"The West has surrendered wise policy—or even simply non-suicidal policy—in favor of allegiance to pipe dreams. Then we wonder just why reality seems to keep collapsing in on us like an abandoned house."
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President Biden is Right. America Needs Meaningful Permitting Reform
In a few short months, the United States will have a new Congress. Their top priority should be permitting reform.
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The United States and Canada Share Critical Minerals Goals, but Different Critical Minerals
"Consider a situation where a Canadian copper producer sought to benefit from the laws, but would be barred from doing so because of the divergent lists. This could create a significant diplomatic challenge and a nasty trade dispute. Perhaps more importantly, such a challenge would undermine the West’s shared strategy to develop a secure, responsible clean energy supply chain."
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The Boring Truth About Nuclear Waste
"The current generation of nuclear power reactors in the United States runs on uranium, formed into a ceramic somewhat like the material that makes up a coffee mug. The ceramic comes in the form of pellets about the size of a pencil eraser, and these are stacked in long, thin tubes. The tubes are bundled together into fuel assemblies that are up to 15 feet long and weigh about 1,000 pounds each. When they are new, they are barely radioactive, and technicians can handle them wearing cotton gloves."
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America needs the nuclear option to keep our homes warm – and to fight climate change
Kevin D. Williamson writes about the importance of nuclear power in USA Today. “Nuclear power is not going to replace diesel, gasoline, or bunker fuel in the foreseeable future, and so it is not going to eliminate the pollution or the greenhouse-gas emissions related to transportation, which is a big piece of the climate picture....
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Single-use coffee pods have surprising environmental benefits over other brewing methods
Allyson Chiu of The Washington Post reports on a new study from the University of Quebec on single-use coffee pods. “Packaging accounts for a much smaller share, the data shows. Here’s the math for pods: Manufacturing them and sending the used ones to a landfill generates about 33 grams of CO2 equivalent. Producing 11 grams...
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Biden’s Green-Energy Mineral Lockup
The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board writes about Biden’s nonsensical regulatory policies. “Wouldn’t it be better for American workers and the environment to mine these minerals in the U.S.? At least the Administration is consistent on one point: It wants to keep all U.S. natural resources that could be strategic energy assets in the ground.”...
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How Ranching And Solar Co-Exist In Texas
"Unlike a standard oil and gas lease, which typically comes with a 3 to 5-year term during which a successful well may or may not be drilled, this solar lease comes with a 35-year term that includes a certain stream of annual income. It won’t make the rancher fabulously wealthy overnight like an oil gusher can, but then, oil gushers have never been a feature of this particular part of the vast Texas landscape."
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DOE to offer $2.5B for carbon capture projects at power plants, industrial sites
"The program focuses on projects that can be replicated at power plants and major industrial sources of carbon emissions, such as cement, pulp and paper, iron and steel plants, the department said."
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Critical-Mineral Diplomacy Needs to Focus on Supply, Not Demand
"The EU struggled politically to deal with competitive bidding among its member states first for vaccines during the Covid-19 pandemic, then for natural gas after Russia cut pipeline supplies last year. It understandably wants to avoid similar problems with new-energy metals. But high vaccine and gas prices caused by competitive bidding also generated results: Europe got vaccinated and gas inventories were refilled. Likewise, last year’s sky-high lithium prices triggered investment. Politicians dull price signals at their peril."
