Uh oh...Scottie, we have a problem!!!
Oklahoma Bar Association opens investigation of ex-AG Pruitt"It appears that Mr. Pruitt misrepresented material facts that bore on the Senate committee's analysis of Mr. Pruitt's fitness to serve as EPA Administrator," the complaint states.
Emails and other documents released by the attorney general's office indicate Pruitt coordinated closely with fossil-fuel companies and special interest groups who worked to undermine federal efforts to curb planet-warming carbon emissions.
It's that darn pesky email problem...
Thousands of emails detail EPA head’s close ties to fossil fuel industryIn his previous role as Oklahoma’s attorney general, the Environmental Protection Agency’s new administrator regularly huddled with fossil fuel firms and electric utilities about how to combat federal environmental regulations and spoke to conservative political groups about what they called government “overreach,” according to thousands of pages of emails made public Wednesday.
“The newly released emails reveal a close and friendly relationship between Scott Pruitt’s office and the fossil fuel industry, with frequent meetings, calls, dinners and other events,” said Nick Surgey, research director for the Center for Media and Democracy, which has sued to compel the release of the emails.
The emails highlight an often-chummy relationship between Pruitt’s office and Devon Energy, a major oil and gas exploration and production company based in Oklahoma City. The correspondence makes clear that top officials at the company met often with Pruitt or people who worked for him. Devon representatives also helped draft — and redraft — letters for Pruitt to sign and send to federal officials in an effort to stave off new regulations.
And if you actually go through the changes to Obama's EO's you find that there's a lot of hand waving with little chance for substantial increases in jobs or the reemergence of coal for wide spread power generation...
TRUMP'S PLAN TO GUT OBAMA'S CLIMATE POLICIES: WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOWPresident Donald Trump will issue his long-promised executive order rolling back federal government efforts to fight climate change Tuesday.
The wide-ranging order, which will be accompanied by other environmental directives, targets Obama-era policies across the government, including in the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Interior, and the Department of Defense. It directs the EPA to revisit the Clean Power Plan, which limits carbon pollution from power plants and was considered the center-piece of former President Barack Obama's climate policy. Additionally, Trump is asking the Justice Department to stop defending the plan in court.
The president will instruct agencies to rescind a moratorium on coal leasing on public lands; rewrite limits on methane emissions from the oil and gas industry; and ignore the EPA's current calculation on the costs of carbon pollution. There are also broad directives reversing an Obama initiative requiring that federal departments consider climate mitigation strategy and the national security risks of global warming.
One of Trump's more notable "Day One" promises is missing, however: The United States will remain in the landmark Paris climate accord for the time being—despite Trump's pledge to "cancel" it.
All of this for what? More coal jobs? Uh, no...
Mass Employment In Coal Mining Is Never Coming Back, No Matter Trump's Promises Or RegulationsIt's an obvious truism that regulations which make a certain activity more expensive are going to reduce the amount of that activity. Supply curves do slope downwards, demand ones up, after all. Thus it is equally obvious that if we rescind those regulations creating that greater expense then, at the margin, there will be more of that activity again. And since activity is often linked to employment level we would think that Trump's rolling back some of the regulations which make coal mining more expensive will increase the employment of miners. And we would be right to think so. And yet the effect of that will be trivial because it's not in fact regulation which has been killing off mining as a source of mass employment. It's technological change and the change in regulation isn't going to affect that in the slightest.
Read that again,
And yet the effect of that will be trivial because it's not in fact regulation which has been killing off mining as a source of mass employment. It's technological change and the change in regulation isn't going to affect that in the slightest.Coal mining and coal jobs will not be coming back to any serious degree, but the changes may indeed by very, very bad for the long term...
In U.S., there are twice as many solar workers as coal minersMore than 31,000 new solar jobs were created in the U.S. in 2014 bringing the total to 173,807—a 21.8 percent increase in employment since November 2013, according to a report released Thursday by The Solar Foundation. This is the second consecutive year that solar jobs have increased by at least 20 percent.
The solar industry is still dwarfed by the 9.8 million workers that the American Petroleum Industry says are employed the oil and gas industry. However, the Solar Foundation is quick to point out the industry is starting to surpass some fossil fuel-related job categories.
Solar already employs more people than coal mining, which has 93,185 workers, and has added 50 percent more jobs in 2014 than the oil and gas pipeline construction industry (10,529) and the crude petroleum and natural gas extraction industry (8,688) did combined, according to the Solar Foundation.
One out of every 78 new jobs created in the U.S. over the past 12 months were created by the solar industry, representing nearly 1.3 percent of all jobs created in the country. Solar companies surveyed for the fifth annual census plan to add another 36,000 employees this year.
“That’s just insane,” Rive says. “The solar industry is literally contributing to the job growth of the U.S. economy—and it’s just so understated.”
Yeah, ya know, maybe Obama got something right in trying to spur advances in clean-energy technologies...and in point of fact, while the jobs numbers above in 2014 indicate American Petroleum Industry is still above in 2015 the clean-energy workforce surpassed oil related jobs for the 1st time.
Clean-Energy Jobs Surpass Oil Drilling for First Time in U.S.The number of U.S. jobs in solar energy overtook those in oil and natural gas extraction for the first time last year, helping drive a global surge in employment in the clean-energy business as fossil-fuel companies faltered.
And...here's a scary thought...just as Trump is trying to Make America Great Again, China is making massive changes in clean energy industries. So, China is reducing their use of coal while Trump wants more coal use in the US...what does China know that Trump doesn't?
China installed the most new renewable capacity in the world in 2015 with 65 gigawatts. It employed 35 percent more people in its clean energy industry than in oil and gas.
China, Brazil and the U.S. were at the front of the pack for renewable energy jobs. Asia is home to 60 percent of the world’s renewable energy employees, up from just over 50 percent in 2013. Japan saw jobs in its solar PV industry gain by 28 percent in 2014.
So, is Trump right or does the rest of the world get it...fossil fuels (coal, petroleum, natural gas) are finite, non-renewable resources. At some point, we will run out of the stuff. Not to mention the negative impact on the climate (pretty sure we can all agree that air pollution is not a good thing),
we need to find alternative energy sources...and China and Brazil are kicking our butts.
