In March of 2025, Namgyal Choedup, the Dalai Lama’s North American envoy, wrote a letter to Minnesota’s state legislature, pleading for their support. Choedup’s plea to lawmakers came amidst a…
Reuters reported last week that U.S. energy officials are looking into “unexplained communication equipment” in Chinese-made renewables technology. The federal government has “not publicly acknowledged the discoveries” and the two…
The three largest manufacturers of solar inverters have been found vulnerable to remote sabotage that could have produced large-scale power outages if exploited. It’s lucky that a cybersecurity firm identified…
A recent report from the Center for Advanced Defense Studies (C4ADS), a global security nonprofit, found that Chinese firms control around 75 percent of Indonesian nickel production capacity. With Indonesia…
In 2018, Center of the American Experiment released a report evaluating how environmentally responsible mining would boost Minnesota’s economy. With the help of economist John Phelan and Debra Struhsacker, a…
There’s been no hysteria over mysterious drones in the North Dakota skies, unlike other parts of the country. Yet hundreds of Chinese-manufactured drones operated by North Dakota state agencies are…
On January 8, 2024, a confluence of factors forced the Hawaiian Electric Company (HECO) to initiate rolling blackouts that affected about 120,000 electricity customers in two dozen communities on the island of…
An economist looks for the roots of prosperity in cultural norms and beliefs.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is seemingly at war with Amazon. In September, the FTC, along with 17 state attorney generals, filed a lawsuit alleging that Amazon engages in actions…
In late September, the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC), all of whom were appointed or reappointed by Governor Tim Walz, approved Xcel Energy’s expansion plans for the Sherco solar project, which…
Wind and solar advocates frequently misquote Lazard’s Levelized Cost of Energy (LCOE) analysis to make two incorrect statements. The first incorrect claim is that wind and solar facilities generate electricity…
A new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) entitled Energy Technology Perspectives 2023 shows that China is the largest producer of wind and solar components, and it isn’t close.…
A video of African miners narrowly escaping death as a mine shaft collapsed went viral on Twitter over the weekend. The video below shows miners leaping out of a tunnel…
On Tuesday, the Board of Supervisors of the City/County of San Francisco was scheduled to take up the proposal of the African American Reparations Advisory Committee. The meeting was delayed…
For the second time in as many days, opponents of a controversial proposed development in a North Dakota city triumphed over the political establishment, ending another overwhelmingly unpopular, though once…
In a surprising about-face after more than a year of controversy, Grand Forks officials now say they plan to reject the Fufeng Chinese corn milling plant proposed in a location…
Grand Forks has racked up some $235,000 in legal bills this year in the effort to win approval for a controversial $700 million Fufeng Chinese ag plant that remains in…
The latest fallout stemming from the proposed Chinese ag plant in Grand Forks involves the strategic air force base at the center of the national security review underway of the…
After months of turmoil, the controversial Chinese-owned ag plant proposed in Grand Forks has ground to a halt, pending a national security review. What started as a local economic development…
From A to Z Last week I asked ‘What do states without an income tax do?‘ They get by, is the short answer: states do not need an income tax…
Ten months after Chinese-linked Fufeng Group announced plans for a corn milling plant in Grand Forks, the controversial project remains the target of stubborn opposition locally and increasing scrutiny nationally,…
Several Chinese solar firms have had their shipments to the U.S. detained or sent back during the past several weeks as customs agents enforce a new law called The Uyghur Forced…
Opponents of a $350 million Chinese-backed agricultural processing plant proposed in Grand Forks captured far more than the required 3,617 signatures on a petition to put the controversial project up…
It’s not official yet, but the fate of a controversial $350 million Chinese-backed agriculture processing plant tentatively approved by the Grand Forks City Council may soon be in the hands…