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SANDERS CAMPAIGN RECRUITING SCIENTISTS TO SUPPORT CLIMATE PLAN: Joe Biden said “not a single solitary scientist” thinks Bernie Sanders’ climate plan will work. Now Sanders is out to prove him wrong.
“Many leading scientists agree with our plan,” Sanders said in Iowa over the weekend. “And in a few days we’re going to have a long list of scientists that agree with our plan because the scientists understand we have a crisis and that we need bold and aggressive action and we need it now.”
The Sunrise Movement is helping recruit: The youth climate activists pushing the Green New Deal, who have endorsed Sanders, are spearheading a letter for scientists who support Sanders’ $16 trillion climate change plan.
They’ve set up a Twitter account, @SunriseSci, which they’re calling a “caucus” of scientists backing Sanders and a Green New Deal. Their first tweet links to Biden’s comments and simply says, “We disagree.”
What Biden said: Confronted by a voter lauding Sanders’ climate plan after a New Hampshire rally Friday, Biden suggested Sanders’ plan is too aggressive, reports Washington Examiner campaign reporter Emily Larsen.
“You cannot get to zero emissions by 2030. It’s impossible,” Biden told the voter, later adding that “what we can do is we can radically reduce the amount … of fossil fuel.”
The Sanders vs. Biden dispute highlights two wings of the party on climate: Other more centrist candidates, such as Cory Booker (who recently dropped out), have raised concerns about aspects of Sanders’ plan, such as his opposition to nuclear power.
Sanders typically responds that his plan — which, for example, calls for 100% renewable energy in the electricity and transportation sectors by 2030 — is the only one that takes the scale of climate change seriously.
House Democrats, though, are working on a comprehensive climate package more in line with what Biden’s plan lays out, including a target of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
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OIL PRICES TUMBLE ON CORONAVIRUS FEARS: Oil prices fell to the lowest level in more than three months Monday over fears that the fast-spreading coronavirus will hinder demand and harm the global economy, especially in China, where the virus originated.
Brent crude was trading at $59.30 as of this writing, while West Texas Intermediate was at $53.08.
An outbreak of the SARS virus in the early 2000s prompted a sustained drop in oil prices.
The impact of coronavirus could be greater, some analysts projected, because China, the world’s largest oil importer, has a growing middle class.
“We’re in full panic mode,” Edward Marshall, a commodities trader at Global Risk Management, told the Wall Street Journal. “Using SARS as a template underestimates the growth of the middle class in China with more flights being canceled each day. This could have a large and longer-lasting effect,” he said.
OPEC leader downplays concerns: Saudi Arabia’s energy minister Abdulaziz bin Salman issued a statement expressing confidence that the virus would be contained.
“The current impact on global markets, including oil and other commodities, is primarily driven by psychological factors and extremely negative expectations adopted by some market participants despite its very limited impact on global oil demand,” he said.
The latest tally: Chineses officials added 769 confirmed cases of coronavirus on Sunday, bringing the total number of people infected with the illness to more than 2,700.
Coronavirus, a life-threatening disease similar to SARs, sparked global concern after an outbreak of the illness appeared in Wuhan, China, spreading to multiple Asian countries as well as the U.S., Canada, France, and Australia.
ANOTHER 2020 DEM GETS HIGH CLIMATE MARKS: California’s top air and climate regulator is all but endorsing Michael Bloomberg as the best candidate on climate change.
“Whatever you may think of his candidacy or his positions on issues across the full range of concerns a president needs to address, the reality is that Mike Bloomberg is the only candidate who has developed, advocated and implemented a successful program to cut greenhouse gases,” writes Mary Nichols, head of the California Air Resources Board, in an op-ed in CalMatters on Monday.
Nichols said she wouldn’t endorse a candidate, but she praised Bloomberg’s climate policy proposals, which she said have “drawn little attention” but have data and detailed analysis behind them to show how the U.S. can cut emissions in half by 2030 and get on the path to net-zero.
She also said Bloomberg could be the only person to “bring China and other big emitters back to the table to revive the Paris Agreement.”
WHEELER DOUBTS CLIMATE LINK TO AUSTRALIA FIRES: “No, I don’t think the fires in Australia are directly from climate change,” Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler told Fox News Radio on Friday. “I don’t think most rational people are saying that either.”
Wheeler suggested that the far left and environmental groups are overstating climate change’s impact on natural disasters like wildfires and hurricanes, saying “you cannot draw a direct correlation to that.”
The EPA administrator said — correctly — that scientists don’t say natural disasters are caused by climate change, but in fact, say that they are made more frequent or more severe by warming. But Wheeler seemed to doubt that science, as well.
“To be honest, for example, we haven’t had more hurricanes over the last 10 to 15 years,” he said. “The most they can say on hurricanes is we may be getting a little more rainfall from the hurricanes that we are getting, but we are not getting more severe hurricanes.”
What does the science say? Recent research from Stony Brook University found extreme rainfall in the Carolinas from Hurricane Florence in 2018 increased by up to 10% due to climate change. The storm’s size was also nearly 2% larger due to climate change, the research found.
Similar research for Hurricane Harvey found that storm’s record rainfall was up to 38% larger due to climate change.
THE EMISSIONS PUNCH OF AUSTRALIA FIRES: Australia’s recent brush fires are projected to have nearly doubled the country’s annual greenhouse gas emissions.
Citing the Global Fire Emissions Database, the Washington Post reported the fires in New South Wales and Victoria in particular have emitted around 400 million tons of carbon dioxide, “pushing country-level estimates for all of 2019 to a new record in the satellite era” of about 900 million tons of carbon.
That compares to the 421 million tons of carbon Australia emitted in 2018, when it ranked as the world’s 16th-largest emitter.
Separately, the U.K. Met Office, projected that the Australia fires will accelerate the increase in the global concentration of carbon that was already expected this year by another 1 to 2%.
COURT FAULTS TRUMP FOR RFS EXEMPTIONS: A federal appeals court late Friday ruled the EPA improperly issued exemptions to three oil refiners from fulfilling obligations under the Renewable Fuel Standard.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit vacated the waivers granted to Hollyfrontier and CVR Energy, finding that the EPA could not allow the exemptions because the refiners had not received waivers in the previous year. The court says the RFS only allows EPA to extend exemptions, not grant new ones.
“None of the three small refineries here consistently received an exemption in the years preceding its petition,” the court ruled. “The EPA exceeded its statutory authority in granting those petitions because there was nothing for the agency to ‘extend.’”
The court also said EPA failed to properly explain how the refiners would suffer disproportionate economic hardship by fulfilling its RFS’ obligations.
The big picture implications: Geoff Cooper, president and CEO of the Renewable Fuels Association, claimed the court ruling would “apply much more broadly,” than the three refiners in question, hinder the EPA’s ability to grant waivers to refiners.
The Fueling American Jobs Coalition, representing refiners and gas station owners, argued that “actual implications are a ways off.”
A coalition of biofuel industry groups had filed the lawsuit, arguing the Trump administration’s increased use of small refinery exemptions is harming farmers by undermining use of corn-based ethanol.
Democrats running for president, including Amy Klobuchar, Tom Steyer, and Pete Buttigieg, seeking the favor of farmers in Iowa, have criticized the Trump administration for favoring the oil industry.
The Rundown
Financial Times US threatens retaliation against EU over carbon tax
Bloomberg This year’s other big climate election? It’s for Texas railroad bureaucrat
Bloomberg Why planting a trillion trees should start with small farmers
New York Times In crucial Pennsylvania, Democrats worry a fracking ban could sink them
E&E News Once EPA chiefs, now campaign donors
Calendar
TUESDAY | JAN. 28
10 a.m. 2123 Rayburn. The House Energy and Commerce Committee holds a joint subcommittee hearing entitled, “Out of Control: The Impact of Wildfires on our Power Sector and the Environment.”
WEDNESDAY | JAN. 29
10 a.m. 406 Dirksen. The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee holds a hearing entitled, “Stakeholder perspectives on the importance of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board.”
