Big Labor Caves, Supports PA Gov’s Marcellus-Killing Carbon Tax
Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro traveled to Scranton, PA, in mid-March to announce a proposal to “immediately pull Pennsylvania out of a multi-state carbon cap-and-trade program” (the so-called Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI) and instead enroll PA in its very own RGGI-like carbon tax program (see PA Gov. Shapiro Proposes Own Version of Marcellus-Killing Carbon Tax). Same end result: Shapiro’s plan would kill Marcellus-fired power plants in the state, driving them to close and relocate to West Virginia and Ohio, states that don’t engage in the lunacy of taxing carbon emissions from power plants. Unfortunately, Shapiro’s offers of bribes, er, “investments” for Big Labor, were enough to keep Big Labor in the back pocket of the Democrat Party, supporting Shapiro’s terrible carbon tax.
Continue reading
In 2004, Pennsylvania implemented one of the most aggressive mandates to adopt wind and solar energy. At the time, less than 1% of net energy generation came from wind and solar in the Keystone State. In 2023, after the state had spent nearly $1.5 billion in subsidies, wind and solar generated less than 2%. And yet current Gov. Josh Shapiro (liberal Democrat) wants to double down by requiring 35% of electricity to come from politically favored sources, such as wind and solar, by 2035. The one energy source that has PROVEN to reduce carbon dioxide emissions? That would be natural gas, which is not on the politically favored sources list.
According to Scott Tinker, CEO of Tinker Energy Associates and director emeritus of the Texas Bureau of Economic Geology, lifting billions of people out of energy poverty while reducing emissions is possible. But only if we ask the right questions. Tinker spoke at CERAWeek last week in Houston. He also had some blunt words about renewables, calling the very notion of renewable energy “mythical” and not anchored in reality. He also said: “Natural gas will be here for a very long time. And there’s quite a bit of it.”
The Independent System Operator-New England (ISO-NE) is warning “blue states” in the northeast (states controlled by Democrats with an iron fist) that their strategy of pushing 100% renewables and eliminating fossil fuel energy has a fatal flaw. At the federal and state levels, elected Democrats are pushing hard to phase out fossil fuel-fired power infrastructure and replace it with sources of so-called “green” energy like wind and solar. Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont — the states that are served by ISO-NE — all have green energy mandates. And they are all in imminent danger of blackouts.
Whenever the government mandates which energy sources residents can and cannot use, residents lose. The government’s micromanaging of energy is a prescription for high prices and supply chain failures (i.e., blackouts). Yet leftists like Pennsylvania Rep. Danielle Friel Otten (a radical Democrat from the Philadelphia area) never seem to learn. She introduced a bill, House Bill (HB) 1467, that requires 30% of all electricity used in the state to come from unreliable renewables like wind and solar by the year 2030 — six short years from now. It is a prescription for massive failures in the power grid in the Keystone State.
It’s becoming increasingly apparent that there’s a whole bunch of people in our energy-climate discussion who just won’t accept what can only be described as obvious and undeniable facts. What are those facts? Fossil fuels supply 80% of the world’s energy and about 80% of the energy consumed in the U.S. Without fossil fuels, it would be impossible to build and maintain so-called renewable energy and electric vehicles. This is an indisputable fact. Yet the uninformed insist that we can dump the production of fossil fuels now if we only had the will. They are WRONG.
Norwegian company DNV operates as a quality assurance and risk management company. It offers supply chain, data management, technical assurance, software, and advisory services. DNV recently published its annual Energy Transition Outlook 2023 (copy below). DNV’s predictions are somewhat shocking. The company is a global warming Kool-Aid drinker, believing we’ll all toast if we don’t “transition” away from burning fossil energy by 2050. Yet DNV’s report shows that it thinks by 2050, the world will still generate roughly half of all energy used from fossil energy. Today, roughly 80% of all energy comes from fossil energy. The CEO of DNV says this about so-called renewable energy: “Globally, the energy transition has not started, if, by transition, we mean that clean energy replaces fossil energy in absolute terms.” The report says the so-called energy transition from fossil energy to renewables is “still at the starting blocks.” Sobering honesty from a leftist source.
Investors are voting with their money that unreliable renewables are not worth it. Investors dumped renewable energy funds from July through September at the fastest rate on record. Renewable shares “took a beating” from higher interest rates and soaring material costs, which are squeezing profit margins. In the six months from January through June, investors poured $3.36 billion into renewable shares. Investors took $1.4 billion (nearly half) out of renewables in the three months from July through September. That is the biggest-ever quarterly outflow. Investors are dropping renewables like a hot potato.
For years, we’ve seen the lie repeated by mainstream media, Big Green shills, and environmental lackeys that fossil energy gets big government subsidies. Let’s put that lie to bed right now. The Bidenistas, who operate the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA), very quietly issued a major new report in early August that shows green energy receives FAR MORE in the way government subsidies than does fossil energy. FAR MORE.
Every single week, we read stories in mainstream media (and in the fringe environmental media) that declare so-called renewables, namely solar and wind, are taking the world by storm. They’re replacing fossil fuels. The fat lady is just about ready to sing and bring down the curtain on fossil energy because wind and solar are taking over, baby. Except it’s all a lie! The editor of the Times Observer (in Warren, PA), The Post-Journal (in Jamestown, NY), and the OBSERVER (in Dunkirk, NY) penned a sobering column that points out wind and solar contribute roughly 2% of the electricity flowing to the grid in New York State, and not much more for the grid in Pennsylvania.
Let’s face it: Josh Shapiro has been a major disappointment as Governor of Pennsylvania. He promised the moon to voters–that he would be both pro-gas and anti-gas at the same time. Some believed him, but we didn’t. Each week, new information comes along that reveals Shapiro’s true nature as a radical leftist Democrat. Shapiro said during the campaign he didn’t like the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) carbon tax that forces coal- and gas-fired power plants to close (see 
We guarantee that if an oil and gas company announced it was in the process of drilling 90 boreholes 700 feet deep (through the groundwater table) to extract oil and gas in the bastion of liberalism known as Massachusetts, the leftist mainstream media would have a stroke. There would be protests. There would be nutballs gluing themselves together in plastic PVC pipe in front of the drilling rigs to prevent drilling. The news would make the front page of the Boston Globe, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and the LA Times. But if the same company drills 90 boreholes 700 feet deep and calls it “geothermal” … nothing. Not a peep from anyone. Even though geothermal pipes that run through the water table pump something far more dangerous than drilling mud. Bentonite (drilling mud) is the same stuff used in kitty litter and toothpaste. It’s completely non-toxic and safe if it leaks. On the other hand, geothermal systems pump antifreeze through pipes. Eversource, the largest utility company in Massachusetts, announced yesterday it is drilling 90 boreholes in Framingham, MA, and will pump dangerous antifreeze through it to heat local homes, businesses, and a community college. Where is the outrage?
Two days ago, we brought you the very sad news that New York State has fallen and is now under a Communist dictatorship (see 
Those who believe the world can force a transition to so-called renewable energy in the next 20-30 years and force the world to stop using fossil energy are delusional. Among them are the “leaders” of the G7 nations: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. The so-called forced energy transition is, says energy expert David Blackmon, “one of the biggest policy gambles in world history.” The G7 are all betting the farm on the proposition that they can force fossil fuels out of business and replace them with “rent-seeking” solar, wind, EVs, and hydrogen.