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☆ Trump’s Violent Language Toward EVs
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-18 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

He has long claimed electric cars will “kill” America’s auto industry. He has declared that the Biden administration “ordered a hit job on Michigan manufacturing” by encouraging the sales of electric cars. Now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a blood bath for the whole. That’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a blood bath for the country, that’s going to be the least of it.

Persons: Donald J, Trump, ”, Biden, “, don’t, they’re Locations: Michigan, Mexico, United States

☆ John Kerry Bows Out as U.S. Climate Envoy
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-13 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

John Kerry, President Biden’s special envoy for climate, plans to step down from the Biden administration by spring, according to two people familiar with his plans. Mr. Kerry, 80, has served as the president’s top diplomat on climate change since early 2021, working to cajole governments around the world to aggressively cut their planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. He led the U.S. negotiating team through three United Nations climate summits, reasserting American leadership after the country withdrew from the Paris climate agreement during the Trump administration. Mr. Kerry championed cooperation on global warming between the United States and China, the world’s two largest polluters, during times of tension.

Persons: John Kerry, Biden’s, Biden, Kerry, Trump Organizations: U.S Locations: Nations, Paris, United States, China

When there’s a global crisis, wealthy countries tend to find money. That was the case in the United States when big banks were bailed out to soften a global financial crisis. But the climate crisis? This weekend, Vice President Kamala Harris visited the United Nations climate summit in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and promised $3 billion for the Green Climate Fund, which benefits poorer nations. One of the big tests facing this summit, known as COP28, is whether it will fare any better than earlier climate talks at shoring up anything close to the money that’s needed.

Persons: Kamala Harris, John Kerry, Biden’s Organizations: United Arab, Green Climate Fund, Biden, Walmart, Pepsi, McDonalds Locations: United States, Ukraine, United Nations, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

☆ Climate Summit Leader Tries to Calm Uproar Over a Remark on Fossil Fuels
▼ + stars: | 2023-12-04 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Simmering tensions around the decision to hold a global climate summit in a petrostate burst into the open on Monday when Sultan Al Jaber, the Emirati oil executive who is leading the conference, launched into an angry public defense of his position on ending fossil fuel use. Mr. Al Jaber, who runs the state-owned oil company, Adnoc, was under fire for a video that surfaced in which he said there is “no science” behind the idea that fossil fuels must be phased out in order to keep average global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius over preindustrial levels. That’s the threshold beyond which scientists say humans would struggle to adapt to increasingly severe storms, drought, heat and rising sea levels caused by global warming. Climate experts convened by the United Nations have said that nations must cut the emissions from fossil fuels by 43 percent by the end of this decade, compared to 2019 levels, if the world has any hope of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Persons: Sultan Al Jaber, Al Jaber Organizations: United Nations

The United States will, for the first time, require oil and gas producers to detect and fix leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas that wafts into the atmosphere from pipelines, drill sites and storage facilities and dangerously speeds the rate of global warming. Michael S. Regan, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, announced the regulation in Dubai, where diplomats from nearly 200 nations have gathered for a two-week United Nations climate summit. Methane is not as widely discussed as the carbon dioxide that results from burning fossil fuels, but it has become a rare area of progress this week at the global talks. Vice President Kamala Harris, the top-ranking American official to visit the summit, was expected on Saturday to highlight the new rule in a speech to delegates. She was also set to announce several other new climate policy initiatives from the administration.

Persons: Michael S, Regan, Kamala Harris Organizations: Environmental Protection Agency Locations: States, Dubai, Nations, Brazil, Kenya, India, United States

President Biden signed the country’s first major climate law and is overseeing record federal investment in clean energy. In each of the past two years, he attended the annual United Nations climate summit, asserting American leadership in the fight against global warming. But this year, likely to be the hottest in recorded history, Mr. Biden is staying home. At the same time, climate activists, particularly the young voters who helped elect Mr. Biden, want the president to shut down drilling altogether. Internationally, developing countries are pushing Mr. Biden to deliver on promises for billions of dollars to help cope with climate change.

Persons: Biden, centrists, Mr Organizations: White House, Russia, Republican Locations: United Nations, Dubai, Israel, Ukraine, United States

President Biden will not attend a major United Nations climate summit that begins Thursday in Dubai, skipping an event expected to be attended by King Charles III, Pope Francis and leaders from nearly 200 countries, a White House official said Sunday. The official, who asked to remain anonymous to discuss the president’s schedule, did not give a reason Mr. Biden will not make an appearance at the two-week summit, known as COP28. But senior White House aides suggested that the war between Israel and Hamas had consumed the president in recent weeks and days, as he pressed for a pause in fighting and release of hostages held by Hamas. “They’ve got the war in the Middle East and a war in Ukraine, a bunch of things going on,” John Kerry, Mr. Biden’s special envoy for climate change, said last week. Mr. Kerry and his team will be in Dubai.

Persons: Biden, King Charles III, Pope Francis, “ They’ve, ” John Kerry, Biden’s, Kerry Organizations: White Locations: United Nations, Dubai, Israel, Ukraine

President Biden on Sunday hailed the release of Avigail Idan, a 4-year-old American citizen who has been held hostage by Hamas for seven weeks, and vowed to keep working to secure freedom for others in captivity and extend the pause in the fighting. “Thank God she’s home,” Mr. Biden told reporters in Nantucket, Mass., where he has been marking the Thanksgiving holiday. Her case has been the focus of widespread international attention and concern as she marked her fourth birthday on Friday. “More is needed but this deal is delivering lifesaving results,” Mr. Biden said. This deal is structured so that it can be extended to keep building on these results.

Persons: Biden, Avigail, God she’s, ” Mr, “, ” Avigail, Abigail, ” Organizations: Sunday Locations: Nantucket, Israel, Gaza

☆ Biden Signs Spending Bill, Staving Off a Government Shutdown
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

President Biden signed a short-term government funding bill on Thursday, narrowly averting a government shutdown but leaving a larger spending clash for Congress early next year. The Senate gave final approval to the package late Wednesday, about 48 hours before a shutdown deadline at midnight Friday. The vote in the Senate was 87 to 11, with 10 Republicans and one Democrat, Michael Bennet of Colorado, opposing the bill. It was approved by the House on Tuesday with near-unanimous support from Democrats and nearly half of House Republicans opposing it. The spending plan does not include additional aid for Israel or Ukraine.

Persons: Biden, Michael Bennet of Colorado Organizations: Congress, Energy Department, Jan, Republicans Locations: Israel, Ukraine, San Francisco, Pacific

☆ U.S. and China Agree to Displace Fossil Fuels by Ramping Up Renewables
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-14 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The United States and China, the world’s two largest climate polluters, have agreed to jointly tackle global warming by ramping up wind, solar and other renewable energy with the goal of displacing fossil fuels, the State Department said Tuesday. The announcement comes as President Biden prepares to meet Wednesday with President Xi Jinping of China for their first face-to-face discussion in a year. The statements of cooperation released separately by the United States and China do not include a promise by China to phase out its heavy use of coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, or to stop permitting and building new coal plants. That has been a sticking point for the United States in months of discussions with Beijing on climate change. That appears to be the first time China has agreed to cut emissions in any part of its economy.

Persons: Biden, Xi Jinping Organizations: State Department, Hamas Locations: States, China, Taiwan, Ukraine, Israel, United States, Beijing

Mr. Biden made history with his visit when he became the first president to appear on a picket line to support the striking workers. When word came down that the union had struck a deal with the automakers, Mr. Biden stepped away during a state dinner welcoming the Australian prime minister and called the U.A.W. “The union situation is a win for Biden,” said Barry Rabe, a professor of public policy at the University of Michigan. Mr. Fain has yet to give Mr. Biden the U.A.W.’s endorsement, but he has also outlined ambitious goals that would be much harder to achieve if Mr. Trump returned to the White House. And while Mr. Biden visited picketing workers and voiced support for their strike, Mr. Trump visited a nonunion plant in Michigan and said union members “were being sold down the river by their leadership.”

Persons: Biden, Trump, Shawn Fain, “, ”, Barry Rabe, Fain, ’, Trump’s Organizations: Democratic, Biden, University of Michigan, National Labor Relations Board Locations: autoworkers, Michigan

☆ Reoccupying Gaza ‘Not the Right Thing to Do,’ White House Tells Israel
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-07 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The White House cautioned Israel on Tuesday against reoccupying Gaza after Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu suggested that his country could hold a security role there “for an indefinite period” once the war is over. “We’re having active discussions with our Israeli counterparts about what post-conflict Gaza looks like,” John Kirby, the White House national security spokesman, told reporters. Mr. Netanyahu, in an interview with ABC News, did not say who should govern the enclave after Hamas, which now controls it, is gone. President Biden previously said that it would be “a big mistake” for Israel to reoccupy Gaza, from which it withdrew in 2005. A post-conflict Gaza, Mr. Biden has said, “can’t be Hamas,” an organization whose founding covenant embraces “killing the Jews” and wiping out Israel.

Persons: Israel, Benjamin Netanyahu, “ We’re, ” John Kirby, Netanyahu, Mr, “, Biden, “ can’t, ” Organizations: White, reoccupying Gaza, White House, Mr, ABC News, United, European Union Locations: Gaza, Israel, United States

President Biden, perhaps Amtrak’s most famous advocate, announced $16.4 billion in funding for rail projects on Monday, exhibiting a business-as-usual approach as polls show him trailing former President Donald J. Trump one year before Election Day. Speaking at a maintenance warehouse where Amtrak trains are serviced in Bear, Del., Mr. Biden made no mention of the polling from The New York Times and Siena College polls. Instead, he offered familiar anecdotes about his days as a senator, when a conductor named Angelo would call him “Joey, baby!” and squeeze his cheeks as he made the 90-minute ride between Washington and his home in Wilmington, Del. Mr. Biden also promoted the $1 trillion infrastructure law he signed into law two years ago, which included $66 billion for investments in rail systems.

Persons: Biden, Donald J, Trump, Angelo, “ Joey Organizations: Amtrak, The New York Times, Siena College Locations: Bear, Washington, Wilmington, Del

China is installing about as many solar panels and wind turbines as the rest of the world combined, and is on track to meet its target for clean energy six years early. It is using renewables to meet nearly all of the growth in its electricity needs. Yet there is another side to that rapid expansion, one that is causing consternation in Washington at a critical period of climate diplomacy: China is also building new power plants that burn coal, the dirtiest of the fossil fuels, at a pace that dwarfs the rest of the world. China accounts for a third of the world’s energy-related greenhouse gas emissions — more than North America, Central America, South America, Europe and Africa combined. President Barack Obama and Xi Jinping, China’s leader, began a joint push for climate action a decade ago at Sunnylands.

Persons: John Kerry, Biden’s, Xie Zhenhua, Barack Obama, Xi Locations: China, Washington, North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Southern California

☆ Biden to Travel to Minnesota to Highlight Rural Investments
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-01 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The White House on Wednesday will announce more than $5 billion in funding for agriculture, broadband and clean energy needs in sparsely populated parts of the country as President Biden travels to Minnesota to kick off an administration-wide tour of rural communities. But the president and his aides are well aware that his hopes for a second term are likely to be determined closer to home. Rural voters like the ones he will address at a corn, soybean and hog farm south of Minneapolis are increasingly voting Republican. A recent poll showed that most voters had heard little or nothing about a health care and clean energy law that is the cornerstone of Mr. Biden’s economic agenda. And the president even faces a challenge within his own party, from Representative Dean Phillips of Minnesota, who announced his long-shot presidential bid last week.

Persons: Biden, Dean Phillips Organizations: Republican, Dean Phillips of Locations: Minnesota, Israel, Gaza, Ukraine, Minneapolis, Dean Phillips of Minnesota

☆ New House Speaker Champions Fossil Fuels and Dismisses Climate Concerns
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-26 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Representative Mike Johnson of Louisiana, the newly elected House speaker, has questioned climate science, opposed clean energy and received more campaign contributions from oil and gas companies than from any other industry last year. Even as other Republican lawmakers increasingly accept the overwhelming scientific consensus that human activity is dangerously heating the planet, the unanimous election of Mr. Johnson on Wednesday suggests that his views may not be out of step with the rest of his party. Indeed, surveys show that climate science has been politicized in the United States to an extent not experienced in most other countries. A Pew Research Center survey released Tuesday found that a vast majority of Democrats polled — 85 percent — said that climate change is an extremely or very serious problem, while 47 percent of Republicans viewed climate change as not too serious or not a problem at all. “It should concern us all that someone with such extreme views and so beholden to the fossil fuel industry has such power and influence during a time when bold action is more critical than ever,” said Ben Jealous, the executive director of the Sierra Club, an environment group.

Persons: Mike Johnson of, Johnson, —, ”, Ben Jealous Organizations: Pew Research Center, Sierra Club Locations: Mike Johnson of Louisiana, United States

☆ Biden Said He Would Stop Drilling. Then Reality Hit.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-28 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Tens of thousands of climate protesters who filled Midtown Manhattan last week directed their anger at President Biden, who has done more to combat climate change than any of his predecessors. But in their view, he has failed in one important way: Mr. Biden has not stopped oil and gas drilling on public lands and in federal waters, as he pledged as a candidate in 2020. Mr. Biden’s promise of “no new drilling, period,” began to dissolve just months after he took office as he confronted a hard reality: The executive may oversee millions of acres of federal property but Congress and the courts can have the final say. “There’s a delicate dance here,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia University. “There’s a gap between what some advocates want the president to do, and what he can actually do, especially given a conservative Supreme Court, a hostile House of Representatives and a divided Senate.”

Persons: Biden, Biden’s, ”, Michael Gerrard, “ Organizations: Sabin, Climate, Columbia University, Court Locations: Midtown Manhattan

☆ Stopping Tennis to Call Attention to Climate Change
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The environmental activists who delayed the U.S. Open semifinal Thursday night by staging protests in Arthur Ashe Stadium join a long line of high-profile public disruptions aimed at drawing attention to the existential threat posed by climate change. Activists have staged what many call “guerrilla protests” across the United States and Europe. The provocative actions have included throwing mashed potatoes at a glass-protected Monet painting in Germany and tossing liquids or gluing themselves to the glass or frames enclosing other iconic works like Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl With a Pearl Earring” and Van Gogh’s “Sunflowers.”While priceless art work has been a particularly attractive target, climate activists have also disrupted traffic in London and New York, blocked the entrance to this year’s White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner in Washington, interrupted supplies at oil facilities in Germany and clashed with police in France. And they upended a prior tennis match, on July 5, at Wimbledon. In that protest, three people stormed a court and scattered orange confetti on the famous grass before they were arrested.

Persons: Arthur Ashe, Monet, Johannes Vermeer’s, Van Organizations: U.S, Wimbledon Locations: United States, Europe, Germany, London, New York, Washington, France

☆ Biden Approved a Big Oil Project. Now, He’s Cracking Down on Drilling.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-07 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Over the past several months, the administration has moved to bar drilling on 1.8 million acres of sagebrush steppe in Wyoming and on more than a million acres of public land in Colorado. It insulated more than 336,400 acres of public land around Chaco Culture National Historical Park from new oil and gas leasing and mining claims for the next two decades. And last month, it said it would remove about six million acres of potentially oil-rich areas from an upcoming federal lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico that is required by law. The Bureau of Land Management also wants to change how it manages the 245 million acres under its control by allowing conservation leases, similar to the way the agency auctions off parcels for drilling and mining. Administration officials said the conservation efforts were not new and many of the drilling restrictions had been underway for months.

Persons: Biden’s Organizations: Chaco Culture, Interior Department, Land Management, Administration Locations: Wyoming, Colorado, Chaco, Gulf of Mexico

☆ Biden Administration to Bar Drilling on Millions of Acres in Alaska
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-06 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In its most aggressive move yet to protect federal land from oil and gas exploration, the Biden administration announced on Wednesday that it would prohibit drilling in 13 million acres of pristine wilderness in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska and cancel all drilling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The new regulations would ensure what the administration called “maximum protections” for nearly half of the petroleum reserve but would not stop the enormous $8 billion Willow oil drilling project in the same vicinity, which President Biden approved this year. Climate activists, particularly young environmentalists, were angered by Mr. Biden’s decision in March to allow the Willow project, calling it a “carbon bomb.” Many called the move a betrayal of Mr. Biden’s campaign promise of “no new drilling, period” on federal lands and waters. Since then, the administration has taken pains to emphasize its efforts to reduce the carbon emissions that result from burning oil and gas and that are driving climate change.

Persons: Biden, Mr, Biden’s Organizations: National Petroleum Reserve, Wildlife Locations: Alaska

☆ Offshore Wind Auction for the Gulf of Mexico Gets a Tepid Response
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-29 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The first auction of leases for wind farms in the Gulf of Mexico, which the Biden administration had heralded as part of its effort to expand clean energy, ended on Tuesday with just one of three available tracts sold. The lackluster bidding underscored a number of problems facing the offshore wind industry as companies struggle with soaring costs spurred by inflation, rising interest rates and permitting delays, energy experts said. The challenges pose a threat to President Biden’s climate agenda, which calls for building offshore wind farms to power 10 million homes by the end of this decade. Together, they have the potential to produce electricity to power almost 1.3 million homes, the agency said. There were no bids for the tracts off Galveston.

Persons: Biden Organizations: of Ocean Energy Management Locations: Gulf of Mexico, Lake Charles, La, Galveston , Texas, RWE, Germany, Galveston

☆ New Top Cop at the E.P.A. Aims to Get Enforcement Back on Track
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-17 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +2 min

And last month, the E.P.A. In his first interview since his July 20 confirmation, Mr. Uhlmann said he was intent on increasing the number of administrative actions as well as the criminal and civil cases that the E.P.A. brings for violations of environmental law. intends to announce enforcement priorities, with a new emphasis on greenhouse gas emissions. The agency said it would focus on making sure that oil and gas wells, landfills and other facilities did not leak methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.

Persons: Uhlmann, ” Organizations: University of Michigan Law School Locations: Louisiana, E.P.A, America, United States

Native tribes and environmental groups have long lobbied for the government to permanently protect the area around the Grand Canyon from uranium mining, which they say would damage the Colorado River watershed as well as areas with great cultural meaning for Native Americans. Under the proposed designation, all new uranium mining will be blocked. Uranium mining has already been restricted in the area in question since 2012, but that Obama-era moratorium was set to expire in 2032. Mr. Biden’s designation would make the conditions permanent. Surveys show young voters, who turned out in force during the 2020 election, are particularly concerned about global warming.

Persons: Obama, Biden’s, Biden Organizations: Washington Post, University of Maryland Locations: Colorado, Arizona

☆ A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-04 | by ( Lisa Friedman | More About Lisa Friedman | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

During a summer of scorching heat that has broken records and forced Americans to confront the reality of climate change, conservatives are laying the groundwork for a 2024 Republican administration that would dismantle efforts to slow global warming. The move is part of a sweeping strategy dubbed Project 2025 that Paul Dans of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank organizing the effort, has called a “battle plan” for the first 180 days of a future Republican presidency. The climate and energy provisions would be among the most severe swings away from current federal policies. The plan calls for shredding regulations to curb greenhouse gas pollution from cars, oil and gas wells and power plants, dismantling almost every clean energy program in the federal government and boosting the production of fossil fuels — the burning of which is the chief cause of planetary warming.

Persons: Paul Dans Organizations: Republican, Heritage Foundation

“From Day 1, President Biden has treated climate change with the urgency it requires,” Ms. Jean-Pierre said, pointing to measures like the Inflation Reduction Act, the most significant climate law in history. With research showing that recent heat waves in the United States and Europe would have been “virtually impossible” without the influence of man-made climate change, many climate experts said Mr. Biden needed to take a strong stand against new fossil fuels. Activists have long pushed Mr. Biden to do so, but the White House has expressed worries in the past about its authority to take such unilateral measures, fearing that they might be overturned in the courts. Instead, Ms. Jean-Pierre pointed to the ongoing benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, which Mr. Biden signed into law last year but whose funding will continue flowing for years to come. It contains nearly $370 billion in tax credits to spur wind and solar power and electric vehicle battery manufacturing in the United States and incentives for purchases of electric vehicles, induction stoves and electric heat pumps.

Persons: Biden, Ms, Jean, Pierre, Mr, ”, Jonathan Overpeck Organizations: School for Environment, Sustainability, University of Michigan, White Locations: United States, Europe

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