More Fracking, or More War?
Kevin D. Williamson, National Review, September 22, 2019
Here is a news lead that begins with a bang and ends with a whimper: “The strike on the heartland of Saudi Arabia’s oil industry, including damage to the world’s biggest petroleum processing industry, has driven oil prices to their highest level in” — here, Reuters should have used some ellipses for irony — “nearly four months.” FOUR MONTHS!
If the United States declines to go to war against Iran on behalf of Saudi Arabia, our increasingly troublesome client state, one of the reasons for that happy development will be: because we do not need to. It is no longer the case that the world sneezes when the Saudis catch a cold.
Greta Thunberg Leads Young People in Climate Complaint to UN
Bloomberg, September 23, 2019
- 16 children accuse France, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, and Turkey of ignoring climate science
- United Nations panel will now determine whether complaint is actionable
A group of 16 children, including Swedish activist Greta Thunberg, filed a legal complaint with the United Nations Sept. 23, accusing five countries of not doing enough to combat climate change. The panel to which the children are appealing, the U.N. Committee on the Rights of the Child, will now determine whether the complaint is actionable. If so, it will ask France, Germany, Brazil, Argentina, and Turkey to respond. Its suggestions aren’t legally binding. The children, ranging in age from eight to 17, say those five nations have known about the risks of climate change for decades, but aren’t curbing emissions and are continuing to promote fossil fuels.
Our Take: While media around the world fawned over Greta, they ignored other young climate leaders testifying before Congress from the American Conservation Coalition. The American Conservation Coalition (ACC) is a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization dedicated to educating and empowering conservatives to re-engage on environmental conversations. ACC was founded in June 2017 by a group of conservative millennials who saw a gap in the conservative movement when it came to the environment. ACC believes that economic and environmental success can go hand in hand, and conservatives should champion this message and take a seat at the table in discussions concerning conservation, clean energy, sportsmen’s rights, agriculture, climate, and much more. Where other environmental groups have disenfranchised those who are right-of-center, ACC seeks to activate the conservative movement on the grassroots, state, and federal levels — bringing forth bipartisan discussions on environmental topics that impact us all. Check them out at www.acc.eco.com.
Oil Companies, Pushed to Address Climate, Disagree on How
Rebecca Elliot & Bradley Olson, The Wall Street Journal, September 22, 2019
The world’s largest oil-and-gas producers are in general agreement on reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from their drilling sites, pipelines and other operations. The companies have set targets to curb releases of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, for example. They have also discussed new initiatives tied to removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and reducing emissions from industries such as shipping, according to people familiar with the matter. But there is friction among some of the companies over whether to commit to reducing greenhouse-gas emissions from the oil byproducts they sell, such as gasoline. These releases constitute roughly 88% of major oil-and-gas companies’ greenhouse-gas footprint, according to estimates from Redburn, a London-based research firm.
Related:
Oil CEOs push carbon-capture efforts ahead of climate talks
