Paul Driessen

The Coming Green Electricity Nightmare

 

Hundreds of billions in new subsidies will bring expensive, unreliable, eco-destructive power

Senator Joe Manchin (D-WV) wanted regulatory reform, in part to reverse some of the Biden Administration reversals of Trump era reforms intended to expedite permits for fossil fuel projects.

Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) needed Manchin’s vote in the 50-50 Senate to enact his latest spending extravaganza, the Inflation Reduction Act, which was primarily a massive climate and “green” energy subsidy arrangement. It gives Schumer allies some $370 billion in wind, solar, battery and other funding, tax credits and subsidies. In exchange, Schumer would offer a path for Manchin’s reform bill.

Manchin voted YEA, and promptly got bushwhacked. Once he’d helped enact the IRA, he had zero leverage. Schumer, he discovered, had promised an opportunity, maybe a vote, but not actual support. House and Senate members told him, we weren’t part of your secret negotiations with Schumer; we didn’t shake hands on any deal; we don’t want easier permitting for drilling, pipelines and LNG terminals that could help send US natural gas to Britain and Europe.

In the end, it’s probably a good thing Manchin’s bill went nowhere.

Yes, it provided some much needed and long overdue reforms to curb the paralysis by analysis and endless litigation that have plagued fossil fuel, highway, airport and countless other projects for decades.

But it also had Trojan horse provisions that would have unleashed hordes of newly subsidized wind, solar and transmission marauders on much of the Lower 48 USA, to send pseudo-clean electricity to mostly Democrat cities and states that don’t want even “renewable” power generation in their own backyards.

As the Wall Street Journal and energy analyst Robert Bryce observed, Manchin’s “reforms” would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and other bureaucrats the power to issue permits and force multiple states to acquiesce to new transmission lines and 200-foot-tall towers across their scenic, habitat, agricultural and even residential lands – if the feds decide the lines are in the “national interest.” This could easily transform into federal powers of eminent domain, to take the needed acreage.

The feds could decree that thousands of miles of new transmission lines are in the “national interest” if, for instance, the lines “enhance the ability” of faraway wind and solar facilities to connect their intermittent, weather-dependent energy to an electric grid; or enable distant blue states to reach their renewable energy goals; or help achieve Biden Administration goals of stopping manmade climate change, “advancing environmental justice” and having “a net-zero economy” by 2050. Hopefully while avoiding blackout-a-week nightmares.

Populous states like New York could also work with FERC & Co. to have offshore wind turbines installed off less populated coasts, like Maine or North Carolina – and have the electricity delivered to the Empire State. New York’s peak summertime needs alone would require 2,500 monstrous 680-foot-tall 12-MW offshore turbines, operating 24/7 – when we’d be lucky if they generated electricity 40% of the year. (Imagine how many offshore … or 6-MW onshore … turbines we’d need to power the entire USA.)

Compounding the energy colonialism, the Manchin reform package would also give FERC authority to allocate and “socialize” transmission line costs, so that residents of states that don’t even get any of the electricity being sent along the newly imposed transmission lines would still have to help pay for them.

In short, the feds would be able to ride roughshod over states, local communities and federalism.

Let me say it again: Wind and sunshine are free, clean, green, renewable and sustainable. But harnessing this diffuse, unreliable, weather-dependent energy to power civilization definitely is not. And every bit of “renewable” power must be backed up with other power – so double our cash and material investments.

The Green Lobby and its legislator and regulator friends really seem to think they can just pass laws and earmark subsidies, demanding energy transformations by 2050 – and it will just happen. The raw materials will just be there, perhaps with a little MAGIC: Materials Acquisition for Global Industrial Change. That is, they simply assume the necessary raw materials will also just be there.

Not one of these luminaries has given a moment’s thought to – much less attempted to calculate – what this net-zero transition would require:

How many millions of wind turbines, billions of solar panels, billions of EV and backup batteries, millions of transformers, thousands of miles of transmission lines – sprawling across how many millions of acres of wildlife habitat, scenic and agricultural lands, and people’s once-placid backyards?

How many billions of tons of copper, steel, aluminum, nickel, cobalt, lithium, concrete, rare earths, composite plastics and other materials? How many trillions of tons of ores and overburden? How many mines, across how many more acres – with how much fossil fuel energy to operate the enormous mining equipment, and how much toxic air and water pollution emitted in the process?  Where will it be done?

To cite just one example, just those 2,500 wind turbines for New York electricity (30,000 megawatts) would require nearly 110,000 tons of copper – which would require mining, crushing, processing and refining 25 million tons of copper ore … after removing some 40 million tons of overlying rock to reach the ore bodies. Multiply that times 50 states – and the entire world – plus transmission lines.

How many processing plants and factories would be needed? How much fossil fuel power to run those massive operations? How many thousands of square miles of toxic waste pits all over world under zero to minimal environmental standards, workplace safety standards, child and slave labor rules?

How many dead birds, bats, and endangered and other species would be killed off all across the USA and world – from mineral extraction activities, wind turbine blades, solar panels blanketing thousands of square miles of wildlife habitats, and transmission lines impacting still more land?

How many will survive hurricanes like Ian or Andrew? Where will we dump the green energy trash?

Not only do the luminaries and activists ignore these issues and refuse to address them. They actively suppress, cancel, censor and deplatform any questions and discussions about them. They collude with Big Tech companies and news agencies, which too often seem all too happy to assist.

The hard reality is, there are not, will not be, and cannot be, enough mines, metals and minerals on the entire planet – to reach any “net-zero” US economy by 2050, much less a global “green” economy.

Here’s another issue: electric vehicle and backup lithium-ion battery modules can erupt spontaneously into chemical-fueled infernos that cannot be extinguished by conventional fire-fighting means. That raises an important analog to rules Alec Baldwin should have kept uppermost in mind a year ago. Treat every firearm as if it is loaded. Never point your muzzle at anything you are not prepared to destroy.

In the Biden-Newsom-Kerry-IPCC energy arena: Treat every electric vehicle and backup battery system as if it is loaded and ready to ignite. Never park an EV, install a Power Wall or locate a backup power facility near anything you are not prepared to destroy.

That includes in your garage; near other vehicles; in parking garages under apartment and office buildings; in residential neighborhoods and highway tunnels; or on cargo ships like the Felicity Ace.

And yet we’re supposed to go along with Green Energy schemes – as we did with masks, school lockdowns and vaccinations to stop Covid – because our government, media and “public interest” groups insist that we “follow the science,” on which there can be no doubt (certainly none permitted) that we face a “manmade climate crisis” that threatens the very existence of humanity and “the only Earth we have.”

Because we have to destroy the planet (with green energy) in order to save it (from climate change).

It’s time to short-circuit this electricity nightmare, by asking these questions, demanding answers, and ending the notion that governments can simply issue edicts and compel reality to change in response.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books and articles on energy, environmental and human rights issues.

Contact me: pkdriessen@gmail.com

Semi-fascism versus full-fascism by Paul Driessen

 

Republicans may go half-way, but Biden, Democrats, Deep State go all-out to control our lives

President Biden claims millions of Republican voters have embraced “semi-fascism.” They “threaten not just our personal rights and economic security, but our very democracy, the very foundation of our republic,” in a “battle for the soul of our nation.”

This is hardly the “moderate” way to “unite” America. But Mr. Biden isn’t alone. Democratic National Committee Chairman Jaime Harrison says the Republican Party has “become a party of fascism and fear.” Congressman Eric Swalwell (D-CA) rants that Republican “fascists” are trying “to overthrow the government.” Their media allies echo and amplify the accusations.

Do they know what “fascism” means? Have they looked in a mirror, or at their own history and agenda?

Merriam-Webster defines fascism as “centralized autocratic government headed by a dictatorial leader, severe economic and social regimentation, and forcible suppression of opposition.”

A more complete definition: An extreme, intolerant system under which an authoritarian government doesn’t own businesses outright but dictates to or colludes with them to redistribute wealth and property, control access to information, and determine what companies and people can make, do, sell and say – employing laws, intimidation, police powers and violence to advance their agenda.

That certainly seems to describe the current White House, Executive Branch, Democrat Congress, and woke corporations and media. It recalls the old saw that Republicans want to control what you do in your bedroom, but Democrats want to control everything you do outside your bedroom.

Examples are too voluminous to list. But few actions in American history epitomize police state autocracy better than armed FBI agents raiding President 45 Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago home. The message is unmistakable: If we can do this to a former president, imagine what we can do to you little people if you protest at the US Capitol or school board meetings, question Democrat election victories, or even support organizations on our Disapproved list. Be very careful what you say or do.
New Jersey mom learned that recently when armed FBI agents showed up at her home, after someone anonymously and falsely said she was at the Capitol on January 6. And you thought Lois Lerner and the IRS had weaponized government agencies.

Almost as shocking, all this and the House Jan 6 Star Chamber proceedings followed years of black-shirted Antifa thugs burning, looting and bludgeoning their way through cities, to voice their displeasure over the 2016 presidential election, police brutality and other grievances. Few were ever arrested, much less prosecuted, and many were bailed out by sympathizers like then-Senator Kamala Harris.

Thought control comes through what is taught in our schools, kindergarten through graduate and law school, and via censorship, in blatant violation of our First Amendment rights. Schools trumpet diversity in all arenas, except political parties, beliefs and speech, where diversity is simply not tolerated.

A lawsuit by Louisiana and Missouri Attorneys General and the New Civil Liberties Alliance has unearthed Facebook, Twitter, Meta and YouTube emails revealing that at least 32 federal officials in multiple federal agencies secretly colluded with the social media giants on ways to “moderate” content on their platforms, by illegally and systematically suppressing “misinformation,” unapproved thinking and inconvenient evidence about Covid, vaccinations, ivermectin, climate change and other key issues.

Chief Medical Advisor Anthony Fauci and former Press Secretary Jen Psaki have been deeply involved in this blatant censorship. So have many other top officials at the White House, HHS, FDA, CDC, Census Bureau, State and Treasury Departments, and other agencies, including the FBI, the lawsuit states.

Bloomberg News and other media have worked behind the scenes with House of Representatives Democrats in advance of hearings intended to help federal officials and Facebook “fact check,” intimidate and cancel experts who question claims that climate change poses an “existential threat” to humanity and planet. News and social media organizations have also assisted House Democrats with inquisitions into oil companies’ alleged failure to “live up to” their climate pledges by slashing oil production, while simultaneously failing to increase oil production to reduce Biden-policy-driven gasoline prices.

Free speech, access to all relevant information, and open, robust debate are the foundation of democracy, wise public policies, and our ability to make informed decisions about our health, welfare and voting options. But this collusion and censorship are destroying these principles. These actions should be punishable by fines, firings, prison terms and lost benefits for all government conspirators.

Facebook even blocked House Republican criticism of President Biden’s student loan forgiveness scheme. Their comment “If you take out a loan, you pay it back. Period” was banned by algorithms and multiple human managers as a “violation of community standards” – before it was finally allowed.

In the name of averting an “imminent manmade climate crisis,” the Biden Administration is deliberately locking this nation’s abundant, reliable, affordable fossil fuel energy in the ground. As those actions send prices ever higher, non-ruling classes are told, Set your thermostats to a comfortable, planet-friendly 80 degrees F in summer, and 65 degrees in winter.

Drive no more than 5,000 miles a year. Vacation no more than once every three years. Ditch your gasoline-fueled car, but don’t charge your $60,000 electric vehicle, because you might cause a blackout on grids increasingly reliant on weather-dependent wind and solar power.

This is not just a dictatorial erosion of our personal rights and living standards. People die from health conditions they would otherwise survive, amid freezing winters when they can’t heat their homes properly, and during summer heat waves when they can’t cool their homes sufficiently. Indeed, the death toll just from government COVID actions, inactions and censorship is staggeringly high.

To impose more of their extreme agendas, Deep State bureaucrats are again engaging in collusive sue-and-settle lawsuits. Government agencies invite “progressive” groups to sue them in friendly courts, in pretend-disagreements over regulations that all parties want implemented. They then “settle” their “disputes” – and the rules become binding. Third parties impacted by the decisions never get to contest the collusion, present evidence, or even be notified that a lawsuit has been filed, until it’s too late. It’s the Obama years on steroids. Meanwhile:

Jane’s Revenge and other criminals have picked up where Antifa left off. They’ve fire-bombed 50+ pregnancy counseling centers, howled outside Supreme Court justices’ homes, and attempted to assassinate Justice Kavanaugh, emulating a Bernie Sanders volunteer who tried to murder multiple Republican congressmen at a 2017 baseball practice.

With help from drug cartels, illegal immigrants keep pouring across America’s wide-open southern borders. When 50 were flown from Florida to wealthy Martha’s Vineyard, locals shipped them off to a military base the very next day. Many wondered why Vineyard residents, celebrities and other Democrats couldn’t open their sanctuary city hearts, homes and wallets – rather than just their mouths.

Amid all this, instead of bringing real miscreants to justice, the FBI obsesses with finding “white supremacist terrorism threats” at school board meetings and maybe under beds. “The demand for White supremacy vastly outstrips the supply,” quipped a still non-politicized agent.

And don’t forget, this Democrat Party was also the party of the Confederacy, KKK, literacy tests, barred schoolhouse doors and lynchings. You could call it a prior personification of fascism – and transference, the psychopathological term for attributing your own bad actions and motives to others.

All this may not amount to full-fascism, but it’s getting perilously close, and already it’s far worse than semi. Is this the path you want for America? If not, support your candidates financially now, if you can – and make your voice heard loud and clear before or on November 8.

The stakes are incredibly high – on these matters, court packing, abolishing the filibuster, and much more.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of books and articles on energy, environmental and human rights issues

Contact me: pkdriessen@gmail.com

Leftist Intimidation and Assassination? By Paul Driessen

 

When Leftists don’t win at the ballot box, little seems off limits for advancing their agenda

One year ago, ProPublica published illegally leaked IRS data on America’s wealthiest taxpayers. The “newsroom” said it obtained the information from “an anonymous source,” thanks to the ease with which people with access to information can secretly copy and transmit it with a few mouse clicks.

ProPublica piously claimed its actions were meant to advance “tax fairness” and help Congress and the Biden administration pay for all the trillions of dollars lavished on Covid and Build Back Better, by making it harder for the über-rich “to avoid tax burdens borne by ordinary citizens.”

But as I’ve noted previously, their approach is hideously complicated. Assets that increase in value from some retroactive mythical or arbitrary acquisition price would get taxed whopping amounts. If assets later depreciate, the wealthy will require credits or refunds for billion-dollar unrealized losses. Worse, the initial 700-1,000 ultra-rich would likely balloon to millions of taxpayers, as happened with the Alternative Minimum Tax, under this accountant, appraiser, auditor and lawyer appreciation legislation.

The IRS and Justice Department say they are deeply concerned, devoted to protecting taxpayer information, and committed to getting to the bottom of the data theft scandal. But the perpetrators have yet to be identified, prosecuted or punished – and ProPublica certainly hasn’t been canceled by or banished from Facebook or Twitter.

Indeed, ProPublica published more stolen confidential data this year. Again, no accountability for the perps – any more than there was for Lois Lerner, who used the IRS to target conservative groups and obstruct their tax-exempt certifications, so that they could not engage in activities that might have affected the outcomes of multiple elections.

Congressman Jim Jordan (R-OH) says the ProPublica saga is just “one more example of the government being weaponized” against the American people. However, only the chairs of relevant committees can demand that the IRS Inspector General brief Congress, the IRS told Jordan, and those Democrat chairs have little interest in doing so.

The saga also further documents how “public servants” too often assist “progressive” Democrats, Big Media, Big Tech and Big Academia in driving far-left economic, energy and “social and climate justice” agendas – employing the full heft of the Deep State and wealthy corporations.

Yet some still say they’re baffled that so many distrust and despise the IRS and Federal Government.

Despite the gravity of these data thefts, the anniversary was barely mentioned in most news media. Nor were other anniversaries. Five years ago this month, a former Bernie Sanders volunteer tried to gun down Republican congressmen during baseball practice. Six years ago, Antifa thugs and arsonists were ramping up their multiyear assault on 2016 election results, America’s democracy, police stations and courthouses, people’s homes and livelihoods, and conservative families in their favorite restaurants.

What did get extensive attention was the partisan House of Representatives inquisition into the January 6, 2021 “violent attack” on the Capitol, in an “attempt to prevent certification” of the 2020 election results. President Trump and others have been charged with “high crimes and misdemeanors” and “engaging in insurrection or rebellion against the United States,” despite asking his supporters to “peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” It’s a good distraction from our economic and energy problems.

Some of President Trump’s rhetoric was certainly intemperate, and some marchers certainly broke windows and entered the Capitol. However, the only serious violence was the unjustifiable killing of Ashli Babbitt by Capitol Hill policeman Michael Byrd, and Speaker Pelosi (D-CA) clearly failed to ensure adequate security that day.

But if some of President Trump’s language rose to the level of “inciting violence,” what are we to make of other rhetoric? Then-Senator Kamala Harris declared that the “mostly peaceful” Black Lives Matter and Antifa protests are “not gonna stop before Election Day, and they’re not gonna stop after Election Day.” She also supported a Soros fund that helped bail rioters out of jail.

Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-CA) demanded “No peace, no sleep!” for Trump officials. “If you see anybody from that Cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, at a gasoline station,” she ranted, “tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere.”

Standing outside the Supreme Court, Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) warned: “I want to tell you Gorsuch, I want to tell you Kavanaugh: You have released the whirlwind, and you will pay the price. You won’t know what hit you if you go forward with these awful decisions.”

The far-left group Ruth Sent Us published the home addresses of conservative Supreme Court justices, and even the school attended by Justice Amy Coney Barrett’s children. An anti-Israel Boston-area Boycott Divest Sanction (BDS) outfit posted maps of Jewish organizations it wants to “disrupt.”

The consequences are predictable. Violent protests rage on, with more promised if the Supreme Court overturns Roe v. Wade. Jane’s Revenge extremists is firebombing 20-some pro-life churches and pregnancy counseling offices in multiple states. And a pro-abortion gunman arrested at 1:00 am outside the Kavanaugh residence told police he intended to assassinate the Justice. (The NY Times and other liberal papers barely covered the murder plot.)

Threats and protests following a leaked draft of a Supreme Court decision reversing past abortion rulings prompted the US Senate to unanimously pass legislation protecting the Justices’ families. But Speaker Pelosi sat on the measure for five weeks, including a full week after the attempted assassination. It finally passed the House with 27 Democrats voting against it, including five Squad members.

Our system cannot abide blatantly different standards of justice and discourse. It’s flat-out illegal to threaten or intimidate judges or justices, to advance desired decisions. And censorship of unwanted opinions and inconvenient facts brings dictatorship and disastrous policies.

But the Democrat-run Congress and Executive Branch are clearly taking America down this path, weaponizing government institutions, imposing different rules and standards against different classes of citizens, and colluding with print, electronic and social media to control information and debate.

This final problem is rapidly metastasizing. Press Secretary Jen Psaki admitted the White House is collaborating with social media companies to censor alleged COVID “disinformation,” while government agencies ramp up “disinformation research and tracking” – and flag “problematic posts that spread disinformation,” so that Facebook, Twitter and YouTube can cancel and delete them.

Having already succeeded in getting social media to silence those who question climate crisis claims, White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy now wants Big Tech titans to cancel anyone who says “green” energy and other climate “solutions” will harm the environment and living standards. Even pointing out limitations of lithium-ion batteries is “disinformation” that threatens public health, she says.

Meanwhile, the Department of Homeland Security has proposed a Disinformation Governance Board that might forge “public-private partnerships between DHS and Twitter” – the better to combat disinformation about masking, vaccines and other “serious homeland security risks,” say internal DHS emails.

The Left clearly intends to gain full control, and will not settle for less. If it cannot achieve its ends via ballot boxes (no matter how stuffed or harvested they might be), then agencies will connive with print, electronic and social media – in clear violation of First Amendment prohibitions against government abridging freedom of speech. Failing that, it will resort to cartridge boxes and Molotov cocktails.

Unless, that is, We the People rise up to stop this assault on Americas’ democracy and personal freedoms.

Paul Driessen is senior policy analyst for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org), and author of Eco-Imperialism: Green power – Black death and articles on energy, climate and other issues.

Contact me: pkdriessen@gmail.com

Correct or Cancel Mom’s Grocery Bag Misinformation — Misleading claims on organic food grocery bags deceive shoppers on bees and pesticides

I don’t deliberately avoid organic foods or markets, but I don’t seek them out either. Claims that organic food tastes better or is more nutritious are not supported by evidence and certainly don’t justify the far higher prices. Mostly, I’m put off by assertions that organic food is pesticide-free, safer and more planet-friendly. Those assertions are simply false advertising; deliberate misinformation.

Mom’s Organic Market shopping bags provide an excellent example. They’re emblazoned with six “Bee Informed” messages that help customers Bee the Change, Give Bees a Chance, and Save the Bees from a looming Armageddon attributed to synthetic pesticides. The Bee Misinformed messages merit correction.

1. The #1 irrigated crop in the US is lawn grass, using over 10 trillion gallons of water per year. Mom’s didn’t say where its number came from; and if this basic information is fishy, what about the other messages? Even the Natural Resources Defense Council says US lawns consume three trillion gallons per year – not ten. Still, too many people overwater, use fine sprays that let too much water evaporate, and/or water lawns during the hottest hours or days of the week. The better message is, water smarter.

2. Suburban lawns and gardens receive more pesticide applications per acre than agriculture. This may be true, but is it? Can’t Mom’s be more transparent about its sources? Homeowners should use lawn and garden chemicals carefully, responsibly and sparingly – and assume that any chemical (synthetic or organic) may be toxic and dangerous: to bees, other insects, fish, wildlife, pets, children and themselves.

3. A single bee colony can pollinate over 300 million flowers a day. Busy as a bee – sure. But really? A typical hive (colony) has 10,000 to 80,000 worker bees. Assuming 50,000 on average, this means each bee would have to visit 6,000 flowers per day. Perhaps in a sprawling canola field; but otherwise pretty unlikely. Again, what’s Mom’s source?

4. Scientists found bee-killing neonicotinoids in 75% of honey sampled from around the world. Now we’re getting into the nitty-gritty of ongoing organic food and environmentalist campaigns to frighten people (especially moms) into going full-organic and avoiding conventionally grown food.

The scientists are finding parts per billion. 1 ppb is equivalent to 1 second in 33 years – or 50 drops of water in a 50-by-25-by-2-meter Olympic-sized swimming pool: 2 teaspoons in 660,000 gallons.

Used primarily to coat seeds, neonics become part of the plant tissue and target only pests that actually feed on the crops, particularly during early growth stages. They greatly reduce the need for aerial or ground-level spraying with other chemicals that are much more of a threat to bees and other pollinators. They are a far lower risk to honeybees or wild bees than some organic pesticides – or Varroa destructor mites that attach to bees, suppress their immune systems, carry deadly diseases, create pathways for other diseases to enter bee bodies, and can cause well-publicized “colony collapse disorder.”

Neonics may be detected in honey because so much comes from vast canola fields in western Canada, where canola is grown with neonic-coated seeds, and beekeepers place their hives in the fields because bees thrive there and produce delicious honey. Don’t equate detection with danger.

5. There are traces of 20 different pesticides in the average American’s body. Mom’s could at least post the source for this assertion on its website. More important, these parts per billion are detectable only because modern lab equipment is so sophisticated. The traces are not at levels that should cause concern.

And what about organic pesticides? Organic farmers also use many different pesticides to protect their crops. But Mom’s, Greenpeace, the Environmental Working Group (EWG) and the organic food industry don’t look for or talk about traces of organic farming pesticides: in honey, on produce or in human bodies. Perhaps they don’t want people (especially mothers) to know or think about that.

The Risk Monger’s Dirty Dozen List of Toxic Organic Pesticides provides an informative overview of “natural” fungicides and insecticides used on organic farms – including chemicals that are toxic to bees, other insect and wildlife species, and humans.

Among those organic farm chemicals, copper sulfate is highly toxic to bees, deadly to fish, and bio-accumulative in soil and water. Pyrethrin neurotoxin pesticides are also very toxic to bees – and are possible human carcinogens; originally derived from flowers (which is why they can still be classified as organic), they are now manufactured synthetically. Like neonicotinoids, nicotine sulfate is derived from nicotine; it can paralyze bee wings and legs, and is poisonous to humans; it’s dusted or sprayed on crops, so it can impact bees, birds and other non-target organisms.

Other “natural,” “organic” chemicals that are highly toxic to bees include rotenone, spinosad, hydrogen peroxide, azidirachtin (neem oil), citronella oil, and even garlic extract and acetic acid.

If Greenpeace, the EWG or the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) ever spent the time and money to test for these chemicals, they’d undoubtedly find “traces” of “organic” chemicals on “organic” produce.

6. Roughly 0.1% of pesticides reach their targeted pests, leaving 99.9% to impact the environment. That sounds farfetched because it is, especially for crops grown using neonic-treated seeds so that the pesticide becomes a systemic part of the plant and targets pests that try to eat the crops.

Today’s farmers are far more careful and judicious in how, where and how much they use chemicals to control the insects, viruses, molds and other pests that want to beat you to the foods you enjoy. They also employ a variety of “integrated pest management” techniques – including corn, cotton and other crops that splice Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt) genes into the plant structure, to control pests that feed on those crops, thereby reducing the need for hand, tractor or aerial spraying with chemicals.

(Organic farmers often spray live Bt bacteria on crops. But that carries risks that the spray could drift onto nearby plants and beneficial insects. It’s a mystery that EWG doesn’t wax apoplectic about that.)

Those who still harbor concerns might be comforted knowing that the USDA conducts a Pesticide Data Program that’s been ongoing now for three decades. The PDP tests different (conventionally grown) produce every year – and issues a “report card” on how well US and international farmers comply with Environmental Protection Agency rules designed to protect moms and families from (conventional) pesticide-related health issues.

While the annual EWG “Dirty Dozen List” is designed to instill unfounded fears about eating non-organic fruits and vegetables, because of alleged pesticide poisoning – the PDP analyses are scientific and data-driven. (At least it doesn’t blame manmade climate change.) The PDP goal is to ensure that all pesticide residues have fallen to levels that pose no risks to humans by the time they reach supermarkets.

The latest 200-page report provides comforting news for consumers. It’s available here – or you can read plant pathologist Steve Savage’s summary and commentary here and here.

One further issue deserves mention. Not surprisingly, Mom’s bags are made of kraft paper. Plastic bags (we’re told) are petroleum-based and clog landfills. Of course, it’s more complex than that.

I operated bag-making machines during college. Paper and paper-bag-making processes are tree, energy and chemicals-intensive; and heavier, bulkier paper bags take years to break down in landfills. The volume of either is trifling, however, compared to pollution and waste from solar panels and wind turbines.

The bottom line is simple. As the USDA and Risk Monger emphasize, pesticide residues on both conventional and organic fruits and vegetables almost never pose risks to moms, dads, kids, or other planetary creatures. Bee not afraid. Enjoy eating them, because they’re good for you.

And correct or cancel Mom’s misinformation.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.organd author of many articles on the environment. He has degrees in geology, ecology and environmental law.

Contact me: pkdriessen@gmail.com

Saving America from Planet-Threatening Fossil Fuels– By sacrificing our economy, environment, living standards, freedoms and security

 

Presidential candidate Joe Biden repeatedly promised to end fossil fuels in America. There’ll be “no more drilling, including offshore,” he said. “No ability for the oil industry to drill. No more pipelines.”Shortly after reaching the White House, President Biden ended Keystone XL pipeline construction and began working with congressional Democrats, regulators and eco-activists to impose leasing and drilling moratoriums, slow-walk permits, pressure financial institutions to deny funding to fossil fuel companies, and implement “social cost of carbon” rules, “environmental justice” programs, “windfall profit” taxes and other policies to close down or bankrupt fossil fuel projects and companies.

His Securities and Exchange Commission says companies must “disclose risks” from alleged “manmade climate change” – from their own production, refining and manufacturing operations; from suppliers and customers using their products; and from government anti-carbon policies.

Supplies predictably dwindled, and prices skyrocketed. Not just for gasoline and other fossil fuels that still provide 80% of all U.S. energy, but for fertilizers, farm chemicals, pharmaceuticals, paints, plastics, cosmetics and countless other petroleum-based products – and for goods and services that require offices, factories, stores and transport that need reliable, affordable energy. In other words, for nearly everything.

Keystone alone would have brought the United States 700,000 barrels of friendly Canadian oil. That’s equal to the petroleum Russia was sending America before Mr. Biden finally banned the imports, after Vladimir Putin’s butchery in Ukraine reached levels that even far-Left Democrats couldn’t stomach.

President Biden tried to blame Putin for food, fuel and other prices that had been soaring well before the Ukraine invasion. He’s now pleading with American oil companies to increase production – but only temporarily (to send liquefied gas to Europe and to protect Democrat office holders in November), without easing his anti-oil edicts.

He begged Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Venezuela to increase their oil production. He used Russia to broker a new nuclear deal with Supreme Leader Ali Khameni, so that Iran can sell more oil on the global market. He apparently believes those sources don’t emit “dangerous” carbon dioxide.

Above all, Team Biden doubled down on calls for America to switch from gasoline cars to electric vehicles, and from coal and natural gas electricity generation to wind, solar and backup battery power. They claim this massive, costly restructuring of America can replace “dirty, planet-threatening” fossil fuels with “clean, renewable, sustainable” wind, solar and battery energy. It’s a duplicitous con.

Wind turbines and solar panels on this scale would defile millions of acres of crop, scenic and habitat land. They would kill millions of birds, bats and other wildlife. They require massive amounts of raw materials (and thus mining) to create expensive, inefficient, weather-dependent energy devices. They and 1000-pound battery modules are the least clean, renewable, sustainable energy sources imaginable.

“Clean” technologies merely replace CO2 and methane emissions in the USA with massive amounts of real, toxic pollution in other countries, out of sight and mind, where climate activists can ignore them.

A Green New Deal would make America almost totally reliant on China, Russia and other despotic and unstable nations for the metals and minerals needed for GND technologies. And for the equipment itself, because a fossil-fuel-free America wouldn’t have the reliable energy needed to manufacture wind turbines, solar panels, battery modules, transformers and thousands of miles of new transmission lines. America’s entire GND energy and economic future could depend on their tyrannical good graces.

China, Russia and their surrogates could wield green tech as a strategic weapon, banning exports of materials or technologies to advance their political goals. They could even embed trip-switches or backdoors for hackers in equipment they sell to us, enabling them to close down part or all of our electrical grid and economy. A shutdown could kill millions.

The quantities of metals, minerals and other raw materials required for this “green energy transition” are almost incomprehensible. We would have to mine Planet Earth on unprecedented scales.

The first stage of President Biden’s offshore wind energy program alone would require 110,000 tons of non-renewable copper – plus millions of tons of cobalt, lithium, nickel, aluminum, iron, manganese, rare earth elements, platinum, plastics, concrete, and that suddenly very visible and valuable metal: nickel.

His plan calls for 30,000 megawatts of offshore wind energy by 2030. That’s 2,140 monstrous 850-foot-tall 14-MW turbines. It sounds like a lot of electricity, but it wouldn’t even meet New York State’s peak summertime electricity needs. And they’d generate zero electricity half the year.

Based on average global copper ore bodies, just those 110,000 tons of copper would require removing 40,000,000 tons of overburden and processing 25,000,000 tons of ore. That’s enough crushed rock to cover a 24-foot-wide highway from Washington, DC to Tampa, Florida ten feet deep! Just for the copper.

(Or you could bury the White House, Capitol Hill, all the most climate-focused federal agencies, and all Greenpeace, Sierra Club and other eco-pressure groups’ DC offices under 100 feet of rock and dust.)

Climate- obsessed legislators, regulators, activists and judges detest and contest mining anywhere in the United States, even to support the Green New Deal they claim is essential to save America, our planet and humanity from “climate cataclysms.” They’ve already made millions of acres off limits to exploration and mining, affecting numerous world-class prospects.

In just the past couple years, they prevented three critically needed mines from opening: Alaska’s Pebble Mine (billions of pounds of copper, gold, silver, molybdenum, rhenium and other metals); Minnesota’s NorthMet mine (billions of pounds of copper, cobalt, platinum and nickel); and enormous lithium deposits in Nevada.

That means GND mining and processing would take place in Asia, Africa and Latin America, mostly by or under the auspices of Chinese firms – under environmental, pollution control, workplace safety, and child and slave labor rules, standards and practices that were repudiated in America 50-100 years ago.

Will the White House, congressional Democrats, EPA, Labor Department and SEC demand that companies disclose all those fossil fuel uses, risks, environmental impacts and human rights abuses?

They loudly promote electric vehicles and a total transformation of the U.S. energy system and economy. But they say nothing about acquiring the raw materials and equipment essential for turning these dreams into reality. They are silent about the land destruction, air and water pollution, wildlife losses, human diseases and deaths, and eco-imperialism that their policies impose, especially on people of color.

They are mute about the ways their “climate protection” racket would allow China, Russia and other thuggish regimes to pursue their territorial ambitions – and give them unprecedented control over the Western World’s energy, jobs, economies, living standards, foreign policies and national security.

They make no attempt to calculate how many wind turbines, solar panels, vehicle and backup battery modules, transformers and transmission lines would be needed in a fossil-fuel-free, all-electricity nation. How many acres of wildlife habitat would be disrupted or destroyed. How many new mines would have to be opened. How many birds, bats and other animals would be killed. How many trillions of tons of ores and overburden would have to be blasted away and processed. Or how many huge landfills we’ll need for all the worn-out turbines, blades, panels and batteries. They certainly don’t discuss how much our living standards, personal choices and basic freedoms would be reduced in their “clean energy” America.

They don’t ask because they don’t want to know – and don’t want us to even think about these issues.

Putin’s Ukraine war has opened eyes about NATO, disarmament and Europe’s feckless reliance on Russian natural gas. We need equal realism about America’s climate and energy policies – and how far America’s ruling elites would take us down the path to ruin, to achieve their Green Utopia.

Paul Driessen is senior policy advisor for the Committee For A Constructive Tomorrow (www.CFACT.org) and author of articles and books on energy, climate change, human rights and environmental issues.

Contact me: pkdriessen@gmail.com