“Creative destruction results from verdicts at the intersection of supply and demand. Outside of the free market, energy elitism has created a political market, a sub-industry whose activity results from special tax favors, government grants, and/or mandates.”

Creative destruction, a term popularized by Joseph Schumpeter, is the market process whereby bad is eliminated, the better replaces the good, and past performance gives way to new strategies and victors. No firm is forever, and financial loss is a characteristic of capitalism, as is the more used term profit.

Energy is the story of creative destruction. Coal gas and later coal oil replaced a variety of animal and vegetable oils, including whale oil, camphene oil, and stearin oil. Crude (mineral) oil then displaced manufactured (coal) oil, just as later natural gas would displace manufactured (coal) gas.…

“If Americans want to keep their gasoline-powered cars and their large refrigerators … be able to afford travel across their states and country … avoid European—and California—style energy poverty, their only hope is to convince politicians to end subsidies for renewables and all other forms of energy.”

It is common for advocates of renewable energy to complain about the subsidies given to fossil fuels. “We have heard testimony,” stated U.S. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, “about the threat climate change poses to entire sectors of our economy.”

So, what are we, the federal government, doing to protect against these threats?  Actually, we are subsidizing the danger.  As we’ll hear today, the United States subsidizes the fossil fuel industry with taxpayer dollars.

Joining Sen. Whitehouse in this vein are groups like the International Monetary Fund, The Future is Electric, and the Natural Resources Defense Council.…

“It takes bits and pieces from leading establishment environmentalists to make the ecological case against climate alarmism and forced energy transformation. But taken together, the problems of wind, solar, and batteries are substantial and call for a mid-course correction from look-the-other-way, mention-and-run, wish-and-hope Big Green.”

Yes, she is a climate alarmist and supports forced (governmental) energy transformation to inferior, anti-ecological energies. But she has presented some common-sense observations about the climate crusade and agenda that offer hope about a mid-course correction toward human and ecological betterment.

Consider this recent article at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation which was brought to my attention on LinkedIn (via Ian McCoy), “Climate warrior Jane Goodall isn’t sold on carbon taxes and electric vehicles.” (April 13, 2024). Quotations from the CBC article follow in two areas: a carbon dioxide (CO2) tax and electric vehicles (EVs).…

Giberson: “I’ve seen a lot of mention of high electric power prices lately. Some blame wind and solar energy, others are blaming retail customer choice (i.e. “restructuring” or less accurately “deregulation”). Mostly it appears the analysts do not take inflation into account. Real retail prices of electricity in the US are on average about where they were a decade ago, and below the recent peak in 2008.”

Bradley: But what about US and state taxpayers footing part of the bill for the duplication of Texas generation? Factor that in and the price spikes when renewables fail and a wounded gas-and-coal industry is left.

And don’t forget–electricity policy reform is not only regulatory restructuring/re-regulation as eliminating the franchise and rate regulation for utilities. A real free market….

Bradley: This study needs to be redone with some of the comments I made above, starting with hassle costs from the whole switchover (which were not reflected in price) and the total costs of wind/solar/batteries not reflected in rates (born by US taxpayers).…