Thread by @ShellenbergerMD

Biden admin said oil firms a) were suppressing refinery production, b) didn’t need more leases, and c) didn’t view Biden admin as an obstacle to more production. All three claims were false and Biden and his admin knew they were false when they made them.

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-biden-ke…

“Your companies,” claimed Biden in his June 14 letter to oil executives, “have an opportunity to take immediate action to increase the supply of gasoline, diesel, and other refined product [sic]”

In fact, US refineries are at a very high 94% capacity & can’t/shouldn’t go higher

The accusation by Biden that US firms are putting profits before patriotism was false. Chinese refineries are at 64% capacity.

If you run refineries at higher than 94% capacity you are putting them at risk. Maintenance is being delayed to meet demand.

reuters.com/markets/commod…

Of course Biden knew this. He lied in order to scapegoat an easy target and score cheap political points. But it backfired because we still live in a free society and reporters could check to see that Biden was lying.

It gets worse. Not only did Biden lie about refinery capacity, he lied about his own administration’s role in reducing supply. His administration just last month killed a refinery in US Virgin Islands that should be expanded, not shut down.

The Biden admin correctly observes that the Virgin Islands refinery is old & polluting. But guess what? The $3 billion in investment the refinery needed not only could have increased production, it could have made it cleaner. That’s the history of oil refining. It gets cleaner.

Wait, there’s more.

I discovered that Biden’s Director of the National Economic Council, Brian Deese, had misrepresented a survey of oil and gas executives while speaking to Fox News.

Deese noted that a Dallas Fed survey found that more energy execs blamed factors other than the government for their unwillingness to invest in expanded production but failed to note that "the executives laid into Biden for getting in the industry’s way."

There are lies everywhere

Biden officials lied about why they killed a 1M acre Alaska oil and gas lease.

They claimed it was due to “lack of industry interest.”

But that’s simply not true, as Alaska’s senior Senator pointed out.

"I can say with full certainty, based on conversations as recently as last night, that Alaska's industry does have interest in lease sales in Cook Inlet. To claim otherwise is simply false, not to mention stunningly short-sighted.”
— Sen. @lisamurkowski

cbsnews.com/news/biden-ala…

Why does Biden keep lying about energy? Because if he told the truth — that our modern, high-energy societies can’t run on renewables— he would explode the lie at the heart of the climate & energy policy of his administration, his party, and every center-Left party in the world.

The Reason Renewables Can't Power Modern Civilization Is Because They Were Never Meant To

forbes.com/sites/michaels…

I used to think renewables could not only power the world, they could also save the world.

I was wrong on both counts.

quillette.com/2019/02/27/why…

The energy crisis means that the truth is finally getting out

Two weeks ago, ESG & renewable energy promoter Larry Fink, the CEO and founder of BlackRock, a shadow bank, admitted to Bloomberg News, "The energy transition [to renewables] can be highly inflationary."

“ESG [environmental, social, & governance] considerations account for much of the decline in capital expenditure by international oil companies in recent years and the investor exodus out of oil and gas markets” noted Financial Times last year.

on.ft.com/3bbVfym

And now it’s clear that it was primarily coerced labor, coal, and Chinese government subsidies, not tech innovation, that brought down the costs of solar panels and batteries in recent years.

https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1538899075176620037

What has been the response by the Biden administration to growing critical scrutiny of renewables? Growing demands for censorship of critics of renewables by Big Tech.

michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-the-bide…

Biden & Democrats will likely pay a high political price for their mishandling of the worst energy crisis in 50 years, but the demand for a return to renewables to save ourselves reflects a deep & growing anti-civilization nihilism & narcissism among global elites.

https://twitter.com/AndrewOrlowski/status/1539320189715722240

The manic demand from elites that we shut down refineries, power plants, police stations, psych hospitals and the other institutions that constitute Western civilization represents the greatest threat to Western civilization.

https://twitter.com/ShellenbergerMD/status/1527482573667987456

The consequence of the nihilistic war on civilization can be seen everywhere, including in the invasion of Ukraine, made possible by Europe’s closure of reliable power plants and energy sources and dependence on Russia.

commonsense.news/p/the-wests-gr…

The nihilistic war on civilization can be seen in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and other progressive cities where many laws are not enforced, illness is enabled, and criminal gangs are in control.

And the nihilistic war on civilization can be seen in the attack on law

“The imperatives of race, gender & identity are more important to many students than due process, the presumption of innocence, and the values at the foundation of the rule of law.”

commonsense.news/p/the-takeover…

We are fighting back and, at least on energy, people are waking up.

Sometimes it takes a crisis for that to happen.

https://twitter.com/BrianGitt/status/1537545262243074048