Worst Climate Stories of the Week—The Post-Christmas Lull

So, Christmas has come and gone, and it feels like the lazy holiday lull has descended upon us. What day is it? Are those pajamas clean enough to wear one more day? Do we have any more cheese left over? Oh look, college football is on again.

While the Biden-Harris administration slowly grinds to its ignominious end, its lame duck bureaucrats flail about for one final act before the Trump administration takes over and starts firing everybody. 

Gotta admit, the thought provides a good measure of hope entering the new year.

This week’s stories include the predictable insanity coming from outgoing Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm as she tries to pretend her pause on liquified natural gas exports had any basis in logic or science. Speaking of pseudoscience and cults, a peer-reviewed article makes the claim that higher CO2 concentrations make plants less healthy by making them grow too fast. Also, more wind farms are biting the dust, kicking the bucket, and, well, buying the farm; New York wants to make Big Oil pay; and we have more stories about the failures of EVs, which of course means the Biden-Harris administration must double down one last time on its losing hand.

The only good news this week? Energy consultant David Blackmon writes that the Inflation Reduction Act—Biden’s signature legislation that fooled us into the Green New Deal—has about half a trillion dollars left over that it failed to spend. That money could come in handy if President-elect Trump wants to finish the border wall and conduct mass deportations.

It’s less than a month until the adults are back in charge when the new Trump administration takes over and starts firing all the equity hires and career bureaucrats, and that’s more than enough to tide us over.

(Don't miss last week's column: It’s Beginning to Look a Lot Like Christmas)

Granholm’s LNG Cheap Fake

The Biden-Harris administration did many awful things to advance the climate cult, but few were more harmful and nonsensical as the “pause” they put on new exports of liquefied natural gas (LNG). They made the excuse they wanted to “study” their “environmental impact,” really code for “we want to destroy this industry for the climate.” Well, this week, the Department of Energy, headed up by former Michigan governor and crazy person Jennifer Granholm, released its long-awaited study. The editorial staff at the Wall Street Journal ripped Secretary Granholm to shreds over a letter she sent attempting to make the case to permanently ban LNG exports. In fact, Granholm delayed the release of the official report as long as she could, because it doesn’t come to the conclusions she sought. “Her problem is that the study’s facts are at war with her conclusions,” said the WSJ editorial board. “DOE can approve permits for LNG exports to countries without a U.S. trade agreement only if they are in the ‘public interest.’ The study essentially finds they are, but Ms. Granholm disagrees.” The entire piece is a thorough and devastating takedown of Granholm and John Podesta, the Biden-Harris climate czar. They conclude by noting that the current National Security Council, career officials at the National Laboratories, and the incoming Trump nominee for the Department of Energy all disagree with Granholm.

Science Says Healthier Plants Are Less Nutritious

Through the years, the Cult of Scientism has made all sorts of wild claims intended to advance the idea that the climate has grown angry with humanity. The more the public doesn’t care about their claims, the wilder the claims get, in a spiraling attempt at fomenting sufficient panic where it otherwise doesn’t need to exist. The latest example: the rise in global CO2 has created a greener planet with more plant life, which can then sequester more CO2 via higher rates of plant growth. And that, according to one ecologist, is a bad thing. Apparently, higher CO2 leading to faster plant growth creates less healthy plants, which runs counter to the biology we all learned in 7th grade. It all comes down to climate change, of course:

Human activities are increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and raising global temperatures. As a result, many plants are growing faster across ecosystems worldwide.

Some studies suggest that this “greening of the Earth” could partially offset rising greenhouse gas emissions by storing more carbon in plants. However, there’s a trade-off: These fast-tracked plants can contain fewer nutrients per bite.

This will lead to less healthy animals that eat these plants, causing the entire ecosystem to fall into the abyss.

Never mind the entire geological record showing that life of all types thrived in eras when the atmospheric CO2 concentrations were orders of magnitude higher than what they are today. Computer models know better what we have in store for us in the future.

Wind Turbines Buying the Farm

This week we have not one, but two stories of wind farms getting uninstalled. First, the Honolulu, HI city council voted last week to update zoning regulations regarding wind farms the state first installed in 2019. The locals were very unhappy with the installation for a variety of reasons, and continually protested the wind farm. It remains unclear if the current installation will have to be removed, or if it applies only to future wind farms, but the vote requires all wind farms now to be placed a minimum of 1.25 miles away from residential areas. The state, naturally, is upset that this will negatively impact its renewable energy goals.

The second story has much more immediate impact. This week, a federal judge in Oklahoma ruled a wind farm on Indian reservation land violated the rights of the Osage Nation. The tribe originally filed the suit in 2014, claiming the state failed to secure the approval of the Osage Nation. The company in charge didn’t bother getting the proper permits from the sovereign nation’s Mineral Council. Now, the entire thing has to come down by Dec. 1, 2025: “The wind farm sits on 8,400 acres of land. Judge Choe-Groves ordered the removal of all 84 wind turbines and the land to return to its ‘pre-trespass state.’” They also ordered the utility operator to pay $300,000 in damages to the Osage Nation.

New York Making Big Oil Pay

This week, the radical democrat governor of New York, Kathy Hochul, signed a bill passed by the radical legislature to require “fossil fuel” companies to pay for “damages” related to “climate impact” and “adverse weather conditions.” Newsmax reports:

The self-described "landmark legislation" looks to create a "Climate Superfund" that will make New York more resilient to conditions such as flooding and extreme heat. "With nearly every record rainfall, heat wave, and coastal storm, New Yorkers are increasingly burdened with billions of dollars in health, safety, and environmental consequences due to polluters that have historically harmed our environment," Hochul said in a statement.

Democrat state Sen. Liz Krueger, a cosponsor on the bill, called the law a "shot that will be heard 'round the world.'"

New York becomes the second state to pass such legislation, after Vermont created a similar “superfund” in May. The American Petroleum Institute already fired off a letter to the Vermont legislature, and has begun considering legal action in New York.

Perhaps the best suggestion for fighting back against this insanity would call for Big Oil to tell New York and Vermont, “You know what? We’ll comply with your demands. If petroleum is so harmful to your states, we’ll stop shipping it to you, so you don’t have to deal with it anymore.” If oil and gas cause such great harm, New York and Vermont should lead the way in learning to live without it.

More EV implosions

Another week, another spate of bad news in the EV market. When the vehicles aren’t exploding, the industry is imploding. We have two such stories this week.

First, an EV manufacturer called Canoo, based in Oklahoma, has gone bust after bragging emptily about building its vehicles in the U.S.A. The grand total of vehicles produced before they went out of business?

Three.

Our second EV story has more Biden-Harris incompetence to it. Believe it or not, the Green New Deal might be a failure. According to the Institute for Energy Research (IER), the U.S. Postal Service wanted to upgrade its aging fleet of delivery trucks. The Biden-Harris administration stepped in and forced U.S.P.S. to buy electric vehicles instead, and doubled down by giving them billions in subsidies for the purchase. The contractor promised 3,000 electric postal vehicles (EPVs?) and delivered 93. IER continues:

The Biden-Harris Inflation Reduction Act allocated $3 billion to help the U.S. Postal Service purchase electric trucks and build charging infrastructure. This funding followed a period in which the Postal Service, after conducting its own analysis, initially rejected electric vehicles (EVs) due to concerns over cost and practicality. Despite the $3 billion investment, only 93 electric trucks have been delivered, far short of the 3,000 originally expected. This situation mirrors the slow progress in building EV charging stations: the administration received $5 billion through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to build half a million stations, but only seven have been built.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but $3 billion for three thousand EVs is an absurdly high number on its face. That they’ve only delivered 93 of the 3,000 should draw a criminal review.  

(Learn more in the definitive report by Restoration News: How the Left’s Global Warming Ideology Wrecked Science—And How to Stop It)