Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at GEI (but can be posted at other times).
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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
New Species of Chlamydia Bacteria Found in the Arctic Ocean – A very common sexually transmitted disease, chlamydia is caused by the bacteria Chlamydia trachomatis and it can infect men and women in different parts of the body, spread through sexual contact.Several abundant populations bacteria in the Chlamydia family were discovered by a group of researchers in deep sediments of the Arctic Ocean – 2 miles (3 kilometers) beneath the surface of the Arctic Ocean, several feet beneath the ocean floor. The finding is expected to help understand how the bacteria evolved to become infectious.Chlamydia and related bacteria (collectively referred to as Chlamydiae) need to interact with other organisms to survive. It interacts specifically with organisms such as animals, plants and fungi, and even microscopic organisms such as amoebas, algae and plankton.The bacteria spend much of their lives inside the cells of their human hosts, but can also parasitise bears and koalas. Most of the knowledge about Chlamydiae is based on studies of pathogenic lineages in the laboratory. But do the bacteria also exist in other settings? If this study is any indication, the answer is yes. An international group of researchers reported the discovery of numerous new species of Chlamydiae that grow in deep sediments of the Arctic Ocean, in the absence of obvious host organisms.
Monsanto Secretly Funded Glyphosate Studies, Watchdog Finds –A new investigation revealed that Monsanto funneled money to secretly fund academic studies that warned of catastrophic consequences to farmers if glyphosate was banned in the UK, according to research from the German watchdog LobbyControl, as The Guardian reported.The two studies in question come from 2010 and 2014, which was before the German chemical and pharmaceutical giant Bayer bought Monsanto in 2018. Upon learning of the secret funding, Bayer said the failure to disclose it violated the company’s principles, according to The Guardian.”This is an unacceptable form of opaque lobbying,” said Ulrich Müller at LobbyControl, as The Guardianreported. “Citizens, media and decision-makers should know who pays for studies on subjects of public interest. The studies also used very high figures for the benefits of glyphosate and for possible losses in case of a ban. These extreme figures were then used to spin the debate.”However, the authors of the two studies said that the funding did not influence their findings. The 2010 study, called How Valuable is Glyphosate to UK Agriculture and the Environment? touted glyphosate for “a wide range of benefits to users.” It said that glyphosate binds to soil and rarely leaches into groundwater. It does mention that glyphosate is sometimes found in surface water, but far below levels that would register as toxic. It then goes on to discuss how a ban of glyphosate would upend UK farming and gardening. The 2014 study followed a similar line of reasoning. The study, titled Glyphosate Use on Combinable Crops in Europe: Implications for Agriculture and the Environment, also mentioned that glyphosate is highly water soluble and does not readily leach into soil or water and is found in less than 1 percent of water samples. It then goes on to assess “the value of glyphosate use across wheat, winter barley and oilseed rape in Europe.”
Study reveals grasshopper declines associated with declines in quality of prairie grasses -A University of Oklahoma-led study shows that grasshopper numbers have declined over 30% in a Kansas grassland preserve over the past two decades. Published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the paper, “Nutrient dilution and climate cycles underlie declines in a dominant herbivore,” reveals a new potent and potentially widespread threat to Earth’s plant feeders: the dilution of nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus, and sodium in the plants themselves due to increasing levels of atmospheric CO2. Grasshoppers are abundant consumers in grasslands – a habitat that covers more than 30% of Earth’s land mass and is the source of the majority of human crops. The same decline in plant quality revealed by Welti and her colleagues has recently raised alarms about the global human food supply. This decline in plant nutrient concentration poses a challenge for all animals that consume plants, including humans,” Welti said.The OU-based study adds to the growing evidence that some insect groups are declining in abundance. Such long-term data are rare but are a primary function of the National Science Foundation’s LTER (Long Term Ecological Research) sites, including Konza Prairie – a large protected tallgrass prairie reserve in northeast Kansas that provided the study’s key data.”One surprise was that grasshopper abundances in this large native tallgrass prairie reserve are declining,” Welti said. “This grassland appears to be a stable and prime habitat for grasshoppers and yet even here, we are seeing 2% annual declines.”The grasshoppers have been surveyed at Konza for approaching 30 years, providing a rare and detailed breakdown of this important group of insects.The study is unique, not only in the length of the record, but in the sophisticated set of mathematical tools Welti and her colleagues implemented to account for two drivers of grasshopper populations.
Malnourished Insects: Higher CO2 Levels Make Plants Less Nutritious – Grasshopper populations, like those of many other insects, are declining. My colleagues and I identified a new possible culprit: The plants grasshoppers rely on for food are becoming less nutritious due to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air. Ever-increasing levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere tend to promote plant growth by supplying them with extra carbon. But all that added carbon is squeezing out other nutrients that plant feeders – like insects and people – need to thrive. These fast-growing plants end up less dense in nutrients like nitrogen, phosphorus and sodium – more like iceberg lettuce than kale. On our study site in a Kansas prairie, my colleagues and I show that across more than 40 species of grasshoppers, total populations are falling at more than 2% a year. This led to an overall reduction in grasshopper numbers over the past two decades of about one-third. These population declines parallel the decline in grassland nutrients. Grasshopper populations vary year to year for many reasons, but my colleagues and I believe that the dilution of plant nutrients caused by elevated CO2 is the most likely reason for the decline.It adds up to what we call the “nutrient dilution hypothesis”: Increased CO2 is making plants less nutritious per bite and insects are paying the price.Ecologists have thus far focused on pesticide use and the loss of native habitats as causes for insect declines.These factors aren’t likely at the large native prairie reserve where I work. Yet the 2% per year decline in grasshoppers our study found is eerily similar to the 2% declines reported from long-term studies around the globe of moths and butterflies, whose young – caterpillars – are also voracious plant feeders. Other factors, like pesticide use and habitat destruction, are certainly hurting insect populations in many places. But since CO2 is increasing globally, my colleagues and I suspect that nutrient dilution is likely bad news for plant-eating insects across a huge variety of habitats, in both pristine and degraded ecosystems. And since insects are crucial parts of all terrestrial food webs, their loss affects many other organisms from plants to birds.
Fatal Fungal Disease Linked to Millions of Bat Deaths Confirmed in Texas – A deadly fungal disease responsible for the deaths of millions of bats across the U.S. has been confirmed in Texas for the first time. White-nose syndrome (WNS) is a disease in bats caused by a cold-loving fungus known asPseudogymnoascus destructans, which infects the skin on the muzzle, ear and wings of hibernating bats. Infected bats have obvious fungal growth on their body, but may also behave erratically both inside and outside of caves during the winter when they should be hibernating, according to the White-Nose Syndrome Response Team. The fungus that causes the disease was first detected in the state in 2017, but there were no signs of the WNS that it can cause, according to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD). In the years since, the fungus has spread to dozens of sites in 21 counties. At the time, biologists said that it usually takes a few years after detecting the fungus for the disease to manifest.The infected animal is a type of bat known as cave myotis (Myotis velifer) and was found in the central part of the state on Feb. 23. Analysis conducted by the USGS National Wildlife Health Center confirmed the presence of both the fungus and the disease that it causes.”Finding WNS in Central Texas for the first time is definitely concerning,” said Nathan Fuller, bat specialist at TPWD. “Biologists had hoped that white-nose syndrome, a disease that thrives in cold conditions, might not occur in warmer parts of Texas. We’re following up on several other reports to determine whether this was an isolated incident or if the impacts are more widespread. We recently received a report from a site in Bell County of five cave myotis that we suspect were infected as well. We should know more in the next few weeks.”WNS was first detected in New York more than a decade ago and has since spread from the northeastern part of the country to the southcentral states at what the USGS calls an “alarming rate.” It is believed to have been introduced from Europe where bats appear to be resistant to the fungus. The fungus is largely transmitted between bats but can be brought into caves on the clothing and gear of humans. As of this year, millions of bats in at least 33 states and seven Canadian provinces have died from the disease. In some parts of the U.S., normally long-lived winter bat populations have fallen by more than 90 percent. Because many species only produce one offspring each year, experts say it could take decades for some populations to recover.
2 Rare White Giraffes Killed by Poachers in Kenya – A pair of rare white giraffes met a tragic end when they were slaughtered by poachers in Kenya.The mother and calf were confirmed dead Tuesday in Ijara, Garissa County by community members and rangers from the Ishaqbini Hirola Community Conservancy, according to a press release.”This is a very sad day for the community of Ijara and Kenya as a whole,” conservancy manager Mohammed Ahmednoor said in the press release. “We are the only community in the world who are custodians of the white giraffe. Its killing is a blow to tremendous steps taken by the community to conserve rare and unique species, and a wakeup call for continued support to conservation efforts.”The Kenya Wildlife Service had been called to the sanctuary after it was reported that the two giraffes had not been seen for some time, CNN reported. When their skeletal remains were found and photographed, it was estimated that they had been dead at least four months. The Kenya Wildlife Service is now investigating the deaths.Only one white giraffe is left in the conservancy, a male who is believed to be the only one now living,according to CBS News. “This is a long-term loss given that genetics studies and research, which were significant investment into the area by researchers, have now gone down the drain,” Ahmednoor said in the press release. “Further to this the white giraffe was a big boost to tourism in the area.”
Massive Monkey Gangs Are Fighting For Food On Thailand Streets As Tourist Food Disappears – Coronavirus isn’t just causing humans to fight in the aisles of Target over toilet paper. Today in “signs of the apocalypse”, hungry monkey gangs are also swarming and fighting – for food – on the streets of Thailand. Monkeys in the country are usually well fed by tourists who visit Central Thailand, but visitors have plummeted as a result of the coronavirus outbreak, which has hit the Asian region hard. The animals shown in a video are reported to be two separate “rival gangs” that dwell in the city, according to the Daily Mail. Half of the monkeys are said to live in the temple areas, while the others live in the city. The two groups don’t usually meet but ended up doing so this past week. The animals are shown wandering separately looking for food, but once one monkey finds a banana, the chase is on. The ferocity of the animals shocked even locals, who are used to seeing the monkeys on a daily basis. One onlooker, who captured video, said: “They looked more like wild dogs than monkeys. They went crazy for the single piece of food. I’ve never seen them this aggressive.”The onlooker explained: “I think the monkeys were very, very hungry. There’s normally a lot of tourists here to feed the monkeys but now there are not as many, because of the coronavirus.”Hundreds of monkeys are shown in this Daily Mail video fighting over a single banana:
Electronic Waste: New EU Rules Target Throwaway Culture – All those phones, computers and tablets we rely on are dependent on mined resources. Extracting and processing those resources accounts for nearly half of our greenhouse gas emissions, which is why theEuropean Commission’s Circular Economy Action Plan calls for “initiatives for the entire life cycle of products, from design and manufacturing to consumption, repair, reuse, recycling, and bringing resources back into the economy.”Essentially, the European Union wants to get rid of planned obsolescence, where manufacturers design a product with a short lifespan so consumers have to buy a new one, which leads to throwaway culture. To that end, the European Commission announced Wednesday that it will introduce laws to halve the amount of waste the EU produces by 2030. Right now, less than 40 percent of electronic waste in the EU is recycled.The new laws will ensure that new products brought to the EU market are repairable, recyclable and designed to last longer than our current phones and tablets, according to Reuters.”The goal, in the end, is decoupling resource extraction from our economic growth,” Environment, Oceans and Fisheries Commissioner Virginijus Sinkevicius told reporters in Brussels, as Deutsche Welle reported. He added, “The linear growth model of take, make, use and discard has reached its limits.”The sweeping legislation will apply to a wide range of products, including mobile phones, textiles, electronics, batteries, construction and packaging, according to the BBC. The legislation that will make it easier to repair a broken phone display or to replace the battery is spurred by the Right to Repair movement. It also updates current efficiency standards to apply to a broader selection of everyday items. The efficiency laws are outdated since they only apply to computers, televisions, dishwashers and washing machines, according to The Guardian.
BLM exodus: Agency loses half of DC staff slated for relocation – The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has lost more than half of its Washington-based employees who were slated to move out West as the agency pushes ahead with a controversial plan to relocate staff. New internal numbers from the Interior Department obtained by The Hill show 69 employees have left the agency rather than accept the new assignment. Another 18 left after the plans were announced but before they could be reassigned. Those 87 employees outnumber the 80 who have agreed to the move. The figures are at odds with the ones referenced in December by acting BLM Director William Perry Pendley, who said in an email that roughly two-thirds of staffers had agreed to move. “This is a huge brain drain,” said Steve Ellis, who retired from BLM’s top career-level post in 2016. “There is a lot of really solid expertise walking out the door.” The BLM move would uproot nearly all of the agency’s dwindling Washington staff out West, leaving just 61 of 10,000 employees in the nation’s capital. Under the relocation plan, roughly 25 employees would work at BLM’s new headquarters in Grand Junction, Colo., while another 150 or so would be placed in the agency’s existing offices out West. The new internal figures show the agency is experiencing an exodus similar to the ones at two U.S. Department of Agriculture agencies. One of the two agencies, the Economic Research Service, lost nearly 80 percent of its staff last year and had to cancel several projects as a result. In a meeting with Senate appropriators Wednesday, Interior Secretary David Bernhardt told lawmakers he was confident the agency would find quality candidates to replace the departing staffers, including those needed to fill top positions at the new headquarters. “The caliber of people and number of people applying for these positions is through the roof and phenomenal,” he said. But Ellis said the relocation “removes BLM from the sphere of direct influence in the nation’s capital and critically weakens the agency’s ability for career leadership and their staff to collaborate across disciplines and work closely with other key agencies.” “The administration is solving a problem that isn’t there while creating new ones. It will weaken the agency by marginalizing leadership in a relatively small western community,” “The Trump administration is destroying the Bureau of Land Management by mistreating its staff and politicizing its mission and then lying to Congress and the public about the damage it’s causing. This is what happens when you put fossil fuel industry lobbyists and anti-public lands extremists in charge of government agencies,” Committee Chairman Raul Grijalva said in a statement Thursday to The Hill.
Judge Rules Against Trump’s Attempt to Log in America’s Largest National Forest – A federal judge in Alaska ruled late Wednesday against a Trump administration plan to open 1.8 million acres of America’s largest national forest to logging. The Forest Service plan targeted part of the Tongass National Forest on Prince of Wales Island. It would have been the largest sale of national forest timber in 30 years, Earthjustice pointed out, permitting 164 miles of new roads and clearing an area of forest three times the size of Manhattan, more than half of it old growth. But U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason ruled that the plan violated the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) because the agency did not take all of its potential impacts into account, The Hill reported.”The magnificent, ancient forests of the Tongass just got a reprieve from the chain saws,” Randi Spivak,public lands director at the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD), said in the Earthjustice press release. “We’re thrilled the court agreed that the Trump administration broke the law when it approved cutting thousands of acres of old-growth trees. It’s critical to protect our remaining old-growth forests to have any chance of stopping the extinction crisis and slowing climate change.”CBD was one of eight conservation groups that challenged the plan with representation from Earthjustice, according to fellow plaintiff the National Audubon Society. The groups, also including Southeast Alaska Conservation Council, Alaska Rainforest Defenders, Defenders of Wildlife, Sierra Club, Alaska Wilderness League and the Natural Resources Defense Council, argued that it violated NEPA, which allows people to weigh in on major infrastructure projects that will impact their community. Prince of Wales Island is an important location for subsistence hunting and fishing, but the Forest Service did not say in its plans where logging would take place, which meant it was impossible for the local community to meaningfully respond to the plans. Judge Gleason agreed with this assessment of the project, arguing that the service did not state where logging and road building would occur, according to Courthouse News Service. “By not developing actual site-specific information, the Forest Service limited its ability to make informed decisions regarding impacts to subsistence uses and presented local communities with vague, hypothetical, and over-inclusive representations of the project’s effects over a 15-year period,” Gleason wrote.
Tropical Forests Are Reaching Their Carbon Dioxide Limit – Humanity has pushed atmospheric carbon dioxide levels almost 50% higher than they were before industrialization. That dramatic number would be even higher without tropical forests, which have been absorbing as much as 17% of CO₂ emissions along the way. Unfortunately, rainforests can’t capture carbon like they used to. In a new study using 30 years of data from pristine Amazon and African tropical forests, researchers found the actual rate CO₂-reduction rate peaked a quarter-century ago. These rainforests absorbed about a third less CO₂ over the past decade than they did the 1990s, according to the study published in the journal Nature. That’s a difference of 21 billion metric tons – or roughly similar to a decade of fossil-fuel emissions from the U.K., Canada, Germany, and France combined. South American forests began their decline more quickly than their African counterparts, which showed slowing only around 2010. The Amazon, which is world’s largest tropical forest, may turn into a source of emissions by 2035 if it continues to lose the ability to store new carbon at its current rate.
David Attenborough Calls For Ban on Deep-Sea Mining — Sir David Attenborough wants a ban on deep-sea mining. The 93-year-old conservationist spoke out in an interview with Sky News Thursday in conjunction with a new report that warns of the potentially devastating consequences of extracting metals and minerals from the deep places of the ocean. The practice could harm biodiversity, limit the ocean’s ability to support life and even disrupt its ability to store carbon, worsening the climate crisis.”We should not go in and trash an area of the globe about which we know hardly anything until we’ve done the proper research – in short we want a moratorium against action of industrialising the deep-sea,” Attenborough told Sky. The report Attenborough backed was published by Flora and Fauna International (FFI) Thursday, aconservation group of which Attenborough serves as vice president. It comes as there is growing interest in deep-sea mining, defined by FFI as mining below 200 meters (approximately 656 feet), as deposits of minerals used in batteries and mobile phones are discovered, The Guardian reported. The international rules governing the new practice will be decided at a meeting of the UN International Seabed Authority in July. The FFI report is the first to seriously consider the risks of the practice, and it drew some troubling conclusions. Deep-sea mining could:
- Disturb pristine ecosystems
- Create far-reaching plumes of sediment that could kill marine life far from the mining site
- Kill microbes in sediments and hydrothermal vents that reduce methane and carbon
- Disrupt the ocean’s “Biological Pump” that distributes nutrients and sucks carbon out of the atmosphere
- Expose deep-sea life to toxic metals
- Worsen ocean acidification through the mining of sulphide deposits on the seafloor
Preliminary March Consumer Sentiment Declines to 95.9 from 101.0 –From the University of Michigan, Surveys of Consumers chief economist, Richard Curtin: Consumer sentiment fell in early March due to the spreading coronavirus and the steep declines in stock prices. … The component of the Sentiment Index that posted the greatest loss involved judgments about prospects for the economy during the year ahead; this component fell by 29 points, accounting for 83% of the total point decline in early March. … While the most effective containment efforts are widespread closures and self-isolation, those same actions have the largest negative impact on the economy and significantly increase the probability that the pandemic will be followed by a recession that lasts longer than the virus. Not a huge decline – yet.
Coronavirus could halt the world’s emissions growth. Not that we should feel good about that. Emissions are already way down in China, the world’s largest yearly contributor to climate change. Humans have seemed unable to get a handle on climate change, with global emissions of greenhouse gases continuing to grow every year. But a microscopic pathogen, so structurally simple that it does not even have a single cell and is arguably not even alive, may be capable of accomplishing what our political leaders thus far cannot.Experts say that greenhouse gas emissions in China, the world’s largest current contributor to climate change, are down 25 percent in recent weeks as the country conducted a massive societal intervention to stop the spread of the virus. Air pollution is also down, due to decreased driving and less coal burning.Meanwhile, as the virus enters a second phase, spreading beyond China to other countries, it is dampening global demand for oil and air travel, and threatening overall global economic growth. All of these are strongly linked to greenhouse gas emissions.While it’s too early to say for sure, if these trends continue, the coronavirus could join rare company. Since the year 1900, greenhouse gas emissions have risen dramatically. During that period, the escalation of emissions has been nearly constant, with 2019 projected to set yet another record high. And when significant declines have happened, it’s usually been because of world wars, sweeping economic contractions or large-scale geopolitical events such as the fall of the Soviet Union. The last time global emissions fell noticeably was in the wake of the Great Recession, from 2008 to 2009 – when U.S. GDP fell 4.3 percent, unemployment doubled from 5 to 10 percent, housing prices crashed and the stock market lost, at the nadir, more than half of its value. But even in that moment of economic and societal trauma, the global emissions decline was fleeting. Emissions started to rise again almost immediately. Still, if the current emissions contraction that happened first in China spreads around the world, and is sustained, then it might cause a similar impact. Elizabeth Economy, a China expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the nation’s emissions have increased every year for the past three until coronavirus paralyzed entire regions. “If there is a bright side to the coronavirus,” she said, “it is that the drop in industrial production, manufacturing, and automobile use will produce a noticeable drop in CO2 emissions for at least the first two months of the year.” Granted, the bounce back could be rapid if China tries to juice its economy through some type of stimulus once the situation stabilizes. South Korea has already enacted roughly $10 billion in stimulus in the wake of the virus’s spread, and Italy is planning an infusion of $8.4 billion.
Three charts that explain what coronavirus is doing to climate emissions – The quickly spreading coronavirus has closed schools, constricted travel, shaken markets and infected more than 100,000 people. It is also already having impact on the environment: The buildup of climate-warming emissions has dipped amid the outbreak.The spread of a novel coronavirus around the world is nothing to celebrate. But it’s true that dampened demand for electricity, oil and air travel in China has led to a drop in greenhouse gas emissions in that country, the world’s largest contributor to climate change. And as the virus spreads, it may further weigh on economic activity in other nations and decrease their emissions.These three charts explain what has happened to emissions during the outbreak – and where we may be going:
- 1. The economy in China, the world’s largest emitter, has contracted. And that downturn may be best seen by looking up. More than a dozen airlines have scaled back service in China, where the outbreak began late last year. From Jan. 23 to Feb. 13, the number of daily departures and arrivals fell from 15,072 to just 2,004,according to the New York Times: The air travel industry is just one of many affected by the virus. “If there is a bright side to the coronavirus,” Elizabeth Economy, a China expert at the Council on Foreign Relations, told The Post, “it is that the drop in industrial production, manufacturing, and automobile use will produce a noticeable drop in CO2 emissions for at least the first two months of the year.”
- 2. So now there is less air pollution in China. As my colleagues Chris Mooney, Brady Dennis and John Muyskens report, carbon emissions in China are down at least a quarter over February. So, too, has small-particle air pollution decreased. And most dramatically of all, concentrations of another pollutant released by burning fossil fuels called nitrogen dioxide – pictured below – are down also about 40 percent.
- 3. But don’t expect it to last. Past crises – including the Great Depression, the oil shortages in the 1970s and, yes, an influenza pandemic in 1918 – have spurred drops in emissions before. But those declines proved to be fleeting. After the global economy regained its footing following the last dip during 2008 financial crash, for example, “[e]missions started to rise again almost immediately,” Mooney, Dennis and Muyskens write.
Why the coronavirus outbreak is terrible news for climate change – It appears increasingly likely that the global coronavirus outbreak will cut greenhouse-gas emissions this year, as deepening public health concerns ground planes and squeeze international trade. But it would be a mistake to assume that the rapidly spreading virus, which has already killed thousands and forced millions into quarantine, will meaningfully reduce the dangers of climate change. As with the rare instances when worldwide carbon pollution dipped in the past, driven by earlier economic shocks, diseases, and wars, emissions are likely to rise again as soon as the economy bounces back. In the meantime, if the virus leads to a full-blown global pandemic and economic crash, it could easily drain money and political will from climate efforts. In fact, we absolutely should dedicate the bulk of our international attention and resources to the outbreak at this moment, given the grave and immediate public health dangers. Still, the fear is that the highly contagious coronavirus could complicate the challenges of climate change – which presents serious, if longer-term, threats of its own – at a point when it was crucial to make rapid strides. There are several ways this could happen:
- If capital markets lock up, it’s going to become incredibly difficult for companies to secure the financing necessary to move ahead with any pending solar, wind, and battery projects, much less propose new ones.
- Global oil prices took a historic plunge on Monday, driven by a price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia as well as coronavirus concerns. Cheap gas could make electric vehicles, already more expensive, a harder sell for consumers. It’s why Tesla’s stock crashed on Monday.
- China produces a huge share of the world’s solar panels, wind turbines, and lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles and grid storage projects. Companies there have already said they’re grappling with supply issues as well as declines in production and shipments, which have in turn slowed some renewables projects overseas. Any resulting clampdown on trade with the nation where the outbreak originated, which some members of the Trump administration are pushing for, will only further disrupt these clean-energy supply chain and distribution networks.
- Rising health and financial fears could also divert public attention from the problem. Climate change has become an increasingly high priority for average voters in recent years, and the motivating force behind a rising youth activist movement around the world, building pressure on politicians to take serious action. But in the midst of an economic downturn and public health crisis, people would understandably become more focused on immediate health concerns and pocketbook issues – i.e. their jobs, retirement savings, and homes. The longer-term dangers of climate change would take a back seat.
Jane Fonda Says Bernie Sanders Is the Only Climate Candidate -Octogenarian actor and activist Jane Fonda declared ahead of a climate action protest in California Friday that the U.S. needs a “climate president” and she is now backing Sen. Bernie Sanders, who is leading a grassroots movement challenging the Democratic Party establishment coalescing around former Vice President Joe Biden.”We have to get a climate president in office, and there’s only one right now, and that’s Bernie Sanders,” Fonda told USA TODAY prior to the Los Angeles rally. “So, I’m indirectly saying I believe you have to support the climate candidate.” Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) is technically still in the Democratic presidential primary race, but Super Tuesday effectively made it a two-person contest between Biden and Sanders (I-Vt.). USA Today noted that Fonda previously donated to Sens. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), who have since ended their campaigns.Sanders’ Green New Deal proposal to tackle the global climate crisis and ensure a just transition to renewable energy has been hailed by climate advocates as a “game-changer.” The plan, unveiled in August 2019, calls for “100% renewable energy for electricity and transportation by no later than 2030 and complete decarbonization by at least 2050.”Fonda’s comments about supporting Sanders came ahead of the second Fire Drill Friday event in California. In October 2019, Fonda launched Fire Drill Fridays as a weekly civil disobedience campaign in Washington, DC that aimed to pressure U.S. policymakers to ambitiously address the human-caused climate crisis. After a few months and five arrests, Fonda returned to California to resume filming her Netflix show Grace and Frankie. She also partnered with Greenpeace USA to bring Fire Drill Fridays to the West Coast. The first monthly rally was held on Feb. 7 at City Hall in Los Angeles. The second event was Friday, in the Los Angeles Harbor area, and focused on environmental racism.
Wind, solar and storage take up 95% of ISO-New England interconnection queue, marking ‘dramatic shift’ – About 95% of nearly 21 GW of energy resources currently proposed for the New England region are grid-scale wind, solar and battery projects, according to the Independent System Operator of New England (ISO-NE). The number “reflects a dramatic shift” in the grid operator’s interconnnection queue, ISO-NE president and CEO Gordon van Welie said in a press call on Friday. Five years ago, the majority of projects sought by developers were natural gas resources, he said. ISO-NE does not estimate how much of the expected renewable and storage capacity will be built or which resources will be impacted by the grid operator’s Competitive Auctions with Sponsored Policy Resources (CASPR) mechanism. The CASPR plan, intended to mitigate the impact of state subsidies for clean energy on the market, remains the best solution at the moment, van Welie said. While not all of the projects in the queue will be developed, the shift “signals that that’s the type of project that developers are seeking to propose or to bring forward,” Anne George, ISO-NE’s VP of external affairs and corporate communications, said on the call. The makeup of the proposed 20,927 MW includes 68% wind, 15% solar and 11% battery storage. Natural gas makes up only 5% or 1,037 MW. Developers are asking ISO-NE to study proposals for many more potential projects as well. In 2016, natural gas made up 63% of the queue, with wind representing 33% of the 13,000 MW of total proposed generation. In 2015, the interconnection queue had about 10,000 MW of proposed projects – 57% natural gas and 42% wind.
New York Power Plant Mines $50,000 Of Bitcoin A Day – A New York power plant turns to Bitcoin mining in a successful bid to increase profitability.Bloomberg reported on Mar. 5 that a power plant in New York’s Finger Lakes region now mines about $50,000 of Bitcoin (BTC) each day using the electricity it produces. Atlas Holding, the private equity company that owns the facility, installed 7,000 crypto mining machines at the Greenidge Generation’s 65,000-square-foot power plant in Dresden, New York. The firm pointed out that since it produces the power consumed by the machines on its own, the mining operation is extremely low cost. Cryptocurrency mining is extremely energy-intensive. Mining facilities tend to concentrate where electricity prices are the lowest. In this case, the power cost is equivalent to production costs. Atlas Holding’s mining operation consumes about 15 megawatts of the 115 megawatts of the power plant’s total capacity. In the past, the Dresden power plant used to operate only when there was higher-than-usual energy demand during summer and winter, but now it operates the whole year.
Trump team seeks more time on biofuel waivers – The Trump administration wants more time to consider possibly appealing a court ruling that would impede its ability to exempt small oil refiners from complying with the nation’s biofuels law.Both the Reuters and Bloomberg news services reported the administration filed a motion late Friday asking the deadline for an appeal be extended two weeks – making the deadline March 24 instead of Monday.The number of waivers granted to refineries from complying with the renewable fuel law has quadrupled under the Trump administration, according to Reuters.In January, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals raised a red flag on the program, ruling that the U.S.Environmental Protection Agency exceeded its authority in granting new waivers – though it could extend waivers it had already granted before 2010.Both news services reported last week, citing sources they did not name, that the Trump administration had already decided to appeal.Reuters reported that White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow told Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, that an appeal was coming. Grassley’s office would not comment on that report. In a statement, Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw decried the possibility of an appeal, saying “this would go down as one of the worst decisions I’ve seen in 20 years of biofuels policy.”
Energy bill stalled amid amendment gridlock – A mammoth energy policy bill hit a roadblock in the Senate on Monday night with a stalemate over amendments threatening to derail the legislation entirely. Lawmakers voted against closing debate on an updated version of the bill that included a package of noncontroversial amendments forwarded by its sponsors, a sign lawmakers are still eager to push for some of the 191 amendments that have been proposed for the bill. The path forward for the bill, which had been expected to pass as soon as Tuesday, is now unclear. Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-Ky.) did vote against it, a procedural tactic that could allow him to try to end debate for a second time if he’s able to reach a deal. Senate Majority Whip John Thune (R-S.D.) said negotiations had stalled on a path forward on amendments. “We’ll probably end up having to pivot something else, until we figure out if there’s a way we can get this back on track,” Thune told The Hill. The American Energy Innovation Act, sponsored by Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) would spur research and development into a number of types of energy, the first major package on the topic in more than a decade. Democrats have been fighting to add amendments that would phase down the use of heat-trapping hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs) used in refrigerators and air conditioners, as well as another that could push to make new homes more energy efficient. The White House and a few senators have expressed opposition to the HFCs amendment, arguing that federal standards should supersede any passed by the states. But Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) threatened to filibuster the bill hours ahead of Monday night’s votes, accusing McConnell of blocking an otherwise popular amendment from Sens. John Kennedy (R-La.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) that could help fight climate change. “They’re thousands of times more damaging to our atmosphere than carbon dioxide. Phasing out these HFCs is very important. And it will go a long way in fighting climate change and protecting the environment for future generations,” he said, calling the energy bill “a real rare opportunity to make tangible progress.
Exclusive: U.S., Canada, European nations meet to discuss concern over Mexico energy policy – (Reuters) – The United States, the European Union, Canada and six European nations have held joint talks on concerns over Mexico’s energy policy, sources told Reuters, as President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador pushes for a bigger role for the state in the sector. The unusually broad diplomatic encounter is a measure of how the leftist Lopez Obrador’s break with the energy policy of the previous government is worrying economies that have traditionally been some of Mexico’s biggest foreign investors. U.S., Canadian and European officials privately voice concern that Mexico’s energy policy is eroding the legal foundations of contracts worth billions of dollars with the previous administration, in what they fear is a creeping squeeze-out of their interests. Mexico’s government denies it is undermining those deals, but says prior contracts were often damaging to the country, and has sought to renegotiate the terms of some. At Friday’s meeting in Mexico City hosted by the U.S. embassy, diplomats from Britain, Canada, the EU, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain discussed their concerns and how best to relay them to Lopez Obrador, said five people familiar with the gathering.
US utilities, grid operators form plans to power through potential pandemic – Electric utilities may be affected by the outbreak of novel coronavirus in the U.S. and should prepare to operate with up to 40% of their workforce out sick or quarantined, according to a recent Edison Electric Institute report advising the industry on pandemic plans. That figure raises questions about whether power plant and grid employees will have to risk exposure to continue service, especially given that power is essential to other institutions strained by the outbreak, such as hospitals. Domestic utilities and grid operators contacted by S&P Global Market Intelligence said they would address local outbreaks on a case-by-case basis, evacuate and disinfect workplaces exposed to the virus, and restrict access to critical areas. Travel restrictions are quickly spreading: PJM Interconnection, the country’s largest grid operator, has limited employee travel and canceled an upcoming seminar for operators. “We felt it was not prudent to have a concentration of grid operators in one place,” wrote PJM officials in an email to stakeholders. Other grid operators have followed suit. New York ISO announced in a March 9 press release an “indefinite suspension” of all in-person stakeholder meetings, while only Midcontinent ISO employees who are essential to operations can now access control centers. MISO facilities visitors will need to answer travel- and health-related questions before entering. Responding to questions about the outbreak, Craig Cano, spokesman for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, pointed to a reference guide by the North American Electric Reliability Council. He noted that there are “no specific references to disease outbreaks in the NERC standards” but that “NERC does require that the registered entities plan for and conduct operations during emergency conditions.” Registered entities include power plants and transmission control rooms, the spokesman said. “We expect that generating plants and transmission control rooms would have procedures in place to ensure that they could be staffed appropriately,” Cano said. The NERC guidelines do not directly outline when or if a power plant would need to be shut down.
U.S.: Renewables generated more electricity than coal in February – The unthinkable occurred in the U.S. last month: In the dead of winter, renewable energy (utility-scale solar, wind and hydropower) generated more electricity than did coal plants.This has never happened before.Specifically, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA’s) newhourly electric grid monitor, renewables generated 56,981,597 megawatt-hours of electricity during February while coal produced 54,733,731 MWh.The data comes with a few caveats. EIA notes that the numbers are not final (there is a two-month lag until numbers are confirmed in the Administration’s Electric Power Monthly) and that the new web-based resource is still undergoing beta testing. Still, the likelihood that renewable generation outperformed coal during the winter, historically a high-demand season for coal-fired generators, is a clear sign of the rapid transition that is reshaping the U.S. electricity sector.The first time renewables outproduced coal, last April, was a landmark month (see: April is shaping up to be momentous in transition from coal to renewables). February 2020’s results are, if anything, even more important given the time of the year and some of the underlying data. As we noted at the time, the April 2019 results were somewhat influenced by the industry practice of taking coal plants offline during lower-demand seasons (spring and fall) to perform maintenance and upgrades in preparation for higher energy demand during the summer and winter months.Even more interesting is comparing the daily figures of coal generation last April with this February’s results. February l ogged 11 days when coal-fired generation totaled less than 1.8 million megawatt-hours (MWh); last April witnessed only five such days. At the other extreme, April 2019 marked 13 days when coal-fired generation topped 2 million MWh; February 2020 recorded only eight. Most tellingly, for the month as a whole, coal generated an average of 1.98 million MWh daily last April; while this February the daily average was just 1.88 million MWh. All of this EIA data can be found here.
Coal-Fired Power Plants Hit a Milestone in Reduced Operation -Coal-fired power plants are retreating from the market in at least two big ways. One is hard to miss: Many plants are closing. The other is more subtle: Remaining plants are running much less often than before. Newly released figures from the Energy Information Administration show that coal plants in the United States had a “capacity factor” of 47.5 percent in 2019, the first time it’s been below 50 percent in decades of available records. This means that the total electricity production from the country’s roughly 310 remaining coal plants was less than half of what it would have been, had every plant operated every hour at full capacity.The percentage is remarkably low considering that coal plants also are closing at a rapid rate, which means the plants still operating are some of the most efficient and profitable. The fact that even these plants are being used less than they were shows fundamental changes in the economics of generating electricity, with coal losing ground even more than might be apparent from just looking at plant closings. It also raises questions about why utilities aren’t being more aggressive in closing coal plants. At least some of that reluctance is because companies are still paying off the costs of building the plants or of environmental retrofits, an obstacle some states are looking to address. Gas-fired power plants can run much less expensively than coal plants, and the emissions from gas plants are less, although still significant. Another factor is the growth of wind and solar power, which also are less expensive than coal-fired power.
Nearly $640 billion coal investments undercut by cheap renewables: research – (Reuters) – Nearly $640 billion of investment in coal power capacity worldwide is at risk because it is cheaper to generate electricity from new renewables, research by think tank Carbon Tracker Initiative showed on Thursday. Institutional investors are increasingly withdrawing from fossil fuel companies due to the risk their assets will become stranded as tougher emissions-cuts targets discourage their use and renewable energy becomes even cheaper. The report examined the economics of 95% of coal plants which are operating, under construction or planned worldwide. Globally, 499 gigawatts (GW) of new coal power capacity is planned or under construction with an investment cost of $638 billion. More than 60% of global coal plants are currently generating electricity at a higher cost than could be produced by building new renewables. By 2030 at the latest, it will be cheaper to build new wind or solar capacity than continue operating coal in all markets, the report said. The capital recovery period for new investments in coal capacity is usually 15 to 20 years, making these investments risky.
As Investors and Insurers Back Away, the Economics of Coal Turn Toxic – Any day now, New York State will be coal-free. Its last coal-fired power station, at Somerset on the southern shore of Lake Ontario, will shut for good as the winter ends. Remember when Donald Trump promised to bring back coal? Well, three years on, coal’s decline is accelerating – in the United States and worldwide. With the fuel unable to compete in most places with natural gas, nuclear, and renewables, the mining and burning of coal is increasingly toxic economically as well as environmentally. Coal mines are becoming “stranded assets” – unlikely ever to pay off the costs of their development. The risks for financiers are becoming too great. Now, even insurance companies are refusing to underwrite coal-fired power plants and coal mining ventures. And without insurance, say gleeful climate campaigners, coal is dead. Coal burning worldwide fell a further 3 percent last year, the biggest decline yet from a peak in 2013. That trend is unlikely to change. The number of new coal plants that began construction worldwide fell by 84 percent between 2015 and 2018, according to NGOs tracking the demise. Across the developed world, coal’s contribution to keeping the lights on is in freefall. Despite the Trump administration’s dismissal of the climate crisis, the U.S. is proving no exception. Twelve years ago, 45 percent of U.S. electricity was generated by burning coal. The figure is now 24 percent and falling fast. Since Trump arrived in the White House, 39,0000 megawatts of coal-burning power plants have been retired across the U.S. and none commissioned. Starved of markets, eight U.S. coal mining companies filed for bankruptcy last year. They included the largest surviving private company, Murray Energy, owned by Robert Murray, a prominent Trump backer.Investors face growing pressure to pull the plug on coal from climate campaigners, many of whom see shutting off financing as the best route to hobble the fossil fuel industry. And investors see little reason to push back against the pressure since coal represents an escalating financial as well as reputational risk as demand shrinks, regulators turn up the heat on CO2 emissions, and rival cleaner fuels become cheaper.
Indiana approves coal-to-diesel plant that’s above cancer risk levels — Indiana environmental regulators have approved a toxic polluting facility in southern Indiana that at least a dozen other states would have either denied or required additional controls. It’s a decision that, for some, raises questions about whether Indiana is putting industry concerns ahead of the state’s obligation to protect Hoosiers from exposure to emissions that are known to cause cancers and other serious health effects. It’s also not new. IndyStar analyzed roughly 20 similar permits approved since 2007 and found that in nine of those cases the plants’ expected emissions exceeded the cancer risk threshold set by Indiana’s own regulators. The latest example is Riverview Energy Corporation’s $2.5-billion coal-to-diesel plant planned for Spencer County. The plant would be the first-of-its-kind in the U.S, and has been controversial since it was proposed. But local and national environmental groups are now concerned that the Indiana Department of Environmental Management issued the permit, even though the plant’s emissions are expected to produce a cancer risk that is nearly 13 times greater than Indiana’s stated “level of concern.” IndyStar’s review found that many states have enforceable standards that are set at levels that would have required officials to deny Riverview’s permit. In Indiana, however, its cancer risk threshold is merely a guideline. “Being above the cancer risk threshold was just a shot in the gut, you know,” said Mary Hess, who leads Southwestern Indiana Citizens for Quality of Life, a group that started in opposition to the Riverview plant. “It just really makes me angry that they think it’s okay.” Hess’ group and the environmental law organization Earthjustice are now challenging this permit before a judge, leaving it and the facility’s fate up in the air. Riverview officials, however, are steadfast on keeping the project moving forward. Riverview deferred questions about the project and its permit to IDEM. IDEM told IndyStar that it believes it followed its policies in the case of Riverview, but would not comment further because of the ongoing legal challenge.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency defines cancer risk as the elevated risk of getting cancer from exposure to toxic or hazardous air pollutants, known as HAPs – the kind emitted from plants such as Riverview. These pollutants are known to cause or may cause cancer as well as other serious health effects, such as reproductive effects or birth defects. According to IDEM’s policies, the agency considers a cancer risk above one in 1 million – meaning up to one person, out of 1 million, is likely to contract cancer – “to be a level of concern.” The risk level for Riverview, according to the permit, is nearly 13 in one million.
Indiana coal bill: Republicans push legislation to governor’s desk –Indiana’s coal bill is heading to the governor’s desk as legislation that would extend the life of the state’s coal-fired power plants for a year – following a seesaw battle between lawmakers over its major tenets.House Bill 1414 advanced out of conference committee Tuesday morning, but not before the leaders of Indiana’s House and Senate, both of them Republicans, replaced the committee’s Democrats, both of whom opposed the measure, with fellow party members who provided the votes needed to approve it. The conference committee report passed out of the House on Tuesday 55 to 38, and narrowly was voted out of the Senate that evening by a 28-21 vote. A spokeswoman for Gov. Eric Holcomb said Tuesday that he “will review the legislation.”The bill largely reverted to its House version, which was embraced by coal interests but criticized by environmental activists and some business interests as an industry bailout. That said, the bill no longer has some of the original and more controversial language that likely would have raised ratepayers’ bills.House Bill 1414 squeaked out of the House early last month with provisions that would make it harder for utilities to shutter coal-fired plants and created an incentive for utilities to buy more coal. The Senate made changes that watered down the House bill: It moved the bill’s expiration up by four months, and took out the need of the state’s utility regulatory commission to analyze and issue a report on a utilities plan to retire a coal plant. But those changes were rejected by the House, sending the bill to conference committee.
Duke, Dominion, Southern won’t hit clean energy targets at current pace: Report — Duke Energy, Dominion Energy and Southern Company are not making investments consistent with their clean energy goals, according to a report released Monday from Synapse Energy Economics. The three utilities make up 4.2% of total U.S. carbon emissions and 12.4% of U.S. power sector emissions, which constitute about a third of U.S. overall emissions, according to the report. All three utilities have ambitious carbon reduction goals – Duke and Dominion are aiming for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, while Southern is aiming for “low-to-no” emissions by that time. But under the utilities’ current plans, those goals will not be reached by 2030 if those companies keep their coal plants online as long as is currently planned and continue aggressive natural gas buildouts, according to the Synapse report, prepared for the nonpartisan, nonprofit group Majority Action. Over 50 utilities across the U.S. have some sort of carbon reduction goal,according to the Smart Electric Power Alliance, but as more utilities aim for ambitious clean energy targets, some groups worry their actions may not match their commitments. When Duke first announced its mid-century goals, for example, many were skeptical of the utility’s strategy behind that plan, which relies heavily on natural gas buildouts through the 2030s. And Dominion’s announcement earlier this year came alongside the purchase of an additional share of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which both utilities say will be critical to their long-term gas needs. “The near-term actions [of these companies] aren’t consistent,” with a net-zero 2050 goal, or with the more incremental but still substantial carbon reductions needed to get to that mid-century figure, Bruce Biewald, founder and CEO of Synapse and co-author of the report told Utility Dive. “[C]ontrary to what Southern Company, Dominion Energy, and Duke Energy say on their websites, in television ads, and in shareholder reports and pamphlets, the three companies are thus far taking minimal actions to decarbonize their electricity systems,” according to the report. “[N]one of the three companies examined in this report will meet their 2050 greenhouse gas reduction goals under their current resource plans.”
This Tennessee community is keeping a federal utility under pressure to clean up coal ash –Sharon Todd was one of more than 100 people, most of them older adults, packed into a small, bright Claxton, Tennessee, courtroom on a rainy night in mid- February. She and her neighbors wanted to make sure county officials heard concerns about public health and environmental risks of coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal for electricity that contains radioactive materials and heavy metalsknown to cause birth defects, cancer, and chronic heart and lung diseases. “We don’t have to sit back and accept what [TVA] want[s] to do,” said Todd, who is near retirement. “We can have some input.” The landfill, quietly proposed in 2015, was originally going to store new coal ash for the TVA’s 58-year-old Bull Run Fossil Plant. Then, last summer, TVA announced it would close the plant by 2023. But the utility didn’t have plans to clean up the site’s unlined clay coal ash pit three miles west of town, which borders the Clinch River, a public drinking water source. Their solution was to cap the 5 million tons of coal ash in place.The pit is partially submerged in groundwater, and the TVA’s 2019 monitoring data shows arsenic, a known carcinogen, is already leaking from at least two groundwater wells up to eight times above federal drinking water standards. The TVA insists drinking water is safe in Claxton and in downstream communities like Oak Ridge and West Knoxville. Residents aren’t convinced – and they’re leery of the TVA’s new plans to approve a permit for the lined landfill near their homes, which could be a future home for millions of tons of contaminated waste.Out of 737 coal ash sites in the U.S. and Puerto Rico, almost all are in unlined ponds and are polluting groundwater above safe drinking water standards, according to utility data gathered by environmental group EarthJustice. The Southeast is home to nearly half of those sites. As utilities close uneconomical, aging coal-fired power plants at a near-record pace – despite the Trump administration’s efforts to prop up the industry and loosen regulations on coal ash disposal – one of the most pressing questions for communities is if, and how, utilities will clean up the waste.
Federal power plant in Tennessee looking to dump coal ash on SC – Don’t dump more coal ash in South Carolina, state legislators are telling the federal government, and are adding a cost for it. A state Senate bill filed Thursday would tack on a $30-per-ton surcharge for dumping coal ash in a landfill in a county with fewer than 150,000 people, which in this case is meant to include tiny Bishopville in the Pee Dee. The bill came in response to the federal Tennessee Valley Authority announcing a $300 million plan to move toxin-laden coal ash from a retired plant in Memphis to one of six landfills off-site. The landfill list includes Bishopville in Lee County. The 3.5 million cubic yards to be dumped would be enough to fill 14 football fields as high as the goal posts. The surcharge would cost the TVA about $140 million more. State Sen. Thomas McElveen, D-Sumter, the bill’s main sponsor, said trying to ban the dumping outright would create legal problems. “You start to worry about interstate commerce if you just say ‘we’re banning all of this stuff from coming into our state,’ ” said McElveen, whose district includes Lee County. “I think we’re creating an impossible situation by adding a per-ton surcharge on top of whatever the landfill charges,” he said, adding that the fight against out-of-state dumping is “nothing new for South Carolina. We’ve fought these kind of battles for years.”
People Get Answers To What’s In Their Water As Clock Ticks On Coal Ash Bills – Fletcher Sams of the Altamaha Riverkeeper guided his truck down a long muddy road to Ken and Dorothy Krakow’s home on the banks of the Ocmulgee River. With him in a notebook were the results of their well testing. He laid out the bad news on their kitchen table after digging through his notebook with data from over 60 other homes. “It is tied at the very highest for the worst,” he said. Dorothy Krakow buried her face in her hands at the news. Ken Krakow cracked a joke. “Yeah. Wow. Congratulations to us,” he said. “What’s going on?” Sams went on to explain that the Krakow’s water is contaminated with a cancer causing heavy metal called hexavalent chromium. They aren’t alone. People all around the town of Juliette are beginning to get answers about what harmful substances might be in their drinking water. They wanted Sams to find out because they are anxious after decades of living next to the coal ash pond at Georgia Power’s Plant Scherer, which they now know is partially submerged in the aquifer from which they draw their drinking water. Meanwhile, a pair of bills aimed at storing toxic coal ash away from drinking water look like they may not make it through Crossover Day. That’s when bills from one side of the legislature pass to another, part of the path to the governor’s desk. While some want more evidence that coal ash is causing harm in Georgia before acting on the bills, for many in Juliette, uncertainty is reason enough. At their kitchen table, Sams explained to the Krakows their water is over 500 times the hexavalent chromium health advisory limit in California. It’s also about 150 times the limit in North Carolina. Here in Georgia, their number has no context. “There’s only two states in the Union who have limits on hexavalent chromium. Georgia is not one of them,” he told them. Georgia follows EPA coal ash rules which only consider total chromium content, and other types of chromium are less toxic than hexavalent chromium. Plus, despite more than a decade of work that is still ongoing, the EPA has still not settled on guidelines for human toxicity of hexavalent chromium. So Georgia Power’s contamination of the aquifer from which the Krakows and their neighbors draw their drinking water is within legal limits.
No New Black Lung Benefits, West Virginia Miners Seek Changes – The 2020 West Virginia legislative session has ended with no new legislation addressing black lung benefits, leaving former and current coal miners to depend on waning federal benefits to combat the lifelong disease. The Kanawha County chapter of the Black Lung Association — which includes about 30 current and former coal miners, wives, widows and volunteers — lobbied local legislators this past year to no avail. Last week the group celebrated its one-year anniversary while discussing what the future will look like for miners at its’ monthly meeting in Cabin Creek, West Virginia. Cabin Creek has a long history with coal mining and strife between union workers and the coal companies over wages. In 1912 the Paint Creek-Cabin Creek strike resulted in a year-long, deadly battle, and over 200 miners were arrested, and even 108 years later, the resentment is palpable. John Ingram has black lung, a crippling disease caused by the inhalation of coal and silica dust. He worked underground and on surface mines as an electrician.“I get a little frustrated because coal companies for years, I mean before I was born even, got away with whatever they wanted to get away with,” Ingram said. “And somebody needs to stop them, hold them accountable. After all we made the money for them.”These days, miners are still fighting, albeit nonviolently, through the bureaucratic system for federal black lung benefits. The Black Lung Disability Trust Fundprovides some miners disabled by black lung with monthly payments and medical benefits. Coal companies pay into it through a per-ton tax on coal. But the fund is more than $4 billion in debt, and as coal companies increasingly file for bankruptcy it is facing insolvency more quickly than predicted.For miners, getting approved for the federal benefits is time consuming. Jerry Coleman, the chapter’s president, fought for seven years. He said many of the men in the room have been denied and are trying to appeal.“Yeah I’ve got 37 years in the coal mines,” he said. “Some of them they’ve got 30 some years in the coal mines, and they’re getting turned down. There’s something wrong.”
Georgia Power’s Vogtle nuclear facility hits major milestone – Georgia Power ordered the first nuclear fuel load for Vogtle Unit 4 at the Vogtle Electric Generating Plant near Waynesboro, Ga. It was the second major milestone for the facility in the last 12 months as fuel for Unit 3 was ordered last summer. They are the first newly designed nuclear reactors built in the United States in 30 years. The fuel will eventually be loaded into the reactor vessels to support startup once the reactors begin operating. After the initial fueling, approximately one-third of the total fuel assemblies will be replaced during each refueling outage after the units begin operating. It is similar to the process used at the existing Vogtle units 1 & 2. Also, workers have installed 10 of the 16 shield building panels around the Unit 4 containment vessel. The shields provide an additional layer of safety around the containment vessel and nuclear reactor to protect the structure from any potential impacts. The Vogtle 3 & 4 units represent the largest construction projects in the state of Georgia. There are more than 9,000 workers currently on-site with more than 800 permanent jobs created once the units begin operating. The project is now approximately 84 percent complete..
Peach Bottom nuclear plant gets 20-year extension –A York County nuclear plant is now licensed to operate an additional 20 years past its 60-year license. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission approved the extension request from Exelon Generation for Units 2 and 3 on Friday after a 20-month review process. Peach Bottom Atomic Power Station, in Peach Bottom Township, is only the second plant in the country to be approved for operation past 60 years. Florida Power and Light’s Turkey Point Nuclear Generating Station in Florida, was the first. Exelon executives lauded the extension. “The ability to operate Peach Bottom for another 20 years is good news for the environment, our employees and the community,” said Bryan Hanson, Exelon’s chief nuclear officer, in a news release. Dominion Energy has an application under review for a second renewal for two units at Surry Power Station and has submitted a letter of intent to do the same for North Anna Nuclear Generating Station. Both plants are in Virginia. Duke Energy also submitted a letter of intent for three units at Oconee Nuclear Station in South Carolina. Second renewals have been a point of controversy among anti-nuclear activists, who say not enough is known about the effects of aging on nuclear equipment.
Bernie’s nuclear plan, explained – Politico – Sen. Bernie Sandershas pledged to secure 100 percent of U.S. electricity from renewable sources by 2030, and he’d do so in part by ending new licenses to nuclear power plants. But his opposition to nuclear energy may not be as radical as his critics fear,Pro’s Gavin Bade reports this morning. Sanders’ campaign says he would not order the vast majority of existing reactors in the U.S. to shut down, and campaign aides privately acknowledge that Sanders will lack the tools to bring an end to nuclear power within the next decade.Sanders’ opposition to nuclear power stands in contrast to former Vice President Joe Biden, who promises to “identify the future of nuclear power,” including new waste disposal systems and small, modular reactors that the industry hopes will be safer and easier to deploy. The nuclear issue could affect upcoming Democratic primaries in states like Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio and Connecticut, where state nuclear subsidies keep plants running and employ thousands of union jobs. Sanders’ allies say the candidate would prioritize phasing out natural gas and coal-fired power before shutting any nuclear generators. The campaign declined to give further detail on how it would ensure nuclear plants are not replaced by gas, but emphasized Sanders’ call for a complete phase-out of fossil fuels and a ban on hydraulic fracking for gas.
Cancer in US Navy Nuclear Powered Ships -In 2014 I was engaged by some California attorneys to advise on a court case being taken against the Japanese company TEPCO and the US reactor makers GEC on behalf of the sailors who served on the aircraft-carrier. A significant number of the Ronald Reagan crew were reporting a wide range of weird illnesses including cancers, all of which they were attributing to their radiation exposures. In 2014, following all the publicity about the cancers, a number of US Senators and important people were asking pertinent questions – the Navy had to do something to answer the accusations that the Fukushima radiation was killing those who sailed on Operation Tomodachi. They panicked. A big report was prepared by the US Defense Threat Reduction Agency. This report rambled on about how low the Fukushima doses were, how everyone acted wonderfully and how all the radioactivity was rapidly cleaned up. The dose reconstruction showed no one got more than a fraction of the Natural Background dose and so forth. We have been here regularly. Since no-one believes any of this dose bullshit any more, to prove that there was no cancer excess, the Navy took one step too far. They reported the results of their own epidemiology study which they carried out on the Ronald Reagan sailors. This compared the illness yield (including cancers) of the 4,843 RR sailors with a matched control group of 65,269 sailors on nuclear powered ships that were not anywhere near Fukushima. The period of analysis was from 2011 to 2013, about 3 years. This showed that there were more cancers in the control group over that period. The idea clearly was to knock on the head any suggestion that the radiation from Fukushima was the cause of the cancers and other stuff that was the basis of the court case. And this it apparently did. Their move was to compare the matched “unexposed” control group with the Ronald Reagan group. There were 30% more cancers in the control group after adjusting for age. But what I did was to compare the control group with the National population, using data on cancer rates by age group from the SEER database [3]. The result showed an astonishing 9.2-fold excess of cancer in the sailors on nuclear-powered vessels. There were 121 cancers predicted on the basis of the national rates, and 1119 reported by the DTRA study. For the Reagans it was about 6-fold with 46 reported and 7.76 expected. Now this result is astonishing. I wrote my study up for a good scientific peer reviewed journal, and it was published last week [4]. You can find it on academia.edu if you can’t afford the journal cost.
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