August 08, 2025

The Climate Cult Takes On "Resiliency" In Manhattan

August 08, 2025/ Francis Menton

Here in New York City, in the grip of the hysterical climate cult, we are undertaking a massive transformation of our energy system without anyone in authority having done the simple arithmetic to check whether the plans have any chance of succeeding. A big theme of this blog has been pointing out the obvious problems that mean that these “net zero” schemes can never work.
But maybe it’s not really important whether they will ever work or not. Maybe the real point is just to spend a lot of (somebody else’s) money to show that you, somehow, “care.”
A very similar scenario is now playing out in the closely related category they are calling climate “resiliency.” The word means getting ready for the impending climate armaggedon. The armaggedon isn’t coming, of course, but we will anyway spend vast sums supposedly to show we are “doing something” about the problem.
Whether the scheme in question might actually work is beside the point.

July 26, 2024

How Will New York's Energy Madness End? The "Don't Do It!" Report

July 26, 2024/ Francis Menton

I frequently write about how the mandates for energy transition that New York has adopted are impossible and irreconcilable in the real world; and therefore it is inevitable that they will have to be abandoned at some point when implementation of the project runs up against physical reality.
Probably the most frequent question that I get asked is, OK, how and when will that occur?
The question is important because for as long as the impossible mandates remain in place they are causing massive ongoing damage to our electricity system and to consumers.

July 17, 2024

July 17, 2024/ Francis Menton

Before everything got disrupted by the attempt on President Trump’s life, I had written a post last week titled “Big Tech On The Path To Net Zero.”
That post looked at the most recently issued “sustainability” reports from Google, Microsoft and Meta, and noted that all three admit to going rapidly in the opposite direction from “net zero.” As their businesses grow in the direction of power-hungry data centers and AI, they inevitably require large incremental amounts of always-available electricity — the kind of electricity that wind and sun cannot provide. Lacking viable alternatives to fossil fuels, their “emissions” rise.
But, you might ask, how about Amazon and Apple?

June 08, 2024

June 08, 2024/ Francis Menton

I’m old enough to remember a time when there were serious environmental concerns with internal combustion engine vehicles.
NOx and SOx emissions caused a thick layer of brown smog in the atmosphere during calm weather spells in summer and winter; and a layer of black soot would cover the snow along the roadside in the winter.
But gradually that all got cleaned up. Today the bona fide serious environmental concerns about internal combustion engines are far in the past. But the war to eliminate them — supposedly on environmental grounds — is just ramping up.
The Biden Administration is all in with the plan to get rid of the ICE car. Why?

June 03, 2024

June 03, 2024/ Francis Menton

The Global Warming Policy Foundation 2024 American speaking tour is now set for next week.
Dr. Benny Peiser, Director of the GWPF, and I will be speaking at three events on June 11, 12 and 13 on the topic of “Europe’s Net Zero Rebellion, European elections, and the coming U.S. reckoning.” My piece is the “U.S. reckoning,” while Benny will cover the backlash against Net Zero currently beginning to boil up in Europe.
Meanwhile, take note: there is clearly a political earthquake gathering force in Europe against the green energy takeover. Exactly how much force it has gathered so far is something we will learn much more about after June 9.
But whether the shift in this election is small or large, either way it will be significant.

May 28, 2024

May 28, 2024/ Francis Menton

How are things going in China?
That is a question of great interest to everyone in the world, both inside China and out. Of all countries, China has either the largest or second-largest population (neck and neck with India at about 1.4 billion), and an economy that is a relatively close second to the United States in absolute production (although less than 20% as prosperous on the basis of per capita GDP).
China’s economy has clearly grown rapidly since the 1980s, but there is conflicting information as to whether that growth is continuing, or perhaps stalling out. If China is continuing its rapid economic expansion under the increasingly authoritarian regime of Xi Jinping, its enhanced economic strength could pose a growing threat to its Asian neighbors and indeed to the rest of the world.
But other information suggests that China’s economy is in grave distress, and that the country has entered into what could be a period of extended contraction and decline.