November 02, 2024

Big Energy Policy Mistake: "All Of The Above"

November 02, 2024/ Francis Menton

In a post on October 23, I noted that, during this election cycle, “energy realism” has suddenly become a positive electoral issue for Republicans.
The positive electoral effect comes from pointing out that a forced energy transition increases consumer costs, limits choice, and destroys jobs. Examples cited included President Trump’s use in his campaign in Michigan of the Biden-Harris regulations restricting combustion vehicles, and his use in Pennsylvania of Harris statements that she would ban fracking.
But there is another approach out there to the subject of energy realism, which has been taken up by many Republican candidates and energy think tanks. That approach goes by the name “all of the above.”

October 20, 2024

The Ongoing Erosion Of Welfare Reform In New York

October 20, 2024/ Francis Menton

When I started this blog back in 2012, we were just coming to the end of 20 years of Republican, or quasi-Republican, New York City mayors (Giuliani and Bloomberg), who also had support from a newly-Republican Congress elected in 1994.
One of the great triumphs of that era was welfare reform. The new Republican Congress made reform of welfare a priority, and after their first efforts were vetoed by President Clinton, in August 1996 he signed a compromise bill called the Personal Responsibility and Work Reconciliation Act. Among the reforms contained in that Act were time limits and work requirements for welfare recipients.
It’s now nearly 11 years since Bloomberg left office, and the goal of minimizing welfare dependency is long gone and forgotten.

January 16, 2023

January 16, 2023/ Jane Menton

Though the [nursing] strike has since ended, my thought when I read the headlines was: Here is a legitimate concern: For years, there has been a looming shortage of healthcare workers, and of nurses specifically.
It is possible, maybe even likely, that the nursing union might exaggerate claims of a looming staffing shortage in order to strengthen its negotiating positions.
However, I maintain that we have enough social indicators from Gen Z and Millenials – that is, people in the 20-45 age range – to wonder what might happen if there comes a time when there are not enough people willing to work in industries that require difficult physical labor or emotional hardship.

November 18, 2022

November 18, 2022/ Francis Menton

Crypto exchange FTX has now imploded, and it’s turning out to be nothing more than your classic Ponzi scheme — cash in, cash out, and essentially no underlying business.
The collapse came after the leader and face of the enterprise, Sam Bankman-Fried (SBF), had made himself the second largest donor to the Democratic Party in the just-ended election cycle. SBF’s donations totaled some $70 million or so, apparently consisting almost entirely of money stolen from unsuspecting clients.
Andrew Stiles, writing at the Washington Free Beacon on November 15, has some fun with the recent revelations in a piece titled “Sam Bankman-Fried Is Not Alone: Some of History’s Greatest Monsters Were Democratic Megadonors.” The sub-head is “Disgraced crypto guru continues a storied tradition.”
Stiles compiles a short list of some of the greatest names among the biggest donor/crook/predators in the Democratic Party firmament: Harvey Weinstein, Jeffrey Epstein, Ed Buck, and Bernie Madoff.
I have only one quibble with Stiles: Why stop there?

May 26, 2022

May 26, 2022/ Francis Menton

As I’ve been pointing out now for a couple of years, the obvious gap in the plans of our betters for a carbon-free “net zero” energy future is the problem of massive-scale energy storage.
How exactly is New York City (for example) going to provide its citizens with power for a long and dark full-week period in the winter, with calm winds, long nights, and overcast days, after everyone has been required to change over to electric heat and electric cars — and all the electricity is supposed to come from the wind and sun, which are neither blowing nor shining for these extended periods?
Can someone please calculate how much energy storage will be needed to cover a worst-case solar/wind drought, what it will consist of, how long it has to last, how much it will cost, and whether it is economically feasible? Nearly all descriptions by advocates of the supposed path to “net zero” — including the ambitious plans of the states of New York and California — completely gloss over this issue and/or deal with it in a way demonstrating total incompetence and failure to comprehend the problem.
And then suddenly appeared in my inbox a couple of weeks ago a large Report with the title “The Future of Energy Storage: An Interdisciplinary MIT Study.”

May 06, 2022

May 06, 2022/ Francis Menton

My previous post on Tuesday contained some highlights from the May 3 public hearing of New York’s Climate Action Council. The CAC is the body that is charged with devising a “Scoping Plan” to inform all us New Yorkers how we will achieve “zero carbon” electricity by 2030 and a “zero carbon” economy by 2050. I attended the hearing for about two and a half hours, during which about 60 people spoke.
Reflecting on the hearing a few days later, I think there are a few more highlights that would interest the readers, and will give some more insights into the nature of progressive thinking.
So what are the things that do drive the thinking of these other 55 or so speakers, who apparently represent the large majority of New York City’s citizenry?