"The Sum of All Energy Fears," @FreemanWSJ's excellent new column, explains: 1) How opposition to fossil fuels and nuclear in Europe is leading to disastrous price increases and security problems. 2) Our leaders' now-wavering commitment to emulate Europe. wsj.com/articles/the-s…
"The people who work for U.S. voters haven’t stopped trying to enact another half a trillion dollars of spending to discourage the use of fossil fuels, but they are now signaling they understand how much we still need such fuels." @FreemanWSJ
"Oil company executives have become openly frustrated with a Biden administration that spent months shunning the industry, only to start urging in recent weeks that it produce more oil to alleviate rising gasoline prices." @FreemanWSJ
"'The administration’s energy policy has not been very coherent,' said Mike Wirth, Chevron Corp.’s chief executive. 'The signals from the administration have been very conflicting and that can just chill decision making.'" @FreemanWSJ
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Build Back Better supporters are claiming that @Sen_JoeManchin has destroyed our country's future by opposing BBB.
In fact, he has *protected* our country's future by preventing an unprecedented destruction of our energy industry--the industry that powers every other industry.🧵
Here's why Build Back Better's goal of 80% "clean electricity" by 2030 would mean going from 12% unreliable solar+wind to a catastrophic 50% solar+wind in 8 years. alexepstein.substack.com/p/talking-poin…
Here's why Build Back Better's 10-year extension and increase of solar and wind subsidies would drive more and more reliable power plants off the grid, lead to skyrocketing prices and frequent blackouts. alexepstein.substack.com/p/talking-poin…
The media and government are portraying a tragic tornado as a symptom of unprecedented climate disaster that eliminating fossil fuels will save us from—even though there is no tornado trend, and we have achieved unprecedented safety from climate thanks to fossil fuels.
THREAD
Is the recent, deadly tornado in Kentucky a symptom of unprecedented climate disaster? The only scientific way to answer this question is to look for long-term trends in dangers from storms and other climate disasters. And if we do, we find that storm deaths are declining.
Has global warming been causing a disastrous increase in tornado frequency or intensity? Here's the data for the continental US, the most tornado-prone area on the planet, since the advent of comprehensive doppler-radar. There is no trend in tornado frequency or intensity.
The "Build Back Better" legislation you are considering will be an unmitigated disaster for the West Virginia energy industry and economy.
No handful of compromises will change this.
Any vote other than no will do irreparable damage to your state.
THREAD
As an energy expert and concerned citizen, I am writing you because I believe you are our greatest hope of stopping the worst energy legislation in US history, which will especially harm your state of West Virginia: the “Build Back Better” reconciliation bill.
According to press reports and insiders, you are in active negotiations to change or remove several provisions of BBB that you are concerned will be particularly harmful to West Virginia. But no compromise is possible, because BBB is through-and-through destructive to your state.
Today, 12/7, is the deadline you gave natural gas CEOs to respond to your letter blaming them for rising natural gas prices—which you are in fact to blame for.
Here’s how proud gas CEOs would answer you if they were not afraid of your political wrath.
👇
Dear Senator Warren,
In your letter you claim “concern about rising natural gas prices,” which you attribute to my and other “energy companies’ corporate greed.”
But if you want to avoid unnecessarily high gas prices, you must recognize that they are your fault, not ours.
There are three basic facts that explain unnecessarily high natural gas prices: 1. Prices are determined by supply and demand, not “greed.” 2. America has an effectively unlimited supply of gas. 3. You and other anti-gas politicians have artificially restricted the supply of gas.
Anti-fossil fuel politicians are in a bind: they want the *prestige* that comes with their decades of opposing the production/transport of fossil fuels, but they do not want the *results*: voters angry about rising rising fuel prices.
Do not forget their track record.
THREAD
Joe Biden, who now claims to be concerned about fossil fuel shortages and rising prices, in 2019 said: "I guarantee you. I guarantee you. We’re going to end fossil fuel.“
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who now claims to be concerned about fossil fuel shortages and rising prices, in 2016 said in 2016: We ought to be doing everything we possible can to keep fossil fuel energy in the ground.”
I highly recommend the latest article by @DoombergT, which does an excellent job debunking "RethinkX"--one of the leading crackpot "plans" to replace fossil fuels with solar, wind, and batteries.
One great point in @Doomberg's debunking of "RethinkX" that applies to all solar fantasies is: "it is based on a fatally flawed assumption about why solar capital costs *had* been decreasing over much of the past decade (as we’ll see shortly, solar costs are going up in 2021"
China "leveraged cheap labor, had minimal environmental restrictions ...blatantly stole intellectual property...poured tens of billions of illegal subsides into the industry...used ready access to cheap coal None of this has anything to do with S-curves and innovation" @DoombergT