Smoke on the Water
What to know: An offshore wind turbine near England has caught fire, resulting in the evacuation of everyone at the wind power plant.
The TPPF take: The green agenda calls for far more offshore wind facilities, despite their unproven record on safety to humans, wildlife and the environment.
“The political pressure to implement offshore wind has been intense,” says TPPF’s Robert Henneke. “The Interior Department’s ‘Smart from the Start’ program fast-tracks offshore wind development, improperly granting permissions allowing foreign-owned energy companies to move forward despite the harms to our safety, our domestic industries and our environment.”
For more on offshore wind, click here.
That’s Not Right
What to know: A federal judge appointed by former President Donald Trump says that a Texas tuition law encourages illegal immigration—by charging illegal immigrants less than U.S. citizens who live out of the state.
The TPPF take: “Legal” doesn’t mean right.
“Federal law stipulates that universities cannot charge illegal immigrants a lower ‘in-state’ tuition rate while charging American citizens from other states the higher ‘out-of-state’ rate,” says TPPF’s Chance Weldon. “The University of North Texas rakes in $5.7 million per year by violating this law, charging its out-of-state students nine times more than the in-state tuition rate offered to foreign nationals illegally residing in Texas.”
For more on tuition and illegal immigration, click here.
Maui Fires
What to know: Failure to maintain its electrical grid—because it was spending too much on renewables—is the likely cause of the deadly Maui fires (along with bad decisions).
The TPPF take: Just as in California, this is a crisis driven by public policy.
“The embarrassing disconnect between the state’s whole-of-government approach in the fight against climate change versus the smoking reality of spectacular failure is seen where it counts: in the real world,” says TPPF’s Chuck DeVore. “A Wall Street Journal editorial on Oct. 23 cited a University of California study finding that California’s 2020 wildfire emissions ‘were two times higher than the state’s greenhouse gas reductions from 2003 to 2019.’ The study cited ‘decades of fire suppression and underinvestment in preventive measures such as mechanical clearing or prescribed burns.’”
For more on wildfires and public policy, click here.