Day: November 4, 2025

US Nuclear Power Revival

With a strong push from the Trump White House, for the first time since Three Mile Island, the nuclear energy industry in the U.S. is bullish about its future. It’s about time, given that the average existing U.S. nuclear power plant was built based on 1980s technology.

A nuclear power plant with a digital overlay showcasing technology, set against a backdrop of rolling green hills and an American flag.

From Science Matters

By Ron Clutz

A cartoon depicting a nuclear energy conference, with a speaker at a podium and various national flags. In the foreground, a child wearing a 'NO NUKES' shirt is shouting while others in the audience listen.

Duggan Flanakin writes at Real Clear Energy Data Centers, Trump Spark U.S. Nuclear Revival.  Excerpts in italics with my bolds and added images.

U.S. Department of Energy report cover titled 'Advanced Nuclear Pathways to Commercial Liftoff' with visuals of nuclear energy, renewable resources like wind and solar, and infrastructure.

With a strong push from the Trump White House, for the first time since Three Mile Island, the nuclear energy industry in the U.S. is bullish about its future. It’s about time, given that the average existing U.S. nuclear power plant was built based on 1980s technology.

A major reason for the virtual standstill in nuclear energy development in the U.S. was the Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s near-maniacal effort to reassure a skittish public that they would not issue permits to any nuclear power plant that had the potential for public harm.

A cartoon depicting a man wearing a 'Green' shirt, standing in a forested area with nuclear power plants in the background. The man is humorously questioning the lack of a viable, reliable, and low-emission alternative energy source.

The shot heard round the world signaling a change in U.S. nuclear energy policy was the summary firing of NRC Commissioner Christopher Hanson, whose divinity school background may have contributed to a perception he viewed his job as more a gatekeeper for regulatory control than a partner in building a U.S. nuclear future.  As Senate Environment and Public Works Committee chair Shelley Moore Capito (R, WV) said,

“For decades, the NRC took too long, cost too much, and did not have a predictable and efficient process to approve new licenses or modernize outdated regulations.” 

Newly installed NRC Chair David Wright has called the Trump directives not “just regulatory reform” but a “cultural transformation that positions the NRC to be a forward-leaning, risk-informed regulator for the future.” The agency’s internal culture is being reshaped into a more efficient and modern agency without sacrificing public safety, Wright said.

A group of people in a legislative assembly holding signs with symbols of nuclear energy crossed out, juxtaposed with wind turbine images, expressing support for renewable energy and opposition to nuclear power.
Several MEPs (mainly Greens) hold up anti-nuclear posters at the debate.

But it’s not just the NRC that is being transformed. Under presidents from Carter to Biden, nuclear was largely relegated to the closet as the primary focus was the media-driven “green energy” crusade. Wind and solar permits were issued without the cleanup requirements and prepayments mandatory for nuclear and fossil fuel facilities. Nuclear was deemed “dirty.”

The first Trump term was so mangled by political infighting (both intra-party and cross-party) that any real nuclear energy agenda lay buried among the lawsuits. In the interim, however, artificial intelligence made giant leaps and the demand for electric power for fast-growing data centers was exploding. Wind and solar cannot be relied upon by entities dependent upon 24/7/365 power – and nuclear is still viewed as the “cleaner” option vis-à-vis natural gas.

A cartoon depicting contrasting images of nuclear power: on the left, a man holds a sign stating 'DANGEROUS AND UNSTABLE' in front of a large explosion; on the right, a man presents a sign reading 'NOT TOO BAD, ALL THINGS CONSIDERED' next to a tree and butterflies.

Even before Trump’s reelection, tech giants were busily signing nuclear energy deals to power their data centers. Last September the owner of the long-shuttered Three Mile Island Unit 1 nuclear power plant announced plans to restart operations in 2027, thanks to a 20-year power purchase agreement with Microsoft for a nearby AI data center.

Last October Amazon and Google both announced they would be investing in small modular reactors for AI data centers. Two months later Meta said it planned to follow suit. The amazing thing is the uncertainty that the SMR manufacturers will be able to deliver as quickly and as affordably as the tech giants demand. The simple reason? They have no track record yet. But energy demand is so high that waiting is not an option.

Comparison of power outputs between conventional nuclear reactors and nuclear microreactors, highlighting that conventional reactors generally output around 1,000 MWe, while microreactors usually generate less than 50 MWe.

In the last few weeks, what was already a fast train picked up even more speed. On October 16 the U.S. Army unveiled its next-generation nuclear power Janus Program for the deployment of small modular reactors to support national defense installations and critical missions. Commercial microreactor manufacturers will partner with the Army’s Defense Innovation Unit with a goal of an operating reactor by September 30, 2028.

On October 26, Hyundai Engineering & Construction announced a basic design contract with Fermi America to construct four large nuclear reactors on an 8.1-square-mile property outside Amarillo, Texas. The Hyundai-designed AP1000 nuclear reactors will generate 4 GW for the HyperGrid complex, the world’s largest integrated energy and AI campus. The 11-GW project also includes 2 GW from small modular reactors, 4 GW from gas combined cycle plants, and 1 GW from solar and battery storage systems.

$500 billion Project Matador: Aerial view of Hyundai Engineering & Construction's 11 GW AI-nuclear energy campus featuring nuclear reactors, solar panels, and wind turbines.

The integrated license application for the $500 billion project, the brainchild of former Energy Secretary Rick Perry and Fermi co-founder Toby Neugebauer, is currently under expedited review by the NRC. Meanwhile, Hyundai E&C is working on design tasks and preparations for the main construction phase, with finalization anticipated for an engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) contract by spring 2026.

On October 28, Westinghouse Electric Co. joined Cameco Corporation and Brookfield Asset Management in a new strategic partnership with the U.S. government to accelerate the deployment of nuclear power. The government has committed to construction of at least $80 billion of new reactors using Westinghouse’s nuclear reactor technology to reinvigorate the U.S. nuclear power industrial base.

Illustration of the AP1000 nuclear reactor design, showcasing various components like the reactor vessel, cooling systems, and fuel-handling area.

The government says this partnership will facilitate the growth and future of the U.S. nuclear power industry and the supporting supply chain. The entire project, which will deploy two-unit Westinghouse AP1000 reactors, is expected to create more than 100,000 construction jobs and support or sustain 45,000 manufacturing and engineering jobs across 43 states.

An illustration of a Westinghouse nuclear power plant, featuring modern architectural design, surrounded by greenery and solar panels.
The AP300 SMR is a single-loop, 300-MWe pressurized water reactor that utilizes identical systems to the larger AP1000 reactor.

These are only a sampling of the active and planned contracts for nuclear power plant construction that have sprung out of the unplowed ground with the change in philosophy at the NRC and the White House. All systems are brightly lit green – but obstacles remain in the road.

Even with greatly shortened licensing timeframes, it will take time to complete site designs, obtain permits and licenses, and begin delivering much needed electricity to tech giants and other customers. Yet the biggest problem may be finding enough nuclear fuel at affordable prices to meet the mushrooming demand.

One option, says Curio CEO Ed McGinnis, is recognizing that spent nuclear fuel (including that from nuclear weapons) can safely be turned into fresh usable nuclear fuel and valuable rare metals and materials (like rhodium, palladium, krypton-85, and americium-241).

Diagram illustrating the transition from the current nuclear fleet to advanced reactor technologies, featuring a reprocessing facility labeled CURIE, and processes involving uranium and plutonium conversion.
The Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E) recent research and development in the advanced reactor technology space. Source: DOE

U.S. production of uranium oxide in 2024 jumped exponentially to 677,000 pounds from just 50,000 pounds in 2023, and exploration and development activities in 2023 were the highest in a decade. On a down note, anti-nuclear activists have been waging a campaign to shut down the White Mesa Mill in Utah that processes uranium ore – and in the U.S. today only about 5% of nuclear fuel has been processed domestically.

The nuclear fuel conundrum is but one of the obstacles in the path of the massive U.S. nuclear power industry growth that is also a vital component of the growth of AI data centers and other emerging electricity-hungry technologies that are shaping our future. But all systems are go – and that is the giant step that had to be taken first.

Map showing U.S. nuclear power plants as of February 2025, highlighting plants sized by capacity in gigawatts (GW) and indicating states with and without nuclear power plants.

Trump Admin Looking to Restore Coal Plants as America’s Grid Buckles

The Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking to restore coal plants across America “for up to $100 million in federal funding.”

Graphic featuring the United States Department of Energy logo with the text 'Unleashing American ENERGY DOMINANCE' set against a blurred background of an American flag.

From Watts Up With That?

The Daily Caller

Daily Caller News Foundation

Audrey Streb
DCNF Energy Reporter

The Department of Energy (DOE) is seeking to restore coal plants across America “for up to $100 million in federal funding.”

The DOE announced Friday that it issued a Notice of Funding Opportunity to restore coal plants across the U.S. to “design, implement, test, and validate three strategic opportunities for refurbishment and retrofit of existing American coal power plants to make them operate more efficiently, reliably, and affordably.” President Donald Trump has sought to bolster the American coal industry through an April 8 executive order, though the Biden administration cracked down on coal through stringent regulations in a move that several energy policy experts and one grid official warned could weaken America’s power grid.

“For years, the Biden and Obama administrations relentlessly targeted America’s coal industry and workers, resulting in the closure of reliable power plants and higher electricity costs,” said DOE Secretary Chris Wright on Friday. “Thankfully, President Trump has ended the war on American coal and is restoring common sense energy policies that put Americans first. These projects will help keep America’s coal plants operating and ensure the United States has the reliable and affordable power it needs to keep the lights on and power our future.” 

(RELATED: Trump Admin Moves To Demolish Biden-Era Coal Crackdown)

Graphic showing the U.S. Department of Energy logo with the text 'Energy Department Announces $100 Million to Restore America's Coal Plants' and an American flag background.
(19) U.S. Department of Energy on X: “Energy Department Announces $100 Million to Restore America’s Coal Plants” / X

The DOE has issued several emergency orders to keep coal plants humming as it has also sounded alarms over America’s grid. DOE’s July grid reliability report projected that blackouts could increase by a factor of 100 across America if the U.S. continues to phase out reliable power sources without adequate replacements.

While Trump has sought to boost coal and other reliable energy sources like nuclear, the Biden administration favored intermittent green energy sources like wind and solar in the name of combating climate change.

All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.

A.G.s: Plastics “Pact” harms consumers

For years, environmental activists have pressured the business world to embrace the UN’s aggressive climate and energy agenda. They know full well that corporate leaders won’t sign on voluntarily — doing so would mean skyrocketing costs, suffocating regulations, and peddling products that consumers simply don’t want.

A clear plastic bottle lying on its side surrounded by colorful plastic granules in various shades, including blue, green, brown, and clear.

From CFACT

By Craig Rucker

For years, environmental activists have pressured the business world to embrace the UN’s aggressive climate and energy agenda. They know full well that corporate leaders won’t sign on voluntarily — doing so would mean skyrocketing costs, suffocating regulations, and peddling products that consumers simply don’t want.

Enter ESG: the “environmental, social, and governance” criteria that Greens devised as a tool to coerce compliance.

The strategy is clever and relentless. ESG advocates form “voluntary” industry groups that lock in their radical priorities from the start. Then, they lean on major corporations to join these pacts — or else face coordinated boycotts and damaging PR campaigns. Take the U.S. Plastics Pact, for instance: It’s a targeted assault on the plastics, food, and petroleum sectors, with an explicit mission to trigger a “profound paradigm shift” and drive “systemic change” in how these industries operate.

The good news? Resistance is building at last.

A coalition of state Attorneys General, led by Florida A.G. James Uthmeier, has written to environmental groups demanding to know how their use of the Pact to fuel their activism does not violate antitrust laws.

Uthmeier is joined by the Attorneys General from Texas, Georgia, Alabama, and Louisiana. Read their full press statement at CFACT.org.

“Radical environmental activists do not have the right, nor the avenue, to suppress business operations in our market,” Uthmeier said.

Antitrust law outlaws combinations and monopolies in restraint of trade. These A.G.s assert that is precisely the mission left-wing climate pressure groups have taken on.

“We have grave concerns that this mission is harmful to our States’ economies,” the A.G.s said, “results in higher costs to our States’ consumers, unreasonably restrains trade, and reduces output and quality of goods and services.”

Institutional control and ESG are common tactics the Left uses to push policy it cannot achieve through law or regulation.

Bravo to these Attorneys General for calling out such abuses.

Danish Farmers Blame Bovaer for Collapsing Cows

More dairy cows are not thriving and give less milk. And in some cases, they collapse.

A black and white cow jumping in a green pasture with several other cows grazing in the background.

After a lack of well-being among cows with new feed, the national association demands clarification.

By Berfin Erdem

A herd of dairy cows grazing in a green field, with some cows visible in the foreground and others in the background.

More dairy cows are not thriving and give less milk. And in some cases, they collapse.

A controversial additive called Bovaer, which is to be mixed into cows’ feed, is suspected to be the cause of the problems. TV 2 has the story.

This is what several farmers say, writes Jyllands-Posten on Friday.

Since 1 October, farmers have started mixing the statutory additive in the cows’ feed.

The aim is to reduce cows’ emissions of the greenhouse gas methane, and Bovaer has previously been thoroughly tested for several years.

Still, something seems to have gone wrong in the rollout.

“We have so many people who call us and are unhappy about what is happening in their herds,” says Kjartan Poulsen, chairman of the National Association of Danish Dairy Producers, to TV 2.

The organization has now initiated an investigation into the case, he said.

Rated safe by the EU

The substance Bovaer is manufactured by the Dutch company DSM and was approved by the European Commission in 2022 for use in cattle feed.

The authorisation is based on studies by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), which concluded that Bovaer does not pose a risk to the health of dairy cows or breeding cows, consumer safety or the environment.

In several cases, farmers have tried to remove the substance from the cows’ feed and have experienced that the animals recovered, writes Jyllands-Posten. When they later tried to reintroduce the drug, the problems have returned.

Kjartan Poulsen finds it “strange” and asks farmers to report when cows are not thriving under suspicion of Bovaer.

– We have to acknowledge that there are also some who feed with it without problems, so we have to find out what is really happening, the chairman adds.

Read the full story TV 2 here.

100,000 Rainforest Trees Likely to Have Died in Vain as COP30 Faces Brutal Net Zero Reality

Your correspondent is a kind chap who doesn’t care to intrude on private grief. For that reason I shall not be attending the upcoming COP30 conference in the Brazilian city of Belém. With the Net Zero fantasy falling to pieces, the faces of those attending will be as long as the local eight-mile highway that cleared 100,000 mature rainforest trees to help speed the 70,000 climate cultists on their way. In a pre-conference interview, the UN chief Antonio ‘boiling’ Guterres told the Guardian that “we don’t want to see the Amazon as a savannah”. As always, when the bloviating Guterres and the COP brigade rolls into town, you couldn’t make this stuff up, although they frequently do.

Construction work taking place in a forested area, with machinery and workers visible near a muddy pathway.

From The Daily Sceptic

By Chris Morrison

Construction workers working on a dirt road in a forested area, with heavy machinery and trees in the background.

Your correspondent is a kind chap who doesn’t care to intrude on private grief. For that reason, I shall not be attending the upcoming COP30 conference in the Brazilian city of Belém. With the Net Zero fantasy falling to pieces, the faces of those attending will be as long as the local eight-mile highway that cleared 100,000 mature rainforest trees to help speed the 70,000 climate cultists on their way. In a pre-conference interview, the UN chief Antonio ‘boiling’ Guterres told the Guardian that “we don’t want to see the Amazon as a savannah”. As always, when the bloviating Guterres and the COP brigade rolls into town, you couldn’t make this stuff up, although they frequently do.

Alas, it seems some of the over-priced hotel accommodation might fall short of the usual standards of comfort expected by the annual saviours of the planet. It is reported that thousands of rooms in ‘love’ motels have been turned into ‘diplomatic suites’ by replacing heart-shaped beds, dance poles and leopard-print décor. It seems hourly rates are not on offer and prices are as high as $1,000 a night, with ceiling mirrors presumably thrown in at no extra charge. 

Whatever the rooms are called, it seems unlikely they will be occupied by the grander members of the corps diplomatique, such as East Timor’s Adão Soares Barbosa. He recently informed BBC radio that his country was very much affected by sea level rise, a claim that might be less risible if it was not for the fact that over the long term the land of East Timor is leaping out of the sea due to complex underground plate movements. In common with many other Pacific islands, East Timor is growing in size helped by natural forces that also include surface accretions. Despite this, hundreds of billions of dollars are being sought at this COP for alleged climate damage caused by wealth-producing industrialised countries burning hydrocarbons.

At the COP meeting, someone always ends up getting screwed. 

Alas, again, the money spigot has been turned off. In the United States, until last year the biggest supporter of all things Net Zero and the ‘climate-stopping’ Paris Agreement, the Donald has been kicking ten bells out of the whole boondoggle. Where possible, green energy projects have been cancelled, federal funding of climate alarmism wiped out, foreign aid to boost said alarmism overseas removed, while climate scientists have been told to stop peddling nonsense and resume the scientific process. The UN already knows what President Trump thinks of the Net Zero project – it’s a scam and a con job he told them at the General Assembly. They laughed at him during his first term, but they are not laughing now.

Few heads of state are expected to show up this year although the UK, secure in its role as the sacrificial canary in the Net Zero mine, is being represented by the Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer and the Prince of Wales. Not much point asking Starmer for more money, he is flat broke, while the Mountbatten Windsors have been having a few extra calls on their finances of late. While money will be in generally short supply, the tipping will be plentiful. Tips as in the Gulf Stream collapsing, the Arctic ice vanishing and the corals disappearing. However, many times we hear them, they remain firm favourites, something mere evidence and observation have little chance of ever removing from the public stages and prints. 

Things just ain’t what they used to be. Mark Poynting of the BBC, presumably one of those destined to travel down the Belém ‘Highway of Shame’ in the next few days, did his best with a “What is COP30 and why does it matter?” It was a dull, routine article, one that in future could easily be outsourced to AI. “A major step forward looks challenging this year, not least because of the effect of the Trump administration”, he concluded. Er, duh.

Elsewhere, support is slowly fading as the costs and impracticalities of Net Zero become apparent. Not to put too fine a point on it, renewables are useless for running a modern industrial economy and hydrocarbons are vital and likely to remain so. Who really wants to be on the side of those who would ban artificial fertiliser made from natural gas and condemn half the world to death by starvation? More questions are being asked about the underlying science of climate change, a subject that has been essentially banned by elite activists for the last 25 years. A considered and well-sourced report on the climate science that has not been able to speak its name for decades was written by five eminent scientists this year and officially published by the US Department of Energy. Activists were enraged and there were a number of ‘fact checks’ run by Green Blob-funded operations. Not a punch has been laid, but it has had the effect of pushing the entire debate into the open. The abuse showered on the five scientists has given a clear signal that politics has been at play here, not science.

COP30 is supposed to be significant since it is 10 years since Paris and the agreement that was supposed to save the world by a programme of global decarbonisation. But this year, barely a third of countries have submitted supposedly binding plans to decarbonise. The fact is that voters don’t care about decarbonisation schemes when they are asked to spend money. They will not pay to avoid imaginary climate scenarios based on junk climate models. Even if there is a problem, and natural weather variation makes that impossible to ascertain, the extent of generosity is limited. If the temperature ticks up a tad, so be it. The rises are tiny and have been seen countless times in the past. The USA is out of it, and the rest of the world is bound to follow in the end.

Last year, the president of COP29 in hydrocarbon-rich Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev praised oil and gas as “gifts from God”. This year as the war-on-humanity party reassembles in the Amazon, we remember the words of the Chinese military philosopher Sun Tzu: “If you wait by the river long enough, the bodies of your enemies will float by”.

Chris Morrison is the Daily Sceptic’s Environment Editor. Follow him on X.

Placing Melissa in History

Climatic media has fallen in love with Melissa, many of them blaming “climate change”, i.e. CO2 for her strength and destructive power.  No surprise that Imperial College London (who foisted its covid pandemic models upon us) reports that its IRIS model confirms a “rapid attribution” claim.  No doubt there will be more such yada yada at Belem COP to stir up the faithful.

Aerial view of a powerful hurricane swirling over the ocean, showcasing a well-defined eye and turbulent cloud formations.

From Science Matters

By Ron Clutz

Satellite image of a hurricane approaching Jamaica, showing intense storm activity with vibrant colors indicating wind speed and precipitation.

Climatic media has fallen in love with Melissa, many of them blaming “climate change”, i.e. CO2 for her strength and destructive power.  No surprise that Imperial College London (who foisted its covid pandemic models upon us) reports that its IRIS model confirms a “rapid attribution” claim.  No doubt there will be more such yada yada at Belem COP to stir up the faithful.

For the rest of us, let’s remember the saying attributed to George Santayana: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”  For example, Melissa belongs to a class of strong Atlantic hurricanes going back almost a century.  Here’s a table of them along with peak sustained winds and the CO2 levels at the time.

Peak WindCO2 Level
HurricaneYearmphppm
“Cuba”1932175308
“Labor Day”1935185310
Janet1955175314
Camille1969175325
Anita1977175334
David1979175337
Allen1980190339
Gilbert1988185352
Andrew1992175356
Mitch1998180367
Wilma2005185380
Rita2005180380
Katrina2005175380
Dean2007175384
Felix2007175384
Irma2017180407
Maria2017175407
Dorian2019185411
Milton2024180425
Melissa2025185428

Note that all twenty hurricanes had winds ranging between 175 to 190 mph, going back to 1932.  Meanwhile CO2 has increased from 308 ppm to 428 (2025 ytd).  Note also the absence of such storms in the decade 2007 to 2017 despite CO2 adding 23 ppm in that period. The correlation between high wind speeds and CO2 concentrations is an insignificant 0.18.

Then there is the Global Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) report that includes the effects of both minor and major storms, combining strength and frequency.

Graph showing Global Tropical Cyclone Accumulated Cyclone Energy (ACE) over time, with data points for Global and Northern Hemisphere, along with Mauna Loa CO2 levels in ppm, updated July 31, 2025.

I added an overlay of CO2 to illustrate how unlikely is a link between CO2 and storms.  Finally, from Roger Pielke Jr. a chart showing ACE strength per hurricane:

Bar chart showing North Atlantic Accumulated Cyclonic Energy (ACE) per hurricane from 1900 to 2024.

The charts show that 16 is the average ACE per hurricane, in North Atlantic since 1900 and Globally since 1980.  The trend is not upward, and in North Atlantic appears currently lower than the past.

See Also:

Devious Climate Attribution Studies

Michael Mann: “I’m Not Owned! I’m Not Owned!!” – As He Shrinks into a Corn Cob

If you’ve been following the climate circus for as long as we have here at WUWT, you know that Michael Mann – the self-proclaimed guardian of the infamous “hockey stick” graph – has been skating on thin ice for years. Well, it looks like that ice just cracked wide open. According to a gleeful piece in the National Review titled “Michael Mann Finally Goes Away,” Mann has dropped his long-running defamation lawsuit against them after a whopping 12 years of legal clownery.

An illustrated corn cob character with a human face showing a sad expression, surrounded by corn plants in a field.

From Watts Up With That?

By Charles Rotter

If you’ve been following the climate circus for as long as we have here at WUWT, you know that Michael Mann – the self-proclaimed guardian of the infamous “hockey stick” graph – has been skating on thin ice for years. Well, it looks like that ice just cracked wide open. According to a gleeful piece in the National Review titled “Michael Mann Finally Goes Away,” Mann has dropped his long-running defamation lawsuit against them after a whopping 12 years of legal clownery.

That’s right: the guy who threatened to “destroy” them is now slinking off into the sunset, tail between his legs, while their blog post calling his research “sketchy” and “intellectually bogus” remains proudly online for all to see. But wait, there’s more! In true Mann fashion, he’s probably out there right now insisting he’s the victor, even as reality nibbles away at his relevance like a hungry squirrel on a… well, corn cob. Which brings us to the perfect meme for this moment. Back in 2011, the legendary X (formerly Twitter) account @dril posted this gem:

 “im not owned! im not owned!!”, i continue to insist as i slowly shrink and transform into a corn cob.”

It’s become the ultimate symbol of online denial – that moment when someone’s been utterly “owned” in a debate, but they keep flailing in protest, only to morph into a sad, shriveled vegetable. Sound familiar, Dr. Mann?

Picture it: Mann, fresh off losing his case (despite a temporary jury win against Mark Steyn and Rand Simberg that’s already crumbling under appeal), simmers while the National Review editors pop the champagne.

They even thank their lawyers and supporters, noting how the First Amendment proved too “inconvenient” for Mr. Hockey Stick.

And let’s not forget the article’s zinger: Mann and his alarmist crew are “losing the climate debate,” as evidenced by his recent whinging about Bill Gates daring to inject some common sense into the conversation. Ouch. That’s gotta sting worse than a polar vortex.

Just yesterday, we ran a piece titled “Gloom, Despair, and Agony on Me,” absolutely roasting the 2025 BioScience special report – “The State of the Climate: A Planet on the Brink” – for its over-the-top doomsaying. (Note: One of the co-authors? None other than Michael Mann himself.  Mann’s involvement? It’s like he’s the lead singer in that despair choir, belting out tunes about economic “post-growth” models and blaming the “wealthiest 10 percent” for everything short of bad hair days. Now, with his lawsuit in the dustbin, Mann’s descent into irrelevance is complete. He’s not just owned – he’s corncobbed. As @dril so prophetically put it, he’s shrinking smaller by the day, insisting he’s still the big cheese in climate town while the world moves on. The National Review sums it up best:

 “As for Michael Mann, he’s belatedly taken our very good advice from so many years ago and gotten lost.”

Hey, Mike – if you’re reading this (and we know you are), maybe it’s time to embrace your inner corn cob. Pop some butter on, sit back, and watch the real climate debate thrive without your lawsuits and hysteria. After all, in the words of the meme: “im not owned!!” Sure, buddy. Sure.

Most Intense Hurricanes

Of the eleven on the list, seven were logged out at sea. Of the other four, we already know that the Melissa reading was not at landfall but occurred several hours before at sea.

Satellite image of a powerful hurricane approaching the Gulf Coast, showing cloud formations and sea surface.

NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT

By Paul Homewood

Table displaying the most intense Atlantic hurricanes, including their peak pressure and pressure at landfall for various years.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Atlantic_hurricane_records

Melissa is now ranked tie 3rd most intense Atlantic hurricane at 892mb. We can look at it in graph format:

Graph showing the most intense Atlantic hurricanes from 1930 to October 2025, with pressure measurements in millibars (mb), highlighting Melissa as the tie for third most intense at 892 mb.

The picture is stark – nearly all of the eleven most intense have occurred in recent years, including the two most intense, Gilbert in 1988 and Wilma in 2005. Does this mean then that global warming really is making hurricanes more intense?

WHOA THERE!!!

Take another look at that table.

Of the eleven on the list, seven were logged out at sea. Of the other four, we already know that the Melissa reading was not at landfall but occurred several hours before at sea.

Dean’s minimum pressure was measured at landfall but was observed by hurricane hunters. The other two, Labor Day and Camille, were the only two genuinely recorded at the surface on land.

When we separate readings at landfall and at sea, we get a different story:

Graph showing the most intense Atlantic hurricanes from 1930 to October 2025, with data points representing mid-ocean (blue) and landfall (red) measurements of hurricane pressure in millibars.

It is not a coincidence that mid ocean hurricanes did not feature before 1980, because proper technology did not exist then to measure them, whether satellites or aircraft.

We know that hurricanes almost invariably weaken as they approach land, so comparing mid-ocean intensities with landfall ones is a meaningless exercise.

But it gets worse.

On the Wikipedia table of most intense hurricanes at landfall, all of the modern entries were taken by hurricane hunters – Dean, Dorian and Irma.

Nowadays hurricane hunters are able to stay inside hurricanes for hours on end, able to seek out the highest wind speeds and lowest pressures. In contrast, measuring hurricanes like Camille relied on land based thermometers, which were extremely unlikely to be at the exact spot where pressure was lowest.

Scientists at the US Hurricane Research Division have done sterling work with their attempts to reanalyse past hurricanes. But as good scientists, they have to be conservative in their findings. They only estimate pressures and windspeeds that they can sensibly justify. Believing that a hurricane was probably more intense is not enough if you don’t have the data to back it up.

Many hurricanes only hit small islands – Dorian and Irma for example. Hurricane hunters are invaluable in getting measurements in these situations where previously there may have been no reliable land-based data.

Hundreds of catastrophic hurricanes have hit the Caribbean over the years. Just because we don’t have accurate data on them does not make them less catastrophic.

UAH v6.1 Global Temperature Update for October 2025: +0.53 deg. C

The Version 6.1 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for October 2025 was +0.53 deg. C departure from the 1991-2020 mean, unchanged from the September 2025 value.

Graph depicting UAH satellite-based temperature anomalies of the global lower atmosphere (Version 6.1) from 1979 to October 2025, showing a departure of +0.53 deg. C from the 1991-2020 average.

From Roy Spencer, PhD

November 3rd, 2025 by Roy W. Spencer, Ph. D.

The Version 6.1 global average lower tropospheric temperature (LT) anomaly for October 2025 was +0.53 deg. C departure from the 1991-2020 mean, unchanged from the September 2025 value.

Graph showing UAH Satellite-Based Temperature of the Global Lower Atmosphere (Version 6.1) with temperature anomalies from 1979 to October 2025, indicating a +0.53 deg. C departure from the 1991-2020 mean.

The Version 6.1 global area-averaged linear temperature trend (January 1979 through October 2025) remains at +0.16 deg/ C/decade (+0.22 C/decade over land, +0.13 C/decade over oceans).

The following table lists various regional Version 6.1 LT departures from the 30-year (1991-2020) average for the last 22 months (record highs are in red).

YEARMOGLOBENHEM.SHEM.TROPICUSA48ARCTICAUST
2024Jan+0.80+1.02+0.58+1.20-0.19+0.40+1.12
2024Feb+0.88+0.95+0.81+1.17+1.31+0.86+1.16
2024Mar+0.88+0.96+0.80+1.26+0.22+1.05+1.34
2024Apr+0.94+1.12+0.76+1.15+0.86+0.88+0.54
2024May+0.78+0.77+0.78+1.20+0.05+0.20+0.53
2024June+0.69+0.78+0.60+0.85+1.37+0.64+0.91
2024July+0.74+0.86+0.61+0.97+0.44+0.56-0.07
2024Aug+0.76+0.82+0.69+0.74+0.40+0.88+1.75
2024Sep+0.81+1.04+0.58+0.82+1.31+1.48+0.98
2024Oct+0.75+0.89+0.60+0.63+1.90+0.81+1.09
2024Nov+0.64+0.87+0.41+0.53+1.12+0.79+1.00
2024Dec+0.62+0.76+0.48+0.52+1.42+1.12+1.54
2025Jan+0.45+0.70+0.21+0.24-1.06+0.74+0.48
2025Feb+0.50+0.55+0.45+0.26+1.04+2.10+0.87
2025Mar+0.57+0.74+0.41+0.40+1.24+1.23+1.20
2025Apr+0.61+0.77+0.46+0.37+0.82+0.85+1.21
2025May+0.50+0.45+0.55+0.30+0.15+0.75+0.99
2025June+0.48+0.48+0.47+0.30+0.81+0.05+0.39
2025July+0.36+0.49+0.23+0.45+0.32+0.40+0.53
2025Aug+0.39+0.39+0.39+0.16-0.06+0.69+0.11
2025Sep+0.53+0.56+0.49+0.35+0.38+0.77+0.32
2025Oct+0.53+0.52+0.55+0.24+1.12+1.42+1.67

The full UAH Global Temperature Report, along with the LT global gridpoint anomaly image for October, 2025, and a more detailed analysis by John Christy, should be available within the next several days here.

The monthly anomalies for various regions for the four deep layers we monitor from satellites will be available in the next several days at the following locations:

Lower Troposphere

Mid-Troposphere

Tropopause

Lower Stratosphere