“When President Reagan decontrolled prices in January 1981, the regulatory arbitrage was over…. The strangest regulatory episode in US history was done.”

Economist Robert Murphy has summarized what I believe is the most unique, confounding, consequential regulatory episode in American history in his piece: “The Crazy Crude Oil Price Controls of the 1970s.” [1]

Yes, it happened some decades ago. But if you want to know why no economist in recent history has espoused price controls for crude oil and petroleum products, this experience rings loud today.

Basically, a large group of opportunistic middlemen seized profits that federal price and allocation regulation kept from the rightful industry parties (wellhead producers, in particular). It is the story of the unintended consequences of government intervention. Or entrepreneurial gaming in the face of regulatory constraints (with positive social outcomes in this case)–what Israel Kirzner called superfluous entrepreneurship.…

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

The High Cost of Wind and Solar

Proposed Colorado Legislation: Health Effects of Industrial Wind Turbines

Congress: Kremlin Used Green Propaganda to Undercut U.S. Energy

Green Ideology’s Failed Experiment

California Has Too Much Green Energy

Maine Places Moratorium on Wind Projects

Scott Pruitt: The Weaponization of the EPA Is Over

Why Wind and Solar are Not the Future

Electric grid a prime target in cyberwar

Dozens of studies about the ecosystem impacts of offshore wind turbines

How Corrupt is Audubon?…

DeSmogBlog describes itself as “clearing the PR pollution that clouds climate science.” This site is 100 percent against (consumer-driven) fossil fuels in the name of climate alarmism and advocates forced energy transformation. Such statism is anti-consumer and, via de-industrialization, anti-wealth.

As part of their effort, DeSmog has profiled just about everyone of note on the free-market, contra-Malthusian side of the energy and climate debate. I am among the hundreds (wow–does not sound like there is climate consensus!) in their Global Disinformation Database” as a ‘denier’.

Robert L. Bradley Jr., begins with a quick (impartial) review of my credentials and background before going to three categories: Stance on Climate Change, Key Quotes, and Key Deeds.

I reproduce their dozen or so quotations taken from my oeuvre — and have nothing to retract.…

https://www.forbes.com/sites/robertbradley/2011/12/27/americas-massive-energy-potential-awaits-mr-president/#447f1f003e66

The fossil-fuel energy era is not waning. Quite the opposite; it is still young.

For decades, activists have been trying to convince the American people that declining resources would forever make us dependent on expensive foreign oil. But according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Research (IER) on North America’s energy resources, that line of thinking is flat-out false. Based on the latest official statistics, domestic oil, natural gas, and coal deposits are much more extensive than commonly realized.

The real problem is that much of our resources are not being developed because of antiquated, heavy-handed government regulations. As a consequence, the American economy is being deprived of significant job creation and new investments.

Consider this. Total recoverable oil in North America exceeds 1.7 trillion barrels, which is more oil than the entire world has used over the last 150 years.…