It does my heart good to see that companies worldwide are expanding production of oil and gas. We have this from our friends at Breitbart.
A German non-governmental organization (NGO) called Urgewald, which monitors carbon emissions, presented a report at the COP27 climate summit in Egypt that said nearly all of the oil and gas companies in the world are planning significant expansions over the next few years, in a dramatic rebuttal of the climate change movement’s demand for zero emissions.
“The outcome of our calculations is truly frightening: oil and gas companies’ short-term expansion plans are not in line with the net zero emissions course put forward by the IEA (International Energy Agency),” said Urgenwald’s Fiona Hauke.
Their policies are aligned to fight climate change — not lowering your prices at the pump
OPINION:
Earlier this week, President Biden just couldn’t resist exposing either his ignorance about energy, his hostility to affordable energy, or both.
He threatened oil companies with a tax on their profits. Such a tax would, of course, be paid for by consumers and — rather than increase production and reduce prices, like Mr. Biden says he wants — would do the exact opposite and reduce production and increase prices of gasoline and other oil products. Here’s a news flash: The president and his team don’t care.
The call for a tax on profits is the just like the proposed suspension of the federal gas tax, the very real emptying of crude oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve or the limits on exports that are currently being considered. All of these actions — and the associated tiresome rhetoric — are all intended to convince the voters that Team Biden really cares about high gasoline prices.
They don’t. They are perfectly content to have you pay high gas prices. There’s no way any of their fantasies about climate change can happen without high energy prices, specifically high oil and natural gas prices.
They just don’t want you to blame them for those prices. So, naturally, they are looking around for someone else to blame. It is no surprise that they’ve landed on oil companies.
Unfortunately for them, oil companies don’t set the price of oil. Neither does any one particular producer or consumer. The price is set in a global market with lots of buyers and lots of sellers who agree on a price and then exchange cash for oil. This sort of thing happens in all kinds of markets all over the planet each day.
Prices of oil are going up because demand is high relative to supply. Despite the lie the president tells you, this is not because of the war in Ukraine. That conflict has not prevented any Russian oil from coming to the global market.
The imbalance between demand and supply is primarily because of under investment in oil fields over the last decade. For example, Josh Young, the chief investment officer at Bison Energy, notes that investment in U.S. oil fields peaked in 2012 at about $16.5 billion dollars and dropped as low as $3.9 billion in 2021.
Last summer, the International Energy Agency concluded: “Our estimates for 2022 suggest that today’s aggregate fossil fuel investment is broadly aligned with the near-term needs of a scenario in which countries hit their climate pledges.”
In other words, the IEA acknowledges the reduced investment in oil and gas projects and considers it a good thing because that lack of investment will ultimately mean less oil and natural gas and, consequently, help countries meet their climate pledges. The IEA — like Team Biden — is mostly unconcerned about high energy prices.
While they are not responsible for global markets, Team Biden is responsible for the relentless downward pressure on American production of oil. Their emphasis on environmental, social, and governance-based investing means that investors are steered away from investments in oil and natural gas. The now routine propaganda — mostly from the government — about the mythology of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions and an energy “transition” that has destroyed Europe’s energy system and is chewing through its economy further drives under investment in oil and natural gas.
Is there a different answer?
Well, the Committee to Unleash Prosperity has estimated that American oil production would be about 30% higher (or about 3 million barrels a day more) if Team Biden had just kept President Donald Trump’s policies in place.
That would be too easy. Team Biden has no intention of addressing the underlying problem of national and global under investment in oil and gas production and refineries over the last few years. To the contrary, their actions — weaponizing financial regulators like the Securities and Exchange Commission against affordable energy, not allowing production on federal lands, even something as trivial as canceling the Keystone pipeline — indicate that they intend to make the problem worse.
If he were serious about the problem, Mr. Biden — or whoever is president nowadays — would clearly and directly reject notions of net zero, let go of the fantasy of banning gasoline-powered cars, and cease the jihad against oil and gas being waged by its own financial regulators.
The chances of all that happening are zero.
Mr. Biden and his crew want high gas prices. Those prices serve their purposes. All of the hand-waving and hand-wringing about oil companies and their profits, and all of the show associated with draining pretty much all of our strategic reserves, is a dangerous charade.
When CNN Fact checks Xiden and calls BS, you KNOW he’s in trouble.
President Joe Biden has been back on the campaign trail, traveling in October and early November to deliver his pitch for electing Democrats in the midterm elections on Tuesday.
Biden’s pitch has included claims that are false, misleading or lacking important context. (As always, we take no position on the accuracy of his subjective arguments.) Here is a fact-check look at nine of his recent statements.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment for this article.
Social Security, part 1
Biden said at a Democratic fundraiser in Pennsylvania last week: “On our watch, for the first time in 10 years, seniors are going to get the biggest increase in their Social Security checks they’ve gotten.” He has also touted the 2023 increase in Social Security payments at other recent events.
The White House deleted a Tuesday tweet that delivered an especially triumphant version of Biden’s boast, and press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre acknowledged Wednesday that the tweet was lacking “context.”
That now-deleted Tuesday tweet reads: “Seniors are getting the biggest increase in their Social Security checks in 10 years through President Biden’s leadership.”
Biden said at a Democratic rally in Florida on Tuesday: “And on my watch, for the first time in 10 years, seniors are getting an increase in their Social Security checks.”
The claim that the 2023 increase to Social Security payments is the first in 10 years is false. In reality, there has been a cost-of-living increase every year from 2017 onward. There was also an increase every year from 2012 through 2015 before the payment level was kept flat in 2016 because of a lack of inflation.
The context around this Biden remark in Florida suggests he might have botched his repeat campaign line about Social Security payments increasing at the same time asMedicare premiums are declining.
Regardless of his intentions, though, he was wrong.
A new corporate tax
Biden repeatedly suggested in speeches in October and early November that a new law he signed in August, the Inflation Reduction Act, will stop the practice of successful corporations paying no federal corporate income tax. Biden made the claim explicitly in a tweet last week: “Let me give you the facts. In 2020, 55 corporations made $40 billion. And they paid zero in federal taxes. My Inflation Reduction Act puts an end to this.”
But “puts an end to this” is an exaggeration. The Inflation Reduction Act will reduce the number of companies on the list of non-payers, but the law will not eliminate the list entirely.
That’s because the law’s new 15% alternative corporate minimum tax, on the “book income” companies report to investors, only applies to companies with at least $1 billion in average annual income. (There are lots of nuances; you can read more specifics here.) According to the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, the think tank that in 2021 published the list of 55 large and profitable companies that avoided paying any federal income tax in their previous fiscal year, only 14 of these 55 companies reported having US pre-tax income of at least $1 billion in that year.
In other words, there will clearly still be some large and profitable corporations paying no federal income tax even after the minimum tax takes effect in 2023. The exact number is not yet known.
Matthew Gardner, a senior fellow at the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy, said in a Thursday email that the new tax is “an important step forward from the status quo” and that it will raise substantial revenue, but he also said: “I wouldn’t want to assert that the minimum tax will end the phenomenon of zero-tax profitable corporations. A more accurate phrasing would be to say that the minimum tax will *help* ensure that *the most profitable* corporations pay at least some federal income tax.”
The debt and the deficit
Biden said at the Tuesday rally in Florida: “Look, you know, you can hear it from Republicans, ‘My God, that big-spending Democrat Biden. Man, he’s taken us in debt.’ Well, guess what? I reduced the federal deficit this year by $1 trillion $400 billion. One trillion 400 billion dollars. The most in all American history. No one has ever reduced the debt that much. We cut the federal debt in half.”
Biden offered a similar narrative at a Thursday rally in New Mexico, this time saying, “We cut the federal debt in half. A fact.”
There are two significant problems here.
First: Biden conflated the debt and the deficit, which are two different things. It’s not true that Biden has “cut the federal debt in half”; the federal debt (total borrowing plus interest owed) has continued to rise under Biden, exceeding $31 trillion for the first time this October. Rather, it’s the federal deficit – the annual difference between spending and revenue – that was cut in half between fiscal 2021 and fiscal 2022.
Second, it’s highly questionable how much credit Biden deserves for even the reduction in the deficit. Biden doesn’t mention that the primary reason the deficit plummeted in fiscal years 2021 and 2022 was that it had skyrocketed to a record high in 2020 because of emergency pandemic relief spending. It then fell as expected as the spending expired as planned.
“On net, the policies of the administration have increased the deficit, not reduced it.”
Dan White, senior director of economic research at Moody’s Analytics – an economics firm whose assessments Biden has repeatedly cited during his presidency – told CNN’s Matt Egan in October: “On net, the policies of the administration have increased the deficit, not reduced it.” The Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget, an advocacy group, says the administration’s own actions have significantly worsened the deficit picture. (David Kelly, chief global strategist at JPMorgan Funds, told Egan that the Biden administration does deserve credit for the economic recovery that has boosted tax revenues.)
The unemployment rate
Biden said at the Florida rally on Tuesday: “Unemployment is down from 6.5 to 3.5%, the lowest in 50 years.” He said at the New Mexico rally on Thursday: “Unemployment rate is 3.5% – the lowest it’s been in 50 years.”
But Biden didn’t acknowledge that September’s 3.5% unemployment rate was actually a tie for the lowest in 50 years – a tie, specifically, with three months of Trump’s administration, in late 2019 and early 2020. Since Biden uses these campaign speeches to favorably compare his own record to Trump’s record, that omission is significant.
The unemployment rate rose to 3.7% in October; that number was revealed on Friday, after these Biden comments. The rate was 6.4% in January 2021, the month Biden took office.
Biden’s student debt policy
During an on-camera discussion conducted by progressive organization NowThis News and published online in late October, Biden told young activists that they “probably are aware, I just signed a law” on student debt forgiveness that is being challenged by Republicans. He added: “It’s passed. I got it passed by a vote or two, and it’s in effect.”
Biden’s claims are false.
He created his student debt forgiveness initiative through executive action, not through legislation, so he didn’t sign a law and didn’t get it passed by any margin. Since Republicans opposed to the initiative, including those challenging the initiative in court, have called it unlawful precisely because it wasn’t passed by Congress, the distinction between a law and an executive action is a highly pertinent fact here.
A White House official told CNN that Biden was referring to the Inflation Reduction Act, the law narrowly passed by the Senate in August; the official said the Inflation Reduction Act created “room for other crucial programs” by bringing down the deficit. But Biden certainly did not make it clear that he was talking about anything other than the student debt initiative.
Gas prices
Biden correctly noted on various occasions in October that gas prices have declined substantially since their June 2022 peak – though, as always, it’s important to note that presidents have a limited impact on gas prices. But in an economic speech in New York last week, Biden said, “Today, the most common price of gas in America is $3.39 – down from over $5 when I took office.”
The most common price for a gallon of regular gas on the day Biden was inaugurated, January 20, 2021, was $2.39 — less than half the price Biden was claiming.
Biden’s claim that the most common gas price when he took office was more than $5 is not even close to accurate. The most common price for a gallon of regular gas on the day he was inaugurated, January 20, 2021, was $2.39, according to data provided to CNN by Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy. In other words, Biden made it sound like gas prices had fallen significantly during his presidency when they had actually increased significantly.
In other recent remarks, Biden has discussed the state of gas prices in relation to the summer peak of more than $5 per gallon, not in relation to when he took office. Regardless, the comment last week was the second this fall in which Biden inaccurately described the price of gas – both times in a way that made it sound more impressive.
Biden has revived a claim that was debunked more than 20 months ago by The Washington Post and then CNN. At least twice in October, he boasted that he traveled 17,000 miles with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
“I’ve spent more time with Xi Jinping of China than any world leader has, when I was Vice President all the way through to now. Over 78 hours with him alone. Eight – nine of those hours on the phone and the others in person, traveling 17,000 miles with him around the world, in China and the United States,” he told a Democratic gathering in Oregon in mid-October.
Biden made the number even bigger during a speech on student debt in New Mexico on Thursday, saying, “I traveled 17-, 18,000 miles with him.”
The claim is false. Biden has not traveled anywhere close to 17,000 miles with Xi, though they have indeed spent lots of time together. Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler noted in 2021 that the two men often did not even travel parallel routes to their gatherings, let alone physically travel together. The only apparent way to get Biden’s mileage past 17,000, Kessler found, is to add the length of his flight journeys between Washington and Beijing, during which, obviously, Xi was not with him.
A White House official told CNN in early 2021 that Biden was adding up his “total travel back and forth” for meetings with Xi. But that is very different than traveling “with” Xi as Biden keeps saying, especially in the context of a boast about how well he knows Xi – and Biden has had more than enough time to make his language more precise.
The Trump tax cuts
Biden claimed at the Thursday rally in New Mexico that under Trump, Republicans passed a $2 trillion tax cut that “affected only the top 1% of the American public.”
Biden correctly said in various October remarks that the Trump tax cut law was particularly beneficial to the wealthy, but he went too far here. It’s not true that the Trump policy “only” affected the top 1%.
The Tax Policy Center think tank found in early 2018 that Trump’s law “will reduce individual income taxes on average for all income groups and in all states.” The think tank estimated that “between 60 and 76 percent of taxpayers in every state will receive a tax cut.”
And in April 2019, tax-preparation company H&R Block said two-thirds of its returning customers had indeed paid less in tax that year than they did the year prior, The New York Times reported in an article headlined “Face It: You (Probably) Got a Tax Cut.”
The Tax Policy Center did find in early 2018 that people at the top would get by far the biggest benefits from Trump’s law. Specifically, the think tank found that the top 1% of earners would get an average 3.4% increase in after-tax 2018 income – versus an average 1.6% income increase for people in the middle quintile, an average 1.2% income increase for people in the quintile below that and just an average 0.4% income increase for people in the lowest quintile.
The think tank also found that the top 1% of earners would get more than 20% of the income benefits from the law, a bigger share than the bottom 60% of earners combined.
The distribution could get even more skewed after 2025, when the law’s individual tax cuts will expire if not extended by Congress and the president. If there is no extension – and, therefore, the law’s permanent corporate tax cut remains in place without the individual tax cuts – the Tax Policy Center has estimated that, in 2027, the top 1% will get 83% of the benefits from the law.
But that’s a possibility about the future. Biden claimed, in the past tense, that the law “affected” only the top 1%.
That’s inaccurate.
This wasn’t the first time Biden overstated his point about the Trump tax cuts. The Washington Post fact-checked him in 2019, for example, when he claimed “all of it” went to the ultra-rich and corporations.
Apparently the rank-and-file Democrats are realizing the Xiden regime is not doing them any favors, despite their promises.
Here’s a just-released addition that shows how deep in the doo-doo Biden and the Democratic Party are:
America’s corrupt political class — Democrat and Republican — are looking to put the last two years of mask mandates, school closures, mandatory shots, and COVID lockdowns in the rear-view mirror. They don’t want to be voted out of office for destroying your life. That would be called accountability and there’s nothing that America’s ruling-class-pretending-to-be-public-servants dislike more than accountability.
Instead, they want a truce without counting the costs. They want an amnesty without judgment — and certainly without hearings. They want you to grant them toxic forgiveness.
That’s why the ruling class sent out its useful idiots — fourth-rate people like David French and Emily Oster — to see if, you know, the American public was in the mood toforgive them right before the next election. If you are ever asked the name of the very last person on earth to believe that the COVID vaccines work, you can tell them: it was David French.
Hey—sorry you lost your job b/c of the vax that doesn’t work and your grandmother died alone and you couldn’t have a funeral and your brother’s business was needlessly destroyed and your kids have weird heart problems—but let’s just admit we were all wrong and call a truce, eh?
It’s too bad we shut the entire economy down & took on tyrannical powers that have never been used before in this country—looking back, you should have been able to go to church and use public parks while we let people riot in the streets—but it was a confusing time for everyone.
Hey, I’m sorry we scared the hell out of you & lied for years & persecuted & censored anyone who disagreed but there was an election going on & we really wanted to beat Donald Trump so it was important to radically politicize the science even if it destroyed your children’s lives.
OK, yes we said unvaccinated people should die & not get healthcare while never questioning Big Pharma once but we are compassionate people which is why even though we shut down the entire economy we also bankrupted the nation & caused inflation. You’re welcome! Let’s be friends.
Needless to say, our politicians and public health officials really want you to forget that they took America right to the edge of the abyss.
In fact, they have turned America into the Banana Republic of Biden — where your civil rights might exist depending on which judge you get in your state, and what you last posted on your social media accounts.
It’s no surprise that these pleas for amnesty have been published after the midterm polls showed a “red wave” forming. If the polls had gone the other way, Biden’s FBI would probably be wrangling you onto a boxcar right now headed for a FEMA camp — and you know it.
Look at the state of our country. All the negative issues are up. Why is that? Look at Blue state leadership? Look at leadership in red state large cities. What do they all have in common? Democrats in power.
Foxconn, a Taiwanese electronics firm that is one of the main manufacturers of Apple iPhones, is planning to enter the automotive space with the Foxtron Model B.
A full reveal of the Model B is coming on October 18, but Foxconn has already given a good look at the hatchback’s Pininfarina-penned exterior design.
Initial production of the Model B will take place in China next year, but the company says that the hatchback will be built at Foxconn’s Lordstown, Ohio assembly plant starting in 2024.
You might not be familiar with the name Foxconn, but you certainly know its biggest product: the Taiwanese electronics company is one of the leading iPhone manufacturers. The firm is also looking to expand into the automotive space. In 2021, Foxconn purchased the Lordstown assembly plant in Ohio from struggling EV startup Lordstown Motors. Now Foxconn has given the first look at a new electric hatchback, the Foxtron Model B, that it plans to eventually build in the United States.
This content is imported from twitter. You may be able to find the same content in another format, or you may be able to find more information, at their web site.
— Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn) (@HonHai_Foxconn) October 6, 2022
Foxconn has provided minimal information so far about the Model B, with the EV set to be fully unveiled on October 18. You may have noticed that the brand name associated with the Model B is not Foxconn, but Foxtron—this vehicle is part of a joint venture between the electronics maker and Yulon Motor, Taiwan’s largest automaker which has built Nissans under license for decades and also created its own brand, Luxgen.
While Foxconn is tight-lipped about specifications, the video does show off the Model B’s design, which was penned by Italian design house Pininfarina. The compact car has its large, flashy wheels pushed out the corners, while the front and rear ends are dominated by full-width LED light bars. The smooth bodywork is accentuated by a stylized C-pillar, and a unique feature in the taillights appears to display images to communicate with pedestrians.
FOXCONN
The Model B will ride on Foxconn’s open-source MiH platform—which stands for Mobility in Harmony. The platform will also underpin two additional models previously revealed by Foxconn, the Model C, a larger crossover, and Model E, a luxury sedan. The platform supports single and dual-motor setups, and Foxconn claims a range of 435 miles from the Model C and 466 miles for the Model E.
FOXCONN
Foxconn is aiming to initially start building the Model B in China in 2023, but will eventually start production of the vehicle in 2024 at the Lordstown plant, which formerly produced the Chevy Cruze. It’s unclear if the Model B will be offered in the U.S. The plant is apparently configured to churn out to 500,000 vehicles a year, and Foxconn plans to also build the Lordstown Endurance and Fisker’s upcoming Pear crossover at the plant under contract as well.
LORDSTOWN ENDURANCE
LORDSTOWN
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While it would great to see the factory up and running again, we remain skeptical of Foxconn’s ability to follow through on its automotive ambitions. Foxconn previously pledged to invest $10 billion in a massive display panel manufacturing plant in the small town of Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin, originally touting the creation of 13,000 jobs and production starting in 2020. Five years later, only a few buildings have been completed, little has been produced, and the investment has been reduced to $672 million with only 1454 new jobs.
The Lordstown plant is also relying on unproven automotive startups. The Fisker Pear, for instance, is only a shadowy rendering at this stage. While Lordstown Motors has now built the first two Endurance pickups at the Ohio factory—the first of an initial batch of 500 vehicles set to be delivered in 2022 and 2023— the company’s past financial struggles means its longevity remains in question. Foxconn previously aimed to help build an EV from Chinese startup Byton, but those plans fell through when Byton ran out of funds. Hopefully the same fate doesn’t befall Fisker and Lordstown Motors, but Foxconn’s automotive future is still up in the air.
One in five Americans are unsure if they will be able to cover the costs of Thanksgiving this year, and one in four plan to skip it to save money, a recent Personal Capital survey found.
The state of economic affairs in President Joe Biden’s America is affecting Americans’ holiday plans. According to the survey, one quarter of Americans are planning to skip Thanksgiving this year to save money, and one in five “doubted they would have enough money to cover the costs of Thanksgiving this year.”
More specifically, one-third expect their 2022 Thanksgiving dinner to be “smaller,” and 45 percent, overall, said they are “finically stressed” by Thanksgiving.
Further, Americans plan to take action to cut the cost of the celebration. Thirty-six percent plan to use coupons, 32 percent plan to compare prices, 28 percent will skip traveling, and another 28 percent plan to buy a smaller turkey.
Another 88 percent of Americans said they plan to cut “at least one dish” from their table to save money:
With financial strain and tightened budgets, the easiest way to save money this Thanksgiving may be to skip it altogether. A 2021 IPSOS survey found that 9 in 10 Americans planned to celebrate Thanksgiving last year. But our survey found that this year, only around 7 in 10 had plans to do so.
The survey coincides with the latest Consumer Price Index report, showing prices 8.2 percent higher than they were one year ago:
But, but I know someone who claims they make six figures and eats three buckets of fried chicken thanks to Joe Biden.
Since GM closed its plant and 1,500 jobs were lost, the area has created almost 5,000 new jobs. So thanks GM. When this starts, this will be the fourth company building cars, trucks, and tractors in the old GM Lordstown plant. So you California folks who have a strong work ethic ( fried chicken and orange drink lovers need not apply ) Come to where you have a high standard of living and can buy your mansion.
INDIEV and Hon Hai Technology Group has announced the signing of a MOU, paving the way for Foxconn Ohio to manufacture the first INDI One prototype vehicles.
Partnering with Foxconn, the world’s leader in consumer electronics, during this exciting time in their entry into electric vehicles means that INDI One drivers will lead the way into the future of personal transit.
Throughout this process, Foxconn is confident in its Ohio workforce to manufacture quality prototypes that will help INDIEV achieve future success.
Foxconn assumed manufacturing operations at its Ohio facility after completing an Asset Purchase Agreement with Lordstown Motors (RIDE) in May 2022.
Hey Joe what happened? 9 months ago you claimed the stock market was breaking records because of your policies. Today it’s lost over 7 billion. Yes my friends Joey boy was bragging about his policies were working and because of those policies the markets were in record breaking territory. That was January. Today we’re 7.6 billion in the hole and still crashing. Video below thanks to GP and FOX News.
I guess Obama was right.
“Never underestimate Joe’s ability to f*ck things up.”
Drill baby drill is the message the nations largest bank CEO’S told the House Banking Committee. One of the House Loons was not happy. By her comments it was obvious that she hasn’t a clue of what’s going on. The whole hearing was over six hours long. Bur this one loons comments stood out. This from Survive The News.
Executives from the country’s six largest banks testified before the House Financial Services Committee on Wednesday for its annual oversight to discuss issues including climate change and fossil fuels.
Far-left Rep. Rashida Talib (MI-D) asked all the bank executives if they have a policy against funding new oil and gas products.
Talib erupted after JP Morgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon humiliated her with his highly concise and on-point response.
“Absolutely not and that would be the road to Hell for America,” Dimon replied.
Dimon — asked for his analysis of modern energy investments into older forms of power including coal and gas — said the US is not on the right path.
“We aren’t getting this one right. The world needs 100 million barrels effectively of oil and gas every day. And we need it for 10 years,” Dimon said.
“To do that, we need proper investing in the oil and gas complex. Investing in the oil and gas complex is good for reducing CO2,” he continued.
“We’ve all seen, because of the high price of oil and gas — particularly for the rest of the world — you’ve seen everyone going back to coal.”
He added, “Not just poor nations like India and China, Indonesia and Vietnam — but wealthy nations like Germany, France and the Netherlands. CO2 is getting worse. We need to have proper rules and regulations and government policy to have an effective transition to reduce CO2, keeping energy secure.”
The loons response is in this tweet.
Rep. @RashidaTlaib challenges bank CEOs to agree to stop funding fossil fuels, is rejected by every single one