Home page for everyones future reference. We are also pleased today to be cohosting this program with our colleagues and allies at the Texas Public Policy Foundation of which kathleen is a fellow. Introducing our program and hosting our guests today is becky norton dunlop, the Ronald Reagan distinguished fellow at the heritage foundation. As a conservative movement leader, she serves as chairman of the conservative action project, leads heritages restore america project, advocates for american conservative ethic conservation ethic and advances energy and Natural Resources policy in general. She also serves on numerous, as a board member for numerous Public Policy organizations and associations. Prior to this she was heritages executive Vice President for external relations. Prior to joining us at heritage, she served in the cabinet of governor george allen as secretary of Natural Resources. She has also held significant roles in the Reagan Administration as Deputy Assistant to the president for president ial personnel, later his special assistant to the president and director of his office of cabinet affairs. She also served as Senior Special assistant to attorney general edwin meese, and particular to todays program as deputy undersecretary of the department of the interior as well as the assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks. Please join me in welcoming my colleague, becky norton dunlop. Becky . [applause]. Our first coauthors Kathleen White, distinguished senior physical and resident and director of the Armstrong Center for energy and technology. Prior to going with the foundation as chairman and commissioner of the Texas Commission on environmental quality. With regulatory jurisdiction over air quality, water quality, water rights and you tilt, storage and disposal of waste, staff of 3,000 with an annual budget of 600 million and 16 regional offices makes is the second largest Environmental Regulatory Agency in the world after the u. S. Environmental protection agency. It is our goal in the not too distant future to make it the first largest in the world. Prior to for perrys appointment of white in 2001, he served as thenfor president bushs appointee to the Texas Water Development board, where she sat until appointed to the ceq. The also served on the Texas Economic Development commission and the environmental flows study commission. She recently completed her term as an officer and director of the Lower Colorado river authority. She now sits on the Editorial Board of the journal of regulatory science, the texas Emission ReductionAdvisory Board and the texas water foundation. Her writing has appeared in numerous publications, including national review, investors business daily, and other major texas nunes. She also is a contributor to the heritage foundations study, environmental conservation, eight principles of the american conservation ethic, which i hope you all have a copy of. Its good reading before todays back is released. She most recently testified before the u. S. Senate, environment, and public works committee, and perhaps most importantly to me, she is a dear friend of long standing. We met when we were mere children here in washington, dc, fighting for liberty. She continues to be a great warrior for liberty. Our other cao author, stephen moore. A we like to listen to him on the radio. He formerly wrote on the economy and Public Policy for the wall street journal and now a distinguished visiting legal he was a member of the journals Editorial Board and he returned to heritage in 2004 about 25 years after he first served here say again . 2014. 2014. You said 2004. About 25 years after his tenure as the leading conservative think tanks grover m. Herman fellow in Budgetary Affairs from 1984 to 1987. He also founded and served as president of the club for growth, which raise is money for mitt cal candidates who favor free market economic policy. And he also founded the Free Enterprise fund before joining the wall street journal. Over the years he has served as a senior economist at the Congressional Joint Economic Committee and as a senior economics fellow at the cato institute, where he published dozens of studies on federal and state fiscal policy. He was also a consultant to the National Economic commission in 1987 and Research Director for president reagans he writesingly for national erue, forbes, investors business daily, in the Washington Times and the orange county. He has offer numerous books, including who is the fairest of them all, Getting Better all the time, still an open door, and an inquiry into the nature and causes of the wealth of states, and today, of course, he releases a book which he has coour authorized, fueling freedom. Exposing the mad war on energy. Let welcome to our podium, Kathleen White and followed by stephen moore. [applause] thank you, becky. For the kind introduction and thank you for all the years that you have been a mentor for me. I also want to thank a very patient man. His skill was extraordinary to see how he transformed and helped me find my voice, was excellent but his patience is a hallmark. The book many of you in this room know much about these issues of the book we hope is really for a general audience. But i find abysmally unaware of the magnitude of the issues we have going on right now, and i call them forces, not issues, because we have two forces going on, occurring at the very same time in history, both are unprecedented. One is the shale revolution, called many other things. Some people call it the Unconventional Oil and gas revolution. I think many remain unaware of the magnitude of it and given the precipitous plunge in prices that began in 2014, kind of got off the radar other than dreary reports how many people are unemployed or how many but the opportunity that the shale revolution offers and the kind of revolution and the dynamic of the revolution is unprecedented. I give you just and much of the book tries to reveal that. Just an example, the revolution was not just another economic boom. It was on the basis of technological innovation, access to what is called the motherlode of all hydrocarbon that they knew were there when the trailed conventional way, and allowed tome to get 10 of the actual resource in shale. That is what is accessible, whatever the price of oil is. That is what is now accessible and it was not a result of government plans or programs or subsidy. It was not the result of the global major oil companies, exxon, duke, nothing wrong with them. But this was an achievement of risktaking energy entrepreneurs, be they geologists or financiers that operated in competitive markets. Enormous risk, enormous gain. We dont have a minister of oil in the country but we have truly market generated energy revolution. Its future remains uncertain but the opportunities that provides is amazing. He book goes on in detail, living in texas, where the technology was first developed and first utilized and is still the state with the that was able to cut costs of hydraulic fracturing and increasing output, so it is still going on, but that, i think, were unaware of the opportunity that allows us. That is occurring. Because that is that is occur at the same time that a very powerful global crowd is determined to eliminate fossil fuels and natural gas as fast as possible. And theyve done most regretably a tragically good case with coal. When has our government eliminated and i wouldnt go to far as to say eliminated but almost killed an entire industry. I am having been 30 years and more dealing with Environmental Issues that, again, those that make decisions the policymakers, those that get the publics attention in the media are abysmally up aware of the magnitude of Climate Policies. A lot of talk in at the last couple years below the greatest civilizational threat to date which are profity lofty terms of our president would enthusiastically conclude it is socalled manmade Global Warming. I would submit, and the book explains why in great detail that Climate Policies themselves would be the greatest threat to western civilization as we know it. We are a fossilfueled civilization. We use perhaps 200 more times energy that flow through our life in all kinds of goods and services than people did in 1800s. Some changes that occurred since then, life span is three times longer. Average income per capita is depending on how you measure it, 10 to 20 or 30 times higher. The population of the world is now about 7. 5 billion instead of 1 billion. Things literally have gotten better and those indeed are at risk. Something that some people call the great fact of history. We kind of forget in the somewhat dreary economic time in which we live, is the unprecedented scale of modern Economic Growth. Our book submits that energy didnt cost that. Fossil fuels were first applied in the english Industrial Revolution, coal being the First Hydrocarbon resource to be so widely used and converted in seems like a countless number of creative technologies, but never before had a middle class an enduring middle class emerged. The productivity made possible by fossilfueled energies, just changed the whole dynamic. Productivity increased so much that the price of goods fell, those who made the goods could in fact afford them but most importantly a middle class. Simultaneously, the emergence of liberal democratics, i hope this group knows i dont mean leftleaning mean classic liberal democracies, and that combination of property rights, of the inalienable rights and the emergence of more competetive markets, buttressed by the incredible value of fossil fuels changed the world, and a couple of examples. I think its worthy reminds me of how hard question have come in 1900 the average work week was 72 hours. Can you imagine . Can you imagine . You didnt come home to a meal ready in your house. You began just trying to provide basic subsistence. Unbelievable. 12 hours a day, six days a week. We all know what it is now, 40 hour week. Thats amazing. The u. S. A has long been moan by having by far the highest standard of living. What does that mean . In 1875, the average family in the world, to include in the United States, spent 74 of its income for just subsistence needs, food, clothing, shelter in 1995 they spent 13 . Those are precious achievements and we have indicators and the book gets into this and steve may talk about them. We have a slagging little class, reduced income. We do not have good signals about the continued growth of a robust middle class. Climate policies. Feel when the media ever talks about something other than candidates permits authorize most recent insult, we really need to lift up the really major issues, the major policy decisions that the next president and next congress will make. Theres no mention the candidates have all had written Energy Policies you can find on their web site and perhaps have given a couple speeches and the issue recedes into the background. When Economic Growth its talked about theirs always a missing factor, which often has to do with what kind of Energy Availability would we have. Renewables have been assigned a job they cannot complete. All Climate Policies assume that we can fairly well replace all fossil fuels with Current Technologies of renewable energy. If you want to the book into this in great detail, but theres a section which just lists a number of headlines from european papers that talk about the false hope, the ugly the fatal blunder with ugly consequences. How electricity became a luxury good. In germany, where now retail electric rates are three times higher than they are in the United States. The Economic Impact studies of a lot of these policies omit all the really big variables. What it could cost to replace the goal Energy Infrastructure from extraction to production to delivery or distribution. Highly rather number crunchers say, maybe eight to ten trillion dollars to just install enough renewables so the math said you could possibly replace significant shares of fossil fuels is also in the trillions. The Global Economy would take on . This is what our country would take on . When we have such need of more vibrant Economic Growth. Theres so much opportunity. I will close by saying, being an environmental regulator who i would like to call myself a reagan republican from a very early age. My parents gave me no choice. But is also a very missing ingredient in any discussions of Climate Policy, Energy Policies or environmental policies. Climate policy is not about the genuine appreciation of the environment. Theyre about energy. The pure propaganda that comes out of epa now is unbelievable. Citizens deserve to rely on some basic assessment of health risks and things like that. Epa is so far out of the way. We have learned and in the last 20 or 30 years, we have had dramatic reduction of what i call genuine pollutants. Those listed in the Clean Air Act that can genuinely impact human health. We have had falls of 60 , 70 , 80 , the aggregate emissions coming out ourtail pipe was 089 his in the 1960s. You notice even in concentrated cities like this, you dont see it. We have learned how to operate, produce, with great environmental sensitivity. We have been prosperous enough to absorb the extra costs and, environmental enhancement should go on, but Carbon Dioxide is not a pollutant. Its a gas of life. Were educating whole generations now that think that evidently agree with former secretary of state john kerry that carbon is among the worst weapon of mass destruction. That would be a quote. Were in trouble because our bones and blood are made out of carbon. But that, i think, is also an important insight. Theres a very dark side of Climate Policy and you need to look no further than the words of global and National Leaders that its as if we are reformulating this really pessimistic people use the word misanthrope, people that believe the enemy of man is man, rather than people with faith in the creativity of the human mind and in what that dynamic of freedom means. You dont find Breakthrough Innovations in highly authoritarian countries, and so i think this is in all kinds of ways a moral issue. Billions in the world live without electricity. We cant imagine what it would be like without but any hope for Economic Growth or health or education of those that still lack access to electricity, they dont need solar panels, they need Efficient Energy sources that are controlled by incredibly effective technology. So, forces it is an odd collision. Our candidates, if youd like for president. If you go to their web sites, offer dramatic alternatives but its a pleasure to be here. Again, i thank becky, i thank tom, thank you, steve, and we hope we can get this book out to many, many people. Think who still have an open mind that are unaware of the magnitude of the risk were taking on with Climate Policy and the magnitude of the opportunities that gives the United States as the largest producer of oil, natural gas and coal. Thank you. [applause] i think im going to sit because i have some slides to show you. Becky, thank you very much for the very nice introduction. I see alet of friends here a lot of friends here,; thank you for coming. Let me just start by saying that when kathleen was the inspiration for this become. She had written a long paper for the Texas Public Policy Foundation on the moral case for fossil fuels, and as soon as i saw that i said, this is really the essence of the argument, that we always make the economic argument and sometime this strategic argument that this idea that using fossil fuels is a moral thing to do, not immoral thing to do, let me fifth you couple of examples what im talking about. One of the first we open up the book with the story about something that happened to me personally, which was that about four or five years ago, almost exactly four or five years ago to the day, we had one of these huge storms in virginia, big summer storm that came on with massive winds, knocking down thousands of trees in the area, and we live in an area in mclean where we have huge Power Outages and the outages lasted three or four days before they could restore the power. And i tell the story. How at that time my sons were teenagers, and obviously i have three