In Defense of Oil

Celebrating Oil's 150th Birthday

A project of the Ayn Rand Center for Individual Rights


Celebrating Oil's 150th BirthdayA century and a half ago, Edwin Drake successfully drilled the first commercial oil well. 150 years later, oil remains the lifeblood of our civilization. It fuels our ultra-mobile, globalized world. It provides the building-blocks for millions of life-enhancing petroleum products.

Yet “Big Oil” receives no appreciation. It is demonized; oil is called an “addiction” and a “pollutant” to get rid of.

This website gives you the tools you need to appreciate the incredible, neglected value of oil, and to think clearly about oil’s role in foreign policy and environmental issues.

OIL: UNDERSTAND IT. EMBRACE IT. DEFEND IT. 

 

Oil and the Economy

Alex Epstein is interviewed on the 150th birthday of oil. (To download, right-click the "download" link and select "save as.")

From The Mike Slater Show [download]


The Triumph and Tragedy of the Oil Industry: An introductory lecture course on oil delivered by Alex Epstein in Newport Beach, California, in July, 2008.

Part 1 [download]

Part 2 [download]

Part 3 [download]


Alex Epstein in Investor's Business Daily: Let's Celebrate Oil's 150th Birthday

The incredible, unappreciated value of oil

The “windfall profits” smear

The myth of “price-gouging”

The scapegoating of speculators

How government keeps oil prices high

What the history of the oil industry, “the original alternative energy market,” can teach us about energy policy today

Vindicating capitalism: the real history of the Standard Oil Company

An inspiring lecture on the amazing achievements of "monopolist" John D. Rockefeller

 

Oil and Foreign Policy

The myth of our “addiction to oil”

The real cause of the terrorist threat: the lack of a self-assertive, self-interested foreign policy

Why Mideast regimes had no right to nationalize oil companies

Winning the Unwinnable War: a comprehensive account of how to really defeat the Middle East terrorist threat, edited by Elan Journo and with essays by Journo, Yaron Brook, and Alex Epstein

Why the real threat posed by Iran is not its oil but its ideology

What’s wrong with America’s “spreading democracy” strategy to undercut oil-rich Mideast dictators through elections

 

 

 

Oil and the Environment

An interview with Alex Epstein on CAFE standards, recorded May 21, 2009.

Oil, industrial capitalism, and climate vulnerability (PDF)

An economic and scientific critique of climate change science and policy, by Dr. Keith Lockitch and Dr. Willie Soon

The science, philosophy, and economics of the climate change debate

Why the environmentalist movement really opposes oil and other forms of human progress

 

 

Web site design by Michael Chiavaroli & Associates. Please report technical issues to webmaster@aynrand.org.

Copyright © 1995–2013 Ayn Rand® Institute (ARI). All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part is prohibited. The Ayn Rand Center is a division of the Ayn Rand Institute. ARI is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions to ARI in the United States are tax-exempt to the extent provided by law. Objectivist Conferences (OCON) and the Ayn Rand Bookstore are operated by the Ayn Rand Institute. Payments made to Objectivist Conferences or to the Ayn Rand Bookstore do not qualify as tax-deductible contributions to the Ayn Rand Institute.