Tag: climategate

Trump EPA Cancels Funding for Nancy Pelosi’s and Ilhan Omar’s Pet Climate Projects

The EPA canceled two multimillion-dollar environmental justice grants that Democratic Reps. Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Ilhan Omar (Minn.) helped to secure just weeks before President Donald Trump took office, the Washington Free Beacon has learned.

Pelosi helped secure a $20 million grant awarded to the San Francisco County Transportation Authority to help develop six green transportation projects—including the purchase of an electric bus, installation of electric ferry charging ports, and creation of a bike-share program. “This project will create a cleaner, greener city where reliable public transportation promotes equity and opportunity for all San Franciscans,” Pelosi said in a statement announcing the grant in December.

Omar, meanwhile, was involved in securing a $10 million grant to build solar panels and energy efficiency upgrades at the Minneapolis American Indian Center and develop a geothermal energy system at the Sabathani Community Center. The partnership between the two Minneapolis-based community centers would strengthen the resilience of an area that is “home to low-income communities disproportionately impacted by climate change,” Omar wrote to the EPA months before the agency awarded the grant.

“Recent examples of the importance of these two legacy organizations includes [sic] their response to the civil unrest following the murder of George Floyd and how they served as critical resources throughout the pandemic,” she wrote in the letter obtained by the Free Beacon.

The Minneapolis partnership and San Francisco development projects, a source familiar told the Free Beacon, are among the more than 400 environmental justice and DEI-related grants that EPA administrator Lee Zeldin, in collaboration with the White House’s Department of Government Efficiency, has canceled in recent weeks.

The EPA’s actions to revoke the grants highlight the EPA’s and, more broadly, the Trump administration’s efforts to curb spending. Zeldin ordered EPA officials to conduct a line-by-line review of grants disbursed by the Biden administration. Overall, the Trump EPA has clawed back more than $1.7 billion awarded under the previous administration and terminated eight grants worth $20 billion for a “green bank” program.

“It is our commitment at EPA to be exceptional stewards of tax dollars,” Zeldin said this month.

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Why is the U.S. Military Involved in Fighting “Climate Change” at All?

President Trump’s Pentagon is making a bold move to refocus America’s military on its core mission – winning wars, not battling climate change. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is leading the charge to eliminate what he calls “climate zealotry” from defense spending as part of a broader effort to streamline military operations.

At a glance:

  • Trump administration plans to cut Pentagon climate programs as part of 8% budget reduction over five years
  • Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth states military should focus on “deterring and winning wars, not climate change”
  • Pentagon has already canceled multiple climate studies, including assessments of climate impact on African stability
  • Department of Defense Climate Resilience Portal has been taken down
  • Pentagon working with Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) to eliminate what officials call “woke chimeras of the Left”

Trump Administration Refocuses Pentagon on Core Mission

The Trump administration is making significant changes to Pentagon priorities, cutting programs related to climate change as part of a broader initiative to reduce defense spending by 8% over the next five years. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has been explicit about the shift in focus, declaring that addressing climate concerns is not part of the military’s core responsibilities.

Defense Department spokesman John Ullyot reinforced this position, stating that “climate zealotry and other woke chimeras of the Left are not part of that core mission” of deterring, fighting, and winning wars. The administration’s efforts include reviewing contracts to eliminate billions in climate-related spending across the department.

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Eco-Fascist Mark Carney is Trying to Control the World Through Green Finance

Carney wrote an article in the Guardian published on 17 April 2019, “If some companies and industries fail to adapt to this new [anti-carbon] world, they will fail to exist.”

So enamoured of his own phrase, he repeated it five months later in his UN Climate Action Summit speech on 23 September 2019: “Firms that align their business models to the transition to a net zero [carbon] world will be rewarded handsomely. Those that fail to adapt will cease to exist.”

He also told the Climate Action Summit that all investments, at least all energy-related investments, will have to become green to be permitted – one of “50 shades of green,” as he put it.

On 22 September 2019, the day before the Climate Action Summit, he gave a speech during what law firm Lathan & Watkins referred to as an “insurance industry event” in which Carney said: “Changes in climate policies, technologies and physical risks in the transition to a net zero world will prompt reassessments of the value of virtually every asset. The financial system will reward companies that adjust and punish those who don’t.”

At this point, it’s worth recalling that Carney, in his opening speech at the City of London’s 2020 Green Horizon Summit, said that total net zero transition represents “the greatest commercial opportunity of our time” and “our objective for COP26 is to build the framework so that every financial decision can take climate change into account.”

Every financial decision means EVERY financial decision. Carney has led the campaign for a green digital crypto-currency to replace the US dollar. Since his announcement of this crypto plan on 22 August 2019, the Bank of Canada quickly fell into line declaring its support of the agenda.

Carney’s colleagues in the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development amplified this message a couple of months later saying:

“What is needed is a Global Green New Deal that combines environmental recovery, financial stability and economic justice through massive public investment in decarbonising our energy, transportation and food systems while guaranteeing jobs for displaced workers and supporting low carbon growth paths in developing countries… through the transfer of appropriate technologies”.

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As Trump moves to scrap key climate finding, emails show Obama EPA used it to push ‘progressive’ fix

As the Trump administration nears a decision on whether to reverse the landmark regulatory declaration that launched the “Green New Deal” movement, the legality and political motivations of the Obama-era environmental regulators are getting a fresh, hard look.

Emails reviewed by Just the News show that Environmental Protection Agency regulators who helped craft the 2009 “endangerment finding” — which declared greenhouse gases could be regulated because they risked public health — were preparing to impose the regulatory powers of the endangerment finding even before the science was wrapped up.

The emails also show there was an open discussion inside the Obama EPA about trying to score a win for liberals in what was supposed to be a scientific process. “You are at the forefront of progressive national policy on one of the critical issues of our time. Do you realize that?” Georgetown law professor Lisa Heinzerling wrote then-EPA Administrator Lisa P. Jackson on Feb. 27, 2009. “You’re a good boss. I do realize that. I pinch myself all the time.”

A day earlier, Heinzerling estimated that the finding would be finalized in August or September 2009, but that imposing regulations like new car emission standards could occur ahead of the science being wrapped up.

Experts told Just the News such communications — which mostly have been relegated to insiders and trade publications — could provide a powerful messaging tool if Trump EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin decides to reverse the endangerment finding.

And there’s also a trove of emails yet to be released but itemized on a log of documents the Obama administration insisted on hiding from the public by declaring them “privileged.” “I believe the privilege logs support that the [Obama] administration came in determined to do what they then went through the public motions of producing,” Chris Horner, an environment and energy policy attorney, told Just the News.  

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Brookfield’s Deep Ties To Chinese Land, Loans & Green Deals

A review of corporate documents reveals that Brookfield—the influential $900 billion Canadian investment fund from which Liberal Prime Minister-to-be Mark Carney stepped away from in order to replace Justin Trudeau as Canada’s leader—maintains over $3 billion in politically sensitive investments with Chinese state-linked real estate and energy companies, along with a substantial offshore banking presence. One of its major real estate ventures, a $750 million entry into high-end Shanghai commercial property in 2013, involved a Hong Kong tycoon affiliated with the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC)—which the CIA labels a central “united front” entity of Beijing.

The investment occurred while China’s real estate bubble was peaking. Last year, as China’s market crashed, and vacancies soared in Shanghai, Brookfield under Carney secured hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from the Bank of China to refinance its Shanghai commercial land holdings. According to The Bureau’s research, this emergency loan came a decade after Carney, serving as Governor of the Bank of England, aided Beijing by facilitating the Bank of China’s expansion of its global financial footprint. In his 2013 speech, UK at the Heart of Renewed Globalisation, Carney announced that “The Bank of England [has] signed an agreement with the People’s Bank of China … Helping the internationalisation of the Renminbi is a global good.”

While Brookfield had already amassed well over three billion dollars in estimated investments and managed assets in China before Carney took the helm in 2020, research indicates that he played a role in expanding the firm’s footprint there. This included refinancing its 2019 acquisition of Shanghai commercial real estate—initially valued at approximately CAD $2 billion at the peak of China’s real estate bubble—though its actual worth was likely significantly lower when Brookfield secured nearly $300 million at four percent interest from the Bank of China last year.

Given that his history of deep investment in China—if not his holdings, reportedly now placed in a blind trust—could potentially color Carney’s plans for Canada, these developments are especially notable as a trade war between the United States and Beijing escalates.

Carney and his cabinet members will be sworn in at 11 a.m. this morning at Rideau Hall, the Governor General’s official residence. The timing of Carney’s appointment as prime minister adds urgency to ongoing questions about potential conflicts of interest, with matters further complicated by reports that his first international meeting will be with European leaders next week—who are themselves grappling with sweeping tariffs imposed by the Trump Administration.

Brookfield’s substantial investments in China—directly or indirectly involving state-linked entities—include hundreds of millions in renewable energy assets acquired through TerraForm Global in 2017, a $750 million real estate stake in China Xintiandi since 2013, a 2019 Shanghai land purchase valued at approximately $2 billion, a $100 million joint venture with GLP for solar projects launched in 2018, and reported plans to raise hundreds of millions more in both real estate and China green sector investments.

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Amazon forest felled to build road for climate summit

A new four-lane highway cutting through tens of thousands of acres of protected Amazon rainforest is being built for the COP30 climate summit in the Brazilian city of Belém.

It aims to ease traffic to the city, which will host more than 50,000 people – including world leaders – at the conference in November.

The state government touts the highway’s “sustainable” credentials, but some locals and conservationists are outraged at the environmental impact.

The Amazon plays a vital role in absorbing carbon for the world and providing biodiversity, and many say this deforestation contradicts the very purpose of a climate summit.

Along the partially built road, lush rainforest towers on either side – a reminder of what was once there. Logs are piled high in the cleared land which stretches more than 13km (8 miles) through the rainforest into Belém.

Diggers and machines carve through the forest floor, paving over wetland to surface the road which will cut through a protected area.

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Climate Group Controlled By Bill Gates Hit By Layoffs

Breakthrough Energy, the umbrella organization for Bill Gates’ climate change programs, slashed its grantmaking budget last month and has begun laying off US and European workers. This comes as the Trump administration shifts its focus away from inflation-driving (also de-growth) and unreliable green technology, instead boosting proven fossil fuel power and investments. It also coincides with Elon Musk’s DOGE dismantling USAID.

Decarbonization news website Heatmap reported one month ago that Breakthrough Energy began reducing its grantmaking budget and “alerted many nonprofit grantees earlier that it would not be renewing its support for them.”  

“This pullback will not affect Breakthrough’s $3.5 billion climate-focused venture capital arm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which funds an extensive portfolio of climate tech companies,” Heatmap said, adding, “Breakthrough’s fellowship program, which provides early-stage climate tech leaders with funding and assistance, will also remain intact, a spokesperson confirmed.”

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Canadian man sentenced to 25 years for attack on Keystone XL Pipeline, US energy infrastructure

A Canadian man has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for attacking energy infrastructure in the United States, causing $1.7 million in damages. A judge ruled that his crimes met the legal definition of terrorism.

Cameron Smith, 50, originally from the Toronto area but living in Astoria, Oregon, was sentenced on Monday. In addition to prison time, he was ordered to pay over $2.1 million in restitution and $250,000 in fines. Smith also faces deportation upon his release.

Smith pleaded guilty in September to charges of destroying energy facilities. The attacks occurred in 2022 near Carpenter, South Dakota, and in 2023 near Ray, North Dakota. US District Judge Daniel Traynor handed down two consecutive 12-year-and-6-month sentences—far exceeding the federal guideline range of 3.5 to 4.25 years per count.

“Smith also admitted to damaging a transformer and pumpstation of the Keystone Pipeline located near Carpenter, South Dakota, in an amount exceeding $100,000, in July 2022. Smith damaged the Wheelock substation and the Keystone Pipeline equipment by firing multiple rounds from a high-power rifle into the equipment resulting in disruption of electric services to the North Dakota customers and resulting in disruption of the Keystone Pipeline in South Dakota,” the Justice Department says.

Prosecutor David Hagler defended the stiff sentence, arguing that Smith’s actions fit the definition of terrorism by “attempting to intimidate or coerce a civilian population.”

Smith’s defense attorney, Douglas Passon, pushed back, describing his client as a “hyper-aware individual wanting to create awareness about climate change” who intentionally chose remote locations to prevent harm to people.

In the South Dakota case, Smith’s attack led to the shutdown of a Keystone XL Pipeline pump station, causing a leak that damaged surrounding land. In North Dakota, he damaged transformers and infrastructure at an electrical substation, leading to power outages for 243 customers.

During sentencing, Smith told the court he had resorted to direct action out of frustration after years of attempting to raise awareness about climate change through legal channels. He pleaded for a lesser sentence, citing his autism and Crohn’s disease, said the Justice Department in a release.

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Trump’s EPA Head Lee Zeldin Needs to Undo the ‘Endangerment Finding’

At the direction of an executive order signed by President Donald Trump on his first day back in office, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin was charged with reconsidering whether the EPA’s finding that emissions of carbon dioxide endanger human health, welfare, or the environment (the Endangerment Finding) is valid and merits continued support.

Zeldin reported his determination and recommendations to Trump last week, but they have not been publicly released.

Critics of the federal effort to limit fossil fuel use and restrict greenhouse gas emissions in the vain effort to prevent climate change — which humans don’t control by the way — have long decried the Endangerment Finding, recognizing it serves as the foundation for nearly all federal climate rules since 2009.

The Endangerment Finding was based on a gross and unjustified expansion of the reach of the Clean Air Act as interpreted by the U.S. Supreme Court in the 2007 case Massachusetts v. EPA.

Massachusetts sued the EPA for not regulating greenhouse gas emissions, specifically carbon dioxide, from mobile sources as a pollutant causing climate change, which the state argued threatened it and its people via higher seas and worsening weather. The EPA argued that under the Clean Air Act it had no authority to regulate CO2 emissions because they weren’t considered pollution under the law.

The Court took the occasion to expand the law beyond its wording and intention, rewriting the Clean Air Act to essentially define anything emitted into the air as a pollutant and thus subject to EPA regulation if the agency finds it endangers human health. Under this interpretation of the law, when a person exhales or belches, they are polluting.

Because fossil fuels are the lifeblood of the economy, under the U.S. Supreme Court’s interpretation of the CAA, the EPA has become an authoritarian czar, with the levers of the entire economy in its hands. The U.S. Constitution countenanced no single branch of government, much less a single unaccountable agency under one branch of the government, to wield such unchecked power.

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Vote-Buying Scheme Exposed: Stacey Abrams Admits on MSNBC Biden EPA Handed Her $2 Billion to Buy New Home Appliances to Reduce Electric Bills Just Months Before the Election

In a jaw-dropping admission on MSNBC, failed Georgia gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams proudly revealed that the Biden administration’s EPA funneled nearly $2 billion into a program she spearheaded to replace home appliances—just in time for an election year.

During an interview with left-wing host Chris Hayes, Abrams proudly recounted how the Biden administration greenlit her project, Vitalizing DeSoto, a so-called “climate justice” initiative that handed out free home appliances to a select group of residents in a small Georgia town.

But the real bombshell? This taxpayer-funded windfall was part of a larger effort to implement the Democrats’ radical climate agenda under the guise of “helping” Americans with their electric bills.

President Donald Trump, in a fiery rebuke, called out the scheme for what it is—a politically motivated slush fund designed to curry favor with voters using taxpayer dollars.

“Take a $1.9 billion to recently created Decarbonization of Homes Committee headed up—and we know she’s involved. Just at the last moment, the money was passed over by a woman named Stacey Abrams. Have you ever heard of her?” Trump said during his joint address to Congress.

Rather than deny her involvement, Abrams openly confirmed it, boasting that her pilot program successfully provided government-funded appliances to 75% of DeSoto’s residents.

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