Robbing from Peter to Pay Paul: Air-Traffic-Control, Army Corps of Engineers, and Housing as InfrastructureDid you know? If placed end to end, the length of the nation's structurally deficient bridges would stretch 1,276 miles or half the distance from New York to Los Angeles. (ARTBA 2017 Bridge Report)On aviation, infrastructure, and "social infrastructure," the Trump Administration continues to say one thing and do another. While Rise agrees with making the public sector more efficient, effective, and user-centric, we believe those improvements cannot come at the expense of citizen safety and well-being. Privatizing the Air-Traffic-Control SystemWhy are we exposing travelers and air-traffic control data to harm and hacking?Two weeks ago, President Trump kicked off infrastructure week by announcing his commitment to privatizing the management of the U.S. air-traffic-control system. That system is currently managed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), a government agency th...
Read More
While much attention this week is on Senate Republicans' secretive efforts to draft health care legislation that could take health insurance from millions of Americans (and which will apparently be revealed this Thursday), here is what has been happening this week in science and technology policy."Tech Week" begins at White HouseOn Monday, June 19, CEOs from several major technology companies were at the White House for a series of private brainstorming sessions, followed by a public event. This inaugural meeting of the American Technology Council kicks off what is being billed as "Tech Week" at the White House. The week features just two events, and it is unclear what policy outcomes, if any, will result from the meetings. On Monday, there was general agreement on the non-controversial need to update government IT infrastructure. However, despite major concerns in the technology community, the attendees failed to press Trump on his most controversial policies, including the US with...
Read More
EPA's Disastrous Agenda. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced this week that it will reassess an Obama-era chemical safety rule, delaying its implementation until at least 2019. As is, the rule would require companies to take more steps to prepare for accidents and would expand the EPA's investigative and auditing powers. The delay comes at the request of industry, unsurprisingly. In 2015, the Gold King Mine in Colorado leaked millions of gallons of toxic metals and acids. This week, the EPA's Office of the Inspector General concluded that EPA, which did not have standards at the time for collapsed mine portals, was not at fault. More shockingly, the report made no recommendations for how the agency could improve. EPA officials have repeatedly stated that their priorities are to promote "clean air and water." EPA is proposing a two-year delay of an Obama-era rule aiming to reduce methane emissions from oil and natural gas operations. Many oil and gas companies ar...
Read More
Defense of Paris. Since Trump decided to withdraw without honor from the Paris Climate Agreement, over 1,400 governors, mayors, businesses, attorneys general, investors, and colleges and universities joined an open letter to the international community, declaring their support for the agreement. In a tandem effort, Michael Bloomberg submitted a letter to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) saying he will "work with U.S. subnational and non-state actors over the coming months" to quantify these aggregate actions, which constitute "America's Pledge" to the world in fulfilling our responsibility to lead the world in reducing emissions. In addition, a bipartisan group of 12 states and Puerto Rico have joined the U.S. Climate Alliance, which is committed to upholding the Paris Climate Agreement within their borders by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 — the original U.S. commitment.Fact from fiction. U.S. Enviro...
Read More
Trump continues to leave science posts unfilledWhether by default or design, the Trump administration's attitude toward science and technology vacillates between indifference and outright hostility. As a case in point, a recent Washington Post analysis finds that as of June 6, President Trump has announced nominees for only seven of the 46 high-level science and technology posts that require Senate confirmation, ensuring that the vast majority of key positions will remain vacant for the foreseeable future. The President lacks ready access to scientific advice, as the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) remains understaffed and without a director, and the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) remains empty. This lack of S&T advice has real-world consequences, such as Trump's recently announced decision to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, dramatic proposed cuts to scientific programs, and a host of other worrying developments.US...
Read More
Fact Checking the Infrastructure ProposalPresident Donald Trump, in his budget proposal, included a 2018 Infrastructure Initiative Fact Sheet. The plan is geared towards metropolitan regions and explicitly covers sparsely populated regions in the country, providing them with special treatment.Trump's Plan Claims: The flexibility to use federal dollars to pay for essentially local infrastructure projects has created an unhealthy dynamic in which state and local governments delay projects in the hope of receiving federal funds. The Reality: According to the EPA, 95% of water infrastructure projects are funded by state and local government entities. While the federal government lacks capital, state and local governments who prioritize job creation of cutting taxes and offering corporate subsidies are filling the void. Trump's Plan Claims: During the construction of the Interstate System, the federal government played a key role – collecting and distributing federal tax revenue to fund ...
Read More
What is the Paris Agreement?The Paris Climate Agreement is a landmark agreement signed in 2015 by 195 countries to combat global climate change. Its central aim is to strengthen the global response to climate change by keeping a global temperature rise below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. Under the Agreement, countries voluntarily put forward their self-defined emission reduction goals through "nationally determined contributions" and to regularly report their emissions and implementation efforts. The United States pledged to cut domestic greenhouse gas emissions by 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025 and was already halfway towards its goal, having cut emissions by 14 percent. The United States joined Syria and Nicaragua as the only countries not participating in the Agreement. Nicaragua did not sign because it did not think the Agreement did enough to combat climate change; Syria was in the midst of a civil war.President Trump has pulled the U.S. out of the ...
Read More
Trump to Withdraw US From Paris Climate AccordOn Thursday, June 1, President Donald Trump announced his intention to withdraw the US from the Paris climate accord, the world's first comprehensive climate agreement. The pact is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and enhance the ability of nations to adapt to climate change. As of today, 195 UNFCCC members have signed the agreement, and 148 have ratified it. President Trump dubiously claimed that the accord was economically unfair to American workers and would hurt competitiveness, as he grossly misrepresented the US's commitment to the Paris agreement and relied on arguments that were misleading, inaccurate, and untruthful. Trump purported to pull out of the international deal in order to focus on creating manufacturing jobs in America, but, due to growth in the renewable energy sector, his move may actually cost the US jobs.Paris Withdrawal Decisi...
Read More
Here's what happened this week:Trump has withdrawn the US from the Paris Climate Agreement, which is expected to have a detrimental impact on the jobs and economy, despite his claims. The US joins Syria and Nicaragua as the only countries that are not members of the agreement. The agreement, and its associated move towards clean-energy was expected to add jobs to the US economy relative to the potential losses, and make the US more competitive in the growing renewable energies industry. The solar and wind industries currently employ three times the number employed by the coal industry.The Choice Act, a proposed replacement for Dodd-Frank (a regulatory bill which increased financial protections for consumers after the 2008 financial crisis), is expected to move to the House floor for a vote on June 7th. The act weakens the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and raises a series of concerns:Offers protection for payday lenders: 19 million Americans resort to payday loans, which have ...
Read More
All Eyes on ParisWith Trump considering withdrawal from the Paris climate accord this week, pressure has been mounting for the United States to stay in the agreement. During their first meeting, Pope Francis gave President Trump a copy of his 2015 encyclical that calls for action on climate change, and the Vatican's secretary of state urged Trump and his advisors to remain in the Paris agreement. G7 leaders also lobbied Trump to remain during their meeting in Sicily. Following meetings with European leaders, White House officials indicated Trump's views on climate change are "evolving," and he now has a better sense of the importance of the U.S. showing leadership by staying in the universal agreement. After the U.S. failed to join other G7 countries in reaffirming the Paris Agreement, however, German Chancellor Angela Merkel said, "the whole discussion about climate was very difficult, not to say unsatisfactory." The G7 leaders communique was seen as a key indicator of the current ...