Alex Epstein (American writer)

Alex Epstein (/ˈælɪks ˈɛpstaɪn/; born 1980) is an American author, energy theorist and industrial policy pundit. He is the founder and President of the Center for Industrial Progress, a for-profit think tank located in Laguna Hills, California, and a former fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute. Epstein is also the New York Times bestselling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, which champions the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas. Epstein is an adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute.

Personal life

Alex Epstein grew up in Chevy Chase, Maryland, and attended Montgomery County Public Schools. In childhood his favorite subjects were mathematics and science, and in high school he became interested in politics and humanities. He cites Ayn Rand as his greatest influence, having been especially impressed by her novel Atlas Shrugged. Among his other favorite writers is Thomas Sowell.

From 1998 to 2002, Epstein earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in Philosophy from Duke University, where for two years he was the editor and publisher of The Duke Review and where he also studied computer science.

Epstein lives in Southern California.

Career

Ayn Rand Institute

After university, Epstein knew that he wanted to be a professional intellectual but also that he did not want to go to graduate school or to work at a university. He became a freelance writer, and two years later joined the Ayn Rand Institute, a non-profit organization in Irvine, California, that promotes Ayn Rand's novels and her philosophy of Objectivism. Epstein was a writer and fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute between 2004 and 2011, where he specialized in business issues. There he became interested in energy issues.

Center for Industrial Progress

In 2011, Epstein founded the Center for Industrial Progress (CIP), an advocacy group/think tank whose mission is, “to bring about a new industrial revolution.” The CIP has taken positions on numerous policies and legislation regarding energy, notably having supported the Keystone XL Pipeline in 2014.

Epstein and the CIP challenges the belief that the consumption of fossil fuels has a negative effect on society, arguing that recent gains in public health and safety were achieved not in spite of mankind’s reliance on carbon energy but, in large measure, because of it. The CIP was also critical of the U.N. Climate Summit, citing its lack of focus and questioning the effort to cut carbon emissions and reshape the world economy while disregarding the impact on growth.

In 2012 Epstein debated American environmentalist Bill McKibben while representing the CIP at an event held at Duke University.

In 2016 Epstein testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at the invitation of the committee's chairman, James Inhofe (R-OK). Epstein suggested that rising carbon dioxide levels "benefit plants and Americans." His remarks prompted committee member Barbara Boxer to protest Epstein's appearance. "You're a philosopher and not a scientist," Boxer protested, "and I don't appreciate being lectured by a philosopher and not a scientist."

The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels

In 2014, Epstein’s book The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels was published by Penguin Random House. The book posits that experts and laymen alike greatly underestimate the benefits of fossil fuels while greatly overestimating their costs. The book makes the distinction between "humanists"—"someone on a human standard of value, [who] treats the rest of nature as something to use for his benefit"—and a "nonhumanist", who "treats the rest of nature as something that must be served."

Reception

The book received mixed reviews, with Jay Lehr of The Heartland Institute saying, "Written in a conversational style that is easy to read and understand, this book can serve as a layman's guide, refuting the absurd claims that man controls the climate, while explaining why the current abundance of oil and gas due to hydraulic fracturing will leave all efforts to impose wind and solar energy in our rear-view mirrors."

Reviews can be found in Our World, a publication of the United Nations University, Inside Higher Ed, The Huffington Post, and the UK newspaper The Guardian. Most of these critical reviews allege that Epstein has a close association with conservative advocacy groups and receives funding from the Koch Brothers. They also claim that Epstein's pro-carbon opinions run counter to a prevailing scientific conclusion that the rise of greenhouse gasses is catastrophic rather than a net good for the future of the globe. The Guardian's review, for example, concludes that "[u]nfortunately for everyone concerned, the 'moral case for coal' doesn’t track with what trained climate scientists and reputable energy experts tell us. If we continue to emit carbon, the climate change which is already in train will become catastrophically worse, and the only way out is to transition as quickly as possible to renewables."

In 2014, Epstein was interviewed by Peter Thiel at an event hosted by the energy startup Tachyus. Thiel also provided a blurb for the book.

In December 2014, political commentator John McLaughlin called Epstein "most original thinker of the year" for his book during McLaughlin's yearly The McLaughlin Group roundup.

Epstein's work has been featured by reviewers and commentators in outlets like Fox News, The Wall Street Journal, The Daily Caller, Al Jazeera, Press-Enterprise, and others. In 2013, Rolling Stone placed Epstein and the Center for Industrial Progress on their list of top Global Warming Deniers.