About Robert Bradley
Robert L. Bradley Jr.
2186 Briarglen Dr.
Houston, TX 77027
Rob Bradley is a leading expert on the history and regulation of energy, energy and sustainable development, and post-Enron corporate governance issues. He is a prolific writer and popular speaker at colleges, universities, think tanks, trade associations, and corporate events.
Bradley is chairman of the Institute for Energy Research, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit public-policy organization he founded in 1989. Bradley is also an adjunct scholar of the Cato Institute and the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C.; a visiting fellow of the Institute of Economic Affairs in London; and an honorary senior research fellow at the Center for Energy Economics at the University of Texas at Austin. He is a member of Academic Review Committee, Institute for Humane Studies at George Mason University. Between 2002 and 2005, Bradley was a senior Research Fellow at the Institute for Energy, Law & Enterprise at the University of Houston.
Bradley has authored seven books, the most recent being in his tetralogy written on the general theme of political capitalism. These volumes are:
- Capitalism at Work: Business, Government, and Energy(M & M Scrivener Press: 2009)
- Edison to Enron: Energy Markets and Political Strategy(Scrivener Publishing and John Wiley & Sons: 2011)
- Enron Ascending: The Forgotten Years, 1984–1996(Scrivener Publishing and John Wiley & Sons: forthcoming 2017)
- Enron and the Post-Enron World, 1997–2018 (Scrivener Publishing and John Wiley & Sons: forthcoming 2020)
Bradley’s other books are:
- The Mirage of Oil Protection(1989)
- Oil, Gas, and Government: The U.S. Experience(2 volumes: 1996)
- Julian Simon and the Triumph of Energy Sustainability(2000)
- Climate Alarmism Reconsidered(2003)
- Energy: the Master Resource(2004, with Richard Fulmer)
Bradley’s “Renewable Energy: Not Cheap, Not ‘Green'” (Cato Institute, 1997) is considered a classic in the energy sustainability debate.
Other writings in this area include “Green Pricing” (Macmillan Encyclopedia of Energy, 2002); “Climate Alarmism and Corporate Responsibility” (Electricity Journal, August/September 2002); and Corporate Social Responsibility and Energy: Lessons from Enron (Institute for Study of Economics and the Environment, 2008). Bradley received the Julian L. Simon Memorial Award for 2002 for his pioneering work on energy as the master resource and free-market energy as a key to sustainable development.
Bradley’s book essays include “An Open Letter to George W. Bush on Climate Change Policy,” in James Griffin, ed., Global Climate Change: Science, Economics, and Politics (Edward Elgar, 2003); “The Origins and Development of Electric Power Regulation,” in Peter Grossman and Daniel Cole, editors, The End of a Natural Monopoly: Deregulation & Competition in the Electric Power Industry (JAI Press, 2003); “Energy for Sustainable Development,” in Julian Morris, ed., Sustainable Development: Promoting Progress or Perpetuating Poverty? (Progress Books, 2002); “The Increasing Sustainability of Conventional Energy,” in John Moroney, ed., Advances in the Economics of Energy and Natural Resources (JAI Press, 1999); and “The Distortions and Dynamics of Gas Regulation,” in Jerry Ellig and Joe Kalt, eds., New Horizons in Natural Gas Deregulation (Praeger, 1996).
Bradley has presented professional testimony on energy issues to the California Energy Commission and United States Senate; his opinion-page editorials on energy policy have appeared in the New York Times and many other newspapers across the country; his energy views have been aired on National Public Radio, Voice of America, CBS Radio Network, and Armed Forces Radio, as well as local programs.
Bradley has applied Austrian-School (real-world) economics to energy issues in three essays:
- “Resourceship: An Austrian Theory of Mineral Resources,” Review of Austrian Economics (2007)
- “A Typology of Interventionist Dynamics,” in Jack High, ed., Economics, Philosophy, and Information Technology: Essays in Honor of Don Lavoie (Edward Elgar: 2006)
- “Interventionist Dynamics in the U.S. Energy Industry”Advances in Austrian Economics: Special Volume (2006)
Bradley holds received his B.A. in economics (with honors) from Rollins College where he received the S. Truman Olin Award in economics; a masters in economics from the University of Houston, a Ph.D. in political economy (with distinction) from International College. Bradley has also been a Schultz Fellow for Economic Research (New York City) and Liberty Fund Fellow for Economic Research (Menlo Park, California).
Two of Bradley’s books are online:
Climate Alarmism Reconsidered
Energy: The Master Resource
Published Interviews: