‘Fear Not: The Malthusians Are Wrong’ (2000 Op-Ed for Today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 3, 2016 4 Comments

Editor note: This op-ed, published on April 21, 2000, in the Houston Chronicle, can be revisited to see how the arguments have held up for today. One unanticipated development was the BP Horizon oil spill of 2010, which resulted in a cumulative cost to BP of $61.8 billion. (One only wonders if the spill would have occurred if ‘beyond petroleum’ BP would have focused on real environmental and safety issues instead of global-warming greenwashing in the decade prior to its historic, infamous environmental mess.) The fundamental question remains: are fossil fuels more or less ‘sustainable’ today versus 16 years ago?

A great hue and cry is being heard this Earth Day about how our hydrocarbon-based energy economy is unsustainable.  Air pollution is worsening, hydrocarbon resources are depleting and greenhouse gas emissions are destabilizing the planet, a chorus of individuals and groups contends.

Continue Reading

The Global Warming Mass Movement

By Al Danielsen -- July 18, 2016 5 Comments

“Fear of global warming serves the interests of countless numbers of individuals and organizations. Idealistic dreamers of social justice, population control, and world government were early leaders in the global warming movement. They were joined by delegates to the United Nations and countless other officials who sought more power through government expansion.”

Global warming has been described as a hoax, scam and conspiracy as well as by other pejorative terms. It is true that many elites conspired to promote noble causes by instilling fear of global warming and hatred of fossil fuels. For example, the organizer of the UN Earth Summit in 1992 was a long-time advocate of world government while Mikhail Gorbachev and Al Gore sought political power. UN Assistant Secretary General Robert Muller went a step further in wanting our hearts and minds.…

Continue Reading

Renewable Energy: High Jobs, Little Power (inefficiency personified)

By Stanislav Jakuba -- July 14, 2016 6 Comments

Energy Jobs

Ever wondered why has our standard of living not been improving?

The upward-aiming line in the above chart indicates one reason: growing employment in the renewable-energy sector. That employment contributes a miniscule amount to power production, and it does so at a dreadfully high operating cost.

Here are the numbers.

As illustrated, 200,000 people work in the solar industry (Photo-voltaic and Concentrated Solar Power combined), and they enabled the generation of 3.0 GW in 2015, which comes to 15 kW per employee. The down-sloping lines, combined, represent the 400,000 employees in the fossil fuel industry.

Assuming that about a half of those are needed just to supply fuel to generate the 310 GW electricity reported for that year, then the remaining 200,000 employees were responsible for 1550 kW per employee.

In other words, one employee in the fossil fuel industry produces 1550 kW, while it takes 100 employees in the solar business to produce roughly that amount.…

Continue Reading

Climate: The Real ‘Worrisome Trend’ (Part I: Faulty Science)

By Joe D'Aleo -- May 11, 2016 18 Comments

“Government reports, writers of opinion pieces, and bloggers posting graphs purporting to show rising or record air temperatures or ocean heat, are misleading you. This is not actual raw data. It is plots of data that have been “adjusted” or “homogenized” (i.e., manipulated) by scientists – or it is output from models that are based on assumptions, many of them incorrect.”

My philosophy when I taught college was to show my students how to think – not what to think. As Socrates said, “Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel.”

Data is king, I told my students, and models are only useful tools. Any model’s output or any theory needed to be examined and validated using data–and even then used with caution.

The great Nobel Laureate Physicist Richard Feynman taught students that if a theory or educated guess or hypothesis disagrees with experiment or data or experience,

it’s wrong.

Continue Reading

From Zond to Enron Wind to GE Wind: Founder Interview (government enablement for the record)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 4, 2016 7 Comments Continue Reading

On the Strategic Petroleum Reserve (1991 thoughts for today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 2, 2016 No Comments Continue Reading

Epstein’s Truth to Boxer’s Power: An Energy Highlight of 2016

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 19, 2016 5 Comments Continue Reading

‘Grid Parity’ for Renewables: Why Subsidies? (Part II)

By Mark Febrizio -- March 22, 2016 3 Comments Continue Reading

‘Peak Oil’ Over, Economists Study Climate Policy Costs

By -- February 17, 2016 4 Comments Continue Reading

Jane Mayer on Energy Policy: Some Corrections

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- February 11, 2016 No Comments Continue Reading