Author Archive: Stephen Green

May 7, 2026

CALIFORNIA: Experts stress energy independence as gas prices rise.

With so much of the state’s crude oil supply coming from other parts of the world, energy industry experts told lawmakers that regulations are to blame for rising energy prices and volatility.

“California’s petroleum system has been weakened by design,” Jodie Muller, the president and CEO of the Western States Petroleum Association, testified on Tuesday afternoon. “For years, state policies have pushed the refining sector to contraction, with predictable consequences – less in-state production, reduced resilience and higher costs for Californians.”

The current system has very little margin for error because of the declining number of oil refineries in the state, Muller told lawmakers.

“We are now at an inflection point,” Muller said. “Additional policy pressures risk pushing the remaining refineries past the breaking point. We are still seeing hostile legislation by your colleagues.”

Decline is a choice California seems happy to make.

Posted at 8:37 am by Stephen Green on May 7th, 2026

YES:

Posted at 8:21 am by Stephen Green on May 7th, 2026

IF THEY KEEP PUSHING, THE DAY WILL COME:

Posted at 7:50 am by Stephen Green on May 7th, 2026

HEY, BIG SPENDER: Elon Musk’s Terafab chip factory in Texas could cost up to $119 billion, filing shows.

Musk, who’s also CEO of Tesla, is aiming for Terafab to be the “most epic chip-building effort ever — combining logic, memory and advanced packaging under one roof,” according to a post on X last month from SpaceX, which now owns artificial intelligence company xAI. Musk officially launched the project in March.

The chip complex outside Austin would be designed to manufacture chips for SpaceX, xAI and Tesla, and would be jointly built by those companies. Musk said in a post on X that xAI “will be dissolved as a separate company” and will be called SpaceXAI.

In April, Intel announced it will be joining the Terafab project to help “design, fabricate, and package ultra-high-performance chips at scale.” It’s the first major outside commitment for the capital-intensive foundry side of Intel’s business, which to date has only manufactured chips for its own products.

During Tesla’s first-quarter earnings call last month, Musk said Tesla plans to use Intel’s forthcoming 14A process to produce chips at the facility. Intel’s stock popped on the news and had its best month ever in April, more than doubling in value.

Intel has struggled with new fab processes for quite a few years now, and 14A — a leapfrog attempt to get to 1.4nm-class manufacturing — could be make or break for the company.

Here’s to hoping that an infusion of Musk-level capital helps do the trick.

One last thing: Oftentimes it seems like Musk’s commitment to American manufacturing is underappreciated.

Posted at 7:35 am by Stephen Green on May 7th, 2026

LOL, BULWARK:

Posted at 7:19 am by Stephen Green on May 7th, 2026

May 6, 2026

HMM: Ukraine could lift arms-exports ban this year as would-be buyers line up.

Vadym Ivchenko, a Ukrainian lawmaker for the Batkivshchyna party, told Defense News a political consensus on the need to allow Ukraine’s defense industry to launch export sales has emerged across party lines.

“Meeting the needs of the defense forces as a top priority is a fundamental condition for all sides. Only after that can the sale of surplus be considered to attract investment,” Ivchenko said.

The lawmaker said that, as Ukraine’s president has already approved the so-called Drone Deals framework, Ukraine is now officially coordinating export details at the state level.

“Therefore, 2026 can be considered a realistic timeframe for launching the first contracts. Of course, delays are possible, but it is important to understand that this would lead to idle production capacity, which is an unacceptable luxury during wartime,” according to the politician.

Ivchenko said drones of various types are expected to become the Ukrainian defense industry’s flagship export products.

Making yourself an indispensable part of other countries’ pressing defense needs isn’t a bad way to get them to invest in your national survival.

Posted at 4:52 pm by Stephen Green on May 6th, 2026

THE ENEMY WITHIN:

Posted at 4:36 pm by Stephen Green on May 6th, 2026

THE COUNTER-RECONQUISTA: Grateful Migrant Repays His Hosts in Barcelona “There’s the old excuse again: for years now, European authorities have classified what are clearly Islamic jihadis as mentally ill, which allows them to continue to pretend that there is no such thing as Islamic jihad and that the mass migration of Muslims into Europe poses no cultural or civilizational threat.”

Posted at 3:19 pm by Stephen Green on May 6th, 2026

VIDEO: Hero Dad Drops a Persistent Carjacker Who Threatened His Family. “The “gentleman” in the peach shirt had already slammed a green sedan into two other vehicles nearby, then stumbled out like a man possessed. Not content with totaling ride #1, he launched a one-man crime spree, yanking door handles of other vehicles, trying to wrest doors open to steal a new set of wheels.”

Then he picked the entirely wrong car.

Posted at 2:48 pm by Stephen Green on May 6th, 2026

MAGA: The heartland’s revenge: how AI is reindustrializing the American interior.

America does not currently have the capacity to power these mega-projects, but the market is responding. Utilities are expanding existing plants, and a new generation of power stations is being planned, often funded directly by the “hyperscalers” themselves.

The materials for this build-out are coming from the “Rust Belt” and the South, regions once hollowed out by globalization. This reindustrialization is not accidental. Federal tax incentives, specifically domestic content requirements, have encouraged companies to source equipment from American manufacturers. But if policy is the carrot, our unique energy position is the engine.

By steering procurement toward domestic sources, federal policy has tapped into a decisive competitive advantage: our staggering abundance of natural gas. While much of the world faces shortages, the American interior is practically swimming in fuel. Because natural gas is often a byproduct of oil production, the shale revolution has created a massive surplus. Today, oil companies often flare this gas or pay to have it removed; now, new pipelines are being planned to transport it directly to the heavy industry hubs of the Heartland.

Here’s your takeaway: “For years, the goods economy relied on foreign products arriving at coastal hubs. But as the center of the country begins to export freight again, the gravity is shifting.”

Posted at 1:46 pm by Stephen Green on May 6th, 2026

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO MEGYN?

Posted at 12:28 pm by Stephen Green on May 6th, 2026
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