From OBBBA to China and Back [End of Week Edition]
Big Beautiful Bill, China's Solar Capacity and lots of other stuff in this End of Week edition of News Reconfigured
Happy Saturday! Welcome to the time machine, where we look at the past week and try to pretend things are normal.
Geez. It’s been a busy week… From Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill (OBBBA) to China’s solar surge, it’s been hard to keep up. But have no fear, we got your back. Step into our time machine!
The Big Things
One Big Beautiful Bill Act becomes the law of the land: OBBBA has dominated headlines as it passed both House and Senate this week, wreaking some havoc on energy and climate policy, among other things, cutting many of the Biden-era incentives for renewables. As always, an abudance of forecasts, analyses and interpretations is alerady readily available (my favs: here, here, and here), but it’s hard to tell exactly how things will evolve. From a Reconfiguration perspective, the assumption that climate change will always lead to a certain result (i.e., investment in renewables) is far from true, and OBBBA just shows how complex the policy landscape is. Only time will tell just how the energy landscape truly reconfigures, and towards which direction
The EU Commission sets an aggresive 2040 emissions reduction target: The commission has outlined a whopping 90% emissions reduction target by 2040, just as OBBBA is enshrined into law. While representing a new hope for achieving net zero emissions by 2050, it’s too early to celebrate, as the targets still need to pass through parliament. That’s not going to be easy. Still, if successful, the targets will only accelerate the Reconfiguration, leading to ripple effects (increased dependence on China or renewable capacity renaissance? aggressive Arctic mineral extraction? supply chain pressures? carbon markets in overdrive? one thing is for sure: it will be a blast💥)
China surpassed 1TW of solar capacity: On its quest to rewrite (and rewire) the global economy, the Renewable Dragon🐉 has done it again and set new records for solar and wind capacity. The Chinese National Energy Administration has reported 1.08 TW of solar capacity, with 93 GW installed in May 2025 alone. This milestone, achieved for the first time, represents roughly half of global solar capacity. That’s… that’s a lot.
The Small Things
MethaneSat got lost 🛰️: Methane is a big problem, as you all know by now. One effort to track this potent GHG is (was?) MethaneSAT, a Bezos-backed satellite packed with incredibly advanced equipment. Last week, MethaneSat got… well… it got lost in space. Literaly. As in, no one can reach it. No one is really sure why. But, yeah. This is bad news, given how important curbing methane is to
avoiding a catastropheslowing down climate change.Cyberattacks are coming to a solar panel near you ⚡: Turns out, solar panels can be cyberattacked, by taking over smart inverters that control connectivity to the grid. As personal solar panels become a fixture of suburbia, there seems to be a new way for attackers to wreck havoc. Who knew. 🤷♂️
Google to buy energy from a Fusion Reactor ⚛️: In the latest episode of “tech giants buy clean energy”, Google, hunting for every available watt, agrees to buy 200 MW from Commonwealth Fusion Systems. This purchase comes right after Google’s latest sustainability report shows it is far from its 2030 emissions targets. The catch? Fusion reactors are still technically not a thing, yet. The tech is still experimental and won’t likely come online by 2030. I guess we’ll see what happens.
The Cool Things
Sony released a climate learning app for PS5: Technically not last week, but still cool. Sony released a VR game for PS5 that helps people interact with complex climate data. I don’t have a PS5, but I’d definitely play! 🎮
Climate Atlas goes live: A new, interactive tool to help you explore climate threats like you always wanted to!
Al Gore takes aim at Climate Realism: In his new TED-talk, Al Gore breaks down the term Climate Realism, with many sobering data points about what was done since the Paris Agreement, and what we should do going forward.
That’s it for this edition of News Reconfigured. Next week we will launch a new segment, Crazy Market Idea, where I will share crazy off-shoot ideas with economic potential.
Stay tuned for my new hot take on Monday, and see you soon next week!
…oh, and don’t forget to subscribe - it would mean a lot! 🔽
ABSTRACT:
Earth is cooler with atmosphere/water vapor/30% albedo not warmer.
Ubiquitous RGHE heat balance graphics don't plus violate GAAP and LoT.
Kinetic heat transfer processes of contiguous atmospheric molecules render a surface BB impossible.
RGHE is bogus & CAGW is a scam!
FACTS & EVIDENCE:
FACT 1: Remove the Earth’s atmosphere or even just the GHGs and the Earth becomes much like the Moon, no water vapor or clouds, no ice or snow, no oceans, no vegetation, no 30% albedo becoming a barren rock ball, hot^3 (400 K) on the lit side, cold^3 (100 K) on the dark. At Earth’s distance from the Sun space is hot (394 K) not cold (5 K).
That’s NOT what the RGHE theory says.
EVIDENCE:
RGHE theory says “288 K w – 255 K (-18 C) w/o = a 33 C colder ice ball Earth.” 255 K assumes w/o case keeps 30% albedo, an assumption akin to criminal fraud. Nobody agrees 288 K is GMST plus it was 15 C in 1896. 288 K is a physical surface measurement. 255 K is a S-B equilibrium calculation at ToA. Apples and potatoes.
Nikolov “Airless Celestial Bodies”
Kramm “Moon as test bed for Earth”
UCLA Diviner lunar mission data
JWST solar shield (391.7 K)
Sky Lab
ISS HVAC design for lit side of 250 F. (ISS web site)
Astronaut backpack life support w/ AC and cool water tubing underwear. (Space Discovery Center)
FACT 2: The GHGs require “extra” energy upwelling from a surface radiating as a BB.
EVIDENCE:
According to TFK_bams09 atmospheric power flux balance, numerous clones and SURFRAD the GHGs must absorb an “extra” 396 BB/333 “back”/63 2nd net W/m^2 LWIR energy upwelling from the surface allegedly radiating as a BB. These graphics contain egregious arithmetic and thermodynamic errors.
FACT 3: Because of the significant non-radiative, i.e. kinetic, heat transfer processes of the contiguous participating atmospheric molecules the surface cannot upwell “extra” energy as a near Black Body.
EVIDENCE:
As demonstrated by experiment, the gold standard of classical science.
For the experimental write up see:
https://principia-scientific.org/debunking-the-greenhouse-gas-theory-with-a-boiling-water-pot/
Search: Bruges group “boiling water pot”
CONCLUSION:
No RGHE, no GHG warming, no CAGW or mankind/CO2 driven climate change.
BSME CU ‘78
ACRONYMS & DEFINITIONS
RGHE: Radiative GreenHouse Effect
GAAP: Generally Accepted Accounting Principles
LoT: Laws of Thermodynamics
BB: Black Body: A thermodynamic system that absorbs ALL incoming energy and emits ALL that energy by radiation alone. Only possible in a vacuum.
CAGW: Catastrophic Anthropomorphic Global Warming
GHGs: GreenHouse Gases, all of them including water vapor
K: Celsius degree units on the Kelvin scale used for serious science (No such thang as a Kelvin unit)
hot^3: hot cubed, i.e. hot*hot*hot
cold^3: cold cubed, i.e. cold*cold*cold
albedo: Ice, snow, clouds, etc. that reflect incoming solar radiation thereby cooling the Earth
C: Celsius degree units on the Celsius scale
UCLA: Univ of Ca LA
JWST: James Webb Space Telescope
HVAC: Heating, Ventilation, Air Conditioning
F: degrees Fahrenheit on the F scale. Not useful for formal science.
ISS: International Space Station
Space Discovery Center: Colorado Springs
TFK Trenberth-Fasullo-Kiehl, UCAR climate scientists responsible for GHE budget concept
UCAR: Univ of CO Atmos Research
SURFRAD: NOAA network of stations that measure the surface radiation budget and aerosols over the Earth’s land surface.
LWIR: Long Wave Infra-Red radiation.
CO2: Carbon Dioxide
BSME: Bachelor of Science Mechanical Engineering
CU: University of Colorado, Boulder