A Free-Market Energy Blog

"Energy and Society" Course: Professor Desrochers's Model for the Academy

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 7, 2011

Pierre Desrochers is a scholar’s scholar. His prolific research, writing, and teaching facilitate our own research and learning. His reference and use of some of our work is a vindication of sorts.

I recently encountered Professor Desrochers syllabus for Energy and Society, a course that he is currently teaching at the University of Toronto Mississauga.  Wow! Lucky are his students; this course is a model for its subject for North American and far beyond.

Desrochers sets out three main objectives for this course:

• To cover the basic physical, technical and economic issues related to energy use;
• To cover broadly the history of energy development and use;
• To introduce students to past debates and current controversies.

He describes the course as follows:

The development of new energy sources has had a major impact on the development of both human societies and the environment.

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Behind the 'Green Jobs' Curtain: Economic Fallacies and Counterfacts

By Nick Sibilla and Todd Wynn -- October 6, 2011

“The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.”

– Henry Hazlitt, “The Lesson,” Economics in One Lesson. (1946, et seq.)

Solyndra’s impending liquidation, replete with 1,100 layoffs and U.S. taxpayer liabilities in excess of a half billion dollars, has put so-called green jobs initiative of the Obama Administration in negative light.

But make no mistake: recent loan guarantees from the U.S. Department of Energy to new solar projects to beat a September 30th funding cutoff is business-as-usual as the foes of oil, gas, and coal desperately seek business traction for an uneconomic energy.

From Climate Alarmism to ‘Green’ Jobs

With unemployment on the rise and new jobs scarce, politicians are keen to create employment, at least the visible kind that they can sum up for the public.…

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Peltier: 'Chart a New Course' (POWER magazine editor rejects windgas for gas)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- October 5, 2011

“The cost for wind’s little or no environmental benefit is high.”

– Robert Peltier, “Chart a New Course.” POWER, September 2011, p. 6.

POWER magazine’s editor-in-chief, Dr. Robert Peltier, is in the energy reality business. An honest broker, the professional engineer and former Stanford University professor assesses rival technologies as he sees them. And so at times, he is at odds with groups such as the American Wind Energy Association that peddle uneconomic technologies.

Peltier’s lead editorial in the September 2011 issue of POWER magazine is notwworthy for its arguments and for its import in the history of energy thought.

Future scholars will look back on our present debate and assess who had the best arguments, and who was willing to take risks to advance them–and who were the for-hire millers using half-truths and PR hits to evade the implications of consumer choice, technological reality, and sound science (and yes, climate science is hardly settled in favor of alarmism but just the opposite).…

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'Price Gouging' Law: Why Waste State and Consumer Resources during Emergencies?

By Michael Giberson -- October 4, 2011
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Call for Energy Price Controls: Has the 1970s Experience Been Forgotten? (hidden perils of a $3.50/gallon federal price cap)

By Donald Hertzmark -- October 3, 2011
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"Edison to Enron: Energy Markets and Political Strategies" (Book 2 of trilogy on political capitalism published)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 30, 2011
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"Green Job" Fallacies (Part II: What is a 'Green' Job?)

By -- September 29, 2011
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"Green Job" Fallacies (Part I: First Principles)

By -- September 28, 2011
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Lindzen on Kerry Emanuel's Climate Alarmism, Non-Sequitur

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 27, 2011
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Wind Energy and Radar: A National Security Issue

By -- September 26, 2011
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