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Trump Administration Is Rolling Back Rules Requiring More Energy-Efficient Bulbs
The Trump administration announced new rules on Wednesday to roll back requirements for energy-saving light bulbs, a move that could contribute to the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. The Energy Department’s filing in the Federal Register will prevent new efficiency standards from going into effect on Jan. 1 under a law passed in 2007. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
Facebook backs nation’s largest single-site wind project
Facebook announced a deal yesterday in Texas to buy power from the largest single-site wind farm in the country. The power purchase agreement between the technology company Ares Infrastructure and Power and Apex Clean Energy envisions the 200-megawatt Aviator Wind East project, which is scheduled to come online in 2020 in Coke County, Texas. [ read more … ]
Connecticut governor issues executive order to reduce carbon emissions
Connecticut’s governor has signed an executive order designed to help reduce the state’s carbon emissions. Democratic Gov. Ned Lamont’s order, signed yesterday, expands the Governor’s Council on Climate Change and sets the goal for a 100% carbon-free energy market in the state by 2040. Under the order, the council will monitor and report on the progress and implementation of programs designed to reach that goal. [ read more … ]
Scientist who has Trump’s ear rejects climate link to storms
The only known scientist to brief President Trump on climate change has a long history of rejecting the connection between a warmer world and more intense hurricanes. William Happer, an emeritus Princeton physics professor and a senior director at the National Security Council, earlier this year briefed Trump on a plan to conduct an “adversarial” review of climate science. The White House has since scuttled the exercise. [ read more … ]
Primary 2020
Climate Town Hall: Several Democratic Candidates Embrace a Carbon Tax
Democratic candidates promised unprecedented new action on climate change on Wednesday night in the first prime-time televised forum devoted to the issue in a presidential campaign, vowing to undo the Trump administration’s environmental policies, spend trillions of dollars to promote renewable energy and force companies to pay new taxes or fees. In perhaps the most significant development of the night, more than half of the 10 candidates at the forum openly embraced the controversial idea of putting a tax or fee on carbon dioxide pollution, the one policy that most environmental economists agree is the most effective way to cut emissions — but also one that has drawn intense political opposition. Around the country and the world, opponents have attacked it as an “energy tax” that could raise fuel costs, and it has been considered politically toxic in Washington for nearly a decade. [ read more … ]
Climate Change Could Be a Problem in 2020 … for Democrats
Elissa Slotkin has learned that climate change is both a national emergency and a political opportunity. As an assistant secretary of defense under President Barack Obama, she helped lead the Pentagon’s first study of how climate change threatens U.S. military bases. Then as a Democratic candidate for Congress in 2018, she attacked her Republican opponent for questioning the scientific consensus on climate change—and that’s one reason she’s now a Democratic member of Congress. “We talk about the weather all the time in Michigan, and we all know it’s getting weird,” she says. “To most people, straight-out denial feels extreme.” [ read more … ]
Factbox: Climate policies of top U.S. Democrats in 2020 presidential race
Ten Democratic U.S. presidential hopefuls will tout their plans to tackle climate change on Wednesday evening in a series of CNN town halls, sure to pit moderates like Joe Biden against progressives like Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. Here are the main climate strategies of the candidates participating in the event that begins at 5 p.m. (2100 GMT). [ read more … ]
Warren challenges 2020 Democrats to embrace 10-year clean energy transition
Inslee’s clean energy strategy – which had been billed as the gold standard by environmental advocates – set a 10-year plan to achieve 100% clean energy by slashing carbon emissions from U.S. electricity generation, vehicles and buildings. “While his presidential campaign may be over, his ideas should remain at the center of the agenda,” Warren wrote in a post for the website Medium. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.