The Trump Doctrine on Energy

Comment from Australia

If you go by the mainstream media's lockstep 'coverage' of the US president's first six months, he is no more nor less than a tweeting buffoon. A comforting narrative for cant-addicted newsroom hacks and groupthinkers, it handily avoids any and all mooting of Australia's need to follow his lead

Our federal and state politicians scuttle about looking for innovative new ways to strangle the Australian energy sector. But across the Pacific, America is unleashing a world-changing energy revolution. The world’s energy fundamentals are in transition. Donald Trump is liberating American coal, gas, oil and nuclear industries from eight years of Obama’s harassment and restrictions.

The consequences for us as a player in energy-export markets are dire. In an officially supportive environment, Australian energy could hold its share – intrinsically, it has  global competitiveness. But politics here involves ‘renewables’ targets and other sacrifices to please the climate gods,  bans  such as Victoria’s on normal and fracked gas exploration, official and green lawfare against every new energy project (think Adani), impromptu Turnbull restrictions on LNG exports, Sargasso seas of red tape, and  on-going fatwas against nuclear proposals.

Domestically, American industry will enjoy cheap energy inputs, while our own industry’s  energy becomes as expensive as anywhere in the world. This disparity will play out in Australian factory closures and capital flight to the US.

A banana republic couldn’t do a better job of destroying its own wealth.

The US is now estimated to have 20% more oil than the Saudis – at USD50 a barrel, a storehouse of USD $13 trillion. The US has been a net energy importer since 1953, but thanks to fracking is now likely to be a net exporter as early as 2020. American LNG could move into net export surplus as early as this year. By 2040, US natural gas exports alone could bring in USD $1.6 trillion, and generate USD $110b in wages. US gas reserves are also enough to meet domestic needs for a century. The American energy revolution – in Trump’s word, “dominance” –  seldom makes the mainstream media here, which is fixated on the schoolyard narrative of Trump as a tweeting buffoon.

Want to know what’s really important? Trump on June 29 addressed the Department of Energy’s “Unleashing Energy” conference in Washington.

His policy announcements were so shattering to the green/left ideology – he talked of “clean, beautiful coal” for example – that his message went almost unreported here. Trump said:


The golden era of American energy is now underway.  When it comes to the future of America’s energy needs, we will find it, we will dream it, and we will build it.

American energy will power our ships, our planes and our cities.  American hands will bend the steel and pour the concrete that brings this energy into our homes and that exports this incredible, newfound energy all around the world. And American grit will ensure that what we dream, and what we build, will truly be second to none.

Today, I am proudly announcing six brand-new initiatives to propel this new era of American energy dominance.

First, we will begin to revive and expand our nuclear energy sector   which produces clean, renewable and emissions-free energy.  A complete review of U.S. nuclear energy policy will help us find new ways to revitalize this crucial energy resource.  [US nuclear plants have been shuttering because of cheap gas and low power demand].

Second, the Department of the Treasury will address barriers to the financing of highly efficient, overseas coal energy plants.  Ukraine already tells us they need millions and millions of metric tons right now.  There are many other places that need it, too.  And we want to sell it to them, and to everyone else all over the globe who need it. [Geo-strategically, US coal and LNG could weaken Russian energy hegemony in Europe. Cheniere Energy  has just delivered the first U.S. cargoes of LNG to Poland and the Netherlands].

Third, my administration has just approved the construction of a new petroleum pipeline to Mexico, which will further boost American energy exports. [This New Burgos Pipeline will deliver up to 180,000 barrels a day. The US is Mexico’s main petroleum supplier.]

Fourth, just today, a major U.S. company, Sempra Energy, signed an agreement to begin negotiations for the sale of more American natural gas to South Korea.

Fifth, the United States Department of Energy is announcing today that it will approve two long-term applications to export additional natural gas from the Lake Charles LNG terminal in Louisiana.  It’s going to be a big deal.  [Currently the US exports LNG only through Sabine Pass, Louisiana, but four other terminals should come on line between 2018 and 2020, competing with Australia, Qatar and Russia].

Finally, to unlock more energy from the 94 percent of offshore land closed to development, we’re opening it up, the right areas. Under the previous administration, so much of our land was closed to development.   – we’re creating a new offshore oil and gas leasing program.  America will be allowed to access the vast energy wealth located right off our shores.  And this is all just the beginning — believe me.


Is Trump merely rhapsodising? No way. His energy track record in his first half-year — again, carefully ignored by Australia’s mainstream media — speaks for itself.

The Environmental Protection Agency was ordered to dump Obama’s “Clean Power Plan” designed to bump up household electricity rates by 14%

The long-frustrated Keystone pipeline from Alberta to Illinois/Texas got fast-tracked approval

Obama’s ban on new coal leasing on federal land was revoked  – these lands involve 40% of US coal production.

The US has dumped its Paris Climate commitments, which Trump says will save taxpayers USD3 trillion, and protect 6.5m US industrial jobs. “Maybe we’ll be back into it someday, but it will be on better terms,” he said last week

Hundreds of thousands of hours of red-tape energy regulations – including on fracking -  were abolished.

Trump spelt out his energy philosophy. “With [our] incredible resources, my administration will seek not only American energy independence that we’ve been looking for so long, but American energy dominance.

“And we’re going to be an exporter — exporter!” he promised. “We will export American energy all over the world, all around the globe.  These energy exports will create countless jobs for our people, and provide true energy security to our friends, partners, and allies all across the globe.”

Unlocking energy would generate millions of jobs and trillions in wealth, he said.  For over 40 years, America was vulnerable to foreign regimes using energy as an economic weapon. Americans’ quality of life was diminished by the idea that energy resources were scarce.

 Many of us remember the long gas lines and the constant claims that the world was running out of oil and natural gas.  

Americans were told that our nation could only solve this energy crisis by imposing draconian restrictions on energy production.  But we now know that was all a big, beautiful myth.  It was fake.   The truth is that we have near-limitless supplies of energy in our country.  Powered by new innovation and technology, we are now on the cusp of a true energy revolution.

We have nearly 100 years’ worth of natural gas and more than 250 years’ worth of clean, beautiful coal.  We are a top producer of petroleum and the number-one producer of natural gas.  We don’t want to let other countries take away our sovereignty and tell us what to do and how to do it.  That’s not going to happen.

But this full potential can only be realized when government promotes energy development instead of obstructing it like the Democrats.   We have to get out and do our job better and faster than anybody in the world.  This vast energy wealth does not belong to the government.  It belongs to the people of the United States of America.   Yet, for the past eight years, the federal government imposed massive job-killing barriers to American energy development.

Job-killing [Obama] regulations are being removed. I’m dramatically reducing restrictions on the development of natural gas.  I cancelled the moratorium on a new coal leasing on federal lands.

We have finally ended the war on coal.  And I am proud to report that Corsa Coal  just opened a brand-new coal mine in the state of Pennsylvania, the first one in many, many, many years

We’re ending intrusive EPA regulations that kill jobs, hurt family farmers and ranchers, and raise the price of energy so quickly and so substantially.

From all this are two take-home messages: in the US, you ain’t seen nothing yet. And for Australia, we can either change tack on energy madness or fall under the wheels of the US juggernaut.

SOURCE




Al Gore's Inconvenient Sequel

The former vice president, flush with cash from Al Jazeera, has returned with part two of his climate screed

Guess who’s recycling his apocalyptic fear-mongering that occupants of planet Earth are facing an existential crisis? Guess who just recently proclaimed that “every day now, millions more are awakening to the realization that it is wrong to destroy the future of the human race”?

Yep, he’s back! Al Gore has found a convenient opening to climb the heap of hype — to stand proudly atop the mass of hysteria rife with failed predictions and hyperbole of historic and hysterical proportions. The former vice president, flush with cash from his sale of Current TV to Al Jazeera, has returned with part two of his inconvenient movie. This one’s called “An Inconvenient Sequel: Truth to Power” and it begins July 28.

Clearly, it’s at least in part meant to scare folks in countries with economies that use fossil fuels into immediately reversing course and abandoning productivity outside the heavily government-subsidized world of “renewable energy.”

The propaganda flick had to undergo last-minute edits to capture the “reckless” actions of President Donald Trump, who recently exited the Paris Climate Accord, which was rigged against America so our economy would foot the climate bill for the Third World.

Gore blasts Trump’s America First approach as “indefensible.” The climate czar attempts to compare the Paris pollution proclamation to the famed Marshall Plan that rebuilt Europe after Hitler’s reign of terror in World War II. But, laughingly, Fox News’ Chris Wallace made the climate crisis king admit that the results of the Paris Accord would have little impact on climate change — that it was little more than “a powerful signal to the world.”

Meanwhile, Gore’s reappearance released excessive greenhouse gases as he moralized in a town hall hosted last week by SiriusXM/Variety. In the forum, the Tennessee Democrat, raised in the shadow of Capitol Hill with a dad who served either in the House or Senate from 1939 through 1971, repeated what has become one of his obnoxiously tired lines: “Every night on the network news is like a nature hike through the Book of Revelations.”

Well, his theology’s a bit off. The apocalyptic nature of the Book of Revelations reveals the end of days for a world that has rejected its Creator and Savior and will soon face its Judge. Yet knowing the crowd subscribing to global cooling global warming climate change will believe in the god of the environment, Gore preached hellfire and damnation caused by the use of fossil fuels.

One thing is certain, as evidenced by Gore’s cultish movie trailer: There is a growing element on the Left that has turned the environment into a religion. Communicating much more than a powerful signal to the world, these ecofascists paint a dire portrait of calamity. The trailer features flash images of natural disasters like storms and floods, while Gore thunders in apocalyptic preaching style about the need to save our planet from ourselves. The narration leaves no doubt about the intent to marginalize those who don’t bow down to Mother Earth.

“This is not so much a political issue so much as a moral issue,” sermonizes Gore. Let’s see. The weather was at some point a scientific issue. However, it has been turned into a political bludgeon and litmus test on the Left and now, look — it’s a moral issue.

The sequel’s release, complete with a paired book, places a familiar face of the Democrat Party back on center stage. Gore’s sanctimonious sermonettes are earning him some glances from Democrats scouring the bleak wilderness for future presidential candidates. His harsh words directed at the Trump administration add fuel to the fire. Oh, we mean blow wind through those windmills.

At the Variety town hall, Bill Clinton’s VP editorialized that Trump “has surrounded himself with a rogue’s gallery of climate deniers, and they are doing their best to dismantle the Environmental Protection Agency.” Worse, he said, “They seem to be on a search-and-destroy mission in the budget” when it comes to “anything that promotes good climate policy.”

So after 17 years of being a “recovering politician,” is Gore emerging as a candidate with a cause for 2020?

Well, he’s not disabusing anyone of that notion with remarks like these: “We are in the middle of a clean energy revolution that no single person or group can stop. President Trump’s decision is profoundly in conflict with what the majority of Americans want from our president; but no matter what he does, we will ensure that our inevitable transition to a clean energy economy continues.” Remember that without the billions of taxpayer-funded subsidies, this clean energy economy would be flat broke.

Average people agree that we should be good stewards of our lands and resources. Average people refer to climate change as the weather and seem to recall teachings from grade school that the Ice Age and other dramatic changes of climate occurred before the combustible engine. Average people tend to agree with President Ronald Reagan: “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”

SOURCE




From Russia with love

Printus LeBlanc outlines Russian funding to Greenies and the Democrats

The Chairman of the House Committee on Science Space and Technology, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tex.) and Chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy Rep. Randy Weber (R-Tex.), recently sent a letter to the Secretary of Treasury Steve Mnuchin asking for an investigation into Russia meddling. I know what you're thinking, not another Russia investigation. The investigation is likely to lead to a place the left and environmental groups don't want to go.

Senator John McCain famously stated, "Russia is a gas station masquerading as a country." Looking at the data, this could not be truer. Right now, Europe is dependent upon Russia for its energy needs. Over 35 percent of oil in Europe comes from Russia, while the Russian state owned Gazprom supplies about one-third of European natural gas needs.

Europe began looking at alternatives to Russia at the same time the energy renaissance was taking hold in the US. Flush with cash, environmental groups then began an all-out assault on the energy sector. Attempting to ban fracking in the US and Europe, while also fighting the construction of liquified natural gas terminals (LNG).

LNG terminals are used to ship natural gas to European and Asian ports, softening the grip Russia has on Europe. Sounds like a good idea, right. Democrats and the left are screaming about Russian influence, so this should be a no brainer, but for some reason it's not.

This all starts with a man named Nicholas Hoskins. According to Business Insider, "Nicholas Hoskins, is a director at a hedge fund management firm that has invested heavily in Russian oil and gas. He is also senior counsel at the Bermudan law firm Wakefield Quin and the vice president of a London-based investment firm whose president until recently chaired the board of the state-owned Russian oil company Rosneft….In addition to those roles, Hoskins is a director at a company called Klein Ltd."

Klein Ltd. gave tens of millions of dollars to a group based out of California called the Sea Change Foundation. No one knows where Klein Ltd. acquired the money because it is based out of Bermuda. What we do know is that Klein Ltd. is run by the law firm Wakefield Quin, where Nicholas Hoskins is a senior counsel.

An investigative report titled "From Russia With Love: Examining the links between US environmental funder and the Kremlin", found Hoskins was also in a directorship position with IPOC International Growth Fund. The group was owned by Russian Minister of Telecommunications and Putin friend, Leonid Reiman. The company was convicted of money laundering in the British Virgin Islands.

In the 2014 the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works released a Minority Staff Report, "The Chain of Environmental Command." In it the Senate describes Klein Ltd, "It appears that Klein exists on paper only as it does not have an internet presence, and was set up for the sole purpose of funneling anonymous donations to Sea Change."

The Sea Change Foundation then gave millions to several high profile environmental groups. The Natural Resource Defense Council, League of Conservation Voters, and the Sierra Club are just a few that received grant money from Sea Change.

What is perhaps most astonishing in all of this, is the role Hillary Clinton played. The former Presidential candidate, the one that is now railing against everything Russia, knew Russia was funding green groups that were backing the Democratic Party and trying to stop the US energy renaissance.

Wikileaks released the contents of a speech Hillary Clinton gave to a private audience, in which she stated, "We [the State Department and the U.S. government] were up against Russia pushing oligarchs and others to buy media. We were even up against phony environmental groups, and I'm a big environmentalist, but these were funded by the Russians to stand up against any effort, 'Oh that pipeline, that fracking, that whatever will be a problem for you,' and a lot of that money supporting that effort was coming from Russia."

It is important to note no one from the Hillary camp has denied she made the remarks.

The political arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the NRDC Action Fund, went so far as to endorse Hillary Clinton for President in 2016. The first endorsement the fund has ever made in a presidential election. The Sierra Club Political Action Committee, the political arm of the Sierra Club, also endorsed Hillary Clinton for President in 2016. The League of Conservation Voters' political arm, LCV Action Fund, got in the race early, and endorsed Clinton in 2015.

Does anyone else find it strange the political action funds of groups that received money tied to Russia supported one presidential candidate and overwhelmingly one party? Who really has close ties to Russia?

US energy dominance threatens the ability of Russia to extort foreign policy goals. If Congress is to investigate Russian meddling, it should start here. Russia used the left to harm US energy security, and keep the energy weapon pointed at Europe.

SOURCE





72.8% Of World’s Renewable Energy Is Made By Burning Wood & Dung

The hysteria over solar and wind power as the only feasible source of future ‘renewable’ energy flies in the face of the facts. Wood and animal feces are both renewable, and account for almost 73% of the world’s renewable energy, but you never hear about planting more trees. Of course, the Technocrats cannot control wood or feces as energy, so it is completely ignored.

Renewable energy advocates have claimed for decades that solar and wind power are the future—and the future is right around the corner.

Some boldly state that the world could be powered by renewable energy sources as early as 2030, given the exponential growth of solar and wind electrical capacity.

And of course, the mainstream media plays up the importance of solar and wind energy in defeating the scarecrow that is climate change.

While there’s no doubt that wind and solar energy capacity has grown rapidly over the last three decades—wind power’s grown by an average of 24.3% per year since 1990, while solar’s grown by 46.2% per year over the same period—does it really matter?

Are renewable energy sources making a difference? What is the current state of renewable energy, and its future?

No. Renewable energy is irrelevant, and will remain irrelevant for the foreseeable future—wind and solar energy are simply inferior to fossil fuels and nuclear power.

Period.

SOURCE





Australia: More than 68,000 people risk having their power cut as electricity prices skyrocket - forcing the government to step in with emergency financial help

Australia used to have some of the cheapest power in the world -- until the Greenies got involved

Tens of thousands of Australians are at risk of having their power cut off as they are unable to afford their bills.

A report by the Daily Telegraph has revealed 68,400 residents across New South Wales are set to lose their electricity as energy bills continue to skyrocket.

The state government are having to step in with emergency funds, with Western Sydney suburbs the hardest hit.

New South Wales homes pay more for power bills than any developed nation in the world.

The Energy Accounts Payments Assistance was implemented in 2012 as a measure to prevent an eletricity bill crisis, with each home to receive $50 in vouchers towards their energy bill. The new report suggests the average household needs five vouchers.

The suburb of Campbelltown is in need of the most help, with an estimated 1,619 homes needing financial assistance to continue their access to electricity.

The government are setting aside $404,750 for Campbelltown alone.

Auburn is not far behind, with 1,270 families needing assistance at a cost of $317,650.

The report estimates Blacktown and Bankstown are the next suburbs with the most risk with 1191 and 1156 homes in trouble respectively.

Western Sydney suburbs have been the worst effected because of the large number of fibro homes combined with uncommonly low winter temperatures.

Don Harwin, the NSW Energy Minister, has approached the Independent Pricing and Regulatory Tribunal over the crisis to ask whether the continually increasing prices are the result of a fair and balanced market.

'We are concerned about national energy rises and we are pushing our federal counterparts hard to ensure there is a sensible plan to fix the broken national energy market,' Mr Harwin told the Telegraph.

SOURCE

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