The Weak EV Narrative (fix is in with NYT essay)

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Matthew Shaer’s 5,500-word New York Times essay, “The American E.V. Has Been Crushed. Will It Take the U.S. Auto Industry with It?” (July 15, 2026), documents the U.S. electric vehicle (EV) bust. Very useful. But then he spins a false narrative. And for credibility, the article comes with a statement: “Matthew Shaer spoke with dozens of auto industry analysts and academics for this article” … but not anyone who challenges the EV narrative in light of the failed domestic policy.

Shaer’s essay is a Malthusian masterpiece: doom-and-gloom with a prediction waiting to be refuted. It’s subtitle:

The largest U.S. automakers have backed away from electric vehicles, even as global sales are booming. The decision may make them obsolete.

The first sentence is factual and correct. The second sentence is wrong–and missing the other side of the story.…

“Cheap” Solar Does Not Need Subsidies, Right? (wrong)

The wind/solar narrative shifts as the polls do. The latest message is that wind and solar are cost-effective and the natural choice for energy affordability. Yet the renewable industry pleads for evergreen help with the outsized subsidies of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and Investment Tax Credit (ITC), which are on track to end at the end of next year for any new project.

As the free world turns toward natural gas in the new era, consider the following narrative quotations, aspirational and wrong.

“Some critics of solar facilities have falsely claimed that they are expensive and inefficient….” – Maxine Joselow, “As Trump Obliterates Climate Efforts, States Try to Fill the Gap,” New York Times (February 19, 2026)

“Solar is now the cheapest energy source in human history, yet rollbacks are spreading from California to Virginia as officials blame high costs and a hostile Trump administration.”   –

Climate Blame Game: Global Central Planning Needed?

“Buyer beware. The smartest guys in the room, the expert planners, the government-enabled Lords of the (political) marketplace, want to demote you.”

Central holistic planning (think global government) is needed to organize a dysfunctional world. That is what the climate architects dream about. Enter “planet regeneration” and “macro-systemic architect” Greg Reynolds, who has the post below on social media. It concerns one utility practice; there are thousands more needed to “save” the planet. From the center.

This post from Behavior x Climate names something I’ve watched for years: the climate blame game. Consumers point at corporations. Corporations point to demand. Governments point at voters. Around and around. Progress slows. The planet burns.

Continuing:

But here’s what the post doesn’t name—because it’s the part we’ve all been trained not to see: Every player in that loop is already spending money that could be healing.

Junk Academic Climate/Energy Articles: A Sampling

Climate Alarm and “Green” Energy: Protest from San Antonio

On Energy Density (Richard Lyon educates)

Adaptation Momentum, Mitigation Fatigue

Climate Journalism in Decline

Discovering Milton Friedman (1912–2006)

Free-Market Electricity Reform Advancing (Advocates for Consumer Regulated Electricity)