People for the West -Tucson
Newsletter, March, 2022
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
We are now experiencing the results of Biden’s bad policy on climate and energy: inflation, high energy costs, supply chain problems. During the Trump administration the U.S. became energy independent and a net exporter of energy. Biden changed that because he swallowed the “kool-aid” of the climate scam which says that carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuels are creating dangerous global warming. As I showed in the January issue of this newsletter, human-caused carbon dioxide emissions total just 0.117% of total greenhouse gases and human-caused methane emissions represent just 0.06% of total greenhouse gases. Yet the climate scam narrative claims that reducing or eliminating these emissions is necessary to save the planet. There is no physical evidence that our carbon dioxide or methane emissions have a significant effect on global temperature.
This newsletter will examine some of the energy and climate policies. We will also “follow the science” and see that there are many problems with the climate narrative. Toward the end of this newsletter we will see that both global warming and increased atmospheric carbon dioxide are very beneficial to life.
THE STATE OF THE UNION
Joe Biden and the Uses of Nihilism
by Victor Davis Hanson
Chaos is the new, the intentional, normal. A pandemic of nihilism has been unleashed upon the land. As in Lord of the Flies, when laws, rules, protocols, traditions, and customs are mocked and dismantled, primitive human nature in the raw is unleashed. Madness now reigns in every quarter, from the iconic to the irrelevant to the fundamental. (Read more) ☼
Biden’s Climate Policies Added $1,000 To Energy Bills In 2021
by Haris Alic
President Biden’s plan to make combatting climate change a “whole of government agenda” resulted in Americans shelling out more than $1,000 extra in energy costs last year, according to a new report by conservative think tank Heartland Institute. (Read more) ☼
Biden is disconnected from American’s reluctance to be regulated out of fossil fuel prosperity
By Ronald Stein
Civilization has benefited from more than 6,000 products made from the oil derivatives manufactured out of raw crude oil at refineries. None of these products were available to society before 1900. With no known replacement for crude oil in the foreseeable future, President Biden has stated “we are going to get rid of fossil fuels” implying that he is going to change society’s lifestyle and economy demands for the products made from fossil fuels that were not available before 1900. Virtually all the components of wind turbines, solar panels, and all forms of transportation are assembled with products made from oil derivatives manufactured from crude oil. Ridding the world of crude oil would eliminate most forms of transportation and electricity generation from wind and solar. (Read more) ☼
Your tax dollars at work:
The Department of Energy established a New Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations Under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. DOE will oversee $20 Billion Federal Investment to Stand Up Clean Energy Projects across the U.S. to reach President Biden’s net-zero goals. (Source) ☼
Biden Maladministration Now Cancelling Mining Leases
by David Middleton
As if the unlawful cancellation of oil & gas lease sales wasn’t bad enough, Biden et al. are now cancelling mining leases that would have led to increased domestic production of the “copper, nickel, cobalt and platinum group metals” required for wind turbines, EV batteries and all of the other Unicorns they believe can replace fossil fuels. As an example, here are the mineral resources required to manufacture smartphones: (Read more) ☼
Biden Adds More Climate Roadblocks To Pipeline & Energy Projects
by Thomas Catenacci
The Biden administration altered the official federal policy on approving new interstate natural gas facilities and pipelines, requiring a climate consideration. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) announced that it will begin to “undertake a robust consideration” of the environmental justice impacts of such fossil fuel projects before granting approval. (Read more) ☼
ENERGY
Working like the devil to lower energy prices
by Kathleen Sgamma and Dan Naatz, The Hill
Last week, President Biden said he would “work like the devil” to bring down gasoline prices. Somehow, after more than half a year of watching him beg Russia and OPEC to increase their oil production while making it more difficult for American oil and natural gas producers, we’re skeptical. But here are a few simple ideas to help the president channel his inner Lucifer and reduce energy prices.
Move forward with leasing on federal public lands. The government is required to conduct quarterly lease sales, but since President Biden banned leasing during his first week in office, later overturned by a federal judge, there has not been one lease sale on federal lands. The Interior Department just missed the deadline for holding a lease sale this quarter. He could instruct the department to move forward with leasing now.
Stop the Biden administration’s regulatory overreach agenda. The Interior Department, Environmental Protection Agency, Securities and Exchange Commission, and other agencies are moving forward aggressively with regulations meant to make American oil and natural gas production more expensive. When you make something more expensive, you get less of it and higher prices for consumers. Simply halt the deluge of new regulation meant to slow American production.
Rescind the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin to the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. She has written extensively about debanking the oil and natural gas industry. Rescinding her nomination would send a strong signal to the market that the Biden administration will not use the Fed and other government agencies to block lending to energy companies, thereby giving the green light to banks and other lenders to invest in American production.
Approve the Keystone XL pipeline. Doing so would create jobs and a conduit for oil to flow from Canada, thereby reducing dependence on Russia and OPEC. Keystone XL also has capacity for American production from Montana and North Dakota. The approval of the permit would send a strong signal to other pipeline projects that have been held up by anti-oil-and-gas groups. More pipelines mean more low-cost American energy would reach consumers and decrease imports from unfriendly nations.
Instruct the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to move forward with approvals of pipelines all across the country that are held up in red tape. Oil and natural gas pipelines enable quicker, safer, and more efficient transportation of energy all across the country, which helps relieve energy inflation.
Support the modernization of National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) rules that sensibly reduced the time for conducting environmental analysis on federal infrastructure projects. NEPA analysis takes years and dramatically increase the costs of building or reconstructing roads, bridges, and energy infrastructure.
Follow the judge’s ruling last week and stop efforts to impose a Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) on every federal energy project. The SCC is specifically meant to increase the cost of energy consumption. Recognize that the law does not support imposing a SCC on energy production and use, and simply stop such efforts that increase costs for consumers.
These are just a few simple ideas that would enable America’s oil and natural gas producers to increase production and our nation to recapture the top spot as an energy superpower. Rather than begging OPEC and Russia for help, the Biden administration should pursue an energy strategy that unleashes the ingenuity of the American oil and natural gas worker. (Source) ☼
Before you save the planet, save the people who live on it
by Vijay Jayaraj
Climate change frequently dominates media coverage and political discourse. Why wouldn’t it when those advancing the apocalyptic agenda speak in terms of saving the planet? The state of the climate is nothing if not an “existential threat,” or so it is said.
For the sake of argument, let us assume that the motives of climate alarmists are as pure as the environment they envision. That they really do see their roles as saviors. Even so, there is a very large elephant in the room, which is that they seek to save the planet by killing its inhabitants — unwittingly or not.
Not only do climate enthusiasts refuse to acknowledge the issue of ongoing energy poverty for billions of people across the world, but they promote policies that exacerbate lack of access to affordable, reliable electricity. The socio-economic conditions of energy poverty, which can only be worsened by the forced replacement of fossil fuels with wind and solar, contribute to higher rates of both morbidity and mortality. (Read more) ☼
CO2 Emissions Increased In States That Closed Nuclear Plants
by Thomas Catenacci
Greenhouse gas emissions have surged in multiple Northeast states that shuttered nuclear power plants since 2019. (Read more) ☼
The U.S. GAO Finds Waste in Government Financed Carbon Capture and Storage Schemes
by Bonner R Cohen
A U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) review of federal spending on Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) technology, once heralded as an effective way to reduce the threat of supposed manmade climate change, says the federal dollars have been misspent. The federal government has spent more than $1 billion dollars attempting to bring commercially viable CCS technologies to the market, in particular attempting to capture and store carbon dioxide emissions from coal fueled power plants. (Read more) ☼
Biden Admin Deals Yet Another Blow To US Natural Gas Pipelines
by Myles Mccormick
The prospects for new fossil fuel infrastructure in the US have gone from bad to worse after regulators beefed-up environmental requirements for natural gas pipelines, adding to the woes of an industry under siege from campaigners. For the first time in more than two decades, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted on Thursday to overhaul the certification process for new gas pipelines, providing for greater scrutiny of the economic need for projects, as well as their impacts on the environment, communities, and landowners. The changes mean that new pipeline approvals — already subject to a lengthy review and often facing legal challenges — will become significantly more difficult to attain. (Read more) ☼
Commentary: King Coal Is Dead, Long Live the King
by Robert Bryce, Heartland Institute
So much for the myriad claims about going “beyond coal.” According to a new report from the Rhodium Group, U.S. coal consumption jumped by 17 percent last year compared to 2020 levels. Rhodium says this huge increase was “largely driven by a run-up in natural gas prices.”
Rather than burn gas, which averaged about $4.93 per million Btu last year — more than two times the price in 2020 — many electricity producers chose to burn coal instead. ‘Coal Remains Essential’ The surge in domestic coal use is significant. It proves again that coal remains an essential fuel for electricity producers both in the United States and around the world. It also shows that the Biden administration’s pledge to decarbonize the electric grid by 2035 is little more than wishful thinking. (Read more) ☼
U.S. Corn-Based Ethanol Worse For Climate Than Gasoline, Study Finds
by Leah Douglas
Corn-based ethanol, which for years has been mixed in huge quantities into gasoline sold at U.S. pumps, is likely a much bigger contributor to global warming than straight gasoline, according to a study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. The study found that ethanol is likely at least 24% more carbon-intensive than gasoline due to emissions resulting from land-use changes to grow corn, along with processing and combustion. Tilling fields release carbon stored in the soil, while other farming activities, like applying nitrogen fertilizers, also produce emissions. (Read more) ☼
More Focus On The Impossible Costs Of A Fully Wind/Solar/Battery Energy System
by Francis Menton
It should be glaringly obvious that, if we are shortly going to try to convert to a “net zero” carbon emissions energy system based entirely on wind, sun and batteries, then there needs to be serious focus on the feasibility and costs of such a system. The particular part of such a prospective system that needs the most focus is the method of energy storage, its cost and, indeed, feasibility. That part needs focus because, as wind and solar increase their share of generation over 50% of the total, storage becomes far and away the dominant driver of the total costs. Moreover, there is no clear way to identify some fixed amount of storage that will be sufficient to make such a system reliable enough to power a modern economy without full backup from dispatchable sources. This also should be glaringly obvious to anyone who thinks about the problem for any amount of time. (note: Menton comes with the figure of $400 trillion needed just for storage batteries in the U.S., (Read more) ☼
CLIMATE
Why global warming is good for us
by Matt Ridley
Global warming is real. It is also – so far – mostly beneficial. This startling fact is kept from the public by a determined effort on the part of alarmists and their media allies who are determined to use the language of crisis and emergency. The biggest benefit of emissions is global greening, the increase year after year of green vegetation on the land surface of the planet. Forests grow more thickly, grasslands more richly and scrub more rapidly. This has been measured using satellites and on-the-ground recording of plant-growth rates. It is happening in all habitats, from tundra to rainforest. The cause of this greening is the extra carbon dioxide in the air. The effect of today’s warming (and greening) on farming is, on average, positive: crops can be grown farther north and for longer seasons and rainfall is slightly heavier in dry regions. (Read more) ☼
Be Grateful for Global Warming
by Gregory Wrightstone, CO2coalition
Present-day warming has been termed a crisis, and modern economic development a cancer. But what if I told you that much of the recent advancement in human prosperity would have been impossible without the temperature increases of the last several hundred years?
A key to the sustenance of any society is food security. Today’s world should be grateful for today’s relative warmth as well as higher levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide levels because both have been instrumental in propelling plant growth globally.
A review of human and climate history reveal a strong link between the rise and fall of temperature and the rise and fall of civilization, and it is just opposite of what the climate doomsayers are telling you. Past warming periods were much warmer than our modern temperatures and were associated with times of great prosperity. The intervening cold eras had names like Greek Dark Ages, the Dark Ages and Little Ice Age and were linked to crop failure, pestilence and mass depopulation. (Read more) ☼
The Fortuitous Link Between CO2 Emissions and Economic Growth
from Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change
Pretty much everyone in the world today is familiar with the claim that dangerous climate change, caused by rising levels of atmospheric CO2, is presently occurring to the detriment and peril of humanity and the natural world. And because the combustion of fossil fuels is the principal source behind the CO2 rise, it is also claimed that society must abandon all use of fossil fuels.
In a nutshell, this is the position and objective of climate activists, who seek to enforce government and private sector efforts to restrict fossil fuel use via tax, caps or fiat limits on CO2 emissions. Reality, however, paints a much different picture. The real story is that there is no upcoming climate catastrophe and CO2 emissions and fossil energy should be celebrated for enhancing life and improving the standard of living for humanity and the natural world, and they will continue to do so as more fossil fuels are used in the future. (Read more or watch video) ☼
How we have mischaracterized climate risk
by Dr. Judith Curry
[Note: In this long essay Dr. Curry shows how the powers-that-be are ignoring the real problems and making policy based on politics and a poor understanding of the complex issues of climate.]
Dr Curry’s conclusions:
“The UNFCCC (UN Framework Convention on Climate Change) is promoting a solution to an exceedingly complex, uncertain and ambiguous problem, without the context of an adequate risk assessment that references the wider ethical issues and political and practical feasibility. As a result, we have neglected to truly understand the climate system and the broader causes of vulnerabilities of human and natural systems, and to systematically and broadly evaluate the feasible policy space. The end result is that after 30 years of the UNFCCC/IPCC, we are fixated on the minutiae of greenhouse gas emissions levels and the abstract and impossible problem of constraining atmospheric CO2 concentration – while ignoring natural climate variability and drastically simplifying the human side. As long as the current situation prevails, the IPCC’s assessments of anthropogenic climate change and the UNFCCC recommendations for action will remain seriously inadequate.” (Read full essay)
[Note: Dr. Curry is President (co-owner) of Climate Forecast Applications Network (CFAN). Previously, she was Professor and Chair of the School of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences at the Georgia Institute of Technology.] ☼
VIRUS STUFF
A new study by Johns Hopkins concludes: that lockdowns have had little to no public health effects, they have imposed enormous economic and social costs where they have been adopted. In consequence, lockdown policies are ill-founded and should be rejected as a pandemic policy
instrument. (link to study) (see Fox News story) ☼
Unmasking CDC’s Latest Mask Study: How Government Gets It Wrong Again
by Doug Badger
This article discusses the statistical malfeasance by the CDC. (Read article) ☼
The COVID Narrative is Falling Apart
By James Stansbury
Link to full article, excerpts below
1). Alarming vax side effects reported by military whistleblowers. The information came from the Defense Medical Epidemiology Database (DMED), a mundane accounting tool used to track all medical diagnosis of military personnel and dependents for insurance billing purposes.
Following is a summary of the most alarming vax side effects:
Myocardial infarction (heart attack) — 269% increase
Cancer diagnoses — 300% increase
Miscarriage — 300% increase
Bell’s palsy — 291% increase
Congenital malformations (for children of military personnel) – 156% increase
Female infertility — 471% increase
Pulmonary embolisms — 467% increase
Neurological issues — 1,000% increase
2). Athletes are mysteriously dying of sudden heart attacks
3). Vaccines now have negative efficacy: Data has surfaced claiming that continued use of the original vax is causing negative efficacy. Negative efficacy doesn’t mean the protection fades. It means the opposite: it means the vaccines are now weakening the immune system. ☼
Washington’s COVID Scam Killed Medical Freedom, and Americans
By Deane Waldman, M.D.
Medical freedom or autonomy gives people the right to choose with respect to their bodies; physicians the freedom to do what is best for a patient; and bio-scientists the freedom to communicate with, well, everyone. Washington has denied Americans their medical freedom in this COVID crisis, causing economic devastation and needless deaths. Regardless of dire, fear-inducing life-or-death warnings emanating from Washington about COVID, it is simply a new flu. (Read more) ☼
Parting Thoughts:
“Vision is the ability to see not just what’s in front of us, but possibilities, dreams, and triumphs
that haven’t happened yet — because that is the first step in being able to pursue them.” – Jonathan Swift
If truckers quit their jobs, society would immediately collapse. If politicians quit their jobs, the world would become a better place. We need truckers more than anybody else. Honk Honk.” —Greg Price
“I get the feeling some people are using [Joe Rogan’s] COVID interview as a pretext to silence his voice because he’s not woke. Zealots of wokeism try to censor voices who don’t agree with theirs, because they fear the absurdity and weakness of their positions will be exposed.” —Tulsi Gabbard
America does not have a “white supremacy” problem. It has a “spoiled, unhinged, white liberals” problem. – Kayleigh McEnany
Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity. – Thomas Sowell
Wokeism’s natural logic is to destroy the lives of people of both genders, of all races, and—if need be—those of every age, all to leverage an otherwise unworkable ideological agenda. It is nihilist and destroys everything it touches. It tears apart foes and friends alike, whether by fueling media-driven hatred of Donald Trump or faux-deification of the disaster that is now Joe Biden. – Victor Davis Hanson (read article) ☼
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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/
If you like murder mysteries, try Lonni’s novels. See descriptions and links at:
https://wryheat.wordpress.com/lonnis-murder-mysteries/
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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