Latest Diana Furchtgott Roth News | Fox News

The disturbing connection between UN's green energy push and illegal immigration

Fri, 03 Oct 2025 05:00:13 -0400

President Donald Trump recently told United Nations delegates what many in the developing world already know: wind and solar are not strong enough to power the industrial growth needed to lift nations out of poverty. He warned that Europe must urgently address both uncontrolled immigration and the misguided energy policies that are fueling it.

Renewables are "not strong enough to fire up the plants that you need to make your country great," the president declared. Europeans "must take control strongly and immediately of the unmitigated immigration disaster and the fake energy catastrophe before it's too late."

Trump is right to link these two seemingly disconnected issues. By forcing green energy on developing countries, the UN and other international organizations are complicit in today’s migration disaster, as residents flee places prevented from moving towards Western standards of living and well-paying jobs.

WORLD LEADERS LAUGH, SQUIRM AS TRUMP BLASTS UN ON CLIMATE, UKRAINE, GAZA AT GENERAL ASSEMBLY

The UN could take a meaningful step by permanently disbanding its Net Zero Banking Alliance, which pressures financial institutions to stop lending for fossil-fuel projects in developing countries. Though currently paused, the Alliance’s climate guidance urges banks to set "credible, robust, impactful and ambitious targets" aligned with the Paris Agreement. In practice, this means prioritizing green energy over economic development.

The World Bank has followed suit, discouraging lending for fossil fuels and nuclear power while favoring renewables. But, this approach ignores a fundamental truth: poverty, not climate change, remains the greatest threat to humanity. That’s the conclusion of the U.S. Department of Energy’s latest climate report, yet unlikely to be embraced by the UN’s climate science review panels.

Restricting access to reliable energy keeps African and Latin American nations poor and drives migration to Europe and North America. If the West truly wants to reduce migration pressures, it should support, not block, energy infrastructure that enables economic growth.

The consequences of these lending bans are severe. Without financing for fossil-fuel power plants, transmission lines, or household electricity meters, emerging economies are literally left in the dark. China, meanwhile, steps in with loans and takes ports and other strategic assets as collateral. This energy embargo causes vast economic damage, traps nations in poverty, and pushes their citizens to seek opportunity elsewhere.

Consider the numbers: in 2020, 11 million Africans lived in Europe, 5 million in Asia, and 3 million in North America. That same year, 25 million Latin Americans lived in North America. These migration patterns are not random — they reflect the energy gap between rich and poor nations.

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No country has achieved high per capita income with low energy use. The correlation is clear: more energy means more productivity, better healthcare, safer water, and higher agricultural yields. Countries with energy use below 500 kilowatt-hours per person typically have incomes around $1,000 per year. At 10,000 kWh, poverty begins to decline. At 100,000 kWh, it virtually disappears.

High-energy-use nations enjoy better lives because they can afford doctors, clean water and pollution control. Meanwhile, natural disasters hit poor countries hardest — not because nature is crueler there, but because they lack the infrastructure to prepare and recover. Affordable energy is the great equalizer.

In 2018, Lesotho, Djibouti and Zimbabwe each consumed less than 4,000 kWh per capita and had incomes around $4,450. By contrast, Norway, the United States, and Iceland consumed over 80,000 kWh and had GDPs near $45,000. The difference is stark and instructive.

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When poor countries are denied access to reliable energy, their citizens look abroad for opportunity. Illegal immigration imposes real costs on the West. The solution isn’t more border enforcement, but enabling real economic progress in Latin America and Africa.

If the UN wants to help countries grow and stem migration, it should stop romanticizing renewables and start supporting the energy sources that actually power prosperity.

Protect American workers: How Trump's team can fulfill his promise

Wed, 05 Mar 2025 07:00:43 -0500

President Donald Trump promised on Inauguration Day to "protect American workers," and a month later, he’s off to a solid start. But there’s plenty left to do.

He started by ending the diversity, equity and inclusion programs that have been undermining workplace cooperation and fairness. Second, he secured U.S. borders, so millions of illegal immigrants are no longer crossing into America, swelling the low-wage labor force.

Finally, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced that the share of union members in the U.S. workforce dipped below 10% (below 6% in the private sector), a new low.

These changes could make it easier for serious labor policy reforms that center not on businesses or labor unions, but on individual American workers. The right steps would add flexibility to the workforce, spur job creation and encourage economic growth. The extra revenue generated would facilitate tax cuts.

Regulatory reform is needed at three federal agencies that oversee labor laws and regulations: the U.S. Department of Labor, the National Labor Relations Board, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

At the Labor Department, the administration should remove the economically inept "environmental, social and governance" investment criteria and instead protect workers’ retirement savings. Investment managers should be prohibited from advancing political agendas that reduce pension returns.

The administration should guarantee workers freedom of information and transparency, so union members know how their leaders are spending dues.

The administration could expand apprenticeship programs that unions, community colleges and employers may offer young people. America has shortages of plumbers, welders and electricians – high-paying professions for which traditional college credentials are not needed.

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Biden-era rules have raised barriers to workers’ ability to work as independent contractors. The administration could protect workers who want to be independent contractors so they may monetize unused pockets of time and work for themselves regardless of education, income or industry.

The Labor Department should bring back the very successful Payroll Audit Independent Determination program, started by President Trump and ended by President Joe Biden, to get more workers the wages they are owed, bring employers into compliance and reduce litigation.

Reforms at the NLRB, a five-member commission charged with guaranteeing workers’ rights to unionize, are vital to restore its credibility – if it is even to survive – to provide certainty to workers and employers.

The NLRB should restore employers’ right to free speech by reversing the current ban on meetings with workers before union elections. It should overturn rulings limiting employers’ ability to communicate with workers during a union organizing drive.

15% CORPORATE TAX RATE AND 25% SMALL BUSINESS DEDUCTION SHOULD BE TRUMP TAX CUT CENTERPIECES

The NLRB should remove the joint-employer rule, where employees of franchised businesses are counted as employees of the parent company. More appropriate is the long-standing rule, where employers are those who control workers’ "essential terms of employment." Workers at independently owned McDonald’s outlets should be employees of their restaurants’ owners, not of far-off corporate McDonalds executives.

The NLRB should cease editing employer-handbook provisions or interfering with lawful severance agreements, as was done in the Biden administration.

The NLRB should protect workers from coercion in union elections by eliminating "card check" and requiring secret ballots for all union elections. Under a "card check" system, publicly signed cards count as votes, and union organizers can pressure workers into signing.

The EEOC, a five-member commission that enforces federal laws against employment discrimination, should protect workers from bias and harassment, including antisemitism, by accepting complaints and rapidly adjudicating them.

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The EEOC should allow firms to recruit on college campuses, as has been the case since the first universities in the 18th century.

The Biden EEOC contended that campus recruiting programs and others targeting recent college graduates are illegal. But courts have never declared them unlawful.

In the absence of discrimination allegations, the federal government should not be requiring EEO-1 reports – data from employers by race, sex and compensation. While discrimination charges must be investigated, these forms give rise to fishing expeditions to penalize well-intending employers and scare others into DEI activism.

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Finally, the EEOC should end the use of disparate impact claims against employers. Under these claims, employers are penalized if they do not hire a certain share of women and minorities, even though it’s illegal to hire based on sex or race.

These recommendations are first steps for the initial year of the Trump administration. Over the coming four years, the DOL, NLRB and EEOC have enormous potential to enhance prosperity for individual workers and lift the regulatory burden on employers and entrepreneurs to create jobs and upward mobility.

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Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a scholar at The Heritage Foundation, served as chief of staff at the White House Council of Economic Advisors (2001-2002) and chief economist at U.S. Department of Labor (2003-2005).

California’s politicians didn’t start the fires. They made them worse

Wed, 15 Jan 2025 07:00:44 -0500

Water is readily available in California. State sits next to an ocean, but it didn't build desalinization plants

Trump energy plan will avoid Europe’s energy disaster

Wed, 08 Jan 2025 07:00:13 -0500

US will avoid Europe's insane climate strategy if Trump declares national energy emergency

The Harris-Walz energy agenda: Higher prices, fewer automotive choices

Wed, 14 Aug 2024 07:00:30 -0400

Tim Walz and Kamala Harris care more about climate change than about inflation

America should ban Chinese EVs

Thu, 15 Feb 2024 08:00:07 -0500

The news that Chinese electric-car company BYD had overtaken Tesla as the world’s top EV maker came, appropriately enough, just as the Year of the Dragon got underway.

Yet as BYD gobbles up global market share, America should beware the three heads of this dragon – spying on Americans, potentially disabling U.S. vehicles on the road, and undercutting the domestic EV industry.

The Chinese Communist Party controls all major Chinese companies, and America should not join the global rush to give the CCP power over a vital economic sector. Indeed, America should ban the sale of Chinese EVs – both those made in China and those made in other countries such as Mexico.

Spying. Americans were concerned in February 2023 about a Chinese spy balloon moving from Alaska to Montana to the East Coast. It was shot down in South Carolina. The balloon, 200 feet tall and weighing over 2,000 pounds, contained solar panels and equipment to collect sensitive information.

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Chinese EVs could be equipped with even more powerful spying equipment. They could go anywhere, including military bases, power plants and cellphone towers.

EVs would be far more effective than spy balloons at collecting important data, and at far lower cost – because Americans would be purchasing these vehicles. For similar security reasons the Federal Communications Commission banned Huawei and ZTE technology in 2022.

Chinese EVs would also allow the CCP to have an unprecedented trove of Americans’ personal data. When people buy cars, they provide information on addresses, driver’s licenses, credit cards and insurance. If they get loans, the company can access credit history, including mortgages, other loans and additional credit cards. America should not give this to the CCP.

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Disabling Vehicles. Just as General Motors’ Onstar program advertises that it can stop or disable stolen vehicles, America should not give the CCP power to stop or disable EVs driven in America. Onstar can remotely activate emergency flashers. It can use GM-trademarked Remote Ignition Block™* to stop engines from starting and Stolen Vehicle Slowdown® to slow the car. If Onstar can do this, Chinese car companies undoubtedly have the technology – as well as potentially disabling braking and navigation systems.

Undercutting U.S. EV Incentives. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act contained over $1 trillion in clean energy initiatives to fund EV and battery manufacturing plants and consumer tax credits to develop a domestic EV industry. But CCP subsidies for Chinese EVs can undercut these programs and American EV production, contrary to congressional intent.

China has lower costs for labor, both due to its low-wage workforce and from the use of child labor and slave labor in Xinjiang; lower costs of energy, because China has fewer regulations on pollution and relies on domestic coal; and lower costs of capital, because the CCP gives low-rate financing to favored companies. China controls 60% of the world’s critical battery minerals, and produces 80% of the world’s batteries.

CCP-TIED ELECTRIC VEHICLE COMPANY AWARDED MORE THAN $500 MILLION IN TAXPAYER MONEY FOR SECOND US PLANT

Due to these advantages, Chinese EVs have been expanding globally. Chinese companies include BYD, Nio, Chery, Geely, SAIC and Great Wall. China exported 5 million vehicles around the world in 2023, and is now top in global vehicle exports. At the same time as China is expanding, Jeep has left China, and sales of GM and Ford vehicles in China are half of what they were in 2017.

BYD, which sold 3 million cars last year, is hoping to undercut German automobile manufacturers with its $11,500 Seagull. Its $33,000 Dolphin is one of the cheapest new cars in the U.K. It’s expanding to Scandinavia, Asia and Australia. It’s even marketing $40,000 EVs in South Africa, which suffers from perennial blackouts.

Geely now owns Volvo, and SAIC has taken over the U.K.’s MG. Chery expects to open 50 showrooms in the U.K. in 2024 and sell 15,000 cars, overtaking Jeep, Jaguar and Suzuki.

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Michael Dunne wrote last month in Automotive News, "China’s EV and battery production is 10 times greater than that in the U.S…. BYD produced 76,800 EVs in the last week of December while GM built 75,883 in all of 2023."

While China has an advantage in small EVs, U.S. companies dominate in larger vehicles such as pickup trucks and SUVs. But American companies are being pressured by their regulators, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Environmental Protection Agency, to focus on electric vehicles rather than the cars their customers want to buy.

Regulations to require 60% of new vehicle sales to be battery-powered electric in 2030 and 66% in 2032 are now at the White House under review before expected release in March.

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America can’t have it both ways. Mandating EVs without banning imports from Chinese companies, both those located in China and elsewhere, will give the U.S. auto market to the Chinese, in the same way as Chinese companies are taking over auto markets globally. And allowing Chinese EV imports poses major national security threats, as well as giving the CCP control over the U.S. economy.

Watch out, America, because the Dragon is coming for our cars.

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Diana Furchtgott-Roth is Director of the Center for Energy, Climate, and Environment at The Heritage Foundation.

Tax reform – a sensible tax system means economic growth, simple as that

Thu, 22 Jun 2017 01:15:00 -0400

On Tuesday House Speaker Paul Ryan, speaking at the National Association of Manufacturers, reiterated his call for the need for tax reform. Tax reform is urgent because the gap in corporate tax rates between the United States and our competitors is wide and increasing.

Ryan told the audience that “as the world changed, our tax code has remained stuck in neutral. It has ballooned to 70,000 pages of rules and regulations that few people today actually understand. There is an old line about this: our tax code is about five times as long as the Bible, but with none of the Good News.”

Ryan is right. The average tax rate of businesses in Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development countries is 25%, compared to 35% for the United States. Canada’s corporate tax rate is 15%. This means that our companies have an incentive to invert their ownership—to be owned by foreign companies.

For example, Burger King, the fast food chain, merged with Canada’s Tim Horton’s, a doughnut chain, in order to access Canada’s lower taxes.

In America corporate profits are taxed three times, once at the business level, another time when they are distributed to individuals, and a third time at death. The high corporate tax discourages investment. The gap between American and foreign rates is widening, as foreign countries are lowering their rates even as the U.S. rate stays the same. In order to raise U.S. levels of investment, the corporate tax rate should be reduced to the range of 15 percent to 20 percent, as President Trump and Speaker Ryan propose.

The high corporate tax rate results in double taxation of income for equity financing—raising capital by selling shares. When corporations take on debt in order to increase investment, the interest on the loan is tax-deductible. This is not true for equity financing. The returns to equity financing are taxed three times. They are taxed once at the corporate level through the corporate tax, once at the individual level, through individual taxes on dividends and capital gains, and once at death, through estate and inheritance taxes.

After all these taxes are taken into account, the tax rate on equity can reach well over 50 percent, depending on the extent of the estate tax. This encourages firms to take on debt for financing, which is distortionary.

Not only is the U.S. corporate tax an outlier, but U.S. corporations are taxed on their worldwide income—a path taken by only 7 of the 34 OECD countries (including the United States). This places America at a competitive disadvantage.

A global (or worldwide) tax system is uncompetitive with high tax rates because it imposes a high income tax rate on all profits, regardless of where they are earned. If an American company operates in the United States and Canada, its domestic affiliate pays U.S. taxes of 35 percent and its foreign affiliate pays U.S. taxes at 35 percent and Swiss taxes at 15 percent. America allows companies to deduct the taxes paid to foreign governments from U.S. taxes owed to the Internal Revenue Service, but this means that corporations always pay the full U.S. rate and are unable to take advantage of low-tax jurisdictions.

In contrast, a territorial tax system, common to most of our competitors, taxes only the income earned domestically. Our American company operating in Canada and the United States would pay U.S. taxes on its domestic income and Canadian taxes on its Canadian income. In this way companies can take advantage of low-tax jurisdictions. Business decisions can be made more efficiently, since bringing profits back domestically will not result in those profits being taxed again – thus, capital can go where it is most needed.

America raised just under $300 billion from the corporate tax in 2016, according to the Office of Management and Budget, around 9 percent of all revenue, and the tax costs millions to administer. Most important, it effectively discourages investment in the United States.

American companies hold offshore about $2.6 trillion of earnings from foreign operations. No one knows how much would be repatriated with a lower U.S. tax, but it would be higher than it is now, adding to investment and employment. These are funds that, given proper incentive, can return to America and be used for capital projects, dividends/share repurchases, consumption, or job creation – all of which represent a boost to the weak economy.

It is difficult to overstate the importance of a sensible tax system to economic growth. Real GDP grew at an annualized rate of 1.2 percent in the first quarter of 2017. America needs tax reform to achieve three percent growth and increase job growth. As Speaker Ryan said, “We need to get this done in 2017.”