The Week That Was: 2024-02-24 (February 24, 2024)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “The care of human life and happiness, and not their destruction, is the first and only legitimate object of good government.” —Thomas Jefferson (1809)
Number of the Week: $3,958,000 per mile in 2023
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: This TWTW presents the comments SEPP made to the EPA on Scientific Integrity. It discusses a major problem in global climate models – the failure to accurately account for changes in humidity. The bias of fact-checking social networking organizations is discussed. A follow-up on the failed appeal of the Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council against the EPA for its Endangerment Finding is presented. Also discussed are some of the problems involved in changing electricity markets including those associated with increased reliance on unreliable, weather-dependent electricity generation.
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Scientific Integrity: Over ten years ago, the Obama administration initiated a policy for scientific integrity across government agencies, subject to review every three years. The EPA issued the draft of its revised policy, subject for review which closed Friday. Knowing that other organizations were preparing detailed comments, SEPP focused on what was lacking: a clear definition of scientific integrity. In its comments, SEPP provided one, justifying the definition. Part of the Comment states:
“The importance of the scientific method was recognized in two Supreme Court opinions.
First, “‘scientific knowledge’ … must be derived by the scientific method.” Daubert v. Merrell Pharmaceuticals, Inc., 509 U.S. 579, 593 (1993).
Second, an agency rule is “arbitrary and capricious if the agency … entirely failed to consider an important aspect of the problem” and “the relevant data.” Motor Vehicle Manufacturers Association of the United States, Inc. v. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Company, 463 U.S. 29, 43 (1983) (“State Farm”).
It is a major violation of the scientific method not to consider all relevant physical evidence (data).
This brief comment is divided into three parts. One, a brief summary of the development of the scientific method and its importance in resolving scientific controversies. Two, a clear, rigorous definition of scientific integrity based on the scientific method is proposed. And three, how this definition meets the stated goals of the EPA Scientific Policy is demonstrated.
The Scientific Method: The scientific method has been developed by civilizations over several thousand years. It is based on observations of nature and various efforts to explain these observations with suggested causes. The overriding principle is that the efforts to explain the observations must always be tested against all observations.
The suitability of this principle was clearly shown in the controversy between the Ptolemaic system and the Copernican system of explaining the observed motion of the visible planets, the sun, and the moon, with the stars as fixed. Ptolemy was an astronomer, mathematician, and geographer of Greek decent living in Alexandria between 100 CE and 170 CE. His system was based on Earth being the center of the universe, with other objects moving around it in spheres. It was based on centuries of observations from all civilizations known to the Roman Empire at that time. Later, Arabic astronomers improved this system to better meet observations by introducing epicycles, small circles moving around the circumference of a larger one. This made a very complex system. Yet, the Ptolemy system was accepted for over 1300 years.
In the 1500s Copernicus introduced a new system based on the sun being the center. But it was not published until after his death due to fear of public ridicule. This system still retained the concepts of perfect circles and epicycles. An intense controversy arose lasting about 100 years. Astronomer Tycho Brahe thought the issue could be resolved by careful observations, which he made in the late 1500s.
But it was Brahe’s student and assistant Johannes Kepler who recognized that ellipses better describe planetary movements around the sun than spheres and epicycles. Kepler went on to develop his laws of planetary motion. Later, Newton used Kepler’s work and Galileo’s experiments on acceleration as well as using telescopes for observation to develop the laws of gravitation. Later, more precise instruments provided better observations prompting Einstein to modify Newton’s laws of gravitation.
The above illustrates how the scientific method works. It is not based on popular views or opinions. It is based on observations of nature – physical evidence obtained directly or by controlled experiments that are tested against observations. The scientific method incorporates all pertinent observations including those made with new technologies (the telescope) once they have been thoroughly tested. As with mathematical models by Newton, if models do not fit observations, they are discarded or modified as done by Einstein.
A definition: The noted Nobel co-Laureate in Physics (Quantum Mechanics) and brilliant teacher Richard Feynman described what he called cargo-cult science. A false science with all the apparent precepts and forms of science but lacking something essential. Feynman subsequently stated:
‘There is one feature I notice that is generally missing in cargo cult science. … It’s a kind of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to a kind of utter honesty — a kind of leaning over backwards. For example, if you’re doing an experiment, you should report everything that you think might make it invalid — not only what you think is right about it; other causes that could possibly explain your results; and things you thought of that you’ve eliminated by some other experiment, and how they worked—to make sure the other fellow can tell they have been eliminated.’
This provides the grounds for a clear, meaningful, rigorous definition of scientific integrity, a principle of scientific thought that corresponds to the goals of the EPA scientific integrity policy.
Scientific Integrity: Utter honesty to insure all appropriate physical evidence is considered, even that which does not support the concept being advanced.
Support of EPA Goals: The opening paragraph of the “EPA Scientific Policy for Transparent and Objective Science” states the purpose.
‘The Agency has established, and continues to promote, a culture of scientific integrity for all of its employees. This policy provides a framework intended to ensure scientific integrity throughout the EPA and promote scientific and ethical standards, including quality standards; communications with the public; the use of peer review and advisory committees; and professional development. It also describes the scope and role of a standing committee of Agency-wide scientific integrity officials to implement this policy.’
The above definition of scientific integrity is based on thousands of years of the development of the scientific method and provides a clear, proven way to ensure a transparent and objective science in the EPA culture with high-quality scientific standards.”
As of Saturday, the docket at Regulations.gov stated that 1751 comments were received and 25 were posted. When additional comments are posted, TWTW will cite the ones readers may find interesting. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy for the Feynman quote and Defending the Orthodoxy for the EPA policy.
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Water Problems: The 1979 Charney Report stated that the climate modelers involved insisted that the small warming from an increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide would be doubled, or more, because of an increase in water vapor. The Charney Report failed to realize that the same models predicted that any warming from any cause would also result in more warming, with no end in sight. The modelers had no physical evidence supporting their claim. However, in temperate regions, every day, both relative and absolute humidity change a lot from sunrise across the daytime into the evening when it’s most likely to rain. Yet, this amplification feature in the models is still adhered to by global climate modelers. For example, pioneer of the ensemble technique of weather and climate forecasting Tim Palmer wrote in this book, The Primacy of Doubt: From Quantum Physics to Climate Change, How the Science of Uncertainty Can Help Us Understand Our Chaotic World, that CO2 accounts for about 1°C of warming and the increase in water vapor accounts for a second 1°C of warming.
However, as noted by van Wijngaarden and Happer in their studies of energy transfer in the Earth’s atmosphere, this increase in water vapor does not show up in the HITRAN database which is updated with measurements from systematic weather balloon launches at over 900 locations, twice a day at noon and midnight Universal Time Coordinated (UTC), previously called Greenwich Mean Time (GMT).
Kenneth Richard mentions a study published by PNAS titled: “Observed humidity trends in dry regions contradict climate models.” The abstract states:
“Arid and semi-arid regions of the world are particularly vulnerable to greenhouse gas– driven hydroclimate change. Climate models are our primary tool for projecting the future hydroclimate that society in these regions must adapt to, but here, we present a concerning discrepancy between observed and model-based historical hydroclimate trends. Over the arid/semi-arid regions of the world, the predominant signal in all model simulations is an increase in atmospheric water vapor, on average, over the last four decades, in association with the increased water vapor–holding capacity of a warmer atmosphere. In observations, this increase in atmospheric water vapor has not happened, suggesting that the availability of moisture to satisfy the increased atmospheric demand is lower in reality than in models in arid/semi-arid regions. This discrepancy is most clear in locations that are arid/semi-arid year-round, but it is also apparent in more humid regions during the most arid months of the year. It indicates a major gap in our understanding and modeling capabilities which could have severe implications for hydroclimate projections, including fire hazard, moving forward.”
The accompanying editorial of significance states:
“Water vapor in the atmosphere is expected to rise with warming because a warmer atmosphere can hold more moisture. However, over the last four decades, near-surface water vapor has not increased over arid and semi-arid regions. This is contrary to all climate model simulations in which it rises at a rate close to theoretical expectations, even over dry regions. This may indicate a major model misrepresentation of hydroclimate-related processes; models increase water vapor to satisfy the increased atmospheric demand, while this has not happened in reality. Given close links between water vapor and wildfire, ecosystem functioning, and temperature extremes, this issue must be resolved in order to provide more reliable climate projections for arid and semi-arid regions of the world.”
TWTW adds that the failure of atmospheric water vapor to rise with temperature rise is a global modeling issue, not just isolated to arid and semi-arid regions. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer and Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Fact Checking Bias: The CERES-Science Team, which includes SEPP director Willie Soon, reported that the International Fact-Checking Network (IFCN) is led by the Poynter Institute which claims to be a global leader in journalism. According to the Poynter Institute website:
“It is the world’s leading instructor, innovator, convener, and resource for anyone who aspires to engage and inform citizens.
Poynter is a thought leader.
Poynter taps into the expertise and experience of media executives, journalists, technologists, and academics to answer the biggest questions around the future of journalism and democracy.
Founded in 1975, Poynter is an inspirational place but also a practical one, connecting the varied crafts of journalism to its higher mission and purpose. From person-to-person coaching and intensive hands-on seminars to interactive online courses and media reporting, Poynter helps journalists sharpen skills and elevate storytelling throughout their careers.
We bring together Poynter faculty and industry experts to explore the intersection of journalism, technology, and the public interest. Poynter specializes in:
Ethics and fact-checking
Reporting and storytelling
Developing journalism’s leaders
Advancing newsroom diversity
Strengthening local news companies”
In its informative report the CERES team points out that the Poynter Institute is not a thought leader, but a follower of politically popular fads. Further, the popular social networking organizations, Facebook and Instagram, are owned by the same company, Meta, and they explicitly rely on IFCN-approved fact-checking organizations. Further:
“A major problem with most of these ‘fact-checker organizations’ is that they do not provide any right of reply – or any mechanism for the people they accuse of spreading misinformation to even respond to the claims made against them. Nor can the victims of a ‘fact-check’ get the social media platforms to review or withdraw the allegations made by the alleged ‘fact-checker’ website because those platforms do not assess the accuracy of content themselves. Instead, the platforms insist that it is not their responsibility to evaluate the accuracy of a fact-checker’s claims.
Indeed, the CEO of Meta, Mark Zuckerberg, recently admitted that much of the content that his platform was asked to be censored, ‘in retrospect, ended up being more debatable or true.’”
In short, there is no rigorous fact checking of the fact checking social networking organizations. They promote group-think and group-speak. See links under Censorship.
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Denial: The US Supreme Court refused to consider the appeal of the Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council against the EPA for its Endangerment Finding:
“On December 7, 2009, the Administrator signed two distinct findings regarding greenhouse gases under section 202(a) of the Clean Air Act:
Endangerment Finding: The Administrator finds that the current and projected concentrations of the six key well-mixed greenhouse gases—carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4), nitrous oxide (N2O), hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), perfluorocarbons (PFCs), and sulfur hexafluoride (SF6)—in the atmosphere threaten the public health and welfare of current and future generations.
Cause or Contribute Finding: The Administrator finds that the combined emissions of these well-mixed greenhouse gases from new motor vehicles and new motor vehicle engines contribute to the greenhouse gas pollution that threatens public health and welfare.
These findings do not themselves impose any requirements on industry or other entities. However, this action was a prerequisite for implementing greenhouse gas emissions standards for vehicles and other sectors.”
The principals in Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council, James Wallace III, Joseph D’Aleo, et al., have issued a report stating the scientific validity of their position. The validity is largely based on econometric models, which to TWTW appear to be valid and mathematically correct. Please see links under Challenging the Orthodoxy and https://www.epa.gov/climate-change/endangerment-and-cause-or-contribute-findings-greenhouse-gases-under-section-202a
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Deregulation? The US electrical market in which how electricity is bought and sold varies by region. However, it is divided among generation systems, transmission systems, and distribution systems, usually overseen by independent systems operators and the Federal government. The various systems can be investor owned, user owned (co-ops), or government owned. Following what is called deregulation, separating utilities from having a monopoly on generation, much of the US grid is under regional transmission organizations (RTOs), often called Independent Systems Operators (ISOs). As stated in a report by Resources for the Future, a good description of the entire system is:
While regulated utilities base retail rates on a regulated rate of return on investments …. deregulated retail utilities purchase electricity at market-determined wholesale prices and then sell that electricity to customers at market-determined retail prices, given competition from other retailers. RTOs typically run three kinds of markets that determine wholesale prices for these services: energy markets, capacity markets, and ancillary services markets.
Herein lies one of the issues of the otherwise fine series of videos by Robert Bryce titled “Juice: Power, Politics, and the Grid” which is discussed by Francis Menton: changing the regulatory system is not necessarily deregulation. See links under Energy Issues – US.
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Cost of Transmission: In a new essay, Robert Bryce discusses an important point overlooked by most commentators advocating “energy transition” to unreliable, weather dependent electricity generation – the costs of new high-voltage transmission lines. This is particularly important because often adverse weather systems are more than a thousand miles (1,600 km) wide. Bryce writes:
“The ‘energy transition’ depends on massive expansions of our high-voltage transmission grid. But capacity additions are falling, and per-mile costs and utility product costs are soaring.”
“The hard truth about the alt-energy/net-zero/energy transition hype is that almost no one … has bothered to do the math. They did not calculate how much transmission we are building every year or how long it may take to achieve significant expansions of the power grid. In other words, it’s easy to talk about adding transmission capacity. But building high-power lines is hard. Really hard. And the cost of building them is soaring.”
“In 2023, the U.S. added about 1,251 miles of new high-voltage capacity. That’s significantly below the average number of miles added to the U.S. power grid over the past two decades. According to C Three, which has the best information on transmission trends in the U.S., about 1,677 miles of new high-voltage capacity was added annually to the grid between 2008 and 2023.”
Over twice as much was added in 2013 as the average for the rest of the years of 1,677 mi per year. Brice writes that according to a 2022 Department of Energy report:
“Independent estimates indicate that we need to expand electricity transmission systems by 60% by 2030 and may need to triple it by 2050 to meet the country’s increase in renewable generation and expanding electrification needs.”
Jesse Jenkins, who heads the Net-Zero Lab at Princeton University, said that by 2035 the US may need 75,000 miles. Bryce concludes:
“If we are serious about reducing CO2 emissions from the electric sector, which means building lots and lots of nuclear reactors. Building lots of new nuclear won’t be cheap, quick, or easy. But it will be far more manageable (and probably more affordable) than trying to string tens of thousands of miles of new transmission lines across the American West.”
These costs intensify the issue of how to value unreliable, weather dependent electricity generation. As MISO (the Midwest and mid-south RTO) reports, the disparity between installed and “accredited” generation is increasing. Accredited Capacity is the electrical rating given to generating equipment that meets the Utility’s criteria for uniform rating of equipment. These criteria include but are not limited to reliability, availability, type of equipment and the degree of coordination among the entities.
Surprisingly, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has two separate accreditation methods. One is based on historical performance for traditional sources. The second is based on statistical modeling of weather patterns for weather dependent sources. These methods allow for a lot of finger pointing when things go wrong – as they will.
A person identified as Mike Keller wrote following an article on the failure of the Texas grid by Robert Bradley:
“Nuclear has massive amounts (years) of on-site stored energy. Coal plants typically have several months of on-site coal. Natural gas is limited to the gas in the pipelines and storage facilities unless electric powered gas compressors are used with the pipelines. Gas turbine powered compressors are normally used, unless dim witted politicians require using electric compressors to reduce emissions.
Wind and solar energy storage is essentially zero.”
See links under Energy Issues – US and https://www.cthree.net/ for information on the C Three Group.
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Number of the Week: $3,958,000 per mile in 2023 According to data produced by Robert Bryce, the per mile cost of high-voltage transmission lines has increased from $1,357,000 in 2008 to $3,958,000 per mile in 2023. Add to this the increasing costs of utility products such as transformers, underground conductors, etc. $4 million per mile times 75,000 miles? Net Zero is not easy or cheap.
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Censorship
Science Feedback (a “fact-checker organization”) have generated disinformation about CERES-Science
By CERES team, CERES-Science, Feb 21, 2024
Link to: International Fact-Checking Network: Empowering fact-checkers worldwide
By Staff, International Fact-Checking Network, Poynter, Feb 22, 2024
International Fact-Checking Network – Poynter
“The Poynter Institute is a global leader in journalism. It is the world’s leading instructor, innovator, convener and resource for anyone who aspires to engage and inform citizens.”
[SEPP Comment: Suppression of contradicting ideas is freedom? Or is it conformity?]
Green Movement Is Failing…Now They’re Trying To Force Citizens To Love Them
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Feb 20, 2024
“Growing censorship, opposition bans.”
Former US State official on censorship — “What I’m describing is military rule”
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 24, 2024
Foreign Billionaire-Backed Climate Org Pressuring Broadcasters To Censor Ads Critical Of Biden’s EV Mandate
By Nick Pope, Daily Caller, Feb 17, 2024
Senior Canadian Legislator Tables Bill to Jail People Who Speak Out in Favour of Fossil Fuels
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Feb 18, 2024
Challenging the Orthodoxy — NIPCC
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Physical Science
Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2013
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/_template-assets/documents/CCR/CCR-II/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Biological Impacts
Idso, Idso, Carter, and Singer, Lead Authors/Editors, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), 2014
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-biological-impacts/
Summary: https://www.heartland.org/media-library/pdfs/CCR-IIb/Summary-for-Policymakers.pdf
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://store.heartland.org/shop/ccr-ii-fossil-fuels/
Download with no charge:
Why Scientists Disagree About Global Warming
The NIPCC Report on the Scientific Consensus
By Craig D. Idso, Robert M. Carter, and S. Fred Singer, Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change (NIPCC), Nov 23, 2015
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/
Download with no charge:
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
Global Sea-Level Rise: An Evaluation of the Data
By Craig D. Idso, David Legates, and S. Fred Singer, Heartland Policy Brief, May 20, 2019
Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer
The Role of Greenhouse Gases in Energy Transfer in the Earth’s Atmosphere
By W. A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Preprint, Mar 3, 2023
New Study: Climate Models Get Water Vapor Wildly Wrong – A ‘Major Gap In Our Understanding’
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Feb 24, 2024
Link to paper: Observed humidity trends in dry regions contradict climate models
By Isla R. Simpson, et al., PNAS, 2024
Cargo Cult Science
By Richard Feynman, Caltech’s 1974 commencement address.
Some remarks on science, pseudoscience, and learning how to not fool yourself.
A Climate Science Team Report on the Scientific Validity of EPA’S 2009 GHG Endangerment Finding
By Staff, ICECAP, Feb 18, 2024
Link to full report: Our Core Climate Science Team Bottom-Line on the Scientific Validity of EPA’s 2009 GHG Endangerment Finding
By James Wallace III, Joseph D’Aleo, et al, February 2024
A Curious Paleo Puzzle
By Willis Eschenbach, WUWT, Feb 23, 2024
[SEPP Comment: So much for CO2-caused extinctions.]
Time to Retire the Term “Renewable Energy” from Serious Discussions and Policy Directives: Part 3
By Planning Engineer Russ Schussler, Climate Etc. Feb 22, 2024
Defending the Orthodoxy
Scientific Integrity Polic: For Transparent & Objective Science
By Staff, EPA, January 2024
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
How to Convince those Dumb Deniers Part Eleventy Fifty-Seven
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Feb 18, 2024
Link to: Is it Up to Me or Them? Insights from an Experimental Study on Psychological Reactance Towards Climate Change Mitigation Appeals
By Laura Bilfinger Benjamin Brummernhenrich & Regina Jucks, Environmental Communication, Dec 18, 2023
The abstract starts: “This study posits the hypothesis that the lack of an individual’s engagement in mitigating climate change might be due to reactance, a motivational psychological state that occurs when one’s perceived freedom to think or act is being threatened.”
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Climate Change Weekly #497: A Proposal to Fix Science Education
By John Droz Jr. Heartland Daily News, Feb 22, 2024
Terence Corcoran: Is the global march towards sustainable development unsustainable?
Regulations related to climate risks could prove a costly burden for Canadian corporations, institutions.
By Terence Corcoran, Financial Post (Canada), Feb 23, 2024 [H/t Ron Clutz]
“The legal proposals would burden Canadian corporations and institutions with massive reporting responsibilities and costs related to climate risks. On corporate governance, for example, the Climate Law Initiative calls for securities issuers to “disclose the governance processes, controls, and procedures it uses to monitor, manage, and oversee climate related risks and opportunities.””
[SEPP Comment: Government requiring others to disclose risks stemming from government’s false assumptions about nature?]
“Wanted: Scientific Errors. Cash Reward”
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Feb 23, 2024
Link to article: Wanted: Scientific Errors. Cash Reward.
By Stephanie M. Lee, The Chronicle of Highter Education, Feb 21, 2024 [Paywalled]
“A program launching this month is hoping to shake up that incentive structure. Backed by 250,000 Swiss francs, or roughly $285,000, in funding from the University of Bern, in Switzerland, it will pay reviewers to root out mistakes in influential papers, beginning with a handful in psychology.”
[SEPP Comment: Stephen McIntyre should apply for the entire sum for exposing the absurdity of the PAGES 2k hockey-stick, headed by researchers at the University of Bern.]
Habitable planet to sustainable civilization: Global climate change with related clean energy transition reliant on declining critical metal resources
By M. Santosh, David I. Groves, Cheng-Xue Yang, Gondwana Research, June 2024 [H/t Nicola Scafetta]
Specious Species
By Kip Hansen, WUWT, Feb 22, 2024
“The U.S. ESA is intentionally so broad that it could conceivably be stretched to demanding protection of anthropogenically created sub-populations of rare animals and plants.”
Health of fish stocks contradict climate alarmists’ predictions
By Vijay Jayaraj, American Thinker, Feb 10, 2024
Energy & Environmental Review: February 19, 2024
By John Droz, Jr., Master Resource, Feb 19, 2024
Problems in the Orthodoxy
China built 47GW of coal power last year and is “way off track” to meet emissions targets
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 23, 2024
Link to: Global Coal Plant Tracker
Seeking a Common Ground
The Anthropocene is not about climate change
By David Whitehouse, Net Zero Watch, Feb 20, 2024
Science, Policy, and Evidence
Why We Should Impose a War Reparations Tariff on Russia’s Oil Exports
By F. Andrew Dowdy, Real Clear Energy, Feb 19, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Who is going to enforce it, particularly on exports to China?]
Tidbits
By Paul Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 21, 2024
“In this topsy-turvy world, barren frozen wastes are good and plants are bad. No, really. Hence “Global warming is turning Greenland green.” Boo! Not green. Ice and tundra are so much better.”
“When the German chancellor came to Canada to beg for natural gas our Prime Minister, a man uncontaminated by real-world business experience, promptly declared that there was no business case for selling a valuable product to a man waving hard cash in our faces.”
Measurement Issues — Surface
Carnarvon “world’s hottest place yesterday” is barely any hotter than it was in 1896
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 20, 2024
Changing Weather
The Coming Collapse Of El Nino and The Ramifications on The Atlantic Basin Tropical Season
By Paul Dorian, WUWT, Feb 19, 2024
“EARTH’S NEW CYCLE OF WARM WEATHER” 1939
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Feb 23, 2024
“’ More than eighteen years of observing the fluctuations of Arctic weather conditions in the fifty-eight Soviet scientific stations in the Far North lead Russian meteorologists to a forecast of warmer winters and hotter summers for the North and South Poles.’”
[SEPP Comment: Just before it went into a cooling period,]
How unusual is it for aircraft to exceed the speed of sound?
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Feb 22, 2024
“There is a balloon-launching weather station at Sterling, Virginia (Dulles Airport), just to the west of Washington, DC. On Sunday morning, the launched balloon measured a speed of 218 knots (250 mph) from the west.”
Changing Climate
By Daivd Middleton, WUWT, Feb 21, 2024
“The Paleocene Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) was a geologically brief spike in temperatures, during the warmest climatic episode of the Cenozoic Era.”
[SEPP Comment: The PETM is a period of about 100,000 years about 55 million years ago. Among the suggested causes are a massive release of methane hydrates, volcanic eruptions, and changes in ocean currents due to changing land masses. Of course, CO2 zealots claim CO2 was the cause; but as Middleton shows, a CO2 cause is contradicted by physical evidence of the self-limiting influence CO2 has on temperatures.]
Changing Seas
Sinking Shores: The Rising Threat to East Coast Cities and Infrastructure
Press Release, PNAX Nexus, Jan 22, 2024
Link to paper: Slowly but surely: Exposure of communities and infrastructure to subsidence on the US east coast
By Leonard O Ohenhen, et al, PNAS NEXUS, January 2024
[SEPP Comment: Subsidence from ground water extraction is a real problem in the East Coast, but it is solvable with low-cost desalination of sea water as shown in the Mid East and in Carlsbad, CA.]
El Nino Keeps Ocean Warm January 2024
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, Feb 21, 2024
“The ocean covers 71% of the globe and drives average temperatures;
SSTs [sea surface temperatures] have a constant water content, (unlike air temperatures), so give a better reading of heat content variations;
Major El Ninos have been the dominant climate feature in recent years.”
Not A Science Agency
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Feb 22, 2024
Video: https://realclimatescience.com/2024/02/not-a-science-agency-2/#gsc.tab=0
Text: https://realclimatescience.com/2024/02/not-a-science-agency/#gsc.tab=0
“NASA predicts a 99% decline in corals at 2C warming, which could occur by 2050.”
[SEPP Comment: Has NASA heard of the Coral Sea, the warmest sea on Earth, named for its abundance of corals?]
New Study: 3500 Years Ago Shorelines Were 6 Kilometers Further Inland Than Today Around Thailand
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Feb 22, 2024
Link to paper: Late Holocene coastal dynamics south of the Chanthaburi estuary,
eastern Gulf of Thailand
By Armelle Ballian, et al., Quaternary Research, 2024
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
The West Antarctic ice sheet: cooling for 4,000 years
By Paul Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 21, 2024
Link to paper: Seasonal temperatures in West Antarctica during the Holocene
By Tyler R. Jones, et al, Nature, Jan 11, 2024
Polar bears unlikely to adapt to longer summers
Press Release, Washington State University, Feb 13, 2024 [H/t Jeff Reynolds]
Link to paper: Polar bear energetic and behavioral strategies on land with implications for surviving the ice-free period
By Anthony M. Pagano, et al., Feb 13, 2024
From press release: “During three summer weeks, 20 polar bears closely observed by scientists tried different strategies to maintain energy reserves, including resting, scavenging and foraging.”
[SEPP Comment: During the study periods the bears lost about 1 kg, or 2.2 pounds per day! Some humans lose that in an extreme diet! Yet, somehow, polar bears survived during the Last Interglacial period spanning about 130,000 to 115,00 year ago, with Arctic temperatures about 4-5°C (7-9°F) warmer than today, and smaller icesheets,]
“1750, when general melting began”
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Feb 23, 2024
Antarctic ablation areas assessed
By Paul Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 21, 2024
From the CO2Science Archive:
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Climate Dieticians Push Americans to Cut Beef for the Sake of the Planet
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Feb 21, 2024
So about that meat…
By Paul Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 21, 2024
“For decades these authoritarian scolds have been latching onto supposed crisis after supposed crisis, often very different from one another, from resource depletion to overpopulation to air pollution, and then proposing the same solution: we take away your freedom of choice and your nice stuff, dole out your rations and require that you smile before being allowed to leave with them.”
Joe Biden’s Net-Zero Agenda Spells Trouble Down on the Farm and at the Supermarket
By Bonner Russell Cohen, Real Clear Energy, Feb 21, 2024
Lowering Standards
Dear Colleague Letter: Science of Science Approach to Analyzing and Innovating the Biomedical Research Enterprise (SoS:BIO)
By Staff, NSF, Feb 22, 2024
Link to: A Science of Science Approach to Analyzing and Innovating the Biomedical Research Enterprise (SoS:BIO)
[SEPP Comment: What is meant by a science of science approach?]
Met Office Still Refuse To Retract False Claim About Storms
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 22, 2024
NY Times pushes an implausible story of polar bear evolution and what makes a species
By Susan Crockford, Polar Bear Science, Feb 20, 2024
“As I explain in my book, Wang and colleagues should have admitted that the evidence of shared genes they found in polar bears and brown bears could mean that ancient hybridization events took place OR that both species retained some genes from a recent ancestor they both have in common (e.g. Cronin et al. 1991, 2014; Kutchera 2014; Kumar 2017).”
[SEPP Comment: “The chimpanzee and human genomes are strikingly similar and encode very similar proteins. The DNA sequence that can be directly compared between the two genomes is almost 99 percent identical. When DNA insertions and deletions are taken into account, humans and chimpanzees still share 96 percent sequence identity.” The Broad Institute, 2005]
“South Carolina State Climatology Office”
By Tony Heller, His Blog, Feb 21, 2024
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Does LNG really fight climate change? 5 common LNG claims, examined
The LNG industry frames itself as a tool of foreign policy and a climate solution. Canary Media digs into the details.
By Julian Spector, Canary Media, Feb 20, 2024
“The upshot: Gas burns cleaner than coal, but LNG creates substantial emissions from extraction to delivery at power plants.”
[SEPP Comment: Assumes false claims by the IPCC and US NCA are correct.]
It’s called global for a reason
By Paul Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 21, 2024
“The retreat from logic on climate change continues with a piece in The Atlantic threatening that ‘A Climate Reckoning Is Coming for the Next President’. What, the White House air conditioning will break down? He’ll be arrested by the IPCC?”
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
#GettingWorse: Tropical cyclone edition
By Paul Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 21, 2024
My way or the highway
By Paul Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 21, 2024
“Note how casually the [WSJ] piece refers to ‘a carbon-free economy’. It’s a beast that all believe in despite none having ever seen it. But we no longer concern ourselves with such nonsense as evidence of practicality.”
Watch Out For Hoopoes!
By Ian Magness, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 22, 2024
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Hollywood Climate Summit Pushes More Woke Film Scripts
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Feb 23, 2024
If at first, you don’t succeed…keep digging
By Andrew Montford, Net Zero Watch, Feb 22, 2024
NOT A SATIRE! Admiral ‘Rachel’ Levine: ‘Climate change is having a disproportionate effect on black communities’
By Marc Morano, Climate Depot, Feb 16, 2024
Video
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
Dumbo farmers protest
By Paul Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 21, 2024
“Farmers fed up with climate policies that threaten to destroy their livelihoods have dealt a major setback to ambitious green schemes by politicians whose entire careers involve strikingly little involvement with actual wealth generation.”
“Farmers are threatened by climate policies not climate change itself …”
‘On The Edge Of What Is Bearable’: Why Are European Farmers Protesting?
By Nick Pope, Daily Caller, Feb 20, 2024
“Countries including Germany, Spain, Poland, Italy and the Czech Republic have all engaged in disruptive demonstrations to vent their frustrations.”
Questioning European Green
Germany Likely In Recession, Central Bank Partially Blames Green Agenda
By Nick Pope, Daily Caller, Feb 19, 2024
Europe’s green taxes risk destroying jobs and industry, Sir Jim Ratcliffe warns
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 21, 2024
Europe faces industrial wipe-out
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 22, 2024
Funding Issues
Biden administration announces $500 million for wildfire resilience
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Feb 20, 2024
“This total will include $400 million in funds from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) and Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) that will go toward 21 high-risk landscapes the Agriculture Department has identified as priorities.”
[SEPP Comment: Will long-proven fire suppression measures including fire breaks continue to be ignored?]
The Political Games Continue
Bipartisan House members call for appropriations rider blocking Biden administration LNG export freeze
By Zack Budryk, The Hill, Feb 23, 2024
Biden’s War on Domestic Energy Intensifies
By Matt Egan and Brent Bennett, WUWT, Feb 19, 2024
Biden’s Latest War on Energy Will Increase Carbon Emissions
By Charles Ebinger, National Review, Feb 19, 2024
Litigation Issues
Appeals court tosses Obama-era federal coal leasing moratorium
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, Feb 21, 2024
Hasn’t Gummer Done Enough Damage Already?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 21, 2024
“’ Lord Deben has today made a dramatic intervention in the on-going High Court hearing on a series of legal challenges alleging the government’s decarbonisation plans are inadequate and in breach of the UK’s Climate Change Act.’”
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
Give heat pump users a tax break on bills to encourage uptake, Treasury told
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 18, 2024
“If a subsidy of £7500 is not enough to persuade people to buy, maybe it is time to drop the whole absurd agenda.”
Energy Issues – Non-US
Climate Change Committee “deceived Parliament and the British people”
Press Release, Net Zero Watch, Feb 21, 2024
The ‘Energy Trilemma’ And The Cost Of Electricity – OpEd
By Dr. Lars Schernikau, Eurasia Review, Jan 17, 2024 [H/t WUWT]
“Why is it wrong to use LCOE when evaluating the cost of power to a country?
LCOE, levelized cost of electricity, is s a “micro economic” instead of total system view, excluding seven cost categories (listed below), and therefore, will never be an accurate indicator for governments to base energy policy decision on.
LCOE is misleading because it does not consider nor account for intermittency, low natural capacity factors, correlating wind and solar ‘availability’ across continents, and the locational disparity of demand and supply.”
Net zero policy risks are making the poor poorer, says UK report
Press Release, University of York, Feb 21, 2024 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Link to: Our journey to net zero
By Staff, Institute of Community Studies, February 2024
T-1 Capacity Market 2024/25
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 22, 2024
“Nobody in official circles seems to question where they will get this 30 GW from when gas power stations are shutdown in 2030 (Labour party policy).
[SEPP Comment: “The Capacity Market (CM) was introduced by the UK Government to manage security of electricity supply and safeguard against the possibility of future blackouts.
CM participants are paid to ensure they’re available to respond when there is a high risk that a System Stress Event could occur. This happens very rarely. The vast majority of the time, participating assets operate as they normally would.”
“There are two capacity auctions each year:
T-4 – this is the main auction; it buys most of the capacity needed for delivery in four years’ time. In this auction, new build generators can secure 15-year agreements.
T-1 – these are top-up auctions just ahead of each delivery year. We generally use top-up auctions for sites which were not ready in time for that year’s T-4 auction. Most businesses will want to move into T-4 as soon as possible to take advantage of known, and higher, prices.”]
Starmer’s secret plan for energy prices is terrifying
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 22, 2024
“’ There is no indication that Labour intends to step back from its Net Zero commitments. So where is the money going to come from? There is no magic money tree and the costs of achieving Net Zero targets appear to be rising rapidly. Even the £28 billion figure would have been little more than a down payment on the long-term costs.’”
Energy Issues — US
Comment On The Robert Bryce Series “Juice: Power, Politics, And The Grid”
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Feb 22, 2024
Link to report: US Electricity Markets 101: An overview of the different types of US electricity markets, how they are regulated, and implications for the future given ongoing changes in the electricity sector.
By Kathryne Cleary and Karen Palmer, Resources for the Future, updated Mar 17, 2022
Out Of Transmission Revisited
By Robert Bryce, His Blog, Feb 20, 2024
Link to DOE report: Biden Administration Launches $2.5 Billion Fund to Modernize and Expand Capacity of America’s Power Grid
By Staff, DOE, May 10, 2022
Planning for climate blackouts
By David Wojick, CFACT, Feb 20, 2024
MISO Warns ‘Immediate and Serious’ Challenges Are Threatening Reliability
By Sonal Patel, Power Mag, Feb 22, 2024
Link to article on capacity accreditation: FERC’s acceptance of 2 capacity accreditation methods will complicate renewables development
The stakes are high: As more intermittent resources enter markets, the quantity procured, and capacity payments will depend on each market’s specific capacity accreditation rules.
By Joseph Cavicchi and Charles Wu, Utility Dive, June 6, 2022
PJM Capacity Market Reforms Shake Resource Accreditation, Impose New Offer and Testing Requirements
By Maxwell Multer, Power Mag, Feb 22, 2024
Presidential Priorities and America’s Energy Advantage
By Mike Sommers, Real Clear Energy, Feb 19, 2024
When (And Why) Heat Pumps Suck
By Ron Barmby, WUWT, Feb 20, 2024
“Granted, in moderate climates where winter home heating is more for comfort than survival, and especially where summer air conditioning is desirable, a heat pump that’s switchable to an air conditioner is probably worth looking into. They are more energy efficient, but there’s more to consider.”
The Great Texas Blackout of 2021: Triumph of the Unreliables
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Feb 20, 2024
Tomlinson on the Texas Grid Three Years Ago (prediction fail!)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Feb 23, 2024
Pokalsky, Borlick, Kiesling: Capacity Markets Now Essential in Texas (central planning rethink)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Feb 22, 2024
Washington’s Control of Energy
Biden Admin Cited ‘Indigenous Knowledge’ as Reason To Block Oil and Gas Leases
Watchdog files scientific integrity complaint after admin prioritizes ‘subjective beliefs’ over ‘evidence’
By Joseph Simonson, Washington Free Beacon, Feb 19, 2024
[SEPP Comment: For generations ‘indigenous knowledge’ didn’t recognize the use of oil and gas.]
America can’t ignore the national security concerns tied to the LNG freeze
By Gen. James Jones, The Hill, Feb 17, 2024
“Stated simply, the LNG permit pause is a boost to Vladimir Putin and his persistent quest for leverage against our European allies and the transatlantic community. Putin has long used Europe’s dependence on Russian gas as a weapon of manipulation and extortion for geostrategic advantage.”
Two Towns Showcase Both Ends of Joe Biden’s Anti-Energy Crusade
By Roy Mathews, Real Clear Energy, Feb 22, 2024
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Shell expects 50% rise in global LNG demand by 2040
By Marwa Rashad, Emily Chow and Ron Bousso, Reuters, Feb 14, 2024
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Largescale Solar Parks Just Can’t Withstand The Harsh Elements of Nature
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, Feb 18, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Video of the Cresent Dunes Solar Energy Project in Nevada which included a $700 million loan from the US government. Although the company declared bankruptcy, the project is operating today, but the costs of electricity generated seem to be extremely high.]
Wind Power Ripoff Ontario 2024 Update
Parker Gallant explains the cash flow and the grid decay in his blog article Industrial Wind Turbines demonstrate their Unreliable and Intermittent Nature From 2% to 80% of Capacity
By Ron Clutz, Science Matters, Feb 22, 2024
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
‘There is enough natural hydrogen underground to meet all demand for hundreds of years’, says US government agency
Geologists expect ‘gold rush’ for natural H2 resources, conference told
By Rachel Parkes, Hydrogeninsight, Feb 19, 2024
[SEPP Comment: The USGS report is not published, and the claims appear to be speculation.]
Hydrogen hopefuls stare into valley of death as electrolyser bubble pops
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 22, 2024
The Regulatory Fix Needed to Incentivize Clean Hydrogen and Greater Methane Reductions
By Tom Hassenboehler, Real Clear Energy, Feb 21, 2024
[SEPP Comment: The Executive Director of Differentiated Gas Coordinating Council does not understand that the warming potential of adding methane to the atmosphere is miniscule.]
The Next Generation Is Demanding U.S. Leadership on Methane
By Katie Mehnert, Real Clear Energy, Feb 18, 2024
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
Battery Energy Storage Systems
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 19, 2024
“By coincidence Timera have just published this update, which reveals it is nothing more than a money-making ploy:”
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
The Great Reset Didn’t Work: The Case of EVs
By Jeffrey Tucker, Brownstone Institute, Feb 15, 2024
Electric vehicles are so unpopular, entire mines are shutting down
Supply of rare earth minerals essential for components exceeds demand
By Will Kessler, WND, Feb 19, 2024 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
EV Bubble Popping… US backs away from forced EV sales targets
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 22, 2024
Lithium battery warehouse goes up in flames
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 18, 2024
EU Proposed Ban on Repairing Cars Older than 15 Years.
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Feb 22, 2024
Video
Carbon Schemes
Saltend Hydrogen/CCS Site Get Green Light
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 21, 2024
“But how can these carbon cluster schemes possibly be sustainable financially.
Government cannot afford to subsidize these projects indefinitely, and if the cost is loaded onto the chemical refinery, they will simply go bust, faced with competitors who still have access to cheap natural gas.”
Welsh Government Backs Carbon Sequestration Plan
By Erick Worrall, WUWT, Feb 20, 2024
“Wales has some of the most expensive electricity in Britain, but the financial geniuses who run Wales have a plan which will push energy prices up even higher.”
Health, Energy, and Climate
Are We On The Cusp Of Historic Medical Technologies? (Part 2)
By Henry Miller, MD, ACHS, Feb 13, 2024
Oh Mann!
The Hockey Stick Trial: Science Dies in a DC Courtroom
By Rupert Darwall, Real Clear Energy, Feb 19, 2024
“’Science,’ wrote the philosopher Karl Popper, ‘is one of the very few human activities – perhaps the only one – in which errors are systematically criticized and fairly often, in time, corrected.’ The sub-title of Popper’s 1963 book Conjectures and Refutations, in which he argued that science progresses through inspired conjectures checked by attempts to refute them through criticism, is ‘The Growth of Scientific Knowledge.’”
The Michael Streisand effect
By Paul Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Feb 21, 2024
Environmental Industry
Environmentalism Needs a New Playbook
By Devin Hartman, Real Clear Energy, Feb 18, 2024
Other News that May Be of Interest
The Stalinist New York Attorney General Scores A Big Win Against Trump (For Now)
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Feb 20, 2024
[SEPP Comment: In 1801, a remarkable event in the history of democracies and republics occurred in the newly formed US. After a bitter election resulting in a total change in the party in power, the leader of the losing party, John Adams, went home and continued his private, professional life. Unlike earlier democracies, such as Greece and early Rome, he did not face exile or execution. Criminal retribution is now a characteristic of so-called Banana Republics.]
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Monckton Announces a Sustainable-Energy Startup: Invest Now!
By Christopher Monckton of Brenchley, WUWT, Feb 20, 2024
[SEPP Comment: The science of extracting sunlight from cucumbers.]
Scientists make breakthrough discovery while experimenting with urine: ‘We can reuse a very significant portion of the cobalt’
“The combination of readily available and relatively harmless substances and high energy efficacy gives our method potential to work for large scale extraction.”
By Jeremiah Budin, TCD, Feb 18, 2024 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
[SEPP Comment: There was a reason why tanning plants were forced to move downwind of towns.]
The Great Barrier Reef Could Die This Year?
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Feb 18, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Didn’t die some years ago?]
Siberian Britain, Nuclear War, Mega-Droughts, European Cities Sunk By Rising Seas!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Feb 22, 2024
[SEPP Comment: From a 20-year-old article on a Pentagon report.]
Climate Scientists are Pairing with Comedians to Communicate with the Public
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Feb 21, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Send in the clowns!]
Herd of Giant Puppets Trekking 20,000KM to Highlight the Climate Crisis
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Feb 22, 2024
Peer review expert journal accidentally publishes fake AI image with gibberish and giant gonads on a rat
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Feb 20, 2024
ARTICLES
1. The Supreme Court and the Right to Sue
Regulators want to cut off lawsuits six years after a rule is issued. But that’s not what the Administrative Procedure Act says.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ, Feb. 16, 2024
TWTW Summary: The editorial begins with:
“The Supreme Court on Tuesday will hear another important challenge to the unrelenting administrative state (Corner Post v. Board of Governors, Federal Reserve). At stake is how long Americans have to take on lawless regulators in court.
Corner Post’s case concerns the statute of limitations for challenging agency rules under the Administrative Procedure Act (APA). That’s the law that governs the process by which federal agencies issue rules. It gives Americans a legal right to challenge agency actions that are inconsistent with the law or don’t follow correct procedure.
Regulators are trying to short-circuit judicial review by claiming parties must raise their concerns in court within six years of when a rule is issued or forever hold their peace. But that’s not what the APA says.
In 2011 the Fed issued a rule under the Dodd-Frank Act capping debit-card interchange fees that banks charge retailers. Corner Post, a North Dakota truck stop and convenience store that opened in 2018, challenged the rule in 2021 under the APA. It says the Fed’s process for setting the cap is inconsistent with the law.
Tough luck. According to the government, the deadline for challenging the debit-card rule expired in 2017—six years after it was promulgated. The Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals agreed, holding that the APA shot clock starts on the date of a final agency action. That’s how at least five courts of appeals have interpreted the APA.”
The editorial explains that another case found that the interpretation of the law as found by the Eight Circuit Court of Appeals is inconsistent with the finding in another case by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals, then concludes:
“The government argues that allowing legal challenges after six years would upset so-called reliance interests because many other causes of action would suddenly be allowed. Yet agencies constantly re-write and re-interpret rules. The Fed is in the process of revising its debit-card cap. Parties can also raise legal challenges to rules in an enforcement action.
But Corner Post couldn’t because the Fed rule wasn’t being enforced against it. In any event, Americans shouldn’t have to be dunned before they can vindicate their legal rights in court. Americans live under constant threat of an arbitrary administrative state. Why should regulators enjoy a promised land?”
********************
2. The Lifespan of Large Appliances Is Shrinking
Appliance technicians blame a push toward computerization and an increase in the quantity of components inside a machine.
By Rachel Wolfe, WSJ, Feb. 20, 2024
TWTW Summary: The article discusses that many modern household appliances need early, costly repair. This is attributed to increased complexity, new sensors, and lighter, energy saving parts. The article had over 1000 comments, mostly giving horror stories about the short life of expensive, new appliances, especially high-end ones.
TWTW can only ask: The smarter they are the faster they die?
If you’ve never had a dream, you never had a dream come true…
Does rewilding sort climate change? Yes!’: UK expert says nature can save planet and not harm farming
““We’re living in a world of eco-anxiety and most of us, I guess, stick our heads in the sand because these problems are so enormous,”” – Isabella Tree
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/feb/25/rewilding-climate-change-biodiversity-isabella-tree-nature-planet-farming
Isabella Tree??? That will be Lady Burrell a far from working class aristocrat…
“Why are the climate fanatics all so posh? The Just Stop Oil activists are always called Cressida or Amy Rugg-Easey or Indigo Rumbelow. (Rumbelow has inspired an amusing Twitter game called Find Your Silly Posh Girl Name ‘by combining a colour with a defunct shop’.) ”
https://www.spiked-online.com/2024/02/21/these-posh-eco-loons-need-to-check-their-privilege/
‘Why are the climate fanatics all so posh?’
“Luxury beliefs are ideas and opinions that confer status on the upper class, while often inflicting costs on the lower classes.”
https://www.robkhenderson.com/p/status-symbols-and-the-struggle-for
A major winter storm is expected to impact Northern and Central California from Thursday through Sunday. Whiteout conditions are likely in the Sierra Nevada, where 4 to 10 feet of snow is expected above 6,000 feet. The snow line could drop below 2,000 feet in the Sierra and parts of the Bay Area on Saturday.
“It could be comparable to some of the storms last winter where we measured snow in feet rather than inches,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Dave Rowe. “Foothill locations (such as Grass Valley) could have over a foot of snow, and up above 6,000 feet we’re looking at potentially 10 feet of snow from Thursday through Sunday.”
https://www.sfchronicle.com/weather-forecast/article/california-winter-snow-storm-18687542.php?fbclid=IwAR2ZmYWbdlEKAhwW9GmlaIsYZa9WoAaB1yQmq2-lmhXq2RVT0Ezt11QC_XU
Donner, party of 87, your table is ready…
Reports indicate that scientists will soon begin implementing a plan, promoted by Bill Gates and George Soros, to spew chalk dust and certain chemicals into the atmosphere to reflect sunlight away from the Earth’s surface. The creation of manmade white clouds would be an attempt to lower Earth’s temperature and reverse global warming.
RE: Number of the week. The ATC Cardinal-Hickory Creek 345,000 volt transmission line from Iowa to Wisconsin is 102 miles long and cost $583 million. That’s $5.7 million per mile. It was built primarily in 2023. Seems like Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act works in reverse, but it’s worth it because the new transmission line will bring virtuous and holy green wind energy from Iowa to Wisconsin’s wokest (Dane) county.