Free Republic

On Friday’s broadcast of Bloomberg’s “Surveillance,” Bloomberg columnist, economist, President of Queens’ College, Allianz Chief Economic Adviser, and former Obama Global Development Council Chair Dr. Mohamed El-Erian stated that the “sustainable energy” transition has helped create “a world that’s subject to higher inflation” than the world we had before.

The graphs below from the NOAA April 2024 Climate Report show comparisons of the latest April 2024 Global Land and Ocean average temperature anomaly results compared to all other April months from 1850 to 2024 and all January through April Global Land and Ocean average temperature anomaly results from 1850 to 2024 Unfortunately, NOAA’s latest climate report does not provide comparisons of the April 2024 average temperature anomaly results for all months over time which led to an incomplete and misleading evaluation of the April 2024 outcome. Fortunately, NOAA’s extensive climate temperature data base provides the information and data needed...

House Democrats are probing President Trump’s request for $1 billion in campaign cash from major oil companies. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) penned a letter to CEOs of eight energy companies and an oil lobbying group that reportedly attended a dinner at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort with the former president last month. Outlets, including The Hill, reported that at the dinner, Trump asked the industry to raise $1 billion to support his presidential campaign. The Washington Post, which shared the story first, reported that getting him the funds would be a “deal,” because of all the money the industry would save in...

I have had several posts on a collection of related cases that I have called “The Stupidest Litigations In The Country.” These are cases where climate hysterics have sued oil and gas producing companies, or the federal government, or both, seeking various extreme punishments ranging from massive damages up to and including an order to end all production of fossil fuels. The asserted grounds vary somewhat from case to case, but a central theme is a claimed constitutional right to a “clean and healthy environment.” My last update on these cases was a post on April 9. A main subject...

If you’ve visited a grocery store in the last year, chances are high that you saw single-use plastic bags swapped for another reusable bag (also made with plastic, but we’ll get to that later). Or maybe your local grocery store hasn’t even made this trade-off, despite the law stating they must do so. On your walk home from that very store, you probably saw plastic bags still littered along the street. This is all part of the current problem with single-use plastic bans on bags, straws and takeout containers across the U.S. They are disjointed and, for the average person,...

Carbon capture and underground storage (CCUS) tops the list of silly schemes “to reduce man-made global warming.” The idea is to capture exhaust gases from power stations or cement plants, separate the CO2 from the other gases, compress it, pump it to the chosen burial site, and force it underground into permeable rock formations. Then hope it never escapes. An Australian mining company who should know better is hoping to appease green critics by proposing to bury the gas of life, CO2, deep in the sedimentary rocks of Australia’s Great Artesian Basin. The people running this company have chosen the...

What are the ramifications and true reality of breaching the dams of the pacific northwest (PNW)? Please begin with our previous articles on this topic, found here, here, and here. In this installment we bring you information on the debate regarding the salmon and steelhead populations. The paper seen below was written by retired Idaho Department of Fish and Game Fish Culturist, Fish Hatchery Superintendent, Fish Hatchery Manager, and Fish Hatchery Complex Supervisor Jerry McGehee on January 2, 2024. It is entitled More Pieces of the Puzzle to the Life Cycle of Idaho Salmon and Steelhead. McGehee’s ten-page paper explains...

A rare cast of a red-painted cow in a rock shelter, accompanied by a man ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ New archaeological findings from the hyper-arid Atbai Desert, in Eastern Sudan, indicate the Sahara Desert was once a lush and green environment. Dr Julien Cooper from the Department of History and Archaeology, led a team of archaeologists in 2018 and 2019 on the Atbai Survey Project, discovering 16 new rock art sites in Wadi Halfa, one of the most desolate and driest areas of the Sahara. Almost all of the newly discovered artwork, which dates back 4000 years, features the presence of cattle. “It...

Mark Zuckerberg, the billionaire founder of Meta, has recently made waves with his latest acquisition—a $300 million superyacht named Launchpad. Zuckerberg’s luxurious vessel, which is longer than a football field, has drawn criticism based on his climate activism. The Hindustan Times reports that with an estimated net worth of $180 billion, Mark Zuckerberg has joined the ranks of tech billionaires like Jeff Bezos, Larry Ellison, and Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page in buying a luxurious superyacht. The 118-meter vessel, designed by Swedish-based Espen Øin International, boasts a sleek, multilayered exterior with a robust steel hull and an aluminum...

Carbon dioxide is a pollutant, the Environmental Protection Agency says. It’s been drilled into us for more than 30 years that we have to cut our CO2 emissions if we don’t want the world to end too soon. But we know that the climate scare is in no way related to protecting the sky. The data tell us so. Over the last three calendar years, 2021, 2022, and 2023, “​​​​no country has reduced its carbon emissions more than any other major nation on a per capita basis,” the Committee to Unleash Prosperity tells us. “Even though our GDP is about...

A recent subcommittee hearing before the House Committee on Natural Resources heard testimony regarding alleged influence by unelected non-governmental organizations (NGOs) on important federal government policy decisions. The Biden administration was called out for permitting activist environmental groups, many funded by billionaires and the Chinese Communist Party, to inappropriately influence US energy policy at the Department of the Interior. Committee members are investigating the degree to which Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland and others are working with green activist groups to shape policies that undermine the decision-making of state and federal officials, divert oil production to less eco-friendly sources...

If April showers bring May flowers then what does May bring? Apparently significant snow at higher elevations. The National Weather Service in Reno has issued a winter weather advisory for the greater Lake Tahoe basin and parts of the high Sierra. The NWS says snow accumulations up to three to six inches are expected around Lake Tahoe and six to 12 inches over higher Sierra passes, with up to 10 to 14 inches across the Sierra crest above 7,000 feet. The bulk of the storm moves through Saturday and wraps up by 8 a.m. on Sunday, May 5. Roads, especially...

All across California, residents are being told to scrimp and save water because of historic drought conditions. Meanwhile, state officials are dumping freshwater into the ocean while intentionally depriving rice farmers of the water they need to grow food. Colusa County in Northern California is the top producer of rice in the Sacramento Valley. The area generates more than 150,000 acres of rice in a normal year – but as you can probably tell by now, 2022 is anything but a normal year. Officials there say that only a fraction of the usual rice crop will be grown there this...

The California Department of Water Resources (DWR) last week released its next five-year plan for the State Water Project—Update 2023. After years of meetings, California’s premier water agency has decided to focus on “three intersecting themes: addressing climate urgency, strengthening watershed resilience, and achieving equity in water management.”Lake Shasta Dam in Shasta Lake, Calif., on Feb. 14, 2023. (Allan Stein/The Epoch Times)Water supplies for California’s 40 million people and the planet’s most productive agriculture have third- to fifth-level priority.There is nothing new here, except to publicly admit to betraying the public trust. Really?Over several decades, the public has been deceived...

On the cold dead surface of Mars, something remarkable happens each spring. The red planet becomes infested with giant black spiders. At least, that’s what it looks like. In reality, vast fields of dark, spider-like formations become etched into the Red Planet’s landscape. No, they are not alive, nor actually spiders, but instead a geological phenomenon that occurs nowhere else in the solar system. With the recent orbital passes of the European Space Agency’s (ESA) Mars Express and the ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO), scientists are now closer than ever to understanding these mysterious features known as “araneiforms.” Araneiforms are...

On Thursday, Biden's Environmental Protection Agency announced a new set of rules aimed at reducing pollution from natural gas and coal-fired power plants by 90 percent by 2039. About 42,000 Americans work in the coal industry. Under the regulations, the nation's 200 or so coal-fired power plants will be forced to abide by strict new emissions standards unless they stop burning coal within ten years, in which case they will be allowed to follow the less stringent existing standards. According to the rules, a "new compliance path" for coal-fired power plants means they "will be able to continue meeting existing...

On Thursday’s broadcast of “NewsNation Now,” White House National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi denied that the Biden administration is attempting to shut down the coal industry or slow any industry down, and stated that the issue is “about how do we speed up to a stronger economy, a more durable economy, and one that, frankly, puts less pollution into the sky?” Host Connell McShane asked, “[C]oal executives, for the most part, are coming out and saying this — we can’t meet this. So, the real goal here is to kind of shut our industry down. Is that what’s happening?” Zaidi...

Gillette-based L&H Industrial, a 60-year-old industrial machinery company in the coal-rich Powder River Basin, has partnered with nuclear technology innovator BWX Technologies as part of a blockbuster deal to launch a multibillion-dollar industry in the micro nuclear reactor field. A Wyoming company with international clout that’s bolstered the state’s energy industries for decades is jumping into the nuclear business. Gillette-based L&H Industrial Inc., a 60-year-old stalwart industrial machinery company in the coal-rich Powder River Basin, has partnered with nuclear technology innovator BWX Technologies Inc. (BWXT) as part of a blockbuster deal to launch a multibillion-dollar industry in the micro nuclear...

Moments like the one we live in now come along from time to time, providing the opportunity to learn from the mistakes of the past. For instance, key takeaways from the Deepwater Horizon incident of April 2010 and how they apply to today are clear except to those who deny them. On Apr. 20, 2010, an explosion occurred on the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform in the Gulf of Mexico. The explosion, which killed 11 men, caused the rig to sink into the deep and started a devastating oil leak from the well. Prior to it being capped three months afterward,...

The New York HEAT Act might not make the final budget. The bill reduces the state’s reliance on natural gas and cuts ratepayer costs by eliminating certain rules. It was in both legislative chambers’ one-house budgets, but last-minute scrambling could remove it. New York League of Conservation Voters Policy Director Patrick McClellan said, aside from people’s preference for natural gas, other challenges have made the bill hard to pass. “I think that there has also been some irresponsible fear-mongering against this bill from some people who oppose it,” said McClellan, “basically telling people this means that their natural gas service...