For those wishing to understand the challenges of climate change and the challenge in transitioning to decarbonized world, Smil’s book is a good start. He gives the reader plenty of numbers and analyses, but these do not overwhelm the simple conclusion that our energy reality makes the transition a long-term effort at best.
Smil’s book should be required reading for politicians, not only intellectuals and energy professionals, to help them understand the reality of controlling carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions in the real world. It is also an excellent tutorial for the layperson not familiar with the details and intricacies of energy, the economy, and climate change.
Smil is Distinguished Professor Emeritus in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, an institution he joined 50 years ago.…
Continue Reading“Today, the libertarian Cato Institute releases its “Policy Handbook for the 104th Congress,” a 39-essay proposal to dismantle the federal government…. The essay on energy was written by Cato camp follower Robert L. Bradley Jr. of Houston … president of his own energy think tank – well, OK, it’s small, more like a think bucket – called the Institute for Energy Research.”
How the energy debate has shifted in the last quarter-century–with the middle moving Left and the free market, classical liberal Right falling off the table. Today, the Green Party has been neutered by the Progressive (or Regressive, as Alex Epstein puts it) Left dictating the debate.
I was reminded of this upon encountering an old ‘Perspectives’ column from John H. Jennrich, the founder and editor of Natural Gas Week.…
Continue Reading“Perhaps the most tragic aspect of Biden’s horrendous climate policy is that not only is there zero scientific evidence that it will have any significant impact on world carbon emissions or global temperatures, the scientific evidence is strong that global warming is not harmful and instead is beneficial.”
President Biden’s climate policy is not “the root of all evil,” but it’s close. Instead of improving the earth’s climate, it is causing or at least substantially worsening several economic and national security problems.
Biden’s climate policy seeks, as he stated during his campaign, “to end fossil fuel …” To do this, he is regulatorily strangling U.S. fossil fuel production.
Biden’s restriction of U.S. oil production has driven the price of West Texas Intermediate sharply higher. It was $51.56 a barrel in January 2020, when the economy was humming before the pandemic, and about $50 in December 2020, the month before Biden took office.…
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