This Energy Transition Thing Really Is Not Happening

June 25, 2024 Francis Menton @ Manhattan Contrarian 

From reading the left-wing media, you know (or think you know) that there is an energy “transition” going on. This is something that must happen as a matter of urgent necessity. Vast government subsidies are being disbursed to assure its rapid success. Fossil fuels are rapidly on the way out, while wind and solar are quickly taking over.

For example, you may well have seen the big piece last August in the New York Times, headline “The Clean Energy Future Is Arriving Faster Than You Think.”

Across the country, a profound shift is taking place . . . . The nation that burned coal, oil and gas for more than a century to become the richest economy on the planet, as well as historically the most polluting, is rapidly shifting away from fossil fuels.

But if you read that piece, or any one of dozens of others from the Times or other “mainstream” sources, what you won’t find are meaningful statistics on the extent to which fossil fuel use is declining, if at all, or the extent to which renewables like wind and solar are actually replacing them.

That’s why the Manhattan Contrarian turns instead to dry statistical data to try to get the real story. Several years ago I discovered an annual book of energy data called the Statistical Review of World Energy. At the time, the Statistical Review was produced by the international oil company BP. I first covered one of these Reviews in this post from July 2019. A couple of years ago BP apparently decided to get out of this business, and turned the product over to something called the Energy Institute. EI then produced a Statistical Review in June 2023 (covering 2022), and now is just out on June 20, 2024 with a Statistical Review covering 2023.

Most of the Statistical Review consists of just spreadsheets of numbers. There are some charts, but relatively few. But the takeaways are too obvious to hide. The big one is this: there is no energy “transition” going on, at least not in the sense that “renewables” are actually supplanting fossil fuels. Yes there is some considerable amount of “renewable” wind and solar electricity generation getting built (with huge government subsidies). But it is not replacing fossil fuel generation. Rather, fossil fuel generation continues to increase, and its share of overall energy production has barely budged.

Here is EI’s June 20 Press Release, which summarizes the five “key stories” that it says emerge from the statistics. The first one is the big one — increasing energy consumption led by increased production and consumption of fossil fuels:

Record global energy consumption, with coal and oil pushing fossil fuels and their emissions to record levels. Global primary energy consumption overall was at a record absolute high, up 2% on the previous year to 620 Exajoules (EJ). Global fossil fuel consumption reached a record high, up 1.5% to 505 EJ (driven by coal up 1.6%, oil up 2% to above 100 million barrels for first time, while gas was flat). As a share of the overall mix they were at 81.5%, marginally down from 82% last year.

And of course, “emissions” continue to rise:

Emissions from energy increased by 2%, exceeding 40 gigatonnes of CO2 for the first time.

No matter how much the federal government or any state threatens to punish you for your sin of fossil fuel use, aggregate global emissions from such use are not going to go down within our lifetimes.

The second “key story” relates to the contribution, or lack thereof, of solar and wind. Here EI engages in some modest spinning to make things look less bad than they are for the solar and wind promoters; but there’s not much they can do:

Solar and wind push global renewable electricity generation to another record level. Renewable generation, excluding hydro, was up 13% to a record high of 4,748 TWh. This growth was driven almost entirely by wind and solar, and accounted for 74% of all net additional electricity generated.

4,748 TWh of renewable generation — wow, that’s a lot! Or is it? Do you notice how they suddenly switched units from Exajoules to Terawatt hours when they changed from talking about fossil fuels to solar and wind. Does anybody around here know the conversion factor? Yes — it’s 277.778 TWh per EJ. That means that the 4,748 TWh of “almost entirely” solar and wind power generated in 2023 came to all of 17.1 EJ, which is just 2.7% of the 620 EJ of world primary energy consumption. Could you have imagined that it could be so little, after decades of over-the-top promotion and trillions of dollars of subsidies?

And pay attention to that line “wind and solar . . . accounted for 74% of all net additional electricity generated.” Does that somehow sound like a transition is happening? It’s the opposite. If wind and solar were actually taking over, they would have to account for 100% of additional generation, plus large further amounts to replace fossil fuel generators. As long as wind and solar account for less than all of additional generation, then fossil fuels are continuing to increase, and there is no “transition” going on at all.

I mentioned that there were relatively few charts in the Review, but some of them are striking. Here is one of my favorites, showing global coal consumption from 1965 to 2023:

lOver that period, North America and Europe have cut their consumption almost by half, from almost 40 EJ per year to around 20. But over the same period the consumption in the rest of the world has gone from about 20 EJ to around 140, multiplying by a factor of 7. And don’t be fooled by the apparent leveling off of increases in total consumption in the last several years. That reflects continuing decreases in North America and Europe, which are more than offset by larger increases in the Asia Pacific region.

Robert Bryce at his Substack has many more details from the EI Statistical Review, plus several charts that he has created from the EI data. He is much better at creating charts than I am. The title of Bryce’s article is “Numbers Don’t Lie.” Bryce also has a figure for the amount of government subsidies that have gone to wind and solar generation since 2004: $4.7 trillion. That much money to fund a supposed “transition” that isn’t occurring at all.

The story is going to be effectively the same every year until finally the promoters give up on the wind/solar scam.

We can and must adjust to climate change – and not kill billions

We’ve always done so and have no right to tell others they can’t have modern living standards 

By Paul Driessen and Ronald Stein

Earth’s climate has changed many times over four billion years, and 99.999% of those changes occurred before humans were on this planet. During that short time, humans adjusted their housing, clothing and agriculture in response to climate changes. Can we now control the climate?

Except for decades-long droughts or massive volcanic explosions that ended some civilizations, humanity generally adjusted successfully – through a Pleistocene Ice Age, a Little Ice Age, a Dust Bowl and other natural crises. Numerous state high temperature records were set in Dust Bowl years.

After putting our current “microsecond” on Earth into its proper perspective, we might therefore ask:

• With today’s vastly superior technologies, why would humanity possibly be unable to adjust to even a few-degrees temperature increase, especially with more atmospheric carbon dioxide helping plants grow faster and better, providing more food for animals and people?
• How dare the political, bureaucratic, academic and media ruling elites – who propagate GIGO computer predictions, calculated myths and outright disinformation – tell us we must implement their “green” policies immediately and universally ... or humanity won’t survive manmade climate influences that are minuscule compared to the planetary, solar and galactic forces that really control Earth’s climate?
• How dare those elites tell Earth’s poorest people and nations they have no right to seek energy, health and living standards akin to what developed countries already enjoy?

Scientists, geophysicists and engineers have yet to explain or prove what caused the slight change in global temperatures we are experiencing today – much less the huge fluctuations that brought five successive mile-high continental glaciers, and sea levels that plunged 400 feet each time (because seawater was turned to ice), interspersed with warm interglacial periods like the one we’re in now.

Moreover, none of the dire predictions of cataclysmic temperature increases, sea level rise, and more frequent and intense storms have actually occurred, despite decades of climate chaos fearmongering.

Earth continues to experience climate changes, from natural forces and/or human activity. However, adjusting to small temperature, sea level and precipitation changes would inflict far less harm on our planet’s eight billion people than would ridding the world of fossil fuels that provide 80% of our energy and myriad products that helped to nearly double human life expectancy over the past 200 years.

Today, with fuels, products, housing and infrastructures that didn’t even exist one or two centuries ago, we can adjust to almost anything.

When it’s cold, we heat insulated homes and wear appropriate winter clothing; when it’s hot, we use air conditioning and wear lighter clothing. When it rains, we remain dry inside or with umbrellas; when it snows, we stay warm indoors or ski, bobsled and build snowmen.

Climate changes may impact us in many ways. But eliminating coal, oil and natural gas – with no 24/7/365 substitutes to replace them – would be immoral and evil. It would bring extreme shortages of reliable, affordable, essential energy, and of over 6,000 essential products derived from fossil fuels.

It would inflict billions of needless deaths from diseases, malnutrition, extreme heat and cold, and wild weather – on a planet where the human population has grown from 1 billion to 8 billion since Col. Edwin Drake drilled the first oilwell in 1859.

• Weather-related fatalities have virtually disappeared, thanks to accurate forecasting, storm warnings, modern buildings, and medicines and other petroleum-based products that weren’t available even 100 years ago.
• Fossil fuels for huge long-range jets and merchant ships move people, products, food and medications to support global trade, mobility, health and lifestyle choices. Indeed, more than 50,000 merchant ships, 20,000 commercial aircraft and 50,000 military aircraft use fuels manufactured from crude oil. 
• Food to feed Americans and humanity would be far less abundant and affordable without the fertilizers, insecticides, herbicides, and tractor and transportation fuels that come from oil and natural gas.
• Everything powered by electricity utilizes petroleum-based derivatives: wind turbine blades and nacelle covers, wire insulation, iPhone and computer housings, defibrillators, myriad EV components and more.

Petroleum industry history demonstrates that crude oil was virtually useless until it could be transformed in refineries and chemical plants into derivatives that are the foundation for plastics, solvents, medications and other products that support industries, health and living standards. The same is true for everything else that comes out of holes in the ground.

Plants and rocks, metals and minerals have no inherent value unless we learn how to cook them, extract metals from them, bend and shape them, or otherwise convert them into something we can use.

Similarly, the futures of poor developing countries hinge on their ability to harness foundational elements: fuels, electricity, minerals and feed stocks made from fossil fuels and other materials that are the basis for all buildings, infrastructures and other technologies in industrialized countries.

For the 80% of humanity in Africa, Asia and Latin America who still live on less than $10 a day – and the billions who still have little to no access to electricity – life is severely complicated and compromised by the hypocritical “green” agendas of wealthy country elites who have benefited so tremendously from fossil fuels since the modern industrial era began around 1850. Before that:

• Life spans were around 40 years, and people seldom traveled more than 100 miles from their birthplaces.
• There was no electricity, since generating, transmitting and utilizing this amazing energy resource requires technologies made from oil and natural gas derivatives.
• That meant the world had no modern transportation, hospitals, medicines and medical equipment, kitchen and laundry appliances, radio and other electronics, cell phones and other telecommunications, air and space travel, central heating and air conditioning, or year-round shipping and preservation of meats, fruits and vegetables, to name just a few things most of us just take for granted.

There are no silver-bullet solutions to save people from natural or manmade climate changes. However, adjusting to those fluctuations is the only solution that minimizes fatalities which would be caused by the callous or unthinking elimination of the petroleum fuels and building blocks that truly make life possible and enjoyable, instead of nasty, brutish and short. The late Steven Lyazi explained it perfectly in his own column for Townhall from 2017, "Solar Ovens and Sustained Poverty for Africa."

Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org), and author of articles and books on environmental, climate and human rights issues. Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for the Heartland Institute and CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize-nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”

Can Fracking Fix the World?

By Rich Kozlovich

One of my favorite geopolitical analysts is Allison Fedirka who published this subscriber piece on May 1, 2024, Don't Expect Too Much From Venezuela's Elections, saying: 

The Venezuelan opposition has unexpectedly united around a single candidate: Edmundo Gonzalez. And though this is good news for a movement that has long been hindered by its inability to set aside its differences, much remains in the way of true regime change, which should still be seen as a long-term goal rather than a plausible outcome of the July 28 elections.

I've kept a running file on Venezuela, and written quite a lot about it in the past predicting Maduro's downfall.  And while I got a lot right, every one of my predictions of his downfall was wrong.  There was a lady who wrote a piece saying they were not going to be toppled and cited a lot of historical precedents, which I foolishly ignored, and unfortunately, I very stupidly didn't save her article, and she was right.

I don't see any real improvement in Venezuela for a number of reasons.  First, there’s no way Maduro and his band of thugs are going to give up power, it will have to be taken, and no one as far as I can tell is funding such an effort or supplying arms.  Secondly, there doesn’t seem to be a rebel movement in Venezuela.  I think there are and two reasons for that.  Their population has dwindled seriously, and the nation is as much under control of crime lords as it is the government.  The remaining population is scared, powerless, and just want to keep from starving for another day.

Everything else is maskirovka, a masquerade.  After Biden is gone…hopefully…. any deals between Venezuela and the United States will be toast.

Fracking oil isn’t just sweet, it’s super sweet making refinement less expensive or time consuming.    Venezuela’s oil is seriously contaminated and at one point it was predicted Venezuela was an oil rich nation that might not have a market, and there were few refineries that could handle their oil, and they were all in the United States.  

Well, it goes to show, there are no boundaries on stupid, and the Biden administration has done everything in it's power to destroy the use of traditional, reliable, easily available energy sources.   

Energy is fundamental, and he who has the most energy, is the boss, and America is massively energy rich, but it must be exploited or it's meaningless.

If Biden is gone America will return to fracking and drilling, and that will be a worldwide game changer.  That will disrupt all that’s going on in the EU, the Middle East, the Russo/Ukrainian War, China and South East Asia, and I believe the death kneel for BRICS.

Here are my seven rules of geopolitics

1. First Rule of Geopolitics: All geopolitics is about four factors, geographics, demographics, economics, and that most elusive factor of all, the happiness factor.  
   
2. Second Rule of Geopolitics:  Everything is about the basics.  You have to be able to see issues at their foundational root levels in order to understand and fix complex problems.
   
3. Third Rule of Geopolitics:  History is everything since historical events lay the foundation for the social paradigms of nations, which have been in effect for centuries in most areas of the world.
   
4. Fourth Rule of Geopolitics:  People are like nations, and will act in their own best interests, unless they don't.  
5. Fifth Rule of Geopolitics: Nothing is ever as it appears.  Look behind the curtain, there's always something hidden. 
6. Sixth Rule of Geopolitics:  The patterns of life keep repeating over and over again. 
   
7. Seventh Rule of Geopolitics:  Everyone lies.    
   

Can fracking fix the world?  No, as an overall concept, the world's unfixable, there are entirely too many nutrolls in powerful positions.  But it can go a long way to stabilizing the world.  Everyone wants perfection, but the best we can hope for is the most acceptable imperfection, and stable is the most acceptable imperfection we will have to accept.

Biden Exploits Indigenous Spirituality to Appease Environmentalists

Alaskan native tribes are being deprived of oil revenue and ignored. 

By John Klar | Feb 28, 2024 @ Liberty Nation News Tags: Articles, Opinion, Politics

(Photo by Simon Bruty/Anychance/Getty Images)

A watchdog group has filed a “scientific integrity” complaint against the Biden administration for employing “Indigenous knowledge” as justification for canceling seven oil and gas leases in Alaska. The decision was allegedly a political maneuver to appease environmental groups unhappy with the administration’s earlier approval of a massive drilling operation (the Willow Project) in the Alaskan petroleum reserve. The president’s people appear to have exploited Native American spirituality to court white liberal votes while impoverishing Alaskan tribes.

Complaint of Shoddy Science

Protect the Public’s Trust wrote in their complaint that “…the Biden administration’s decision making, through the use of Indigenous Knowledge, is susceptible to manipulation without even the pretense of adhering to scientific principles….” The chief basis of the allegations is Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland’s September 6, 2023, announcement that the seven leases would be terminated:

“President Biden is delivering on the most ambitious climate and conservation agenda in history. The steps we are taking today further that commitment, based on the best available science and in recognition of the Indigenous Knowledge of the original stewards of this area, to safeguard our public lands for future generations.”

Indigenous Knowledge and Oil Revenues

It is not clear what Indigenous Knowledge offers to the field of climate science. And while many remote native villages still subsist on caribou, walrus, and whale, tens of thousands of Alaskan natives depend on these leases for their community services, personal incomes, and economic hopes for their future generations. The Inupiat North Slope communities and other tribes live in isolated regions where jobs are scarce. Alaska boasts a high level of energy employment, where wages trend some 50% above average national wages. Additionally, Native Americans receive distributions of oil revenue.

Following the 1968 discovery of vast Alaskan petroleum reserves, the bipartisan Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act of 1971 created more than 200 Native-owned corporations, including the Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC). Alaska Public Media (APM) states:

“By creating more than 200 Native-owned corporations like ASRC and seeding them with 44 million acres of land and $1 billion, the legislation was one of the most progressive land deals ever struck between the U.S. government and Indigenous people. Since its inception, ASRC has paid out more than $1 billion in dividends, with recent per-shareholder payments as high as $7,000 a year. Only people with Alaska Native heritage can own shares, with a few exceptions. … the deal helped create monetary wealth for ASRC’s 13,000 shareholders and those of dozens of other Alaska Native-owned corporations. ASRC has now been listed as Alaska’s top revenue-generating business for the past 27 years. It says it has 13,500 employees across the country and ranks among the top regional corporations in its yearly cash dividends…”

Hundreds of millions of additional dollars are generated from real estate taxes, enabling otherwise impoverished Native Alaskan communities to build grocery stores, water and sewer lines, communications infrastructure, schools (that teach native language), and health and rescue services. All of these efforts have been compromised by the Biden about-face on leases, but community leaders claim they have been completely ignored. APM reports:

“Doreen Leavitt, director of Natural Resources and Tribal Council Secretary for the Inupiat Community of the Arctic Slope (ICAS,) argued that the Biden administration’s actions amounted to a slight against Alaska Native villages’ right to self-determination.

“…Responsible resource extraction has, since the passage of ANCSA, become a cornerstone of the regional economy, Leavitt told the committee. Further limiting already restricted land usage threatened to further upend a fragile economic foothold for the Inupiat. The tribe would have shared these comments with the Biden administration had they ever been consulted, Leavitt said.”

Some tribes claim conservation efforts seek to “turn our homeland into one giant park,” which will undermine economic development and restrict subsistence efforts. One area resident remarked that “it’s wilderness areas and romantic notions of what the Arctic should be that continue to drive outsiders to glibly advocate for limiting resource development.” A bill – H.R. 6285, “Alaska’s Right to Produce Act” – seeks to reinstate the leases canceled by the Biden administration.

Biden Confusion

Government policies must balance competing objectives, but the scales for Biden persistently seem to tip toward self-interest and re-election. The president has recently paused emissions regulations and climate goals for EVs to appease UAW workers for November, signaling that climate urgency takes a back seat to his campaign. Similarly, breaching government oil-lease commitments to Indigenous tribes to showboat for environmentalists is justified by appeals to Native American spirituality – not to help conservation, climate, or Native Americans, but to politicize all social causes for Biden 2024.

 

Read More From John Klar

Without crude oil, there can be no electricity

By Ronald Stein October 17th, 2023 @ CFACT

Over the last 200 years, after the discovery of crude oil, the world populated from 1 to 8 billion. Today, all the electricity generation options available, such as wind turbines, solar panels, nuclear, hydro, coal, and natural gas, are all dependent on the products and components manufactured from crude oil to be able to generate electricity.

Looking back, the history of the petroleum industry illustrated that crude oil was virtually useless unless it could be manufactured (refineries) into oil derivatives that are now the basis of chemical products, such as plastics, solvents, and medications, that are essential for supporting modern lifestyles. The more than 6,000 products being used for humanity’s needs and the generation of electricity did not exist a few short centuries ago.

Today, we have more than 50,000 merchant ships, more than 20,000 commercial aircraft, and more than 50,000 military aircraft that use the fuels manufactured from crude oil. The fuels to move the heavy-weight and long-range needs of jets moving people and products and the merchant ships for global trade flows;  the military and space programs, are also dependent on what can be manufactured from crude oil.

For the aircraft and ships, just like that for the various options for the generation of electricity, they all utilize parts and components made from the oil derivatives manufactured from raw crude oil.

Mankind in the pre-1800s set the stage for the fantastic growth after the mankind’s discovery of crude oil:

• Life longevity was around forty years of age, and people seldom travelled more than one hundred miles from where they were born.
• A world population of about one billion people.
• No electricity, as all generation of electricity is only possible with the parts made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil for wind turbines, solar panels, and coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower plants.
• The following infrastructures were not around a few short centuries ago, because they all need components and parts that were NOT available in the pre-1800s.
1. Transportation
2. Hospitals
3. Medical equipment
4. Appliances
5. Electronics
6. Telecommunications
7. Communications systems
8. Space programs
9. Heating and ventilating
10. Military

Today, a few centuries after the discovery of crude oil:

• Everything that needs electricity and every infrastructure is made from oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil, from the light bulb to the iPhone, defibrillator, and all the parts of EVs, toilets, and spacecraft.
• Weather-related fatalities have virtually disappeared with all the products and medications available today that were not available a few centuries ago.

Globally, as most of the world leaders in the few wealthy countries continue to focus on ceasing oil production and shuttering the refining of crude oil, the future does not bode well, as 20 percent of the almost 700 worldwide refineries are expected to close in the next 5 years, i.e., 140 closures. Further inflation and shortages in perpetuity are guaranteed, as those refineries are manufacturing the oil derivatives for all the products in society, and the fuels for the jets moving people and products, and the merchant ships for global trade flows and the military and space programs.

While the few wealthy countries are pursuing the elimination of crude oil, China has no intentions of abandoning its economic, military, or strategic ambitions – all of which rely on crude oil. Asia is the region with the greatest number of future petroleum refineries. As of 2021, there were 88 new facilities in planning or under construction in Asia.

Policymakers in the few wealthy countries are not cognizant enough to understand that there has yet to be identified a replacement for crude oil that now provides the products and fuels that have been manufactured from crude oil during the last few centuries, that are the basis on every infrastructure segment supporting the 8 billion on this planet!

The elephant in the room that no one wants to discuss is that crude oil is the foundation of our materialistic society, as it is the basis of all products and fuels demanded by the 8 billion on this planet.

• Ridding the world of raw crude oil before we have a replacement to produce the oil derivatives currently manufactured from crude oil, we’re back to the 1800s.
• The greatest threat to the world’s populations could be the future for billions to exist and prosper without those oil derivatives that are currently supporting more than 6,000 products for society.
• Shockingly, very few parents, teachers, students, politicians, and those in the media have any clues or understanding about the basis of the products in our daily lives from crude oil!   Energy Literacy at its best!!!

The proverb “you can’t have your cake and eat it too” tells us that:

1. You can’t rid the world of crude oil and
2. Continue to enjoy the products and fuels that are currently made with the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil.

Without a replacement for the crude oil that’s been providing the products supporting today’s humanity for the last couple of centuries, policymakers seem to be focused on jumping out of an airplane without a parachute!

Here are a few suggested subjects for those energy literacy discussions at the dinner table:

1. Everything that needs electricity is made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil, from the light bulb to the iPhone, defibrillator, and all the parts of EVs, toilets, and spacecraft.
2. All generation of electricity is only possible with the parts made from the oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil for wind turbines, solar panels, and the coal, natural gas, nuclear, and hydropower plants.
3. Electricity came after crude oil!

 Author

 

Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”

CBDCs are Coming! CBDCs are Coming! – Swamponomics

CBDCs arriving soon, oil supply deficits, and shrinking bank lending.

By Andrew Moran July 18, 2023 @ Liberty Nation News

Governments and central banks worldwide are bullish on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). They will be the new normal in the coming years. At first, these digital currencies will complement physical money, marketed as a benign scheme to compete on the international stage and prevent China from ruling the world. As the years go by, CBDCs will put the kibosh on cold hard cash, serving as a functional surveillance tool – and that future may not be too far away.

Invasion of the CBDCs

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS), a financial institution owned by member central banks, released the results of its December survey of 86 central banks. The study determined if they were working on the two types of CBDCs (retail, wholesale, or both), how the work is coming along, and what their motivations are for devising such a technology. BIS researchers learned that half are launching experiments for pilot CBDCs, with one-quarter beginning to pilot retail CBDCs. Not too many were engaged in wholesale CBDCs.

The most notable finding from the July 2023 report was that as many as 24 CBDCs could go live by 2030, buoyed by many developing economies that are itching for an advantage. By comparison, there are only a handful of CBDCs in circulation today: the Bahamas, China, Eastern Caribbean, Jamaica, and Nigeria.

“More than 80% of central banks see potential value in having both a retail CBDC and a fast payment system, mostly because a retail CBDC has specific properties and may offer additional features,” BIS wrote in the report. “The survey suggests that there could be 15 retail and nine wholesale CBDCs publicly circulating in 2030.”

In 2023, many advanced markets have been experimenting with CBDCs, such as Japan and Russia. The US, Europe, and the UK are still in the research phase of the process. Future generations, whether in America or overseas, will suffer the consequences of introducing government-approved digital currencies. For now, based on various polling, the public is adamantly opposed to CBDCs and the countries that have launched these digitized versions are seeing little adoption.

Got Oil?

The second half of 2023 will be a compelling time for international energy markets, particularly crude oil. Investors might not be showing concern, but there are growing expectations that a vast oil supply deficit is looming, as many producers have reduced output volumes. The only event that could prevent this from occurring is a worldwide recession. But who even knows if this will transpire?

According to the US Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) Short-Term Energy Outlook, oil demand will exceed supply in the year’s second half. In addition, the EIA anticipates that inventories will maintain a steady decline over the next five quarters. This, of course, will raise energy costs, with Brent, the international benchmark for oil prices, projected to climb to $81 per barrel this year and $84 a barrel in 2024.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) noted that global crude demand was robust enough to contribute to tighter stockpiles from July to December. While China’s economic recovery has been disappointing, the IEA says consumption trends remain strong. “Even in sluggish economic growth, China and other developing countries’ demand is strong,” IEA chief Fatih Birol told Reuters. “Taken together with the production cuts coming from key producing countries, we still believe that we may see tightness in the market in the second half of this year.”

Since the sharp selloff last month, crude oil prices have rebounded. West Texas Intermediate (WTI) and Brent have climbed nearly 6% this month to $76 and $80, respectively. Unfortunately, this could contribute to a higher headline inflation rate and bolster gasoline prices, which have surged close to 11% year-to-date.

Dude, Where’s My Banking Data?

The Federal Reserve presented the public with the good, the bad, and the ugly on the H.4.1 and H.8 data front. First, the positive development: US banks have witnessed deposit inflows of $104 billion, the second consecutive weekly jump. The bad news: Large bank loan volumes have diminished for two straight weeks, tumbling about $8 billion. The ugly: The central bank’s Bank Term Funding Program, which was launched after the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, rose again after falling in the previous week. The emergency lending facility continued to firm above $100 billion. Suffice it to say, the banking turmoil might be stabilizing, but there is plenty of risks that need to be monitored.

Read More From Andrew Moran

All opinions expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of Liberty Nation.

Fifty years after the oil embargo crisis of 1973, no American policy for energy independence

By Ronald Stein April 30th, 2023 50 Comments @ CFACT

The oil embargo of 1973 imposed by the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and other Arab oil-producing nations was imposed in response to the United States’ support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War.

The embargo led to a sharp increase in oil prices and a shortage of fuels for the military, airlines, ships, and vehicles in the United States and other countries, as well as a shortage of products from oil.

Few may remember the long lines at gas stations which were one of the most visible effects of the oil embargo. In some cases, people waited for hours to fill up their tanks. The shortage of oil also led to price increases, and many people were forced to make sacrifices to conserve fuel.

The oil embargo of 1973 was a major event in the history of the United States.  It led to a recession in the United States and other countries. It also led to thoughts of a needed energy policy in the United States. The United States began to develop alternative sources for oil and for electricity, such as solar and wind power.

President Richard Nixon played a key role in the construction of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, which carries oil from Prudhoe Bay on Alaska’s North Slope to the port of Valdez. Nixon signed the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law in 1973, and he worked to overcome environmental and political opposition to the project. The pipeline began operating in 1977 and has since transported more than 15 billion barrels of oil.

President Richard Nixon gave a speech on America’s energy policy on November 7, 1973, in which he outlined his plans to reduce national energy consumption and called on U.S. citizens to follow his lead in achieving energy independence. In his speech, Nixon acknowledged that the United States was facing an oil crisis for the American economy’s demands for fuels, and the products that are based on crude oil, and he blamed the crisis on several factors, including the Arab oil embargo, the growth of the U.S. economy, and the country’s continued reliance on foreign oil.

Now, 50 years later, none of the administrations that followed Nixon have done anything to establish a policy for America’s energy independence from another embargo disaster. We’re talking about a 50-year span of administrations from Presidents Ford, Carter, Reagan, Bush Sr., Clinton, Bush, Jr., Obama, Trump, and now Biden.

As World War I and II historians Russia, China, and OPEC know, the country that controls the minerals, crude oil, and natural gas, controls the world!  They all know there is no substitute for fossil fuel product dominance in the foreseeable future, even on a longer-term horizon. To believe a transition to just electricity from renewables is possible from the products manufactured from fossil fuels and act accordingly is suicidal for humanity. As former Congressman Don Ritter of Pennsylvania wrote  “It’s the real “existential threat.”

Today, President Biden and California Governor Newsom remain oblivious to the fact that wind and solar only generate electricity. Neither Biden or Newsom can identify one product that wind and solar can manufacture for mankind. And worse, neither has a backup plan to replace all the products and fuels that are based on oil!

Biden is campaigning to rid America of oil, and Newsom, by continually decreasing California’s in-state oil production, Newsom’s personal energy policies continue to force California, the 4th largest economy in the world, to be the only state in contiguous America that imports most of its crude oil energy from foreign countries. That dependence, via maritime transportation from foreign nations for the state’s crude oil energy demands, has increased imported crude oil from 5 percent in 1992 to almost 60 percent today of total consumption. California’s growing dependency on other nations, like Saudi Aramco is a serious national security risk for America.

Today, both Biden and Newsom campaign to go green with EV’s, and wind and solar for electricity generation. Through the encouragement of tax incentives and subsidies to go green, they are providing financial incentives to China, who already controls the supply chain for the minerals and metals to go green, furthering our total dependence on China to achieve the green goals of America.

In the 1970s, Nixon also took steps to increase domestic energy production. He opened more federal lands to oil and gas drilling, and he encouraged the development of new sources for electricity, such as solar and nuclear power. He also created the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA), which was responsible for researching and developing new energy technologies.

Nixon’s energy policies were not without their critics. Some argued that his policies were too focused on conservation and not enough on production. Others argued that his policies were too expensive and that they would harm the economy. However, Nixon’s energy policies were generally successful in helping the United States to weather the energy crisis of the 1970s.

Here is a list of some of President Nixon’s energy successes in the 1970s:

• Opening more federal lands to oil and gas drilling
• Created the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 1970
• Created the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) in 1970
• Created the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in 1970
• Created the United States Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) in 1972
• Signing the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law in 1973
• Creating the Energy Research and Development Administration (ERDA) in 1974
• Passage of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act of 1975

Those 1970s agencies were created in response to several challenges facing the United States at the time, including environmental pollution, occupational safety and health hazards, and consumer product safety. The creation of those agencies helped to improve the quality of life for Americans and to protect the environment.

Today, America is offering tax incentives and subsidies to go green at any cost, and implementing policies to rid the country of oil with no backup plan for a supply chain of products from oil that are the basis of the economy. Instead of achieving energy independence, America continues to increase its dependence on China for “green”, and Russia and OPEC for oil products demanded by our economy.

With no policy for energy independence, God help America!

This article originally appeared at Heartland

Author

• Ronald Stein

  Ronald Stein is an engineer, senior policy advisor on energy literacy for CFACT, and co-author of the Pulitzer Prize nominated book “Clean Energy Exploitations.”

Climate Change Protesters Storm the Field, Delay Penn-Yale Game

By Dylan Gwinn 22 Oct, 2022 

A swarm of climate change protesters rushed the field during halftime of the UPenn-Yale football game on Saturday and refused to leave, delaying the start of the second half. The protesters, numbering around 60, represented the Fossil Free Penn organization. The group is pressing the university to fully divest from fossil fuels. In addition, fossil Free Penn posted video of fans attempting to take their banners...........To Read More......

Stuck With Glue But Nowhere To Poo: Climate Extremists Get in Sticky Situation - Chris Tomlinson 21 Oct 2022 - Climate extremists who glued themselves to the floor of a Volkswagen exhibition in Germany complained that no one gave them the means to use the toilet after there were left stuck to the floor for hours. The group of nine climate extremists from the group ‘Scientist Rebellion’ glued themselves to the floor of the Volkswagen museum and car showroom Autostadt in Wolfsburg, which lies across from the automotive giant’s main factory after breaking in. 

@VW told us that they supported our right to protest, 

but they refused our request to provide us with a bowl 

to urinate and defecate in a decent manner while we are glued,

 and have turned off the heating.

Just two hours after the extremists glued themselves to the floor in the Porsche pavilion, they began complaining about food and drink, which was given to them by Volkswagen employees.  However, they later demanded a “privacy tent” and buckets in order to be able to go to the toilet, something the company did not provide, the German tabloid Bild reports..........

Climate Change Cultists’ Latest Eco-Terrorist Act: Mashed Potatoes Tossed on $110 Million Monet - By J.D. Rucker Oct. 23, 2022 -  Cults are destructive and dangerous as indoctrinated followers do stupid things on behalf of a person, group, or cause. But few modern day cults are as completely brainwashed as eco-terrorists in the climate change movement. These people take idiocy to a whole new level.  Last week, they hit an Aston Martin showroom. The week before that they tossed tomato soup on a Van Gogh. Now, they’ve defiled a $110 ($110.00 must be a misprint) Monet with mashed potatoes. Watch:........ 

Activists glue themselves to copy of Leonardo's 'The Last Supper,' adding to string of similar protests - Jacqui Palumbo - A group of climate activists who have disrupted major galleries this week to send a message to the UK government have struck again -- this time at the Royal Academy of Art in London.  On Tuesday morning, demonstrators from Just Stop Oil (JSO) glued themselves to a frame housing a copy of Leonardo da Vinci's "The Last Supper" that is believed to have been painted by two pupils of the Italian Renaissance master. The activists also spray-painted the demand "No New Oil" in white underneath the painting, a spokesperson for the gallery confirmed to CNN............

 

SPECIAL EDITION FRIDAY: Biden Purposely Creating Hardship

Editor's Note:  Unfortunately this SPECIAL EDITION FRIDAY came in from my friend Mychal Massie after I sent out my P&D notice on Friday.  However, as a SPECIAL EDITION MONDAY, it reads equally as well.  RK

 

June 2, 2022 By Mychal Massie Business and Retail     Economy     Political, Christian and Conservative Issues   

The immediately following is an email addressing whose is responsible for the crippling increases of gas.  It’s from John, my longtime friend and colleague.  He has been a frontline warrior in the fight for energy independence and environmental subjugation.  He is informed and knowledgeable regarding the lies and thoroughly dishonest actions of politicians, environmental extremists and the economic terrorists destroying our energy independence – all the while increasing the financial hardship(s) upon the public sectors most unable to withstand the exponential increases in cost of living, goods and services. John writes:

DOE Sec. Jennifer Denholm blames Putin, but gas prices were up 30% before Russia invaded Ukraine. (Have you ever seen a more arrogant face than Denholm’s?)

Here’s why fuels are up so high, by US Senator Josh Hawley:

“He immediately re-entered the Paris Climate Accord, he cancelled the Keystone Pipeline, he halted leasing programs in ANWR, he issued a sixty-day halt on all new oil and gas leases and drilling permits on federal lands and waters … that accounts for 25 percent of US oil production. He directed federal agencies to eliminate all support efforts for fossil fuels, he imposed new regulations on oil and gas, and methane emissions; those were all just in the first few days!”

But, don’t blame Biden – he’s clueless. Blame instead the climate control cabal. The US economy runs on oil and gas – reduce supply and all prices increase – not just gasoline and diesel fuel.

Here is where I apologize to my learned friend, because I do blame Biden.  He wasn’t clueless under Obama and that cabal.  Biden understands what’s going on and he darn well knows what is going on.  And that knowledge alone is sufficient for him to impeached and investigated for a plethora of wrong doings.  His family as a whole should be investigated for financial impropriety.  Which of his family is concerned about the cost of goods and services?  Certainly not his brother and most certainly not his decadent drug-addict son, Hunter.

THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION DOESN’T WANT YOU TO KNOW:

The following are facts that prove that the Biden administration is purposely destroying the economy and knowingly subjecting Americans to financial hardships that are wholly avoidable as proven by President Trump.  These facts are collected from the government’s own United States Geological Survey website.  The data shows this administration is fully aware of the harm, pain and immiseration they are inflicting upon We the People.

This administration is singularly responsible for the unicorn-illusion that electric vehicles will save the  day and rescue people from the horrible idea of fossil fuel.  Fossil fuel is not the problem – cultural Marxists and economic terrorists are the problem.  Blackmail, graft and politicians using their position to circumvent law and precedent for personal and family gain is the problem.  And those are only for starts.

Following are the facts this administration is concealing:

U.S. OIL SUPPLY – INCREDIBLE

Some months ago, there was a news program on oil and one of The
Forbes Bros. was the guest.  The host said to Forbes, “I am going to
ask you a direct question and I would like a direct answer; how much
oil does the U.S. Have in the ground?” Forbes did not miss a beat, he
said, “More than all the Middle East put Together.”

The U.S. Geological Service issued a report in April 2008 that only
Scientists and oil men knew was coming, but man was it big.  It was a
revised report (hadn’t been updated since 1995) on how much oil was in
this area of the western 2/3 of North Dakota, western South Dakota,
and Extreme eastern Montana.

The Bakken is the largest domestic oil discovery since Alaska’s
Prudhoe Bay and has the potential to eliminate all American dependence
on foreign oil. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) estimates
it at 503 billion barrels. Even if just 10% of the oil is recoverable
(5 Billion barrels), at $107 a barrel, we’re looking at a resource
base worth more than $5.3 trillion.  “When I first briefed legislators
on this, you could practically see their Jaws hit the floor.

They had no idea.” says Terry Johnson, the Montana Legislature’s
financial analyzer.  “This sizable find is now the highest-producing
onshore oil field found in the past 56 years,” reports The Pittsburgh
Post Gazette.

It’s a formation known as the Williston Basin but is more commonly
referred to as the ‘Bakken.’  It stretches from Northern Montana,
through North Dakota and into Canada. For years, U.S. Oil exploration
has been considered a dead end.  Even the ‘Big Oil’ companies gave up
searching for major oil wells decades ago.

However, a recent technological breakthrough has opened up the
Bakken’s Massive reserves, And, we now have access of up to 500
billion barrels. And because this is Light, sweet oil, those billions
of barrels will cost Americans just $16 PER BARREL!!!!!  That’s enough
crude to fully fuel the American economy for 2041 years Straight. And
if THAT didn’t throw you on the floor, then this next one should –
Because it’s from 2006 !!!!!!

U.S. Oil Discovery – Largest Reserve in the World Stansberry Report
Online – 4/20/2006.  Hidden 1,000 feet beneath the surface of the
Rocky Mountains lies the Largest untapped oil reserve in the world.
It is more than 2 TRILLION barrels. On August 8, 2005 President Bush
Mandated its extraction.  In many recent years of high oil prices none
has been extracted. With this mother lode of oil why are we still
fighting over off-shore Drilling?

They reported this stunning news:  We have more oil inside our
borders, than all the other proven reserves on Earth.

Here are the official estimates:

• 8 times as much oil as Saudi Arabia
• 18 times as much oil as Iraq
• 21 times as much oil as Kuwait
• 22 times as much oil as Iran
• 500 times as much oil as Yemen

And it’s all right here in the Western United States !!!!!!

HOW can this BE? HOW can we NOT BE extracting this? Because the
Environmentalists and others have blocked all efforts to help America
become Independent of foreign oil!  Again, we are letting a small
group of people Dictate our lives and our economy. WHY?

James Bartis, lead researcher with the study says we’ve got more oil
in this very compact area than the entire Middle East, more than 2
TRILLION barrels Untapped. That’s more than all the proven oil
reserves of crude oil in the World today, reports The Denver Post.

Don’t think ‘OPEC’ will drop its price even with this find? Think
again!  It’s all about the competitive marketplace, it has to. Think
OPEC just might be funding the environmentalists?

Click this link to read the Biden government’s own information and the flimsy excuses they use to manufacture lies to destroy the fossil fuel and natural resources industries:

The following is an article by Lauren Fix for NewsMax from July 9, 2021:

The title of the article asks the question: “Will All These Electric Cars Crash The Power Grid? Explained.”  Before you read Fix’s article let me say emphatically that not only will it crash the power grid, but the mindless stupidity of the demonic hordes pushing electric vehicles is not to be construed with being of benefit to us.  It is the exact opposite.  The cost of the impact on the environment alone will be far beyond the harm green zealots are claiming comes from fossil fuel.

Fix wrote the following July 9, 2021:

High temperatures, increased demand for the electric power for air conditioning, computers and electric cars charging; will all these new electric cars crash the grid?

 

The latest dose of reality came this week when California, facing triple digit temperatures, began to worry about the pressure on the state’s power grid as a result of everybody charging their electric vehicles all at once.

 

This is not just a California problem, it impacts the entire United States and we are starting to see the results of relying 100% on solar and wind and reducing nuclear, natural gas and coal usage. I promise this will lead to increased electricity costs.

I’ll explain.

From a June 18th post on Facebook: “California literally just told everyone to not charge their electric cars due to power shortage.”

This year, the scorching temperatures arrived early, prompting the first power conservation advisory of the summer on June 17 and setting off speculation on social media about how the heat could impact electric car owners.

This sparked discussion on social media about whether California has the resources to continue to move toward electric vehicles in pursuit of a greener future. Currently, California is planning to sell only electric cars by 2035.

For California, it can’t provide enough electricity for the homes and businesses they have, yet they are mandating everyone drive more electric cars.

But this electric grid issue impacts other states. Look at Texas which recently was in darkness for weeks..

This is a state known for oil and gas. They tried changing their base load power to wind and solar and reducing the load from natural gas and coal. The energy board was humiliated and many stepped down. This was a bad decision that impacted many people’s lives.

New York City, Seattle and Portland were other large cities that asked people to not charge their electric cars, shut off their air conditioning and unplug any unused electric appliances.

The demand has increased and the supply isn’t as reliable if you rely on wind and solar. Charging at night doesn’t work for everyone.

So what is the impact to you and your wallet?

The grid has problems that are greater than electric cars. The grid needs to be upgraded, but adding on the load from electric cars and powering it with solar and wind is far from being able to support all the draw required to charge every car and all of the other electric needs.

There is a theory that people plug in at night. In Silicone Valley, every office has charging at the office as a benefit to employees, so people charge at work for free and don’t plug in at home; its just more convenient.

The best conditions for charging are for people to charge at home; instead, it’s easier to charge at work, and every car adding to the systems draws against the base load power during the day taxes the system.

Companies, homes and universities use quite a bit of power during the day, too.

Increasing the supply of energy is not the answer. The grid needs to be upgraded, and to increase the capacity will cost trillions of dollars.

The Energy Marketers of America stated that if 10% of America goes to EV’s, the cost will be $147 billion. That cost will be passed down to you.

Electric companies are calling us “Rate-Payers,” and they are charging us for this subsidy whether you use it or not. We are all paying in on the increased prices.

Utility companies are seeking approval to charge rate-payers additional money to pay for the build-out of the electric vehicle charging infrastructure, even though this same infrastructure is going to become a source of revenue for utilities down the road.

According to a recent EMA study, building out the EV charging infrastructure (just the charging port, not the additional electric grid capacity or weatherizing) will cost more than $5,000 for every electric vehicle, charging prices not included.

There are some other options to reduce the carbon footprint, but it’s not part of the Green New Deal. Nuclear power is a clean and sustainable, nuclear is a zero-emission clean energy source, but it’s not subsidized and removing it from our grid will cause brown-outs.

This is already happening all over California. There are also new fracking techniques that could be used to generate energy with no carbon emissions.

Here’s the Bottom line:

In the nation’s capital and state capitals around the country, laws and regulations are being pursued with the ultimate goal of getting rid of gas- and diesel-fueled cars and trucks.

These policies come in many different packages with many different names (infrastructure bills, “zero emission vehicle” mandates, fuel economy standards, clean car and truck rules, low carbon fuel standards) but they share the central goals of making it more expensive to own any vehicle that isn’t electric and requiring the public, rather than private companies, to pay for EV charging.

Already, these government approaches are hitting American drivers. All consumers need to be informed and policymakers need to take steps to insert consumer protections into each of these measures.

There is a push for electric vehicles.  We are moving too fast and the cost to you is going to increase and so will the price gasoline. They are putting the squeeze on us!

As I and many others have warned many times over, it is also important that we remember the green zealots and their political allies are natural born pernicious liars.  Are we supposed to forget Obama’s “If you like your doctor you can keep them and his face the nation speeches claiming premiums would not increase with obamacare?”

On June 19, 2017, in a syndicated column I wrote the following:

One of the greatest myths of all time is the climate change hoax. I remember hearing the over-the-top prognosticators of doom and gloom dating back to my college days and before. I remember hearing the environmentalists predict a global drop in temperature was going to occur and create a new ice age. We are still waiting for Newsweek’s 1975 article about the impending ice age entitled “The Cooling World” by Peter Gwynne, to become a reality – the article predicted the world could expect same to happen within 10 years of its date of writing.

There was the acid rain scare, predictions of forest death in Central Europe, and other apocalyptic predictions, not the least of which were those outlined in William and Paul Paddock’s book entitled “Famine-1975.” They argued that, “by 1975, a disaster of unprecedented magnitude [would] face the world and famines greater than any in history [would] ravage the undeveloped nations.”

The Arizona Republic, on June 2, 1968, wrote “professor R. Heilbroner of New York predicted that in the early 1970s, ‘the greatest catastrophe the world has ever known’ [would] occur when the population far outstrips the available food supply.”

From the beginning, radical prognosticators of environmental apocalypse have been miserably wrong. Now, armed with new fictional threats and apocalyptic warnings, they seek to legislate the environment and thus further erode the rights of individuals.

As I wrote in March of 2007: “From the beginning, radical prognosticators of environmental apocalypse have been miserably wrong. Now, armed with new fictional threats and apocalyptic warning, they seek to legislate the environment and thus further erode the rights of individuals.”

The deranged climate culture followed global cooling with myths guaranteeing cataclysmic certainties due to global warming. Succeeding only at reproducing faux studies and fallacious documentation pursuant to global warming and global cooling in the months preceding same – the climatology schemers came up with “climate-change.”

Climate-change is perhaps the most draconian lie of them all because left in the hands of those like Obama it allows for government to not only control but to elevate climate lies to the stature of biblical truths.

David Deming wrote, “This is not science – it’s religion. It takes faith to believe in global warming. You need to pretend the sun is not the major factor in how warm the earth is at any given time. You need to pretend that your choice of light bulb can really impact the temperature of the planet. You need to pretend that buying carbon credits from Al Gore will actually save the planet. You need to pretend massive redistribution of wealth can reduce the temperatures of the planet. That’s a lot of pretending [i.e., faith]”. (See: The Only True Emergency; 7/14/2009)

Mark my words; this push to toward electric vehicles will be the mother of one of the single greatest disastrously bad decisions in the history of America.

Take action and share this!

About the Author

Mychal Massie

Mychal S. Massie is an ordained minister who spent 13 years in full-time Christian Ministry. Today he serves as founder and Chairman of the Racial Policy Center (RPC), a think tank he officially founded in September 2015. RPC advocates for a colorblind society. He was founder and president of the non-profit “In His Name Ministries.” He is the former National Chairman of a conservative Capitol Hill think tank; and a former member of the think tank National Center for Public Policy Research. Read entire bio here

 

Biden Once Again Turns to Venezuela for Oil After Shutting Down U.S. Leases

By Eric Lendrum May 18, 2022

The Biden Administration is reportedly set to announce that it will lift several sanctions and other restrictions on Venezuela, allowing for the purchase of oil from the socialist dictatorship.

As reported by The Daily Caller, two anonymous administration officials said that the federal government will soon ease up some of the energy sanctions against the Latin American country, and will allow the American oil company Chevron to enter into negotiations to purchase oil from the state-owned firm PDVSA. In return for the lifting of sanctions, dictator Nicolas Maduro has tentatively agreed to talks with opposition leader Juan Guadio, who has claimed that Maduro’s rule is illegitimate and that he is the rightful president of Venezuela.

The agreement was made “on the basis of ambitious, concrete and irreversible outcomes that empower the Venezuelan people to determine the future in their country through democratic elections,” according to one of the officials..........To Read More....

 

•  Manchin Exposes Insane Biden Plan on Oil Leases During Haaland Testimony 
•  Must Fossil Fuel Extraction Be Stopped to Limit Global Warming?
•  Gas Stations in Washington Brace for $10 a Gallon Amid Gas Shortages 
• Josh Hawley Blasts Energy Secretary Granholm for Rising Gas Prices: ‘Utter Nonsense’ to Blame Putin
•  The Senator Who Left Biden's Interior Secretary Speechless  - Joe Biden is becoming engulfed in a national energy crisis, and he decided to kill virtually all oil and gas leases in Alaska. He already got the ball rolling on this fiasco when he decided to nix the Keystone Pipeline. It was a bad policy, but one he was forced to make because the environmental Left would have had a coronary. It’s not hard to see gas prices soaring to a national average of $5/gallon by the dog days of summer. This is Joe Biden’s crisis. It’s his fault, and it’s sadistic. These people thought they could ride in and do what they want. You can’t with a 50-50 Senate and a four-seat House majority. So, they’d rather torch our wallets with these policies; it’s intentional. Could it also be a backdoor enaction of the Green New Deal? At least on a partial basis especially with the oil and gas leases? ...........
  
  

Saving America from planet-threatening fossil fuels

By sacrificing our economy, environment, living standards, freedoms and security
 
Paul Driessen
 
Presidential candidate Joe Biden repeatedly promised to end fossil fuels in America. There’ll be “no more drilling, including offshore,” he said. “No ability for the oil industry to drill. No more pipelines.” 
 
Shortly after reaching the White House, President Biden ended Keystone XL pipeline construction and began working with congressional Democrats, regulators and eco-activists to impose leasing and drilling moratoriums, slow-walk permits, pressure financial institutions to deny funding to fossil fuel companies, and implement “social cost of carbon” rules, “environmental justice” programs, “windfall profit” taxes and other policies to close down or bankrupt fossil fuel projects and companies.
 
His Securities and Exchange Commission says companies must “disclose risks” from alleged “manmade climate change” – from their own production, refining and manufacturing operations; from suppliers and customers using their products; and from government anti-carbon policies.
 
Supplies predictably dwindled, and prices skyrocketed. Not just for gasoline and other fossil fuels that still provide 80% of all U.S. energy, but for fertilizers, farm chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paints, plastics, cosmetics and countless other petroleum-based products – and for goods and services that require offices, factories, stores and transport that need reliable, affordable energy. In other words, for nearly everything.
 
Keystone alone would have brought the United States 700,000 barrels of friendly Canadian oil. That’s equal to the petroleum Russia was sending America before Mr. Biden finally banned the imports, after Vladimir Putin’s butchery in Ukraine reached levels that even far-Left Democrats couldn’t stomach.
 
President Biden tried to blame Putin for food, fuel and other prices that had been soaring well before the Ukraine invasion. He’s now pleading with American oil companies to increase production – but only temporarily (to send liquefied gas to Europe and to protect Democrat office holders in November), without easing his anti-oil edicts.
 
He begged Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela to increase their oil production. He used Russia to broker a new nuclear deal with Supreme Leader Ali Khameni, so that Iran can sell more oil on the global market. He apparently believes those sources don’t emit “dangerous” carbon dioxide.
 
Above all, Team Biden doubled down on calls for America to switch from gasoline cars to electric vehicles, and from coal and natural gas electricity generation to wind, solar and backup battery power. They claim this massive, costly restructuring of America can replace “dirty, planet-threatening” fossil fuels with “clean, renewable, sustainable” wind, solar and battery energy. It’s a duplicitous con.
 
Wind turbines and solar panels on this scale would defile millions of acres of crop, scenic and habitat land. They would kill millions of birds, bats and other wildlife. They require massive amounts of raw materials (and thus mining) to create expensive, inefficient, weather-dependent energy devices. They and 1000-pound battery modules are the least clean, renewable, sustainable energy sources imaginable.
 
“Clean” technologies merely replace CO2 and methane emissions in the USA with massive amounts of real, toxic pollution in other countries, out of sight and mind, where climate activists can ignore them.
 
A Green New Deal would make America almost totally reliant on China, Russia and other despotic and unstable nations for the metals and minerals needed for GND technologies. And for the equipment itself, because a fossil-fuel-free America wouldn’t have the reliable energy needed to manufacture wind turbines, solar panels, battery modules, transformers and thousands of miles of new transmission lines. America’s entire GND energy and economic future could depend on their tyrannical good graces.
 
China, Russia and their surrogates could wield green tech as a strategic weapon, banning exports of materials or technologies to advance their political goals. They could even embed trip-switches or backdoors for hackers in equipment they sell to us, enabling them to close down part or all of our electrical grid and economy. A shutdown could kill millions.
 
The quantities of metals, minerals and other raw materials required for this “green energy transition” are almost incomprehensible. We would have to mine Planet Earth on unprecedented scales.
 
The first stage of President Biden’s offshore wind energy program alone would require 110,000 tons of non-renewable copper – plus millions of tons of cobalt, lithium, nickel, aluminum, iron, manganese, rare earth elements, platinum, plastics, concrete, and that suddenly very visible and valuable metal: nickel.
 
His plan calls for 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. That’s 2,140 monstrous 850-foot-tall 14-MW turbines. It sounds like a lot of electricity, but it wouldn’t even meet New York State’s peak summertime electricity needs. And they’d generate zero electricity half the year.
 
Based on average global copper ore bodies, just those 110,000 tons of copper would require removing 40,000,000 tons of overburden and processing 25,000,000 tons of ore. That’s enough crushed rock to cover a 24-foot-wide highway from Washington, DC to Tampa, Florida ten feet deep! Just for the copper.
 
(Or you could bury the White House, Capitol Hill, all the most climate-focused federal agencies, and all Greenpeace, Sierra Club and other eco-pressure groups’ DC offices under 100 feet of rock and dust.)
 
Climate- obsessed legislators, regulators, activists and judges detest and contest mining anywhere in the United States, even to support the Green New Deal they claim is essential to save America, our planet and humanity from “climate cataclysms.” They’ve already made millions of acres off limits to exploration and mining, affecting numerous world-class prospects.
 
In just the past couple years, they prevented three critically needed mines from opening: Alaska’s Pebble Mine (billions of pounds of copper, gold, silver, molybdenum, rhenium and other metals); Minnesota’s NorthMet mine (billions of pounds of copper, cobalt, platinum and nickel); and enormous lithium deposits in Nevada.
 
That means GND mining and processing would take place in Asia, Africa and Latin America, mostly by or under the auspices of Chinese firms – under environmental, pollution control, workplace safety, and child and slave labor rules, standards and practices that were repudiated in America 50-100 years ago.
 
Will the White House, congressional Democrats, EPA, Labor Department and SEC demand that companies disclose all those fossil fuel uses, risks, environmental impacts and human rights abuses?
 
They loudly promote electric vehicles and a total transformation of the U.S. energy system and economy. But they say nothing about acquiring the raw materials and equipment essential for turning these dreams into reality. They are silent about the land destruction, air and water pollution, wildlife losses, human diseases and deaths, and eco-imperialism that their policies impose, especially on people of color.
 
They are mute about the ways their “climate protection” racket would allow China, Russia and other thuggish regimes to pursue their territorial ambitions – and give them unprecedented control over the Western World’s energy, jobs, economies, living standards, foreign policies and national security.
 
They make no attempt to calculate how many wind turbines, solar panels, vehicle and backup battery modules, transformers and transmission lines would be needed in a fossil-fuel-free, all-electricity nation. How many acres of wildlife habitat would be disrupted or destroyed. How many new mines would have to be opened. How many birds, bats and other animals would be killed. How many trillions of tons of ores and overburden would have to be blasted away and processed. Or how many huge landfills we’ll need for all the worn-out turbines, blades, panels and batteries. They certainly don’t discuss how much our living standards, personal choices and basic freedoms would be reduced in their “clean energy” America.
 
They don’t ask because they don’t want to know – and don’t want us to even think about these issues.
 
Putin’s Ukraine war has opened eyes about NATO, disarmament and Europe’s feckless reliance on Russian natural gas. We need equal realism about America’s climate and energy policies – and how far America’s ruling elites would take us down the path to ruin, to achieve their Green Utopia.
 
Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of articles and books on energy, climate change, human rights and environmental issues.  
  Contact me: pkdriessen@gmail.com