“Affordable energy brings jobs, improved living standards, and pursuit of happiness. But across the globe, nearly three billion people – almost half the world’s population – still lack regular, reliable electricity. Nearly 1.3 billion people have no access to electricity.”

[Part II and Part III of this series follow.]

For 16 years, in a scene out of pre-industrial America, Thabo Molubi and his partner made furniture in South Africa’s outback, known locally as the “veld.” Lacking even a stream to turn a water wheel and machinery, they depended solely on hand and foot power. But then an electrical line reached the area.

The two installed lights, and power saws, and drills. Their productivity increased fourfold. They hired local workers to make, sell, and ship more tables and chairs, of better quality, at higher prices, to local and far away customers.…

“Ontario’s government signed contracts with wind generators that guaranteed them 13.5 cents per kWh. Solar generators actually get paid more. So with the Hourly Ontario Electricity Price at around 2.5 cents, someone has to pay for the 11-cent subsidy for wind power. Therefore, the more renewable power generated, the greater the Global Adjustment Tax becomes.”

The love affair between U.S. President Barack Obama and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is largely based on their symbiotic view of climate change and the need to radically alter their respective economies to prevent the hypothesized damage. Some of the Canadian experience with green energy and its cost pre-date Trudeau’s rise to power. Much of the experience comes from power market machinations conducted in the province of Ontario.

Alberta Downturn, Climate Taxation

The most recent Canadian green energy shock is occurring in the province of Alberta where the New Democratic Party (NDP), led by Premier Rachael Notley gained political office a few months ahead of the national election that brought Mr.…

This essay, published twelve years ago in PERC Reports (“the magazine of free market environmentalism”), challenged the then-popular theory that oil production would inexorably reach a maximum and decline thereafter. What would become the U.S. and global shale oil and shale gas boom was just getting started.

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“This time it’s for real,” says the cover story of the June 2004 issue of National Geographic. “We’re at the beginning of the end of cheap oil.”

Books and articles written by geologists, environmentalists, and others regularly announce a new era of increasing oil scarcity. 1 Today’s resurrected hero of the depletionists is M. King Hubbert (1903-1989), a Shell Oil Company geologist who a half-century ago presented a bellshaped curve depicting oil production over time. But the theory of a little-known twentieth century economist, Erich Zimmermann, suggests this is unsound.…

Mississippi Power ‘s Kemper Project integrated gasification power plant is likely the most controversial energy project in state history. The $6.219 billion plant is two years behind schedule and billions over budget and is designed to convert the state’s abundant lignite coal reserves into a natural gas-like substance called synthesis gas, or syngas, to burn in its 582-megawatt electricity-generating turbines. Its construction has been plagued with construction delays, additional costs and a lawsuit that went to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

Here are 10 reasons why Kemper is a bad deal for Mississippi Power customers and the state in general.

1. Kemper has already resulted in an 18-percent rate increase and more could follow

The utility has already increased rates on its nearly 187,000 customers in south Mississippi 18 percent. The higher rates will pay for Kemper’s construction costs.…