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5 Oct, 13 tweets, 4 min read
As you see stories of skyrocketing natural gas prices in Europe, and increasing dependence on Russia, know that all of this was totally preventable had so many European countries not foolishly banned the greatest natural gas producing technology ever invented: fracking.

THREAD
Foolish fracking ban 1: France

Gas-dependent France has banned fracking for natural gas since 2011.
theguardian.com/environment/20…
Foolish fracking ban 2: Bulgaria

Gas-dependent Bulgaria has banned fracking for natural gas since 2012.
bbc.com/news/world-eur…
Foolish fracking ban 3: The Netherlands

The gas-dependent Netherlands has effectively banned fracking for natural gas since 2015.
dutchnews.nl/news/2018/02/d…
Foolish fracking ban 4: Germany

Gas-dependent Germany has banned fracking for natural gas since 2017.
umweltbundesamt.de/themen/wasser/…
Foolish fracking ban 5: Ireland

Gas-dependent Ireland has banned fracking for natural gas since 2017.
irishtimes.com/news/politics/…
Foolish fracking ban 6: The UK

The gas-dependent UK has banned fracking for natural gas via a moratorium since 2019.
blackpoolgazette.co.uk/business/consu…
Foolish fracking ban 7: Spain

Earlier this year, gas-dependent Spain joined other European nations in foolishly banning fracking for natural gas, as well.
ihsmarkit.com/research-analy…
All the European nations that banned fracking are still 100% dependent on natural gas to survive. In fact they are even more dependent than they used to be because their use of intermittent solar and wind requires the unique flexible backup that natural gas can provide.
Like President Biden in the US with his fracking ban on Federal lands, European leaders thought that if they banned their ability to frack natural gas they would somehow stop needing to use natural gas. But the need has not gone away--and now they are even more at Russia's mercy.
While the alleged justification of fracking bans was the desire to reduce CO2 emissions, this never made any sense because a) natural gas use is the fastest near-term way of reducing emissions and b) European nations also oppose non-carbon nuclear.
What should European nations do about their self-inflicted suffering? One, they should immediately reverse their deadly fracking bans. Two, those who have championed fracking bans should apologize and promise to radically cut their own natural gas use.
Instead of meaningless gestures like "Earth Hour," the European anti-fracking movement, along with the American anti-fracking movement, should celebrate "Earth Winter"--keep their thermostat to 60°F or less so that the deserving can have affordable gas.

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More from @AlexEpstein

Alex Epstein Profile picture
6 Oct
As a SoCal resident and beach-goer, I wanted to see my govt respond to the oil spill by assessing the damage, investigating the cause, and proposing real solutions. Instead it is wildly distorting the facts and pursuing anti-oil "solutions" that will make life in CA far worse.🧵
Last weekend, a pipeline 5 miles from the Southern CA coastline leaked over 100,000 gallons of oil, some of which reached Huntington Beach, Newport Beach, and Laguna Beach (where I live). As bad as this incident has been, our elected officials' response has been far worse.
The main damage of the spill has been 1) making some waters temporarily unswimmable/unfishable and 2) harming some wildlife, especially birds. It's not a catastrophe: Newport Beach is already back open for swimming, and bird deaths are tiny compared to those via wind turbine.
Read 13 tweets
Alex Epstein Profile picture
6 Oct
I just interviewed Toby Rice, the CEO of America's largest natural gas producer, about the causes of and solutions to the world's natural gas crisis.

The takeaway: The US could alleviate most of this crisis--if not for anti-gas-infrastructure policies.🧵
"At the end of the day, you look at this and all of this could have been prevented." Rice says that with sufficient natural gas transportation infrastructure, the US could easily produce 20 BCF more a day and "alleviate these extreme situations that the world is dealing with."
Rice points out that the 20 BCF a day of natural gas production that would significantly alleviate global problems is "relatively simple" given that "we've grown gas supply in shale by over 65 BCF a day in the last 15 years."
Read 15 tweets
Alex Epstein Profile picture
24 Sep
Here we go, @KHayhoe evades my points about her bad methodology, won't debate, says I need to write in a journal.

1) Read me in Energy Law Journal:
eba-net.org/assets/1/6/17-…

2) My book, based on primary sources, is much better than a journal article.
amazon.com/dp/B00INIQVJA

1/6
If @KHayhoe will only read a peer-reviewed journal article refuting climate catastrophism, she should read this one by @BjornLomborg, including:
"Arguments for devastation typically ignore adaptation, which will reduce vulnerability dramatically."
sciencedirect.com/science/articl…

2/6
Anyone who is actually interested in thinking about the issue of energy and climate rationally, instead of hiding behind peer-/pal-reviewed journals--a practice that would have suppressed much of scientific progress--read what I wrote to @KHayhoe.


3/6
Read 6 tweets
Alex Epstein Profile picture
23 Sep
Dear @KHayhoe, your rejection of my invitation to debate me on climate catastrophe when I present at your university next year betrays a fundamental ignorance: you think the issue of climate catastrophe just involves climate science, whereas it mainly involves adaptation/mastery.
Dear @KHayhoe here's the basic mistake you are making in your view that climate catastrophe follows from climate science. Will you now come to debate, as I am an expert on climate mastery? Who else predicted decreasing climate deaths, as I did in 2014?
Not only does thinking properly about climate involve a deep understanding of adaptation/mastery, it also involves a deep understanding of the anti-human philosophy that distorts climate thinking. As a philosopher I can bring this to our debate, @KHayhoe.
Read 4 tweets
Alex Epstein Profile picture
23 Sep
The UN General Assembly is meeting this week to discuss how to go about rapidly eliminating the world's use of fossil fuels--which it claims is justified by science. Here's a mega-🧵 with everything you need to know about what's happening and why it is anti-science/anti-human.
The alleged scientific basis for rapidly eliminating fossil fuels alleged comes from the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Unfortunately, this organization is a largely political and religious organization. This thread explains how it works.
IPCC "Assessment Reports" are themselves a distortion, because they ignore the fundamental benefits of fossil fuels to our unnaturally livable world (including climate) and catastrophize the side-effects. But UN leadership + media make things far worse.
Read 7 tweets
Alex Epstein Profile picture
23 Sep
"Many speeches will inevitably include lofty pledges to accelerate the charge to carbon-neutral renewable energy sources. This rhetoric will be somewhat surreal, however, given the burgeoning energy crisis across the Atlantic." @VictoriaCoates on the UN 👇
foxnews.com/opinion/putin-…
"Short-sighted climate policies have resulted in an unsustainable dependency on erratic renewables such as wind and hydro on one hand, and natural gas imports from Vladimir Putin’s Russia on the other." @VictoriaCoates
"Boris Johnson, for example, who will be front and center among the Turtle Bay climate crusaders, may soon be forced to spend billions of pounds propping up Britain’s cratering energy sector as he reopens carbon-belching coal plants to stave off a full-bore crisis..."
Read 6 tweets

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