Neil Young Gives the Gift of Music to Greenland

Neil Young Archives:

I’m honored to give a free year’s access to neilyoungarchives.com to all of our friends in Greenland. I hope my Music and Music Films will ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats you are experiencing from our unpopular and hopefully temporary government. It is my sincere wish for you to be able to enjoy all of my music in your beautiful Greenland home, in its highest quality. This is an offer of Peace and Love. All the music I have made during the last 62 years is yours to hear. You can renew for free as long as you are in Greenland. We do hope other organizations will follow in the spirit of our example.
LOVE EARTH
Neil

(To get signed up, go to NeilYoungArchives.com/Greenland You will need a cellphone with the Greenland Country Code for verification.)

Rolling Stone (paywall):

Back in October, Neil Young pledged to remove all of his music from Amazon. And in a recent post on the Neil Young Archives, he said he’s sticking with the plan.

“Amazon is owned by Jeff Bezos, a billionaire backer of the president,” he wrote. “The president’s international policies and his support of ICE make it impossible for me to ignore his actions. If you feel as I do, I strongly recommend that you do not use Amazon. There are many ways to avoid Amazon and support individual Americans and American companies that supply the same products. I have done that with my music and people who are looking can find it in a lot of other places.”

“Record stores provide all my vinyl and CDs, while the digital music world has many alternative options to purchase my music if you like it,” he continued. “My music will never be available on Amazon, as long as it is owned by Bezos. My position is unfortunately harmful to my record company in the short term, but I think the message I am sending is important and clear. Thanks for buying music locally and from independent digital services.”

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Key State Brings Lawsuit – Blames Big Fossil for Blocking Clean Energy, EVs

Growing list of lawsuits against fossil fuel companies now includes a suit by the Attorney General of Michigan.
Particularly relevant in that, due in part to the propaganda from fossil fuel interests, the Detroit Auto industry is now at existential risk due to the postponement and suppression of EV technology.

The Hill:

The state of Michigan is suing major oil companies and an industry association, alleging that they colluded to hamper the adoption of renewable energy and electric vehicles (EVs).

In a lawsuit announced Friday, Michigan sued BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute.

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I’ve documented the activities of fossil fuel trained activists across the state over several years. They have been effective in disinforming local citizens and shutting down clean energy projects.

Detroit Free Press:

State Attorney General Dana Nessel is suing four big oil companies under antitrust laws, alleging a decades-long conspiracy to undermine the adoption of renewable energy and electric vehicles that has led Michiganders to face higher energy costs and greater exposure to climate change.

The lawsuit against Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP and Shell, plus their industry association the American Petroleum Institute was filed Friday morning, Jan. 23, in U.S. District Court for the Western District of Michigan, an attorney general’s spokesperson said. The filing makes Michigan the latest Democrat-led state to go after big oil companies.

Continue reading “Key State Brings Lawsuit – Blames Big Fossil for Blocking Clean Energy, EVs”

Icepocalypse in Oxford Miss

Nashville also badly hit.
Storm still ongoing.

Alex Pretti: “Freedom isn’t Free”

Video posted by Alex Pretti’s family, shows him at his job as a VA nurse, giving final farewell to a veteran who had passed.

His words “Today we remember that freedom is not free, we have to work for it, protect it, and even sacrifice for it” now have special meaning.

This looks like a Class 1 human being to me.

Storm’s Biggest Grid Stress Still to Come

Report from KXAN Austin, includes interview with CEO of Texas utility ERCOT

Washington Post:

The massive winter storm bearing down this weekend on a large swath of the nation, from the Southwest to the Mid-Atlantic, promises to cripple travel, cancel schools and civic gatherings, and impose frigid temperatures on tens of millions of Americans.

But another worry is looming for those in the path of the storm: Power outages and the very human dangers that come with them.

Other winter tempests in recent years have laid bare the frailties that exist: Freezing spells that have crippled gas production. Surges in demand that tax the grid. The buildup of snow and ice that overwhelms transmission lines and stymies crews trying to help restore power. Extended outages that can lead people to make dangerous choices, such as driving on slick roads or using unsafe heat sources inside their homes.

“I think this has the potential to rank up as one of the more consequential storms we’ve seen over the last five or six years,” said Jim Robb, president of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC).

The blast of winter weather, which is expected to begin delivering snow and ice on Friday across the Rockies and Plains, is likely to cause a wave of impacts as it barrels through the Midwest, Southeast and up the East Coast through the weekend.

By Thursday, forecasters already were warning that accumulation of ice — a reality predicted throughout much of the South — could weigh down trees and overburden power lines, leaving residents across numerous states to endure the winter blast without electricity.
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In addition, many homes in Southern states aren’t built for deep, sustained cold weather, said Julia Matevosyan, chief engineer at ESIG. “When it gets cold, then the heating becomes so inefficient, it actually draws more power than during warmer weather, and that stresses the system.”

New York Times:

Analysis by ICF, an energy consulting firm, shows that the main grid in Texas, which is run by Electric Reliability Council of Texas, will hit its peak demand between 5 a.m. and 8 a.m. on Monday. Across the Mid-Atlantic region, on the grid managed by PJM, which includes 13 states and the District of Columbia, demand is expected to crest from 7 a.m. to 10 a.m. on Tuesday. That’s when the system operator anticipates it will reach the highest winter demand in its history.

Continue reading “Storm’s Biggest Grid Stress Still to Come”

FEMA Destruction Paused As Storm Barrels In

Storm cutting a swath thru MAGA country

We’re going to fire you soon. But get out there and bust your ass one more time.
Motivational gold.

Washington Post:

The Department of Homeland Security has paused terminations of employees working on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster response as it ramps up preparations for a massive and life-threatening winter storm that will pummel half the country this weekend.

Earlier this month, The Washington Post reported that the agency planned to terminate disaster response and recovery workers in waves. On New Year’s Eve, agency officials eliminated about 65 positions that were part of FEMA’s largest workforce, known as the Cadre of On-Call Response and Recovery (CORE) — staffers who are among the first on the ground after a disaster and often stick around for years to help communities recover.
But on Thursday night, DHS’ head of human resources sent an email notifying teams that “just a few minutes ago,” FEMA headquarters decided the agency would halt their process of non-renewing dozens of federally funded employees. These roles, hired by FEMA for multiyear terms under the Stafford Act using the disaster relief fund, have been up for renewal on a rolling basis.

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As Storm Pummels US – Trump Admin says “Don’t Say ICE”

Add this to the list of forbidden words, along with “Climate Change”.

Fox Weather not following the directive. Hell, they even said “crippling ice.”

Trump Continues to Undermine Canada – and They are Noticing

Donald Trump has always specialized in knifing friends in the back. Canadians have picked up on that better than many Americans.

CBC (Canada):

U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent commented Thursday on the separatist movement in Alberta — making him the highest-ranking member of the Trump administration to weigh in on the province’s politics.

While appearing on the right-wing TV station Real America’s Voice, Bessent claimed Canada won’t let Alberta build a pipeline to the Pacific.

“I think we should let them come down into the U.S., and Alberta’s a natural partner for the U.S.,” he said.
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“They have great resources. The Albertans are very independent people,” Bessent said, adding there’s a “rumour that they may have a referendum on whether they want to stay in Canada or not.”

When asked if he knew something about it, Bessent said, “People are talking. People want sovereignty. They want what the U.S. has got.”
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Some organizers of the Alberta independence movement have claimed they had meetings with members of the Trump administration, although they have not disclosed any names. Their message has started to spread among MAGA influencers online, and among Republicans broadly.

Andy Ogles, a Republican congressman in Tennessee, told a BBC panel earlier this week that the people of Alberta would “prefer not to be a part of Canada and be a part of the United States because we are winning day in and day out.”

The Alberta independence movement is collecting signatures to trigger a referendum. The question that referendum would ask is whether Alberta should be independent from Canada — not whether it should join the United States.

Continue reading “Trump Continues to Undermine Canada – and They are Noticing”

Remembering the ’21 Texas Blackout

A lot of us will be watching the Texas grid this weekend, to see if it holds up under severe stress.

Hundreds of people died in the blackout of Valentine’s Day, 2021, and it’s become an absolute case study in how Americans have been systematically disinformed about clean energy.

Above, see the perspectives of some Texas’ smartest and most well informed grid experts, on just how the event played out, and what it meant.
In particular, pay attention to the contemporaneous interview with Governor Greg Abbott, who told it like it was to the local Texas journalists, who knew he couldn’t lie to, who knew the score and were following events on the ground.

Then check the clip below to see what Abbott told a Fox News audience THE SAME DAY – to see the fossil fuel misinformation megaphone in action.