The Week That Was: 2025 03-22 (March 22, 2025)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “We absolutely must leave room for doubt or there is no progress and no learning … People search for certainty. But there is no certainty.” – Richard Feynman, “What is and What Should be the Role of Scientific Culture in Modern Society” – lecture given at the Galileo Symposium in Italy, 1964.
Number of the Week: 35,000
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: TWTW begins with some suggestions to CEI’s guidelines to the US EPA. It presents key parts of Secretary of Energy Chris Wright’s speech to an annual energy conference. TWTW concludes with the monthly report by meteorologist Ole Humlum.
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Suggestions to CEI’s Guidelines to the EPA: The Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI) wrote well thought out, lengthy guidelines for the EPA to improve its performance in meeting the needs of the American public. In its suggestions, SEPP focused on two major topics: 1) the Linear No Threshold Model used by the EPA; and 2) the EPA Endangerment Finding that human emitted greenhouse gases endanger public health and welfare. By far, water vapor is the dominant greenhouse gas. Yet, the EPA focuses on carbon dioxide, and largely ignores water vapor, which is emitted by common human practices such as cooling of thermal power plants, irrigation of farmland, particularly spray irrigation, motor vehicles using fossil fuels, most sewer sanitation facilities, etc. Yet without these human sources, water vapor concentrations in the atmosphere would be about the same because of evaporation from surface water.
Further, the EPA intermingles the questionable Linear No Threshold Model (LNT) to find carbon dioxide may endanger human health and welfare in the future. The EPA finding is based on forecasts from UN IPCC models. The EPA ignores the simple fact that the models cannot even get short term forecasts right when tested against current temperature trends of the atmosphere, where the greenhouse effect occurs. In general, the models greatly overestimate the warming of the atmosphere, so there is no logical reason to assume that they can get long-term forecasts right. The Endangerment Finding plus the Linear No Threshold model are used to justify the regulation of coal-fired and gas-fired power plants and to curtail and eventually eliminate future production of vehicles using internal combustion engines – all without evidence of physical harm to humanity.
To SEPP, the CEI guidelines were similar to the argument of my study versus-your-study or my model-versus-your model and there is no reason to argue with the EPA on that plane. To SEPP, the EPA has no physical evidence of endangerment, and the suggestions focused on that. It is more of the line of my physical-evidence-versus-your-speculation. With one noted major addition, not italicized, the suggestions state:
“Thank you for the excellent effort to modernize the EPA. I (SEPP) have reviewed significant portions, particularly those on the Linear No Threshold (LNT) model and climate science. I think both would benefit from a more systematic characterization of physical science and why EPA has failed to meet standards established by the scientific method which has been used for hundreds of years. Often literature, journals, and legal proceedings deal with vague concepts and theories that are not physical science, but interpretations of it.
In physical sciences, rather than other sciences, nature is the ultimate and final judge of theories and ideas. If a theory does not conform to what nature reveals to us, it is wrong. We understand nature through rigorous observations and experiments. Controlled experiments are preferred but are not always possible, such as in planetary motion and changes in the sun, both of which influence Earth’s climate. Understanding Earth’s environment is a physical science; thus, the Environmental Protection Agency’s policies need to conform with physical science and not conflict with it. Frequently, EPA policies are contradicted by physical science.
The Scientific Method.
The scientific method involves reviewing a work supporting a theory or idea to determine whether the work is verified and validated. Verification requires that the logical processes and mathematics be independently reviewed and acceptable. Validation requires that the results be consistent with all rigorous physical evidence. If physical evidence contradicts the work supporting a theory, then the work is not physical science. Omitting physical evidence violates the scientific method.
Linear No Threshold Model:
The Linear No Threshold (LNT) model conflicts with physical evidence. Marlo Lewis [one of the authors] has a good discussion on the use of LNT applied to particulate matter. The EPA failed to produce key physical evidence validating the study. But the issue goes deeper: is the LNT model applicable for other particulate matter studies, is it universal; and can the LNT model be applied for other purposes? It cannot, without adequate testing and validation by appropriate physical evidence.
For example, if a dehydrated person drinks too much water, he may suffer from water intoxication and die. Using the LNT model, some people will die from drinking one glass or even one tablespoon of water. Thus, using the LNT model leads to an absurd result.
The human body has a great ability for self-healing which is ignored using the LNT. It is not the total dose that counts; it is the dose rate, or a consistent exposure to a dose level that is beyond the body’s ability to self-heal.
For example, each spring and summer millions of people lie in the sun. If they are prudent, over time they will get a suntan. However, if they get the same dose of solar energy in one day they will incur severe burns. Is sunlight a pollutant?
Physical evidence shows that the LNT model is not universally applicable even if it were valid for particulate matter, which it is not. It is not valid for particulate matter below 2.5 microns. For centuries, populations in east China have been exposed to vast amounts of yellow dust from Mongolia and there are no recorded significant increases in numbers of deaths from such prolonged dust storms. The LNT model is not applicable for other suggested causes of illnesses unless it is verified and validated that it applies for that illness.
Climate Science
The EPA ignores the tremendous benefits for life on Earth from greenhouse gases and the limitations of these gases in increasing Earth’s temperatures. It does not understand: 1) the greenhouse effect; 2) carbon dioxide; and 3) saturation. Further, the EPA does not calculate the greenhouse effect correctly.
In the early 1800s many scientists wondered why the surface of Earth was warm enough to support life. It is too far from the Sun. Starting in 1859, John Tyndall began experiments in spectroscopy [dividing light (electromagnetic energy) into components (wavelengths or frequencies)] and discovered certain gases are transparent to visible light, but block (delay) Earth’s emission of infrared energy, thus slowing the cooling of Earth at night. He called these gases “greenhouse gases.” Water vapor is the primary greenhouse gas, carbon dioxide is secondary. (Ozone is another greenhouse gas, but it is too high in the atmosphere to have any significant impact on keeping Earth warm.)
Importance of Greenhouse Gases:
Without water vapor and carbon dioxide the land masses of Earth would become too cold at night to support growing plants, and Earth’s land masses would be as barren as the Moon or Mars. (NASA estimates that without greenhouse gases the average temperature of Earth would be about 0 (Zero) degrees F, rather than the current 59 degrees F.)
Carbon dioxide is essential for photosynthesis. Green plants use energy from the sun to combine carbon dioxide from the atmosphere and water from the soil to produce oxygen and sugars (carbohydrates) which provide food for virtually all forms of life on Earth. Without carbon dioxide and photosynthesis, life would be reduced to bacteria capable of chemosynthesis. Over 40 years of satellite observations demonstrate that Earth is flourishing with increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide, validating thousands of experiments using major types of plants.
Further, over a century of experiments, confirmed by over 40 years of observations using instruments on satellites and weather balloons, show that absorption by water vapor competes with other greenhouse gases (including carbon dioxide); although both keep Earth warm. To correctly assess the greenhouse effect of the other gases, water vapor must be included in the calculations. This is not done. The calculations of the EPA on the greenhouse effect of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases such as methane and nitrous oxide are not valid.
In addition, these experiments and observations show that both water vapor and carbon dioxide are highly saturated, the effectiveness on temperatures from each additional unit is ever diminishing. Economists call this the law of diminishing returns. Mathematically, the effect is logarithmic, not additive, or multiplicative. Thus, calculations by EPA and many government entities are invalid. The proper calculation is not how much carbon dioxide has increased; it is how much the greenhouse effect has increased.
Calculating the Greenhouse Effect:
Using satellite observations, the greenhouse effect can be calculated, but the EPA ignores this fact. Instead, it uses projections from global climate models. The models use surface-air data that are biased by the Urban Heat Island effect, not comprehensive, not systematically controlled for changes in locations or instruments, and heavily manipulated. Satellite data coupled with weather balloon data and experiments can be used to calculate the greenhouse effect in today’s atmosphere, and the effect of each major greenhouse gas.
Instruments measuring spectra of light (wavelengths (or frequencies) emitted or absorbed) on satellites compile detailed data of the observed energy leaving the top of the atmosphere to space. The energy is less than what would be observed if Earth had no greenhouse gases. The data are verified by observations with instruments on weather balloons and by experiments. The data are compiled and publicly available in a detailed high-resolution transmission molecular absorption database — HITRAN. The database has been verified by others.
The electromagnetic energy leaving the surface of Earth is based on a law established over a century ago, and frequently validated. (The Stephan-Boltzmann law.) Over a century ago, a physicist (Karl Schwarzschild) speculated on a method to calculate the extent greenhouse gases delay (block) some of the energy leaving the surface of Earth. Using the established HITRAN database, William van Wijngaarden and William Happer have found that the difference between the energy that leaves the earth’s surface to space and what is measured by satellites follows the method suggested by Schwarzschild. These calculations apply for clear skies, no clouds.
Members of SEPP have independently verified the calculations of van Wijngaarden and Happer. More importantly, the calculations have been validated by satellite observations for clear skies over Guam, the tropical Pacific; the Sahara, desert; the Mediterranean, temperate region; and Antarctica, polar region.
Effect of Increasing CO2 on Earth’s Temperature:
The calculations demonstrate that for clear skies the effect on global temperatures of doubling CO2 in the atmosphere is about 1 degree C, less than 2 degrees F. Any amplification from an increase in water vapor from this temperature increase is minimal. Since the process involves calculating the difference between two huge numbers that are imperfectly measured, the result is approximate, not exact. Clouds lower the greenhouse effect, but we do not know by how much. No one understands the formation and dispersion of clouds.
[We have 67 million years of high-quality, consistent data from deep-sea sediments composed of benthic foraminifera which reveal Earth’s past climate in their oxygen- and carbon-isotope compositions. These were taken from 14 locations around the world and show that changing CO2 in the atmosphere has little effect on temperatures. The study by Westerhold, et al., was published in the journal Science (September 11, 2020). It identified major changes in Earth’s temperatures: from Warmhouse Earth; to Hothouse Earth; to Warmhouse Earth; to Coolhouse Earth; to the current Icehouse Earth with ice caps on both poles. However, the Westerhold, et al. study falsely claimed that these shifts in temperature
The Westerhold, et al., study suffered from the misleading practice of “cherry-picking” – selecting points in the dataset and ignoring the rest. When all the physical evidence is analyzed, as it was by geophysicist Tom Gallagher, there are periods of up to twenty million years where temperatures were roughly stable, but carbon dioxide varied widely, from about 275 parts per million volume (ppmv) to over 800 ppmv and even over 1000 ppmv. The current CO2 concentration is about 420 ppmv. Based on this geological evidence, a doubling of CO2 would cause an increase in temperatures that will be hardly noticeable.
Thus, Earth’s deep-sea geology (physical history) independently confirms the work of van Wijngaarden and Happer. CO2 warming will not take us out of Icehouse Earth.]
This verified and validated work using physical evidence from observations of what is occurring in the atmosphere confirms earlier estimates based on experiments, and contradicts the speculation used by the EPA in its Endangerment Finding. None of the models used by the UN IPCC and incorporated in the EPA Endangerment Finding are valid.
Compared to what has driven Earth’s climate for the past three million years, and the greenhouse effect is subject to decreasing returns, the climate change we should fear is a cooling, not a warming.
Demonstrating that:
- Carbon Dioxide and the Greenhouse Effect are beneficial for life on Earth;
- The effect of doubling carbon dioxide is modest, at most;
- The Linear No Threshold model can produce absurd results;
would go a long way in correcting the direction of EPA research.”
Signed by Ken Haapala, President; Tom Sheahen, Chairman; Donna Bethell, Director; and Howard Hayden, Director of SEPP.
It remains to be seen if this commentary will eventually be considered by the EPA. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy for Earth’s temperature-CO2 concentration history.
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Enabling Energy: The Department of Energy was formed, in part, from the Federal Energy Administration in 1977 under President Carter. The Federal Energy Administration was formed after the Arab Oil Embargo, which drove up petroleum costs significantly. Further, the US petroleum and natural gas industries were suffering from price controls which inhibited production.
The Federal Energy Administration produced mathematical models confirming what everyone in Washington “knew” – that the US was about to run out of natural gas and the world out of oil. In a study under Federal contract to an independent research organization, Ken Haapala demonstrated that the mathematics led to absurd economic results, and the independent study quickly went into the circular file.
Following the common belief, President Carter, who was concerned about American’s future energy supply, committed the country to producing more coal to fuel America’s industries and formed the Department of Energy. Earlier Secretaries of Energy were competent administrators, but had no experience in energy except for Donald Hodel, under President Reagan, had been Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, the largest hydropower provider in the US. This is unlike most agencies such as the EPA where professionals from the environmental industry have been the Administrator.
The new Secretary of Energy Chris Wright, the former CEO of Liberty Energy, North America’s second largest hydraulic fracturing company, gave a speech at an annual conference on energy sponsored by S&P Global. Shortly after the introduction Wright said:
“Everything. Energy is not A sector of the economy; it is the sector that enables every other sector. Energy is life.
I’m honored to play a role in reversing what I believe has been very poor direction in energy policy. The previous administration’s policy was focused myopically on climate change with people as simply collateral damage.
My predecessor was on this stage one year ago saying that LNG exports would soon be in the rear-view mirror. Think about that for a moment. Natural gas today supplies 25% of global primary energy and has been the fastest growing source of energy over the last 15 years.
Wind and solar, the darlings of the last administration and so much of the world today, supply roughly 3% of global primary energy. You often hear larger numbers quoted but that is because of a thermal equivalent scale-up. I don’t believe that scale-up is justified, hence I stick with the actual energy produced.
Everywhere wind and solar penetration have increased significantly, prices on the grid went up and stability of the grid went down. Is this pathway really going to put natural gas in the rearview mirror? Nitrogen fertilizers, synthesizing natural gas is responsible for fully half of global food production.
Natural gas is the largest source of home heating in the United States. It is central to the rapidly growing petrochemical industry and the largest supplier of processed heat for manufacturing steel, cement, countless metals, gypsum, semiconductors, polysilicon and thousands of other materials. Oh yes, and natural gas is also responsible for 43% of U.S. electricity.
Beyond the obvious scale and cost problems, there is simply no physical way that wind, solar and batteries could replace the myriad uses of natural gas. I haven’t even mentioned oil or coal yet. I spent my whole career as an entrepreneur and student of energy.
I have worked on nuclear, solar, oil, geothermal and natural gas. I was actively involved working in four of these energy technologies just a few weeks ago when I got my new job. My new job rightfully necessitated that I depart and completely divest from all of my ventures in the energy business.
I even resigned from my long-term board position with a free market environmental organization. But my passion for bettering human lives via improved access to energy is unwavering. Recently I’ve been called a climate denier or climate skeptic.
This is simply wrong. I am a climate realist. I’ve been studying, speaking and writing about climate change for over 20 years.
The Trump administration will treat climate change for what it is, a global physical phenomenon that is a side effect of building the modern world. 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. Everything in life involves trade-offs. Everything.” [Boldface added]
Responses to climate change bring their own set of trade-offs. The Trump administration will end the Biden administration’s irrational quasi-religious policies on climate change that imposed endless sacrifices on our citizens.
Running the math of what might have been the benefits from those policies yields perhaps only a few hundreds of a degree reduction in global temperatures in the year 2100. The Trump administration intends to be much more scientific and mathematically literate. The previous administration’s climate policies have been impoverishing our citizens, economically destructive to our businesses and politically polarizing.
The cure was far more destructive than the disease. There are no winners in that world except for politicians and rapidly growing interest groups. The only interest group that we are concerned with is the American people.
Our focus will be steadfast on the American people and our allies abroad. Let’s do a quick survey of energy access today. Roughly 1 billion people live lives remotely recognizable to us in this room.
We wear fancy clothes mostly made out of hydrocarbons. We travel in motorized transport. The extra lucky of us fly across the world to attend conferences.
We heat our homes in winter, cool them in summer, store myriad foods in our freezers and refrigerators and have light communications and entertainment at the flip of a switch. Pretty awesome. This lifestyle requires an average of 13 barrels of oil per person per year.
What about the other 7 billion people? They want what we have. The other 7 billion people on average consume only 3 barrels of oil per person per year versus our 13. Africans average less than one barrel.
We need more energy. Lots more energy. That much should be obvious.
Over half of the people today are wearing hand-washed clothes. They have yet to realize the timesaving and women-liberating joys of a washing machine. We need more energy.
Over 2 billion people today cook their daily meals and heat their homes burning wood. The indoor air pollution from this activity alone is estimated to kill over 2 million people annually. We need more modern energy. 2 million readily preventable deaths. Where is the COP conference for this far more urgent global challenge?
Back in our own country, over 20 percent of Americans struggle to pay their energy bills and roughly 10 percent have received a utility disconnection notice in the last 12 months. Think about that for a moment.”
After further discussion of energy issues, Wright concluded:
Over the last four years, American electricity prices rose by over 20 percent, with only about 2 percent demand growth. Clearly, that trajectory is a train wreck waiting to happen as we enter a period of rapid demand growth for electricity. Our 180-degree pivot will have to work at warp speed to enable the needed growth in electricity supply without saddling consumers with ever-rising electricity prices.
Consumers are rightly upset with the price rises over the last four years. This is a daunting challenge. Success will require significant regulatory changes, massive private capital deployment and innovative partnerships.
None of this will be possible without thoughtful, rational policies on energy and a truly honest assessment of climate change. We are entering truly exciting times for human progress, if we play our cards right, if we can get out of the way and unleash the human spirit. I look forward to working with all of you to better energize the world and fully unleash human potential.
There may be a new direction in Washington’s efforts to control energy production. It is useful comparing this speech with an essay by Al Gore and his partner at Generation Investment Management. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy and Article # 2.
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Climate News: Meteorologist Ole Humlum has a short monthly report on the status of the world’s climate based on measurements, not speculative forecasts. It states:
“1: Observed average annual global air temperature change since 1979 (c. 46 years) is +0.0153oC (UAH). If this change rate remains stable in the future, additional average global air temperature increase by year 2100 will be about +1.14oC.
2: Tide gauges along coasts indicate a typical global sea level increase of about 1-2 mm/yr. Coastal sea level change rate last 100 year has essentially been stable, but with periodic variations. If change rate remains stable, global sea level at coasts will typically increase 8-16 cm by year 2100, although many locations in regions affected by glaciation 20,000 [years] ago, will experience a relative sea level drop.
3: Since 2004 the global oceans above 1900 m depth on average have warmed about 0.037oC. The maximum warming (about 0.2oC, 0-100 m depth) mainly affects oceans near the Equator, where the incoming solar radiation is at maximum.
4: Sources and sinks for CO2 are many. However, changes in atmospheric CO2 follow changes in global air temperature, and changes in global air temperature follow changes in ocean surface temperature.
5: There is no perceptible effect on atmospheric CO2 due to the COVID-related drop in GHG emissions 2020-2021, demonstrating that natural sinks and sources for atmospheric CO2 far outweigh human contributions. Therefore, any future reductions in the use of fossil fuels are unlikely to have any significant effect on the amount of atmospheric CO2.”
Note: TWTW does not agree with comment # 5. China and South Asia did not lock down their coal-fired power plants. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Number of the Week: 35,000. In January 2025, the website of HITRAN online announced that www.hitran.org has 35,000 registered users.
“HITRAN is an acronym for high-resolution transmission molecular absorption database. HITRAN is a compilation of spectroscopic parameters that a variety of computer codes use to predict and simulate the transmission and emission of light in the atmosphere. The database is a long-running project started by the Air Force Cambridge Research Laboratories (AFCRL) in the late 1960s in response to the need for detailed knowledge of the infrared properties of the atmosphere.
The HITRAN compilation, and its associated database HITEMP (high-temperature spectroscopic absorption parameters), are developed and maintained at the Atomic and Molecular Physics Division, Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics.
HITRANonline provides access to the latest version of the HITRAN molecular spectroscopic database.”
HITRAN is used by van Wijngaarden and Happer in their revealing work such as “The Role of Greenhouse Gases in Energy Transfer in the Earth’s Atmosphere.” Perhaps one day, the UN IPCC and its collaborators may discover HITRAN. See https://hitran.org/about/
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
Paleoclimatology, Part 1
By Tom Gallagher, Video, Accessed May 17, 2023 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6tWEjkEiZU
Link to paper: An astronomically dated record of Earth’s climate and its predictability over the last 66 million years
By Thomas Westerhold, et al. (over 20 co-authors), AAAS Science, Sep 11, 2020 https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.aba6853
Secretary of Energy Chris Wright Delivers Keynote Remarks at CERAWeek 2025
U.S. Secretary of Energy Chris Wright delivered remarks today at the 43rd annual CERAWeek by S&P Global, outlining the administration’s and Energy Department’s commitment to expanding the production of affordable, reliable and secure American energy.
Press Release: Department of Energy, Mar 10, 2025
https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-energy-chris-wright-delivers-keynote-remarks-ceraweek-2025
Worst climate science doom-scandal ever?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 15, 2025
Video on the Great Barrier Reef
Yes, it’s yet another hockey stick!
And just as the original one, it is constructed by splicing two sets of data.
As Peter Ridd explains, monitoring of the reef ended around 1990. When measurements of coral growth began again after 2005, they used a lot of cores from young coral, which were easier to drill.
Younger coral has different growth rates to the older ones previously used. When these younger ones are taken out of the calculation, the downturn magically disappears, and growth returns to pre-1990 levels.
Short Summary of Observations Until February 2025
By Ole Humlum, Climate4you, Accessed Mar 21, 2025
https://www.climate4you.com
New Study Finds The Post-1980s Warming Trend Has Improved European Life Expectancy
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Mar 17, 2025
Link to paper: Evolving threats in an unforgiving climate: impact
of non‑optimal temperatures on life expectancy
By Marcin Piotr Walkowiak, Dariusz Walkowiak, and Jarosław Walkowiak, Population and Environment, Jan 28, 2025
From abstract: We also assessed climate change impacts from 1979–1982 to 2019–2022 and 1981–2010 to 2041–2070 under the RCP 4.5 scenario. Colder-than-optimal temperatures had a greater effect on mortality than warmer ones. In Europe’s coldest regions, harsh winters reduced life expectancy by up to 24 months, while warmer areas like the Azores saw reductions of just 2 months. Overall, climate change has had a small impact in Northern Europe: life expectancy increased by about 1 month due to milder winters but decreased by half a month due to hotter summers.
Every Dollar Spent on Solar Energy is Wasted
By Norman Rogers, American Thinker, Mar 20, 2025
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/every_dollar_spent_on_solar_energy_is_wasted.html
Unsubsidized solar electricity costs about $150 per megawatt hour. Using natural gas, one can generate electricity for as little as $20 per megawatt hour — over seven times less. The high cost of solar is hidden by an extensive system of subsidies.
How Science Lies
By Lorene Leiter, American Thinker, Mar 19, 2025
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2025/03/how_science_lies.html
The system invites bad science and cheating. I could write endlessly about the cheating I observed. One common way is to simply toss out mice that didn’t “cooperate.” Namely, you had a hypothesis, did the experiment, but didn’t get a statistical difference. But, you think, if I toss out the data from two mice in Group A and one in Group B, I’d have a difference. Yay! Let’s publish!
The whole system needs to change. For starters, minimize cheating by perhaps setting up a lab with the purpose of randomly reproducing studies submitted for publication. You never know if yours will be picked, so you better not cheat. If you’re caught, you’ll lose your NIH funding.
Second, abolish the “publish or perish” scam that encourages cheating and bad science. A good start is being able to publish negative data.
Defending the Orthodoxy
Last decade was Earth’s hottest ever as CO2 levels reach an 800,000-year high, says UN report
By Sibi Arasu, AP, Mar 19, 2025
https://thehill.com/homenews/ap/ap-international/ap-last-decade-was-earths-hottest-ever-as-co2-levels-reach-an-800000-year-high-says-un-report
Link to press release: WMO report documents spiralling weather and climate impacts
By Staff: World Meteorological Organization, Mar 19, 2025
https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/wmo-report-documents-spiralling-weather-and-climate-impacts
Link to report: State of the Global Climate 2024
By Prof. Celeste Saulo, Secretary-General, et al., UN World Meteorological Organization, Mar 19, 2025
[SEPP Comment: How do they know the decadal temperatures during the Eemian, the last interglacial, or any other interglacial period?]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Net Zero Blamed for Heathrow Shutdown
By Will Jones, The Daily Sceptic, Mar 21, 2025
Senior sources at the airport have insisted that Heathrow does have back-up power systems but “activating contingencies for the whole airport requires some time” and “isn’t immediate”, one insider said to the Times. Bosses are expected to be hauled before Parliament to explain.
1995: An Important Inflection Point in Recent Geophysical History
By Arthur Viterito Independent Researcher, USA. Environ Sciences & Natural Resources, Feb 14, 2022
https://juniperpublishers.com/ijesnr/IJESNR.MS.ID.556271.php
From the abstract: A review of the geophysical literature reveals that a number of environmental systems changed rapidly in 1995 or shortly thereafter. A sudden jump in mid-ocean seismic activity initiated a cascade of changes to the thermohaline circulation, global temperatures, snow and ice cover in the Arctic, monsoon dynamics, El Niño characteristics, and dip pole movement.
Energy & Environmental Review: March 17, 2025
By John Droz, Jr., Master Resource, Mar 17, 2025
After Paris!
Conquest’s Second Law strikes the Amazon
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 19, 2025
But as a number of alert readers and viewers have drawn to our attention, to confirm Conquest’s 2nd Law (variously reported but essentially that “The simplest way to explain the behavior of any bureaucratic organization is to assume that it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies”)
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
Percent dry weight (biomass) increases for 300 ppm increase in the air’s CO2 concentration for clover
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 19, 2025
From the CO2Science archive:
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Could Fed Exit From the Climate Group Trigger An Exodus?
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Mar 13, 2025
For many across the world, the U.S. Federal Reserve’s decision to exit the Network for Greening the Financial System (NGFS) is a sign that central banks can refocus on their primary mandates: stabilizing economies, controlling inflation and fostering growth.
When even the Federal Reserve of the U.S. – the biggest funder of the United Nations and World Bank – is opting out of a woke climate cabal, then the central banks of poorer countries have no business participating in NGFS’s wasting of time and money.
Seeking a Common Ground
Does the Air Force Own the Weather in 2025? Origins of the Chemtrail Theory
By Roy Spencer, His Blog, Mar 19, 2025
Is cleaner air responsible for recent global warming?
By David Whitehouse, Net Zero Watch, Mar 20, 2025
https://www.netzerowatch.com/all-news/6d9x61eo0jcfg2vwp36qsiu9gq6p97
Link to paper: Less Aerosols Cause Global Warming in the Last Two Decades
By Qing-Bin Lu, University of Waterloo, Preprint, Jan 15, 2025
Every once in a while, a paper comes along that make you think out of the box, and that’s good. Even if it proves to be unsubstantiated, it is a useful exercise that all scientists should go through from time to time. Carbon dioxide is a greenhouse gas accumulating in our atmosphere, and physics grants it a role in global warming. Climate models predict it causes surface warming and stratospheric cooling.
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
#LookItUp: The UAH lower tropospheric temperature series
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 19, 2025
We often complain about the manipulations and modifications of the surface weather record, not to mention the fact that the sample size keeps changing and many places around the world have to be filled in with guesses since there are no thermometers. So the world owes a great debt of thanks to Roy Spencer and John Christy of the University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) who in the early 1990s figured out a way to take data NASA was already collecting (microwave emissions from oxygen in the atmosphere) and convert it into a complete sample of air temperatures for the global lower troposphere, the part of the atmosphere up to about 10 km. This yielded a temperature series starting in 1979 that has continued to the present. At first the scientific world was jubilant and showered Spencer and Christy with high honours. But then they noticed that the UAH series, as it came to be called, wasn’t warming the way models said it should. And from then on it’s been a battle of the experts to find any reason possible not to mention the satellite data. So today we will tell you how to #lookitup yourself.
Changing Weather
Drought-Buster Storms This Week
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Mar 20, 2025
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2025/03/drought-buster-storms-this-week.html
The latest U.S. Drought Monitor graphic suggests that the only area with drought over the Northwest is on the western side of the Washington Cascades.
Whether the term drought is appropriate can be debated. For example, reservoir levels for Seattle, located in the moderate drought area, are near normal.
The rain in Spain is still the same
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 19, 2025
Changing Climate
An Annually Resolved 5700-Year Storm Archive Reveals Drivers of Caribbean Cyclone Frequency
By Dominik Schmitt, et al., AAAS Science Advances, Mar 14, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads5624
From the abstract: A 30-m-long sediment core from the Great Blue Hole, a marine sinkhole offshore Belize, provides the longest available, continuous, and annually resolved TC-frequency record. This record expands our understanding, derived from instrumental monitoring (73 years), historical documentations (173 years), and paleotempestological records (2000 years), to the past 5700 years. A total of 694 event layers were identified. They display a distinct regional trend of increasing storminess in the southwestern Caribbean, which follows an orbitally driven shift in the Intertropical Convergence Zone. Superimposed short-term variations match Holocene climate intervals and originate from solar irradiance–controlled sea-surface temperature anomalies and climate phenomena modes.
Changing Earth
Challenges to the CO2 Global Warming Hypothesis: (11) Global Warming Driven by Oceanic Seismic Activity, Not CO2
By Ralph B. Alexander, His Blog, Feb 5, 2025
https://www.scienceunderattack.com/blog/2024/2/5/challenges-to-the-co2-global-warming-hypothesis-11-global-warming-driven-by-oceanic-seismic-activity-not-co2-148
But, while all these observations are accurate, they do not necessarily verify Viterito’s hypothesis that submarine earthquakes are driving current global warming. For instance, he cites as evidence the switch of the AMO (Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation) to its positive or warm phase in 1995, when mid-ocean seismic activity began to increase. However, his assertion begs the question: Isn’t the present warm phase of the AMO just the same as the hundreds of warm cycles that preceded it?
Lowering Standards
‘Climate Finance’ Degree: Only at Columbia University
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Mar 19, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Bradley does not bring up other issues key to understanding the effects of CO2 emissions such as courses in AMO Physics, Quantum Mechanics, and Molecular Spectroscopy. All simple physics, according to former White House climate guru John Kerry even Al Gore.]
Climate Propaganda at Columbia University: Meet Prof. Lisa Sachs
By Robert Bradley Jr, Master Resource, Mar 18, 2025
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Trump administration takes steps to expand Arctic drilling, including in contentious wildlife refuge
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Mar 20, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5205995-trump-administration-arctic-drilling
According to the article: The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge is particularly contentious because it is home to animals including grizzly bears, polar bears, gray wolves, caribou and more than 200 species of birds, as well as land considered sacred to the Gwich’in people. However, others, including other Alaska Native groups, have said they want to drill there in order to bolster the state’s economy.
According to Wikipedia: Eight million acres (32,000 km2) of the Refuge are designated as wilderness area, the Mollie Beattie Wilderness.[16] The expansion of the refuge in 1980 designated 1.5 million acres (6,100 km2) of the coastal plain as the 1002 area and mandated studies of the natural resources of this area, especially petroleum. Congressional authorization is required before oil drilling may proceed in this area.
[SEPP Comment: Doubt that black bear, grizzly bear, etc. are found on the North Slope.]
Yeah yeah winter again
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 19, 2025
Nevertheless AP insists that “Most Americans who experienced severe winter weather see climate change at work, AP-NORC poll shows”. And if they do think so, they can thank the media who have told them so non-stop, then done a victory dance over it:
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
BBC’s Make Believe Extreme Weather
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 21, 2025
Energy Fantasy Versus Reality In Woke-Land — Part III
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Mar 16, 2025
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-3-16-energy-fantasy-versus-reality-in-woke-land-part-iii
Link to report: Heliocentrism: Objects may be further away than they appear
By Michael Cembalest, Chairman of Market and Investment Strategy for J.P. Morgan Asset & Wealth Management, 15 Annual Energy Paper, J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, March 2025
Menton: But he [Cembalest] never gets to the biggest problem, which is dealing with the problem of intermittency as the penetration of solar generation into the grid increases.
The problem of energy storage is barely mentioned. There is this on page 5:
“EIA analysts I spoke with cite a ‘staggering’ amount of battery storage being added to the US grid: another 38 GW by 2027 on top of 22.5 GW already in place. This suggests that some natural gas peaker and baseload plants could eventually be displaced.”
Well, how “staggering” is that? It’s really discouraging that Cembalest does not even use the correct units for describing battery capacity (which are watt-hours rather than watts). But assume that we are talking about standard 4-hour lithium-ion batteries. A few minutes of simple arithmetic would show that this “staggering” amount of storage is a tiny fraction of what would be needed to back up a predominantly solar electrical grid. The U.S. used 4,086 TWh, or 4,086,000 GWh, of electricity in 2024. Dividing by 8760 (hours in a year), that’s 466 GWh every hour. 38 + 22.5 GW of batteries would total 60.5 GW, times 4 hours’ duration would come to 242 GWh of storage. So, about half an hour’s worth.
Scientists Misreport Climate Cause of LA Wildfires
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 16, 2025
Video
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
EU Renewable Trends
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 16, 2025
Homewood: The report excludes most of the data, thus missing the real story, which is that renewable energy is still no more than a side show in Europe.
For a start, their 24% renewables figure includes bio and hydro, that have always supplied significant amounts of energy, which have changed little over time. Take these out and and you are left with just 12% coming from wind and solar in 2023.
Climate Propaganda at Columbia University: Meet Prof. Lisa Sachs
By Robert Bradley Jr, Master Resource, Mar 18, 2025
How to stop being surprised by extreme weather? Stop making it about climate.
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Mar 20, 2025
Link to paper: How to stop being surprised by unprecedented weather
By Timo Kelder, et al., Nature Communications, Mar 10, 2025
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-57450-0
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda on Children
Climate change can teach children about race, national curriculum review told
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 20, 2025
Questioning European Green
Nigel Lawson would have been delighted with Kemi Badenoch’s ‘Net Zero Scepticism
Press Release, GWPF, Mar 18, 2025
Why Did Heathrow’s Backup Fail?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 21, 2025
Why Heathrow Ditched Its Diesel Generators
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 21, 2025
Some further news on the Heathrow power cuts.
Questioning Green Elsewhere
Good Riddance to Climate Alarmism, Green Energy Scams
By Larry Bell, Newsmax, Mar 19, 2025
https://www.newsmax.com/larrybell/climate-change-green-energy/2025/03/19/id/1203520
Green Jobs
Bill Gates’ Climate Group Lays Off US and Europe Policy Teams
By Devon Pendleton, Bloomberg, Mar 13, 2025 {H/t Bernie Kesphire]
https://www.energyconnects.com/news/renewables/2025/march/bill-gates-climate-group-lays-off-us-and-europe-policy-teams
Breakthrough Energy, the climate group funded by Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates, has laid off dozens of employees in the US and Europe as it pulls back from public policy advocacy work that was a cornerstone of its mission.
Ed Miliband offers to pay £525,000 for GB Energy Chief
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 21, 2025
£102K For Two Days A Week At LCCC
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 21, 2025
“Labour is facing a backlash over a key net zero role being advertised with an annual salary equivalent to £255,000. The Chair of the Low Carbon Contracts Company, sponsored by Ed Miliband’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, would earn £102,500 a year to work two days a week.”
Homewood: But it seems where Net Zero is concerned, money does not matter!
Non-Green Jobs
Miliband Panics Over Grangemouth Closure
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 21, 2025
“Instead of wasting north of £200 million, here’s a better idea – open up the North Sea for drilling again and drop the ban on petrol cars. Then we might be able to open Grangemouth up again as an oil refinery!”
The Political Games Continue
UK opposition leader dumps “impossible” climate plan: Net Zero fantasy will bankrupt us!
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar19, 2025
Blame Miliband For Drop In GDP
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 16, 2025
Litigation Issues
Judge temporarily bars EPA from clawing back $14B in green bank grants
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Mar 19, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5202737-epa-climate-grants-temporarily-blocked
Lawfare for thee
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 19, 2025
So there’s a certain irony in Heatmap emailing (sorry, no link available) a special offer that starts with the complaint “The risks facing renewable energy have never been clearer – or more local. A handful of opponents can not only block a wind or solar farm, they can endanger an entire industry. And in the current political environment, these opponents have never been more emboldened.” Oh yeah? Like the spotted owl shutting down so much forestry in the Pacific northwest? Or the snail darter in Tennessee that unleashed the Endangered Species Act? Or did you have in mind those New England offshore wind projects getting held up over a few lousy whales?
EPA and other Regulators on the March
Cost Reduction Underlies EPA Regulatory Rollback
By Scott Fulton, et al., Marten Law, Mar 17, 2025 [H/t Jim Buell]
https://martenlaw.com/news/cost-reduction-underlies-epa-regulatory-rollback
Nearly all of the actions EPA identified will trigger the Administrative Procedure Act’s (APA) notice-and-comment process; amending or rescinding existing federal rules requires the same process used to promulgate rules, The agency has not yet published notices that would start that process. EPA’s amendment or rescission of rules also will be subject to judicial review. At least two of the rule changes could be addressed through the Congressional Review Act—a separate, legislative process for overturning agency actions that are finalized in the waning months of the previous Congress.
Energy Issues – Non-US
Britain gripped by industrial decline as net zero drives up energy costs
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 19, 2025
Green Councils After Your Life Savings!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 17, 2025
[SEPP Comment: To pay for “free” electricity.]
The Eyewatering Cost Of Heat Pumps
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 19, 2025
Energy Issues – Australia
So geniuses, if a lack of coal makes prices rise, what’s going to happen when we shut down more coal?
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 15, 2025
Energy Issues — US
Elon Musk: we’re all in ship America here
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 20, 2025
New York Takes A Stab At A Green New Deal Demonstration Project: The Case Of Ithaca
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Mar 20, 2025
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2025-3-19-new-york-takes-a-stab-at-a-green-new-deal-demonstration-project-the-case-of-ithaca
“Beginning in January [2012], the City of Ithaca will purchase 100% of its electricity consumption from renewable sources. Under a new agreement with Integrys Energy Services of New York, Inc., Ithaca will purchase Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs) certified by Green-e Energy for all of its electricity.”
Aha! It’s the magic of “Renewable Energy Certificates.” Apparently, those make it possible to get your electricity from wind turbines and solar panels on completely calm nights. If you are willing to believe it. Al Gore would be proud.
In short, everything about Ithaca’s Green New Deal is either a scam, or has been quietly abandoned, or both.
Here in New York City we have our own building electrification mandate called “Local Law 97” that is said to require some 50,000 buildings to convert to electric heat and cooking by 2030. Does anybody really think we can make any more progress toward such a goal than Ithaca?
Washington’s Control of Energy
Trump’s Energy Secretary Offers Africa Freedom From Biden’s Climate Imperialism
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Mar 19, 2025
Speaking at the “Powering Africa Summit” in Washington, D.C., Wright told leaders of a continent of 1.5 billion people that the Trump administration “has no desire to tell you what to do with your energy system.” This is a departure from the Biden regime, which was aligned with much of the Western climate juggernaut imposing Green New Dealism on developing countries that couldn’t afford it and stood to suffer by it.
Trump Energy Policy Changes Signal Major Industry Shifts in 2025 and Beyond
By Aaron Larson, Power Mag, Mar 3, 2025
https://www.powermag.com/trump-energy-policy-changes-signal-major-industry-shifts-in-2025-and-beyond/?utm_source=omeda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pwrnews+eletter&oly_enc_id=7809H6412578J0B
Return of King Coal?
Trump eyes more coal power
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Mar 18, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5201155-trump-coal-power-energy-production
Nuclear Energy and Fears
The SMR Gamble: Betting on Nuclear to Fuel the Data Center Boom
By Sonal Patel, Power Mag, Mar 3, 2025
https://www.powermag.com/the-smr-gamble-betting-on-nuclear-to-fuel-the-data-center-boom/?utm_source=omeda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pwrnews+eletter&oly_enc_id=7809H6412578J0B
Data center power demand is accelerating, pushing the grid to its limits and prompting tech giants to bet on next-generation nuclear reactors. But given steep costs, regulatory hurdles, and uncertain scalability, is nuclear the future of data center energy—or just another high-stakes gamble?
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Germany’s First Offshore Wind Farm To Be Dismantled After Just 15 Years Of Operation
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Mar 16, 2025
It has become too unprofitable to operate without massive subsidies.
Offshore turbines are exposed to corrosive saltwater, strong winds, large waves, and potential storms, which act to accelerate wear and tear on components. This leads to more frequent failures and the need for more robust and expensive materials.
And when turbines break down offshore, the time required to access, diagnose, and repair them is typically much longer than for onshore turbines due to weather limitations and logistical challenges. This results in more significant losses in electricity generation and revenue.
[SEPP Comment: Is this sustainable energy?]
Wot? No Wind?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 20, 2025
Jersey Shore Residents Score Victory As Feds Revoke Offshore Wind Project Permits
By Tyler Durden, Zero Hedge, Mar 17, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.zerohedge.com/markets/jersey-shore-residents-score-victory-feds-revoke-offshore-wind-project-permits
Environmental Appeals Court Judge Mary Kay Lynch ruled to send the Clean Air Act permit, issued last September, back to the EPA. The agency requested the review in February to reassess the project’s environmental impact, following President Donald Trump’s January memorandum withdrawing the outer continental shelf from offshore wind leases for further review.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
World’s largest ‘water battery’ is now fully operational as it reaches a historic milestone: ‘It’s inspiring’
The station took more than 11 years and $2.6 billion to build.
By Robert Crow, The Cool Down (TCD), Mar 17, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Link to a more detailed article: World’s largest pumped storage power plant fully operational in China
By Vincent Shaw, PV Magazine, Jan 9, 2025
It is designed to generate 6.61 TWh annually while consuming 8.71 TWh of electricity for pumping, and it connects to the North China power grid via four 500 kV transmission lines.
Fengning’s advanced design includes an upper reservoir with a capacity of 45.04 million cubic meters and a lower reservoir holding 71.56 million cubic meters. When fully charged, the upper reservoir can store enough energy to power the plant at full capacity for 10.8 hours, equivalent to nearly 40 GWh. This makes Fengning the most significant pumped storage facility in North China in terms of balancing renewable energy output.
[SEPP Comment: Estimated 76% efficiency. Designed to take excess from “renewable” sources. The former largest, Dominion Pumped Storage in Bath county, VA, uses excess energy from thermal plants to replenish the storage. Will Fengning fail from the lack of replenishment?]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Automotive and Fuel Technologies Can Support Clean Air and Public Health
By Michael J. Roman, Real Clear Energy, Mar 17, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/03/17/automotive_and_fuel_technologies_can_support_clean_air_and_public_health_1098117.html
Northvolt File For Bankruptcy
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 17, 2025
Go woke, go broke!
Obviously two major factors lie behind this bankruptcy:
1. The lack of demand for EVs in Europe
2. The impossibility of competing profitably with batteries made in China
There is no prospect of either of these two challenges being resolved soon.
But you said it was an investment
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 19, 2025
As Canada thrashes about reversing its mad charge toward a non-existent energy transition while plunging boldly on, under its new Prime Minister who loves carbon taxes but hates them, sad news reaches us that “Cabinet is searching for new investors to save a heavily subsidized Québec electric auto battery plant, Industry Minister François-Philippe Champagne said yesterday. Northvolt, the original owner, filed for bankruptcy in its native Sweden.” Which isn’t the sad part unless you’re one of those weirdos who gets upset at governments incinerating tax dollars while neglecting their core duties.
EVs and The LV Network
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 21, 2025
In 2017, Broderick submitted written evidence to a Parliamentary Select Committee, concerning his research into the impact of EVs on the UK electricity distribution network:
Since Broderick’s report to Parliament, nothing actually appears to have been done.
But within ten years, most of the cars on the road will be electric, by which time this problem will become real and widespread.
California Dreaming
Ignoring Role of Bass in Salmon Decline is Negligence
By Edward Ring, What’s Current, Accessed Mar 19, 2025
https://us10.campaign-archive.com/?e=cd9fa89d1e&u=11ce7cad5fe43ca4d5e1c25a7&id=c822b47fe4
Oh Mann!
Mann that’s gotta hurt
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 19, 2025
What does the University of Pennsylvania think, which recently made him their first-ever Vice Provost for Climate Science as “a globally renowned scholar of climate science” who “has been named one of the world’s most influential people in climate policy, one of the 10 most influential earth scientists, one of the top influencers in sustainability, and one of the 50 scientists who are changing the way we see the world”?
Other Scientific News
Interesting: Unveiling the mysterious “sprite fireworks” over the Himalayas
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Mar 19, 2025
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Accelerating Sea Level Rise In Philadelphia
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Mar 17, 2025
“Decades Of Scientific Research”
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Mar 20, 2025
Link to: Trump’s next climate move: Show global warming benefits humanity
By Scott Waldman, E&E News by POLITICO, Mar 18, 2025
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 19, 2025
From the “irony can be pretty ironic sometimes” file, the San Bernardino Sun, or in this case lack of same, reports that “Over three hundred people at a climate action conference had to be rescued on Thursday, March 13 after a heavy snow storm left them stranded at a camp near Big Bear.” Having failed to stock extra food (presumably only “preppers” do that kind of crazy stuff, not apocalypts obsessed with the certainty that bad weather is wrecking civilization including paralyzing infrastructure), participants ended up slogging through snow to stranded busses only to be bailed out by the San Bernardino County fire department, which rescued them in a “snow cat” and opened Station 96 in “Fawnskin” (no, really) to let them thaw out. Anyone taking bets on whether “the end of winter” was a conference theme?
[SEPP Comment: Unknown to many, Southern California has a mountain range and Big Bear is in it.]
ARTICLES
1. Trump’s EPA vs. Biden’s Dark Climate Money
A lawsuit may expose how the Democratic Green New Deal really worked.
By The Editorial Board. WSJ, Mar 19, 2025
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/epa-lee-zeldin-inflation-reduction-act-liberal-groups-funding-joe-biden-e961350c?mod=opinion_lead_pos1
TWTW Summary: The editorial begins with:
“Imagine if Republicans gave the Trump Administration tens of billions of dollars to dole out to right-wing groups to sprinkle around to favored businesses. That’s what Democrats did in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The Trump team’s effort to break up this spending racket has led to a court brawl, which could be educational.
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin recently canceled some $20 billion in grants that his Biden predecessors rushed out to leftwing groups from the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Democrats established this quasi-private green bank in the IRA to avoid government oversight of climate spending.
Mr. Zeldin claims the freeze is needed because of ‘substantial concerns regarding program integrity, the award process, programmatic fraud, waste, and abuse, and misalignment with the Agency’s priorities.’ He’s right that the program is rife with political conflicts. In one example, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund director Jahi Wise oversaw a $5 billion grant to his former employer, Coalition for Green Capital.
The Biden EPA awarded another $2 billion to Power Forward Communities, an umbrella group of climate outfits that was formed in 2023 supposedly to ‘finance home energy efficiency upgrades.’ But the IRA includes tax credits and other grant programs for this purpose. Power Forward’s real purpose is to spread taxpayer funds to progressives.
One Power Forward member is Rewiring America, which is backed by the Windward Fund, a nonprofit managed by the liberal dark money group Arabella Advisors. Rewiring America hired Stacey Abrams as a senior counsel in 2023 to ‘guide the organization as it builds the tools and capacity’ to connect Americans—i.e., liberal groups—to ‘Inflation Reduction Act incentives.’ Ms. Abrams is the former candidate for Georgia Governor who refused to concede she’d lost for years.
The program’s biggest recipient is Climate United, which was also formed in 2023 and has received $7 billion—nearly as much the EPA’s annual budget. Climate United claims on its website to have made a handful of ‘investments,’ including $32 million for a solar project in Arkansas and $250 million for California electric truck manufacturing.
Climate United says it is ‘partnering with’ Forum Mobility, a California electric truck and charging startup, whose CEO Matt LeDucq is a Biden-Harris donor. The primary beneficiary of the Arkansas ‘investment’ is Scenic Hill Solar, whose CEO is Bill Halter, the state’s former Democratic lieutenant governor who worked in the Clinton Administration.
We discovered these political connections via Google searches, and no doubt there are—and will be—many more. Mr. Zeldin says the Biden EPA intentionally structured the grant agreements with liberal groups to prevent the agency or Congress from overseeing how the funds are spent.”
The editorial notes objections from Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse then concludes with:
“Mr. Zeldin says the program violates the private nondelegation doctrine, which says Congress can’t hand off its core responsibilities to private parties. The Supreme Court next week is coincidentally hearing a challenge to the Federal Communications Commission’s Universal Service Fund that highlights this doctrine.
The liberal groups suing the EPA point to the High Court’s refusal to stay a lower-court order requiring the U.S. Agency for International Development to pay some $2 billion to various groups. But that money was for services that groups had already performed. The vast majority of the $20 billion Mr. Zeldin wants to freeze hasn’t even been obligated.
Justice Samuel Alito, joined by Justices Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, wrote in dissent that the proper venue for plaintiffs to seek redress in such disputes is federal claims court. That strikes us as right. But if liberal groups want to defend in court their right to taxpayer dollars, Americans might find it instructive to discover how the Biden Administration’s Green New Deal really worked.”
***********
2. The Business Case for Green Energy
Companies are rolling back climate commitments, but investing for sustainability is financially prudent.
By Al Gore and David Blood, WSJ, Mar 17, 2025
https://www.wsj.com/opinion/the-business-case-for-green-energy-investing-climate-environment-1f672fda?mod=opinion_lead_pos5
TWTW Summary: Key sections include:
“The world today looks very different. [From a political standpoint at the conclusion of the 2021 COP conference in Glasgow.] Many of the Glasgow signatories are stepping back from their commitments. Others are playing down their climate action to avoid controversy. Particularly in the U.S., the fossil-fuel industry, its allies and captive policymakers seek to punish companies and investors pursuing sustainability goals with frivolous lawsuits, smear campaigns and the withdrawal of state-controlled funds under management.
These developments couldn’t come at a worse time. Last year was the hottest on record, and humanity suffered some of its costliest extreme weather events fueled by the warming planet. Over the past decade, these events have cost the global economy more than $3.5 trillion, an increase of almost $800 billion over the previous decade.
We can’t afford to ignore the climate crisis, the destruction of vital natural systems and increasing economic inequality. In the short term, the poor and powerless suffer the most significant consequences of a warming and deteriorating planet. In the long run, we would all lose out, absent change.
It shouldn’t be this way. When asset managers deploy capital across the world, they aren’t investing their own money. Rather, they’re investing others’ savings, pension assets and retirement accounts. As such, they have a duty to take into account all relevant risks and opportunities as they try to protect those assets and increase them.
We believe the business case for sustainable investing is beyond question. Looking at investments through the lens of sustainability helps investors identify opportunities and manage risks like exposure to fires, floods and other disruptions. The best practice is to invest for the long term, and sustainability factors will be major drivers of economic change over time. Hastening the sustainability transition is vital.
We think that the International Sustainability Standards Board, a not-for-profit organization that develops global sustainability standards, can play a role in simplifying these requirements.
The financial community should also make investing in climate and nature in the Global South a priority. Many of the countries most at risk from the climate crisis are the least responsible for causing it. Investment in this region is not only a matter of social justice; it’s an investment in a safer world.
When something is unsustainable, it eventually stops. Treating the transition to a sustainable economy as optional isn’t an option. The cost of inaction is indefensible and unbearable.”
[TWTW Comment: What happens when the subsidies and mandates for “sustainable”, unreliable energy stop?]
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