Tuesday, November 26th, 2019
Stephan: Almost anything criminal Trump says is a lie, there are thousands of examples thoroughly documented. But the effects produced by his lies don't often get connected to their social consequences. Here is one that has been connected. You and I have paid $40 billion in extra costs on Chinese goods because criminal Trump is utterly incompetent as a businessman and negotiator.
I doubt it will matter to his base though; they aren't smart enough to see or even want to see cause and effect.
Xi JInping and Donald Trump
Credit: Thomas Peter/Getty
According to a new study from the New York Federal Reserve, Chinese businesses have not lowered prices in a significant way when it comes to exports in response to President Trump’s trade wars, leaving Americans to absorb additional import taxes levied by the Trump administration, to the tune of around $40 billion per year.
“The continued stability of import prices for goods from China means US firms and consumers have to pay the tariff tax,” study authors Matthew Higgins, Thomas Klitgaard, and Michael Nattinger, wrote.
As Business Insider points out, the study’s findings contradict a claim made by Trump that foreign exporters are shouldering up to 25 percent of the costs — a claim the White House has continued to disseminate even after other studies have reached the same conclusion.
“China is paying […]
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Monday, November 25th, 2019
Stephan: Fifteen years ago I wrote an essay in which I asserted that in one of the great ironies of American history, the Indian tribes who in the 19th century had been forced to live on lands the Whites didn't want would, in the 21st century, become rich because those same lands would be ideal for solar and wind energy production. It's happening, and I think it is very good news.
A solar farm on Navajo tribal land generates all the electricity used on the 17-million acre reservation.
Credit: Navajo Tribal Utility Authority
DENVER — New, large-scale solar farms are bringing jobs to reservations and electricity for the first time to families living on tribal lands in remote areas of the Southwest.
Along with selling renewable energy on a large scale to cities like Albuquerque and Los Angeles, solar power generated by tribes pays for infrastructure to power up homes that have been waiting decades for electricity.
The Navajo Tribal Utilities Authority successfully brought online two large solar projects that generate 55 megawatts in Kayenta, Ariz., over the past year. The two sites now provide enough electricity to power the entire 17-million-acre reservation.
Building the two solar farms employed more than 400 people, most of them tribal members, said Deenise Becenti, the utility’s spokeswoman.
The power authority raised seed money to bring electricity to remote families by selling renewable energy credits to Phoenix’s Salt River Project.
This fall, as part of the Light Up Navajo program, utility line workers from […]
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Monday, November 25th, 2019
Stephan: Down in the tall weeds of industrial science, where the media rarely looks, good news in the form of new approaches to complex problems is emerging. Here is an example.
Heliogen’s demonstration tower in Lancaster, California.
Credit: Heliogen
It’s pretty clear how we can reduce and eventually eliminate greenhouse gas emissions from some sectors of the economy. Electricity, transportation, and buildings, three of the biggest emitters, have a pathway to zero. It won’t be easy, and progress is too slow, but we have a handle on what to do.
But there are still big chunks of the economy that don’t have a clear line of sight to zero. They don’t yet have the tools they need at competitive prices. They are still waiting on innovation.
Many of them, including cement and steel, rely on large amounts of continuous high-temperature heat, and as I described in this post, there are very few viable low-carbon sources of such heat. Collectively, these industrial processes represent around 20 percent of global carbon emissions. It is one of the thorniest dilemmas in climate policy.
It’s not often that I write about a carbon policy dilemma only to have a clever new solution arrive in my inbox […]
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Monday, November 25th, 2019
NICHOLAS KUSNETZ, Reporter - Inside Climate News
Stephan: Even though Criminal Trump and Moscow Mitch have been able to appoint and confirm a quarter of the judges in the Federal judiciary, there are still men and women of integrity on the bench who can see clearly that the Republican push to keep the carbon industry in profit with no consideration about the effect this will have on climate change is morally and legally wrong. So, on balance, I see this as good news.
Nearly a quarter of the nation’s carbon dioxide emissions come from fossil fuels developed on federal lands, according to a government report.
Credit: Bureau of Land Management
The Trump administration’s relentless push to expand fossil fuel production on federal lands is hitting a new snag: its own refusal to consider the climate impacts of development.
The federal Bureau of Land Management’s Utah office in September voluntarily suspended 130 oil and gas leases after advocacy groups sued, arguing that BLM hadn’t adequately assessed the greenhouse gas emissions associated with drilling and extraction on those leases as required by law.
The move was unusual because BLM suspended the leases on its own, without waiting for a court to rule.
Some environmental advocates say it could indicate a larger problem for the bureau.
“It is potentially a BLM-wide issue,” said Jayni Hein, natural resources director at the Institute for Policy Integrity at NYU School of Law, which has been involved in similar litigation in other states. “It could have the […]
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Monday, November 25th, 2019
Coral Davenport, - The New York Times
Stephan: Here, in this story, one sees clearly the Great Schism Trend as it is playing out. Criminal Trump and his administration, proponents of Neoliberal Red values, are doing everything they can to keep America dependent on petroleum and keep the profits flowing into the carbon industry.
In California a state run by Democrats in accordance with Blue values, the government is taking a very different path. As time goes on it is going to become obvious to even the dimmest America that Blue values foster wellbeing while Red values do not. Unfortunately, for those Republican voters it will be too late and they will have to live with what they have done.
Gov. Gavin Newsom of California with Mary D. Nichols, right, chairwoman of the state’s clean air regulator, and Jared Blumenfeld, secretary of the California Environmental Protection Agency, in September.
Credit: Justin Sullivan/Getty
WASHINGTON — California’s government has hit back at automakers that sided with President Trump over the state on fuel efficiency standards, saying Sacramento will halt all purchases of new vehicles from General Motors, Toyota, Fiat Chrysler and other automakers that backed stripping California of its authority to regulate tailpipe emissions.
The ban, which the California governor, Gavin Newsom, plans to implement in January 2020, is the latest shot in the intensifying battle over climate change between Mr. Trump and the state, which he appears to relish antagonizing.
“Carmakers that have chosen to be on the wrong side of history will be on the losing end of California’s buying power,” Governor Newsom said in a statement on Monday.
A spokeswoman for G.M. said the state was depriving itself of the low-cost electric vehicles […]
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