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Mexico Hydrocarbon Policy: Socialism as Usual

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 3, 2018

“Public [socialistic] resources are really private, owned and exploited by a political elite, while private resources are really public, owned and managed by a multitude. Government-owned resources do not ‘belong to all of the people’ and allow ‘self determination;’ they belong to none or a very few.”

A recent communication from Hector Castro Vizcarra, Minister for Energy Affairs of the Embassy of Mexico, affirms that it is business-as-usual regarding the revised NAFTA agreement for the internal workings of Mexico’s policy for oil and gas (see the official summary below). 

Mexico´s inalienable and impresciptible property on hydrocarbons in Mexico´s subsoil” remains resolute. (Nationalized in 1938, Mexico’s oil and gas sector turned 80 this year.)  And Mexico can otherwise regulate its oil and gas sector as it sees fit regarding foreign investment.

John Holdren on Trump’s Energy/Climate Armageddon (Part II: renewables, energy efficiency, carbon capture & storage, messaging, etc.)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 27, 2018

The Trump folks seem to believe that anything that has Obama’s fingerprints on it, no matter how sensible, they’re going to rescind, revoke and demolish, and it makes no sense at all.”

“[The climate conundrum] is scary and I’m not sure we’re gonna be able to turn it around.”

– John Holdren, December 2017.

This is Part II of a transcribed interview with John Holdren, leader of the energy/climate Malthusian school, by Climate One. Yesterday’s post critically assessed Holdren’s views on federal energy research and development, the Paris withdrawal, and China’s energy policy. Today’s post looks at his views on most other issues in the “energy sustainability” debate.

Holdren quotations are below in red, followed by my rebuttal comments indented in black (subtitles added).

Technology Boom in Renewable Energies

“… there have been huge improvement in battery technology.

John Holdren on Trump’s Energy/Climate Armageddon (Part I: federal R&D, Paris withdrawal, China)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 26, 2018

“The private sector will never do the amount of fundamental research that society’s interests require because you cannot tell in advance the nature of fundamental research…. The companies can’t tell whether there’ll ever be any return.”

– John Holdren, December 2017 Interview.

Less than one year ago, John Holdren, Obama’s beginning-to-end science adviser, and now Professor of Environmental Policy at the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, spoke of his concerns about Trump energy policy in a Climate One podcast from San Francisco.

Holdren quotations are below in red, followed by my rebuttal comments indented in black (subtitles added):

Government R&D as Savior

Holdren: “Well I think the biggest damage that the Trump administration is doing is first of all reducing or proposing to reduce very drastically investments in clean and efficient energy research and development by the government.

Ethane Rising: Another Fossil Fuel Advances

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 25, 2018

Henrietta Larson: A Scholar for the Ages (her business histories are among the greatest energy tomes)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 20, 2018

Microgrids and Distributed Generation Diseconomies: Edison/Insull Still Correct

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 15, 2018

The U.S. Synthetic Fuels Corporation: 1981–86 (yes, federal agencies can be abolished)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 13, 2018

“Gore’s Greenness Fades” (remembering a 2000 WP article in light of this week’s Global Climate Summit)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 11, 2018

Corporate Cover for the Environmental Left in the 1990s (“Enron Ascending”)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 6, 2018

A New Energy Treatise (via a ‘contra-capitalist’ company)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 5, 2018