A Free-Market Energy Blog

Marine Power?  More Magical Thinking

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 14, 2024

“Too many moving parts in a corrosive environment, requiring too much routine maintenance of large moving components. This is wildly unrealistic, fails the KISS Principle!” ( – Ed Thiel)

“[Stephen] Salter invented the ‘duck’ [system that converts into electricity some of the natural energy contained in waves] in 1974, wave energy has been just round the corner ever since. Tell me when and if it ever happens.” ( – Chris Wagstaffe)

A recent exchange on social media about the prospects of marine (aka tidal or wave) electricity brought some reality into energy magical thinking, the belief that what is technologically possible is a “green” solution to thermal power generation. Either now or about to be ….

An Optimistic Take

Russ Bates, founder of NXTGEN Clean Energy, excitedly announced: “Another step towards a sustainable future and another blow to #fossilfuels!”…

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“Prove It” CO2 Tariffs: The Wolf Is At the Door

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 13, 2024

“It is shocking that legislators would contemplate advancing policy that would increase taxes, drive up prices for American families, harm workers and those on fixed incomes, and punish energy use. Yet this is precisely what a carbon tariff does.” (Free Market Letter, below)

Government intervention expands and expands from its own shortcomings. And in the service of “global climate change,” where deep-ecology alarmism prevails and economics is demoted, regulation is open-ended and increasingly strident.

Open international trade has been the gold standard for hundreds of years in theory and in practice. Adam Smith noted how the international division of labor produces the most goods and services for the greatest number, increasing the Wealth of Nations. His logic remains today.

Pricing carbon dioxide (CO2) is the weapon of the anti-industrial, anti-energy “Progressives.”…

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Exploding Energy Prices in California

By Steve Goreham -- March 12, 2024

“California leaders know that rising prices are a huge problem. The state is now considering a plan to tie utility rates to personal income so that the rich pay more and low-income residents pay less. Costly California looms as an example of poor energy policy.”

Energy prices are skyrocketing in California. The state’s electricity, gasoline, and natural gas prices are amongst the nation’s highest and rising. Green energy policies are the primary cause for high and escalating California energy prices.

Electricity

California electricity prices increased by 98.2 percent over the last 15 years, the highest rise in the nation. No other state comes close in terms of price increases. US average electricity prices rose 30.6 percent over the same period. California power prices rose to a level that is the second highest in the nation, only lower than Hawaii.…

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Electricity: Have I ‘Tarnished’ my Reputation and ‘Marginalized’ Myself? (Giberson’s huff)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 11, 2024
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Public Choice and Electricity: Kiesling Ducks Again (Plano, Tx. meeting next week)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 8, 2024
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Market Environmentalists vs. Wind/Solar/Battery Industrialization, Sprawl

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 7, 2024
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Enron and Greenpeace: An Exchange with Martin Porter

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 6, 2024
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Alaska’s “Green” Plan B: Political Energy is Back

By -- March 5, 2024
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Energy & Environmental Review: March 4, 2024

By -- March 4, 2024
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“The Shaping of Oil and Gas Law by Academics”(Four pioneers)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 1, 2024
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