Out of masterresource
By Roger Donway – December 26, 2025
Editor’s note: On December 26, 2008, Robert L. Bradley Jr. launched the free market energy blog, MasterResource. This opening contribution is reproduced verbatim.
“…the name of our blog is inspired by the late Julian Simon (1932-1998). He referred to energy as the most important resource because it is the resource needed to transform other resources from a natural state to a state that is beneficial to humans. Simon also used the term “ultimate resource” to describe human ingenuity.”
We’re just getting started here, but some of us veterans of the energy debate from a private property and free market perspective have come together to offer our thoughts on current energy issues. When I read my newspapers every day, I come up with some thoughts that I would like to share with people from a historical, ideological perspective. I think we all have something to add – and with it the inspiration for this endeavor.
We have a good core group of core bloggers (and principled bloggers) as well as a growing list of guest bloggers. Our goal is to release new material almost every day. What we need to offer the reader is frequent insights so that you visit us regularly.
There will be some trial and error, but now is the time to start. President-elect Obama and his team have little knowledge of the history of the energy debate – what WS Jevons said about renewable energy in the 1860s or the dangers of US energy regulation learned from war planning and the 1970s. Some of us will elaborate on this to bring a unique perspective to the debate.
By the way, the name of our blog is inspired by the late Julian Simon (1932–1998). He referred to energy as “the primary resource” because it is the resource needed to transform other resources from a natural state to a state that is beneficial to humans. Simon also used the term “the ultimate resource” to describe human ingenuity. As the institutional economist Erich Zimmermann once said: Resources come from the mind, not from the earth.
Finally, I hope that mainstream journalists and many other open-minded people will reach out to us in the big energy and climate debates. Obama’s march toward energy statism requires much debate. Big Government Democrats are not the cure for Big Government Republicanism. Oil, natural gas and coal are middle and working class fuels. Wind and solar are for the rich. Wind power, in particular, is, as my friend Robert Bryce put it, the ethanol of electricity. Maybe, just maybe, these parasitic, inefficient energies will get the attention they deserve from all sides of the political spectrum.
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