A Free-Market Energy Blog

“Big Oil vs The World”: BBC Exposé Fails (Episode I)

By Richard W. Fulmer -- September 19, 2022

Episode 1 of BBC’s Big Oil vs The World is a polished, emotional, lawyer-like brief for one side of a multi-sided, complex issue. But in the final analysis, the BBC case is long on agenda and feelings and short on facts, balance, and proper context. The documentary is slick propaganda that accuses oil companies of producing slick propaganda.

With its documentary Big Oil vs The World, the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has added its voice to the chorus accusing the petroleum industry in general, and ExxonMobil in particular, of misleading the public and slowing the global response to climate change. The three-part documentary (Denial, Doubt, and Delay) was produced in cooperation with PBS, which ran its version on Frontline under the title The Power of Big Oil in April and May of this year.…

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Global Decarbonization: Negative Agricultural Impacts

By -- September 15, 2022

“… a $150 per ton of CO2-equivalent (CO2e) tax [is estimated to globally] … increase the price of milk by approximately 49 percent, the price of rice by 67 percent, and the price of beef by a whopping 108 percent.”

Over the course of my career I have often been asked by concerned persons if there is any downside to implementing CO2 emission reduction policies on the off-chance that model projections of future climate change might be right. These well-meaning individuals do not necessarily believe or buy into the mantra of global warming extremism, they simply seek some sort of an insurance policy to defuse fears accumulated from the constant flow of projections of a forthcoming climate apocalypse.

And so it is when legislation like the recent U.S.…

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Texas Grid Reliability: Gone With the Wind (and solar)

By -- September 14, 2022

“The solution to keeping the lights on in Texas is … to stop politicians and regulators from micromanaging the Texas energy market. Texas politicians could do this by ending renewable energy subsidies in the state and making renewable companies pay for the costs they impose on the rest of us from their federal subsidies.”

As everyone knows, Texas had the worst blackout in its history during the winter of 2021, when 10 million Texans went without power and 12 million without water. After the Texas Legislature passed a number of bills in response, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott proclaimed, “Bottom line is that everything that needed to be done was done to fix the power grid in Texas.”

At least until this summer, that is, when in May electricity prices skyrocketed in response to generation shortages as the state’s grid regulator ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) asked Texans “to conserve power when they can by setting their thermostats to 78-degrees or above and avoiding the usage of large appliances (such as dishwashers, washers and dryers).”…

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Avoiding a Malthusian Future

By Richard W. Fulmer -- September 13, 2022
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Energy and Environmental Review: September 12, 2022

By -- September 12, 2022
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Stephen Schneider and Global Cooling: An Exchange

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 11, 2022
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Environmentalists Petition EPA to Ban Natural Gas Use in Buildings

By -- September 9, 2022
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‘Post-ESG Mandate’: More Oil and Gas (Strive Asset Management letter to Chevron)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 8, 2022
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Atlas Shrugged in California: “Green” Electricity vs. Human Comfort and Welfare

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 7, 2022
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CPUC ‘Emergency Load Reduction Program’: Energy Statism hits Home

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 6, 2022
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