Conflicting News about President-Elect Trump and Climate Change
Transition Team Uniformly Anti-Climate but Trump Signals Open Mind to NY Times
Today we got a sliver of hope from President-Elect Trump about remaining in the Paris Agreement. He also acknowledged a connection between human activity and climate change, something obviously at odds with his campaign rhetoric. Trump told the New York Times he would "keep an open mind" about the U.S. commitment to the Paris Agreement. He also said he thinks there is " “some connectivity" between human activity and climate change. He added, "Some, something....
CONTINUE READINGSomething Else to Be Thankful For — Inertia!
Meet your new best friend: gridlock, litigation delays, and red tape.
Inertia isn’t something we think about very often. Still less often is it something we feel grateful for. But it’s what prevents us from being tossed around by every passing wind. At this precise moment, that’s something we should hold precious. It's ironic that environmentalists should now be grateful for all the features that hold up change, since they usually think of themselves as the vanguard of progress. But right now, you can add inertia to your list of thin...
CONTINUE READINGBe Thankful for Millennials – Our Best Environmental Hope
The present belongs to Trump. The future is a lot greener.
We may not have much to be thankful right now, but I do have one bright thought for Thanksgiving. These are dark days for the cause of environmental protection, and it would be easy to give way to despair. But I continue to believe that prospects will improve. This election was a huge and costly set-back, but it probably does not represent the shape of our political future. Ultimately, the future will be controlled by the people coming of age after 2000. And their v...
CONTINUE READINGMaking China Great Again
America’s Retreat from Global Climate Change Action Cedes Leadership to China (co-authored with Ann Carlson)
China loomed large in Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. He accused the country of stealing American jobs and manipulating its currency for trade advantage. He famously tweeted that global warming was a concept created by the Chinese to “make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.” At its core, Trump’s argument was that China had grown strong at the United States’ expense. And yet, Trump’s plan to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change w...
CONTINUE READINGSurprise! Bill O’Reilly Says Trump Should Accept the Paris Agreement
No, this isn't a hoax, and I didn't find it on the Onion. Seriously.
Bill O'Reilly has said on Fox News that Trump should accept the Paris Agreement because "it's not that big a deal" and 'it would buy good will." When I read this, my first thought was that it was somebody's idea of a joke, or was just some of that fake Internet news that we've all heard about. But no, there's video here. There's no reason to think that Trump will pay any attention to this, so don't get your hopes up. There have been some signs, however, that Fo...
CONTINUE READINGEnvironmental Law under Trump: A Threat Assessment
Environmental law may face attack on many fronts during the Trump Administration. As we were all forcefully reminded last week, predictions are always uncertain. Trump’s own intentions are not yet clear, and there are many permutations that could affect the end result. Rather than trying to predict exactly what will or won’t happen, it may be most useful to classify the risks into the most likely and the less likely. Three of Obama’s environmental actions have b...
CONTINUE READINGAll Eyes on the Subnationals
After the election of Trump, state and local leaders have to step up
As my colleague Ethan Elkind pointed out in a blog post the other day, the most viable path forward in the fight to slow (cause we’re kind of past the ability to prevent) climate change after the election of Donald Trump as President on Tuesday will be at the sub-federal level. As Ethan pointed out, there were always going to be limits to what we could accomplish at the national level – subnational governments (SNGs) like states, counties, and cities, were always goi...
CONTINUE READINGPossible EPA Picks
Here are some of the names floating around in the media -- from horrible to less bad.
Who will head EPA? Various lists of possible candidates have been circulating in the media. I’ve put together the names that have been mentioned in places like Politico and the Washington Post, along with the results of some very quick research. I'd appreciate hearing from readers who may be familiar with some of these possible nominees. Take this with an extra-large grain of salt. The list goes from horrible to not so bad. Myron Ebell, one of the candidat...
CONTINUE READINGThe U.S. Goes Right, California Goes Left
Significant progressive wins in the Left Coast on election night
We all know election night took a turn to the right at the national level. But here in California, the results were all about the progressives. The California legislature saw Democrats get major pickups to move forward on a progressive agenda, although as KPCC radio reported, they may have just failed to achieve a 2/3 supermajority with some races still being counted. Among the state ballot initiatives, the wins for the environment included: A yes vote to legaliz...
CONTINUE READINGWhat Will Trump Do? Maybe Not What We Expect.
If he cares about 2020, he'll have to do some recalibrating.
To be honest, no one really knows what Trump will do. Maybe not even Trump. The obvious is often the safest best. In this post, I’m going to speculate about another, slightly less dire, possibility. He may take the most obvious path – which would mean ripping the heart out of our environmental laws. For instance, he might support major amendments gutting the major federal statutes. But Trump might surprise us, as he has done before. Much of Trump’s thinking ...
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