Climate Change
The Impact of a Trump Presidency, in Tons of CO2
A Trump presidency would add 2.4 billion tons of CO2 to the atmosphere. At a minimum.
One of Trump’s pledges is to eliminate Obama’s Clean Power Plan. That wouldn’t be quite as easy as he thinks, but there’s little doubt that he could do so. So, how much difference would that make? The answer turns out to be 2,470,000 tons of additional carbon emissions. That’s a bare minimum; the actual added …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Machine at the Center of the Clean Power Plan
By William Boyd, Ann Carlson and Cara Horowitz
As attention shifts from last night’s debate to today’s oral argument on the Clean Power Plan, we thought it worth focusing on the machine at the heart of the President’s plan to cut greenhouse gases from the electric power sector: the electricity grid. You might think that the largest machine in the United States is one …
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CONTINUE READINGTrump Embraces His Inner Denialist
Nobody loves coal, oil and gas more than Donald Trump.
Donald Trump has pledged to wipe out Obama’s climate change efforts, including the Clean Power Plan and the Paris Agreement. His choice to head the transition team for EPA shows how little his view of climate change has evolved since he tweeted that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to …
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CONTINUE READINGEnergy Policies Worthy of Debate
Ten questions to ask Clinton and Trump about energy policy.
As we enter the brief debate season prior to the presidential elections, it is easy to anticipate that we won’t see much time set aside for discussing energy policy. That’s not the case for the graduate students in an energy policy class I am currently teaching at the Goldman School of Public Policy. Last week, …
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CONTINUE READINGCalifornia Enacts Legislation Targeting Short-Lived Climate Pollutants
The statute codifies the goals set by the Governor and ARB
On Monday, Governor Brown signed SB 1383 into law, establishing statewide targets for reducing what are known as “short-lived climate pollutants,” which I have discussed in previous posts. The law requires a 40% reduction in both methane and hydrofluorocarbon gases (HFCs) below 2013 levels, and a 50% reduction in black carbon from 2013 level. Legislators …
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CONTINUE READINGThe Clean Power Plan: Obama’s Easy Mandate
States Complaining About the CPP Are On Pace to Hit Emissions Targets
Back around the turn of the 20th century, New York’s Republican machine was run by Senator Thomas Platt, whose ability to bridge factional gaps gave him the title of “The Easy Boss.” Even though President Obama has attempted the same thing, he will have no such luck. Witness, for example, the states — virtually all …
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CONTINUE READINGBattle for the Senate: New Hampshire
Almost uniquely, both candidates support action on climate change.
Kelly Ayotte’s rating from the League of Conservation voters is 35%. That’s on the high side for a Republican. Her opponent, Maggie Hasan, is a strong advocate of action on climate change. Ayotte is a former prosecutor and long-time state attorney general; she says that as AG she “stood up to polluters to protect New …
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CONTINUE READINGA Presidential Game of 20 Questions
Reviewing the candidates answers to Scientific American’s top science policy questions
Yesterday, Scientific American released the answers provided by all four candidates for President to the 20 questions they consider the most pressing when it comes to science policy. The answers are illuminating, to say the least. First, on climate change, the answers of top candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump could not have been more …
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CONTINUE READINGCan Women’s Land Rights Combat Climate Change?
Suggestive Links Between Gender Equity and Sustainability
I suppose that the holy grail of environmentalism, and environmental scholarship, is integrating equity concerns with global priorities. The environmental justice movement has sought to do this, sometimes with success and sometimes less so. Now Jennifer Duncan of Landesa, one of the most innovative think tanks focusing on land rights and the Global South, thinks …
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CONTINUE READINGHow to Hedge Your Portfolio Against a Possible Trump Victory
Place your financial bets on having LESS renewable energy and MORE climate change.
If you’re worried about the economic impact of a Trump victory, you should be thinking of hedging your risk. One hedging strategy is to place a bet on climate change. By undoing Obama’s climate regulations and scuttling the Paris Agreement, Trump will set back climate policy, here and around the world by years, maybe decades, He’ll …
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