A Free-Market Energy Blog

April 22: Julian Simon Day at Cato (with a special thanks to scholars Marian Tupy and Pierre Desrochers)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 22, 2019

It’s another great day in the history of humankind as the quest for betterment in markets outpaces, in most areas of the world, the drag of Statism.

Today is especially august at the Cato Institute where a conference convenes in honor of the late Julian Simon (1932–1997). Hosted by Marian Tupy of the HumanProgress project, the event will be livestreamed beginning at 11:00 am.

Here is the announcement:

Are we running out of resources? That’s been a hotly debated question since the publication of Paul Ehrlich’s book The Population Bomb in 1968. The Stanford University biologist warned that population growth would result in the exhaustion of resources and a global catastrophe. University of Maryland economist and Cato Institute’s Senior Fellow Julian Simon, in contrast, argued that humans would innovate their way out of resource shortages.…

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2019 Pulitzer Prize Goes to an Inaccurate Anti-Fracking Book

By Nicole Jacobs -- April 18, 2019

“Ms. Griswold will have to forgive readers if they choose not to believe that she is objectively calling balls and strikes, given how the narrative she concocts in her book is dramatically different from what regulators, independent laboratories, and medical professionals have determined – all of which have been affirmed in multiple courtrooms.”


“Five separate courts, including Pennsylvania’s Supreme Court, have upheld the DEP’s findings, yet Ms. Griswold continues to spread these unsubstantiated claims in her new book.”

A recent book by Eliza Griswold – the same author who gave an infamously inaccurate portrayal of shale development in Amwell Township, Pa., in a 2011 New York Times article – takes readers back to Southwestern Pennsylvania over claims of water contamination that have long-since been resolved by multiple regulatory agencies, courtrooms, and expert analyses.…

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Climategate Remembered: The Need for a Second Opinion (new panel taking shape)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 17, 2019

Dr. Larry Bell, a leading figure in space architecture and endowed professor at the University of Houston, is one of a small army of gifted people who have jumped disciplines to help even the climate debate against a locked-in academic establishment.

One of Bell’s recent columns deserves attention in reference to the current proposal by Dr. William Happer of the White House’s National Security Council to create an independent panel of outside experts to critically review the Fourth National Climate Assessment of the U.S. Global Change Research Program. (For the latest of the developing panel, see here.)

While Climategate has been the subject of several dedicated posts at MasterResource, Bell’s retelling is particularly relevant to what has been going on behind closed doors by a band of mostly deep-ecologist academic climatologists who work from an agenda of climate alarm and Malthusianism (a fear of population growth, technology, and affluence).…

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US Renewable Statistics: Real vs. Potential Output

By Stanislav Jakuba -- April 16, 2019
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Stephen Moore on Energy: Sound as Gold

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 15, 2019
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Trump on Wind Power’s Problems (cancer too)

By Sherri Lange -- April 11, 2019
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“Green New Deal FAQ” (the infamous AOC post for posterity)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 10, 2019
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New England Curtails amid World Natural Gas Boom

By Steve Goreham -- April 9, 2019
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Energy & Environmental Newsletter: April 8, 2019

By -- April 8, 2019
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AWEA Misinformation on Power Transmission

By Donn Dears -- April 7, 2019
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