Power Bills Skyrocket – New Jersey to Maryland – Will it Doom Dems as “Green” Explodes

Energy prices are skyrocketing in the Mid- Atlantic thanks to the Democrat run governments and the chickens are now coming home to roost. What was clear to most intelligent thinkers is that with the Green New Deal starting to have results, the outcome was for told. So let’s hope this high cost of power bills sinks into the mid-term electorate and those who espouse the wonders of Green energy.

Zero Hedge:

A power bill crisis is gripping parts of the U.S. Mid-Atlantic and is set to worsen, threatening to financially crush households as long-range forecasts point to a brutally cold winter. 

The common denominator in both states? A disastrous green energy agenda, pushed by radical leftist lawmakers, is dismantling reliable and cheap fossil fuel power generation in favor of unstable solar and wind. This has unleashed a power bill armageddon on working-class and middle-class households, as well as mom-and-pop businesses, all while baseload power demand surges in the era of AI data centers.

Fox News is beginning to latch onto the power bill crisis theme, starting with coverage of New Jersey residents who are absolutely furious over exploding power bills. This new development could severely damage the state’s Democratic leaders in the upcoming elections.

Perhaps Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy’s decision to shutter the state’s nuclear and coal plants, without a one-to-one replacement for lost capacity on the grid, was a catastrophic error that is only now coming home to roost. He also prioritized offshore wind farms and other green energy projects, which have left the grid more fragile than ever. 

Let’s head three hours south down the I-95 corridor to Baltimore, Maryland, where far-left activist lawmakers, including Governor Westley Watende Omari Moore, who is being positioned for the party’s 2028 presidential run, have sparked a very similar power bill crisis. 

Cut from the same climate-crisis-cult cloth, these Democratic leaders across the Mid-Atlantic states have failed voters with disastrous green policies.

In Maryland, the power bill crisis seems much more severe than in New Jersey!

Keep reading

The chickens are coming home in the swamp.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Tells Blinken ‘If the West Can’t Win this War, Then What War Can the U.S. Win’

Antony Blinken saddled up and took his bags full of money over to Ukraine. There certainly is gold in them thar hills and Green Energy was one of the goodies. But the bigger story? Getting dressed down by Ukraine’s foreign minister. The story that got some minimal coverage:

Blinken Gives $520 Billion to Ukraine to Make Their Energy Infrastructure ‘Cleaner, More Resilient.

But there were other “mentionables” in their discussions that were worth taking note. Blinken commends their “fight against corruption.” efforts. (Laugh line here)

The Biden administration pledged to invest $520 million in Ukraine’s energy infrastructure as part of a new aid package totaling more than $1 billion.

“At the Ukraine Recovery Conference held in London a few months ago, I pledged that the United States would invest more than $520 million in making Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, more than half of which has been destroyed by Russia, cleaner, more resilient, and more integrated with Europe,” Secretary of State Antony Blinken said last week during a visit to Kyiv.

The Hindustan Times has a clip that has their take on the meeting on the other “mentionables.” Let’s pause here:

At issue was the comment:

“The second argument is also – I mean, I think very simple.  I mean, I don’t want to sound rude, but the question is if the West cannot win in this war, then what is the war that the West can win?” 

Back to the story:

More goodies?

Secretary Blinken:

“The new security funding that we’re announcing today will also be bolstered by the arrival of U.S. Abrams tanks this fall and by training for Ukrainian pilots on F-16s in the United States, complementing training that is already underway in Europe.”

Beyond Ukraine’s security needs, for the first time we are transferring to Ukraine assets seized from sanctioned Russian oligarchs, which will now be used to support Ukrainian military veterans.  Those who have enabled Putin’s war of aggression should pay for it.

We’re continuing lifesaving humanitarian assistance; emergency shelter for those whose homes Russia has destroyed; medical support and health care for survivors of relentless Russian missile attacks and shelling, including as we saw again last night and today; food, clean drinking water; generators for communities.  Today we’re committing an additional $206 million toward that effort, much of which is dedicated to helping the more than 6 million Ukrainians who are displaced by Russia’s war.

As Russia continues to weaponize food, we’re helping people within Ukraine and around the world who are suffering from extreme hunger as well as malnutrition.  Not content with pulling out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative – which has sent 32 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain to the world, the equivalent of more than 18 billion loaves of bread, most of it to developing countries – Putin is now bombing Ukrainian granaries and warehouses, mining port entrances, driving up food prices around the world, devastating Ukrainian farmers.

We’re engaged in assisting the Government of Ukraine on anti-corruption efforts and on efforts to ensure accountability and full transparency of all the assistance we’re providing as well as the security of U.S.-provided defense articles and technologies.  President Zelenskyy and I discussed these issues today and the importance to Ukraine’s democratic future of continued reforms and the fight against corruption. (Excuse me…. chuckle line. They must be laughing too.”

FOREIGN MINISTER KULEBA:

The second argument is also – I mean, I think very simple.  I mean, I don’t want to sound rude, but the question is if the West cannot win in this war, then what is the war that the West can win?  And when I say the West, I include Ukraine to this list as well.  But I think the most important part of your answer was – comes from the Secretary himself from his concluding lines that Ukraine, as he said, should win and will – must win and will win.  And this is exactly the philosophy that is being then implemented into specific decisions that gives me reasons to believe that we are continuing our walk towards victory.  And it’s deeply appreciated.

The topic of energy came up and this as Biden shuts down the Trump era of new oil leases in Alaska.

…..

SECRETARY BLINKEN:  So our focus is on making sure of two things: that energy remains readily available and that there’s sufficient supply on the market to meet demand; and, of course, that this is done at a reasonable price.  We are always looking to see what those who are producers and suppliers of energy are doing in terms of that supply and the effects that it’s going to have on the market.  So we will look at this carefully in the days and weeks ahead to see the results that it actually produces.  You can get an immediate bump in price, but that may quickly settle down to something lower.  So it’s something we’ll be looking at, again, with the objective of ensuring that there is sufficient energy on world markets to meet demand and at a fair price.

(So we keep dumping our oil reserve to keep the price artificially down)

US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, slams Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s war on Ukraine, claiming he has ‘already lost’.

Source: U.S. Dept. of State

H/T: Just the News

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Will the World Stop Development to Save the Planet?

 

Will China and India be willing to forgo the future amenities of electricity to save the planet? Will Africa forgo economic development? All of this for the mirage of global warming? Air conditioning saves lives in India. Millions suffer.

Will Western nations be able to convince Indians to forgo air conditioning (while they sit in their airconed rooms) to “save the planet?”

 

 

While we give up our cars.

 

Anyway, an excerpt from the article:

Naresh Tatavet, a personal driver in Delhi, is among those who’ve had enough. This month, he bought his young family their first AC, calling it one of the biggest financial investments he’s ever made — on par with purchasing a motorbike. In his neighbourhood, after somebody purchases an AC, “we bring them sweets to celebrate.”

Whatever happens in Washington, Brussels and other faraway places, Tatavet is sure of one thing: His family won’t go back. He can no longer watch his baby throw up from the heat. “I don’t want to wake up drenched in sweat anymore,” he said.

The more we think of it the more we are coming to realize that this isn’t a “climate war” rather it is a war between rich and poor nations.

Read more

This brought my thoughts back to the WEF meeting in Davos this last January.

 

What Schwab, Gates, Soros want for us? We will be denied heat, food, electricity, forced to eat bugs…while the master class would live frivolously: Greenpeace Accuses Davos Summit VIPs Of “Hypocrisy” Over Private Jet Use

Image

Kerry shared:

It’s pretty extraordinary, that we a select group of human beings because of whatever touched us at some point in our lives, are able to sit in a room and come together and actually talk about saving the planet.  And it’s so almost extraterrestrial to think about quote saving the planet.”

He goes on to say that what most people think about Kerry and others:

Most people think you’re just a crazy, treehugging, lefty, liberal, do-gooder, whatever…”

Yes, I believe he’s right about that.John Kerry, who was selected by  President Joe Biden to serve as climate envoy, owns six homes, two yachts, 12 cars, and a private jet.

Masters of the Universe

 

 

 

Just in case we wonder about Manchin. You see, he managed to find his way there too.

How could I end a post without out a few words from our savant John Kerry?

 

John Kerry: ‘There would have been no Paris Accord if there had been penalties

“So that is a serious form of enforcement, if you will, compliance. But there is no penalty for it, obviously, but if there had been a penalty, we wouldn’t have been able to get an agreement.”

On December 14, 2015 I posted this and see if you can follow his logic.

 

 

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Welcome to the Peoples Republic of Santa Monica, CA

How do all of these new “Regulations” effect the Little People who have to live their lives under the boot of the government? Not much more effect than the folks of Santa Monica. Yesterday I posted Biden’s new energy regulations, over one hundred of them, that practically covers everything in your house. From the big items of gas furnaces, gas stoves, room air conditioners and of course we cannot leave that light bulb alone, to your iron. One more time let’s give the light bulb another tweak.

This is the 110th action to strengthen energy efficiency standards that the Administration has taken in 2022. These 110 actions span a range of household products—everything from air conditioners and furnaces, to clothes washers and dryers, to kitchen appliances and water heaters—as well as commercial and industrial equipment.

If we look under the hood to understand the impact on Joe and Betty America we get the translation. The local governments now have caught on to the the power of the “Rules and Regulations” and they are applying them with gusto. No more than in the quaint city of Santa Monica.

Our reader Baysider dropped this off. It is worth a read.

The People’s Republic.

Here in my communist town they just issued their ‘plan’ to electrify the city completely by 2045. This includes the replacement of all gas appliances: heaters, cooktops, ovens, clothes dryer, water heater. Add an outlet for an EV car, and higher insurance costs to cover fire. This adds about 150 more amps to each unit which have already upgraded to the max the power service to the building will allow, which is 75 or 100 amps per unit (it varies). This is expensive!

We recently did 2 of them. $4,000 per panel to do again – plus changing the wiring (cutting major holes in walls and patching, painting) to serve the new appliances. That’s AFTER you fork over $10-20,000 to the power company to increase the size of the drop from their power pole to your building. And dig up the below ground conduits to install larger pipes. So maybe $30-40,000 per unit!

Savings? The city calculates energy savings of $4,500 over 30 years from new style appliances (which have heat pumps that won’t fit our footprint). Nowhere in their calculation did I see the cost of energy expenditures to mine, manufacturer, and ship all those replacement appliances as well as the cost of disposal of working appliances before their expiry. First clue that “net energy” use is only the stalking horse.

MORE
If you sell your building after 2028 (5 years) you must complete all these upgrades in order to sell it! No waiting to 2045. But they want new water heaters zero emission this year. So that brings ALL those expenses to bear the minute one has to replace a water heater.

WHAT’S GOING ON
1) a forced transfer of capital away from one party so another party with no investment or risk can feel good about virtue signaling, or
2) a confiscatory policy to force a fire sale for which others benefit (like those swooping in after riots burn down the town to buy things cheap), or
3) plain stupidity anchored in malfeasance?
4) All three.

THE CLUE: On top of that, in California there’s a law afoot to force you to make your first sales offer to a government sponsored agency. Think more’s going on here than ‘energy savings” now?

THE KICKER.
The city proposed a rebate to offset the costs: $2,000! Only for “income qualified” recipients.

NAME OF THIS ‘PLAN’: They call it the “Equitable Electrification Roadmap.” Woo-hoo, Equitable! They did not consult building owners or their associations or anyone who will shell out money for this nonsense. Instead they conducted ‘Equitable Community Engagement’ with these groups:
• Santa Monica Black Lives Association (SMBLA)
• Community Corporation of Santa Monica (CCSM) – this is a leftist money pit
• Climate Action Santa Monica (CASM)

This is the city’s link to their PR and the document.

City of Santa Monica Releases Existing Building Electrification Roadmap

Santa Monica’s Climate Action & Adaptation Plan (CAAP) calls for a 20% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions from existing buildings by 2030. The Existing Building Electrification Roadmap builds on this CAAP goal by putting forth new goals including:

  • Implement a Building Performance Standards policy by 2025
  • Limit the installation of new fossil fuel appliances by 2030
  • Transition all buildings within City-limits to all-electric by 2045

Interesting, but local city council members said “what, were we asleep when this passed?” Two commented they understood it was only for new buildings – a rational position. But I have all their documents discussing ‘existing stock’ and a casual nod to the difficulty that will need “creative tactics and policies.” Hot button words right up there with “warp speed.”

By the way, I promised air conditioning to a new tenant. Called my HVAC guy to get it started yesterday and he told me the quote is no longer good. New rules have made even ones still sitting in warehouses illegal to install. I was told to expect a lot more money. He said they are in reality no better, just more expensive. Sigh….

Clearer now?

A year ago – LACI’s Santa Monica Zero Emissions Delivery Zone

LACI’s zero emissions delivery zone in Santa Monica and we’re excited to see this pilot empowering businesses and decreasing congestion and pollution in the neighborhood. (Of course one wonders what happens to a city “all electric” when the lights go out.)

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New Eugenic Movement: ‘Short people are better for the Planet’

This no less from the New York Times. There are even suggestions that restricting milk to children may help children to remain short. “The Five” from Fox have a good time with it, clip included. Twitter had a field day with it.

A guest essay for the New York Times insisted that being short is “better” for the future to the amusement of several Twitter users on Sunday and Monday.

Author Mara Altman penned the essay remarking that not only do shorter people tend to live longer, but they’re also crucial in conserving food and resources on our dying planet.

“The short are also inherent conservationists, which is more crucial than ever in this world of eight billion. Thomas Samaras, who has been studying height for 40 years and is known in small circles as the Godfather of Shrink Think, a widely unknown philosophy that considers small superior, calculated that if we kept our proportions the same but were just 10 percent shorter in

America alone, we would save 87 million tons of food per year (not to mention trillions of gallons of water, quadrillions of B.T.U.s of energy and millions of tons of trash),” she wrote.

Altman continued, “Short people don’t just save resources, but as resources become scarcer because of the earth’s growing population and global warming, they may also be best suited for long-term survival (and not just because more of us will be able to jam into spaceships when we are forced off this planet we wrecked).”

Altman went as far as to suggest people begin purposefully mating with shorter people in order to produce a shorter society.

When you mate with shorter people, you’re potentially saving the planet by shrinking the needs of subsequent generations. Lowering the height minimum for prospective partners on your dating profile is a step toward a greener planet,” she wrote.

Readmore

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John Kerry Considering Fleeing the Administration to Escape Scrutiny

Let’s put a fork in the fellow. Is there anyone more despicable than John Kerry who has been one of the most destructive forces in government with his inane Climate Change agenda? The Iran Nuclear Deal?  Of course, setting aside his other nonsense as Secretary of State. I relish the opportunity to haul he and he fellow Marxists before the Mast.. in this case hearings before Congress.

Jet-setting climate czar John Kerry is reportedly thinking of fleeing the Biden administration just before a potential GOP takeover of Congress, escaping likely scrutiny into his payroll and globetrotting ways.

Kerry can see which way the headwinds are blowing on Election Day, and it’s not good for him.

Does he really need to be repeatedly hauled before the Republican-controlled Senate to justify his job, his jet, his staff and his carbon-emitting world travels?

Kerry has arrogantly refused to release even his climate czar payroll to the Herald.

Why yes. He does need to be hauled and Judicial Watch is setting a good pathway.
Good work.
kerry pr
Does it get any better?

(Washington, DC) – Judicial Watch announced today that it filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) lawsuit against the U.S. Department of State for details of climate envoy John Kerry’s office, including his calendars, the identities of its staff members and its cost of his travel (Judicial Watch Inc. V. U.S. Department of State ((No. 1:22-cv-02844).

Judicial Watch filed the suit in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia after the State Department failed to respond adequately to a July 31, 2022, FOIA request for:

    1. Copies of all records concerning individual authorizations for and the costs of John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, for any official travel from January 21, 2021, to present. This request includes any reimbursement amounts the government paid to Mr. Kerry.
    1. All calendar or calendar entries for John Kerry, U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, whether made by him personally or on his behalf from January 21, 2021, to present. Request calendars, if possible, be produced in a format that includes invitees, notes, and attachments. This request includes not only Microsoft Outlook calendars, but any calendar, electronic or paper, used in the execution of government business.
    1. Copies of all organizational charts for the Office of the Special Presidential Envoy for Climate, including any sub­ organizations, reflecting names and/or position titles of each individual in those positions. Judicial Watch does not object to the redaction of contact information (telephone numbers/emails) for any employee listed in the organizational chai1(s).

“The American people have a right to know what John Kerry is up to, what we’re paying to fly him around the world, and who we pay to actually work for him,” said Judicial Watch President Tom Fitton.

Thank you Tom Fitton.

I wanted to choose a Kerry clip that sums it all up after going through ten years of my clips. Of course setting aside all of his other nonsense that got us into the Iran negotiating nonsense, I think this will do it.

I just couldn’t resist this bit of Paris Accord. Just to provide insight into our savant’s method of organizing his thought patterns.

BONUS:

John Kerry: ‘There would have been no Paris Accord if there had been penalties

“So that is a serious form of enforcement, if you will, compliance. But there is no penalty for it, obviously, but if there had been a penalty, we wouldn’t have been able to get an agreement.”

On December 14, 2015 I posted this and see if you can follow his logic.

Here Kerry opines on two insights on the Global Warming “agreement.”Kerry: Public Shaming is ‘Most Powerful Weapon in Many Ways’ to Enforce World Climate Agreement.

Kerry said it is expected that the world will invest about $50 trillion into energy over the next 30 or 40 years, and that will be one of the main factors causing countries to “spontaneously move in this direction, because there’s jobs to be created, money to be made, and there’s a population to respond to in terms of the demand of their citizens.”

The other astute observation?

While discussing the global climate change agreement made in Paris over the weekend, Secretary of State John Kerry acknowledged on Fox News Sunday that there wouldn’t been an agreement at all if there were binding penalties for countries not meeting emissions standards.

FOR MORE GOOD PICKS! Bunkerville’s

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Biden ‘Let’s burn our food source corn for our cars’

Biden never disappoints. The world sits on edge of a possible famine with much of Ukraine unable to plant this year. Fertilizer is in short supply. Bright bulb Joe comes up with this. What fool burns their food supply?

The price of corn has spiked from a low of $3.08 a bushel in August 2020 to $7.69 in April 2022.

The European Union imports more than half of its corn from Ukraine and is already buying more American corn.

Fertilizer prices have skyrocketed as much as 300 percent since early 2021. Thanks in large part to the sky rocketing cost of Natural gas. Thank you Joe Biden.

But Biden talks about using more American corn as fuel for vehicles could help reduce gas prices.

Better yet, ethanol will cause more pollution.

We have been down the ethanol road before with the Obama Biden team in 2011. They were all for making food inflation skyrocket back in the day. At the time there was concern over the harm ethanol would do to older cars. Even then, Obama and team defied court orders.

EPA defies court order- increases ethanol mandate

The Environmental Protection Agency is expected to raise the maximum amount of ethanol that can be blended with gasoline for vehicles manufactured since 2007.

According to people with knowledge of the announcement, the EPA may say as soon as Wednesday that the newer vehicles are able to handle 15 percent ethanol, up from the current maximum of 10 percent for the corn-based fuel.

But the auto industry, environmentalists and a broad coalition of other groups have argued against an increase and called for more testing.

Opponents argue that the increase in production of corn and its diversion into ethanol is making animal feed more expensive, raising prices at the grocery store and tearing up the land.

Manufacturers of smaller engines – used in everything from lawn mowers to boats – also oppose increasing the use of the fuel, saying those engines are not designed for the higher concentrations.

Then there is this Lahood: ‘We are going to coerce people out of their cars – apparently after they destroy our cars or make them prohibitively expensive to drive.

A few flashbacks:

Ethanol Now Consumes More Corn Than For Animal Feed for First Time, Corn Prices Reach Record High

Financial Times —  “U.S. ethanol refiners are consuming more domestic corn than
livestock and poultry farmers for the first time, underscoring how a
government-supported biofuels industry has contributed to surging grain
demand.
 
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimated that in the year to August 31 ethanol producers will
have consumed 5.05 billion bushels of corn, or more than 40% of last year’s
harvest. Animal feed and residual demand accounted for 5 billion bushels.”

Meanwhile, we proceed to destroy the world’s food supply: Robert Bryce writing in the Washington Examiner:

“Today, about 40 percent of all U.S. corn — that’s 15 percent of global corn production or 5 percent of all global grain — is diverted into the corn ethanol scam in order to produce the energy equivalent of about 0.6 percent of global oil needs. 

And recent harsh weather, including floods in the Midwest and drought in the South, will likely mean a subpar U.S. corn harvest. That, in turn, will mean yet higher prices for corn, which will translate into higher prices for meat, milk, eggs, cheese and other commodities.

“Livestock producers, restaurants, food manufacturers and consumers at the grocery store are all being penalized by this profligate biofuel policy,” said Bill Lapp, president of Advanced Economic Solutions, an Omaha, Neb., commodity consulting firm.”

This includes the increased global demand for fertilizer outpacing production, pandemic-related and weather-related supply chain disruptions and increases in production costs, which includes soaring prices of natural gas required for making inputs. 

Finally-

Let’s not forget to include what the efforts of Biden to shut down our energy output has done as well.

High natural gas prices could lead to spike in food costs through fertilizer link

Global fertilizer prices soared to multi-year highs in the past few months following surge in prices of key feedstocks natural gas and coal, and certain export restrictions put in place by supplying countries.

Around the globe, natural gas is used as a raw material as well as fuel for nitrogen fertilizer production. In some countries such as China, coal is gasified into ammonia and used for manufacturing fertilizers.

Nitrogen fertilizers are the most used fertilizers in the world. Ammonia, phosphorous and potash are the other important fertilizer components.

According to the European crop nutrient company Yara Fertilizers, in several of their transformation steps, natural gas, essentially methane, is upgraded by combination with nitrogen from the air to form nitrogen fertilizer.

“While 80% of the gas is used as feedstock for fertilizer, 20% is used for heating the process and producing electricity,” according to Yara.

Unsurprisingly, when natural gas prices rose, prices of nitrogen fertilizers also shot up. In fact, prices of nitrogen—as anhydrous ammonia, urea, or liquid nitrogen, phosphorus as diammonium phosphate, or DAP, and potassium as potash—all gained significantly over the past year.

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Did the Globalists Just Blink On Russian Sanctions To Keep Control of Global Climate Plans?

Plan: Russia shuts off gas to Europe if payment isn’t made. Putin isn’t budging regarding only wanting Rubles. Rubles = Gold. Putin upset their scheme and could possibly have the whole oil market trading in Gold backed currency. If oil is traded in Gold, the US Petro dollar is in trouble.

The deck chairs on the global energy market on being rearranged. New alliances brought on in large part by the sanctions placed on Russia. What looked like an easy tanking of the Ruble is causing heartburn for those who thought their plan was going to be easy. The price of energy in Europe is soaring.

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐥 𝐁𝐚𝐧𝐤 𝐨𝐟 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚 𝐡𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐟𝐟𝐢𝐜𝐢𝐚𝐥𝐥𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐜𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭, 𝐚𝐬 𝐨𝐟 𝐌𝐚𝐫𝐜𝐡 𝟐𝟖, 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟐, 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞 𝐜𝐮𝐫𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐲 𝐢𝐬 𝐁𝐎𝐔𝐍𝐃 𝐭𝐨 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝.

𝐁𝐞𝐜𝐚𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐑𝐮𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐚 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐨𝐧𝐥𝐲 𝐬𝐞𝐥𝐥 𝐢𝐭𝐬 𝐨𝐢𝐥 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐚𝐬 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐟𝐢𝐱𝐞𝐝 𝐚𝐭 𝟓,𝟎𝟎𝟎 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐩𝐞𝐫 𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐦, 𝐚𝐧𝐲𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐰𝐢𝐬𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐨 𝐛𝐮𝐲 𝐎𝐢𝐥 𝐨𝐫 𝐆𝐚𝐬 𝐰𝐢𝐥𝐥 𝐧𝐞𝐞𝐝 𝐭𝐨 𝐞𝐢𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐑𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐞𝐬 𝐨𝐫 𝐩𝐚𝐲 𝐢𝐧 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝, 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐰𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐔𝐒 𝐃𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐫 𝐯𝐚𝐥𝐮𝐞 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐠𝐨𝐥𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐲 𝐭𝐞𝐧𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐚𝐬 𝐩𝐚𝐲𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭! Source

The story gets picked up here. One fascinating story.

Conservative Tree House: 

Something odd is happening in the background of the G7 energy ministers’ announcement earlier today.

BERLIN (AP) — The Group of Seven major economies agreed Monday to reject Moscow’s demand to pay for Russian natural gas exports in rubles.

German energy minister Robert Habeck told reporters that “all G-7 ministers agreed completely that this (would be) a one-sided and clear breach of the existing contracts” for natural gas, which is used to heat homes, generate electricity and power industry.

The energy ministers of France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United States, the United Kingdom and Canada, as well as the European Union energy commissioner, met by videoconference and reaffirmed that contracts “must be respected,” with most stipulating payments be in euros or dollars, a G-7 statement said.

“Payment in ruble is not acceptable, and we will urge the companies affected not to follow (Russian President Vladimir) Putin’s demand,” Habeck said.

Remember that moment {HERE} when Canada’s Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland seemed really uncomfortable and weird at the presser – just 36 hours before the Trudeau administration announced they were going to drop the Emergency Act banking sanctions against the truckers? {Go Deep}

Here is an encapsulation of what’s weird, and you don’t have to be an expert in geopolitics and international trade to see it:

The G7 countries (including the U.S.) announced today they were demanding that Russia accept payment for oil and gas in euros and dollars.  This is happening at the same time NATO is demanding (via sanctions) that Russia be blocked from accepting payments in euros and dollars.

Something is weird.  Keep in mind, the same nations in the G7 are the same nations in NATO with the exception of Japan (G7 only).

The only way this conflict could make any sense, is if the G7 energy ministers realize that forcing Russia to trade in non-euros and non-dollars will structurally undermine the G7 unilateral hold of global finance and energy policy.   In essence, the G7 see the non-sanction countries, particularly India and China, lining up to replace the petro-dollar, and that not only weakens their position financially, but it also weakens their climate change position.

Saudi Arabia is not returning phone calls from the Biden administration, and the extended OPEC-plus are not following the sanctions regime of the western NATO alliance.  Which makes sense, because Opec+ includes Russia, and the geopolitical dynamic appears to have fractured around the energy sector, with the western alliance chasing renewable energy and the non-sanction countries staying on course with oil and gas.

The conflicting position toward Russia, insofar as the G7 demands they keep selling using euros/dollars while NATO demands Russia stop receiving euros/dollars, remains brutally stark.  It is a conflicting interest, within the same policies, within the same geopolitical group.

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Bonus:

MasterCard and fintech company Doconomy launched a credit card that tracks the carbon dioxide emissions of purchases, and caps the climate impact of users’ spending.

Best of the swamp.

SEC Wants Company Data on Climate Risk, Emissions

The expense of providing this data will be enormous to the Securities and Exchange Commission.  Companies large and small listed on the U.S. stock exchange will be subject to litigation by investors as well as the SEC. To make this story even better we take a look at the man behind the curtain who has put this plan into motion.

WASHINGTON, March 21 (Reuters) – The U.S. securities regulator on Monday proposed requiring U.S.-listed companies to disclose a range of climate-related risks and greenhouse gas emissions, part of President Joe Biden’s push to join global efforts to avert climate-related catastrophes.

Or rather, how to destroy capitalism would be my take on the matter.

Here we go from NPR:

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday formally proposed new rules that would for the first time require businesses to report their greenhouse gas emissions, along with details of how climate change is affecting their businesses.

In a statement of support for the proposed rules, SEC Chair Gary Gensler said the regulator is responding to demand from investors and companies given the increased push for information on the risks climate change-related events pose to businesses.

“Our core bargain from the 1930s is that investors get to decide which risks to take, as long as public companies provide full and fair disclosure and are truthful in those disclosures,” Gensler said. “That principle applies equally to our environmental-related disclosures.”

The rules would be phased in

If the regulators approve the rules, companies would be required to provide climate-related information when they register as public companies with the SEC, and also in annual filings.

Companies would need to disclose potential risks to their operations from climate-related events such as having operations in an area facing the risk of rising sea levels.

The rules would also require companies to provide data on their own greenhouse gas emissions and also on how much energy they consume. These are known as “Scope 1” and “Scope 2” emissions, respectively.

“Scope 3” emissions have proved to be more controversial. They are emissions generated by a company’s suppliers and customers. Many companies and trade groups, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, have opposed mandated reporting of Scope 3 emissions saying it would be too burdensome and complicated to estimate emissions across a company’s operations.

Investors and the SEC itself would be able to challenge a company’s assessment of what counts as material information. Smaller companies would be exempted from reporting their Scope 3 emissions.

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CMI 101: Demystifying Derivatives with CFTC Chairman Gary GenslerCMI 101: Demystifying Derivatives with CFTC Chairman Gary Gensler” by Third Way

So we have this fellow Gensler who has a storied past. He cut his teeth in the Obama administration. A good friend of Jon Corzine. That Jon Corzine MF Global infamy. How did Gensler get approved for this position? Don’t ask.

The Dig:

When Gensler had the chance to step-up in the past he, instead, stepped down.

When MF Global failed on his watch as chairman of the CFTC, Gensler recused himself from leading the investigation of the failure and heading up the effort to find the $1.6 billion in customer funds that went missing. He opted out against the advice of the CFTC’s General Counsel and its ethics official, according the CFTC’s own internal investigation. Gensler filed a “non-participation” letter because he and MF Global’s last CEO, Jon Corzine, had enjoyed a long personal relationship after working together at Goldman Sachs.

Basically, Gensler bailed. The captain left the ship before the passengers were all safe. Maybe it was a “damned if he did, damned if he didn’t” situation. But it would have been arguably a lot better for the MF Global customers if he stayed, but then he would have had to avoid taking a call from Corzine about delaying the rules for how MF Global could use customer segregated funds the summer before.

Farmers who had their MF Global accounts “vaporized” were angry with Gensler. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., was quoted in his home state newspaper.

Speaking about financial reforms with The Billings Gazette editorial board, Tester said Gary Gensler, chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, should be fired for the government’s role in the collapse of MF Global, a trading house accused of raiding customer accounts to cover bad investments in European sovereign debt. Legally, the customer accounts were “segregated” meaning they should have been off-limits.

MF Global failed despite the cash grab and last October filed a $42 billion bankruptcy, the eighth largest bankruptcy in U.S. history.

“CFTC was asleep at the switch. They were in the building when all that stuff went on, too. Maybe Gary Gensler needs to go,” Tester said…

Gensler has been accused of being asleep at the switch while accounts that should have been regulated were drained by MF Global. The CFTC chairman has also been accused of cronyism. Both Gensler and MF Global CEO Jon Corzine worked for Goldman Sachs. Corzine, a former Democratic senator and New Jersey governor, is alleged to have lobbied Gensler to delay financial reform rules affecting MF Global’s handling of customer accounts.

Gensler has failed up from MF Global, in my opinion, to a big comeback as SEC Chairman. Another example of failing up to a comeback? MF Global’s former CEO, Jon Corzine.

Corzine’s star faded quickly after the MF Global debacle. On Dec. 24, 2011, President Obama’s re-election campaign returned $70,000 of Corzine’s personal campaign contributions. Corzine was one of 41 donors who bundled more than $500,000 to help re-elect President Obama in 2012.

Corzine has since attempted a comeback. Despite a CFTC civil enforcement action against him in 2013 that prohibits him from serving on any registered firm’s advisory or compliance boards, or having authority over its compliance officers—an action that severely limits the type of assets in which his firm can invest—Corzine went ahead with a plan to start a hedge fund that would accept outside money.

That hedge fund, JDC-JSC, won the approval to register from former SEC Chairman Jay Clayton’s SEC in the fall of 2019. That’s right. Corzine was rewarded with an approval to start a hedge fund by the very agency that failed to follow-up after MF Global’s failure, and failed to find all the money Corzine had lost.

The best of the swamp.

Trump administration sued over faster dishwashers by environmentalists

 

It’s all vintage Trump. Trump won’t go out with a whimper. He gives us what he promises. That is why there is no question that he won re-election. But of course an appeals court will step in and no doubt overturn the concept of “faster dishwashers.”

It sums it all up doesn’t it? Shower heads, lightbulbs, flushers… the government must control it al.

Washington (CNN)A coalition of environmental groups sued the Energy Department on Tuesday in an effort to block a new federal rule that would allow for faster dishwashers, arguing it could possibly lead to “higher household utility bills and more pollution.”

The rule finalized by the department in October would create a product class of dishwashers “with a cycle time for the normal cycle of one hour or less from washing through drying.”

But the Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club and other groups want a federal appeals court to review and set aside the new rule, saying it is unnecessary in part because “most of today’s dishwashers already offer quick cycles, including some that take less than an hour.”

More at  CNN

EPIC MOMENT: President Trump RANTS About Toilet and Sink Issues – NO WATER PRESSURE

January 15, 2020

 

And that is that as far as the swamp goes today.