Wildfires – Climate or Criminal?

By Dr Graham Pinn

The year 2024 produced much anguish over fires, with attempts made to blame the regular events on “unprecedented” climate change. The season is just kicking off here but elsewhere, in the Northern winter, things are hotting up early!

Just a few days into January 2025, the season has already started, with a major fire in Los Angeles; typically, the usual “catastrophic” fire season begins around May. Seven fires, including on the iconic Sunset Boulevard, have created significant damage, with tens of thousands evacuated, and only two under control (am 9/01). The city, with a population of 4 million has a massive urban sprawl, resulting in an area 50% bigger than New York.

Continue reading “Wildfires – Climate or Criminal?”

‘Climate arson’ and Other Wildfire Nonsense

Real goal is to avoid responsibility for policies, and increase control over energy, lives, property

By Paul Driessen

In what has become an annual summer tragedy, wildfires are again destroying western US forests. Millions of acres and millions of animals have been incinerated, hundreds of homes reduced to ash and rubble, dozens of parents and children killed, and many more people left missing, injured or burned.

Air quality across wide regions and entire states is so bad people are told to stay indoors, where many have hibernated for months because of the coronavirus, but indoor air is also contaminated. Acrid smoke and soot have been carried to Chicago and beyond. Firefighters are profiles in courage, as they battle the blazes for days on end, while all too many politicians are displaying profiles in opportunism. Continue reading “‘Climate arson’ and Other Wildfire Nonsense”

Australia Following California to a High Cost Unreliable Electricity Supply System

By Alan Moran

Matthew Warren in the AFR (August 16, 2020) was highly critical of the electricity market manager’s proposed spending on new transmission lines. The proposals involve a centrally planned network with over $17 billion of new transmission lines plus a further $10 billion for the Snowy pumped storage scheme. This spending is designed to shore-up the inherently inefficient and high cost wind and solar generators that regulatory subsidies have made possible. Continue reading “Australia Following California to a High Cost Unreliable Electricity Supply System”

Green California Has the Nation’s Worst Power Grid

By Steve Goreham

Originally published in Washington Examiner.

More than a million Californians suffered power blackouts last Friday evening. When high temperatures caused customer demand to exceed the power available, California electrical utilities used rotating outages to force a reduction in demand. The California grid is the worst in the nation, with green energy policies pursued by the state likely furthering reduced grid reliability.

At 6:30 pm on Friday, Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s biggest utility, began shutting off power in rolling outages to force a reduction in demand. Southern California Edison also denied power to homes, beginning just before 7 pm. Shutoffs impacted a rotating group of up to two million customers until 11 pm. Continue reading “Green California Has the Nation’s Worst Power Grid”