From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By David Blackmon

Shale natural gas played the lion’s share of the role in lowering U.S. emissions to levels not seen since the early 1990s by enabling power generation companies to displace coal-fired power plants with combined cycle gas plants. This led to a situation during the first Donald Trump presidency in which the U.S. was the only western country which had met its commitments under the Paris Climate Accords, even though President Trump had ended America’s participation in that compact.

While countries like Canada, the UK, Australia, and those in the European Union continue their obsession with intermittent power sources like wind and solar, the United States has been blessed with one powerful alternative for cutting emissions and is set to go full speed in pursuit of another in the coming days.

That first alternative is natural gas produced from the major U.S. shale plays. As the Statistical Review of World Energy reported last year, no energy source in world history has ever been scaled up as rapidly as the domestic US industry has achieved with shale gas.

Shale has grown faster than wind, faster than solar, and faster than even Indonesian coal. Faster than anything before it in recorded history. This rapid scaling, combined with the immensity of the recoverable resource itself has facilitated massive reductions in carbon emissions not just at home, but also abroad.

At home, shale natural gas played the lion’s share of the role in lowering U.S. emissions to levels not seen since the early 1990s by enabling power generation companies to displace coal-fired power plants with combined cycle gas plants. This led to a situation during the first Donald Trump presidency in which the U.S. was the only western country which had met its commitments under the Paris Climate Accords, even though President Trump had ended America’s participation in that compact.

Internationally, the rapid expansion of the U.S. liquefied natural gas export industry is now helping enable importing countries across the globe to meet their own commitments. The immensity of the American resource ensures such results can continue to be achieved for decades to come.

The second power source related to which America is poised for explosive growth is a long-existing one that has been woefully underutilized for decades now: Nuclear. The Deseret News reports that the White House is preparing a set of four executive orders for the President’s signature in the coming days designed to jump start American dominance in this crucial energy sector.

“We are trying to knock things over that we can that are regulatory,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright told the House Appropriations Committee in a May 7 hearing and reported by Energy Intelligence. “There will be catalyzing regulatory events to bring” in “tens of billions of dollars” in private capital, “mostly from hyperscalers.”

Respected energy analyst and writer Robert Bryce was able to obtain a draft of one of the orders this week. Writing in his Substack newsletter, Bryce says the draft order “begins by pointing out that the US is losing the race to deploy new reactors and that China has announced plans to: ‘Bring 200 new gigawatts of nuclear power online by 2035, at which point its total nuclear output will more than double that of the United States. Further, as American development of new reactor designs has waned, 87% of nuclear reactors installed worldwide since 2017 are based on Russian and Chinese designs. These trends cannot continue. Swift and decisive action is required to jump-start America’s nuclear renaissance and ensure our national and economic security by increasing fuel availability, enabling research and development, and preparing our workforce.”

Obviously, jump-starting a fairly moribund industry is a stretch goal for the Trump administration, especially considering that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission has permitted just 5 new nuclear plants since 1978, only two of which were ultimately built and placed into service. But the reality facing the U.S. and the rest of the international community is that, if getting to net zero by any year in the future is truly an imperative, there is little other choice but to focus on a rapid, massive nuclear expansion. Intermittent, weather-dependent generation simply cannot get that job done.

Fortunately, it’s a reality that Trump and key advisors like Sec. Wright fully grasp. In a keynote speech delivered in Poland last month, Wright said, “The two biggest ‘climate solutions’ in the coming decades are the same as they were in the last two decades, natural gas and nuclear, for the simple reason that they work.”

He isn’t wrong, and the Trump administration is focused on ensuring the U.S. maximizes the benefits from both of these key energy engines both at home and abroad.

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.

From the Daily Caller News Foundation

By Jason Cohen

Former President Joe Biden received a diagnosis of prostate cancer on Friday, according to a Sunday announcement by his personal office.

The statement characterizes the cancer Biden has as “a more aggressive form of the disease” that has metastasized to the bone, but the statement adds that it can be effectively managed. The diagnosis follows renewed scrutiny on Biden’s physical and mental decline, along with its cover-up, ahead of the release of a book on the subject titled “Original Sin” by CNN anchor Jake Tapper and Axios reporter Alex Thompson.

“Last week, President Joe Biden was seen for a new finding of a prostate nodule after experiencing increasing urinary symptoms. On Friday he was diagnosed with prostate cancer, characterized by a Gleason score of 9 (Grade Group 5) with metastasis to the bone,” the statement reads. “While this represents a more aggressive form of the disease, the cancer appears to be hormone-sensitive which allows for effective management. The President and his family are reviewing treatment options with his physicians.”

A Gleason score of nine indicates high-grade cancer, meaning that the tumor is more likely to spread aggressively, according to Mount Sinai. A lower Gleason score would indicate that the cancer does not grow as quickly and is less likely to spread elsewhere.

Since leaving office in January, Biden has delivered one major public speech and participated in interviews with “The View” and BBC. In his May 8 appearance on “The View,” he denied reports that he experienced cognitive decline during his presidency.

After Biden’s son Beau passed away from brain cancer in 2015, he decided not to run for president in 2016 before running again and securing the White House in 2020. Excerpts from “Original Sin” and other revelations about the Biden presidency indicate that the former president was in declining physical and mental condition throughout his term, and that the extent of his decline was no longer deniable after his poor performance in the June 2024 debate against President Donald Trump.

Trump issued a statement on Truth Social shortly after news of Biden’s diagnosis broke on Sunday.

“Melania and I are saddened to hear about Joe Biden’s recent medical diagnosis,” Trump wrote. “We extend our warmest and best wishes to Jill and the family, and we wish Joe a fast and successful recovery.”