“Let’s Try a Free Market in Energy” (Letter from Charles Koch to FORTUNE Magazine in 1977 in Response to ARCO’s Thornton Bradshaw’s ‘My Case for National Planning’)

By -- October 7, 2010 3 Comments

[Editor Note: This letter by Koch Industries’s CEO Charles G. Koch, addressed to Fortune Editor-in-Chief Hedley Donovan, provides a pro-free market rebuttal to ARCO’s CEO Thornton Bradshaw’s “My Case for National Planning” (Fortune, February 1977).

Koch’s scholarly effort is reproduced below as a historically important document in the energy debate. It is authored by a rarity of rarities, a principled free-market capitalist. The context and timeliness of the rebuttal was stated in the Libertarian Review at the time:

While this essay was only the latest in a series of attacks on a free market economy and defenses of National Economic Planning to appear over the past few years by intellectuals, businessmen and labor leaders alike, Bradshaw’s piece deserves special scrutiny. For it comes to us from a man who both is a leading representative of American major oil companies, and was a member of Jimmy Carter’s task force on energy during the 1976 presidential campaign.

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Carol Browner Knows the Drill (a surprising advocate of hydraulic fracturing of gas)

By Chris Tucker -- August 23, 2010 5 Comments

In June 2004, EPA released a study examining the safety and performance of an energy technology known as hydraulic fracturing – particularly in the context of its use in coalbed methane wells, from which nearly 2 trillion cubic feet of natural gas were produced in 2008 (latest numbers).

The goal of the study was simple: Determine whether the fracturing of coalbed wells had the potential to adversely affect the quality and composition of underground sources of drinking water (USDW). EPA’s methodology: Research more than 200 peer-reviewed publications, and interview almost 100 different state regulators, environmentalists, and industry reps. EPA’s conclusion: No evidence linking the deployment of fracturing technology to drinking water contamination. Of course, since the study was released during the tenure of the previous president, its findings were rejected out-of-hand by environmentalists – never mind that the study itself was initiated during the Clinton administration by then-EPA administrator Carol Browner.…

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U.S. Spent Nuclear Fuel Policy: Road to Nowhere [Part II: Project Salt Vault]

By Robert Peltier -- July 9, 2010 12 Comments

Part I in this series reviewed the history of nuclear waste storage policy in the United States. This post reviews Project Salt Vault, an early attempt to solve the dilemma of storing spent nuclear fuel.   Part III will cover the history of Yucca Mountain.

Project Salt Vault

The primary objective of Project Salt Vault was to demonstrate the safety and feasibility of handling and storing high level nuclear waste (HLW) solids from power reactors in salt formations. The engineering and scientific objectives were to:

· Demonstrate waste-handling equipment and techniques required to handle packages containing HLW solids from the point of production to the disposal location.

· Determine the stability of salt formations under the combined effects of heat and radiation (approximately 4,000,000 curies of radioactive material, yielding up to 109 rads).…

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Fraser Institute Survey: Where Is the Best Oil and Gas Investment Climate? (South Dakota #1; New York State #102)

By Gerry Angevine -- July 2, 2010 No Comments

South Dakota is the No. 1 place in the world for oil and gas investment, according to the Global Petroleum Survey 2010, an annual survey of international petroleum executives and managers conducted by the Fraser Institute, one of the world’s leading free-market think-tanks.

Results of the survey include:

· South Dakota, which was ranked seventh out of 143 jurisdictions in 2009, vaulted into the No. 1 spot out of 133 jurisdictions included in this year’s survey results.

· Along with South Dakota, American states claimed eight of the top 10 spots this year: Texas (second), Illinois (third), Wyoming (fourth), Mississippi (sixth), Utah (seventh), Oklahoma (ninth), and Alabama (10th).

· New York is the lowest ranked state at 102nd.

· Austria, ranked fifth, is the only jurisdiction outside North America to make the top 10.

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America’s Gift: High Technology and Lower Prices (peak gas not!)

By Donald Hertzmark -- June 22, 2010 1 Comment Continue Reading

Bill Gates: Energy Visionary? (energy Manhattan project, yet again)

By -- June 18, 2010 16 Comments Continue Reading

The Bear Growls a Bit More Softly Now: New Adventures in Pipelinestan

By Donald Hertzmark -- May 7, 2010 No Comments Continue Reading

Power Hungry: The Myths of “Green” Energy and the Real Fuels of the Future—by Robert Bryce (nutrition for energy appetites)

By Jon Boone -- April 27, 2010 17 Comments Continue Reading

Just Say No to a Gasoline Tax Hike

By Jerry Taylor -- April 20, 2010 6 Comments Continue Reading

Moralizing Twaddle: James Hansen’s Vision of Presidential Greatness

By -- April 15, 2010 11 Comments Continue Reading