Month: February 2024

Donald Trump’s Horrific Plan for the Planet

The Stupid will Burn – if we let it.

A whole lot of people who don’t find Joe Biden “exciting” enough have probably never heard of the Inflation Reduction Act, U.S. Global Change Research Program, or the National Climate Assessment.

And, if Trump is elected, chances are, they never will.

E&E News:

Former President Donald Trump’s second term could begin with a clear direction on climate policy: Trash it.

Dozens of conservative organizations have banded together to provide Trump a road map — known as Project 2025 — if he prevails in November. It outlines a series of steps that the former president could take to reverse the climate actions taken by the Biden administration.

Trump has already said that boosting fossil fuels would be one of his top priorities. A proposed executive order in Project 2025 offers him a path for that goal, laying out a total restructuring of the U.S. Global Change Research Program to diminish its role across more than a dozen federal agencies.

Project 2025 also calls for replacing the White House climate adviser with an “energy/environment” adviser who would pivot to serving the needs of the fossil fuel industry.

“The Biden Administration’s climate fanaticism will need a whole-of-government unwinding,” the plan states. “As with other federal departments and agencies, the Biden Administration’s leveraging of the federal government’s resources to further the woke agenda should be reversed and scrubbed from all policy manuals, guidance documents, and agendas.”

The Washington-based Heritage Foundation worked with conservative organizations to produce Project 2025, which offers 920 pages of policy prescriptions to ensure the chaos of Trump’s first term is not repeated if he gets a second. The think tank did not respond to a request for comment.

But Tom Pyle, a Project 2025 contributor and president of the American Energy Alliance, said Heritage is now recruiting Trump loyalists ready to implement the agenda on Day One. Installing personnel who can carry out such executive orders will be the key step in determining if they are followed, he said.

“Project 2025 has the potential to be an essential tool for President Trump should he be elected for a second term,” Pyle said. “But a plan is only as good as the people who implement it, so getting competent and committed conservative personnel into the administration will be more critical.”

The Trump campaign declined to provide comment to E&E News but has stated in the past that the former president will determine his own policy priorities, regardless of outside pressure.

Trump’s climate record suggests that the proposed executive order would be in line with his energy agenda. 

In recent months, he has repeatedly promised to be a “dictator for a day” to ramp up oil and gas drilling. And allies expect that he will seek to unwind President Joe Biden’s climate policies much faster than he did the policies of President Barack Obama.

Continue reading “Donald Trump’s Horrific Plan for the Planet”

Fears in the Rain as LA Finally Catches up with Blade Runner

Ridley Scott’s 1982 Epic Blade Runner was set in 2019 – a little off for Androids to be watching “Attack Ships on fire off the Shoulder of Orion” – but looks like it may be getting the weather right for future Los Angeles, as throughout the film, it never stops raining.

But I will say, since last week, Weather twitter has been glittering like C-beams in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.

Continue reading “Fears in the Rain as LA Finally Catches up with Blade Runner”

Agrovoltaics Promising, Still a Work in Progress

There has been a fair amount of oversell in some circles about the prospects for combining agriculture and solar production on the same land.
While, as illustrated above, certain practices like sheep grazing and honey production are an easy and natural fit, growing a wider range of traditional crops is a challenge because of a mismatch between the nuts and bolts of solar panels and the requirements of most large farm and harvesting equipment.

Often missing from the discussion is a recognition that one very valuable agricultural process is the null solution, which is, land that is “doing nothing” has an essential value for rebuilding soil, recharging aquifers, hosting native plants and pollinators, small mammals, ground nesting birds, and restoring the bottom of the food web in a way that benefits critters all the way up the chain.

Still, as the video above shows, a significant amount is being done, at least on the sheep side, which seems like a win-win.
Below, scientists and farmers present the case for resting the land with solar.

Below, a video that is a bit on the cheerleading side, but makes enough good points about the possible synergies between solar and ag, that it’s worth a look.

Continue reading “Agrovoltaics Promising, Still a Work in Progress”

Clearing Disinformation on Electric Vehicles

My newest column in the Midland Daily News.

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In 2023, electric vehicle sales increased 50 percent over the previous year.

But you’d never know it from the steady drumbeat of negative press coverage about EVs.

Let’s take a look at the reasons why we are well into the EV transition, and there is no going back.

First of all, it’s worth noting that internal combustion engines will be banned or restricted in nearly 50 countries, starting with Norway in 2025, and including China, the European Union, and, so far, 9 US states, most by 2040.

Major automakers like GM have committed to moving awayfrom Internal combustion (ICE) engines in the coming decade, including Volkswagen, BMW, and Stellantis.

A big part of the transition is market driven, as recent polling of prospective car buyers globally now shows for the first time a majority expecting their next car to be electric or hybrid, including 69% in China, the world’s largest auto market.

The US lagged in the survey, with 29%, no doubt at least partially due to a concerted misinformation campaign.

Environmental concerns topped the list of reasons, but the Russian Invasion of Ukraine and concerns about oil and supply chains were also mentioned.

Major carmakers the world over, of course, recognize that climate change is the definitive challenge of the century, and they can’t run from it.

None of this has stopped fossil fuel funded “think tanks” and social media sites from conducting a misinformation campaign against electric vehicles, and the energy transition writ large.

Continue reading “Clearing Disinformation on Electric Vehicles”

Thriving Under Solar Panels: Plants Up, Flowers Up. Insects Up 3x. Bees Up 20X

Scientists took measurements in fields of solar panels planted with pollinators.
After 4 years, results are in.

Native plants Up. Flowering plants Up. Total insects up 3X.

Native bees up 20X.

Argonne National Laboratory:

Agrivoltaics is the combination of solar energy production with agricultural and vegetation management practices. One type of agrivoltaics focuses on the establishment of habitat for insect pollinators and other wildlife that can provide important ecosystem services, such as pollination. Pairing solar energy facilities on previously disturbed lands with habitat enhancement sounds like a logical win-win strategy to address energy and biodiversity challenges. To date, however, there has been little field data available to document the feasibility and the ecological benefits of this novel land use approach.

The two studied solar sites were planted with native grasses and flowering plants in early 2018. From August 2018 through August 2022, the researchers conducted 358 observational surveys for flowering vegetation and insect communities. They evaluated changes in plant and insect abundance and diversity with each visit.

“The effort to obtain these data was considerable, returning to each site four times per summer to record pollinator counts,” said Heidi Hartmann, manager of the Land Resources and Energy Policy Program in Argonne’s Environmental Sciences division, and one of the study’s co-authors. ​“Over time we saw the numbers and types of flowering plants increase as the habitat matured. Measuring the corresponding positive impact for pollinators was very gratifying.”

By the end of the field campaign, the team observed increases for all habitat and biodiversity metrics. There was an increase in native plant species diversity and flower abundance. In addition, the team observed increases in the abundance and diversity of native insect pollinators and agriculturally beneficial insects, which included honeybees, native bees, wasps, hornets, hoverflies, other flies, moths, butterflies and beetles. Flowers and flowering plant species increased as well. Total insect abundance tripled, while native bees showed a 20-fold increase in numbers. The most numerous insect groups observed were beetles, flies and moths.

In an added benefit, the researchers found that pollinators from the solar sites also visited soybean flowers in adjacent crop fields, providing additional pollination services.

Continue reading “Thriving Under Solar Panels: Plants Up, Flowers Up. Insects Up 3x. Bees Up 20X”

Reposting: Tucker Carlson’s Egregious Lies About Climate Change

In light of Tucker Carlson’s current pilgrimage to Moscow, global nerve center for climate denial (and so much other) disinformation, reposting this piece from a few years ago where I took apart one of his whoppers.