Energy Matters  is a weekly publication of the American Energy Society.  Here are some bits of energy news covering the past month . The new director of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory ( NREL ) in Golden, Colorado from 1October2025 will be Jud Virden. Has a doctorate in chemical engineering from the University of Washington.  Is known for his strong record in forging public-private partnerships and advancing grid resilience and energy technologies. Lots of luck with  President Donald Trump , who yesterday, in a one hour speech to the UN General Assembly, called climate change and green technology the greatest con job ever perpetuated...and a scam.  Further:   All of these predictions made by the United Nations and many others, often for bad reasons, were wrong.  They were made by stupid people . Plus: “They said global warming will kill the world, but then it started getting cooler. So now they could just call it climate change, because t...

From  Time  magazine, I begin with a slew of Trump topics.  You can read the details. The unpopular Big Beautiful Bill is now in the House . The only truly effective anti-Trump person:  Elon Musk. The Trump Gaza ceasefire proposal . The July 4th Free American Anti-Trump Protest planned across the USA . This site began as a renewable energy and environment blog, and has evolved to just about any subject.  I try to keep Wednesdays for sci-tech, with perhaps a monthly focus on energy.  More recently, I've drawn from the  Energy Matters  info sent to me by the American Energy Society.  I'm inserting direct quotes this time to eliminate my predilections for more credibility. This service starts with some broad topics. - Fossil fuels: Helium is locked in a supply crunch, and prices are surging. - Renewables: Congress will probably pass new renewable fuel standards for 2026 and 2027. - Policy: President Trump is now focused on Califor...

The big news of the day is the  longest presidential address to Congress in history .  President Donald Trump talked for a little more than 100 minutes.  I watched the whole thing, and wonder why. Many Democrats did not even show up, and  some just left during his speech , with  Rep. Al Green  (D-Texas) being booted out.  Several held small signs.  Women wore mostly pink.  Others wore blue/yellow in support of Ukraine. He mostly bragged about doing so much. He repeated his assertion to take over Greenland and the Panama Canal. Assailed the Biden Administration a lot, calling Joe the worst president in American history.  One of his lies/exaggerations, for polls have  Trump as the worst .  In that survey, Biden came in as the 14th greatest president. Here is  one example : “Over 130,000 people, according to the Social Security databases, are aged over 160 years old,” Trump asserted. He then added there are 1,041 people over ...