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PM ACC 2/8/17
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(ACC Mentioned) Adhesive Research May Pave Road for Future Multi-Material Vehicles
Aug 2, 2017 | Plastics News
By Rhoda Miel
Steel, aluminum and plastics suppliers to the auto industry typically compete for real estate on future cars. But even the most ardent backers of individual materials admit that the future really lies in multi-material vehicles. -
(ACC Mentioned) Writer's Attack on Maine Fire-Retardant Bill Was Misleading
Aug 2, 2017 | Portland Press-Herald
By Ronnie Green
As a career firefighter of 27 years, and a leader of the Professional Firefighters of Maine, I was disappointed to see Matthew Blais attack Maine legislation to protect firefighters from cancer-causing flame-retardant chemicals. -
Rise in Imports of Personal Care Products May Pose Health Risk
Aug 2, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Melanie Benesh
According to a New York Times story published today, contaminants such as mercury, lead and bacteria, and other banned ingredients, are showing up in an alarming number of imported personal care products. -
The New CleanGredients Makes It Easier for Businesses to Make Safer Products—and for Consumers to Find Them
Aug 2, 2017 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Elizabeth Ritch
Shoppers want safer and healthier products for their families, and EPA’s Safer Choice certification makes it easier to find them. -
ClientEarth Files Complaint over EU Cosmetics Nano Inventory
Aug 2, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Celia Oziel
NGO ClientEarth has filed a complaint with the EU ombudsman against the European Commission over "maladministration" surrounding a catalogue of nanomaterials in cosmetics, which was published in June after delay of three and a half years. -
EU Science Committee Unsure of UV-Filter Safety
Aug 2, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The substance methoxypropylamino cyclohexenylidene ethoxyethylcyanoacetate may not be safe for use as a UV-filter in cosmetic products, the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety has said. -
Exports Swell as Trump Pushes 'Energy Dominance'
Aug 2, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Umair Irfan
U.S. energy exports have surged this year as the Trump administration has pushed to beef up shipments, but Energy Secretary Rick Perry will have a harder time moving the needle at home. -
Senators Take on Mounting Concerns over Connected Devices
Aug 2, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Four senators yesterday unveiled legislation aimed at securing the growing universe of connected devices, from power grid equipment to medical devices. -
Senate Bill Provides $60 Billion for Transportation, Urban Development
Aug 2, 2017 | Transportation Today
By Melina Druga
The fiscal year 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, advanced by the Senate Committee on Appropriations last week, provides $60 billion for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and related agencies. -
Court Lets States Intervene in Ozone Fight in Setback for EPA
Aug 2, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
Dealing a blow to the Trump administration and business groups, a federal appeals court will allow California and a half-dozen other states to intervene in litigation to defend U.S. EPA's 2015 ground-level ozone standard. -
How Trump Is Fueling Jerry Brown's Climate Change Push in California
Aug 2, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
When President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, it stunned the world. But it also had a less predictable effect: turning California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) into Trump’s antithesis and furthering his own climate-crusading agenda.
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(ACC Mentioned) Adhesive Research May Pave Road for Future Multi-Material Vehicles
Aug 2, 2017 | Plastics News
By Rhoda Miel
Steel, aluminum and plastics suppliers to the auto industry typically compete for real estate on future cars. But even the most ardent backers of individual materials admit that the future really lies in multi-material vehicles.
The problem is how to join high strength steel to aluminum alloys or aluminum to composite or composite to steel without adding weight or using adhesives that make it hard to separate those parts at the end of vehicle life to make it easier to recycle.
Researchers at Michigan State University supported by the American Chemistry Council’s automotive group believe they are on the path of a new kind of adhesive that will join multiple materials and can also be cleanly separated at the end of vehicle, but also be repaired in a way that will make that joint stronger.
The adhesive is a thermoplastic enhanced with nano-magnetic particles, which can be heated in the assembly plant and bond different kinds of plastic, different types of metals or metals and plastic without the need for additional rivets or connectors.
Sanda McClelland, a chair for the ACC’s automotive team and business development for Solvay SA, said that the bond can also be reversed, which allows for ease of recycling at the end of vehicle life, and easier repair.
“The vehicles of today and tomorrow will be manufactured with a combination of energy-saving materials,” McClelland said at the Center for Automotive Research’s Management Briefing Seminars July 31 in Traverse City. “Multi-material solutions are and will provide OEMs and consumers with the best possible choices for performance, safety, aesthetics and value. All materials are in play.”
The research still is in the laboratory testing phase now, but signs are strong for its potential in real-world situations, McClelland said.
http://www.plasticsnews.com/article/20170802/NEWS/170809983/adhesive-research-may-pave-road-for-future-multi-material-vehicles
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(ACC Mentioned) Writer's Attack on Maine Fire-Retardant Bill Was Misleading
Aug 2, 2017 | Portland Press-Herald
By Ronnie Green
As a career firefighter of 27 years, and a leader of the Professional Firefighters of Maine, I was disappointed to see Matthew Blais attack Maine legislation to protect firefighters from cancer-causing flame-retardant chemicals. In his July 29 Press Herald op-ed, Blais, who is associated with a Texas-based chemical industry trade group affiliate, offered misleading and previously debunked information in regard to L.D. 182, which recently passed with overwhelming bipartisan support and was vetoed Tuesday by the governor.
Firefighters know that flame retardants don’t save lives. Smoke detectors and sprinklers save lives. Flame retardants never worked like they were supposed to, and we now know that they can actually make fires more dangerous by producing carcinogenic gases when they burn.
The only ones that benefit from putting flame retardants in furniture are the out-of-state companies that sell the chemicals, represented by chemical industry trade groups such as the one Blais is affiliated with: the North American Flame Retardant Alliance, created by the American Chemistry Council.
As far back as 2012, the Chicago Tribune exposed the “deceptive campaigns that led to the proliferation of these chemicals, which don’t even work as promised,” and specifically discredited Blais’ work as based on “flawed data and questionable claims.”
The Maine Legislature spent hours in public hearings and work sessions, reviewing expert testimony and looking closely at the facts to figure out what makes sense for Maine. Both Republicans and Democrats are to be commended for the time they put into this process. After reviewing all the facts, it was clear that L.D. 182 is a good bill, and it passed with overwhelming bipartisan support (139-5 in the House and 34-1 in the Senate).
Cancer is the leading cause of line-of-duty deaths for firefighters. We must take action. This bill is an important step in the right direction.
Ronnie Green
Bangor
http://www.pressherald.com/2017/08/02/letter-to-the-editor-writers-attack-on-maine-fire-retardant-bill-was-misleading/
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Rise in Imports of Personal Care Products May Pose Health Risk
Aug 2, 2017 | Environmental Working Group
By Melanie Benesh
According to a New York Times story published today, contaminants such as mercury, lead and bacteria, and other banned ingredients, are showing up in an alarming number of imported personal care products. This follows recent news that asbestos was found in tests of imported makeup marketed to tweens.
The Times story is based on a letter sent to Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., from the Food and Drug Administration. In the letter, the FDA revealed that imports of personal care products have doubled in the last decade and that imports from China have increased 79 percent in the last five years. The FDA also disclosed that in 2016, 15 percent of imported personal care products inspected had adverse findings and 20 percent of products the FDA tested in its own labs had adverse findings.
Usually, an adverse finding meant an illegal color additive was used, or there was microbial contamination in the product. The majority of contaminated products were from China.
Some of the FDA’s most troubling discoveries included:
· Skin whitening creams with high levels of mercury.
· Eyeliners containing a product called kohl, samples of which have been found to contain significant lead levels.
· Hairsprays containing methylene chloride, an ingredient banned in cosmetics and that has been linked to deaths from its use in paint strippers.
· Cosmetics kits with high levels of Citrobacter, Pseudomonas and Staphylococcus bacteria.
· Eye makeup containing color additives, banned for decades because they are hazardous to eyes.
· Temporary tattoo products with unapproved color additives.
Even scarier, the FDA’s findings likely underrepresent the full scale of the problem.
The vast majority of personal care product imports are never inspected. In fact, the FDA discovered the problems listed above by inspecting fewer than 1 percent of imports. Of the nearly 3 million imported shipments of personal care products, the FDA was only able to inspect fewer than 10,000. The FDA only tested an even smaller sample of imported cosmetics: 374.
The FDA lacks both the authority and the resources to fully address the public health risks cosmetics can pose. While the agency can inspect imported cosmetics, foreign manufacturers currently have no obligation to tell the FDA where they are located, what products they are making or what ingredients they are using.
Of the 29,000 foreign companies exporting cosmetics to the U.S., very few have registered with the FDA. There is no obligation to report adverse reactions to cosmetics or make them in clean facilities using so-called good manufacturing practices. The FDA cannot issue a mandatory recall of dangerous cosmetics under current law.
Recently introduced legislation, the Personal Care Products Safety Act, would give the FDA these basic authorities and would also require fees from the cosmetics industry, significantly increasing the agency’s ability to address health risks from cosmetics.
http://www.ewg.org/enviroblog/2017/07/rise-imports-personal-care-products-may-pose-health-risk#.WYIA-YSGPIV
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Aug 2, 2017 | Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families
By Elizabeth Ritch
Shoppers want safer and healthier products for their families, and EPA’s Safer Choice certification makes it easier to find them. The Safer Choice label is found on nearly 2,500 household, institutional, and industrial cleaning products, as well as a growing number of other products ranging from pet shampoo to bike lubricant. The label provides consumers with reassurance that every ingredient in the product has been reviewed by independent toxicologists and is among the safest in its functional class for humans, pets, and the environment. All products that receive the certification also must meet performance standards, as well as product-level standards for pH and volatile organic compound (VOC) content, and receive final approval from EPA before they can carry the label. The Safer Choice program, originally known as Design for the Environment, has existed for over 15 years, and is backed up by the expertise and experience of the Safer Choice team at EPA as well as EPA’s resources for evaluating chemical safety.
Since 2006, CleanGredients (a project of the nonprofit GreenBlue) has supported the Safer Choice program by providing product formulators access to a database of market-ready safer chemical ingredients pre-screened by third-party toxicologists and EPA against criteria established by Safer Choice. Because ingredients listed in CleanGredients are already verified as meeting the Safer Choice standard, formulators who use the database don’t have to pay third-party reviewers to review the ingredients again when they are used in a product formulation, and reduce the risk of having a product fail a review for the Safer Choice certification. This resource helps formulators get safer products to market faster and at a lower cost, increasing availability of products with safer ingredients in the marketplace.
Recently, CleanGredients launched a new website, highlighting the role we play in supporting EPA’s Safer Choice program. We have expanded our site to include a blog and news hub for sharing information about the Safer Choice program, environmental health issues, and the latest developments in green chemistry.
We are also making it easier to find Safer Choice-certified products, starting by providing direct access to the EPA’s product search tool. In the future, we plan to add a product search tool within CleanGredients, which will allow consumers and purchasers to discover Safer Choice-certified products and to learn where to find them.
CleanGredients is proud to support the work of the Safer Choice program to make it easier for consumers to find safer products. Our new site will be a community hub for those interested in safer chemistry and looking for information on safer products, so visit us at CleanGredients.org to stay in the loop.
http://saferchemicals.org/2017/08/01/the-new-cleangredients-makes-it-easier-for-businesses-to-make-safer-products-and-for-consumers-to-find-them/
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ClientEarth Files Complaint over EU Cosmetics Nano Inventory
Aug 2, 2017 | Chemical Watch
By Celia Oziel
NGO ClientEarth has filed a complaint with the EU ombudsman against the European Commission over "maladministration" surrounding a catalogue of nanomaterials in cosmetics, which was published in June after delay of three and a half years.
Despite the long delay, the catalogue does not have the information consumers need to identify which products contain potentially harmful nanomaterials, ClientEarth says. The Commission also "misinterpreted EU Court precedent on access to documents in an attempt to keep information secret", it argues.
The Commission blamed "a high level of inconsistency or inaccuracy" in the data extracted from the cosmetic products notification portal (CPNP) for the late publication of the inventory. Member states were asked to intervene through market surveillance, causing further delays, it said.
The nano inventory contains 43 substances used as colourants, preservatives and UV-filters, among others. It lists the category of cosmetic products each substance is used in, such as eye liners and face masks, as well as their exposure conditions.
It does not, however, specify which brands of products contain nano substances. ClientEarth lawyer Alice Bernard says this is necessary as consumers need to know which eye liner, for example, they might want to avoid. The NGO is also campaigning for access to the notification documents submitted by companies.
ClientEarth says that the Commission "consistently breached and frustrated" people's right to information. It repeatedly claimed the catalogue did not exist when the NGO requested it, it argues.
"The Commission’s contortions to avoid releasing the list in the first place are a shocking dereliction of duty," says Anne Friel, another ClientEarth lawyer, in a statement.
"We call on the ombudsman to investigate this unlawful practice and stop the Commission blocking access to the information to which consumers are entitled, and which will let them make informed decisions."
The NGO wants the ombudsman - an independent and impartial EU body - to hold the Commission to account and probe the reasons for what it says were "deliberate" delays.
The Commission says that the catalogue remains "a work in progress" subject to notifications and will be updated regularly.NGO action in France
Separately in July, a group of NGOs wrote to the French prime minister and several ministers calling for urgent labelling and restriction of nanomaterials on the French market. "Unanimity is impossible" on the subject, the letter says, and the government should instead apply the precautionary principle.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58020/clientearth-files-complaint-over-eu-cosmetics-nano-inventory
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EU Science Committee Unsure of UV-Filter Safety
Aug 2, 2017 | Chemical Watch
The substance methoxypropylamino cyclohexenylidene ethoxyethylcyanoacetate may not be safe for use as a UV-filter in cosmetic products, the European Commission's Scientific Committee on Consumer Safety has said.
In a scientific opinion on the chemical, the SCCS says its genotoxic potential "cannot be excluded"; it calls for more evidence before this is ruled out. Skin and eye irritation are also a potential issue, according to the committee.
Cosmetics Europe submitted a dossier on the substance in June 2016. It was for use as a UV-filter up to a maximum concentration of 5%.
This is the final version of the SCCS opinion. It had been subject to a comment period from 13 March to 14 May.
https://chemicalwatch.com/58021/eu-science-committee-unsure-of-uv-filter-safety
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Exports Swell as Trump Pushes 'Energy Dominance'
Aug 2, 2017 | E&E Climatewire
By Umair Irfan
U.S. energy exports have surged this year as the Trump administration has pushed to beef up shipments, but Energy Secretary Rick Perry will have a harder time moving the needle at home.
Trump promised to bring back coal jobs to the country and leverage U.S. coal, oil and natural gas around the world to exert global "energy dominance."
Energy exports are up by 1.3 quadrillion British thermal units for the period between January and April this year compared with the same period last year, according to the July edition of the U.S. Energy Information Administration's monthly energy report.
The United States increased coal shipments abroad by 50 percent in the first six months of this year compared with the first half of 2016 (Climatewire, Aug. 1).
Crude oil exports this year topped 1,000 barrels a day for several months this year, a record high.
The Department of Energy also licensed two new liquefied natural gas export terminals and increased the export authorization for a third. Perry pitched U.S. natural gas to Japan and China during his trips to those countries earlier this summer.
"At DOE, we're focusing on streamlining the process for natural gas production and exports," Perry told reporters last month.
However, EIA reported the natural gas use for domestic power generation is down this summer compared with last year. "Higher natural gas prices relative to last summer explain part of the decrease," EIA wrote on its website.
According to its short-term energy outlook, EIA projects coal and natural gas to be neck and neck in the United States, with each generating about 31 percent of the country's electricity.
EIA declined to comment on what role the White House's policies are playing in current trends in energy. "It is not EIA's role to identify what the Administration's energy policies are and then evaluate the effectiveness of those policies," EIA spokesman Jonathan Cogan said in an email. "We will leave that to others."'Standing joke about Energy secretaries'
Adam Sieminski, who led EIA from June 2012 until the beginning of this year, noted that while other countries have a ravenous and growing appetite for energy, the United States has been content with its consumption in recent years, even as the economy has grown.
"For electricity, the relationship between economic growth and electricity use has been diminishing since the 1990s," said Sieminski, who is now the James R. Schlesinger chair for energy and geopolitics at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
Part of the reason, he explained, is that the market for power-hungry devices in the United States ranging from residential refrigerators to industrial furnaces is almost saturated. Just about everyone who wants an appliance has one, and as old units wear out, more efficient devices tend to replace them.
Electric vehicles could drive some growth in electricity demand, but they aren't prolific enough to make a major dent yet, and most increases in power use won't go to coal and natural gas.
"Tax credits for solar and wind are going to absorb whatever growth there is in electricity demand," Sieminski said.
Even with the Trump administration's rollback of Obama-era climate and energy policies, the prospects for more coal use in the United States are dim. "Even without the Clean Power Plan, EIA's forecast for coal is essentially flat to down," Sieminski said.
That doesn't leave the secretary much room to maneuver when it comes to boosting the fossil energy sector in the United States.
While DOE has some regulatory authority for the power grid and approves natural gas exports, many of the decisions that govern domestic energy production in the United States fall to U.S. EPA and the departments of State and the Interior.
"That's the standing joke about Energy secretaries: If you want to be involved in making energy policy, you probably don't want the Energy secretary job," Sieminski said. "I think that Perry is being a good secretary in the sense that he's mirroring the policies the president campaigned and won on."
https://www.eenews.net/climatewire/2017/08/02/stories/1060058252
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Senators Take on Mounting Concerns over Connected Devices
Aug 2, 2017 | E&E Energywire
By Blake Sobczak
Four senators yesterday unveiled legislation aimed at securing the growing universe of connected devices, from power grid equipment to medical devices.
Sens. Mark Warner (D-Va.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.) introduced a bill would impose baseline cybersecurity requirements on manufacturers selling "internet of things" devices to the U.S. government. The "Internet of Things (IoT) Cybersecurity Improvement Act" would also grant legal protections to hackers engaged in "good-faith" research on vulnerabilities, among other measures.
Warner said the legislation would help address "the obvious market failure" that has prevented IoT providers from shoring up their cybersecurity practices.
"While I'm tremendously excited about the innovation and productivity that internet-of-things devices will unleash, I have long been concerned that too many internet-connected devices are being sold without appropriate safeguards and protections in place," he said in a statement.
Last fall, hackers unleashed a digital army of hacked webcams and electronics on Dyn Inc., a core provider of internet domain services. The massive denial-of-service attack brought outages for many popular websites such as Spotify and Twitter.
The electric utility industry has expressed concerns that similar "botnets" of hacked IoT devices could be used against critical infrastructure.
"Electric industry experts have identified machine-to-machine cyberattacks as one of the top threats to electric infrastructure," Scott Aaronson, executive director for security and business continuity at the Edison Electric Institute, noted in recent comments on IoT-fueled denial of service attacks before the National Telecommunications and Information Administration.
Aaronson pointed out last month that "no common or baseline security standards exist for home-based internet-connected devices."
Yesterday's legislation is designed to prod companies doing business with federal agencies and the military into boosting their security practices. The bill would not set such enforceable cyber requirements for IoT firms, and companies could still seek security exceptions from the Office of Management and Budget to land government contracts.
"This bipartisan, common-sense legislation will ensure the federal government leads by example and purchases devices that meet basic requirements to prevent hackers from penetrating our government systems," said Gardner, who co-chairs the Senate Cybersecurity Caucus alongside Warner.
The bill calls for manufacturers to be able to apply "patches" to flaws in the underlying code of any web-connected products. It would also block government vendors from using hard-coded passwords or "backdoors" in their devices, and encourage use of industry security guidelines.
The bipartisan group of lawmakers said they developed these baseline requirements with input from the Atlantic Council and Harvard University, among other "technology and security experts."
The billions of devices associated with IoT present a complex and thorny policy problem, experts and regulators agree. The Federal Trade Commission, one of the multiple agencies with some level of authority over IoT security, said in 2015 that "staff does not believe that the privacy and security risks, though real, need to be addressed through IoT-specific legislation at this time." A spokeswoman for the agency said yesterday that the FTC generally does not comment on pending legislation.
"The proliferation of insecure Internet-connected devices presents an enormous security challenge," Bruce Schneier, fellow and lecturer at Harvard Kennedy School of Government, said in a press release announcing the legislation yesterday. "The risks are no longer solely about data; they affect flesh and steel."
https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2017/08/02/stories/1060058249
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Senate Bill Provides $60 Billion for Transportation, Urban Development
Aug 2, 2017 | Transportation Today
By Melina Druga
The fiscal year 2018 Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, advanced by the Senate Committee on Appropriations last week, provides $60 billion for the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) and related agencies.
Funding is $2.4 billion higher than fiscal year 2017.
“This bipartisan bill is the product of considerable negotiation and compromise, and makes the necessary investments in our nation’s infrastructure, helps to meet the housing needs of the most vulnerable among us and provides funding for economic development projects that create jobs in our communities,” Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) said. “Our bill strikes the right balance between thoughtful investment and fiscal restraint, thereby setting the stage for future economic growth.”
The bill provides $19.47 billion for the DOT.
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration will receive $908.6 million, the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration will receive $744.8 million, and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration will receive $272 million.
The Maritime Administration will receive $577.6 million.
The Highway Trust Fund will receive $45 billion.
The Federal Aviation Administration will be given $16.97 billion, while FAA Next Generation Air Transportation Systems will receive $1.1 billion.
The Federal Railroad Administration will receive $1.974 billion.
https://transportationtodaynews.com/news/4718-senate-bill-provides-60-billion-transportation-urban-development/
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Court Lets States Intervene in Ozone Fight in Setback for EPA
Aug 2, 2017 | E&E Greenwire
By Sean Reilly
Dealing a blow to the Trump administration and business groups, a federal appeals court will allow California and a half-dozen other states to intervene in litigation to defend U.S. EPA's 2015 ground-level ozone standard.
A three-judge panel on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit granted the states' motion without comment in a one-page order released this morning.
The seven Democratic-led states and the District of Columbia had made the request early last month, citing fears that EPA will no longer forcefully defend the 70-parts-per-billion threshold, which was set under the Obama administration.
Business trade organizations and some Republican-led states are suing to overturn the standard on the grounds that it is unjustifiably strict. At EPA's urging, however, proceedings in the consolidated litigation have been on hold since April while the agency considers whether to change course.
Further alarming backers of the tighter limit was EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's decision in June to postpone implementation of the standard by a year. Intervention was "the only way" to protect their interests, California and the other states said in making the request (Greenwire, July 7).
Opposing their bid were EPA and the business groups, which argued respectively that the states lacked legal standing to intervene and that the intervention request came too late (Greenwire, July 19).
Besides California, the states include Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington. Yesterday, joined by eight other states, they also filed suit to block Pruitt's decision to delay implementation of the 2015 standard (E&E News PM, Aug. 1).
Ozone, the prime ingredient in smog, is linked to asthma attacks in children and added breathing difficulties for people suffering from emphysema and other chronic respiratory illnesses.
The previous standard, set in 2008, had been 75 ppb. Then-EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy tightened it to 70 ppb in October 2015, citing the Clean Air Act's requirement to protect public health based on updated research into ozone's effects.
https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2017/08/02/stories/1060058293
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How Trump Is Fueling Jerry Brown's Climate Change Push in California
Aug 2, 2017 | The Washington Post
By Chris Mooney
When President Trump withdrew the United States from the Paris climate agreement, it stunned the world. But it also had a less predictable effect: turning California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) into Trump’s antithesis and furthering his own climate-crusading agenda.
Or so Brown claims. “If anything, the Trump imperative going in the opposite direction is a stimulus,” Brown said in a recent interview with The Washington Post’s David Bruns. “It’s a goad, it’s a pressure. … In a way, it’s a rising of or raising of awareness that’s actually making my agenda stronger and more resonant with the people of California.”
Known as “Governor Moonbeam,” in part because of his passion for space exploration during his first two terms as governor in the 1970s, Brown has been an environmentalist and science aficionado for decades. He ran unsuccessfully for resident in 1980 with the slogan, “Protect the Earth, serve the people, explore the universe.”
During Brown’s more recent two terms, California has been a powerhouse in promoting the spread of electric cars and renewable energy, and the state recently extended its ambitious cap-and-trade program.
Brown has also been involved in promoting the Under2 Coalition, an alliance of cities and states around the world committed to cutting their greenhouse gas emissions to help keep the climate’s warming below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit).
Shortly after Trump’s election, amid fears about cuts to scientific research, Brown’s comment that “if Trump turns off the satellites, California will launch its own damn satellite” reverberated in climate and scientific circles.
Following Trump’s Paris climate deal withdrawal, Brown took a five day trip to China to promote clean energy and climate action, meeting President Xi Jinping, and also launched (with several other state and city leaders) the U.S. Climate Alliance, which is a way of staying committed to the Paris deal through the actions of U.S. state and local actors. Next up: A global summit in California next year to focus on climate change.
In his interview with The Post, Brown argued there was more interest now in climate change because of Trump’s actions.
“The fact that Trump is the null hypothesis, he’s saying there is no climate change, it’s a hoax,” said Brown. “So that sets up an antinomy, a contradiction. And because of that what California is doing is more salient. People are paying attention. People are more concerned because now they see, oh what Trump is saying – that’s not right.”
And he insisted that climate change was a serious danger.
“There are scientists who predicted that humanity will have a very hard time being around after the 21st century because not just of climate change but nuclear and other kinds of technologies that could get out of hand,” he said. “If we lack the morality, the wisdom and the collective self-restraint to manage what is becoming the aggregation of the most unimaginable power that any species has ever possessed.”
He depicted the decarbonization of the world economy as one of the greatest economic and technological challenges of our time.
“We’re going to radically transform the very basis of who and what we are,” he said. “That’s big. That’s what you say we’re facing a wall of inertia and to overcome that step by step takes clarity takes science takes technology and takes enlightened leadership and the ability and willingness of people to follow and to do what they have to do.”
With Trump’s Paris climate pact withdrawal, China and other countries are now poised to lead that transformation, rather than the United States, Brown said.
“America is fiddling around now,” said Brown. “It’s goofing off in many respects and the people in Washington are taking almost a perverse pleasure in roasting Trump through these inquiries. But at the end of the day America has to have a president. And America has to have a focus and that same level of determination that the Chinese are exhibiting.”
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/08/02/how-trump-is-fueling-jerry-browns-climate-change-push-in-california/?utm_term=.af5d70321ca3
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