Also on today’s menu:
Presidential Candidates Bring In Big Bucks
Hawaii Gives Young Residents A Role In Green Energy
Mount Washington Observatory’s education specialist, Alex Branton, reported that the high temperature recorded at the summit on June 19 was 70 degrees, breaking the previous record for that day of 67 degrees, set on June 19, 1995. It still did not break June’s monthly record high of 72 degrees.
Branton noted that thunderstorms to the north kept the temperature from rising further on Wednesday.
The National Weather Service had issued a heat warning for much of the eastern half of New Hampshire through Thursday, but predicted there would be cooler weather today.
Discussion: Weather in downtown Bristol has been in the 80s and 90s for the past few days, with temperatures dropping only to 70 degrees at night. Last night, after thunderstorms and rainfall, the temperature got down to 68 degrees.
Presidential Candidates Bring In Big Bucks
The day after Donald Trump’s 34 felony convictions for falsifying business records in order to keep his 2015 presidential campaign on track, billionaire Timothy Mellon donated $50 million to MAGA Inc., the political action committee that is supporting his current run for the presidency. The donation is the largest single donation ever reported to the Federal Election Commission. MAGA Inc. took in more than $68 million from donors last month, with $10 million coming from billionaires Liz and Dick Uihlein.
Mellon also is the biggest donor to independent presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., giving Kennedy’s American Values PAC at least $20 million.
Billionaire Mike Bloomberg has given nearly $20 million to Biden-supporting political action committees: $19 million to an independent pro-Biden group known as Future Forward or FF PAC and $900,000 to the Biden Victory Fund, an amalgamation of the Biden campaign and Democratic Party committees.
Discussion: Billionaires are lining up to support their candidates, which is likely to give them greater influence over policy than the average voter donating $5, $10, or $50 to a candidate. Trump has made it clear that he wants to roll back the regulations that try to restrict monopolistic exploitation of the country’s resources, while Biden is looking to reign in such exploitation. The Biden restrictions, however, are benefiting targeted groups over other equally deserving beneficiaries of government largess, which also creates problems.
Hawaii Gives Young Residents A Role In Green Energy
As part of a settlement in a lawsuit by 13 young Hawaiians alleging that the state was violating their rights by contributing to climate change, Governor Josh Greenwill announced that Hawaii will develop plans for its ground, sea, and inner island air transportation systems to be carbon-neutral by 2045. The agreement calls for the creation of a volunteer youth council to advise the Department of Transportation in prioritizing the reduction of greenhouse gasses, with a new unit dedicated to decarbonization.
The department plans to spend at least $40 million to expand its public electric vehicle charging network by 2030 and improve pedestrian, bicycle, and public transit networks.
The lawsuit arose out of allegations that the state had prioritized infrastructure projects such as highway construction and expansion that lock in the use of fossil fuels rather than focusing on projects that cut carbon emissions.
Discussion: Decarbonization is not as easy as some activists envision, as the youth council is likely to find out when working with the Department of Transportation. Electric vehicles create their own environmental problems because of the need to extract rare metals for their batteries — mining operations that can be as devastating to the planet as fossil-fuel extraction. It is a worthy goal, however, and is likely to lead to scientific breakthroughs that lead to better and safer batteries — or other power sources — that will reduce carbon emissions.