A Safe Bet: Politicized Consensus "Science" Is Wrong

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  • Today has been a good day for the incipient unraveling of a couple of major categories of the fake “consensus” orthodox science that have plagued us for the past few years.

  • One such category is transgenderism, where activists seek the provision of “gender affirming care” to any young person claiming to suffer from “gender dysphoria.” This morning the Supreme Court heard oral argument in a case called United States v. Skrmetti, where the Court is asked to rule that Tennessee’s ban on puberty blockers and hormone therapy for teens claiming to be “transgender” violates their constitutional rights.

  • A second such category is the Coronavirus pandemic, including its origins and what policies were appropriate to address it. On that subject, also today, the House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Pandemic issued its rather damning Report titled “The Lessons Learned and a Path Forward.”

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Yet Another Unbelievably Stupid Law To Harass The People

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  • Just when you think that things might be about to turn around with regard to the explosion of unbelievably stupid laws and regulations to harass and annoy the people, along comes another one that’s stupid enough to top them all.

  • This one has sprung up seemingly out of nowhere in the past few weeks, in notices that have gone out among the New York co-op and condo communities. But the law’s application is far broader than just these communities. I suspect that many readers have received such notices in many diverse contexts.

  • The law in question is a federal statute called the Corporate Transparency Act.

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A Look At President-Elect Trump's Picks For The Key Energy Policy Positions

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  • Over the past two weeks, President-elect Trump has engaged in rapid-fire announcements of his picks for the cabinet and other top positions.

  • Among the announced selections are Trump’s nominees for the three top positions in climate and energy policy: EPA Administrator (Lee Zeldin), Secretary of Energy (Chris Wright), and Secretary of the Interior (Doug Burgum). In this post I will take a first look at these nominees.

  • Without doubt, these three Trump appointees will be an enormous improvement over the Biden administration functionaries they will replace (EPA Administrator Michael Regan, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, and Interior Secretary Deb Haaland). The three outgoing Bidenauts are all committed fanatic climate warriors, fighting every day to restrict development and use of hydrocarbon fuels, and thus to make America weaker and Americans poorer. Having them in office has been like having the country’s energy policy under the control of a cabal of its worst enemies.

  • But is there anything about President-elect Trump’s nominees for these positions that we should be at least somewhat concerned about?

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Don't Be Fooled: Kamala Is A Zero-Carbon Green Radical

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  • What is Kamala Harris’s position on any important policy issue? It’s not so easy to figure out.

  • She studiously avoids interviews and reporters’ questions. Go to Harris’s official campaign website, and it’s almost entirely about raising money, without a word about what she stands for.

  • Back when she was in the Senate (January 2017-January 2021), and a candidate for the Democratic nomination for President in 2019-20, she made many definitive statements on various subjects (all in accord with the radical left wing of the Democratic Party). Now, it’s silence. Unidentified campaign spokespeople imply that her previous positions are no longer operative; but what is the new position?

  • One example of this phenomenon that has received some attention this past week is Harris’s position on “fracking,” that is, drilling for oil and gas in solid rock formations via the hydraulic fracturing process.

  • As reported in Forbes on August 30, back in 2019, at a CNN town hall, Harris stated rather unequivocally, “[T]here’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.”

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The Biden Administration Ever More Delusional On Energy

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  • Three and a half years into the Biden Administration, and to an ordinary citizen on the ground it might seem like not that much has changed as to energy.

  • Despite hundreds of government actions and initiative in an all-of-government regulatory onslaught to transform the energy economy, the important things have been remarkable stable. Production of oil and gas are actually up, and prices increases have been relatively modest — far less than one might have anticipated from the extreme regulatory hostility to production.

  • The percentage of what is called “primary energy” (that is, energy for everything, not just electricity) coming from fossil fuels has remained nearly unchanged. EIA data here for 2022 (latest I can find) show about 79% of U.S. primary energy from fossil fuels, barely changed since Biden took office, and indeed very stable for decades.

  • Perhaps this situation of stable energy production and consumption results because it reflects what markets and consumers want and need to satisfy their demand for energy. So do you think that the hyperactive regulators might just relax and let the consumers have what they want?

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The FTC Takes Its Turn To Feel The Regulator's Exhilaration

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  • It’s hard to imagine any job more excruciatingly dull than that of the Washington regulator.

  • You beaver away for months on end generating 300 or 500 page documents justifying the latest the latest agency finaglings, all of which text needs to be cleared with scores of co-participants via endless meetings and by repeated circulation of marked-up drafts that draw hundreds of inconsistent edits from self-important functionaries. Ugh!

  • But then, into this miasma of infinite boredom, from time to time, there intrudes a frisson of great excitement. This happens when the agency decides to seize control and transform a large swath of the economy by its own edict.

  • The latest agency to make its grab for the excitement of the limelight is the FTC.

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