“The PTC is the single most expensive energy subsidy in the federal tax code and is estimated to cost taxpayers about $40 billion from 2018 to 2027.” (IER, January 5, 2021)

“Special government favor to business–crony capitalism–can turn losers into winners. And the loser lobby can claim progress and even inevitability as if they really won. This is the postmodernism of energy policy today in regard to the two politically correct renewables: wind and (on-grid) solar.”

It does not end. What is not competitive and government dependent just continues that way. This is not only because the market picks winners and leaves the losers for politics. It is also because the market-driven, non-subsidized technology improves over time.

Recently, wind power federal Production Tax Credit received its 13th extension. Reported IER:

The U.S.

“Overall, Democrats have softened some of the rhetoric they think may have alienated voters in the Biden years — on climate and gender issues in particular….” – David Wallace-Wells, New York Times (October 14, 2026)

It’s election season. A major issue is high energy prices. “Climate change” is way down the concern list, knowing that climate mitigation (anti-fossil-fuel) policies increase prices. Thus, the green hushing continues.

Climate messaging is a mess–and in a funk (see Appendix below). The leading critic of green hushing, Joe Romm, committed suicide to escape the issue. “The problem is not denial nor this strawman description of ‘climate messaging’ that no one I know actually does— and I’ve been doing this for three decades,” he complained.

The problems are 1) the biggest disinformation campaign in human history, 2) which is amplified by every major social media site and 3) which combined outspend the money disseminating any of the climate messaging by 20x to 100x.

This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. Droz is also the author of the popular Substack Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues.

Unreliables (General):
*** Grid Instability
Geopolitical Reality Has Ended the Rush to Renewables
The Renewable Data Center Fantasy
New York’s New Solar Religion is Absolutely Devastating to Wildlife, Farmland

Nuclear Energy:
America is Watching the World’s Movement to Nuclear Power Generation
Billion-dollar machine aims to set a fusion-energy record — and study nuclear weapons

Fossil Fuel Energy:
*** Trump announces ‘biggest oil deal in world history,’ says it will substantially lower gas prices
*** Why Gasoline Costs More in Democratic-Controlled States
Trump administration to pay German firm to halt US wind projects – and ‘re-invest’ in gas schemes
Yes, Coal Clearly Has A Future

Electric Vehicles (EVs):
They were told to park outside – then their cars burst into flames

Miscellaneous Energy News:
*** Shockingly vulnerable US power grid could result in 18-month nationwide blackout, expert warns
*** Energy War: Iran, China, AI and the fight to control the future
*** A sort talk: Meredith Angwin and the Two Grids in the Hudson Valley
Battery System Capital & Operating Costs, Energy Losses and Aging
Hydrogen: Not Market Ready

Manmade Global Warming — Miscellaneous:
*** Climate ‘Experts’ Are 0-54 with Their Doomsday Predictions
*** Climatologist Says a Century of Weather Data Contradicts Claims of Record Heat
*** Net Zero Won’t Fix Climate Change.…

“Wrong, Roger Hallam. Weather is not climate change. Your professors at Kings College–did any question climate models and explain the benefits of CO2 enrichment and, yes, of warmer temperatures (think winters and nights)?”

The Climate Industrial Complex, the companies and their nonprofit allies, are flexing toward the middle. It is all about money and power, less about real human welfare re “saving the planet.’

This inconvenient truth has the true believers upset. Consider the latest from Roger Hallam, co-founder of Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil, where he works full-time:

Another disastrously pathetic response from “environmental campaigners” – who cares about the bloody “green new deal”. What needs to be communicated is that unless there is a drastic reduction in emissions – and that means including zero car emissions by 2030 – Europeans are going to starve to death.