Alex Epstein's course “How to Talk to Anyone about Energy” provides principles for clearly communicating the value of fossil fuels.

Far from threatening human life and well-being, fossil fuels make possible the mass production of goods and services—including food and the delivery thereof—that people need in order to live and prosper in a modern, industrialized society. Thank the energy producers without whom most of the food we buy simply would not exist.

The U.S. Senate will vote Tuesday on a bill to permit construction of the cross-border section of the Keystone XL oil pipeline. That this life-serving project has been blocked for six years is a moral obscenity. Oil producers have a moral right to transport their product across borders as they see fit.

With the mid-term elections upon us, President Obama and other Democrats are trying to take credit for lower gasoline prices and other economic benefits flowing from the record volumes of oil being produced by U.S. oil companies. But Obama and his Democrat cohorts don’t produce oil; they throttle those who produce oil.

Petroleum is a fundamental fuel of our industrial economy. Gasoline prices are falling largely because many good people and businesses in the oil industry are and have for decades been developing technologies that increase production and decrease costs, which, in turn, render lower prices at the pump and elsewhere.

Under the control of Petróleos Mexicanos (Pemex)—Mexico’s State Run Oil Monopoly—oil production has declined to levels not seen since 1995. Fortunately for the people of Mexico, producers in the United States, operating in relative freedom, have, during that same time, massively increased their production of crude. Mexico may soon begin importing crude from the United States.

The cause of this problem for the EU is not the shale gas revolution in the United States; rather, the cause of the problem is the lack of such a revolution in Europe—and the cause of that problem is European policies that stifle energy production.

Coal is fueling the giant producer of Asia and enabling many of China’s 1.3 billion people to overcome crushing poverty. Goods marked “made in China” might as well be marked, “Made possible by coal.” Americans who use and enjoy products made in China—that is, all Americans—should celebrate this life-serving fossil fuel, as it makes such goods possible.

BP launched a thirteen pound drone earlier this month in Prudhoe Bay, Alaska. BP turned to a drone (i.e., an unmanned aerial vehicle)—specifically, the Puma AE from AeroVironment—to improve monitoring of operations in the enormous and hazardous arctic environment of northern Alaska.

Why is TransCanada “exploring how to modify existing contracts with Keystone XL customers to allow for rail shipments” of oil (as Bloomberg reports)? The answer is that the U.S. government—spurred by environmentalist groups—has prohibited completion of the pipeline. “This is a market inefficiency created by regulatory impediments,” explains TransCanada CEO Russ Girling.

Legislation that grants “rights” to entities such as “natural communities” (whatever that means), “wetlands, streams, rivers,” or the like, necessarily violates the genuine rights of individual human beings—the only entities that possess or can possess rights. With such a legal framework in place, the majority of voters could violate the rights of individuals virtually whenever they want.

The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) recently documented the United Kingdom's skyrocketing consumption of wood for electricity generation and space heating—a consequence of the country’s regressive “environmental” policies. Among other things, these policies require electricity providers to use a set proportion of more costly fuels such as wood, now trendily called “biofuel.”

A recent article by the Associated Press, “Oil Boom Bringing More than Construction,” describes the revitalization of Watford City, North Dakota—revitalization made possible not only in that town but in many others as well, by the fracking revolution. “Luke Allen, who moved here last summer to start his dental practice, finds the pioneer spirit exhilarating,” the AP reports.

“Russia's No. 2 oil producer, Lukoil, and France's Total agreed . . . to set up a joint venture to tap vast tight [shale] oil reserves in Siberia” Reuters reports. The move provides further evidence that the Russian government’s criticism of fracking in Europe is intended to maintain Russia’s position as a key supplier of European energy.

Regardless of whether Zubrin is correct in his assessment of the degree to which Russian influence is slowing European shale gas development, his warning that “If Europe’s fuel supplies remain under Russian control, the continent is doomed to fall under Russian domination” should be heeded.