Topic: Energy

The Case for the Deregulated Texas Power Grid

– March 3, 2021

“Markets learn from outlier events such as this one. Institutions and individuals will adapt in light of new perceptions of weather exigencies and risks. This is the major advantage of any deregulation market: it is adaptive. The same cannot be said for any system of regulated state control.” ~ Jack Nicastro

Economic Education, Energy, Free Markets

Texas Electricity Prices Are Lower Due to Deregulation

– March 2, 2021

“Contrary to McGinty and Patterson, a close look at the evidence reveals that deregulation and competition have, in fact, reduced electricity prices in Texas. Prices in competitive markets have fallen, while those of noncompetitive utilities have increased. Competition has brought both residential and commercial prices down below the national averages.” ~ Thomas L. Hogan

Economic Education, Energy, History

W. S. Jevons (1865) on the Limits to Renewables

– February 22, 2021

“William Stanley Jevons was the first intellectual to question the ability of renewables to serve as primary energies for industrial society. The deep, thorough insight of the father of energy economics remains relevant today.” ~ Robert L. Bradley Jr.

Authoritarianism, Energy

Lockdowns and the Texas Power Disaster

– February 18, 2021

“That one of the results is the loss of power and water for millions of people, endangering lives across the whole state of Texas, is fully in keeping with the Medieval approach to pandemic management.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker

Economic Education, Energy, Environmentalism

The Difference Between Copper and Cucumbers

– February 15, 2021

“Most of the raw materials that we ever brought out of the Earth’s crust are still with us, capable of being used and then turned into something else when that better fits our needs and wants. Cucumbers and renewable crops don’t have that quality. If anything, Circular Economy proponents should be horrified by cucumbers, not copper.” ~ Joakim Book

Currency, Economic Education, Energy

One Size Never Fits All

– July 10, 2020

“One-size-fits-all solutions in our political discourse are often made to work for every topic globally. Reality is not like that, as both economic and ecologic matters frequently assert.” ~ Joakim Book

Crisis, Energy, Environmentalism

The Environmentalist’s Dream Came True

– June 9, 2020

“The environmentalists had a field day during the corona pandemic. The anti-human policies they have called for, protested for, disrupted societies and other people’s lives for, were suddenly implemented en masse, albeit on a temporary basis. Think of it as a trial for green policies.” ~ Joakim Book

Capitalism, Economic Education, Energy

You Can Stop Rio Tinto Mining…By Paying For It!

– May 30, 2020

“To prevent a mining company from using land sacred to someone else, there exists a payment of money such that the conflict can be resolved. You just have to find it, negotiate it, raise the money – and pay. In the age of vast crowdsourcing and rapid information, that shouldn’t be much of a problem.” ~ Joakim Book

Education, Energy, Environmentalism

The Unacknowledged Logic of Radical Environmentalism

– May 20, 2020

A common fantasy is that the internet would survive and keep us all together but is exactly that – a total fantasy. Already the internet produces as much carbon emissions as the airline industry.

Energy

Michael Moore Acknowledges: There Are No Alternatives to Energy Reality

– May 7, 2020

While Planet of the Humans doesn’t say anything that long-time critics of alternative energy haven’t discussed in more detail, it lifts the green curtain and provides much new and very effective footage of the waste, lies and destruction that prop up the sets on the stage. Among the waste are the bankrupt and collapsed infrastructure of many wind and solar power projects.

Energy, Regulation

Good Riddance to Recycling Trucks

– April 20, 2020

I was pleasantly surprised that curbside recycling has been suspended–for explicitly environmental and epidemiological reasons. Maybe curbside recycling is gone for good, which would free up resources that would then be available to expand the kinds of operations that actually help the environment.

Energy

The Implausible Claims of Green High Finance

– February 21, 2020

It is highly doubtful that having a central bank selectively buy outstanding debt with green labels would in any meaningful way contribute to a greening of the economy.