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:
- 21 Jun 2020 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 20June 2020
21 Jun 2020 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 20June 2020
Chinese Scientist, Escorted Out Of Canadian Biolab, Sent Deadly Viruses To Wuhan — A Chinese scientist who was escorted out of Canada’s only level-4 biolab over a possible “policy breach” shipped deadly Ebola and Henipah viruses to the Wuhan Institute of Virology, according to the CBC, citing newly-released documents. The shipment is not related to COVID-19 or the pandemic. “We have a researcher who was removed by the RCMP from the highest security laboratory that Canada has for reasons that government is unwilling to disclose. The intelligence remains secret. But what we know is that before she was removed, she sent one of the deadliest viruses on Earth, and multiple varieties of it to maximize the genetic diversity and maximize what experimenters in China could do with it, to a laboratory in China that does dangerous gain of function experiments. And that has links to the Chinese military.” -Amir Attaran Dr. Xiangguo Qiu, her husband Keding Cheng and her Chinese students were removed from the Canadian lab after the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) asked the RCMP to investigate several months earlier. According to PHAC, Qiu’s eviction from the lab is not connected to the shipment. “The administrative investigation is not related to the shipment of virus samples to China, said PHAC chief of media relations, Eric Morrissette.””In response to a request from the Wuhan Institute of Virology for viral samples of Ebola and Henipah viruses, the Public Health Agency of Canada (PHAC) sent samples for the purpose of scientific research in 2019.” .”It is suspicious. It is alarming. It is potentially life- threatening,” said University of Ottawa law professor and epidemiologist, Amir Attaran.
Rare, Nearly Extinct Parasite May Have Resurfaced in Vietnam, Doctors Say – Doctors in Vietnam this week say that they’ve made a mysterious and – if accurate – alarming discovery: A local resident who was infested with the nearly extinct Guinea worm. But Guinea worm experts are still trying to confirm whether this case is the genuine article, and if so, how the worm managed to reach a country thousands of miles away from its only known remaining refuge in parts of Africa. The Guinea worm, formally known as Dracunculus medinensis, is an ancient parasite possibly referenced as far back as the Bible and named after the African region where European explorers in the 17th century first reported seeing it. It’s a nematode that explicitly relies on people as part of its cringe-inducing life cycle. The worm usually infects people through drinking water contaminated with tiny freshwater crustaceans that have eaten worm larvae. When these first hosts die, the worms break free and penetrate into the abdomen from the intestinal wall, where they grow up into full-fledged adults and get to mating. When the mama worm (which are much longer than male worms and can extend up to 2.5 feet or 80 centimeters in length) is ready to deliver her progeny, she migrates to just below the surface of the skin, usually along our legs and feet. Then she very painfully breaks through the skin, causing a tremendous burning sensation that makes its hosts desperate to cool off at the nearest water source. As soon that happens, the mother squirts out her clutch of larvae into the water, where the very disturbing cycle starts again. From infestation to being a worm baby surrogate, the process can take a year’s time. But it can still take several painful weeks after for the original worm – or worms – to be removed, which can leave people at risk for other infections and disabled for months.
Air quality impacts early brain development – Researchers at the University of California, Davis, have found a link between traffic-related air pollution and an increased risk for changes in brain development relevant to neurodevelopmental disorders. Their study, based on rodent models, corroborates previous epidemiological evidence showing this association. While air pollution has long been a concern for pulmonary and cardiovascular health, it has only been within the past decade that scientists have turned their attention to its effects on the brain, said UC Davis toxicologist Pamela Lein, senior author of the study, recently published in Translational Psychiatry. Researchers had previously documented links between proximity to busy roadways and neurodevelopmental disorders such as autism, but preclinical data based on real-time exposures to traffic-related air pollution was scarce to nonexistent. Lein worked with UC Davis atmospheric scientist Anthony Wexler and first author Kelley Patten, a doctoral student in the UC Davis graduate group for pharmacology and toxicology, to develop a novel approach to study the impacts of traffic-related air pollution in real time. They set up a vivarium near a traffic tunnel in Northern California so they could mimic, as closely as possible, the experience of humans in a rodent model. The researchers compared the brains of rat pups exposed to traffic-related air pollution with those exposed to fltered air. Both air sources were drawn from the tunnel in real time. They found abnormal growth and increased neuroinflammation in the brains of animals exposed to air pollution. This suggests that air pollution exposure during critical developmental periods may increase the risk for changes in the developing brain that are associated with neurodevelopmental disorders. “What we witnessed are subtle changes,” Patten said. “But we are seeing these effects using air pollution exposures that fall within regulatory limits. With the backdrop of other environmental and genetic risk factors in humans, this may have a more pronounced effect. This exposure also contains very fine particulate matter that isn’t currently regulated.”
Climate Change Tied to Pregnancy Risks, Affecting Black Mothers Most – – NY Times – Pregnant women exposed to high temperatures or air pollution are more likely to have children who are premature, underweight or stillborn, and African-American mothers and babies are harmed at a much higher rate than the population at large, according to sweeping new research examining more than 32 million births in the United States. The research adds to a growing body of evidence that minorities bear a disproportionate share of the danger from pollution and global warming. Not only are minority communities in the United States far more likely to be hotter than the surrounding areas, a phenomenon known as the “heat island” effect, but they are also more likely to be located near polluting industries. “We already know that these pregnancy outcomes are worse for black women,” . “It’s even more exacerbated by these exposures.” The research, published Thursday in JAMA Network Open, part of the Journal of the American Medical Association, presents some of the most sweeping evidence so far linking aspects of climate change with harm to newborn children. The project looked at 57 studies published since 2007 that found a relationship between heat or air pollution and birth outcomes in the United States. The cumulative findings from the studies offer reason to be concerned that the toll on babies’ health will grow as climate change worsens. Four studies found that high temperatures were tied to an increased risk of premature birth ranging from 8.6 percent to 21 percent. Low birth weights were also more common as temperatures rose.The authors looked at two studies that examined the link between higher temperatures and stillbirths. One found that every temperature increase of 1 degree Celsius in the week before delivery corresponded with a 6 percent greater likelihood of stillbirth between May and September. Both studies found racial disparities in the number of stillbirths. “It’s time to really be paying attention to the groups that are especially vulnerable.” The paper also looked for research examining the effects of pregnancy from greater exposure to two types of air pollution: ozone, also known as smog, and tiny particles called PM 2.5..The vast majority of the studies reviewed in the paper concluded that ozone and PM 2.5 are also associated with preterm births, low birth weights and stillbirths. One study found that high exposure to air pollution during the final trimester of pregnancy was linked to a 42 percent increase in the risk of stillbirth. Another study, looking at almost half a million births in Florida in 2004 and 2005, found that for every 5 kilometers, or roughly 3 miles, closer a mother lives to a plant that uses garbage to produce energy, the risk of low birth weight increases by 3 percent. Living closer to power plants was also tied to a higher risk of preterm birth. Mothers with asthma were at particularly high risk. One study found that severe preterm birth, defined as a birth that occurs fewer than 28 weeks into pregnancy, increased by 52 percent for asthmatic mothers exposed to high levels of air pollution.
Trump EPA OK’s Rocket Fuel Chemical for Water Supplies –President Donald Trump’s EPA on Thursday finalized a rule to roll back regulations of a chemical found in rocket fuel that can cause brain damage in infants.”Today’s decision is illegal, unscientific, and unconscionable,” Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) senior strategic director for Health Erik D. Olson said in a statement.The decision to deregulate perchlorate in public drinking water was a long time coming and the source of heavy pushback from environmental groups and Democrats. Regulation of the chemical was a carryover from former President Barack Obama’s administration.EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler made the announcement Thursday, saying the move “fulfills President Trump’s promise to pare back burdensome ‘one-size-fits-all’ overregulation for the American people.”But, as the Associated Press noted, the chemical’s danger should not be underestimated to the 16 million Americans under threat of having the contaminant in their drinking water.According to AP: Perchlorate can damage the development of fetuses and children and cause measurable drops in IQ in newborns, the American Academy of Pediatrics said last August in urging the “strongest possible” federal limits. Studies cited by the doctors’ group included one showing that 9 out of 13 breastfeeding infants were ingesting significant levels of the chemical.The decision came one day before the deadline for the EPA to issue a regulation on the chemical asinstructed in a 2016 consent decree with the NRDC. Olson expressed frustration with Wheeler’s move to deregulate rather than increase controls on perchlorate. “The Environmental Protection Agency is threatening the health of pregnant moms and young children with toxic chemicals in their drinking water at levels that literally can cause loss of IQ points,” said Olson. “Is this what the Environmental Protection Agency has come to?”The NRDC plans to challenge the order in court, claiming the consent decree did not allow for deregulating the chemical.
Trump’s environmental rollbacks hurt poor communities, critics say – – The Trump administration is suspending key environmental reviews during the pandemic that critics warn could further harm poor and minority neighborhoods around the country. Lawmakers and activists say the administration’s actions – meant to boost the lagging economy – could have disproportionate effects on minority communities that live near pipeline and power projects. Local communities are at risk of missing the chance to weigh in on decisions and they could face more pollution entering their communities. “For too long, Black and Brown and underserved communities have suffered the devastating impacts of environmental injustice, living on the front lines of our climate crisis and fence lines of polluting industries, often without the necessary resources to respond to the impact nor the influence in the political process to promote equitable outcomes,” Rep. Donald McEachin, a Virginia Democrat, said at a hearing on Capitol Hill. “The fact that Black Americans are disproportionately dying of COVID-19 exposes the deadly consequences of this truth. It is a truth that we cannot and will not accept.” McEachin added. Nationally, Black people are dying of COVID-19 at a rate nearly two times higher than their population share. Mustafa Santiago Ali – who helped found the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice program – is concerned about vulnerable communities who live near power plants and pipelines. Poor air quality and higher rates of asthma create disparities that are further highlighted by the COVID-19 pandemic. “More people are going to get sick and more people are going to lose their lives,” Ali told lawmakers at the hearing. Ali, a 24-year veteran of the EPA, is now a vice president at the National Advocacy Center at the National Wildlife Federation. “When we say, ‘I can’t breathe,’ we literally can’t breathe,” said Ali, echoing the words of George Floyd, who died in police custody in Minneapolis. Floyd’s words, captured in a video that showed a police officer kneeling on his neck for nearly nine minutes, have become a rallying cry in the nationwide protests for racial equality in recent weeks.
Relaxed EPA Enforcement Threatens Mission, Agency Watchdog Says – The EPA’s reduction in enforcement activity during the coronavirus puts the agency’s regulatory mission at risk, the agency’s internal watchdog said on Wednesday. That finding cuts against the Environmental Protection Agency’s message that the agency is continuing to do robust enforcement. Earlier this month, nine states urged a New York federal court to block the EPA from using a light touch on environmental enforcement during the pandemic. The EPA announced March 26 it would stop seeking penalties from those not performing routine compliance monitoring, integrity testing, sampling, laboratory analysis, training, and reporting or certification activities if they’re unable to do so because of the pandemic. But the EPA’s Office of Inspector General said that “additional reduction in enforcement activity places the EPA’s regulatory mission at greater risk and threatens the Agency’s overall mission to protect human health and the environment.” Exacerbating matters is the fact that the EPA’s enforcement has already been tailing off, the inspector general said. In March, the office issued a report finding that the agency conducted 33% fewer inspections in fiscal 2018 than in fiscal 2007.
Wheeler in Wisconsin: Putting a Green Veneer on the Actions of Trump’s EPA — The Trump administration declared a victory over air pollution in Sheboygan, Wisconsin this week – a timely win given recent polls showing that voters view environmental protection to be President Trump’sgreatest vulnerability. It is not clear if Trump’s weak standing in Wisconsin polls will be helped by the announcement that a portion of Sheboygan County, a chronic smog hot spot, has met federal air quality standards. But the declaration, made Tuesday by Environmental Protection Agency administrator Andrew Wheeler in the last of three tours of swing states so far this month, reveals much about the administration’s strategy for putting a green veneer on its record of relentlessly rolling back environmental protections. By redrawing a line on a map to exclude a shoreline air monitor with high pollution readings – a move that was urged by Wisconsin Republican state leaders – Wheeler was able to announce that the newly created “inland” Sheboygan air monitoring zone met the federal ozone standard. Environmental and health advocates, EPA’s own scientists and the findings of a major regional study last year of ozone patterns along Lake Michigan have raised doubts on whether the smog has truly lifted in Sheboygan. The city ranked among the nation’s 25 most polluted metropolitan areas for ozone in the American Lung Association’s 2020 State of the Air report. And a federal court is weighing whether the Trump administration violated the law in its creative redesign of the nation’s ozone monitoring areas. But for now, the “attainment” designation allows Wisconsin to roll back costly air pollution equipment requirements for businesses and end emissions testing for vehicles in the region. And it gives the Trump administration a much-needed environmental success story.
Texas relaxed environmental enforcement during the pandemic, state data show | Grist – The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) is one of the largest and most influential environmental protection agencies in the country. With an annual budget of $400 million, it polices about 400,000 polluting businesses and conducts more than 100,000 inspections in a normal year. The agency inspects not only the state’s many large refineries and chemical plants, but also its neighborhood gas stations, dry cleaners, and public water systems. Many of the state’s 29 million residents live in the shadow of heavy industry and in cities with smog levels that rank among the worst in the country. In short, a slowdown in TCEQ’s enforcement efforts could be deadly. So when the COVID-19 pandemic brought the country to a halt earlier this year, TCEQ’s chairman penned an open letter reassuring environmental advocates that, even though employees were going to work from home, the agency would continue to be “fully engaged in its mission to protect public health and the environment.”But a Grist analysis of the agency’s internal data has found that, in the six weeks after the agency asked employees to work from home in response to the pandemic, TCEQ pursued 20 percent fewer violations of environmental laws than it did during the same period in 2019. The agency also initiated 40 percent fewer formal enforcement actions resulting in fines for polluters. Finally, in a move that appears in line with the Environmental Protection Agency’s controversial discretionary enforcement policy, TCEQ issued about 40 percent fewer violations to companies for failing to monitor and report pollutants emitted into the air and water. Even as the agency reduced enforcement, it continued processing permits that allow construction companies, industrial facilities, and other businesses to pollute up to certain limits at about the same rate that it did last year. Adrian Shelley, director of the consumer advocacy group Public Citizen’s Texas office, called TCEQ’s enforcement slowdown “disappointing” and said that Grist’s investigation shows that the agency prioritizes permitting over compliance. “There’s been a large period of very little regulatory oversight,” he said. “The implications for community health and for the workers at the facilities really concern us.” The agency has long been criticized for lax enforcement. Analyses of TCEQ’s enforcement work by environmental advocates and journalists have consistently found that the agency rarely penalizes polluters while disproportionately issuing fines against small business owners. A 2017 Texas Tribune investigation found that the agency levied fines in fewer than 1 percent of the cases in which polluters exceeded air emission limits. “Any further relaxation of environmental protections will keep endangering Texans who are facing this triple threat of air pollution, chemical disasters, and now COVID-19,” said Catherine Fraser, an associate working on air quality issues at the nonprofit Environment Texas.
Dicamba Drift: Trump EPA Defies 9th Circuit Ruling – The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on June 3 struck down the EPA’s approval of XtendiMax, Engenia, and FeXapan – dicamba-based herbicides sold by Bayer (as a consequence of its acquisition of Monsanto, which produced these products), BASF, and Corteva. (The complete 56-page opinion is appended below).As dicamba drifts – it does not stay where it is applied – and so damages nearby crops, the court ordered use of the herbicide to cease. This means that farmers cannot use the herbicide, beginning immediately with the current growing season, which is already underway. According toCommon Dreams:“The EPA and Monsanto urge us, if we conclude that substantial evidence does not support the 2018 conditional registrations, to remand without vacatur, leaving the conditional registrations in effect,” the court said. “We decline to do so.”Last Monday, as announced in EPA Offers Clarity to Farmers in Light of Recent Court Vacatur of Dicamba Registrations. the agency issued a cancellation order, which outlines limited and specific circumstances under which existing stocks of the three affected dicamba products can be used for a limited period of time. EPA’s order will advance protection of public health and the environment by ensuring use of existing stocks follows important application procedures.Lawyers for plaintiffs, which include the Center for Food Safety and the Center for Biological Diversity, immediately struck back, as Progressive Farmer notes: An emergency motion was filed late Thursday night, June 11, asking the Ninth Circuit Court to halt all dicamba use and hold the EPA in contempt of court for its decision to allow farmers to use existing stocks of three dicamba herbicides.On June 12, the court’s panel of judges responded and ordered EPA to respond to the emergency motion by 5 p.m. on June 16. Until then, EPA’s order still stands. But if the judges ultimately rule against EPA, the motion could once again leave farmers without many dicamba herbicide options to use over millions of acres of dicamba-tolerant soybean and cotton this summer.
Ag secretary orders environmental rollbacks for Forest Service – U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue on Friday ordered the U.S. Forest Service to expedite environmental reviews on its land, paving the way for more grazing, logging and oil development on public lands. The directive, announced by Perdue on a trip to Missoula, Mont., comes in the form of an unusual memo to Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen. He called it “a blueprint for reforms to further provide relief from burdensome regulations, improve customer service, and boost the productivity of our National Forests and Grasslands.” The move could be welcome news in Montana, where the state’s ranchers, miners, and oil and gas workers have long argued for increased access to public lands. But environmentalists say the memo affirms a number of dangerous strategies already underway by the Trump administration. “This is a roadmap to national forest destruction, and it’s painful to read,” said Randi Spivak, director of the Center for Biological Diversity’s public lands program. “In the midst of the climate and extinction crises, Perdue offers a dystopian vision of expanding mining, fracking, logging and grazing in national forests. This will increase air and water pollution, kill wildlife and increase carbon pollution. It’s the extractive industry’s agenda on steroids.” The memo, however, lacks the formal letterhead or signature typical with such documents, and mainly sets broad goals for the Forest Service rather than laying out any specific policy directives. Perdue’s trip to Montana coincides with a Senate effort to pass a major conservation bill, led in part by Sen. Steve Daines (R-M.T.). Daines, who is battling former Montana Gov. Steve Bullock (D) in his reelection bid, is considered one of the Senate’s more vulnerable Republicans and has relied heavily on land issues in his campaign. “Thanks to @SecretarySonny for coming to Montana today to highlight new efforts to increase productivity and access of our forests, streamline environmental review, and improve grazing permitting. The @USDA and @forestservice are in great hands under your leadership,” he wrote on Twitter. The recommendations align with other efforts already taken by the Trump administration and in some cases regulations already underway at the Forest Service. The Forest Service is already in the process of rolling back its role under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) which requires robust environmental reviews of any major action taken by the government on public lands. The White House is pursuing a similar rollback of the law through its Council on Environmental Quality.
Ethiopia to Plant 5 Billion Tree Seedlings in 2020 – Ethiopia has set out to plant 5 billion tree seedlings this year. The planting is part of the country’s larger reforestation initiative spearheaded by Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed.Launched in 2019, the Green Legacy initiative aims to combat environmental degradation, build resilience, and transition into a green society.The nation has lost nearly 97 percent of its native forests due to a growing population and an increased need for land for food production. To combat environmental degradation, Ethiopia committed to restoring 15 million hectares of deforested land by 2025.Through Green Legacy, the Ethiopian government hopes to plant 20 billion trees over four years. Ethiopia made headlines last year when the nation planted nearly 354 million trees in just 12 hours.”The green legacy initiative we launched last year resulted in the planting of over 4 billion seedlings nationally. More than 20 million people were mobilized throughout the country,” said Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed. “Of all the trees planted in last year’s Green Legacy challenge, 84 percent have survived. Through the implementation of follow up measures, we have been able to maximize the survival rate which is nature’s encouragement to forge ahead.”The Prime Minister has urged all Ethiopians to join this year’s planting challenge while also adhering to increased safety precautions, social distancing, and other preventative COVID-19 measures. Ethiopians are encouraged to “plant their print at the individual and family level.””The only thing that makes this year different is the pandemic we are confronted with as a global community. Nevertheless, while our resilience will be tested we are committed to meet our set target in planting in a COVID 19 responsive way,” added the Prime Minister. The 5 billion seedlings are being housed in 38,000 sites across the country. The seedlings will be planted during Ethiopia’s rainy season.
Scientists warn forest fires could worsen coronavirus harm (Thomson Reuters) – People living in the world’s tropical forest regions, from Brazil to Indonesia, face heightened risk to their health this year from a potentially deadly combination of forest fires and the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists warned on Wednesday. Air pollution caused by smoke from annual human-caused fires that rage in tropical regions is expected to make cases of the novel coronavirus more severe, they said. Eminent U.S. physician Harvey Fineberg, president of the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, warned that the 2020 fire seasons in tropical forest countries “are very likely to exacerbate the presence and severity of the COVID-19 pandemic”. He called the fires an annual “blight” but predicted this year they would be “especially damaging not only to the ecology but to human health”. In the Brazilian Amazon, the main fire season runs from August to October. Its intensity last year hit global headlines and sparked calls for better prevention. In Indonesia, the dry season runs from April to October. Predictions are for a milder dry season this year compared to 2019, when an El Nino weathern pattern fuelled higher temperatures and more intense fires, spreading health-damaging haze across swathes of Southeast Asia, said Ruth DeFries, an ecology and sustainable development professor at Columbia University. But the coronavirus pandemic is likely to distract political attention from the problem, and could eat into resources to train firefighters and get them into peatland forests where some of the most serious fires smoulder for a long time, she added. Fineberg said it was too early to point to examples where forest fires have worsened the severity of COVID-19, as the main fire season is only beginning. But evidence on general air pollution and lung infections caused by the virus so far show a “chain of connection”, he noted. He also warned of a heightened risk of the COVID-19 infection spreading if fires force communities to evacuate and seek shelter in shared accommodation.
As Amazonian Wildfire Season Approaches, We Must Protect the Vulnerable Forest -The wildfires that tore across Australia were as devastating as they were overwhelming, scorching some 15 million hectares of land, killing 34 people and more than 1 billion animals. In terms of its apocalyptic imagery – sweeping infernos torching great swaths with unerring speed – Australia’s wildfires were hauntingly reminiscent of the fires that roared through the Amazon rainforest over the past year. Indeed, more than 80,000 fires hit the region during 2019, according to the Brazilian government.Though many months have now passed since global media focused on the unfolding disaster in the Amazon – one of the world’s most important carbon sinks – the problem has far from disappeared. Indeed, as the region gears up toward its next Amazon wildfire season, the causes underpinning the problem – like illegal logging, encroachment from agribusinesses and profit-driven government policies – remain very much at play.And though uncertainty surrounds some of the short- and long-term impacts of increased commercial activity in the Brazilian Amazon, the consequences on a rapidly warming planet are stark indeed. New researchsuggests that some deforested regions of the rainforest are exhaling more carbon dioxide than they’re taking in.What’s more, experts and environmentalists are quick to point the finger of blame toward a principal factor: a government presided over by Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro, whose tenure has been characterized by aggressive deregulation and increased commercial exploitation of the Amazon’s resources.”The impact is obvious: We have much more deforestation,” said Philip Fearnside, an ecologist at the National Institute for Research in Amazonia in Brazil, earlier this year. Even before Bolsonaro took office officially, Fearnside sounded the alarm about the Brazilian president’s intentions in the Amazon. And with Bolsonaro well into the second year of his tenure, “he’s made good on those promises,” Fearnside added. Indeed, in the year ending on July 30, 2019, more than 10,000 square kilometers of Brazilian Amazon rainforest were lost through deforestation – an amount last topped in 2008, according to Brazil’s National Institute for Space Research. The number of active fires in August 2019 was three times higher than in 2018 and the highest number since 2010. The broad ramifications of these trends are far from clear-cut.
PG&E confesses to killing 84 people in 2018 California fire – Pacific Gas & Electric confessed Tuesday to killing 84 people in one of the most devastating wildfires in recent U.S. history during a dramatic court hearing punctuated by a promise from the company’s outgoing CEO that the nation’s largest utility will never again put profits ahead of safety. PG&E CEO Bill Johnson made the roughly 170-mile (275-kilometer) journey from the company’s San Francisco headquarters to a Butte County courthouse to plead guilty to 84 felony counts of involuntary manslaughter stemming from a November 2018 wildfire ignited by the utility’s crumbling electrical grid. The blaze nearly wiped out the entire town of Paradise and drove PG&E into bankruptcy early last year. Besides the mass deaths it caused, PG&E also pleaded guilty to one felony count of unlawfully starting a fire as part of an agreement with District Attorney Mike Ramsey. As Butte County Superior Court Judge Michael Deems read the names of each victim, Johnson acknowledged the horrific toll of PG&E’s history of neglect while solemnly staring at photos of each dead person shown on a screen set up in the courtroom. “No words from me could ever reduce the magnitude of that devastation or do anything to repair the damage,” Johnson said in a statement afterward. “I hope the actions taken today bring some measure of peace.” He also assured the judge that PG&E took responsibility for all the unnecessary devastation that it caused “with eyes wide open to what happened and to what must never happen again.”
Climate crisis: alarm at record-breaking heatwave in Siberia – A prolonged heatwave in Siberia is “undoubtedly alarming”, climate scientists have said. The freak temperatures have been linked to wildfires, a huge oil spill and a plague of tree-eating moths. On a global scale, the Siberian heat is helping push the world towards its hottest year on record in 2020, despite a temporary dip in carbon emissions owing to the coronavirus pandemic. Temperatures in the polar regions are rising fastest because ocean currents carry heat towards the poles and reflective ice and snow is melting away. Russian towns in the Arctic circle have recorded extraordinary temperatures, with Nizhnyaya Pesha hitting 30C on 9 June and Khatanga, which usually has daytime temperatures of around 0C at this time of year, hitting 25C on 22 May. The previous record was 12C. In May, surface temperatures in parts of Siberia were up to 10C above average, according to the EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). Martin Stendel, of the Danish Meteorological Institute, said the abnormal May temperatures seen in north-west Siberia would be likely to happen just once in 100,000 years without human-caused global heating. . “Although the planet as a whole is warming, this isn’t happening evenly. Western Siberia stands out as a region that shows more of a warming trend with higher variations in temperature. Marina Makarova, the chief meteorologist at Russia’s Rosgidromet weather service, said: “This winter was the hottest in Siberia since records began 130 years ago. Average temperatures were up to 6C higher than the seasonal norms.” Thawing permafrost was at least partly to blame for a spill of diesel fuel in Siberia this month that led Putin to declare a state of emergency. The supports of the storage tank suddenly sank, according to its operators; green groups said ageing and poorly maintained infrastructure was also to blame. Wildfires have raged across hundreds of thousands of hectares of Siberia’s forests. Farmers often light fires in the spring to clear vegetation, and a combination of high temperatures and strong winds has caused some fires to burn out of control.Swarms of the Siberian silk moth, whose larvae eat at conifer trees, have grown rapidly in the rising temperatures. “In all my long career, I’ve never seen moths so huge and growing so quickly,” Vladimir Soldatov, a moth expert, told AFP.He warned of “tragic consequences” for forests, with the larvae stripping trees of their needles and making them more susceptible to fires.
Ocean Warming Is Causing Deep-Sea Creatures to Rapidly Migrate Toward Poles – Scientists have taken the temperature of the deep seas and found alarming signs of change: ocean warming is prompting many creatures to migrate fast.The species that live in the deep and the dark are moving towards the poles at twice to almost four times the speed of surface creatures.The implication is that – even though conditions in the abyssal plain are far more stable than surface currents – the creatures of the abyss are feeling the heat.The oceans of the world cover almost three-fourths of the globe and, from surface to seafloor, provide at least 90% of the planet’s living space.And although there has been repeated attention to the health of the waters that define the Blue Planet, it remains immensely difficult to arrive at a consistent, global figure for rates of change in temperature of the planet’s largest habitat.Oceanographers are fond of complaining that humankind knows more about the surface of Mars and Venus than it does about the bedrock and marine sediments at depth.This may still be true, but repeated studies have confirmed that the ocean floor ecosystem is surprisingly rich, varied and potentially at risk.Now researchers from Australia, Europe, Japan, South Africa and the Philippines report in the journal Nature Climate Change that although they could not deliver thermometer readings, they had found an indirect measure: the rate at which marine creatures move on because they don’t care for their local temperature shifts. They call this “climate velocity.” They had data for 20,000 marine species. And they found that overall, at depths greater than 1000 meters, marine creatures have been on the move much faster than their fellow citizens near the surface, over the second half of the 20th century. Computer simulations tell an even more alarming story: by the end of this century, creatures in the mesopelagic layer – from 200 meters down to 1000 meters – will be moving away between four and 11 times faster than those at the surface do now.
NOAA Chief Violated Ethics and Scientific Integrity in ‘Sharpiegate’ Scandal -The string of people who have compromised their professional ethics to cow to President Trump‘s falsehoods now officially includes the head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, or NOAA, who was found to have violated its ethics and its scientific integrity policy when he contradicted and silenced a local National Weather Service office about Hurricane Dorian’s path last fall, an independent investigation has found, according to The New York Times. As a reminder of what happened last September, Hurricane Dorian was churning through the Caribbean, heading for Florida. Before it made landfall, Trump tweeted that Alabama would get hit “harder than anticipated.”Knowing how jarring disaster preparation and evacuations can be, the NOAA’s Birmingham office issued a tweet stressing that the state “will NOT see any impacts from Dorian.” That led to an unsigned letter from NOAA saying that there was actually a 20 percent chance the hurricane would strike Alabama.Soon after that, internal NOAA emails showed concern from top officials that politics was interfering in scientific matters, which the agency’s acting chief scientist called a danger to public health and safety, asAxios reported.The controversy came to be known as “Sharpiegate,” after Trump showed an altered map that included Alabama’s southeast corner in the storm’s path. That led to the current independent investigation. The panel of experts found that Neil Jacobs, NOAA’s acting administrator, and former NOAA deputy chief of staff and communications director Julie Kay Roberts, “engaged in the misconduct intentionally, knowingly, or in reckless disregard of the Code of Scientific Conduct or Code of Ethics for Science Supervision and Management in NOAA’s Scientific Integrity Policy,” as CNN reported.
Texas Justices Hand Exxon Setback in California Climate Cases – In a ruling issued Thursday by an apologetic panel of Texas justices, ExxonMobil suffered a legal setback as part of its fight against a series of lawsuits filed by California localities seeking to recover damages related to climate change. The three justices of the Second Appellate District of Texas set aside a lower court ruling that would have allowed Exxon to dig through files and records kept by California officials from four cities and three counties that are suing the oil giant, along with 36 other other fossil fuel companies. “We confess to an impulse to safeguard an industry that is vital to Texas’s economic well-being, particularly as we were penning this opinion weeks into 2020’s Covid-19 pandemic-driven shutdown of not only Texas but America as a whole,” Justice Elizabeth Kerr wrote, in a 49-page opinion.She called the litigation “an ugly tool by which to seek the environmental policy changes the California Parties desire.” The justices recoiled at the notion that the courts were being asked to determine whether climate change caused by human activity has been “conclusively proved and must be remedied by crippling the energy industry.” Nevertheless, the justices concluded that Texas law did not give them the authority to rule in Exxon’s favor. “It is highly unusual for a court so explicitly to lay bare its political leanings and its desire to rule for one side, and then, almost mournfully, to conclude that the law requires it to rule for the other side,” said Michael Gerrard, director of the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law at Columbia Law School. “But this court carried out its duty to follow what it saw as binding precedent.” Exxon did not respond to a request for comment.The California plaintiffs, from tiny Imperial Beach to the city of San Francisco, filed the suits in 2017 against the energy companies, demanding that they take financial responsibility for infrastructure upgrades to offset the effects of climate change. The lawsuits accused the companies of knowing for nearly five decades “that greenhouse gas pollution from their fossil fuel products had a significant impact on the Earth’s climate and sea levels.” Exxon argued that it and other Texas-based energy firms have become the target of a “conspiracy” among liberal state attorneys general and other state and local officials seeking to blame them for carbon dioxide emissions that are causing global temperatures to rise. “ExxonMobil finds itself directly in that conspiracy’s crosshairs,” the company’s attorneys explained in court papers. But instead of asking a California court to order the document production, Exxon turned to a state district court on its home turf in Texas.
Senate Passes Major Public Lands Bill – In a rare display of bipartisanship, the U.S. Senate has passed a sweeping public lands package that both addresses the ballooning maintenance backlog at national parks and provides full, permanent funding for the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund, a program established in 1964 to protect natural areas and water resources. Co-sponsors of the legislation, which passed Wednesday by an overwhelming 73-25 vote, have hailed it as the most important conservation bill in a generation ― one that will preserve public lands and create thousands of jobs at a time when communities across America are reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic. It now heads to the House for consideration, and President Donald Trump has promised to sign it into law. In a speech on the Senate floor last week, Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) called the legislation a “chance in a lifetime.” “By helping the land, we’re helping the communities, because it’s there for future generations,” Gardner said. “This really is an opportunity for this nation to come together at a time of great need, economically and I think spiritually, quite frankly.”The Great American Outdoors Act combines two bills that might otherwise not have passed on their own. One sets aside $9.5 billion to address the estimated $12 billion maintenance backlog at national parks, which has been a priority of the Trump administration. The other permanently supports the Land and Water Conservation Fund at the maximum $900 million per year. Often described as one of America’s most important conservation tools, LWCF uses offshore fossil-fuel revenue to establish and protect parks, wildlife refuges, forests and important wildlife habitat. But the 50-plus year program has been plagued by funding shortfalls, only twice receiving the full $900 million.
Let’s Make Sure We Get the Green New Deal Right Marshall Auerback – Advocates of the Green New Deal (GND) are looking to change the way we handle a range of problems facing society, especially in the wake of environmental challenges occasioned by climate change. In response, policymakers have suggested a variety of programs designed to deal with these challenges. Should any of these be reconsidered in the wake of COVID-19? And are there lessons to be learned from the original New Deal?The pandemic suggests that we may need to incorporate a wider and more complex range of priorities than the ones that are baked into existing Green New Deal models. Two top candidates for reevaluation due to the pandemic are questions about urban density and public transportation. Before the pandemic, the GND envisioned a world in which urban density and mass transit are more efficient and less wasteful. In a pandemic, train and bus ridership is expected to fall by 80 percent as a result of social distancing requirements – there was a 90 percent decrease in New York City subway ridership due to fear of contagion and lockdown measures. As urban theorist Richard Florida has noted, “The very same clustering of people that makes our great cities more innovative and productive also makes them, and us, vulnerable to infectious disease.”Opponents of the Green New Deal have used the excuse that the return on investment doesn’t justify the deficits accumulated – but now that the political process has habituated itself to create trillion-dollar relief packages for society, that barrier is clearly broken.But that isn’t the end of the fight. Equally important is to recognize that a future policy debate on the GND should not be characterized by ongoing panic-mongering and hysteria in he context of populations who are already suffering lockdown fatigue and global depression, whose biggest concerns relate to economic survival today and tomorrow, as opposed to the fate of the planet decades from now. Think of the “yellow vest” protestsin France.In other words, the GND models need to incorporate more of our immediate social needs – better public health, infrastructure and education, freedom from punitive personal debt, and a more equitable and democratic political system – as well as national economic priorities, such as manufacturing and an end to wasteful military spending. We may need a bigger acronym.
Exclusive: U.S. Democratic Party Irked by Council’s ‘Insurgent’ Climate Plan-Sources – The New York Times – The Democratic National Committee’s council on climate change irked party leadership when it published policy recommendations this month that ventured beyond presidential candidate Joe Biden’s plan, according to three people familiar with the matter.The party tension shows the tricky nature of climate politics as Biden seeks to court young and more progressive voters without turning off voters in energy-producing swing states like Pennsylvania and Ohio, where a boom in shale gas drilling had created blue-collar jobs.Members of the DNC Environment and Climate Crisis Council, formed last year, published proposals for the party’s four-year platform on June 4 in a press release, calling for up to $16 trillion in spending to shift the U.S. economy away from fossil fuels while banning hydraulic fracturing and oil and gas exports.The council’s proposals far exceed Biden’s current climate plan, which bans new oil and gas permits on public lands and dedicates $1.7 trillion to accelerate the transition to renewable energy, but allows continued fracking and exports in the meantime.Biden’s campaign is updating its climate plan as it prepares for the Nov. 3 election contest against Republican President Donald Trump, a fervent advocate of fossil fuel drilling and mining who has downplayed climate change risks and unwound hundreds of environmental regulations.Biden is being advised by a panel led by U.S. Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who has called for a vast government-run effort to move away from fossil fuels, and John Kerry, who helped negotiate the Paris climate agreement as President Barack Obama’s Secretary of State.One senior Democrat familiar with the DNC’s workings said climate council members overstepped by putting out recommendations ahead of the convention that are unlikely to be adopted in the party’s platform, which will be drafted by a DNC committee by its August convention. “It’s a nonstarter,” said the Democrat, who requested anonymity to discuss the matter. “Nobody takes them seriously. Joe Biden will be writing the platform for our national convention.”
The pandemic exposed the ‘Church of Climate’ as a fraud – by Nick DeIuliis. CEO of CNX – While the novel coronavirus has triggered a global debate on how to balance short-term infection rates with long-term economic viability, a crucial epiphany is slowly emerging through the deliberations. Society realizes that the “Church of Climate” has propagated an epic fraud upon individual rights, taxpayers, and free enterprise. Today roughly 80 percent of our domestic energy comes from fossil fuels, a.k.a. carbon. Our hospitals are powered by carbon, our grocery stores refrigerate food via carbon, and every transportation link of our vital logistical chain is fueled by carbon. The high priests of the climate change movement constitute a dog’s breakfast of special interest groups. The obvious members of extreme environmental groups, academia and government bureaucrats are joined by their not-so-obvious allies of a Russian dictator, the Saudis and Chinese Communist Party leaders. Scores of urban politicians and biased media members serve as willing pawns to help catalyze the crusade. Politicians in several states have banned plastic bags, straws and disposable cups, all in the name of enviro cred. Now, in order to prevent the spread of the virus, many of these same politicians had to reverse course and are now welcoming plastic bags and disposable cups while rejecting reusable ones.Environmental groups with latent support from Russia work to block infrastructure investment in the form of pipelines to transport clean burning natural gas manufactured in Appalachia to consumers in the Northeast. As a result, Boston, during the winter, buys natural gas from Russian tankers, exposing a compromised supply chain presenting both virus and despot risk.
Chatbots at the End of the World – TWO WEEKS AGO, a man launched a rocket into outer space: a historical feat, a symbol of a future, a childhood dream. […] I don’t need to explain what has been happening here on Earth in the months preceding the launch: everyone is well aware that we are still in the midst of a global pandemic that has killed more than 100,000 people in the United States alone. Public health experts had warned of the increased likelihood of another pandemic, but still, even most wealthy countries did little to prepare for one. This resulted in a well-documented shortage of almost everything needed to cope with Covid-19: protective clothing for medical staff; advanced medical equipment like ventilators; basic medical equipment like cotton swabs; masks; materials to make testing kits; ICU beds; doctors; nurses; and, of course, a well-functioning social safety net. Yet, over the past decade, there was $3 billion worth of government money available for Elon Musk’s dreams of space travel. These days, flashy Silicon Valley technology developments often seem completely at odds with what is going on in the world. A rocket launch in the middle of a pandemic and nationwide uprising against police brutality might be the most recent example, but there is a version of this dissonance happening all the time. In late April, there was Blender, a new chatbot released by Facebook. The press release described it as “the culmination of years of research” and said that Blender can communicate in a more realistic way than previous chatbots – but still not so realistic that it would be mistaken for a human. It can maintain a reasonably convincing (although simple) conversation – if it does not go on for much longer than fourteen turns. Shortly after this press release came out, I read a study about global heating that predicted within fifty years, more than a billion people will be living in a climate that is insufferably hot, meaning many will be displaced. I wondered how much longer it would take Facebook to get their chatbot ready for its rarefied role as a human-like customer service operative, and what the world would look like by that time. It is true that progress is not necessarily linear, and that all kinds of research can lead to unexpected discoveries and inventions, but still, there is a general direction of travel. And increasingly, it seems as though the direction Silicon Valley has taken does not line up with the future most of us are anticipating.
China’s Emissions Jump By The Most Since 2011 – China’s carbon dioxide emissions increased by 3.4 percent last year, higher than the ten-year average growth rate of 2.6 percent, BP’s Statistical Review of World Energy showed on Wednesday – the highest growth rate of Chinese emissions since 2011. Chinese CO2 emissions accounted for the single largest share of global carbon emissions last year – 28.8 percent, according to BP’s annual statistics report. China was also the key driver of energy consumption growth last year when global growth slowed down to 1.3 percent from 2.8 percent energy demand growth in 2018. While global energy demand growth slowed down, the growth in carbon emissions from energy was 0.5 percent in 2019, less than half the ten-year average growth of 1.1 percent per year. Slower energy demand growth and increased use of renewables and natural gas instead of coal helped reduce the carbon emissions growth, partially reversing some of the unusually strong 2.1-percent increase in global emissions in 2018, BP said. This year, due to the pandemic, emissions are likely to fall, BP’s chief executive Bernard Looney wrote in a LinkedIn post, adding that in order to get to net zero emissions by 2050, the world would need similar-sized reductions in carbon emissions every other year for the next 25 years. “We can’t lockdown every year. We need another way – to build back better,” said Looney. China, for its part, saw its coal capacity surge in 2019 to the point of raising the world’s net capacity additions of coal-fired power generation for the first time since 2015, a report from environmental organizations showed earlier this year.
BP outlines how quickly global carbon emissions would need to fall to reach net zero by 2050 – The chief executive of energy giant BP said Wednesday that to get to net zero by 2050, the world would need to see lockdown-like reductions in carbon emissions every other year for the next 25 years.In the London-based oil and gas giant’s annual Statistical Review of World Energy, the group said some aspects of global energy trends prior to the coronavirus pandemic had been “encouraging.”It noted the continued strong growth of renewable energy, led by wind and solar power, which increased by a record amount to account for over 40% of the growth in primary energy last year.At the same time, coal consumption fell for the fourth time in six years, with its share in the global energy mix seen at its lowest level for 16 years.But, BP CEO Bernard Looney said in the report that other aspects of the energy system “continued to give cause for concern.”That’s because coal, one of the dirtiest forms of energy production, remains the single largest source of power generation, accounting for more than one-third of global power in 2019.Comparatively, renewable energy provides only 10% of global power, according to the report, and would need to grow even more strongly over the coming years to decarbonize the power sector.”More worrying is the trend for carbon emissions,” Looney said. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said the world must cut carbon emissions to reach net zero by 2050 in order to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsuis. Carbon emissions from energy use grew by 0.5% in 2019, according to BP’s analysis, less than half the rate the previous year. In 2018, carbon emissions from energy use expanded by 1.8%.”The hope was that as the one-off factors boosting carbon emissions in 2018 unwound, carbon emissions would fall significantly. That fall did not happen,” Looney said, noting the average annual growth in carbon emissions through 2018 and 2019 was greater than its 10-year average. “The disruption to our everyday lives caused by the lockdowns has provided a glimpse of a cleaner, lower carbon world: air quality in many of the world’s most polluted cities has improved; skies have become clearer,” he added.
IEA outlines $3 trillion green recovery plan for world leaders to help fix the global economy The International Energy Agency has laid out a $3 trillion green recovery plan, offering governments around the world a “once-in-a-lifetime” roadmap to sustainably rebuild their economies in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. The Sustainable Recovery report, published Thursday, is designed to present world leaders with cost-effective measures that could be implemented from 2021 through to 2023. It sets out three main goals: spurring economic growth, creating jobs and building more resilient and cleaner energy systems. “As they design economic recovery plans, policymakers are having to make enormously consequential decisions in a very short space of time,” Fatih Birol, executive director at the IEA, said in the report. “These decisions will shape economic and energy infrastructure for decades to come and will almost certainly determine whether the world has a chance of meeting its long-term energy and climate goals.” An unprecedented global public health crisis triggered by the Covid-19 outbreak means the world is experiencing its worst economic shock since the 1930s, the IEA said. It is having a profound impact on employment and investment across all parts of the economy, including energy. The IEA has previously warned that it believes the coronavirus crisis has paved the way for the largest decline of global energy investment on record this year, with spending set to plummet 20%. Last year, the global energy industry employed roughly 40 million people, but 3 million of those jobs have either been lost or at risk as a result of the pandemic, according to the report’s analysis. “Today, attention is increasingly focusing on how to bring about an economic recovery that repairs the damage inflicted by the crisis while putting the world on a stronger footing for the future,” the IEA’s Birol said. The Sustainable Recovery plan was published in collaboration with the International Monetary Fund as part of the energy agency’s flagship World Energy Outlook series. It is based on the assessments of over 30 specific energy policy measures and spans six key sectors: electricity, transport, industry, buildings, fuels and emerging low-carbon technologies.
The central United States set several wind power records this spring -Earlier this year, the Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the regional transmission organization that manages the electric grid for much of the central United States, set records for the highest share of electricity demand supplied by wind power in both a single-hour period (72%) and a full day (62%).In 2019, wind power provided 29% of the electricity demand in SPP. On a monthly basis, wind power’s share of total demand in 2019 ranged from a high of 37% in October to a low of 18% in August. On a daily or hourly basis, however, wind’s share can be larger because of fluctuations in wind output and in total electricity generation.On Saturday, March 7, 2020, the wind penetration rate, expressed as the share of electricity demand supplied by wind generation, reached 62% in SPP. On an hourly basis, wind generated a high share of 72% of electricity demand in the early morning of Monday, April 27, 2020, from 1:00 a.m. to 2:00 a.m. Central time.Wind penetration can be expressed as wind generation’s share of either electricity demand or total generation. System operators like SPP are responsible for balancing electricity supply and demand in real time. To maintain this balance, SPP primarily uses its own energy generation resources to meet demand and engages in limited energy trade with neighboring system operators for economic or reliability purposes. Net electricity interchange (electricity imports to or exports from the region) for SPP averaged about 2% of generation in 2019. Records for wind penetration are often broken in the spring because of seasonal patterns in both electricity demand and wind power output. In the SPP region, wind generation is often highest in the spring months. Spring is also a time of year when electricity demand is relatively low because mild temperatures mean less electricity is used to heat or cool homes. Electricity demand is also relatively lower on weekends, which is when wind set its recent record shares in SPP.
U.S. clean energy sector loses 18% of jobs during pandemic -report – (Reuters) – The U.S. clean energy sector has lost more than 620,000 jobs, or 18% of its work force, as stay-at-home orders and a weakened economy have slowed demand for solar panels and energy-efficient systems and curbed production of electric vehicles and clean fuels, a report published on Monday showed. The industry lost 27,000 jobs in May, a slower rate of decline than in April and March, when states first implemented lockdown orders to combat the spread of the coronavirus, according to the analysis of U.S. unemployment data conducted by BW Research Partnership. While they represent a tiny fraction of the nation’s total job losses during the period, the clean energy industry’s contraction is a devastating blow to an industry that had been growing rapidly. The numbers appeared to be on track to fall short of a forecast here BW made last month that the sector would suffer 850,000 job losses by the end of June. The report warned, however, that many of the sector’s jobs are being supported by a federal program to help cover the payroll costs of small businesses hurt by the novel coronavirus disruption. The expiration of that program “may result in a fresh round of layoffs in clean energy if there is no further intervention,” it said. Wind and solar companies have been pleading with Congress to extend deadlines for projects to qualify for sunsetting federal tax credits to help relieve the impact caused by pandemic-related construction delays. Like in previous months, the energy efficiency sector suffered the biggest losses during the month, representing about 70% of the total. Renewable energy lost 4,300 jobs in May, while clean vehicles, transmission, distribution and storage lost 3,300 jobs. The clean fuels sector lost 700 jobs during the month.
Company buying bankrupt Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery promises 18,000 jobs in next 10 years – Hilco Redevelopment Partners, the company approved to buy the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery complex in South Philadelphia out of bankruptcy, projects that its multibillion development will take about a decade to complete and create 8,000 union construction jobs and 10,000 permanent jobs. A Hilco executive presented part of the company’s plan for the 1,300-acre site at a City Council hearing Monday. The council’s finance committee advanced a bill introduced by Councilmember Kenyatta Johnson that would extend the refinery’s Keystone Opportunity Zone status, first granted in 2014 but expiring by the end of the year. Properties and businesses located in such state designated zones pay little to no state and local business taxes. “It’s projects like this, I believe, that will help jump-start our economy; it’s projects like this that will put people back to work,” Johnson, whose district includes the site, said. “This can be an economic engine not only for South Philadelphia, but for the Philadelphia region.” According to Jeremy Grey, Hilco’s executive vice president of industrial development, the former refinery will come back to life as a state-of-the-art logistics park, with 13 million to 15 million square feet of logistics centers, taking advantage of the rail and maritime infrastructure of the site and its proximity to Philadelphia International Airport. The buildings will focus on sustainability, Grey said, and include solar panels in the roofs, infrastructure for electric vehicles, LED lighting, and extensive landscape plans. Grey said the company is committed to having an extensive outreach plan to get feedback from the community. It will open an office on the site and hire a diverse and local workforce, he said. “We are very committed to working with the city, making sure these jobs are good wage jobs … everybody is very happy with, and long-term jobs, and that the jobs stay within the community and people are able to get to these jobs easily by enhancing public transportation,” he said.
In New England, declining car sales prompt call for electric bike rebates -As interest in cycling rises and electric vehicle sales drop off amid the pandemic, advocates are calling on Connecticut officials to extend the state’s rebate program to include electric bicycles.About 80 organizations, businesses and individuals have signed a letter to state officials seeking rebates for e-bikes, which use an electric motor to amplify the rider’s pedal force and are seen as a way to replace car trips. The state’s existing electric vehicle rebate program is “inequitable,” they argue, because it only applies to electric cars, which are unaffordable for many middle- to lower-income households.The Connecticut Hydrogen and Electric Automobile Purchase Rebate Program, or CHEAPR, has $3 million in annual funding. Spending that money may be a challenge this year with car sales depressed, and that makes the addition of e-bike rebates particularly timely, said Anthony Cherolis, an avid cyclist and coordinator of Transport Hartford, which is leading the effort.“I could see an e-bike rebate from $200 to $500 as a game-changer for the equity and mobility of low-income households, particularly in Connecticut’s large cities,” said Cherolis, who noted that about a third of households in Hartford do not own a car. “This would also open up so many more car-free commuting options in the Connecticut metro area to those hesitant, or unable, to commit to the physicality of a bicycle commute.”Demand for vehicle rebates is down sharply so far this year, according to the CHEAPR statistics page. As of the end of April, 205 rebates had been issued (with just 13 issued in April), compared to 509 during the same period last year. Meanwhile, e-bike sales nationally for the month of March were up 58% over March of last year, according to PeopleForBikes, an advocacy group based in Colorado.
Utilities remain mute on FERC net metering petition, leave filing to face overwhelming opposition – A petition in front of federal regulators to effectively overturn net metering policies nationwide faced overwhelming bipartisan opposition on Monday from state regulators, members of Congress, public power groups and others. Though several utilities filed to intervene on the petition, including Pacific Gas and Electric, Xcel Energy and Duke Energy, none filed comments by the June 15 deadline, so it remains unclear where utilities fall on the issue. Investor-owned utility group Edison Electric Institute (EEI) has said it finds net metering to be a “regressive and poor public policy tool,” but the group ultimately decided against filing commentsduring this initial period. Opponents of the petition decried the move as an affront to states’ rights and legally questionable on a number of grounds. Others were also critical of the group that introduced the petition and urged the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to require it to disclose its backers. State regulators, the renewable energy industry, environmentalists, members of Congress and others have been openly opposed to the New England Ratepayers Association (NERA) petition from the start, but observers have been less sure of where utility interests would fall, particularly after EEI declined to file comment. “The wild card here will be the number of utilities that have already declared their intent to file something here, and I don’t know which side of this they’re going to come down on,” Ari Peskoe, director of the Electricity Law Initiative at the Harvard Law School, told reporters last week. But by the end of Monday night’s filing deadline, utilities had not taken a stand on the issue and supporters for the petition remained sparse. The American Public Power Association and National Rural Electric Cooperative Association filed comments in opposition. Some Electric Power Supply Association members, including Calpine Corporation, commented but did not take a position on the proceeding. The members asked FERC to “re-examine its authority to regulate netting intervals under the Federal Power Act … and apply a consistent determination on that issue” in that case and another complaint that focuses on the right of generators in PJM to self-supply. NERA’s petition, filed in April, calls for FERC to consider all behind-the-meter generation a wholesale sale, giving federal regulators exclusive jurisdiction. It largely targets the policy of net metering, which compensates rooftop solar owners for the power sent back to the grid. 45 states have some sort of similar distributed energy compensation mechanism in place. “[N]et metering is having an unfair and harmful impact on ratepayers, especially low-and middle-income families. Given this problem, NERA has chosen to challenge net metering at the body which has the proper jurisdiction over wholesale electricity transactions,” the group said in an emailed FAQ.
Spain’s Repsol plans to invest millions in fuel production using green hydrogen – Repsol has announced plans to develop a facility that will use carbon dioxide and green hydrogen to generate net-zero emission fuels for use in the transportation sector. The Spanish oil and gas firm also announced Monday that it would be involved in a project to produce gas from “urban waste.” Both projects will be located in the north of Spain, with the major port city of Bilbao “and its surrounding area” mooted as a likely location. Madrid-headquartered Repsol is working with Petronor and the Energy Agency of the Basque Government on the first scheme. Petronor, which Repsol has an 85.98% stake in, will take the lead on the waste-to-gas project. Repsol will invest an initial 60 million euros ($67.58 million) in the green hydrogen project, and an initial 20 million euros will be spent on the second initiative, which will have the capacity to process 10,000 tons of urban waste each year. The company described the first project as involving “building one of the largest net zero emissions synthetic fuel production plants in the world, based on green hydrogen generated with renewable energy.” Green hydrogen refers to hydrogen produced using renewable sources such as wind power. “Spain must base its decarbonization strategy on its technological and industrial capabilities,” Josu Jon Imaz, Repsol’s CEO, said in the statement Monday. “The production of green hydrogen in combination with the capture and use of CO2 to produce net zero emission fuels is part of the industrial decarbonization strategy of Repsol.” And while fossil fuels remain an important part of Repsol’s business, the company’s latest move comes as the fossil fuel industry faces up to a number of challenges, including the coronavirus pandemic and a major collapse in the price of oil.
Global electricity consumption continues to rise faster than population -Global electricity consumption continues to increase faster than world population, leading to an increase in the average amount of electricity consumed per person (per capita electricity consumption), according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) International Energy Statistics. Electricity is used most commonly in buildings for lighting and appliances, in industrial processes for producing goods, and in transportation for powering rail and light-duty vehicles. Nearly all of the increase is attributable to growing electricity consumption in developing countries outside the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The increase in consumption from these factors is partially offset by efficiency measures, such as more efficient lighting. Regionally, per capita electricity consumption in a number of countries has been affected by outsourcing energy-intensive industries to other countries. In the United States, total electricity consumption has risen slightly since the early 2000s, but electricity consumption per person decreased by nearly 7% between 2000 and 2017 because of improvements in energy efficiency and changes in the economy that have resulted in less electricity use per unit of economic output (as measured by gross domestic product, or GDP).Growth in global electricity consumption is related to economic growth, but the relationship differs, depending on the country. Per person economic growth can occur independently of growth in per person electricity usage in countries with large, developed economies; largely satisfied residential electricity demand; and relatively smaller portions of economic growth coming from industrial production. Producing a service with greater economic value does not necessarily require any more electricity than a lower-value service.In countries with rapidly growing residential electricity consumption and growing energy-intensive activities, electricity use tends to more closely correspond to growth in economic activity. Per capita electricity growth in the economies of less developed non-OECD countries has more than doubled between 2000 and 2017, compared with a nearly flat trend in the economies of more developed OECD countries.At the national level, average per capita electricity consumption values can mask the large variation within a country. For example, the United States population averaged nearly 12,000 kilowatthours (kWh) of e lectricity consumption per person in 2017, but on a state basis, annual per capita electricity consumption ranged from more than 25,000 kWh in states such as Wyoming and North Dakota to less than 7,000 kWh in states such as Hawaii and California.
Rising energy loads from fewer COVID-19 limits, warming weather spark utility readiness concerns –Economic restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic are easing in some parts of the country as temperatures have begun to warm. As a result, grid operators are now seeing electricity demand rise after a significant drop this spring, leading to concerns about their ability to keep the lights on – and how outages could impact vulnerable populations.”Utilities may not be well-prepared to deal with the challenges imposed by COVID,” Yury Dvorkin, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at the New York University Tandon School of Engineering, told Utility Dive. “At all levels, it seems grid operators tend to underestimate the issue.”Those concerns were echoed by Lawrence Orsini, founder and principal of microgrids company LO3 Energy.”There will be blackouts across the US this summer if people are still sequestered,” he blogged in the early days of the quarantine. “In some places, energy networks are going to melt. … With people at home 24-7, the network doesn’t have a moment to cool down and the heat continues to build in the wires, the transformers and the substations day after day.” Rising residential demand is a potential issue all across the country, but Dvorkin has specific concerns about New York City.Dvorkin in May testified to the New York City Council that he is worried about the potential for energy blackouts in residential areas that would more significantly impact children, the elderly and those with medical conditions during periods of intense heat this summer. While his analysis has focused on Consolidated Edison, which serves the city, he says the concern holds true across the nation.A mix of virus-related stay-home orders, economic restrictions, warmer weather and now the limited return of industry, mean there is no historical comparison for what utilities are facing. “Basically, the problem is we cannot forecast what’s going to happen with summer demand,” Dvorkin said. “This year is going to be very abnormal … we’re not going to be able to use the historical data we have.” ConEd officials say they have seen a decline in overall energy demand, given the shutdown of economic activity – but the utility has also seen a rise in residential demand with people staying home. “The degree of the shift at any given time this summer will depend on where we are in the reopening of the area’s economy,” ConEd spokesman Allan Drury said in an email. “If we have outages in a residential area, we will take steps such as sending generators. Reliable electric service is definitely a safety issue and this summer poses unique challenges.”
U.S. coal consumption continues to decline across all sectors – (EIA) U.S. coal consumption has been declining since its peak in 2007 of 1.1 billion short tons. In 2019, U.S. coal consumption totaled 590 million short tons (MMst). The electric power sector accounts for the majority (more than 90%) of domestic coal consumption, but the industrial and commercial sectors also consume coal. Coal consumption in the industrial and commercial sectors has declined from 98 MMst in 2000 to 48 MMst in 2019.The industrial sector includes coal consumed in coking plants, in manufacturing facilities, and for other industrial uses. In 2019, 62% of industrial coal consumption in the United States was used in manufacturing. U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) data on coal consumption by detailed manufacturing industry, based on North American Industry Classification System (NAICS) codes, show that food manufacturing and nonmetallic mineral products manufacturing consumed more coal than other industries in 2019.Coal consumption in food manufacturing has remained relatively stable since 2000. Food manufacturing uses coal largely for heating purposes. For example, in sugar manufacturing, sugar cane juice has to be boiled to extract the sugar crystals, requiring intense heat. Coal can also serve a secondary purpose of providing electricity for food processing facilities located in remote areas.Although coal use has remained stable in food manufacturing, most other manufacturing industries have seen significant declines in coal consumption as a result of fewer facilities and less consumption at remaining facilities. The largest declines have been in the paper manufacturing, chemical manufacturing, and primary metal manufacturing industries. The primary metal manufacturing industry includes the production of steel, silicon metals, and other metal and iron-based products. From 2010 to 2012, the industry’s coal consumption contracted sharply, dropping from 9 MMst to 3 MMst, and has since remained relatively low. The steel industry was significantly affected by the recession that occurred between 2007 and 2009 and the declines in housing starts, construction, and auto manufacturing that drive steel demand.
House committee sits quiet on Brantley County landfill bill – A Georgia Senate bill that would block construction of a landfill on the Satilla River in Brantley County stalled in a House committee Tuesday. Senate Bill 384 would prohibit the construction of new solid waste disposal facilities – including coal ash – within three miles of the Satilla River’s high water mark. As currently written, it would not affect existing landfills. The bill was approved by the state Senate in March, but members of the House Natural Resources and Environment Committee want more information before deciding whether to send it to the House floor. “I will say on the outset there has been quite a bit of discussion on this,” said Rep. Timothy Barr, R-Lawrenceville, a member of the committee. State Sen. William Ligon, R-White Oak, introduced the bill in response to a proposal by Brantley County Development Partners to construct a landfill between Atkinson and Waynesville, just off U.S. 82. The Georgia Environmental Protection Division decided earlier this month that the site was suitable for a landfill. Its decision was based on information provided by the developer and studies of the land and made over the objections of thousands of Brantley County residents. A site suitability ruling is not the same as approving construction of the landfill, the EPD noted in a statement. The division will consider the construction plans and local regulations during a review of the developer’s design and operations plan. Residents, environmental groups and elected officials of Brantley County have voiced opposition to the landfill. The corridor along the river is characterized by wetlands, a high water table and lots of flat ground prone to flooding.
TVA withdrawing permits for new coal ash storage at Bull Run Fossil Plant – TVA is withdrawing all applications for a new dry ash storage facility at the Bull Run Fossil Plant in Anderson County, which will close in 2023. The utility began the permitting process with the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) in 2013, when they purchased 200 acres of property next to the plant for future storage. However, when the board decided to close Bull Run last year, it wasn’t clear if TVA would actually need a new landfill for coal ash storage. Coal ash is produced when burning coal for fuel. The community has spoken against the proposed storage facility for years, citing environmental concerns. TVA said it is conducting extensive scientific studies in the area and will use the results of those studies to determine the best way to safely and securely manage the coal ash already stored on that site when it is closed. “We are thoroughly studying the environment at Bull Run, and we haven’t made any decisions about the future of coal ash stored there,” said Scott Turnbow, TVA’s vice president for Civil Projects. “We aren’t certain if a new landfill will be necessary, so it makes sense to withdraw our applications until we determine the need.” The options include safely storing the coal ash on the site or removing it in the future to be stored elsewhere. TVA has worked for years to safely manage the material, especially after the Dec. 2008 accident at the Kingston Fossil Plant. Then, a dike ruptured at a coal ash pond and spilled more than a billion gallons of coal ash onto the surrounding land and river, creating an environmental disaster.
Environment, community groups take aim at Blackjewel Coal – – Environmental and community groups have taken aim at the coal giant’s clean-up efforts in a letter to federal bankruptcy court. A coalition of eight community and environmental groups, sent a letter to the United States Bankruptcy Court overseeing Blackjewel’s bankruptcy proceedings. The company filed for bankruptcy last July and left many workers unpaid for weeks. The letter provides an update on the company’s failure to adequately address coal mine reclamation and numerous other environmental violations in three states. The fulfillment of coal mine reclamation requirements is crucial to ensuring proper cleanup of closed coal mines. Blackjewel has previously told the bankruptcy court it plans to satisfy its clean-up obligations by selling and transferring its permits to third parties willing to assume the responsibilities of environmental cleanup. However, the letter claims the vast majority of Blackjewel’s permits sold to third parties have not been transferred and in many cases transfer applications have yet to be filed even months after the sales. In Kentucky, no transfer activity has occurred for 149 of Blackjewel’s 213 mine reclamation permits. In Virginia, only 34 of Blackjewel’s 71 permits have been transferred, while in West Virginia, only five of 12 permits have been transferred. The company has indicated that non-transferred permits will be abandoned. Abandoning this many unreclaimed permits could shift the burden of cleaning up Blackjewel’s coal mines from the company onto badly underfunded state government reclamation funds. If Blackjewels’s abandoned coal mines are not reclaimed properly, the public health and safety of frontline communities near these hazardous sites could be seriously compromised. In addition, the letter alerts the court to Blackjewel’s increasing number of environmental violations, the groups say. In Kentucky, West Virginia, and Virginia, the company has failed to comply with Clean Water Act monitoring and reporting requirements designed to track the amount of toxic discharge into waterways, according to the group’s claims. The letter also includes a yearly comparative analysis of on-the-ground environmental violations occurring at the company’s Kentucky coal mines.
King of Prussia inventor envisions new life for former Berks coal generating plant The former Titus Generating Station, idle since 2014, won’t stay that way if a King of Prussia developer can start a plastics recycling operation there. “Titus will be the first to use garbage destined for a landfill,” says Joe D’Ascenzo. A King of Prussia company plans to develop the former Titus Generating Station in Cumru Township into a plastic recycling facility that would take trash and turn it into plastic pellets. It would be the first facility in the United States for ReFined Plastics LLC, said Joe D’Ascenzo, president and chief technology officer of the five-year-old advanced recycling company.The pellets would be virgin grade, meaning they are a quality that could be used by a variety of plastic manufacturers. The material won’t originate in the recycle bin but will come from household trash. “If it has polymer on it, it can be treated at Titus.”D’Ascenzo, a Chester County native and graduate of Ursinus College, has a master’s degree in molecular biology from Drexel University. He helped develop the process, some of which is patented. “Some of things we are doing are world-changing,” D’Ascenzo said. He said the facility could be running as early as the end of 2022.The total investment in the project will be approximately $120 million, D’Ascenzo said. He already has some investors and industry partners and is looking for more. Worst case scenario, he said, it would be running by the end of 2023, depending on negotiations and satisfying a myriad of regulations. The company received a $3 million grant from the U.S. Department of Commerce.D’Ascenzo has made few public statements about the project. He appeared before township officials in 2018 and the state House Energy and Environmental Resources Committee last year. But a lot of work has gone on already behind the scenes.”To date we have spent over $3 million,” D’Ascenzo said.
Navajo, Battling Covid, Say Coal Mines Sapped Drinking Water – “I use the same water at least five or six times before I throw it out,” Navajo Nation member Percy Deal said. “It’s very dirty, but otherwise, I would run out of water in less than a week. And I can’t afford that.” Lack of running water has long plagued the Navajo Nation. About a third of homes don’t have it; in some towns, it’s 90 percent. While several factors contribute to that, many tribal members say Peabody Energy Corp., the largest U.S. coal producer, pulled so much water from the Navajo Aquifer before closing its last mining operation there last August that many wells and springs have run dry – at a time Covid-19 has hit the Nation harder than any state. The aquifer is the main source of potable water for residents. “It’s not just me, it’s hundreds of my neighbors,” Deal said. “Peabody drained the aquifer for 45 years, so we all don’t have any water.” With a population of about 175,000, the 27,000-square-mile Nation in Arizona, Utah, and New Mexico recently surpassed New York as having the highest rate of coronavirus cases per capita in the U.S., with a 3.4% infection rate to New York’s 1.9%. But staying at home and social distancing become problematic when the only way for many households to have water to wash their hands is to go get it. “If people drill wells, they expect to get water at 400 to 500 feet deep. Our water is 2,000 to 3,000 feet deep,” The draining of water from the aquifer also depressurized it, making it harder for it to flow to the surface, she said. Until it closed in 2005, Peabody’s Black Mesa Mine extracted, pulverized, and mixed coal with water drawn from the aquifer to form a slurry, which it then sent along a 273-mile-long pipeline to the Mojave Generating Station in Laughlin, Nevada, which provided most of its power to Los Angeles. At the time the 18-inch pipeline was the longest coal slurry pipeline operating in the U.S., according to the Center for Land Use Interpretation, a public lands research and education organization. The mine extracted as much as 1.3 billion gallons of water from the aquifer annually, an estimated 45 billion gallons in Black Mesa’s life cycle. Peabody also used the aquifer’s water at its Kayenta mine, which shipped its last load of coal in August 2019. That was three months before the closure of its only customer, Navajo Generating Station, a 2,250-megawatt coal plant on Navajo land and the largest coal-fired power plant west of the Mississippi River. Navajo Generating Station supplied power to customers in Arizona, California, and Nevada, and was at one time the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the U.S.
JEA loses Plant Vogtle nuclear power lawsuit – News – The Florida Times-Union – Jacksonville — In a blow to JEA, a federal judge ruled it is legally bound by a costly agreement to buy power for 20 years from Plant Vogtle nuclear reactors being built in Georgia. JEA’s long-shot quest to cancel a costly agreement for buying power from the Plant Vogtle nuclear plant fizzled out Wednesday when a judge ruled against JEA and said the contract is valid.The decision handed down by U.S. District Judge Mark Cohen, who presides in the northern district of Georgia, means JEA is stuck with purchasing power at a steep cost for 20 years after construction finishes on Plant Vogtle’s two new reactors.“Once again, the gift that keeps on giving,” City Council member LeAnna Cumber said in a pointed tweet about Plant Vogtle and the judge’s ruling. “It highlights yet another reason for more stringent oversight over JEA. How this contract was ever entered into boggles the mind.”JEA has said its cost for the Plant Vogtle agreement could amount to $4 billion over 20 years and warned it will force an increase in electric rates. But JEA administrators have not made any presentations to the utility board for a rate boost. JEA issued a statement that said while Cohen found the agreement is valid, he also lifted a December stay of discovery on JEA pursuing a claim that Muncipal Electric Authority of Georgia has been negligent in how it handled the contract. MEAG said Cohen’s order avoids what would have been a long and expensive trial. “Judge Cohen’s ruling was very thorough and perfectly clear – JEA and the city of Jacksonville knew what they were doing when they entered this agreement, and they have to honor their commitment,” MEAG CEO James Fuller said.
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