“We are deeply concerned about the implications of this directive [for DOE to quantify the CO2-intensity of domestic versus foreign goods]. While framed as a study, the structure and scope closely mirror the foundational work required to implement a U.S. carbon tax. Given your well-known opposition to carbon taxes and related schemes, we wanted to ensure you were fully aware of this provision and its potential trajectory.” (AEA Coalition Letter to DOE Secretary Chris Wright, below)

Trump 2 has represented a new era of energy consumerism against the termite aspirations of the Progressive Left. A recent compilation by the Institute for Energy Research lists 263 executive actions in this regard.

But the CO2 tax crowd lurks and can occasionally sneak one through. This occurred recently with a backdoor inclusion of an opening gambit toward an U.S.-side…

“The siren song of inexpensive nuclear power continues into its seventh decade. Taxpayer and ratepayers beware.”

Commercial nuclear power has turned into the welfare energy de jure. It is politically correct despite many decades of failure to compete against other forms of thermal energy. Uranium might be the ultimate energy density-wise, but nuclear fission (and more so nuclear fusion) is the most complicated, expensive, fraught way to boil water.

Commercial nuclear power was government-created in the 1950s and remains government dependent today. (Stay tuned: my primer on the history of this energy source is forthcoming. [1]). Regarding the present, consider this example from Jamie Smyth, editor of US Energy, who wrote:

Nuclear technology company Oklo has no revenues, no licence to operate reactors and no binding contracts to supply power.

“… my passion for bettering human lives via improved access to energy is unwavering.” (- Chris Wright, below)

It is a topsy-turvy new energy world where reality bats last. With the physics of energy overcoming the ‘magical thinking’ of renewables and deep decarbonization, and with a push in the U.S. under Trump, the Paris Accord (‘a fraud really, a fake‘) is going the way of the Kyoto Protocol. The forced smiles of Climate Week in New York City last month will be harder to maintain at COP 30 in Brazil. Perhaps it will be the last one as more and more countries exit, just as businesses have from the decarbonization alliances.

The new reality and politics has a central world figure in Donald Trump. But behind Trump is the Secretary of the U.S.…

This year, European nations announced plans to pursue artificial intelligence. National leaders announced AI spending goals totaling hundreds of billions of euros in efforts to catch up to the United States. But AI requires huge amounts of electrical power, conflicting with Europe’s commitment to achieve a Net Zero power grid.

Since ChatGPT released their AI chatbot in November of 2022, artificial intelligence has exploded. In only two years, the AI revolution became the driving force in the US high-tech industry. Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, and other firms will spend over $100 billion this year building and upgrading data centers to run AI. Nvidia, the dominant supplier of AI graphics processor units (GPUs), became the most valuable company in the world, its market capitalization soaring from $300 billion to $4.3 trillion in less than three years.…