Jaguar just released an ad for their new electric vehicle which must rank as the new standard for weirdness. It just might exceed the Bud Light ad for brand destruction. Too bad. Another sacrifice on the woke altar. Did Jag not get the memo from Mercedes, Ford, and Volkswagen about sales volumes?
The much-talked-about but not-much-done-about Energy Transition exists mainly in European politics, think tanks, and academia. COP29 accomplished nothing. I attended various conferences over the last many decades which I no longer attend. They were interesting and often controversial; now they are boring. I know what will be said beforehand – which will signal how seriously we should take the threat of climate change
A real transition of energy sources will be the largest, most extensive engineering project of all time. The various conferences do not include engineers as speakers or panel members, however. Why does the EU not write a contract with Alstom, Siemens, or some engineering firm to determine what needs to be done and when, who will do it, what it will cost, and what materials, new mines, services, and people are necessary to do it?
All the great thinkers in politics, academia, think tanks, and the Davos crowd obviously do not take climate change seriously, because they prefer to listen to the rants of Swedish teenagers rather than take effective action. Climate change is obviously taken seriously only by the demonstrators in the streets; they do something about their beliefs. When someone presenting results from a serious engineering study is on the agenda, it will be worth attending again.
Chris Wright and Doug Burgum are two well-qualified nominees for Secretary of Energy and of Interior, respectively. The Leftists will undoubtedly object based on the nominees’ “close ties to fossil fuels” and their unemotional approach to energy transition.
But, we really do not expect Whoopi, Sunny, Joy, Rachel, et al, to know what they are ranting about. For years, they have demonstrated they only have about two-watt bulbs glowing in there. Watching them is funnier than most comedy shows.
The Secretary of Energy has little to do with the oil and gas industry. The Energy Department runs the national laboratories, including the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and is responsible for nuclear power oversight, permitting, and maintaining the nuclear materials depository. Chris Wright is an engineer and a proponent of nuclear power as the only emission-free, 24/7 solution for energy transition. We can finally expect a logical approach to climate change.
The Department of the Interior is responsible for regulating oil and gas drilling and production on public lands and offshore. Over 70% of US production is on private lands which are regulated by individual States. Doug Burgum grew up on a farm in North Dakota, was a businessman, and governor of an oil and gas producing state. We can expect him competently and responsibly to consider the environment but not to unreasonably restrict resource development.
Trump’s pledge to “drill, baby, drill” will probably be met with a muted response from the oil and gas industry. Most operators drill enough wells every year to maintain their production rates and cash flows. They are paying down debt and cleaning up balance sheets. Smaller operators are selling out to larger ones. With a world awash in oil and surplus capacity, growth is not a reasonable business plan.
Both Burgum and Wright come from outside the Washington establishment, and they are familiar with the non-Washington part of the country’s business and society. I know, from occasional, but long, experience, Washington has become isolated from the rest of the country. Few of its denizens, whether bureaucrats, cabinet members, politicians, advisers, administrators, or regulators have ever run a business, made anything, grown anything, moved things around, or built anything. They know little about what they regulate, restrict, mandate, tax, and penalize; moreover, they seem proud of it. They keep increasing the pressure on capitalism’s throat because they do not know what else to do. Biden himself is the pure example of the result of this isolation from reality.
Elections are the basis of democracy. The Democratic Party, which likes to accuse Republicans of “endangering democracy,” is mobilizing as many non-democratic actions as it can to thwart Trump’s policies and the democratic decision of American voters. They are trying to explain why they lost the election by flooding the media with the greatest deluge of nonsense in this century. These explanations clearly demonstrate they are clueless and exist across an abyss from the American people.
Do they really think parents are in favor of their children undergoing irreversible altering surgery without the parents knowing about it? Do they really think men beating up women is ok if it is called a sport? Do they really think people do not notice the inflation government overspending caused? Do they really think Kamala Harris could have been depended on to negotiate with Xi Jinping? Do they really think Americans want to be invaded by millions of criminals and endless welfare burdens?
I could go on with about 20 more reasons why they lost, none of which have anything to do with the reasons about which they conjecture.
The nominations of Wright and Burgum are welcome examples of the election and the changes that can be expected. American voters should congratulate themselves.