I say lead on China! About time someone responsible took the reins. You can't have a working democracy when over half the people don't understand economics or science. I'm not looking down on anyone but unfortunately it's the truth and now we have this bang of grifters and robbers in charge! Great newsletter!
This will sound ungracious and negative and I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I think it would be great to have this new temperature chart on a billboard on a major interstate with a big fat Congratulations!!!! to the oil and gas companies and their happy customers on this world-class achievement.
"There is still a key role for Americans." A friend, Karen Lee, and I have started a new substack, Climate: Small Steps Matter! dedicated to sharing insights on ways to reduce an individual's carbon emissions and to sequester carbon.
Readers here may laugh! "But we already know this!"
We, subscribers to The Crucial Years, are not the target audience. But this audience is very much needed to help us with ideas and growth.
We have only initiated the site this week. While it's still a little scant, we already do have subscribers and a little money in the bank.
We need support and ideas from the carbon-aware community. Please take a minute to subscribe and to share the site with others. If you'd like to write a guest post, get in touch with me or with Karen. Subscribe, Like, Restack, Comment.
Thanks, Bill, for the plug for our Solutionary Rail substack. People might also be interested in the launch episode of our Reconnecting America podcast. https://solutionaryrail.substack.com/p/1-reconnect-america?r=36q38&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web. In terms of where we’re at after the election, we have to give a lot of credit to China for bringing down costs on solar, wind and batteries. The fact Texas is installing solar much solar tells you something. States and cities have been important in the climate policy arena. Clean energy standards have been driving renewables. They will continue to be important. And you and I are both happy we beat back the initiative to repeal our Washington state climate policy by a 2/3rds margin!
Great job Bill and team ferreting out the good news going forward. Though on IRA, I naively thought it would make deliberate and significant progress in phasing out U.S. fossil fuels. Unfortunately, a November 2023 report by Oil Change International details the anticipated overall rise in oil and gas production under the IRA. Specifically, the results show that the IRA supports a modest decline in United States (U.S.) oil and gas demand while allowing an increase in oil and gas production and a dramatic rise in oil and gas exports. In other words, the United States could be prolonging the era of fossil fuels. (see full discussion "So Long for Now" 9/16/24 www.cynthiakmitchell.com
Which takes me to Bill's talk with Seattle Third Act about the recent federal judge decision siding with Louisiana and 16 other states to end the Biden administration’s January stoppage of permits for liquified natural gas export terminals.
“Building more U.S. LNG facilities is the biggest climate bomb on planet earth if the industry gets to proceed as proposed. In 5 to 6 years U.S. LNG will produce more greenhouse gases than the entire continent of Europe. This will lock in those countries importing U.S. LNG for another 40 years. We’ll never ever be able to deal with this crisis, and once we go past a certain point there is no dealing with it. Once the Artic is melted, no one has a plan for freezing it back.”n(see full discussionHotter N’ Hell July 23, 2024 www.cynthiakmitchell.com
Thank you, Bill., for stating exactly what we can expect on the ever warming global climate. Just banning the words 'climate change' and 'global warming' will not change the fact that we've already passed the tipping point. I'd prefer to say "the MAGA cult" instead of Washington. The MAGA cult is alive and doing very, very well in Florida and Texas. Those two States exemplify what happens when you elect criminally minded politicians and give them what amounts to dictatorial powers. You get criminal business con men ripping off the populace.
I have relatives in both States. I'm very happy to say a block of my Texas relatives have already fled the State - some out of the country. Too many of the others already drank the kool aid.
Whether China or any other country leads is irrelevant to me. It's great to hear about solar, but in the end solar, if privately owned, becomes captured by politics and economic self-interest. If the good folks at Climate Brink are correct, the amount of heat generated in the Petrocene will take thousands of years to restore back to pre-industrial levels. So we must do our best to shave time off that restoration even if neither we nor our great grandchildren ever see it.
"And clearly America is not going to play the commanding role in helping solve the climate crisis, the greatest dilemma humans have ever encountered."
I cannot agree with this.
The United States has the largest and most robust public employee pension promise, that is provisioned by the collectively largest aggregation of society's shared savings aggregated into social trusts for social purposes, in the world today.
There is some $5 Trillion controlled by the prudent stewards of these social trusts.
These stewards have a power that both we and they do not realize they have.
They have the power to financially engineer socially beneficial cash flows for income as well as safety to assure security and dignity to evergreen populations of current and future retired workers, directly, that, given the number of workers included and the vast amounts of money committed, will also be, of necessity, security and dignity for us all, consequently.
We and they don't know they have this capacity because it is currently being hidden by the prevailing fiduciary practice of Asset Ownership, allocating assets across asset classes, and within classes, selecting Asset Managers peer-benchmarked by Consultants for excellence in maximizing the highest possible profit extraction from price-taking in the public, or value creation in the private, alternative, capital markets, solely in the financial best interest of capital markets professionals, on the axiomatic assertion that what is best for the capital markets is also always best for all of us.
Financialized fiduciary money captured by the Capital Markets and made to flow exclusively into the buying and selling of Assets for profit extraction, through either price-taking or value creation, in speculation on Growth through Creative Destruction, cannot be mobilized for "transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner", as COP28 correctly concluded that we must.
Transition is not Growth.
Destruction is not orderly. Neither is it just. Or equitable.
De-financialized fiduciary money set free from capital markets capture can.
We in America created the financialization of fiduciary money. We can re-create it, de-financialized.
We can innovate a New American Model of Prudent Stewardship of Social Trusts, by starting with Private Equity showing us the way to financially engineer value creation for profit extraction, and moving through the Canadian Variation showing us the way to take that engineering in-house to arrive at an adaptation of the US Tax Credit Equity Partnership model for financing Affordable Housing and Renewable Energy, to financially engineer socially beneficial cash flows for income and safety to assure security and dignity.
That brings us to the innovation in fiduciary finance of negotiating agreements on equity paybacks to an actuarial/fiduciary cost of money, plus opportunistic upside, from enterprise cash flows prioritized by contract for suitability of the technology, longevity of the enterprise, and fairness in how the business does business, under the circumstances then prevailing.
That opens up the innovation of fiduciary activism, through ongoing conversation about what is fair, across all six vectors of business fairness:
1. fairness to suppliers (Fair Trade);
2. fairness to communities, of place and of interest (Fair Engagement);
3. fairness to Nature, and Society and our shared Future (Fair Reckoning, with climate and other things);
4. fairness to workers, and in the workplace (Fair Working);
5. fairness to customers and competitors (Fair Dealing); and
6. fairness to the savers whose savings are the original and ultimate source of the money made to flow into enterprise, by its financiers, fiduciary and otherwise (Fair Sharing).
This New American Model for Prudent Stewardship of Social Trusts can mobilize tens of trillions, collectively, worldwide, for hospicing hydrocarbon companies as the world transitions away from fossil fuels .
In this way "America [can] play [a world-leading] role in helping solve the climate crisis".
Two thoughts: 1)I encourage the climate movement to reach out to Trump voters; I doubt many know or care that he is a climate denier 2)watch this awesome TED video and share widely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXwGvLj4rak
A fine look at a very rough patch on the road to a fully energized and healthy human population on thriving, if diminished, planet.
Save Money! Drive Safely!
Observe the Speed Limit!
Save 0.22 per gallon for every 5 MPH you travel above the optimum speed of 50 MPH. Avoid idling!
Use cruise control if safe!
www.fueleconomy.gov
I say lead on China! About time someone responsible took the reins. You can't have a working democracy when over half the people don't understand economics or science. I'm not looking down on anyone but unfortunately it's the truth and now we have this bang of grifters and robbers in charge! Great newsletter!
Thanks bill
This will sound ungracious and negative and I’m sure I’m in the minority here, but I think it would be great to have this new temperature chart on a billboard on a major interstate with a big fat Congratulations!!!! to the oil and gas companies and their happy customers on this world-class achievement.
Somebody’s got to tell them, over and over again.
Thanks for this Bill.
"There is still a key role for Americans." A friend, Karen Lee, and I have started a new substack, Climate: Small Steps Matter! dedicated to sharing insights on ways to reduce an individual's carbon emissions and to sequester carbon.
Readers here may laugh! "But we already know this!"
We, subscribers to The Crucial Years, are not the target audience. But this audience is very much needed to help us with ideas and growth.
We have only initiated the site this week. While it's still a little scant, we already do have subscribers and a little money in the bank.
We need support and ideas from the carbon-aware community. Please take a minute to subscribe and to share the site with others. If you'd like to write a guest post, get in touch with me or with Karen. Subscribe, Like, Restack, Comment.
https://karenleemardicrane.substack.com/p/our-focus-is-climate/
Thanks, Bill, for the plug for our Solutionary Rail substack. People might also be interested in the launch episode of our Reconnecting America podcast. https://solutionaryrail.substack.com/p/1-reconnect-america?r=36q38&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=web. In terms of where we’re at after the election, we have to give a lot of credit to China for bringing down costs on solar, wind and batteries. The fact Texas is installing solar much solar tells you something. States and cities have been important in the climate policy arena. Clean energy standards have been driving renewables. They will continue to be important. And you and I are both happy we beat back the initiative to repeal our Washington state climate policy by a 2/3rds margin!
Great job Bill and team ferreting out the good news going forward. Though on IRA, I naively thought it would make deliberate and significant progress in phasing out U.S. fossil fuels. Unfortunately, a November 2023 report by Oil Change International details the anticipated overall rise in oil and gas production under the IRA. Specifically, the results show that the IRA supports a modest decline in United States (U.S.) oil and gas demand while allowing an increase in oil and gas production and a dramatic rise in oil and gas exports. In other words, the United States could be prolonging the era of fossil fuels. (see full discussion "So Long for Now" 9/16/24 www.cynthiakmitchell.com
Which takes me to Bill's talk with Seattle Third Act about the recent federal judge decision siding with Louisiana and 16 other states to end the Biden administration’s January stoppage of permits for liquified natural gas export terminals.
“Building more U.S. LNG facilities is the biggest climate bomb on planet earth if the industry gets to proceed as proposed. In 5 to 6 years U.S. LNG will produce more greenhouse gases than the entire continent of Europe. This will lock in those countries importing U.S. LNG for another 40 years. We’ll never ever be able to deal with this crisis, and once we go past a certain point there is no dealing with it. Once the Artic is melted, no one has a plan for freezing it back.”n(see full discussionHotter N’ Hell July 23, 2024 www.cynthiakmitchell.com
Wow, wow, wow. A must read from top to bottom
A tour de force. Holy cow.
Thank you, Bill., for stating exactly what we can expect on the ever warming global climate. Just banning the words 'climate change' and 'global warming' will not change the fact that we've already passed the tipping point. I'd prefer to say "the MAGA cult" instead of Washington. The MAGA cult is alive and doing very, very well in Florida and Texas. Those two States exemplify what happens when you elect criminally minded politicians and give them what amounts to dictatorial powers. You get criminal business con men ripping off the populace.
I have relatives in both States. I'm very happy to say a block of my Texas relatives have already fled the State - some out of the country. Too many of the others already drank the kool aid.
Whether China or any other country leads is irrelevant to me. It's great to hear about solar, but in the end solar, if privately owned, becomes captured by politics and economic self-interest. If the good folks at Climate Brink are correct, the amount of heat generated in the Petrocene will take thousands of years to restore back to pre-industrial levels. So we must do our best to shave time off that restoration even if neither we nor our great grandchildren ever see it.
"And clearly America is not going to play the commanding role in helping solve the climate crisis, the greatest dilemma humans have ever encountered."
I cannot agree with this.
The United States has the largest and most robust public employee pension promise, that is provisioned by the collectively largest aggregation of society's shared savings aggregated into social trusts for social purposes, in the world today.
There is some $5 Trillion controlled by the prudent stewards of these social trusts.
These stewards have a power that both we and they do not realize they have.
They have the power to financially engineer socially beneficial cash flows for income as well as safety to assure security and dignity to evergreen populations of current and future retired workers, directly, that, given the number of workers included and the vast amounts of money committed, will also be, of necessity, security and dignity for us all, consequently.
We and they don't know they have this capacity because it is currently being hidden by the prevailing fiduciary practice of Asset Ownership, allocating assets across asset classes, and within classes, selecting Asset Managers peer-benchmarked by Consultants for excellence in maximizing the highest possible profit extraction from price-taking in the public, or value creation in the private, alternative, capital markets, solely in the financial best interest of capital markets professionals, on the axiomatic assertion that what is best for the capital markets is also always best for all of us.
Financialized fiduciary money captured by the Capital Markets and made to flow exclusively into the buying and selling of Assets for profit extraction, through either price-taking or value creation, in speculation on Growth through Creative Destruction, cannot be mobilized for "transitioning away from fossil fuels in a just, orderly and equitable manner", as COP28 correctly concluded that we must.
Transition is not Growth.
Destruction is not orderly. Neither is it just. Or equitable.
De-financialized fiduciary money set free from capital markets capture can.
We in America created the financialization of fiduciary money. We can re-create it, de-financialized.
We can innovate a New American Model of Prudent Stewardship of Social Trusts, by starting with Private Equity showing us the way to financially engineer value creation for profit extraction, and moving through the Canadian Variation showing us the way to take that engineering in-house to arrive at an adaptation of the US Tax Credit Equity Partnership model for financing Affordable Housing and Renewable Energy, to financially engineer socially beneficial cash flows for income and safety to assure security and dignity.
That brings us to the innovation in fiduciary finance of negotiating agreements on equity paybacks to an actuarial/fiduciary cost of money, plus opportunistic upside, from enterprise cash flows prioritized by contract for suitability of the technology, longevity of the enterprise, and fairness in how the business does business, under the circumstances then prevailing.
That opens up the innovation of fiduciary activism, through ongoing conversation about what is fair, across all six vectors of business fairness:
1. fairness to suppliers (Fair Trade);
2. fairness to communities, of place and of interest (Fair Engagement);
3. fairness to Nature, and Society and our shared Future (Fair Reckoning, with climate and other things);
4. fairness to workers, and in the workplace (Fair Working);
5. fairness to customers and competitors (Fair Dealing); and
6. fairness to the savers whose savings are the original and ultimate source of the money made to flow into enterprise, by its financiers, fiduciary and otherwise (Fair Sharing).
This New American Model for Prudent Stewardship of Social Trusts can mobilize tens of trillions, collectively, worldwide, for hospicing hydrocarbon companies as the world transitions away from fossil fuels .
In this way "America [can] play [a world-leading] role in helping solve the climate crisis".
The real question is, Will we?
Thanks Bill.
Two thoughts: 1)I encourage the climate movement to reach out to Trump voters; I doubt many know or care that he is a climate denier 2)watch this awesome TED video and share widely: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXwGvLj4rak
I’m going to forward this to many, many people, including family of its many persuasions!
Thank you, Bill.
Zara
Great article! Thanks Bill for this and your tireless efforts on behalf of climate sanity!
However, I think you meant US instead of America at the head of your essay. America(s) can be North, Central or South America.
fair point!