Biden's 'dangerous' disregard of American energy making US 'wholly reliant' on China: Michael Shellenberger

[minervadoe]

Biden's 'dangerous' disregard of American energy making US 'wholly reliant' on China: Michael Shellenberger
Biden admin looks to scale down Venezuela sanctions to allow more oil pumping

Environmental Progress founder Michael Shellenberger is sounding the alarm on President Biden's "woke green energy" agenda for threatening U.S. security.

Shellenberger joined "America's Newsroom" Thursday to discuss the risks of the United States' growing reliance on foreign nations for oil as the Biden administration continues to undermine domestic energy production.

"We produce sufficient quantities of oil and gas for ourselves," Shellenberger said. "This thing of Biden going and begging the Saudis and begging the Venezuelans for oil, it's not only disgraceful and humiliating, it actually undermines American security."

Shellenberger argued American oil companies want to produce more oil but can't get the leases to do so.

"Biden just needs to increase oil and gas production, and he could do that himself. He has given out fewer leases for oil and gas drilling than any president since World War II," he said.

Shellenberger also warned a reliance on green energy products primarily produced by China is not only "dangerous" but a "moral issue."

"[What] Biden and the Democrats are trying to do is make the United States wholly dependent on China," he continued, "which dominates the production and refining of the materials required for solar panels, wind turbines, electric cars -- many of which are made by incarcerated Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Province."

The Biden administration is reportedly gearing up to wind down sanctions against Venezuela’s authoritarian regime, clearing the way for Chevron to resume its oil operations and reopen U.S. and European markets.

Discussions of possible sanctions relief on Venezuela come as Biden faces mounting political pressure to address rising gas prices ahead of the November midterms. It also comes as the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC+) said it would be cutting oil production by 2 million barrels a day, creating another headache for the president.

"Biden is beholden to, frankly, a very radical woke green elitist base in the Democratic Party," Shellenberger concluded. "Saudi oil produces greenhouse gas emissions, too… demanding that they produce oil rather than us producing oil – it's bizarre and it's wrong."

Biden's 'dangerous' disregard of American energy making US 'wholly reliant' on China: Michael Shellenberger

Environmental Progress founder Michael Schellenberger warns Biden's growing reliance on foreign oil is dangerous for U.S. security on "America's Newsroom."

www.foxnews.com

[Walt Longmire]

While he says he is shutting down off shore drilling and depleting the strategic oil reserve. Another 10 million barrels being sold now.

[minervadoe]

It is another sad example of a socialist's attempt at social engineering.  If he makes the use of oil illegal by executive overreach, he thinks he can force other alternatives onto us.  But, he failed to put any infrastructure in place to support his poorly conceive scheme. 

[minervadoe]

Electric vehicles are exploding from water damage after Hurricane Ian, top Florida official warns

Florida's chief fire marshal and financial officer said there are a 'ton of EVs disabled' from Hurricane Ian

A top Florida state official warned Thursday that firefighters have battled a number of fires caused by electric vehicle (EV) batteries waterlogged from Hurricane Ian.

EV batteries that have been waterlogged in the wake of the hurricane are at risk of corrosion, which could lead to unexpected fires, according to Jimmy Patronis, the state's top financial officer and fire marshal. 

"There’s a ton of EVs disabled from Ian. As those batteries corrode, fires start," Patronis tweeted Thursday. "That’s a new challenge that our firefighters haven’t faced before. At least on this kind of scale."

"It takes special training and understanding of EVs to ensure these fires are put out quickly and safely," he continued in a follow-up tweet. "Thanks to [North Collier Fire Rescue] for their hard work."

Patronis published a video of firefighters in Naples, Florida, battling a fire started from a Tesla EV's battery. A bystander is overheard in the video saying that the crew had used hundreds of gallons of water attempting to put the fire out.

Last week, Hurricane Ian pummeled cities along Florida's west coast including Naples and Fort Myers, making landfall as a Category 4 storm. The hurricane caused more than 100 deaths and over a million residents to lose power.

It is unclear how many EVs were impacted or destroyed by the storm.

Meanwhile, consumers are increasingly turning to EVs as the Biden administration continues to push a green transition involving zero-emission cars. Between April and June, EVs accounted for 5.6% of new car purchases in the U.S., up slightly from the first three months of 2022, according to Kelley Blue Book.

Shortly after taking office, President Biden announced a goal of ensuring that 50% of new car sales would be EVs by 2030. 

The Biden administration has also taken a number of steps to incentivize Americans to shift to EVs. The president signed the Inflation Reduction Act, a bill that included a provision that awards Americans a tax credit worth $7,500 per EV purchase, into law in August, and the Department of Transportation has worked to create a federal EV highway charging network.

However, critics have blasted the administration for giving a "false impression" about EVs, noting that they are expensive and often unreliable.

"[The EV push] is really kind of a con job," Myron Ebell, the director of the Competitive Enterprise Institute's Center for Energy and Environment, told FOX Business in July. "It may be a good deal for some people in some places under some circumstances. But by-and-large right now, it's not a good deal."

 

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/electric-vehicles-exploding-water-damage-hurricane-ian-top-florida-official-warns

[Mrs.Cicero]

I have had it with the idiotic interference of Bidet-brain and the federal gov't in every damn thing in this country.  I want to be President so I can get rid of ALL the "departments of every stupid thing every stupid democretin thinks they should meddle in" except the Department of Defense.  The DoD is the ONLY one whose existence isn't a violation of the Constitution anyway.  No more Dept of Edumacation (There is not a SINGLE measurement in students' educational performance that has improved since the creation of that boondoggle 50 years ago).  No more Dept of Energy (it's like matter, it can't be created nor destroyed, let the states govern their own.  If one state wants a freaking nuke reactor, they can have it, if some other state wants to ban them all within their borders, let them.  Then we can watch which state has to buy energy from which other state and laugh).   The Post Office will be cut down to once a week delivery.  If they can't break even they can be fazed completely out of existence in 2030.  Dept of Agriculture - gone.  Stop interfering in the free market.  No more paying people NOT to plant, no more price-fixing, let the market handle it all with commodities futures trades.  Dept of Commerce - gone.  Again, no more interference in the free market.  Let the legal system handle contract disputes.  Health and Human Services?  Housing and Urban Devolution?  Transportation? Labor?  The states should be handling these Individually - then we'll have 50 experiments going on and we can see which ones work out the best in which environments.  Veteran's Affairs should be handled by the DoD.  (It's not like they could screw it up any worse than it already is).  Homeland Security?  That should be the DoD's bailiwick, and what has it actually managed to accomplish anyway besides employing tens of thousands in completely pointless and unproductive capacities  in which they suck off the public treasury and make us not one whit safer?  Leave the safety of the individual airports and airplanes to the companies that run and use them.  I'll be using the ones that don't make me take off my shoes, thanks.  Interior?  Turn those lands over to the states they are in - now their management is a state responsibility.  What is the purpose of having an agency that just "oversees" other agencies (BLM, BIA, etc).  No more BIA.  The tribal nations are henceforward to be treated like states, meaning no interference by the Federales beyond what is allowed by the Constitution and any treaties we ever signed with them.   Either get rid of the federal income tax entirely (pick your own solution for funding it), or declare that the federal income tax is a flat 10%, no breaks allowed.  And require the gov't to spend not one dime more than it takes in.  Fund a MUCH smaller federal gov't (NO MORE LIFETIME perks for reps and senators.  Cut their pay to the national average.  Cut all gov't employee pay to 90% of whatever the average is for that position in the productive business world, and if there is no equivalent position... ask yourself why that gov't position exists...)  This provides a certain amount of motivation to GTFO of the gov't and go get a productive job in the real world/freemarket.   If you think the gov't position is THAT important, you'll sacrifice the 10% to have it.   Gas taxes to be used only on highways, bridges, etc.  Energy taxes to be used ONLY to fund the state depts of energy, assuming they see any need for one.  And Treasury?  No more fiat currency.  Get your ass back on a standard.  Or go to private currencies.  Or better yet, both.  I'm just on a rolling rant today...

[minervadoe]

22 minutes ago, Mrs.Cicero said:

If one state wants a freaking nuke reactor, they can have it, if some other state wants to ban them all within their borders, let them.  Then we can watch which state has to buy energy from which other state and laugh).

 

23 minutes ago, Mrs.Cicero said:

Health and Human Services?  Housing and Urban Devolution?  Transportation? Labor?  The states should be handling these Individually - then we'll have 50 experiments going on and we can see which ones work out the best in which environments.

 

25 minutes ago, Mrs.Cicero said:

 And require the gov't to spend not one dime more than it takes in.  Fund a MUCH smaller federal gov't (NO MORE LIFETIME perks for reps and senators.  Cut their pay to the national average.  Cut all gov't employee pay to 90% of whatever the average is for that position in the productive business world, and if there is no equivalent position... ask yourself why that gov't position exists...)

Good free market solutions.  I'm also wondering if some of these solutions won't happen automatically once the U.S. government's insane debt collapses it.  Something will have to give.  Lots of things will stop getting funded. 

Federal government spending is 21% of the country's GDP.  Then, there's state government spending.....

[Pogey Bait]

2 hours ago, Mrs.Cicero said:

I have had it with the idiotic interference of Bidet-brain and the federal gov't in every damn thing in this country.  I want to be President so I can get rid of ALL the "departments of every stupid thing every stupid democretin thinks they should meddle in" except the Department of Defense.  The DoD is the ONLY one whose existence isn't a violation of the Constitution anyway.  No more Dept of Edumacation (There is not a SINGLE measurement in students' educational performance that has improved since the creation of that boondoggle 50 years ago).  No more Dept of Energy (it's like matter, it can't be created nor destroyed, let the states govern their own.  If one state wants a freaking nuke reactor, they can have it, if some other state wants to ban them all within their borders, let them.  Then we can watch which state has to buy energy from which other state and laugh).   The Post Office will be cut down to once a week delivery.  If they can't break even they can be fazed completely out of existence in 2030.  Dept of Agriculture - gone.  Stop interfering in the free market.  No more paying people NOT to plant, no more price-fixing, let the market handle it all with commodities futures trades.  Dept of Commerce - gone.  Again, no more interference in the free market.  Let the legal system handle contract disputes.  Health and Human Services?  Housing and Urban Devolution?  Transportation? Labor?  The states should be handling these Individually - then we'll have 50 experiments going on and we can see which ones work out the best in which environments.  Veteran's Affairs should be handled by the DoD.  (It's not like they could screw it up any worse than it already is).  Homeland Security?  That should be the DoD's bailiwick, and what has it actually managed to accomplish anyway besides employing tens of thousands in completely pointless and unproductive capacities  in which they suck off the public treasury and make us not one whit safer?  Leave the safety of the individual airports and airplanes to the companies that run and use them.  I'll be using the ones that don't make me take off my shoes, thanks.  Interior?  Turn those lands over to the states they are in - now their management is a state responsibility.  What is the purpose of having an agency that just "oversees" other agencies (BLM, BIA, etc).  No more BIA.  The tribal nations are henceforward to be treated like states, meaning no interference by the Federales beyond what is allowed by the Constitution and any treaties we ever signed with them.   Either get rid of the federal income tax entirely (pick your own solution for funding it), or declare that the federal income tax is a flat 10%, no breaks allowed.  And require the gov't to spend not one dime more than it takes in.  Fund a MUCH smaller federal gov't (NO MORE LIFETIME perks for reps and senators.  Cut their pay to the national average.  Cut all gov't employee pay to 90% of whatever the average is for that position in the productive business world, and if there is no equivalent position... ask yourself why that gov't position exists...)  This provides a certain amount of motivation to GTFO of the gov't and go get a productive job in the real world/freemarket.   If you think the gov't position is THAT important, you'll sacrifice the 10% to have it.   Gas taxes to be used only on highways, bridges, etc.  Energy taxes to be used ONLY to fund the state depts of energy, assuming they see any need for one.  And Treasury?  No more fiat currency.  Get your ass back on a standard.  Or go to private currencies.  Or better yet, both.  I'm just on a rolling rant today...

Amen on TSA.  We recently flew from Chicago to Boston and back later that same week.  TSA employees are rude, lazy and most likely incompetent.  I agree, let the airlines provide security measures.  

[janice6]

1 hour ago, Pogey Bait said:

Amen on TSA.  We recently flew from Chicago to Boston and back later that same week.  TSA employees are rude, lazy and most likely incompetent.  I agree, let the airlines provide security measures.  

Remember when the TSA was announced and the claim that it would provide work for those who were "disenfranchised" in the labor segment.  That turned into hiring the, "unhireable", criminals, people that didn't want to really work, people that want to be paid but don't want to put forth any effort.  It was another government program to give money to people that wouldn't/refused, to  earn it.

Now, in the TSA, these people have some degree of control over others.  The worst thing to do it to give authority to people that have no interest in providing a service, nor have any respect for those they have authority over.  The just put in their time and revel in being able to order around those who have been taught to respect authority.

The TSA is an example of why we shouldn't take the advice and recommendations of people with no investment in this country, as to how to run this country.  They are too self serving and without honor and respect.  There is no honor among thieves - people that take from society and will not contribute to it.  The TSA!