The Week That Was: 2025 03-15 (March 15, 2025)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “Beware the Ides of March” — Soothsayer to Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.
Number of the Week: Tripled in 60 years
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: TWTW begins with a brief discussion of the second law of thermodynamics because some scientists claim that the greenhouse effect violates it. Then it brings up a paper in Atmosphere estimating Earth’s Energy Imbalance for the past 20 years. An effort to predict Ice Ages is presented. EPA’s announcement of major changes in policies are discussed. And the concept of peak air pollution is presented.
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Second Law of Thermodynamics: The second law of thermodynamics is fundamental in understanding heat transfer. According to Wikipedia: “a simple statement of the law is that heat always flows spontaneously from hotter to colder regions of matter (or ‘downhill’ in terms of the temperature gradient).” It is common to see claims that the atmospheric Greenhouse Effect cannot heat Earth because it would involve heat flowing from colder nighttime atmosphere to the warmer Earth’s surface, particularly the oceans. Here there is a confusion of terms. Energy is different from heat.
The radiative transfer of electromagnetic energy involves transferring energy of light to molecules (or atoms). This is different from transferring heat. The energy excites the molecules causing motion which may result in heat, but when the excited molecule hits another molecule it releases energy, not heat. The released energy can flow in any direction to include in directions that are warmer than where the molecule is located. We see this every day during daylight hours. Solar energy goes through cold space and hits the warm ocean warming it further. That is not considered a violation of the second law of thermodynamics. Nor is the greenhouse effect slowing the loss of heat to space a violation of the second law of thermodynamics.
Kevin Kilty has a more detailed explanation of this in his extensive essays on Earth’s energy imbalance posted over several months in WUWT. In these essays he showed that the imbalance is a small, changing number measured with great uncertainty. [Weigh yourself on a bathroom scale. Now put a stick of gum in your mouth and weigh yourself again. Subtract to find the weight of the gum.] See the latest one in the link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Radiative Energy Change: The journal Atmosphere published a paper by Hans-Rolf Dübal and Fritz Vahrenholt titled “Radiative Energy Flux Variation from 2001–2020” which addresses the changing in Earth Energy Imbalance (EEI) at the top of the atmosphere as measured by the CERES satellites for about two decades. The abstract reads:
“Radiative energy flux data, downloaded from CERES, are evaluated with respect to their variations from 2001 to 2020. We found the declining outgoing shortwave radiation to be the most important contributor for a positive TOA (top of the atmosphere) net flux of 0.8 W/m2 in this time frame. We compare clear sky with cloudy areas and find that changes in the cloud structure should be the root cause for the shortwave trend. The radiative flux data are compared with ocean heat content data and analyzed in the context of a longer-term climate system enthalpy estimation going back to the year 1750. We also report differences in the trends for the Northern and Southern hemisphere. The radiative data indicate more variability in the North and higher stability in the South. The drop of cloudiness around the millennium by about 1.5% has certainly fostered the positive net radiative flux. The declining TOA SW (out) is the major heating cause (+1.42 W/m2 from 2001 to 2020). It is almost compensated by the growing chilling TOA LW (out) (−1.1 W/m2). This leads together with a reduced incoming solar of −0.17 W/m2 to a small growth of imbalance of 0.15 W/m2. We further present surface flux data which support the strong influence of the cloud cover on the radiative budget.”
In part the conclusion states [citations omitted here]:
Generating the CERES data is a demanding task and requires sophisticated technology and models which are vulnerable and prone to uncertainties. Liu et al. have pointed out significant uncertainties of satellite datasets and discussed the role of the lateral energy flow. Su et al. have recently pointed out the importance of maintaining the consistency among the components of the measuring system. On the other hand, Loeb et al., Johnson et al. and, also, Dewitte et al. have shown that the CERES net flux agrees well with the independently observed OHC data [Ocean Heat Content]. This good agreement, also confirmed by our analysis, justifies some confidence in the CERES datasets used.
We could identify the effect of the anthropogenic greenhouse gas emissions from 2001 to 2020 in the “Clear Sky” LW [Longwave] part but not in the “Cloudy Areas” and not in the SW [Shortwave]. At the same time, we find, in accordance with the analysis of Loeb et al. and Ollila, that the major changes for the TOA energy budget during this period of time stemmed from the clouds for SW and LW, as well as the ground temperature in the LW.
After discussing aerosols, which are declining, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), and the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO), the conclusions briefly discuss the problems of understanding changes in clouds. The conclusion finishes with:
“There are distinct differences between the Northern and the Southern hemisphere. Generally speaking, the South was more stable than the North in trends and variances of almost all radiative quantities. This could be due to the larger ocean share of the surface in the South.
Finally, the key issue, i.e., whether the current heating phase is a temporary phase or a permanent phenomenon, can be judged only on the basis of a longer observation time. In the latter case, the physical mechanism behind the “shortwave heating” or a possible “cloud thinning,” as discussed by several other authors should be understood, because it could accelerate the warming trend. In the former case, the strong net flux of +0.8 W/m2 should decrease naturally.”
Even with decades of modern satellite data, the problems of understanding Earth’s changing weather and climate are complex and have many unknowns. It is important not to reach hasty generalizations or conclusions. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Predicting Ice Ages: One of the most devastating natural occurrences for humanity would be the onset of a major glaciation (Ice Ages). We do not understand Earth’s orbit around the sun and Earth’s changing tilt with sufficient clarity to predict such an event. Also, it is important to be able to distinguish between the onset of a major glaciation from a cooling from a Dansgaard–Oeschger event, which occur far more frequently.
A group led y Stephen Barker of Cardiff University has claimed that they have strong evidence in the climate record that indicate they can predict the next glaciation. According to an article reporting this: “Their findings suggest that every major glaciation event over the past 900,000 years has followed a consistent and predictable sequence.”
Unfortunately, some of the researchers promptly confused the issues by stating that CO2-caused warming throws off any such predictions. CO2-caused warming is slight compared to any temperature change from glaciation. Making such assertions creates suspicion. If it is true, then the assertion should be a cause for worldwide celebration. See links under Defending the Orthodoxy.
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Changing Policies: The EPA announced it is changing its policies in 31 major areas. According to its press release the changes will accomplish the following.
“While accomplishing EPA’s core mission of protecting the environment, the agency is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, lower cost of living for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions.”
Specifically, the issues addressed by the changes by stated category are:
“Unleashing America Energy:
- Reconsideration of regulations on power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0)
- Reconsideration of regulations throttling the oil and gas industry
- Reconsideration of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that improperly targeted coal-fired power plants (MATS)
- Reconsideration of mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program that imposed significant costs on the American energy supply (GHG Reporting Program)
- Reconsideration of limitations, guidelines, and standards (ELG) [Effluent Guidelines] for the Steam Electric Power Generating Industry to ensure low-cost electricity while protecting water resources (Steam Electric ELG)
- Reconsideration of wastewater regulations for oil and gas development to help unleash American energy (Oil and Gas ELG)
- Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Administration Risk Management Program rule that made America’s oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities less safe (Risk Management Program Rule)
Lowering the Cost of Living for American Families:
- Reconsideration of light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate (Car GHG Rules)
- Reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and regulations and actions that rely on that Finding (Endangerment Finding)
- Reconsideration of technology transition rule that forces companies to use certain technologies that increased costs on food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing (Technology Transition Rule)
- Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses (PM 2.5 NAAQS)
- Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for American energy and manufacturing sectors (NESHAPs)
- Restructuring the Regional Haze Program that threatened the supply of affordable energy for American families (Regional Haze)
- Overhauling Biden-Harris Administration’s ‘Social Cost of Carbon’
- Redirecting enforcement resources to EPA’s core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that drive up costs for American consumers (Enforcement Discretion)
- Terminating Biden’s Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency (EJ/DEI)
Advancing Cooperative Federalism:
- Ending so-called ‘Good Neighbor Plan’ which the Biden-Harris Administration used to expand federal rules to more states and sectors beyond the program’s traditional focus and led to the rejection of nearly all State Implementation Plans
- Working with states and tribes to resolve massive backlog with State Implementation Plans and Tribal Implementation Plans that the Biden-Harris Administration refused to resolve (SIPs/TIPs)
- Reconsideration of exceptional events rulemaking to work with states to prioritize the allowance of prescribed fires within State and Tribal Implementation Plans (Exceptional Events)
- Reconstituting Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (SAB/CASAC)
- Prioritizing coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and update coal ash regulations (CCR Rule)
- Utilizing enforcement discretion to further North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene”
For years, TWTW has stated that the EPA has used its regulatory power to restrict American growth without producing physical evidence that the regulations are necessary. What the changes are and whether physical evidence justifies such change remains to be seen. There are legal and political issues to face and the opposition by the green industry will be fierce as well as the opposition by the wind and solar energy industries, which rely on subsidies for their existence. See links under EPA and other Regulators on the March
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EPA Endangerment Finding: For years TWTW has considered that EPA’s finding that the warming produced by carbon dioxide emissions and other greenhouse gases such as water vapor is an affront to science. Without the greenhouse effect the land masses of Earth would become too cold at night to support growing plants. John Tyndall recognized this when using early spectroscopy beginning in 1859 to explain why Earth was warm enough to support life. Otherwise, the land masses would be as barren as Mars or the Moon.
Tyndall’s experiments are verified by decades of experiments in many countries. Further, they are validated by satellite observations which are discussed above. The experiments demonstrate that the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide is subject to diminishing returns, the relationship between CO2 and temperatures is logarithmic, not additive, or multiplicative. In its Endangerment Finding, EPA ignores over a century of experimental physical evidence and decades of satellite observations. It is a corruption of physical science.
In an article titled “EPA Ends the ‘Green New Deal’” in the Wall Street Journal, the EPA administrator Lee Zeldin states in part:
“By overhauling massive rules on the endangerment finding, the social cost of carbon and similar issues, we are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age. These actions will roll back trillions of dollars in regulatory costs and hidden taxes. As a result, the cost of living for American families will decrease, and essentials such as buying a car, heating your home, and operating a business will become more affordable. Our actions will also reignite American manufacturing, spreading economic benefits to communities.
The EPA will continue to protect human health and the environment while unleashing America’s full potential. That means reconsidering the regulations that have restricted every sector of the economy, such as the illegal Clean Power Plan 2.0, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, and Particulate Matter 2.5 levels. Under President Trump’s guidance, the EPA also has ended the electric-vehicle mandate that threatened to destroy America’s auto industry and made cars cost more. Instead of forcing Americans to buy expensive vehicles they neither want nor can keep powered up, we are restoring choice to consumers and bringing automaking jobs back home in line with our Great American Comeback initiative. This commitment to our manufacturing base contrasts with Biden administration policies that shipped jobs overseas.
Energy dominance stands at the center of America’s resurgence. By reconsidering rules that throttled oil and gas production and unfairly targeted coal-fired power plants, we are ensuring that American energy remains clean, affordable, and reliable. This isn’t about abandoning environmental protection—it’s about achieving it through innovation and not strangulation.
The EPA’s commitment to permit-reform cannot be overstated. By cutting through red tape and resolving the backlog of state and tribal implementation plans, we are creating an environment where businesses can thrive, and infrastructure can be built. This is how America will become the artificial-intelligence capital of the world—by removing barriers to ingenuity and investment and advancing cooperative federalism.”
Again, there are many legal and political obstacles to overcome. The fighting in Washington will be fierce. However, two decisions by the US Supreme Court may be pivotal. One is the Major Questions Doctrine which asserts that the courts will assume Congress does not delegate to executive agencies powers of major political or economic significance unless the statute clearly grants such power. The second decision is the end of the Chevron Deference which required federal courts to defer to a federal agency’s reasonable interpretation of ambiguous statutes. The decision was reached in June 2024. If Congress did not grant federal agencies specific powers, it does not have them.
An editorial in the Wall Street Journal sates in part:
“Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin on Wednesday proposed a host of important rule changes. The most important may be his move to reconsider the 2009 so-called endangerment finding that declares greenhouse gases are a pollutant subject to agency regulation. Cue the panic and misinformation campaign.
As a refresher, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts v. EPA (2007) that greenhouse gases qualify as pollutants under the Clean Air Act. The EPA must regulate pollutants that can “reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” No surprise, the Obama Administration in 2009 determined that greenhouse gases do.
The Obama endangerment finding undergirds EPA limits on CO2 emissions from power plants, autos, and trucks, as well as methane fees on oil and gas companies, among other rules. The Obama and Biden Administrations have used the finding to bypass Congress to advance their anti-fossil fuel agenda.”
After discussing that fear of litigation made the first Trump administration leery of addressing the endangerment finding, the editorial states:
“Most of the science cited in the Obama endangerment finding—e.g., climate change will harm U.S. agriculture and increase the size and frequency of wildfires—is debatable. The finding that U.S. CO2 emissions will directly harm Americans is even more tenuous.
Unlike pollutants explicitly covered by the Clean Air Act, CO2 emissions don’t affect local air quality. Their impact on global temperatures is intermediated by other factors like cloud cover. Curbing CO2 emissions in the U.S. will have scant impact on Americans, especially as India and China emit with abandon.
Justice Antonin Scalia noted as much in his Mass. v. EPA dissent: ‘Regulating the buildup of CO2 and other greenhouse gases in the upper reaches of the atmosphere . . . is not akin to regulating the concentration of some substance that is polluting the air.’ Chief Justice John Roberts and Justices Clarence Thomas and Samuel Alito also dissented.”
The argument that increasing CO2 will damage agriculture is absurd. CO2 is essential for photosynthesis, which provides the food source for all complex life. Even Al Gore would not survive long on a diet of bacteria capable of chemosynthesis. See links under EPA and other Regulators on the March. EPA Endangerment Finding for some of the obstacles that are likely to arise, and Articles # 1 and #2.
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EPA Other Issues: The EPA is considering other issues that are of interest to TWTW including the National Air Quality Standards for particulate matter, particularly PM2.5 (smaller the 2.5 microns) which is claimed worldwide to cause millions of premature deaths, but no one has presented the physical evidence that it does. Another key issue is the definition of waters of the United States. Piles of wet leaves far from any still or moving water have been called Waters of the United States. This issue needs to be addressed with the Corps of Engineers. Hopefully, a rational decision will be made.
The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) has a guidebook for the EPA. This guidebook will be reviewed in a subsequent TWTW. See links under EPA and other Regulators on the March.
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Peak Air Pollution? Deputy Editor of Our World in Data has asked: Has the world seen peak air pollution? She cites physical evidence that global emissions of local air pollutants have probably passed their peak. She presents a chart showing estimates of global emissions of pollutants such as sulfur dioxide (which causes acid rain), nitrogen oxides, and black and organic carbon.
The exception is ammonia, which is mainly produced by agriculture. Its emissions are still rising. This may be useful in addressing past EPA claims of air pollution. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Number of the Week: Tripled in 60 years: Hannah Ritchie, Deputy Editor of Our World in Data reports:
“Global average yields of cereal crops have tripled over the past 60 years. This has been crucial to feeding a growing population while sparing natural habitat from expanding agricultural land.
However, some cereal crops have seen much larger gains in efficiency. Maize (corn) and rice achieve the highest yields and have seen huge gains in recent decades. Wheat and barley have also performed well.”
As she demonstrates, the productivity of sorghum and millet have increased slightly. According to the USDA, the top producing countries of sorghum are the US, Nigeria, Brazil, India, Mexico, and Ethiopia. The top producing countries of millet are India (by far), Niger, China, and Mali.
Given that the production of Maize (corn, about 1.2 billion metric tons), rice, wheat and barley are far more massive that sorghum (about 61 million metric tons) and millet, the past 60 years have been great for agricultural productivity. The CO2 concentration was less than 320 parts per million volume (ppmv) in 1960 and now it is over 420 ppmv today. Yet, in its Endangerment Finding the EPA claims increasing CO2 emissions damage agriculture production?
See link under Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine, and https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/production/commodity/0459200 and
https://www.fas.usda.gov/data/production/commodity/0459100
Commentary: Is the Sun Rising?
New Study Identifies A Millennial-Scale ‘Striking’ Link Between Solar Forcing And Climate Patterns
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Mar 13, 2025
Link to paper: Solar forcing as driver for late Holocene rainfall intensity in the Peruvian Andes
By Karsten Schittek, et al., Quaternary International, Feb 1, 2025
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S104061822400466X
From abstract: The study revealed that lithogenic input to the LC increased significantly after 1150 cal yr AD, likely due to increased precipitation. In particular, periods of increased lithogenic input were identified during the LIA [Little Ice Age], corresponding to solar minima and pointing to solar forcing as a major driver of precipitation changes in the central Andes.
[SEPP Comment: Contradicts claims that the LIA was a regional (European only) event.]
Challenging the Orthodoxy — NIPCC
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science
Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2013
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/CCR/CCR-II/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Idso, Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2014
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-biological-impacts/
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-fossil-fuels/
Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
The NIPCC Report on the Scientific Consensus
By Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), Nov 23, 2015
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/why-scientists-disagree-about-global-warming/
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer
The Role of Greenhouse Gases in Energy Transfer in the Earth’s Atmosphere
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Preprint, Mar 3, 2023
Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Preprint, December 22, 2020
https://wvanwijngaarden.info.yorku.ca/files/2020/12/WThermal-Radiationf.pdf?x45936
Radiation Transport in Clouds
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Klimarealistene, Science of Climate Change, January 2025
Challenging the Orthodoxy
Energy Imbalance Part II – An Addendum
By Kevin Kilty, WUWT, Mar 8, 2025
Beyond CO₂: Unraveling the Roles of Energy, Water Vapor, and Convection in Earth’s Atmosphere
By Andy May & Tom Shula. WUWT, Mar 9, 2025
Radiative Energy Flux Variation from 2001–2020
By Hans-Rolf Dübal and Fritz Vahrenholt, Atmosphere, Oct 5, 2021
https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4433/12/10/1297
Peak Air Pollution: The Increasing Sustainability of Fossil Fuels
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Mar 11, 2025
Link to essay: The world has probably passed “peak air pollution”
By Hannah Ritchie, Our World in Data, Jan 27, 2025
https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/the-world-has-probably-passed-peak-air-pollution
Defending the Orthodoxy
Scientists establish link between Earth’s orbital shifts and ice age cycles
By Clarence Oxford, Los Angeles CA (SPX), Mar 11, 2025
https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Scientists_establish_link_between_Earths_orbital_shifts_and_ice_age_cycles_999.html
Link to paper: Distinct roles for precession, obliquity, and eccentricity in Pleistocene 100-kyr glacial cycles
By Stephen Barker, et al., AAAS Science, Feb 28, 2025
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adp3491
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Climate Astrologers forecast ‘Global weirding’ and climate whiplash will hit the world’s biggest cities
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 13, 2025
Link to press release: Global cities most vulnerable to extreme climate shifts revealed in new report
By Staff, Cardiff University, Mar 12, 2025
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/news/view/2901742-global-cities-most-vulnerable-to-extreme-climate-shifts-revealed-in-new-report
Link to report: Water and climate: Rising risks for urban populations
By Staff, Water Aid, Mar 12, 2025
https://washmatters.wateraid.org/publications/rising-risks-urban-populations-water-climate-change
From Nova: POST NOTE: See, this is the tragedy of one-sided government-funded science. The people writing these junk studies probably think they are doing a decent job; they just don’t realize how vacuous this is, because there is never any criticism of green-promo-science. They’ve never attended a conference where someone talked about long term drought cycles; they don’t know there are 10,000 proxies that show continuous variation in every climate parameter. If they had been reeled back in a few times as honors students, they wouldn’t grow up to be scientists making these baby mistakes.
[SEPP Comment: Climate change is occurring in many locations around the world as it has been for hundreds of millions of years. Calling it Global Weirding and Climate Whiplash does not change history.]
Scientists May Have Miscalculated Our Global Warming Timeline
By Darren Orf, AOL, Feb 12, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.aol.com/scientists-may-miscalculated-global-warming-155100847.html?guccounter=1&guce_referrer=aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZ29vZ2xlLmNvbS8&guce_referrer_sig=AQAAADB2DzLyotfJVqMpgFnhFctFVmf6KkgoezAUZwxOHQhV9F6JXZcBxBtJawjEApT9XbVbNtan4kOOZ0yu225kyY-9ChbVyMI0RHu-7nhRPT656YkY08DKvyJbLdpP_NAqJHf5Qk9m5etKl25lkdoXxSevz2kKSDX-M_UuochhrxMM
Link to paper: 300 years of sclerosponge thermometry shows global warming has exceeded 1.5 °C
By Malcolm T. McCulloch, et al., Nature, Climate Change, Feb 5, 2024
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-023-01919-7
From abstract: Using 300 years of ocean mixed-layer temperature records preserved in sclerosponge carbonate skeletons, we demonstrate that industrial-era warming began in the mid-1860s, more than 80 years earlier than instrumental sea surface temperature records.
From article: Regardless of the percentage, one thing is certain—climate change is an all-hands-on-deck crisis. In order to save the planet for future habitability, humans need to curtail emissions immediately—after all, the sea sponges are telling us so.
[SEPP Comment: Wide-spread use of fossil fuels did not occur until after WW II. Why assume modest industrialization in the 1860s caused significant warming?]
Climate change could be threatening satellites as they orbit in space: Study
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, Mar 10, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5187146-climate-change-could-be-threatening-satellites-as-they-orbit-in-space-study
Link to paper: Greenhouse gases reduce the satellite carrying capacity of low Earth orbit
By William E. Parker, et al, Nature Sustainability, Mar 10, 2025
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41893-025-01512-0
From the abstract: Anthropogenic contributions of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere have been observed to cause cooling and contraction in the thermosphere, which is projected to continue for many decades. This contraction results in a secular reduction in atmospheric mass density where most satellites operate in low Earth orbit. Decreasing density reduces drag on debris objects and extends their lifetime in orbit, posing a persistent collision hazard to other satellites and risking the cascading generation of more debris. [Boldface added]
[SEPP Comment: Would it not decrease drag on satellites as well?]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Money-fueled hurricanes
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 12, 2025
Link to paper: Conflicts of Interest, Funding Support, and Author Affiliation in Peer-1Reviewed Research on the Relationship between Climate Change and 2Geophysical Characteristics of Hurricanes
By Jessica Weinkle, et al., Feb 17, 2025
https://osf.io/f4cdu
[SEPP Comment: The severity of hurricanes depends on who funds the research?]
Climate Fact-Check February 2025 Edition
By Steve Milloy, Climate Realism, Mar 10, 2025
Guest Post by: The Competitive Enterprise Institute, The Heartland Institute, the Energy & Environmental Legal Institute, the Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, and the International Climate Science Coalition, and Truth in Energy and Climate.
If António Guterres Can’t Get Basic Facts Right, Why Should We Believe the UN on Anything?
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Mar 8, 2025
This arrogance, common to many climate activists, might be summed up by the attitude: “Come and check us, we don’t care, what are you going to do about it?” It was on display at a recent World Economic Forum ‘disinformation’ seminar when the UN’s chief publicity flak Melissa Fleming stated: “We are becoming more proactive, we own the science and the world should know it.”
Carolina burning
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 12, 2025
And Matthew Wielicki presents charted data showing that actually fires do seem to have increased in the Palmetto State [South Carolina]… from 1950 until 1980. Then, as the climate emergency hit, they too fled. But see everybody knows, so who cares about facts?
After Paris!
COP30’s Amazon Highway: Hypocrisy Paved with Virtue Signaling
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Mar 12, 2025
The BBC has uncovered a jaw-dropping irony in Brazil’s preparations for the COP30 climate summit, set for November 2025 in Belém: a four-lane highway, Avenida Liberdade, is being bulldozed through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest. [13-km or 8 miles]
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
Percent dry weight (biomass) increases in corn growth for 300 and 600 ppm increases in the air’s CO2 concentration
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 12, 2025
CO2Science Archive
[SEPP Comment: Corn, maize, is a C4 plant which uses CO2 more efficiently than C3 plants, yet it responds strongly to adding CO2 in the atmosphere. See Number of the Week below.]
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Bill Gates-Founded Clean Energy Group Reportedly Slashes Workforce
By Ireland Owens, Daily Caller, Mar 13, 2025
https://dailycaller.com/2025/03/13/bill-gates-founded-clean-energy-group-reportedly-slashes-workforce
US Multinationals Purging Online Climate Action Pages
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Mar 14, 2025
“US multinationals purge website references to climate change
Walmart and Kraft Heinz among big corporations deleting or rewriting statements as Trump climate attacks intensify”
Was für eine Dunkelflaute
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 12, 2025
Dunkelflaute is a lovely word that conjures up memes regarding why Germans don’t play Scrabble. But there’s nothing geheimnisvoll about it. It means “a period when it’s dark and windless” …. And so, the mystery here is: Why didn’t they realize that having this lovely word already in their vocabulary was a tipoff that they had this rather less lovely weather on a regular basis?
[SEPP Comment: Low winds come with a static high pressure system which is coupled with cloudy weather in the winter.]
Miliband Off To China
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 14, 2025
“The Energy Secretary will hold three days of meetings with Chinese officials to discuss climate change and the transition to net zero
But The Telegraph understands that he will not directly address the reluctance of the world’s biggest polluter to commit to a hard deadline to phase out coal.
Beijing has seen a resurgence in the construction of new coal-fired power plants, reaching record levels last year.”
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
Ocean Warms, Land Cools UAH February 2025
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Mar 13, 2025
Changing Weather
#LookItUp: US drought severity
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 12, 2025
Cyclone Alfred: Climate Disaster or Inadequate Flood Control?
By Eric Worrall. WUWT, Mar 8, 2025
Cyclone Alfred, Australia’s big East Coast cyclone was until recently hyped as a symptom of the climate apocalypse. But doomsayers are facing another disappointment from nature.
Warmest March On Record
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Mar 13, 2025
The warmest March on record in the US occurred in 1910. This was followed a few weeks later by Halley’s Comet and the largest forest fire in US history.
Changing Climate
Celestial Driver for Middle Miocene Cooling?
By David Middleton, WUWT, Mar 12, 2025
After incorporating their “celestial driver” model, Shaviv & Veizer estimated that the maximum equilibrium climate sensitivity (ECS) was 1.9 ºC per doubling of atmospheric CO2, with a most likely value of 0.5 ºC per doubling. Unknown celestial climate drivers may be the reason that ECS estimates derived from paleoclimatology data are nearly twice that of those derived from contemporaneous instrumental data.
[SEPP Comment: Considers that the formation of one polar icecap is “icehouse” Earth. Others consider one icecap “coolhouse” Earth, and the second polar icecap “icehouse” Earth.]
Medieval Warm Period Undeniable, Pronounced In Antarctica And Poland, 2 New Studies Show
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Mar 9, 2025
Video by EIKE – European Climate and Energy Institute in German Summarized by Gosselin
Changing Seas
Met Office Peddle Ridiculous NAO Scare Story
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 14, 2025
Link to paper: Mitigation needed to avoid unprecedented multi-decadal North Atlantic Oscillation magnitude
By D. M. Smith, et al., Nature Climate Change, Mar 12, 2025
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02277-2
From Abstract: The North Atlantic Oscillation (NAO) dominates winters in Western Europe and eastern North America. Future climate model projections of the NAO are highly uncertain due to both modelled irreducible internal variability and different model responses….Taking account of the signal-to-noise paradox apparent in these simulations suggests that under the high-emissions scenario the multi-decadal NAO will increase to unprecedented levels that will likely cause severe impacts, including increased flooding and storm damage
From Homewood: The NAO has the strongest effect on weather in winter, but again we find none of the extremes claimed by the Met Office, which would surely have become apparent now after 200 years of warming. [Presents historic data then states]
This latest piece of nonsense is another example of how the Met Office have lost their reputation for scientific excellence, dumped to pursue a political agenda.
It is time they faced the same sort of cuts that Trump is wisely imposing on NOAA.
When Sea Level Rise Becomes Personal
By Craig Smith, Real Clear Energy, Mar 13, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/03/13/when_sea_level_rise_becomes_personal_1097249.html
Link to report: State of the Cryosphere 2024 – Lost Ice, Global Damage.
By International Cryosphere Climate Initiative (ICCI), Nov 12, 2024
“We cannot negotiate with the melting point of ice.”
For the first time, the report notes a growing scientific consensus that melting Greenland and Antarctic ice sheets, among other factors, may be slowing important ocean currents at both poles, with potentially dire consequences for a much colder northern Europe and greater sea-level rise along the U.S. East Coast.
[SEPP Comment: The “growing consensus” does not correspond with growing evidence that contradicts the assertions. Why would a cooling of the Arctic from a failure of the Gulf Stream result in decline in Greenland melting BUT cause sea level rise? And why would sea level rise prefer to happen along the east coast?]
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
Penguins want climate change too (they want Antarctica to be warm like it was 1,000 years ago)
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 11, 2025
Link to paper: Historical population changes of Adélie penguins in the Ross Sea region, Antarctica, and its climatic forcings
By Zhangqin Zheng, et al., Quaternary Science Reviews, Oct 15, 2023
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379123003566
From abstract: We found that penguin population peaked during 750–1350 AD at Inexpressible Island, potentially due to habitat expansion in the warmer climate. After comparing with historical records of penguin populations at Cape Bird, Dunlop Island, and Cape Adare, all were found to have a common increase during the 750-1350 AD period in the Ross Sea. The population trend also coincided with extreme activities of El Niño and SAM [Southern Annular Mode] (+).
From Nova: The climate experts also told us a million times that global warming would wipe out the penguins, but instead it turns out, global cooling does.
Antarctica Ice Growing Across Large Areas for at Least 85 Years, Aerial Photos Show
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Mar 11, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Based on 2024 and 2023 papers previously carried in TWTW.]
Ice Free Glacier National Park
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Mar 14, 2025
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Global cereal yields have increased a lot, but millet and sorghum lag behind
By Hannah Ritchie, Our World in Data, Accessed Mar 14, 2025
https://ourworldindata.org/data-insights/global-cereal-yields-have-increased-a-lot-but-millet-and-sorghum-lag-behind
Improving Standards
Climate Comedy Cancelled
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Mar 13, 2025
“Scoop: NOAA is suspending its long-running monthly media calls on climate stats and climate change, blaming lack of staff. Some other hints at why are in the story:”
Every month NOAA has been performing a comedy routine where they show fake red hot maps based on imaginary data.
NASA Jettisons ‘Climate Advisor,’ DEI Branch, and Other Drags on Space Program
By Leslie Eastman, Legal Insurrection, Mar 12, 2025
https://legalinsurrection.com/2025/03/nasa-jettisons-climate-advisor-dei-branch-and-other-drags-on-space-program
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Guardian Falsely Claims Climate Change is Intensifying Cyclones
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Mary 12, 2025
Contradictory evidence is now “uncertainty”?
No, Axios, Climate Change Is Not Making Atlanta’s Allergy Season Worse
By Anthony Watts and Sterling Burnett, Climate Realism, Mar 11, 2025
According to a NASA analysis of Atlanta’s UHI [Urban Heat Island] effect, the city consistently experiences significantly higher temperatures than surrounding rural areas due to human-made structures retaining heat. This localized warming—not global climate change—is a key driver of temperature-related shifts in pollen cycles.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Climate in the age of Trump
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 12, 2025
And we mention Trump because his adversaries frequently accuse him of a carelessness with truth, or complete disregard for it, that are poisoning the well of discourse. To which we reply physician heal thyself. Especially in view of Roger Pielke Jr.’s lament after a Swedish radio expose of a torrent of “Climate Misinformation from the United Nations” covering everything from sea level rise to women and children hardest hit to the mythical surge in weather disasters since the 1970s. As he asks pointedly, “Does anyone care?”
Woodland Trust Worried About Early Springs
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 11, 2025
But the facts don’t fit with the Woodland Trust’s climate agenda.
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
CEI urges Congress to end the Inflation Reduction Act’s subsidies at the heart of the Green New Deal
By Many signers, WUWT, Mar 9, 2025
Questioning European Green
Ireland’s Renewable Energy Targets for 2030 – A Reality Check
A report for the ICSF [Irish Climate Science Forum]
By Douglas Pollock, Civil Industrial Engineer, March 2025 [H/t Jim O’Brien]
file:///C:/Users/Ken%20Haapala/Downloads/Ireland_Pollock_review%204%20March-25.pdf
Smart meters forced on households by big energy firms
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 13, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Maybe the people are not sufficiently dumb to believe meters are smart?]
Questioning Green Elsewhere
Net Zero Means People ‘Will Have To Change Their Lives’
I & I Editorial Board March 13, 2025
The Biden administration essentially remade the appliance industry by setting new energy efficiency standards for a couple of dozen household items, including dishwashers, dryers, air conditioners and microwave ovens. The claim that in the long run consumers will save money is contradicted by history which shows in some cases the upfront costs of energy-efficient appliances exceed the projected savings.
[SEPP Comment: Not to mention the time value of money and more costly repairs.]
Reality Check: Towns and States Don’t Want Green Energy
By Steve Goreham, Real Clear Energy, Mar 12, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/03/12/reality_check_towns_and_states_dont_want_green_energy_1096933.html
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 12, 2025
This tree for sure: The Canadian government, fresh from its humiliating failure to plant two billion trees to change the weather in a country that already has an estimated 300 billion, so it shouldn’t be that hard to add a few, is now pledging just shy of $50 million to help the City of Montreal plant 500,000 of the things in just five years. Would we be thought cheap, or brown, if we said it works out to $100 per tree on top of whatever the municipality was going to throw into a hole in the ground, in this case literally?
Funding Issues
Zeldin: $20B in green bank grants from climate law terminated
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Mar 12, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5190696-epa-terminates-20-billion-green-bank
Since taking office, Zeldin has railed against the program, which gave a total of $20 billion to eight institutions that are in charge of doling out the cash to projects aimed at mitigating climate change.
Through the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, Congress gave the EPA $20 billion to make grants to financial institutions to help them give out cash to deploy climate-friendly projects.
[SEPP Comment: How many of the recipients were donors to the Biden, then Harris campaign? What are the justifications for sudden increases in grants after the election?]
DeBriefed
By Alice Vernat-Davies, Carbon Brief, Accessed Mar 14, 2025
https://preview.mailerlite.io/emails/webview/249617/148850421406893555
Link to: Analysis: Nearly a tenth of global climate finance threatened by Trump aid cuts
By Josh Gabbatiss, Carbon Brief, Mar 10, 2025
Last year, the US announced that it had increased its climate aid for developing countries roughly seven-fold over the course of Joe Biden’s presidency, reaching $11bn per year.
USAid has provided around a third of US climate finance in recent years, reaching nearly $3bn in 2023, according to Carbon Brief analysis.
Another $4bn of US funding for the UN Green Climate Fund (GCF) has also been cancelled by the president’s administration.
Green Hedge Fund executive says the whole Clean Energy Sector Is Dead
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 8, 2025
[Green energy hedge fund manager] Gupta now says that ““The fundamentals are very poor”. Which is true if you were fundamentally betting on government handouts. The truth is the electrical fundamentals of Green investment were always awful, as were the “carbon” fundamentals. Investors should have got better advice from friends who were engineers who saw that unreliable renewables were an expensive fantasy that were doomed years ago.
Government Science Frozen by Credit Card Freeze!
By David Middleton, WUWT, Mar 12, 2025
Staff shortages halt some federal weather balloon launches amid Trump cuts
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Mar 11, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5188619-federal-weather-balloon-launches-halted
The halted launches that have been publicly announced represent just a few locations [3] out of 92 weather service locations that launch balloons each day.
Litigation Issues
Farmers sue Trump administration over halted IRA grants
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Mar 13, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5193656-farmers-sue-trump-administration-over-halted-ira-grants
Two of the plaintiffs, Butterbee Farm and One Acre Farm, have fully finished solar projects and now will have to pay tens of thousands of dollars that had previously been promised by the government, according to their suit.
[SEPP Comment: Misleading headline. Not stated is that Butterbee Farm is a small flower farm in Baltimore, MD, and One Acre Farm is a small solar-vegetable farm in Montgomery County, MD, a suburb of Washington DC. These are hardly farmers in the traditional sense. The environmental groups involved are not identified.]
EPA and other Regulators on the March
EPA Launches Biggest Deregulatory Action in U.S. History
Administrator Zeldin Announces 31 Historic Actions to Power the Great American Comeback
Press Release, EPA, Mar 12, 2025 [H/t Gordon Fulks]
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-launches-biggest-deregulatory-action-us-history
Modernize EPA! (CEI guidebook is out)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Mar 10, 2025
Link to: Modernizing the EPA: A Blueprint for Congress
By Daren Bakst. Kent Lassman , Marlo Lewis, Jr., et al., Competitive Enterprise Institute, 2025
Trump EPA Announces Path Forward on National Air Quality Standards for Particulate Matter (PM2.5) to Aid Manufacturing, Small Businesses
EPA to release guidance on air quality standards implementation flexibility, permitting direction
Press Release, EPA, Mar 12, 2025 [H/t James Enstrom]
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/trump-epa-announces-path-forward-national-air-quality-standards-particulate-matter
Administrator Zeldin Announces EPA Will Revise Waters of the United States Rule
Clearer, streamlined permitting will cut compliance costs, reduce cost of living, follow Supreme Court rulings
Press Release, EPA, Mar 12, 2025
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/administrator-zeldin-announces-epa-will-revise-waters-united-states-rule-0
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced today that EPA will work with the United States Army Corps of Engineers to deliver on President’s Trump’s promise to review the definition of “waters of the United States.” The agencies will move quickly to ensure that a revised definition follows the law, reduces red-tape, cuts overall permitting costs, and lowers the cost of doing business in communities across the country while protecting the nation’s navigable waters from pollution. Given the U.S. Supreme Court’s watershed decision in Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency, it is time for EPA to finally address this issue once and for all in a way that provides American farmers, landowners, businesses, and states with clear and simplified direction.
EPA Will Revise Wastewater Regulations for Oil and Gas Extraction to Help Unleash American Energy (ELGs: Oil and Gas)
Press Release, EPA, Mar 12, 2025
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-will-revise-wastewater-regulations-oil-and-gas-extraction-help-unleash-american
EPA to steer environmental enforcement officers away from energy companies
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Mar 13, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5193851-epa-to-steer-environmental-cops-away-from-energy-companies
The EPA can pursue civil or criminal cases against polluters.
EPA Endangerment Finding
Archive: Emails, Privilege Logs Suggest EPA’s Endangerment Finding Was Unlawfully Predetermined, Review Needed
By Staff, Government Accountability & Oversight, Mar 11, 2025
Putting aside the obvious imperative for revisiting the EF given the evolution of scientific understanding and increasing disparity between the claims serving as the basis for the EF and subsequent scientific observations casting doubt on its evidentiary foundations, none of the proposed reforms to that climate regulatory state are likely to be durable if the Endangerment Finding remains in place. All of the regulatory reforms will be short-term and, ultimately, for naught. Electricity reliability crises will indeed be the new normal.
Minefield to Defuse EPA GHG Endangerment Finding
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Mar 14, 2025
Energy Issues – Non-US
Carbon Budget Misinformation [UK]
By David Turver, The Daily Sceptic, Mar 9, 2025
Government is being urged to meddle in our lives to an unprecedented extent. The CCC [Climate Change Committee] wants more Government interference in energy, homes, industry and even the food we eat. All their calculations are underpinned by woeful cost assumptions, and they have repeated the same mistake about low wind years from the 6th Carbon Budget. The so-called Balanced Pathway is totally unhinged from reality.
Millions face higher bills to pay for Miliband’s pylon ‘bribe’
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 11, 2025
Shoal of Fish, or Herding Cats
By Kelvin Kemm, Real Clear Energy, Mar 11, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/03/11/shoal_of_fish_or_herding_cats_1096876.html
This Obama initiative was named Power Africa, and launched via USAID. The U.S. government committed $7 billion, and furthermore the African Development Bank proposed an additional $3 billion.
But in 2015 the Obama administration intensified its efforts and mobilised over $20 billion in private sector commitments.
The U.S. Government has officially discontinued a programme in Africa to generate renewable energy in the interests of the environment. The programme was originally initiated by President Obama in 2013, and the idea was to produce 30 000 MW of renewable energy, for underserved communities.
Some progress was made. A total of 600 MW was supplied by GE at the Amandi and Bridge power plants in Ghana. In Tanzania 672.26 MW of electricity generation was provided. Then the project stalled for obscure reasons.
In Nigeria, Power Africa, with USAID, arranged a $75,000,000 Technical Assistance programme. But no electricity seems to have been produced by the project.
In 2019 a report by the U.S. Inspector General identified major shortcomings in the accuracy of the results presented. It showed that achievements had been overstated, since much which was reported as, ‘achieved’ had not actually materialised. A report of 10.6 million new ‘electricity connections’ by 2017 was nearly 80% composed of distributing handheld solar lanterns. [Boldface added]
Energy Issues – Australia
Whyalla: a leading edge in Australian industrial econocide
Originally published in Spectator Australia, February 2025
By Alan Moran, His Blog, Mar 10, 2025
https://amoran.substack.com/p/whyalla-a-leading-edge-in-australian?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=1824724&post_id=158813280&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=f7h7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
So, policies covering gas and electricity, bring costs to the taxpayer and energy consumers of at least $39 billion a year – or $1,900 per adult. And, unlike spending on hospitals, aged care, roads or housing, there are no offsetting benefits.
Energy Issues — US
Chris Wright: “We need more energy. Lots more energy.”
Here’s a partial transcript of Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s remarks this morning at the CERAWeek by S&P Global conference in Houston.
By Robeert Bryce, His Blog, Mar 10, 2025
https://robertbryce.substack.com/p/chris-wright-we-need-more-energy?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=630873&post_id=158784878&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=f7h7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
We have indeed raised global atmospheric CO2 concentration by 50% in the process of more than doubling human life expectancy, lifting millions of the world’s, lifting almost all of the world’s citizens out of grinding poverty, launching modern medicine, telecommunications, planes, trains, and automobiles, too.
But all that won’t matter if we can’t deliver the energy. AI is an energy intensive manufacturing industry. It takes massive amounts of electricity to generate intelligence. The more energy invested, the more intelligence produced. Since the demand… for intelligence is unlimited, so will be the demand for energy. Over the last four years, American electricity prices rose by over 20%, with only about 2% demand growth.
Trump Energy Choices Saving America From Economic Disaster
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Mar 13, 2025
The green agenda, on the other hand, demanded conformity. Every nation had to adopt the same playbook – mainly solar and wind – regardless of local realities. Poor nations, in particular, require flexibility to develop economically, which can only be impeded by green mandates.
From Paris to Permian, Trump Restoring Rational Energy Policy
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Mar 13, 2025
Peer Review and Costs of Building Electrification for Commercial Users
By Richard Ellenbogen and Roger Caiazza, WUWT, Mar 9, 2025
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Is BP A Stranded Whale?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 11, 2025
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Tech Giants quietly drop renewables and sign pledge to triple Nuclear Power
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 14, 2025
Link to: Large Energy Users Pledge
By Staff, World Nuclear Association, Accessed Mar 14, 2025
From the pledge: 2. Agree that nuclear energy capacity should at least triple by 2050, from current levels, to help achieve global goals for enhanced energy resiliency and security, and continuous firm clean energy supply.
Utah’s Nuclear Power Play Is a Winning Hand
By Christopher Koopman, Josh Smith, Real Clear Energy, Mar 12, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/03/12/utahs_nuclear_power_play_is_a_winning_hand_1097174.html
But Utah isn’t just waiting for technology to arrive—it’s actively dismantling barriers to progress. The state is challenging the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s one-size-fits-all approach to reactor licensing. Their lawsuit argues that applying regulations designed for massive nuclear plants to smaller, inherently safer SMRs unnecessarily stifles innovation.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Solar technology can meet UK electricity demand without reducing farmlands
By Sophie Jenkins, London, UK (SPX) Mar 10, 2025
https://www.energy-daily.com/reports/Solar_technology_can_meet_UK_electricity_demand_without_reducing_farmland_999.html
Link to paper: The spatial potential for agrivoltaics to address energy-agriculture land use conflicts in Great Britain
By Talitha H. Neesham-McTiernan, et al., Applied Energy, May 2025
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0306261925002570?via%3Dihub
[SEPP Comment: What is the cost of making it reliable?]
CFACT: Stop Offshore Wind!
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Mar 13, 2025
The Marine Mammal Protection Act stipulates that incidental take authorizations are to be limited to small numbers of protected mammals. Dominion’s [Dominion Energy, VA] acoustic harassment take authorization is for more than 50,000 dolphins, which clearly is not a small number.
Lift the veil on wind power killing eagles
By David Wojick, CFACT, Mar 10, 2025
https://www.cfact.org/2025/03/10/lift-the-veil-on-wind-power-killing-eagles
Every land-based wind facility in America has a permit to kill a certain number of eagles every year. What these kill numbers add up to is a secret that should be public information. Is it hundreds, thousands or tens of thousands?
Investors Learn Brutal Lesson From Sweden’s Wind Farm Woe
By Lars Paulsson, Bloomberg, Mar 11, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/investors-learn-brutal-lesson-swedens-050008371.html
Power purchase agreements are supposed to be a win-win. Major industrial consumers like Norwegian aluminum producer Norsk Hydro ASA, which signed the deal with Markbygden Ett, are guaranteed years’ worth of steady power, and wind farm owners in turn can leverage those contracts to secure bank funding and, in theory, avoid the turbulence of the electricity spot market. In the case of Markbygden Ett, analysts and industry sources say that banks required an ambitious PPA to offer funding.
The problem with these arrangements was that, even when the wind didn’t blow, the parks were still contractually obliged to provide energy.
Save the Wild West from Wind Industrialization
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Mar 8, 2025
Video from CFACT
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
Hydrogen Energy: Not Clean, Not Green, and Not Cheap
By David Legates, Cornwall Alliance, Feb 28, 2025
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
Loch Ness Hydro Storage Plans Worry Locals
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 13, 2025
[SEPP Comment: The artificial tides may damage the freshwater salmon and trout fisheries.]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
BMW Suspends Production Of [EV] Mini Models In Oxford…”Lower Than Expected Demand”
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Mar 11, 2025
My nightmare driving an electric van for a week
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 14, 2025
Markers On The Road To The Green Energy Wall — Electric Trucks Edition
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Mar 10, 2025
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-3-10-markers-on-the-road-to-the-green-energy-wall
“The legislators noted that an average diesel truck can be refilled in about 10 minutes and can drive for about 2,000 miles. By comparison, an electric, zero-emission heavy-duty truck takes approximately 10 hours to charge and can run for about 500 miles. . . . “Battery charging times are . . . a challenge and will remain so until new technology emerges and is commercialized,” [(state representative) Lupardo] said.”
London Tube Union: E-Bikes are Too Dangerous to Carry
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Mar 13, 2025
Carbon Schemes
South Dakota Stops Massive Green Energy Land Grab in Its Tracks
By Audrey Streb, The Daily Caller, Mar 11, 2025
https://dailycaller.com/2025/03/11/state-stops-massive-green-energy-land-grab-in-its-tracks
Republican South Dakota Gov. Larry Rhoden signed a bill Thursday banning the use of eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines, ensuring land protections for farmers across the state.
[SEPP Comment: For benefits, put carbon dioxide above the crops, not below them.]
California Dreaming
Desalination at Scale is Cost Competitive
By Edward Ring, What’s Current, Accessed Mar 12, 2025
https://mailchi.mp/calpolicycenter/whats-current-issue-7860071?e=cd9fa89d1e
On May 22, 2022, the California Coastal Commission voted unanimously to deny final approval for a desalination plant in Huntington Beach. It would have produced 56,000 acre feet of fresh water per year, and would have been privately financed.
To describe in detail the 20 year and roughly $100 million ordeal that federal, state, regional, and local agencies put the contractor through, along with continuous litigation, could consume volumes. But with this final rejection by the Coastal Commission, the project died.
With that legacy, it’s become very unlikely any other civil engineering firm will ever try to build a big desalination plant on the California coast. The reasons aren’t based on cost, or energy consumption, or even environmental impact. Regulations, driven by ideology instead of facts, killed desalination.
Around the world desalination is transforming economies and improving quality of life. California’s reluctance to lead the way is a huge, missed opportunity.
California’s EV Waiver Takes Consumers Out of the Driver’s Seat
By Kristen Walker, Real Clear Energy, Mar 12, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/03/12/californias_ev_waiver_takes_consumers_out_of_the_drivers_seat_1097178.html
Last week, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) claimed that the Biden administration’s approval of California’s plan to require that all new car sales be electric vehicles (EV) by 2035 is not subject to review and potential repeal by Congress. The legality of GAO’s maneuver is questionable.
Should California Ship Water to the Pacific Northwest?
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Mar 9, 2025
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2025/03/should-california-ship-water-to-pacific.html
Health, Energy, and Climate
Wildfires are complicating cancer care: Study
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, Mar 12, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5191126-wildfires-climate-change-cancer-treatment-study
Link to paper: Facility exposure to wildfire disasters and hospital length of stay following lung cancer surgery
By Leticia M Nogueira, et al., Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Mar 11, 2025
https://academic.oup.com/jnci/advance-article-abstract/doi/10.1093/jnci/djaf040/8063927#google_vignette
From paper conclusions: Patients whose facility was impacted by a wildfire disaster during recovery from lung cancer surgery had longer LOS [length of stay] than similar patients treated at the same facility but at times when no disaster occurred.
From article: Patients exposed to a wildfire disaster declaration in the county of the treating facility had longer LOS than unexposed patients (9.4 days compared to 7.5 days, respectively).
[SEPP Comment: So, government let it burn policies endanger human health?]
Oh Mann!
“In Bad Faith”
A DC court sanctions climate scientist Michael Mann and his lawyers for misconduct “extraordinary in its scope, extent, and intent.”
By Roger Pielke Jr., His Blog, Mar 12, 2025
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/in-bad-faith?utm_source=post-email-title&publication_id=119454&post_id=158938467&utm_campaign=email-post-title&isFreemail=true&r=f7h7&triedRedirect=true&utm_medium=email
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Columbia University Human Rights Fellow Convicted For Having A Slave
By Thomas English, The Daily Caller, Mar 13, 2025
https://dailycaller.com/2025/03/13/columbia-university-human-rights-fellow-convicted-for-having-a-slave
Almost Unanimous Consensus Of Scientists
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Mar 10, 2025
“Scientists say signs point to another ice age…” – 1973
Climate Gobbledygook: ‘Experts’ Pontificating Mitigation Failure
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Mar 12, 2025
Link to: Three Decades of Climate Mitigation: Why Haven’t We Bent the Global Emissions Curve?
By Isak Stoddard, et al., Annual Review of Environment and Resources, 2021
https://www.annualreviews.org/content/journals/10.1146/annurev-environ-012220-011104?
From abstract: Despite three decades of political efforts and a wealth of research on the causes and catastrophic impacts of climate change, global carbon dioxide emissions have continued to rise and are 60% higher today than they were in 1990. Exploring this rise through nine thematic lenses—covering issues of climate governance, the fossil fuel industry, geopolitics, economics, mitigation modeling, energy systems, inequity, lifestyles, and social imaginaries—draws out multifaceted reasons for our collective failure to bend the global emissions curve.
From contents cited by Bradley:
An ‘epistemological monoculture’ … has impoverished the collective global capacity to imagine and realize forms of living not dependent upon exploitation of people and natural ‘resources’….[Boldface added]
In the educational and epistemological arena, indigenous and decolonial traditions of thought are already providing a powerful critique of education’s role in reproducing and defending the status quo.
[SEPP Comment: Have the authors of the paper ever tried to live without natural resources?]
A Serious Problem
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Mar 11, 2025
Climate change is shifting hurricane tracks to the north. Climate change is also shifting hurricane tracks to the south.
Maryland To Drown
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Mar 10, 2025
Sea level at Baltimore fell at a record rate last year and is lower now than it was during December 1945.
[SEPP Comment: Baltimore is on the Chesapeake Bay, a tidal estuary of the Susquehanna River.]
ARTICLES
1. Trump’s Biggest Climate Decision
The EPA moves to reconsider the Biden ‘endangerment’ finding, a crucial step toward more rational energy regulation.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ, Mar 12, 2025
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/trumps-biggest-climate-decision-81c4e067?mod=opinion_lead_pos4
2. Lee Zeldin: EPA Ends the ‘Green New Deal’
We’re keeping people and the environment safe while overhauling rules that stifled our full potential.
By Lee Zeldin, WSJ, Mar 12, 2025
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/lee-zeldin-epa-ends-the-green-new-deal-aa81de06?mod=opinion_lead_pos8
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