“Bitter conflicts over wage differentials, a hodgepodge of subdivisional judgments regarding the proper price of coal, blatant disregard for the code proscription against selling under a fair market price, and the widespread disregard of the other injunctions against unfair trade practices produced a chaotic price structure….”

“Each price classification included several individual pries based upon the physical structure, chemical analysis, and use-value of a specific type of coal, thus generating a number of prices–at least 400,000–far beyond the ability of a decentralized code to administer.”

“The fragile structure of the coal code buckled under the weight of inordinate administrative complexity and the persistent assaults of critics within and without the industry.”

 – John Clark, Energy and the Federal Government: Fossil Fuel Policies, 1900–1946. University of Illinois Press: 1987,  pp. 266–27.

“I hope that next time you hear people complain about the terrible state of human affairs, you’ll ask them in what other period in human history do they think they would be better off. If they get the point of the question, good. If they don’t, they should sign up to receive our scintillating newsletters. Pronto.” (Marian Tupy, below)

MasterResource is inspired by the work, worldview, and personal example of Julian Simon (1932–1998). The leading expositor of the Simon worldview today is Marian L. Tupy, the intellectual entrepreneur and scholar behind the Cato Institute project, HumanProgess.org.

It is with pleasure that we share with our readers the year-end message from Tupy at HumanProgress.

Your favorite website has had a successful year. In July, we experienced our heaviest traffic yet, with 230,000 page views and 122,000 unique visitors.…

This post reprints Section 3.2.1 of Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels (Summary for Policymakers here.) This is the fifth volume in the Climate Change Reconsidered series published by the Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC).

This treatise from The Heartland Institute continues a tradition of offering citizens and scholars an alternative view of all issues relating to climate science and climate policy. This brief excerpt (subtitles added) will be joined in the New Year with many other excerpts on specific issues to better disseminate the major findings of this major treatise.

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“The modern history of wind power and on-grid solar power can be summarized in four words: economically incorrect, politically correct. U.S. companies invested heavily in renewable energy technologies in the 1970s/80s only to suffer losses and, in most cases, to exit. Only massive taxpayer and consumer subsidies in the 1990s reversed these market verdicts, leading to today’s government dependence.”

Last week, the Texas Public Policy Foundation (TPPF) published my research paper, The Economic Fall and Political Rise of Renewable Energy. This study is drawn from chapter 13 of Enron Ascending: The Forgotten Years, 1984–1996, which reviewed Enron Corp.’s game-changing forays into solar power (1995), wind power (1997), as well as in other alternative energies.

Major Points

The Press Release made these five points:

• Renewable energy had almost a 100% market share throughout human history until it was replaced by more affordable and efficient mineral, carbon-based energies that powered the industrial revolution and vastly increased living standards.