A national report predicts increased flooding and hotter temperatures for Kentucky, but its coal-friendly Republican congressional delegation says its skeptical of a call to cut back on fossil fuels.
A Trump administration report touts local Kentucky efforts to combat climate change — but its dire warnings are having little sway with a coal friendly, mostly Republican congressional delegation.
“Kentucky is one of the few regions in the whole world that hasn’t shown a warming average temperature,” said Adam Terando, a North Carolina-based research ecologist with the U. S. Geological Survey and federal coordinating lead author for the Southeast chapter of the report.
“But overall, the bigger message is the climate is warming globally and we expect that to occur regionally,” he said.
Warming temperatures around the globe will bring increased flooding and warmer temperatures to Kentucky, threatening to disrupt agriculture and other sectors of the economy, warns the congressionally-mandated National Climate Assessment, released by 14 federal agencies last week.
Although Kentucky and several other Southeast states have bucked the global trend of rising average temperatures, Terando said the data show a warming trend that could lead to hotter nights, which could hurt certain crops and make it more difficult for people to recover from daytime heat.
President Donald Trump has said he’s skeptical of the report, telling the Washington Post that “a lot of people like myself, we have very high levels of intelligence, but we’re not necessarily such believers.”
In Kentucky, officials are wary of what they see as overly aggressive efforts to combat climate change. They’re eager to shield the coal industry from further decline and to aid miners and their families.
Coal jobs in the state dropped this year to fewer than 7,000, less than half of the most recent peak in 2011, when coal employment topped 18,000.
Rep. Thomas Massie, R-Vanceburg, who says he’s “bullish” enough on solar energy that he built his house to run on it exclusively, said the energy alternative has drawbacks, chiefly the cost of storing the energy.
