Friday Climate Change Shorts

| December 22, 2023

Energy Foundation is an environmental group advocating for electric energy, phasing out fossil fuels, electric cars, etc.

Among its more than a dozen grants in the U.S. last year, the group wired $900,000 to the Rocky Mountain Institute, a Colorado-based think tank that has engaged the White House on climate policy and advocates phasing down fossil fuel reliance and net-zero policies. The group also funded a study in 2022 highlighting the dangers of natural gas-powered stovetops, which ultimately led to calls for bans on the appliance.

The Energy Foundation sent another $480,000 to the Washington, D.C.-based International Council on Clean Transportation, which advocates for widespread EV adoption and policies decarbonizing the transportation sector broadly.

And the Energy Foundation contributed $350,000 to Harvard University, a grant earmarked for “outreach to build a clean energy future.”

According to its financial filings, the Energy Foundation’s grant revenue declined 30% year over year to $56.7 million in 2022, but its grant contributions to outside groups and initiatives worldwide increased to $52.1 million, up 27% compared to last year.

Seems there is a lot of gold in going green. The interesting part to me, though, is that:

While the Energy Foundation’s financial filings indicate that the group is technically headquartered in San Francisco, a Fox News Digital review determined that the majority of its operations are conducted in China with a staff that boasts extensive ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its recently filed tax form show the group, which refers to itself as “Energy Foundation China,” contributed $3.8 million to initiatives in the U.S. like phasing out coal and electrifying the transportation sector.

How interesting that a country like the US which could be energy-independent due to its fossil fuel resources is being pressured – and acquiescing – to a country like China which controls many of the key resources for the alternative, electrification.

The group — which, according to its 2022 financial statement, leases two office facilities in China under operating leases that have terms through April 2024 — has significant ties to the CCP.

For example, Energy Foundation CEO and President Ji Zou previously served as the deputy director general of China’s National Center for Climate Change Strategy, an agency within the Chinese government’s National Development and Reform Commission.

Liu Xin, who heads the group’s environmental management division, previously served in a high-ranking role at the Beijing Municipal Environmental Protection Bureau. And Ping He, the program director of the group’s industry program, worked for eight years at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, a leading state-run research institution.

Moving on to said electric vehicles:

LendingTree analyzed tens of millions of insurance quotes involving 30 different automakers between the dates November 14, 2022 and November 14, 2023. That study revealed that Tesla drivers have 23.54 accidents per 1,000 drivers; the EV maker is followed by Ram (22.76) and Subaru (20.90).

As this study was released, almost every Tesla ever built has been recalled as a result of its Autopilot technology. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration has determined that Autopilot doesn’t do enough to prevent blatant misuse of the program, which could result in an accident for the person behind the wheel. Jalopnik

Sure makes me want to hurry out to buy a self-driving car.

 

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ANCRN

Well, until they figure out how to power aircraft with a solar panel, or equip every ocean going ship with a idiot proof nuclear power plant, I can’t the greenies serious. The failure to implement widespread nuclear power, convinces me they really don’t think climate change is an imminent global threat.

fm2176

It really makes you think… One of the quickest ways to bring us to our knees is to make us reliant on another country, especially one like China. The top-level politicians, executives, lobbyists, and activists don’t care because they are getting rich off of their positions, are “elites” who can fly around the world and maintain fleets of gas vehicles that we peasants shouldn’t own, and–besides–are either old and know they won’t be around to see the negative effects, or naive and idealistic (some may say dumb) like AOC or Thunberg.

5JC

We already are reliant on China (and India and Germany) for everything from electronics to farming. The world is interconnected now.

Anonymous

Da, comrade, is whole green/WEF plan!
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President Elect Toxic Deplorable Racist SAH Neande

That pic reminds me of the Spider Robinson story “Mindkiller”, or “God Is An Iron” (can’t remember which one) about hard wiring your brain for pleasure.

Only way Schwab-o-topia might work.
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Last edited 8 months ago by Anonymous
Slow Joe

So, this Energy Foundation is a Chinese front to undermine American energy independence.

Fyrfighter

And to make sure the “big guy” gets his 10%

Anonymous

Chicoms are always up to no good.

SFC D

The Chinese aren’t communist. Commissar said so.

KoB

Seems there is a lot of gold in going green.” And that’s it in a nutshell. The only “going green” these “elitists” want to see is green(backs) going into their bank accounts. Odd that the HQs of this organization is in SanFran, home of…wait for it… DiFi and Nan. Hmmmm Wake up people…we are the carbon they want to reduce…Prepare

I will defend my gas cooking appliance down to my last piece of cast iron cookware and my last drop of bacon drippings.

Saw a blurb on a news feed the other day that the Chinese Communists have announced that the exportation of technology to process rare earth materials will not be allowed. Odd that it came on the heels of a major discovery of said materials here in the US.

fm2176

I don’t have gas; my house has been electric since it was built in the late-’70s, and I’m almost completely cordless when it comes to tools and outdoor power equipment. So, I’m the next best thing to Captain Planet. Okay, I do thoroughly enjoy cooking on my Blackstone griddle, using pellets to smoke up the atmosphere, having big bonfires sometimes containing not-so-ecofriendly items, and using my Bad Boy ZTR.

China is the perfect example of “with friends like these, who needs enemies?”. Sure, we’re not the best of buddies, but we rely on China for so many products now that we can’t consider them a direct enemy–rather a friendly enough nation that is an underlying threat to our way of life. Besides Taiwan, China doesn’t really saber rattle at us the way countries like North Korea and Iran do. They present a facade of “you want cheap, you send production here”, and so many companies have shifted production to China nowadays that it’s hard to find Made in the US. Being a tool guy, most of my power tools and batteries; DeWalt, Milwaukee, Ridgid, Ryobi, Bosch, MetaboHPT, EGO, and so on; are made in China, and while hand tools are little more forgiving, even the once-vaunted Vise-Grips are now made over there (I always look for the pre-Irwin “Petersen” pliers but might have enough by now).

It seems the plan to fully undermine us as the world’s leading power is simply to surreptitiously remove our ability to sustain ourselves. Manufacturing, energy, and so much more can be provided by Super Friend China. We lazy and materialistic Americans can just sit back and enjoy our foreign made goods.

Last edited 8 months ago by fm2176
Odie

Heres something you may find interesting in regards to tools.

https://www.garagejournal.com/forum/forums/vintage-tool-discussion.38/

Fm2176

I forgot about GJ Forums, I’ll see if my log in still works later today.

26Limabeans

I have baseboard electric heat for the house.
Purely resistive, there is no “reactive” element to it’s use.
Not voltage sensitive either…..btu output is directly related
to line voltage.
The recent boom in those ugly outside wall mounted heat
pumps is comical. The people buying them do not understand
that what they are buying is “electric heat” with a large
reactance in the load. Math and Physics will prove it out
but advertising and belief in the global warming fairy will
keep the market going.
Want to save the planet? Then build more nuke plants and
coal plants and drill baby drill for oil and gas.
And start teaching math and physics instead of hope and change.

jeff LPH 3 63-66

The Villages of Oriole in West Delray Beach Fl. were built in the early 80’s and are all electric plus the new houses built over the golf course are also electric. We do have three outside charcoal grills to use which I never used myself. Nine villages running on electric power.

26Limabeans

Electic baseboard heat is cheap to buy and install.
No furnace, no chimney, no pipes, no ducts,
no fans, no tank, no maintenance other than
vacuuming the dog hair from the radiators.
No noise, no floorspace, no shit……

jeff LPH 3 63-66

No need to vacume dog hair as the old saying goes, hair today gone 2 moro.

5JC

There is gold in green. There is a lot more gold in oil and gas lobbying. Still a bit in coal mining.

https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/sectors/summary?id=E

This article is LOLcow. It is certainly written from the POV of someone who doesn’t really understand how lobbying has worked in the US for the last 230 years. There isn’t some secret plot here. The plot, as it were, is wide open.

“How interesting that a country like the US which could be energy-independent due to its fossil fuel resources is being pressured – and acquiescing – to a country like China which controls many of the key resources for the alternative, electrification.”

That is exactly how the political process in the US works. Everyone lobbies the government for favorable treatment for what they want, most of the time that being money.

The question is what to do about it?

Anonymous

Money is preferable to the left/libtard version: Jeffrey Epstein.

Old tanker

This isn’t a situation of moving technology forward in a proper and competitive way, this is really a method of achieving political and real power. The chinese know to conquer America would incur a significant number of casualties and damage to both countries and allies. By “investing” in a technology that is being promoted prematurely and by using money (a politicians Achilles heel) they are putting America in a position of strategic and tactical weakness. Not to mention buying the country in reality as well. The chinese are not our friends and communists in general have never been friends either.

Anonymous

You got it.
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Last edited 8 months ago by Anonymous
Anonymous

Notice how the Chicoms are merrily making EVs and batteries for everybody else, but dialing the fossil fuels to 11 and heaving investing in hydrogen-fueled vehicles for themselves.

Anonymous

heavily (damn, I hate smartphone keyboards)

Last edited 8 months ago by Anonymous
Odie

How long before GM goes bankrupt after betting the house on EV’s, striking worker demands and ditching stuff people actually want to buy.

Buick hasn’t built a desirable car since the mid 80’s with the Grand National, or the GNX.

https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/general-motors/2023/12/20/gm-buick-dealerships-buyouts/71978066007/&ved=2ahUKEwjH3ZmmnqSDAxWSv4kEHQyhAN4Q0PADKAB6BAgJEAE&usg=AOvVaw1HmW0Qf-7EuVe44OQy8ksa

UpNorth

GM is dialing way back on EVs now. Strange they found out that there is “less demand than thought” at the same time that they gave the UAW everything they wanted.

Meanwhile, Gretch the Wretch, our governor, is falling all over herself to give China all the acreage they want to do whatever they want to do. She’s pushing hard for Joe to dump the Word Salad Bee-yotch so that it’ll be the Biden-Gretch ticket next year.

Odie

Didn’t she impose the covid lock down in Michigan, and then try to get her boat to the front of the line to be prepped for summer boating season? I seem to recall the boat store involved stirred the pot a bit when they released that info, and the guv trying to tamp it down and say “we were just kidding” or some nonsense like that.

Anonymous

If EVs were easier, cheaper and better performing, regulators would want to keep people for buying them.

Anonymous

From

5JC

GM is one of the most profitable companies in the US since 2020. The last three years have yielded 11 figure profits with double digit growth every year. Even if they lose every penny of the $7B they put towards EVs, they will still make money.

The old ownership made some legendary bad decisions such as Saturn, the Cadillac Cimmaron, the V8-6-4, Saab… It’s a pretty lengthy list.

Odie

Another decision from GM. Where is all their money coming from except from consumers. Or taxpayers. 50k for gas 4×4 Colorado pickup. 100k for corvette. Unreal prices.

://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&opi=89978449&url=https://www.foxbusiness.com/markets/gm-bought-out-nearly-half-buick-dealers-who-opted-against-selling-evs&ved=2ahUKEwjBvKzemqaDAxVuv4kEHRD3APAQ0PADKAB6BAgWEAE&usg=AOvVaw3KpBFajqwITTU6OCRo_EUP

11B-Mailclerk

“Green to Gold”

I thought that was a Kadidiot-sponsored public 5k run.