Tag: climategate

Mile High Marxist Bernie Sanders Proves There Is No Climate Emergency

Give the devil his due: Senator Bernie Sanders never misses an opportunity to remind Americans about our planet’s supposed peril. In a 2023 MSNBC op-ed, he whined: “The climate crisis is not just an environmental issue. It is a matter of justice, of health, of economics, and of national security.” According to Sanders, climate change is a moral and existential threat demanding sweeping government intervention and dramatic changes in personal behavior.

Except, of course, when it comes to how he lives his own life.

Sanders’ recent “Fighting Oligarchy” tour paints a very different picture. While crisscrossing the country decrying the evils of capitalism, Sanders traveled by—you guessed it—private jet. According to a new analysis from Power The Future, the senator’s 16-stop tour spewed an estimated 62.15 metric tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.

To put in context, that’s more than the average American produces in five years.

In fact, Sanders’ emissions from just one tour equal the annual emissions from 15 gasoline-powered cars. It’s the carbon equivalent to driving a gas-powered SUV 150,000 miles, or more than 6 times around the Earth at the equator. And this from a man who wants to regulate what kind of stove you use in your kitchen.

When questioned about the blatant hypocrisy, Sanders didn’t offer contrition. He doubled down. “You think I’m gonna be sitting on a waiting line at United… while 30,000 people are waiting?” he snapped at Bret Baier.

This isn’t the first time Sanders’ climate preaching has clashed with his jet-setting lifestyle. During the 2020 Democratic primary, his campaign shelled out over $1.2 million on private jet travel. Then, as now, the justification was the same: it’s okay when Bernie does it because his cause is righteous.

Let’s call this what it is: Mile High Marxism. Sanders flies high above the rest of us, belching carbon into the atmosphere while demanding working families pay more for energy and drive electric vehicles. He insists there’s a climate emergency but behaves like there’s no emergency at all.

The green movement is filled with elites just like Sanders—people who use the language of crisis to amass power while living above the consequences of their policies. They want to ban gas cars, restrict domestic energy production, and ration electricity, but they’ll never give up their jets, SUVs, or lakefront mansions. It’s not about saving the planet. It’s about control.

Consider this: if the planet were truly teetering on the edge of climate catastrophe, would the loudest alarmists be the least willing to change their own behavior? If climate change were the existential threat they claim, wouldn’t they at least attempt to lead by example? Instead, we get moral lectures from the tarmac.

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Daily Mail Misses the Real Story About Long-Term Stable Antarctica Ice in Dumb Quip About Climate ‘Deniers’

A remarkably silly headline appeared last week in the Daily Mail stating: ‘Shocking Antarctica discovery sends climate change deniers into mass celebration.’ It appears that 100 gigatonnes of ice has been added to the Antarctica ice sheet in a 21-month period to December 2023. Quite how joy will be unconfined in the ranks of the ‘deniers’ over an increase, or decrease, of 0.00041% is not clear. The amount is an ice sheet rounding error and it would be scientifically accurate to refer to it as zero. Even if the figure was a loss, it would take nearly half a million years for all the ice in Antarctica to melt and that does not include any allowance for glacial periods or indeed a new ice age. Unsurprising, in the haste to stick ‘denier’ into the mix, a far more important finding about Antarctica ice was missed. A recent paper undergoing peer review has calculated that around 2,546 gt of ice has been added every year since 1960 to the surface on Antarctica. This would almost certainly have been enough to stabilise any natural losses and it is possible that the ice sheet has been stable or even growing slowly over this period.

The figures for Antarctica’s overall ice mass are difficult to calculate. They must include losses from ice calving and melting and they are thought to total around 2,000 gt a year. Driving ice accumulation in Antarctica is snowfall and there is some evidence that the area is receiving more precipitation than previously thought. The paper led by Dr Christiaan van Dalum of Utrecht University suggests heavy recent accumulations of ice in Antarctica that appear to outweigh any losses at the coast. There is said to be increased precipitation in the mountains of West Antarctica and the Antarctic Peninsula.

It is not always clear in scientific papers just what the authors are comparing. The Daily Mail story arises from a Chinese group whose work on the Antarctica ice sheet appears to concentrate on just four eastern glacial basins. The Chinese findings suggest little or no change while van Dalum points to increases over the entire continent even allowing for significant losses due to natural events. Nevertheless, the key to understanding climate change lies in the length of the observations. Drawing celebratory conclusions over less than two years’ supposed growth is junk science, possibly designed to boost clicks and impress potential advertisers. Assessing results over 60 years as the Dalum paper does offers greater understanding of the dynamics of polar ice.

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Why has an eco-extremist been given a royal seal of approval?

King Charles has pulled off an impressive PR rehabilitation since his Coronation in 2023. The British public now hears little about the aristocratic indulgences he was famed for as a prince, from his insistence on wearing ironed shoelaces to his portable loo seat. Nor do we hear a great deal about the quixotic beliefs of this self-confessed eco-nut who used to hold conversations with his plants. But sometimes the mask slips.

This week’s announcement by the King’s Foundation was one such moment. Charles’s private charity, which he established in 1990 to advance his ‘philosophy of harmony’, has named 35 of its favourite ‘changemakers’ under the age of 35 to celebrate the charity’s 35th year. They were identified, we are told, after an ‘exhaustive search’ across the UK and selected on the basis of their ability to advocate for the ‘change we want to see in the world’.

Of course, the ‘we’ in that sentence probably means Charles. At the very least, his underlings will have chosen figures likely to chime with his sensibilities. As such, these choices offer an alarming insight into the curious priorities of the reigning monarch.

One of the ’changemakers’ is environmentalist Jack Harries, who was arrested in 2019 at an Extinction Rebellion (XR) protest. Harries, making what he presumably believed was a brave stand against the evils of the fossil-fuel industry, glued his hands to the door of a hotel that was hosting a petroleum conference.

Although XR has been edged aside recently by other eco-groups like Just Stop Oil and Youth Demand, it pioneered the use of disruptive stunts and street theatre to draw attention to its mad demands. Its members would often paint their faces white and dress in red cloaks, performing choreographed dances in public, incanting about the impending climate apocalypse.

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Austria walks back support for EU’s 2040 climate target

Austria’s new government has declined to endorse the European Commission’s recommendation for a 90 percent cut in planet-warming emissions by 2040, depriving Brussels of an expected ally for the embattled target.

Vienna never explicitly agreed to support the target, but former Austrian Climate Minister Leonore Gewessler was among the first to welcome the EU executive’s suggestion for a 90 percent reduction in February 2024. Austria, she stressed, intended to slash national emissions to net-zero by 2040 in any case. 

Yet Gewessler’s Greens are no longer in power, and the new coalition government is taking a more cautious position. 

“It’s crucial that a 2040 climate target helps secure [Europe’s] competitiveness, including for green technologies, as well as food security and a just transition,” said a spokesperson for Austria’s agriculture and environment ministry when asked by POLITICO last week whether the government supports a 90 percent goal. 

“We now have to wait for the Commission’s concrete proposal, which we will examine in detail because the small print is also relevant for achieving the 2040 target,” they added. 

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EPA slush fund for climate grifters

Democratic politicians and their allies have been in a lather for months over President Trump and his administration, especially Elon Musk and his “DOGE” operation. The reason? They are exposing their bureaucratic slush funds to the public, including a big one at the Environmental Protection Agency.

The discovery in February of billions of dollars of payments to enrich favored climate groups and causes reveals a sordid taxpayer-funded scheme. The administration’s efforts to stop this gravy train threaten the climate house of cards built up for decades.

EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, a former Republican congressman from New York, revealed that $20 billion of the $27 billion climate slush fund known as the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund was paid by the Biden administration to eight organizations. The purpose was for them to distribute to numerous other organizations for climate projects such as electric vehicle loans, solar panels, and much else in search of a climate crisis.

“This scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight,” Zeldin said. In so doing, Zeldin described the scheme as “self-dealing and conflicts of interest, (and) unqualified recipients.”

Designated recipients of this massive taxpayer largess promptly sued in federal District Court. Judge Tanya Chutkan ruled in April that the EPA cannot freeze or claw back the funds under contract.

The administration immediately appealed the ruling by claiming the court has no jurisdiction and cannot overrule the executive branch’s authority to cancel a contract, which other courts have permitted involving other issues and agencies.

The following day, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals halted Chutkan’s order to disburse the funds to the climate groups to allow time for the case to be heard in full.

Government handouts to favored organizations, which distribute to other organizations, are like taxpayer cash flowing downstream as these ostensibly private entities act as bureaucracies to further a political agenda.

Great gig, if you can get it.

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EPA chief Lee Zeldin to kill car feature ‘everyone hates’

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin hinted Monday that he’s preparing to roll back one car feature that every driver “hates.”

“Start/stop technology: where your car dies at every red light so companies get a climate participation trophy,” Zeldin tweeted Monday in a post that has since racked up more than 8 million views.

“EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it.”

The feature kills internal combustion engines at red lights and has been touted by proponents for being able to conserve fuel and cut down on pollution.

Critics have questioned whether the feature can wear down the car’s battery or engine more quickly.

The “off-cycle CO2 reducing” tech has its origins in a federal rule proposed under President Barack Obama in 2012 — but didn’t take effect until new fuel economy standards to reduce greenhouse gas emissions five years later.

Between 2012 and 2021, the number of vehicles produced with a stop-start feature due to the carbon credits surged from 1% to 45%.

Up to 65% of vehicles had the technology included in new models by 2023.

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Inside The Dysfunctional Process Driving Biden’s ‘Clean Energy’ Frenzy

On Jan. 20, President Trump ordered a pause in federal leasing and permitting of offshore wind plants. In mid-April, he halted construction of the Empire Wind installation off the coast of Long Island, a relief to many in the local fishing and hospitality industries. He also ordered a leasing and permitting review of all 11 offshore wind projects approved during the Biden years.

Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said that Empire Wind’s approval “was rushed through by the prior administration without sufficient analysis or consultation among the relevant agencies as relates to the potential effects from the project.”

There was a lot of that going around. Offshore wind was a centerpiece of the Biden administration’s mad dash for “clean energy” and “net-zero” emissions. The administration acted as though it had this one shot — a limited window in which to throw up as many wind installations as it could. As it turns out, that was true enough. But in the meantime, there were toes to step on and corners to cut.

Just up the coast from Empire Wind is the South Fork Wind installation off Rhode Island. The Biden Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) folks didn’t exactly endear themselves to the locals. Protect the Public’s Trust obtained a letter sent to BOEM in November 2022 by a coalition of local townships, Indian tribes, historic preservation groups and others. “We have NEVER seen a more dysfunctional process,” it said.

As part of the permitting process, the Interior Department is required to comply with the National Historic Preservation Act, to assess the effects of federal projects on historic properties, including those of cultural significance to Native Americans. Ocean Energy Management officials told attorneys for the locals they “don’t have time to comply with National Historic Preservation Act.” An appeal to the federal advisory council tasked with oversight of compliance with that act got them nowhere. As the letter to BOEM said, the “permitting review has become a theater of the absurd.”

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Reports say corporations retreated from net zero, but critics say ESG policies still enforced

Shortly before President Donald Trump was inaugurated in January, the Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative announced it was suspending its activities. The announcement came after the investment firm Blackrock said it was withdrawing, joining an exodus of firms from the group. That month, six of the largest U.S. banks also left a similar group for banks, the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA).

Critics had called NZAM and NZBA “cartels,” and firms were facing Congressional investigations and lawsuits, arguing their activities violated anti-trust laws. By coordinating an effort to harm politically unfavored companies, the lawsuits argued, they were engaging in illegal collusion, accusations the firms say are baseless. 

However, with litigation risks mounting, the firms fled NZAM and NZAB. Blackrock, the world’s largest asset management company with $11.6 trillion in assets under management, said in a statement that its “memberships in some of these organizations have caused confusion regarding BlackRock’s practices and subjected us to legal inquiries from various public officials.” 

Not really the end of ESG

The environment, social and governance (ESG) sustainable investing movement recently appeared to be nearing its end. However, that may not be the case, at least for some companies. The American Energy Institute (AEI), which defends the production of petroleum as a means of reliable and affordable energy, was recently notified its insurance wouldn’t be renewed. 

According to AEI, the Hartford Underwriters Insurance Company reportedly stated the reason for the non-renewal was that the group’s Facebook page indicated that their operations “include trade associations involved in promoting social/political causes related to energy production. This is not an acceptable exposure under the Hartford Small Commercial business segment’s guidelines.” 

“They’re really not changing their behaviors whatsoever. They’re just dropping some alliances and probably saving a few bucks on dues,” Jason Isaac, executive director of the AEI told Just the News. 

Hartford-Boycott-of-American-Energy.pdf

The Hartford didn’t respond to Just the News‘ questions about its decision not to renew AEI’s insurance or what policies the AEI was violating. 

Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, testified before the Texas Senate Committee on State Affairs last month in a hearing considering anti-ESG legislation. Hild argued that even though banks have left net-zero alliances, they continue to advance policies aimed at getting companies to reduce their emissions. 

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Hawaii Sues Oil Companies Over Climate Change – Exempts One Refinery That Donates to Democrats

The blue state of Hawaii is suing oil companies over climate change, but for some strange reason they have exempted one refinery that has executives who give a lot of cash to Democrats. What an odd coincidence.

The entire conversation about climate change should have ended the instant that leftists began targeting Teslas and Tesla dealerships over DOGE. It proved that the left doesn’t really care about this issue, they just want what they want.

The lawyers for the oil companies will surely point this out, if they’re smart.

The Washington Free Beacon reports:

Hawaii Sues Oil Industry for Causing Climate Change—But Spares State’s Largest Refiner Whose Executives Donate to Dems

The State of Hawaii filed a major lawsuit against a dozen major oil companies and the nation’s largest oil industry group, accusing them of marketing and selling products that have caused higher temperatures, increased sea levels, more frequent flooding, coastal erosion, and more intense heat waves.

But Hawaii’s sprawling complaint—which prosecutors hope will force oil industry defendants to pay hundreds of millions of dollars in damages—excluded Houston-based Par Pacific and its subsidiary Par Hawaii, the oil company that operates Hawaii’s sole petroleum refinery and remains the state’s leading supplier of gasoline and jet fuel. That means prosecutors spared a company that is likely the single largest driver of the emissions in the state.

The complaint makes just one reference to Par’s Hawaii refinery, chastising ExxonMobil for supplying crude oil to the facility that is then ‘refined on Hawaii and distributed to consumers.’ In addition to ExxonMobil and the American Petroleum Institute, BP, Chevron, Shell, Equilon Enterprises, Sunoco, Aloha Petroleum, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, Woodside Energy Hawaii, BHP Hawaii are all listed as defendants.

Could it be any more obvious what’s happening here?

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Transportation Secretary Cancels $54 Million in University Grants Tied to DEI, Climate Agenda

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy on Friday announced the termination of seven federally funded university research grants totaling $54 million, saying the programs are wasteful and ideologically divisive projects that fall outside the scope of the Department of Transportation’s core mission.

“The previous administration turned the Department of Transportation into the Department of Woke,” Duffy said in a May 2 statement. “I’ve focused the Department on what matters; safety, making travel great again, and building big, beautiful infrastructure projects.”

The grants supported research projects that Duffy said were used to advance a “radical DEI and green agenda” that wasted taxpayer resources and were not aligned with the transportation priorities of Americans.

The seven canceled grants had been awarded to research centers at the University of California–Davis, City College of New York, University of Southern California, New York University, San Jose State University, University of New Orleans, and Johns Hopkins University.

He cited specific examples of what he called ideological misuse of funds, including a $12 million grant to UC Davis for research on “accelerating equitable decarbonization,” a $9 million grant to the City College of New York for studying “equitable transportation for the disadvantaged workforce,” and a $6 million grant to San Jose State University that examined infrastructure and safety issues facing women and gender non-conforming individuals.

“We’re taking out all the racist DEI and green new scam and injecting a dose of reality back into our higher education system,” Duffy said in a video statement.

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