climate change
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The auto industry has now grudgingly accepted that battery-electric cars will make up some portion of the world's new vehicles in years to come. But a milestone in that trend may have come today, in news from China. Policy makers in the world's most populous country, and largest car market, are developing a timetable to end production and sales of new vehicles with gasoline engines. DON'T MISS: UK to ban diesel, gasoline car sales by 2040; follows France, Norway, Holland bans Unlike Norway, The Netherlands, France, and the U.K., no year is yet associated with the plans, which are still being...
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Exxon knew climate change was real, ads told public it wasn't
Sometimes it's best not to dare the public to do the research, especially if you're trying to persuade them of something that isn't true. Almost two years ago, Inside Climate News published a significant expose that confirmed Exxon's own scientists had agreed that human carbon emissions contributed...
John Voelcker -
Climate change worse, faster than projected, scientists tell Trump in leaked report
It is abundantly clear that the Trump Administration does not believe in science. In its six months to date, it chose a climate-science denier to lead the Environmental Protection agency; rolled back two dozen regulations limiting air, water, and land pollution; and announced a U.S. withdrawal from...
John Voelcker -
EPA museum may axe climate-change display, add one on coal
The museum at the Environmental Protection Agency may soon be in for an overhaul to reflect the agenda of the Trump administration. It's no secret Scott Pruitt, current EPA administrator and climate-science denier, has worked to deregulate many of the agency's regulatory efforts to promote fossil...
Sean Szymkowski -
U.S. government climate scientists restricted, sidelined, limited
Months into Donald Trump's presidency, it is clear the administration has worked diligently to downplay the role of science in setting policy on energy. Some moves to diminish scientists' roles have been more evident than others, but a new report details what has gone on behind the scenes. In...
Sean Szymkowski -
Trump claims to 'unleash American energy' in speech full of inaccurate claims
Shortly after announcing his intention to pull the United States out of the Paris Climate Accord, President Donald Trump declared the final week in June to be "Energy Week." In a later speech, Trump called for an energy revolution in the U.S. and vowed to "unleash American energy" to help the...
Sean Szymkowski -
The best analog to EPA administrator Scott Pruitt's latest action might be for the U.S. Geological Survey to undertake a "scientific critique" of theories that the world is round. After all, numerous authoritative sources over the years have raised doubts that the Earth is not flat. Surely their views deserve to be aired. Late last week, it emerged that Trump Administration appointee Pruitt—a denier of accepted climate science—has already begun a formal program to "critique" accepted climate science. DON'T MISS: EPA website removes climate-change pages, because science contradicts...
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Climate resistance grows; more states ally to flout Trump, commit to Paris accord (updated)
Thirteen states, at least 80 mayors, and more than 100 businesses will task themselves to meet ambitious climate-change goals—with or without federal participation. The newly formed United States Climate Alliance—which so far has support from more than a dozen states including New York...
Aaron Cole -
Trump EPA backs away from attacking California emission waiver
Sometime between March 1 and 7, a specific page vanished from the website of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Amidst coverage of the removal of the word "science" from the mission statement of the EPA's Science and Technology Office, it went largely unnoticed. First posted in December...
John Voelcker -
Solar jobs have grown 20 percent a year since 2012; coal, not so much
Here's a little quiz on a topic much discussed over the past couple of years: jobs. How many people work in the U.S. coal industry? Not just miners, but office staff, too. And, how many people work for solar-energy companies in the U.S.? DON'T MISS: Clean energy provides far more U.S. jobs than...
John Voelcker -
California joins Germany in climate coalition to support Paris pact
The 50 states that make up the U.S. don't get to set their own foreign policies (neither do Canadian provinces). But that doesn't necessarily prevent them from working with other countries on matters of mutual interest. And that's just what California is doing in an agreement announced this weekend...
John Voelcker -
Coal-country voters laugh at politicians who deny climate change
The "war on coal" has long been a talking point of politicians running for elected office in the state of Kentucky. The state was once home to a booming coal industry that has floundered over the years as cheaper fracked natural gas has supplanted coal for electricity generation. The state's coal...
Sean Szymkowski -
In his speech on Thursday announcing that the U.S. would pull out of the Paris climate treaty it signed last fall, President Donald Trump cited a number of statistics of the dire effects that treaty would supposedly have on the U.S. economy. In general, data, statistics, and analysis are good—if properly constructed, with assumptions that have some basis in reality. That is not, unfortunately, the case with the study that Trump used to buttress his action. CHECK OUT: Global carbon emissions have been flat for three years now (Dec 2016) The study Trump used, issued in 2016 by the...
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U.S. out of Paris pact, so Elon Musk off Trump business councils
Fulfilling a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump said yesterday that he will set in motion plans to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Pact that it joined last fall. In turn, Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded that he will have to pull out of Trump's business advisory councils of CEOs and...
John Voelcker -
Electric cars are cleaner than hybrids in most places: mapped once again for your convenience
The question is a reasonable one: electric cars may be zero-emission, but what about the electricity to recharge them? While renewable energy is growing globally, burning fossil fuels is still the source of most electric power today. The good news is that in most areas of the U.S., the "wells to...
John Voelcker -
Two words the Trump Administration can't say: climate change
During President Donald J. Trump's half-hour meeting with Pope Francis at the Vatican yesterday, the pope gave the president a copy of his 2015 encyclical calling for urgent, drastic cuts in fossil-fuel emissions. It is unclear whether the U.S. president will peruse the document. Back at home...
John Voelcker -
Trump names vocal renewable-energy critic to oversee...renewable energy
While the news headlines on President Donald Trump mostly address potential scandals, his administration has also lagged significantly in appointing top-level officials to run government agencies. Those that have been appointed often have an adversarial relationship to the missions of the agencies...
John Voelcker -
Could California climate-change rules raise gas price enough to backfire?
California has by far the most aggressive climate-change policies in the nation, and the state is a global leader in plans to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions. It's also the world's eighth-largest economy, with a growing population, soaring economic output, and a resolutely progressive legislature...
John Voelcker -
Much of the news out of Washington, D.C., these days has to do with the possibility of political scandal. But the wheels of government keep turning, and significant changes are happening at numerous agencies charged with missions as diverse as collecting intelligence, supporting education, and protecting the environment. Few groups are seeing changes as radical as those now underway at the Environmental Protection Agency, now run by Scott Pruitt, who had sued it more than a dozen times to prevent the agency from enforcing emission rules against the fossil-fuel industry. DON'T MISS: EPA...
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Ruling that EPA must regulate carbon emissions: now 10 years old
Anniversaries often provide an opportunity to reflect on important past events, review what has happened since, and reflect upon the future. April 2 of this year marks the 10th anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling in Massachusetts vs EPA in which the EPA was forced to regulate carbon emissions...
John Briggs -
EPA website removes climate-change pages, because science contradicts Pruitt policy goals
On Saturday, tens of thousands of people joined a Science March in Washington, D.C., to support use of data-based science to set government policy on climate change. The day before, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency removed detailed climate data and scientific information because it appeared...
John Voelcker -
Even oil companies now acknowledge electric cars are coming
Advocates have long suggested that electric vehicles will begin to take over daily driving duties, slowly but surely, from the internal-combustion engine. Now, even oil companies are starting to acknowledge that there may be reality in that dream of the future. France's Total SA, one of the world's...
Sean Szymkowski -
Did EPA head ask coal lobby to fight Paris climate pact? Claim disputed
The Trump administration is either having a robust internal debate on its climate positions or floundering incoherently as various interests vie for the president's attention. Its intentions for the Paris Climate Agreement that the U.S. signed last year remain entirely unclear. On Monday, Trump's...
John Voelcker -
Pruitt won't kill EPA 'endangerment' finding on climate change
The current EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, does not accept the scientific consensus on human contribution to climate change, though he has given some contradictory statements on that matter. His views correspond closely to those of his boss, President Donald Trump, who notoriously compared the...
John Voelcker