Ed. note: This two part series addresses repeated media errors about the role of Charles Koch in the formation of the Institute for Energy Research (IER) in 1989. Part I below covers the history of the Institute for Humane Studies–Texas, the forerunner to IER. Part II tomorrow reviews the formation and early history of IER, then based in Houston, Texas.
Q1. Robert Bradley: A recent article in the Austin American Statesman (since corrected) tied Charles Koch to the founding of the Institute for Energy Research (IER) back in 1989. Since this erroneous association is oft-repeated, I want to develop the historical record with you, the first and only employee of IHS–Texas, the predecessor to IER.
First, Greg, explain how IHS–Texas came to be founded.
… Continue ReadingA1. Greg Rehmke: A long time ago, as I remember it, the Foundation for Advanced Studies in Liberty (FASL) and Olin Foundation put up money for three years of Economics in Argumentation.
“You have been led to water–please drink and pass the cup. The Malthusian worldview, while stubbornly mainstream, is in trouble. Studying Population Bombed! is the road to optimism–and away from the road to serfdom.”
A very important book has turned three years old. Population Bombed!: Exploding the Link Between Overpopulation and Climate Change (Global Warming Policy Foundation: 2018) by Pierre Desrochers and Joanna Szurkmak is a tour-de-force, with a deepness of research and full presentation that is missing from almost all books on sustainable development.
The authors should be familiar to readers at MasterResource. A two-part interview with Ms. Szurmak is here and here; with Pierre Desrochers here.
The authors have usefully provided a summary of their book, inviting one and all to read and assess, pro or con.…
Continue ReadingA free-market energy economy promotes and rewards the creators and producers. Parasites and glad-handers need not apply. (below)
Free-market entrepreneurs and their workforce are creators, providing not only for themselves but for the wider good. They do not bank on government mandates or subsidies but on the needs of consumers, existing and new. They seek good profit, defined as creating real consumer value.
The fossil-fuel industries from top-to-bottom would qualify in the great majority of instances. In fact, most of its members, at present, are overcoming government intervention rather than depending on it.
It is just the reverse with the renewable industries, except for off-the-grid where there is no plug-in power. (David Bergeron, an author at MasterResource, is an example of a remote solar entrepreneur.)
The wind power industry, in particular, is made up of rent-seekers who have put themselves in the business of deceit, exaggeration, and half-truths.…
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