From THE DAILY CALLER

Nick Pope
Contributor

Forty-five GOP lawmakers are demanding answers from the Department of Energy (DOE) after a government watchdog group accused the agency of covering up a key study that would have interfered with one of the Biden-Harris administration’s most aggressive crackdowns on fossil fuels.

The lawmakers wrote to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Thursday to address a watchdog’s allegations that her agency conducted or drafted — and then quietly buried — a study on the emissions impacts of liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports in 2023 before pausing approvals for certain LNG export terminals in January on the grounds that the agency needed to conduct such a review. Government Accountability and Oversight (GAO), the watchdog making the allegations, is suing the agency under public records law to obtain the thousands of pages DOE concedes may fit GAO’s specific request searching for the 2023 study that the agency allegedly buried because it was producing politically inconvenient conclusions, as first reported by the Daily Caller News Foundation.

“The Biden-Harris Administration’s attempt to conceal its findings on liquefied natural gas impacts is troubling. Despite evidence that U.S. LNG benefits both the economy and global energy security, the Department of Energy has imposed an indefinite ban on LNG exports to non-free trade agreement countries without legal justification,” Republican Texas Rep. August Pfluger, who led the letter, said in a statement shared with the DCNF. “The lack of transparency from DOE on existing studies, as well as the motivation behind the ongoing study, is unacceptable. The American people deserve accountability on the decision-making process surrounding our energy future.” (RELATED: Qatar Expanding Natural Gas Export Capacity After Biden Admin Paused New Hub Approvals)

DOE Letter re: LNG studies, GAO accusations by Nick Pope on Scribd

https://www.scribd.com/embeds/783937852/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-A6V3BGWxOtspoJBAkYTD

If GAO’s allegations are ultimately substantiated, the Biden-Harris administration effectively misled the public in an election year to set up a policy that hurts American geopolitical interests and disincentivizes investment in major energy projects. However, the deep-pocketed environmentalist lobby aligning with Democrats in the 2024 election cycle celebrated the policy.

The lawmakers’ letter specifically asks Granholm to clarify whether the agency conducted any analysis of LNG exports’ emissions impacts before the Jan. 26 announcement of the freeze on approvals for LNG export terminals seeking to ship gas to non-free trade agreement (FTA) countries. The legislators also asked Granholm to detail whether top DOE officials or White House personnel ever received updates about such an analysis, even if preliminary, in the first ten months of 2023, as well as whether the agency still intends to publish its findings in January 2025.

“DOE is in receipt of this letter and is reviewing it,” an agency spokesperson said in a statement shared with the DCNF. “DOE’s process to update the analyses that informs its review of applications to authorize exports of US natural gas to non-free trade agreement countries is well underway. When the updated analyses are ready, we will publish them for the public to review and provide comment.”

The lawmakers gave Granholm until Nov. 8 to respond to their inquiry. Republican Reps. Darrell Issa of California, Dan Crenshaw of Texas, Harriet Hageman of Wyoming, Lance Gooden of Texas and Buddy Carter of Georgia joined Pfluger as signatories, among others.

Notably, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee sent its own letter to Granholm on Wednesday demanding answers about the same exact issue.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

via Watts Up With That?

https://ift.tt/1D7VJhB

October 27, 2024 at 08:05AM

via Watts Up With That?

https://ift.tt/IAN3bik

October 27, 2024 at 04:03AM

By Paul Homewood

A mother said her family was "lucky to have got out safely" after their parked electric car exploded and engulfed their house in flames.

Georgina Bayliss from Spratton, Northamptonshire, said their Mercedes EQA had been parked outside their house for several hours before the explosion.

She said her younger son had seen flames around the front of the house and thought the rest of the family and their five dogs were still inside.

Mercedes-Benz UK said it was carrying out an investigation.

Mrs Bayliss’s husband Scott, 47, explained how his eldest son, James, 17, raised the alarm at 21:15 BST after he heard a loud bang and thought it was fireworks.

"The pace and ferocity at which the fire took hold and engulfed the entire car and pretty much the entire front of our house was scary beyond belief," he said.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy5l46l2vdxo

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

https://ift.tt/FjelORv

October 27, 2024 at 04:01AM

Does anyone seriously think any of these demands will be met? They’ve all been made before and the CO2 graph continues its steady rise, while assorted predictions of climate mayhem fail to show up. Some nations have swallowed the net zero dogma but many more haven’t, making increasing use of coal, gas and oil to grow their economies. The steady drip-drip of UN-led alarmism isn’t going to deter them.
– – –
Nations must collectively commit to cutting 42% off annual greenhouse gas emissions by 2030 and 57% by 2035 in the next round of Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), says UNEP (via Phys.org)—and back this up with rapid action—or the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C goal will be gone within a few years, according to a new UN Environment Program (UNEP) report.

Updated NDCs are to be submitted early next year ahead of the COP30 climate talks in Brazil. UNEP’s “Emissions Gap Report 2024: No more hot air … please!” finds that a failure to increase ambition in these new NDCs and start delivering immediately would put the world on course for a temperature increase of 2.6°C–3.1°C over the course of this century.

This would bring debilitating impacts to people, planet and economies.

The 2.6°C scenario is based on the full implementation of current unconditional and conditional NDCs. Implementing only current unconditional NDCs would lead to 2.8°C of warming.

Continuing with current policies only would lead to 3.1°C of warming. Under these scenarios—which all operate on a probability of over 66%—temperatures would continue to rise into the next century.

Adding additional net-zero pledges to full implementation of unconditional and conditional NDCs could limit global warming to 1.9°C, but there is currently low confidence in the implementation of these net-zero pledges.
. . .
The report also looks at what it would take to get on track to limiting global warming to below 2°C. For this pathway, emissions must fall 28% by 2030 and 37% from 2019 levels by 2035—the new milestone year to be included in the next NDCs.

“Climate crunch time is here. We need global mobilization on a scale and pace never seen before—starting right now, before the next round of climate pledges—or the 1.5°C goal will soon be dead and well below 2°C will take its place in the intensive care unit,” said Inger Andersen, Executive Director of UNEP.

“I urge every nation: no more hot air, please. Use the upcoming COP29 talks in Baku, Azerbaijan, to increase action now, set the stage for stronger NDCs, and then go all-out to get on a 1.5°C pathway.

“Even if the world overshoots 1.5°C—and the chances of this happening are increasing every day—we must keep striving for a net-zero, sustainable and prosperous world. Every fraction of a degree avoided counts in terms of lives saved, economies protected, damages avoided, biodiversity conserved and the ability to rapidly bring down any temperature overshoot.”

The consequences of delayed action are also highlighted by the report.

Full article here.
– – –
Image: Thermometer with Fahrenheit and Celsius units [credit: Stilfehler at Wikipedia]

via Tallbloke’s Talkshop

https://ift.tt/QiebsPO

October 27, 2024 at 03:39AM