Authored by Tom Ozimek via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Blue state residents, whose governments have adopted aggressive climate policies, are paying much more for electricity and fuel than their counterparts who live in red states that lack such policies, according to a new report from America’s largest membership organization of state legislators.

The report from the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), provides a breakdown of energy prices throughout the United States while demonstrating the relationship between big government policies and high energy costs.

“While some states rely on free market principles and innovation to limit manmade emissions into the atmosphere, others use a more heavy-handed approach by implementing of standards, enacting mandates and pricing schemes that benefit specific types of technologies,” the report reads.

“Whether it is mandates, subsidies, or some combination of both, when the government inserts itself into the energy markets, taxpayers wind up footing the bill.”

The trend of government mandates being linked to higher electricity prices is evident throughout the report.

Red states Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah had the lowest electricity prices. None of them have a government-mandated RPS or participate in cap-and-trade schemes, such as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which is a CO2 cap-and-trade program among 10 states in the mid-Atlantic and Northeast regions of the country.

Utah has a voluntary renewable energy goal of 20 percent by 2025, but it’s not a mandate. Idaho and Wyoming don’t have state-mandated net metering, which is the utility billing practice of recording the excess energy generated by a solar installation and applying it to a customer’s bill as credit toward grid-drawn energy.

While the report notes that the impact of state-mandated net metering is “still not clear cut,” some utility companies have said that it represents a cost shift from people who can afford to install solar panels, leaving people without solar to pay a greater share of the fixed costs of maintaining the electrical grid.

Outside of red Alaska and blue Hawaii (which are geographic outliers and so understandably have the highest electricity costs), the five states with the highest electricity prices are all blue: California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, and New Hampshire.

All five states have cap-and-trade schemes and government-mandated RPSs in place. Each of these states has also imposed a state-mandated net metering policy on its utilities.

Overall, the difference in electricity costs between the cheapest red states and the most expensive blue states is substantial. The costs of a kilowatt hour in California, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut are more than double what they are in red states Idaho, Wyoming, and Utah.

“There is a strong correlation between big government policies and higher electricity costs,” the report states.

“When crafting energy and environmental policies, lawmakers should avoid imposing more government controls and instead allow markets to adapt, innovate, and improve.”

Besides electricity, the ALEC study also looked at gasoline costs across states and similarly found that, in general, there was a correlation between government mandates and prices.

Households using electricity to heat homes are projected to pay $1,063 on average between November and March, according to a Nov. 7 winter fuels outlook report by EIA. By contrast, households using natural gas are only expected to fork over $601.

The stark findings come as the Biden administration ramps up its war on gas appliances, including furnaces, while touting electrically-powered alternatives (such as heat pumps), all in the name of fighting climate change.

Recently, the Department of Energy (DOE) announced that President Joe Biden will use emergency wartime powers to boost U.S. production of electric heat pumps as his administration continues its push to replace furnaces that run on fossil fuels.

Earlier, the DOE proposed new energy efficiency standards for residential water heaters that would require electric water heaters of the most common size to use heat pump technology and gas-fired instantaneous water heaters to use condensing technology to achieve energy efficiency.

At the time, Republicans on the House Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Energy Policy, and Regulatory Affairs argued that the DOE’s proposed appliance efficiency standards would be burdensome and costly for Americans, hitting lower-income families the hardest.

Authored by Marina Zhang via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours),

Females and young adults are at an increased risk of suffering from side effects after COVID-19 vaccinations. People who take three doses as compared to two may present different side effects, a Japanese study finds.

The study published on Scientific Reports in November studied 272 hospital employees who received the Pfizer vaccine as a second dose between January to June 2022.

None of the participants had a prior history of COVID-19 infection, and all of their symptoms were examined and diagnosed by doctors at the hospital.

Axillary pain occurs much more frequently in people who have taken three doses as opposed to two. Headaches and joint pain is a side effect that tends to be prolonged following the third dose compared to the second or the first dose.

At the second dose common symptoms include asthma symptoms, ear fullness, numbness in the upper arm, and injection at the injecting site.

Additional vaccines also create a cumulative effect such that people who have taken more shots tend to be at a greater risk of worse symptoms, internist Dr. Keith Berkowitz, who has treated over 200 long COVID and post-vaccine patients, told The Epoch Times.

A Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention showed that the majority of people who report anaphylaxis are female.

Additionally, a JAMA Network Open study similarly showed that females tended to report adverse effects from Moderna and Pfizer vaccinations. The authors of the study reasoned that females tended to produce a greater number of antibodies after vaccination, and that the higher levels of estrogen and progesterone in females may also result in different symptom manifestations.

Younger people also tend to have a stronger immune system, and the side effects experienced by the patient may be a result of the immune response, the authors reasoned.

The COVID-19 mRNA vaccines induce the body to produce spike proteins. These spike proteins can damage the blood vessels and cause clotting, inflammation, and even autoimmunity. Greater symptom severity is suggestive of having more reactive symptoms due to the body’s attempts to fight off the spike proteins.

While this may help in clearing spike proteins, it may also prevent recovery as the body directs its resources toward fighting an infection rather than resting and recovering. “If the immune system is functioning better … the body functions better as a whole and the body can use its needed sources elsewhere,” Dr. Berkowitz said.

“I have a lot more male patients these days and … we’re getting more patients who have had multiple vaccinations and boosters,” Mr. Marsland said. Many of the patients now come from recommendations from friends and family who think that they may be suffering from vaccine side effects. Since these people have not been following the research on COVID-19 vaccine injuries, they tend to be a lot more skeptical and distrusting, he added.

Dr. Berkowitz similarly added that as the pandemic progressed, he started to get different patients with the majority being patients who have had several COVID-19 infections and also taken several doses of the COVID-19 vaccine. Dr. Keith said that since each infection and injection will increase the load of spike protein, “I’ll list how many times have they had the vaccine and how many times have they been infected [to assess treatment].”

Authored by Naveen Athrappully via The Epoch Times,

Big banks such as PNC Bank and JPMorgan Chase have filed to close several branch offices in multiple states amid a troubling pattern of rising branch shutdowns in recent years.

Between Nov. 12 and 18, several banks filed to close branch locations, with PNC Bank with the most filings, according to data from the U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. Pittsburgh-based PNC Bank filed for 19 branch closures—five in Pennsylvania, four in Illinois, three in Texas, two each in Alabama and New Jersey, and one each in Indiana, Ohio, and Florida.

JPMorgan Chase followed closely with 18 filings—three in Ohio, two each in Connecticut and South Carolina, and one each in 11 states, including New York, Illinois, Florida, and Massachusetts.

Citizens Bank came in third with eight branch closure filings—six in New York, and one each in Massachusetts and Delaware. Minneapolis-based U.S. Bank filed for seven closures—three in Tennessee and one each in Missouri, Wisconsin, Ohio, and Illinois.

Bank of America made five filings—two in New York and one each in Texas, Massachusetts, and California.

Citibank filed for two branch closures, and Sterling, Bremer, First National Bank of Hughes Springs, Windsor FS&LA, and Aroostook County FS&LA made one filing each.

Altogether, banks filed to shut down 64 branches.

The recent closures are part of a long-term branch shutdown trend that has been ongoing over the past several years. A report from the National Community Reinvestment Coalition shows that between 2017 and 2021, 9 percent of all bank branches shut down. The closure rate doubled during the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to data from S&P, there were 3,012 branch closures last year and 958 branch openings, leading to a net closure of 2,054 branches. This was the third consecutive year that net closings exceeded 2,000.

One major factor that led to a surge in branch closures is the rise of digital banking, a trend that accelerated during the pandemic when people were stuck at their homes.

A survey by the American Banking Association (ABA) conducted in September showed that 8 in 10 Americans used a mobile device to manage their bank accounts at least once in the previous month.

“Digital banking tools have made it more convenient and more secure than ever for consumers to manage their finances,” Brooke Ybarra, ABA’s senior vice president of innovation strategy, said, according to a Nov. 3 statement.

Cost Saving, Negative Effects

Going digital rather than expanding physical branch locations is also part of a cost-saving strategy for banking institutions. Opening a new site costs millions of dollars and several hundreds of thousands in annual recurring costs.

Most of the operations done via a physical bank can now be done online. Digital transactions are cheaper than the costs incurred in transacting via bank tellers.

On the flip side, the shutdown of bank branches can negatively affect customers, especially in small towns. Due to such closures, many towns have become “bank deserts,” where the nearest bank is more than 10 miles away.

“When bank branches close, there are several adverse effects on the surrounding community. Small business lending and activity in the area declines. More people use alternative financial services that open them to unregulated and predatory financial practices. An important commercial tenant and employer are lost,” the National Community Reinvestment Coalition report said.

“While consumers have embraced mobile and internet banking to one degree or another, they clarify that branches matter to them as well, and without branches nearby, they are more likely to be un- or under-banked.”

A recent survey by Daily Mail found that 51 percent of Americans were either “very concerned” or “somewhat concerned” about the closure of bank branches.

PNC Bank Closure

PNC Bank registered the largest number of closure filings amid its heightened focus on cost-saving measures. During its second-quarter earnings call, CEO William S. Demchak said the bank is “going to have to take a hard look” at where it can “generate savings … without cutting the potential for growth.”

At the time, Chief Financial Officer Robert Q. Reilly revealed that the institution was boosting the target of an expense reduction program by $50 million to $450 million. For next year, PNC Bank is targeting $725 million in expense cuts.

PNC is the sixth-largest U.S. bank. The 19 branches that will be shut down are:

202 N. Walnut St., Bath, Pennsylvania301 W. Trenton Ave., Morrisville, Pennsylvania14 N. Main St., Plains, Pennsylvania1969 E. 3rd St., Williamsport, Pennsylvania2 N. Mill St., New Castle, Pennsylvania321 Bel Air Blvd., Mobile, Alabama2811 Eastern Blvd., Montgomery, Alabama5650 S. Brainard Avenue, Countryside, Illinois2217 W. Market St., Bloomington, Illinois1949 E. Sangamon Ave., Springfield, Illinois505 West Liberty Street, Wauconda, Illinois8733 U.S. Highway 31 South, Indianapolis, Indiana528 Station Ave., Hadden Heights, New Jersey410 Main St., Orange, New Jersey115 E. Van Buren Ave., Harlingen, Texas407 S. Commerce St., Harlingen, Texas801 W. Kearney St., Mesquite, Texas1040 Mt. Vernon Ave., Columbus, Ohio1140 N. Main St., Gainesville, Florida

In June, PNC shut 47 branches, followed by 29 closures in August. A spokesperson told The U.S. Sun at the time that the bank intends to shut down 147 locations as it focuses more on online banking. The closures were expected to make 60 percent of PNC’s banking business exclusively online.

A spokesperson from the bank told the Philadelphia Business Journal that the 19 bank closures will take place on Feb. 16.

Last month, the bank reported a drop in third-quarter profits and declared cutting roughly 4 percent of its workforce. The layoffs, which began on Oct. 6, will be completed by the end of the fourth quarter. The job cuts are expected to bring down the bank’s yearly personnel expenses by roughly $325 million or 5 percent.

The bank also forecasts that its net interest income—the difference between the interest it receives on loans and the interest it pays on deposits—will shrink by 1 to 2 percent from current levels in quarter four. During the third quarter, net interest income had declined by 3 percent.

“They (PNC Bank) recognize that there is definitely a headwind to the growth and their net interest income, mainly due to the higher deposit rates and higher funding costs,” Timothy Coffey, an analyst at Janney Montgomery Scott, told Reuters.

“And so they’re trying to alleviate some of that headwind by doing what they can to cut their own non-interest expenses as a way to maintain their earnings.”