“Expanding the Strategic Petroleum Reserve would be throwing good money after bad. Instead of remaining a valuable asset mired in the political swamp, the SPR can be turned into an entrepreneurial asset. The reserve can be privatized by selling off either the entire operation or its individual parts.” – RLB (1991)
Good analysis on empirical matters, even from long ago (a quarter-century in this case) must stand the test of time.
It is regular fare at MasterResource to document the false claims of energy Malthusians (neo-Malthusians) from the 1970s until the present (now in their fifth decade!). And from time to time, MasterResource produces analyses from the past by free-market scholars for their relevancy and accuracy for current energy debates.
The example below, from 1991, is a quarter-century old. It concerns the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (SPR), a forgotten, obsolete oil stockpile that could disappear tomorrow and not be noticed by the market.…
“Since at least 1989, Mr. Lynch has made a career of poo-pooing any concept that oil supplies might be finite and that we might find production capability dropping as demand continues to rise…. [Oil supply] not an issue? Do you expect to be dead and gone in the next 4 to 8 years?”
– Charles Armentrout, “Lynch Poo-Poos Peak Oil,” LastTechAge, February 2, 2011.
It is entirely appropriate to recognize an intellectual victory, particularly when a confident, even arrogant, mainstream was overcome. In the case of Peak Oil, the victor is Michael C. Lynch, president of Strategic Energy and Economic Research, a Massachusetts-based consultancy.
Lynch has held a number of research positions at M.I.T. and was chief energy economist at DRI-WEFA. He currently blogs at forbes.com, and his publications have appeared in six languages, focusing on petroleum supply, energy forecasting, and energy policy.…
“I wish Senator Whitehouse were here. Because what he is doing to the free speech of those companies and anyone associated with it is unconstitutional. And I think he should apologize or resign.”
“You violate the constitution, you resign. I thought that was the policy in the United States.”
– Alex Epstein. Testimony before the US Senate Environment and Public Works Committee. April 13, 2016.
“I’ll never forget this hearing. We have a philosopher who wants Senator Whitehouse to resign. Senator Whitehouse, who is working every day to stop carbon pollution and save lives.”
– Sen. Barbara Boxer [3]
I remember encountering Alex Epstein back in 2011. He was working at the Ayn Rand Institute–and full time on energy. Wow, I thought. Here was someone who could add a philosophical voice to the political economists arguing the macro issues of depletion, pollution, and climate change, and the micro issues of price controls, trade restrictions, access restrictions, etc.…