Editor Note: On this day in 2017, President Trump announced that the U.S. would withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord. On November 4, 2019, the U.S. formally notified the United Nations of such, which went into effect one year later. President Biden reversed the withdrawal to officially rejoin the Paris Agreement on his first day in office.

“Thus, as of today, the United States will cease all implementation of the non-binding Paris Accord and the draconian financial and economic burdens the agreement imposes on our country. This includes ending the implementation of the nationally determined contribution and, very importantly, the Green Climate Fund which is costing the United States a vast fortune.”

THE PRESIDENT: One by one, we are keeping the promises I made to the American people during my campaign for President …. …

Ed. note: This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. The complete MBN for this post can be found here.

Greed Energy Economics:
*** ‘Green’ Energy Doesn’t Save Money, It’s 4 to 6 Times MORE Expensive
*** Total Failure: Britain’s Grand ‘Cheap’ Wind Power Plan Faces Total Collapse
*** RECs: The Hidden Costs of Renewables
Wind turbine makers selling at a loss and in a ‘self-destructive loop’, bosses admit
Ontario’s Industrial Wind Turbines dig Deep into Ratepayer’s & Taxpayer’s Pockets
NY Electricity prices to rise 12 percent this summer, say analysts

Renewable Energy Health and Ecosystem Consequences:
*** Plagued by wind turbine noise in Massachusetts
*** Unintended consequence: Turbines are impacting the health of nearby residents
*** Biologist’s presentation shows deadly impact of wind power on eagles

Renewables (General):
*** China and Russia rejoice at America’s quest to go green
*** Real Threats to Biodiversity and Humanity
Despicable for Biden to put green agenda ahead of American families’ economies
Renewable Energy, Open Space, and Agriculture – New York Can’t Have it All

Wind Energy — Offshore:
*** US Offshore Wind Jobs are Highly Exaggerated
Long Island (NY) Residents Sue to Stop Offshore Wind Cable
Danish Wind Giant Tries Solution for Cable Problem Affecting Offshore Turbines
Residents Protest Lake Erie Wind Energy Project

Wind Energy — Other:
*** Hundreds show up in opposition of proposed Nebraska wind project
*** Wind project opponents celebrate Ohio commissioners’ vote
Kansas Commissioners take steps to protect county as wind energy topic heats up
Middleburgh NY Residents Against Industrial Wind Turbines
Shasta County CA close to a complete ban on all large wind energy projects

Nuclear Energy:
*** I’m committed to the effort to keep California’s Nuclear facility open.…

“Gratefully, nature does not have to wait another century or so for the air’s CO₂ concentration to double before reaping benefits from enhanced water use efficiency. It has already begun to profit in this regard from the approximate 50% increase in atmospheric CO₂ that has occurred since the Industrial Revolution began.”

In my last article I wrote about increased plant productivity as a key ecological benefit of atmospheric CO₂ enrichment. This article highlights another well-known and near-universal impact of Earth’s rising carbon dioxide concentration—enhanced plant water-use efficiency.

In basic terms, plant water use efficiency is the amount of biomass produced by a plant per unit of water lost via transpiration. At higher CO₂ levels plants generally do not open their leaf stomatal pores through which they give off water vapor as wide as they do at lower CO₂ concentrations.…

“What’s the point of setting goals which cannot be achieved? People call it aspirational. I call it delusional.” (V. Smil, below)

In an article filed under “climate crimes,” The Guardian claims that environmental nirvana is reachable if only politicians stop listening to Big Oil and start listening to social scientists. Author Amy Westervelt argues that the technology needed to achieve “net zero” carbon emissions is at hand; we just lack the will and the laws to implement it. She quotes from a recent report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC):

Factors limiting ambitious transformation [to address climate change] include structural barriers, an incremental rather than systemic approach, lack of coordination, inertia, lock-in to infrastructure and assets, and lock-in as a consequence of vested interests, regulatory inertia, and lack of technological capabilities and human resources.