Lorraine Chow / EcoWatch & Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams – 2017-04-24 17:37:36
http://www.ecowatch.com/energy-dept-rewrite-website-2372236613.html
Energy.gov Website Gets Altered,
Removes Climate Benefits of Renewables
Lorraine Chow / EcoWatch
(April 21, 2017) — By now it shouldn’t be a surprise that the Trump administration is wiping Obama-era climate initiatives off the Internet.
This time, the Department of Energy (DOE) has significantly altered its websites on renewable energy, removing references on how clean energy technologies can reduce the nation’s reliance on fossil fuels and help lower climate-changing emissions.
The DOE’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy — which could face deep funding cuts under Trump’s budget proposal — has made “extensive changes and reorganizations” on websites for the Bioenergy Technologies Office, the Wind Energy Technologies Office and the Vehicle Technologies Office, according to the Environmental Data and Governance Initiative (EDGI), a coalition of academics and nonprofits that has tracked changes to federal websites ever since Donald Trump took office.
As The Washington Post explained:
“Under the Obama administration, these offices’ websites emphasized the importance of cutting down on US carbon emissions and reducing the nation’s dependence on fossil fuels — a message in keeping with President Barack Obama’s push to address climate change.
“But with the Trump administration de-emphasizing climate change and looking to promote climate-friendly and carbon-intensive energy sources — an agenda that coincides with a broad attempt to eliminate regulations on fossil fuels and particularly on coal — the priorities outlined on these offices’ Web pages have been shifting since the inauguration.”
For instance, on the wind technology office page, this sentence was entirely removed:
“Wind power is an emission-free and water-free renewable energy source that is a key component to the Administration’s renewable electricity generation goals.”
Instead, the new wording emphasizes the potential of wind for US jobs and economic growth. For example, this sentence was added:
“Wind energy currently supports more than 100,000 US jobs, and wind turbine technician is the nation’s fastest-growing occupation.
“According to industry experts, the US wind industry is expected to drive over $85 billion in economic activity from 2017 to 2020, and wind-related employment is expected to reach 248,000 jobs in all 50 states by 2020.”
This, of course, is true. The renewable energy sector has been a major boon to the nation’s job growth and even the DOE can’t ignore that.
However, the Rick Perry-led agency gives little weight to the clear environmental benefits of renewable energy.
Take the wind technology office’s “WHY IT MATTERS” description. The EDGI noticed that the wording changed from how wind can:
“help the nation reduce emissions of greenhouse gases and other air pollutants, diversify its energy supply, provide cost-competitive electricity to key regions across the country, and reduce water usage for power generation”
to how wind:
“helps the nation increase its competitiveness, diversify its energy supply, increase energy security and independence, reduce emissions of air pollutants, save water that would otherwise be used by thermal power generation, and provide cost-competitive electricity across the country.”
Another subtle change was, “creating long-term, sustainable skilled jobs” to “creating long-term skilled jobs.” Notice the difference?
As the Washington Post puts it:
“Together, the changes collectively downplay the climate benefits of each form of technology and distance the agency from the idea that they might be used to reduce dependence on fossil fuels, instead emphasizing their economic advantages.
“It’s a move that’s well in line with the Trump administration’s generally dismissive attitude toward the issue of climate change.”
Planet Breaches 410 ppm for First Time in Human History
Lauren McCauley / Common Dreams
(April 22, 2017) — The amount of carbon in the Earth’s atmosphere is now officially off the charts as the planet last week breached the 410 parts per million (ppm) milestone for the first time in human history.
“It’s a new atmosphere that humanity will have to contend with, one that’s trapping more heat and causing the climate to change at a quickening rate,” wrote Climate Central’s Brian Kahn. “Carbon dioxide hasn’t reached that height in millions of years.”
The milestone was recorded Tuesday at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii by the Keeling Curve, a program of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography at University of California San Diego. Since the planet reached the dangerous new normal of 400 ppm last year, scientists have warned that that the accelerated rate at which concentrations of CO2 are rising means that humanity is marching further and further past the symbolic red line towards climate chaos.
What’s more, as Aarne Granlund, a graduate student researching climate change at the University of the Arctic, pointed out, the recording was taken before carbon levels are expected to reach their annual peak, meaning they could soon notch even higher.
But despite the unprecedented threat, climate action has ground to a halt in the US under the leadership of President Donald Trump and US Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt, forcing campaigners and concerned citizens to take to the streets in droves to prompt the government to do something to address the threat of planetary devastation.
Saturday’s March for Science saw tens of thousands of people rally in Washington, DC and across the world to send a message to the Trump administration that governance should be based on research and facts — not ideology.
Speaking at the march in San Diego, Ralph Keeling, director of the CO2 program at Scripps whose father founded the Keeling Curve, gave an impassioned speech on why legislators need to abandon the partisan effort to stymie environmental legislation, declaring: “The climate change debate has been over for decades.”
Now, infused by the energy of the March for Science, campaigners are gearing up for next weekend’s Peoples Climate March with a week of action that centers on creating a just transition away from fossil fuels.
“The Peoples Climate March is the next step for the March for Science, a call to get more engaged in our political system, to confront power and to demand solutions,” explained May Boeve, executive director of 350.org.
“The demands we will put forward — respect for Indigenous peoples, investments in communities on the front lines of the climate crisis, transitioning from fossil fuels to 100 percent clean energy economy that works for all and more,” Boeve continued, “highlight the intersections between our different struggles and the common solutions we can work for together.”
Dubbed “From Truth to Justice: Earth Day to May Day 2017,” the more than 50 events in the lead-up to Saturday will include strategy sessions, a massive youth convergence, the introduction of a 100 percent Clean Energy Bill in Congress and non-violent direct actions.
On Friday, activists will form “Mother Earth’s red line” on the Capitol lawn to symbolize the multiple lines that must not be crossed by corporations and governments in the increasingly severe climate crisis, organizers said.
“This is about strength in unity; diverse groups of people are coming together like never before and are creating a red line of protection against capitalism, militarism and racism,” said Kandi Mossett, Indigenous energy and climate campaign organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, one of the group’s organizing the direct action.
“We are here to push for solutions like Indigenous rights, divestment and renewable energy as we continue to fight for a just transition away from a fossil fuel based economy.”
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