A monthly review of climate, energy, environmental, and political policy issues
Articles compiled by Jonathan DuHamel wryheat@cox.net
STATE OF THE UNION
Some principles being ignored:
“The people… are the rightful masters of both congresses, and courts — not to overthrow the constitution, but to overthrow the men who pervert it.” – Abraham Lincoln
“To lodge all power in one party and keep it there is to insure bad government and the sure and gradual deterioration of the public morals.” – Mark Twain
“Without justice being freely, fully, and impartially administered, neither our persons, nor our rights, nor our property, can be protected.” —Joseph Story (1833)
“Ours may become the first civilization destroyed, not by the power of our enemies, but by the ignorance of our teachers and the dangerous nonsense they are teaching our children. In an age of artificial intelligence, they are creating artificial stupidity.” – Thomas Sowell
“Energy in the executive is a leading character in the definition of good government. It is essential to the protection of the community against foreign attacks; it is not less essential to the steady administration of the laws; to the protection of property against those irregular and high-handed combinations which sometimes interrupt the ordinary course of justice; to the security of liberty against the enterprises and assaults of ambition, of faction, and of anarchy.” —Alexander Hamilton (1788)
Biden EPA Unveils Strict Air Pollution Rule That Could Hamstring American Industry
by Nick Pope
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) finalized its update to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for PM2.5, imposing stringent restrictions despite warnings from industrial executives that tightened NAAQS could severely impact America’s industrial sector. The agency is reducing the annual PM2.5 standard from 12 micrograms per cubic meter to nine micrograms per cubic matter, or by about 25%. These more stringent standards could reduce U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) by about $87 billion and imperil up to 311,000 jobs, according to a May 2023 study conducted by Oxford University and commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers. (Read more) ☼ Related: Biden Officials Warned EPA Its Aggressive Power Plant Scheme Had Serious Flaws, Docs Show (link) ☼
The SEC Oversteps its Powers on Climate Change
By H. Sterling Burnett
Nearly two years ago, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposed a rule that would force publicly traded companies to take climate change seriously by reporting on how climate change might materially affect their operations. The mandatory reports were to include, among other things, what actions they are taking to fight climate change, to anticipate and mitigate its potential impacts, to report on their emissions, and the emissions created throughout their supply chain, and any efforts they were taking to reduce emissions. This was a purely political action pushed by the commission’s three Democrat appointees. Facing fierce backlash from investors, the public, and Congress, the SEC has delayed, for the moment, formally imposing the rule. (Read more) ☼
Mineral Import Dependence: A Threat to US Economic and National Security
by Minerals Make Life
The United States faces deep, ongoing vulnerabilities in its mineral supply chains according to a new government report. The 2024 Mineral Commodity Summaries Report by the United States Geologic Survey (USGS) provides information on the production, consumption, import, export and price of various minerals that are essential for the U.S. economy and national security. The report also identifies the countries that are the leading sources of these minerals and the degree of import reliance that the U.S. has on them.
This year, the report shows the U.S. is reliant on imports for more than one-half of the country’s consumption of 49 minerals and 100 percent import-dependent for 15 of them. China continues to be the top supplier of the minerals that the U.S. needs, providing 24 of the 49 commodities with a greater than 50 percent import reliance. China also dominates the global production and export of minerals such as rare earth elements, graphite and lithium, which are vital for the energy, manufacturing, technology, transportation, infrastructure and defense sectors. (Read more) ☼ [Note: There have been several recent discoveries of rare earth mineral deposits in Wyoming which are being explored and may soon be under development. According to the Wall Street Journal: “The discovery of 2.34 billion metric tons of rare-earth elements near Wheatland, Wyo., signals the beginning of a new era in the competition for the raw materials that power the global economy. If wisely exploited, this find—estimated to be the richest in the world—will give the U.S. an unparalleled economic and geopolitical edge against China and Russia for the foreseeable future. The lode at Halleck Creek has the potential to make the U.S. the world’s largest processor of the minerals used to make computer chips, smartphones and aircraft engines. Production depends on government permits.] ☼
‘Traitorous’: UN Foundation Quietly Fueling Climate Policy, Funding Staff In Dem-Led States (link) ☼
‘Electrify Everything’ Slammed Again By Ninth Circuit, Reaffirms Its Natural Gas Ruling (link) ☼
CBO: Biden’s Climate Agenda Is Contributing To Ballooning Deficit (link) ☼
Experts Predict Biden’s Climate Agenda Will Send Food Prices Skyrocketing (link) ☼
America’s Open Border – Intentionality or Incompetence? (link) ☼
ENERGY
Biden’s War on Domestic Energy Intensifies
by Matt Egan & Brent Bennett
On Jan. 26, President Joe Biden took an aggressive step forward in his war on American energy by halting the permitting of new liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals. This action has massive global implications.
It also has the added benefit for the president of attacking primarily Texas and Louisiana, red states that account for the bulk of U.S. LNG exports. This decision comes on the heels of Texas taking steps to secure its border with Mexico, putting the state directly at odds with the administration—once again.
But the president’s politically motivated actions will reverberate far beyond America’s natural gas producing regions. By locking global supply and demand imbalances in place for longer, this decision will send billions of dollars to foreign producers and raise the cost of energy globally. (Read more) ☼
The Key to Energy IQ
by Ron Clutz
The history of America is, in many ways, the history of energy. The steam power that revolutionized travel and the shipping of goods. The coal that fueled the railroads and the industrial revolution. The petroleum that helped birth the age of the automobile. And now, if we only have the will, a new era of renewable energy.
Except … it’s a little more complicated than that. It’s not really a matter of will, at least not primarily. There are powerful scientific and economic constraints on where we get our power from. An energy source has to be reliable; you have to know that the lights will go on when you flip the switch. An energy source needs to be affordable–because when energy is expensive…everything else gets more expensive too. And, if you want something to be society’s dominant energy source, it needs to be scalable, able to provide enough power for a whole nation.
Those are all incredibly important considerations, which is one of the reasons it’s so weird that one of the most important concepts we have for judging them … is a thing that most people have never heard of. Ladies and gentlemen, welcome to the exciting world of…power density. Put simply, power density is just how much stuff it takes to get your energy; how much land or other physical resources. (Read more) ☼
Is Renewable Energy Actually Making Us Rely More on Fossil Fuels?
by Mario Loyola
Renewables such as wind and solar are intermittent and largely unpredictable energy sources, with rapid swings in output from one minute to the next. This creates major challenges for operators of the nation’s electricity grid, because supply must equal demand, and the supply “curve” in a given area never tracks the output from intermittent renewable sources. As a result, the more that intermittent solar and wind capacity is deployed to an electricity grid, the more of what’s called “dispatchable” capacity needs to be deployed to stabilize the grid to meet demand.
What this means, ironically, is that the rush to deploy solar and wind is locking us out of the one energy source that could actually achieve a zero-emissions grid, namely nuclear, and locking us into fossil fuel sources of electricity generation such as natural gas.
“Dispatchable” capacity refers to power plants that can quickly ramp up and ramp down as needed. This means simple-cycle combustion-turbine power plants such as “intermediate” and “peaker” natural gas-powered generators, and (in the developing world) power plants fired by heavy fuel oil. (Read more) ☼
Time to Retire the Term “Renewable Energy” from Serious Discussions and Policy Directive: Part II
by Planning Engineer (Russ Schussler)
“Renewables:” some resources support a healthy grid, others challenge it.
The first part of this series discussed some of the shortcomings of the renewable/nonrenewable dichotomy. Renewable generation resources are not necessarily sustainable or environmentally sound and non-renewable options can be clean and highly sustainable. For example, you will find many ardent environmentalist groups strongly opposed to “renewable” biomass generation. Similarly, more and more environmentalists are dropping their objections to “nonrenewable” nuclear power. For those who are concerned with the health of the planet as well as those who want to use the earth for human flourishing the renewable/nonrenewable dichotomy is losing relevance. Referring generally to “renewable” and “nonrenewable” resources or structuring policy to favor renewable does more harm than good as we face the complicate challenges ahead in maintain an adequate electric power supply in an environmentally responsible manner. This posting examines the impacts of various generation alternatives s on the power system and the electric grid. (Read more of this long post) ☼
Wood Pellets Aren’t CO2 Neutral, Emit More Than Coal… Double Of Natural Gas (link) ☼
When You Crunch The Numbers, Green Hydrogen Is A Non-Starter (link) ☼
CLIMATE
The following articles debunk the “climate crisis” meme and the need for “net zero” CO2 emissions.
The Sun’s Impact on Climate Change
The Sun’s heat and energy output varies over time rather than being constant or steady. Scientists have been able to reconstruct the Sun’s heat output going back hundreds of years. The data show changes in global temperatures have almost perfectly mirrored variations in the Sun’s heat output throughout the past several hundred years, including during our current period of modest warming. (Read more) ☼
Climate Fact-Check January 2024 Edition
by Steve Milloy
This summary serves as a fact check on the biggest false claims made in the media in January, 2024. Any way that you look at the “average global temperature” for January 2024, the notion of emissions-driven warming fails. Per the NASA satellite record, January’s temperature confirms what we predicted last year: i.e., a 2023 El Nino would cause a step increase in temperature as it has since the 1980s. Per the real-time surface station record maintained by Temperature-global, there still has been no global warming since the last El Nino in 2015-2016. (Read more) ☼
Real Science Guy: Climate Crisis Imaginary (link) (link to original)
For the past 35 years, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) has warned us that emissions from the burning of fossil fuels, predominantly carbon dioxide (CO2), are causing dangerous global warming. This myth is blindly accepted — even by many of my science colleagues who know virtually nothing about climate. As a scientist, my purpose here is to help expose this fairy tale. ☼
The Secret Partnership Fueling Climate Hawk Journalism
by Caleb Howe
Wealthy liberal foundations have been seeking to have influence on media coverage of energy and environmental matters by funding workshops, courses, and seminars for journalists focused on climate change – and some of the world’s most elite universities are happy to oblige. (Read more) ☼
How Hydrothermal Vents And Other Seabed Structures Heat Our Oceans
by James Edward Kamis
Overwhelming amounts of reliable information taken from hundreds of research studies prove that emissions of super-heated fluids and gases from the estimated 10 million ocean floor geological features, including hydrothermal vents, are responsible for warming Earth’s oceans, not human activities. (Read more) ☼
New Study Finds Global Cities Have Warmed Due To Rising Solar Surface Forcing Since 1986
By Kenneth Richard on
The globe’s cities are warming primarily due to declining albedo, not CO2 radiative forcing.
According to a comprehensive new study published in Remote Sensing of Environment, CO2 fertilization has led to an enhanced greening trend in 72.6% of cities across the world since 1985, accelerating to 89.2% since 2001.
Per the authors, this greening trend is the key factor lowering the albedo reflecting incoming solar radiation in urban areas, amounting to a +2.76 W/m² increase in solar radiation reaching the surface from 1986-2020.
In contrast, the clear-sky-only trend from CO2 surface forcing only amounts to 0.2 W/m² per decade (22 ppm), or 0.02 W/m² per year, in the 21st century. (This trend only represents the forcing from CO2 in an imaginary world where no clouds exist.)
Thus, the positive radiative imbalance from the declining trend in albedo explains urban warming far better than an enhanced greenhouse effect from a clear-sky-only CO2 radiative forcing. (Read more) ☼
New Study: Climate Models Get Water Vapor Wildly Wrong – A ‘Major Gap In Our Understanding’
By Kenneth Richard
“Here, we have demonstrated a major discrepancy between observation-based and climate model-based historical trends in near-surface atmospheric water vapor in arid and semi-arid regions.” – Simpson et al., 2024
A new study published in PNAS [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences] has demonstrated, once again, that climate models fail to simulate what happens in the real world with regard to fundamental climate change variables like water vapor. This is a devastating finding, as water vapor is the most significant greenhouse gas due to its alleged “feedback” capacity, accelerating warming well beyond what CO2 is said to be capable of alone. (Read more) ☼
A Climate Science Team Report on the Scientific Validity of EPA’S 2009 GHG Endangerment Finding
by ICECAP Climate Science Team
On December 11, 2023, the Supreme Court refused to examine the numerous science-based arguments contained in a Petition for Reconsideration of EPA’s 2009 Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Endangerment Finding. This court ignored the eight quite specific, but easy to understand scientific arguments contained in the Petition and simply denied the Petition claiming the petitioners did not have Standing – a well-known tactic to avoid decisions in a highly politically-charged situation.
Unfortunately, this Supreme Court decision denied scrutiny to the one regulation in the U.S. that is not only the single most economically significant, but also the single most scientifically flawed, of all of the regulations on the Federal books. The ramifications of this Supreme Court Denial will be enormous if an EPA GHG Endangerment Finding Reconsideration is not initiated very quickly. This fact should have been clear to the Court by the arguments quoted verbatim below:
“In short, based on the sum total of the eight validated arguments, contained in the Petition, the currently contemplated Social Cost of Carbon (SCC) estimates are not only worthless; they are extremely dangerous to put forward to current U.S. energy, economic and national security-related policymakers as credible input to their analyses. (Read more) ☼
New study finds that CO2 is increasing the rate by which the globe is greening, even under drought (link) ☼
An Explanation of Elites’ Plan To Use CO2 Restrictions Against Humanity
From C3Headlines
This video explains how the world’s technocrats, billionaires and giants corporations will employ natural asset companies, carbon credits, carbon taxes, carbon restrictions, and central bank digital currencies (CBDC) to facilitate global control over all nations and their citizens. The rabid fear-mongering of climate change doomsday propaganda is the ruling class elites’ justification for their plan is to severely reduce individual freedoms and liberties.(Watch video, 5 minutes) ☼
No, CNN and Other Media Outlets, Climate Change Is Not Causing the Ocean Circulation to Collapse
by Anthony Watts
A recent CNN headline, “Critical Atlantic Ocean current system is showing early signs of collapse, prompting warning from scientists“ misleads its readers into believing that a collapse of a critical Atlantic Ocean current is pending. This is false.
This episode is yet another “tipping point” scare for the ocean currents, and one that has been debunked multiple times at Climate Realism.
Despite the title, rather than being “physics-based” the research published is actually “climate model-based,” describing an outcome projected by a single climate model’s calculation for the distant future for the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC). The AMOC is also part of the well-known “Gulf Stream” current.
However, behind the scary headlines pushed by the mainstream media is this one immutable fact buried in the study: the supposed AMOC tipping point will not occur until 1758 years from now, in the year 3782 AD. (Read more) ☼ [The Atlantic Current that brings warm water to Northern Europe from the Gulf of Mexico is a consequence of the Earth’s rotation and the distribution of the continents and it’s not going to change as long as the Earth keeps turning.]☼
Yes, Popular Mechanics, Scientists ‘Have Miscalculated Our Global Warming Timeline’
by Anthony Watts
An article published in Popular Mechanics magazine titled, “Oops, Scientists May Have Miscalculated Our Global Warming Timeline” with the subtitle “Clues have emerged that reveal a much hotter history than we thought” makes a refreshing admission that confirms what Climate Realism has pointed out since its inception – Earth has already surpassed the arbitrary 1.5°C limit imposed at the 2015 Paris Climate Accords. It is important to note that the 1.5°C threshold is an arbitrary number, not one established or defined by science. The European temperature data show temperatures began rising about the year 1820. Note that this was 130 years before the large modern rise in carbon dioxide emissions began, that are claimed to to be driving dangerous warming. (Read more) ☼
CNN: ‘It’s time to limit how often we can travel abroad – ‘Carbon Passports’ may be the answer’ – ‘Drastic changes to our travel habits are inevitable’ – Suggests restrictions will be ‘forced’ upon public (link) ☼
Now they are coming for your — HAIR?! Wash Post touts ‘recycling human hair…into clothes’ as a ‘climate solution’ – ‘Weaving with human hair…keeps hair out of landfills & incinerators, where it would release greenhouse gases’ (link) ☼
Report: Democrats Are Giving Away $1 Trillion In Taxpayer Funds For ‘Green’ Subsidies – Due to ‘Green pork provisions included in Inflation (Reduction) Act’ (link) ☼
Wind and Solar Slaughtering India’s Iconic Bird (link) ☼
Scientists Look to Fight Climate Change by Dumping 6,000 Gallons of Chemicals into Ocean Near Martha’s Vineyard (link) ☼
EVS
Ford Lost $4.7B On EVs Last Year, Or About $65K For Every EV Sold (link) ☼
Why China Wants You to Drive an EV (link) ☼
CLIMATE SCIENCE BACKGROUND:
by Jonathan DuHamel
Geologic evidence shows that Earth’s climate has been in a constant state of flux for more than 4 billion years. Nothing we do can stop that. Much of current climate and energy policy is based upon the erroneous assumption that anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions, which make up just 0.1% of total greenhouse gases, are responsible for “dangerous” global warming/climate change. There is no physical evidence to support that assumption. Man-made carbon dioxide emissions have no significant effect on global temperature/climate. In fact, when there is an apparent correlation between temperature and carbon dioxide, the level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere has been shown to follow, not lead, changes in Earth’s temperature. All efforts to reduce emissions are futile with regard to climate change, but such efforts will impose massive economic harm to Western Nations. The “climate crisis” is a scam. U.N officials have admitted that their climate policy is about money and power and destroying capitalism, not about climate. By the way, like all planetary bodies, the earth loses heat through infrared radiation. Greenhouse gases interfere with (block) some of this heat loss. Greenhouse gases don’t warm the Earth, they slow the cooling. If there were no greenhouse gases, the night side of the planet would freeze every night.
For more on climate science, see my Wryheat Climate articles:
A Review of the state of Climate Science
The Broken Greenhouse – Why Co2 Is a Minor Player in Global Climate
A Summary of Earth’s Climate History-a Geologist’s View
Problems with wind and solar generation of electricity – a review
The High Cost of Electricity from Wind and Solar Generation
The “Social Cost of Carbon” Scam Revisited
ATMOSPHERIC CO2: a boon for the biosphere
Carbon dioxide is necessary for life on Earth
Impact of the Paris Climate Accord and why Trump was right to drop it
New study shows that carbon dioxide is responsible for only seven percent of the greenhouse effect
Six Issues the Promoters of the Green New Deal Have Overlooked
Why reducing carbon dioxide emissions from burning fossil fuel will have no effect on climate ☼
THE SCIENCE AND ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY PROJECT REPORTS
[SEPP provides a weekly roundup of news available every Monday as The Week That Was (PDF) and reprinted as a blog post here as Weekly Climate and Energy News Roundup. Click on date for full reports.]
Scope: Topics to be discussed include Roy Spencer’s new paper on the failure of global climate models to accurately describe current temperatures. Howard Hayden suggests a major problem with the IPCC may stem from its (or the UNFCCC’s) definitions for climate change. Interviews with David Legates and Willie Soon are presented. Major economic problems stemming from expensive, unreliable electricity in Germany and the UK are briefly discussed. A reversal in US energy exports is presented.
Scope: Daniel Nebert’s essay that the climate crisis is a fairy tale is presented [well worth a read]. The video series Juice is discussed. Gwythian Prins presents the failure of policies of replacing affordable, reliable electricity from coal, oil, gas, and nuclear with wind and solar from a philosophical standpoint. The misleading use of graphs is brought up. And the growing failure of electrical vehicles is presented.
Scope: Using graphs, Roy Spencer demonstrates that his graphic techniques of presenting datasets reveal differences in data rather than hiding them. In another post, Spencer explores why different time periods fit different models better than other time periods. As discussed in two reports, the high cost of wind and solar power has become evident in Europe.
Hide or Reveal? Richard Feynman set a high goal for scientific research when he wrote: “The first principle is that you must not fool yourself – and you are the easiest person to fool.” Many of those who are motivated by a passionate interest in a topic easily fool themselves by ignoring data that questions their desired result or adjusting the data to give their views the most favorable impact. The graphs presented by Al Gore in the movie “The inconvenient truth” are an example. He shows graphs indicating that temperatures and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations move together based on Antarctic ice cores. He claims this “proves” that changes in carbon dioxide concentrations cause temperature changes.
Actually, it does not. The graphs just show that there may be a correlation. Certainly, based on experiments, carbon dioxide is absorbed more readily in cold water than warm water, and as water warms CO2 is released. This can be seen in ocean upwelling, which are rich primary producers of aquatic sea life. They bring to the surface cold water that is rich in carbon dioxide, nitrogen and phosphorus promoting phytoplankton which begins the energy base for a complex food chain including providing food for fish, marine mammals, seabirds, and other creatures.
Numerous studies have pointed out that Mr. Gore had the timelines wrong to claim causation. In general, temperature changes occurred before CO2 changes, by an average of about 800 years. (continue reading about the many problems with “net zero” by clicking on the date above.)
“There is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science [pseudoscience]…It’s a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty — a kind of leaning over backwards.”– Richard Feynman
Scope: This TWTW focuses on the above quote from Richard Feynman to distinguish between cargo cult [pseudoscience, not realistic to nature] and the integrity and utter honesty needed for realistic physical science. Howard Hayden discusses the failure of the IPCC to check its findings against the Stefan-Boltzmann law. A group of scientists, largely from China, present evidence that, in part, the warming for the past thirty-five years may have come from a changing of Earth’s albedo. Ole Humlum presents the state of the climate until January 2024. The CO2 Coalition presents a climate report for Wyoming, emphasizing the benefits of increasing CO2. And Stephen McIntyre presents some glaring deficiencies in the IPCC process leading to its Assessment Reports.
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.
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.
END
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