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“Repower Texas”: Taxpayers, Ratepayers, Economic Energy Producers Beware!

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 1, 2009

“It will be possible to achieve a 100% clean power mix over the next ten years if appropriate policies are put in place to unleash the [zero carbon source] technologies’ vast potential.”

– Repower America (The Alliance for Climate Protection)

The heavily bankrolled climate alarmist/energy coercion lobby, led by Al Gore’s new national organization Repower America, is coming to a town or city near you!

In Houston, they have arrived. The “Repower Texas” campaign is being fronted by a group of government-dependent political capitalists that see Big Green (as in money) in Texas’s renewable energy mandates. And how did this business underclass get started? It began with the Ken Lay/Enron renewables mandate for the Lone Star State in 1999, and the policy begun by then-governor George W. Bush is being continued today by governor Rick Perry.…

Energy Reality Wins at Exxon Mobil Annual Meeting (Atlas is not shrugging at this substance-over-form company)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 30, 2009

If only the United States economy were as strong as ExxonMobil. If only energy realism and free-market consumer service were guiding lights in Austin, Texas; Washington, D.C.; and other seats of political power.

The good news from Exxon Mobil’s annual stockholders meeting in Dallas earlier this week is that the company is focused on its core competencies amid the energy politicization around it. No Enron political machinations here!

In fact, Exxon Mobil is the anti-Enron of corporate America, a rebuff to Ken Lay, who once worked at Exxon, and Jeff Skilling, who declared in 2000: “You will see the collapse and demise of the integrated energy companies around the world. They are going to break up into thousands and thousands of pieces.” (1)

Key Messages

The key messages of Exxon Mobil CEO Rex Tillerson were: 

  1. Petroleum as a primary energy source is the future, not only the recent past.

Houston Chronicle: Climate Alarmism and Policy Activism, but no Economic Analysis

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 27, 2009

“With overwhelming scientific evidence that the threat of global climate change is real and accelerating, it’s imperative that the United States, the second-biggest producer of carbon dioxide, take a leading role in crafting solutions. [Waxman-Markey] offers an opportunity to begin exercising that leadership.”

The Houston Chronicle editorial page is one of the most biased in the nation when it comes to climate alarmism and associated public-policy activism. And it maintained that unenviable reputation with last Sunday’s op-ed, Cap-and-Trade-Off.

The 559-word piece is disappointing both for what it did say and for what was left unsaid.

First, some facts in the piece were out of date. (Okay, someone clocked out early for the long weekend; me too.)  The bill was not under debate as stated in the first sentence; it was voted out of committee.…

Cap-and-Trade: The Temple of Enron (James Hansen makes an important political point)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 14, 2009

Special Note to Our Readers (a record number of you)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 9, 2009

Joseph Romm and Enron: More for the Record

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 8, 2009

Joseph Romm and Enron: For the Record

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 5, 2009

Christopher Flavin (Worldwatch Institute) on the Benefits of Electrifying the Developing World (quotations from the past to challenge prospective CO2 caps)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 2, 2009

Government CO2 Pricing and Protectionism: Two Peas in a Pod (trade wars and worse as potential costs of GHG mitigation)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 29, 2009

A Texas-Sized Energy Problem: Republicans, Democrats, and ‘Baptists & Bootleggers’ Running Wild in the Lone Star State (Obama sends his thanks)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 24, 2009