“CHARLES TOWN, West Virginia — Chris Martz was still in diapers when Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans in 2005 — but that moment, he says, kicked off the political indoctrination of “extreme weather events.” Now the 22-year-old freshly minted college … Continue reading →
via Real Climate Science
May 31, 2025 at 03:54PM
Two weeks ago, on May 15, the Belgian federal parliament reversed the Nuclear Exit Act of 2003 (Dutch ahead). This was approved by a large majority. The Walloon socialist party and the far left abstained. Only the Green party (unsurprisingly) voted against.
Strictly speaking, the act will remain, but the word “exit” will disappear from its title and it is renamed “Act on Nuclear Energy for Industrial Electricity Production”. The provision that no new power plants can be built has been deleted and the closing dates of the nuclear power plants (some of which are already in the past) have been removed from the text.
This means that the construction of new nuclear plants is possible again. Our Government is looking at the possibility of SMRs (Small Modular Reactors) and in the meanwhile wants to extend the life of the remaining nuclear plants. Because the mandatory closing dates of the older plants disappeared from the text, it means that reopening is (at least theoretically) possible. However, the current owner of the nuclear plants (Engie) is not interested in the nuclear plants anymore, so reopenings seem pretty unlikely.
The Nuclear Exit Act dated from 2003 and it ran parallel with the rise and fall of the Greens. The (Flemish and Walloon) Green parties were, for the first time, part of our Government back then. They eagerly wanted to decommission nuclear power in Belgium and a majority was found to approve the Act. The Act stipulated that all nuclear power plants should be closed by 2025 and no new plants were allowed to be built in the future. It didn’t go well for the Greens, they lost all their seats in the following election later that year…
After the demise of the Green in the Government, the Act was in gridlock. There was opposition to it because nuclear power produced about 60% of demand back then and no clear alternative was provided. Although the focus was on the expansion of solar and wind, nothing was done integrating them on the grid. There were some (failed) proposals for the construction of gas-fired power plants and for the life extensions of three reactors, but because the legislative work was not completed in time, two reactors were shut down in 2015, as provided for in the Nuclear Exit Act. Later, the Act was amended and the two reactors were put back online to secure the electricity supply.
By the end of 2020, the Green parties recovered from their defeat and got back in the Government. A member of the Flemish Green party was chosen to be the Minister of Energy and she obviously wanted to finish the mission that the Greens started in 2003. That seemed to work initially. On December 23 of 2021, the decision was made to finalize the nuclear exit. The final approval was scheduled to be signed in March 2022 … but the situation in Ukraine in February 2022 threw a spanner in the works. There was uncertainty about future gas supply from Russia and, after lengthy negotiations, the lifetime of the reactors Tihange 3 and Doel 4 were extended with 10 years in order to secure the electricity supply.
By that time, the majority of the population was in favor of nuclear energy. In a poll in May 2022, 81% of the participants indicated that they wanted to keep the nuclear plants open after 2025 (from 66% in the previous two years). Even half of the participants who vote for the green party agreed with that statement.
That was felt in the results of the following election in 2024. The Greens again lost badly, although not as badly as in 2003. They kept some seats this time, but were not part of the Government anymore. The other politicians apparently sensed the changed public opinion on nuclear energy and a majority was found in favor of nuclear energy. Which lead to the reversal of the Nuclear Exit Act on May 15.
In the end, the final balance of that Nuclear Exit Act is that three of the seven nuclear power plants (Doel 1, Doel 3 and Tihange 2) have been shut down in recent years.
The Belgian Minister of Energy calls the reversal of the Nuclear Exit Act a turning point in Belgian energy history and that is not an understatement. It is a first step in giving nuclear energy its central role in the Belgian energy supply back again.
via Trust, yet verify
May 31, 2025 at 02:31PM
Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter
California Democrats are railing against state regulators for economic conditions they helped unleash now that a possible gas price crisis looms.
California’s Committee on Utilities and Energy grilled several state regulators on Wednesday about a possible gas price spike as two major oil refineries in California prepare to close, according to local news outlet KCRA. Despite their outrage, California Democrats have targeted the fossil fuel industry for years by creating a stringent regulatory climate, and energy companies — including their refining capacity — are withdrawing from the state, setting the table for a potentially massive 75% jump in gas prices.
“I know what climate leadership does not look like, and that is $10 gas,” Democratic Assemblyman Cottie Petrie-Norris told regulators at the hearing.
California has the highest average per-gallon gas price at the pump compared to any other state, according to AAA gas price data. Meanwhile, California regulators have suggested increasing state involvement in refinery management, including the possibility of de facto state-owned refineries.
The California Legislature has granted regulatory agencies authority to establish stringent new rules for the oil and gas industry. In recent special legislative sessions, lawmakers backed Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s efforts to create new storage and maintenance rules for refiners, according to the publication. Newsom has also called on regulators to do more to keep oil refineries in the state, though he has allowed for the creation of stringent rules that produce a hostile environment for energy producers.
The regulators were met with several questions and criticism as lawmakers voiced concerns that regulators have overlooked Californian consumers and drivers by aggressively pursuing a green energy transition, though Democratic leadership in the state allowed — and even encouraged — agencies to enact strict regulations for years.
“I think I also heard you say that another closure can lead to a significant increase in costs to consumers on the price of gas?” Alvarez asked a regulator.
Phillips 66 and Valero both announced plans to close refineries in the state in 2024, and the retiring facilities jointly account for roughly 20% of California’s refining capacity, according to KCRA.
Refineries have been shutting down in California for years, and no new major oil refineries have come online in the state since 1969, according to the California Energy Commission. California’s “cap-and-trade” program, combined with its unfavorable tax environment and its low carbon fuel emission standard, are often highlighted as restrictive regulations pushing refineries to leave the state.
“In the two years since the Governor signed California’s gas price gouging law, the state has avoided severe gasoline price spikes like the historic 2022 spike, saving Californians billions of dollars at the pump,” a spokesperson for Newsom’s office wrote to the Daily Caller News Foundation. “The law established the nation’s first state-level independent petroleum watchdog to hold Big Oil accountable, and the state has more transparency from the industry than ever before.”
A Phillips 66 spokesperson told the DCNF that the energy company “wants to continue to be a trusted and deliberate partner with the state.”
“We’re also not exiting California, still owning and operating various assets that will serve California commercial and customer demands, including the Rodeo Renewable Energy Complex,” the spokesperson, who also referred the DCNF to the company’s October 2024 press release, added.
The California Air Resources Board, the California Energy Commission, the Division of Petroleum Market Oversight, Alvarez’s office, Petrie-Norris’ office, Valero and California’s Committee on Utilities and Energy did not respond to the DCNF’s requests for comment.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to reflect the comment from the Phillips 66 spokesperson.
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
via Watts Up With That?
May 31, 2025 at 12:04PM
Aroused by every model forecast heat wave
I don’t know how it’s been in other countries so far this year, but in Germany it seems a number of German weathermen have been getting acutely aroused every time a model sees a heat wave in the pipeline 2 weeks out. The media make headlines out of them.
Image generated by Grok
Of all people, you’d think meteorologists would know the huge uncertainties these models have beyond 7 days. But, when you’re desperate for attention, you might succumb to the temptation to take them as being real enough and have yourself quoted in the press.
Germany has seen an unusually dry spring this year. This has likely raised hopes of a hot summer. The DWD German national Weather Service reports that spring 2025 in Germany was 0.9°C warmer than the 1991-2020 reference period. One reason for the warmth was unusually sunny weather. Spring 2025 in Germany saw 695 hours of sunshine, around 33% more than the reference period 1991-2020 (522 hours) mean.
The plentiful sunshine meant lower precipitation. Spring 2025 in Germany was the third driest on record. Only 96 liters of rain fell per square meters.
Spring has aroused forecasters
The warm dry weather has definitely aroused many of Germany’s weathermen, who are now caught up in full blown record-heatwave summertime fantasies. Lost from memory are the months of heavy rainfall seen from late 2023 to the end of 2024.
Over at German Weather Channel here, Jan Schenk suddenly warned of “a 100-year summer” with temps soaring to 40°C in Germany. “One of the hottest summers ever is in the cards at 70 to 100%.”… “The previous summer of the century in 2003 could soon be replaced.” … “Over the course of the summer, a heat dome will form over south-eastern Europe, which will also spread to Germany. This means that we can expect a lot of high pressure and sunshine – and little rain. The highs will not stop at 30 or 35 degrees. We can already assume that the 40 degree mark will be exceeded several times in the summer of 2025. And the first heatwave in Germany will already appear in June.”
It’s important to point out that many weathermen today no longer forecast the weather, but instead simply report spectacular scenarios that models invariably churn out.
20°C could mean 40°C!
Over at Wetter.net, meteorologist Dominik Jung said the European Weather Model (ECMWF) is showing a“massive high altitude heat” for June 9, “Down on the ground, that would mean more than 35 degrees, maybe 38, 39, maybe almost 40 degrees,” says Jung.
So far, however, the ECMWF model is showing no such heat for early June. We can only speculate that Jung’s forecast has its origins in overly active fantasies.
So what will become of Germany’s summer? A hot one of course cannot be excluded. But to claim a near record hot summer is 70-100% sure is nothing but meteorological attention seeking and headline-grabbing.
Donate – choose an amount
via NoTricksZone
May 31, 2025 at 11:08AM
Iowa Climate Science Education 