Environment Not Getting Worse, Despite Poll

• Testimony in Support of House Bills 5710 and 5711, addressing critics’ assertions Michigan House Committee on Energy.

ENERGY LIFE RAFT REQUIRED: Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency, or IEA, told CNBC recently: “As of today, we’ve lost 13 million barrels per day of oil … and there are major disruptions in vital commodities.”

Birol has previously warned that the Iran war and ongoing closure of the Strait of Hormuz would result in “the largest energy crisis we have ever faced” and urged governments to bolster their resilience with alternative energy sources.

Why it matters: That’s all the more reason the US must double down on domestic energy production and that means approval of Rep. Troy Balderson’s ARC Energy Security bill. We encourage Rep. Balderson to seek continued legislative support — on both sides of the aisle — for this critical piece of legislation.

• ARC ensures our most affordable, reliable energy sources — like natural gas and nuclear — aren’t pushed aside by politicized efforts to replace them with less dependable options.
• Keeping these resources isn’t just about cost. It’s about national security.
• Many “clean energy” technologies, from solar panels to wind turbines to batteries, rely heavily on foreign supply chains, especially China.

From a national security standpoint, the last thing America can afford is reliance on a foreign adversary like China — or unstable regions like the Middle East, as the Strait of Hormuz underscores.

Bottom line: Passage of the ARC Energy Security measure by Congress will ensure America’s true energy security — and dominance — for years to come.

DON’T BELIEVE EVERYTHING YOU READ: A recent Gallup poll shows that Americans think the environment is getting worse, but the data says otherwise, as outlined by Energy Bad Boys.

Why it matters: It showed Americans’ rating of the environment has reached a new all-time low, with 66 percent of respondents saying the environment is getting worse.

The only problem? The data show the exact opposite is happening.

So many of us are simply uninformed or perhaps are listening to the wrong groups pushing an agenda.

All measurable environmental quality metrics have shown consistent improvement over the last 25 years, regardless of which party controls the White House, and the trends are even starker when we examine the entirety of U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) air pollution data going back to 1970.

• The facts are that air quality in the United States has been getting better, not worse, for the last five decades, and emissions in the country have fallen dramatically.
• Republicans are more inclined to agree with the facts, while Democrats often follow those in the climate cult who love to use fear mongering and scare tactics.

Frequently they use them well, convincing even highly educated adults that the air quality is worse and the planet is dying. Again. And again and again.

• Ironically, rising Carbon monoxide (CO) emissions from power plants may be the result of adding more wind and solar to the grid.

EPA documents show CO emissions stem from incomplete combustion at natural gas plants—most often during startup, shutdown, and low-load operation. As wind and solar expand, gas plants cycle more to balance the grid, increasing time in these modes and boosting CO formation.

At the same time, overall power-sector emissions have steadily declined thanks to pollution controls, catalytic converters, low-sulfur fuels, and other measures.

As the authors point out, most Americans want a healthy environment. Where the debate tends to break down is around policies that carry significant costs without clear, measurable benefits — such as proposals to transition the electric grid from fuel-based to weather-dependent generation.

Bottom line: So much for renewable energy saving the planet. Sorry, Al Gore. The data in this report proves you’ve been wrong for decades.