MasterResource: 3Q-2011 Activity Report (million moment reached)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 21, 2011 3 Comments

MasterResource, the free market energy blog, surpassed a million views last month. While not a megablog by any means, ours is a high quality, in-depth, one-post-per-day contribution to the current energy debate–and a resource for the historical record (our extensive index stands at 365).

Since its beginning in late 2008, MasterResource has published approximately 875 posts from 110 different authors. Comments from our loyal, sophisticated readership add substance to many of the in-depth posts. And we have achieved critical mass; Google an energy-policy-related term and MasterResource, and usually something will come up.

MasterResource has covered a variety of energy issues on the state, federal, and even international level. But our most active area has been the growing backlash against industrial wind turbines. MasterResource is a leading voice for citizens, environmentalists, and small-government  advocates who have united against this intrusive, wildly uneconomic, government-enabled energy form.…

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Jimmy Carter's 'Malaise Speech' of July 15, 1979: An Energy Moment to Remember

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 15, 2011 4 Comments

[Editor Note: Carter’s April 1977 energy speech was also reproduced and commented upon at MasterResource.]

Thirty-two years ago today, President Carter and his energy advisor James Schlesinger got it all wrong in an emergency television address to the nation. Their neo-Malthusian, government-as-engineer moment should never be forgotten but stand as timeless warning about the anti-market, anti-energy mentality.

In the summer of 1979, many Americans were stuck in the gasoline lines. There was a lot of lost time and nervousness. There was fighting and worse. The market as a buffer of civility was gone. Americans were not used to such a predicament and had the common sense to know that something was very abnormal and not to be tolerated. They were mad.

Here is the background of his energy speech, considered as the most important speech of his presidency:

On June 30, 1979, a weary Jimmy Carter was looking forward to a few days’ vacation in Hawaii, as Air Force One sped him away from a grueling economic summit in Tokyo.

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MasterResource: 2Q-2011 Activity Report

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- July 8, 2011 No Comments

MasterResource, a premier free-market energy blog, is two-and-a-half years old. Since beginning in late 2008, we have published approximately eight hundred posts from 100 authors. Our total views will exceed the magical one million mark in the current quarter. Comments from our loyal, sophisticated readership add substance to many of the in-depth posts.

This site has covered a variety of energy issues on the state, national, and even international level. But our most active area has been the growing backlash against industrial wind turbines. MasterResource is pleased to have become a leading voice for citizens, environmentalists, and small-government  advocates who have united against this intrusive, wildly uneconomic, and government-enabled energy form.

Our concept is different from most blogs. With one in-depth post per day, we have created an open book of mini-chapters, creating a scholarly resource and a historical record for the energy and energy/environmental debates.…

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Energy for a Free Society: The 'American Energy Act' (Part II: Real World Reform)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 1, 2011 6 Comments

Editor note: The first post in in this three-part series was titled A Free Market Energy Vision (Part I: Worldview); the third isFederal Energy Policy for America (Part III: Cato’s priorities–and a few more).”

The Obama Administration has been implementing an anti-energy agenda since coming to Washington. From day one, Obama and his “dream ‘green’ team” have worked to increase the cost of traditional energy to reduce usage and try to make uneconomic consumer-rejected energy (wind, solar, ethanol, electric vehicles) more economic.

The effects of these policies are now playing out in front of the American people: rising energy prices, tens of thousands of jobs destroyed, and increasing dependence on foreign state-owned energy companies. In response, the free market community has been playing defense.

But even before Obama, multiple-hundred-page interventionist legislation has been signed time and again by Republican presidents.…

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California's Cap-and-Trade Illegality: CARB Rethink Necessary

By Tom Tanton -- May 31, 2011 3 Comments Continue Reading

The Great Energy Resource Debate (Part I: Peak Oil was … is here!)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 12, 2011 8 Comments Continue Reading

Welcome Back, Carter

By -- April 26, 2011 5 Comments Continue Reading

Anti-Energy, Anti-Industrial Policy: When is Enough Enough?

By -- March 11, 2011 5 Comments Continue Reading

California Climate Rethink? CARB's AB 32 Implementation Plan Under Fire

By Tom Tanton -- February 22, 2011 3 Comments Continue Reading

Can the Endangered Species Act Compel America to Abandon Fossil Fuels?

By -- October 25, 2010 5 Comments Continue Reading