Sunday, April 30, 2017

Donald Trump has tied himself to the one form of energy that's never—never, never—coming back

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/4/27/1656852/-Donald-Trump-has-tied-himself-to-the-one-form-of-energy-that-s-never-never-never-coming-back
"There’s a reason that Donald Trump didn’t have a crowd of wind power workers standing behind him at his rallies, and it goes beyond just his disdain for windmills off the coast of his Scottish golf course. The reason is that anyone who knows how to build or service wind power was out building and servicing wind power. It’s not just the fastest growing segment of America’s energy picture, it’s the fastest growing occupation, period."

Saturday, April 29, 2017

EPA chief gets it backward: It's Trump, not Obama, who offers a false choice on jobs vs. environment

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/4/13/1652875/-EPA-chief-gets-it-backward-It-s-Trump-not-Obama-who-offers-a-false-choice-on-jobs-vs-environment
"Pruitt is right about one thing. The idea that we must pick between protecting the environment and having good jobs is, most definitely, a “false choice.” But it wasn’t the Obama administration that put forth that choice. It’s the braying bullsh*tters of the Republican Party and a few Democratic enablers who have been promoting that theme. After all, job losses are one of the chief public justifications the Trump regime has given for rolling back environmental regulations, including the Clean Power Plan.  The fact is, few if any coal jobs are ever coming back. That’s something Pruitt never cops to but energy investors and even dinosaurs like coal baron Robert Murray know is true. Most of the coal jobs lost in the past three decades have not been eliminated because of environmental protections. They have been lost to automation, to a switch from underground mining to surface mining of low-sulfur coal in the West, to cheap natural gas and, increasingly, to renewables. The false choice Pruitt complains about began decades before becoming president even occurred to Barack Obama. Rightists back in the 1980s claimed that environmental advocates were intent on making over our energy system into one in which we all “freeze to death in the dark.” Then and now, their propaganda implicitly or explicitly describes the economy and the environment as separate entities. But they aren’t. They are inextricably intertwined.  What Pruitt failed to mention to his friends at Fox is that the ever-expanding industries behind the generation of electricity by wind and sun now employ four times as many people in the United States as the coal industry does. Last year, solar jobs increased by 25 percent over 2015, with 260,000 such jobs now tallied. Meanwhile, by the end of 2016, there were 88,000 Americans working in wind jobs. In both cases, that’s more than three times as many people who were employed in those fields in 2010. Some analysts say these numbers could triple by 2030."

Have a cup of arsenic, thanks to Donald Trump and Scott Pruitt

http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2017/4/14/1653083/-Have-a-cup-of-arsenic-thanks-to-Donald-Trump-and-Scott-Pruitt
"One of Trump’s first acts was to scrawl his name on an executive order that authorized coal companies to dump waste in rivers and streams. This not only promises to turn hundreds of miles of waterways into sludge, it also makes it easier for mines to practice mountaintop removal mining, simultaneously destroying a 400-million-year-old landscape and resulting in fewer jobs for miners. Not bad for one sloppy stroke of the pen. But Donald Trump is nothing if not competitive, and now he has Scott Pruitt on his side. Together, there’s nothing they can’t make worse. The Trump administration has hit the pause button on an Obama-era regulation aimed at limiting the dumping of toxic metals such as arsenic and mercury by the nation’s power plants into public waterways."

Trump Doesn't Realize That Environmental Protections Save Lives, Create Jobs and Strengthen the Economy @alternet

Trump Doesn't Realize That Environmental Protections Save Lives, Create Jobs and Strengthen the Economy @alternet:

"The benefits of clean air and clean water may be self-evident, but what about President Trump’s claim that environmental safeguards “kill” jobs? As it turns out, there is little evidence that regulations — environmental or otherwise — result in significant job losses. Other factors play a much bigger role. Before sequestration spending cuts discontinued the program in 2013, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics regularly asked business owners their main reasons for laying off workers. Rarely did they cite regulations."

House Science Committee Calls on Alt-Science to Drive Policy

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/house-science-committee-calls-on-alt-science-to-drive-policy/
"In the age of “alternative facts” and the declaration of news as “fake” if it challenges previously held political beliefs, fringe and industry science that bucks years of federal research is gaining newfound prominence. Now, conclusions not published in any of the world’s premier science journals could soon be influencing federal policy, backed by Trump administration officials, congressional Republicans, conservative think tanks and a billionaire investor."

Trump’s EPA Cuts Are A Death Sentence For American Children

Friday, April 7, 2017

Four-and-a-half false statements EPA head Scott Pruitt made in just one interview

https://thinkprogress.org/four-and-a-half-false-statements-epa-head-scott-pruitt-made-in-just-one-interview-52be38cad2f2
"President Trump will sign an executive order Tuesday to start the effort to kill Obama’s Clean Power Plan (CPP) standards, which are aimed at cutting carbon pollution from electricity plants, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” Pruitt’s long interview was filled with false and misleading statements about domestic climate action and the Paris climate deal."

5 things to know about Trump’s USDA nominee and the environment

https://thinkprogress.org/sonny-perdue-agriculture-secretary-environment-climate-confirmation-b8ac56014f6d
"Perdue also has deep ties to the chemical industry. He has received around $330,000 in campaign donations from chemical giant Monsanto and other agribusinesses, according to GrubStreet, and was named Governor of the Year in 2009 by the GMO-lobbying group Biotechnology Innovation Organization."

Release of Arctic Methane "May Be Apocalyptic," Study Warns

http://www.truth-out.org/news/item/39957-release-of-arctic-methane-may-be-apocalyptic-study-warns
"A scientific study published in the prestigious journal Palaeoworld in December issued a dire -- and possibly prophetic -- warning, though it garnered little attention in the media. "Global warming triggered by the massive release of carbon dioxide may be catastrophic," reads the study's abstract. "But the release of methane from hydrate may be apocalyptic." The study, titled "Methane Hydrate: Killer Cause of Earth's Greatest Mass Extinction," highlights the fact that the most significant variable in the Permian Mass Extinction event, which occurred 250 million years ago and annihilated 90 percent of all the species on the planet, was methane hydrate."