“On behalf of our communities, and the estimated 5.4 million Californians who live within a mile of one or more oil and gas wells, we ask you to take the next step in bold climate leadership: phase out fossil fuel production in California by ending the issuance of permits for new fossil fuel projects, instituting a 2,500-foot public health setback for oil and gas facilities, and committing the state to 100% renewable energy.”
– Elected Officials to Protect California, “Urge Governor Brown to Commit to Phasing Out Fossil Fuel Production in California,” August 2018.
The climate crusade is losing badly. But in California, where emotions trump reason and Statism trumps economic freedom, it is double-down time.
Frustration is at an all-time high with the keep-it-in-the-ground climate crusade encountering marketplace and multi-level political problems. …
“Regulations and foreign aid policies restricting low-cost coal power, intended to reduce CO2 emissions, drive up costs and reduce the availability of electricity. In poor parts of the world, this leaves millions more still exposed to much denser and more dangerous indoor air pollution.”
The energy race is on, with separate lanes for teams advancing wind, solar, gas, coal, and oil sands technologies.
Across the world enterprises race to discover and develop new energy-rich places and raw materials, searching for pathways to lower costs, reduce waste, and boost yields. For energy, the master resource, engineers from solar to oil sands test new materials, chemicals, and processes for transforming sun, wind, water, and earth to energy.
Windmill teams design ever larger, more efficient blades, more efficient power transformers, and hopefully more resilient to storms and corrosion.…
“Climate denial is a deeply cynical enterprise; the people misrepresenting evidence and sifting through emails for ‘gotcha’ quotes have to know that they’re not being honest. Yet their rage against ‘elitists’ who continue to point out inconvenient truths is very real — because it’s a fact of life that many people feel special hatred for those they’ve mistreated.”
– Paul Krugman, “The G.O.P.’s Climate of Paranoia.” New York Times, August 20, 2018.
In his recent “The G.O.P.’s Climate of Paranoia,” Paul Krugman invokes sound bites and invective on the subject of climate science and climate policy. The New York Times columnist is all-in regarding climate alarmism and forced (government) energy transformation. He knows he is right and just fusses at the rest of us.
Krugman’s statements are in red; my response is indented in black.…