Thank you, Bill for this report. 2026 will be a gubernatorial election in California - no more Gavin Newsom, thank goodness. We'll have to really question his successor to make sure he/she is on track with us residents instead of in bed with the lobbyists. Newsom these past years us like a fish out of water, flip flopping all over the place. He is going to house the homeless - then when a law is passed he vetoes it or worse changes how it is funded. We need a Tim Walz for California.
The Democratic Convention: Not a single word about how you and I as Americans are paying for and providing the bombs to kill over 40,000 Palestinians — over half of them children and the elderly...while Kamala talked of ceasefire and a two- state solution America continues to arm the genocide...Israel does not want there to be a two-state solution and America only really cares about Imperialism-militarism-might is right-rhetoric about freedom is as big a lie as Trump ever told. Palestinians are a disposable people of no interest to American imperialism.
Excellent info. Follow their gas mileage tips (also applies to EVs) to get 10-40% reduction in fuel costs and a reduction in carbon pollution. Very helpful site for drivers of any type of vehicle.
For an extended discussion of the WBT implications of global rapid heating, see climate scientist Bill McGuire's Cool Earth substack essay on the topic that came out August 21st- eye-opening and scary.
The big 5 NYC banks have $1.35 trillion of equity market value with 10 year appreciation of 162 % on average. Remember in the financial crisis when UST Secretary Paulson waved a magic wand over AIG's defaulted credit default swaps…magically preserving the book value of biggest counterparty Goldman Sachs? And there was plenty more bailout dollars to the other 4. From equity values damn near zero 15 years ago to $1.35tn today is not chump change.
These banks owe society something, right? The Harris UST head could asks for something easy.
While at EDF, I tried to get the banks to sign on to principals for a carbon market with apublic attributes around transparency and limited OTC derivatives (non-transparent and very lucrative). But no agreement could be reached because Commodity heads rejected limiting OTC derivatives. And this was when USCAP, a group of mega-cap industrials and oils actually ASKED for economy-wide cap & trade!
In my Waxman-Market testimony I suggested such a public interest type carbon market, including a transparent electronic CLOB for Carbon (central limit order book). But after the budget resolutions-passed Obamacare, the bill only passed the House but failed in Senate.
My suggestion is this: can the Harris UST head (+EPA + DOE) call in the big banks and arm-twist their CEOs into designing a fair & efficient carbon market - AND using their earnings models to run scenarios showing the effect on impacted companies (including changes in plant capacity and employment.). Thhis modeling (made available to the public) might be done with MIT and their EPPA model and/or other such groups. They could also help form another US CAP group…as a coalition of the willing.
Steadily increasing carbon prices are easier than command & control, including congestion pricing or telling building owners (who largely control building codes) what to build. And the least the Banks can do is develop and analyze a plan. They owe us!
Hochul seems to be a democrat in name only. At least that's how I see her. I live in NY state, about a half hour west of Albany. As my father always said, "Talk is cheap". Very few of the deadlines that would move us in the right direction ecologically, are being met. Not just in NY. Everywhere. I think people forget how fast time actually moves. So if there's a 10-year goal . . . and nothing happens for the first 7, that goal will not be met. As I see it, there are numerous issues that impact whether such goals, whatever they may be, will actually be taken seriously and enacted. Obviously there's the big bucks of the fossil fuel industry and other industries that benefit economically from the status quo. Also there are so many things that need money and there simply is not the political will to finance these needs. Among them seriously crumbling and failing infrastructure. This is especially true with regard to expanding our use of electricity for things like heat and cars and such. Because . . . storms and power outages that last for days or even weeks. It doesn't take an expert to understand what will happen to millions of people in winter in the northeast when power is out for days and everyone is relying on electricity for literally everything. It will not work.
I don't know what to do about politicians who buckle under pressure and don't do what they said they would or what they should do.
We need watershed councils, local/regional solutions with mucho input and buy-in from local people for the kinds of shifts necessary. I take every political "promise" including agreed upon targets for compliance with lots of grains of salt. Eventually enough crap will hit the fan and people, in local communities, will have to be the ones to act. Much like is happening in Vermont now, in the wake of two major floods in one summer. The pictures of places I used to live, where I still have friends and family, are devastating. Millions of dollars the town does not have. Neither does the state, and FEMA is out of money. So there's that.
Also I think it's important to remember that not everything that we think is cleaner or green really is. We may put more electric cars on the road, but at what cost to indigenous people and people who live on the land in countries being mined for the needed materials? And the massive water usage required when people are already subsisting and water levels are dropping must be part of the equation. The same with regard to large scale renewables like hydro from Hydro Quebec and that infamous power line being forced down the throats of Mainers. There isn't enough focus on conservation and massively reducing consumption. Rather it seems policy makers want to keep doing what we're doing, just using different, supposedly cleaner, sources of energy. That will not solve anything.
Thank you, Bill for this report. 2026 will be a gubernatorial election in California - no more Gavin Newsom, thank goodness. We'll have to really question his successor to make sure he/she is on track with us residents instead of in bed with the lobbyists. Newsom these past years us like a fish out of water, flip flopping all over the place. He is going to house the homeless - then when a law is passed he vetoes it or worse changes how it is funded. We need a Tim Walz for California.
The Democratic Convention: Not a single word about how you and I as Americans are paying for and providing the bombs to kill over 40,000 Palestinians — over half of them children and the elderly...while Kamala talked of ceasefire and a two- state solution America continues to arm the genocide...Israel does not want there to be a two-state solution and America only really cares about Imperialism-militarism-might is right-rhetoric about freedom is as big a lie as Trump ever told. Palestinians are a disposable people of no interest to American imperialism.
whitewash the trainbeds, transitioning eventually to timbers pre-treated white & white rock
The Department of Energy updated its website! www.fueleconomy.gov
Excellent info. Follow their gas mileage tips (also applies to EVs) to get 10-40% reduction in fuel costs and a reduction in carbon pollution. Very helpful site for drivers of any type of vehicle.
For an extended discussion of the WBT implications of global rapid heating, see climate scientist Bill McGuire's Cool Earth substack essay on the topic that came out August 21st- eye-opening and scary.
The big 5 NYC banks have $1.35 trillion of equity market value with 10 year appreciation of 162 % on average. Remember in the financial crisis when UST Secretary Paulson waved a magic wand over AIG's defaulted credit default swaps…magically preserving the book value of biggest counterparty Goldman Sachs? And there was plenty more bailout dollars to the other 4. From equity values damn near zero 15 years ago to $1.35tn today is not chump change.
These banks owe society something, right? The Harris UST head could asks for something easy.
While at EDF, I tried to get the banks to sign on to principals for a carbon market with apublic attributes around transparency and limited OTC derivatives (non-transparent and very lucrative). But no agreement could be reached because Commodity heads rejected limiting OTC derivatives. And this was when USCAP, a group of mega-cap industrials and oils actually ASKED for economy-wide cap & trade!
In my Waxman-Market testimony I suggested such a public interest type carbon market, including a transparent electronic CLOB for Carbon (central limit order book). But after the budget resolutions-passed Obamacare, the bill only passed the House but failed in Senate.
My suggestion is this: can the Harris UST head (+EPA + DOE) call in the big banks and arm-twist their CEOs into designing a fair & efficient carbon market - AND using their earnings models to run scenarios showing the effect on impacted companies (including changes in plant capacity and employment.). Thhis modeling (made available to the public) might be done with MIT and their EPPA model and/or other such groups. They could also help form another US CAP group…as a coalition of the willing.
Steadily increasing carbon prices are easier than command & control, including congestion pricing or telling building owners (who largely control building codes) what to build. And the least the Banks can do is develop and analyze a plan. They owe us!
Another great report from McKibben. The rail expansion getting worse is troubling. I wonder how high speed rail is dealing with that.
Hochul seems to be a democrat in name only. At least that's how I see her. I live in NY state, about a half hour west of Albany. As my father always said, "Talk is cheap". Very few of the deadlines that would move us in the right direction ecologically, are being met. Not just in NY. Everywhere. I think people forget how fast time actually moves. So if there's a 10-year goal . . . and nothing happens for the first 7, that goal will not be met. As I see it, there are numerous issues that impact whether such goals, whatever they may be, will actually be taken seriously and enacted. Obviously there's the big bucks of the fossil fuel industry and other industries that benefit economically from the status quo. Also there are so many things that need money and there simply is not the political will to finance these needs. Among them seriously crumbling and failing infrastructure. This is especially true with regard to expanding our use of electricity for things like heat and cars and such. Because . . . storms and power outages that last for days or even weeks. It doesn't take an expert to understand what will happen to millions of people in winter in the northeast when power is out for days and everyone is relying on electricity for literally everything. It will not work.
I don't know what to do about politicians who buckle under pressure and don't do what they said they would or what they should do.
We need watershed councils, local/regional solutions with mucho input and buy-in from local people for the kinds of shifts necessary. I take every political "promise" including agreed upon targets for compliance with lots of grains of salt. Eventually enough crap will hit the fan and people, in local communities, will have to be the ones to act. Much like is happening in Vermont now, in the wake of two major floods in one summer. The pictures of places I used to live, where I still have friends and family, are devastating. Millions of dollars the town does not have. Neither does the state, and FEMA is out of money. So there's that.
Also I think it's important to remember that not everything that we think is cleaner or green really is. We may put more electric cars on the road, but at what cost to indigenous people and people who live on the land in countries being mined for the needed materials? And the massive water usage required when people are already subsisting and water levels are dropping must be part of the equation. The same with regard to large scale renewables like hydro from Hydro Quebec and that infamous power line being forced down the throats of Mainers. There isn't enough focus on conservation and massively reducing consumption. Rather it seems policy makers want to keep doing what we're doing, just using different, supposedly cleaner, sources of energy. That will not solve anything.
Do you kknow if there will be a "climate" zoom for Kamala?
there was one already https://x.com/leahstokes/status/1816664156512407825. it was really great--Leah Stokes organized
If by "sparkling" you mean wholly devoid of substantive policy content.