“The state is the great fictitious entity by which everyone seeks to live at the expense of everyone else.”

“Legal plunder has two roots: one of them … is in human greed; the other is in misconceived philanthropy.” 

“What is freedom? It is the sum total of freedoms. To be free, under one’s own responsibility, to think and act, to speak and write, to work and trade, to teach and learn, that alone is to be free.” 

A major subject at MasterResource is cronyism in the wind-power, solar-power, ethanol, battery, carbon capture and storage, and electric-vehicle industries. To this end, timeless wisdom pertaining to special government favor to politically adept businesses, aka corporate welfare, is worth repeating.

With the current Pandemic, notice how not only the government-dependent wind and solar industries but also conventional energies are lined up trying to get their share of government largess.…

“We write on behalf of our millions of members, supporters and employees to ask that you prioritize enacting a robust package of critical clean energy tax incentives this year. These incentives create jobs, boost energy independence and cut greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to climate change.” (Renewable Energy Groups, February 27, 2020)

“The fuel security provided by coal reserves at power plants offers resiliency to a system that is bracing for uncertainty, and it is imperative to keep these plants online—whether through the use of the Defense Production Act or other means—in the interest of national security.” (National Mining Association, March 18, 2020)

When government favor is offered to some businesses or industries, expect other businesses or industries to ask for the same–or more. In the current Pandemic, competing energy trade associations predictably wrote letters to lawmakers and have lobbied hard behind the scenes to get special treatment.…

“… we have set ourselves the ambition to become a net zero company by 2050 or sooner and to help the world get to net zero…. We will need support from partners, investors, policy makers, customers – and trade associations…. (Bernard Looney, CEO, BP, 2020)

“BP’s $100-million annual investment in clean energy equals only about 1 percent of the company’s overall expenditures of $12.5 billion.  While this positions the company to gain market share in a growing industry, it does little to reduce vulnerability to policies that reduce demand for carbon-intensive products.” (Seth Dunn and Christopher Flavin, 2002, p. 41)

BP is a fossil-fuel company with token investments in solar, wind, and biofuels. The new CEO, Bernard Looney, is taking the company back to the John Browne’s “beyond petroleum” days.…

“We must also begin planning our economic recovery in a way that protects us from the impact of climate change and … accelerates a just transition off fossil fuels….”

“The ideas here draw on proposals from a range of Democratic primary campaigns, in particular those of Corey Booker, Julian Castro, Kirsten Gillibrand, Kamala Harris, Jay Inslee, Bernie Sanders, Tom Steyer, and Elizabeth Warren.”

Reproduced below is an “Open Letter and Call to Action to Members of Congress” by a ad hoc group advertising itself as “climate and social policy experts in academia and civil society.” Signatories include

• Deep ecologist and New Yorker writer Bill McKibben;
• Climate campaigner, author, and ‘intellectual godmother of the Green New Deal‘ Naomi Klein; and
• Obama-era EPA Administrator, Harvard Professor and NRDC head Gina McCarthy; and

While fringe, the 5,000-word manifesto is noteworthy as an example of the latest Green New Deal thinking.…