The Week That Was: 2022-07-02 (July 2, 2022)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “The decision is a very welcome reaffirmation of the Constitutional rights of citizens of the United States. Untouched is the question of whether the Constitution allows Congress to make scientifically incorrect decisions by majority vote, for example: that carbon dioxide, a beneficial gas that is essential to life on Earth, is a pollutant.”― William Happer on West Virginia et al. v. EPA, June 30, 2022
Number of the Week: Down 80%, up 50%
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: The Supreme Court decision in West Virginia v. EPA is discussed, from a slightly different perspective than in most publications. The above quotation from William Happer is important. A thoughtless reaction by Congress may be incompetent and dishonest, regardless of the motives of the members.
A liberal icon, Constitutional Law Professor at Harvard Law School Laurence H. Tribe who advised President Obama in his presidential campaign filed litigation against Mr. Obama’s Clean Power Plan. In a 2014 essay in the Wall Street Journal, Tribe explained his personal views regarding the Constitutionality of Obama’s plan. Key details are discussed.
The vote in West Virginia v. EPA was 6 to 3. Justice Elena Kagan wrote the agreed upon dissent in which Justices Breyer and Sotomayor concurred. The dissent exposes assumptions that a sound democratic government should not make, and which may be exposed with proper debate. Statements by the current EPA administrator are presented.
Key points of the submission by Happer and Lindzen to the SEC that apply to the EPA decision are emphasized. Further, the forty-three-year record of global temperature trends in the lower troposphere is discussed. No other temperature trend record is as comprehensive, and this is where principal greenhouse gases reside. The failure of the EPA to evaluate this record brings into question the competence and honesty of that organization.
The latest data on world-wide carbon dioxide emissions is discussed, illustrating how irrelevant the Clean Power Plan is to worldwide carbon dioxide emissions.
Ecologist Jim Steele has another video clearly explaining important components of the earth’s weather system. Manhattan Contrarian Francis Menton has selected a winner to his contest on which country or US state will hit the Green Energy Wall first.
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Separation of Powers; The US is a Constitutional Republic with a written Constitution. In 1781 near the end of the Revolutionary War, all thirteen states approved the Articles of Confederation, which were adopted by the Continental Congress in 1777. The Articles did not provide for a sufficiently strong central government, and the states were going their separate ways. In 1787 delegates of the 13 states met behind closed doors in Philadelphia and drafted the Constitution without a Bill of Rights, which was submitted to the states for approval. There was a significant division between those who believed the Constitution was needed, the Federalists, and those who believed it gave too much power to the central government, the Anti-Federalists. After great public discussion, the Constitution was approved by the necessary nine states in 1788. To appease the Anti-Federalists, the Bill of Rights was added in 1791. This is a brief background of the formation of the Constitutional Republic and the need for debate.
The Constitution provides for the separation of powers of the Federal Government into three branches:
“The legislative branch is responsible for enacting the laws of the US and appropriating the money necessary to operate the government.
“The executive branch is responsible for implementing and administering the public policy enacted and funded by the legislative branch.
“The judicial branch is responsible for interpreting the constitution and laws and applying their interpretations to controversies brought before it.”
In writing for the majority in West Virginia v. EPA, Chief Justice John Roberts held that the executive branch (EPA) went too far in assuming powers not granted by the legislative branch. The court recognizes the difference between
“air pollutants that “may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare,”
and hazardous pollutants,
“a threat of adverse human health effects,” “including substances known or anticipated to be “carcinogenic, mutagenic, teratogenic, neurotoxic,” or otherwise “acutely or chronically toxic.” p.4 [Boldface added]
After considerable discussion, the opinion concludes:
“Capping carbon dioxide emissions at a level that will force a nationwide transition away from the use of coal to generate electricity may be a sensible ‘solution to the crisis of the day.’ New York v. United States, 505 U. S. 144, 187 (1992). But it is not plausible that Congress gave EPA the authority to adopt on its own such a regulatory scheme in Section 111(d). A decision of such magnitude and consequence rests with Congress itself, or an agency acting pursuant to a clear delegation from that representative body. The judgment of the Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is reversed, and the cases are remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.” [Boldface added}
Many commentators emphasize different parts of the decision. But the failure of the EPA to identify carbon dioxide as hazardous, and its sweeping assumption of powers were of particular note. See links under Litigation Issues and https://www.ncsl.org/research/about-state-legislatures/separation-of-powers-an-overview.aspx
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A Government of Laws, Not of Men: On December 1, 2014, on behalf of the Peabody Energy Corporation and himself, Laurence H. Tribe, professor of constitutional law at Harvard Law School filed his objections to the Clean Power Plan adopted by his former client President Obama. He justified his actions in an essay in the December 22, 2014, Wall Street Journal, which was briefly discussed in the January 3, 2015, TWTW. As stated in that TWTW:
SUMMARY: A legal, liberal icon expresses why he thinks that the Clean Power Plan as announced by the Environmental Protection Agency is unconstitutional. Tribe states he taught the first course in environmental law 45 years ago, and he believes that “coping with climate change is a vital end but does not justify using unconstitutional means.”
Although a major company joined him, he states he arrived at this professional conclusions as an independent legal scholar. “After studying the only legal basis offered for the EPA’s proposed rule, I concluded that the agency is asserting executive power far beyond its lawful authority.” He writes the EPA will “dictate the energy mix used in each state and leave the state with essentially no choice in implementing its plan” and this is contrary to Supreme Court decisions.
“Even more fundamentally, the EPA, like every administrative agency, is constitutionally forbidden to exercise powers Congress never delegated to it in the first place. The brute fact is that the Obama administration failed to get climate legislation through Congress. Yet the EPA is acting as though it has the legislative authority anyway to re-engineer the nation’s electric generating system and power grid. It does not.” [Boldface added]
In addition, in the essay Mr. Tribe writes:
“Frustration with congressional inaction cannot justify throwing the Constitution overboard to rescue this lawless EPA proposal—especially when the EPA itself, through Senate testimony by its administrator, Gina McCarthy, has touted its proposal as ‘an investment opportunity’ that isn’t really ‘about pollution control’ at all.
“Some defend the EPA’s power grab on the grounds that it has the potential of averting global disaster. They remind us that, to save the Union during the Civil War, Lincoln was willing to suspend habeas corpus without the congressional authorization the Constitution requires. Today, with the benefit of hindsight, even Lincoln’s decision looks more like an overreaction—akin to the Alien and Sedition Acts and the internment of Japanese Americans after Pearl Harbor—than a genuinely necessary response to an existential crisis.
“Justice Robert H. Jackson —Nuremberg prosecutor and among our greatest defenders of constitutionalism and the rule of law—joined the Supreme Court’s decision denying President Harry Truman the authority to seize steel mills during the Korean conflict without the congressional authorization the Constitution required. Truman justified his shortcut by invoking national security, citing the need to prevent labor strife from disrupting the war effort.
“In Youngstown Sheet & Tube Co. v. Sawyer (1952), Justice Jackson said no. He warned of losing sight of ‘the balanced power structure of our Republic’ and reaffirmed that ‘ours is a government of laws, not of men.’ We should heed his words today.” [Boldface added]
Mr. Tribe is to be congratulated to his adherence to the principles of the Constitutional Republic. Expediency is not a justification for forgetting ours is a government of laws, not of men. See Article # 1.
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The Dissent: In her dissent Justice Kagan writes:
Climate change’s causes and dangers are no longer subject to serious doubt. Modern science is “unequivocal that human influence”—in particular, the emission of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide— “has warmed the atmosphere, ocean and land.” Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sixth Assessment Report, The Physical Science Basis: Headline Statements 1 (2021). The Earth is now warmer than at any time “in the history of modern civilization,” with the six warmest years on record all occurring in the last decade. U. S. Global Change Research Program, Fourth National Climate Assessment, Vol. I, p. 10 (2017); Brief for Climate Scientists as Amici Curiae 8. The rise in temperatures brings with it “increases in heat related deaths,” “coastal inundation and erosion,” “more frequent and intense hurricanes, floods, and other extreme weather events,” “drought,” “destruction of ecosystems,” and “potentially significant disruptions of food production.” American Elec. Power Co. v. Connecticut, 564 U. S. 410, 417 (2011) (internal quotation marks omitted). If the current rate of emissions continues, children born this year could live to see parts of the Eastern seaboard swallowed by the ocean. See Brief for Climate Scientists as Amici Curiae 6. Rising waters, scorching heat, and other severe weather conditions could force “mass migration events, political crises, civil unrest,” and “even state failure.” Dept. of Defense, Climate Risk Analysis 8 (2021). And by the end of this century, climate change could be the cause of “4.6 million excess yearly deaths.” See R. Bressler, The Mortality Cost of Carbon, 12 Nature Communications 4467, p. 5 (2021). [Boldface added]
Congress charged EPA with addressing those potentially catastrophic harms, including through regulation of fossil fuel-fired power plants. Section 111 of the Clean Air Act directs EPA to regulate stationary sources of any substance that “causes, or contributes significantly to, air pollution” and that “may reasonably be anticipated to endanger public health or welfare.” 42 U. S. C. §7411(b)(1)(A). Carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases fit that description. See American Elec. Power, 564 U. S., at 416–417; Massachusetts, 549 U. S., at 528–532. EPA thus serves as the Nation’s “primary regulator of greenhouse gas emissions.” American Elec. Power, 564 U. S., at 428. And among the most significant of the entities, it regulates are fossil-fuel fired (mainly coal- and natural-gas-fired) power plants. Today, those electricity-producing plants are responsible for about one quarter of the Nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. See EPA, Sources of Greenhouse Gas Emissions (Apr. 14, 2022), https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhousegas-emissions. Curbing that output is a necessary part of any effective approach for addressing climate change.
Justice Kagan must believe that the organizations cited, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, Sixth Assessment Report (IPCC, AR6, 2021) and U. S. Global Change Research Program, Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA, 2017) are both honest and competent. They are not, as explained below.
EPA administrator Michael Regan issued the following statement:
“As a public health agency, EPA’s number one responsibility is to protect people’s health, especially those who are on the front lines of environmental pollution. Make no mistake: we will never waver from that responsibility.
“While I am deeply disappointed by the Supreme Court’s decision, we are committed to using the full scope of EPA’s authorities to protect communities and reduce the pollution that is driving climate change. We will move forward to provide certainty and transparency for the energy sector, which will support the industry’s ongoing efforts to grow our clean energy economy.
“At this moment, when the impacts of the climate crisis are becoming ever more disruptive, costing billions of dollars every year from floods, wildfires, droughts, and sea level rise, and jeopardizing the safety of millions of Americans, the Court’s ruling is disheartening.
“Ambitious climate action presents a singular opportunity to ensure U.S. global competitiveness, create jobs, lower costs for families, and protect people’s health and wellbeing, especially those who’ve long suffered the burden of inaction. EPA will move forward with lawfully setting and implementing environmental standards that meet our obligation to protect all people and all communities from environmental harm.”
Boldface added: See links under Litigation issues, EPA and other Regulators on the March, and pp 2 & 3 of dissenting https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/21pdf/20-1530_n758.pdf
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Not Honest, Not Competent: Last week, TWTW discussed the Comment and Declaration on the SEC’s Proposed Rule “The Enhancement and Standardization of Climate-Related Disclosures for Investors,” by William Happer and Richard Lindzen. Lindzen was a lead author on the Third Assessment Report of the UN’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC, AR3, 2001). He witnessed firsthand what happens in the IPCC process. A few key parts of their comment are repeated below:
I. RELIABLE SCIENTIFIC THEORIES COME FROM VALIDATING THEORETICAL PREDICTIONS WITH OBSERVATIONS, NOT CONSENSUS, PEER REVIEW, GOVERNMENT OPINION OR MANIPULATED DATA”
After substantiating this assertion, they assert
“II. SCIENCE DEMONSTRATES THERE IS NO CLIMATE-RELATED RISK CAUSED BY FOSSIL FUELS AND CO2, AND THEREFORE NO RELIABLE SCIENTIFIC EVIDENCE SUPPORTING THE PROPOSED RULE”
They go on to explain that in geological time, even 20 million years is nothing, rendering EPA assertions in its Endangerment Finding about greenhouse gases being unprecedented meaningless. After discussing matters such as how trivial the IPCC dates are, they explain how the IPCC politicizes good science. [Footnotes omitted]
“F. The IPCC is Government Controlled and Only Issues Government Dictated Findings, and Thus Can Provide No Reliable Scientific Evidence for the Proposed Rule
“Unknown to most, two IPCC rules require that IPCC governments control what it reports as “scientific” findings on CO2, fossil fuels and manmade global warming, not scientists. IPCC governments meet behind closed doors and control what is published in its Summaries for Policymakers (“SPMs”), which controls what is published in full reports.
“This is not how scientific knowledge is determined. In science, as the Lysenko experience chillingly underscores, and as Richard Feynman emphasized:
“No government has the right to decide on the truth of scientific principles.” [Boldface added]
The two IPCC rules are:
IPCC SPM Rule No.1: All Summaries for Policymakers (SPMs) Are Approved Line by Line by Member Governments”
After supporting this by quoting an IPCC fact sheet. Happer and Lindzen state:
“Since governments control the SPMs, the SPMs are merely government opinions. Therefore, they have no value as reliable scientific evidence.
What about the thousands of pages in the IPCC reports? A second IPCC rule requires that everything in an IPCC published report must be consistent with what the governments agree to in the SPMs about CO2 and fossil fuels. Any drafts the independent scientists write are rewritten as necessary to be consistent with the SPM.
IPCC Reports Rule No. 2: Government SPMs Override Any Inconsistent Conclusions Scientists Write for IPCC Reports
IPCC Fact Sheet: “’Acceptance’ is the process used for the full underlying report in a Working Group Assessment Report or a Special Report after its SPM has been approved…. Changes …are limited to those necessary to ensure consistency with the Summary for Policymakers.” IPCC Fact Sheet, supra. (Emphasis added).
IPCC governments’ control of full reports using Rule No. 2 is poignantly demonstrated by the IPCC’s rewrite of the scientific conclusions reached by independent scientists in their draft of Chapter 8 of the IPCC report Climate Change 1995, The Science of Climate Change (“1995 Science Report”). The draft by the independent scientists concluded:
“No study to date has positively attributed all or part (of the climate warming observed) to (manmade) causes.” Frederick Seitz, “A Major Deception on Climate Warming,” Wall Street Journal (June 12, 1996).
However, the government written SPM proclaimed the exact opposite:
“The balance of evidence suggests a discernible human influence on global climate.” 1995 Science Report SPM, p. 4.
What happened to the independent scientists’ draft? IPCC Rule No. 2 was applied, and their draft was rewritten to be consistent with the SPM in numerous ways:
• Their draft language was deleted.
• The SPM’s opposite language was inserted in the published version of Chapter 8 in the 1995 Science Report, on page 439: “The body of statistical evidence in chapter 8 …now points towards a discernible human influence on global climate.”
• The IPCC also changed “more than 15 sections in Chapter 8 of the report … after the scientists charged with examining this question had accepted the supposedly final text.” Seitz, supra.
As to the full IPCC reports, hundreds of world-class scientists draft some very good science. What to do? Use a presumption that anything in IPCC reports should be presumed to be government opinion with no value as reliable scientific evidence, unless independently verified by scientific method.
Stop for a moment. Just imagine what would have happened if the IPCC accurately reported the science. The scientists concluded there was no science that attributed all or most of the climate warming observed to manmade causes.
There would be no Massachusetts v. EPA, Green New Deal,” Net Zero” regulation, efforts to eliminate fossil fuels, huge subsidies of renewable energy and electric cars. For whatever reason, the IPCC as a government-controlled organization did not and has never followed the science if the science contradicts the theory of catastrophic global warming caused by fossil fuels and other human emissions.
In conclusion, none of the IPCC SPMs, models, scenarios, and other findings asserting that dangerous climate warming is caused by human CO2 and GHG emissions and fossil fuels are reliable scientific evidence, they are merely the opinions of IPCC governments.
Thus, the IPCC SPMs, models, scenarios, and other findings provide no reliable scientific evidence there is any climate related risk caused by fossil fuels, nor do they provide any reliable scientific evidence to support the proposed rule.” [Boldface added]
We can examine the competence and honesty of the IPCC and the EPA by examining the record of over 43 years of atmospheric temperature trends, where the greenhouse gases are. Dr. Roy Spencer, the University of Alabama in Huntsville reports the global average lower tropospheric temperature increase as of June 30.
“The linear warming trend since January 1979, still stands at +0.13 C/decade (+0.11 C/decade over the global-averaged oceans, and +0.18 C/decade over global-averaged land).”
The best global temperature record existing creates serious doubt to dangerous warming. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy and Measurement Issues – Atmosphere.
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How Effective? Justice Kagan begins her dissent to limiting the EPA’s control of US power plants with the false claim: “Climate change’s causes and dangers are no longer subject to serious doubt.” Kagan obviously believes (A) that the US is a major contributor to atmospheric CO2; (B) that CO2 is the major cause of climate change; and (C) that the climate is rapidly changing for the worse. All those beliefs are wrong.
According to Our World in Data in 2020 CO2 emissions totaled 34.8 billion tonnes worldwide. Major regions for emissions were China, 10.7 tonnes (31%); Asia excluding China and India, 7.2 billion tonnes (21%); US 4.7 billion (14%); EU 2.6 billion (7%); India 2.4 billion (7%); and Europe excluding EU 2.4 billion (7%). “The US and Europe now account for just under one-third of emissions.” One must realize that these numbers are approximate, but they are probably as good as any.
So, do we have an administration and judges in the US that wish to ignore the Constitutional separation of Federal governmental powers and punish American industry and the public because they believe Americans who emit 14% of the global CO2 emissions are causing a climate crisis for which they have no physical evidence? Further, they claim that power plants that emit one-quarter of US emissions, less than 4% of the world’s total emissions, are causing human and environmental harm?
Climate has changed without help from humans or CO2 since the dawn of time. Owing to abundant energy, mostly from fossil fuels, the world has never been a more habitable place for humans. See https://ourworldindata.org/co2-emissions
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Trapping Heat? Greenhouse gases prevent the land surfaces from becoming too cold at night to support life by delaying heat energy in certain frequencies (wave lengths) from escaping to space. Yet these gases allow visible light to pass through. Ecologist Jim Steele has another good, simple presentation on the Greenhouse Effect.
Francis Menton had a thought contest on which country or US state government would say no more. Trying to operate a modern civilization with no carbon dioxide emissions is impossible. To Menton, Germany is the clear winner. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy and Science, Policy, and Evidence.
SEPP’S APRIL FOOLS AWARD – THE JACKSON
SEPP is conducting its annual vote for the recipient of the coveted trophy, The Jackson, a lump of coal. Readers are asked to nominate and vote for who they think is most deserving. The entire Biden Administration won in 2021, so individuals in it are still eligible.
The voting will close on July 30. Please send your nominee and a brief reason the person is qualified for the honor to [email protected]. The awardee will be announced at the annual meeting of the Doctors for Disaster Preparedness on August 14 to 16 at the South Point Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas. Registration: https://aaps.wufoo.com/forms/qb79fo31o62uh1/; Hotel: https://be.synxis.com/?adult=1&arrive=2022-08-14&chain=6903&child=0¤cy=USD&depart=2022-08-15&group=DOC0811&hotel=11548&level=hotel&locale=en-US&rooms=1
Number of the Week: Down 80%, up 50%. The Biden Administration may start sales of oil leases on Federal lands soon. In April, it announced that the acreage for lease will be 80% less than previously announced and royalties will be increase by 50%. Restricting US development of energy resources and increasing US prices on energy is how the administration is opposing the Russian invasion of Ukraine? See links under Washington’s Control of Energy.
Challenging the Orthodoxy — NIPCC
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science
Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2013
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/CCR/CCR-II/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Idso, Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2014
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-biological-impacts/
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/media-library/pdfs/CCR-IIb/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://store.heartland.org/shop/ccr-ii-fossil-fuels/
Download with no charge:
Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
The NIPCC Report on the Scientific Consensus
By Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), Nov 23, 2015
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/
Download with no charge:
https://www.heartland.org/policy-documents/why-scientists-disagree-about-global-warming
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
Global Sea-Level Rise: An Evaluation of the Data
By Craig D. Idso, David Legates, and S. Fred Singer, Heartland Policy Brief, May 20, 2019
Media claims CO2 “traps heat”! A big lie or a big stupid???
By Jim Steele, A Walk On The Natural Side, June 27, 2022
Text: https://perhapsallnatural.blogspot.com/2022/06/media-claims-co2-traps-heat-big-lie-or.html
Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36dAG3YkqSE
Climate Alarmist Claim Fact Checks
By Joseph D’Aleo, CCM, June 25, 2022
http://icecap.us/index.php/go/political-climate/alarmist_claim_rebuttals_updated/
Junk Science Week: Net-Zero Edition — Ross McKitrick: Junk science has led to junk policies
The way out of this mess begins by getting back to mainstream economics
By:Ross McKitrick, Special to Financial Post, June 24, 2022
https://financialpost.com/opinion/junk-science-week-net-zero-edition-ross-mckitrick-junk-science-has-led-to-junk-policies
Fossil-fuel price spikes are causing pain but little climate payoff
By Bjorn Lomborg, New York Post, June 19, 2022
https://nypost.com/2022/06/19/fossil-fuel-price-spikes-are-causing-pain-but-little-climate-payoff/
“While Western governments are blaming Russia’s war on Ukraine, prices were already rising because of climate policies designed to choke fossil-fuel investment. Since the 2015 Paris agreement was inked, the world’s 1,200 biggest energy corporations have slashed capital investment in oil and gas by more than two-thirds.”
The Moon’s climate influence detected
By David Whitehouse, Net Zero Watch, June 24, 2022
Link to paper: The modelled climatic response to the 18.6-year lunar nodal cycle and its role in decadal temperature trends
By Manoj Joshi, et al. EGUsphere, Apr 26, 2022
https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2022/egusphere-2022-151/
Distinguished Professor: “Fed Up” With “Religious Climate Claptrap”…”Green Energy Fantasies”
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, June 25, 2022
Defending the Orthodoxy
Aussie Climate Minister Promises to Legislate Away that Evil CO2
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 29, 2022
War Puts Climate Change on the Back Burner
By Karl Maier, Bloomberg, June 28, 2022
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/newsletters/2022-06-28/war-puts-climate-change-on-the-back-burner-balance-of-power
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Counting the true cost of climate change
By John Howell, GreenBiz, June 29, 2022
https://www.greenbiz.com/article/counting-true-cost-climate-change
“That poll reports that firms currently spend an average of $533,000 annually while voluntarily providing the information that the SEC’s rule would require.”
“For perspective, measure that projected $533,000 against this number: $270 billion. That’s the total of global losses from extreme weather events in 2021, according to an annual report by insurer Swiss Re. Losses from floods alone, the No. 1 cause, are growing at a faster pace than global GDP. And insured losses have been on a long-term growth trend of 5-7 percent for a while, accelerated by climate change.”
[SEPP Comment: Distorted comparison, Climate has been changing for hundreds of millions of years. The great distortion of science by the UN IPCC and its followers gives the false implication that humans can control climate.]
Climate change: These cities are on track for extreme conditions by 2050
By Katharina Buchholz, World Economic Forum, Jun 28, 2022
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/climate-change-cities-experience-climate-extremes
Link to study cited as NEW: Understanding climate change from a global analysis of city analogues
By Jean-Francois Bastin, et al. Plos One, July 10, 2019
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217592
“Manila in the Philippines will be almost 4°C hotter and Rangoon in Myanmar is expected to be almost 6°C hotter.”
[SEPP Comment: Also, Tehran will by 6.2°C hotter and Tashkent, Uzbekistan, 6.1°C hotter.]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
If only they knew that they don’t know
By John Robeson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 29, 2022
In the first chapter of his Autobiography John Stuart Mill recalls vividly the rebuke he received from his home-schooling father for saying something could be true in theory but not in practice, ‘leaving me fully persuaded that in being unable to give a correct definition of Theory, and in speaking of it as something which might be at variance with practice, I had shown unparalleled ignorance.’ It is a passage on which climate alarmists particularly need to reflect at this point, as their theories increasingly fail to predict or explain what really happens.” [Boldface added.]
Reining in the Bureaucrats
The courts are getting increasingly skeptical of the ‘administrative state’
By Adam J. White, Commentary, July/August 2022
“Particularly with enactment of the Administrative Procedure Act of 1946, Congress attempted to standardize the agencies’ process for making regulations or deciding cases; it made the former look more legislative, and the latter more judicial. It did so for laudable reasons, including efficiency and accountability.”
[SEPP Comment: Assessing whether the court ruling applies to a sweeping proposed rules by the SEC and FTC.]
Warming is cooling and everything is bad
By John Robeson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 29, 2022
“As so often, behind the pseudo-precision and apocalyptic language nobody really has the faintest idea what’s going on. ‘The occurrence of two consecutive La Niña winters in the Northern Hemisphere is common but having three in a row is relatively rare. A ‘triple dip’ La Niña – lasting three years in a row – has happened only twice since 1950.’ Which isn’t very rare. And what was going on before 1950? Well, toss a coin, really.”
Sea Level Rise Acceleration – An Alternative Hypothesis – Part 2
By Dr Alan Welch FBIS FRAS, Ledbury, UK, WUWT, June 29, 2022
“It is also difficult to judge what is an acceptable time range that may give meaningful predictions. In some tidal data 100 years is still insufficient. Satellite data may be more accurate but it still early days to judge behaviour let alone predict the future.”
New Study Affirms Temperatures Determine Greenhouse Gas Forcing Trends, Not The Other Way Around
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, June 30, 2022
Link to latest accepted paper: Trends in Downwelling Longwave Radiance over the Southern Great Plains
By Lei Liu, et al. JGR Atmospheres, 2022
Energy is Power but the West’s starving itself
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 28, 2022
Junk Science Week: Net-Zero Edition — John Constable & Debra Lieberman: The energy of nations and the creation of wealth
Faltering or falling energy consumption, particularly electricity, is not an indication of a healthy economy
By John Constable and Debra Lieberman, Special to Financial Post (Can), Jun 24, 2022
https://financialpost.com/opinion/junk-science-week-net-zero-edition-john-constable-debra-lieberman-the-energy-of-nations-and-the-creation-of-wealth
Invisible Demons
By Tony Heller, His Blog, June 30, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/06/invisible-demons/
[SEPP Comment: Exposing many false predictions by experts.]
Fifty-Seven Years Into The Scam
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 1, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/07/fifty-seven-years-into-the-scam/
[SEPP Comment: 1965 speech by President Johnson when urban air pollution was a real problem in the US.]
On Free Market Energy Advocacy
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, June 29, 2022
After Paris!
Bonn voyage
By John Robeson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 29, 2022
“As Climate Home News put it, and even this assessment could be accused of unwarranted optimism, ‘The sense of urgency that emanated from Cop26 continued to fizzle out this week, as the climate diplomacy hardcore gathered in Germany for the Bonn climate talks.’ The Financial Times was blunter: ‘UN climate talks end in acrimony and accusations of betrayal’”
Change in US Administrations
Biden’s Abuse of Defense Production Act Will Drive Gas Prices Even Higher
By Jason Isaac, Real Clear Policy, June 24, 2022
https://www.realclearpolicy.com/articles/2022/06/24/bidens_abuse_of_defense_production_act_will_drive_gas_prices_even_higher_838977.html
Biden Maladministration Lies Again: Draft Offshore Leasing Plan Not Delivered as Promised
By David Middleton, WUWT, July 1, 2022
Why Biden Keeps Lying About Energy
The president finally admits we need more oil refineries but lies about supply
By Michael Shellenberger, His Blog, June 21, 2022
https://michaelshellenberger.substack.com/p/why-biden-keeps-lying-about-energy
The Biden Administration Hits Peak Energy Absurdity
By Anne Bradbury, Real Clear Energy, June 27, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/06/27/the_biden_administration_hits_peak_energy_absurdity_838966.html
The Best-Mislaid Plans of Mice and Men Often Go Awry: Biden Oil Edition
The LNG Export Plan
By David Middleton, WUWT, June 28, 2022
“There have been lease sales every year since the passage of the Submerged Lands Act (SLA) of 1953. 2022 will likely be the first year without a lease sale, the second if you count 2021. BOEM held Sale 257 in November 2021; however, a corrupt Obama judge voided it… Because climate change.”
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
CO2: Negating Ozone for Plant Productivity
By Craig D. Idso, Master Resource, June 28, 2022
[SEPP Comment: On ground level ozone, not stratospheric ozone that contributes to the greenhouse effect. “Stratospheric ozone is formed naturally through the interaction of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation with molecular oxygen (O2). The ‘ozone layer,’ approximately 6 through 30 miles above the Earth’s surface, reduces the amount of harmful UV radiation reaching the Earth’s surface.”]
https://www.epa.gov/ozone-pollution-and-your-patients-health/what-ozone
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Climate pledges vanish in Europe
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 27, 2022
Soaring Global Coal Use Is Obliterating Emission Reductions Achieved in the U.S. Since 2005
By Robert Bryce, Real Clear Energy, June 26, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/06/26/soaring_global_coal_use_is_obliterating_emission_reductions_achieved_in_the_us_since_2005_839166.html
Seeking a Common Ground
There Are Two Fundamentally Irreconcilable Constitutional Visions
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, July 1, 2022
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-7-1-there-are-two-fundamentally-irreconcilable-constitutional-visions
Changes in the Greenland Ice Sheet Mass: Crisis in the Making, or Example of Uncertainty in Climate Science?
By Michael F. Cochrane, WUWT, June 29, 2022
“Acknowledging the uncertainty surrounding climate science should lead to a strong sense of humility. Scientists are not advocates. They must provide policy makers with the best evidence, but do so humbly, acknowledging that their conclusions will likely have a major impact, not only on the world economy, but also on the flourishing of billions of vulnerable human beings.”
Science, Policy, and Evidence
And The Winner Is, Germany!
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, June 29, 2022
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-6-29-and-the-winner-is-germany
An Unnecessary Tragedy: The New Mexico Hermit’s Peak Fire
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, June 28, 2022
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2022/06/an-unnecessary-tragedy-new-mexico.html
“Finally, there should be a special place in Hades for those in the media and in the government that blame such forest mismanagement and prescribed burn missteps on climate change, as illustrated by the article and headline below in the Seattle Times. Such misinformation/disinformation undermines our ability to fix western forests and puts people and the natural environment at risk.”
Only a government could lose money on this one
By John Robeson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 29, 2022
“The Canadian government is setting challenging benchmarks for any state hoping to achieve fame for incompetence. Having bought the Trans-Mountain Pipeline Expansion (TMX to insiders), one of the few domestic energy megaprojects it had not managed to destroy, despite a boom in energy prices it seems poised to lose a fortune on it.”
Models v. Observations
‘A Significant And Robust Cooling Trend’ In The Southern Ocean From 1982–2020 Defies Climate Models
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, June 27, 2022
Link to latest paper: Understanding Sea Surface Temperature Cooling in the Central-East Pacific Sector of the Southern Ocean During 1982–2020
By Xiaoqi Xu, et al. Chinese Academy of Sciences, Geophysical Research Letters, May 11, 2022
http://hg.lasg.ac.cn/ueditor/php/upload/file/20220525/1653459783138717.pdf
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
UAH Global Temperature Update for June 2022: +0.06 deg. C
By Roy Spencer, His Blog, July 1, 2022
“The linear warming trend since January, 1979, still stands at +0.13 C/decade (+0.11 C/decade over the global-averaged oceans, and +0.18 C/decade over global-averaged land).”
Changing Weather
Precision agriculture for South Asia
By Judith Curry, Climate Etc. June 27, 2022
“Our client is Precision Development (PxD). PxD is a global non-profit organization that builds low-cost information systems at scale to share knowledge with the world’s poorest and most disadvantaged people. I am extremely impressed by what PxD is doing and their personnel, and we welcome this project as a way to return to CFAN’s [Climate Forecast Applications Network] roots – our first project was flood forecasting in Bangladesh.”
Global decrease in tropical cyclones identified by Australian scientists
By Ben Deacon, ABC News, Weather, June 28, 2022 [H/t WUWT]
https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-06-28/cyclone-frequency-decline-worldwide-climate-change/101189558
Link to paper: Declining tropical cyclone frequency under global warming
By Savin S. Chand, et al. Nature Climate Change, June 27, 2022
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01388-4
[SEPP Comment: Questionable: Uses “a reconstructed long-term proxy of annual TC [tropical cyclone] numbers together with high-resolution climate model experiments.”]
Climate Change Weekly #439: Hurricanes Not Increasing, Despite Warming
By H. Sterling Burnett, Environment & Climate News, June 30, 2022
Extreme Weather In The Past: Germany’s Great Drought Of 1947 And Its “Catastrophic” Consequences
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, June 26, 2022
Changing Seas
Of rising seas and cities
By John Robeson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 29, 2022
Rebels to the Coral Reef Cause (Part 1)
By Jennifer Marohasy, Her Blog, July 1, 2022
“Everybody claims to care about the Great Barrier Reef, but very few people take the time to actually visit it. The reports of mass coral bleaching this past summer are mostly from aerial surveys flown at 150 metres altitude in aeroplanes and helicopters. I have repeatedly argued that you can’t see very much from that distance.
“The Institute of Public Affairs have a new program that is all about getting young people out to see the Great Barrier Reef – not from an aeroplane but we will be getting into and under the water. The program kicks off next week and I am so excited to be one of the guides.”
CDN by the Sea: Gibara, Cuba
By John Robeson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 29, 2022
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
Claim: data exists showing polar bear body condition improves over summer on sea ice
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, June 29, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Does it?]
Svalbard polar bear data for spring 2022, low June ice unlikely to affect health or survival
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, June 26, 2022
“Mid-May is close to the end of the field season in the Barents Sea [between Svalbard and Russia] (and also the end of the intense feeding of polar bears on newborn seals as well as the end of the mating season), so these ice conditions are the most pertinent to recent polar bear body health metrics:”
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Putin guarantees supply of fertilizers to Brazil
By AFP Staff Writers, Brasilia (AFP), June 27, 2022
https://www.seeddaily.com/reports/Putin_guarantees_supply_of_fertilizers_to_Brazil_999.html
[SEPP Comment: Brazil is the major US competitor in exports of soybeans and maize (corn).
Lowering Standards
How a severe drought in Africa caused whitethroat population to drop
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 30, 2022
“Even by the Guardian’s lowly standards, this is down there with the worst:”
In spite of Stephen Moss’s assertions, The Sahel has long experienced a series of historic droughts, dating back to at least the 17th century. They have nothing to do with his ‘changing climate’”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
The Telegraph’s Reputation Slowly Sinks Beneath The Waves
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 27, 2022
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Extreme temperatures linked to nearly 1 million deaths
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, June 30, 2022
[SEPP Comment: The study is based on the false estimates by the IPCC on how CO2 changes temperatures.]
Global burn area declining since 2013
By John Robeson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 29, 2022
Natural gas used in homes may contain hazardous air pollutants: study
By Sharon Udasin, The Hill, June 28, 2022
Link to study: Home is Where the Pipeline Ends: Characterization of Volatile Organic Compounds Present in Natural Gas at the Point of the Residential End User
By Drew R. Michanowicz, et al. Environmental Science Technology, June 28, 2022
https://pubs.acs.org/doi/10.1021/acs.est.1c08298
From abstract: “…contributing to a mean total concentration of NMVOCs [Non-methane volatile organic compounds] in distribution-grade NG of 6.0 ppmv”
[SEPP Comment: From the burner, why is this meaningful?]
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
Forecast For 22nd June 2050
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 27, 2022
“The Met Office has taken to sending out forecasts of weather in three decades time, despite the fact that they are useless at forecasting more than a couple of days in advance!”
Communicating Better to the Public – Do a Poll?
Europeans Badly Underestimate Scientists’ Agreement on Climate Change
A survey of people in six countries found they guessed the level of scientific consensus on climate change to be much lower than it actually is.
By Kevin Simauchi, Bloomberg, June 29, 2022
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-06-29/scientists-agree-on-man-made-climate-change-more-than-people-think
“Duffy said that public opinion projects like the King’s College study ‘add a great deal of weight to national governments and supranational governments — the bodies like the European Union — to actually do something about’ climate change since their citizens are worried about it.”
[SEPP Comment: The useful poll is: How worried? How much are you willing to sacrifice?]
You’ve likely been affected by climate change. Your long-term finances might be, too
By Rebecca Hersher, NPR, June 21, 2022
https://www.npr.org/2022/06/21/1102389274/climate-change-costs-extreme-weather
Link to national poll: The Impact of Extreme Weather on Views about Climate Policy in the United States
By Staff, NPR, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22064906-weather_climatechangereport_final?responsive=1&title=1
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
What we need is a climate movement
By John Robeson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 29, 2022
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
“Get a Real Job”: NSW Deputy Premier Lashes Out at Climate Protestors
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 29, 2022
“This would all be a lot more satisfying if Paul Toole, who told protestors to ‘get a real job’, was not himself an outspoken net zero supporter.”
British Eco-Terrorist Group Attacks SUVs in New York
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, July 1, 2022
Expanding the Orthodoxy
Climate change is already altering everything, from fertility choices to insuring our homes
By Stefan Ellerbeck, World Economic Forum, Jun 24, 2022
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/06/climate-change-weather-extreme-health/
“Freezing weather in Texas in February 2021 triggered the United States’ most severe energy blackout of all time, leading to shutdowns at three major semiconductor plants and adding to the global shortage of microchips.”
[SEPP Comment: From CO2-caused warming? Photo complete with smoking smokestacks, who knows where or when, or is the apparent smoke just steam.? What about the 1938 hurricane?]
G-7 leaders to set up a ‘Climate Club’ and take immediate action to secure energy supply
By Anmar Frangoul, CNBC, Sustainable Future, June 28, 2022
https://www.cnbc.com/2022/06/28/g-7-leaders-to-set-up-a-climate-club.html
[SEPP Comment: A sustainable future using electrical generation that cannot sustain itself?]
Questioning European Green
A Fully Green Grid: At What Cost?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 26, 2022
Link to article: A Fully Green Grid: At What Cost?
By Connor Tomlison, C3, Getting climate, energy & environment news right, Dec 13, 2021
Electricity Rationing: The Shameful Hallmark of Britain’s Green Energy Failure
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 29, 2022
Germany’s Green-made Gas Crisis: warnings of rationing and Lehman Brothers-Style Financial Collapse
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 26, 2022
German Energy Crisis: Economics Minister Tells Citizens To Shower Less, Colder…”Gas Bills To Triple”!
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, June 29, 2022
“The German government is now advising citizens to install “energy-saving shower heads”, which could save a household 446 euros a year, cut shower time by two minutes and the temperature to 36 degrees to save another 250 euros annually.”
The Political Games Continue
Five Real Solutions to Joe Biden’s Failures on Energy
By Larry Behrens, Real Clear Energy, June 23, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/06/23/five_real_solutions_to_joe_bidens_failure_on_energy_838928.html
Where’s the Beef? Democratic Senators Want an Offshore Oil and Natural Gas Plan without Any Lease Sales
By William Allison, Energy In Depth, June 29, 2022
Litigation Issues
Progressive Utopian Vision Versus The Constitution
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, June 23, 2022
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2022-6-23-progressive-utopian-vision-versus-the-constitution
Supreme Court curtails EPA’s authority to fight climate change
By Amy Howe, Scotus Blog, June 30, 2022 [H/t Ron Clutz]
“But that is exactly what Congress intended, Kagan suggested, because of the EPA’s expertise on environmental issues. Noting that the ‘stakes here are high,’ Kagan lamented that Thursday’s ruling “prevents congressionally authorized agency action to curb power plants’ carbon dioxide emissions. The Court appoints itself — instead of Congress or the expert agency — the decision-maker on climate policy. I cannot think of many things more frightening.’”
Supreme Court reins in EPA on Clean Power Plan!
Editorial, CFACT, June 30, 2022
https://www.cfact.org/2022/06/30/supreme-court-reins-in-epa/?mc_cid=2751e76fa5&mc_eid=ffd82d3222
Link to full decision:
http://www.cfact.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/Supreme-Court-West-Virginia-vs-EPA.pdf
Huge: EPA Loses–America Wins
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, June 30, 2022
West Virginia AG calls Supreme Court EPA ruling a ‘huge victory’
By Sarakshi Bai, The Hill, June 30, 2022
MILLOY: SCOTUS Has Crippled Biden’s EPA, But There’s Only One Way to Stop Them for Good
By Steve Milloy, WUWT, July 1, 2022
The Supreme Court Just Dealt a Major Blow to the Green Left—and a Major Win for Democracy
By Joel Kotkin, Newsweek, June 30, 2022
https://www.newsweek.com/supreme-court-just-dealt-major-blow-green-left-major-win-democracy-opinion-1720757
“The new Court may be too doctrinaire in its states’ rights approach, as we have seen in the sweeping Roe and gun decision, but so far it has hewn to an important principle: Major policies should have approval from elected representatives rather than being handed down from the bureaucratic Olympus.”
Cheap Is The New Expensive
By Tony Heller, His Blog, July 1, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/07/cheap-is-the-new-expensive/
The Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling Is Going to Be Very, Very Expensive
The agency can still regulate carbon pollution, just not in the most efficient, system-wide ways.
By Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic, June 30, 2022 [H/t Tony Heller]
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2022/06/scotus-epa-ruling-west-virginia/661448/
[SEPP Comment: Great propaganda photo of red smoke from a chimney, turning orange to black farther away. Invisible carbon dioxide has all the colors of a chameleon.]
Supreme Court’s EPA ruling could put other regs in danger
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, June 30, 2022
EPA and other Regulators on the March
EPA Administrator Regan Issues Statement on West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency
Press Release, EPA, June 30, 2022
https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-administrator-regan-issues-statement-west-virginia-v-environmental-protection
US Supreme Court puts unelected Deep State Kingmakers back in their box
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 2, 2022
“Since when was the Environmental Protection Agency meant to create jobs, lower costs, and ensure US competitiveness, and if they can do that, who needs Congress?”
Energy Issues – Non-US
Remember when The West could afford electricity 24 hours a day?
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 29, 2022
“Last month UK Ministers were warned that six million households could enjoy blackouts for dinner this winter. To try to stave off disaster, the UK Business Secretary has already written to the owners of the last three remaining coal fired power plants to ask them to stay running through winter. This is despite them being set to close in September.”
Coal: Europe’s security blanket, the Third World’s necessity
By Vijay Jayaraj, American Thinker, June 28, 2022
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2022/06/coal_europes_security_blanket_the_third_worlds_necessity.html
“Yet poorer countries are pressed to forgo the benefit of abundant and affordable energy from coal, oil, and gas. For someone living in a third-world country, this attitude of the West is hypocritical and lacks compassion, reminiscent of an era when colonizers sought control over the lives of subjects.”
[SEPP Comment: The West should be helping the poor by providing the technology and means to filter harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, not denying them on the false claim the carbon dioxide is a pollutant.]
Macron tells Biden that UAE, Saudi can barely raise oil output
By Garmisch Partenkirchen, Reuters, June 28. 2022
https://www.reuters.com/world/macron-tells-biden-that-uea-saudi-can-barely-raise-oil-output-2022-06-27/
“Saudi Arabia is producing 10.5 million bpd and has a nameplate capacity of 12.0 million-12.5 million bpd, which in theory shall allow it to raise production by 2 million.
“The UAE is producing some 3 million bpd, has capacity of 3.4 million and has been working on raising it to 4 million bpd.
“Europe is looking for ways to replace as much as 2 million bpd of Russian crude and some 2 million bpd of refined products it had been importing from Moscow before the Ukraine war.”
Unlock the benefits! Parliamentarians call for fracking review to be based on science
By Staff, Net Zero Watch, June 25, 2022
Energy Issues – Australia
Australia Is Facing An Energy Crisis Despite Abundance Of Natural Gas
By Felicity Bradstock, Oil Price.com, June 28, 2022,
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/Australia-Is-Facing-An-Energy-Crisis-Despite-Abundance-Of-Natural-Gas.html
Just throw money: AEMO (the Australian Energy Market Operator) demands $12b gift to build 10,000 km of new transmission lines for Renewables
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, July 1, 2022
“The costs of these renewable interconnectors are staggering”
“…and some people wonder why ‘free’ energy is so expensive.”
Energy Issues — US
‘Ten Policies to Unleash American Energy and Fuel Recovery’ (API gets nine of ten right)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, June 27, 2022
Biden Admin Blunders U.S. Refining Capacity
By William Allison, Energy In Depth, June 15, 2022
Watchdog finds Granholm violated Hatch Act, issues warning
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, June 29, 2022
“A government watchdog has found that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm violated the Hatch Act after she made comments in support of the Democratic Party but let her off with a warning because she had not received proper training.”
[SEPP Comment: Proper training in the importance of reliable electricity?]
Opinion: US LNG is becoming a zero-sum game
The US is now a world-beating gas exporter, but the spoils of LNG market dominance are increasingly coming at the expense of US consumers via higher gas prices. Renewables stand to benefit, but tail risks abound.
By Seb Kennedy, Energy Monitor, June 17, 2022
https://www.energymonitor.ai/analysis/opinion-us-lng-is-becoming-a-zero-sum-game
Washington’s Control of Energy
Biden administration to hold its first oil drilling lease sales on federal lands
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, June 28, 2022
“When it announced the sales in April, the Interior Department said it was shrinking the overall land it was making available by 80 percent compared to the total amount of land it originally considered for the sale.
“The department also announced that it would hike fees that oil companies pay to the government for the oil they extract, raising royalty rates from the 12.5 percent imposed on previous sales to 18.75 percent for the new sales.”
In the Gulf of Mexico, Biden Is Picking Politics Over Policy
By Erik Milito, Real Clear Energy, June 29, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/06/29/in_the_gulf_of_mexico_biden_is_picking_politics_over_policy_839991.html
Mountain Valley Pipeline: 94 Percent Complete, FERC 6 Percent Incomplete
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, June 30, 2022
“This is Biden energy policy in full view.”
“As proposed, the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) project is a natural gas pipeline system that spans approximately 303 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia – and as an interstate pipeline will be regulated by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC)….
“With a vast supply of natural gas from Marcellus and Utica shale production, the Mountain Valley Pipeline is expected to provide up to two million dekatherms per day [two billion cubic feet (Bcf) per day] of firm transmission capacity to markets in the Mid- and South Atlantic regions of the United States…. As stated in the formal application, Mountain Valley Pipeline has secured firm commitments for the full capacity of the MVP project under 20-year contracts.”
No, President Biden, Releasing Petroleum Reserves Isn’t Bringing Down Gas Prices
By Mark R. Robeck, Real Clear Energy, June 30, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/06/30/no_president_biden_releasing_petroleum_reserves_isnt_bringing_down_gas_prices_840028.html
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
BP Energy Outlook 2022
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 26, 2022
Link to Energy Outlook 2022
By Staff, BP, 2022
https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/energy-outlook.html
“The carbon budget is running out:”
“Government ambitions globally have grown markedly in the past few years”
From Homewood: “I don’t know which world BP is living on, but it certainly is not this one!
“Instead of feeding government and UN agendas here, BP should be spelling out the real world, technological obstacles to this crazy Net Zero agenda.
“Otherwise, we will simply continue down the path of economic ruin, while the rest of the world carries on as before.”
What Biden Is Getting Wrong About Big Oil’s Profits
By Robert Rapier, Oil Price.com, Jun 18, 2022
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/What-Biden-Is-Getting-Wrong-About-Big-Oils-Profits.html
“In the most recent quarter, ExxonMobil reported $5.5 billion in net income. If that’s ‘more than God’, I wonder how President Biden would quantify Apple’s $25.0 billion for the quarter. Five times more than God?”
Dallas Fed: Surging Costs Hamper U.S. Shale Growth
By Tsvetana Paraskova, Oil Price.com, June 23, 2022
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Dallas-Fed-Surging-Costs-Hamper-US-Shale-Growth.html
Oil Spills, Gas Leaks & Consequences
LNG explosion shines light on 42-year-old gas rules
By Mike Soraghan, Mike Lee, E & E Energy Wire, June 28, 2022
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Chasing Utopian Energy: How I Wasted 20 Years of My Life
By Brian Gitt, Real Clear Energy, June 26, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/06/26/chasing_utopian_energy_how_i_wasted_20_years_of_my_life_839185.html
Opinion: Distribution of value in the wind industry is broken – it’s time for a new settlement
Former Siemens Gamesa insider says turbine manufacturers are in dire need of the bright future they were promised
By Ben Hunt, Windpower Monthly, June 27, 2022 [H/t WUWT]
https://www.windpowermonthly.com/article/1791224/opinion-distribution-value-wind-industry-broken-%E2%80%93-its-time-new-settlement
Claim: The Wind Turbine Industry is Running Out of Money
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 30, 2022
Solar power is about to become a lot more expensive for Hoosiers as net metering expires
By Sarah Bowman, Indianapolis Star, June 29, 2022
https://www.indystar.com/story/news/environment/2022/06/29/solar-panels-energy-rooftop-indiana-expensive-electric-bills-power/7758887001/
[SEPP Comment: Ignores the cost of maintaining reliability.]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Shepherd’s Bush fire: Apartment blaze near Grenfell Tower sparked by e-bike
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 26, 2022
[SEPP Comment: Is an e-bike in a high-rise as dangerous as a can of gasoline?]
Carbon Schemes
Silliness of Carbon Capture and Sequestration
By Benjamin Zycher, Real Clear Energy, June 29, 2022
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2022/06/27/the_silliness_of_carbon_capture_and_sequestration_838968.html
[SEPP Comment: The author makes a small error and cites the average increase over global averaged land. The linear warming trend over the lower troposphere since January 1979, is plus 0.13 degrees C per decade over the entire globe (except extreme polar regions).]
Health, Energy, and Climate
Pollution linked to 10% of cancer cases in Europe: report
By AFP Staff Writers, Copenhagen (AFP) June 27, 2022
https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Pollution_linked_to_10_of_cancer_cases_in_Europe_report_999.html
“Exposure to second-hand smoke may increase the overall risk for all cancers by up to 16 percent for people who have never been smokers, it added.”
[SEPP Comment: Mathematical absurdity!]
Environmental Industry
The Catastrophic Environmental Consequences Of Russia’s Invasion Of Ukraine
By RFE/RL staff, Oil Price.com, Jun 28, 2022
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/The-Catastrophic-Environmental-Consequences-Of-Russias-Invasion-Of-Ukraine.html
[SEPP Comment: Mass killing must be more environmentally sensitive?]
Other Scientific News
Learning to live in a warming world: how pool frogs do it
By John Robeson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 29, 2022
From CO2 Science, July 25, 2016
“…to persist under changing environmental conditions, organisms can respond through migration, plasticity and/or genetic adaptation.”
“Curious about this situation, the two Swedish scientists ‘examined variation in developmental plasticity to changing temperature in the pool frog.”
Famous Sterkfontein Caves deposit 1 million years older than previously thought
By Staff Writers, Johannesburg, South Africa (SPX), Jun 28, 2022
https://www.terradaily.com/reports/Famous_Sterkfontein_Caves_deposit_1_million_years_older_than_previously_thought_999.html
Link to paper: Cosmogenic nuclide dating of Australopithecus at Sterkfontein, South Africa
By Darryl E. Granger, et al. PNAS, June 27, 2022
https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2123516119
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
“It’s dramatic It’s disturbing,”
By Tony Heller, His Blog, June 30, 2022
https://realclimatescience.com/2022/06/its-dramatic-its-disturbing-2/
“Historically, the claim of consensus has been the first refuge of scoundrels; it is a way to avoid debate by claiming that the matter is already settled.”― Michael Crichton
[SEPP Comment: Greenland is melting away, never happened before. The Titanic was sunk by an alien iceberg?]
And She’s The [US] Energy Secretary!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 30, 2022
Video [SEPP Comment: The whim that oil and gas prices will be defeated by wind and solar driven by the whim of nature?]
Friday Funny: Kerry the Climate Czar?
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, July 1, 2022
Just Stop Oil Paintings: Climate Activists Glue Themselves to Art by Van Gogh, Turner
By Jack Montgomery, Breitbart, July 1, 2022
https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2022/07/01/just-stop-oil-paintings-climate-activists-glue-themselves-to-art-by-van-gogh-turner/
Bee-eaters in Norfolk ‘worrying sign of climate change’
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 30, 2022
The Energy Crisis Is a National-Security Opportunity
It gives Biden the chance to offer a clear narrative: accelerating the move to clean energy is crucial to keeping America safe.
By Morgan Bazilian and Emily Holland, Defense One, June 23, 2022
https://www.defenseone.com/ideas/2022/06/energy-crisis-national-security-opportunity/368532/
[SEPP Comment: Do these professors believe we can run jet fighters on solar power?]
ARTICLES
1. The EPA acts as though it has the legislative authority to re-engineer the nation’s electric generating system and power grid. It does not.
By Laurence H. Tribe, WSJ, Dec. 22, 2014
https://www.wsj.com/articles/laurence-tribe-the-epas-clean-power-plan-is-unconstitutional-1419293203
Carbon Pollution Emission Guidelines for Existing Stationary Sources: Electric Utility Generating Units
Comments of Laurence H. Tribe and Peabody Energy Corporation, Dec 1, 2014
TWTW Summary: Discussed in the main text above.
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2. Behind Biden’s EPA Power Grab
A pen and phone are no substitute for a statute duly passed by Congress.
By Mario Loyola and Eric Groten, WSJ, June 30, 2022
https://www.wsj.com/articles/behind-bidens-epa-power-grab-climate-change-power-plants-greehouse-gas-emissions-regulation-supreme-court-11656626563?mod=hp_opin_pos_5#cxrecs_s
TWTW Summary: The attorneys write:
“The Environmental Protection Agency had its way with both the Clean Air Act and the U.S. Constitution for decades. The Supreme Court’s decision Thursday in West Virginia v. EPA may be the beginning of the end of this baleful era. It closes the window on sweeping climate action by federal agencies without a congressional mandate.
“In a 6-3 decision by Chief Justice John Roberts, the court held that the Clean Air Act doesn’t authorize the Clean Power Plan, or CPP, through which the Obama administration sought to force America’s electricity sector to switch to renewable sources. The plan would limit each state’s total allowable greenhouse gas-emissions under the banner of ‘performance standards’ for power plants. That was the strategy the EPA had pursued for nearly a decade as its best option for imposing climate regulations by unilateral executive action.
“The EPA’s attempt to impose such a scheme on states was particularly bold because Congress had just declined to enact a similar scheme. After the 2008 election, Democrats introduced the Waxman-Markey bill, a sweeping cap-and-trade scheme to reduce carbon emissions dramatically. Even with Democratic supermajorities in both houses, Congress failed to pass the bill.
“After his party lost the House in 2010 President Obama turned to the EPA, which in 2015 promulgated the Clean Power Plan. The basic idea of the CPP was to pressure states into shutting down coal and (eventually) natural-gas plants and switch to renewable electricity sources. The agency resorted to an obscure provision of the original Clean Air Act that lay largely dormant for decades. It empowers the EPA to designate a ‘best system of emissions reduction,’ or BSER, for existing facilities. The provision had been used only a handful of times, mostly for solid-waste incinerators, to reduce emissions ‘inside the fence line’ of the facility itself.
“The EPA decided that BSERs could extend beyond the fence line to the whole economy. The CPP would have imposed costly technological requirements within its purview, but also imposed standards that would force states to switch to natural gas and eventually renewables. The agency even planned to adopt nationwide standards on how and when you are allowed to use electricity in your own house.”
The authors state there were a host of statutory and constitutional problems with this scheme, and the Trump administrated it with the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia vacated, the Biden administration immediately asked the D.C. Circuit to hold back on reinstating the CPP while it contemplated a new rule. The authors continue:
“States led by West Virginia appealed to the Supreme Court, which decided yesterday that the EPA lacked the statutory authority for the CPP. The justices held that the EPA’s sudden discovery of a ‘transformative expansion’ in its regulatory authority based on an obscure provision of ‘a long-extant statute’ raised a ‘major question’ about the agency’s authority, requiring Congress to speak with far greater clarity than it did in the statute. The EPA’s expansive definition of BSER, the court held, presented every kind of major question that had previously drawn the justices’ skepticism: It entailed impacts of great political significance, sought to regulate a significant portion of the American economy, and intruded into areas that are the province of state law and another agency (the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission).
“One issue the court unfortunately didn’t focus on was the federal coercion of state governments. The EPA normally has the power to do itself whatever it’s asking states to do. But in the CPP, even the EPA admitted that it has no statutory authority to impose directly the measures it was asking states to take. It got around that by using its power to shut down coal plants as leverage to seize control of state policy in areas far beyond its jurisdiction.
“The decision leaves the EPA with one narrow path forward for sweeping climate action, namely the adoption of national ambient air quality standards for carbon dioxide. That would put the agency in the absurd position of setting the right level for a natural component of the Earth’s atmosphere, which states either would automatically attain or could never attain, leading to a train wreck of state implementation plans under the act. That in turn would force the Supreme Court to examine an unheralded federal expansion of its own creation, namely its 2007 holding in Massachusetts v. EPA, which held that carbon dioxide is a pollutant under the Clean Air Act. That made the mess the court finally began to clean up in its decision Thursday.
“In his concurrence, Justice Neil Gorsuch heralded the decision’s historic import: ‘When Congress seems slow to solve problems, it may be only natural that those in the Executive Branch might seek to take matters into their own hands. But the Constitution does not authorize agencies to use pen-and-phone regulations as substitutes for laws passed by the people’s representatives.’”
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