Will Taxpayers Foot the Bill to Protect Oil Industry from Climate Change?

It’s a rare proposal indeed that sparks criticism from both the Sierra Club and the libertarian and fiscally conservative Cato Institute. But the plan to use nearly $4 billion of federal taxpayer dollars to shore up coastal defenses along Texas’s Gulf Coast has done just that.

The oil industry wants taxpayers to pay for projects to
protect its facilities along the Texas Gulf Coast from
climate change-driven storms.

That plan, a small-scale version of the long-discussed Ike Dike, would protect three areas along the coast against rising sea levels and devastating climate change-fueled storms, specifically to shield oil and gas terminals, refineries and petrochemical facilities—the same industries that have overwhelmingly contributed to climate change. What galls critics is that the industries being protected have been asked to put up nothing.

At the same time, voters in Harris County, which includes the city of Houston, last week voted to shoulder $2.5 billion worth of bond debt. Some will be used to match federal spending on flood control and mitigation projects, roughly a quarter-billion will be used to mount the largest buyout of flood vulnerable homes in American history, and some will be used to lure federal funds for a not-yet finalized menu of projects.

Read the Climate Liability News story by Seamus McGraw - “Will Taxpayers Foot the Bill to Protect Oil Industry from Climate Change?”

Coal in 'freefall' as new power plants dive by two-thirds

The amount of new coal power being built around the world fell by nearly two-thirds last year, prompting campaigners to claim the polluting fossil fuel was in freefall.

 Seeing the light? China is turning its back on
coal-fired power plants to clean up air
 pollution, curtailing planned new units and
encouraging cleaner energy. 

The dramatic decline in new coal-fired units was overwhelmingly due to policy shifts in China and India and subsequent declining investment prospects, according to a report by Greenpeace, the US-based Sierra Club and research network CoalSwarm.

The report said the amount of new capacity starting construction was down 62% in 2016 on the year before, and work was frozen at more than a hundred sites in China and India. In January, China’s energy regulator halted work on a further 100 new coal-fired projects, suggesting the trend was not going away.

Read Adam Vaughan’s story on The Guardian - “Coal in 'freefall' as new power plants dive by two-thirds.”

More dire data, less climate change concern?

More carbon will be released from
soil as the planet gets hotter.

Donald Trump has appointed an opponent of climate action to head America's environment agency - but reaction has been muted. As climate change becomes more apparent, are people becoming fatigued on the topic?

Donald Trump, set to become president of the United States in about a month's time, has chosen Scott Pruitt - a leading opponent of federal environment and climate regulation - to head the country's Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

Pruitt, currently the attorney general in the state of Oklahoma, is currently suing the EPA in an effort to limit carbon emission limits on power plants put in place by outgoing president Barack Obama.

Pruitt does not believe that manmade climate change is a certainty, and has described the issue as "far from settled." United States campaign group Sierra Club described his nomination, which must still be confirmed by the US Senate, as "putting an arsonist in charge of fighting fires.

Read the DW story - “More dire data, less climate change concern?

Thoughtful people everywhere hoping for Paris success

T

houghtful people everywhere, it seems, want this year’s climate conversations in Paris to be a success.

One of those is America’s Sierra Club who has produced a strikingly simple short video that explains what is needed.

Paris will host the 21st Session of the Conference of the Parties (COP) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC): a long and important name for a conference with even more important results.

The COP21 will be addressing the increasingly critical issue of climate disruption and what exactly we, as a global community, will do about it.

Watch the video here on the Sierra Club’s website.