“… knowledge is truly the mother of all resources.”
– Erich Zimmermann, World Resources and Industries (1951), p. 10.
The new year presents an opportunity to step back and appreciate the driver of progress in the free economy: the liberated, liberating entrepreneur. The change-makers of the market drive the creation and usage of resources, as well documented by the oil and gas extraction revolution of the last decade or more.
But a largely invisible, ongoing application in the U.S. and elsewhere deserves more attention. Instead of futile and wasteful (government) mitigation policy, the positive approach to climate policy is human ingenuity to anticipate, mitigate, or just capitalize on changing weather patterns, aka climate change.
Increasing ‘depletable’ resources is a paradigmatic example of what Julian Simon called “the ultimate resource,” human ingenuity.…
“Laws, political attitudes, and government policies, along with basic geological and geographical facts, become the strategic factors in determining which oil fields will be converted by foreign capital from useless ‘neutral stuff’ into the most coveted resource of modern times.”
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As founder and CEO of The Institute for Energy Research (IER) since its inception (1989), the new year offers an opportunity to add to the historical record regarding the free-market think tank’s origins and purpose. This is also necessary given some misunderstandings and misreporting in the public domain.
In Kochland: The Secret History of Koch Industries and Corporate Power in America (2019), for example, Christopher Leonard states the following:
The IER was an outgrowth of the Institute for Humane Studies, the libertarian think tank cofounded by Charles Koch. Fn
Fn The connection between IER and the Institute for Humane Studies was first revealed by the journalist Lee Fang. He reported in 2014 that the IHS temporarily lost its charter, and then reformed as the IER.
The Real Story
The Institute for Humane Studies – Texas (IHS–Texas) was formed as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in 1984 and shared the same board directors as IHS.…