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:
Also this week we had a special report: The WTF Oil Market
Poisonings linked to cleaning supplies spike in US during pandemic – Calls to US poison centers have risen 20 percent this year because of exposure to bleach and other disinfectants, health authorities said Monday, linking the surge to COVID-19 cleaning recommendations. From January to March 2020, poison centers received 45,550 calls about dangerous exposure to cleaning chemicals, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said in a report, up from 37,822 the year before. The number of calls rose sharply in March — around the time that most state lockdowns went into effect — with exposures to children under the age of five years accounting for the biggest percentage. Exposure to bleaches, non-alcoholic disinfectants and hand sanitizers all saw sharp rises, with the main route being inhalation. The health agency recommended that to avoid such exposures, people using cleaning products should always read and follow instructions on labels, only use water at room temperature for dilution, and avoid mixing chemicals.
Lysol maker issues warning against injections of disinfectant after Trump comments -Lysol manufacturer Reckitt Benckiser on Friday issued a warning that “under no circumstance” should its products be administered into the human body or be used as a treatment for the coronavirus, a day after President Trump discussed whether disinfectants could be used to treat the disease. The company, which also sells Dettol in the United Kingdom, shared in a statement on its website that “due to recent speculation and social media activity,” they had “been asked whether internal administration of disinfectants may be appropriate for investigation or use as a treatment for coronavirus.” “As a global leader in health and hygiene products, we must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route). As with all products, our disinfectant and hygiene products should only be used as intended and in line with usage guidelines. Please read the label and safety information,” the company shared Friday. Trump on Thursday during a White House briefing suggested medical experts should study exposing the human body to heat and light as a treatment for coronavirus. He also asked if there was a way to inject disinfectant. “And then I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute. One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning. Because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs. So it would be interesting to check that.
Trump remarks on injecting disinfectants draw blowback from doctors – President Trump’s suggestion that people could inject disinfectants as a way to treat coronavirus is drawing strong criticism from doctors who warn the remarks from the White House could endanger the public.“I think we need to speak very clearly that there’s no circumstance under which you should take a disinfectant or inject a disinfectant for the treatment of anything, and certainly not for the treatment of coronavirus,” Scott Gottlieb, Trump’s former FDA Commissioner, said on CNBC when asked about the president’s comments.“There’s absolutely no circumstance under which that’s appropriate and it can cause death and very adverse outcomes.”In an unusual statement, the company that makes Lysol also warned against ingesting its products on Friday. “We must be clear that under no circumstance should our disinfectant products be administered into the human body (through injection, ingestion or any other route),” said the company, Reckitt Benckiser, saying it was responding to “recent speculation and social media activity.”The comment that set off the reaction came at Trump’s press briefing on Thursday. After a presentation from a Department of Homeland Security official about the effects of disinfectants and sunlight on the virus, Trump mused that the same techniques could be used as treatments inside the body. “I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in a minute,” Trump said. “One minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning?”
U.S. Air Quality Decreased in Recent Years, Study Finds -Nearly half of America’s population lives in places where they are exposed to unhealthy air, an increase from numbers recorded over previous years, a new report finds.The American Lung Association’s 21st annual State of the Air report uses air pollution data collected by federal, state and local governments and tribes from the years 2016-2018 – the three hottest years on record – to map air quality across the United States and update findings from previous years. The number of people exposed to ozone and/or particle pollution was 150 million, an increase from the 141.1 million and 133.9 million in the 2019 and 2018 reports, respectively.”What we’ve seen is that hot weather is making it more difficult to achieve health-based [air quality] standards,” Paul Billings, the senior vice president for public policy at the American Lung Association, told NPR. “Climate change makes the conditions for formation of smog or ozone easier, so we need to do more to reduce the underlying emissions.” For a deeper dive: NPR, CNN, ABC
Nearly half of US breathing unhealthy air; record-breaking air pollution in nine cities — This year marks the 50th anniversary of the Clean Air Act, which is responsible for dramatic improvements in air quality. Despite this, a new report from the American Lung Association finds nearly half of the nation’s population – 150 million people – lived with and breathed polluted air, placing their health and lives at risk. The 21st annual “State of the Air” report finds that climate change continues to make air pollution worse, with many western communities again experiencing record-breaking spikes in particle pollution due to wildfires. Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the impact of air pollution on lung health is of heightened concern.The 2020 “State of the Air” report analyzed data from 2016, 2017 and 2018, the three years with the most recent quality-assured air pollution data. Notably, those three years were among the five hottest recorded in global history. When it comes to air quality, changing climate patterns fuel wildfires and their dangerous smoke, and lead to worsened particle and ozone pollution. This degraded air quality threatens everyone, especially children, older adults and people living with a lung disease. “The report finds the air quality in some communities has improved, but the ‘State of the Air’ finds that far too many people are still breathing unhealthy air,” said American Lung Association President and CEO Harold Wimmer. “This year’s report shows that climate change continues to degrade air quality and increase the risk of air pollution harming health. To protect the advances in air quality we fought for 50 years ago through the Clean Air Act, we must again act today, implementing effective policies to protect our air quality and lung health against the threat of climate change.” “Air pollution is linked to greater risk of lung infection,” Wimmer added. “Protecting everyone from COVID-19 and other lung infections is an urgent reminder of the importance of clean air.”
California’s widely polluted air may increase coronavirus death toll – California’s distinction as one of the nation’s most polluted states takes new significance this year as the coronavirus is proving deadlier for people living with dirty air. The American Lung Association’s “State of the Air” report, released Tuesday, indicates that the top metro areas for year-round particle pollution in the U.S. are all in California. They include the Central Valley hubs of Bakersfield, Fresno and Visalia, the Los Angeles region and the Bay Area. Statewide, most residents have recently been exposed to unhealthy levels of particulates, the report shows.
Air pollution may be ‘key contributor’ to Covid-19 deaths – study – High levels of air pollution may be “one of the most important contributors” to deaths from Covid-19, according to research. The analysis shows that of the coronavirus deaths across 66 administrative regions in Italy, Spain, France and Germany, 78% of them occurred in just five regions, and these were the most polluted. The research examined levels of nitrogen dioxide, a pollutant produced mostly by diesel vehicles, and weather conditions that can prevent dirty air from dispersing away from a city. Many studies have linked NO2 exposure to health damage, and particularly lung disease, which could make people more likely to die if they contract Covid-19. “The results indicate that long-term exposure to this pollutant may be one of the most important contributors to fatality caused by the Covid-19 virus in these regions and maybe across the whole world,” said Yaron Ogen, at Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany, who conducted the research. “Poisoning our environment means poisoning our own body, and when it experiences chronic respiratory stress its ability to defend itself from infections is limited.” The analysis is only able to show a strong correlation, not a causal link. “It is now necessary to examine whether the presence of an initial inflammatory condition is related to the response of the immune system to the coronavirus,” Ogen said. A separate study published on 7 April looked at fine particle pollution in the US and found that even small increases in levels in the years before the pandemic were associated with far higher Covid-19 death rates. Another recent paper noted that the high death rates seen in the north of Italy correlated with the highest levels of air pollution.
COVID-19 ‘Liberate’ Groups Are the Same Ones Pushing Climate Denial – Steve Horn – The response among many American public officials and the public at large to the COVID-19 pandemic has, in many ways,paralleled the response to the climate crisis. First came a denial that it was a problem at all, then a denial of its depth and gravity. Later came an acceptance of the problem but the stance that responding is too economically costly. And as with the climate crisis, this is no accident. The well-funded machinery that sowed doubt about climate is now sowing seeds of doubt over the economic and public health response to COVID-19. DeSmog previously reported that many conservative groups and individuals who for years downplayed the gravity of the climate crisis did the same as the coronavirus outbreak worsened around the world and eventually made its way into the United States. Now, weeks into that public health crisis – and with more than three-quarters of a million cases and over 41,000 deaths in the U.S. – groups nationwide are clamoring for an early end to stay-at-home orders and a reopening of state economies. Many of those same groups, a DeSmog investigation shows, are also part of what sociologist Robert Brulle has called the climate change countermovement and what U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) has coined the “web of denial.” Like the eruption of Tea Party protests in 2009, many of the protests have the outward appearance of spontaneity, yet are tied through common funding streams and networks. In the case of what President Donald Trump has called the “liberate” movement, one major thread tying the groups together is the State Policy Network (SPN). SPN, a network of state-level conservative think tanks advancing pro-corporate agendas, has received money from the likes of the Koch family, the Devos family, the Mercer Family Foundation, and others. DeSmog traced SPN groups to three states in which protests against stay-at-home orders have ensued…
Great! If COVID-19 Doesn’t Get Me, Perhaps the Mercury Will: Trump EPA Rejects Justification for Pollution Rule – – Jerri-Lynn Scofield –During the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Environmental Protection Agency decided that the wisest thing it can do is worsen air quality! I guess nothing should surprise me, as the Trump administration has consistently and relentlessly gutted environmental standards, taking especial delight in overturning actions of his predecessor – no matter how tepid they may be. As Ecowatch tells the story in Trump’s EPA Weakens Justification for Life-Saving Mercury Pollution Rule: As many Americans fight for their lives in the midst of a respiratory pandemic, the Trump administration Thursday axed the justification for a mercury pollution rule that saves more than 10,000 lives and prevents as many as 130,000 asthma attacks each year. The new rollback leaves mercury emission standards in place for now, but changes how their benefits are calculated so that the economic cost takes precedence over public health gains, The New York Times reported. The move provides a legal opening to challenge other pollution controls even as evidence suggests that exposure to air pollution might increase one’s chances of dying from the new coronavirus. “This final rule will increase the risk of more kids with asthma and brain damage, and more people with cancer. Undermining these vital safeguards now also directly threatens the people hardest hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, making it even harder to breathe and putting people with respiratory illnesses at even higher risk.” To understand what the EPA did, we must start with the previous policy. The Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS), first passed in 2011 when McCarthy headed the EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, were the first of their kind to limit toxic emissions like mercury and lead from coal-fired power plants. These metals are particularly harmful to pregnant women and the brains of children. Between 2006, when states first began controlling mercury, and 2016, when the MATS took full effect, mercury emissions declined 85 percent, The Washington Post pointed out. The Obama administration argued that, while the standards would cost the industry as much as $9.6 billion a year, the country as a whole would save between $37 billion and $90 billion in public health costs. However, these calculations considered co-benefits of the mercury rule such as a decline in soot and smog-causing pollution. The Trump EPA took issue with the cost benefit analysis previously done to justify enacting the mercury rule. With that analysis overturned, the EPA opens the door to future lawsuits challenengng these and other similar regulations. This move foreshadows a future shift in regulatory approach: we ain’t seen nothing yet!
Coronavirus underscores need to address environmental inequities, report says – The coronavirus pandemic and its outsize effect on low-income communities has created a new sense of urgency to address the climate crisis, advocates say.The New York City Environmental Justice Alliance is conveying in its annual climate justice agenda how the pandemic has laid bare the role environmental injustices play in making low-income communities of color particularly vulnerable to public health crises.“As the Covid crisis unfolded … what became clear to us was just how much relevance our report now has,” Eddie Bautista, executive director of the group, said in an interview with POLITICO. “The dimensions that have jumped out at us in the last couple of weeks – the folks with pre-existing conditions [and] heightened vulnerability – just how neatly that overlays with environmental justice communities.”Black and Hispanic residents have significantly higher death rates from the coronavirus than their white counterparts, often due to higher rates of pre-existing respiratory conditions. Those conditions trace their roots, in part, to living in highly polluted areas of the city.The policy agenda, first obtained by POLITICO, calls on lawmakers to reduce greenhouse gases and localized emissions, advance the transition to a regenerative economy and cultivate healthy and more resilient communities. It warns that the city must accelerate its efforts to both meet its own environmental goals and also prepare for the many ramifications of climate change, such as more frequent heat waves.Research on the pandemic is ongoing, but preliminary data has shown a link between counties with higher pollution levels to a greater number of coronavirus deaths. The study, conducted by the Harvard University T.H. Chan School of Public Health, showed that a person living decades in an area with high levels of particulate matter is 15 percent more likely to die from the coronavirus than someone in a region with one unit less of fine particulate pollution.That has raised alarms in environmental justice communities like the South Bronx – an area known as “Asthma Alley” because of its proximity to waste transfer stations and major highways. Preliminary data has shown that the Bronx – which has long had some of the highest rates of pre-existing conditions associated with COVID-19 complications – has seen a high number of deaths and confirmed cases compared to other parts of the city.
Insect Populations on Land Are Down 25%, Study Shows – If you haven’t noticed as many bees, butterflies and fireflies as you used to, there’s a good reason for that.It turns out that insects that live on land have seen their population decline 9 percent every decade, which means we have lost nearly one-fourth of them over the last 30 years and 50 percent of them over the last 75 years, according to a new analysis published in Science, as Newsweek reported.”And because it’s a mean, there are places where it is much worse than that,” Dr. Roel van Klink, an ecologist at the German Center for Integrative Biodiversity Research, told the BBC.”Insect declines happen in a quiet way and we don’t take notice from one year to the next. It’s like going back to the place where you grew up. It’s only because you haven’t been there for years that you suddenly realize how much has changed, and all too often not for the better,” added van Klink from the Newsweek story.The losses were strongest in the West and Midwest in the U.S. and in Europe, especially in Germany, according to the BBC.The analysis looked at 166 long-term surveys from almost 1,700 sites between 1925 and 2018. It found that some insects were not following the trend. In fact, freshwater insects like mosquitoes and midges were increasing their numbers by about 11 percent per decade, which is likely due to conservation efforts to clean up polluted rivers and lakes. However, as The Guardian noted, these bugs make up only 10 percent of insect species and do not pollinate crops. The researchers said the study is by no means complete, and there is an urgent need to accelerate the study of insect populations to paint a clearer picture. The rapid decline of insects worldwide has concerned scientists. Insects are among the most abundant and diverse species on the planet. They serve vital functions in preserving ecosystems, from aerating the soil to pollination and recycling of nutrients, the BBC reported.The researchers would like to see data from understudied areas like South America, South Asia and Africa, where there is virtually none. They said that the rapid destruction of wild habitats in these places for farming and urbanization is likely to have drastically reduced insect populations, according to The Guardian.
Microplastics Found in Antarctic Sea Ice Samples for First Time, Scientists Say -For the first time, microscopic plastic pollution has been found in Antarctic sea ice samples collected more than a decade ago, suggesting that microplastic concentrations in Southern Sea ice may be higher than previously believed. A total of 96 microplastic particles from 14 different types of polymer were discovered in an ice core sample collected from Casey Station located in East Antarctica in 2009. As ice freezes in the region, scientists believe that small pieces of plastic may become trapped in ice, which acts as a reservoir for pollution until it is released again by ice melt.”The remoteness of the Southern Ocean has not been enough to protect it from plastic pollution, which is now pervasive across the world’s oceans,” said lead study author Anna Kelly who published her findings in Marine Pollution Bulletin.Plastic particles measuring less than 5 millimeters have become common in remote marine habitats, from nearly every corner of the world to the bellies of the world’s most remote organisms. Since researchers began tracing microplastics six years ago, they have found plastic pollution in Antarctic surface waters and sediments as well as in Arctic sea ice. Though these regions are remote, concentrations of microplastics have been found to rival those found in more urban settings. An average of nearly 12 particles of microplastic were found in every examined liter of coastal land-fast sea ice, which is sea ice “fastened” to the coastline, according to the Polar Science Center. This number is slightly lower than what previous studies in polar regions have detected, but the overall size of each was larger, which indicate that the pollution came from local sources as it had “less time to break down into smaller fibers than if transported long distances on ocean currents.” “Local sources could include clothing and equipment used by tourists and researchers, while the fact that we also identified fibers of varnish and plastics commonly used in the fishing industry suggests a maritime source,” Kelly said.
Arctic Likely to See Ice-Free Summers Despite Climate Action, Study Says – Moscow Times – The Arctic will likely lose its summertime ice cover by 2050 even if current levels of CO2 emissions are significantly cut, a new study published in the American Geophysical Union’s journal has warned. Climate change has reduced sea ice coverage in the Arctic Ocean in recent decades, with 2019 tying with 2012 for having the second-lowest ice cover in recorded history. Ice in Russia’s Arctic waters disappeared last summer, freeing up the shipping lane known as the Northern Sea Route which is coveted by the Russian government. “In most simulations, the Arctic Ocean becomes practically sea ice-free… in September for the first time before the year 2050,” said the authors of the latest study, which is based on 40 of the latest models. Previous research in 2013 forecast that the Arctic would become ice-free by 2050. “Ice-free” generally refers to perennial ice broken into fragments totaling an area less than 1 million square kilometers. “If we keep global warming below 2 [degrees Celsius], Arctic sea ice will nevertheless likely disappear occasionally in summer even before 2050,” The Guardian quoted Dirk Notz, the study’s lead author, as saying. “This really surprised us,” Notz was quoted as saying. Co-author Ed Blockley said another surprising finding was the emergence of ice-free winters in the Arctic if CO2 emissions remain high. “A winter ice-free event would be catastrophic, for some wildlife species [like polar bears] for example, that live and hunt around sea ice,” he was quoted as saying. Russia, whose economy heavily depends on oil and gas, has been slow to take steps to reduce its carbon emissions and is the world’s fourth-largest greenhouse gas emitter. Earlier this year, the government published a plan of action that outlines 29 broad measures to both mitigate damage and take advantage of opportunities created by climate change.
Releasing Herds of Animals Into the Arctic Could Help Fight Climate Change, Study Finds – Herds of horses, bison and reindeer could play a significant part in saving the world from an acceleration in global heating. That is the conclusion of a recent study showing how grazing herbivores can slow down the pace of thawing permafrost in the Arctic. The study – a computerized simulation based on real-life, on-the ground data – finds that with enough animals, 80% of all permafrost soils around the globe could be preserved through 2100. The research was inspired by an experiment in the town of Chersky, Siberia featured on CBS News’ “60 Minutes.” The episode introduces viewers to an eccentric scientist named Sergey Zimov who resettled grazing animals to a piece of the Arctic tundra more than 20 years ago.Zimov is unconventional, to say the least, even urging geneticists to work on resurrecting a version of the now-extinct woolly mammoth to aid in his quest. But through the years he and his son Nikita have observed positive impacts from adding grazing animals to the permafrost area he named Pleistocene Park, in a nod to the last Ice Age.Permafrost is a thick layer of soil that remains frozen year-round. Because of the rapidly warming climate inArctic regions, much of the permafrost is not permanently frozen anymore. Thawing permafrost releases heat-trapping greenhouse gases that have been buried in the frozen soil for tens of thousands of years, back into the atmosphere.Scientists are concerned that this mechanism will act as a feedback loop, further warming the atmosphere, thawing more soil, releasing more greenhouse gases and warming the atmosphere even more, perpetuating a dangerous cycle.In winter the permafrost in Chersky, Siberia stays at about 14 degrees Fahrenheit. But the air can be much colder, dropping down to 40 below zero Fahrenheit. Typically there is a thick blanket of snowfall in winter which insulates the soil, shielding it from the frigid air above and keeping it milder. The idea behind Zimov’s on-the-ground Pleistocene Park experiment was to bring grazing animals with their stamping hooves back to the land to disperse the snow, compress the ground and chill the soil.
Beer may lose its fizz as CO2 supplies go flat during pandemic – (Reuters) – Dwindling supplies of carbon dioxide from ethanol plants are sparking concern about shortages of beer, soda and seltzer water – essentials for many quarantined Americans. Brewers and soft-drink makers use carbon dioxide, or CO2, for carbonation, which gives beer and soda fizz. Ethanol producers are a key provider of CO2 to the food industry, as they capture that gas as a byproduct of ethanol production and sell it in large quantities. But ethanol, which is blended into the nation’s gasoline supply, has seen production fall sharply due to the drop in gasoline demand as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Gasoline demand is down by more than 30% in the United States. The lack of ethanol output is disrupting this highly specialized corner of the food industry, as 34 of the 45 U.S. ethanol plants that sell CO2 have idled or cut production, said Renewable Fuels Association Chief Executive Geoff Cooper. CO2 suppliers to beer brewers have increased prices by about 25% due to reduced supply, said Bob Pease, chief executive officer of the Brewers Association. The trade group represents small and independent U.S. craft brewers, who get about 45% of their CO2 from ethanol producers. “The problem is accelerating. Every day we’re hearing from more of our members about this,” said Pease, who expects some brewers to start cutting production in two to three weeks. In an April 7 letter to Vice President Mike Pence, the Compressed Gas Association (CGA) said production of CO2 had fallen about 20% and could be down by 50% by mid-April without relief, CGA CEO Rich Gottwald said in the letter. Meat producers are also feeling the pinch, as they use CO2 in processing, packaging, preservation and shipment. Orion Melehan, CEO of Santa Cruz, California-based LifeAID, a specialty beverage company, said two of his production partners are looking for alternative CO2 sources. “It does have us up at night figuring out what our options are,” “It highlights the laws of unintended consequences.”
Climate change: World mustn’t forget ‘deeper emergency’ – BBC – Despite the impacts of the coronavirus pandemic, the world mustn’t forget the “deeper environmental emergency” facing the planet. That’s the view of the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, in remarks released to celebrate Earth Day. The toll taken by the virus is both “immediate and dreadful”, Mr Guterres says. But the crisis is also a wake-up call, “to do things right for the future,” said the Secretary General. Mr Guterres re-iterated his view that the coronavirus is the biggest challenge the world has faced since the Second World War. But as the world commemorates the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, the planet’s “unfolding environmental crisis” is an “even deeper emergency”, he says. “Biodiversity is in steep decline,” Mr Guterres stated. “Climate disruption is approaching a point of no return. “We must act decisively to protect our planet from both the coronavirus and the existential threat of climate disruption.” A long-term advocate of strong action to tackle global heating, Mr Guterres is now proposing six climate-related actions that should shape the recovery after the virus. The world has to deliver new jobs and businesses through a “clean, green transition”. Taxpayers’ money, when it is used, “needs to be tied to achieving green jobs and sustainable growth”. Money must be used to make people and societies more resilient to climate change, he says. “Public funds should be used to invest in the future not the past.” Fossil fuel subsidies from governments is a theme that Mr Guterres has highlighted many times. These must end he says, and polluters must pay for their pollution. The world will need to work together, says the Secretary General, and climate risks will need to be factored into the financial system and be at the heart of all public policy.
Earth Day: Demands for fresh look at environmental movement – As Earth Day marks its 50th birthday, the founders of the movement, which it is estimated draws in one billion people a year, can celebrate in their significant achievements. It’s inaugural demonstrations, on April 22, 1970, led to the founding of the Environmental Protection Agency, by Republican president Richard Nixon, and sparked a wave of legislation in the following years including the Clean Water and Air Acts and the Endangered Species Act. But half a century on, immense environmental challenges remain.There is less than a decade to achieve the Herculean task of limiting global warming to the 1.5C above pre-industrial levels set out in the Paris Climate Agreement. And pollution does not affect all equally. Communities of colour, indigenous peoples and low-income communities disproportionately suffer the adverse effects of pollution andclimate change. Currently, the Trump administration is rolling back dozens of environmental policies and cosying up to the fossil-fuel industry. Julian Brave Noisecat, Vice President of Policy & Strategy of Data for Progress, viewed the success of Earth Day as a “mixed bag”.He told The Independent: “The environmental movement has succeeded in its 50-year history of taking on big issues like the hole of the ozone layer quite effectively.“But the climate crisis has gotten a little bit out of our control. Even amid this pandemic, emissions reductions are not on track for what the UN says is necessary to keep warming below 1.5C.” He added: “I would also say that the environmental movement in its history has, for the most part, been a movement led by and for middle-class, white people. “The communities that are harmed the most by the fossil-fuel economy, pollution and climate change are communities of colour. But the environmental movement has not done the best job in its history of allowing those communities and people to take leadership and to shape the movement in a way that would prioritise those on the hazardous edge of poverty and pollution.” In some respects, things have become worse.There has been widespread deforestation. Almost one-fifth of the “world’s lungs” Amazon rainforest has been destroyed in the last 50 years, intensifying climate change along with decimating wildlife. The oceans are warming far more quickly than previously thought and in part due to this, sea levels are rising.
Drop in emissions due to pandemic won’t fix climate, WMO says – (Reuters) – The COVID-19 pandemic is expected to cause the biggest fall in carbon dioxide emissions since World War Two but it will likely be short-lived and will not stop climate change, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said on Wednesday. The WMO expects a 6% drop in carbon emissions this year, an estimate on the high end of a range given by scientists, but the U.N. agency warned that it could be followed by even higher emissions growth than before the crisis. “This drop of emissions by 6%, that’s unfortunately short-term good news,” WMO’s Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in response to a Reuters question at a virtual briefing in Geneva. “In the most likely case we will easily go back to normal next year and there might even be a boost in emissions because some industries have been stopped.” In fact, the drop is not even enough to get the world back on track to meet the target of the 2015 Paris Agreement, which aims for global temperature rise of no more than 1.5 degree above pre-industrial levels, Taalas said. That would require at least a 7% annual drop in emissions, he added. The WMO also published on Wednesday its Global Climate report, which confirmed a finding that 2015-2019 was the warmest five-year period on record, with the global average temperature up 1.1 degree Celsius above pre-industrial levels. So far this year, global temperatures on a monthly basis have been either the warmest or second warmest on record, a spokeswoman added. Carbon dioxide remains in the air for centuries so falls in emmissions do not immediately impact climate and would need to be sustained over a period to eventually do so. However, the WMO did note lower levels of the harmful greenhouse gas nitrous oxide as well as improvements in air quality in industrial hubs like China and northern Italy due to the pandemic.
DEP projects Pa. could cut carbon emissions dramatically as part of cap-and-trade effort | StateImpact Pennsylvania – Pennsylvania could reduce its carbon emissions by almost 10 times as much over the next decade if it joins a regional effort aimed at cutting greenhouse gases, according to new projections from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection. The models show Pennsylvania’s carbon emissions will go down over the next decade regardless of whether the commonwealth joins the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade agreement among 10 northeastern states. As the state’s energy portfolio shifts further away from coal toward cleaner-burning natural gas, emissions will still go down by 20 million tons between 2022 and 2030, or a 25 percent drop over those eight years. But Haley Book, DEP’s senior advisor on energy and climate, said participation in RGGI would create an immediate drop in emissions and prevent a total of 180 million tons of carbon emissions over the same time period. “How we are looking at this is it’s really less about the delta from where Pennsylvania ends up in 2030 and more about all the emissions savings that are occurring between now and then,” Book said. Scientists say carbon emissions must be cut dramatically to avoid the worst effects of climate change. Pennsylvania is the fourth largest greenhouse gas emitter in the country. RGGI sets a limit on carbon emissions from power plants, which must purchase a credit for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit. Book said projections show, under RGGI, Pennsylvania electricity generation would decline slightly while wholesale prices would rise by 3 percent. The state would still be a net exporter of electricity.
The coronavirus crisis means we may have already reached peak carbon – The coronavirus crisis will likely lead to the largest ever decline of global carbon emissions on record, according to research from Goldman Sachs, illuminating the potential for a long-term low carbon recovery. The Covid-19 outbreak has meant countries around the world have effectively had to shut down, with many governments imposing draconian restrictions on the daily lives of billions of people. To date, confinement measures have been implemented in 187 countries or territories in an effort to try to slow the spread of the pandemic. A side-effect of these measures, which vary in their application worldwide but broadly include school closures, bans on public gatherings and social distancing, has been a dramatic fall in the level of global carbon emissions. Analysts at Goldman Sachs said in a research note that they expect energy-related carbon emissions (which account for two-thirds of total greenhouse gas emissions) to fall by at least 5.4% this year alone. To be sure, that’s roughly five times that of previous crises, with the potential for “much larger” declines depending on the length of disruption to the transportation sector and industrial activity. ‘This time could be different’ “Energy-related emissions have always rebounded post crisis,” analysts at Goldman Sachs said, citing data which showed carbon intensity improvements in the year after every major crisis since the 1970s. “This time could be different as we have potentially already reached peak energy-related carbon,” they added.
Critical mass: Can low-carbon wood construction catch on in the U.S.? – Sustainable engineered wood products are starting to turn up in large-scale construction projects in New England, as architects, developers and institutions look for ways to reduce the building industry’s substantial carbon footprint.Cross-laminated timber, or CLT, and other so-called mass timber products are viewed as greener than concrete and steel, primarily because the carbon emissions from production of the wooden framing materials is so much lower.Since the University of Massachusetts incorporated CLT construction to stunning effect in its Design Building on the Amherst campus three years ago, the material has turned up in a number of other large projects, including a new residence hallat the Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, and an office building under construction in Newington, New Hampshire.Now, two firms designing an affordable housing project implementing CLT in Boston hope it will become a prototype for sustainable architecture that can be replicated by other developers in housing throughout the city.“Boston has a very progressive design, engineering, construction and development community, and carbon is the new hot topic,” said John Klein, chief executive officer of Generate Architecture + Technologies, a startup focused on mass-timber building solutions based at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Cross-laminated timber is a very large, prefabricated wood panel. It is formed of several layers of lumber boards, stacked in alternating directions and glued to form one panel. Much stronger than traditional lumber, CLT is suitable for constructing walls, roofs and floors.
Wisconsin biogas gas producer sees potential in thermal renewable credits — A Wisconsin company is the first to sign up for a new renewable natural gas tracking system that could help monetize the environmental benefits of methane captured from dairy farms, landfills, and other sources. U.S. Gain will verify its renewable gas production through Midwest Renewable Energy Tracking System (M-RETS), which will produce “thermal certificates” that can be sold to other customers as carbon offsets. The renewable thermal certificates work like renewable energy certificates, or RECs, used in electricity markets. A REC represents one megawatt-hour of electricity. The thermal renewable certificate measures renewable natural gas in dekatherms, a unit of volume used by the natural gas industry. M-RETS believes the thermal certificate could create a more robust market for renewable fuel, following in the footsteps of what RECs did for solar and wind. “I hope this will show people there’s a lot to be done on thermal decarbonization by building a market that can be quantified so we can see what the reductions are,” said Ben Gerber, M-RETS’ executive director. Without a third-party organization validating clean energy production, buyers would potentially have little idea of the origin of the electricity or renewable natural gas, Gerber said. For years M-RETS tracked RECs associated with electric power before developing the thermal certificate.
Nearly 30% of ethanol plants idled, including four in Minnesota – Four Minnesota ethanol plants are idled and many more have throttled back production as COVID-19 has sapped gasoline demand, crushing the biofuel industry. U.S. ethanol production has hit an all-time low. Nearly 30% of the nation’s 204 biofuel plants have been idled since March 1, while many others have slashed production. “The fuel market is just telling us to shut down and not operate,” said Randall Doyal, CEO of Al-Corn Clean Fuel in the southern Minnesota town of Claremont. “Economically, its abysmal.” Al-Corn has kept the doors open, running at 38% of capacity and doing some minor plant rejiggering to produce ethanol for hand-sanitizer makers. “We might have enough business on the hand-sanitizer side to at least defray some losses,” Doyal said. The ethanol industry’s woes also spell trouble for farmers in Minnesota and across the Midwest. Ethanol makers consumed 36% of Minnesota’s corn crop in 2019, according to the Minnesota Bio-Fuels Association. With so much biofuel demand erased, U.S. corn prices are near a 10-year low. Minnesota is the nation’s fourth-largest ethanol-producing state with 18 plants. By federal law, most fuel sold as gasoline is required to have 10% ethanol. But gasoline demand has fallen off a cliff because of COVID-19 social restrictions. The U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said that as of the week ending April 10, the four-week moving average of U.S. gasoline consumption hit a low not seen in the 29 years that such data has been collected. Ethanol production for the week ending April 10 hit its lowest level since the EIA began reporting ethanol output in 2010, according to the Renewable Fuels Association, a trade group. Only 60 of the nation’s 204 ethanol plants were running full-tilt as of Monday, the association said. Another 71 were running below capacity, and 58 have been idled since March 1. (Another 15 plants had been idled before that date). The Denco II ethanol plant in Morris closed indefinitely on March 30; the next day Gevo temporarily closed its facility in Luverne, which makes ethanol and isobutanol for jet fuel. Denco and Gevo employed 35 and 30 people respectively, and both are smaller biofuels producers. Guardian Energy in the southern Minnesota town of Janesville is the state’s largest ethanol plant (with a capacity of 149 million gallons), and it closed April 2 through May.
Lordstown Motors still plans to debut Endurance EV pickup this summer – Lordstown Motors’ ambitious timeframe to launch its first electric pickup truck is largely still on track, despite the coronavirus pandemic tossing a wrench in just about everything.In an update posted Tuesday to the startup’s website, CEO Steve Burns said the firm’s Endurance EV pickup will still debut this summer. Originally, the company told Roadshow the pickup would debut at the 2020 North American International Auto Show. The show, which takes place in Detroit, was canceled last month as the Federal Emergency Management Agency designated the expo center as a field hospital for those ill with COVID-19.The cancellation won’t keep Lordstown Motors out of the spotlight and Burns said we’ll likely see the pickup debut virtually at the company’s headquarters inLordstown, Ohio. We should know more in the next month. The virus will push deliveries back, however, but just by a month. The startup wanted to deliver the first pickups by the end of this year. Now, the first customers will receive their Endurance pickups in January 2021.
After months of delay, Ohio solar projects gain siting board’s approval | Energy News Network – The Ohio Power Siting Board has approved three utility-scale solar projects following a delay demanded last fall by the board’s chair, Samuel Randazzo.The siting board on Thursday approved the 80-megawatt Nestlewood solar project that will be built on about 600 acres east of Cincinnati as proposed by Dallas-based developer Lendlease Energy Development, LLC.The close scrutiny of the project by Randazzo, a longtime critic of renewable energy, put the brakes on the project in October and had come as a surprise to developers and board staff. Randazzo said his concerns are now resolved. In a second vote, the board approved altering the location of some of the solar panel arrays in two solar farms previously approved for northwest Ohio’s Hardin County.The siting board in May 2019 approved the two adjacent solar projects with a combined output of more than 300 megawatts proposed by Chicago-based Invenergy. Rows of solar panels typically sit on metal racks atop steel I-beams driven into the ground. Subsequent test borings by the developer – as required by the siting board’s permit – indicated that portions of the land were unsuitable. Invenergy then asked to alter the footprints of the two adjacent projects.The siting board’s staff, the company, and the Ohio Farm Bureau – which had intervened in the case to represent farmers adjacent to the project as well as farmers who own the land leased for the project – had agreed on the layout changes and had submitted the modified site plans to the board for a vote of approval when Randazzo unexpectedly demanded further review of the entire project in October. He laid out his objections in great detail, including what he said was lack of specificity about the final design of project, including lighting and appropriate vegetative screening to hide the solar arrays from adjoining properties. He also said he was concerned about the impact the project would have on the Kirtland’s snake, a threatened species.
All of GM’s Detroit operations to be solar-wind powered in three years –In three years, General Motors expects all its facilities in southeast Michigan to run on clean and renewable energy. The automaker has purchased 500,000 megawatt hours of solar energy from DTE Energy’s MIGreenPower program, GM said Monday. DTE said the investment will support nearly 1,500 clean energy jobs in Michigan during project construction. GM’s investment in MIGreenPower should deliver enough clean energy to run GM’s southeast Michigan facilities by 2023, GM said. That includes its global headquarters in the Renaissance Center in Detroit, the GM Global Technical Center in Warren, the Milford Proving Ground in Milford and two assembly plants, Orion and Detroit-Hamtramck. GM makes the Chevrolet Bolt electric car at Orion Assembly and the automaker is currently retooling Detroit-Hamtramck to build the GMC Hummer electric pickup, the self-driving Cruise Origin and other future EVs. GM said it will also supply energy to several smaller GM sites in metro Detroit. Clean energy is carbon-free energy that emits little to no greenhouse gas. Renewable energy is derived from sunlight, wind, water and geothermal heat. GM has said it is adding workplace charging stations, to be powered by wind and solar, at its facilities in southeast Michigan as well. “Not only should this agreement reduce emissions in the near term, it’s a glimpse into a world with electric vehicles, built by renewable energy, and in the case of our workplace chargers, charged by a green grid too,” said GM’s Chief Sustainability Officer Dane Parker.
New wind, solar generation as coal fades – The power industry is continuing its shift toward renewable energy sources and away from coal-fired electricity generation.Electricity generators added nearly 23,000 megawatts of new generating capacity last year, the Department of Energy reported. About 9,100 megawatts came from new onshore wind generators, 8,300 megawatts from natural gas-fired power plants and 5,300 megawatts from solar energy. One megawatt powers about 200 homes during a hot summer day in Texas.The South, including Texas, represented nearly all of the new capacity additions, according to the Energy Department.At the same time, nearly 14,000 megawatts of coal-fired capacity was retired in 2019. Total U.S. electricity generation has remained relatively flat for more than a decade, but more renewable energy has come online to replace retiring coal-fired power plants. The shift reflects low natural gas prices, declining construction costs for solar and wind projects and more states increasing their renewable energy portfolio requirements.
Coronavirus outbreak at wind power plant in North Dakota shuts down production – An outbreak of Covid-19 at a wind power facility in North Dakota has forced it to temporarily close, the latest example of how the pandemic is impacting the renewable energy sector. Over the weekend, North Dakota’s Department of Health said there were 110 confirmed cases of coronavirus in people connected to the LM Wind Power plant in Grand Forks – a total that includes both employees and “their close contacts.” The site, which produces rotor blades for wind turbines and employs 900 people, closed last Wednesday after eight workers tested positive for coronavirus. In a statement, a spokesperson for GE – which owns LM Wind Power – said the Grand Forks facility would be temporarily closed for at least two weeks in order to “conduct an extensive disinfection process.” Employees would continue to be paid “as usual” during this time, they added. “We will continue to support our employees and monitor their condition as we determine when and how we can re-start the plant safely,” the spokesperson went on to state. On Saturday, North Dakota’s State Health Officer Mylynn Tufte issued a quarantine order for LM Wind Power employees. Among other things, they have been directed to quarantine for 14 days starting from April 16 and must remain at their home or place of residence “unless otherwise authorized” by the North Dakota Department of Health.
NextEra Energy Looks to Spend $1B on Energy Storage in 2021 -Companies across the global renewable energy industry are anxiously assessing the negative impact of the coronavirus outbreak on their bottom line. Every company, it seems, except NextEra Energy. NextEra, the leading U.S. renewables developer, reported its first-quarter financial results on Tuesday, saying that not only has its renewables development unit been unaffected by the COVID-19 pandemic, but it may actually benefit by being able to scoop up other projects that run into trouble. NextEra expects to build around 5 gigawatts of renewables capacity this year, and it added another 1.6 gigawatts of wind, solar and storage to its pipeline during the first quarter. None of its 2020 projects are expected to be delayed. The company also made a stunning, if not entirely surprising, prediction: It will spend $1 billion on battery projects next year. NextEra believes it will be the first company in the world to cross that threshold for energy storage investments in a single year. That investment will include the 409-megawatt Manatee Energy Storage Center in Florida that NextEra announced last year, which will be powered by solar panels and replaces a pair of aging natural-gas-fired plants. In addition to building renewables through its Energy Resources development arm, NextEra is adding wind, solar and batteries through its regulated utilities, Florida Power & Light and Gulf Power. FPL alone expects to add more than 10 gigawatts of solar capacity during the 2020s as Florida’s solar market consolidates its position as one of the country’s most important.
New report says R.I. will transition away from natural gas and oil heat – — While the amount of electricity from solar, wind and other renewable energy sources coming into the Rhode Island power grid has steadily ramped up over the past decade, it’s been more difficult to switch heating systems in the state from fossil fuels because of the need for homes and business to invest in new equipment.But in a 91-page report released on Thursday state agencies say that Rhode Island’s heating sector could be able to transition away from its reliance on natural gas and oil within the next three decades while still keeping consumers’ bills close to what they are today.The report was written by The Brattle Group, a consulting firm based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was done on behalf of the state Office of Energy Resources and the Division of Public Utilities and Carriers.Governor Gina Raimondo, in an executive order last year, tasked the agencies with laying out a plan for decarbonizing the sector as part of the state’s larger effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in response to climate change. Heating accounts for 40 percent of total energy consumption in Rhode Island. The report was submitted to the governor on Wednesday, the 50th anniversary of Earth Day. In a letter to Raimondo that accompanied the report, the heads of the state agencies acknowledge that transforming Rhode Island’s heating sector presents a host of challenges, including technological uncertainties and upfront costs, that seem “daunting” at a time when the economy has been shut down by the coronavirus pandemic.
NYC Looks at Shaming Fossil Fuel Financiers – New York City lawmakers will introduce a resolution Monday to demand that the financial institutions and insurers the city does business with divest from fossil fuels, HuffPost reports.HuffPost obtained a draft of the resolution, and reports that while the draft resolution is largely symbolic in targeting JP Morgan Chase, BlackRock and Liberty Mutual, it will accelerate the movement to hold financial institutions accountable for climate change and preview how New York may institute radical changes in how the city handles its money.”We are in the midst of a devastating short-term crisis … but the most devastating long-term risk to New York is the climate crisis,” councilman Brad Lander, the lead author of the bill, told HuffPost. “If we’re going to have any chance at actually bending the curve on CO2 emissions, we have to confront the capital that is driving it at its scale.”For a deeper dive: HuffPost.
US weekly coal production down 41.5% YOY — Total U.S. coal production for the week ended April 18 decreased 41.5% year over year to 8.6 million tons from 14.7 million tons, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration. For the 52 weeks ended April 18, production was 658.7 million tons, representing a year-over-year decline of 11.9%, while year-to-date coal output slipped 19.6% year over year to 173.6 million tons. SNL Image The western region’s coal production for the week reached 4.6 million tons, posting a 40.4% decrease from the prior year’s 7.8 million tons. Data for the western region covers Powder River Basin mines. Coal production from Appalachian mines totaled 2.4 million tons, declining 43.6% from the year-ago week’s 4.3 million tons. The interior region’s production decreased 41.3% to 1.6 million tons, compared to 2.7 million tons a year ago. Interior region data covers mines in the Illinois Basin.
Coal Suffers as Coronavirus Saps Power Demand – WSJ – As Americans consume less electricity during the coronavirus pandemic, many utilities are cutting back on coal power first. That bodes poorly for the future of coal power in the U.S., which has already been in a steep decline. The slowdown is expected to accelerate closures of plants already challenged to compete with natural gas, wind and solar sources, all cheaper forms of power than coal. Prior to the pandemic, a number of companies were already planning to retire at least some of their coal plants to reduce generation costs and carbon emissions. Southern Co., which provides electricity and natural gas throughout much of the South and Midwest, said that the percentage of its total power generation coming from coal has fallen into the teens recently, as it relies more heavily on hydroelectric, natural gas and renewable power. It has been steadily retiring its coal assets over the past decade and last year relied on coal for about 22% of its power generation, down from 70% in 2007. “Coal is kind of what’s on the margin,” “You’d probably see an accelerated retirement of coal units if load levels don’t come back up.” Energy consulting firm Wood Mackenzie had expected U.S. coal generation to decline 3.5% this year but recently upped its forecast to 25%. Since 2015, U.S. coal generation, which accounts for most of the country’s coal usage, has declined between 2% and 16% annually. Analyst Greg Marmon said that the precipitous drop could serve as a final blow for coal plants on shaky financial footing, particularly ones that need upgrades. “This could force them to close earlier than previously expected,” he said. The coronavirus pandemic has changed the economics of U.S. power generation. Coal plants, now among the costliest generation sources, are typically used to supply the grid with large amounts of power when electricity demand increases. But with many factories, storefronts and office complexes offline due to coronavirus shutdowns, there is less of a need for that power.Already, utilities had been relying more heavily on gas-fired generation after a mild winter drove prices down. Natural-gas prices have plummeted alongside crude-oil prices, which have fallen as a result of a supply glut caused by a historic drop in demand.
Coronavirus accelerates decline of slumping coal industry – Coal demand has tanked over the past decade amid competition from cheap natural gas and expanded renewable energy sources. Coal companies have faced a reckoning as the world looks to combat climate change and move away from fossil fuels despite President Donald Trump’s effort to revive the industry. Now, the pandemic has made things worse. Lockdowns have shut off lights and computers in offices and schools, sapping demand for electricity provided by coal-fired power plants. Americans stuck at home binge-watching Netflix aren’t coming close to making up for that drop in demand, expected to be 3% for 2020. The safety of workers is another issue. In the most productive coal region in the U.S. – Wyoming and Montana’s Powder River Basin – companies are staggering shifts and running more buses to and from mining towns to create more space between workers. Companies have temporarily suspended operations at mines in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Virginia to stop the spread of the virus. Some miners are only working two or three days a week. “There is no consistency from mine to mine, even within the same company,” said Phil Smith, spokesman for the United Mine Workers of America, a union representing thousands of coal miners primarily in the eastern U.S. Even before the virus, companies were forced into bankruptcy and workers faced furloughs and layoffs. Six of the top seven U.S. coal companies have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy since 2015 and analysts expect more as the economy dives.
NIPSCO To Remove Toxic Coal Ash From Ponds At Michigan City Plant — A northwest Indiana utility plans to remove toxic coal ash from five of its ponds at its Michigan City coal plant. NIPSCO plans to excavate the waste and put it in a lined landfill at its other coal plant, R.M. Schahfer Generating Station in Wheatfield. Coal ash contains toxic heavy metals like arsenic. Exposure to it can cause cancer, damage your nervous system, and cause other health issues. Though residents and environmentalists are glad NIPSCO is removing the coal ash, they’re skeptical about whether the utility will clean up the site thoroughly and safely. NIPSCO is responsible for polluting drinking water and soil with coal ash in the town of Pines, just west of Michigan City. “Damage in Pines has not yet been remedied – everyone is not on clean water. And when coal ash is allowed to escape into the environment, it’s hard to get back,” says Lisa Evans, senior counsel for the group Earthjustice. Evans worries some coal ash could fly out of the trucks as it’s being transported to Wheatfield, leading to more pollution. NIPSCO says it plans to control coal ash dust with tarps on the trucks and possibly tracking them through GPS. Officials with NIPSCO say, with few exceptions, all groundwater tested at the site met drinking water standards – though sediment was not tested.Christina Zacny now lives in Michigan City, but used to live in Wheatfield where she still has family. She says it’s concerning that this is her first time hearing about NIPSCO’s plans to ship the coal ash to the Wheatfield and wonders if residents there have been contacted.
Pandemic policies could make Indiana’s bad coal ash situation worse –EPA’s race to deregulate and “enforcement discretion” during the COVID-19 crisis leaves Hoosiers living near coal ash dump sites vulnerable. A flip of a switch brings light to darkness in most homes, but also sets into motion a chain of lasting pollution that could be made worse by environmental agency deregulation and inaction during the COVID-19 crisis. Environmental groups worry the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s race to deregulate in what could be President Donald Trump’s final year in office and the agency’s COVID-19 “enforcement discretion” policy will allow industrial polluters to legally endanger the health of Hoosiers and other Americans. The lack of continuing and complete state and federal oversight could have disastrous results in Indiana, which has the largest number of toxic coal ash disposal sites of any state. While most of the country is at a standstill, EPA employees are working to reshape the nation’s environmental regulations to become more industry-friendly while making available only small amounts of money to clean up environmental problems. “We’re open and continuing our regulatory work business as usual,” the EPA told multiple news outlets. In just the last 30 days, the EPA announced nearly $58 million in grants to help communities clean up environmental problems, mainly in reliably red states and politically useful swing states. But the agency has also been working to weaken the regulations aiming to prevent those problems in the first place.
‘I’ve already got infected lungs’: for sick coal miners Covid-19 is a death sentence – Seven years ago John Robinson of Coeburn, Virginia, was diagnosed with black lung. A coal miner for nearly 30 years, 54-year-old Robinson and many of his fellow workers already faced years of health issues. And then came Covid-19. Scarring of the lungs caused by years of coal dust inhalation, more formally known as coal workers’ pneumoconiosis, leaves miners at high risk of developing serious complications from coronavirus. Now the mining industry is trying to cut its payments to the fund that supports those affected. “It’s easier for us to get sick because of lung damage. We get colds easier. We pick up germs easier. It’s something we deal with all of the time. But the Covid-19 has it doubled up on us,” said Robinson. “It’s made it that much worse.” Robinson currently has an upper respiratory infection, which he develops a few times a year due to black lung. The last few years he spent in the mines before retiring, he regularly ate cough drops to try to alleviate his breathing issues. He tries to stay active, but finds himself increasingly short of breath and struggling to get air as his black lung progresses. It took several years for Robinson’s federal black lung benefits claim to be accepted, and he’s still going through court processes that will decide if he continues receiving his benefits for life, despite being diagnosed with the disease. While miners with black lung struggle during the pandemic, the coal industry is seeking to use the crisis to its advantage, cutting payouts to the federal black lung funds. Last month the National Mining Association asked Congress to decrease the excise tax that coal companies pay toward the fund by 55%. The federal black lung program, which pays out benefits to former coal miners diagnosed with the condition , has already faced financial problems in recent years in part due to coal companies filing for bankruptcy and shifting millions of dollars in liabilities onto taxpayers.
COAL: Senate Dems ask Trump to protect miners from virus —- Eight Democratic senators from coal-producing states asked the Trump administration on Friday to issue an emergency safety standard to protect miners during the novel coronavirus pandemic.
These coal communities are protecting sick miners from COVID-19 and pushing Congress for more support – Weeks before Tennessee took action to limit the spread of COVID-19, Teresa Dabney was changing how she served high-risk patients at the clinic she runs in the Clearfork Valley. First, she split her medical staff into two teams who work every other week, so if an outbreak hit her facility, “not everyone would be taken out in one sweep.” Then, in mid-March, she cordoned off the clinic into two groups: coal miners and everyone else. Miners who opt for an in-person appointment enter and exit through a separate door, in a separate wing, with a separate waiting area. Patients can also use telehealth services, but Dabney said it’s less popular for miners her clinic sees, who are older and don’t always have internet access. “Most of our miners are medically fragile, specifically with breathing problems,” said Dabney, CEO of Community Health of East Tennessee’s black lung clinic in Lafollette. The clinic monitors and treats patients who suffer from the incurable and fatal respiratory disease caused by exposure to coal dust. While Dabney has fewer diagnosed cases of black lung since her department opened in 1980, rates are surging in central Appalachia. Dabney said she serves roughly 750 miners with black lung symptoms annually.The Clearfork Valley in Tennessee has 18 confirmed COVID-19 cases and one death as of April 23, which medical practitioners say is lower than expected. Daniel Yoder, a physician at nonprofit community health center Dayspring Health in Claiborne County, 25 miles north of Dabney’s clinic, said the low numbers could be because of a sparsely populated region, a lack of available tests, or that Tennessee’s stay-at-home orders are working. “It’s a pretty tight-knit community so I think for people here, it’s not too hard to stay put,” Yoder said. “It probably helps during something like this, just the geographic isolation.”
Coal-Ash Spill Cleanup Workers Reject Reputed $10M Exposure Settlement – Workers involved in cleanup of a massive coal-ash spill more than a decade ago from a Tennessee Valley Authority fossil-fuel power plant now must prove at trial that claimed exposure to toxic materials made them ill – after rejecting a settlement from project manager Jacobs Engineering made public on April 10. The company, now rebranded as Jacobs, would not confirm reports valuing the offer at $10 million – to be split by a group of 52 workers employed under the firm’s $40-million remediation contract for part of the contaminated site. All parties are under a confidentiality rule set by the federal district court in Knoxville. The ash spilled from a containment cell at the Kingston, Tenn. plant in late 2008, sending about 5 million cu yd of coal ash across 300 acres and into the Emory River. TVA spent more than $1 billion cleaning up the site after the accident, which also resulted in new requirements for ash containment at the site and at other coal-burning U.S. power plants. The Kingston cleanup was completed in 2015. A federal jury in 2018 found Jacobs guilty of failing to protect the health of workers cleaning up the massive spill, which enabled them to seek damages from the company. Workers reported a variety of illnesses, including lung cancer, leukemia and others, that they claim is linked to contaminants in the ash. Press reports in 2018 said that more than 30 workers who cleaned the site under Jacobs’ contract have died and more than 250 others were sick or dying. TVA was not a party to the lawsuit, and did not comment, except to say that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has deemed coal ash not to be regulated as a hazardous waste.
Abandoned coal mines may be with us forever – As yet another coal mining firm teetered on the edge of bankruptcy, West Virginia on March 26 asked a court for control of several abandoned mines, all owned by mining firm ERP Environmental Fund. It may be the first of many emergency measures states must take to prevent hundreds of defunct mines from littering the landscape with no money to restore them.Around the world, the Covid-19 pandemic is leading to plummeting energy demand, further destabilizing the battered coal industry. Last month, ERP, after accruing hundreds of citations from state regulators, appeared to run out of cash and fire its staff, who walked away from the mining sites. Now, the ERP mines pose an “imminent risk of harm to the environment and the public health and safety,”West Virginia contends in its lawsuit. It is asking a third party to manage ERP (the acronym stands for “Earth Restoration Project“) as it tries to recover cleanup funds from the mines’ owner.The West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection (WVDEP) says ERP has racked up 160 environmental law violations and repeatedly ignored orders to remedy threats to public health and the environment. ERP has been operating on a “shoe-string budget with under-experienced and under-manned staff,” WVDEP contends. “The [agency] had no option but to step in to seek the appointment of a receiver to take control of ERP’s operations to protect the public health and safety.”The legal maneuver is highly unusual, says Peter Morgan, an attorney at the Sierra Club. It means the state is trying to cut in line ahead of other creditors and keep ERP out of bankruptcy (for now). “What the state of West Virginia is desperate to avoid is all mines being abandoned and the state being responsible for cleaning them up,” said Morgan. This is not how mining is supposed to work in the US. The federal 1977 Surface Mining Act requires all coal companies to post bonds that cover the cost of cleanup in the event of abandonment. Removing hazards, replacing soil, removing toxic waste, replanting trees, and treating waste costs millions, and leaving open coal mines is hazardous. A 2008 study in the American Journal of Public Healthfound higher rates of cardiopulmonary disease, hypertension, lung disease, kidney disease, and other ailments for West Virginiansliving near mines. But enforcement by state agencies has been spotty, says Morgan. Their reliance on historical default rates to gauge how many companies might go under, and how much money future reclamation requires, has fallen woefully short.
Ramaco gets stimulus loan, to reopen West Virginia coal mine – Ramaco Resources says it plans to partially reopen its Elk Creek mine in West Virginia after receiving an $8.44M loan under the U.S. government’s Paycheck Protection Program. The company says it will recall about a third of its furloughed workforce this week and recall all employees to fully open the mine by May 1; the employees were furloughed on March 31 as a precaution amid the spread of the coronavirus.
China fires up coal power plant construction – China approved nearly 10 gigawatts (GW) of new coal-fired power generation capacity in this year’s first quarter, roughly equal to the amount approved for all of last year, amid a broader scramble to jumpstart an economic hobbled by the Covid-19 epidemic. Investment in infrastructure like power generation has played an important part in China’s rapid economic rise, especially in times of economic distress like the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009. Many expect such spending to play an important role as Beijing tries to restart the economy in the aftermath of the coronavirus outbreak that has brought activity a crawl, leading the economy to post its first quarterly contraction since modern record keeping began.
Plant Vogtle surpasses 100 positive COVID-19 cases— Plant Vogtle officials now say 109 of their employees have tested positive for COVID-19.Cases at the Georgia Power nuclear plant continue to rise in the past several days.However, Georgia Power officials also say 42 workers are still awaiting results and 264 workers have tested negative.Ten workers who tested positive have recovered and received clearance by on-site medical professionals to return to work “We took immediate action to identify and notify workers who were located in close proximity to these individuals when we first learned there were pending tests and sent those team members home to await test results. These team members will remain home in self-isolation and monitor their health for symptoms,” plant officials said in a statement.
New rules allow 12-hour work days at Seabrook nuke plant – Nuclear power plants can now implement longer shifts for workers and delay some inspections, raising concerns that as the coronavirus pandemic upends basic operations the industry may be bending the rules too far. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission is already allowing six U.S. power plants to extend workers’ shifts, to as long as 12 hours a day for two weeks, and more may be coming. That’s up significantly from current standards that require people to get two-to-three days off a week when pulling shifts that long. Employees can also work as many as 86 hours in a week now, up from 72 hours. To curb transmission of the virus, utilities also say they want to delay inspections that require people to work in close proximity. Environmental groups, though, warn the changes could have disastrous results, and worry they could lead to further deviations from safety rules. “This is a step backward,” said Eric Epstein, chairman of Three Mile Island Alert, a Pennsylvania non-profit group. “It’s not a good idea to stretch workers and marginalize safety standards.” The new rules come as at least 42 construction workers have tested positive for the coronavirus at a nuclear plant in Georgia where Southern Co. is building two new reactors. Last week, the utility and its partners announced they would reduce the 9,000-person workforce by 20% to slow the spread of the virus. Exelon Corp., operator of the biggest U.S. nuclear fleet, says it “can no longer meet the work-hour controls” at four of its reactors, including the Braidwood plant in Illinois. NextEra Energy Inc. said the same thing about its Seabrook power plant in New Hampshire. The companies say that the extended work hours won’t have an adverse impact on safety.”The work-hour rule exemption is an important contingency that may be implemented to allow healthy workers to remain on site for more hours, reducing the need to bring in outside travelers and vendors,” Exelon spokeswoman Linsey Wisniewski said by email.
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