This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire

By Gabriella Hoffman

With Winter Storm Fern wreaking havoc across the country, New England women are worried about energy affordability. Yet many do not connect rising energy costs to the state policy decisions that invited them.

According to new polling from Independent Women, 82% of New England women say they’re paying more for their electricity bills, compared with five years ago. This is the first comprehensive poll exclusively asking women—who primarily handle their household electricity bills—their attitudes on energy issues.

New England has enacted the nation’s most aggressive climate policies to phase out oil, gas, and coal and achieve a 100% renewable energy target by 2050. While it’s easy to blame utility companies and the federal government for exacerbating the electricity crisis, state policies—namely, New England’s decarbonization plans—bear more responsibility for inviting energy insecurity and associated higher costs.

Congress gave states near-exclusive power, under the Federal Power Act, to create electricity generation portfolios, determine electricity prices, and establish mandates for renewable energy generators. In the past 20 years, New England states adopted radical climate mandates to force a transition to 100% renewable energy, ban gas-powered cars, and adopt energy efficiency standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHG).

In the last five years, costs have skyrocketed across all six New England states. Between 2019 and 2024, electricity prices across the region soared 29%—the highest regional rates in the Lower-48. The average household paid $250.82 per month in utility bills as of last November—up 50.5% from 2024, when the average regional bill was only $166.48 per month. New England rates are 67% higher compared to the national average.

New England states were early adopters of aggressive green mandates like renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). States with RPS report higher electricity rates compared to non-RPS states. All six New England states belong to RGGI, a cap-and-trade program that has a negligible impact on carbon emissions reductions. It’s no wonder that 53% of poll respondents admitted they feel misled by state politicians about the cost and effectiveness of 100% renewable energy policies.

Independent Women’s poll also found that New England women support reliable energy sources. A plurality of New England women (42%) support an electric grid powered by both conventional and renewable energy sources.

An overwhelming majority support expanding geothermal energy (68%) and natural gas (61%), a clean-burning fuel, in the region. Support for natural gas is encouraging, despite decades’ long regional policies that discouraged or blocked new natural gas infrastructure projects.

Natural gas is a reliable, clean-burning fuel that supplies the majority of net-electricity generation in the U.S., and in New England. The recently revived Constitution Pipeline, first approved in 2014 and cancelled in 2020, is expected to deliver natural gas to New England states by 2027. A new report warned that a lack of new natural gas capacity will stress New England’s energy infrastructure and could invite “electricity reliability challenges” ahead of Winter Storm Fern.

Despite its strict green mandates, New England is still heavily reliant on natural gas, nuclear energy, and electricity imports from Canada (9%)—not renewables (12%).

Last fall, the CEO of ISO New England, the regional transmission organization overseeing the region’s electric grid and transmission, warned that wind and solar aren’t dependable sources during winter, remarking: “We cannot operate the system in the wintertime without a dependable energy source that can balance the system when the sun doesn’t shine and the wind doesn’t blow.”

By continuing down its decarbonization path, New England, save for New Hampshire, would see energy costs spike $815 billion through 2050 over the cost of operating the current grid. But there’s a solution to the region’s self-inflicted energy crisis. A new report by Always On Energy Research and a coalition of Northeastern think tanks, “Alternatives to New England’s Energy Affordability Crisis,” argues that building natural gas and nuclear power, rather than costly, unreliable offshore wind and solar projects, will save New Englanders upwards of $700 billion in energy costs.

New England women overwhelmingly respond positively to affordable, reliable, and scalable messaging. But the poll also finds they currently trust elected Democrats on affordability issues. Democrats know they have to deliver, which is why they’re disavowing the same climate pledges that they previously championed. Conservatives, however, are uniquely positioned to appeal to women on energy issues, if they get this moment right.

Due to deregulation and abundance policies, energy inflation is down nationally. For electricity prices to decrease in New England, states must repeal expensive policies that solely push wind and solar at the expense of reliable, affordable energy sources.

Gabriella Hoffman is director of the Independent Women’s Center for Energy and Conservation. Follow her on X at @Gabby_Hoffman

The post Poll Finds New England Women Feel Misled About Climate Policies appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Funding Disparities Rebrands American Gifted Children as Mentally Ill & Paris Hilton Doesn’t Help Republished with permission from AbleChild.  America is starving for gifted education while financially rewarding psychiatric labeling. … Read more

The post Funding Disparities Rebrands American Gifted Children as Mentally Ill & Paris Hilton Doesn’t Help appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

Singer-songwriter Neil Young’s narcissism knows no bounds.

As speculation continues to swirl as to whether or not the United States will acquire Greenland, the musician and leftist activist thinks he has found a way to help the good people of the territory cope with the looming threat of President Donald Trump sweeping them up into his mighty empire — give them all his music for free.

Rolling Stone reported Monday that Young’s website has not only his music, but also live performances, concert films, and outtakes.

Prices are anywhere from $24.99 to $99.99 annually, but Greenland is getting it all for free. Young explained via the site, “I’m honored to give a free year’s access to neilyoungarchives.com to all of our friends in Greenland.”

“I hope my Music and Music Films will ease some of the unwarranted stress and threats you are experiencing from our unpopular and hopefully temporary government,” he added.

“It is my sincere wish for you to be able to enjoy all of my music in your beautiful Greenland home, in its highest quality. This is an offer of Peace and Love,” Young said.

“All the music I made during the last 62 years is yours to hear. You can renew for free was long as you are in Greenland. We do hope other organizations will follow in the spirit of our example.”

This news comes after Young announced he was remaining steadfast in keeping his music off Amazon due to owner Jeff Bezos becoming more friendly with Trump. Per Rolling Stone, he commented, “My music will never be available on Amazon, as long as it is owned by Bezos.”

“My position is unfortunately harmful to my record company in the short term, but I think the message I am sending is important and clear. Thanks for buying music locally and from independent digital services.”

Is Young a talented artist who has made great music over the years? Certainly, but this is a bit much. It’s as if he thinks his music diplomacy is going to drive a wedge between Trump and Greenland.

In August, Young released “Big Crime,” a song where he complains about the president and calls him a fascist.

It’s all part of his effort to stay relevant. At 80, Young perceives his anti-Trump message will play well with audiences, forgetting they’ve had that same message rammed down their throats for a decade.

It’s a move that makes you wonder — Who asked for this? Who is actually that enthusiastic about Neil Young?

In 2014, U2 and Apple collaborated to put their 13th album “Songs of Innocence” on what US Magazine reported was over 500 million devices across 119 countries. Users were “gifted” an album they didn’t ask for from a band they might not have liked or even have heard of.

Throwing your music in someone’s face is not going to make them a fan.

It’s yet to be determined whether Greenland will have renewed enthusiasm against Trump after learning they can hear “Harvest Moon” for free.

This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.

The post Delusional Rocker Neil Young Gifts Music Catalog to Greenland, Claims It Will Help Them Cope With Trump appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.

If you really want to understand the ICE shooting of Alex Pretti and understand why it was justified, you really don’t need to do anything but watch the video below.

Andrew Branca is an attorney who is an expert in self-defense. You may have seen clips of him in the past as he has his own talk show and is often brought on to other shows to provide legal analysis.

In this video, he carefully breaks down the Pretti shooting and puts it into language and perspective that anyone can uderstand.

Partial transcript by Collin Rugg on Twitter/X:

– “The moment he makes contact with that officer, he’s just committed a federal felony good for eight years in a federal penitentiary.”

– “That’s why they were seeking to make his arrest because they saw him commit a forcible felony against a fellow officer.”

– “Then he’s noncompliant with arrest. He’s fighting them. Then they discover he has a gun…”

– “They take that gun. There are cries of ‘gun, gun, gun.’ The officers called to each other. He’s still noncompliant. They hear a gunshot go off. And Alex Pretty’s right hand comes from his waistline with a black object in his hand.”

– “That combination of facts is going to get you shot 999 times out of a thousand by law enforcement, and justifiably so.”

“They’re making all these perceptions, all these decisions in a violent, chaotic melee caused by Alex Pretti.”

“They have to make all these decisions in a split second because that’s how quickly someone can use a weapon against you, and those decisions.”

“They don’t have to be correct. The law of self-defense does not require us to make perfect decisions…”

Watch the whole thing below, this is really outstanding:

NEW: Attorney and self-defense expert Andrew Branca says the shooting of Alex Pretti was justified, lays out reasons why.

– “The moment he makes contact with that officer, he’s just committed a federal felony good for eight years in a federal penitentiary.”

– “That’s why they… pic.twitter.com/NejNcknfNQ

— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) January 28, 2026

People on the left will deny all of this because they need Alex Pretti to be a martyr, but as Andrew Branca clearly lays out in that video, the shooting was justified. The whole situation was caused by Pretti himself.

Pretti started it and then immediately made things worse for himself by resisting. The agents who were involved made split second decisions and were justified in doing so.

The post Attorney and Expert in Self-Defense Offers OUTSTANDING Analysis Showing Why ICE Shooting of Alex Pretti Was Justified (VIDEO) appeared first on The Gateway Pundit.