Energy Realism this past week sliced the ESG nightmare and explained why nuclear and carbon capture must become a much bigger part of our energy-climate discussion. As it turns out, greens tend to support their favored industries, not real climate solutions to slash emissions. Our Senior Fellow Rupert Darwall nails it again: Biden’s provably ridiculous ESG obsession is bad for the economy, bad for investing, bad for retirement plans, and… will surge interest rates. As can be seen on this 20th anniversary of the Iraq war and its nonexistent weapons of mass destruction, a policy misrepresented and deceptively sold to the public poisons democracy. ESG, for instance, has an awkward obsession with higher cost and less reliable renewables – which require massive amounts of destructive mining – but seems to ignore cleaner and highly dependable nuclear power. Byron Donalds & Christopher Barnard want us to refocus on nuclear more than intermittent and not as “clean” as advertised wind and solar. The Biden administration announced the allocation of $1.2 billion to keep aging nuclear power plants online – but the real solution to our country’s ongoing nuclear predicament is to create a regulatory environment in which next-generation nuclear technology can be developed, deployed, and replicated in an efficient and modernized manner. Benjamin Khoshbin agrees: we will undeniably require nuclear energy infrastructure to address our future energy needs. And no matter what, carbon capture and storage (CCS) is also a required climate change solution since fossil fuels are so ingrained in our society and way of life. In short, fossil fuels will not be “going away” for decades at the earliest. Rich Powell documents how the hold up on carbon capture permits is threatening real progress on climate change. CCS must be essential to energy tax incentives, which, along with the bipartisan infrastructure law of 2021 and increasing private sector investments in innovation, have the potential to catapult U.S. clean energy projects and firmly establish our global leadership in clean energy deployment. Indeed, Tom Widroe looks at how the largest U.S. state should be pursuing CCS in order to cut its emissions and meet its climate objectives. Essential Reading Jason Hayes, Mackinac Center Without energy, there is no human flourishing. While it is true that all energy sources have an environmental impact, in our massive energy complex, it is production scale that rules the day. To be effective, energy must be reliable and affordable. In the News ZeroHedge, Oil Price Chris Helman, Forbes Ben Jealous, Chicago Sun Times John Hart, C3 News Mag Tsvetana Paraskova, Oil Price Reuters Javier Blas, Bloomberg Paul du Quenoy, Newsweek Robert Dillon, RealClearEnergy James Varney, RealClearInvestigations Benjamin Khoshbin, RealClearEnergy Tom Widroe, RealClearEnergy Byron Donalds, Christopher Barnard, RealClearEnergy Rupert Darwall, RealClearEnergy Bailee Hill, Fox News Fox News 'Shark Tank' co-host and O’Leary Ventures Chairman Kevin O’Leary calls out Biden's 'knee-jerk' response to the Silicon Valley Bank collapse. Bloomberg Television Baker Hughes Chairman & CEO Lorenzo Simonelli gives his outlook for the year. He discusses China's 5% growth target, LNG capacity and oil in an interview with Bloomberg's Alix Steel ... Democracy Now Questions continue to swirl about how Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 were damaged last year, with U.S. officials maintaining they had no role in the sabotage of the pair of Russian ... CNBC The electric vehicle revolution is making its way to a new segment, school buses. In the U.S., 26 million children take 480,000 buses to and from school every day. Converting that fl... CNBC Television Mohamed El-Erian, Allianz and Gramercy advisor and president of Queens' College, Cambridge, joins 'Squawk Box' to discuss his thoughts on the backstop provided to SVB, if other banks... |