No, Fossil Fuels Are Not Being “Subsidised”

The International Energy Agency defines fossil fuel subsidies as "Measures that reduce the effective price of fossil fuels below world market prices".

Interestingly, the Government said in 2021 the "U.K. does not give any subsidies to fossil fuels" and the U.K. does not appear on the IEA's Top-25 list from 2022 of countries that subsidise fossil fuels.

Figure 1 - IEA Top-25 Countries Subsidising Fossil Fuels Figure 1 - IEA Top-25 Countries Subsidising Fossil Fuels However, it should be noted that in the database buried in the IEA's website it does claim that the U.K. offered fossil fuel subsidies of around £6 billion in 2022, but none in any other year.

Where do the Claims of U.K. Fossil Fuel Subsidies Come From? Given the Government statement and the U.K. not appearing in the IEA's list of top subsidisers, we need to look at where these claims of massive subsidies come from.

The Guardian has produced similar articles over the years such as this one from 2019 claiming "The U.K. leads the European Union in giving subsidies to fossil fuels" and this one from 2023 claiming "The U.K. Government has given £20 billion more in support to fossil fuel producers than those of renewables since 2015".

A further £3.5 billion of the alleged support comes from fuel duty relief where some types of fuel pay less fuel duty for some uses than others.

Taxes on Fossil Fuels If we are to get a complete picture we should also consider the taxes the U.K. levies on fossil fuels.

These include direct taxes on fossil fuels that raised the following amounts in 2022: Fuel duty, £24.8 billion.

Plastic is made from fossil fuels, so this is effectively another tax on fossil fuels.

Figure 2 - UK Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Taxes 2022 Figure 2 - UK Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Taxes 2022 First, we can dismiss the so-called subsidies for producers as normal business expenses deducted from taxable profits.

Figure 3 - Expected UK Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Taxes 2024 Figure 3 - Expected UK Fossil Fuel Subsidies and Taxes 2024 However, we should note it is likely the fossil fuel tax take will fall with lower oil and gas prices. 

https://dailysceptic.org/2024/10/28/no-fossil-fuels-are-not-being-subsidised/

Scientists Were Wrong: Plants Absorb 31% More CO2 Than Previously Thought

 New research shows plants absorb 31% more CO2 than previously estimated, raising the global GPP to 157 petagrams per year.

Photosynthesis is how plants and some microorganisms use sunlight to synthesize carbohydrates from carbon dioxide and water.

A new assessment by scientists reveals that plants worldwide are absorbing about 31% more carbon dioxide than previously believed.

The amount of CO2 removed from the atmosphere via photosynthesis from land plants is known as Terrestrial Gross Primary Production, or GPP. It represents the largest carbon exchange between land and atmosphere on the planet.

A team of scientists led by Cornell University, with support from the Department of Energy's Oak Ridge National Laboratory, used new models and measurements to assess GPP from the land at 157 petagrams of carbon per year, up from an estimate of 120 petagrams established 40 years ago and currently used in most estimates of Earth's carbon cycle.

Key to the new estimate is a better representation of a process called mesophyll diffusion - how OCS and CO2 move from leaves into chloroplasts where carbon fixation occurs.

The discovery suggests that rainforests are a more important natural carbon sink than previously estimated using satellite data.

https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-were-wrong-plants-absorb-31-more-co2-than-previously-thought/

A Question of Standing

The legislative and executive branches will have unlimited power over The People if The People cannot bring cases against those branches because judges allow Standing Doctrine as an excuse to avoid hearing a case involving controversial subject matter.

The doctrine of standing and other Dismissal Doctrines have been used to deny The People our most foundational right to petition the Government for a redress of grievances, id est, access the courts for dispute resolution.

Given the imminence of a historic election, a recent petition to the Supreme Court is explored here in the context of standing.

A Petition for Writ of Mandamus regarding state election processes was filed on October 16, 2024 in the Supreme Court of the United States.

Replying via text message to an inquiry regarding status, Bradford Geyer, Founder of FFF, responded, "All Secretaries of State" were served "By email on Thursday October 17, 2024." Geyer added, "On Saturday we sent by certified return receipt requestedthat they should receive today [10/22/2024] at the latest." A Writ of Mandamus is "An order from a court to an inferior government official ordering the government official to properly fulfill their official duties or correct an abuse of discretion." The All Writs Act by Act of Congress establishes the authority for the Supreme Court and all courts to issue writs of mandamus.

FFF's petition, summarized, is a request for the Supreme Court to order all 50 states to use "Absolute voter identification, paper ballots and hand counting for the 2024 general elections" FFF asserts that serious election issues currently involve "Vulnerabilities in voter registration, voter verification, vote tabulation, vote reporting, mass media electioneering, and social media censorship." Particularized evidence in the petition includes that voter rolls are compromised, illegal aliens are registered to vote and have voted, voting machine software and hardware cannot be made secure from hacking, and election workers have been threatened and intimidated to certify the results regardless of witnessing irregularities.

The Court will violate their duty to The People and undermine their primary mission if they opt for allowing a redressability dismissal motion based on the inability to achieve perfect compliance in that absolutely no ineligible voter will vote.

If the Supreme Court wishes to avoid hearing FFF's petition, they will have to allow some type of Dismissal Doctrine, which will be violative of the most foundational right in the US Constitution. 

https://brownstone.org/articles/a-question-of-standing/

Victor Davis Hanson Explains Why Trump ‘Terrifies’ the ‘Out-Of-Touch Wealthy Elite’ of Both Parties

Victor Davis Hanson said Monday on Fox News that former President Donald Trump “terrifies” the “out-of-touch wealthy elite” because they lack compassion and understanding of the average American’s concerns.

Pundit Victor Davis Hanson suggests that former President Donald Trump’s populist coalition reveals the cracks in a Democratic establishment increasingly out of touch with middle-class America.

Hanson argued that Trump has redefined the Republican Party by recasting it as a coalition of upper-middle- and lower-middle-class citizens, leaving both traditional Republicans and Democrats scrambling to respond.

And he said we’re an upper-middle- and lower-middle-class party, and everybody’s invited, and that’s why it terrifies the old, never-Trump elite on the Republican side,” Hanson continued.

Hanson suggested that Trump’s populist coalition reveals the cracks in the Democratic establishment, which he characterizes as increasingly out of touch with middle-class America.

Hanson reflected on Trump’s ability to energize his base by shifting the GOP’s focus from the elite class to a broad cross-section of American workers.

While the GOP has long been painted as the party of “wealthy white people” and golf-playing elites, Hanson says, Trump has inverted that image by replacing race with a focus on class. 

https://www.dailysignal.com/2024/10/29/they-have-no-compassion-hanson-trump-elite/

Helene: Avery, Yancey schools still closed in 5th week of recovery

Now in the fifth week of recovery after Hurricane Helene struck North Carolina, schools in Avery and Yancey counties are closed, according to the state's Department of Public Instruction.

A total of 28 school districts were damaged, department spokeswoman Mary Lee Gibson Belz told The Center Square.

The Legislature on Thursday approved more than $65 million in funding for building repairs and other hurricane-related costs, she said.

The funding includes $50 million for building repairs and innovations; $5 million for damaged technology; $5 million for nutrition, supplies, food and equipment loss; and $5 million for mental health services for students and staff.

The legislation also allows school districts to add up to 20 extra days to the school calendar to make up for days lost after the hurricane.

"As of now, these counties include Mitchell, Yancy, and Asheville City/Buncombe." Gov. Roy Cooper signed the state's second hurricane relief bill on Friday.

According to early estimates, the state suffered $53 billion in damage from the hurricane, a proposal by Cooper says.

https://www.thecentersquare.com/north_carolina/article_843ad6a2-9654-11ef-9528-e3ac9fe2aaf4.html 

The Establishment Media is Unaware of its Growing Irrelevance

 Last week, the news media went ballistic after the owners of the Los Angeles Times and Washington Post blocked each paper's editorial boards from formally endorsing Kamala Harris for president.

The rest of the media see the billionaires who own each outlet as "Preemptively self-censoring" themselves to avoid offending Donald Trump.

Above all, the intensity of the meltdown we're seeing from media figures both inside and outside of these two publications reveals how profoundly out-of-touch most of the establishment media is about their own importance.

In the nineteenth century, the media consisted almost exclusively of books, pamphlets, and newspapers.

Trump's appearance on Rogan has been viewed nearly forty million times on YouTube alone The interview towers over Kamala Harris's recent interview with Fox News, which, at 8 million viewers, had been celebrated as the highest-rated interview of the 2024 election.

The panic can only be understood as a symptom of the legacy media being unable or unwilling to face the fact that they are no longer the main force influencing and controlling how the public sees the world.

The hysteria last week over the withdrawn editorial endorsements demonstrates that many are still hyper-focused on some media practices that today are largely irrelevant.

https://mises.org/mises-wire/establishment-media-unaware-its-growing-irrelevance

Child Killer Who Sparked Riots *IS* Islamist Terrorist, Govt Hid Info From Public.

The suspect in a mass stabbing at a Taylor Swift dance class in Southport, England, that led to the deaths of three young girls has been charged with terror offenses.

 While poison and the manual were found in his home, police have only released the information now, three months after the stabbing attack took place in late July.

While some violence and rioting took place at some of the protests, many of the hundreds of people arrested and imprisoned by the leftist Labour government were given years in prison for as little as shouting at the police or posting heated messages online.

One man, a 61-year-old grandfather guilty of verbally abusing police in Rotherham, reportedly committed suicide earlier this month after being handed a sentence of over two years.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and the British police were accused of two-tier policing as mobs of Muslim counter-demonstrators were allowed to roam around Birmingham attacking white people and intimidating journalists with no riot response.

Police later claimed they had determined the Muslim mobs were able to police themselves after consulting "Community leaders." EUROPE. Islamic State sympathizers in Austria have also targeted Taylor Swift, threatening to carry out a mass terror attack at one of her concerts in Vienna.

Europe has seen over 21 attempted Islamist terror attacks this year. 

https://thenationalpulse.com/2024/10/29/revealed-child-killer-who-sparked-riots-is-islamist-terrorist-govt-hid-info-from-public/