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:
- 14 Jun 2020 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 13June 2020
14 Jun 2020 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 13June 2020
Scientists Around the World are Already Fighting the Next Pandemic – If a two-year-old child living in poverty in India or Bangladesh gets sick with a common bacterial infection, there is more than a 50% chance an antibiotic treatment will fail. Somehow the child has acquired an antibiotic resistant infection – even to drugs to which they may never have been exposed. How?Unfortunately, this child also lives in a place with limited clean water and less waste management, bringing them into frequent contact with faecal matter. This means they are regularly exposed to millions of resistant genes and bacteria, including potentially untreatable superbugs. This sad story is shockingly common, especially in places where pollution is rampant and clean water is limited.For many years, people believed antibiotic resistance in bacteria was primarily driven by imprudent use of antibiotics in clinical and veterinary settings. But growing evidence suggests that environmental factors may be of equal or greater importance to the spread of antibiotic resistance, especially in the developing world.Here we focus on antibiotic resistant bacteria, but drug resistance also occurs in types of other microorganisms – such as resistance in pathogenic viruses, fungi, and protozoa (called antimicrobial resistance or AMR). This means that our ability to treat all sorts of infectious disease is increasingly hampered by resistance, potentially including coronaviruses like SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. Overall, use of antibiotics, antivirals, and antifungals clearly must be reduced, but in most of the world, improving water, sanitation, and hygiene practice – a practice known as WASH – is also critically important. If we can ensure cleaner water and safer food everywhere, the spread of antibiotic resistant bacteria will be reduced across the environment, including within and between people and animals. As recent recommendations on AMR from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the World Organisation for Animal Health (OIE), and World Health Organization (WHO) suggest, to which David contributed, the “superbug problem” will not be solved by more prudent antibiotic use alone. It also requires global improvements in water quality, sanitation, and hygiene. Otherwise, the next pandemic might be worse than COVID-19.
American Cities Becoming ‘A Big Toilet’ For Lack Of Public Restrooms Amid COVID-19 – Over the past months of COVID-19 lockdowns across nearly all states, and as many counties and cities observed and enforced strict social distancing policies, America has seen a rise in public urination. The reality is that whether walking in downtown urban spaces, or on long distance travel, people are facing a dilemma of either encountering no available public restrooms given businesses and restaurants were closed – or alternately not feeling comfortable enough going into places like gas station given pandemic fears.The New York Post this week describes this rising phenomenon in the city aptly with the title: With no public bathrooms, the Big Apple is now ‘the Big Toilet’. Yes, the city is starting to come back to life, but with some draw backs as not everything has caught up, as the report begins: But this re-emergence has come with a stream of issues – mainly a steady flow of revelers freely peeing in public since most bathrooms remain closed. And now, with thousands of protesters taking to the streets each day, more people than ever are contributing to NYC’s No. 1 problem by whizzing in the wild. “Last night, my co-worker saw some guy just coming down the street and pulling down his pants [to urinate],” Spano tells The Post. “She was like, ‘Nah, not here, man.’It’s a bit of a Catch-22: on the one hand public urination remains a minor offense punishable with a small fine (after a few years ago the city moved the decriminalize such low level offenses), and on the other people remain skittish about using potentially germ-infested public toilets. This also as many shops now opening still have a “no bathroom” edict, especially given they are subject to occupancy limitations and are trying to prevent unnecessary potential exposure amid the coronavirus crisis. So often the only “safe” option is to pee on the street or in an alley: “There’s definitely been an uptick on this street, from what I’ve seen. But most people at least go in a corner or have friends cover them up,” one New Yorker told The Post.
Western Colorado Water Purchases Stir Up Worries About The Future Of Farming – For five years, Zay Lopez tended vegetables, hayfields and cornfields, chickens and a small flock of sheep here on the western edge of Colorado’s Grand Valley – farming made possible by water from the Colorado River. A few years ago, he noticed a strange new phenomenon. Much of the irrigated agricultural land sold in the valley – such as parcels just down the road from his farm – wasn’t being bought by another farmer. Instead, his new neighbor was Water Asset Management, a New York City-based hedge fund with deep pockets. When Lopez and his wife Leah grew tired of trying to make ends meet, they, too, sold their 26-acre farm to WAM. “Selling the farm wasn’t really a choice. We had to do it.” Lopez’s recent sale is the continuation of a trend that has made some in the agricultural communities west of Grand Junction nervous; has created a buzz among water managers; and has led state lawmakers to pass a bill looking at strengthening Colorado’s anti-water-speculation law. WAM is buying irrigated land as an investment in the future potential value of the water. Although the company isn’t doing anything illegal, its actions have rekindled deep-seated and long-held fears about water in the West – that it could hasten the death of agricultural communities’ way of life and create an unregulated market for water that would drive up prices and drive out family farms. Because of these sensitive issues, many people in the Grand Valley are reluctant to talk about WAM and what it is doing. Meetings have erupted in anger, some who have sold have become social pariahs, and top water officials from the valley’s canal companies refuse to talk to reporters on the record. For a while, a local rancher was actively updating a “wall of shame” website for people involved in Grand Valley water deals.
New Report Documents Global Insect Decline and Calls for Reforming Industrial Agriculture – A new report released Tuesday draws attention to the worldwide decline in insects and calls for global policies to boost the conservation of both agriculture and the six-footed creatures.The publication, entitled Insect Atlas, comes from two progressive networks: Brussels-based Friends of the Earth and Berlin-based Heinrich Böll Foundation.”The global loss of insects is dramatic,” Heinrich Böll Foundation president Barbara Unmüßig said in a statement.The report points to various studies documenting that loss, including 2018 research finding 41% of insect species are in decline and that one-third of all insect species are threatened by extinction. The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) estimated that 10 percent of insect species are endangered, and another study cited in the new analysis found that at least one in 10 bee and butterfly species in Europe is threatened with extinction. While there’s no definitive count of the global loss of insects, Insect Atlas says the trend is unmistakable.That decline has major impacts on food. “Three-quarters of the world’s most important crops exhibit a yield benefit from pollinators: they contribute directly to around one-third of global food production,” says the report. The methods used for that production have a huge impact on insects. “Alongside climate change and light pollution, the spread and intensification of farming is by far the most important cause of the global decline in insect numbers,” the report adds. This type of farming is dependent upon expanding pasture – often at the expense of destroying Indigenous land and wild animal habitat – and prioritizes monocultures and therefore insect-killing pesticides, the use of which has steadily increased for the past nine decades, the economic profits of which are predominantly flowing towards just four entities: BASF, Bayer, Syngenta, and Corteva.
World faces worst food crisis for at least 50 years, UN warns The world stands on the brink of a food crisis worse than any seen for at least 50 years, the UN has warned as it urged governments to act swiftly to avoid disaster.Better social protections for poor people are urgently needed as the looming recession following the coronavirus pandemic may put basic nutrition beyond their reach, the UN secretary general, António Guterres, said on Tuesday.“Unless immediate action is taken, it is increasingly clear that there is an impending global food emergency that could have long-term impacts on hundreds of millions of children and adults,” he said. “We need to act now to avoid the worst impacts of our efforts to control the pandemic.”Although harvests of staple crops are holding up, and the export bans and protectionism that experts feared have so far been largely avoided, the worst of the impacts of the pandemic and ensuing recession are yet to be felt. Guterres warned: “Even in countries with abundant food, we see risks of disruption in the food supply chain.”About 50 million people risk falling into extreme poverty this year owing to the pandemic, but the long-term effects will be even worse, as poor nutrition in childhood causes lifelong suffering. Already, one in five children around the world are stunted in their growth by the age of five, and millions more are likely to suffer the same fate if poverty rates soar.Guterres laid out a three-point plan to repair the world’s ailing food systems and prevent further harm. These are: to focus aid on the worst-stricken regions to stave off immediate disaster, and for governments to prioritise food supply chains; to strengthen social protections so that young children, pregnant and breastfeeding women and other at-risk groups – including children who are not receiving school meals in lockdown – receive adequate nutrition; and to invest in the future, by building a global recovery from the pandemic that prioritises healthy and environmentally sustainable food systems. Maximo Torero, the chief economist of the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, said the world’s food systems were under threat as never before in recent times, as the pandemic and lockdowns hampered people’s ability to harvest and buy and sell food. “We need to be careful,” he said. “This is a very different food crisis than the ones we have seen.”
Conservation ‘Game-Changer’: China Removes Pangolin Scales From Traditional Medicine List — China has offered a lifeline to the world’s most trafficked non-human mammals by removing pangolin scales from its official list of traditional medicines.”This is the single greatest measure that could be taken to save the pangolins,” WildAid CEO Peter Knights told National Geographic. “This sends a clear message that there are alternatives in traditional Chinese medicine and so you don’t need to use pangolins.”China raises protection for #pangolins by removing scales from medicine list. Campaigners hope the move will help end global trade in the scaly anteater, identified as a possible host for COVID-19. https://t.co/c0VaMVp80i pic.twitter.com/mFFq6I8Ulk – WildAid (@WildAid) June 9, 2020 All eight species of pangolin are at risk from extinction. Tens of thousands are killed every year for their meat, which is considered a delicacy in China and Vietnam, and their scales, which are used for medicinal purposes. Three of the four species native to Asia are considered critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature red list, according to The Guardian.The delisting of the pangolin from the traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) pharmacopoeia comes a week after the State Forestry and Grassland Administration (SFGA) raised their protection status. They are now at Class 1, the highest conservation level also enjoyed by pandas, National Geographic p ointed out. It means almost all domestic trade and use of the animals is now prohibited.
Four poachers arrested for killing endangered silverback gorilla – Four poachers have been arrested for their alleged role in the killing of a beloved silverback gorilla in Uganda’s Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, where gorilla treks are a popular attraction for tourists. Uganda Wildlife announced Friday that four people had been arrested in connection with the death of Rafiki, the leader of a famous gorilla group, the Nkuringo. He was believed to be about 25 years old, and the group he led is one often visited by tourists on safari. Rafiki’s body was found on June 2, a day after he had been reported missing, and is believed to have been killed with a spear. Officials say one of the poachers arrested, Byamukama Felix, admitted to killing Rafiki with a spear but said it was in self-defense after the gorilla charged him. The four men are being held in prison and awaiting trial, though the statement on Friday did not make clear their exact charges. Bwindi Impenetrable National Park is home to nearly half the world’s mountain gorilla population, a critically endangered species. According to a 2010 report from the United Nations, their numbers are dwindling and projections estimate they will mostly disappear from the Congo Basin before 2030 without action to preserve their habitat and stop poachers.
Trump Administration Hunting Rule Change: Making it Easier to Execute Alaska’s Bears in National Parks – Jerri-Lynn Scofield – While doing a troll through the excellent jurist.org website, I noticed the following hunting rule change, US National Park Service removes prohibitions on hunting practices in Alaska :The US National Park Service (NPS) published a new rule in the Federal Register on Tuesday that will remove certain prohibitions against hunting and trapping practices that are otherwise allowed by Alaska state law.The NPS is removing paragraphs (f) and (g) of 36 C.F.R. ff 13.42, which deal with the taking of wildlife in national preserves. While most of the methods prohibited by paragraph (g) were also prohibited by the State of Alaska, the NPS found that some conflicted with authorizations by the State of Alaska. Among other practices, hunters can take black bears with artificial light at den sites, take wolves and coyotes during denning season, and take swimming animals under the new rule.The rule was originally published on May 22, 2018 for comments, and the comment period was open for 168 days. The NPS received approximately 211, 780 pieces of correspondence on the proposed rule. The NPS also consulted with the State of Alaska and Alaska Native tribes and corporations.The new rule will take effect on July 9.Now, I’m not a hunter, but the first thing that struck me. Are the now allowed practices fair?Sporting, even? It’s one thing to execute the animalls, but still… To repeat: “Among other practices, hunters can take black bears with artificial light at den sites, take wolves and coyotes during denning season, and take swimming animals under the new rule.”
Taxpayers Paid Over $75K So Trump Jr. Could Kill a Rare Sheep – Donald Trump Jr.’s hunting expedition to Mongolia last summer, where he had the distinction of killing a rare breed of sheep, cost taxpayers at least $76,859.36, according to documents unearthed by a watchdog group.Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, or CREW, originally received Secret Service documents in March that showed that Secret Service protection for the trip cost at least $17,000, a fraction of the more than $75,000 it actually cost taxpayers. However, those numbers looked fishy to CREW, since it did not make any mention of flight costs, nor it did it account for Trump Jr.’s trip to Mongolia’s capital city, Ulaanbaatar, where he had a secretive meeting with Mongolian President Khaltmaagiin Battulga, according to CREW.”If just one of Don Jr’s trophy hunting trips cost more than $75,000, it’s staggering to think how high the Trump family’s total bill with taxpayers must be,” CREW tweeted while sharing a picture of an argali sheep. As ProPublica originally reported, the trip was pockmarked with corruption. Trump Jr. did not actually have the proper permits to hunt rare argali sheep, the largest species of sheep, noted for their giant horns. The government of Mongolia issued him a permit retroactively, after Trump Jr. had already killed one and left the region. He also killed a red deer, which also needed a special permit. Also, Trump Jr. was accompanied by a major Republican donor, oil and gas company CEO Kevin Small.The trip was arranged through a tourism company owned by a politically connected member of the Mongolian president’s party, according to CREW, as HuffPost reported. The company helped arrange the special permit after the hunt had already taken place.As CNN noted, argali are considered a near-threatened species, according to the Red List of Threatened Species, in large part due to trophy hunting. Trump Jr. is a proud trophy hunter, often using his social media accounts to share images from his hunting and fishing trips to locations across the globe, including hunting elephants. His pride in big game hunts has netted him harsh criticism from animal rights’ groups and conservationists.
Trump to open Atlantic marine national monument to commercial fishing – National Geographic – PRESIDENT TRUMP VOWED Friday to open the nation’s only national monument in the Atlantic Ocean to commercial fishing, saying he was giving Maine back part of its history and the fishermen their industry. He signed a proclamation declaring the opening after attending a roundtable discussion with commercial fishermen in Bangor, Maine, that included a wide-ranging conversation about unwanted regulations and tariffs on the seafood trade. “We’re opening it today,” Trump said. To the fishermen, he added: “We’re gonna solve your fishing problem….Basically, they took away your livelihood. It’s ridiculous.” Trump’s move to open fishing in the Northeastern Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument will surely open a new front in the ongoing legal battle over the limits of presidential powers regarding national monuments. Native American tribes and environmental groups are already challenging administration efforts to reduce the size of two monuments in Utah. In this case, as some who attended the Maine meeting pointed out, the president is not seeking to change the marine monument’s boundaries. Environmental groups nonetheless immediately vowed to sue the Trump administration. “A significant change to the monument or its protections – such as allowing commercial fishing – must be done by Congress, not by the president,” Brad Sewell, senior director of Oceans for the Natural Resources Defense Council said in a statement. “The Antiquities Act gives the president power to protect special areas for future generations, not the opposite power, to abolish those protections.” He added: “We are prepared to sue the Trump administration.” Enric Sala, a marine biologist and founder of National Geographic’s Pristine Seas program, who helped to create marine monuments in the Pacific and elsewhere, says leaving the boundaries intact makes little difference if commercial fishing is allowed. “National monuments, by law, are to preserve the integrity of America’s natural and historical sites,” he says. “We need pristine areas set aside so that we can see nature as it was before we overexploited it, and understand the true impact of fishing. If commercial fishing were allowed in a monument, it would become just a name on a map, and no different than any other place in the ocean.” The Seamount marine monument, created by President Obama in 2016, sprawls over nearly 5,000 square miles of the Atlantic, about 130 miles off the coast of Cape Cod. It protects a collection of underwater canyons and mountains, including four extinct volcanoes, and is home to sea turtles, endangered whales, and deep-sea, cold-water corals.
COVID-19 Masks Are Polluting Beaches and Oceans –As if the Texas-sized gyre of plastic floating around the Pacific Ocean was not troubling enough, now there is a new scourge polluting the world’s waters: face masks and sanitary gloves.The COVID-19 detritus has meant that discarded face masks floating like jelly fish and latex gloves lining the seafloor are adding to the world’s plastic waste crisis, as The Guardian reported.In an effort to clean up the Mediterranean Sea, divers from the French non-profit, Opération Mer Propre(Operation Clean Sea) found dozens of gloves, masks and bottles of hand sanitizer beneath the waves of the Mediterranean, mixed in with the usual litter of disposable cups and aluminum cans, according to The Guardian.While the amount of personal protective equipment found in the Mediterranean was admittedly small, the uptick in pollution from those items signals an ominous trend. Disposable masks, for instance, may feel like soft cotton, but they’re almost all made from non-biodegradable material such as polypropylene. That means when the non-biodegradable material is discarded into a storm drain, it empties out into the rivers and seas, as the CBC reported. “With a lifespan of 450 years, these masks are an ecological timebomb given their lasting environmental consequences for our planet,” Éric Pauget, a French politician, wrote last month in a letter to Emmanuel Macron, calling on the French president to do more to address the environmental consequences of disposable masks, as The Guardian reported. As EuroNews reported, land-based activity accounts for 80 percent of ocean pollution, with 50 percent a direct result of single-use plastics. Now, we must act to avoid making the situation worse, say experts from environmental non-profit City to Sea in the UK. That’s a tall order as efforts to curtail single-use plastics and plastic bags have been put on hold due to concerns about hygiene. The Centers for Disease Control’s recent recommendations for reopening offices even advocated a dramatic increase in single-use plastics, arguing that communal snacks and coffee should be replaced by individually wrapped items, as EcoWatch reported. “It’s the promise of pollution to come if nothing is done,” said Joffrey Peltier of Opération Mer Propre, to The Guardian.
‘Plastic Rain’ Is Pouring Down in National Parks -The plastic crisis has polluted the world’s oceans and created mountains in landfills. Microplastics have been identified wafting on the sea breeze and raining down on top of the Pyrenees. They travel on the winds and slowly drop down from the skies. Now, a new study has found that some of the most untouched areas of the U.S. are seeing 1,000 tons or more of microplastics rain down every year, according to The New York Times.The study examined airborne microplastics in national parks in the American West. That means those hikes through the untouched land in Bryce Canyon, the Grand Canyon or Joshua Tree National Park are not providing the pristine, fresh air we thought they do. The researchers found that nearly one-fourth come from nearby cities, while the rest drift through the air from far-flung locations. The findings, the first to discern the plastics’ geographic origins, add to mounting evidence that microplastic pollution is a worldwide scourge, as Science reported. The new study was published on Thursday in Science magazine and titled “Plastic rain in protected areas of the United States.” The researchers noted that microplastics are found in “nearly every ecosystem on the planet.”To conduct the study, the researchers collected rainwater and air samples for 14 months to calculate how many microplastic particles fall into 11 protected areas in the west each year. They found tiny plastic particles in 98 percent of the 339 samples they collected. Microplastics made up 4 percent of the dust particles that were tested, according to The New York Times. The 1,000 metric tons, or over 2.2 million pounds, that drops over 11 protected areas every year is equal to of over 120 million plastic water bottles, according to Wired.
Air pollution in China back to pre-Covid levels and Europe may follow – Air pollution in China has climbed back to pre-pandemic levels, and scientists say Europe may follow suit. Air pollution causes at least 8m early deaths a year, and cleaner skies were seen as one of the few silver linings of Covid-19. Experts have called for action to help retain the air quality benefits of lockdowns, and measures taken to date have included expanding cycle lanes and space for walking in cities. Data from the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (Crea) shows concentrations of fine particles (PM2.5) and nitrogen dioxide (NO2) across China are now at the same levels as one year earlier. At the height of the country’s coronavirus response in early March, NO2 levels were down by 38% from 2019 and levels of PM2.5 were down by 34%.“The rapid rebound in air pollution and coal consumption levels across China is an early warning of what a smokestack industry-led rebound could look like,” said Crea’s lead analyst, Lauri Myllyvirta. “Highly polluting industries have been faster to recover from the crisis than the rest of the economy. It is essential for policymakers to prioritise clean energy.” The energy consultancy group Wood Mackenzie predicts China’s oil demand will recover to near normal levels in the second quarter of 2020. In Wuhan, the city at the centre of the epidemic, NO2 levels are now just 14% lower than last year, having briefly dropped by almost half. In Shanghai, the latest levels are 9% higher than last year. European cities have also seen a big dip in air pollution during the virus outbreak. Data from the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (Cams), which tracks pollution in 50 European cities, shows that 42 of them recorded below-average levels of NO2 in March. London and Paris had 30% reductions in NO2, a pollutant that is mostly produced by diesel vehicles. “We do expect pollution to rebound, but we have not been able yet to show that,”
‘Forever Chemicals’ Are Building Up in the Arctic – and Likely Worldwide – The Arctic can appear to be a pristine, isolated frozen land. But human pollution has reached even this remote corner of the world – which the World Wildlife Fund has called “the chemical sink of the globe.” Now researchers have discovered that a virtually indestructible type of chemical has been building up in the region since the 1990s. The presence of these “forever chemicals” is undoubtedly growing worldwide, scientists say. And the potential impacts on the health of humans and ecosystems are not yet fully known. The problem paradoxically started because of an effort to fix another environmental issue: the hole in the ozone layer. Under the 1987 Montreal Protocol, countries agreed to phase out ozone-destroying chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs). But industry needed something to replace those substances, which were used in a vast range of products ranging from refrigerators to hair spray. Manufacturers turned to chemicals such as hydrochlorofluorocarbons (HCFCs) and hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). When these replacements rise into the atmosphere, however, they react with other chemicals to form several types of substances known as short-chain perfluoroalkyl carboxylic acids (scPFCAs). These compounds then drop down and deposit on Earth’s surface. Because of this process, scientists have suspected since the early 1990s that scPFCAs would increase in the environment. But until now, researchers did not have enough data to understand what was occurring with them over time. To see whether scPFCAs had started accumulating after the Montreal Protocol, Young and her colleagues sampled ice cores from two locations in the Canadian Arctic. Such samples can act as time capsules, recording the chemicals that fall out of the atmosphere and become encased in the ice layers that build up year by year. Through their analysis, Young and her colleagues found that the amount of scPFCAs in the Arctic has grown significantly, starting in 1990 – right around the time the Montreal Protocol took effect. For example, she says that for one of the scPFCAs they looked at, the amount deposited in the Arctic every year is now 10 times greater than it was prior to the treaty. Through computer modeling and comparing trends in chemical production, the team also concluded that the replacement chemicals for CFCs were either the exclusive cause of this increase or one of its major sources. Their results were published in April in Geophysical Research Letters.
Sea-level rise likely to swallow many coastal mangrove forests – Coastal mangrove forests aren’t adapting rapidly enough to escape rising sea levels, and many could disappear by 2050 in much of the tropics, according to recent research published in Science. Authors of a study reported June 5 used sediment cores from 78 sites on five continents to determine when mangroves first appeared over the past 10,000 years, as sea-level rise had slowed once Earth fully emerged from the Ice Age. They found that mangrove ecosystems did not develop unless relative sea-level rise was less than 6 to 7 millimeters* per year. (The term “relative” is used because the rate of sea-level rise is determined by the increase in water volume of the oceans plus subsidence or uplift of coastal land).The global rate of sea-level rise has doubled from 1.8 millimeters per year over the 20th century to approximately 3.4 millimeters per year in recent years. In many coastal areas, the rate of relative sea-level rise is much higher as a result of subsidence resulting from human causes, such as groundwater pumping and fossil fuel extraction. For example, the Mekong Delta of Vietnam is subsiding at a rate of 6 to 20 mm/year and the Ganges-Brahmaputra Delta by 1 to 7 mm/year. At the same time, sediment supply to the coast has declined as a result of damming of rivers and mining and export of sediment, further increasing the vulnerability of mangroves to sea-level rise. Coastal wetlands act as natural levees against storms as a result of their ability to reduce water velocity and wave turbulence. Moreover, wetlands accumulate sediments that provide protection against rising sea levels and local subsidence. In the U.S., per square kilometer, wetlands save $1.8 million per year in storm damages. A March 17, 2020, study in PNAS, Coastal wetlands reduce property damage during tropical cyclones, showed just how valuable wetlands are in reducing storm damage. The researchers analyzed property damage caused by 54 tropical storms and 34 hurricanes hitting the U.S. between 1996 and 2016. They found that counties with more wetland coverage experienced significantly less property damage: a 1% loss of coastal wetlands was associated with a 0.6% increase in property damage. (Side note: a 1% increase in wind increased damages by 7%, and counties on the storm path’s right side experienced 140% more damage than those on the left.)
Palm Oil Industry Leaves Indonesian Village Struggling With Loss and Regret — Just like his father and grandfather, Alfian has spent his whole life working as a fisherman on the banks of the Batang Hari river in Rukam, Indonesia. The natural environment has long sustained the life of this village on the island of Sumatra. But now 48-year-old Alfian is struggling. “The fish are gone from the river,” he says. “It’s barely enough for daily survival.” Alfian remembers when many fish species lived in the peatlands. He could feed his family for a week with the money from one day’s catch.The fate of both Alfian’s daily catch and Rukam itself is intertwined with that of an estimated US $60 billion-dollar industry.Indonesia sits at the heart of the global palm oil trade. In 2002, it arrived on the banks of Rukam when the Indonesian company PT Erasakti Wira Forestama (EWF) offered the villagers a one-time payment for their land.Some villagers resisted. Syafei, a 68-year-old who was chief of Rukam at the time, advocated for joint ownership and management of the lands between villagers and the company. But he says some residents pressured him to accept the terms.They were offered roughly €55,000 (700 million Rupiah, $62,333 according to conversation rates at the time) for approximately 2,300 hectares (5684 acres) in total.”At that time, that amount of money was really huge,” says Syafei. The villagers were “yearning for the compensation.” In the end the community sold the land. Valuable peatlands were converted to plantations – and the repercussions of the decision are still felt today.
For Indigenous Protesters, Defending the Environment Can Be Fatal – Adfln Vez Lira, a prominent defender of an ecological reserve in Mexico, was shot while riding his motorcyclein April. Four years earlier, the renowned activist Berta Cflceres was shot dead in her home in Honduras by assailants taking direction from executives responsible for a dam she had opposed. Four years before that, Cambodian forest and land activist Chut Wutty was killed during a brawl with the country’s military police while investigating illegal logging.These are some of the most prominent examples of violence faced by environmental activists in recent years – but, according to a new report, they are not unusual. As police crack down on protests demanding justice and equity in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in the U.S., it’s clear that activism in general comes at a heavy price. Environmental activists specifically – particularly indigenous activists and activists of color – have for years faced high rates of criminalization, physical violence, and even murder for their efforts to protect the planet, according to a comprehensive analysis by researchers from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, which was released last Tuesday.The researchers analyzed nearly 2,800 social conflicts related to the environment using the Environmental Justice Atlas (EJAtlas) database, which they created in 2011 to monitor environmental conflicts around the world. The study, published in the journal Global Environmental Change, found that 20 percent of environmental defenders faced criminal charges or were imprisoned, 18 percent were victims of physical violence, and 13 percent were killed between 2011 and 2019. The likelihood of these consequences increased significantly for indigenous environmental defenders: 27 percent faced criminalization, 25 percent were victims of physical violence, and 19 percent were murdered.
Mining Giant BHP Pauses Plans to Blast 40 Aboriginal Heritage Sites — Anglo-Australian mining company BHP said it would pause plans to destroy 40 Aboriginal heritage sites as part of its expansion of an iron ore mine in Western Australia (WA).The plans were first revealed by The Guardian Australia Wednesday and come on the heels of the controversial destruction by rival mining company Rio Tinto of 46,000-year-old Aboriginal rock shelters at Juukan Gorge.The traditional owners of the 40 sites are the Banjima people, who wrote in December that they would “suffer spiritual and physical harm if they are destroyed,” The Guardian reported.”[We are] worried about the cumulative impact of so many sites being the subject of a single notice for destruction and that not one of the sites is deemed worthy of protection in situ by BHP,” the Indigenous title holders wrote. BHP won approval to destroy the sites from WA Aboriginal Affairs Minister Ben Wyatt on May 29, days after the blasting of the Juukan Gorge sites, Australia’s ABC News reported.At least 40, and as many as 86 sites, were identified in BHP’s application to expand its $4.5 billion South Flank iron ore mine in Pilbara, WA, according to The Guardian.An archeological survey conducted by the company revealed rock shelters between 10,000 and 15,000 years old and evidence of human presence in the area dating back approximately 40,000 years. The documents revealed by The Guardian also show the company was aware of Aboriginal opposition to the sites’ destruction.The company wrote it had “taken into account the views and recommendations provided by the Banjima representatives during the consultation and inspection,” but it was “not reasonably practicable for BHP to avoid the eighty-six (86) potential archaeological sites.” While the Banjima people wanted the sites preserved, section 18 of the Western Australian Aboriginal Heritage Act prevented them from formally registering their opposition because they had already signed an agreement with BHP to support the mine in exchange for financial and other benefits.
New Orleans Activists Call out Environmental Racism Alongside Police Brutality in Week of Protests | DeSmog – On June 3, just hours before New Orleans police tear-gassed a group protesting racial violence, Jesse Perkins, a Black veteran, called out the many shades of racism and violence his community faces daily. “What they inflicted on us was a slow violence. What is happening every day to these Black men on the street every day is violence. But it is all relative,” said Perkins, who lives in a house built on a toxic Superfund site in the Upper 9th Ward’s Gordon Plaza, a Black neighborhood. “That is why I’m here connecting the dots. Violence is violence. Racism is racism, whether it is environmental racism, whether it is racial profiling, whether you walk on the streets and get your brains knocked out by some guy who has taken an oath to uphold the law.” Perkins was among the New Orleans activists connecting environmental racism and police brutality during a week of local protests sparked by the death of George Floyd at the hands of the Minneapolis police and focused on the Black Lives Matters movement. These protests, and the many others like it around the country, are taking place in the midst of theCOVID-19 pandemic, whose death toll has disproportionately affected African Americans and illuminated racial disparity in the United States. Gordon Plaza, where Perkins lives, is part of a subdivision developed by New Orleans in 1981 on top of the Agriculture Street landfill, which had served as a dump for decades. In 1994 the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) added the site to its Superfund list for cleanup due to the contaminated soil and groundwater. At the time of its development, however, no one disclosed to the buyers that their brand-new homes were built on top of a dump that was closed permanently in 1965. New Orleans activists are demanding police reform as well as a fully funded relocation for residents of Gordon Plaza, who aren’t satisfied with the EPA’s cleanup and remediation efforts of the 1990s. “Most environmental issues are human made and must be corrected and prevented,” their platform states. New Orleans has never taken responsibility for its role inbuilding low income housing on land that residents say the city knew was toxic. Despite winning a partial class action lawsuit in 2015, the Gordon Plaza community was unable to secure enough money to relocate.
US B-52 Bomber ‘Loses’ Experimental Hypersonic Missile Over California –Amid growing media speculation over details of the Pentagon’s hypersonic weapons program pursued in c onjunction with Lockheed Martin and DARPA, a shocking headline appeared Tuesday in the respected aviation journal Aviation Week, namely that a US B-52 bomber lost an experimental hypersonic missile in mid-air over California. The report, also picked up in The New York Post and others described that, “A scramjet-powered missile developed under the joint DARPA/U.S. Air Force Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) program was destroyed in a recent test accident, Aviation Week has learned.”The aviation monitoring site reports further details: “The missile is believed to have inadvertently separated from a B-52 carrier aircraft during a captive-carry flight test, according to sources familiar with the evaluation,” and added, “The cause of the mishap, which is thought to have involved an aircraft from the 419th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB, California, is under investigation.”The weapon reportedly separated from the Boeing B-52 carrier aircraft and was soon after destroyed, meaning it either detonated in the air or when it struck the ground below.The Air Force refused to comment for the report while DARPA didn’t deny the accident, only saying “Details of those flight demonstrations are classified,” in an apparent tacit admission that experimental tests are indeed taking place.
Earth has hottest May on record, with 2020 on track to be one of the top 10 warmest years – The Earth had its hottest May ever last month, continuing an unrelenting climate change trend as 2020 is set to be among the hottest 10 years ever, scientists with the Copernicus Climate Change Service announced on Friday. It’s virtually certain that this year will be among the top hottest years in recorded history with a higher than 98% likelihood it will rank in the top five, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. “The last month has been the warmest May on record globally and this is unquestionably an alarming sign,” said Freja Vamborg, a scientist at Copernicus Climate Change Service, an intergovernmental agency that supports European climate policy. “Even more concerning is the fact that average temperatures of the last 12 months have become one of the hottest 12-month periods ever recorded in our data set,” she said. An aerial view of low water levels in the Llwyn-on reservoir in Taf Fawr valley on May 29, 2020 in Merthyr Tydfil, United Kingdom. The Met Office have said May is on course to be the driest in 124 years with only 14.3mm of rain since the month began – 17% of what is normally expected. Matthew Horwood | Getty Images The most above-average temperatures were recorded over parts of Siberia – where temperatures were up to 10 degrees Celsius above average – as well as Alaska and Antarctica, according to the new research. The last 12-month period, from June 2019 to May 2020, was nearly 0.7 degrees Celsius (about 1.3 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than average. Globally, May was 0.63 degrees Celsius (about 1.1 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than the average May recorded from 1981 to 2010. The continuous upward trend in global temperatures results from greenhouse gas emissions that change the climate. 2019 was the second-hottest year ever, capping off the world’s hottest decade in recorded history. And six of the warmest years on record were during the past decade. The rising temperatures are accompanied by countless climate disasters, including rapid ice melt in Greenland and Antarctica, devastating wildfires from Australia to California and more intense and frequent hurricanes and heat waves. Human-caused global warming shows no signs of decline. Nations in the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change vowed to cap emissions to curb global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, but they are nowhere near on track to meet that goal.
10 Wildfires Ignite Around Los Angeles in Unseasonable Wind and Heat – Unusually strong winds for June fanned the flames of 10 wildfires around Los Angeles County Monday, the Los Angeles County Fire Department said.The largest of the blazes was the Equestrian Fire in Castaic, which was propelled by some of the strongest winds in the area, LAist reported. Wind speeds in the region reached 65 miles per hour.”It’s rare to have the Santa Ana winds in June, which is why we should be ready for wildfires at all times of the year,” NBC4 forecaster Belen De Leon said.The fire ignited early Monday near the Jack Bones Equestrian Center off the 5 freeway, the Los Angeles Times reported. Firefighters used water-dropping helicopters to help fight the flames, NBC4 reported. As of 3 p.m. Monday it had spread to 86 acres and was 70 percent contained, a spokesperson for the Los Angeles County Fire Department told the Los Angeles Times.”There are still crews there, but they’re just mopping up the hot spots,” L.A. County Fire Department Inspector Henry Narvaez told the paper.Other fires that ignited in Elysian Park, Eagle Rock, El Sereno, Lake View Terrace, the Sepulveda Basin and other areas were mostly contained to a few acres, LAist reported.However, the fires were notable for the unseasonable weather that encouraged them.”Typically we’re talking about June Gloom. Cool conditions along the coast,” National Weather Service (NWS) meteorologist Eric Boldt told LAist. “This is an unusual weather system. We usually don’t see this strong of winds and the Santa Anas like we’re seeing today.”The Santa Ana winds typically arrive in the fall, during peak fire season.In addition to the winds, temperatures are above average this week, with highs more than 20 degrees above normal projected for Tuesday, according to the Los Angeles Times. High temperature records were broken Monday at the Los Angeles, Long Beach and Camarillo airports, NWS reported. A red flag fire warning was issued for the area through Monday night. “The weather conditions combined with the fuels – the grasses and vegetation – are ripe for more extreme fire spread and behavior if one were to start,” NWS Oxnard meteorologist Mike Wofford told the Los Angeles Times.
Tropical Storm Cristobal Brings Flooding and Tornadoes to Gulf Coast – Tropical Storm Cristobal made landfall in Louisiana Sunday as the third earliest named storm on record in the Atlantic Basin. The storm brought flooding to parts of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida and caused tornadoes in the Sunshine State, The Associated Press reported. While it made landfall well below hurricane strength with winds of 50 miles per hour, it was predicted to pour as many as 12 inches of rain in some areas and generate storm surges of up to five feet. “The flash flooding mixed with the storm surge could be a disaster in some areas,” National Weather Service Baton Rouge meteorologist Danielle Manning told The New York Times. “Areas that can’t handle that amount of rainfall.” Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards declared an emergency ahead of the storm Thursday and on Friday asked President Donald Trump to do so as well. Trump said he would declare an emergency on Twitter Sunday. The storm brought three to five feet of flooding along the Louisiana coast and into Mississippi, Manning said. New Orleans suburb Jefferson Parish called for voluntary evacuations of low-lying areas, according to The Associated Press. It was unclear how much New Orleans would be impacted as it depended on whether the city’s aging drainage system would keep streets dry. The storm made landfall between the mouth of the Mississippi River and the barrier island of Grand Isle, which was evacuated. Flood waters washed over the only road to the island. In Mississippi, water flooded coastal roadways in Biloxi. In Hancock County, Mississippi, 100 employees of the Silver Slipper Casino had to be rescued Sunday afternoon when five-foot flood waters trapped them in the building, AccuWeather reported. A family also had to be rescued from the casino hotel Sunday night.In Florida, the outerbands of the storm spawned several tornados, one of which came close to downtown Orlando Saturday. Another twister uprooted trees and downed power lines near Lake City, Florida Sunday, The Associated Press reported. The wind storm did not injure anyone, but Cristobal claimed two lives when two brothers, aged eight and ten, were carried away by a rip current when swimming at a Grand Isle beach Friday, according to AccuWeather. The storm had weakened to a tropical depression by early Monday morning, but the risk of flooding, tornados and strong wind continued for the lower Mississippi Valley and Central Gulf Coast. It should reach Arkansas by Monday evening, according to the National Weather Service. In addition to its arrival early in hurricane season, Cristobal was also notable because it developed from the remnants of Tropical Storm Amanda, the first named storm of the Pacific hurricane season, which battered El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.
Tropical Storm Cristobal Moving Inland Across Southeastern Louisiana; Flooding Rain, Storm Surge, Gusty Winds Continue – Tropical Storm Cristobal is now moving inland over southeastern Louisiana, but threats of flooding rainfall, storm-surge flooding, tornadoes and gusty winds will continue along the Gulf Coast into Monday. Cristobal is also expected to spread heavy rain and gusty winds through the lower Mississippi Valley and upper Midwest early this week.The National Hurricane Center said Cristobal made landfall along the coast of southeastern Louisiana between the mouth of the Mississippi River and Grand Isle at 5 p.m. CDT Sunday evening. Maximum sustained winds at the time were estimated near 50 mph.Bands of heavier rain are affecting areas from southeastern Louisiana into southern Mississippi, southern Alabama and the Florida Panhandle.Rainfall rates of 3 to 6 inches per hour Sunday morning triggered significant flash flooding in parts of downtown Jacksonville, Florida, trapping cars.Farther west, one observer near Hopewell, Florida (Madison County), reported 12.09 inches of rain in the 48 hours ending 5 p.m. EDT Sunday. Topping that total, a weather station in Suwannee Springs, Florida, reported 13.03 inches of rain between midnight and 8 p.m. EDT Sunday.Water levels were running about 6.2 feet above normal tide level Sunday afternoon at Shell Beach, Louisiana, along the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet, southeast of New Orleans near the southern shore of Lake Borgne.In New Orleans, storm surge was surpassing 3.5 feet on the south shore of Lake Pontchartrain Sunday afternoon, causing water to pile up on Lakeshore Drive. Storm surge caused water to cover roads near Waveland and Bay St. Louis, Mississippi, where water levels were nearly 6 feet above normal Sunday afternoon.
Flooding Disproportionately Harms Black Neighborhoods – When Hurricane Harvey devastated Texas in 2017, the neighborhood that suffered the worst flood damage was a section of southwest Houston where 49% of the residents are nonwhite. When Hurricane Katrina hit southeast Louisiana in 2005, the damage was the most extensive in the region’s African American neighborhoods. Of the seven ZIP codes that suffered the costliest flood damage from Katrina, four of them had populations that were at least 75% black, government records show. Flooding in the U.S. disproportionately harms African American neighborhoods, an E&E News analysis of federal flood insurance payments shows. The concentration of flood damage in urban areas with large black populations may contrast to images of hurricanes hitting affluent coastal areas and riverine floods swamping rural, largely white communities. But urban flooding and its disproportionate impact on minorities and low-income residents are becoming a growing concern as climate change intensifies floods. At the same time, urban development is creating more impervious surfaces in cities, and aging municipal sewer systems are overwhelmed by the increasing water. “The [flood] risk to the nation is concentrated in the metro areas,” flood expert Doug Plasencia said yesterday at a national conference on flooding. “Socially vulnerable populations add to the complexity.” A major concern about flooding in cities is that the residents who are most vulnerable – those who live in the lowest-lying areas or in neighborhoods without green space to absorb water – are often poor and members of minority groups.Urban flooding has the potential to exacerbate the racial inequality that is an undercurrent of the nationwide protests over the May 25 killing of George Floyd, a black man in custody by Minneapolis police. Some protesters have denounced broad and persistent societal inequalities including the disproportionate number of blacks dying from COVID-19. “Urban flooding is a growing source of significant economic loss, social disruption and housing inequality,” Texas A&M University flood expert Sam Brody told yesterday’s flood conference. Research has shown that in states such as Illinois and Michigan, the costliest flood damage occurs in Chicago and Detroit – major cities with large black populations.
Michigan to seek federal disaster declaration over broken dams – Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) said Monday she will request a federal disaster declaration over damage caused by two dams that failed last month. Whitmer said she will send a letter to the federal government within the next week requesting the declaration for impacted areas after the dams failed in Midland County. “When the president approves our full request, federal assistance will be unlocked to help people and businesses get back on their feet and repair some of the damage that this flooding has caused,” Whitmer said during a visit to Midland County, according to video reported by Michigan Live. “A declaration helps us provide everything from crisis counseling services to individuals to debris removal and road repair as well as opening up access to low-interest loans for homeowners and renters, businesses, farms, and nonprofits that have been impacted by this event,” she added. The failure of the two dams damaged about 2,500 houses and businesses and caused more than $200 million in damage, Mark Bone, chairman of the Midland County Board of Commissioners, reportedly said. Bone said only about 8 percent of the homes impacted by flooding had flood insurance coverage, according to Michigan Live. He reportedly said that, based on current estimates, about 150 homes were completely destroyed and about 790 homes suffered major damage. “It’s unlike anything seen in 500 years, I feel like I’ve said that many items over the course of the last three months. We’re going through something unlike anything any of us have seen in our lifetime, and yet here we are,” Whitmer said. “Getting back to normal is going to be a herculean undertaking, but with the federal government’s help, we can get it done and we will.” In May, President Trump approved Whitmer’s request for a disaster declaration for the impacted areas.
Trump’s latest environmental rollback threatens minority communities, experts warn – President Trump’s latest executive order, lifting environmental review of major projects, will have a disproportionately harmful effect on minorities, experts warn. The order signed on Thursday relies on emergency authorities to sidestep a suite of environmental laws, allowing for the fast-tracking of major construction projects in a bid to boost the economy. That could mean rapid approval of not just highways but also pipelines, oil and gas projects and other polluting industries that have historically landed in communities of color. Advocates point to a growing body of research that details the impacts of polluting infrastructure that is often found in or near black, Latino, and Native American communities. A 2018 EPA study found black Americans are subjected to higher levels of air pollution than whites, while a 2011 study found that communities of color and low-income populations are disproportionately exposed to chemical releases. Others have found that minority and low income communities were more likely to be near hazardous waste sites. Those same communities often have worse health outcomes, with black populations presenting higher rates of asthma and cancer deaths. But Trump’s order closes a number of avenues that have been used by communities to fight back against unwanted projects, and his move comes amid historic protests over injustices faced by blacks and other minorities. The order also slashes requirements in a number of landmark environmental laws, including the Endangered Species Act, the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), which requires rigorous environmental review before building new infrastructure like highways or pipelines. NEPA usually requires community feedback — a process that would be nixed under emergency authorities that are typically used to respond to natural disasters like floods. “Our first and arguably our only environmental justice law we have on the books is NEPA because it provides an opportunity for affected citizens and communities to object before the federal government approves a project that may have a dramatically negative impact on their community. It’s a disclosure and empowerment statute that is the granddaddy of all environmental laws,” said David Hayes, executive director of the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center at New York University’s School of Law. “Here we are in the midst of an epidemic that affects your respiratory system and communities that are concerned about respiratory health are losing a voice to stop projects that exacerbate serious health issues.”
Minority areas already have high pollution. Trump’s coronavirus response makes it worse, critics say. – A pair of recent administration actions in response to the viral outbreak may deprive African Americans, Native Americans and other groups of a voice in major decisions that affect air and water quality near them and end up allowing pollution to go unchecked in their communities. The administration’s moves come against the backdrop of tens of thousands of Americans marching in the streets to protest racial inequality after the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis on Memorial Day. “When we say, ‘I can’t breathe,’ we literally can’t breathe,” Mustafa Santiago Ali, who helped found the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice program, said during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing Tuesday, echoing some of Floyd’s final words as a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, kept his knee on his neck for nearly nine minutes. Earlier this month, the president signed an executive order allowing major infrastructure projects to move forward without significant environmental review. Under the order, federal agencies are now able to waive some requirements under the 1970 National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that projects such as refineries and highways be scrutinized for their potential negative impact on the environment. Those sorts of projects are often built in or through low-income communities, such as those in Detroit or Houston, with few resources to fend off unwanted development. Without environmental review, people who live in those communities may have no way of formally registering their discontent with federal authorities.“NEPA has historically been a major tool for holding developers accountable,” said Robert Bullard, a scholar credited as the father of environmental justice – the idea that poor and minority communities bear the brunt of environmental hazards.
House panel advances measure to thwart Pennsylvania’s entry into carbon trading program – A Pennsylvania House panel approved a measure Tuesday that would limit the governor’s ability to enter the state into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. House Bill 2025 advanced along party lines in the Environmental Resources and Energy Committee after Republican prime sponsor Rep. Jim Struzzi said the legislation “gives a voice” back to the coal plant workers in his Indiana County district who will lose their jobs if the state joins RGGI in 2022 as scheduled. “I think everyone understands that we, as elected representatives of the people, should have a say in entering any type of multistate faction, particularly one that could have a devastating effect on our economy,” he said before the vote Tuesday. In October, Gov. Tom Wolf directed the Department of Environmental Protection to draft a plan for joining RGGI, a 10-state coalition that charges power producers for the pollution they emit in an effort to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the impacts of climate change. The proceeds are reinvested into participating states’ economies. Pennsylvania, a leading energy exporter nationwide, has long been a holdout in the program. Struzzi’s bill would halt the DEP’s regulatory process and instead require legislative approval before moving ahead. An amendment to the bill lays out additional hurdles the DEP must clear – from submitting a draft bill to the Legislative Reference Bureau for public comment to holding at least four public hearings to itemizing a list of costs associated with joining RGGI – before a lawmaker could move a corresponding plan through the normal legislative process.
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: EV supply chain could see years of shortages – report — Tuesday, June 9, 2020 — The coronavirus pandemic could cut supplies of key metals needed to produce electric vehicle batteries, and low prices of one metal could help stall EV projects for years, according to a new report.
U.S. Electricity Demand This Summer to Be Lowest Since 2009, Says EIA – U.S. electricity demand is expected to total 998 billion kilowatt hours (kWh) between June and August, a 5% decline compared with the same period last year and the lowest level of summer electricity consumption the country has experienced since 2009, according to the Energy Information Administration (EIA). Most of the expected decline will come through the commercial and industrial sectors, which EIA forecasts to be 12% and 9% lower, respectively, than summer 2019. The agency also expects residential electricity sales to grow by 3% this summer as the Covid-19 pandemic forces people to work from home and follow social-distancing practices. “Normally, weather is one of the primary factors in determining electricity demand in the residential and commercial sectors,” EIA said. “The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) forecasts that U.S. cooling degree days — an indicator of demand for air conditioning — for June, July, and August 2020 will be 1% lower than last summer. “This summer, however, other factors are affecting electricity demand more than temperature. Although state and local governments are relaxing stay-at-home orders, social distancing guidelines will likely result in Americans spending more time at home than usual this summer. In addition, many people that had worked in offices are now working from home, shifting electricity demand from the commercial sector to the residential sector.” Natural gas-fired power plants will generate an estimated 467 billion kWh this summer, slightly higher than last summer (460 billion kWh), EIA said. “Forecast natural gas prices remain low this summer, making it relatively more economical than coal for power generation. EIA forecasts natural gas’ share of electricity generation to increase from 41% last summer to 44% this summer,” the agency said. EIA forecasts coal-fired power plants will generate 178 billion kWh this summer, down from 272 billion kWh in summer 2019. “Coal continues its downward trend in its contribution to U.S. power generation, and EIA expects its generation share will fall from 24% of the electricity generated during summer 2019 to 17% this summer. EIA forecasts the amount of coal generation to be lower than nuclear generation this summer (207 billion kWh). At the same time, EIA expects that U.S. wind’s share of electricity generation will grow to 7% and utility-scale solar will grow to 3% this summer.
Who pays Michigan utilities’ coronavirus costs: customers or investors? -In late March, Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer issued stay-at-home orders that required tens of thousands of factories, offices, stores, restaurants and other buildings that represent the state’s largest energy consumers to quickly empty. Within days, industrial and commercial energy use in Michigan plummeted to what industry observers have characterized as unprecedented lows. As investor-owned utilities, like DTE Energy and Consumers Energy, distributed less power to customers throughout the state, their revenues dropped. Meanwhile, the companies absorbed new expenses that came with protecting staff from COVID-19 and from uncollected or extended customer payments during the lockdown.For Consumers, that’s meant expenses and revenue shortfalls totalling up to $28 million per month, it said, with pandemic-related losses in the industry expected to be substantial.Though earnings are down, utilities’ shareholders in recent years have come to expect a nearly 10-percent return on investment, and state regulators have ordered companies to track their losses. In response, Attorney General Dana Nessel’s office and consumer advocates raised concerns that utilities plan to pass on revenue losses to customers, as other states are considering. Doing so would, in effect, force Michiganders to pay for energy the companies never sold, consumer groups say. They and the attorney general’s office preemptively filed objections with regulators, setting up a battle in Lansing over who should take the hit – customers or shareholders. Amy Bandyk, executive director of the Citizens Utility Board of Michigan (CUB), a utility watchdog group, said the situation raises an ethical question – should utilities be permitted to saddle customers with all the risk of adverse events such as a pandemic while guaranteeing shareholders uninterrupted dividends? Investors “can’t reap the rewards in good times without also taking a hit in bad times, or there wouldn’t be any risk. They can’t have their cake and eat it, too,” Bandyk said.
Nature Conservancy maps places where wind turbines pose minimal danger to wildlife » Producing more wind energy in the U.S. can help reduce carbon pollution. But wind farms can harm wildlife, especially birds.Joe Fargione of the Nature Conservancy says golden eagles, for example, watch the ground while hunting.“They’re not looking where they’re going and they run into the turbines,” he says.The spinning blades also kill thousands of bats each year.And wind farms can even be a hazard for ground-dwelling birds like sage grouse that avoid nesting near the turbines.So to find a solution, Fargione and his team looked at data and maps for 17 central U.S. states. They identified over 140,000 square miles of land that are optimal for wind but pose little danger to sensitive species.“Happily, our conclusion is that there’s plenty of wind that can be sited in low-impact, low-conflict areas,” he says.The research shows that these locations have the potential to produce more than 10 times the amount of wind energy currently generated in the U.S. So if wind development expands in these areas, Fargione says he and his team are “quite optimistic that we can have both renewable energy that we need to fight climate change and habitat for our important wildlife species.”
America’s Oil & Gas Capital Is Turning To Renewables – When we think of Texas, we think of Big Oil. Even more so in its largest city, Houston. Home to some of the world’s largest private energy companies, Houston lives and dies on oil. But it is also the biggest buyer of….renewable energy. The city of Houston has committed to purchasing 100% renewable energy as a part of a renewed collaboration with NRG Energy. Throughout the seven-year agreement, the city predicts seeing the cost of electricity for the community falling, resulting in $9.3 million saved every year. Mayor Sylvester Turner noted, “All they see in the city of Houston is Chevron and Shell and Exxon. They kind of look past the city of Houston, but there are some incredible things that are happening in the city of Houston when we start talking about renewables.” This new deal is just the most recent in a string of initiatives helping to push the city in a more eco-friendly direction. In addition to the renewables pledge, the city is also building new bike lanes and encouraging the use of electric cars. It’s even proactively courting Elon Musk to move Tesla Inc. and SpaceX to the “Space City” in hopes the offer will help other businesses see Houston for what it really is, rather than simply the global capital of the oil & gas business. The strategy also looks to expand Houston’s investments in its own renewable resources, with the goal of powering the city with 100% renewable energy by 2025, rather than purchasing it. Houston is currently the biggest customer of renewable energy in the country, according to the United States EPA. Houston’s chief sustainability officer Lara Cottingham explained, “As a city, we have a really long and strong history of sustainability. From a sustainability perspective, we’ve been the largest municipal user of renewable energy for some time now.”
Broad Reach Power to Build 15 Battery Storage Projects in Texas – Broad Reach Power, a rapidly growing energy storage independent power producer (IPP) based in Houston which owns a three-gigawatt portfolio of utility-scale solar andenergy storage power projects in Montana, Wyoming, California, Utah, and Texas, has announced that it will build 15 utility-scale battery storage plant sites in areas near Houston and Odessa by the end of 2020. As per the firms’ announcement – six sites are expected to be online and operating this summer, and it is anticipated that the others will be under construction this fall. Each site will contain battery systems capable of storing and distributing up to 10 megawatts of power.“Despite the turmoil of 2020, US demand for lower cost and emission-free generation sources such as solar and wind is increasing, and this is fuelling the need for more battery storage assets,” said Broad Reach Power Managing Partner and Chief Executive Officer Steve Vavrik.“While many parts of the country grapple with economic challenges created by COVID-19, Texas is uniquely poised for continued industrial growth in the near future. Thanks to the state’s rapidly expanding and affordable clean power resources, reliable grid, deep talent base and business-friendly policies, Texas will be a prime location for data centres, manufacturing and pharmaceutical companies looking to expand their US operations. However, the abundant, cheap and emission-free in-state generation resources these companies want, or sometimes even require, will need complementary storage assets to ensure the grid’s continued reliability.”In addition to making the grid more resilient, these storage projects also provide utilities and grid operators with more options to bring the grid back online after an emergency such as a hurricane or tropical storm. They are emission-free, do not use scarce water resources, and are both small as well as modular so they can be constructed near customers with minimal intrusion. Each site is being developed using local civil and electrical engineers, surveyors, civil contractors, electrical contractors, and project managers.
Concerns Raised About Proposed Power Plant on OSU Campus – Several local environmental organizations are sounding the alarm and trying to raise awareness about a power plant proposed for the campus of The Ohio State University.Officially known as the Combined Heat and Power Plant (CHP), the facility would have a capacity of 105.5 megawatts, power that would be generated – for the first decade of its operation, at the very least – through the burning of natural gas. The plant is proposed for a piece of OSU-owned land at the northeast corner of Tharp Street and Herrick Drive, across the street from the OSU Veterinary Hospital and directly south of the Department of Food Science and Technology.The building that would hold the facility would be about 60 feet tall, with two cooling towers extending an additional 27 feet above the roof. The site – which currently holds several green houses – was selected for its proximity to both central campus and the proposed west campus “innovation district,” where early plans call for dozens of new mid-rise buildings and apartments for as many as 4,000 residents. The plant would provide electricity and heating to buildings in both areas, utilizing the heat created by the power-producing turbines to make steam (which is in turn used to heat buildings in the winter and to humidify and regulate temperatures in buildings year-round, and for other tasks in labs and medical facilities).
California plans for future of gas system amid ‘patchwork’ of electrification policies – As a wave of local governments in California roll out policies that promote the electrification of buildings, the state’s energy regulators have been saddled with a complicated task: planning for the future of its natural gas system. Around 30 cities in California have passed building codes that reduce their reliance on gas, according to the Sierra Club, the most recent being Santa Cruz, which in March passed an ordinance to “eliminate natural gas infrastructure and associated greenhouse gas emissions in new buildings where all-electric infrastructure can be most practicably integrated.” But while it’s “fantastic” that individual municipalities are showing leadership, this is a patchwork approach, Michael Colvin, director of regulatory and legislative affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund’s (EDF) California energy program, told Utility Dive. “So you’re going to need the state to figure out, how do you accommodate the individual cities and their individual climate goals and their individual building code goals, etcetera – but ensuring that costs are equitable for the remaining customers,” he said. Gas utilities service more than 11 million customers in California, the majority of which are in the Southern California Gas (SoCalGas) and Pacific Gas & Electric territories. And natural gas plays a key role in maintaining grid reliability, according to Christopher Guith, senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute. As more intermittent resources come online, “essentially you’re making yourself overly reliant on gas – which is what California has done. They understand that and so, as a matter of policy… the CPUC, in coordination with the state energy agency, are looking at finding ways to alleviate that,” he said. State utilities are procuring storage resources to address some of these needs. Last year, the CPUC issued a decision seeking retirement extensions for 4.8 GW of gas generation units, and identifying the potential for resource adequacy shortages beginning in 2021. In response, both Pacific Gas & Electric and Southern California Edison have proposed a series of battery storage projects to address these challenges.
EIA: 2020 U.S. coal production to total 530 million tons, down 25% from prior year – The U.S. Energy Information Administration further lowered its coal production forecasts for 2020, predicting a 25% drop in domestic coal production from 2019 levels in its most recent “Short-Term Energy Outlook.” As the coronavirus pandemic battered electricity demand and brought construction sites and manufacturing plants around the world to a pause, the EIA began to revise down its outlook, predicting a 22% drop in April and then a 24.3% decline in May. Continuing that trend, the agency said in a June 9 report that U.S. coal mines would produce 530 million tons in 2020 from an estimated 705 million tons in the prior year, citing a compilation of negative market factors including slipping demand for coal-fired power generation and faltering steel and metallurgical coal demand overseas. Global steel and coking coal demand have diminished met coal output, resulting in a projected 35% decline in output from mines in the Appalachian region of the U.S., the report stated. Meanwhile, production in the Western region is expected to see a 25% drop due in part to reduced thermal coal demand from key export destinations including India and lower coal-fired electricity demand in the U.S., according to the report. U.S. metallurgical coal exports are expected to fall 32.3% in 2020 to 37.3 million tons from an estimated 55.1 million tons in 2019, according to EIA’s outlook. Thermal coal shipments overseas are similarly anticipated to sink 30.2% to 26.3 million tons from approximately 37.7 million the previous year. EIA maintained a view stated in May that production will recover in 2021 to roughly 549 million tons and that U.S. met coal and thermal coal exports will also rebound, a projection some market observers have disagreed with. In addition, the average delivered coal price will decrease from an estimated $2.02/MMBtu in 2019 to $1.98/MMBtu before increasing to $2.03/MMBtu in 2021, according to the report.
Southern Illinois Power Co-op plans to shutter its largest coal-fired unit this fall – Southern Illinois Power Cooperative plans to retire its largest coal-fired generator as early as this fall, a move that is expected to save $125 million over a decade. President and CEO Don Gulley said the tentative decision is the result of analysis and negotiations that have been ongoing since late 2019. Gulley said SIPC utilized outside consultants to help it perform a comprehensive review of operations and determine the best path forward. The decision to close Unit 4, as it is known, was based on two primary factors, he said: sustained low energy prices in the wholesale power market, and increasingly costly environmental regulations for coal-fired generators. As a result, up to 26 of the plant’s 82 employees are expected to face layoffs. Those employees are to receive a severance package under the terms of an agreement ratified by the IBEW Local 702, which represents workers, Gulley said. SIPC is a generation and transmission cooperative located on the shores of Lake of Egypt that provides wholesale electric power to seven member distribution cooperatives, and the city of McLeansboro. It is jointly owned and governed by the distribution cooperatives, which are: Egyptian Electric Cooperative Association; Clinton County Electric Cooperative, Inc.; Monroe County Electric Co-Operative, Inc.; SouthEastern Illinois Electric Cooperative, Inc.; Southern Illinois Electric Cooperative; Tri-County Electric Cooperative, Inc.; and Clay Electric Co-operative, Inc. Those distribution cooperatives have a combined 80,000 metered customers across 29 counties – which are considered member-owners – throughout rural Southern Illinois.
Lawmakers ready bills for ethylene oxide transparency, coal ash fee hike – Several environmental bills – including a high-profile ethylene oxide spill reporting measure – have been teed back up in a House committee for action. The House Natural Resources and Environment Committee heard initial testimony from state senators on a handful of environmental measures that cleared the Senate by Crossover Day. It was one of the latest signs that lawmakers will take up some of the bills that had at one point appeared doomed for this year when the legislative session was abruptly suspended because of the COVID-19 outbreak. The budget, which will be cut by 11%, is still expected to be the main focus when the session resumes on June 15. One closely watched bill would require facilities using the cancer-causing chemical ethylene oxide, which is used to sterilize medical equipment, to report any leaks that violate their permit to the state within 24 hours. That information will then be posted online for the public to see. “One of the problems we still have had, though, is there still are leaks and there still are spills and what citizens were having to do is constantly send an open records request to EPD to find out about these violations of the permits,” said Sen. Brian Strickland, “And that’s not good for anybody,” he added. “It’s not good the citizens to have to constantly submit open records requests to know what’s going on in their backyard and it’s not good for EPD to have to constantly deal with open records requests either.” The bill, SB 426, passed unanimously in the Senate. The House also signed off on its version of the same proposal, although some House lawmakers had pressed earlier for a more scaled down proposal.
IPL’s Petersburg plant is the worst water polluter in state, violates permit 120 times — IPL’s Petersburg power plant has violated its permit more than 120 times in the last three years. That’s the most of any such facility in Indiana. And, now, they will have to pay for it. State environmental regulators and IPL are negotiating an agreement that will require the utility to create a plan to keep the southwest Indiana plant in compliance and also pay a fine of $78,300. An environmental law group says that’s not enough. They say the penalty – for what is the state’s worst offender, according to EPA’s enforcement database – does little to deter future such violations from IPL or other facilities around the state. But even more, the group doubts that the settlement will do enough to address, let alone fix, the problem – a problem that results in dangerous chemicals being released into a nearby waterway, often multiple times a month. IPL told IndyStar that it is committed to compliance. The utility also stressed that the coal-burning Petersburg facility, located roughly 50 miles north of Evansville, became subject to more stringent limits in its most recent permit. Jeff Hammons, an attorney with the Chicago-based Environmental Law and Policy Group, said that is true. He also says that’s not an excuse. IPL knew of the more stringent limits several years before they became enforceable in 2017 and 2018, he said, giving the company ample time to make changes and make sure they complied. “They had a long time to come up with a solution to this, and they still haven’t solved it,” Hammons said. “And now they just have a settlement to submit yet another plan.” The Indiana Department of Environmental Management is currently in negotiations with the company about the settlement. The agency said that the intent of all enforcement actions is to address the violations and to bring the facility back into compliance. IDEM would not make anyone available to speak with IndyStar because the situation is ongoing, an agency spokesman said.
Man attacks Little Village protesters as coal plant demolition resumes – Chicago Sun-Times – The demolition of the old Crawford power plant in Little Village resumed early Friday morning as protesters chanted, blocked traffic on a busy section of South Pulaski Road and drew the wrath of a truck driver who stepped out of his vehicle and began attacking community organizers in the middle of the street.The chaotic scene was calmed a short time later after Chicago police officers arrived to direct traffic and keep the more than two dozen protesters confined to the sidewalk across the street from the demolition site.Organizers are furious that demolition continues after the botched implosion of an almost 400-foot smokestack that blanketed the community in a thick cloud of dust Easter weekend. They’ve asked Mayor Lori Lightfoot to stop the demolition during the COVID-19 pandemic, noting that the majority-Latino neighborhood has an inordinately high number of coronavirus cases and deaths, but the mayor has said the partially destroyed structure is unstable and must come down. The coal plant is being torn down to make way for a distribution warehouse that will be leased to retailer Target. Community organizers, who fought years ago to shut down the coal power plant, complain that the new facility will inundate the community with hundreds of diesel-fueled trucks every day, polluting a community that already is among the worst in the state for poor air quality. They have called for the city to stop the development, led by Hilco Redevelopment Partners, but Lighftoot has said the project will go forward.
Coal’s collapse under COVID-19 adds urgency to just transition movement – As COVID-19 erupted into a pandemic, the National Mining Association wrote a plea to President Donald Trump in March for relief from a federal tax that funds black lung treatment for coal miners. The letter weighed mere ounces but landed like a house-size boulder in Appalachian coal country. Instead of being crushed by that news, however, officers of 12 Black Lung Association chapters in Virginia, Kentucky and West Virginia coalesced. They crafted a counter response asking congressional leaders to extend the black lung excise tax to help ex-miners afflicted with the incurable disease and prompt the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration to establish emergency standards to protect working miners. “We sacrificed our lungs and our health to feed our families and power America,” they wrote in a two-page April letter. “The COVID-19 pandemic is a new hazard that threatens our health and the health of working miners. We urge you to protect mine workers, protect the black lung excise tax … and to provide support for our local businesses, and our hard-working families, neighbors, and friends.” Refusing to give up because of physical distancing restrictions, the officers united via telephone and social media. “They are shouting out, ‘We need justice, we need health care and we need benefits,’” said Dodson, the advocacy group’s Central Appalachian field coordinator, based in Norton, Virginia. “Maybe they’re getting overshadowed by the National Mining Association, but that doesn’t stop their determination and their right to be here.” If anything, the novel coronavirus has accelerated the demise of coal that began with competition from natural gas and, now, cheaper renewable energy. Upward of 300 coal-fired power plants have been phased out in the last decade. Fear of the disease prompted owners to shut down some Appalachian mines, at least temporarily, in March. This year, coal production is expected to slump 22% from 2019 – and that’s on top of an almost 30% drop between 2014 and 2019, according to U.S. Energy Information Administration data. Appalachian Voices and other organizations already on the ground to help fossil fuel-reliant communities find their footing are now doubling down on those efforts.
SUPREME COURT: Wash. urges justices to reject coal export fight — Wednesday, June 10, 2020 — The Supreme Court shouldn’t “waste its valuable time” considering constitutional claims against Washington for denying a water quality permit for a coal export project, state officials told the justices yesterday.
Murray Energy issues WARN notices; up to 1,500 coal miners could be out of work on June 17 – – More than 1,500 people working in the coal industry in the Northern Panhandle will be without jobs next week after multiple subsidiary companies for Murray Energy announced mass layoffs recently, according to federal notices filed by the mining company. According to a federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification filed in late May, 1,522 workers at four Murray Energy locations in Ohio and Marshall counties will terminated as of June 17. They include 854 workers at Marshall County Coal Co. in Cameron and 447 employees at Ohio County Coal Co. in Dallas, along with 139 workers at Anchor Longwall & Rebuild Inc. and another 82 employees at Kanawha Transportation Center Inc., both of which are located at Industrial Park Drive in Wheeling. Two other Murray subsidiaries in Marion County – Harrison County Coal Co. and Marion County Coal Co. – also notified a combined 931 workers would be laid off next week at those facilities, according to the WARN notice issued May 28. Murray Energy cited billions in debt and a declining demand for its primary product of steam coal when the company filed for Chapter 11 reorganization in late October after failing to make payments to creditors. The company announced in court filings it planned to change the bankruptcy filing to Chapter 7, which drew an outcry from the United Mine Workers union that said it would lead to the closure of mines and layoff of thousands of workers. The case remains in federal court on the Western District of Ohio. Murray is largest underground coal producer in the United States with 15 active mines, some of which have been idled. The company also operates 10 coal transloading facilities and five mining and equipment factory and fabrication facilities.
Southern’s Nuke Project ‘Highly Unlikely’ to Meet Deadlines – Southern Co.’s long-troubled project to expand its Vogtle nuclear plant in Georgia is “highly unlikely” to meet state deadlines and is apt to face additional budget overruns, according to a local monitor. The company is no longer on pace to complete the two reactors by November 2021 and November 2022 deadlines approved by the Georgia Public Service Commission, Don Grace, a vice president of engineering for the Vogtle Monitoring Group, said in filed testimony. He also estimated that the project’s cost would exceeded its current $17.1 billion target. It would be yet another blow for the Vogtle expansion, which began in 2009, has already doubled in price and is running more than five years behind schedule. The monitoring group’s analysis doesn’t even take into account the impact of the coronavirus. It was completed in mid-March, before Southern and its partners slashed the workforce by 20% in April after dozens fell ill. Jeff Wilson, a spokesperson for Southern’s Georgia Power unit, said Vogtle remains on schedule and at budget. “The project is continuing its strategy of utilizing an aggressive site work plan as a tool to help us achieve the November regulatory-approved dates,” Wilson said in an email. “The total project capital cost forecast remains unchanged.” Yet the monitoring group said Southern’s strategy to speed up testing before finishing much of the construction at the plant led to inefficiency and higher costs, according to the report. The company “erroneously concluded that deviation from normal industry practice would shorten the schedule,” Grace said. The staff of Georgia Public Service Commission also disputes more than $1.2 billion in costs that Southern plans to pass along to customers immediately after the completion of Unit 3 of the project, according to separate filed testimony. The utility wants to start recouping $2.3 billion of costs in rates in the month after Unit 3 begins operation.
Georgia nuclear project: monitor says more Vogtle delays, costs — There’s potentially bad news for virtually anyone who pays an electric bill in Georgia: Once again, it is “highly unlikely” the long-troubled expansion of Plant Vogtle will be completed when scheduled, say state regulatory staff and independent monitors. According to their recently submitted written testimony, even if Georgia Power does finish on its latest timeline, the nuclear project will be $1 billion over its current budget, which was already billions of dollars higher than when the project began. Construction costs are expected to increase monthly electric bills of customers of Georgia Power and other Georgia electricity providers, virtually all of which have partnered on the massive plant.Still, the new findings could understate the challenges of the project, the only commercial nuclear power plant expansion underway in the United States. The authors based their assessments on a period before the coronavirus pandemic disrupted the construction site south of Augusta. Meanwhile, government staff and monitors wrote that they were “shocked” by an “astounding 80%” failure rate for new components installed at the site. The results meant the components, when tested, “did not initially function properly and required some corrective action(s) to function as designed.”The regulatory staff and power industry experts serving as monitors were assigned by the Georgia Public Service Commission to provide independent analysis. They have been correct in predicting past delays and cost overruns that Georgia Power and parent Southern Company had not yet acknowledged. Georgia Power spokesman Jeff Wilson, in an emailed statement to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Monday, wrote that the company “continues to expect that we will achieve the in-service dates of November 2021 and November 2022 for Vogtle units 3 and 4, respectively. The project is continuing its strategy of utilizing an aggressive site work plan as a tool to help us achieve the November regulatory-approved dates.” The company did not directly answer questions from the AJC about component failure rates or concerns raised by monitors about the company’s current strategy for the project.
Ex-SCE&G executive to plead guilty for defrauding customers over failed $9B nuclear project — The former chief operating officer of South Carolina Electric and Gas has agreed to plead guilty to defrauding utility customers who paid billions of dollars in high power bills for a nuclear power plant that was never completed.And more charges are coming after a three-year investigation by the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s Office Of South Carolina, prosecutors made clear in filings Monday.Steve Byrne, SCE&G’s second-in-command who oversaw the $9 billion V.C. Summer Nuclear Station expansion project before its sudden collapse in July 2017, is pleading guilty to wire and mail fraud, according to court filings.The filings echo accusations that Byrne and other executives hid damaging information and documents about the project’s flaws from investors and the public even as customers’ electric rates soared to pay for it. The charge against Byrne is the first to emerge out of the federal criminal investigation that began shortly after construction on the twin reactors in Fairfield County north of Columbia was canceled by SCE&G and its partner, Santee Cooper.But prosecutors indicated it won’t be the last. “The United States anticipates filing additional criminal charges against other members of the conspiracy,” prosecutors wrote in Monday’s filing. “The criminal investigation is ongoing.” The massive V.C. Summer venture was supposed to usher in a renaissance of carbon-free nuclear power amid predictions of greater energy demand in South Carolina. Company leaders in 2007 persuaded S.C. lawmakers to rewrite the regulatory rulebook so they could embark on the project with limited state oversight, win approval for rate hikes as needed and charge customers upfront for the plant, ostensibly saving them money in the long run. The project’s abandonment set off one of the largest economic crises in the history of the state. SCE&G’s 731,000 electric customers had already paid nearly $2 billion in the form of higher monthly power bills and will be charged about $2.3 billion more to pay off the project’s debt over the next two decades.
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