“Plastic is light, easy to store and transport, comes in an endless variety of textures and shapes and can hold almost anything…. Unfortunately, plastic is much more difficult to recycle than materials like glass, aluminum or paper.” – Eureka! Recycling

The eco-snoops and lifestyle police don’t like plastic, the stuff of oil and gas. But the rest of the world lives by plastic–and benefits. The boom in feedstocks has produced a boom in plastic capacity. Reported Beth Gardiner for Yale Environmental 360 (December 19, 2019):

Companies like ExxonMobil, Shell, and Saudi Aramco are ramping up output of plastic — which is made from oil and gas, and their byproducts — to hedge against the possibility that a serious global response to climate change might reduce demand for their fuels, analysts say.

“Hyperbole toward the Paris Climate Accord, joining that of the Kyoto Protocol, is over. Dense, mineral energies are the wave of the future, while dilute, intermittent, earth-defacing renewables are in trouble. Dana Nuccitelli–are you listening?”

“The Paris agreement signals that deniers have lost the climate wars,” read the Guardian headline on December 14, 2015. The subtitle to Dana Nuccitelli’s piece: “195 world nations have agreed to ignore climate science denial and cut carbon pollution as much as possible.”

This, in fact, was the same hyperbole following the Kyoto Protocol more than two decades before. “We’ve bet on the future, while others have bet on the past,” proclaimed Enron lobbyist John Palmisano from Kyoto, Japan in late 1997.

But the Paris Climate Accord would be different. “In stark contrast to the shortcomings of previous international climate negotiations,” Nuccitelli’s article begins, “the Paris COP21 talks have ended with an agreement stronger than most expected.”…

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy,  environmental and education policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science (please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every two± weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:
Wind and solar weaknesses: Part 1 and Part 2
Green Electricity Delusions
Allam Cycle carbon capture gas plants: 11% more efficient, all CO2 captured
Covid-19 Crisis Will Only Intensify Global Dominance Of Fossil Fuels
Planet Of The Humans Documentary Removed From YouTube
Why Economic Slowdown Won’t Show Up in the Atmospheric CO2 Record
Climate change and a pandemic of lies
Study: State of the Climate – 2019
‘Nature Rights’ Advances to World Economic Forum

Greed Energy Economics:
Mexico Pulls The Plug On Renewables
Trump admin slaps solar, wind operators with retroactive rent bills
Turbine power plunges when tax credits go away
Short video: How bad are solar and wind?…

[Editor Note: On June 1, 2017, President Trump announced the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. On November 4, 2019, the U.S. formally notified the United Nations of its impending withdrawal, which will take effect in one year unless reversed.

Trump’s speech made a devastating case the Paris accord was futile in light of sovereign self-interest, discriminatory toward America, and inconsequential to global climate. Calling out the bad motives of the economic and industrial “obstructionists,” Trump’s speech was and always will be a free-market highlight.

“Thus, as of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris Accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country. This includes ending the implementation of the nationally determined contribution and, very importantly, the Green Climate Fund which is costing the United States a vast fortune.”