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Posted on 05/15/2025 4:58:13 AM PDT by MtnClimber
The first 100+ days of the second Trump administration (it’s now actually 113 days) have seen a near total abandonment of the fantasy that this one country’s government can change the weather and “save the planet” by suppressing use of hydrocarbon fuels and impoverishing the people. Biden administration “climate” and energy policies amounting to thousands of pages in regulations and hundreds of billions of dollars in grants and subsidies to uneconomic energy projects have been swiftly reversed. Examples in just the past few weeks include:
- The announcement by the Department of Energy just yesterday (May 12) of no fewer than 47 regulatory reversals, covering everything from ovens. to dehumidifiers, to clothes washers and driers, to shower heads, to dishwashers, and much, much more.
- Rescission of hundreds of grants from the Department of Energy for so-called “green energy” projects.
- Similar rescission of hundreds of grants from EPA, supposedly to fund “greenhouse gas reduction” and “climate justice” initiatives.
- Commencement by EPA of a process to undo the “Endangerment Finding” — a regulatory action that underlies essentially all climate and energy regulation by that agency — and some 30 other climate and energy actions of EPA.
And these are just examples. There are many more.
At this point, you would think that the blue states might take the hint. As a blue state, you had thought that you were embarking on an energy “transition” with the full backing and support of the federal government, complete with its vast powers and its infinite checkbook. Sure, this was going to cost trillions of dollars; but it was almost all their money, not yours. If somehow it all didn’t work out, you were not going to be the main one on the hook. Now, all that has changed. In the blink of an eye, there is no more support to be had from the infinite deep pocket. Not only is the federal government no longer your partner and financial sugar daddy, but it is even taking steps to obstruct and hinder your efforts.
So going forward, is there any point? As a lone blue state, you don’t remotely have the resources to expunge fossil fuels from your energy system on your own. Maybe, would it be best just to lie low for a few years and wait for the next friendly administration in Washington?
Well, if you are New York, that is not how you react. Your religious fervor is such that you are now prepared proceed totally on your own to defy the laws of physics and thermodynamics. Even as the federal government is telling New York to take a hike, here are some of the latest antics on the climate front from New York officials and climate activists:
- The State’s 2025-26 budget just got enacted on Friday, May 9. ESG Today reported excitedly on Monday (May 12) that the budget includes “over $1 billion investment in decarbonization.” Excerpt:
New York Governor Kathy Hochul signed the state’s 2025-2026 budget on Friday, which included more than $1 billion in climate change-focused investments, including funding to lower emissions from buildings and accelerate the rollout of electrified transportation. . . . Key climate-focused allocations in the new budget include $450 million targeting reductions in building emissions, including investments in energy-efficient retrofits and clean heating technologies like heat pumps, more than $200 million for thermal energy networks, $250 million to support electric school buses, fast-charging stations and a NYSERDA rebate program for installing EV charging stations, as well as $200 million for renewable energy expansion and grid modernization.
Nobody is impolite enough here to mention that $1 billion is chump change in the effort to get rid of hydrocarbon fuels. If you were serious about the effort, the number would be more like $1 trillion. But don’t worry, nobody reading this stuff has sufficient numeric competency to understand that.
- New York City Comptroller Brad Lander — who is also a candidate for Mayor in the current election cycle — fancies himself a leader in the climate movement. Lander put out a statement on April 22 (“Earth Day”) setting forth his position:
New York City Comptroller Brad Lander decried threats from the Trump administration to dramatically roll back climate progress and stood with climate activists from New York Communities for Change, 350 NYC, and Fridays for Future to announce new actions by the Comptroller’s Office to reduce New York City’s emissions. . . . [T]o stand strong against federal rollbacks, Comptroller Lander is demanding more from the asset managers who manage funds for the New York City Employees Retirement System (NYCERS), Teachers Retirement System (TRS), and Board of Education Retirement System (BERS).
- In a prior statement on March 26, reported in Net Zero Investor, Lander vowed that the City “will not retreat one inch” on its climate program, despite the actions of the Trump administration.
- Our local environmental activist groups brook no dissent from climate orthodoxy. On March 31, a group of four climate activist organizations sued the State government in an effort to force faster progress on greenhouse gas reduction goals. From New York Focus, March 31:
Four environmental and climate justice groups filed a lawsuit Monday in a state court, claiming that New York is “stonewalling necessary climate action in outright violation” of its legal obligations. By not releasing economy-wide emissions rules, the suit alleges, the state Department of Environmental Conservation, or dec, is “defying the Legislature’s clear directive” and “prolonging New Yorkers’ exposure to air pollution … especially in disadvantaged communities.” It’s the first lawsuit to charge the state with failing to enforce the core mandate of its 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, or clcpa: eliminating nearly all of New York’s greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
So, there is plenty of bluster from local politicians and activists. But despite that, I can’t find a word as to how they plan to meet the greenhouse gas reduction and green energy mandates of the 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act, now that all federal backing is withdrawn. As just one element, there was supposed to be 9000 MW of offshore wind built to replace on-shore fossil fuel power plants. Now the Trump administration is obstructing the offshore wind development. I haven’t been able to find a word from New York elected or energy officials on how they plan to transitions the energy supply if they can’t build the offshore wind facilities.
So we move forward with our officials in a state of bluff and bluster and denial, and no plan of any kind to meet the impossible mandates of the Climate Act. We all know that this is doomed to failure, but it will likely be a couple of years before we see the failure unfold.
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Yes, it is a religion and these are some of the true believers.
Manhattan Contrarian ping
New York city CONTROLLER Brad Lander. CONtrol, CONtrol, CONtrol. What a CONman.
“New York Communities for Change”, “350 NYC”, and “Fridays for Future”
These Leftoids are big on their Brave New World environmental nomenclature.
It’s not a religion. It’s a con. The con is to set up a slush fund and dupe the people into buying your snake oil. That explains the $1 Billion. It’s not enough to do anything substantial, but it is enough to grease a few palms.
EC
Time for NYS & NYC inparticular to get some new government officials that have their heads screwed on straight. Not that that state is the only one with the stupid ideas;there are others & I’m afraid they are not all blue states either. I think there are a few red states with examples of projects that show what they have not learned with regards to the climate & so-called “green energy”.
Time for NYS & NYC inparticular to get some new government officials that have their heads screwed on straight. Not that that state is the only one with the stupid ideas;there are others & I’m afraid they are not all blue states either. I think there are a few red states with examples of projects that show what they have not learned with regards to the climate & so-called “green energy”.
Climate scam needs to be illegal like phishing scams or ponzi schemes and these people all need to be arrested. Build a big, beautiful prison in the middle of Nevada or some other desert.
If New York City wants to get into some TRULY “green” energy production, there is a system known as “Startech”, which uses a plasma arc system to generate electricity from organic trash.
New York city collects literally hundreds of tons of litter on a daily basis, and there is the problem of disposing of the growing range of mountains of trash. All the near disposal sites are filled to capacity and sometimes beyond.
The system works by converting trash into syngas, a mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide in gaseous form, and to non-organic slag, mostly metallic and silica composition. The system is ignited with a huge burst of energy to create the plasma arc, and once the syngas is generated in sufficient quantity, the gas-fired turbines start the generators going, which then sustains the plasma arc. Because there is considerably more energy generated that necessary to maintain the plasma arc, it is available to be sold on the power distribution grid. So long as the system is fed continuously, the slag is drawn away, and the syngas continues to be produced, the system is self-sustaining. One can see where the mountains of trash, now fermenting and producing large carbon dioxide and methane gases, could eventually be reduced to a much more manageable level.
A smaller version of this system is already used to dispose of all manner of hazardous waste, like medical sharps and highly toxic compounds that would otherwise render a site unusable for any other purpose.
It has been estimated that about nine or ten of these systems, costing about a quarter billion or so each, could be set up and consume both the existing disposal sites and the continuing daily production of trash and litter collected. New York City takes care of its trash problem, and simultaneously produces sufficient additional electrical energy to maintain a large part of the power consumption of the metropolitan area.
Not to mention the now cooled slag which may be used as an ore source for all these metallic elements, or cut up for construction blocks, a huge stone quarry, which could also be used for crushed stone for concrete and road construction.
The ultimate recycling program.
https://www.aii.org/plasma-gasification-revolutionizing-waste-management/
The USAID model. This money was laundered by rat front groups.
How about we ask Trump to run for NYS governor and let him whack a mole? Of course when he’s done in DC.
Do they know USAID was funding all the Fake Global Warming , Climate Change crap ? LOL
The recent country wide blackout on Spain may be repeated in New York. Let the leftists swelter or freeze in their darkened buildings and maybe they will realize their folly.
Correct. But there are zealots on the Left who treats it as their religion.
The 2009 “Endangerment Finding.”
Once again, thank Scotus for an outrage that cost the US hundreds of billions of dollars.
If NYS is a blue state, why does Deep Statexneed to steal our elections?
What we do need is an FBI that cares about public corruption.
NYS is rife with it.
At all levels.
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