Environment

Natural Resources Defense Council’s Trump Watch – keeping an eye on the Administration’s threat to the environment

Clean Water is one of many global crises…but don’t despair, there’s amazing technology to clean it up and even make it out of thin air!

The Paris Climate Accord

What is the Paris climate agreement — and what else do you need to know about climate politics? Washington Post

“It’s official — on June 1, President Trump announced that “the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord,” but suggested that he would be open to new negotiations that are “fair” to the United States. In our June 1 post, Joshua Busby at the University of Texas answers the big questions: What does this mean, and what’s next? He writes, “Under the normal rules of the agreement, the United States cannot withdraw until November 2020,” but “there is a nuclear option.”

Michael Bloomberg: “I’ll make sure UN gets $15 million it needs for Paris agreement”  CNN

CLIMATE CHANGE & CLIMATE CHANGE DENIAL

2016: Hurricane Matthew, Category 5

2017: Catestrophic Hurricanes, Wild Fires in CA and Flooding in TX with unprecedented rainfall. If this happens again next year, will the skeptics start to agree?

Analysis: New York Times, How Renewable Energy is Blowing Climate Change Efforts Off Course, July 19, 2016

Defense Secretary James Mattis: ‘Climate Change Is Impacting Stability,’ Could Threaten Ops: “Climate change is impacting stability in areas of the world where our troops are operating today,” Mattis wrote in unpublished testimony, provided to senators after his confirmation hearing and reported by ProPublica Tuesday. “The effects of a changing climate — such as increased maritime access to the Arctic, rising sea levels, desertification, among others — impact our security situation,” Mattis wrote.” TaskAndPurpose.com

7.7 Million Americans are supported by Clean Energy IRENA: International Renewable Energy Agency  EnergyFactCheck.org

Rick Santorum on renewable energy: “It’s not reliable, it’s not consistent” “Oh my god!” Granholm gasped. CNN

Unraveling Obama’s Clean Power Plan

EPA chief Scott Pruitt tells coal miners he will repeal power plant rule Tuesday: ‘The war against coal is over’ October 9, 2017 Washington Post “Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt told coal miners in Kentucky  on Monday that he will move to repeal a rule limiting greenhouse-gas emissions from existing power plants, assuring them, “The war against coal is over.” Speaking at an event in Hazard, Ky., with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Pruitt said his agency will publish the new proposed rule Tuesday. “Tomorrow, in Washington, D.C., I’ll be a signing a proposed rule to withdraw the so-called Clean Power Plan of the past administration, and thus begin the effort to withdraw that rule,” Pruitt said. [EPA’s Pruitt signs proposed rule to unravel Clean Power Plan] A 43-page draft of the proposal, which was obtained by The Washington Post and other news outlets last week, argues that the agency overstepped its legal authority in seeking to force utilities to reduce carbon emissions outside their actual facilities to meet federal emissions targets. It does not offer a replacement plan for regulating emissions of carbon dioxide, which the Supreme Court has ruled that the EPA is obligated to do. Rather, the agency said it plans to seek public input on how best to cut emissions from natural-gas and coal-fired power plants.”Washington Post 

COAL

Study shows 96% of some mining jobs can be automated 

The Brookings Institute: Increased automation guarantees a bleak outlook for Trump’s promises to coal miners

Coal company plans huge solar farm on strip mine “An Eastern Kentucky coal mining company plans to build what could become the state’s largest solar farm on a reclaimed mountaintop strip mine, promising jobs for displaced coal miners. Eastern Kentucky coal extraction fell from about 23 million tons in 2008 to about 5 million tons last year. Over that same time, mining employment dropped from 14,373 to 3,833 last year.” Courier-Journal of the USA Today Network