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Memorable Presidential Environmental Quotes

Six Memorable Presidential
Environmental Quotes

Earth Matters NewsFeb.9, 2017  -Presidents, Theodore Roosevelt, Franklin D Roosevelt, Ronald Reagan, Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson and Barack Obama had something to say.

Click now to read their quotes.
Some might surprise you.

• The Green New Deal Explained What Is the Green New Deal?
  A Climate Proposal, Explained

  NY Times Climate Forward, Feb. 21, 2019  - The Green New Deal is a congressional resolution that lays out a grand plan for tackling climate change.

  Introduced by Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York and Senator Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, both Democrats, the proposal calls on the federal government to wean the United States from fossil fuels and curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions across the economy. It also aims to guarantee new high-paying jobs in clean energy industries.

  Interested? Click now for whole story.

• How the Border Wall Affect Wildlife Near the Border ‘This Is Not Like a Fence in a Backyard’
  — Trump’s Border Wall vs. Wildlife

  The Revelator Podcasts, Apr. 11, 2019 - As was discussed recently on the Sciencentric podcast, the wall’s true impact becomes more evident when you envision all of the things that accompany it: Roads, vehicles, lights, and acres upon acres of cleared habitat. That’s bad news for jaguars, bears, birds, bees and hundreds, if not thousands, of other species.

  Check out the video interview, where host Eric R. Olson and John Platt also discuss The Revelator, my work on “Extinction Countdown,” and what technologies might work instead of a wall.

  Click now to watch the interview.

• President Wants to Tell the Polar Bears Where to Get Off Help Protect the Arctic Refuge
  Before It’s Too Late!

  NRDC -The Trump administration is closer than ever to tearing open the heart of Alaska’s pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for dangerous oil and gas drilling — and if they succeed, it will have devastating, irreversible consequences for our waters, wildlife, climate, and the region’s Gwich’in people.

  NRDC is fighting back in and out of the courtroom in an unprecedented battle to protect the Arctic Refuge and its fragile Arctic coastline.

• Trump is Not the 1st to Assault Env. Protection History of US Presidential Assaults
  on Environmental Health Protection

  Apr. 26, 2018 American Public Health Association - The Trump administration has undertaken an assault on the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), an agency critical to environmental health. This assault has precedents in the administrations of Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush.

  The early Reagan administration (1981–1983) launched an overt attack on the EPA, combining deregulation with budget and staff cuts, whereas the George W. Bush administration (2001–2008) adopted a subtler approach, undermining science-based policy.

  Wait, there’s more…

• Some Republicans Support Carbon Fee/DividendExceeding Paris

  Contain Forewords by: Ted Halstead, George P. Schultz, Lawrence Summers, Rob Walton, Christine Todd Whitman and Janet Yellen.

  The Baker-Shultz plan would achieve approximately 32% in greenhouse gas reductions by 2025, thereby exceeding our Paris commitment by a wide margin

  The Baker-Shultz Carbon Dividends Plan is not only the most environmentally ambitious plan, but also the most politically-viable. Why? Because it addresses the legitimate concerns of all key stakeholders in the climate debate and enables each to realize an important victory.

  Click to read the PDF from the
  Climate Leadership Council.

• Attention Humanists: You Have a Role to PlayAsk What You Can Do for Your Climate(1)

  Apr. 18, 2017 -While the federal government is becoming a follower rather than a leader on climate change, humanists can fight on the state, local, and personal levels

  IF THE PERSONAL IS POLITICAL, then climate change is personal, too. As a presidential candidate, Donald Trump campaigned against the Paris Agreement negotiated in December 2015 at the 21st Conference of the Parties of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. With President Trump signing an executive order to roll back federal efforts to reduce global warming, humanists must do more at the state and local levels to fight climate change. If you’re up for it, there are many things you can do to help.

  Click now if you’re ready to learn more.

• We Can Take Active Role in the Climate Crisis Ask What You Can Do for Your Climate<2>

  Join a Climate Reality Chapter,and be part of a sustainable future. You’ve heard about “the future.” It’s not that far away, and your children and grandchildren will be living in it, long after you’re gone.

  Chapters give you the opportunity to draw on Climate Reality’s support and expertise, while creating and executing plans for climate action that make the most sense for your community.

  Already, Climate Reality chapters have become a vital force for progress, helping expand clean energy alternatives, tackling the legacy of fossil fuels in low-income communities, and pushing for carbon pricing policies, to name just a few of the many campaigns underway across the US.

  Click now if you’re ready to take action too.

• Dems to Fossil Fuel Contributions: No Thanks DNC Votes to Ban Fossil Fuel Company Donations

  June 12, 2018 -The move is a step toward purging oil, gas and coal industry influence on the Democratic Party’s climate policies.

  The Democratic National Committee voted over the weekend to ban donations from fossil fuel companies, HuffPost has learned.

  The resolution — proposed by Christine Pelosi, a party activist and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi’s daughter — bars the organization from accepting contributions from corporate political action committees tied to the oil, gas and coal industries. The executive committee voted unanimously to approve the motion.

  Click now for more from the Huffington Post.

• Clean Energy Research Not a Priority White House Seeks 72% Cut to
  Clean Energy Research,Underscoring
  Its Preference for Fossil Fuels

  Feb. 1, 2018 -The Trump administration is poised to ask Congress for deep budget cuts to the Energy Department’s renewable energy and energy efficiency programs, slashing them by 72 percent overall in fiscal 2019, according to draft budget documents obtained by The Washington Post.

  Many of the sharp cuts would probably be restored by Congress, but President Trump’s budget, due out in February, will mark a starting point for negotiations and offer a statement of intent and policy priorities.

  Click now for the story
  from the Washington Post.

• No Lessons Learned From Deepwater Horizon Trump Plan Would Open Nearly All
  the Gulf of Mexico to Oil Drilling

  Jan. 4, 2018 - The Trump administration on Thursday (Jan. 4) announced plans for the largest expansion of offshore oil and gas drilling in U.S. history, putting up for lease federal waters in the Arctic, Pacific and Atlantic oceans and millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico, including protected areas in the eastern Gulf.

  Click now for article from azCentral.

• Clean Energy and Electric Cars Hit By GOP Tax Overhaul Hammers
  Clean Energy and Electric Cars

  Dec. 8, 2017 - Legislators from both chambers are now hashing out their differences in the reconciliation committee in hopes of delivering a final bill to the White House before the end of the year. Clean-energy lobbyists are scrambling to push back on provisions they and others fear could stunt development or deployment of technologies needed to lower the nation’s greenhouse-gas emissions.

  Click now to read the M.I.T. Technology Review story.

• The Top Ten Toxic Threats The E.P.A.’s Top 10 Toxic
  Threats, and Industry’s Pushback

  Oct. 21, 2017 - The E.P.A.has published a list of 10 toxic threats it will evaluate first under a law passed last year intended to crack down on hazardous chemicals.

  They are among 90 chemicals identified by the agency that may harm children, damage nerve tissue, cause cancer, contaminate the environment, accumulate in the bloodstream or show up in consumer products. As the review begins, industry and other interest groups are urging the E.P.A. to limit any restrictions.

  Click for the list that should
  not be on your top ten.

• Climate Change Collapsing Australia’s EcosystemsEcosystems Across Australia Are Under Climate Change

  The Converstion

  Research, recently published in Nature Climate Change, describes a series of sudden and catastrophic ecosystem shifts that have occurred recently across Australia.

• CC Advisory Committee Dropped Administration Disbands Climate
  Change Advisory Committee

  Aug 20, 2017 - The Trumpv administration of has decided to disband a federal advisory panel on climate change - in a further sign of the White House's view on environmental policy.

  The panel is part of the National Climate Assessment, a group aimed at helping officials and policy makers integrate the US Government's climate change analysis into their long-term planning.

• Climate Skeptic Heads Top Science Post New USDA Research Head
  Thinks Climate Science Is 'Junk'

  July 20, 2017 - President Trump has nominated a well-known climate change doubter to the top science job at the Department of Agriculture.

  The nomination, which had been expected, was announced in a statement by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue. Sam Clovis, an early campaign adviser to Trump, will serve as undersecretary for research, education and economics.

• The Great Lakes a State Problem? Trump Says 'Yes' - Congress Says 'No'

  July 14, 2017 - Together, the five lakes hold nearly one-fifth of the earth’s surface freshwater. They’re home to 3500 species of plants and animals, including 170 species of fish. Not to mention the drinking water for about 35 million people, in eight states plus Canada. They have been a major highway for transportation, trade and migration. And more than 1.5 million jobs are directly connected to the lakes.

  But the Trump administration views the health of the Great Lakes as a local issue. Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow and budget director Mick Mulvaney squared off at a budget hearing a couple months ago on the topic. You can watch the exchange here:

• Shades of White House Climate Denial 5 Shades of Climate Denial,
  All on Display in the White House

  June 9.2017 - - From ‘it’s not real’ to ‘it’s not urgent,’ take a tour through the many shades of climate change denial wielded by Donald Trump's administration.

• LCV Scorecard (Keeping Track of Congress) How Congress
  Voted on Environmental Issues

  The League of Conservation Voters (LCV) keeps track of how our elected officials are (or not) protecting us.

  Click now to catch up.

• Bi-Parisan Climate Solutions CaucusRepublicans Who
  Care About climate change:
  'They are done with the denial'

  Apr. 27, 2017 - The failure of American politics to deal with, or even coherently discuss, climate change was perhaps best illustrated when James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, took to the floor of the US Senate in February 2015 with a Ziploc bag and a mischievous grin.

• Make Your Voice Heard in Washington5 Ways to Make Your Voice
  Heard, and 2 That
  Are Not Worth Your Time

  Jan. 30, 2017- As a new era in American politics begins, citizens across the political spectrum may find themselves engaging in some collective hand-wringing. No matter your political leanings, times are changing, and many people are clamoring to make their voices heard.

• Mr. Trump - Are You Listening? Trade Group Outlines
  Benefits of Geothermal in
  Paper for Trump Administration

  Jan. 23, 2017 - In the paper, “Geothermal is Good for America,” GEA said that there are 104 operating geothermal plants in the U.S. with a capacity of 3.7 GW, and there are more than 80 new projects in development.

  ”Geothermal delivers a triple bottom line to our energy system: It is an abundant domestic energy source, it brings economic benefits in the form of taxes and long-term, high-paying jobs, and it has one of the lowest Levelized Costs of Energy of all power sources in the United States,” the paper said.

• Sen. Inhofe, Big Oil and Big Problems Only a Slight Conflict?

  Senator James Inhofe is Chair of the Energy Committee. We should question how he can serve the best interests of the people he is supposed to be protecting, while his camaigns have been mostly funded by the fossil fuel industry.

  Click now to see what we mean.

• Where is Joe Biden on Climate Change? Biden’s Rivals Attack Him
  From the Left on Climate Change

  NY Times Climate Forward, May 11, 2019  -Former Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s 2020 rivals and a group of progressive environmental organizations are attacking him as being weak on climate change, a sign of the central role global warming is shaping up to play as an issue in the Democratic primary.

  The criticisms are based on a yet-to-be-released plan outlined in a Reuters report in which one person advising Mr. Biden characterized the Democratic front-runner as seeking a “middle ground” on policies to reduce planet-warming emissions.

  Interested? Read all about it.

• Climate Change Could Influence Australia’s Politics

  Australia’s Politics May Be
  Changing With Its Climate

  NY Times Climate Forward, May 7, 2019  -HARDEN, Australia — It’s been a year of extremes for this country. The hottest summer ever. Torrential rains in the north. A crippling drought in its southeastern farm belt.

  Now, with national elections scheduled for May 18, a vital question looms: To what degree will climate change sway the way Australians vote? The answer could provide important lessons for other democracies in the age of climate change.

  Interested? Click now for whole story.

• Trump Administration: To Hell With Offshore Drilling Safety

  Trump Administration Moves To Roll Back Offshore Drilling Safety Regulations

  NPR News, May 3, 2019  - The Trump Administration is rolling back some of the Obama-era safety regulations for offshore drilling that were meant to prevent a repeat of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion, the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

  The change pertains to rules aimed at keeping offshore oil and gas wells from "blowing out" – a sudden and uncontrollable release of crude oil.

  Interested? Click now for whole story.

• Curious to Know Which 2020 Candidates Support Carbon Pricing?

  Which 2020 Candidates
  Support Carbon Pricing?

  Citizens’ Climate Lobby, May 2, 2019  -In past years, presidential campaigns have rarely mentioned global warming, let alone offered major policy proposals. 2020 will be different for many reasons.

  Dire reports from the world’s scientific community make it clear that we must act now. Extreme weather has increased markedly in recent years, from wildfires to hurricanes, and has alarmed the public.

  Meanwhile, CCL’s years of advocacy for a carbon fee and dividend approach has begun to penetrate public understanding and has also provided politicians with a bipartisan climate change policy option to consider. And over the past few months, young activists and new legislators have pushed the topic of climate change to more prominence in the national discussion, through protests at the Capitol and through the Green New Deal resolution (GND).

  Interested? Click now for whole story.

• Climate Action Now' Act Passed By House: Is it Just Symbolic?

  Climate Action Now' Act Is Not Enough
  to Answer Climate Emergency, Warm Critics

  EcoWatch, May 2, 2019  - Progressives are urging federal lawmakers to pursue a "real solution" to the climate crisis while House Democrats gear up for a vote this week on a bill to block President Donald Trump from ditching the Paris agreement.

  "This action from the House is better than no action at all, but not much better," Food & Water Watch executive director Wenonah Hauter said in a statement Wednesday. "Given all that's known about the severity of the climate crisis we face, and the urgent, aggressive action required to stem it, this legislation is merely symbolic."

  Interested? Click now for whole story.

• What the Sunrise Movement Has Planned for 2020

  Sunrise Movement, the Force
  Behind the Green New Deal,
  Ramps Up Plans for 2020

  Rolling Stone, May 1, 2019  - Two days after Doug LaMalfa, a climate-denying Republican, was re-elected to his fourth term in Congress, the Camp fire — the deadliest fire in a century and the most destructive in California’s history — broke out in his district.

  It raged for over two weeks, displacing 52,000 people and killing 67.

  On Saturday, Audrey Denney — an environmentalist and professor who lost to LaMalfa by six points in 2018 — became the first 2020 candidate endorsed by the Sunrise Movement when she announced her intention to challenge him again.

  “We are rising from the ashes to demand climate action on the local, in the state, and on the national level,” Denney said from a stage in Chico, California, this past weekend. “The time to act is now.”

• Some Republicans Do Recognize Climate Changee Dangers In a Switch, Some Republicans
  Start Citing Climate Change
  as Driving Their Policies

  NY Times Climate Forward, Apr. 30, 2019  - When John Barrasso, a Republican from oil and uranium-rich Wyoming who has spent years blocking climate change legislation, introduced a bill this year to promote nuclear energy, he added a twist: a desire to tackle global warming.

  Mr. Barrasso’s remarks — “If we are serious about climate change, we must be serious about expanding our use of nuclear energy” — were hardly a clarion call to action. Still they were highly unusual for the lawmaker who, despite decades of support for nuclear power and other policies that would reduce planet-warming emissions, has until recently avoided talking about them in the context of climate change.

  Interested? Click now for whole story.

• Beto O’Rourke's Major Campaign Policy Proposal Beto O’Rourke Releases
  $5 Trillion Climate Change Proposal

  NY Times Climate Forward, Apr. 30, 2019  - Beto O’Rourke released the first major policy proposal of his presidential campaign on Monday, outlining a $5 trillion plan to combat climate change through measures including executive action.

  The plan calls for net-zero emissions by 2050; would recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement; and restore Obama-era power plant regulations and fuel standards; two points that every Democratic presidential candidate supports.

• Farmers Are the Victims of Political Bickering Partisan Bickering Over
  Puerto Rico Aid Strands Farmers
  Devastated by Extreme Weather

  NY Times Climate Forward, Apr. 27, 2019  - If Rob Cohen knew that aid was on its way from Washington, circumstances would be different on his devastated pecan farms, which once spanned five counties and 1,400 acres.

  He and his brother would not have purchased an excavator and a bulldozer, expensive equipment they most likely will not need again to harvest pecans. Instead of laboring for six months on their own to clear away the thousands of trees knocked over by hurricane winds, they would have hired contractors to do it in three weeks.

  Interested? Click now for whole story.

• The 2020 Democrats and Climate Change What the 2020 Democrats Are
  Saying About Climate Change

  NY Times Climate Forward, Apr. 18, 2019  -For Democrats vying to unseat President Trump, acknowledging climate change is easy. Deciding what to do about it is the hard part.

  Among the 18 declared candidates, there is no broad consensus on taxing polluters on their carbon emissions — a measure most experts say is needed to slow global warming. And when it comes to building new nuclear power plants or adding federal regulations, there is even less agreement.

  Click now to read what they had to say.

• Trump Administration Won't Update Endangered Species List Lawsuit Says Trump Additions
  to Endangered-Species List
  Are Lowest Since Reagan

  Bloomberg News, Apr. 17, 2019  -The Trump administration has failed to tackle a backlog of hundreds of requests to add species to the federal endangered or threatened list, approving the fewest since Ronald Reagan was president, an environmental conservation group alleged in a lawsuit.

  Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service have added 16 plants and animals to the list under the landmark Endangered Species Act - the lowest figure since 1982, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday in Washington by the Center for Biological Diversity.

• Secretary of Interior Is Under Investigation Interior Dept. Opens
  Ethics Investigation of Its
  New Chief, David Bernhardt

  NY Times Climate Forward, Apr.15, 2019  -The Interior Department’s internal watchdog has opened an investigation into ethics complaints against the agency’s newly installed secretary, David Bernhardt.

  Mr. Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil and agribusiness industries, was confirmed by the Senate last week to head the agency, which oversees the nation’s 500 million acres of public land and vast coastal waters. He has played a central role in writing policies designed to advance President Trump’s policy of “energy dominance” and expanding fossil fuel exploration. He has been dogged by allegations of ethics violations since joining the Trump administration as the Interior Department’s deputy secretary in 2017.

• Int. Sec Nominee Helped Suppress Pesticides ReportMore Than 160 Groups Urge Senate to Reject Bernhardt for Top Interior Post

  Center For Bio Diversity Mar. 26, 2019 -More than 160 conservation groups sent a letter to U.S. senators today urging them to oppose the nomination of fossil fuel lobbyist David Bernhardt as Interior secretary, citing his efforts to enrich corporations at the expense of the environment.

  Bernhardt's confirmation hearing is set for Thursday before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

  “He consistently puts private profit above the public interest, crafting policies to benefit past clients and rolling back longstanding rules to protect habitat, imperiled species and public health,” the letter says. “David Bernhardt’s conflicts of interest, industry ties and questionable judgment make him ill-suited to lead the Department, and his confirmation would place our most cherished natural and cultural resources at even greater risk.”

• Trump Administration No Defender of the EnvironmentEnvironment Remains Under Siege Two
  Years Into the Trump Administration

  The Revelator, Mar. 18 2019 -Two years into his presidency, Donald Trump has racked up some high-profile policy failures. There’s no wall spanning the length of our southern border, no denuclearization underway in North Korea, and ethics scandals have swamped his administration.

  But when it comes to environmental policy changes, the administration’s record of success has been remarkable.

  The Trump team has effectively stalled or reversed at least 78 major environmental rules, including broad national policies aimed at stemming and monitoring air and water pollution, curbing toxic substances in the environment, protecting wildlife, and conserving public lands.

• Record Budget - But Not for Education and Environment Trump Proposes a Record $4.75
  Trillion Budget (With Cuts to Education
  and Environmental Protection)

  NY Times Climate Forward, Mar.11, 2019 - President Trump sent Congress on Monday a record $4.75 trillion budget plan that calls for increased military spending and sharp cuts to domestic programs like education and environmental protection for the 2020 fiscal year.

  The budget, the largest in federal history, includes a nearly 5%increase in military spending — which is more than the Pentagon had asked for — and an additional $8.6 billion for construction of a wall along the border with Mexico. It also contains what White House officials called a total of $1.9 trillion in cost savings from mandatory safety-net programs, like Medicaid and Medicare, the federal health care programs for the elderly and the poor.

• Dems Are Comng for Your Burgers - Where’s the Beef? No One Is Taking Your Hamburgers.
  But Would It Even Be a Good Idea?

  NY Times Climate Forward, Mar.8, 2019 - The hamburger is suddenly embroiled in a political dispute. Embroiled: get it?

  Supporters of the Green New Deal, according to a Republican talking point, are anti-patty. “They want to take away your hamburgers,” Sebastian Gorka, a former adviser to President Trump, said last week at the Conservative Political Action Conference.

  Other Republicans, including Mr. Trump, have made similar claims. But the Green New Deal, a broad climate policy proposal, makes no mention of hamburgers, cows or beef.

• Blue Constituents Press Their Party to Act on Climate Pressed by Climate Activists, Senate
  Democrats Plan to ‘Go on Offense’

  NY Times Climate ForwardMar. 4, 2019 - Facing a showdown vote as early as this month over the embattled “Green New Deal,” Senate Democrats are preparing a counteroffensive to make combating climate change a central issue of their 2020 campaigns — a striking shift on an issue they have shied away from for the past decade.

  Senator Chuck Schumer of New York, the Democratic leader, outlined the new strategy in an interview last week, casting it as a way to mobilize millennial voters, a key part of the Democratic constituency that the party will need to turn out to win in swing states.

• Climate Science and Politics - Not Necessarily Related Why Good Politics and
  Good Climate Science Don’t Mix

  Mar. 4, 2019  Science & Health - Confidence doesn’t equal competence. But our brains tend to assume it does. And that can create big problems when scientific evidence collides with political rhetoric. The senator who confidently throws a snowball to prove that winter is cold can be more memorable (and more believable) than the one who takes the podium to carefully explain how we know fossil fuel use is changing climate over decades.

  “Denialism has an advantage. Absolutely. There’s no question,” said Stephan Lewandowsky, professor of cognitive psychology at the University of Bristol in the UK.



• Meet the 2020 Pro-Envioronment Candidates

  Welcome Aboard!

  EcoWatchMar.1, 2019  -Jay Inslee, the governor of Washington and former member of Congress who has made climate change and the environment his signature issues, jumped into the crowded field of 2020 Democratic contenders for president on Friday.

  Mr. Inslee, 68, has led the state during a powerful economic expansion since taking office as governor in 2013, especially in the Seattle area. Amazon and other tech companies have hired tens of thousands of workers, and export-driven manufacturers like Boeing have boomed.

• Hot or Cold: The Weaponization of Weather How the Weather Gets Weaponized
  in Climate Change Messaging

  NY Times Climate Forward, Mar. 1, 2019 - In the summer, when heat waves scorch cities or heavy rains flood the coasts, some climate scientists and environmentalists will point out any plausible connections to global warming, hoping today’s weather will help people understand tomorrow’s danger from climate change.

  Then winter comes. And, like clockwork, those who want to deny the established science that humans are warming the planet will try to flip the script. In January, when large swaths of the country were gripped by bitter cold, President Trump took to Twitter to mock climate fears: “Wouldn’t be bad to have a little of that good old fashioned Global Warming right now!”

• Who Better to Lead the EPA than a Coal Lobbyist? Senate Confirms Former Coal
  Lobbyist Andrew Wheeler To Lead EPA

  Feb. 28, 2019  CNN - The Senate confirmed Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, in a 52-47 vote Thursday, primarily along party lines.

  Wheeler, also a former Republican Senate aide on environmental issues, has been acting administrator since July, when former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned amid a host of ethics controversies.

  Since Wheeler began leading the agency, he has continued work on many of the same priorities as his predecessor, including looking to roll back Obama-era air and water pollution regulations.

• Green New Deal Finally Gets Attention The Green New Deal Is Better
  Than Our Climate Nightmare

  NY Times Editorial, Feb.23, 2019 - It’s hard to believe, but worth recalling, that during the presidential debates in 2016, not a single question about climate change was put to Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump.

  That, of course, was before a plague of hurricanes, droughts and savage forest fires in California and around the world captured the public’s attention; before Mr. Trump brought renewed focus to the very issue he had dismissed as a hoax by fecklessly rolling back nearly every positive policy thing President Barack Obama had done to address it; before a series of frightening scientific reports appeared last year, warning that the window of opportunity to ward off the worst consequences of a warming globe was quickly closing.

• Trump Doesn’t Believe that California Needs Clean Air Trump Administration, Getting
  Set for a Major Rollback, Ends
  Clean Air Talks With California

  Feb. 21, 2019  NY Times Climate Forward - The Trump administration, setting the stage to move forward with one of its most consequential climate-policy rollbacks, announced Thursday that it had decided to scrap negotiations with California over the president’s plan to undo Obama-era fuel efficiency standards for cars and light trucks.

  The move makes a protracted legal battle almost certain. At the heart of the talks was California’s longstanding right to opt out of national auto emissions rules and set its own tailpipe standards. State officials have vowed to sue to protect that authority if the administration tries to impose weaker federal standards on California and the dozen states that follow its lead.

• Can There be a Green New Deal Without Dems Support? A Green New Deal Is
  Technologically Possible. Its Political
  Prospects Are Another Question.

  Feb. 21, 2019  NY Times Climate Forward - President Trump derided the Green New Deal as a “high school term paper that got a low mark.” Congressional Republicans mocked it as “zany.” Even Nancy Pelosi, the Democratic House speaker, called the proposal a “green dream,” and some of the party’s 2020 candidates are starting to describe it as merely aspirational.

  Yet, despite that disdain, the goals of the far-reaching plan to tackle climate change and economic inequality are within the realm of technological possibility, several energy experts and economists said in recent interviews.

• White House Climate Panel to Include a Climate Denialist White House Climate Panel
  to Include a Climate Denialist

  NY Times Climate Forward, Feb. 20, 2019 -President Trump is preparing to establish a panel to examine whether climate change affects national security, despite existing reports from his own government showing that global warming is a growing threat.

  According to a White House memo dated Feb. 14, Mr. Trump’s staff members have drafted an executive order to create a 12-member committee, which will include a White House adviser, William Happer, whose views are sharply at odds with the established scientific consensus that carbon dioxide pollution is dangerous for the planet.

• A Renewable Energy-Friendly Future for Massachusetts Massachusetts Eyes Renewable
  Energy-Friendly Future

  National Geographic, Feb. 19, 2019 -With steps big and small, Massachusetts is moving toward a more environmentally friendly future in which the state will rely increasingly on renewable energy.

  One step came this week when Republican Gov. Charlie Baker announced more than $500,000 in funding for what he described as eight "early-stage clean energy companies.”

  The checks may be modest, but the goal is to help ensure Massachusetts remains among those states on the leading edge of renewable energy technology — in part by harvesting the brain power of local universities and entrepreneurs.

• Despite Clean Coal Boasts The Industry is Failing TVA’s Envisioned Flexibility
  Options in Wake of Coal Plant Closure

  Feb. 20, 2019 Energy Central - Much was made in the past few weeks after President Trump took to Twitter to try and drum up support for the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) to keep open a struggling coal-powered plant, with the TVA Board ultimately voting to close the no-longer-economic plant.

  This story caught many people's attention because of the direct hand the President attempted to play in his continued support for coal-fired generation before ultimately being shunned by the power provider itself, but the bigger story laying underneath this higher-profile one was the full TVA Draft 2019 Integrated Resource Plan that accompanied this decision and provided a broad and deep outlook into the future of energy flexibility foreseen by the power provider to seven states.