Robert Bryce (writer) - Writing On The Energy Industry

Writing On The Energy Industry

Bryce has written frequently about the infeasibility of the United States becoming energy independent.

In March 2009, he testified before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources to discuss the limits inherent in renewable energy, saying "no matter how you do the calculations, renewable energy by itself, can not, will not, be able to replace hydrocarbons over the next two to three decades, and that’s a conservative estimate".

Bryce writes regularly about energy and power systems. In 2007, he criticized the dangers of cheap oil.

In an opinion piece (op-ed) in the Wall Street Journal in March 2009 he denounced the energy polices of former United States President George W. Bush and the current president Barack Obama, claiming their rush for renewable energy will not be sufficient to cover the country's future energy needs.

He took issue with James Hansen — who wrote in The Guardian that "coal is the single greatest threat to civilization and all life on our planet" and that trains carrying coal were "Death Trains" — responding (also in The Guardian), "Hansen doesn't offer a single idea as to what the world will use to replace the coal that he abhors. Coal currently provides about 28% of the world's total energy use. And it is the cheapest source of fuel for electric power production. That's why developing countries – China and India in particular – are using so much of it."

Bryce is critical of the double standard being applied to bird kills by industrial facilities. Oil producers and electric utilities have repeatedly been charged and fined under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act for killing birds. But Bryce points out that wind-power companies are not being prosecuted even though they routinely violate the MBTA, which is one of America's oldest environmental laws. In the Wall Street Journal, he wrote, "Yet there is one group of energy producers that are not being prosecuted for killing birds: wind-power companies. And wind-powered turbines are killing a vast number of birds every year. A July 2008 study of the wind farm at Altamont Pass California, estimated that its turbines kill an average of 80 golden eagles per year. The study, funded by the Alameda County Community Development Agency, also estimated that about 10,000 birds—nearly all protected by the migratory bird act—are being whacked every year at Altamont". He also wrote about the health problems caused by low-frequency noise emitted from wind turbines.

In May 2010, he published an op-ed in the New York Times that underscored the difficulties associated with large-scale carbon capture and sequestration. In June 2010, in an article for Slate he expressed his dismay at the corn ethanol industry's attempts to use the blowout of the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico as an excuse to gain more subsidies.

Bryce is an advocate for increased shale gas consumption in the US. In a June 13, 2011 piece published in the Wall Street Journal he wrote that the "shale revolution now underway is the best news for North American energy since the discovery of the East Texas Field in 1930."

Bryce opposes federal corn subsidies for ethanol, citing high costs. He has argued that American farmland should be used to grow food rather than fuel. In addition he has opposed the EPA’s considerations to raise the volume of ethanol mixed in gasoline, arguing that vehicles could be damaged by higher ethanol blends, and warranties would be voided.

He has criticized the Obama administration for “attempting to pick winners in the car business” with electric vehicles subsidies. He has also argued that electric vehicles have failed due to the lack of energy density in batteries, safety concerns, and relatively few sales.