The Dumbest Climate Plan in History

 

The Dumbest Climate Plan in History

Bruce Melton PE
April 14, 2025

First published at the rag Blog on April 18, 2025

Updated here on April 18, 2025 on ClimateDiscovery.org to add more illegitimate actions against NOAA and NASA

Podcast forthcoming

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The title of this article is not solely meant to highlight the level of knowledge of this current administration, but to draw attention to the strongly conservative Wall Street Journal’s article, “The Dumbest Trade War in History.” (paywall – https://www.wsj.com/opinion/donald-trump-tariffs-25-percent-mexico-canada-trade-economy-84476fb2, The Hill’s review – https://thehill.com/business/5121142-wall-street-journal-slams-trumps-tariff-plans-the-dumbest-trade-war-in-history/). This dismantling of common sense, logical, safe, equitable and economically beneficial governance by these corporate raiders is simply cray cray.

Goodbye to the Paris Agreement, Groundhog Day Darkness Returns

First-off on inauguration day, the U.S. chucked the United State’s international climate policy participation like they had just accidentally picked up dog feces. In this executive order ( https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/putting-america-first-in-international-environmental-agreements/ ), the lies fly like the flies on the poo. Its title, “Putting America First in International Environmental Agreements,” belies the selfish and irresponsible actions supported by this illegitimately elected administration in their deceit about what America is, what our position is in the world, and what our people believe about our international actions. The Order begins, “The United States must grow its economy and maintain jobs for its citizens while playing a leadership role in global efforts to protect the environment.” This is a true thing. It is normal, Earth One societal policy. Next, “Over decades, with the help of sensible policies that do not encumber private-sector activity, the United States has simultaneously grown its economy, raised worker wages, increased energy production, reduced air and water pollution, and reduced greenhouse gas emissions.  The United States’ successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should be a model for other countries.” Again, this a true thing and a vital and normal part of Earth One societal philosophy.

The order then takes a black turn in a direction that couldn’t be more delusional, “In recent years, the United States has purported to join international agreements and initiatives that do not reflect our country’s values or our contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives.  Moreover, these agreements steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit, financial assistance in the interests of the American people.”

The US has done these true things quoted in this Trojan horse executive order because we are a leader. These actions promote a better environment and advance the well-being of our global culture while limiting risks and damages so that our advanced civilization as a whole can prosper, which in turns creates an even better life for those of us in the U.S. Our beneficial regulations are the simple reasons the Unites States is the global leader in almost everything. Spreading this beneficial philosophy is not only good for others, but it directly benefits the US as prosperity because of these actions feed back into the commons. Eliminating these altruistic actions is pure, irresponsible selfishness.

This order supposedly puts “the interests of the United States and the American people first in the development and negotiation of any international agreements with the potential to damage or stifle the American economy,” when, by abandoning international agreements, we show the world the great depth of the irresponsible actions of this illegitimate administration.

A Positive Note

Besides for the fact that the courts and the people have been on a path to successfully block the maniacal actions of this administration, or to have them rescinded because of popular uprising from both political parties, industry in most cases will not acquiesce and revert to fossil fuels because, they know that the incentives of this administration will not persist. Four years is a short time frame for industrial improvement planning. Implementing improvements that are reliant upon any temporary incentives will almost always be realized as what they are – bad investments because their incentive will disappear quickly.

Dismantling the US Global Change Research Program

Scientific American tells us https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/why-trump-just-axed-a-major-climate-program/ , “The dismemberment of the U.S. Global Change Research Program was outlined in Project 2025 as a way to elevate the “benefits” of climate change when fighting regulations in court.”

The U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) obtained its core functionality from the U.S. National Climate Program established in 1978 under President Jimmy Carter, and was put into motion by President Ronald Reagan in 1989 and signed into law by President George H.W. Bush. Fifteen U.S programs and administrations are represented in the USGCRP from the Office of Management and Budget to the National Science Foundation. This history is quite interesting as, though the National Climate Program was established by Jimmy Carter, the advancement of this very broad U.S. program was carried out by the Conservative administrations of Reagan and George W. Bush.

“Closing or shrinking the research effort is equivalent to moving into the future facing backwards–it will surely lead to getting off course and tripping up. Dr. Mike MacCracken, former director of the USGCRP”

Dr. Mike MacCracken, the first executive director of the USGCRP and the first executive director of the first U.S. National Climate Assessment, whom I serve with on the steering committee of the Healthy Planet Action Coalition https://www.healthyplanetaction.org/, provided me with this overview of the USGCRP. “The USGCRP was created in order to coordinate research on seasonal climate variability, ozone depletion, climate change and other natural and human influences affecting the weather, severe storms, climate change and their impacts on agriculture, forests, water resources, coastlines, and more–so basically to help ensure that the human well-being, ecological services, and the economy the country depends upon, are not adversely impacted and beneficial interactions can be protected. The Office of the USGCRP helps facilitate cooperative interagency research activities and the preparation of periodic assessments on how things are going in the various regions of the country and sectors of the economy, and does so with the help of those involved in the regions and economic activities, including scientists, natural resource managers, farmers, state and local governments and more, combining information from the national and international research efforts with local and regional expertise and insights. Dismantling of the effort will mean that farmers get less information on what and when to plant and harvest, water resource managers get less information on trends in precipitation and water use, that foresters and health experts get less information for dealing with trends in extreme weather, for example about drought and flood potential. The Program was established on a bipartisan basis intended to provide useful information to assist in achieving optimal environmental and economic outcomes by ensuring that knowledge about what is happening and why can help national, regional, and local leaders and decision-makers plan and take steps to reduce deaths and maximize production and economic activity as the Nation moves forward, especially so the infrastructure that supports society can be safe and cost-effective through the decades ahead. Closing or shrinking the research effort is equivalent to moving into the future facing backwards–it will surely lead to getting off course and tripping up.”

“Closing or shrinking the research effort is equivalent to moving into the future facing backwards–it will surely lead to getting off course and tripping up.” Dr. Mike MacCracken, former Director of USGCRP

Project 2025 has a chapter on the USGCRP, that eliminates or reduce its capacity so severely that its findings cannot be used in court to advance climate change mitigation, making it harder to create climate policy, where the Office of Management and Budget would help select a small pool of researchers to produce our National Climate Assessments that question humanity’s contribution to climate change. The White House has been exploring a version of the National Climate Assessment that would highlight “benefits” of global warming, that could help in challenging the 2009 EPA Endangerment finding on greenhouse gas pollution. Reversing this Endangerment Finding would remove greenhouse gases from being identified as “pollutants” that our government could regulate.

Unleashing the Kraken Executive Order

Unleashing American Energy Executive Order https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/ ,  seeks to protect United States economic and national security through unfettered production of fossil fuels and other natural resources.  It will also eliminate the so-called electric vehicle mandate.

The EPA’s new leadership is showing its dishonorably unprofessional nature https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-announces-action-implement-potuss-termination-biden-harris-electric-vehicle  in its elimination of the Biden administrations so-called EV mandate. This is the 2027-2032 vehicle emissions standards whose revision is common across our land from time to time.  This time, regulation CO2 was in the rule, with a halving of CO2 emissions from light and medium duty automobiles and trucks. From the old EPA website, “Multi-Pollutant Emissions Standards for Model Years 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles, that sets new, more protective standards to further reduce harmful air pollutant emissions from light-duty and medium-duty vehicles starting with model year 2027. The final rule builds upon EPA’s final standards for federal greenhouse gas emissions standards for passenger cars and light trucks for model years 2023 through 2026 and leverages advances in clean car technology to unlock benefits to Americans ranging from improving public health through reducing smog- and soot-forming pollution from vehicles, to reducing climate pollution, to saving drivers money through reduced fuel and maintenance costs. These standards will phase in over model years 2027 through 2032.” Our current administration’s EPA director Lee Zeldin tells us something wildly opposite the above in the following quote from the  Unleashing the Kracken Executive Order:

“The American auto industry has been hamstrung by the crushing regulatory regime of the last administration. As we reconsider nearly one trillion dollars of regulatory costs, we will abide by the rule of law to protect consumer choice and the environment,” said EPA Administrator Zeldin.

The new non-science EPA justification rule https://www.epa.gov/system/files/documents/2025-03/light-duty-and-medium-duty-vehicles-powering-the-great-american-comeback-factsheet.pdf  is extremely terse and of course baked with non-reality suggesting that the only way to achieve low carbon emissions is with EVs. This is not true. The Biden standard is for the fleet, and new direct injection gasoline engine efficiency that can meet the standards with normal advancement of EVs as we have seen in the market recently.

EPA is planning on halting most of the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. Their brain damage is so sever, they think data collection for use by others has no meaning in the treatment of pollution. Current EPA administrator Zelding was actually quoted in an official EPA document that relates about the “American Dream.” EPA Director Zeldin, “The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is another example of a bureaucratic government program that does not improve air quality. Instead, it costs American businesses and manufacturing millions of dollars, hurting small businesses and the ability to achieve the American Dream.”

More of the Unleashing of the Kraken – The Inflation Reduction Act

(The Unleashing of American Energy Executive Order https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/01/unleashing-american-energy/ )

Termination of the implementation of energy and infrastructure improvements in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA 2022) https://www.irs.gov/inflation-reduction-act-of-2022  is just one of the unscrupulous actions of the “Unleashing of the Kraken Executive Order.” The corruptness of this administration knows bounds only found in fascist regimes. The following IRA programs have been rescinded:

• Protecting Public Health and the Environment and Restoring Science to Tackle the Climate Crisis, Biden 2021,
• Tackling the Climate Crisis at Home and Abroad, Biden 2021,
• President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology, George W Bush 2001,
• Rebuilding and Enhancing Programs to Resettle Refugees and Planning for the Impact of Climate Change on Migration, Biden 2021,
• Eliminate Climate-Related Financial Risk, Biden 2021,
• Eliminate Strengthening American Leadership in Clean Cars and Trucks, Biden 2021,
• Catalyzing Clean Energy Industries and Jobs Through Federal Sustainability, Biden 2021
• Strengthening the Nation’s Forests, Communities, and Local Economies, Biden 2022,
• Implementation of the Energy and Infrastructure Provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, Biden 2022,
• Revitalizing Our Nation’s Commitment to Environmental Justice for All, Biden 2023,
• Terminate the American Climate Corp, Biden 2023.

National Weather Service

Over 1,000 employees have been cut from the National Weather Service (NWS) leaving an average of 20 percent employee vacancies across the country. This means not only will we have trouble with weather data crucial to understanding the rate and extremeness of climate change, but weather warnings will be degraded. An example https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/nearly-half-of-national-weather-service-offices-are-critically-understaffed-experts-warn of cuts already degrading services is that tornado damage in Kentucky has been forestalled because staff are needed to provide continuing information to the public about ongoing weather emergencies.

People who lose their lives from this nonsense are no less dead than those that lose their lives because of a 20 percent cut in the ability of our military to defend us.

National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)

The services NOAA provides will be cut by half, from a budget of $6.1 billion to $3.47 billion. They are going to break up NOAA, abolish its primary research work, and force the agency to help boost fossil fuel production.

They would eliminate the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research that monitors and studies our Earth systems of which our climate is the single focus of our biosphere that connects all the other systems: oceans, atmosphere, weather patterns and other Earth systems. The foolishness of this short-sighted move is gob smacking. NOAA is the US agency most responsible for learning about our weather. The clown circus seems to think that “climate” is immoral, that “climate” is a hoax, and that any data about our climate is verboten.

Of primary concern will be elimination of NOAA’s responsibility for researching natural systems caused disasters that not only include those caused by wind, water and heat, but from Earth processes due to volcanoes and earthquakes, tsunamis and debris flows.

In a separate order, this corporate raiding will eliminate NOAA’s Advisory Committee on Excellence in Space that coordinates private enterprise and is responsible for space debris, and it will eliminate the Climate Services Advisory Committee that manages impacts from droughts, floods, wildfires, and heatwaves. It will also eliminate the Marine and Coastal Area-based Management Advisory Committee that provides expertise on conservation and restoration in coastal regions, including the Great Lakes, and it will eliminate the Fisheries Advisory Committee that provides services related to marine fisheries and mammals, sea turtles, seabirds and other waterfowl.

NOAA UPDATE 04/18/2025

Illegitimate Deletion of NOAA Data

NOAA as deleted Regional Climate Hub data serve 27 states. The Southern Regional Climate Center data included 190 weather disasters alone. This type of indiscriminate destruction will result in not only increased property damage, but drastically increased human mortality.

NASA Science Extinction

From EOS, the journal of the American Geophysical Union, AGU is the largest and most important Earth science organization in the world.
https://eos.org/research-and-developments/nasa-science-faces-an-extinction-level-event-with-trump-draft-budget-proposal

The draft budget close NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., employing 10,000.

The overall cut to NASA is 20 percent, so far. The American Geophysical Unions EOS journal reports that the Chief of space policy Casey Dreier calls this, “An extinction level event for NASA science.”

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD), greater than 50% cut including research to all Earth sciences; physical, biological and climate.

NASA’s Earth science division is where Earth observing satellites and climate research originate. When cuts to NOAA and the National Weather Service are considered, the U.S.’s capacity study climate change is almost completely wiped out.

Databases to be deleted on May 5:

1. Estuarine Bathymetry
2. Total Sediment Thickness for the World’s Oceans and Marginal Seas
3. Geological History of the World’s Oceanic Crust
4. Circum-Antarctic Paleobathymetry to 30° South: Present to 75my
5. Satellite Products and Services Review Board (SPSRB) website.
6. Index to Marine and Lacustrine Geological Samples
7. Thermal (geothermal) Hot Springs List for the United States
8. Seismicity Catalog Collection
9. Strong Motion Earthquake Data Values of Digitized Strong-Motion Accelerograms
10. United States Earthquake Intensity Database
11. Coastline Extractor map viewer
12. NCEI Coastal Water Temperature Guide

~ ~ ~ Update 041825 – END

Methane

The new and critically important methane rule of the EPA has been revoked by this illegitimate administration https://climate.law.columbia.edu/content/president-trump-signs-joint-resolution-disapprove-epa-rule-methane-emissions#:~:text=On%20March%2014%2C%202025%2C%20President,Inflation%20Reduction%20Act%20(IRA). Delulu. No Cap.

Coal

If the title of this White House Executive Order were not so devastating, this would be a hilarious Saturday Night Live skit. “Reinvigorating America’s Beautiful Clean Coal Industry and Amending Executive Order 14241”  — This is the actual title of a White House Executive Order. https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/2025/04/reinvigorating-americas-beautiful-clean-coal-industry-and-amending-executive-order-14241/ The laugh lines are, “Coal is cost effective. There are trillions of dollars of coal in the ground in the U.S.” The old Energy Information Administration said $598 billion. Another, “Hundreds of thousands of Americans are employed in the coal industry.” In 2023, the number was 45,000.

There is nothing in this order that suggests monetary or other incentives to spur increased production of coal and this is the great idiocy of this administration’s concepts. They can remove all the regulatory impediments that limit coal production and remove all the incentives for renewable production, but they can’t make coal cheaper without cash incentives.

Lazard, the leading levelized cost of energy information organization https://www.lazard.com/media/xemfey0k/lazards-lcoeplus-june-2024-_vf.pdf , tells us that the cheapest coal costs $71 per megawatt hour, where the cheapest wind and solar are $27 and $29 per megawatt hour, while the most expensive coal is $168 per megawatt hour, the most expensive wind and solar are $73 and $92 per megawatt hour.

Producers know that a presidential administration is a fleeting thing, where producers’ economic planning spans decades or more. In four years, environmental whiplash will restore previous regulations and remove any fossil fuel incentives implemented by the clown circus. No industry in their right mind would implement such fundamental changes based on temporary incentives.

States Energy Rules

The latest climate change bottom of the gene pool climate action taken by this illegitimate administration is an executive order directing the Justice Department to block all state energy regulations  https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/trump-issues-order-block-state-climate-change-policies-2025-04-09/ that are “burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security.” This executive order is titled, “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach.” It begins as usual with a campaign pitch (lie) labelling non-renewable energy production regulations at the state level as “illegitimate.”  See this article https://www.theragblog.com/bruce-melton-essay-resist-the-illegitimate-administration-why-this-happened-and-the-climate-change-connection/ and podcast https://archive.org/details/rag-radio-2025-01-24-bruce-melton-john-moretta on this illegitimate administration and its election.)

Most notably, federal lands protections are at risk if this action is not stopped. The order also lies about what it state’s as California’s “radical” regulations. These orders produced by this illegitimate administration are hard to comprehend, not because they are egregious (though they most certainly are,) but because of the continual illegitimate campaign wording they use with superlatives that are otherwise absent from any type of official legitimate US lawmaking.

Typical of this administration bent on destruction of democracy, they omit discussion of beneficial regulations and California suffers from this premediated action once again. Their California Low Carbon Fuels Sequestration Incentive was the first in the country. It pays producers up to $180 a ton to sequester carbon in the production of low carbon fuels creating a tremendous revenue source for industry. Nary a mention of allowing economic actions beneficial to this administration is made, while it proceeds unencumbered by this proposed regulation removal action masked as “protection.”

Is there any good news?

By standing up, showing up, and making our voices heard, we can limit the worst of this myopic administration’s bent on destruction in the backwards concept of name of protecting the people of the United States.

It is highly unlikely that this unhinged chainsaw massacre administration will rescind the Inflation Reduction Act’s enhancements to the Internal Revenue Service’s Carbon Sequestration Incentive Section 45Q. This incentive pays industry to remove carbon at about three times the cost of actually removing it, at $180 a ton for direct sequestration. Over 200, 1 million ton per year units are currently committed under 45Q. The reason 45Q will not be rescinded is that it a huge revenue source for industry, paid for by you and me – exactly the kind of thing this corporate takeover of America is trying to do.