Author: Iowa Climate Science Education

Daily News 25 Jul 2025

New record set for deaths from climate and weather disasters

By Paul Homewood

From Francis Menton’s Manhattan Contrarian:

During the first half of 2025, a new record was set for the number of deaths caused by climate and weather disasters. Can you guess what that record was?

If you read left-wing media sources, and believe anything they say, you might think that the recent record has something to do with a large and growing number of deaths. Recent articles in sources like CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, and CBS News all explicitly claim that climate change is making weather events “deadlier,” or leading to increasing numbers of deaths, or some variation of that same message. I’m sure if you checked thirty such “mainstream” news sources over the past year, all thirty of them would have pieces parroting that same narrative.

Therefore you might be surprised by the actual record that has been set: The first half of 2025 (January to June) has seen the fewest number of deaths from climate and weather disasters of any first half year this century.

Full story

here.

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July 25, 2025 at 02:53AM

Daily News 25 Jul 2025

BONKERS COURT RULES ON CLIMATE “REPARATIONS!

This latest ruling seems to defy reality, in so far as how will they be able to decide how to apportion the degree of damage caused by any individual nation’s emissions, let alone an individual company. Also, does anyone seriously believe that Russia or China is going to accept this ruling, or even India or Brazil for that matter. Maybe some of the foolish Western nations might fall for it – but their voters certainly won’t. It is complete nonsense.

Pacific nations applaud ‘lifeline’ climate ruling | Daily Mail Online

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July 25, 2025 at 01:30AM

Daily News 25 Jul 2025

Free Market Electricity Again (Giberson/Kiesling just don’t want to go there)

“A free market in electricity is not ‘utopian’ or problematic. It is practical and timely with a strong intellectual case. It just needs classical liberal champions rather than technocratic schemers.”

“I will not dance to your tune” proclaimed technocrat Lynne Kiesling in our exchanges on electricity policy last year. A free market in electricity is “utopian,” she added in another exchange. All this in the service of a centrally planned wholesale market imbued with government-enabled wind, solar, and batteries (Kiesling’s VPP–‘virtual power plant‘). And an implicit preference for climate alarmism/forced energy transformation from an academic that pretends to be free market but is a woman of system.

Giberson Exchange

And so once again, I debated just this with Michael Giberson (Kiesling’s designated one-off voice in a peculiar relationship). [1] It began with this general comment on the policies of the Trump Administration on social media (Robert Lawson, Facebook: July 16, 2025)

This TDS-light comment (fixated on the negatives), followed by a bold prediction of impending electoral rejection/reversal, prompted me to reply:

Radical stuff Mike…. Why not with electricity to reject the Kiesling technocrat model of centrally planned wholesale power markets; contrived retail competition; and wind/solar/battery ‘distributed generation’ or ‘virtual power plants’?

Giberson: “The retail competition available to a few million consumers in Texas is light years more worth of liberty and freedom than is available to the other 260 million American electric consumers. Why not work on helping that 260 million get a little more freedom?”

Bradley: “First, define what a free market is in electricity i(Lynne refuses to do that). Second, what is retail competition based on a centrally planned wholesale market? Political economy 101 differentiates between Statism and a free market in all sectors, including electricity.”

Giberson: “I’m happy to work for ‘vastly more freedom in my lifetime.’ Not opposed to refining utopian ideals, just prefer to push advancement on the margins today. I know you want to identify the ideal, and that’s helpful. But having 2 choices is better than having no choice—I don’t need to know what utopia looks like to know 2 choices are better than none—and in parts of Texas you have 60 choices. Sixty also better than none.”

Bradley: “The free market is Utopian? Central planning is ‘advancement in the margins’? The fact that you and Lynne refuse to even explore a real free market in electricity after decades is peculiar. There is clear evidence of ‘the ‘knowledge problem’ and public choice issues with RTOs that beg for a journal article. Why not write it up for us?”

Final Comment

At this point Giberson disappeared. Predictably. There is refusal to think about removing public utility regulation (franchise protection, rate caps) and removing mandatory open access and other requirements under the Federal Power Act and state-level regulation. A refusal to allow a market discovery process to ensue to determine competition and efficiency.

Information technology allows low-cost consumer organization to bargain against a single provider in a control area. Competition in such instances could be between third-party negotiators between the customer and the utility. Or it could be ….

All this, too, demotes government in electricity, very timely with the loss of government subsidies for the ‘unreliables’–wind and solar in particular. Battery storage–a third leg in the ‘virtual power plant’ is also on the ropes without government subsidization.

A free market in electricity is not ‘utopian’ or problematic. It is practical and timely with a strong intellectual case. It just needs classical liberal champions rather than technocratic schemers.

————————

[1] Giberson practices ‘crony intellectualism’ with Kiesling by refusing to part with her on any major political economy position with electricity. Kiesling herself works a charm offensive by trying to be all things to all people. Her recent power primer for the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), the subject of a future post, included 17 other authors to ‘buy in’ to her grand synthesis of statism and economic efficiency.

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July 25, 2025 at 01:10AM

Daily News 25 Jul 2025

California Dems Reportedly Scrambling To Find Buyer For Refinery After Running Owner Out Of Town

From THE DAILY CALLER

Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter

California Democrats are reportedly rushing to find a buyer for a refinery scheduled to shut down in 2026 as a potential gas crisis looms over the state, according to Reuters.

The California Energy Commission (CEC) is reportedly actively seeking buyers to stop the upcoming closure of the Valero refinery in Benicia, California, according to three people familiar with the matter that spoke to Reuters. Democrat officials are now reportedly scrambling to keep the refinery operating in California after enforcing stringent regulations that have helped prompt refineries to close across the state for years.

“CEC is engaging with market players to explore pathways for the continued operation of in-state refineries,” the agency told Reuters. (RELATED: Gas Crisis Looms Over California As Dems Continue To Impose Crippling Regs)

CEC did not specifically confirm that it is looking for a buyer to Reuters, but did say that it is working to ensure that the refinery stays open. Valero announced its Benicia, California, refinery closure in April, and Phillips 66 refinery is also scheduled to shut down by the end of 2025.

A spokesperson for Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom pointed the DCNF to Newsom’s recent comments about working with oil refiners and producers to help keep fuel supplies steady, as well as his April letter to CEC urging them to “redouble” efforts to cooperate with refiners.

Golden State residents already pay some of the highest prices at the pump across the U.S., though two major refineries scheduled for closure and strict regulations may spike gas costs to as high as $8 per gallon as soon as next year, according to one study from the University of Southern California.

Oil refineries have been closing in California for years, and the state hasn’t seen a new major refinery built in decades, according to the CEC. Programs like California’s “cap-and-trade” program combined with strict low-carbon fuel standards are contributing to regulatory pressures that are driving refineries out of the state, industry experts have previously told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Critics like Republican California Senate Minority Leader Brian Jones also note that stringent regulations imposed by Democrats have pressured refineries to leave the state. The refinery closures, in tandem with more regulations going into effect, have led some California officials to worry about a potential gas crisis in the state.

CEC and Valero did respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.

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