The fighting in Ukraine has intensified and residents are fleeing cities with Russian forces showing no signs of retreating. What does this have to do with the lives of billions of people living far away from the war? Oil price increases.The conflict has caused an increase in international oil prices, which have now crossed $130 per barrel, a 13-year high. As a result, gas prices at pumps across the globe are set to rise even further.Being the largest consumers of automobile fuels, motorists in … [Read more...]
The Untold Story of the Vladimir Lenin Nuclear Power Plant Disaster (Chernobyl)
In their 1992 book, Ecocide in the USSR, Murray Feshbach and Alfred Friendly Jr. stated that “no other industrial civilisation so systematically and so long poisoned its land, air, and people.” A well-known example of the parlous and perilous state of environmental protection in the USSR is the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, which occurred on April 26, 1986, in reactor four of the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. What most people probably don’t know is that this nuclear power plant proudly bore the … [Read more...]
Carbon Cutting: Saving the Planet or Virtue Signaling?
Recently, many companies have pledged to go “net-zero.” “Net-zero” means the greenhouse gases a company emits are balanced by the greenhouse gases it removes from the atmosphere. The Paris Agreement suggests such goals. Although former President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from it, many companies feel the need to demonstrate they are pursuing the targets set in Paris, as we rejoined it under President Biden.In theory, net-zero can be accomplished by reducing emissions or … [Read more...]
Endangered Species Act: Turning Species Extirpation on its Head
The Endangered Species Act, first enacted by Congress in 1973, has since become a poster child for bureaucratic ineptitude. By 2021 it had fully redeemed from the impending extinction only 3% of the hundreds of endangered species initially added to the list.Our national symbol, the again flourishing bald eagle, is an outstanding exception. The birds are commonly seen soaring above our rivers and lakes wherever the fishing is good.But whooping cranes are holding onto existence by the skin of … [Read more...]
How a Mindless Climate War on Energy Surrendered Ukraine
Delusional Western nation anti-hydrocarbon energy policies premised upon combating climate change as the "greatest existential threat" are being exploited by far more immediate and formidable adversaries.We are currently witnessing tragic consequences play out in failures of Russian oil and gas-dependent NATO allies — Germany in particular — to dissuade and counter savage Putin aggression against Ukraine.Add to this, a concurrent Biden administration policy disaster which has … [Read more...]
“Green” Media Misrepresents World’s Energy Reality
Fossil fuels are out. Coal is no longer king. The Middle East faces an oil crisis. These are typical headlines in the mainstream media. Unreported is the hard reality of the world’s fossil-dependent developing economies. This story goes untold because media in the developed West seek to create a perception of an inevitable transition to energy markets free of hydrocarbons.Whatever is behind the media’s ignorance — or neglect — of the proliferation of coal, oil, and natural gas, it … [Read more...]
Nothing Like Fossil Energy Shortages to Cool Climate Alarm Policies
What a difference a year makes in witnessing how rising petroleum pump prices and winter heating costs can bring about a chilling political climate change regarding the importance of fossil energy.We’re seeing evidence of this consequential rude awakening in reversals of the Biden administration's anti-oil and gas regulatory edicts, desperate White House pleas for hydrocarbon companies to increase production, and Democrat-sponsored federal gas tax suspension proposals.Meanwhile, as Europe has … [Read more...]
Is capitalism to blame for hunger and poverty?
Before capitalism, most of the global population were living in extreme poverty. From 90 percent in 1820, the rate has now fallen to 10 percent.Most remarkably, since the end of communism in China and other countries in recent decades, poverty has declined faster than in any previous period in human history.Many people who believe that capitalism is to blame for hunger and poverty have an entirely unrealistic notion of life in pre-capitalist societies. Johan Norberg, the author of the book … [Read more...]
What Solution Do Renewable Energy Advocates Offer For The Problem Of Storage?
Most comments at this site tend to have a perspective generally consistent with my own. But sometimes a post will attract comments from people with a very different point of view. That occurred on a post earlier this week titled “Two More Contributions On The impossibility Of Electrifying Everything Using Only Wind, Solar, And Batteries.”That post and the one immediately preceding it (“Calculating The Full Costs Of Electrifying Everything Using Only Wind, Solar, And Batteries”) had both focused … [Read more...]
Nord Stream 2’s impact on the European Union, NATO, and the U.S
There is a real possibility, the European Union (EU) will endure major fuel shortages this winter. Record-high electricity prices are currently the norm with no end in sight. Russian President Vladimir Putin astutely understands the EU heavily relies on Russian natural gas, which Nord Stream 1 and now 2 (NS2) natural gas pipeline will provide. This $11 billion line to double the capacity of Russian natural gas to the German coast spanning 764 miles under the Baltic Sea will be used as a … [Read more...]
