QUICK NEWS, December 13: Climate Heats As Bill Gates Plans New Energy; Former TX Gov And Wind Builder Perry To Head Dept Of Energy; Climate Change Denier To Decide On Public Land Uses

Climate Heats As Bill Gates Plans New Energy Bill Gates Leads New Fund as Fears of U.S. Retreat on Climate Grow

Hiroko Tabuchi and Henry Fountain, December 12, 2016 (NY Times)

“…[There is some hope a billion-dollar investment fund led by Bill Gates and his fellow technology titans could fill the void in New Energy research and development left by the Trump administration due to its climate change skepticism. The billionaire] co-founder of Microsoft is starting] a fund to invest in transformative energy research and development to reduce the emissions that cause climate change. The work would supplement and build on basic research already underway…[Despite Mr. Trump’s expressed skepticism about climate change and his appointment of fossil fuel advocates to his cabinet, Mr. Gates said he expected the president-elect to recognize that government funding of basic research would eventually be good for business, jobs, infrastructure and other economic elements that Mr. Trump campaigned on…Mr. Gates’s new investment fund, Breakthrough Energy Ventures…[is backed by at least] 19 other investors, including Jack Ma, founder of the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, and the venture capitalists John Doerr and Vinod Khosla. The fund will have a life span of 15 to 20 years…The fund will consider investing in electricity generation and storage, transportation, agriculture and energy-system efficiency…” click here for more

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Former TX Gov And Wind Builder Perry To Head Dept Of Energy Trump taps former Texas Gov. Rick Perry to head Energy Department he once vowed to abolish

Juliet Eilperin and Steven Mufson, December 13, 2016 (Washington Post)

Editor’s note: click through for a lengthy profile of the nominee

“President-elect Donald Trump has picked Rick Perry to head the Energy Department…[Perry could] shift the department away from renewable energy and toward fossil fuels, whose production he championed as governor while serving for 14 years…[M]ost of the Energy Department’s budget is devoted to maintaining the nation’s stockpile of nuclear warheads and to cleaning up nuclear waste at sites left by military weapons programs. The department runs the nation’s national laboratories, sets appliance standards and hands out grants and loan guarantees for everything from basic research to solar cells to capturing carbon dioxide from coal combustion…[As governor, Perry reportedly embodied an] ‘all of the above’ approach to U.S. energy…[In that time, Texas was not only a world leader in oil and gas production; it was also a global leader in wind power and renewable energy investment…[I]f confirmed, Perry will walk into an agency where many career civil servants will likely be wary of him…[and on edge after] Trump’s transition team gave a questionnaire to DOE officials asking they identify which employees have worked on either international climate negotiations or domestic initiatives to cut carbon.” click here for more

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Climate Change Denier To Decide On Public Land Uses Trump Taps Climate Change Denier for Secretary of Interior; If approved by the Senate, Cathy McMorris Rogers would oversee energy resource development on public lands

Bobby Magill, December 12, 2016 (Climate Central via Scientific American)

Editor’s note: click through for a lengthy profile of the nominee

“U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, a sixth-term Republican from Washington State who is a climate change denier and an ardent opponent of regulations for greenhouse gas emissions, has been nominated by President-elect Donald Trump for Secretary of Interior…If McMorris Rodgers is confirmed by the U.S. Senate, she would govern the management of more than 500 million acres of federal public lands, including more than 400 national parks…Perhaps most critically, she would oversee the development of many of America’s fossil fuels and renewables resources, including all of its offshore oil, gas and wind development. Federal land is the source of more than 20 percent of all the oil and gas and 40 percent of the coal produced in the U.S…McMorris Rodgers would have the power to reverse Obama administration efforts to protect federally managed waters from oil and gas development as well as end the research into how coal mining affects the climate. Earlier this year, the Obama administration placed a three-year moratorium on federal coal leasing, and closed the entire East Coast and parts of the Arctic Ocean to offshore oil drilling…” click here for more

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