Energy & Environmental Review: September 14, 2026

By <a class="post-author" href="/about#john-droz">John Droz, Jr.</a> -- September 14, 2026

This post excerpts energy and climate material from the Media Balance Newsletter, a free fortnightly published by physicist John Droz Jr., founder of the Alliance for Wise Energy Decisions. Droz is also the author of the popular Substack Critically Thinking About Select Societal Issues.

Greed Energy Economics:

California launches Golden State lease buyout lawsuit
California Moves to Sue Trump Administration, RWE Over Deal to Cancel Floating Wind Project

Unreliables (General):
*** The Green Energy Paradox: Saving Nature by Destroying It

Wind Energy — Offshore:
*** Manipulation, hype and floating offshore windmills
Offshore Windmill Failures in Irish Sea
Britain ‘hog-tied’ to China for a third of wind power

Solar Energy:
Solar overtakes coal as biggest power source in China — but off 60% of the time!
New York’s New Solar Religion Is Absolutely Devastating to Wildlife, Farmland

Nuclear Energy:
*** The Army’s SMR Shortlist
*** Deployable Energy’s new compact nuclear reactor

Fossil Fuel Energy:
*** A Nation Divided by Natural Gas
Ban Natural Gas, Pay More

Electric Vehicles (EVs):
Scientists confirm solar storms can crash self-driving cars
Report: Another Tesla on Autopilot Stopped on Freeway, Driver Died

Data Centers:
*** GUIDE: What every town should know before approving a data center
*** Panicking Tech Execs Try to Pivot Message on AI Data Centers
The Shocking Truth About Water-Guzzling Hyperscale Data Centers

Miscellaneous Energy News:
*** Video: “We Cracked Antigravity” NASA Physicist Shows Proof of Secret Tech
Report: Embodied energy – The first step in understanding eROI
If our politicians care about affordability, they will pass permitting reform

Manmade Global Warming — The Science:
*** Climate: What We Don’t Know
Norway Rejects Climate Orthodoxy’s False Choice, Builds Wealth
Greenland’s Icecap Grew This Year…

Environmental Priorities vs. ‘Climate Change’

By Robert Bradley Jr. -- September 11, 2026

Classic articles are worth remembering. One in the environmental field was a prioritization of environmental issues back in 2020 by Bjorn Lomborg, “Welfare in the 21st century: Increasing development, reducing inequality, the impact of climate change, and the cost of climate policies“

“What is the world’s deadliest environmental problem?,” asks Bjorn Lomborg. The answer:

Not climate. Outdoor and indoor air pollution. Let’s not get so scared about climate that we forget the much bigger problems. Read more in my peer-reviewed article: https://sciencedirect.com/…/article/pii/S0040162520304157.

This result explains why today, climate alarm is just not resonating with the public to the chagrin of the alarmists. Bill McKibben faults the New York Times and Democrats for throwing in the political towel. “I’m saddened to see how little our representatives in DC seem to really care, even the Democratic ones,” he begins:

Too many Democratic leaders are feeling comfortable waving off climate concerns, because of a feeling that it might be a political problem for them.

…

U.S. Nuclear Waste: History of a Failed Endeavor

By Kennedy Maize -- September 10, 2026

For 80 years, the U.S. government and its industrial and utility partners have failed to understand the problem of the noxious and dangerous nuclear waste for war and peace and successfully respond. Kicking the can down the road, evident today with fiscal policy, applied in spades to nuclear waste in wartime and peacetime.

Wartime Waste

It began at Hanford during World War II’s Manhattan Project when little attention was paid to what was left behind when U-235 was stripped from U-238 to turn uranium into plutonium. Nuclear engineers considered it a simple problem that could be dealt with later, much later. The nasty brew of chemical and nuclear poisons was dumped into large, oil-field-derived stainless-steel tanks.

In 1947, pioneering Baltimore “sanitary engineer” Abel Wolman — who had standardized the use of chlorine to purify drinking water — joined the Atomic Energy Commission’s advisory board.…