Richard Nixon: 1971 Annual Message to the Congress on the State of the Union

I have highlighted some of the state of the union addresses by Herbert Hoover in the past because I see the Great depression as a time with certain parallels to the present economic hardship. Let’s look at the 1970s instead now.

Here’s Richard Nixon from 1971, with what was considered a conservative agenda in 1971 based on balancing the federal budget and rolling back centralised governance. However, regarding details, Nixon proposes small government ideas on welfare reform and big government ideas in almost all other aspects of his State of the Union Address.

I have bolded what I consider the most important parts

Green Energy – Too Many Subsidies, Too Little Performance

Any politician who talks of a green, utopian US – where wind and solar produce most of our energy, electric cars put power back into the grid, green fields of corn produce clean fuels, and millions of Americans work in green technology factories – is creating a fanciful vision so far detached from reality it should really be called a lie. Such tales are designed to encourage a public that is increasingly despondent about the future, but the policy moves that have been made in support of these fantasies have cost taxpayers tens of billions of dollars

Solyndra: Liar’s Loans

This column comments on Joe Nocera’s September 23, 2011 column entitled: The Phony Solyndra Scandal. Nocera’s column compares the statements of Solyndra’s controlling managers to Dick Fuld’s statements to the public about Lehman’s conditions and asserts with minimal explanation that neither could have been criminal. I have testified before the House Financial Services Committee at some length as to why Lehman was a “control fraud” so I disagree with Nocera

The World’s Supply and Demand for Coal

Coal prices are surging ahead even as most other commodities pull back, spurred on by expectations that metallurgical and thermal coal production will again fail to meet rising global demand this year. The result? Record profits for major coal producers like Xstrata, a surge in acquisitions from coal-hungry India, Chinese electricity shortages, and a raging carbon tax debate in Australia amid record investments in that country’s coal-heavy mining sector

Here’s why Jim Rogers is bullish on Asia

Jim Rogers is bullish on Asia. In a twenty-minute interview with the BBC, he explains why? Hat tip Paul Kedrosky. Like Paul, “I find many of his rhetorical tricks maddening” but it is an informative interview nonetheless. Videos below

The Gulf of Mexico – One Year Later

A year later, the waters are still murky, but a few things are starting to become clear.

For energy investors, the most important aspect of the disaster was the moratorium on deepwater drilling in the Gulf. That ban was lifted in late February, but new safety requirements have slowed restarts on the 33 rigs that were halted, and Washington has so far issued only a handful of new permits for Gulf oil exploration. So what impact does an almost year-long stoppage in drilling have on oil production?

On the environment, scientists agree that the chemicals were effective in dispersing the oil. But the most important questions still remain unanswered: what long-term effects will the dispersant chemicals and the dispersed oil have on the Gulf of Mexico ecosystem

Slow progress at Fukushima Daiichi

The outcome at the embattled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is so important to the future of nuclear power that we thought an update would be in order. The long and the short of it is that Tepco is making progress, but oh so slowly

Coal News: Australia’s Carbon Tax Battle and How Natural Disasters Are Pushing Prices Up

Australia’s powerful coal industry is rocking the country’s political boat again. It was only 10 months ago that former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd lost his job over an emissions trading scheme that the mining industry opposed vehemently. Now his successor, Prime Minister Julia Gillard, is attempting to revisit the issue, and so far it is not going well

Grantham: ‘Days of Abundant Resources and Falling Prices Are Over Forever’

Grantham: “The world is using up its natural resources at an alarming rate, and this has caused a permanent shift in their value. We all need to adjust our behavior to this new environment. It would help if we did it quickly.”

The Fracking Controversy

The news that Blackstone Group LP (BX), the world’s largest private equity firm, is set to invest $1 billion in unconventional oil and gas projects in North America through a joint venture with Alta Resources has cemented a spotlight on fracking.

A U.S. Senate committee is currently conducting a hearing on the safety of hydraulic fracturing, as it is formally known. The province of Quebec, the state of New York, and the entirety of France have recently banned the technique. And two new studies claim that fracking-derived shale gas is actually worse for the environment than mining and burning coal. With so many claims flying around about this unconventional practice, let’s get a closer look at the facts.

Fracking and China’s quest for natural gas

You have probably seen the headlines on the natural gas accident in Pennsylvania. Chesapeake Energy, the largest natgas driller reported on Tuesday that one of its wells in Bradford County, Pennsylvania was uncontrollably spilling thousands of gallons of chemical-laced salt water into freshwater streams that ultimately feed into the Chesapeake Bay. Chesapeake Energy was using

Thoughts on Nuclear Energy

Let me pass on this morning’s note from Andy Lees regarding the future of nuclear energy. Andy writes: Reuters highlights that the Obama administration wants Congress to boost loan guarantees from USD18.5bn to USD55bn to help build a dozen nuclear fission reactors. Yesterday I was presenting at Cadarache, the home to the ITER fusion project