It’s getting hard to write longer posts these days, so here are some short thoughts that I wish I could develop further but haven’t been able to get to:
- Re Ukraine: Joe Biden is doing a pretty good job, certainly better than either of his predecessors (especially Barack Obama, who wouldn’t even sell antitank weapons to Ukraine after Russia annexed Crimea and invaded Donbas in 2014). But President Biden could be doing better. We need to sell/give the Ukrainians more weapons and more powerful weapons. The best, and quickest, way to end the war is for Ukraine to win. Let’s help them do it – now.
- Given all the weapons we are shipping to Ukraine, we need to replenish, and build up, our own inventories. That means spending more money on defense – and committing to do it for an extended period of time.
- The Atlantic Council talks here about what might be next in terms of sanctions on Russia. News flash to people in Washington: Sanctions aren’t going to win the war in Ukraine. What will beat Russia are weapons and ammunition – and lots of it. (See above.)
- We can help alleviate the world food crisis brought on by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine by doing one simple thing: Use our corn for food, not fuel. We need to deal with climate change, but we need to get hungry people fed first. If climate change takes an extra year, it takes an extra year. Feeding people is worth it.
- We need to cut carbon, but we also need to understand that it is a process that will take time. We can’t go all green right now. We need fossil fuels during the transition. That means we still need to explore and to drill. It’s not forever; it’s for a transition.
- If we are going to need gas and oil for a transition, then we need to be able to get it to where it’s needed. And the best, safest way to do that is with pipelines, not tank cars. Just because we build pipelines, doesn’t mean we have to use them forever. But we do need them now.
- We also need to build more transmission lines. Wind power is generated where the wind blows, not where the power is needed. If wind power is part of the solution to climate change, then so are transmission lines to get the electricity where it is needed.
- The Jones Act requires that all cargo, including oil and gas, going from one U.S. port to another has to be transported on ships that are U.S.-owned, U.S.-crewed, U.S.-registered, and U.S.-built. This results in things like states in New England importing LNG from other countries, instead of Texas, because of shipping costs. Whether this law ever made sense, it doesn’t any more. It needs to be repealed. The Biden administration won’t do it (because for President Biden it’s “unions uber alles”), but that doesn’t mean the law shouldn’t be repealed.
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* A thank you to the late Allan Sherman for the title of this post (see here and here).
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