[E]nergy is not life, but a prerequisite for it, and life is insatiable for it.

– Bernd Heinrich, American zoologist, professor, and author

Civilization and profit go hand in hand.

– Calvin Coolidge, American President

In his book Economics on Trial, American economist Mark Skousen defined Economics as, “the study of how individuals transform natural resources into final products and services that people can use.”

Skousen’s definition is problematic for the purposes of this book [Caveman Economics, in process], which proposes to illustrate economic principles by imagining a prehistoric world at the dawn of our species.  For in such a world, natural resources do not yet exist.  Natural materials exist, but they do not become natural resources until they are combined with knowledge.  Such knowledge came only after thousands of years of trial and error—trial and error in a world in which error often resulted in death.…

“In a Lockean world, mineral rights do not accompany surface rights in either original or transferred ownership. Minerals would not be owned until homesteaded by the acts of discovery and intent to possess. In the case of oil and gas, initial ownership would occur when the oil or gas entered the well bore and was legally claimed by the driller.”

In Oil, Gas, and Government: The U.S. Experience (Cato Institute: 1996), my discussion of the development of first title to oil and gas deposits, as well as government intervention at the wellhead, covered three chapters (pp. 57–221). To my regret, I did little to turn the major takeaways of these chapters into shorter pieces for greater reach and impact. Even today, some of those who are familiar with my argument have encouraged me to publish in this area.…

If Texas A&M scientists calculated that an asteroid was heading our way, we would likely head for the hills with a lot of pills. But when this university’s climatology department warns of dangerous man-induced global warming and calls for government action (think new taxes and regulation), roll your eyes and watch the wallet. [But] we live in a postmodern world where emotion and desire substitute for humility and scholarship. 

 – Robert Bradley, “Political Scientists: Gerald North and Andrew Dessler Double Down on Climate Alarmism,” October 11, 2013.

Andrew Dessler is an alarmist/activist climate scientist. He is very certain of his positions on the hard science questions (what Judith Curry warns is really an uncertainty monster). Dessler also veers outside of his expertise to confidently assess the prospects for (government) forced energy transformation away from fossil fuels, the area of political economy. …

“The private sector’s push for rural electrification would be forgotten as electrifying the countryside became a political issue during the New Deal, specifically with the creation of the Rural Electrification Administration in 1935.”

– Robert Bradley, Edison to Enron: Energy Markets and Political Strategies (2011), p. 165.

“Next to their ability to pump water mechanistically, small wind turbines are best known for their ability to generate power at remote homesteads…. During the 1930s, when only 10% of U.S. farms were served by central-station power, literally hundreds of thousands of [“home light plants”] were in use on the Great Plains…. [This industry] collapsed quickly after the introduction of electricity by the Rural Electrification Administration during the 1930s.”

– Paul Gipe. Wind Energy Comes of Age (1995), pp. 125, 131.

The New Deal’s policies toward oil and coal in the 1933–39 era were hardly succeeded from anyone’s perspective.…