MasterResource Update: The Progress Continues (3Q–2010+ report)

The free-market energy blog MasterResource is nearing its second anniversary (first post: December 26, 2008).  Our viewership has steadily grown, and we have reached as high as #7 on the “green blog” list of Technorati (as of 11/24: #32 out of 6,246).

The strength of MasterResource is the quality of our bloggers, some well known names in the free market movement and others new names with now uncovered expertise. In particular, we have tapped into a talent base of individuals who are critics of industrial windpower, many of whom come from an environmental background and now appreciate the free market perspective.

We also appreciate the hundreds of comments that our blogs are generating, which is more talent bubbling to the top. In addition to supportive comments, we post critical comments that are in good taste. We are not afraid to debate the issues so long as the critic is sincere and avoids attacks at the person.

Philosophy

MasterResource is grounded on energy realism (versus energy hype and alarmism). Our preference is for free energy markets over energy statism. We prefer voluntary solutions to private and social problems wherever possible and believe that the intellectual case is strong against government coercion from an intellectual elite (the smartest guys in the room, to use the Enron vernacular).

Our worldview can be summarized as follows:

1. Energy, the master resource, is indispensable for modern society. Abundance, affordability, and reliability are necessary for the developed world to advance and paramount for the developing world to develop and prosper.
2. The master resource depends on the ultimate resource of human ingenuity, which thrives under conditions of economic and political freedom.
3. Energy freedom is based upon private property and the rule of law whereby buyers, sellers, entrepreneurs, and owners enter into mutually advantageous exchanges and agreements. Government is passive, keeping the peace and working to set rules where reasonably determined harms are avoided.

More specifically, MasterResource posts have explained:

1. The futility of regulating carbon dioxide and other man-made greenhouse gases. Not only is the science behind claims of catastrophic warming unproven (and worse), carbon dioxide (CO2) as the green greenhouse gas has demonstrated benefits for the environment and economy.
2. Why ethanol is not an effective substitute for or supplement to petroleum in the transportation sector.
3. Why wind power and solar power are not effective substitutes for, or even supplements to, oil, gas, and coal in electric generation.
4. Why in business/economic terms, carbon-based (mineral) energy is an expanding resource, not a fixed/depleting one.
5. Why free-market energy is sustainable and can be expected to become less scarce, more affordable, and cleaner for an open-ended future.
6. Why the best insurance policy for an uncertain future, with energy or otherwise, is the incredible bread machine better known as free-market capitalism.
7. Why the major threat to energy sustainability is not depletion, pollution, or climate change. It is statism, or government controlled, regulated, and rationed energy that consumers naturally desire.

MasterResource seeks to inform the public, academics, policymakers, and even ‘Left” intellectuals that public policy activism must take into account not only ‘market failure’ but also analytical failure (false claims/corrections of market failure) and government failure (political waste in the proffered non-market solution).

We believe that open-minded opponents will come our way when they learn the full story of climate science and of false Gods such as windpower. But these individuals have to want to know. That is the challenge–embracing a challenge culture to mid-course corrections are made with views that have been held for a long time, even passionately so.

The world has real problems. The resources that both sides are pouring into the political energy debate can be better spent on here-and-now human needs.

A Thanks

The principles and guest bloggers of MasterResource thank our many dedicated readers. We invite submissions from new names and welcome comments on any of our posts for the historical record and for posterity. We believe that MasterResource will be a scholarly tool for many years and decades to come for all things energy.

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Previous MasterResource Reports

2Q-2010 Report

1Q-2010 Report

4Q-2009 Report

3Q-2009 Report

2Q-2009 Report

1Q-2009 Report

Opening post (December 26, 2008)

Read more at Master Resource