| The SEC, Climate Change, & Clayton’s New Pals: The job history of Jay Clayton, Trump’s pick to head the Securities & Exchange Commission, raises questions about his approach to climate change were he to head the agency. In a blog post Thursday, the Energy Policy Institute revealed that Clayton’s firm, Sullivan & Cromwell, has advised clients in multiple public memos to disclose climate-change related risks to the SEC and to investors, highlighting the SEC’s 2010 guidelines on best practices for climate disclosure. Despite Clayton’s background, the climate denier company he’d keep in the science-averse Trump administration does throw a shadow on the future of the guidelines under his leadership. And the SEC’s probe of ExxonMobil’s climate valuations, launched this fall, may also be in jeopardy with the oil giant’s former CEO as Secretary of State. Acknowledging climate risk is a widely accepted business practice worldwide: earlier this week, a panel of business leaders chaired by Michael Bloomberg issued a series of recommendations directed at corporations on how to disclose climate risk in yearly financial statements. (Clayton: MarketWatch, International Business Times. Exxon: InsideClimate News. Bloomberg: WSJ.)
Take That Scuba Trip Now Before It Gets Worse: Bleaching will affect 99% of the world’s corals by the end of the century if global warming continues at current rates, according to new research published Thursday in the journal Nature Scientific Reports. The UN-sponsored study shows that 75% of corals would be exposed to hazardously warm oceans by 2070, and keeping warming under 2 degrees C would give corals just 11 additional years to adjust to the warming oceans. Reefs worldwide faced the biggest die-offs ever recorded last year. (Time, Miami Herald, McClatchy, Climate Home)
Army Corps Passes on Changing Pipeline Approval Permit: The Army Corps of Engineers disappointed environmental groups and tribal leaders Wednesday by not amending a complex permitting system that expedites oil and gas pipeline approval. The permit structure, which allowed for the approval of the Dakota Access pipeline, gives streamlined permission to pipeline projects intersecting with federally protected waters, rather than subjecting them to individual review for larger spill risk, climate impacts, or tribal conflicts. “I think the nationwide permit system serves a totally legitimate purpose for projects that have truly minor or beneficial actions, but it’s become a loophole for big projects with serious impacts, not just to water but to treaty rights and other tribal concerns,” Earthjustice attorney Jan Hasselman, who represents the Standing Rock Sioux, told Politico. The NoDAPL struggle continues in Cannon Ball, as the remaining protesters dig in for the winter, clean up abandoned camps, and warily look toward the upcoming Trump administration. (Army Corps: Politico Pro $, Greenwire $, Platts. NoDAPL: Vice, NPR, Reuters, Bismarck Tribune.) |
