Pirate's Cove

It’s not just hardcore leftist Democrats looking to spike Manchin’s deal

Republicans are threatening to tank Manchin’s pro-oil bill over ‘bad blood’ from climate deal

The federal government is nearing the end of its fiscal year, which means Congress is scrambling to put together a stop-gap spending bill designed to last until they can pass a budget (or longer-term funding extension). The Senate appears likely to add $12 billion in funding for Ukraine’s war effort and about $6 billion more in disaster relief funds, while Republicans have essentially rejected President Biden’s requests for $22 billion for COVID-19 needs and $4.5 billion to fight monkeypox.

As a sidebar, how about we use that $12 billion for Puerto Rico?

But “the Hill’s central drama as Congress sprints to finish its work before the midterms” involves Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) as-yet-unreleased legislation to speed up permitting on energy projects, including West Virginia’s Mountain Valley natural gas line, Politico reports.

Progressives are “already balking” at the measure, “a key cog” in the deal Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) hatched to pass this summer’s Democratic climate, health care, and tax package, Politico reports. And now, even though “construction of energy projects is a longstanding core GOP goal,” Republican senators are threatening to sink the legislation, arguing “they were under no obligation to cough up perhaps a dozen or more votes that Democrats need to get Manchin’s vision done.”

Democrats say Republicans are exacting revenge on Manchin for his deal with Schumer — and Republicans don’t really disagree with that assessment.

“Given what Senator Manchin did on the reconciliation bill, [it’s] engendered a lot of bad blood,” Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) told Politico. “There’s not a lot of sympathy on our side to provide Sen. Manchin a reward.” Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) criticized the Democrats’ “corrupt deal.”

How are you feeling about that deal for your vote now, Joe? We’ll see how the people of West Virginia vote the next time you’re up for election.

Biden admin sides against Native Americans in crackdown on oil leasing near Indigenous site

The Biden administration is expected to soon finalize a rule banning oil and gas leasing near a Native American historical site despite heavy opposition from local Indigenous leaders, who say the administration’s rule would prevent them from collecting royalties on their land.

The rule, which the Department of Interior (DOI) announced in November 2021, would implement a 20-year moratorium on federal oil and gas leasing within a 10-mile radius of the Chaco Culture National Historical Park located in northwest New Mexico. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the rule, which would amount to a withdrawal of 336,000 acres of public lands from mineral leasing, would protect the environment and “rich cultural legacy” of the region.

“We’re not destroying anything — we are Native Americans ourselves. Nobody is destroying the park,” Delora Hesuse, a Navajo Nation citizen who owns allotted land in the Greater Chaco region, told Fox News Digital in an interview. “The oil companies sure aren’t destroying the park. And they have new technology.”

“It just seems like they are listening more to the environmentalist people,” she continued.

It would put a lot of money in the pockets of the Native Americans, but, climate cult doctrine is more important to Biden

Priyanka Chopra Jonas Says the World Is at ‘Critical Point’ During UN Speech About Climate Change

Priyanka Chopra Jonas is addressing the climate crisis.

In a speech shared by the United Nations via YouTube on Monday, the Quantico star discussed some of the world’s most significant issues, including climate change, during her appearance at the 2022 Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) opening remarks.

“We meet today at a critical point in our world, at a time when global solidarity is more important than ever,” the UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador shared. (snip)

“We have that plan, the UN sustainable development goals — a to-do list for the world,” she explained. “These goals were created hand in hand with people around the world in 2015; together we have an extraordinary opportunity to change the world that we live in.”

“We owe it to our people, we owe it to our planet,” she said.

Gotta love massive climahypocrites telling us we’re doomed as they run around the world on private fossil fueled jets and in big limos, consuming way more than the average world citizens, and creating plans for Other People.

Read: Climate Today: Manchin’s Side Deal, Biden Hosing Native Americans, Silly Celebs »

The Los Angeles Times is on a roll. After spending a lot of time saying how great EVs are, now they keep pushing pieces saying EVs are bad (non-paywalled at Yahoo)

Commentary: Driving an EV does not make you pro-environment

When I started driving an electric vehicle in 2018, I became part of the problem.

Not for the reasons cited by EV critics during the recent heat wave, when the state asked that electric cars not be charged during peak demand. That prompted howls of “I told you so” from those who think the electrification of everything from home appliances to cars is a left-wing pipe dream, especially in light of California’s mandate requiring 100% of all new vehicle sales to be zero-emission by 2035.

Nor am I part of the problem because of the worries expressed ad nauseum by EV skeptics, few of which have much merit. (lots of that stuff – snip past it)

And that’s part of the problem. In the end, an electric car is still, well, a car — and mass car ownership has devastating environmental consequences beyond tailpipe emissions.

I became part of this car culture in 2018, after The Times moved from downtown L.A. to El Segundo. Until then I was a dedicated transit commuter and even held out for months after The Times’ relocation. But five hours a day on buses and trains eventually got to me, so I leased a Nissan Leaf.

See, all cars are bad. But, Paul Thornton never does say that he’s stopped driving his Leaf. Weird, that.

But electric vehicles, like gas-powered cars, require vast expanses of concrete and asphalt for automotive use. This paving over of entire regions has turned neighborhoods into heat sinks that soak up energy from the sun during the day and release it at night — not exactly what we want in an era of accelerating climate change.

That’s called the Urban Heat Island effect, and, while man caused, is not global and has nothing to do with greenhouse gases.

And electric vehicles, like gas-powered cars, force their drivers to sit in the same traffic jams as everyone else, often on freeways that required the bulldozing of long-established, minority communities to be built. In Downey, locals are fighting a highway expansion plan that would displace residents from more than 200 homes. I haven’t asked, but something tells me “yeah, but more electric cars” wouldn’t convince those residents to give up fighting for their homes.

Of course there’s a raaaaacist component.

And what kind of systemic change would that be? Build out a big public transit system (L.A. is trying), and make it free, reliable and safe. Subsidize the purchase of electric bikes, which make it easier to commute longer distances on devices that use considerably less power and road space than electric cars. Think more of what people in neighborhoods need than what people driving through those neighborhoods want.

But, not for Warmists like Paul. Just for the Other People.

Read: Bummer: Driving An EV Doesn’t Make You Pro-Environment Or Something »