Category Archives

Archive of posts published in the category: Energy

The Biggest Thinking Machine

From The National Review, Davos’s Destructive Elites-“None of us is as dumb as all of us” by Kevin D. Williamson Conservatives are generally inclined to make a moral case for limited government: that transfers are corrupting, that taxes should be

Read More

Thoughts on Lower Oil Prices

At first glance the dramatically lower oil prices is great news because just about everyone we know will have more money in their pocket at the end of the week.   The middle class and the lower income will feel

Read More

A Fading Shade of Green

It is ironic that the greenest president presides over the demise of the green industries while a new oil boom is making us more energy independent in spite of policies intended to stunt the growth and development of fossil fuels.  The jobs

Read More

Clunker Math

A vehicle at 15 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 800 gallons a year of gasoline. A vehicle at 25 mpg and 12,000 miles per year uses 480 gallons a year. So, the average clunker transaction will reduce US

Read More

Build Strategic Reserves- NOW !

Investment personality Jim Cramer has proposed a great and simple idea- take advantage of the cheap price of oil to build the strategic reserve to huge levels. Build more storage facilities and tankers etc. A huge strategic reserve will keep

Read More

Strategic Protectionism

High oil prices brought the reality that our purchases were funding hostile regimes. We sought to be independent of imported energy for the purposes of national security. The price of oil has fallen dramatically and now we are faced with

Read More

The Other Side of Doom and Gloom

In June with oil pushing $150 a barrel forecasters predicted higher prices yet to come. Yet with oil now below $50 a barrel and dropping, Merrill Lynch forecasts $25 oil. The media and the forecasters always seems to ride a

Read More

Oil is Elastic

From WSJ Political Diary 9/9/08 There are two explanations for the lower oil price. The dollar has been rising relative to other currencies and gold. The near 20% fall in gold from its $1,000 peak earlier this year has driven

Read More

Hybrids Only

I proposed to a member of our city council that the city make “Hybrid Only” parking zones in downtown Macon. It would encourage alternative fuels, and lead other cities by example. It would costs nothing; I am sure the Toyota

Read More

Contempt for Outrageous Profits

On the radio I hear about a wealthy Saudi ( I think) oil billionaire who sends his $385,000 Lamborgini to England by airplane to get an oil change for a cost of $42,000. Environmentalists howl at the huge carbon footprint

Read More

Desperate Populism

Dropping in the polls on the energy issue Obama succumbs to desperate populism. Let’s just give all the poor people a thousand dollars, and let’s make the rich oil companies pay for it. The last time this was tried was

Read More

The Democrats’ Achilles Heel

Pelosi refuses to let a debate on the floor to consider drilling shore. Her resposne to the energy crisis is too adjourn Congress, in effect doing nothing. The Americans are very receptive to getting away from foreign oil. They will

Read More

Shorting Oil Companies

If Robert Zubrin’s program to convert us to an alcohol economy is in fact adopted, it raises a serious question for the rapid development of domestic oil resources. Given the huge cost and long time frame to develop the domestic

Read More

The Plan to Kill OPEC

I just finished reading ‘Energy Victory’ by Robert Zubrin. I was most impressed by his presentation at AIPAC and was equally impressed with his book. While I recommend you buy and read the whole book (270 pages) here is the

Read More

The Fuel Use Act of Jimmy Carter

Just to show you how open minded I am, Jimmy Carter deserves credit for one successful energy policy. In 1974 about 17% of U.S. electricity was produced by by burning oil and 18% came from natural gas. Carter’s Fuel Use

Read More

Hands off the Strategic Reserves

by Henry Oliner Nancy Pelosi and Newt Gingrich want the president to draw down the strategic reserve of oil to help lower oil prices. When these two agree on anything it may be time to be suspect. Newt argues it

Read More

Obama and Oliner on Energy Policy

Obama wanted to levy an excess profits tax on oil companies. Our last experience with this was with Jimmy Carter and it was a disaster. He then proposed to crack down on speculators who are driving up the market. For

Read More

Bringing Down The Price of Oil

Dr. Robert Zubrin, author of Energy Victory: Winning the War by Breaking Free of Oil, offered that single best idea to reduce the price of oil at one of the AIPAC break out sessions. Congress should require that all new

Read More

The Biggest Wealth Transfer in History

Some notes from a breakout session at the AIPAC (American Israel Public Affairs Committee) Conference in DC on June 1 ,08 – we import 87,000,000 barrels of oil per day. Only 3% is displaced by alternatives such as bio fuels.

Read More