Recently in Environmental Category

Wrote about it when the decision was published.  9-0 too.
From the Media Research Center:

Farmers Cheer SCOTUS WOTUS Decision Returning Property Rights to Landowners from Biden’s Clutches
The nation’s farmers are cheering Thursday’s Supreme Court ruling that American citizens, not the Biden Administration, have the right to manage the water on their property.

In 2014, the Obama Administration concocted and issued the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule, greatly expanding the federal government’s claim to control of water in the U.S. - including on private property - under the guise of an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) initiative. The rule was repealed by President Donald Trump, but reinstated last year by President Joe Biden.

In Thursday’s Sackett v. Environmental Protection Agency decision, the Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision that the EPA can’t prohibit Idaho residents Michael and Chantell Sackett from building a home on their property near a wetland.

Pure overreach by the people of the EPA and they got their pee-pee's slapped hard for it.   Good.

I am all in favor of maintaining a clean environment but this agency went overboard  at every occasion.  Time to defund them by 80%.  Let them operate on a shoe-string budget and do what is really needed.  We are paying for these morons. Move their headquarters out of DC too - someplace like Iowa or Kansas would be perfect. Away from the levers of power and closer to their locus of operations.

Wonderful news.  Full decision here: SACKETT ET UX. v. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY ET AL.

Basically, if you owned property with water anywhere, that was considered to be a "Navigable Waterway" and you were severly restricted on what you could do with it.

The decision today restricts that to bodies of water that are contiguously connected to actual waterways - rivers, lakes, etc...

A very good decision and it clips the wings of the EPAs powers.  None of them are elected - they should not be able to "legislate" things like this.  They are supposed to advise Congress and it is up to Congress to make the laws...

They know it.  They are being very quiet about it but they know it.
From the Rhode Island EastBayRI

'Take' authorizations prove NOAA is lying about whale deaths
The marine science community knows this much for certain: The high-resolution geophysical (HRG) surveys used to site offshore wind turbines and transmission cabling causes harm and mortality to marine mammals. They know the intense noise of pounding thousands of monopiles deep into the seabed, along with an exponential increase of vessel traffic during construction and for maintenance afterwards will do the same—disturb, injure, and kill marine life.

Here's the proof: As of mid-March 2023, NOAA Fisheries has handed out 15 marine mammal Incidental Take Authorizations (ITAs) to offshore wind projects from NC to MA. These will allow companies to “take” 111,817 whales, dolphins and seals. The harassment, injury, and killing of marine mammals are referred to as “takes.”

The 111,817 figure is the tally of 118 “Level A” and 111,699 “Level B” takes. Level A includes permanent hearing loss and other bodily injury. Level B harassment includes behavioral disturbance (such as frightening an animal from its normal feeding area) and temporary hearing loss. A deafened whale fleeing into a shipping channel is likely a dead whale.

It is illegal to take any federally listed animal, that is, unless one applies for and is granted an ITA. An “incidental” take is defined as, “an unintentional, but not unexpected taking of a protected species.”

NOAA is in the final stages of approving an additional 1,272 Level A and 477,285 Level B takes of marine mammals for another 11 wind projects. Soon the approved ITA count will permit wind companies to disturb, injure or cause the death of 590,374 marine mammals. These figures were compiled by carefully searching 26 individual wind project ITA requests. NOAA either does not have or will not share cumulative take numbers.

More at the site.  Such hypocrites.

This is supposed to be a clean and green technology.
Their appearance of careful management is just a careful management of appearances.

From the Washington State Dept. of Natural Resources:

The real problem - environmentalism

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Fantastic article - well researched and spot on.
Global warming used to be the big rallying cry until the earth stopped warming. 

Now?  It has been rebranded as 'climate change'
Marxist policy masquerading as science.
Hamstring industry and keep everyone dependent on a centralized government.

Only then, can they build their utopia on earth. Or so they say.  Never happened before...

Unfortunately, this is distracting from some very real environmental issues.
From American Greatness:

How Climate Alarmism Killed Real Environmentalism
The environmentalist movement is a political weapon. It unites the most powerful special interests in the world behind an agenda that will further centralize power and wealth, eliminate any hope of financial independence for the vast majority of people, and transition previously free and independent nations into managed, sham democracies that have lost their sovereign agency.

The overwhelming theme of environmentalism today, designed to obscure its true agenda, is the alleged “climate crisis.”

Americans may or may not eventually muster the impertinence to successfully challenge the political power grab masquerading as environmentalism today. But either way, its centerpiece, the “climate crisis,” is responsible for devastating harm both to what was once a legitimate environmentalist movement, as well as to the environment itself.

Policies ostensibly designed to manage the planet’s climate are taking attention and resources away from genuine environmental threats. At the same time, a growing percentage of people are recognizing the fraudulent essence of the “climate crisis” agenda and, as a result, are becoming indifferent to legitimate environmental concerns.

And a few of the real issues?

    • Overfishing
    • Energy Security in Developing Nations
    • The Biofuel Disaster

Four more at the site - these are very significant problems that can be addressed and are within our reach to fix.

Our sun is a variable star and our climate has always changed.  This planet goes through an ice age every 70,000 years or so and we know of five so far.  The last one was 20,000 years ago so aren't we just warming up to normal between the ice ages?  The halfway point between cycles is 15,000 years in our future.

Worried about farts

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It's all a smoke-screen - the enviros are trying anything to push their Marxist glorious revolution:

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Their conferences look to be very large - there is one in Miami in 2024 and there are already over 200 presentations scheduled. I have done a lot of work with CERT and FEMA on a community level with my ham radio.
It would be interesting to see what's happening - new ideas and techniques. 
I'll be within driving distance of Miami when that conference is scheduled....

Website: Natural Disasters Expo

And the Miami Conference

Yeah - the silence is deafening...

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The Earth is fine.  It's us that are the problem - channeling my inner George Carlin
Looks like the new Swedish government is seeing the light of reason - from euronews:

'Devastating consequences' as new Swedish government scraps environment ministry
Sweden's new right-wing government has sparked an outcry after scrapping the Ministry of Environment in a move the opposition has branded "devastating".

Previously, the ministry was a high-profile stand-alone department with a minister in the cabinet, but now it will operate as part of another ministry instead.  

Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson unveiled his new cabinet on Tuesday, and although he did appoint a Minister of Climate and Environment -- 26-year-old Liberal MP Romina Pourmokhtari-- she will work under Christian Democrat leader Ebba Busch, the new Minister for Energy, Business and Industry, rather than lead her own ministry.  

I love it - not only does Ms. Pourmokhtari not head her own ministry, her group is classified under Energy, Business and Industry.  Those evil capitalists.  Could not think of any nicer bedfellows.  And then, there was this little item:

The government has also earmarked more money for nuclear power, with €36 billion credit guarantees to build new nuclear power stations, and also plans to introduce rules to make it more difficult to shut down existing nuclear plants.

And to ensure the safety of electricity supply in the shorter term (and to keep prices low), the government will investigate whether it's viable to reopen two nuclear power stations in the south of the country which were closed over the last few years.

Looking back through history, the one constant; the one thing that has elevated us; has brought us out of poverty, has given us clean air, clean water and better living conditions; is cheap energy.  Nothing else comes close.  Sure, there were some missteps at the outset but the world is a much better place now than 200 years ago.  Nothing else even comes close.

These grifters need to have their rice bowls taken away.  Defund them by 70% and let them focus on the real science and not political posturing and fund raising.

Finally, we know the real reason

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I hate to say "I told you so" but...

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alt.energy meets the pavement in Europe - from Breitbart:

Climate Crazy EU Faces up to Decade of ‘Terrible’ Winters Thanks to Russian Gas Addictions
The European Union now faces up to ten years of “terrible” winters of energy insecurity as a result of its green agenda, with many nations in the bloc having gotten themselves addicted to Russian gas in service of climate crazy ideals.

Nations across the European Union could be facing a future of five-to-ten years of energy insecurity thanks to its climate crazy energy policy, something that saw many countries within the bloc addict themselves to Russian gas in service of their green agendas.

Fears are already spreading in many countries in Europe and beyond in regards to the possibility of public unrest as a result of expected financial hardship this coming winter, with government bigwigs in France and Germany expressing concern that citizens could react poorly to what has been termed by the President Emmanuel Macron as the “end of abundance“.

However, according to Belgium’s energy minister, problems in the EU look set to last far longer than one year, with the government official saying that the bloc could face up to a decade of energy insecurity if action is not taken now.

This is what you get when your leaders only do first-order thinking.  This is the hot issue? Do that.

There is never a question of what would happen next.  What if that doesn't work out. Most "elites" simply double-down if something doesn't work — after all, their solution is the smart one so it just wasn't given enough resources or funding.

Global warming is a fallacy to begin with.  History will not be kind.

Ho. Li. Crap. Glacier collapse

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It's in Kirghizstan - no further information.

Classic:

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Look to pay even more for basic staples - from Reuters:

'Off the charts' chemical shortages hit U.S. farms
U.S. farmers have cut back on using common weedkillers, hunted for substitutes to popular fungicides and changed planting plans over persistent shortages of agricultural chemicals that threaten to trim harvests.

Spraying smaller volumes of herbicides and turning to less-effective fungicides increase the risk for weeds and diseases to dent crop production at a time when global grain supplies are already tight because the Ukraine war is reducing the country's exports.

Ukraine is the narrative but this problem was happening long long before there was ever a rumble from over there.
Their lack of exports has nothing to do on the continuous supply-chain problems we have been having here for the last two years.

Interviews with more than a dozen chemical dealers, manufacturers, farmers and weed specialists showed shortages disrupted U.S. growers' production strategies and raised their costs.

Shawn Inman, owner of distributor Spinner Ag Incorporated in Zionsville, Indiana, said supplies are the tightest in his 24-year career.

"This is off the charts," Inman said. "Everything was delayed, delayed, delayed."

Supply chains.  Ukrainian exports are just a band-aid.  Not the reason.  A convenient excuse that fits the narrative.
And it is not just us - London Daily Mail:

UN chief warns of 'catastrophe' from global food shortage
The head of the United Nations warned Friday that the world faces "catastrophe" because of the growing shortage of food around the globe.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said the war in Ukraine has added to the disruptions caused by climate change, the coronavirus pandemic and inequality to produce an "unprecedented global hunger crisis" already affecting hundreds of millions of people.

"There is a real risk that multiple famines will be declared in 2022," he said in a video message to officials from dozens of rich and developing countries gathered in Berlin. "And 2023 could be even worse."

Guterres noted that harvests across Asia, Africa and the Americas will take a hit as farmers around the world struggle to cope with rising fertilizer and energy prices.

"This year´s food access issues could become next year´s global food shortage," he said. "No country will be immune to the social and economic repercussions of such a catastrophe."

More narrative - hitting all the talking points: Ukraine, climate change, global pandemic and inequality.  The high energy prices are a simple cause - you shut down your reliable baseload sources and blew your budget on pie-in-the-sky unicorn farts: AKA renewable alternative energy.  Should have been retrofitting your existing power plants for cleaner emissions and building nuclear.  Instead? They spent it all on feel-good garbage.

All of the other talking points are just social justice activism - a few loud voices with no basis in reality.
And We The People (and the rest of the world) get to reap the benefits of your wisdom.
Rope.  Tree.  Some assembly required...

Horrible news - the EPA

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Looks like a case of sour grapes - from The Gateway Pundit:

Biden Takes Aim at America’s Largest Oil Field, Threatens to Stop Production, Sending Gas Prices Soaring
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is preparing to cite the United States’ largest oil field for violating ozone pollution standards, a move that will threaten the end of oil and gas production in the region.

According to the Texas Governor’s Office, the proposed regulations will directly affect the Permian Basin, the largest oil field in the United States, accounting for 95,000,000 gallons of gasoline per day or 40% of the oil produced domestically. 

This would be just one more move from Biden’s administration to impact the lives of every American by reducing the fuel supply and causing gas prices to soar well beyond Biden’s record of $5 per gallon. 

“Even as Americans are struggling with $5 gas and record-breaking inflation, team Biden continues to double down on their political commitments to ‘end all fossil fuels,'” former EPA Chief of Staff Mandy Gunasekara told reporters Wednesday.

According to a report by Bloomberg, regulators would have three years to propose solutions to the violations. However, ongoing regulatory uncertainty common to Biden’s ever-increasing climate change initiatives is likely to disincentivize new permits and drilling in the oil field.

That is just fscked on so many levels.  This is going to make gasoline prices skyrocket.  How stupid are these people?

Thought that Roe v. Wade was something?  Hold my beer - from the Daily Caller:

Supreme Court Delivers Massive Blow To Biden’s Climate Agenda

    • The Supreme Court dealt a critical blow to the Biden administration’s wide-ranging climate goals Thursday, limiting the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
    • “Congress did not grant EPA in Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act the authority to devise emissions caps based on the generation shifting approach the Agency took in the Clean Power Plan,” Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion.
    • The case was centered around a 2015 Obama-era EPA climate rule known as the Clean Air Act, which sought to cut carbon emissions from power plants by 32% by 2030.

The Supreme Court delivered a massive blow to the Biden administration’s climate change plan Thursday, severely limiting the power of federal agencies.

The Court, in a 6-3 decision on West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), limited the agency’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases from power plants, significantly curtailing the power of the federal agency. The decision restricts the agency to regulating individual power plants and not the entire power sector.

The EPA still has the power to regulate individual aspects of a specific facility.  They cannot however, establish a blanket rule to cover an entire industry - that requires a bill to pass through Congress and to be signed by the President. Legislation through fiat is not specifically enumerated in our Constitution.

Major celebration going on in England.  Queen Elizabeth's 70th year of rule. Her Jubilee.
Some activists decided to use that for their personal forum.
From the London Daily Mail:

Moment furious crowd turns on vegan activist eco morons as they try to cause chaos at Queen's Jubilee by breaking onto The Mall to stage protest during Trooping the Colour

    • The intruders from Animal Rebellion were able to get into middle of the Mall and briefly disrupt the parade
    • A marching band was obstructed by the activists, but they were able to clear them by moving around the pair
    • Police hauled them out of the roadway and arrested them at the scene and carried them out of the route way
    • Met confirmed 'number of arrests' of people who attempted to enter the ceremonial route in The Mall

Up to 25 protesters were booed by crowds as they tried to evade police to smash through security measures on the Mall ahead of Trooping the Colour and disrupt the Queen's Platinum Jubilee.

Police officers pounced as they raced over barriers to where the parade was to be held.

Incredibly two of the protesters - who were from Animal Rebellion - were able to sit in the middle of the Mall as the marching band approached.

Officers hauled them out of the way as the musicians walked by them avoiding them completely, prompting applause to the police and boos to the activists.

London has a population of about 9,540,000 people.  These morons were only able to get 25 people to stage their protest?  Talk about irrelavent.  They should spend a minimum 120 days in jail - to encourage the others.  Bring back the public pillory. I would show up with a basket of rotting vegetables 😁

Seattle Times:

Garbage is piled so high, Snohomish County dumps need to close before trash combusts
Snohomish County has a smelly 45-foot-tall problem that could go up in flames.

Two Snohomish County transfer stations are almost at capacity as the amount of garbage has reached unprecedented levels due to supply chain issues, said Snohomish County Public Works Director Kelly Snyder.

Up in flames?

As garbage sits, it decomposes and heats up. If enough heat is generated, a fire could quickly spread through the pile and damage the facility. The cores of the piles are already 130 degrees, Snyder said, and the Southwest transfer station has already had a close call with a small fire about a week ago.

“Our quick-acting staff were able to get it down off the pile, spread it out, and the fire was put out very quickly,” Snyder said.

A 24-hour “fire watch” has been instituted for about 10 days, she said, and workers are vigilantly monitoring the heat of the piles while also keeping an eye out for smoke and flames.

If they wanted to be green, they could be composting the garbage.  Run pipes through each layer and circulate water to extract the heat.  They could also capture the methane and CO gasses that come out and use them to run generators.

This place: Jackson County Green Energy Park is about 60 miles from where we will be living in North Carolina.  They have a landfill and run a glass studio, a blacksmith forge and a pottery studio all from the decomposition gasses.  Want to talk about green energy?  That is a perfect example of green energy.

Back in 2018, Milo Cress made an announcement based on some research he had done in 2011.
The research was a series of telephone interviews of straw manufacturers.
Americans were using 500,000,000 disposable plastic drinking straws each and every day and many of them were subsequently appearing in waterways and oceans.

Horrifying data.  We all knew that the numbers were probably high but this high?  Something MUST BE DONE.

Unfortunately, every action has consequences and we are seeing this today - from Chemical & Engineering News:

‘Biodegradable’ drinking straws contain PFAS
As consumers turn to alternatives to single-use plastic, drinking straws made of plant-based materials like paper are coming into wider use, and many are marketed as biodegradable or even compostable. But an analysis of drinking straws available in the US detected 21 per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS)—called “forever chemicals” for their extreme resistance to environmental breakdown—in 36 out of 38 brands of plant-based straws tested.

University of Florida toxicologist John Bowden was fascinated by the durability of today’s paper straws compared with older ones that would break down quickly in a drink, and he wanted to know whether the new straws’ water resistance might come from PFAS (Chemosphere 2021, DOI: 10.1016/j.chemosphere.2021.130238). So he and his colleagues tested them, as well as plant-based straws made of materials including poly(lactic acid), rice flour, and reeds. They extracted PFAS from the straws with methanol and measured PFAS levels in the extracts.

It is worth noting that at the time, Milo Cress was not a Doctor.  Not an Engineer.  Not a degreed scientist.  He may be pursuing a career in academia but when he did his research in 2011, Milo Cress was nine years old.  Sixteen when he "published" his results.

Lots to read and it really shows how progressives will latch on to something that fits their narrative.  The better it fits the narrative, the less critical they are in their fact-checking.  Some fun reading here, here, here, here and here.

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China goes green

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They sure are virtue signaling it but...
Not fscking likely - this little news item. From Nasdaq:

China to release more than 10 mln T of coal from reserves
China will release more than 10 million tonnes of coal from state reserves to ensure steady supply to the market, the powerful state planner said in a statement on Thursday, the year's fifth such release.

The coal will come from dozens of reserve hubs and key ports nationwide, the National Development and Reform Commission said, adding that the government would arrange further releases from reserves in line with market demand.

In April, the state planner urged power plants, coal miners and major coal transport hubs to boost reserves of the fuel, spurred by concerns over tight supplies and an expected demand surge.

It had vowed to build coal stockpiles to more than 120 million tonnes in government deployable reserves in 2021.

Not only ten million tons of coal being sent to the furnaces of industry, this is the fifth time this year so almost once per month. And then, there is this graph:

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The so-called activists in the US do not know how good they have it.
They need to go sit in the corner. Or, move to China and harass the government there.
I would even contribute some money to their plane ticket as long as it was one-way.

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We just need you to give us more money and cede more power - we'll have everything perfect by next election.
Yeah. That's the ticket...

Environmentalists - hypocrites

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In one meme:

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But the pipeline is in our back yard 'ya see... We can do something about that.

The real crisis is that this all happened on President Trump's watch - from Watts Up With That:

Biden & Democrats conceal U.S. CO2 decreases of 3.4 billion tons from natural gas
In his first week in office Biden and his Democrats ordered the suspension of leases for fossil fuel development on federal lands and offshore waters and a “rigorous review” of leasing and permitting practices. He also created a civilian “climate corps”, directed federal agencies to procure American-made zero-emissions vehicles for their fleets, and scrapped a permit for the Keystone XL oil pipeline. Biden asked Congress to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies.

Joe's three-letter word in play here.  J.O.B.S. - as the power behind the throne kowtows to the radical environmentalists.
But wait... There's more:

In September 2020 the Energy Information Administration released a report largely ignored by the climate alarmist main-stream media titled U.S. Energy-Related Carbon Dioxide Emissions, 2019 presenting an analysis of the nation’s CO2 emissions from 1990 marking the 30 years that have passed since the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change benchmark year.

The data showed that U.S. CO2 emissions for year 2019 were down 2.8% from year 2018 or 150 million metric tons (MMmt) with changes in electricity fuel mix being the most important factor resulting in coal-related CO2 emissions declining by 15% or 184 MMmt. 

The most significant fuel mix contribution to this CO2 emissions reduction result was the continued increased use of lower emission higher efficiency natural gas in replacing coal fueled electricity generation followed by increased use of non-carbon CO2 emissions reductions.

Win/win - cut down on the use of "dirty" coal and cut emissions of CO2.  What's not to love.

Unfortunately, Biden and his handlers want to make the United States of America more like California:

Biden and his climate alarmist Democrats have initiated a grossly misguided purely political war against natural gas that will deprive the American people of a clean, efficient and cost-effective energy resource that can and should be used to further reduce the use of coal in the future and bring about even greater reductions of CO2 without damaging the economy through ill-advised government mandated use of high-cost unreliable renewables.

California has been pursuing its climate alarmist campaign of reducing CO2 emissions since 2006 by mandating the use of high-cost unreliable renewables while implementing a plan to eliminate the use of all fossil fuels in electricity generation. In 2019 renewable energy accounted for about 32% of the California’s electricity while renewables accounted for about 11.1% of  total U.S. electricity generation. 

In the last decade California average residential electricity rates have risen at 3 times the rate of U.S. average residential electricity rates with present California rates being about 50% greater than the U.S. average.

Additionally California has now reached the point where the excessive use of renewables has created electric grid reliability and blackout problems which plagued the state last summer.

Kind of hard to say no to the numbers.  Facts do not lie.

If I were King, I would implement Liquid Fluoride Thorium Reactors all over the place and just be done with it. Cheap safe energy - what's not to love.

An interesting bit of news from The New York Post:

Greta Thunberg faces criminal conspiracy probe in India over farm protest tweets
Greta Thunberg accidentally shared a message showing she was getting told what to write on Twitter about the ongoing violent farmers’ revolt in India — leading Thursday to her being probed for criminal conspiracy by police there, according to reports.

The 18-year-old left-wing eco-activist shared — and then quickly deleted — a message that detailed a list of “suggested posts” about the ongoing protests, according to the posts that were saved by Breaking 911.

The list gave a series of tips on what to post, asking her to also repost and tag other celebrities tweeting about it, including pop star Rihanna.

As well as the Twitter storm, the “toolkit” she shared also suggested highlighting planned demonstrations at Indian embassies.

So let me get this straight...  You seriously think that an autistic teenager from Sweden was able to spring onto the world stage and become the poster child for all the usual leftie causes?  They shopped around for her, found her, groomed her and are using her to advance their causes.  She is just another meat puppet and she will be discarded when her usefulness is up.

Dispatches from the alt.energy front

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Hint - alt.energy simply does not work.  It only survives with huge taxpayer subsidies - our dollars being dumped down a rathole.

From Gizmodo:

The Only Carbon Capture Plant in the U.S. Just Closed
Early last year, the Trump administration’s Department of Energy celebrated a special birthday. “Happy Third Operating Anniversary, Petra Nova!” the agency trumpeted in a press release. The release boasted of a coal-fired power plant in Texas that seemed to have done the impossible: It successfully removed carbon dioxide from the plant’s emissions for three years, safely storing them.

The celebration was early—Petra Nova barely made it to its fourth birthday before being shuttered. Last week, NRG Energy, which owns the project, announced that it would be shut down indefinitely, in what may be one of the last gasps for carbon capture and storage technology in the U.S.

On paper, carbon capture and storage, or CCS, sounds like the solution to all our problems. If we could just suck the carbon dioxide emitted by burning fossil fuels and put it somewhere else, we could cut warming without shifting away from old methods of generating energy. In practice, though, the results have been less than promising and failed to scale at anywhere near the levels needed to avert catastrophic climate change.

And these morons still think that carbon is a bad thing.  CO2 is plant food.  Without it, photosynthesys would not happen.  No green plants. The effect of CO2 as a greenhouse gas is minimal.  Water vapor is much more effective but the greens can not control that so that inconvenient truth is swept under the narrative rug.

The article includes links to some of the spectacular failures. The technology simply does not work.

Batteries - the solution to everything

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What are you going to use to charge them?  And, where do you get the lithium?

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Like this is going to work out well

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Lots of forethought and planning.  Like - where are we going to get the lithium for the batteries?  The Rare Earth Elements for the motors? (Hint - thanks to the environmental activists, the only real place to get these in any quantity is China.  We have loads of these in the ground in the USA but the activists would rather China mine and refine them with zero environmental regulations than this be done in the USA with decent pollution controls.)

From Jalopnik:

The U.S. Government's Entire 645,000-Vehicle Fleet Will Go All-Electric
The United States government operates a fleet of about 645,000 vehicles, from mail delivery trucks to military vehicles and passenger cars. On Monday, President Joe Biden announced that his administration intends to replace them all with American-made, electric alternatives.

Biden shared the plan as part of a press conference detailing his “Buy American” executive order, which he said would represent “the largest mobilization of public investment and procurement, infrastructure and R&D since World War II.”

That is going to be a winner.  The only positive thing I can say is that, after these companies go bankrupt, there will be some wonderful auctions.  High-tech electronic equipment being sold for pennies on the dollar.

And oh, yeah?  Has anyone figured out where the electricity is going to come from? Renewables are still (after 30 years or so) only about 2% of the national power grid.  Not reliable, not baseload and not economically viable without major taxpayer subsidies.

Must be nice - Hawaii property

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From the Honolulu Star-Advertiser:

Oceanfront property tied to Obama granted exemption from Hawaii’s environmental laws
Officials in Honolulu have granted the developers of a luxury, oceanfront estate tied to Barack Obama a major exemption from environmental laws designed to protect Hawaii’s beaches.

The shoreline permit, issued by Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting on Monday, clears the way for the controversial multimillion dollar renovation of a century-old seawall in the heavily Native Hawaiian community of Waimanalo.

Under state and county laws, such projects are typically banned. Scientists and environmental experts say seawalls are the primary cause of beach loss throughout the state, and officials expect older ones to fall into obsolescence.

But the property owners, including Marty Nesbitt, chair of the Obama Foundation, argued they needed an exemption to protect the sprawling compound they are building in eastern Oahu. State officials and community members say the former president, who was born and raised in Hawaii, is expected to be among the property’s future occupants. Representatives for Nesbitt and Obama did not return requests seeking comment for this story.

The seawalls change the action of the ocean causing the beaches to be washed away.  Bad for wildlife. Of course, Obama is one of the elite and what Barry wants, Barry gets.

The dirty little secret - electric cars

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People do not look at (they do not want to know) what goes in to making those batteries:

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The rare earths are not mined in the USA because the environmentalists do not want it.

The production is shifted to China where any environmentalists are rounded up and placed in re-education camps.

Same problem with solar panels, flat-screen televisions, cell phones and most other electronics. Not only is the mining bad, the chemical processing and refining are bad too.  We could do such a good job of it here - we have huge resources - but no.  The environmentalists do not want this.

Re-education camps do not sound like that bad of an idea...

From Cliff Mass:

Smoke is Coming Back to the Pacific Northwest
I am really sorry to be the messenger for ill news, which none of the media has picked up on yet.

But smoke is coming back to the Northwest later tomorrow and will be with us for several days.

California smoke.

Our skies will become hazy, the sun will take on that infernal reddish glow, and visibility will decline.

The only good thing is that most of smoke will stay aloft, but limited amounts will get to the surface in "favored areas."

Much more at the site.  Some of the Napa Valley wine country is on fire.

Bad management and a government that would rather blow money on trains to nowhere than maintain basic infrastructure. Texas has more acres of forest (and hotter weather this summer) but those are carefully managed and they have not had any wildfire problems.

Cripes - thought they learned their lesson 32 years ago with the Yellowstone fires of 1988. From The Mercury News:

California fires: State, feds agree to thin millions of acres of forests
The two dozen major fires burning across Northern California were sparked by more than 12,000 lightning strikes, a freak weather occurrence that turned what had been a relatively mild fire season into a devastating catastrophe.

Yet what’s driving these enormous fires is not sparks, but millions of acres of fuel: bone-dry trees and brush that haven’t burned in many years.

Before the Gold Rush in 1849, large parts of California burned every few decades. Lightning fires burned for months, and native tribes burned the land, clearing out dead vegetation. But for much of the past century, as the state’s population has built homes, towns and parks in rural areas, firefighters have extinguished the flames to save property and lives, allowing forests and other landscapes to become unnaturally dense.

As a result, fires now burn hotter and with more intensity.

“We have put out fires for 100 years. Now we are paying the price,” said Scott Stephens, a professor of fire science at UC Berkeley. “It will take a while to make these forests healthy again. But it’s absolutely possible.”

Duhhhh... The policy of putting out all fires was recognized as being counter productive when Yellowstone National Park went up in one big fireball thirty two years ago. It is taking California this long to realize the error of their ways?

California in a little while

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From A. F. Branco:

20200825-green.jpg

And stop feeding off the taxpayer trough. From Business Insider:

EPA staffers warn of a huge exodus if Trump wins again. 'We can't do four more years of this.'
Career employees at the Environmental Protection Agency were devastated when Donald Trump became president.Nearly four years later, EPA staff and former officials said Trump has politicized and dismantled the agency beyond recognition. According to them, industry interests now have an "overriding voice" there. "I think many of the long-term employees will be able to exhale and get back to business," a longtime EPA official said of the prospect of a Joe Biden win in November.In an exclusive interview, EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said he planned to lead the agency "for at least the next two to three years."Environmentalists and ex-EPA staffers are thinking about ways to revive the agency but say it's going to be a monumental task. "You have to get this agency from a fetal position into Superman," a union official said.

When Donald Trump clinched the presidency in 2016, employees at the Environmental Protection Agency wept. They'd watched as Trump pledged on the campaign trail to slash their agency. Staffers feared their jobs would be cut and that eight years of work drafting environmental policies for the Obama administration would be flushed down the drain. "We had tears when this man won the election," said Gary Morton, a 26-year EPA veteran who retired last year and now leads a union representing about 7,500 agency employees nationwide. "He ran on a platform of killing the Environmental Protection Agency. Three and a half years later, EPA staff and former leaders who served under both Republican and Democratic presidents said Trump and his team have dismantled the agency charged with safeguarding the nation's air, water, and public health even further than they expected. Beyond the administration trashing former President Barack Obama's signature environmental policies, Trump's critics say it has sidelined scientists, sent veteran staffers packing, and blocked meaningful action on climate change.It has all taken a toll on staff, said an EPA employee who spoke with Insider on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the press. Workers inside the agency are looking toward the November presidential election thinking, "Holy s---, we can't do four more years of this," the employee said. Staff said they've held on by hoping that Trump would serve only a single term.They said they've felt left out of the agency's inner circle and distrusted by political appointees. For a while, they were even physically blocked from getting anywhere close to the administrator's office. Another EPA employee said for the career staff at the agency those who aren't political appointees "unquestionably, people are holding on and looking forward and counting the days." If Trump is reelected, staffers said, they're expecting many of their colleagues to leave the agency.

For now, EPA employees are quietly discussing how the agency might be overhauled if presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ousts Trump in November - a prospect many of them would embrace, according to a dozen interviews with current and former staffers and former EPA administrators who served under presidents from both parties. If there's a change in administration, "I think many of the long-term employees will be able to exhale and get back to business," a longtime EPA official said.

Heh - the EPA needs to stick to its charter. When it was founded in 1970 (Executive Order from President Richard M. Nixon), it was sorely needed. We had major air, water and soil pollution. We had a river in Ohio that caught fire. We had sewerage being dumped from our cities into our rivers. We had Tetra-ethyl Lead used in our gasoline (it makes engines run a lot better).

BUT. They did their work and they got us cleaned up and got us understanding that it is better to stay clean than to go back to our polluting ways. So... What do they do? They grow and metastasize and creep and become this huge bureaucracy that can never shrink, it can never be downsized and it will never die.

The EPA does fill a need but a greatly reduced one. They should have their funding cut by 80% and they should move their headquarters to Kansas City and get out of the D.C. swamp. Anything else is a waste of our hard-earned money.

Ka-boom - fireworks

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Some interesting measurements from Cliff Mass:

The Jury is In: Personal Fireworks Alone Can Cause Dangerous Air Pollution
This July Fourth we answered an important question: if most U.S. community fireworks displays are cancelled (because of COVID-19) might July 4th air quality be substantially improved?

We now know the answer: air quality was very poor the evening of July 4th and the immediate morning hours, in some locations as bad or worse than previous years. Personal fireworks are clearly the mainstay of the air quality disaster of July 4th.

Curious - not surprised. Also, the numbers this year need to reflect the fact that if people usually did fireworks on the 4th, they went seriously overboard this year so a lot more personal fireworks were lit off than usual. Very large fireworks are sold on tribal lands - we have a lot of these in the Pacific Northwest. The good stuff 😁

Stop the recycling nonsense - from the New York Post:

The smart way for post-coronavirus pandemic NYC to save money: Stop recycling
The financial pressure of the coronavirus pandemic has led Mayor de Blasio to do what he’s never done before: propose reductions in New York City’s sprawling $93 billion budget. A good place to start would be the city’s recycling collection program. That may seem like eco-sacrilege but in extraordinary times nothing should be sacrosanct. For recycling, the numbers don’t add up.

By sending recyclables to safe landfills — and avoiding the cost of separate collection — the city could save nearly $200 million. At a time when COVID-19 puts frontline workers, including the city’s 7,000 uniformed Sanitation workers (New York’s fabled “Strongest”), at risk and may make staffing more difficult, simplifying garbage collection makes sense — and would save taxpayer dollars.

Conceived originally as a way to save money by selling paper, glass and metal instead of paying to bury it in landfills, recycling in New York — and nationwide — has become a money-loser and a drain on the city’s budget. Nor is there even a guarantee that recyclables will not ultimately go to a landfill anyway.

In a forthcoming paper for the Manhattan Institute, I find that the elimination of recycling — by combining what’s now put out in blue bins with general refuse — would save the city approximately $185 million annually. These are funds that could help restore the youth jobs program and, were they directed to parks, help provide a direct environmental benefit for outdoors-starved New Yorkers.

Penn and Teller has an excellent video in their Bullshit series:

This is big - this is leadership

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President Trump hits it out of the ballpark - from FOX News:

Trump signs memorandum diverting more water to California farmers
President Trump on Wednesday signed a memorandum directing more of California’s scarce water supply to farmers and other agriculture interests in the state's Central Valley, a Republican stronghold.

Speaking alongside House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy in the lawmaker’s hometown of Bakersfield, Trump boasted of how his administration reworked environmental rules to assure more water gets to farmers, while also taking shots at his political rivals – from California Gov. Gavin Newsom to Democratic presidential primary hopeful and former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg.

“For too long water authorities have flushed millions of gallons into the Pacific,” Trump said. “I ordered the administration to update outdated opinions which determined water allocation in this state.”

Trump added that he is going “to put a lot of pressure” on Newsom to enact the changes and if the California governor doesn’t follow through then “you’ll get a new governor.”

Good - the heritage of the protected "delta smelt" is uncertain at best. No sense crippling California's agriculture just to appease the enviros.

Very good decision to make and good that he is putting serious pressure on the state to come to their senses.

Recycling

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Nice online database - you type in your ZIP code and what you want to recycle (second step is optional)

It will return a list of recyclers in your area. Well done.

Check out Earth911

Yikes - nasty stuff

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From CNN:

A cancer-causing green slime was found oozing onto a highway in a Detroit suburb, officials say
A green liquid was found oozing onto Interstate 696 in the Detroit suburb of Madison Heights Friday, causing authorities to block off portions of the highway and call in federal agencies to investigate.

By Saturday, it was discovered that the mysterious liquid was the chemical hexavalent chromium and was leaking from a local business, Michigan State Police said on Twitter.

Hexavalent chromium is usually produced during industrial processes like plating and is known to cause cancer, according to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration. The chemical is harmful to the respiratory system, kidneys, liver, skin and eyes.

Someone call Erin Brockovich.  I hope that company gets more than a slap on the wrist. With the volume of leakage we are looking at, they had to know that something was not right.

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