Yesterday, I of course watched the hearing. It doesn’t appear there will be another this week, but rather probably next week. The last two witnesses today were, I thought, impressive, although who knows what it takes to impress MAGAts. It’s not exactly the Committee’s mission to address political violence in general (as opposed to political violence in the service of Trump**) in the hearings, but I certainly hope it will be addressed as they draft legislation. Political violence at low levels (i.e., without a dominant leader common to the groups involved) can lead to fascismut as surely as a narcissistic ambitious dictator can. Besides the eharing, I didn’t do much else. I did a load of laundry comprising a few sweaters which are machine wash/dry flat and that’s about it.
Cartoon – This reminds me of an anecdote about a sweet elderly lady who had had massive surgeries bu never lost hersense of humor. She called one of her scars “Market Street.”
Short Takes –
Letters from an American – July 10, 2022
Quote – Democratic president Joe Biden appears to be centering his presidency around the idea of rebuilding the middle class through government investment in ordinary Americans. This is a major shift—a sea change—from the past 40 years of Republican policy saying that the economy would prosper if only the government slashed taxes and regulation, leaving more money and power in the hands of business leaders, those “makers” who would invest in new industries and provide more jobs. Watching the effect of his policies is a window into what works and what doesn’t. Click through for more, and why ir matters politically.
The 19th – What will happen if Obergefell is overturned? Queer legal experts are scrambling
Quote – A concurring opinion by Justice Clarence Thomas in the Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization case that ultimately overturned Roe indicates he wants to reexamine whether other rights based on substantive due process have been interpreted correctly. “In future cases, we should reconsider all of this Court’s substantive due process precedents,” Thomas wrote. Other opinions written by conservative justices show division over how the court should handle similar civil rights issues in the future. Click through for more legal thinking. Don’t forget Pastor Niemoller’s famous poem – no one is safe.
Experts in autocracies have pointed out that it is, unfortunately, easy to slip into normalizing the tyrant, hence it is important to hang on to outrage. These incidents which seem to call for the efforts of the Greek Furies (Erinyes) to come and deal with them will, I hope, help with that. As a reminder, though no one really knows how many there were supposed to be, the three names we have are Alecto, Megaera, and Tisiphone. These roughly translate as “unceasing,” “grudging,” and “vengeful destruction.”
Armies (and Navies etc.) are made up of human beings, and human beings need everything that all human beings need. This is almost simplistically obvious. But it also leads to the inference that almost anything can turn out to be vital to our national security – and therefore, the production of almost anything can be justifiably encouraged under the Defense Production Act. But inarguably, energy is right up there. To be secure as a nation, we need energy to keep our people from dying from harsh weather conditions (hi, Texas!) Also, in battle conditions, reliable sources of energy are needed to keep tanks moving and communications effective – to name just two of many reasons.
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President Joe Biden authorized use of the Defense Production Act to ramp up production of several climate-friendly technologies. Werner Slocum/NREL
Solar panels, heat pumps and hydrogen are all building blocks of a clean energy economy. But are they truly “essential to the national defense”?
President Joe Biden proclaimed that they are in early June when he authorized using the Defense Production Act to ramp up their production in the U.S., along with insulation and power grid components.
As an environmental engineering professor, I agree that these technologies are essential to mitigating our risks from climate change and overreliance on fossil fuels. However, efforts to expand production capabilities must be accompanied by policies to stimulate demand if Biden hopes to accelerate the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy.
Energy and the Defense Production Act
The United States enacted the Defense Production Act of 1950 at the start of the Korean War to secure materials deemed essential to national defense. Presidents soon recognized that essential materials extend far beyond weapons and ammunition. They have invoked the act to secure domestic supplies of everything from communications equipment to medical resources and baby formula.
For energy, past presidents used the act to expand fossil fuel supplies, not transition away from them. Lyndon Johnson used it to refurbish oil tankers during the 1967 Arab oil embargo, and Richard Nixon to secure materials for the Trans-Alaska oil pipeline in 1974. Even when Jimmy Carter used the act in 1980 to seek substitutes for oil, synthetic fuels made from coal and natural gas were a leading focus.
Today, the focus is on transitioning away from all fossil fuels, a move considered essential for confronting two key threats – climate change and volatile energy markets.
Utility-scale solar is now cheaper than fossil fuels. This installation is at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada. Ethan Miller/Getty Images
The Department of Defense has identified numerous national security risks arising from climate change. Those include threats to the water supply, food production and infrastructure, which may trigger migration and competition for scarce resources. Fossil fuels are the dominant source of greenhouse gas emissions that are driving global warming.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine highlights additional risks of relying on fossil fuels. Russia and other adversaries are among the leading producers of these fuels. Overreliance on fossil fuels leaves the United States and its allies vulnerable to threats and to price shocks in volatile markets.
Even as the world’s top producer of oil and natural gas, the United States has been rocked by price spikes as our allies shun Russian fuels.
Targeting 4 pillars of clean energy
Transitioning from fossil fuels to cleaner energy can mitigate these risks.
As I explain in my book, “Confronting Climate Gridlock,” building a clean energy economy requires four mutually reinforcing pillars – efficiency, clean electricity, electrification and clean fuels.
Efficiency shrinks energy demand and costs along with the burdens on the other pillars. Clean electricity eliminates greenhouse gas emissions from power plants and enables the electrification of vehicles, heating and industry. Meanwhile, clean fuels will be needed for airplanes, ships and industrial processes that can’t easily be electrified.
The technologies targeted by Biden’s actions are well aligned with these pillars.
Insulation is crucial to energy efficiency. Solar panels provide one of the cheapest and cleanest options for electricity. Power grid components are needed to integrate more wind and solar into the energy mix.
Heat pumps, which can both heat and cool a home, are far more efficient than traditional furnaces and replace natural gas or heating oil with electricity. Electrolyzers produce hydrogen for use as a fuel or a feedstock for chemicals.
Generating demand is essential
Production is only one step. For this effort to succeed, the U.S. must also ramp up demand.
Stimulating demand spurs learning by doing, which drives down costs, spurring greater demand. A virtuous cycle of rising adoption of technologies and falling costs can arise, as it has for wind and solar power, batteries and other technologies.
The technologies targeted by Biden differ in their readiness for this virtuous cycle to work.
Insulation is already cheap and abundantly produced domestically. What’s needed in this case are policies like building codes and incentives that can stimulate demand by encouraging more use of insulation to help make homes and buildings more energy efficient, not more capacity for production.
Electrolyzers face a tougher road. They’re expensive, and using them to make hydrogen from electricity and water for now costs far more than making hydrogen from natural gas – a process that produces greenhouse gas emissions. The Department of Energy aims to slash electrolyzer costs by 80% within a decade. Until it succeeds, there will be little demand for the electrolyzers that Biden hopes to see produced.
Why heat pumps are most likely to benefit
That leaves heat pumps as the technology most likely to benefit from Biden’s declaration.
Heat pumps can slash energy use, but they also cost more upfront and are unfamiliar to many contractors and consumers while technologies remain in flux.
Pairing use of the Defense Production Act with customer incentives, increased government purchasing and funding for research and development can create a virtuous cycle of rising demand, improving technologies and falling costs.
Heat pumps, which can both heat and cool, are far more efficient than traditional furnaces and air conditioning. Phyxter.ai/Flickr, CC BY
Clean energy is indeed essential to mitigating the risks posed by climate change and volatile markets. Invoking the Defense Production Act can bolster supply, but the government will also have to stimulate demand and fund targeted research to spur the virtuous cycles needed to accelerate the energy transition.
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AMT, It’s indeed true that increasing demand is vital to motivating increased production. And, as long as himans are resistant to change (which I assume will be true until the race becomes extinct), there will be challenges to replacing old technology with new. However, it has happened in the past. If our experience with the automobile is any guide, that means that producers are going to have to accept smaller profit margins than they are acustomed to – at least for a while – at least until the new technologies are firmly established and production costs go down. It would also not hurt for income levels to go up – remember it was the New Deal with all its effects, as well as unions, which actually turned us all into consumers – and gave us the ability to keep up consumption. Wealthy oligarchs were not happy with it then, and they won’t be happy with it now. But if wealthy oligarchs don’t capitulate and start to “bite the bullet” soon, they will end up with no customers and will lose everything.
Yesterday, I started the day with computer issues. I got in to two web pages, but couldn’t open any more with out 403 errors (“not authotized.) I rebooted the modem – nothing. I used CCleaner’s “Health Check” – nothing. I rebooted the computer and that finally solved the issue. but it took between one and two hours. Obviously I got in and got things done (grumbling all the way.)I figured I needed a little pampering after that, so spent some time goofing off.
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
Robert Reich – Trumpism and the myth of the “free market”
Quote – Today, I look at what’s happened to wealth and power, and how the dramatic consolidation of both at the top of America continues to fuel Trumpism. Wealth and power are inseparable. Democracy depends on the support of a large and growing middle class that shares a nation’s growing wealth — and through that wealth, its power. Click through for Part 2 of “The Roots of Trumpism.” I don’t know how many parts there will be (he may not know yet himself.)
Wonkette – Supreme Court Kills Tribal Sovereignty Too In Case You Thought It Was Just ‘Women’ And ‘Classrooms Of Kids’
Quote – As with other SCOTUS decisions this term, Wednesday’s decision in Oklahoma v. Castro-Huerta hinged on Donald Trump’s addition of one more rightwing jerk to the court. In 2020, Ruth Bader Ginsburg was still around to join the majority in McGirt, but this week, Amy Coney Barrett joined four other rightwing justices to roll back McGirt in a serious way. This time around, Gorsuch wrote a very angry dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan, Sonia Sotomayor, and Stephen Breyer. At issue in this case was a matter that had long been treated as settled law: What power do states have in criminal cases involving non-Indians? (We’re going to use that dubious antiquated word more than we usually do, following the usage of the Court and some prominent Native American legal writers. Usage is always evolving, unless you’re talking federal courts, right?) Click through for article. Amazing, I know, but apparently Gorsuch’s pro-Native-American stance is real. This is the second highly publicized decision where he has been on the right side. But he wasn’t enough.
Yesterday, a bit of rain cooled us off a little (and today a cloudy dayis supposed to do even more. We shall see.) There was not a lot of email, so I took the Smithsonian’s Father’s Day “Pop Quiz” (is that a “dad joke” or what?) getting only two out of six. As a former costumer, I probably should have gotten the one on neckties, but I outsmarted myself with my general rule “It always happened earlier than you think it did.” This time it didn’t. This link may work if anyone want’s to try their luck. And I looked through July cartoons and determined I can use enugh from 2014 tha I only need to make 8. Generally, it was a calm day after a frenetic week (and I’m not the only one saying that. Two hearings was overwhelming for many of us who follow politics. But I really can’t wish for fewer in the weeks ahead. Let’s get this done.)
Also, Freya finished and posted the “Sound Off” she’s been eorking on yesterday, here at this link. Don’t miss it. (You can also look down at the bottom of the page, under the comments to the left, and click on the title there, if that’s easier.)
Cartoon –
Short Takes –
HuffPost – Sonia Sotomayor Reassures Liberals As Conservative Decisions Loom
Quote – “When we, as institutions, have made mistakes,” Sotomayor said. “Other parts of the branches [of government]” and “the people have worked to make change. “Dred Scott lost his 11-year battle for freedom,” she said. And yet, with the decision in Brown, “He won the war. That’s why I think we have to have continuing faith in our court system, in our system of government,” she added, noting that that the system allows for constitutional amendments and legislation to address outcomes like Dred Scott. Click through for more from her speech, and also for a little of what wasn’t in her speech. I absolutely agree we cannot give up.
Robert Reich – The Fed’s big mistake
Quote – I understand the Fed’s urgency, but it has entered dangerous territory. If the Fed continues down this path – as it has signaled it will – the economy will be plunged into a recession. Every time over the last half century the Fed has raised interest rates this much and this quickly, it has caused a recession. Besides, interest rate increases will not remedy the major causes of the current inflation – huge pent-up worldwide demand from two years of pandemic, shortages of goods and services responding to that demand, Putin’s war in Ukraine, and big profitable corporations with enough pricing power to use inflation as a cover for pushing up prices even further. Click through for full argument. It’s deja vu all over again for those our age.
Yesterday, I spent as much as I could of the day preparing for today. Making sure I had a bottle of ice frozen (in order to have cold water on the way back, and yes, I keep it in an insulated bag, but it still melts some), printing out the compulsory form (pre-filled, because it is way too small to struggle with every time), lining up clothes including shoes (my feet are not just flat as they were when I was on active duty – they now qualify as “deformed” and there are a lot of shoes I can’t walk in, and I do have to walk to the car and then stand loneg enough to get the wheelchair in and out), and just generally being prepared. If any regular reader notics we are a bit low on comments, yes, we are, but it’s temporary. I’m on the road, Pat’s with a family member, and Nameless has out-of-state visitors. I will get to everything eventually to respond (or at least uprate), but I don’t think everyone does. Which is fine.
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Short Takes –
Robert Reich – What you really need to know about the likelihood of a recession
Quote – Last Friday, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its May Consumer Price Index (CPI) report, which showed inflation worsening. Yet the bigger story — and bigger worry — is not inflation. It’s the distinct possibility of recession. Or perhaps both (what’s termed “stagflation.”) Here are the questions I’m getting asked most often, and my answers. Click through for questions and answers. Given that the “inflation” is mostly artificially induced by price gouging, those same parties will likely also be responsible for a recession or stagflation. But they’ll get away with it – again.
CPR – Supreme Court: Native Americans prosecuted in tribal courts can be tried by federal government for same offense
Quote – The case before the justices involves a tribal court system that has become increasingly rare over the last century. Courts of Indian Offenses were created in the late 1800s during a period when the federal government’s policy toward Native Americans was to encourage assimilation. Prosecutors are federal officers answerable to federal authorities, not tribal authorities. Federal policy toward Native Americans shifted in the mid-1930s, however, to emphasize a greater respect for tribes’ native ways. As part of that, the government has encouraged tribes to create their own tribal courts, and the number of Courts of Indian Offenses has steadily decreased. Click through for story. There is a lot going on here – history, culture, definitions of sovereign nations, and more. I can certainly see why the case made it all the way to SCOTUS. Whether the decision is right, I’m not so sure.
Glenn Kirschner – Jim Jordan does Elon Musk’s bidding, sends “preservation letter” demands to Twitter board members
Thom Hartmann – Why Canceling Student Debt Can Save America & Get Out The Vote (His last vid ended with a cliff hanger, so I kind of had to post this one)
Twitter – Never forget
Never forget the time John McCain said Rand Paul works for Putin on the Senate floor because it’s still true to this day pic.twitter.com/uXJKEPOrM6
— Wu-Tang Is For The Children (@WUTangKids) April 26, 2022
RepresentUs – Michael Douglas Thanks Missouri Better Elections Team
Crooks and Liars – Jimmy Kimmel Recommends A New Drug For Marge
Puppet Regime – Putin’s Friendship of No Limits
Beau – Let’s talk about Bishop Evans and Operation Lone Star….
