Eric Schneiderman, claims that President Obama’s so-called Clean Power Plan is making a difference here in New York State. It certainly is, but negatively so!

Rural communities in New York State, and across the country, are being ecologically compromised by politicians, such as New York’s Schneiderman and Governor Andrew Cuomo, who continue to push industrial wind energy as a fantasy-cure for the alleged problem of climate change.

Trillions of dollars have been spent on ‘renewables’ worldwide, yet carbon dioxide has not been significantly reduced, while rural America is paying the ultimate price. Our countrysides, wildlife, and Constitutional private property rights are being sacrificed on the altar of “green” energy … for no net benefit.…

“The two greatest enemies of free enterprise in the United States … have been, on the one hand, my fellow intellectuals and, on the other hand, the business corporations of this country.”

 – Milton Friedman, “Which Way for Capitalism?” Reason, May 1977, p. 21.

Power markets are badly distorted by government intervention. Ratepayer welfare and economic efficiency are routinely sacrificed. Protected companies under public-utility regulation have a me-first ratebase mentality. The worst often get on top, with the real entrepreneurs elsewhere.

In place of more competition, innovation, and growing volumes, political incentives are deciding the what-when-where-how much questions of electricity generation, transmission, and sales. Political pressures in the name of the environment (“saving the planet,” etc.) are now guiding state-regulated utilities to meet state and federal regulation.

The coming of efficiency and climate policies have given the monopolists new territory, particularly as the commodity side of their business has been taken away (such as in Texas).…

“There’s nothing that does so much harm as good intentions.”

“Concentrated power is not rendered harmless by the good intentions of those who create it.”

– Milton Friedman

On May 24, 2015, Pope Francis issued his ENCYCLICAL LETTER LAUDATO SI (Praise Be To You) OF THE HOLY FATHER FRANCIS ON CARE OF OUR COMMON HOME.

The 184-page letter consists of 246 paragraphs of which seven (paragraphs 20–26) are devoted to POLLUTION AND CLIMATE CHANGE. This document followed a one-day conference, Protect the Earth, Dignify Humanity: The Moral Dimensions of Climate Change and Sustainable Development, to which The Heartland Institute and Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) sent scientific representatives. Unfortunately, they were not allowed to speak at the conference; but they created sensational news across the world by well attended press conferences.…