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"content": "\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">General Motors says it will no longer support the Trump administration in legal efforts to end California’s right to set its own clean-air standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">CEO Mary Barra said in a letter Monday to environmental groups that GM will pull out of the lawsuit, urging other automakers to do the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">She said the company agrees with President-elect Joe Biden’s plan to expand electric vehicle use. Last week, GM said it is testing a new battery chemistry that will bring electric-vehicle costs down to those of gas-powered vehicles within five years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Barra sent the letter after a Monday morning conversation with Mary Nichols, head of California’s Air Resources Board, the company said. The board is the state’s air pollution regulator.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">“We believe the ambitious electrification goals of the President-elect, California, and General Motors are aligned, to address climate change by drastically reducing automobile emissions,” Barra said in the letter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Nichols called GM’s announcement good news. “I was pleased to be in communication with Mary Barra again,” she said. “It’s been a while since we had talked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Dan Becker of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups Barra wrote to, said GM was wrong in trying to stop California from protecting its people from auto pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">“Now the other automakers must follow GM and withdraw support for (President Donald) Trump’s attack on clean cars,” he said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The White House had no immediate comment Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming chief of staff, wrote on Twitter that he is glad to see the president-elect’s leadership “is already encouraging progress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Last year General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota and 10 smaller automakers sided with the Trump administration in a lawsuit over whether California has the right to set its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The companies said they would intervene in a lawsuit filed by the Environmental Defense Fund against the Trump administration, which has rolled back national pollution and gas mileage standards enacted while Barack Obama was president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The group called itself the “Coalition or Sustainable Automotive Regulation” and also included Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, Isuzu, Suzuki, Maserati, McLaren, Aston-Martin and Ferrari.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">“With our industry facing the possibility of multiple, overlapping and inconsistent standards that drive up costs and penalize consumers, we had an obligation to intervene,” John Bozzella, CEO of Global Automakers and spokesman for the coalition, said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Toyota, one of the big automakers in the coalition favoring the Trump standards, said Monday it is reconsidering its position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">In a statement, the company said it has supported year-over-year increases in fuel economy standards, and it joined the coalition because most other automakers agreed there should be a single U.S. standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">“Given the changing circumstances, we are assessing the situation, but remain committed to our goal of a consistent, unitary set of fuel economy standards applicable in all 50 states,” Toyota said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The initial move put the coalition automakers at odds with five other companies — BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, Volvo and Honda — that backed California and endorsed stricter emissions and fuel economy standards than proposed by the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">But the coalition’s stance was not so straightforward. For instance, although it opposed California, it still wanted Trump and the state to compromise on one national regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">In September of 2019, Trump announced his administration would seek to revoke California’s congressionally granted authority to set standards that are stricter than those issued by federal regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The move came after Ford, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen signed a deal with the California Air Resources Board, which had been at odds with the Trump administration for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Many automakers have said in the past that they support increasing the standards, but not as much as those affirmed in the waning days of the Obama administration in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Under the Obama administration requirements, the fleet of new vehicles would have to average 30 mpg in real-world driving by 2021, rising to 36 mpg in 2025. Those increases would be about 5% per year. The Trump administration’s plan increased fuel economy by 1.5% per year, backing off an earlier proposal to freeze the requirements at 2021 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Automakers say that because buyers are switching to larger trucks and SUVs, many companies would not be able to meet the stricter standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Shares of GM rose nearly 5% to $45.11 in Monday afternoon trading.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California, and Aamer Madhani in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Nichols called GM’s announcement good news. “I was pleased to be in communication with Mary Barra again,” she said. “It’s been a while since we had talked.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Dan Becker of the Center for Biological Diversity, one of the environmental groups Barra wrote to, said GM was wrong in trying to stop California from protecting its people from auto pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">“Now the other automakers must follow GM and withdraw support for (President Donald) Trump’s attack on clean cars,” he said in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The White House had no immediate comment Monday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Ron Klain, Biden’s incoming chief of staff, wrote on Twitter that he is glad to see the president-elect’s leadership “is already encouraging progress.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Last year General Motors, Fiat Chrysler, Toyota and 10 smaller automakers sided with the Trump administration in a lawsuit over whether California has the right to set its own standards for greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The companies said they would intervene in a lawsuit filed by the Environmental Defense Fund against the Trump administration, which has rolled back national pollution and gas mileage standards enacted while Barack Obama was president.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The group called itself the “Coalition or Sustainable Automotive Regulation” and also included Nissan, Hyundai, Kia, Subaru, Isuzu, Suzuki, Maserati, McLaren, Aston-Martin and Ferrari.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">“With our industry facing the possibility of multiple, overlapping and inconsistent standards that drive up costs and penalize consumers, we had an obligation to intervene,” John Bozzella, CEO of Global Automakers and spokesman for the coalition, said at the time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Toyota, one of the big automakers in the coalition favoring the Trump standards, said Monday it is reconsidering its position.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">In a statement, the company said it has supported year-over-year increases in fuel economy standards, and it joined the coalition because most other automakers agreed there should be a single U.S. standard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">“Given the changing circumstances, we are assessing the situation, but remain committed to our goal of a consistent, unitary set of fuel economy standards applicable in all 50 states,” Toyota said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The initial move put the coalition automakers at odds with five other companies — BMW, Ford, Volkswagen, Volvo and Honda — that backed California and endorsed stricter emissions and fuel economy standards than proposed by the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">But the coalition’s stance was not so straightforward. For instance, although it opposed California, it still wanted Trump and the state to compromise on one national regulation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">In September of 2019, Trump announced his administration would seek to revoke California’s congressionally granted authority to set standards that are stricter than those issued by federal regulators.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">The move came after Ford, BMW, Honda and Volkswagen signed a deal with the California Air Resources Board, which had been at odds with the Trump administration for months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Many automakers have said in the past that they support increasing the standards, but not as much as those affirmed in the waning days of the Obama administration in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Under the Obama administration requirements, the fleet of new vehicles would have to average 30 mpg in real-world driving by 2021, rising to 36 mpg in 2025. Those increases would be about 5% per year. The Trump administration’s plan increased fuel economy by 1.5% per year, backing off an earlier proposal to freeze the requirements at 2021 levels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Automakers say that because buyers are switching to larger trucks and SUVs, many companies would not be able to meet the stricter standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"Component-root-0-2-62 Component-p-0-2-53\">Shares of GM rose nearly 5% to $45.11 in Monday afternoon trading.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Kathleen Ronayne in Sacramento, California, and Aamer Madhani in Washington, D.C., contributed to this story.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if President-elect Joe Biden can reassemble the pieces of climate policy shattered by President Donald Trump, it is not likely to be adequate to tackle the challenge of global warming, which has grown substantially after four years of inaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Biden faces science that paints a more alarming picture than it did four years ago and federal courts that, with Trump appointees, will be more skeptical of presidential power to act than when President Barack Obama put in place the first U.S. regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Biden to bring the United States back into the Paris climate accord and achieve his ambitious goal of setting the United States on path to net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century, his team will have to attain deeper cuts in pollution than Obama sought, while having to work harder to bulletproof their actions against legal challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Trump administration has rolled back \u003ca href=\"https://climate.law.columbia.edu/climate-deregulation-tracker\">more than 100 environmental regulations\u003c/a> in the last four years — including rules on offshore drilling, management of water pollution at coal power plants, monitoring air pollution at oil refineries, and permits for pipeline construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“President Biden will have his work cut out for him to reverse the damage done,” said Dan Lashof, U.S. director of the World Resources Institute. “To be successful, he’s going to need to focus on a smaller number of very high-impact actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Climate policy experts say they expect Biden’s team to focus on five Trump rollbacks in particular that have set back the nation’s progress in cutting emissions: rollbacks on clean cars, clean power, climate super-pollutants, methane leaks from oil and gas operations and gas from landfills. Taken together, those will result in the release of at least an additional 1.8 billion to 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by 2035 if they are not reversed, according to \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/the-rollback-of-us-climate-policy/#:~:text=Rhodium%20Group%20has%20analyzed%20the,to%20the%20atmosphere%20by%202035.\">a recent analysis \u003c/a>by the Rhodium Group consulting firm. That’s equivalent to more than one year’s emissions from Russia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Trump administration currently is in court facing multiple legal challenges over all five deregulatory actions — cases that the Biden administration now will inherit, and almost certainly will ask the courts to hold in abeyance while it reviews and revises the regulations. (The Trump administration did exactly that with litigation over the Obama rules when it took over in January 2017.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although the Biden administration will want to move quickly, there are few viable shortcuts in the process of writing new regulations, a process that can take two to three years. In fact, the Trump administration faced numerous setbacks in the courts, mainly because it did not adequately justify its actions or skipped the needed notice and comment procedures. The Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University Law School tallied \u003ca href=\"https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup\">some 80 adverse rulings\u003c/a> for the Trump administration in lawsuits over its weakening of environmental rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Whether you’re building the building up, or you’re tearing the building down, or rebuilding it up again, you have to go through the same steps,” said David Doniger, director of the climate and clean energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that has led many of the legal challenges of Trump’s regulatory rollbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some had hoped that Biden would be able to rely on Congress to help repeal some of the Trump deregulatory actions. Using a Newt Gingrich-era law called the Congressional Review Act, Congress repealed 17 Obama administration rules after Trump took office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">But unless the Democrats gain control of the Senate by winning \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/all-eyes-georgia\">Georgia’s two runoff races\u003c/a> in January, the party will not be able to bring such measures to the floor without the approval of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, Doniger believes that Biden has an advantage that Obama lacked when he embarked on climate policy — a groundswell of public support and attention. Climate change was a focus throughout the 2020 campaign, with Biden repeatedly framing it as one of the four great crises he faces, along with the coronavirus, the economy and racial justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have enormous challenges ahead of us, but we have a new opportunity for forward motion, and for action and for hope,” Doniger said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even those who believe that Biden’s authority to use the regulatory process on climate is limited, think the atmosphere is favorable for progress. Jeff Holmstead, a partner in the law and lobbying firm Bracewell, who represents industry clients on clean air matters, argues that, even with a Republican-led Senate, the Biden White House should make its \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05112020/election-2020-biden-mcconnell-senate-climate-change-policy\">case to Congress \u003c/a>instead of relying too heavily on new regulations. “There are many people in the business community who would like to see climate legislation,” Holmstead said. “They would like the business certainty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here are the big climate regulations that environmental law experts believe will be high on the Biden team’s agenda, as well as the challenges they will face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> Clean Cars\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden talked about his vision for an electric vehicle future in a campaign ad that featured his vintage 1967 Corvette Stingray, a wedding gift from his father, a car salesman. The message: He is seeking a transformational move away from the internal combustion engine that doesn’t leave behind the American love of the automobile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1971115 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/TrumpClimateRollbacksChart529px-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/TrumpClimateRollbacksChart529px-2.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/TrumpClimateRollbacksChart529px-2-160x198.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003cbr>\nBiden will have a chance early on to show if he can bring the auto industry aboard. One of the highest priority items for his climate agenda will be to undo the largest of the Trump administration’s regulatory rollbacks — eliminating the Obama program to boost the fuel economy of cars and SUVs to 54.5 miles per gallon by Model Year 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump plan, which ratcheted down the goal to 40 mpg by 2026 — a mark automakers were expected to hit with or without a rule — has the potential to release 1 gigaton of additional greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere by 2035, according to the Rhodium Group. That’s close to one year’s emissions from Japan, and equal to the impact of the four other big climate rollbacks put together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden can’t tackle climate without action on passenger vehicles, which have driven transportation to surpass electric power as the No. 1 source of greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A key will be California, which has for 50 years had the leeway to set its own tough standards under the Clean Air Act, because it acted on pollution before the rest of the nation. As part of its rollback, Trump revoked California’s authority to act on greenhouse gas emissions. The result has been exactly what the carmakers said they didn’t want: the uncertainty of litigation, with 14 states supporting California’s battle against the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s already one compromise solution that might provide a template for Biden. Five automakers (Ford, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo), accounting for 30% of the U.S. market, have cut a deal with California, agreeing to improve fuel economy from 38 mpg today to 51 mpg by 2026, a slightly less ambitious timetable than the Obama plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That may well become the foundation for a new federal regulation,” said Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. The result would be the kind of nationwide uniform standard that carmakers had under the Obama plan, and that all agree they prefer. The trick will be mapping out a U.S. auto future beyond 2026; California Gov. Gavin Newsom in September pledged to ban all sales of gasoline-powered vehicles in the state by 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>General Motors, the largest carmaker and manufacturer of Biden’s beloved Corvette, has not signed on to the California deal. Like the other American carmakers, General Motors is dependent on sales of highly profitable, gas guzzling pickup trucks and large SUVs. But it recently has sent signals in sync with the Biden plan, announcing a $2.2 billion investment in EV production in the United States, with factories in Michigan and Tennessee. GM also rolled out an all-electric Hummer that will be available next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as soon as it became apparent that Biden was going to win the election, that was a signal to all the automobile manufacturers that these new, stricter standards are coming,” said Gerrard. “And I don’t think that they’re waiting for the conclusion of the rulemaking process. That work is probably already underway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to regulation, Biden plans other moves to hasten an EV transition, including consumer incentives or rebates, the deployment of 500,000 charging stations across the United States and federal fleet purchases of electric vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Clean Power And Beyond?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the toughest legal strategy challenges the Biden administration will face in addressing climate change is what to do about electric power plants and other industrial sources of greenhouse gases. Obama’s signature climate policy, the Clean Power Plan, was never implemented because of a stay issued by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia days before his death in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And last year, the Trump administration put in place a weak replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which would reduce carbon emissions less than 1% when fully implemented in 2030. Even though half the states are on track to meet their goals under the Obama plan anyway, the rollback could mean 241 million metric additional tons of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere by 2035, according to Rhodium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration, supported by some industry groups and coal-dependent states led by West Virginia, has maintained that the Environmental Protection Agency had no authority to put in place a sweeping program like the Clean Power Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the Obama administration, the EPA treated electric power plants as part of an interconnected system, and gave states the flexibility to allow utilities to meet pollution reduction goals by switching the power plants they relied on, moving from coal to natural gas and renewable energy. But the Trump administration argued that the Clean Air Act only gave EPA authority to require efficiency improvements within each individual power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the Trump administration gone, any attempt by the Biden team to simply reinstate the Obama approach will meet with a legal challenge from industry and from some states, which are confident that the Supreme Court, as now remade by Trump, will see things their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Clean Air Act contains very circumscribed regulatory programs that the EPA can use when it comes to industrial sources, including power plants,” said Holmstead, who served as a top official in President George W. Bush’s EPA. “All they can do is require existing facilities to improve their operations or to install emission controls. And neither of those things is going to accomplish very much in terms of reducing CO2 emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Biden’s environmental law advisers disagree with that legal interpretation, the team is looking for ways to make progress without getting mired for years in a legal battle. Some legal scholars have proposed that the administration consider shifting to the use of another provision of the Clean Air Act: one that gives the EPA power to require states to address emissions that contribute to air pollution that endangers public health or welfare in other countries, as long as those countries provide reciprocal protections. Another approach would be to focus on tightening the U.S. air quality standards for other pollutants from burning fossil fuels — like smog-causing pollutants and particulate matter — which would have the effect of reducing carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doniger said that approach might especially make sense for the Biden administration, which will be trying to meet environmental justice goals at the same time as it tackles climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is hard, but worth doing,” said Doniger. “You would envision that the Biden EPA would not only focus on power plant carbon, but power plant emissions of other pollutants that especially burden people living in those communities which are over-polluted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To meet Biden’s goal of carbon-free electricity by 2035, whatever plan his team develops will have to go well beyond the Obama Clean Power Plan, which sought a 32% drop in carbon emissions by 2030. And the Biden administration can be expected to begin looking at regulating greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities beyond power plants, analysts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Refineries, cement plants, other facilities — their greenhouse gas emissions are not being regulated,” said Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University Law School. “In order to meet his ambitious goals, he’ll have to look at the potential for reductions economy-wide. And I assume that other significant categories of polluters will come under the EPA’s regulatory reach. Strengthening, extending and regulating new areas will have to be undertaken.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Methane From Oil and Gas\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration should have at least some industry support in its effort to restore the Obama administration regulation on methane emissions from oil and gas operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some leading oil and gas companies opposed the Trump administration’s rollback of the rules. Detecting and capturing methane, the main component of natural gas, is something the companies know how to do, and they would prefer a level playing field, where all companies are doing their part. The methane that they capture is natural gas that can be sold, although the payback for the investment in controls may be slow with natural gas prices low. The largest industry group, the American Petroleum Institute, supported Trump’s loosening of the regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because methane is 86 times more potent in warming the atmosphere over a 20-year period than carbon dioxide, the Biden administration will be able to make large progress in a short time by acting on the super-pollutant. And there is new outside pressure to do so: The European Union is working toward adopting \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2020/how-an-eu-carbon-border-tax-could-jolt-world-trade\">a methane strategy \u003c/a>\u003c/b>that may result in tariffs or border adjustments on the United States if the nation leaves methane from oil and gas unregulated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Expect the Biden administration to do more than reinstate the Obama rules, which only covered new oil and gas operations. In order to get a handle on methane from the oil and gas industry, the EPA will have to tackle the much larger problem of methane leaking from existing operations. “That’s where the big reduction potentials are,” said Revesz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03032017/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency-methane-greenhouse-gas-climate-change\">One of the first steps\u003c/a>\u003c/b> the Trump EPA took was to halt an effort begun under the Obama administration to gather information and measure just how large the methane problem from existing facilities was. Recent studies, using state-of-the-art monitoring techniques, have indicated that methane releases from the industry are twice as high as the \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22042020/permian-basin-methane-emissions-texas-new-mexico\">federal government previously estimated.\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Climate Super-Pollutants\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, the Trump administration repealed rules designed to curb the leaking and venting of a powerful group of greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) from refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. The greenhouse gas impact of the move was equivalent to\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27022020/epa-hfc-refrigerant-emissions-climate-hydrofluorocarbons-pollutant-andrew-wheeler\"> adding at least 625,000 new cars \u003c/a>\u003c/b>to the nation’s highways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump EPA said its goal was to save businesses $24 million a year, and a group of industry players including BP, Boeing and Koch Industries pushed hard for the repeal. But the manufacturers of alternative refrigerants, including Honeywell and Chemours, a DuPont spinoff, support a global phaseout of HFCs, as nations had agreed to in 2016 in an international pact reached in Kigali, Rwanda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden’s effort to reinstate HFC regulation may get a boost from Congress, where bipartisan legislation to phase out the super-pollutants, co-sponsored by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and John Kennedy, R-La., has 31 co-sponsors, including 16 Republicans. One provision of the bill is designed to make clear that EPA has the authority to regulate HFCs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Landfill Gas\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration hasn’t disputed that there is a need to address air pollution from landfills. It has simply delayed doing anything about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Municipal waste landfills not only are the nation’s third-largest source of methane pollution (behind the energy and agriculture industries), the landfills also emit hazardous pollutants like benzene and volatile organic compounds that lead to the formation of smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its final year, the Obama administration approved a rule that required states to submit their plans for controlling landfill gas within nine months. But the Trump administration put off enforcement of the requirement, and after lawsuits by states and environmental groups, the administration last year approved a new rule that gave states three years to act. Late last year, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam, an Obama-appointed federal judge in Northern California, accused the Trump administration of attempting to sidestep its previous orders and the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This scenario presents a serious concern that in cases where a judgment is premised on an agency’s failure to meet deadlines, that agency can perpetually evade judicial review through amendment, even after a violation has been found,” Gilliam wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in October, the Trump administration got a reprieve, when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, including two of Trump’s own appointees, reversed that ruling and said that the EPA could take more time to act on landfill gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By reinstating the Obama rules, the Biden administration could cut greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2035 — the equivalent of closing down a dozen coal-fired power plants. But among the obstacles the Biden administration may face are courts like the 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, which may be inclined to extend the deregulatory legacy of Trump long after he leaves office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Together, the five Trump administration regulations would release an additional 1.8 billion to 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by 2035.\r\n\r\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even if President-elect Joe Biden can reassemble the pieces of climate policy shattered by President Donald Trump, it is not likely to be adequate to tackle the challenge of global warming, which has grown substantially after four years of inaction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Biden faces science that paints a more alarming picture than it did four years ago and federal courts that, with Trump appointees, will be more skeptical of presidential power to act than when President Barack Obama put in place the first U.S. regulations to cut greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For Biden to bring the United States back into the Paris climate accord and achieve his ambitious goal of setting the United States on path to net-zero carbon emissions by mid-century, his team will have to attain deeper cuts in pollution than Obama sought, while having to work harder to bulletproof their actions against legal challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Trump administration has rolled back \u003ca href=\"https://climate.law.columbia.edu/climate-deregulation-tracker\">more than 100 environmental regulations\u003c/a> in the last four years — including rules on offshore drilling, management of water pollution at coal power plants, monitoring air pollution at oil refineries, and permits for pipeline construction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“President Biden will have his work cut out for him to reverse the damage done,” said Dan Lashof, U.S. director of the World Resources Institute. “To be successful, he’s going to need to focus on a smaller number of very high-impact actions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Climate policy experts say they expect Biden’s team to focus on five Trump rollbacks in particular that have set back the nation’s progress in cutting emissions: rollbacks on clean cars, clean power, climate super-pollutants, methane leaks from oil and gas operations and gas from landfills. Taken together, those will result in the release of at least an additional 1.8 billion to 2.1 billion metric tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere by 2035 if they are not reversed, according to \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/the-rollback-of-us-climate-policy/#:~:text=Rhodium%20Group%20has%20analyzed%20the,to%20the%20atmosphere%20by%202035.\">a recent analysis \u003c/a>by the Rhodium Group consulting firm. That’s equivalent to more than one year’s emissions from Russia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Trump administration currently is in court facing multiple legal challenges over all five deregulatory actions — cases that the Biden administration now will inherit, and almost certainly will ask the courts to hold in abeyance while it reviews and revises the regulations. (The Trump administration did exactly that with litigation over the Obama rules when it took over in January 2017.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Although the Biden administration will want to move quickly, there are few viable shortcuts in the process of writing new regulations, a process that can take two to three years. In fact, the Trump administration faced numerous setbacks in the courts, mainly because it did not adequately justify its actions or skipped the needed notice and comment procedures. The Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University Law School tallied \u003ca href=\"https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup\">some 80 adverse rulings\u003c/a> for the Trump administration in lawsuits over its weakening of environmental rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Whether you’re building the building up, or you’re tearing the building down, or rebuilding it up again, you have to go through the same steps,” said David Doniger, director of the climate and clean energy program at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental group that has led many of the legal challenges of Trump’s regulatory rollbacks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Some had hoped that Biden would be able to rely on Congress to help repeal some of the Trump deregulatory actions. Using a Newt Gingrich-era law called the Congressional Review Act, Congress repealed 17 Obama administration rules after Trump took office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">But unless the Democrats gain control of the Senate by winning \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/all-eyes-georgia\">Georgia’s two runoff races\u003c/a> in January, the party will not be able to bring such measures to the floor without the approval of Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Still, Doniger believes that Biden has an advantage that Obama lacked when he embarked on climate policy — a groundswell of public support and attention. Climate change was a focus throughout the 2020 campaign, with Biden repeatedly framing it as one of the four great crises he faces, along with the coronavirus, the economy and racial justice.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We have enormous challenges ahead of us, but we have a new opportunity for forward motion, and for action and for hope,” Doniger said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Even those who believe that Biden’s authority to use the regulatory process on climate is limited, think the atmosphere is favorable for progress. Jeff Holmstead, a partner in the law and lobbying firm Bracewell, who represents industry clients on clean air matters, argues that, even with a Republican-led Senate, the Biden White House should make its \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05112020/election-2020-biden-mcconnell-senate-climate-change-policy\">case to Congress \u003c/a>instead of relying too heavily on new regulations. “There are many people in the business community who would like to see climate legislation,” Holmstead said. “They would like the business certainty.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Here are the big climate regulations that environmental law experts believe will be high on the Biden team’s agenda, as well as the challenges they will face.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong> Clean Cars\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden talked about his vision for an electric vehicle future in a campaign ad that featured his vintage 1967 Corvette Stingray, a wedding gift from his father, a car salesman. The message: He is seeking a transformational move away from the internal combustion engine that doesn’t leave behind the American love of the automobile.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1971115 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/TrumpClimateRollbacksChart529px-2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"653\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/TrumpClimateRollbacksChart529px-2.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/11/TrumpClimateRollbacksChart529px-2-160x198.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003cbr>\nBiden will have a chance early on to show if he can bring the auto industry aboard. One of the highest priority items for his climate agenda will be to undo the largest of the Trump administration’s regulatory rollbacks — eliminating the Obama program to boost the fuel economy of cars and SUVs to 54.5 miles per gallon by Model Year 2025.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump plan, which ratcheted down the goal to 40 mpg by 2026 — a mark automakers were expected to hit with or without a rule — has the potential to release 1 gigaton of additional greenhouse gas pollution into the atmosphere by 2035, according to the Rhodium Group. That’s close to one year’s emissions from Japan, and equal to the impact of the four other big climate rollbacks put together.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden can’t tackle climate without action on passenger vehicles, which have driven transportation to surpass electric power as the No. 1 source of greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A key will be California, which has for 50 years had the leeway to set its own tough standards under the Clean Air Act, because it acted on pollution before the rest of the nation. As part of its rollback, Trump revoked California’s authority to act on greenhouse gas emissions. The result has been exactly what the carmakers said they didn’t want: the uncertainty of litigation, with 14 states supporting California’s battle against the Trump administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There’s already one compromise solution that might provide a template for Biden. Five automakers (Ford, Honda, BMW, Volkswagen and Volvo), accounting for 30% of the U.S. market, have cut a deal with California, agreeing to improve fuel economy from 38 mpg today to 51 mpg by 2026, a slightly less ambitious timetable than the Obama plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That may well become the foundation for a new federal regulation,” said Michael Gerrard, founder and faculty director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. The result would be the kind of nationwide uniform standard that carmakers had under the Obama plan, and that all agree they prefer. The trick will be mapping out a U.S. auto future beyond 2026; California Gov. Gavin Newsom in September pledged to ban all sales of gasoline-powered vehicles in the state by 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>General Motors, the largest carmaker and manufacturer of Biden’s beloved Corvette, has not signed on to the California deal. Like the other American carmakers, General Motors is dependent on sales of highly profitable, gas guzzling pickup trucks and large SUVs. But it recently has sent signals in sync with the Biden plan, announcing a $2.2 billion investment in EV production in the United States, with factories in Michigan and Tennessee. GM also rolled out an all-electric Hummer that will be available next year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As soon as soon as it became apparent that Biden was going to win the election, that was a signal to all the automobile manufacturers that these new, stricter standards are coming,” said Gerrard. “And I don’t think that they’re waiting for the conclusion of the rulemaking process. That work is probably already underway.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition to regulation, Biden plans other moves to hasten an EV transition, including consumer incentives or rebates, the deployment of 500,000 charging stations across the United States and federal fleet purchases of electric vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Clean Power And Beyond?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the toughest legal strategy challenges the Biden administration will face in addressing climate change is what to do about electric power plants and other industrial sources of greenhouse gases. Obama’s signature climate policy, the Clean Power Plan, was never implemented because of a stay issued by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia days before his death in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And last year, the Trump administration put in place a weak replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which would reduce carbon emissions less than 1% when fully implemented in 2030. Even though half the states are on track to meet their goals under the Obama plan anyway, the rollback could mean 241 million metric additional tons of greenhouse gas in the atmosphere by 2035, according to Rhodium.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration, supported by some industry groups and coal-dependent states led by West Virginia, has maintained that the Environmental Protection Agency had no authority to put in place a sweeping program like the Clean Power Plan.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under the Obama administration, the EPA treated electric power plants as part of an interconnected system, and gave states the flexibility to allow utilities to meet pollution reduction goals by switching the power plants they relied on, moving from coal to natural gas and renewable energy. But the Trump administration argued that the Clean Air Act only gave EPA authority to require efficiency improvements within each individual power plant.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even with the Trump administration gone, any attempt by the Biden team to simply reinstate the Obama approach will meet with a legal challenge from industry and from some states, which are confident that the Supreme Court, as now remade by Trump, will see things their way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Clean Air Act contains very circumscribed regulatory programs that the EPA can use when it comes to industrial sources, including power plants,” said Holmstead, who served as a top official in President George W. Bush’s EPA. “All they can do is require existing facilities to improve their operations or to install emission controls. And neither of those things is going to accomplish very much in terms of reducing CO2 emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Although Biden’s environmental law advisers disagree with that legal interpretation, the team is looking for ways to make progress without getting mired for years in a legal battle. Some legal scholars have proposed that the administration consider shifting to the use of another provision of the Clean Air Act: one that gives the EPA power to require states to address emissions that contribute to air pollution that endangers public health or welfare in other countries, as long as those countries provide reciprocal protections. Another approach would be to focus on tightening the U.S. air quality standards for other pollutants from burning fossil fuels — like smog-causing pollutants and particulate matter — which would have the effect of reducing carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Doniger said that approach might especially make sense for the Biden administration, which will be trying to meet environmental justice goals at the same time as it tackles climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This is hard, but worth doing,” said Doniger. “You would envision that the Biden EPA would not only focus on power plant carbon, but power plant emissions of other pollutants that especially burden people living in those communities which are over-polluted.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To meet Biden’s goal of carbon-free electricity by 2035, whatever plan his team develops will have to go well beyond the Obama Clean Power Plan, which sought a 32% drop in carbon emissions by 2030. And the Biden administration can be expected to begin looking at regulating greenhouse gas emissions from industrial facilities beyond power plants, analysts say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Refineries, cement plants, other facilities — their greenhouse gas emissions are not being regulated,” said Richard Revesz, director of the Institute for Policy Integrity at New York University Law School. “In order to meet his ambitious goals, he’ll have to look at the potential for reductions economy-wide. And I assume that other significant categories of polluters will come under the EPA’s regulatory reach. Strengthening, extending and regulating new areas will have to be undertaken.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Methane From Oil and Gas\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Biden administration should have at least some industry support in its effort to restore the Obama administration regulation on methane emissions from oil and gas operations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some leading oil and gas companies opposed the Trump administration’s rollback of the rules. Detecting and capturing methane, the main component of natural gas, is something the companies know how to do, and they would prefer a level playing field, where all companies are doing their part. The methane that they capture is natural gas that can be sold, although the payback for the investment in controls may be slow with natural gas prices low. The largest industry group, the American Petroleum Institute, supported Trump’s loosening of the regulations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because methane is 86 times more potent in warming the atmosphere over a 20-year period than carbon dioxide, the Biden administration will be able to make large progress in a short time by acting on the super-pollutant. And there is new outside pressure to do so: The European Union is working toward adopting \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.bcg.com/en-us/publications/2020/how-an-eu-carbon-border-tax-could-jolt-world-trade\">a methane strategy \u003c/a>\u003c/b>that may result in tariffs or border adjustments on the United States if the nation leaves methane from oil and gas unregulated.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Expect the Biden administration to do more than reinstate the Obama rules, which only covered new oil and gas operations. In order to get a handle on methane from the oil and gas industry, the EPA will have to tackle the much larger problem of methane leaking from existing operations. “That’s where the big reduction potentials are,” said Revesz.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03032017/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency-methane-greenhouse-gas-climate-change\">One of the first steps\u003c/a>\u003c/b> the Trump EPA took was to halt an effort begun under the Obama administration to gather information and measure just how large the methane problem from existing facilities was. Recent studies, using state-of-the-art monitoring techniques, have indicated that methane releases from the industry are twice as high as the \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22042020/permian-basin-methane-emissions-texas-new-mexico\">federal government previously estimated.\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Climate Super-Pollutants\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Earlier this year, the Trump administration repealed rules designed to curb the leaking and venting of a powerful group of greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) from refrigeration and air-conditioning systems. The greenhouse gas impact of the move was equivalent to\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27022020/epa-hfc-refrigerant-emissions-climate-hydrofluorocarbons-pollutant-andrew-wheeler\"> adding at least 625,000 new cars \u003c/a>\u003c/b>to the nation’s highways.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump EPA said its goal was to save businesses $24 million a year, and a group of industry players including BP, Boeing and Koch Industries pushed hard for the repeal. But the manufacturers of alternative refrigerants, including Honeywell and Chemours, a DuPont spinoff, support a global phaseout of HFCs, as nations had agreed to in 2016 in an international pact reached in Kigali, Rwanda.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Biden’s effort to reinstate HFC regulation may get a boost from Congress, where bipartisan legislation to phase out the super-pollutants, co-sponsored by Sens. Tom Carper, D-Del., and John Kennedy, R-La., has 31 co-sponsors, including 16 Republicans. One provision of the bill is designed to make clear that EPA has the authority to regulate HFCs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Landfill Gas\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration hasn’t disputed that there is a need to address air pollution from landfills. It has simply delayed doing anything about it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Municipal waste landfills not only are the nation’s third-largest source of methane pollution (behind the energy and agriculture industries), the landfills also emit hazardous pollutants like benzene and volatile organic compounds that lead to the formation of smog.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its final year, the Obama administration approved a rule that required states to submit their plans for controlling landfill gas within nine months. But the Trump administration put off enforcement of the requirement, and after lawsuits by states and environmental groups, the administration last year approved a new rule that gave states three years to act. Late last year, U.S. District Judge Haywood Gilliam, an Obama-appointed federal judge in Northern California, accused the Trump administration of attempting to sidestep its previous orders and the law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This scenario presents a serious concern that in cases where a judgment is premised on an agency’s failure to meet deadlines, that agency can perpetually evade judicial review through amendment, even after a violation has been found,” Gilliam wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But in October, the Trump administration got a reprieve, when a three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, including two of Trump’s own appointees, reversed that ruling and said that the EPA could take more time to act on landfill gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>By reinstating the Obama rules, the Biden administration could cut greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of 46 million metric tons of carbon dioxide through 2035 — the equivalent of closing down a dozen coal-fired power plants. But among the obstacles the Biden administration may face are courts like the 9th Circuit and the U.S. Supreme Court, which may be inclined to extend the deregulatory legacy of Trump long after he leaves office.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Forecasting Wildfire Smoke Is Really Hard. Here's Why",
"headTitle": "Forecasting Wildfire Smoke Is Really Hard. Here’s Why | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Many in the Bay Area are going to remember Sept. 9, if not the date at least the weather conditions. The region woke up that morning under the odd gloom of reddish orange skies, as numerous wildfires generated thick smoke high in the atmosphere, blocking the sun, forcing streetlights into late-morning duty, and generally freaking people out. On social media, a search on the word “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969409/no-you-didnt-wake-up-to-the-apocalypse-wildfire-smoke-turns-bay-area-sky-orange-and-dark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">apocalyptic\u003c/a>” retrieved numerous declarations of dismay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of wildfire season has also been awful, if not quite as weird. Smoke choked the Bay Area for weeks on end, leading to a record 43 “Spare the Air Days” declared by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, including 30 that were consecutive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the increasing number of incidents in which the region is inundated with smoke, a heightened focus has emerged on its negative \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/2020/08/26/wildfires-health-impacts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">health impacts\u003c/a>, including harm to the lungs, heart and brain, as well as the immune and endocrine systems. Smoke can also contribute to asthma, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and many other diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So knowing more about when it will be wafting our way has become increasingly important. But while the government issues warnings about heat waves, gusty winds and red flag conditions, smoke forecasting is more difficult than predicting the weather, and residents have mostly had to rely on checking air quality websites for real-time guidance when they want to know if it’s okay to take a walk during a smoke event. That’s because beyond a few hours, it’s tough to know if smoke will clear out or linger due to weather conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complexity that goes into any smoke forecast is fairly mind-boggling. To know what might happen with smoke, you need to know what is going to happen with the wildfire producing it. And predicting fire behavior is extremely difficult, because variables like wind, storms, and the success firefighters are having containing a particular blaze can change moment to moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very hard to take into consideration, mathematically, the behavior of these fires,” said Ravan Ahmadov, a smoke forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the University of Colorado. “So, that’s a major problem.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://youtu.be/wZ2OktM9p_k\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadov works with the \u003ca href=\"https://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">High-Resolution Rapid Refresh\u003c/a> model, which provides hourly high-resolution updates of where wildfire smoke is as well as where it’s likely to travel. The model absorbs data from four polar-orbiting satellites from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA; several times a day, these eyes in the sky relay information about the amount of heat a fire is giving off and the kind of fuel it’s burning, both of which impact the amount of smoke emitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it forests, grassland, or maybe cropland?” Ahmadov said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other factors the model takes into account are wind, weather and geography. For example, is rain imminent? Are there canyons or flatlands? Large bodies of water nearby?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadov says comprehending the dynamics of a particular fire can make understanding the behavior of smoke emissions easier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Still, the distribution of the smoke for a region like the Bay Area is a complex process,” he said. “It’s possible that in one part of the city, the smoke will be much denser than in another part of the same city.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/NWSBayArea/status/1305832852668309504\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Local weather officials at NOAA or the Bay Area Air Quality Management District play a role as well, looking at computer models and applying knowledge of an area’s air flow, topology and reports of how a fire is unfolding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They provide us with valuable feedback,” Ahmadov said. “In which cases our model forecast worked well, in which cases it didn’t materialize, or where there were shortcomings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know we have some work to do to improve smoke forecasting for the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One key problem is accurately simulating the location of the smoke in the air column, knowing whether it will creep along the surface or float aloft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many times we see smoke in the sky, it’s hazy, even sometimes ash is falling, but it is not actually polluted where we live near the surface,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past few months, firefighters have seen extreme fire behavior in which the blazes and dense smoke can create their own weather. The Creek Fire near Mammoth Lakes, for example, released so much heat it caused a thunderstorm to form. During a September heat wave, thick Central Valley smoke blocked the sun and reduced the temperature by at least 20 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a [scientific] community we need to do more work to incorporate fire behavior and the complex interactions of smoke with the weather system into our forecast models,” Ahmadov said. “And that requires more time, resources, money and [computing] power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the reason weather forecasts tend to be so much more reliable than those for smoke is that scientists have studied weather much longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with more extreme fires in a warming world, there is going to be plenty of opportunity to bone up on smoke, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Many in the Bay Area are going to remember Sept. 9, if not the date at least the weather conditions. The region woke up that morning under the odd gloom of reddish orange skies, as numerous wildfires generated thick smoke high in the atmosphere, blocking the sun, forcing streetlights into late-morning duty, and generally freaking people out. On social media, a search on the word “\u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969409/no-you-didnt-wake-up-to-the-apocalypse-wildfire-smoke-turns-bay-area-sky-orange-and-dark\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">apocalyptic\u003c/a>” retrieved numerous declarations of dismay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The rest of wildfire season has also been awful, if not quite as weird. Smoke choked the Bay Area for weeks on end, leading to a record 43 “Spare the Air Days” declared by the Bay Area Air Quality Management District, including 30 that were consecutive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the increasing number of incidents in which the region is inundated with smoke, a heightened focus has emerged on its negative \u003ca href=\"https://news.stanford.edu/2020/08/26/wildfires-health-impacts/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">health impacts\u003c/a>, including harm to the lungs, heart and brain, as well as the immune and endocrine systems. Smoke can also contribute to asthma, stroke, diabetes, Alzheimer’s and many other diseases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So knowing more about when it will be wafting our way has become increasingly important. But while the government issues warnings about heat waves, gusty winds and red flag conditions, smoke forecasting is more difficult than predicting the weather, and residents have mostly had to rely on checking air quality websites for real-time guidance when they want to know if it’s okay to take a walk during a smoke event. That’s because beyond a few hours, it’s tough to know if smoke will clear out or linger due to weather conditions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The complexity that goes into any smoke forecast is fairly mind-boggling. To know what might happen with smoke, you need to know what is going to happen with the wildfire producing it. And predicting fire behavior is extremely difficult, because variables like wind, storms, and the success firefighters are having containing a particular blaze can change moment to moment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s very hard to take into consideration, mathematically, the behavior of these fires,” said Ravan Ahmadov, a smoke forecaster for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration at the University of Colorado. “So, that’s a major problem.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/wZ2OktM9p_k'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/wZ2OktM9p_k'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>Ahmadov works with the \u003ca href=\"https://rapidrefresh.noaa.gov/hrrr/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">High-Resolution Rapid Refresh\u003c/a> model, which provides hourly high-resolution updates of where wildfire smoke is as well as where it’s likely to travel. The model absorbs data from four polar-orbiting satellites from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and NASA; several times a day, these eyes in the sky relay information about the amount of heat a fire is giving off and the kind of fuel it’s burning, both of which impact the amount of smoke emitted.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Is it forests, grassland, or maybe cropland?” Ahmadov said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other factors the model takes into account are wind, weather and geography. For example, is rain imminent? Are there canyons or flatlands? Large bodies of water nearby?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Ahmadov says comprehending the dynamics of a particular fire can make understanding the behavior of smoke emissions easier.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Still, the distribution of the smoke for a region like the Bay Area is a complex process,” he said. “It’s possible that in one part of the city, the smoke will be much denser than in another part of the same city.”\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Local weather officials at NOAA or the Bay Area Air Quality Management District play a role as well, looking at computer models and applying knowledge of an area’s air flow, topology and reports of how a fire is unfolding.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They provide us with valuable feedback,” Ahmadov said. “In which cases our model forecast worked well, in which cases it didn’t materialize, or where there were shortcomings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We know we have some work to do to improve smoke forecasting for the Bay Area.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One key problem is accurately simulating the location of the smoke in the air column, knowing whether it will creep along the surface or float aloft.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Many times we see smoke in the sky, it’s hazy, even sometimes ash is falling, but it is not actually polluted where we live near the surface,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Over the past few months, firefighters have seen extreme fire behavior in which the blazes and dense smoke can create their own weather. The Creek Fire near Mammoth Lakes, for example, released so much heat it caused a thunderstorm to form. During a September heat wave, thick Central Valley smoke blocked the sun and reduced the temperature by at least 20 degrees Fahrenheit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“As a [scientific] community we need to do more work to incorporate fire behavior and the complex interactions of smoke with the weather system into our forecast models,” Ahmadov said. “And that requires more time, resources, money and [computing] power.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of the reason weather forecasts tend to be so much more reliable than those for smoke is that scientists have studied weather much longer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with more extreme fires in a warming world, there is going to be plenty of opportunity to bone up on smoke, too.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Help From on High: Satellites Play Key Role in Fighting California Wildfires",
"headTitle": "Help From on High: Satellites Play Key Role in Fighting California Wildfires | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LANCE data system\u003c/a>, which makes enormous amounts of satellite information available to scientists around the world almost as soon as it’s collected, is powerful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How powerful?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote citation=\"Diane Davies, NASA, on the power of fire-detection satellites\"]‘We have been known to pick up a really hot barbecue.’[/pullquote]“We have been known to pick up a really hot barbecue,” said Diane Davies, operations manager for the program. “We have been known to pick up the old solar factory or oil rigs. We can pick up gas flares, volcanoes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as those false alarms have to be filtered out, that kind of sensitivity allows for the precise location of newly ignited areas over vast amounts of land, a huge advantage in the age of climate-driven catastrophic wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the lightning strike fires in August that sprouted up and down the state like the heads of the mythical multiheaded hydra, California wildfire season returned with a fury this year after a relatively mild 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of grappling with the sweep of conflagrations plaguing the state is knowing their size and location. In past decades, lookouts kept watch from towers around the West; a few are still in use. Occasionally someone driving or looking out a window sees smoke and calls authorities. In recent years, California has invested in expanding a network of \u003ca href=\"http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/index.html?v=81e002f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fire-spotting cameras\u003c/a>. Planes, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.airforcemag.com/guard-aircraft-watching-california-fires-as-blazes-continue-to-spread/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Guard aircraft\u003c/a>, can locate flames and track their spread. In September, NASA initiated\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-takes-flight-to-study-californias-wildfire-burn-areas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> aerial surveys\u003c/a> to study burn areas, as well as landslide and debris-flow hazards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But data, particularly for fires that spark in remote areas, can still be hard to come by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In these cases, the watchers get help from on high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More specifically, from low Earth orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Satellites thousands of miles above the surface have been spotting fires since the 1960s, capturing images that have grown continuously sharper and more sophisticated over the decades. New satellites launched by NOAA and NASA in just the last few years are providing a wealth of information about the surface of the planet, keeping scientists busy as they work to harness the full potential of the data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers say satellites are key to improving our knowledge of fires. Not only can they detect a burgeoning blaze, they can measure its size and predict firefighting hazards. They can also forecast smoke and study the accelerating effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=65ce2cbc-238c-11eb-83c8-ebb5d6f907df\" height=\"500\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early September, lightning and extreme wind and heat combined to cause some of the worst fires seen in decades and extremely dirty air. On the left in the image above, a satellite view of North America shows thick brown smoke blowing from fires along the West Coast. On the right, orange and blue pixels show the intensity of aerosol pollution coming from fires (identified in red). Both images are from the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite, using different sensors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Modern Life, Beamed to You via Satellite\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Satellites either rotate around or with the Earth. They use antennae to communicate with fixed spots on the ground, relaying images, weather data, telecommunications and other information. Russia famously launched the first mechanical satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, marking the start of the space age. Currently, an \u003ca href=\"https://ucsusa.org/resources/satellite-database?_ga=2.206523283.1848871521.1598077135-464362950.1598077135\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">estimated \u003c/a>2,787 functioning satellites are in orbit around Earth, and even more that are no longer operational.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Satellites have improved weather forecasts and tracked changes in agriculture, forests and sea ice. They have shrunk the globe by carrying live television broadcasts from around the world and allowing connections between far-flung points on the map. They have also revolutionized how we navigate — when is the last time you needed to ask for directions? In many ways, they make our modern lives what they are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire community uses satellites equipped with instruments that can quite literally see heat. Sensors pick up hot spots by detecting infrared radiation. To avoid false alarms — like homing in on the heat generated by someone’s barbecue, as mentioned above — the data is filtered through algorithms that govern what to ignore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polar-orbiting satellites like NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://aqua.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aqua\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://terra.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terra \u003c/a>are currently the best at spotting fires. These have the finest-scaled resolution, but because they image both hemispheres, only relay information \u003ca href=\"https://aqua.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">twice\u003c/a> a day. That’s useful for extremely remote areas like the Amazon. But California responders, responsible for population zones all over the state, need to keep a constant watch. That’s where geostationary satellites come in: Rotating with the Earth, they appear to hover in place if you were to view one from the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA and NOAA launched the most advanced geostationary satellites in 2017 and 2018, respectively. But “the algorithm isn’t yet good enough for us to use,” NASA’s Davies said. “There are still quite a lot of false alarms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she is hopeful these orbiting eyes in the sky will eventually change the fire-spotting game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of research groups are working furiously toward that goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How to Spot Fires Faster\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes people who are in charge are under the impression that they know for sure when a fire starts, that they know early enough,” said Alexander Koltunov, a scientist with the Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing at UC Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936516\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 879px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1936516 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: GOES-17 in orbit\" width=\"879\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin.jpg 879w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-160x88.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-800x441.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-768x424.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-672x372.jpg 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-240x132.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-375x207.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-520x287.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 879px) 100vw, 879px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The GOES West satellite is “geostationary,” meaning it rotates in sync with the Earth. \u003ccite>(Lockheed-Martin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But they are often mistaken, he says, asserting that some fires in California go undetected for hours. Koltunov hopes to cut that time down considerably by creating a second-generation algorithm for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cstarsd3s.ucdavis.edu/systems/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GOES Early Fire Detection\u003c/a> system, which provides image analysis that aims to spot ignitions sooner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a retrospective case study using the 2013 Rim Fire, the system identified the blaze 15 minutes before the actual initial report, and beat \u003ca href=\"https://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/Layers/ABBA/abba.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NOAA’s fire detection algorithm \u003c/a>by 15 minutes as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The newer version in development is showing even greater promise,” because “the new GOES is so much better than the old one,” Koltunov said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though he’s quick to stress that satellites will not be able to spot every ignition quickly enough to make a difference in response time, fire agencies can use the satellite’s data to understand the characteristics of a particular blaze and the landscape around it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It helps them appropriately allocate resources and plan their risks and tradeoffs,” Koltunov said. That’s important because in a year like this, resources are shrinking compared to the growth of the problem, he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR0fXlZ096Q\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Avoiding Snags and Keeping Tabs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During or after a wildfire, dead standing trees, called snags, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nwcg.gov/committee/6mfs/felling-safety/falling-snags\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pose a danger\u003c/a> to anyone on the ground, and they’re especially hazardous for firefighters working on windy nights. So Koltunov is spearheading another UC Davis project designed to help firefighters avoid injury from falling trees in infernos like the Creek Fire, which has burned about 380,000 acres, mostly in the Sierra National Forest. More than half of the trees were killed in some areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where are dead trees?” said Koltunov. “How long have they been dead? Are they standing or fallen down?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Forest Service is using a beta version, known as the Ecosystem Disturbance and Recovery Tracker, or \u003ca href=\"http://www.cstarsd3s.ucdavis.edu/systems/edart/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">eDaRT\u003c/a>, to generate snag hazard maps in order to assess the risk of sending crews to certain areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Koltunov says an agency might think twice about sending people into an area where “trees are going to fall over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In massive wildfires, heat signatures picked up by satellites can keep firefighters and fire mappers informed about the size, border and movement of a blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been revolutionary for the fire scientists to be able to study how the perimeters grow,” said James Randerson, an Earth science professor at UC Irvine. “A lot of the records you get from fire agencies, like from Cal Fire, are actually derived … from satellite data.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when Cal Fire announces that 4 million acres have burned, it uses satellite images to help calculate that total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers like Randerson also use the information to track climate change and its effects around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s seen fires increasingly more destructive in California and northern \u003ca href=\"http://ibfra.org/about-boreal-forests/#:~:text=From%20a%20biological%20perspective%2C%20boreal,a%20canopy%20cover%20of%2010%25.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">boreal forests\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> He’s tracked fires in the Amazon linked to deforestation. He’s noticed the disappearance of wildfire from tropical savannas and grasslands where it traditionally supports large grazing animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he hopes information about previously hidden fires in the understory of tropical forests, now viewable by satellite, can guide conservation efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Satellites are part of the unseen — and uncelebrated — firefighting arsenal. To members of the public, the information they bring can seem magical, even if it is generally taken for granted. Peel back the map, the image, the forecast though, and ingenious researchers and sophisticated sky machines are hard at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://earthdata.nasa.gov/earth-observation-data/near-real-time\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">LANCE data system\u003c/a>, which makes enormous amounts of satellite information available to scientists around the world almost as soon as it’s collected, is powerful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>How powerful?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>“We have been known to pick up a really hot barbecue,” said Diane Davies, operations manager for the program. “We have been known to pick up the old solar factory or oil rigs. We can pick up gas flares, volcanoes.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even as those false alarms have to be filtered out, that kind of sensitivity allows for the precise location of newly ignited areas over vast amounts of land, a huge advantage in the age of climate-driven catastrophic wildfires.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>With the lightning strike fires in August that sprouted up and down the state like the heads of the mythical multiheaded hydra, California wildfire season returned with a fury this year after a relatively mild 2019.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Part of grappling with the sweep of conflagrations plaguing the state is knowing their size and location. In past decades, lookouts kept watch from towers around the West; a few are still in use. Occasionally someone driving or looking out a window sees smoke and calls authorities. In recent years, California has invested in expanding a network of \u003ca href=\"http://www.alertwildfire.org/northbay/index.html?v=81e002f\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">fire-spotting cameras\u003c/a>. Planes, including \u003ca href=\"https://www.airforcemag.com/guard-aircraft-watching-california-fires-as-blazes-continue-to-spread/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Guard aircraft\u003c/a>, can locate flames and track their spread. In September, NASA initiated\u003ca href=\"https://www.nasa.gov/feature/jpl/nasa-takes-flight-to-study-californias-wildfire-burn-areas\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> aerial surveys\u003c/a> to study burn areas, as well as landslide and debris-flow hazards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But data, particularly for fires that spark in remote areas, can still be hard to come by.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In these cases, the watchers get help from on high.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>More specifically, from low Earth orbit.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Satellites thousands of miles above the surface have been spotting fires since the 1960s, capturing images that have grown continuously sharper and more sophisticated over the decades. New satellites launched by NOAA and NASA in just the last few years are providing a wealth of information about the surface of the planet, keeping scientists busy as they work to harness the full potential of the data.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers say satellites are key to improving our knowledge of fires. Not only can they detect a burgeoning blaze, they can measure its size and predict firefighting hazards. They can also forecast smoke and study the accelerating effects of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"100%\" scrolling=\"no\" cellspacing=\"0\" cellpadding=\"0\" src=\"https://cdn.knightlab.com/libs/juxtapose/latest/embed/index.html?uid=65ce2cbc-238c-11eb-83c8-ebb5d6f907df\" height=\"500\" class=\"iframe-class\" frameborder=\"0\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In early September, lightning and extreme wind and heat combined to cause some of the worst fires seen in decades and extremely dirty air. On the left in the image above, a satellite view of North America shows thick brown smoke blowing from fires along the West Coast. On the right, orange and blue pixels show the intensity of aerosol pollution coming from fires (identified in red). Both images are from the NOAA-NASA Suomi NPP satellite, using different sensors.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Modern Life, Beamed to You via Satellite\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Satellites either rotate around or with the Earth. They use antennae to communicate with fixed spots on the ground, relaying images, weather data, telecommunications and other information. Russia famously launched the first mechanical satellite, Sputnik, in 1957, marking the start of the space age. Currently, an \u003ca href=\"https://ucsusa.org/resources/satellite-database?_ga=2.206523283.1848871521.1598077135-464362950.1598077135\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">estimated \u003c/a>2,787 functioning satellites are in orbit around Earth, and even more that are no longer operational.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Satellites have improved weather forecasts and tracked changes in agriculture, forests and sea ice. They have shrunk the globe by carrying live television broadcasts from around the world and allowing connections between far-flung points on the map. They have also revolutionized how we navigate — when is the last time you needed to ask for directions? In many ways, they make our modern lives what they are.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fire community uses satellites equipped with instruments that can quite literally see heat. Sensors pick up hot spots by detecting infrared radiation. To avoid false alarms — like homing in on the heat generated by someone’s barbecue, as mentioned above — the data is filtered through algorithms that govern what to ignore.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Polar-orbiting satellites like NASA’s \u003ca href=\"https://aqua.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Aqua\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://terra.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Terra \u003c/a>are currently the best at spotting fires. These have the finest-scaled resolution, but because they image both hemispheres, only relay information \u003ca href=\"https://aqua.nasa.gov/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">twice\u003c/a> a day. That’s useful for extremely remote areas like the Amazon. But California responders, responsible for population zones all over the state, need to keep a constant watch. That’s where geostationary satellites come in: Rotating with the Earth, they appear to hover in place if you were to view one from the ground.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NASA and NOAA launched the most advanced geostationary satellites in 2017 and 2018, respectively. But “the algorithm isn’t yet good enough for us to use,” NASA’s Davies said. “There are still quite a lot of false alarms.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But she is hopeful these orbiting eyes in the sky will eventually change the fire-spotting game.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A number of research groups are working furiously toward that goal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How to Spot Fires Faster\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Sometimes people who are in charge are under the impression that they know for sure when a fire starts, that they know early enough,” said Alexander Koltunov, a scientist with the Center for Spatial Technologies and Remote Sensing at UC Davis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1936516\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 879px\">\u003ca href=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin.jpg\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1936516 size-full\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin.jpg\" alt=\"Photo: GOES-17 in orbit\" width=\"879\" height=\"485\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin.jpg 879w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-160x88.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-800x441.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-768x424.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-672x372.jpg 672w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-240x132.jpg 240w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-375x207.jpg 375w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2019/01/GOESwest_LockheedMartin-520x287.jpg 520w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 879px) 100vw, 879px\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">The GOES West satellite is “geostationary,” meaning it rotates in sync with the Earth. \u003ccite>(Lockheed-Martin)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But they are often mistaken, he says, asserting that some fires in California go undetected for hours. Koltunov hopes to cut that time down considerably by creating a second-generation algorithm for the \u003ca href=\"http://www.cstarsd3s.ucdavis.edu/systems/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">GOES Early Fire Detection\u003c/a> system, which provides image analysis that aims to spot ignitions sooner.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a retrospective case study using the 2013 Rim Fire, the system identified the blaze 15 minutes before the actual initial report, and beat \u003ca href=\"https://www.ssd.noaa.gov/PS/FIRE/Layers/ABBA/abba.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">NOAA’s fire detection algorithm \u003c/a>by 15 minutes as well.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The newer version in development is showing even greater promise,” because “the new GOES is so much better than the old one,” Koltunov said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Though he’s quick to stress that satellites will not be able to spot every ignition quickly enough to make a difference in response time, fire agencies can use the satellite’s data to understand the characteristics of a particular blaze and the landscape around it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It helps them appropriately allocate resources and plan their risks and tradeoffs,” Koltunov said. That’s important because in a year like this, resources are shrinking compared to the growth of the problem, he says.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/NR0fXlZ096Q'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/NR0fXlZ096Q'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Avoiding Snags and Keeping Tabs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>During or after a wildfire, dead standing trees, called snags, \u003ca href=\"https://www.nwcg.gov/committee/6mfs/felling-safety/falling-snags\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">pose a danger\u003c/a> to anyone on the ground, and they’re especially hazardous for firefighters working on windy nights. So Koltunov is spearheading another UC Davis project designed to help firefighters avoid injury from falling trees in infernos like the Creek Fire, which has burned about 380,000 acres, mostly in the Sierra National Forest. More than half of the trees were killed in some areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Where are dead trees?” said Koltunov. “How long have they been dead? Are they standing or fallen down?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. Forest Service is using a beta version, known as the Ecosystem Disturbance and Recovery Tracker, or \u003ca href=\"http://www.cstarsd3s.ucdavis.edu/systems/edart/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">eDaRT\u003c/a>, to generate snag hazard maps in order to assess the risk of sending crews to certain areas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Koltunov says an agency might think twice about sending people into an area where “trees are going to fall over.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In massive wildfires, heat signatures picked up by satellites can keep firefighters and fire mappers informed about the size, border and movement of a blaze.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This has been revolutionary for the fire scientists to be able to study how the perimeters grow,” said James Randerson, an Earth science professor at UC Irvine. “A lot of the records you get from fire agencies, like from Cal Fire, are actually derived … from satellite data.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So when Cal Fire announces that 4 million acres have burned, it uses satellite images to help calculate that total.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Researchers like Randerson also use the information to track climate change and its effects around the world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s seen fires increasingly more destructive in California and northern \u003ca href=\"http://ibfra.org/about-boreal-forests/#:~:text=From%20a%20biological%20perspective%2C%20boreal,a%20canopy%20cover%20of%2010%25.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">boreal forests\u003c/a>\u003cstrong>.\u003c/strong> He’s tracked fires in the Amazon linked to deforestation. He’s noticed the disappearance of wildfire from tropical savannas and grasslands where it traditionally supports large grazing animals.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And he hopes information about previously hidden fires in the understory of tropical forests, now viewable by satellite, can guide conservation efforts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Satellites are part of the unseen — and uncelebrated — firefighting arsenal. To members of the public, the information they bring can seem magical, even if it is generally taken for granted. Peel back the map, the image, the forecast though, and ingenious researchers and sophisticated sky machines are hard at work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "U.S. Has Officially Left Paris Climate Agreement",
"headTitle": "U.S. Has Officially Left Paris Climate Agreement | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>The United States formally left the Paris Agreement on Wednesday, the only one of the nearly 200 nations that signed the agreement, to walk away from its promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Trump originally announced his intention to withdraw from the landmark agreement in 2017 and formally notified the United Nations last year. A mandatory yearlong waiting period ends on Wednesday, a coincidence that nonetheless highlights the Trump administration’s commitment to derailing efforts that address climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. has emitted \u003ca href=\"https://www.c2es.org/content/international-emissions/\">more\u003c/a> cumulative carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other country since the industrial era began in the mid-1800s. Current U.S. emissions are falling, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks\">far too slowly\u003c/a> to avoid catastrophic warming. That’s in part because the Trump administration rolled back carbon pollution limits from power plants, cars, trucks and fossil fuel operations. American \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44837#:~:text=On%20an%20annual%20basis%2C%20EIA,lower%20than%20their%202019%20level.\">emissions\u003c/a> rose slightly in the first two years of his administration. In 2020, the pandemic throttled the economy and led to a short-term dip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The lack of action at the federal level is a serious problem,” says Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group. The costs of climate-driven disasters such as hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires are rising, she says. In 2020, there have already been 16 climate-driven disasters that cost at least $1 billion each, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/\">according\u003c/a> to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Climate change is clearly not just an environmental issue,” Cleetus says. “It is threatening our economy. It’s threatening our future prosperity, the well-being of future generations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But U.S. involvement in the Paris Agreement isn’t definitively over. The U.S. could choose to return, and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/joebiden/photos/on-day-one-ill-rejoin-the-paris-agreement-and-then-rally-the-world-to-push-our-p/10157381578471104/\">promised\u003c/a> to rejoin the agreement “on day one” if he wins the election. If he were to do so, the U.S. could officially resume its role under the Paris Agreement in mid-February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that happens, the U.S. will have a lot of ground to make up. Under the Paris Agreement, the U.S. promised to reduce its emissions by about 25% by 2025 compared with 2005 levels, but the country is only on track to achieve about a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/913727755/u-s-emission-reductions-slowed-after-trump-pulled-out-of-paris-accord\">17% reduction\u003c/a>, according to analysts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, China, Japan and the European Union have made long-term promises to get all the way to net zero emissions in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many American cities, states and companies have also vowed to reduce drastically their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the coming years. Twelve states and at least 165 U.S. cities have plans to get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources, according to the climate tracking group \u003ca href=\"https://www.americaspledgeonclimate.com/report-delivering-on-americas-pledge/\">America’s Pledge\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While adapting to climate change is expensive, there’s also evidence it can be good for the economy. Between 2005 and 2017, 41 states increased their gross domestic product while reducing carbon dioxide emissions, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wri.org/publication/us-new-climate-economy#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20can%20improve,and%20providing%20affordable%20clean%20energy.\">recent analysis\u003c/a> by the World Resources Institute think tank, and investment in clean energy now \u003ca href=\"https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/07/economic-benefits-climate-action-us\">generates more jobs\u003c/a> than investing in fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corporations also made a deluge of commitments this year to address the root causes of climate change. They include promises to cut carbon emissions throughout their supply chains, by reducing or eliminating electricity and transportation that burn fossil fuels, or by protecting forests that absorb carbon. It is still unclear exactly how companies will achieve their promises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Paris Agreement was central to many corporate pledges, including those by \u003ca href=\"https://www.theclimatepledge.com/\">Amazon\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cargill.com/2019/cargill-expands-climate-change-commitments\">Cargill\u003c/a>. The historically right-leaning business group the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the president’s decision to withdraw from the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe we should be part of the Paris Agreement,” Sabrina Fang, the group’s senior director of media relations, wrote in an email to NPR. “Greater collaboration between governments and businesses is essential to build the best models to tackle climate challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American departure from the Paris Agreement also means the end of U.S. contributions to a global fund to help smaller and poorer countries that bear disproportionate costs of climate change. The United States \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/blog/planetpolicy/2014/11/17/the-3-billion-u-s-pledge-for-the-green-climate-fund-is-it-a-lot/\">originally pledged\u003c/a> $3 billion to help such nations transition from fossil fuels and adapt to a hotter Earth — the largest amount of any country, but still far less than America’s fair share, given its cumulative carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/06/09/532106567/a-little-known-climate-fund-is-suddenly-in-the-spotlight\">withdrew\u003c/a> two-thirds of that money. At a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03330-9#:~:text=Developed%20nations%20have%20together%20pledged,the%20impacts%20of%20climate%20change.\">meeting last year\u003c/a>, 13 other rich nations, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany, doubled their original pledges, while the U.S. declined to contribute any additional money to the fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It leaves a giant funding shortfall for countries struggling with sea level rise and heat waves and that lack money to move people out of harm’s way or to upgrade power plants that burn fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The U.S. was a major pledger to that first funding. When they never delivered, that certainly was an impact to us,” says Carlos Fuller, the lead climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, which represents 44 island and low-lying coastal countries at international climate talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, Fuller says, the U.S. was expected to help fund a major climate project in the Caribbean that would install weather stations, map the topography of the seafloor to predict storm surge better and help Caribbean nations use that data to become more resilient to the impact of climate change. But the Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/4269\">reduced the funding\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Fuller says, the project is on hold pending contributions from other nations. He says if the U.S. stays out of the Paris Agreement, it could have dire consequences for low-lying and poor countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These next 10 years are extremely important” for protecting vulnerable people, he says, and the U.S. is currently the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. “We really need the U.S. on board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=U.S.+Officially+Leaving+Paris+Climate+Agreement&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The United States formally left the Paris Agreement on Wednesday, the only one of the nearly 200 nations that signed the agreement, to walk away from its promises to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>President Trump originally announced his intention to withdraw from the landmark agreement in 2017 and formally notified the United Nations last year. A mandatory yearlong waiting period ends on Wednesday, a coincidence that nonetheless highlights the Trump administration’s commitment to derailing efforts that address climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The U.S. has emitted \u003ca href=\"https://www.c2es.org/content/international-emissions/\">more\u003c/a> cumulative carbon dioxide into the atmosphere than any other country since the industrial era began in the mid-1800s. Current U.S. emissions are falling, but \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/inventory-us-greenhouse-gas-emissions-and-sinks\">far too slowly\u003c/a> to avoid catastrophic warming. That’s in part because the Trump administration rolled back carbon pollution limits from power plants, cars, trucks and fossil fuel operations. American \u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=44837#:~:text=On%20an%20annual%20basis%2C%20EIA,lower%20than%20their%202019%20level.\">emissions\u003c/a> rose slightly in the first two years of his administration. In 2020, the pandemic throttled the economy and led to a short-term dip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The lack of action at the federal level is a serious problem,” says Rachel Cleetus, policy director for the climate and energy program at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a science advocacy group. The costs of climate-driven disasters such as hurricanes, heat waves and wildfires are rising, she says. In 2020, there have already been 16 climate-driven disasters that cost at least $1 billion each, \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/billions/\">according\u003c/a> to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Climate change is clearly not just an environmental issue,” Cleetus says. “It is threatening our economy. It’s threatening our future prosperity, the well-being of future generations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But U.S. involvement in the Paris Agreement isn’t definitively over. The U.S. could choose to return, and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has \u003ca href=\"https://www.facebook.com/joebiden/photos/on-day-one-ill-rejoin-the-paris-agreement-and-then-rally-the-world-to-push-our-p/10157381578471104/\">promised\u003c/a> to rejoin the agreement “on day one” if he wins the election. If he were to do so, the U.S. could officially resume its role under the Paris Agreement in mid-February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If that happens, the U.S. will have a lot of ground to make up. Under the Paris Agreement, the U.S. promised to reduce its emissions by about 25% by 2025 compared with 2005 levels, but the country is only on track to achieve about a \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/913727755/u-s-emission-reductions-slowed-after-trump-pulled-out-of-paris-accord\">17% reduction\u003c/a>, according to analysts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, China, Japan and the European Union have made long-term promises to get all the way to net zero emissions in the coming decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Many American cities, states and companies have also vowed to reduce drastically their emissions of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases in the coming years. Twelve states and at least 165 U.S. cities have plans to get 100% of their electricity from renewable sources, according to the climate tracking group \u003ca href=\"https://www.americaspledgeonclimate.com/report-delivering-on-americas-pledge/\">America’s Pledge\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While adapting to climate change is expensive, there’s also evidence it can be good for the economy. Between 2005 and 2017, 41 states increased their gross domestic product while reducing carbon dioxide emissions, according to a \u003ca href=\"https://www.wri.org/publication/us-new-climate-economy#:~:text=The%20United%20States%20can%20improve,and%20providing%20affordable%20clean%20energy.\">recent analysis\u003c/a> by the World Resources Institute think tank, and investment in clean energy now \u003ca href=\"https://www.wri.org/blog/2020/07/economic-benefits-climate-action-us\">generates more jobs\u003c/a> than investing in fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Corporations also made a deluge of commitments this year to address the root causes of climate change. They include promises to cut carbon emissions throughout their supply chains, by reducing or eliminating electricity and transportation that burn fossil fuels, or by protecting forests that absorb carbon. It is still unclear exactly how companies will achieve their promises.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Paris Agreement was central to many corporate pledges, including those by \u003ca href=\"https://www.theclimatepledge.com/\">Amazon\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.cargill.com/2019/cargill-expands-climate-change-commitments\">Cargill\u003c/a>. The historically right-leaning business group the U.S. Chamber of Commerce opposes the president’s decision to withdraw from the agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We believe we should be part of the Paris Agreement,” Sabrina Fang, the group’s senior director of media relations, wrote in an email to NPR. “Greater collaboration between governments and businesses is essential to build the best models to tackle climate challenges.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The American departure from the Paris Agreement also means the end of U.S. contributions to a global fund to help smaller and poorer countries that bear disproportionate costs of climate change. The United States \u003ca href=\"https://www.brookings.edu/blog/planetpolicy/2014/11/17/the-3-billion-u-s-pledge-for-the-green-climate-fund-is-it-a-lot/\">originally pledged\u003c/a> $3 billion to help such nations transition from fossil fuels and adapt to a hotter Earth — the largest amount of any country, but still far less than America’s fair share, given its cumulative carbon emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2017/06/09/532106567/a-little-known-climate-fund-is-suddenly-in-the-spotlight\">withdrew\u003c/a> two-thirds of that money. At a \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-03330-9#:~:text=Developed%20nations%20have%20together%20pledged,the%20impacts%20of%20climate%20change.\">meeting last year\u003c/a>, 13 other rich nations, including the United Kingdom, France and Germany, doubled their original pledges, while the U.S. declined to contribute any additional money to the fund.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It leaves a giant funding shortfall for countries struggling with sea level rise and heat waves and that lack money to move people out of harm’s way or to upgrade power plants that burn fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The U.S. was a major pledger to that first funding. When they never delivered, that certainly was an impact to us,” says Carlos Fuller, the lead climate negotiator for the Alliance of Small Island States, which represents 44 island and low-lying coastal countries at international climate talks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For example, Fuller says, the U.S. was expected to help fund a major climate project in the Caribbean that would install weather stations, map the topography of the seafloor to predict storm surge better and help Caribbean nations use that data to become more resilient to the impact of climate change. But the Trump administration \u003ca href=\"https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/12/10/4269\">reduced the funding\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, Fuller says, the project is on hold pending contributions from other nations. He says if the U.S. stays out of the Paris Agreement, it could have dire consequences for low-lying and poor countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These next 10 years are extremely important” for protecting vulnerable people, he says, and the U.S. is currently the second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases. “We really need the U.S. on board.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=U.S.+Officially+Leaving+Paris+Climate+Agreement&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "How Would Oakland Community Groups Spend $30 Billion? We Asked Four of Them ...",
"headTitle": "How Would Oakland Community Groups Spend $30 Billion? We Asked Four of Them … | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">Let’s say you’re a Green-New-Deal-type environmentalist hell-bent on avoiding planetary destruction while also fixing societal problems like economic inequality and racial injustice. Then, somehow, someway, just as California is digging itself out of a pandemic-induced recession, you have $30 billion to invest any way you want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What are you going to do?\u003cbr>\n\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>In early October, environmental groups convened a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZRRMdMYe8U\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">livestreamed\u003c/span>\u003c/a> panel with some of California’s climate intelligentsia for just such an exercise. Organizers are testing the waters for putting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.movela.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">“\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s3\">California Climate and Clean Air Initiative” \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan class=\"s3\">on the \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s2\">2022 ballot \u003c/span>and hoped the conversation could generate some policy ideas. For example, Kevin de León, former president pro tempore of the state Senate, wanted to spend money on building infrastructure for charging electric cars, plus a cash incentive for low-income people to buy them. Senate Majority Whip Nancy Skinner wish-listed $10 billion toward affordable housing near job centers and funds for green hydrogen, carbon sequestration and electric vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists often argue economic stimulus is a tea best served with two lumps of clean energy and a heavy dose of social justice. So now that the policy bigwigs have opined, we decided to bring the same fantasy question to community organizations working in Oakland, a city where chronic exposure to particulate matter from smog generated by the heavily trafficked port and spider-webbed freeways exacerbates lung and heart disease in poorer neighborhoods; and where air pollution can also \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345938/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enable\u003c/a> the spread of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">So we asked activists from four organizations: If you were suddenly awash in $30 billion worth of funding, what would be your priorities for Oakland?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Here’s how the groups would want to spend those billions …\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Crystal Huang\u003c/b>, worker-director of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.peoplepowersolar.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">People Power Solar Cooperative\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a grassroots-led initiative to develop community solar in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Idea:\u003c/em> Community members can “control their own power; literally, financially and politically.” The group develops community solar projects, where neighbors pool resources to invest in shared solar projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How would you spend $30 billion?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Building community solar projects,” she said. “People who don’t normally have the ability to get financial benefit or social benefit of solar power can own the solar system through the cooperative. Regardless of their living situation or whether they own real estate, they can participate in the energy transition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Sonrisa Cooper\u003c/b>, community development program manager with the \u003ca href=\"https://greenlining.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003cstrong>Greenlining Institute\u003c/strong>,\u003c/span>\u003c/a> which advocates for economic opportunity and empowerment for people of color\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Idea:\u003c/em> Cooper recently co-authored a report calling for a “radical rethinking of community development.” The “\u003ca href=\"https://greenlining.org/publications/2020/greenlined-economy/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Greenlined Economy Guidebook\u003c/span>\u003c/a>” outlines a framework for government leaders and businesses to invest more equitably.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How would you spend $30 billion? \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Policymakers are talking about recovering from COVID and the recession,” she said. “There is a very real threat of exacerbating the existing inequities, if economic recovery efforts aren’t done with equity as a priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would make recovery efforts explicit about race. Redlining, urban renewal, even the foreclosure crisis of 2008, all of these policies were race-conscious. We shouldn’t use a race-neutral blanket policy to correct harms that have been done in communities of color, especially when they’re being disproportionately affected by COVID, by the recession, and now by climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Noni Session\u003c/b>, director and co-founder of the \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://ebprec.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a democratically run cooperative that creates affordable housing for people of color living in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The idea:\u003c/em> Lift Oakland out of recession by facilitating home ownership and investing in local businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How would you spend $30 billion?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would turn that $30 billion into a low-interest technical assistance housing redevelopment fund,” Session said. “We would target standing housing stock, empty lots for land and housing acquisition projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We often treat housing and the economy as two separate issues that need separate solutions. But they should be thought of together. When markets rise and dip, when folks’ tenancy is tenuous, our economic networks always take the first hit, particularly for small holders and small operators like Black and Brown Oaklanders, who are the canary in the well for those rises and dips.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Amee Raval,\u003c/b> research director for the \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://apen4ej.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Asian Pacific Environmental Network\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, which advocates for communities in Richmond and Oakland’s Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Idea:\u003c/em> Raval recently co-authored a \u003ca href=\"http://apen4ej.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Resilience-Before-Disaster-FINAL-UPDATED.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">report\u003c/span>\u003c/a> calling for California policymakers to invest equally in both hard infrastructure (think climate-adapted bridges and seawalls) and social infrastructure (think services and well-being initiatives).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How would you spend $30 billion?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our members describe Oakland as a wok for pollution,” Raval said. “It’s surrounded by freeways on every side and it’s in close proximity to the port, with all that diesel pollution. We want investment in existing community institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need $30 billion, probably more. Working-class communities of color are being hardest hit by the COVID pandemic, by fires, by heat waves, and power shutoffs. Many people already have asthma, respiratory illness and autoimmune disease from breathing polluted air daily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s why we need to strengthen the existing social fabric in communities, coordinate with local governments, invest in resilience hubs and services, and train workers and community members to prepare for and respond to shocks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p1\">Let’s say you’re a Green-New-Deal-type environmentalist hell-bent on avoiding planetary destruction while also fixing societal problems like economic inequality and racial injustice. Then, somehow, someway, just as California is digging itself out of a pandemic-induced recession, you have $30 billion to invest any way you want.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What are you going to do?\u003cbr>\n\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>In early October, environmental groups convened a \u003ca href=\"https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zZRRMdMYe8U\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">livestreamed\u003c/span>\u003c/a> panel with some of California’s climate intelligentsia for just such an exercise. Organizers are testing the waters for putting a \u003ca href=\"https://www.movela.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">“\u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s3\">California Climate and Clean Air Initiative” \u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan class=\"s3\">on the \u003c/span>\u003cspan class=\"s2\">2022 ballot \u003c/span>and hoped the conversation could generate some policy ideas. For example, Kevin de León, former president pro tempore of the state Senate, wanted to spend money on building infrastructure for charging electric cars, plus a cash incentive for low-income people to buy them. Senate Majority Whip Nancy Skinner wish-listed $10 billion toward affordable housing near job centers and funds for green hydrogen, carbon sequestration and electric vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists often argue economic stimulus is a tea best served with two lumps of clean energy and a heavy dose of social justice. So now that the policy bigwigs have opined, we decided to bring the same fantasy question to community organizations working in Oakland, a city where chronic exposure to particulate matter from smog generated by the heavily trafficked port and spider-webbed freeways exacerbates lung and heart disease in poorer neighborhoods; and where air pollution can also \u003ca href=\"https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7345938/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">enable\u003c/a> the spread of COVID-19.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">So we asked activists from four organizations: If you were suddenly awash in $30 billion worth of funding, what would be your priorities for Oakland?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Here’s how the groups would want to spend those billions …\u003cb>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/b>\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Crystal Huang\u003c/b>, worker-director of \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.peoplepowersolar.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">People Power Solar Cooperative\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a grassroots-led initiative to develop community solar in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Idea:\u003c/em> Community members can “control their own power; literally, financially and politically.” The group develops community solar projects, where neighbors pool resources to invest in shared solar projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How would you spend $30 billion?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Building community solar projects,” she said. “People who don’t normally have the ability to get financial benefit or social benefit of solar power can own the solar system through the cooperative. Regardless of their living situation or whether they own real estate, they can participate in the energy transition.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Sonrisa Cooper\u003c/b>, community development program manager with the \u003ca href=\"https://greenlining.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003cstrong>Greenlining Institute\u003c/strong>,\u003c/span>\u003c/a> which advocates for economic opportunity and empowerment for people of color\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Idea:\u003c/em> Cooper recently co-authored a report calling for a “radical rethinking of community development.” The “\u003ca href=\"https://greenlining.org/publications/2020/greenlined-economy/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Greenlined Economy Guidebook\u003c/span>\u003c/a>” outlines a framework for government leaders and businesses to invest more equitably.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How would you spend $30 billion? \u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Policymakers are talking about recovering from COVID and the recession,” she said. “There is a very real threat of exacerbating the existing inequities, if economic recovery efforts aren’t done with equity as a priority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would make recovery efforts explicit about race. Redlining, urban renewal, even the foreclosure crisis of 2008, all of these policies were race-conscious. We shouldn’t use a race-neutral blanket policy to correct harms that have been done in communities of color, especially when they’re being disproportionately affected by COVID, by the recession, and now by climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Noni Session\u003c/b>, director and co-founder of the \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://ebprec.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">East Bay Permanent Real Estate Cooperative\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, a democratically run cooperative that creates affordable housing for people of color living in the East Bay.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The idea:\u003c/em> Lift Oakland out of recession by facilitating home ownership and investing in local businesses.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How would you spend $30 billion?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We would turn that $30 billion into a low-interest technical assistance housing redevelopment fund,” Session said. “We would target standing housing stock, empty lots for land and housing acquisition projects.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We often treat housing and the economy as two separate issues that need separate solutions. But they should be thought of together. When markets rise and dip, when folks’ tenancy is tenuous, our economic networks always take the first hit, particularly for small holders and small operators like Black and Brown Oaklanders, who are the canary in the well for those rises and dips.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Amee Raval,\u003c/b> research director for the \u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://apen4ej.org/\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">Asian Pacific Environmental Network\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>, which advocates for communities in Richmond and Oakland’s Chinatown.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>The Idea:\u003c/em> Raval recently co-authored a \u003ca href=\"http://apen4ej.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/Resilience-Before-Disaster-FINAL-UPDATED.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s2\">report\u003c/span>\u003c/a> calling for California policymakers to invest equally in both hard infrastructure (think climate-adapted bridges and seawalls) and social infrastructure (think services and well-being initiatives).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>How would you spend $30 billion?\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Our members describe Oakland as a wok for pollution,” Raval said. “It’s surrounded by freeways on every side and it’s in close proximity to the port, with all that diesel pollution. We want investment in existing community institutions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We need $30 billion, probably more. Working-class communities of color are being hardest hit by the COVID pandemic, by fires, by heat waves, and power shutoffs. Many people already have asthma, respiratory illness and autoimmune disease from breathing polluted air daily.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That’s why we need to strengthen the existing social fabric in communities, coordinate with local governments, invest in resilience hubs and services, and train workers and community members to prepare for and respond to shocks.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cp>https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGtJQhxZB48\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For the first time in history, the issue of climate change was a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1970622/climate-change-gets-its-own-segment-at-trump-biden-debate-heres-what-they-said\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">featured issue\u003c/a> at a presidential election debate. Moderator Kristen Welker of NBC asked the candidates how they would tackle climate change, while also supporting job growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Welker also directed the candidates in a rare discussion of environmental justice, starting with a question to President Trump: “Some people of color are much more likely to live near oil refineries and chemical plants in Texas. There are families who worry the plants near them are making them sick. Your administration has rolled back regulations on these kinds of facilities. Why should these families give you another four years in office?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a contentious exchange, Biden, after being pressed by Trump, said he was opposed to banning fracking, except on federal land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch the entire segment in the video above from ABC News.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutube'>\n \u003cspan class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__embedYoutubeInside'>\n \u003ciframe\n loading='lazy'\n class='utils-parseShortcode-shortcodes-__youtubeShortcode__youtubePlayer'\n type='text/html'\n src='//www.youtube.com/embed/cGtJQhxZB48'\n title='//www.youtube.com/embed/cGtJQhxZB48'\n allowfullscreen='true'\n style='border:0;'>\u003c/iframe>\n \u003c/span>\n \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003cp>For the first time in history, the issue of climate change was a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1970622/climate-change-gets-its-own-segment-at-trump-biden-debate-heres-what-they-said\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">featured issue\u003c/a> at a presidential election debate. Moderator Kristen Welker of NBC asked the candidates how they would tackle climate change, while also supporting job growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Welker also directed the candidates in a rare discussion of environmental justice, starting with a question to President Trump: “Some people of color are much more likely to live near oil refineries and chemical plants in Texas. There are families who worry the plants near them are making them sick. Your administration has rolled back regulations on these kinds of facilities. Why should these families give you another four years in office?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a contentious exchange, Biden, after being pressed by Trump, said he was opposed to banning fracking, except on federal land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Watch the entire segment in the video above from ABC News.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"headTitle": "Climate Change Gets Its Own Segment at Trump-Biden Debate. Here’s What They Said | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One hour and 20 minutes into Thursday night’s high-stakes presidential debate, the moderator, NBC’s Kristen Welker, asked President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden an unprecedented question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How, she asked, would the candidates remedy the oil and gas industry’s disproportionately harmful impacts on communities of color?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump’s response: “They’re employed heavily and they’re making more money than they’ve ever made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote citation=\"Evan Weber, Sunrise Movement\"]‘This debate was historic: the first-ever general election Presidential debate with climate change as a pre-defined topic and the first debate where climate change was framed out of the gate by the moderator in terms of jobs, the economy, and what the candidates’ plans were — not if the existential crisis even exists.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden’s response: “It doesn’t matter how much you’re paying them. It’s how you keep them safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2012, climate change didn’t surface at all in the presidential debates. In 2016, it did, but barely. That the candidates faced substantial questions over the issue in this election cycle was remarkable and, many in the climate change community would say, long overdue. That Trump and Biden faced a question on a debate stage concerning the more nuanced, complex issues of climate change and race suggests how far the conversation has evolved in eight years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The candidates’ discussion on climate change Thursday revealed, again, the significant gulf between a president who has spent the last four years rolling back climate regulations, placating the fossil fuel industry and mocking the climate threat, and a candidate who has called climate change “an existential crisis” and developed a plan to tackle the problem — though one that climate progressives say still falls short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This debate was historic: the first-ever general election Presidential debate with climate change as a pre-defined topic and the first debate where climate change was framed out of the gate by the moderator in terms of jobs, the economy, and what the candidates’ plans were — not if the existential crisis even exists,” said Evan Weber, political director of the Sunrise Movement, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the debate, the last before Election Day, Trump and Biden fielded questions about a range of topics, most prominently the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, though the biggest question lingering in viewers’ minds may have been whether Trump would adhere to the debate rules and focus on issues and policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Late into the hour-and-a-half debate, Welker asked the candidates how they would tackle climate change, while also supporting job growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump began by reprising what has been his stock response to questions about climate change, citing the “Trillion Trees Program” — in the previous debate he erroneously referred to the program as a plan to plant a “billion” trees — and adding, “I do love the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Striving to appear conversant with the topic, Trump said, “We have the lowest number in carbon emissions,” an apparent reference to emissions falling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump seemed pleased with his mastery of the term and taunted Biden about whether he was familiar with the concept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I’m not sure he knows what it means,” Trump said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Trillion Trees Program has been broadly embraced by Republicans and some Democrats, but \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26052020/trillion-trees-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scientists\u003c/a> have said the plan is inadequate for addressing climate change, that it will only put a tiny dent in emissions and is a distraction from a necessary shift away from fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emissions dropped during the pandemic, but are now on the rise again, continuing an upward trend that has continued since the beginning of the Trump presidency. The most recent full-year figures from the Environmental Protection Agency, for 2018, show that fossil fuel emissions drove a 3% rise in overall greenhouse gas emissions in that time period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As he has throughout his bid for the presidency, Biden emphasized a shift to renewable energy, saying his $2 trillion clean economy jobs program would create more than 18 million jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The oil industry pollutes,” Biden said. “It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time. … I’d stop giving federal subsidies to the oil and gas industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump, sensing an opportunity to appeal to voters in battleground states with strong fossil fuels ties, pounced on the comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“That’s the biggest statement,” Trump said, turning to look directly into the camera. “Will you remember that Texas? Will you remember that Pennsylvania? Oklahoma? Ohio?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump also reiterated a trope of the fossil fuel industry, calling a shift to renewables a “pipe dream” and saying that wind turbines kill “all the birds.” In a muddled response, he misleadingly suggested that the construction of wind turbines “is more than anything that we are talking about with natural gas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden responded, “Find me a scientist who says that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump also attacked Biden’s climate plan, falsely saying it would cost $100 trillion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“They want to take buildings down because they want to take bigger windows and make them smaller windows,” Trump said, referring to the proposal. “Little tiny windows and many other things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposal says nothing about shrinking windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump also attacked Biden on his statements on fracking and natural gas, falsely accusing the Democratic candidate of supporting a ban on fracking and changing his position to court voters in Pennsylvania, a natural gas-intensive and critical swing state, won narrowly by Trump in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden corrected Trump, saying he would only ban new oil and gas permitting on public lands, but supports fracking elsewhere as necessary while the country transitions to a clean energy economy — a position that has been criticized by climate advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden framed addressing climate change as an ethical matter and part of a broader shift to rejoining global peers\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We have a moral obligation to deal with it,” he said. “We don’t have much time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We’re going to choose science over fiction. We’re going to choose hope over fear,” Biden said, saying that he’d advance an economy “motivated” by clean energy. “We can grow this economy,” Biden said. “What’s on the ballot here is the character of our country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Environmental activists largely applauded Biden’s performance, even as many vowed to push him to take bolder steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We are committed to holding a Biden administration accountable to stop fracking and protect our communities,” said 350 Action North America Director Tamara Toles O’Laughlin. “Indigenous, and communities of color continue to bear the brunt of Donald Trump and his fossil fuel lies. It’s time for a just transition for workers across the industry. The planet can’t take four more years of Trump’s deadly mismanagement and plain incompetence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "For the first time, climate change received signficant attention at a presidential debate, and the differences in approach between the candidates could hardly have been more clear. ",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One hour and 20 minutes into Thursday night’s high-stakes presidential debate, the moderator, NBC’s Kristen Welker, asked President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden an unprecedented question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">How, she asked, would the candidates remedy the oil and gas industry’s disproportionately harmful impacts on communities of color?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump’s response: “They’re employed heavily and they’re making more money than they’ve ever made.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "‘This debate was historic: the first-ever general election Presidential debate with climate change as a pre-defined topic and the first debate where climate change was framed out of the gate by the moderator in terms of jobs, the economy, and what the candidates’ plans were — not if the existential crisis even exists.”",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden’s response: “It doesn’t matter how much you’re paying them. It’s how you keep them safe.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2012, climate change didn’t surface at all in the presidential debates. In 2016, it did, but barely. That the candidates faced substantial questions over the issue in this election cycle was remarkable and, many in the climate change community would say, long overdue. That Trump and Biden faced a question on a debate stage concerning the more nuanced, complex issues of climate change and race suggests how far the conversation has evolved in eight years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The candidates’ discussion on climate change Thursday revealed, again, the significant gulf between a president who has spent the last four years rolling back climate regulations, placating the fossil fuel industry and mocking the climate threat, and a candidate who has called climate change “an existential crisis” and developed a plan to tackle the problem — though one that climate progressives say still falls short.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“This debate was historic: the first-ever general election Presidential debate with climate change as a pre-defined topic and the first debate where climate change was framed out of the gate by the moderator in terms of jobs, the economy, and what the candidates’ plans were — not if the existential crisis even exists,” said Evan Weber, political director of the Sunrise Movement, in a statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In the debate, the last before Election Day, Trump and Biden fielded questions about a range of topics, most prominently the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, though the biggest question lingering in viewers’ minds may have been whether Trump would adhere to the debate rules and focus on issues and policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Late into the hour-and-a-half debate, Welker asked the candidates how they would tackle climate change, while also supporting job growth.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump began by reprising what has been his stock response to questions about climate change, citing the “Trillion Trees Program” — in the previous debate he erroneously referred to the program as a plan to plant a “billion” trees — and adding, “I do love the environment.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Striving to appear conversant with the topic, Trump said, “We have the lowest number in carbon emissions,” an apparent reference to emissions falling during the COVID-19 pandemic. Trump seemed pleased with his mastery of the term and taunted Biden about whether he was familiar with the concept.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I’m not sure he knows what it means,” Trump said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The Trillion Trees Program has been broadly embraced by Republicans and some Democrats, but \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26052020/trillion-trees-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">scientists\u003c/a> have said the plan is inadequate for addressing climate change, that it will only put a tiny dent in emissions and is a distraction from a necessary shift away from fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Emissions dropped during the pandemic, but are now on the rise again, continuing an upward trend that has continued since the beginning of the Trump presidency. The most recent full-year figures from the Environmental Protection Agency, for 2018, show that fossil fuel emissions drove a 3% rise in overall greenhouse gas emissions in that time period.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">As he has throughout his bid for the presidency, Biden emphasized a shift to renewable energy, saying his $2 trillion clean economy jobs program would create more than 18 million jobs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“The oil industry pollutes,” Biden said. “It has to be replaced by renewable energy over time. … I’d stop giving federal subsidies to the oil and gas industry.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump, sensing an opportunity to appeal to voters in battleground states with strong fossil fuels ties, pounced on the comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“That’s the biggest statement,” Trump said, turning to look directly into the camera. “Will you remember that Texas? Will you remember that Pennsylvania? Oklahoma? Ohio?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump also reiterated a trope of the fossil fuel industry, calling a shift to renewables a “pipe dream” and saying that wind turbines kill “all the birds.” In a muddled response, he misleadingly suggested that the construction of wind turbines “is more than anything that we are talking about with natural gas.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden responded, “Find me a scientist who says that.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump also attacked Biden’s climate plan, falsely saying it would cost $100 trillion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“They want to take buildings down because they want to take bigger windows and make them smaller windows,” Trump said, referring to the proposal. “Little tiny windows and many other things.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The proposal says nothing about shrinking windows.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Trump also attacked Biden on his statements on fracking and natural gas, falsely accusing the Democratic candidate of supporting a ban on fracking and changing his position to court voters in Pennsylvania, a natural gas-intensive and critical swing state, won narrowly by Trump in 2016.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden corrected Trump, saying he would only ban new oil and gas permitting on public lands, but supports fracking elsewhere as necessary while the country transitions to a clean energy economy — a position that has been criticized by climate advocates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Biden framed addressing climate change as an ethical matter and part of a broader shift to rejoining global peers\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We have a moral obligation to deal with it,” he said. “We don’t have much time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We’re going to choose science over fiction. We’re going to choose hope over fear,” Biden said, saying that he’d advance an economy “motivated” by clean energy. “We can grow this economy,” Biden said. “What’s on the ballot here is the character of our country.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Environmental activists largely applauded Biden’s performance, even as many vowed to push him to take bolder steps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“We are committed to holding a Biden administration accountable to stop fracking and protect our communities,” said 350 Action North America Director Tamara Toles O’Laughlin. “Indigenous, and communities of color continue to bear the brunt of Donald Trump and his fossil fuel lies. It’s time for a just transition for workers across the industry. The planet can’t take four more years of Trump’s deadly mismanagement and plain incompetence.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/newsletter\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Nichols: Devastating Wildfires Strengthened Support for Ambitious Climate Agenda",
"headTitle": "Nichols: Devastating Wildfires Strengthened Support for Ambitious Climate Agenda | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">Mary Nichols, California’s top air regulator and longtime climate crusader, says the state’s record-breaking wildfire year has strengthened political support to move away from fossil fuels and gasoline engines.[pullquote align='right' citation='Mary Nichols']‘Recruiting people who are opposed to addressing human-caused climate change is probably the single biggest scandal [of Trump’s EPA].’[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nichols says wildfires that ripped across the state in August and September were what compelled Gov. Gavin Newsom to issue two sweeping executive actions on climate change: a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969807/california-to-halt-sales-of-new-gas-cars-by-2035\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">ban\u003c/span>\u003c/a> on the sale of new gasoline cars by 2035 and an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11841850/gov-gavin-newsom-calls-for-protecting-30-of-state-land\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">order\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to conserve 30% of state land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s been a really bad summer and fire season is not over yet,” she said in wide-ranging comments offered in a livestreaming address to American University’s Center for Environmental Policy and the American Lung Association. The topic of the speech was the future of clean air policy and California’s role in addressing pollution and climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The chair of the powerful state Air Resources Board, Nichols, who is retiring this year, said Californians “see and smell and feel” wildfire smoke “constantly” when the fires are active.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s terrible, depressing, ugly, and it is literally sapping productivity,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The one thing that it has done, in addition to solidifying people’s support for moving away from fossil fuels and combustion of all kinds,” Nichols said, “is help make the connection in people’s minds between natural resources policies and our direct controls over emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">She said a major lesson of this year is California needs to “be all in on eliminating all the sources of pollution” and improve “the ability of our natural environment to be able to store and sequester carbon, as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nichols outlined what, in her view, should be the top priorities for the federal Environmental Protection Agency should Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump and ascend to the presidency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“The rejection of science and scientists has to be reversed,” she said. “That’s fundamental to everything else, all the programs. The dismissal of people with impeccable credentials who appear to have only committed the sin of being in favor of enforcing the laws.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nichols also said that she believes California will prevail against the Trump administration, either in courts of law or courts of or public opinion, in disputes over clean cars and the state’s ability to set its own tailpipe emission rules.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Early this year, California sued the Trump administration after it \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761815991/white-house-to-revoke-waiver-allowing-california-to-set-its-own-emissions-standa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">revoked\u003c/span>\u003c/a> a waiver allowing the state to set clean car rules that are more stringent than federal standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court battles aside, California’s thriving industry is a powerful signal to other states that the business of electric vehicles can be a boon for the economy and the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Electric vehicles are now one of the state’s top exports. “Not almonds or grapes or any other agricultural produce, as you might think,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Surprisingly, perhaps, Nichols said she doesn’t assume Amy Coney Barrett, a right-leaning judge whose confirmation vote is scheduled for Thursday by a Republican-controlled Senate, will automatically rule against laws that protect the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">She pointed out that Justice Antonin Scalia sometimes ruled in favor of more robust environmental polices. “It’s not because he was a liberal, because obviously he was not,” she said. “But he was a believer in reading the statutes and also in science.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Last week during Barrett’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Kamala Harris, the California Democrat running for vice president, asked the Supreme Court nominee if she believed that climate change “is happening and is threatening the air we breathe and the water we drink.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Barrett declined to offer her views on the matter, describing it as a “very contentious matter of public debate.” \u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The existence of climate change is not contentious, in fact. Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals \u003ca href=\"https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">show\u003c/span>\u003c/a> that 97% or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that global warming is a result of human activity.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nichols says wildfires that ripped across the state in August and September were what compelled Gov. Gavin Newsom to issue two sweeping executive actions on climate change: a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969807/california-to-halt-sales-of-new-gas-cars-by-2035\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">ban\u003c/span>\u003c/a> on the sale of new gasoline cars by 2035 and an \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11841850/gov-gavin-newsom-calls-for-protecting-30-of-state-land\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">order\u003c/span>\u003c/a> to conserve 30% of state land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“It’s been a really bad summer and fire season is not over yet,” she said in wide-ranging comments offered in a livestreaming address to American University’s Center for Environmental Policy and the American Lung Association. The topic of the speech was the future of clean air policy and California’s role in addressing pollution and climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The chair of the powerful state Air Resources Board, Nichols, who is retiring this year, said Californians “see and smell and feel” wildfire smoke “constantly” when the fires are active.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s terrible, depressing, ugly, and it is literally sapping productivity,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The one thing that it has done, in addition to solidifying people’s support for moving away from fossil fuels and combustion of all kinds,” Nichols said, “is help make the connection in people’s minds between natural resources policies and our direct controls over emissions.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">She said a major lesson of this year is California needs to “be all in on eliminating all the sources of pollution” and improve “the ability of our natural environment to be able to store and sequester carbon, as well.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nichols outlined what, in her view, should be the top priorities for the federal Environmental Protection Agency should Joe Biden defeat Donald Trump and ascend to the presidency.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“The rejection of science and scientists has to be reversed,” she said. “That’s fundamental to everything else, all the programs. The dismissal of people with impeccable credentials who appear to have only committed the sin of being in favor of enforcing the laws.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Nichols also said that she believes California will prevail against the Trump administration, either in courts of law or courts of or public opinion, in disputes over clean cars and the state’s ability to set its own tailpipe emission rules.\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Early this year, California sued the Trump administration after it \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/09/18/761815991/white-house-to-revoke-waiver-allowing-california-to-set-its-own-emissions-standa\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">revoked\u003c/span>\u003c/a> a waiver allowing the state to set clean car rules that are more stringent than federal standards.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Court battles aside, California’s thriving industry is a powerful signal to other states that the business of electric vehicles can be a boon for the economy and the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Electric vehicles are now one of the state’s top exports. “Not almonds or grapes or any other agricultural produce, as you might think,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Surprisingly, perhaps, Nichols said she doesn’t assume Amy Coney Barrett, a right-leaning judge whose confirmation vote is scheduled for Thursday by a Republican-controlled Senate, will automatically rule against laws that protect the environment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">She pointed out that Justice Antonin Scalia sometimes ruled in favor of more robust environmental polices. “It’s not because he was a liberal, because obviously he was not,” she said. “But he was a believer in reading the statutes and also in science.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Last week during Barrett’s confirmation hearing, Sen. Kamala Harris, the California Democrat running for vice president, asked the Supreme Court nominee if she believed that climate change “is happening and is threatening the air we breathe and the water we drink.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Barrett declined to offer her views on the matter, describing it as a “very contentious matter of public debate.” \u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">The existence of climate change is not contentious, in fact. Multiple studies published in peer-reviewed scientific journals \u003ca href=\"https://climate.nasa.gov/scientific-consensus/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">show\u003c/span>\u003c/a> that 97% or more of actively publishing climate scientists agree that global warming is a result of human activity.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "EPA's Top California Official 'Believes in Climate Change' But Mum on Newsom's Gasoline-Car Ban",
"headTitle": "EPA’s Top California Official ‘Believes in Climate Change’ But Mum on Newsom’s Gasoline-Car Ban | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp class=\"p1\">As the head of the federal\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>Environmental Protection Agency’s San Francisco office, John Busterud is the agency’s top federal regulator in the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He oversees 700 staff employees and environmental protection efforts across the agency’s Region 9. Those actions affect 50 million people living in California, other Western states, the Pacific Islands and tribal lands — at a time when California leaders continue to spar with Washington over pretty much every issue related to the environment\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">That means he’s on the front lines of a battle between the Trump administration and California over climate change. Busterud, a former PG&E attorney, is more of a traditional Republican than a MAGA diehard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">His publicly stated view about climate change differs from that of President Trump. Busterud tells KQED that he “believes in climate change and that humans play a part in it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump rejected the central findings of his own administration’s \u003ca href=\"https://science2017.globalchange.gov/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">National Climate Assessment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1957088/donald-trump-climate-profile-this-president-is-all-about-fossil-fuels\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">saying\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, “I don’t believe it. No, no, I don’t believe it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Scientists from 13 federal agencies reviewed thousands of climate studies for the fourth volume of the assessment, released in 2018, and concluded that greenhouse gases released by human activity are causing lasting economic damage to the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Busterud defends Trump’s environmental policies and suggested to KQED that natural emission sources from wildfires could be playing a large role in warming the planet. “We have seen over the last month or so that that [human-caused emissions of planet warming gases] can be dwarfed by fire-related emissions, but perhaps climate has an impact on that as well.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>It’s true that wildfires emit greenhouse gases and destroy trees that would otherwise remove carbon dioxide from the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23082018/extreme-wildfires-climate-change-global-warming-air-pollution-fire-management-black-carbon-co2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">leading cause of global warming remains\u003c/a> overwhelmingly the burning of fossil fuels. \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#t1fn1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">According to the EPA,\u003c/a> “Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">California \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/wildfire-emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tracks greenhouse gas emissions\u003c/a> from wildfires separately from those produced by cars, power plants and other human sources because they have a faster carbon cycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Busterud’s predecessor, Mike Stoker — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1924459/new-chief-of-epa-region-9-has-deep-ties-to-industry\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">former oil industry spokesperson,\u003c/span>\u003c/a> was fired after an internal watchdog investigation. EPA spokeswoman Corry Schiermeyer told KQED in a statement that Stoker was let go for “severe neglect and incompetent administration of his duties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Emails obtained by KQED through a public document request show agency staff cheering Busterud’s appointment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Leonido-John, director of EPA’s Southern California field office, wrote that Busterud’s hiring “by all measures, seems to be a very positive thing” and described him as a “Republican of the old variety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">California officials, meanwhile, seem at least willing to give Busterud the benefit of the doubt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jared Blumenfeld, California’s top environmental regulator, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/EPA-names-former-PG-E-attorney-to-head-West-Coast-15047582.php\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">told\u003c/span>\u003c/a> the San Francisco Chronicle that Busterud “seems reasonable and generally thoughtful on the issues” and\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>“has the potential to do a good job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In the roughly six months that he’s been on the job, Busterud has avoided the spotlight and — at least publicly — California’s ongoing fight with the Trump administration over how to regulate pollution from cars and trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, he’s focused on administrative duties. For example, last week he \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/us-epa-selects-organizations-pacific-southwest-receive-pollution-prevention-grants\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">awarded\u003c/span>\u003c/a> a grant to a UC Berkeley program to research alternatives to PFAs — so-called “forever” chemicals that cause health effects with continued exposure — used in carpet manufacturing and other industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“We’re trying to make much more than the grant,” he said. “We’re trying to encourage further action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Busterud spoke with KQED last week about climate change and Trump’s baseless claim that San Francisco should be punished for allowing discarded needles to wash into the ocean. He was less than forthcoming about California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969807/california-to-halt-sales-of-new-gas-cars-by-2035\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">planned ban\u003c/a> on the sale of new internal-combustion cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>What is your response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order banning the sale of gasoline-powered cars in California by the year 2035?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">That particular issue is one that is handled by headquarters and to one to which they will have to respond and they will respond. There is much coverage of the waiver issue. We’re certainly all familiar with it. But that decision is made at headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003cb>You are referring to an action taken by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1947538/can-he-do-that-lawyers-doubt-trump-can-kill-californias-clean-air-powers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">EPA to revoke California’s waiver \u003c/a>to set its own tailpipe emission rules. California sued in response. State leaders say the Trump administration is weaponizing the EPA on this issue.\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">I would certainly disagree with that choice of terminology. The waiver issue raises national consideration and a discussion about if [regulation of] certain emissions or certain technology should be a national approach as opposed to a patchwork state-by-state approach. But again, that’s something that headquarters is managing. There is a dialogue. I acknowledge that it’s a contentious issue and one that I hope is resolved over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">\u003cb>Do you understand the state’s frustration? EPA has provided the waiver for 50 years and is pushing California to clean up its air. But California’s tailpipe emission rules are the key policy tool the state employed to deal with smog.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">Certainly. And I understand. We’re very much engaged in working with the air districts and with CARB (the California Air Resources Board) on attainment issues day in and day out. Mobile sources are the single largest source in California, as opposed to other states where other sectors are that are considerable. That’s all I can really say on that one at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Local officials have called President Trump’s argument that San Francisco improperly discharged feces, needles and wastewater into the ocean — absurd. EPA \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-10/documents/sfpuc-npdes-violation-notice-2019-10-02.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>issued\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cb> San Francisco\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>a violation for “failure to properly operate and maintain the city’s sewage collection and treatment facilities.” \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Do you think that the involvement of your agency in this issue was politically motivated? Did your agency find anything that backed up the president’s claims?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">You would expect that I would and should and will say that it’s an open and pending enforcement action and not one I can comment on. I will just say that this investigation of this matter and those issues started in 2015. If you … do the math, that perhaps responds in part to your question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">\u003cb>You’re implying that the agency’s involvement was not politically motivated because it began in 2015 under the Obama administration?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">The investigation began in 2015. And that’s the most I can or should say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003cb>Explain to me how that is an underreported story. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">I think that perhaps in your question you are saying that, well, my predecessor didn’t agree with the consensus on climate change or that the agency shouldn’t regulate it. We do regulate greenhouse gas emissions, power plant emissions, but we regulate them at that facility level as provided under the act. Under the Clean Power Plan of the prior administration — that plan was enjoined by the Supreme Court at the time — that kind of economy wide regulation is not permitted by the act. And so what we do is focus on facilities, specific controls of those pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003cb>It’s your view that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/163665/president-obama-unveils-new-power-plant-rules-in-clean-power-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clean Power Plan\u003c/a> was an overstep from what is allowed by the Clean Air Act? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court did it. They didn’t ask my opinion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003cb>The EPA has rolled back enforcement of planet-warming gases. During President Trump’s visit to survey the wildfire damage, Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the state natural resources agency, pressed him, saying studies show climate change is a key driver of the state’s fires. Trump said “science doesn’t know.” \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can’t really comment on the exchange that the president had. I wasn’t there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\n\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp class=\"p1\">As the head of the federal\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>Environmental Protection Agency’s San Francisco office, John Busterud is the agency’s top federal regulator in the West.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He oversees 700 staff employees and environmental protection efforts across the agency’s Region 9. Those actions affect 50 million people living in California, other Western states, the Pacific Islands and tribal lands — at a time when California leaders continue to spar with Washington over pretty much every issue related to the environment\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">That means he’s on the front lines of a battle between the Trump administration and California over climate change. Busterud, a former PG&E attorney, is more of a traditional Republican than a MAGA diehard.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">His publicly stated view about climate change differs from that of President Trump. Busterud tells KQED that he “believes in climate change and that humans play a part in it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Trump rejected the central findings of his own administration’s \u003ca href=\"https://science2017.globalchange.gov/\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">National Climate Assessment\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1957088/donald-trump-climate-profile-this-president-is-all-about-fossil-fuels\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">saying\u003c/span>\u003c/a>, “I don’t believe it. No, no, I don’t believe it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Scientists from 13 federal agencies reviewed thousands of climate studies for the fourth volume of the assessment, released in 2018, and concluded that greenhouse gases released by human activity are causing lasting economic damage to the nation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But Busterud defends Trump’s environmental policies and suggested to KQED that natural emission sources from wildfires could be playing a large role in warming the planet. “We have seen over the last month or so that that [human-caused emissions of planet warming gases] can be dwarfed by fire-related emissions, but perhaps climate has an impact on that as well.”\u003cbr>\n\u003cem>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/em>It’s true that wildfires emit greenhouse gases and destroy trees that would otherwise remove carbon dioxide from the air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23082018/extreme-wildfires-climate-change-global-warming-air-pollution-fire-management-black-carbon-co2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">leading cause of global warming remains\u003c/a> overwhelmingly the burning of fossil fuels. \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/ghgemissions/sources-greenhouse-gas-emissions#t1fn1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">According to the EPA,\u003c/a> “Human activities are responsible for almost all of the increase in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere over the last 150 years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">California \u003ca href=\"https://ww2.arb.ca.gov/wildfire-emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tracks greenhouse gas emissions\u003c/a> from wildfires separately from those produced by cars, power plants and other human sources because they have a faster carbon cycle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Busterud’s predecessor, Mike Stoker — a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1924459/new-chief-of-epa-region-9-has-deep-ties-to-industry\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">former oil industry spokesperson,\u003c/span>\u003c/a> was fired after an internal watchdog investigation. EPA spokeswoman Corry Schiermeyer told KQED in a statement that Stoker was let go for “severe neglect and incompetent administration of his duties.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">Emails obtained by KQED through a public document request show agency staff cheering Busterud’s appointment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Steven Leonido-John, director of EPA’s Southern California field office, wrote that Busterud’s hiring “by all measures, seems to be a very positive thing” and described him as a “Republican of the old variety.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">California officials, meanwhile, seem at least willing to give Busterud the benefit of the doubt.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jared Blumenfeld, California’s top environmental regulator, \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/EPA-names-former-PG-E-attorney-to-head-West-Coast-15047582.php\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">told\u003c/span>\u003c/a> the San Francisco Chronicle that Busterud “seems reasonable and generally thoughtful on the issues” and\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>“has the potential to do a good job.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">In the roughly six months that he’s been on the job, Busterud has avoided the spotlight and — at least publicly — California’s ongoing fight with the Trump administration over how to regulate pollution from cars and trucks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Instead, he’s focused on administrative duties. For example, last week he \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/us-epa-selects-organizations-pacific-southwest-receive-pollution-prevention-grants\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">awarded\u003c/span>\u003c/a> a grant to a UC Berkeley program to research alternatives to PFAs — so-called “forever” chemicals that cause health effects with continued exposure — used in carpet manufacturing and other industries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">“We’re trying to make much more than the grant,” he said. “We’re trying to encourage further action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Busterud spoke with KQED last week about climate change and Trump’s baseless claim that San Francisco should be punished for allowing discarded needles to wash into the ocean. He was less than forthcoming about California’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1969807/california-to-halt-sales-of-new-gas-cars-by-2035\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">planned ban\u003c/a> on the sale of new internal-combustion cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>What is your response to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s executive order banning the sale of gasoline-powered cars in California by the year 2035?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">That particular issue is one that is handled by headquarters and to one to which they will have to respond and they will respond. There is much coverage of the waiver issue. We’re certainly all familiar with it. But that decision is made at headquarters.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan class=\"s2\">\u003cb>You are referring to an action taken by the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1947538/can-he-do-that-lawyers-doubt-trump-can-kill-californias-clean-air-powers\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">EPA to revoke California’s waiver \u003c/a>to set its own tailpipe emission rules. California sued in response. State leaders say the Trump administration is weaponizing the EPA on this issue.\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">I would certainly disagree with that choice of terminology. The waiver issue raises national consideration and a discussion about if [regulation of] certain emissions or certain technology should be a national approach as opposed to a patchwork state-by-state approach. But again, that’s something that headquarters is managing. There is a dialogue. I acknowledge that it’s a contentious issue and one that I hope is resolved over time.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">\u003cb>Do you understand the state’s frustration? EPA has provided the waiver for 50 years and is pushing California to clean up its air. But California’s tailpipe emission rules are the key policy tool the state employed to deal with smog.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">Certainly. And I understand. We’re very much engaged in working with the air districts and with CARB (the California Air Resources Board) on attainment issues day in and day out. Mobile sources are the single largest source in California, as opposed to other states where other sectors are that are considerable. That’s all I can really say on that one at this point.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p1\">\u003cb>Local officials have called President Trump’s argument that San Francisco improperly discharged feces, needles and wastewater into the ocean — absurd. EPA \u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-10/documents/sfpuc-npdes-violation-notice-2019-10-02.pdf\">\u003cspan class=\"s1\">\u003cb>issued\u003c/b>\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cb> San Francisco\u003cspan class=\"Apple-converted-space\"> \u003c/span>a violation for “failure to properly operate and maintain the city’s sewage collection and treatment facilities.” \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Do you think that the involvement of your agency in this issue was politically motivated? Did your agency find anything that backed up the president’s claims?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">You would expect that I would and should and will say that it’s an open and pending enforcement action and not one I can comment on. I will just say that this investigation of this matter and those issues started in 2015. If you … do the math, that perhaps responds in part to your question.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">\u003cb>You’re implying that the agency’s involvement was not politically motivated because it began in 2015 under the Obama administration?\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p5\">The investigation began in 2015. And that’s the most I can or should say.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003cb>Explain to me how that is an underreported story. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">I think that perhaps in your question you are saying that, well, my predecessor didn’t agree with the consensus on climate change or that the agency shouldn’t regulate it. We do regulate greenhouse gas emissions, power plant emissions, but we regulate them at that facility level as provided under the act. Under the Clean Power Plan of the prior administration — that plan was enjoined by the Supreme Court at the time — that kind of economy wide regulation is not permitted by the act. And so what we do is focus on facilities, specific controls of those pollutants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003cb>It’s your view that the \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/163665/president-obama-unveils-new-power-plant-rules-in-clean-power-plan\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Clean Power Plan\u003c/a> was an overstep from what is allowed by the Clean Air Act? \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court did it. They didn’t ask my opinion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp class=\"p7\">\u003cb>The EPA has rolled back enforcement of planet-warming gases. During President Trump’s visit to survey the wildfire damage, Wade Crowfoot, secretary of the state natural resources agency, pressed him, saying studies show climate change is a key driver of the state’s fires. Trump said “science doesn’t know.” \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I can’t really comment on the exchange that the president had. I wasn’t there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Would Joe Biden Be Able to Reverse Trump’s Climate Damage?",
"headTitle": "Would Joe Biden Be Able to Reverse Trump’s Climate Damage? | KQED",
"content": "\u003ch2>What a President Joe Biden would need to do starting Day One to correct the course of U.S. climate policy.\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story originally appeared in \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-climate-crisis-damage-can-it-be-fixed-1064995/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rolling Stone\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he talks about the Trump administration, David Doniger likes to say: “Imagine where we’d be if they knew what they were doing.” The climate lawyer and senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund spends his days defending the environment from the U.S. government, and for the past three and a half years, that’s meant a front-row seat to the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on any regulation that’s meant to slow the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/t/climate-crisis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">climate crisis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s also been a window into the hasty, sloppy, and legally dubious ways that they’ve gone about it. “One of the hallmarks of this administration is how incompetently they’re doing this,” says Doniger. “It shows up in how slowly they’ve been able to work, and how flimsy their legal rationales are.” Almost all of President Trump’s attempts at deregulation — some 100 rules that he’s tried to eliminate or weaken — are being challenged in court, and environmentalists are steadily winning. According to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Institute for Policy Integrity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at New York University, the Trump administration has lost 69 of the 83 legal challenges it’s faced in its deregulatory blitz.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We were saved by their incompetence,” says Andrew Wetzler from the NRDC Action Fund, mainly by their failure to follow basic rule-making procedures. They rushed through the process, often shortening or entirely skipping over the required 60 days for public comment, which provided a clear opening for their rule changes to be challenged in court. The administration’s ineptitude has given environmentalists hope that if Trump loses the election, the policy impact of his unrelenting pro-fossil fuel agenda could ultimately be short-lived. “If he’s a one-term wonder,” says Doniger, “the biggest consequence of the Trump administration may just turn out to be lost time.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote citation='David Doniger, NRDC Action Fund']‘If [Trump’s] a one-term wonder, the biggest consequence of the Trump administration may just turn out to be lost time.’[/pullquote]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But time, at this hour of the climate fight, might be our most precious resource. As we stumble ever closer to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-climate-changes-worsens-a-cascade-of-tipping-points-looms\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">collapse of ice sheets, oceans and forests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the range of meaningful action we could take narrows. There is now believed to be more carbon dioxide in the air than any time in the last 3 million years. Our oceans are on track by the end of this century to become more acidic than they’ve been in some 15 million years — when they were enduring a major extinction event. Those oceans are also rising steadily enough to threaten the homes of 150 million people in the next three decades. “We lost years at a critical time,” says Wetzler. “We’re on the precipice of a number of climate and biological tipping points.” And, he says, we won’t fully understand the impact of that loss for years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If Biden wins in November, environmentalists say, his administration would have a slim window of opportunity to get our agencies back on track to meet the enormity of the climate crisis. “It means being aggressive from day one,” says Brett Hartl from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. “And not futzing around — knowing what you’re going to do and implementing it immediately.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making up for the lost time won’t be easy. Despite his slap-dash approach, Trump still managed to scramble the trajectory of American climate policy, creating a tangle of legal fights that will have to be cleared up for U.S. climate policy to move forward. And he left almost no part of our environmental regulatory structure untouched — greenlighting fossil fuel infrastructure like the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, setting us back on emission-reduction goals by reversing the Clean Power Plan and higher fuel-efficiency standards, and gutting the federal agencies that should be at the helm of our climate response.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So how difficult will it be to unscramble this mess? It would have to happen in three parts, environmentalists say, and all three would have to start on day one. First, Biden would have a powerful arsenal of executive tools available to him — if he chooses to use them. A\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://climatepresident.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> coalition of over 500 environmental\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> groups has already assembled a plan for how he could effectively jumpstart our fight against the climate crisis using executive powers, which would avoid both going through Congress and the lengthy federal rule-making process.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Using executive power, Biden could declare a national climate emergency. It wouldn’t just send an important message to Americans — and the rest of the world — that we’re taking the climate crisis seriously; it would give the administration the power to mobilize the government on a massive scale, like ordering the Secretary of Defense to redirect military spending toward the rapid development of clean energy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Biden could also immediately order federal agencies to reverse the climate rollbacks Trump introduced through executive order — like allowing oil and gas companies to side-step state approval — and start issuing his own. Most urgently, Biden would have the power to keep more fossil fuels in the ground: He could direct the secretary of the interior to halt oil-and-gas leasing and fracking on federal lands, reinstitute the ban on exporting crude oil, and order all federal agencies to deny permits for new fossil fuel infrastructure, like pipelines, storage facilities, and refineries. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He’d also be able to change the ways that money moves through the energy sector. He could prohibit the U.S. government from financing fossil fuel programs overseas and end all Department of Energy loans for fossil fuels stateside, while also requiring the Federal Reserve to manage climate risks — forcing it to acknowledge the current and future impact of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/t/climate-change/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">climate change\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on our economy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of these tools were already available in the Obama era, but the administration chose not to use them. For example, “the Clean Air Act is actually quite clear that you have the authority to set national ambient air quality standards,” says Hartl. “It would have been incredibly bold, and it actually wouldn’t have had the problems that the Clean Power Plan had. They could have really moved the needle on greenhouse gases in a very, very powerful way.” But, Hartl says, the Obama administration shied away from these kinds of actions for fear of political consequences. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Biden would face a very different national landscape. At the beginning of this year, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/21/how-americans-see-climate-change-and-the-environment-in-7-charts/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">two thirds of American adults said that protecting the environment should be a top priority of the federal government\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, up from only 30% at the beginning of Obama’s first term. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/19/914233038/poll-climate-becomes-top-priority-for-democrats-trump-struggles-on-race-covid-19\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a poll last week\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, likely Democratic voters ranked climate change as the most important issue to them in this election, and Data for Progress, a progressive think tank, has found that talking about climate change could actually help persuade voters who are on the fence to vote for a Democrat. All of this is to say, a Biden administration could have an unprecedented political mandate to take action on the climate crisis. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to issuing executive orders, beginning on day one Biden would also need to start the process of unwinding the deregulation efforts that Trump carried out through the federal rule-making process — like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rollbacks on the Endangered Species Act\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and fuel-emissions standards — and writing new ones to take their place. Environmentalists are confident that a new administration could systematically undo each rollback, but that process could take two years, according to Hartl. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And the Biden administration would need to learn from Trump’s mistakes. Legal challenges from the industries that these regulations impact — the American Petroleum Institute, the National Mining Association — are inevitable, “so you have to go in and be prepared to defend it the first time,” says Hartl. That means following the process to the letter: establishing rules with legal backing from legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts; opening the rule up to public comment; and then presenting a final rule that can stand up in court. Unlike Trump’s deregulation efforts, which were fighting against decades of environmental legislation, the law would be on Biden’s side. “The reality is that when Congress passed these laws,” says Hartl, “they were designed to make the environment better.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finally, Biden would have to start hiring like mad. Over the past four years, Trump’s EPA and Interior Department have hemorrhaged talent. The Bureau of Land Management moved the majority of its staff out of Washington, D.C., leading some 70% of that staff to resign, and the EPA is nearly as small as it was during the Nixon era, when the EPA was founded. “That pattern, in the most extreme way, is mirrored throughout the environmental agencies,” says Wetzler. “There’s been a real brain drain of people who can’t stand in an agency and support the agenda under the Trump administration, and we’ll have to put back the pieces of very demoralized, and in some cases broken agencies.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But from those ashes, Biden could build a coalition of climate advocates across his Cabinet. His transition team, and the 4,000 people they appoint, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://newrepublic.com/article/158198/inside-fight-shape-bidens-climate-policy\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">are arguably more influential than any campaign promises he could make\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Personnel is policy,” says Jamal Raad, co-founder and campaign director for Evergreen Action, founded by former staffers of Gov. Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign. “We need to choose regulators that have a climate lens,” and that lens doesn’t end at the EPA — it can reach the Department of Agriculture, where we have to reimagine our food production to work with our changing climate, or the Treasury, where regulators could interpret the Dodd-Frank consumer protection act to include climate risks. And within the White House, Raad says, Biden could create a National Climate Council that’s equivalent to the National Economic Council. “There needs to be a plan to reorient the federal government so that climate is a lens in all decision making.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Heading into the general election, pressure from the left wing of the party shaped Biden’s $2 trillion climate plan, which is “a green new deal in all but name,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/20/joe-biden-has-endorsed-the-green-new-deal-in-all-but-name\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote activist and journalist Julian Brave NoiseCat\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “It’s the most progressive, forward-leaning environmental plan that any candidate for president has ever released,” says Wetzler of the NRDC Action Fund. “It would represent incredible progress.” And while the Biden campaign hasn’t laid out a timetable for the plan, “the Biden team has been signaling their prioritization of climate by making it central to their economic recovery plans,” says Raad. “I think that folks should be cautiously optimistic — but vigilant — on the prospect of climate being a priority early in the first term.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, this all hinges on what happens in November. And if Trump is reelected, his administration would have the chance to establish a legacy of more than just incompetence and squandered time. Four more years of Donald Trump being in charge of the environment could permanently alter the American landscape. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In some cases, it would give the Trump administration time to fight back against the legal challenges they face, leaning on courts that they’ve stacked with anti-environmental judges. And damage could be done that will be near impossible to undo — rules can be changed, but mines can’t be unmined. The Trump administration has pursued the largest rollback of federally protected land in U.S. history. Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, for example, which Trump shrunk by 85% in 2017, is in the crosshairs of uranium developers. Trump’s move has been mired in lawsuits, but a second term could give them the time to untangle them, and hand the land over to the uranium lobbyists. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Likewise, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was just approved in August, leaving little time for leasing, let alone actual development, before Inauguration Day. But if Trump wins, those leases are likely to move forward, as will the roads, pipelines, and oil rigs that come with them, doing permanent damage to a vital and fragile ecosystem. “Over time you’re looking at millions and millions of acres of fossil fuel leasing,” says Hartl from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. “And eventually, once you get to the point where they’re actually putting drills in the ground, it’s very hard to undo that. You’re locking in a tremendous amount of fossil fuel infrastructure.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trump’s influence on the U.S. Supreme Court looms heavily for the environment as well. With Trump already raring to appoint a new justice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a second term is likely to offer him a fourth Supreme Court appointment, which would mean the highest court would house\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> seven\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Republican-appointed justices. When you’re suing over environmental issues, the court’s make-up can be the difference between having your day in court, and not. “For example, there’s a general judicial doctrine called ‘standing,’ or your ability to go to court to pursue your aggrieved interests,” explains Hartl. “Conservative judges want to narrow who has standing as much as possible, because that limits access to the courts. When you’re fighting for the environment, and your interest is protecting an endangered species or the atmosphere or the water, they’ve already made it hard for us to go to court, to have standing. And they can narrow it even further so that we don’t even have recourse. Our ability to just \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fight\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the environment is at stake.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The climate movement has never been more clear on what it is fighting for and what it needs to do, and finally has a presidential candidate who is signaling some willingness to do it. The prescription is fairly simple: Stop burning fossil fuels so we can begin drawing down the carbon in the atmosphere that’s overheating our planet and disrupting the systems that have supported life on Earth as we know it. The president has a lot of power to take that action, and we have no time to lose. “It’s true that we have 30 years [before an irreversible climate collapse], but \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">when\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> you act on that 30-year scale really affects how radically you have to act,” says Wetzler. “If you think about where the United States was at the beginning of the Trump administration — and where the world was, in terms of taking climate change seriously — it’s a huge, squandered opportunity.” This November, we can choose to act, and set ourselves back on course. “If this is a one-time, Black Swan event, we’re probably going to recover as a nation,” says Doniger. “This is the project of the century.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Andy Kroll contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"excerpt": "If Biden wins in November, environmentalists say, his administration would have a slim window of opportunity to get our agencies back on track to meet the enormity of the climate crisis.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003ch2>What a President Joe Biden would need to do starting Day One to correct the course of U.S. climate policy.\u003c/h2>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">This story originally appeared in \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/trump-climate-crisis-damage-can-it-be-fixed-1064995/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rolling Stone\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story. \u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">When he talks about the Trump administration, David Doniger likes to say: “Imagine where we’d be if they knew what they were doing.” The climate lawyer and senior adviser to the NRDC Action Fund spends his days defending the environment from the U.S. government, and for the past three and a half years, that’s meant a front-row seat to the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on any regulation that’s meant to slow the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/t/climate-crisis/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">climate crisis\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it’s also been a window into the hasty, sloppy, and legally dubious ways that they’ve gone about it. “One of the hallmarks of this administration is how incompetently they’re doing this,” says Doniger. “It shows up in how slowly they’ve been able to work, and how flimsy their legal rationales are.” Almost all of President Trump’s attempts at deregulation — some 100 rules that he’s tried to eliminate or weaken — are being challenged in court, and environmentalists are steadily winning. According to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Institute for Policy Integrity\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> at New York University, the Trump administration has lost 69 of the 83 legal challenges it’s faced in its deregulatory blitz.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We were saved by their incompetence,” says Andrew Wetzler from the NRDC Action Fund, mainly by their failure to follow basic rule-making procedures. They rushed through the process, often shortening or entirely skipping over the required 60 days for public comment, which provided a clear opening for their rule changes to be challenged in court. The administration’s ineptitude has given environmentalists hope that if Trump loses the election, the policy impact of his unrelenting pro-fossil fuel agenda could ultimately be short-lived. “If he’s a one-term wonder,” says Doniger, “the biggest consequence of the Trump administration may just turn out to be lost time.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But time, at this hour of the climate fight, might be our most precious resource. As we stumble ever closer to the \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://e360.yale.edu/features/as-climate-changes-worsens-a-cascade-of-tipping-points-looms\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">collapse of ice sheets, oceans and forests\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, the range of meaningful action we could take narrows. There is now believed to be more carbon dioxide in the air than any time in the last 3 million years. Our oceans are on track by the end of this century to become more acidic than they’ve been in some 15 million years — when they were enduring a major extinction event. Those oceans are also rising steadily enough to threaten the homes of 150 million people in the next three decades. “We lost years at a critical time,” says Wetzler. “We’re on the precipice of a number of climate and biological tipping points.” And, he says, we won’t fully understand the impact of that loss for years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">If Biden wins in November, environmentalists say, his administration would have a slim window of opportunity to get our agencies back on track to meet the enormity of the climate crisis. “It means being aggressive from day one,” says Brett Hartl from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. “And not futzing around — knowing what you’re going to do and implementing it immediately.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Making up for the lost time won’t be easy. Despite his slap-dash approach, Trump still managed to scramble the trajectory of American climate policy, creating a tangle of legal fights that will have to be cleared up for U.S. climate policy to move forward. And he left almost no part of our environmental regulatory structure untouched — greenlighting fossil fuel infrastructure like the Dakota Access and Keystone XL pipelines, setting us back on emission-reduction goals by reversing the Clean Power Plan and higher fuel-efficiency standards, and gutting the federal agencies that should be at the helm of our climate response.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">So how difficult will it be to unscramble this mess? It would have to happen in three parts, environmentalists say, and all three would have to start on day one. First, Biden would have a powerful arsenal of executive tools available to him — if he chooses to use them. A\u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"http://climatepresident.org/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> coalition of over 500 environmental\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> groups has already assembled a plan for how he could effectively jumpstart our fight against the climate crisis using executive powers, which would avoid both going through Congress and the lengthy federal rule-making process.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Using executive power, Biden could declare a national climate emergency. It wouldn’t just send an important message to Americans — and the rest of the world — that we’re taking the climate crisis seriously; it would give the administration the power to mobilize the government on a massive scale, like ordering the Secretary of Defense to redirect military spending toward the rapid development of clean energy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Biden could also immediately order federal agencies to reverse the climate rollbacks Trump introduced through executive order — like allowing oil and gas companies to side-step state approval — and start issuing his own. Most urgently, Biden would have the power to keep more fossil fuels in the ground: He could direct the secretary of the interior to halt oil-and-gas leasing and fracking on federal lands, reinstitute the ban on exporting crude oil, and order all federal agencies to deny permits for new fossil fuel infrastructure, like pipelines, storage facilities, and refineries. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">He’d also be able to change the ways that money moves through the energy sector. He could prohibit the U.S. government from financing fossil fuel programs overseas and end all Department of Energy loans for fossil fuels stateside, while also requiring the Federal Reserve to manage climate risks — forcing it to acknowledge the current and future impact of \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.rollingstone.com/t/climate-change/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">climate change\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> on our economy. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Many of these tools were already available in the Obama era, but the administration chose not to use them. For example, “the Clean Air Act is actually quite clear that you have the authority to set national ambient air quality standards,” says Hartl. “It would have been incredibly bold, and it actually wouldn’t have had the problems that the Clean Power Plan had. They could have really moved the needle on greenhouse gases in a very, very powerful way.” But, Hartl says, the Obama administration shied away from these kinds of actions for fear of political consequences. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Biden would face a very different national landscape. At the beginning of this year, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/21/how-americans-see-climate-change-and-the-environment-in-7-charts/\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">two thirds of American adults said that protecting the environment should be a top priority of the federal government\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, up from only 30% at the beginning of Obama’s first term. \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/19/914233038/poll-climate-becomes-top-priority-for-democrats-trump-struggles-on-race-covid-19\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In a poll last week\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">, likely Democratic voters ranked climate change as the most important issue to them in this election, and Data for Progress, a progressive think tank, has found that talking about climate change could actually help persuade voters who are on the fence to vote for a Democrat. All of this is to say, a Biden administration could have an unprecedented political mandate to take action on the climate crisis. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In addition to issuing executive orders, beginning on day one Biden would also need to start the process of unwinding the deregulation efforts that Trump carried out through the federal rule-making process — like \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/12/climate/endangered-species-act-changes.html\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">rollbacks on the Endangered Species Act\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> and fuel-emissions standards — and writing new ones to take their place. Environmentalists are confident that a new administration could systematically undo each rollback, but that process could take two years, according to Hartl. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">And the Biden administration would need to learn from Trump’s mistakes. Legal challenges from the industries that these regulations impact — the American Petroleum Institute, the National Mining Association — are inevitable, “so you have to go in and be prepared to defend it the first time,” says Hartl. That means following the process to the letter: establishing rules with legal backing from legislation like the Clean Air and Clean Water acts; opening the rule up to public comment; and then presenting a final rule that can stand up in court. Unlike Trump’s deregulation efforts, which were fighting against decades of environmental legislation, the law would be on Biden’s side. “The reality is that when Congress passed these laws,” says Hartl, “they were designed to make the environment better.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Finally, Biden would have to start hiring like mad. Over the past four years, Trump’s EPA and Interior Department have hemorrhaged talent. The Bureau of Land Management moved the majority of its staff out of Washington, D.C., leading some 70% of that staff to resign, and the EPA is nearly as small as it was during the Nixon era, when the EPA was founded. “That pattern, in the most extreme way, is mirrored throughout the environmental agencies,” says Wetzler. “There’s been a real brain drain of people who can’t stand in an agency and support the agenda under the Trump administration, and we’ll have to put back the pieces of very demoralized, and in some cases broken agencies.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">But from those ashes, Biden could build a coalition of climate advocates across his Cabinet. His transition team, and the 4,000 people they appoint, \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://newrepublic.com/article/158198/inside-fight-shape-bidens-climate-policy\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">are arguably more influential than any campaign promises he could make\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “Personnel is policy,” says Jamal Raad, co-founder and campaign director for Evergreen Action, founded by former staffers of Gov. Jay Inslee’s presidential campaign. “We need to choose regulators that have a climate lens,” and that lens doesn’t end at the EPA — it can reach the Department of Agriculture, where we have to reimagine our food production to work with our changing climate, or the Treasury, where regulators could interpret the Dodd-Frank consumer protection act to include climate risks. And within the White House, Raad says, Biden could create a National Climate Council that’s equivalent to the National Economic Council. “There needs to be a plan to reorient the federal government so that climate is a lens in all decision making.” \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Heading into the general election, pressure from the left wing of the party shaped Biden’s $2 trillion climate plan, which is “a green new deal in all but name,” \u003c/span>\u003ca href=\"https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/jul/20/joe-biden-has-endorsed-the-green-new-deal-in-all-but-name\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">wrote activist and journalist Julian Brave NoiseCat\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">. “It’s the most progressive, forward-leaning environmental plan that any candidate for president has ever released,” says Wetzler of the NRDC Action Fund. “It would represent incredible progress.” And while the Biden campaign hasn’t laid out a timetable for the plan, “the Biden team has been signaling their prioritization of climate by making it central to their economic recovery plans,” says Raad. “I think that folks should be cautiously optimistic — but vigilant — on the prospect of climate being a priority early in the first term.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Of course, this all hinges on what happens in November. And if Trump is reelected, his administration would have the chance to establish a legacy of more than just incompetence and squandered time. Four more years of Donald Trump being in charge of the environment could permanently alter the American landscape. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">In some cases, it would give the Trump administration time to fight back against the legal challenges they face, leaning on courts that they’ve stacked with anti-environmental judges. And damage could be done that will be near impossible to undo — rules can be changed, but mines can’t be unmined. The Trump administration has pursued the largest rollback of federally protected land in U.S. history. Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, for example, which Trump shrunk by 85% in 2017, is in the crosshairs of uranium developers. Trump’s move has been mired in lawsuits, but a second term could give them the time to untangle them, and hand the land over to the uranium lobbyists. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Likewise, drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was just approved in August, leaving little time for leasing, let alone actual development, before Inauguration Day. But if Trump wins, those leases are likely to move forward, as will the roads, pipelines, and oil rigs that come with them, doing permanent damage to a vital and fragile ecosystem. “Over time you’re looking at millions and millions of acres of fossil fuel leasing,” says Hartl from the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund. “And eventually, once you get to the point where they’re actually putting drills in the ground, it’s very hard to undo that. You’re locking in a tremendous amount of fossil fuel infrastructure.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Trump’s influence on the U.S. Supreme Court looms heavily for the environment as well. With Trump already raring to appoint a new justice to replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a second term is likely to offer him a fourth Supreme Court appointment, which would mean the highest court would house\u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> seven\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> Republican-appointed justices. When you’re suing over environmental issues, the court’s make-up can be the difference between having your day in court, and not. “For example, there’s a general judicial doctrine called ‘standing,’ or your ability to go to court to pursue your aggrieved interests,” explains Hartl. “Conservative judges want to narrow who has standing as much as possible, because that limits access to the courts. When you’re fighting for the environment, and your interest is protecting an endangered species or the atmosphere or the water, they’ve already made it hard for us to go to court, to have standing. And they can narrow it even further so that we don’t even have recourse. Our ability to just \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">fight\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> for the environment is at stake.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">The climate movement has never been more clear on what it is fighting for and what it needs to do, and finally has a presidential candidate who is signaling some willingness to do it. The prescription is fairly simple: Stop burning fossil fuels so we can begin drawing down the carbon in the atmosphere that’s overheating our planet and disrupting the systems that have supported life on Earth as we know it. The president has a lot of power to take that action, and we have no time to lose. “It’s true that we have 30 years [before an irreversible climate collapse], but \u003c/span>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">when\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\"> you act on that 30-year scale really affects how radically you have to act,” says Wetzler. “If you think about where the United States was at the beginning of the Trump administration — and where the world was, in terms of taking climate change seriously — it’s a huge, squandered opportunity.” This November, we can choose to act, and set ourselves back on course. “If this is a one-time, Black Swan event, we’re probably going to recover as a nation,” says Doniger. “This is the project of the century.”\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ci>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400\">Andy Kroll contributed reporting to this story.\u003c/span>\u003c/i>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "'Light Years Ahead' Of Their Elders, Young Republicans Push GOP On Climate Change",
"headTitle": "‘Light Years Ahead’ Of Their Elders, Young Republicans Push GOP On Climate Change | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Think “climate change activist” and a young, liberal student may come to mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/19/914233038/poll-climate-becomes-top-priority-for-democrats-trump-struggles-on-race-covid-19\">NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll\u003c/a> showed climate change is the top issue for Democratic voters. For Republicans, it barely registers overall, but there is a growing generational divide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/24/millennial-and-gen-z-republicans-stand-out-from-their-elders-on-climate-and-energy-issues/\">Pew Research Center survey\u003c/a> shows Republicans 18 to 39 years old are more concerned about the climate than their elders. By a nearly 2-to-1 margin they are more likely to agree that “human activity contributes a great deal to climate change,” and “the federal government is doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these young conservatives are starting environmental groups and becoming climate activists. And now they’re pushing their party to do more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Benji Backer started the \u003ca href=\"https://www.acc.eco/blog/2020/9/3/electric-election-announcement\">American Conservation Coalition\u003c/a> in 2017, after his freshman year in college, and says his love of nature comes in part from his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were Audubon members, Nature Conservancy members. But they were conservative, and I grew up not thinking that the environment should be political at all,” said Backer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet these days, environmental politics dominates his life. From now until the November election, Backer is driving an electric car across the country, talking about his group’s climate agenda and posting videos along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Backer is promoting his group’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.climatesolution.eco/the-american-climate-contract\">American Climate Contract\u003c/a>, which is a conservative, market-focused response to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/climate/green-new-deal-questions-answers.html\">Green New Deal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s critical of fellow conservatives who ignore climate change. He praised Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg when they both \u003ca href=\"https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4823780/user-clip-benji-backer-testimony\">testified before Congress\u003c/a> last year. And Backer says he wants to work with liberal climate activists to pass legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, how will he vote in November?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If President Trump wants to get my vote, he’s going to have to prioritize climate change in a way that he has not done over the past four years,” Backer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he’s undecided so far, Backer says he was disappointed climate change wasn’t even discussed at the Republican National Convention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to NPR the Trump campaign said, “President Trump’s record on the environment proves you can have energy independence and a clean, healthy environment without destroying the economy, overregulating, or burdening American taxpayers.” The statement never mentions climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Young Republicans are light years ahead of their elder counterparts on this issue,” said Kiera O’Brien, founder and president of \u003ca href=\"https://www.yccdaction.org/\">Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends\u003c/a>, which supports a \u003ca href=\"https://clcouncil.org/our-plan/\">carbon tax proposal\u003c/a> to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Brien grew up in Alaska and says young conservatives are motivated by mounting evidence that the climate is changing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re seeing the impacts firsthand, whether it’s myself in Alaska with algal blooms that are turning the ocean weird colors, or with flooding in the Gulf Coast, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/hurricane-laura-live-updates/2020/08/27/906633395/hurricanes-like-laura-are-more-likely-because-of-climate-change\">hurricanes\u003c/a> that are unprecedented at this point,” O’Brien said. She calls her generation “the climate generation,” and says \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/08/28/905622947/everything-is-unprecedented-welcome-to-your-hotter-earth\">effects\u003c/a> they were told were far off are happening now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some liberal climate activists are encouraged to see young conservatives join them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It means a real hope for the future because it speaks to our generationally shared values: truth, empathy, and patriotism,” said Nikayla Jefferson, with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrisemovement.org/\">Sunrise Movement\u003c/a>. “Climate change knows no party lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former South Carolina Republican Congressman Bob Inglis says young conservative climate activists are being faithful to their age cohort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s that they, along with their progressive friends, plan on living on the Earth longer than, say, their parents or grandparents,” says Inglis, executive dfirector of the conservative climate group \u003ca href=\"https://republicen.org/\">republicEn\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inglis says for this generation, addressing climate change is becoming a moral issue more than a political one. And that makes him optimistic the country will eventually take more action to address the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The demographics are definitely going to deliver a win for climate change. I am absolutely certain we are going to win on climate policy. The question is whether we win soon enough to avoid the worst consequences,” Inglis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists say that time line is short, but Inglis believes the country is more likely to succeed if both sides of the aisle are focused on the challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Light+Years+Ahead%27+Of+Their+Elders%2C+Young+Republicans+Push+GOP+On+Climate+Change&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Climate change is a major election issue for Democrats, but not Republicans. Yet polls show many young conservatives are concerned about climate impacts, and some are lobbying for solutions.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Think “climate change activist” and a young, liberal student may come to mind.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/09/19/914233038/poll-climate-becomes-top-priority-for-democrats-trump-struggles-on-race-covid-19\">NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist poll\u003c/a> showed climate change is the top issue for Democratic voters. For Republicans, it barely registers overall, but there is a growing generational divide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A recent \u003ca href=\"https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/06/24/millennial-and-gen-z-republicans-stand-out-from-their-elders-on-climate-and-energy-issues/\">Pew Research Center survey\u003c/a> shows Republicans 18 to 39 years old are more concerned about the climate than their elders. By a nearly 2-to-1 margin they are more likely to agree that “human activity contributes a great deal to climate change,” and “the federal government is doing too little to reduce the effects of climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some of these young conservatives are starting environmental groups and becoming climate activists. And now they’re pushing their party to do more.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Benji Backer started the \u003ca href=\"https://www.acc.eco/blog/2020/9/3/electric-election-announcement\">American Conservation Coalition\u003c/a> in 2017, after his freshman year in college, and says his love of nature comes in part from his family.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They were Audubon members, Nature Conservancy members. But they were conservative, and I grew up not thinking that the environment should be political at all,” said Backer.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet these days, environmental politics dominates his life. From now until the November election, Backer is driving an electric car across the country, talking about his group’s climate agenda and posting videos along the way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Backer is promoting his group’s \u003ca href=\"https://www.climatesolution.eco/the-american-climate-contract\">American Climate Contract\u003c/a>, which is a conservative, market-focused response to the \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/21/climate/green-new-deal-questions-answers.html\">Green New Deal\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He’s critical of fellow conservatives who ignore climate change. He praised Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg when they both \u003ca href=\"https://www.c-span.org/video/?c4823780/user-clip-benji-backer-testimony\">testified before Congress\u003c/a> last year. And Backer says he wants to work with liberal climate activists to pass legislation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So, how will he vote in November?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If President Trump wants to get my vote, he’s going to have to prioritize climate change in a way that he has not done over the past four years,” Backer said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While he’s undecided so far, Backer says he was disappointed climate change wasn’t even discussed at the Republican National Convention.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a statement to NPR the Trump campaign said, “President Trump’s record on the environment proves you can have energy independence and a clean, healthy environment without destroying the economy, overregulating, or burdening American taxpayers.” The statement never mentions climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Young Republicans are light years ahead of their elder counterparts on this issue,” said Kiera O’Brien, founder and president of \u003ca href=\"https://www.yccdaction.org/\">Young Conservatives for Carbon Dividends\u003c/a>, which supports a \u003ca href=\"https://clcouncil.org/our-plan/\">carbon tax proposal\u003c/a> to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>O’Brien grew up in Alaska and says young conservatives are motivated by mounting evidence that the climate is changing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They’re seeing the impacts firsthand, whether it’s myself in Alaska with algal blooms that are turning the ocean weird colors, or with flooding in the Gulf Coast, or \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/sections/hurricane-laura-live-updates/2020/08/27/906633395/hurricanes-like-laura-are-more-likely-because-of-climate-change\">hurricanes\u003c/a> that are unprecedented at this point,” O’Brien said. She calls her generation “the climate generation,” and says \u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2020/08/28/905622947/everything-is-unprecedented-welcome-to-your-hotter-earth\">effects\u003c/a> they were told were far off are happening now.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some liberal climate activists are encouraged to see young conservatives join them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It means a real hope for the future because it speaks to our generationally shared values: truth, empathy, and patriotism,” said Nikayla Jefferson, with the \u003ca href=\"https://www.sunrisemovement.org/\">Sunrise Movement\u003c/a>. “Climate change knows no party lines.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former South Carolina Republican Congressman Bob Inglis says young conservative climate activists are being faithful to their age cohort.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I think it’s that they, along with their progressive friends, plan on living on the Earth longer than, say, their parents or grandparents,” says Inglis, executive dfirector of the conservative climate group \u003ca href=\"https://republicen.org/\">republicEn\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Inglis says for this generation, addressing climate change is becoming a moral issue more than a political one. And that makes him optimistic the country will eventually take more action to address the problem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The demographics are definitely going to deliver a win for climate change. I am absolutely certain we are going to win on climate policy. The question is whether we win soon enough to avoid the worst consequences,” Inglis said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists say that time line is short, but Inglis believes the country is more likely to succeed if both sides of the aisle are focused on the challenge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"fullattribution\">Copyright 2020 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.\u003cimg decoding=\"async\" src=\"https://www.google-analytics.com/__utm.gif?utmac=UA-5828686-4&utmdt=%27Light+Years+Ahead%27+Of+Their+Elders%2C+Young+Republicans+Push+GOP+On+Climate+Change&utme=8(APIKey)9(MDAxOTAwOTE4MDEyMTkxMDAzNjczZDljZA004)\">\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
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