Trump's Affordable Clean Energy rule eliminated a provision mandating that utilities move away from coal. VisionsofAmerica /Joe Sohm / Getty Images
A federal court on Tuesday struck down the Trump administration's rollback of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan regulating greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.
<p>Trump's Affordable Clean Energy (ACE) rule, which was <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/clean-power-plan-trump-epa-2638927020.html" target="_self">finalized</a> by the Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self">EPA)</a> in 2019, moved away from imposing national limits on greenhouse gas emissions, instead allowing states to set their own. It also did away with a provision mandating that utilities move away from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a>. The new rule would have reduced electricity emissions by less than half of what would be necessary to limit global warming to two degrees Celsius and, according to the EPA's initial estimate, would have led to between 470 and 1,400 additional <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution" target="_self">air pollution</a> deaths a year by 2030.</p><p>"Despite [EPA Administrator] Andrew Wheeler's frequent protests, the EPA's role is to protect the American people from dangerous pollution and act on the greatest threat to our country: the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>," Sierra Club Chief Climate Council Joanne Spalding said in a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2021/01/court-vacates-dirty-power-plan-bookending-trump-administration-s-wide-ranging" target="_blank">statement</a>. "The Dirty Power Plan didn't do either of these things and the court rightly vacated it."</p><p>At stake in Tuesday's decision was the meaning of the Clean Air Act. The Trump EPA argued that the law only allows the agency to limit pollution from individual sources, not across an entire sector, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-climate-powerplants/us-court-deals-final-blow-to-trump-epas-clean-power-rule-replacement-idUSKBN29O2BO" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit disagreed.</p>
<p>"Because the ACE Rule rests squarely on the erroneous legal premise that the statutory text expressly foreclosed consideration of measures other than those that apply at and to the individual source, we conclude that the EPA fundamentally 'has misconceived the law,' such that its conclusion 'may not stand,'" the three-judge panel <a href="http://blogs.edf.org/climate411/files/2021/01/2021.01.19-ACE-Opinion.pdf" target="_blank">ruled</a>.</p><p>Some environmental groups hailed the ruling as a boon to the incoming Biden administration, since they will now have an easier time replacing it, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/01/19/federal-circuit-court-scraps-trump-administration-power-plant-rules/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>.</p><p>"Today's decision is the perfect Inauguration Day present for America," Environmental Defense Fund Senior Attorney Ben Levitan said in a <a href="https://www.edf.org/media/dc-circuit-strikes-down-trump-administration-repeal-and-replacement-clean-power-plan" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a>. "It confirms that the Trump administration's dubious attempt to get rid of commonsense limits on climate pollution from power plants was illegal, it reaffirms that the Clean Air Act and the Endangerment Finding are the law of the land, and it restores the vibrancy of the rule of law. Now we can turn to the critically important work of protecting Americans from climate change and creating new clean energy jobs."</p>
<p>However, the Washington Post reported that the Clean Power Plan also ran into legal challenges. When the Trump administration took office, the plan had been put on hold by the Supreme Court while the court battle continued. In a dissent from part of the ruling Tuesday, Judge Justin Walker, a Trump appointee, said the EPA never had the authority to implement the Clean Power Plan either.</p><p>Columbia Law School Professor Michael Gerrard noted that Walker was a former clerk for Supreme Court Justice Brett M. Kavanaugh.</p><p>"[The dissent could be a bad sign for how the Supreme Court might rule if these issues ever go there," he told The Washington Post.</p>
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Doug Emhoff, U.S. Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, Jill Biden and President-elect Joe Biden wave as they arrive on the East Front of the U.S. Capitol for the inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021 in Washington, DC. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
By John R. Platt
The period of the 45th presidency will go down as dark days for the United States — not just for the violent insurgency and impeachment that capped off Donald Trump's four years in office, but for every regressive action that came before.
<p>It's been said that Trump was the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-worst-president-environment-2645034831.html" target="_self">worst environmental president in history</a>, and that's easy to see from his administration's record. They rolled back decades of environmental progress by slashing protective regulations, strangled the agencies tasked with enforcing the regulations that remained, pushed corporate agendas damaging to wildlife, human health and the climate, and stoked the flames of right-wing extremists — including people whose radical agendas often attack public-land protections or climate science.</p><p>That barely covers it all, of course. It would take an entire book — a whole library — to fully convey the environmental damage done under Trump.</p>
<p>And now it's up to a new administration — and the work of a lot of people on top of it — to undo the damage and hopefully make up for four lost years of potential progress.</p><p>President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, together with the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate, have a tough task ahead of them.</p><p>Make that many tough tasks. They'll need to rebuild the ranks of government workforces while reinforcing the trust in government and the trust in America on the world stage. They'll need to pass and restore regulations that don't just return us to the status quo but radically improve on it — taking the world forward at a time when the effects of climate change and the extinction crisis continue to worsen. 2020 tied for the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/08012021/2020-earth-hottest-year-temperatures/" target="_blank">hottest year on record</a>, and Trump <a href="https://earther.gizmodo.com/trump-has-listed-the-fewest-endangered-species-of-any-p-1845854952" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">added fewer species</a> to the Endangered Species Act than any other president while <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/08/12/750479370/trump-administration-makes-major-changes-to-protections-for-endangered-species" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">slashing protections</a> for those already on the list. They'll need to address environmental justice at a time when white supremacy is at its most vocal point in decades and firmly entrenched in some areas of government. They'll need to resist the usual corporate influence that could slow things down along the way.</p>
<p>And they'll need to do it all while helping the country stabilize and recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and Trump's botched response to the crisis, not to mention the continued threat from seditious domestic terrorists.</p><p>That's a lot on one plate, but they're already off to a good start. Biden and Harris ran on a strong climate platform and have assembled an experienced climate team. Neither the platform nor the team is perfect — progressives think they can do much better — but they're light years ahead of anything we saw under the previous administration.</p><p>And of course, now that the Democrats have won the Senate, Biden's cabinet picks are more likely to be confirmed and the country will no longer face the obstruction ever-present under the majority leadership of Mitch McConnell.</p>
<p>But at the same time, Republicans have risen to power in cities and state legislatures around the country, and many of them are <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/14/us/politics/trump-republicans.html" target="_blank">still fueled by MAGA Trumpism</a> and unhinged conspiracy theories. The right-wing media, meanwhile, continue to shape and mold millions with their unique brand of misinformation and discord. Both trends will present a barrier to progress at every level.</p><p>So what's the agenda for moving forward under the Biden-Harris administration? Below, you'll find a series of articles and expert commentaries from <em>The Revelator</em>'s archives addressing key steps the incoming team can take to restore the EPA, protect key species, address the COVID-19 pandemic in a just and climate-focused manner, and more.</p><p>We'll continue to add to these roadmaps as the administration gets its footing, and we invite any insiders and experts to <a href="https://therevelator.org/contact#write-for-us" target="_blank">contribute their own voices</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/reform-blm-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Reform the Bureau of Land Management: Biden Must Succeed Where Obama Failed</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/climate-new-deal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">For a Path Forward on Climate, Let's Learn From the Original New Deal</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/gray-wolf-biden-administration/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gray Wolf Recovery and Survival Require Immediate Action by the Biden Administration</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/restoring-epa-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden Can Restore the EPA, But It Will Require Steadfast Effort</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-restore-rollbacks/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">How Biden Can Do More Than Just Restore Trump's Environmental Rollbacks</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-climate-plan-trent/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden-Harris Climate Plan: 'Not Trump' Is Not Enough</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-leadership-wildlife-crime/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden Must Take a Leadership Role Against Wildlife Crime</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/multisolving-covid-recovery/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Multisolving Our Way to COVID-19 Economic Recovery</a></p><p><a href="https://therevelator.org/biden-climate-farber/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden Can Leverage Larger Trends to Make Climate Progress</a></p><p><em>And here's a report from our parent organization, the Center for Biological Diversity:</em></p><p><a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/report-50-critical-environmental-reforms-president-biden-can-enact-without-congress-2020-12-03/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">50 Critical Environmental Reforms President Biden Can Enact Without Congress</a></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/rebuilding-years/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjk3NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MzQ0NjM4N30.SaQ85SK10-MWjN3PwHo2RqpiUBdjhD0IRnHKTqKaU7Q/img.jpg?width=980" id="84700" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2174067dcc0c4094be25b3472ce08c8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="charlottes web cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>Perhaps one of the most well-known brands in the CBD landscape, Charlotte's Web has been growing sustainable hemp plants for several years. The company is currently in the process of achieving official USDA Organic Certification, but it already practices organic and sustainable cultivation techniques to enhance the overall health of the soil and the hemp plants themselves, which creates some of the highest quality CBD extracts. Charlotte's Web offers CBD oils in a range of different concentration options, and some even come in a few flavor options such as chocolate mint, orange blossom, and lemon twist.</p>
$60
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Lakota spiritual leader Chief Arvol Looking Horse attends a demonstration against the proposed Keystone XL pipeline from Canada to the Gulf of Mexico in front of the White House in Washington, DC, on January 28, 2015. Nicholas Kamm / AFP / Getty Images
President-elect Joe Biden is planning to cancel the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on the first day of his administration, a document reported by CBC on Sunday suggests.
<p>The words "Rescind Keystone XL pipeline permit" were reportedly listed on a briefing note shared by the Biden transition team with U.S. stakeholders as part of a roundup of Biden's planned day one executive actions. <a href="https://www.ctvnews.ca/world/america-votes/biden-to-prioritize-blocking-of-keystone-xl-pipeline-extension-1.5270600" target="_blank">CTV News</a> also reviewed the briefing documents, and a source familiar with Biden's thinking told <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-biden-keystone/biden-to-cancel-keystone-xl-pipeline-permit-on-first-day-in-office-cbc-idINKBN29N00A" target="_blank">Reuters</a> that the President-elect is planning to cancel the pipeline as one of his first acts.</p><p>"The Biden administration halting the Keystone XL pipeline is a momentous sign that he is listening, taking action and making good on his promises to people and the planet," Kendall Mackey, 350.org Keep It In the Ground campaign manager, <a href="https://350.org/press-release/biden-kxl-executiveorder/" target="_blank">said</a> in response to the news. "This decision to halt the Keystone XL pipeline on day one in office sets a precedent that all permitting decisions must pass a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a> test and respect <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous-rights" target="_self">Indigenous rights</a>."</p><p>Mackey expressed hope that Biden would also end the equally controversial <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/dakota-access-pipeline" target="_self">Dakota Access</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/enbridge-line-3" target="_self">Line 3</a> pipelines.</p><p>The Keystone XL pipeline was first announced in 2005, CBC News reported. The pipeline is being built to carry 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day, stretching about 1,200 miles from Alberta, Canada to Nebraska. From there it would connect with the original Keystone pipeline that carries oil to U.S. Gulf Coast refineries.</p>
<p>The pipeline has long been opposed by environmental and Indigenous groups, who are concerned about its climate impacts and the potential for leaks to harm <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a> and pollute <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water" target="_self">drinking water</a>, CTV News reported. Protests prompted the Obama administration to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/breaking-president-obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline-1882117930.html" target="_self">rescind the permit in 2015</a>, but President Donald Trump reversed this decision with an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-dakota-access-pipeline-2211697835.html" target="_self">executive order</a> in early 2017.</p><p>Biden's decision to once again rescind the permit is not surprising. His advisers have said in the past that he would move to block it again, according to <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/biden-keystone-xl-pipeline-permit_n_60051931c5b6efae62f9d263" target="_blank">HuffPost</a>. Biden's campaign has vocally opposed the pipeline since May, according to CTV News.</p><p>The news has sparked opposition in Canada.</p><p>"I am deeply concerned by reports that the incoming administration of President-elect Joe Biden may repeal the Presidential permit for the Keystone XL border crossing next week," Alberta Premier Jason Kenney said in a Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/jkenney/status/1350957580106006533/photo/1" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a>. "Doing so would kill jobs on both sides of the border, weaken the critically important Canada-U.S. relationship and undermine U.S. national security by making the United States more dependent on OPEC oil imports in the future."</p>
<p>Kirsten Hillman, Canada's ambassador to the U.S., said the country still stood behind the pipeline and that it fit within Canada's climate plans, CBC News reported.</p><p>"The Government of Canada continues to support the Keystone XL project and the benefits that it will bring to both Canada and the United States," Hillman said.</p><p>Meanwhile, in a bid to make the project more appealing to Biden, owner TC Energy announced a plan on Sunday to reach zero emissions by 2030, hire union workers, sign Indigenous equity partners and install a $1.7 billion solar, wind and battery-powered operating system for the pipeline.</p><p>However, Canadian environmental groups and parties were pleased with the news.</p>
<p>"This is what true climate leadership looks like," Annamie Paul, leader of the federal Green Party, told CTV News.</p><p>Keith Stewart, a senior energy strategist with Greenpeace Canada, urged Canadians to follow suit and move away from the pipeline, which he likened to "beating [a] dead horse," CBC News reported.</p><p>"The Biden administration offers us a fresh start on addressing the climate crisis with a willing partner, so let's not blow it by pushing pipelines," Stewart said.</p>
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Ask a Scientist: What Should the Biden Administration and Congress Do to Address the Climate Crisis?
18 January
Climate
A damaged home and flooding are seen in Creole, Louisiana, following Hurricane Laura's landfall on August 27, 2020. Joe Raedle / Getty Images
By Elliott Negin
What a difference an election makes. Thanks to the Biden-Harris victory in November, the next administration is poised to make a 180-degree turn to again address the climate crisis.
<p>President Trump famously called climate change a "hoax," appointed <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/14/climate/fossil-fuel-industry-environmental-policy.html" target="_blank">fossil fuel industry lobbyists</a> to key positions in his administration, rolled back the Obama-era rule that would have curbed power plant carbon emissions, and weakened Obama-era limits on vehicle carbon emissions. Just a day after last fall's election, he pulled the United States out of the international Paris climate agreement.</p><p>By contrast, President-elect Biden has endorsed a $2 trillion climate plan, and pledged to issue at least <a href="https://s2.washingtonpost.com/2da6eed/5fdb55659d2fda0efb8b5293/596c46649bbc0f208657f096/11/67/5fdb55659d2fda0efb8b5293" target="_blank">10 executive orders</a> to protect the climate and rejoin the <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1340427943051284480" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paris climate accord</a> on Day One of his administration. He also has appointed an impressive and diverse climate change team to take key administration positions, including New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland, who co-sponsored the Green New Deal, to run the Interior Department; North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality head Michael Regan to lead the Environmental Protection Agency; former Environmental Protection Agency chief Gina McCarthy as national climate advisor; and former Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped negotiate the Paris climate agreement, to serve as his international climate envoy.</p><p>That's a welcome relief, because the world is running out of time. In 2020 alone, wildfires burned millions of acres in Australia and California to a crisp; heat waves scorched Europe, Asia and the Arctic; floods inundated the U.S. Midwest as well as nations in Africa and Asia; and a record-breaking Atlantic hurricane season battered the coasts of Central America, Caribbean islands and the United States.</p><p>But for all the promises President-elect Biden has made, some nagging questions remain: Given the constraints of a closely divided Congress, how much will the Biden administration truly be able to accomplish? And even with the United States rejoining the Paris accord, will countries live up to its promise to keep the Earth's temperature in check?</p><p>For some answers, I turned to <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/about/people/rachel-cleetus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Climate and Energy Program Policy Director Rachel Cleetus</a>, who I last <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/elliott-negin/what-do-you-see-as-the-most-important-elements-of-a-post-pandemic-economy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">interviewed in May</a> about what a post-pandemic economy should look like. The questions I posed to her this time around are a logical extension of the conversation we had then.</p>
<p><strong>EN: Before we dig into what we can expect from the incoming Biden administration, let's talk about what Congress included in the pandemic relief package it passed just before Christmas. I don't know about you, but I was pleasantly surprised to learn that it included some good climate-related provisions. Does this suggest that the next Congress will take climate change seriously?</strong></p><p>RC: The omnibus pandemic relief bill Congress just passed was long overdue and desperately needed, given the fact that millions of people are in increasingly dire economic straits. It also included a provision to dramatically reduce the use of hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), extremely potent heat-trapping gases used in air conditioners and refrigerators; an extension of renewable electricity production and investment tax credits, which will help boost clean energy and create jobs; support for energy storage technology research and development; and increased funding for ARPA-E, the Department of Energy's technology innovation program. The bill also included a one-year extension of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a welcome but inadequate provision as black lung disease hits record levels in coal country.</p><p>The <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/shana-udvardy/congress-continues-to-affirm-that-climate-security-is-national-security" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Defense Authorization Act</a>, which Congress just passed with an overwhelming bipartisan override of President Trump's veto, also includes provisions recognizing the impact of climate change on the military and the need to invest in resilience measures.</p><p>These provisions demonstrate that Congress can act in a bipartisan manner on clean energy and climate change issues. But much more will be needed in the months and years ahead to make steep cuts in global warming emissions and achieve comprehensive, bold and just climate policies that benefit everyone. Congress has yet to demonstrate the will to act commensurately with the scale of the challenges we face, which is why we will need to continue to pressure policymakers to do the right thing after the new Congress and administration take office.</p>
<p><strong>EN: Notwithstanding the fact that leading Republicans supported the climate-related elements of the pandemic relief package, how much will the incoming Biden administration have to rely on executive orders to advance initiatives to combat climate change? After all, the oil and gas industry still has a great deal of influence over Congress.</strong></p><p>RC: President Biden should send a clear and strong signal, early on, that he is committed to using his full powers to advance climate action through executive authorities and regulations. Here are some of the <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/rachel-cleetus/biden-climate-priorities" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">most important actions on climate</a> that he should take, many of which could be done within the first 100 days and some which should happen via a Day One executive order on climate change:</p><ul><li>Set science-informed climate goals and commit the United States to reaching net-zero carbon emissions economywide no later than 2050, and at least 50 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.</li><li>Direct all federal agencies to incorporate climate science into their actions and develop updated climate action plans.</li><li>Initiate administrative and regulatory actions to sharply curtail heat-trapping emissions economywide and advance climate resilience, prioritizing investments in historically marginalized communities.</li><li>Rejoin the Paris agreement, with an ambitious commitment to cut heat-trapping emissions and provide climate funding for developing countries, in line with the US fair share contribution to global climate goals.</li><li>Reverse the Trump administration's egregious executive orders that have halted, undermined, and reversed climate action.</li><li>Create White House-level offices focused on environmental justice and economic transition to elevate and mainstream these priorities.</li></ul><p>As you note, opposition from the fossil fuel companies is not going away any time soon. They may continue to try to slow down or stop climate action, or at best support incremental policy changes that preserve their profits—even as they <a href="https://ucsusa.org/about/news/exxonmobils-five-year-emissions-reduction-plan-too-lievettle-too-late" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">claim to endorse</a> the Paris agreement's net-zero goal.</p><p>UCS and its coalition partners will continue to engage in sharp and strategic corporate campaigns to expose their disingenuous actions, <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/kathy-mulvey/bankrolling-climate-disaster-stop-the-money-pipeline-to-fossil-fuel-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">curtail their Wall Street financing</a>, and prod them to align their business models with what the science demonstrates is necessary. We will continue to push for companies to <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/nicole-pinko/climate-risk-disclosure-act-is-good-for-your-investments" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">disclose their climate risks</a>, and for <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/about/news/trading-commission-report-sends-clear-signal-climate-change-risks-us-economy-0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">financial regulators</a> to require this. And we support the rights of affected parties to seek legal accountability for climate damages caused by fossil fuel companies.</p>
<p><strong>EN: OK. So what can a narrowly divided Congress accomplish?</strong></p><p>RC: Congress also will have to step up to play its part. We are coming off a year of record-breaking climate related disasters—including wildfires, hurricanes, floods, and heatwaves—which intersected cruelly with the coronavirus pandemic and the resulting ongoing economic crisis. People across the country need Congress to do its job. Securing robust, comprehensive, durable climate and clean energy policy will require legislation.</p><p>President Biden should immediately begin working with the new Congress to advance a suite of policies that ramp up clean energy, drive down carbon emissions economywide, and build climate resilience, while also addressing longstanding environmental injustices that have disproportionately affected low-income communities and communities of color and ensuring a fair transition for coal communities. Breaking through the long-standing political logjam won't be easy, but the needs are urgent and the economic, health and climate benefits of a low-carbon climate-resilient economy are clear.</p><p>Many of these policy priorities were highlighted in the <a href="https://joebiden.com/joes-vision/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden-Harris campaign platform</a>. The incoming administration must do all it can to prod Congress to pass legislation addressing them. Here's just a partial list of what we need:</p><p><em><strong>Additional pandemic relief and economic recovery packages</strong></em>. More funding for public health priorities and economic relief is desperately needed at the national, state and local level. Congress should include a robust "green" economic recovery package to jumpstart and foster a just and equitable economic recovery, with job creation driven by investments in clean energy and climate resilient infrastructure. Forty percent of these investments should directly benefit historically marginalized communities.</p><p><em><strong>Fair transition for workers and communities</strong></em>. Congress should pass a comprehensive, well-funded transition package for displaced workers and communities hurt by the country's ongoing transition away from coal.</p><p><em><strong>Environmental justice</strong></em>. Congress should strengthen public health safeguards, tighten enforcement, and invest in cleaning up the cumulative toxic burden of pollution in fence-line and frontline communities, which are disproportionately low-income communities and communities of color.</p><p><em><strong>Recognition of climate change's financial and economic risks</strong></em>. Congress should pass legislation to ensure that financial regulators require corporations to disclose their climate risk to ensure they—and the market more broadly—are appropriately accounting for such risks and taking steps to mitigate it.</p><p><em><strong>Guaranteed community access to the courts</strong></em>. As a mounting number of cities, counties and states seek to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for climate damages and fraud, here's one thing Congress should not do: pass laws attempting to limit or eliminate communities' access to the courts to seek redress.</p>
<p><strong>EN: President-elect Biden recently <a href="https://twitter.com/JoeBiden/status/1340427943051284480" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">proclaimed</a> that he will "put America back in the business of leading the world on climate change." What should that mean in concrete terms? As the country responsible for the largest share of cumulative carbon emissions to date, what does the United States have to do regain international respect and provide leadership?</strong></p><p>RC: To be perfectly frank, the Biden administration will have to do a lot more than trot out tired rhetoric about US leadership on climate action.</p><p>What the country and the rest of the world need is for the United States to take its place at the table, alongside and in cooperation with nations large and small, and do its part responsibly, fairly and consistently. The Biden administration and Congress need to enact strong national climate policies and make an ambitious, credible emissions reduction commitment ahead of the next international climate talks. They also must commit to scaled-up climate finance for developing countries. Finally, they have to work together with states, cities, tribal governments, businesses, and local stakeholders, many of whom have contributed to significant climate progress despite the absence of national leadership in the last four years. It's time—well past time, actually—for meaningful federal action.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/elliott-negin/what-should-the-new-administration-and-congress-do-to-address-the-climate-crisis" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2650012800#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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President-elect Joe Biden announces members of his climate and energy appointments on December 19, 2020 in Wilmington, DE. Joshua Roberts / Getty Images
By Bill Ritter Jr.
Joe Biden is preparing to deal with climate change in a way no U.S. president has done before – by mobilizing his entire administration to take on the challenge from every angle in a strategic, integrated way.
<p>The strategy is evident in the people Biden has chosen for his <a href="https://buildbackbetter.gov/nominees-and-appointees/" target="_blank">Cabinet and senior leadership roles</a>: Most have track records for incorporating climate change concerns into a wide range of policies, and they have experience partnering across agencies and levels of government.</p><p>Those skills are crucial, because slowing climate change will require a comprehensive and coordinated "all hands on deck" approach.</p><p>We did that with energy when I was governor of Colorado, and I can tell you it isn't simple. Energy policy isn't just about electricity. It's about how homes are built, how they generate power and feed it into the grid and how the transportation, industrial and agriculture sectors evolve. It's about regulations, trade rules, government purchases and funding for research for innovation. Coordination and collaboration among agencies and different levels of government is crucial.</p><p>A coordinated approach also helps ensure that vulnerable populations aren't overlooked. Biden has committed to <a href="https://joebiden.com/environmental-justice-plan/" target="_blank">help disadvantaged communities</a> that have too often borne the brunt of fossil fuel industry pollution, as well as those that have been losing fossil fuel jobs.</p><p>The <a href="https://buildbackbetter.gov/nominees-and-appointees/" target="_blank">Biden-Harris team's</a> depth of experience will be vital as they take over from a Trump administration that has been <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/science-under-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stripping government agencies of their expertise</a> and eliminating environmental protections. With Democrats gaining <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/11/democrats-biden-executive-orders-456676" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">control of both the House and Senate</a>, the Biden administration may also have a better chance of overhauling laws, funding and tax incentives in ways that could fundamentally transform the U.S. approach to climate change.</p><p>Here are some of the biggest challenges ahead and what "all hands on deck" might mean.</p>
Dealing With All Those Climate Policy Rollbacks
<p>From its first days, the Trump administration began trying to nullify or weaken U.S. environmental regulations. It had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html" target="_blank">rolled back 84 environmental rules</a> by November 2020, including <a href="https://rhg.com/research/the-rollback-of-us-climate-policy/" target="_blank">major climate policies</a>, and more rollbacks were being pursued, according to a New York Times analysis of research from Harvard and Columbia law schools.</p><p>Many of these rules had been designed to reduce climate-warming pollution from power plants, cars and trucks. Several <a href="https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2017/09/bam-methane-waste-prevention-rule/" target="_blank">reduced emissions of methane</a>, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas production. The Trump administration <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mining-resolution-trump/trump-moves-to-loosen-mining-regulations-approve-projects-as-he-exits-idUSKBN29D1AD?ct=t(RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">also moved</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2020/oct/26/revealed-trump-public-lands-oil-drilling" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">open more land</a> to more drilling, mining and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/11/712121425/trump-signs-executive-orders-in-push-to-make-it-easier-to-build-oil-and-gas-pipe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pipelines</a>.</p><p>Some rollbacks have been challenged in court and the rules then reinstated. Others are still being litigated. Many will require going through government rule-making processes that take years to reverse.</p>Pressuring Other Countries to Take Action
<p>Biden can quickly bring the U.S. back into the international Paris climate agreement, through which countries worldwide agreed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-biden-and-kerry-could-rebuild-americas-global-climate-leadership-150120" target="_blank">reestablishing the nation's leadership</a> role with the international climate community is a much longer haul.</p><p>Former Secretary of State John Kerry will lead this effort as special envoy for climate change, a new Cabinet-level position with a seat on the National Security Council. Other parts of the government can also pressure countries to take action. International development funding can encourage climate-friendly actions, and trade agreements and tariffs can establish rules of conduct.</p><h3>Cleaning Up the Power Sector</h3><p>The Biden-Harris <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/" target="_blank">climate plan</a> aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector to net zero by 2035.</p><p>While <a href="https://sepapower.org/utility-transformation-challenge/utility-carbon-reduction-tracker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">62 major utilities</a> in the U.S. have set their own emission reduction goals, most leaders in that sector would argue that requiring net zero emissions by 2035 is too much too fast.</p><p>One problem is that states are often more involved in regulating the power sector than the federal government. And, when federal regulations are passed, they are <a href="https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">often challenged in court</a>, meaning they can take years to implement.</p><p>Reducing greenhouse gases also requires modernizing the electricity transmission grid. The federal government can streamline the permitting process to allow more clean energy, like wind and solar power, onto the grid. Without that intervention, it could take a decade or more to permit a single transmission line.</p><h3>The Falling Costs of Renewable Energy</h3><p>A comparison of the average levelized cost of utility-scale power generation, without subsidies, shows how new solar and onshore wind became less expensive than coal generation. Costs are in U.S. dollars per megawatt-hour.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ0MzgyMS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjAwMjk3MH0.O_CRalTEYNsH_RTav9V7uEzh0GQGhdHCx7hQow8UyDs/img.png?width=980" id="b6d7c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5cc72a966fccbd64c2dcc688dafba2ac" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1222" data-height="640" />
What to Do About Vehicles, Buildings and Ag
<p>The power sector may be the easiest sector to "decarbonize." The transportation sector is another story.</p><p>Transportation is now the nation's <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/10/everything-you-need-know-about-fastest-growing-source-global-emissions-transport" target="_blank">leading emitter of carbon dioxide</a>. Decarbonizing it will require a transition away from the internal combustion engine in a relatively short amount of time.</p><p>Again, this is a challenge that requires many parts and levels of government working toward the same goal. It will require expanding carbon-free transportation, including more electric vehicles, charging stations, better battery technology and clean energy. That involves regulations and funding for research and development from multiple departments, as well as trade agreements, tax incentives for electric vehicles and a shift in how government agencies buy vehicles. The EPA can facilitate these efforts or hamstring them, as happened when the Trump EPA <a href="https://www.resourcesmag.org/resources-radio/waive-goodbye-history-and-future-california-waiver-emily-wimberger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">revoked California's ability to set higher emissions standards</a> – something the Biden administration is likely to quickly restore.</p><p>The other "hard to decarbonize" sectors – buildings, industry and agriculture – will require sophistication and collaboration among all federal departments and agencies unlike any previous efforts across government.</p>A New Comprehensive Climate Bill
<p>The best way to tackle these sectors would be a comprehensive climate bill that uses some mechanism, like a <a href="https://www.rff.org/publications/issue-briefs/clean-energy-standards" target="_blank">clean energy standard</a>, that sets a cap, or limit, on emissions and tightens it over time. Here, the problem lies more in the politics of the moment than anything else. Biden and his team will have to convince lawmakers from fossil fuel-producing states to work on these efforts.</p><p>Democratic control of the Senate raises the chances that Congress could pass comprehensive climate legislation, but that isn't a given. Until that happens, Biden will have to rely on agencies issuing new rules, which are vulnerable to being revoked by future administrations. It's a little like playing chess without a queen or rooks.</p><p>Years of delays have allowed global warming to progress so far that many of its impacts may soon become irreversible. To meet its ambitious goals, the administration will need everyone, progressives and conservatives, state and local leaders, and the private sector, to work with them.</p><h3>Biden's Core Climate Team</h3><p>President-elect Joe Biden's senior leadership picks have years of experience with climate policy. He and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris introduced these seven as their core climate team. Gina McCarthy, John Kerry and Ali Zaidi will not require Senate confirmation. The others will.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ0Mzg0MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjgwODY0N30.SJeuFgWBMILHhH72i6yn-2vUnYa3ycmgme7E-Xd0wls/img.png?width=980" id="9a98d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6a52b4176bccb6202dfb2b3790d76d88" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1248" data-height="1220" />
<p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/bill-ritter-jr-352083" target="_blank">Bill Ritter Jr.</a> is </em><em>Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em>Bill Ritter, Jr. is a former Governor of Colorado and is the Director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University. The Center is funded by various foundations. </em><span></span>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-plans-to-fight-climate-change-in-a-way-no-u-s-president-has-done-before-152419" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff (L) and Rev. Raphael Warnock bump elbows at a rally on October 24, 2020 in Duluth, Georgia. Elijah Nouvelage / AFP / Getty Images
Democrats have won control of the Senate and with it, a fighting shot at passing meaningful climate legislation.
<p>The Associated Press called the two Georgia runoff Senate races for Democrat Reverend Raphael Warnock at <a href="https://twitter.com/AP/status/1346714442915000320" target="_blank">2:05 a.m. EST Wednesday morning</a> and for Democrat Jon Ossoff at <a href="https://twitter.com/AP_Politics/status/1346929188838793216" target="_blank">4:16 p.m. EST Wednesday afternoon</a>. Their win means the Senate is now split 50-50 with Vice President-elect <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/kamala-harris" target="_self">Kamala Harris</a> acting as a tie-breaker, giving the Democrats a majority in the chamber for the first time since 2015, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/jan/06/jon-ossoff-wins-georgia-runoff-election-democrats-senate" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p><p>"The Decade of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/green-new-deal" target="_self">Green New Deal</a> has just begun," youth-led climate group <a href="https://www.sunrisemovement.org/?ms=SunriseMovement" target="_blank">Sunrise Movement</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/status/1346684161680154624" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">tweeted</a> once a Democratic victory appeared likely.</p><p>But what does this victory actually mean in practical terms? First, it means that President-elect <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/joe-biden" target="_self">Joe Biden</a> will have an easier time confirming his cabinet nominees, <a href="https://grist.org/politics/democrats-flip-the-senate-illuminating-a-path-forward-on-climate/?fbclid=IwAR05feq61UiwDtb9oRDrxoF5cjdgkpd5FMfPw-4TjTAQU3XpYbWpwF2_cag" target="_blank">Grist explained</a>.</p><p>The Biden administration has announced a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/biden-climate-crisis-nominees-2649519000.html" target="_self">slate of climate-focused nominees</a>, including the historic choice of environmental justice advocate and Representative <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/deb-haaland-biden-secretary-interior-2649541483.html" target="_self">Deb Haaland</a> (D-NM) to serve as the first <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/indigenous" target="_self">Indigenous</a> Secretary of the Interior, and the first Indigenous cabinet secretary.</p>
<p>Second, control of the Senate will enable the Democrats to more easily reverse some of President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a>'s last-minute environmental deregulations, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/climate/georgia-senate-climate.html" target="_blank">The New York Times reported</a>. The Congressional Review Act gives Congress the power to reverse rules recently made by federal agencies with a simple majority vote. Congress can now use that power to undo the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/epa-secret-science-rule-2649748696.html" target="_self">"Secret Science" rule</a> finalized by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self">Environmental Protection Agency</a> (EPA) this week, which restricts the kinds of studies the EPA can use when crafting policy. Congress can also reverse the recent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-rollback-migratory-bird-act-2649766045.html" target="_self">rollback</a> of a law protecting migratory birds.</p><p>Finally, Congress now has a shot at passing some of Biden's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/biden-climate-plan-green-new-deal-2648128471.html" target="_self">$2 trillion climate plan</a> as part of an economic stimulus or infrastructure bill. However, the Democrats' razor-thin majority in the Senate means they will still have to compromise with moderates and Republicans to pass any major legislative packages, both Grist and The New York Times reported.</p><p>Robert Stavins, Harvard Kennedy School director of environmental economics, told The New York Times that a Democratic double-victory in Georgia was "important across the board, but it doesn't bring them the ultimate freedom they would have if they had a supermajority."</p><p>Still, that slim majority was important enough that progressive climate groups worked to get out the vote in Georgia, despite the fact that Ossoff does not back the Green New Deal, as <a href="https://newrepublic.com/article/160760/pragmatism-radical-climate-left" target="_blank">Kate Aronoff noted for The Republic</a>. (However, he does support a green infrastructure plan similar to Biden's, and Warnock has also spoken in favor of environmental action, Grist reported. Both candidates want to rejoin the Paris agreement and reverse Trump's deregulations.)</p>
<p>The Sunrise Movement persuaded more than 3,000 people to text three friends reminding them to vote on election day. In the weeks leading up to the election, the Sunrise Movement called more than 1.2 million people, sent one million texts and registered more than 3,000 young voters, the group <a href="https://twitter.com/sunrisemvmt/status/1346829280714641408" target="_blank">tweeted</a>.</p><p>Young Georgia voters were an important part of the coalition that helped Biden win Georgia in November and helped Ossoff and Warnock win in Tuesday's runoff, along with voters who were Black, suburban, women, low-income and new arrivals to the state, The Guardian reported.</p>"I think it's the most important vote in our generation for young people," Sunrise Movement Electoral Politics Director Shante Wolfe <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNConnect/status/1346134932209491968" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">told CNN</a>.
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Biden Is Urged to Ban ANWR Drilling After Court Approves Auction of Fossil Fuel Leases
07 January
Climate
Polar bears are seen in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge near Kaktovik, Alaska. Sylvain Cordier / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
President-elect Joe Biden is facing renewed pressure to deliver on his promise of a bold climate agenda after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration could move forward with a Wednesday auction of fossil fuel drilling leases for federally protected lands in Alaska.
<p>After decades of national debate over oil and gas development in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Republicans in Congress opened up the region to drilling with a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/08/gop-tax-scam-attacks-renewables-while-nurturing-nuclear-and-fossil-fuel-industries" target="_blank">provision</a> in the so-called "<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/22/corporations-are-literally-going-wild-says-trump-he-signs-tax-bill-most-americans" target="_blank">tax scam</a>" that President Donald Trump signed in 2017.</p><p>Late Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage <a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20441489-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-order-on-preliminary-injunction" target="_blank">declined</a> to issue a preliminary injunction to block the auction. The request came from environmental groups and Indigenous people who are opposed to drilling in ANWR, which is home to <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic/wildlife_habitat.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over 280 species</a>.</p><p>In a statement Wednesday, Mitch Jones, policy director at the advocacy group Food & Water Watch, urged Biden to prevent fossil fuel development in the refuge—and beyond—when he takes office in two weeks. The president-elect has previously <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2020/12/05/with-oil-drilling-in-anwr-advancing-and-a-possible-end-to-pebble-mine-what-could-change-for-alaska-under-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> he "totally" opposes drilling in the ecologically sensitive region.</p><p>"Trump rushing through these lease sales as a final handout to his cronies in the oil and gas industry is outrageous, if not surprising," Jones declared. "Trump's consistent, willful ignorance of the realities of climate change has pushed our planet towards decades of increasing climate chaos."</p>
<p>"President-elect Biden can reverse these disastrous oil and gas industry plans by keeping his promise to ban fossil fuel extraction—including fracking—on our public lands and waters," he added. "This is a step he can, and must, take upon taking office."</p><p>Jones' call for Biden to intervene to protect ANWR's coastal plain came after environmental and Indigenous leaders expressed disappointment with Gleason's decision not to block the auction while also emphasizing that her ruling doesn't mark the end of their fight against drilling rights in the refuge.</p><p>Four lawsuits have been filed since August challenging the lease plans, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-lawsuit/u-s-judge-denies-effort-to-stop-drilling-auction-in-arctic-refuge-idUSKBN29B071" target="_blank">according to</a> <em>Reuters</em>. The National Audubon Society and other groups had argued that the auction shouldn't go forward until the broader challenge to the drilling is resolved.</p><p>The <em>Anchorage Daily News</em> <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2020/12/05/with-oil-drilling-in-anwr-advancing-and-a-possible-end-to-pebble-mine-what-could-change-for-alaska-under-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reports</a> that Erik Grafe, an Earthjustice attorney representing the Audubon Society, said the case "is by no means over."</p><p>"The court concluded only that for now there is no harm that justifies an injunction. It also recognized that such an action could come very soon with issuance of seismic permits," he said. "We will continue to press our case that the agency approved the program unlawfully and that its decision should be overturned."</p>
<div id="4b52a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2fc64a53f75e68a880e2293893243cb"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1346838449593212928" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We #StandWiththeGwichin in our collective fight to #ProtectTheArctic.
Trump's last-ditch effort to extract fossil… https://t.co/uhaPPWiL6T</div> — 350 dot org (@350 dot org)<a href="https://twitter.com/350/statuses/1346838449593212928">1609946284.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, which represents some of the area's Indigenous people, similarly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-lawsuit/u-s-judge-denies-effort-to-stop-drilling-auction-in-arctic-refuge-idUSKBN29B071" target="_blank">said</a> Tuesday that "today's ruling is disappointing but does nothing to change the strength of our lawsuit or our resolve."</p><p>Demientieff's people have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/24/coalition-files-suit-stop-trumps-slapdash-and-tragic-plan-drill-arctic-national" target="_blank">relied </a>on the region's Porcupine Caribou Herd for thousands of years. The Gwich'in <a href="https://ourarcticrefuge.org/about-the-refuge/the-coastal-plain-the-sacred-place-where-life-begins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">call</a> the coastal plain, which the caribou use as their calving grounds, "Iizhik Gwats'an Gwandaii Goodlit" or "The Sacred Place Where Life Begins."</p><p>As <em>The Guardian</em> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/05/trump-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-lease-sales?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20210106&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Daily" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> ahead of the ruling Tuesday:</p><blockquote>Oil from drilling west of the refuge, at Prudhoe Bay, has fueled the economic development the state has depended on to fill its coffers and write annual revenue checks to residents. That extraction also led to the most damaging oil spill in history, when the Exxon Valdez tanker spewed millions of barrels off Alaska's southern coast in 1989.<br><br>Prudhoe Bay "was the largest oil field ever discovered in North America. Since then we have had more than 1,500 square miles of oil and gas development in the Alaskan Arctic… but [ANWR] has been off limits," said Adam Kolton, executive director of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/alaska" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alaska</a> Wilderness League.<br><br>"For us, it symbolizes just what's at stake here. If you can't draw a line at the tundra and keep this one area of the Arctic off limits, then the question is, where can you draw the line and what protected part or wildlife refuge in the United States will remain off limits?"<br></blockquote><p>For the <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/01/05/heres-what-to-know-ahead-of-the-anwr-oil-lease-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">first-ever ANWR auction</a>, the Bureau of Land Management "plans open bids from companies seeking 10-year leases," according to the <em>Daily News.</em> "Up for grabs to the highest bidder are 22 tracts on the refuge's coastal plain, most of them about 50,000 acres. Together, the tracts represent about 5% of the 19-million-acre refuge."</p>
<div id="ef02c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="21eddea470b1f924a3e56108665ca656"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1346821784440606720" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">With the denial of the injunction lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will go forward today. The ind… https://t.co/B07NKdKD9w</div> — Ctr4BioDiv Ocean (@Ctr4BioDiv Ocean)<a href="https://twitter.com/EndangeredOcean/statuses/1346821784440606720">1609942310.0</a></blockquote></div><p>It remains unclear if any fossil fuel companies will even bid on the leases—especially given that major U.S. banks, under pressure from environmental and Indigenous groups, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/01/lame-duck-trump-pushes-arctic-pillage-bank-america-latest-bank-rule-out-drilling" target="_blank">have adopted policies</a> of refusing to finance drilling in the Arctic, including ANWR, which was designated by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/06/after-court-oks-trump-arctic-refuge-auction-biden-urged-immediately-ban-drilling" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
There are signs of climate action hope for 2021. R_Tee / Getty Images
By Kristy Dahl
In early January of this year, fresh off the experience of writing a year-end blog post for 2019, I started a project that I thought would make writing this year's year-end post easier. I created a little 2020 calendar on which I planned to record the one big thing that happened in the climate change space each day. In my mind I called it "The Daily Big Deal," and I could envision myself sitting here, as I am, on December 17, reviewing the year's climate-related events and deftly knitting them together in the blog post equivalent of a beautiful scarf made of reclaimed yarn. Or an ugly sweater. Or whatever.
<p>You can see where this is going, of course. The calendar has exactly 17 entries, almost all of them before mid-March, when the U.S. shut down amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and <a href="https://giphy.com/gifs/this-is-fine-dumpster-fire-floating-1rNWZu4QQqCUaq434T?utm_source=iframe&utm_medium=embed&utm_campaign=Embeds&utm_term=https%3A%2F%2Fstlmotherhood.com%2F" target="_blank">2020</a> began its seemingly never-ending nosedive. The story of 2020 will forever be one of the COVID-19 pandemic: a story of the lives lost, the heroic commitments of medical professionals, essential workers, and vaccine researchers, the deep crises of unemployment and hunger, the months of isolation from friends and family, the loss of normalcy, the failure of our federal government to stanch the spread of this deadly virus.</p><p>Despite my abandoned efforts to chronicle it, though, climate change was also deeply woven into the story of 2020. As we close out this year, these are the five climate lessons I'll be taking with me into 2021.</p><h3>1. Climate change is showing up in our daily lives whether we recognize it or not</h3><p>Climate change was on full display this year as a parade of extreme events marched its way around the globe. In what was a record-breaking wildfire year across the western U.S., <a href="https://www.fire.ca.gov/stats-events/" target="_blank">over 4.2 million acres</a> of California's land burned—an area larger than the state of Connecticut and more than burned during the entire decade of the 1990s. As dire as California's fires were, consider this: The year began with wildfires in Australia that burned 10 times more land than that (about <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2666449620300098" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">46 million acres</a> in all). Combined with a record-breaking Atlantic <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/astrid-caldas/rapid-intensification-unprecedented-number-of-storms-make-2020-a-record-hurricane-season" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hurricane season</a> with multiple direct hits to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/oct/10/hurricane-delta-louisiana-creole-lake-charles-damage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Louisiana</a> and <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/11/17/nicaragua-eta-iota-landfalls/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Nicaragua</a>, <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/02/eastern-kentucky-is-underwater-but-you-probably-didnt-notice/606973/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">flooding</a> in the U.S. Midwest, <a href="https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/phe-heatwave-mortality-monitoring/heatwave-mortality-monitoring-report-2020#excess-all-cause-mortality-summer-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">heat waves in the UK</a> associated with more than 2,500 excess deaths, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200806-the-biblical-east-african-locust-plagues-of-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">locust swarms</a> in East Africa, devastating back-to-back typhoons in the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/11/12/asia/typhoon-vamco-philippines-intl/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Philippines</a>, and countless other climate-related events, it's clear that climate change was staring us in the face—or more like screaming at us—all year long.</p><p>But climate change isn't just here in the form of these extreme events. It's here in the winter coats cast aside for a few days in the Northeast in January, when places like Pittsburgh hit 70°F. It's here in the strange, early blooms of confused spring flowers. And it's here in the <a href="https://eos.org/features/coastal-fog-climate-change-environment" target="_blank">lack of summertime fog</a> in my <a href="https://twitter.com/fog_karla/status/1318715094872715265" target="_blank">notoriously/gloriously foggy neighborhood</a>.</p><p>Indeed, one of the year's most chilling and powerful <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-019-0666-7" target="_blank">new studies</a> concluded that from 2012 onward, the fingerprints of climate change can be detected from any single day in the global record. Whether it is glaringly obvious or not on any given day, climate change is already shaping our everyday lives in ways big and small.</p>
<h3>2. When it comes to cascading risks, we need to be thinking much more broadly</h3><p>Against the backdrop of the pandemic, this year's climate extremes exposed the many ways in which climate change intersects with civil unrest, water quality, financial insecurity, racial inequities in access to health care and secure housing, and countless other issues that might otherwise be perceived as being wholly unrelated.</p><p>Like pandemic preparedness, effective climate adaptation and planning will require us to think much more broadly about what climate change means than we have before.</p><p>For example, we have long recognized the interconnectedness of extreme weather and our energy systems—thousands if not millions of people lose power every year during snowstorms, hurricanes, thunderstorms, and the like. But when we look at what happened when Hurricane Laura hit Lake Charles, Louisiana, this summer, we can see that the cascading risks of climate-change-driven extreme weather extend far beyond the reach of our electricity system.</p><p>In the aftermath of Laura, hundreds of thousands of people were without <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/more-than-750000-still-without-power-in-hurricane-lauras-aftermath" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">power <strong>and water</strong></a> for days while a severe heat wave rode in on the storm's heels. Lake Charles' residents—about half of whom are Black and about 20 percent of whom live below the poverty line—had to somehow try to rebuild their homes and lives; keep themselves safe from the heat despite not being able to run their air conditioners or fans; and avoid contracting COVID-19 despite being unable to wash their hands. Add to that the financial insecurity many were experiencing after having been laid off during the pandemic shutdown, and we can see that the impacts of climate change reach deeply into so many different systems.</p>
<h3>3. COVID-19 and climate change are racial injustices</h3><p>The pandemic has touched all of our lives this year, but has taken a particularly devastating toll on Black, Hispanic, and Indigenous communities. In just one example, as of June, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/almost-one-third-of-black-americans-know-someone-who-died-of-covid-19-survey-shows/2020/06/25/3ec1d4b2-b563-11ea-aca5-ebb63d27e1ff_story.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">nearly one in three</a> Black Americans personally knew someone who had died from COVID-19 compared with roughly one in 10 white Americans.</p><p>The disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 on communities of color are a crystal-clear manifestation of the deep racial inequities that have built up over centuries of systemic racism in the U.S. Millions of people around the world rose up this summer to protest another manifestation of those inequities: the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and countless other Black people by the police.</p><p>The disproportionate impacts of climate change are yet another injustice that racism inflicts on communities of color. My colleagues and I have <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/adrienne-hollis/researchers-find-deadliest-aspect-of-covid-19-for-people-of-color-racism" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">written</a> <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/adrienne-hollis/we-need-a-new-normal-post-covid-19-thats-not-a-death-sentence-to-black-people" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">extensively</a> <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/kristy-dahl/new-covid-19-testing-data-reveal-70-more-positive-results-in-non-white-us-counties" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">about</a> <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/juan-declet-barreto/mapas-mostrando-donde-los-mas-vulnerables-estan-azotados-por-covid-19-en-eeuu-senalan-una-injusticia-creciente" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">these</a> <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/juan-declet-barreto/hurricane-laura-and-the-inequities-of-evacuating-to-safety" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">issues</a> recently, and, personally, I'm closing this year out with a deeper understanding of the fact that we cannot and will not be able to address challenges like climate change and COVID-19 without addressing the systemic racism that results in the disproportionate suffering of Black and brown people.</p>
<h3>4. When it comes to emissions reductions, we need profound change, but not the kind of devastating change we experienced this year</h3><p>This year we expect that carbon dioxide emissions—the primary contributor to human-caused climate change–will have dropped by about <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/global-carbon-project-coronavirus-causes-record-fall-in-fossil-fuel-emissions-in-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">7 percent globally</a> and about <a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=46196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">11 percent in the U.S</a><a href="https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=46196" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">.</a>, primarily as a result of the widespread economic and emotional pain caused by the pandemic. This is not the kind of transformative change, driven by deep and sustained policies, that we need to meet our climate goals—and it is likely to be short-lived.</p><p><a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/emissions-gap-report-2020" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Studies</a> show that we'll need to accomplish decreases of roughly that same magnitude every year for the next 10 years to be on track to limit future warming to 1.5-2°C, and we'll have to do so in ways that encourage economic stability, improve the quality of life for people around the globe, reduce—rather than exacerbate—racial inequities, and ensure a just transition to safe, well-paying jobs for those whose livelihoods have been entwined with the production of fossil fuels.</p><p>It's a task that looks more and more daunting by the day, particularly because emissions are on track to increase by 2 percent per year globally between now and 2030 if we continue on a business-as-usual path.</p><p>But there are <a href="https://environmenthalfcentury.princeton.edu/" target="_blank">multiple technically feasible pathways</a> to get to net-zero emissions by 2050, with steep near-term reductions in emissions. And economic recovery packages that invest in clean energy rather than continuing to prop up the loathsome fossil fuel industry (as they have thus far) could <a href="https://www.unenvironment.org/emissions-gap-report-2020" target="_blank">put us on a path</a> toward accomplishing near- and long-term emissions reductions.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk4NDM3Ny9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNzMzOTk0MX0.mb2piF1FO6XN1l8xv4tiYU8mgunEtt5f6WG9K8njyCY/img.png?width=980" id="3c97a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7ece568f6eef39e6fc196db23aa8b00c" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1024" data-height="824" />
Financial commitments to the fossil fuel industry have far outpaced commitments to clean energy in G20 countries since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
<h3>5. In the U.S. and around the world there is <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/clean-energy-2020-year-in-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">cause for hope<br></a></h3><p>In a clear signal of the importance of climate change in U.S. voters' minds, climate change was a prominent topic in the presidential and vice-presidential debates. Indeed, <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/10/06/how-important-is-climate-change-to-voters-in-the-2020-election/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pre-election surveys</a> showed that, particularly for voters identifying as Democrats climate change was a high-priority issue despite the many immediate challenges the country faces.</p><p>The country then went on to elect a president and vice president who understand the science behind climate change and embrace the need for rapid, transformative climate action. President-elect Biden has affirmed his commitment to climate action in announcing an exciting slate of nominees and appointees who have long focused on issues of climate change and justice, including <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/12/17/937259525/in-historic-move-biden-to-pick-native-american-rep-deb-haaland-as-interior-secre" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Deb Haaland</a>, <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/biden-names-john-kerry-climate-envoy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">John Kerry</a>, <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/12/15/politics/gina-mccarthy-joe-biden/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Gina McCarthy</a>, and <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/biden-selects-michael-regan-north-carolina-environmental-chief-head-epa-n1251598" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Mike Regan</a>.</p><p>On the international front, China's <a href="https://www.iea.org/commentaries/china-s-net-zero-ambitions-the-next-five-year-plan-will-be-critical-for-an-accelerated-energy-transition" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pledge</a> to achieve net-zero emissions by 2060 along with <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/rachel-cleetus/five-years-on-keeping-the-hope-of-the-paris-agreement-alive-and-strong" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">signals</a> of similarly ambitions pledges from the EU, UK, Japan, and South Korea all serve as challenges for other countries—particularly developed countries like the U.S.—to commit to aggressive emissions reduction plans.</p><p>While we can't erase the past years and decades of climate inaction, all of these are signs that we may begin to right our path in earnest in 2021.</p><p>I think I can speak for many in the climate community when I say that the last four years have been grueling. Many of the drastic climate impacts we've long been warning about are coming to pass sooner than we had expected yet we've had to continue to fight for the issue of climate change to be named and recognized at all by our federal government. But there's been a heartening crescendo of calls over the last few years for intersectional solutions to climate change, and the incoming Biden Administration seems to be hearing those calls. There is a tremendous amount of work ahead of us as individuals, as a nation, and as a global society. But for the first time in years, I find myself hopeful that we'll start to see more meaningful progress on climate action in 2021.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/kristy-dahl/5-climate-change-lessons-from-2020" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2649587161#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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U.S. President-elect Joe Biden, acknowledging the climate crisis, has announced key members of his environmental team. Rick Loomis / Getty Images
U.S. President-elect Joe Biden has announced key members of his environmental team, saying that his administration would make a unified response to climate change a priority.
<p>"Folks, we're in a crisis," Biden said at an event in Wilmington, Delaware. "We literally have no time to waste … Just like we need to be a unified nation to respond to COVID-19, we need a unified national response to climate change."</p><p>The nominees, he said, will "lead my administration's ambitious plan to address an existential threat of our time — climate change."</p><p>Biden has vowed to reverse many of the current Trump administration's initiatives that boosted oil and gas production and rolled back regulations intended to protect the environment.</p><p>Most notably, Biden promised to <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/biden-pledges-to-restore-us-global-cooperation-and-leadership-but-can-he/a-55537506" target="_blank">rejoin the Paris climate accord</a>, which <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/us-exits-paris-climate-agreement/a-55492254" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">President Donald Trump abandoned during his term</a>.</p><p>The incoming president's decision to appoint an environmental team is in sharp contrast to the incumbent.</p>
<h2>Who Is on the Team?</h2><p>Representative <strong>Deb Haaland</strong> of New Mexico has been picked to lead the Interior Department, which oversees the U.S.'s natural resources that include national parks and wildlife refuges. The department has also wielded influence over the nation's tribes for generations.</p><p>If confirmed by the Senate, she would be the first Native American to hold a cabinet position.</p><p><strong>Jennifer Granholm</strong>, former Governor of Michigan, has been tapped to be the next energy secretary. Since stepping down as governor, she has often spoken about the need to boldly rethink energy policy in light of climate change.</p><p><strong>Michael Regan</strong>, North Carolina's top environmental regulator, has been nominated to run the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Regan made a name for himself by pursuing cleanups of industrial toxins and helping low-income and minority communities significantly affected by pollution.</p>
<p>If confirmed, he would be the first Black American to run the agency.</p><p><strong>Brenda Mallory</strong>, an environmental attorney, will be Biden's nominee to direct the Council on Environmental Quality. The office oversees environmental reviews for virtually all major infrastructure projects and advises the president on major environmental issues.</p><p>If confirmed, she too would be the first Black American to hold the position since it was created more than half a century ago.</p><p><strong>Gina McCarthy</strong>, the EPA administrator during former U.S. President Barack Obama's second term, will lead a new White House Office of Climate Policy, and serve as national climate adviser.</p><p>Her position would not need Senate confirmation.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/joe-biden-appoints-climate-team-says-were-in-a-crisis/a-55999787?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle.</a></em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2649585176#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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Gray Wolf Recovery and Survival Require Immediate Action By the Biden Administration
12 December 2020
Insights + Opinion
Scott Flaherty / USFWS
President-elect Joe Biden will soon step into a tangled web of critical foreign and domestic issues affecting Americans. As his administration begins work to address these complex challenges, issues that affect other species on Earth must not be lost in the shuffle.
<p>One species whose fate once again hangs in the balance is the gray wolf, which the Trump administration this October <a href="https://therevelator.org/wolves-lose-protection/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">removed from the protection</a> of the Endangered Species Act in most of its range.</p><p>This delisting affects more than wolves: Numerous species and ecosystems depend on wolves for their long-term health. The most recent example of this comes from preliminary research results in the Yellowstone ecosystem indicating wolves exert a "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/science/wolves-chronic-wasting-disease.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">predator cleansing effect</a>" that may delay and decrease the size and spread of the devastating chronic wasting disease in native ungulates.</p><p>But the Trump administration did not listen to the science, starting in 2019, when the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service proposed a rule to remove gray wolves in the lower 48 states from the endangered species list.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1MDYxNi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTMwMTE3N30.3URMLr1TVzb5OTBOe_UtWLgAgCAaNQmiroq7Ozt8VGc/img.jpg?width=980" id="732dc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6d5408e6be6315cd047f4f5cb3b698ed" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1024" data-height="576" />
MacNeil Lyons / NPS
<p>The proposal, which would put wolf management in the hands of the states instead of the federal government, produced immediate outrage. A historic <em>1.8 million</em> public comments opposed the delisting, and 86 members of Congress (in both House and Senate), plus 100 scientists, 230 businesses and 367 veterinary professionals, submitted letters of opposition. Even the scientific peer reviews commissioned by the Service itself found the proposal had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/11/12/science/wolves-chronic-wasting-disease.html" target="_blank">inadequate scientific support</a>.</p><p>Despite this overwhelming opposition and flawed science, the Service went ahead and stripped gray wolves of protection under the federal Endangered Species Act. In the process it also ignored the fact that gray wolves are still functionally extinct in the majority of places they once inhabited.</p>Why States Can’t Protect Wolves
<p>Prior to this year's comprehensive delisting, gray wolves living in Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Washington, Oregon, Utah and California were already being managed by state wildlife agencies. In most of these states, this so-called "management" has been a debacle, as the agencies are often staffed and directed by hunters interested in "harvesting" wildlife for personal gain or, in the case of trophy hunting, ego gratification. If wolves are eating deer and elk in order to survive, these hunters view the predators as unacceptable competition.</p><p>For many of these state decision-makers, the attitude toward wolves is at best reluctant tolerance — far from what it should be: a desire for full recovery of the species and compassionate co-existence.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDk1MDYxNy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNjIwMzM1MH0.hbECitzGSBM4qWTK_LHh5qzDtIMfNBNg3DyfrXMoM0w/img.jpg?width=980" id="b004a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="93694ee1ec612e4a7327bd781cd526e8" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1024" data-height="576" />
A radio-collared wolf watches near a group of wintering elk in the National Elk Refuge in Wyoming. USFWS / Tony and Ann Hough
<p>Idaho provides the worst example of wolf mismanagement at the state level. Over the 12-month period ending June 30, 2020, the state allowed the killing of at least <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/idaho-documents-reveal-weeks-old-wolf-pups-among-570-maimed-slaughtered-wolves-2020-09-11/" target="_blank">570 of the 1,000 wolves</a> estimated to exist there. The only thing that prevented it from authorizing even more killings was a provision that would have <a href="https://idfg.idaho.gov/old-web/docs/wolves/plan02.pdf" target="_blank">returned management to the federal government</a> if population levels fell below an established threshold. This is completely unacceptable. Until state-agency staffing is more balanced, representing both the interests of hunters and those who appreciate wildlife alive, the agencies have no business making management decisions about wolves.</p><p>The bottom line is wolves need continued federal protection if they're to survive and fully recover.</p>How to Restore Federal Protections
<p>The Biden administration could begin ensuring protection of wolves through three initial actions.</p><p>First it should reverse the recent decision to delist gray wolves. The incoming secretary of the Interior could easily and immediately withdraw the rule in order to settle the inevitable lawsuit(s) that will challenge the legality of the delisting.</p><p>Second it should put <em>all</em> gray wolves in the lower 48 states under Endangered Species Act protection once again. The entire history of federal wolf protection has been piecemeal and fractured. Defining numerous different "distinct population" segments and pursuing delisting on a region-by-region or state-by-state manner does not facilitate full wolf recovery throughout their historic range; it only results in significant numbers of wolves being shot and trapped, and repeated challenges in court.</p><p>Third, once all gray wolves are again under the full protection of the Act, the administration should have the Fish and Wildlife Service finally develop a comprehensive nationwide gray wolf recovery plan. This plan is required under the Act but has never been made. The gray wolf was first protected way back in 1974; the Service has had more than 40 years to complete such a plan. It is long overdue. Once the recovery plan is completed, the Biden administration should have the Service implement it and monitor the results of the implementation. These actions will go a long way toward ensuring the recovery and long-term survival of gray wolves in the lower 48 states.</p><p>As one of North America's most iconic and ecologically important species, gray wolves can and should represent the very best of our conservation efforts and science. This will benefit not just wolves, but all other threatened species in the United States. President-elect Joe Biden has the power to make that a reality.</p><p><em>The opinions expressed above are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of</em> The Revelator, <em>the Center for Biological Diversity or their employees</em>.</p><p><span></span><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://therevelator.org/gray-wolf-biden-administration/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trump EPA Issues Last-Minute Rule Making it Harder for Biden to Address Climate and Pollution
10 December 2020
Climate
EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler is seen during a hearing on May 20, 2020 in Washington, D.C, addressing legal challenges and criticism for easing enforcements during the COVID-19 pandemic. Al Drago-Poo / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
With President Donald Trump's first term soon coming to an end, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday finalized a rule that critics are calling a last-minute attempt to "sabotage" future efforts by President-elect Joe Biden's incoming administration to tackle the intertwined climate and pollution crises.
<p>Capping off nearly four years of Trump and members of his administration working to roll back<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html" target="_blank"> over 100</a> environmental and public health protections in the service of corporate polluters, the new rule changes how the EPA calculates the costs and benefits of new policies on air pollution under the Clean Air Act.</p><p>The new requirements, as the <em>Washington Post</em> <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/12/09/trump-air-pollution/" target="_blank">reports</a>, "instruct the agency to weigh all the economic costs of curbing an air pollutant but disregard many of the incidental benefits that arise, such as illnesses and deaths avoided by a potential regulation. In other words, if reducing emissions from power plants also saves tens of thousands of lives each year by cutting soot, those 'co-benefits' should be not be counted."</p>
<div id="79e9e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="10dec355a3d65196f053839e555b698e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1336748228654587904" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Speaking to @CoralMDavenport @nytimes about the rule announced today by @EPAAWheeler, EPN member Roy Gamse said, "I… https://t.co/nQDJ5Pl66R</div> — Environmental Protection Network (@Environmental Protection Network)<a href="https://twitter.com/EnvProtectioNet/statuses/1336748228654587904">1607540587.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Former coal lobbyist and current EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the finalization during a virtual event with the Heritage Foundation, <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-finalizes-benefit-cost-analyses-procedures-increase-consistency-honest-accounting" target="_blank">saying</a>, "thanks to President Trump's leadership, we are ensuring that future rulemakings under the Clean Air Act are transparent, fair, and consistent with EPA governing statutes."</p><p>Environmental and public health advocates pushed back against Wheeler's framing, blasting the rule as not only yet another piece of the outgoing administration's deregulatory agenda but also a blatant attempt to hamstring Biden, who ran on <a href="https://joebiden.com/environmental-justice-plan/" target="_blank">a promise to deliver</a> environmental and climate justice.</p><p>"For four years, this administration has waged war on public health by kowtowing to polluters," Environmental Working Group president Ken Cook <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/12/09/new-rule-makes-it-harder-epa-fight-air-pollution-and-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> of Trump's first term. "Now, on the way out the door, this amounts to sabotaging the efforts of the incoming administration to protect Americans from dirty air."</p><p>"It will literally be a breath of fresh air to soon have a president and an EPA working each day to make Americans and the planet healthier and safe," he added of Biden's planned January 20 inauguration. "But Administrator Wheeler and President Trump are hellbent on making that job as difficult as possible."</p>
<div id="a96f2" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3d5be0826b85983df331ef552ed4573a"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1336807701171605507" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">This rule will distort @EPA analysis by discounting the health benefits of air pollution standards & prioritizing t… https://t.co/UnJjArprPn</div> — Rep. Frank Pallone (@Rep. Frank Pallone)<a href="https://twitter.com/FrankPallone/statuses/1336807701171605507">1607554767.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p><a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/nrdc/amid-pandemic-epa-proposal-distorts-benefits-reducing-air-pollution?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=CleanAirPolicy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Proposed</a> in June, the final rule comes in the midst of the deadly coronavirus pandemic, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/12/09/trump-cost-benefit-rule-harms-public-health-born-out-corruption" target="_blank">noted</a> Chris Saeger, a spokesperson for Accountable.US. Early research <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2258774-air-pollution-linked-to-greater-risk-of-dying-from-covid-19-in-the-us/" target="_blank">has tied</a> air pollution to a heightened risk of dying from Covid-19, which had killed over 288,700 people in the United States, <a href="https://coronavirus.jhu.edu/map.html" target="_blank">according to</a> John Hopkins University's tracker.</p><p>"Donald Trump must be held accountable for selling out Americans' air quality to big oil companies and fossil fuel lobbyists during a public health emergency," Saeger said. "To restore our nation, the Biden administration must raise standards for the air we breath by rejecting these irresponsible policies that reward the special interests the Trump administration used to work for."</p><p>Emily Davis, senior attorney in the Natural Resources Defense Council's Climate & Clean Energy Program, also <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/201209" target="_blank">called on</a> the next administration to forge a new path on pollution policy.</p><p>"This is an egregious 11th-hour attempt to handcuff the incoming administration and undercut the benefits of clean air—in the worst days of a global health crisis," she said of the new rule. "Our country is struggling to address racial injustice and a deadly pandemic magnified by pollution, which all heavily impact Black, Latino, and low-income people."</p><p>"The Biden administration should deep-six this dishonest and dangerous rule—and allow EPA to re-embrace its core mission, which is to protect public health and our environment," Davis added. "We'll use every tool, and look forward to working with the Biden team, to ensure that healthier future for all."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/09/eco-sabotage-trump-epa-issues-last-minute-rule-make-action-climate-and-pollution" target="_blank">Common Dreams.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Climate Envoy John Kerry (L) and President-elect Joseph (R) are seen during Kerry's ceremonial swearing in as Secretary of State on February 6, 2013 in Washington, DC. Alex Wong / Getty Images
By Dolf Gielen and Morgan Bazilian
John Kerry helped bring the world into the Paris climate agreement and expanded America's reputation as a climate leader. That reputation is now in tatters, and President-elect Joe Biden is asking Kerry to rebuild it again – this time as U.S. climate envoy.
<p>It won't be easy, but Kerry's decades of experience and the international relationships he developed as a senator and secretary of state may give him a chance of making real progress, especially if that work is conducted in the spirit of mending relationships rather than "naming and shaming" other countries.</p><p>Over the past four years, the Trump administration pulled the U.S. <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-trumps-decision-to-leave-paris-accord-hurts-the-us-and-the-world-78707" target="_blank">out of the international Paris Agreement on climate change</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rolled back</a> policies that were designed to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-g20-draft-climate/u-s-blocking-g20-mention-of-climate-change-in-draft-communique-diplomats-say-idUSKCN20G0JU" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tried to prevent any discussion</a> of climate change at international gatherings like the G-7 and G-20 summits.</p><p>The international community, meanwhile, largely moved forward. Many countries and regions have pledged to move their economies toward "<a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/09/what-does-net-zero-emissions-mean-6-common-questions-answered" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">net zero</a>" greenhouse gas emissions by the middle of the century, including <a href="https://theconversation.com/china-just-stunned-the-world-with-its-step-up-on-climate-action-and-the-implications-for-australia-may-be-huge-147268" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">China</a>, the <a href="https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_20_335" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">European Union</a>, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-southkora-environment-greenewdeal/south-koreas-moon-targets-carbon-neutrality-by-2050-idUSKBN27D1DU" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">South Korea</a> and <a href="https://news.un.org/en/story/2020/10/1076132" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Japan</a>. An increasing number of cities and states have set <a href="https://www.climatechangenews.com/2020/09/17/countries-net-zero-climate-goal/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">similar goals</a>. Trump's hard-line stance may have actually emboldened some, notably China, to make such announcements.</p>
<p>Getting those pledges implemented is what matters now, and that will require leadership, detailed planning and careful diplomacy. The U.N. climate conference in November 2021 will be special. It will be the first time countries will evaluate their progress on the Paris Agreement, and they will be expected to strengthen their commitments. Biden has already signaled that he will bring the U.S. back into the agreement as soon as he takes office.</p><p>As <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=sfI-c0YAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">energy</a> <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=DAwwVkwAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">policy</a> experts who have been involved in international climate policy for over two decades, we have watched how countries responded to U.S. involvement, and how their views of America's ability to lead the world dimmed over the past four years.</p><p>The U.S. is the <a href="https://www.c2es.org/content/international-emissions/" target="_blank">second largest greenhouse gas emitter worldwide</a> after China. It is also the largest emitter historically. Concrete domestic action to reduce those emission will be critical to regaining trust and standing on the global stage.</p>
Energy Is at the Center of the Climate Challenge
<p>The <a href="https://science2017.globalchange.gov/chapter/1/" target="_blank">effects of climate change</a> are already evident across the globe, from <a href="https://theconversation.com/100-degrees-in-siberia-5-ways-the-extreme-arctic-heat-wave-follows-a-disturbing-pattern-141442" target="_blank">extreme heat waves</a> to <a href="https://science2017.globalchange.gov/chapter/12/" target="_blank">sea level rise</a>. But while the challenge is daunting, there is hope. Solar and wind power have become the <a href="https://www.irena.org/publications/2020/Jun/Renewable-Power-Costs-in-2019" target="_blank">cheapest forms of power generation globally</a>, and technology progress and innovation continue apace to support a transition to clean energy.</p><p>In the U.S. under a Biden administration, long-term national climate legislation will depend on who controls the Senate, and that won't be clear until after two run-off elections in Georgia in January.</p><p>But there is no shortage of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2020-biden-climate-change-advice/" target="_blank">ideas for ways Biden</a> could still take action even if his proposals are blocked in Congress. For example, he could use executive orders and direct government agencies to tighten regulations on greenhouse gas emissions; increase research and development in clean energy technologies; and empower states to exceed national standards, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-autos-emissions-california/defying-trump-california-locks-in-vehicle-emission-deals-with-major-automakers-idUSKCN25D2CH" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">as California did in the past with auto emission standards</a>. A focus on a just and equitable transition for communities and people affected by the decline of fossil fuels will also be key to creating a sustainable transition.</p><p>The U.S. position as the world's largest oil and gas producer and consumer creates political challenges for any administration. U.S. forays into European energy security are often treated with suspicion. Recently, France blocked <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/frances-engie-backs-out-of-u-s-lng-deal-11604435609" target="_blank">a multi-billion dollar contract</a> to buy U.S. liquefied natural gas because of concerns about limited emissions regulations in Texas.</p><p>Strengthening cooperation and partnerships with like-minded countries will be critical to bring about a transition to cleaner energy as well as sustainability in agriculture, forestry, water and other sectors of the global economy.</p>Creating a Global Sustainable Transition
<p>How the world recovers from COVID-19's economic damage could help drive a lasting shift in the global energy mix.</p><p>Nearly one-third of Europe's US$2 trillion economic relief package <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-07-21/eu-approves-biggest-green-stimulus-in-history-with-572-billion-plan" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">involves investments that are also good for the climate</a>. The European Union is also strengthening its 2030 climate targets, though each country's energy and climate plans will be critical for successfully implementing them. The <a href="https://joebiden.com/clean-energy/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Biden plan</a> – including a $2 trillion commitment to developing sustainable energy and infrastructure – is aligned with a global energy transition, but its implementation is also uncertain.</p><p>Once Biden takes office, Kerry will be joining ongoing <a href="https://www.un.org/en/conferences/energy2021/about#:%7E:text=The%20overarching%20goal%20of%20the,2030%20Agenda%20for%20Sustainable%20Development.&text=Accelerate%20delivery%20of%20United%20Nations,related%20issues%20at%20all%20levels." target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">high-level discussions on the energy transition</a> at the U.N. General Assembly and other gatherings of international leaders. With the U.S. no longer obstructing work on climate issues, the G-7 and G-20 have more potential for progress on energy and climate.</p><p>Lots of technical details still need to be worked out, including international trade frameworks and standards that can help countries lower greenhouse gas emissions enough to keep global warming in check. <a href="https://www.carbonpricingleadership.org/what" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Carbon pricing</a> and <a href="https://www.csis.org/analysis/how-can-europe-get-carbon-border-adjustment-right" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">carbon border adjustment taxes</a>, which create incentive for companies to reduce emissions, may be part of it. A consistent and comprehensive set of national energy transition plans will also be needed.</p><p>The global shift to <a href="https://www.irena.org/publications/2019/Jan/A-New-World-The-Geopolitics-of-the-Energy-Transformation" target="_blank">clean energy will also have geopolitical implications for countries and regions</a>, and this will have a profound impact on wider international relations. Kerry, with his experience as secretary of state in the Obama administration, and Biden's plan to make the climate envoy position part of the National Security Council, may help mend these relations. In doing so, the U.S. may again join the wider community of countries willing to lead.</p>From Your Site Articles
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- Biden Names John Kerry as First-Ever Climate Envoy - EcoWatch ›
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