He could not have picked better people. At last there is a chance that the USA will have a sensible policy on climate.
Trump administration hires 3 outspoken climate contrarians for Department of Energy | CNN
via climate science
July 15, 2025 at 01:30AM
Editor’s Note: This concludes a two-part series with real-world examples of anticipating and ameliorating extreme weather events, a challenge throughout human history. Today’s post was originally published at MR on May 21, 2015.
Yesterday’s post explained how market incentives can address environmental issues, including the believed-to-be negatives of climate change. Prices of inputs and outputs, utilizing resources even if they are subject to the tragedy of the commons, incorporate dynamic environmental changes. Markets, in other words, offer the potential for dynamic responses.
If climate change reduces the productivity of land for wheat production, for example, the price of land will be high relative to its productivity. This generates an incentive for wheat farmers to seek new places for wheat production where land prices are lower. Hence, the 2012 Bloomberg news headline, “Corn Belt Shifts North With Climate as Kansas Crop Dies.” Therefore even if the atmosphere as a GHG sink and GHG emissions themselves are not priced, prices correlated with the effects of climate change will induce adaptation.
This is McKenzie Funk’s thesis in his book titled, Windfall: The Booming Business of Global Warming (2014). Changes in the arctic sea ice–“the Melt”—changes in water supplies—“the Drought”—and changes in coastal flooding—“the Deluge”—are the three central categories into which Funk pigeon holes entrepreneurial responses to climate opportunities. He asserts that his book is an answer to the increasingly urgent question: “What are we doing about climate change?” (Funk 2014, 11).
To be slightly more colorful, climate entrepreneurs aren’t just talking about the weather; they are doing something about it.
Consider the following examples:
None of this is to say that entrepreneurs will succeed is solving every resource conflict. But to the extent that the market believes that future conditions are based on solid science, entrepreneurs will take note.
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Terry Anderson is the John and Jean De Nault Senior Fellow at the Hoover Institution and the executive director of the Property and Environment Research Center (PERC), a think tank in Bozeman, Montana, that studies free-market approaches to environmental challenges. Anderson’s research, epitomized in the new edition of his best-selling primer, Free-Market Environmentalism for a New Generation, helped launch the sub-discipline of environmental economics, free-market environmentalism.
Donald Leal, senior fellow emeritus at PERC , stepped down as research director at PERC after nearly 30 years. Dr. Leal is well known for his work on property rights in marine fisheries and has written and edited dozens of books, policy papers, and articles on fisheries, water, outdoor recreation, as well as timber and federal land use policy. A tribute to Dr. Leal from his friends in the free-market environmental movement describes his many contributions.
The post Examples of Adaptation and Resilience (Part II) appeared first on Master Resource.
via Master Resource
July 15, 2025 at 01:01AM
From NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
By Paul Homewood
The Met Office were given a right of reply to this GB News story. Instead of actually responding to the specific points raised, they merely regurgitated their Press Release:
However, according to the Met Office, the UK has warmed by 0.25C per decade since the 1980s, with the past three years among the five warmest on record.
Last year saw the warmest spring, the warmest May, and the wettest winter half-year in over 250 years, the report says.
It also states that days with temperatures 10°C above average have quadrupled since the 1960s, and months of double-average rainfall have risen by 50 per cent.
They could, of course, added that the wettest year was in 1872!
Their waffle about higher temperatures is meaningless without the corresponding data on extreme cold days.
Worst of all is the fact that they still make claims of extreme rainfall against a baseline of 1961-90. This is what the Press Release stated:
“the number of months where counties are recording monthly rainfall totals of at least twice the 1991-2020 monthly average has increased by over 50% compared to the number in 1961-1990”
They know full well that 1961-90 was a much drier interlude compared with both what preceded it and also what followed it.
They have all the data back into the 19thC, so why don’t they show the long term trends? Is it because it would not tell the story they want to tell?
The long term monthly data for the England & Wales Precipitation Series, for example, shows absolutely no evidence to support the Met Office’s claims:
KNMI Climate Explorer
The KNMI chart only runs to 2021, but since then the wettest month was 177.5mm in October 2023. Nothing, in other words, that alters the trends shown.
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via Watts Up With That?
July 15, 2025 at 12:06AM
This article was originally published in Coal Zoom and is re-published here with permission.
First, let’s establish the stark reality of coal’s contribution to American Society during crises over the last decade:
2014 Polar Vortex brought extreme cold across the U.S. resulting in record winter peak electric demands. Coal provided the majority of electricity but, even more importantly, coal power increased 92% YOY to meet the load. Oil increased 12%, Wind 9% and Nuclear 7%. Natural gas (NG) generation decreased 6% YOY and Hydro declined 15%. Solar was irrelevant. NG was diverted to space heating needs and prices in the Northeast exceeded $100/ MMBtu. New England Utilities resorted to burning jet fuel.
2019 “Cold Event” a severe cold wave caused by an Arctic Polar Vortex hit the East and Midwest leading to fatalities. In the PJM region (65 million people) coal power led all fuels at 37% of electricity. All renewables combined contributed only 7% of electricity. In the MISO region (45 million people), coal provided 50 % of electricity and operated at 73 % of installed capacity.
2021: Winter Storm Uri impacted much of the U.S. Extreme cold forced the MISO grid, which stretches across 15 states and Manitoba, to make emergency load reduction. Coal-based generation surged 36% and met almost 50% of demand. Solar power was virtually non-existent, and MISO reported that “output from wind generation was low throughout the duration of the event.” NG prices increased from less than $3 per MMBTU to as much as $700.
2024: Winter storm, multiple cold weather fronts moved across the country, setting low-temperature records. Energy Ventures Analysis (EVA) noted that across the three storms, coal-fired power plants showed the most significant increase in utilization rates: “Wind generation faced challenges… while solar generation was entirely or almost entirely absent.” Further, EVA concluded: “Higher shares of solar facilities and fewer dispatchable resources likely would have resulted in widespread power outages.”
2025 Polar Vortex: Demand across the East, Midwest, and South reached 537 GW in January – the highest ever recorded and approximately 150 GW above average. Per EVA, coal-fired generation “played a vital role” as capacity factors reached 70%. At peak demand, wind and solar were only able to generate 3% and .0.2% of the electricity to meet the load. NG prices spiked to $30/MMBtu compared to coal’s $2.50. EVA estimated coal saved customers up to $1.4 billion.
Now, put these data in the context of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s 2025 Annual Energy Outlook published just this past April. Despite the experiences presented above, the EIA “Reference Case” projects that within 10 years coal will be largely removed from the American energy landscape. Coal capacity will decline from 170 GW to only 3 GW—a decline of 98%. Meanwhile, coal will produce less than 1% of the Nation’s electricity in 2035. Also, coal production will decline from 500 million tons to 167 million and only 27 million tons will be used by power plants. In essence, the coal franchise will basically disappear in the U.S.
Solar, which has already demonstrated its inability to provide electricity in a cold crisis, is projected by the EIA to increase capacity from 127 GW to 476 GW. Solar generation is forecasted to grow from 200 billion kWh to over 1,000 billion kWh (a 400% increase). Wind, whose track record in winter is only slightly better than solar, is projected to grow capacity from 153 GW to 350 GW in just 10 years. Wind generation is forecasted to increase from 447 billion kWh to over 1,150 billion. According to the EIA, the U.S. will become ever more dependent on intermittent and non-dispatchable power as both nuclear and NG based electricity are projected to decline while coal is eliminated. Meanwhile, China, India and others are building baseload units (especially coal) to meet the reliability requirements of the next generation of AI and its associated Data Centers. These international planners of AI technology are well aware of the warning by Potomac Economic Research Group: “Increased intermittent output and its associated fluctuations … has resulted in more frequent emergency events.”
Some in the industry may scoff at the EIA projections because President Trump has taken several first steps to support coal. But keep in mind the President’s term ends in 43 months. Will it be back to Business as Usual?
Don’t forget, coal generating capacity has declined from almost 300 GW to 170 GW in the past decade. It is not much of a reach to see how 170 GW can turn into 3 GW in another 10 years. The “War Against Coal” is pervasive, relentless and heavily funded. Multi-Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has committed $500 million to eliminate coal and his support for the Sierra Club’s “Beyond Coal” Campaign is clear: “We want to close all U.S. coal plants.” As many as 200 lawyers and organizers have been hired to litigate and work against coal. They attend hearings, lobby regulators, give speeches, talk to classrooms, write editorials and have been markedly successful in demonizing coal. And, if EIA is correct, the worst is yet to come.
Comment: Coal’s role as a Cornerstone Fuel goes far beyond winter crises but is a 24/7 contributor to reliable and affordable electricity all year round. And, as far as summer heat goes, this paper is being written in a heatwave (June 26), where, even after the closure of hundreds of power plants, coal-based electricity still underpins key U.S. Federal Power Markets: MISO-32%. PJM-19%, SPP-33% – Just these three Markets stretch across 43 states, Manitoba and the District of Columbia.
Frank Clemente PhD Is Professor Emeritus at Penn State University. He specializes in research on the socioeconomic impact of energy policy and is the author of The Global Value of Coal, published by the International Energy Agency (2012). Professor Clemente has extensive experience in speaking, writing and presenting data on the value of coal to the U.S. and around the world. All opinions expressed here are presented independently from the University.
Fred Palmer Esq. served as CEO of Western Fuels before he joined Peabody Energy as Senior Vice President for Government Affairs. Palmer was Chair of the World Coal Association Board and a member of the National Coal Council. He received the American Institute of Mining, Metallurgical and Petroleum Engineers Award for “Distinguished Achievement in Coal Technology.” He also received a Statement of Appreciation from the National Coal Council in 2015 with a plaque for “Guidance since 1990.”
This article was originally published by RealClearEnergy and made available via RealClearWire.
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via Watts Up With That?
July 14, 2025 at 08:02PM
Iowa Climate Science Education 