Reuters: Trump Would Consider Fracking Mogul for Energy Secretary

July 21, 2016 Headlines

Meanwhile, Reuters is also reporting Donald Trump is considering nominating a fracking tycoon to be energy secretary if he is elected president. Harold Hamm is the CEO of the billion-dollar oil and gas company Continental Energy. In response, co-founder of 350.org Bill McKibben told Democracy Now!: “America’s fracker in chief to work for a guy who thinks global warming is a hoax manufactured by the Chinese. What could go wrong?”

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E120, e130, food-matters

YaleNews | Biogeochemist Indy Burke named dean of Yale’s School of Forestry & Environmental Studies

Ingrid C. (Indy) Burke, director of the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources at the University of Wyoming, will be the next dean of the Yale School of Forestry & Environmental Studies (F&ES), President Peter Salovy announced in an email to the campus community on July 21.

Burke, who is also the Wyoming Excellence Chair of Ecology at the University of Wyoming, will join the Yale community on Oct. 1. Her initial term runs through June 30, 2021.

“Professor Burke brings to Yale significant leadership skills and a dedication to education and research,” wrote Salovey in his announcement. “A biogeochemist whose work focuses on semiarid rangelands and on the effects of land management and climate on these systems, she is a respected intellectual leader in the United States and internationally, with a particular interest in fostering interdisciplinary scholarship.”

The Haub School is among the top institutions in the western United States for research, teaching, and outreach in natural resources, and during Burke’s eight-year tenure, it has developed an international reputation. Under her direction, the school has grown dramatically in enrollment, joint degree programs, philanthropic donations, and engagement in state- and region-wide land management and policy.

“She has a personal passion for promoting diversity and inclusion that she has brought to her leadership role,” noted Salovey.

…(read more).

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Leaked Documents Reveal TTIP Free Trade Agreement Would Undermine Climate, Environment and Consumer Protections (Week Ending July 29, 2016)

Posted July 20, 2016   Interview with Ben Beachy, senior policy adviser with the Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program, conducted by Scott Harris

Among the free trade deals being negotiated by the U.S. in the remaining months of Barack Obama’s presidency are the controversial Trans Pacific Partnership, TPP, and the less well known, but equally controversial Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership or TTIP. TTIP if ratified, will create the world’s largest free-trade zone. But with Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, the future of TTIP is now in doubt, as the conservative government of outgoing UK Prime Minister David Cameron had been an important ally of the U.S. in EU trade negotiations.

After the 13th round of TTIP negotiations in May, Greenpeace Netherlands leaked 248 pages of classified documents covering two-thirds of the areas discussed at the secret trade talks. Critics of the trade deal say the documents reveal that if ratified, TTIP could lower EU standards in areas such as the environment and public health by giving U.S. companies the right to lobby the EU to make sure regulations do not stand in the way of U.S. corporate profits. Specific concerns relate to the possible erosion of EU regulations on climate change, food labeling and approval of dangerous chemicals and pesticides, a claim denied by U.S. and EU trade negotiators.

Between The Lines’ Scott Harris spoke with Ben Beachy, senior policy adviser with the Sierra Club’s Responsible Trade Program, who discusses his group’s concern about the leaked documents and what they reveal about Washington’s apparent goal to weaken environmental and climate protections. He also talks about the Sierra Club’s view that the U.S. should develop a new model for trade that prioritizes the protection of working families and the environment over corporate profits.

For more information, see the Sierra Club Statement on Leaked Transatlantic Trade Deal Text at content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2016/05/sierra-club-statement-leaked-transatlantic-trade-deal-text.

Related Links:

• Interview with Ben Beachy, conducted by Scott Harris, Counterpoint, June 20, 2016 (23:47)

• Greenpeace TTIP Leaks at ttip-leaks.org
• “Brexit ‘Shockwaves’ Could Derail TTIP Trade Deal, Campaigners Say,” The Independent, July 8, 2016
• “Brexit’s Potential Impact on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP),” Global Research, July 9, 2016
• “Leaked: Explosive TTIP Documents Expose Plans for Corporate Takeover, Dismantled Climate Protection,” RT, May 4, 2016
• “Does The Greenpeace Document Leak Spell The End For TTIP?,” The Independent, May 4, 2016
• “TTIP Greenpeace Leak Shows How US Can Pressure EU to Compromise Health and the Environment under Trade Deal,” The Independent, May 5, 2016
• “Leaked Ttip Documents Cast Doubt On EU-US Trade Deal,” The Guardian, May 1, 2016
• “Leaked Documents Shed Light on Possible Fallout of Secretive US-EU Trade Deal,” Vice News, May 2, 2016

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On Senate Floor Shaheen Denuonces Efforts to Mislead Public on Climate Change.

SenatorShaheen

Published on Jul 13, 2016

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Brexit: What Is Going To Happen to UK Climate Change Policy?

By Victoria Seabrook • Wednesday, July 20, 2016 – 00:01

In the run up to the EU referendum, environmentalists issued gloomy warnings about the UK’s approach to tackling climate change should it choose to leave.

The days after the referendum saw a ruthless shake-up of the cabinet, with the new Prime Minister Theresa May scrapping the Department for Energy and Climate Change (DECC), ousting major players and appointing new cabinet ministers to key departments including the Treasury, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and the all-new Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS).

But what climate change regulation will we have left once the dust has settled?

We Still Have The Climate Change Act

Before the referendum, some environmentalists warned the 2008 Climate Change Act (CCA) might be unpicked if Britain voted to leave the EU. The Act, at the forefront of our legislation, obliges the government to cut emissions by at least 80 per cent by 2050.

But the Act is unilateral rather than coming from the EU, and it looks set to remain in place.

David Powell of the think tank New Economics Foundation (NEF) says: “It is important to remember that the UK has a piece of law that requires it to lead the world in carbon reduction. Unpicking that would be an extraordinary fight that nobody has shown any significant appetite for doing.”

The fifth carbon budget – which fulfils the requirement under the Climate Change Act 2008 for the Government to set five-year carbon budgets – was passed in the House of Commons on Monday with no opposition. Once debated in the House of Lords, the order will set the fifth carbon budget in law at a 57 per cent reduction in emissions by 2030.

On introduction of the order, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for BEIS, Jesse Norman, said yesterday in the House of Commons: “Leaving the EU will bring challenges and opportunities to the United Kingdom. However, it does not change the fact that climate change remains one of the most serious long-term risks to our economic and national security.”

…(read more).

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