June 2025 – Page 6 – This is Not Cool

Trump’s Energy Surrender to China

The Trump administration doesn’t even understand the field they are playing on.

Doug Lewin: Texas Energy and Power Newsletter

As the House Republicans passed their and President Trump’s budget bill last month, some wanted to preserve — or at least have an orderly phase out of — various clean energy tax credits. The message they received, according to Politico: “When it comes to winning on clean energy, Trump just isn’t interested.”

Right now, renewables and batteries comprise more than 80% of the energy coming onto the world’s power grids, including in the US. They’re more than 90% of what’s been installed in Texas recently.

And electricity is at the center of China’s efforts to overtake the U.S. economy.

Yet Trump and the House leadership appear apathetic in their approach to this vital race with China; they seem to have given up. They talk about winning the AI race, but they are knee-capping the only power source that can, in the short and medium terms, deliver the massive amounts of electricity that AI and modern economies need.

They apparently think the U.S. can lead on oil and gas, coal, and nuclear power but not on solar, wind, electric vehicles, and batteries — the very sources that are shaping the future.

No one is building coal plants in America, no matter how badly President Trump or anyone else wants them to.

New nuclear power will take until 2032, at least, to enter the market, and longer to scale up.

And supply chain issues mean there will be a shortage of gas turbines for the next half-decade, and likely much longer.

Energy dominance is only possible with clean energy.

Temperatures, Global Demand, Driving Up Gas Prices

Continued upward pressure on Natural Gas prices means pricier electricity for Americans. This is a long term situation if we remain addicted to fossil fuels and vulnerable to global markets:

Wall Street Journal:

U.S. electricity bills are expected to rise 4% this summer, reaching a nationwide average of $186 per month.
New England faces the biggest jump in monthly bills, up 6.7% to $200, due to limited gas pipelines and high energy prices.
Natural gas demand is surging in the summer for electricity generation, with power plants accounting for 41% of U.S. consumption.

Americans can expect to pay more to stay cool this summer thanks to forecasts for above-average temperatures across the country and natural-gas prices that are heading into air-conditioning season 37% higher than last year.

On average, Americans should count on their electricity bills in June, July and August rising 4% from last year, mostly due to more expensive natural gas, according to the Energy Information Administration.

That would bring the nationwide summertime average to $186 a month, up from $180 last year and $148 four years ago, the EIA said.

Helping Coal Kill: Trump EPA Releases New Rules to Boost Mercury, Greenhouse Pollution

Keeping Zombie coal plants open to own the Libs.

New York Times:

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to weaken a Biden-era regulation that required power plants to slash pollutants, including the emissions of mercury, a neurotoxin that impairs brain development, according to an internal agency document.

Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, intends to announce the proposed changes within days, according to two people who have been briefed on the agency’s plans. Mr. Zeldin also will release a separate proposal to eliminate limits on greenhouse gases from power plants, according to the people, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss agency plans.

Together, the changes represent a repudiation of efforts taken by the Biden administration to tackle climate change and address the disproportionate levels of air pollution faced by communities near power plants and other industrial sites. Once finalized, likely at the end of this year, both rules are expected to face legal challenges.

The moves are part of a broad strategy by the Trump administration to expand the use of fossil fuels, the burning of which is dangerously heating the planet. President Trump has taken several recent steps to try to boost the use of coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels.

Big Short Author on Effects of DOGE Cuts

Guardian:

Elon Musk’s Doge has only been running for a few weeks but Americans will be suffering the consequences of his ignorant vandalism for many years to come, in health, national security, disaster preparation and more. It would not be surprising to learn that some of the people interviewed here have already been laid off, or their work defunded. At any rate, Musk’s demolition derby makes this kind of journalism feel, more than ever, like a civic duty.

Contrary to the conservative stereotype of a ballooning bureaucracy, the size of the federal workforce has not changed greatly since the 1960s. It currently numbers around 2.4m people, more than 70% of whom work for agencies related to defence and national security. No doubt some of them are mediocre or incompetent, and some systems are badly in need of reform, but this book rightly focuses on the quiet heroes who represent public service at its best.

One reason we don’t know who these people are is that they don’t care if you know who they are. “The best thing in the world is when no one can remember whose idea it was,” says Ronald E Waters, the humble powerhouse whose National Cemetery Administration has a record rating of 97 on the Customer Satisfaction Index. As the New Yorker’s Casey Cep writes: “He refuses to believe there’s anything like a Ron Fan Club, no matter how many members I find.” Visiting Nasa’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Dave Eggers notices “a relentless emphasis on teams and groups and predecessors” rather than individual glory.

Jeff Masters: Flying Into a Cat 5 Monster – I Lived to Tell Thee

Get coffee. I mean it – you’re not going to be able to cut away from this story.
My friend Dr Jeff Masters has alluded to this event many times, but I’ve never heard him tell the whole story as he does here.

In 1989, Jeff was a young meteorologist on NOAA’s hurricane hunting team, guiding the P-3 aircraft into and out of hurricanes and winter storms.
As Jeff relates, it was his dream job, until, very suddenly, it wasn’t.

In September of that year, the team flew into Hurricane Hugo east of Barbados, which they believed, due to insufficient satellite data, was a Category 3 storm, and approachable at a relatively low 1500 foot altitude.
Hugo turned out to be an angry and murderous Cat 5.
Jeff’s story is as vivid an illustration as one can find about the courage and professionalism of the NOAA teams that help protect our coastal populations, the risks that they take, and what it means to have incomplete data about potentially monstrous storms.
These are the same teams that have now been targeted by the science-wreckers of DOGE, to blind the world to the increasing impacts of climate change.
Jeff’s presentation was part of the recent “100 Hour” Livestream from scientists sounding the alarm about the deadly effects of the Republican war on science, now in full control of the Federal Government.
I’ve posted at least one clip from the marathon, I’m unable to find the full stream, if that is still available. Anyone that has a link, let me know.

War On Science in Overdrive

The real operation warp speed.
Ignorance with urgency.

Paul Krugman on Substack:

It was obvious, if you thought about it, that the second Trump administration would be hostile to science and intellectual endeavor in general.

After all, look at some key elements of the MAGA coalition. Fossil fuel interests don’t want anyone studying climate change. Conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones make much of their money selling quack medical remedies, which makes them hostile to conventional medicine. (And partisan orientation became a key factor determining whether people were willing to be vaccinated against Covid.) Practitioners of voodoo economics don’t want anyone looking into the actual results of cutting taxes on the rich. Nativists proclaiming an immigrant crime wave don’t want anyone examining who commits violent crimes. And so on.

Even so, the extreme nature of the assault has caught almost everyone by surprise. American scientific leadership and the prestige of our research universities are key pillars of U.S. power and prosperity. Corporate America certainly understands that our scientific and educational institutions contribute to its bottom line. So you might have expected even MAGA enthusiasts to be a bit cautious about killing this particular golden-egg-laying goose.

Report: Home Insurance Premiums Rising Across All States

New Report on pressure from rising home insurance prices across the United States.

Consumer Federation of America:

The costs of building materials and labor costs have gone up significantly in recent years, peaking during the COVID-19 pandemic.10 This factor has driven up housing costs generally, and has been a factor in insurance pricing as well. As homeowners insurance covers the “replacement value” of homes, meaning the cost to rebuild that property in case of damage, escalating rebuilding costs can drive up the
cost of coverage. While inflation has largely subsided and supply chains are not as badly disrupted as they were during the COVID pandemic, insurers continue to argue that rate increases are also attributable to overall inflation.

However, this is only part of the story. Climate change is
also an important driver of rising premiums. Due to climate change, the nation has experienced stronger and more frequent natural disasters, including larger and more powerful hurricanes, a longer and more destructive wildfire season, heavier rainstorms, tornadoes, hail, and other extreme events. While hurricanes and wildfires often attract the most attention, a rise in extreme weather events is impacting almost all parts of the country, including many states in the Midwest. These disasters not only increase costs but also lead to increasing expectations of loss, which drives up premiums as insurance companies attempt to better predict future events.11

In addition, the unregulated global reinsurance market has been increasing its prices. Reinsurance is insurance for insurance companies, where the insurers spread the risk around to guard against the potentially high cost of claims resulting from natural disasters. The reinsurance companies, many of which are based in Bermuda or Europe, are unregulated and wield substantial market power. They have

increased their U.S. prices for six straight years, which directly impacts the premiums paid by homeowners.12

Greta Thunberg “Intercepted” on Gaza Relief Trip

Associated Press:

Israeli forces seized a Gaza-bound aid boat and detained Greta Thunbergand other activists who were on board early Monday, enforcing a longstanding blockade of the Palestinian territory that has been tightened during the war with Hamas.

The activists had set out to protest Israel’s ongoing military campaign in the Gaza Strip, which is among the deadliest and most destructive since World War II, and its restrictions on the entry of humanitarian aid, both of which have put the territory of some 2 million Palestinians at risk of famine.

The Freedom Flotilla Coalition, which had organized the voyage, said the activists were “kidnapped by Israeli forces” while trying to deliver desperately needed aid to the territory.

“The ship was unlawfully boarded, its unarmed civilian crew abducted, and its life-saving cargo — including baby formula, food and medical supplies — confiscated,” it said in a statement. It said the ship was seized in international waters some 200 kilometers (120 miles) from Gaza.

Israel’s Foreign Ministry portrayed the voyage as a public relations stunt, saying in a post on X that “the ‘selfie yacht’ of the ‘celebrities’ is safely making its way to the shores of Israel.”

Vulnerable House Repubs Knees Go Wobbly on Clean Energy Cuts

Hopes for courage and integrity from Republican House members – who wrote to Speaker Mike Johnson months ago in defense of clean energy tax incentives – faded when all of the signers voted in favor of the brutal cuts in the “Big Beautiful Bill”, so called, that now is before the Senate.

Now, some of them, especially those in vulnerable districts, are asking for Senators to do the job where they failed

Politico:

Thirteen House Republicans are urging Senate leaders to “substantially and strategically” improve clean energy tax credit provisions in the House-passed megabill.

Led by Rep. Jen Kiggans (R-Va.), the lawmakers said they remain “deeply concerned by several provisions” that would aggressively phase down incentives from the Democrats’ 2022 climate law and add strict new supply chain requirements. Such steps could jeopardize billions of dollars in investments and thousands of jobs, companies and trade groups have said.

The letter Friday from Kiggans and Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, Juan Ciscomani of Arizona and Andrew Garbarino of New York, among others, comes as Senate negotiators work on their version of the GOP’s tax cut, energy and border spending budget package.

“We believe the Senate now has a critical opportunity to restore common sense and deliver a truly pro-energy growth final bill that protects taxpayers while also unleashing the potential of U.S. energy producers, manufacturers, and workers,” the House lawmakers wrote in the letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader John Thune and Senate Finance Chair Mike Crapo.

NOAA: High Speed Cameras to Track Monster Hail Stones

Someone stop them! They’re doing science!