U.S. LNG Exports to the World’s Rescue

Ten years ago, Cheniere Energy began an export boom that is saving the world economy today

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"the boom in shale fracking that began in the mid-2000s unleashed cheap and abundant natural gas. Cheniere Energy took the risk of converting what had been an LNG import facility into an export platform in 2016."

"The U.S. now boasts eight LNG export terminals"

"America has surpassed Australia, Qatar and Russia to become the world’s top LNG exporter."

"Trump lifted the [LNG export permitting] pause upon retaking the White House" 

"U.S. LNG exports surged nearly 40% last year"

"The U.S. now exports about as much gas to Europe as Russia did before the war"

"The reality is that prices rose last year from a near-record low in 2024. Prices last week averaged $3.13 per million BTU—about the same as in 2017"

"Limiting LNG exports won’t reduce domestic energy prices, though it could suppress natural gas production" 

A Climate Manual Bait and Switch

The Federal Judicial Center’s biased crusade lives on

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"the Federal Judicial Center’s retraction of its biased chapter on climate science"

"the environmentalist portion of the manual for federal judges, the chapter lives on, published by the National Academy of Sciences (NAS)."

"The Fourth Edition’s climate chapter relies on the views of progressive climate lawyers and partisan “experts.”"

"As long as the FJC and the NAS receive taxpayer dollars, Congress should question the funding for polemical texts pretending to be neutral reference guides." 

Retiring the Nation’s Doctor

Congress should dissolve the office of the surgeon general

Letter to The WSJ. 

"I watched the surgeon general confirmation hearings and couldn’t help but wonder why, in the 21st century, we still rely on an 18th-century relic to play the nation’s doctor (“A Vaccine Skeptic for Surgeon General,” Review & Outlook, Feb. 26).

The office of surgeon general has drifted far from its original role as an apolitical supervisor of medical personnel. Successive administrations have transformed it into a political megaphone opining on gun control, social media, housing and other contentious issues only tangentially related to public health.

Meanwhile, the surgeon general oversees the more than 6,000-member Public Health Service Commissioned Corps—a uniformed service whose deployment is slower and more costly than civilian alternatives. A 2010 Health and Human Services report found corps officers cost roughly 15% more than comparable civilian employees.

Congress should dissolve the office of the surgeon general and the Commissioned Corps, transfer legitimate public health functions elsewhere and end the politicization of public health.

Jeffrey A. Singer, M.D.

Senior fellow, Cato Institute"

Why Johnny Can’t Read Anything Other Than Pronouns

Schools have become laboratories for esoteric ideological projects, not centers of learning

By Jason L. Riley. Excerpts:

"One of the few bright spots in our education system has been selective-enrollment public high schools, which use standardized tests and other objective measures to determine admissions. Examples include Boston Latin School in Massachusetts, Stuyvesant High School in Manhattan and Thomas Jefferson High School in Alexandria, Va., all of which boast long and proven records of providing a rigorous education for students from all backgrounds. Yet even this successful model is increasingly under attack, and its future is uncertain.

A new study from the Manhattan Institute details efforts in Chicago to eliminate selective public high schools. Much of the Chicago public school system is in shambles. Wirepoints, a government watchdog group, reported last year that the Chicago Public School system operated 53 schools in 2024 where not a single student tested proficient in math, and 17 schools in which no student tested proficient in reading. Mayor Brandon Johnson and other Democrats blame these outcomes on a lack of resources, but spending per pupil has almost doubled since 2017, and teacher pay in the Windy City is among the highest in the nation for large school districts after adjusting for cost of living."

"Critics of selective public schools claim that they serve too few minority students, divert resources from traditional schools, and exacerbate racial and economic achievement gaps. Yet the Manhattan Institute’s assessment found that at least a third of the students at selective high schools in Chicago come from low-income families, and Chicago Public Schools spend thousands more per student on nonselective schools."

Gavin Newsom’s Climate Tax Hike

His regulators are cutting allowances for his tax-and-cap policy

WSJ editorial. Excerpts:

"California’s cap-and-tax policy requires refiners and manufacturers to reduce their CO2 emissions . . .[and] caused manufacturers to shift operations out of the state and raised gasoline prices by an estimated 24 cents a gallon."

"Chevron warned Tuesday that CARB’s (California Air Resources Board) plan (to slash the supply of allowances) could add $1.21 a gallon to California gas prices, which are currently $1.54 higher than the national average."

"plan would cost in-state refineries $5.5 billion to $9 billion over the next decade and “eliminate a significant portion, if not all, of California refiners’ future annual net earnings.”" 

Tech Has Never Caused a Job Apocalypse. Don’t Bet on It Now.

Neither theory, history nor the latest data suggests a recession driven by AI job dislocation is likely  

By Greg Ip. Excerpts:

"Technological advancements always cost some people their jobs—those whose skills can be easily substituted by tech. But their loss is more than offset through three other channels. The new technology enhances the skills of some survivors, who become more productive and better paid; it helps create new businesses and new jobs; and it makes some stuff cheaper, increasing consumers’ incomes, adjusted for inflation, which can be spent on other stuff, generating yet more jobs."

"The ranks of software developers, widely assumed to be acutely vulnerable to AI, are up 5% in January from a year earlier, a pace largely consistent with the past 23 years."

"The number of computer programmers, who assist developers in ensuring code runs properly, was down slightly in the last year, in line with a secular decline in place for decades. Neither trend shifted much after ChatGPT’s arrival in late 2022."

"In 2024, the median young computer science graduate earned 63% more than the typical young graduate, up from 47% in 2009"

"business spending on software leapt 11% in the fourth quarter of last year from a year earlier, the fastest in nearly three years"

"This . . . is in line with previous technological advances that drive prices down and demand up enough to offset direct job displacement"

"examples include textile manufacturing in the 19th century, and the spread of ATMs in the 1980s."

"As the number of bookkeepers shrank with the introduction of spreadsheet software in the early 1980s, the number of accountants and financial analysts newly empowered by Lotus 1-2-3 and Excel rose even more."

"Employment of 22- to 25-year-olds in the most AI-exposed occupations such as software developers and customer-service agents fell 6% in the three years after the introduction of ChatGPT"

"Radiologists were supposed to lose their jobs to offshoring, and then to AI. They didn’t, because patients and providers like having humans around to explain their medical images. Since Google Translate launched in 2006, the number of human translator and interpreter employees in the U.S. has risen 73%."

"The money employers or consumers save as AI eliminates jobs doesn’t disappear; it gets spent on something else." 

Easter Island environmental degradation was due to colonial intruders not ecocide

See Island at the End of the World’ Review: Faces of Rapa Nui: European explorers landed on Easter Island in the 18th century. Disease and emigration soon followed by Adam Kuper. He is a fellow of the British Academy. He reviewed the book Island at the Edge of the World: The Forgotten History of Easter Island by Mike Pitts. Excerpt:

"Mr. Pitts summarizes the new apocalyptic parable that emerged: “Society collapsed in a fit of war and cannibalism.” Some commentators, such as Jared Diamond, the author of the popular “Guns, Germs, and Steel” (1997), saw a deeper meaning: Could this be our own future if we don’t take care?

Scientists have since established that the degradation of the island was in fact gradual, taking centuries, caused largely by drought, volcanic eruptions and the arrival of the Polynesian rat. Ancient skeletons show no sign of injuries due to war or cannibalism. Mr. Pitts dismisses this ecocide narrative and places the blame for environmental degradation where it belongs: with colonial intruders."

Related posts:

The Mysterious 'Ecocide' Collapse of Easter Island Never Really Happened 

The truth about Easter Island: a sustainable society has been falsely blamed for its own demise 

Was Easter Island (Rapa Nui) The Victim Of Ecocide? Maybe Not 

Resilience, not collapse: What the Easter Island myth gets wrong

New evidence upends contentious Easter Island theory, scientists say