“Democrats and environmentalists are shifting their approach to climate change…. It’s a rejection of the approach taken during the Biden administration, which treated climate change as an existential threat and tried to stop new drilling and pipelines.”
– Lisa Friedman and Brad Plumer, New York Times (below)
It was “all of the above” on the way up, and it is “all of the above” on the way down. Lisa Friedman and Brad Plumer’s “Democrats Once Vowed to Stop Oil and Gas. Now They’re Not So Sure” (New York Times, June 11, 2026) is worth revisiting to document the sea change that has occurred in the Democrat party away from climate alarmism and forced energy transformation.
“As the midterm elections approach, many leading Democrats are rethinking their approach to climate change,” the article begins.…
Ethan Tan on social media shared the findings of a recent, neglected study on how China’s wind and solar push is more bark than bite. “China has a lot of renewable, zero emission power gen capacity,” he writes. “But they are mainly located too far to matter.”
He quotes from “Why Wind and Solar Power is Going to ‘Waste’ in China in the Global Energy Crisis” (South China Morning Post), which summarized a study (paywall) from Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA).
…The “wasted” wind and solar energy stems from inflexible grid management that continues to position coal as a stabilising source of power and stymies a clean energy expansion that could otherwise generate electricity equivalent to the needs of France, according to analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) think tank.
“The multi-decade failure of climate mitigation policies has naturally given way to adaptation, which is the free-market, government-free approach to climate policy.”
Richard Black, head of communications at Climate Analytics (Germany), is frustrated about adaptation rather than his preferred course of “drastic” cuts in CO2 (think societal upheaval). “It’s important to see the recent transatlantic aircon spat for what it was – a deliberate distraction,” he complains. Chalk up another messaging failure and more futility for the anti-CO2, anti-modern-living lobby. [1]
Rhetorical Dead Cat?
Black continues:
…Important, because it will come again. At some point soon, the mercury will rise higher still and recently-set records will be broken – driven by man-made climate change.
And, desperate to avoid a proper conversation about climate change, contrarians will once more throw the rhetorical dead cat onto the table of overheated hospital wards, parched crops and buckling railways and blame ’the left,’ ‘greens,’ ‘woke regulations’ or ‘Old Europe’ for blocking use of air conditioners or, even more dramatically, forcing them to be ‘ripped out.’