Energy Policy
April 29, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The cause of the blackout that afflicted Spain, Portugal and part of France has not yet been determined. But cyberattack seems to have been ruled out, and some are sayingd that Spain’s reliance on solar energy is to blame: REE [the Spanish grid operator] said it had identified two incidents of power generation loss, probably from solar plants, in Spain’s southwest that caused instability in the electric system and led
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April 22, 2025 — John Hinderaker
I explained here why I was not a fan of Pope Francis: too often, he substituted trendy but ill-informed leftism for theology. One of the many areas where he did this was energy and the environment; as so often happened, he had strong opinions but was woefully short on information. Energy expert Robert Bryce explains: His 2023 apostolic exhortation, “Laudate Deum,” reads like it was written by Greta Thunberg and
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March 24, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The financial markets have been tanked by the threat of economic damage from President Trump’s tariffs–or that is the narrative, anyway. Democrats are hoping for a full-blown recession, which they are already labeling the “Trump recession.” But perhaps stocks have mostly pulled back a little from high valuations, as happens all the time. As of today, the Dow is down 3.3% from January 20, when Trump was inaugurated. The S&P
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March 9, 2025 — Scott Johnson
Daylight saving time is mistakenly credited to Benjamin Franklin. It may still be a good idea even if it wasn’t inspired by Franklin. Nevertheless, I find the commencement of daylight saving time today annoying. As a morning person, I am not the least bit pleased by the extension of dawn by an hour so early in the year. By the same token, do we really need to move sunset back
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March 4, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Like a dead frog whose legs continue to kick, the “green” movement marches on, oblivious to the growing realization that the whole thing is at best a mistake, and at worst a scam. One of the insoluble problems of wind and solar energy is intermittency–the fact that most of the time, neither wind turbines nor solar panels will produce any electricity. What to do? Store electricity from panels and turbines
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March 2, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The Trump administration’s repudiation of the “green” agenda will have many benefits, not least for the environment. At Watts Up With That?, Paul Driessen states the environmental case against “green” energy succinctly. See original for links: [President Trump’s] actions will benefit wild, scenic and agricultural lands in America and worldwide. * Wind, solar and transmission line installations would have sprawled across tens of millions of acres, impacting habitats, farmlands and
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February 23, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Today’s election in Germany turned out as polls had predicted: the Christian Democrats, an ostensibly conservative party, had a 29% plurality; the Alternative for Germany, a genuinely conservative party, finished second with 21% of the vote; and the formerly ruling coalition was roundly repudiated, with Olaf Scholz’s SPD getting only 17%, while the Greens trailed with 12%. At the Daily Economy, my friend and colleague, the economist John Phelan, predicted
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February 18, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Vitol is a large energy and commodities company, with revenue of $400 billion. It has major petroleum investments, but also genuflects to the left with “renewable” investments and an ESG section on its web page. As a company that needs to make money, its forecasts reflect reality rather than fantasies. This is how Vitol sees the demand for oil from now until 2040: Vitol predicts demand for oil used in
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February 15, 2025 — John Hinderaker
One could assemble news stories like the ones below just about any day of the week: Ford Loses Another $5.1B On EVs. This week, Ford Motor Company reported that it lost $5.1 billion on its EV business in 2024. … Kelley Blue Book reported that Ford’s EV sales were 30,176 for the fourth quarter and 97,865 for the entire year. Therefore, Ford lost $46,394 for each EV it sold in
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February 9, 2025 — John Hinderaker
The only surprising thing about Peter Hitchens’ demolition of Net Zero, to which the U.K. still pretends to be committed, is that it was permitted on the BBC: EPIC: Peter Hitchens tears Net Zero to shreds, to the dismay of BBC panellists and audience members. "We didn't just close down our coal fired power stations, we blew them up, we were so certain we were right to do so. At
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February 8, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Other Trump initiatives have gotten most of the headlines, but his moves to unleash American energy should prove, long term, to be among his most significant. I wrote about the executive orders that Trump signed on day one here. Now, Energy Secretary Chris Wright has followed up with a Secretarial Order that implements some of the President’s key initiatives. The order is titled, “Unleashing the Golden Era of American Energy
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February 7, 2025 — Steven Hayward
For any readers in the west LA region, San Fernando Valley, or Thousand Oaks area, next Monday, February 10, I am hosting the great Robert Bryce at Pepperdine for a special screening of his film “Juice: Power, Politics, and the Grid.” It is free and open to the public. The film goes off at 5 pm in the Wilburn Auditorium at the very top of campus, following which Robert will
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February 2, 2025 — John Hinderaker
I am not a poet, as this verse confirms: How many billions must the wind lobby waste Before we call it a scam? Yes, and how many times must wind energy fail Before it forever is banned? The answer, my friend, is blowin’ in the wind The answer is blowin’ in the wind One of the most felicitous aspects of the new Trump administration is its determination to drive a
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February 1, 2025 — John Hinderaker
Have you ever thought about why you can’t check a lithium-ion battery on an airplane? It is because such batteries have a nasty habit of bursting into flames. If it happens inside the cabin, the crew is trained to put the fire out. But if it happens in the hold, it can bring down the airplane. Spontaneous battery combustion is just one of many reasons why the ballyhooed “energy transition”
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January 28, 2025 — John Hinderaker
President Trump’s blizzard of executive orders has exhilarated Republicans and stunned Democrats. Probably no one has yet had the opportunity to study them all and understand what they say. But several of Trump’s orders related to energy, and these are among the most important. The two principal energy-related orders are Declaring a National Energy Emergency and Unleashing American Energy. Sarah Montalbano is a policy fellow at Center of the American
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January 23, 2025 — John Hinderaker
…to tell you the wind isn’t blowing. The inherent defect of wind turbines is that they produce no electricity when the wind isn’t blowing (or when it is blowing too hard, but that is a less serious problem). That is what they are experiencing in the U.K. right now: Wind power has collapsed to less than 1pc of Britain’s electricity supply as some of the stillest weather in years hits
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January 15, 2025 — Steven Hayward
Pam Bondi’s confirmation hearing to be President Trump’s attorney general is generating the most fireworks on capitol hill today, but today is also the confirmation hearing for Chris Wright to be secretary of energy. It is getting much less attention, and one reason for it is the obvious superiority of Wright’s knowledge, capacious views, and ability to run circles around the dunderhead Democrats on the committee. I watched a few
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