Daily Discussion - May 3, 2024

Europeans Abandons Strict Climate Rules While Biden Clings To Them

Europeans are admitting the folly of net zero quicker than their American peers.

The latest example—perhaps “victim” is more apt—is Humza Yousaf, who resigned this week as Scotland’s first minister. That region within the U.K. enjoys substantial devolved powers over its own affairs, including on climate policy. An administration led by Mr. Yousaf’s left-leaning Scottish National Party had hoped to rush ahead of the national government in London in slashing carbon emissions.

A recent report from the U.K.’s Climate Change Committee noted Scotland had fall…  Read moreen far behind on its climate goals. The government aimed to reduce by 20% the aggregate distance driven by Scottish motorists, compared with 2019 levels, but had no plan to accomplish the reduction in personal mobility by the 2030 deadline.

Israel and Saudi Arabia Are Trading Places

Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman has put his country’s worst religious extremists in jail, while Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has put his country’s worst religious extremists in his cabinet.

Netanyahu is trying to make Israel more like the worst of the old Saudi Arabia and M.B.S. to make Saudi Arabia more like the best of the old Israel.

M.B.S., with his laser focus on economic growth after several decades that he has described Saudi Arabia as having been “sleeping,” has unleashed the most important social revolution ever in the desert kingdom —…  Read more and one that is sending shock waves around the Arab world. It has reached a point where the U.S. and Saudi Arabia are now putting the finishing touches on a formal alliance that could isolate Iran, curb China’s influence in the Middle East and peacefully inspire more positive change in this region than the U.S. invasions of Iraq and Afghanistan ever did militarily.

Oil Price-Fixing Conspiracy Caused 27% of All Inflation Increases in 2021

After a bitter price war from 2014-2016, American Oil Producers got tired of competing on price with the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, or the OPEC oil cartel, and at some point from 2017-2021, decided to join the cartel and cut supply to the market. This action had the affect of raising oil prices, costing oil consumers something on the order of $200 billion a year.

Yesterday, the Federal Trade Commission released evidence confirming that collusion played a serious role in hiking oil prices at that time. Pioneer Natural Resources CEO Scott Sheffield, a leader in the fracking…  Read more field, “exchanged hundreds of text messages with OPEC representatives and officials discussing crude oil market dynamics, pricing and output.” Sheffield was explicit about his goal, saying that “if Texas leads the way, maybe we can get OPEC to cut production. Maybe Saudi and Russia will follow. That was our plan,” he said, adding: “I was using the tactics of OPEC+ to get a bigger OPEC+ done.” He talked to shareholders, publicly threatened rivals, and ultimately achieved output cuts across the industry regardless of price. “Even if oil gets to $200/barrel,” he said, “the independent producers are going to be disciplined.”

Russia Delivers 29 Tons Of Aid To Palestine

Russia on Wednesday said it sent over 29 tons of humanitarian aid for the besieged Gaza Strip, where more than 32,400 Palestinians have been killed and nearly 74,800 injured since Oct. 7 last year.

A statement by Russia’s Emergency Situations Ministry said on Telegram that a special flight it dispatched earlier in the day has delivered the 20th batch of humanitarian aid to representatives of the Egyptian Red Crescent in the city of El-Arish, who will then redirect the aid to Gaza residents.

The ministry said earlier that the humanitarian aid consists of cereals, flour, sugar, and other…  Read more long-term storage products, as well as personal hygiene products, most of which were collected at the initiative of authorities from the Russian Republic of Karachay-Cherkessia.

Housing Destruction in Gaza Hasn’t Been Worse Since World War II

The world hasn’t seen anything like the unprecedented destruction of housing in Gaza since World War II, and it would take at least until 2040 to restore the homes devastated in Israel’s bombing and ground offensive if the conflict ended today, the United Nations reported Thursday.

The U.N. assessment said the social and economic impact of the war launched after Hamas’ surprise attack in southern Israel on Oct. 7 has been increasing “in an exponential manner.”

It called the level of casualties – 5% of Gaza’s 2.3 million population -- “unprecedente…  Read mored” in such a short time. By mid-April, it said, over 33,000 Palestinians had been killed and more than 80,000 injured. About 7,000 others remain missing, most believed to be buried under the rubble.