Morano: “COP 28 is shaping up to be a doubling down on the green agenda despite the massive failure on a grand global scale. We will report on the energy rationing, blackouts, and economic disruption from the failed UN-pushed policies globally. This UN climate summit is planning nothing short of a Great Food Reset for USA. See: COP28 UN climate summit to officially target meat eating! ‘Nations will be told to curb their excessive appetite for meat’ to enforce UN plan for ‘food’s climate transition’Morano: “Make no mistake, this UN climate summit will continue the push for the collapse of our once plentiful energy, food supply, and transportation. COP 28 aims to force a ‘climate transition’ for our meat and food supply. All the usual suspects will be gathering once again: Bill Gates, King Charles, John Kerry, and the World Economic Forum. The UN’s COP 28 is nothing short of a climate/Great Reset summit in Dubai, where public health bureaucracy and climate merge & Democracy goes to die.” By Marc Morano – November 29, 2023
Climate Depot publisher Marc Morano will attend the UN’s COP 28 climate summit in Dubai, joining a rogue team of climate skeptics from CFACT to expose the climate agenda.
Roger Pielke Jr.: “Global Climate Policy Hasn’t Made Much Difference on Energy Transitions” … “COP28 is expecting 70,000 participants, more than double those of COP27. Climate is now a full-scale industry, with fortunes and careers to be made, and perhaps lost.”
Background on COP 28:
Washington Post: ‘He won a Nobel Prize. Then he started denying climate change.’ John Clauser shared the Nobel in physics last year. Now he’s a self-described ‘denier’ of the overwhelming scientific consensus on a warming planet.
The UN COP 28 website explains: “COP28 UAE will take place at Expo City Dubai from November 30-December 12, 2023. The Conference is expected to convene over 70,000 participants.”
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-29 17:52:152023-11-29 17:52:15Morano to attend UN climate summit in Dubai – Warns of Great Reset summit where ‘Democracy goes to die’
“Adding the costs of the subsidies to the true cost of fueling an EV would equate to an EV owner paying $17.33 per gallon of gasoline…It’s time for federal and state governments to stop driving the American auto industry off an economic cliff and allow markets to drive further improvements in cost and efficiency.” — Brent Bennett and Jason Isaac, OVERCHARGED EXPECTATIONS: Unmaking The True Costs of Electric Vehicles
An in-depth analysis of the comprehensive costs associated with electric vehicle (EV) ownership is crucial for a holistic understanding of the economic landscape surrounding the attempted mass transition from internal combustion engine vehicles (ICEVs) to EVs. Major selling points promoted by EV advocates are lower maintenance and fueling costs over the life of the vehicle and the common claim that reductions in battery prices will eventually make EVs less expensive to own than ICEVs. For example, a study conducted by a group at the Argonne National Laboratory estimated that while an average EV is about $22,000 more expensive to purchase than a comparable ICEV, they cost about $14,000 less to fuel, insure and maintain over a 15-year period, making their lifetime cost only $8,047 more than an ICEV (Burnham et al., 2021, p. 144, Table B.1).
Setting aside some of the questionable assumptions used in deriving such favorable economics for EVs, no one has attempted to calculate the full financial benefit of the wide array of direct subsidies, regulatory credits, and subsidized infrastructure that contribute to the economic viability of EVs. In this paper, we show that the average model year (MY) 2021 EV would cost $48,698 more to own over a 10-year period without $22 billion in government favors given to EV manufacturers and owners.
EV advocates claim that the cost of electricity for EV owners is equal to $1.21 per gallon of gasoline (Edison Electric Institute, 2021), but the cost of charging equipment and charging losses, averaged out over 10 years and 120,000 miles, is $1.38 per gallon equivalent on top of that. Adding the costs of the subsidies to the true cost of fueling an EV would equate to an EV owner paying $17.33 per gallon of gasoline. And these estimates do not include the hundreds of billions more in subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act (2022) for various aspects of the EV supply chain, particularly for battery manufacturing. It is not an overstatement to say that the federal government is subsidizing EVs to a greater degree than even wind and solar electricity generation and embarking on an unprecedented endeavor to remake the entire American auto industry.
Despite massive incentives, EVs are receiving a tepid response from the majority of Americans who cannot shoulder their higher cost. Car lots are swelling with unsold EVs (Muller, 2023), and the Ford Motor Company is losing over $70,000 on each EV it currently sells (Bryce, 2023). EV enthusiasts are holding out for breakthroughs in battery technology—batteries being the main factor in the high cost of EVs—to reduce prices and make EVs more widespread. But advances in battery technology are measured not in months but in decades, and the downward trend of lithium-ion battery costs over the past decade has largely ended (IEA, 2023a). It’s time for federal and state governments to stop driving the American auto industry off an economic cliff and allow markets to drive further improvements in cost and efficiency.
In a post on X former Representative Jason Isaac stated that, “Energy Poverty = Poverty. #decarbonization is dangerous and deadly.”
Today, I’m thankful to live a high-carbon lifestyle and wish the rest of the world could too. Energy poverty = poverty. #decarbonization is dangerous and deadly.
Recent data suggest that the EV scrappage rate is substantially higher than that of gasoline vehicles. S&P determined that despite EVs having an average age of 3.6 years and gasoline vehicles having an average age of 12.5 years, during “the 10-year period from 2013-2022, 6.6% of BEVs in operation were pulled out of commission. During the same period, just 5.2% of combustion vehicles left the fleet” (Leinert, 2023, para. 7). Therefore, the EV scrappage rate is already higher than that of gasoline vehicles and is likely going to increase in future years as the average age of the EV fleet increases.
Of course, a higher EV scrappage rate and, in turn, fewer miles traveled compared to gasoline vehicles should also be accounted for in any cost-benefit analysis. Other issues excluded from this analysis include:
Billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded subsidies for electric buses, trucks, and truck stops, plus the addition of charging infrastructure at public facilities such as ports and airports.
Billions in state and city taxpayer-funded subsidies other than state buyer credits.
Credits from California’s low-carbon fuel standard, which is a cross-subsidy from gasoline buyers to subsidize EVs in California.
The unaccounted cost of EVs in terms of additional emissions from power plants, and the embedded environmental costs of the EV supply chain.
The cost of allowing EVs to use managed lanes, such as high-occupancy vehicle lanes, and the cost of parking spaces given to EVs and EV charging stations. • The cost to consumers of additional time spent charging EVs relative to fueling gasoline/diesel vehicles.
Disproportionately high road damage from heavier EVs compared to gasoline/diesel vehicles.
Disproportionately high EV recall costs compared to gasoline/diesel vehicles, which are socialized to buyers of gasoline and diesel vehicles from the company initiating the recall. 9 See footnote 4 for more information on how the cost per equivalent gallon of gasoline is calculated.
Building construction costs as some municipalities are beginning to require “EV-ready” construction in new homes and buildings.
The study concluded,
The stark reality for proponents of EVs and for the dreamers in the federal government, who are using fuel economy regulations to force manufacturers to produce ever more EVs, is that the true cost of an EV is in no way close to a comparable ICEV. Our conservative estimate is that the average EV accrues $48,698 in subsidies and $4,569 in extra charging and electricity costs over a 10-year period, for a total cost of $53,267, or $16.12 per equivalent gallon of gasoline9. Without increased and sustained government favors, EVs will remain more expensive than ICEVs for many years to come. Hence why, even with these subsidies, EVs have been challenging for dealers to sell and why basic economic realities indicate that the Biden administration’s dream of achieving 100% EVs by 2040 will never become a reality.
EV apologists continue to claim that technology breakthroughs and economies of scale will rapidly bring down these costs, but there is no Moore’s law for batteries, which are a fundamentally different technology than semiconductors. The benefits of economies of scale have largely been reached by most lithium-ion battery manufacturers, costs for those batteries have largely ended their downward trend of the past decade (IEA, 2023a), and additional cost improvements will be hard won. Lithium prices are nearly quadruple what they were in 2019 (Trading Economics, n.d.), and fluctuations in raw materials costs will play a significant role in the cost of EV batteries going forward.
The lesson to be learned from this study is that markets, not government, drive innovation and efficiency. Despite the massive financial and regulatory advantages being offered to EVs, there are more than four times more hybrid and plug-in hybrid vehicles than full EVs registered in the U.S. (EERE, n.d.-b). Toyota estimated that the amount of materials to make one EV battery can be used to make 90 hybrid batteries and that those 90 hybrids will result in 37 times more emissions reductions over their lifetime than one EV (McParland, 2023).
Perhaps if D.C. politicians and bureaucrats stop trying to force Americans to build and buy their preferred types of vehicles, the cleaner and brighter future that they imagine will actually materialize. [Emphasis added.]
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-24 21:51:372023-11-24 21:51:37STUDY: Electric Vehicle ownership equates to paying $17 a gallon for gasoline
The modern environmentalist movement is often compared to a religion. Indeed, a great number of environmentalists are Gaia worshipers who perceive ‘Mother Earth’ as a living entity. These individuals possess an apocalyptic view of the world and their approach to the ‘environment’ is intimately associated with the worship of nature. More about this later.
We are constantly told by the believers in “global warming” that the temperature is increasing, the seas are rising, the ice is shrinking, and the polar bears are vanishing. These claims are not supported by conclusive evidence; indeed, the opposite appears to be the case considering predictions usually fail. However, the unshakable belief that carbon dioxide emissions are heating up the Earth’s atmosphere to a catastrophic degree has been afforded the status of religious dogma.
Naturally, a reasonable concern to avoid pollution and preserve our natural resources in a responsible manner is a commendable ethical position. However, ‘environmentalist’ efforts to cut carbon emissions make energy less affordable and accessible, which drives up the costs of consumer products, stifles economic growth, costs jobs, and imposes harmful effects on the Earth’s poorest people.
By contrast, allocating monetary resources to help build sewage treatment plants, enhance sanitation, and provide clean water for poor people would have a greater immediate impact on their plight than would the battle over alleged ‘global warming’.
Ulterior motive
It should come as no surprise that Australian governments across all jurisdictions have embraced the idea that global warming is happening, humans are to blame, and that doing something drastic about it is in the country’s best interest. Australia has even created a government Minister for ‘Climate Change’, suggesting that politicians can save us by appeasing the ‘gods of the weather’!
Arguably, our politicians are assisting in the fabrication of a “climate crisis” so as to sell their own solution, namely big government. So, the government, previously viewed as a ‘necessary evil’ and potential violator of basic rights and freedoms, now becomes our ultimate “saviour”. Call this a form of idolatry if you wish.
Global warming theory rests on the belief that rising carbon dioxide levels drive up the temperature of the atmosphere. Despite this degree of terrifying environmental alarmism and crippling government spending to curb ‘carbon emissions’, historically, temperature increases have often preceded high carbon dioxide levels, destroying this theory of cause and effect. The fact is that the world has always warmed and cooled, and the theory of anthropomorphic global warming contradicts what we know historically to be the case.
Nonetheless, according to Senator James Paterson,
The public shaming and bullying of any scientist who differs from climate change orthodoxy is eerily reminiscent of a latter-day Salem Witch-trial or Spanish Inquisition, with public floggings meted out – metaphorically speaking – for their thought crimes. Indeed, ‘dissenters’, as they have also been labelled, suffer ritual humiliation at the hands of their colleagues and the media, with their every motivation questioned and views pilloried.
Global warming is subject to empirical refutation with accumulated evidence of cooling. So, when the temperature rises, we hear, “Wow, that’s clear evidence of climate change”. But when climate takes a rapid cooling turn, we hear, “Wow, that’s more proof of climate change”. This is obviously a tautology – anything that happens, no matter what it is, can be attributed to a single theory. And if anything happens, no matter what it is, that can be attributed to a single theory, is quintessentially a totalitarian theory, such as global warming.
According to Jonah Goldberg, the founding editor of National Review Online, “the beauty about global warming is that it touches everything we do – what we eat, what we wear, where we go. Our “carbon footprint’ is the measure of man”. In other words, the idea of “climate change” is essentially irrefutable, because somewhere, in some way, the climate is always changing. And any theory that is not refutable is not scientific; it is religion.
Anti-natalist
We have come to the point that even a new human life is seen as a threat to “Mother Earth”, where some candidly contend that new babies represent an undesirable source of greenhouse emissions and consumers of natural resources. Forgoing children and even having an abortion is thereby promoted in Australia as environmentally friendly, while childless women are doing their bit to reduce the carbon footprint of civilisation.
For example, an adjunct professor of medicine at the University of Notre Dame Australia and clinical associate professor in medicine at the University of Western Australia, believes that childbearing is a “greenhouse unfriendly behaviour”. He seriously wants the Australian government to consider population control measures like China’s, with its one-child-per-family policy backed by draconian penalties, sterilisation and forced abortions.
This type of thinking is reminiscent of the ancient pagan religions. History teaches us that some ancient civilisations killed their children to change the weather. They used to practice child sacrifice to appease their gods in an attempt to court their good graces. Those primitive peoples believed that through human sacrifice, the forces of nature could be coerced in their favour. For example, the ancient Aztecs honoured their gods by killing people in a field with arrows so that their blood might fertilise the land.
Tragically, not only are the young generations being fooled into forgoing children due to the fear of endangering the planet, but they are also terminating their healthy pregnancy, with some going so far as to openly claim that it was done in service of climate goals. A married woman once told a newspaper that “not having a child is the most environmentally friendly thing she could do.” The same article reports another woman who terminated her pregnancy in the firm belief that:
Having children is selfish… Every person who is born uses more food, more water, more land, more fossil fuels, more trees and produces more rubbish, more pollution, more greenhouse gases, and adds to the problem of overpopulation.
Of course, concerns about overpopulation growth are not new. In 1968, ecologist Paul Ehrlich echoed 18th-century economist Thomas Malthus when he predicted worldwide famine due to overpopulation and advocated immediate action to limit population growth. Ehrlich’s The Population Bomb was one of the most influential books of the last century. “Sometime in the next 15 years, the end will come,” he said in a prophetic tone, more than 50 years ago.
Needless to say, these apocalyptical predictions never came true. Despite all the worry, access to food and resources increased as the global population rose.
Obviously, this has not stopped some environmental activists from continuing to make similarly bizarre statements about humanity and the future of our planet. Prince Philip, the late Duke of Edinburgh, commented in 1988: “In the event that I am reincarnated, I would like to return as a deadly virus, in order to contribute something to solve overpopulation”. Clearly, he felt so strongly about this that he later would say the following: “I must confess that I am tempted to ask for reincarnation as a particularly deadly virus”.
We should be deeply suspicious of any argument that employs language that refers to humans as an “invasive virus”, a “plague”, or even a “problem” that needs to be resolved. Some environmentalists even lament that neither war nor famine are capable of reducing the population enough and prefer the arrival of a deadly virus to prey on the innocent. This type of argument betrays an apocalyptic desire to bring death and destruction at a large scale. It is a type of religious thinking that reveals a sinister desire to eliminate human beings in search of some utopian small number of sustainable survivors.
AUTHOR
AUGUSTO ZIMMERMANN
Augusto Zimmermann is Professor and Head of Law at Sheridan Institute of Higher Education. He is also a former Associate Law Dean (Research) at Murdoch University and a former Commissioner with the Law Reform Commission of Western Australia and the lead author of ‘Foundations of the Australian Legal System: History, Theory and Practice’ (LexisNexis, 2023).
How Office Buildings Will Be Converted to Smart Cities for the Cartels
STORY-AT-A-GLANCE
The White House released plans to convert massive commercial properties into affordable “zero-emission” housing
The White House announcement is peppered with Great Reset buzzwords, like “clean energy economy” and “zero emissions housing,” and echoes the agendas being pushed by globalists
The “much-needed housing” will provide more room to house the influx of illegal immigrants being driven into the U.S. by drug cartels
Cartels are lying to migrants, telling them that anyone waiting for an immigration appointment can get asylum if they turn themselves in
This tactic ties up border agents so cartels can carry out drug smuggling, kidnapping and human trafficking in less populated areas
The White House released plans to convert massive commercial properties into affordable housing. Along with promoting energy efficiency and “zero emissions conversions” — classic technocrat dictates — the “much-needed housing” will provide more room to house the influx of illegal immigrants1 being driven into the U.S. by drug cartels.
In the October 2023 fact sheet, which touts the developments as “transit-oriented” and a method to “increase housing supply,” it’s stated:2
“[T]he Biden-Harris Administration is announcing new actions to support the conversion of high-vacancy commercial buildings to residential use, including through new financing, technical assistance, and sale of federal properties.
These announcements will create much-needed housing that is affordable, energy efficient, near transit and good jobs, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nearly 30 percent of which comes from the building sector.”
Paving the Way for a Surveilled, Green ‘Utopia’
The White House announcement is peppered with Great Reset buzzwords, like “clean energy economy” and “zero emissions housing,” and echoes the agendas being pushed by globalists.
The Green New Deal (Green Agenda), “Build Back Better,” the Fourth Industrial Revolution3 (the transhumanist movement) and The Great Reset, officially introduced by World Economic Forum founder Klaus Schwab and then-Prince Charles in June 20204 — all exist to further and facilitate the implementation of Agenda 21.
Agenda 21 (Agenda for the 21st Century) is the inventory and control plan for all land, water, minerals, plants, animals, construction, means of production, food, energy, information, education and all human beings in the world. The European Green Deal is more of the same — introduced by the European Commission in December 20195 to, in part, replace fossil fuels with “cleaner” energy sources.
The White House cites data showing that office vacancies are at a 30-year high,6 straining local economies, while affordable housing is lacking and communities are looking for ways to cut emissions from buildings and transportation. Vacant commercial properties will be repurposed into affordable housing that will be close to transportation, “green,” and ideal for building the smart cities that take away your privacy and autonomy and allow for further surveillance and control.
The proposal aligns with the Great Reset agenda,7 which suggests shared goals, such as equality and sustainability, should be at the heart of government and private investments, and rather than funneling government recovery funds and economic-stimulus funding to “fill cracks in the old system,” these should be used to “create a new one that is more resilient, equitable, and sustainable in the long run.”
Schwab added, “This means, for example, building ‘green’ urban infrastructure and creating incentives for industries to improve their track record on environmental, social and governance (ESG) metrics.”8
It all sounds well and good, except, as Technocracy News reported in June 2020, “the promised Utopia comes with a price — it sets shackles on our personal freedom …”9 This could certainly be the case for those living in these affordable, green, smart cities.
As investigative journalist Corey Lynn tweeted, “Here we go … Converting/rezoning commercial buildings to net zero multiuse residential to fill up those abandoned buildings in cities and build their dream smart cities (and likely make room for illegal immigrants), complete with a 54-page guidebook.”10
The required sacrifices do not apply to the technocrats running the system, however, so ultimately The Great Reset will result in two tiers or people: the technocratic elite, who have all the power and rule over all assets, and the rest of humanity, who have no power, no assets and no say-so in anything.
Why Zero Emissions Has a Dark Side
Zero emissions housing sounds like a good thing on the surface. But the notion can be traced back to decades’ old plans to implement a totalitarian future. In order to establish a new world order, there need to be problems that are global in scope. One of the problems, prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, was the environment.
In 1972, a United Nations meeting about climate change was held to come up with a plan to manage the planet in a sustainable manner. This led to the creation of Agenda 21.11 In 2019, WEF entered into a strategic alliance with the United Nations, which called for the UN to “use public-private partnerships as the model for nearly all policies that it implements, most specifically the implementation of the 17 sustainable development goals, sometimes referred to as Agenda 2030.”12
Agenda 2030 is aimed at reducing middle-class’ consumption of basic goods and energy, which includes limiting, with an eye toward eliminating, property rights and private ownership for future generations, along with targeting such “luxuries” as ownership of electric appliances and motor vehicles along with suburban housing and air conditioning.13
It’s easy to see how turning high-vacancy commercial spaces into high-density housing fits right into this plan.
How Smart, Net Zero Mandates May Steal Your Autonomy
A practical example of how privacy may gradually disappear in these converted commercial spaces is the likely installation of smart devices in the residences. With each smart device that you welcome into your home — such as connected alarm clocks, vehicles, refrigerators and doorbells — another layer of your personal life is revealed.
This is certainly true of smart meters, which are officially known in the U.S. as advanced metering infrastructure (AMI) installations. In 2020, 102.9 million such smart meters were installed by U.S. electric utilities, about 88% of them in personal residences.14 AMI meters measure and record electricity usage at least every hour, if not more, and provide the data to the utility company and consumer at least once a day.
They’re also capable of distinguishing what type of energy you’re using. So, they know if you’re doing a load of laundry, watching TV or have left your home for the day. While this might not sound nefarious on the surface, it’s an intensely personal form of surveillance — one that could easily be used against you, including to ration your energy. Journalist Abby Martin explained:15
“If the notion about what you are doing and when you are doing isn’t disturbing enough – it’s worse. These devices are capable of regulating, controlling and even rationing your energy use. Take this example, you are running your fans in the hot summer months and the power company decides you are using too much power, they will take it upon themselves to lower it regardless of the consumer willing to pay for the extra usage.”
Technocrats such as BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and Bill Gates are among those pushing for “net zero” carbon emissions.16 The deadline Gates has given to reach net zero emissions is 2050,17 and smart meters are already being positioned as an essential part of this plan.18
Are They Making Room for the Cartel’s Migrant Mobs?
According to U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP), some 1.7 million illegals flowed across the southern border into the U.S. in 2021, another 2.4 million in 2022 and nearly 1.8 million as of August 2023.19
Many of them have been sent by drug cartels, law enforcement sources told The New York Post, under the false impression that anyone waiting for an immigration appointment through the CBP One app can get asylum if they turn themselves in.20 According to The New York Post:21
“Drug cartels are besieging the border by deliberately sending thousands of migrants a day to hand themselves over to Border Patrol officers in different US border towns, sources revealed to The Post. The tactic is meant to tie up already overworked border agents so Mexico’s cartels can carry on their drug and human smuggling operations undisturbed in less populated areas, law enforcement officials explained.
… ‘The way it’s being orchestrated through the cartels, I believe it’s meant to overwhelm the system. The [places] that are being impacted the most are border communities,’ former El Paso City Councilmember Claudia Rodriquez told The Post.”
Kidnapping is another issue. Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission has warned that drug cartels “found the kidnapping and extortion of migrants to be lucrative.” With the number of migrants reaching the border tripling over the last two decades, criminal groups have taken over migration routes, putting children and families at extreme risk.22
Speaking with NBC News, Nilda García, a researcher at Texas A&M International University in Laredo, explained, “It is very difficult for these groups to pass up this profit, this opportunity to earn money with migrants. Kidnappings are one more layer of its structure … They are very well organized. Sometimes they have military training and access to high-caliber weapons to terrorize migrants.”23
Is Immigration Intended to Beak Down Nationalism?
The video above features Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s mini-documentary “Midnight At the Border,” in which he travels to the U.S.-Mexico border in Yuma, Arizona, to investigate the illegal immigration issue firsthand.
The uncontrolled influx of illegals also puts an enormous strain on local communities, all of which have limited resources. In May 2023, NYC Mayor Eric Adams announced that nearly half of all NYC hotel rooms were occupied by illegal immigrants.24 The city is reportedly reimbursing hotels more than $300 a night per room,25 which means taxpayers are paying, while the city is slashing services in an effort to balance the budget.
Massive tent cities are also being set up to deal with the migrant influx.26 Is the conversion of office buildings to housing the White House’s “solution” to this crisis? Ultimately, it gives the global cabal one more win in its war against the sovereignty of humanity — and sovereign nations.
As Ivor Cummins, a biochemical engineer with a background in medical device engineering and leading teams in complex problem-solving, explains, “There’s … a massive change in immigration … it has been many times identified as a way of breaking down nationalism … the United Nations … made it clear we need to destroy national, we need to destroy sovereign nations …”27
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-24 09:51:132023-11-24 09:51:13Net Zero Housing: The Dark Side of ‘Smart’ Living and Personal Autonomy
The Biden administration is gearing up to finalize a host of emissions rules and regulations in the coming months, E&E News reported Wednesday.
The rules and regulations are all focused on methane, a greenhouse gas that is more potent, but dissipates more quickly, than carbon dioxide, and align with the administration’s commitment to attacking climate change with a “whole-of-government” response. The Biden administration is aiming to finalize the slew of methane regulations in the coming months ahead of the 2024 election, which would make the rules more difficult for a potential Republican administration to scrap should President Joe Biden lose, according to E&E News.
The White House is reviewing an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) final rule that would cut methane emissions from oil and gas production, refining, transport and storage, according to E&E News. The rule could be finalized on Dec. 2, when the U.S. hosts a methane summit with China and the United Arab Emirates at the upcoming United Nations climate conference.
‘America Is Back’: Biden Unveils Sweeping Oil, Gas Regulations That Would Cut Methane Emissions By 41 Million Tons https://t.co/UqyZx7r1im
The Biden administration and China committed to working together to control methane emissions last week, though the Chinese climate envoy has balked at calls to ditch fossil fuels and the country permitted an average of two new coal plants each week in 2022, according to the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
The EPA is also looking to finalize regulations for power plant and vehicle emissions in the coming months, according to E&E News. A separate EPA methane tax regulation from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Biden’s signature climate bill, is currently under White House review and due to become finalized early in 2024. The rule will be based on updated and more aggressive reporting standards.
Meanwhile, the administration is working with the European Union and other countries to craft new international standards to give low-methane natural gas privileged access to the European market, according to E&E News. While work on these standards is underway, it is unclear when they will become final.
The Department of Transportation (DOT) is working on a rule for pipelines for methane leak detection and repairs, according to E&E News. The agency had signaled that it would unveil the final rule in July, but it has not come out yet. The American Gas Association slammed the proposal as an example of “overreach” that sets “highly unrealistic” compliance timelines when the agency unveiled it in August.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is also crafting a methane rule focused on leaks from oil and gas production on federal lands, according to E&E News. The final rule was supposed to be unveiled in September, but the White House has not yet reviewed it.
The Treasury Department is also working on tax credit eligibility guidelines for “green hydrogen” projects, according to E&E News. The guidelines for the sizable tax credits, made available for the IRA, will set the threshold for acceptable levels of upstream methane leaks from gas used to produce the hydrogen.
The White House, the EPA, the DOT, the Treasury Department and the BLM did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
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Environmental scientist, Tom Harris gave a talk at a secret location in Ottawa in November to examine the scientism of ‘Global Warming’ and climate hysteria in general.
Tom also examined the connection between increasingly authoritarian policies being implemented and climate pseudo-science as the basis for these new restrictions on our liberties. Tom went one better.
He looked at the historical amount of CO2 in the Earth’s atmosphere, and what the minimum requirement for life on Earth to exist actually is.
If there is a climate crisis, it is the opposite to what we are being sold.
According to Harris’s archived profile at APCO Worldwide, “Specifically, he has worked with oil and gas, coal, nuclear, environmental and aerospace clients for whom he has conducted effective media and public relations campaigns.” His profile also highlights how he has “worked with private companies and trade associations to successfully position these entities and their interests with media and before various government committees and regulatory bodies.”
The Heartland Institute describes Harris as “perhaps the most frequently cited and interviewed critic of exaggeration and alarmism in the global warming debate, appearing thousands of times on online news forums and being regularly published in newspapers in Canada and the U.S. and occasionally in Australia, New Zealand, the U.K., and other countries.”
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-22 20:53:262023-11-22 20:53:26Tom Harris: CO2 is the Stuff of Life
New Jersey will prohibit the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035 in order to fight climate change, state officials announced Tuesday.
Democratic New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy and Shawn LaTourette, the commissioner of the state’s Department of Environmental Protection announced Tuesday that Murphy would file the “Advanced Clean Cars Rule II” for adoption on Dec. 18, with the policy coming into effect on Jan.1, 2024. The policy will bind the state to completely phasing out the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035, with incremental benchmarks for increasing the minimum share of manufacturers’ new fleets that are zero emission vehicle requirements along the way.
“Here we see yet another Democrat elected official pandering for votes by interceding in the markets in a way that will create perverse incentives for automakers and inevitably higher costs for consumers,” David Blackmon, a 40-year veteran of the oil and gas industry who now writes and consults on the energy sector, told the Daily Caller News Foundation about the policy. “This is just one more example of why politicians are literally the very worst class of people in our society to be making energy-related decisions for the rest of us. Everything they do in this space only serves to make our situation worse.”
Tucker Carlson asks New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy where he got the authority to nullify the Bill of rights when he banned religious services in his state:
“I wasn’t thinking of the Bill of Rights when we did this… The science says people have to stay away from each other.” pic.twitter.com/DPQ5d2DFl2
New Jersey joins a growing list of states that have adopted 2035 bans on the sale of new gas-powered cars. Other states with similar or identical policies include California, Vermont, New York, Washington, Oregon, Massachusetts, Virginia, Rhode Island, Maryland and Connecticut, according to Coultra.
The state will start restricting the number of gas-powered vehicles that can be sold in the state in 2027, before arriving at zero in 2035, according to Murphy’s office. The 2027 benchmark will require manufacturers to ensure that zero emissions vehicles compose 43% of their new car fleets.
The policy does not ban ownership or use of internal combustion engine vehicles, and it will not bar the sale of used gas-powered cars, according to Murphy’s office.
“There is no justification, environmental or otherwise, to ban gas powered vehicles,” Tom Pyle, president of the American Energy Alliance, told the DCNF. “All it does is force automakers to charge more for the types of vehicles that consumers actually want to buy. This power grab by unelected bureaucrats will make it harder for tens of thousands of New Jersey residents to buy their first car.”
Environmentalists and other green energy advocates often tout electric vehicles (EVs) as the future of American transportation and car culture, but they have several significant problems that their gas-powered counterparts do not. Public charging station performance remains inconsistent, drivers often have range anxiety, EVs tend to perform poorly in cold weather and they cost significantly more than gas-powered cars.
“By filing the landmark Advanced Clean Cars II rule, New Jersey builds upon its standing as a national leader in climate action and its participation in the global Accelerating to Zero commitment,” Murphy said of the policy.
Notably, some of Murphy’s other decarbonization efforts have not gone as smoothly as hoped. In October, Orsted, a major offshore wind developer, terminated two massive wind farms off the state’s coast that were expected to provide low-emissions power to the state for years to come. Now, the company is attempting to get out of up to $300 million it owes the state, which could ultimately leave New Jersey taxpayers on the hook.
“Governor Murphy needed another means of climate virtue signaling since Orsted messed up his offshore wind plans by cancelling two major projects last month,” Blackmon told the DCNF. “This is what he chose.”
Murphy’s office did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-22 20:53:252023-11-22 20:53:25‘Climate Virtue Signaling’: Another Blue State Commits To Banning New Gas-Powered Car Sales By 2035
The Biden administration is set to back a plan that would crush the coal industry at the upcoming United Nations (UN) climate summit, Reuters reported on Tuesday.
The U.S. will reportedly support a French plan to get the countries of the world to ban private financing of coal-fired power plants during the upcoming UN conference, known as COP28, according to Reuters. The plan is likely to drive a rift between countries like the U.S. and France and those like China and India, which are reliant on coal to feed their economies cheap and reliable electricity.
The proposed plan would allow the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to set coal standards for private financing companies that would allow regulators, ratings agencies and non-governmental organizations to track coal financing, according to Reuters.
Sen. Barrasso: At Climate Conference Biden ‘Pledged Allegiance To The Flag Of The United Nations’ Not The United States https://t.co/yG5sgC1CYL
The U.S., the European Union (EU) and Canada had been working together to assemble a strategy for phasing out coal, which they view as the leading threat to achieving international climate targets, according to Reuters. Approximately 73% 0f the electricity consumed in India is generated using coal, according to Reuters, and China permitted an average of two new coal plants each week in 2022, according to analysis conducted by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air.
“France has no coal, so their position banning it is easy. The U.S., on the other hand, has the largest coal reserves— by far— in the world,” Dan Kish, a senior research fellow for the institute for Energy Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Coal is the leading source of electricity in the world. All this does is make the rest of the world that is trying to get affordable electricity for their people align themselves with China and against the U.S. Uncle Sam is once again made to look like a Dunce under Joe Biden.”
India is reportedly likely to push back against the proposal, or any other proposal to set a deadline for a fossil fuel phase-out, according to Reuters. Indian delegates may reportedly push representatives of developed countries like the U.S. and France to become carbon negative, rather than merely carbon neutral, by 2050 to keep targets within grasp.
Beyond the reported plan to strangle private financing for coal plants, delegates are expected to discuss the shape and stipulations of a so-called “loss and damages” fund, a de facto international climate reparations program, at COP28. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry recently suggested that the U.S. will pay “millions” into the fund, a number that many activists and representatives of poorer countries find to be inadequate. China is unlikely to have any significant obligations to the fund because it is classified as a developing country, despite its status as the world’s top emitter and second-largest economy.
COP28 is scheduled to begin on Nov. 30 and run through Dec. 12.
Neither the White House nor the State Department responded immediately to requests for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-21 19:51:152023-11-21 19:51:15U.S. Backing New Plan To Cripple Coal Industry At UN Climate Conference
The problem is that this green dream is physically impossible to achieve in the next 10 years, and our new research at the Texas Public Policy Foundation shows how much Americans are already paying to try to achieve it.
EV advocates often claim that with the right balance of expensive subsidies and coercive regulations, we can quickly summon new battery and EV technology on a massive scale and make EVs cheaper than gas-powered cars.
What they don’t admit is that these subsidies and regulatory favors, not counting the new subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act that are beginning to take effect this year, are already costing Americans at least $22 billion annually, which is almost $50,000 per EV that is sold.
Much has been written about the $7,500 federal tax credit for EVs and tax breaks for domestic battery manufacturing, but our research shows that regulatory credits are the biggest subsidy for EVs, with an average of $27,881 per vehicle. This is primarily because EVs are being given a 6.67 multiplier to their rated fuel economy under federal standards so that an EV with a rated fuel economy of 100 miles per gallon is credited as if it is getting 667 miles per gallon.
Another concern is the strain EVs will place on the grid if nothing is done to optimize their charging patterns. As it is, infrastructure to support EV charging — including things like replacement and upgrade of transformers, circuits, feeders, and transmission lines, as well as extra overhead costs like metering and billing required to service charging stations — will result in an average of $11,833 in costs per vehicle over 10 years, our research found. Those costs are being socialized to your electric bill and to your tax bill.
A regular EV charging at home consumes as much power as several homes, and fast-charging an EV in under an hour may consume as much as 100 homes or an average grocery store. A Tesla here and there are manageable, but if more than 100 million EVs are connecting to the grid-like the Biden administration is envisioning — not to mention its push to electrify heating and industrial processes — then the impact on our grid is hard to fathom.
The U.S. is already a world leader in clean air, and levels of actual pollutants such as soot and smog are already so low in the U.S. that taking half the cars off the roads during the 2020 COVID-19 lockdowns did not measurably change pollution levels, according to our research. Forcing every American into an EV to try to achieve such a small impact is not worth it.
Also, EVs have social and environmental impacts that must be considered. EV batteries require significant mining of cobalt, lithium, and copper, which is primarily done in foreign countries with lax labor and environmental standards. The result isn’t environmental justice; it’s children as young as four mining cobalt in dangerous, squalid conditions in the Congo, as reported by CBS News.
As battery prices fall over time, hybrids are the natural next step. They use batteries that are 50-100 times smaller than EV batteries to achieve significant fuel economy gains, and they do not require new infrastructure to fuel up. Despite receiving far fewer government favors, hybrids are still outselling EVs in the U.S. according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, and hybrid sales are growing at a similar pace to EVs.
Instead of spending hundreds of billions of dollars to force automakers and consumers to adopt a politically favored technology at unsustainable rates, our leaders should let markets drive technology adoption, efficiency, and all the benefits that come with that.
As we move through 2023 and into the next election cycle, The Prickly Pear will resume Take Action recommendations and information.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00ThePricklyPear.orghttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngThePricklyPear.org2023-11-19 01:28:002023-11-19 01:28:00The True Cost of EVs Is More Than The Sticker Price
In 2022, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned us it was “code red for humanity” due to supposed global warming caused by CO2 emissions from human activities.
This year, Mr. Guterres upped the rhetoric when he claimed: “The era of global warming has ended; the era of global boiling has arrived.”
This summer we’ve been told that July was the hottest on record and we’ve been deluged with reports of ‘apocalyptic’ wildfires in the Mediterranean (Spain, Greece, and Italy), the U.S., Hawaii, and Canada. So, perhaps Mr. Guterres and the climate catastrophists are right? Perhaps we are all destined to die in a planetary fireball caused by our selfish use of CO2-emitting fossil fuels?
However, if you were to Google ‘2023 record cold’, you could get a quite different picture of this year’s weather:
An astonishing –62.4°C was recorded in Tongulakh, Siberia on January 14th. In addition to becoming Earth’s coldest temperature recorded in 2023, the all-time station record was broken in Tongulakh.
On February 4th, 2023, the Halifax airport in Nova Scotia saw its coldest wind chills ever recorded, with temperature plummeting to –43°C (–45.4°F). This tops its previous record of –41°C that was set on February 13th, 1967 for wind chill. Many other places across Canada also set new daily records, with temperatures lower than –40°C. On February 19th, temperatures in Shepherd Bay, Nunavut dropped to –49.6°C (–57.3°F).
The United Kingdom on Tuesday, March 7th braved its coldest night of 2023 with the temperatures dropping to below –15 Celsius in several regions. According to the Independent, a U.K. news portal, the British Met Office revealed that the temperature at Kinbrace in the Scottish Highlands was recorded at –15.2 Celsius, making it the coldest March in the country since 2010.
In February, the summit of Mount Washington in New Hampshire reported a wind-chill low of –78 Celsius (–108 Fahrenheit) — the coldest temperature ever recorded in the United States. Meanwhile, the National Weather Service (NWS) in Caribou, Maine, said it received reports of “frostquakes”. “Just like earthquakes, [they] generate tremors, thundering sensations. These are caused by sudden cracks in frozen soil or underground water when it’s very cold.”
In Boston, where officials closed down the public school system due to the impending freeze, the low temperature hit –23°C (–10°F), shattering the day’s record set more than a century ago, the National Weather Service (NWS) said. In Providence, Rhode Island, the mercury dropped to –23°C (–9°F), well below the previous all-time low of –19°C (–2°F), set in 1918. The Arctic blast flowing into the U.S. from eastern Canada also brought record lows to Albany, New York; Augusta, Maine; Rochester, New York; and Worcester, Massachusetts, among other places.
Sydney experienced its coldest June morning on record on Monday, with a minimum temperature of 1.8°C at Olympic Park, according to Miriam Bradbury, a senior meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology. In fact, more than 100 weather stations across Australia registered their coldest May minimum temperatures on record – with regular frosts, snowfall, and below-average rainfall to boot.
Thursday, June 1st saw potentially the lowest June temperature on record in Finland. A weather station in Lapland, Enontekiö Kilpisjärvi Saana, reached –7.7°C. This may not seem that cold for northern Finland, where winter temperatures reach as low as –51.5°C, but the last time Lapland saw a minimum temperature of –7°C in June was on June 3rd 1962
Extreme cold arrived abnormally early in Antarctica, with temperatures dropping to below –75°C from the beginning of May. Following the onset of polar night, winter has started at the South Pole, and with it glacial cold at the Russian research station of Vostok. As early as May 5th a low of –75°C was recorded, while just days ago this fell further to –76.4°C. This marks a new record for the early winter. Daily highs are also plummeting, often just below –70°C on the Earth’s coldest continent.
A sudden and unexpected surge of cold Arctic air engulfed several regions of South America, shattering numerous cold records in its wake. Although it is currently summer in the southern hemisphere, including parts of South America such as Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, and parts of Brazil, some areas have experienced a drastic and rapid shift in weather, going from a heat wave to frost in less than a week. On February 18th, 2023, most of the cities in Paraguay experienced a sharp drop in temperature, breaking their previous records for minimum temperatures. The temperatures ranged between 7° and 16°C (44.6- 60.8°F) across the country, with the lowest readings recorded in the southeast. The lowest temperature was 7.7°C (45.9 °F), which is just 0.7°C (1.2°F) from the national record low for the month of February. The extreme cold weather caused at least 30 cities in Argentina to break their monthly cold records on the same day.
So, in spite of the warnings of planetary overheating from Mr. Guterres and the climate alarmists, it seems that this year record cold temperatures have been recorded on every continent. Our rulers and their obedient mainstream media hyperventilate and panic, bombarding us with their many stories of this year’s supposed ‘record hot temperatures’ and ‘Earth on fire’ apparently caused by man-made global warming. Yet there is always somewhere on Earth that has experienced its coldest-ever temperature record. However, our rulers and their compliant media don’t like to mention these record-cold temperatures as they don’t fit in with the ‘Earth is boiling’ narrative. And our rulers are desperate to convince us that our planet is overheating, so we need to accept energy insecurity, de-industrialization, mass unemployment, and national impoverishment in order to achieve the totally unnecessary and economically suicidal ‘Net Zero’. Meanwhile, countries like China, India, and Indonesia hugely increase their national CO2 emissions as they take our industries and jobs while laughing at our stupidity.
David Craig is the author of There is No Climate Crisis, available as an e-book or paperback from Amazon.
As we move through 2023 and into the next election cycle, The Prickly Pear will resume Take Action recommendations and information.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00ThePricklyPear.orghttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngThePricklyPear.org2023-11-18 01:28:002023-11-18 01:28:00Analysis: The Media Has Been Silent on 2023’s Record Cold Temperatures
Legal proceedings against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) could threaten to disrupt the timelines for the construction of the largest offshore wind farm in U.S. waters to date, Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project.
The Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) and The Heartland Institute requested that BOEM and the NMFS begin to revise an allegedly inadequate environmental review and associated North Atlantic Right Whale harassment authorizations within the next 60 days, or the organizations will go to court to challenge the agencies’ actions, an outcome which could possibly disrupt CVOW’s timeline.
“This letter officially puts BOEM on notice that CFACT is prepared to file suit in order to expose the agency’s clear violation of federal law in failing to protect the North Atlantic right whale,” Craig Rucker, CFACT’s president, said of his organization’s filing and its implications.
Pending legal challenges against the Biden administration could disrupt the timeline for construction of a Virginia offshore wind farm poised to be the largest in the U.S.
The Heartland Institute and the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow (CFACT) filed a 60 day notice of intent to sue the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS), a subagency of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), on Monday, citing an allegedly deficient biological review underlying the agencies’ authorizations for construction teams to legally harass a number critically-endangered North Atlantic Right Whales. The two groups request that the agencies rescind the allegedly deficient review, known as a “biological opinion,” within 60 days and issue a revised number of harassment authorizations.
If the agencies choose to disregard the request and do not rework the number of authorized whale disturbances to align with a new assessment, the organizations will take to the courts to challenge the biological opinion, according to the notice’s text. The notice and the possibility of expensive, time-consuming litigation adds to the risks that Dominion Energy’s Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project faces, according to CFACT.
“This letter officially puts BOEM on notice that CFACT is prepared to file suit in order to expose the agency’s clear violation of federal law in failing to protect the North Atlantic right whale. By refusing to consider the cumulative impact of the dozens of industrial offshore wind facilities, consisting of several thousand individual turbines planned for the East Coast, it adopted a piecemeal approach, which only considered each individual offshore wind project in isolation,” Craig Rucker, CFACT’s president, said of his organization’s filing and its implications. “This is clearly a ploy to artificially reduce the total impact of these projects on the North Atlantic Right Whale. This obvious violation of federal law was ignored by the oversight agencies but will not be tolerated by the courts.”
Marine Conservation Orgs Took Funds From Offshore Wind Backers, Including One Potentially Linked To Whale Deaths: REPORT https://t.co/H1WfxQExOn
The notice asserts that the CVOW project’s biological opinion, issued by NMFS and adopted by BOEM, runs afoul of the Endangered Species Act primarily because the assessment does not adequately consider the cumulative impacts that other East Coast offshore wind projects will have on migrating North Atlantic Right Whales that travel near the other developments in addition to CVOW, according to its text.
The Biden administration announced that it had greenlit CVOW development on Oct. 31, setting the project on course to become the largest offshore wind farm in U.S. waters. The administration’s approval followed months of speculation that the offshore wind industry is driving a massive spike in North Atlantic Right Whale deaths along the East Coast.
A considerable uptick in baleen whale deaths has coincided with the 2016 beginning of East Coast developments, a timeline which generally aligns with NOAA’s declarations of “unusual mortality events” for North Atlantic Right and Humpback Whales in 2017 and 2016, respectively, according to its website.
While critics of offshore wind have suggested that offshore wind-related sonar activity could be disorienting the whales and their sensitive hearing, which in turn makes them far more likely to transit dangerous areas or struggle to find food in ways they otherwise would not, governmentagencies and several major eco-activism organizations maintain that there is no available science demonstrating that there is a link between offshore wind and whale mortality. The government’s current position is that climate change and vessel strikes are primarily responsible for the increase in mortalities rather than ocean industrialization.
Offshore wind is a key aspect of the Biden administration’s overall green energy agenda, which aims to have the U.S. power sector reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2035 and net-zero for the entire U.S. economy by 2050. The administration is striving to have offshore wind generate enough power to satisfy the demand of 10 million American homes by 2030, but concerns over the industry’s ecological impact and its substantial economic struggles have put that target in jeopardy.
Representatives for BOEM and NMFS declined to comment, stating that they are unable to comment on matters of litigation. Dominion Energy and the White House did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-17 15:51:172023-11-17 15:51:17‘Obvious Violation Of Federal Law’: Forthcoming Litigation Could Gum Up America’s Largest-Ever Offshore Wind Farm
The Biden administration announced on Tuesday that it is doubling down on efforts to work with China on climate change.
The State Department unveiled a comprehensive strategy reaffirming the administration’s commitment to taking on climate change as a global problem alongside China, even during a time of rocky relations between the two nations and clear signs that China may not be inclined to ditch fossil fuels anytime soon. The countries are on the same page regarding emissions reduction targets and strategies, cooperation through international institutions, subnational agreements and numerous other specific topics, according to the State Department.
China permitted an average of two coal-fired power plants per week in 2022, according to NPR, and their climate envoy said in September that the complete elimination of fossil fuel energy is an “unrealistic” goal. Nevertheless, the Biden administration is committed to working with China to reduce numerous classes of emissions, including methane and nitrogen oxides, both of which are associated with coal.
Both countries welcome subnational agreements focused on climate, such as those reached by Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom and representatives of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), according to the State Department. Additionally, the countries are jointly committed to turning back forest loss, reducing plastic pollution and rapidly developing green energy generation sources.
Tuesday’s agreement on climate stands as one of several tentative deals reached this week between the two countries. On Wednesday, President Joe Biden and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed to halt the production of illicit fentanyl and resume inter-military communications in California during their first meeting in a year.
Notably, the State Department announcement also alludes to a joint plan to hold “a high-level event on subnational climate action” at some point in the first half of next year.
The two countries also committed to working together to keep United Nations average temperature targets in reach in ways that “[reflect] equity and the principle of common but differentiated responsibilities and respective capabilities, in light of different national circumstances,” according to the announcement. China is technically a developing nation in the eyes of the United Nations, despite being by far the world’s leading emitter of greenhouse gases and its status as the world’s second-largest economy, and it appears unwilling to pay into the so-called “loss and damages” fund, a de facto international climate reparations program by which rich countries would pay developing, poorer countries for the impacts of climate change.
The “loss and damages” program is poised to be a major topic of discussion at the upcoming United Nations climate conference, which itself is another point of collaboration between Washington and Beijing, according to the announcement.
The State Department did not respond immediately to a request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-17 14:52:002023-11-17 14:52:00Biden Admin Doubles Down On Climate Cooperation With China As Xi’s Economy Goes On Coal Binge
CFACT is not just talking about the tragic mistake of offshore wind, we are taking action.
This week CFACT, partnering with The Heartland Institute, filed their joint intent to bring a lawsuit against the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) and the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) for abrogating their responsibility to protect the endangered Right Whale from the rush to construct wind turbines.
“The North Atlantic right whale is listed as ‘critically endangered’ by the governments of both the Commonwealth of Virginia and the United States. Numerous studies by federal and environmental organizations have found that only about 350 North Atlantic right whales remain in existence.”
Unprecedented numbers of whales have been found dead along our coasts as wind turbine construction proceeds. BOEM released its “biological opinion” giving Dominion Energy a green light to proceed with building its 2,600 MW Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind (CVOW) project 27 miles off Virginia Beach. This biological opinion has numerous pitfalls, including a failure to rely upon the “best available science” and employing a piecemeal approach to assessing risk to marine mammals that minimizes their actual lethality.
If bureaucrats refuse to do their jobs, we aim to force them!
To make matters worse, the Biden Administration energy strategy is terribly misguided in claiming offshore wind will meaningfully reduce greenhouse gas emissions. CFACT released a study this week which concludes, among other things, that “the net ‘carbon’ (carbon dioxide) reduction effects of offshore wind development are hugely negative and cannot justify further investments in this industry.”
You can read the entire study by David Wojick, Ph.D. and CFACT senior policy advisor Paul Driessen at CFACT.org.
The verdict is in regarding offshore wind. When one considers the incredible costs, its threat to the power grid, and the potentially severe threat to marine life, the way forward is simple…
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-16 13:51:362023-11-16 13:51:36CFACT Issues ‘intent to sue’ over offshore wind, releases new study…
It didn’t make a ton of news in the United States media, but a new study published by the International Energy Agency in mid-October emphasizes the enormous potential roadblock to a successful energy transition posed by a projected need to refurbish and double capacity on global electricity grids.
The study, titled, “Electricity Grids and Secure Energy Transitions,” advises governments that investments in expanding and refurbishing power grids must “nearly double by 2030 to over USD 600 billion per year after over a decade of stagnation at the global level, with emphasis on digitalising and modernising distribution grids.” That level of new investment in just this single piece of the overarching plans for a complete re-tooling of the global energy system is not currently a part of existing policies around the world. Given that most developed countries are already saddled with overwhelming public debt and the lack of means in developing countries, the prospect for a doubling of current grid investments seems dubious at best.
But, if anything, the goals laid out in this IEA missive only become more implausible as one reads through the list. Perhaps the most extraordinary among them is the agency’s estimate that reaching the UN’s goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 would require the refurbishment, upgrading and build-out of 80 million kilometers of new transmission lines by 2040. For those who struggle with conversion factors, 80 million km is roughly the equivalent of 50 million miles, or 2,000 times the Earth’s circumference.
That is the equivalent of all the transmission capacity built by mankind in history, and the IEA says it must be accomplished in just 17 years for this energy transition to succeed. IEA notes that achieving this extraordinary goal – among other improbable propositions laid out in the report – will require “secure supply chains and a skilled workforce,” neither of which currently exists.
How will this massive expansion in necessary skilled workers be achieved? The report doesn’t really say.
How will those supply chains – almost all of which are currently dominated by a single country, China – be secured? The report says only “Governments can support the expansion of supply chains by creating firm and transparent project pipelines and by standardising procurement and technical installations.” Sounds easy, right? But the U.S. congress has a hard time just agreeing what day of the week it is: The thought that it will suddenly develop the ability to engage in that sort of complex thinking and legislating in a constructive way is absurdly unlikely.
The report then somewhat hilariously points to another elephant residing in the energy transition’s living room, noting that governments all over the world need to streamline their energy permitting processes to accommodate this massive grid expansion. Again, using the U.S. congress as an example, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin has spent the last 19 months trying to put together enough votes to approve legislation that would address just a small portion of what is really needed in this realm and had no success, with no real prospects of that changing until, at best, 2025, when the next congress will be sworn into office.
Think about this in the context of a story I wrote in June about the TransWest Express transmission project, which had finally received its final permits from the federal government. This is a line that is about 1300 miles long, designed to carry electricity generated by Wyoming wind farms to customers on the West coast. The punch line on this single transmission project is that the permitting process took 17 years to achieve. Assuming no new litigation arises, it will now take about another 3 years to complete and place into service.
Like so many of the work products published by the IEA in recent years, this report’s findings seem to be motivated mostly to help achieve political goals based mainly on wishful thinking, with little consideration given to long-ingrained dynamics at play in the real world. Even if overwhelming debt burdens and resource and supply chain challenges could be just wished away, the political impediments to achieving these unrealistic goals seem destined to force a day of reckoning for the entire energy transition plan.
As we move through 2023 and into the next election cycle, The Prickly Pear will resume Take Action recommendations and information.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00ThePricklyPear.orghttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngThePricklyPear.org2023-11-16 01:30:002023-11-16 01:30:00A Reckoning Is Coming For The Failing Energy Transition
A Ukrainian military officer involved with the country’s intelligence services allegedly played a leading role in the bombing of the Nord Stream pipelines in 2022, sources familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
Roman Chervinsky, a 48-year-old colonel who served in Ukrainian Special Forces, was the “coordinator” of the operation to blow up the pipeline, according to the Post. Chervinsky’s role allegedly involved managing logistics for the team that rented a sailboat and used diving equipment to plant explosives on the pipelines.
Chervinsky allegedly took orders from senior Ukrainian officials who reported to the Ukrainian Gen. Valery Zaluzhny, sources familiar with the matter told the Post. Chervinsky denied being involved in sabotaging the pipeline.
“All speculations about my involvement in the attack on Nord Stream are being spread by Russian propaganda without any basis,” Chervinsky told the Post.
Chervinsky served in a unit of the Ukrainian Special Forces focused on resistance in Russian-occupied areas earlier in the conflict, sources familiar with the matter told the Post. He reported to Maj. Gen. Viktor Hanushchak who communicated with Zaluzhny.
Chervinsky previously served in the Ukraine’s military intelligence agency as well as Ukraine’s Security Service, the SBU, according to the Post.
Authorities allege that Chervinsky, who was arrested in April, acted without permission and that the operation gave away the coordinates of a Ukrainian airfield, prompting a Russian rocket attack that killed a soldier and injured 17 others. Chervinsky is being held in a Kyiv jail on charges that he abused his power stemming from a plot to lure a Russian pilot to defect to Ukraine in July 2022.
“All of those involved in planning and execution reported directly to [chief of defense] Zaluzhnyy, so Zelensky wouldn’t have known about it,” according to intelligence obtained by the CIA allegedly shared by Jack Teixeira, a member of the Massachusetts Air National Guard. Officials in multiple countries privately said they did not believe Zelensky approved the Nord Stream attack, according to the Post.
Accusations flew following the pipeline explosion, with world leaders blaming a multitude of different actors. Former President Donald Trump hinted that it might have been done by the U.S. and European Parliament representative for Poland Radek Sikorski appeared to cheer on the pipeline explosion. Some pointed to Russia and Vladimir Putin for the bombings, according to The Hill.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-13 01:51:582023-11-13 01:51:58Senior Ukrainian Military Officer Behind Nord Stream Pipeline Attack: REPORT
A key carveout in President Joe Biden’s signature climate bill is allowing companies to take advantage of federal tax credits to lease foreign-made electric vehicles (EVs).
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) features a $7,500 tax credit to incentivize Americans to purchase EVs that meet certain “made in America” sourcing and manufacturing standards, but the tax credit is still available to some foreign-made EVs if they are leased rather than sold. EV leases appear to have become more popular in recent months as dealers try to move growing backlogs of EVs off their lots, as consumer demand has cooled off and manufacturers have cut prices.
“Anecdotal information is that leases are going up, in some cases dramatically, due to the applicability of federal tax credits to commercial tax credits,” Brian Maas, president of the California New Car Dealers Association, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “We have heard reports that, for some brands, leasing is exceeding 50% of all EVs sold by the dealer, especially for brands that cannot qualify with the domestic content and manufacturing requirements.”
Jaguar EVs aren’t moving.
At this pace they’re going to start giving them away.
The dynamic could complicate the White House’s goal to have 50% of all new car sales be EVs by 2030, a target which it has already spentbillions and regulatedaggressively to reach.
The Biden administration announced that leased EVs not assembled in North America were eligible for the tax credit in December 2022; between then and July 2023, the share of retail EV sales that were lease sales jumped by almost 15%, according to Cox Automotive. Given the shorter-term and temporary nature of leasing an EV compared to buying one, leasing may be the better deal for consumers who want to access the value of federal tax credits while also hedging against the possibility that the EV they buy today will become obsolete in short order as battery technology improves or charging standards change, according to Consumer Reports.
The lessor, or financial institution that mediates the lease agreement with the lessee, can claim the tax credit on the vehicle, Mass told the DCNF. However, the lessor is not obligated to pass that value on to the consumer, and can instead keep the credit’s value for themselves.
One potential outcome is that the lessor could keep the tax credit, meant to incentivize the purchase of domestically-sourced and manufactured EVs, for themselves by leasing foreign-made EVs that would not qualify for the tax credit if purchased outright.
Lessors may be inclined to pass on most of the value to the lessee by offering a discounted lease offer, which makes their deal more competitive or appealing, according to Kiplinger. However, they could still hold on to part of the tax credit’s value for themselves given their ability to set the terms of the lease agreement, and the carveout allows foreign manufacturers to capture the value of tax credits ostensibly designed to favor their American competitors, even if they pass on the full value to a lessee.
The White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-12 15:51:232023-11-12 15:51:23A Massive Carveout In Dems’ Climate Law Is Boosting Foreign-Made EVs
President Joe Biden’s administration finalized guidance Thursday likely to burden Americans with costlier regulations to fulfill administration priorities such as combating climate change.
Biden’s Office of Management and Budget (OMB) is enacting new guidance that would require regulators to consider priorities like inequality and climate change when analyzing the costs and benefits of regulation. The White House argued the guidance is necessary so that regulations are issued with up-to-date analysis and information.Critics, however, argue the new guidance would lead to costlier regulations in the name of the Biden administration’s agenda.
“Adjusting how cost-benefit analysis is conducted in a way to make it easier to issue heavy-handed and costly regulations is unwise at anytime, particularly when Americans continue to suffer under punishingly high inflation,” Republican Oklahoma Sen. James Lankford stated, according to The New York Times.
The new regulations will in practice allow for stronger climate regulations by factoring in the projected economic costs of climate change and global warming, according to the NYT.
The regulations are based on Biden’s January 2021 “Memorandum on Modernizing Regulatory Review,” which accounts for contributions to progressive policies when considering proposed rules.
“We write to express our opposition to the proposed revisions, which are seemingly designed to fast-track progressive policies that do not have a majority of votes in Congress necessary for passage into law,” Texas Republican Sen. Ted Cruz and a coalition of Senate Republican committee ranking members wrote in a letter pushing back on the memorandum.”
The rules are also based on an April “Executive Order on Modernizing Regulatory Review,” according to the White House fact sheet on the final guidance, which the OMB pointed the Daily Caller News Foundation toward.
The order references regulatory moves that likely would lead to “adversely affect[ing] in a material way the economy, a sector of the economy, productivity, competition, jobs, the environment, public health or safety, or State, local, territorial, or tribal governments or communities” and takes “equity” into account.
Americans may also bear the regulatory cost for other nations because “effects occurring beyond the borders of the United States can result in benefits and costs that accrue to U.S. citizens and residents,” according to the fact sheet.
The OMB’s White House Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (OIRA) finalized the regulations.
“This updated guidance will help agencies more accurately estimate the impacts of their regulations and thereby enable them to craft better regulations which, in turn, means lower costs for consumers; cleaner food, air, and water; less fraud and exploitation; increased workplace safety; more innovation; and a stronger economy,” the White House OIRA fact sheet asserts.
The White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-10 23:51:352023-11-10 23:51:35Biden Admin’s Regulatory Overhaul Is Poised To Burden Americans In The Name Of Fighting Climate Change
The past week has been marked by worrying developments for the state of the green energy industry, suggesting that President Joe Biden’s sweeping climate agenda could be imperiled.
Offshore wind companies are cancelling projects and executives are sounding the alarm on the state of the industry, while solar companies and indexes have seen their value continue a months-long slide that has resulted in diminished earnings forecasts and a solar-oriented loan provider’s bankruptcy. These developments suggest that Biden’s sweeping green energy plans could be in trouble, especially given the intractable nature of some of the crucial economic problems plaguing the industries.
“Boosters for this energy transition bet the farm on three rent-seeking industries: wind, solar and electric vehicles. Two legs of that three-legged stool are now showing signs of financial distress despite massive subsidies they’ve already received from multiple levels of government,” David Blackmon, a 40-year veteran of the oil and gas industry who now writes and consults extensively on energy, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “American consumers, who are paying the price for this in the form of skyrocketing costs of all forms of energy, should demand their representatives hang up the phone when the calls come in from wind and automaker executives asking for even more.”
Orsted, a Danish offshore wind company, announced on Tuesday that it cancelled two major developments off the coast of New Jersey. Company executives blamed factors like inflation, interest rates and supply chain woes, saying that the problems had left the firm little choice but to walk away from the major projects.
Since the cancellations, the company’s stock price has fallen even further and S&P has indicated that it is considering downgrading the company’s credit rating. But Orsted is not the only offshore wind company showing signs that the industry may be in an extremely precarious position.
The U.S. offshore wind industry appears to be “fundamentally broken” due to problems with permitting and rising costs, Anja-Isabel Dotzenrath, the head of gas and low carbon energy for British Petroleum (BP), said at a conference on Wednesday, according to Bloomberg News. “There’s a fundamental reset needed,” she said, suggesting that there could be solutions and that her company is working with its partner to assess “options for their U.S. offshore wind projects to mitigate the effect of inflationary pressures and permitting delays.”
Under Biden’s leadership, the federal government has heavily subsidized the offshore wind developments, primarily via the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), in a bid to have the industry provide enough power to source electricity for 10 million American homes by 2030. The state of the industry is so dire that numerous energy market experts told the DCNF that a government bailout for the industry may be just around the corner.
Fox News’ Peter Doocy presses @PressSec about where laid off energy workers would go to get “green” jobs:
President Biden “laid out a plan that will not only create millions of good union jobs but also help tackle the climate crisis.” pic.twitter.com/MNJauWzYoB
The offshore wind goal is just one slice of the administration’s efforts to decarbonize the American energy sector by 2035 and then have the entire U.S. economy reach net-zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050.
Like offshore wind, the administration is counting on solar power to emerge in the coming years as a replacement for the energy generated by fossil fuel infrastructure. Solar power is also similar to wind power in that it is intermittent and currently more expensive than power sourced by natural gas and other fossil fuels, according to Peter Grossman, an emeritus professor of economics for Butler University.
Solar companies have generally had a rough 2023 so far, and this past week has been no different: while stocks are down for several leading solar producers, Sunlight Financing, a company which provided loans to consumers to buy residential solar systems, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on Monday. Several leading home system installers pared back their outlooks for the year this week as well, as higher interest rates and inflation have cooled consumer demand, according to Bloomberg News.
“The green industry makes products that are both very expensive and mostly ineffective,” Larry Behrens, the communications director for Power The Future, told the DCNF. “Yet, instead of admitting reality, we have an administration in Washington that is doubling-down and working overtime to force these terrible products into our lives,” he continued, adding that “thanks to the laughably-named Inflation Reduction Act, Joe Biden has a $369 billion dollar green slush fund and he’s put a political operative in charge of it… Joe Biden knows that when the green agenda fails, his legacy will sink even further, so there will be no dollar amount too high to keep green boondoggles afloat for as long as possible.”
The White House, Orsted, BP and Sunlight Financing all did not respond immediately to requests for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-06 18:51:292023-11-06 18:51:29The Green Energy Industry Just Had An Absolutely Brutal Week
The House of Representatives passed its sixth appropriations bill to fund certain government agencies related to the environment on Friday that would defund many of the Biden administration’s climate-change-focused initiatives.
The Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024 allocates over $25 billion to fund conservation programs, agencies such as the Bureau of Land Management(BLM) and Environmental Protection Agency(EPA) as well as cultural promotion agencies such as the national endowments for the arts and humanities. After spending over 12 hours considering amendments to the bill on Thursday and Friday morning, the House passed the bill by a vote of 213 yeas to 203 nays, with all Democrats but one voting against the bill.
“In drafting this bill, we worked very hard to rein in federal spending while prioritizing critical needs within our Subcommittee’s allocation,” said Republican Rep. Mike Simpson of Idaho’s 2nd District, who introduced the bill, at a meeting of the House Appropriations Committee in July to consider the bill. “Cutting funding is never easy and it can often be an ugly, arduous process. But with the national debt in excess of $32 trillion and inflation at an unacceptable level, we must make tough choices to ensure we do not saddle our children and grandchildren with overwhelming debt.”
🚨NOW: I’m leading the FY24 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations debate.
Amid widespread Republican opposition to the many climate change initiatives of the Biden administration, the House considered over 130 amendments on the floor to the bill, mostly from Republican members seeking to deny funds for these initiatives. Many of their amendments failed to pass due to bipartisan opposition.
Among the amendments passed by the House was a provision to deny funds for enforcing prohibitions on plastic straws, which was offered by Republican Rep. John Rose of Tennessee. Another such amendment, offered by Republican Rep. Scott Perry of Pennsylvania, the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, denies the government funds to prevent domestic pollutants from adversely affecting foreign countries.
One amendment, by Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee, denies funds to implement a provision of the Inflation Reduction Act(IRA) that raises minimum rents and royalties for oil and gas projects. Perhaps the most narrowly passed amendment was one advanced by Republican Rep. Chip Roy of Texas, which denies funds to implement any of President Joe Biden’s climate-change-focused executive orders, which was approved by one vote.
The bill has been opposed by Biden, whose administration released a statement indicating that he would veto it. “These levels would result in deep cuts to clean energy programs and other programs that work to combat climate change, essential nutrition services, law enforcement, consumer safety, education, and healthcare,” wrote the Office of Management and Budget about the bill’s funding levels, adding that it “include[s] billions in additional rescissions from the [Inflation Reduction Act] and other vital legislation.”
In parallel, the Senate has proposed a separate appropriations bill for these departments and agencies, which provides $19 billion more than the House bill and largely supports Biden’s environmental agenda, including $100 million for environmental justice programs, according to a press release from the Senate Appropriations Committee.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-04 17:51:432023-11-04 17:51:43House Passes EPA Spending Bill That Defunds Several Biden Climate Initiatives
In an October 31, 2023 article in the Qatari daily Al-Sharq, journalist Rabi’a bin Sabbah Al-Kuwari called to punish the U.S. and Europe for supporting Israel by imposing an oil embargo on them, stating that oil a weapon “more powerful than military weapons.” It should be mentioned that, in the same issue, Al-Sharq published an interview with Hamas official Moussa Abu Marzouq, who likewise called to withhold oil from the West. He enjoined the Arabs to “pressure the U.S. and its interests in the region the way [Saudi] King Faisal did in 1973 [i.e., by means of an oil embargo],” and added that “if the U.S. feels that its interests in the region are threatened, it will consider restraining the Israeli enemy.”[1]
The following are translated excerpts from Al-Kuwari’s article: [2]
“If the Arab countries stop supplying oil to Europe and the U.S., it may teach the governments and the people of these countries many lessons and cause them to rethink their unreserved support for the Zionist enemy. The martyred Saudi king Faisal [bin Abd Al-Aziz Aal Sa’ud, 1906-1975] used this weapon during the 1973 war, when the world sided with Israel, and it proved to be the best decision [and the best] way to subdue the countries that are hostile to the Palestinian cause at every juncture and in every place.
“When Russia’s war with Ukraine broke out, the prices of oil and gas rose, and the Western countries began to suffer an economic downturn. These countries learned their lesson and the true scope [of their influence] in times of crises and wars. The Arabs must [now again] take such a collective decision to punish the West and cause it to recognize the value of human [life], regardless of nationality. On October 16, 1973 OPEC decided to cut oil production and ban the export of crude to the Western countries, especially to the U.S. but also to Holland, which at the time was arming the Zionist entity and allowing the U.S. to use its airports to aid Israel.
“Sadly, the Arab governments are still divided today, and, moreover, normalization with the Zionist entity has become widespread…
“We need a brave decision to formulate a joint Arab policy in order to defend our causes, especially since we have the strongest weapon at our disposal, namely the weapon of oil, which is undoubtedly more powerful than military weapons.”
https://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.png00DrRichSwier.comhttps://libertyfirst.org/wp-content/uploads/logo_v6_225x110.pngDrRichSwier.com2023-11-02 16:52:032023-11-02 16:52:03Article In Qatari Daily ‘Al-Sharq’: Arabs Must Punish West For Supporting Israel By Imposing Oil Embargo On It
