International Energy Agency should go on Trump’s Chopping Block

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

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 Outlook a 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 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.

Related Topics:#DailyCaller #DavidBlackmon #DonaldTrump #IEA #InternationalEnergyAgency feature

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‘Coming Down Like A Missile’: Former FAA Safety Rep Says Plane in Philadelphia Crash Appeared ‘100% Out of Control’

Published on February 2, 2025

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Kyle Bailey on “Hannity” discussing Philly plane crash [Screenshot/Fox News/”Hannity”]

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Hailey Gomez

Former Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Safety Team representative Kyle Bailey said Friday evening on Fox News that the jet caught on camera crashing in northeastern Philadelphia appeared “100% out of control.”

Around 6:30 p.m. local time, videos surfaced showing a small jet crashing into a neighborhood in northeastern Philadelphia, with images and footage depicting the plane erupting into a fireball. The FAA confirmed the crash in a statement, identifying the aircraft as a Learjet 55 that had been departing from northeastern Philadelphia Airport en route to Springfield-Branson National Airport in Missouri.

On “Hannity,” Fox’s Sean Hannity began discussing the Learjet 55, adding that his pilot friends had described the aircraft as “a sports car in the air.” He then asked Bailey if this type of jet is different from the “average commuter jet.”

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“That’s exactly right, Sean. You have to be ahead of that airplane at all times, or it will get control of you. That plane was doing in excess of 10,000 feet per minute rate of descent, and it didn’t even make it to 2,000 feet after takeoff,” Bailey said. “Right after takeoff, the controller was asking, calling for the airplane to respond. There was no response by the flight crew. There was no communication.”

“The controller was a little bit stumped in trying to make contact with the airplane, and that tells me that the pilot completely was consumed with whatever was going on, and from that rate of descent and from that airplane coming down like a missile, it looked like it could have potentially been at full power,” Bailey added. “It was just coming down there at a rate that really was unbelievable.”

WATCH:

Bailey went on to say that the explosion was likely massive due to the “large quantity of jet fuel,” adding that he believed there was probably nothing the pilot “could have done” to prevent the incident.

“So from taking off for a flight of the duration of where it was going, that probably was very closely, fully loaded with fuel. So that huge fireball that we saw is the result of a large quantity of jet fuel, and that big, almost like — for lack of a better term — like a nuclear-like explosion is probably the jet fuel reflecting off that cloud base,” Bailey said.

“That’s why it looks a little bit strange, but there is no doubt that the plane was 100% out of control, and there was probably nothing that pilot could have done,” Bailey added. “Not even a 10-second mayday came out of that radio back to the control tower.”

The plane was reportedly on a medical assignment with four crew members and two passengers aboard, according to 6ABC. During a press conference around 8:30 p.m., Democratic Philadelphia Mayor Cherelle Parker could not provide a fatality count. She instead asked residents “for prayers.”

The crash comes just days after a commercial plane collided with a military helicopter near Washington Reagan National Airport on Wednesday evening, killing all involved.

The incident is under investigation by the National Transportation Safety Board and FAA.

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Pipelines and Energy Top Priorities for Trump’s Interior Secretary

Published on January 31, 2025

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North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum speaks to the Republican National Convention, July 17, 2024. (Screen Capture/CSPAN)

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Adam Pack

Senate Overwhelmingly Confirms Doug Burgum As Trump’s Interior Secretary

The Senate confirmed former North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum in a bipartisan fashion to lead President Donald Trump’s Department of Interior Thursday evening.

Senators overwhelmingly approved Burgum’s nomination 79 to 18. Three senators did not vote. Under the prior administration, we went from a nation of energy dominance to a nation of energy dependence.

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America is an energy superpower. We should act like it. @DougBurgum and @ChrisAWright_ are America’s energy all-stars. I strongly support their nominations. pic.twitter.com/3o4xuan31r

— Sen. John Barrasso (@SenJohnBarrasso) January 30, 2025

Senate Republicans endorsed Burgum’s nomination, saying he was committed to reversing the work of his predecessor, former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, to restrict energy resources. Haaland worked to block oil and gas leasing in development in Alaska.

“Governor Burgum knows that America’s natural resources are our greatest national asset,” Senate Majority Leader John Thune said Wednesday on the Senate floor prior to Burgum’s confirmation vote. “Too often, under the Biden administration, the Interior Department was the tip of the spear in restricting development of America’s resources.”

Burgum promised to prioritize energy abundance during his leadership over the Interior Department.

“The American people clearly placed their confidence in President Trump to achieve Energy Dominance,” Burgum wrote in his opening remarks to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources (ENR) Committee during his confirmation hearing on Jan 16. “Energy Dominance is the foundation of historic American prosperity, affordability for American families, and unrivaled national security.”

“President Trump’s Energy Dominance vision will end wars abroad and make life more affordable for every family by driving down inflation,” Burgum added. “President Trump will achieve these goals while championing clean air, clean water, and our beautiful land.”

Burgum won the support of a majority of Senate Democrats, including Democratic New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich who serves as the lead Democrat on the Senate ENR Committee.

“I clearly do not agree with Governor Burgum on every issue,” Heinrich wrote in a statement on Jan. 23. “However, I voted to confirm Governor Burgum’s nomination for Interior Secretary because I have found that a healthy relationship with the Secretary of Interior is critical to securing the best outcomes for the State of New Mexico.”

Trump has tasked Burgum with leading a newly-created interagency National Energy Council to cut regulations affecting the energy sector and harness private sector investment related to energy innovation. The president also appointed Burgum to a seat on the National Security Council, a rare appointment for an energy secretary.

Burgum served two terms as North Dakota’s governor beginning in December 2016. He launched a presidential run in June 2023, but struggled to gain traction and suspended his campaign that December. He endorsed Trump in January 2024 and served as a campaign surrogate throughout the remainder of the race.

Thune teed up confirmation votes Thursday evening on energy executive Chris Wright to lead the Department of Energy and former Republican Georgia Rep. Doug Collins to lead the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.