News & Brews March 31, 2025
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‘We’re not short on power. We’re just too sanctimonious to generate it.’
With Trump’s tariffs taking headlines—alongside Canada’s retaliation on American energy exports—consultant Marc Oestreich writes in Reason.com that “the real story of the Northeastern energy crisis is more than cross-border drama and goes back well before the tariffs and trumpeting.” He explains, “We’ve turned power generation into a theater of guilt—where producing energy in the U.S. is too sinful to permit but importing it from somewhere else lets us feel pure. It’s not policy. It’s penance.” As just a few examples, “In 2016, New York vetoed the Constitution Pipeline, leaving the Marcellus Shale untapped. Two years later, during a brutal cold snap, Massachusetts imported liquefied natural gas—from Russia—rather than lay pipe from Pennsylvania.”
UPenn among top recipients of foreign money
A new report from Americans for Public Trust reveals that nearly $60 billion in foreign money has flowed to American colleges and universities over the past decades. And “a group of just ten schools … have alone raked in over $20 billion.” Fourth on this list is the University of Pennsylvania, at more than $2.5 billion. “Many of the countries that top the list of foreign gifts and contracts to colleges and universities are nations that are long-standing adversaries and enemies of the U.S.”
Shapiro’s ‘Real Time’ appearance ‘smacked of unreality’
Hitting up the late-night comedy show “Real Time with Bill Maher,” Gov. Josh Shapiro “gave an unreal performance—literally.” So writes the Commonwealth Foundation’s Nathan Benefield in a new op-ed in the LNP. “Indeed, the governor unwittingly showcased his detachment from reality.” He claims he lives “in the real world in Pennsylvania, where we have to balance budgets.” But “since becoming governor, he has failed to deliver a truly balanced budget.” What’s more, while pretending to be concerned about children’s education, he “has abandoned his commitment to help kids in need of education options.” In short, “Shapiro’s appearance on ‘Real Time’ boils down to one obvious conclusion: He wants to be president.”
Who will pay Norfolk Southern settlement?
More than two years after the Norfolk Southern train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, a trial is set to begin today to determine who will pay the $600 million class-action settlement agreed to by the railroad company. The AP reports, “The railroad filed the motion that is set to go to trial … to force the railcar owner GATX and the chemical manufacturer OxyVinyls to share the cost of the settlement because Norfolk Southern believes those companies are partly responsible for what happened.” The trial won’t affect the settlement amount; it will affect only “which company has to write the checks.”
‘How Lancaster fell’
Analysis continues on the results of last week’s special election in Lancaster County’s 36th Senate District, where Democrat James Malone defeated Republican Josh Parsons in the heavily GOP district. Broad + Liberty Managing Editor Kyle Sammin writes, “A generation ago, Republicans had a big advantage on high-propensity voters — the kind of people who never miss an election or a primary, year in and year out. Democrats had more of the every-four-years voter who only turns out for the big ones. That’s flipped, another consequence of the party shift that has swept the nation since Trump came down the escalator in 2015 and announced he was running for President.”