In Search of the Perfect Investment

She’s making torrential rains, as much as eight inches in one day, flooding towns and causing evacuation orders. Debbie is of interest because Susan and I are going to the red dot this weekend for a quick visit with Australian friends and family.  

Debbie is moving very slowly. So we have packed heavy wet weather gear. Debbie is part of global warming/weirding, which is causing major areas of the Great Barrier Reef — north of the red dot — to die.

In recent years, Australia has suffered extensive drought and horrendous forest fires. Australia has been a huge believer in cutting carbon dioxide emissions and in supporting world efforts to combat global warming.

We in the U.S. were part of that movement too, until Trump became President, and decided to push a dying industry — coal.

I don’t deny climate change. It’s clearly happening. It’s not a Chinese plot to kill our industries. I’m aghast at what Trump is doing. I wanted my readers to read an article published Wednesday afternoon. This is the best, short summary of what happening in this important area:

Rolling Back Climate Regulations Is Trump’s Most Dangerous Con Yet
Pushing fossil fuels and killing climate rules will not keep America strong and safe
by Jeff Goodell

The executive order President Trump signed Tuesday is his most dangerous con yet. By rolling back President Obama’s Clean Power Plan and other climate-related regulations, he is willing to kill people with increased air pollution, put our national security at risk and cook the climate, all in the name of creating jobs for coal miners. Like most Trump cons, it’s about duping desperate voters into believing he is fighting for them, when in fact he is stealing their future.

I spent five years reporting and writing a book about the coal industry, and if I learned anything on that adventure, it was this: No matter what Trump does, coal is not coming back. We have been mining coal in America for more than 150 years – the stuff that’s left is increasingly expensive, of poor quality and difficult and dangerous to get out of the ground. In Appalachia, the only way to boost coal production is to blow up more mountains. (In many places in Appalachia, it’s now cheaper to remove the mountains from the coal with a few well-placed explosives than to dig the coal out of the mountain the old-fashioned way.)

Trump and many coal country politicians like to blame the decline of coal on Obama’s “war on coal” – but that too is a lie. Coal is dying because the world is moving on to cleaner, cheaper sources of energy: natural gas, solar, wind. Trump is not going to change the dynamics of the energy industry with a stroke of his pen. At best, loosening regulations on mining and burning coal might allow Big Coal to squeak out a few more years of profit before vanishing into the peat bogs of history. If Trump really wanted to create energy-sector jobs in America, he would push hard into renewables – the U.S. solar industry alone now employs twice as many workers as the coal industry, and more workers than the oil and gas industry combined.

But this is not about jobs. This is about payback to Big Coal CEOs and investors, who are desperate to squeeze a few more bucks out of the old mines before the renewable future takes over. It’s also, I think, a deliberate effort to trash President Obama’s legacy in an area where he had lasting and notable achievements.

But the cost of this is enormous. Beyond the economic cost of falling behind in the clean energy industry, there is issue of public health. Globally, seven million people a year die prematurely due to air pollution. More air pollution also means increased asthma attacks, more hospitable visits, higher medical bills. In coal country, loosening mining restrictions will also mean more coal ash – laden with toxic heavy metals – dumped into rivers and streams.

Then there is climate change. Trump thinks of it as a hoax, something the Chinese cooked up to trick Americans into – what? Abandoning fossil fuels and dominating the $1.3 trillion market for clean energy? In any case, by signing an executive order to roll back Obama’s Clean Power Plan, Trump is virtually ensuring that the U.S. won’t meet its obligations to the Paris Climate Accord, which was agreed to by 195 nations and is probably the last best chance we have to keep global temperatures under two degrees Celsius, the threshold for dangerous warming. By blowing off the deal, Trump is making the Chinese – who are moving fast into clean tech and continuing to push for emissions reductions – look like enlightened moral leaders. But Trump is also saying “f**k you” to those affected by wildfires and droughts, pushing the Arctic and Antarctica toward a more rapid collapse, and speeding up the inundation of nearly $900 billion worth of real estate in Florida, Virginia, North Carolina and other coastal areas. (On the upside, Mar-a-Lago could be an underwater tourist destination before too long.)

The biggest con of all is that pushing fossil fuels and killing climate rules will keep America strong and safe. In fact, the truth is just the opposite. As former Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel put it, climate change is a “threat multiplier.” More extreme weather – increased droughts and flooding – leads to food and water shortages, and more displaced people. More refugees mean more political turmoil, more chaos, more wars. Which, for Trump, may be the point. The more he f**ks up the world, the more opportunities he’ll have to remind us that only he can save it.

I’ve reproduced the article in full. You can find the original here.

I would not buy shares in any coal companies.

Now to something more “fun.”

Marijuana will be legal for all Canadians over the age of 18 by July 1, 2018,

This legalization will mark Canada’s 151st birthday “in style.”.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Liberal Party will officially announce the plan on April 10, according to Business Insider.

The legislation is expected to easily pass through Parliament, as it holds support from major political parties both to the right, and left of Trudeau’s Liberals. As well, a majority of Canadians support legalizing marijuana, according to a recent poll from NRG Research Group.

The plan follows the recommendations laid out by a federal task force — led by former Toronto police chief Bill Blair and former Justice Minister Anne McLellan — and leaves it up to the provincial governments to implement the plan and control how marijuana is sold, reports CBC.

Though the federal government stipulates a minimum age of 18 to purchase marijuana in stores, provinces will be free to raise the age as they see fit. Canadians will also be able to grow up to four marijuana plants in their household.

Click here.

I wouldn’t buy shares in any marijuana companies, either.

Yesterday afternoon, I received an email:

Interview Resource: The Stock and Financial Impact of Canada’s Coming Recreational Pot Sales

Hi Harry

In case you or a colleague are following this issue I wanted to get a resource over to you.

As you may know, Canada has announced that they will unveil plans to legalizes sales for the recreational use of marijuana in April.

Timothy Taggart is CEO of American Growth Fund Series Two (AMREX), currently the United States’ only Cannabis Mutual Fund.  Headquartered in Denver, this diversified fund focuses solely on the cannabis industry.  Approved by the SEC, it invests in publicly traded companies in areas that support this exploding industry like pharmaceuticals, agriculture, hydroponic, equipment, to name a few. He’s been following this development in Canada and of it says,

“Since their announcement on Monday, we have seen a vase increase in Canadian marijuana stocks. Canopy Growth Corp rose as much as 11 percent on Monday, while other stocks such as Aurora have climbed more than 400 percent in the last 12 months. Canada’s legalization process for both medical and recreational marijuana is much further along than other countries. For instance, some of the Canadian stock companies have stocks that touch the marijuana plant, while there are no stocks like this in the US that currently exist. I anticipate that as the US evolves in this process, and we become more competitive with Canada that the us stocks will have  similar results  to Canada’s,” Taggart says.

Please feel free to use all or parts of Taggart’s quote above in your stories. Just please let me know if you do. He is also available for interviews. I look forward to hearing from you.

Laura Kelley
(303) 704-5222
laura@thesolutionpr.com

When techie things go awry

+ Reboot the device.

+ Reset network connections — when your iPhone voice mail stops working.

+ Try a different browser — when your online bank keeps rejecting you.

+ Try a faster Internet connection — when things generally are hiccuping. Move off slow WiFi, to fast wired Internet (if you can).

+ If it works, don’t mess with it. I’m still using Microsoft Office 2003. It’s clean, simple to use and ultra-reliable. It does pay to update the Windows and Apple operating systems, because some of the updates catch security flaws.

Somewhat amusing

This is me, Harry Newton, at the tennis court with a seven foot tennis player. I’m six feet. I’ve never stood next to anyone this tall. It’s strange feeling. He was very sweet, allowing me stretch to maybe six foot quarter of an inch. You can see how I’m straining.

Life is wonderful.

Please don’t email me and tell you don’t “believe” in global warming. You can choose to believe, or not believe in God. But global warming is science. It’s a major problem we should be attacking — if we want our children and grandchildren to enjoy the wonderful life we’ve enjoyed.