All Posts Tagged With: "oil"

The Wrong Lesson from Egypt

One wrong conclusion being drawn from last winter’s popular uprising against the dictatorship in Egypt is that the American government could ignore such things if we were “energy independent.” (It’s unclear if this means independent of Middle Eastern oil or completely independent.) A moment’s reflection should be enough to jettison that thought, but even if [...]

25May2011 | Sheldon Richman | 2 comments | Continued

The Gasoline Demagogues Will Be Back

Here we go again. In late February gasoline prices across America were surpassing $3 a gallon. Forecasters are advising us to expect $4 by summer, maybe higher. So be prepared for something else with it all: the broken-record rhetoric of anti-market types about “gouging.” It’ll be coming from a lot of the same people who [...]

23Mar2011 | Lawrence W. Reed | 13 comments | Continued

“Clean Energy” and the Depressed Economy

If clean energy is so wonderful and such a great investment, why do all of these ventures have to be subsidized directly by tax dollars or indirectly by government mandates?

2Mar2011 | William L. Anderson | 11 comments | Continued

What’s So Bad about Eco-Propaganda for Kids?

Although my own children have long outgrown picture books, I still have nephews and nieces young enough to enjoy them. So I buy them from time to time. I also buy books on energy. Perhaps it was that combination that prompted Amazon to recommend What’s So Bad About Gasoline? by Anne Rockwell, engagingly illustrated by [...]

22Sep2010 | Andrew P. Morriss | 23 comments | Continued

Regulatory Failure by the Numbers

Between the current financial mess and the debate over carbon dioxide emissions controls, there is a lot of talk about regulation these days. We are told, for example, that the recession would have been prevented if proper regulations had been in place. While it is true that (by definition) the “right” regulations would have prevented [...]

25Aug2010 | and and Robert L. Bradley Jr. | 5 comments | Continued

Are Americans Addicted to Oil?

The American political elite tells us we are addicted to oil. Whether it’s from former President George W. Bush or the present administration, Americans for years have been admonished to break the oil habit and use alternative fuels that meet Washington’s approval.

19May2010 | William L. Anderson | 12 comments | Continued

How Dense Can They Get?

When it comes to power, energy density is the key. Solar power, wind power, and ethanol are so expensive because they are derived from very diffuse energy sources. It takes a lot of energy collectors such as solar cells, wind turbines, or corn stalks covering many square miles to produce the same amount of power [...]

5Jan2010 | Richard W. Fulmer | 12 comments | Continued

Science Fiction and Economic Fiction

Thomas Macaulay Boudreaux, age 12 and my only child, is a huge fan of Star Trek. Actually, even an italicized “huge” doesn’t quite capture the extent of Thomas’s fascination with, and knowledge of, the franchise. From Captain Pike through Mr. Spock to Ensign Sato, Thomas knows and loves anything and everything Star Trek. So in [...]

23Oct2009 | Donald J. Boudreaux | 4 comments | Continued

Oil Prices Are Rigged? It Just Ain’t So!

In reality, all prices are determined by supply and demand, properly defined. Outside investors with lots of money can certainly influence prices, but there are always risks. Funds that had large “long” bets on commodities took a bath as oil fell from its July 2008 high of $145 down to well below $50 a few months later. Futures markets allow producers and consumers to hedge against needless risk by locking in prices, and they allow speculators with superior foresight to improve the allocation of resources over time. Our Time authors think they’ve shown that the oil market is rigged, but it just ain’t so!

21May2009 | Robert P. Murphy | 2 comments | Continued

T. Boone Pickens is Right About Oil Imports? It Just Ain’t So!

The $700 billion that Americans spend annually to purchase oil from other countries (according to Pickens) is a price not a transfer. For the $700 billion we send to oil exporters, we get something in return—oil. Our receipt of millions of barrels of oil in exchange for that money is hardly a transfer. We receive a versatile commodity that can be used for everything from making plastics to fueling family vacations. The exporters receive the $700 billion that they can then use to purchase other goods and services.

1Apr2009 | E. Frank Stephenson | 6 comments | Continued

Gusher of Lies: The Dangerous Delusions of “Energy Independence.”

Al Gore recently called for a ten-year plan to phase out all electric plants powered by fossil fuels and replace them with windmills and other “renewable” energy sources. While the media fawned over Gore’s speech, I decided to read Robert Bryce’s Gusher of Lies to see if the speech made sense. It doesn’t. Bryce’s book [...]

2Feb2009 | William L. Anderson | 2 comments | Continued

Let’s Not Be Energy Independent

“Energy independence” is a term that sounds good but falls apart on closer examination. Although the United States could achieve energy independence, we could do so only at an enormous cost. Energy “dependence” is much cheaper and much more desirable. Before considering the costs and benefits of energy independence, I should define my terms. What [...]

1Oct2008 | David R. Henderson | 10 comments | Continued

Economists and Scarcity

In a world where concerns about the environment and resources dominate political discussion and, for people like Al Gore, are a “generational mission [that gives] moral purpose” to our lives, thinking clearly about these issues is crucial. Economics can contribute to this discussion by providing its perspective on words such as “scarcity” and “resources,” which [...]

1Jun2008 | Steven Horwitz | 1 comment | Continued

Putting a Bureaucrat in Your Tank: Gasoline Markets and Regulation

If you run a barrel of crude oil through a still, the technique used by the earliest refineries and still a stage in modern refining, it separates into various fractions, including kerosene, gasoline, diesel, fuel oils, waxes, and asphalt. Without further processing, about 10 percent will be “straight run” gasoline. In the 1870s this 10 [...]

1Oct2007 | Andrew P. Morriss | 0 comments | Continued

Energy Policy: Wisdom or Waste?

Roger McKinney (rdmckinney@cox.net) is senior analyst for a quasigovernmental health-care agency in Tulsa, Oklahoma. We can’t help ourselves. Americans crave the black gold that pulses through the concrete arteries of our nation’s transportation system. In the opinion of many, we have hocked our future for a cheap fix with a drug that abandons our nation [...]

1May2007 | Roger McKinney | 5 comments | Continued

The Progressive Era’s Derailment of Classical-Liberal Evolution

Fred Smith is president of the Competitive Enterprise Institute. It is true that where a considerable part of the costs incurred are external costs from the point of view of the acting individuals or firms, the economic calculation established by them is manifestly defective and their results deceptive. But this is not the outcome of [...]

1Jun2004 | Fred Smith | 3 comments | Continued

OPEC Sells Us Oil Because It Likes Us?

Jerry Taylor is Director of Natural Resource Studies at the Cato Institute. Slavish devotion to common but wrong-headed ideas about economics is never more in need of exposure than when the subject is oil and the Persian Gulf. Here wrong-headed ideas about economics can get someone killed. But there they were on full display last [...]

1May2003 | Jerry Taylor | 0 comments | Continued
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