Two More Major Actions Are Needed before We Can Celebrate Victory over the CIC

A number of skeptic observers have recently marked the one year anniversary of President Trump’s decision to leave the Paris accord (for which the Senate never approved US participation) with favorable comments concerning how it was the right decision and how much progress has been made in the last year in decreasing the Climate-Industrial Complex‘s (CIC’s) hold on the expenditure of resources on the CIC’s “decarbonization” campaign. I believe that President Trump made the right decision on the Paris accord, but that there are two vital additional changes that need to be made. These are the reevaluation of the EPA Greenhouse Gas Endangerment Finding and the elimination of Federal subsidies for building ever more unjustifiable “renewable” power plants. Only when both have been accomplished on a permanent basis will skeptic celebrations be in order.

As it is now, the CIC climate alarmist agenda may be back in business as soon as President Trump leaves office. Surely the country and world is better for the actions of the Trump Administration to reduce the influence of the CIC, but the likelihood that the CIC could in the end “win” is a sobering reality that unless these twin bases for the CIC stranglehold on the climate issue are accomplished by January, 2021, or possibly January, 2025, the changes made by the Trump Administration will soon vanish. The Endangerment Finding requires that EPA promulgate regulations to control carbon dioxide emissions, and the subsidy enables the CIC to force taxpayers to pick up the costs.

Without these subsidies, construction of additional solar and wind plants will come to an immediate end since they are not an efficient way to generate the reliable electricity needed for modern life. It is long past time to reevaluate the Endangerment Finding from a scientific viewpoint and to end the subsidies.

When and if these two actions are taken then we can rightfully celebrate victory over the CIC since it will be very difficult for them to resurrect the regulations and subsidies that make it possible for them to achieve their decarbonization agenda. The Endangerment Finding is best addressed by an EPA decision to start a reevaluation, which can be done entirely by the US Environmental Protection Agency, but is likely to lead to a long court review of the legal aspects of the reevaluation. This would take a number of years, so there is an urgent need to undertake this as soon as possible.

The subsidies require Congressional action and a resolve to never reinstitute them. Without the subsidies, new wind and solar projects will die a quick and well deserved death. It would also be very helpful if those states that offer homeowners retail prices for the unreliable wind and solar power they generate and sell to their utilities should only offer what the power is actually worth on the wholesale market (close to zero in most cases) rather than the full retail price which many but not all the states currently do. Both of these subsidies end up being paid by ratepayers and tax payers, and achieve no public purpose beyond enriching the homeowners involved and those who make and install the hardware involved.