February 04, 2024

Face It: The Energy Transition Ain't Happening

February 04, 2024/ Francis Menton

If you are at all interested in matters of climate and energy, you have probably read hundreds of articles over the past few years about the inevitability of the coming energy transition.
A piece of the claimed inevitability is that all good and decent people support this transition as a matter of moral urgency; but it’s not just that. Nor is it just that government backs the transition with all its coercive powers, from subsidies to mandates to regulations.
No, most importantly, the transition is said to have become inevitable due to unstoppable economic forces. Wind and solar are now the least expensive ways to generate electricity! Electric vehicles are superior and are taking over the market! And the legacy fossil fuel producers who refuse to change their ways are seeing their huge investments become “stranded assets” that can no longer compete in the new world and must be written off!
Well, look to Manhattan Contrarian as your go-to source for news on how this supposed energy transition is going.

February 02, 2024

Trial Of Mann v. Steyn, Part III: More On Damages; Simberg And Steyn's First Witness

February 02, 2024/ Francis Menton

Readers seem to be enjoying my posts on the Mann v. Steyn trial, so I’m going to continue with one more today.
Meanwhile, the court does not hold trials on Fridays, so the proceeding has recessed for the weekend, to resume Monday morning.
It’s likely that the trial will get very interesting next week, as the defendants present the heart of their case and as things wrap up. In the interim, I’ll provide some comments on the events yesterday, which was the 11th day of the trial.

January 31, 2024

January 31, 2024/ Francis Menton

The Mann v. Steyn trial in the Superior Court of the District of Columbia is now in the middle of its third week. For more background on the case, see my post from a few days ago here.
I have been watching some substantial chunks of the trial on the court’s livestream, although unfortunately several other matters have prevented me from watching the entirety. Today at the lunch break, the plaintiff Michael Mann concluded the presentation of his case. The technical term is that the plaintiff “rested.” So I thought a short update would be timely.
Because I haven’t seen the whole thing, I’ll just cover some aspects that I find interesting.

January 27, 2024

January 27, 2024/ Francis Menton

Way back in October 2012, climate alarmist and activist Michael Mann brought a libel suit against Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg for allegedly defamatory blog posts that the two had written a few months previously.
The case has gone through an incredible history of procedural twists and turns since then, a few of which I have covered in prior blog posts, for example here on March 20, 2014, and here on March 26, 2021. The trial finally started on January 16.
Probably most readers here are familiar with the case to at least some degree, and many may even be following the trial. (The court has a live feed available to the public. Follow this link at WattsUpWithThat if you want to tune in during the coming week.). I have watched some substantial chunks of the trial during its first two weeks.
So what have they been talking about all that time without ever getting to the Hockey Stick?

January 23, 2024

January 23, 2024/ Francis Menton

Read any few articles of your choosing on the status of New York’s residential housing market, and you will quickly learn that it is in “crisis.” The vacancy rate is minuscule, the prices are astronomical, many apartments are small and/or in poor condition, and everyone with any kind of normal job is completely priced out.
The funny thing is that the “crisis” has existed ever since the onset of the post-World War II economic boom in the late 1940s, or in other words for some 75+ years. While other states and cities have let the markets sort out matters of housing supply and demand, our politicians have promised to use the magic of government edicts to deliver better solutions.
The “solutions” they have implemented are all one form or another of government central planning — price controls, subsidies, and mandates. A slight and gradual loosening of these restriction occurred during the several decades from the 80s to the 00s; but the last few years have seen a newly emboldened progressive-controlled state legislature re-imposing and tightening every restriction they can think of.

January 20, 2024

January 20, 2024/ Francis Menton

What will the death of the green energy illusion look like?
From time to time (see, for example, here and here) I have described a vision where some state or country runs headlong into a “green energy wall” — an impassable barricade of physical impossibility, characterized by scarcity and blackouts, into which the country crashes suddenly. Among the net zero zealot countries I have identified as the leading candidates for imminently hitting such a wall are Germany and the UK.
But perhaps, instead of a sudden crash, the demise of the green energy illusion will look more like a slow but steady decline, a gradual withering of economic activity and prosperity.
In this scenario, high energy prices brought about by energy restrictions drive important industries out of business and, as good jobs disappear and energy prices increase, the people gradually and inexorably get poorer.
Recent events in the UK and Germany seem to point in the direction of this type of scenario.