The Week That Was: 2026-03-28 (March 28, 2026)
Brought to You by SEPP (www.SEPP.org)
The Science and Environmental Policy Project
[editor’s note. WC&ENR is late this week due to an email mix up and also won’t be published next week due to the Easter holiday]
Quote of the Week: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.” — Aldous Huxley, author of Brave New World (1932)
Number of the Week:104 v. 3
THIS WEEK:
By Ken Haapala, President, Science and Environmental Policy Project (SEPP)
Scope: This TWTW begins with a discussion by Nobel Laureate John Clauser on the importance of clouds. Then it continues with a discussion of what is meant by saturation of a greenhouse gas. TWTW discusses a new report on US deaths from heart failure attributable to temperature exposure. TWTW concludes with a report on the false attribution of extreme weather events to CO2-caused climate change by the World Weather Attribution group.
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Cloudy Issue: The Epoch Times interviewed John Clauser, the 2022 co-recipient of the Nobel Prize in physics. On his website Ron Clutz posted the ten-minute video and the lightly edited transcript with images. Key parts of the transcript of Clauser’s statements are [Clutz’s emphasis but most images omitted]:
“I think one of the more important things that’s happened recently is a gentleman, Steve Koonin, who was Barack Obama’s science advisor, recently published a very important seminal book called Unsettled, What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters. It’s a very important book, and his basic message is that the IPCC has 40 different computer models, all of which are making predictions, and all of which are being quoted by the press as predicting a climate crisis apocalypse. The problem is they all are in total disagreement, violent disagreement with each other in their predictions, and not one of them is capable of predicting retroactively, of explaining the history of the Earth’s climate for the last hundred years.
He finds this very distressing, and he then correspondingly says or believes that there is an important piece of physics that is missing in virtually all of these computer models. So, what I’m adding to the mix here is I believe I have the missing piece of the puzzle, if you will, that has been left out in virtually all of these computer programs, and that is the effect of clouds. The 2003 National Academy report totally admitted that they didn’t understand it, and they made a whole series of mistaken statements regarding the effects of clouds.
If you look at Al Gore’s movie, he insists on talking about a cloud-free Earth, and the only way he can do this, he generates one from the mosaic of photos. Each one taken on a cloudless day for covering the whole Earth. That’s a totally artificial Earth and is a totally artificial case for using a model, and this is pretty much what the IPCC and others use is a cloud-free Earth.
If you look at pictures of the Earth in visible light, i.e., which is sunlight is the stuff that heats the Earth. The infrared re-radiation is the stuff that that cools the Earth, and it’s the balance between these two that controls the Earth’s temperature, and the important piece of the puzzle that has been left out is trying to do this all with a cloud-free Earth, when the real Earth is shrouded in clouds. I have some pictures, I don’t know if you can show them, of satellite pictures of the Earth.”
“These are all freely available on NASA’s website, and they show cloud cover variations anywhere from 5 to 95 percent. Typically, the Earth is shrouded in clouds at least between a third of its area to two-thirds of its area, and it fluctuates, the cloud cover fraction fluctuates quite dramatically on daily, weekly time scales. We call this weather.
You can’t have weather without having clouds, and it is this fluctuation in cloud cover of the Earth that causes what I would refer to as sunlight reflectivity thermostat that controls the climate, controls the temperature of the Earth, and stabilizes it very powerfully and very dramatically. This mechanism, totally heretofore unnoticed, and I call it kind of an elephant in the room, hiding in plain sight that nobody seems to have noticed. I can’t imagine why not, but there were similar elephants in the room in quantum mechanics that I discovered.
So, the variation in the cloud cover, the importance in the actual power balance is 200 times more powerful than the effect, the small effect by comparison of CO2. And I might add also of methane. Methane and CO2 are comparable in the total heat loss.
So let me give you an example of how this mechanism works. Okay, first off, you have to notice that the Earth is two-thirds ocean, and that’s where most of the importance of the clouds comes in. Sunlight is the heating mechanism.”
Image omitted here.
“Clouds appear bright white. Ground, oceans, etc. are very dark and reflect very little light.
But clouds reflect 90% of the sunlight that hits them, gets reflected back out into space, where it no longer comes to the Earth, no longer heats the Earth. Say you only got a third of a cloud cover. So, you now have lots and lots of sunlight.
Sunlight impinging on the ocean evaporates seawater. Seawater forms water vapor. The water vapor floats up into the sky and forms clouds. It forms lots and lots of clouds because the cloud creation rate is very high. But we started out with too low set of clouds, and now we have an increasing number. So now we end up with very high cloud coverage.
Okay, so now say it’s two-thirds. Well, let me give you an example. If you want to try to read a book on an overcast day indoors without turning the lights on, it’s just too dark. You can’t do it without turning the lights off [on]. The question is, where did all that sunlight go? It’s coming in scattered light coming in through the window, but boy, it’s a lot darker now. So where did it go? There’s only one place.
It got scattered back out into space where it’s no longer hitting the Earth. So, okay, so we now have the total power input coming to the Earth is now much, much smaller. Okay, well, this is happening on the oceans too. If you have large cloud cover, you have a lot of shadows. Clouds create shadows. You can see this by standing and watching clouds pass over. Well, the oceans are now shadowed. The shadows don’t have enough energy to evaporate anywhere near as much water. So, we have too much cloud cover.
Then we reduce the evaporation rate of water, and so that then reduces the production of cloud. So, we now have these two competing clouds. Okay, so the power loss is like 104 watts per square meter when we only have a third cloud cover, and 208 watts per square meter of surface area of the Earth when we have a very low cloud cover. [close to Earth]
So, the difference between those is the order of 104 watts per square meter of surface area. That needs to be compared with this minuscule half a watt per square meter of surface area that CO2 contributes. So, the power in this thermostat, in terms of what they refer to as radiative forcing, these are the how many watts per square meter of surface area are involved, is 200 times more powerful than the effect of CO2 and also methane, by the way.
So, I then assert that this is so powerful. I mean, it’s like your house has a huge furnace with a very accurate thermostat controlling its temperature, and somebody leaves a minor, a small bathroom window, and there’s a small heat leak. Would the rest of the house notice a change in temperature? None if your thermostat is working very well.
This is clearly the most important, the controlling mechanism for the Earth’s temperature and climate, and it dwarfs the effect of CO2 and methane. All the government programs that are designed to limit CO2 and methane should be immediately dropped. We’re spending trillions of dollars on this, and it’s like Everett Dirksen’s famous line, you know, a trillion here, a trillion there, and pretty soon you’re talking real money.”
In his above discussion John Clauser may have hit on an important reason why global climate models fail to make accurate hindcasts of the atmosphere much less accurate forecasts. They fail to include changes in cloudiness. The models are built on the assumption that an increase in temperatures from carbon dioxide [or whatever cause] will result in an equal increase in temperatures from an increase in water vapor. But the increase in water vapor may cause an increase in cloudiness, which reduces the temperature increase. The failure of the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine to realize that climate models do not address cloudiness illustrates a severe scientific failure on their part. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Saturation: In their paper “Saturation Graphics” based on their paper “Dependence of Earth’s Thermal Radiation on Five Most Abundant Greenhouse Gases” AMO physicists William van Wijngaarden and William Happer demonstrate that CO2 has diminishing returns. That is, adding more CO2 to the atmosphere has a progressively smaller impact on temperature. The calculations are for the top of the atmosphere and are based on the HITRAN database.
“HITRAN is an acronym for high-resolution transmission molecular absorption database. HITRAN is a compilation of spectroscopic parameters that a variety of computer codes use to predict and simulate the transmission and emission of light in the atmosphere.”
HITRAN is the best database available to calculate the impact that atmospheric gases have on outgoing long wave radiation (infrared radiation). The difference between Earth’s surface emission of infrared radiation and the amount leaving the atmosphere is the greenhouse effect.
Van Wijngaarden and Happer calculate that with zero carbon dioxide, at the top of the atmosphere Earth would emit 307 watts per square meter (W/m2). At 400 parts per million in volume (ppmv) of carbon dioxide it emits 277 watts per square meter, thus the greenhouse effect of CO2 at 4000 ppmv is 30 watts per square meter.
Adding an additional 400 parts per million by volume of CO2 (bringing the total concentration to 800 ppmv) will decrease the outgoing infrared radiation to 274 watts per square meter, a reduction of 3 watts per square meter. To repeat: the first 400 ppmv of CO2 has an influence of 30 W/m2, the second 400 ppmv results in a total influence of 33 W/m2, but so the second 400 ppmv has an influence of only 3 W/m2. This diminishing rate of influence is called saturation. The IPCC and US government organizations who claim CO2 is a pollutant) fail to take saturation into account. See links under Challenging the Orthodoxy – Radiation Transfer
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Temperature Deaths: Driven by climate alarmists, the popular press raises alarm over deaths from heat but seldom considers deaths from cold. The American Journal of Preventive Cardiology published an interesting paper contesting the view that heat causes more deaths than cold. The paper, “Cardiovascular disease mortality attributable to monthly non-optimal temperature in the United States: a county-level analysis,” begins with [citations omitted here]:
“1. Introduction
Non-optimal ambient temperatures are increasingly recognized as an important environmental determinant of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality, with a characteristic non-linear exposure–response relationship in which both cold and heat are associated with excess risk. In fact, non-optimal temperatures were estimated to account for nearly 90,000 deaths annually in North America between 2010 and 2019, with the vast majority attributable to cold exposure. Notably, cold-related mortality in the US has more than doubled between 1999 and 2022. In the setting of increasing climate variability, quantifying temperature-related cardiovascular mortality, beyond those directly attributed to thermal causes, at the population level is essential to better inform prevention strategies and public health preparedness. Yet nationally representative analyses focused specifically on cardiovascular mortality remain limited. Therefore, in this study, we evaluated the association between monthly mean ambient temperature and CVD mortality at the county level across the United States from 2000 to 2020. [Boldface added]
2. Methods
We conducted a county-level analysis of cardiovascular disease (CVD) mortality in the United States from January 2000 through December 2020. Daily temperature data were obtained from the Oregon State University’s PRISM Climate Group (https://prism.oregonstate.edu/) and aggregated from census tracts to counties. Daily values were averaged to derive monthly mean temperature for each county.
Monthly county-level CVD mortality counts among adults aged ≥25 years were obtained from CDC WONDER. Cardiovascular deaths were defined using ICD-10 codes I00–I99. Annual county population estimates were also obtained from CDC WONDER and used as denominators for rate calculations. Counties with >5% missing mortality months were excluded. For retained counties, missing months of deaths were imputed using nearest-neighbor borrowing with the process being further described in the Supplemental Methods.”
The paper discusses the statistical methods used which are omitted here, then presents the results:
“3. Results
Our study included 819 counties with their geographic distribution shown Supplemental Figure 2. It encompassed approximately 81.9% of the 2010 US population over 25 years old, with 14,180,068 cardiovascular deaths (after imputation = 14,197,710, a 0.12% increase) between 2000 and 2020 being analyzed. (Supplemental Table 1). The descriptive seasonal variation of mean temperature and mortality is shown in Supplemental Figure 3, with Supplemental Figure 4 describing the longitudinal pattern of mean temperature and mortality across the study period.
As shown in Fig. 1, the MMT was 23.2°C (empirical 95% CI: 22.50, 24.01), which corresponded to the 80.7th percentile of the population-weighted distribution of monthly mean temperatures (empirical 95% CI: 77.4th, 83.8th percentile). Nationally, over the 20-year period, there was an estimated 2,242 (empirical 95% CI: 1,925, 2,639) heat-attributable and 42,735 (empirical 95% CI: 40,717, 44,956) deaths per year. The corresponding annual mortality rates were 1.3 (empirical 95% CI: 1.2, 1.6) for heat and 25.6 (empirical 95% CI: 24.4, 27.0) for cold per 100,000 person-years. These estimates correspond to 0.33% (empirical 95% CI: 0.28%, 0.39%) and 6.3% (empirical 95% CI: 6.0%, 6.6%) of total annual cardiovascular deaths in the analytic sample for heat and cold, respectively.
Fig. 1. Temperature and cardiovascular disease mortality exposure-response curve in 819 US counties. MMT = minimum-mortality temperature. Dashed line equates to the population-weighted 2.5th and 97.5th temperature percentiles.
Sensitivity analyses varying degrees of freedom for long-term trend control and excluding imputed months yielded similar MMT and attributable mortality estimates.”
The discussion section cites limitations to the paper before its conclusion:
“Our study has several limitations. First, the ecological design and county-level aggregation preclude causal inference at the individual level. Second, temperature exposure was summarized as monthly mean ambient temperature at the county level, which may mask short-term extremes and intra-county variability in exposure, as well as differences between outdoor and individual-level exposures. Third, because mortality data were aggregated at the monthly level, we were unable to evaluate delayed or lagged effects of temperature exposure, which may differentially influence heat- and cold-related cardiovascular outcomes. Fourth, although our county-level approach captures geographic heterogeneity, we did not formally assess effect modification by sociodemographic characteristics or social vulnerability, which may influence susceptibility to non-optimal temperatures. Finally, our analytic sample included counties with complete temperature and mortality data, representing approximately four-fifths of the US population; therefore, findings may not fully generalize to excluded counties. Despite these limitations, to our knowledge, this is one of the first nationwide county-level analyses specifically focused on monthly cardiovascular mortality attributable to non-optimal temperatures.
5. Conclusion
In this nationwide county-level analysis spanning two decades and encompassing more than four-fifths of the US population, non-optimal ambient temperatures were associated with a substantial burden of cardiovascular disease mortality, with cold exposure accounting for most temperature-attributable deaths.” [Boldface added]
The monthly mean temperature that has the lowest cardiovascular disease mortality is 23.2°C (73.8ºF). According to Bing AI, the mean temperature of the US since 1901 has been 8.9°C or 48 ºF. Of course, temperatures vary widely by month and by state.
The key point is that on average, cold is more deadly than heat, but precautions must be taken for both extremes. So, the climate alarmists’ case fails on two grounds: the much-maligned CO2 does not cause dangerous heating and heat is less dangerous than cold. See link under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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Extreme Weather Events: Physicist Ralph Alexander authored a report for the Global Warming Policy Foundation titled “Contorted Science: The Flawed Logic of Extreme Event Attribution.” As its press release states:
“Ralph B. Alexander argues that studies attempting to link specific heatwaves, hurricanes and floods to human-caused climate change are fundamentally misleading and have been created for legal and political, rather than scientific reasons.
The paper scrutinizes recent high-profile studies by World Weather Attribution and the Grantham Institute. In 2025 alone, World Weather Attribution claimed that 24 of 29 extreme events examined were made more severe or more likely by climate change.
Alexander shows how such conclusions depend heavily on climate models that struggle to reproduce historical climate patterns and assume scientists can accurately simulate a “natural” climate without human emissions.
Some key recurring weaknesses are identified within attribution studies:
- Flawed logic: attribution claims involve “begging the question,” the act of simply assuming the conclusion you are trying to investigate.
- Statistical practices that inflate headline probability claims while downplaying uncertainty.
- The neglect of historical records showing comparable extreme events long before modern emissions levels.
The report traces the growth of rapid event attribution to political frustration with the cautious conclusions of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), which has expressed low confidence in long-term global trends for most types of extreme weather. It recognizes the role of a 2012 meeting convened by the Union of Concerned Scientists. The meeting was aimed at strengthening the perceived link between extreme weather and climate change in order to pursue litigation against fossil fuel companies.”
See links to the report as well as “#DoEDeepDive: Uncertainties in attribution methods” under Challenging the Orthodoxy.
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NO TWTW NEXT WEEKEND (EASTER)
TWTW will resume the weekend of April 11
After The Heartland Institute Climate Conference
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Number of the Week: 104 v. 3: As stated above, John Clauser estimates that the solar intensity hitting Earth’s surface can vary by 104 Watts per square meter (W/m2) depending on the cloud cover. William van Wijngaarden and William Happer calculate that the increase in the greenhouse effect from doubling the concentration of CO2 in the atmosphere is 3 W/m2. The leaders of many countries, particularly in Europe, are destroying their countries’ economies because they fear an increase in warming of only 3 W/m2 (about 0.75ºC or 1.35ºF)?
Suppressing Scientific Inquiry
Ofcom to investigate complaints of climate change denial
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 27, 2026
From the Guardian:
A U-turn by the UK’s broadcasting regulator Ofcom means it will investigate complaints of climate change denial on television and radio for the first time since 2017. The move marks a victory for campaigners who have accused the regulator of allowing some broadcasters “to spout dangerous climate lies” and “flout” rules on accuracy and impartiality.
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
https://wvanwijngaarden.info.yorku.ca/files/2020/12/WThermal-Radiationf.pdf?x45936
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
Saturation Graphics
By W.A. van Wijngaarden and W. Happer, CO2 Coalition, Oct 8, 2025
16th International Conference on Climate Change: Climate Realism Rising
By The Heartland Institute, Hotel Washington, WDC, April 8-9
Climate is Cloud Controlled ([Nobel Laurate] John Clauser)
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Mar 23, 2026
Cardiovascular disease mortality attributable to monthly non-optimal temperature in the United States: a county-level analysis
By Pedro Rafael Vieira de Oliveira Salerno, et al., American Journal of Preventive Cardiology, Mar 24, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S266666772600108X?via%3Dihub
Contorted Science: The Flawed Logic of Extreme Event Attribution
By Ralph Alexander, Global Warming Policy Foundation, Mar 24, 2026
Link to report: Contorted Science: The Flawed Logic of Extreme Event Attribution
By Ralph B. Alexander, Global Warming Policy Foundation, March 2026
Chasing The Elusive Climate Sensitivity
By Willis Eschenbach, WUWT, Mar 21, 2026
[SEPP Comment: Excellent analysis but Eschenbach may have made an error in his units when he wrote: “This current estimate of 0.76 W/m2 per 2xCO2 includes not only clouds but all other weather phenomena that affect the sensitivity. So, I would say that it is a best estimate, rather than a maximum estimate.” Boldface added. Instead, 0.76 °C per 2xCO2 is more appropriate.]
#DoEDeepDive: Uncertainties in attribution methods
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 25, 2026
So according to the IPCC attribution of climate change to human cause is unequivocal. Also, according to the IPCC unequivocal attribution is not possible, so expert judgment is required. And expert judgement is to say that things that cannot be said should be said. If that fails, we’ll read the entrails.
The contrarian team discusses a series of papers published in climate journals since 2021 by Canadian economist Dr. Ross McKitrick, who showed that the math behind optimal fingerprinting is flawed, and the results are unreliable. According to his analysis if the numbers are analyzed correctly:
“the model response to greenhouse gases needs to be scaled down by about half to optimally match observations. The natural forcing signal coefficient, by contrast, …natural forcing need to be scaled up two-to four-fold to match observed climate change.”
Renewables Are Cheap Myth
By Roger Caiazza, WUWT, Mar 27, 2026
Link to: Renewables: From China to South Australia — A Guide to the Series
By Steve Carson, Science of Doom, Mar 24, 2026
https://scienceofdoom.substack.com/p/renewables-from-china-to-south-australia
We built a lot of cheap intermittent energy, and now the expensive part is making the system work when that energy isn’t there.
From Carson’s “The Pricing Paradox:
The “Gas Marginal” Effect: Why the Last Megawatt Wins
The most important rule of the Australian market (and most market systems) is that the last generator needed to meet demand sets the price for everyone.
- During the day, the “last generator” is often a solar farm bidding $0.
- During the evening, the “last generator” is almost always a Gas Peaking Plant.
- Even if 90% of the energy in a given hour is “cheap” wind or battery power, if that final 1% comes from an expensive gas plant bidding $300/MWh, then every generator in the state gets paid $300/MWh.
New Study: CO2 Is ‘Effectively Negligible’ As An Explanatory Climate Change Factor Since 2000
By Kenneth Richard, No Tricks Zone, Mar 24, 2026
Link to paper: Multivariate Analysis, Phase Verification, and the Rejection of Man-made Positive Feedback Global Warming Theory
By Dai Ato, Science of Climate Change, Accepted Jan 29, 2026
Short Summary of Observations Until February 2026
By Ole Humlum, Climate4you, February 2026
https://www.climate4you.com
Shock New Evidence Showing No Link Between CO2 and Temperature Over Last Three Million Years Stumps Net Zero Activists
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Mar 25, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/03/25/shock-new-evidence-showing-no-link-between-co2-and-temperature-over-last-three-million-years-stumps-net-zero-activists
Link to paper: Broadly stable atmospheric CO2 and CH4 levels over the past 3 million years
By Julia Marks-Peterson, et al. Nature, Mar 18, 2026
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-025-10032-y
The climate science world (‘settled’ division) is in shock following the discovery in ancient ice cores that levels of carbon dioxide remained stable as the world plunged into an ice age around 2.7 million years ago. Levels of CO2 at around 250 parts per million (ppm) were said to be lower than often assumed with just a 20 ppm movement recorded for the following near three million-year period.
[SEPP Comment: Paper discussed in last week’s TWTW.]
The well-known skeptical refrain ‘It’s the sun, stupid!’ takes on new meaning
By Marcel Crok, Clintel Newsletter, Mar 27, 2026 [H/t Thomas Drolet]
https://link.msgsndr.com/email-preview/DEPKTXDl5dZpwUMIqkdr/8dLGoXSw26ztiQKW44KJ?time_stamp=1774625311544
[SEPP Comment: See links immediately below.]
Defending the Orthodoxy
Earth’s climate swings increasingly out of balance
Press Release, World Meteorological Organization, Mar 23, 2026
https://wmo.int/news/media-centre/earths-climate-swings-increasingly-out-of-balance
Link to report: State of the Global Climate 2025
By Staff, World Meteorological Organization (WMO), 2026
https://library.wmo.int/records/item/69807-state-of-the-global-climate-2025
The Dismantling of Environmental Protections — A Grave Threat to America’s Health
By Adam W. Gaffney, M.D, et al., New England Journal of Medicine, Mar 25, 2026
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2514370?query=TOC
[SEPP Comment: Leading the list of supposed dangers eliminating the CO2 Endangerment finding is PM2.5 “pollution.” Where is the physical evidence that PM2.5 is lethal? This is followed by items such as withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, etc.]
Impact of Oil and Gas Exploitation in the North Sea on UK Household Energy Bills
By Schroeder, Sen, and Etter-Wenzel, Oxford Smith School Rapid Analysis, March 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
We do not explicitly include the costs of intermittency from the switch to renewables.
[SEPP Comment: The above statement gives the game away. Intermittency is a fundamental issue for renewables as well as the low density of the generating capacity.]
New York Doesn’t Have to Choose Between Climate Action and Affordability. Cap and Invest Can Do Both
By Tibita Kaneene, Real Clear Energy, Mar 25, 2026
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2026/03/25/new_york_doesnt_have_to_choose_between_climate_action_and_affordability_cap_and_invest_can_do_both_1172524.html
Climate action vs. affordability is a false choice, because climate action reduces long-term costs. Therefore, implementation is merely a financing problem that can be solved with good policy. [Boldface added]
New York passed the most ambitious climate law in the country in 2019. The answer to the implementation challenges of 2026 is not to quietly walk that ambition back but to build the implementation mechanism that is honest about transition costs, serious about protecting the households who bear them, and designed to last.
[SEPP Comment: Making wind and solar reliable and synchronous with the grid is merely a financing problem?]
Defending the Orthodoxy – Bandwagon Science
Climate change fuels spread of dangerous Aspergillus fungus
By Steph Whiteside, The Hill, Mar 25, 2026
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5799565-climate-change-aspergillus-fungus-spread
Link to: Climate change-driven geographical shifts in Aspergillus species habitat and the implications for plant and human health
By Norman van Rhijn, et al., Preprint, May 2, 2025
A warming climate and the use of fungicides are fueling the spread of a dangerous fungus that can eat you from the inside out, a new study finds.
[SEPP Comment: Speculation, not evidence.]
Quantifying climate loss and damage consistent with a social cost of carbon
By Marshall Burke, et al., Nature, Mar 25, 2026
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-026-10272-6
From the abstract: Here we develop such a framework, which is integrated with recent efforts to estimate the social cost of carbon. Using empirical estimates of the non-linear relationship between temperature and aggregate economic output, we show that future damages from past emissions—one component of L&D—are at least an order of magnitude larger than historical damages from the same emissions.
Questioning the Orthodoxy
Climate Alarmists Indifferent to Geopolitical Realities and Human Suffering
By Robert Girouard, WUWT, Mar 22, 2026
War should be a wake-up call. It should remind us that heat, electricity, and the capacity for self-defense are not negotiable options in the name of climate virtue, but the very foundations of civilization. Even Germany, a champion of the energy transition, did not hesitate to reopen its coal mines to avoid freezing in winter, having suddenly rediscovered, through pain, Maslow’s hierarchy of needs.
Hochul Claims the Climate Act Can Be Affordable
By Roger Caiazza, WUWT, Mar 22, 2026
It is time for real courage in Albany to admit that the fundamentals of the Climate Act need to be revised because we do not know how much this will cost and there has never been a feasibility analysis that proves that wind and solar provide enough energy to power the electric system. Unless the technological challenges are recognized, and solutions proposed we will never know the true costs. I do not believe that net-zero climate action and affordability will ever be compatible.
New York Approaches The Green Energy Cliff With Morons In Charge
By Francis Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Mar 22, 2026
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2026-3-22-new-york-approaches-the-green-energy-cliff-with-morons-in-charge
They have never done any credible assessment of either feasibility or cost of the Climate Act mandates. Now that the mandates are approaching, it is obvious that they cannot be achieved at any remotely reasonable cost; but our leaders have no plan forward. Their only idea is to pretend that the Climate Act plan is real when it is not, and that it is moving forward when it is not, and then postpone the hard deadlines until after the current Governor is gone.
There’s Nothing “Voluntary” About a Smart Meter
By Grahm Lord, The Daily Sceptic, Mar 23, 2026
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/03/23/theres-nothing-voluntary-about-a-smart-meter
What exists now is a nationwide infrastructure capable of recording detailed energy usage, transmitting it centrally and feeding it into a regulatory system designed to reshape how electricity is priced and consumed.
The dirty war
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 25, 2026
If you like you can amuse yourself searching the archives for Bloomberg Green stories about pollution in Iran prior to Feb. 28. Or the current copy for any hint that perhaps “carbon pollution” to describe CO2 was a bit overwrought given what actual sooty “black rain” carbon pollution is like.
Lid Lifted on the Filthy Manufacturing Secrets Behind the ‘Clean’ Green Power Revolution
By Chris Morrison, The Daily Sceptic, Mar 23, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/03/23/lid-lifted-on-the-filthy-manufacturing-secrets-behind-the-clean-green-power-revolution
There’s no pleasing some people
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 25, 2026
The latest Middle Eastern war has cut the supply of and therefore raised the price of gasoline and other hydrocarbon fuels. Which the naïve might think would please the people who’ve spent a quarter of a century trying to raise the price of gasoline and other hydrocarbon fuels in order to cut the supply. Moreover, it should surely be a further bonus that those jurisdictions that most aggressively tried to get rid of oil, gas and coal are now conspicuously short of oil, gas and coal, whereas retrograde jurisdictions like the United States that missed out on the green transition are stuck with more of the stuff. Serves them right, you might expect climate-panic types to sneer. Stranded assets. Loooosers. And yet for some reason their reaction is somewhat different.
Who’da thunk it?
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 25, 2026
As Matthew Wielicki noted tartly:
“The climate cult says Middle East oil proves fossil fuels are dangerous. Their solution? Make the entire energy system dependent on China./ EV batteries/ Solar panels/ Wind turbines/ Rare earth magnets/ All dominated by Chinese supply chains. Imagine going to war with the country that controls the materials powering your entire energy grid. This isn’t energy security. It’s strategic suicide.”
News Roundup
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 25, 2026
Problems in the Orthodoxy
BlackRock CEO Abandons Climate Delusion for Investor Needs
By Vijay Jayaraj, CO2 Coalition, Mar 24, 2026
Transition realism hits Barclays
Imagine you had been fed climate nonsense your whole life, but now, science has entered the industry. What do you do?
By Bill Ponton, American Thinker, Mar 25, 2026
https://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2026/03/transition_realism_hits_barclays.html
Social Benefits of Carbon Dioxide
The effect of additional CO2 on Harding Grass
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 25, 2026
From the CO2Science.org archive
Seeking a Common Ground
Despite the Liberal Media’s Insistence, Americans Must Judge ‘Experts’ With Caution
By Gary Abernathy, Real Clear Energy, Mar 26, 2026
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2026/03/26/despite_the_liberal_medias_insistence_americans_must_judge_experts_with_caution_1172712.html
The game played by the media actually has a name – it’s the “appeal to authority” tactic, a blatant effort to discredit or disparage a political idea by describing it as reckless, feckless or just plain academically or scientifically incorrect.
Science, Policy, and Evidence
The Rogue Cost : Benefit Analysis for the ZEV Mandate
Think of a number. Any number, as long as it makes the policy look worthwhile.
By JIT, Climate Scepticism, Mar 27, 2026
Starmer: It’s Up to Miliband Whether We Drill in North Sea
By Will Jones, The Daily Sceptic, Mar 25, 2026
https://dailysceptic.org/2026/03/25/starmer-its-up-to-miliband-whether-we-drill-in-north-sea
Sir Keir Starmer has said it is Ed Miliband’s decision whether Britain drills for oil and gas in the North Sea, claiming he has no power in the matter. The Telegraph has more.
The Prime Minister claimed he had no power to approve more licences and insisted that the final call lay with the Energy Secretary.
Changing Weather
The First Heatwave of the Year… and the Same Old Narrative
How long term temperature records challenge the climate narrative
Dr. Matthew Wielicki, Irrational Fear, Mar 23, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://irrationalfear.substack.com/p/the-first-heatwave-of-the-year-and
The longer and more complete our observational record becomes, the more clearly we see that variability is the defining characteristic of climate. Extremes are not new. They are expected. Records will continue to be broken in both directions as the dataset grows.
[SEPP Comment: To limit the observational record to the instrument record is absurd.]
How Unusual Has This Winter Been?
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Mar 22, 2026
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2026/03/how-unusual-has-been-this-winter.html
Because of the two warm spells, the snowpack over the region is about 60% of normal … Let me stress, this is mainly about the warm/wet periods associated with atmospheric rivers and Kona Storms, NOT global warming, as being claimed by some media and amateur YouTube channels.
Our Reservoirs are Now Full, Months Ahead of Time
By Cliff Mass, Weather Blog, Mar 25, 2026
https://cliffmass.blogspot.com/2026/03/are-reservoirs-are-now-full-months.html
[SEPP Comment: In the comments section to an assertion that Washington State needs both full reservoirs and abundant snowpack, Mass wrote: “I am sorry, but there are problems with the ST [Seattle Times] and your statements. Generally, the reservoirs are NOT full this early…they fill in spring from snowmelt. But we had so much rain that they filled months early! And spring rain will help keep them full. And there WILL be snowmelt as well. Snowpack is about 50% of normal. So that melt will help keep the reservoirs up. Bottom line…. the water situation is not serious and the simplistic snowpack arguments are not correct.”]
Changing Cryosphere – Land / Sea Ice
Arctic sea ice at lowest recorded winter level as heat records smashed
By Ryan Manacini, The Hill, Mar 27, 2026
https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/5805227-record-low-arctic-sea-ice
The North Pole’s Sea ice has reached its lowest level for the winter season as increasing temperatures break records across the continents, according to the National Snow and Ice Data Center (NSIDC), based at the University of Colorado Boulder, on Thursday.
The center’s scientists “stress that the Arctic Sea ice extent number is preliminary — weather conditions could change the annual maximum ice extent.”
Changing Seas
Will the real sea surface temperature trend please stand up?
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 25, 2026
Link to paper: Consequential differences in satellite-era sea surface temperature trends across datasets
By S. Menemenlis, et al., Nature Climate Change, July 11, 2025
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-025-02362-6
From Robson: About the only thing we can ever be truly confident of is that climate scientists will overstate the confidence in their data.
Sea levels around Africa are rising faster than the global average: what’s behind this alarming trend
By Franck Ghomsi, The Conversation, Mar 16, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://theconversation.com/sea-levels-around-africa-are-rising-faster-than-the-global-average-whats-behind-this-alarming-trend-276888
We analyzed 32 years of records and isolated the long-term trends from short-term influences like the El Niño weather pattern. We also examined ocean temperature and salinity data from the surface down to 300 metres depth to determine how much of the sea level change was caused by the ocean warming and expanding versus gaining additional water mass.
Our study revealed something remarkable about the 2023 to 2024 period. The El Niño event, which every so often spreads warm water across parts of the Pacific Ocean and alters weather patterns around the world, combined with other climate phenomena. Together, they created the largest sea level spike ever recorded in African waters, reaching an anomaly of 27mm. [1.18 inches]
Acidic Waters
A drop in the ocean
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 25, 2026
Link to: Understanding the Science of Ocean and Coastal Acidification
By Staff, EPA, Accessed Mar 25, 2026
https://www.epa.gov/ocean-acidification/understanding-science-ocean-and-coastal-acidification
From EPA: Ocean acidity has increased about 25% from pre-1700’s to the early 21st century, a pace faster than any known in Earth’s geologic past.
The acidity of the ocean is greater than any point in the past two million years.
From Robson: From the tiny Earth file, we learn via the Daily Sceptic of a Daily Mail story about how “Last August, 65,000 liters of bright red chemicals were pumped into the Gulf of Maine – yet this wasn’t an enormous industrial disaster. Instead, it was a controversial geoengineering experiment that scientists claim could help to slow down global warming.” Now you can just imagine what people would say if some unauthorized group were dumping some speculative sludge into the water for almost any other purpose. But oddly this group was authorized by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and was from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. The plan, so to speak, is to make the water more alkaline so it will absorb more CO2. Which manages to combine a preposterously small chance of success with hugely ominous consequences if it worked. What could go wrong?
[SEPP Comment: The ocean are not acidic, they are alkaline and will remain alkaline unless there are major volcanic eruptions emitting great amounts of sulfur dioxide which becomes sulfuric acid.]
Agriculture Issues & Fear of Famine
Aussie Growing Conditions which Produced Record Harvests are now “Climate Whiplash”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Mar 21, 2026
Lowering Standards
Record Rainfall In Worcestershire?
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 27, 2026
All of the evidence points in one direction only – February 1923 was much wetter.
The Met Office pretends it has “comparable data” back to 1836. However, the only stations listed in the British Rainfall publication in the early days were Worcester and Tenbury, both of which closed years ago. As we have seen, the current stations only have short records, making comparison with 1836 a nonsensical concept.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Yellow (Green) Journalism?
No, Associated Press, This Southwest Heatwave Was Not ‘Virtually Impossible’ Without Climate Change
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, Mar 26, 2026
The AP’s report relies heavily on a single attribution study from the World Weather Attribution (WWA) group titled “Record-shattering March temperatures in Western North America virtually impossible without climate change.”
[SEPP Comment: For a description of WWA’s activities see the report by Alexander described in the This Week section above.]
Context and Location Matters, USA Today and Others, Longer Allergy Season Has an Upside
By H. Sterling Burnett, Climate Realism, Mar 24, 2026
US Heatwave Brings CCN Lies
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 25, 2026
The heatwave has not been caused by global warming, but is merely a weather phenomenon, as Science Alert explain:
What’s happening is the jet stream – which moves weather systems from west to east – is pretty much stuck as far westward as the storms dousing Hawaii.
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda
Brother Love the Earth’s Traveling Salvation Show
By Paul Driessen, WUWT, Mar 24, 2026
Former National Audubon Society COO Dan Beard once confessed, “What you get in your mailbox is a never-ending stream of shrill crisis-related material designed to evoke emotions so that you will sit down and write a check.”
Communicating Better to the Public – Use Propaganda on Children
The Conversation: “Why emotional resilience should be at the heart of climate change education”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Mar 27, 2026
During the WW2 London Blitz, when people huddled in underground shelters with bombs detonating overhead, parents and teachers didn’t try to indoctrinate kids about all the ways they could die. They tried to distract the kids from the nightmare unfolding above their heads, they told kids stories and played games, to try to create a sense of normality, to help the children feel safe.
Only climate activists seem to think it is necessary to indoctrinate young children with the full horror of their apocalyptic fantasies.
Communicating Better to the Public – Protest
Save Loch Ness
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 21, 2026
Plans include the construction of:
- Three new huge Pump Storage Hydro (PSH) facilities.
- Wind Farms on surrounding moorland from which pure water sources feed into Loch Ness.
- Associated infrastructure such as weir upgrades, pylons, roads, workers camps, heavy goods traffic and telecoms towers.
- Abstraction of water for ‘Green’ Hydrogen production.
Questioning European Green
Mission Impossible
A simple analysis shows that U.K. cannot meet its net zero goals
By Roger Pielke Jr., His Blog, Mar 24, 2024
[SEPP Comment: Although TWTW agrees with Pielke’s analysis, TWTW disagrees with his view that decarbonization is necessary, or desirable.]
“It’s Terrifying At This Point” | Ed Miliband BLASTED Over His ‘Mad’ Net Zero Goals
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 27, 2026
Nine-minute Video featuring Chris Morrison
Iran War Offers a Glimpse of a Net Zero Future
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar23, 2026
If gas markets have gone crazy just because 3% of the world’s output has been blockaded, just think what life would be like with half of it taken out of the equation.
Oil is a bit different. About a quarter of the world’s oil comes the Middle East, excluding Iran itself. But again, the 1.5C target demands that a further quarter be taken away permanently, not just for a few months.
And, of course, there is also coal, which cannot be easily replaced either.
The current energy crisis is a wakeup call, but not for the reasons Miliband believes. It is a glimpse of a much more catastrophic crisis heading our way if the Net Zero nutjobs get their way.
That killed a sacred cow: Eating red meat might help some people avoid Alzheimers
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 24, 2026
https://joannenova.com.au/2026/03/that-killed-a-sacred-cow-eating-red-meat-might-help-some-people-avoid-alzheimers
Link to paper: Meat Consumption and Cognitive Health by APOE Genotype
Jakob Norgren, et al., JAMA Network, Mar 19, 2026
https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2846712?utm_source=For_The_Media&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=ftm_links&utm_term=031926
From Key Points: These findings suggest that higher meat consumption than conventionally recommended may be associated with benefits in a genetically defined subgroup comprising approximately one-quarter of the global population.
Questioning Green Elsewhere
It’s worse in Canada
By John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 25, 2026
Nor is it clear how a government that mistakes words for deeds could do any of this stuff, or one that remains committed to Net Zero could attempt most of it.
Great News: Oil Majors Are Backing Down on “Green” Energy Projects
By Linnea Lueken, Climate Realism, Mar 25, 2026
A recent article from MSN titled “Oil majors cut energy transition spending in 2025 for first time in eight years,” discusses a recent report which found the largest oil and gas companies are decreasing spending on net zero projects due to lack of political support and a disinterested customer base.
Non-Green Jobs
U.K. EV Rules Threaten Chaos For Locals, Success For China
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 23, 2026
Litigation Issues
Maryland Blocks Frivolous Climate Lawsuits
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Mar 25, 2026
Link to decision: MAYOR & CITY COUNCIL OF BALTIMORE v. B.P. P.L.C., et al.
By Supreme Court of Maryland, Mar 24, 2026
From the decision: The question presented in this case is whether Maryland local governments may bring state common law tort claims against 26 multinational oil and gas companies to recover damages caused by global greenhouse gas emissions. We hold that they may not.
For the reasons set forth more fully herein, we determine that state common law has never applied to the conduct alleged by the local governments. We determine that the local governments, through their various state law claims, are seeking to regulate air emissions beyond their jurisdictional boundaries. For over a century, the United States Supreme Court has held that cases involving regulation of interstate pollution arise under federal law.
Climate Lawfare Is Stalling America’s Energy Future
By Pinar Cebi Wilber, Real Clear Energy, Mar 26, 2026
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2026/03/26/climate_lawfare_is_stalling_americas_energy_future_1172715.html
Energy Issues – General
The Strait of Hormuz Crisis Shows the World Still Runs on Fossil Fuels
By Tilak Doshi, Tilak’s Substack, Mar 22, 2026
https://tilakdoshi.substack.com/p/the-strait-of-hormuz-crisis-shows
The crisis unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz offers a sobering lesson for energy policymakers. Energy transitions unfold slowly. They require vast infrastructure investments and technological breakthroughs that cannot occur overnight. The global energy system has been built over more than a century. Replacing hydrocarbons entirely would require transformations on a scale rarely acknowledged in political debate.
Yet Another Reason Why Wind And Solar Electricity Generation Will Never Work To Run An Economy
By Franics Menton, Manhattan Contrarian, Mar 25, 2026
https://www.manhattancontrarian.com/blog/2026-3-25-yet-another-reason-why-wind-and-solar-electricity-generation-will-never-work-to-run-an-economy
[SEPP Comment: Great summary of Kathryn Porter’s talk discussed in last week’s TWTW. One amplification, wind turbines have great inertia, but the rotation is not stable because the turbine blades are buffeted by the wind.]
Energy Issues – Europe
Rosebank Could Be Producing By Autumn If Miliband Says Yes
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 21, 2026
From the Mail:
Britain’s largest oil field could be producing millions of barrels a day by the autumn if Ed Miliband gives a green light to its plans, according to its owner.
Gas from Rosebank would be used in the UK and contribute to around 1 per cent of national needs.
But the oil would have to be exported elsewhere in northern Europe, as the UK no longer has the refinery capabilities to process it.
British Gas boss: Drill the North Sea to bring down energy prices
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 24, 2026
Why renewables are not a hedge for volatile gas
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 27, 2026
Homewood: Usual excellent summary from Kathryn Porter
[SEPP Comment: Video: Electricity accounts for less than 20% of the UK energy use.]
Natural Gas Prices
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 27, 2026
Bear in mind as well that RPI [Retail Price Index] has risen by 28% since 2022.
[SEPP Comment: In 2022 prices spiked to more than three times that of today.]
Wind Output Drops Away
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 22, 2026
There’s been a lot of anti-cyclonic over Britain and much of Europe in the last few days.
On Friday, for example, wind power dipped to under 3GW in Britain. Fortunately we could turn to gas to keep the lights on. We were also desperately reliant on imported electricity, which at the moment of writing is providing 23% of our electricity, half coming from France.
On the continent it has been the same story. In Germany, wind power was down to just 8% of the grid, which means their wind farms were operating at just 5% of capacity. It was a similar situation in the Low Countries and Denmark.
Germany did manage to generate large amounts of solar power around midday, much of which as exported. But you clearly cannot run a grid just on variable solar power.
Instead, it was coal and gas that were doing the heavy lifting, accounting for half of Germany’s electricity and providing both the baseload and dispatchable power needed to run a grid reliably, while matching supply and demand.
Govt Figures Confirm Heat Pumps Are Dearer To Run
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 26, 2026
There is a lot of misinformation peddled about heat pumps, much of it just nonsense from people who frankly do not know what they are talking about.
So, a couple more facts might be in order, which have been taken from NESO’s Future Energy Scenarios last year.
1) There are currently about 24 million households in the UK with gas boilers. It is targeted to switch 22 million of these to heat pumps by 2050.
2) Heat pumps are expected to eventually increase current peak demand for electricity by 50%, from 58 to 87 GW by 2050.
3) Overall, including power demand from EVs and other users, peak demand for electricity is expected to rise to 143 GW by 2050.
It is of course pointless trying to allocate this rise in peak demand between different sectors. In a Net Zero world, they will all be part of one giant mix. But plainly an effective tripling of peak demand will have massive consequences for the transmission and distribution networks.
BBC’s Heat Pump Propaganda Backfires!
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 23, 2026
The BBC’s Evan Davis is desperately trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear!
Instead, he trips himself up and succeeds in showing just why heat pumps are useless in the UK:
Energy Issues – Australia
Aussie Fuel Crisis: “Is this a safe area to leave my automobile?”
By Eric Worrall, WUWT, Mar 23, 2026
Energy Issues – Elsewhere non-US
Will Canada unshackle itself in time? The global energy and minerals window of opportunity
By Terry Etam, BOE Report, Mar 17, 2026
Net Zero is Dead, Carney Still Pushing It
By Ron Clutz, His Blog, Mar 22, 2026
From: Net zero is dead. Why is Carney still pushing it?.
By Gwyn Morgan, Financial Post, Mar 19, 2026
https://financialpost.com/opinion/net-zero-dead-why-mark-carney-pushing
Net-zero fatigued Canadians should be asking their prime minister, “Why are you weakening our already struggling economy with carbon taxes and wasting taxpayer money subsidizing wind farms when it will make no perceptible difference to the global climate?” He owes them an answer.
Energy Issues — US
Wyoming wind power needs a Programmatic Environmental Impact Assessment
By David Wojick, CFACT, Mar 24, 2026
A programmatic EIA is a comprehensive analysis of the cumulative impacts of the massive wind development underway in Wyoming. The growing adverse impact on golden eagles and other wildlife is especially disturbing. What can be done to limit the damage is a big part of the assessment.
There is NEPA language for this. It is called a “Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS)” looking at “cumulative effects”. The Feds completed two back in 2024. The first one was for multiple offshore wind projects in the New York Bight. They then completed one for the five proposed floating wind projects off California. These are a good precedent for Wyoming.
The Two Biggest Myths About AI Data Centers
By Ross Pomeroy, WUWT, Mar 23, 2026
Across the country, Americans are flocking to city council, planning commission, and water board meetings trying to stop data centers from being built. Driving this NIMBYism are two main arguments: data centers will drive up electricity rates, and data centers will guzzle local water resources. Data centers are prodigious consumers of both power and water, so these views are understandable. They are also (mostly) wrong.
America’s Grid Needs Upgrades, Not Scapegoats
By Mario Ottero, Real Clear Energy, Mar 24, 2026
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2026/03/24/americas_grid_needs_upgrades_not_scapegoats_1172433.html
Copper, Conflict, and National Security: Why Critical Minerals Are the Backbone of America’s Future
By Phil Ehr, Real Clear Energy, Mar 26, 2026
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2026/03/26/copper_conflict_and_national_security_why_critical_minerals_are_the_backbone_of_americas_future_1172713.html
Wind and Solar: A Costly Mistake That America Can’t Afford
By Frank Lasee, Real Clear Energy, Mar 23, 2026
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2026/03/23/wind_and_solar_a_costly_mistake_that_america_cant_afford_1172136.html
America’s energy future demands honesty, not slogans. Wind and solar may have niche roles. Pretending they can shoulder the grid’s burden without massive, hidden subsidies and land grabs is a costly mistake.
New Jersey Legislation Targeting Energy Companies Will Hurt Consumers
By Marc Brown, Real Clear Energy, Mar 23, 2026
https://www.realclearenergy.org/articles/2026/03/23/new_jersey_legislation_targeting_energy_companies_will_hurt_consumers_1171823.html
Fringe anti-energy activists are pushing this misguided policy are trying to mislead the public by changing the title of the bill. The Climate Revolution Action Network and Working Families Party opted to ditch the bill’s prior name, “Climate Superfund Act”, in favor of a more catchy and polarizing term. By branding S2338 the “Polluter Pays to Make New Jersey More Affordable Act,” the bill’s proponents are hoping you pay more attention to words than billions of dollars in costs.
Oil and Natural Gas – the Future or the Past?
A Modern Miracle Part I: What Oil And Gas Do For Us
19-minute Video, John Robson, Climate Discussion Nexus, Mar 17, 2026
Roundabout – More Canadian Heavy Crude Is Heading South – Likely Via the Rockies
By Rusty Braziel, RBN Energy, Mar 24, 2026
https://rbnenergy.com/daily-posts/blog/more-canadian-heavy-crude-heading-south-likely-rockies
Canadian crude oil production has been, is now, and will keep on growing, with almost all of the increase coming in the heavy, viscous, high-sulfur variety — what’s euphemistically called oil sands. But where’s it going to go? Not to the Midwest. Refineries there are full up with the stuff. Not to exports out of British Columbia. The new pipe that takes crude that way was delayed by a decade, required a Canadian government takeover to reach completion, and ultimately cost nearly six times its original budget. Ouch.
No, the barrels will be coming to the U.S. Gulf Coast, home to the largest concentration of heavy oil refineries in the world.
No single project lays out the entire route from origin to destination, but the various proposals point toward a chain of roundabout connections that could move those barrels step by step toward the Gulf, with many of those barrels flowing through the Rocky Mountains.
Return of King Coal?
Wow! China turns a massive 380 million tons of coal into gas, petrol, plastics and fertilizer
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 27, 2026
https://joannenova.com.au/2026/03/china-is-converting-mass-coal-to-liquid-fuel-plastics-and-fertilizer
Link to one article: China’s Renewable Boom Masks a Quiet Coal-to-Liquids Expansion
By Natalia Katona, Oil Price.com, Mar 02, 2026
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Coal/Chinas-Renewable-Boom-Masks-a-Quiet-Coal-to-Liquids-Expansion.html
From Oil Price.com: Coal-to-liquids (CTL) and coal-to-chemicals (CTC) technologies provide the missing link. Using Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, coal can be converted into synthetic liquid fuels such as diesel, gasoline, and naphtha, as well as petrochemical feedstocks including olefins for plastics production. China and South Africa are the only countries operating CTL and CTC at an industrial scale. China alone consumes hundreds of millions of tonnes of coal annually (380 million tonnes as reported by the IEA) for chemical and synthetic fuel production. It is important to note that the largest part of this demand goes into the CTC industry. China has effectively replaced gas as its main feedstock for ammonia and methanol production with raw coal, to the extent that roughly 80% of these chemicals’ output is now fed by coal.
China’s energy transition is therefore less a story of coal’s decline than of its reallocation. Renewables are displacing coal in electricity generation because they are currently cheaper, scalable, and politically advantageous in climate reporting. But rather than abandoning coal, China is redirecting it into synthetic fuels and petrochemicals – sectors that preserve industrial activity, employment, and energy security.
And yes, coal is not disappearing from China’s energy system. It is simply changing form.
Japan, Korea, India, Europe, suddenly turn to coal to save them from the Iranian energy crisis
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 28, 2026
https://joannenova.com.au/2026/03/japan-korea-india-europe-suddenly-turn-to-coal-to-save-them-from-the-iranian-energy-crisis
Oil Spills, Gas Leaks & Consequences
Explosion rocks Texas oil refinery
By Ryan Manchini, The Hill, Mar 24, 2026
https://thehill.com/homenews/state-watch/5797779-explosion-rocks-texas-oil-refinery
A fire at Valero’s largest oil refinery in Texas was put out on Tuesday after an explosion prompted a shelter-in-place order for residents in the area.
The explosion occurred at a refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, around 90 miles east of Houston.
Mayor Charlotte Moses told residents that no one was hurt in the incident.
Nuclear Energy and Fears
China aims to be the new global king of nuclear power, and no one is paying attention
By Jo Nova, Her Blog, Mar 24, 2026
https://joannenova.com.au/2026/03/china-aims-to-be-the-new-global-king-of-nuclear-power-and-no-one-is-paying-attention
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Solar and Wind
The severe socio-economic costs of solar and wind
By Sethakgi Kgomo, CFACT, Mar 21, 2026
South Africa is being inundated with inducements from foreign countries, including, but not limited to, the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom motivating us to cut CO2 emissions. We are bombarded with their vociferous calls to “save the planet.” It is due to that pressure on South Africa that one large coal power station has already been prematurely closed.
Alberta Joins Solar/Wind Bust (uneconomic energy hits political risk)
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Mar 26, 2026
“Renewables” are not Renewable
The fossil fuel foundation of wind, solar, and batteries
By Roger Pielke, Jr., His Blog, Mar25, 2026 [H/t Bernie Kepshire]
https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/renewables-are-not-renewable
Can wind turbines and solar panels be created from a supply chain powered by wind turbines and solar panels?
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Energy — Storage
Security experts concerned on potential harm of EV batteries
By Ronald Stein and Michael Hogan, America Outloud News, Mar 23, 2026
https://www.americaoutloud.news/security-experts-concerned-on-potential-harm-of-ev-batteries
The biggest maritime pollution event in world history happened a couple of years ago, in the Azores. The 200-meter-long cargo ship Felicity Ace sank after a fire that broke out on board and lasted for 13 days, reports the news agency AP. The ship was transporting around 4,000 cars between Germany and the United States. The fire started on one of the cargo decks. Massive toxic air and water pollution occurred as the ship slowly exploded and sank.
[SEPP Comment: The pollution was greater than the pollution caused by the Battle of Leyte Gulf in October 1944 in which about 30 ships were sunk?]
Alternative, Green (“Clean”) Vehicles
Electric Car Mandates Start To Bite
By Paul Homewood, Not a Lot of People Know That, Mar 22, 2026
Car manufacturers must ensure that electric cars make up at least 33% of their total registrations this year or face swinging government fines of £12000 for every car they are short.
“These 18 Automakers Are Walking Away from EV Plans”
By Robert Bradley Jr., Master Resource, Mar 24, 2026
Busted! Just like the US rooftop solar industry, the domestic EV business, so heralded and subsidized by previous administrations, is in steep decline. The domestic battery industry is following suit, …
California Dreaming
The Economics of Managing Mono Lake
By Edward Ring, California Policy Center, Mar 24, 2026
Advocates for cutting off LADWP’s last 16,000-acre feet of supply from the upper Owens Valley claim the city is on track to make up that difference through projects to recycle wastewater. That’s true, but the current cost per acre-foot of recycled wastewater is $2,500 per acre foot. What is at stake for LADWP, and the ratepayers they serve, is an additional cost of $80 million per year.
Finally, posturing over the sacred nature of Mono Lake – or any other ecosystem – whether animated by indigenous animism or new age spirituality, should not dominate the moral arguments put before the State Water Resources Control Board. These regulators also have a moral and sacred obligation to optimize the flourishing of all human beings, of all origins, whether living in cities or under the sky.
Other Scientific News
The Puzzling Mystery of Ohio and Texas Fireballs
By Anthony Watts, WUWT, Mar 25, 2026
“Spring is fireball season,” says Bill Cooke of the NASA Meteoroid Environment Office. “For reasons we don’t fully understand, the rate of very bright meteors climbs 10% to 30% during weeks around the vernal equinox.”
BELOW THE BOTTOM LINE
Climate Models Discover Yet Another Thing CO2 Can Do
By Charles Rotter, WUWT, Mar 26, 2026
Link to paper: CO2 radiative forcing induces summer cooling over India
By Jinhong Liu, et al., Nature Communications, Mar 24, 2026
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-026-69875-2
From abstract: Counterintuitively, however, some regions exhibit surface cooling against this global warming background—a phenomenon known as a warming hole. Beyond the well-documented warming holes over the North Atlantic and southeastern United States, here we show that increasing atmospheric CO2 concentrations can also induce summertime cooling over India.
From Rotter: The models can produce warming. They can produce cooling. They can produce both at once, depending on where and when one looks.
The question is how confidently those outputs can be translated into real-world expectations—and whether that confidence justifies the scale of the policies being proposed in their name.
No, Euronews, a Millisecond Change in the Length of Day Can’t Be Tied to Climate Change, Nor Is It a Crisis
By Anthony Watts, Climate Realism, Mar 20, 2026
… climate change is slowly but measurably altering Earth’s rotation, lengthening the day by about 1.33 milliseconds over a century,
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