Fresh from hosting a sold-out African Energy Week, African Energy Chamber President NJ Ayuk announced that “I am going to COP 27 because I believe if Africa is not at the table, it will be on the menu.” This first Council of the Parties to convene in Africa since 2011 may well signal a turning of the United Nations’ goals away from its rigid anti-fossil fuels crusade. Ayuk, an energy lawyer and deal maker in petroleum and power, is perhaps the continent’s most visible champion of … [Read more...]
Modern-day Marie Antoinette Says You Cannot Even Have Cake
Out in Nancy Pelosi’s California, the ice cream queen’s protégé announces an end to gasoline-powered vehicles a day before he also discourages charging electric vehicles. Meanwhile, French president Emmanuel Macron (a true son of Marie Antoinette) announces the end of abundance. Macron, who not that long ago announced the forthcoming closure of a quarter of France’s nuclear power plants (and its last four coal-fired power plants), explained the abject failure of his energy policies with … [Read more...]
Death of a Nightmare: The Last Gasps of Poseur Politics
According to psychiatrist Seth D. Norrholm, dictators see themselves “as ‘very special’ people, deserving of admiration, and, consequently, [they] have difficulty empathizing with the feelings and needs of others; they also tend to behave with a vindictiveness often observed in narcissistic personality disorder.” In other words, they are nuts. And dangerous. And in power. Norrholm, who is currently scientific director of NeuroCAST, at Wayne State University’s Department of … [Read more...]
New Federal Fuel Economy Standards Wrongly Calculated, Says Petition
Based on a recent court ruling and the law, the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) says updated nationwide corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standards imposed by U.S Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in December 2021 relied on an invalidated metric. Because of this the CEI filed a formal request in February with Michael Regan, EPA administrator, to place the new standards on hold and reconsider them. The new CAFE standards, which apply to vehicles from model years 2023 … [Read more...]
China Surges Ahead While the West Self-Destructs
As China builds more and more coal-fired power plants, consolidates its stranglehold on rare-earth metals vital for 21st-century economies, and extends its influence into America’s backyard, “woke” Westerners are marching like lemmings toward the energy poverty cliff. CNBC reports that climate activists and campaign groups are demanding an immediate end to the burning of fossil fuels. The far-out have realized they were “betrayed” at the COP26 confab in Glasgow by India (but of course not by … [Read more...]
China’s strange endorsement of ‘net zero’
The Chinese path to supposed decarbonization starts with a lot more coal You have to hand it to Xi Jinping. The Chinese “president for life” schmoozed United Nations royalty last September with his unexpected pledge that his country aims “to have CO2 emissions peak before 2030 and achieve carbon neutrality (Net Zero) before 2060.”Xi also urged other nations “to pursue innovative, coordinated, green and open development for all” through rapid deployment of new technologies, to “achieve a green … [Read more...]
EPA’s totalitarian assault on America
Biden-Harris Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan is clearly on a mission. He has “bold aspirations, and a long to-do list,” says The Washington Post. But to succeed, the Post acknowledges, he must “help the EPA get its groove back.” As Regan put it, “We’ve got a lot of work to do, starting with rebuilding staff morale and getting all our staff back to feeling as if they matter, their voices matter.” Regan says his job is “to restore the scientific integrity … [Read more...]
Poisoned Ivies Threaten American Freedoms
Americans have for generations lauded our Ivy League universities and granted their graduates top leadership positions in our government, almost by default. Eight of the nine current Supreme Court justices are Ivy League graduates. As Manhattan Institute President Reihan Salam (a graduate of Cornell and Harvard Law) recently wrote, “To defenders of America’s elite universities, the notion that they are anything other than the crown jewels of our … [Read more...]
Rare Earths First? Or Last?
As Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the reins of government and launch their program to “transition” America away from fossil fuels, they need to consider some hard realities. Chief among them is that no Green New Deal can succeed without major increases in US mining and processing – unless they want to make America even more dependent on China and Russia. Rare-earth metals are essential to 21st century technologies, including smartphones, lasers, night vision systems, weapons guidance … [Read more...]
The Gates of Hell (or Heaven) in Africa?
Agribusiness, Small Family Farms, or Both? According to many critics, Western billionaires do not make the best farmers. Perhaps it is their inability (or unwillingness) to downsize grandiose plans from a Western-style agribusiness model to merely helping millions of subsistence farmers that dot the African landscape succeed in providing nutritious diets for their families and communities. That’s the conclusion of a major report from Germany entitled False Promises: The Alliance for a … [Read more...]
