Climate Point: Trump can't recall his environmental stance in debate

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and environment news from around the Golden State and the country. In Palm Springs, Calif., I’m Mark Olalde.

Did you watch the presidential debate on Tuesday night? I'm so sorry. But surprisingly, moderator Chris Wallace did ask about climate change. Biden walked a center-left line, nodding to the wildfires sweeping the West and pledging to rejoin the Paris Agreement but distancing himself from the Green New Deal, instead committing to his own plan. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — a progressive leader and champion of the Green New Deal — wasn't upset, defending Biden for a plan that environmental experts have said is actually pretty decent.

Perhaps Biden's most important point came when he said no new coal- or oil-fired power plants would be built in the U.S. The future is renewable, he acknowledged. Trump, meanwhile, only vaguely said that humans contribute to climate change (scientists agree we're the main cause). As a crowning environmental achievement, he pointed to the plan to plant a billion trees to soak up carbon. A few things. That's not the plan — it's a trillion tree initiative — and, while a fantastic idea, it's a smokescreen that Republicans have begun jumping on while they avoid more important solutions like transitioning away from fossil fuels and plastics.

Sticking with the federal government for our first story, chaos continues in the country's largest land holder: the Bureau of Land Management. The never-confirmed director of the agency — an unabashed opponent of public lands called a "sagebrush rebel" — has served illegally for more than a year, a federal judge ruled. Every decision he made during that time could also be vacated, HuffPost reports.

FILE - In this May 9, 2008 file photo, male sage grouses fight for the attention of females southwest of Rawlins, Wyo. Montana, Wyoming and other Western states are reporting population declines for the birds in 2019.AP Photo/Rawlins Daily Times, Jerret Raffety, File)/The Rawlins Daily Times via AP, File)
FILE - In this May 9, 2008 file photo, male sage grouses fight for the attention of females southwest of Rawlins, Wyo. Montana, Wyoming and other Western states are reporting population declines for the birds in 2019.AP Photo/Rawlins Daily Times, Jerret Raffety, File)/The Rawlins Daily Times via AP, File)

Here's some other important reporting....

MUST-READ STORIES

Gold, terrorism and black markets. If you haven't yet read the FinCEN Files investigation from BuzzFeed, the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists and 108 other newsrooms that exposed banks shrugging as they were used to finance the world's dastardly deeds, you need to do so. But I'll just point out one part. Gold companies had a hand in a quarter of global suspect transactions the publications uncovered, in many cases raising suspicions of the connection between the legal and illegal mining industries, the latter of which leads to environmental destruction and gang activity in many parts of the Global South.

Perpetual pollutants. Sharon Lerner of The Intercept this week continued her stellar reporting on PFAS, a group of synthetic and likely carcinogenic chemicals that persist indefinitely in the environment. She found that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the Trump administration has stalled its own effort to list several of these substances as hazardous. (Meanwhile, in California, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law this week that takes on PFAS, one of several environmental bills that advanced. I've got the round-up for The Desert Sun.)

Palm oil's dirty industry. The AP is out with a new investigation that found clear evidence of slavery being used in the palm oil industry, which also has a history of deforestation and other environmental woes.

POLITICAL CLIMATE

A brown cloud hangs over Phoenix, pollution fed in part by vehicle traffic.
A brown cloud hangs over Phoenix, pollution fed in part by vehicle traffic.

Come on, Arizona. Erin Stone from The Arizona Republic is out with an astounding deep dive into the Copper State's failed response to the climate crisis. If, like me, you've lived in Phoenix's heat, you know just how rough it can be to survive in that state. So what is the Republican stronghold doing about climate change? A mere 15 years ago, Arizona was a leader in fighting to clean up its environment. "In recent years, the governor and the Legislature have taken no cohesive action, enacting laws that prohibit mitigation efforts at a local level. One state law even prevents state agencies from monitoring greenhouse gases," she writes.

The elephant in the environment. Illinois Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin this week acknowledged that his party can hold up Amy Coney Barrett's nomination to the U.S. Supreme Court for "perhaps a matter of hours, maybe days at the most," but there's no stopping the GOP from barreling ahead. So, what does this mean for the environment? InsideClimate News has the details, but in short, it's tough news for the natural world. Her father was a long-time lawyer for oil supermajor Shell, she's extremely conservative and she would give a generation-lasting majority to the party that denies basic scientific facts.

Chamber made. With its headquarters overlooking the White House, the Chamber of Commerce has a huge influence on American politics. DeSmogBlog is out with a story about an environmental group's report digging into the chamber's power and how it has advocated for fossil fuels.

CHECKING IN AROUND THE COUNTRY

Every day is a wild one for the environment, but the news seems to be coming out of a fire hose these days. In the name of keeping my finger on the pulse of national environmental shenanigans, let's quickly bounce around some states' recent, top news.

Texas. The Lone Star State may be known as an oil stronghold, but its future is renewable. Forbes reports that, this year, the grid serving nearly all the state "is scheduled to add almost as much wind as it has in the past five years combined and almost triple its solar capacity."

Nevada. Our USA Today Network friends at the Reno Gazette-Journal report that the Center for Biological Diversity is suing two federal agencies to protect Tiehm's buckwheat, a rare wildflower. The plant only grows on 10 acres in Nevada, and 40% of the entire species was removed or wiped out earlier this month.

Arizona. Staying in the Southwest, the Cronkite News Service writes in The Arizona Republic that the federal government has blocked the Tohono O'odham tribe from accessing one of its sacred sites near the border. This comes as the Trump administration steamrolls the tribe and numerous federal laws to continue border wall construction.

California. Ventura County, just north of Los Angeles, is now home to some of the most progressive oil regulations in the country, the Ventura County Star reports. County supervisors narrowly approved a new general plan that creates a buffer zone between oil and gas extraction and communities that is nearly half-a-mile in some places.

New Mexico. Searchlight New Mexico, a small investigative newsroom, is out with an exposé of a foreign-run, water- and land-guzzling marijuana operation that is both likely illegal and using child labor near the Navajo Nation.

Wyoming. The Powder River Basin produces about 40% of America's coal, and the country's two largest coal mining companies had hoped to merge to dominate that region. A judge recently upheld a Federal Trade Commission decision blocking the move, S&P Global Market Intelligence reports, delivering another painful blow to the struggling industry.

AND ANOTHER THING

Two years ago, an orca known as Tahlequah carried her dead calf for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles. Scientists say that she is now pregnant again.
Two years ago, an orca known as Tahlequah carried her dead calf for 17 days and more than 1,000 miles. Scientists say that she is now pregnant again.

Forget politicians, let's look at animals. Two years ago, an orca caught the world's attention when it carried its dead calf for 17 days, sparking cries to focus on species conservation. The pod that spends time in the Puget Sound, the Seattle Times reports, appears to be doing well this year, with another baby orca born the other day, the second this month. While it's futile to measure the global scale of the extinction crisis by individual animals, hope for the future of biodiversity must be found somewhere.

And while we're on the topic of adorable animals, don't forget that it's #FatBearWeek hosted by Katmai National Park and Preserve. It's an annual celebration of huge and healthy wildlife in Alaska, and these big bears definitely deserve your votes.

Scientists agree that to maintain a livable planet, we need to reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration back to 350 ppm. We’re above that and rising dangerously. Here are the latest numbers:

Atmospheric CO2 levels continue rising to dangerous levels.
Atmospheric CO2 levels continue rising to dangerous levels.

That’s all for now. Don’t forget to follow along on Twitter at @MarkOlalde. You can also reach me at molalde@gannett.com. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here. And, if you’d like to receive a daily round-up of California news (also for free!), you can sign up for USA Today’s In California newsletter here. Mask up, everybody! Cheers.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Climate Point: Trump can't remember his own environmental stance in debate