JoNova
A science presenter, writer, speaker & former TV host; author of The Skeptic's Handbook (over 200,000 copies distributed & available in 15 languages).

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Statistics
Last month I wrote a piece on the mistaken concept of “harm” in the ESA regs.
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/06/25/an-impossibly-vague-concept-of-harm-plagues-the-endangered-species-act/
They have now rescinded that bad concept:
https://www.fws.gov/press-release/2026-07/department-interior-restores-clear-esa-enforcement-rescinding-misguided-harm
Progress!
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https://www.msn.com/en-au/money/general/ai-caramba-data-centers-drive-up-public-electricity-bills-by-23-billion/ar-AA286Bma?ocid=msedgdhp&pc=U531&cvid=6a5bde0b376e481480270a686c820331&ei=13
It wasn’t hard to imagine this happening here.
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Aussie Renewable Energy Retailer Collapse Blamed on President Trump
Essay by Eric Worrall
The collapse of the Ross Garnaut-backed renewable power retailer Zen Energy is set to have a contagion effect across Australia’s electricity sector, with several large clean energy developments left without a stable long-term buyer for their power.
…
In those documents, Zen blamed its troubles on wavering Australian government policy and a post-Trump world that was hostile to emissions reduction.
…
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/07/18/aussie-renewable-energy-retailer-collapse-blamed-on-president-trump/
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Wonderful news!!👏👏👏👏!! Let’s hope it’s a sign of the whole lot disappearing.
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Another is the planned Squadron Energy (Twiggy Forrest) 69 Turbine Wind Farm in the Tumut (NSW) area has been “paused”. Further cracks in the whole Renewables edifice. Twiggy has already taken quite a beating on his Green Hydrogen folly, one has to wonder how those solar powered electric Haul Trucks are progressing in the Pilbara.
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Pity Garnaut didn’t listen to Jo, Plimer et al a few years back.
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Mores the pity that successive governments DID listen to Ross Garnaut !
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I am quite sure that this claim of a business failure caused by Trump will be on the ABC shortly.
It suits all their beliefs.
A pity that I don’t watch the ABC (but I do contribute (involuntary) towards their operations).
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Yes Graeme, but I reckon “our” ABC will not mention the collapse of Garnauts Zen Energy, as Ross was a darling of the ABC during he whole AGW saga. There will be no stories of the whole renewables unravelling!
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Noticed outside too
“Aussie Renewable Energy Retailer Collapse Blamed on President Trump”
In there
“Think of hedging a portfolio as like poll balancing. If a person wants to balance on a pole, they need to continuously adjust their position to prevent the pole from toppling over. A hedged portfolio, a portfolio stuffed full of unstable but potentially highly profitable financial instruments which want to topple over, also needs to be continuously adjusted to stay balanced. But this strategy of continuous balancing goes to hell if liquidity dries up. If the value of some of the unstable financial instruments collapses to such an extent nobody wants to buy them, then your portfolio can no longer be adjusted, and the pole topples over.”
More there
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/07/18/aussie-renewable-energy-retailer-collapse-blamed-on-president-trump/
10
Maybe not so good.
What do Leftists do with failing or failed businesses, especially those who are members of the corporate state or Stato Corporativo as Giovanni Gentile, the moral philosopher of fascism, of which National Socialism was a derivative, wrote about in their version of Leftism, La dottrina del fascismo, (The Doctrine of Fascism)?
Well, they give them subsidies or other gifts of taxpayer money.
Mussolini said that he preferred to let corporations retain their private boards as long as they obeyed state mandates.
And Gentile rejected the capitalist notion that there is a divide between public taxpayer funds and private corporate profits. To Gentile, all wealth belonged fundamentally to the Nation.
Gentile argued that if the state provided subsidies, protectionist tariffs or resources to a corporation, it was not doing so to enrich shareholders. It was a directive from the State ordering that corporation to fulfill a specific national duty such as achieving self-sufficiency or building public works or in this case “renewables”.
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“Mussolini said that he preferred to let corporations retain their private boards as long as they obeyed state mandates.”
..and THAT is the definition of Fascism! Communism where you allowed private property, which the State runs. Both philosophies believe their subjects are just chattels of the State.
20
“When you’ve got complex structures with multiple parties and cross-party arrangements, you can easily get a contagion problem,”
Self full filling prophecy, I cannot think of a single example where making something more complex, for no good reason, turned out to benefit the outcome.
Remember the SEC in Victoria, one producer of electricity and essentially the only retailer (not quite but near enough) when everyone new what the product cost.
Then voila, the SEC is wound up and we are told that multiple retailers will provide competition and therefore lower prices. The first thing out of this was “complexity”.
It was impossible to compare one retailer with another because they all offered different plans, some had cheaper electricity but dearer daily supply charges, different off peak rates etc. In the end the consumer just threw up their hands and said “who ever”. Duplications of administration automatically meant dearer prices without any additional skullduggery , prices have gone one way ever since.
20
Sweden’s Vattenfall halts giant Vidar offshore wind project over lack of profitability. Unlike many other countries, Sweden doesn’t subsidise wind power.
https://www.bairdmaritime.com/offshore/renewables/offshore-wind/swedens-vattenfall-halts-offshore-wind-project-over-lack-of-profitability
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FWIW
About 10 minutes in here
“Russia Obliterates Odessa Ports Ursula Hides Russian Kiev Strikes; Zelensky Crisis Worsens; US China”
https://rumble.com/v7cvj9s-russia-obliterates-odessa-ports-ursula-hides-russian-kiev-strikes-zelensky-.html?e9s=src_v1_upp_v
I haven’t seen mention of the tit-fer-tat going on in the Black Sea grain trade that is outlined here and the Ukrainian own goal
40
I prefer Alex Christophorou’s daily podcast myself, and I like them when they broadcast together. Alexander Mercourois’ reports are a little too long for my liking. Also I like Alex’s walk and talk. You can see places and if they look interesting you can go and visit later on. Sometimes he visits places that I have been to and I recognize where he is!
00
I hope you get a much broader spectrum of thought than just the Duran, Russia tr0lls.
00
Where would you suggest for a balanced view H?? CIA News?
01
If you get a “broad spectrum of thought” the true situation might be somewhere within that envelope –
Might be
00
FWIW
“Have Nurses Nothing Better to Do Than Discuss Climate Change?”
“If you wanted a snapshot of why so many nurses feel increasingly disconnected from their professional bodies, you could do worse than read the minutes of a recent meeting of senior nursing figures. I am referring to the Fellows meeting of the Royal College of Nursing held on June 18th in London. I have the privilege of being a Fellow, but I was not, thankfully, present at the meeting.”
More at
https://wattsupwiththat.com/2026/07/18/have-nurses-nothing-better-to-do-than-discuss-climate-change/
More “in-expert experts”
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FWIW
“THE THREAT POSED BY RETURNING ISIS TERRORISTS AND SUPPORTERS IS FAR FROM OVER!”
https://harryr.substack.com/p/the-threat-posed-by-returning-isis
Bumped from yesterday
“FWIW
Hiding in plain sight
“‘Diversity’ Is Not Our Strength if They Hate Us”
https://hotair.com/david-strom/2026/07/16/one-of-the-many-reasons-why-diversity-is-not-our-strength-n3816999
50
FWIW – Maybe?
“Britain’s New Prime Minister Follows President Trump’s Advice in His First Major Policy Move”
https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/07/britains-new-prime-minister-follows-president-trumps-advice/
Will Milibrand publicly tear up his copy of the announcement if that happens?
10
FWIW
However – add to your form guide on that gent –
“Meet Andy Burnham, Britain’s soon to be new PM.
• Nobody voted for him
• Nobody asked for him
• He is haunted by allegations over his handling of the rape gangs
• His main concern seems to be that Starmer wasn’t enough of a tyrant
• He will make everything worse
• He will make Britain suffer even more”
https://x.com/NiohBerg/status/2078462475842818202
Via https://instapundit.com/810991/#disqus_thread
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FWIW
“CANADA’S NEW PLAN FOR “MISINFORMATION”: Let the government decide what is true, then punish citizens who disagree. What could go wrong?”
“What’s the (free speech) deal with Canada?
Canada is steadily transforming free expression from a right into a privilege — one that regulators, tribunals, and government officials can withdraw whenever they decide another interest matters more
Adam Goldstein and Greg Lukianoff”
https://eternallyradicalidea.com/p/whats-the-free-speech-deal-with-canada ”
Via https://instapundit.com/811017/#disqus_thread
“Elbow” probably “scrutenising with a very intense scrut”?
30
It seems the West’s civilisation is so poor that the State has to use the military to try and stop its subjects from using the drugs they want to block out the terrible daily life they lead. France has joined the USA in shooting up speedboats carrying drugs, there is not even a hint of arrests or legal processes.
This article talks about shooting the engines on high-speed boats at 100kph, from a helicopter, the most unstable platform you could have, but I expect killing those on board is not important. Now you need helicopter carriers 1000km out to sea, well outside your Territorial limit.
The War on Drugs, Govts have been losing it for 100years… What are they doing to destroy the normal love of life in their peoples?
“Fed-up Europeans use sniper fire to stop narco traffickers on new ‘cocaine highway’.. Among European nations, only France and Britain acknowledge authorising their militaries to use disabling fire in counternarcotics missions.”
https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/fed-up-europeans-use-sniper-fire-to-stop-narco-traffickers-on-new-cocaine-highway-20260716-p60fzm.html
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Only the druggies will mourn them.
20
I have to say those boats do not look like pleasure craft out fishing with 44 gallon drums and 3 or 4 huge outboard motors.
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