Energy: The Return of Ellis Wyatt?

Atlas Summit 2013 -- Energy is at the center of Atlas Shrugged, whether in the present with Wyatt Oil and Danagger Coal or in the future with Galt's Motor. Ayn Rand understood that energy was the master resource; that energy comes from the mind before the mine; and that energy shrugs from punitive regulation, high taxes, and an altruistic philosophy at odds with the productive mind.

The Obama Administration, philosophically opposed to carbon-based energy, has worked to both reduce supply and stifle demand. In its view, less is more with oil, gas, and coal because of (alleged) depletion, pollution, and climate-change. The Sierra Club is conducting "beyond coal" and "beyond gas" campaigns. But there are signs of hope. A revolution in oil and gas extraction technology has put the anti-energy lobby on the defensive; global warming has all but stopped in the last one-to-two decades despite record greenhouse-gas emissions. Our best sources of energy are becoming more plentiful, not less. How are the oil, gas, and coal industries responding to these developments? Are these industries taking the moral high ground-or apologizing for their success, as Rand witnessed in her day? This talk surveys energy developments from an Objectivist perspective to offer hope and change in the dark days of anti-energy environmentalism and the Obama Administration.

Robert L. Bradley, Jr.  is the CEO & Founder of the Institute for Energy Research. He is the author of seven books, most recently Edison to Enron: Energy Markets and Political Strategies, and blogs at www.masterresource.org.  Bradley's interest has grown from energy regulation to 'sustainable development' issues to political capitalism in theory and practice to the teaching of 'the science of liberty.' Rob attends the annual Atlas seminar to help him figure out 'what's next?'