KOOK
Van Jones: Trump may have signed Earth's death warrant
(CNN)As usual, Donald Trump is completely upside down on the facts.
In 2015, President Barack Obama created the
Clean Power Plan to slow climate disruption. It was the first action ever taken by the US government to cut carbon pollution from existing power plants.
And this week, with the stroke of a pen, President Trump
directed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to take steps to end it.
Trump may have just signed a death warrant for our planet (at least, for a planet that is liveable for humans). And the lies he told to justify it have real consequences for real Americans, here and now.
First, Trump says he wants to dismantle the Clean Power Plan because it represents what he calls
"job-killing regulation." False -- limited losses in some sectors are dwarfed by gains in others.
The potential for job growth in the clean energy sector dwarfs any potential job growth in the fossil fuel economy. For example, Trump promised the Keystone XL pipeline would create 28,000 jobs when he approved the project. But he had to use a huge multiplier to get to even that low number. In fact, it would create about 3,000 temporary construction jobs and only 35 permanent jobs. That's right: 35 permanent jobs.
Exxon to Trump: Don't ditch Paris climate change deal
By comparison, in 2016 the number of
jobs in solar grew 25% from the year prior, according to figures from the nonprofit
Solar Foundation, while jobs in the rest of the economy had less than 2% growth. Renewable energy jobs now create jobs 12 times faster than the rest of the economy.