America’s largest solar farm would’ve produced enough energy to power 80,000 homes near Las Vegas.
But construction was halted when environmental wingnuts objected because it would mean relocating 114 desert tortoises.
You can’t make this stuff up.
I’m all for clean rivers and smog-free skies. But clearly, the radical environmentalists have too much power.
Thankfully, they have a little less power now… because the US Supreme Court just overturned the biggest barrier to innovation in America.
If you asked me: Stephen… you can change only one thing about the US government. What’s it gonna be?
Eliminating Chevron Deference would’ve been near the top of my list. It enabled absurd regulatory overreaches… like cancelling a giant clean energy farm because we mustn’t disturb tortoises.
Chevron Deference allowed bureaucrats to treat innovators like criminals. In a 1984 decision, the Court granted regulatory agencies the power to interpret laws how they saw fit. In the simplest terms, this put unelected bureaucrats in charge of America.
No more. The Supreme Court has struck down Chevron Deference in a win for rational optimists everywhere.
This is huge. Consider nuclear energy. It’s the cleanest and safest source of power. Emits minimal carbon. So why has America closed more nuclear plants than we’ve opened this century?
The US nuclear regulator made building new reactors nearly impossible. Nuclear plants are forced to hire hundreds of extra people to push paperwork.
Every three-letter agency is up to these shenanigans. It was a noose around innovators’ necks.
No longer can agencies decree as they please. They’ll have to either ask politicians to pass new legislation or duke it out in the courts.
Did you know selling stuff on the internet used to be illegal in America?
The National Science Foundation, which managed America’s internet backbone, prohibited online commerce.
Amazon was illegal under this law. Thankfully the ban was lifted in 1991, paving the way for the internet to transform our lives.
Overturning Chevron is the most positive development for innovation since.
Remember… we know how to build 100% clean, safe, reliable energy (nuclear power).
We know how to fly from New York to London in 3 hours (supersonic jets).
We know how to develop lifesaving vaccines in days (mRNA).
But we don’t yet have these things in abundance today because bureaucrats froze their development.
The bureaucratic barriers that smothered creativity and progress for 40 years are beginning to crumble. Let’s fight for a world where innovation thrives and prosperity is limitless.
Joe Lonsdale drops the mic on CNBC
American optimist Joe Lonsdale was asked how he’d feel if more conservative judges were appointed to the US Supreme Court.
The question implied these judges would try to force their conservative views on America.
Here’s Lonsdale’s A+ answer: I think that would protect our country for generations to have judges that believe in the Constitution. These people are not activists.
Watch the clip here.
I love when optimists hand it to the corporate media.
The No. 1 trait of highly satisfied people
University of Edinburgh researchers found the No. 1 predictor of highly satisfied people was belief that by working hard a person can achieve anything.
In other words, agency.
Rational optimists know the world is far from perfect. What separates us is we understand it’s possible to overcome problems through hard work and innovation.
Isn’t that what humans have been doing for 200 years?
To live a happy life, understand you are a person with the ability to change things. Switch off the news, stop doom scrolling X (Twitter), and think of specific ways you can take action to overcome problems.
Rational optimists don’t sit around. We make it happen.
Bjorn debunks The New York Times
We’re told the world is warming at an alarming pace and will lead to an ecological disaster that could soon wipe out humanity.
The New York Times recently said heat is “the deadliest of all extreme weather events.”
Prolific optimist Bjorn Lomborg fact checked the corporate media.
Did you know cold weather kills 9X more people each year than heat?
Source: Bjorn Lomborg
Cold is more deadly than heat, even in the hottest parts of the world like Africa.
Dare to know the truth.
My daughter just graduated kindergarten
It seems like only yesterday I watched her come into this world. She was so tiny and fragile… now she’s reading books and doing math.
The greatest gift my wife ever gave me is a family.
Being a dad lit a fire inside me. I want my kids to grow up surrounded by can-do rational optimists.
We have some work to do…. But I know we can.
Forward this email. Tell people good news. Help us grow the Rational Optimist Society to 1 million strong.
Let’s go!
Talk to you next week.
Stephen McBride