This past November was a good time to be a Republican, especially here in Arizona. Not only did President Donald Trump win our state in a landslide victory, but Republicans expanded their majorities in both the Arizona House and Senate—despite being outspent in every single race.
While this turn of events shocked many in the corporate media who were convinced that Arizona was on its way from being a purple state to a blue state, we knew that voter registration trends told a different story.
Over the last couple of years, the gap between registered Republicans and Democrats in Arizona widened from 3.04% in 2020 to 4.03% in 2022. By April of last year, it had increased to 5.77%. And by November, it had expanded to 6.77%, a registration increase that proved decisive in President Trump’s overwhelming victory.
Now, 5 months removed from their electoral wipeout in November, there has been a lot of discussion about whether the Democrats’ political fortunes in Arizona would be reversing after their blowout loss to Trump.
Unfortunately for them, the latest voter registration numbers poured plenty of cold water on those dreams…
Among the many promises and commitments that he has made during his ongoing transition period, President-elect Donald Trump has pledged to pull U.S. support for the World Health Organization and cancel its commitments related to the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement. If a new report issued this week by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources and incoming chairman Republican Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso, is any guide, Trump perhaps should add U.S. support for the International Energy Agency to his growing list of cancellation opportunities.
“French President Macron’s observation that IEA has become the ‘armed wing for implementing the Paris Agreement’ is regrettably true,” said the report. “With the many serious energy security challenges facing the world, however, IEA should not be a partisan cheerleader. What the world needs from IEA—and what it is not receiving now—is sober and unbiased analyses and projections that educate and inform policymakers and investors. IEA needs to remember why it was established and return to its energy security mission.”
The IEA was established in 1974 in response to the first Arab Oil Embargo which resulted in dramatically higher prices for crude oil and gasoline at the pump. Originally supported by 31 member countries including the United States, the agency’s mission was to provide accurate information related to global oil supply and demand which subscribing countries could use to help form effective energy policies. That original mission held firm for decades, during which the IEA was widely considered a leading source of real, unbiased energy information.
But politics tends to corrupt everything it touches, and the IEA has unfortunately proved to be no exception to that rule. As the politics surrounding climate alarmism rose to new highs following the signing of the Paris Climate Agreement, the agency came under increasing pressure to radically alter its mission from that of a provider of real information worthy of trust to more of an activist posture.
In 2020, the report notes, this led to a shift in the IEA’s mission statement and to a new design to its modeling processes that form the basis for its annual World Energy Outlook. As its modeling base case, the agency abandoned its longstanding Current Policies Scenario, which Barrasso’s report describes as “essentially a ‘business as usual’ reference case,” in favor of a more aggressive Stated Policies Scenario.
Barrasso’s report describes this new scenario as “a hypothetical outlook based on unimplemented policies and grounded in unrealistically optimistic assumptions about the pace and scale of the transformation, especially concerning the adoption of electric vehicles by consumers.” It is an approach intentionally designed to introduce bias into the modeling process, and thus into the IEA policy recommendations for which the modeling process serves as the foundation.
This inevitable bias had an immediate and very noticeable effect. In a report published by the IEA in May 2021 Executive Director Fatih Birol laughably stated that “there will not be a need for new investments in oil and gas fields” and urged oil and gas producers to halt investments in exploration and development of new oil reserves. But that was before oil prices exploded as global demand exceeded supply during the recovery from the COVID pandemic, and by August Birol had completely reversed himself, joining President Joe Biden in a desperate call for more oil drilling to help resolve the situation.
Obviously, this sort of flip-floppery does severe damage to the agency’s already crumbling credibility as well as to the justification for governments to continue pouring millions of dollars into its operations each year. Barrasso’s report correctly notes that the IEA’s “reputation has lost its luster.”
Barrasso’s report is blunt about the kinds of reforms he would like to see at the IEA, urging Birol to abandon its advocacy posturing against investments in oil, natural gas, and coal, and to “once again produce for its World Energy Outlooka real unbiased, policy-neutral ‘business as usual’ reference case of the kind the Energy Information Administration produces.”
The Wyoming senator stops short of calling for the U.S. defunding of the IEA, but the agency’s currency is information. If that currency has lost its value, then perhaps Trump should consider a more aggressive approach.
David Blackmon is a contributor to The Daily Caller News Foundation, an energy writer, and consultant based in Texas. He spent 40 years in the oil and gas business, where he specialized in public policy and communications.
Ozone levels in Maricopa County are lower today than they were 20 years ago. And the reality is that most of the ozone currently in the region is either due to natural events or coming from China. But you won’t hear facts like that from the Left. Instead, they’d rather hatch a scheme to enforce their climate change agenda on the American people, and one of their biggest targets in the past year has been Arizona. Now, after failing to convince our state to ban gas cars and gas stoves, the Sierra Club is attempting to use the courts to force this agenda upon us.
An Impossible Standard
Much of this began in September 2022 when the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) reclassified Maricopa County as a moderate nonattainment area of ozone limits under the Clean Air Act. This basically means that, according to the EPA, Maricopa County’s ozone levels are too high and therefore our state—including its citizens, motorists, and businesses—must be forced to adopt ozone control measures. Failure to comply with these measures could mean fines, penalties, or the withholding of federal transportation dollars for Arizona.
Of course, what they won’t tell you is that the main reason our ozone levels are too high isn’t because there are more cars on the road or Arizonans like trying new recipes on their gas stoves. The main reason our ozone levels are too high is because the federal government moved the goal posts back in 2015 when the EPA dropped its acceptable ozone levels from 75ppb to 70ppb…
For local governments—and councils of governments—in Arizona, it appears that creating a climate action plan has become all the rage. Maybe that’s because it pays well.
The latest group to bow down at the altar of the Biden administration’s climate change agenda is the Maricopa Association of Governments (MAG). Back in August, MAG received a $1 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Climate Pollution Reduction Grant Program to serve as the lead planning organization for the Phoenix-Mesa-Chandler metro area. The grant requires MAG to develop a priority climate action plan by next March, a comprehensive climate action plan by 2025, and a status report in 2027 after the four-year grant period expires.
But this $1 million grant isn’t the only way MAG stands to benefit…
Republican members of the Arizona Legislature are fighting back against Democrat Governor Katie Hobbs’ emerging environmental agenda.
On Friday, four state senators wrote a letter to Governor Hobbs, highlighting a recent announcement by her Office that the State, under her direction, had joined the United States Climate Alliance.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Governor Hobbs Joining a Do-Nothing Organization on Behalf of Arizona Has Zero Impact on State Business@RepFrankCarroll ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/AZVaS3IdwU
Senators Frank Carroll, Sine Kerr, David Gowan, and T.J. Shope were signatories to the letter.
On July 11, Hobbs revealed that the State was joining the Alliance. She asserted that “Together, we are creating green jobs and businesses, ensuring clean air and water for Arizonans, lowering energy costs, and preparing more effectively for a changing climate.”
I'm excited to announce Arizona is joining the bipartisan Climate Alliance. Together, we are creating green jobs and businesses, ensuring clean air and water for Arizonans, lowering energy costs, and preparing more effectively for a changing climate.
— Governor Katie Hobbs (@GovernorHobbs) July 11, 2023
In response, the Alliance welcomed Hobbs as a member – not the State – in a Twitter post.
The legislators, in their letter, stated that the Alliance is “an organization set up by three Democratic governors as a protest to President Trump’s decision to withdraw from the job-destroying Paris Agreement; and that the Alliance is a completely voluntary coalition of governors with aspirational and non-binding goals to combat global warming.”
They warned Hobbs that Arizona laws did not authorize her to join the State with this alliance, writing, “To be clear, the Alliance is a coalition of governors, not States. The Legislature is the branch of government constitutionally charged with setting public policy for the State of Arizona and nothing in the laws of the State authorize you to join this coalition – as ineffectual as it is – on behalf of the State.”
There was a strong encouragement by the lawmakers for the Governor’s Office to work with the Legislature on these matters – a refrain that has oft been used in 2023 under a divided Arizona government. The lawmakers said, “We suggest that, instead of unilaterally creating task forces and joining do-nothing coalitions, you work with and through the Legislature to formulate public policy. Attempting to evade this process through edict misleads the public on the proper role of the executive and diverts attention from the real work that needs to be done.”
The coalition of legislators concluded their letter with a promise to use their authority under the Arizona Constitution to preserve the separation of powers inside of the state, adding, “Most importantly, executive overreach threatens the separation of powers provisions in Article II of the Arizona Constitution. Because separation of powers is ‘essential to the preservation of liberty,’ James Madison, Federalist No. 51, Senate Republicans are committed to serving as a check on any abuse of executive power.”
According to the Alliance, its members “are working to achieve the Paris Agreement’s goal of keeping temperature increases below 1.5 degrees Celsius through four key collective commitments.” Those commitments are as follows:
Reducing collective net greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions at least 26-28% by 2025 and 50-52% by 2030, both below 2005 levels, and collectively achieving overall net-zero GHG emissions as soon as practicable, and no later than 2050.
Accelerating new and existing policies to reduce climate pollution, build resilience to the impacts of climate change, and promote clean energy deployment at the state and federal levels.
Centering equity, environmental justice, and a just economic transition in their efforts to achieve their climate goals and create high-quality jobs.
Tracking and reporting progress to the global community in appropriate settings, including when the world convenes to take stock of the Paris Agreement.
Daniel Stefanski is a reporter for AZ Free News. You can send him news tips using this link.
