Report from Heartland Institute’s “Climate Realism” Conference: A Celebration of the Tide Turning Against Climate Alarmism

I was in attendance at the Heartland Institute’s “Climate Realism Rising” conference last week. It was a triumphal event, with green energy having fallen out of favor, the EPA’s Endangerment Finding now rescinded, auto manufacturers abandoning EVs, wind farms kneecapped by President Trump, and the public now tuning out the climate hysterics’ failed prophesies of doom.

To be clear, despite the celebratory mood, there was agreement that the left will never relent in their war on fossil fuels, and that we are just one bad election from being put on defense again.

The highlight was a keynote speech by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin, who is one of the most consequential political figures of my lifetime, because he aggressively retook political ground lost to the left, restoring freedom and prosperity in the process. Having the head of the EPA proudly affirming “climate denial” in front of a group of “climate skeptics” sent the legacy media into paroxysms of partisan anger, as if a heretic had occupied the most holy temple in their church.

“Climate Denial Comes to Washington” [NY Times]

It might have seemed like a fringe event, except for the high-profile opening speaker: Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency and one of President Trump’s possible choices for the next attorney general. The mood in the room was celebratory. The roughly 220 attendees at the gathering at the Hotel Washington, which is a short walk from the White House, treated Zeldin like a rock star, giving him a standing ovation before he had even spoken.

Here are some other media headlines:

“Zeldin stars at climate denial conference” [Politico]

“Lee Zeldin Touts EPA Rollbacks at Climate Denial Conference” [Bloomberg]

“Zeldin tells climate skeptics to ‘celebrate vindication’ after repeal of baseline climate rule” [AP]

The legacy media is adamant that the politically approved science has been settled, and that only command and control of all economic activity can save the planet. Further, the legacy media demands that the scientific method be prohibited when it comes to climate, so that no climate theory may be challenged nor hypotheses tested.

But the media does consider this to be legitimate science. From NPR/PBS: “Same-Sex Couples Face Higher Climate Change Risks, New UCLA Study Shows”

Amidst all the applause for the scientists and activists who helped turn the tide against the climate cult, Marc Morano pointed out that there is one superhero who should receive special recognition for his contribution to our cause, specifically Anthony Fauci. His politically motivated fabulations during Covid brought disgrace to government scientists, and to pretty much anyone else claiming “expertise” in service to the left’s political agenda. The long track record of “climate scientists” falsifying historical temperature records and predicting weather catastrophes that never came to pass makes the comparison to Fauci appropriate.

In short, Covid hysteria killed off climate hysteria. Thank you Anthony Fauci for helping us to fully understand the malevolent dishonesty of government-funded “experts.”

One of the talking points of the climate doomsday cult is that “extreme one-day precipitation events” in the U.S. are increasing.

David Legates gave an informational presentation on the various forms of rain gauges, how the data is collected and measured, and how they differ in accuracy. Historically there has been some degree of under-measurement. This is due to wind, evaporation, pressure changes as air hits the gauges, the timing of measurement, etc. Legates discussed how NOAA rolled out the all-new Automated Surface Observing System (ASOS) as the official gauge in the early 1990s, replacing manually tested bucket gauges. ASOS is more accurate, therefore it is now capturing higher rainfall totals.

This chart shows that the trendline of extreme precipitation events jumped dramatically upward right when ASOS was launched in the early 1990s, but then quickly leveled off. The only change in “extreme one day precipitation” was the change in the measuring tool, not the amount of rain falling from the sky.

Anthony Watts (wattsupwiththat.com) discussed NOAA temperature gauges and how scientifically flawed they are.

NOAA has official protocols about where its temperature sensors must be stationed so as to avoid the influence of heat retained in parking lots, rock walls, etc. A survey of these stations by Watts’ team found that fully 96% of NOAA’s temperature gauges are improperly situated, causing higher readings than would be recorded if properly placed in a field of grass.

Even more disturbing is that many of NOAA’s official temperature gauges don’t even exist! There are hundreds of old stations that were decommissioned or have mechanically failed. Rather than replace them, NOAA has continued to simply estimate the daily temperature readings from these ghost stations, and then incorporate these fabricated temperature readings into their official temperature database that shows a warming trend.

Mr. Watts has developed his own temperature station and was able to properly place one at the Reno airport. Because NOAA’s improperly placed sensor is picking up retained heat from the tarmac and runways, NOAA consistently captures overnight temperatures more than two degrees warmer than the actual air temperature as measured by Watts’ own temperature gauge situated away from the asphalt.

The great Steve Milloy (junkscience.com) spoke at several conference sessions about various topics. I appreciated his caution about being too celebratory regarding our recent political victories.

The 2009 Obama Endangerment Finding, which was just reversed by Trump and Zeldin, was made possible by the 2007 Supreme Court decision “Massachusetts vs EPA,” which found that greenhouse gases, including CO2, are pollutants, and that the EPA can regulate anything involving CO2.

Milloy stressed that as wonderful as it is that the Endangerment Finding is reversed for now, the ultimate prize is overturning Massachusetts vs EPA. He expressed some disappointment that the case of “West Virginia vs EPA,” a victory for our side, could have been used seek the reversal of Massachusetts vs EPA. Instead, it was just a narrow victory that limited the EPA’s regulation of power plants.

There were some interesting discussions about nuclear energy, and the challenges and costs of building new nuclear. As clean and reliable as nuclear energy is, it’s still more expensive than coal and natural gas. For now, there is nothing cheaper than natural gas, which is also wildly abundant. Natural gas also burns clean, which has greatly reduced carbon emissions (for those who focus on “greenhouse gases.”)

So, the challenge in building new nuclear is that it may make sense as part of a strategy of diversifying fuel options, but it is a hard sell since it will still cost ratepayers more than natural gas.

The “all-in” cost per mWh (including transmission lines, land, construction, engineering, etc) of various forms of electricity production are as follow:

• Natural Gas: $ 40
• Coal: $ 90
• Nuclear: $122
• Wind: $291
• Solar: $413

Reliable energy sources are not only cheaper than “green” sources, they have a lower impact on the environment. Wind energy needs 300 times the land footprint to produce the same electricity as one conventional power plant (if the wind is even blowing.

Much gratitude to Jim Lakely, James Taylor, Cameron Sholty and all the rest of the Heartland team for their lead role in fighting the climate hoax. By establishing and perpetuating this regular gathering of eminent scientists debunking the climate scare, we “climate skeptics” are winning the climate battle.

But we can’t let up. The left never does. We need to keep the pedal to the metal in continuing to fight for and celebrate a high-carbon lifestyle. As Jason Isaacs of American Energy Institute likes to point out, “Carbon is life.”

[buck.throckmorton at protonmail dot com]

posted by Buck Throckmorton at 11:00 AM

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