Alex Epstein (American writer)


Alexander Joseph Epstein 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 organization located in San Diego, California. Epstein is also the New York Times best-selling author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, in which he advocates the use of fossil fuels like coal, oil and natural gas, for which he has been praised in The Wall Street Journal and criticized in The Guardian. Epstein is a former adjunct scholar at the Cato Institute and a former fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. He has called into question the degree of consensus among climate scientists regarding climate change and stated that he does not believe humans are the primary cause of climate change.

Early life and education

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.
At Duke University, where for two years he was the editor and publisher of The Duke Review, Epstein in his own words
'studied a combination of philosophy and computer science' graduating with a BA.

Career

Ayn Rand Institute

Epstein was a writer and fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute, a non-profit organization in Irvine, California that promotes Ayn Rand's novels and her philosophy of Objectivism, between 2004 and 2011.

Center for Industrial Progress

In 2011, Epstein founded the Center for Industrial Progress, an advocacy group that describes its mission as "to bring about a new industrial revolution."
Epstein and CIP challenge the belief that the consumption of fossil fuels harms human life, arguing that recent gains in public health and safety were achieved not in spite of mankind's reliance on hydrocarbon energy but, in large measure, because of it.
In 2012, Epstein debated American environmentalist Bill McKibben while representing CIP at an event held at Duke University.
In 2013, Rolling Stone placed Epstein and the Center for Industrial Progress on their list of top Global Warming Deniers. Epstein wrote a rebuttal to the piece in Forbes. In his rebuttal, Epstein also criticizes the term global warming denier, which he claims is a smear tactic intended to liken critics of environmentalism to Holocaust deniers.
In 2014, Epstein and CIP publicly supported the Keystone Pipeline.
In 2015, The Guardian published an opinion piece by Jason Wilson critical of Epstein and CIP, stating, "Epstein's work has been popular and influential on the right because it is a particularly fluent, elaborate form of climate denialism. The CIP prides itself on being able to train corporate leaders to 'successfully outmessage "environmentalists"'." He also criticizes Epstein for being an "ideologue" funded by petrochemical billionaires, the Koch brothers.
In 2016, Epstein testified before the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee at the invitation of the committee's chairman, James Inhofe, who has called climate change a "hoax." Epstein suggested that rising carbon dioxide levels "benefit plants and Americans." When questioned by committee member Barbara Boxer as to why Epstein, whose academic training is in philosophy, was even there, Epstein responded, "to teach you how to think clearly." Boxer replied "... you are a philosopher, not a scientist, and I don’t appreciate getting lectured by a philosopher about science."
Epstein has contributed opinion pieces to several media outlets regarding climate and energy issues, including USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, and Fox News.