“Maybe instead of investigating the relatively high price [in early 2002] of gasoline, the government should check into its own regulatory and tax policies that artificially reduce supply and raise prices.”

This piece was written in first-quarter 2002 when environmental requirements were pushing reformulated gasoline prices higher, and the wellhead oil boom associated with hydraulic fractionation and horizontal drilling was a decade away.

Today, the war against oil from the Net Zero movement–now joined by the Russia/Ukraine conflict–has sent prices to historically high levels. Still, a mostly free market has wondrously overcome impediments to make a “depletable” mineral plentiful and affordable for hundreds of millions of Americans each day.

Let’s go back to the debate 20 years ago, when gasoline was sold for $1.50 per gallon (about $2.50 today)….

Crude oil prices are at a 6-month high. …

“In a profile in Science magazine, [Vaclav] Smil constructed his own models of how carbon dioxide emissions might affect climate and found it ‘wanting.’ ‘I have too much respect for reality,’ Smil said.” (DeSmog, below)

I have previously highlighted DeSmog pieces on climate and energy realists to show that simply imparting the subject’s views create good analysis. DeSmog might think they are prima facie hit pieces, but they are the opposite! Back door justice, perhaps….

Note the guilty-as-charged profiles on Robert Bryce, Isaac Orr, Derrick Hollie, John Christy, and myself. Same for DeSmog’s analysis on the Global Warming Policy Foundation.

DeSmog has done so many profiles that it looks like we are in the majority. And in a sense we are! The public is not buying climate catastrophe (yawn), certainly not in paying more for energy.…

“It’s hard to imagine and even harder to stomach, but more than 60,000 eagle carcasses have secretly shipped to this repository, with no cause of death or origin given…. Since 1997, nobody involved with wind energy and its eagle carcasses, has been allowed to disclose the truth.”

“America’s silenced USFWS agents know exactly what’s taking place because they process and arrange FedEx overnight shipping for nearly all the eagle carcasses shipped to the Denver Eagle Repository.”

Recently an American wind energy company pleaded guilty to federal criminal charges after at least 150 eagles were killed since 2012.  The company has agreed to spend as much as $27 million on efforts to prevent more deaths.

What good are these millions? Except for shutting down turbines, there is no way to prevent eagle deaths from wind blades.…

MasterResource was founded in late 2008 as a “free market energy blog.” Several thousand posts from 300 contributors later, our niche includes:

• The historical background of energy/energy policy to complement current discussions
• The economic and ecological problems of industrial wind turbines and solar arrays, with reporting from the grassroots
• Assessment of major players and important events in current energy debates for posterity

The online energy space has become very crowded in recent years, reflecting the importance and breath of the subject, nationally and internationally.

As organizer, I began with a team of leading free-market energy analysts (there were not that many of us). We were the first such group on the classical-liberal side. Over time, as the policy issues grew, several of my colleagues peeled off to blog at their home sites (Cato, CEI, etc.).…