global warming
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When the Environmental Protection Agency quietly issued its new four-year plan in mid-October, the phrase "climate change" did not appear anywhere in the 38-page document. It is now clear the Trump Administration intends to delay, halt, or erase government efforts to limit U.S. emissions of carbon dioxide, the global-warming gas that is the main cause of climate change. On Friday, a broad team of climate scientists released the fourth National Climate Assessment—and it clearly, bluntly underscored the scientific consensus: humans have caused that change. DON'T MISS: Climate change...
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Coming this week: Trump EPA's plan to neuter Clean Power Plan
Donald Trump's White House appears to be readying another of its next big climate change overhauls, and like many of the administration's plans, it will weaken or eliminate regulations on industry. Specifically, President Trump touted the undoing of the Clean Power Plan at a rally in Huntsville...
Sean Szymkowski -
Shell bashes bans on gasoline cars, proposes carbon pricing instead
The prospect of bans on gasoline and diesel new-car sales have become a much greater threat not only to automakers but to oil companies as well, now that China has said it is studying such a move. The world's largest car market has not announced any timetables for such a ban, which will likely be...
John Voelcker -
China wants all electric cars: will it work? Reasons and reactions
It was quaint and adorable when Norway did it, saying it would end sales of cars with internal-combustion engines by 2025. The Netherlands followed suit, with little fanfare. More recently, France and the U.K. have enacted various forms of bans on non-electrified vehicles, on varying schedules. Now...
John Voelcker -
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 -
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 fuels. That's part of Trump's campaign promise to "bring back jobs" associated with a fuel rapidly declining in global importance: coal. DON'T MISS: EPA to reopen emission-rule review; how important is this step? The EPA museum, according to The Washington Post, may ditch its current display on the...
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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 -
Trump EPA to hold unneeded 'critique' to challenge climate science
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...
John Voelcker -
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 -
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 fossil fuels: analysis Coal mining was a mainstay of the energy industry in the U.S. and around the world, used to generate electricity for more than a century. In the U.S., according to Department of Energy employment data, about 160,000 people worked in the coal industry last year. Only 77,000 of...
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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 -
Study Trump cited in Paris pullout speech can't be taken seriously
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...
John Voelcker -
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 -
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, however, his administration is continuing unabated in its efforts to end all U.S. government efforts to stem carbon emissions that contribute to climate change. DON'T MISS: Trump's EPA deletes 'science' from Science Office mission statement The gift of the pope's encyclical was noted in coverage of the...
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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 -
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 -
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