Audrey Streb
Contributor
The Department of Energy (DOE) announced Monday that it is postponing the implementation of a Biden-era rule that would limit fossil fuel usage in federal buildings.
DOE is pushing its compliance date for the final rule to May 1, 2026 — one year later than originally planned — as it reviews the standards to ensure alignment with President Donald Trump’s administration priorities, a notice published in the Federal Register announced. The move is one of many that aim to forward the administration’s goal of prioritizing domestic energy efficiency over climate change regulations.
“Under President Trump’s leadership, the Department of Energy is embracing a strategy of energy addition – leveraging all sources that are affordable, reliable and secure,” Energy Secretary Chris Wright said in a statement. “This pause will ensure that our federal buildings are able to utilize the most efficient power available, lowering costs and reducing regulatory overreach,” he continued.
The policy mandated that new or significantly renovated buildings reduce fossil fuel use by 90 percent for projects beginning between 2025 and 2029, and to eliminate it entirely for projects starting after 2030. The rule followed the Biden administration’s net-zero emissions goal in all federal buildings by 2045.
“These green buildings are pointless,” Steve Milloy, senior Energy & Environment Legal Institute fellow and former Trump EPA transition team member told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The stuff doesn’t work, and it’s not cost effective. Contractors like it because it’s more expensive,” he continued.
Milloy added that “ironically, the old EPA headquarters had sick building syndrome because it probably saved energy by making buildings airtight.”
“It’s not good for the people that work in the building, and it doesn’t make sense for taxpayers,” Milloy said. “It’s just silliness, and it’s doing nothing for the environment,” he added.
The Department of Energy is now delaying enforcement while it reviews the rule to see that it aligns with the current administration’s focus on energy security and reliability, according to the Federal Register notice.(RELATED: Trump’s Energy Secretary Comes Out Swinging With Plan That Takes Sledgehammer To Several Biden-Era Policies)
Trump declared a national energy emergency upon day one of returning to office and signed an executive order to encourage domestic energy generation. Trump has cut red tape and paved the way to ease permitting for the coal, drilling, and mining industries since returning to office.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) under Trump has taken numerous actions to rollback Biden and Obama era policies they considered to be threatening the supply of domestic energy.
“We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a March press release.
“Net zero 2050 is a sinister goal, it’s a terrible goal,” Wright said at the Alliance for Responsible Citizenship forum in London in February through a video broadcast. “It’s both unachievable by any practical means [and] the aggressive pursuit of it — and you’re sitting in a country that has aggressively pursued this goal — has not delivered any benefits, but it’s delivered tremendous costs,” he continued.
DOE and the Federal Register did not respond to the DCNF’s request for comment in time for publication.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
“We are driving a dagger straight into they heart of the climate change religion”
_______________________________________________________________
Best thing I’ve read here at WUWT in a long time, maybe ever.
Job eliminations for parishioners at NREL have barely begun. The congregation appears to be a little bloated. Sad for those terminated but in the long run, there will be more jobs freed up in the private sector.
https://coloradosun.com/2025/05/06/firings-national-renewable-energy-lab-golden-114/
Never forget: Sun Tsu’s first art of war:“The supreme art of war is to subdue the enemy without fighting.”
That is exactly what is happening as Western governments pursue self-harming Green Energy policies to reduce or eliminate their own CO2 emissions and other Greenhouse gasses.
There is no better way to damage the economies of Western societies than by rendering their energy supplies unreliable and expensive.
So Green thinking can only be regarded as a very successful branch of the continuation of the “Cold War”intended to undermine the viability of the economies of the Western world.
President Trump could thus be absolutely correct in saying the the Climate alarm is a “hoax” intended to damage the economies of Western Nations. The evidence is already clear particularly in Germany, where even VW is closing factories and the UK which comes ever closer to a serious power failure week by week.
story tip
https://edmhdotme.wpcomstaging.com/analysis-of-renewable-power-de-uk-fr-in-the-context-of-europe-2024/
I’ve posted this before, so this is a repeat.
This all began at the end of WWII. USA had more than 50% of the world’s economic might and a military that could take on all countries and win.
Red China and the Soviet Union knew that could not go toe to toe with a Military/Economic giant founded on a unified society. With society unified, USA was indominable.
So they addressed this with decades long planning. They needed to crush USA economy and divide society. The Club of Rome identified the environment as a key issue and this spawned the Climate Syndicate. In the early 1960s, socialism was introduced into California universities. This has spread much akin to a nuclear reaction as graduates became professors across the country.
The last piece, the Climate Syndicate is, per UN and WEF public statements, not about the environment, but about transforming the world’s economy and political systems.
“You will have nothing and you will be happy.”
Once it was he who controlled the money controls everything. It today’s world it’s he who controls energy controls everything.
1984 is the manual for the thought police.
This could go on, but the salient points are stated.
Creates heat. Bad. Bad. Bad.
Let the miserable inhabitants freeze in the dark – or boil, in warmer climes.
I guess they’ve never heard of the 3 Laws of Thermodynamics.
An executive of a former place of employment once asked me if had heard of the 4th Law of Thermodynamics. He said it was, “Heat that is applied to someone else is heat that is not applied to you.”
Of course, he was talking about political heat, but I have always liked this point.
CO2 IS AN ABSOLUTELY VITAL GAS/INGREDIENT FOR GROWING FLORA AND FAUNA; NET ZERO IS A SUICIDE PACT
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/co2-is-an-absolutely-vital-gas-ingredient-for-growing-flora-and
.
The IPCC, etc., has dubbed CO2 as having magical global warming power, based on its own “science”
The IPCC, etc., claims, CO2 acts as Climate Control Knob, that eventually will cause runaway Climate Change, if we continue using fossil fuels.
Governments proclaimed: Go Wind and Solar, Go ENERGIEWENDE, go Net zero by 2050, etc., and provided oodles of subsidies, and rules and regulations, and mandates, and prohibitions to make it happen.
.
MAGA and burn, baby, burn, may lead to a slightly greater CO2 ppm in atmosphere, which is an absolutely essential ingredient for creating: 1) increased green flora to support abundant fauna all over the world, and 2) increased crop yields to feed 8 billion people. What is not to like?
.
The slogan Net-zero by 2050 to-reduce CO2 is a super-expensive suicide pact, to increase command/control by governments, and enable the moneyed elites to get richer, at the expense of all others, by using the foghorn of the government-subsidized/controlled Corporate Media to spread scare-mongering slogans and brainwash people.
.
They deny the Little Ice Age, support fraudulent computer temperature projections, and are using the USAID-subsidized Corporate Media to scare-monger/control/brainwash the people, already for 35 years
.
CO2 is a trace, weak absorber of a small fraction of the available low-energy IR photons.
CO2 has near-zero influence on world surface temperatures.
.
But, at about 30% annual W/S on the grid, various costs increase exponentially.
The weather-dependent, variable/intermittent W/S output, often too-little and often too-much output, creates operational difficulties that become increasingly more challenging and increasingly more costly/kWh to counteract, as proven by the UK and California for the past 5 years, and Germany for the past 10 years, and recently in Spain/Portugal.
.
All four have “achieved” near-zero, real- growth GDPs, the highest electricity prices/kWh, and stagnant real wages for almost all people, while further enriching the elites who live in the poshest places.
.
Their angry, over-taxed, over-regulated native populations are further burdened by the elites bringing in tens of millions of uninvited, unvetted, uneducated, inexperienced poor folks from all over; a chaotic, culture-clashing burden the native populations never voted for.
.
All that W/S money uglified the countryside, killed fisheries, tourism, viewsheds, etc.
But the climate is not any different than 30 years ago, even though, atmosphere CO2 increased from 280 ppm in 1850 to 420 ppm in 2025, 50% in 175 years.
During that time, world surface temps increased by about 1.5 C, only about 0.5 C can be attributed to CO2, with the rest from:
.
1) Long-term cycles, such as coming out of the Little Ice Age,
2) Earth surface changes, due to increased agriculture, deforestation, especially in the Tropics, etc.
3) Urban heat islands, such as about 700 miles from north of Portland, Maine, to south of Norfolk, Virginia, forested in 1850, now covered with heat-absorbing human detritus. Japan, China, India, Europe, etc., have similar heat islands
Remember when it was couched as “runaway greenhouse effect”?
Looking at the orbital mechanics and planetary precession, it is clear as the sun on a cloudless day:
It’s the sun.
Which is why idiots like Bill Gates want to blot it out. Never mind that they spent thirty years telling us the sun had nothing to do with global warming.
I forgot that detail. You are right. They did. And now they want to effect a great coverup.
HIGH COST/kWh OF W/S SYSTEMS FOISTED ONTO A BRAINWASHED PUBLIC
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/high-cost-kwh-of-w-s-systems-foisted-onto-a-brainwashed-public-1
.
W/S systems add great cost to the overall delivery of electricity to users; the more W/S systems, the higher the cost/kWh, as proven by the UK and Germany, with the highest electricity rates in Europe, and near-zero, real-growth GDP.
See URL
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/fuel-and-co2-reductions-due-to-wind-energy-less-than-claimed
.
At about 30% W/S, the entire system hits an increasingly thicker concrete wall, operationally and cost wise.
The UK and Germany are hitting the wall, more and more hours each day.
The cost of electricity delivered to users increased with each additional W/S/B system
.
Nuclear, gas, coal and reservoir hydro plants are the only rational way forward.
Increased CO2 ppm is an absolutely essential life gas for increased growth of green flora that supports abundant fauna, and increased crop yields to feed 8 billion people
Net zero by 2050 to reduce CO2 is a super-expensive suicide pact
https://www.windtaskforce.org/profiles/blogs/we-are-in-a-co2-famine
.
Owners would have to charge 30 c/kWh for electricity from fixed offshore wind systems, if there were no subsidies, such as:
1) Federal and state tax credits, up to 50% (Community tax credit of up to 10% – Federal tax credit of 30% – State tax credit and other incentives of up to 10%);
2) 5-y Accelerated Depreciation write off of the entire project;
3) Loan interest deduction to reduce any taxable profits from whatever source.
Subsidies shift costs from project Owners to ratepayers, taxpayers, government debt
Utilities pay 15 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from fixedoffshore wind systems
Utilities pay 18 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from floating offshore wind
Utilities pay 12 c/kWh, wholesale, after 50% subsidies, for electricity from larger solar systems
.
Excluded costs, at a future 30% W/S annual penetration on the grid, based on UK and German experience:
– Onshore grid expansion/reinforcement to connect distributed W/S systems, about 2 c/kWh
– A fleet of traditional power plants to quickly counteract W/S variable output, on a less than minute-by-minute basis, 24/7/365, which leads to more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh
– A fleet of traditional power plants to provide electricity during 1) low-wind periods, 2) high-wind periods, when rotors are locked in place, and 3) low solar periods during mornings, evenings, at night, snow/ice on panels, which leads to more Btu/kWh, more CO2/kWh, more cost of about 2 c/kWh
– Pay W/S system Owners for electricity they could have produced, if not curtailed, about 1 c/kWh
– Importing electricity at high prices, when W/S output is low, 1 c/kWh
– Exporting electricity at low prices, when W/S output is high, 1 c/kWh
– Disassembly on land and at sea, reprocessing and storing at hazardous waste sites, about 2 c/kWh
Some of these values exponentially increase as more W/S systems are added to the grid
.
The economic/financial insanity and environmental damage of it all is off the charts.
No wonder Europe’s near-zero, real-growth economy is in de-growth mode.
That economy has been tied into knots by inane people.
YOUR tax dollars are building these projects so YOU will have much higher electric bills.
Remove YOUR tax dollars using your vote, and none of these projects would be built, and YOUR electric bills would be lower.
“This pause will ensure that our federal buildings are able to utilize the most efficient power available, lowering costs and reducing regulatory overreach,” he continued.
Huzzah!
Story tip:
https://www.skynews.com.au/australia-news/enough-is-enough-mornington-peninsula-shire-to-redirect-climate-funding-towards-australia-and-anzac-day-events/news-story/2b2fb4bf1094df93553c5a8911515715
Strike me pink and in Danistan of all places!
Oh look I’m all in on PM Albo announcing that forthwith no publicly paid official will remain airconditioned on his watch all for the sake of the grandkiddies. Lead us all back to the future like my parents and grandparents day when we were growing up with mattresses out on the back lawn in a stinker and rug up with hot water bottle in winter. Govt offices and universities etc had windows that opened then like quarter vent windows in cars for our sustainability.
Remove all wind and solar from the grid. Fire up all fossil fuel and nuclear generators. Build new fossil fuel and nuclear generators. Withdraw all net zero rules, regulations and laws.
No you have to accept the wind and solar stuff up as is but require a level playing field on behalf of electricity consumers going forward. End the dumping simply requiring all tenderers of electrons to the communal grid to reasonably guarantee them 24/7/365(ie short of unforeseen mechanical breakdown) along with FCAS or keep them for their own use. That way they either partner with dispatchables to lift their average tender or install storage or some combination of the two. Then we’ll see just how cheap fickles really are with the big lie at present.