Here we are again, and welcome to Post Number Three in today's salute to President Trump's wholehearted exposure and dismantling of what he called the 'Green New Scam.'
I'm going to get back to some renewable plan news with, as I promised earlier, some current European examples that should be proving the point about exactly how scammy the Green grifting has been and how grateful we should be that the cultists here hadn't been able to push us even further along.
In solar news, CNN seemed kind of put out the other day as they broke the news that the Trump administration had 'quietly cancelled' an enormous solar installation planned for Nevada.
In fact, it was going to be the largest solar farm in the United States.
"Known as the Esmerelda 7, the collection of seven solar projects in rural Nevada was set to generate up to 6.2 gigawatts of energy when complete, enough to power 2 million homes. That’s an eye-popping amount of power to add to an electrical grid that d.." https://t.co/wYxqtfgoez
— lawrence (@lcagee) October 14, 2025
This one even had the Republican governor of the state snortin' in disgust and telling D.C. to mind its own p's and q's.
Not likely, especially with a project as massive as this thing was to be, according to the planning stages - six separate farms tied together on 118,000 acres of pristine federal desert.
Of course, the Biden bunch bought off on it.
The Trump administration’s cancellation of the largest solar project in the United States has sparked confusion and concern among Republicans and Democrats alike.
...Under former President Joe Biden, the federal government was moving the sprawling project through the federal permitting process as one proposal. Developers had planned to use 118,000 acres of federal land in Nevada’s desert as the home for solar arrays and batteries to store the sun’s energy.
Last week, the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management quietly changed the project’s status to “canceled” on its federal permitting webpage. An Interior Department spokesperson said the status change was unrelated to the ongoing government shutdown and that project developers and the federal government had agreed to “change their approach” as part of “routine discussions” about the project.
There may still be a path forward for the Esmeralda 7; the Interior spokesperson said developers “will now have the option to submit individual project proposals to the BLM” for approval. However, environmental impact analyses can drag on for months or years, making the approval process much longer. And the federal government can also cancel individual projects again.
Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum's Bureau of Land Management (BLM) went in and canceled overall permitting approval for the entire site, which is how the Biden bunch had done it - as an all-inclusive package.
The developers are now more than welcome to resubmit for each individual farm on its own.
But, gosh - that's a big hassle, you know?
For once, the desert's crawly critters and spiky growing things won a round, and the smaller conservation groups who fought this were on the right side.
...Desert tortoises and Joshua trees live in the area that would be developed for the solar array, said Erik Molvar, executive director of the Western Watersheds Project.
“It doesn’t make sense to trade off gains in climate while sacrificing biodiversity,” Molvar said. “We don’t see the conversion of vast areas of public land to renewable energy as the right solution to the climate crisis.”
TOOK UP FAR TOO MUCH LAND AND WE'RE GLAD IT'S DEAD
"It's not just energy realists who are glad to see the Esmerelda 7 project canceled. Environmental groups are likewise glad that this is being shut down.
— Janet Page Hill (@hill_page57214) October 12, 2025
The Trump administration has made its skepticism of the solar build-out in Nevada clear in recent months, with Interior… https://t.co/9edAYwOYQR
...with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and other officials saying solar is an “intermittent” technology that doesn’t provide reliable energy. But some conservationists alarmed by the proposed rollout of large solar projects in Nevada and other Western states celebrated the demise of Esmeralda 7, saying as designed it took up up (sic) far too much land.“Friends of Nevada Wilderness is thrilled that this poorly sited project is dead,” said Shaaron Netherton, the group’s executive director."
Here's one example from Europe about what we've ducked.
In the United Kingdom, thanks to the new Labor law that says the government gets to override local concerns if they determine a solar farm is vital to the nation's energy security - as, of course, every single solar installation will be - there's quite a row going on about the latest land grab for solar.
3000+ beautiful acres of prime farmland. Covered in panels.
I am with the indefatigable Dorne, who has been campaigning for months against the Tilbridge solar farm. Today, she rightly calls for Milliband to resign. Hands off our farmland, farmland for food! We fight on. pic.twitter.com/jV8a9AiNrM
— Dame Andrea Jenkyns DBE 🇬🇧 (@andreajenkyns) October 15, 2025
No more food - who needs it anyway?
Ed Miliband has approved the UK’s largest solar farm to date, covering a massive 3,000 acres in Lincolnshire – that's the equivalent of 2,000 football pitches. This is total vandalism of the countryside. pic.twitter.com/RWDX3fBclv
— James Melville 🚜 (@JamesMelville) October 14, 2025
And the UK has to keep building solar farms as they've no sun. They'll never have enough panels to meet their energy needs.
It ranks 239th out of 240 countries for radiant exposure during the day.
BRILLIANT
And this is the cost of "when the sun don't shine and the wind don't blow"
— l33d5un1t3d (@l33d5un1t3d1) October 16, 2025
to the consumer.
Kerching for the remaining gas power stations pic.twitter.com/FX5tlM68Ix
Knowing that Labor are the not-so-in-the-closet Malthusians that I know they are, I'm sure Miliband's plans have more to do with enabling more Brits to die off, as opposed to making more electricity for Brits to live with.
I know - such a cynic.
But I've got one more object lesson, courtesy of Miliband and the Green grifters in the UK, to illustrate how very grateful I am to Trump for keeping this anti-renewable crusade going.
And what's happening right now seems as if it could be applicable to states in energy markets like New England. Areas have shut down the bulk of their own generation capacity in favor of relying on unreliable renewables for most of their power needs, and have a few older gas-fired plants on standby if there is a sudden surge in demand or problems with the regional grid that shares power.
This is also what's costing an arm, leg, and three quarts of blood as far as utility bills in the Mid-Atlantic and New England go. Because that power has to be purchased on a spot market rate - when you need it - since they don't generate it constantly themselves anymore. If there's less of something, or it's needed on demand, there's a premium to be paid.
The English found this out this past January when their entire national grid came close to collapse, the trunk lines from the continent they depend on for supplemental go-juice had none to give, as France, et al, were using up their own electricity. It was a deep freeze across Europe in the dead of winter. Go figure.
So two British, much-reviled natural gas plants fired up for a couple of hours and barely covered the power shortfall.
The cost of electricity during that crisis surged to £932MWh and then went higher, much higher.
...£5500MWh was, at one point, the going rate to keep the country from completely going dark. Generator operators could name their price; they did, and desperate grid managers had to bite. Literally, the call went out to 'supply at ANY COST."
And the two natural gas owners who fired up their power plants for a total of three hours to save the day walked away with £12m.
You know who paid for it. All because of renewables.
An even more disturbing version of that scenario is playing out in the UK this week, again because of renewables.
The highest electricity generation from wind power the country has had over the past week has averaged about 4-6%.
We've recently had a period of 6 days when the wind has barely blown. And little 'wind-powered' electricity
— Latimer Alder (@latimeralder) October 16, 2025
To cover 6 days lekky supply for UK we'd need 30,000 of the 'Biggest Battery in Europe'
And, assuming we could find anybody in the world who could ever make them… https://t.co/wNofIKY0rn
...And, assuming we could find anybody in the world who could ever make them (unlikely), they'd cost over £2,000,000,000,000
Two thousand billion quid.
Enough to keep the NHS going for 10 years.
UK citizens are paying whatever the wind rates are, and for the gas generators to pick up the slack, so a double whammy.
But there hasn't been any wind in Europe, either, so guess what else?
Their money is paying for electricity to be sent to the continent to supplement Denmark, the Netherlands, and other European countries, which have also squandered their homegrown generation capacity in favor of renewables and now need to supplement from somewhere else.
𝗨𝗞 𝗘𝘅𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗚𝗮𝘀 𝗣𝗼𝘄𝗲𝗿 𝗧𝗼 𝗪𝗶𝗻𝗱𝗹𝗲𝘀𝘀 𝗘𝘂𝗿𝗼𝗽𝗲
— Watts Up With That (@wattsupwiththat) October 15, 2025
The UK is currently exporting gas-generated electricity to countries like Denmark, Ireland, and the Netherlands during periods of low wind, highlighting the unreliability of wind power across Europe.… pic.twitter.com/pTKG003ETc
...highlighting the unreliability of wind power across Europe. This situation arose because calm weather reduced wind turbine output, forcing reliance on flexible gas and biomass plants to balance the grid. As the marginal power sources, these can ramp up or down quickly to meet demand fluctuations, compensating for the intermittency of renewables.
This dependency raises serious questions about energy security. If gas plants are phased out as part of net-zero policies, what will fill the gap during windless days? Europe could face blackouts or higher costs, underscoring the risks of over-reliance on intermittent sources without adequate backup.
This led some astonished observers to ponder 'What happens if none of us have anything to spare, and not enough to begin with?'
That's a very real scenario in countries - and states - that have ransomed their energy security to the vagaries of nature.
It's happening right now.
Lucky thing for all of them, it's not cold, just a little chilly.
Lucky thing for us, we have a good chance to stop the madness here for good.
The Democrat Party has never been less popular as voters reject its insane progressive, radical agenda.
Ed, David, John, and I work hard to continue exposing Democrats' plans to lead America down a dangerous path.
But we can't do it without your support. We'd love to invite you to join HotAir's VIP community and use promo code POTUS47 to get 74% off your membership.
Thank you so much again for being here with us at HotAir.
Join the conversation as a VIP Member