- More news you can mistrust: Bloomberg Green says “The US is in the midst of a battery boom critical to keeping the lights on amid heat waves, winter storms and surging electricity demand from artificial intelligence. But developers are increasingly encountering an implacable foe: communities afraid that large lithium-ion storage farms could spontaneously burst into flames. As installations grow larger and are placed closer to neighborhoods, on farmland or in high-risk wildfire areas, local opposition is growing. That puts many states in a bind as they depend on renewable energy to meet rising electricity demand and to achieve climate targets.” But first, it’s not much of a boom because batteries haven’t had the kinds of technical breakthroughs necessary to facilitate reliable long-term storage. Second, heat waves and winter storms aren’t new and the US kept the lights on during both for a century using good old fossil fuels. Third, these fears are justified (see “technical breakthroughs” above) and if private firms not governments were cramming dangerous facilities into residential areas and sensitive ecosystems Bloomberg Green would be incensed. Finally, states are only in a bind because they chose to depend on energy that didn’t work to “achieve climate targets” that don’t either. Otherwise a fine piece of journalism.
- From the “Canada pivots on energy but doesn’t” file, the federal administration of Mark Carney is now insisting that increased carbon pricing is non-negotiable in the Memorandum of Misunderstanding about building new pipelines never in return. However speaking of non-negotiable it is worth noting that the deadline for an agreement on the agreement on the disagreement about carbon pricing was April 1. Giving rise to a strong suspicion that among its other defects, ideological and rhetorical, this administration actually has almost no capacity to govern, just to talk in windy clichés. And that Alberta’s premier does not approach the resulting mess with much backbone.
- Speaking of losing the capacity to govern, an author on The Hub estimates that Ottawa’s vaunted suspension of the “federal fuel excise tax on gasoline and diesel” until Labour Day (something only a geek could love including assuming people use “excise tax” in conversation) will save the typical family about $16 a month. Well whoop de doo, since putting 50 litres in the tank will now run you about $86 instead of the $65 or so back in February. Oh, and the gummint also “suspended” the tax on aviation fuel (and who knows why we even have such a thing instead of uniform taxes on everything, since an “excise tax” is a special levy on some particular thing the state has decided you shouldn’t want, from a cigarette to a plane ride) which didn’t stop another airline from suspending a bunch of flight routes. Undaunted, “Secretary of State Zerucelli highlights suspension of the federal fuel excise tax on gasoline and diesel and other affordability measures to lower costs for Canadians”. Who? What? Why?
- Not long ago various governments were trying to restrict fertilizer use or, in Sri Lanka’s disastrous case, ban it, partly because agriculture causes GHG emissions and who needs food anyway? That was then. The Epoch Times reports that “United Nations officials have warned that shipping disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz threaten one-third of the global fertilizer trade at a critical moment for spring planting in many regions and could trigger a broader food crisis unless shipments resume quickly. The waterway’s effective closure in the aftermath of the Iran war has sent shockwaves through agricultural supply chains, energy markets, and food security planning worldwide.” Making the term “food security planning worldwide” something of an oxymoron.
- Saved! Canary Media kicks off a newsletter with “Good morning! At most daycares, cleaning up is a struggle. But San Francisco is bucking that stereotype with a $300,000 program that helps child care centers operated out of residential homes swap polluting fossil fuel appliances for safer electric alternatives.” Again, even if that “polluting” doesn’t stop you, since even in crumbling California we presume daycares are not running 19th-century-blast-furnace style heaters belching black smoke at the youth of today, can anyone really believe that with all its problems, from fiscal to social, what San Francisco really needs is to subsidize baseboard heaters for daycares? Or that this tiny program will change the weather, there, anywhere or everywhere?
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29 Apr 2026 | News Roundup
