Environment
September 14, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Apple product launches in the Steve Jobs era always used to include a large measure of P.T. Barnum, with Jobs ending with, “And one more thing. . .” Then he’d either pull out a new device or unveil a new software development like iTunes or new “wow” features in the App store. This week Apple launched the iPhone 15, and CEO Tim Cook’s “one more thing. . .” turned out
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September 10, 2023 — John Hinderaker
There is a financial crisis in the wind industry. You can see it in headlines like Support for offshore wind sinks as costs soar, and The ill wind of offshore wind projects. At the Telegraph, Matt Ridley sums up the ineluctable reasons for the current crisis: The MPs who have forced Rishi Sunak into a U-turn on onshore wind power love to repeat the favourite slogan of the wind industry:
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August 27, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Did you know that there is a federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA)? But of course there is. And you might suppose that since pipelines carry mostly oil and natural gas, it would be housed inside the Department of Energy. But no: it is part of the Department of Transportation. So we have yet another instance of government cabinet department that does nothing to produce an increased supply
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August 8, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The Wall Street Journal reports that the wind industry has fallen on hard times: The wind business, viewed by governments as key to meeting climate targets and boosting electricity supplies, is facing a dangerous market squall. After months of warnings about rising prices and logistical hiccups, developers and would-be buyers of wind power are scrapping contracts, putting off projects and postponing investment decisions. The setbacks are piling up for both
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July 30, 2023 — John Hinderaker
One of the climate alarmists’ most intractable problems is the disproportion between the problems their models forecast and the solutions they propose. That is, if you believe the models, there is no remotely plausible course of action we can follow that makes a perceptible difference. So our impoverishment is pointless. The hero of the Senate, John Kennedy, made this point while questioning Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk. The exchange occurred
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June 16, 2023 — Steven Hayward
There are a number of lawsuits in various states of play around the country with plaintiffs, typically kids fronting for environmental groups, demanding that a judge issue an injunction to curtail fossil fuels (or find energy companies liable for climate change damages), but a parallel case hit the wall at the DC Circuit Court of Appeals today. In Maine Lobstermen’s Association v. National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), the court reviewed
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June 15, 2023 — Scott Johnson
His Fraudulence addressed the League of Conservation Voters annual capital dinner last night. The White House has posted the transcripts of his remarks here. Dear readers, see if you can grok this: And on day one of my presidency, we moved to re-enter the Paris Accord, because the United States should lead the world — lead the world in climate. (Applause.) Last December, the world did follow our lead when
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June 14, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Here in the Twin Cities, around mid afternoon the skies took on a pink haze. The air burned one’s eyes and smelled slightly smoky. It was smoke from Canadian wildfires, wafting southward. These days, pretty much any inconvenient phenomenon is blamed on the all-purpose hobgoblin of “climate change.” Thus with the out of control Canadian fires. But in fact, the North American climate has not changed in any way that
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April 26, 2023 — Steven Hayward
By now it is hardly original to point out that environmentalism has become a religion, with the climatistas being a full-fledged cult. Time magazine, which somehow sill exists, thinks we should make Earth Day an official religious holiday: The Case For Making Earth Day a Religious Holiday [O]n this 53rd Earth Day we thought it useful to pose what a real Earth Day should represent and how it could form
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April 23, 2023 — John Hinderaker
We are living in the era of stupid energy projects, but offshore wind must be the worst. If there is a dumber way to generate electricity, I don’t know what it might be. The environmental impacts are obvious, which is why well-connected liberals like the Kennedys nix offshore wind projects near where they live. And one can only wonder what will happen as more offshore wind turbines are erected off
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February 19, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Al Gore’s hypocrisy is well known: consuming ten times the average household’s electricity in his Tennessee mansion, buying a beachfront mansion in California while warning of sea level rise, flying in private jets while hectoring us about our carbon footprint, etc. Turns out Gore’s investment fund, Generation Investment Management, dedicated to “sustainable” investing (ESG before it was the cool term) is in on the con, too. Bloomberg reports: Espousing a
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February 16, 2023 — Scott Johnson
Ben Weingarten — he who wrote the book on her — alerts me to the story on Ilhan Omar in our newspaper of record: “Ilhan Omar Withdraws Support For East Palestine After Learning It’s In America.” The Bee reported yesterday: Representative Ilhan Omar has canceled a planned rally to support the victims of the East Palestine chemical spill after learning East Palestine is actually in America. “Oh… East Palestine is
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February 5, 2023 — Steven Hayward
One of the favorite talking points of the climatistas is that we need to take account of the financial risk of future climate change. This is one reason the Biden Brigade is trying to impose a number of climate risk requirements on American business, even though by every conventional method of economic forecasting, the present value of hypothetical large costs decades from now is quite small. This is one reason
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January 29, 2023 — John Hinderaker
Robert Bryce identifies the culprits behind the war on natural gas: According to the latest report from Guidestar, [Climate Imperative] took in $221 million in its first full year of operation. … That means that Climate Imperative, which is less than three years old, is already taking in more cash than the Sierra Club… *** [T]he effort to “electrify everything” and ban the use of natural gas in homes and
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January 17, 2023 — John Hinderaker
The World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos kicked off yesterday. For a long time I didn’t take the Davos elite-fest seriously, but it has gained steam: This WEF summit features a record turnout from many of the most powerful government and corporate officials. There will be 379 public officials attending, including 30 heads of state, 56 finance ministers, 19 central bank governors, 39 heads of global organizations, including the
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January 10, 2023 — Steven Hayward
There are a couple of noteworthy passages in Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s speech delivered earlier today over in Sweden about central bank independence, such as: [W]e should “stick to our knitting” and not wander off to pursue perceived social benefits that are not tightly linked to our statutory goals and authorities. . . [W]ithout explicit congressional legislation, it would be inappropriate for us to use our monetary policy or supervisory tools
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January 9, 2023 — Steven Hayward
Mass transit—the holy grail of urban progressivism (Quest for the Holy Rail, as I sometimes put it, or, A Desire Named Streetcar)—is struggling right now. The Wall Street Journal reports today: Several of the nation’s largest urban mass-transit systems are at a crossroads, with ridership still depressed three years into the pandemic and federal aid running out. . . The ridership shortfall is forcing transit authorities to question their decades-old
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