Search Results for: "1970s"
Relevance | DateThree Cheers for Holiday Lighting!
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 21, 2015 No Comments[Editor Note: This post originally appeared at MasterResource during Holiday Week 2009. Perhaps the update to this six years later is ‘only more so’ with the statistics of improvement and the case for energy optimism given the increasing sustainability of fossil fuels.]
Environmentalists critical of electrified America must have mixed emotions this time of the year. It may be the season of good cheer and goodwill toward all, but it is also the time of the most conspicuous of energy consumption. America the Beautiful is at her best in December when billions of tiny stringed light bulbs turn the mundane or darkness itself into magnificent beauty and celebration. Holiday lighting is a great social offering—a positive externality in the jargon of economics—given by many to all.
While energy doomsayers such as Paul Ehrlich have railed against “garish commercial Christmas displays,” today’s headline grabbers (Grist, Climate Progress, where are you?)…
Continue ReadingGlobal Cooling: Do Not Forget (false alarm was tied to coal burning too)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- December 3, 2015 7 Comments“Many observers have speculated that the cooling [global] could be the beginning of a long and persistent trend in that direction—that is, an inevitable departure from an abnormally warm period in climatic history.”
– Paul and Anne Ehrlich and John Holdren. Ecoscience: Population, Resources, Environment (1977), p. 686.
“Predictions of future climate trends by Stephen Schneider and other leading climatologists, based on the prevailing knowledge of the atmosphere in the early 1970s, gave more weight to the potential problem of global cooling than it now appears to merit.”
– Paul and Anne Ehrlich, Betrayal of Science and Reason (Washington: Island Press, 1996), p. 34.
There was once talk of a coming Ice Age from John Holdren, Paul Ehrlich, and Steven Schneider. among others, before all got global warming religion.…
Continue ReadingCharles Koch on Cronyism (Part 1)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 27, 2015 1 Comment“Today, many governments give special treatment to a favored few businesses that eagerly accept those favors. This is the essence of cronyism…. One obvious example of this involves wind farms. Most cannot turn a profit without the costly subsidies the government provides.”
– Charles G. Koch, “The Importance of Economic Freedom.” August 17, 2012.
Classical-liberal entrepreneur Charles Koch, CEO of Koch Industries, Inc., valued at $100 billion, is one of the most intellectual business leaders in the United States, if not the world. He also takes the prize as the most trenchant critic of cronyism (rent-seeking) where business representatives lobby for special government favor.
Charles Koch’s views are based on his extensive study of the theory and practice of social cooperation for mutual gain–and prosperous societies. His verdict for private property, free markets, and the rule of law–and against government intervention–is long held.
Solar Power: NOT an Infant Industry (Part II)
By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 20, 2015 1 Comment“The range of energy possibilities grouped under the heading ‘solar’ could meet one-fifth of U.S. energy needs within two decades.”
– Robert Stobaugh and Daniel Yergin, “The End of Easy Oil,” in Stobaugh and Yergin, eds., Energy Future, Report of the Energy Project of the Harvard Business School (New York: Random House, 1979), p. 12.
”I think … the consensus … is after the year 2000, somewhere between 10 and 20 percent of our energy could come from solar technologies, quite easily.”
– Scott Sklar, Solar Energy Industries Association (1987).
“Before maybe the end of this decade, I see wind and solar being cost-competitive without subsidy with new fossil fuel.”
– DOE Secretary Stephan Chu, Address to Pew Charitable Trusts, March 23, 2011.
Yesterday’s Part I on the long history of solar power ended with two quotations from energy historian Wilson Clark in his 1974 book, Energy for Survival: The Alternative to Extinction:
… Continue Reading“In 1908, [Frank] Shuman formed the Sun Power Company and convinced English financiers to back his efforts to build larger plants using the flat-plate collectors.