What You Missed. While you were recovering from your turkey coma, the Trump administration dumped volume II of the National Climate Assessment on black Friday. In the hopes that no-one would see it, it caused quite the weekend on Twitter. On Thursday I was wondering why Trump was busy tweeting twice about the climate change hoax and how cold it was on Thanksgiving. Obviously this was in anticipation of the release the following day. Today is a day to talk about climate change, the reality being that solar is so bipartisan that neither side wants to make it an issue to debate in an election and until solar makes politicians pay for voting against solar, climate change is the issue that will lead us. I’m not saying this is the best path for solar but it is the political reality.
The Friday Dump. In 1990, Congress passed a law requiring the executive branch to release a climate change assessment every 4 years, volume II of which was released in the proverbial Friday trash. You can read the full report here. The report comes a month after the dire warnings of the IPCC and is no less dire in the wording and impact to the economy. If America and the world don’t start acting on climate change the world will be a different place and any legislator that ignores it will likely be thrown out of office over time (how much time is the question).
The Takeaways. Vox gives you the three biggest takeaways in of the 1,500+ page report below. Moreover, the New York Times gave two columns on the front page on the issue.
Right’s Reaction. Climate change made the top issues on the Sunday shows. Senator Mike Lee and conservative talking head, Danielle Pletka, knocked down the report with “I’m not a scientist” and doing something about climate change would be “harmful to the economy.” You no longer need to be a scientist, you can simply believe the Trump administration’s report and their warnings about the impacts of climate change. On the other hand dealing with climate change not only isn’t harmful to the economy, it is helpful as the report says that failing to deal with climate change is a 10% drag on the US GDP.
Left’s Reaction. The loudest voice online, in my timeline, was Senator Amy Klobuchar of Minnesota. Senator Klobuchar was on the Sunday shows and lightly dodged the questions about running for President, it’s not a no but no decision is made. Klobuchar rightfully highlighted the impacts to the midwest and how climate change will hurt farmers across America. Politicizing the impacts is the right step forward for politicians that find issues that they care about and their opponents do not.
From The Author. There are many authors but I urge you to read the Katharine Hayoe’s twitter feed on the topic. She is well versed as a climate scientist and speaks clearly about the issue ahead and what your takeaway should be. If you’re not planning on reading the National Climate Change Assessment, read this tweet story.
Political Next Steps. As I mentioned above, climate change is the political reality for everything within solving climate change. Solar should politicize 100% RPS across the Country and talk about clean energy job creation. But when it comes to the political reality, don’t expect solar to be the wedge issue that makes politicians do pro-solar on both sides and ignoring this fact would be political negligence by our trade associations, (i.e. no more solar awards to republicans for now). Don’t take this is as a negative however, the report also broke down the demographics of who is most concerned about climate change. Hispanic Catholics, who have been historically hard to rally for the left, are most concerned about climate change. More than anything, climate change now created a wedge issue for a key political demographic.
- Trump Administration: Fourth National Climate Assessment
- New York Times: U.S. Climate Report Warns of Damaged Environment and Shrinking Economy
- Vox: 3 big takeaways from the major new US climate report
- Union of Concerned Scientist: Latest National Climate Assessment Shows US Already Suffering Damages from Climate Change
- Seeking Alpha: Fitch downgrades Berkshire, NextEra solar farms as PG&E credit tumbles
- Utility Dive: FERC nominee McNamee slams renewables, green groups in Feb. video
- Pv-Tech: France to fall short of 2018 solar target
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann