Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
 
 
Volume 1                                                    August 27, 2019                                                                           Issue 24
 
                I'm an environmentalist. I think I know more about the environment than most people.
                                Donald Trump on why he could afford to miss the G-7 session on climate.
 
There goes the neighborhood. Construction crews broke ground on a small portion of the $664 million border fence project in the Arizona desert that is funded through President Trump's national emergency declaration.

Crews plan to install 30-foot steel fencing to replace older barriers on 2 miles in Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, next to the official border crossing known as the Lukeville Port of Entry.

The project is funded through the Defense Department. Use of the department's money was previously frozen by lower courts while a lawsuit proceeded. However, the Supreme Court last month cleared the way for the use of about $2.5 billion (E&E News)

• This story is part of this week’s Civil Notion. For more information on border walls and proposed climate emergency declarations go to: 911, What’s Your Climate Emergency?

Do the hustle. The Trump administration has been scrambling to stem the tide of rising anger in Farm Belt states after its decision this month to allow numerous oil refiners to mix less ethanol into their gasoline. 

Seeking to tamp down political fallout in U.S. farm states essential to his re-election, Trump has ordered federal agencies to shift course on relieving some oil refineries of requirements to use biofuel such as corn-based ethanol.

Trump and top cabinet leaders decided they wouldn’t make changes to just-issued waivers that allow small refineries to ignore the mandates but agreed to start boosting biofuel-blending quotas to make up for expected exemptions beginning in 2021. The outcome was described by four people familiar with the matter who asked not to be named before a formal announcement could be made. (Reuters and Bloomberg)

                   Climate, Politics/Capitol Light©, is a service of The JBS Group and Civil Notion
 
 
Volume 1                                                                   July 29, 2019                                                                 Issue 20

Note to Readers. The Senate will soon be following the House out of Capital City for their August recess. Climate Politics will drop down to one report a week during the recess.

A brew of a different sort.  Murray Energy Corp. founder Bob Murray said he had provided President Donald Trump another memo containing policy recommendations, which include pressing the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to elevate coal power sales among state public utility commissions.

The coal executive hosted a fundraiser for Trump's 2020 campaign at an arena along the Ohio River. According to reports, the event drew a crowd of several hundred spruced-up donors, many associated with the energy industry. (E&E News)

• Murray was behind Secretary of Energy Perry’s proposing to FERC that coal plants should be kept operating for national security reasons—notwithstanding their contributions to global warming and being uneconomic.
• He continues to push for a reversal of the endangerment finding.
• I would imagine that the Trump will continue to express sympathy for the coal guy’s to-do list at least as long as the money holds out—just a guess.
  

On the count of 3. More than 60 media outlets have committed to a week of focused climate change coverage in September.

The effort was coordinated by the Covering Climate Now project, which was co-founded by the progressive magazine The Nation and the Columbia Journalism Review, in partnership with The Guardian.

Volume 1                                                                          July 1, 2019                                                               Issue 13
 
Note to readers: Due to the July 4th holiday this is the only issue published this week.

Populist leaders will need bigger walls.  A United Nations report is warning that the world is risking a "climate apartheid" scenario in which the wealthy can pay to avoid the consequences of global warming while the rest of society suffers. 

“Even if current targets are met, tens of millions will be impoverished, leading to widespread displacement and hunger,” U.N. special rapporteur on extreme poverty and human rights, Philip Alston, said in a report released last week. 

The report says that extreme climate change threatens to push "more than 120 million more people into poverty by 2030," according to Alston, who added that it will "have the most severe impact in poor countries, regions, and the places poor people live and work.” (The Hill)

Wanting it both ways. ExxonMobil is working to encourage a major Washington lobbying group to support policies addressing climate change, according to a top company official.

Facing public, investor and legal pressure, oil companies are increasingly backing action on the issue of climate change while remaining members of trade associations, e.g., the American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), whose positions don’t align with that shift.

Royal Dutch Shell, under pressure from activist investors, announced earlier this year it was leaving AFPM, citing "material misalignment" on climate policies. Exxon is opting to stay and try to influence the group’s positioning, Nick Schulz, Exxon’s director of stakeholder engagement, said at a recent conference. Exxon also supports the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement and a carbon tax. (Axios)

• It’s hard to take these steps by major oil companies seriously when they continue to work against the transition to renewable energy sources for power production and improved vehicle fuel efficiencies.
• Support by Exxon and other oil majors for a national carbon tax also ring hollow when their support is linked to a get-out-of-jail-free card in the form of freedom from civil damage lawsuits.