Biden EPA Pick: ‘Most’ Solar Energy, Electric Vehicle Parts ‘Come From China’

'We're finding that if we don't capture the market, we're going to fall behind'

President Joe Biden's pick to lead the Environmental Protection Agency acknowledged that the administration's green energy agenda will enrich China in the near future.

During a Wednesday confirmation hearing, Michael Regan faced a question from Sen. Mike Braun (R., Ind.) regarding China's inaction on climate change. The nominee pointed to his time at the helm of North Carolina's Department of Environmental Quality, noting that while the state is among the nation's leaders in "solar installation," most of the parts being installed are Chinese. According to Regan, this places the United States at a disadvantage in the clean energy market.

"North Carolina is now second in solar installation in the country. What we find is most of the parts we want to install come from China," Regan said. "We're finding that if we don't capture the market, we're going to fall behind. I believe that's the same for solar, it's for cars."

Regan's admission reflects the problem with Biden's push to create "good-paying" American jobs in the clean energy sector. Biden climate officials have argued that job gains in the industry will offset losses among fossil fuel workers, and Regan expressed confidence that the country could "remain globally competitive" by making up ground in manufacturing. Others, however, are less optimistic, contending that China's inferior labor and environmental standards give the communist nation a leg up.

"You look at solar panels, you look at wind turbines, how they're made. China, we know from everything that they do being state capitalists—they're going to do things to put their industries at a competitive edge and reap the benefits while they're polluting the air," Braun told the Washington Free Beacon. "There's a lot we need to be careful with."

American Enterprise Institute resident scholar Derek Scissors echoed Braun's concerns. China controls roughly 60 percent of the solar industry's supply chain and produces 75 percent of global polysilicon, a key raw material in solar cell manufacturing. As a result, merely controlling the "installation" phase of production could be insufficient when it comes to creating American jobs.

"If the administration wants to greatly increase the use of solar, it faces the problem that China spends heavily to dominate world solar production. Either we'd have to rely on Chinese suppliers when ramping up solar or the administration would have to use legal means to secure the supply chain," Scissors said. "In this sense, solar reflects the larger challenge facing ‘build back better': The final stage of production may not be that important."

The EPA told the Free Beacon that it is "committed to delivering on the Biden-Harris administration's commitment to build a clean energy future that creates good-paying jobs for Americans."

https://freebeacon.com/biden-administration/biden-epa-pick-most-solar-energy-electric-vehicle-parts-come-from-china/

UK Revokes License For Top Chinese Communist Party Media Outlet

U.K. regulators stripped China Global Television Network’s national broadcasting license.

The decision follows the U.K.’s Office of Communications (Ofcom) determining the license holder has “no editorial control” of China Global Television Network (CGTN), and that “the Chinese Communist Party is ultimately in charge of the satellite news channel.”

Ofcom identified two main problems with CGTN’s holding company, Star China Media Limited.

The company has no editorial oversight over CGTN’s programming and it also violates U.K. broadcasting laws that restrict political bodies from holding licenses:

Our investigation concluded that Star China Media Limited (SCML), the licence-holder for the CGTN service, did not have editorial responsibility for CGTN’s output. As such, SCML does not meet the legal requirement of having control over the licensed service, and so is not a lawful broadcast licensee.

In addition, we have been unable to grant an application to transfer the licence to an entity called China Global Television Network Corporation (CGTNC). This is because crucial information was missing from the application, and because we consider that CGTNC would be disqualified from holding a licence, as it is controlled by a body which is ultimately controlled by the Chinese Communist Party.

The decision follows Ofcom faulting CGTN for breaking U.K. policies in 2020 with biased coverage of Hong Kong protests and the airing of forced confessions.

https://thenationalpulse.com/breaking/uk-revokes-cgtn-license/

Chinese company plans to build $39bn city on Australia’s doorstep

China plans to build a $39bn city just kilometres from Australia’s border, but Aussies have been warned not to jump to conclusions.

A Chinese company plans to build a city on Australia’s doorstep in a move set to inflame tensions between Beijing and Canberra.

A Chinese company has approached the Papua New Guinea (PNG) government with a proposal to build a $39bn city just kilometres from Australia’s sea border, according to leaked documents obtained by The Australian.

Hong Kong-based WYW Holding asked PNG Prime Minister James Marape in April to sign off on a “build operate transfer” deal to build the city on the island of Daru, situated just two kilometres Australia’s border in the Torres Strait.

If approved, the “New Daru” would be passed onto PNG after an unspecified period of Chinese control.

“We hope that you and your government will agree to engage with us on this ambitious plan which is, as you are aware, predicated on an agreed Sovereign Guarantee based on a long-term BOT contract between and for the ­mutual benefit of both parties,” The Australian quotes WYW Holding chief executive Terrance Mo as writing.

A spokesman for Mr Marape told The Australian he was “unaware of such projects”.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg said he would “wait until more details” were available.

“We have a close relationship with the PNG government … let’s not jump to conclusions here,” he said on Friday.

“Let’s wait for more details do become available. I am not going to go into see what our government knows about various matters.

“Our relationship with Papua New Guinea very strong, it is a very co-operative relationship, it is multifaceted.

“Between Prime Minister Morrison and Prime Minister Marape there is a constant dialogue.”

It comes after a Chinese company last year signed a memorandum of understanding to build a $200m industrial fishing complex on Daru.

https://www.news.com.au/national/politics/chinese-company-plans-to-build-39bn-city-on-australias-doorstep/news-story/e334423bf6dd14da3b236464d9204ac0

Biden strikes tough tone on Russia in diplomatic push

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Thursday said the days of the U.S. “rolling over” to Russian President Vladimir Putin are gone as he called for the immediate release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.

During his first visit to the State Department as president, Biden issued his strongest condemnation of Putin as large protests have broken out throughout Russia following the jailing of Navalny. Thousands of protesters have been arrested.

The new American president was also seeking to make clear to the world that he’s making a dramatic turn away from Putin following the presidency of Republican Donald Trump, who avoided direct confrontation and often sought to downplay the Russian leader’s malign actions.

Navalny, an anti-corruption campaigner and Putin’s most determined political foe, was arrested Jan. 17 upon returning from a five-month convalescence in Germany from a nerve agent poisoning, which he has blamed on the Kremlin.

“I made it clear to President Putin, in a manner very different from my predecessor, that the days of the United States rolling over in the face of Russia’s aggressive actions — interfering with our election, cyber attacks, poisoning its citizens— are over,” said Biden, who last week spoke to Putin in what White House officials called a tense first exchange. “We will not hesitate to raise the cost on Russia and defend our vital interests and our people.”

Biden’s comments on Russia came as he asserted a broad reset of American foreign policy, including reversing Trump’s order to withdraw U.S. troops stationed in Germany, ending support for Saudi Arabia’s military offensive in Yemen and promising to support LBGTQ rights as a cornerstone of diplomacy.

https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2021/02/05/biden-strikes-tough-tone-on-russia-in-diplomatic-push/

>>12825733

WTF AUSTRALIAN STATE MEDIA

Why Rosaleen Norton, 'the witch of Kings Cross', was a groundbreaking bohemian

Rosaleen Norton, or "the witch of Kings Cross", is finally receiving the attention she deserves.

Born in Dunedin in 1917, emigrating with her family to Sydney in 1925, and dying in 1979, Norton was a trailblazing woman and under-appreciated cultural touchstone of 20th century Australia.

A self-proclaimed witch, Norton experienced childhood visions. From around the age of 23, she practised trance magic and, later, sex magic, in various flats and squats in inner-city Sydney.

Trance magic involved Norton meditating (sometimes with the assistance of various substances, ingested and/or inhaled) and raising her consciousness. The aim was to transcend her physical body and conscious mind to experience higher forms of existence.

Sex magic was developed by the infamous occultist, Aleister Crowley, around 1904, and involves a complicated series of sexual rituals designed for a variety of perceived needs (depending on the practitioner), including spiritual awakening.

As an artist, Norton drew and painted her beliefs and the gods, goddesses, and spiritual beings who were central to it.

Firebird by Rosaleen Norton.(Black Jelly Films, courtesy Burgess Family)

She also lived free from societal expectations. Not only a witch, but openly bisexual, Norton robustly challenged a predominantly Christian Australia.

But she was reviled for doing so, attacked by the media for her art, her beliefs, her lifestyle, and sometimes, her appearance. She experienced police surveillance and faced obscenity charges over her art.

Norton defied cultural norms and, though she did not identify as a feminist, was a powerfully unconventional woman.

Poor but not without imaginative style, she had distinctive arched eyebrows, sometimes dressed in male attire, and was often photographed wearing all black.

With a new film about her life being released next week, it is timely to look at her legacy.

Freedom and creativity

Norton's story has fascinated me from the age of five, when I began to devour the 1970s tabloid newspapers and magazines that featured her.

During those years, Norton had become something of a recluse, rarely appearing in public but graciously agreeing to be interviewed about her life.

By this time, the legend of "the witch of Kings Cross" was entrenched. Norton was not averse to it, even donning a pointed hat for photos.

Rosaleen Norton was known as "the witch of Kings Cross".

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2021-02-05/rosaleen-norton-witch-of-kings-cross-groundbreaking-bohemian/13121738

=1/2==

>>12825849

This passionate interest went on to inform my adult life. As a classicist, I have explored Norton's occult belief system, which embraced the old gods.

Beings such as Hecate, an ancient Greek goddess who presided over witches, Lilith, the ancient female demon originating in Mesopotamia, and the Egyptian goddess Isis, were at the heart of Norton's magical practice.

But the Greek god Pan was at the centre of her pantheon. To the ancient Greeks, Pan was the god of nature, regularly associated with pastureland and its human and animal inhabitants.

Half-man, half-goat, Pan also embodied the sexual drive, the uninhibited urge to copulate. As the "High Priestess at the Altar of Pan", Norton performed rituals both alone and with members of her inner magical circle in his honour.

Rosaleen Norton, Lucifer and the Goat of Mendes

As an artist, Norton drew and painted her beliefs and the gods, goddesses, and spiritual beings who were central to it.(Supplied)

In my own research, I have studied witchcraft through the ages and how, especially from Victorian times, it provided an outlet for unconventional women to leverage freedom (and sometimes power) and express their creativity.

(Even as a child, I baulked at the media's determination to cast Norton as a woman to be judged, feared or, worse still, mocked.)

As an academic, I extended my research into the worlds of Greece and Rome with a focus on sexual histories and belief systems — and explored Norton's life through the same lens.

Along the way, I acquired enough material to donate a personal archive on Norton to the library at The University of Newcastle.

Norton's identity as a witch was formed early. As a child, she was drawn to the night, to nature, and to drawing and recording the preternatural world. In an article published in Australasian Post in January 1957, she describes visions from the age of five (a lady in a grey dress, a dragon) and trance states (which she called "Big Things and Little Things") to capture the experience of her body growing in size as she "floated", as if in a dream.

MORE

2/2