Guest post by David Middleton
This is the best election aftermath I have ever seen… and I’ve been voting since 1977. This even tops 1980…
In Trump, U.S. Puts a Climate Denier in Its Highest Office and All Climate Change Action in Limbo
His anti-regulatory stances, support of unfettered fossil fuel production, and his threat to pull the U.S. out of the Paris agreement, send ripple effects worldwide.
BY MARIANNE LAVELLE, INSIDECLIMATE NEWS
NOV 9, 2016
Donald Trump’s astonishing victory has turned the world of climate action upside down, setting back U.S. environmental policy and threatening the international drive to cut carbon pollution and slow global warming.
The stunning upset by Trump, who has routinely suggested that climate change is a hoax, threatens to unravel President Obama’s climate action agenda, built on executive orders and regulations, including the Environmental Protection Agency’s carbon clampdown at power plants. Trump has vowed to “cancel” the Paris climate agreement, but could cripple it by merely retreating from the U.S. commitment. As the world’s second-biggest emitter of carbon dioxide pollution, the U.S. could render the global treaty meaningless, at a time when scientists are urging nations to quickly raise their ambition, or risk an escalating climate crisis.
[…]
In another disappointing outcome for climate advocates, Republicans maintained their control of the Senate, winning eight of 11 key races, as well as keeping their majority in the House of Representatives. Both chambers are strongly opposed to climate action policies.
The nation’s climate leaders were left stunned, somber, angry and reflective. They had already prepped their wish lists for Clinton that included a massive clean energy spending program, a moratorium on fossil fuel leases on federal lands and other rules…
[…]
Now, with little chance to have their agenda heard in Washington, environmental groups will be forced to play defense. At first, that will mean an effort to block Trump’s plans, perhaps by convincing Senate Democrats to block appointments or use the filibuster. Legal challenges are another avenue, but Trump will be able to quickly make his mark on the judiciary, with his appointment of a Supreme Court justice.
Trump has signaled plans to populate his cabinet with oil industry executives and allies, to eliminate the EPA, and to cut all federal spending on the United Nations climate process. Trump has claimed that he will save $100 billion over eight years, which appears to be based on a plan to end federal funding for solar and wind energy, efficiency, batteries, clean cars and climate science, wrote Joe Romm, a former Energy Department official and founder of the Center for American Progress’ Climate Progress blog.
Basically, Trump has promised an America-first, drill-baby-drill energy policy. He has promised unfettered production of coal, oil and natural gas and to “bring the coal industry back 100 percent.”
Trump said he will rescind any regulations that unduly burden energy development, including the Clean Power Plan, which, if it survives legal challenges, was to have been the cornerstone of Obama’s climate action legacy and the main policy for realizing the nation’s Paris goals.
[…]
Jeff Holmstead, a lawyer who represents coal-burning utilities and who spent four years as an assistant administrator in the EPA under President George W. Bush, said that if the courts don’t kill the Clean Power Plan, Trump will have a number of other options. “I think it’s certain the Clean Power Plan will be revoked,” he said this morning. “The only question is how.”
For his energy and environmental policy team, Trump has selected one of the nation’s most prominent climate contrarians, Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to head his EPA transition. Ebell worked on policy for the tobacco industry before his years of work opposing environmental regulations and sowing doubt on climate science. Trump is also reported to be considering Harold Hamm, chief executive of fracking industry leader Continental Resources, for energy secretary, and Forrest Lucas, co-founder of oil products company Lucas Oil, for interior secretary.
[…]
Trump will be the only world leader who rejects [junk] science, according to a study by the Sierra Club. This is a particularly tough pill for climate activists to swallow.
[…]
Seven of the eight Koch-backed Senate candidates were victorious; the network’s only loss was to Masto. The Koch brothers’ effort was bolstered by massive spending by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other conservative and anti-regulatory organizations, including the National Rifle Association.
InsideClimate News reporter Zahra Hirji contributed reporting.
Notes to Zahra Hirji:
President-elect Donald Trump is not a “climate denier.” He has never denied the climate. To my knowledge, no AGW skeptic has ever denied the climate. As a professional geologist with a fairly good working knowledge of the English language, I am fairly certain that it is both scientifically and linguistically impossible to deny the climate.
“President Obama’s climate action agenda, built on executive orders and regulations” was designed to be unraveled because he did it all with a “pen and a phone,” rather than through legislation. Anyone with an eraser and white-out can “unravel” it.
“Trump has vowed to ‘cancel’ the Paris climate agreement, but could cripple it by merely retreating from the U.S. commitment.” Well, d’uh! Since the Paris climate agreement was not submitted to the Senate for ratification as a treaty or enabled by legislation from Congress, it is nothing more than an agreement between outgoing President Obama and the other signatories. In 70 days or so, it will be null & void.
“Republicans maintained their control of the Senate, winning eight of 11 key races, as well as keeping their majority in the House of Representatives” because the voters voted for them. This ought to be a clue as to the opinion of the majority of the voters regarding “climate change action.”
“Trump has signaled plans to populate his cabinet with oil industry executives and allies, to eliminate the EPA, and to cut all federal spending on the United Nations climate process” and he still won the election by a rather wide margin (only the Electoral Vote matters, it says so in the Constitution).
“For his energy and environmental policy team, Trump has selected one of the nation’s most prominent climate contrarians, Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, to head his EPA transition. Ebell worked on policy for the tobacco industry before his years of work opposing environmental regulations and sowing doubt on climate science. Trump is also reported to be considering Harold Hamm, chief executive of fracking industry leader Continental Resources, for energy secretary, and Forrest Lucas, co-founder of oil products company Lucas Oil, for interior secretary.” To which I say…
Thank you for the comment about deniers. Anyone using the term is using it as a derogatory comparing skeptics to holocaust deniers. They try to waffle on what they mean, but the words speak for themselves, and the ones using them are demonstrating ignorance and bigotry.
The Donald has a chance to earn the support of the disaffected, disenfranchised folks who voted for him. If he can do that we will be looking at a long line of Republican presidencies and majorities. If he disappoints them, they will abandon him.
The Republican elite are just as toxic as the Democrat elite. If The Donald can find a way to rein them in he can go down as one of the great presidents. If he doesn’t, he could be ushered out after one term.
Big problem, hopefully, for the mainstream media. I hope they have been deflated. But I expect they will scream CO2 pollution, hatred of specific groups of people based on color and sex organs, more effort to divide people from one another other with strawman arguments.
What The Donald needs do is keep on, forcefully, telling the truth as he sees it. All this (rap about him moderating his tone is just that. People just want to be rid of the fake, poll-tested “public” positions.
Mr. Trump’s outrageous comments were deliberate.
He got so much free publicity.
On the the eve of destruction the climate fanatics and hustlers are panicked. Love it.
DJT should coo sweetly while Myron Ebell sets about dismantling the EPA. Yes. Get rid of it and return its few required functions to other departments.
May want to take the wood to the Interior Department where our park rangers are mired in a systematic sexual harassment scandal. To much time in remote areas alone I suppose. Oh but it doesn’t make much news when Smokey the Bear turns creepy.
Whatever. Here’s a real chance to clean house.
Important Question: Does anyone know why AZ and MI are not being counted as wins for Trump yet? Is this polictical so people do not realize by how much Trump won? I want to see this thing finalized, for fear that something is going to change, where they find some district forgot to count votes and Trump loses PA or something.
MI is really close; if the margin is less than 2000 votes, state law requires an automatic recount. The NY Times web site shows only 82% of the votes counted on AZ.
Thank you Ricdre: Google official results shows:
MI, with 100% reporting: Trump up by 11,837
AZ, with 100% reporting: Trump up by 84,526
This has not changed in 24 hours
There may be an issue with counting absentee ballots. Those have to be opened and run through the machines by hand. If there were enough to potentially change the result, they wouldn’t report until all of them had been counted.
Yep.. that is the assumption. But I find zero news. Just a vacuum of no update.
Stuff like that rarely makes it past local news organizations. Perhaps if you found the web sites for local broadcast and newspaper outfits.
I found this article from AZ:
http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/politics/elections/2016/11/08/arizona-election-results-2016-voting-updates/93289328/
It talks about 600K ballots still waiting to be processed.
I found that too… on election night… and the artical keeps updating its time stamp to make it seem like it’s news.
I’m hanging out for this too. I keep thinking it’s so Clinton shows a majority in popular votes, giving the MSM plenty to play with and her fans reason to get protesting, and that the popular vote leader will change once the rest has been announced.
I’m probably wrong, but if Clinton had won, I don’t get the feeling there would be this delay in adding the numbers to the full total. The Dems would be singing and bragging and waving around the full score.
..The Democrat poll workers are in too much shock to actually do their job…they didn’t quite have enough dead people to vote this time around and were too cheap to pay people to vote twice because they were so sure Crooked Hillary would win in a landslide !! ROTFLMAO….
Arizona just flipped RED.. Trump now 290!!!!
There is only one thing worse than bad public policy and that is globalized bad public policy. That is Obama.
I will first congratulate the man who is elected as the president of the USA by the people, Mr. D. Trump, and wish him and the USA nation the very best outcome possible.
I really wish and hope that all USA citizens and USA residents respect and honor their new elected President regardless of the ideology and political leanings or any other affiliated .self interest, as that will be the most productive and cost effective outcome, in my opinion.
I am not a USA citizen, but never the less I recognize that USA IS AND HAS BEING THE MOST POWERFUL AND MOST CONTRIBUTING NATION to the civic way of life and civic liberties of our world lately, with all its successes and failures, if I could put it that way.
In my understanding and opinion, Mr. D. Trump is going a be the first USA President with the most leverage of power ever than any other President before him, at least since the end of the W.W2, for not saying since the beginning of USA nation.
In my opinion MR.D.Trump, as the president of USA can really count for a change, a meaningful one, as he will have the best opportunity given by power invested in him by the USA people and his nation at this moment in time
If I could fancy and chance an advice to Honorable Mr. D. Trump, the president of USA, will be in the lines of,,,,,,,, please do not let this escape you….and for as long as you be certain and sure that you doing your best for the USA as a nation by protecting and shielding the USA constitution and working towards the best outcome for the well being of USA citizens and the building up of the political integrity of USA, people all over the world will look and seek guidance,. support, counting at and respect and honor USA and its contribution to the world and civility….. ,.
Cheers
Thank you, whiten. I just remind the Leftards of their admonishments of non-Obama voters to respect the results. ‘Nuff said?
All my pleasure, Dave. 🙂
Your post warms my heart. I think it will be difficult to use the levers, but agree with you. Politicians are skilled at being corrupt, and they will fight him. They will use the media to support their efforts. This is going to be very interesting to watch play out. We need a strong president to make the changes stick. At the same time, the democrats have pandered to create a compliant left wing of the US populous.
These left wingers are the opposite of a Kennedy Democrat. Recall Kennedy said: “ask not what your country can do for you — ask what you can do for your country”
They instead subscribe to the perverse version “ask what your country can do for you — not what you can do for your country”
Before Bush could use the levers, he had to get them sterilized.
Good points
In the reform of the early 1980s, Thatcher had a lot of power with her majority in the House of Commons. She had the freedom to move and she did.
In Canada, PM Mulroney had an an stronger mandate to reform. Despite similar freedoms to act, he did not understand the global reform that even overwhelmed Communist police states. I still say he was a Liberal, not a Conservative.
Reagan had the mandate and understood the reform movement but was constrained by Democrats controlling the House and Senate.
Trump will have Congress with him. Once the RINOs get with the program.
It is going to be exciting!
Beautifully said, Whiten. Cheers back to you. 🙂
Climate change is a huge and real problem, Trump and his supporters are blatantly wrong on the topic, and it’s obvious that climate change denial is purely politically motivated at the expense of the health and welfare of the whole planet…human health and environmental health. For you to say that “well clearly people thing climate change action is wrong”…those people are wrong. The public sphere has been filled with so much misinformation peddled by those with vested interests in making more money today at the expense of a sustainable future.
You are one of the many people who are wrong, misinformed, and seem to think we can vote away climate change. Science is not democratic, it is reality, and just because most people are ignorant does not force reality to change.
The original author you responded to is right on. You are totally off base.
If science is not democratic why do you guys keep insisting “consensus” is so important. In fact there are many scientists like myself who remain unconvinced that there is a problem. But our opinions don’t count because we are not officially “climate” scientists and we don’t publish papers in this area. I think I’m right though. I trust my own analysis of the issue far more that I trust some of the rubbish papers I’ve read in climate science.
If you check the numbers (and I have) the immediate radiative greenhouse effect from CO2 causes only a minor and benign rise in temperature (depending on your assumptions) of around 1.3 degrees per doubling of CO2. To get anything catastrophic you have to propose large positive feedbacks which all the evidence so far shows simply do not exist; and you have to ignore many negative feedbacks which evidence seems to strongly support. In my opinion there is no problem here serious enough that we must wreck the world economy, subject ourselves to a dictatorial global government, and kill half a billion people (by locking them into energy poverty) in order to solve it.
What we have now is an out of control political juggernaut initiated by some scientists who once cried wolf. Embarrassingly there turns out to be no wolf, but it is too late to call off the fanatical zealots currently conducting the wolfhunt. Anyone who tries to say there is no wolf gets attacked.
@Mathew Clark
I’ll shred your comment tomorrow.
https://youtu.be/kdOPBP9vuZA
Climate change is not a huge or real problem, obama and his supporters are blatantly wrong on the topic, and it’s obvious that climate change propaganda is purely politically motivated at the expense of freedom and welfare of the whole planet… political and personal freedom. For you to say that “well clearly people thing climate change action is wrong”…those people are right. The public sphere has been filled with so much misinformation peddled by those with vested interests in making more money today at the expense of the taxpayers and wage earners of this country.
You are one of the many people who are wrong, misinformed, and seem to think man can control climate change. Science is not democratic, and just because most people are ignorant does not force reality to change.
The original author you responded to is wrong. You too are totally off base.
A trillion dollar a year “industry” is going to be hard to dismantle and it is going to take time IF you go at it from the top down. But the fact that it IS (and I know what is, is) ALL about money, if President Trump (gosh that sounds good!) wants to quickly put an end to the most fraudulent activity the world has ever endured (and save billions toward the reduction of debt OR put it toward rebuilding our infrastructure) all he has to do is turn a few money spigots to off, not the least of which is the grant money valve, and the “industry” will wilt away to nothing. Sure, there will still be money from private sources, but if George Soros and his ilk want to keep perpetuating the hoax, the money will have to (and should) come out of their pockets, NOT the US tax payers! BTW, George and his kind are the biggest losers in what happened Tuesday and that is why they are surreptitiously “pushing” their sycophants out on to the streets in protest, while the visible, leftist elites like Obama and Hillary are NOW calling for cooperation and compromise. “Hey, were all on the same team.” Yeah, well watch your back, Donald.
According to media reports in Germany (Der Spiegel http://www.spiegel.de/politik/…, DT has removed from his HP his pledge to revoke the “Paris Climate Agreement” and the pledge to stop muslim immigration.
A list of possible candidates for Scotus is said to have vanished as well.
Does he stop before even getting started?
Best news I have ever experienced.
The American people have seen the scam and have spoken.
The biased media with their rigged polls have egg on their faces and the administration is no doubt facing a tremendous shake up.
If only we could do this in my country!
Cheers
Roger
http://www.thedemiseofchristchurch.com
http://www.spiegel.de/politik/ausland/newsblog-michelle-obama-empfaengt-melania-trump-a-1120594.html
correct link
Non Nomen November 10, 2016 at 1:36 pm
I’m not sure if this is the web site but from the link below the wall is still going up.
https://www.donaldjtrump.com/policies/immigration
The problem with EPA and the Clean Power Plan is that all pollution is combined into CO2 as the most important pollution. CO2 is not pollution, and the other stuff coal plants emit is allready controlled and filtered out as best possible. I hope the real pollution will be still controlled to a normal safe level.
The cooling water outlet need not be cleaner than the intake.
Oh the Best of the Best of the Best! This is wonderful news, David! I’m thrilled. 🙂
The university campus Sustainistas are going ape over the election, reacting much like the foul-mouthed millennials marching the streets of the cities last night. But their savior Bill McKibben is holding a webinar on 11/16 help them lay out a plan to fight Trump. These Sustainistas, paid sustainability (aka climate activist) staff, inhabit many if not most colleges and universities in the U.S. They are the ones pushing Agenda 21, forcing it into higher ed curricula and propagandizing K-12 education.
Their most active email thread in memory has been happening today under the subject: “What can we do post-election?” (and they don’t mean “How can we help Mr. Trump?) Here is the text of the lead email in the thread:
“America, and the world we touch, has crossed overnight from an era of economic and political stability into a highly uncertain future. It is clear that much of the policy direction in support of sustainability that Washington has provided the past eight years will be reversed. This means that for the next few years, our proactive work will now be happening within state and local government, corporations, start-ups, NGO’s, educational institutions, and faith organizations— as it did from 2000-2008.
Our work will not go away. In just the last three years, the planet has heated up almost a quarter of a degree. Meeting the needs of billions of more people all aspiring to a better quality of life demands that we still rewire the world with clean energy, still reinvent the global food system, still rebuild smart and inclusive cities, and fundamentally, put sustainability and sufficiency at the heart of what we are doing on the planet. This is a moment that calls on all of us to redouble our efforts to lead the change.”
So much for “unifying” the country. In their eyes, they are right, Trump is wrong. (Unity is great just as long everyone agrees to their agenda and world view.)
Dear Steve Keppel-Jones November 10, 2016 at 12:35 pm.”Send them to Australia”. I am afraid that people were only ”Sent to Australia” in convict ships many years ago. Now we have a points system that would exclude every single one of the people you wish to send to us. In fact many of our original convicts would qualify for entry under our present points system because they had marketable skills!
When does the pre-K march against the election results begin?
Read this plea from the parasites over at “Surrealclimate”
http://www.realclimate.org/index.php/archives/2016/11/dont-make-a-choice-that-your-children-will-regret/#comments
Not going to waste the time
So let’s be friends again
I’m tired of feeling this way
Let’s be friends again
I can’t do it without you babe now
Friends again
Let’s be friends again
He was telling the Clintons how he grabbed a P@ur momisugly#$sy and BOTH Clintons laughed and said ” that’s nothing … let me tell you what I did …….”
+100000000000000000000000000000000000000000 and still laughing!
Michael Mann – This British leftie is speaking to you. Warning: Rough language.
That was actually bloody brilliant – let’s hope no lefties watch it .
And that ‘s from me – someone who thinks Trump is the next coming
That! Was! Brilliant!
He touched on, very briefly, that Trump was change and that’s what people voted for. But that is also what is causing this fear. Even our own Declaration of Independence acknowledges that people are more likely to suffer than to engage in change. People do not like change and Trump represents change. So let’s step back, take a deep breath and see how it all plays out.
Free at last
Thank you Lord
Free at last
Breath in breath out
Let your CO2 run free
No guilt
No blame
Free to live free of guilt
Borrow a Russian ice breaker from Russia put all the climate change believers on said ice breaker and have them do a four year on site study of anartic ice trends and report back in 4 years!
YES.
When you examine “climate change” as defined by IPPC, Odama, EPA and all the bought and paid for “climate scientists, modelers, Hansenites and corrupt politicians” etc. I’m a climate change denier in the Trump camp and very proud of it I might add!
Fascinating night, Wash state voters rejected the nation’s first carbon tax Initiative. The karma was good that day.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09112016/washington-state-carbon-tax-i-732-ballot-measure
I think the AGW scam will continue even with Trump. It will be a long haul, but massive majorities will only see it when they notice that the climate/weather ain’t changing probably another 20 years…. sorry people!
I dont think Trump will do anything about climate for some time. Do not get your hopes up
I hope he “mandates” that we don’t do anything about climate…!!!
The Donald has been vague, but he has promised to undo Obama’s executive orders. How many, he didn’t really say. Essentially all of the climate change actions by the Obama adminstration have been executive orders or adminstrative actions, all of which can be readily undone.
Nothing vague in his website
https://www.greatagain.gov/policy/energy-independence.html
I’ve died and gone to heaven !!!
I was reading an article today and the author claimed Trump was “anti climate stability”. So now we have another new label: a person can now be “anti climate stability”. It is getting hard to keep up.