By Jo Nova
Now that the Billionaire-Green mask is off, conservatives are getting serious
Scott Waldman at Politico outlines the nightmare scenario where if Trump wins, he might “rewrite federal climate reports” or “install loyalists atop key science agencies” without seeming to realize that’s the Democrats modus operandi of science for thirty years.
No more going wobbly in climate fight, Trump supporters vow
Trump’s campaign utterances, and the policy proposals being drafted by hundreds of his supporters, point to the likelihood that his return to the White House would bring an all-out war on climate science and policies — eclipsing even his first-term efforts that brought U.S. climate action to a virtual standstill. Those could include steps that aides shrank back from taking last time, such as meddling in the findings of federal climate reports.
“The approach is to go back to all-out fossil fuel production and sit on the EPA,” said Steve Milloy, a former Trump transition team adviser who is well known for his industry-backed attacks on climate science.
But as the GOP front-runner, he’s gone back to alleging that human-caused global warming is fake, is baselessly blaming whale deaths on wind turbines and said last month that if elected he would be a “ dictator for one day” — in part so he could “drill, drill, drill.”
Robert Gottleibsen points out that if the Trump plans are carried out Australian green policies will be wildly out of whack with the US. Even the presence of Trump 2.0 on the campaign trail can put a break on climate-ambition:
Trump aims for the US to have the lowest-cost energy and electricity of any nation in the world, including China, by reversing the Biden carbon policies. He will ramp up oil drilling on public lands; and offer tax breaks to oil, gas, and coal producers; roll back current efforts to encourage the adoption of electric cars; and reverse the proposed pollution limits that would require at least 54 per cent of new vehicles sold in the US to be electric by 2030.
That will make Australia out of step with the US, and it means that the world is going to reduce carbon emissions at a much slower pace. We will need to take that into consideration in our policies.
“We’re writing a battle plan”:
[Politico] Dozens of conservative groups have banded together to write climate policy goals that would devastate virtually every regulation of the fossil fuel industry. The Project 2025 effort, led by the Heritage Foundation and partially authored by former Trump administration officials, also would turn key government agencies, such as the Environmental Protection Agency, toward increasing fossil fuel production rather than public health protections.
“We are writing a battle plan, and we are marshaling our forces,” Paul Dans, director of Project 2025 at the Heritage Foundation, told E&E News for a story last year. “Never before has the whole conservative movement banded together to systematically prepare to take power Day 1 and deconstruct the administrative state.”
It’s excellent to hear conservatives are banding together and planning ahead on climate policy. We just hope they are also banding together on election reform to get rid of electronic machines, fix dodgy software, reduce ballot harvesting and teach voters why fraud is not The American Way. Polling effectively shows 13 million voters in the US would admit casting fraudulent ballots if asked by a pollster. One fifth of US voters don’t seem to know that polling is meant to be done in the privacy of a ballot booth, not watched by coercive friends, or handed to middle men…
Climate bullying doesn’t work anymore
The experts have noticed that Trump is not “tempering” his language. The climate bullies are irrelevant.
Dana Fisher, director of American University’s Center for Environment, Community and Equity, called the change in tone both notable and dangerous — showing that Trump is no longer concerned about reaching moderate and independent voters with his approach to climate policy.
“He doesn’t feel like he has to temper his language,” Fisher said. “The rhetoric means that he’s much more likely to empower these efforts and initiatives than when he was concerned about how they would play the last time.”
And after 91 indictments, it’s not like anyone would care about being called a climate denier. Indeed, he is probably hoping they’ll do it more.
To reassure himself, the Politico writer doesn’t think Trump’s full throated “denial” will sit well with the voters (boy is he in for a surprise). He quotes the usual mindless apple-pie climate poll, where people are asked if they don’t mind if the government uses other people’s money to solve climate change.
The Daily Mail asked the voters instead, and found it was a winner:
‘Drill, baby, drill.’ Americans by wide margin back Trump’s greenlighting of oil and gas projects
Daily Mail
Americans by a wide margin endorse President Donald Trump’s pledge to ‘Drill, baby, drill’ and allow oil and gas schemes on federal lands, despite fears of global warming after 2023’s searing temperatures, our poll shows.
A DailyMail.com/TIPP Poll reveals that 49 percent of US adults support the former president’s pro-fossil fuel policy, while only 40 percent disagree. Another 11 percent said they were not sure.
Trump instead vows to slash US energy and electricity costs by ramping up domestic production of fossil fuels, with tax breaks for producers of oil, gas, and coal, even as scientists warn about man-made global warming.
He also wants to scrap much of Biden’s $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act, the largest climate measure in US history.
US oil production broke records last year, and it’s on track to surge to a new high of 13.21 million barrels per day this year, says a forecast from the government’s Energy Information Administration.
Steve Milloy, mentioned as a Trump advisor at the top of the Politico article, has written the skeptical JunkScience.com blog for years. If he’s ever put in charge of the EPA, it will be toast. Which is exactly why the grifters of government will fight to the death to stop Trump 2.0. They can’t let him win.
Trump photo by Gage Skidmore
_(2).jpg){kind=link}
US Flag photo adapted from Wikimedia: Image Clément Bardot
