- PBS announces that “Gov. Gavin Newsom and state legislators are seeking to extend California’s cap-and-trade program, a landmark policy for reducing planet-warming pollution that has found itself in President Trump’s sights.” But at the risk of appearing to nitpick, we have to say that normally a “landmark” is something so good people navigate by it. Which isn’t a good description either of California’s plunge into alternative energy or using polemical phrases like “planet-warming pollution” to describe plant food.
- Speaking of subnational energy policy debacles, we also want to mention another piece of weed-diving by Parker Gallant, who braves the tangles of Ontario energy policy to report on what a preposterous and opaque rip-off it is under a nominally conservative provincial government. Its energy system is incredibly hard to understand, probably on purpose. But Gallant notes that premier Doug Ford’s bellicose (in response to Trump’s bellicose tariff threats) surcharge on the excess energy Ontario exports to the U.S. and Quebec only pushed the export price to $40/MWh, while locals still pay over $100/MWh to produce it. So Ford’s citizens ended up losing $28.8 million over a single week in April for wind and solar. As Gallant notes, Ford barged into office with populist bluster about cutting power rates and firing fat-cat executives… only to settle comfortably into the hoorah’s nest.
- Speaking of it going so great, in Canada a January 2025 study by a Privy Council think tank (who knows why we have such things?) called Policy Horizons Canada (it would be) and billing itself as “the Government of Canada’s centre of excellence in foresight” (we have one?) warns that within 15 years Canadian society could disintegrate leaving us foraging for food and clawing at the gates of private enclaves as social mobility and the economy both collapse along with faith in anything. Which they probably think is a bad thing although since the head of this strange entity is also the “former Head of Strategic Foresight at the World Economic Forum” maybe it's all part of the plan. Meanwhile instead of hectoring poor countries on how pursuing our climate policies and other follies will make them rich and happy we should try to get ourselves off the short road to perdition and develop some actual excellence, foresight and prosperity.
- In case you think we at CDN hate the environment, devote our working day to incinerating the Earth and spend our spare time polluting lakes, we’d like you to know that according to a totally disinterested source “You’re an eco activist with a badge to prove it!” Yay us. By totally disinterested we mean they want us to buy more of their supposedly green product, which is used books. But still “YOU’VE EARNED the Tree Saver badge!” Who saw that one coming?
- As we predicted, the return of tornado season blew in the usual hype about trends that aren’t there. And on cue Scientific American tells us “More tornadoes than usual have already struck the U.S. in 2025 – and many of them have been touching down farther east than they had in the past”. Which they obviously blame on climate change because they always do. But has tornado alley historically moved around? Don’t ask them. They’re not that kind of publication.
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07 May 2025 | News Roundup
Gruesome Gov. Newsom is responsible for virtually all the U-Haul moving vans in California heading OUT of Ca. not coming in to live.This guy might run for the Democrat leadership in 2028,since he's at his term limit next year,I think.And let's be clear,Doug Ford is no conservative.I think everyone reading this knows that by now.That's why I didn't vote for him in February.
Ryan Maue posted again that the Atlantic is much cooler than one year ago. I thought it’s supposed to go up and up forever.
We’ll wait the hurricane predictions are and the results
https://weather.substack.com/p/may-6-2025-tuesday-weather-update?utm_source=post-banner&utm_medium=web&utm_campaign=posts-open-in-app&triedRedirect=true