A few days ago I began reading Harold J. Berman's Law and Revolution: The Formation of the Western Legal Tradition (1983). It's a scholarly tour de force covering an amazing range of subjects in law, history, theology, ecclesiology, and even the rise of science (particularly how Christian thought generated that).These paragraphs, from pages 155--6 and 157--8, particularly caught my attention:Although science, in the modern Western sense, has usually been defined only in methodological terms, … [Read more...]
EV’s Fossil Fuel Economy No Better than ICE Vehicles
Most of the electricity generated in the U.S. continues to come from fossil fuels (61% in 2021). This is not likely to change much in the future as electricity demand is increasing faster than renewables (20% of total in 2020 and 20.1% of total in 2021) can close the gap versus fossil fuels. Given that fact, it is interesting to ask the question:Which uses fossil fuels more efficiently, an EV or ICE (internal combustion engine) vehicle?Most of what you will read about EVs versus ICE … [Read more...]
Testimony: “How the Biden Administration and the Global Anti-Fossil-Fuel Movement Caused an Energy Crisis and Inflated Our Cost of Living”
Today the House Freedom Caucus held an off-site hearing: “Addressing Bidenflation and Biden’s Energy Crisis.” I was a witness, along with former Texas Governor and Secretary of Energy Rick Perry, economist Stephen Moore, and Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma. Here is the written testimony I submitted. You can watch my testimony, as well as my answers to all the Representatives’ questions, in the video below.In 2016, I testified in front of the Senate Environment and Public Works … [Read more...]
Indian Coal Makes Electricity as Wind Farms Sit Idle
Amidst the clamor surrounding the intensive use of coal in China and India, one may not realize that these nations have some of the world’s largest renewable energy installations.In fact, I hail from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu which is often compared to Scandinavia for its large number of wind farms. Accounting for 25 percent of the country’s wind capacity, the state has the largest share of such generating assets in a nation of 1.3 billion people.Yet even Tamil Nadu relies heavily on coal … [Read more...]
Will SCOTUS Rein in the EPA?
Back in 1970, Congress passed the Clean Air Act (CAA), and for the next two decades or more actions taken under it significantly improved the quality of America’s air. In 1990 it passed significant amendments to it, and some of these also had salutary effects.But, combined with an increasing tendency to allow administrative agencies, especially the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), to impose regulations without a clear statutory basis, and a tendency of courts to defer to agencies’ “expert … [Read more...]
Germany’s Green Energy Fixation Should Teach US a Lesson
Germany’s new Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s government vice chancellor and economic minister Robert Habeck, a leading member of his country’s Green Party, has experienced a rude lesson regarding the disastrous consequences of his years of naïve opposition to fossil fuels.After tasking his top officials to assess the energy security implications of Germany’s dependence on Russian supplies in the event of a then-looming Ukraine invasion, their conclusions were desperately dispiriting.Habeck reportedly … [Read more...]
Must Fossil Fuel Extraction Be Stopped to Limit Global Warming?
“Fossil Fuel Extraction Must Be Stopped to Limit Global Warming.” That’s the headline of an article at Earth.com, an environmental activist website. It purports to convey the message of a study published May 17, 2022, in Environmental Research Letters, “Existing fossil fuel extraction would warm the world beyond 1.5°C,” though the study makes no such claim.According to the study, the world is already committed, through its 25,000 oil and gas fields and 3,000 coal mines, to … [Read more...]
CO2 Enrichment Improves Plant Water Use Efficiency
This article is the third in a series. You can read the first post here. and the second one here.“Gratefully, nature does not have to wait another century or so for the air’s CO2 concentration to double before reaping benefits from enhanced water use efficiency. It has already begun to profit in this regard from the approximate 50% increase in atmospheric CO2 that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution began.”In my last article I wrote about increased plant productivity … [Read more...]
Real Threats to Biodiversity and Humanity
References to climate change almost guarantee funding, even for research topics of little interest beyond academia and eco-activists. Polls reveal that most people worry most about energy and food prices, crime, living standards, Putin’s war on Ukraine, and increasing efforts to control their lives. A recent study by Rutgers University scientists sought to determine how much diversity is required among bee species to sustain wild plant populations. They concluded that ecosystems rely … [Read more...]
Teaching Science Students to Think Critically About EVs and to Peek Behind the Curtain
“The simple believes everything, but the prudent gives thought to his steps.” – Proverbs 14:15 ESV“Open your mouth for the mute, for the rights of all who are destitute. Open your mouth, judge righteously, defend the rights of the poor and needy.” – Proverbs 31:8-9 ESVIn one of the laboratory classes I teach, students learn techniques to separate heterogeneous mixtures of solids. One procedure involves the separation of sodium chloride from beach sand by mixing the solid mixture in water, … [Read more...]
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