Carbon forms the basis of plant life and emerges from nearly all energy sources, aside from nuclear power, that keep us warm. With forecasts predicting a prolonged cold spell for much of the country, now is the time to end the war on carbon, human life, and effective energy production. Wyoming conservatives offer a solution with SF 92, the “Make Carbon Dioxide Great Again” bill.

For years, most Republican governors have embraced or tolerated the push for “carbon neutral” energy — also known as transitioning away from reliable energy sources to less effective options that harm land and the environment. They mainly differ from Democrats on how quickly to pursue this potential energy nuclear winter. In Wyoming, where the governor supports going “carbon negative,” a group of conservatives is taking the offensive, rejecting the idea that carbon is the problem instead of a key driver of the economy.

Most Americans are staying warm this winter because of carbon-based fuels. Let’s stop demonizing them.

State Sen. Cheri Steinmetz and former Wyoming Freedom Caucus Chairman John Bear introduced legislation that would prohibit the state from restricting carbon-based energy sources or treating carbon like a pollutant. The measure specifically overturns a five-year-old liberal law requiring coal-fired power plants to use “carbon capture” technology.

Wyoming should lead the nation in coal production, but the industry has been crushed by the carbon hoax. The state government has only advanced the hoax instead of fighting it. Under the new bill, Wyoming would reimburse consumers for fees paid under the mandatory carbon capture retrofitting program.

Most important, the bill begins with several pages of findings debunking the idea that carbon dioxide is a pollutant, that it causes the climate to warm, and that human activity significantly contributes to such warming. It calls carbon “a foundational nutrient necessary for all life on earth,” a stance every Republican-led legislature needs to adopt.

The most consequential lie of our time

Human activity accounts for only about 4% of atmospheric carbon, leaving the exact share of carbon dioxide increases caused by humans in dispute. A recent paper in the journal Health Physics by University of Massachusetts Lowell researchers, using Carbon-14 data, concluded that only 12% of CO2 added to the atmosphere since 1750 is man-made — “much too low to be the cause of global warming,” they write.

That’s why we have no clear correlation, let alone proof of causation, between energy usage and higher carbon levels, or between those higher carbon levels and rising temperatures. For instance, although renewables increased by 12% and coal use dropped by 8% in 2022, U.S. carbon emissions still rose by 1.3%. Climate conspiracists have gotten what they want, even though human input remains too small to affect processes that clearly play out over thousands of years.

And there is certainly no evidence that carbon systematically causes irrevocable warming across the globe. Greenpeace co-founder Dr. Patrick Moore says carbon dioxide typically lags about 800 years behind temperature increases, which he believes indicates that higher temperatures come first and rising CO2 follows. “There is no situation where we have proven that CO2 is the cause and temperature is the effect. None,” he said. “There isn’t any situation where we can actually say we know that from empirical evidence, from science.”

Moore observes that warmer periods began long before modern industrialization. For instance, the 1930s dust bowls in the United States set numerous high-temperature records. One study found that Italy was 3 to 4 degrees Celsius warmer 10,000 to 12,000 years ago, despite CO2 levels then being 20% below the preindustrial level of 280 parts per million.

Moore says the current warming trend has lasted about 300 years, beginning 150 years before fossil fuels came into broad use. He argues the warming rate hasn’t changed despite exponential increases in carbon emissions, concluding that “it hasn’t moved the thermometer in the slightest.”

“And that’s kind of all people have to know to see that they’re being tricked.”

CO2 has nothing to do with it

Some scientists argue warming trends align more with absorbed solar radiation than with carbon dioxide levels, which they say explains why observed warming isn’t uniform. A new study from multiple southern-state earth science departments reports that the Southeast United States has been cooling for the past 120 years, despite emissions and the urban heat island effect.

Other studies suggest cloud cover and other complex meteorological factors drive various warming cycles at different times and places. One study identifies the jet stream as a “dynamic driver of climate variability” going back to 1300.

Some researchers attribute warming trends to rising sea surface temperatures rather than emissions, arguing that emissions are “irrelevant” compared to cyclical ocean changes. They add that human activity cannot meaningfully heat the oceans, noting a study showing the atmosphere — whatever it contains — only influences the top 0.01 millimeter of the ocean’s surface.

Finally, critics say it’s naïve to think we can measure every corner of the Earth’s temperature for the past 150 years and predict the next century within a degree Fahrenheit. Another recent study, confirmed by NASA satellite data, suggests that from 1880 to 2020, global warming estimates were inflated by 42% because of aging weather stations

This lie is too dangerous to ignore, and Republicans must stop parroting it. We should end the practice of ruining our lives and the environment in service of the carbon hoax.

Every state should pass legislation like Wyoming’s SF 92 and eliminate any mention — let alone a mandate — of anti-carbon policies. At the federal level, Congress must repeal all anti-carbon mandates and subsidies, including the carbon capture grift.

What better time to champion common sense than a month when much of the country is bracing for freezing temperatures? Despite hundreds of billions in subsidies, a monopoly on public discourse, and anti-carbon mandates, solar and wind still provide only about 10% of electricity — and most of that comes from areas not facing extreme cold. Most Americans are staying warm this winter because of carbon-based fuels. Let’s stop demonizing them.