“The beauty of [a global carbon tax incentive fund] is that it penalises the richer nations for their profligate lifestyles, and it incentivises developing nations to avoid fossil fuels and to develop their energy infrastructure using low-carbon technologies.”

“… there needs to be a supplementary tax that penalises environmentally irresponsible governments such as Brazil’s, which seems to regard trashing the planet as a political accolade.”

Robin Russell-Jones, a dermatologist turned environmental activist, and currently chair of Help Rescue the Planet, has come clean on what is needed to phase-out fossil fuels. His article, “Will the Cop26 climate conference be a national embarrassment for Britain?” (The Guardian: September 7, 2020), advocates a massive global energy tax. And he advocates tax penalties (think global international trade tariffs) for the non-compliant.…

“Cal-ISO reported for August 14 … a sudden, unplanned 1,098-megawatt ‘forced’ loss of wind power on that day from the Alta Wind Energy Center in Tehachapi serving Southern California….”

“Cal-ISO formed a Western regional Energy Imbalancing Market in 2014 … to provide power during its daily ‘two-hour energy crisis’ at sunset when solar power cuts out (called the Duck Curve).”

Writing in Forbes magazine online, journalist Ken Silverstein claims that “Green Energy is Not Among the Culprits Behind California’s Energy Crisis”. Who is this author, and what is his logic and evidence?

Silverstein has written several non-fiction titles for Verso Books, a publishing house dedicated to radical leftism. He is one of the promulgators of the media myth that Enron caused the California Energy Crisis of 2001, notwithstanding the Enron officials who were convicted of accounting fraud.…

The first great requisite of motive power is, that it shall be wholly at our command, to be exerted when, and where, and in what degree we desire. The wind, for instance, as a direct motive power, is wholly inapplicable to a system of machine labour, for during a calm season the whole business of the country would be thrown out of gear.

– W. S. Jevons, The Coal Question (London: Macmillan, 1865), p. 122.

If only the legion of energy experts and specialists in the colleges and universities, U.S. Department of Energy labs, and environmentalist organizations understood William Stanley Jevons of the 19th century and Vaclav Smil today. If so, they would understand why:

• Renewable energy is failing at times of peak demand (see the Duck Curve post this week).

“To ensure we maintain this dominant position long into the future … my administration is announcing today that export authorizations for American liquefied natural gas can now be extended through the year 2050.”

“Today, I’m taking another bold action to support energy jobs in Texas. In a few moments, I will sign four critical permits, granting approval to vital pipeline and railway infrastructure on our nation’s border.”

Last week, President Trump got back on the energy trail (see previous energy-related talks here, here, here, here, and here) with a speech at Double Eagle Energy in Midland, Texas. Some highlights of his talk follow:

“Thanks to the hardworking citizens like you, the United States of America is now the number one energy superpower anywhere in the world. …