By Roger Donway — December 26, 2025
Editor Note: On December 26, 2008, Robert L. Bradley Jr. launched the free-market energy blog, MasterResource. This inaugural post is reproduced verbatim.
“… our blog name is inspired by the late Julian Simon (1932–1998). He labeled energy the master resource because it is the resource needed to bring other resources from a state of nature to one of human usefulness. Simon also used the term the ultimate resource to describe human ingenuity.”
We are just getting started here, but some of us veterans of the energy debate from a private property, free-market perspective have teamed together to offer our thoughts on late breaking energy items. When I read my newspapers each day, I have some thoughts that I wish I could share with folks from a historical, worldview perspective. I think we all have something to add–and thus the inspiration for this endeavor.
We have a good core group of principal (and principled) bloggers, as well as a growing list of guest bloggers. We aim to post new material most every day. What we have to provide to the reader is frequent insight so that you visit us regularly.
There will be some trial and error, but this is the time to launch. President-elect Obama and his team have little concept of history in the energy debate–what W.S. Jevons said about renewable energies in the 1860s or the perils of U.S. energy regulation learned from wartime planning and the 1970s. Some of us will dwell on this to add some unique perspective to the debate.
By the way, our blog name is inspired by the late Julian Simon (1932–1998). He labeled energy “the master resource” because it is the resource needed to bring other resources from a state of nature to one of human usefulness. 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 the ground.
Finally, I do hope mainstream journalists and many other open-minded individuals will come our way in the great energy and climate debates. The Obama march to energy statism needs a lot of debate. Big Government Democrats are not the cure to Big Government Republicanism. Oil, natural gas, and coal are middle class, working class energies. Wind and solar are for the rich. Windpower, in particular, as my friend Robert Bryce has put it, is the ethanol of electricity. Maybe, just maybe, these parasitic, inefficient energies will get the scrutiny they deserve from all sides of the political spectrum.
Harold The Organic Chemist Says:
Energy is not a master resource because it is a manufactured commodity. The four most important master resources are sunlight, soil, water and carbon dioxide which are used to grow food.
Other important master resources are edible plants and animals, forests for wood, stone for buildings, inorganic minerals such iron and copper ores, bauxite, sand and clay.
Oil, coal, natural gas are the master resources for the production of energy for the modern world.
Energy is the one that sets us apart, though. All other life forms use those resources to the extent they are generally available and are entirely subject to it.
In our hands, they are concentrated or divided to reduce the uncertainty of their supply, and in so doing, we enjoy a level of mastery in both the ancient and modern worlds.
Earth, air, fire and water. 😉
And don’t forget, aether.
One ring to bind them.
Thanks!
I bookmarked it and saved quick links to the site on several devices.
The really crazy thing about Retardables is that without the Climate Religion, they wouldn’t exist, outside of a few off-grid circumstances here or there. This of course is loudly denied by the denialist Climate Caterwaulers, which makes it all the more hilarious.
“Finally, I do hope mainstream journalists and many other open-minded individuals will come our way in the great energy and climate debates.”
You talk science, can you, will you walk it?
Why/how am I wrong?
Nothing esoteric, evasive or off topic.
No ad hominem insults.
No appeals to authorities who have history of being wrong.
Believe = religion
Think = opinion
Know = science
Here’s what I know.
You??
GHE theory is bogus and CAGW a scam.
Human ingenuity is the master resource.
Energy is an ingenuity application multiplier.