[TheClimate.Vote] February 25, 2021 - Daily Global Warming News Digest

[Richard Pauli]

/*February 25, 2021*/

[controversial confirmation hearings]
*The Oil and Gas Money Behind the Republicans Who Will Help Decide Deb 
Haaland's Fate*
Brian Kahn - Feb 24, 2021

Rep. Deb Haaland just finished a historic confirmation hearing to run 
the Department of Interior. If her nomination is pushed through 
committee, she will in all likelihood be confirmed as the first 
Indigenous person to ever serve on a presidential cabinet.

If confirmed, Haaland would be in charge of more than 500 million acres 
of federal land. There are a variety of things the secretary of the 
interior oversees, including national parks, recreation, wilderness 
areas, wildfire management, and more. All valid areas for senators on 
the Energy and Natural Resources committee to ask Haaland about. If 
she’s appointed, it would also open the door to repairing centuries of 
injustices done to tribes and the dispossession of their lands and 
neglect of services provided through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. 
Understanding her views on how to fix multiple broken systems serving 
Indigenous communities is also crucial.

The Department of Interior also oversees federal oil and gas drilling 
leases. And it certainly stands to reason that her hearing would at 
least, in part, focus on it. But Republicans have obsessed over oil and 
gas drilling and pipelines in their lines of questioning, all but 
ignoring the other aspects of the role.

Among the questions they’ve asked is one from Sen. John Barrasso, the 
ranking chairman on the committee, about Haaland’s support during her 
2018 campaign for the House end oil and gas production and make up for 
lost royalty revenue by legalizing weed, creating a one-two boogeyman 
punch. (For the record, both winding down fossil fuel extraction and 
legalizing cannabis are both very popular, according to Data for 
Progress polling.) Then there’s Sen. John Hoeve, who asked why Haaland 
would go to Standing Rock to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline. (For 
the record, tribal leaders weren’t properly consulted nor did they 
consent to the pipeline, which was one of the key points of contention 
that gave rise to the protest.) Sen. Bill Cassidy, who referred to the 
Biden administration’s “politically driven, non-science agenda” of 
putting a temporary halt of oil and gas leasing. (For the record, oil 
and gas extraction is scientifically incompatible with a habitable planet.)

Many Republicans also invoked oil and gas workers and communities near 
extraction sites that provide services. Which is fair—we should be 
talking with those communities and workers about how to preserve their 
livelihoods and the planet. But there’s another important constituency 
Republicans members of the committee have assiduously failed to mention: 
The Big Oil donors who have pitched in millions to committee members’ 
campaigns. Campaign finance data from Open Secrets shows the committee 
received a collective $4.6 million in oil and gas money in the 2020 
election cycle, and 87% of that money has flowed to Republicans.

Campaign finance data from Open Secrets showing who took money from oil 
and gas donors. Democrats are in blue, Republicans are in red.
https://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/c_fit,f_auto,g_center,pg_1,q_60,w_965/x9i3jhyzye9mm8jbctq0.png 


Barrasso, the anti-weed, pro-drilling ranking member, received $584,487. 
Sen. Steve Daines, who has said in a press release ahead of the hearing 
that he was “deeply concerned” about Haaland’s “radical views,” raked in 
$631,551 for the 2020 election cycle. (For comparison, Daines praised 
Trump’s nominees—an oil state representative and a fossil fuel 
lobbyist—about how tribes would be lucky to have them, but didn’t ask a 
single question or offer any praise for what Haaland would mean for 
tribes despite being a member of the Laguna Pueblo.) Cassidy pulled in 
$592,327 from the industry. You can get the gist in the graph above 
(which doesn’t include Democratic Sen. John Hickenlooper due to data not 
being immediately available).

Research shows that oil and gas donors give to politicians who do their 
bidding. And it appears they’re getting their money’s worth in this 
hearing. Republicans on the committee have collectively received more 
than $4 million from the industry and have spent their question time 
largely pushing unfounded claims and red herrings. Democrats and the two 
Independents who caucus with them on the committee have received 
$587,122 from the industry. Most of that ($200,445 to be exact) went to 
West Virginia’s Sen. Joe Manchin, the chairman and Democrat most likely 
to hold up Haaland’s nomination based on his public statements. 
Ironically, though, Haaland’s nomination could also hinge on the vote of 
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, the biggest oil and gas recipient on the list who 
also has strong ties to the Alaska Native community.

As Haaland’s hearing wraps up, we’ll have to wait to see how the 
committee votes on her nomination. But no matter how many Republicans 
invoke workers in their reasons against (or possibly for) voting to 
advance Haaland’s nomination to the Senate floor, it’s important to keep 
in mind the subtext of who they’re actually beholden to.
https://earther.gizmodo.com/the-oil-and-gas-money-behind-the-republicans-who-will-h-1846345607


[John Kerry]
*Biden’s Climate Envoy, at U.N., Likens Global Inaction to a ‘Suicide Pact’*
John Kerry’s remarks stood in sharp contrast to the American stance 
under the previous administration, which tried to block even general 
mentions of global warming at the world body.
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/23/climate/john-kerry-united-nations.html



[Serious studies of the future -- Upcoming Webinars]
*The International Committee on New Integrated Climate Change Assessment 
Scenarios* (ICONICS) is starting a series of webinars to discuss recent 
work on the Climate Change Scenarios Framework.

The first webinar will take place on Monday 22 February 2021, at 15:00 
CET / 9:00 EST. We will kick the series off with a tutorial on the SSPs 
and RCPs followed by a Q&A session with Kristie Ebi (UW), Brian O’Neill 
(JCGRI), and Bas van Ruijven (IIASA). Participants will learn about the 
SSP-RCP scenario framework and the matrix architecture, SSP regional and 
sectoral extensions and available resources for learning about and 
working with the SSPs.
The second webinar is scheduled for 6 April (15:00 CET / 9:00 EST), and 
will discuss achievements and plans forward for the SSPs and RCPs based 
on the Achievements and Needs of the Scenarios Framework.  We hope to 
see many of you in the upcoming webinars!
You can register for the webinar here.
ICONICS aims to organize the process of developing new socioeconomic 
scenarios to facilitate interdisciplinary research and assessment on 
climate change mitigation and adaptation.

Mission
The International Committee On New Integrated Climate change assessment 
Scenarios (ICONICS) develops, facilitates, and promotes the use of 
socioeconomic development pathways to support interdisciplinary research 
and assessment of climate change-related risks, and to support 
exploration of the effectiveness of adaptation and mitigation policies 
and actions across spatial and temporal scales to reduce those risks 
within the context of the Sustainable Development Goals.

ICONICS facilitates this mission through:

Vertical integration: developing and applying integrative, cross-scale, 
and cross-sectoral scenarios;
Horizontal integration: fostering interaction across scientific 
disciplines engaged in climate change research to develop, apply, and 
evaluate integrated scenarios bridging climate change, projected risks, 
adaptation, and mitigation; and
Broadening the scope: promoting adaptation and mitigation research to 
support achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
https://depts.washington.edu/iconics/

- -

[discussion across 4 videos]
*CONICS - Inaugural webinar - Tutorial 1 - SSP/RCP framework**
*Feb 22, 2021
ICONICS SSP
Brian O'Neill (JCGRI) presents the SSPs and RCP framework in the first 
tutorial of the inaugural ICONICS webinar held on 22 February 2021.
https://youtu.be/Dy6MRDHytKM



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - February 25, 2005 *

In a piece on state-level efforts to address carbon pollution, the 
Boston Phoenix's Deirdre Fulton notes:

"Though the United States accounts for almost 25 percent — more than any 
other single country — of the world’s global-warming emissions, 
advocates say there’s been little federal action on this issue since at 
least 2001. That’s when George W. Bush, echoing concerns that had also 
been voiced by his predecessor Bill Clinton, opted out of Kyoto, citing 
national economic concerns and calling on developing nations to commit 
to greater sacrifices than they do under the current agreement. No 
wonder China, India, Mexico, and Brazil signed on, say US and Australian 
leaders. They have much less to lose as more stringent emissions 
regulations go into effect for other nations worldwide.

"The US position may or may not be fair, but we do know this much: it 
doesn’t move us very far toward addressing the looming problem of global 
warming. And that makes regional and state-level efforts all the more 
important."

http://web.archive.org/web/20050315235150/http://www.bostonphoenix.com/boston/news_features/other_stories/multi_3/documents/04495072.asp


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