Alan Ramo

While it is encouraging renewable power is growing, climate change remains an ever accelerating problem as long as fossil fuel emissions grow and continue to be added to our atmosphere. enewspaper.latimes.com/infinity/art... - More fossil fuels were burned in '24 than ever before, scientists say

"Climate change is not a separate Bucket. The reason we care about climate change is that it's the hole in every bucket." @katharinehayhoe.com --- So well said.

Why Is Trump Autocracy Rising? These Dems Have an Unnerving Answer. A new Biden administration autopsy, based on internal assessments from many government insiders, has crystal clear lessons for the future.

Interesting stuff here:

Carbon offsetting does not work. Not because of implementation details but because there are fundamental issues with the very idea of 'offsetting'. www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Real or AI?

These were grown men in their 30s www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

Newsom says projecting data center water use, and then accounting for how much water is actually used, is too rigid. I guess reading one's water bill is too onerous for data center operators.

She was also nominated for her role as Louise Bryant in "Reds", but that may be too woke for People.

Some Good News About the El Segundo Chevron Explosion - Legal Planet The El Segundo explosion is a good reminder of the air pollution from oil and gas: The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental news.

Excellent perspective by Evan George in Legal Planet. "Energy affordability is important, but oil and gas facilities always come with costs, usually paid by vulnerable communities." Good News About the El Segundo Chevron Explosion legal-planet.org/2025/10/07/s...

Newsom Courts Big Oil as Gas Prices Threaten Political Ambitions Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom stood before Californians and declared the oil industry the “polluted heart of this climate crisis.” Big Oil, he said, was lying, manipulating and profiteering. “They’...

www.bloomberg.com/news/article...

Major Bay Area refinery on track to close, city official says Benicia leaders said this oil refinery’s departure in Solano County could reduce the city’s budget by more than $10 million.

“It seems there is now no path that remains for Valero to remain" - It appears Newsom and state legislative leaders got played by oil interests, allowing increased oil drilling and suspending cap on profits to try to save Valero refinery. www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/arti...

California Takes a Stab at Climate and Energy Costs - Legal Planet Which Climate and Energy Bills Did California Pass? The Drain is a weekly roundup of environmental and climate news from Legal Planet.

"It probably also disadvantaged environmental justice advocates who have spent years organizing in California but were largely relegated to the backseat." California Takes a Stab at Climate and Energy Costs legal-planet.org/2025/09/16/w...

Fast-tracking new oil drilling won’t lower California gas prices but it’ll raise  environmental risks | Opinion Lawmakers just enabled fast-tracking of new oil drilling permits in Kern County. If gas prices move, though, expect other economic forces at work.

Stanfod Prof. Sivas correctly identifies the fallacy in California's laast minute capitulation to oil interests and California's reall opportunity for a transition away from oil production. calmatters.org/commentary/2...

California lawmakers pass climate deal extending cap-and-trade, permitting more drilling One progressive Democrat from San Jose called it a “regulatory giveaway to Big Oil”

We need a better approach to deal with falling demand for oil in California than 'drill more' — that's just not useful from a climate standpoint or from a consumer cost standpoint.

www.sacbee.com/news/politic...

What is the date of the sunset? It appears to me to be 2046.

Witness California's capitulation to oil interests under threat of refinery closures reversing its cap on oil profits and unleashing new oil drilling in the recent legislative session led by Gov. Newsom.

‘Radicalized’ Evergreen High School shooter appeared to hold antisemitic, violent views in online accounts Social media accounts that appear to be connected to the 16-year-old shooter are littered with references to mass shootings and antisemitic views, The Denver Post found.

The 16-year-old who shot two students in a Colorado high school on the same day Charlie Kirk was killed was a virulent white supremacist and antisemite www.denverpost.com/2025/09/11/e...

Governor Newsom is trying to push through an oil-billing expansion in the last days of the legislative session. Rank-and-file workers say NO TO SB 237! Call your reps today using this toolkit: tinyurl.com/nodrillbaby

It is not so straight forward. E.g., Sweden has no minimum wage. US does. Yet in Sweden 70% of workers in unions, protected by laws enforcing labor rights. US has 11% in unions. Which economy is "less regulated"? Sweeden is in EU, with rules addressing climate & human rights. US ignores these.

The IRA was surprisingly effective at spurring investment in green energy. Where it failed was making it *politically* sustainable by delivering immediate tangible benefits to the public. In that sense, the Green New Deal was, in retrospect, the more prudent and realistic approach. on.ft.com/4n4Ayra

Donald Trump wants you to pay more for electricity & breathe air that damages your lungs, heart, & brain all to preserve the profits of his cronies whose business model requires subsidies & regulatory capture. The Republican Party can either stop this nonsense or be destroyed in the midterms

Opinion | The U.S. Wooed India for 30 Years. Trump Blew That Up in a Few Months.

It would be quite a foreign policy accomplishment to lose both India and Ukraine. www.nytimes.com/2025/08/31/o...

Warnings From Weimar Why bargaining with authoritarians fails.

A new piece I wrote appearing in FOREIGN AFFAIRS today

www.foreignaffairs.com/germany/warn...

Letters to the Editor: Study on methane leaks shows why expanded oil drilling would be ‘ruthless’ 'Benzene — just one of the dangerous chemicals discharged from dozens of major methane leaks in California — is a chemical linked to leukemia, blood disorders and reproductive harms,' writes an L.A. T...

"Lawmakers should not exempt oil drilling from environmental review and community input. Expanding oil drilling in the face of the facts is reckless, ruthless and, for many, it’s deadly," writes the Center's Shaye Wolf in a letter to the editor in @latimes.com ⬇️

The health burden and racial-ethnic disparities of air pollution from the major oil and gas lifecycle stages in the United States Largest total population health burden is from O&G end-use, but greatest relative disparities are linked to downstream activities.

New study: oil & gas are major killers

Oil & gas cause 91,000 air pollution deaths per year, 9,100 pre-term birth incidences/y, 216,000 asthma incidences/y, 1600 cancers/y in US

4,800 deaths/y from extracting & processing fuels
86,200 deaths/y from burning fuels

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

"Texas and California have the greatest burden for almost all pollutant-health outcome risks and O&G lifecycle stages" per the study. Newsom & California democratic legislators want to increase oil and gas drilling and keep refineries from closing.https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.adu2241

The thing you want to kill CEQA to enable? Probably CEQA already allows a fast track or waiver for it.

From the article, "The Open AI CEO has invested $375 million in the US-based nuclear fusion firm Helion Energy. The company has set a target of producing energy at a commercial scale by 2028."

Guess he missed the Vietnam War ending too.

Taiwan Referendum to Restart Nuclear Power Plant Fails A referendum to restart a Taiwan nuclear plant failed due to poor voter turnout, dealing a blow to attempts by some groups to revive atomic power after the government shut all reactors.

President Lai Ching-te said the referendum failed after fewer than 25% of eligible voters voted in favor of restarting the Maanshan nuclear plant.