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.…

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?

Ed. note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete Newsletter for this post can be found here.

Renewables (General):
*** In Texas, a Clean-Energy Pioneer, the Tide Turns Against Renewables
*** Alternative Energy Projects Are Bankrupting The Energy Grid
*** Fallacies About Nuclear, Wind, and Solar
Big Wind’s US Renewable Rejection Database tally hits 523
Proposed NY legislative action to stop the “transition” until a fossil fuel replacement is identified

Wind Energy — Offshore:
*** Offshore wind may not reduce CO2 emissions
Cape Cod to Rhode Island Tourists Expect A Summer Of Whales Washing Up
Cape May County Fights Back Against Offshore Wind Project

Wind Energy — Other:
*** Taking the Wind Out of Climate Change (referencing 60± studies)
*** The True Cost of Energy Generated From Wind Turbines

Solar Energy:
Hidden Impact of Solar Projects: Residents and Wildlife Affected, Aquifers Threatened
How solar projects took over the California desert: ‘An oasis has become a dead sea’

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Nuclear Energy:
*** Why Small Modular Reactors Herald a Nuclear Energy Renaissance
*** Electricity Prices Plunge By 75% As Finland Opens New Nuclear Power Plant
Virginia’s not the only place exploring small modular nuclear reactors
WTF Happened to Nuclear Energy?…

Get happy. Summer beckons. Not only bike and hike but also drive to a better environment–your self-selected environment. And once there, grill, baby, grill.

The automobile is environmentalism-on-wheels. The open road is freedom to escape the concrete for the great beyond. Mountains, rivers, hills, forests, even beautiful green golf courses–it is all a drive away. 

The old Marathon ads said it best …a full tank of freedom. And Shell: “Let’s Go!” And Exxon: “Happy Motoring!”

Don’t worry about the anti-travel crowd who fret about emissions of the trace greening gas, carbon dioxide. Forget the spin and go for a spin!

Each year, MasterResource celebrates the beginning of the peak-driving season knowing that our free-market philosophy is about energy abundance and affordability and reliability. There is so little to apologize for.…