A Free-Market Energy Blog

Creative Destruction: Fossil Fuels Triumphant

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 29, 2024

“Creative destruction results from verdicts at the intersection of supply and demand. Outside of the free market, energy elitism has created a political market, a sub-industry whose activity results from special tax favors, government grants, and/or mandates.”

Creative destruction, a term popularized by Joseph Schumpeter, is the market process whereby bad is eliminated, the better replaces the good, and past performance gives way to new strategies and victors. No firm is forever, and financial loss is a characteristic of capitalism, as is the more used term profit.

Energy is the story of creative destruction. Coal gas and later coal oil replaced a variety of animal and vegetable oils, including whale oil, camphene oil, and stearin oil. Crude (mineral) oil then displaced manufactured (coal) oil, just as later natural gas would displace manufactured (coal) gas.…

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Energy ‘Transition’: It’s a Federal Bribe (versus consumer demand)

By -- August 28, 2024

“If Americans want to keep their gasoline-powered cars and their large refrigerators … be able to afford travel across their states and country … avoid European—and California—style energy poverty, their only hope is to convince politicians to end subsidies for renewables and all other forms of energy.”

It is common for advocates of renewable energy to complain about the subsidies given to fossil fuels. “We have heard testimony,” stated U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, “about the threat climate change poses to entire sectors of our economy.”

So, what are we, the federal government, doing to protect against these threats?  Actually, we are subsidizing the danger.  As we’ll hear today, the United States subsidizes the fossil fuel industry with taxpayer dollars.

Joining Sen. Whitehouse in this vein are groups like the International Monetary Fund, The Future is Electric, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.…

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Jane Goodall on the Futile Climate Crusade

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 27, 2024

“It takes bits and pieces from leading establishment environmentalists to make the ecological case against climate alarmism and forced energy transformation. But taken together, the problems of wind, solar, and batteries are substantial and call for a mid-course correction from look-the-other-way, mention-and-run, wish-and-hope Big Green.”

Yes, she is a climate alarmist and supports forced (governmental) energy transformation to inferior, anti-ecological energies. But she has presented some common-sense observations about the climate crusade and agenda that offer hope about a mid-course correction toward human and ecological betterment.

Consider this recent article at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which was brought to my attention on LinkedIn (via Ian McCoy), “Climate warrior Jane Goodall isn’t sold on carbon taxes and electric vehicles.” (April 13, 2024). Quotations from the CBC article follow in two areas: a carbon dioxide (CO2) tax and electric vehicles (EVs).…

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Gasoline Prices: California Investigates Itself

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 26, 2024
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Guice to California Dept. of Conservation: End Virtue Signaling, Liberate Oil and Gas

By Rod Guice -- August 23, 2024
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Clarkson’s Attempt to Join South Carolina’s Public Service Commission

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 22, 2024
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Giberson/Bradley Exchange on Retail Power Prices

By Robert Bradley Jr. --
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U.S. Offshore Wind: The Struggle Continues

By Kennedy Maize -- August 21, 2024
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TAPS Attack: Biden Administration vs. Alaska

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 20, 2024
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Energy & Environmental Review: August 19, 2024

By -- August 19, 2024
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