Trump Reverses Green Energy Course as Battery Fires Expose Renewable Risks

As lithium battery fires emerge as a global epidemic and California’s largest grid storage facility burns, energy expert Steve Goreham predicts 2025 may doom green energy policies while former Colorado state Senator Kevin Lundberg dissects the constitutional basis for Trump’s birthright citizenship challenge.

Battery Storage Catastrophe Reveals Green Energy Vulnerabilities

Start listening at 72:19 – Hour 2 The Moss Landing Storage Facility near Monterey, the world’s largest grid-scale battery installation, suffered catastrophic failure when a lithium-ion battery self-ignited and destroyed 40 percent of the complex. The fire forced evacuation of 1,200 residents and highlighted what Goreham describes as a worldwide epidemic of lithium battery fires.

“So this Moss Landing thing is just a tip of a big iceberg we’ve got right now.”

Steve Goreham

Australia now experiences 10,000 lithium battery fires annually, while e-bike batteries have become New York City’s leading fire source. Grid-scale batteries storing power for intermittent wind and solar installations are roughly 200 times larger than electric vehicle batteries, amplifying fire risks exponentially.

Trump Administration Dismantles Green Energy Framework

Start listening at 76:52 – Hour 2 President Trump’s first-week executive orders halted offshore wind turbine licensing, withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord, and targeted the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit. Goreham noted that California’s planned 25-gigawatt offshore wind project has effectively been shut down before construction began.

“President Trump literally dropped a bomb on green energy with all those executive orders.”

Steve Goreham

The Inflation Reduction Act had directed an estimated $80 billion in fiscal year 2025 toward renewable energy subsidies. While many provisions exist as tax credits requiring congressional action to repeal, Trump has directed agencies to halt discretionary spending wherever possible.

Forest Mismanagement, Not Climate Change, Fuels California Fires

Start listening at 93:04 – Hour 2 Despite Governor Newsom’s persistent climate change narrative, Goreham cited the Little Hoover Commission’s 2018 finding that fire suppression policies over 100 years have choked California forests with dead trees and brush. The U.S. Forest Service estimated 147 million dead trees across California that same year.

“So just another factor that’s going to put the green energy movement sort of to bed.”

Steve Goreham

NASA satellite data shows global burned area has declined 20 percent over the past two decades, contradicting claims that warming temperatures explain California’s intensifying fire seasons. Goreham attributed the difference to management policies that restrict logging, limit road construction through forests, and prevent controlled burns.

Constitutional Challenge to Birthright Citizenship

Start listening at 19:40 – Hour 1 Kevin Lundberg explained Trump’s executive order directing federal agencies to deny automatic citizenship to children of illegal immigrants rests on the 14th Amendment’s phrase “subject to the jurisdiction thereof.” Historical practice in the 1920s and 1930s denied citizenship to children of Mexican migrant workers who returned to their home country.

“All persons born or naturalized in the United States and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside.”

Kevin Lundberg

Lundberg noted that children of foreign diplomats already receive no automatic citizenship, demonstrating the principle exists in current law. Trump’s order forcing legal challenges represents a deliberate strategy to obtain Supreme Court clarification on what the constitutional language actually means.

Colorado Legislature Advances Gun Restrictions

Start listening at 37:08 – Hour 1 Senate Bill 003 targets semi-automatic firearms through manufacturing, distribution, and transfer prohibitions while classifying rate-of-fire devices as dangerous weapons. Lundberg warned the bill represents a step toward mandatory registration and eventual confiscation, noting that cities with the strictest gun control consistently rank among the most dangerous.

Additional problematic legislation includes Senate Bill 081, which would allow the state treasurer to issue bonds without voter approval, effectively circumventing TABOR protections. House Bill 1101 would require ethnicity disclosure for leadership of any organization receiving state disbursements, appearing to apply DEI criteria to government spending.