The Week That Was: 2026-06-20 (June 20, 2026)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
Quote of the Week: “If we knew what it was we were doing, it would not be called research, would it?” —Albert Einstein
Number of the Week: 0.03%
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: This TWTW begins with a discussion by Charles Rotter on the report by the American Energy Institute on the new US Manual on Scientific Evidence. TWTW discusses key points from Ole Humlum’s monthly report on observations about climate. TWTW discusses the terms verification and validation as applied to models. TWTW suggests that increasing photosynthesis from increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide is causing underground life to flourish and concludes with a discussion on small nuclear reactors.
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US Scientific Evidence: Charles Rotter of WUWT discusses a report by the American Energy Institute (AEI) on the politicized U.S. Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition published by the Federal Judicial Center (FJC) and the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). The Executive Summary of the AEI report “Captured Courts: The National Academies, The Federal Judicial Center & Climate Lawfare” covers some of the deficiencies of the Reference Manual well. The Summary states [citations not included here]:
“For years, the American Energy Institute (AEI) has documented how the Environmental Law Institute’s (ELI) Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) operates as a judicial influence campaign rather than a neutral educational initiative. AEI’s reports have shown that CJP advances plaintiff-aligned legal theories, contested climate attribution concepts, and litigation-oriented narratives to judges presiding over active and anticipated climate cases, while concealing conflicts of interest, funding sources, and participant identities.
This report reveals that the congressionally chartered National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) – once regarded as a neutral scientific organization – has been compromised by its ties to climate activist organizations, leftwing dark money networks, and a politicized leadership.
Through its production of the Reference Manual on Scientific Evidence, Fourth Edition in coordination with its co-publisher, the Federal Judicial Center (FJC), the research agency of the federal judiciary, the FJC and NASEM embedded plaintiff-aligned positions on climate causation, attribution, and liability into one of the most authoritative evidentiary resources relied upon by judges nationwide.
The Fourth Edition represents a sharp break from the Manual’s historical role as a neutral guide to scientific methodology. It introduces a new Reference Guide on Climate Science that treats disputed theories central to ongoing climate litigation as settled fact, endorses probabilistic and event-attribution frameworks explicitly developed for courtroom use, and repeatedly frames skepticism of climate claims as bad faith or strategic manipulation. These positions are advanced without meaningful disclosure of the authors’ and cited experts’ direct ties to climate plaintiffs and plaintiff-side law firms.
Most troubling, the Manual repeatedly cites the work of Michael Burger, Executive Director of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Of Counsel at Sher Edling LLP, the primary plaintiffs’ firm driving climate nuisance and fraud litigation nationwide. Burger’s work is cited as footnotes 77, 182, 295, and 308 of the Manual, yet judges are never informed of his role as a practicing plaintiffs’ lawyer. By laundering plaintiffs’ legal theories through a federally branded judicial reference work, the NASEM through the FJC has allowed one side of active litigation to shape the evidentiary framework before cases are adjudicated. Concerningly, the NASEM receives significant funding from the federal government with over $200,000,000 in funding and grants from federal agencies in 2024, accounting for approximately 74% of the NASEM’s external funding that year.
While FJC has since ‘omitted’ the climate science chapter from its Reference Manual, the NASEM, the copyright holder, continues to host the full version with the chapter intact, bearing FJC branding and with no notice of any omission. This raises serious questions of transparency and accountability. The Fourth Edition should be rescinded and investigated by Congress and the federal judiciary.
In January 2026, following AEI’s investigative work, the House Judiciary Committee opened a formal inquiry into allegations that ELI and CJP improperly attempted to influence federal judges. Despite this escalation, Congress continues to fund the National Academies and the Federal Judicial Center without conditions or enhanced oversight, even as the FJC’s own conduct now sits squarely within the influence architecture under investigation.7
The question before Congress is no longer whether ethical concerns exist. That question has been answered by a formal House investigation and a growing public record. The question now is whether appropriators will act to halt the misuse of taxpayer funds, restore neutrality to judicial education, and prevent federal institutions from becoming instruments of climate lawfare.” [Boldface added]
In his closing comments, Charles Rotter gives balance to this disturbing report. Rotter writes:
“And then there is the funding, which is where these things usually end up. The American Energy Institute report that has been circulating traces several million dollars flowing to NASEM from foundations associated with the usual climate-philanthropy names. The Sabin Center, whose people wrote the judicial chapter, is itself funded by climate-litigation philanthropy. The private foundation that helped fund the manual also gives to groups that fund the lawsuits. None of this is hidden. It is all in the footnotes, for anyone who reads footnotes.
I am not telling you that every scientist at the National Academies is an activist, because that would be false and stupid. The Academies do an enormous amount of careful, genuinely neutral work, and most of the people there are exactly what they say they are. What I am telling you is that the word ‘independent’ is no longer doing what it is supposed to be doing. It has become a credential that gets applied at the front door and then quietly suspended once you are inside, on the topics that matter most to the people writing the checks.
The whole arrangement runs on the reputation. The reputation was earned over a century and a half of real work, and it is now being spent down, a chapter at a time, a curriculum at a time, to launder a particular set of conclusions through a name that used to mean ‘you can stop checking.’
So do not stop checking. When a federally funded body tells you its conclusions are independent and settled and not to be questioned, that is precisely the moment to read the footnotes, find out who wrote the chapter, and ask who paid for it.” [Boldface added]
See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Still No Significant Change: Ole Humlum of the Arctic Historical Evaluation and Research Organization produced a comprehensive report (68 pages with many graphs) of the physical observations on climate from 1979 to May 2026. In his summary Humlum writes:
“1: Observed average annual global air temperature change since 1979 (46+ years) is +0.0156℃ (UAH). If this change rate remains stable in the future (not very likely), global average air temperature increase will be about +1.15℃ higher than today in year 2100.
2: Average global precipitation is remarkably stable throughout the observation period since 1979.
3: Tide gauges along coasts indicate a typical global sea level increase of about 1-2 mm per year. Coastal sea level change rate in the last 100 years has essentially been stable, but with periodic variations. If change rate remains stable, global sea level at coasts will typically increase 8-16 cm by year 2100, although many locations in regions affected by glaciation 20,000 ago, will experience a relative sea level drop.
4: Since 2004 the global oceans above 1900 m depth on average have warmed about 0.037℃. The maximum warming (about 0.2℃, 0-100 m depth) mainly affects oceans near Equator, where the incoming solar radiation is at maximum. However, our knowledge of the oceans is still far from complete.
5: Sources and sinks for CO2 are many. However, changes in atmospheric CO2 follow changes in global air temperature, and changes in global air temperature follow changes in ocean surface temperature.
6: There was no visible effect on atmospheric CO2 due to the 2020-2021 COVID-related drop in GHG emissions. This underlines that natural sinks and sources for atmospheric CO2 far outweigh human contributions.”
See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Verified and Validated: When discussing models some scientists use the term verified and validated in ways that may confuse readers. In his essay posted in WUWT, “Unverified and Unvalidated”, Willis Eschenbach discusses the meanings of these terms in addressing the paper “Indicators of Global Climate Change 2025: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence” published by the Copernicus Organization.
[TWTW found even the opening sentence of the introduction of the Copernicus paper disturbing. It stated: “IPCC AR6 provided an assessment of human influence on key indicators of the state of the climate grounded in available data at the time of publication.” The IPCC publication ignores climate history as well as calculations of the greenhouse effect using the difference between satellite measurements of Earth’s outgoing radiation and the well-established theoretical outgoing radiation of Earth based on the Stefan-Boltzmann law as modified by Planck.]
In his comments Eschenbach writes in part:
“People underestimate the complexity of the climate. It has no less than six major subsystems: atmosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, biosphere, cryosphere, and electrosphere. Each of these systems has its own internal cycles, forcings, responses, and resonances. And all of them are constantly interacting at spatial scales from the molecular to the planetary, and temporal scales from nanoseconds to millennia. Willis’s First Rule of Climate states, ‘In the climate, everything is connected to everything else, which in turn is connected to everything else … except when it’s not’. It’s the most complex system we’ve ever tried to model, and we’ve barely scratched the surface.
Now, don’t get me wrong. I’ve written lots of computer models. I like indicators. I like data. I like having regular snapshots of where we are.
But what I don’t like is pretending that running the same assumptions through a slightly updated sausage machine counts as validation of anything. These folks are not testing the system. They’re just doing annual bookkeeping within an untested framework and then declaring victory. That’s not science; that’s climate accounting with a side of unwarranted confidence.
Let’s start with the basics. The paper is explicitly aligned with IPCC AR6 methods. It tracks emissions, concentrations, effective radiative forcing, surface temperature, Earth’s energy imbalance, sea level, and so on, then uses a simple climate model (FaIR) tuned to AR6 and a handful of observational constraints to spit out “human-induced warming”.
In other words, they take AR6’s structure, plug in updated emissions and temperature series, and out pops the updated “human-caused warming is now 1.37 °C” kind of number. Handy, perhaps. But notice what they’re not doing: they’re not independently checking whether the underlying model family can actually reproduce crucial features of the real climate system when it’s not being hand-held.
This brings us to a topic near and dear to my heart—verification and validation, or as grown-up modelers call it, V&V. I wrote my first computer program sixty-three years ago this month, so I know more than a bit about computer models and V&V.
Let me strip it down to the bare essentials. Here’s the TL;DR [Too Long; Didn’t Read] version.
- Verification is asking “Did we solve the equations right?”
- Validation is asking “Did we solve the right equations?”
Two very different questions.
First, some background. In the adult parts of engineering—nuclear, aerospace, mechanical, structural, medical devices—V&V isn’t some optional nicety. It’s standard operating procedure. If you build a computational model that will be used to design a bridge, a reactor, or a heart valve, you’re expected to show that (1) the code does what you think it does, and (2) the whole model is actually a decent representation of the real physical system in the situations you care about.
Those are verification and validation, respectively. Miss either one and you’re in the realm of wishful thinking, not engineering.”
Eschenbach goes into a long explanation of each component from the standpoint of a computer modeler. TWTW prefers a simpler explanation from the standpoint of physical science. Verification means that the logic including the mathematics have been independently examined and found to be correct. Validation means that the results of the model have been tested against appropriate physical evidence (from direct rigorous observations or experiments) and found to be consistent with the physical evidence. Using the scientific method, validation requires that the model is consistent with all the physical evidence.
In brief, verification means that the model is internally correct. Validation means that it is consistent with the known physical evidence. [As our knowledge of the physical world expands previously validated models may have to be modified to be consistent with mew evidence, such as modifying Newton’s theory of universal gravitation to conform with Einstein’s general theory of relativity.]
See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Photosynthesis Needed Underground? AAAS Science published a paper by over twenty authors titled “Global density and biomass of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks.” The abstract states:
“Arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi form symbioses with ~70% of plant species, building hyphal networks that exchange nutrients for host-derived carbon. These tubular networks move ~1 billion metric tons of carbon per year into Earth’s soils. However, we have no quantitative understanding of the hyphal infrastructure required to carry out this resource transfer. We assembled data from 322 studies representing more than 16,000 soil cores across nine biomes and developed machine-learning models to predict hyphal densities globally. With robotic imaging of more than 300,000 hyphae, we calibrated a biomass model from our spatial predictions. We estimate that global topsoils contain 1.10 × 1017 ± 0.13 × 1017 SD [Standard Deviation] kilometers of living hyphae, weighing ~300 ± 60 SD [Standard Deviation] megatons, ~4- to 6-fold the biomass of humans. Our uncertainty analyses identified undersampled ecosystems that require additional empirical attention.”
To empathize a key point part of the editor’s summary states:
“Most species of plants form underground associations with arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) fungi, which provide plant roots with nutrients in exchange for carbon.” [Boldface added]
One of the co-authors wrote an article published in The Conversation that began with:
“Beneath our feet lie some of the largest living organisms on Earth. Fungi are mostly invisible and largely overlooked, but they help sustain the ecosystems and food systems that we depend on every day.
In a new global study, colleagues and I have mapped Earth’s vast underground networks of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi. These fungi are invisible to the naked eye and form partnerships with the roots of most land plants. Their hyphae – fungal thread-like filaments – explore soil that roots cannot reach. This helps plants acquire water and nutrients in exchange for carbon fixed by the plants through photosynthesis. [Boldface added
These mycorrhizal relationships are ancient, dating back more than 450 million years, and were probably instrumental in helping plants colonize land.
This new research provides the first global estimate of the sheer scale of these underground fungal networks. We found that the world’s topsoils contain approximately 110 quadrillion kilometers of living fungal filaments. That is almost one billion times the distance between the Earth and the Sun.
Mycorrhizal fungi are also major players in the Earth’s carbon cycle. Each year, arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi channel an estimated 3.12 billion tonnes of CO₂ equivalent from plant photosynthesis into the soil and collectively contain around 300 megatonnes of carbon. Yet despite their enormous contribution to ecosystem functioning, they remain largely overlooked in global assessments of biodiversity, carbon storage and ecosystem health.”
Carbon dioxide is essential for photosynthesis. In the presence of chlorophyll, green plants use the energy of sunlight to chemically break down carbon dioxide (from the atmosphere) and water (largely from the soil plus nutrients) and recombine them to produce glucose (a carbohydrate) and oxygen. Over fifty years of Landsat satellite observations have produced a remarkable record of the greening of Earth from an increase in carbon dioxide. Now we can be confident that flourishing of life on Earth is being accompanied by a flourishing of life underground.
See links under Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
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Small Nuclear Reactors: There is a great deal of interest in small modular reactors (SMR) ranging from microreactors that produce 1 to 50 Megawatts (MW) of electrical power to those producing up to 300 MW of power. There are many designs proposed, and two have now achieved a self-sustaining chain reaction (criticality) which assures stable power output even though no electricity was produced. The costs of producing multiple SMRs is unknown. Thus, it is unknown if the electricity they produce will be affordable, even though it may be reliable.
According to a Department of Energy press release a small reactor was airlifted on U.S. C-17 before it achieved criticality. This achievement offers great promise in delivering reliable electricity to remote areas or regions devastated by storms. See link under Nuclear Energy and Fears.
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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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NO TWTW THE WEEKEND OF JULY 4
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Number of the Week: 0.03% Paul Homewood noted that the highly regarded British Geological Survey produced an alarmist report: “Latest research emphasizes climate-related subsidence risk to millions of British homes.
New data from BGS highlights the projected future impact of warmer, drier summers and underlines the need for mitigation measures in susceptible regions.”
The report states in part [Boldface added]:
“New maps produced by BGS form part of the BGS GeoClimate Shrink–Swell dataset…. The new release improves upon previous iterations by providing outputs for low, medium and high emissions scenarios, with additional projected time intervals between the present day and 2070….
The new dataset evaluates underlying geological conditions against three representative concentration pathway (RCP) climate change scenarios, each of which are based on varying levels of future greenhouse gas concentrations. Under the medium emissions scenario, the projected percentage of British properties highly likely or extremely likely to be susceptible to clay shrink–swell by 2070 is around 5 per cent, which equates to over 1.8 million properties. The number rises to 11 per cent, or just over 4.2 million properties, under the higher emissions scenario.” [Boldface added]
The media emphasized the highly speculative 4.2 million properties that may be subjected to subsidence. Subsidence is the downward motion or sinking of the ground or a building. Shrink-swell occurs in clay-based soils that expand and contract when they get wet and then dry out. The ground or building may not sink at all.
In “The Root of the Problem” Mark Hodgson addressed the actual claims filed with British insurance. He wrote:
“Subsidence-related insurance claims totaled £153 million in the first half of 2025, as households across the UK felt the impact of an exceptionally warm and sunny spring, according to figures from the ABI.
Over the first six months of the year, insurers supported almost 9,000 households in recovering from subsidence damage, with the average payout per claim standing at £17,264,”
According to the UK Office for National Statistics, “There were 28.6 million households in the UK in 2024, 66.9% contained one family (a couple with or without children or a lone parent living with at least one child) and 29.5% contained a single person.”
The British Geological Survey took a problem affecting 0.03% of households in the UK filing subsidence claims following an unusually wet spring and turned it into a climate crisis affecting over 11% of the households sometime in the future?
For the alarm see links under Lower Standards, for the root of the problem see links under Questioning the Orthodoxy.
NEWS YOU CAN USE:
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
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
NASEM and “Independent Science”
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, June 19, 2026
Link to: Captured Courts: The National Academies, The Federal Judicial Center & Climate Lawfare
By Staff, American Energy Institute (AEI), 2026
Short Summary of Observations Until May 2026
By Ole Humlum, Climate4you, June 17, 2026
Full report: https://www.climate4you.com/Text/Climate4you_May_2026.pdf
Unverified and Unvalidated
By Willis Eschenbach (@WEschenbach on X, my personal blog is here), WUWT, June 13, 2026
Link to paper: Indicators of Global Climate Change 2025: annual update of key indicators of the state of the climate system and human influence
By Piers M. Forster, et al., Earth System Science Data, June 11, 2026
The Model That Works
By Willis Eschenbach (@WEschenbach at X, my own blog is here.), WUWT, June 14, 2026
[SEPP Comment: Shows a tight fit between the model and observations.]
Rice, CO₂, and the Climate Story the Media Keep Missing
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, June 16, 2026
Defending the Orthodoxy
Meet Tessa Khan, the Climate Activist-Litigator Waging War on North Sea Oil and Gas
By Tilak Doshi, His Substack, June 17, 2206
There is a peculiar growth industry that has flourished in the green movement: the professional climate litigator. Funded by an interlocking web of American and European philanthropic foundations, staffed by lawyers with no grounding in economics, energy engineering, or the lived realities of working people dependent on affordable power, this industry pursues a singular goal – to achieve through the courts what democratic electorates have repeatedly declined to endorse via the ballot box. Nowhere is this enterprise more vividly embodied than in the career of Tessa Khan.
The Climate Crisis is Alive and Well……among the dreaming spires
By Mark Hodgson, Climate Scepticism, June 10, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Some time ago I joined the Oxford Climate Alumni Network (OxCAN).
There’s more, but that’s enough for today, and it would be good to end on a positive note. However, don’t expect OxCAN to start questioning the climate crisis narrative any time soon. Universities, it seems, have stopped teaching young adults how to think and are more interested in telling them what to think.
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
There Are No Budget Constraints In New York City: “Coastal Resiliency” Edition
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, June 14, 2026
But how about spending huge amounts of money on pure fantasies that accomplish absolutely nothing? Yes, we have that too. For today’s example, how about “climate resiliency”?
Maybe you don’t even know what that is. I’m not sure that I do either. A good summary is that it is a substance-free buzzword that is being used to dispense tens of billions of dollars on consultants and construction projects along the coastline, without any discernible benefits within the lifetimes of anyone around today.
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Can You See The Climate Scare Slowly Fading Away?
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, June 16, 2026
On the other hand, so far this is just about messaging. Even if the messaging changes, that does not mean that the goals of the Democrats on taking power will have changed. Certainly, over in the Endangerment Finding litigation, dozens of enviro groups and all the blue states continue to argue that atmospheric CO2 (the product of use of fossil fuels) is a “danger” to human health and welfare.
BOOK REVIEW: ‘Suicidal Empathy: Dying To Be Kind’
No (reckless) good deed goes unpunished
By Anthony J. Sadar. Washington Times, June 16, 2026
The Root of the Problem
Barking up the wrong tree
By Mark Hodgson, Climate Scepticism, June 11, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Link to press release: Insurance support tops £150 million for homes affected by subsidence
By Staff, Association of British Insurers (ABI), Aug 11, 2025
Blame the Climate Yeti again for making your life more expensive! (It’s a smokescreen)
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 17, 2026
So, since 2008, all the US dollars ever created going back to World War I, have been multiplied fivefold. This is the money-base data today from the US St Louis Federal Reserve. [Shown in article]
Climate change (code for CO2) causes crops to grow and greenery to get greener. So articles like The Times magazine one at the top are just there to distract people.
Assessing the accuracy of the Climate Trace global vehicular CO2 emissions
By Kevin R Gurney, Bilal Aslam and Pawlok Dass, Environmental Research Letters, May 5, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
[SEPP Comment; Questions the AI answers by Climate Trace (CT), co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore as accurately calculating vehicle emissions.]
Tidbits
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 17, 2026
Problems in the Orthodoxy
Climate Media’s Problem? Guess Again
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, June 18, 2026
“Climate alarmism and forced energy transformation is a losing argument now that the dust has settled. Exaggeration backfires, and here-and-now issues matter, not wasteful climate policies that do not and will not have any effect on climate for decades, if at all.,,,”
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
Global density and biomass of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks
By Justin D. Stewart, et al., AAAS Science, June 11, 2026
Link to commentary by one of the authors: Fungal highways are vast, yet hidden underground – new study
By Katie Field, The Conversation, June 12, 2026 [H/t S.J. Cvri]
Effect of additional CO2 on Holcus lanatus
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 17, 2026
From the CO2Science.org archive.
Models v. Observations
#ECS in the real world: Castle et al. 2026
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 17, 2026
Link to paper: Forecasting Climate Change Using a Multivariate Cointegrated System
By Jennifer L. Castle, et al., Oxford Bulletin of Economics and Statistics, Feb 14, 2026
Briefly, for many decades climate scientists used computer models to estimate the sensitivity of the climate to rising CO2 levels. They usually pegged it somewhere between 1.5C and 4.5C with the “best guess” (emphasis on “guess” and definitely not “best”) at 3C. This range was first proposed in 1979 and didn’t change for nearly 40 years. But in the past 6 years climate scientists have found their pleasing models getting hotter, with ECS at the top end getting closer to 6C even though over the past 20 years a series of published estimates based on disappointing historical data showed that ECS was more likely between 1.3C and 2.6C.
Measurement Issues — Atmosphere
Not All Daily Temperature Records Are the Same
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, June 15, 2026
It turns out that to get the really high temperatures in western Washington, the atmosphere needs to organize itself in a very specific way, generally with a strong upper-level ridge and offshore-directed flow at low levels.
And on some days, by the luck of the draw, the atmosphere gets the right setup for maximal heat. After many years, the needed flow pattern occurs, and the temperature climbs to record levels.
Global warming plays very little role in these records—the key is getting the right atmospheric flow situation.
Changing Weather
Do Los Niños cause climatic cooling?
By Andy May, WUWT, June 17, 2026
Update on the vanishing Great Lakes
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 17, 2026
It is clear from these charts that the Great Lakes go up, then down, then down, then up, and so on. Currently they are right around the long-term average. They will probably go down for a few years, just long enough for experts to declare a climate crisis and warn us that soon the lakes will be all gone.
The Current Status of the Most Important Water Source in the Northwest: The Columbia River
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, June 19, 2026
When it comes to our summer water supply, nothing is as important as the Columbia River.
- It is the largest regional source of water for agriculture.
- Its water is the largest source of power in the region.
- Its water supports important salmon runs.
- And Columbia River water is used for drinking purposes in some communities.
Grass Fires in Eastern Washington: Strong Winds and Human Ignition
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, June 17, 2026
June is the beginning of the grass wildfire season over the lowlands of eastern Washington.
By June, the extensive grass and range vegetation of the Columbia Basin has dried out and “seasoned” sufficiently to burn. Also in June, strong westerly (from the west) winds can develop as weak Pacific weather systems move through.
Dry range vegetation, strong winds, and an ignition source are the ingredients for a large, fast-spreading fire.
The fuel moisture of small dead fuels was under 11% and thus flammable
Meteor Clouds
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, June 13, 2025
Some of the greatest treats of June are the relatively rare but stunningly beautiful noctilucent clouds that form very high in the Earth’s atmosphere during this time of the year.
Thursday night, there was quite a show…
Changing Climate
Yay, cold squirrel poop
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 17, 2026
But the point here, other than to pile up disgusting improbabilities, is that all this excitement depends on what was once grassland now being tundra. Meaning it got, what’s that word? Oh yeah. Colder
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
2026 Mid-June Arctic Ice Extents 98% Normal
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, June 15, 2026
The arctic ice extents are now reported through Mid-June 2026, and as noted previously the wavy polar vortex has hampered ice formation with inclusions of warmer southern air into the Arctic circle. This factor receded in May and June, and extents have mostly closed the gap with the averages. The Northern Sea Route (NSR) goes through the Russian shelf seas of Laptev, East Siberian, and Chukchi seas on the way to Bering Strait in Beaufort Sea.
As the image from yesterday [not shown here] shows, despite some melting on the margins, and a bit of open water in East Siberian Sea, the Arctic Ocean core is solid, especially along the Eurasian NSR seen on the left vertical side.
The melting freezing shrinking growing continent
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 17, 2026
Changing Earth
New Study: Chile’s Relative Sea Level Was 3.2 Meters Higher Than Today During The Mid-Holocene
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, June 17, 2026
Link to paper: Separating tectonic and climate signals in Holocene sea-level records using marine terraces in central Chile
By Daniel Melnick, et al., Nature Scientific Reports, 2026
From the Abstract: Along tectonically active coasts, separating tectonic and non-tectonic sea-level components is challenging as both have similar amplitudes but necessary to decipher sea-level histories driven by climate forcing. Here, we present a new framework to decipher Holocene sea-level changes using marine terraces–geomorphic features formed by wave erosion of bedrock–mapped with high resolution LiDAR data and numerical modelling. Applied to 266 sites along 500 km of central Chilean coast, we found that Holocene terrace elevations linearly correlate with Late Pleistocene terrace elevations, evidencing steady-state tectonics over the past 125,000 years. This proof of steady state uplift allows subtracting tectonic components from Holocene elevations using uplift rates from Pleistocene terraces.
Changing Seas
May 2026 SSTs Cease Warming
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, June 17, 2026
Summary
The oceans are driving the warming this century. SSTs took a step up with the 1998 El Nino and have stayed there with help from the North Atlantic, and more recently the Pacific northern “Blob.” The ocean surfaces are releasing a lot of energy, warming the air, but eventually will have a cooling effect. The decline after 1937 [in the annual Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO)] was rapid by comparison, so one wonders: How long can the oceans keep this up? And is the sun adding forcing to this process?
Versions of Science Statement for Reef Protection Taskforce, November 2001
By Jennifer Marohasy, June 15, 2026
The existence of these two versions, produced within 48 hours of each other by the same authors, raises legitimate questions about how scientific advice was shaped during this period. It is difficult to reconcile Peter Ridd’s later public position — that agricultural runoff has not caused meaningful damage to the Reef — with his co-authorship of a statement that explicitly referred to “incidences of deterioration already documented” and warned of risks beyond those already observed.
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
India’s Record Crops Reject Food, Warming Alarmism
By Vijay Jayaraj, Real Clear Markets, June 5, 2026
Instead, India’s crop production has shattered records year after year, proving this thread of climate dogma false.
India’s agricultural miracle defies climate propaganda.
Lowering Standards
Bias in Scientific Journals
By Mike Jones, WUWT, June 18, 2026
Millions of Homes at Risk from Climate Change!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 17, 2026
Link to press release: Latest research emphasizes climate-related subsidence risk to millions of British homes
New data from BGS highlights the projected future impact of warmer, drier summers and underlines the need for mitigation measures in susceptible regions.
By Staff, British Geological Survey, June 11, 2026
Four Million Sinking Homes
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, June 17, 2026
So the British Geological Survey, an organization with a genuinely distinguished history of mapping the actual rocks under actual Britain, has published a forecast of four million sinking homes built on a climate scenario that the climate community retired in April. The rainfall data behind it shows no drying trend. The geology behind it has been stable since before the Romans. And the number the press ran was the one from the dead scenario.
Kew Gardens Is Just Another Worthless, Junk Site
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 19, 2026
According to the Met Office, the next five highest temperatures after Kew that day were all junk stations. Heathrow is technically Class 3, which is absurd, and the other four are all Class 4 and 5s:
New Welsh Temperature Record at Bute Park
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 14, 2026
Bute Park is so poorly sited that it does not even meet Class 4 criteria, itself a junk designation. Instead, Class 5 covers all sites that don’t meet any criteria at all.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
Why is the Financial Times Encouraging Parents to Make Their Children Anxious About Climate Change?
By Talak Doshi, His Substack, June 13, 2026
War in Iran and Hot Air at Home
By Jonathan Lesser, Portia Roberts, Real Clear Energy, June 16, 2026
Proponents claim wind energy can insulate markets from volatile oil prices as well as supercharge an energy transition. Neither claim is true.
Communicating Better to the Public – Make things up.
Claim: The Trump Administration is Shutting Out Climate Refugees
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 14, 2026
I don’t know why greens are so obsessed by allowing mass migration of climate refugees. Perhaps they are just so desperate to believe in the fake climate crisis, they need to see climate refugees, even if there are no climate refugees.
Climate Alarmists Now Using Natural Phenomena To Support Their Claims
By P Gosselin, No Tricks Zone, June 14, 2026
The EIKE video addresses current German media reports (including from Bild and Focus) warning of extreme heatwaves in 2026 and 2027 due to the upcoming El Niño phenomenon.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
We’ll all get rich
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 17, 2026
Nowadays Canada’s Prime Minister can blather that a plan to spend we know not how much to double our electric grid within 24 years we know not how will save us a fortune by spending money we don’t got:
“The world is changing rapidly. The United States is upending global trade, wars are ongoing in Europe and the Middle East, artificial intelligence is scaling at speed, and climate change is intensifying. In response, Canada’s new government is focused on what we can control: building an affordable, competitive, and sustainable Canadian economy. …To that end, Canada’s new government is launching a new National Electricity Strategy. This plan will double the capacity of our grid by 2050 and supply clean, reliable, affordable power across the country for decades to come. To develop this strategy, today, we are launching consultations with provinces, territories, Indigenous Peoples, utilities, and unions. Over the next few months, we will work together to identify the actions needed to double our grid most effectively and affordably. This transformation will not only build a more sustainable Canada, but also a more affordable Canada.”
Got that? This cliché-fest says “affordable… affordability… affordable… affordable… affordably… affordable” six times in 11 sentences. But where’s the beef? Or the scrutiny?
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda on Children
Worry About Climate Fearmongering – Not Climate Change
No wonder children are experiencing more anxiety, depression and suicidal thoughts
By Paul Driesssen, WUWT, June 16, 2026
Link to: Youth Mental Health: The Numbers
By Staff, CDC Adolescent and School Health, Nov 29, 2024
At a glance
- Youth in the U.S. are experiencing a mental health crisis.
- The mental health crisis is affecting many teens, but some teens are affected more than others.
- Schools can play an important role in helping reverse these trends.
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
A.I. A.I. OH!
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, June 17, 2026
It’s not entirely clear. As Heatmap also points out, opposition to data centers is in part opposition to AI overall which a lot of Americans now think is itself, on balance, a harmful development:
“45% of Americans are ‘pessimistic’ about AI’s effect on their lives – and 55% are downbeat about its effects on ‘society as a whole.’ Young people are particularly downcast. In virtually all of our polls, American adults younger than 34 stood out for being opposed to data centers and AI. Meanwhile, the only group that’s outright optimistic about AI’s effect on their lives? Men older than 65.”
What the latter are thinking we can’t imagine, unless it’s that they’ll get a robot nurse then die before the headless robot cheetahs with laser beams start rounding up humanity. Arguably a narrow view. But it’s also possible that people who actually learned to think before the stuff showed up are better placed to use it as an aid to thinking rather than a substitute.
Questioning European Green
The Net Zero fantasy will cripple the economy
By Ivor Williams, The Conservative Woman, June 17, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
The government’s plan is to bring on the grid battery revolution, that is batteries storing surplus electricity when the winds blow hard and the climate-changing summer sun shines longer and ever more powerfully. Then at the touch of a switch releasing that energy when it’s needed.
Well now, how far has that got? The plan for 2030 is to have five or six times more battery capacity than we have now. The result would be useful in a short-term regional power cut, but would keep the whole of the UK going for only about 35 minutes. Technical translation: current capacity 4.5 GWh (gigawatt-hours) but the 2030 aim is for 23-27 GWh.
Meat and dairy wars: how Net Zero will squeeze British farmers and families
By Maurice Cousins, Net Zero Watch, June 12, 2026
Net Zero now demands lower agricultural emissions and a major change in how land is used. In practice, that means farming, food production and diet are about to become central political questions.
Until now, the UK’s emissions reduction programme has barely touched agriculture and land use. Emissions from the sector have fallen by only around 5% over the past fifteen years. Yet the legally binding climate framework now requires a far faster pace of reduction if Britain is to remain on track.
That is why food is the next front in the Net Zero project.
Funding Issues
Lawmakers fight to stop the Trump administration’s dismantling of a $386M ocean observatory project
By Annika Hammerschlag, AP, Via The Hill, June 15, 2026
Link to: Sustained data for a changing ocean
The Ocean Observatories Initiative (OOI) is a science-driven ocean observing network that delivers real-time data from more than 900 instruments to address critical science questions regarding the world’s oceans.
[SEPP Comment: These are floating buoys rather than deep diving buoys in the ARGO buoy system. They may be outdated.]
The Sunrise Project funneled $343 million from overseas to push net zero
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 16, 2026
The Political Games Continue
It’s Politics, Stupid
Another Climate Scientist Fails to Grok Democracy
By John Ridgway, Climate Scepticism, June 16, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
Put succinctly: protecting Net Zero through the unelected CCC [Climate Change Committee] is the democratic thing to do, but wanting to get rid of the CCC and CCA [Climate Change Act] as a result of a ballot box count is just culture war politicking.
Pauline Hanson, the centrist, wants a free market in electricity, and an end to the renewable energy bribery
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 18, 2026
Litigation Issues
Green Energy Groups Sue to End Pentagon’s ‘de facto moratorium’ on Wind Power
For years, green energy developers treated the approval pipeline as a rubber stamp. The Pentagon’s pause is simply the first time a federal institution has had both the legal authority and the political will to say no.
By Leslie Eastman, Legal Insurrection, June 16, 2026
Before any large wind farm can begin construction, its developers need to apply for clearances from the Federal Aviation Administration, which regulates the national airspace. As part of that process, the F.A.A. refers the application to the Pentagon, which checks to see whether a project might interfere with military radar or nearby air bases.
Subsidies and Mandates Forever
What UK energy subsidies cost
By David Turver, His Blog, June 18, 2026
£ 108,717,131,845 in 2024 prices since 2002
UK consumers could spend £1bn subsidising EU energy bills
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 13, 2026
Blind denial is now the standard response by DESNZ [Department of Energy Security and Net Zero] nowadays to anybody criticizing their mad agenda.
But it is hardly rocket science. When it is too windy or sunny here, it will probably also be so across the North Sea. So why on earth would Europe want to buy our surplus power when they will have the same problem?
Energy Issues – General
Why Artificial Intelligence will Win the Green Energy War
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 17, 2026
Data centers in space are going to happen
SpaceX is already building the parts
By Stephen McBride, Rational Optimist Society, June 14, 2026
I get it sounds ridiculous at first. But orbital data centers are going to happen. As rational optimists, we should cheer it on for two huge reasons.
There’s not enough power on Earth.
There are no NIMBYs in space.
Energy Issues – Europe
The Law of Averages – Part 2
And the implications for UK electricity prices
By Mark Hodgson, Climate Scepticism, June 19, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
However, markets usually respond to increasing demand by increasing supply, with the result that the market (and hence the price) returns to equilibrium.
This is not the case with the UK electricity generating market, where renewables enjoy favored status on the Grid, and guaranteed (generally) high long-term prices under Contracts for Difference. Worse still, renewable energy cannot respond to increasing demand. It supplies what it supplies, and that’s that (unless the generators are paid to constrain supply because they’re generating more than the Grid can cope with). Solar, especially, is a massive failure in terms of meeting our requirements at times of peak demand. Both over the year as a whole and in respect of peaks of daily demand, solar is hopeless, and can only be of much use (beyond small-scale domestic) if and when large-scale and cheap battery storage is in place. It provides very little electricity in winter, and it provides little or nothing (depending on the time of year) at the times of daily peaks – breakfast time and in the evening.
Net Zero in crisis: Parliament must reject the Seventh Carbon Budget
By Maurice Cousins, Net Zero Watch, June 17, 2026
Parliament is due to vote on the Seventh Carbon Budget before the end of the month. The damage caused by the previous six Budgets has caused immense damage to the British economy. Before 2030, the country faces blackouts as our reliable gas-fired fleet closes and the government refuses to act. Our domestic manufacturing industries are losing 3,000 jobs per month and are on the verge of total collapse. Hospitality and retail are struggling to remain competitive because of high energy costs. Farmers face having their livelihoods destroyed because of aggressive emissions targets impacting livestock farming.
Stop building wind farms, EDF boss urges Miliband
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 13, 2026
From the Telegraph:
Britain should stop building wind farms because the country has too much electricity, the UK boss of EDF Energy has said.
[SEPP Comment: EDF Energy is a British integrated energy company and a wholly owned subsidiary of the French state-owned EDF (Électricité de France). It is “Britain’s biggest generator of zero carbon electricity” from nuclear, wind, and solar sources.]
Too Much Wind and Too Much Sun
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 13, 2026
But fast forward to 2030, when Miliband plans to have three times as much wind and solar capacity, and it does not take a genius to work out that the grid will be swamped with surplus power.
At peak generation around midday, we would have more than 70 GW of wind, solar and nuclear power, none of which we can simply switch on and off. Demand meanwhile would be 30 GW.
You could of course store some of that surplus, though we have nowhere near enough battery storage to do so currently. But that would not be of much help either, because at night demand drops to around 20 GW, while wind and nuclear were still producing 40 GW.
Miliband comes for underfloor heating in net zero drive
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 14, 2026
From the Telegraph”
“Ed Miliband will ban the sale of underfloor heating systems deemed to be using too much power in his latest net zero drive.
The Energy Secretary has also set his sights on electric towel rails, gas fires and storage heaters, with plans for new market controls designed to cut carbon emissions.
He wants to bring in new energy efficiency requirements that will result in more than a third of so-called “space heating systems” becoming illegal to sell.
New rules will make temperature controls mandatory, while other regulations will mean some towel rails will only be allowed to operate for six hours a day.”
[SEPP Comment: In small UK bathrooms, heated towel rails may replace radiators.]
Energy Issues – Australia
19% of Low Income Australians are Eating from Trash Cans – the True Cost of Net Zero
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 18, 2026
According to the Salvation Army, just under one in five Australians who sought emergency relief admitted to scavenging discarded food from trash cans.
Record levels of throwing renewable energy away in 2025
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, June 19, 2026
Corrected ink to: Quarterly Energy Dynamics Q4 2025
By Staff, Australian energy Market Operator (AWMO), January 2026
From Nova: There are two sorts of “curtailment” where the generator has to shut off production. Network curtailment happens when a a transmission line is already at capacity, or a line is down. But Economic Curtailment is rapidly becoming the big drain. It occurs when there was such a glut of power that prices went negative. Generators were producing something so useless they had to pay people to take it away. Investors flee at this point. This is hidden under jargon called “Offloading” which sounds a bit like 4-wheel driving with a lisp. I mean, they could have called it “toxic energy.
Energy Issues — US
America Needs a More Thoughtful Energy Conversation
By Heather Reams, Real Clear Energy, June 16, 2026
Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions recently hosted our annual Energy Leadership Summit in Washington, D.C.
Just a few years ago, discussions like this were framed almost entirely around climate politics. That’s no longer the case. The conversation now is much more grounded in economics, reliability, national security and America’s ability to compete globally.
Independent Power Market Analysis Confirms My Concerns About RGGI
By Roger Caiazza, WUWT, June 16, 2026
That conclusion, reached by professional power market economists using rigorous quantitative simulation, validates the core argument I have been making my work through historical and analytical work. Two independent lines of inquiry — one empirical and narrative, one formal and computational — have converged on the same answer.
The path forward is not necessarily to abandon carbon pricing in the electricity sector. The TCR 2026 paper’s $7/ton analysis suggests that a reformed program with much lower and stable prices could work better on both the cost and environmental dimensions simultaneously. But the current program, at current prices, with the current cap trajectory, is failing on both dimensions at once. Proponents who continue to claim that RGGI reduces emissions and lowers consumer costs now have two independent analyses to refute — not just my work.
The Monopoly That’s Really Driving Up Your Electric Bill
Data centers are getting blamed, but the regulated monopoly system that runs most of America’s grid is what actually turns new demand into higher costs for households.
By Iulia Lupse, Real Clear Energy, June 18, 2026
A better path already exists in a handful of states. Rather than routing new large industrial loads through the existing monopoly system, some are creating legal pathways for privately financed, physically separate power networks that serve sophisticated customers under voluntary contracts, without connecting to the regulated grid and without passing costs onto existing ratepayers.
Washington’s Control of Energy
Regulators greenlight plan for quick AI data center grid connections
By Rachel Frazin and Julia Shapro, The Hill, June 18, 2026
“We are charting new territory and setting the standard for how America will responsibly and efficiently integrate large energy loads into the bulk electric grid while protecting consumers,” FERC Chair Laura Swett said Thursday.
Swett said the new orders approved Thursday require regional grid operators to show that they have adequate safeguards to prevent costs from shifting to power consumers — or to take steps to create them.
Trump’s Energy Agenda Is Being Undermined By His Own Justice Department
The DOJ is leaving open the possibilty that Biden-era EPA regulations can still prevail.
By Steve Milloy, Daily Wire, June 11, 2026
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
Turn Me Loose – Alberta’s Oil Sands Producers Poised to Significantly Ramp Up Crude Oil Output
By Mike Dunn, RBN Energy, June 16, 2026
With another 180 Mb/d of pipeline capacity out of the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) expected online by late next year, and potentially another 1.7 MMb/d of capacity being proposed over the next several years (excluding a new pipeline to the West Coast of Canada), WCSB producers are looking to grow their crude oil production. With no shortage of resources to develop in the oil sands, in today’s RBN blog, we look at all the Alberta oil sands growth projects currently proposed over the next several years.
Return of King Coal?
Coal Roars Back
The Iron Law Of Electricity prevails yet again as global coal use soars.
By Robert Bryce, His Substack, June 17, 2026
Over the past decade, India’s coal use has surged by more than 40%. Last month, during a heat wave, India’s thermal power stations, nearly all of them coal-fired, provided 62% of the country’s juice. Furthermore, according to the latest figures from Global Energy Monitor, India (population 1.4 billion) is building more than 23 gigawatts of new coal-fired capacity.
The Real Competition Behind the U.S Coal Revival
By Michelle Manook, Real Clear Energy, June 12, 2026
The average U.S. coal plant is nearly 50 years old. Most operate on technology developed in the 1970s and 1980s, achieving thermal efficiencies of 33 per cent. The objective is not to preserve ageing infrastructure; it is to modernise it.
China’s newest ultra-supercritical coal plants operate at thermal efficiencies exceeding 47 per cent. The country is deploying carbon capture at scale and converting coal into fuels, chemicals, hydrogen and industrial feedstocks. India is investing billions in coal gasification to strengthen energy security and create higher-value industrial products from domestic resources.
The Case for Coal
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 13, 2026
Nuclear Energy and Fears
Department of Energy Celebrates Second Advanced Reactor Achieving Criticality
Today, as part of the U.S. Department of Energy Reactor Pilot Program, Valar Atomics’ advanced reactor design, Ward 250, successfully completed a zero-power fueled criticality demonstration.
By Staff, Energy.gov., June 18, 2026 [H/t WUWT]
Can America Build Nuclear Again? Part 3
Federal policy options for a nuclear forward agenda
By Roger Pielke Jr., His Blog, June 19, 2026
The good news is that none of the federal options above require every state to get on board; a coalition of the willing states would be sufficient. That coalition is already forming: six states have repealed their nuclear bans since 2016 — Wisconsin, Kentucky, Montana, West Virginia, Illinois, and New Jersey — and four more (California, Massachusetts, Minnesota, and Vermont) currently have active efforts underway to do the same.
[SEPP Comment: Has links to parts 1 and 2.]
Fueling the Coming Nuclear Renaissance
By Duggan Flanakin, Real Clear Energy, June 15, 2026
How did the U.S. go from the world’s leading producer of uranium – from the 1940s through the 1980s – to a beggar on the uranium fuel market? U.S. production – mainly from deposits in New Mexico, Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, and Texas – peaked in 1980 at 43.7 million pounds of uranium oxide, but in 2024 production was only 677,000 pounds.
Is Recycling Actually Expensive If No One Talks About It?
By Brett Rampal, Real Clear Energy, June 18, 2026
Other nations, such as Russia and China, which currently may have larger nuclear energy development and export programs than the U.S., have incorporated used nuclear fuel reprocessing or activities directly into their nuclear fuel cycles today, building upon efforts made by Americans decades ago.
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
Solar, Wind, and the Cost of Pretending
By Jay Rogers, Real Clear Energy, June 18, 2026
The regulatory asymmetry that allows a solar plant to kill thousands of birds annually without a single fine while fossil fuel operators face immediate enforcement isn’t environmentalism. Its politics dressed up as policy. The solution isn’t to stop building. It’s to stop pretending. The grid is a physical system. AI will continue to consume power at a scale the current renewables-only framework can’t support.
Follow the Money Leaving Wind Farms
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, June 16, 2026
From: Why Shell Is Selling Its Wind Farms—And What It’s Building Instead
By Boluwatife Remy, Benzinga, June 15, 2026
Shell selling is not the same as the assets disappearing. It is the assets moving to owners better suited to hold them.
[SEPP Comment: The bigger the turbines are, the faster they die?]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Other
India Should Abandon Its Ethanol Illusion
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, June 16, 2026
Link to report: Ethanol as Fuel: A Bridge to Nowhere
This shortcoming reflects not technology immaturity but rather fundamental limits of biochemistry and thermodynamics.
By Todd “Ike” Kiefer, National Center for Energy Analytics, April 22, 2026
Carbon Schemes
Carbon removal group boosts spending, adds Anthropic
By Ben Geman, Axios, June 17, 2025 [H/t Thomas Drolet]
In general, the applicable dollar amount of the credit is:
- $17/metric ton of carbon oxide captured and disposed of in secure geological storage.
- $12/metric ton for carbon oxide that is captured and used as a tertiary injectant in a qualified enhanced oil or natural gas recovery project and disposed of in secure geological storage, or injected for enhanced oil recovery, or utilized.
- $36 for direct air capture facilities.
California Dreaming
Another California refinery closure will threaten national and global economies
By Ronald Stein P.E. and Mike Ariza, America Outloud News, Jun 15, 2026
According to the Energy Information Administration, today, California ranks first in jet fuel demand among the states.
Link to: Table F2: Jet fuel consumption, price, expenditure, and CO2 emissions estimates from energy consumption, 2024
By Staff, EIA, Accessed June 18, 2026
[SEPP Comment: From EIA Table: California is #1 in jet fuel consumption with 93,494 thousand barrels; Florida #2 with 60,835 thousand barrels; and Texas #3 with 55,511 thousand barrels.]
How Much Flow Preserves the Delta?
By Edward Ring, California Policy Center, June 17, 2026
Link to: Chronological Reconstructed Sacramento and San Joaquin Valley
Water Year Hydrologic Classification Indices
By Staff, California Department of Resources, Accessed June 18, 2026
From Ring: But during wet years, shouldn’t a statewide water strategy recognize some maximum amount of flow from the delta into the SF Bay necessary to preserve ecosystem health? And if so, couldn’t we consider any outflow beyond that amount simply overkill, and therefore wasted if it isn’t diverted?
[SEPP Comment: For the San Joaquin Valley the data starts in 1901; for the Sacramento Valley the data starts in 1906. The annual runoff varies widely. For the Sacramento Valley in 1907 it was 33.70 million acre-feet; in 1924 it was 5.74 million. In 2017 it was 37.82 million acre-feet; in 2021 it was 6.37 million.]
Environmental Industry
The History of Greenpeace: The Evolution of Green Extremism
By Stephen Heins, The Word Merchant (His Substack), June 12, 2026
Greenpeace’s current strategy is as transparent as it is desperate. By labeling this a “SLAPP” (Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation) case and running to foreign courts to escape a U.S. judgment, they are attempting to engage in international forum shopping. They are hoping their membership base won’t look at the actual facts of the North Dakota trial—the conspiracy, the deceit, and the deliberate targeting of Energy Transfer’s infrastructure.
Other Scientific News
Rethinking the Black Hole Singularity
By Michael Aaron Cody, WUWT, June 17, 2026
Other News that May Be of Interest
The Great Political Transition
The ideological conflict between leaners and lifters: Originally published in Spectator Australia, By Alan Moran, His Substack, June 2026
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Get a Clue, Yahoo Sports, The World Cup Is About Soccer and Celebration, Not Climate Guilt
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, June 18, 2026
Yahoo Sports claims that “Climate change is the silent referee of the World Cup” warning that the 2026 tournament may be the “most polluting World Cup in history.”
Guardian: Climate Action is a Priority for Trump Supporters
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, June 18, 2026
Woke Drama and Media Non-troversy Ensue after Artemis III All-Male Crew is Announced
NASA under Jared Isaacman is treating Artemis III as a test mission, not a social experiment.
By Leslie Eastman, Legal Insurrection, June 14, 2026
Turn off central heating in heatwaves, says Red Cross
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, June 19, 2026
ARTICLES
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