Live Above The Madness
Ben Cohen moved to Vermont in 1977 and co-founded the world’s most liberal ice cream company. You may think you disagree with him on everything. But take a second and hear him out on the Ukraine war.
(0:00) Introduction
(1:03) The Russia/Ukraine War Is Totally Unnecessary
(9:58)… pic.twitter.com/LRwUx9JAUV— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) May 5, 2025
US Electricity From Fossils Fuels Dips Below 50% For The First Time Ever
Authored by Robert Rapier via OilPrice.com,
For the first time, fossil fuels provided less than half of U.S. electricity generation in a month (March 2025).
The shift is driven by increased renewable capacity (wind and solar), seasonal demand, and the decline of coal.
The trend is expected to continue, driven by policy and economics, but grid reliability and regional differences remain challenges.
For the first time in history, fossil fuels supplied less than half of the United States’ electricity generation for an entire month, according to new data released by energy think tank Ember. This milestone, achieved in March 2025, represents a turning point in the evolving energy mix of the world’s largest economy.
Historically, fossil fuels—primarily coal and natural gas—have dominated U.S. electricity production. But the steady rise of renewables over the past two decades has chipped away at their dominance. In March, wind, solar, hydro, and nuclear collectively overtook coal, oil, and gas, with fossil fuels accounting for just 48.9% of total generation.
However, note that this is an estimate of total generation, including small scale systems that are not connected to the grid. According to EIA data, fossil fuels still account for about 64% of electricity generation by utilities.
Several factors converged to make this moment possible.
First, renewable energy capacity has expanded rapidly. Wind and solar are now mainstream technologies, supported by state mandates, federal tax incentives, and falling costs. Wind generation alone grew 12% in March year-over-year, and solar jumped by a remarkable 37%.
Second, seasonal demand patterns played a role. March is typically a shoulder month for electricity demand—warmer than winter but not yet summer hot—which tends to reduce the need for gas-fired peaking power plants. Lower demand allows zero-marginal-cost renewables like wind and solar to play a more prominent role on the grid.
Third, coal continues its long decline. Once the backbone of U.S. power generation, coal’s share of the mix has been in free fall since the mid-2000s. In March, coal accounted for just 15% of overall electricity generation (and ~18% of electricity produced by utilities).
Nuclear power also remains a steady contributor, generating around 19% of electricity, while hydro added another 7%. Combined, these non-fossil sources provide a rapidly growing part of the U.S. grid, with gas providing backup during peaks and seasonal extremes.
It’s important to view this milestone in context. April’s low fossil fuel share is partly seasonal, and likely to rebound in the hotter summer months when demand for air conditioning increases and natural gas generation ramps up. Indeed, in 2023, fossil fuels still provided 60% of total annual electricity generation.
However, the trajectory is clear: renewable energy is rapidly scaling, and fossil fuels—especially coal—are losing ground.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), passed in 2022, has accelerated investment in clean energy infrastructure. Billions of dollars are now flowing into solar, wind, battery storage, and transmission upgrades. Analysts project that renewables will continue to take a growing share of the power mix, driven not just by policy, but by economics. In many parts of the country, new wind and solar projects are already the lowest-cost option for new generation.
One lingering concern is reliability. Fossil fuels, especially natural gas, still provide critical dispatchable power when the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing. The challenge now is to scale clean, reliable alternatives, such as long-duration energy storage, advanced nuclear, and grid-interactive demand response.
There are also regional differences to consider. Some states—like California and Texas—have made significant strides in renewable integration, while others remain heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Building out the national transmission grid will be essential to balancing these disparities and ensuring a reliable, resilient system.
The March data doesn’t mean the U.S. has “solved” the energy transition—but it does offer a preview of what the grid could look like in the not-so-distant future. As technology improves, costs continue to fall, and policy support remains strong, it’s likely that fossil fuels will make up less than half of the annual electricity mix within this decade.
For investors, utilities, and policymakers, the message is clear: the momentum behind clean electricity is real. Those who prepare for this transition—by investing in clean infrastructure, modernizing the grid, and rethinking electricity markets—will be best positioned for the energy system of tomorrow.
Tyler Durden
Mon, 05/05/2025 – 18:25
Former second daughter Ella Emhoff on Sunday endorsed radical anti-Israel socialist Zohran Mamdani for mayor of New York.
In a video taken at a rally/rave at the Brooklyn Steel music venue, Emhoff said that the “next mayor of New York City,” Mamdani, is “going to make New York happier, healthier, and more affordable.”
While Mamdani has indeed campaigned on “affordability” issues like freezing rents, instituting a $30-per-hour minimum wage, and building “vibrant green spaces” in the city’s public schools, it is his fervent hatred of the Jewish state—and, by some accounts, the Jewish people—that has defined his candidacy.
Just a week after October 7 and before Israel began its ground operation in Gaza, Mamdani took to the street (and was arrested) outside Senator Chuck Schumer’s (D., N.Y.) home in Brooklyn, demanding that Schumer prevent Israel from retaliating against Hamas.
It was not the first time he showed concern for the plight of the terrorists who murdered over 1,200 Israelis. On October 8, Mamdani released a statement decrying “Netanyahu’s declaration of war, the Israeli government’s decision to cut electricity to Gaza, and Knesset members calling for another Nakba.”
He proclaimed that the correct way for Israel to respond to the most brutal attack against the Jewish people since the Holocaust was through “ending the occupation and dismantling apartheid.”
While Emhoff’s stepmother, former vice president Kamala “Momala” Harris, currently has her hands full “weighing a gubernatorial bid in her home state, a third run for the presidency, or not seeking elected office,” it is unclear whether her father, Doug Emhoff—freed from the responsibilities of the U.S. Holocaust Museum board—will turn his attention to better educating his daughter on the issue of anti-Semitism.
Mamdani is a member of the Democratic Socialists of America—which held a rally in New York on October 8 “in solidarity with the Palestinian people and their right to resist 75 years of occupation and apartheid” that featured an image of a swastika—and the son of Columbia University professor Mahmood Mamdani, who has argued against the existence of Israel.
He said in an interview with notorious Hamas apologist Mehdi Hasan that, if elected mayor, he will have Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu arrested, and has supported the antisemitic Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement.
Mamdani has earned the support of figures like Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D., Mich.) and streamer Hasan Piker, who has said that “America deserved 9/11.”
Emhoff’s endorsement of Mamdani is not her first brush with anti-Israel radicalism, despite her father’s former role as head of the Biden administration’s anti-anti-Semitism campaign. In November 2023, she began raising money for a charity—the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund—that has allegedly provided funding to Hamas and other terrorist organizations.
Several months later, Emhoff posted a link to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) donation site after the Biden administration froze funding for the agency following allegations that UNRWA staffers had participated in the October 7 attack—allegations UNRWA itself later confirmed.
The post Former Second Daughter Ella Emhoff Endorses Anti-Israel Radical for N.Y. Mayor appeared first on .
The proud parents previously welcomed their son RZA in May 2022 and their second boy, Riot Rose, in August 2023.
“It gives you choir, king, and a little nod to Andre Leon Talley,” the ever-extravagant Emmy winner, 55, told Vogue.
Illegal aliens will get a “beautiful flight” out of the United States if they voluntarily self-deport under a new program, Trump says.
The post Trump Promises Illegals ‘Beautiful Flight’ Out of U.S. If They Self-Deport appeared first on Breitbart.
The Trump administration is going to get those who self-deport a “beautiful flight back” to their home country, President Donald Trump said Monday following the Department of Homeland Security announcing its self-deportation program.
The post Trump on Self-Deportations: ‘Maybe Someday, with Little Work, They Can Come Back In’ appeared first on Breitbart.
Senate Democrats are balking at advancing landmark stablecoin legislation due to President Donald Trump’s increasing personal benefits from his own crypto ties.
Over the weekend, Sen. Ruben Gallego, a Democrat elected to represent Arizona with $10 million in backing from crypto super PAC Fairshake, warned with eight of his colleagues that they would not vote to advance the current version of the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins of 2025 (GENIUS Act), the Senate’s stablecoin bill. The Senate would need 60 votes to move forward with any legislation.
However, the bigger issue for the crypto industry may be the effect this new fight has on forthcoming market structure legislation. The stablecoin bill should ultimately still sail through Congress, one person who works with lawmakers and legislative aides told CoinDesk, but any slowing of ongoing momentum could threaten that bill, which in turn would likely delay any progress on market structure legislation intended to define how the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission are to oversee the industry. The market structure legislation — a bill the industry has demanded for years — would cover a much broader range of activities than just the stablecoin bill.
Two recent announcements in particular may have raised Democrats’ concern and led to this weekend’s announcement: Trump’s announcement of a dinner for the top holders of his memecoin and Abu Dhabi investment firm MGX’s announcement it would use the Trump family-backed World Liberty Financial’s USD1 stablecoin for an investment in Binance. Both suggest Trump himself may personally benefit to the tune of hundreds of millions of dollars, USA Today said.
Trump claimed he was not profiting from his crypto ventures during an interview with Meet the Press over the weekend.
“I’m not profiting from anything,” he said. “All I’m doing is, I started this long before the election. I want crypto. I think crypto’s important because if we don’t do it, China’s going to. And it’s new, it’s very popular, it’s very hot. If you look at the market, when the market went down, that stayed much stronger than other aspects of the market. But I want crypto because a lot of people, you know millions of people want it.”
While Gallego’s announcement was published over the weekend, Democrats have been concerned behind the scenes for a few days, with Sen. Chuck Schumer, the minority leader, warning Democrats to withhold support during a caucus meeting last week, CoinDesk confirmed. Axios first reported on this rift.
One of the individuals who spoke to CoinDesk said they were concerned about how long the fight over Trump’s involvement with crypto might drag out the legislative process for the stablecoin bill, what Democrats will need to be comfortable voting to advance the bill and whether or not the situation will prevent a market structure bill from advancing at all.
Gallego’s statement, which was co-signed by Democrats Mark Warner, Raphael Warnock, Lisa Blunt Rochester, Catherine Cortez Masto, Andy Kim, Ben Ray Luján, John Hickenlooper and Adam Schiff, said the lawmakers “recognize that the absence of regulation leaves consumers unprotected and vulnerable to predatory practices” and that there is a need for bipartisan legislation.
“However, the bill as it currently stands still has numerous issues that must be addressed, including adding stronger provisions on anti-money laundering, foreign issuers, national security, preserving the safety and soundness of our financial system and accountability for those who don’t meet the act’s requirements,” the statement said.
Gallego, Warner, Kim and Blunt Rochester had previously joined Republicans in voting to advance the bill out of the Senate Banking Committee.
Sen. Elizabeth Warren, who leads the Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee, was far more blunt in a post on social media site Bluesky, saying the Senate should not pass a bill that would “facilitate this kind of corruption,” referring to MGX’s announcement — shared publicly by Eric Trump, one of the president’s sons — last week.
“The Trump family stablecoin surged to 7th largest in the world because of a shady crypto deal with the United Arab Emirates — a foreign government that will give them a crazy amount of money,” she said.
She wrote a joint letter with fellow Democrat Jeffrey Merkley to the acting director of the U.S. Office of Government Ethics asking his office to investigate the MGX deal on Monday.
The stalling momentum isn’t limited to the Senate. Earlier Monday, Rep. Maxine Waters, the leading Dem on the House Financial Services Committee, told the committee’s chair she would block efforts to hold a joint hearing with the House Agriculture Committee addressing market structure issues.
“Most of this is politics,” wrote Jaret Seiberg, a financial-policy analyst with TD Cowen, in a Monday note to clients. He said that Trump’s personal stake in crypto is making it hard for Democrats to back the stablecoin bill that would regulate his family’s business. Even so, he predicted it’ll still pass the Senate, though maybe not this week.
“The crypto lobby is politically powerful and has shown a willingness to devote its considerable resources to influencing Washington,” Seiberg said. “It is hard for us to see why the Democrats would take on that fight when they can leverage significant concessions from the GOP on the stablecoin bill.”
Lobbyists for the crypto industry seem alarmed about the last few days’ announcements: A joint statement published Monday urged lawmakers to begin floor debate on the bill.
The statement, signed by Blockchain Association’s outgoing CEO Kristin Smith, the Crypto Council for Innovation’s acting CEO Ji Kim and the Digital Chamber’s new CEO Cody Carbone, said a real regulatory framework would support stablecoin adoption and “dollar dominance in the digital economy.”
“We respectfully urge Senators to vote YES on the motion to proceed to consideration of the GENIUS Act, and move us one step closer to enacting a bipartisan stablecoin framework,” the statement said.
Another lobbying organization, the National Venture Capital Association, also weighed in with a statement attributed to CEO Bobby Franklin asking the Senate to move the stablecoin bill forward.
“U.S. leadership in the digital economy depends on establishing a clear and consistent regulatory framework for stablecoins that fosters innovation, empowers entrepreneurs and helps build the next generation of financial technologies,” the statement said. “A strong stablecoin framework will also support the venture capital industry’s efforts to back groundbreaking companies and strengthen America’s global financial technology leadership.”
Read more: U.S. Crypto Market Structure Bill Unveiled by House Lawmakers
