| Energy Realism this past week hit the massive divisions in energy policy and why affordability must be the centerpiece consideration. We are seeing this play out in real-time, more expensive and less reliable renewables and electric cars are more of a train wreck than a climate panacea. Our Senior Fellow Rupert Darwall got us started: ESG and anti-market ideology is a growing presence among some conservatives. This month, conservative critics of environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing had something of a surprise – an almost-simultaneous attack on their views from both Left and Right mounting remarkably similar arguments. A huge part of the ESG love affair, of course, is the obsession over highly expensive and hardly “clean” electric cars. Duggan Flanakin makes clear that rosy predictions for purchases are simply impossible to ever pan out. It truly is a numbers game in favor of oil-based cars, and just check what is now happening in Wyoming, where the pushback on EVs is likely to serve as an example for others. What is clear is that electrification is a technology chosen by politicians, not by industry. And as explained by Ben Lieberman, we also see a Red-Blue state division on natural gas equipment, such as stoves, water heaters, and furnaces powered by our second most important fuel. There’s no doubt that the Biden Administration is fully on board with the “climate activist” community’s war on the natural gas industry. But this is really an attack on the poor and less well-off the most, with absolutely no “climate benefits” whatsoever. Gas equipment is far cheaper than those running on electricity. Indeed, Vijay Jayaraj exposes the hypocrisy of the anti-fossil fuelers who devour huge amounts of fossil fuels every day yet somehow still publicly oppose them. They surely are utterly ignorant of the extent to which their lives are dependent on fossil fuels. They surely do not know that more than 90% of things used in their lives are derived from fossil fuels? Our Essential Reading of the week must then come from the Cato Institute’s most accurate report: “How Fossil Fuels Saved Humanity from Nature and Nature from Humanity.” In the News Clarence ‘Bud’ Albright, RealClearEnergy Ben Lieberman, RealClearEnergy Ron DeSantis Terrence Keeley, National Review Nasdaq Alex Kimani, Oil Price Cortney O'Brien, Fox News Yahoo Finance YN Sibi Arasu, AP Lindsay Schneider, RBN Energy Peter Caddle, Breitbart Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Daily Signal Leana Hosea, BBC Nate DiCamillo, Quartz Chris Wright Five commonly used words around Energy and Climate that are both deceptive and destructive: climate crisis, energy transition, carbon pollution, clean energy, and dirty energy. Fox Business Rep. Adrian Smith, R-Neb., discusses the Republicans' response to the debt limit, Fed Gov. Brainard's response on high interest rates and the Republicans' SPR bill. BBC News Sustainable, eco-friendly or ethical - the terms are everywhere in advertising but what do they actually mean? Guardian News Greta Thunberg joined a panel of climate activists in Davos to debate the environmental crisis with the executive director of the International Energy Agency. Fox Business Marc Short, former chief of staff to VP Pence, discusses the fallout from classified documents being found at Biden's think tank, Rep. Kevin McCarthy's speakership role and JPMorgan ... | 
