Alex Epstein’s Powerful Argument For More Fossil Fuel Energy

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In this episode of New Ideal Live, Keith Lockitch and Nikos Sotirakopoulos discuss Fossil Future, a powerful new book on energy and climate change written by former Ayn Rand Institute fellow Alex Epstein. The book argues that to achieve a better world, we need to expand our use of fossil fuel energy, not decrease it.

Among the topics covered:

Fossil Future in relation to other recent books challenging climate alarmism;
Epstein’s account of the widespread ignorance of the benefits of fossil fuels;
Epstein’s concept of a knowledge system by which expert knowledge is reached and disseminated (often inaccurately) to the public;
How problems in our knowledge system are caused by the acceptance of an “anti-impact” moral standard;
The human flourishing framework Epstein endorses as a positive alternative;
Objectivism’s influence on Epstein’s perspective on energy and climate;
The persuasive power of explicitly naming the moral ideas involved in a debate.

Mentioned in this podcast are Epstein’s book Fossil Future, Gregory Salmieri’s lecture How to Be an Objective Consumer of Science, Ayn Rand’s essay The Anatomy of Compromise from Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal, Lockitch’s review of Fossil Future, and other articles by Lockitch.

Alex Epstein’s Powerful Argument For More Fossil Fuel Energy

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