The Worst Climate Stories of the Week—The Trump Effect Now Means Cutting CARBs
It’s the Final Countdown—Not For the Earth, but For the Biden Administration
We’re on final countdown now—it’s a matter of mere hours until Donald Trump’s inauguration as the 47th president of the United States. You can feel the palpable anticipation in the air, all across the country, as we eagerly anticipate the return of Normal America—and the adults in charge. The world senses it, too. Hamas has agreed to free hostages; Mark Zuckerberg donated to Trump’s Inauguration Fund and announced the end of fact-checking; Justin Trudeau went to Mar a Lago, shortly before announcing his resignation as Prime Minister. Even California has backed off some of the climate insanity in its Clean Air Resources Board (CARB).
Yes, really.
In fact, with the Trump effect in full … well … effect, this week’s column contains an equal amount of good climate news as bad news. Then again, we have a California newspaper columnist who got big mad about a TV show “glorifying” petroleum, so clearly the cult will not go out with a mere whimper. We also have a solar community going out of business; and climate journalists desperately trying to tie the California wildfires to global warming.
Our good news segment almost outweighs the bad this week. A scientific study shows ocean currents remain stable, despite dire warnings by the warmists; a judge dismissed New York’s suit against Big Oil; and Trump has started gearing up to suspend the unbelievably wasteful and ugly offshore wind projects of his predecessor.
Let’s get to it.
(Don't miss last week's column: Terrible Green Policies Have a Price)
Trump Makes California Cut CARB
Well, not all of it, but a big rule just got nixed. CARB is the Clean Air Resources Board, the Orwellian state agency in California that tells you what kind of vehicle, stove, and water heater you’re allowed to own to protect the atmosphere. They came up with a rule in 2022 that “established a road map” to get to 100% zero-emission cars and trucks sold in California by 2035. Several other blue states adopted similar restrictions, putting pressure on manufacturers and—by extension—consumers. The rule also included tractor trailers and locomotives. Given the size of California’s economy, that would have an outsized effect on the long-haul trucking industry that keeps America’s supply chain functioning.
This week, CARB abandoned its plans to phase out diesel trucks and locomotives.
The Biden administration had approved the rules for consumer vehicles, but had still not approved the diesel vehicle standards. The left-wing Cal Matters reports:
By withdrawing its requests for U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approval, the Newsom administration is signaling a dramatic step back as the state recalibrates in anticipation of the new Trump era.
“California has withdrawn its pending waiver and authorization requests that U.S. EPA has not yet acted on,” Air Resources Board Chair Liane Randolph said in a statement. “While we are disappointed that U.S. EPA was unable to act on all the requests in time, the withdrawal is an important step given the uncertainty presented by the incoming administration that previously attacked California’s programs to protect public health and the climate, and has said will continue to oppose those programs.”
The climate cultists expressed shock and dismay, while normal Americans reliant on stocked grocery stores cheered.
LA Times TV Critic Bemoans Oil in TV Show about Oil
If you haven’t checked out the new show on Paramount Plus, Landman, you really should. It’s remarkable that in Obama’s America, a dramatic television series would be centered around an oil company land executive who oversees drilling in West Texas, created by the same guy who brought you Yellowstone and its other western-themed spinoffs.
The series stars Billy Bob Thornton in the lead role and has taken off, already approved for a second season. Its success has naturally drawn the eye of climate Sauron, with a spate of recent editorials tut-tutting about its “glorification of Big Oil.” The LA Times, for instance, ran an op-ed by a climate cultist that bemoaned supposed “lies” told by the series:
The lies fly fast and furious as they debate how to respond to society’s burgeoning demand for climate-friendly power. One attendee, for instance, insists that wind energy “is twice as expensive as natural gas, and solar four times as expensive.” False: Wind and solar are actually cheaper than gas, according to the investment bank Lazard, which publishes widely cited annual reports on energy costs.
The same dude claims, “On its best day of the year, a solar power plant generates electricity for about 8 hours.” Based on the word “generate,” you could technically say this is true. But batteries that bank power for after dark have changed the equation. L.A.’s newest solar farm will supply electricity for 11 hours a day, on average.
Going out on a limb here, but it seems unlikely the soy-boy coastal elites will succeed in shaming real America into not watching this show.
New All-Solar Community Goes Bust
Imagine living in Northern Canada and having the primal fear that global warming might some day ruin your frigid way of life. What is one to do? How bout a planned model community using nothing but green energy? The northern latitudes provide relatively low sun conditions for most of the year, so solar seems like the natural choice.
What could go wrong?
North America's first solar-powered residential community has come to an end.
The decommissioning of the Drake Landing Solar Community is now underway and set to conclude by December 2025, marking the end of an innovative project that commenced in 2006 and brought international attention to Okotoks.
The solar community's 52 homes were powered by nearly 800 solar panels located on garage roofs, with over 90 per cent of residential space heating needs met by solar thermal energy, leading to a reduction of approximately five tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions per home per year.
Who could have seen this coming?
Execrable Climate “Journalists” Tie California Wildfires to Global Warming
The co-founders of Covering Climate Now, a collection of radical journalists who try to push climate cultism in every news story they come across, wrote an op-ed for the UK’s Guardian newspaper in which they criticize media for not politicizing the devastating wildfires in southern California:
The Los Angeles fires represent a seminal moment for the climate crisis – and for journalism. These are not the wildfires of seasons past. They are mega-fires that have now burned an area larger than the entire city of San Francisco. They are likely to be the costliest disaster in US history, California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, has predicted. At last count, a staggering 6 million people remained under a critical fire threat.
The most important thing to report, to these people, is the opportunity to tie the fires to global warming. Never mind the catastrophic administrative failures caused by blue state extremist policies.
And now for our Good News segment.
Ocean Currents Are Stable, After All
The climate doomsayers tell us that global warming has already changed currents in the earth’s oceans, creating negative effects on the ability of the oceans to trap excess heat, along distributing nutrients in various ecosystems. They claim these currents have shifted in the south, imperiling the western ice shelf of Antarctica and threatening to break off the Doomsday Glacier.
A new study from Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution puts those worries to rest, at least in the Atlantic:
The Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) plays a crucial role in regulating the Earth's climate by moving water and distributing heat and nutrients. Recent concerns about its stability are tied to fresh water from melting polar ice disrupting this system.
However, a new study from scientists at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution indicates that the AMOC has remained stable over the past 60 years.
Nicholas P. Foukal remarked, "Our paper says that the Atlantic overturning has not declined yet."
The researchers utilized improved data and highlighted the importance of air-sea heat fluxes for better understanding the AMOC.
This should signal the end of crazy geoengineering plans like glacier curtains, but we probably won’t get so lucky.
New York’s Big Lawsuit Against Big Oil Thrown Out
Ah, the sweet smell of schadenfreude:
In a decision Tuesday, state Supreme Court Justice Anar Patel in Manhattan rejected the city's argument that the oil companies should have told climate-conscious residents that fossil fuels cause climate change because this information was publicly known.
Patel also found no proof that the companies conducted "greenwashing" campaigns, including statements about clean energy and alternative energy sources, so they could sell more fossil fuel products in the city.
Trump Preparing to Cut Way Back on Offshore Wind Boondoggles
President-elect Donald Trump announced his contempt for green energy. According to the Amuse on X Substack:
President Trump has once again dared to say what many are thinking but few are willing to voice: "Windmills are an economic and environmental disaster. I don’t want even one built during my Administration. The thousands of dead and broken ones should be ripped down ASAP. Most expensive energy, only work with massive government subsidies, which we will no longer pay!" Indeed, the reality of wind energy—beneath its polished veneer of green idealism—is riddled with contradictions, inefficiencies, and adverse consequences. Wind power is a boondoggle that drains taxpayer money, harms the environment, and cannot meet America’s energy needs. Wind energy accounted for 52% of total federal energy subsidies while producing only 10% of the nation's electricity.
Another Substack post, by energy expert David Blackmon, noted New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew’s stance on projects in the Northeast:
It turns out that acting to suspend the installation of hundreds of gigantic wind turbines in the midst of known whale habitats and prime commercial fishing waters is apparently a priority for Trump and his team now. New Jersey Congressman Jeff Van Drew announced on Monday that he has been tasked by the new President to draft an executive order that would invoke a 6-month moratorium on offshore wind construction with an eye towards a permanent suspension.
“These offshore wind projects should have never been approved in the first place,” said Van Drew, whose home state beaches have been littered by dozens of whale carcasses since development began. “The Biden administration rammed them through the approval process without proper oversight, transparent lease agreements, or a full understanding of their devastating consequences. They are an economic and environmental disaster waiting to happen.”
The sooner Trump can get us extricated from the Green New Deal and the Inflation Reduction Act, the better.
