The Week That Was: 2026-05-23 (May 23, 2026)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “The truth of a theory can never be proven, for one never knows if future experience will contradict its conclusions.” — Albert Einstein
Number of the Week: 50% and 200 times
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: This TWTW begins with a discussion of the UN demanding money from developed nations under the false claim of mitigating climate change. TWTW discusses the concept of Greenwishing and uses the German economy as an example. TWTW discusses the universality of physical laws, which is ignored in the IPCC reports. TWTW discusses brief video by Peter Ridd explaining how good research produces misleading headlines as well as an effort to predict El Niño events. TWTW closes with a discussion of an active sun around 1200 CE.
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Mitigating Climate Change: Last week TWTW discussed an essay by law professor Aaron Nielson who used the term “Science Charade” suggested by Professor Wendy Wagner. Nielson wrote:
“As she [Wagner] observed, because judges often defer to agencies on questions of science, ‘the courts offer agencies strong and virtually inescapable incentives to conceal policy choices under the cover of scientific judgments and citations.’ Rather than justifying the agency’s policy choice as a policy choice, agencies instead may dress up their decisions as compelled by science.”
This pretense of science without physical evidence applies to climate science as practiced by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) and its followers. The US National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine and the National Judicial Center are joint publishers of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition. The leadership of the National Academies is heavily involved with the UN IPCC, and the principal author of the “How Science Works” is Michael Weisberg who’s bio states, in part:
“An expert on the climate needs of small island developing states, Weisberg currently serves as senior advisor to Jamaica’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and as an advisor to the Fiji and Palau negotiating teams at COP. Weisberg was a leading voice in the development of the “mosaic of solutions” for addressing loss and damage due to the adverse impacts of climate change, which led to major breakthroughs on the topic at COP27 and COP28. This framework was developed in collaboration with the Maldivian Government and the International Peace Institute, where he is a Non-resident Senior Advisor.”
https://philosophy.sas.upenn.edu/people/michael-weisberg
According to The Hill newspaper this week the:
“UN votes to affirm responsibility to mitigate climate change, while US votes against.”
The measure, brought by Vanuatu calls on countries to take steps to avoid significant climate and environmental damage, including emissions within their borders. It also calls on them to keep up with their climate pledges.”
According to Wikipedia, Vanuatu is a small island archipelago of 65 inhabited volcanic islands east of Australia with a 2020 population of 300,000. Most of the islands are steep, with unstable soils, and little permanent fresh water. One estimate is that about 9% of the land is used for agriculture. The shorelines are rocky with fringing reefs and there is no continental shelf. The high point is 1,879 meters (6,165 ft) above sea level. The islands are hardly in danger of slipping beneath the waves with increasing sea levels that have been rising for over 18,000 years. A volcanic eruption, including an undersea eruption, is always a danger. Some people may consider that demanding reparations for claimed damages from assumed carbon dioxide caused climate change to be a form of extortion of the American public. The leadership of the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine appears to be a willing party to this effort. See link under Expanding the Orthodoxy.
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Greenwishing: Writing in Master Resource, Stephen Heins coins the term “greenwishing” to describe the many not proven ideas, or failures, to provide reliable, affordable energy, particularly electricity from non-traditional sources. He states:
“But most of it is what I call greenwishing—a cousin to greenwashing, where they polish up promising energy ideas, but unproven, unscalable technologies with fancy renderings, press releases, and government grants, all while the real engineering and economics lag behind.”
Heins examines various forms of energy that are “just around the corner.” These include Nuclear Fusion; Green Hydrogen; Advanced Geothermal; Tidal and Wave Energy; and Small Modular Reactors (close but not there). Heins concludes with:
“These technologies aren’t scams—they represent real human ingenuity chasing hard problems. Private capital, DOE programs, and international efforts show momentum. But the danger is overpromising. We delay proven options like expanding reliable nuclear energy, improving grid resilience, or pragmatic mixes of gas, hydro, and renewables with storage while chasing moonshots. Energy demand is surging from AI, EVs, and manufacturing. Hyping unready tech risks blackouts, higher bills, or policy whiplash when timelines slip or disappear.
In Wisconsin, we value practicality. Build what works. Support R&D aggressively—fusion, hot rock geothermal, better electrolyzes—but don’t bet the farm on greenish timelines. Prioritize energy density, reliability, and cost. Baseload matters. Innovation thrives with honest engineering, not marketing.
The path forward? Aggressive permitting reform, sustained funding for demos that actually prove scalability, and an all-of-the-above mindset that doesn’t dismiss working tech for perfect future ones. Fusion might power the 2050s or beyond. Green hydrogen could carve out industrial niches if costs crash. Advanced geothermal and ocean energy at best might fill regional gaps. But today, they’re aspirational with capital A.
We’ve got to call out the greenwishing of energy’s future. Excitement is good; delusion isn’t. Let’s demand proof, not promises. Reliable, affordable energy isn’t a luxury—it’s the foundation of modern lifetime to get serious about what energy technologies actually scales.”
See link under Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
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An Example: The German economy may be an example of “Greenwishing.” An article in the Wall Street Journal titled “Germany’s Slow Industrial Suicide: The climate left is achieving its goal of de-industrialization” may describe the future of other Western countries and several US states promising to “Build Back Better.” The article begins with:
“If the road to economic hell is paved with good intentions, don’t expect to see many German cars driving on it. Green mandates and other regulations are killing jobs in the long-revered German auto industry, as a new report from an industry association warns.
Germany has lost some 100,000 auto-related jobs since 2019, says the German Association of the Automotive Industry, or VDA. Another 125,000, or one in six current jobs in the industry, are on track to disappear by 2035. That’s a grim outlook for what the German government describes as ‘by far the most important industrial sector’ in the country.
The European Union’s electric-vehicle mania is a major reason. Under a 2019 mandate the EU planned to ban the sale of new cars with combustion engines after 2035—a directive that single-handedly jeopardizes more than 50,000 German auto jobs, the VDA says.
Berlin and other European governments panicked once these costs started to become obvious, and in December the European Commission proposed a watered-down EV directive that would allow auto makers to sell more traditional engines for longer. Yet this reprieve is still moving through the EU’s regulatory process, and Brussels still hasn’t given up on forcing auto makers to produce cars that consumers don’t want.
Back in Germany, EVs are less complex and require fewer parts than combustion-engine vehicles, so it takes fewer workers to make them. Yet that alone doesn’t explain accelerating job loss in Germany’s auto industry.
The broader problem is an uncompetitive business environment. ‘High taxes and levies, expensive energy, high labor costs, excessive bureaucracy—the list of challenges goes on,’ the report says.
The EV mandates are part of a wider and destructive campaign against fossil fuels. Berlin’s decision to ramp up expensive and unreliable renewable power generation while shuttering nuclear plants is wrecking industries across the board. By some counts, German industrial energy prices are now about double what American manufacturers pay.”
The article compares tax rates and states that about one in 12 German companies are worried about their survival. It concludes with:
“Economic suicide isn’t painless.”
If this is “Build Back Better” the first clause of the slogan is missing: “Destroy First.” See Article # 1.
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Universality of Physical Laws: The reports of the UN IPCC contain some good physical science which is found in the first volume, The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change. According to Wikipedia the main reports in the Sixth Assessment are:
- “The Physical Science Basis of Climate Change in August 2021 (WGI contribution; 2400 pages)
- Impacts, Adaptation and Vulnerability in February 2022 (WGII contribution; 3675 pages)
- Mitigation of Climate Change in April 2022 (WGIII contribution; 2913 pages)
- Synthesis Report in March 2023,” (170 pages0
There is a slew of other reports involved. The main thrust is that only with a massive reduction in carbon dioxide emissions will humanity avoid a global warming of 1.5℃ to 2℃. But where is the physical evidence showing that increasing carbon dioxide is causing dangerous warming? The physical evidence is missing. Even the Physical Science Basis fails to use observations to calculate the extent to which an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide in today’s atmosphere will cause an increase in Earth’s temperatures. It makes no attempt to calculate the greenhouse effect. Except for the first assessment report, no IPCC report has differentiated between natural climate change and human caused climate change. Yet, Earth’s climate has been changing for hundreds of millions of years, long before humanity existed. But now, the IPCC considers climate change not to exist before humanity started using fossil fuels around 1850.
This position of the IPCC contradicts the universality of physical laws. There is no law of gravitation for Mars and another for Earth. Further, Universal Gravitation existed long before Newton articulated it as a law in the human study of the physical world. As Richard Feynman wrote:
“It is interesting, and absolutely essential, that the various rules of science by mutually consistent. Since the observations are all the same observations, one rule cannot give one prediction and another rule another prediction. Thus, science is not a specialist business; it is completely universal.” p.23.
Yet, in making its claims the IPCC routinely ignores observations that do not fit its objectives, such as a general warming of Earth during the Medieval Warm Period. Or evidence compiled by the International Commission on Stratigraphy that Earth was warmer during the early part of the Holocene and has been gradually (but not steadily) cooling since. By ignoring contradicting evidence to its global warming claims, the IPCC and its followers are clearly stating that their activities are political, not scientific. As stated in Encyclopedia Britannica (subscription required):
“The ultimate aim of physics is to find a unified set of laws governing matter, motion, and energy at small (microscopic) subatomic distances, at the human (macroscopic) scale of everyday life, and out to the largest distances (e.g., those on the extragalactic scale). This ambitious goal has been realized to a notable extent. Although a completely unified theory of physical phenomena has not yet been achieved (and possibly never will be), a remarkably small set of fundamental physical laws appears able to account for all known phenomena. The body of physics developed up to about the turn of the 20th century, known as classical physics, can largely account for the motions of macroscopic objects that move slowly with respect to the speed of light and for such phenomena as heat, sound, electricity, magnetism, and light. The modern developments of relativity and quantum mechanics modify these laws insofar as they apply to higher speeds, very massive objects, and to the tiny elementary constituents of matter, such as electrons, protons, and neutrons.”
See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy for some fundamental laws of physics and the source of the Feynman quote.
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Madness of Crowds: Paul Homewood posted an eleven minute by Peter Ridd titled “Good climate scientists suffer ‘madness of crowds.’” Ridd is the 2025 recipient of the Frederick Seitz award for adhering to the scientific method despite being professionally harmed for doing so. Ridd discusses three recent headlined events where the scientist involved did solid work on natural climate change, but the reports claimed human emissions of carbon dioxide was responsible for the change, no matter how unlikely. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Predicting El Niño: The El Niño-Southern Oscillation is a natural phenomenon that gives rise to global weather patterns. Observed by natives living on the coast of Peru before the arrival of Europeans, an El Niño is marked by a warming of the waters off Peru by more than 0.5 °C (0.9 °F) which results in unfavorable fishing conditions for the natives. In normal conditions, the upwelling of cold-water rich in carbon dioxide and nutrients resulted in what we now call a primary production area rich in fish. An El Niño stops the upwelling ruining the fishing. Predicting the El Niño-Southern Oscillation will be useful in predicting weather worldwide.
In a post “Did the Sun’s “Terminator” Predict the Coming 2026 El Niño? New Research Says Yes” Anthony Watts writes [graph not included here]:
“Headlines are announcing the formation of a significant El Niño in the Pacific Ocean, and at least one solar physicist says he saw it coming three years ago.
Robert Leamon of NASA and the University of Maryland (Baltimore County) published a 2023 paper predicting that the next El Niño would arrive in 2026. His forecast wasn’t based on ocean models or climate simulations. It was based on the sun.
Specifically, it was based on a solar phenomenon he and colleague Scott McIntosh call the ‘Terminator’: a magnetic event that marks the end of one solar cycle and the ignition of the next. By averaging the past five solar cycles into a composite ‘standard cycle’ and projecting it forward, Leamon identified a recurring pattern. El Niños tend to follow Terminator events by roughly five years. The most recent Terminator occurred in December 2021. Do the math: that puts the next El Niño squarely in 2026. His model doesn’t speak to the strength of the event, but on timing, it appears to be spot-on.
This isn’t the first time the Leamon-McIntosh framework has made a successful call. The pair previously demonstrated that every Terminator since the 1960s coincided with a flip from El Niño to La Niña conditions. That framework correctly predicted the onset of the triple-dip La Niña that began in 2020, and it revealed what may be a meaningful physical connection between solar variability and the ENSO (El Niño-Southern Oscillation) cycle.
What’s the mechanism?
That remains an open question, and an honest one. Most researchers working in this space favor ‘top-down’ models, where solar activity modifies the upper atmosphere in ways that eventually propagate down to surface weather. But the specific physical pathway hasn’t been pinned down.
Leamon and McIntosh initially suspected (in their 2021 work) that galactic cosmic rays were the link. Cosmic ray flux varies with the solar cycle and affects atmospheric ionization. But by 2023, Leamon had reconsidered, as the timing didn’t fit well enough, and he now leans toward geomagnetic activity as a more plausible driver.
It’s worth noting that the search for a solar-ENSO connection is not new. Sir Gilbert Walker, who first identified the Southern Oscillation (the ‘SO’ in ENSO) in the early 1900s, explicitly looked for a sunspot connection and came up empty. Researchers throughout the 20th century made similar attempts with similarly inconclusive results.
What’s different here is the Terminator concept itself, a relatively new framework that McIntosh and Leamon began developing about a decade ago. It offers a more precise solar marker than sunspot counts, and it appears to do a better job of both hindcasting solar cycles and anticipating ENSO transitions.”
For more on this successful prediction see link under Commentary: Is the Sun Rising?
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An Active Sun: Jo Nova discusses a paper published by the Proceedings of the Japan Academy B, “Extremely active Sun from 1190 to 1220 in the Medieval Period: Intercomparison of historical records and tree-ring carbon-14.” The abstract states:
Several large sunspots and red aurorae have been recorded in the literature from relatively low geomagnetic latitude regions in Northeast Asia around 1200–1205 CE, and this interval can be regarded as one of the highest solar activity periods in the Medieval Period. To search for a potential solar proton event during this time and examine the solar cycle dependence, a high-precision carbon-14 analysis with annual resolution was conducted. We found no enhancement in carbon-14 around 1204 CE when prolonged low-latitude aurorae were observed in Kyoto, Japan, as recorded in Meigetsuki. Instead, we found a potential solar proton event in 1200–1201 CE, possibly associated with either the large sunspots or the red auroral events documented in this period. Reconstruction of solar cycles around the event suggested that this solar proton event occurred at the activity cycle’s maximum. We also found that the solar cycles around this period were approximately seven to eight years, much shorter than those in the modern era, suggesting extremely high solar activity.
Contrary to what the IPCC assumes, the Sun is active, and it may play a significant role in climate change. See links under Science: Is the Sun Rising?
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SEPP’S APRIL FOOLS AWARD — THE JACKSON
SEPP is conducting its annual vote for the recipient of the coveted trophy, The Jackson, a lump of coal. Readers are asked to nominate and vote for who they think is most deserving, following these criteria:
• The nominee has advanced, or proposes to advance, significant expansion of governmental power, regulation, or control over the public or significant sections of the general economy.
• The nominee does so by declaring such measures are necessary to protect public health, welfare, or the environment.
• The nominee declares that physical science supports such measures.
• The physical science supporting the measures is flimsy at best, and possibly non-existent.
Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, was the 2025 recipient. Past recipients are not eligible. See list at https://www.sepp.org/april-fools-award.cfm.
The committee that makes the selection prefers a candidate with a national or international presence. The voting will close on JULY 1 NOT JULY 31 as previously announced. Please send your nomination and a brief reason why the person is qualified for the honor to Ken@SEPP.org.
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Number of the Week: 50% and 200 times. John Robson writes:
“A critical assumption of climate alarmism is that the ecosystem is fragile and we naughty, mighty humans can easily overwhelm it. So, we were surprised to hear, at the recent Heartland Institute International Conference on Climate Change, that one single hurricane contains more energy than the US generates in a year. And not just surprised, we were skeptical. So, we checked, and, by golly, it’s true and then some. As one website gushed [How Stuff Works], ‘any way you slice it, hurricanes release a phenomenal amount of energy. If we start by looking at just the energy generated by the winds, we find that for a typical mature hurricane, we get numbers in the range of 1.5 x 10^12 Watts or 1.3 x 10^17 Joules/day (this is according to the Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.) This is equivalent to about half of the total electrical generating capacity on the planet! For a single hurricane! But that’s not all, we’re just getting started. A hurricane also releases energy through the formation of clouds and rain (it takes energy to evaporate all that water). If we crunch the numbers for an average hurricane (1.5 cm/day of rain, circle radius of 665 km), we get a gigantic amount of energy: 6.0 x 10^14 Watts or 5.2 x 10^19 Joules/day! This is equivalent to about 200 times the total electrical generating capacity on the planet! NASA says that ‘during its life cycle a hurricane can expend as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs!’ And we’re just talking about average hurricanes here, not Katrina.’ But sure, a few puffs from a human chimney and all those hurricanes are dancing to our Promethean tune.” [Boldface added]
So much for human emission of carbon dioxide significantly increasing the energy in Earth’s climate system. See link under Energy Issues – General
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
Science: Is the Sun Rising?
Deadly “red skies” 800 years ago suggest Sun was extremely active in the medieval warm period
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, May 20, 2026
Link to paper: Extremely active Sun from 1190 to 1220 in the Medieval Period: Intercomparison of historical records and tree-ring carbon-14
By Hiroko Miyahara, et al., Proceedings of the Japan Academy, Series B, 2026
https://www.jstage.jst.go.jp/article/pjab/102/4/102_pjab.102.011/_article
Commentary: Is the Sun Rising?
Did the Sun’s “Terminator” Predict the Coming 2026 El Niño? New Research Says Yes
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, May 17, 2026
Censorship
Attenborough’s “Climate Change–The Facts”
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 16, 2026
OFCOM have declared that they will investigate GB News for not challenging President Trump’s claim that climate change is a hoax.
Their credibility is, however, in question by their failure to ever address the BBC’s bias on climate change over the years.
Trump’s personal opinion may be controversial, but the BBC has repeatedly broadcast outright lies and consistently shown a lack of balance in programming.
OFCOM’s Clampdown on Free Speech
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 22, 2026
The Government’s state censor, OFCOM, is now actively attempting to clamp down on any debate about climate change that challenges establishment orthodoxy.
Two decisions by OFCOM this month have made this crystal clear.
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/
Climate Change Reconsidered II: Fossil Fuels
By Multiple Authors, Bezdek, Idso, Legates, and Singer eds., Nongovernmental International Panel on Climate Change, April 2019
http://climatechangereconsidered.org/climate-change-reconsidered-ii-fossil-fuels/
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/why-scientists-disagree-about-global-warming/
Nature, Not Human Activity, Rules the Climate
S. Fred Singer, Editor, NIPCC, 2008
http://www.sepp.org/publications/nipcc_final.pdf
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
Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Preprint, December 22, 2020
https://wvanwijngaarden.info.yorku.ca/files/2020/12/WThermal-Radiationf.pdf?x45936
Net Zero Averted Temperature Increase
By Richard Lindzen, William Happer, and William A. van Wijngaarden, CO2 Coalition, June 2024
Radiation Transport in Clouds
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, Klimarealistene, Science of Climate Change, January 2025
Challenging the Orthodoxy
12 Fundamental Laws of Physics Everyone Should Know
By Staff, Allen Overseas, Accessed May 20, 2026
The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen-Scientist
By Richard Feynman, Basic Books, 1998
Good climate scientists suffer “madness of crowds”
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 22, 2026
Video featuring Peter Ridd
CERES Albedo
By Andy May, WUWT, May 22, 2026
April 2026, Cooling Temperatures Lead to CO2 Rate Decline
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, May 20, 2026
The answer is yes: that temperature spike resulted in a corresponding CO2 spike as expected. And lower CO2 levels followed the temperature decline.
CO2 Warming Rejected on Energetic and Geochemical Grounds (Segalstad)
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, May 21, 2026
Link to paper: The distribution of CO between atmosphere, hydrosphere, and lithosphere; minimal influence from anthropogenic CO2 on the global “Greenhouse Effect”.
By Tom V. Segalstad, Mineralogical-Geological Museum University of Oslo, December 1995
file:///C:/Users/Owner/Downloads/the_distribution_of_co_between_atmospher.pdf
[SEPP Comment: An issue with the paper is that the greenhouse effect largely takes place in the lower atmosphere – the troposphere, before water vapor drops out. Adding the Hydrosphere, all forms of water under, on, and above Earth’s surface; and the Lithosphere, Earth’s crust, just confuses the issue.]
Even The DNA Of Single-Celled Plankton Can Upend Alarmist Arctic Sea Ice Melt Claims
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, May 18, 2026
Link to paper: First-year sea ice history in the Arctic Ocean inferred from ancient DNA of Polarella glacialis over the past 50,000 years
By Kyle Michael James Mayers, et al., Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Mar 15, 2026
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X25006077
From Richard: If the Arctic can be sea ice-free year-round when CO2 is 230 ppm, but dominated by multi-year ice when the CO2 concentration is 430 ppm, this does not support the alarmist claims that high CO2 concentrations are responsible for enhanced Arctic sea ice melt.
Defending the Orthodoxy
Blowing Hot and Cold: The outlook is bleak
By Mark Hodgson, Climate Scepticism, May 21, 2026 {H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Link to: A Well-Adapted UK: The Fourth Independent Assessment of UK Climate Risk (CCRA4-IA)
By Staff, Climate Change Committee, May 20, 2026
From Hodgson: Why do I say that? Well, because the Report is Janus-like, looking at two completely different scenarios. Needless to say, they are both catastrophic. First of all, the Committee considers “The UK’s climate at a 2°C global warming level in 2050” and concludes that this is going to lead us to hell on earth:
We are also told that this intense heat will be accompanied by growing flood risks.
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Subsidence more than doubles sea-level rise today along densely populated coasts
By Julius Oelsmann, et al., Nature Communications, May 16, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-72293-z
We find that the average modern (1995-2020) global RSL rise experienced by coastal populations (6 mm/year) is about twice the climate-driven absolute sea-level rise. This reflects a strong tendency for higher rates of subsidence in densely populated areas, with 71% of the global coastal population living in subsiding regions. [Boldface added]
[SEPP Comment: Satellite measurements indicated that the “climate-driven absolute sea-level rise” of about 3 mm per year. However, the long-used average of tidal gauges in geologically stable areas show about 2 mm per year. Which is correct is not clear.]
Questioning the Orthodoxy
The Climate Myth that Sought to Change Our Way of Life
For more than three decades, climate policy has been built on a central premise: that rising populations and expanding economies would inevitably drive ever-increasing pressure on the planet. But the world that gave rise to that assumption no longer exists.
By Samuel Furfari/Roland Duchatelet, Clintel, May 20, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://clintel.org/the-climate-myth-that-sought-to-change-our-way-of-life
Intellectual Yet Idiot: Ed Miliband and the Economic Illiteracy Driving Britain’s Energy Crisis
By Tilak Doshi, Tilak’s Substack, May 18, 2026
https://tilakdoshi.substack.com/p/intellectual-yet-idiot-ed-miliband
In a 2016 essay, Nassim Nicholas Taleb coined the term “Intellectual Yet Idiot” to describe the credentialed class — policymakers, academics, journalists and think-tankers — who impose grand narratives on society while bearing none of the costs.
WHO tells itself to declare global climate health emergency “to save millions”
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, May 19, 2026
Hello? Our wild increases in emissions in the last century have left us safer than we’ve ever been. The more CO2 we emit, the less people die of heat, floods, cold and frostbite.
There is no saving the WHO. Nothing it does couldn’t be done better by us directly. The demands it puts out are dangerous, unaccountable, and infringements on our rights. It should be disbanded for even suggesting these reckless proposals.
Humanity Has Only A Few More Months To Live
I & I Editorial Board, May 19, 2026
It befuddles us how the Guy McPhersons and Paul Ehrlichs and so many others can be so wrong with their warnings of impending destruction, yet continue to be treated in most of the media as respected experts who make divine pronouncements from their Olympian perches. It says a lot about our society that those who peddle junk science are treated with respect.
#DoEDeepDive: Opening the SCC black box
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 20, 2026
As the report notes:
“No amount of data collection can change the fact that many components of the SCC [Social Cost of Carbon] are unknown and rely on judgment and opinion based on knowledge of the underlying literature on the physical effects of climate change. SCC calculations are thus best thought of as “if-then” statements: if the following assumptions hold, then the SCC is $X per tonne.”
The plasticity of radicalism
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 20, 2026
You may have noticed with dismay that in public affairs the defeat of one trendy folly just clears the way for another. So while sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof, it also pays to look ahead. For instance, consider that the gradual abandonment of Net Zero, whether by frank repudiation or just slinking out the back way, seems to have set the stage for yet another war on petroleum and the Western way of life via an attack on plastic.
Attenborough’s “Facts” Seven Years On
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 17, 2026
Attenborough – “In the last three years, repeated heat stress has caused a third of the world’s corals to first bleach, and then die”
Perhaps next time, David Attenborough might check the actual data with reef experts such as Peter Ridd:
Time to End the Injustice of ‘Environmental Justice’
By Donna Jackson, CFACT, May 19, 2026
Climate Change Weekly # 580— Private Climate Cabal Under Investigation
By H. Sterling Burnett, Heartland Institute, May 22, 2026
Spot On, New York Post, Billions Have Been Wasted Based on Fake Climate Science
By Linnea Lueken, Climate Realism, May 22, 2026
Shout it from the grocery store
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 20, 2026
The science certainly isn’t evolving, and if the “scientific conversation” is, it’s slow and grudging, including retaining many scenarios not significantly less obviously ludicrous.
As for “economic” realities, someday we’ll doubtless be told they’ve evolved in ways that make previous scaremongering and crazed solutions no longer operative or some such euphemism. But the laws of economics don’t change any more than the laws of science do, and making people not eat for their own good will always stink.
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Climate Headbangers Crawl from the Wreckage of RCP8.5 ‘Implausible’ Finding Spinning Nothing-to-See-Here Claims
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, May 17, 2026
RCP 8.5: When the Spherical Cows Escape the Barn
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, May 21, 2026
A scenario the modelers built as a stress test became, for fifteen years, the scenario the press treated as your future. It has now been quietly retired. The reckoning has not yet begun.
Green Energy Cultists Meltdown Over Proposed EV Road-Use Fees
Albert Gore III, the son of former VP Gore, serves as the Executive Director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association and is unhappy with this development.
By Leslie Eastman, Legal Insurrection, May 21, 2026
https://legalinsurrection.com/2026/05/green-energy-advocates-meltdown-over-proposed-ev-road-use-fees
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
The effect of CO2 on Calluna vulgaris
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 20, 2026
From the CO2Science.org archive,
Seeking a Common Ground
The Death of RCP8.5 | Roger Pielke Jr
Interview by The Global Warming Policy Foundation, Via WUWT, May 16, 2026
No, RCP8.5 Did Not Become Implausible Because of Climate Policy
Getting things right may be uncomfortable, but it is the only way forward
By Roger Pielke, Jr. His Blog, May 18, 2026
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/no-rcp85-did-not-become-implausible
Not the Droids You are Looking For
A look at the first wave of English language media coverage of RCP8.5 RIP
By Roger Pielke Jr., His Blog, May 21, 2026
Science, Policy, and Evidence
Scandal: Although Climate Panic Is Canceled By IPCC, Europe’s Policymakers Continue With Their Crushing Policies
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, May 17, 2026
German critical journalist Roland Tichy has posted a scathing commentary on German alarmist politicians who refuse to accept that the climate crisis has been called off by the IPCC and that their power-grabbing green policies must be suspended.
Model Issues
The Clouds of Uncertainty That Render All Climate Models Useless
By Patrick Frank, The Daily Sceptic, May 20, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/05/20/the-clouds-of-uncertainty-that-render-all-climate-models-useless
Changing Weather
GOOD: NEWS: NOAA predicts a below-normal 2026 Atlantic hurricane season
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, May 21, 2026
[SEPP Comment: 55% probability of below normal; 35% probability of normal; and 10% probability of above normal. In times of El Niño, strong high-altitude winds blow off the tops of incipient hurricanes, reducing their intensity.]
Mediterranean Wildfire Trends
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 22, 2026
Wildfires were much worse than average in the Mediterranean region last year, particularly so in Portugal and Spain:
However, the long-term trend is firmly in decline. Wildfire area last year was at similar levels to several other years on record.
US Wildfire Data Shows No Long-Term Trends
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 22, 2026
Tropical cyclone (lack of) trends in the Western North Pacific
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 20, 2026
Changing Climate
Researchers Find Rapid Global Warming Phase At End Of Last Ice Age (Ca.18,000 Years Ago)
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, May 20, 2026
Link to paper: Elevated shallow water salinity in the deglacial Indian Ocean was sourced from the deep
By Ryan H. Glaubke, et al., Nature Geoscience, Apr 10, 2026
From Gosselin: Scientists have long suspected a link between deep ocean salinity and atmospheric CO2 levels during ice age cycles. Colder water holds more dissolved CO2. When marine organisms die, their carbon-rich remains sink into the deep sea. Variations in salinity act as a barrier, trapping this carbon in the deep ocean layers and preventing it from easily escaping back into the atmosphere.
Ocean currents and shifting layers can transport these deep, carbon-rich waters back to the surface. Once there, they oxidize and release large amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, rapidly triggering a warming phase.
Changing Seas
April 2026 SSTs Continue to Warm
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, May 22, 2026
Lowering Standards
Met Office Faces Fresh Scandal Over its “Implausible” Climate Projections Report at the Heart of UK Net Zero Fantasy
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, May 19, 2026
Not to put too fine a point on it, the Met Office is heavily screwed up by its attempts to promote the Net Zero fantasy. UKCP18 might be regarded as a foundational source of climate ‘evidence’ by influencers and governing elites, but the IPCC “implausible” ruling renders it largely junk.
Why the Washington Drought Emergency Should Be Dropped Immediately
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, May 18, 2026
It is time to clear the air.
To definitively correct misinformation being pushed by a Washington State agency, the Seattle Times Climate Times Climate Lab, and some amateur YouTube channels.
The claim that this summer represents a DROUGHT EMERGENCY for Washington State.
It is simply and demonstrably false.
In a previous blog, I showed that our reservoirs are fuller than normal, soil moisture levels are good, our annual precipitation is at or above normal, and that current crops are doing well.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
The Science of Alarmism
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 16, 2026
Link to: When Antarctic Headlines Melt Faster Than the Ice
By Anthony Watts, The Heartland Institute, RedState, May 15, 2026
Link to paper: Channelized topography amplifies melt-sensitivity of cold Antarctic ice shelves
By Qin Zhou, et al., Nature Communications, May 7, 2026
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-71828-8
From Watts: Here’s what the coverage buries: the reason we’re only learning about these sub-ice channels and their effects right now is that we have only recently developed the technology and methodology to observe conditions beneath Antarctic ice shelves. Think about that for a moment. We are talking about one of the most remote, inaccessible, and hostile environments on the planet. The ice shelf cavities these researchers are studying sit beneath hundreds of meters of ice, in waters that are extraordinarily difficult to instrument, monitor, or sample directly. The Fimbulisen Ice Shelf case study used a combination of detailed topographical mapping and computer modeling, not decades of direct observational data, to draw its conclusions.
[SEPP Comment: The small 200 km by 100 km (120 mi by 60 mi) ice shelf is attached to a massive continent full of ice.]
About That “Super El Niño”
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, May 20, 2026
Link to: ENSO Alert System Status: El Niño Watch: El Niño/Southern Oscillation (ENSO) Diagnostic Discussion
By Staff, Climate Prediction Center/NCEP/NWS, May 14, 2026
https://www.cpc.ncep.noaa.gov/products/analysis_monitoring/enso_advisory/ensodisc.shtml
Synopsis: El Niño is likely to emerge soon (82% chance in May-July 2026) and continue through Northern Hemisphere winter 2026-27 (96% chance in December 2026-February 2027).
CCN’s Hurricane Indoctrination Briefing
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 18, 2026
From CCN Press Briefing: “2026 Hurricane Season – What You Need to Know ahead of NOAA’s Outlook.”
“Ahead of your coverage of NOAA’s outlook announcement, join Covering Climate Now and Climate Central for a special webinar aimed to paint a more complete picture of the factors, both natural and human-caused, influencing this hurricane season.” [Boldface added]
Wrong, Sky News, Human-Caused Climate Change Isn’t to Blame for the Alaskan Megatsunami
By Linnea Lueken, Climate Realism, May 18, 2026
Wrong, Daily Mail, Future Melting Antarctic Ice Isn’t Going to Drown Millions
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, May 19, 2026
Shout it from the rooftops
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 20, 2026
In this regard Canary [Media] seem to have missed the key point even while quoting in their story:
“‘At Amazon, we seek technologies that support our Climate Pledge goal,’ Asad Jafry, the company’s director of global energy, sustainability, and automation, said in a statement.”
Riiight. Support our Climate Pledge goal. Not support our let’s-save-money goal. So, it’s basically big gleaming PR.
Communicating Better to the Public – Exaggerate, or be Vague?
Improved closure of the global mean sea level budget from observational advances since 1960
By Huayi Zheng, et al., AAAS Science Advances, May 20, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.aea0652
[SEPP Comment: What is meant by a sea level “budget”? Is it one the conforms to their calculations of ocean expansion plus, glacier melting plus water storage rather than actual measurements using geologically stable tidal gauges?]
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
Greenwishing: Shiny Promises Fall Short
By Stephen Heins, Master Resource, May 21, 2026
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
The Cold Hard Truth: The Left Is Outspending Us, Outworking Us, and Outthinking Us
By T.L. Headley, Real Clear Energy, May 18, 2026
The energy industry has the facts. It has the workers. It has the record. It has the argument. What it needs now is the will to build the machinery of persuasion equal to the importance of the cause.
Flipping Out in a Warming World
By Robert Bislocky, WUWT, May 18, 2026
“Study Finds Sudden Weather Whiplash Events on the Rise”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda on Children
How Once Hardcore Climate Alarmist Lucy Biggers Realized It Was All A Scam, Brainwashing
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, May 16, 2026
Gore’s propaganda led to “existential dread”
According to Lucy Biggers, her intense anxiety and worry about the climate at an early age was triggered by watching the documentary film An Inconvenient Truth by Al Gore, explaining that she was a sophomore in high school (16 years old) in 2006 when her school played the film during a widespread high school assembly. Lucy describes the overwhelming psychological impact it had on her, which included existential dread and the feeling of having been handed a death sentence
Based on what she took away from the movie, she calculated a timeline for her own survival, stating, “I’m 16, I have till I’m 26… I have 10 years to live… I was racked by anxiety like in my nervous system”.
Expanding the Orthodoxy
Guardian: “Declare climate crisis a global public health emergency, experts tell WHO”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, May 17, 2026
UN votes to affirm responsibility to mitigate climate change, while US votes against
By Rachel Frazin, The Hill, May 21, 2026
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5890075-united-nations-climate-change
By Targeting Dairy Farmers, ESG Wants to Decide Your Milk
By Samantha Fillmore, WUWT, May 16, 2026
Link to website: Across every dairy community. Throughout every continent. We are taking action.
Be part of Pathways to Dairy Net Zero
Subscribe to our mailing list to learn more and be kept up-to-date with news and progress.
Questioning Green Elsewhere
ASEAN Nations Return to Fossil Fuels, Back Away From Net Zero Plans
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, May 19, 2026
For years, ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) governments faced pressure from international lenders and climate forums to announce fossil fuel phase-outs, moratoriums on new plants, and heavy bets on wind and solar.
America’s energy comeback is leaving green fantasies behind
By Craig Rucker, CFACT, May 18, 2026
Electricity prices in Northeastern states are roughly twice those in much of the Midwest and South — and they are still climbing. Even Democratic governors are now quietly delaying or abandoning once-sacred green energy mandates, or at least hinting they may do so.
Finally, on the edge of extinction, the Australian opposition start to fight on Net Zero
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, May 16, 2026
Walking in the Valley of Political Death, after Trump, Farage, and One Nation took all the risks and paved the way out of the Climate Swamp, the Liberals have finally been dragged into saying a definite “No” to Net Zero, including repealing the toxic Safeguard Mechanism.
What they haven’t done as a party is show leadership.
The Political Games Continue
This Midterm, Trump’s Strategic Doctrine Is “Affordable, Reliable, Clean” Energy Security
By David DesRosiers, Real Clear Energy, May 20, 2026
The following remarks were made by Publisher David DesRosiers at RealClear’s Third Annual Energy Future Forum held in Washington, D.C. on May 1, 2026, in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Center for Energy Analytics.
[SEPP Comment: Promoting the “Affordable, Reliable, Clean Energy Security Act.”]
Amidst heatwave concerns, Labour considers workplace temperature measures
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 21, 2026
Looking at the underlying position, however, heatwaves are not getting significantly worse. Bear in mind, as well, that cleaner air since the 1980s has undoubtedly increased temperatures on sunny days:
Labour Considers Making it Illegal to Work When it is “Too Hot”
By Will Jones, The Daily Sceptic May 20, 2026
It pointed to examples in Spain, which sets maximum legal indoor temperatures of 27°C [81°F] for sedentary work and 25°C [77°F] for light physical work, and other countries that enforce upper limits for outdoor labour.
Litigation Issues
New York’s Climate Rule Reaches into Iowa. Iowa Reaches Back.
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, May 16, 2026
On Thursday, the attorneys general of Iowa and Missouri, joined by the American Free Enterprise Chamber of Commerce and represented by the Center for Individual Rights, filed a federal lawsuit against the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. The complaint challenges New York’s Mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program on constitutional grounds, arguing that the rule unconstitutionally regulates businesses, consumers, and individuals well beyond New York’s borders.
This is the first major federal challenge to a state-level climate reporting regime since the EPA rescinded its 2009 endangerment finding in February. It will not be the last.
The US Constitution and laws do not protect oil companies from being sued over the harm they cause to the climate
By Alejandro E. Camacho Professor of Law, University of California, Los Angeles and Robert Glicksman Professor of Environmental Law, George Washington University, The Conversation, May 21, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
In recent years, at least two dozen local and state governments have sued petroleum companies to recover the billions in costs they have incurred responding to and rebuilding after flooding, storms and wildfires – all of which have been worsened by changes to the climate resulting from burning fossil fuels.
[SEPP Comment: Are oil companies being sued over harm imagined by lawyers such as these professors of law, not actual damages from fossil fuel use-caused warming?]
We Live in Stupid Times
By Staff, Government Accountability & Oversight, May 21, 2026
EPA and other Regulators on the March
Adios, IRIS
By Susan Goldhaber MPH, ACSH, May 19, 2026
The EPA’s decision to end the use of IRIS for developing chemical risk assessments is a fundamental change in how the agency will decide what chemical hazards mean for regulation. By returning hazard and dose-response assessments to individual program offices, EPA may gain flexibility and scientific currency, but it risks recreating the very inconsistency IRIS was designed to prevent.
The IRIS toxicity value was again criticized by the American Chemistry Council because it is 19,000 times lower than naturally occurring levels of ethylene oxide in the human body. [Boldface in original.]
Waste and fraud allegations plague ESA salmon recovery program
By David Wojick, CFACT, May 20, 2026
They say it very well: “Over the last two decades, federal agencies have spent more than $8 billion on efforts to restore salmon to the Columbia and Snake River Basin. But, in spite of this spending, salmon populations continue to decline. In fact, a comprehensive review by the Government Accountability Office found that from 1982-2002 there was no “conclusive evidence” that any of the federal efforts to restore salmon had been successful.”
[SEPP Comment: Could the decline in salmon and steelhead populations be caused by increased populations of marine mammals that eat them?]
Energy Issues – General
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 20, 2026
The United Arab Emirates Is Playing Its Own Game
By Samuel Furfari, CO2 Coalition, May 18, 2026
Oil moves our machines, but electricity is the cornerstone of our quality of life
By Ronald Stein, Olivia Vaughan, and Steve Curtis, America Out Loud News, May 18, 2026
In South Africa, the country has experienced severe planned outages, while the price of electricity has risen by over 900% since 2007, leaving a trail of deindustrialization in its wake. Mines, smelters, factories, and small businesses have closed due to untenable electricity prices. This, while having installed over a dozen Gigawatts of wind and solar, and being the largest wind market in Africa.
Energy Issues – Elsewhere non-US
Flinging economies about
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 20, 2026
Some rube at the back shouts “What’s the actual plan here” and is promptly escorted from the premises. Ha ha! You can’t play the glass bead game. Get that bum outta here. As the WSJ explains:
“Canadian officials intend to begin consultations over the next four months with the provinces, indigenous groups, and electricity generators and utilities about how to double capacity.”
This game isn’t EV
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, May 20, 2026
Oh, that’s embarrassing. As Canada boldly leverages its strategic transformational low-carbon pivot, Honda has pivoted away from a commitment to build an electric vehicle plant in Ontario despite $5 billion in promised subsidies. Evidently our federal government has known about it since January but didn’t bother mentioning it to mere citizens lest it cause talk. Even rebukes.
Energy Issues — US
Two Actions State Leaders Can Take to Avert the Coming Blackouts
By Jon Sanders, Real Clear Energy, May 18, 2026
Grid reliability needs more baseload generation, not less. Replacing retiring baseload capacity with equal or greater baseload capacity would protect the grid from preventable blackouts.
Driving Up The Cost Of Energy While Claiming To Promote “Affordability”
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, May 20, 2026
The worst part of the RGGI “cap and invest” scheme is that the consumers get absolutely nothing for the increased cost. It is just a gratuitously inflicted injury brought about by completely artificial scarcity.
Keep this in mind when you hear a politician from an RGGI state talking about how they care about energy “affordability.”
Infrastructure Week: The Real Story Is Underground
By Amy Andryszak, Real Clear Energy, May 18, 2026
According to Fortune, natural gas pipeline construction in the U.S. is experiencing its largest growth surge in nearly two decades, since the beginning of the shale revolution. More than 150 pipeline projects are planned nationwide, representing roughly 150 billion cubic feet of new capacity, according to analytics firm Arbo. Wood Mackenzie estimates that companies have committed $50 billion to new pipeline investments that would add approximately 8,800 miles of infrastructure across the country.
Don’t Wait for the Next Hormuz Crisis. Build Global LNG Infrastructure Now.
By Christopher Guith, Real Clear Energy, May 20, 2026
First, the U.S. must continue to modernize and expand its own energy infrastructure, including pipelines, storage, export capacity, and the permitting certainty needed to build on predictable timelines. When it takes longer to permit a project than to build it, the system is broken.
From Backup to Prime Power: How AI Data Centers Are Bypassing the Grid
By Drew Robb, Power Mag, May 18, 2026
Data centers have traditionally depended on uninterruptible power supply (UPS) systems and backup generators to keep them online during a power cut, grid event, or natural disaster. But the critical nature of modern artificial intelligence (AI) workloads is such that there is no tolerance of downtime. Further measures must be in place to ensure energy continuity. For some, that may even mean setting up an adjacent power plant that can either entirely power the data center or can come online when needed.
[SEPP Comment: None of the alternative systems discussed included wind and solar power. Why don’t politicians understand why?]
One Atomic Bomb Per Hour
By Tony Heller, His Blog, May 17, 2026
Link to an article: Crusoe gets go-ahead for 1.8GW data center campus and power plant in Cheyenne, Wyoming
Campus could eventually scale to 10GW
By Matthew Goodling, Data Center Dynamics, Jan 8, 2026
From article: Data center firm Crusoe and power company Tallgrass have been granted permission to build a 1.8GW gas-powered data center campus in Cheyenne, Wyoming.
The scheme, announced last year, will see Crusoe construct the data center campus, known as Project Jade, on land near Terry Ranch Road, in Laramie County, south of Cheyenne, near the border with Colorado.
Tallgrass will build the BFC Power and Cheyenne Power Hub adjacent to the data center site to provide power for the facility via natural gas turbines.
[SEPP Comment: In 2025 the buzz was that the data center was by Microsoft and would be powered by wind!]
The US AI Rebellion is Gaining Momentum
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, May 21, 2026
My point is the problem is real, but banning or restricting data centers is not a viable solution. We can’t turn the clock back on today’s technological advances, any more than textile workers in the 1800s could stop machine driven mass production of woven cloth. All that can be done, and should be done, is to act early to cushion the blow, to help people distressed about job insecurity to find new jobs which the AIs can’t steal, and to figure out how to fix the regulatory roadblocks which are causing electricity price misery for anyone who lives next door to new data centers.
Washington’s Control of Energy
For the First Time in a Long Time – After a Long, Steady Decline, Alaska Oil Production Is on the Rise
By Housley Carr, RBN Energy, May 18, 2026
https://rbnenergy.com/daily-posts/blog/after-long-steady-decline-alaska-oil-production-rise
[SEPP Comment: Washington’s efforts to squeeze the Trans Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS) pipeline dry by failing to grant oil leases is being overturned.]
How Trump’s EO 14300 Is Reshaping NRC Nuclear Licensing and Regulation
By Aaron Larson, Power Mag, May 20, 2026
The order told the agency to adopt “science-based” radiation exposure limits in place of the linear no-threshold model and the “as low as reasonably achievable” standard, streamline its National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) compliance, create an expedited pathway for reactor designs already tested by the Department of Defense (now Department of War) or the Department of Energy, and stand up a high-volume licensing process for microreactors and small modular reactors with standardized applications. It also pressed the NRC to consider economic and national-security benefits alongside its traditional safety, health, and environmental mandate, and set an explicit policy goal of growing U.S. nuclear capacity from approximately 100 GW in 2024 to 400 GW by 2050.
Oil Spills, Gas Leaks & Consequences
Deadliest coal mine explosion in China in years kills at least 82 people, local officials say
By AP, Via The Hill, May 23, 2026
https://thehill.com/policy/international/china-deadly-coal-mine-gas-explosion
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Waste of the Day: Radioactive Wasted Money
By Jeremy Portnoy, WUWT, May 22, 2026
Link to report: Nuclear Waste Cleanup: Clarifying Definition of High-Level Radioactive Waste Could Help DOE Save Tens of Billions of Dollars
By Staff, United States Government Accountability Office, Report to Congressional Committees, March 2026
Fusion Fantasy (Nature Energy report)
By Kennedy Maize, Master Resource, May 20, 2026
Link to paper: Fusion power unlikely to become competitive
By Lingxi Tang, et al., Nature Energy, Apr 1, 2026
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-026-02022-9
From Maize: Investors and public policy experts should heavily discount fusion hyperbole. Nuclear fission for new capacity is full of challenges–nuclear fusion has far more ground to cover.
[SEPP Comment: The authors of the Nature Energy paper use a term from the insurance industry, low experience rates, meaning lower insurance claims than expected. In the paper it apparently means that with a successful project the decline in cost with increasing scale is less than what the promoters expect. Question the authors estimates of historical capital expenditure experience curves of existing commercial energy technologies.]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
The Energy Cost of Energy
Why the data shows wind and solar — especially when paired with battery storage — are the most energetically expensive ways to power a civilization
By Scott Grout, His Blog, May 9, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
There is a metric that energy debates almost never mention, and its omission distorts nearly every conversation about the future of power. It is called Energy Return on Energy Invested (EROEI), and it measures something fundamental: how much energy you get back for every unit of energy you spend producing it. The higher the ratio, the more surplus energy flows to hospitals, schools, manufacturing, and the standard of living that those things represent. The lower the ratio, the more of society’s resources get consumed simply keeping the lights on.
China’s Solar Industry Redesigned Itself Around U.S. Forced Labor Law
By Adrian Zenz, WUWT, May 17, 2026
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
Jonathan Leake Falls For The Battery Myth
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, May 17, 2026
Another gormless [lacking intelligence] article by Jonathan Leake, who for some reason is the Telegraph’s Energy Editor!
Jonathan Leake should not only be aware of all this, he should also have been writing about it years ago.
It is the failure of most in the MSM to warn the public of these problems and the massive costs involved, which has left them in the dark about Net Zero.
Thanks to the failure of Leake and his chums, we are now sleepwalking into an energy nightmare, which will soon be irreversible if Miliband gets his way.
California Dreaming
Differentiating Between Capacity and Yield
By Edward Ring, California Policy Center, May 20, 2026
Natural gas power plants in California, if they operated as baseload power plants with 90 percent uptime, could have generated over 300 TWh of electricity in 2024, but because most of them now only operate when wind and solar electricity is not available, they only produced 86.5 TWh, 26 percent of their capacity. The state’s wind turbines had a yield of 28 percent (15.7 TWh), and solar photovoltaics had a yield of 25 percent (48.6 TWh).
Even HBO Knows You Can’t Build in California
By William Rampe, Real Clear Energy, May 21, 2026
Both CEQA [California Environmental Quality Act] and NEPA [National Environmental Policy Act] attempt to perpetuate the conditions where “man and nature can exist in productive harmony,” but they result in an unproductive “harmony” of quiet work sites and full courtrooms. By allowing a flower that’s not even at risk of extinction to stand in the way of economically beneficial projects through longer reviews and opportunities for litigation, California makes it clear that human welfare is subservient to nature.
Newsom’s office warns Californians to avoid Chevron this holiday weekend, citing high gas prices
By AP, Via The Hill, May 21, 2026
The call-out by the governor’s office follows Chevron posting signs at California gas stations blaming the state’s climate policies for the high cost of gas. The average price of gas in California sat at $6.14 per gallon on Thursday, about $1.58 higher than the national average, according to the American Automobile Association. The state taxes consumers about 70 cents per gallon of gas, according to the state’s energy commission. That is the highest gas tax in the country.
Environmental Industry
Sierra Club: Volunteers Needed to Counter ‘Climate Disinformation’
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, May 18, 2026
Other Scientific News
There Is a Hair-Raising Amount of Chemicals Around Us: Are We in Danger?
By Joe Schwarcz, ACSH, May 15, 2026
We live in a complex chemical landscape in which risks are notoriously difficult to evaluate. It can be pretty hairy to understand.
Other News that May Be of Interest
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Manufacturing Delusion’
Much of what you read and watch is leftist-manufactured
By Anthony Sadar, Washington Times, May 19, 2026
Mr. Sexton goes further by saying he “combed through the last hundred-plus years of literature on the topic of mass delusion and identified the eight most common tactics totalitarians use to create it: conditioning, menticide [mind-killing], brainwashing, weaponized law, forced phobia, isolation, identity construction, and propaganda.”
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Voodoo Modeling says Climate Change makes interest rates rise
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, May 22, 2026
America’s Gas Prices Are Iran’s Weapon
By David S. Cohen, Real Clear Energy, May 20, 2026
There is a straightforward and administratively easy remedy. Regulate the purchase and sale price of oil to and by the nation’s approximately 130 domestic refineries and regulate their export volumes in order to assure that American consumers are supplied first. Producer prices are capped at the pre-war level of $65 a barrel, the marginal cost of WTI oil, the price that has fueled the explosion in oil production and profits, while exports continue at full world prices. No one sells below cost.
[SEPP Comment: Nixon’s inflation control regulations failed. Is this regulation idea better?]
‘Climate Hushing’: Pragmatism Demoting Exaggeration (McKibben fools himself)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, May 19, 2026
“There’s a thing out there called a ‘climate husher.’ Anyone who cares about what fossil fuel pollution is doing to Earth’s natural systems needs to ignore these so-called ‘climate hushers’ – people who think Dems should stop talking about climate.” – Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.)
“Casimir Effect” Perpetual Energy Machine Raises $12 Million Seed Capital
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, May 18, 2026
Junk Science: “Loneliness caused by climate change kills people”
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, May 17, 2026
Link to paper: Climate change and social health
By Marlee Bower, et al., Nature, Human Behavior, May 15, 2026
Opening sentences of the abstract: Social health—our ability to access and maintain meaningful human relationships—is recognized as a critical determinant of population health and climate change resilience, yet it is poorly integrated into climate change policy and research. This narrative Review synthesizes interdisciplinary evidence of the bidirectional and nuanced relationship between climate change and social health: climate change disrupts key social conditions (including housing stability and community cohesion), while widespread social disconnection limits our collective capacity to address the climate crisis.
ARTICLES
1. Germany’s Slow Industrial Suicide
The climate left is achieving its goal of de-industrialization.
By The Editorial Board, WSJ, May 20, 2026
TWTW Summary: Discussed in the This Week section above.