Category Archives: Energy

First VW . . . Now Toyota, by Eric Peters

Toyota becomes the next victim of the jihad against diesel (strong competitor to electric). From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

There is a war going on – against the diesel engine. It is being waged, not because the diesel engine is a “threat” to the “climate.” It is being waged because the diesel engine is a threat – to the electric car. The forces pushing the latter use the manufactured “threat” of a “climate crisis” to attack the diesel engine (and also diesel fuel) precisely because it is a threat  . . . to them and their agenda.

It is why VW was attacked with unprecedented viciousness six years ago. It was not because VW “cheated” on government emissions certification tests. In italics to distinguish between those tests and the tailpipe emissions tests most people are familiar with. The “affected” VWs – as they were styled – passed the latter tests with no problem. Hundreds of thousands of them. How unclean could they have been to have been to have been able to pass those tests?

The answer, of course, is that they were – as VW advertised – very “clean.”

No unclean car could “get away” with “cheating” in any meaningful way and not be detected by those tests. It took a very fine-toothed comb  to “catch” VW’s “cheating” – on the certification tests. Which test the engine under a wider range of operating conditions, such as wide-open throttle/under load. VW’s sin – revealed to the public with you-don’t-care-whether-granny-dies hysterics (note the common thread here) was that it had programmed the engine management system of its TDI diesel engines in such a way as to pass those portions of the test – wide-open throttle/load conditions – where the engines’ emissions would otherwise have been momentarily and just slightly higher.

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Here’s What’s Next, by Eric Peters

Expect the left’s war on fossil fuels to escalate. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

Now that the Left has secured its power, expect the Left to exercise it.

This will manifest in numerous ways but perhaps the most directly felt will be at the pump, shortly – where we can expect the cost of gas and diesel to increase, suddenly – to the point of unaffordability for many. Especially people who do not live in or near cities.

The point of this being to nudge them out of the country, long a percolating desire of the Left.

Superficially, it will be done as a way to nudge people into EeeeeeeeVeeeeees – which are said by the Left to be “zero emissions” vehicles that rely on “renewable” and “clean” energy. Claims that are as false as they are disingenuous (it not being a question of ignorance about those those claims being false). But never mind that, for the moment.

At this moment, it is necessary to at least triple the current cost of gas and diesel – in order to make driving gas and diesel-powered vehicles – including hybrids – financially impossible for most people. In order to make an EeeeeeeeVeeeee seem – per Pete Buttigieg – the “affordable” alternative to them.

Never mind the cost of the EeeeeeeeeVeeeeee itself, as opposed to the cost of gas or diesel fuel.

The point being to make the EeeeeeeeeeeVeeeeee look – just plausibly enough – to the not-too-numerate – as being a way to “save money” vs. spending it on gas and diesel made very costly, indeed. That will be the sell. The hook will be that – even if you can afford to spend what it takes to buy an EeeeeeeVeeeee – you will have difficulty using it.

Unless you live in or near a city.

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Biden Goes Begging For Saudi Barrels, by Jim Bovard

Joe Biden went to the Middle East to kowtow to the Saudis and he didn’t even come home with a T-shirt to show for it. From Jim Bovard at libertarianinstitute.org:

Why don’t you talk about something that matters?” President Biden replied to a journalist asking about why he fist-bumped Saudi dictator Mohammed bin Salman (MBS) during his “begging for barrels” trip to the Middle East in July. Biden hoped the Saudis would rescue his presidency by pumping more oil in order to lower American gasoline prices and prevent the demolition of the Democratic Party in the mid-term elections.

On the eve of Biden’s “begging for barrels” tour, federal data confirmed the wreckage of his economic policies. The inflation rate soared to 9.1%, much worse than forecast. Biden has decimated the purchasing power of the dollar as real wages for Americans declined for the 15th straight month. Biden traveled as a desperate man whose own political party is facing a horrendous pummeling in November.

Prior to Biden’s Saudi trip, a top White House official justified forcing Americans to continue paying high gas prices to prop up Biden’s plan for “the liberal World Order.” This was part of the “Putin’s Price Hike” refrain and an attempt to make people feel patriotic when they get skewered at the gas pump. But the PR gesture failed miserably—except perhaps for the coastal elites, who are unaware what their chauffeurs pay to fill the tank.

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The Petrodollar-Saudi Axis Is Why Washington Hates Iran, by Gary Richied

Iran is committing the unforgivable sin: allowing payment for its oil in currencies other than dollars. From Gary Richied at mises.org:

Kish, since you are wondering, is an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf famed for its tourist and shopping attractions. It is becoming a serious rival to other nearby vacation hubs in Doha and Dubai.

Along with pristine beaches and extensive malls, Kish is—or rather ought to be—known more widely for another feature and institution which the Iranian mullahs established there way back in 2003; namely, the Kish Bourse (i.e., Kish Stock Exchange). بورس کیش if you prefer the Farsi.

Think of it as the Chicago Mercantile Exchange of Iran, a country stacked with natural resources, a relatively well-educated and sophisticated population (the literacy rate is 97 percent among young adults, which, if you consider the deplorable state of secondary education in the United States, means that Iranian youth are most assuredly smarter than your average young American adult), and an economy burdened by mismanagement of their own Islamic theocracy and crippling, long-duration sanctions from the American secular theocracy.

That American secular theocracy has considered it a dogmatic rite of passage into the state and corporate media (their temples) that one must, at the very least, excuse the economic, cultural, and political warfare against Iran as necessary for a variety of spurious reasons. Who really has enough free time to investigate and then suggest otherwise? After all, Iran is plagued by terroristic Islamic fundamentalists who have pledged—like their former president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad—“to wipe Israel off the face of the earth.”

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Europe May See Forced De-Industrialization As Result Of Energy Crisis, by Irina Slav

The word “forced” is not completely accurate here, because Europe’s leaders freely chose its fate. From Irina Slav at oilprice.com:

  • European industries including ferroalloys, fertilizer plants and specialty chemicals are shutting down as a result of the ongoing energy crisis.
  • Certain industries may not come back, even if the energy crisis eases.
  • An increasingly tight regulatory environment is another reason for de-industrialization in Europe.

The European Union has been quietly celebrating a consistent decline in gas and electricity consumption this year amid record-breaking prices, a cutoff of much of the Russian gas supply, and a liquidity crisis in the energy market.

Yet the cause for celebration is dubious: businesses are not just curbing their energy use and continuing on a business-as-usual basis. They are shutting down factories, downsizing, or relocating. Europe may well be on the way to deindustrialization.

That the European Union is heading for a recession is now quite clear to anyone watching the indicators. The latest there—eurozone manufacturing activity—fell to the lowest since May 2020.

The October reading for S&P Global’s PMI also signaled a looming recession, falling on the month and being the fourth monthly reading below 50—an indication of an economic contraction.

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The Oil Nationalization Two-Step, by Tom Luongo

Of course governments would like to grab oil assets, by hook or by crook. From Tom Luongo at tomluongo.me:

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Inconvenient Facts, by John Stossel

Electric cars aren’t going to much farther down the road before they run into a bunch of inconvenient facts. From John Stossel at townhall.com:

AP Photo/Alex Brandon

Electric cars sales are up 66% this year.

President Joe Biden promotes them, saying things like, “The great American road trip is going to be fully electrified” and, “There’s no turning back.”

To make sure we have no choice in the matter, some left-leaning states have moved to ban gas-powered cars altogether.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued an executive order banning them by 2035. Oregon, Massachusetts and New York copied California. Washington state’s politicians said they’d make it happen even faster, by 2030.

Thirty countries also say they’ll phase out gas-powered cars.

But this is just dumb. It will not happen. It’s magical thinking.

In my new video, I point out some “inconvenient” facts about electric cars, simple truths that politicians and green activists just don’t seem to understand.

“Electric cars are amazing,” says physicist Mark Mills of the Manhattan Institute. “But they won’t change the future in any significant way (as far as) oil use or carbon dioxide emissions.”

Inconvenient fact 1: Selling more electric cars won’t reduce oil use very much.

“The world has 15, 18 million electric vehicles now,” says Mills. “If we (somehow) get to 500 million, that would reduce world oil consumption by about 10%. That’s not nothing, but it doesn’t end the use of oil.”

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Peak Oil is Finally Here . . ., by Eric Peters

It’s hard to say which hatred among the intelligensia is stronger—Russia or fossil fuels. From Eric Peters at ericpetersautos.com:

For more than half a century, they – the people who hate oil and the abundant wealth it has enabled – have been insisting we’re on the cusp of running out of it. And for that reason, had better develop “alternatives” to it.

Like electricity, for instance.

But when their predictions about running out of oil – this was styled “peak” oil – never came true, because it became obvious there was plenty of oil and probably so much oil that its cost would continue to go down, causing the wealth of average people to go up – they stopped talking about “peak” oil and began talking about “climate change.” That there was an unseen bogeyman on the loose (sound familiar?) that would cause a “crisis” – and mass death – if we didn’t agree to do what they say, meaning give up abundant energy and wealth and accept energy scarcity and impoverishment.

We didn’t want to accept it, so they have tried to force it. As by artificially reducing the supply of oil. But they did that too soon, too quickly. It resulted in the cost of gasoline – and diesel – both made from oil, to nearly triple over the course of just one year. That alarmed people who were forced to pay for it – including lots of people who might have supported, in a vague and hypothetical way, “taking action” to stave off “climate change.” But when forced to accept the cost of that, many of them began to re-evaluate their position. And with an election looming that might result in something being done about the manufactured but very real crisis – in the name of a fake one – something had to be done to artificially and temporarily tamp down the price of gas and diesel to smooth ruffled feathers just long enough to get through the midterm elections without incurring too much electoral damage.

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A Surprising Threat To The US Power Grid Could Plunge The Country Into Darkness, by Tyler Durden

Electric cars may be the greatest thing since sliced bread, but you do have to be able to plug them in somewhere and get the juice. From John Mac Ghlionn at The Epoch Times via zerohedge.com:

The importance of a strong power grid cannot be emphasized enough. Often, when a grid fails, the results are terrifying. Of all the major power grids in the world, the United States’ is one of the more vulnerable to attack.

State-sponsored hackers from the likes of Iran, Russia, and, unsurprisingly, China pose a real threat to the United States’ electrical transmission lines. However, there’s another (far less obvious) threat to the grid: electric vehicles (EVs).

Yes, you read that right.

The Biden administration is desperate to consign the internal combustion engine to the dustbin of history. In this radical shift to embrace a new, zero-emission world, Americans are being told to embrace EVs. Such an embrace, however, requires a stellar power grid, the very thing the United States lacks.

Just to be clear, the U.S. power grid (or electric grid) involves a huge network of transmission lines, power plants, and distribution centers. The United States has three major grids: the Eastern Grid, the Western Grid, and the ERCOT Grid, otherwise known as the Texas Grid. Of the three, the Eastern Grid is the largest.

Although the three grids can operate independently, they’re also connected. A failed grid means no power for tens of millions of citizens and prolonged periods of darkness. Imagine a power grid failure in the likes of Los Angeles or New York. The two cities are already riddled with crime; grid failures would make things many times worse.

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They Rule Over Dysfunctional Ruin, but They Rule, by Alasdair Crooke

There are some who would rather captain the Titanic than board a ship that will make it across the ocean. Go figure. From Alasdair Crooke at strategic-culture.org:

Since 2008, we have lived in a western world shaped by the ‘permanent state’ or by our managerial technocrats – label to choice.

Since 2008, we have lived in a western world shaped by the ‘permanent state’ or by our managerial technocrats – label to choice.

This ‘creative class’ (as they like to see themselves) is particularly defined by its intermediary position in relation to the wealth-controlling oligarchic cabal as ultimate big money overlords on one hand, and the dullard ‘Middle Class’ below them – at whom they sneer and deride.

This intermediary class didn’t set out to dominate politics (they say); It just happened. Initially, the aim was to foster progressive values. But instead, these professional technocrats, who both had accreted considerable wealth and were tightly congregated into cliques in America’s large metro areas, came to dominate left-wing parties around the world that formerly were vehicles for the working class.

Those who coveted membership in this new ‘aristocracy’ cultivated their image as one of cosmopolitan, fast-moving money, glamour, fashion, and popular culture – multiculturalism suited them to perfection. Painting themselves as the political conscience of the whole of society (if not the world), the reality was that their Zeitgeist reflected primarily the whims, prejudices and increasingly psychopathies of one segment of liberal society.

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