Trump Seems To Be In A Race To Pollute As Much Of America As He Can Before Being Tossed Out On His Ass

On Thursday, Trump issued an executive order-- claiming a national emergency-- to bypass environmental laws fast-tracking of major construction projects in a bid to... perhaps boost the economy before November, perhaps enrich friends and GOP campaign donors-- probably a combination. What his order does is lift environmental review of major projects, exactly what Congress prohibited over the course of decades. In practical terms it will mean rushed approval of highways pipelines, oil and gas projects and other polluting industries that have historically and disproportionately had harmful effect on minority communities.

Mustafa Santiago Ali of the National Wildlife Federation, formerly a senior adviser for environmental justice at the EPA said "It shows again that they have no respect for the lives in these communities that are already overburdened. Trump’s actions put a spotlight on black lives don’t matter."

And just as that was going on, the Senate was working in a bipartisan fashion-- very rare-- to tackle the the Climate Crisis via agriculture, "direct the Agriculture Department to help farmers, ranchers and landowners use carbon dioxide-absorbing practices to generate carbon credits."

Mike Braun (R-IN), #LadyG (R-SC), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) are the principal sponsors of the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which would direct the U.S. Department of Agriculture "to create a program that would help the agriculture sector gain access to revenue from greenhouse gas offset credit markets... The bill would establish USDA-certified protocols for farmers, ranch and forest owners seeking to develop projects that can generate offset credits under existing programs. It would offer a new revenue stream for farmers, ranchers and land owners suffering from the economic impacts of global trade tensions and the coronavirus."

Landowners and farmers can generate credits and earn money for activities ranging from reforestation to sequestering carbon in soil to capturing methane from livestock.

“As a Main Street Entrepreneur and conservationist, I know firsthand that if we want to address our changing climate then we need to facilitate real solutions that our farmers, environmentalists and industry can all support,” said Braun.

Voluntary offset programs have been around since the early 2000s. In 2018, the average price of such credits was $3/tonne.

Demand for credits is expected to grow when airlines are required to purchase offsets to comply with the industry’s Carbon Offset Reduction Scheme (CORSIA), which will begin in 2021.

Republicans in Congress have largely rejected the kind of economy-wide climate measures proposed by Democrats. But some of them have recently floated legislation that promotes carbon removal through land-based measures like planting trees to investments in carbon capture and sequestration technology for power and industrial plants.

“Our nation’s farmlands, forests, and ranches hold untapped potential for removing harmful emissions from the air naturally,” said Sarah Greenberger, senior vice president at the National Audubon Society.

Kathy Ellis is running to represent a he rural district in southeast Missouri, bordering on Kentucky, Arkansas, Tennessee and the red part of Illinois. And yeah-- it was Trump country in 2016. The PVI is a daunting R+24 and Hillary only took 21.0% of the vote. Two year later Kathy Ellis challenged Trump bootlicker Jason Smith, another right-wing homophobic closet case, and did 4 points better than Hillary did. This November she plans to do much better and, hopefully, replace Smith. She told me she absolutely supports "bipartisan measures to tackle climate change and supports our farmers. When I've travelled throughout the District and spoken with farmers, I've found that they often know the best tools to tackle climate change and want to implement these measures in their agricultural work-- but, they're often too expensive or inaccessible. Our small farmers are suffering, and implementing policies that protect them and our environment is a smart plan forward... Each year, Jason Smith conducts a 'farm tour' where he travels throughout the district, visiting farmers, in his pick of plaid shirts. As one farmer responded this year, 'I just want to be left alone.' It's clear that Smith doesn't prioritize the small farmers that make up our district, and his vote against bipartisan measures such as this makes that clear."

The video below is the very first one Audrey Denney made for her 2018 campaign. Ten seconds in, she said "I believe that climate change is the single largest facing humanity and life as we know it and I spent a huge part of my professional career working to solve this problem." Watch the whole thing. Today, Audrey told that she could talk about it for an entire semester of a college course-- which she has done. She did well last cycle and is now known throughout the large, rural-- and red-- northeastern California district and is running for the seat occupied by right-wing, do-nothing backbencher Doug LaMalfa, a Trump stooge. This morning she told me that she is "beyond thrilled to see bi-partisan support for the Growing Climate Solutions Act. I talk about carbon sequestration every day on the campaign trail-- not just because I’m a science nerd. Drawing carbon down out of the atmosphere and storing it in soil through plants-- is THE cheapest and most effective way to turn the dial back on climate change. Farmers and ranchers unlock this drawdown potential through the way that they manage their land and the practices that they implement. I believe that agriculture can and must have a net positive impact on our environment. The way we continue towards that goal is legislation like this-- that rewards farmers and ranchers for the good things they are already doing, provides support and training, and helps them increase their razor thin profit margins.





Like Audrey and Kathy, J.D. Scholten, a champion of family farms and rural communities, is running for Congress in Iowa's forth district, one of America's top agricultural districts. "One of the most underrated messages from the Iowa Caucus," he told me today, "was the consistent messages from the candidates about paying our farmers for their environmental services. We need to create 'on ramps' for farmers to enhance practices to combat climate change. We can't expect the average farmer who has struggled to make cost of production for over a half decade to go at it alone. At the heart of why I am running for Congress is my vision for Iowa's 4th Congressional District to be the epicenter for 21st century resilient agriculture."

Jennifer Christie didn't win her primary, but this is a bill she's been pushing for-- with a significant amendment: reforestation. She posted this on Twitter the other day: