Best Energy Picks - January 18, 2025

Readers pass along a lot of stuff every week about natural gas, fractivist antics, emissions, renewables, and other news relating to energy.

This week’s best energy picks:

Trump Is Unpredictable and That’s His Strength in Dealing with Other Nations

This may be the best analysis of Trump and his impact on the world scene, including energy issues, you'll ever read:

Now that Trump is so comfortable that he is toying with Canada’s leaders like a cat does with a mouse, let’s look beyond those antics to try to imagine what the bigger game plan is here, beyond torturing JT’s tattered remains of a government. Don’t be one of the poor mugs that is taking all of Trump’s bombast at face value; there is no situation in which Canada becomes a US state, for example (in our present state, we’d be lucky if anyone lets us in their house, never mind marries us...

So Trump is doing some extraordinary things, that, believe it or not, can make sense if viewed in a certain way…ok that’s not a great way to put it because I’m not sure any of us can view the world the way DJT does. But he does give us clues aplenty, which makes it a bit easier.

First of all, we’ve seen him in political action before, 8 years ago, when he threw out so many screwball proposals that the world’s totalitarian regimes were paralyzed; they had no clue which way he would go next. Most of it was smoke and mirrors and arm-flapping, but it was foreseeable. We know this because Trump wrote a book, a long time ago, called ‘The Art of the Deal’ in which he laid a lot of this out…

And…his strategies work. Insulting? Sure. Abrasive? Absolutely? Effective? Yep. As of this past weekend, Axios did some quality reporting to suss out that Denmark had sent private messages to Trump’s team to express willingness to discuss an increased US military presence on the island. Greenland’s leader said he was open to talking to Trump as well, and pointed out that “Greenland is for the Greenlandic people. We do not want to be Danish, we do not want to be American. We want to be Greenlandic.” Which is where this will all come to rest, as with Canada…it is very unlikely Trump would do anything forceful to Greenland or Canada, but he doesn’t have to to get them to see the world his way, and to advance his agenda…

[L]ook what he will accomplish. He has Denmark and Greenland discussing increased cooperation, he has Canada scrambling to reduce immigration and secure borders, he has reopened the Panama Canal discussions. And he’s not even president yet.

Great article! Read it all if you want to understand Trump!

Hat Tip: S.H.

Trapped by UK Heat Pump Policies That New York Wants for Its Citizens

This is one man's experience with a heat pump in the UK, and this what Kathy Hochul wants for her constituents:

A father claims his heat pump is a 'money trap' that has quadrupled his bills and is set to cost him thousands of pounds to fix.

Vahid Aminzadeh, 45, moved into his newly built home in 2020, which came fitted with a brand new air-source heat pump (ASHP).

But a series of faults with the so-called green alternative to a gas boiler have left him, his wife and his five-year-old daughter living in thermals and onesies.

Unable to heat up the family's home to anything more than 15 degrees, Mr Aminzadeh has resorted to back-up heating options such as plug-in fan heaters and an electrical hot-water system, which are setting him back £15 a day.

To even have an engineer check the system costs the family £180 an hour before VAT, compared to roughly £50 for a routine gas boiler check.

Mr Aminzadeh was eventually given the parts to fix his ASHP free of charge, with a faulty heat exchange valve having already been installed, while a new condenser for the device is due to be fitted on Friday.

Before it developed a fault, the pump, which had not undergone any annual servicing since its installation between 2019 and 2024, was costing Mr Aminzadeh up to £300 a month in electrical bills, four times what he was paying before.

But his new-build home in East Molesey, Surrey cannot be connected to the gas network because of its A energy rating.

Be warned, New Yorkers!

Hat Tip: T.Z.

Amazon Virtue Signals with Diesel-Operated EV Charging Stations!

This would be hilarious if it weren't happening over and over again:

Amazon closed out 2024 with more than 20,000 electric delivery vans manufactured by Rivian in its fleet nationwide. The e-commerce giant highlights on its website that the electric vans are part of its "urgent" climate change initiative to "remove carbon emissions from transportation systems."

However, Amazon faces mounting criticism for gaslighting the public about its net zero goals and actual operational fleet practices.

Take, for instance, Amazon's website. Within the Sustainability section, the company laid out its approach to fight so-called global warming:

"To reach this target, we're also expanding the use of zero-emission transportation such as electric delivery vans, cargo e-bikes, and on-foot deliveries, and we engage in industry initiatives to remove carbon emissions from transportation systems like ocean shipping, aviation, and trucking. We're also using innovative construction techniques and building materials to make our fulfillment centers, data centers, offices, and physical retail locations more sustainable."

While the company promotes its electric delivery vans as part of its effort to save the planet from a fiery demise—an end-of-world scenario Al Gore has inaccurately predicted for decades—it appears that, at least in one location, Amazon is reportedly relying on a massive diesel generator to charge a fleet of Rivian vans.

Meanwhile, the Amazon founder (Jeff Bezos) is sailing around the world in a superyacht with massive diesel motors. He also flies in private jets that gobble up huge amounts of jet fuel. The climate emergency doesn't apply to the billionaire climate alarmists. Folks are starting to understand the climate grift, while governments ban gas stoves from ordinary folks

Corporate virtue signaling vs. reality!

Hat Tip: R.N./D.S.

Biden LNG Pause Didn’t Shut Down As He Hoped!

Biden and his controllers looked to put a big hurt on LNG with its asinine ‘pause’ but it didn’t work according to his own DOE:

LNG exports will increase by 15% in 2025 due to new capacity expansions coming online at two LNG plants, Plaquemines LNG and Corpus Christi LNG Stage 3. This will boost U.S. LNG capacity to almost 14 BCF/d in 2025 after remaining flat in 2024. U.S. LNG export capacity is on track to more than double by 2028:

It is important to note that this increase in LNG export capacity will occur despite the Biden Administration’s unsubstantiated and illegal ban on permitting new LNG facilities. The Biden Department of Energy issued the ban in January 2024, citing climate change concerns, but did not offer any supporting evidence, saying that a comprehensive study would be forthcoming.

Read the whole thing!

Hat Tip: E.I.

And, Briefly:

Biden Sends Oil Prices Soaring With Russian Sanctions, from D.S.

Climate Change Bogeyman Is Not to Blame for LA Fires, from J.L.

Big Wind & Big Solar Are Trying To Sue Rural America Into Submission, from J.F.

Go North, Young Man (or Young Woman), from M.A.

WEF Plans To Use Carbon Controls As A Trojan Horse, from R.N.

Dems Profiting On California Tragedy, from D.S.

The Energy Realities Podcast: The Wind Blows, from D.B.

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