I made a video of the interactive slide show on Bloomberg Business, June 24, 2015. | The data is from NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), | Credit to presentation makers is in the video - Eric Roston and Blacki Migliozzi | bloomberg.com/graphics/2015-whats-warming-the-world/
Here is some good news posted by Amy Harder several hours ago. It turns out that Industry prefers Obama regulations to uncertainty
The world's biggest air conditioning and chemical companies are urging President Trump to defend one of his predecessor's landmark climate policies — and so far, it's working, Axios' Amy Harder writes in her weekly "Harder Line" energy column.
- The big picture: This is the most aggressive example of how different types of industries are urging Trump to use caution with his regulatory rollback, in the name of business certainty.
- Some executives in the fossil fuel and electric power sectors are urging the administration not to issue wholesale repeals of several regulations, including a rule cutting carbon emissions from power plants.
Here is Amy Harder’s Report:
Industry to Trump: Keep Obama climate policy
a couple of excerpts:
The world's biggest air conditioning and chemical companies are urging President Trump to defend one of his predecessor's landmark climate policies. So far it's working.
Why it matters: The policy, to phase down greenhouse gases emitted from refrigerants in appliances like air conditioners and refrigerators, is the only Obama-era climate policy Trump hasn't targeted for repeal. Companies, led by global chemical makers Honeywell and Chemours, are lobbying the administration to defend a regulation and support a global treaty on the issue, according to industry officials, administration officials and others involved in the issue.
The bottom line: Companies have spent millions complying with the policy and other similar standards around the world over the past several years — and they don't want that money to go to waste. To the industry and administration, this is more about financial investments than it is climate change. That makes it surprisingly non-controversial compared to the Paris climate deal.
From an earlier report by Amy Harder:
Big energy's surprise warning: Trump, slow down deregulation
It looks as though part of the reasoning behind this somewhat surprising stance is also to avoid future lawsuits:
Despite near universal opposition to Obama's rule cutting power-plant carbon emissions, most industry lobbyists think EPA should issue some type of rule cutting carbon emissions because current law and court rulings compel it. [...]
Under pressure from the oil and natural-gas industry, the GOP-controlled Senate tried — and failed — to repeal an Interior Department rule issued late last year by the Obama administration. The rule cuts emissions of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and natural-gas wells on federal lands.
The surprise defeat is an early sign of the political dangers of overreaching.
...so the motivations are anything but altruistic, but still, it’s not nothing, especially when compared to the GOP on the whole over the years