Free Republic

Iron Laws of Economics Reside There.. When people talk about economics, they generally refer to macroeconomics. Macroeconomics is a squishy science. Over the last several decades, economists have tried to bring rigor to it, but the variables are so random with such a significant variance that there is a lot of room to argue. That’s how Janet Yellen can whisper in Biden’s ear that there is no recession based on how she sees it. It’s also how Alan Blinder can write editorials in the Wall Street Journal claiming that more central planning and government bureaucracy always gets it right so...

Joe Biden and his administration’s extreme energy policies have predictably resulted in sky-high costs for American families. Biden has become increasingly desperate to shift blame and he is reportedly considering a new plan: raise energy taxes. ... Biden’s solution for high prices is raise taxes on energy producers, who will then pass that cost onto American consumers. Higher taxes do not bring prices down. Daniel Turner, our founder, and executive director was quick to blast the president’s plan. “Out of time and answers, the Biden Administration is trotting out another policy straight out of the 1970s in a transparent attempt...

Slump in imports, cargo diversions to other ports help shrink queue of dozens of vessels The backup of container ships off Southern California’s coast that was at the heart of U.S. supply chain congestion during the Covid-19 pandemic has effectively disappeared. The queue of ships waiting to unload at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach fell from a peak of 109 ships in January to four vessels this week ... . U.S. import volumes are declining ... The ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach together handled 686,133 loaded import containers in September, down 18% from a year...

Never mind shortages of natural gas here and abroad: we may be running short of diesel fuel before long. Energy analyst John Kemp reported the troubling picture last week: Global shortages of middle distillates such as diesel, gas oil and heating oil are intensifying rather than easing – making it more likely a relatively severe slowdown in the business cycle will be necessary to rebalance the market. U.S. inventories of distillate fuel oil depleted to 106 million barrels on Oct. 7, the lowest seasonal level since the government began collecting weekly data in 1982. Given how much of our goods...

MADRID, March 25 (Reuters) - Truck drivers on Friday said they will continue a 12-day strike "indefinitely" after a meeting with Spain's transport minister ended in them rejecting a 1 billion euro ($1.10 billion) support package aimed at defusing the walkout over fuel prices that has caused sporadic goods shortages. Minister Raquel Sanchez announced the measures, which include a rebate of 0.20 euros per litre of fuel and a 1,200 euro bonus, after all-night talks with transport associations. But within hours, the Platform for the Defence of Transport, the unofficial truckers' group that launched the strike on March 14, and...

Audi is making a new fuel for internal combustion engines that has the potential to make a big dent when it comes to climate change – that's because the synthetic diesel is made from just water and carbon dioxide. The company's pilot plant, which is operated by German startup Sunfire in Dresden, produced its first batches of the "e-diesel" this month. German Federal Minister of Education and Research Johanna Wanka put a few liters of the fuel in her work car, an Audi A8, to commemorate the accomplishment. The base fuel is referred to as "blue crude," and begins by...

If the shocking allegations contained in a lawsuit filed last Friday by responsible science advocate Steven Milloy are accurate, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a major scandal on its hands. As reported by the National Legal and Policy Center, Milloy initiated litigation in U.S. District Court in Virginia, based on evidence he accumulated via the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). He alleges that the EPA engaged in disturbing experimentation that deliberately exposed human beings to airborne particulate matter the agency itself considers lethal. The experiments were conducted at EPAÂ’s Human Studies Facility at the University of North Carolina...

.... the EPA has been conducting human experiments on people by piping diesel fumes from a running truck mixed with air into their lungs at a North Carolina university. The agency has ginned up yet another green crusade--the lethal dangers of diesel fumes. They even had a gas chamber set up to accommodate the environmental research project that shockingly recalls the death camps in Poland.Not surprisingly,the EPA is now in the process of being sued for conducting dangerous experiments on human guinea pigs. The courts will decide whether or not serious laws and practices were violated, including the international Nuremberg...

[snip]...On first blush, I simply could not believe Mr. Milloy. Then I looked carefully at the facts and at the law. This case involves the intentional exposure of human subjects to “fine particulate” matter, also known as PM2.5. EPA obtained their PM2.5 from a diesel truck. It is difficult to overstate the atrocity of this research. EPA parked a truck’s exhaust pipe directly beneath an intake pipe on the side of a building. The exhaust was sucked into the pipe, mixed with some additional air and then piped directly into the lungs of the human subjects. EPA actually has pictures...

After accumulating evidence via the Freedom of Information Act that showed theEnvironmental Protection Agency conducted disturbing experiments that exposed humans to inhalable particulates the agency has said are deadly, sound science advocate Steven Milloy has sued the federal government. The trials, which were carried out at EPA’s Human Studies Facility at the University of North Carolina in Chapel Hill, exposed subjects to fine particulate matter (called “PM2.5”) at extremely elevated levels for up to two hours at a time. EPA’s Web site on particulate matter and its 2009 “Summary of PM2.5 Risk Estimates,” stated, “an examination of cause-specific risk...

Diesel fuel used to cost less than the more highly refined gasoline. Is there a real reason for this, or is it price gouging? The main reason is rising global demand, but new environmental restrictions and higher federal taxes also are factors. Historically, the price of diesel fuel at the pump actually has been higher than that of regular gasoline more often than it has been lower, as can be seen in this chart, which is based on weekly statistics from the federal Energy Information Administration. Until recently the normal pattern has been for gasoline to cost more than diesel...

HOUSTON, April 16 — Tyson Foods and ConocoPhillips have cooked up a new recipe for your pickup truck. The two companies announced Monday that they were forming an alliance to produce and market diesel fuel made from pork, poultry and beef fat. It was another sign that farmers and agribusinesses, which are now producing corn for ethanol, will be playing an increasingly large part in the country’s energy future. The new brew should be available at the neighborhood filling station by the end of the year. The companies said that the diesel, which will be shipped and distributed through existing...

The soaring cost of diesel fuel is eating into truckers' profits and forcing them to take more conservation measures when it comes to driving their big rigs. And while trucking companies are able to add a surcharge onto the price they charge per mile for hauling freight, they say it does not completely cover the skyrocketing cost of diesel. Independent trucker James Bristol of Jefferson City said the high cost of fuel was part of the reason his wife, Joni, returned to work at Lakeshore Mental Health Facility in Knoxville. "I'm staying home less and driving more," said Bristol, who...

WASHINGTON -- Scientists revising a study of tiny pollution particles from diesel engines and power plants found a computer glitch that might mean less health risk than previously thought and could delay new federal rules. Research by investigators at Johns Hopkins University's biostatistics department indicates the software used for the study of 90 large American cities was overestimating the rise in the typical mortality rate. The study is just one of more than 100 the Environmental Protection Agency is examining as it prepares to issue regulations next year. But the software in question could be a problem because it is...