The Week That Was: 2025 04-12 (April 12, 2025)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “Details that could throw doubt on your interpretation must be given, if you know them. You must do the best you can — if you know anything at all wrong, or possibly wrong — to explain it. If you make a theory, for example, and advertise it, or put it out, then you must also put down all the facts that disagree with it, as well as those that agree with it. There is also a more subtle problem. When you have put a lot of ideas together to make an elaborate theory, you want to make sure, when explaining what it fits, that those things it fits are not just the things that gave you the idea for the theory; but that the finished theory makes something else come out right, in addition.” — Richard Feynman, Cargo Cult Science, Caltech’s 1974 commencement address.
Number of the Week: Six
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: TWTW discusses at length the disturbing evidence that US agencies considered to be premier in research have farmed out the major US report on climate change to a US consulting firm with international offices. It then discusses physical evidence that contradicts the findings in the report, called the US National Climate Assessment. Subsections in this discussion are separated by short strings of asterisks (*********). TWTW also corrects an error it has made in describing the work of John Tyndall, then concludes with a brief review of the reversals in litigation experienced by Mr. Mann.
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Climate Change Alarm? Writing in the digital newspaper Politico, journalist Zack Coleman alarmed the climate change community. His report began [boldface added]:
“The Trump administration is canceling funding for the U.S. Global Change Research Program [USGCRP], the entity that produces the federal government’s signature climate change study, according to three federal officials familiar with the move.
The move, which had been widely expected, is a potentially fatal blow to the National Climate Assessment, the study that Congress mandated under the Global Change Research Act of 1990 be issued every four years to ensure the government understands the threats that rising temperatures pose and what is driving climate changes. The report is the U.S. government’s most comprehensive look at climate change and serves as a crucial guide to state and community efforts to prepare for the effects.
The officials said NASA has canceled the contract with consulting firm ICF International, which coordinates the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the 13 federal agencies that write the National Climate Assessment.
Killing that contract has ‘forever severed’ climate change work occurring across agencies, said one federal official heavily involved in USGCRP efforts, who was granted anonymity to discuss the politically sensitive issue to avoid retribution.
The practical effect means the National Climate Assessment will not move forward even though Congress requires a new assessment be issued by 2027, said a second official who is involved in USGCRP activities and was also granted anonymity.
ICF International did not immediately respond to requests for comment.’
A NASA spokesperson did not confirm the contract had been cut but said the agency was ‘streamlining its contract providing technical, analytical, and programmatic support’ for the U.S. Global Change Research Program.
‘NASA is working with OSTP [White House Office of Science and Technical Policy] on how to best support the congressionally mandated program while also increasing efficiencies across the 14 agencies and advisory committee supporting this effort,’ the spokesperson said in statement.
Several USGCRP officials were fired Wednesday, said a third official, who works at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
The cut comes as President Donald Trump’s EPA has launched an effort to reconsider the climate endangerment finding, the agency’s determination affirming the scientific finding that greenhouse gases harm human health, and which serves as the basis of all U.S. greenhouse gas regulations.”
Given that the endangerment finding is the basis for all U.S. greenhouse gas regulations and that the National Climate Assessment is the premier scientific document, the news report raises questions such as what is ICF International, how much money is involved, and does the report employ the scientific method?
In his discussion on the announcement Ron Clutz states [emphasis in original]:
“While the U.S. Global Change Research Program states on its website that it has a budget of $4.95 billion in 2025, it only lists two full-time employees. So, who’s getting paid to put the massive and consequential report together?
Sources familiar with past iterations of the National Climate Assessment say the work is largely outsourced to a group called ICF, a massive government contractor that has an active contract to work on the report.”
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USGCRP Website: The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) website currently states [emphasis in original]:
“USGCRP facilitates collaboration and cooperation across 15 federal member agencies to advance a whole-of-government response to global environmental change. Research and services coordinated by USGCRP inform the nation in navigating the challenges of a changing environment and identifying opportunities for a more resilient future.
Together, USGCRP and its member agencies provide the nation with authoritative science, tools, and resources to help people and organizations across the country manage risks and respond to changing environmental conditions.
Our Vision
A Nation, globally engaged and guided by science, meeting the challenges of climate and global change for the benefit of all.
Our Mission
To empower the Nation and the world to anticipate and respond to urgent risks of climate and global change by creating and providing accessible, usable knowledge.
Our Strategic Plan
USGCRP’s 2022–2031 Strategic Plan sets the course for federal global change research for the next decade. It was informed by input and review from federal agencies; the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine; and the public, and lays the foundation for meeting new and growing challenges, as well as demands for useful, accessible, and inclusive data and information.
The Plan is organized around four pillars: Advancing Science; Engaging the Nation; Informing Decisions; and Collaborating Internationally.
Under this Plan, USGCRP will continue to build and refine understanding of global change in ways that respond to emerging needs and provide critical information for the benefit of all.
Budget
The budget crosscut represents the funds self-identified by USGCRP agencies as their expenditures in support of USGCRP research activities.
In addition, USGCRP leverages agency activities not represented in the budget crosscut to accomplish its mission. For example, weather operational satellite systems and surface-based observing networks that are foundational to USGCRP research were originally implemented by their sponsoring agencies for operational purposes, and thus typically are not included in the research crosscut. This budget crosscut does not include expenditures in support of USGCRP climate services activities.”
Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 USGCRP Budget Crosscut by Agency
NASA; FY 2024 Enacted, 1,717 million; FY 2025 1,873 million
National Science Foundation; FY 2024 Enacted 772 million; FY 2025 897 million
Department of Commerce; FY 2024 Enacted 574 million; FY 2025 560 million
The USGCRP link under staff identifies Heidi Roop as Deputy Director for Services and Ariela Zycherman as the Director, National Climate Assessment. Other positions are given, but no one else is identified. Others are identified in the U.S. Global Change Research Program for 2025: “Our Changing Planet” gives names of others, but they are not identified as permanent staff on the USGCRP website.
The executive summary begins with [boldface in original]:
“The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) and its 15 member agencies provide the scientific foundation and coordination for understanding and responding to global change trends and their impacts, informing the nation and the world in navigating the challenges of a changing environment. The impacts of climate change and other global changes are affecting Americans—and people across the world—every day. As we face rising threats from sea level rise, extreme heat, deadly storms, damage to ecosystems, and other critical challenges, our program is evolving in new directions to guide urgently needed actions to address risks and help the nation identify opportunities for a more resilient future.
The science is clear: without immediate, steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, carbon removal from the atmosphere, and accelerated adaptation, the impacts of climate change will only continue to worsen, with greater risk of catastrophic or irreversible consequences for current and future generations. At the same time, as the Fifth National Climate Assessment shows—climate actions are expanding across the country, we have many effective options to drastically reduce emissions, and we can adapt our built and natural environments to better withstand the impacts that cannot be avoided (USGCRP, 2023).
As the impacts of climate and global change worsen, the federal government is responding to growing demands for actionable data, products, and services to support adaptation, resilience, and mitigation actions. Information needs are more urgent and specific than ever, with an increasing focus on informing local and long-term climate solutions. To meet these needs, USGCRP and its member agencies are advancing high-priority science and building new capacity to provide useful, usable information to diverse communities and users for the benefit of all.
This Fiscal Year 2025 edition of USGCRP’s annual report to Congress highlights advancements in science and information delivery that show how the Program is meeting national needs. The Five-Year Progress section provides a longer-term look at USGCRP work on three selected topics: understanding the changing water cycle; responding to needs for climate information; and advancing diversity, equity, inclusion, justice, and accessibility across global change research efforts. We also highlight more recent activities in the 2023 Accomplishments section and look ahead to upcoming work in the Current and Future Priorities section.”
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Fifth Assessment Report: The latest report of the USGCRP asserts:
“The science is clear: without immediate, steep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, carbon removal from the atmosphere, and accelerated adaptation, the impacts of climate change will only continue to worsen, with greater risk of catastrophic or irreversible consequences for current and future generations.”
Since the above quote states the science is clear, will we find it in the USGCRP, 2023, the Fifth National Climate Assessment?
Physical Evidence in the Fifth National Climate Assessment: The opening of the Fifth National Climate Assessment starts with:
The Fifth National Climate Assessment is the US Government’s preeminent report on climate change impacts, risks, and responses. It is a congressionally mandated interagency effort that provides the scientific foundation to support informed decision-making across the United States.
It has many pictures, but photos are not physical evidence. The first section starts [citations and figures omitted here]:
“How the United States Is Addressing Climate Change
The effects of human-caused climate change are already far-reaching and worsening across every region of the United States. Rapidly reducing greenhouse gas emissions can limit future warming and associated increases in many risks. Across the country, efforts to adapt to climate change and reduce emissions have expanded since 2018, and US emissions have fallen since peaking in 2007. However, without deeper cuts in global net greenhouse gas emissions and accelerated adaptation efforts, severe climate risks to the United States will continue to grow.
Future climate change impacts depend on choices made today.
The more the planet warms, the greater the impacts. Without rapid and deep reductions in global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, the risks of accelerating sea level rise, intensifying extreme weather, and other harmful climate impacts will continue to grow. Each additional increment of warming is expected to lead to more damage and greater economic losses compared to previous increments of warming, while the risk of catastrophic or unforeseen consequences also increases.
However, this also means that each increment of warming that the world avoids—through actions that cut emissions or remove carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere—reduces the risks and harmful impacts of climate change. While there are still uncertainties about how the planet will react to rapid warming, the degree to which climate change will continue to worsen is largely in human hands.
In addition to reducing risks to future generations, rapid emissions cuts are expected to have immediate health and economic benefits. At the national scale, the benefits of deep emissions cuts for current and future generations are expected to far outweigh the costs.”
What we see isrelies on the discredited UN IPCC extreme scenario of remarkably high emissions (SSP5-8.5). It also omits any discussion of the emissions by other nations, and the emissions of China that far exceed those of the US. It further states:
“How the United States Is Experiencing Climate Change
As extreme events and other climate hazards intensify, harmful impacts on people across the United States are increasing. Climate impacts—combined with other stressors—are leading to ripple effects across sectors and regions that multiply harms, with disproportionate effects on underserved and overburdened communities.
Current climate changes are unprecedented over thousands of years.
Global greenhouse gas emissions from human activities continue to increase, resulting in rapid warming and other large-scale changes, including rising sea levels, melting ice, ocean warming and acidification, changing rainfall patterns, and shifts in timing of seasonal events. Many of the climate conditions and impacts people are experiencing today are unprecedented for thousands of years.” [Boldface added here]
The report ignores the reports of the International Commission on Stratigraphy based on geological history which estimate that Earth’s maximum temperature since the last ice age occurred in the Greenlandian Stage/Age, about 8200 to 11,700 years ago and Earth has generally cooled since, with some warming periods. According to Britannica:
“The Holocene Epoch resisted formal subdivision until June 2018, when the International Union of Geological Sciences (IUGS) and the International Commission on Stratigraphy divided the epoch into three stages. The start of the Greenlandian stage (11,700 to 8,300 years ago), known from Greenland ice cores, coincides with the lower boundary of the Holocene. The onset of the Northgrippian stage (8,300 to 4,200 years ago), also determined using ice cores from Greenland, coincided with a period of cooling that occurred in the North Atlantic about 8,300 years ago. In contrast, the Meghalayan stage (4,200 years ago to the present) was determined using a speleothem, or cave deposit (in this case, a stalagmite from Mawmluh Cave in Meghalaya, India). The stalagmite captured a 200-year period of worldwide drought and cooling dating to about 4,200 years ago. The climatic shift produced severe disruptions in natural resources that were felt by civilizations in the low and middle latitudes around the world, including those of ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and the Yangtze River Valley.” [Boldface added]
The physical evidence presented by the International Commission on Stratigraphy and others contradicts major assertions in the US Fifth National Climate Assessment such as those in the table of Rapid and Unprecedented Changes, (Figure 1.6). These assertions are:
800k years: Present-day levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere are higher than at any time in at least the past 800,000 years, with most of the emissions occurring since 1970. [There is no contradiction here.]
3,000 years: The rate of sea level rise in the 20th century was faster than in any other century in the last 3,000 years. This assertion is contradicted by evidence presented in graph “Sea Level Since Last Glacial Maximum” which is based on physical evidence from coral and peat data (Figure 17) in “Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate.” It shows no increase in the past 3,000 years from a geologically stable location.
2,000 years: Global temperature has increased faster in the past 50 years than at any time in at least the past 2,000 years. This is contradicted by D-O Events, the general cooling shown by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, and the Medieval Warm Period, which was not confined to Europe, but found world-wide. Further global temperatures do not necessarily apply to the US. According to Wikipedia, 1936 North American heat wave:
“The 1936 North American heat wave was one of the most severe heat waves in the modern history of North America. It took place in the middle of the Great Depression and Dust Bowl of the 1930s and caused more than 5,000 deaths. Many state and city record high temperatures set during the 1936 heat wave stood until the 2012 North American heat wave.[2][3] Many more endure to this day; as of 2022, 13 state record high temperatures were set in 1936. The 1936 heat wave followed one of the coldest winters on record.”
1,200 years: The current drought in the western US is now the most severe drought in at least 1,200 years and has persisted for decades. Long-term droughts are a problem in the arid Southwest and have repeatedly occurred. For example, according to Britannica, Southwest Indian:
“Farming became important for subsequent residents including the Ancestral Pueblo (Anasazi; c. ad 100–1600), the Mogollon (c. ad 200–1450), and the Hohokam (c. ad 200–1400). These groups lived in permanent and semi-permanent settlements that they sometimes built near (or even on) sheltering cliffs; developed various forms of irrigation; grew crops of corn (maize), beans, and squash; and had complex social and ritual habits. It is believed that the Ancestral Pueblo were the ancestors of the modern Pueblo Indians, that the Hohokam were the ancestors of the Pima and Tohono O’odham (Papago), and that the Mogollon dispersed or joined other communities.”
In northern Arizona and New Mexico major villages were abandoned some 400 to 800 years ago due to drought. Some are preserved and are tourist attractions today.
Further, modern instruments can measure current rates of change readily. However, as a 2015 paper by David Kemp, et al., asserts “Maximum rates of climate change are systematically underestimated in the geological record.” The geological record does not have the resolution to measure annual or decadal change.
What we see is that the USGCRP ignores contradicting evidence, a clear violation of the scientific method. The issues are what is the ICF International and why have US scientific agencies deferred to it in the US government’s premier scientific report on climate change?
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ICF International, Inc.: According to Wikipedia:
“ICF International, Inc. is an American publicly traded consulting and technology services company based in Reston, Virginia.
The company was founded in 1969, and as of 2019, had US $1.48 billion in revenue, with approximately 9,000 full and part-time employees in more than 90 offices.
Why have US agencies deferred to ICF International for US government’s premier scientific report on climate change? Only the heads of these agencies can say. But it is highly disturbing about the integrity of these “expert” agencies, particularly the National Science Foundation, is that they are paying international consultants to write the US government’s premier scientific report on climate change.
Further, a report in The Hill newspapers gives a link which shows on April 8, NASA cancelled 6 contracts with ICF Incorporated, LLC., for Administrative Management and General Management Consulting Services.
So much for the claims that federal agencies have special expertise and must be deferred to during litigation issues. See extensive links under Challenging the Orthodoxy, link under Challenging the Orthodoxy – NIPCC, individual entries in Wikipedia, https://www.globalchange.gov/about-us for the USGCRP website, and https://www.icf.com/company/about for ICF Incorporated, LLC.
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A Correction: Several TWTW readers have corrected erroneous statements that John Tyndall named greenhouse gases. He did not. In an 1861 lecture to the Royal Society, “The Bakerian Lecture: On the Absorption and Radiation of Heat by Gases and Vapors, and on the Physical Connection of Radiation, Absorption, and Conduction” Tyndall attributed to specific gases a warming effect. The abstract states;
“The researches on glaciers which I have had the honor of submitting from time to time to the notice of the Royal Society, directed my attention in a special manner to the observations and speculations of De Saussure, Fourier, M. Pouillet, and Mr. Hopkins, on the transmission of solar and terrestrial heat through the earth’s atmosphere. This gave practical effect to a desire which I had previously entertained to make the mutual action of radiant heat and gases of all kinds the subject of an experimental inquiry. Our acquaintance with this department of Physics is exceedingly limited. So far as my knowledge extends, the literature of the subject may be stated in a few words.”
The section “Action of permanent Gases on Radiant Heat” states:
“The deportment of oxygen, nitrogen, hydrogen, atmospheric air, and olefiant gas [mainly ethylene] has been already recorded. Besides these I have examined carbonic oxide, carbonic acid, sulphuretted hydrogen, and nitrous oxide. The action of these gases is so much feebler than that of any of the vapors referred to in the last section, that in examining the relationship between absorption and density the measures used with the vapors were abandoned, and the quantities of gas admitted were measured by the depression of the mercurial gauge.”
What is particularly interesting is the use of Carbonic Acid which shows a confusion that has been clarified in recent years. Liquid water, such as rain, contains CO2 and water making carbonic acid. Water vapor does not contain CO2. So, water vapor should not be confused with carbonic acid.
The term “greenhouse gases” did not become popular until much later, in the early 1900s. TWTW thanks those who corrected its error. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Reversal of Fortune: Michael Mann et al. produced a hockey-stick graph used by the UN IPCC in its Third Assessment Report which purported to show a sudden increase in Northern Hemisphere temperature in the 20th century. It started with tree ring data then continued with thermometer data. This is a combination of two different methods of estimating temperatures without any control period to assure they both measure the same thing the same way. Moreover, it is not clear that tree-ring widths are actually indicative of past temperatures.
Mr. Mann sued those who criticized him, first won then had the award substantially reduced from $1,000,000 to $5,000 and in a separate case, was ordered to pay $500,000 in legal fees to one of the defendants for Mr. Mann’s “bad faith trial misconduct.”
Anthony Watts recounts some of the events which includes a link to a 2010 article by Stephen McIntyre in the WSJ discussing the important evidence that the trial judge prohibited Ross McKittrick and McIntyre from giving. See link under Oh Mann!
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SEPP’S APRIL FOOLS AWARD – THE JACKSON
It is time for voting on the Annual SEPP’s April Fools Award – the Jackson. The grand prize is a large lump of coal. Last year, the deserving winner of the lump of coal was the US National Science Teaching Association. In 2023, the Association banned the CO2 Coalition from its meeting which the Coalition members paid for and were approved because the CO2 Coalition exhibit pointed out that CO2 is essential for photosynthesis which is the food source of all complex life on Earth.
There are many strong candidates for this dubious honor including leaders of US scientific agencies who signed off on questionable reports on climate change. Get your votes in by June 29 with the reason why you recommend that person for the award. The award will be given at the 43rd annual meeting of the Doctors for Defensive Preparedness on July 5-6. The decision of the judges is final.
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Number of the Week: Six: According to a US government website under “Contracts” as reported in The Hill, on April 8 NASA cancelled six separate contracts with ICF Incorporated, LLC. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy
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NO TWTW NEXT WEEK, TWTW WILL RESUME WEEKEND OF APRIL 26
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
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
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
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
The Bakerian Lecture: On the Absorption and Radiation of Heat by Gases and Vapours, and on the Physical Connexion of Radiation, Absorption, and Conduction
By John Tyndall, The Royal Society, Jan 1 (published Dec 31), 1861
https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/epdf/10.1098/rstl.1861.0001
The Only Thing We Have to Fear (About Climate Change) is Fear Itself
By Wallace Manheimer. CO2 Coalition, Apr 8, 2025
How little we understand the past: Part II
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Apr 9, 2025
Link to paper: Maximum rates of climate change are systematically underestimated in the geological record
David B. Kemp, et al., Nature Communications, Nov 10, 2015
https://www.nature.com/articles/ncomms9890
Trump moves to hobble major US climate change study
The cuts are a potentially fatal blow to the National Climate Assessment that Congress mandated to ensure the government understands the threats posed by rising temperatures.
By Zack Colman, Politico, Apr 9, 2025 [H/t John Dunn]
https://www.politico.com/news/2025/04/09/trump-moves-to-hobble-major-climate-study-00280405
Link to Fiscal Year (FY) 2025 USGCRP Budget Crosscut by Agency
By Staff, U.S. Global Change Research Program, Accessed Apr 9, 2025
https://www.globalchange.gov/about-us
Link to: U.S. Global Change Research Program for 2025: Our Changing Planet
A Report by the U.S. Global Change Research Program and the Subcommittee on Global Change Research, National Science and Technology Council, For FY 2025
Link to: Fifth National Climate Assessment
By Crimmins, A.R., et al., U.S. Global Change Research Program, Revised June 6, 2024
Link to: Trump administration cuts contracts for National Climate Assessment
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Apr 10, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5243464-trump-administration-cuts-climate-assessment-contracts/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJotfdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHsWDOnfjmrkb78DaJbJwj_EtW54TAX-WY0M0HvCDh9km7fBihK34c1qScaMs_aem__cpuzC6sxqxABCoOQFyGhg
Link to contracts canceled on Apil 8: https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5243464-trump-administration-cuts-climate-assessment-contracts/?fbclid=IwY2xjawJotfdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHsWDOnfjmrkb78DaJbJwj_EtW54TAX-WY0M0HvCDh9km7fBihK34c1qScaMs_aem__cpuzC6sxqxABCoOQFyGhg
Politicized Science Case Study: National Climate Assessment
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Apr 8, 2025
“Trump moves to hobble major US climate change study”
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Apr 11, 2025
The National Climate Assessment was focused on masks, DEI and solar panels.
[SEPP Comment: “Three Dimensions of Environmental Justice”?]
Ray Sanders on the Met Office’s Fabricated data
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 9, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Sanders uses generally acceptable standards for evaluating of location of weather stations. The location can be five classes including a) Class 4, +/- 2 C (or about 4 F); or b) Class 5 is “not meeting Class 4.” One hundred two stations out of 302 do not exist! How do you attribute figures to second-decimal place for stations that do not exist? Some have not existed for 50 years.]
The Studies Are Wrong.
By Frank Lasee, Real Clear Energy, Apr 9, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/04/09/we_must_repeal_the_ira__it_will_save_money_the_studies_are_wrong_1103138.html
Link to one study: A Wide Array of Resources is Needed to Meet Growing U.S. Energy Demand
By Sam Newell, Wonjun Chang, and Paige Vincent, The Brattle Group, February 2025
From study: Solar and wind are ready now at lowest cost; Battery storage is ready now and provides capacity and quick-start capabilities.
Eliminating or altering clean energy credits would dramatically reduce investment in low-cost solar and wind generation, hurting economic growth
[SEPP Comment: The claim is false. The battery (or other backup) cost of making solar and wind reliable is enormous. Further, the costs of wind and solar are the lowest cost when subsidized and operating as admitted by the authors by claiming investments in wind and solar will plummet if energy credits are removed.]
Link to second study: Electricity Price Impacts of Technology-Neutral Tax Incentives With Incremental Electricity Demand from Data Centers: Prepared for Clean Energy Buyers Association (CEBA)
By Sugandha Tuladhar, et al., NERA Economic Consulting, Feb 10, 2025
For this study, two types of tax incentives are incorporated: §45Y production tax credit (PTC) and the §48E investment tax credit
(ITC) to model the impact of the tax incentives on renewable technologies.
• The ITC was assumed to apply to capital-intensive technologies while the PTC was assumed to apply to other technologies. [1]
– The PTC was applied to new solar PV, solar PV with storage, onshore wind, onshore wind with storage projects
– The ITC was applied to new biomass, geothermal, hydroelectric, solar thermal, offshore wind and new nuclear
[SEPP Comment: What about tax credits for coal- and gas-fired power plants?]
The monster Green Tariffs we put on ourselves are worse than a foreign trade war [Australia]
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Apr 10, 2025
Think of Net Zero Targets as a self-imposed Carbon Tariff
Defending the Orthodoxy
Navigating the Future: The Next Era of Energy for Shipping
By Oded Gour-Lavie, Real Clear Energy, Apr 8, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/04/08/navigating_the_future_the_next_era_of_energy_for_shipping_1102741.html
If shipping were a country, it would rank among the top six emitters globally, exceeding Germany’s total emissions.
The International Maritime Organization’s newly adopted 2023 Strategy on Reduction of GHG Emissions from Ships sets ambitious targets: “to reduce the total annual GHG emissions from international shipping by at least 20%, striving for 30%, by 2030, compared to 2008; and to reduce the total annual GHG emissions from international shipping by at least 70%, striving for 80%, by 2040, compared to 2008.” With the global shipping fleet expected to grow by 35% by 2050 according to DNV’s Maritime Forecast 2024, these targets represent an unprecedented challenge.
[SEPP Comment: The International Maritime Organization (IMO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for regulating maritime transport. Time to get out of it?]
Professor David King: We Must Consider Extreme Climate Solutions
By Eric Worrall., WUWT, Apr 8, 2025
Professor David King: “As a lifelong scientist, I have always believed that if something is possible, we can find a way to achieve it. And yet, one of the starkest realities we now face is that the world is failing to meet its climate goals.”
[SEPP Comment: Did the physical world set the climate goals?]
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Advancing Health Equity in the Climate Crisis — A Climate Justice Curriculum for Resident Physicians
By Harleen Marwah, M.D, et al., The New England Journal of Medicine, Apr 5, 2025
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2414715?query=TOC
Abstract: As climate change exacerbates existing health disparities, a new curriculum arms residents to provide climate-informed patient care, advance climate advocacy, and improve health system sustainability.
[SEPP Comment: “As a specialist in climate-informed medicine, I must inform you that your health may vary because of climate change.”]
Insects are devouring Colorado’s trees, thanks to climate change: Report
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, Apr 8, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5238181-colorado-forests-insects-climate-change
Link to Report on the Health of Colorado’s Forests, 2024
By Staff, Colorado State Forest Service, 2025
The type of tree most affected was the Western spruce budworm, which incurred 217,000 acres of injury in 2024, as opposed to 202,000 acres in 2023, per the report.
[SEPP Comment: An increase of only 7.5% after claims of drought which weakens trees?]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Reversing the Endangerment Finding: Burying the Union of Concerned Scientists Case Against It
By Steve Milloy, Junk Science.com, Apr 9, 2025
Whose CO₂ is it Anyway? Ocean Fizz or Smokestack Blame
By Jennifer Marohasy, comments by Anthony Watts and GROK, WUWT, Apr 10, 2025
Star of Coconut Fish Curry Thrives in Modern Climate
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Apr 10, 2025
Over 30 items here: Evidence that the climate scam is collapsing
An X article by Tom Nelson, WUWT, Apr 10, 2025
After Paris!
We don’t care
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Apr 9, 2025
[David] Gelles [NYT] writes, as if describing an advance not a retreat:
“Last weekend in Paris, Gore kicked off a global tour of the Climate Reality Project, a nonprofit he founded in 2006. The group… conducts trainings worldwide, including upcoming events in Rio de Janeiro, Nairobi, Kenya, and Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia. It helps citizens mobilize political pressure and campaign for clean energy solutions and environmental regulations. And it has youth programs and a grant-making initiative. Gore believes that by imbuing concern for the climate into a broad cross section of society, governments and big businesses will be more likely to take urgent action to reduce emissions, particularly outside the U.S.”
Nothing says urgent action like flogging a program he first launched 20 years ago to ever more remote corners of the world.
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
Fresh Evidence Emerges That Global Vegetation Growth Reaches New Highs Due to Increased CO2 Fertilization
By Chris Morrison, Daily Sceptic, Apr 7, 2025
Link to paper: Earth’s record-high greenness and its attributions in 2020
By Yulong Zhang, et al., Remote Sensing of Environment, Jan 1, 2025
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0034425724005200?via=ihub
From abstract: Here, by leveraging diverse remote sensing measurements, we pinpointed 2020 as a historic landmark, registering as the greenest year in modern satellite records from 2001 to 2020. Using ensemble machine learning and Earth system models, we found this exceptional greening primarily stemmed from consistent growth in boreal and temperate vegetation, attributed to rising CO2 levels, climate warming, and reforestation efforts, alongside a transient tropical green-up linked to the enhanced rainfall.
Dry weight (biomass) increase for summer squash from extra CO2
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Apr 9, 2025
From the CO2Science Archive
Science, Policy, and Evidence
Rearranging The EV Deckchairs On The Titanic
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 7, 2025
The long-awaited announcement of the new package for rollout of EVs.
But strip away the waffle, greenwash and gaslighting, and we are left with rearranging to deckchairs on the Titanic to a higher deck, so that they don’t sink below the waves quite as soon!
If they can’t hit this year’s target of 28%, then what chance do they have of achieving 33% next year or 80% in 2030?
Model Issues
Trump Ends $4M in Funding to Princeton’s Climate Programs
By Staff, Newsmax, Apr 8, 2025
https://www.newsmax.com/us/commerce-department-trump-administration-princeton/2025/04/08/id/1206164
[SEPP Comment: NOAA’s funding of a climate model that fails when tested against physical evidence.]
Measurement Issues — Surface
What is the Global Average SST?
By Andy May, WUWT, Apr 9, 2025
The global average surface temperature has supposedly increased around one degree since 1850, but the differences in the records plotted are larger than that.
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
Global Temperature Report
By Earth System Science Center, The University of Alabama in Huntsville, March 2025
Map: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2025/March2025/202503_Map.png
Graph: https://www.nsstc.uah.edu/climate/2025/March2025/202503_Bar.png
Text by John Christy and Roy Spencer, Apr 4, 2025
Changing Weather
Beautiful Satellite Imagery
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Apr 11, 2025
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2025/04/beautiful-satellite-imagery.html
If you want to know one of many reasons that NOAA and federal investments in weather technology are important, consider some of the weather satellite and radar imagery available during the past few days.
#LookItUp: Great Lakes water levels
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Apr 9, 2025
Link to: The Great Lakes Water Level Dashboard
By Staff: NOAA – Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory (GLERL) Accessed Apr 9, 2025
https://www.glerl.noaa.gov/data/wlevels/dashboard
[SEPP Comment: The data start in 1918 and show multiple “trends.”]
April 11, 1965, Tornado Outbreak
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Apr 11, 2025
“Severe thunderstorms in the Upper Midwest spawned fifty-one tornadoes killing 256 persons and causing more than 200 million dollars damage. Indiana, Ohio and Michigan were hardest hit in the “Palm Sunday Tornado Outbreak”.
Changing Seas
What’s Killing West Coast Marine Mammals? And Why?
By Josh Bloom, ACSH, Apr 9, 2025
https://www.acsh.org/news/2025/04/09/whats-killing-west-coast-marine-mammals-and-why-49394
Seals, dolphins, and seabirds are becoming ill and dying in disturbing numbers on West Coast beaches [but not fish]. The culprit is an algae-based toxin named domoic acid. The way this works is fascinating.
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
New Study, Good News Greenland’s Ice Loss Likely Won’t Disrupt Atlantic Current
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Apr 9, 2025
Link to paper: Heinrich event ice discharge and the fate of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation
By Yuxin Zhou and Jerry F. McManus, AAAS Science, May 30, 2024
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.adh8369
From the abstract: During Heinrich events, great armadas of icebergs episodically flooded the North Atlantic Ocean and weakened overturning circulation. The ice discharges of these episodes constrain the sensitivity of overturning circulation to iceberg melting. … The present-day Greenland Ice Sheet calving of icebergs is comparable to that of a mid-range Heinrich event. As the future Greenland Ice Sheet recedes from marine-terminating outlets, its iceberg calving likely will not persist long enough for icebergs alone to cause catastrophic disruption to the Atlantic overturning circulation, although the accelerating Greenland runoff and continued global warming remain threats to the circulation stability.
[SEPP Comment: No doubt large icebergs off the coast of South Carolina had a disrupting impact on the Gulf Stream.]
Lowering Standards
Exposé Unveils NASA GISS Director’s Falsehoods in Attack on Peer-Reviewed Climate Study – Media ‘Complicit in the Deception’
By Marc Morano, Climate Depot, Apr 11, 2025 [H/t Willie Soon]
Is There Really A Drought Emergency in Washington State?
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Apr 9, 2025
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2025/04/is-there-really-drought-emergency-in.html
The Washington State Department of Ecology has declared a drought emergency for large areas of Washington State, with particular emphasis on the Yakima watershed of south-central Washington.
Looking at observations and predictions, this drought declaration appears to be unwarranted and in error.
Let me provide the evidence, and you can decide.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
The Seattle Times Claims About the Termination of the National Weather Service Are False
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Apr 5, 2025
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2025/04/the-seattle-times-claims-about.html
The Trump administration has made several serious mistakes, such as firing probationary NOAA/NWS employees and then having to rehire them. The Trump folks don’t seem to have a logical game plan for understanding what needs to be fixed in NOAA and then doing something about it.
NOAA has deep flaws that need to be addressed. This administration needs to reach out to those who understand the issues and have ideas about how to fix them.
Climate hypelash
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Apr 9, 2025
Along with the “collapsing polar vortex”, climate journalists are now barely able to write a news commentary without some reference to climate whiplash or its equivalent. Thus, a Flipboard email peddles an AP story under the heading “A parched Spain has emerged from drought only to face floods/ Scientists point to climate change as a factor in why such swings between dryness and downpour are becoming more extreme.”
No, Stanford, Decarbonized Energy is Not More Secure
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Apr 11, 2025
Link to paper: Trade risks to energy security in net-zero emissions energy scenarios
By Jing Cheng, et al., Nature Climate Change, Apr 9, 2025
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02305-1#Bib1
From abstract: Here we find that overall trade risks decrease in most countries (70%) in net-zero scenarios due to reduced reliance on imported fossil fuels, but trade risks to either electricity or transportation systems increase in the majority (82%) of countries that become more dependent on imported materials.
[SEPP Comment: If you don’t need energy, you have no risk of trade disruptions disrupting energy]
Jilly’s 40% Clean Power Not Quite What It Seems!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 8, 2025
However, dig into the small print, and you discover things are not quite as rosy as Silly Jilly pretends.
That wonderful solar power only supplied 7% last year, with another 8% from wind. By far the biggest contributor is hydro power, at 15%, which has been steadily turning out similar amounts of electricity for decades.
The rest of the claimed 40% comes from nuclear and tree burners, neither of which could remotely be described as “clean” – certainly not amongst Jilly’s bien pensant circle!
No, N.Y. Times, 80,000 Homes Will Not Be Lost to Flooding
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, Apr 9, 2025
Link to report: Averting Crisis: Zoning to Create Resilient Homes for All
By Staff, Regional Planning Association, Apr 2025
https://rpa.org/work/reports/averting-crisis
Gila Monsters Are Threatened by Development Not Warming, Science News
By Linnea Lueken, Climate Realism, Apr 10, 2025
Finland ‘ahead of schedule’ on coal phase out as Helsinki’s Salmisaari plant closes
By Rosie Frost, Euro News, Jan 4, 2025
https://www.euronews.com/green/2025/04/01/finland-ahead-of-schedule-on-coal-phase-out-as-helsinkis-salmisaari-plant-closes
Wind power in Finland has more than doubled since 2020 to supply a quarter of the country’s energy.
The closure of a coal power plant in Finland today brings the country to the brink of a full coal phase-out – four years ahead of schedule.
[SEPP Comment: The author omits the roles of nuclear, hydro, biofuels & waste in generating power. In 2021 nuclear capacity was 2794 MWe, in 2022 it was 4394 MWe. An increase of 57% in reliable generating capacity. “Total generation (in 2022): 72.2 TWh; Generation mix: nuclear 25.3 TWh (35%); hydro 13.5 TWh (19%); biofuels & waste 13.0 TWh (18%); wind 12.0 TWh (17%); coal 6.4 TWh (9%); natural gas 1.0 TWh; solar 0.4 TWh; oil 0.2 TWh.” Boldface added]
https://world-nuclear.org/information-library/country-profiles/countries-a-f/finland
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
A flood of nonsense
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Apr 9, 2025
Here we are tempted to say that this is not how science is done. Except increasingly it is exactly how science is done. And journalism. But it’s not how they should be although rather predictably the Heatmap piece ends with… an attack on Donald Trump and an effort to rally an outraged public in defense of red tape:
World’s ‘exceptional’ heat streak lengthens into March
By AFP Staff Writers, Paris (AFP) April 8, 2025
https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Worlds_exceptional_heat_streak_lengthens_into_March_999.html
Scientists say the current period is likely to be the warmest the Earth has been for the last 125,000 years.
[SEPP Comment: Doubtful it is warmer than it was 8,000 years ago.]
Questioning European Green
Is Europe Still Fighting Lost Energy Wars?
By Drieu Godefridi, Gatestone Institute, Apr 9, 2025
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/21523/eu-greenpeace-dakota-access-pipeline
Greenpeace International filed a lawsuit against Energy Transfer under the anti-SLAPP directive in the Netherlands, in February 2025.
Greenpeace was found liable for activities that led to violence, not for having expressed its opinion. Incitement to violence is not an opinion, and the EU anti-SLAPP directive does not cover acts of violence. Its primary focus is on protecting individuals and entities engaged in public participation from manifestly unfounded claims or abusive court proceedings in civil or commercial matters with cross-border implications.
The Green Agenda is Collapsing
By Richard Eldred, Daily Sceptic, Apr 4, 2025
Video
Questioning Green Elsewhere
Ten Environmentalist Myths
Modern environmentalism often strays from its original purpose, advancing policies that unintentionally damage ecosystems, strain economies, and benefit powerful corporate interests.
By Edward Ring, American Greatness, Apr 9, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Non-Green Jobs
Green Policies, Not Trump Tariffs, Killing British Steel
By Vijay Jayarj, WUWT, Apr 9, 2025
The steel industries of China and India are fueled by cheap coal and minimal constraints on carbon dioxide emissions. Neither faces the punitive energy costs or emissions taxes that hobble British Steel. While the U.K. levies up to $103 on each ton of carbon dioxide emitted, China charges its manufacturers but a fraction of that. India has no national charge at all. The result? British Steel, saddled with green compliance costs, is priced out of the global market.
The Political Games Continue
Conservative’s promise to axe the car tax that would have added $10k to petrol and diesel cars
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Apr 11, 2025
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
DOE’s Loan Programs Office Offers Game-Changing Possibilities
By Aaron Larson, Power Mag, Apr 10, 2025
https://www.powermag.com/does-loan-programs-office-offers-game-changing-possibilities/?utm_source=omeda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pwrnews+eletter&oly_enc_id=7809H6412578J0B
Much of the funding for these investments came through the passing of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The LPO reported that U.S. clean energy investment more than doubled from $111 billion in 2020 to $236 billion in 2023, creating more than 400,000 clean energy jobs. The private sector notably led the way, enabled by U.S. government policy and partnerships.
[SEPP Comment: Investments produce positive returns for the investor, expenditures in “clean energy” produce negative returns for the consumer/taxpayer. Who is the investor in these loan programs.]
EPA and other Regulators on the March
EPA must use the best available science − by law − but what does that mean?
By H. Christopher Frey, The Conversation, Apr 7, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://theconversation.com/epa-must-use-the-best-available-science-by-law-but-what-does-that-mean-253209?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Politics%20Weekly%20%20April%2010%202025%20-%203335234012&utm_content=Politics%20Weekly%20%20April%2010%202025%20-%203335234012+Version+B+CID_5e202ce0ea7f9b16d6c3a5c9f4e4e70d&utm_source=campaign_monitor_us&utm_term=EPA%20must%20use%20the%20best%20available%20science%20%20by%20law%20%20but%20what%20does%20that%20mean
Requiring the agency to use the best available science helps ensure that decisions are based on evidence, and that the reasoning behind them is the result of well-accepted scientific processes and free from biases, including stakeholder or political interference.
The CO2 Endangerment Finding
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Apr 10, 2025
Thirteen years ago, Donald Trump explained that global warming propaganda was invented as a way to force manufacturing to China. That is exactly what happened.
Energy Issues – Non-US
Net zero insulation plan won’t pay off for 100 years, Government admits
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 10, 2025
Energy Issues – Australia
Instead of $8b in rebates, Labor could have built gas and coal plants and actually made cheap electricity
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Apr 8, 2025
Today’s magic trick is how to make electricity look cheaper by taking money from children
Tomorrow — we pretend to control inflation by printing more money.
Labor wants the working class to help rich people buy batteries
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Apr 7, 2025
With four million rooftop panels, the situation is such a problem most states are demanding new panels have remote control switches, not so they can be turned on, but so they can be turned off. In Sydney, new charges are starting to apply to solar panel owners who dump their unneeded electricity on the grid. In the Northern Territory, they’re just leaving solar plants permanently disconnected, baking in the sun, to avoid the risk they’ll knock out Darwin’s grid, like they did in Alice Springs.
The solar boom at noon distorts the market so wildly, it pushes reliable generators out of business or forces them to raise their prices for the rest of the day, so they cover their costs. Industry chiefs admit investors don’t want to build many new generators anymore because of the midday glut.
Energy Issues — US
The Looming Electricity Crunch Facing The US
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 7, 2025
The same situation is being played out across the country. Even in sunny California they need gas to fire up to meet demand when the sun goes down both in summer and in winter. (Note the barely measurable contribution from battery storage.)
The US grid has been neglected for many years now, all in the naive belief that reliable coal and gas generation can be replaced with wind and solar. This has been exacerbated by anti-fossil fuel regulations, which have prematurely shut down coal plants and discouraged investment in new gas plant.
The looming crunch may be even worse than the grid operators think.
Celebrate American Energy on Earth Day
By Gabriella Hoffman, Real Clear Energy, Apr 9, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/04/09/celebrate_american_energy_on_earth_day_1103037.html
Lowering Energy Costs in America
By Jake Morabito, Real Clear Energy, Apr 9, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/04/09/lowering_energy_costs_in_america_1103033.html
Setting aside the geographic outliers of Alaska and Hawaii, the 10 states with the most expensive average electricity prices—California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, New York, Maine, Vermont, New Jersey, and Maryland—have all enacted impractical clean energy mandates, all subscribe to the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative or a comparable cap-and-trade regime, and all have state-mandated policies subsidizing renewables.
How local backlash is derailing Albany’s clean energy fantasies
By Robert Bryce, New York Post, Apr 8, 2025
https://nypost.com/2025/04/08/opinion/local-backlash-is-derailing-albanys-clean-energy-fantasies/?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email
Governors push back as Trump directs the Justice Department to go after state climate laws
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Apr 4, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5240623-democrat-governors-push-trump-climate-order
Trump, in an executive order on Tuesday, directed the Justice Department to identify any state and local laws and regulations that hamper energy development and stop their enforcement.
It specifically prioritized any laws aimed at combating climate change and greenhouse gas emissions or promoting environmental social and governance initiatives and environmental justice.
Killing Constitution [pipeline]: Pipeline Politics Upstream of Inflation
By Matthew Roy, Real Clear Energy, Apr 8, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/04/08/killing_constitution_pipeline_politics_upstream_of_inflation_1102798.html
Energy prices are up across the board for all the would-be beneficiaries of the cancelled project, the residents and businesses of New York and New England who rely on natural gas for heating, electricity, and industrial activity.
How the Trump Administration Can Lean on Biofuels for Energy Dominance
By Michael McAdams, Real Clear Energy, Apr 8, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/04/08/how_the_trump_administration_can_lean_on_biofuels_for_energy_dominance_1102724.html
Beyond the 45Z [tax] credit, the Trump-Vance administration must also commit to setting realistic Renewable Volume Obligations (RVOs) that reflect our industry’s achievements and market potential. RVOs are the quantity of renewable fuels required to replace or reduce fossil fuel usage, and while they have steadily increased, they have also repeatedly undersold advanced biofuels’ proven potential.
Michael McAdams is the president of the Advanced Biofuels Association (ABFA).
Washington’s Control of Energy
Trump Signs Executive Order to Shield American Energy from State Overreach
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Apr 8, 2025
Trump orders agencies to ‘sunset’ environmental protections
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Apr 10, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5242921-trump-executive-order-environmental-protections-sunset
The order applies to all regulations issued under laws governing things like energy appliance standards, mining and offshore drilling — as well as regulations issued under the Endangered Species Act.
It’s not yet clear whether the order will also apply to regulations at the EPA under laws like the Clean Air Act, Clean Water Act or Safe Drinking Water Act because the order directs that particular agency to provide the White House with a list of statutes that should be subject to the order.
There also may be exceptions, as the order allows agencies to extend the sunset date for up to five years. It’s not clear how widely such exemptions will be used.
[SEPP Comment: Typical for The Hill, the author of the article confuses Federal regulation (control) with protection (safeguard). They are not necessarily the same.]
Trump orders his administration to repeal Biden showerhead flow restrictions
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Apr 9, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5241575-trump-orders-his-administration-to-repeal-biden-shower-head-flow-restrictions
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Gas-fired Electricity for New Data Centers: Fischer Makes A Case
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Apr 10, 2025
Return of King Coal?
The Department of the Interior Moves to Restore Coal Industry
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Apr 8, 2025
Press release
Trump goes gangbusters on coal power and coal mining to supply AI energy demand
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Apr 9, 2025
Mining.com lays out how big the coal industry used to be in the US. There is a massive skeleton of infrastructure Trump is working to revive:
Coal accounts for about 15% of power generation in the US today, down from more than half in 2000, according to the US Energy Information Administration. Since 2000, about 770 individual coal-fired units have shuttered, according to data from Global Energy Monitor, with more set to close.
Trump exempts dozens of coal plants from stricter pollution standard
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Apr 8, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5239327-trump-exempts-coal-plants
President Trump on Tuesday exempted dozens of coal plants from a Biden administration regulation imposing stricter standards for mercury, lead, nickel and arsenic emissions.
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Canada Approves First Grid-Scale SMR Construction at Darlington
By Sonal Patel, Power Mag, Apr 10, 2025
https://www.powermag.com/canada-approves-first-grid-scale-smr-construction-at-darlington/?utm_source=omeda&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=pwrnews+eletter&oly_enc_id=7809H6412578J0B
Fusion energy: Pathway to abundant power
Press Release, By Ariela Haber, US National Science Foundation, April 9, 2025
https://www.nsf.gov/science-matters/fusion-energy-pathway-abundant-power?utm_medium=email&utm_source=govdelivery
But developing fusion energy is a difficult task. It has taken decades of research just to demonstrate a fusion experiment where the fusion fuel produced more energy than it consumed. While this was a key breakthrough, researchers must now find a way to consistently and cost-effectively generate enough energy to run a fusion power plant.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Climate Change Weekly # 540 — ‘Cheap’ Wind and Solar Raise Electricity Prices
By H. Sterling Burnett, The Heartland Institute, Apr 11, 2025
By contrast, four of the five states with the highest electric power prices have completely removed coal generation from their portfolios. Hawaii, an outlier because of its location, gets only 7 percent of its power from coal.
Lashing your own back
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Apr 9, 2025
And clearly it’s easier to win elections or policy battles if you promise people easy gain for no pain. But if it turns out you were wrong, then they’re going to start thinking you’re fools who didn’t know your policies were impractical, rogues who did know and hoped to make an omelet that couldn’t be unscrambled before voters clued in, or some sick making combination of the two.
Near Disaster: German Wind Turbine Sees Brake Failure, Impossible To Stop
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Apr 6, 2025
As older turbines age, they become uneconomical to operate. Operators tend to cut corners when it comes to maintenance and repairs, which can be extensive for the older ones.
[SEPP Comment: No requirements to dismantle them?]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
Geothermal electricity generation
By Chris Morris, Climate Etc., Apr 11, 2025
Geothermal power stations are very much a niche generation source (only about 15GW worldwide, from 673 units at 198 fields according to Google), totally dependent on locality. They are mainly associated with plate boundaries, particularly the Pacific Ring of Fire.
Kill Them All – Stop Wasting Our Money on Green Pipe Dreams
By Frank Lasee, WUWT, Mar 9, 2025
European energy expert Samuel Furfari sums up green hydrogen (GH) perfectly; “It’s like burning Louis Vuitton handbags for heat.” He says this because it is so very expensive. Federal law allocated $9.5 billion for GH hubs, and the Orwellian-named Inflation Reduction Act (Inflation Causing Act) expanded tax subsidies. Even with massive taxpayer subsidies, GH is a money loser.
The Hydrogen Horizon: America’s Next Energy Frontier
By Ronald Beaty, Real Clear Energy, Apr 8, 2025
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2025/04/08/the_hydrogen_horizon_americas_next_energy_frontier_1102775.html
Hydro Power Not Quite As Clean As The BBC Want You To Think!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 10, 2025
“Green” Fuel May Contain Palm Oil
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 9, 2025
Why anybody should be surprised by this is amazing. If you create a subsidized, artificial market for something, people will cheat.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
We need a grid battery public safety standard
By David Wojick, CFACT, Apr 7, 2025
https://www.cfact.org/2025/04/07/we-need-a-grid-battery-public-safety-standard/#
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Deciphering the impact of electric vehicles on carbon emissions: Some insights from an extended STIRPAT framework
By Miaomiao Tao, et al., Energy, Feb 1, 2025 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S036054422500115X?via%3Dihub
From the abstract: Employing the Method of Moments Quantile Regression (MMQR) approach, we argue that electric vehicle adoption significantly elevates carbon emissions across all quantiles. Conversely, green innovation, the proportion of renewable energy consumption, and higher population density contribute to reducing emissions.
EVs Still Much Dearer Than Petrol
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 6, 2025
The new Kia EV3 compact SUV will set you back £33,005 for the basic model with a paltry 58.3 KWh battery,barely enough for a trip of 100 miles.
Kia’s petrol equivalent, the Stonic, comes in over £11,000 cheaper:
EV Sales Continue To Struggle
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Apr 6, 2025
California Dreaming
California’s Refinery Capacity Stretched to the Limit
By Edward Ring, What’s Current, Accessed Apr 9, 2025
https://mailchi.mp/calpolicycenter/whats-current-issue-7860182?e=cd9fa89d1e
When the unintended effect of escalating regulations and incessant litigation is scarcity, the capacity to absorb shocks is taken away. This is what has happened in California with gasoline, electricity, and water. Our politicians have left Californians with a resource infrastructure that is one fire or cyber-attack removed from economic and social chaos.
Health, Energy, and Climate
Poor air quality increases depression risk
By Diana Falzone, The Hill, Apr 5, 2025
https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/5232944-poor-air-quality-depression-risks-study
Link to paper: Synergistic air pollution exposure elevates depression risk: A cohort study
By Yuqing Hao, et al., Environmental Science and Ecotechnology, January 2025
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666498424001297?via%3Dihub
From abstract: Multi-pollutant models uncover synergistic effects, with SO2, CO, NO2, PM10, and PM2.5 exhibiting significant interactions, identifying SO2 as the primary driver of these associations.
SO₂ is the primary contributor to depressive symptoms, accounting for 40% of the risk.
Should We Worry About Toxic Dust?
By Susan Goldhaber, ACSH, Apr 8, 2025
https://www.acsh.org/news/2025/04/08/should-we-worry-about-toxic-dust-49405
Link to study: Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Ether Acid (PFEA) Concentrations in Indoor Dust are Higher in Homes Closer to a Fluorochemical Manufacturing Facility
By Susie Proctor, et al., Environmental Science & Technology, American Chemical Society, Mar 31, 2025
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/full/10.1021/acs.est.4c07043
The wording of the press release suggests that the PFAS reflects current conditions. However, buried in the article is a critical detail: all samples were collected in February 2019 – before the company installed air emissions controls, reportedly removing 99.99% of airborne PFAS. The data are outdated and not helpful in judging today’s exposure risks.
Oh Mann!
Monday Mirthiness – The ‘Hockey Hole’
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Apr 7, 2025
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
The past is a difficult concept
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Apr 9, 2025
To a journalist with a hammer: an alert viewer sends us an item from Sky News Australia about melting glaciers in the Swiss Alps that uses the reemergence of things buried 2,000 years ago as proof of unprecedented climate change. Whereas the obvious conclusion is that it was at least as warm 2,000 years ago if an area has been “iced over since Roman times”, or more exactly since the Dark Ages cooling, but not earlier.
Climate Geoengineers Dismayed They Have to Hide Experiments from the Public
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Apr 9, 2025
[SEPP Comment: Don’t tell the mayor or city council!]
Evidence of Catastrophic Glacier Melt in… New York City?
By David Middleton, WUWT, Apr 8, 2025
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Apr 9, 2025
When Al Gore tells you in 2006 the snow on Kilimanjaro will be gone by 2016, and a travel agency invites you to come and revel in the snow in 2025, don’t be surprised when people connect the dots.
From the shameful clickbait file: “10 Regions Most at Risk from Climate Change by 2050“. Which regions? Well, figure it out for yourself. Hint: they cover pretty much the entire planet (except where rich white people live), everywhere is worse than the average (except where rich white people live), and women and minorities are hardest hit (except maybe rich white women).
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