Adam Smith’s Insight for Independence Day 2025 (Part I)

By Richard Ebeling -- July 3, 2025 1 Comment

Editor note: Adam Smith (1723–1790) is considered the father of modern free market thought, although economics and political economy have advanced significantly since the 18th century. Many of Smith’s insights have proved prescient about today’s follies. The Green New Deal illustrates the folly that Smith warned against; another folly is committed by a free market ‘woman of system‘ in electricity who otherwise sings Smith’s praises.

The Wealth of Nations was published in March 1776, just a few months before the signing of the American Declaration of Independence in July of 1776. If the American Founding Fathers articulated in The Declaration of Independence the political case for individual freedom, Adam Smith presented the complementary argument for economic freedom and free enterprise.

A “System of Natural Liberty”

A primary motive for writing the book was to refute the then existing regime of pervasive government controls and regulations known as Mercantilism.…

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Sunnova EVP’s Exit: Self-adulation Within a Taxpayer Bubble

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 4, 2025 2 Comments

“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.…

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Why Regulate Electricity? Two Exchanges (Giberson, Borlick)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 3, 2025 1 Comment

The intellectual and practical case for separating government and electricity is strong. The historical record offers little support for “market failure”–quite the opposite. The laws of physics do not preclude private ownership and control of assets in this area unless you assume mandatory open access–Lynne Kiesling’s Ostrom trick–to make private operation of control areas problematic. [1]

So I labor against faux classical liberals/think tanks that offer suggestion after suggestion to try to make government planned ISO/RTO’s work. But the fix is in with the guilty who refuse to seriously consider a free market in electricity.

Two exchanges with my critics follow. One is with Michael Giberson, a “Right” central planner; the other with Robert Borlick, a Progressive Left central planner.

Michael Giberson Exchange

Giberson posted on his regulatory filing:

The DOJ Anticompetitive Regulations Task Force requested comments on how state and federal regulations act to impair competition.

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Kiesling Likes Government Electricity Planning

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 16, 2025 No Comments

“Kiesling intellectually resides in the government sandbox, where dilute, intermittent, fragile, government-dependent wind and solar is coordinated by ISO/RTO planners. Add (subsidized) storage, then whatever is left on the supply side can be equilibrated on the demand side with ‘smart meters’ (another government play) in your home or business.”

She fancies herself a classical liberal, a free-market type fully conversant with the arguments against central economic planning (Mises, Hayek, Lavoie). But when it gets to government planning of the electricity market, her specialty, the veneer comes off. It is ‘market processes’ within the rigged, governmental market. Welcome to the woman of system, technocrat Lynne Kiesling.

Consider this exhibit:

Kiesling intellectually resides in the government sandbox, where dilute, intermittent, fragile, government-dependent wind and solar are coordinated by ISO/RTO planners. Add storage (another government play), and then whatever happens on the supply side can be equilibrated on the demand side with ‘smart meters’ (another government play) in your home or business.…

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The Great Texas Blackout (2021): When the Free Market Electricity Debate Began

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 24, 2025 No Comments Continue Reading

Zwolinski Doubles Down (Left-libertarian in action)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 21, 2025 No Comments Continue Reading

Denialism? Zwolinski Punts on Climate Science, Policy (statism on parade)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 20, 2025 No Comments Continue Reading

The Great Texas Blackout Revisited: Market Failure Not

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 14, 2025 2 Comments Continue Reading

Electricity Statism or Free Markets? (Kiesling shows more cards)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 19, 2024 No Comments Continue Reading

Lynne Kiesling: All in with the ‘Virtual Power Plant’ (Biden/Harris policy vs. free markets)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 7, 2024 No Comments Continue Reading