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:
- 27 Sep 2020 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 27September 2020
27 Sep 2020 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 27September 2020
Summary:
New US cases were up, but not by a lot; Friday’s were at at a 6 week high, at least according to WorldoMeter. Considering that there are ongoing reporting issues, about all we can say with reasonable confidence is that new cases have stopped going down now for 6 weeks. But underlying that, there has been a shift in where the worst US outbreaks are occurring. When we were setting records for new infections every week, it was being driven by major outbreaks in Florida, Texas, and California, ie, all high population states. While cases in those 3 states have been trending lower for the past 6 weeks, there’s been a new surge in cases in the north central states, led by the Dakotas, Nebraska, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota and Wisconsin. The outbreaks in those states as a percentage of their population is high, but their lower populations have less impact on the national total, and hence the appearance that things aren’t getting worse.
Calculated Risk continues to track US testing. The decline in positive test results over July and August may be ending over the past 30 days but it is too early to be sure. The 29 September graphic:
Globally, new cases are rising, with John Hopkins reporting a record 361,390 new cases on Thursday. Part of that might be the result of a reporting issue though, since Tuesday’s new cases were the lowest since July. Still, worldwide cases were up at least 5% week over week and are at a new high on a weekly basis. A new surge of infections in Europe, led by an record-setting outbreak in France, appears to be driving the increase now. New cases in India were somewhat lower. The Johns Hopkins graphic for global new cases as of the end of last week can be viewed here.
The rest of this week’s environment and energy news follows. In addition to coverage of the storms and the wildfires, there are a number of stories this week on efforts to control emissions. At the end there are five articles about the Ohio nuclear bibery scandal.
Trump’s EPA Dismisses Agency’s Own Findings That Chlorpyrifos Harms Children’s Brains – The Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a risk assessment for toxicpesticide chlorpyrifos Tuesday that downplayed its effects on children’s brains and may be the first indication of how the administration’s “secret science” policy could impact public health. Several studies have found that babies exposed to chlorpyrifos in the womb can suffer from lower birth weights, attention deficit disorder, autism spectrum disorder, lower IQ and limited working memory, Earthjustice pointed out. But the EPA on Tuesday discounted those findings, ruling instead that the science on chlorpyrifos’ brain-damaging effects “remains unresolved.” In doing so, it reversed the findings of EPA scientists from previous administrations. “This shows that E.P.A. has completely abandoned any commitment to protecting children from this extremely toxic chemical when their own scientists recommended twice to ban it,” Natural Resources Defense Councilsenior director for health Erik D. Olson told The New York Times. “The science is being overridden by politics.” In Tuesday’s conclusion, the EPA discounted several epidemiological studies, including a prominent one conducted by Columbia University that found a connection between chlorpyrifos exposure in utero and developmental disorders in toddlers. This suggests the agency is moving forward with its proposed “secret science” policy that would reject or at least give less weight to the conclusions of studies that do not make their underlying data public. However, several long-term health studies do not publish such data in order to preserve their subjects’ privacy. “The EPA is ignoring decades of science by leading universities and in doing so, it’s neglecting its duty to protect children from pesticides,” Earthjustice managing attorney Patti Goldman said in a statement. “Ignoring the demonstrated harm to children doesn’t make chlorpyrifos safe, it just shows a commitment to keep a toxic pesticide in the market and in our food at all cost.”
Expect Plagues of Locusts as Climate Change Gets Worse, Say Scientists – For much of this year, desert locusts have ravaged large swathes of farmlands and forage across East Africa, the Middle East, Southwest Asia and West Africa, in one of the worst outbreaks in decades, threatening the livelihoods of millions of people. And, thanks to climate change, scientists are warning that these outbreaks will only get worse in the future, as extreme weather events continue to break out across every region. In November 2019, Djibouti suffered two years worth of rain in a single day. The water level of Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa, is the highest it has been in decades. Meanwhile, the Kilimanjaro region on the border between Kenya and Tanzania – which had consecutive, alternating wet and dry years – has just experienced the wettest year in four decades, all these creating the perfect conditions for the infestation. Also year on year, the western part of the Indian Ocean is getting warmer relative to the eastern side – a phenomenon knows as the Indian Ocean Dipole (IOD) – creating both periods of long drought and heavy rainfall in East Africa. “The Western part of the Indian ocean, the part that affects the East African region is seeing the fastest warming up of the tropical oceans in the past 100 years.” The desert locust is the most destructive migratory pest in the world. They are part of a group of insects that have the ability to change their behaviour and migrate over large distances. You can have around 40 million to 80 million locust adults in each square kilometre of a swarm, travelling up to 150 kilometres a day. A swarm of 40 million locusts eats the same amount of food in one day as about 35,000 people. The Sea Surface Temperatures (SST) in the Western Indian Ocean have increased by 1.2 degrees centigrade in the past century, higher than the global average of just slightly below 1 degree centigrade. At this rate, the locust invasions seen this year will become more common, bringing with them diseases and other pests, Babiker added. A positive IOD of warmer ocean water near the East African Coast will also result in higher annual rates of cyclones and more rainfall. By April this year, over 500,000 hectares of cropland including sorghum and maize were damaged in Ethiopia, putting over a million people in need of food assistance. Pakistan declared a national emergency to combat the pests after locusts devoured wheat and cotton crops before crossing over to India, while Somalia declared anational emergency over their invasion. The locusts have also caused havoc in Sudan, South Sudan, Djibouti and Eritrea, too. Uganda, Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo have also reported problems in handling the swarm. Residents in Ethiopia, Somalia and Kenya have tried to fight the pests by lighting fires, banging plastic bottles, honking their cars and screaming, all in vain. The invasion is now expected to continue into October, as parts of Somalia, Sudan, Yemen have been hit by double the normal rainfall in August and September.
Scores of temperature records smashed as cold blast sweeps through Eastern U.S. – Dozens of temperature records were smashed or tied across the Eastern U.S. over the weekend as a shot of cold air swept through the region, weeks ahead of the average for much of the area. The National Weather Service (NWS) issued frost advisories and freeze warnings through 13:00 UTC (09:00 LT) on Monday, September 21, 2020. Parts of the northern Plains were the first to witness frosts and feel the chill last week. In Minnesota, International Falls registered -5 degC (23 degF) on Thursday night, September 17, smashing the previous record of -4.4 degC (24 degF) for the date set in 1959. Duluth smashed a 91-year-old record Friday morning, September 18, when temperatures pummelled to -2.2 degC (28 degF). The previous record for the date was -1.7 degC (29 degF), set in 1929. It’s worthy to note that Duluth also set another record for the warmest low of 18 degC (65 degF) on September 18, 2019. Over the weekend, residents from Michigan to New England were gripped by cold and thick frost. On Saturday, September 19, more than a dozen low-temperature records were broken or tied for the date, including the following: Arkon-Canto in Ohio registered 3.3 degC (38 degF), breaking the past record low of 3.9 degC (39 degF) set in 1956; Binghamton in New York registered 1.7 degC (35 degF), tying with the record in 1959; Concord in New Hampshire with -2.2 degC (28 degF), surpassing the past record of -1.1 degC (30 degF) in 1990. The cold snap marked the end of the growing season for much across the Great Lakes and interior Northeast. “Some areas with lighter frost where plants could be protected may survive, but for many of the more sensitive vegetable and flower plants in gardens, this chill will mark the end,” AccuWeather meteorologist Matt Benz said. “The frosts and freezes will also kick start the fall foliage season, with trees beginning to change quickly now over the next couple of weeks. Although in much of New England and parts of New York and Pennsylvania that remain in an ongoing drought and had a very dry mid-summer, the fall colors are likely to be muted this year.” NWS Eastern Region noted more temperatures tied or smashed on Sunday morning, September 20, including the following: Allentown in Pennsylvania registered 2.2 degC (36 degF), beating the record of 2.8 degC (37 degF) set in 1993; Baltimore in Maryland had lows of 5.5 degC (42 degF), tying with the record in 1959; Houlton in Maine registered -3.9 degC (25 degF), also tying with the record in 1950.
Massive bird die-off in Western U.S. linked to cold blast – Researchers at the University of New Mexico have found that the mysterious deaths of hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of migratory birds in the Western U.S. were primarily caused by acold blast that killed off edible insects and induced hypothermia. Around August 20, a large number of bird carcasses were found in the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range and White Sands National Monument. Researchers thought the case was isolated, but hundreds of more birds were discovered in other regions. Since the die-off was first reported, the event caused a stir on social media and among scientists, who considered wildfires and drought as some of the factors. The birds reportedly behaved unusually prior to their deaths– some that are commonly seen in shrubs and trees were found chasing bugs on the ground. “I am no stranger to dead birds, but I had never seen anything like this. This was a lot of dead birds. It really is sad to see something like that,” said UNM ornithology Ph.D. student Jenna McCullough, one of the researchers who examined the samples.McCullough, along with colleague Nick Vinciguerra, collected 305 samples of bird carcasses– most of which were violet-green swallows– and took them to UNM’s Museum of Southwestern Biology in Albuquerque.The researchers documented a pattern of atrophied breast muscles and a lack of fat stores, indicating that the birds suffered dehydration and starvation. After conducting tests, the researchers said a cold front that swept through the Rocky Mountains possibly killed off insects eaten by the birds. The cold weather also likely induced hypothermia.
Botswana says it has solved mystery of mass elephant die-off — Hundreds of elephants died in Botswana earlier this year from ingesting toxins produced by cyanobacteria, according to government officials who say they will be testing waterholes for algal blooms next rainy season to reduce the risk of another mass die-off.The mysterious death of 350 elephants in the Okavango delta between May and June baffled conservationists, with leading theories suggesting they were killed by a rodent virus known as EMC (encephalomyocarditis) or toxins from algal blooms.”Our latest tests have detected cyanobacterial neurotoxins to be the cause of deaths. These are bacteria found in water,” Mmadi Reuben, principal veterinary officer at the Botswana department of wildlife and national parks, said in a news conference on Monday. “However we have many questions still to be answered such as why the elephants only and why that area only. We have a number of hypotheses we are investigating.” Local sources suggest 70% of elephants died near water holes containing algal blooms, which can produce toxic microscopic organisms called cyanobacteria. Toxins were initially ruled out because no other species died – except for one horse – but scientists now think elephants could be particularly susceptible because they spend a lot of time bathing and drinking large quantities of water. Reuben said the investigation looked at how mortality affected the elephant population and injuries on carcasses, as well as testing water samples at laboratories in Botswana, South Africa and the US. He said the cause was a “combination of neurotoxins” but declined to give further details and declined to say at which institutions tests had been carried out. “I hope that what the government has said is true because it rules out some of the more sinister things,” said Dr Niall McCann, director of conservation at UK-based charity National Park Rescue, who initially suggested the elephants may have been poisoned or died from an unknown pathogen. To test tissue samples they need to be kept in specific conditions and quickly transported to specialised laboratories, but this was not done in Botswana which fuelled speculation about potential causes. “Just because cyanobacteria were found in the water that does not prove that the elephants died from exposure to those toxins. Without good samples from dead elephants, all hypotheses are just that: hypotheses,” said McCann.
Australia counts record 470 stranded whales as rescue continues (Reuters) – Rescuers were racing against the tide on Wednesday to free whales beached off the Australian coast, with more than half the estimated 470 mammals in the country’s biggest stranding on record already believed dead. The pod of long-finned pilot whales was first spotted on a wide sandbank during an aerial reconnaissance of remote and rugged Macquarie Harbour in Tasmania state on Monday, launching a difficult rescue operation. Around 25 whales were freed on Tuesday, but officials said some had beached themselves again when they were brought back in by the tide, creating an exhausting loop for rescuers in freezing waters. “We’re not at a point where we’re considering euthanasia … but it is always something that we have at the back of our mind,” said Kris Carlyon, a wildlife biologist with the state government conservation agency. “We’re still very hopeful.” A team of about 65 state park workers, fishermen and volunteers were triaging the pilot whales, a species of oceanic dolphin that grow to 7 metres (23 ft) long and can weigh up to 3 tonnes, to identify those most likely to survive.The refloating process involves as many as four or five people per whale wading waist-deep in freezing water, attaching slings to the animals so they can be guided out of the harbour by a boat. The stranding, about 200 kms (120 miles) northwest of the state capital Hobart, is the biggest on record in modern Australia and one of the largest in the world, drawing attention to a natural phenomenon that remains a mystery to scientists. “It’s certainly a major event and of great concern when we potentially lose that many whales out of a stranding event,”
At Least 380 Whales Die in Australia’s Largest Mass Stranding – More long-finned pilot whales were found stranded today on beaches in Tasmania, Australia. About 500 whales have become stranded, including at least 380 that have died, the AP reported. It is the largest mass stranding in Australia’s recorded history. The stranding started on Monday when the whales became stuck on sandbars in Macquarie Harbor on Tasmania’s west coast. Rescue efforts started on Tuesday morning and successfully helped 50 whales back into the water. On Wednesday afternoon, rescuers were trying to save the remaining 30 survivors, The Guardian reported.”While they’re still alive and in water, there’s still hope for them – but as time goes on they do become more fatigued,” Nic Deka, regional manager for Tasmania’s Parks and Wildlife Service, told the BBC. The Tasmanian government officials said that rescue efforts would continue as long as there were survivors. At the same time, The Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service will address removing the carcasses dotting Macquarie Harbor, the BBC reported. “We have a couple of options that we are considering, but we need to consider all aspects before we settle on a decision,” Deka said in a Tasmanian government press release. “We can’t leave the whales in the harbor as they will present a range of issues. We are committed to retrieving and disposing but our key priority is to remain focused on the rescue effort.” The first pod, containing about 270 stranded whales, were spotted Monday near the small town of Strahan. Aerial surveillance found another pod Wednesday morning with about 200 whales further south. Experts believe the two groups represent one mass stranding event, CNN reported.”From the air most of the additional whales detected appear to be dead, but a boat has headed over there this morning to do an assessment from the water,” Deka said in the press release.He explained that the whales were difficult to detect partly because of the dark water. “In that part of the harbor the water is a very dark tannin color so we think potentially they stranded, washed back into the water and then have been washed back into the bay, so that made it more difficult for them to be detected earlier in the piece.”
Israel fish deaths linked to rapid warming of seas -High temperatures and the persistent warming of oceans have triggered profound changes in marine ecosystems, but a new study suggests that the rate of onset of warming – rather than the peak – could also play a key role in the damage fuelled by climate change. In early July 2017, researchers were drawn to the coast of Eilat, Israel, following sightings of fish carcasses, a rare occurrence in the region’s coral reefs. “The fish were absolutely fresh … their gills were still red,” . Necropsies were performed on 14 freshly dead and moribund fish from eight different species. In 13 cases, severe infection directly caused by a pathogenic bacterium,Streptococcus iniae, was observed. Although this pathogen is ubiquitous in fish in warm waters, a healthy immune system usually prevents debilitating infections. So, what caused the mass casualties? Typically, mass fish mortality events in the aftermath of marine heat waves are chalked up to factors such as toxic algal bloom or oxygen deprivation (hypoxia). But further examination revealed that the rate of warming – a rise of 4.2C over 2.5 days in early July – was the steepest recorded since daily measurements were registered 32 years ago. In August, the water warmed by 3.4C in 2.5 days. The same pattern emerged in two earlier documented mass coral reef fish deaths in Kuwait Bay in 2001 and western Australia in 2011. Both were immediately preceded by rapid warming spikes, suggesting that the rapid onset of warming, regardless of the final temperature, might trigger widespread mortality, the researchers wrote in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. “This study isn’t quite the loud canary in a coal mine, but it’s part of the canary chorus, announcing that that the ocean has changed, and ecosystems are degrading … declining in both robustness and ability for organisms to survive,” said Dr Brad de Young from the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada, who was not involved in the study. “Ocean systems are being stressed out in many different ways – and like the background stress of Covid-19 on people, it makes everything else in life just that much more difficult,” he said. When you add events such as sudden warming to overfishing, pollutants, changes in ocean acidity and oxygen levels – the abruptness of it can be devastating because fish are already metabolically and physiologically stressed, he suggested.
‘Trash Tsunami’ Washes up on Honduran Beaches – A “trash tsunami” has washed ashore on the beaches of Honduras, endangering both wildlife and the local economy. The trash is mostly plastic waste, Voice of America reported Tuesday, and it is polluting the typically pristine tropical beaches of Omoa in the country’s north. Honduran officials said Saturday that the refuse was coming from the mouth of the Motagua River in neighboring Guatemala. It poses a problem for the local economy because it depends on the tourism the beaches attract. “This wave of trash which came from the Motagua River really surprised us, and even though it caused problems, it has not stopped our activities,” Honduran environment official Lilian Rivera said, as Yahoo News reported. “We are committed to cleaning our beaches and keeping them clean, but today we are demanding that authorities in Tegucigalpa take strong actions, actions to find a permanent solution to this problem.”Tegucigalpa is the capital of Honduras.The Hondoran government, meanwhile, has demanded action from Guatemala to stem the tide of plastic, according to Voice of America.But the plastic flowing from Guatemala’s Motagua River is an ongoing problem for the region, as The Intercept reported in 2019. The plastic tide is fed by the fact that Guatemala has few managed landfills or wastewater treatment plants. The plastic then washes out in the Caribbean Sea, home to the biodiverse Mesoamerican reef.In 2017, the Guatemalan government installed a “bio-fence” in the river to catch some of the waste after the Honduran government threatened a lawsuit over the pollution that reached its beaches. The fence is made of plastic bottles tied together with plastic netting.”When it’s full, you can practically walk on it,” trash removal worker Marco Dubon told The Intercept. Worldwide, rivers are a major source of ocean plastic pollution: 90 percent of it comes from just 10 rivers, scientists found in 2017. The problem is only growing. A study published in July found that around 11 million metric tons of plastic enter marine environments every year, and that number will increase to 29 million metric tons a year by 2040 if no action is taken. Plastic is then a major problem for marine life. Seabirds, turtles and marine mammals can become entangled in plastic or eat it by mistake, PEW pointed out. This can lead to strangulation, suffocation or death. It is estimated that plastic kills one million seabirds every year and that half of all sea turtles have swallowed plastic.
New Jersey Legislature Passes ‘Most Comprehensive’ Plastics Ban in the Nation – New Jersey is one step closer to passing what environmental advocates say is the strongest anti-plastic legislation in the nation. The state Legislature passed a sweeping measure Thursday that would ban plastic bags from stores and restaurants and single-use food and drink containers made from polystyrene foam, The New York Times reported. The ban is noteworthy for being the first in the country to include supermarket paper bags as well as plastic ones. “This is the single most comprehensive plastics and paper reduction bill in the nation,” former U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Regional Administrator and Beyond Plastics President Judith Enck said in a statement published by Insider NJ. “Building on the success of local laws adopted throughout New Jersey to reduce plastic pollution, the NJ State Legislature listened to the people and not the polluters and embraced a sensible environmental strategy.” The bill now passes to Gov. Philip Murphy, who intends to sign it, a spokesperson told The New York Times. The bans on bags and containers will go into effect 18 months after he does so, NorthJersey.com reported. In addition to banning plastic and paper bags and plastic food containers, the bill will also limit plastic strawsin restaurants so that they will only be available upon request. There are exemptions for newspaper bags; bags used for loose produce, fish or meat; dry-cleaning bags and prescription drug bags. The measure effectively settles a long-running debate about whether plastic or paper bags are worse for the environment by banning both. Plastic bags account for about 12 percent of U.S. plastic pollution, according to The New York Times. But paper bags need more energy, and therefore more climate pollution, to make. New Jersey Sierra Club Director Jeff Tittle said the new legislation would encourage people to use more sustainable, reusable shopping bags. However, the ban on paper bags was also the key to getting an important supermarket trade group to support the bill, NorthJersey.com reported. The organization argued that it would cost stores too much to supply customers with only paper bags. “The ban on paper bags is critically important to the success of this legislation,” New Jersey Food Council President Linda Doherty said ahead of Thursday’s vote. “Without a ban, consumers will simply move to paper single-use bags and we will not address the underlying goal of reducing our reliance on single-use products.”
Trump Uses E.P.A. Office to Widen ‘Anarchist’ War vs. New York – President Trump’s politicized campaign to label New York City an “anarchist jurisdiction” broadened on Tuesday, with the head of the Environmental Protection Agency threatening to move its regional headquarters out of Lower Manhattan.The E.P.A. administrator, Andrew R. Wheeler, suggested that local agency officials had become so fearful of New York streets that they are now considering moving offices.The root of those fears? Mr. Wheeler cited three-month old protests against police brutality, and a small, recent protest against another federal agency, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, at a nearby building. That demonstration was quickly shut down by the police.Few in New York have taken the president’s rhetoric seriously, and the threat from the E.P.A. administrator was also being dismissed as political theater to be deployed in Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign.”Another day, another transparent political game from this federal government,” said Richard Azzopardi, a senior adviser to Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. “The fact is the E.P.A. has abandoned every state since 2017, and they should quit playing political flunky and actually do their job.”Earlier this month, Mr. Trump told his attorney general, William P. Barr, to identify jurisdictions that had allowed “themselves to deteriorate into lawless zones,” threatening to withhold federal funding from those places.Mr. Barr complied on Monday, delivering a memo that painted New York as a city run amok, descending into violence and anarchy. Mr. Wheeler’s threat, first reported by The New York Post, matched that message in tone and rhetoric. “If you cannot demonstrate that E.P.A. employees will be safe accessing our New York City offices, then I will begin the process of looking for a new location for our regional headquarters outside of New York City that can maintain order,” Mr. Wheeler wrote in a letter to Mr. Cuomo and Mayor Bill de Blasio, both Democrats. About 580 employees work at the regional office.
GASP Group: Let’s Not Forget N. Birmingham’s Toxic Air and Soil Issues – GASP Group, an environmental advocacy group for clean air, said it has tried for months to get the attention of Governor Kay Ivey to support more action toward cleanup of a local toxic site in North Birmingham and so far has not received a response. GASP is asking the governor to add the site on 35th Avenue North to the Environmental Protection Agency’s “National Priority List.” This would mean more attention to resident concerns about the safety of the area. The 35th Avenue site consists of Harriman Park, Collegeville and Fairmont. Industrial plants for steel, pipe and coke, a distilled form of coal, were once common in the area. According to the EPA, these industries left behind toxic levels of arsenic, lead and benzo(a)pyrene, or BaP. BaP and arsenic are carcinogens. Cleanup in the area dominated the news cycle more than three years ago during a high-profile corruption case involving a local lawmaker and a coal company executive and has not received much attention since. Michael Hansen, executive director of GASP, said he is determined to not let the cleanup issue fade. “We held a caravan in Montgomery where we honked and caused a lot of noise at the governor’s mansion, put signs on our cars,” Hansen said. “And we’ll continue to do that, we have another caravan [on October 3]. But we’re also having a letter writing campaign.” Hansen said GASP has been trying to speak with the governor for more than a year. “We have requested a meeting with the governor directly. We’ve been pushed to meetings with aides, like chiefs of staff or economic policy advisors,” Hansen said. “They have been open to talking about it, but not open to doing anything about it. We’re requesting to have a meeting directly with the governor herself, and we haven’t been acknowledged [by Ivey] since we put in that request.”
2 missing after worst rainfall in 120 years triggers flash flooding in southern France – (videos) At least 2 people are missing after torrential rains triggered flash flooding in several departments of southern France on Saturday, September 19, 2020. Valleraugue commune in Gard Department recorded up to 468 mm (18 inches) of rain in just a 6-hour period, which is over six times the average rain for September of 75 mm (3 inches)– the worst since 1900. Meteo France reported violent storms in the foothills of the Cevennes mountains on Saturday, with the worst affected departments Gard, Lozere, and Herault. In a six-hour period, Vigan recorded 196 mm (8 inches) of rain, Saumane 175 mm (7 inches), and an exceptional 468 mm (18 inches) in Valleraugue, including 361 mm (14 inches) in just three hours. According to AFP, this was the worst downpour in the area since 1900. Climate data also shows that the commune usually receives around 75 mm (3 inches) of rain for the month of September, which means the area was hit by over six months’ worth of rain in less than a day. At least 2 people are missing after torrential rains triggered flash flooding in several departments of southern France on Saturday, September 19, 2020. Valleraugue commune in Gard Department recorded up to 468 mm (18 inches) of rain in just a 6-hour period, which is over six times the average rain for September of 75 mm (3 inches)– the worst since 1900. Meteo France reported violent storms in the foothills of the Cevennes mountains on Saturday, with the worst affected departments Gard, Lozere, and Herault. In a six-hour period, Vigan recorded 196 mm (8 inches) of rain, Saumane 175 mm (7 inches), and an exceptional 468 mm (18 inches) in Valleraugue, including 361 mm (14 inches) in just three hours. According to AFP, this was the worst downpour in the area since 1900. Climate data also shows that the commune usually receives around 75 mm (3 inches) of rain for the month of September, which means the area was hit by over six months’ worth of rain in less than a day. Emergency services deployed some 650 personnel and mobilized helicopters for evacuations and rescue operations. As of Sunday, September 20, around 421 people have been moved to shelter, including more than 200 in Anduze commune, and 46 people have been rescued. As a result of the flooding, 12 roads and five bridges have been temporarily closed. Water and electricity supplies had also been cut in some areas in Gard. At least two people were reported missing in the region. The victims were identified as a 64-year-old woman who was washed away by raging floods and a man who went missing during a hill run in the Cevennes.
Massive floods leave widespread destruction, displace 140 000 people in Afar, Ethiopia – More than 240 000 people have been affected and 144 000 displaced as widespread floods hit Afar, Ethiopia, the government stated in a press release on September 21, 2020. More than 80 localities have been hit in what authorities described as the worst flood the region has ever seen. Floodwaters left up to 41 000 ha (101 300 acres) of crops damaged and at least 21 000 animals perished. Afar Regional State Disaster Prevention and Food Security Bureau Head, Mohammed Hussein told the Ethiopian News Agency that 240 000 people have been impacted by major floods, and the state needs 350 million birrs or around 9.5 million dollars for relief and rehabilitation. So far, only 100 million birrs or 2.7 million dollars have been collected. “Even if the regional and federal governments, as well as different organizations, have been supporting the displaced persons surrounded by water, the assistance provided is still insufficient,” Mohammad noted. He added that the region has been battered not only by flooding, but also by desert locust invasion and the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in a lack of medicine, clean water, and shelter. Kesem, Tendaho, and Koka dams on the Awash river overflowed, displacing more than 144 000 citizens. About 41 000 ha (101 300 acres) of land were also ravaged, while more than 21 000 animals perished. More than 80 localities have been inundated, with authorities describing it as the worst ever the region has seen. More than 1 000 people were stranded, at least 48 000 lost their homes, and around 123 740 are in need of emergency food assistance, while another 84 000 people composed of mothers and children are in need of medicines.
At least 126 people killed in floods and landslides in Gandaki Pradesh, Nepal – vidoes At least 126 people have lost their lives to natural disasters, such as floods and landslides, triggered by monsoon rains this year in Gandaki Pradesh, Nepal. The Meteorological Forecasting Division (MFD) forecasts moderate to heavy rains throughout the country until Saturday, September 26, 2020. This year’s monsoon rains have caused floods and landslides that affected all districts in Gandaki Pradesh. The provincial government assured that efforts are being made to assist victims in the worst-hit districts. However, officials were having a tough time managing permanent settlements for displaced people. According to Minister of Internal Affairs and Law Hari Bahadur Chuman, most of the deaths occurred in Baglung with 52 fatalities, 29 in Myagdi, 13 in Tanahun, 10 in Kaskiand, nine in Parbat, and five in Syangja. The minister added that damage assessment is underway to identify damaged houses in various districts. Each of the victims’ families were pledged a financial assistance of 50 000 rupees from the Gandaki government. In Myagdi, some of the families of the deceased said they are yet to receive the relief. Food assistance amounting to 600 000 rupees and 422 tents have been provided for the displaced in the said district. 200 000 rupees each was allocated for Manag and Mustang and 1 million rupees each to the remaining nine districts. MFD predicts moderate to heavy rainfall with thunder and lightning is forecast throughout Nepal until Saturday. “A low-pressure area is now located over Chhattisgarh state of India and is advancing to the west and north-west of Nepal, bringing in more rains,” the forecast stated.
At least 10 dead as Tropical Storm “Noul” wreaks havoc in Vietnam, Laos, Thailand and Myanmar – (videos) At least 10 people lost their lives, properties were damaged or destroyed, and hundreds of thousands were affected as Tropical Storm “Noul” ripped through parts of Southeast Asia — from Vietnam, where it caused the most damage (amounting to 10 million dollars) as well as the most fatalities, to Laos, Thailand, and Myanmar. The storm made landfall in Vietnam, between the provinces of Quảng Trị and Thừa Thien-Huế, at 03:00 UTC on September 18. In central Vietnam, Noul claimed six lives, injured 112 others, and knocked down over 10 000 trees and several power lines that cut electricity to more than 280 000 households. The worst affected province was Thua Thien-Hue, where four deaths were reported and 10 houses were completely destroyed, according to the Central Steering Committee on Natural Disaster Prevention and Control. Winds of up to 90 km/h (56 mph) and rains peaking at 310 mm (12 inches) were recorded, triggering floods and causing up to 200 billion dongs or 10 million dollars in damage. Thousands of other houses suffered damage, mostly due to strong winds. Around 50 000 people were evacuated in the affected provinces.As the storm headed further inland, parts of Laos were drenched by heavy rains, resulting in floods in Xekong and Champassak provinces. Floodwaters infiltrated temples and ravaged roads and rice fields. The storm then made its way to Thailand around September 19, affecting more than 1 900 families across 27 provinces– 22 of which have been severely inundated due to excessive rainwater. Infrastructures, farms, and villages have been damaged in the past few days, according to the Department of Disaster Prevention and Mitigation (DDPM) Director-General Chayaphol Thitisak.
Widespread destruction after Medicane Cassilda (Ianos) strikes Greece, heads toward Libya/Egypt border region – Medicane Cassilda (Ianos) made landfall in Argostoli, Kefalonia, western Greece at 02:20 UTC on September 18, 2020, with maximum sustained winds up to 110 km/h (70 mph), gusts to 135 km/h (85 mph), and heavy rain.
- Widespread destruction was reported.
- At least 3 people have been killed and one is still missing. Nearly 1 000 were rescued.
- The storm moved through central Greece after striking the Ionian islands and exited back into the Mediterranean Sea.
- Cassilda is now weakening on its way toward the Libya-Egypt border region.
Cassilda caused widespread infrastructural damage, downed trees and bridges, disrupted traffic, damaged roads, homes and buildings, sank boats, and left thousands of homes without power. Ionian Sea islands of Zakynthos, Kefalonia, and Ithaca, and areas around the cities of Kardiutsa and Farsala in central Greece are among the worst hit. According to official estimates, 5 000 properties were flooded in Karditsa alone.At least 3 people have been killed — one in Farsala, and two in Karditsa.Rescuers are still searching for a woman who went missing in Mouzaki after the car she was driving got swept away by floodwaters.Emergency service officials said they received over 2 500 calls for assistance and rescued nearly 1 000 people.Five boats reportedly sank off Zakynthos and Lefkada. One boat believed to be carrying 55 migrants was in distress off the Peloponnese peninsula, southwest of Athens, and urged vessels in the area to assist. On Friday, waves off the coast of the western Peloponnese were as high as 7 m (23 feet).Many farmers in central Greece said their crops and greenhouses were destroyed.Cassilda weakened into Severe Medistorm on September 19 as it moved south and is now back in the Mediterranean, weakening on its way toward the Libya-Egypt border region.
Mainland Portugal hit by its first (sub)tropical cyclone on record — Subtropical Storm “Alpha” — the 22nd named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season and the earliest 22nd Atlantic named storm on record — made landfall near central Portugal at 18:30 UTC on September 18, just 2 hours after its formation. Alpha is the first tropical or subtropical cyclone on record to strike mainland Portugal and the third to make landfall in mainland Europe. Alpha had maximum sustained winds of 85 km/h (50 mph) at the time of landfall and minimum central pressure of 996 hPa. This made it the first (sub)tropical cyclone on record to make landfall in mainland Portugal. After making landfall, alpha quickly weakened as it headed further into the Iberian Peninsula, becoming a remnant low at 03:00 UTC on September 19. Orange warnings for high winds and heavy rainfall were issued for Coimbra and Leiria districts ahead of the landfall. Subtropical Storm “Alpha” at 14:30 UTC on September 18, 2020. Credit: EUMETSAT/Meteosat-11, RAMMB/CIRA Although Alpha was a small storm, with tropical-storm-force winds extending outward up to 55 km (35 miles) from the center, it managed to cause widespread power outages, down hundreds of trees, and damage dozens of dozens of buildings and vehicles. In addition, at least two tornadoes were reported in Beja and Palmela. Some cities reported extreme flash flooding and powerful winds. In total, authorities said there were 203 reports of fallen trees, 174 reports of minor flooding, 88 structures damaged, and 82 roads blocked by debris. Most of the damage reports came from the Leira District (143), followed by 135 reports from the Lisbon District. Alpha was the first tropical or subtropical cyclone to make landfall in mainland Portugal and the third to make landfall in mainland Europe, following a hurricane in Spain in 1842 and Hurricane “Vince” in 2005 as a tropical depression. Furthermore, Alpha and Medicane Cassilda (Ianos) made landfall on the same day. This marked the first time in history that two subtropical cyclones hit Europe on the same day.
Devastation left in the wake of Hurricanes Sally and Laura along the US Gulf Coast Power restorations, debris hauling, and the rebuilding of damaged critical infrastructure continues in communities along the northern Gulf Coast portion of Florida and southern Alabama in the wake of Hurricane Sally, which made landfall as a Category 2 last Wednesday in Gulf Shores, Alabama. But amidst the widespread flood damage, mass power outages, prolonged boil water advisories, and water rescues, the Gulf region of the contiguous US, home to 64 million people, remains lodged in the crosshairs of a historically overactive hurricane season. Though its original path placed the city of New Orleans and the southwest Mississippi coast as its center for landfall, Hurricane Sally, made a sharp eastward turn towards the Alabama-Florida border before making landfall, causing almost 600,000 homes and businesses from southeast Louisiana over into the heart of Georgia to lose power at one point last week. Sally brought torrential rain and major flooding to the area even before it made landfall. Less than a week later, there have already been seven reported deaths related to the Hurricane-two in Baldwin County, Alabama; two in Escambia County, Florida; and three in the Atlanta area. Widespread flooding resulted from Hurricane Sally in a large area spanning from southeast Louisiana to as far as Tallahassee, Florida. Pensacola Fire Chief Ginny Cranor told CNN that “four months of rain” fell in “four hours”-well over 30 inches. The storm surge was one of the worst Pensacola had ever experienced, at one point producing flooding up to a depth of five feet. Amanda Marcial, a resident in Escambia County whose home flooded, told the Pensacola News Journal that “[e]very time it rains we live in fear,” adding that “I am in what they say is a 100-year flood plain,” but “it’s flooded again” since a rainstorm flooded her home in April 2014. At least 600 water rescues have been carried out in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties in Florida in response to Hurricane Sally. Food, water, and tarp distribution sites had to be established in several locations throughout Escambia County, serving 20,000 cars up until last weekend. At least $180 million in damages to public and private property has been tallied so far by officials in Alabama and Florida. This includes $19 million in Mobile County in Alabama, $139 million in Escambia County, and $21 million in Santa Rose County in Florida. As assessments to road and home damage to debris removal continues, the total amount of damages in these areas alone will undoubtedly increase.
Hurricane “Teddy” forecast to become a strong post-tropical cyclone before reaching Nova Scotia, Canada –The center of Hurricane “Teddy” is moving east of Bermuda on September 21, 2020, bringing tropical-storm-force wind gusts. Teddy is forecast to become a strong post-tropical cyclone before reaching Nova Scotia, Canada on September 23.
- A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Bermuda and Watch for Lower East Pubnico to Main-a-Dieu, Nova Scotia, Canada.
- Gradual weakening is forecast to begin mid-week, but the cyclone is expected to remain a large and powerful hurricane Tuesday, then become a strong post-tropical cyclone when it nears Nova Scotia by Wednesday morning (LT), September 23.
- Meanwhile, the center of Tropical Storm “Beta” will continue to move toward the central coast of Texas and will likely move inland by tonight. Beta is forecast to remain close to the coast of southeastern Texas on Tuesday.
Hurricane “Teddy” is expected to transition to a powerful post-tropical cyclone as it moves near or over portions of Atlantic Canada late Tuesday, September 22 through Thursday, September 24. There is an increasing risk of direct impacts from wind, heavy rain, and storm surge. At 12:00 UTC on September 21, Teddy’s center was located about 260 km (160 miles) SE of Bermuda. The system had maximum sustained winds of 155 km/h (100 mph), making it a Category 2 hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. Teddy had minimum central pressure of 960 hPa and was moving NNE at 15 km/h (9 mph). Little change in strength is expected during the next day or so, NHC forecasters said.
Tropical Storm Beta Makes Landfall in Texas, Drenching Storm-Weary Gulf Coast – The National Hurricane Center has run out of names for tropical storms this year and has now moved on to the Greek alphabet during an extremely active hurricane season. Late Monday night, Tropical Storm Beta became the ninth named storm to make landfall. That’s the first time so many named storms have made landfall since 1916, when Woodrow Wilson was president, according to NBC News. Beta is a small but slow-moving storm. Its tropical-storm winds extend 125 miles from the eye of the storm. However, the danger from Beta is not its winds, but the tremendous amount of rain it is expected to drop on towns and cities along the Interstate 10 corridor in Texas and Louisiana, according to the Orlando Sentinel. The National Hurricane Center issued an update late last night that the center of Beta made landfall in Texas near the Southern End of the Matagorda peninsula around 10 p.m. CDT. The storm’s slow movement will stall Beta over Texas and drench the region with five to 10 inches of rain, said Rich Otto, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Prediction Center in College Park, MD, as The New York Times reported. The heavy rains and wind will also create dangerous storm surges. “Twenty-four hours from now it will be in roughly the same location,” Otto said Monday, according to The New York Times. That stalled movement has put roughly 11 million people under flash flood warnings that span the Texas and Louisiana coast, according to CNN. The sustained rain is also expected to cause river flooding and urban flooding. Early Tuesday morning, Beta was moving no faster than people typically walk, at just 3 miles per hour. It is predicted to stall over inland Texas Tuesday and then move toward the east and northeast later in the day when it will begin to weaken, according to the AP. It is expected to stay in southeastern Texas through Wednesday and then move over Louisiana and Mississippi through Friday.
Tropical Storm “Beta” makes landfall, expected to stall inland over Texas – Tropical Storm “Beta” made landfall near the southern end of Matagorda Peninsula, Texas — about 10 km (6 miles) N of Port O’Connor — at 04:00 UTC on September 22, 2020, with maximum sustained winds of 75 km/h (45 mph) and minimum central pressure of 999 hPa.
- Beta is the 9th named storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. (CONUS) this year. This tied 2020 with the 1916 Atlantic hurricane season for the most named storm to make CONUS landfall in an Atlantic hurricane season on record.
- Significant flash and urban flooding is occurring and will continue for the middle and upper Texas coast today. The slow motion of Beta will continue to produce a long duration rainfall event from the middle Texas coast to southern Louisiana.
A Storm Surge Warning is still in effect for Sargent, Texas to Sabine Pass including Galveston Bay. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for Port Aransas, Texas to Sabine Pass. At 12:00 UTC on September 22, Beta’s center was located about 15 km (10 miles) ESE of Victoria and 55 km (35 miles) W of Palacios, Texas. The storm was moving NW at 6 km/h (3 mph) with maximum sustained winds of 65 km/h (40 mph) and minimum central pressure of 999 hPa. Significant flash and urban flooding is occurring and will continue for the middle and upper Texas coast today, NHC forecasters noted. The slow motion of Beta will continue to produce a long duration rainfall event from the middle Texas coast to southern Louisiana. Flash, urban, and minor river flooding is likely.
Zombie storms are rising from the dead thanks to climate change Wildfires are burning the West Coast, hurricanes are flooding the Southeast – and some of those storms are rising from the dead. “Zombie storms,” which regain strength after initially petering out, are the newest addition to the year 2020. And these undead weather anomalies are becoming more common thanks to climate change.”Because 2020, we now have Zombie Tropical Storms. Welcome back to the land of the living, Tropical Storm #Paulette,” the National Weather Service wrote on Twitter on Tuesday (Sept. 22). Earlier this month, Tropical storm Paulette formed in the Atlantic Ocean and made landfall in Bermuda as a Category 1 hurricane, according to CNN. It then strengthened over land into a Category 2 hurricane, before weakening and dying off five and half days later. But then, Paulette opened her frightening eye once again. She wasn’t gone. Paulette regained strength and became a tropical storm once more about 300 miles (480 kilometers) away from the Azores Islands on Monday (Sept. 21), according to CNN. The term “zombie storm” is new, and though the phenomenon has been recorded before, it is thought to be rare. But zombie storms are going to happen more often, said Donald Wuebbles, a professor of atmospheric sciences at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. And as with other natural disasters that have been intensifying in recent years, such as wildfires and hurricanes, climate change and rapid global warming are to blame. There has been an “extreme amount of heating of the Gulf (of Mexico), particularly in some of the ocean areas off of the Carribean,” Wuebbles told Live Science. The Gulf of Mexico, where many hurricanes gain strength before hitting the U.S., is particularly vulnerable to global warming because the gulf waters are very shallow – and thus heat up easily, Wuebbles said.
6 Men in Oregon Charged for Allegedly Starting Fires During Wildfire Season on Purpose – At least six men in Oregon have been charged with allegedly starting fires in the region on purpose. This happens in the wake of widespread wildfires in the west, according to The Oregonian. One suspect damaged more than a dozen homes, and put people in danger, authorities said. A second man allegedly burned hundreds of acres in Lane County. The four other suspects allegedly caused more minor flames, which were put out. None of the suspects, however, were allegedly motivated by politics. Unsubstantiated rumors circulated around Oregon that left-wing extremists were starting wildfires. This resulted in reports of armed locals east of Portland setting up roadblocks. “Deputies responded to reports some people were armed and asking for identification of the folks they stopped,” Multnomah County Sheriff Mike Reese said in a statement last week. “We told people engaging in this behavior that roadways are open to all users, and their actions are illegal and they could be subject to citation or arrest.” Officials in Douglas County, and Jackson County reported getting false claims of arrests. “Rumors spread just like wildfire and now our 9-1-1 dispatchers and professional staff are being overrun with requests for information and inquiries on an UNTRUE rumor that 6 Antifa members have been arrested for setting fires in DOUGLAS COUNTY, OREGON,” the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office said in a September 10 statement. One of the suspects in the fires-Michael Jarrod Bakkela-allegedly set a blaze on September 8 in Phoenix, Oregon, damaging 15 properties and threatening the lives of 14 people. He was described as a transient, but had a Salem address. He had a 2019 conviction for meth possession, and had been charged before with harassment connected to the 2019 crash of a stolen car. The defendant pleaded not guilty in the Sept. 8 fire. The four suspects in the smaller fires reportedly dealt with drug addiction, mental illness, and homelessness.
California firefighters make stand to save famed observatory, homes (Reuters) – Crews fought on Tuesday to defend homes and the famed Mount Wilson Observatory from California’s biggest and most dangerous wildfire, standing their ground at a major highway between the flames and populated areas. The Bobcat Fire, which broke out Sept. 6 in the Angeles National Forest north of Los Angeles, has already blackened an area larger than the city of Atlanta and its rapid spread prompted worried law enforcement officials to call for new evacuations on Monday evening. Once home to the largest operational telescope in the world, the Mount Wilson Observatory, which sits on a peak of the San Gabriel mountains near vital communications towers, said in an update that almost all the forest around it had burned. Firefighters overnight kept the Bobcat from breaching containment lines near the observatory and were preventively burning vegetation ahead of the fire along state Highway 2, which runs northeast from Los Angeles. This summer California already has seen more land charred by wildfires than in any previous full year, with some 3.4 million acres burned since mid-August. The fires, stoked by extreme weather conditions that some scientists call evidence of climate change, have destroyed some 6,100 homes and other structures and killed 26 people, three of them firefighters. Another 2 million acres have burned in Oregon and Washington during an outbreak of wildfires, destroying more than 4,400 structures and claiming 10 lives. But rain showers across the western Cascade mountain range helped fire crews in the Pacific Northwest gain control of those conflagrations. Although California has seen little rain in September, bouts of high temperatures and gale-force winds have given way in recent days to cooler weather, enabling firefighters to gain ground. But forecasters predict rising temperatures, lower humidity and a return of strong, erratic winds around midweek in Southern California and by the weekend across the state’s northern half, lending urgency to the firefight.The Bobcat Fire has now scorched more than 109,000 acres to become one of the largest wildfires in recorded Los Angeles County history and was only 17% contained on Tuesday afternoon. The flames came perilously close to the Mount Wilson Observatory last week before they were driven back by crews using air support. Several more areas, including Pasadena, a city of 140,000 people, remained under evacuation warnings. California’s fire season historically has run through October. Five of the state’s 20 largest blazes on record have occurred this year.
Creek Fire becomes largest single blaze in California, spawning 2 rare fire tornadoes (videos) The Creek Fire in California has become the state’s largest single blaze record, scorching up to 117 935 ha (291 426 acres) of land as of Thursday, September 24, 2020, and is only 34 percent contained. The blazes spawned two rare tornadoes rated EF-1 and EF-2 a day after the fire started earlier this month, the National Weather Service (NWS) confirmed. The blaze started on September 4, near Mammoth Pool, Shaver Lake, Big Creek, and Huntington Lake. In a span of just three weeks, the flame exploded to 117 935 ha (291 426 acres), left nearly 1 000 structures damaged or destroyed, and is posing threats to 6 723 more properties. Around 3 085 fire personnel have been deployed to combat the flame, with the full containment expected to be accomplished by October 15. As of Thursday, September 24, the Creek Fire has become the largest single blaze in the history of California as the state is experiencing its worst fire year since the 1910 Great Fire, which ripped through more than 1.2 million ha (3 million acres) of land. On Wednesday, NWS confirmed that in a rare event, the blaze spawned two fire tornadoes or firenadoes on September 5, a day after it sparked. One was rated EF-2 with winds up to 201 km/h (125 mph) and the other EF-1 with winds of up to 160 km/h (100 mph). CNN meteorologist Taylor Ward noted that to have even one tornado within a fire is rare. “Fires can lead to fire whirls– kind of like a dust devil– due to differential heating, but to get a tornado with winds over 160 km/h (100 mph) is quite unusual.” One of the firenadoes occurred in Mammoth Pool Reservoir in the Sierra National Forest well southeast of Yosemite, while the other formed near Bass Lake. Unlike firewhirls, which is usually seen forming from the ground up over small brushfires, fire tornadoes are actual tornadoes but are dynamically different than normal ones in general. This phenomenon is produced by rotating clouds or smoke plumes in environments where wind change and direction with height. While the funnels are not filled with fire literally, they are filled with a superheated column of debris, ash, and smoke. The historic wildfires in the state have generated intense heat, causing the vortices to develop, according to NWS meteorologist Jerald Meadows. “The main contributing factor was the debarking of all the pine trees up with the Mammoth Pool tornado,” he explained. “They both uprooted trees to the root balls and snapped large pines. But the [EF1 tornado] did not have any signs of true debarking. We’re probably talking the difference between 160 and 177 km/h (100 and 110 mph).”
Catastrophic wildfires, corporate air pollution, and COVID-19: A collision of crises – Air quality indexes, measures of the amount of particulate present in the air, in Portland and Seattle are currently being recorded as the worst in the world due to particulates emitted from the ongoing wildfires nearby. The scientific data suggest that residents of these cities (and much of the Pacific coast of the United States as well as British Columbia, which all currently are experiencing incredibly poor air quality) will simultaneously be facing an increased risk of developing COVID-19 as well as an increased risk of severe disease if infected. The effect of corporate practices that shirk environmental regulations, along with politicians from both major parties passing regulations that are far too lax in the first place, is well documented in regard to climate change. Climate change in turn has exacerbated the wildfires across the West Coast. What is less well documented in the media is the effect of air pollutants, due to both corporate emissions and particulate matter released by the massive wildfires, on the risk of infection and the risk of death due to COVID-19. Air pollution caused by the wildfires will exacerbate the COVID-19 crisis due to both immunological and sociological factors. Research has suggested that particulate matter in the air, due to industrial pollution, the burning of fossil fuels, and now the fires on the West Coast, increases the likelihood of infection by COVID-19 and the likelihood for severe disease. Meanwhile, the fires themselves are forcing mass evacuations of individuals, creating de facto climate crisis refugees, putting them into close contact with other individuals and creating a veritable breeding ground for COVID-19 transmission. From an immunological standpoint, two factors are at play in regard to the effects of the air pollution and COVID-19: increases in likelihood for infection and increases in severity among individuals who are infected. In April, data from a large cross-sectional study was released as a preprint by researchers at Harvard using county-level data of nearly every county in the US. This study accounted for more than 20 other variables, and then compared COVID-19 deaths and long-term air quality data in each county. The results were striking. It was determined that just 1 microgram per cubic meter of PM2.5 (particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns in size, small enough to be inhaled deeply into the lung) was associated with an 8 percent increase in COVID-19 fatalities. Since then, a similar analysis was conducted using data from the Netherlands, which found that the same increase in PM2.5 levels, 1 microgram per cubic meter, increased the number of cases of COVID-19 by 7.2 percent, and an increase in COVID-19 fatalities of between 9.4 percent and 15.1 percent. It has been known for quite some time that air pollution, particularly airborne particulate matter, is a significant risk factor for cardiovascular pathology, being responsible for 5 million deaths in 2017 alone, and being linked to death in individuals with heart or lung disease, heart attacks, aggravated asthma, decreased lung function, and respiratory inflammation.These pathologies have been linked directly to increased severity of COVID-19 infections, and increased risk of death due to COVID-19. Other studies have since found increases in COVID-19 infections and deaths in areas with higher airborne particulate levels in the UK and an increase in deaths in some regions in Italy .
What the Photos of Wildfires and Smoke Don’t Show You – ProPublica – Over the past few weeks, the West erupted in flames. The lucky among us know this from the news: 3.2 million acres burned in California, 1 million acres burned in Oregon, more than 900,000 acres burned in Washington. Words often fail as those words just failed – to communicate what these fires are actually like up close. Photographs often do better at capturing the drama and emotion. But the pictures that run in news outlets represent a tiny subset of what happens during a wildfire. What we see, and don’t see, shapes what we think about fire. And what we think about fire shapes fire policy. And as the West Coast learned these past few weeks, our fire management policy has left us in a very dangerous place. We talked to a handful of photojournalists, forest ecologists and firefighters about how fire images get made, and lightly edited parts of interviews are presented below. The three key takeaways from our conversations are:
- 1. Fire photos often stir up fear and leave out “good fire,” which the public needs to see in order to understand and support managed burns.
- 2. Fire photos often make fire look like an enemy best attacked with something like a military campaign, an idea that is often wrong, a waste of money and ineffective.
- 3. Fire photos make fire look far more ubiquitous than it is, even in the midst of big blazes.
Wildfires taint West Coast vineyards with taste of smoke (AP) – Smoke from the West Coast wildfires has tainted grapes in some of the nation’s most celebrated wine regions with an ashy flavor that could spell disaster for the 2020 vintage. Wineries in California, Oregon and Washington have survived severe wildfires before, but the smoke from this year’s blazes has been especially bad – thick enough to obscure vineyards drooping with clusters of grapes almost ready for harvest. Day after day, some West Coast cities endured some of the worst air quality in the world. No one knows the extent of the smoke damage to the crop, and growers are trying to assess the severity. If tainted grapes are made into wine without steps to minimize the harm or weed out the damaged fruit, the result could be wine so bad that it cannot be marketed. The wildfires are likely to be “without question the single worst disaster the wine-grape growing community has ever faced,” said John Aguirre, president of the California Association of Winegrape Growers. Winemakers around the world are already adapting to climate change, including rising temperatures and more frequent, more severe droughts. Those near fire-prone forests face the additional risk that smoke could ruin everything. “Unfortunately, climate experts are telling us this is going to be a problem,” said Anita Oberholster, a wine expert at the University of California, Davis. “And so we need to do better. We need to do loads more research.” With this year’s harvest underway, some wineries are not accepting grapes they had agreed to purchase unless they have been tested for smoke taint, Aguirre said. But laboratories are too backed up to analyze new orders in time. ETS Laboratories, in the Napa Valley town of St. Helena, California, says test results on grape samples received now will not be ready until November. New clients will have to wait even longer for results, according to the lab’s website.
Smoke from California wildfires may have killed more than 1,000 people – – The heavy smoke from wildfires that choked much of California in recent weeks was more than an inconvenience.It was deadly. And it almost certainly killed more people than the flames from the massive fires themselves, health experts say.Between Aug. 1 and Sept. 10, the historically bad concentrations of wildfire smoke were responsible for at least 1,200 and possibly up to 3,000 deaths in California that otherwise would not have occurred, according to an estimate by researchers at Stanford University. Those fatalities were among people age 65 and over, most of whom were living with pre-existing medical conditions like heart disease, diabetes and respiratory ailments.By comparison, through Wednesday, 26 people have died directly in wildfires this year statewide.”Clean air is much more important than we realize,” said Marshall Burke, an associate professor of earth system science at Stanford who calculated the impacts. “When you look at it on a population level, you can see very clearly that breathing clean air has huge public health benefits, and breathing dirty air has disastrous consequences.”Decades of medical research has shown that soot is among the most dangerous types of air pollution to human health. Known as “PM 2.5,” for particulate matter that is smaller than 2.5 microns in size, the microscopic soot particles are so small that 30 or more of them can line up along the width of a human hair.Coming from diesel trucks, wildfires, power plants, fireplaces and other sources, the tiny particles can travel deep into the lungs, even entering the bloodstream, when people breathe them in high concentrations. In mild levels they can cause itchy eyes and sore throats, coughing and a tight feeling in the chest. In more severe instances, they can trigger asthma attacks, heart attacks, strokes or respiratory failure, particularly in the elderly, infants and people with existing heart and lung problems. That study, by researchers at the University of Illinois and Georgia State University, found that for each day particulate air pollution increased by about 10% over typical levels _ or 1 microgram per cubic meter _ there was an increase in deaths over the next three days of 0.7 per 1 million people over 65, and a jump in emergency room visits among the elderly by 2.7 per 1 million people.
Hidden cost’ of wildfire smoke: Stanford researchers estimate up to 3,000 indirect deaths – — More than two dozen people have died as a direct result of California’s devastating wildfires so far this year. But the actual number of lives lost because of them may have been much higher. Researchers at Stanford University estimate that the pollution from an unprecedented stretch of heavy wildfire smoke is likely to have led to at least 1,200, and up to 3,000, deaths in California between Aug 1. and Sept. 10 that otherwise would not have occurred.They refer to these deaths – among people 65 and older, many of whom had underlying conditions – as “excess deaths.””You could think of it as the hidden cost of air pollution exposure,” said Marshall Burke, an associate professor of earth system science at Stanford whose team estimated the impacts.Burke’s team was interested in the potential health costs, mortality in particular, for the people in California subject to poor air quality for almost a month straight. They used two numbers: one that tracked how bad the air quality was, and another that would estimate the likely health toll of prolonged exposure. For that estimate, they relied on existing literature about air pollution exposure and mortality from detailed Medicare data. Burke said the estimate by his team has not been peer-reviewed, and the actual data on mortality will not be available for several months. Also, he said, it’s not known whether the pandemic could further increase the number of excess deaths, or decrease the estimate, considering that many people were already staying inside to keep safe from the coronavirus.
Trump Administration to Allow Logging in Pristine National Forest –America’s largest national forest, Tongass National Forest in Alaska, will be opened up to logging and road construction after the Trump administration finalizes its plans to open up the forest on Friday, according toThe New York Times.The plans to open up the forest to logging have been in the works for years. In March, the Trump administration faced a setback when a federal judge halted plans to open 1.8 million acres to logging and road building because the administration had failed to evaluate the environmental impact fully, as EcoWatchreported at the time.The roughly 9 million acres that the administration wants to open up now have been protected since the 2001 by the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, or Roadless Rule, which prohibits construction in nationally protected wild areas, according to The Guardian. The U.S Forest Service is expected to release a full environmental impact statement later on Friday, saying that lifting the rule will not damage the 16.7 million-acre temperate rainforest in southeast Alaska. The administration will consequently revoke the Roadless Rule and move forward with plans to lease the land for logging. The drive to open up Tongass National Forest to logging, as well as energy and mineral exploration, started in 2018 when Alaska’s Governor Bill Walker asked the federal government to consider removing protections for the forest. While Alaska’s senators have supported the idea, environmental advocates have criticized it, according to the AP.The U.S. Forest Service evaluated several plans, including more moderate ones that would maintain protections for 80 percent of the forest and another that would have opened up logging and road construction to 2.3 million acres. The Forest Service, however, decided to fully remove the Roadless Rule protections and open 9 million acres to developers and loggers, according to a statement from the Department of Agriculture, as The New York Times reported. “This administration has opted to take the road well traveled by continuing to spend tens of millions of dollars every year to expand logging roads for a dying old-growth timber industry,” said Andy Moderow, a director for the Alaska Wilderness League, in a statement, as The Guardian reported. “This is bad for people, bad for a sustainable economy and bad for wildlife.” Earthjustice, an environmental legal-advocacy group that successfully stopped development in Tongass in March, said it would fight the plan in the courts. Katie Glover, an attorney for Earthjustice, said, “We will use every tool available to continue defending this majestic and irreplaceable national forest,” as the AP reported.
Ocean Heat Waves Are Directly Linked to Climate Change – Six years ago, a huge part of the Pacific Ocean near North America quickly warmed, reaching temperatures more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit above normal. Nicknamed “the blob,” it persisted for two years, with devastating impacts on marine life, including sea lions and salmon.The blob was a marine heat wave, the oceanic equivalent of a deadly summer atmospheric one. It was far from a solitary event: Tens of thousands have occurred in the past four decades, although most are far smaller and last for days rather than years. The largest and longest ones have occurred with increasing frequency over time.On Thursday, scientists revealed the culprit. Climate change, they said, is making severe marine heat waves much more likely.The study, published in the journal Science, looked at the blob and six other large events around the world, including one in the Northwest Atlantic in 2012. Human-caused global warming made these events at least 20 times more likely, the researchers found.”Some of these couldn’t even have occurred without climate change,” said Charlotte Laufkotter, a marine scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland and the lead author of the study.In a world with no human-caused warming, a large marine heat wave would have had about a one-tenth of 1 percent chance of occurring in any given year – what is called a thousand-year event. But with the current rate of global warming, an ocean heat wave like that could soon have as much as a 10 percent chance of occurring, the study found.Dr. Laufkotter said the likelihood of these large events would continue to increase as the world keeps warming. And if emissions of greenhouse gases continue at a high level for decades and average global temperatures reach about 5 degrees above preindustrial levels, some parts of the oceans may be in a continuous state of extreme heat. In effect, the blob may become permanent. Already, a marine heat wave resembling the blob has emerged in the past year off northwestern North America.
Arctic Sea Ice Hit a Scary Milestone – Arctic sea ice shrank to its second lowest level on record, researchers announced on Monday. Sorry. It’s typical for Arctic sea ice to melt in summer and freeze back up in winter. But thanks to a wild-ass, record-breaking heat waves in the Earth’s northernmost regions, this year’s minimum ice extent is anything but normal. The National Snow and Ice Data Center’s data shows that on Sept. 15, Arctic sea ice likely reached its annual minimum extent of 1.44 million square miles (3.74 million square kilometers), ranking behind only September 2012’s minimum, when the lowest level on record was measured at 1.32 million square miles (3.41 million square kilometers). The minimum 969,000 square miles (2.51 million square kilometers) below the 1981 to 2010 average, which NSIDC helpfully notes is roughly equal to Alaska, Texas, and Montana combined. The 10 lowest sea ice extents have occurred in the past 13 years. Ice declined especially quickly between Aug. 31 and Sept. 5, as warm air from the recent heat wave in Siberia-which would have been nearly impossible without the climate crisis-rose into the region. That six-day period marked the fastest rate of ice loss on record, according to NSIDC. This is the second-lowest seen since satellite observation began in 1979. . But other research using record like mud deposits and other proxies for deep past climate show that the stark decline in sea ice is like nothing seen in thousands of years. “Even though 2020’s sea ice minimum didn’t set a record, we shouldn’t think that Arctic conditions have stabilized or even improved,” “This is still a bad ice year, part of a clear trajectory of an ever-warming Arctic with less and less summer ice, until it disappears all together.” This scary news is the latest signal that the climate crisis is fundamentally changing the Arctic, which is the fastest-warming region of our planet.
‘Next year or the year after, the Arctic will be free of ice’ – (interview transcript) Peter Wadhams has spent his career in the Arctic, making more than 50 trips there, some in submarines under the polar ice. He is credited with being one of the first scientists to show that the thick icecap that once covered the Arctic ocean was beginning to thin and shrink. He was director of the Scott Polar Institute in Cambridge from 1987 to 1992 and professor of ocean physics at Cambridge since 2001. His book, A Farewell to Ice, tells the story of his unravelling of this alarming trend and describes what the consequences for our planet will be if Arctic ice continues to disappear at its current rate. Q: You have said on several occasions that summer Arctic sea ice would disappear by the middle of this decade. It hasn’t. Are you being alarmist?
A: No. There is a clear trend down to zero for summer cover. However, each year chance events can give a boost to ice cover or take some away. The overall trend is a very strong downward one, however. Most people expect this year will see a record low in the Arctic’s summer sea-ice cover. Next year or the year after that, I think it will be free of ice in summer and by that I mean the central Arctic will be ice-free. You will be able to cross over the north pole by ship. There will still be about a million square kilometres of ice in the Arctic in summer but it will be packed into various nooks and crannies along the Northwest Passage and along bits of the Canadian coastline. Ice-free means the central basin of the Arctic will be ice-free and I think that that is going to happen in summer 2017 or 2018.
Melting ice sheets will add over 15 inches to global sea level rise by 2100 –If humans continue emitting greenhouse gases at the current pace, global sea levels could rise more than 15 inches (38 centimeters) by 2100, scientists found in a new study. Greenhouse gases emitted by human activity, such as carbon dioxide, contribute significantly to climate change and warming temperatures on planet Earth, studies continue to show. As things heat up, ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica melt. A new study by an international team of more than 60 ice, ocean and atmospheric scientists estimates just how much these melting ice sheets will contribute to global sea levels. “One of the biggest uncertainties when it comes to how much sea level will rise in the future is how much the ice sheets will contribute,” project leader and ice scientist Sophie Nowicki, now at the University at Buffalo and formerly at NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland, said in a statement. “And how much the ice sheets contribute is really dependent on what the climate will do.” The results of this study show that, if human greenhouse gas emissions continue at the pace they’re currently at, Greenland and Antarctica’s melting ice sheets will contribute over 15 inches (28 centimeters) to global sea levels. This new study is part of the Ice Sheet Model Intercomparison Project (ISMIP6), which is led by NASA Goddard.
Humans Destroyed Intact Ecosystem Land the Size of Mexico in Just 13 Years –Between 2000 and 2013, Earth lost an area of undisturbed ecosystems roughly the size of Mexico.That’s the mind-melting finding of a new study published in One Earth Friday, and the researchers say it has “profound implications” for global biodiversity and for humans who rely on natural resources.”We were expecting there to be high levels of intact ecosystem and wilderness loss, but the results were shocking,” lead researcher Brooke Williams of the University of Queensland told The Guardian. “We found substantial area of intact ecosystems had been lost in just 13 years – nearly two million square kilometres – which is terrifying to think about. Our findings show that human pressure is extending ever further into the last ecologically intact and wilderness areas.”In total, the researchers found that 1.9 million square kilometers (approximately 700,000 square miles) of previously intact ecosystem area had been “highly modified” during the study period. They also found that 58.4 percent of Earth’s land ecosystems were under “moderate or intense” pressure from human activity, while only 41.6 percent of ecosystems were intact and 25 percent were true wilderness.The 1.9 million square kilometers lost were mostly tropical and subtropical grasslands in Asia, South America and Africa, according to the Wildlife Conservation Society (WCS), which participated in the research. The rainforests of Southeast Asia also suffered significant human encroachments.To achieve these results, an international team of 17 scientists from six countries used satellite imagery to assess the human footprint on land-based ecosystems and how it had changed between 2000 and 2013, The Guardian explained. The researchers found that human pressure increased on nearly 20 percent of the globe and decreased on only around six percent.” “Humanity keeps on shrinking the amount of land that other species need to survive. In a time of rapid climate change, we need to proactively secure the last intact ecosystems on the planet, as these are critical in the fight to stop extinction and halt climate change.”
Prince Charles calls for a ‘Marshall-like plan’ for the planet – Prince Charles has called for a “Marshall-like plan for nature, people and planet,” adding his voice to the intensifying debate surrounding climate change and its effects on the planet. Speaking Monday on the opening day of Climate Week NYC, the heir apparent to the British throne said: “The borderless climate, biodiversity and health crises are all symptoms of a planet that has been pushed beyond its planetary boundaries.” “Without swift and immediate action, at an unprecedented pace and scale, we will miss the window of opportunity to reset for a green-blue recovery and a more sustainable and inclusive future,” he added, in a speech which was broadcast online. The Prince of Wales, a longstanding advocate for the environment, went on to describe the coronavirus pandemic as a “wake-up call we simply cannot ignore,” and said he had “long observed that people tend not to act until there is a real crisis.” “Ladies and gentlemen, that (environmental) crisis has been with us for far too many years, decried, denigrated and denied,” he claimed. “It is now rapidly becoming a comprehensive catastrophe that will dwarf the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. At this late stage I can see no other way forward but to call for a Marshall-like plan for nature, people and planet.” The Marshall Plan, named for former U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall, saw the U.S. provide billions of dollars in aid to help reconstruct Western Europe after the devastation and destruction of the Second World War. Climate Week NYC, which runs until Sept. 27, is organized by the Climate Group, an international non-profit. Helen Clarkson, the Climate Group’s CEO, described Prince Charles’ speech as “incredibly moving.” “Invoking the Marshall Plan harks back to a very special moment in history, when the U.S. led by example on the biggest issue of the day,” she added. “I hope that decision makers in the U.S. hear that call and take note.” Prince Charles is not the only member of royalty to touch on subjects related to the coronavirus and sustainability this week. In a speech delivered on Monday ahead of a CNBC-moderated panel at the World Economic Forum’s Sustainable Development Impact Summit, King Abdullah II of Jordan noted how the pandemic and its long-term consequences had “exasperated” issues in a range of areas. “The climate crisis, poverty, hunger, unemployment and socioeconomic inequalities have worsened after years of ineffective collective action,” he said. “The way forward must be rooted in a re-globalization that fortifies the building blocks of our international community by enabling our countries to strike a balance between self-reliance and positive interdependence, enabling us all to jointly mount a holistic response to all crises facing our world.”
In SUVs and on planes, richest 1% drive climate-heating emissions (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Prone to frequent flying, a passion for SUVs and big spending, the richest 1% of the world’s population produced twice as many planet-heating emissions as the poorest half of humanity over the last quarter-century, researchers said on Monday.That excessive consumption has left little room in the world’s “carbon budget” for poorer countries to grow without pushing the planet into increasingly dangerous climate impacts, from worsening storms to water shortages, scientists said.And it suggests that keeping global climate change under control will require not just helping poorer countries to develop cleanly, but putting in place tough measures to curb over-consumption by the world’s rich, they said in a new study.Tim Gore, head of climate policy for anti-poverty charity Oxfam and lead author of the report, said change would not come from individuals voluntarily acting alone. “That will never add up. This has to be driven by governments,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. The research, carried out with the Stockholm Environment Institute, found that over the 25 years between 1990 and 2015, the richest 1% of people drove 15% of climate-changing emissions – more than twice the 7% emitted by the poorest half. The richest 10% accounted for 52% of emissions over that period, the study said. The growing popularity of fuel-guzzling SUVs was a particular problem, with the vehicles emerging as the second biggest driver of global growth in carbon emissions between 2010 and 2018, it said. As countries now look to recover from economic downturns linked to the COVID-19 pandemic, which have hit the poor hardest, revamping economic incentives to discourage excessive consumption could play a role, officials said.”Our current economic model has been an enabler of catastrophic climate change and equally catastrophic inequality,” said former United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.The pandemic offers a chance to rethink systems – and “addressing the disproportionate carbon emissions from the wealthiest in society must be a key priority as part of this collective commitment”, he added in a statement.Still, the scale of the emissions cuts needed by the wealthy to hold planetary heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial times – the toughest goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement – is breathtaking. The Oxfam report estimates that the richest 10% of people would have to slash their emissions to about 10 times lower than now to keep the world on track for the goal – and do it by 2030.
World’s richest 1% cause double CO2 emissions of poorest 50%, says Oxfam — The wealthiest 1% of the world’s population were responsible for the emission of more than twice as much carbon dioxide as the poorer half of the world from 1990 to 2015, according to new research. Carbon dioxide emissions rose by 60% over the 25-year period, but the increase in emissions from the richest 1% was three times greater than the increase in emissions from the poorest half. The report, compiled by Oxfam and the Stockholm Environment Institute, warned that rampant overconsumption and the rich world’s addiction to high-carbon transport are exhausting the world’s “carbon budget”. Such a concentration of carbon emissions in the hands of the rich means that despite taking the world to the brink of climate catastrophe, through burning fossil fuels, we have still failed to improve the lives of billions, said Tim Gore, head of policy, advocacy and research at Oxfam International. “The global carbon budget has been squandered to expand the consumption of the already rich, rather than to improve humanity,” he told the Guardian. “A finite amount of carbon can be added to the atmosphere if we want to avoid the worst impacts of the climate crisis. We need to ensure that carbon is used for the best.” The richest 10% of the global population, comprising about 630 million people, were responsible for about 52% of global emissions over the 25-year period, the study showed. Globally, the richest 10% are those with incomes above about $35,000 (Pound Sterling27,000) a year, and the richest 1% are people earning more than about $100,000. If left unchecked, in the next decade the carbon emissions of the world’s richest 10% would be enough to raise levels above the point likely to increase temperatures by 1.5C, even if the whole of the rest of the world cut their emissions to zero immediately, according to Monday’s report. He pointed to transport as one of the key drivers of growth in emissions, with people in rich countries showing an increasing tendency to drive high-emitting cars, such as SUVs, and take more flights. Oxfam wants more taxes on high-carbon luxuries, such as a frequent-flyer levy, to funnel investment into low-carbon alternatives and improving the lot of the poor. “This isn’t about people who have one family holiday a year, but people who are taking long-haul flights every month – it’s a fairly small group of people,” said Gore.
World’s Richest One Percent Are Producing More Than Double the Carbon Emissions as the Bottom 50 Percent – A new report from Oxfam found that the wealthiest one percent of the world produced a carbon footprint that was more than double that of the bottom 50 percent of the world, The Guardian reported. The study examined 25 years of carbon dioxide emissions and wealth inequality from 1990 to 2015. The findings, Confronting Carbon Inequality: Putting climate justice at the heart of the COVID-19 recovery, reveal how current economic systems have created extreme carbon inequity and brought the planet to the brink of ecological collapse. It also provides a roadmap for governments around the world to create fairer, more sustainable economies. The brief found that the roughly 630 million people who make up the world’s wealthiest 10 percent were responsible for 52 percent of the world’s carbons emissions from 1990-2015. They alone depleted the world’s “carbon budget” by 31 percent. Carbon budgets define the total amount of carbon emissions allowed within a set period. By contrast, the world’s poorest 50 percent, consisting of nearly 3.1 billion people, were responsible for just seven percent of global emissions and four percent of the available carbon budget. The analysis further examined how wealth correlates to carbon emissions. It found that the richest one percent, about 63 million people, were responsible for 15 percent of carbon emissions. The wealthiest five percent were responsible for more than a third of carbon emissions growth over the 25-year time frame. The growth emissions from the top one percent amounted to three times the growth in emissions compared to the bottom 50 percent. Reuters reported that consumption from the world’s wealthiest people had depleted the carbon budget to the point where there isn’t much room for poorer countries to grow without worsening the climate crisis. The report noted that if emissions continue to go unchecked, the wealthy will use up the world’s available carbon budget by 2030, even if the rest of the world slashed its emissions to zero today.
The ‘new normal’ has been postponed (and probably canceled) – There remains a hope that once we get past the economic and social effects of the pandemic, all of us will be able to return to something resembling normal life before the pandemic-even if it is a “new normal” marked by heightened vigilance and protection against infectious disease and more work at home for office workers as companies realize they don’t need to maintain as much expensive office space. But the date for this recovery to a new normal seems to keep getting postponed. The International Air Transport Association now projects a full recovery in international passenger traffic will take until 2024, a year later than the association projected back in April. The hotel industry will get a bit of a jump on the airline industry with a projected recovery by 2023. Retailers of all kinds continue to suffer as closures abound throughout the United States. And, anyone who relies on commuter foot traffic for sales is hurting. Meanwhile, the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank just signaled that in the wake of such a sluggish economy it will keep short-term interest rates near zero until 2023. One commentator provided a list of hobbies that Fed board members could take up to fill their time between now and then. Outside the bubble we call modern life, another set of momentous changes is taking place before our eyes that the Federal Reserve and the political and economic establishment can’t control. Smoke from vast wildfires in the western United States has blocked out the midday Sun in major cities. It’s not just the United States, however. The world’s largest tropical wetland located mostly in Brazil has been burning this year. Fires have consumed 12,000 square kilometers so far. A heat wave in a land practically synonymous with cold, Siberia, has resulted in previously frozen tundra catching fire. Scientists expect things to get worse in the coming years. Meanwhile, fierce hurricanes have pummeled the American coastline this year. So many storms are forming in the Atlantic this year that the U.S. National Hurricane Center ran out of names reserved for the storms and has resorted to using the Greek alphabet to name the overage. In August California’s Death Valley hit 130 degrees F, believed to be the highest credible measurement of air temperature on Earth ever. If we are planning for the “new normal,” this is will be part of it. All of this we humans have had a hand in making through our neglect of climate change. We thought it was a far-off problem that could wait for a response. Actually, what appears to be ahead for human society and planet Earth is not a new normal, by which I mean a new, stable pattern of events both social and natural. Rather, what appears to be ahead is almost continuous disruption in the natural world that will affect the stability of our social, political and economic world.
Climate to reduce GDP by 1 percent in 2050: government analysis – U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) will be 1 percent smaller than it would have been otherwise in 2050 because of climate change, according to a new projection from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO). CBO predicted that between 2020 and 2050, climate change will, on average, reduce GDP growth by 0.03 percentage points each year, culminating in the ultimate 1 percent decrease as of 2050. The projection was calculated using data from 1995 to 2019. Researchers used both the overall historical trends between the changing climate and GDP output and also how specific events like high temperatures and hurricanes might cause specific results like property damage. GDP is a calculation of all goods and services produced in a country and is used as a measure of economic activity. The CBO says that its finding averages several climate scenarios to make its determination. There have been other studies saying that climate change’s impact could be greater than 1 percent over the same period, with a study from last year saying that climate change could shrink GDP by nearly 4 percent by 2050. A study last year found that the U.S. could see a GDP decrease of up to 10.5 percent by 2100, and earlier this month, a report from a Wall Street regulator said that climate change was likely to cause economic instability. Kate Ricke, a professor of climate, atmospheric science and physical oceanography at the University of California San Diego said that while it was likely to leave out factors that both increase and decrease GDP, she believes the CBO findings are likely an underestimate. “My judgment is that on average it’s probably an underestimate, but there are effects that go both ways,” she said, adding that the findings leaves out things like the cost of short-term adaptation, biodiversity loss, ocean acidification, long-term adaptation and impacts on other parts of the economy like trade. Ricke also said that the projection was limited because it can’t calculate how the impacts of climate change will change after 2019. “The real power of studies that employ this methodology is that it’s empirically based, so it’s tied to real-world evidence. These relationships are calibrated based on data for how GDP has changed in the past in response to variation year-to-year in temperature…but the problem is that basically any source of large changes to large-scale conditions that aren’t reflected in…the past, the model can’t capture,” she said. The CBO’s working paper acknowledged that its conclusion isn’t absolutely certain, especially given potential changes in how climate affects economic growth and uncertainties about how much damage from climate-related events may persist.
‘Adults are asleep at the wheel’ in climate crisis, says Varshini Prakash, co-founder of the Sunrise Movement – Washington Post- Varshini Prakash, 27, is co-founder of the Sunrise Movement, a youth-led political organization fighting to stop climate change. She is co-editor of the book “Winning the Green New Deal: Why We Must, How We Can,” which was released in August. Sunrise is a youth movement. Do you think the reason other generations haven’t embraced climate issues with the same urgency is a question of skin in the game, the fact that your generation is going to bear the brunt of climate issues? It’s a good question. We work with a lot of organizations not solely focused on young people, who are really concerned about the climate crisis. But I think for young people, it’s in our bones. We always kind of had this fear of this looming crisis. One of the experiences that defined my childhood was hearing about Hurricane Katrina. I was 12. You know, seeing these images of people on their roof, hearing about bodies just floating downstream. And the government doing nothing to support those communities. I was probably at the tail end of the generation that hoped that people more powerful and older than us would do what was necessary to stop it. [Laughs.] And when we got to be teenagers and 20-somethings, it became abundantly clear: The adults are asleep at the wheel. Our politicians weren’t doing what was necessary. And if young people didn’t force the conversation, it was never going to happen.
Student Climate Protesters Urge Their Universities to Go Carbon Neutral – Carbon neutrality commitments typically require schools to dramatically cut their carbon emissions by reimagining how they run their campuses – everything from the electricity they purchase to the air travel they fund. Colleges across the country, from the University of San Francisco to American University in Washington DC have already attained carbon neutrality. Other academic institutions, including the University of California system, have taken steps to fully divest from fossil fuels.But as young activists like Daas urge their universities to do their part to avert climate disaster, many are frustrated by tepid responses from administrators whom they feel lack their same sense of urgency and drive. Appalachian State, part of the University of North Carolina system, has committed to reaching net-zero emissions decades down the line, but Daas and her fellow activists fear that’s far too late. She’s baffled that an institution devoted to higher learning is seemingly ignoring the science around the climate emergency.”If our voices don’t matter, can you please stop telling us that they do?” Daas says.College activists concerned about the climate crisis have largely focused their efforts on two popular movements that go hand-in-hand: reaching carbon neutrality, and divesting university endowments. Broadly, the term “net carbon neutrality” means that a campus zeroes out all of its carbon emissions, says Timothy Carter, president of Second Nature, a nonprofit focused on climate action in higher education. This can be achieved through modifying campus operations, often with the help of alternatives, such as renewable energy certificates and voluntary carbon offsets (activities that atone for other emissions). In Second Nature’s definition, investment holdings don’t factor in a school’s carbon footprint. Carbon neutrality often falls within a wider umbrella of climate neutrality, which also incorporates justice and other concerns. Divestment campaigns, meanwhile, pressure universities to shed investments in fossil fuels in their endowments. “We cannot truly be climate neutral if we continue to invest in a fossil fuel industry,” says Nadia Sheppard, chair of the Climate Reality Project campus corps chapter at North Carolina State University, where oil, gas and consumable, nonrenewable fuels account for around $43m in university investments.
Facebook Suspends More Than 200 Environmental and Indigenous Groups – Facebook suspended more than 200 accounts belonging to environmental and Indigenous groups Saturday, casting doubt on the company’s stated commitments to addressing the climate crisis. The suspensions came days after Facebook launched a Climate Science Information Center to correct widely-shared posts that spread disinformation about climate change, The Guardian pointed out. The same week, Facebook also pledged to achieve carbon neutrality by 2030. But the activist groups expressed doubt about Facebook’s priorities, saying they were locked out of their accounts days before a planned protest against a fossil fuel company building a pipeline through Indigenous land. “Actions speak louder than words and once again Facebook has taken actions that are in stark contrast to public statements from the company,” senior corporate campaigner at Greenpeace USA Elizabeth Jardim told The Guardian. “The recent bans targeting people fighting to save their communities from climate change and the continued exploitation of fossil fuel companies show us that when push comes to shove, Facebook will side with polluters at the cost of their users’ trying to organize.”Greenpeace USA reported it was one of the suspended groups, along with others including Rainforest Action Network, Presente.org and Wet’suwet’en Access Point on Gidimt’en Territory. The groups were all co-hosts of an event in May targeting the company KKR & Co. Inc., which is the new majority funder of the Coastal GasLink natural gas pipeline that the Wet’suwet’en community is fighting to keep off its unceded land in British Columbia. Another online protest against the company had been scheduled for Monday.The accounts were told they were being suspended for three days for “copyright infringement,” Greenpeace said.”The timing was more than suspect,” Delee Nikal, a Wet’suwet’en activist from the Gidimt’en clan, toldCanada’s National Observer. “We would like to have transparency in this situation.” Facebook, meanwhile, claimed the accounts were suspended by accident and had since been reinstated. “Our systems mistakenly removed these accounts and content,” a company spokesperson told the National Observer. The company did not provide any more information about how or why the mistake was made. Most of the accounts were able to post Monday night, but some are still locked out, Greenpeace’s Valentina Stackl said.
Newly formed West Virginia environmental group presents climate report – West Virginia environmental leaders have formed a group with the intent to promote public education on climate change. The West Virginia Climate Alliance held one of its first public events Monday with a press conference releasing a new 16-page report titled A Citizen’s Guide to Climate Change. “It’s really important for West Virginians to understand what the causes are of climate change, what are some of the impacts and more importantly, what are the various options that are there so we can have an informed discussions about how to proceed to reduce greenhouse gas admissions,” Perry Bryant, the moderator of the virtual event said on MetroNews ‘Talkline.’ According to the Sierra Club, the Guide, written by West Virginians for West Virginians, is an effort to educate the public on the causes of climate change and provide solutions that center around environmental justice and just transition to clean energy for impacted workers and frontline communities. Bryant said the group let the readers decide what to think and feel. “We didn’t say ‘we ought to have a green new deal or we ought to have cap and trade or a carbon fee and dividend.’ We layout exactly what those proposals do. We let the reader decide what fits his or her philosophy best,” he said on ‘Talkline.’ Bryant added on ‘Talkline’ there need to be two provisions in any proposal to address climate change. Those include environmental justice to make sure that low-income communities and people of color are not adversely affected and a transition to not leave coal miners and coal communities behind with the transition. Angie Rosser, Executive Director of West Virginia Rivers Coalition, echoed Bryant’s comments in West Virginia transitioning in the effort on ‘Talkline.’ She was one of the participates at the presser Monday. “The truth of the matter is the science is driving us to make changes. Addressing climate change is complex to begin with when you are talking about that in a historically fossil fuel-producing state, it gets even more complex,” Rosser said. Other participants included Gary Zuckett, Executive Director of West Virginia Citizen Action Education Fund, Pam Nixon with the NAACP Charleston branch, Jim Probst, the State Coordinator for Citizens’ Climate Lobby, Jim Kotcon the Chair of the Conservation Committee for the WV Chapter of Sierra Club, Leah Barbor of Moms Clean Air Force West Virginia Chapter, and Robin Blakeman, the Project Coordinator of Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition.
Walmart Aims to End Emissions From Global Operations by 2040 – Walmart Inc. said it’s targeting zero emissions from its global operations by 2040, a small fraction of its total, in the latest climate-focused step amid heightened calls from investors and activists to reduce carbon footprints. The world’s biggest retailer also plans to secure enough wind, solar and other renewable energy sources to power its facilities with 100% green power by 2035, it said in a statement Monday. It had previously said that it aims to secure half of its power from renewable sources by 2025. Walmart is committing to cutting emissions from it own operations, known as Scope 1 and 2. Though not an easy task, the target will zero out merely 5% of its total emissions. The retailing giant has put in some efforts through so-called Project Gigaton to address Scope 3 emissions, which are generated by its suppliers and customers, but the company has yet to set a net-zero target across all scopes. The company also said Monday it aims to electrify and eliminate emissions from all of its vehicles, including long-haul trucks, by 2040. As well, it plans to manage or restore at least 50 million acres of land and one million square miles of ocean by 2030, and transition to low-impact refrigerants for cooling and electrified equipment for heating in its stores, clubs, and data and distribution centers by 2040.
Wolf vetoes bill that would keep Pennsylvania out of RGGI | StateImpact Pennsylvania – Gov. Tom Wolf is rejecting a measure that would require the legislature’s approval to join a regional effort to cut greenhouse gas emissions.Wolf vetoed House Bill 2025 Thursday. In a statement, he called the bill “extremely harmful to public health and welfare.” He said letting it become law would “effectively deny that climate change is an urgent problem that demands prudent solutions.”The bill would have essentially stopped Pennsylvania’s entrance into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-trade program among 10 northeastern states that targets carbon dioxide emissions from the power sector.Lawmakers claimed it was really about who has the power to make the decision to join the program, not on whether Pennsylvania should. “It is unfortunate that the governor is once again standing in the way of the people’s voice exercising a check on his continued attempts to turn the Governor’s office into a one-person legislature,” House GOP spokesman Jason Gottesman said in a statement Thursday.Sen. Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming), who chairs the Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, said he is dismayed that Wolf would “propose to go forward with an agreement clearly detrimental to Pennsylvania’s interests.”The bill passed the House 130-71 and the Senate 33-17, a few votes shy of a veto-proof majority, which requires 135 votes in the House and 34 in the Senate.Republican lawmakers who control the General Assembly say RGGI will be bad for the state’s economy and decimate Pennsylvania’s coal industry. Gottesman’s statement accused Wolf of holding up energy development in the Commonwealth.The governor signed an executive order last October directing the Department of Environmental Protection to join RGGI through the regulatory process. Last week, the Environmental Quality Board approved the draft regulation for public comment. RGGI sets a limit on carbon emissions from power plants, which must purchase a credit for each ton of carbon dioxide they emit.
12 major cities pledge fossil fuel divestment | Utility Dive – The mayors of 12 major cities around the globe have pledged to divest from fossil fuel companies in an effort to further support a green and sustainable COVID-19 recovery. The C40 Cities-backed declaration, unveiled at a virtual Climate Week NYC event on Tuesday, calls on signatories to commit to divesting all city assets and pension funds from fossil fuel companies; increasing financial investments in climate solutions; and advocating for fossil-free finance from other investors. The signatories include the mayors of Los Angeles, New Orleans, New York and Pittsburgh, along with the leaders of eight international cities including London and Oslo. Details of individual divestment amounts and timelines were not shared. Following this commitment, cities must navigate their specific divestment processes and structures in proposing next steps to pension boards.
New York directs insurers to disclose climate risks for first time – A key New York regulator Tuesday ordered insurers to take a harder look at how climate change will affect their operations and begin developing plans to disclose the related financial risks. New York Superintendent of Financial Services Linda Lacewell outlined her department’s expectations in a letter to all domestic and foreign insurers operating in the state. She said the firms should “start integrating the consideration of the financial risks from climate change into their governance frameworks, risk management processes and business strategies.” The agency said insurers should develop an approach to climate-related financial disclosure and consider working with the Task Force for Climate-related Financial Disclosures, which reports to G-20 leaders and is chaired by former New York Mayor Mike Bloomberg. The move is the latest signal that regulators around the world are ramping up efforts to police financial firms for climate risks. The New York Department of Financial Services is addressing the issue as part of an international coalition of central banks and regulators known as the Network for Greening the Financial System. “Mitigating the financial risks from climate change is a critical component of creating a stronger industry and a healthier and safer world for ourselves, our families, and future generations,” Lacewell wrote. “There is no more time to wait.”
Opinion: Astoria power plant proposal undermines NYC’s resiliency goals – Queens Daily Eagle Every thick governmental report and violent natural event right out of a 1970s disaster movie screams that we have to do more than say “Climate Change is real.” We’ve yelled as much at everyone from ConEdison executives to the former New Yorker unfortunately occupying the White House. It’s abundantly clear we need shovel-ready projects to make our air cleaner and our shores safer. So it makes no sense that we stand idly by while an energy company seeks to build a new fossil fuel plant in Astoria. Which is why New York State must reject NRG’s application for a new natural gas-fired power plant on the western Queens waterfront. This project flies in the face of every historic commitment we’ve made to renewable energy, environmental justice and clean air. It also puts more dirty infrastructure on a beleaguered waterfront we should be reinforcing – not wearing down. It’s been well established that this plant will only continue the environmental injustice that’s dominated western Queens for too long. Astoria generates more than half the city’s power, but all residents have gotten in return is higher asthma rates. Many of the neighborhood’s power plants were built on false promises, having now outstayed their welcome. Still, they must fight for their right to breathe.
Corporate America Is Irrationally Enthusiastic About Carbon Capture – Between 2010 and 2018, the Department of Energy poured $5 billion worth of research and development funding into carbon-capturing technologies, which aim to extract the greenhouse gas from power plants and other industrial activities, limiting the extent to which they warm the planet. In 2018, Congress also passed a generous tax break known as 45Q, encouraging companies to partake. This summer, however, the only coal-fired power plant capturing a meaningful amount of carbon in the United States-the country’s main showcase for that technology-unceremoniously closed down following months of inactivity. It’ll be “mothballed” (switched off) until market conditions improve.Carbon capture and storage, or CCS, has, at best, a patchy track record. But it’s wildly popular in the fossil fuel industry as a potential fix for the fundamental unsustainability of its business model. This past week has been a big one for carbon capture boosterism. One bipartisan amendmentin H.R. 4447-the massive energy bill being debated in the House of Representatives this week-will give companies another 10 years to collect an existing tax credit for carbon capturing and storing carbon. Areport out this week from the Global CCS Institute and Columbia University’s Center on Energy Policy argues that boosting government support for CCS will be key to making the technology viable. It recommends additional tax breaks, grants, and R&D funding. The Global CCS Institute, to note, was started with funding from the traditionally coal-friendly Australian government, and its paying membership includes several national governments as well as most of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, among them ExxonMobil and Occidental Petroleum. Columbia’s Center on Global Energy Policy has receivedmillions of dollars’ worth of donations from fossil fuel companies in recent years, including Cheniere Energy, BP, and ConocoPhillips. ExxonMobil, incidentally, announced on Tuesday that it’ll be expandingits carbon capture partnership with the company Global Thermostat. Carbon capture-which is an umbrella term for many different technologies-can broadly be divided into two categories: carbon captured directly from the air, and carbon captured from power plants and industrial processes. In theory, the carbon can simply be sequestered in rock formations. Often, though, that captured carbon is transported via pipeline to be injected into oil wells in order to dig up more fossil fuels, in a process known as enhanced oil recovery. Direct air capture uses contraptions that look like air conditioners to draw carbon down from the air, usually funneling it into novel uses like carbonating soft drinks.
NOAA pick is critic of Weather Service, dire climate forecasts – The Washington Post – The White House has tapped Ryan Maue, a meteorologist who has challenged connections between extreme weather and climate change, to serve as the new chief scientist at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Two NOAA officials, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak about the personnel move, confirmed the appointment is in progress. The position, pushed forward by the White House pending completion of ethics and security reviews and not requiring Senate confirmation, would put Maue in a leadership position within the agency. As chief scientist, Maue would be tasked with helping establish its oceans and atmosphere research priorities, as well as playing a role in enforcing its scientific integrity policy. The White House and NOAA declined to comment, and the Commerce Department, which oversees the NOAA, did not respond to a request for comment. The NOAA scientific integrity policy is meant to prevent political influence from interfering with its scientific work, as well as the communication of NOAA scientists’ findings. The current acting chief scientist, Craig McLean, initiated an investigation into actions by NOAA leadership during the controversy surrounding the agency’s support for President Trump’s inaccurate claims regarding the path of Hurricane Dorian.Maue serves as the developer of weathermodels.com, a site that displays computer model information using eye-catching graphics to make their simulations accessible to professionals and hobbyists. He was previously an adjunct scholar with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank that was involved in efforts to question the scientific consensus on human-induced climate change.Along with Patrick Michaels, a well-known climate change contrarian, Maue penned a 2018 op-ed in the Wall Street Journal challenging the climate change projections made in 1988 by noted former NASA scientist James Hansen, which other researchers, backed up by peer-reviewed studies, have found were prescient.
Trump’s energy secretary questions mainstream science on human impacts of climate change — On a tour through Western Pennsylvania Monday, the Trump administration’s top energy official questioned the mainstream scientific consensus that humans are causing climate change. Department of Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette made the remarks at a news conference touting Pennsylvania’s natural gas and petrochemical industry. When asked how the Trump administration would fight climate change, Brouillette said: “We have a lot to learn about what causes changes in the climate, and we’re not there yet.” When asked to clarify whether he believed the scientific consensus that human-caused carbon emissions are fueling hotter temperatures, he said: “No one knows that.” When told by a reporter that scientists say humans are causing climate change, he said: covering climate now “Scientists say a lot of things. I have scientists inside of the Department of Energy that say a lot of things. Look, the bottom line is we live here, so we must have some impact. The question is, what is the exact impact that we’re having? And that’s the question that has not been resolved.” Brouillette’s trip included a tour of a chemical plant Shell is building west of Pittsburgh that will turn the region’s natural gas into plastic. “We know a lot about carbon, we know a lot about carbon’s impact on various components of the environment. What we do not know is the exact impact that we’re having,” he said.
House passes sweeping clean energy bill | TheHill The House on Thursday passed a broad bill that aims to boost energy efficiency and renewable energy sources as part of an attempt to combat climate change. The chamber approved the 900-page Clean Energy and Jobs Innovation Act in a 220-185 vote. The legislation would create research and development programs for solar, wind, advanced geothermal energy and hydroelectric power as well as lessening pollution from fossil fuel production. It would also establish more rigorous building codes and bolster energy efficiency requirements and weatherization programs. The bill moved rapidly through the House. It was first introduced last week and did not go through any legislative hearings.A similar energy innovation package that was introduced in the Senate earlier this year has recently been reenergized after legislators came to an agreement on an amendment seeking to phase down the use of a type of greenhouse gas. A senior House Democratic aide told The Hill that if the Senate passes its own bill, the chambers can go to conference to resolve their disagreements. The aide said that House Democrats urge Republicans to take some action on clean energy, either moving by their own bill or taking up the House bill. Speaking in favor of the House legislation, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) praised it as one step in the fight to tackle climate change. “It takes actions that scientists, researchers and experts tell us is needed by launching the research and development needed to unleash a clean energy revolution and reduce pollution in our communities, making a bold down payment for future climate action by modernizing America’s energy innovation infrastructure,” she said. The top Republicans on the Natural Resources, Energy and Commerce and Transportation and Infrastructure Committees released a joint statement criticizing the legislation this week. “Here we are in the middle of a global pandemic and Speaker Pelosi wants to spend more than $135 billion on a piece of legislation that will never become law,” said Reps. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Greg Walden (R-Ore.), and Frank Lucas (R-Okla.). “This bill is chock-full of government mandates that would raise what Americans pay for everything from the vehicles they drive to what they pay to heat, cool, and power their homes.” It comes as House Democrats have already proposed other major energyand climate change bills that have yet to receive a vote.
House Approves Sweeping Clean Energy Bill – The House of Representatives passed a sweeping bill to boost clean energy while phasing out the use of coolants in air conditioners and refrigerators that are known pollutants and contribute to the climate crisis, as the AP reported. The 900-page Clean Energy and Jobs Innovation Act passed the House in a 220-185 vote. The bill, if it were approved by the Senate and signed by the president, would increase the energy efficiency standards for building and boost research and investment in the development of solar, wind, geothermal and hydroelectric power, according to The Hill. The Clean Energy and Jobs Innovation Act was crafted after negotiations with the Senate. It is full of agreed upon, “practical and achievable clean energy policies that are possible for us to achieve this year,” said Frank Pallone, Democrat from New Jersey and chair of the Energy and Commerce Committee, as Utility Drive reported. Pallone added that the bill would “modernize our energy system, create jobs and take positive steps towards addressing the climate crisis,” as the AP reported. He called it “one of the most impactful steps we can take now to create manufacturing jobs and boost our competitiveness, all while protecting our environment.” The effort to pass the bill, however, may have been in vain. Earlier in the week, The White House said the president’s advisors would suggest he veto the bill. “With the news of Justice Ginsburg’s passing, I cannot even venture a guess of how the next few weeks and months may play out,” said Rep. Paul Tonko, a Democrat from New York in speaking to a National Clean Energy Week symposium, according to Utility Drive. And yet, some in Congress were somewhat hopeful that the bill had a chance of becoming law. The Hill reported that a House Democratic aide believed that if the Senate passes their similar bill, then the respective committees can work together to settle the small discrepancies between the two bills. The bills that are in the House and the Senate are modest in their ambition, which House Democrats acknowledged. “I want to give a clear-eyed assessment: This bill is not going to stop climate change,” said Tonko, as the AP reported. “But it is a good opportunity to make good and sometimes necessary changes to programs, which might make it easier to do a bigger, more ambitious bill in the near future.” The National Resource Defense Council (NRDC), an advocacy group, examined the bill and praised it in a blog post as “a needed step forward to ensure future climate action will be built from a solid foundation.” It added that this bill is unique from past legislation because it “has opened the door for better ideas on how to spur progress in clean energy innovation.” And yet, the NRDC noted that the funding for clean energy fell behind the money spent for fossil fuels and nuclear energy. “This bill is very promising but it’s obvious that it won’t provide the transformative change we need to win the fight against climate change and protect our environment,” the NRDC wrote.
SK Innovation accelerates hiring at its first US-based EV battery site in Georgia – Green Car Congress With the support of the State of Georgia, Jackson County and City of Commerce, SK Innovation plans to hire more than 1,000 skilled workers by the end of 2021 as it prepares for initial production at the first of two electric vehicle battery plants being built in Commerce, about 70 miles northeast of Atlanta.In one of the largest economic projects in Georgia’s history, SK Innovation affirmed its long-range investment plans for the facility that would make Georgia one of the largest hubs of EV battery manufacturing in the world.SK Innovation recently reached a hiring milestone with the on-boarding of its first 60 employees at the Commerce site. These employees include production supervisors, production/process/electrical engineers and quality/logistics specialists who will set up, work and serve as the trainers for the EV battery production workforce at the two SK Battery America plants under construction at the site.SK Innovation also recently achieved key construction milestones at the Georgia site with the completion of the exterior of its first manufacturing plant and ground-breaking on the second plant. Together, the two SK Battery America plants will have capacity to make enough battery cells each year to power the equivalent of more than 300,000 electric vehicles. SK Innovation, South Korea’s largest energy company, is building two EV battery plants at the Georgia site as part of a $2.6-billion investment in its US battery business that will directly create more than 2,600 permanent jobs in the Jackson County area by 2024. The first SK Battery America plant is scheduled to begin initial operations in 2021 with mass production in 2022. A second plant at the same site is expected to begin mass production in 2023. As the market for electric vehicles continues to grow, SK Innovation is committed to making Georgia a world leader in EV battery manufacturing.
California Governor Signs Order to Ban Sale of New Gas-Powered Cars by 2035 – California Governor Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Wednesday that would ban the sale of new cars in California that run only on gasoline by the year 2035. The bid to reduce emissions and combat the climate crisis would make California the first state to ban the sale of new cars with internal combustion engines, according to POLITICO. “This is the most impactful step our state can take to fight climate change,” said Newsom in a statement that accompanied the signing of the executive order. “For too many decades, we have allowed cars to pollute the air that our children and families breathe. Californians shouldn’t have to worry if our cars are giving our kids asthma. Our cars shouldn’t make wildfires worse – and create more days filled with smoky air. Cars shouldn’t melt glaciers or raise sea levels threatening our cherished beaches and coastlines.” The threats posed by the climate crisis are playing out in dramatic fashion in California. This summer, the state has seen record-setting wildfires, heat waves and drought. Those mounting climate crisis-related challenges have spurred the move away from the state’s leading source of greenhouse gas emissions, as The Washington Post reported. “We can’t continue down this path,” Newsom said at a briefing, as The Guardian reported. “If you care about your kids and your grandkids, if you care about disadvantaged communities, if you care about seniors, if you care about rural communities, if you care about inner city communities that have been underserved by our fossil fuel economy, then you care about the core construct that we are advancing here in this executive order.” Newsom added that the order will create “green collar jobs” that Californians are well-positioned to capitalize on since 34 electric car manufacturers are already in the state.
California’s EV rush – California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed anexecutive order Wednesday setting a goal to ban the sale of new gas vehicles within 15 years, POLITICO’s Colby Bermel, Carla Marinucci and Alex Guillen report. “We are setting a new marker,” Newsom said at a press conference. Under the order, the California Air Resources Board will be tasked with writing the vehicle rules, which the Newsom administration says will slash greenhouse gas and nitrogen oxide emissions. Other agencies will be directed to support the development of zero-emission vehicle charging stations, and medium- and heavy-duty trucks will be mandated to be zero-emission by 2045 where feasible. The ban is likely to face opposition from automakers and Republican leaders in Washington, who have already battled the state over its stricter fuel economy rules. Dan Becker, director of the Safe Climate Transport Campaign at the Center for Biological Diversity, said it appears California would need EPA approval to end sales of internal combustion engine cars. California has almost always been granted Clean Air Act waivers to more stringently control tailpipe pollution – but the Trump administration last year revoked its permission for California to regulate greenhouse gases from cars, casting doubt on whether it would approve this new measure as well should the president be re-elected. “Under ordinary circumstances they would get it,” Becker said. “If Trump were re-elected, maybe not.”
California’s Ban on New Gas Cars Further Upends Auto Industry – WSJ – California’s decision to ban sales of new conventional vehicles starting in 2035 shows how regulators’ aggressive emission targets are forcibly reshaping an industry that is struggling to keep its customers on board. Tighter rules from Europe to the U.S. are accelerating manufacturers’ efforts to shrink their carbon footprint, even as they fight to come back from a pandemic slump. Those rules are also drawing investors toward new electric-vehicle startups hoping to replicate the success of Tesla Inc. Volvo Cars, the Swedish auto maker owned by China’s Zhejiang Geely Holding Group, said Thursday that it was preparing to launch a green bond to fund its electric-vehicle program. The news follows similar issues by Volkswagen and Daimler, which have both sought to tap into growing investor appetite for clean mobility. California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement this week that his state will ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel vehicles, effective in 2035, is just the latest sign that the days of the internal combustion engine might be numbered. Last week, the European Union signaled that it would tighten its carbon-dioxide car-emission targets for the next decade. The EU’s cap of 95 grams per kilometer on carbon-dioxide emissions takes full effect next year. Slashing that target to 47.5 g/km in 2030, as the EU is now considering, would require fully electric vehicles to account for more than 60% of new-car sales in Europe-up from about 4% now. China has also been moving quickly through regulation to suppress greenhouse-gas emissions from cars, while developing markets for electric vehicles. For years, Beijing has offered subsidies and tax breaks for consumers to buy electric vehicles, capped new conventional-vehicle registrations, and nurtured a homegrown electric-car and battery industry that is challenging Western manufacturers.
California Wants Cars to Run on Electricity. It’s Going to Need a Much Bigger Grid – WSJ –California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed an executive order Wednesday to end the sale of new gas-burning cars in his state in 15 years.Now comes the hard part.Energy consultants and academics say converting all passenger cars and trucks to run on electricity in California could raise power demand by as much as 25%. That poses a major challenge for a state already facing periodic rolling blackouts as it rapidly transitions to renewable energy.California will need to boost power generation, scale up its network of fast charging stations, enhance its electric grid to handle the added load and hope that battery technology continues to improve enough that millions in America’s most populous state can handle long freeway commutes to schools and offices without problems.”We’ve got 15 years to do the work,” said Pedro Pizarro, chief executive of Edison International, owner of Southern California Edison, a utility serving 15 million people in the state. “Frankly the state agencies are going to have to do their part. We’ve got to get to the permitting processes, the approvals; all of that work is going to have to get accelerated to meet [Wednesday’s] target.” Switching from petroleum fuels to electricity to phase out the internal combustion engine won’t happen all at once-Mr. Newsom’s order applies to sales of new vehicles, so older gas-powered cars will be on the road in California for many years to come. But the mandate means the state will face a growing demand for megawatts. California is already facing a shortfall of power supplies over the next couple of years. The problem was highlighted last month when a heat wave blanketed the western U.S. and the state’s grid operator instituted rolling blackouts on two occasions. “It is too early to tell what kind of impact the order will have on our power grid, and we don’t have any specific analysis or projections,” Currently, California faces a crunchtime in the early evening as solar power falls off and demand to power air conditioners remains relatively high. Car charging presents a new potential issue: What happens when too many drivers want a high-energy, fast charge at the same time?
Tesla’s Nevada lithium plan faces stark obstacles on path to production (Reuters) – Tesla Inc’s TSLA.O plan to produce lithium for electric vehicle batteries close to its Nevada Gigafactory faces stark challenges from the outset, including an onerous permitting process, uncertain access to water and questions about unproven methodologies. Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told shareholders on Tuesday Tesla has secured rights to 10,000 acres in Nevada where it aims to produce lithium from clay deposits using a process developed internally. The move would make Tesla the first company in the world to commercially produce the white metal from clay. Lithium is produced either from brine, commonly found in South America, or spodumene hard rock, usually in Australia. In Nevada, Tesla plans to mix clay with table salt and then add water, which it says causes a reaction where the salt would leach out with lithium, which can then be extracted. The leftover clay would be put back in the earth to mitigate environmental damage. “It’s a very sustainable way of obtaining lithium,” said Musk, who did not say where in Nevada the company had obtained the lithium rights or whether development has started. The plan drew backlash almost immediately, with critics describing Musk’s plan as too simplistic and light on details. Returning rock to the earth after minerals are extracted, for instance, is already common industry practice through the use of tailings dams. “This plan from Tesla brings up a lot more questions than it answers,” said Chris Berry, an independent lithium industry consultant. “Are we just supposed to take Elon Musk’s word for it that the cost will be lower than existing lithium projects?” Palo Alto, Calif.-based Tesla did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Nevada already has several lithium clay projects under development, including one from Lithium Americas Corp LAC.TO that has been seeking federal permit approval for more than a decade and another from ioneer Ltd INR.AX.
Hydrogen-powered passenger plane completes maiden flight in ‘world first’ – A hydrogen fuel-cell plane that’s capable of carrying passengers completed its maiden flight this week, in another step forward for low and zero-emission flight. ZeroAvia’s six-seater Piper M-class aircraft – which has been retrofitted with the device that combines hydrogen and oxygen to produce electricity – undertook a taxi, take-off, full pattern circuit and landing on Thursday.ZeroAvia has said the trip, described as a “hydrogen fuel cell powered flight of a commercial-grade aircraft,” is a “world first.” Other examples of hydrogen-fuel cell planes that can host passengers do exist, however.Back in 2016, the HY4 aircraft, which is able to carry four people, undertook its first official journey when it flew from Stuttgart Airport in Germany. The HY4 was developed by researchers at the German Aerospace Center alongside “industry and research partners.”Thursday’s ZeroAvia flight was carried out at the company’s research and development site at Cranfield Airport, in England – 50 miles north of London. The airport is owned by Cranfield University.”While some experimental aircraft have flown using hydrogen fuel cells as a power source, the size of this commercially available aircraft shows that paying passengers could be boarding a truly zero-emission flight very soon,” Val Miftakhov, the CEO of ZeroAvia, said in a statement.ZeroAvia is heading up a program called HyFlyer alongside project partners Intelligent Energy and the European Marine Energy Centre (EMEC). EMEC has described HyFlyer, which is backed by the U.K. government, as aiming “to decarbonise medium range small passenger aircraft by demonstrating powertrain technology to replace conventional piston engines in propeller aircraft.” The next step of the HyFlyer project will see ZeroAvia work toward carrying out a flight of between 250 and 300 nautical miles from the Orkney Islands, an archipelago located in waters off the north coast of mainland Scotland. The plane on this flight will use hydrogen-fuel cells. It’s hoped this trip will happen before the end of 2020. The news on ZeroAvia’s flight bookends a week in which European aerospace giant Airbus released details of three hydrogen-fueled concept planes, saying they could enter service by the year 2035.
U.S.: Long-term contracts with American Municipal Power (AMP) saddle local communities with high prices – Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis : Counties across five states with extraordinarily high electricity prices for half a century, according to a briefing note released today by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.The largest AMP member, Cleveland Public Power (CPP), has already paid an extra $106 million more for power from two projects than it would have cost to buy power and capacity from wholesale markets. Like other members in Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, Virginia, and West Virginia, the utility is locked into 50-year contracts to buy power and capacity from projects that include the Prairie State coal-fired plant in Illinois and the AMP Combined Hydro Project on the Ohio River. Both stand out as particularly bad deals, according to David Schlissel, the study’s author.”The electricity that AMP communities get from the Prairie State and Combined Hydro Project is very expensive compared to buying the same power from PJM or the competitive market,” said Schlissel, “and ratepayers are unlikely to find relief any time soon.””It’s surprising that no one has yet sued AMP for mismanaging these coal and hydro projects,” Schlissel added.The trouble for AMP customers began in the mid-2000s, when it began building its own power plants, financed with multibillion bond deals. AMP studies predicted that the costs of power from Prairie State and the Combined Hydro Project would be stable and cheaper than purchasing electricity from the competitive wholesale markets.The average cost of purchasing power from Prairie State, however, stood last year at $60.97 per megawatt-hour (MWh), much higher than the $50.26/MWh estimate that AMP provided to the Cleveland City Council in 2007 and almost double the actual $33.49/MWh price for purchase available from the wholesale markets.The Combined Hydro Project (made up of the Smithland, Cannelton, and Willow Island plants on the Ohio River) has been an even worse deal. The average 2019 price for CPP customers was $178.58/MWh, almost triple the $67/MWh estimate provided in 2007 and quadruple the $43.93 actual cost for purchasing electricity from the wholesale markets.
Protesters gather against new El Paso Electric generator – Sunrise El Paso members and other climate action advocacy groups are protesting the addition of a new generator in the El Paso Electric Chaparral substation in Northeast El Paso. “Since El Paso is one of the sunniest cities in the world, we should take advantage of our solar energy rather than focusing on fracking plants and fracking all sorts of energy that are harmful to the environment,” protester Ana Fuentes said. The group is concerned this would impact air quality by emitting considerable amounts of greenhouse gasses. They propose using solar power instead of coal or fossil fuel, but El Paso Electric says they are proposing using a combination of solar, battery, and natural gas. The utility adds the new system would actually help reduce carbon emissions. “So the utility has moved to a coal-free utility, and as we look to the future, reducing carbon out of the air, so we are reducing carbon emissions and looking into a carbon-neutral or reduced carbon generation utility,” said Eddie Gutierrez with El Paso Electric. El Paso Electric says the new generator would replace two old units and use less water and air cooling technology, which reduces its carbon footprint.
Entergy Joins the Utility Pack with Net Zero Carbon Promise for 2050 –Utility decarbonization commitments move pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss them.Case in point: One week ago, GTM published a list of the major investor-owned utilities that had not committed to eliminating carbon emissions. Given all the commitments announced over the last few years, we could only find five holdouts, one of which was Entergy.But Entergy pulled itself off the list with an announcement made Thursday pledging net-zero emissions by 2050.The company, which controls regulated utilities serving 2.9 million customers across the Gulf region and an 8-gigawatt nuclear generation fleet, first promised to cap greenhouse gas emissions in 2001 and has since enhanced its goal multiple times. Most recently, it promised to lower its emissions intensity 50 percent below 2000 levels by 2030. But such a goal does not require the hard work of deep decarbonization; as long as the oldest and dirtiest plants are shut down, it allows emissions to continue. Peer utilities moved forward with pledges to eliminate carbon emissions entirely or achieve a net-zero target, which allows some emissions along with offsets.Now Entergy is part of that pack (the biggest holdouts remaining are NextEra Energy and Berkshire Hathaway Energy). Its particular approach to fulfilling that mission follows from the makeup of its fleet.In an analyst presentation Thursday, COO Paul Hinnenkamp cautioned that renewables alone cannot ensure reliability around the clock, adding that energy storage is not ready to fully meet reliability needs. But Entergy will increase renewables while tackling its biggest emitters and retaining a sizable gas fleet.
Jasper Pellets in Ridgeland SC accused of breaking the law Jasper Pellets, a wood pellet manufacturing plant in Ridgeland, has committed “significant, repeated, and ongoing” violations of the Clean Air Act, three environmental groups say in a letter to the company. The letter, a notice of intent to sue sent Tuesday, accuses the company of operating the facility and installing new manufacturing equipment without proper permits. The notice gives the company 60 days to “fix the violations” before the environmental groups file a federal lawsuit. The environmental groups include South Carolina-based Coastal Conservation League, Washington D.C.,-based Environmental Integrity Project, and the Southern Environmental Law Center. TOP ARTICLES NC’s coronavirus cases increase as state looks ahead to potential Phase 2.5 changes Trump order blocks Charlotte judge’s bias class for federal prosecutors Developer fired man whose boss beat him up. Court sides with victim in Charlotte case. Gap between Mecklenburg rents and what people can afford keeps growing, report says Outer Banks highway to reopen after sand banks up to 6 feet high are scraped away NC pastor yells ‘white power’ from truck during weekend Trump parade, videos show SKIP AD Trump order blocks Charlotte judge’s bias class for federal prosecutors The groups warned Jasper Pellets two years ago that the company would be violating the law if it continued to operate without a specific permit, EIP attorney Patrick Anderson said in a news release. “Unfortunately, we never heard from them, and sure enough they continue to operate illegally without the permit, forcing our hand,” Anderson said. Jasper Pellets turns raw wood from trees into compressed pellets that are typically shipped overseas to be used as power-plant fuel. That process can emit more than 100 tons of “volatile organic compounds” per year, meaning it’s a “major source of air pollution” under the Clean Air Act, the release said.
Virginia, North Carolina reach settlement over 2014 Dan River spill -The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Attorney General Mark Herring have entered into a consent decree to finalize the restoration plan and environmental assessment related to the 2014 Dan River spill.”This final restoration plan ensures that any damage caused by the Dan River spill is reversed and restored, as well as holds those who were responsible for the spill accountable,” Herring said. “The community was directly impacted by this spill and I’m glad we were able to involve them in coming up with a suitable plan for everyone. I want to thank our state and federal partners for their help and collaboration on reaching this important settlement.”Four projects have been selected as meeting these goals and three of those have already been completed as early restoration. Completion of the last project – improved recreational access to the Dan River – is expected after the court filing. Selected projects include:
- Acquisition and conservation of the Mayo River floodplain and riverbank adding up to 619 acres to the Mayo River State Parks in North Carolina and Virginia for long-term stewardship (completed)
- Aquatic habitat restoration in the Pigg River via removal of the Power Dam returning riverine conditions to 2.2 miles, benefitting game fish such as smallmouth bass, and the federally and state listed Roanoke logperch and other nongame fish (completed)
- Establishment of public boat launch facilities on the Dan River (ongoing)
- Improvements to the Abreu Grogan Park in Danville, Virginia, including new amenities and other improvements that address impacts related to park closure during spill response activities (completed)
Trump EPA Rule on Coal Ash Puts Lives and the Environment at Risk – Bloomberg Editorial Board – Its latest effort to prop up the coal industry will put human health at risk. To help some of the country’s dirtiest electric-power plants save a little money, the Environmental Protection Agency is willing to imperil the lives and health of Americans who live downstream from them. A new rule that relaxes restrictions on ash pollution is the latest effort by President Donald Trump’s administration to sustain coal power in the face of crushing competition from renewables. And like the others, it’s sure to prove ineffective, wasteful and hugely damaging to the environment. The new action relaxes an Obama-administration effort to protect the water supply from mercury, arsenic, lead and other toxic components of coal ash. That rule had required plants to remove heavy metals from wastewater containing pollutants scrubbed from smokestacks, and to use dry disposal methods to deal with the “bottom ash” from boilers rather than wash it away. The revision – enacted under the EPA leadership of Andrew Wheeler, a former coal lobbyist – weakens the wastewater cleaning requirements and allows plants to continue to flush some bottom ash. It also extends compliance deadlines until the last day of 2025, or the end of 2028 for plants that voluntarily adopt improved pollution-control technologies or promise to close or switch to natural gas by then. For the next eight years, in other words, coal ash will continue to be discharged into enormous, notoriously leaky holding pits and reservoirs, from which it will inevitably spill into rivers, streams and lakes, where the toxic metals will accumulate in fish and the ecosystem at large. Although it’s hard to predict exactly how much damage this toxic pollution will cause, it is known to cause cancer, respiratory illnesses, neurological disorders and other diseases. Why take such an enormous risk? The EPA claims the revised rules will save the coal industry $140 million a year. That tradeoff would be hard enough to justify in its own right. But the agency doesn’t even estimate how much power companies, or taxpayers, will ultimately have to pay to clean up the damage. The Tennessee Valley Authority spent six years and more than $1 billion to clean up and compensate for a 2008 ash spill into the Emory River; three dozen workers died of cancer and other diseasescontracted in the process. This reform is all the more nonsensical because advances in treatment processes have made it easier than ever to discard coal ash more safelyand to recycle the useful metals it contains. Nor will it do much to keep the coal industry alive.Bloomberg Green reports that coal, once the leading source of electricity in the U.S., is expected to provide just 18% of the total this year; it has long since been overtaken by natural gas and this year will be surpassed by renewable energy. Under Trump, the federal government has spent more than $1 billion trying to revive coal power – yet plants just continue to close. Unfortunately, even after the last one is shuttered, coal ash will litter the American landscape for many years to come, menacing nature and threatening human health. Legal challenges may keep these revisions from taking effect immediately. But in the long run, the U.S. needs new management at the EPA that will place life and the environment above the interests of a dying industry.
Duke Energy Carolinas rate-hike hearing ends, with ruling on coal-ash costs likely in December – Charlotte Business Journal – North Carolina regulators completed hearings Friday on Duke Energy Carolinas’ proposed rate hike with commissioners probing how it decided against pursuing aggressive coal-ash disposal policies until state and federal regulations required them. James Wells, Duke’s vice president for environmental health and safety, repeatedly told the N.C. Utilities Commission that Duke was at the industry’s forefront for working to understand the potential environmental impact of coal ash. Wells said that as evidence grew that impacts were possible, Duke monitored its coal plant operations with increasing care. Wells said the company took action when necessary, though he said there were almost never any signs of actual damage. He cited as an example the selenium contamination at Belews Lake north of Winston-Salem caused by the massive Belews Creek Steam Station. Wells said Duke saw harm to the fish population in the lake and traced the deaths to selenium from the plant. Duke converted to disposing its ash there in dry dumps rather than the wet ash ponds that had leached selenium into the lake. Environmental groups and others have generally criticized the large fish-kill at Belews Lake as an example of Duke’s failure to handle ash appropriately. But Wells argued it was a prime example of acting quickly when evidence of actual – rather than potential – environmental damage occurred. He said there was never been any evidence of damage to residential wells or human illness from contaminated wells associated with Duke. But commissioners all asked in different ways about whether it might have been possible to avoid some current costs by acting earlier to reduce environmental problems at the coal plants. Williams pushed back against that idea strongly. She said that Duke was moving forward and collecting data that has been useful to it and regulators now in deciding how to safely handle and dispose of the coal ash. And she says that the company did not have sufficient information 10, 20 or 30 years ago to make such decisions. Duke is seeking a rate increase that would amount to 2.1% in 2021 and 2022. The underlying rate hike is 7%, but its impact would be reduced in the early effective years by Duke refunding hundreds of millions of dollars in deferred taxes. Duke charged customers for those deferred taxes – a routine expense – at a higher rate than the company eventually paid after major corporate tax cuts at the state and federal levels. Those cuts created the need to refund the money to customers.
Indiana pulls out of Lawrenceburg site for new port project (WKRC) – More than three years ago, Indiana state leaders, including former governor and now-Vice President Mike Pence, vowed to sink billions into the Tanner Creek site just east of downtown Lawrenceburg of this southeast Indiana river town. But the state pulled the plug on putting its fourth port here. The reason? The site is too environmentally contaminated to make it work. The Tanner Creek site is where a coal-fired power plant operated for years. It shut down less than 10 years ago, leaving behind at least three or four ponds containing highly toxic fly ash. Pence and his successor, Eric Holcomb, wanted to build a port on the site of more than 700 acres. There was never an official price tag attached, but it was going to be in the billions of dollars. But recently released environmental studies found only 100 acres are usable. That leaves leaders trying to figure out what to do next, although the city is still exploring using the site. The state’s decision was a victory of sorts for environmental activists, such as Matt Miles who’s been trying to get the owners to clean up the site for more than two years. Miles says it still poses a risk to Dearborn County’s drinking water. “Stopping the port was never really the goal. It just became necessary,” Miles said. “It cost me two years of my life. It cost me my reputation. It cost me a lot of things that are going to come to light.” In its release, the state said it was continuing to monitor the cleanup and will continue to do so for the next 30 years.
Breaking: Coal ash released after sinkhole collapse in Mooresville -Coal ash from a structural fill site entered an unnamed stream after a sinkhole formed in Mooresville, state regulators announced today.The sinkhole was in a parking lot built on top of a coal ash structural fill site off NC Highway 150. The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality did not specify which fill site was affected, but state records show a previous sinkhole in a parking lot of the Terry K Smith Highway 150 project.This site contains 45,833 tons of coal ash, sourced from Duke Energy’s Marshall Steam Station, located on nearby Lake Norman.DEQ said in a press release that a stream culvert pipe collapsed under a coal ash structural fill during heavy rains on Thursday, Sept. 17, that caused a previously repaired sinkhole in a parking lot to reopen.DEQ said it has been monitoring the sinkhole since becoming aware of it during a site inspection in July of 2019. The property owner had previously repaired the sinkhole in 2018 and 2019.During site visits after the storm, sediment containing coal ash was observed in the stream bed of the unnamed tributary where it emerges south of Highway 150.DEQ staff collected water quality samples from the stream and is conducting ongoing monitoring. The location is in the area of a state Department of Transportation expansion project, and DEQ has discussed necessary next steps with the property owner and NCDOT. DEQ also alerted county and state emergency management authorities.There are dozens of known coal ash structural fill sites in North Carolina, and more that have been reported but not documented.
Miners Triaged, One Hospitalized After Cameron Mine Fire – One man was taken to Wheeling Hospital after an electrical fire at a coal mine in Cameron. The fire started shortly before 7 a.m. Wednesday at the American Consolidated Natural Resources Inc. Marshall County Mine, according to Marshall County Director of Emergency Management Tom Hart. The 911 call indicated that the team of miners, 15 people in total, had possibly suffered smoke inhalation as a result of the fire. First responders were on scene within minutes, Hart said, with Marshall County EMS out of Cameron being first on the scene, along with the Moundsville station, Tri-State EMS and Health Team EMS.
Over $50 million in delinquent royalty payments still unresolved in Blackjewel bankruptcy -The federal government has yet to recoup over $50 million in unpaid royalty payments and other past due charges from bankrupt coal firm Blackjewel, according to a recent court order. The royalty delinquencies have stalled the transfer of federal mine leases to the new owner of two Wyoming coal sites and left the fate of the bankruptcy case unclear.When Blackjewel filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in July 2019 and abruptly closed down some of the largest mines in the world, it owed the U.S. Department of Interior over $50.1 million in royalty payments and additional fees for extracting coal at the Belle Ayr and Eagle Butte mines.Though a new company called Eagle Specialty Materials has since taken over all operations at the two mines, the federal government – and consequently American taxpayers – has yet to be paid what it’s due.According to a court order filed Thursday, Eagle Specialty Materials will be liable for all royalty payments associated with the two coal mines for the period after Oct. 18, the date the company began operating the mines. But it remains unclear who will be responsible for the over $50 million in delinquent royalty payments racked up by Blackjewel before and shortly after the bankruptcy began.In addition to the millions of dollars owed by Blackjewel, the Interior Department is also owed nearly $886,000 in royalty payments and feesfor coal produced between the time Blackjewel petitioned for bankruptcy on July 1, 2019, and the sale of the mines to Eagle Specialty Materials on Oct. 17, 2019.It remains unclear if a company will step up to settle all these liabilities, or if the federal coal leases will ultimately be relinquished.In October 2019, Eagle Specialty Materials purchased the two mines from Blackjewel and restarted production soon after the sale was finalized. But even after nearly a year leading operations at the two mines, the new company has yet to secure the federal leases from the previous owner. According to the Mineral Leasing Act, all outstanding liabilities must be settled before a lease transfer can take place. Outstanding violations need to be resolved too, among several other requirements. The new company only obtained a license to mine as a contract operator in Wyoming but still does not have the required federal leases.
GE plans big shift away from coal-fired power sector = GE said Monday that it intended to “exit the new build coal power market,” in a move that will see the industrial powerhouse place a renewed emphasis on renewable energy.Over the years, GE has been deeply involved with the coal industry. Its website states it has 100 years of “coal-fired power service expertise” spread across more than 90 original equipment manufacturer brands. It has also described its GE Steam Power division as the number one “steam and coal power franchise.” But Russell Stokes, GE senior vice president and president and CEO of GE Power Portfolio, said in a statement that the company was “focused on power generation businesses that have attractive economics and a growth trajectory.” GE said the shift away from new coal-fired power plants could involve divestitures, the closing of sites and “job impacts,” and would be “subject to applicable consultation requirements.” The firm’s Steam Power business will carry on servicing existing coal and nuclear facilities, as well as delivering turbine islands for the nuclear sector, it said. Reacting to the news, the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Han Chen said: “It’s great news for our climate that GE is heeding the calls of communities around the world to stop financing and building new coal plants.” “Coal plants are the biggest single source of global carbon emissions – which are fueling climate change,” Chen, who is manager of energy policy in NRDC’s International Program, added. GE’s move away from coal came on the same day the conglomerate announced it would supply the Dogger Bank Wind Farm with 190 turbines. The 13 megawatt (MW) versions of the Haliade-X offshore turbine – which has 107 meter (350 foot) long blades – will be used for phases A and B of the scheme, which will be located in waters off England’s northeast coast. According to GE, one rotation of the Haliade-X 13 MW turbine can produce enough electricity to power a U.K. household for over two days.
GE plans to stop making coal-fired power plants (Reuters) – General Electric Co GE.N said on Monday it plans to stop making coal-fired power plants, as the U.S. industrial conglomerate focuses more on renewable sources of power generation. The company said the exit from the business could include divestitures, site closings and job cuts, while it works with its customers to complete existing obligations. (invent.ge/33HCxdQ) GE has said in the past it would focus less on fossil fuels and more on renewable energy, reflecting a growing acceptance of clean power sources by utilities. “GE’s exit from building new coal-fired power – after decades as a leader in this space – is an acknowledgement that growth in the energy sector will no longer be in coal,” said Kathy Hipple, a financial analyst at Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. “The market will ultimately reward GE for exiting new coal builds.”
Environmental activists demand UNC end coal usage virtually and in-person – The Daily Tar Heel – Environmental activists held a “No Coal UNC” rally in-person at the Old Well and virtually on Zoom Tuesday, demanding that the University stop using its coal-fired power plant by 2023. Drawing from the University’s response to COVID-19 and the national reckoning on racial injustice, speakers condemned UNC’s coal use for its disproportionate effect on the historically-Black community around the plant. Claire Bradley, a UNC junior and co-hub coordinator for the Chapel Hill & Carrboro Sunrise Movement, said coal use intersects with the Black Lives Matter movement, community safety, and the COVID-19 pandemic. “I think UNC has mishandled all three of those,” Bradley said. “The use of coal is a risk to public health, the continued use of University police and our relationship with the Chapel Hill Police Department is harmful to BIPOC students, and our mishandling of the COVID-19 pandemic has caused a lot of people harm.” The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club organized the rallyfollowing recent legal action they have taken against UNC. The complaint, scheduled to enter mediation on Friday, alleges that the power plant has violated the Clean Air Act. “There are 10 claims in the complaint and they fall roughly into three categories,” Perrin deJong, the Center’s North Carolina staff attorney said. “There are substantive pollution control violations, there are failures to monitor pollution from various parts of the facility, and then there are failures to report those violations to the regulatory authorities.”At the Old Well, activists staged a socially-distant protest, holding a large black-and-white banner saying “No Coal UNC” towards South Building, chanting “people over profits, justice over greed, we demand accountability!” On Zoom, professors, student activists, and Orange County Commissioner Mark Marcoplos spoke about the danger of the coal plant and its impact on communities of color. Attendees were invited to call Chancellor Kevin Guskiewicz and read a script calling for the end of coal use on campus.
Editorial: Two power plants’ future becomes uncertain – A couple of large coal-fired power plants in this area could be retired ahead of schedule. As part of a deal to secure a rate increase in Virginia, Appalachian Power has agreed to examine what would happen if the John Amos Power Plant in Putnam County and the Mountaineer Power Plant in Mason County were taken out of service ahead of schedule. Neither is old for a coal-fired power plant, with Amos having begun service in 1971 and Mountaineer in 1980. Both have another 20 years of service, more or less. What happened in Virginia is a complicated situation, but in simple terms, Appalachian Power wanted a rate increase there, but the Sierra Club opposed it. After negotiating various components of the request, the two parties decided that Appalachian Power would study what would happen if the two plants were retired and the company replaced their output with other sources. Appalachian Power is supposed to report the results of its study before the end of 2022. Appalachian Power is a subsidiary of American Electric Power, which is based in Columbus, Ohio. AEP has committed to reducing its carbon dioxide emissions and obtaining more of its power from renewable resources while also divesting itself of much of its coal-powered generating fleet. It retired its Philip Sporn power plant in Mason County and its Kanawha River Power Plant in Kanawha County in 2015. It sold the Gavin plant at Cheshire, Ohio, a few years ago, and it has announced plans to reduce output at its large plant at Rockport, Indiana. AEP subsidiary Kentucky Power converted the Big Sandy power plant near Louisa, Kentucky, from coal to gas a few years ago. When AEP has built new fossil fuel-powered plants in recent years, they have been gas burners.Other than in their local communities, the loss of Sporn and Kanawha River were barely noticed. Both were smaller, older plants that didn’t produce enough power to justify the investment needed to meet modern environmental standards. Had natural gas not become so plentiful and inexpensive, one or both might still be operating. Taking Amos and Mountaineer out of service would not be a simple step for AEP. Both plants handle part of Appalachian Power’s baseload needs in Virginia and West Virginia, so their output would have to be replaced with a dependable source. For now, that would mean natural gas. In the long run, it could mean renewables. Shutting down either plant would be hard on the economies of their local communities, not to mention the West Virginia coal industry in general.
Wyoming wants to keep coal burning. But is carbon capture the answer? –Over the past decade, Wyoming’s coal industry has taken a beating, but this year has proven particularly brutal.Layoffs have whipped through the state at a searing pace, outstripping previous busts and catapulting thousands of families into uncertainty. Since March, over 500 miners have lost their jobs in the coal mines. Over 300 have been furloughed. Coal production has been slashed by 30%. Coal-fired power plants across the nation have continued to shutter.The COVID-19 pandemic can shoulder some of the blame for coal companies’ decision to shed workers and contract production. But the downturn in coal predates the virus, stretching back several years as the nation shifts how it uses power. Even four years of the most pro-coal president in recent memory has done little to change coal’s misfortunes. The dirt cheap cost of natural gas, combined with advancements in renewable energy, have bullied coal out of its top ranking in the electricity sector. Utilities, shouldering the mandate of keeping electricity as inexpensive and reliable as possible, have gradually transitioned away from the once indomitable rock. The Energy Information Administration, an impartial data center for U.S. energy, forecasts nationwide coal production could plummet to levels 28% below last year. In Wyoming, these predictions can have dire implications. When coal loses money, so does Wyoming. And right now, the state is facing a revenue shortfall that has ballooned to $1.7 billion. Wyoming energy experts and lawmakers have proposed one potential solution to solve the crisis: keep coal production going, but just make it clean. By “clean,” they mean limiting the amount of carbon dioxide and other pollutants emitted when processing coal into electricity. Now, the state faces a decision: put all its chips on developing clean coal technology or transition to new industries. A study published by the U.S. Department of Energy this month could give Wyoming, the nation’s leader in coal production, ammunition to make its case. The federal agency’s report concluded that installing technology to capture the carbon emitted from Wyoming’s coal-fired power plants could be the foundering industry’s saving grace. By retrofitting four coal plants and trapping the climate warming pollutant, the state’s biggest utility, Rocky Mountain Power, could lower emissions, save ratepayers money, keep the facilities open and save jobs, according to the study. But despite the rosy picture the report paints for coal, some economists, attorneys and conservationists have characterized its findings as misleading and incomplete.
U.S.: Ratepayers face risks with Project Tundra’s retrofit of aging N.D. coal-fired plant – Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis – A plan to retrofit an aging coal-fired plant in North Dakota with unproven carbon capture and storage technology is likely to raise rates for customers who get electricity from the Milton R. Young Unit 2 facility, according to a new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The Project Tundra plan would retrofit the 43-year-old, 455-megawatt plant with a new carbon dioxide (CO2) technology that is untested at commercial scale. According to the proponents, the captured CO2 would be geologically sequestered or sold to companies for use in enhanced oil recovery (EOR) operations. Already, ratepayers for the Square Butte Electric Cooperative and Minnkota Power Cooperative are paying much more for power from Young Unit 2 than it would cost to purchase the same electricity from the Midcontinent Independent System Operator’s (MISO) competitive wholesale market. Using federal tax credits to add carbon capture storage infrastructure is highly unlikely to reduce those costs, said David Schlissel, the study’s lead author. “Minnkota customers already have paid millions of dollars more for electricity from Young Unit 2 than necessary,” said Schlissel, IEEFA director of resource planning analysis. “Adding carbon capture to the plant is only going to raise its costs, and ratepayers and customers are likely to end up stuck with the bill for the whole risky venture.” The operators of the Young plant have estimated that retrofitting the plant will cost between $1 billion and $1.6 billion. IEEFA concludes that these estimates are optimistic, given that the Young retrofit would be almost twice the size of the 240 megawatt (MW) Petra Nova plant in East Texas, one of only two carbon capture storage facilities at coal-fired plants in the world. The much-smaller Petra Nova plant cost $1 billion to build, failed to capture as much CO2 as was expected, and was mothballed in May due to low oil prices. The other plant, Boundary Dam 3 in Saskatchewan, Canada has also failed to meet projected CO2 capture goals. Even without accounting for the almost-certain cost overruns inherent in new technology, retrofitting the Young Unit 2 plant presents unique issues for its owners because of its age. Older plants cost more to operate and are less reliable than newer facilities, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. Since the amount of CO2 produced by the plant depends on how much the plant operates, the project’s backers are betting that they can keep the unit running at a high rate even though research and real-world experience shows this to be unlikely.
China considers easing coal import restrictions – Authorities at Guangzhou and Fuzhou ports in south China’s Guangdong and Fujian province respectively are looking at how much stockpiled imported coal is waiting for customs clearance at the ports, according to market participants. The move could signal a possible relaxation of import restrictions, while Guangzhou port could clear 1.5mn t of imported stockpiled coal. Fuzhou and Guangzhou ports have exhausted their import quotas in early August, meaning only some local utilities could still buy small volumes using limited quotas. But other market participants are not optimistic about China’s acceptance of imported coal. An official at an east China-based power utility said he remains cautious about booking new cargoes, saying customs authorities will stick to a previous target of limiting 2020 imports at a level no higher than last year’s receipts of 300mn t. Expiring 2020 import quotas in most Chinese customs regions have weighed on Chinese coal imports. Total receipts last month, including anthracite, coking coal and thermal coal, reached an intra-year low of 20.66mn t. This marked a fall of 37pc from the same month last year and followed a 21pc year-on-year decline in July. Market participants expect domestic coal prices could weaken if stockpiled imported coal is cleared. Tight supplies of domestic coal, coupled with an increase in utility restocking ahead of scheduled maintenance on the Daqin railway line, have pushed up domestic coal prices for four consecutive weeks. The price of NAR 5,500 kcal/kg coal increased from $79.88/t fob Qinhuangdao on 14 August to $86.49/t on 18 September, according to Argus assessments. Asia-Pacific coal prices have also been supported by an increase in Chinese buying interest with expectations that the 2021 quota system will take effect in January. Argus assessed prices of NAR 3,800 kcal/kg Indonesian coal at $23.61/t on 18 September, up by $1.21/t on the previous week, while prices of NAR 5,500 kcal/kg Australian coal rose to $39.79/t fob Newcastle on 18 September from $35.04/t fob on 4 September. Customs authorities allocated some additional quotas to utilities in the northeast China provinces of Heilongjiang, Liaoning and Jilin late last month to cope with tighter domestic coal supplies ahead of the winter restocking that typically begins in October. This has boosted demand for Russian coal because of its proximity to the provinces.
ENERGY TRANSITIONS: Fusion reactors go small for trip to market — Monday, September 21, 2020 -The long quest in the U.S. to mimic the sun’s mighty power by mastering nuclear fusion has added a new goal – the development of compact, affordable fusion reactors that could be widely deployed by utilities in the century’s second half. Urged on by the Energy Department, a top-level committee of U.S. scientists has begun planning for a pilot fusion reactor plant smaller than the typical jumbo-sized units. It would be based on the massive $25 billion fusion test facility being assembled in southern France, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER). “As we take this forward … we can show people maybe a pilot plant that costs $6 billion or $7 billion” rather than $30 billion, said Steven Cowley, who heads the DOE-backed Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey, where one of the competing designs for a utility-scale fusion reactor is under development. In an interview with E&E News, Cowley said the PPPL project is back on track, positioning it to capitalize on ITER’s startup midway through the coming decade. With much fanfare, government and science leaders announced the start of main construction work on ITER in July (Energywire, July 29).ITER’s leadership expects to see the achievement of a crucial milestone called “first plasma” in 2025. That is the moment when ITER produces the sustained conditions of immense heat and pressure required to force charged hydrogen isotopes to fuse into helium atoms, releasing energy. Although the reactor would not be fueled for the experiment, a successful launch would show that a fusion reactor could be self-sustaining, generating more heat than is needed to create fusion, officials say.The reaction occurs within a cloud or plasma of hydrogen gas, whose temperatures of up to 150 million degrees Celsius require confinement away from the walls of the ITER chamber. That is achieved through a blanket of magnetic fields generated by the most powerful supermagnets ever invented.Recent research achievements have advanced hopes that ITER’s success would lead to commercialization of fusion reactors some time after 2040. Despite the distance of that horizon, venture capitalists and private foundations have begun to stake initial claims in competing strategies (Climatewire, Aug. 24).”ITER is making people feel like fusion is real,”
Palisades nuclear plant on Lake Michigan seeks approval for repairs – – The company that owns the Palisades nuclear plant is asking federal officials to approve its plan to fix “indications of cracking” on components used to generate power at the plant. U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesperson Viktoria Mitlyng said officials with Entergy discovered the problem during a recent inspection and notified the commission on Friday, Sept. 18. The indications of cracking, found on nozzle penetrations for the nuclear reactor vessel head, do not pose a risk to the public, she said. “The public is not in danger,” Mitlyng said. “These indications of cracking were identified. The plant will repair them according to the NRC requirements.” Palisades is located on Lake Michigan, about 7 miles south of South Haven. The plant generates 800 megawatts of electricity, enough to power more than 800,000 homes in Michigan. Entergy plans to close Palisades in 2022. The nuclear plant is not currently generating power, Mitlyng said. A refueling and maintenance outage at Palisades began on Aug. 30, and the plant cannot begin generating power until the indications of cracking are repaired, she said. “Only then can the plant go back online,” Mitlyng said of the requirement that the repairs be made. “The plant is safe when it is shut down like it is right now.” Before Entergy can make repairs to the plant, it must submit its repair plan to the NRC for approval. Entergy spokesperson Val Gent said the company plans to do so this week. The company is asking the NRC to approve its plan by Oct. 1. “Palisades maintains a robust reactor integrity program and adheres to the highest federal safety and operating standards,” she said. A conference call between the NRC and Entergy was held Monday morning. During the call Entergy officials described the approach they would use to fix the indications of cracking. Following the discussion, several anti-nuclear activists questioned Entergy’s repair plan. Kevin Kamps, a member of the group Beyond Nuclear, said he strongly objects to the “band aid repair that’s being proposed.” “This rush job is unacceptable,” he said. “It increases the danger of mistakes being made, and the public downwind, including my family and loves ones in Kalamazoo, have had enough of this.”
A look at Exelon’s 4 economically challenged nuclear plants in Illinois | S&P Global Market Intelligence -Exelon Corp.-owned nuclear power plants in Illinois eyed for early retirement have had declining financial margins of late, according to an analysis using S&P Global Market Intelligence’s plant-level production cost model. Citing economic challenges due to the combination of prolonged periods of depressed wholesale power prices, market rules allowing “fossil fuel plants to underbid clean resources” in the PJM Interconnection capacity auction, and the lack of government support recognizing the clean energy attributes of nuclear generation, Exelon Generation Co. LLC announced Aug. 27 that it plans to retire its 2,346-MW Byron and 1,805-MW Dresden nuclear power stations in September 2021 and November 2021, respectively. The Exelon Corp. subsidiary added that the 2,384-MW Braidwood Generating Station and 2,313-MW LaSalle County Generating Station are “also at high risk for premature closure,” though the company has not yet projected any closure dates for those plants. The two-unit Dresden plant in Grundy County, the first of the four northern Illinois plants to enter service, in the early 1970s, is licensed to operate until 2029 and 2031. Braidwood in Will County, Byron in Ogle County, and LaSalle in LaSalle County all began operating in the mid- to late 1980s and are licensed to operate until the 2040s. These facilities had a combined net generation of 74.9 million MWh in 2019 at capacity factors upward of 95.0%. A comparison of modeled operations and maintenance, or O&M, expenses at the nuclear plants against wholesale power prices show operating costs exceeding spot electricity values of late. For January-August 2020, modeled O&M costs were more than $24/MWh in the case of Dresden and spanned $20/MWh to $21/MWh at Braidwood, Byron and LaSalle, while the average price of around-the-clock day-ahead power at the PJM Northern Illinois hub over the same period was near $19/MWh. Recent pressure on power prices included the dampening effect of the coronavirus pandemic on demand paired with low natural gas prices. In the three preceding full-year periods, modeled O&M expenses at the four nuclear plants similarly spanned the low $20s/MWh, while the price of power at PJM Northern Illinois initially averaged in the high $20s/MWh in 2017 and 2018 then pulled back into the low $20s/MWh in 2019. Exelon warned in early 2019 about the future of Braidwood, Byron and Dresden, citing similar reasons. A Market Intelligence analysis then found O&M costs for the three plants at roughly between $23/MWh and $24.25/MWh, generally below wholesale power prices at the PJM Northern Illinois hub, which averaged $28.51/MWh in 2018. Industry observers noted that Exelon’s announcement to shutter Byron and Dresden could pressure Illinois lawmakers to subsidize the plants. Exelon’s two other nuclear plants in Illinois – the 1,078-MW Clinton Power Station in De Witt County and the 1,819-MW Quad Cities facility in Rock Island County – are already compensated through the state’s zero-emissions credit initiative. Clinton operates in the Midcontinent ISO market, and Quad Cities, based on its ownership, is split, with 75% of its capacity committed to PJM and the rest to MISO.
House Democrats Say Ohio Nuclear Bailout Repeal Is Taking Too Long | WOSU – The Ohio House is planning another hearing on a potential repeal of HB6, the legislation that brought big changes to Ohio energy laws and bailed out two nuclear power plants. Opponents of HB6 are growing frustrated with the process saying it should be repealed now. HB6 is at the center of a $60 million federal corruption investigation involving former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R-Glenford). House Republican leadership and Gov. Mike DeWine have expressed support for a full repeal of HB6. However, state Rep. Sedrick Denson (D-Cincinnati) said the hearings in a House Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight are beginning to look like a “dog and pony show.” “What we at least owe it to everyone who lives here in Ohio. We owe it to the ratepayers to look back at what we did and say ‘let’s scrap that and start over fresh.’ We’ve got that opportunity to do it and I don’t know why we wouldn’t be taking advantage of it,” Denson said. Republican House Speaker Bob Cupp said HB6 is complicated and believes these hearings are needed to understand the impact of a repeal. “And to do something in a hasty and reckless manner is totally inappropriate,” Cupp said to a group of reporters on September 1. But Denson said the legislature should simply repeal the bill now, then begin deeper conversations about how to address Ohio’s energy laws. “For the life of me, now that we figured out all the games, in my opinion, that had been played through House Bill 6, why would we want to be on the hook and/or in the position to look as though we’re not moving in the direction of, at least, disassociating ourselves with something that we’ve just learned,” Denson said.
Dark-money groups would have to reveal donors, spending under new Ohio House bill – -Legislation seeking to erase “dark-money” political spending from Ohio was introduced Monday by Republican state lawmakers.House Bill 762, dubbed the “Light of Day” bill, would create sweeping new requirements for corporations, unions, nonprofits, LLCs and other organizations to disclose their state-level political spending, as well as their donors. Groups that make political donations would have to create separate accounts earmarked specifically for such spending and publicly report contributors to and spending from such accounts.The legislation follows the arrest of Republican ex-House Speaker Larry Householder on a charge that he oversaw a $60 million bribery scheme to pass House Bill 6, which gives lucrative subsidies to nuclear, coal, and solar power plants, using FirstEnergy Corp. money that was distributed using a network of dark-money groups that don’t have to publicly report their donors or spending under current law.But while the bill is sponsored by 15 House Republicans – many of whom voted for HB6 – it’s unclear whether the legislation will have the support needed to speed through the GOP-controlled Ohio General Assembly before the current legislative session ends in December.State Rep. Diane Grendell, a Geauga County Republican co-sponsoring HB762, said in an interview that even if HB6 is repealed, as some lawmakers are seeking to do, it wouldn’t stop the dark money at the heart of the HB6 scandal.”It’s far better than repealing House Bill 6,” Grendell said. “This is what people want.” Asked whether HB762 could pass by the end of the year, Grendell replied, “I hope so.”
Amid debate over repealing House Bill 6, Energy Harbor still won’t say whether its nuclear plants are profitable – – State lawmakers are looking at whether to keep in place a $1.3 billion public bailout for the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants along Lake Erie, a law that federal authorities say was corruptly enacted.But throughout the debate, there’s still a glaring problem: the owner of the nuclear plants refuses to disclose whether they are profitable or not. And so far, there’s been no attempt by state lawmakers to compel the company to release its numbers before the bailout takes effect.During last year’s debate over whether to pass the bailout as part of House Bill 6, Energy Harbor – then known as FirstEnergy Solutions – asserted it needed public subsidies or it would close the plants. But the company wouldn’t open its books to lawmakers or the public to prove that it actually needed the money, leading legislators to rely on estimates, industry averages and company officials’ word.At the time, FirstEnergy Solutions told cleveland.com the reason it couldn’t open its books was because it was involved in bankruptcy proceedings. Those proceedings have been over for months, yet Energy Harbor still won’t say whether the plants are profitable. And this time, the company is not offering a reason.”We do not release financial performance figures for the plants,” said Energy Harbor spokesman Jason Copsey in an email, when asked for such information. Copsey didn’t reply to an email asking why the company won’t publicly release the data.State lawmakers are now considering whether to repeal or revise HB6 since ex-Speaker Larry Householder and four allies were indicted in July on charges that they secured the passage of HB6 through a bribery scheme fueled by $60 million in FirstEnergy Corp./FirstEnergy Solutions money.When state Rep. Jim Hoops, a Napoleon Republican who chairs the House Select Committee on Energy Policy and Oversight, a special committee studying what to do about HB6, was asked earlier this month whether the committee would ask Energy Harbor to open its books, Hoops replied by saying lawmakers have discussed ensuring there’s an audit to prove whether Energy Harbor needs the money. “I’m getting the language to show exactly how much do they need, if they need anything,” Hoops said.But when asked whether lawmakers would seek to obtain such information before the legislature decides whether or not to move on repealing or replacing HB6, Hoops said he didn’t know the timing and needed to talk with House Speaker Bob Cupp about it.Hoops told Gongwer News Service on Thursday that he’s not sure whether Energy Harbor or FirstEnergy Corp. (Energy Harbor’s former parent company) can or will testify before his committee, given lawsuits filed against the companies by Attorney General Dave Yost, among others.
Ohio AG Dave Yost sues to block House Bill 6 nuclear bailout money from being paid out – –Attorney General Dave Yost on Wednesday filed a civil lawsuit seeking to block the owner of two Northern Ohio nuclear power plants from receiving any of the $1.3 billion in public bailout funds approved under House Bill 6, the law at the center of an enormous corruption scandal.Yost’s lawsuit asks a Franklin County Common Pleas court judge to block payments of the bailout money to the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear plants, owned by Energy Harbor (a former FirstEnergy Corp. subsidiary) which are scheduled to start in January. The bailout is funded by new monthly surcharges ranging from 85 cents for residential customers to as much as $2,400 for large industrial plants.The lawsuit doesn’t seek to stop the collection of any nuclear bailout money — just to block its payment to Energy Harbor. Yost told reporters it’s up to the legislature to decide whether such money should be collected and suggested it could be refunded to consumers, though it’s unclear whether refunds could or would happen.Even if the suit succeeds to stop the payment of the bailout money, Yost said his legal complaint wouldn’t, as written, affect other parts of HB6 that — among other things — authorize subsidies for coal and solar plants, as well as lock in how much money FirstEnergy Corp. can collect from residential and commercial customers.Yost, a Columbus Republican, threatened last month to file such a lawsuit unless state lawmakers voted to repeal HB6. New House Speaker Bob Cupp formed a committee to study the issue, but it’s still unclear whether the GOP-led General Assembly will take any action before the current legislative session ends in December.In order to prevent the surcharge from being charged in January, lawmakers would have to pass a repeal bill by Oct. 1, as new state laws don’t take effect until 90 days after they’re signed into law. The only exception would be if a repeal bill passed as an emergency measure, though that would require larger legislative majorities to pass.The suit was filed against Energy Harbor (the owner of the Perry and Davis-Besse plants), FirstEnergy Corp., ex-House Speaker Larry Householder, and four Householder allies. Householder and his allies were arrested in July and charged with using $60 million in bribe money from FirstEnergy to secure passage of House Bill 6. Householder has pleaded not guilty, and no FirstEnergy or Energy Harbor officials have been charged with any wrongdoing so far.
FirstEnergy Says Attorney General’s Nuclear Bailout Lawsuit Does Not Have ‘Legal Merit’ | WOSU – FirstEnergy is responding to a civil case filed over Ohio’s nuclear bailout by Attorney General Dave Yost, saying the utility company plans to “vigorously” defend itself. FirstEnergy spokesperson Jennifer Young says the company has followed the law when it comes to making political contributions. “The attorney general’s lawsuit unjustly targets the FirstEnergy for lawfully participating in the political process and advocating for policy that’s consistent with our interests,” Young says. “Many public companies, we support policy initiatives that matter to our customers, employees, communities and shareholders. We believe the attorney general’s complaint is without legal merit, and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves.” Yost’s civil suit seeks to stop any defendants in his filing from collecting any revenue created through HB6, the nuclear bailout and energy law passed last year. The law allows for monthly charges starting in January on all electric ratepayers bills to send money to nuclear, coal and solar plants. HB6 also allows for “decoupling,” which guarantees FirstEnergy a certain amount of profits. Yost says he’s basing his civil case on a federal racketeering investigation, which accuses a utility widely believed to be FirstEnergy of playing a role in a bribery scehem. FirstEnergy, which is not currently facing charges, has denied wrongdoing in that federal investigation. “Our CEO Chuck Jones said during an earnings call that we conducted in late July that he believes FirstEnergy acted properly in this matter and we intend to ensure our company and our role in HB6 is understood as accurately as possible and we will cooperate with the DOJ investigator as part of that process in demonstrating our role,” Young says. The civil case is also filed against former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, Matt Borges, Neil Clark, Juan Cespedes, and Jeff Longstreth. All five people are indicted on racketeering charges, accused of playing a role in a bribery scheme that helped HB6 become law using $61 million from a 501(c)(4) dark money group.
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