One of the biggest barriers to investment in infrastructure all across the United States is the long, costly, and unpredictable permitting process. If you have any doubts, just consider the Keystone XL pipeline extension. Proposed by TransCanada in 2008, approved by the Canadian government and the State of South Dakota in 2010, it floundered around in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Interior Department, and State Department for another five years before President Barack Obama … [Read more...]
Why do Bootleggers and Baptists Love Paris?
Huh? Does it even make sense to ask "Why?" if we don't know "if"? Do bootleggers and Baptists both love Paris? Well, yes---if "Paris" is the Paris climate accord, the "bootleggers" are industrial giants with a lot to gain from policies needed to implement the accord, and the "Baptists" are the environmentalists who support the accord because they think it'll save the planet. As I explained here and here: Corporations that stand to benefit from mandates and subsidies to renewable … [Read more...]
The Trump Effect: India’s Climate Juxtapose
The leader of the world's largest democracy met with President Trump this week. Prime Minister Narendra Modi became the first state guest to be hosted for a dinner with President Trump at the White House. Largely ignored by mainstream media, this state visit was of profound significance to the future of a billion people in India. For Modi, the change of guard at the White House could only have meant a renewal of hope for his country's ambitious energy goals. His correspondence with the … [Read more...]
Is the Trump Administration Brave Enough to Move Beyond “Energy Dominance”?
For half a century, Middle Eastern countries, many with Islamic fundamentalist regimes that have financed radical jihadi terrorists while oppressing women and persecuting non-Muslims, have dominated the world’s energy markets. More recently, Europe has been hostage to Russia for natural gas, crucial to its energy needs. In the last decade, revolutionary oil and gas drilling technologies have enabled the United States to change things. The Trump Administration is putting that historic … [Read more...]
Peoples Climate Movement—Not Science, Just Thuggery
This isn't science. This isn't even rational discourse. This is thuggery---typical of communist movements from the French Revolution through the socialist revolutions of the 1840s and the Russian and Chinese revolutions. Not sure? Read the press release from the "Peoples Climate Movement" for yourself: FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Monday, May 8, 2017 Contact: Harrison Beck: Harrison.Beck@peoplesclimate.org or (617) 694-5128 Paul Getsos Paul@PeoplesClimate.org or (646) 732-0041 Protester’s … [Read more...]
A Potpourri of Interesting Articles
Just been too busy to write much in the way of blog posts lately, but here are some articles I've thought particularly well worth sharing lately: Falling Sea Level: The Critical Factor in 2016 Great Barrier Reef Bleaching! by Jim Steele. "It is puzzling why the recent 2017 publication in Nature, Global Warming And Recurrent Mass Bleaching Of Corals by Hughes et al. ignored the most critical factor affecting the 2016 severe bleaching along the northern Great Barrier Reef – the regional fall … [Read more...]
Exiting the Paris Climate Agreement
Scant evidence of expected benefit means Scott Pruitt is right Washington Times, Monday, April 17, 2017 Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt appeared on “Fox & Friends” April 13 and said, “Paris is something we really need to look at closely, because it’s something we need to exit, in my opinion.” Why? “It’s a bad deal for America. China and India had no obligations under the agreement until 2030, we front-loaded all of our costs, at the expense of … [Read more...]
C-SPAN Quotes Beisner on Trump’s Energy Independence Order
Trump’s Energy Independence Order: A Boon To America And The Environment
President Trump’s “Executive Order on Energy Independence” will save the American people hundreds of billions of dollars every year that would have been wasted on purely symbolic efforts under former President Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” and other regulations. Former President Barack Obama justified those regulations by claiming they would reduce global warming. But in reality, even according to his Environmental Protection Agency’s calculations, they would achieve no measurable reduction in … [Read more...]
Trump’s Decision to Downplay Climate Change Could Save $Billions
Climate-change hysteria is the primary rationale for switching from abundant, affordable, reliable energy from fossil fuels to diffuse, expensive, unreliable "renewable energy from wind, solar, geothermal, biofuels, etc. It's also a main driver of failure after failure, often wasting millions or even billions in taxpayer dollars. That's one of many reasons to cheer this report from Bloomberg: President Donald Trump is set to sign a sweeping directive to dramatically shrink the role climate … [Read more...]
