Guest essay by Eric Worrall
h/t JoNova – Rep Donalds (R-FL) ripping into Congressional attempts to intimidate energy producers and violate their First Amendment rights, and explaining that China and Russia are not attending COP26 because they want to “build an economy”.
From Fox News;
Rep. Byron Donalds gives fiery speech to Dems defending First Amendment, energy producers
Donalds ripped what he called Democrats’ work to “intimidate” energy producers
Republican Rep. Byron Donalds excoriated Democrats on a House committee panel Thursday over their hostile questioning of oil executives regarding climate change and emissions.
“First of all, to the witnesses, the leaders of Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell. I know that the climate activists in Twitterworld, which Dave Chappelle says doesn’t exist, and he’s right; because it’s just people who have nothing better to do but type on their keyboards,” Donalds said during a House Committee on Oversight Reform hearing titled, “The Fossil Fuel Industry’s Climate Change Disinformation Campaign.”
“And we do it too here in Congress,” Donalds continued. “But let’s be very clear, you need an apology. Because what I witnessed here today was just rank intimidation by the Chair of this committee. Trying to get you to pledge on what you are going to spend your money on is a gross violation of the First Amendment.”
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Read more: https://www.foxnews.com/politics/rep-byron-donalds-gives-fiery-speech-to-dems-defending-first-amendment-energy-producers
Rep Donalds demonstrates an impressive grasp of the issues, explaining that if Democrats punish gas production, energy producers will go back to burning coal, and emissions will rise – because gas or coal are the only options.
A lot of power plants these days which burn coal actually turn the coal into a gas before burning it, so it is surprisingly straightforward to flip a modern gas generator back to burning coal, or vice versa, once the appropriate gassifier equipment is installed. No doubt utility companies are already preparing for the switch. If Biden’s democrats shut down the US gas industry, because of the climate methane scare or continued harassment of fracking, coal use will surge almost overnight.
One interesting trend, there appears to be a growing sentiment amongst Democrats that it is the job of fossil fuel companies to usher in the green revolution, rather than the job of government. After all oil companies are guilty of providing heat and power to millions “wrecking the planet”.
Maybe oil companies listened to their geologists rather than their climate modellers, geologists who would have told oil executives that for most of the Earth’s history CO2 levels were far higher than today. Life on our planet in the distant past didn’t suffer harm because of higher CO2 levels, quite the opposite.
But we all know listening to geologists is a mistake, because geologists rely on observations and chemical analysis of rock strata, rather than putting their faith in unskilled climate models. As the British MET once explained, “People underestimate the power of models. Observational evidence is not very useful“. Do I need a /sarc tag?
As for Rep Byron Donalds, very impressed. He’s smart, does his research, and is not afraid to speak his mind. Let’s just say after President Trump gets his second term, I would not be surprised if, sometime in the future, there will be another Donald knocking on the door of the White House.
To tell you the truth I would prefer that Byron Donalds becomes the Repubs candidate – because then all the racists that are running the Dems behind the scenes will come out in the open for all to see.
I would very likely vote for Donalds, but would most certainly not vote for Trump, who is an ignoramus, a blowhard, as well as a traitor.
Bruce,
I am always saddened to see someone allow anger and hatred fill their heart!
There was NEVER any credible evidence of Trump being a traitor; only a whole lot of claims that never quite panned out once the klieg lights died!
The FBI and Senate investigations couldn’t find any; although they did find that those who claimed to have some DENIED it once under oath! That should be a tell! Not even Robert Mueller and his pack of seventeen, angry, Democratic lawyers could find any credible dirt! They were relegated to slinging muddy innuendoes instead!
If you want to know the truth about the Russian Collusion Hoax, there a number of real journalists that have written about it. I particularly recommend John Solomon and Glenn Greenwald as truthtellers in this time of lies and propaganda! If you are going to direct your hatred at someone, do it for real reasons; like driving down energy costs while raising wages, or shutting down the southern border! Don’t do it based on the malicious gossip of the corrupted power players in DC!
“I am always saddened to see someone allow anger and hatred fill their heart!”
And to distort their judgement.
Thank you, for saying so and spot on!
President Trump was the first president in 40 years to put the USA first with his policies. But that somehow makes him a traitor? Sure he is a blowhard, what does that have to with his action? And he might use a limited vocabulary, but he is far from ignorant. Somehow he knows what is good for the country: Energy independence , securing the borders , projecting strength, and getting businesses back and running in the US.
…renegotiating trade deals that were contrary to your national interests, getting NATO partners to pay their agreed share, brokering landmark peace deals between arab states and Israel, engaging with North Korea to de-escalate regional tensions, yeah, he was a terrible President.
Daring to challenge a stolen election makes one a traitor.
He’s been more successful in life than you will ever be, the odds are that he’s a lot smarter than you as well.
He would get the Larry Elder treatment, who was called “the black face of white supremacy”. Being black is not sufficient to satisfy the True Believers.
Very true. Just ask Clarence Thomas. White liberals still hate him with a passion.
The radical Left just recently called Condolessa Rice the face of white supremacy, just because she opposes teaching CRT racism in classrooms. The radical left is crazy, and uses racism to smear their opponents no matter what race their opponents are.
The left has used the race card so much, on so many occasions that it is becoming meaningless. It’s like “crying wolf”, when there is no wolf.
Who knows? He might have a Tiki torch burning in his closet.
Rep Donalds is from the 19th Congressional District of Florida, around Cape Coral, Ft. Meyers, Naples and Marco Island. It’s noteworthy that this is the deep South and whites represent more than about 76% or of the people and Hispanics more than 16% of the people in the district.
There is something to the content of his character that overcomes any racial bias.
And many of those whites will not be southerners by birth because in that area a large proportion of them are retirees from northern state.
The coal delusion is pathetic. In the last year there was 37.75 gigawatts reduction of coal plants among several countries. While in the same time an additional 38.4 gigawatts of coal plant capacity was brought online in China.
What was the gas share of the energy market during the same period?
It should become easier and easier to argue against wind and solar as suppliers of electricity to the grid. We have more and more real world experience.
The proponents of wind power will argue that it is now the least expensive source of electricity. That’s only true if you don’t care when you get your power.
Did you know that sometimes we have to pay people to take electricity? link It doesn’t matter how cheap electricity is if nobody wants it. Similarly, if a shortage of wind power drives the price of electricity sky high, you could argue that wind is the very most expensive source of power.
Real world experience says that, without an astounding breakthrough in storage technology, wind power will continue to drive prices up. Given how long people have been working on energy storage technology, all the low hanging fruit has been picked. The chances of such a breakthrough become less and less with each passing year.
Real world experience vs. utopian dreams. Even some Democrats should begin to see that there’s a problem in the utopian dreams department.
It is only true if you ignore the energy inputs and costs related to building a turbine that will never generate the amount of energy used to build it.
That’s the kind of man you need in in the White House, a critical thinker who engages brain before operating mouth (a trait not seen for decades).
I agree, make that man president.
Whoa, now!
Slow down a little bit! Can’t you see that he is, like Candice Owens and Larry Elder, just part of the “black face of white supremacy?” And putting an untested, relatively new politician in the White House could have disastrous consequences for the American public and economy!
Look what happened the last time we tried something like that in 2008. The economy barely grew over the next eight years, yet the government grew by leaps and bounds! I realize that looks wonderful compared to the current situation, but shouldn’t we have an economy with rapid growth, rising wages, and low prices again?
And what about people that refuse to give up power? There are credible rumors that a previous President is still ensconced in the White House. Maybe he’s in the basement, but I think he’s more likely in the attic pulling all the strings that control the current resident skid-Marxist!
Let’s allow Rep. Donalds a chance to develop his chops and learn the ins and outs of DC for a few years, then put him on the ticket in 2024 For Vice President! If that works out well there could be a better position available in a few years!
Yes, the man sounds great but he needs to be seasoned a bit before he gets the top job. Jimmy Carter ran on the supposed virtue of knowing nothing about Inside the Beltway ways and was a total disaster. Politics is a tough game and it is necessary to know your enemy well before entering the arena.
He can’t be on the ticket in 2024 with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis because the President and Vice-President must be from different states.
President and Vice-President must be from different states
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Short search says that’s not true.
Strictly speaking it’s not true, but apparently there is some nuance to it, which is reason some people think it is true.
I think it’s so that both candidates can draw from support in different states, doubling the support rather than both drawing support from the same pool of voters.
What is true is that the Constitution (12th Amendment) bars an elector in the Electoral College from voting for a president and a vice president who are both from the same state as the elector. So if the President and the VP hold office by some other means than a presidential election with the Electoral College finalizing the vote, they could be from the same state (think the process that put Gerald Ford and Nelson Rockefeller into office in 1974).
“Oil companies listened to their geologists…”
Aaack!! Blasphemy!! Heretical wrongthink!!
Don’t you know that listening to geologists could lead to the complete collapse of the Climate Apocalypse program!? Children might no longer lie quaking in their beds at night if geologists are allowed to explain that Earth wasn’t really burning up, and billions of plants and animals aren’t going to die, but are doing rather well right now!
Even worse , thousands of activists pretending to be scientists might lose their funding and have to find REAL work! There’s little chance that they could all become novelists, but they are only familiar with writing works of fiction!
Yes, those geologists with their evidence based arguments would just mess it up for everyone… 🙂
The “Dream Team”: D. J. Trump and B. Donalds!
Two Donalds?
Good article about a very good politician. Thanks for the comments about geologists, whose tendency has been to “go to the field and see the truth directly in the rocks”. This type of comment has been attributed to several different famous geologists, but was borrowed by all good exploration managers. Soon we will see pictures of David in a submersible?
Hey Rep Donalds, we want CO2 emissions to be up. More is good less is bad.
From the article: “Rep Donalds demonstrates an impressive grasp of the issues, explaining that if Democrats punish gas production, energy producers will go back to burning coal, and emissions will rise – because gas or coal are the only options.”
I have been very favorably impressed by Representative Donalds in the past, on a variety of issues. He is a very smart, articulate man who I hope will be leading this nation in some capacity or another for many years to come.
We need a lot more people like Rep. Donalds.
“it is surprisingly straightforward to flip a modern gas generator back to burning coal, or vice versa, once the appropriate gassifier equipment is installed. No doubt utility companies are already preparing for the switch. If Biden’s democrats shut down the US gas industry, because of the climate methane scare or continued harassment of fracking, coal use will surge almost overnight.”
Unlikely that gas plants could really switch rapidly to burning coal…how many gas plants have rail sidings or barge docking facilities installed to handle the coal deliveries? Not to mention coal gasifiers?
Increased use of existing coal plants, yet, but conversion of gas plants to coal, no. (except in the case of former coal plants that were converted to gas and still have the coal-handling equipment installed.)
I’m really starting to like this guy. He’s intelligent, articulate and not easily intimidated.
And he seems to be on the right side of many issues.
impressive to see such an educated and logical argument
shame the democrats don’t recognise this individual as a voice of sense
Somebody speaks up for change for common sense–that’s real news.
He needs to start a common sense push back caucus before inflation whacks his constituents.
What we really need to change the tone and conversation in the U.S. right now is for Terry McAluffe lose handily in Virginia. The Dems might sober up some after that–I didn’t say all of them mind you.
Read the book The moral case for fossil fuels