US president Donald Trump will honour his campaign pledge to pull the US out of the Paris climate agreement and defund UN climate programmes, a former adviser to the new administration has said.
Myron Ebell served as head of the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) transition team from early September until 19 January, when he helped to draft an advisory action plan on how to implement Trump’s campaign promises.
At a press briefing held by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF) and the Foreign Press Association (FPA) in London today, Ebell declined to divulge any details of the EPA document on the grounds that it is confidential.
But Ebell, a well-known climate change sceptic and head of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s (CEI) energy and environment centre, outlined Trump’s “very clear” promises on energy and the environment that he is convinced the new president will honour.
Apart from withdrawing from the UN climate deal, Trump will also potentially repeal all of the previous administration’s EPA rules on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions including the clean power plan and the climate action plan.
Ebell expects Trump “to be very assiduous in keeping his promises despite all the flack he is going to get from his opponents,” adding that he brings a “message of hope” in terms of the new administration’s energy and environment policy.
The first hopeful aspect is that the US will clearly change course on climate policy, Ebell said. Secondly, the new US president has undertaken to unleash US energy production growth. Trump said he wants to make the US the world’s largest energy producer and achieve a position of global dominance for the country, he said.
“This is obviously good for the US, but also for the world because in becoming the top global energy supplier the US will reduce the influence of certain countries in the Middle East and of Russia,” Ebell said. “This is going to happen because the US has the world’s largest fossil fuel reserves — by far the largest coal reserves and also, because of the shale revolution, gigantic fields of natural gas and oil.”
An apparent contradiction emerged in recent weeks between Trump’s position and that of his incoming secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who said the US will “remain part” of UN climate discussions. When asked about these contrasting positions, Ebell said it is impossible for him to predict the outcome, but “in a disagreement with the president, who do you think will win?”
Ebell outlined three major ways in which Trump can annul US participation in the Paris climate deal. In the first instance, the president can simply stop any US financial contributions to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). In any event, all US funding to the UNFCCC, including to the Green Climate Fund, represents a violation of US law ever since Palestine — which is not internationally recognised as a legitimate state — was accepted as a UNFCCC member, Ebell argued.
Trump can have the US Congress reject the Paris agreement on the basis that legally it is a treaty and does not qualify as an executive presidential order. He can also withdraw the US from the UNFCCC altogether, which according to Ebell would be “the cleanest way” as it would absolve the US from any commitments, financial or otherwise, under the UNFCCC and the Paris climate deal.
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Growing up I had to put up with Brady Bunch having a white mouse named Myron and Happy Days having the Fonz put up with a brat kid named Myron.
Nice to see a smart intelligent person with the name making his mark.
Sounds good, Myron . . I’ll bet some Don Juans here and there are even more heartened by Mr. Trump’s success ; )
Well the whole Press world seems to be bamboozled by his following the precedent , signed into law by his predecessor, banning for six months, travel by persons from Iraq; a mostly moslem country, to the united states, while the security people tried to figure out what those would be travelers might actually have in the way of documents identifying who they are.
Seems like The new President, is going to get the vetting process sorted out for a total of seven mostly moslem countries, and get that done in half the time Obama took.
By the way; what the hell is a “mostly moslem country” ??. It seems like all of a sudden the world is full of them; maybe 57 of them. What distinguishes a mostly moslem country from a just plain moslem country ??
Apparently one of the co-sponsors of the bill that Obama signed into the law of the land was a democrat from Connecticut, who now is complaining about President Trump putting her law into effect again to protect the American people from undocumented terrorists.
The press also is bamboozled by their discovery that those seven countries that harbor terrorists also don’t have any Trump businesses in them.
Come to think of it; who the hell in their right mind would want to start any business in a country that is a hotbed of terrorism ??
I don’t even want to go anywhere near any of those countries.
G
The previous story on WUWT was about the end of coal. That might happen a bit later.
sooner…
If natural gas prices drop, less coal gets burned. And the Trump plan surely boosts gas, reduces industry costs, therefore prices?
Amongst the myriad of things poor Griffie doesn’t understand, simple economics is near the top of the list.
If less coal gets burned, the price of coal will go down.
This makes coal more competitive with gas.
As more gas is burned, the price of gas also goes up.
Beyond that, it was a technical innovation that allowed the price of gas to fall. It’s a sure bet that coal producers are working on their next big technical innovation.
Don’t count on trends continue, just because you want them to.
Griff January 31, 2017 at 8:14 am
You are as usual forgetting one size does not fit all.
Infrastructure. Right now we are transporting oil and coal on the same railroads. This means they compete for the same rail space.
Once the pipelines are built cost of shopping coal drops.
Also infrastructure; what is more expensive, coal storage or LNG.
Also take note France and Spain are having LNG shortages they are using it faster then stocks can be shipped and stored. Best to have a mix of reliable power fuels. The French needed to take many of their “Nukes” off line. Right in the middle of a bad winter.
Question is how much is the weather effecting their ability to get the Nukes back on line.
michael
@MarkW – There are many things in the ng vs. coal tradeoff that enter the equation. Ng can be ramped up in a hurry and a combined cycle plant has a heat rate of around 8K btu. Coal ramps slowly and has a heat rate of ~12K btu. The price is not as elastic as it might first seem because of that.
The most common mistake made in armchair energy economics is misreading the lag times involved in market moves. Natural gas prices will rise in response to its transition to a base fuel source for a large number of base load power plants in contrast to past use a speaking power source and a lot of other industry transitions going on simultaneously. Add in a few years of cyclical macro demand increases spanning major economies and a price spike scenario is not out of the question, even with enormous new supplies. Another example of misread markets was in the complaints about how slow fuel price declines came a few years ago after the drilling and production for shale oil had been realized. That oil inventory effect did not get to consumers because of pipeline capacity constraints at Cushing and the Gulf Coast to clear the inventory glut or at least move it closer to the refineries. Armchair types don’t allow for those market constraints and time lags, much less the policy roadblock effects.
ShrNfr: The time frame that I am talking about is months to years.
Long term, will companies decide to build Ng or coal based power plants.
Shorter term, will they run the coal plant at 90% and the Ng plant at 80%, or the other way around.
Yo, Griff1
How’s the polar bear study going? Figured out who Susan Crockford is yet? Decided if you’re going to apologize to her yet?
@MarkW,
The price of coal at mine mouth in Wyoming is about $10 ton or 60 cents/MMBTU.
There is no energy source that comes even close to the minemouth price of coal in Wyoming.
Unfotunatey for vast majority of the world(including much of the US) shipping and handling costs many times the price of the coal.
Hence, coal consumption is constrained bt transportation costs.
Harrywr
I know Wyoming is far from the sea, but sea-borne transportation – certainly for bulk cargoes – oil, LNG, coal, iron ore, bauxite and even containers – is cheap as chips.
If there was a possible waterway, or coal-in-water pipeline, link to, and across, South Dakota, then would river transportation to the Mississippi be reasonable?
I ask, as the Missouri looks quite narrow for much of its downstream course beyond South Dakota to St. Louis.
Auto, seeking to learn – and thanking you for your help.
Griff what there’s going to be an end of sooner, is the thermobilly hicks’ religion, called Green House Gas Back Radiation Heating.
I’ll bet your reputation on it.
First almost intelligent thing I’ve seen from you Griff , no apologise to that nice lady about the polar bears .
Smart move is to continue to burn coal domestically and ship LNG overseas while developing infrastructure better suited to support heavier reliance on domestic gas use in the future. That’s a win win for the US economy, the biosphere, geopolitical stability, and smart resource utilization. So much winning!
nope … can’t burn nat gas in a coal plant … and those coal plants aren’t yet being replaced … beside the price of nat gas won’t remain low if we sell it to the rest of the world FOR THE FIRST TIME in history …
Can’t wait to see the protest marches by the green blob if Trump kicks them into touch. No doubt they will be out in force in the UK, sticking their noses where they’re not wanted, as usual.
Go easy on the poor darlings as they’re still in mourning over Brexit.
Hit them again they ain’t dead yet!
I wonder if they’ll dress up in giant douchebag costumes.
Good. And if you have enemies, you stood up for something.
If you can’t hear the screams of the lefties then you just aren’t trying hard enough. The Don should have a wall where he puts up a sticker for every demo and smiles to himself at his success.
My son just composed and posted a song on youtube which reflects on this; https://youtu.be/wQitlVUOZeA
David,
Link goes direct to…404…Not Found.
Any other way to find it?
Robbert, here is the youtube link again, not sure why it did not work: https://youtu.be/wQitlVUOZeA
I like.
It seems to me that there is a climate politics change, major one.
That’s because you can only hide the truth for so long; the CAGW theory was given benefit of a doubt until it became obvious to the world body politic that its predictions were false. To throw absurd amounts of money after a non-problem (when we have many REAL) problems is a political dead end now.
Three things that will not stay hidden long: The Sun, The Moon and The Truth.
I think Buddha had that made into a t-shirt.
I love it. The professional agitators won’t know what to protest! Hopefully they will soon wear themselves out, accept reality, and get a real job.
Get a real job …
They never had to work hard all their life, just had everything given to them. They won’t know how to work hard and thus won’t be able to cope with a real job. I know farmers who cannot find Americans willing to work in the fields even though they would make more money than their current job. Get a real job … the chances of that happening are lower than you having a chance of beating Michael Jordan in his prime one-on-one with one hand tied behind your back, your shoes tied together, and playing with a football instead of a basketball.
Ultimately I think we’ve made a generation so isolated from what the real world would be like without society, and because of this isolation, they are rejecting the society that made their lives so easy, and they are going to fine the water they end up in is very cold, very harsh, and does not take pity on the foolish.
We are watching a portion of society trying to commit suicide of that society.
… or run out of Soros money and Steyer money and…
The timing of Trump’s campaign promise fulfillments, coming at least one or more a day right now, is engineered to induce “outrage adrenal fatigue” in his opponents. The media has a short attention span–are we still talking about the P—y Riot now? What about The Wall? Today it’s immigration restrictions, but tomorrow it’ll be ALL about the Supreme Court. And the great cosmic truth is that “groups,” no matter how loud they scream and make a nuisance of themselves, have NO power against the Federal Government.
The wisdom of Myron’s selection to manage the EPA Transition team is simply stunning, if not an utterly Brilliant example of Donald Trump’s intelligence!
+1
“… incoming secretary of state Rex Tillerson, who said the US will “remain part” of UN climate discussions.”
Jeffrey Pelt (Hunt for Red October): Listen, I’m a politician which means I’m a cheat and a liar, and when I’m not kissing babies I’m stealing their lollipops. But it also means I keep my options open.
Of course, you stay part of the discussions. You never know when they will gang up on you.
Love the way James Delingpole strolls in half-way through!
more like a strut than a stroll
For the newbies here you can read James Delingpole here @ur momisugly: http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/01/31/delingpole-trumps-climate-plans-made-medias-heads-explode/
And more from James Delingpole here: http://www.breitbart.com/author/james-delingpole/
So that’s where that doyen of the pen got to! Had his Telegraph columns of yore framed in gold.
There’s no doubt Trump is flushing them out everywhere and providing great amusement for we ordinary deplorable down under-
http://www.heraldsun.com.au/blogs/andrew-bolt/peak-trump-hysteria-at-sydney-morning-herald/news-story/d0e17df8ee1f4f2684bc61e73c10fb0e
We always knew the MSM were the PC lefty latte set and they’re coming out having tantrums everywhere. They’re obsessed with the Trump phenomenon and he has them completely rattled.
Observa,
My favourite Sydney Morning Herald (SMH) entry in The Trump Diatribe Stakes.
‘Kim Kardashian joins celebrities in criticising Trump Muslim bans.’
Like the overwhelming majority of celebs Ms Kardashian is a renowned Republican?
Isn’t that the way Hollywood/Celebrity goes? Hard Core Republican.
Maybe, just maybe, those that disagree with Ebell’s skepticism might actually show some willingness to debate. Maybe.
Although, Ebell might also invoke Gore’s “the debate is over” philosophy.
Being put on the defensive ought to make warmists much more willing to debate.
Roger Knights:
The warmists will never debate because they know they cannot win against knowledgeable non-corrupt scientists. They will just slowly disappear back into their holes muttering with incoherent rage until they finally become an extinct species.
@ur momisugly hugh Davis, They will soon find another “Quest”.
@ur momisugly Hugh Davis:
If Trump pulls out of the Paris agreement, the warmists will be forced to debate.
Trump is playing Patton lol
I wish that the Trump administration could do something as simple as reinstating fines on the bird shredders and fryers…
One of the biggest supporters of wind turbines is a long serving Republican senator from Iowa.
NA WINDPOWER, Sept.1, 2016
‘Exclusive: Sen. Grassley Sets The Record Straight On Trump And Wind’
“and the father of the production tax credit (PTC) itself -” (Grassley)
Scroll down to: Grassley and AWEA/American Wind Energy Association.
http://www.nawindpower.com/exclusive-sen-grassley-sets-the-record-straight-on-trump-and-wind
More information on this topic online.
They would fold tomorrow if they were charged per bird/bat at the same rate as oil ponds. Trump could change the regulation exempting them.
ok…this made me laugh
“in a disagreement with the president, who do you think will win?”
So nice to have someone in charge that really is in charge for a change…
…we’ve been had for way too long….by both sides
Same dog….different collar
It’s nice to have someone working for the President who understands he, in fact, works for the President.
I’m confused: if he is honoring the campaign pledge, does it mean he isn’t a politician?
He is a businessman. Who won the election. And brought ethics and standards back into the political field. Which is driving the true politicians nuts.
See:
http://www.breitbart.com/london/2017/01/31/delingpole-trumps-climate-plans-made-medias-heads-explode/
and
http://www.breitbart.com/big-government/2017/01/31/trump-is-definitely-going-to-pull-the-us-out-of-the-un-paris-climate-agreement/
I’ll believe it when I see it, and then I’ll get a hernia from laughing.
phaedo, ditto !!!
phaedo January 31, 2017 at 8:57 am
I’ll believe it when I see it, and then I’ll get a hernia from laughing.
Same with me phaedo I, mean just look how he caved in when the temporary head of the Justice Department (now what was her name?) refused to enforce the travel ban and instructed the agency’s lawyers not to defend the order.
michael
That was a good sign. Saying the Clinton’s were “good people” was not. I think he will keep his promise to ditch AGW and get science back to science not advocacy. That one doesn’t affect the powers that be. They will just start new scams. Their scientist lackies will be discarded.
At various times in my career, I’ve helped companies implement engineering software systems, first electronic design tools, then later Product data management.
And as you’re discussing adoption issues, there’s a small group of who just refuse to do their part entering data for other purposes. And I would suggest that they are smart, just take the loudest one out front, and shoot him, so everyone sees. It’ll only take one or two, and everyone one will be happy little workers.
I softened over the years, and switch to just a taser, but it would be fun to watch them flop around for a while. And still educational.
That’s what “decimation” means: executing every 10th one. “Pour encourager les autres.”
With you on that.
Go for the clean break and let that clearly identify the loudest complainers for the rest of us to watch and learn from. A tally of savings to the American people would be helpful on this and other changes to see the mountain of money dished out previously behind our backs and added to annual deficit and rolling debt.
Trump is naive enough that he thinks politicians should keep their campaign promises.
Tillerson’s comments, which make a moderate amount of sense, involve “having a seat at the table.” From a foreign policy standpoint that’s not bad. It makes it difficult for other countries to act in faux leadership positions. But, we can retain our seat, and fail to act on anything that we, as a country, have not agreed to do, and we have not agreed to all of the Paris agreement, (if that makes any sense). We sit at the table and politely tell everyone, Obama agreed to that the U.S. did not … Kerry agreed to that, the U.S. did not … Al Gore agreed to that, and will be prosecuted shortly for misrepresenting himself.
Al Gore’s council would simply put in a plea of diminished responsibility.
touche
We need the right people at the table and we need some scientific discussions before we go to the dang table.
Trump’s team asserts that the Paris Climate ”Agreement’ is a bad deal for the US and for the other developed countries.
China is the winner of the Paris Climate Agreement.
If no action is taken, there will be higher energy costs for all developed countries, while China has zero restrictions until 2030, at which time China will be the most powerful country in the world.
Trump’s team stated that important policy decisions should be based on facts and common sense rather than CAGW propaganda.
Mark, good point
Trump can tell them to go back to the person who made the promise, get the $$$ from Kerry and Obama.
They had no authority to give our $$$ to the UN.
The dominoes are falling one by one and as the Left scrambles to react to the latest another one is being announced. The AGW domino will be the most far reaching in the world as 200 countries realize they will now have to build their economies themselves for a living. Expect an outcry and expect Trump to be immune to it as he has so far to all his critics. Americans haven’t had this much fun since we dumped the tea into the harbor (only comparing the glee).
That pretty much sums it up.
everything they are screaming about….was designed for socialist globalization…..
Their entire house of cards is being blown apart
He should have dumped everything on the same day- they wouldn’t have a clue where to march/riot!
Please, Please, PLEASE…
Commission some valid science. Or do a deep audit of the existing science. But DO get the foundations right. Don’t just do climate science by politics like the last lot did…
yes. audit the science before sacking anyone or cancelling anything.
It is no use saying it was a fraud if you don’t prove it.
Here you go.
Wow. An excellent exposition of what is coming. The environmental press obviously fears a catastrophe and Myron essentially confirmed that fear. It was interesting to note the difference in style and substance between the energy reporters and environmental reporters.
Maybe it’s just me but the issues are not the same although they have been greatly conflated. Turning the EPA back to the mission of clean air and water is probably meant to address that.
Ironic that the greens are somehow looking for the former head of Exxon to save thier free cheese scheme. Don’t they have the New York Attorney General investigating him for climate change denial.
Impressive interview. Lots of moving parts. Unfccc withdrawal is only one year notice, automatically scotchs GCF and Paris, and follows directly from existing US law on Palestine recognition mandating defunding, with 2011 UNESCO precedent. Congress act to remove endangerment finding per 1990 CCA Amendments congressional intent to avoid interminable litigation. FERC. Musk and his subsidy mining. Harrabin going bonkers. This is fun.
And last night the first “Your fired” followed by Democratic Senate temper tantrums this morning. Friday’s immigration EO was vetted by none other than the DoJ OLC under Yates so all the ‘illegal’ ‘unconstitutional’ noise is just that.
Agree the Musk comment was the highlight.
‘an experimental financial services company …’
Devonshire Research Group
How long will it take Trump to work Musk out? Any lingering doubts about the motives of the whole “Climate-Industrial Complex” should disappear then.
Wouldn’t it make more sense to remove the endangerment finding by unwinding the EPA rule making process? It could be done in as little as 8-9 months. Any potential litigation would come from either CA or NY, (possibly MA), but could be fast-tracked to a new-and-improved Supreme Court, which has already refused to rule on the scientific substance. As it is now the Dems could hold up the action in the Senate for a long, long time, and Congress has many other fish to fry right now.
Mark, followed immediately by California/Oregon/Washington/New York lawsuit. And the court problem is that an endangerment finding already exists based on IPCC so undoing it looks like politics more than science. Much more certain is Congress simply declaring CO2 is not a pollutant under CCA, a bill Trump would sign. The problem is Senate cloture at 60 votes. Don’t know if there are enough dems willing to go along from coal states. Means either the nuclear option (think not desirable) or wait until after 2018 elections hoping to pick up more seats. 8 dems up for re-election in states Trump won. No harm in waiting since CPP is stayed pending constitutionality ruling. Key is tonights SCOTUS nominee.
“Means either the nuclear option (think not desirable)..” Why? Sounds too PC to me not to use it. Is there another reason you’re alluding to?
As Dems are now dinding out about Pres appointments except for supreme court, when the political pendulum swings the other way it it blows up in your face. Changing cloture to simple majority makes passing legislation in the Senate too easy in my opinion. The best laws, in my opinion, have some degree of bipartisan support. Has helped stabilize Congress via senate ‘drag’ since rule 22 put in place in 1917. An extension of constitutional thinking about why Senate has 6 year staggered term unlike House. DeToqueville warned about simple majority democracy.
ristvan January 31, 2017 at 11:25 am
DeToqueville warned about simple majority democracy.
very good points.
People forget how fragile government is. We don’t want a Marius or a Sulla,
michael
ristvan –
Agree, very impressive, very straight talking, great clarity, every word considered. Maybe Harrabin did score one point – that is, there’s a lot more to US auto industry problems than energy prices. But that’s a small thing and slightly off-topic. Nice to see the green attendees somewhat cowed, knowing their usual pleadings wouldn’t cut it.
Never heard Ebell speak before. Count me as a fan.
Decent scientists around the world believe that climate science is sound because it has been peer reviewed. These people argue passionately that those who oppose the science are deranged, in pay of Big Oil or trouble makers.
Pulling out of the Paris agreement or dismantling the EPA will just make these people scream louder. These things have to be done, but they don’t win arguments. The new administration must find some way to expose what has been passed as science and get it cleaned up. It is the flawed science that underpins the whole scheme. Dealing with that gets to the heart of the matter.
Yes, but first you must get peoples’ attention.
SC, yes. Both things need to be done. Waiting for the next IPCC is not the way. To long a wait, too biased a process. Congressional hearings. Independent task force like Challenger commission. Meanwhile truthful rebuttal soundbites with real punch and simple charts like Christy’s model reality divergence or some of Heller’s data fiddle stuff or the aurfacestations results.
Sounds good, but surely makeup of the commission would be key. For the Challenger there wasn’t going to be any opposition to the choice of commissioners. This is different. And there’s no Feynman today.
@Schrodinger’s Cat January 31, 2017 at 11:03 am
The established way to get awkward policy through is to get an ‘independent’ report written up as evidence. (Eg Stern review) On the back of that the policy can be justified and passed. He needs a killer report on the failure of AGW theory and preferably a couple of confessions from insiders. If he does that AGW is dead.
A good place to start is for a brave soul to show the documented evidence for faux science going back to Ehrlich and the population non-crisis. Then completely audit the revolving door st the EPA.
Peer review is not much more than proofreading for egregious error. One reviewer claimed an average of 216 articles/day.
and because their own evaluation of the data shows it is sound and because all the data supports the science, across multiple scientific areas and disciplines.