“Green” groups love turbines, not birds, Kennedy on magnets, a wrench of warblers
Real Clear Energy: "Green" groups in the tank for Big Wind, Jim Kennedy on the podcast, Nashville Warblers aplenty
Lots of travel this week. On Wednesday, I was in Las Vegas speaking to the Chicago Quantitative Alliance, a group I last spoke to back in 2011. Today I’m headed to Norman to speak at the University of Oklahoma, my late mother’s alma mater. I’m speaking at a special event hosted by the Robert M. Zinke Energy Management Program which is run by my good friend Mike McConnell. The caption for my talk tonight: “Electricity, Hydrocarbons, and the Wealth of Nations.” Given that I need to jump in the car and head north on I-35, a short note today. Four items:
Podcast: James Kennedy on REEs and magnets
Media hit: The Untold Story with Martha MacCallum
A wrench of Nashville Warblers in Austin
The photo of the Nashville Warbler above was taken in Oregon in 2005 by Dave Menke.
On Thursday, I published a follow-up piece on the prosecution of NextEra Energy for its multiple violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. It was published in Real Clear Energy. I began:
I’m old enough to remember when environmentalists cared about protecting our birds, bats, and whales. Alas, concern about protecting our wildlife has been lost amid the headlong rush to cover the countryside with oceans of solar panels and forests of wind turbines in the hope that they will save us from climate change. For proof of that, consider the reaction – or rather the lack of reaction – to this month’s prosecution of NextEra Energy by the Department of Justice for multiple violations of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act by America’s biggest “green” groups.
I concluded:
I’m a proud birdwatcher and have been for more than 30 years. Over the past nine months, I have seen both the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle in the wild. This spring, I’ve seen the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler and other warblers here in Austin, including a confusion of Nashville Warblers in our yard. The Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918 is one of our oldest wildlife laws. I’m glad that the Department of Justice and the Fish and Wildlife Service are enforcing it even though America’s biggest NGOs don’t seem to care.
Their execrable silence makes me long for the old days when environmental groups cared for, you know, the environment.
Again, here’s a link. Please share it.
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James Kennedy, President of ThREE Consulting on China's dominance of rare earth elements and NdFeB magnets
On this week's episode of the Power Hungry Podcast, James Kennedy, the president of St. Louis-based ThREE Consulting, a firm that specializes in rare earth elements and critical minerals. In this episode, Kennedy explains how the U.S. ceded its rare earths industry to China, how China is using its dominance over technology metals “as geostrategic tools or weapons,” high-strength magnet production, what China’s dominance means for the U.S. auto, solar, and wind sectors, and what the U.S. should be doing to increase its production of critical metals and minerals. It was a sobering conversation. Kennedy explained that the US is “100% dependent on China for separated terbium, separated dysprosium and separated praseodymium and neodymium for final chemistry...all the blending and final chemistry for any magnet produced outside of China comes from China.” He continued, explaining that any rare earth production in the US will still depend on China for processing and sintering into the magnets needed for EVs and wind turbines. China, he said, decides who gets those magnets, “and who doesn’t. And that will be the case from now...to 2030, and now to 2050, because of the way China can manage its monopoly...it focuses all of its subsidies specifically on the on the separation of rare earths, and much more specifically, on the conversion of pure oxides to metallics... And the subsidies there are so significant that no company outside of China has ever been economically competitive. They can’t be.”
As I said, it was a sobering conversation, but an important one. Again, here’s a link. Please listen and share it. And of course, the episode in also on YouTube. By the way, the podcast is getting more views on YouTube. Subscribe to my channel!
Media hit: The Untold Story With Martha MacCallum podcast
On Thursday, I was on The Untold Story with Martha MacCallum podcast. As many of you probably know, MacCallum is a host on Fox News. Thus, her podcast has a lot of listeners. We talked about the reasons behind Europe’s energy crisis, including the themes I’ve been writing about for months, including overinvestment in renewables, underinvestment in hydrocarbons, premature shuttering of coal and nuclear plants, and overreliance on imports, particularly from Russia. I explained that a lot of the anti-fracking movement was funded by Russia and that “There was no understanding among the policymakers of their vulnerability.” I also explained why Europe is going to have to start drilling for oil and gas if it is going to have energy security. It was a fun conversation. Again, here’s a link.
A confusion of Nashville Warblers comes to Austin
The last two weeks have been great for warblers. Two weeks ago, Lorin and I saw the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler here in Austin at City Park. (As I've noted, Lorin seems to attract them.) Last week, we were in Michigan and saw the Yellow-rumped Warbler and Yellow Warbler. But the big fun of the last few days has been the significant number of Nashville Warblers (Leiothlypis ruficapilla) that keep returning to the trees and water features in our backyard. As I mentioned in previous epistles, this has been an odd year for birds here. We haven’t seen significant numbers of Cedar Waxwings, which usually migrate through in late winter or early spring. The disappointment of not seeing flocks of Waxwings has been supplanted by the joy of watching the Nashvilles return to the yard so many times. They are twitchy birds. We’ve learned to identify them by their behavior and flying pattern: they fly in a looping pattern, usually appear in pairs, and seldom perch for more than a few seconds before quickly tearing off in another direction. They like perching in the branches above our small pond. Some of them have even taken baths in our modest water feature. (The pic above is from my 1960 edition of Peterson’s Field Guide to the Birds of Texas.)
Warblers are, as Roger Tory Peterson said, “a vivid expression of life.” I never get tired of watching them. Like my friend, Victor Emanuel, I always want "One More Warbler." There are several collective nouns for warblers, including: confusion, wrench, bouquet, or fall. Here’s what Wikipedia says:
Nashville warblers breed in two distinct areas, one in Canada and the northeastern United States, and another in the western United States. The northeastern part of its range extends from Côte-Nord and Cape Breton Island in eastern Canada to central Alberta. For the most part, it only breeds between about 52 and 45.5 degrees north, but it is also found less commonly in the Appalachians of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. Although named after Nashville, Tennessee, the Nashville warbler only visits that area during migration. They migrate to southernmost Texas and California, mid-Mexico, and the northernmost parts of Central America(Guatemala and El Salvador) in winter. In their breeding range, they prefer open mixed woods and bog habitats.
forage by gleaning in the lower parts of trees and shrubs, frequently flicking their tails. In winter, they join together into loose flocks, and sometimes join mixed-species feeding flocks. These birds mainly eat insects, but will supplement this diet with berries and nectar in the winter.
Nashville warblers conceal their nests on the ground under shrubs. Nests are open cups built out of bark strips, leaves, and moss, and are lined with fine materials such as feathers or hairs. Typically four or five eggs are laid in a clutch, and incubated for 11–12 days. Only the female incubates the eggs, though the male brings her food. On hatching, the young have no feathers apart from some brown down, and their eyes are closed. Juveniles fledge and leave the nest 11 days after hatching
The National Audubon Society says the Nashville Warbler likes:
Cool, open mixed woods with undergrowth; forest edges, bogs. Breeds in deciduous, coniferous, and streamside woodlands, also bogs and thickets. Favors cedar and spruce bogs in northern part of range, abandoned fields and mountain pastures with saplings and young trees in eastern United States. In the west, breeds in thickets of manzanita and other shrubs near belts of pine and fir. Pioneer birdman Alexander Wilson encountered this bird first near Nashville, Tennessee, and it has been called Nashville Warbler ever since -- even though Wilson's birds were just passing through in migration, and the species does not nest anywhere near Tennessee. This small warbler is fairly common in both the east and the west, often seen foraging in thickets and young trees, flicking its short tail frequently as it seeks insects among the foliage.
Have a good weekend.
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