On June 29, 2022, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that an arcane portion of the Clean Air Act (“CAA”), infrequently used by the EPA, could not serve as appropriate delegation of legislative authority to regulate greenhouse gas. West Virginia v. EPA (No. 20-1530, June 2022). In the 6-3 decision, the Court found the EPA had no congressional authority to require the United States power sector to reallocate its power generation from existing power plants to newer cleaner sources of energy, such as wind, solar and natural gas, to achieve “best system of emission reduction (“BSER).” ...
The U.S. Climate Finance Working Group released its February 18, 2021 policy statement, “Financing a U.S. Transition to a Sustainable Low-Carbon Economy.” The Working Group comprises eleven of America’s leading financial-services industry associations, broadly representing “Wall Street.”
With climate-change initiatives among the top priorities announced by the new Biden administration, the Working Group
“seeks to engage with incoming leaders and members of Congress on a bipartisan basis to help establish a shared vision for U.S. climate policy. By so doing ...
The federal government, through the U.S. Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), released the Fourth National Climate Assessment, Volume II, on the Friday following Thanksgiving. (Associated Press). The new report is part of an ongoing effort by the USGCRP, a Congressionally mandated program to coordinate federal research and investments in understanding the forces shaping the global environment, both human and natural, and their impacts on society. USGCRP facilitates collaboration and cooperation across its 13 federal member agencies. The latest report can be reviewed ...
A recently published report that studied all 417 U.S. National Parks indicates climate change is having a significant and unique impact on many of them. The study was initially widely reported in the Miami Herald on September 24, and an abstract can be found in the peer-reviewed scientific journal Environmental Research Letters. (Disproportionate Magnitude of Climate Change in United States National Parks). National Park sites appear to be warming and drying out in more pronounced ways due, in part, to the fact that many of them are at higher elevations or are located in the ...
President Trump has promised that his Administration will resolve any continuing debate on climate change. On the front line of the effort, the President's EPA Administrator, Scott Pruitt, has moved to eliminate climate change as a basis for regulatory actions. (USA Today). As an example, Pruitt has made a concerted effort to eliminate any significant restriction or limitation on the use of coal. Although interestingly, the chief of Murray Energy, the largest privately held coal mining company in the U.S., has previously advised Trump against promising a comeback for the coal ...
President Trump is expected to announce this afternoon his decision whether to withdraw the United States from the Paris Climate Accord. (Reuters) Several news sources yesterday indicated that President Trump has decided to withdraw. (The Hill, Reuters). The expected decision follows a significant public and private lobbying effort attempting to persuade the President's thinking on the issue. (N. Y. Times).
While much of the initial intrigue may involve speculation regarding the President's motivation and what this may mean for the relative influence of different advisors ...
While the Trump Administration has taken steps to dismantle or revise many of the Obama Administration's actions regarding climate change, there are conflicting opinions within the Administration and key businesses about the issue, the appropriate steps to take, and the consequences.
For example, Defense Secretary Mattis has made clear his view that climate change is real and that it will have a significant impact on U.S. military operations if preparatory actions are not taken. (Science Magazine: Defense Chief Cites Climate Change National Security Challenge). We noted in ...
The past week was not a good one for the cause of science as it relates to environmental issues and may foreshadow what might be described as an Age of Un-enlightenment.
The initial focus was on climate change. On the one hand, President Trump issued an Executive Order seeking to undo much of the Obama Administration's actions related to climate change. (March 28 Executive Order). This occurred even as the Chairman of the House Science Committee, and the Administrator of EPA acknowledged that the climate is changing and that humans play a role in that change. (House Hearing on Climate ...
A recent article in The New York Times titled: Perils of Climate Change Could Swamp Coast Real Estate, indicates that rising seas and storm-related flooding in Florida appear to be driven by climate change and may be having direct impacts on the coastal real estate market (NYT Coastal Real Estate). Acknowledging that the incoming Trump administration has given new life to doubts about climate change, the article notes some actual changes in coastal areas due to sea levels and the impact of storms on local flooding not for the fact the conditions have occurred, but for the impact of the ...
The third global summit on climate change has begun its meetings in Paris. Unlike the two previous summits, in Kyoto (1997) and Copenhagen (2009), there is optimism that an agreement under the auspices of the United Nations might be reached. (Paris Deal Important First Step).
This optimism apparently has its origin, in substantial part, based on an agreement between the United States and China, the two largest carbon pollution emitters in the world. Yet, while the President may have made inroads to persuading China that emissions reductions are merited, and he has also put his own ...
A story in the New York Times recently portrays the ice cap in Greenland as rapidly disappearing. (NYT). Indeed, the pictures are dramatic. The story is based on experiences and observations from scientists working in the area, and it tends to support similar claims made by researchers in recent years about changing conditions in Greenland. At the same time, those who deny that global warming is occurring, or at least that it is not significantly caused by human activity, have pointed to other reasons for the reduction in the ice cap there. (Junk Science) Thus, observations are made that ...
Late last month, President Obama addressed the United Nations Climate Summit and just a few days ahead of that, EPA announced that it has extended the comment period on the Clean Power Plant proposed rule to December 1, 2014. The proposed rule has been a lightning rod for the climate change controversy in the United States as it focuses on the effects of existing coal-fired power plants. It has also served to draw attention to efforts to move toward renewable sources of power and possibilities and pitfalls there. The proposed rule and related actions proposed by the Obama Administration ...
This past Monday (March 31), Working Group II of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) presented its report: Climate Change 2014: Impacts, Adaptation, and Vulnerability. Copies of the two-volume report can be viewed at the IPCC. The IPCC acts under the auspices of the United Nations and is composed of over 800 scientists and researchers from around the world who evaluate climate change data. This the IPCC's fifth such assessment since beginning in the 1990s, and it marks a significant shift from an effort to prevent or substantially limit climate change to a focus on ...