It is one of the enduring marvels of political hubris that a small, deindustrialising island nation contributing less than 0.8% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions believes it can “lead the world” into abandoning fossil fuels.

“There are known knowns. These are things we know that we know. There are known unknowns. That is to say, there are things that we know we don't know. But there are also unknown unknowns. There are things we don't know we don't know.”

The National Association of Scholars (NAS) has published the fifth and final report in the Shifting Sands: Keeping Count of Government Science project, False Positives: The Irresponsibility Crisis of Science Policy, which provides a policy-oriented conclusion to the report series.

Lawfare has been a very popular approach for political jurisdictions seeking a “Jerry Maguire Moment” at the expense of the fossil energy industries. The most notorious of these lawfare efforts are the numerous “Exxon Knew” lawsuits, which allege that Exxon “knew” 30 years ago what the IPCC acknowledges it does not “know” today regarding the purported catastrophic effects of anthropogenic CO2 emissions.

Since President Trump took office, his administration, along with Congress, have taken over 200 actions to unleash America’s energy potential. See a full list...

The response to global warming began with the apparent expectation of altruism on the part of the global population. Suggestions were made regarding actions people could take to reduce their energy consumption. The results were underwhelming.

On July 29, 2025, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a report entitled A Critical Review of Impacts of Greenhouse Gas Emissions on the U.S. Climate, evaluating existing peer-reviewed literature and government data on climate impacts of Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Emissions and providing a critical assessment of the conventional narrative on climate change.

The Governors of New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware have recently complained about high electric prices in the area served by the PJM ISO. They asserted that these high rates were caused by PJM’s failure to add renewables to the grid more rapidly, rather than more expensive natural gas generators. Governor Murphy of New Jersey said: “PJM has lost the plot.” It appears more likely that the “plot” in question was a political goal rather than an economic plan. However, it is clear that the governors and PJM are not “singing out of the same hymn book”.

The Climate Working Group of the U.S. Department of Energy (John Christy, Ph.D.; Judith Curry, Ph.D.; Steven Koonin, Ph.D.; Ross McKitrick, Ph.D.; Roy Spencer, Ph.D.) published a new study that injects realism and humility into the politicized, climate-model-driven debate. This 141-page summary of CO2 science, climate science, climate economics, and related public policy reverses the John Holdren et al. bias of prior like reports.

The electric vehicle “market” in the US is a creature of the EPA 2009 Endangerment Finding, “unachievable” Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards, extremely restrictive NOx emission standards, the California Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, federal subsidies for EV purchase, federal funding for EV fueling infrastructure, federal loan guarantees for the manufacture of EVs and EV batteries, federal incentives for the purchase of EV school buses, transit buses, fire emergency vehicles and medium and heavy duty trucks, etc. Essentially these programs were designed to end the market for internal combustion engine (ICE) vehicles.

At an auto dealership in Indiana, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin released the agency’s proposal to rescind the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which has been used to justify over $1 trillion in regulations, including the Biden-Harris Administration’s electric vehicle (EV) mandate.

Recently a Dutch “white hat” hacker demonstrated that the Chinese solar collector systems installed in the UK could be interfered with remotely, either caused to cease functioning temporarily or potentially destroyed. Examination of system components determined that the Chinese manufacturers of the power inverters used to convert the DC output of solar and wind generation systems to AC had installed cellular radio addressable “kill switches” in their products.

The US Middle Atlantic and Southeast states experienced five days in a heat dome from June 23-27, 2025. This extensive heat dome stressed the electric generation, transmission and distribution resources of the region, including those of the Pennsylvania / New Jersey / Maryland (PJM) Regional Transmission Operator (RTO), the largest ISO in the US. PJM issued an emergency declaration in anticipation of the effects of this heat dome on demand and consumption, requiring all generation resources to be available for full capacity operation throughout the period, as displayed on the PJM Live Dashboard.

The recent blackout on the Iberian Peninsula was apparently triggered by an as yet unidentified “event” on the Spanish grid, which was being powered by approximately 70% renewable generation, mostly solar, which provides no inertia to the grid. It appears that the combination of conventional generation on the grid and the power provided by the interconnection to the French grid did not provide sufficient inertia to carry the grid through the “event” and the grid shut down when it exceeded either voltage or frequency tolerance limits.

Wind turbines, solar panels, battery storage, and other “green energy” technologies are too often hailed as unqualified goods for the environment. However, there are no solutions, only tradeoffs, and the same is true for energy production and its environmental impact. All human activities have an impact on the environment.

The Trump Administration has led the US off the path to Net Zero by 2050 using Executive Orders, which could be easily reversed by a later climate activist/alarmist administration. The Trump EOs provide a 4- year respite for the US, while climate activist administrations in the EU, UK, Canada and Australia continue their pursuit of Net Zero through the rapid expansion of renewable generation and battery storage.

As to food and oxygen, carbon dioxide is essential to nearly all life on earth by creating food and oxygen by photosynthesis. Further, it creates more food as its level in the atmosphere increases. For example, doubling carbon dioxide from today’s approximately 420 ppm to 840 ppm would increase the amount of food available to people worldwide by roughly 40%, and doing so would have a negligible effect on temperature.

President Trump has issued several Executive Orders (EOs) intended to encourage the continued operation of existing coal generating stations, to return some recently shuttered generating stations to operation and to restore access to available coal resources to help meet the expected rapid growth of electricity demand and consumption.

From: GWPF

The federal goals of Net Zero by 2050 and “all-electric everything” have been placed “on hold” at least temporarily. Therefore, the primary drivers of electric demand and consumption growth are now expected to be data centers and AI. Each of these loads are expected to demand 0.5 to 3 GW and to experience relatively constant consumption throughout the year.

Increasing the capacity of the electric utility grid requires both expansion of electricity transmission and the expansion of natural gas production and pipeline transmission capacity.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) have warned that the reliability of the US electric grid is threatened by the increasing percentage of intermittent wind and solar generation being connected to the grid and the premature closure of conventional generation capacity, particularly coal, but also natural gas and nuclear generators. The transition to renewable generation has been driven by massive federal incentives for renewable generation and state renewable portfolio standards, all focused on achieving Net Zero carbon dioxide emissions by 2050. The FERC and NERC concerns are heightened by the projected rapid increases in electricity demand and consumption required to serve data centers and AI.

Fires require a source of ignition at a temperature above the ignition temperature of the available combustible material and possessing sufficient energy to raise the temperature of the available combustible material above its ignition temperature. The common natural source of ignition is lightning. However, faulty electric transmission and distribution infrastructure, accidental spread of cooking and campfires from homeless encampments and intentional arson are also common sources of ignition which cause fires which can develop into wildfires if there is sufficient combustible material available.

Most government environmental regulations are based on observations of atmospheric concentrations, exposure durations and adverse health effects. Specific sources of emissions of the pollutants in question are measured individually and the combined exposure levels calculated. Studies are conducted to determine the safe exposure to each pollutant as a function of concentration and frequency and duration of exposure. The technologies available to control emissions from each of the sources of concern are evaluated to determine their technical and cost effectiveness. Regulations are then developed which establish the emissions limits for each controlled source required to establish and maintain safe exposure.

“Nobody’s honest. Scientists are not honest. And people usually believe that they are. That makes it worse. By honest I don’t mean that you only tell what’s true. But you make clear the entire situation. You make clear all the information that is required for somebody else who is intelligent to make up their mind” — Richard Feynman “The Unscientific Age”

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is responsible for identifying air, soil and water pollutants which can be harmful to human health and safety, determining the exposure levels at which those pollutants become harmful to human health and establishing and administering regulations which limit the emissions of those pollutants to maintain safe exposure levels.

 

Renewable portfolio standards (RPS) and clean energy standards (CES) are either requirements or goals for energy producers or providers to supply energy from low- or zero-carbon emission sources. US EIA

 

US EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin recently announced the EPA would be reassessing a number of past regulatory actions. Many of the actions being questioned were developed based on the application of the concept of the Linear No Threshold model to pollutant exposure. Essentially, the application of this model assumes that if a pollutant is dangerous at some concentration, it is dangerous at any concentration and must be controlled; and, once a control method has been identified, it must be applied.

Reengineer: to reorganize the operations of (an organization) so as to improve efficiency

The Trump Administration has paused funding of climate change research and of numerous climate related initiatives and incentives. The pauses are intended to permit the new department and agency leadership to identify how the funding is moving into the markets, who is receiving the funding and for what they are using the funding.

 

IPCC AR6 Chapter 12, in its section on the Emergence of Climate Impact Drivers, identifies high confidence that increasing mean air temperatures and extreme heat have already emerged in the historical period and medium confidence that decreasing cold spells are beginning to emerge.

The State of New York enacted the Climate Change Superfund Act in December, 2024. The Act asserts that climate change has caused damage in the state and seeks to recover some portion of the alleged cost of that damage from elements of the fossil fuel energy industry alleged to be responsible for some portion of that damage as a result of the CO2 caused by emissions resulting from the use of their fuels. The Act is similar to the Vermont Climate Superfund Act of May, 2024.

An appropriate topic for any discussion of lawfare, whether lawsuits alleging violation of existing laws or legislation leading to new law, is the issue of standards of evidence.

The Clean Air Act (CAA) became law in 1970. It was later amended in 1970 and 1990. Congress considered including CO2 emissions under the Act but elected not to do so both during debate on the Act and during debates on the amendments.