The Biden administration’s new 681-page EPA-proposed regulatory rule limiting greenhouse gas emissions for coal-and gas-fired power plants. This is but the latest attempt to eliminate America’s fossil-fueled energy independence, prosperity, and global security. EPA’s Most Recent Attack on Fossil Fuels Although last year the Supreme Court blocked the implementation of the Obama "Clean Power Plan," which would have forced a power shift to renewables from coal, the EPA now wants to include … [Read more...]
Those Attacks on Gas Stoves Aren’t Really about Health
Image: Creative Commons under Unsplash Earlier this year, the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) announced that indoor gas stoves emitted harmful pollution. Several studies claim that the use of gas can cause respiratory illness. The CPSC is considering restrictions on gas stoves, including possible bans in new residential construction. But attacks on gas stoves are based on questionable science and are largely driven by concerns not related to health. The CPSC has reportedly been … [Read more...]
‘Vanishing Habitats’ for Wildlife Greatly Exaggerated in Push for ‘Biodiversity,’ Biden’s ’30 by 30′ Land Grab
Image: Creative Commons under Unsplash The following is a guest article by Rob Gordon. First of three articles on wildlife trends in America. Decades-long mantras about “vanishing habitat” and ever-growing threats to wildlife have long been used to justify locking up more land through federal ownership or other restrictive measures. The perfect example is the Biden administration’s proposal to conserve 30% of the nation by 2030—aka “30 by 30.” Exactly what the administration … [Read more...]
Why Are Farmers Defying Bans to Cultivate GM Crops?
Farmers across the world are desperate to grow genetically modified crops (GM) in their fields. So much so that in some countries farmers have bypassed existing bans on these crops and even made harvests from them. Image: Creative Commons under Unsplash Why do these farmers risk being prosecuted, and what compels them to grow GM food crops? The answer is straightforward: GM crops give higher yields, are resilient to deadly plant diseases, and can withstand tough environmental … [Read more...]
Welcome to Cold War II
Trying to Save the Planetfrom the People Who Are Trying to Save the Planet Two scenes from my toddlerhood in Calcutta, India, have flashed in my mind thousands of times over the last 60-plus years. The first was of a beautiful tree with a red-flowered vine hanging from its branches. The second was of the emaciated bodies of people who had died overnight of starvation and disease. I saw the tree and its vine as my aia, or nurse, led me by the hand through the courtyard of the building … [Read more...]
Control the Tyrant, Transform the Culture
Image: Creative Commons under Unsplash A popular radio program in the 1930s began with a haunting voice, "Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!" We listeners would sit and wait, knowing that week after week we would hear a scary story of a tyrant preparing to oppress upright people but knowing that after tense moments the Shadow would undo the evil and the ending would be good. The program continued for over a decade, probably replaced in the lives of hearers by … [Read more...]
California Charges Forward with Energy Disasters of Biblical Proportions
On August 31, just days after Gov. Gavin Newsom announced a mandated switch to electric vehicles (EVs), the California Independent System Operator, which runs the state’s power grid, called for a Flex Alert asking residents to voluntarily reduce their power consumption by avoiding “large appliances and charging electric vehicles” during peak usage hours of 4 to 9 pm. The unforeseen problem, it seems, in addition to increasing power demands and anemic, unreliable wind and solar … [Read more...]
Washington, DC’s Energy Colonialism
Washington, DC Mayor Muriel Bowser thinks people worldwide have a “human right” to come to the United States, legally or illegally. Our nation’s capital proudly proclaimed itself a “sanctuary city” in 2016. “We celebrate our diversity and respect all DC residents,” the mayor said, “no matter their immigration status.” But when Arizona and Texas were overwhelmed by a million-plus illegal migrants – and their governors sent a couple thousand of them to Washington – she was outraged. They … [Read more...]
How Terrified Should We Be of Hurricane Season This Year?
Once again, as nearly every year, officials at NOAA and other agencies called for 2022 to be a "very active" hurricane season. In its May 24 release, NOAA predicted "an "above-average hurricane activity this year — which would make it the seventh consecutive above-average hurricane season." It's like the old joke that everyone's grandkid is "above average": for some reason, every hurricane season, the risk is now "above average." I don't know how every … [Read more...]
Calculating The Full Costs Of Electrifying Everything Using Only Wind, Solar And Batteries
For several years now, advocates of “decarbonizing” our energy system, along with promoters of wind and solar energy, have claimed that the cost of electricity from the wind and sun was dropping rapidly and either already was, or soon would be, less than the cost of generating the same electricity from fossil fuels. These claims are generally based on a metric called the “Levelized Cost of Energy,” which is designed to seem sophisticated to the uninitiated, but in the real world is … [Read more...]