A Free-Market Energy Blog

Biden Games Gasoline Prices (election ahead?)

By -- May 23, 2024

“The hypocrisy of the Biden administration taking credit for lower gasoline prices as the summer driving season begins by fulfilling a Congressional mandate is unsurprising.”

“We now have the amazing scenario where days before the start of the hurricane season, Democrats in Congress and Biden are willing to empty the gasoline reserve.”

The Department of Energy announced Tuesday that it would begin selling the one million barrels of gasoline in the Northeast Gasoline Supply Reserve.  Bids for the supply are due May 28th with delivery expected by June 30th.  Bids will be accepted for lots of 100,000 barrels.  The supply represents 42 million gallons of gasoline and is held in commercial storage tanks in Maine and New Jersey. 

The sale was mandated by the omnibus Congressional spending bill (HR 2882) approved in late March with procedural hijinks by Senate Leader Chuck Schumer. …

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Giberson Defines Free Market for Electricity!

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 22, 2024

“A free market in electricity is based on private property rights and voluntary exchange.”

– Michael Giberson, May 19, 2024

It’s a start. It took me a few dozen tries, but the definition has come from a (not-so) free market electricity advocate, Mike Giberson. Maybe Lynne Kiesling, woman of system and “The Queen of Electricity Markets,” will be next.

Fake free marketeers at the Niskanen Center and at R Street Institute are a plague on sound public policy analysis regarding electricity and other climate/energy issues. The sad case of Jerry Taylor of Cato and Niskanen is recounted here and here. But the problem also is with the energy specialists at R Street, including senior fellow Giberson. (See yesterday’s post on Devin Hartman, Giberson’s boss.)

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Mike Giberson knows his energy stuff and was/is free market in many areas, except for electricity.…

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“Economic planning … is sound policy” (R Street’s Hartman Outs Himself)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 21, 2024

Update: Devin Hartman of R Street has blocked some of the links below. The debate is intellectual to me and PR/political to him. If he cannot define what a free market is in electricity, then he is not being honest with himself or the community.

“The core of [FERC] Order 1920 – economic planning – is sound policy.” (Devin Hartman, R Street Institute)

“You describe yourself as ‘pro-market,’ and R Street promotes itself as free market. What gives with central electricity planning and the ‘whole-of-government’ current federal approach? (R. Bradley, below)

R Street Institute advertises itself as “Free Markets. Real Solutions.” Devin Hartman, Policy Director, Energy and Environmental Policy; Resident Senior Fellow at R Street, advertises himself as “pro-market and environmental policy scholar and advocate” and

An established thought leader in energy and environmental policy with over a decade of experience, including nearly six years of experience at three regulatory bodies.

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Ad Hominem Backfire in the Energy/Climate Debate

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 20, 2024
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The Carbon Capture Con

By Viv Forbes -- May 17, 2024
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Buzz Smith: Snake Oil EVangelism

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 16, 2024
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Winter Without Your Gasoline Car?

By Steve Goreham -- May 15, 2024
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EV Forcing: 21 Problems

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 14, 2024
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Energy & Environmental Review: May 13, 2024

By -- May 13, 2024
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Wind Turbine-related Radiation

By -- May 10, 2024
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