View this email in your browser
11/23/2021

Energy Realism this past week focused on the failures of COP26 and the need for real climate solutions, i.e., ones that can provide reliable and affordable energy.  

Our Senior Fellow Rupert Darwall gets us started by seeing the COP21 climate summit in Glasgow for exactly what it was: a strategic defeat for the West, and for Britain in particular. Boris Johnson, the royal family, and the Foreign Office unleashed everything they could muster but the result was a clear display of rank amateurishness. Vijay Jayaraj follows by also analyzing the poor performance of the hometown team. As hosts of the Glasgow COP26 climate conference, UK leaders were models for the meeting’s steady stream of misinformation and fearmongering that came from the likes of Barack Obama and Greta Thunberg. The billions of energy-starved humans across the globe deserve so much better.

The “only wind, only solar” mantra coming from many “environmentalists” is obviously impractical and a solution for nothing. Thankfully, Dan Byers reports that this COP was the first where nuclear energy had a chair at the table, where it was considered and exchanged without the ideological burden that existed before. Yet, not just impossibility obsessed with unreliable renewables, too many “climate activists” continue to demand the retrograde path of climate lawsuits, not real energy-climate answers like nuclear power. Jeffrey Kupfer wants us to be looking forward, not backward, since demonizing and seeking damages from traditional energy companies does nothing to encourage innovation, nothing to transform the energy mix, and nothing to change government policy.

Supplying nearly 65% of the world’s energy, we do know that oil and gas will remain integral. And for sure, there is room for the industry to continue to become cleaner. Chris Romer’s business works with such players to lower their methane emissions to enhance the ESG standing. While renewables and batteries have made incredible advances, we must remain realistic: cleaner natural gas is the real “go-to fuel” because it provides the dense and predictable energy that weather-dependent wind and solar simply cannot give us. 

In the News

Massive Gap Found Between Nations' Reporting, Actual Emissions: Analysis

Mychael Schnell, The Hill

Will Gasoline Prices Drop in 2022? It Depends on OPEC and U.S. Shale

Kelly et al., Reuters

As Smog Chokes Delhi, India Struggles to Ease Off Coal

DW

At COP 26, Scant Mention of Those Dying From Extreme Energy Poverty

Robert Bryce, Forbes

CLIMATE TAX: New Yorkers Fume as MTA Says It's Moving Ahead With Congestion Pricing

Marcia Kramer, CBS New York

Biden Urges FTC to Probe Gasoline Market With Prices Up 50%

Jennifer Epstein, Yahoo Finance

The SEC’s Curious Handling of the Proxy Advisor Rule Undermines Its Independent Status

Ike Brannon, Forbes

If You Read It in the Mainstream Media, It's Wrong. Plastics Edition.

Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian

Food Prices Continue to Rise Heading to Thanksgiving

WLFI

Activist Investor Push to End Coal Mining Is Backfiring

Yahoo Finance

Keeping California’s Last Nuclear Power Plant Open Could Help State Meet Its Climate Goals

Rob Nikolewski, Los Angeles Times

The U.S. Shale Patch Is Back in Growth Mode

Tsvetana Paraskova, Oil Price

'Useful Idiots' Let China Off the Hook for Coal

David Rose, Daily Mail

Shell Ditches the Dutch and Moves HQ to London

CNN

Be Thankful That COP26 Has Ended

Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian

Multimedia

ESG Investing Doesn't Work: Former BlackRock CIO

CNBC Television

Tariq Fancy, The Rumie Initiative founder and CEO and former BlackRock chief investment officer, joins 'Power Lunch' to discuss why he says that ESG metrics are not useful for invest...

Arnold Schwarzenegger Calls Leaders 'Liars' Over Climate Change

BBC News

Actor and former governor of California, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has become a champion of clean air and renewable energy, and speaks powerfully about tackling climate issues.  

COP26: Bill Gates Says Climate Impacts Will 'Only Get Worse'

Sky News

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates says that mitigating global warming is not the only job of global leaders over the next few decades. 

U.S. and China Announce Surprise Climate Action Deal at COP26

CBS News

In a show of solidarity at the climate summit in Glasgow, the world's biggest carbon emitters announced a deal to combat climate change. CBS News' Natalie Brand reports from the Whit...

COP26 Ends With Deal, But Frustration Over Watered Down Coal Commitment

Guardian News

The Cop26 climate conference finally came to a close on Saturday evening, as delegates agreed a package after days of tortuous negotiations. However, there was disappointment when a ...

Rich Countries Accused of Failing at COP26

WION

The final day at the climate summit has received mixed reactions from the international community. The change was met by dismay by the rich economies of the European Union as well as...

Having trouble viewing this email? | [Unsubscribe] | Update Subscription Preferences 

You receiving this email because your address is in the Energy Realism list from https://www.realclearpublicaffairs.com/.

Copyright © 2021 RealClearHoldings, All rights reserved.
RealClearHoldings
666 Dundee Road
Bldg. 600
Northbrook, IL 60062