Jordan McGillis

The Presidential Candidates and Autonomous Vehicles

No matter who's in the driver's seat after November 5, both Harris and Trump should support the development of autonomous vehicles

A Supreme Court case in Hawaii could raise gas costs for us all

A case surrounding 'Big Oil' could impact energy policy nationwide.

Lessons from Protectionism Past

A Reagan-era automobile agreement with Japan shows the limits of industrial policy.

Bargaining Chips: What the Vance Doctrine Means for Taiwan

With Taiwanese chips integral to the US economy, the would-be vice president is promoting his own brand of restrained nationalism.

Why Do American Schools Have Such Long Summer Breaks?

Why do American schools have such long summer breaks? The dominant myth is that the school calendar emerged to accommodate 19th-century farmers' kids who had to spend summer months toiling in th

A Culture of Safetyism Chains the CHIPS Act

Environmental and workplace regulations put American semiconductor manufacturing at a disadvantage.

Comparing the U.S. with Europe

Despite its flaws, America remains the land of opportunity.

In Compliance-Out of Business

California looks to pass a digital-accessibility law that will put onerous mandates on small businesses and likely force many offline altogether.

Why Taiwan Needs to Secure Its Undersea Cables

In the context of an intensifying Chinese pressure campaign, these fragile digital links are more important than ever before.

Who Will Trump Listen to On China?

If the former president wins another term in the White House, three competing views will shape his second administration's approach to Beijing.

Taiwan's Lai needs to rethink nuclear shutdown plan

Jordan McGillis is an adjunct fellow at think tank Global Taiwan Institute and economics editor of the Manhattan Institute's City Journal. Taiwan's en

Proposed California digital accessibility law would halt startups in the Golden State

Under AB 1757, how many startups would be too burdened by the risk of a lawsuit to get off the ground?

Accelerate Autonomy

Self-driving cars offer expanded freedom and opportunity, especially for the elderly-if regulators don't block the road.

Biden Bets Against American LNG

The president's pause on liquefied natural gas export permitting puts politics above policy.

The Most Important Country No One Talks About

Once a peripheral power, the country is now a regional fulcrum the U.S. cannot afford to ignore.

What Ails America?

His latest book offers none of its predecessor's focus or insight.

New Wyoming Dig Shows Limits of China's Export Controls | National Review

In addition to its near monopoly on real production, China possesses 86 percent of global gallium-production capacity. But although gallium is a critical mineral, it is not a rare mineral.

Opinion: New data is making us rethink the narrative about runaway inequality | CNN

The analysis shows that the share of the nation's income going to the top 1% of earners after taxes and transfers has increased by just 1.4% since 1979, writes Jordan McGillis.

Powered Down

The next president must contend with his predecessor's short-sighted policy on nuclear power.

Eyes on Taiwan

Politics on the island, which will soon elect a new president, are more complicated than most Americans understand.

Just Another Chinese City? Not Hong Kong

The former colony's built environment may serve as a bulwark against mainland tyranny.

Despite Chinese Market Controls, Taiwan's Semiconductor Supply Chain Remains Secure | Global...

The PRC's gallium export controls provide it a chokepoint from which it could disrupt global supply chains, including for Taiwan's semiconductor manufacturing, but market dynamics will likely limit the trade weapon's effectiveness in the long term.

The Carbon Regulatory Cocktail Can't Be Unmixed

Proponents of a tax underestimate the difficulty of unwinding a host of federal, state, and local greenhouse gas subsidies and regulations.

How China's control-freak leader is hurting its ecnomy

A decade under Xi has resulted in a dangerously out-of-balance Chinese economy - in asset bubbles, and in unsustainable debt.

The SEC's Wrongheaded AI Crackdown

In August, the biotechnology company Tempus earned the Food and Drug Administration's coveted "breakthrough device" designation. The company's new "breakthrough" test measures heterozygosity loss within tumors and uses artificial intelligence to identify cancer patients who would benefit from targeted therapies. Tempus's innovation allows health-care professionals to make more-precise treatment recommendations and shows AI's potential to [...]

Momentous-and Mundane

Exposure to autonomous vehicles will doubtless erode the opposition to them that we see in polling data today.

Autonomous Trucking and the Truckers - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

While autonomous trucking is more efficient, it may also improve the lives of some blue collar workers too.

What writers and auto workers strikes say about unions and innovation

A clash between organized labor and the rise of new technologies is front and center among a handful of major strikes.

Bloomberg

Gotham's Airheaded Carbon Law

Set to take effect next year, the Climate Mobilization Act will make living in New York costlier than ever.

Autonomous Now: Why We Need Self-Driving Technology and How We Can Get It Faster

Autonomous vehicles (AVs) are poised to improve roadway safety and lower transportation costs, yet policy barriers are delaying their adoption. This report focuses on the two AV applications-autonomous ride-hailing and autonomous freight trucking-that present the greatest near-term opportunities for welfare enhancement and offers policy reforms to accelerate their success.

Self-Defeating Environmentalism

The president touts a battery-and-electric economy, but won't permit the mining necessary to get there.

The Unexpected Geopolitical Lessons of Vietnam's Barbie Ban | National Review

What the spat tells us about Chinese 'sharp power,' the threat to a free and open Indo-Pacific, and the drawbacks of a values-only foreign policy.

Climate-Trap Diplomacy

The desire for climate cooperation with China undermines American strategic objectives.

Selective Meddling

Brad Lander tries to use city pension funds to change corporate behavior-for some corporations, anyway.

Taiwan's Electrical Grid and the Need for Greater System Resilience | Global Taiwan Institute

Taiwan is engaged in a multifront effort to add resilience to its electrical grid. The centerpiece of this campaign is the Grid Resilience Strengthening Construction Plan (強化電網韌性建設計畫), announced by Taiwan Power Company (Taipower, 台灣電力公司) in September 2022.

Oil Is Still King - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

Competition between the United States and China is the defining feature of international relations in the 21st century. Identifying domains in which one competitor has an advantage over the other is, thus, an exercise of both great interest to the academic and grave consequence to the policymaker.

Why the CHIPS Act Will Fail | National Review

Don't expect microprocessors to grow in the Arizona desert.

How to Solve the Pension Problem Defunding America's Cities | National Review

The budgetary strain that public employees' pensions put on the cities will mean either higher taxes or decreased public services, unless our cities embrace a necessary alternative: pension reform.

Can Chicago Survive Brandon Johnson?

Chicago's new mayor, Brandon Johnson, might drag his city into the urban doom loop. Inheriting a city already in crisis, Johnson plans to soak commuters, businesses, and the "ultra-rich" in taxes, has claimed that defunding the police is an "actual real political goal," and promises to splurge on social spending.

Big City Pensions and the Urban Doom Loop

Many American cities are in a quandary. For decades, they have promised generous pensions to police officers, firefighters, and civil servants, who helped make them successful. But now, the deferred costs of this model are squeezing current services. The combined effect of preexisting pension costs, the end of a bull market, and the Covid-induced exodus [...]

Golden San Diego

In Top Gun: Maverick, the 2022 sequel to the movie Top Gun, Tom Cruise reprises his role as the raffish fighter pilot who stole both his instructor's heart and America's back in 1986. Joining Cruise's Maverick is not Anthony Edwards's Goose (long gone) or Val Kilmer's Iceman (a mere cameo) but the original film's true [...]

Live and Let Fly

Aviation is ready to recover from the pandemic. The U.S. Travel Association expects that, in 2023, domestic air trips will match those from 2019, and that, in 2024, they will eclipse the 2019 figure by 10 percent. Internationally, S&P Global finds that China's December reversal of its Zero Covid policy has already brought a rapid [...]

ESG: Is There Something to Salvage from the Wreckage? | National Review

Some advocates of ESG practices from the business world oppose the charge that ESG is anti-capitalist.

Unheeded Lessons From the Buffalo Blizzard - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

he Buffalo blizzard of 2022 has notched itself in the record books as one of the most devastating winter storms in American history. The event reminds us of our tenuous well-being amid meteorological cruelty and of the instrumental role energy and technology play in securing human life through perilous conditions.

Taiwan's Nuclear Option

Taiwan packs a mighty economic punch. Its population numbers under 25 million, but it claims a spot close to the top 20 globally in GDP, and it continues to ascend the rankings ladder even as its neighbors slip into low-growth malaise. In fact, in 2021, Taiwan's economy grew at an astonishing 6%.

Stable Homes, Without State Coercion

America has a housing-instability problem. For people at the low end of the housing market, evictions can both result from poverty and guarantee poverty well into the future. A family with an eviction record risks repeated address changes that make it harder to maintain work for the parents or consistent education for the children.

Biden Eyes Ill-Fated Oil Export Ban - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

The Biden administration is kicking the tires on an oil-product export ban, a policy that would undermine the president's own foreign affairs platform and that would fail to deliver the cost savings it promises.

Remote Work and Urban Wages

Workers flock to cities in pursuit of higher wages, a phenomenon economists call the urban wage premium (UWP). As economist (and City Journal contributing editor) Edward L. Glaeser has explained, cities offer agglomeration effects that boost productivity, and thereby wages, as people and ideas collide.

Artificial intelligence will change jobs-for the better

Technology (John C. Anderson / UPI Photo Service/Newscom) The ramifications of advances in artificial intelligence (A.I.) are being felt further afield than anyone expected. A.I. perhaps entered the public consciousness in the 1990s thanks to chess competitions, but it's now infiltrating art competitions and, soon, the written word.

The Real Divide on Permitting Reform Is Not Democrats vs. Republicans | National Review

The Capito and, to a lesser degree, Manchin plans would move the U.S. and partner economies abroad closer to energy security. Yet, for now, they're going nowhere.

The Conservative Wisdom of the Infield Fly - The American Conservative

As the '20s roared, Babe Ruth roared with them, remaking baseball and solidifying the game as America's Pastime. After the war, Jackie Robinson broke the big leagues' color barrier and ushered in the modern civil-rights movement. Inflated stocks and inflated home-run numbers defined the late '90s before 9/11, Iraq, and the BALCO scandal brought America and baseball back to Earth.

The Jackson Water Crisis & the Urgency of Climate Adaptation

How regions deal with water will define their success in managing climate change.

Small-Ball Housing Policy

America's pandemic-induced residential reshuffling has highlighted the national housing crisis. While the United States has continued to grow over recent decades, the supply of homes has failed to keep pace. Joint Economic Committee (JEC) economists Kevin Corinth and Hugo Dante estimate that the U.S.

Self-Driving Cars Will Save Countless Lives | National Review

Rather than put the brakes on autonomous driving, we need to continually assess and update our legal and regulatory structures.

SEC's Proposed Climate-Change Rules Would Cripple Public Companies - The American Spectator | USA...

The Securities and Exchange Commission is in the process of finalizing a rule requiring public companies to provide investors with information on the risks climate change poses to their prospective financial performance beginning next year.

Cars and the Culture War

Cars seem to be an emerging front in the American culture wars. Consider the reaction to an essay by Carlton Reid, written for the website Works in Progress, arguing that ubiquitous driving does not necessarily create happy, healthy communities. "Cars may seem dominant in many towns and cities right now, but that's because choices were [...]

Less Than Meets the Eye

Last week, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer won the support of moderate Democrat Joe Manchin for a reconciliation proposal that some are hailing as the most significant climate legislation in U.S. history. The package includes $260 billion in tax credits for low-emissions electricity production, including nuclear power; $80 billion in new rebates for electric vehicles and home energy upgrades; and $60 billion for alternative energy manufacturing.

Nuclear Energy, Renewables, and National Security | National Review

To bolster energy security, the best U.S. approach begins with lowering unjustified regulatory barriers.

Jordan McGillis: Khan's plan for the Tube to rely on renewable energy is a deception |...

Jordan McGillis is a Paulson Policy Analyst at the Manhattan Institute. Before joining MI, Jordan was the Deputy Director of Policy at the Institute for Energy Research. Sadiq Khan headlined June's Climate Action Week with the announcement of a new Transport for London (TfL) plan to purchase wind and solar power for the Underground.

Against Restaurant QR Codes

Restaurants supply physical nourishment, but their ultimate contribution to life is spiritual. From the bonds forged with dining partners to the camaraderie shared with fellow patrons to the banter exchanged with staff, dining out is a social, aesthetic experience. But QR codes are ruining it.

Emissions Road Rage

Motivated by the threat of climate change, local governments across the United States are striving to reduce emissions. Indeed, compared with federal gridlock, cities provide a source of hope for climate activists. Municipalities as disparate as Seattle, Pittsburgh, and New Orleans, for example, committed themselves to upholding the U.S.

Bitcoin Uses Lots of Energy-And That's Okay

The Biden administration is working on policy recommendations to reduce Bitcoin's energy consumption and carbon footprint, focusing on Bitcoin's distinct proof-of-work mechanism. But although this mechanism uses a lot of electricity, it is one of the features that makes Bitcoin attractive to its users: The energy required to power mining operations acts as a barrier to malfeasance.

Climate McCarthyism

President Biden has deputized White House climate-change advisor Gina McCarthy to snuff out reckless talk on global warming. McCarthy, speaking at a virtual event hosted June 9 by Axios, said it is time for social media companies to crack down on climate "disinformation" online. But however wrong, damaging, and mendacious climate-change alarmists like New York [...]

Biden's Oil-and-Gas Leasing Lockdown, Brought to You by the NEPA | National Review

Given that one Biden campaign promise was to 'end fossil fuel,' no one should be surprised to see sue-and-settle tactics quietly working toward that end.

McGILLIS: Bitcoin's energy and environment value

It's been a rough few weeks for cryptocurrencies. With the implosion of the TerraUSD "stablecoin" and the halving of the prices of mainstays like Bitcoin, some financial traditionalists are not-so-subtly saying "I told you so." The Spectator's Ross Clark derides cryptocurrencies, for example, as lit

The Carbon Tax Pipe Dream - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

Over at National Review last week, the Tax Foundation's Alex Muresianu dug into the nuts and bolts of a carbon tax and argued (credibly) that a carbon tax could be preferable to our existing jumble of climate regulations. As Muresianu describes, the specific effects a given carbon tax would have on an economy are dependent on its details.

Forgetting the 1970s Gas Lines, at Our Peril | National Review

Unless we'd like to repeat the 1970s and their gas crises, we ought to keep price controls firmly in the rearview mirror.

Are Fossil Fuels the Wave of the Future?

Fossil Future: Why Human Flourishing Requires More Oil, Coal, and Natural Gas-Not Less, by Alex Epstein (Portfolio, 480 pp., $30) Alex Epstein's latest book makes a spirited case for continued industrial advancement through energy freedom. He argues convincingly that fossil fuels are and will remain the most attractive options to meet many energy needs while [...]

What the War in Ukraine Reveals About Energy Security

As Russia wages war in Ukraine, European powers such as Germany are facing a hard choice between dependence on Russian fuels or energy poverty. The U.S. should learn from this situation and support more domestic energy production. Government interference with free enterprise, such as denying permits for new natural gas pipelines, hinders U.S.

Carbon Border Adjustment Policy Brief

A carbon border adjustment is a tax on imports based on their assumed greenhouse gas emissions. Because carbon taxes harm domestic business competitiveness, carbon border adjustments are used to increase the cost of imports in order to prevent those imports from undercutting domestic businesses.

Carbon Tariff: Heaping Coals on the Consumer's Head | National Review

With our economic health faltering, now would be an inopportune - indeed, inexplicable - moment to ratchet prices higher still.

Vol. 7, Issue 9 | Global Taiwan Institute

The Global Taiwan Brief Volume 7, Issue 9 The Ukraine War and Its Impact on Taiwanese Perceptions on Defense IssuesBy: Russell Hsiao The Legacy of 228: Historical Memory, Taiwanese Identity, and Cross-Strait RelationsBy: David Calhoun What Does Beijing Mean by Its "Initiative in Resolving the Taiwan Problem"?By: John Dotson Facing Beijing's Coercion, Sweden Strengthens Ties [...]

Bulgaria and the Strategic Importance of U.S. Natural Gas | National Review

People need access to trustworthy sources of energy but are all too often beholden to unscrupulous sellers. American companies are among the most trustworthy around.

Who's Wrong About Carbon Pricing?

The climate policy space is utterly saturated with white papers, briefs, manifestos, and the like. The vast majority of this content enters the discourse midstream, assuming a set of premises and proceeding as if they need not be defended. This affliction plagues analyses most flagrantly that argue for aggressive mitigation policies.

MCGILLIS: EV fuel savings? Penny-wise, pound-foolish

With prices spiking at the gasoline pump, a new modern equivalent of Marie Antoinette's (supposed) cake gaffe has emerged: "Let them drive Teslas." With gasoline topping $5 per gallon across much of the country, people ranging from President Joe Biden to funnyman Stephen Colbert have suggested w

Processing the Nickel Imbroglio

What in the world is going on with nickel? Answering this question in full would require far more space than a standard IER blog will permit, but I'll do the best I can. Let's start with the headline news: In early March 2022, the nickel price spiked to an all-time record high of more than $100,000 per metric ton.

In Defense of Density

Judge Glock's recent article " Sprawl Is Good: The Environmental Case for Suburbia " provides a much-needed suppressant for the most feverish of pro-density ambitions. Glock's core arguments are that low-density development aligns better with many Americans' preferences than densification and that low-density development-sprawl, in other words-is not the environmental calamity urbanists make it out to be.

MCGILLIS: EV geopolitical and environmental benefits are not all they're cracked up to be

With gasoline prices at decade-highs, President Joe Biden is on the defensive - for good reason. On the campaign trail, Biden proclaimed, "We're going to end fossil fuels." Now, given just one year in the White House, he has already cancelled a major international oil pipeline, blocked energy d

The Problem of Economic Dependence | National Review

Glaring as Germany's shortsightedness about Russia now appears, the U.S. is stumbling into an analogous trap with our primary geopolitical opponent, China.

California Has It Wrong on EV Mandate; Other States Shouldn't Follow Suit - InsideSources

An electric car charging station in Palm Springs, California. Notorious for its crime and its outrageous cost of living, California seems an odd choice for Pennsylvania to mimic. And yet, with the adoption of California's onerous electric vehicle rules, the commonwealth would be doing just that.

What China's Interference with Indonesian Oil Says about Regional Hegemony | National Review

Whether the Biden administration has the resolve necessary to align states as disparate as Singapore and Indonesia into an anti-hegemonic coalition is yet to be seen.

Innovation, not a new tax, is state's methane fix

Colorado companies are leading a national revolution in energy industry emissions reduction, but politicians in Washington are failing to keep pace with the changes. The latest evidence is the new methane fee tucked within the $1.75 trillion Build Back Better plan that has passed the House and awaits Senate deliberation.

Vol. 6, Issue 24 | Global Taiwan Institute

The Global Taiwan Brief Volume 6, Issue 24 Taiwan-Iran Economic Relations Under the International Sanctions RegimeBy: I-wei Jennifer Chang The Lithuanian Model for Expanding Taiwan's Ties with Baltic StatesBy: J. Michael Cole Taiwan's Participation in the "Summit for Democracy"-and Beijing's Coordinated Propaganda Campaign in ResponseBy: John Dotson Limits to Proposed US Security Assistance Measures to [...]

What Space Billionaires Teach Us About Climate Change - HumanProgress

When Elon Musk's SpaceX launched a group of civilians into orbit on September 14, it marked the third time in four months that billionaires sent people to space largely with their own capital. Given its duration (almost three days) and its altitude (higher than the International Space Station), the recent SpaceX venture verges on "giant leap" status.

China's Maritime Resource Grab Creates an Opening for the United States

The island of Borneo sits more than 1,000 miles due south from mainland China across a vast expanse of the sea. That distance, however, hasn't stopped the People's Republic from treating Borneo as its own backyard.

Countering China's Expansionary Maritime Oil and Gas Pursuits

China's strategic emphasis on low-carbon energy has captured the attention of U.S. analysts, prompting some to call for a commensurate focus stateside. But while China has indeed invested heavily in critical minerals, solar panels, and batteries, its energy appetite is decidedly omnivorous. From a broader energy perspective, the People's Republic of China (PRC) seeks resource security.

Oil, Gas, and The South China Sea

Oil, Gas, and the South China Sea assesses China's skyrocketing oil and gas demand and the actions the People's Republic is now taking to firm up its supply of these essential resources. In pursuit of oil and gas, China now routinely encroaches upon the waters of other South China Sea littoral states, such as Vietnam, the Philippines, Indonesia, and Malaysia.

Despite Europe's Energy Woes, Senate Democrats Want to Follow Its Carbon Pricing Lead - The...

Europe is careening towards a dire electricity crisis. In Spain, to cite one example, average wholesale power prices have tripled in six months to reach $204 per megawatt hour, according to , and Spanish households are paying roughly 40 percent more than what they paid for electricity in 2020 as a result, according to the New York Times .

The Straits Times Says ASEAN Citizens Want Off Coal, But The Data Do Not

David Fogarty, climate change editor at The Straits Times, claims in his September 16 column that a recent survey shows the majority of people in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) want to move away from fossil energy. Even a perfunctory review of the survey at issue, however, reveals that no such claim is warranted.

U.S. Nuclear Energy Is Falling Towards a Historic Nadir - HumanProgress

In 2020, nuclear energy contributed about 20 percent of U.S. electricity and was the country's second-leading source of power generation. However, according to Energy Information Administration projections, nuclear's share of U.S. power generation will fall to just 11 percent by 2050.

Climate Policy with Chinese Characteristics | National Review

Xi Jinping's emissions-trading scheme shows no indication that it will curb the China's growing appetite for coal, oil, or natural gas. It was never meant to.

Biden's Other Pullout | National Review

Moving on from the hard realities of global-energy geopolitics has allowed our greatest adversary to seize the advantage.

Remembering Synfuels, 35 Years Later

The Synthetic Fuels Corporation (SFC) might be the biggest boondoggle you've never heard of. Established under the Energy Security Act of 1980 in response to the supply scares of the 1970s, the SFC was hailed by President Jimmy Carter as "the cornerstone of U.S. energy policy."

Electric Trucks: Can They Get the Job Done?

My father-law is a purveyor of custom iron work-a blacksmith, in other words-who designs, forges, and installs his wares across Southern California. It's labor-intensive, hands-on, and, given the density of iron, involves moving very heavy loads.

Are Electric Vehicle Charging Grants the Next Energy Boondoggle? - The American Spectator | USA...

Expansive definitions of infrastructure have become a running gag on the internet, but credulity-straining inclusions in the $1 trillion bill like an Amtrak vaping ban shouldn't blind us to the imprudence of federal spending on some of the things that fit the definition of infrastructure well.

Writer: Georgia's PSC setup makes Vogtle bad business for customers

Another year, another Plant Vogtle delay, another plea from Georgia Power to shift costs onto its captive customers. In March, the company identified in an 8-K filing that additional construction remediation work would push back its timeline by at least a month.

Energy Crossroads

North Carolina's Clean Energy Plan, a proposal put together by the Department of Environmental Quality at the behest of Governor Roy Cooper, calls for a 70-percent reduction of greenhouse gas emissions from electricity by 2030 and carbon neutrality by 2050.

How the U.S. and Taiwan Can Unite on Energy and Foreign Policy | National Review

As representatives of the United States and Taiwan engage to reaffirm trade and investment ties this summer, liquefied natural gas ought to be at the forefront of the conversation.

ASEAN's Coming Energy (and Emissions) Leap

As I wrote in April at National Review, the global energy and emissions discussion has become too narrowly focused on China and the United States. China is the world's largest cumulative emitter, yes, and the U.S. is number two (with higher per-capita emissions), but other countries are, or will become, significant users of fossil energy as well.

Electric La-La Land - Handing China the Metals Card | National Review

A new report sounds the alarm on the mismatch between policies forcing an energy transition and the availability of the critical minerals that would make it feasible.

Climate Eyes Are on China, But What about ASEAN? | National Review

Led by Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam, Southeast Asian electricity consumption will double by 2040, the International Energy Agency (IEA) projects. Though renewables will play a part in meeting new demand, much of it will be met by fossil-fuel sources, contributing to significant emissions increases.

Big Oil Supports a Carbon Tax. So What? - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

In late March, the American Petroleum Institute - the national oil and gas industry trade association - announced its Climate Action Framework. The plan calls for federal spending on low-carbon research and development, expansion of subsidies for carbon capture technology, and, most strikingly, a price on carbon dioxide emissions, i.e., a carbon tax.

https://exponentsmag.org/2021/04/18/nepa-vehicle-of-vetocracy/

The American Jobs Plan and the China Conundrum - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

President Joe Biden's new spending plan amps up rhetoric on national competition with China, maintaining the confrontational approach established by the previous administration. But whereas the 45th president championed what he called American energy dominance as a key element of grand strategy, the 46th seems bent on eschewing America's natural resource advantages and playing to China's strengths.

What China's Five-Year Plan Says About Its Energy And Climate Strategy

Last month, China released its 14 th Five-Year Plan (FYP). The FYP establishes broad-stroke economic targets for the country through 2025 and it comes on the heels of Xi Jinping's September 2020 pledge to make China carbon neutral by 2060.

For Progress on Zero-Carbon Energy, Look Beyond the Beltway - HumanProgress

With Democrats at the helm of the federal government, climate change and zero-carbon energy technologies have become front-page issues in Washington. But just out of port, this conversation has been run aground by the environmental movement's fixation upon wind and solar and its near exclusion of the lone form of carbon-free electricity that can scale anywhere in the world: nuclear.

China's Climate Realpolitik | National Review

Beijing's plan institutes no carbon cap, no coal phase-out, and no roadmap by which it will execute upon Xi's words.

The Biden Administration's Climate-Cost Problem | National Review

Rather than grappling with the uncertain cost of carbon emissions, the Biden administration is arbitrarily choosing the cost that fits its agenda.

The Electric Slide: Car Culture Captures Climate Policy - The American Conservative

American politics have been imbued of late with a spirit of reset. Political alliances are dissolving; new policy frontiers are being breached. And yet on climate and transportation policy, we are seeing a reassertion of a 20 th-century paradigm: the primacy of the automobile, only now with a different energy system under the hood.

Climate Change Activists Try to Nix Natural Gas Exports - The American Spectator | USA News and...

Domestic climate debates are clouding our reasoning on energy exports. The latest example of this problem is the climate movement's vocal opposition to a proposal from Sempra, a San Diego-based energy infrastructure company, to send natural gas to Mexico for re-export in its liquefied form (LNG).

Joe Biden, Green Energy, and the Great Labor Realignment - The American Spectator | USA News and...

An awkward conflict in Washington reveals both the tectonic shifts remaking American politics and Joe Biden's Achilles' heel. Biden has tabbed climate change as one of the " four interrelated existential crises" facing America today and has released a barrage of energy orders aimed at slowing it.

FAI | Blog

With a population of just 1.3 million, Estoxnia may seem an unlikely adversary to the People's Republic of China, but a report published Wednesday by its intelligence service has established the Baltic country as a vocal opponent of Chinese sharp power.

FAI | Blog

Twelve months from now, two thousand athletes representing almost 100 countries are slated to march under their national flags into Beijing National Stadium to mark the opening of the 2022 Winter Olympics. Beijing National Stadium-the Bird's Nest-was the focal point of the 2008 Summer Games and hosted that year's opening ceremony, an awe-inducing tribute to Chinese civilization.

Biden v. Manchin: Which Joe Will Win on Climate? - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

Joe Biden isn't the most important man in Washington. In fact, he isn't even the most important man in Washington named Joe. That distinction belongs to the senior senator from West Virginia, Democrat Joe Manchin. Manchin is perhaps the final incarnation of the Democratic Party old school.

Scrolling Alone

On COVID and Social Capital -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Robert Nisbet's The Quest for Community [https://bookshop.org/a/7328/9781935191506] makes no mention of infectious disease, yet there may be no better lens for viewing American culture one year into the pandemic. In the early 1950s, Nisbet catalogued the myriad ways

The U.S. Is Squandering Its Energy-Export Opportunity | National Review

With allies now taking up posts in the nation's capital, governors Newsom, Brown, and Inslee have no counterweight against their power over energy producers.

What to Make of the Biden Climate Barrage - The American Spectator | USA News and Politics

Sleepy no more, President Joe Biden has taken to the Oval Office with gusto. On Wednesday, he resumed a climate policy blitz that has already included rejoining the Paris Agreement and deep-sixing the Keystone XL pipeline with an " Executive Order on Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad."

Biden's Electric-Vehicle Plan Misses the Mark | National Review

Both Biden's assumptions about EV-component suppliers and his expectation that American companies will supplant them are out of keeping with reality.

WildEarth Guardians crusades against the people of NM

The oil and gas industry is one of the strongest contributors to New Mexico's burgeoning economy. Oil and gas jobs tally over 130,000 in the Land of Enchantment, stretching from the Permian Basin in the southeast to the San Juan Basin in the Four Corners region, and the industry added over $16 billion to the state economy in 2018 alone.

What Would a Biden Presidency Mean for Energy in the Asia-Pacific Region? by Jordan McGillis |...

Polling suggests Democratic Party nominee Joe Biden will oust Donald Trump from the White House in November's election, throwing America's energy superpower status into flux. When Trump entered office in 2017, America's energy production renaissance was well underway, but it was only in the ensuing 36 months that U.S.

Opinion: On pipelines, Simon and Nelson are singing the wrong tune

The spirit of the 1960s has been revived this year in the Texas Hill Country, with cultural icons Paul Simon and Willie Nelson voicing opposition to the Permian Highway Pipeline. But while the songwriters once spoke truth to power and embodied a young generation, they now place themselves squarely on the side of the incumbents.

Shut Down Pipelines to Save the Environment? Think Again - The American Spectator | USA News and...

A recent spate of court rulings and corporate decisions has commentators asking if the age of the pipeline has come to an end. On July 6, the U.S. Supreme Court effectively halted Keystone XL by denying it the ability to...

The Paris Agreement's Beijing Problem | National Review

China is constructing and financing hundreds of infrastructure projects and coal-fired power plants in countries across the developing world as part of its Belt and Road Initiative.

Oil Prices and Free-Market Environmentalism

The coronavirus recession has pushed oil prices into a jaw-dropping decline. On Monday, April 20, forward contracts on crude even traded in negative territory. While this is bad news for oil companies, Bloomberg Green columnist Kate Mackenzie sees this as an opportunity for climate activists.

https://fee.org/articles/in-this-time-of-crisis-let-s-not-add-the-burden-of-artificial-energy-costs/

No, Coronavirus Is Not a Climate-Change Preview | National Review

This pandemic has simply highlighted the human propensity to map new circumstances onto our existing heuristics, whether they fit or not.

Start with Common Ground on Climate-Change Policy | National Review

Climate policy is a divisive issue, but increasing the cost of energy is a losing strategy for politicians of all stripes. If Democrats want to avoid the reactions seen in France and Australia, they should seek climate policies that avoid driving up energy costs.

Atoms to Atoms, Dust to Dust | Jordan McGillis

What Jack Huttner misses most is the feeling that he and his ragtag band of activists, the SHAD Alliance, "could do anything." The SHADs - shorthand for Sound-Hudson Against Atomic Development - were among the more visible of the 1970s environmentalists that took energy modernity head on.

What the War in Ukraine Reveals About Energy Security

As Russia wages war in Ukraine, European powers such as Germany are facing a hard choice between dependence on Russian fuels or energy poverty. The U.S. should learn from this situation and support more domestic energy production. Government interference with free enterprise, such as denying permits for new natural gas pipelines, hinders U.S.

In Defense of Density

Judge Glock's recent article " Sprawl Is Good: The Environmental Case for Suburbia " provides a much-needed suppressant for the most feverish of pro-density ambitions. Glock's core arguments are that low-density development aligns better with many Americans' preferences than densification and that low-density development-sprawl, in other words-is not the environmental calamity urbanists make it out to be.

What China's Interference with Indonesian Oil Says about Regional Hegemony | National Review

Nations such as Indonesia will be key to successful U.S. deterrence of Chinese aggression. espite Xi Jinping's guidance to China's diplomatic corps in June 2021 to project "a credible, lovable, and respectable image," his regime continues to alienate itself from other Asian states - indeed, from states that would seem critical if China is to be successful in achieving its aim of hemispheric hegemony.

How the U.S. and Taiwan Can Unite on Energy and Foreign Policy | National Review

Increasing U.S. exports of liquefied natural gas to Taiwan would be a geopolitical and climate win. A s representatives of the United States and Taiwan engage to reaffirm trade and investment ties this summer, liquefied natural gas (LNG) ought to be at the forefront of the conversation. The U.S.

The U.S. Is Squandering Its Energy-Export Opportunity | National Review

Natural gas has reduced carbon emissions in the U.S., but blue-state politicians are preventing its export. O vershadowed by the hubbub of inauguration week, a January 19 decision by an obscure federal agency quietly augured a bleak future for U.S. energy exporters.

China's Climate Realpolitik | National Review

Western pundits fell for China's carbon-neutrality pledge, but its recent economic plan puts paid to their hopes. W hen Xi Jinping pledged to the United Nations last September that China would be carbon neutral by 2060, credulous Western media outlets and climate commentators seized an opportunity to level criticism at emissions policies in the United States.

The Biden Administration's Climate-Cost Problem | National Review

Rather than grappling with the uncertain cost of carbon emissions, the Biden administration is arbitrarily choosing the cost that fits its agenda. I n the closing days of February, the Biden administration set its interim social cost of carbon, a metric that aims to capture the aggregate economic harm caused by an additional increment of carbon-dioxide emissions, at $51 per ton.

Ant Goes Marching

Ant Group, the company behind China's online payment revolution, intends to list on both the Hong Kong and Shanghai stock exchanges by the end of this month. At $35-$40 billion, it would be the biggest IPO ever.