Monday's Absurdity of the Day: The World's Got a Fevah, and the UN's Only Solution is More Cowbell

With the UN's COP26 meeting coming up at the end of month - most appropriately convening on Halloween - International Energy Agency Chief Fatih Birol is already whipping up the propaganda for spending more trillions of your dollars on the wind and solar industries.

Because of course he is.

As the world begins to feel the consequences of forced and premature over-reliance on wind and solar and half a trillion dollars of under-investment in the exploration for new reserves of oil and natural gas since 2014, the price for Brent crude blasted through $85 per barrel and WTI is trading above $83 this morning. The market sees a structural shortage coming inevitably, one that will last for years before it can be corrected, and is reacting exactly as it should be expected to react.

On Saturday, Birol rolled out his solution to this failure to invest adequately in the oil and natural gas that the world demands: We must quadruple down on spending more trillions not on new investments in finding oil and natural gas, but on subsidizing the wind and solar power that is so miserably failing Europe right now.

I'm afraid I'm not kidding. To his credit, Birol has managed to at least figure out that a problem exists, saying “There is a looming risk of more turbulence for global energy markets. [Oh, you don't say?] We are not investing enough to meet future energy needs [Wonder what tipped him off?], and the uncertainties are setting the stage for a volatile period ahead [Who could've seen that coming?].”

But, just as the solution to Christopher Walken's fever in that old SNL skit was "more cowbell," Birol sees the solution to a crisis directly caused by premature over-reliance on wind and solar to be ... you guessed it, more investment in and over-reliance on wind and solar:

Birol believes that while a new economy based on clean energy is emerging, the rate of progress remains too slow.

He said, “Reaching that path requires investment in clean energy projects and infrastructure to more than triple over the next decade. Some 70 per cent of that additional spending needs to happen in emerging and developing economies, where financing is scarce and capital remains up to seven times more expensive than in advanced economies.”

If the world follows this man's advice, it will be following him into global energy destitution.

You just could never make this stuff up.

That is all.