And the government has not even started taxing the electricity used to rum electric vehicles like they do gasoline.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/80988

I like how we are not allowed to question scientists who extrapolate relatively minor temperature changes to predict the end of humanity and civilization, but we’re not allowed to “extrapolate” years of data to reach an obvious conclusion. Reuters is full of hot air.

Bloomberg data shows next-day NatGas deliveries via the Iroquois Gas pipeline that transports Canadian NatGas into New York jumped to $164.80 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), a 14x increase from Wednesday prices. This is the highest print for NatGas at the New York hub dating back to 2003.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/79581

The country faces a “perfect storm of inflation, electricity cuts and corruption accusations that will continue to deteriorate South Africa’s profile and to pose risk for investments in the country

Rare earth minerals are used in numerous high-tech products, notably including “green energy” systems and electric vehicles (EV). Efforts by Western governments to forcibly transition their economies to wind turbines, solar power, and electric cars have dramatically increased the demand for these minerals and China is the dominant supplier.

When all these costs are added up, we see that solar is much more expensive than using Mississippi’s existing natural gas, coal, or nuclear power plants. Therefore, the Mississippi Public Service Commissioners should protect ratepayers from the unnecessary cost increases that will inevitably result from building more solar facilities in the Magnolia state.

Millions of people were left without drinking water as electric-powered pumps failed. While some schools and hospitals were able to turn to backup generators, many were left without power entirely throughout the day. Pakistani authorities went as far as deploying additional police at markets around the country as the sun went down, for extra security in the darkness.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/78264

One of the key pillars keeping the dollar in place as the world reserve is its petro-status, and this factor is often held up as the reason why the Greenback cannot fail. The other argument is that the dollar is backed by the full force of the US military, and the US military is backed by the US Treasury and the Federal Reserve – In other words, the dollar is backed by…the dollar; it’s a very circular and naive position.

Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the Biden administration, which has consistently blamed soaring energy prices on “Putin’s price hike” while not backing policies to support greater domestic oil production, announced a 30-million-barrel release and another 180-million-barrel release in March 2022.

SPR levels have fallen to just over 400 million barrels under Biden, down about 40 percent from its usual reserve levels and the lowest since 1984.

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/50594

Twenty-five years ago this month, Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova formed the GUAM consultative forum to counter Russian efforts to keep them within Moscow’s orbit via the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and to promote their own integration with the democratic West.

Putin’s war in Ukraine has done even more to boost the importance of GUAM for its members; increase the interest of others, especially Turkey; and alarm Moscow with the prospect that a group mostly devoted to democratization and economic cooperation will now take on a security dimension as well.