“WHEREAS all the major productive provinces of the World have been identified with the help of advanced technology and growing geological knowledge, it being now evident that discovery reached a peak in the 1960s, despite technological progress and a diligent search … NOW IT IS PROPOSED THAT … No country shall produce [or import] oil at above its present depletion rate.”

– Colin J. Campbell (2003), reprinted here

MasterResource has been a home for mineral-resource optimism from such luminaries as Julian Simon, Pierre Desrochers, and Michael Lynch. Perhaps the most profound statement on this subject is from a University of Houston economics professor, Thomas Degregori, himself a student of Erich Zimmermann’s functional theory of resources, who stated in back in 1987:

If resources are not fixed but created, then the nature of the scarcity problem changes dramatically.

An outstanding energy/climate scholar/communicator of our time is Marlo Lewis, Jr., senior fellow of the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI). I am moved to high-five my friend as I read his recent post, “Climate Change, Fossil Fuels, and Human Well Being,” as well as an older one, “[DOE] Secretary Chu Crosses the Line; Should Resign (October 2009).

Human Improvement, CO2 Enrichment

Regarding Lewis’s recent post, consider his framing question.

Climate campaigners demand ever-greater government control over energy markets, resources, and infrastructure. Many believe the best thing governments can do with fossil energy is “keep it in the ground.” They claim fossil-fueled civilization is “unsustainable” and headed for a climate catastrophe. Are they correct?

And his answer:

Since 1950, fossil fuel consumption increased by 550 percent, annual global energy-related carbon dioxide emissions increased by 500 percent, atmospheric CO₂ concentrations increased by about one-third, and the world warmed about 0.65 degrees Celsius.

“For this treaty to merit our support, the proponents should be asked to demonstrate the accuracy of all of the following statements…. As will be seen below, the case for any one of these statements is surprisingly weak.  The case for a global warming treaty, which depends on the accuracy of all of these statements, in shockingly weak.”

– William Niskanen, Fall 1997

“Given the low cost of waiting, it would seem only prudent to continue to try to answer the open questions about climate change before making major changes to Western civilization.”

 – Jerry Taylor on Niskanen (above), Winter 1998

In the Fall 1997 issue of JOBS & CAPITAL (Milken Institute), William A. Niskanen, chair of the Cato Institute, published a long essay against regulating carbon dioxide (CO₂) via a global treaty (or otherwise).…

“As new US (and world) oil and gas records are set, the wisdom of Julian Simon, Morris Adelman, and Michael Lynch, as well as other luminaries such as Erich Zimmermann and Thomas DeGregori, will become even more prominent and appreciated. And don’t forget: the failed ‘consensus’ on Peak Oil is warning against the failing ‘consensus’ on Peak Climate.”

The Drudge Report headline said it all: “U.S. Oil Output Jumps to Record 10.47 Million Barrels per Day.” The March 2018 statistic is yet another sign of the refutation of M. King Hubbert’s ‘Peak Oil’ theory–and in real time. The Oil and Gas Investor story was short and sweet: