Fears mount over Donald Trump’s stance on climate change

&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpcnt">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"wpa">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<span class&equals;"wpa-about">Advertisements<&sol;span>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div class&equals;"u top&lowbar;amp">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<amp-ad width&equals;"300" height&equals;"265"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; type&equals;"pubmine"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-siteid&equals;"111265417"&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab; data-section&equals;"1">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;amp-ad>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div><p>US President-elect Donald Trump has not minced words about his approach to environment and energy policy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>He loathes regulation and wants to increase the use of coal&comma; offshore drilling and fracking&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Trump has said he believes climate change is a hoax and that he would &&num;8220&semi;cancel&&num;8221&semi; US involvement in the landmark Paris Agreement on global warming&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While he has been vague about precise policies&comma; Mr Trump&&num;8217&semi;s election is likely to mean trouble for some of President Barack Obama&&num;8217&semi;s signature environmental initiatives&comma; environmentalists and policy analysts say&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>They say it is probable that Mr Trump&&num;8217&semi;s administration will seek to weaken or kill the Clean Power Plan&comma; a cornerstone Obama policy meant to reduce carbon pollution from the nation&&num;8217&semi;s power plants as part of an effort to combat climate change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The Clean Power Plan is being challenged in federal court&comma; and if it survives&comma; Mr Trump could move to scuttle it&period; But not without a fight&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&&num;8220&semi;We don&&num;8217&semi;t consider the CPP dead&period; We have many tools to help preserve it&comma;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i> said David Goldston&comma; director of government affairs for the Natural Resources Defence Council&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&&num;8220&semi;He can&&num;8217&semi;t just snap his fingers and wish away regulations&period; There&&num;8217&semi;d be a backlash&comma; which would make Congress think twice&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Any move to back out of the Clean Power Plan or the Paris Agreement could be extremely unpopular moves&comma; environmentalists argue&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Polls have shown a majority of voters in at least two states believe global warming is a serious problem&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>An exit poll conducted for The Associated Press and television networks found that about half of Trump voters in Florida&comma; a state he carried&comma; agreed that climate change was a serious problem&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In Maine&comma; just over half of Trump supporters also agreed&comma; while about four in 10 disagreed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Mr Trump has also vowed to tap into America&&num;8217&semi;s coal reserves in an effort to put the shrinking energy sector back to work&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In a speech in the Bakken shale fields of North Dakota&comma; he also said he would increase hydraulic fracturing&comma; or fracking&comma; in the nation&&num;8217&semi;s shale and natural gas reserves to further remove any dependence on foreign energy sources&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Industry advocates are buoyed by the possibilities presented by Mr Trump&&num;8217&semi;s win&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&&num;8220&semi;We look forward to working with the new administration&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i> on issues such as opening more public land and offshore areas to oil and gas drilling&comma; building more energy infrastructure and reducing environmental regulations&comma; American Petroleum Institute President Jack Gerard said on Thursday&period; He would not say whether he supported a US withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Likewise&comma; the coal industry believes Mr Trump <i>&&num;8220&semi;understands the urgent need to rein in the Washington bureaucracy and sweeping&comma; excessive regulations&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i> to protect coal jobs in an industry where sharply falling demand for coal has led to permanent plant closures&comma; the American Coal Council said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&&num;8220&semi;The coal sector has been devastated by lower demand and job losses in recent years due to the mounting impact of regulations pointed squarely at our industry&comma;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i> American Coal Council CEO Betsy Monseu said&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some question whether it would make economic sense for the US to attempt to increase the use of coal&comma; a fuel being phased out of the energy picture due to its pollution and falling prices of renewables such as solar and wind&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&&num;8220&semi;Coal is not coming back&comma;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i> said Michael Brune&comma; Sierra Club executive director&period; <i>&&num;8220&semi;Ask investors on Wall Street&comma; or regulators at the state and local level who are choosing solar and wind because of basic economics&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>As for offshore drilling&comma; Mr Trump could target the Atlantic and Arctic&colon; two areas the Obama administration had made off-limits for oil leases in the immediate future&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>While the Obama administration has moved to restrict drilling in waters off the Eastern Seaboard and Alaska&comma; Mr Trump has been vague on whether he would support reopening these areas to drilling&comma; saying he backs it when it &&num;8220&semi;can be done responsibly&&num;8221&semi;&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"696" height&equals;"392" data-videoid&equals;"uGEzFbRl-g8" title&equals;"Donald Trump on climate change policy"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;youtu&period;be&sol;uGEzFbRl-g8"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;uGEzFbRl-g8&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"Donald Trump on climate change policy"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Environmentalists said on Wednesday they hope Mr Trump concludes opening the Atlantic and Arctic to offshore drilling is a bad business decision&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&&num;8220&semi;In the Atlantic&comma; we hope he will recognise the strong opposition from the business community&comma; which has mounted a concerted campaign to protect its fishing and tourism industries against the interest of the oil industry&comma;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i> said Jacqueline Savitz of Oceana&comma; a group opposed to offshore drilling&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&&num;8220&semi;In the Arctic&comma; it&&num;8217&semi;s impossible to respond to an oil spill&comma; with extreme cold&comma; floating ice&comma; darkness much of the year and no response facilities&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Concerns over the incoming administration&&num;8217&semi;s environmental approach were not confined to policy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Some climate scientists expressed concern that the Trump administration could reduce government&&num;8217&semi;s efforts to study climate change&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For example&comma; some Republicans have long wanted to stop Nasa&&num;8217&semi;s role in studying earth science and climate change &&num;8211&semi; a key contribution to scientific understanding of the issue that helps drive policy decisions&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Waleed Abdalati&comma; a former Nasa chief scientist&comma; said in an email that the agency&&num;8217&semi;s contributions are extremely important to the nation&&num;8217&semi;s success&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><i>&&num;8220&semi;Part of this investment includes trying to better understand how and why our environment is changing and the implications for the American people&comma; as well as people all over the world&comma;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i> Mr Abdalati wrote&period; <i>&&num;8220&semi;No one can argue that there is tremendous value in knowing what tomorrow will bring&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;i><&sol;p>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div style&equals;"padding-bottom&colon;15px&semi;" class&equals;"wordads-tag" data-slot-type&equals;"belowpost">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<div id&equals;"atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e106a8deb8e">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<script type&equals;"text&sol;javascript">&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &equals; function &lpar;&rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; false &equals;&equals;&equals; &lpar; window&period;isWatlV1 &quest;&quest; false &rpar; &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&sol;&sol; Use Aditude scripts&period;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings &equals; window&period;tudeMappings &vert;&vert; &lbrack;&rsqb;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;tudeMappings&period;push&lpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;divId&colon; 'atatags-dynamic-belowpost-68e106a8deb8e'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;format&colon; 'belowpost'&comma;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;if &lpar; document&period;readyState &equals;&equals;&equals; 'loading' &rpar; &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;document&period;addEventListener&lpar; 'DOMContentLoaded'&comma; window&period;getAdSnippetCallback &rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub; else &lbrace;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;window&period;getAdSnippetCallback&lpar;&rpar;&semi;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&rcub;&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;script>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>&NewLine;&Tab;&Tab;&Tab;<&sol;div>


Discover more from London Glossy Post

Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.

- Advertisement -
Exit mobile version