Jeff Reynolds
Jeff Reynolds is senior editor for Restoration News, specializing in energy and science policy, as well as dark money.
Livin’ in the USA means having to listen to aging rockers lecture us about all manners of social ills. Instead of hearing our favorite musicians uplift us through modern life with their artistic performance, more often than not we have to sit through diatribes about how Western culture has destroyed humanity, and how we need to adopt communism to reverse colonial exploitation, or whatever nonsense these people believe.
Case in point: the Steve Miller Band. You may not believe this, but they had an entire North American Tour planned for this summer. Emphasis on the past tense, because the 81-year-old lead singer canceled the entire tour last week.
Wouldn’t want to risk going to a concert during… *checks notes* …summer concert season.
This decision makes sense if one considers the context. In recent months we’ve seen the mainstream media take it upon themselves to ramp up a shock and awe campaign over weather events. There have been some major tragedies, for sure, from the floods in Texas to Hurricane Helene, but the narrative has been to tie it all to an angry earth that’s fighting back against the humans who caused it to be out of balance. No wonder, then, that some folks with more of a predilection towards blaming Western culture for the current state of the atmosphere would find themselves panicked over these stories, leading them to decide that the weather simply poses too big a risk in 2025 to go out and have a little fun for the summer.
On top of that silliness, we have several other irrational stories about climate hysteria, including Microsoft wanting to buy your sewage, several stories about imploding EV markets and green energy scams, a whole bunch of manipulated data used to create climate propaganda, and sunlight on federally supported climate scams. Last week’s good news includes the beginning of the end of the Net Zero Banking Alliance, and the Trump administration canceling the federal funding for Gavin Newsom’s high speed rail to nowhere.
The Virtue Signaling Has Gotten Out of Control
Microsoft has invested a significant chunk of change into artificial intelligence data centers to stay at the forefront of the AI revolution. Those data centers take a lot of electricity, which purportedly leads to a lot of “carbon pollution,” which makes the execs feel guilty. Now, they’ve decided to offset all that energy usage by buying sewage. Look, we can’t make it make sense, but this is a real headline in the Wall Street Journal:
Microsoft Wants Your Poop to Lower Its Emissions
The tech giant is investing in increasingly innovative methods of removing carbon from the atmosphere in an effort to offset the climate impact of its AI data centers.
The idea is to offset Microsoft’s ‘carbon footprint’ by storing human and farm waste thousands of feet underground through “a pump that acts like a giant syringe.”
Last Week in Imploding EVs
Two big notes last week in the continuing story of alternate fuel vehicles failing to catch on.
- From the New York Post: Congress is working to cancel former President Joe Biden’s effort to create thousands of electric postal service vehicles. “A Biden administration plan to create a ‘green’ fleet of postal vehicles has churned out a mere 250 electric mail trucks in just over two years – after shelling out taxpayer funds meant to build thousands – leaving Republicans raging at the multibillion-dollar ‘boondoggle.’”
- While EVs consistently fail, other alternate types of fuel have also bitten the dust. The attempt to develop hydrogen fuel has a long history of failure. The latest example is the carmaker Stellantis, which announced this week they’re canceling their hydrogen vehicle program:
Stellantis said it would discontinue its hydrogen fuel-cell technology development program because it doesn’t expect the adoption of hydrogen-powered light commercial vehicles before the end of the decade.
The Jeep parent cited limited availability of hydrogen-refueling infrastructure, high capital requirements, and the need for stronger consumer purchasing incentives.
Last Week in Imploding Green Energy
Last week saw several items of bad news for the green energy sector.
- A poll in New Jersey by Independent Women’s Forum showed that renewable energy plans are deeply unpopular in this blue state:
67% of those polled did not know “relying exclusively on renewable energy sources’ would cost their state $1.4 trillion.
And 52% said that understanding the state’s energy policies will make “the average utility bill in NJ … 20% more expensive” makes them less supportive of the policies.
Additionally, “support for the 2035 mandate dropped by 10 full points,” according to the poll.
The poll’s overview said that “at the start of the poll, energy ranked as a second-tier issue for most swing voters, with just 7.3% calling it their ‘top issue’ this election.
“But once voters were informed of the real-world costs of the state’s policies … support dropped and concern spiked,” the poll found.
- The Netherlands has recently started rationing energy, as it approaches its Net Zero goals – and the grid strains under the weight of electrifying everything. Thousands of businesses, public buildings, and new homes have been placed in a queue to await connection to the grid. Some have received warnings they could have to wait until the 2030s to get connected.
Electricity prices are already among the highest in Western Europe, and Dutch households face yearly tariff increases of up to 4.7 per cent for at least the next decade.
To ease demand, operators are offering cheaper contracts for off-peak usage and telling major industries they may need to shut off entirely for several hours a day.
A national ad campaign is urging the public to avoid charging e-bikes and electric cars between 4 pm and 9 pm, when the grid is under the most strain.
The Netherlands has been one of Europe’s most aggressive adopters of green policies, aiming to cut emissions in half by 2030.
- In a stab against “renewable” energy lunacy, Louisiana Gov Jeff Landry signed a law recently that defined green energy to include nuclear and natural gas, with predictable results from the unhinged left.
Last Week in Climate Propaganda
We had several examples last week of propaganda created to advance a climate narrative that doesn’t match the facts on the ground.
- Yet more proof that Antarctica has stubbornly refused to keep melting, despite supposedly increasing global temperatures. The southernmost continent has gained 500 gigatons of ice mass since 2020.
- Meanwhile, the temperature spike has refused to… well… spike. According to NOAA data, the past 12 months were cooler than the same period in 2011–2012 in the United States.
- Retired Air Force meteorologist John Shewchuk reminded us last week that no correlation exists between atmospheric temperature and CO2 concentrations.
- In contrast to the hysterical mainstream media narrative that “global warming” caused the catastrophic floods in Texas, New Mexico, and other parts of the country, Tony Heller pointed out on X that floods are far from uncommon.
Federal Government Climate Shenanigans Exposed
Nicole Shanahan, RFK Jr’s erstwhile vice-presidential running mate, had a long post on X this week detailing information she received from a whistleblower and other public sources revealing how extensively various federal agencies have invested in geoengineering. Shanahan notes it’s gone on since the mid-20th century, with very little oversight by the public or by Congress. These efforts include solar radiation management, stratospheric aerosol injection, and other climate modification technologies. The entire post is worth a read.
Meanwhile, Fox News had an exclusive report last week on the Climate Judiciary Project, created in 2018 by the Environmental Law Institute to provide judges with climate information that advances their radical legal efforts:
An environmental advocacy group accused of trying to manipulate judges organized a years-long, nationwide online forum with jurists to promote favorable info and litigation updates regarding climate issues – until the email-styled group chat was abruptly made private, Fox News Digital found.
The Climate Judiciary Project (CJP) was founded in 2018 by a left-wing environmental nonprofit, the Environmental Law Institute (ELI), and pitches itself as a “first-of-its-kind effort” that “provides judges with authoritative, objective, and trusted education on climate science, the impacts of climate change, and the ways climate science is arising in the law.”
But critics, such as Sen Ted Cruz, R-Texas, say CJP is funded by China and left-wing activists for one purpose.
“They fund CJP to train judges,” Cruz said during a June hearing. “So, quote, unquote, train in climate science and make them agreeable to creative climate litigation tactics. Then, these left-wing bankrollers turn around and fund the climate litigators who will bring these bogus cases before those same judges that they’ve just indoctrinated.”
Now for our Good News segment.
The Net Zero Banking Alliance Appears to be Imploding
A few years back, the United Nations created the Net Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA) as a vehicle to pressure companies to adopt green policies. In essence, in order to qualify for financing, corporations had to toe the global warming line. But a funny thing happened on the way to decarbonizing our banks: The ideas proved so unpopular and untenable that their founding members started getting out of the racket. Turns out it wasn’t good for their bottom line. The latest bank to announce its exit: Global financing giant HSBC. Of course, they attempted to save face by expressing their continued support for individual decarbonization goals in a statement, saying they “remain engaged” to “support the mobilization of capital towards the net zero transition.”
Trump Cancels Federal Funding for CA Train to Nowhere
Finally last week, Secretary of Transportation Sean Duffy announced the cancelation of billions in grants to California for its high speed rail project.
Naturally, California sued to protect their never-ending federal funding, calling the decision “capricious.” The project first began after the passage of a statewide ballot initiative in 2008, but construction did not start until 2015. In all that time, not a single inch of high-speed track has been laid.
You know he makes his livin’ off the peoples’ taxes. Go on, Gavin Newsom, take the money and run.
This article originally appeared at Restoration News and was republished by CFACT.
