Solar is hardly an infant industry, as documented here and here. And ‘Big Oil’ tried to make it economic a half century ago–and failed. A six-year-old article, “How Big Oil Of The Past Helped Launch The Solar Industry Of Today, by Andrea Hsu tells the story, one that is pertinent today given the bust of the industry (see tomorrow’s post). She begins:

Renewable energy has gotten so cheap that even oil giant Exxon Mobil, which reported $20.8 billion in earnings in 2018, is getting in on the savings. Over the next couple of years, Exxon Mobil will begin purchasing wind and solar power in West Texas, part of a 12-year agreement signed late last year with the Danish energy company Orsted. The plan is to use cheap, clean electricity to power Exxon Mobil’s expanding operations in the Permian Basin, one of the world’s most productive oil fields.

“IER/AEA have thousands of individual donors, reflecting the intellectual case for a free market and the goodness of civil society. This is a proud fact.”

A Mother Jones article from 15 years read: “Meet the 12 loudest members of the chorus claiming that global warming is a joke and that CO2 emissions are actually good for you.” And number 12 of the “dirty dozen” was the educational nonprofit Institute of Energy Research and its advocacy arm, the American Energy Alliance.

IER/AEA would surely make the list today–and be ranked higher. This is a badge of honor. The message of classical liberalism applied to energy remains strong and consistent. Consumers matter. Taxpayers matter. Energy resource efficiency matters. Respect for the energy decisions of voluntarily consenting adults matter.

Here is the piece by Josh Harkinson from December 5, 2009, verbatim, with my critical comments.…

“Let the lesson be clear. Avoid political bribes intended to get a company to do what consumers do not want done. Respect taxpayer neutrality. Value economic freedom. Pursue good profit, not bad.”

Political capitalism is risky business. And Big Oil, as renewable companies (PPL Corp., Ørsted), is paying the price. Eating at the table of the Climate Industrial Complex, rather than proudly concentrating on its core business of serving consumer demand, has resulted in many federal loan cancellations. Think Exxon Mobil.

Turning to Big Gas, two Calpine grants for carbon capture and storage took a hit: 550-MW gas-fired Sutter power plant in Yuba City, California and 810-MW Baytown power plant in Baytown, Texas.

As reported in a press release last week from the U.S. Department of Energy:

U.S.

Get happy. Summer beckons. Not only hike and bike but drive to a better environment–your self-selected one. And once there, grill, baby, grill.

The automobile is environmentalism-on-wheels. The open road is freedom to escape the concrete for the great beyond. Mountains, rivers, hills, forests, even beautiful green golf courses–it is all a drive away. 

The old Marathon ads said it best …a full tank of freedom. And Shell: “Let’s Go!” And Exxon: “Happy Motoring!”

Don’t worry about the anti-travel crowd who fret about emissions of the trace greening gas, carbon dioxide. Forget the spin and go for a spin!

Each year, MasterResource celebrates the beginning of the peak-driving season knowing that our free-market philosophy is about energy abundance and affordability and reliability. There is so little to apologize for. When is the last time you got a bad tank of gasoline or diesel, anyway?…