October 23, 2022

Some Information From Greenwich Village On The Upcoming Election

October 23, 2022/ Francis Menton

Here in ultra-progressive Greenwich Village, there is no such thing as a Republican running a competitive race for an office at any level — local, city-wide, state or federal.
The only contests are between the left and the far left, or maybe the far, far left. All local and city-wide races are decided in the Democratic primary, and generally the Republicans do not even field candidates for the State Legislature and City Council races.
All of which makes the current issue of our local community newspaper, West View News, so remarkable. It is unlike any issue of this or any other local newspaper in this neighborhood that I have seen in an election season at any time in my nearly 50 years living here.

October 22, 2022

The Briefing Begins In CHECC v. EPA

October 22, 2022/ Francis Menton

In a post last week, I gave notice that battle was about to be joined with the EPA over what it claims to be the “science” behind global warming alarm.
The case is called the Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council (CHECC) v. EPA, now pending in the DC Circuit Court of Appeals. CHECC challenges EPA’s 2009 Finding that CO2 and other greenhouse gases constitute a “danger” to human health and welfare. At the outset of the Trump administration, CHECC filed a Petition for reconsideration and rescission of the Endangerment Finding. That Petition was finally denied by EPA on April 20, 2022, more than a year into the Biden administration, and the appeal followed. I am one of the attorneys for CHECC.
The opening Brief on behalf of CHECC was filed on October 14, and a week later on October 21 an amicus curiae brief was filed in support of CHECC by the CO2 Coalition, together with Professors William Happer of Princeton and Richard Lindzen of MIT.

October 20, 2022

October 20, 2022/ Francis Menton

Sometimes I look at the U.S. government under President Biden, and I think that it couldn’t be possible to be more incompetent than this.
But take a look at any of the U.S.’s main geopolitical adversaries — besides Russia there’s China, and Iran, and perhaps you might throw in a Venezuela or a North Korea — and you quickly realize that all of them have far, far more incompetent government policy than the U.S. on its very worst day.
For today I’m going to focus on Russia.

October 17, 2022

October 17, 2022/ Francis Menton

Not being a dope, you likely realized a long time ago that it was going to take a lot of energy to manufacture the components of the future green energy utopia. Wind turbines, solar panels, electric cars, and so forth — there is lots of steel, other metals, and silica involved that all need to be melted at high temperatures to get formed into the devices. How are they going to achieve that at reasonable cost using just the wind and sun as energy sources?
Up to now, the main strategy has been to buy most of the devices from China, where they are made largely using energy from coal. Out of sight, out of mind.
But both Europe and the U.S. have made an effort to get at least somewhat into the game of making these things.

October 14, 2022

October 14, 2022/ Francis Menton

There’s nothing like a good energy crisis to bring a dose of reality to climate change and renewable energy fantasies.
It seems like it was barely a few months ago that every big financial institution and every big energy company was completely on board with the crash program to eliminate carbon emissions from the world. In 2021, in the run-up to the Glasgow climate conference, a large group of banks and other financial institutions formed something called the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, or GFANZ, with the mission of using their financial leverage to force the net zero transition on the world. From the GFANZ website:
GFANZ brings together independent, sector-specific alliances to tackle net-zero transition challenges and connects the financial community to the Race to Zero campaign, climate scientists and experts, and civil society.
All the cool kids raced to join up.

October 11, 2022

October 11, 2022/ Francis Menton

If you read this blog regularly, you likely are a follower of the global warming wars — the ongoing political struggle over government-led efforts in the US and elsewhere to transform the energy economy to get rid of fossil fuels and their associated “carbon emissions.”
Lately, those wars have been focused less on what might be called the “science” of global warming — that is, the extent to which human carbon emissions may be causing atmospheric warming and whether that warming might be dangerous — and more on issues of practicality and cost of the proposed of energy transition. After all, as to the “science” issues, we are instructed endlessly by our politicians and media that the science of global warming is “settled.” So what’s the point of debating that any more?
In the real world, the “science” behind the claim that human carbon emissions are heading us toward some kind of planetary catastrophe is not only not “settled,” but actually non-existent. Nevertheless debating that subject can quickly lead to arguments couched in technical jargon and mathematics that very few people will try to follow. By contrast, almost anybody can quickly grasp why wind and solar electricity generation can’t work to power a modern economy and will multiply electricity bills by an order of magnitude.
But don’t get the idea that everybody has just given up on exposing the fake “science” behind the global warming scare.