When an advisory panel chartered by the Commodities Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), one of the Trump administration’s regulatory agencies, warns, unanimously, that climate change threatens the stability of our financial markets— that is big news, of the man bites dog variety. What is not news is the immediate White House effort to distance the administration from this CFTC advisory committee’s recommendation. We should have expected that. Panel members admitted that if President Trump were reelected their conclusions would be ignored. And the chairman of the CFTC, in an attempt to appear even handed, pointed out their report also took note of the risk of financial harm to the fossil fuel industry from too aggressive a transition to a low carbon economy. Meanwhile, in a related vein, the US Department of Labor has been trying to make it illegal for pension fund managers to consider environmental issues when making investments. […]