Manchin saved taxpayers $300B, two podcasts: Grossman & Constable, & a bobcat visit
Joe Manchin saves taxpayers $300B, two new podcasts, & a bobcat pays a visit
It has been a busy week. Last weekend, we met up with the kids in Denver and had a raucous time. We got to see Miles (an ace guitar player) play with singer/songwriter/guitarist Michael Rault at the Gothic Theatre. They played before another band from Los Angeles, Allah Las. They came to rock. It was an epic show and a wonderful way to celebrate Michael’s birthday. Yesterday, I was in Oklahoma City speaking at a small oil and gas conference about energy policy in the U.S. and methane emissions. Today, I spoke at a meeting of the North Austin Republicans. That invitation was a bit of a surprise. After all, who knew there were Republicans in Austin? That’s only a bit of a joke. As former mayor Kirk Watson said long ago, Austin (and Travis County) are the blueberry in the tomato soup. That is, Austin is a small island of Democrats in a deep-red state. I might someday get an invite from the South Austin Democrats to talk about energy and power issues. But I’m not holding my breath. As I have said many times, I’m not a Democrat. I’m not a Republican. I’m Disgusted.
On the media front, I recorded an episode of the What The Hell Is Going On podcast with Marc A. Thiessen and Danielle Pletka from the American Enterprise Institute that aired this week. We talked about the electric grid, blackouts, and other stuff. You can listen to it here. On the energy front, there’s almost too much going on. Sri Lanka is in free fall. Doomberg, who was on the podcast a few weeks ago, summed up that situation perfectly "Sri Lanka stands as powerful evidence that energy is indeed life, and the absence of energy is death." Russia has been turning off the gas to Europe and then turning it back on again. Electricity shortages are hammering residents in Haiti, Panama, Cuba, and many other countries. Europe’s energy crisis gets worse by the day. And of course, there are ongoing warnings about electricity shortages here in Texas. (I have a piece coming out on Sunday night in Real Clear Energy discussing the one chart that explains Texas’ electricity mess.) In any case, I have more travel coming next week and I'm woefully late on on finishing this “news” letter, so I will cut to the chase. Four items today:
The Hill: Joe Machin did taxpayers a $300B favor
Podcast: Grossman on US energy policy and the pursuit of failure
Podcast: John Constable on why the US must not follow the EU’s failed policies
Lynx rufus in the yard
The photo above is from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department.
On Wednesday, I published a piece in The Hill about Sen. Joe Manchin, the West Virginia Democrat who is both the most powerful man in Washington, and it appears, the only Democratic senator who is willing to resist the energy policies that are wrecking Europe. I explained:
Joe Manchin did Americans a big favor last week by pulling his support for a bill that included some $300 billion in subsidies for solar and wind power and electric cars. Indeed, the Democratic senator from West Virginia spared taxpayers from wasting money on the same misguided energy policies that have resulted in what Britain’s Global Warming Policy Foundation rightly calls “Europe’s worst energy cost and security crisis since the Second World War.”
Manchin’s move is also a win against corporate welfare and a win for rural America. Of course, that’s not what you’ve likely heard.
Former Obama adviser, John Podesta, indulged in some world-class hyperbole, saying it was “odd that Manchin would choose as his legacy to be the one man who single-handedly doomed humanity.” In an opinion piece published by the New York Times, Leah Stokes, an assistant professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, personally attacked Manchin, saying she has “never understood” how Manchin “looks his grandchildren in the eye. …His legacy is climate destruction.”
Balderdash.
These hollow attacks on Manchin are happening at the same moment that Europe is in the midst of a crisis that was caused by the same energy policies that the NGO-corporate-congressional-climate complex wants to impose on American consumers.
I concluded:
The punchline here is obvious: Manchin was right to reject the failed policies that are now immiserating European consumers. Further, while climate activists want to demonize Manchin, their anger is misplaced. They simply didn’t have enough votes on Capitol Hill to force their agenda through. On Monday, I spoke to Emmet Penney, the editor of the newsletter Grid Brief, who summed up the situation perfectly: “If you have all the big climate NGOs, the Democratic Party, and the entire Washington green lobby on your side and you can’t get your climate bill past one dude from West Virginia, you deserve to lose.”
Again, here’s a link. Please share it.
Peter Grossman on five decades of failed energy policy and the "do something dilemma"
I have known Peter Grossman, a professor emeritus of economics at Butler University, for about a dozen years. In that time, Peter has become a good friend and a valuable sounding board. I trust his judgment and have often consulted with him about the tone and content of pieces I’m writing.
For all of those reasons, it was great to have him on the podcast. But it was also appropriate because Peter is one of the foremost energy historians in America. His 2013 book, U.S. Energy Policy and the Pursuit of Failure, has become a go-to textbook for analysis of America’s myriad energy-policy missteps. In this episode, Grossman recounts five decades of bad policymaking including his list of the worse efforts (synfuels, price controls, and corn ethanol). He also talks about how members of Congress are motivated by the “do something dilemma,” and why California is the “poster child for failure in energy policy.” It was a great conversation. As always, the podcast is available on all the podcast channels and on my website. And of course, on YouTube.
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John Constable on Europe's failed "green energy experiment"
John Constable has emerged as one of Europe’s most thoughtful and original thinkers on energy. Constable is the director of the Renewable Energy Foundation, as well as director of energy at the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a British public charity. In this episode, Constable (who previously appeared on the podcast on February 1, 2022.) discusses his excellent new report, “Europe’s Green Energy Experiment: A Costly Failure in Unilateral Climate Policy.” He said that the staggering sums the EU has spent subsidizing renewables (over $700 billion) have effectively been wasted. He also said that Europe now faces the “worst energy cost and security crisis since the Second World War,” and that it must immediately begin developing its hydrocarbon resources as quickly as it can. Alas, he told me that official policy in Europe now is “to further reduce energy consumption. The only result of that will be all that total deindustrialization. At which point Europe will simply become a theme park of its own cultural past.”
I am a big fan of Constable’s. I highly recommend this podcast. It’s on all the podcast channels, on my website, and of course, on YouTube.
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Another bobcat visit in the backyard
On July 7, at about 1 pm, I saw a bobcat (Lynx rufus) in our yard. My friend and colleague, Tyson Culver, who had come by for a meeting in my backyard office, saw it, too. It was the second time I’ve seen a bobcat in the yard. (The photo of the bobcat above was taken in California in 2007.) My first-ever siting of a bobcat happened in our backyard about 18 months ago. That first siting was confusing because, of course, I wasn’t expecting to see a bobcat. In the 22 years that we’ve lived in our house (which backs up to the Barton Creek Greenbelt) we’ve had lots of visitors, including foxes, raccoons, coyotes, armadillos, hawks, vultures, and many other bird species, but no bobcats. Further, on that first siting, the bobcat was on the other side of the fence, and it vanished after a few seconds.
This time, I was much closer to the cat than before and Tyson saw it at the same moment I did. Furthermore, our next-door neighbor reported seeing a bobcat on her porch on July 8. Thus, there’s no doubt about what we saw. The identification was made easier because I was able to observe the animal for a good while. After seeing me, the bobcat warily sat on its hindquarters for a minute or two before it scampered away through a shallow hole beneath the fence and headed back toward the greenbelt.
It’s a fierce and impressive-looking animal. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department says this:
While other native wild cat species are struggling to survive in Texas, the bobcat's secretive nature, highly developed physical capabilities, and ability to adapt to changing conditions have allowed it to thrive. It can be found throughout the state and is especially abundant in the South Texas brush country. However, its shy nature and the fact that it is most active at night keep it from being seen by most people. One way to tell if a bobcat is in the area is by the scratches on tree trunks where the cat sharpens its claws and the climbing scratches on frequently used lookout trees.
Biologists recognize two subspecies of bobcats in Texas – the desert bobcat found in the west and northwest part of the state and the Texas bobcat, which ranges over the rest of the state – but they are so similar that it takes an expert to tell them apart. Generally speaking, a bobcat is about twice the size of a domestic cat. It has a larger bone structure, especially in the legs and head, and it is more muscular and better adapted for springing. It also has a deeper jaw that allows its mouth to open wider. Its ears are prominent, pointed, and tipped with ear tufts of black hair that assist in collecting sound to improve its hearing. Just how these hairs help with sound reception is not clear, but removing them will make a difference. A ruff of cheek fur extends from the side of its face, and it has long white whiskers...Adult bobcats are usually twenty-five to thirty inches long, stand fifteen to twenty inches tall at the shoulder, and weigh between fifteen and twenty-five pounds. They have a short tail about six inches long. The male and female look alike, but the male will be larger. Occasionally a large male in the thirty- to thirty-five-pound class will be found... Excellent eyesight is one of the physical capabilities that allow the bobcat to survive. Its pupils close to thin vertical slits to reduce bright sun-light during the day, and they open wide, covering most of the eyeball, to let in the maximum amount of light at night. The sensitive eyes are protected vertically with eyelids and horizontally with a thin covering called a nictitating membrane. The nictitating membrane, connected to the inside corner of the eye, moves across the eye from one side to the other beneath the eyelid.
For good day and night vision an animal such as the bobcat must have an abundance of both rods (light receptors) and cones (color receptors) in its eyes. The cones allow it to distinguish color, see fine details, and detect movement. The rods respond to changes in light intensity and add to its ability to see at night. The combination allows the bobcat to lie motionless and see the slightest movement even in low-light conditions. Being able to see the twitch of a field mouse's nose at dusk or in the pre-dawn light can mean the difference between eating and going hungry. Night vision also is improved by a special mirrorlike membrane called the tapetum (ta-PEA-tum), located behind the image surface (retina) of the bobcat's eye. This membrane reflects light, allowing these night hunters to use low light twice, once on the way in and again on the way out. This reflected light is called eyeshine, and it is what makes some animals' eyes seem to glow in the dark.
Bobcats can live in a wide variety of habitats, including swamps, deserts, and mountain ranges, and they feed on different sizes of prey – small (mice), medium (rabbits and poultry), and large (domestic animals and deer). Their predation on deer is a controversial subject. Although studies have shown that most of the deer found in bobcat stomachs is carrion, an adult bobcat is strong enough to bring down an adult deer.
Have a good weekend.
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