Commentary President Joe Biden is set to “transform” and “remake” the entire auto industry—“first with carrots, now with sticks”—notes the Washington Post, as if dictating the output of a major industry is within the governing purview of the executive branch. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing draconian emissions limits for vehicles, ensuring that 67…

Commentary The Biden administration on Wednesday announced plans to make cars more expensive for Americans, curb U.S. energy jobs, and make Chinese battery manufacturers richer. The new proposed regulations from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would require new car sales to be 60 percent battery-powered electric by 2030 and 67 percent by 2032 in order…

Commentary The “energy transition” continues to receive thunderous applause from all the usual Beltway suspects, an exercise in groupthink fantasy amazing to behold. For those with actual lives to live and thus uninterested in silliness: The “energy transition” is a massive shift, wholly artificial and politicized, from conventional energy inexpensive (Table 1b and here), reliable, and very clean given the proper policy…

Commentary Politicians and climate activists portray net zero climate policies as a win–win: good for the planet, good for the economy. A recent example is “Mission Zero,” a supposedly independent review of Britain’s net zero target led by the former minister who signed net zero into law. “Net zero is the economic opportunity of the…

Commentary For at least the last 20 years, politicians in Washington, at the behest of green energy groups, have spent some $100 billion of taxpayer money to fight climate change and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. How is that going for us so far? A recent Associated Press story, based on the latest data on global…

Chevron CEO Mike Wirth said that maintaining secure and affordable energy supplies amid the push to decarbonize is one of the biggest challenges of the day while warning that a premature shift to low-carbon risks a disorderly transition that would be “painful and chaotic.” Wirth made the remarks during Monday’s session of S&P Global’s CERAWeek…

Commentary Inflation is rising everywhere, which does not mean it’s not a problem for politicians in Australia, just that they are a subset of politicians everywhere. So we are seeing a global hunt for alibis and scapegoats. In Australia,  the federal government and the union movement have chosen business—in particular mining and food—as their fall…

Commentary Inflation is rising everywhere, which does not mean it’s not a problem for politicians in Australia, just that they are a subset of politicians everywhere. So we are seeing a global hunt for alibis and scapegoats. In Australia,  the federal government and the union movement have chosen business—in particular mining and food—as their fall…

In his State of the Union address last week, President Joe Biden declared that he would “finish the job” of what he calls the “incredible transition” from fossil fuels to wind and solar energy. “The Inflation Reduction Act is the most significant investment ever to tackle the climate crisis,” Biden said, referring to $370 billion…

Commentary The push for electrification of the entire economy—electric cars and trucks, electric heat and hot water, and even electric stoves—is relentless. Various states, including California, New Jersey, and New York, to name just three, have enacted legislation and developed all-encompassing “plans” to put everything into an electrified basket. But electrification requires, well, electricity. Lots…