As the world increasingly shifts toward renewable energy, there is a growing risk that nations could fall into the “renewable energy trap.” This trap is the result of embracing an energy transition without fully understanding its economic, environmental, and geopolitical consequences. While renewable energy sources like wind, solar, and hydropower have been hailed as the future of global energy, nations rushing toward these technologies without a strategic plan may face grave economic and security challenges. The truth is that blind adherence to renewable energy, in its current form at least, is not the panacea many believe it to be. In fact, it could prove to be a short, green path to economic ruin for both developed and developing nations alike.
Read the full storyTag: energy costs
U.S. Monthly Producer Prices Unexpectedly Declined in March
Wholesale prices in the U.S. unexpectedly fell in March, largely driven by a sharp decline in energy costs.
The Producer Price Index (PPI) showed that the prices paid to producers fell 0.4% in March while slowing to an annual rate of 2.7%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Friday. The report did show, however, that the price of goods — excluding energy and food — increased 0.3% in March.
Read the full storyClimate Lawsuits Fail in State Courts, But Critics Warn that Lawfare Still Achieves its Goals
A New Jersey Superior Court judge dismissed a lawsuit last week against major oil companies. The state of New Jersey alleged the companies sold products that cause global warming and misled consumers about that problem.
Read the full storyConnecticut GOP Unveils Plan to Reduce Energy Costs
Connecticut Republicans have unveiled a slate of proposals aimed at addressing rising electricity costs in the state, which they say are putting the squeeze on energy consumers.
The package of proposed policy changes, calls for setting limits on Power Purchase Agreements by utilities so that no contract can be for more than 100% over the wholesale electric market price while providing relief to ratepayers by tapping into $190 million in unspent pandemic-related federal funds to pay down rate increases.
Read the full storyBlumenthal and Other Democrat Lawmakers Urge Biden to Reduce Energy Costs
A group of Democratic senators are calling on President Joe Biden to provide more funding for fuel assistance with winter approaching.
In a letter to Biden administration officials, Rhode Island Sen. Jack Reed, led by nearly 30 other Democrats, urged the White House Office of Management and Budget and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to “take additional steps” to reduce energy costs for Americans through the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program.
Read the full storyCommentary: The International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Roadmap Will Increase Energy Costs
Two years ago, efforts by climate activists and Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) investors to block investment in oil and gas production by Western companies appeared to have received a seal of approval from no less an authority than the International Energy Agency (IEA), when it published Net Zero by 2050: A Roadmap for the Global Energy Sector. As a result, attempts to achieve net zero carbon emissions (NZE) by 2050 became central to the “E” in ESG and the IEA’s net zero roadmap has come to define the NZE baseline for energy companies.
Read the full story‘Fuel Poverty’ Stresses Pennsylvania’s Hospitals
Pennsylvania’s hospital administrators say rising energy costs driving worldwide “fuel poverty” threaten the stability of the entire U.S. health care system.
“Folks can’t pay to heat their homes,” Chuck DiBello, vice president of facilities and real estate for the Allegheny Health Network, told the Senate Majority Policy Committee. “They get sick and they come to the hospital – sometimes just to get warm.”
Read the full storyLeftists Blame War in Ukraine, Fossil Fuels, Deregulation of Electric Power for Connecticut’s 50 Percent Hike in Energy Costs
Democrat officials in Connecticut, the state’s electric power giants, and their allies in the media are blaming a 50 percent increase in electric prices this winter in the state on Russia’s war with Ukraine, a reliance on fossil fuels, particularly natural gas, and the fact that Connecticut has a deregulated electricity market.
In a press release, dated November 17, state Attorney General William Tong (D) announced that, effective January 1, Eversource will double its rates from 12.05 cents to 24.2 cents per kWh, and United Illuminating will also double its rates from 10.6 cents to 22.5 cents per kWh.
Read the full storyConnecticut Leaders Blast Higher Energy Costs
Connecticut energy consumers will be digging deeper into their pockets this winter with the state’s two largest utilities seeking hefty rate increases.
In a filing to the state Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, Eversource is proposing to increase electric rates charged to consumers by nearly 50%, or $85 per month for the average customer.
Read the full storyWhite House Adviser Claims High Gas Prices Necessary for ‘Future of the Liberal World Order’
White House economic adviser Brian Deese on Thursday told CNN that high gas prices were a necessary inconvenience to preserve the “future of the liberal world order,” amid the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine.
The average price of gas exceeded $5 per gallon for the first time in U.S. history in early June.
Read the full storyCommentary: Biden’s Budget of Taxes, Taxes and More Taxes
Inflation is running rampant, federal spending is out of control, gas prices are at an all-time high and Americans are pessimistic on the future outlook of the economy. So what is President Joe Biden’s solution?
He has released a budget proposal that includes 36 tax increases on families and businesses totaling $2.5 trillion over the next decade. Alarmingly, this includes 11 tax increases on the oil and gas industry, taxes that will put a burden on households.
The budget doesn’t even include all the tax increases being pushed by Democrats because the budget omits the cost of tax increases within their stalled multi-trillion dollar Build Back Better Act. Instead of detailing these tax increases, the Biden budget includes a placeholder asserting that any new spending will be fully offset.
Read the full storyCommentary: Freedom Is the Essence of American Exceptionalism
President Joe Biden has continuously stated that “climate change” is the highest priority of his administration, fueled by Build Back Better spending. We are witnessing the disastrous impacts that establishing the wrong priorities can have.
On the day Biden became President, America was energy independent, our borders were secure, and the world was relatively peaceful.
Biden has done everything possible to shut down, curtail, and undermine American energy production. First, he shut down the permitted Keystone Pipeline. Then he eliminated fracking on federal lands, and slowed permits for new oil fields.
Read the full storyCrom’s Crommentary: The Pushing of Green New Deal Subsidies
Wednesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio for another edition of Crom’s Crommentary.
Read the full storyCongressman Tim Burchett on Infrastructure Bill and the Republican Turncoats
Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Congressman Tim Burchett to the newsmakers line to discuss the gross spending bill recently passed by Congress and what it means for the American consumer.
Read the full storyExperts Slam Biden’s Plan to Build Government-Funded Wind Farms
Energy experts criticized President Joe Biden’s plan to prioritize wind farms, arguing wind power is costly, inefficient and indirectly produces greenhouse gas emissions.
Wind energy, like solar, is often unreliable since it is intermittent, or highly dependent on nature and out of the control of suppliers, according to the experts. Higher reliance on wind to produce even a fraction of a nation’s energy supply, therefore, cou ld lead to higher prices depending on the weather.
“Both wind and solar have Achilles heels in that they’re intermittent,” Dan Kish, a senior fellow at the Institute for Energy Research, told the Daily Caller News Foundation in an interview.
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