A Free-Market Energy Blog

The Fossil Fuel Era: Still Young

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 13, 2023

Ed. Note: This post draws upon yesterday’s post, The Liberating Theory of Resourceship.

“[Darren] Woods’ comments indicate that ExxonMobil is very close to developing the technologies that will keep the United States the world leader in hydraulic fracturing and enable the U.S. to remain the world’s largest crude oil and natural gas producer for decades.” (Ed Ireland, below)

Peak Oil and Peak Gas beliefs never really die. They just go underground. Remember The Oil Drum website (2005–2013)? This central meeting place of the resource neo-Malthusians went kaput in the face of the oil and gas hydraulic fractionation boom. Such has been, is, and will be the case in a high-energy world not paralyzed by government intervention.

Rise and Fall

A Reuter’s story in mid-2013, “The Oil Drum Website Set to Close as Peak Oil Fears Vanish,” recounted the cycle of interest and decline.…

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The Liberating Theory of Resourceship

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 12, 2023

Ed. Note: The subtle, insightful concept of resourceship is back in the news given ExxonMobil’s new-generation hydraulic fractionation technology, discussed tomorrow. The expanding hydrocarbon age, still young, is overwhelming political attempts to disrupt it at the expense of consumers, taxpayers, and liberty.

“If resources are not fixed but created, then the nature of the scarcity problem changes dramatically. For the technological means involved in the use of resources determines their creation and therefore the extent of their scarcity. The nature of the scarcity is not outside the process (that is natural), but a condition of it.”

– Tom DeGregori (1987). “Resources Are Not; They Become: An Institutional Theory.” Journal of Economic Issues, p. 1258.

“Those in the mineral-resource world think in terms of proved, probable, and speculative quantities. Should another category be added–resourceship–that would make such supply open-ended?

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LinkedIn Climate/Energy Debate: An Exchange of Note

By Hans Wolkers -- June 8, 2023

Oil industry lobbyists are not worthwhile humans. It’s not a real job, it is corruption and beneath contempt. Taking bribe money to spread propaganda that results in genocide is sub human.” Tom Trounce (below)

I recently had an ‘interesting’ discussion on social media with a strong advocate for (dilute, intermittent) ‘renewable’ energies. My critic, an angry foe of fossil fuels, didn’t present solid arguments but only ad hominems, followed by trash talk. Such is the unfortunate part of debating climate/energy issues on LinkedIn, where certain (brainwashed?) alarmists work to discredit and marginalize their opponents.

Tom Trounce was the bad guy. His profile at LinkedIn advertises:

Improving lives through community, compassion and expeditions | Non-profits | Company culture | Leadership integrity | Technology | Customer Experience | Purpose

What? Improving lives, compassion, integrity.

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Shakedown! Climate Governance Initiative (UK)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 7, 2023
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Social Injustice: Climate Activists vs. Nitrogen Fertilizers

By Steve Overholt -- June 6, 2023
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Energy and Environmental Review: June 5, 2023

By -- June 5, 2023
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Nixon’s June 1971 ‘Clean Energy’ Speech

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 2, 2023
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Chris Tomlinson (Houston Chronicle) Confesses Conflict of Interest

By Robert Bradley Jr. --
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U.S. Exit of the Paris Climate Accord: Reasons Reverberate Today

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 1, 2023
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Surging New England Energy Prices: No Surprise

By Steve Goreham -- May 30, 2023
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