America's War On Coal Power-Plants Is Over

 Al Gore's worst nightmare, US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told Bloomberg TV hosts on Tuesday that coal-fired power plants will remain the backbone of President Trump's reindustrialization of America. Wright emphasized that coal plants will be restarted to ensure affordable and reliable electricity for decades. 

"What's been the big issues for this president that he ran on, you know, the economic well-being of Americans and the National Security of our country. And our citizens, so we've had 20-plus years of sort of deindustrializing the United States and letting our heavy industry flow overseas. This president is passionate about increasing National Security, and that means we have to have the ability to build heavy steel-intensive and aluminum-intensive material systems in our country again. So this is an attempt, I believe, by our president to incentivize the reindustrialization of America," Wright told Bloomberg hosts. 

When asked about energy security and coal's role, Wright responded: "Coal has been essential to the United States' energy system for over 100 years. It's been the largest source of global electricity for nearly 100 years, and it will be for decades to come, so we need to be realistic about that - now with coal, are we going to see a renaissance in surging coal production in the US - not likely - but we're on a path to continually shrink the electricity we generate from coal - that's made electricity more expensive and our grid less stable. So I think the best we can hope for in the short term is to stop the closure of coal power plants no one has won by that action." 

He continued: "The goal is just affordable, reliable, secure energy from wherever that comes from obviously, there's going to be roles in the long run for solar energy. There are places where it makes tons of sense where the natural resources are there and the infrastructure is benefited by adding more solar to the grid, but I will say one thing for sure: we're not going to go down the road of Germany - you know they spent a half a trillion dollars - they more than doubled their price of electricity - they actually shrunk the total amount of electricity the country produces by about 20% - and their industry is fleeing the country - that's the path the United States was starting to go down, but that's the wrong path."

The coal discussion starts around the four-minute mark... 

The latest data from Bloomberg shows coal accounts for about 20.5% of power generation today. 

"It's not immediately clear what actions the US could take to help prevent coal-fired power plants from closing," Bloomberg noted.  

Michelle Bloodworth, president of America's Power, a trade group representing Core Natural Resources and Peabody Energy, explained that many coal plants have been shuttered over the years because "bad policies have made them uneconomic." He noted, "Fortunately, President Trump is seeking to change this." 

The entire global warming NGO machine must be having a meltdown over Wright's remarks. With USAID funding slashed, one has to wonder—how will they bankroll Greta Thunberg's marches now?

Earlier Wednesday, PJM Interconnection—which coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity and ensures power supplies for 65 million people across all or parts of 13 Eastern and Midwestern US states, as well as Washington, DC, outlined how it will fast-track NatGas power generators to ensure grid stability as "The Next AI Trade" and Powering Up America theme progresses ahead. 

Our latest commentary on the coal industry: 

• Duke Energy Considers Making Coal Power Great Again Under Trump

• A Coordinated Strategy To Bring American Energy Dominance Back Again!

• Will Trump's Coal Comments To Davos' Greenies' Revive US Miners?

• America's Electric Grid Is At Risk - And We Need Coal To Save It

Peabody Energy, the top US coal miner, has yet to catch a bid, blowing through three years of support. 

After a decade and a half of the 'green cult' forcing the nation to buy Chinese green tech and wind down all fossil fuel power generation, the Russell 3000 Coal Subsector Index trades near decade lows. The question is whether Trump's pro-grid stability policies reverse these toxic trends. 

The nation needs grid stability before nuclear power is ramped up in the 2030s. The only way for that to occur is through coal and NatGas power generators amid rising power demand from AI data centers, electric vehicles, onshoring, and other electrification trends. 

https://www.zerohedge.com/commodities/al-gores-worst-nightmare-says-war-coal-power-plants-will-stop

Illinois Gun Requirement Is Unconstitutional: Judge

 by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

A statewide requirement in Illinois for guns violates residents’ constitutional right to keep firearms in their homes, according to a new ruling.

A customer shops for a pistol in Illinois in a file photograph. Scott Olson/Getty Images

“After analyzing all the evidence in this matter, this Court finds that the Defendant’s activity of possessing a firearm within the confines of her home is an act protected by the Second Amendment,” White County Resident Circuit Judge T. Scott Webb wrote in the Feb. 10 decision.

The state’s Firearm Owners Identification (FOID) Act mandates residents have a FOID card to legally possess guns or ammunition.

Vivian Claudine Brown, a state resident, was charged by prosecutors with possessing a rifle despite not having a FOID card. She filed a motion to find the law unconstitutional.

The U.S. Supreme Court has determined that the U.S. Constitution’s Second Amendment protects the right to bear arms and the right to self-defense.

Justices said in a 2022 ruling known as Bruen—which struck down a New York state law—that when restricting gun ownership, officials must show that the regulation in question is “consistent with this Nation’s historical tradition of firearm regulation.”

Webb said there are no historical analogs for the FOID Act, leading to his conclusion that it violates the Constitution.

“None of the laws cited by the State as being historically similar sought to disarm otherwise law-abiding citizens within the confines of their homes,” he wrote. “That is the essence of the FOID Act when the superficial layers of the Act are stripped away.”

A state appeals court previously found the FOID Act constitutional, pointing to how the U.S. Supreme Court has said that background checks, which are a key part of the FOID Act, are permissible. The Illinois Supreme Court has twice remanded the case.

Webb said the appeals court analysis was deficient and that following the decision “would be tantamount to judicial incompetence.”

Prosecutors did not respond to requests for comment by publication time.

“This is an important ruling in a case that has been up and down the Illinois judicial ladder a couple of times already,” Second Amendment Foundation founder and Executive Vice President Alan M. Gottlieb said in a statement.

“We expect the state to appeal again, which could put the case right back before the Illinois Supreme Court for the third time, and we are confident we will win. It’s hard to see how the Illinois Supreme Court avoids the constitutional issue, as they have done on the previous two visits.”

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/illinois-gun-requirement-unconstitutional-judge

QuidelOrtho Q4: Beats On Revenue But Full-Year Sales Guidance Misses Expectations

 Healthcare diagnostics company QuidelOrtho (NASDAQ:QDEL) reported Q4 CY2024 results topping the market’s revenue expectations , but sales fell by 4.7% year on year to $707.8 million. On the other hand, the company’s full-year revenue guidance of $2.71 billion at the midpoint came in 2.2% below analysts’ estimates. Its non-GAAP profit of $0.63 per share was 8.5% above analysts’ consensus estimates.

QuidelOrtho (QDEL) Q4 CY2024 Highlights:

• Revenue: $707.8 million vs analyst estimates of $698.4 million (4.7% year-on-year decline, 1.4% beat)

• Adjusted EPS: $0.63 vs analyst estimates of $0.58 (8.5% beat)

• Adjusted EBITDA: $150.3 million vs analyst estimates of $147.3 million (21.2% margin, 2% beat)

• Management’s revenue guidance for the upcoming financial year 2025 is $2.71 billion at the midpoint, missing analyst estimates by 2.2% and implying -2.8% growth (vs -6.8% in FY2024)

• Adjusted EPS guidance for the upcoming financial year 2025 is $2.32 at the midpoint, missing analyst estimates by 5.3%

• EBITDA guidance for the upcoming financial year 2025 is $595 million at the midpoint, above analyst estimates of $589.4 million

• Operating Margin: -14.2%, down from 5.4% in the same quarter last year

• Constant Currency Revenue fell 4.4% year on year (-14.1% in the same quarter last year)

• Market Capitalization: $2.79 billion

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/quidelortho-nasdaq-qdel-q4-beats-220121607.html

Final Tally For Biden-Era Improper Payments? $925 B

 Via OpenTheBooks substack,

The House Committee on Oversight and Reform spent today investigating how to address the crisis of improper payments made by the federal government each year. The hearing is called The War on Waste: Stamping Out the Scourge of Improper Payments.

It comes as DOGE works to create lasting efficiencies for taxpayers, and following record improper payments under the Biden administration.

BY THE NUMBERS

During fiscal year 2024, federal agencies reported $161.5 billion in improper payments – money sent to the wrong entity, for the wrong amount or wrong reason – according to data released by the Office of Management and Budget in November.

That means President Biden left office having presided over $925.7 billion in waste, fraud, abuse and duplicative payments – and that’s just what agencies were able to report.

Adjusted for inflation, the figure grows to $986.2 billion – almost a trillion dollars lost through improper payments!

That’s the worst for any president since reporting began in 2004, even when adjusting for inflation.

NOTE: Perhaps unsurprisingly, the single-year record came during the fog of Covid, as enormous amounts of cash were shoveled out quickly by Congress. Fiscal year 2021 say $281.4 billion in improper payments, which we now know includes Covid-related aid that was subject to massive fraud.

BY AGENCY

As Open the Books first reported in RealClearInvestigations, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services wasted $87 billion in improper payments, more than any other government entity. Medicare reimbursements to health providers had a 7.7% mistake rate this year, the worst since percentages were first reported in 2019.

Another $4 billion was sent to recipients who had issues regarding their citizenship, including $824 million in unemployment insurance from the Department of Labor.

The government also sent $346 million to dead people, mostly because the Office of Personnel Management continued to send benefits to retirees who are no longer alive. That’s the highest amount since at least 2021.

The Treasury Department is working to rectify the problem of payments sent to dead people, having reported it recouped $31 million in such payments in five months. 

It did so simply by gaining access to the Social Security Administration’s federal death database. It’s amazing what can happen when the left hand simply knows what the right hand is doing! That said, Open the Books has reported $3.6 billion in Covid stimulus checks went to dead people. 

As our CEO, John Hart, told FOX News, “There are miles to go before we break even.”

Other Covid-era programs continued to have some of the worst improper payment rates. 

Roughly 25%, or $2 billion, of loans forgiven under the Paycheck Protection Program this year were paid improperly.

The data was released on Wednesday afternoon, Nov. 27, the day before Thanksgiving, leaving little time for negative coverage before families began breaking bread.

For comparison, Biden leaves office with an overall mistake rate of 5.42%, slightly higher than President Trump’s 4.94% in his first term. Still, Trump presided over $846.8 billion in improper payments, adjusted for inflation as of last October.

Now, he has an opportunity to make good on the war on waste.

https://www.zerohedge.com/political/final-tally-biden-era-improper-payments-925-billion

Roche nabs FDA nod for Evrysdi tablets, bolstering convenience edge over rivals

 Over the past nine years, patients with spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) have seen the number of FDA-approved treatment options for their disease go from zero to three. Now, an approval for a tablet formulation of Roche's Evrysdi can be added to the list of advances in this field over the span of a decade.

The FDA on Wednesday gave the thumbs-up to a 5-mg tablet formulation of Evrysdi (risdiplam) to treat SMA in adults and children ages 2 and older who weigh more than 44 pounds.

The approval, which was granted to Roche’s Genentech unit, should offer patients living with SMA greater flexibility in how they manage their disease, the company said in a release. Back in 2020, Evrysdi was approved as an oral solution taken by mouth or feeding tube.

The two other SMA stalwarts on the market, Biogen’s oligonucleotide Spinraza and Novartis’ gene therapy Zolgensma, are delivered intrathecally (into the cerebrospinal fluid around the spinal cord) and via a one-time, 60-minute infusion, respectively.

Roche says it plans to launch the new Evrysdi tablets—which can either be swallowed whole or dispersed in water—“in the coming weeks.”

SMA advocates were quick to celebrate the approval, with the Muscular Dystrophy Association (MDA) noting in a Wednesday release that the new Evrysdi presentation “expands treatment options, offering patients and families easier access to treatment and increased flexibility in managing SMA.”

“The approval of the tablet formulation of Evrysdi marks another major milestone for the SMA community, providing an easier administration method that enhances quality of life for people living with this disease,” Sharon Hesterlee, Ph.D., chief research officer at the MDA, said in a statement.

The FDA based its approval decision on results from a bioequivalence study showing that the 5-mg Evrysdi tablet provided comparable drug exposure versus the original oral liquid formulation, Roche said in its release. The company noted that it will continue to supply Evrysdi oral solution for patients on other doses of the drug and for those who prefer the liquid presentation.

Evrysdi, which was initially approved in August 2020, is designed to target the genetic root cause of SMA by boosting production of survival motor neuron (SMN) proteins in the central nervous system and peripheral tissues. SMN protein, which is lacking in patients with SMA, is found throughout the body and is essential to the function of nerves that control muscles and movement, according to Roche.

The medication has been growing steadily since its launch, with full-year Evrysdi sales growing (PDF) 18% to 1.6 billion Swiss francs (nearly $1.8 billion) in 2024.

Meanwhile, Biogen and Novartis have watched sales of their SMA assets dwindle in recent years.

For the final three months of 2024, Novartis’ Zolgensma sales fell 6% at constant currencies to $262 million, with sales for the year overall clocking in at around $1.2 billion. The gene therapy peaked in 2022 at $1.4 billion in annual sales and has gradually been declining ever since.

The situation is much the same over at Biogen, where total 2024 sales of Spinraza landed at $1.57 billion, down around 10% compared to the sum the drug generated in 2023.

Addressing Spinraza’s gradual downturn, Biogen CEO Chris Viehbacher stressed to investors Wednesday that the SMA field is a “very competitive market with a very limited number of patients.”

“The interesting thing is, how do you compete in a market like this?” Viehbacher opined during his company’s fourth-quarter earnings call. “We say, ‘OK, one pill a day beats two pills a day, a pill beats an injection,’ but the actual reality is, in a lot of these devastating diseases, it’s efficacy that matters.”

With that efficacy benchmark in mind, Viehbacher pointed to the potential boon a higher-dose version of Spinraza could provide SMA patients in the near future.

After reporting in September that a higher dose of Spinraza significantly improved motor function in newly diagnosed infants with SMA in a phase 2/3 trial, Biogen announced plans to submit global regulatory filings for the more potent formulation the following month.

“And that’s really the story of Spinraza,” Viehbacher said during Wednesday’s call. “The high dose, I think, will be important because you can get to the therapeutic levels of drug that you need much faster.” 

https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma/roche-nabs-fda-nod-evrysdi-tablets-gaining-potential-convenience-edge-over-sma-meds-biogen

MediWound begins pivotal Phase III trial for wound therapy

 MediWound Ltd. (NASDAQ:MDWD), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in enzymatic therapies for tissue repair, has launched a Phase III clinical trial for its product EscharEx®, aimed at treating venous leg ulcers (VLUs). With a market capitalization of $186 million and a strong balance sheet showing more cash than debt, the company is well-positioned to advance this clinical program. The study, known as the VALUE trial, is a global endeavor set to evaluate the safety and effectiveness of EscharEx in debridement and aiding wound closure.

The VALUE trial is a double-blind, placebo-controlled study that will span across 40 sites in the United States and Europe. It is set to enroll 216 patients who will be randomized to receive either EscharEx or a placebo. Participants will undergo up to eight applications of the treatment over a two-week period, followed by ten weeks of standardized wound management. The primary endpoints of the trial will be the incidence of complete debridement and complete wound closure, with secondary endpoints including the incidence of complete granulation tissue and time to wound closure, among others.

https://www.msn.com/en-us/health/other/mediwound-begins-pivotal-phase-iii-trial-for-wound-therapy/ar-AA1yTWrH

The President's Trap

 President Trump set the perfect trap for the far Left, and it was glorious.

It’s been a thing of beauty to see President Trump set up a virtual brick wall for the far Left and see them obligatorily run straight into it at full speed.

It seems apparent that there’s something about the current process with DOGE and the draining of the swamp that is the Deep State that makes you think that President Trump has set up a perfect trap for the Left based on their authoritarian tendencies. You only need to look at the evidence to see that he’s set it up so they entrapped themselves. It's even more hilarious that they can’t do anything about it.

Start with the fact that people with projective tendencies always assume others have the same mindset. In this case, it was Candidate Trump talking about retribution, and the Left merely thought it was what they were projecting -- namely going after them, when in reality he’s going after their raison d'être for living -- forcibly taking taxpayer dollars and transforming society into their ideal of a communist ‘Utopia.’

They were wrong, as usual. And now they’re paying the price.

Because when you get right down to it, this highlights the fundamental differences between the authoritarian Left and the pro-freedom Right. We see government as a necessary evil, akin to fire in that it’s only useful when it’s limited and under control. Well aware that as governmental power and control expand, fundamental freedoms shrink. This is why you keep government as small, localized, and limited as possible. Because as it grows bigger and bigger, with far too many moving parts, it becomes very difficult to figure out what is going on at any given time.

Contrast the viewpoint of limited government conserving individual liberty with the leftist viewpoint. For the far Left, the government is their magic solution to every problem known to mankind -- as long as they can extract or print enough money to force their solution on everyone.

The Left sees government as a way to transform society into a collectivist ‘Utopia,’ expanding governmental reach into every possible aspect of life. Somehow, they think that unlimited government is the key to remaking society into their vision of perfection.

So, when candidate Trump talked about retribution, his plan was the dismantling of the governmental leviathan, aiming directly at where the Left lives. Contrasting with their worldview in which they live to buy votes and try to transform society with taxpayer dollars. They thought he was going to come after them, and they were correct. But he’s going after their fundamental way of thinking that will shrink the budget and be wildly popular with the people.

They’ve spent years taking our hard-earned dollars -- that they think they’re entitled to take -- and doling them out to their pet projects and their own pockets. President Trump is going after this process directly, hitting them where they live.

Trump set them up to be on the losing side of the argument. He chose an agency that hardly anyone had heard of before, that from all outward appearances is a massive money laundering scheme for the far Left, and forced them into the untenable position of defending wasteful government spending. It was more than hilarious to see them try to defend the indefensible. Even worse for them is the fact that they had no other choice in the matter -- they had to defend the funder of their pet under-the-table projects, even though it would take away their thunder for future fights. They were obligated to defend USAID, placing them in the position of defending:

• $7.9 million to teach Sri Lankan journalists how to avoid “binary-gendered language”
• $20 million for a new Sesame Street show in Iraq
• $4.5+ million to “combat disinformation” in Kazakhstan
• $1.5 million for “art for inclusion of people with disabilities”
• $2 million for sex changes and “LGBT activism” in Guatemala
• $6 million to “transform digital spaces to reflect feminist democratic principles”
• $2.1 million to help the BBC “value the diversity of Libyan society”
• $10 million worth of USAID-funded meals, which went to an al Qaeda-linked terrorist group
• $25 million for Deloitte to promote “green transportation” in the country of Georgia
• $6 million for tourism in Egypt
• $2.5 million to promote “inclusion” in Vietnam
• $16.8 million for a separate “inclusion” group in Vietnam
• ~$5 million to EcoHealth Alliance, one of the key NGOs funding bat virus research at the Wuhan lab
• $20 million for a group related to a key player in the Russiagate impeachment hoax
• $1.1 million to an Armenian “LGBT group”
• $1.2 million to help the African Methodist Episcopal Church Service and Development Agency in Washington, D.C., build “a state-of-the-art 440 seat auditorium”
• $1.3 million to Arab and Jewish photographers
• $1.5 million to promote “LGBT advocacy” in Jamaica
• $1.5 million to “rebuild” the Cuban media ecosystem
• $2 million to promote “LGBT equality through entrepreneurship” in Latin America
• $500K to solve sectarian violence in Israel (just ten days before the Hamas October 7 attack)
• $2.3 million for “artisanal and small scale gold mining” in the Amazon
• $3.9 million for “LGBT causes” in the western Balkans
• $5.5 million for LGBT activism in Uganda
• $6 million for advancing LGBT issues in “priority countries around the world”
• $6.3 million for men who have sex with men in South Africa
• $8.3 million for “USAID Education: Equity and Inclusion”

USAID’s “climate strategy” outlined a $150 billion “whole-of-agency” approach to building an “equitable world with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions.”

These days the far Left has become the Wile E. Coyote chasing the Road Runner. They keep on trying to come up with grandiose schemes to trap President Trump, but all they are doing is setting themselves up for further defeats.

This was a twofold victory for common sense, in a way that was ‘dinner and a show’ -- the taxpayers saved some of their hard-earned dollars, while it diminished the Un-Democratic party even more. And it was glorious.

D Parker is an engineer, inventor, wordsmith, and student of history, former director of communications for a civil rights organization, and a long-time contributor to conservative websites. Find him on Substack.

https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/02/the_president_s_trap.html