Month: December 2025

Bloomberg:

Less than a year after President Donald Trump banned new wind projects, a federal judge ruled the president’s executive order was illegal. 

US District Judge Patti Saris said Monday the order is “arbitrary and capricious and contrary to law,” siding with more than a dozen US states and a clean energy group that had challenged it. 

The president’s directive — issued in January, hours after he returned to the White House for a second term — effectively halted federal approvals of wind farms on land and sea pending a federal review. The order froze dozens of clean energy projects, including massive installations planned off the Eastern seaboard. Developers warned of job impacts and billions of dollars in lost investments.

Trump’s campaign against renewables — and offshore wind, in particular — has whipsawed industries boosted by former President Joe Biden. Whereas Biden pushed to green US electric grids, Trump has moved to prop up traditional fuels, including natural gas, coal and nuclear that are capable of providing round-the-clock power at a time of surging electric demand from data centers.

Continue reading “Trump Wind Bans Blocked by Court”

On 27th November, ten of the UK’s leading experts briefed an invite-only audience of around 1,250 politicians and leaders from business, culture, faith, sport and the media with the latest implications for health, food, national security and the economy.

Above, Lieutenant General (Ret’d) Richard Nugee CB CVO CBE is a former senior British Army officer and leading voice on climate and national security. His 35-year military career included operational tours in Northern Ireland, the Balkans, Iraq and Afghanistan, where he served as Chief of Staff to NATO’s ISAF Joint Command. He later became Chief of Defence People and was awarded the US Legion of Merit.

In his final year of service, Richard authored the UK Ministry of Defence’s first review on climate risk, and now serves as Non-Executive Director for Climate Change and Sustainability for Defence. He advises governments and organisations on climate-security, net zero, and resilience, and chairs several green energy and veteran support initiatives.

So called “Balcony Solar” has been hot in Europe for some time.
Regulatory barriers have kept it from taking off in the US up til now, but as electric rates become election issues – look for legislators to take the top off.

Guardian:

cquiring solar panels at home can be an expensive hassle for people in the US. But small, simple, plug-in solar panels for use on balconies are soon to become available for millions of Americans, with advocates hoping the technology will quickly go mainstream.

Earlier this year, Utah became the first state in the country to pass legislation allowing people to purchase and install small, portable solar panels that plug into a standard wall socket.

When attached outside to the balcony or patio of a dwelling, such panels can provide enough power for residents to run free of charge, home appliances such as fridges, dishwashers, washing machines and wi-fi without spending money on electricity from the grid.

Balcony solar panels are now widespread in countries such as Germany – where more than 1m homes have them – but have until now been stymied in the US by state regulations. This is set to change, with lawmakers in New York and Pennsylvania filing bills to join Utah in adopting permission for the panels, with Vermont, Maryland and New Hampshire set to follow suit soon.

“Plug-in solar is a powerful tool to deliver enhanced energy independence and affordability to millions of New Yorkers who are currently shut out of the solar economy,” said Liz Krueger, a New York state senator who has sponsored a bill to allow balcony solar.

Continue reading “Rising Electric Bills Drive DIY Solar in US”

Allied News (Indiana):

In 2019, a representative from Engie swung by the multi-generational Downing Farms.

The company, which has two dozen solar projects in the United States and traces its origins back to the construction of the Suez Canal, was looking for property owners interested in diversifying their land use.

Downing had never considered solar panels until then. He was in.

“I didn’t want to see that get passed by,” Downing said.

Farmers across the country are trying to find ways to balance books, with some leasing part of their farm land for solar panel projects and other green energy sources. The consistent income helps farmers continue farming in a time of uncertain economics, with hopes that the land can eventually be transitioned back to agricultural usage.

Downing is one of 12 landowners who have leased some of their property for the 1,500-acre Emerald Green Solar farm.

It’s a way to lock down some consistent income in a tumultuous economy while also contributing to something bigger — diversified energy production.

“Our costs have gone up so much since COVID,” Downing said. “Those other costs aren’t coming down.”

Continue reading “Farmers, Squeezed by Tariffs, Turn to Clean Energy”

Good Wall Street Journal reporting on Denmark’s upgrading of Greenland defenses.

Fun to see some familiar landscapes here in Kangerlusuaq and Nuuk.

That giant sucking sound you don’t hear is water being evaporated into an increasingly thirsty atmosphere, but also increasing groundwater withdrawals that ultimately end up adding to global sea level rise, to an eye popping degree.

Above, from PBS reporting, “This water loss is occurring in the mid latitude regions where most of the world’s population resides.”

Unprecedented continental drying, shrinking freshwater availability, and increasing land contributions to sea level rise – Science Advances:

Changes in terrestrial water storage (TWS) are a critical indicator of freshwater availability. We use NASA GRACE/GRACE-FO data to show that the continents have undergone unprecedented TWS loss since 2002. Areas experiencing drying increased by twice the size of California annually, creating “mega-drying” regions across the Northern Hemisphere. While most of the world’s dry/wet areas continue to get drier/wetter, dry areas are now drying faster than wet areas are wetting. Changes in TWS are driven by high-latitude water losses, intense Central American/European droughts, and groundwater depletion, which accounts for 68% of TWS loss over non-glaciated continental regions. “Continental drying” is having profound global impacts. Since 2002, 75% of the population lives in 101 countries that have been losing freshwater water. Furthermore, the continents now contribute more freshwater to sea level rise than the ice sheets, and drying regions now contribute more than land glaciers and ice caps. Urgent action is required to prepare for the major impacts of results presented.

Continue reading “Warming Climate Sucking Continents Dry”

OK, let’s Go – so will you lobby to open up US markets to Chinese EVs?

Because I’d love to buy American but you guys have deliberately been screwing us and destroying our children’s future since the mid 90s, so why should we have to take whatever crap you are willing to dribble out?

Valuable Canadian Broadcasting report on the strategy behind China’s leadership in clean energy.
Spoiler: It’s not because they’re greenies.

Above, Ryan McBeth is a Military Vet and YouTuber who specializes in military and intelligence affairs. He’s kind of droll, sometimes full of shit, but usually factual enough to have credibility.
Clip above is from his longer analysis , parts of which I disagree with, on the new United States National Security Strategy document that is, on the whole, one of the great disasters in an administration that is defined by disasters.
Because he skews generally conservative, but is for the most part fact-based, and has a large following, his take on the “climate” section of the document is significant.
Among other items, the document asserts, “the growing influence of patriotic European parties indeed gives cause for great optimism.” The statement is widely interpreted as supporting right wing movements such as the AFD party in Germany, well known for Putinist and Neo Nazi affiliations, climate denial, and opposition to clean energy.

National Security Strategy of the United States of America:

Energy Dominance – Restoring American energy dominance (in oil,
gas, coal, and nuclear) and reshoring the necessary key energy
components is a top strategic priority. Cheap and abundant energy will
produce well-paying jobs in the United States, reduce costs for
American consumers and businesses, fuel reindustrialization, and help
maintain our advantage in cutting-edge technologies such as AI.
Expanding our net energy exports will also deepen relationships with
allies while curtailing the influence of adversaries, protect our ability
to defend our shores, and—when and where necessary—enables us to
project power. We reject the disastrous “climate change” and “Net
Zero” ideologies that have so greatly harmed Europe, threaten the
United States, and subsidize our adversaries.

New York Times:

Latin American countries must grant no-bid contracts to U.S. companies. Taiwan’s significance boils down to semiconductors and shipping lanes. Washington’s “hectoring” of the wealthy Gulf monarchies needs to stop.

The world as seen from the White House is a place where America can use its vast powers to make money.

President Trump has shown all year that his second term would make it a priority to squeeze less powerful countries to benefit American companies. But late Thursday, his administration made that profit-driven approach a core element of its official foreign policy, publishing its long-anticipated update to U.S. national security aims around the world.

The document, known as the National Security Strategy, describes a world in which American interests are far narrower than how prior administrations — even in Mr. Trump’s first term — had portrayed them. Gone is the long-familiar picture of the United States as a global force for freedom, replaced by a country that is focused on reducing migration while avoiding passing judgment on authoritarians, instead seeing them as sources of cash.

Continue reading “New US National Security Strategy Shaped by Climate Denial, Fossil Fuels”