“I withdrew our country from the job killing and very expensive Paris Climate Accord. Last year coal exports were up 92% compared to 2016. 92%, do you believe that? You’re shipping it all over the world. To Vietnam. I was in Vietnam and they said, ‘We get coal from Ohio. We get coal from West Virginia. It’s the finest coal in the world.’”

MasterResource has documented the energy/climate views of President Donald Trump both before and after his election in 2016 (here). The historic nature of his views requires constant updates, particularly with the other side declaring war against oil, gas, and coal and waging lawsuits against fossil-fuel companies.

Here are his words from the Cincinnati, Ohio rally earlier this month:

• Our shared Republican agenda is pro worker, pro jobs, pro family, pro growth, and 100% pro American.

The Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (AWED) is an informal coalition of individuals and organizations interested in improving national, state, and local energy and environmental policies. Our premise is that technical matters like these should be addressed by using Real Science. (Please consult WiseEnergy.org for more information).

A key element of AWED’s efforts is public education. Towards that end, every three weeks we put together a newsletter to balance what is found in the mainstream media about energy and the environment. We appreciate MasterResource for their assistance in publishing this information.

Some of the more important articles in this issue are:

Cost-Effective ‘Renewable’ Energy Is A Fictional Construct
There is no conservative momentum for a carbon tax
Bill Gates: The hidden costs of unreliable electricity
Why should we subsidize tomorrow’s rich in the name of the climate?…

[Editor note: The author, a longtime critic of activist government climate policy, takes on a recent climate plan by the City of Houston. His open letter to Lara Cottingham, Houston Chief Sustainability Officer, City of Houston, follows.]

“Explain how 8 per cent wind and solar will replace 62 per cent reliable energy 24/7. Texas winds may be a bit more steady, but during heat spells, wind activity … falls just when it is needed the most.”

” A logical conclusion is that the city and staff may have an agenda for wishing to ration energy in the city not related to temperature or climate change, or perhaps that they are uninformed of these climate/energy facts.

Houston City government and staff have arbitrarily decided to pledge, figuratively speaking, allegiance to U.N.…

“Demands to significantly increase the Company’s renewable procurement ignore this reality [of system instability] largely because Georgia Power, and not the Intervenors, is ultimately responsible for safely and reliably integrating these resources into and operating the system.”

– Georgia Power Company, June 24, 2019

Georgia Power didn’t need any new sources of generation and was, in fact, closing down still-useful plants to make room for the Plant Vogtle #3 and #4 (2,231 MWnuclear capacity). As such, the Company didn’t want nuisance solar. However, to appease the Georgia Public Service Commissioner (GPSC) commissioners, and to engage in greenwashing, the Company proposed in its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) to purchase just enough intermittent solar to be politically acceptable. They were wrong.

Solaring Up … and Up

In the face of opposition, the Company compromised in a proposed settlement to increase future solar purchases.…