Fwd: Scientists sue EPA, climate's #MeToo moment, & more
Veronica Jacobi
#MeToo connection to deniers
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Subject: Scientists sue EPA, climate's #MeToo moment, & more
From: Climate Nexus <in...@climatenexus.org>
Sent: Wednesday, January 24, 2018, 5:16 AM
To: VJa...@sonic.net
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The latest: DOE keeps pushing on coal and grid resiliency
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FIRST LOOK
Join the World Economic Forum for a panel on climate change at Davos, featuring Former VP Al Gore and Christiana Figueres. Panel begins Thursday, January 25 at 6:30am ET (12:30pm local time).
Scientists Sue Pruitt Over Advisory Boards: A group of scientists filed suit in federal court against the EPA Tuesday, challenging Scott Pruitt's policy barring scientists with agency-funded grants from serving on its advisory boards. The Union of Concerned Scientists, represented by Protect Democracy, alleged in the suit that the policy violates the Federal Advisory Committee Act, which "requires advisory committees to be fairly balanced and protected from inappropriate influence by the appointing authority." The suit alleges that Pruitt's policy "populate[s] advisory boards with industry-funded scientists and state government officials who have made a career fighting federal regulations," making it easier for the EPA to roll back environmental rules. (CNN, The Hill, Washington Examiner, Reuters)
Trump Admin Keeps Pushing on Coal: The Trump administration continued to push its message that coal and nuclear are key to the resiliency of the nation's electric grid during a hearing yesterday on energy use during January's cold snap. Bruce Walker, an assistant secretary at Department of Energy, testified to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that "baseload fuels"--coal and nuclear--were key to maintaining grid resiliency and guarding against power outages during the recent bomb cyclone. "The question isn't whether or not we could get rid of coal," Walker told lawmakers. "The question is should we get rid of coal?" The committee also heard from Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Chairman Kevin McIntyre, who said coal was a "key contributor" to power during the storm, but acknowledged "operational piles" with freezing coal piles and testified that the nation "wouldn’t have seen any widespread outages absent coal" during the recent storm. Earlier this month, McIntyre presided over a unanimous FERC vote rejecting a DOE grid resiliency proposal widely viewed as a bailout for the struggling coal and nuclear industries. (Politico Pro $, The Hill, Roll Call, Utility Dive)
Climate, Science & #MeToo: Op-eds and online conversations posted this week are reflecting the work the science and climate communities must do in light of the national conversation around sexual harassment and women's rights. In a piece for Newsweek, climate scientist Sarah Myhre reflects on her own experiences with harassment during her career, calling for the scientific community to reckon with the "entrenched narcissism and misogyny" in academia. "To advocate for science requires us to address and dismantle institutional misogyny and racism," Myhre writes. "Anything less is morally disingenuous." Meanwhile, a Washington Post op-ed from John Podesta and former UN Foundation president Timothy Wirth describes the necessity of "forging a coalition" between the women's rights and environmental movements. And on a Twitter thread Tuesday, New Republic reporter Emily Atkin chronicled the myriad of recent misogynistic terms climate deniers have used against her, illustrating the "wide and blatantly obvious" link between climate denial and sexism. (Myhre: Newsweek. Podesta & Wirth: Washington Post $. Aktin: Twitter)
TRUMP: Trump’s failing war on green power (Politico), where is Trump’s infrastructure plan? Republicans grow tired of waiting (Politico), Trump is bringing America First to the climate-change economy (Quartz)
TARIFFS: Trump’s solar tariffs are clouding the industry’s future (New York Times $), Wall Street, not American solar, stands to gain from Trump tariffs (Bloomberg), Donald Trump's tariffs on panels will cost US solar industry thousands of jobs (The Guardian), job creator, or job killer? Trump angers solar installers with panel tariff (Reuters), US solar sector says Trump tariffs will kill American jobs (Reuters), US solar panel import tariff to hit European, Asian manufacturers (Reuters), after US solar tariff, China calls protectionism a two-edged sword (Reuters), manufacturers fight over new tariffs’ effect on US jobs (Wall Street Journal $), Asian targets of Trump tariffs say American consumers will get hurt (Wall Street Journal $), Trump on tariffs: You will 'have people getting jobs again' (The Hill), solar panel tariffs threaten to increase customer cost and slow growth, but the industry remains optimistic (LA Times $), Trump's solar tariff could kill the fastest-growing job in the US (Earther)
AGENCIES: Trump pick who failed to win Senate support is leaving EPA (AP), protesters deemed threat to Pruitt, triggered probe (E&E $), Zinke on offshore drilling flip: Florida's 'coastal currents' are different (CNN), Republicans love NASA. But why do they doubt its climate science? (Washington Post $)
IMPACTS: Bigger, faster avalanches, triggered by climate change (New York Times $), storm waves moved this 620-ton boulder, scientists say — a stunning testament to the ocean’s power (Washington Post $), 'flood of the century’ fears rise in Paris along with the Seine (Washington Post $)
HEALTH: Even breathing is a risk in one of Orlando’s poorest neighborhoods (Huffington Post)
CITIES & STATES: , five proposals in Olympia to tackle climate change (The Stranger)
RENEWABLES: Alternative energy talks continue at County Board meeting (DeKalb Daily Chronicle), Platte River Power Authority buys power from future wind farm (Longmont Times-Call)
OIL & GAS: Oklahoma drilling accident is deadliest since start of shale boom (Wall Street Journal $), gas field earthquakes put Netherlands’ biggest firms on extraction notice (The Guardian), BP is ‘scanning’ for renewables deals to plan for a life beyond oil (Bloomberg)
PIPELINES: Canadian city argues Trans Mountain pipeline route harmful (Reuters), Kinder Morgan opens new ethane pipeline in Ohio (Houston Chronicle), Thornton pipeline opponents: Larimer County has conflict of interest on project (Coloradoan), Keystone oil pipeline still at reduced pressure: spokesman (Reuters)
METHANE: The greenhouse gas Pruitt worries about (E&E $), is there a ticking time bomb under the Arctic? (NPR)
UTILITIES: New Mexico utility outlines rate increase for customers (AP), Puerto Rico utility sale sets up fight with creditors (Reuters)
VEHICLES: BofA Sees oil demand peaking by 2030 as electric vehicles boom (Bloomberg)
INT'L: Budget cuts 'could damage Scotland's climate change ambitions' (BBC), Beijing's struggle against pollution will be tough, take time: mayor (Reuters), China's war on smog slows December rail, truck freight volume (Reuters)
DAVOS: India’s Modi says protectionism is hurting global trade (Wall Street Journal $), Swiss marchers protest against Trump, break through Davos security cordon (Reuters)
LAWSUITS: This 10-year-old got flooded out of his school--now he’s suing the Trump Administration over climate change (PRI), ninth US city sues big oil firms over climate change (Reuters, ThinkProgress)
GEOENGINEERING: Half-assed solar geoengineering is worse than climate change itself (Motherboard)
SCIENCE: Meet the amateur scientist who discovered climate change (Wired), Gov. Inslee heads to Davos, Switzerland (AP)
BOOZE: Green logo for Budweiser as brewer taps into U.S. wind power (Reuters), winemakers turn to MIT to save pinot noir in warming temperatures (Bloomberg)
MONSTERS & ROBOTS: How climate change inspires monsters (Atlas Obscura), deep-sea robots find secret origins of algae blooms (Nexus Media News), First Solar is using robots to better tap the sun (Bloomberg)
The trouble with Trump leaving climate change to the military (Vox, David Roberts analysis)Murky world of 'science' journals a new frontier for climate deniers (The Guardian, Graham Readfearn column)American carmakers sabotage pledges on climate standards (The Hill, Robert Weissman and Michael Brune op-ed)The Tweet Trump Could Never Send Tehran (New York Times, Thomas Friedman column $)Bros Can Be Environmentalists, Too (Earther, Brian Kahn analysis)Fuel economy regulations protect us (Detroit News, Angela Youngblood column)Donald Trump’s solar and washer tariffs may have now opened the floodgates of protectionism (Washington Post, Chad Brown analysis $)Trump's solar tariffs won’t boost the government’s bottom line (The Hill, Daniel Cohan op-ed)Why are these lawmakers rejecting climate change? (Cincinnati Enquirer, Drew Diehl op-ed)Gov. Murphy has to address these Christie-era vetoes (NJ.com, Times of Trenton editorial)Murphy says yes to RGGI and no to Christie (Bergen County Record, editorial)Fighting Climate Change? We’re Not Even Landing a Punch (New York Times, Eduardo Porter column $)10 ways the Trump White House has waged war on smart climate policy (The Hill, Lindsey Allen op-ed)What Are Carbon Markets and Can They Save the Planet? (Earther, Brian Kahn analysis)California faces a cascade of catastrophes as sea level rises (LA Times, Jacques Leslie op-ed $)Solar Cost Declines To Persist Despite Tariff Disruption: Evans (Bloomberg, James Evans interview)Trump’s solar tariff backfires: It hits red states and U.S. taxpayers harder than China (ThinkProgress, Joe Romm column)The City That Ran Out of Water (Bloomberg, Mihir Sharma column)Time for Democrats to go back to leading America on the economy (The Hill, Michael Starr Hopkins op-ed)Trump's Solar Tariff Is Bad, But Not a Huge Deal (Bloomberg, Noah Smith column)Cheap Renewables Keep Pushing Fossil Fuels Further Away From Profitability - Despite Trump's Efforts (Forbes, Silvio Marcacci op-ed)Inslee’s carbon-tax plan is about revenue — not climate change (The Hill, Steven Greenhut op-ed)
Solar Tariffs Won’t Save Coal, But Will Temporarily Slow Solar Job Growth
Like the Red Queen demanding skulls, Trump reportedly spent the first six months in the White House telling staffers “'Tariffs. I want tariffs.'”
Looks like Trump has finally gotten his chance to flex his isolationist muscles--and needlessly hurt a rapidly growing sector that employs five times as many Americans as his beloved coal industry. Unfortunately for this bumbling administration, by placing a 30% tariff on imported solar cells and panels, it’s really not accomplishing much.
True, the move will piss off the majority of Americans who love solar power, including solar-happy red states, as well as the conservatives who love the free market. It’s not often that we agree with conservative “free-market” groups- including the Daily Caller! For example, Heritage Foundation points out that Trump is pitting two solar companies against the entire industry, a bad deal if ever there were one.
Though bad, it’s not that big a deal, it seems. Panel prices are only about a tenth of the total cost of a home PV system, so an increase in costs there will be marginal. And the federal Investment Tax Credit offers a 30% credit for solar installations, meaning a portion of this tariff will end up being paid by taxpayer funds anyway.
The fears about this devastating the solar industry are likely overblown, in part because the 30 percent tariff isn’t the worst-case-scenario that could really have done long-term damage. Suniva and SolarWorld, the two (bankrupt) companies that brought the initial petition to the International Trade Commission, originally proposed a steeper 50 percent rate.
Because the tariff will likely only set the industry back a couple years cost-wise, due to how precipitously panel prices are dropping, odds are slim this will spur solar companies to invest in multi-year projects for brand new manufacturing plants. But since the vast majority of the 260,000 Americans employed by the solar industry are panel installers, not manufacturers, any slowdown in solar purchases will mean a stalling of job growth. So the tariff is unlikely to create new manufacturing jobs, but very likely to dampen installation employment. Not to mention it’ll piss off China, and given past precedent on steel tariffs, WTO might rule it illegal anyway.
What could have possibly justified this decision that both Heritage and renewable energy groups hate, that’ll stifle American job growth while wreaking havoc on an industry? Well, looking at Trump’s fossil-fuels-first agenda, he may think it’s a way to save some coal jobs and otherwise help the bottom line of his fossil fuel friends. (It probably won’t work in the long run, but hey, he’s trying.)
All pain, no gain: just another one of Trump’s tariffible ideas.
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