Commentary
Carbon Dioxide (CO2)
“While CO2 is portrayed now as the cause of damaging extreme weather, our research indicates these extremes are not becoming more intense or frequent; thus CO2 cannot be the cause of something not occurring.” – John Cristy, Climatologist and Professor of Atmospheric Science, University of Alabama
Yet, President Biden and his friends at the World Economic Forum want us to spend trillions more in taxpayer dollars on what they refer to as “climate friendly initiatives,” wind and solar, and has called for a full transition to electric vehicles.
“The whole thing is a total scam,” says Patrick Moore, chairman and chief scientist of Ecosense Environmental. “There is actually no scientific evidence that CO2 is responsible for climate change over the eons.”
CO2 has been unfairly demonized because it is actually plant food in its atmospheric form, according to Moore, who notes that it is the consequence of generating carbon-based energy, which unquestionably improves lives around the world.
China and Coal
Despite countless trips to China by John Kerry to persuade them to come clean on energy, China continues to mine coal and build coal plants. “China’s carbon goals can’t be detached from reality,” according to President Xi Jinping.
China’s coal output hit a record high in 2023 as it mined some 4.66 billion metric tons and as of July 2023 had 305 coal-fired power stations planned or in the works. It is believed that China will be able to generate 70 percent of the world’s total coal-fired capacity.
Czar John Kerry
I noticed climate czar John Kerry, was back in Davos, Switzerland, continuing his gig as President Biden’s snake oil salesman, despite the announcement that he will soon join the president’s campaign team.
He will, no doubt, be reducing his carbon footprint as the flights in his wife’s business jet will not include trips abroad.
The good news in this is that he will soon be out of a job as Biden becomes a one-term president.
Cheating
I must admit, the Wall Street Journal headline, The Electric-Car Cheating Scandal, stirred my curiosity.
The Journal began with a reminder of several previous automobile environmental scandals as three companies were caught cheating on diesel-engine emissions – Volkswagen in 2015, Mercedes-Benz in 2020 and Cummins, the engine-maker, last year, paying a total of about $36 billion in fines.
The EV scandal can be found buried on page 36,987 of Volume 65 in the Federal Register. When the gasoline-powered vehicle of automakers are tested for fuel efficiency compliance, they must use real values measured in a lab.
By contrast, under an Energy Department rule, EV car-makers can arbitrarily multiply the efficiency of electric cars by 6,67. This means that although a Tesla Model Y tests at the equivalent of about 65 miles per gallon in a lab. “It is counted as having an absurdly high compliance value of 430 mpg,” the Journal reports. “That number has no basis in reality.”
The government has rewarded car-makers with compliance credits they can trade for cash. It’s a vast cross subsidy invented by bureaucrats and paid for by every person who buys a new gasoline-powered car.
Until recently, this was a Washington secret, that car-makers and regulators savored. Now that it’s out car-makers are panicking, because without the multiplier, the efficiency rules are not attainable.
Charging
The bitter cold weather across the upper Midwest during the Iowa caucuses brought with it coverage of difficulties encountered by owners of electric cars.
One driver told CBS News that he had been at a charging station for five hours and had yet to charge his car. He said that a charge that should take 45 minutes was taking two hours.
But EV owners in states where power was lost all together faced a different problem.
A Recurrent analysis of 18 popular EV models found that, on average, their range dropped to around 70 percent in freezing conditions.
May God continue to bless the United States of America.
