If you attended An Evening With the Mackinac Center in May, you had a chance to ask yourself: Do I love fossil fuels?
Philosopher and energy expert Alex Epstein does. He delivered a powerful keynote address on free- market energy policy during our annual gathering at the Royal Park Hotel in Rochester, Michigan.
Friends of liberty came to make new connections and catch up with old ones, but the real conversation starters were the “I love fossil fuels” buttons on all tables during a delicious dinner.
Epstein laid out his provocative claim, arguing that fossil fuels are uniquely cost-effective, reliable, versatile and scalable forms of energy and therefore critical to human flourishing.
“The more cost-effective energy is, the more we can have human flourishing, which means humans living to their highest potential – long lives, healthy lives, and lives filled with opportunity,” said Epstein. “The more cost-effective energy we have, the more we can use machines, and machines are the difference between an abundant and safe world and a deficient and dangerous world.”
Epstein’s message was a contrarian one in an era when support for green energy is the only socially acceptable stance. But it helped those gathered to reaffirm their support for a free-market approach that allows the best forms of energy to prosper so we can live healthier, safer and more productive lives. The Mackinac Center is one of the few state-based think tanks in the nation to have a dedicated energy and environmental policy initiative, working to create public support for free-market solutions to powering our state and nation.
Attendees also heard from Joseph G. Lehman, Mackinac Center president.
“You’ve helped us excel at finding chinks in the armor of government overreach even in challenging political environments,” Lehman said, thanking Mackinac Center partners for their steadfast support in securing strategic policy wins in a challenging year for Michigan. “With you as partners, we’ve been able to do things that by all accounts should be impossible – a tax cut and holding the Michigan Education Association to account for pandemic fraud.”
An Evening with the Mackinac Center is an annual opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals to share ideas, hear from the top thinkers in the free-market movement and discuss ways to build momentum for reform in our communities and state. We hope to see you next year.
