This week in climate change, GOP presumptive nominee Donald Trump faced criticism for a contradiction between his public facing climate change position and how he considers the issue from a business perspective.
The Trump International Golf Links and Hotel, located in Ireland, filed an application requesting approval of a two-mile long seawall to protect the course against “rising sea levels and increased storm frequency and wave energy associated with global warming.” The beach located in front of the 18th green is eroding at a rate of approximately one yard per year.
Trump’s campaign did not address the inconsistency in his energy speech, delivered Thursday in Bismark, ND. This speech marked the first time Trump has dedicated an entire appearance to discussing matters pertaining to energy and the environment, and while he didn’t announce any new positions, he provided a glimpse of what policies his Administration would pursue. To highlight the major points, in his own words, Trump would “cancel” the Paris Agreement, agreed to by 195 countries; “accomplish complete American energy independence” in part by renegotiating the Keystone XL pipeline; and “save the coal industry.”
“We’re going to have all sorts of energy, we’re going to have everything you can think of,” he promised, while describing wind and solar as “very, very expensive.”
While he continued to dismiss policies to address climate change, Trump declared, “we will work with conservationists whose only concern is protecting nature.”
A new look: ClimateEye Reimagined
Thank you to those who participated in our survey last week. For a year, ClimateEye has aggregated climate news from the race for the GOP presidential nomination. Since we started, the field has expanded and contracted, from a pinnacle of 17 candidates down to one man standing.
Moving forward toward the general election and beyond, ClimateEye will broaden its watch to include climate news made by a variety of conservative thought-leaders and elected officials at local, state and federal levels.
Our goal is not to report every time a lawmaker endorses or opposes the current Administration’s approach to climate change, but instead to report groundbreaking developments: for example, announcement of a conservative or group of conservatives committed to climate action; a robust discussion of climate change by newcomers to the issue; or a commitment to pursue free enterprise climate action by an unusual suspect.
News will be categorized in a format simple to interpret.
With this expanded focus, we are apt to miss the occasional nugget. In that regard, we rely on our eyes and ears in the field to send newsworthy items to our attention. See something? Say something. Send tips, articles, transcripts, or your own videos to ClimateEye, and we will see what we can do with the information.
Happy Memorial Weekend!