California Judge Rules Against Carbon Capture Project

The amount of Blue on Blue in this is amazing

Court rules against California’s first carbon capture project, a key piece of state climate plans

A Kern County judge ruled that approval of California’s first operating carbon capture and storage project — a technology the state is counting on to meet its climate goals — violated state environmental law and must be set aside.

Judge Marcos Camacho found that environmental review of California Resources Corp.’s TerraVault project, which Kern County supervisors approved in October 2024, fell short in several ways. Among them, it failed to analyze the industries expected to supply the project with carbon dioxide.

Because the judgment is not yet final, it’s not clear when CRC must stop injecting carbon dioxide and suspend the facility’s operations. A real-time project tracker on the company’s website indicates that carbon injection continues.

Carbon TerraVault 1 — the first of at least nine carbon storage projects the company plans around the state — is designed to collect up to 46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide, according to CRC. The company is injecting carbon deep underground in a Kern County oil field to keep it from warming the atmosphere. The project began operating earlier this year after a lengthy and controversial approval process.

Kern County policymakers hoped the project — and others that might crop up nearby to send carbon to the reservoirs — would provide a much-needed infusion to the county’s oil-dependent economy as California moves away from fossil fuels.

A left wing judge ruling against a left wing project approved by left wing supervisors performing a left wing approved environmental review is a chef’s kiss.

Read: California Judge Rules Against Carbon Capture Project »

Moonbats Petition To Remove Hakeem Jeffries As “Establishment”

It didn’t take long for the baying at the moon to start, eh?

Petition to replace Hakeem Jeffries as Democrats’ House Speaker hits 500k signatures

A petition calling on House Democrats not to support House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries as the next Speaker has hit 500,000 signatures, according to its creator.

The petition, which labels Jeffries part of the “Democratic establishment,” suggests Democratic leaders are likely to remain under pressure from their party’s left-wing over both personal and policy choices. It was created by Nicole Whitted, an author and Democratic supporting social media creator with over 210,000 followers on TikTok.

Whitted’s petition, titled “House Democrats: CHOOSE A NEW SPEAKER,” urges House Democrats to “HOLD A COMPETITIVE ELECTION FOR SPEAKER!”

It argues that “Hakeem Jeffries is simply not the right choice” for Speaker adding: “We believe the Speaker should represent the Democratic voters, not just the Democratic establishment.”

LOL. In fairness, the GOP had issues with their speaker, but, Jeffries was actually getting things done, while ours were pure Squish. And, come on, at this even Democrats like AOC and Ilhan Omar are establishment. Meanwhile

Democrats’ “Affordability” Hoax Comes into Full View

It didn’t take long for Democrats to drop the mask and reveal that they have no real intention of delivering on the “affordability” promises that filled their campaign ads. Their real agenda? Endless political witch hunts and pointless impeachments.

It’s no secret that Democrats are downright giddy at the prospect of retaking full control of Congress. But what they seem to be most excited about is using their subpoena and investigatory powers to harass and frustrate not just President Donald Trump, but the entire executive branch, Big Tech executives, Republican donors, and anyone else who gets in their way.

As it became clear that Democrats would win the House, Rep. Robert Garcia (D-CA), who now looks set to become chair of the House Oversight Committee, posted on X, “LAWYER UP.” Other Democrats echoed that message, with Oregon Senator Ron Wyden issuing a post that simply read “Subpoenas.”

Massachusetts Senator Ed Markey, meanwhile, declared that “they are going to need to plant new forests for all of the subpoenas we’ll be printing,” and Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-IL) rattled off a list of Trump administration officials that should expect to be hauled before Congress. Democrats reportedly have even already put out job postings for investigators.

Democrats should remember the old saying “what goes around comes around.” And, without trying to hyperbolic, they look like they are trying to start Civil War 2.0. They’re already talking about a national gun registration. Doing away with the Electoral College, even backdooring that.

So, in short, any impeachments will yet again be nothing more than political theater. The first two Trump impeachments cost an estimated $13.4 million, and that’s not to mention the hidden costs of wasting time that could be spent legislating on performative political witch hunts. The party that promised “affordability” is going to spend most of the next two years abusing its power to exact revenge on their enemies – and it won’t do a thing to lower costs for anyone.

The Clinton’s brought about “the politics of personal destruction.” Democrats are now at the point of “the politics of revenge.” This won’t go well.

Read: Moonbats Petition To Remove Hakeem Jeffries As “Establishment” »

Will Dems Midterms Win Renew Fight Against Slight Warming?

Will Democrats even remember to push legislation during their witch hunts?

Will the blue wave renew the fight against climate change?

A slate of new progressives will be heading to Washington next year, many of whom cite climate action as a top priority.

Here & Now’s Scott Tong speaks with Jake Bittle of Grist about what the midterm results could mean for climate action moving forward.

There’s audio of the conversation at the link. Let’s go to

A new group of Democrats is coming. Climate isn’t their priority.

The midterms made it clear that Democrats are no longer the Green New Deal party.

The moderate slate of candidates that swept Republicans out of power — in conservative strongholds from Texas to South Carolina — ran heavily on the rising price of energy, rather than energy’s cost on the environment.

That suggests the party’s new complexion could prevent it from leaning into assertive climate messaging, even as Democrats seek to expand clean energy.

So, pretty much no? The rest is behind a paywall I cannot break at the momemnt

What Experts Think the Democratic Blue Wave Will Mean For Climate Action

…

The next two years likely won’t bring aggressive climate policy, nonetheless a shift is expected as a result of the midterms. “Are we going to see ambitious climate action? The answer is no,” says Ken Gillingham, professor of environmental and energy economics at the Yale School of the Environment. “We still have an executive branch with a veto power controlled by President Trump, and so anything that is done would have to make it through the veto.”

But while Democrats might be unable to reverse many of the rollbacks, the midterms now give them, “a stronger hand to play,” says Geoffrey Henderson, assistant professor of environmental policy and planning at the University of Michigan.

One priority might be to reinstate billions of dollars in climate funding that President Trump has withheld. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat who won reelection in Maine, serves on the House Appropriations Committee and has said that she plans to force the administration to spend climate money.

If Democrats weren’t unhinged moonbats who will spend most of their time “investigating” and impeaching, they would have a chance to do things like make an honest deal to fund wind and solar and such, get the EV tax credits back, in exchange for more natural gas and especially nuclear. They won’t.

It is funny that they’ve been demonizing fossil fuels, and barely said a word about high gas prices under Biden, but, now love them some low gas prices.

Read: Will Dems Midterms Win Renew Fight Against Slight Warming? »

If All You See…

…is paint which is coming off due to Bad Weather, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is 357 Magnum, with a post on “Relatives of Dead Criminals Don’t Like Self-Defense”

Again, my apologies, bots and bad spiders are slamming my server, messing with the CPU and RAM. But, I’m not going to jump up to a higher tier and pay $138 a month for hosting. All I can do is restart the server and wait till this crap ends.

Read: If All You See… »

Cost Of DSA Policies? $49 Trillion

That’s a big number. Would $355K per household over 10 years be more manageable?

DSA leader dismisses $49T cost estimate for socialist policies as a ‘made-up number’

Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) national co-chair Megan Romer was pressed on Fox News about how much socialist policies will cost American taxpayers after DSA-backed candidates made significant gains in midterm elections.

The White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA) estimated that DSA policy proposals, including Medicare for All and student debt cancellation, would cost taxpayers $49 trillion. Romer, who said the group’s incoming lawmakers will prioritize affordability, dismissed the staggering price tag as “outrageous,” calling it a “made-up number.”

“The White House, who does not like us very much, managed to come up with some math that made us look bad,” Romer said on “The Story.” “But we don’t agree with these numbers.”

So, what are the numbers, sweety?

The CEA’s report estimated the DSA’s policy wish list will cost about $355,000 per American household over the next decade.

After rejecting the administration’s figures, Romer declined to offer an independent estimate of her own when pressed by Fox News anchor Martha MacCallum, saying the cost “depends.”

That’s an interesting economic policy, but, consider that so many of these DSA wackos have rich daddies, so, really do not understand the cost of things. They’re Theater Kids, so, it’s easy to offer Free Stuff without a consideration of what it will cost.

Remember, California estimated that single payer, er, Medicare For All, would cost double the current California budget, and wasn’t really sure where the money would truly come from.

“There’s no, like, one, solid number because it depends on what pieces we can build in the meantime,” the DSA leader said. “So it’s about building up programs and then sunsetting old, bad programs, and that number is going to shift as we pass various things.”

“I’m not going to give you a solid number. That’s not what I’m here to do,” she continued. “What I’m here to do is talk about how we collectively can democratically decide how we want our money to be spent.”

It’s easy to throw out policies. Once the actual adult thing of explaining how to pay for it comes into play things get a bit more squishy. Heck, look what happened with Obamacare. The financials are not doing particularly well, and it is even more trash without massive government subsidies. The DSA nutters aren’t actually very good at offering written plans and how they would work and how they would be paid for. I can’t find any of this on their website, but, they do have “Free Resources for making democratic socialist art and designs for your chapter.”

But, you know, “We must replace capitalism with democratic socialism”, so, they have a store selling T-shirts for $30. Seriously, they might yammer about it, but, they do not have anything approaching an action plan for Medicare for All, nor a true cost analysis. Nor for anything else. It’s all feelings based.

Sadly, though, a lot of people fall for this crap. And are indoctrinated into it in schools.

Read: Cost Of DSA Policies? $49 Trillion »

Judge Allows Climalawfare Suit To Proceed In Oregon

Will they also be shutting down the Portland international airport? How about the shipping ports? They all use a ton of fossil fuels. How about Portland getting 43% of its power from natural gas?

Oregon judge allows Multnomah County climate lawsuit against fossil fuel giants to advance

An Oregon judge will allow the climate lawsuit Multnomah County’ filed more than three years ago against some of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies to move forward.

Multnomah County Circuit Court Judge Adele J. Ridenour issued her decision Monday denying 20 of 21 arguments the fossil fuel defendants made to dismiss the 2023 case. Ridenour’s decision allows the case to continue to move toward a trial.

Multnomah County filed the $51 billion lawsuit against Chevron, Exxon, ConocoPhillips, Shell and the American Petroleum Institute, among several other companies and industry groups, following the 2021 heat dome when temperatures for five days in a row reached more than 100 degrees and R69 people in the county died. The Capital Chronicle reached out Wednesday to lawyers for those companies and the petroleum institute, as well as lawyers for seven other defendants but did not hear back. (snip)

The decision to allow the case to move forward comes months after Ridenour in June heard two days of oral testimony from the fossil fuel defendants, who argued centrally that Multnomah County is trying to effectively impose penalties on global and interstate pollution, which, under the federal Clean Air Act, is a power that the U.S. government, not state governments, hold.

But Ridenour said that while the county does find the companies’ fossil fuel pollution is at fault for the 2021 heat dome, the county is not seeking damages for the pollution itself, but for the companies’ deceptions to Oregonians, which allowed the pollution to continue to occur for decades.

Well, that’s novel, but, if it makes it out of county court, it will get squashed, either at the state level or the federal level, and the county will have wasted enormous amounts of taxpayer money on this tilting. Still, I once again recommend that all the named fossil fuels companies immediately stop selling to at least the plaintiffs and any who have signed on. Why would you do business with someone suing you?

Read: Judge Allows Climalawfare Suit To Proceed In Oregon »

Voters Who Use A Ton Of Data Reject Data Centers For Midterms

The people do realize how much data they are using, right? That a goodly chunk are using AI to do so? And all their streaming? And this that and the other? I guess this is the newest version for NIMBY

Data centers rejected by voters across the country — challenging the AI boom

Voters across the country delivered a sweeping rebuke to data center development in Tuesday’s midterm elections, approving restrictions on the massive facilities that have become central to the AI boom and electing officials who have promised to rein in their construction.

The results pose a new challenge to the building boom that has helped power U.S. economic growth and stock market gains, bringing in trillions of dollars in investments, in addition to a large amount of backlash.

Some 41 measures related to restricting or permitting data centers across ten states were up for consideration in the midterms, with Ohio alone accounting for half, per Ballotpedia, an election-focused nonprofit. In all but one of those measures, voters opted to restrict (or to not approve) data center construction, though four measures remained officially undecided as of Wednesday afternoon. Data-center skepticism crossed party lines, with restrictions passing in traditionally red states like Kansas and Florida, as well as liberal strongholds like California and New Jersey.

Many of the AI-focused measures would temporarily restrict the construction of new, large data centers, while others would restrict their location to industrial areas and place limitations on their environmental impacts. Five of the petitions or referendums approved Tuesday would allow data center construction as long as the facilities used fewer than 25 megawatts. Data centers built for AI purposes often require more than 100 megawatts.

I wonder how many who voted against these measures jumped into their vehicles, put on Android Auto or Apple Carplay, cranked up iHeart Radio or Pandora or Spotify or something, then doom-scrolled while waiting in line, then posted about how they voted against data centers on Insta or TikTok or something.

Across the country, voters also elected candidates — such as incoming Texas Governor Gina Hinojosa — who promised to rein in data centers’ construction or put strict guardrails around their use. NBC’s exit poll found more than half of voters said AI and data centers were “a major factor” in their vote for Congress. Approximately 76% of respondents said that they would oppose the construction of a data center in their community.

She, and others, are aware they used massive amounts of internet data to campaign, right?

Experts and pollsters attribute the backlash to a variety of root causes: frustration with growing income inequality and the billions of dollars tech tycoons stand to reap from AI; worries about catastrophic risks from AI; and more prosaic concerns about noise and health impacts.

Sigh.

Read: Voters Who Use A Ton Of Data Reject Data Centers For Midterms »

If All You See…

…is a fast rising sea from Other People voting wrong, you might just be a Warmist

The blog of the day is Science Daily, with a post on “Permanent daylight saving time has a dark side, scientists warn”

Read: If All You See… »

Obligatory Midterms Post

It was pretty ugly.

  • Islamist El-Sayed beat Rogers, but, it was a Dem hold (this is sad)
  • Jackson beat Collins, Dem switch
  • Andrews beat Moody in SC, that’s a big switch to Dem
  • Cooper beat Whatley in NC.
  • Brown over Husted in Ohio
  • Turek over Hinson in Iowa
  • Hamilton over Marshal in Kansas
  • Talarico over Paxton in Texas (but, let’s not forget that Texas used to be rather Blue, but, not wacko Blue)
  • We do not know about Alaska and Mississippi yet

Democrats picked up 7 Senate seats, and the Texas, Kansas, Iowa, and SC ones are big. Seriously, Texas? How much was the carpetbagger effect, with all those California escapees bringing their leftist politics after they let all the leftist politics? We see the same in NC and SC. And Abbott is probably going to lose the governor’s race in Texas.

Democrats picked up 30 in the House. Many were easily in play, many, like a bunch here in NC, were surprises. But, really, there are 4 reasons

  1. This happens quite often during midterms
  2. The carpetbagger effect
  3. Trump’s tariffs. Good idea, there really should be matching tariffs on what other countries do to the US, in an attempt to lower those tariffs, but, wrong time and wrong execution. Of course, there never seems to be a right time, and rather than implement them Team Trump should have worked on negotiation, and even gotten Congress involved. As the nation was still healing from COVID economic issues, shouldn’t have happened
  4. Iran. The Trump admin hit Iran, most likely thinking that it would help with the revolt and the people taking over and replacing the Islamist leaders. When that immediately looked like it wouldn’t happen they should have wrapped it up while that was still possible.

It is hilarious, though, that Democrats love them some low gas prices now, when they’ve shown they hate fossil fuels, and used high gas prices to push climate scam policies under Biden.

Let’s not forget that Obama got obliterated in the 2010 midterms. Lost 7 Senate seats, 63 House seats, 6 governors, and 20 state GAs flipped.

Of course, the GOP did not take advantage in a lot of cases. And there is a 5th reason: the GOP elites did not push hard for some races, such as Texas and SC, or even that hard in Michigan. Did you see the DNC backing off on nutjob, Jew and America hating, Islamist El-Sayed? No. They were all in. They know how to go all in no matter what.

Here in NC the Dems are going to flip the House, but, not the Senate. But, there is an interesting dichotomy

(WRAL) North Carolina voters on Tuesday approved three amendments to the state’s constitution — efforts by state lawmakers to restrict income tax rates and property tax increases, and to make it harder to change state rules on voter identification.

The amendments limit how much local leaders can raise property taxes, limit how much state leaders can raise income tax and ensure a photo ID is required for mail-in ballots. None of the amendments will change any tax rates for 2027, and a photo ID is already required for mail-in ballots under state law.

About 60% of voters approved the property tax amendment. About 62% of voters voted to approve the income tax amendment, and 60% of voters approved the voter ID amendment.

Was that a mistake about voter ID already being required for mail-in, or, a lie? Because the article goes to note later that it wasn’t required, only for in-person. Regardless, Democrats campaigned hard against all three, because they want ID-less voting and want to be able to raise taxes, especially on “the rich”.

Some opponents of the property tax and income amendments cited their potential to hamstring state and local governments’ abilities to raise revenue to cover services that the state won’t — at a time when the cost of services is rising.

Perhaps government could learn to spend what they take wisely, without all the graft, waste, and abuse. Treat it like it is their personal money and get the best value for the buck.

Supporters of the property tax amendment, including Republican lawmakers, said it would protect residents in growing areas from sticker shock when their property is reassessed and their local governments’ effective tax rates also go up.

Like when our property values went up 2.5 times post-COVID, so our property taxes jumped. This might not have passed if gov’t had said “we aren’t going to penalize you property owners for COVID increases, we’ll grandfather you in.”

North Carolina voters have now approved placing into the state constitution a cap on personal and corporate income taxes at no more than 3.5%.

It won’t change anyone’s taxes now but would effectively ban the legislature in the future from raising taxes to even the current tax rate, which is 3.99% for individuals. Some top Democrats have said they’d favor higher taxes on the wealthy, or on corporations, should they retake power in the state.

It’ll soon drop to 3.49%. Again, gov’t can learn to be responsible with the People’s Forcibly Taken Money. Anyhow, obviously GOP politicians were being punished but people also considered themselves for the ballot measures, of which the voter ID one is the one most surprises me.

To wrap up, the Republican Party leaders are idiots, and just do not know how to message well and protect their home court. We’ve seen this most of the 21st Century. Passing the big voting bill, the SAFE Act, would have fired up the Republican voters. But, nope, morons. What can Democrats do now, though? Not much. They’ll play the impeachment and investigation game, but, they do not have the votes in the Senate. Unless they want to nuke the filibuster, which would be dangerous for them when the GOP eventually retakes the Senate, none of their wacko will pass, and Trump will just veto it.

They can’t play the increase the size of the Supreme Court game, because then Trump gets to pick. None of their climate scam stuff will pass. But, they might get some lower case crazy through, because the GOP has too many squishes. Do they learn any lessons, and do the things to win in 2028?

Read: Obligatory Midterms Post »

Votes Totally Still About ‘Climate Change’ Even Though It’s Taking A Backseat In Elections, Gosh Darnit!

They care so much that they jumped in their fossil fueled vehicles to go vote

Teens say they’re concerned about climate change — but also don’t know much about it

From rising electricity bills to grocery prices, affordability has dominated the conversation heading into Election Day. But an issue receiving less attention on the campaign trail remains a concern for many voters: climate change.

New research from the University of Michigan suggests candidates may be underestimating how much Americans care about climate policy, even as they increasingly frame their campaigns around the cost of living.

The disconnect is playing out in North Carolina’s closely watched U.S. Senate race between Democratic former Gov. Roy Cooper and Republican Michael Whatley.

Cooper, who spoke frequently about climate change while serving as governor, has made lowering costs a centerpiece of his Senate campaign.

“We’ve got to remember that climate change is affecting weather patterns, is affecting the intensity of storms,” Cooper said after Hurricane Helene in 2024.

Two years later, his campaign message has centered on a different promise: to “make stuff cost less.”

Didn’t stuff skyrocket in price while he was governor? But, yeah, Roy hasn’t spoken much about ‘climate change’ while on the campaign trail.

Henderson says part of the challenge is that politicians may assume voters are more divided over climate change than they actually are.

“There is a perception that the public is as polarized as elites are on the issue, and that perception is not true,” Henderson told WRAL.

The distinction matters because concern about climate change does not necessarily follow the same partisan divisions seen among elected officials.

As I always say, Doing Something about climate doom may be popular in theory, but, in practice, it polls very low against real world issues. And most who say they care rarely make any climate friendly changes in their own lives.

The latest Yale Climate Opinion Maps offer a closer look at how North Carolinians view the issue.

Based on national survey data and statistical modeling, Yale researchers estimate that in Wake County:

  • 70% of adults are worried about global warming.
  • 69% prefer candidates who support action to address global warming.
  • 63% say a presidential candidate’s position on global warming is important to their vote.

The findings suggest climate change remains relevant to a substantial share of residents, even when it is not a dominant campaign talking point.

Yeah, well, Wake tends to be led by lots of liberals and lots of damnyankee transplants who escaped from the liberal policies they voted for, but, they’re all using a ton of energy, eating well, driving lots of fossil fueled vehicles.

Read: Votes Totally Still About ‘Climate Change’ Even Though It’s Taking A Backseat In Elections, Gosh Darnit! »

Pirate's Cove