…is terrible Bad Weather rain causing flooding because Other People drove fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is A View From The Beach, with a post on Tuesday tanlines.
Read: If All You See… »
…is terrible Bad Weather rain causing flooding because Other People drove fossil fueled vehicles, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is A View From The Beach, with a post on Tuesday tanlines.
Read: If All You See… »
Well, this would be a big conundrum for the Trump haters: do they support ditching auto-engine idle/start-stop because every single one of them hate the feature, or oppose because Orange Man Bad?
EPA takes aim at start-stop systems in cars, calls feature a ‘climate participation trophy’
The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing to roll back federal incentives for automatic start-stop technology in new vehicles.
EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced the move Monday on social media, calling start-stop systems a “climate participation trophy” that most drivers dislike.
“EPA approved it, and everyone hates it, so we’re fixing it,” Zeldin posted on the social media platform X.
The system automatically shuts off a vehicle’s engine when it comes to a complete stop—like at a red light or in traffic—and restarts when the driver lifts their foot off the brake or taps the accelerator.
While not required by law, the feature became widespread due to fuel economy credits granted under federal emissions rules. Start-stop systems are considered an “off-cycle” emissions-reduction technology, meaning they provide benefits not measured during standard testing procedures.
The incentive was created more than a decade ago as part of federal emissions and fuel economy standards, which aimed to reward automakers for adding technologies that cut pollution in ways not captured by traditional testing. Start-stop systems are one of several features that qualify.
Two things: first, the engines aren’t shutting off on every vehicle, some just go into an idle, especially those which are more fuel efficient. Second, they are really put in vehicles to avoid fines and fees from certain Blue states, as increasing the the fuel economy a tiny bit on each vehicle helps across the entire line. That came directly from a high level suit who works for a car manufacturer. Heck, they’d remove the moonroofs if they could. The extra weight and slight air flow change reduces MPG just a little bit.
Supporters say the technology can reduce fuel consumption in city driving and lower greenhouse gas emissions. According to the Battery Council International, start-stop systems helped eliminate nearly 10 million tons of emissions in 2023 alone.
Tests by the Society of Automotive Engineers show the feature can improve fuel economy by 7% to 26% in stop-and-go traffic. However, the benefits are minimal for highway driving.
And the minute the car has done it a few times in traffic people shut them off. But, that doesn’t matter, because they are about EPA testing, not for you the consumer.
The EPA’s proposal would not ban start-stop systems but would eliminate the incentives that reward automakers for including them.
But, again, that would only end the federal incentives: you’d still have the state mandates. So, would manufacturers still install auto engine idle to avoid the fines/fees? Or, would those states drop the mandates? Because, yeah, there may be some “advocates”, as the article says, but, I bet they hate driving cars with auto engine idle as well.
Read: EPA Looks To Get Auto-Engine Idle Feature Out Of Vehicles »
But, can they actually get this out of the Senate?
House GOP looks to gut Biden’s climate incentives in megabill proposal
House Republicans are proposing a significant rollback of Democrats’ clean energy tax credits— a key step toward fulfilling President Donald Trump’s pledge to eviscerate President Joe Biden’s landmark climate change programs.
The tax-writing Ways and Means Committee is moving to repeal key subsidies for electric vehicles and phase out many other clean energy tax incentives from the Inflation Reduction Act — derided by Trump as the “Green New Scam” — as part of its highly anticipated portion of the GOP’s megabill.
The tax incentives made up the core of the IRA’s clean energy stimulus, and were estimated to cost about $370 billion by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation over the decade until they expired in 2032, though other analyses predicted their costs would exceed $1 trillion. The incentives have sparked hundreds of billions in private sector investment in clean energy since the law was enacted.
As part of the Ways and Means Committee’s contributions to the party-line package intended to enact broad swaths of Trump’s domestic agenda, GOP leaders are seeking to satisfy conservative hardliners who want to eliminate all the energy incentives under the climate law to pay for trillions of dollars in tax cuts. But they are also looking to keep the support of moderates who fear scrapping these credits will jeopardize the jobs associated with manufacturing and power generation projects in their red states and districts.
The proposal would preserve some IRA tax credits, including the advanced manufacturing production tax credit, known as 45X — though wind energy components would no longer be eligible after 2027. It would, as well, maintain credits supporting carbon capture, while extending subsidies benefiting biofuels that are backed by the fossil fuel and agriculture industries — which a group of House Republicans successfully defended in 2023.
I’ll be honest, just keep the EV rebates. It’s hurting anything, and, come on, this costs nothing. It just means less inflow of tax money. And, really, it’s not all that much. Is it worth the fight to ditch them? Not really. It also doesn’t hurt to keep tax credits for solar and wind. Hell, let’s extend it to hydro! Carbon capture can go. The biofuels garbage needed to be cut decades ago.
There really is nothing wrong with intentivizing clean energy. Forcing it on citizens is something completely different. If the GOP tries this it will never make it past the Senate. Democrats, and a few squishy Republicans, will block it. Pick your fight.
Read: GOP Looks To Annihilate Biden’s Climate Scam Incentives »
I wonder, though, if DHS finds out that the People’s Republik Of California did give illegal/non-citizens Social Security benefits who gets punished?
DHS investigating if migrants received Social Security in California
The Department of Homeland Security is investigating a California state-funded program that assists disabled migrant residents, alleging it provided Supplemental Security Income benefits to immigrants who entered the United States illegally and whom federal officials say were not entitled to receive financial assistance.
DHS sent a subpoena to the State of California’s Cash Assistance Program for Immigrants’ Los Angeles field office, ordering that it hand over records relating to SSI payments made to migrants since 2021. The agency said that under the leadership of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, it will not allow U.S. taxpayer dollars to be “squandered” on migrants.
A DHS news release did not specify how much financial assistance was provided to immigrants who benefited from CAPI between 2021 and the current time.
“Radical left politicians in California prioritize illegal aliens over our own citizens, including by giving illegal aliens access to cash benefits,” Noem said in a statement issued by DHS. “The Trump Administration is working together to identify abuse and exploitation of public benefits and make sure those in this country illegally are not receiving federal benefits or other financial incentives to stay illegally.
“If you are an illegal immigrant, you should leave now. The gravy train is over. While this subpoena focuses only on Los Angeles County – it is just the beginning.”
A 1996 federal law bars non-citizens from receiving SS benefits. Reportedly, 2 million improperly receive SS in 2024. So, if DHS finds out that they were given SS, who in government goes to jail for violating federal law? Because if no one gets in trouble than other liberals in government will feel empowered to do the same thing.
Read: Hmm: DHS Investigating If PRC Gave Illegals Social Security »
I love how Democrats suddenly discover the 10th Amendment when Trump is president and it interferes with their moonbattery
Trump is illegally trying to overturn state climate laws
The foundation of American government rests on a simple but powerful principle: states are not mere departments of the federal government. They are sovereign entities with both the right and the responsibility to protect the health, safety and wellbeing of their residents.
President Trump’s recent executive order, which instructs the Justice Department to block state climate laws such as New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act, is a direct attack on that principle. But executive orders cannot undo duly enacted state laws.
Trump’s action is a political stunt, not a legal reversal. New York’s Climate Change Superfund Act stands on strong constitutional ground.
Across the country, states are stepping up to respond to the rising toll of climate-fueled disasters. More than ten states have introduced climate superfund legislation based on a simple idea: those massive, multinational oil and gas corporations that caused the climate crisis should help pay for the damage. This is not only fair but necessary. The costs of climate change are staggering, and without action, those costs are already falling entirely on the shoulders of working families.
Under our system of federalism, states have always had broad authority to enact laws that protect their people. That authority is rooted in the Tenth Amendment and reinforced by centuries of precedent. Whether regulating public health, consumer safety, or environmental protection, states serve as both innovators and defenders when federal action falls short.
Huh. But, when Democrats work to force states to comply with the notion that CO2 is a danger to the United States the 10th Amendment doesn’t apply? Weird. They want it both ways. And one of the ways they did this was by saying it was interstate commerce, hence, Los Federales had authority. Which is it, Dems?
Trump’s executive order does not simply challenge this one law, but rather the very idea that states have the right to hold powerful interests accountable when Washington will not. By branding state efforts as “illegal” simply because they conflict with his administration’s ideological agenda, the president undermines the same state sovereignty that he once claimed to champion.
So, when the feds pass ‘climate change’ laws that force companies in states to comply that is un-Constitutional? Make up your minds.
I know how we can solve this: all fossil fuels companies should stop operating in these states. Let’s see how well they do without gas, diesel, natural gas, and lubricating oils. It would be fun.
Read: Warmists Upset Trump Trying To End State Climate Scam Initiatives »
…is an area flooded by carbon pollution Bad Weather, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is 357 Magnum, with a post on Canada’s war on the disabled.
Read: If All You See… »
Oh, this must be giving Democrats a serious case of heartburn
US, China announce reduced tariffs for 90 days after trade talks
The U.S. and China announced on Monday that tariffs against one another will be reduced for a 90-day period after officials held trade negotiations in Geneva, Switzerland.
The tariffs President Donald Trump announced against China on April 2 are being cut by 24 percentage points for this temporary period while retaining the remaining ad valorem rate of 10% from that announcement, according to a joint statement.
China agreed to the same stipulations, adding that it will “adopt all necessary administrative measures to suspend or remove the non-tariff countermeasures taken against the United States since April 2,” the announcement stated.
Under the deal, reciprocal tariffs for both countries would be reduced by 115%. The U.S. will temporarily lower its tariffs on Chinese goods from 145% to 30%, and China will reduce its levies on American products from 125% to 10%.
Both the U.S. and China agreed to take the aforementioned actions by Wednesday.
Could this turn into something long lasting? The NY Times, Washington Post, and many other Credentialed Media outlets are gently naysaying this, almost like they want Trump, meaning America, to lose. Reducing tariffs on exported American goods would be a good thing, right, especially to China? Hey, maybe this would lead to all those Chinese EVs being brought over. You’d like that, NY Times and Washington Post, right? You’ve posted articles about how great they are and so much less expensive many times.
The two sides also agreed to “establish a mechanism” to continue discussions about economic and trade relations, which will be led by Chinese Vice Premier He Lifeng, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer, according to the joint statement.
It’s good that you have business people who want to protect the U.S. first, rather than squishy diplomats squishing around.
Well, this is horrible
Bananas under threat as rising temperatures killing crops – report
Bananas are coming under increasing threat from climate change, and farmers saying extreme weather is “killing” their crops, according to a report.
An analysis by international development charity Christian Aid released on Monday shows rising temperatures and climate-related pests are putting bananas at risk.
It found that nearly two-thirds of the most suitable banana-growing areas in Latin America and the Caribbean – a region responsible for around 80% of the world’s banana exports – could be lost by 2080 due to climate impacts.
Bananas grow in a temperature range of between 15-35C but are also very sensitive to water shortages, meaning increasingly extreme weather is affecting the plant’s ability to photosynthesise.
Oh, phew, it’s in the far flung future. Surprise? It was just last year that we were told that climate doom would just make bananas more expensive.
In light of the findings, Christian Aid is urging developed nations to urgently reduce their carbon emissions to stem the growing impacts of climate change.
It also calls for international climate finance to support banana growers and agricultural communities to adapt to the changing climate.
Government force and redistribution of money from the 1st world to the 3rd.
Read: Doom Today: Bananas Under Threat From Global Boiling »
Could this be the Trump effect, stopping all the criminals and parasites from coming in? Maybe getting them out of the UK?
UK plans to end ‘failed free market experiment’ in immigration
The British government outlined plans on Sunday to end what it called the “failed free market experiment” in mass immigration by restricting skilled worker visas to graduate-level jobs and forcing businesses to increase training for local workers.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is under pressure to cut net migration after the success of Nigel Farage’s right-wing, anti-immigration Reform UK party in local elections this month.
Under the government’s new plans, skilled visas will only be granted to people in graduate jobs, while visas for lower-skilled roles will only be issued in areas critical to the nation’s industrial strategy, and in return businesses must increase training of British workers.
The Labour government said the changes will be part of a policy document, known as a white paper, to be published on Monday setting out how ministers plan to reduce immigration.
After Britain eventually left the EU in 2020, the then Conservative government reduced the threshold to allow workers in categories such as yoga teachers, dog walkers and DJs to be eligible for skilled worker visas.
“We inherited a failed immigration system where the previous government replaced free movement with a free market experiment,” Yvette Cooper, the British interior minister, said in a statement. “We are taking decisive action to restore control and order to the immigration system.”
Are you getting the idea that this only applies to productive people, ones who contribute, who aren’t on the public dole and looking to change the UK into something else?
Net migration, or the number of people coming to Britain minus the number leaving, rose to a record 906,000 people in the year to June 2023, up from the 184,000 people who arrived in the same period during 2019, when Britain was still in the EU.
So, nothing about kicking out all those who do not contribute? Those who simply showed up and said “I’m here, where’s my free stuff”?
“The mayor of Rochdale is a Muslim.
Today in England there are over 3,000 mosques, there are over 130 Sharia courts in England and there are more than 50 Sharia councils.
78% of Muslim women do not work and receive state support and free accommodation. 63% of Muslims do not work and receive state support and free housing state supported. Muslim families have an average of six to eight children who all receive free accommodation.
Every school in the UK is required to teach about Islam. the No. 1 most common baby name in England is Muhammad.
This is not immigration this is invasion”
But, the government has no intention of booting them out.
…are horrible fossil fueled vehicles causing heatsnow, you might just be a Warmist
The blog of the day is Not A Lot Of People Know That, with a post what happens when there is too much solar power.
It’s brunette’s week
Read: If All You See… »