A Free-Market Energy Blog

“More People, Greater Wealth, More Resources, Healthier Environment” (Part I: 1994 Julian Simon essay reprinted)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 24, 2014

“Adding more people causes problems, but people are also the means to solve these problems. The main fuel to speed the world’s progress is our stock of knowledge, and the brakes are a) our lack of imagination, and b) unsound social regulations of these activities.

The ultimate resource is people – especially skilled, spirited, and hopeful young people endowed with liberty – who will exert their wills and imaginations for their own benefit, and so inevitably they will benefit not only themselves but the rest of us as well.”

– Julian L. Simon, essay of February 28, 1994 (below).

This is the economic history of humanity in a nutshell: From 2 million or 200,000 or 20,000 or 2,000 years ago until the 18th Century, there was slow growth in population, almost no increase in health or decrease in mortality, slow growth in the availability of natural resources (but not increased scarcity), increase in wealth for a few, and mixed effects on the environment.

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The Struggle to Mainstream Electric Vehicles

By -- July 23, 2014

“Fiat Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne told the Brookings Institution audience in Washington, DC regarding his company’s 500e EV: ‘I hope you don’t buy it, because every time I sell one it costs me $14,000.’ The reason the 500e exists is to meet zero-emission rules in California and elsewhere that might impose similar mandates. The company’s plan is to sell the minimum number of EVs it is required by law to sell, at whatever financial loss the company must bear, and then not to sell one more. Marchionne also said that if automakers are forced to suffer losses on EVs in order to satisfy political policies, then the companies will be back in Washington asking for new bailouts.”

Nissan (NSANY-OTC), the manufacturer of the LEAF electric vehicle (EV) has been the number one seller in the U.S. …

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Editorializing for Wind in Ohio: A Rebuttal

By Thomas Stacy II -- July 22, 2014

“We as Ohioans and Americans have to be able to see through the scheme, demand proof of net environmental and energy benefits of wind, or force the industry out of the state to save our tax dollars and our electricity-bill dollars the industry has been drunk on since 2008.”

The Lima News may not be a household name, but it is at ground zero in the local and state wind wars. Here in Ohio, Governor Kasich and the Republican-led House and Senate put the clamps on intrusive wind power projects on private land. And the Wind Lobbyists are mad at their rare defeat.

The editorial below (in red), “Politicians Must Revise Wind Rules,” takes issue with that rare victory for taxpayers, ratepayers, and landowners in the Wind Wars.…

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Zycher: Just the Facts, Mr. Steyer

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 21, 2014
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The Voice of Dead Eagles at Shiloh IV (Part III)

By Jim Wiegand -- July 18, 2014
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USFWS Special Agents: Speaking Truth to Wind Power re Shiloh IV (Part II)

By Jim Wiegand -- July 17, 2014
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Wind Power Slaughter: ex-USFWS Agent Speaks Out on Shiloh IV (California)

By Jim Wiegand -- July 16, 2014
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The Liberating Theory of Resourceship

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 15, 2014
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Julian Simon on the ‘Ultimate Resource’ (human ingenuity, the cascading resource)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 14, 2014
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EPA’s CO2 Power Grab: Economic Consequences (Part 3)

By James Rust -- July 11, 2014
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