Trump delivers knockout one-two: alarmism on the canvas.

Trump reloads an ‘America First’ energy agenda while reasserting sound science | Kevin Mooney, CFACT

For a good laugh, turn to page 42 of the report President Donald Trump’s Energy Department released in July. On this page, the huge gulf between climate modeling and observed warming comes into sharp focus. The report includes a chart of all 36 climate models, as well as the warming that actually occurred from 1973 to 2022 in the U.S. Corn Belt. The big red bars represent what the models predicted for the twelve Midwestern states that make up the Corn Belt, while the tiny blue bar represents the observed amount of warming. Look for yourself. We are not talking about some narrow disparity that could be explained away through subsequent studies and minor recalibrations.

A chasm has emerged between what global warming alarmists have been telling us for years and what rigorous scientific study actually demonstrates. The Corn Belt comparison is a particularly acute example of the flawed modeling exercises that have been in motion for years. It’s also one that the Trump administration has brought to light thanks to its willingness to provide five independent scientists with a platform to probe the climate impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The scientists draw from expertise in physical science, economics, climate science, and academic research — and they have upset the climate apple cart by cutting right to the heart of what erroneously has been used to impose expensive regulations on the American economy.

Tear Down These Regulations! Donald Trump has already had his “tear down this wall” moment, although it may not become apparent for a few decades. That moment came on July 29, 2025, when Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency announced it would begin the process to rescind the “Endangerment Finding” that sits at the heart of the climate agenda. By releasing the Energy Department’s updated scientific report in tandem with the EPA’s reversal of its prior rulemaking, the Trump administration has delivered a powerful one-two punch that will give added momentum to its “America First” energy agenda. Bonner Cohen, a senior fellow with the National Center for Public Policy Research, is all on board with the Trump administration’s strategy and gives special recognition to Chris Wright, the Energy Department secretary, and Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator. “The Endangerment Finding served as the keys to the kingdom that would deliver the power the alarmists sought,” Cohen said in an interview. The overreaching of climate activists has been a critical asset along the way toward unleashing American energy.

When posterity looks back at this moment, it will have good cause to place the climate catastrophe predictions in the same category as some other historical doozies. A few that come to mind include Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev’s line “We will bury you!”; the belief that the Titanic was “unsinkable”; as well as the 1970s “peak oil” predictions that said the world would run out of energy. But there’s a critical difference when it comes to climate activists. Being sincere, full of conviction, and wrong at the same time is all part of the human condition. But cooking the books to achieve policy goals is another matter. The Climategate scandal of November 2009 exposed Big Science for all to see when emails leaked from the Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia in Great Britain, revealing that researchers were willing to fabricate data and muzzle dissenting voices when Mother Nature did not cooperate with theories linking human activity to dangerous levels of global warming.

Since then, climate modeling has only taken on more water, as it has become clear that the faulty assumptions underlying the models continuously run counter to reality. The recent warming that began in the mid- to late twentieth century is much more gradual and modest, and is likely even beneficial for animals and plants, according to the Energy Department report. The authors refrain from completely lampooning the example of the Corn Belt modeling failures. Instead, they play it straight, as well they should. Readers are told, “This example shows that users need to assess model projections carefully on a case-by-case basis since local biases might be sufficiently large that the models are simply not fit for purpose.” They go on to conclude, “[C]limate models show warming biases in many aspects of their reproduction of the past few decades.” Those of us who identify as climate skeptics opposed to the overgrowth of the administrative state — which has become a major conduit for unconstitutional policy measures, many of them in the name of climate change — might want to grab a few cigars.

We could gather around the table at a local favorite (I’ll pick Shelly’s Back Room in D.C. for anyone paying attention)—and put our own cheeky spin on what a well-credentialed group of scientists and researchers have produced for the benefit of the American people. Here’s just a snippet of what might come out of that conversation. It’s put more in laymen’s terms, and with a little less D.C. beltway restraint:

The example of the modeling in the Corn Belt shows us that we are dealing with science fiction. “Users” should know that these models are not designed to reflect reality, but are instead designed to advance a political agenda detached from science. We can go on to conclude that the ending is written before the modeling process even begins, so that climate activists can line their pockets with taxpayer-funded grants and collaborate with their government benefactors to impose burdensome regulations on those same taxpayers.

That’s the kind of language that’s going to resonate with beleaguered taxpayers and ratepayers who are victimized by climate policies and the junk science that gives rise to those policies. But notice that this imagined rant  is not quite so humorous as it reaches the end. Trump’s EPA estimates that climate regulations have cost the American people more than $1 trillion since 2009. That was the year President Barack Obama’s administration issued the “Endangerment Finding”—enabling the EPA to run wild under the Clean Air Act

Full article here: https://www.cfact.org/2025/10/09/trump-reloads-an-america-first-energy-agenda-while-reasserting-sound-science/