Meredith, like you, I have been worrying about administrative state in Wash DC. I started lobbying there in 2002, so I have witnessed the peopling of many regulatory agencies. I think the termination of the Chevron Deference will unravel all the rule making of the last 6 months.
The group for energy sanity is getting powerful and likely get even more so. Keep up your great work. We need your grid knowledge.
Hi @Meredith. Thank you for building on my post about the latest slip down the slippery slope. I don't think your thesis hyperbolic at all. Whilst clearly not a full-blown police-state, the "thought police" have been active across academia, media and even politics in many "liberal democracies". We see it in Energy Policy and its interface with Env/Clima - but it is a many-headed hydra. I fear that as the Net Zero dream dies by a thousand cuts of physics and public opinion, so those most vested in it will continue down the path of increasing authoritarianinsm. The end justifies the means after all... just like the purity of the communist regime did. The stunning lack of self-awareness of "liberals" who become illiberal autocrats when their echo chamber says they hold the truth...
As per @Ed Newman's comment - the film "The Lives of Others" is highly recomended. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/ . It is only watchable from the relative safety of time and distance, otherwise it is too scary.
Thank you for your comments and well-chosen examples. Hats off to your daughter. Julia. There is also the problem of powerful state bureaucracies such as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) having absolute power and huge budgets - regarding California energy policies. There is no CPUC inspector general to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse. There is no guaranteed appellate pathway for Parties whose interests have been harmed by a CPUC Decision. Californians for Green Nuclear Power https://CGNP.org has been harmed by both of these shortcomings. Sadly, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
The current trends are anti-business, no holds barred. This really is a batte for the future of both Capitalism and Demcracy. Much more can be said but your piece is a good start.
I and my six completely real friends file a complaint that every individual's respiration is a net emission of CO2 and pray to the judiciary to redress this breach of justice by outlawing respiration.
I visited the Stasi Museum in Leipzig a few years after the Einheit. The most lasting memory: the library of smells. The Stasi would maintain jars of swatches from anything persons of interest had touched, hoping to catalog their odors for future accusations.
Interestingly, long before other drug scandals became front page news, the East Germans also led the way with their doping of athletes. This was particularly highlighted in women’s swimming in the 1976 Olympics. I will refrain from further comment regarding the parallels with the green energy transition:
“While East Germany’s wrecking ball of a women’s team dominated for more than a decade through the 1970s and into the ’80s, the most devastating single event during which the East Germans defrauded the athletic process proved to be the 1976 Montreal Games. Not only were their cries from critics about the East German’s masculinity, but these cries were also turned into attacks on the victims, calling them sore losers.
One of the most vilified of the victims proved to be Shirley Babashoff, who went on to be tagged with the moniker, “Surly Shirley,” due to her loud complaints. Learning her lesson, Babashoff fell silent about the East Germans for three decades–until 2007.”
Excellent piece. As a Canadian I will add that the law passed as you described was originally proposed as a private members bill by a retiring NDP, socialist, member. The original bill went into the territory of individual responsibility as well as corporate responsibility. It drew scorn and denial. It wound up, slightly rephrased so as to stay on the evil corporation side, as part of an omnibus bill at the end of the parliamentary session. No debate. No discussion. Our common knowledge tells us continually that democracy is at stake. It is, from everyone who tells us that or uses that line. We have another bill which has not gone through yet, C-63 an online hate bill where every person can report hate speech online, or the potential for hate speech to an unelected tribunal with no recourse to our legal system. The tribunal adjudicates with the complainant staying 100% anonymous. Complainants can be awarded $20,000 in damages. The "perpetrator" does not face the accuser, pays the 20k to the accuser, the government can get an additional $50,000 top up with the perpetrator also subject to prison terms and or house arrest in the situation where the accuser thinks hate speech might happen in the future. When this passes, no doubt it will, Canada will be Stasi in it's entirety. I have already seen activists on X in Canada saying just wait until I can C-63 you. And yet the governing party and elite all talk about the need to protect our democracy, which means so long as you say and do exactly as they say.
I agree that the policies you point out are bad, but I still worry more for our future (and my extended family's very existence) should Trump get in office than I do about a few bad energy policies.
For example, when I see MAGA Republicans concur with Trump that Hispanic immigrants are "vermin" that are "poisoning the blood of our country", and that the 12 million "illegal" ones need to be sent to detention camps and then deported, I see cruelty and suffering planned on an unimaginable scale, not quite comparable to the bad policies you point out. And if we simply substitute "Jews" for "illegals", the rhetoric of Trump mirrors that of Hitler. Illegals are "rapists, drug dealers, and murders" that are "ruining our country" (and are apparently not the hard working people I see every day in the fields and elsewhere that do the jobs Americans don't want to do and who help keep our economy humming along and help keep prices low for everyone).
And since that same MAGA Republican party explicitly refuses to accept the results of elections run, controlled and verified (many times over) by Republicans themselves--without evidence (at least, I've never been able to verify even one claim that the election was rigged)--we can expect a repeat this fall should Trump lose. And this time he may succeed at overturning a democratic election and we may have an unelected head of state who fancies himself a tough guy and and greatly admires Putin, Xi, Kim, and so on while disparaging NATO leaders and who very publicly calls out his desire for retribution and military tribunals to pay back all those who have stood in his way.
So I can't say I understand your priorities, though I appreciate the good work you do.
My point was that our republic is strong enough to put up with whoever is in the White House. And whatever any party says about elections.
I worry more about "gotcha" laws that are justified because "green energy" (but not nuclear) is such a great good thing that all other issues must bow to it.
I may well have my priorities wrong. Maybe our country is weaker than I think. But this is the way I see it.
I will disagree that we will be just fine regardless of...whatever. We are not fine and the amount of money expended on completely ridiculous control economy policies (I have decided I don't want my tax dollars to pay for some jackass's EV so where do I go to get that back from Biden's brigade of agency flunkies?) is certainly not ok. Chevron was bounced because of dramatic overreach by Federal agency law creation, but it only goes so far. Student loan bailouts, Clean Air overreach, oil lease removals, pipeline cancellations, it goes on and on.
I will not say that Trump won't have all manner of dumb policies, but in the hands of Democrats, the New Deal is now the Hunger Games with all of the crazy people in cities squeezing the life, freedoms, and money out of their country cousins.
Meredith, like you, I have been worrying about administrative state in Wash DC. I started lobbying there in 2002, so I have witnessed the peopling of many regulatory agencies. I think the termination of the Chevron Deference will unravel all the rule making of the last 6 months.
The group for energy sanity is getting powerful and likely get even more so. Keep up your great work. We need your grid knowledge.
Thank you, Stephen!
Hi @Meredith. Thank you for building on my post about the latest slip down the slippery slope. I don't think your thesis hyperbolic at all. Whilst clearly not a full-blown police-state, the "thought police" have been active across academia, media and even politics in many "liberal democracies". We see it in Energy Policy and its interface with Env/Clima - but it is a many-headed hydra. I fear that as the Net Zero dream dies by a thousand cuts of physics and public opinion, so those most vested in it will continue down the path of increasing authoritarianinsm. The end justifies the means after all... just like the purity of the communist regime did. The stunning lack of self-awareness of "liberals" who become illiberal autocrats when their echo chamber says they hold the truth...
As per @Ed Newman's comment - the film "The Lives of Others" is highly recomended. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/ . It is only watchable from the relative safety of time and distance, otherwise it is too scary.
Thank you for your comments and well-chosen examples. Hats off to your daughter. Julia. There is also the problem of powerful state bureaucracies such as the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) having absolute power and huge budgets - regarding California energy policies. There is no CPUC inspector general to investigate waste, fraud, and abuse. There is no guaranteed appellate pathway for Parties whose interests have been harmed by a CPUC Decision. Californians for Green Nuclear Power https://CGNP.org has been harmed by both of these shortcomings. Sadly, "Absolute power corrupts absolutely."
Thank you!
Love your work. Your Stasi metaphor is (frightfully) right on.
Have you seen the film The Lives of Others? https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0405094/
The current trends are anti-business, no holds barred. This really is a batte for the future of both Capitalism and Demcracy. Much more can be said but your piece is a good start.
May your influence continue to expand.
Thank you, Ed. I have not seen the film. Sounds like I should see it!
Very good film.
I and my six completely real friends file a complaint that every individual's respiration is a net emission of CO2 and pray to the judiciary to redress this breach of justice by outlawing respiration.
Your move, Lady Justice.
I visited the Stasi Museum in Leipzig a few years after the Einheit. The most lasting memory: the library of smells. The Stasi would maintain jars of swatches from anything persons of interest had touched, hoping to catalog their odors for future accusations.
I may have to amend my statement that Google has more information on most people than the Stasi did!
Wow!
Interestingly, long before other drug scandals became front page news, the East Germans also led the way with their doping of athletes. This was particularly highlighted in women’s swimming in the 1976 Olympics. I will refrain from further comment regarding the parallels with the green energy transition:
“While East Germany’s wrecking ball of a women’s team dominated for more than a decade through the 1970s and into the ’80s, the most devastating single event during which the East Germans defrauded the athletic process proved to be the 1976 Montreal Games. Not only were their cries from critics about the East German’s masculinity, but these cries were also turned into attacks on the victims, calling them sore losers.
One of the most vilified of the victims proved to be Shirley Babashoff, who went on to be tagged with the moniker, “Surly Shirley,” due to her loud complaints. Learning her lesson, Babashoff fell silent about the East Germans for three decades–until 2007.”
Exactly!
Meredith, There can be no democracy in a post truth world. There can be no scientific standards set when no one can agree on cause an effect.
Excellent piece. As a Canadian I will add that the law passed as you described was originally proposed as a private members bill by a retiring NDP, socialist, member. The original bill went into the territory of individual responsibility as well as corporate responsibility. It drew scorn and denial. It wound up, slightly rephrased so as to stay on the evil corporation side, as part of an omnibus bill at the end of the parliamentary session. No debate. No discussion. Our common knowledge tells us continually that democracy is at stake. It is, from everyone who tells us that or uses that line. We have another bill which has not gone through yet, C-63 an online hate bill where every person can report hate speech online, or the potential for hate speech to an unelected tribunal with no recourse to our legal system. The tribunal adjudicates with the complainant staying 100% anonymous. Complainants can be awarded $20,000 in damages. The "perpetrator" does not face the accuser, pays the 20k to the accuser, the government can get an additional $50,000 top up with the perpetrator also subject to prison terms and or house arrest in the situation where the accuser thinks hate speech might happen in the future. When this passes, no doubt it will, Canada will be Stasi in it's entirety. I have already seen activists on X in Canada saying just wait until I can C-63 you. And yet the governing party and elite all talk about the need to protect our democracy, which means so long as you say and do exactly as they say.
I think I speak for most of the class:
Meredith 2024!
Thank you. 🙏🏻
I agree that the policies you point out are bad, but I still worry more for our future (and my extended family's very existence) should Trump get in office than I do about a few bad energy policies.
For example, when I see MAGA Republicans concur with Trump that Hispanic immigrants are "vermin" that are "poisoning the blood of our country", and that the 12 million "illegal" ones need to be sent to detention camps and then deported, I see cruelty and suffering planned on an unimaginable scale, not quite comparable to the bad policies you point out. And if we simply substitute "Jews" for "illegals", the rhetoric of Trump mirrors that of Hitler. Illegals are "rapists, drug dealers, and murders" that are "ruining our country" (and are apparently not the hard working people I see every day in the fields and elsewhere that do the jobs Americans don't want to do and who help keep our economy humming along and help keep prices low for everyone).
And since that same MAGA Republican party explicitly refuses to accept the results of elections run, controlled and verified (many times over) by Republicans themselves--without evidence (at least, I've never been able to verify even one claim that the election was rigged)--we can expect a repeat this fall should Trump lose. And this time he may succeed at overturning a democratic election and we may have an unelected head of state who fancies himself a tough guy and and greatly admires Putin, Xi, Kim, and so on while disparaging NATO leaders and who very publicly calls out his desire for retribution and military tribunals to pay back all those who have stood in his way.
So I can't say I understand your priorities, though I appreciate the good work you do.
Stephen,
Thank you for this thoughtful post. I appreciate your work , too! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1k-Eb303opg
My point was that our republic is strong enough to put up with whoever is in the White House. And whatever any party says about elections.
I worry more about "gotcha" laws that are justified because "green energy" (but not nuclear) is such a great good thing that all other issues must bow to it.
I may well have my priorities wrong. Maybe our country is weaker than I think. But this is the way I see it.
Meredith
I will disagree that we will be just fine regardless of...whatever. We are not fine and the amount of money expended on completely ridiculous control economy policies (I have decided I don't want my tax dollars to pay for some jackass's EV so where do I go to get that back from Biden's brigade of agency flunkies?) is certainly not ok. Chevron was bounced because of dramatic overreach by Federal agency law creation, but it only goes so far. Student loan bailouts, Clean Air overreach, oil lease removals, pipeline cancellations, it goes on and on.
I will not say that Trump won't have all manner of dumb policies, but in the hands of Democrats, the New Deal is now the Hunger Games with all of the crazy people in cities squeezing the life, freedoms, and money out of their country cousins.