People for the West -Tucson
Newsletter, February, 2021
PO Box 86868, Tucson, AZ 85754-6868
pfw-tucson@cox.net
Real environmentalism can go hand in hand with natural resource production, private property rights, and access to public lands
Comments on President Biden’s Policies
by Jonathan DuHamel
On his first days as president, Joe Biden issued dozens of executive orders that profoundly change U.S. policy on energy and climate. Many of the policies kill American jobs, but the Biden administration promises that those jobs will be replaced by new “green” jobs. Question: shouldn’t the “green” jobs have been created before killing existing jobs? The stated rationale for these changes is that we are in a “climate crisis” that is an “existential threat to the planet.” However, there is no physical evidence supporting the claim of a “climate crisis” or that carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are the principal cause of the “crisis.” There is, however, physical evidence that all climate changes we have experienced fall within natural variation. The only crisis is purely political. “In our time, political speech and writing are largely the defense of the indefensible.” – George Orwell
Biden tells us to follow the science, but his policies demonstrate that he and his administration are ignorant of the science. See my blog post: A Review of the state of Climate Science
Following are comments from various writers:
Biden’s Anti-Unity Agenda
by Star Parker, president of the Center for Urban Renewal and Education
President Joe Biden focused on the theme of unity in his inaugural address. “Today, on this January day, my whole soul is in this: bringing America together, uniting our people, and uniting our nation,” he said.
It sounds so nice. But only a career politician can be this disingenuous and speak the words as if he were so, so sincere.
If Biden’s top priority were really unity, would he really have allowed a trial of former President Donald Trump to move forward in the Senate? Or immediately signed 30 executive orders in his first three days in the Oval Office, many of which focused on undoing and dismantling Trump’s policies? (Read more) ☼
“The greatest good we can do our country is to heal its party divisions and make them one people.” —Thomas Jefferson (1801)
Biden’s energy & climate incompetence on full display
by Larry Hamlin
On his very first day in office Biden killed the TC Energy Keystone pipeline project thereby demonstrating his and the Democratic Party’s colossal incompetence and ignorance of energy and climate realities at home and abroad. British Petroleum’s extensively detailed year 2020 Statistical Review of World Energy report provides summaries of energy and emissions data covering the period 1965 through 2019 addressing all global countries use of fuels by year including oil, natural gas, coal, nuclear, hydro and renewables in addition to annual emissions of CO2.
The BP report shows that China and India account for 65% of total global CO2 emissions. The report also notes that for more than a decade the U.S. has been leading the world in reducing CO2 emissions more than any other nation with reductions of over 15% since its peak emissions year of 2007. Those reductions are due mainly to substituting natural gas for coal. (Read more) Note that the Biden administration has put a moratorium on drilling for natural gas on federal lands. ☼
Joe Biden’s climate-change plans will burn billions, won’t bring change we actually need
By Bjorn Lomborg, New York Post
Joe Biden will rejoin the Paris climate agreement soon after being inaugurated as president of the United States. Climate change, according to Biden, is “an existential threat” to the nation, and to combat it, he proposes to spend $500 billion each year on climate policies — the equivalent of $1,500 per person.
Biden’s climate alarmism is almost entirely wrong. Asking people to spend $1,500 every year is unsustainable when surveys show a majority is unwilling to spend even $24 per year on climate. And policies like Paris will fix little at a high cost. Yes, green spending will predictably increase green jobs. But because subsidies will be paid by higher taxes on the rest of the economy, an equal number of jobs will disappear elsewhere. (Read more) ☼
A current climate/energy meme is to get the world to “net zero” carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. Here’s what that would require:
Bright Green Impossibilities
by Willis Eschenbach
To get the world to zero emissions by 2050, our options are to build, commission, and bring on-line either:
• One 2.1 gigawatt (GW, 109 watts) nuclear power plant each and every day until 2050, OR
• 3000 two-megawatt (MW, 106 watts) wind turbines each and every day until 2050 plus a 2.1 GW nuclear power plant every day and a half until 2050, OR
• 290 square miles (760 square kilometres) of solar panels each and every day until 2050 plus a 2.1 GW nuclear power plant every day and a half until 2050.
I sincerely hope that everyone can see that any of those alternatives are not just impossible, they are pie-in-the-sky, flying unicorns, bull-goose looney impossible.
Finally, the US consumes about one-sixth of the total global fossil energy. So for the US to get to zero fossil fuel by 2050, just divide all the above figures by six … and they are still flying unicorn, bull-goose looney impossible. (Source) ☼
Net Zero agenda is making new houses unaffordable for ordinary Britons
GWPF & The Guardian
As the astronomical cost of Net Zero becomes ever more evident and ordinary Britons begin to realise they can’t afford ‘green houses’ mandated by the Government, public anger and political backlash are now inevitable. Householders buying brand new homes in the next four years are likely to find an unpleasant surprise awaiting them in the future: homes built today will have to be retrofitted with energy efficiency measures and low-carbon technology, at an average cost of more than £20,000. All UK homes will need to be brought up to high standards of efficiency and equipped with low-carbon heating in place of gas boilers if the government is to meet its target of net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. (Read more)
See also: Cost of Decarbonising Housing ☼
One of Biden’s first executive orders was to kill the Keystone pipeline.
Keystone XL is a pipeline to move heavy crude from the Canadian province of Alberta to refineries on the Gulf Coast. Pipelines can drastically reduce the amount of CO2 emissions needed to transport fuel. According to a study by the University of Alberta, pipeline transportation of large amounts of crude oil can reduce emissions by 61 to 77 percent less than by rail.
Some comments:
Biden Killing Keystone Is A Hollow Gesture To Appease Energy Alarmists
by Carson Jerema
Keystone XL was shaping up to be among the cleanest pipeline projects ever built. Calgary’s TC Energy was planning to spend $1.7 billion to power the pump stations along the 1,900-kilometer line extension entirely with renewables like solar and wind. The project promised to provide thousands of high-paying jobs and included deals with several American unions, and TC Energy had partnered with five First Nations (American Indian tribes) that had taken equity in the pipeline. It is exactly the kind of project that any sane politician would be excited about in these recessionary times. So naturally, incoming U.S. President-elect Joe Biden plans to cancel construction after he is inaugurated on Wednesday. [which will eliminate 11,000 jobs and destroying $2 billion in wages.] (Read more)
See also: In 2011, after reviewing 15,500 pages of documents and environmental impact statements the State Department determined the Keystone XL could be developed safely, was in the national interest, and would have no impact on greenhouse gas emissions or climate change. Also: Now that the Keystone XL pipeline is cancelled by President Joe Biden, the world is supposedly greener. Really? Fact is, it’s the opposite. Instead of getting more environmentally friendly, the carbon footprint from that oil will be increased substantially because it will be shipped by truck and trains above ground, instead of through underground pipe. It is also much less safe and efficient: Shipping by trucks and trains means more accidents — and an increased human cost. (Read more) ☼
The Shallowness Of Opposing The Keystone XL Pipeline
By Benjamin Zycher
The arguments against Keystone XL are as weak today as ever. The all-purpose climate argument is the central focus: Keystone XL supposedly would worsen anthropogenic (man-made) climate change. The pipeline would transport 830,000 barrels per day of Canadian crude oil, the total greenhouse gas emissions from which would be about 150 million metric tons per year or about 0.3% of the world total. If we apply the EPA climate model using the least favorable set of assumptions, those emissions would have a global temperature effect of about four ten-thousandths of a degree Celsius by 2100. (Read more) ☼
Other Biden Stuff:
Biden brings ‘equality’ to girls’ sports, and who knows what’s next?
The main problem with girls’ sports, obviously, is that they lack diversity: Only girls get to play. That’s wrong, and Joe Biden plans to fix it; to break the turf ceiling, if you will. Now, for the first time in history, men will be allowed to compete in, for example, girls’ field hockey, and then change in the girls’ locker room afterward. Joe Biden has signed an executive order requiring it. ☼
Biden’s Climate Orders Will Flip America’s National Security on Its Head (link to story)
Biden quietly embraces far-left ‘critical race theory’ (link to story)
Industry, unions warn of job losses as Biden freezes drilling permits on federal lands (link to story)
Biden Rescinds Trump Order Banning Chinese Communist Involvement In US Power Grid (Link to story)
Biden Scraps Trump’s Executive Order Lowering Prices of Insulin, EpiPen For Impoverished Americans (link to story)
China Is Wasting No Time In Testing Biden (link to story)
How and Why Joe Biden Opposes Patriotic Education (link to story) ☼
More on Energy:
The Power Grids Are Not Ok
By Conor Bernstein
Despite ongoing insistence that the fuel security, balance and reliability offered by coal can be easily replaced, mounting evidence points to just the opposite.
In states and grids across the U.S., blackouts, near-misses and troubling warnings have become all too common. California suffered rolling blackouts this summer, Texas has stumbled from one near-miss and capacity crisis to another, and grid operators with territory stretching from the Midwest to New England warn of mounting fuel security crises. The pivot away from baseload power is creating the same challenges overseas. Britain’s grid is dancing with the threat of blackouts and Japan simply can’t keep up with demand. Again and again, experience is showing that while renewable energy deployment is growing more ambitious, the nations and U.S. states leading the pivot away from fuel-secure baseload generation are struggling.
The Biden administration is about to take the wheel and begin rolling out its agenda. With economic recovery at the top of the list, some well-founded humility concerning energy policy is in order. The last thing American consumers want or need is a grid that is increasingly expensive, unreliable and unavailable. Smart energy policy won’t push a one-size fits all approach; what’s palatable or viable in one state can be economically ruinous in another. (Read more) ☼
Analysis: Biden’s energy restricting climate policies are a national security threat — not climate change
by Marc Morano
Policies that promote a massive expansion of U.S. domestic energy production is one of the best safeguards against engaging in ‘an endless parade’ of wars and interventions over energy supplies. Thanks to the Trump administration’s America First energy policy, the U.S. no longer needs to start or fight in wars over energy. America has its own domestically produced energy to rely on. In 2019, “U.S. energy exports exceeded imports for the first time since 1952,” the EIA (Energy Information Administration) reported. The EIA also reported, ‘In 2019, U.S. energy production exceeded energy consumption for the first time since 1957,’ when Dwight D. Eisenhower was president. The proposed climate ‘solutions’ of the Green New Deal and the Biden administration’s climate and energy executive orders is a threat to U.S. national security as the plan would only serve to shrink U.S. energy production and increase our dependence on Middle Eastern oil and force us to rely on energy from other potentially hostile nations, which could increase the odds of future wars.”
“By restricting fossil fuels and mandating solar, wind and electric vehicles will result in more environmental degradation due to increasing the U.S. dependence on rare earth mining operated by China and Russia. (Read more) ☼
Biden’s pause on oil cause for big concern in New Mexico
Associated Press
President Joe Biden’s 60-day moratorium on new oil and natural gas leases and drilling permits is prompting widespread concerns in New Mexico, where spending on education and other public programs hinges on the industry’s success. Top Republicans in the state as well as local leaders in communities that border the Permian Basin, one of the most productive regions in the U.S., say any moves to make permanent the suspension would be economically devastating for the state. Half of New Mexico’s production happens on federal land and amounts to hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties each year. Congressional members from other western states also are raising concerns, saying the ripple effects of the moratorium will hurt small businesses already struggling because of the pandemic. (Read more) ☼
Biden’s Green New Deal Won’t Work Without Mining, Especially For Minerals
by Duggan Flanakin
As Joe Biden and Kamala Harris take the reins of government and launch their program to “transition” America away from fossil fuels, they need to consider some hard realities. Chief among them is that no Green New Deal can succeed without major increases in US mining and processing, unless they want to make America even more dependent on China and Russia. While the U.S. has many minable resources, the regulatory minefield of labyrinthine local, state and federal rules that has turned permitting into a two- to three-decades adventure in frustration. (Read more) ☼
Would More Electric Vehicles Be Good for the Environment?
Competitive Enterprise Institute
The environmental advantages of electric vehicles (EVs) over internal combustion engine-powered vehicles are as obvious as the lack of a tailpipe emitting air pollutants and carbon dioxide, but there are environmental disadvantages as well. These disadvantages would become far more serious should policy makers choose to take EVs beyond their current niche status and make them a major component of America’s 17 million per year new vehicle market.
Producing a battery for an EV requires many mined materials, including lithium, cobalt, and rare earths. Most of this is mined and processed in nations like China, Congo, and Chile, where environmental standards are weaker than in the U.S. While America has deposits of many of the required materials, domestic mining is made difficult by environmentalist opposition, including by organizations that simultaneously advocate for more EVs.
Beyond the local impacts of mining and processing on land, air, and water, the energy that goes into making an EV battery is more than that needed for a conventional vehicle engine and results in greater carbon dioxide emissions during the manufacturing stage. This so-called carbon debt is incurred by each EV before it is even driven its first mile and may take years to repay.
Replacing gasoline with electricity as the energy source for personal transportation does not eliminate emissions of air pollutants and carbon dioxide so much as displace them. If coal-fired electricity were to continue to be a significant part of the generation mix, then the emissions reductions from the transition may be minor and possibly nonexistent. But even if a transformation of the vehicle fleet to EVs is accompanied by an equally difficult buildout of renewable electricity generation, there will still be significant environmental impacts.
Producing many more EVs will require dealing with many more spent EV batteries, which pose a number of environmental challenges beyond those associated with the lead-acid batteries in conventional vehicles. Recycling an EV battery is far from simple and poses a number of environmental tradeoffs. (Read more) ☼
Some good news on energy:
The Arizona Legislature is fast-tracking a proposed law that would strip state utility regulators of their power to require electric utilities to get more of their power from solar and other clean energy power sources. (Read more)
Note: People for the West has long advocated that the Arizona Corporation Commission (ACC) has no authority to mandate how electricity is generated. Perhaps this time the Arizona legislature will rein in the ACC.
Geology:
Climate extinction theory faces extinction: Woolly mammoths may have lived thousands of years after supposed extinction
by GWPF & Scientific American
Scientists have discovered the DNA of some 2,100 kinds of plants and 180 animals — including American horses and woolly mammoths – dating to thousands of years after their supposed extinction. (Read more) ☼
Virus stuff:
Ivermectin is Now a Therapeutic Option for Doctors & Prescribers
In March 2020, the Front Line COVID-19 Critical Care Alliance (FLCCC) was created and led byProfessor Paul E. Marik to continuously review the rapidly emerging basic science, translational, and clinical data to develop a treatment protocol for COVID-19. The FLCCC then recently discovered that ivermectin, an anti-parasitic medicine, has highly potent anti-viral and anti-inflammatory properties against COVID-19. (Read more)
Quick guide: COVID-19 vaccines in use and how they work
By Nicoletta Lanese – Staff Writer, Live Science
Dozens of coronavirus vaccines entered clinical trials during 2020, and now, a handful have been authorized for emergency use in various countries — meaning the shots can be administered to the public while their developers continue to collect data on their safety and efficacy. Should they meet all the necessary criteria, these vaccines could be fully approved in the future, and in some places, they already have been. (Read more) ☼
Parting Thoughts:
“Without Freedom of Thought there can be no such Thing as Wisdom; and no such Thing as Public Liberty, without Freedom of Speech.” —Benjamin Franklin
“The right to search for the truth implies also a duty; one must not conceal any part of what one has recognized to be true.” – Albert Einstein.
“But you must remember, my fellow-citizens, that eternal vigilance by the people is the price of liberty, and that you must pay the price if you wish to secure the blessing.” – Andrew Jackson
“A lie doesn’t become truth, wrong doesn’t become right, and evil doesn’t become good, just because it’s accepted by a majority.” – Booker T. Washington
“A smart person knows what to say. A wise person knows whether to say it or not.” – Dalai Lama
“Men fight for liberty and win it with hard knocks. Their children, brought up easy, let it slip away again, poor fools. And their grandchildren are once more slaves.” – D. H. Lawrence
“When you see that in order to produce, you need to obtain permission from men who produce nothing – When you see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favors – When you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don’t protect you against them, but protect them against you – When you see corruption being rewarded and honesty becoming a self-sacrifice – You may know that your society is doomed.” – Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged
“Politicians should wear sponsor jackets, like NASCAR drivers, then we know who owns them.” – Robin Williams
“When the debate is lost, slander becomes the tool of the losers.” – Socrates
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Our Mission
1) Support private property rights.
2) Support multiple use management of federal lands for agriculture, livestock grazing, mining, oil and gas production, recreation, timber harvesting and water development activities.
3) Support a balance of environmental responsibility and economic benefit for all Americans by urging that environmental policy be based on good science and sound economic principles.
Newsletters can be viewed online on Jonathan’s Wryheat Blog:
https://wryheat.wordpress.com/
See my essay on climate change:
https://wryheat.wordpress.com/climate-in-perspective/
and
https://wryheat.wordpress.com/2019/01/03/a-review-of-the-state-of-climate-science/
The Constitution is the real contract with America.
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People for the West – Tucson, Inc.
PO Box 86868
Tucson, AZ 85754-6868
Jonathan DuHamel, President & Editor
Dr. John Forrester, Vice President
Lonni Lees, Associate Editor
People for the West – Tucson, Inc. is an Arizona tax-exempt, 501(c)(3) corporation. Newsletter subscriptions are free.
In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, any copyrighted material herein is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only.
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