Trump Is ‘Not Considering’ A Carbon Tax

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

The White House is not considering a tax on carbon dioxide to fight global warming, according to an administration official.

“The Trump Administration is not considering a carbon tax,” the official told Axios shortly after Press Secretary Sean Spicer gave an ambiguous answer on the subject when asked by reporters at Tuesday’s press briefing.

“Part of the [National Economic Council’s] responsibility in coordinating economic policy for the President is to listen to a range of viewpoints on various issues,” the official told Axios.

Spicer dodged a similar question in February after reports came out that White House officials met with former Republican officials who pitched replacing federal regulations with a revenue-neutral carbon tax.

A small band of Republicans are pressuring lawmakers to publicly back a carbon tax to fight global warming. The Climate Leadership Council met with White House officials in February to pitch a carbon tax.

The Council’s Republicans include former Secretary of State James Baker, former Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and former cabinet official George Shultz. Their plan argues a revenue-neutral carbon tax shrinks “the overall size of government and streamlining the regulatory state.”

There’s just one problem for carbon tax backers: President Donald Trump promised during the campaign to not back a carbon tax.

Full story

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

March 22, 2017 at 02:40AM

Green Light For Shale Gas Test Drilling In Nottinghamshire

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

Gas has won approval for a new shale gas exploration project from Nottinghamshire County Council.

The firm, one of Britain’s leading shale explorers, has been granted planning consent to develop a hydrocarbon well site and to drill one exploratory well at the Tinker Lane site in North Nottinghamshire.

IGas, like other onshore operators around the country, is working to find out if the large quantities of shale that exist in Britain are in the right formations to be commercially prospective, said Stephen Bowler, chief executive of IGas.

“The UK is at a critical juncture in the future of our energy mix and supply as we move away from coal towards lower carbon energy sources. We rely significantly on gas in the UK, not just for electricity, but also in heating eight out of 10 homes and as a raw material in the manufacture of many everyday products.”

The council previously gave IGas permission to explore the site at Springs Road to test whether the shale rock was suitable for fracking.

Full story

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

March 22, 2017 at 02:40AM

Bad Weather Proves Climate Change, Says World Meteorological Organisation (WMO)

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF)
http://www.thegwpf.com

From the “A bit of bad weather proves climate change “ Dept.

An unbelievably crass piece from the failed Independent (and doubtlessly the BBC and the rest of the dismal MSM):

There is “no room for doubt”. The astonishing weather experienced by the world last year and advances in climate science demonstrate conclusively that fossil fuel emissions are causing global warming – and something must be done about it.

That was the reaction from scientist after scientist to a new report by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), which documented record-breaking droughts, heatwaves, rainfall, melting of sea ice and a host of tangible signs observed in 2016 that the Earth’s climate has changed.

Amid fears that Donald Trump will withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement on climate change, the Secretary-General of the WMO said it was “vital” to slash carbon emissions and prepare for increasingly dangerous weather.

Writing in the report’s foreword, Petteri Taalas said: “The influence of human activities on the climate system has become more and more evident.

“This influence is increasingly being demonstrated by attribution studies for some of the most critical weather and climate extremes, in particular extremes related to heat.

“It is vital that [the Paris Agreement’s] implementation becomes a reality and that [it] guides the global community in addressing climate change by curbing greenhouse gases, fostering climate resilience and mainstreaming climate adaptation into national development policies.” [….]

http://ift.tt/2ngbgvv 

The Independent’s readers are a pretty naive lot, but even some of them can see through this nonsense, judging by some of the comments.

Full post

via The Global Warming Policy Forum (GWPF) http://www.thegwpf.com

March 22, 2017 at 02:10AM

The World’s First State Of The Climate Survey Based on Observations Only

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT
http://ift.tt/16C5B6P

By Paul Homewood

London, 22 March: A report on the State of the Climate in 2016 which is based exclusively on observations rather than climate models is published today by the Global Warming Policy Foundation (GWPF). 

http://ift.tt/2n6N1hk

Compiled by Dr Ole Humlum, Professor of Physical Geography at the University Centre in Svalbard (Norway), the new climate survey is in sharp contrast to the habitual alarmism of other reports that are mainly based on computer modelling and climate predictions.

Among the key findings of the survey are:

** While 2016 was one of the warmest years on record, global temperatures dropped back at the end of the year to levels prior to the strong 2015/16 El Niño. This fact suggests that much of the global 2015–16 temperature peak was caused by a one of the strongest El Niños on record.

** Since 2003, the global temperature estimate based on surface station measurements has consistently drifted away from the satellite-based estimate in a warm direction, and is now about 0.1◦C higher.

** Much of the heat given off during the 2015–16 El Niño appears to have been transported to the polar regions, especially to the Arctic, causing severe weather phenomena and unseasonably high air temperatures.

** Data from tide gauges all over the world suggest an average global sea-level rise of 1–1.5 mm/year, while the satellite-derived record suggests a rise of more than 3 mm/yr. This noticeable difference between the two data sets still has no broadly accepted explanation.

** Arctic and Antarctic sea-ice extents since 1979 have developed in opposite directions, decreasing and increasing, respectively. In the Arctic, a 5.3-year periodic variation is important, while for the Antarctic a cycle of about 4.5 years duration is important. Both these variations reached their minima simultaneously in 2016, which explains the recent minimum in global sea-ice extent.

Prof Humlum said: “There is little doubt that we are living in a warm period. However, there is also little doubt that current climate change is not abnormal and not outside the range of natural variations that might be expected.”

You can read the full report here.

via NOT A LOT OF PEOPLE KNOW THAT http://ift.tt/16C5B6P

March 22, 2017 at 02:00AM