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Quote:On Thursday, President Donald Trump nominated Kathleen Hartnett White to run the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the office in charge of promoting the improvement of the environment. Like many Trump picks who came before her, Hartnett White is an outspoken climate skeptic. In an interview with the Washington Post last fall, she said, “Carbon dioxide has none of the characteristics of a pollutant that could harm human health.” That’s not the only controversial thing Trump’s nominee has said about climate change. Previously chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, Hartnett White was a candidate for head of the EPA before the position went to another climate skeptic, Scott Pruitt.
In a column published in Townhall in 2015, Hartnett White wrote that “industrialized nations that utterly depend on the consumption of fossil fuels have not amplified environmental degradation of the natural world.” And in an op-ed last year, she suggested that CO2 “may not be the cause of warming but instead a symptom of it.” As for what does impact our climate, Hartnett White has a theory: “What role does our sun play? The sun is the source of over 99 percent of the energy in the earth’s climate.”
Trump's environmental nominee claims carbon dioxide isn't a pollutant - Business Insider
Where does he find these people, amazing..
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These tax plans tilt the system in favor of fossil fuels (in addition to Rick Perry's proposals to subsidize coal and nuclear energy):
Quote:While preserving $15 billion in tax subsidies for the fossil fuel industry, the bill would slash incentives for renewable energy and the electric car industry. Environmental groups are frantic. A coalition of 17 groups sent a joint letter to House members on Wednesday assailing the hypocrisy: “Despite rhetoric from GOP leaders that the tax code shouldn’t pick winners and losers, this bill very clearly picks polluting energy sectors as winners yet again, putting at risk the impressive growth of clean energy and robbing us and our children of a cleaner future.”
The House provision raising the most ire are proposed changes to the renewable electricity production tax credit, which benefits producers of wind, solar, geothermal and other types of renewable energy. Already scheduled to be phased out by 2020, the PTC would be cut by more than a third under the House bill. An analysis by Clearview Energy Partners said the proposal could reduce the credit’s value by up to 45 percent..
The Republican Tax Plan Is an Assault on Renewable Energy | New Republic
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Says it all..
Quote:Republicans’ long-awaited tax bill, unveiled on Thursday, targets key renewable energy tax credits that have helped make clean energy a crucial high-wage job-creating sector in the United States. The measure would slash the wind Production Tax Credit (PTC) by over a third, weaken the solar tax credit, and eliminate the $7,500 credit for the purchase of electric vehicles. The solar and wind credits were part of a major bipartisan deal reached in December 2015, in which the credits were extended for several years while being reduced or phased out over time.
“This proposal reneges on the tax reform deal that was already agreed to, and would impose a retroactive tax hike on an entire industry,” said American Wind Energy Association CEO Tom Kiernan in a statement. “The House proposal would pull the rug out from under 100,000 U.S. wind workers and 500 American factories, including some of the fastest growing jobs in the country.”
Republicans’ new tax bill targets clean energy industry – ThinkProgress
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What, risk? Nooo...
Simply bury heads in the sand..
Quote:The Trump administration has paused its funding for a major study meant to improve how regulators enforce offshore oil and natural gas drilling safety. The congressionally chartered National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine said Thursday that the Interior Department’s Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE) sent a stop-work order for the study earlier this month. The National Academies had already gathered a committee of researchers for the study and conducted a meeting on the matter in October.
Trump halts funding for offshore drilling safety study | TheHill
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And now this..
Quote:Nearly every solar panel that will be put on a roof in the US just got a little more expensive. On Tuesday, President Donald Trump signed off on a new, temporary, 30% tax on imported solar panels. Trump heralded the tariff as a job-creating measure on Tuesday, saying "we’re going to make our own product again. It’s been a long time." But most solar companies in the US say that's just not true.
As Bloomberg reports, about eight of every 10 solar panels in the US come from abroad, which means the new tariff will deal a serious blow to the solar industry in the states. The Solar Energy Industries Association estimates that the new tax will cost about 23,000 jobs in 2018, since fewer people are expected to buy panels at the higher price. (For a typical rooftop-style 250-watt solar panel, the price hike comes out to about $25 extra dollars a piece.) The job losses could include solar panel installers, manufacturers who make metal racks for holding the cells, and companies supplying add-on parts like inverters and machines that track the sun to improve cell performance.
US solar-cell producers, who this tariff is designed to help, employed 1,300 workers at their peak in 2012, according to the Associated Press. But the larger industry related to solar installation and solar energy in the US employs roughly 200 times that number of people. Currently, 260,000 people work in the US solar industry, earning between $26 and $45 dollars an hour on average, according to a recent report from the Environmental Defense Fund.
According to a US Bureau of Labor Statistics analysis from October, solar photovoltaic installer was ranked the fastest-growing occupation, with an estimated growth rate of 105% between 2016 and 2026.
Trump solar tariff deals a huge blow to solar energy job growth - Business Insider
Ignorant on so many dimensions: - There are few solar manufacturers left in the US. First Solar is the main one, and it has already sold out for the year, it doesn't need protection.
- There are 200x more jobs in solar installation compared to manufacturing (at its peak), these jobs will be affected.
- Solar installation is one of the fastest growing job markets in the country, and paying generally good wages.
- Another tilt in favor of fossil fuels, which is stuff from the past. Solar is already cheaper in many areas.
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Quote:The Trump administration has reportedly suggested cutting funds for the Energy Department’s renewable energy office by nearly three-quarters, as part of the President's shift away from "green" energy development.
The cuts to the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), which helps to transition the US to a clean energy economy, are reportedly even deeper than the two-thirds budget reduction Donald Trump proposed last year.
“It shows that we’ve made no inroads in terms of convincing the administration of our value, and if anything, our value based on these numbers has dropped,” one EERE employee told the Washington Post, speaking on condition of anonymity.
Trump administration to 'cut renewable energy office budget by nearly three-quarters' | The Independent
Quote:The Interior Department implemented a new policy Thursday aimed at streamlining the oil and natural gas drilling process on federal land by cutting back on the opportunities for drilling opponents to slow down the process. A memo signed Wednesday and released Thursday by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) states that it is the agency’s policy to “simplify and streamline the leasing process to alleviate unnecessary impediments and burdens, to expedite the offering of lands for lease,” and to ensure drilling rights sales happen regularly.
Interior rolls back oil drilling policies for federal land | TheHill
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02-02-2018, 01:48 PM
(This post was last modified: 02-02-2018, 03:54 PM by stpioc.)
Quote:There is little evidence that Trump’s moves so far have aided energy firms of any stripe; some administration proposals have languished amid divisive politics, while other regulatory changes have seen their impact muted by market forces. Utilities, for instance, have shown little interest in buying more coal-fired power despite the regulatory rollbacks in Trump’s pro-coal push. A broader measure of investor sentiment on the energy industry - the Standard & Poor’s 500 energy index - lost more than 7 percent in 2017 even as stock markets soared.
Fossil-fuel firms clearly have more influence on policy under Trump and easier access to decision makers. Coal, oil, and gas company executives have met regularly with senior administration officials, according to official agency schedules. Their policy victories include rollbacks of regulations limiting emissions of carbon, methane and other pollutants; the opening of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling; and the lifting of a coal-mining moratorium on federal lands. But the impact of these moves on production, profits and jobs remains uncertain. Demand for additional drilling and mining leases on federal lands has been thin, and top U.S. oil and gas companies have told shareholders in regulatory filings that environmental regulations have little impact on their business.
In the months after Trump was elected, Trump and senior cabinet members including Energy Secretary Rick Perry met with mining executives such as Murray. Other administration officials met with lobbyists for coal firms including Peabody Energy Corp, the nation’s largest miner. Murray handed the White House a long list of recommendations, including rescinding pollution controls, slashing the EPA’s size and ending green energy incentives. Emails obtained by the Sierra Club in October revealed that Peabody had also given the administration a list of proposals, including a controversial electricity pricing measure based on the argument that coal and nuclear plants improve grid reliability.
Can't please everyone: Trump energy policy riles competing sectors
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A quick summing up of Trump's energy policies (work in progress):
What the Administration did to save coal
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03-08-2018, 10:59 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-08-2018, 11:00 PM by stpioc.)
Quote:Energy Secretary Rick Perry said on Wednesday that it was “immoral” to help poor nations shift off of fossil fuels. “Look those people in the eyes that are starving and tell them you can’t have electricity,” said Perry in remarks after his big speech to the oil and gas industry at the annual CERAWeek energy conference in Houston. “Because as a society we decided fossil fuels were bad. I think that is immoral.” Perry’s logic and morality are both blinkered. First, despite being in charge of a $2 billion clean energy program, Perry seems completely unaware that solar and wind are now cheaper sources of electricity than fossil fuels.
Indeed, solar power keeps crushing its own record for cheapest unsubsidized electricity “ever, anywhere, by any technology.” And in Colorado, building new renewable power plus battery storage is now cheaper than running old coal plants. Second, what’s immoral is not shifting away from dirty fossil fuels, but blindly sticking with them. A recent study shows that 1.1 million people die prematurelyevery year in India from air pollution, which primarily comes from burning fossil fuels. And a 2017 Lancet study concluded that globally, air, water, and soil pollution kill more than 9 million people a year. Air pollution alone accounts for 4.5 million deaths, and those numbers are projected to rise sharply in developing countries in the coming years.
Energy Secretary Rick Perry says moving from fossil fuels to renewables is ‘immoral’ – ThinkProgress
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Quote:In proclaiming June National Ocean Month, President Donald Trump called on the nation to “reflect on the value and importance of oceans” and “celebrate this immense natural resource.” But this week, in the midst of that celebration, he signed an executive order to revoke Obama-era protections for US oceans, coastlines and Great Lakes waters. Trump’s directive focuses on energy extraction, fishing, trade and national security, further highlighting that he believes that the greatest value of federal lands and waters lies in the commodities that can be harvested from them.
Trump Talked About Our Beautiful Waters and Then Gutted Regulations Protecting Them – Mother Jones
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