Ian Bradford: Instant action from a President who seems to know the truth about climate change

Donald Trump has just been inaugurated as the 47th President of the United States.  This is his second term and he has wasted no time in signing off a number of executive orders.  An executive order is a directive from the president that manages operations of the Federal Government. It has the force of law and does not require any action by congress. 

We will just look at a few that involve climate.

1. The temporary withdrawal of all areas on the outer continental shelf from offshore wind leasing and review of the Federal Government’s leasing permitting practices for wind projects

This executive order President Trump signed on his first day in office temporarily halts offshore wind energy lease sales in Federal waters and pauses approvals, permits and loans for both offshore and onshore wind. The pause would last for 6 months. The withdrawal went into effect on the 21st January 2025 and will remain until the Presidential memorandum is revoked. 

A back-lash against wind and solar at the county level, often for aesthetic reasons, but also for health reasons and harm to wildlife,  has meant that in 2023, 15% of U.S. counties have banned or blocked new utility scale wind or solar installations.  

The order describes the withdrawal as temporary preventing consideration of any shelf area for new or any renewed energy leasing, but it specifies it does not apply to leasing related to oil, gas, minerals and environmental conservation. 

The order reflects President’s Trump’s  opposition to wind energy stating that the consequences of onshore and offshore wind farms may lead to grave harm, including negative effects on navigational safety interests (It has been found that offshore wind farms interfere with ships radar), transportation interests, national security interests, commercial interests, and marine mammals.  

Many assessments will be done. One assessment must consider the environmental impact  of offshore and onshore wind projects on  wildlife including, but not limited  to birds and marine mammals.  Another, must consider the economic cost associated with the intermittent generation of energy and the effect of subsidies on the viability of the wind industry.    

Steps will be taken to accelerate other forms of energy production. President Trump called for a reliable and affordable supply of energy, saying it was necessary to power the manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defence industries. and to sustain the basics of modern life and military preparedness. 

There will be an assessment done by the appropriate administrators on the impact and cost to surrounding communities of abandoned wind farms, and give a report to the President on their findings, with recommendations to require removal of such wind turbines.  

  

One reason President Trump is stopping consent for new offshore wind farms is his concern for the number of large whale strandings in recent years.  Since 2016, 208 humpback whales have been stranded along the US East coast. In 2023 there were 33 strandings.    There is a considerable amount of blasting in the construction process. This blasting may cause whales to flee, increasing the likelihood of a collision with a ship or entanglement in a net.  It could also make them deaf and cause bleeding from the ears, leading to later infection. They could well become disorientated and strand. 

By now, many millions of birds and bats have been sliced up by wind turbine blades.  

2. Putting America first in international environmental agreements 

President Trump has stated that in recent years the United States has purported to join international agreements and initiatives that do not reflect the country’s values or contributions to the pursuit of economic and environmental objectives.  President Trump wanted to put the interests of the United States and the American people first. 

President Trump signed an executive order on the day after his inauguration directing the United States to withdraw from the Paris Climate agreement.  This is the second time he has done so.  In his first term in 2017 he withdrew the United States from the accord, and at that time it did not take effect immediately. Unfortunately, it was near the end of his term as President and new president Biden quickly reinstated the U.S. in the accord. Trump’s order says the Paris accord is among a number of international agreements that don’t reflect U.S. values and steer American taxpayer dollars to countries that do not require, or merit financial assistance in the interests of the American people. Instead of joining a global agreement, “the United States successful track record of advancing both economic and environmental objectives should be a model for other countries” he said. 

The withdrawal process from the Paris Accord takes one year.

“I’m immediately withdrawing from the unfair, one-sided Paris climate accord rip-off” he said during earlier remarks to loud cheers from the audience.  “The United States will not sabotage our own industries while China pollutes with impunity.”  China is currently the largest global emitter of “greenhouse” gases. U.S. emissions have been  decreasing since the mid 2000’s.  President Trump noted previously the possibility that “tens of millions of dollars” would be required by the US to spend on the Green Climate Fund. He said other countries had not paid and that the agreement was against Americas interests . 

Under the Paris agreement, nearly every country in the world agreed to a goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 Deg C above pre-industrial levels. But the world is currently not on track to meet these goals.  As part of the Paris Agreements terms, countries submit targets for emissions reductions and provide periodic updates on their progress. Before Biden left office he announced a new U.S. goal: to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 60% from peak levels by 2035, a goal that would likely require a rapid transition away from fossil fuels. That target will now not happen. 

President Trump also issued a barrage of other orders aimed at boosting fossil fuels and undoing Biden era initiatives to limit greenhouse emissions.  

Naturally, there has been opposition to this move.  Climate alarmists claim last year 2024 was the hottest year on record. This is on top of unreliable weather stations, particularly with sitings, the lack of weather stations in many parts of the world, the failure to take into account the Urban Heat Island Effect, and other factors.  It is also on top of record low winter temperatures in the US and Europe with people found dead, frozen in their beds.  Then we have several saying:” The more the world warms, the faster we will experience more extreme weather events. Such as flooding, extreme hurricanes, fire, weather, and drought. The actual figures show these events are in fact declining in frequency. Climate doesn’t start fires. Very often people start fires, sometimes deliberately.  

We should remember that just 4% of all Carbon Dioxide in the air-that’s the amount of human emissions, is causing all these things. The other 96% from natural sources doesn’t do anything!

We are still coming out of the last ice age.  We would expect warming if we are coming out of an ice age.  Sea level rise, also quoted by alarmists, is less than 2mm per year also expected since we are coming out of the last ice age. However, a number of scientists say there hasn’t been any warming for 15 or 20 years.   

So President Trump wants to put America first in all international agreements. The most important directive here is the withdrawal from the Paris Climate Accord. Near the end of his previous Presidency President Trump withdrew from the Accord, but Biden, upon his election to President, re-entered the Paris Accord.  He stopped all new oil and gas development on public land and regulated as far as possible oil and gas production on federal, private and state lands. He also introduced new emission standards and restrictions on electric power production. He subsidised technologies he approved of as “green”, and levied taxes on carbon dioxide emissions.  All of the initiatives harmed the poor because they resulted in higher energy costs. If the policies don’t increase the price of energy then they will ineffective in reducing energy use.  Yet the poor and middle class spend a relatively greater amount of their income on energy and energy intensive products like food and transportation  compared to the wealthy. Poverty is the biggest killer. Wealthy people are generally in better health and better educated. They can better withstand and adapt to natural disasters.  The cornerstone of growing prosperity and decreasing poverty around the globe during the 20th and 21st centuries has been the development and use of fossil fuels. 

3. Declaring a National Emergency

President Trump said that the United States needed a reliable, diversified and affordable  supply of energy to drive the Nations manufacturing, transportation, agriculture, and defence industries, and to sustain the basics of modern life and military preparedness. He condemned the harmful and shortsighted policies of the previous government causing the Nation’s inadequate energy supply and high energy prices that devastate those living on low and fixed incomes. He said an affordable and reliable domestic supply of energy is a fundamental requirement for the national and economic security of any nation.  

President Trump went on to say that the previous administration had driven the Nation into a national emergency, where a precariously inadequate and intermittent energy supply and an increasingly unreliable grid, required swift and decisive action. He is of course referring to wind and solar.  

If a country transitions to mostly wind and solar, which as we know don’t give any power when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow, and the country has an emergency then it will be in trouble. In the extreme case, the country may be invaded by another.  But power is needed to fight fires, carry out operations in hospitals, keep airports operating, and so on. 

President Trump has asked the energy supply agencies to identify and use all relevant lawful emergency and other authorities available to them to expedite the completion of all authorised and appropriated infrastructure, energy, environmental and natural resources projects that are within the identified authority to advance.  So he is talking about using oil, coal, hydro and nuclear in particular. 

4. Unleashing American energy

President Trump indicated that America had an abundance of energy and natural resources  but that ideologically motivated regulations have in recent years stopped the development of these resources which has led to an unreliable  energy supply,  reduced job creation and  inflicted high energy costs particularly on those with low incomes. He wants to encourage energy exploration on Federal land and waters including the outer continental shelf, in order to make the US a global energy leader. 

President Trump has taken aim at electric vehicles, revoking a 2021 executive order signed by former President Biden that sought to ensure half of all new vehicles sold in the U.S. by 2030 were electric.  Biden’s 50% target was not legally binding. President Trump said in and executive order that he was halting distribution of unspent government funds for vehicle charging stations from a $5 billion fund, called for a waiver for states to adopt zero emission vehicle rules by 2035, and said his administration would consider ending EV tax credits.

When people buy an EV they give no thought to the estimated 40,000 children who work in the mines in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, mining Cobalt for your EV battery. Mine collapses kill many of them, (There are no mining regulations), and if that doesn’t kill them, serious lung disease will from inhaling dust containing several nasty metals.   

The Lithium battery that drives an EV can catch fire at any time, anywhere.  

In March 2022 the felicity Ace a 200m long vessel built for transporting vehicle sank after catching fire.  The fire began when a lithium battery in one of the EV’s on board caught fire. The vessel was on its way from Germany to the US and carried about 4,000 very expensive vehicles. The estimate of just the vehicles lost, was put at $400 million.  

President Trump plans to direct the Environmental Protection Agency to reconsider rules mandating more stringent emission rules that would require automakers to sell between 30% and 57% EV’s by 2032 in order to comply with Federal emission rules issued by the US Transportation Department. He said he would seek the repeal of a waiver granted to California by the EPA allowing the state to end the sale of gasoline only vehicles by 2035. Some other states adopted that rule also.  This would require a lengthy legal process but if Trump wins then the EPA standards would govern all states. 

Removing support for EV’s and the Green New Deal could also mean removing the Federal EV purchase tax credit, which is worth up to $7500 for qualifying EV purchases.  Removing that completely would require legislation.  

Easing EPA standards would help the domestic auto industry. President Trump said his administration should consider the elimination of unfair subsidies and other ill conceived government imposed market distortions that favour EV’s over other technologies and effectively mandate their purchase.   He also promised  while campaigning,   to boost US oil production, and to roll back Biden’s  clean energy initiatives which also include subsidies for wind and solar power and the mass production of Hydrogen.   

In the meantime, the executive order demands US agencies take a look at their rules related to EV’s and determine whether they are unduly burdensome and interfere with consumer choice. Those agencies are supposed to write up those findings into reports which are due in 30 days. 

How does New Zealand align with President’s Trump’s  Executive Orders?

New Zealand has carried out some of the things mentioned in President Trumps Executive Orders. With regard to electric vehicles, discounts on EV’s were dropped in December 2023 and road user charges for EV’s came into effect on the 1st April 2024.  There is no particular pressure from government to purchase EV’s. Because of the dropping of discounts and now road user tax, sales of EV’s have fallen off slightly. There was a rush to buy EV’s before the discount was dropped suggesting money was the issue rather than buying to save the planet. In fact I have spoken to a number of EV owners charging their vehicles in the local supermarket carpark. Most state the high cost of fuel was the reason they bought an EV. Once again, saving the planet was not foremost in their mind. 

Minister Shane Jones has set out New Zealand’s minerals future. He stated that legacies of the past live on today as far as extraction of minerals is concerned- every road you drive on, every light witch you turn on, our schools, hospitals, homes. All enabled in some way by the extraction of our natural resources. He advocates more mineral exploration and mining saying that “our minerals sector is a modest but integral part of New Zealand’s productive output, and we can’t ignore the significant contributions it makes to regional economies.” But he also states that there are barriers to overcome, namely New Zealand’s regulatory systems.  The length of time it takes to deliver mining projects in New Zealand is costing us. The Fast Track Approvals legislation will certainly help. 

New Zealand is currently considering plans to mine minerals off its coast with the most prominent proposal being from Trans-Tasman Resources (TTR) to mine iron sands off the coast of Taranaki.  The primary mineral targeted is Vanadium rich ironsands. 

Naturally some environmental groups oppose this. Among them is Forest and Bird. They cite harm will be done to whales, dolphins, and penguins. Rather ironic. We have wind turbines killing whales and dolphins, and birds and bats by the millions being sliced up, yet Forest and Bird have remained totally silent. The anthropogenic climate cult takes precedence. 

While I have stated many times that there is nothing good about wind farms, the New Zealand government doesn’t share the same distaste for them that President Trump has. The biggest problem they have is an intermittent power supply. No wind or too much wind then there is no power.  That’s not what a country needs in an emergency. It’s very surprising that power companies in NZ plan to use wind turbines as back-up power. This is unheard of elsewhere.  Usually oil, gas, coal or nuclear is used as back-up for wind. But apart from the killing of whales, bats and birds there are other disadvantages. They require a huge amount of land, often at the expense of native bush and birdlife.  They catch fire which often spreads to surrounding areas and buildings.  The low frequency hum causes illness in nearby residents. They throw out oil which contaminates the ground around making it unusable for anything.  They take a huge amount of a valuable resource-oil.  The blades have a life of about 15 years at most. Blades are not recycled and are buried in landfills which take up acres of land, and will be there for a very long time. Do we want buried blades all over the country making that land unusable?  Oh, and we will also have buried solar panels too. 

The New Zealand government needs to take a leaf out of President Trump’s book and stop all new building of wind and solar farms and move to build more reliable energy sources. This needs to be done quickly or we shall be having power blackouts. With an increasing population and the charging of EV’s the demand for power will increase. Apart from intermittent wind and solar nothing has been done to address an imminent power problem. 

Finally- the Paris Climate Accord:  President Biden committed the U.S. to the Paris Climate agreement.   An agreement that promises devastating economic costs, with essentially zero environmental benefits. Heritage economists  estimated that by 2035 there would be an annual average loss of nearly 400,000 jobs, a total income loss  of more than $20,000 for a family of four, and an aggregate GDP loss of over $2.5 trillion- all for a few tenths of a degree C in abated warming.  Restricting Americans use of conventional energy sources will significantly harm the U.S. economy and disproportionately harm the poorest Americans the most. 

There are two paths for withdrawal. . Withdrawing from the Paris agreement would take several years but if the U.S. withdrew from the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), it could exit the Paris agreement in only one year. 

Complying with the Paris agreement will cost the global economy trillions of dollars over the next 80 years with minimal impact on global warming.  Experience shows that other countries, even though disappointed with the U.S. withdrawal, would continue to work with the U.S. on issues of mutual concern. 

A pillar of an anticipated  U.N. global pact in Paris is financial support for poor countries. But some destinations of the climate fighting funds are problematic. Many of those vulnerable to climate impacts rank among the world’s most corrupt. Donors worry about funds not reaching their recipient.  For example, in 2011, money for cyclone relief disappeared in the country and this left shelters half built.  

New Zealand’s financial state at the present time really doesn’t allow for sending millions of dollars overseas, often to destinations unknown. New Zealand should follow the U.S. and begin withdrawal proceedings from the Paris Accord.  Withdrawal would put less burden on the country as a whole, and on individual residents, many of whom are struggling financially, and it’s all for the sake of a few tenths of a degree C.   

President Trump has his critics. But at least what you see is what you get.  He is a man with intestinal fortitude. He survived an assassination attempt, and is quickly carrying out the things he promised before the election.  Can we say the same about New Zealand’s leader? 

Ian Bradford, a science graduate, is a former teacher, lawyer, farmer and keen sportsman, who is writing a book about the fraud of anthropogenic climate change.