Bonner R Cohen, Trump reopens vast swath of waters off northeastern coast to commercial fishing

One of the nation’s richest fishing grounds — put off-limits to commercial use by the Obama and Biden administrations — is once again open for business, courtesy of a proclamation issued by the Trump White House.

The Feb. 6 proclamation — “Unleashing American Commercial Fishing in the Atlantic” —revokes an Obama- and Biden-era policy that prohibited commercial fishing within the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument. Created in 2016 by the Obama administration, the marine national monument covers nearly 5,000 square miles on the edge of the continental shelf about 150 miles east of Cape Cod. The monument designation included a ban on commercial fishing, which Trump lifted in his first term. The Biden administration reimposed the ban in 2021, a step Trump 2.0 is now reversing.

Bonner Cohen: Trump threw a big wrench into China’s attempt to bully U.S. over critical minerals

Approving the construction of a gravel mining road in a remote stretch of northwest Alaska may not sound like much, but it’s a giant step toward challenging an assertive China’s plan to become the 21st century’s dominant global power.

Once completed, the proposed 211-mile-long Ambler Road Project will provide access to rich deposits of copper, cobalt, zinc, lead, gold, silver, gallium, germanium, and other valuable ores with both commercial and military applications, according to the Trump White House. The road will enable essential surface transportation to Alaska’s Ambler Mining District, one of the largest undeveloped copper-zinc mining belts in the world. Over 1,700 active claims have already been filed in the district, a clear indication of the area’s potential.

Bonner R Cohen: Tropical forests in Indonesia ravaged by push for EV batteries

The wanton destruction of tropical rainforests in Indonesia by predominantly Chinese mining companies eager to extract nickel for EV batteries is the price the world must pay in the transition to “clean energy.”

“Indonesia is the world’s biggest nickel producer, and has the largest reserves on earth, most of which are in Sulawesi and Halmahera islands,” Climate Home News noted last December.

Bonner R Cohen: Deep-sea mining next arena for U.S. – China global rivalry

Vowing to “counter China’s growing influence over seabed mineral resources,” the Trump administration is opening a new front against America’s chief geopolitical rival.

“Vast offshore seabed areas hold critical minerals and energy resources,” an April 24 presidential executive order states. “These resources are key to strengthening our economy, securing our energy future, and reducing dependence on foreign suppliers for critical minerals.”

Bonner Cohen: Trump means business on Greenland

Rather than dismissing Donald Trump’s pre-inaugural musings about the importance of the United States acquiring Greenland as typical Trumpian bluster, people — friend and foe — should take the man seriously. Changes are on their way in the Arctic North Atlantic.

Greenland — two and one-half the size of Texas — is strategic in terms of its location and its natural resources. It is coveted by China and Russia, and Trump is wise to recognize the geopolitical implications of allowing the giant island to fall into unfriendly hands.

Bonner Cohen: Trump charts a fresh climate course

The pall that descended on the latest UN climate confab in the wake of Donald Trump’s election was justified. It’s a foretaste of things under an administration determined to part company with global environmentalists.

Along with issuing the obligatory proclamations of impending planetary doom, the gathering in Baku, Azerbaijan, was tasked with arranging financing (taxpayer handouts) to help poorer countries deal with what are said to be the ravages of human-induced climate change. Hysterical rhetoric was duly produced, but when it came to wealth nations forking over cash, giddy expectations were not realized.

Bonner Cohen: Rising battery fires cloud electric vehicles’ future

China’s grip on EV supply chain makes U.S. dangerously dependent

Contributing to the slowing sales of electric vehicles in the United States and Europe are growing concerns about the safety of their lithium-ion batteries, which can spark spectacular fires, quickly engulfing the vehicle in flames and smoke and spewing toxic fumes.

The internet is awash in videos of EVs going up in flames in tightly packed underground parking garages.

Bonner R Cohen: Biden's 'Build Back Better' Could Have Destroyed Jobs

The Biden administration-backed “Build Back Better” (BBB) tax and spending bill went back to the drawing boards when Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) announced he would not support the current version of the bill on Dec. 19.

BBB’s health care and housing provisions contain “the single largest permanent increase in work disincentives since the income tax came into its own during World War II,” writes Casey Mulligan, former chief economist of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers in the Trump administration, on his blog. 

BBB would “reduce work by limiting competition in the labor market, imposing employer mandates, and increasing consumer prices for telecommunications, energy, and other products,” writes Mulligan.