Free Republic

Opposition to wind and solar projects on the state and local level increased significantly last year, according to a new study by Columbia University’s Sabine Center for Climate Change Law. In 2023, the report found 73% more local restrictions than the previous year’s report released in May 2023, and 111% more state-level restrictions. “In nearly every state, local governments have enacted laws and regulations to block or restrict renewable energy facilities, or project opponents have succeeded in forcing the delay or cancellation of particular projects, or both have occurred,” the report states.

SUMMARY: Citizen activists in southeastern France’s Alpes-de-Hautes-Provence region have been campaigning for two years against the growing number of solar power parks in a protected natural area around the Lure mountain. The local authorities, and the parks' investors, claim the plants are “essential” projects in the fight against climate change, and in line with the ambitions of the European Green Deal. But the activists claim these projects are “destructive” for biodiversity and the landscape. A few hundred metres above the commune of Cruis, in the Alpes-de-Hautes-Provence region, Sylvie Bitterlin, a 62-year-old actress, stands in front of the security fence of...

I live in rural NE Texas, and we experience power outages often. Some last for days. This year, we've been hammered by bad weather, and this round is the 12th time I've been on generator power this year. I've played the "generator game" for decades, starting off with one that I thought would be just good enough to keep me going, running the bare minimum appliances until the power came back on. This was torture. In my opinion, most people make bad decisions when it comes to buying a generator. They think small, and short run times. The truth is,...

“It is not the truth of Marxism that explains the willingness of intellectuals to believe it, but the power that it confers on intellectuals, in their attempts to control the world. And since…it is futile to reason someone out of a thing that he was not reasoned into, we can conclude that Marxism owes its remarkable power to survive every criticism to the fact that it is not a truth-directed but a power-directed system of thought” — Roger Scruton (27February 1944 – 12 January 2020)“Ideology is compelled to distort reality and so is inherently dishonest and distorting of truth, and...

The city of Houston on Saturday opened new distribution centers to give out water as around 500,000 customers remained without power following severe storms blamed in the deaths of seven people in the region. Houston was forecast to reach a high of 90 degrees Saturday as the city and Harris County recovers from tornadoes and 100 mph straight-line winds that struck with little warning on Thursday. Seven deaths — four in Houston and three in unincorporated Harris County — have been blamed on effects from the weather, including from falling trees and a fire sparked by lighting.

A recent subcommittee hearing before the House Committee on Natural Resources heard testimony regarding alleged influence by unelected non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on important federal government policy decisions. The Biden administration was called out for permitting activist environmental groups, many funded by billionaires and the Chinese Communist Party, to inappropriately influence US energy policy at the Department of the Interior. Committee members are investigating the degree to which Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and others are working with green activist groups to shape policies that undermine the decision-making of state and federal officials, divert oil production to less eco-friendly sources...

"Wind Droughts": A 15-state region produced less than 10% of its potential 22 gigawatt wind output over an 82-hour period. For 42 hours straight within that period, the wind output was only 1.5% of the total.. Last month, multiple news outlets reported on the record-smashing year the wind industry had in 2023. The Global Wind Energy Council released its latest report showing the world installed 117 gigawatts of capacity. The Associated Press called 2023 a “record year for wind installations,” and Reuters noted that the U.S. was among the top five markets for wind installations. The U.S. Energy Information Administration...

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) admitted Thursday that the state still faces the risk of blackouts in heat waves despite investing in battery capacity to store electricity for use in times of peak demand. The Los Angeles Times reported: Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that California continued to rapidly add the battery storage that is crucial to the transition to cleaner energy, but admitted it was still not enough to avoid blackouts during heat waves. … Asked by reporters if California now had enough battery storage so that residents no longer had to worry about blackouts during times of high...

Gillette-based L&H Industrial, a 60-year-old industrial machinery company in the coal-rich Powder River Basin, has partnered with nuclear technology innovator BWX Technologies as part of a blockbuster deal to launch a multibillion-dollar industry in the micro nuclear reactor field. A Wyoming company with international clout that’s bolstered the state’s energy industries for decades is jumping into the nuclear business. Gillette-based L&H Industrial Inc., a 60-year-old stalwart industrial machinery company in the coal-rich Powder River Basin, has partnered with nuclear technology innovator BWX Technologies Inc. (BWXT) as part of a blockbuster deal to launch a multibillion-dollar industry in the micro nuclear...

Video at link....massive infrastructure initiatives by CCP. America meanwhile can't even drill for its own oil and gas.

The passage of the Inflation Reduction Act propelled forward President Joe Biden’s vision of a clean energy economy. As outlined in a 2023 guidebook, this remaking of the U.S. economy includes billions in funding for green tech manufacturing — everything from hydrogen production to batteries to solar panels. The plan will not only create jobs and investments for Americans, according to the Biden administration, it will lower the nation’s dependence on China, which currently controls 80% of the global production in polysilicon and other components used in solar panels, 80% of wind-turbine components, and 89% of the refining to produce...

A massive container ship lost power in the waters around New York City and was brought to a rest near the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge Friday night — less than two weeks after failure on another massive cargo vessel caused it to smash into Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge.The US Coast Guard confirmed that its Vessel Traffic Service received a report that the 89,000-ton M/V Qingdao lost propulsion about 8:30 p.m. as it traversed Kill Van Kull waterway — the shipping lane between Staten Island and Bayonne, New Jersey. An image shared on X by John Konrad, CEO of maritime-focused news outlet...

Going further than the Treasury Department's tacit support for debanking alleged "hate groups" after the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot, a State Department component that "strengthen[s] resilient democratic societies" developed a more sweeping plan for financially choking off disfavored narratives a month later. The U.S. Agency for International Development wrote a "Disinformation Primer" that appears to have been started in "late 2020," judging by a reference to the most up-to-date "social media initiatives" by Facebook and Twitter "to address disinformation and misinformation."It was still being written at least 10 days into the Biden administration, referring twice to the Jan. 31,...

The crisis in Cuba has seen its government approach the United Nations for aid to address its food shortage, as residents take to the streets in a rare sign of social unrest Cuba is "on the verge of total collapse" as the country has been hit by blackouts with residents taking to the streets calling for "food and power". The crisis has seen the Cuban government approach the United Nations for aid to address its food shortage. As the Caribbean island goes through its harshest economic crisis in three decades, the communist regime is resorting to hitherto unseen cries for...

The Cuban government has summoned the US ambassador, Benjamin Ziff, to its foreign ministry, accusing Washington of stoking a protest which saw hundreds of people take to the streets in the island’s second city of Santiago de Cuba. The demonstration late on Sunday was a rare public show of disenchantment against Cuba’s communist government, and was apparently led by parents struggling to feed their children in the face of a worsening food crisis. The protesters reportedly chanted: “Without electricity and food, the people get hot.” Power cuts of up to 18 hours a day have meant that as the island...

Japan is stepping up efforts to have local authorities approve the restart of the world’s biggest nuclear power plant, the Kashiwazaki-Kariwa facility north of Tokyo... Next week, Japan’s Minister of Economy, Trade and Industry, Ken Saito, is expected to ask the local governor of the Niigata prefecture to approve the restart of the power plant.. In the wake of the Fukushima disaster in 2011, Japan closed all its nuclear power plants that underwent rigorous safety checks and inspections. Kashiwazaki-Kariwa has been offline since 2012, while the Nuclear Regulation Authority in 2021 barred the plant’s operator, utility Tepco, from operating the...

Juice: Why Wind and Solar Make Our Power Grid Less Reliable https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNS7Qojr1JQ John Stossel 920K subscribers 18936 views Mar 5, 2024 Politicians and activists tell how “renewable" energy will save us from the climate “crisis.” They don’t tell us about the real costs of green power.

Mayor Tiffany Henyard (D) of Dolton, Illinois, got heated with officials Monday when they questioned her on issues that have brought a wave of criticism. Fox News reported Thursday that she was pelted with questions about her controversial spending habits and transparency. Dolton mayor to critics: ‘I’m the leader!’https://t.co/edgYdM3jLN — WGN TV News (@WGNNews) February 7, 2024 Video footage shows the meeting with Henyard speaking to fellow officials. She said, “Y’all should be ashamed of y’all selves. Y’all black. Y’all are black. And y’all sitting up here beating and attacking on a black woman that’s in power. You should be...

In most places around the country, the point of acquiring power is to do something with it. Your state’s legislators pass a corporate tax cut to attract new business. Or, your mayor deploys city funds to repair streets damaged by winter’s snow and ice, paving the way for a smooth commute. But D.C. is different. More than other places, in D.C., the best use of power is not to discharge it toward solving some real or concrete problem that exists in the world, but to use power to create even more power. Whether that’s a better committee assignment, a bigger...

I've built power supplies using full wave rectifiers in the past, and a couple circuits with single diode half wave rectification for non-critical supplies, but in all cases the power requirements were low and the diodes I had on hand several times overrated for the current and voltage / power involved.This time though, I want to add a half power function to a 1500 watt 120 volt quartz heater. (Over-simplification - see below comments. But ~half of the 1500 watts is the design target.)*So... I know a diode in series with the quartz element and no power supply capacitor** will...