What we didn’t see reported was the actual progress made during the sessions (or outside the sessions). An important event quietly brought together the leaders of Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia, and South Africa, along with bipartisan leadership from Congress, and philanthropists representing the Walton Family to the Bezos Earth Fund, all around a central theme of conservation and international cooperation.
“The West does not need to develop a home-grown substitute for the entire Chinese rare-earth industry to reduce the threat China’s monopoly poses,” the Economist article concluded. Indeed, “the West could ‘significantly derisk’ by cutting its reliance on China to 60-70 percent of consumption. That would provide sufficient alternative supply for the most critical uses.”
When world leaders fly into New York City (just think of the CO2 emissions from all the flights!) to hobnob at the annual UN General Assembly, they think and act as many leaders often do: they are seeking top-down solutions to global problems. They will tell us what to do. If we balk, they will offer to pay us to do it. If we do it, then problem(s) solved.
This brings us to a recent Tweet by Energy Secretary Chris Wright. “Even if you wrapped the entire planet in a solar panel, you would only be producing 20% of global energy. One of the biggest mistakes politicians can make is equating the ELECTRICITY with ENERGY!”
Tom Friedman, opinion columnist at the New York Times, recently complained that Trump’s tax bill “quickly phases out tax credits enjoyed by utility-scale solar and wind, as well as electric vehicle tax credits.” Well, yes. That’s the point. Instead of the federal government handing out subsidies and selecting winners and losers, we will allow consumers to drive the energy future.
During his 2024 campaign, President Trump frequently talked about the “liquid gold” under our American feet. He meant oil and natural gas reserves. We have fossil fuels in such abundance that we export energy to the rest of the world. It’s quite a change from the 1990s and 2000s when the U.S. was supposedly going...
Working with our allies is the best way to beat China and build a better, cleaner future.
Rarely has there been an entrepreneur who dedicated as much of his life to making the world a better place through principled public policy solutions and had such a lasting, positive impact on the world as Edwin J. Feulner, PhD., founder and longtime president of the Heritage Foundation.
Only the U.S. and China have the resources and the researchers to build effective artificial intelligence. That makes this a race for the future that we simply must win.
Last week, the world lost a great servant leader and policy entrepreneur, Edwin J. Feulner, PhD., founder and longtime president of The Heritage Foundation.
I had the honor of working closely with Ed from 2001 to 2005 as his Chief of Staff at The Heritage Foundation. He was my boss, then he was my mentor, and over the years he became my enduring and dear friend.
Help us promote free market solutions for climate change.
Thank you for signing up