To endorse green energy is to be pro-slavery

 Anyone who demands we transition to green energy is endorsing slavery. Period. 

China is the largest single provider of most of the critical minerals and rare earths used around the globe, and is almost the only refiner of such products. This means minerals and rare earth elements mined elsewhere, often with Chinese funding, are shipped to China for processing into usable materials. Much of the mining and refining of materials in China is produced by forced or slave labor, often of persecuted religious minorities, like Falun Gong followers and Uighurs.

To be clear, those pushing Net Zero goals, like Democrats in Congress, green energy elites profiting from government support in the form of mandates and subsidies, and the Biden administration, know child- and slave-labor are used to produce the minerals their green technologies depend upon. They claim to care about human rights, but their actions belie their words.

Child labour, toxic leaks: the price we could pay for a greener future:

But scientists warn there will be an environmental price to pay for this drive to create a world powered by green technology. Prospecting for the materials to construct these devices, then mining them, could have very serious ecological consequences and major impacts on biodiversity, they say.

“The move towards net zero carbon emissions is going to create new stresses on our planet, at least in the short term,” said Prof Richard Herrington, head of earth sciences at the Natural History Museum, London. “We are going to have to learn how to consider profit and loss with regard to ecosystems just as we do now when we are considering economic issues.”

Metals such as lithium and cobalt provide examples of the awkward issues that lie ahead, said Herrington. Both elements are needed to make lightweight rechargeable batteries for electric cars and for storing power from wind and solar plants. Their production is likely to increase significantly over the next decade – and that could cause serious ecological problems.

In the case of cobalt, 60% of the world’s supply comes from the Democratic Republic of the Congo where large numbers of unregulated mines use children as young as seven as miners. There they breathe in cobalt-laden dust that can cause fatal lung ailments while working tunnels that are liable to collapse.

All of this has been documented so much over the years by so many organizations that "I didn't know" is as morally empty as can be. If you endorse using green energy what you are really saying about slavery is that you do know, but you do not care. 

Biden begs Texas to secede

President Joe Biden today begged Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to lead Texas to secede from the United States a second time, promising that this time the secession will not be met with military resistance. 

An historic phone call about the energy future of the United States.

In a phone call late Tuesday afternoon, according to White House press agent Jen Psaki, President Biden explained to Gov. Abbott that because he has promised the Green left wing of his party never to allow increased oil production in the United States, his administration has been forced to beg Iran and Venezuela to sell oil to US refiners.

"Furthermore," said Ms. Psaki, "even Democrat members of Congress were willing to force through a vote mandating a ban on importing oil from Russia over the president's objections." 

Unable to authorize increasing domestic oil production, and finding no foreign producer would sell (or sell more) oil to America, the president had no choice but to create a new foreign producer who would provide additional oil capacity to American who are shocked by record-breaking pump prices. 

Hence the call to Texas Gov. Abbott, begging him to energize secessionists in Texas to re-establish the independent Republic of Texas and begin immediately to increase Texan oil production and sell directly to American refiners. 

"Then," explained Ms. Psaki, "the president can truthfully say that he held the line on crushing America's oil industry while filling the near-term needs with foreign sourcing. It's win-win for everyone!"

Gov. Abbott was not available for comment as we went to press. Texas' only prior secession lasted from 1861-1865 and did not turn out well for the state. 

Please note that this is a humor and satire post!

Gasoline economics for panic hoarders

Dear people who filled up a dozen or more five-gallon cans with gasoline - or filled plastic plastic household tub-storage containers (that, too) or plain buckets - please permit me to give a lesson in commodity economics.

Yes, gasoline is a commodity. Its pricing is based on demand, actually, more on anticipated demand than present demand. Gasoline and other petroleum products are traded on worldwide exchanges. Prices on these "spot markets" can be very volatile. 

Like all commodities, pump prices of gasoline are set according to anticipated replacement cost. When the spot-market price rises, gas stations raise pump prices. You may not realize it but the pump price includes not much profit for the station, so they have to get enough revenue from each delivery to pay for the next one. 

While gasoline has its own spot market, raw petroleum is far more widely traded because it is the source, of course, of gasoline to begin with. Contrary to what you must have thought, the rise in fuel prices the past week was not due to the shutdown of the Colonial Pipeline. It was because petroleum spot market prices went sharply upward. Here is the five-day graph:
 

This is the chart for the June 21 closing contract. It is a "futures" contract, as is typical of commodities. This means that the contract closes on June 21 and whoever still owns a bid on it better have a place to put 100,000 barrels of oil. And the money to pay for it. At today's price that would be $6,379,000. 

Note that about noon yesterday, a high price was reached for the last several days, actually the high since May 5, which was before the pipeline shutdown. Since then, gasoline prices have risen because of the spot price of petroleum rose, not because of Colonial's pipeline problems and not because you panic buyers and hoarders started filling up every container you could with gas. 

And now, merely coincidentally with Colonial starting the pipeline again, oil and gasoline prices are falling - more than four percent since noon yesterday. 

There is now no market for all those five-gallon cans full of over-priced gas that you were planning to sell later for what, 10 bucks per gallon or more? So while everyone else is driving around on much cheaper gas, you will have to use those cans, full of over-market-priced gas, to power your own car or truck. You can't let it sit because gasoline "spoils" after several weeks, actually starts to oxidize just sitting there. "Oxidize" is how fuel chemists say "burns." That's right, gasoline will start on it own to react to the oxygen in the air, and will over time be significantly degraded as an engine fuel. 

So you will literally have to burn money by using that high-priced gas. Without knowing it, you took a mini-course in commodities trading. And lost, big time. 

Please make sure the lesson sticks! 

End on a humor break: