Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion

                                                                        January 25, 2020

The Trump administration has gone to great pains to purge Obama-era science advisers from federal advisory boards and replace them with their own. Trump’s scientists seem to have the integrity many of his administrative appointees, e.g., EPA Administrator Wheeler lack.

The administration is going to have a tough time defending its actions in court. It’s possible that administration lawyers are counting on courts deferring to agency expertise in these matters. It is equally possible that they don’t care.

The hole in this strategy is that the administration’s own scientists are unwilling to validate wishful facts. In the clips below, Wheeler and Trump are both called out on their statements about what a proposed rule will and won’t do, as well when the world can expect to begin feeling the impacts of global climate change.

Is it any wonder that 1,600 scientists have left government since Trump took office? Although rarely spoken of, part of Trump’s legacy will be the shambles the executive branch will be upon his departure.

           Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion

                                                                     January 21, 2020
 
Impeachment continues to dominate the news in Washington. The Senate is in session and is currently debating the rules of engagement in the trial phase of Trump’s impeachment. It will be a while yet before the actual trial begins.

There some contentious to be answered, e.g., will witnesses be allowed to testify? If yes, who. Will they be asked to testify in person or by video or written questions and answers. As rigged as the outcome seems to be, there’s a lot riding on the optics for both Republicans and Democrats.

The full House is back next week. This week members involved in the impeachment proceedings are the ones hard at work.

Tree’s company. Trump tried out a new storyline in his speech at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It involved both a rejection of prophecies of doom and reforestation.

“Fear and doubt is not a good thought process because this is a time for tremendous hope and joy and optimism and action…But to embrace the possibilities of tomorrow, we must reject the perennial prophets of doom and their predictions of the apocalypse,” Trump told his audience.

           Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion (#39)
                                                                  January 16, 2020

Congress Rules--

Impeachment and the pending Senate trial are understandably sucking most of the oxygen out of Capital City. Senate committee chairs are still deciding if hearings are feasible once the trial starts. Rules are that Senators must sit in their seats for the entire time. They won’t be allowed their cell phones, or to talk to their neighbors, or read any material not directly asso-ciated with the proceeding.

The hearings are expected to go into February. Trump will likely be giving his State of the Union address while the trial is still going on. It should be interesting to see how he will handle facing 230 of his accusers in Speaker Pelosi’s House.

 It appears that House Republicans are meeting to discuss putting together their own climate crisis package in response to the CLEAN Future Act that was put together by Democratic mem-bers of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. (See here for a detailed discussion) Although they won’t admit it, it does seem they are worried about having no response to the Democrats in an election year.

             Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
                                                                      January 11, 2020
                                                             
Talk about cooking the book(s)

As anticipated, Trump announced his administration’s proposed changes to the National Envi-ronmental Policy Act (NEPA). The proposed changes would reduce the number of infra-structure projects requiring an environmental review and releasing agencies from having to account for cumulative environmental impacts. Under the proposed rules, projects paid for with private investment funds, e.g., the Keystone XL pipeline, would not require an environ-mental impact statement. Absent the NEPA requirement privately funded projects would not be required to disclose plans to discharge waste into nearby rivers, clear cut forests or otherwise increase greenhouse gas emissions.

 The administration has virtually eliminated federal consideration of climate change by freeing agencies from having to account for cumulative environmental impacts. The courts have generally required agencies to account for cumulative climate impact of projects like the federal government's leasing public lands for oil and gas exploration and extraction.

The proposed changes are here. The changes won’t become permanent before the conclusion of a 60-day comment period and conduct of two public hearings.

                 Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
                                                                              January 8, 2020        
                                                                    
Feeding off of a failed UN Summit late in 2019, the almost daily release of reports updating and confirming climate science studies, student strikes, a continent on fire, and the already prominent place of climate in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination, 2020 looms as a watershed political year for national climate policy.

To state the obvious, the re-election of Trump would be a devastating setback for the environ-mental well-being of the nation and the world. Almost as costly in terms of climate defense would be a divided Congress. Notwithstanding the rising number of Republicans in both the House and Senate who are now at least willing to admit there is a problem, Republicans and Democrats remain very far apart in terms of a willingness to do anything even close to what the scientists say is needed within the time they say it needs to be done.

Below is a thumbnail about the new million dollar ad campaign the American Petroleum Institute (API) is launching this year on behalf of oil and gas companies. The tack the Institute is taking is to pitch themselves as part of the solution, without altering their position on most policy matters. API, for example, remains opposed to a carbon tax, the regulation of methane and other greenhouse gases. The campaign is intended to support a heavy lobbying effort by the companies to keep fracking alive.