global warming, climate change, environment, greens, Carbon dioxide, facts, myths, greenhouse gases, Energy, Oil, Gas, Fracking, EPA, nuclear power, food scares, genetically modified food,
Following the big US money behind Canadian pipeline protests
Last week I watched news coverage of Green Party leader Elizabeth May and NDP MP Kennedy Stewart getting arrested at Burnaby Mountain, the site of a protest against Kinder Morgan’s Trans Mountain Pipeline expansion project.
Global Fossil Fuel Consumption Subsidies Abound, But Not in the United States
The International Energy Agency (IEA) annually estimates global fossil-fuel consumption subsidies that measure what many developing countries spend to provide below-market cost fuel to their citizens. In 2016, IEA found that fossil fuel consumption subsidies totaled around $260 billion, 16 percent lower (about $50 billion less) than in 2015. According to IEA, this decrease is partly due to lower international energy prices of subsidized fuels. Oil subsidies made up 40 percent of the total fossil fuel consumption subsidies, while electricity made up 41 percent, natural gas 19 percent and coal 0.8 percent. According to the IEA, the United States does not have any consumption subsidies for oil, coal, electricity or natural gas.
An Oil Price Rally Is Likely
Oil prices seesawed at the start of the week before jumping close to multi-year highs on geopolitical concerns, with Brent hitting $70 and WTI at $65. However, geopolitical pressure is only able to influence oil prices to such a degree because the market is fundamentally getting tighter.
High Electricity Cost From Wind and Solar
Some European countries, particularly Germany and Denmark, have invested heavily in electricity generation from solar and wind sources with the result that the cost of electricity has increased substantially. 1
Climate chaos claims continue causing consternation
Anyone who thought “manmade climate cataclysm” rhetoric couldn’t possibly exceed Obama era levels should read the complaint filed in the “public nuisance” lawsuit that’s being argued before Federal District Court Judge William Alsup in a California courtroom: Oakland v BP and other oil companies.
Let there be light… unless you’re doing business in city limits
Daily, a new story breaks about municipalities, counties and states yielding to environmental lobbies applying pressure to curtail free enterprise. Sans bias, every business qualifies to be in protectionists’ crosshairs as the enemy of nature, which runs the gamut from defenseless weeds and hapless wolves to the vast cosmos. Like other entrepreneurs, activists use the saying ‘business is business’ but with an adverse twist in that ‘any business is bad business.’
Another Endangered Species?
Earth is a dangerous place. Of all the species that have ever lived, over 95% have already been extinguished by natural disasters.
Julian Morris Outlines Problems with the Social Cost of Carbon
Earlier this month, Reason Foundation’s Julian Morris released an excellent policy study examining climate change, regulation, and the social cost of carbon (SCC). In the study, Morris highlights six problems with calculating the social cost of carbon. In this blog, I’ll provided an outline of those six problems, as well as some additional information on the work IER’s staff has done on the social cost of carbon. I strongly encourage you to read the entire policy study, as it provides a great overview of the problems many have identified with calculating the social cost of carbon.
EPA Chief Puts Science Back Into Environmental Protection
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt may be just a lawyer, but so far he has done more to bring sound science to the EPA than any scientist ever affiliated with the agency.
Limiting California’s Waiver Authority Is Not a Federalism Issue
The federal government has passed two main laws regulating the efficiency and emissions of motor vehicles nationwide. The Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards, created by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) in 1975 in reaction to the Arab fuel embargo, mandate higher fuel efficiency for vehicles in an effort to reduce U.S. reliance on foreign oil.
Natural Gas Plants Under Attack in Several States
California, Arizona, Michigan, and Massachusetts are saying “no” to new natural gas generating plants, and California even wants to get rid of some of its older gas plants. Recently, the California Public Utilities Commission directed Pacific Gas and Electric, the state’s largest electric utility, to solicit bids for renewable energy and storage projects to replace three natural gas plants.
Adélie and Emperor Penguins Doing Fine In New Locations
Biologists studying animal life on Antarctica believed that a particular species of penguin was in peril, undergoing precipitous population decline since the 1970s. However, new findings show a massive discovery of the black-and-white seabirds—mainly because researchers missed looking on one group of islands on the tip of the continental peninsula. 1
Gasoline—not corn alcohol—belongs in our fuel tanks!
DALLAS, Texas—President Trump frequently boasts of his success in rolling back costly and harmful regulations. Let’s hope that effort includes the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS).
The RFS is the latest phase in Congress’s decades-long support for the ethanol industry. The problem is that support has outlived its usefulness.
No, China Will Not Outsmart America’s Energy Renaissance
Imagine a centrally planned economy out-thinking and out-performing a consumer-driven, free-market one.
That is the prognostication, even hope, of Amy Myers Jaffe, director of the program on Energy and Climate Change at the Council on Foreign Relations, as stated in the current edition of Foreign Affairs (“Green Giant: Renewable Energy and Chinese Power”) and in the Houston Chronicle (“Will Clean Energy Push China Past the U.S”).
Specious arguments fuel climate lawsuits to kill autonomy
When you can’t win the argument on the merits of facts, you do the next best thing – sue.
It’s nothing new to see environmental groups lawyer up to protect fish spawning, insect habitat or weed propagation.
The Gas Tax Has Little to Do With Road Costs
In a previous article, I explained that the federal gasoline tax was a very crude way to fund highways, because there is only a tenuous link between gasoline consumption and highway usage.
White House Looks Into Permanent Jones Act Waiver for Puerto Rico
According to several reports, the Trump White House is pursuing a permanent waiver to the Jones Act for Puerto Rico. This decision comes after the law received heavy criticism during last year’s hurricane season when it was blamed for impeding emergency efforts in Puerto Rico during the aftermath of Hurricane Maria. In response to this criticism, on September 28, the Trump administration issued a 10-day Jones Act waiver for Puerto Rico to help support the emergency relief effort.
Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) and Pollution
Many folks worldwide live in constant fear of chemicals. High up on the list are volatile organic compounds (VOCs), such as hydrocarbons, which vaporize easily. VOCs come from gasoline combustion and from evaporation of liquid fuels, solvents, and organic chemicals such as those in some paints, cleaners, nail polish remover, soaps, pesticides, and even we humans.
United States to Be the World’s Largest Producer of Oil by 2023
According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), when accounting for most of the global growth in petroleum supplies, the United States is expected to overtake Russia to become the world’s largest oil producer by 2023.
Taming biofuel-loving microbes
Most people are cautious around gasoline and diesel for good reason, but some microbes love the stuff — especially biofuels that contain fatty acid derivatives.