EXCLUSIVE: How Small Town America Stopped A Chinese Communist Party Takeover

A U.S. electric vehicle battery manufacturer with ties to the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) has suspended its permit application to build a plant near a Michigan National Guard base following fierce opposition.

Chuck Thelen, CEO of Gotion Inc. — a “wholly owned and controlled” subsidiary of Chinese company Hefei Gotion High-Tech Power Energy Co. Ltd. (Gotion High-Tech) — said the decision stemmed from the firm’s ongoing breach of contract lawsuit against Green Charter Township, according to the Big Rapids Pioneer. The township soured on the $2.4 billion project in November 2023 after voters recalled numerous officials following a series of reports revealing Gotion and its Chinese parent company’s ties to the CCP.

“I applaud the people of Mecosta County as Gotion pauses their permitting process, but their fight is not over,” Republican Michigan Rep. John Moolenaar, chair of the House Select Committee on the CCP, told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Gotion must announce it will finally listen to the people, and end its projects for good.”

“Over the last two years the residents of Green Charter Township, a small town of just 3,200 people, came together to defend American interests and stop Gotion from bullying its way into their community,” Moolenaar said. “The opposition to the CCP-affiliated company attended board meetings to voice their concerns and rallied their neighbors in true grassroots efforts against Gotion.”

‘National Security Risks’

Questions about Gotion’s CCP-ties began to arise around March 2023 when The Midwesterner reported Gotion High-Tech’s “Articles of Association” required the firm to establish a “Party organization and carry out Party activities in accordance with the Constitution of the Communist Party of China.”

Later, in August 2023, the DCNF found Gotion High-Tech’s Chinese-language annual reports from the previous year revealing the firm employed 923 CCP members at that time. The same month, the DCNF also discovered footage on the firm’s Chinese-language website showing employees visiting CCP memorials dressed as Red Army soldiers to pledge their lives to the Party.

Other Chinese-language announcements on Gotion High-Tech’s website unearthed by the DCNF showed Gotion’s Chief Technology Officer, Steven Cai, at the internal CCP committee meetings of its Chinese parent company.

The House Select Committee on the CCP investigated Gotion High-Tech in 2024 and “found their supply chains are reliant on forced labor as part of the CCP’s ongoing genocide of Uyghur Muslims in Xinjiang Province,” Mooleenaar told the DCNF.

“The full extent of Gotion’s ties to the CCP were uncovered, with the help of the investigative reporting by the Daily Caller News Foundation, as well as the national security risks posed by companies like Gotion,” Moolenaar said.

‘We Love Our Freedom’

Meanwhile, Michigan residents — like Joseph Cella, the director of the Michigan-China Economic and Security Review Group — engaged in grassroots activism to oppose the CCP-tied company. Cella served as the U.S. Ambassador to Fiji during the first Trump administration.

The former ambassador told the DCNF he blames local leaders for allowing such a company the opportunity to build a base of operations in Michigan.

“[They] refused to follow the directives given to state and local governments on dealings with China-based companies to exercise vigilance, conduct due diligence, and ensure transparency, integrity, and accountability are built into the partnership to guard against potential foreign government exploitation,” Cella said. “It is important that executive branch agencies, Congress, the Michigan Legislature, and citizens continue to scrutinize and investigate this ‘deal.’”

Cella credits other local activists, lawmakers, and journalists for their work in opposing Gotion’s project.

“This was a first-in-the-nation moment where a subnational incursion via a ‘deal’ with a China-based and CCP-tied company led to the recall and defeat of elected officials,” Cella said, referencing the November 2023 Green Charter Township election. “The totality of those activities for nearly two years resulted in this ‘deal’ being in grave trouble and facing a dim future.”

Dr. Ormand Hook, co-strategist for the “No Gotion” movement in Big Rapids, Michigan, told the DCNF that “people who just wanted to live in freedom” are “responsible for our victory.”

“We were motivated by the fact that we love our freedom and are not willing to give up our freedom to America’s number one geopolitical adversary. Plain and simple,” Hook said. “We had to push back at every opportunity because we had no playbook. We found the weaknesses and exploited them as best we could. Our biggest objective was to replace the fraudulent elected officials, which we were successful in doing.”

Among other things, Hook told the DCNF that many in the No Gotion movement were galvanized into action after the Michigan state Senate Appropriations Committee granted Gotion $175 million in taxpayer funding to support their project. The funding allocation passed with a 10-9 vote, despite every committee Republican and three Democrats voting against it.

“We found out most local politicians were in bed with the governor and our enemies,” Hook said.

Lori Brock, another leader of the No Gotion movement, told the DCNF that she was “cautiously optimistic that this disastrous project may finally be coming to an end.”

“We will continue to fight until it is completely gone from our community, and it’s my hope that our political leaders have learned a valuable lesson from this experience: in America, you don’t get to completely upend a community and our way of life without the consent of the people who live here, and American tax dollars should never, ever be used to subsidize anything associated with the CCP,” Brock said.

Thelen and Gotion did not respond to requests for comment.

AUTHOR

Philip Lenczycki

Daily Caller News Foundation senior investigative reporter, political journalist, and China watcher. Twitter: @LenczyckiPhilip

RELATED ARTICLE: EXCLUSIVE: Pentagon, Energy Dept. Nuclear Research Projects Tapped Sanctioned Chinese Communist Party Supercomputers

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

AWED MEDIA BALANCED NEWS: We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Welcome! We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Here is the link for this issue, so please share it on social media.

Checkout the 2025, 2024, & 2023  archives, plus asterisked items below.


— This Newsletter’s Articles, by Topic —

This Issue’s Best of the Best:

*** My Department of Education Epoch Times Op-Ed

*** Critically Thinking about the Arguments against DOEd

*** Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History

*** The Top 5 Ways Higher Education Will Be Impacted by Trump’s Sweeping Changes

*** DOEd Tells Med Schools to Stop Discriminating

*** Puppeteers of Perception: How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems are Designed to Mislead

*** How Much Do Wind Turbines Cost?

*** Fishing industry sues over offshore wind farm, says the DOI didn’t properly permit Vineyard Wind

*** Fact Check Team: Inflation Reduction Act may cost taxpayers trillions by 2050

*** Real Property Tax Law § 575-b Held Unconstitutional by New York Trial Court: What This Means for Assessment of Renewable Energy Projects

*** The Battery Backlash Is Real, It’s Global, And It’s Growing

*** Nuclear-generated electricity saves an electricity-starved world

*** Jury Finds Greenpeace Liable for Hundreds of Millions in Damages

*** John Stossel— Retroactive Climate Tax: States Fine Fossil Fuel Companies for Legal Actions Decades Later

*** SEC’s Climate Risk Disclosure Rule Would Compel Companies to Make Scientifically False and Misleading Disclosures

*** Noncitizen Voting in U.S. Elections

*** EO: Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections

*** Trump’s & Musk’s Goals Are Saving US, Not Money or Fame

*** PragerU video: COVID Lockdowns — The Real Cost

*** New Zealand Crisis: Soaring Numbers of Adverse Events Among mRNA-Vaxxed

Secondary Education Related:

*** Report: The Key to Fixing the US Education System

*** My Department of Education Epoch Times Op-Ed

*** Critically Thinking about the Arguments against DOEd

*** Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History

Department of Education significantly dismantled in new Trump executive order

Make America Smart Again

The 3 Things Experts Say Would Make US Education World Class

Video: Why The Education System Is Failing America: Common Core (2022, 13 min)

Penny Schwinn is a troubling selection at DOEd

Higher Education Related:

*** DOEd Tells Med Schools to Stop Discriminating

*** The Top 5 Ways Higher Education Will Be Impacted by Trump’s Sweeping Changes

*** Abandoning DEI won’t fix academia’s left-leaning problem

Surrendering to Authoritarianism

Artificial Intelligence:

*** Puppeteers of Perception: How Artificial Intelligence (AI) Systems are Designed to Mislead

*** What are AI hallucinations? Why AI sometimes makes things up

AI ‘Hallucinations’ Are Changing Medicine — Should We Worry?

Can AI Therapists Solve Your Mental Health Problems?

Greed Energy Economics:

*** Fact Check Team: Inflation Reduction Act may cost taxpayers trillions by 2050

*** Real Property Tax Law § 575-b Held Unconstitutional by New York Trial Court: What This Means for Assessment of Renewable Energy Projects

28 energy leaders call for eliminating IRA subsidies—even ones they benefit from

NY Gov Pushes New Energy Tax Past Next Election

Unreliables (General):

*** The Battery Backlash Is Real, It’s Global, And It’s Growing

*** Ireland’s Renewable Energy Targets for 2030 — A Reality Check

More Wind & Solar Projects Spiked. US Rejections/Restrictions Hit 791

Wind Energy — Offshore:

*** Fishing industry sues over offshore wind farm, says the DOI didn’t properly permit Vineyard Wind

*** Secretary Burgum: You have the legal authority to halt offshore wind

Offshore wind construction is ignoring President Trump

Wind Energy — Other:

*** How Much Do Wind Turbines Cost?

Solar Energy:

Is the Solar for All program authorized?

The Greenhouse Gas Windfalls Blew Hard for Solar in the Biden EPA

Nuclear Energy:

*** Our nuclear problem: A Quick Q&A with economist Eli Dourado on NRC overreach

*** Nuclear-generated electricity saves an electricity-starved world

Amazon, Google, and Meta Plan to Triple Nuclear Energy Capacity by 2050

Japan Restarting Nukes After Fukushima

Nuclear growth helps South Korea cut back on coal and LNG imports

Fossil Fuel Energy:

*** Jury Finds Greenpeace Liable for Hundreds of Millions in Damages

Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Ban on Gas Powered Cars is Dead

Coal Coal Baby

Misc Energy:

*** Freedom needs a lobbyist: Introducing the Energy Freedom Fund

We’re Not Short on Power. We’re Just Too Sanctimonious to Generate it

Manmade Global Warming — Some Deceptions:

*** John Stossel— Retroactive Climate Tax: States Fine Fossil Fuel Companies for Legal Actions Decades Later

*** SEC’s Climate Risk Disclosure Rule Would Compel Companies to Make Scientifically False and Misleading Disclosures

*** WARNING: The secret UN carbon tax that’s about to fleece America

Duke’s carbon-“neutrality” achievement is meaningless leftist agitation

Manmade Global Warming — The Science:

*** Short video: Monster Bugs – Dr Willie Soon, Time Traveller

Meet the scientists Trump could tap to correct climate regulations (there are many more!)

USCRN Data Throws a Curveball: Second Biggest Month-to-Month Temperature Drop Since 2009

The Climate Scam is Over

On climate, common sense is in. Alarmism and spending are out

Manmade Global Warming — Misc:

Book: Climate and Energy Lies: Expensive, Dangerous & Destructive

A Bedrock Document of Climate Alarmism May Soon be Cracked, and it’s about Time

US Election:

*** Noncitizen Voting in U.S. Elections

*** EO: Preserving and Protecting the Integrity of American Elections

*** Trump Acts to Protect American Voters

Top court rules New York City’s noncitizen voting law illegal

Myth vs. Fact: The Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act (H.R. 22/S.128)

US Federal Agencies:

*** Trump’s & Musk’s Goals Are Saving US, Not Money or Fame

DOGE: Might of the Living Feds: 1,500+ Cash-Sucking ‘Zombies’

Trump:

*** ‘MAGA leftist’ reveals why she now supports President Donald Trump’s agenda

Conrad Black: All Indications Are That the US Will Dodge a Recession

Citizenship is not a Birthright — Part 1 and Part 2

Appeals court clears way for Trump to fire leaders of ‘independent’ federal agencies

Trump-Era Judicial Paralysis Explained

Can One Judge Block the President? The Battle Over Universal Injunctions

Misc US Politics:

*** The Hidden Agenda: Congresswoman Hageman

*** Women’s Sports Happened by Accident, and Could be Taken Apart on Purpose

*** NY Times editorial declares Democratic Party in denial about 2024 election loss, says it moved ‘too far left’

Democrat Elitism, From Calhoun to Schumer

Societally US:

Technocracy: The Machine Feeds On Your Data

Censorship US:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali on Censorship

An Attack on Free Speech: The Censorship Industrial Complex

Science:

The Story of the World’s First Seed Bank and the Tragic Hero of Science Who Set Out to End Humanity’s Suffering

Health:

The Existing Evidence Base For Chlorine Dioxide In Treating Human Diseases

COVID-19 — Misc:

*** PragerU video: COVID Lockdowns — The Real Cost

*** New Zealand Crisis: Soaring Numbers of Adverse Events Among mRNA-Vaxxed

*** Scientists Petition FDA to Suspend or Withdraw mRNA COVID Vaccines

Israel/Ukraine:

Pray for the safety of the Israeli people

Latest Developments in Israel

Pray for the safety of the Ukrainian people

A well-rated source to make a Ukraine donation

Latest Developments in Ukraine


Please use social media, etc. to pass on this Newsletter to other open-minded citizens…If you’d like to be added to (or unsubscribe from) the distribution of our popular, free, worldwide Media Balance Newsletter, simply send me an email saying that.


Note 1: We recommend reading the Newsletter on your computer, not your phone, as some documents (e.g., PDFs) are much easier to read on a large computer screen… We’ve tried to use common fonts, etc. to minimize display issues.

Note 2: For past Newsletter issues see the archives from 2022, 2023, 2024, & 2025. To accommodate numerous requests received about prior articles over all fourteen plus years of the Newsletter, we’ve put this together — where you can search ALL prior issues, by year. For a background about how the Newsletter is put together, etc., please read this.

Note 3: See this extensive list of reasonable books on climate change. As a parallel effort, we have also put together a list of some good books related to industrial wind energy. Both topics are also extensively covered on my website: WiseEnergy.org.

Note 4: I am not an attorney or a physician, so no material appearing in any of the Newsletters (or any of my websites) should be construed as giving legal or medical advice. My recommendation has always been: consult a competent, licensed attorney when you are involved with legal issues, and consult a competent physician regarding medical matters.

Copyright © 2025; Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions (see WiseEnergy.org).

‘Years of Climate Action Demolished in 52 Days’ By Trump — A ‘Climate Onslaught’

WATCH: Morano on Fox & Friends on Amazon rainforest being clear-cut for 4-lane highway for UN climate summit:

‘This is beyond parody. If they really cared about the rainforest or the climate, they would have a Zoom conference’

‘Years of Climate Action Demolished in Days’ By Trump! — A ‘Climate Onslaught’ — Reveals ‘how little anyone ever really cared about global warming’

‘Climate protest group Just Stop Oil says it will stop direct action’

Plus: Warmist turns on ‘sketchy’ LA Wildfire ‘attribution’ study

Former spokeswoman for Extinction Rebellion red-pilled on ‘green groups’ — ‘They have ‘nothing to do with protecting the Earth’

Cheers! Bloomberg columnists: ‘Years of Climate Action Demolished in Days’ By Trump – ’82 actions across 20 govt bodies…in 1st 52 DAYS’ – ‘Climate Onslaught’ –
Unleashed ‘climate demolition’

Morano: ‘This is how it’s done! Thank you, Mr. President!’

NYT’s moment of clarity: Paper shopping bags ‘might not be as green as you think’ – ‘Paper bags tend to require more energy to produce than plastic ones’ & ‘In landfills, paper bags produce methane & CO2’

Warmist Sabine Hossenfelder disgusted with climate scientists over media hyped LA wildfires climate ‘attribution’ study:
‘Many climate scientists know how sketchy the studies are…but they keep their mouth shut’ – ‘They don’t say a word because it’d be politically inconvenient’

WaPo: ‘Growing weed takes more energy than mining bitcoin’ –Uses 1% of all American energy, ‘warms the planet about as much as 10 million cars’

Mag: ‘Email signatures are harming the planet & could cost people their lives — it’s time to stop using them’ – Adding ‘gender pronouns in emails…may contribute to the premature deaths of one person a year’

Watch: Energy Sec. Wright: ‘Net Zero by 2050 is just nonsense. It’s an activist thing, & it’s a top-down, big government justification to do mostly anti-human things’

Think EVs are ‘green’?! 

‘Typical Tesla EV battery weighs 1,000 pounds & includes 26lbs of lithium, 10lbs of cobalt, 110lbs of nickel, 9lbs of manganese, 55lbs of copper, 44lbs of aluminum, 154lbs of graphite, plus, steel, plastic, & other metals’

Watch: Democrat Sen. Angus King grills Tulsi Gabbard: ‘Who decided climate change should be left out of this (threat assessment) report after it’s been in the prior 11?’

Bloomberg News goes all in for China! ‘This Is China’s Chance to Prove It’s a Climate Leader’ – Trump’s rejection of UN climate goals ‘has offered China a rare opportunity to expand its global influence’ – ‘China can produce the kind of change the world actually wants to see’

Lomborg: ‘Hunger keeps declining, even with climate change’ – ‘Over the past century, hunger has declined dramatically’

Study finds Trump Effect in U.S. over belief in ‘climate change’: In 2016, Republicans had ‘a noticeable rise’ of being ‘climate change believers’ after UN Paris pact –
But ‘by 2018, after Trump withdrew from the UN Paris Agreement…belief partially reversed, with more (GOP) individuals returning to higher skepticism’

Whitmer’s Michigan spent $670 million on green energy & EV corporate welfare — ZERO jobs created after three years!

The Climate Scam is Over: Peer-reviewed AI analysis completely debunks all of the ‘man-made’ claims

NYT claims ‘vicious cycle of extreme heat leading to more fossil fuel use’ –
Realty Check: ‘As planet warms projected decrease in energy demand for heating is ~5x larger than projected increase due to more cooling’

The downfall of climate change poster boy Michael Mann:
‘If Mann cannot even be trusted to tell the truth when he’s under oath & in court on pain of perjury, why on earth should any of us take him seriously on the subject of climate change?’

Lomborg: ‘The global evidence is clear: Not a single country that relies heavily on wind & solar power has low average electricity costs’

Morano on WMAL on Trump’s EPA reversing Obama/Biden regs: ‘We are seeing the climate movement collapse before our eyes’

Watch: ‘Germany detonates its most modern coal-fired power plant after just six years’ – Able ‘to power the entire city’ of Hamburg – ‘They demolished it because Greta said so’

Meanwhile:

© 2025 . All rights reserved.

House Republicans Seek To Repeal More Biden Green Energy Regulations

The House of Representatives will seek to overturn several Biden administration climate regulations limiting consumer choice later this week.

Speaker Mike Johnson is slated to bring two joint resolutions of disapproval to the House floor to repeal green energy standards for home appliances including refrigerators and freezers. The regulations were issued by the Department of Energy (DOE) during the final weeks of President Joe Biden’s term, allowing congressional Republicans to repeal the Biden regulations using the Congressional Review Act (CRA).

“Republicans are getting the country back on track,” GOP House Conference Chair Lisa McClain said at a leadership press conference Tuesday. “House Republicans are securing the border. We are protecting women, and we are passing legislation to lower costs for American families.”

Congress can rescind recently issued regulations from the prior administration by a simple majority vote under the CRA.

Republican Reps. Stephanie Bice of Oklahoma and Craig Goldman of Texas are the lead sponsors of the joint resolutions of disapproval — H.J. Res. 24 and H.J. Res. 75 — taking aim at the DOE green energy standards for walk-in coolers and freezers and commercial refrigerators and freezers.

“The Biden administration has done everything it can to regulate all aspects of our homes and businesses,” Bice told Fox News Digital on Jan. 16. “Walk-in coolers and freezers are used everywhere; from pharmacies, convenience stores, food processing facilities, food banks, restaurants, and more.”

“President Biden’s DOE consistently abused their authority to push a radical energy agenda on American consumers, attempting to implement conservation standards that are neither economically justifiable nor significantly more energy efficient for several household appliances like refrigerators and washing machines,” House Majority Leader Steve Scalise wrote in a statement Sunday. “These overreaching rules take away consumer choice, burden American families, and force Americans to use expensive appliances that do not perform as well.”

The House also passed a joint resolution of disapproval repealing the Biden EPA’s tax on the methane emissions of oil and gas operators on Feb. 26. President Donald Trump signed the resolution overturning the methane tax on March 17.

AUTHOR

Adam Pack

Contributor.

RELATED ARTILE: Climate Activists Want To Blame Americans’ Soaring Utility Bills On Anything But Green Energy

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.


All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

Burgum Says U.S. Natural Resources Could Equal $100 Trillion as Trump Expands Alaskan Drilling

In a move to vastly expand energy production within the United States, the Trump administration announced on Thursday that it will reopen over 80% of Alaska’s National Petroleum Reserve to oil and gas drilling. The action comes as U.S. Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum suggested that the total value of America’s energy natural resources may approach $100 trillion.

According to an agency press release, the plan would reopen 82% of the reserve for oil and natural gas leasing as well as expand “energy development opportunities” inside the 23-million-acre area to encompass previous undeveloped land. In addition, the department will reinstate a program “that makes the entire 1.56-million-acre Coastal Plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge available for oil and gas leasing.”

A third action named by the department would open up the “Trans-Alaska Pipeline Corridor and Dalton Highway north of the Yukon River” in order to allow the construction of a natural gas pipeline and a mining road. These two projects “stand to increase job opportunities and encourage Alaska’s economic growth,” Burgum noted.

“It’s time for the U.S. to embrace Alaska’s abundant and largely untapped resources as a pathway to prosperity for the nation, including Alaskans,” Burgum summarized. “For far too long, the federal government has created too many barriers to capitalizing on the state’s energy potential. Interior is committed to recognizing the central role the State of Alaska plays in meeting our nation’s energy needs, while providing tremendous economic opportunity for Alaskans.”

The previous administration under former President Joe Biden had “reduced oil and gas drilling to less than half of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska’s Western Arctic, down from 82% during Mr. Trump’s first term.” A year ago, the administration levied new oil and gas leasing restrictions within 13 million acres of federal Alaskan land. Then just before leaving office in January, Biden prohibited oil and gas leasing in the Northern Bering Sea and implemented new constraints on drilling in 1.3 million acres of the Alaskan North Slope.

In contrast, President Donald Trump signed an executive order on the first day of his second term vowing to “unleash America’s affordable and reliable energy and natural resources,” as well as a second EO focused on Alaskan resources, which Thursday’s Department of the Interior (DOI) action was designed to implement.

Alaskan lawmakers welcomed the move. “Today marks a new day for Alaska and American energy security,” Rep. Nick Begich (R) stated. Governor Mike Dunleavy (R) concurred, remarking that the DOI initiative “will provide more investment opportunities, more jobs, and a better future for Alaskans.”

At a Breitbart News event in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday, Burgum further detailed how the massive scale of America’s natural resources could help address the U.S.’s spiraling national debt.

“[W]hat’s our debt? $36.5 trillion. What are our assets?” he asked. “… I can tell you, as the head of Interior … we’ve got 500 million acres of surface. Brooke Rollins has another 200 million in the U.S. Forest Service and U.S. grasslands. So 700 million acres of surface. There [are] 700 million acres of subsurface that we have the mineral rights, critical minerals, oil and gas, metallurgical and thermal coal resources. And there’s 2.5 billion acres of offshore, [much] of which have not been even explored, all of which represent huge, huge assets for us.”

He continued, “So if you take our forests, our lands, our grasslands, our lands that are near urban areas, our mineral resources, our offshore resources, I think the number is … double, triple what our national debt is. It could be $100 trillion. … [I]f we had published America’s balance sheet and said, ‘You know, our assets are triple what our debt is,’ just [that] announcement might lower the 10-year rate on interest rates because people say, ‘Wow, these guys got it covered, and they have a plan on how they’re going to be able to pay down this debt. And they’re actually in really good shape.’”

Notably, in the weeks since Trump’s inauguration, prices at the gas pump have fallen, with the average price of gas dropping for the fourth straight week on Monday to $3.078 per gallon.

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLES:

Left-wing Activists Ordered to Pay $667 Million for 2016 Demonstrations against Dakota Access Pipeline

RELATED VIDEO: Tesla attacks and domestic terrorism: Kyle Shideler

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.


The Washington Stand is Family Research Council’s outlet for news and commentary from a biblical worldview. The Washington Stand is based in Washington, D.C. and is published by FRC, whose mission is to advance faith, family, and freedom in public policy and the culture from a biblical worldview. We invite you to stand with us by partnering with FRC.

It Rhymes With ‘Greenies’

IT RHYMES WITH ‘GREENIES’

It looks like Greenpeace could go kaput.

Nine North Dakotan jurors in a defamation, trespass, nuisance, and civil conspiracy case awarded Dallas-based Energy Transfer a $660 million judgment Wednesday against Greenpeace. The case revolves around the activist group’s actions to prevent the Dakota Access pipeline.

The award, should it stand, would amount to roughly 25 times Greenpeace’s yearly operating budget. In other words, the most renowned lefty environmental activist group in the world would cease to exist.

And the news doesn’t get much better for these weenies.

A leaked UK Government assessment of the left wing’s “Net Zero” commitment details what everyone always said would happen if the West transitions to so-called “green energy”: Economic apocalypse.

Fully 10 percent of the UK’s economy would disappear in 10 years. And who would be the hardest hit, according to this report? Well, the poor obviously, just like every right-of-center energy analyst has said for decades.

They should have known too. The proverbial canary keeled over for the green weenies last year when Bill Gates of all people decided to restart the infamous Three Mile Island. RELATED: Gates’s big green energy group “Breakthrough Energy” literally just shitcanned most of their policy staff.

New York Times frames this as Gates “retooling” for the “Trump era,” but his deal to restart Three Mile Island’s reactors dates well before Trump won in November.

The writing on the wall is clear, but just in case, I’ll spell it out: Serious industry analysts have always known green energy wouldn’t work for big modern cities, burgeoning economies, and third world countries struggling to modernize.

It was a truth we could afford to shove off for years as mega-rich liberals virtue-signalled for decades in places like Paris.

Until now, and not because the polar ice caps are disappearing. No. It’s because the explosion of tech needs real answers and not fake solutions, like thousands of acres of wind turbines that don’t work.

Everyone always knew, for the most part. And the most poetic part is it’ll be to power business advancements, not to achieve some dances with wolves’ fantasy about oneness with nature*.

*(Worth noting here that installation of solar panels or wind turbines utterly annihilates nature in the area. Food for thought.)

The once-reliably “green” tech gods on Earth are all buying into nuclear technology. Zuck, Bezos, Musk, Sam Altman. Not only do they need it to power their burgeoning AI tech but to get ahead of energy costs once cities become truly addicted to robotics and artificial intelligence.

They know full well that also becoming energy companies of the future could be very lucrative, in addition to tech.

Coal and especially oil will be required resources in perpetuity as they’re both required for construction and fabrication. Nuclear will boom to provide cheap, consistent, tidal flows of energy to megacities of the future.

We’ll go “carbon neutral” and not one lick of it will be due to the incessant whining of weenies at Greenpeace or private-jet flying Hollywood dinguses named after Ninja Turtles.

WHAT I’M READING

Carville predicts insurrection in the Democrat Party.

‘I’m Mad’: James Carville Predicts There Could Be ‘Uprising Within The Democratic Party’ In Coming Months

Speaking of weenies, what kind of goofy pretend rebellion was this?

EXCLUSIVE: Inside A Taxpayer-Funded Think Tank’s Aborted Rebellion Against DOGE

OOPSIES

Democrats Entire Theory Of Politics Blown Up By One Poll

AUTHOR

Geoffrey Ingersoll

Editor at Large

EDITORS NOTE: This Daily Caller column is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

PODCAST: Trump Dismantling Bogas Climate Policies and COVID, It’s Safe to Tell Truths Now!

GUESTS AND TOPICS

STEVE GORHAM

Steve Goreham is Executive Director of the Climate Science Coalition of America and author of four books on energy, climate change, and sustainable development, with over 100,000 copies in print. Steve’s new book, Green Breakdown: The Coming Renewable Energy Failure, came out August last year.

TOPIC: Trump dismantling bogas climate policies

HELEN RALEIGH

Helen Raleigh is an American entrepreneur, writer, and speaker. She’s a senior contributor at The Federalist. Her writings appear in other national media, including The Wall Street Journal and Fox News. Helen is the author of several books, including “Confucius Never Said” and “Backlash: How Communist China’s Aggression Has Backfired.” Her latest book is the 2nd edition of “The Broken Welcome Mat: America’s UnAmerican immigration policy, and how we should fix it.”

TOPIC: COVID, It’s Safe to Tell Truths Now!

©2025 . All rights reserved.

EPA Slashes Climate Change Red Tape, Claws Back $20B Climate Slush Fund

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has initiated a vast reversal of the regulatory-heavy, climate change fear-based policies of the Biden administration, announcing Wednesday that it is taking 31 actions to remove red tape for the energy and automotive industries and lower the cost of living for Americans. The agency also announced the termination of a $20 billion fund parked in a commercial bank by the Biden administration to avoid government oversight that was used to award money to climate activist groups.

Characterizing Wednesday’s initiative as “the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history,” EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin remarked that the effort “driv[es] a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion” by “roll[ing] back trillions in regulatory costs and hidden ‘taxes’ on U.S. families.” The EPA further declared that the venture will “unleash American energy” by reconsidering regulations on power plants, the oil and gas industry, coal-fired power plants, the steam electric power industry, wastewater, and other measures.

The plan would also address “lowering the cost of living for American families” by reconsidering electric car mandates, grocery store regulations, environmental regulations that “shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses,” and terminating diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) arms of the agency, among other actions.

On Tuesday, the EPA also announced that it was shutting down a Biden administration program that it described as a “‘gold bar’ scheme,” in which an eye-popping $20 billion was released in the final week of former President Joe Biden’s term to award to various pop-up climate activist groups via a program known as the National Clean Investment Fund and Clean Communities Investment Accelerator. In a hidden video, a former Biden administration official described the program as “throwing gold bars off the edge” of the Titanic.

Since President Trump assumed office on January 20, the funds have been held in a Citibank account in order to avoid federal scrutiny. Zeldin described how the funds were moved through eight “pass-through, politically connected, unqualified and in some cases brand-new NGOs.” The EPA and the Department of the Treasury ordered that the funds be frozen, and the Department of Justice and FBI have opened a criminal investigation into the matter.

Lawmakers such as Senator Pete Ricketts (R-Neb.) welcomed news of the EPA cutting red tape and cracking down on wasteful taxpayer spending.

“[C]ommon sense is finally back at the EPA,” he declared during Thursday’s “Washington Watch with Tony Perkins.” “… For example, … I remember starting that fight back in the Obama administration back in 2015, and both Obama and Biden tried to stretch the rule to expand EPA’s authority to things like roadside ditches or farm ditches or farm ponds, things that were clearly not navigable waters. The Clean Water Act of 1972 says ‘navigable waters’ 50 times, and they totally tried to get rid of that meaning. … [W]e’re also going to be rolling back the Clean Power Plan, which was going to do things such as shut down our very clean burning coal plant in Nebraska. They’re going to get rid of the greenhouse gas reporting rule, which would be an attack on our natural gas facilities, which again, is a big source of power for Nebraska and many states. And frankly, natural gas is one of the reasons why we are the only industrialized country that’s actually reducing our greenhouse gases.”

Ricketts went on to note the EPA’s rolling back of the electric vehicle (EV) mandate. “This is one that I’ve been fighting because EVs don’t make sense in big rural states with cold weather. The adoption rate in Nebraska is 2%, and under the Biden administration, they wanted two-thirds of all new vehicles being sold in 2032 to be EVs. That just wasn’t going to happen.”

Ricketts further emphasized the cost that the Biden-era regulations imposed on American families and businesses. “[T]he Biden administration rolled out 5,000 regulations. … [T]he average cost of that to the American family was $3,300 a year. And not just once. It’s $3,300 every year until those regulations are rolled back … so this is going to be a good start in rolling those regulations back and saving American households money. But when you put this layer of regulation on, you put a wet blanket on innovation and small businesses who create most of our jobs in this country.

Ricketts concluded by expressing confidence that the EPA’s actions will be part of a revitalized economy that will thrive under the second Trump administration.

“[T]his will be part of how the Trump administration unleashes the economy again,” he predicted. “I mean, we saw some of the best economy we’ve ever seen under the first Trump administration. You go look at the job participation rate by Americans. … We saw great unleashing of our economic power here, and it’s because, in part, the Trump administration took off a bunch of regulations that were preventing our innovators, our small businesses, and our families from being able to invest or spend the money that they otherwise would have.”

AUTHOR

Dan Hart

Dan Hart is senior editor at The Washington Stand.

RELATED ARTICLE: Is Efficiency a Biblical Idea?

EDITORS NOTE: This Washington Stand column is republished with permission. All rights reserved. ©2025 Family Research Council.


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AWED MEDIA BALANCED NEWS: We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Welcome! We cover Energy to Education to Elections — and more!

Here is the link for this issue, so please share it on social media.

Checkout the 2025, 2024, & 2023 archives, plus asterisked items below.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!


— This Newsletter’s Articles, by Topic —

This Issue’s Best of the Best:

*** The US Dept of Education: Going Forward

*** Uncivil Education

*** Marc Andreessen breaks down how the University scam works

*** Mann vs Science — and Science Wins!

*** Mark Steyn’s Vanquishing of Michael Mann Continues

*** Top 10 Catastrophic Climate Predictions That Failed

*** On climate, common sense is in. Alarmism and spending are out

*** A Simplified Explanation of Climate Science for Policymakers as well as High School and College Science Students

*** Secretary Hegseth says the DOD does not do ‘climate change crap’

*** Bogus Myths Created to Promote Renewables

*** 9 Takeaways from the JP Morgan Chase Energy Study You Won’t Want to Miss

*** Epstein: How to Solve America’s Electricity Crisis

*** DOGE’s Key Revelation: A Federal Budget Made Into a Maze Impervious to Reform

*** EPA Launches Biggest Deregulatory Action in U.S. History

*** Understanding EPA’s “Biggest Deregulatory Action in U.S. History”

*** Modernizing the EPA: A Blueprint for Congress (CEI)

*** National Poll: More than 85% of voters support five basic election reforms

*** More Americans approve of Trump than Biden on every issue, poll finds

*** Fifty Wins in 50 Days

*** Hard Work Is Good For You

*** The Scientific Fallacy That Spawned COVID Absolutism

*** The Uncomfortable Truth Behind “15 Days to Slow the Spread”- 5 Years Ago Today

*** The Disturbing Truth Behind Canada’s New Prime Minister

*** Will U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke be the next Pope?

*** I Didn’t Leave the Church — The Church Left Me

Federal Department of Education Related:

*** The US Dept of Education: Going Forward

Linda McMahon confirmed to lead Education Department

Education Secretary praises department for taking steps to eliminate ‘bureaucratic bloat’

Secondary Education Related:

*** Report: The Key to Fixing the US Education System

*** Uncivil Education

*** Trailer: 22 Words

Musk and studying physics

Short video: How We Learn by Stanislas Dehaene

The Upstart ‘Classic Learning Test’ Gets a Testy Welcome From the SAT

Higher Education Related:

*** Marc Andreessen breaks down how the University scam works

Report: State of the State Schools

George Will: The Perils of a Screen-Obsessed Society

Artificial Intelligence:

*** Meet Abby, the AI Ambassador!

Texas Needs Equivalent of 30 Nuclear Reactors by 2030 to Power AI Data Centers

Unreliables Energy Health and Ecosystem Consequences:

It’s a 100% flip: Reuters suddenly admits Net Zero policies have been a resounding failure

Wind farm owners admit liability to nuisance claims made by Irish couple

Unreliables (General):

*** Bogus Myths Created to Promote Renewables

*** The Green Energy Delusion

NY State’s green energy policy brings a world of hurt

Towns and States Don’t Want Green Energy

Wind Energy — Other:

Short video: Save the Wild West from Wind Industrialization

Solar Energy:

Hail storm destroys thousands of solar panels in Texas

Nuclear Energy:

Small Modular Reactors will benefit developing economies

The Future of Clean Energy Looks Increasingly Nuclear

Fossil Fuel Energy:

Surging LNG Exports Show US is a Global Nat Gas Superpower

Misc Energy:

*** 9 Takeaways from the JP Morgan Chase Energy Study You Won’t Want to Miss

*** Epstein: How to Solve America’s Electricity Crisis

*** Energy Secretary Vows Reversal of Biden Climate Policies

DOE Chris Wright: “We need more energy. Lots more energy.”

EPA questions 31 major energy regulations

False Pretense of Energy Transition: Long on Facts, Short on Truth

From Paris to Permian, Trump Restoring Rational Energy Policy

Trump energy choices saving America from economic disaster

Hydrogen Energy: Not Clean, Not Green, and Not Cheap

Mine, Baby, Mine!

Manmade Global Warming — Michael Mann:

*** Mann vs Science — and Science Wins!

*** Mark Steyn’s Vanquishing of Michael Mann Continues

*** A DC court sanctions climate scientist Michael Mann and his lawyers for misconduct “extraordinary in its scope, extent, and intent.”

*** SLAPPed!

*** Mann Ordered to Pay More than Those He Sought to Destroy: Lawfare Update

*** Trial of Mann v. Steyn: Post-Trial Motions Edition

Michael Mann Sanctioned for False testimony, Bad Faith

Manmade Global Warming — Some Deceptions:

*** Top 10 Catastrophic Climate Predictions That Failed

*** On climate, common sense is in. Alarmism and spending are out

*** Conflicts of Interest, Funding Support, and Author Affiliation in Peer Reviewed Research on the Relationship between Climate Change and  Geophysical Characteristics of Hurricanes

Prof. William Happer – Climate Scare Is Based on Lies

EPA Terminates $20 Billion in Grants for Climate Projects

CO₂ May Not Be the Villain

Manmade Global Warming — The Science:

*** A Simplified Explanation of Climate Science for Policymakers as well as High School and College Science Students

*** Trump Could Upend Every Facet of the Obama-Biden Climate Agenda in One Fell Swoop

CO₂ goes into rehab

Willie Soon gets wet; Jo Nova comments

Antarctica Ice Growing Across Large Areas for at Least 85 Years, Aerial Photos Show

Manmade Global Warming — Misc:

*** Secretary Hegseth says the DOD does not do ‘climate change crap’

Endangerment Unfound…but still sought

Climate Fact Check: February 2025

Amazon rainforest being CUT DOWN for UN climate conference

Good Riddance: Goodbye Global Warming And Climate Change

US Election:

*** National Poll: More than 85% of voters support five basic election reforms

Victory for Conservatives: Federal Court Says ‘No’ to Hiding Voter Data

Democrat Fundraising Machine Implodes: ActBlue Faces Chaos Amid Investigations

Democrats and Republicans call for changes to the voting system

US Federal Agencies — EPA:

*** EPA Launches Biggest Deregulatory Action in U.S. History

*** Understanding EPA’s “Biggest Deregulatory Action in U.S. History”

*** Modernizing the EPA: A Blueprint for Congress (CEI)

Hey, EPA, Why Not Regulate Water Vapor Emissions While You are At It?

A New Beltway Intrigue: Follow the Biden EPA Money

US Federal Agencies — Other:

*** DOGE’s Key Revelation: A Federal Budget Made Into a Maze Impervious to Reform

DOGE News: $300 Million in Business Loans for Kids Under 11

USPS signs agreement with DOGE to cut 10,000 workers: ‘Broken business model’

Trump:

*** More Americans approve of Trump than Biden on every issue, poll finds

*** Fifty Wins in 50 Days

Some background to the US-Ukrainian situation

Trump Touts His Tireless Winning

Do Tariffs Create Inflation?

Misc US Politics:

The Curmudgeon Party

Congressional Oversight Committee: The Bidens’ Influence Peddling Timeline

Wayne Root: The Criminal Case Against Barack Obama – Part 3

Fantasy Land On The Right

Societally US:

*** Hard Work Is Good For You

*** Big Lies And The Demise of Mainstream Media

*** What is Wokeness, an Ideology or a Tactic?

Canada:

*** The Disturbing Truth Behind Canada’s New Prime Minister

*** A bit of background about Mark Carney, Canada’s new Prime Minister

*** Canada Is Now In The Hands Of Arch-Technocrat And Trilateral Mark Carney

Religion Related:

*** Will U.S. Cardinal Raymond Burke be the next Pope?

*** I Didn’t Leave the Church — The Church Left Me

Without God, There is No TRUE Respect for Human Life

Science:

Military Starship: How SpaceX Is About to Make America Globally Dominant

Health:

Public Health Watch: Measles Alert

*** Landmark Alzheimer’s Study Retracted After Evidence of Data Manipulation

New Book: Thank You, Truckers! Canada’s Heroes & Those Who Helped Them

COVID-19 — Misc:

*** The Uncomfortable Truth Behind “15 Days to Slow the Spread”- 5 Years Ago Today

*** The Scientific Fallacy That Spawned COVID Absolutism

*** The Story Behind Mistakes Were NOT Made

The COVID-Era Smearing – and Resurrection – of Trump NIH Appointee Dr. Jay Bhattacharya

Israel/Ukraine:

Pray for the safety of the Israeli people

Latest Developments in Israel

Pray for the safety of the Ukrainian people

A well-rated source to make a Ukraine donation

Latest Developments in Ukraine

It’s Time to End the War Between Ukraine and Russia


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Mann vs Science: Science Wins! — a.k.a. Mann v Steyn, et. al.

The public perception is that Dr. Michael Mann has become the standard bearer of climate change. After all, he invented the climate hockey stick idea, which has been relentlessly seared into the public’s consciousness by a complicit lamestream media. In effect, his graph has arguably been the premier example of real Science having been taken over by political science. It appears that this has largely been successful because 95%± of the population is technically challenged, so they are relatively easy pickings on complex scientific matters.

To critically thinking scientists, Mann has been a major stoker of climate alarmism. They understood that the “hockey stick” concept had several major weaknesses, rarely (if ever) acknowledged by Mann or the media.

For example, Mann apparently constructed his graph by pasting together two rather different sets of data. This is a scientific no-no. For example, Mann’s earlier data appears to be based on tree ring evidence from one or two trees in Siberia. There are several scientific concerns with this, like: 1) tree ring estimates of temperature are not very accurate, 2) having a sample size of 2± trees in a situation like this is not usually sufficient to draw meaningful conclusions from, 3) it is highly speculative that what happened in a tiny section of Siberia is representative of what happened in the rest of the planet, etc.

This is my layperson overview of the hockey stick issue. If you’d like a more in-depth technical discussion of the scientific weaknesses of this matter, there are several good references, like this (also hereherehere, etc.).

One of several people who had the temerity to speak up and object to Mann’s contentions was Mark Steyn. The short story is that Mann decided to sue Steyn (et. al.). This became a very public case (in which Steyn defended himself), and where the judge awarded Mann $1 million. Not surprisingly the lamestream media trumpeted this as a vindication of their sloven and uncritical thinking regarding the highly technical climate matter.

I wrote two Substack commentaries about the disturbing Mann v Steyn matter: here and here.

The Latest Developments —

Now that you have a bit of background, this week there was a major development. As expected, Steyn et al appealed. Here is the 3-12-25 court verdict. (Good discussions about what transpired are herehere, and here.)

The $1 million fine was reduced to $5000. Among several other determinations (page 43 & 44) it appears that Steyn will be awarded compensation of his legal fees. Most importantly, following a very detailed dozens of pages of evidence, the judge ripped Mann and his attorney. For example (page 40 [my emphasis]):

The record plainly shows the deliberate and knowing misconduct of Dr. Mann’s counsel in eliciting false testimony from Dr. Mann and misrepresenting his grant funding.

For example (page 41):

Exhibit 517A was appropriately admitted because Dr. Mann gave the information in Exhibit 517A under penalty of perjury…[but]… Dr. Mann gave testimony at trial inconsistent with the information in Exhibit 517A.

For example (page 41 & 42):

Dr. Mann’s arguments about Defendants’ alleged failure to preserve their objection are not well taken. Dr. Mann’s counsel’s bad faith misconduct is an affront to the Court’s authority and an attack on the integrity of the proceedings warranting sanctions… It bears repeating that Dr. Mann and his counsel should not have engaged in the falsehoods and misrepresentations to the jury and the Court in the first place.

When determining sanctions, the Judge went on with exceptional frankness (page 42):

The Court arrives at such a sanction because the misconduct of Dr. Mann and his counsel: (1) was extraordinary in its scope, extent, and intent; (2) subjected a jury not only to false evidence and grievous misrepresentations about a crucial part of Dr. Mann’s case, but also to additional trial proceedings for correcting the record and the jury’s impressions thereof that otherwise likely would have been unnecessary; (3) further complicated a trial already rife with convoluted and difficult legal and factual issues; and (4) burdened Defendants and the Court with the time- and resource-intensive task of ascertaining the true extent of the misconduct and determining appropriate remedial measures for the same, all without any meaningful acknowledgement of the nature of the misconduct by Dr. Mann or his attorneys.

I did a quick search to see how many articles about this there were from his media allies. So far crickets.

©2025   All rights reserved.


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EPA Announces 31 ‘Historic Actions’ to Unleash American Energy

Sweeping Deregulation, Cancels Over 400 Grants Saving Taxpayers $1.7 Billion. 

“Today is the greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen. We are driving a dagger straight into the heart of the climate change religion to drive down cost of living for American families, unleash American energy, bring auto jobs back to the U.S. and more,” said EPA Administrator Zeldin.

“Alongside President Trump, we are living up to our promises to unleash American energy, lower costs for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, and work hand-in-hand with our state partners to advance our shared mission,” added EPA Administrator Zeldin. 

“The greatest day of deregulation in American history.”


U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency will undertake 31 historic actions in the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history, to advance President Trump’s Day One executive orders and Power the Great American Comeback. Combined, these announcements represent the most momentous day in the history of the EPA. While accomplishing EPA’s core mission of protecting the environment, the agency is committed to fulfilling President Trump’s promise to unleash American energy, lower cost of living for Americans, revitalize the American auto industry, restore the rule of law, and give power back to states to make their own decisions.

These historic actions will roll back trillions in regulatory costs and hidden “taxes” on U.S. families. As a result of these announcements, the cost of living for American families will decrease. It will be more affordable to purchase a car, heat homes, and operate a business. It will be more affordable to bring manufacturing into local communities while individuals widely benefit from the tangible economic impacts.

These actions will create American jobs, including incredible progress to bring back American auto jobs. The Biden and Obama era regulations being reconsidered have suffocated nearly every single sector of the American economy.

Today, EPA Administrator Zeldin announced the following actions:

UNLEASHING AMERICAN ENERGY 

  • Reconsideration of regulations on power plants (Clean Power Plan 2.0)
  • Reconsideration of regulations throttling the oil and gas industry (OOOO b/c)
  • Reconsideration of Mercury and Air Toxics Standards that improperly targeted coal-fired power plants (MATS)
  • Reconsideration of mandatory Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program that imposed significant costs on the American energy supply (GHG Reporting Program)
  • Reconsideration of limitations, guidelines and standards (ELG) for the Steam Electric Power Generating Industry to ensure low-cost electricity while protecting water resources (Steam Electric ELG)
  • Reconsideration of wastewater regulations for coal power plants to help unleash American energy (Oil and Gas ELG)
  • Reconsideration of Biden-Harris Administration Risk Management Program rule that made America’s oil and natural gas refineries and chemical facilities less safe (Risk Management Program Rule)

LOWERING THE COST OF LIVING FOR AMERICAN FAMILIES

  • Reconsideration of light-duty, medium-duty, and heavy-duty vehicle regulations that provided the foundation for the Biden-Harris electric vehicle mandate (Car GHG Rules)
  • Reconsideration of the 2009 Endangerment Finding and regulations and actions that rely on that Finding (Endangerment Finding)
  • Reconsideration of technology transition rule that forces companies to use certain technologies that increased costs on food at grocery stores and semiconductor manufacturing (Technology Transition Rule)
  • Reconsideration of Particulate Matter National Ambient Air Quality Standards that shut down opportunities for American manufacturing and small businesses (PM 2.5 NAAQS)
  • Reconsideration of multiple National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants for American energy and manufacturing sectors (NESHAPs)
  • Restructuring the Regional Haze Program that threatened the supply of affordable energy for American families (Regional Haze)
  • Overhauling Biden-Harris Administration’s “Social Cost of Carbon”
  • Redirecting enforcement resources to EPA’s core mission to relieve the economy of unnecessary bureaucratic burdens that drive up costs for American consumers (Enforcement Discretion)
  • Terminating Biden’s Environmental Justice and DEI arms of the agency (EJ/DEI)

ADVANCING COOPERATIVE FEDERALISM 

  • Ending so-called “Good Neighbor Plan” which the Biden-Harris Administration used to expand federal rules to more states and sectors beyond the program’s traditional focus and led to the rejection of nearly all State Implementation Plans
  • Working with states and tribes to resolve massive backlog with State Implementation Plans and Tribal Implementation Plans that the Biden-Harris Administration refused to resolve (SIPs/TIPs)
  • Reconsideration of exceptional events rulemaking to work with states to prioritize the allowance of prescribed fires within State and Tribal Implementation Plans (Exceptional Events)
  • Reconstituting Science Advisory Board and Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee (SAB/CASAC)
  • Prioritizing coal ash program to expedite state permit reviews and update coal ash regulations (CCR Rule)
  • Utilizing enforcement discretion to further North Carolina’s recovery from Hurricane Helene

Just the News: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Wednesday that the agency will take 31 “historic actions” to roll back the Biden administration’s climate agenda in line with President Donald Trump’s executive order to “Unleash American Energy.” Zeldin said the actions will lower costs for things like purchasing a car, heating homes and operating businesses. Among the regulations Zeldin said the EPA would reconsider are the “illegal” Clean Power Plan 2.0., the endangerment finding, the electric vehicle mandate, and rules regarding particulate matter (Just the News).

Lee Zeldin: EPA is initiating 31 historic actions to Power the Great American Comeback in the greatest day of deregulation in American history (X)!

EPA Cancels Over 400 Grants Saving Taxpayers $1.7 Billion

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin, with the assistance of the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), identified and cancelled more than 400 additional grants across nine unnecessary programs totaling $1.7 billion in savings for the American people. This marks the fourth round of EPA-DOGE partnered cancellations as the Administrator oversees a line-by-line review of spending, bringing the total taxpayer dollars saved to more than $2 billion since being sworn in (EPA).

Daily Wire: The agency is working to claw back $20 billion in funds that the Biden administration doled out under the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. The funds were turned over to Citibank in the months leading up to the election and held under the names of eight nonprofits. Those nonprofits intended to disperse the funds to other groups and programs. Citibank has frozen the funds while the Department of Justice probes the issue (Daily Wire).

Zeldin moves to undo Biden ‘Green New Deal’ and EV rules with sweeping deregulation

By: Callie Patteson and Maydeen Merino, Washington Examiner, March 12, 2025:

he Environmental Protection Agency initiated over two dozen actions overhauling numerous green and climate-related regulations implemented by the Biden administration in what Administrator Lee Zeldin described as an effort to “end the Green New Deal.”

The EPA announced 31 actions Wednesday afternoon, with Zeldin describing it as the “greatest day of deregulation our nation has seen.”

Through these actions, the agency is overhauling, walking back, and reconsidering dozens of Biden administration environmental standards, such as the Clean Power Plan 2.0, Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, vehicle emissions rules, the Good Neighbor Plan, air quality standards, water regulations, and more.

“By overhauling massive rules on the endangerment finding, the social cost of carbon and similar issues, we are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age,” Zeldin wrote in an opinion article published in the Wall Street Journal.

He said deregulation would lower the cost of living, including for vehicles, heating, and other business operations.

“Today marks the death of the Green New Scam. The EPA recognizes that environmental protection and economic prosperity aren’t mutually exclusive goals,” Zeldin said. “Under President Trump’s leadership, we are recommitting to the core American values of innovation, growth, exceptionalism and opportunity.”
Continue reading.

AUTHOR

RELATED ARTICLE: “Everything Was Destroyed”: Tens of Thousands of Amazon Rainforest Cut Down To Build Highway For UN CLIMATE Summit

RELATED VIDEO: Marc Morano from Climate Depot explaining the rot that has festered in the EPA since 2009

EDITORS NOTE: This Geller Report is republished with permission. ©All rights reserved.

EXCLUSIVE: How Chris Wright Plans To Help America Climb Out Of Energy ‘Hole’ Dug By Biden Admin

HOUSTON — Energy Secretary Chris Wright explained his plans to fortify America’s fragile power grid and a host of other energy policy issues in a Monday interview with the Daily Caller News Foundation.

Wright has his work cut out for him atop the Department of Energy (DOE) after the Biden administration and former Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm left him with elevated energy prices and fragile power grids in both the U.S. and Puerto Rico. Before addressing other topics, like the massive portfolio of green energy loans he inherited from his predecessor and the future of climate alarmism politics, Wright made clear that the first step toward strengthening the grid is to “stop digging” a deeper hole with policies that undermine power supply. 

“I’m very concerned about the grid, very concerned about the grid,” Wright told the DCNF, noting that average electricity prices surged on the Biden administration’s watch despite relatively limited growth in demand over the same period of time. “We have to make significant changes in a complicated system. Changing permitting laws is part of that, changing how regulation is done, and then just some common sense moves to enable technology to get more to the existing grid in the time that demand is arriving. We have to increase throughput with the existing physical assets. I think it can be done, but it is a daunting challenge. And I wish we weren’t walking into the hole we’re in right now, but we were dug a hole by the previous administration, and that’s our starting point.”

Grid experts and operators have warned that the Biden administration’s aggressive regulatory agenda for power plants threatens grid reliability in the U.S., with huge swaths of the country already facing risks of inadequate supply in the event of stronger-than-usual conditions in the summer or winter. Shoring up the grid is an even more urgent task in light of the projected surge in aggregate demand analysts are expecting to come from the growth of artificial intelligence (AI) and the power-hungry data centers needed to sustain the cutting-edge technology.

In Wright’s view, part of the solution to America’s power grid problem is using the levers of government to forestall the retirement of coal-fired power plants capable of providing cheap, reliable power to the grid, he told the DCNF.

“If you want to grow your supply, the first thing to do is stop digging the hole. We’ve been closing coal plants for quite some time now. That’s gotta stop. We have to keep these firm, reliable existing plants online. That’s objective number one,” Wright said. “And then there’s existing plants that are open that run at low operating percent of the time because of regulations and things put in the way. We have a fair amount of electricity generating capacity that already exists and connected up to wires. So, that’s low-hanging fruit.”

Another lever at Wright’s disposal to ramp up the U.S. power supply is the Loan Programs Office (LPO), a DOE sub-office that provides financing for innovative energy technologies. President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act supercharged LPO’s coffers, and the office proceeded to pump billions of dollars into green energy projects.

Wright mentioned “nuclear and next generation geothermal,” as well as grid resilience technologies and other undertakings “that can help resource supply chains for electrical equipment in the United States” as specific things that LPO may look to finance while he runs DOE. However, Wright — a self-professed energy wonk who has worked with a host of different energy sources in the private sector and the founder of Liberty Energy — said that the agency’s general preference is to see the private sector take the lead and innovate.

“The first and primary tool is private capital and private businesses. Most of these things, with a reasonable business climate, will happen in the marketplace,” Wright explained. “That is our preference. But, if there are issues that are critical and have to happen in a timely fashion because of the mess we’re in with our electricity grid today, then we will deploy capital.”

Notably, the Biden LPO rushed to shove billions of dollars in loans and conditional loans out the door in the lame duck period, powering through the concerns of the DOE’s internal watchdog and elected Republicans that the rush to get funding out may have put taxpayer funds at risk of being wasted. Wright told the DCNF that the DOE will honor its end of LPO contracts that it is obligated to fulfill and that the agency will keep an eye on conditional loans to ensure counterparties are meeting conditions, adding that the agency “will deploy capital only if it’s in the best interest of American taxpayers” in situations where DOE has discretion.

Wright is evidently concerned about the condition of the power grid that keeps the lights on for all 50 states, but he is also keen to work with Puerto Rico — a U.S. territory — to address its own ailing power infrastructure.

The energy secretary met with Puerto Rico Gov. Jenniffer González-Colón in February to discuss fixing Puerto Rico’s grid, which has been ravaged by hurricanes. The Biden administration made a major push to make the island a “poster child” for the benefits of green energy, but Wright says his predecessors’ efforts did little — if anything — to seriously address the problem, Wright explained.

“Congress appropriated a significant amount of money to rebuild it entirely, and the Biden administration decided they wanted to make Puerto Rico the poster child of renewable energy, and therefore would only fund the building of renewable energy. Needless to say, very little has been built. Electricity prices are high. The grid is unreliable. They’ve had many years in a row of negative population outflow,” Wright told the DCNF.  “The businesses are at risk of being unable to continue to manufacture pharmaceutical drugs, for example, that come into the mainland of the United States, and a new governor got elected to fix this energy problem. We are excited to get to work and invest money already appropriated by our Congress to better the lives of Puerto Ricans, millions of Puerto Ricans.”

“I would say, it’s simply an outrage that the money has been there for years, but since it didn’t fit a political narrative, it wasn’t spent,” Wright continued. “Puerto Ricans are victims of energy politics. We’re humans-first administration. They were a politics-first administration.”

More broadly, Wright believes that commonsense energy politics is overtaking climate alarmism, though declaring the latter dead for good is “too optimistic,” he told the DCNF.

“I think this president, shooting straight on energy, putting humans first, won the election. So, clearly the pendulum is slinging that way. I think President Trump is a good part of the reason that the pendulum is swinging the other way. He had the courage to speak common sense about energy,” said Wright. “He’s been a bold, outspoken person about energy and the interests of American people, and he has started that pendulum going the other way. I am thrilled to be on the team with President Trump to help continue this swing towards what I call ‘energy sobriety.’”

AUTHOR

Nick Pope

Contributor.

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‘Sabotage’ Replaces ‘Protest’ as Teslas Torched – ‘Climate Crap’ Gone from Pentagon

Watch: Morano on Varney on Fox on how climate change has hijacked the environmental movement & why Trump’s EPA rejects classifying CO2 as a pollutant

Watch: Morano on Fox urges ethics investigation into Sen. Whitehouse for voting for wife’s salary & warns Canada’s new PM Mark Carney as worse than Trudeau

‘Sabotage’ replaces ‘protest’ as Teslas torched – ‘Climate crap’ gone from Pentagon – Antarctica Ice Growing – Reuters admits Net Zero ‘resounding failure’

Anger at Elon Musk turns violent with Molotov cocktails and gunfire at Tesla lots

‘Climate activists are turning to sabotage instead of protest’ – New ‘manifesto’ urges ‘carrying out clandestine acts of sabotage…targeting the tools, property and machinery of those most responsible for global warming’

CNN: 54% of Americans want DOGE to cut government spending and operations

‘Worst-Case Scenario’: Canada Trades Trudeau For Another — Trudeau – Carney is ‘poised now to wreak hellscape on Canadians’

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss: Canada’s Next Prime Minister Mark Carney, WIll Be Trudeau 2.0: Promoted Climate Lockdowns following COVID – Carney’s Agenda is promoted by UN & WEF

Wash Post: ‘Trump withdraws from two key global climate funds’ – U.S. pulling out a UN climate finance program –
Activists freak: ‘U.S. is failing its moral obligation…abandoning the global community’

Reuters now admits total climate fiasco!

‘The pursuit of net zero carbon emissions has been a resounding failure. Despite trillions of dollars spent on renewable energy, hydrocarbons still account for over 80% of the world’s primary energy’

House Republicans Line Up To Save Biden’s Legacy Climate Law – 21 House Republicans view Biden’s IRA green energy tax credits aligning with Trump’s ‘America First’ vision

Antarctica Ice Growing Across Large Areas for at Least 85 Years, Aerial Photos Show – Study published in journal Nature Communications

Roger Pielke on NOAA Staff Cuts: The agency is ‘reaping the whirlwind’ for ‘cutting corners on science’

Can U.S. survive without military climate spending?! CNN: ‘Officials & experts warn that Pentagon plans to cut climate programs will hurt national security’ – 

Sec. Hegseth: ‘The Dept of Defense does not do climate change crap’

‘Climate Change’ Is Making People Live Longer! – ‘As temperatures increase (if they do), so does life expectancy!’
Statistician Dr. Matt Briggs:  Hawaii, the hottest state on average all year round, with averages around 70 in the coldest months, and near 90 in the summers, had the highest life expectancy (80.7 years), and highest at 65 (21 years).

‘Grift, corruption, & fraud’ – Watch: Morano on Real America’s Voice TV on $20B IN EPA FUNDS GOING TO OBAMA/BIDEN-TIED GROUPS

No, Axios, Climate Change Is Not Making Atlanta’s Allergy Season Worse

Watch: Morano testifies to Oregon Legislature in support of bill that stops climate-inspired shutdowns of reliable energy sources unless they can be replaced with equally reliable energy (Hint: Solar & wind come up short)

‘Worst-Case Scenario’: Canada Trades Trudeau For Another — Trudeau – Carney is ‘poised now to wreak hellscape on Canadians’

Listen: Morano on Joe Piscopo Show on Stacey Abrams defending Biden-era EPA funding

Michael Mann’s Big Climate Change Payday Reversed on Appeal

LOMBORG: UN pushes awful green deal policies while also spreading eco lies – UN ‘trying to control what people can hear, read & think about climate change’

No, Yahoo News, ‘Extreme Heat’ Isn’t Accelerating Aging—And It’s Not Getting Worse

Report: 1900 Scientists Say ‘Climate Change Not Caused by CO2’ – The Real Environment Movement Was Hijacked

Bank Australia has ceased car loans for new fossil fuel cars from 2025 – Bank brags ‘Real climate action needs to be bold’

AP touts new poll: ‘Most Americans who experienced severe winter weather see climate change at work’ – ‘Bitter cold — bore all the hallmarks of climate change’

Thanks Captain Obvious! Reuters Admits Pursuit of ‘Net Zero’ Emissions ‘Resounding Failure’

Good for Reuters to come around to the obvious, er, finally. But the meaningless nature of such economy-crippling standards was already circulating in the ether long before Reuters did its about-face. As Climate Depot founder Marc Morano told MRC Business in June 2024, “Net zero in the climate agenda is really nothing short of Soviet-style central planning. Every sector of our economy is subject to long range planning to meet net zero goals.”

‘Worst-Case Scenario’: Canada Trades Trudeau For Another — Trudeau – Carney is ‘poised now to wreak hellscape on Canadians’

“This is about a worst-case scenario for Canadians,” Marc Morano, the head of Climate Depot and author of “The Great Reset: Global Elites and the Permanent Lockdown” told the Daily Caller News Foundation. Morano cited concerns over how a Carney-led government would oppose the latest political and economic trends seen in Argentina, the United States and most recently, Germany, to instead “hammer consumers” and “double down on the green agenda.”

“It’s as if he’s looked at the world the last five years and completely ignored reality,” Morano continued.

Morano described Carney as “Justin Trudeau 2.0” and a “power player” that supports “corporate government collusion,” even comparing him to “BlackRock CEO Larry Fink, in terms of his power, expertise, connections and ability.”

“The world is absolutely going in the opposite direction from everything Carney stands for,” Morano said. He noted that Carney is “poised now to wreak this hellscape on Canadians,” potentially forwarding policies that will cause prices and restrictions to soar.

“It’s easier to transition your gender than it is our energy supply,” Morano said. He asserted that clean energy power supply comes at a “higher cost, and it’s not green.” The author pointed to the fact that it takes 45 tons of non-renewable plastic to make one wind turbine.

Morano also questioned green energy’s profitability, suggesting that if clean energy alternatives were profitable, green energy policies wouldn’t need to be mandated or subsidized. “Why do they have to ban the competition? … Why did you have to mandate them? Why did you have to subsidize them? Why are they the weakest points of energy output?”

NRDC: ‘Average human exhales about 2.3 pounds of carbon dioxide on an average day’ – Human ‘exhale almost three billion tons of carbon dioxide annually’

Top 10 Catastrophic Climate Predictions That Failed

©2025 . All rights reserved.

Suprise, global warming benefits humanity and Trump’s energy will save U.S economy

GUESTS AND TOPICS

DAVID HOLT

David Holt has served as President of Consumer Energy Alliance since January 2006. David focuses on expanding the dialogue between the energy sector and the rest of the economy. With members spanning the economy and representing families, farmers, small businesses, distributors, labor organizations, manufacturers, and energy providers, CEA has become the voice of the energy consumer.

TOPIC: Trump’s energy will save U.S economy.

GREGORY WRIGHTSTONE

Gregory Wrightstone is a geologist, Executive Director of the CO2 Coalition in Arlington, Virginia and an expert reviewer of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.. He is the best-selling author of Inconvenient Facts: The Science that Al Gore doesn’t want you to know. Gregory is a geologist with more than 35 years spent investigating the Earth and its processes. Greg’s new book “A Very Convenient Warming” just got to #1 on Amazon this past weekend.

TOPIC: SURPRISE! Global warming benefits humanity.

The Democratic Fork in the Road and the Woke Repudiation Imperative

Yogi Berra, the mid-century New York Yankees Hall of Fame catcher known for his pithy and often humorous life observations, once famously quipped: “When you come to a fork in the road, take it.” It was sound advice, perhaps, for a traveler on the go and in search of a quick meal. But the modern Democratic Party, rudderless and confused and reeling from a pitiful collective performance during Tuesday evening’s presidential joint address to Congress, now confronts a fork in the road that’s no joke.

On the one hand lies the path of least resistance: doubling down on the status quo—the progressive culture-warring, woke/identity politics-driven agenda that has dominated the party ever since Barack Obama upset Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. On the other hand lies the more difficult but ultimately more promising path: repudiation of that post-2008 legacy and a conscientious return to a politics of the prudential center. Which path Democrats choose from here will go a long way toward determining their relevance as a national political party for the foreseeable future.

Obama’s shocking upset over the madam-president-in-waiting was an inflection point for the institutional trajectory of the Democratic Party. Voters rejected the cultural centrism that was a Clinton-era hallmark in favor of the “hope” and “change” promised by Obama’s “coalition of the ascendant.” Initially, perhaps, that may have looked like a smart bet: Obama trounced John McCain in the 2008 presidential general election. But the one-time “coalition of the ascendant” transmogrified into an identitarian and deeply off-putting “coalition of aggrieved interests.” Culturally militant wokeism eventually reached its pernicious apex during Joe Biden’s presidency—which saw the first explicitly “DEI” Supreme Court justice selection (Ketanji Brown Jackson, after Biden vowed to nominate a black woman) and a diversity, equity, and inclusion vice presidential running mate (Kamala Harris, after Biden was pressured to choose a black woman).

This version of the Democratic Party, which featured the progenitor of wokeism, Obama himself, as the leading presidential campaign trail surrogate for Harris, was thoroughly rejected in November by the American people. It turns out that voters didn’t really know what they were signing up for when they embarked on an extended political journey of “hope” and “change.” They weren’t interested—and aren’t interested—in legitimizing the juvenile genital mutilation and chemical castration that has been euphemistically sold as “gender-affirming care.” They weren’t interested—and aren’t interested—in assenting to wide-scale importation and resettlement of foreigners whose cultures and customs are antithetical to our own.

Some leading Democrats do finally seem to get the memo. Former Clinton strategist James Carville, for instance, has called for Democrats to distance themselves from the excesses of woke civilizational arson. But many others disagree. There is no indication at all, for instance, that the ladies of “The View” have done any introspection: Shortly after November’s electoral shellacking, cohost Sunny Hostin attributed Harris’ loss to Donald Trump to “racism” and “misogyny.” Surveying the left-of-center punditocracy scene, it often seems that there are far more Hostin-like voices of escalation than there are Carville-like voices of sobriety.

Democratic elected officials are also deeply split. California Gov. Gavin Newsom made headlines this week by repudiating certain facets of wokeism during an interview with Charlie Kirk, but congressional Democrats attending Trump’s joint address to Congress on Tuesday evening took the opposite approach, beyond refusing to applaud: Rep. Al Green, D-Texas, obnoxiously heckled the president and was kicked out of the House chamber within the speech’s first few minutes–deservedly so. In general, their conduct was positively buffoonish.

In what world do Democrats think they do themselves any political favors with these antics and, more important, these underlying substantive political stances? One guest of Trump on Tuesday, Payton McNabb, is a female former high school athlete who was grievously injured during a match against a team with a biological male player. On this issue, recent CNN polling indicates that roughly four-fifths of Americans oppose biological male participation in female athletic competitions. Even Newsom, in his podcast episode with Kirk, called the practice “deeply unfair.”

Newsom seems to be reading the tea leaves—unlike congressional Democrats. There is a similar divide on the issue of illegal immigration and so-called sanctuary jurisdictions; consider, for instance, New York City Mayor Eric Adams’ high-profile flip on the issue, which has brought him into line with Trump.

To make matters even worse, a majority of Democratic elites too often now come across not merely as schoolmarmish and excessively self-righteous—but as heartless and lacking compassion, to boot. Party leaders undoubtedly think of themselves as “compassionate,” especially for those perceived as being “oppressed” (on the neo-Marxist intersectional scale of victimization status). But where is the compassion for McNabb? Where is the compassion for the family of Laken Riley, the Athens, Georgia, student whose life was tragically cut short by an illegal alien who never should have been on our soil?

In order to recover their standing and regain lasting relevance as an electorally feasible national political party, Democrats are going to have to repudiate the entirety of their post-2008/post-Obama cultural legacy. That is the simple truth. The American people want a stable pocketbook, a stable border and a stable world stage. They’re not interested in the Obama-Biden-Harris Democratic Party’s idiosyncratic conception of waging a culture war.

Are Democrats up to such a challenge? The intraparty civil war is on—but I certainly have my doubts. Unless and until they do repudiate their cultural militance, however, Democrats will continue to flounder about in irrelevance. Perhaps they’ll need to get their clocks cleaned at the ballot box a few more times. That wouldn’t be the worst thing.

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AUTHOR

Josh Hammer, a syndicated columnist, is senior editor-at-large at Newsweek and a research fellow with the Edmund Burke Foundation. He also is counsel and policy adviser for the Internet Accountability Project and contributing editor for Anchoring Truths. Josh on X: .

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