A Free-Market Energy Blog

Electricity Markets: Contrived/Distorted vs. Real (debating the Texas Blackout)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 8, 2021

“‘Unintended consequences of government intervention?’ Are you f***in’ kidding me? What just happened is a direct consequence of insufficient government intervention!” (Robert Borlick, energy consultant)

“No, with due respect. When the system loaded up on renewables, who would have known that low-to-negative marginal-cost pricing would have ruined the economics of baseload generators and natural gas peakers, existing and prospective. I was an adamant critic of windpower in the old days (1997) and just did not foresee this.” (Bradley, retort)

Many planners and regulators involved involved in the Great Texas Electricity Blackout have resigned or been fired. But their brethren, the experts behind the fallen PUCT/ERCOT model, are emotionally defending central planning and renewable energies by blaming the natural gas industry. “The CEOs of those gas companies should be criminally charged,” exclaims Robert Borlick, below).…

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“Protect Our Winters” (Snow a thing of the past?)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 7, 2021

“Our winters are getting sick, and we know the reason why. It’s global warming, it’s rising temperatures, and that’s the only logical explanation for what’s happening.”

– Amato Evan (Scripps Institution of Oceanography) before the American Geophysical Union (Fall 2018), quoted here.

False science based on climate models is part of the complicated story behind the Great Texas Electricity Blackout of February 2021. As I posited in “U.S. Winter Outlook: Cooler North, Warmer South” (NOAA’s prediction bust):

Enter climate models, the Department of Commerce’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), and politics. And a very bad result for the South this winter. The lack of weatherization in Texas for traditional power plants, in particular, might well have been influenced by the climate narrative of warmer winters.

And with winter fading, and a snowy winter at that, it is worth revisiting the false alarm of snowless winters in the U.S.…

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The ‘Church of Climate’ Fights Back

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 6, 2021

“Bradley is just an old fossil fool of the fossil fuel industry.” (critic, below)

“I am not a ‘troll’ but just believe I have a superior case: that the climate models and climate alarmists are exaggerating–and all of us can be more optimistic and don’t have to ruin our earth with wind turbines and solar panels.” (My Retort)

Last week, the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) published my piece, Inside the Church of Climate. It proved popular, being picked up at WUWT and generating almost one hundred comments.

I am interested in reaching new, even opposing, audiences. I like my arguments and offer a historical view unknown to many followers of the climate debate. I believe that in any fair debate format, the non-alarmists win hands down. And I think that the fossil fuels have a very bright future, the rhetoric and greenwashing aside.…

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Texas Blackout: Costs, Blame Mount

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 5, 2021
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Land-Intensive Renewables: Three TW of Wind and Solar = 228,000 sq. miles

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- April 1, 2021
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Where Is Al Gore? (MIA in BidenWorld)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 31, 2021
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Robert Michaels Interview: From Economics to Energy Economics

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 30, 2021
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Climate Dereg: ‘Energy Independence and Economic Growth’ (Trump’s EO of March 28, 2017)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 29, 2021
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Electricity Planning: Physical vs. Economic (an exchange with Eric Schubert)

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 25, 2021
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Civil Society and Natural Gas during the Great Texas Blackout

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- March 24, 2021
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