“Not Cheap, Not ‘Green’” at the California Energy Commission

By Tom Tanton -- August 26, 2022 1 Comment

“In my period at Cato (1990–present), “Renewable Energy: Not Cheap, Not ‘Green’“, is probably our most important Policy Analysis in the energy/environment area. Bradley’s thorough review and analysis (60 pages, 325 footnotes) was a real pushback against the viability of ‘green’ energy in theory and practice.”

– Jerry Taylor, Senior Fellow and Director, Natural Resource Studies, Cato Institute, 2012

On the fifteenth [25th] anniversary of “Renewable Energy: Not Cheap, Not ‘Green’” (yesterday’s post), I recall, with pride, a lot of hard work that went into supplying the author with information about California’s wind and solar experience.

At the time I was working in the belly of the beast, the California Energy Commission (CEC) in Sacramento. The Commission was a major proponent of all things renewable, almost to the point of fanaticism.…

Continue Reading

“Electricity Restructuring: The Texas Story” (revisiting a book gone sour)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- August 18, 2022 2 Comments

“By facilitating decentralized coordination instead of imposing specific outcomes, the institutions designed in Texas became the most market-oriented in the country, and the most likely to be resilient and adaptive in the face of unknown and charging economic, technological, and environmental conditions.”

– Lynne Kiesling and Andrew Kleit, eds. Electricity Restructuring: The Texas Story (AEI: 2009), p. 3.

The Texas electricity debacle of February 2021 stands as the greatest failure in the history of the power industry–if not any other industry in America. Hundreds dead and many tens of billions of dollars in unnecessary expense led one system architect, Robert Borlick, to lament:

I have to admit, the ERCOT blackouts have shaken me. The amount of physical damage and human suffering they caused is astounding. Obviously, the ‘market’ failed to provide the service reliability that customers expected and deserved.

Continue Reading

“Libertarian Seeks Burial of ‘Dead Hand’ DOE” (Natural Gas Week, February 6, 1995)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- June 14, 2022 No Comments

“Today, the libertarian Cato Institute releases its “Policy Handbook for the 104th Congress,” a 39-essay proposal to dismantle the federal government…. The essay on energy was written by Cato camp follower Robert L. Bradley Jr. of Houston … president of his own energy think tank – well, OK, it’s small, more like a think bucket – called the Institute for Energy Research.”

How the energy debate has shifted in the last quarter-century–with the middle moving Left and the free market, classical liberal Right falling off the table. Today, the Green Party has been neutered by the Progressive (or Regressive, as Alex Epstein puts it) Left dictating the debate.

I was reminded of this upon encountering an old ‘Perspectives’ column from John H. Jennrich, the founder and editor of Natural Gas Week.…

Continue Reading

‘The $287 Million Pipeline No One Needed’: Deconstructing an Anti-Natural Gas Argument

By -- May 18, 2022 1 Comment

Ed Note: A 65-mile, 400 MMCf/d pipeline approved by FERC and in service since late 2019 has been challenged in court by environmental groups that want to wean St. Louis residents off natural gas to force electrification. With successful court decisions, FERC has issued an emergency order for Spire STL to continue operation rather than shut down.

“The moral of this story? In an increasingly politicized economy, it is easier to get the business through government largess than to earn the business through healthy competition.”

Media bias…. “‘The $287 Million Pipeline No One Needed'” is the title of an article published on April 27, 2022, by Mario Ariza in The Intercept; “an award-winning news organization dedicated to holding the powerful accountable through fearless, adversarial journalism.”

Behind the article was Floodlight News, “a nonprofit climate newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action,” syndicated and picked up by similar “news” web sites.…

Continue Reading

“Gasoline Prices: Still Good News” (a 20-year-old op-ed for today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- May 11, 2022 No Comments Continue Reading

DeSmog on Vaclav Smil (this deep thinker is largely correct)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 28, 2022 2 Comments Continue Reading

Green Energy’s Hidden Eagle Slaughter

By Jim Wiegand -- April 19, 2022 No Comments Continue Reading

MasterResource: New Principals Joining In

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 5, 2022 No Comments Continue Reading

‘Climate Alarmism and Corporate Responsibility’ (2000 essay for today)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 11, 2022 No Comments Continue Reading

False Alarm: Today–and Back in the 1970s

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- January 15, 2022 No Comments Continue Reading