“The nuclear industry has effectively priced itself out of the market for new power plants, at least in market-based economies. That’s why nuclear power’s share of global power generation has dropped to around 11 percent — its lowest level in decades.”

 – Joe Romm, ThinkProgress, February 4, 2019

As he periodically does, Joe Romm has again trashed nuclear power as an alternative to fossil fuels, claiming that wind power and solar power are cheaper, can access affordable batteries for overcome intermittency, and can be scaled to the quantities needed (wrong, wrong, and wrong–a story for another day).

In “Taxpayers Should Not Fund Bill Gates’ Nuclear Albatross,” Romm states:

The reality is that nuclear power is so uneconomical that existing U.S. nuclear power plants are bleeding cash — and in many places it’s now cheaper to build and run new wind or solar farms than to simply run an existing nuclear power plant.…

“[Our groups] look forward to working with you to address the gravest environmental crisis humanity has ever faced, to protect all present and future generations around the world, while centering the rights of those communities and workers most impacted.”

Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute called it the “Back to the Dark Ages Manifesto.” It is so drastic and far-reaching that major environmental groups do not dare to touch it, much less sign on. (The smart Statists know not to reach too far too fast, instead taking gains incrementally and preparing for the next run up the Hill.)

Too much, too soon (as in a carbon tax) loses in a democracy where voters are energy users, and fossil-fuel scares in a distant future compete with here-and-now problems.

But the January 10, 2019, letter from 626 Left groups is a remarkable “coming out” moment for the fringe, anti-energy, anti-industrial, anti-freedom cabal.…

[E]nergy is not life, but a prerequisite for it, and life is insatiable for it.

– Bernd Heinrich, American zoologist, professor, and author

Civilization and profit go hand in hand.

– Calvin Coolidge, American President

In his book Economics on Trial, American economist Mark Skousen defined Economics as, “the study of how individuals transform natural resources into final products and services that people can use.”

Skousen’s definition is problematic for the purposes of this book [Caveman Economics, in process], which proposes to illustrate economic principles by imagining a prehistoric world at the dawn of our species.  For in such a world, natural resources do not yet exist.  Natural materials exist, but they do not become natural resources until they are combined with knowledge.  Such knowledge came only after thousands of years of trial and error—trial and error in a world in which error often resulted in death.…

“The Industrial Revolution did not cause hunger, poverty and child labor. Those were always with us. The Industrial Revolution helped to eliminate them.”

Recently, Tupy penned his thoughts about the importance of energy to human advancement—and mineral energies to energy. His 1,500-word post follows in its entirety.

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What is the role of the Industrial Revolution in general and fossil fuels in particular in bringing human improvement? Those readers who are familiar with Alex Epstein’s excellent The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels will recognize the gist of my argument: fossil fuels, which drive, among other things, modern agriculture and industrial production, make present-day abundance possible.…