"Fearless Fridays" Predictions - Volume 1

Hello and Happy Friday! With this post, we’re starting a new series of posts on this blog with our “Fearless Friday” predictions about developments in energy and environment policy, communications and/or issues. These predictions will be based on nothing more than our "best guesses" and our insight from 25+ years in Washington and experience working on related issues. That’s a long way of saying we could be way off with some (all?) of them. But that’s the fun, right? Here goes:

Prediction 1:

• We’ll see enactment of some form of carbon capture and storage policy by the end of 2017. [Full disclosure: We have a client in this space. This prediction is not based on any “insider” or other knowledge, but is simply a reflection of our insight from following this issue.]

Prediction 2:

• We’ll see a renewed interest in funding/support for National Parks this fall in the wake of the Interior Department study on changes to some units within the system. This could include one or more announcements of new initiatives by advocacy groups and/or companies to focus attention on the underfunded but wildly popular National Park System.

Prediction 3:

• We’ll see a five to ten percent increase in the percentage of Americans who believe climate change is real in public opinion surveys this fall. This change will be due in part to extreme weather events such as Hurricane Harvey (which is headed towards Texas today) as well as growing corporate support for specific actions to address climate change and its impacts.

We’ll share our prognostications on Fridays every so often in the months ahead and we’ll ask for yours. Be sure to follow us on Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn to join in – or just comment below.