This is the 535th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue) usually appears twice a week, on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Here is the Dec. 6 Green Spotlight. More than 28,145 environmentally oriented stories have been rescued to appear in this series since 2006. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
A Siegel writes—From Alabama to Wisconsin to Virginia, Democratic Party candidates speaking climate: “For too long, such a high share of political candidates were (near) silent when it came to climate change that it was simpler to mention the few who 'talked climate' as, sadly, Climate Hawks were few and far between. Seriously, this is changing. [...] The Climate Hawks Vote PAC has a real problem: unlike in past election cycles, there are a plethora of good climate champions running for office. (CHV, by the way, just endorsed Sean Casten (campaign website). Sean has long been someone I paid attention to as a leading thinker/actor in combined heat and power, with how to take waste heat and create value from it). Scientists, engineers, veterans, concerned citizens who pay attention to what experts have concluded about climate science are all greatly concerned about climate change risks ... and, whatever the 'political chattering consultancy class' might say, they are making clear that this is an issue that matters and an issue that they will focus on if (when) elected. While many hoped/fought to make this the case a long time ago, that climate is becoming part of core messaging with so many candidates is a good harbinger of where policy making might go in a post-Trumpista/post climate-science GOP world.”
Besame writes—Daily Bucket: California's fourth largest fire threatens two vulnerable animal populations: “Fleeing wildfire is easier when you can fly. But for some condors and monarch butterflies, the Thomas Fire that began last week in Ventura County is a serious threat despite their flight abilities. California condors can fly 15,000 feet high and routinely travel 100+ miles every day in search of food. Until Europeans arrived, they thrived in California’s fire-dependent landscape. Monarch butterflies have been seen flying 11,000 feet high and can travel over hundred miles a day (the greatest daily distance recorded is 265 miles). This fall, migrating monarchs flew over or around major wildfires in Oregon (such as the Chetco Bar Fire) to reach their winter colonies along California’s coast. On the map gif below, watch as the fire expands above the grey line between Ojai and Santa Paula near the small curl of brown. That’s where the 53,000 acre Sespe Condor Sanctuary is located in a wilderness area considered ‘The Home of the California Condor.’ Monarch overwintering colonies are scattered along the coastline from north of Ventura to the Goleta Butterfly Grove off the map just past Santa Barbara. A main colony area occurs in Carpinteria where the grey line going west from Ojai touches the coast. At the end of the gif (Tuesday morning) the mapped fire surrounds Carpinteria like pincers. Even if the flames haven’t reach the condor nests or the monarch colonies, smoke and radiant heat has.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Sylvanus Prince writes—The Daily Bucket: Blue Skies, Smilin' at Me ...”Yesterday I commented that it had been raining lightly in Mazatlan; yesterday afternoon the skies opened as a northern storm system passed through. All evening and into the wee hours of this morning it rained heavily, on and off. [...] ”I was talking with my apartment property manager, who lives here year round, and he was telling me this rain was nuthin compared to the summer rains here. His office, which is next door to me, has a front door with a step between the sidewalk and the office floor that is over ten inches tall. During the summer storms, he says, he has to sandbag his doorway to keep the water out. From zero water in the streets to nearly two feet deep in the space of a few hours. And, it’s 90 degrees Fahrenheit or more. No Way am I spending a summer here.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - 2017 nature calendar: “ I’ve shared the story of my nature calendars before (2015: www.dailykos.com/… 2016: www.dailykos.com/...). In a nutshell, I assemble a personalized old-fashioned physical wall calendar each year for my mom, who uses them to note down plans and events. She’s 92 now, and while in very good physical condition taking walks every day and living at home, she has less scope for visiting places in nature than she used to. My mom has done more hiking, climbing, canoeing, snowshoeing and traveling than I ever will, but with less opportunity for that now, the pictures I use in the calendars evoke pleasant memories of good times and beautiful places. I’ve already assembled and ordered next year’s calendar (theme = flotsam) but I won’t share that one yet, since it’s a holiday-season present and it’s possible she may read this Bucket. Instead, I'll show you 2017’s. There's still enough time for you to make one if this idea interests and suits you. There are a number of online companies that have this service.”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - crepuscular cormorants: “On Thursday the forecast was calling for a return to wet grey skies after ten days of unprecedentedly dry December. We decided to take a hike out to a west facing shoreline to see the last of the sun. December days are short, and after doing our errands in the village it was getting toward sunset by the time we got to the parking lot - at 3:45pm! It was still another 10-15 minute walk through the woods to get out into the open at Cattle Pass, a narrow channel between islands out into the Strait. [...] The last of the sunlight was seeping through a cloud bank moving in from the ocean. When it’s like this it’s no longer daytime but it’s not nighttime either. This is a crepuscular time, when day transitions into night. Some animals do things differently during this interval. [...] From zoomed up photos as they passed closest to us, I was able to discern they were cormorants. Not shorebirds, not gulls, not ducks, not alcids: fairly large, with long necks. Not geese — too thin. Can’t tell what kind of cormorant, but most likely they were Brandt’s. I see them on that Rock sometimes in the daytime when we pass by in the boat. In the past month, there have been very few perched there, maybe 40. At their peak, 300 or more crowd onto the rock. Evidently, cormorants’ crepuscular behavior includes flying to a spot to roost for the night, and this Rock is a site they like.”
UpNorthLady writes—The Daily Bucket: Partying Like It’s Summer: “Raking season was a long drawn-out affair in 2017. Our yard trees didn’t start to shed fall foliage until mid-November, and even then it was a slow process — except for this one very proud oak. Year after year it refuses to shed its brilliance until long after all other trees stand bare in winter snow. Marcescence, the term used to describe leaf retention, is most common with many of the oak species. Marcescent leaves are often more common with smaller trees or more apparent on lower branches of larger trees. In the case of smaller trees, which in forest conditions would be growing beneath taller trees, the reduced sunlight might slow the abscission process. As very young children, my friends and I would spend fall days searching the woods near our neighborhood looking for what we thought were the perfect fall leaves. Later in the afternoon, after we had filled our buckets with all the leaves we had collected, we would run home to my house to spend the remainder of the day in my basement sorting through our leaves. Those leaves we each decided to keep would be pressed flat by stacking three or four Encyclopedia Britannica’s on top of each one of our *keepers*. The following weekend we would layer each leaf between two sheets of wax paper and iron our favorite leaves. We would then identify each leaf — oak, maple, elm.”
CLIMATE CHAOS
Pakalolo writes—Arctic shows no signs of returning to the reliably frozen state that it was in just a decade ago: “The acting head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Timothy Gallaudet, released the 2017 Arctic Report Card. Unfortunately there is no good news in it, other than slightly less warming then last years record breaking warming. There are more Greenland glaciers vulnerable then previously thought. ‘Arctic temperatures continue to increase at double the rate of global averages,’ he told reporters at a news briefing yesterday at the American Geophysical Union’s Fall Meeting in New Orleans, La. The mean Arctic air temperature this year over land exceeded the 1981–2010 average by 1.6°C, making it the second-highest average in the observational record after 2016, according to the NOAA report. The report also found that the thickness of sea ice cover has continued to decline. Ice more than 1 year old composed just 21% of ice cover in 2017, whereas in 1985 it was 45%. Arctic ocean plankton blooms increased, as did overall land vegetation. Record permafrost warming has also occurred at many sites around the Arctic according to 2016 data, the most recent complete set of permafrost observations.”
Pakalolo writes—Study: The Worst-Case Climate Predictions Are the Most Accurate Ones: “Incrementalism will not work now. We now need to throw everything we have at the global warming problem. I am not convinced that we will do that. It’s not all our fault that we did not act as fossil fuel industries and their political supporters ‘have seized on the uncertainty inherent in climate models as reasons to doubt the dangers of climate change, or to argue against strong policy and mitigation responses.’ MIT Technology Review writes on a study based on satellite observations where it concludes that ‘temperatures could rise nearly 5 °C by the end of the century.’ The Paris Climate Accord set the goal of 1.5 °C by 2100. The paper, published on Wednesday in Nature, found that global temperatures could rise nearly 5 °C by the end of the century under the the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s steepest prediction for greenhouse-gas concentrations. That’s 15 percent hotter than the previous estimate. The odds that temperatures will increase more than 4 degrees by 2100 in this so-called ‘business as usual’ scenario increased from 62 percent to 93 percent, according to the new analysis.”
Jen Hayden writes—Interior Sec. flew a National Park director to D.C. to berate, warn not to send climate change info: “Last month, the social media folks at California’s Joshua Tree National park sent out a tweet [...] noting that 97% of the world’s climate scientists ‘agree that human activity is the driving force behind today's rate of global temperature increase.’ Well, that didn’t sit well with climate change-denying Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, someone who has been frequently accused of wasting tax dollars on things like charter helicopters to go horseback riding with Mike Pence, chartering private flights (from an oil and gas billionaire no less!) to spend one night at his Montana home and yes, even buying a hunting video game for the cafeteria of the Department of the Interior. Zinke found yet another way to burn taxpayer dollars. After seeing the tweet from the Joshua Tree National Park account, he flew the director from California to Washington, D.C. to light him up in person. From The Hill: Zinke did not take any formal disciplinary action against David Smith, superintendent of Joshua Tree National Park. And the tweets at issue weren’t deleted, because they didn’t violate National Park Service or Interior Department policies. But Zinke made it clear to Smith that the Trump administration doesn’t want national parks to put out official communications on climate change.”
Hunter writes—'Make our Planet Great Again': France courts American scientists with new grant money: “If the United States no longer wants its scientists, other nations are now making it known they will be happy to have them. Emmanuel Macron plans to award multi-year grants for several U.S.-based scientists to relocate to France, his office said on Monday on the eve of a climate summit hosted by the president to raise finances to counter global warming. If you're wondering whether these grants are meant as a specific personal insult to President Garbage Fire: Yes. Yes, they are. Macron unveiled the “Make our Planet Great Again” grants after President Donald Trump in June said he was pulling the United States out of an international accord to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that was brokered in Paris in 2015. Macron is appealing to shunned U.S. scientists with a simple message: Come do your work in France and we will give you grant money and respect you. What France gets out of the deal is a front-row seat for all of the environmental, energy, and other technical innovation that those scientists will now be producing in their new laboratories. Being on the forefront of new technology has been one of the surest ways to ensure your own workforce is highly skilled and earns high wages. You know, that thing that the United States was once famous for.”
Michael Brune writes—Donald's Terrifically Terrible Tuesday: “...even though the Alabama special election was the biggest news of the day, it wasn’t the only welcome development. That’s because, in spite of the efforts of Trump and his fellow dirty-fuel devotees, the world is still turning toward clean, renewable energy and away from fossil fuels. Consider what else happened on Trump’s terrifically terrible Tuesday: At the One Planet summit in Paris (slogan ‘Make Our Planet Great Again’), the World Bank announced that as of 2019 it would stop financing oil and gas exploration, citing a ‘rapidly changing world.’ The summit, which not coincidentally marked the second anniversary of the Paris climate agreement, was organized by French President Emmanuel Macron to show that the agreement remains vital in spite of Trump’s announcement that he intends to withdraw the United States.”
committed writes—If climate change is a fiery coal-mine disaster, then Barrow is our canary: “Some mighty scary shit here. Reminds one of ‘Day After Tomorrow’ (not a particularly good movie but ...) This city in Alaska is warming so fast, algorithms removed the data because it seemed unreal. Last week, scientists were pulling together the latest data for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s monthly report on the climate when they noticed something strange: One of their key climate monitoring stations had fallen off the map. All of the data for Barrow, Alaska — the northernmost city in the United States — was missing. No, Barrow hadn’t literally been vanquished by the pounding waves of the Arctic Sea (although it does sit precipitously close). The missing station was just the result of rapid, man-made climate change, with a runaway effect on the Arctic. The temperature in Barrow had been warming so fast this year, the data was automatically flagged as unreal and removed from the climate database. It was done by algorithms that were put in place to ensure that only the best data gets included in NOAA’s reports. They’re handy to keep the data sets clean, but this kind of quality-control algorithm is good only in ‘average’ situations, with no outliers. The situation in Barrow, however, is anything but average.”
Dan Bacher writes—Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals hears landmark youth climate case: “Will a landmark youths’ climate change lawsuit become the ‘trial of the century?’ That’s an argument given by Deputy Assistant Attorney General Eric Grant, on behalf of the Trump administration and the U.S. government defendants, on why the lawsuit by the 21 Juliana v. United States youth plaintiffs should not be permitted to proceed to trial. In his arguments before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals at a hearing in San Francisco on December 11, Grant complained three times that if [the case] was allowed to proceed to trial, it would be the ‘trial of the century,’ according to a joint news release from Earth Guardians and Our Children’s Trust. The young plaintiffs and the organizational plaintiff Earth Guardians assert that the U.S. government, through its ‘affirmative actions that cause climate change, has violated their constitutional rights to life, liberty, and property, as well as failed to protect essential public trust resources.’ The lawsuit was filed in 2015 during the Obama administration.”
Egberto Willies writes—French President sticks it to Donald Trump: Wasn’t Trump bringing jobs home? ”Donald Trump shoots from the hip and never thinks things through. His rash decision to abandon the Paris climate change accord has cost the United States several scientists, high paying jobs gone. And French President Emmanuel Macron is gloating. French President Emmanuel did not just threaten to bring American high paying scientific jobs to France after Trump left the Paris Accord. He did it. France 24 reported the following. Eighteen climate scientists, 13 of them based in the United States, were on Monday named the first beneficiaries of the research grants linked to French President Macron’s ‘Make Our Planet Great Again’ project, which will see them relocate to France. … In all, a total of 50 research grants will be handed out, lasting a minimum of three years and worth between €1 million and €1.5 million each. Among Monday’s 18 laureates were senior researchers from prestigious US universities ...”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Zinke, Perry and Pruitt’s Pretend Populism Profits Polluters: “We started the week with a look at Pruitt’s industry-friendly contradictions--but we hardly scratched the surface yesterday. For example, the New York Times reported on Sunday how Pruitt’s EPA has taken a step back from actually enforcing air and water pollution laws. Despite Pruitt’s professed dedication to enforcing the laws, his EPA has started a third fewer cases than Obama’s EPA by nine months in, and only a quarter as many as George W. Bush’s EPA in the same timeframe. This math makes it clear that Pruitt is giving polluters a pass, despite his claim that he doesn’t “hang with polluters; I prosecute them.” Take even the most cursory look under his whole down-home country lawyer shtick, and his true colors are revealed. But Pruitt is far from the only Trump advisor palling around with polluters instead of regulating them. Last week, In These Times ran photos of a meeting between Energy Secretary Rick Perry and coal man Bob Murray in advance of Perry’s coal-friendly FERC proposal, after Murray vehemently denied he had influence over the plan. The Washington Post’s Steve Mufson expands on this reporting with his own piece last Friday about the plan that comes ‘straight from coal country.’ Nora Brownell, Former FERC committee member appointed by George W. Bush, tells the Post that the plan is ‘cash for cronies.’”
NOMINEES, CANDIDATES, STATE AND DC ECO-RELATED POLITICS
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Dourson Too Toxic For Senate, Gardner Might Have Too Much Past “Junk”: “The Trump administration’s controversial pick to lead the EPA’s chemical safety office withdrew from consideration Wednesday night after it became apparent that his confirmation would likely die in the Senate. Michael Dourson has been drawing ire from the environmental community since he squeaked through his Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on October. (In that hearing, Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) told Dourson, ‘You're not just an outlier on this science, you're outrageous in how far from the mainstream of science you actually are. It's pretty clear you have never met a chemical you didn't like.’) Dourson would’ve been the first Trump nominee not to be confirmed by the Senate, but after multiple GOP senators voiced public concerns about his qualifications and ties to the companies he would be regulating it was clear he wouldn’t make it through. (Not that having conflicts of interest or being completely unqualified have stopped confirmations in the past). Green groups were quick to applaud the decision, and the administration is back to the drawing board. Meanwhile, the administration’s pick to run a federal coal mine regulator has conflicts of his own, ProPublica reports. Kentucky-native Steve Gardner, who spent decades as a coal company consultant, is due to have a confirmation hearing in the next few weeks to lead the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE).”
ENERGY
Fossil Fuels
Laura Clawson writes—'We are fighting for our way of life,' Native Alaskans say as Republican tax bill threatens them: “A single piece of the Republican tax plan is set to do major harm to the environment and to Native Alaskans: ‘We are fighting for our way of life right now,” said Bernadette Demientieff, the executive director of the Gwich’in steering committee, who is spending the week in Washington DC to frantically plea the tribe’s case to Congress. ‘Caribou provide 80% of our food, as well as our clothing. This is a sacred place and we will be wiped out if there is drilling there. We live off the land and this is our garden. Take that away and we starve.’ [...]But despite the environmental concerns, the harm to Native Alaskans’ way of life, and the fact that oil is really cheap right now, the Republican rallying cry of ‘drill baby drill’ must prevail.”
poopdogcomedy writes—OH & WV-Sen: Once Again, It's Democrats, NOT Trump, Who Are Really Fighting For Coal Miners: Just a reminder, this is what a real populist looks like: Congressional Democrats are hoping to include a rescue in the end-of-the-year spending package for several large union-based pensions that fund managers say are running out of money. Sen. Sherrod Brown introduced a bill aimed at preventing what he called 30-50 percent cuts in pension payments, which could affect as many as 1 million teamsters, miners, bakers, and carpenters. His bill is named the ‘Butch Lewis Act,’ after a Cincinnati-area Teamster who carried on the fight to save his pension fund but died in 2015. ‘This legislation is not a bailout,’ Brown says. ‘This legislation, which will be bipartisan as we move it through the Senate and the House, we’ll make sure that people’s pensions –which they’ve earned, they’ve worked 30-40 years for these pensions – will in fact be restored and will be made whole’.”
Dan Bacher writes—Report reveals L.A. oil cos. have used 49,000 tons of toxic chemicals since 2013: “California is the nation’s ‘green leader’ and Governor Jerry Brown is the country’s ‘greenest governor,’ right? That is the narrative promulgated by state officials, public relations experts and writers who gush about the Governor’s frequent speeches at international climate conferences. The reality on the ground here in California is much, much different. In fact, California is the third biggest oil producing state in the country and Big Oil is the largest corporate lobby, dominating the Governor’s Office, the Legislature and the regulatory agencies. Even worse, a report released this week by the Stand Together Against Neighborhood Drilling - Los Angeles (STAND-L.A.) coalition revealed that oil companies in the nation’s so-called “greenest state” have used more than 98 million pounds — or 49,000 tons - of chemicals known to cause serious health problems in Los Angeles County since 2013.”
Dan Bacher writes—Yurok Tribe applauds U.S Senator's opposition to Jordan Cove LNG export project: “The Yurok Tribe has just issued their statement in response to U.S Senator Jeff Merkley’s decision to oppose the Jordan Cove terminal and Pacific Connector pipeline: ‘The Yurok Tribe applauds United States Senator Jeff Merkley’s decision to oppose the Jordan Cove terminal and Pacific Connector pipeline. Both are part of a short-sighted project proposed by a Canadian company seeking to ship fracked natural gas to Asia. If approved, this liquefied natural gas pipeline, owned by Veresen, will put at risk numerous salmon-supporting rivers and streams, including the Klamath River, the lifeline of the Yurok people. Its intended, 230-mile-long route extends from Malin, Oregon, located near the headwaters of the Klamath, to Coos Bay on the Southern Oregon coast. ‘We strongly support Senator Jeff Merkley’s decision to oppose this environmentally irresponsible proposal to profit off the backs of our children’s children,’ said Thomas P. O’Rourke Sr., the Chairman of the Yurok Tribe. “The Jordan Cove LNG Export project has the potential to destroy what is most sacred to us, the Klamath River. We will do everything in our power to stop Veresen from building this pipeline.’ “
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Hartnett-White Copy Pastes as Coal Eyes Social Media: Denial In The Age Of Artificial Intelligence: “Whenever we see supposedly grassroots but pro-fossil fuel messages on the internet, our first thought is to follow the money. There is rarely an occasion when the effort isn’t fossil-fuel funded. But seems that the American Coal Council is hoping not everyone is quite so jaded as we are. Joshua Learn at S&P Global reported Monday that the coal lobby is looking at ways to exploit social media to engage the youth, hoping to use social media to create the appearance of grassroots support for their product. They’re going a step further than that though, by invoking a book that deniers (and conservatives) hate: Saul Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals. As Learn reports, a recent webcast from the American Coal Council suggests industry use Alinsky’s suggestions to reverse the ‘haves vs have nots’ narrative used by ‘anti-coal groups’ and recast the coal industry as the true underdog. Seems that the coal industry thinks millennials are stupid enough to fall for fossil fuel propaganda, as long as it appears to come from the accounts of totally radical dudes and dudettes.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Santa’s Bringing Oil To Good Legislators This Year, As Usual: “On Monday, The Center for Biological Diversity’s online news site The Revelator ran an editorial describing just how far scientists are forced to stretch their grants, giving lie to the denier line that alarmists are just in it for the money. As the editorial describes, with all of zero dollars of every grant going into their pockets, researchers clearly aren’t in it for the money. Bottom line: if you want to get rich, academia is not the place to do it. But if you want to make so much money that you can be Congress’s own Santa Claus, lobbying might be up your alley. This weekend, Senator Orrin Hatch (R-UT)’s Instagram account posted a photo of Hatch (almost) smiling while sitting on Santa’s lap. As the Washington Post reports, this happened at a Christmas party hosted by Santa himself, GOP lobbyist Richard Hohlt. A quick Google shows that Hohlt is a Trump appointee (to an obscure and relatively powerless commission) who the Center for Public Integrity reported as having earned over $400,000 by lobbying for Saudi Arabia in the first half of 2017. Unfortunately, playing Santa and lobbying on behalf of a petro-state is only the tip of the influence fossil fuels have over our government. In fact, one need not even leave the Center for Public Integrity’s website to see a whole host of problems.”
Walter Einenkel writes—New study connects low birth weights with proximity to fracking sites: “Another day, another study suggesting that natural gas drilling—at least as practiced right now—is not particularly good for the environment and public health. Inside Climate News reports on a new study, conducted on over one million births in the Pennsylvania Marcellus Shale region. The findings are depressing. The study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Advances, provides some of the most compelling data to date linking the process of hydraulic fracturing to negative health effects. It found that babies born within 3 kilometers of fracking sites were less healthy than those born farther away, and that babies born within 1 kilometer saw the largest effects. ‘We have pretty good evidence of a causal effect of health outcomes and fracking—not just a correlation,’ said lead author Janet Currie, a professor of economics and public affairs at Princeton University. Does this mean that hydraulic fracturing (fracking) sites lead to unhealthier children? Not necessarily, but we can all agree that it should, at the very least, give people ‘pause’.”
Pipelines & Other Fossil Fuel Transport
peregrine kate writes—Shut Down Line 5! Add Your Voice to the Chorus: “Many people recognize the beautiful suspension bridge that connects the Upper and Lower Peninsulas of Michigan, crossing the narrow straits between Lake Michigan and Lake Huron. Relatively few people in comparison know of the dangerous twin pipelines that cover the same route across the Straits of Mackinac, only hidden from view, 120 feet down. Enbridge’s Line 5 carries oil and natural gas liquids at high pressure — about a million gallons per hour — over the bottomlands of the straits. Environmental activists have sounded the alarm about this pipeline for years. The damn thing is more than ten years beyond its original expected time in service: its coating is corroded in dozens of areas; its supports across the 4.5 miles are bent and worn. Still, it’s a struggle, as you might imagine, to get a lot of people to care deeply about this risk of possible catastrophic harm when so many other, seemingly more immediate hazards need to be addressed. All the same, one simple tear in one of the 40+ corroded areas on the pipeline would change the ecology, the economy, and (if you’ll allow me) the soul of this precious region forever.”
REGULATIONS & PROTECTIONS
Hunter writes—Scott Pruitt's EPA has sharply curtailed penalties for top polluters, and that's no accident: “The New York Times has found that under new Environmental Protection Agency head Scott Pruitt, the federal government has been sharply curtailing anti-pollution efforts. [...] The victims here are communities seeking redress for (often intentional) pollution violations by companies that have endangered their residents’ air or water. Industry is making the case to Scott Pruitt that it is harmful to their businesses to hold them to account for such things, and so the communities will be getting the short end of the stick. This is intentional on the part of Republican leadership. It is due to Republican policies. There may also be some underlying crookedness here on the part of Pruitt, who got his current job due in large part to his willingness to cut and paste industry-written defenses onto his own letterhead, but no voter can argue they didn't know what they were getting into. This is exactly what the party promised it would do.”
Meteor Blades writes—Your tax money at work: EPA signs no-bid deal with GOP oppo research team to 'shape press coverage': “Rebecca Leber, Andy Kroll and Russ Choma at Mother Jones report that the Environmental Protection Agency has hired a leading Republican opposition research firm to “track and shape press coverage of the agency.” The $120,000 no-bid contract is with Definers Group, founded by Matt Rhoades. He managed Mitt Romney’s failed 2012 bid for the presidency. After that defeat Rhoades set up America Rising, which the MJ team describes as … an ostensibly independent political action committee that works closely with the Republican National Committee and Republican candidates to mine damning information on opponents. Other higher-ups at Definers include former RNC research director Joe Pounder, who’s been described as ‘a master of opposition research,’ and senior vice president Colin Reed, an oppo-research guru billed as ‘among the leaders of the war on [Sen. Elizabeth] Warren’.”
Meteor Blades writes—Gonna cut federal regulations back to 1960, Trump announces, no matter who dies as a result: “In a political stunt Thursday from the Roosevelt Room at the White House, P&#@*&^%t Trump announced that he wants to cut federal regulations back to where they were in 1960. That’s 185,000 pages in 2017 vs. 20,000 pages 57 years ago, according to the White House. This announcement no doubt brought big smiles to certain barons of industry who have already toasted the regime’s trashing of regulations that began practically the minute the man first sat in the big chair in the Oval Office. If you’re old enough, or have read a bit of history on the subject, you may remember that in 1960 there was no Clean Air Act, no Occupational Safety and Health Administration, no Environmental Protection Agency, no Mine Safety and Health Administration, a highly limited Clean Water Act, no Department of Energy, no Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, no Office of Energy & Renewable Energy, no Commodity Futures Trading Commission, no Consumer Finance Protection Bureau, no Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. And then there’s the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, and the Fair Housing Act.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—In the Battle of Pruitt Vs Pruitt, Industry Wins Every Time: “Scott Pruitt’s long-awaited first appearance before the House committee that oversees the EPA was, somehow, both incredibly boring and richly informative. While Pruitt delivered his well-honed lawyer act like the seasoned professional he is, dodging and pivoting like a champ, there were a few notable fumbles in his performance. For example, when Florida Representative Kathy Castor questioned Pruitt about his refusal to recuse himself from decisions involving both his donors and his previous co-litigants, Pruitt refused to answer. He instead deferred to the EPA’s ethics office, who apparently allow him to work on suits he was part of before becoming administrator. Implied conflicts of interest, Pruitt seemed to infer, aren’t a valid reason for recusal if the EPA ethics office doesn’t mandate it. However, when pressed about his reforms to the EPA science boards, Pruitt’s response was that the removal of EPA grant recipients was to prevent ‘a perception or appearance of a lack of independence.’ Who was making those complaints? Why, the tobacco and fossil fuel industries of course! And whose favorite researchers have gotten added to the board? Those same industries, whose products are regulated by the EPA.”
WILDERNESS, NATIONAL FORESTS AND PARKS, OTHER PUBLIC LANDS
Winter Rabbit writes—Keep Gold Mining Out of Black Hills: Contact United States Forest Service in Black Hills: “Gold is not just what the United States through Mineral Mountain wants to extract in the Black Hills - tribal sovereignty is with everything that means. Company's plan to drill for gold angers some Rochford landowners. Mineral Mountain has said in company documents that it considers the Rochford area to be under-explored for gold and similar to the geological environment of the former Homestake mine in Lead, where much of the 45 million ounces of gold mined in the Black Hills since the 1800s was found. The fascist Tr*up Administration wants tribes to lose. To illustrate, this push toward privatization, commercialization, and development will strip many native tribes of their sacred lands in the process.”
AGRICULTURE, FOOD & GARDENING
robctwo writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol 13.50: Good morning gardeners and friends and welcome to the week of Winter Solstice. The magical time of the year when we have multiple celebrations to explain a planet orbiting the sun on a slightly skewed axis, before we knew that is what was going on. Don’t get me wrong, I am totally involved with spirituality. In fact, my favorite quote picked up in recovery rooms is ‘I am a spiritual being having a human experience.’ [...] We have had a run of cold dry weather here in the Pacific Northwest. I have finished with the tree and shrub pruning. I am moving and sorting my various perennials. I am planting my first pansies. I have a bunch of geraniums in the basement wintering.
Walter Einenkel writes—Small farmers who voted for Trump are suing him for taking away Obama-era protections: “On the campaign trail Trump promised to protect small farmers from predatory tariffs and general big business overreach, and since becoming president, Trump has staffed the USDA with the same incompetence that he’s staffed the rest of our government departments with. To add insult to injury, Trump’s administration made sure to do away with important Obama-era protections for small farmers. Obama-era rules that had yet to take effect would have given smaller farmers more power to set the terms of their deals with massive meat companies, empowering the growers to sue and better define abusive practices by processors and distributors under federal law. Trump’s Agriculture Department killed two of the proposed rules, one of which would have taken effect in October. Major agribusinesses like Cargill and Butterball fought the rules, saying they would lead to endless litigation between farmers and global food companies. [...] Now, as NPR reports, those small farmers are getting together and launching a lawsuit to protect themselves from extinction in the new Republican utopia.”
gmoke writes—City Agriculture - December 13, 2017: “Plenty - a start-up that plans vertical farms outside of every city over 1 million population, 500 in all:
https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/11/8/16611710/vertical-farms;
https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2017-09-06/this-high-tech-vertical-farm-promises-whole-foods-quality-at-walmart-prices. Smart living wall for purifying indoor air: https://www.naava.io/green-walls;
https://inhabitat.com/smart-living-wall-monitored-by-artificial-intelligence-purifies-indoor-air/. Solar powered floating farm and restaurant:
https://www.yankodesign.com/2017/11/10/not-your-daddys-farm/
https://inhabitat.com/this-solar-powered-floating-farm-combines-agriculture-and-dining-under-one-roof/. Agritecture Blog: https://www.agritecture.com/post.”
TRANSPORTATION & INFRASTRUCTURE
terrypinder writes—Infrastructure Kos: The bill's coming (LOL), also, Elon Musk really doesn't like other people: “Just a short note since we still have nothing to go on. Apparently the infrastructure bill is coming once ‘taxes’ are done (as in, the rich people get to loot the Treasury.) The White House is still considering raising the federal gasoline tax to pay for President Trump’s $1 trillion infrastructure package, despite resistance from Republicans, according to the Republican chairman of a House subcommittee. The administration, which is preparing to unveil its long-awaited infrastructure proposal on Capitol Hill next month, has been scrambling to identify potential offsets for the massive rebuilding effort. As it happens, the Highway Trust Fund is solvent---until 2020. After that? Who knows. I do happen to know that in order to remain level, a 12-cent federal gas tax hike is needed---just to stay at what we currently spend on highways, bridges, and public transit (rail being mostly private in the US).”
MISCELLANY
DrGlebTsipursky writes—How to Talk to a Science Denier without Arguing: “My close friend invited me to her house for Thanksgiving, where I sat across the table from her cousin Sam. Learning about my research on promoting truthfulness in our society, he proceeded to denounce what he called the ‘climate change hoax’ as a vast attack by liberals on businesses. He told me how his dad lost his job at a factory that moved to Mexico, placing blame on government regulations - including pollution control - that made it too expensive for the plant to operate in the Columbus, OH, where Sam lives. By the end of our conversation over that meal, he accepted the validity of the science on climate change. Sam is one of many people who updated their beliefs during conversations with me, including prominent ideologically-oriented talk show hosts. Recently, I published a book on this topic, The Truth-Seeker’s Handbook: A Science-Based Guide. One of the strategies described there can be summarized under the acronym EGRIP (Emotions, Goals, Rapport, Information, Positive Reinforcement), which provides clear guidelines on how to deal with Sam and other people who deny the facts, in science and other life areas.”