Paul Driessen

Funding the arts--or hurricane recovery

A couple of friends recently said it was terrible that some in Congress and the White House could even consider reducing National Endowment for the Arts funding. It's a critical program, they feel, essential for the very survival of many community and even big-time theaters, orchestras and other arts programs. The thought of trimming the NEA shows a low regard for this important component of civilized society.

Now it's a war on pipelines

The radical environmentalist war on fossil fuels has opened a new front: a war on pipelines. For years, activist zealots claimed the world was rapidly depleting its oil and natural gas supplies.

Irma illusions--and realities

Hurricanes Harvey and Irma brought out the best in us. Millions of Americans are giving money, toil and sweat to help victims rebuild. Unfortunately, the storms also highlighted some people's baser instincts.

Finally, some commonsense western fire policies

President Trump promised to bring fresh ideas and policies to Washington. Now Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke and Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue are doing exactly that in a critically important area: forest management and conflagration prevention. Their actions are informed, courageous and long overdue.

The Hurricane Harvey Hustle

"When a man knows he is to be hanged in a fortnight," English essayist Samuel Johnson observed 240 years ago, "it concentrates his mind wonderfully." That's certainly true in the climate change arena. After ending US participation in the Paris climate treaty and abolishing many government restrictions on fossil fuel use, the Trump Administration began preparing red team-blue team examinations of the science behind claims of "dangerous manmade climate change."

Revisiting wind turbine impacts

It's amazing, though hardly surprising, how quickly some used Hurricane Harvey's devastation to claim that fossil fuel emissions are driving catastrophic climate change and weather. Their proffered solution, of course, is to replace those fuels with "clean, sustainable, renewable" energy.

Yet another renewable energy boondoggle

Wilkinson Solar has filed papers requesting permits for a 74-megawatt solar electricity facility about 35 miles east of Greenville, NC. If approved, 288,120 solar panels would blanket 600 acres (0.94 square miles) of now scenic, serene farmland next door to the Terra Ceia Christian School near Morehead City.

Callous CALAS activists against the poor

Not long ago, supposed "environmental justice" concerns at least involved risks to mine workers and their families. The risks may have been inflated, or ignored for decades, but they were a major focus.

Fair trade for thee, but not for me

"Nobody wants to buy something that was made by exploiting someone else," Ben & Jerry's and Fair Trade co-founder Jerry Greenfield likes to tell us. Let's hope he doesn't drive an electric vehicle, doesn't use a laptop or cell phone, and doesn't rely on wind or solar power.

Life in fossil-fuel-free utopia

Al Gore’s new movie, a New York Times article on the final Obama Era “manmade climate disaster” report, and a piece saying wrathful people twelve years from now will hang hundreds of “climate deniers” are a tiny sample of Climate Hysteria and Anti-Trump Resistance rising to a crescendo. If we don’t end our evil fossil-fuel-burning lifestyles and go 100% renewable Right Now, we are doomed, they rail.

Shameless fear-mongering--versus reality

Before I could enjoy a movie last week, I was forced to endure five minutes of climate and weather fear-mongering, when the theater previewed Al Gore's "Inconvenient Sequel." His attempt to pin every weather disaster of the past decade on humanity's fossil fuel use felt like fifty minutes of water boarding.

Biofuel justifications are illusory

The closest thing to earthly eternal life, President Ronald Reagan used to say, is a government program. Those who benefit from a program actively and vocally defend it, often giving millions in campaign cash to politicians who help perpetuate it, while those who oppose the program or are harmed by it are usually disorganized and distracted by daily life.

Tesla battery, subsidy and sustainability fantasies

The first justification was that internal combustion engines polluted too much. But emissions steadily declined, and today's cars emit about 3% of what their predecessors did. Then it was oil imports: electric vehicles (EVs) would reduce foreign dependency and balance of trade deficits. Bountiful oil and natural gas supplies from America's hydraulic fracturing revolution finally eliminated that as an argument.

Insanity and hypocrisy Down Under

The Wall Street Journal called it the energy shortage "no one saw coming." Actually, a lot of people did see it coming. But intent on pursuing their "dangerous manmade climate change" and "renewable energy will save the planet" agendas, the political classes ignored them. So the stage was set.

The crisis of integrity-deficient science

The epidemic of agenda-driven science by press release and falsification has reached crisis proportions.

Monumental, unsustainable environmental impacts

Demands that the world replace fossil fuels with wind, solar and biofuel energy--to prevent supposed catastrophes caused by manmade global warming and climate change--ignore three fundamental flaws.

We should be glad the US is out

Ten states, some 150 cities, and 1,100 businesses, universities and organizations insist "We are still in"--committed to the Paris climate agreement and determined to continue reducing carbon dioxide emissions and preventing climate change. In the process, WASI members claim, they will create jobs and promote innovation, trade and international competitiveness. It's mostly hype, puffery and belief in tooth fairies.

Advancing scientific integrity on bees

Second Lady Karen Pence and Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue recently teamed up to install a honeybee hive on the grounds of the Vice President's residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC. This will serve as a "great example" of what people can do to help "reverse the decline" in managed honeybee colonies around the country, the secretary said.

More rational policies in our future?

In the wake of President Trump's exit from the Paris climate treaty, reactions from other quarters were predictably swift, nasty, sanctimonious and hypocritical. Al Gore paused near one of the private jets he takes to hector lesser mortals to say the action will bring "a global weather apocalypse." Billionaire Tom Steyer got rich selling coal but called the President's action "a traitorous act of war."

Exiting the Mad Hatter's climate tea party

I can guess why a raven is like a writing-desk, Alice said. "Do you mean you think you can find out the answer?" said the March Hare. "Exactly so," said Alice. "Then you should say what you mean," the March Hare went on. "I do," Alice replied. "At least I mean what I say. That's the same thing, you know."