CLIMATE CHANGE/ECONOMY/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT/TRUMP PEOPLE: “White House economic adviser Kevin Hassett said Friday [3-1-19] that he believes climate change could threaten economic growth. It’s a position that puts him at odds with the Trump administration and the President himself, who has openly questioned whether the climate is warming at all…Hassett, an economist long involved in conventional Republican political circles, has in the past expressed support for instituting carbon taxes to curb pollution..Last year, a 1,600-page report on the potential effects of climate change written by scientists from 13 different government agencies estimated that climate change could result in the American economy losing hundreds of billions of dollars, or, at worst, more than 10% of its GDP by 2100. ‘I don’t believe it,’ Trump said after the report’s release. Hassett declined to estimate the economic impact of a sweeping climate change proposal by freshman Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez which would involve, among other progressive bucket list items, a massive effort to limit pollution, a federal jobs guarantee, and an infrastructure overhaul.”
–Haley Byrd, “Top White House adviser acknowledges threat posed by climate change,” CNN Politics, CNN.com, March 1, 2019 11:57 am