Paul Driessen

Who is guarding the (dictatorial) guards?

Several years ago, Wells Fargo Bank discovered that employees had boosted sales, by opening some 2 million deposit and credit card accounts without customer knowledge or authorization. Over the next few years, the bank fired more than 5,000 employees for misconduct and reimbursed customers $2.6 million in fees that they may have incurred on the bogus accounts.

Powering countries, empowering people

For 16 years, in a scene out of pre-industrial America, Thabo Molubi and his partner made furniture in South Africa’s outback, known locally as the “veld.” Lacking even a stream to turn a water wheel and machinery, they depended solely on hand and foot power. But then an electrical line reached the area.

"Toxic chromium" fear-mongering

Erin Brockovich became rich and famous by promoting the notion that people in Hinkley, CA got cancer because of hexavalent chromium (Chromium-6) in drinking water. Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) settled a 1993 lawsuit for $333 million, rather than risk trial by a jury frightened by a steady drumbeat of horror stories from lawyers, activists, celebrities, "journalists" and hired "experts." The lawyers got $134 million in fees, and Ms. Brockovich pocketed a cool $2-million bonus--plus movie royalties and other cash.

Confusion, muddle, obfuscation and racism

Winston Churchill called Russia a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma. We could say Obama's energy and climate policy is confusion wrapped in muddled thinking inside obfuscation--and driven by autocratic diktats that bring job-killing, economy-strangling, racist and deadly outcomes.

EPA's dangerous regulatory pollution

If you're wondering whether to trust the Environmental Protection Agency on mercury, ozone, climate change or other regulatory actions, you need look no further than how it has handled particulates.

Don't bee-lieve the latest bee-pocalypse scare

As stubborn facts ruin their narrative that neonicotinoid pesticides are causing a honeybee-pocalypse, environmental pressure groups are shifting to new scares to justify their demands for "neonic" bans.

Fracturing common sense

Horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) has given the USA and world centuries of new petroleum supplies, lowered energy prices for manufacturers, motorists and consumers, and altered geopolitics for the Middle East, Russia and Venezuela. New natural gas supplies provide low-cost petrochemical feed stocks, and reduce carbon dioxide emissions by fueling electrical generating plants--which you'd think would be good news for climate alarmists.

Olympic-sized climate propaganda

XXXI Olympiad competitors are joyfully showcasing their skills and sportsmanship, while delighted fans revel in their amazing efforts. But opening ceremonies featuring colorful history, dance, song and athletes were rudely interrupted by an unprecedented propaganda film.

Ecological double standards

Donald Trump recently said he supports giving local communities control over hydraulic fracturing. "If some areas don't want" fracking, the decision should be "up to them," he commented.

Destructive forest fires are due to--WHAT?

First the Obama EPA came for coal mines, coal-fired power plants, miners, workers, investors, and all who depend on reliable, affordable electricity. Then the EPA, Bureau of Land Management, Forest Service and other agencies came after oil and gas drilling and fracking, and the workers, industries and families that need petroleum. They're also targeting farming, ranching, airlines and manufacturing.

Keeping the poor impoverished

We are just now entering the age of industrialization, newly elected President Rodrigo Duterte said recently, explaining why the Philippines will not ratify the Paris climate accords. "Now that we're developing, you will impose a limit? That's absurd. It's being imposed upon us by the industrialized countries. They think they can dictate our destiny."

The Hillary treatment for climate fraudsters?

This past March, seventeen attorneys general launched a coordinated effort to investigate, pursue and prosecute companies, think tanks and other organizations who say there is little credible evidence that human "greenhouse gas" emissions are causing "dangerous" or "catastrophic" manmade climate change.

Fuel me or fool me

Fool me once, the adage says, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. The reality-based fossil fuel version states: Fuel me for 150 years, fuel me forever--or at least until creative, entrepreneurial spirits can devise reliable, affordable alternatives. The 2016 Democratic Party would change this adage to read: Fuel me for 150 years, fuel me never again.

Brexit for America

Independence Day weekend is a perfect time to reflect on personal freedoms and responsibilities. The Magna Carta and Declaration of Independence were about overbearing, despotic kings. Brexit, Britain's decision to leave the European Union, was much about overbearing bureaucrats in Brussels.

More job-killing rules from EPA

Having already done yeoman's work stifling economic growth and job creation, President Obama's Environmental Protection Agency is doubling down again.

How the West got healthy and prosperous

More recently, professor of history and economics Deidre McCloskey provided some clues as to why and how this happened. In a Wall Street Journal articleoutlining "how the West (and the rest) got rich," she notes that it wasn't just Karl Marx's "exploited workers" or Adam Smith's "virtuously saved capital, nor was it only Hernando DeSoto and Douglas North's essential property rights and other legal institutions.

SEC issues climate chaos "guidance"

President Obama continues to use "dangerous manmade climate change" to justify a massive regulatory onslaught that will "fundamentally transform" America's energy, economic, business, industrial, social, legal and constitutional systems before he leaves office.

Graduates face a big challenge

As they don caps and gowns, endure commencement speeches and take their diplomas, many high school and college graduates face bleak prospects in an economy that grew a dismal 0.5% the first quarter.

Ben Rhodes spins climate change

Employing his college degree in fiction writing, White House communications strategist Ben Rhodes wrote deceitful talking points on the Benghazi attack and one-sided Iran nuclear deal--and later bragged about manipulating " clueless reporters." Perhaps he's also orchestrating administration climate spin.

We don’t need billion$ to prevent Zika

Controlling mosquitoes and preventing diseases requires smarter policies, not more billions