Tag "Donald Trump"
America needs President Trump’s Climate Science Committee
Independent scientists must review alarmist “science” that is driving anti-fossil fuel policies John Droz America is in the midst of a cataclysmic battle – and yet you’ve likely heard very little about it.
It is vital that we take immediate action to support President Trump on an important initiative.
Their assignment will be to separate real, evidence-based science from agenda-driven political science.
Those who want a genuine scientific assessment of global warming / climate change claims fully support the PCCS.
Those who oppose a real scientific assessment of climate chaos claims are against the PCCS.
Not surprisingly, so far the most vocal and dominant voices oppose any scientific review of their claims.
The President’s decision is expected within the week, so please do this quickly.
I hope there will be a segment about the PCCS on Fox News, an article or editorial in the Wall Street Journal, and more sensible articles on other media outlets (like this, this, this, and this).
Get involved.
Move over wind farms.
Is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez right to ask if the climate means we should have fewer children?
During a recent Q&A live-streamed on Instagram, apparently shot while she was pottering in her kitchen, the rising star of the Democratic party – and one of the few frontline politicians to get the scale of the environmental emergency – pulled no punches in telling viewers that unless we take urgent, radical action on emissions, there is no hope for the future.
“It is basically a scientific consensus that the lives of our children are going to be very difficult, and it does lead young people to have a legitimate question: is it OK to still have children?” With this one question put to her 2.5 million Instagram followers, Ocasio-Cortez has stumbled into a highly contentious area.
Population has long been a controversial factor in the climate change debate; one recent study said the most effective thing individuals can do to address the crisis was to have one less child.
However, critics insist we should focus instead on overconsumption, and that putting the onus on individuals to address climate change obscures the systematic nature of the crisis.
Crucially, they say, it lets the real culprits – fossil fuel corporations and successive global governments’ inaction – off the hook.
And even if you accept the premise that having fewer children will tackle climate change, there is also the thorny question of exactly who should be having fewer kids: an American is responsible for 40 times the emissions produced by a Bangladeshi, but often those who advocate population reduction focus on women in the developing world.
Ocasio-Cortez is not encouraging people stop having children.
And as the leading advocate of the Green New Deal plan – which aims to radically transform the US economy by 2030 – she is one of the few politicians to be working on a plan that might just offer a way to avoid the worst impacts of this crisis.
But perhaps she is raising a more profound issue.
Faced with a future of social and political breakdown, flooding, deadly heatwaves and food shortages – and a world full of politicians in various states of denial – why shouldn’t young people question whether bringing children in the world is a good idea?
Arctic Refuge Oil Surveys Put Polar Bears in the Crosshairs
Yet that’s just what the Trump administration would open the door to as it prepares for oil and gas drilling and moves to authorize seismic testing, a precursor to drilling in the Arctic Refuge.
Earthjustice has long worked to defend the Arctic Refuge, which now faces the greatest threat in decades as the Trump administration barrels forward with plans for an oil and gas lease sale as early as next year.
Polar bears on the coastal plain will be especially vulnerable to harm from seismic operations and drilling.
Stealth Angel Survival Visit Site Scientists refer to the polar bears that live in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as the Southern Beaufort Sea population.
As ice melts away, polar bear mothers are increasingly going on land, to the coastal plain, to build their dens—and they are particularly vulnerable to disturbance while denning.
Working 24 hours a day for months on end, this company envisions sending work crews of 150 people or more into this polar bear territory to map out oil and gas reserves.
According to Dr. Amstrup of Polar Bears International, SAE’s proposal could bring deadly consequences.
Amstrup warned in a letter to the Bureau of Land Management: “Lethal disturbances are likely when a heavy vehicle actually runs over a den … On average, if there are 11 undetected bear dens on the refuge, a seismic survey like that proposed by SAE has a 25 percent chance that at least one polar bear will be killed when a heavy vehicle runs over it.
The scientist concludes: “It is virtually certain that most undetected polar bears in their dens will be disturbed at some level.”
It would destroy one of the last truly intact wilderness areas on Earth, an open expanse of public lands that for decades remained off-limits to drilling precisely because Congress recognized its extraordinary value.
‘It’s About Economics’: Two Coal Plants to Close Despite Trump’s Tweet
Trump is losing his rallying cry to save coal.
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) voted on Thursday to retire two coal-fired power plants in the next few years despite a plea from the president to keep one of the plants open.
But the TVA board of directors voted 5-2 in favor of closing that plant as well as the Bull Run plant in Tennessee.
Coal is an important part of our electricity generation mix and @TVAnews should give serious consideration to all f… https://t.co/yljvUmkAE5 — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) 1549922605.0 After the vote, the agency tweeted that the decision to close the plants “will ensure continued reliable power at the lowest cost feasible.”
So the board’s decision to close the plants wasn’t even based on coal being the most polluting energy source.
But coal plants are closing at a rapid pace because of economics and competing power sources.
One of the “no” votes came from Trump-appointee Kenny Allen, a retired coal exec from Kentucky. “I’m just not completely comfortable with the recommendation because the impact and ripple effect on community cannot be fully quantified,” he said, as quoted by the AP.
But Johnson, TVA’s CEO, said 40 percent of the plant employees whose jobs will be displaced are eligible for retirement, and added that those who want to stay could be offered jobs elsewhere in the utility, the Chattanooga Times Free Press wrote.
TVA said on Twitter, “We will work with impacted employees and communities.”
Green New Deal Has 2020 Dems On Board, But Party Leaders Tread Lightly
formally unveiled Thursday outlines plans to cut global greenhouse gas emissions 40 to 60 percent from 2010 levels by 2030 and to reduce human-caused greenhouse gases to net zero by 2050.
In the lead-up to the unveiling, after months of calling for lawmakers to get on board, their plan received enthusiastic support from major candidates hoping to take down President Donald Trump in 2020.
Sens.
Cory Booker (D-N.Y.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.)
Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), has had a more tempered response, emphasizing that there will be other resolutions on the table to consider.
“I welcome the Green New Deal and any other proposals,” she said.
“I’m pleased that House Committees began holding hearings on climate change this week, and I look forward to bringing legislation to the House Floor to reduce carbon pollution, help our communities prepare for current and future climate risks, and create clean energy jobs,” he told HuffPost in an email.
Among the chairs of climate-adjacent House panels, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) of the Natural Resources Committee is the only one to explicitly support the resolution, calling it “the right framework for the work we need to do, in Congress and across the nation, to reduce our fossil fuel use, create green jobs, and protect our country and our planet for the long term.” As for the Senate, none of the party’s leaders have given their support to the Green New Deal or replied to inquiries about it.
“I’m grateful for Senator Markey’s passion and strong voice on these issues,” he said in a statement Thursday.
I encourage members of our committee to examine the Green New Deal resolution and consider the ways in which we may be able to incorporate its ideas within our work this Congress.”
Bill Allowing US to Sue OPEC Moves Forward
The House Judiciary Committee, now led by Democrats, advanced the “No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act” Thursday.
That sets the bipartisan “NOPEC” bill, which would subject the cartel to possible antitrust action by the Department of Justice, up for a possible House vote.
A similar bill targeting OPEC was introduced in the Senate on Thursday.
OPEC’s members “deliberately collude to limit crude oil production as a means of fixing prices, unfairly driving up the price of crude oil,” House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jerrold Nadler said before voting in favor of the legislation.
Various iterations of the bill have been proposed in the past, and former presidents have threatened to use their veto power to scupper the legislation.
But President Donald Trump could be more amenable, given his frequent twitter attacks accusing the group of keeping oil prices artificially high.
“I’m not going to predict it will get passed and enacted into law, but I think its prospects are pretty good,” said Seth Bloom, former general counsel of the Senate Antitrust Subcommittee.
“OPEC doesn’t have too many friends right now and the legislation may likely have a friend in the White House given Trump has written favorably about it in the past.”
“If OPEC members conducted the same manipulation in the United States that they practice in Vienna, they could be prosecuted,” said Robbie Diamond, who heads up Securing America’s Future Energy.
All comments are subject to editorial review.
Wheeler Appoints Climate Denier to EPA Science Board
NICHOLAS KAMM / AFP / Getty Images Former coal lobbyist and acting U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Andrew Wheeler has named a climate denier to serve on the agency’s Science Advisory Board, which is responsible for giving independent policy advice.
Among eight new members added to the board Thursday is University of Alabama in Huntsville atmospheric science professor John Christy, who has argued that the climate change predictions agreed upon by most scientists are too extreme, and that urgent action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions is not necessary, Reuters reported.
The appointment comes as Wheeler himself is seeking Senate confirmation after President Donald Trump nominated him to head the EPA permanently in January.
All the more reason to #StopWheeler https://t.co/w2LY1VougM — Sierra Club (@SierraClub) 1548964677.0 Christy has taken his views to Congress in the past.
In 2017, he testified before the House Science Committee arguing that the climate models used by international organizations were too inaccurate to be used to guide policy.
The Democrats on the committee pointed out his was “a position shared by approximately three percent of professional climate scientists.” “In a fair, open, and transparent fashion, EPA reviewed hundreds of qualified applicants nominated for this committee,” acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement on the appointments. “Members who will be appointed or reappointed include experts from a wide variety of scientific disciplines who reflect the geographic diversity needed to represent all ten EPA regions.”
Christy isn’t Wheeler’s only potentially controversial choice.
He also selected three members with ties to industry or conservative think tanks: 1.
Oregon a Battlefield Again for Fracked Gas Pipeline and Jordan Cove LNG Terminal
Now, residents are working to hold Governor Brown to task over what they see as the most pressing climate issue facing the state: the proposed Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and its Pacific Connector Gas pipeline.
Thousands, Including Several Tribes, Voice Opposition Gov.
Klamath Tribal Council Chairman Don Gentry told DeSmog that the tribal council believes “we need to exhaust every administrative opportunity that we have to express our opposition to the project and hopefully the permits and licensing will be denied.”
Klamath Tribal Council is not alone.
Support from the fossil fuel industry spans the length of the pipeline, from Colorado to Oregon.
The firm has gone so far as to have Oregon state legislation proposed officially on its behalf, which would have blocked local governments from interfering with fossil fuel infrastructure projects, such as Jordan Cove.
This legislation was in response to a 2017 county “Community Bill of Rights” ballot initiative in Coos County, Oregon, the site of the proposed Jordan Cove LNG terminal.
In 2018, Jordan Cove LNG gave $216,500 to campaigns, according to the Oregon Secretary of State website.
But it wasn’t enough to stop the election of some politicians, like new state Senator Jeff Golden, from campaigning and winning on an explicit platform to oppose the project.
Also on the horizon are the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement coming as soon as Feb. 15 and Oregon Department of Environmental Quality decision on whether to grant the project a Clean Water Act permit, expected Sept. 25.
Ryan Zinke Prioritized Fixing National Parks. He Exited With Them In Shambles.
On his second day as interior secretary, Ryan Zinke told his staff that America’s national parks were “the face” of the Interior Department.
Less than two years later — on Jan. 2, the 12th day of President Donald Trump’s ongoing partial government shutdown — Zinke exited the department under a cloud of ethics scandals, and Americans instead saw national parks and monuments around the country overflowing with trash and human waste.
“There’s an old adage that park rangers get paid in sunsets,” he said.
There’s an old adage that park rangers get paid in sunsets.
Meanwhile, Bernhardt’s memorandum allowing parks to drain entrance fee monies ― every last cent, if necessary, as The Hill reported ― means the primary resource for addressing the maintenance backlog is being depleted, Jarvis said.
And when the shutdown finally ends, the parks will have to spend additional funds cleaning up and assessing the damage.
“It’s kind of a triple whammy,” Jarvis said.
The Trump administration’s decision to keep parks and monuments open goes back to the brief partial government shutdown in early 2018.
The Interior Department and the National Park Service did not respond to HuffPost’s requests for comment Friday.
“This is mortgaging the park service’s future,” he said of the administration’s approach, including its decision to drain entrance fee revenue.
Gasoline Prices Under Presidents Bush, Obama, and Trump
However, this year President Trump did indeed impact gasoline prices.
President Bush was still in office in January of 2008 and 2009.
Oil prices had collapsed in 2008 in response to the financial crisis, and gasoline prices followed.
The second lowest price, $2.14/gallon, happened in 2016 following another oil price collapse.
That same collapse had also impacted the price of $2.31/gallon in 2015, the third lowest price on the chart.
President Obama was in office at that time.
However, I would acknowledge that President Trump probably had more impact on this price than Bush or Obama had on the other low prices.
The short-term benefit of lower gas prices came at a cost.
Saudi Arabia is already reducing oil production and pushing oil prices higher.
It is doubtful they will be as compliant when it comes to future requests that they pump more oil.
