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:
- 11 Oct 2020 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 10October 2020
11 Oct 2020 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 10October 2020
Summary:
As Reuters and others point out, new US cases were at a two month high on Friday, up more than 12% for the week. So it appears the 3rd wave (2nd wave by some counts) of the virus may have arrived. The following map from that Reuters article tells you everything you need to know (data updated to October 10):
The map should be interactive if you click on it. If you recall, the first and most deadly US outbreak was centered in the Northeast – New York, New Jersey, Massachusetts and adjacent states, with large outbreaks in Michigan, Washington, Florida, and California
This summer’s outbreak was across the southern tier of states, with record numbers of new cases in Texas, Florida, California and the southeast, and was probably exacerbated by people staying indoors in the heat.
More recently, the worst outbreak has shifted north, and has been centered in the upper midwest states of Wisconsin and the Dakotas, with the national totals holding nearly steady because new cases were falling in Texas and Florida at the same time.
New cases globally were also at a record high this week, with case counts on five days this week among the ten highest on record. Europe is once again the epicenter globally, with France, Italy and the UK all hitting all-time highs this week. As I have said before, the “civilized” western democracies are losing this one.
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. If the current trend continues for 2-3 more weeks the chnage in direction should be established definitively. The October 13 graphic:
A Johns Hopkins graphic for global new cases as of the end of last week can be viewed here.
Note that this week’s “coronavirus economic news” batch includes a couple dozen articles on Trump’s disease and recovery, There is also news on the other infections in the White House and on Capitol Hill, which now number over 200.
Here’s this week’s news on the environment and energy:
Evidence of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s & MND in brains of young people exposed to dirty air -Researchers looking at the brainstems of children and young adults exposed lifelong to air pollution in Mexico City have discovered disturbing evidence of harm. Previous studies have linked fine particulate air pollution exposure with Alzheimer’s disease, and researchers have also reported evidence of air pollution-derived nanoparticles in the frontal cortex of the brain. But after examining the brainstems of 186 young Mexico City residents aged between 11 months and 27 years of age, researchers, including Professor Barbara Maher from Lancaster University, found markers not only of Alzheimer’s disease, but also of Parkinson’s and of motor neurone disease (MND) too. These markers of disease were coupled with the presence of tiny, distinctive nanoparticles within the brainstem – their appearance and composition indicating they were likely to come from vehicle pollution. This has led researchers to conclude that air pollution of this nature – whether inhaled or swallowed – puts people at risk of potential neurological harm. The brainstem is the posterior part of the brain which regulates the central nervous system, controls heart and breathing rates, and how we perceive the position and movement of our body, including, for example, our sense of balance. “Not only did the brainstems of the young people in the study show the ‘neuropathological hallmarks’ of Alzheimer’s, Parkinson’s and MND, they also had high concentrations of iron-, aluminium- and titanium-rich nanoparticles in the brainstem – specifically in the substantia nigra, and cerebellum. “The iron-and aluminium-rich nanoparticles found in the brainstem are strikingly similar to those which occur as combustion- and friction-derived particles in air pollution (from engines and braking systems). “The titanium-rich particles in the brain were different – distinctively needle-like in shape; similar particles were observed in the nerve cells of the gut wall, suggesting these particles reach the brain after being swallowed and moving from the gut into the nerve cells which connect the brainstem with the digestive system.” The ‘neuropathological hallmarks’ found even in the youngest infant (11 months old) included nerve cell growths, and plaques and tangles formed by misfolded proteins in the brain.
‘Dramatic’ plunge in London air pollution since 2016, report finds – Air pollution in London has plunged since Sadiq Khan became mayor, with a 94% reduction in the number of people living in areas with illegal levels of nitrogen dioxide. The number of schools in such areas has fallen by 97%, from 455 in 2016 to 14 in 2019.Experts described the reductions as dramatic and said they showed the air pollution crisis was not intractable. More than 9,000 people in the capital were dying early each year due to dirty air in 2015.The report from the mayor of London, reviewed by scientists, shows that more than 2 million people in the capital lived with polluted air in 2016, but this fell to 119,000 in 2019. The report, which does not include the further falls in pollution seen after the Covid-19 lockdown began in March, shows levels of nitrogen dioxide (NO2) by roads in central London fell by 44% between early 2017 and early 2020. The pollution cuts have been achieved by charges that have deterred dirty vehicles from entering the city centre and have driven up the use of cleaner vehicles. Putting low-emission buses on the dirtiest routes, ending the licensing of new diesel taxis and extending the amount of protected space for cycling have also contributed.However, Khan said there was still a long way to go, particularly as 99% ofLondon had particle pollution levels above the World Health Organization’s recommended limits, which are much tighter than the UK limit. Almost a quarter of roads in inner London – between the north and south circular roads – still exceed the legal limit for (NO2), which is mostly produced by diesels. But the ultralow emission zone (Ulez), in which charges are levied for polluting vehicles, is to be expanded to cover all of inner London from October 2021.Air pollution is the biggest environmental risk to health, according to the WHO, and it may be damaging every organ in the body, a comprehensive global review concluded in 2019. Most urban areas in the UK have had illegal levels of NO2 since 2010 and the government has repeatedly been defeated in the high court over the adequacy of its plans. There is also growing evidence that dirty air worsens infection and death rates from coronavirus, and that people from minority ethnic communities fare the worst. Those people are more likely to live in areas with high air pollution.
EPA Overdue in Weighing New York Air Quality Plans, Suit Says – The Environmental Protection Agency is taking too long to approve or reject New York’s plans to meet air quality standards, an environmental group says in a new lawsuit filed in federal court. The agency’s delay violates the mandatory deadlines set by the Clean Air Act, Our Children’s Earth Foundation says in its lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. Under the act, the EPA sets National Ambient Air Quality Standards and states submit state implementation plans and revised SIPs to meet those standards. New York sent seven SIP submissions to the agency between…
Explainer: Who Regulates U.S. Drinking Water, and How? – The Safe Drinking Water Act (SDWA) forms the foundation of federal oversight of public water systems – those that provide water to multiple homes or customers. Congress passed the landmark law in 1974 during a decade marked by accumulating evidence of cancer and other health damage caused by industrial chemicals that found their way into drinking water. The act authorized the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the first time to set national standards for contaminants in drinking water. The EPA has since developed standards for 91 contaminants, a medley of undesirable intruders that range from arsenic and nitrate to lead, copper and volatile organic chemicals like benzene. In 1996, amendments to the SDWA revised the process for developing drinking water standards, which limit the levels of specific contaminants. Nearly a quarter century after those amendments, an increasing number of policymakers and public health advocates today argue that the act is failing its mission to protect public health and is once again in need of major revision. The process for setting federal drinking water contaminant limits, which is overseen by the EPA, was not designed to be speedy. First, the EPA identifies a list of several dozen unregulated chemical and microbial contaminants that might be harmful. Then water utilities, which are in charge of water quality monitoring, test their treated water to see what shows up. The identification and testing is done on a five-year cycle. The EPA examines those results and, for at least five contaminants, as required by the SDWA, it determines whether a regulation is needed. Standards, in the end, are not purely based on health protection and sometimes are higher than the MCLG. These standards, except for lead, apply to water as it leaves the treatment plant or moves throughout the distribution system. They do not apply to water from a home faucet, which could be compromised by old plumbing.
Bees Face ‘a Perfect Storm’ – Parasites, Air Pollution and Other Emerging Threats – Bees are facing a pandemic of their own. A collection of threats – habitat loss, pathogens, pesticides, pollution and poor nutrition – have led to widespread decline in bee health and pollinator populations. The threats add up: The number of commercial honeybee colonies declined by more than quarter million between April and June 2020, according to the latest data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Nativebees are at risk, too, with 1 in 4 native species in North America at risk of extinction. “There’s been a lot of research looking into the causes, and usually, humans try and look for the magic bullet – what is the one thing causing this problem that we can stop? And the research has shown that it’s actually a collection of things.” A single-cell fungal pathogen called Nosema is one of the latest threats. Nosema reproduces in the gut, where it ruptures, spreads out and then infects the cells of the digestive tracts. It leads to lethargy, reduced foraging ability, poor sense of direction and, often, death. Although Nosema apis and Nosema ceranae – two strains of the fungi – have been regularly recorded in Europe, North America and Southeast Asia, the pathogen is now more widespread than ever, according to recent research published in the journal PLOS Pathogens. Grupe was the lead author. Grupe notes that N. apis, once the dominant strain affecting commercial bee colonies, was observed to be seasonal, which helped protect against total colony collapse. The increasing export of commercial beehives from Europe, however, has expanded the distribution of the problematic pathogen.At the same time, reports of N. ceranae have increased dramatically – and it infects hives all year long.”Historically, it was thought that Nosema ceranae wasn’t so much of a problem because its spores can’t survive freezing or near-freezing temperatures,” he explains. “But as winters have become milder these spores are able to persist and then cause infection, and Nosema ceranae has overtaken Nosema apis as the predominant infect of European honeybees.” Once a bee is infected with Nosema, it can contaminate entire colonies – where social distancing is not an option – and spread that infection to the wild. Infected honeybees can leave spores on flowers, transmitting the pathogen to other susceptible pollinators, including native bees. This “community spread” has led Grupe and his co-author C. Alisha Quandt to declare it a “pandemic” in their paper.
1,500 Birds Flew Into Skyscrapers In Philadelphia Last Week As More Have Died In Weeks From Unknown Causes Across US — 1,500 birds died after flying into several skyscrapers in Philadelphia last week, leaving many shocked as to why, The Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The incident occurred in Center City, Philadelphia, on Friday last week and was only discovered after a bystander Stephen Maciejewski was walking down the sidewalk only to notice the dead birds piled up. Maciejewski told the Philadelphia Inquirer his story. “So many birds were falling out of the sky, we didn’t know what was going on,” he said, choking up. “It was a really catastrophic event. The last time something like this happened was in 1948.” Maciejewski told the Inquirer that he had collected just 400 birds between 5 and 8 a.m. in the radius he regularly covers roughly spanning 17th to 19th Streets between Market Street and JFK Boulevard. “There were so many, I was picking up five at a time,” Maciejewski said. “One guy from building maintenance dumped 75 living and dead birds in front of me as if it were a collection.” So why so many birds? According to Maciejewski “It’s complicated.” However, it appears weather events lined up during what was likely the peak of migratory birds’ flight from Canada, Maine, Upstate New York, and elsewhere toward Central and South America. A sudden plunge in temperatures could have encouraged the birds to start their flights en-masse. But ultimately we don’t know and it could be any number of factors. This year alone thousands of birds have been found dead falling out of the sky if 2020 wasn’t weird enough. Scientists have even reported a mass die-off of migratory birds across the southwestern United States and northern Mexico. Researchers estimate hundreds of thousands to possibly up to a million birds have died in recent weeks. Scientists say they are unsure of the exact reasons for the deaths, but say, several factors including climate change and the ongoing wildfires could be possible reasons for the deaths, Insider reported.Avian ecologist Martha Desmond, of New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, called the die-off “unprecedented.” Desmond said scientists are unsure how many birds are dying but has said the number could easily be in the “hundreds of thousands”, according to NBC.“It’s enormous, the extent of this,” Desmond told Audubon. “We haven’t counted all the species yet, but there are lots of species involved.”Online reports show mass deaths in New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, Arizona, and as far north as Nebraska, as well as in four states in Mexico, and include migratory species as varied as owls, hummingbirds, loons, and woodpeckers, many of which were migrating south to wintering grounds.Many of the dead birds have little fat reserves or muscle mass remaining, and some seem to have literally dropped from the sky mid-flight. “It could be a combination of things. It could be something that’s still completely unknown to us,” Allison Salas, a graduate student at New Mexico State University, told The Guardian. “The fact that we’re finding hundreds of these birds dying, just kind of falling out of the sky is extremely alarming … The volume of carcasses that we have found has literally given me chills.”
New USDA Ruling Allows for Chicken to Be Produced From Diseased Birds – When the president invoked the Defense Production Act in April, to keep essential goods in production through the pandemic, it had some unexpected consequences on the food supply chain. The meat industry, in particular, has seen a significant deregulation. Rollbacks of safety measures such as plant inspection standards, meat labeling regulations, and farm pollution restrictions have taken place in service of preventing meat shortages and keeping the industry operational with fewer bureaucratic hoops to jump through.Now, as a direct result, the USDA’s Food Safety and Inspection Service said it will allow the sales of chicken meat made from birds that have had diseases. And yes, that’s for human consumption.Bloomberg reports that in July, the agency accepted a petition from the National Chicken Council to allow slaughterhouses to process birds infected with Avian Leukosis. The infection causes a condition akin to cancer in chickens, where malignant tumors and lesions can develop.Not only will inspectors not be required to examine the first 300 birds of each flock for signs of the disease, but processors will also be allowed to simply cut the tumors off and process the rest of the bird. And eating meat of sub-par quality isn’t the only negative outcome. Avian Leukosis is a rare but highly contagious disease that affects birds and poultry, and while it’s unlikely to be transmitted from birds to humans, it isn’t entirely impossible. According to Bloomberg, the indication of cross-species transmission comes from U.K. workers who were exposed to birds infected with the disease and have developed antibodies.
Trump’s USDA Sued Over Mass Killing of Native Wildlife – Days after federal data revealed taxpayers funded the killing of 1.2 million native animal species in 2019, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Wildlife Services program was sued Thursday over what conservation advocates decry as a cruel and misguided annual extermination spree.”Wildlife Services is infamous for the scope and cruelty of its killing campaigns across the nation,” Chris Smith, southern Rockies wildlife advocate for WildEarth Guardians, said in a statement.”To carry out such a horrific onslaught on native wildlife in the midst of a mass extinction event and a climate crisis, without any real knowledge of the impact,” added Smith, “is utterly outrageous.”The lawsuit was filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Mexico by WildEarth Guardians and accuses Wildlife Services (WS) of running afoul of various federal regulations stipulated by the National Environmental Policy Act, Council on Environmental Quality regulations, and Administrative Procedure Act.According to the court filing, the program has failed to provide an Environmental Impact Statement on the program’s impact on key ecosytems, nor has it provided timely supplemental analysis mandated by law. As such, the document states, WS is disregarding “new scientific publications on the ineffectiveness of lethal predator control and the negative cascading ecological consequences of removing keystone species from their native ecosystems,” according to the filing. WS purportedly exists “to resolve wildlife conflicts to allow people and wildlife to coexist.” But Smith explains the agency’s raison d’etre quite differently. “They are good at one thing – killing animals,” Smith told Common Dreams, adding that the program is “still operating on data and science and ideas that are 20, 30, 40 years old.” The lawsuit explains WS in this way: Every year, Wildlife Services – a program within the USDA – poisons, traps, and guns down several of our nation’s most majestic animals, including wolves, bears, coyotes, and mountain lions in a futile attempt to save livestock and other “resources.” Funded with millions of taxpayer dollars, and without modern scientific support, this program uses cruel and often archaic methods to capture and kill wildlife from their native ecosystems, largely at the behest of livestock producers. Across New Mexico, Wildlife Services uses fixed-wing aircraft and helicopters to aerially shoot coyotes; body-gripping traps, neck snares and leg-hold traps to kill mountain lions, black bears, bobcats, badgers, coyotes, skunks, and swift and gray foxes; gas cartridges and poisons to exterminate coyotes, foxes, and prairie dogs in their dens; sodium cyanide M-44 devices to kill canines like foxes and coyotes; and other poisons to eliminate native birds like ravens. Family pets and federally-protected endangered and threatened species have been and will continue to be accidentally injured or killed by the agency’s indiscriminate killing methods. The latest annual tally of the animals killed by WS – including 1,258,738 native species – drew condemnation from WildEarth Guardians, with Samantha Bruegger, the group’s Wildlife Coexistence Campaigner, saying in a statement Wednesday: “This mass slaughter is carried out in our backyards, on public lands, and in beloved parks; there is no limit to the program’s reach.”
Indigenous Leaders Furious After EPA Grants Oklahoma Control Over Sovereign Tribal Lands In a little-noticed development last week that drew ire after being reported Monday, the Trump administration’s EPA granted the state of Oklahoma wide-ranging environmental regulatory control on nearly all tribal lands in the state, stripping dozens of tribes of their sovereignty over critical environmental issues.The Young Turks which first reported the news, obtained a copy of an October 1 letter from EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler granting a request by Republican Gov. J. Kevin Stitt for control of environmental regulations on tribal land on a wide range of issues, including:
- Dumping hazardous waste – including formaldehyde; mercury; lead; asbestos; toxic air pollutants; per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS); pesticides; the herbicide glyphosate, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) – on tribal lands.
- Underground Injection Control, the EPA’s fracking permitting system.
- Protecting major agricultural polluters, including large-scale factory farming operations.
Wheeler’s letter acknowledges McGirt v. Oklahoma, in which the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in July that much of eastern Oklahoma is Native American land. The new EPA move essentially means the state of Oklahoma now has the same rights as it did before McGirt. Attorney General William Barr has joined Republican leaders in seeking ways to undermine the landmark ruling.Cherokee Nation is now visible on Google Maps. It is the latest reservation added after a Supreme Court ruling in … https://t.co/G4yxXdRpJP The fossil fuel and industrial agriculture industries wield tremendous power in Oklahoma. The state Capitol – which was built on stolen Indigenous land – sits atop a large oil field and has a working oil rig on its grounds. The names of oil companies are also inscribed inside the building’s dome.The EPA policy change – which affects some 38 Native American tribes – sparked anger among Indigenous leaders. After over 500 years of oppression, lies, genocide, ecocide, and broken treaties, we should have expected the EPA ruling in favor of racist Gov. Stitt of Oklahoma, yet it still stings,” Casey Camp-Horinek, environmental ambassador and elder and hereditary drum keeper for the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, told TYT.
Rising waters threaten Great Lakes communities Along a shoreline that stretches farther than the combined length of the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, waters driven by climate change have risen as much as 6 feet in less than a decade, washing away houses, destroying roads and threatening critical infrastructure such as water treatment plants in towns large and small. The ongoing disaster striking the coastal communities of the Great Lakes hasn’t captured national attention like hurricanes and wildfires in other parts of the country. But from Duluth to Chicago to Cleveland to Buffalo, leaders are reeling from untold billions in damage – and the prospect that climate change will make things worse in the years to come. In the eight Great Lakes states, officials at every level along 4,500 miles of coastline are scrambling to save what they can from the rising water, competing for scarce state and federal dollars and rubber-stamping permits to build private seawalls at an unprecedented pace. Scientists say the only long-term solution, as climate change causes erosion and higher highs – and lower lows – in lake levels, is to retreat from the shoreline. But few in the region are willing to have that conversation. “People are always looking for a technical fix so they don’t have to change the way they’re behaving,” said Paul Roebber, an atmospheric science researcher at the University of Wisconsin at Milwaukee. There are no easy answers. Communities don’t have the money to buy out properties that are threatened by the lakes – especially as they try to save their own infrastructure – and there’s little appetite to use public money to help private landowners. But without a government-backed plan to retreat from the eroding coast, property owners have a legal right to defend their homes and continue armoring the shoreline.
World record waterspout outbreak over the Great Lakes (video) 232 waterspouts/funnels have been confirmed over the Great Lakes from September 28 to October 4, 2020, in the second world record waterspout outbreak of the year, according to the International Center for Waterspout Research (ICWR).
- From August 16 to 19, 2020, a short-lived waterspout outbreak produced 88 funnels, setting a new world record waterspout outbreak — the first of the year.
- Both outbreaks were a result of Canadian cold air sweeping over the region, which made surface air prone to rise.
“There were an average of 33 per day,” said ICWR director Wade Szilagyi, also a meteorologist at Environment Canada. “That’s why I label it as a world record. You have to take into account the period.” Szilagyi noted that the number is remarkable and he has “never heard of anything like that.” David Piano, a storm chaser and a photographer, said he witnessed 38 waterspouts over a five-hour period. Both outbreaks resulted from cold air from Canada, which swept over the lakes, Szilagyi said. This enhanced low-level lapse rates or the drop-off of temperature with height, making the surface air susceptible to rise.
New ‘forever chemicals’ contaminating the environment, regulators say – Earlier this year, federal and state researchers reported finding a new, potentially dangerous chemical in soil samples from multiple locations in New Jersey. The compound was a form of PFAS, a group of more than 5,000 chemicals that have raised concerns in recent years because of their potential link to learning delays in children and cancer, as well as their tendency to last in the environment for a long time.But the new revelations, reported in the June issue of Science magazine, stoked concerns among water-quality researchers and advocacy groups for other reasons, too. It underscored how easy it is for manufacturers to phase out their use of PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) once the substances have been regulated, and replace them with newer, related compounds that researchers know even less about. And it showed how difficult it is for regulators to track and oversee these new compounds. The authors of the Science report, from the Environmental Protection Agency and the New Jersey department of environmental protection (DEP), identified the West Deptford, New Jersey, plant of a company called Solvay Specialty Polymers USA, a division of the Belgian chemical giant Solvay SA, as the likely source of the contamination.Solvay, in a statement to Consumer Reports, denies it is responsible. But Solvay has been cited by the New Jersey DEP in the past for contamination of soil and water with an older, now-regulated PFAS compound. And the company has used a replacement PFAS at the facility for years, despite having failed to implement an official way for regulators or independent researchers to analyze whether the new compound is present in the environment, according to documents obtained by Consumer Reports through a public records request.
New Study: 15.5 Million Tons of Microplastics Litter Ocean Floor – Microplastics can be found everywhere from Antarctica to the Pyrenees. A significant amount of plastic waste ends up in the ocean, but very little has been known about how much ends up on the ocean floor – until now. A new study has found that the ocean floor contains nearly 15.5 tons of microplastics, CNN reported. Researchers from Australia’s government science agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization (CSIRO), examined microplastics on the ocean floor near the Great Australian Bight, a large expanse that comprises the bulk of the country’s southwest coastline. The researchers used a robotic submarine to gather and analyze samples taken from six locations up to 236 miles off the coast, and up to almost 10,000 feet deep, reported CNN.The results, which were published Monday in Frontiers in Marine Science, revealed about 35 times more plastic at the bottom of the ocean than floating at the surface. In 51 samples taken between March and April 2017, researchers found an average of 1.26 microplastic pieces per gram of sediment, a concentration that’s up to 25 times greater than any previous deep-sea study, CNN reported.”Plastic pollution that ends up in the ocean deteriorates and breaks down, ending up as microplastics,” Justine Barrett from CSIRO’s Oceans and Atmosphere, who led the study, said in a statement in CNN. “The results show microplastics are indeed sinking to the ocean floor.”Dr. Denise Hardesty, a principal research scientist at CSIRO and a co-author of the research, told The Guardian that finding microplastics in such remote locations and depths reveals the extent of global plastic pollution.”This means it’s throughout the water column. This gives us pause for thought about the world we live in and the impact of our consumer habits on what’s considered a most pristine place,” Dr. Hardesty told The Guardian. “We need to make sure the big blue is not a big trash pit. This is more evidence that we need to stop this at the source.” The World Economic Forum has estimated that an entire garbage truck full of plastic is dumped into the ocean every minute, every day, The New Daily reported.
The Plastic Pandemic – The coronavirus pandemic has sparked a rush for plastic. From Wuhan to New York, demand for face shields, gloves, takeaway food containers and bubble wrap for online shopping has surged. Since most of that cannot be recycled, so has the waste.But there is another consequence. The pandemic has intensified a price war between recycled and new plastic, made by the oil industry. It’s a war recyclers worldwide are losing, price data and interviews with more than two dozen businesses across five continents show.”I really see a lot of people struggling,” Steve Wong, CEO of Hong-Kong based Fukutomi Recycling and chairman of the China Scrap Plastics Association told Reuters in an interview. “They don’t see a light at the end of the tunnel.”The reason: Nearly every piece of plastic begins life as a fossil fuel. The economic slowdown has punctured demand for oil. In turn, that has cut the price of new plastic.Already since 1950, the world has created 6.3 billion tonnes of plastic waste, 91% of which has never been recycled, according to a 2017 study published in the journal Science. Most is hard to recycle, and many recyclers have long depended on government support. New plastic, known to the industry as “virgin” material, can be half the price of the most common recycled plastic. Since COVID-19, even drinks bottles made of recycled plastic – the most commonly recycled plastic item – have become less viable. The recycled plastic to make them is 83% to 93% more expensive than new bottle-grade plastic, according to market analysts at the Independent Commodity Intelligence Services (ICIS).The pandemic hit as politicians in many countries promised to wage war on waste from single-use plastics. China, which used to import more than half the world’s traded plastic waste, banned imports of most of it in 2018. The European Union plans to ban many single-use plastic items from 2021. The U.S. Senate is considering a ban on single-use plastic and may introduce legal recycling targets.Plastic, most of which does not decompose, is a significant driver of climate change.The manufacture of four plastic bottles alone releases the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of driving one mile in a car, according to the World Economic Forum, based on a study by the drinks industry. The United States burns six times more plastic than it recycles, according to research in April 2019 by Jan Dell, a chemical engineer and former vice chair of the U.S. Federal climate committee. But the coronavirus has accentuated a trend to create more, not less, plastic trash.
Claiming Superfund ‘Success,’ Trump EPA Neglected Climate Planning – For the last two years of the Obama administration, Jacob Carter built data models at the Environmental Protection Agency that showed how extreme weather events amplified by climate change threatened hundreds of the nation’s worst toxic waste dumps, known as Superfund sites. But when President Donald Trump took office in 2017, everything changed at the EPA. Trump was a climate change denier, and soon the words “climate change” were excised from agency policy. It didn’t take long for the knock on Carter’s door.A senior official in his office, who could see where the EPA was heading, told him, “You should start looking for a new job,” Carter said.While Trump rescinded an Obama executive order that made climate change preparedness a national priority, his first EPA administrator, Scott Pruitt, impressed some environmental activists by going after some corporate polluters and saying he intended to put Superfund cleanups “at the center of the agency’s core mission.” Pruitt lasted just 18 scandal-marred months and left behind a Superfund program that largely failed to build upon that early promise, according to environmental advocates and former EPA officials. Trump’s EPA dropped climate change planning and proposed cutting the Superfund budget to its lowest level (in 2019 dollars) since the program began in the 1980s.Pruitt’s successor, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist, told Congress in February that the EPA had “cleaned up more Superfund sites in the last three years than the Obama administration did in their first term.”But an investigation by InsideClimate News, the Texas Observer, and NBC News, based on interviews with more than 50 experts inside and outside of government and a review of thousands of pages of EPA records, found that virtually all of those cleanups had begun decades earlier.The backlog of Superfund sites awaiting funding for cleanup, meanwhile, has now grown to 34, the highest number in 15 years, as Trump has proposed cutting the Superfund budget by $112 million in fiscal year 2021.Even though Superfund sites are more likely to be located in communities where most residents aren’t white, one environmental nonprofit reported in late 2019 that 65 percent of the 55 sites the Trump administration had targeted for expedited cleanup were in majority white neighborhoods. Ten of those sites were in communities that were more than 90 percent white, the report from the Center for Health, Environment and Justice found.
Battered, Flooded and Submerged: Many Superfund Sites are Dangerously Threatened by Climate Change – Fred Barrett thought he’d wait out Hurricane Harvey at his home in this town outside Houston, founded by his great-grandfather in 1889. He prepared for heavy rain, wind and flooding. But when the murky brown San Jacinto River jumped its banks, flooding Barrett’s neighbors and an ominous cluster of four hazardous waste Superfund sites nearby, Barrett worried the catastrophic 2017 storm could fill his community with deadly toxins. The most notorious of the sites, the San Jacinto Waste Pits, was smashed by 16 feet of water that undermined a concrete cap covering the site’s toxic contents, washing dioxin downriver. A dive team from the Environmental Protection Agency later found the potent human carcinogen in river sediment at 2,300 times the agency’s standard for cleanup. Several miles upriver, Barrett, a historically Black town, shares a wooded area with the French Limited Superfund site. That toxic dump was built so close to the Barrett family homestead that, as a young man, Fred Barrett could hear the rumble of tractor-trailers hauling chemical waste, including carcinogens, down the Gulf Pump Road to a foul pond. Like the San Jacinto Waste Pits, the French Limited site was also inundated by Hurricane Harvey, leading Barrett, 67, and his neighbors to worry that its contaminants had spread. The EPA did not report any leakage, but he and other residents wondered what the floodwaters could have carried offsite. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) warned in a report last year that French Limited was among 945 Superfund sites across the United States vulnerable to hurricanes, flooding, sea level rise, increased precipitation or wildfires, all of which are intensifying as the planet warms. Far from a theoretical future threat, the Superfund sites are a clear and present danger. But the Trump administration no longer makes reference to climate change in addressing these risks at Superfund sites, InsideClimate News, the Texas Observer and NBC News found in an investigation of the Superfund program and the EPA’s response to climate-related threats. Reporters interviewed more than 50 experts inside and outside of government, reviewed thousands of pages of EPA records and analyzed federal data on Superfund sites to determine the extent of the danger to human health and the environment and the missed opportunities to mitigate it. More than 700 of the 945 sites vulnerable to climate change are in 100-year flood plains, meaning they have a chance of 1 percent or more of flooding in any given year, and over 80 regularly flood at high tide or are already permanently submerged. Forty-nine of the sites face triple threats – they are in 100-year flood plains, regularly flood and are vulnerable to hurricanes, according to EPA and GAO data. The San Jacinto Waste Pits site is on the triple threat list, as is the LCP Chemical site on coastal marshlands in Glynn County, Georgia, which is contaminated by mercury and PCBs.
Judge Tosses EPA Plan to Dredge and Fill Bay Area Salt Ponds –A federal judge in a U.S. District Court in the Northern District of California vacated a decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to dredge and fill salt ponds in Redwood City, a town on the San Francisco Bay, as the AP reported.The judge in the case, William Alsup, determined on Monday that the EPA made a miscalculation in how the Clean Water Act is applied when it decided that large developments on the salt ponds were exempt from the act’s regulations, according to Courthouse News.In arguments, the EPA made the bold claim that the Redwood City Salt Ponds were a unique case upon which the judge lacked the expertise to decide, and therefore should defer to the EPA’s wisdom. The EPA also argued that it relied on previous federal court decisions to determine that the salt ponds were not protected. Those two arguments struck the judge as contradictory.”Either there is precedent or there is not,” Alsup wrote in a 21-page ruling, as Courthouse News reported. “This order holds that there is precedent and that EPA headquarters misapplied that precedent.”The Redwood City Salt Ponds are south of San Francisco, between Palo Alto and San Mateo. They are 1,365 acres owned by the food giant Cargill. Cargill said it wanted to build a 12,000 unit housing development in 2009, but reversed course after a groundswell of opposition arose, as the AP reported.The ponds are tidal pools and marshlands used for salt mining operations. If the Salt Ponds did not have protection under the Clean Water Act, they could be dredged, filled and developed.Environmental activists, including Save the Bay, San Francisco Baykeeper, Committee for Green Foothills and Citizens’ Committee to Complete the Refuge, joined California’s attorney general in filing suit against the EPA, as Courthouse News and KTVU in Oakland reported.”This is an important victory for protecting clean water in our communities. And it’s a good reminder to the Trump Administration that it can’t use the San Francisco Bay as its political playground,” Attorney General Xavier Becerra said in a statement, as the AP reported. “The EPA can’t ignore its own scientists and come up with an arbitrary rule that opens the door for development of a vital ecosystem.”
Unexplained Ecological Disaster in Russia Kills Scores of Marine Life – Local authorities in the eastern Russian city of Petropavlovsk-Kamchatskiy have been warning people against visiting the nearby Khalaktyrsky beach, after surfers complained of partially losing their eyesight and experiencing headaches, fevers and nausea when venturing into the water.”I noticed the ocean had a strange taste and didn’t smell like it usually does. My eyes hurt, I had a dry, scratchy throat and my body itched horribly,” Anton Morozov, founder of local surfing school, Snowave, told DW.He and his team first noticed their symptoms in early September, but didn’t associate them with the ocean until later in the month, when they reported them to the authorities.Since then, images of dead octopuses, seals, sea urchins and starfish littered along the beach have been shared on social media, with some beachgoers saying dead fish look as if they have been boiled.The authorities took samples from the ocean, where by the end of September, Morozov said a “yellowish-greenish liquid” had appeared along a 20 to 30-kilometer (12-18-mile) stretch of the shoreline.Local investigators are now looking into three main reasons for the water pollution, including a toxic spill, volcanic activity in the area and naturally occurring deadly algal blooms, governor of the Kamchatka region, Vladimir Solodov, told a press conference on Monday. On a video posted to Instagram, the governor said the situation was normalizing due to the ocean’s unique ability to self-regenerate. The region’s natural resources minister, Alexei Kumarkov, said tests on samples had thus far only detected unusually high levels of the chemical phenol and oil products in the water. However, later on Monday, Russia’s Natural Resources Minister said that the pollution was unlikely to be manmade, the RIA news agency reported.
Almost All Seafloor Life in Part of Russia’s Kamchatka Region Wiped Out in ‘Environmental Disaster’ – The carcasses of sea creatures have washed up on the beaches of Kamchatka in eastern Russia, amid an unexpected mass death of marine animals that has been labeled an “environmental disaster” by one underwater photographer at the scene.Images posted on social media appear to show dead octopuses, crabs and seals in the normally pristine remote Russian region on the Pacific Ocean coast. Those who frequent the beaches in the area have also complained of getting fever, rashes and swollen eyelids after going in the water. According to reports, the water changed color, acquired a strange smell and began to foam on the surface. “Everything became blurry as if I was in a fog,” Maksim Ionov wrote on Instagram after surfing on Khalaktyrsky beach, in the region. “I was scared and did not understand what was happening. I was even scared I would wake up blind,” he added.An expedition team of scientists from the Kronotsky Nature Reserve, the Kamchatka Research Institute of Fisheries and Oceanography and the Kamchatka branch of the Pacific Institute of Geography took water samples and surveyed the area.Scientists found almost all of the marine life along the seabed in Avancha Bay had been killed, according to an account by researcher Ivan Usatov.”When diving, we found that at depths from 10 to 15 meters…95 percent are dead. Some large fish, shrimps, crabs have survived, but in very small quantities,” he said, according to the website of the regional governor, Vladimir Solodov.The underwater photographer Alexander Korobok, who was on the expedition, said: “After this dive, I can confirm that there is an environmental disaster.”The ecosystem has been significantly undermined and this will have long-term consequences, since everything in nature is interconnected,” he added.Russia’s emergencies ministry is investigating the waters amid speculation that the cause of the contamination came from two nearby military test sites, perhaps by the leakage of rocket fuel, although this has been rejected by Kamchatka’s governor.Another theory, Radio Free Europe reported, suggests a fuel leak from one of the ships that come through the waters near the Bering Sea could have been responsible.The Russian branch of the World Wildlife Fund for Nature (WWF) said the death of animals suggested both a surface contamination of the ocean and the release of a chemical that had diluted in the water. Meanwhile, Greenpeace Russia’s climate project leader, Vasily Yablokov, said he believed that a pollutant, not only on the surface but also in the water, is moving along the coast. He told The Moscow Times that tests showed petroleum levels were four times higher than usual and phenol levels were 2.5 times higher.
Floods and landslides leave 4 missing, over 200 houses submerged in West Java, Indonesia – Heavy downpours struck West Java, Indonesia, on Saturday, October 3, 2020, triggering floods and landslides that left four people missing and more than 200 houses submerged, according to disaster agency officials. In Cianjur District, a river overflowed due to heavy rains, inundating houses in the surrounding areas, said the local disaster management agency’s senior official, Kuswara Retana. The floods affected the four sub-districts of Leles, Cijati, Sindangbarang, and Agrabinta, said District Disaster Mitigation Office (BPBD) secretary Irfan Sopyan. Leles was the worst-hit sub-district, where floodwaters have reached 2 m (6.5 feet). As per preliminary data acquired form disaster response volunteers in Leles, more than 200 houses were submerged.Around 10 houses and a bridge were damaged, forcing hundreds of residents to evacuate and take refuge in neighbors and mosques. At least four people went missing after being swept away by raging waters. According to Retana, one of the victims was reportedly dead but his body was yet to be found. “The 2 m (6.5 feet) high floodwaters submerged most houses in the villages of Pusakasari, Karyamukti, Sindangsari, and Nagasari, Leles Sub-district.” Rescue crews have been deployed to the scene to assist flood victims and for search operations, said Seni Wulandari, an official from the provincial search and rescue office. Meanwhile, landslides hit three areas in the province, making roads inaccessible, especially those that lead to disaster-hit locations.
Storm Alex hits Europe with extremely heavy rain and destructive winds (videos, satellite) Storm Alex made landfall in France on October 2, 2020, with powerful winds and extremely heavy rains. It caused severe floods in France and Italy, with some of them described as the worst in living memory. At least 2 people have died and 34 remain missing in both countries.French authorities confirmed 18 people missing, including 2 firefighters, after devastating flooding along the French Riviera coast and inland areas where rivers burst their banks, destroying bridges and flooding roads.A red weather warning was issued for the Alpes-Maritimes department, where Alex dropped up to 500.2 mm (19.69 inches) in some areas in just 24 hours. The only time this region saw more rain was on October 3, 2015, when floods left 20 people dead in and around the French Riviera city of Cannes.Firefighters in Alpes-Maritimes said they had been called more than 380 times overnight October 2 – 3.Authorities in Nice said early Saturday they have 9 people missing and 3 others feared to be missing. Later in the day, the mayor of Nice — Christian Estrosi — said two bodies had been found and identified. More than 100 homes were destroyed in a number of villages around Nice where catastrophic damage was reported. Estrosi described it as the ‘worst flooding in living memory.’
Damaging tornado hits Antwerp, Belgium – A tornado ripped through the city of Antwerp in Belgium on Monday, October 5, 2020. Numerous trees were downed, while at least one house suffered considerable damage. No injuries were reported.The twister formed Monday afternoon, north of Antwerp. It then moved towards Keren, Brasschaat, and Kapellen. According to witnesses, the violent storm knocked down many trees along its path. A weeping willow was uprooted, inflicting damage to a house in Heidestraat. Other material properties were also damaged, such as garden furniture. “What we saw this afternoon in Antwerp was a beautiful example of a wall cloud in a supercell, a heavy type of thunderstorm,” explained weather specialist Martijn Peters of DPG Media. “A wall cloud is created where the air is sucked up in the thunderstorm. The air cools down quickly and also condenses quickly, causing clouds to form at a lower altitude. So part of the cloud hangs lower than the rest, as it were, which is then called the wall cloud.” Peters added, “With supercell thunderstorms, the wind speeds and directions are very different in the top and bottom layer, resulting in rotation. And that looks spectacular when the whole wall cloud starts to spin.””Fortunately, this does not happen often in Belgium, and certainly not in the autumn period.”
Death toll caused by Storm Alex rises to 15, 21 still missing in France and Italy – The number of fatalities caused by heavy rain and strong winds produced by Storm Alex from October 2 to 4, 2020, has risen to 15 on October 7, with 21 people still missing. The storm caused very strong winds and dropped exceptionally heavy rains, with some regions receiving their yearly average in less than 24 hours. More rain is forecast in the affected areas over the coming days.
- Storm Alex caused devastating landslides and floods, destroyed homes, roads, bridges, and other infrastructure, causing power, communication, and running water outages in both France and Italy.
- The number of casualties in France rose to 4 and in Italy to 8 by October 7. At least 21 people are still missing.
- Strong gusts caused each one death in Austria, Poland, and the Czech Republic, bringing the death toll to 15.
- This is the first named storm of the 2020/21 European windstorm season (September 1, 2020 – August 31, 2021).
Alex underwent explosive cyclogenesis before making landfall in western France on October 2, with winds up to 142 km/h (88 mph). As it moved inland, Alex started dropping extremely heavy rain on parts of France and Italy, especially their mountainous border region. According to local media reports, at least 8 people were killed in Liguria and Piemonte, Italy, with landslides damaging infrastructure and homes. The region registered as much as 630 mm (24.8 inches) of rain in a 24 hour period, according to the Italian civil protection agency. 21 people are still missing and 4 are confirmed dead in France. The storm dropped up to 500.2 mm (19.69 inches) in some areas of the French Alpes-Maritimes region in just 24 hours, generally from 250 to 300 mm (9.8 to 11.8 inches). The only time this region saw more rain was on October 3, 2015, when floods left 20 people dead in and around the French Riviera city of Cannes. Catastrophic damage, described by authorities as ‘worst in living memory,’ was reported around Nice. Meteo-France reported a maximum of 571 mm (22.5 inches) in 24 hours in Mons, west of Nice.
Tropical Storm “Gamma” claims 6 lives, stalls near the coast of Yucatan – Tropical Storm “Gamma” made landfall near Tulum, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico over the weekend with near-hurricane force winds and very heavy rain, claiming the lives of at least 6 people and forcing thousands to evacuate. Gamma made landfall near Tulum at 16:45 UTC on Saturday, October 3, with maximum sustained winds of 110 km/h (70 mph). According to Mexico’s civil defense agency, 4 people, including 2 children, died in Chiapas after a landslide buried their home. Two people drowned in separate incidents in Tabasco, the worst affected state where more than 3 400 residents evacuated to shelters.At 06:00 UTC on October 5, the center of Tropical Storm “Gamma” was located about 290 km (180 miles) ENE of Progreso and 265 km (165 miles) NNW of Cozumel, Mexico. It had maximum sustained winds of 85 km/h (50 mph) and minimum central pressure of 999 hPa. Gamma was moving W at just 4 km/h (2 mph). A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect for areas north and west of Cancun to Dzilam, Mexico, and a Tropical Storm Watch for areas west of Dzilam to Campeche, Mexico.The storm is expected to drop an additional 75 – 150 mm (3 to 6 inches) of rainfall, with isolated amounts of 205 mm (8 inches), across portions of Yucatan, Campeche, and Tabasco. This rainfall may enhance any ongoing flash flooding and result in areas of flash flooding into the middle of the week.
Delta strengthens into a hurricane, forecast to make landfall along the central Gulf Coast – Tropical Storm “Delta” strengthened into a hurricane at 00:00 UTC on Tuesday, October 6, 2020, becoming the 9th hurricane of the 2020 Atlantic season. Only 3 other Atlantic seasons in the satellite era, since 1966, have produced 9 or more hurricanes by October 5 — 1995, 2004 and 2005.
- Delta is strengthening on its way toward the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, and is expected to produce dangerous storm surge and hurricane conditions within portions of the northern Yucatan Peninsula beginning Tuesday night (LT).
- According to the NHC, heavy rainfall will affect portions of Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, western Cuba, and the northern Yucatan Peninsula during the next few days. This rainfall could lead to significant flash flooding and mudslides. Tropical storm conditions are expected in portions of the Cayman Islands beginning early Tuesday.
- Delta is forecast to approach the northern Gulf Coast late this week as a hurricane. While there is large uncertainty in the track and intensity forecasts, there is an increasing risk of dangerous storm surge, wind, and rainfall hazards along the coast from Louisiana to the western Florida Panhandle beginning Thursday night or Friday. Residents in these areas should ensure they have their hurricane plan in place and monitor updates to the forecast of Delta.
- The system is forecast to make landfall along the central Gulf Coast late this week. The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season is currently tied with the 1916 Atlantic hurricane season for most continental US named storm landfalls in a season on record — 9 landfalls.
A Hurricane Warning is in effect from Tulum to Rio Lagartos, Mexico, and Cozumel. A Tropical Storm Warning is in effect from the Cayman Islands, including Little Cayman and Cayman Brac, Cuban province of Pinar del Rio, Isle of Youth, Punta Herrero to Tulum, and Rio Lagartos to Progresso. A Tropical Storm Watch is in effect for the Cuban province of La Habana.
Hurricane Delta Breaks Record for Earliest 25th Named Storm – The extremely active 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has broken another record.Hurricane Delta became the earliest 25th named storm of any hurricane season when it strengthened rapidly from a tropical depression Monday, USA TODAY reported. It was a tropical storm by Monday morning, a hurricane by Monday night and a Category 2 hurricane by early Tuesday morning, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC).”Additional strengthening is forecast during the next 48 hours, and Delta is expected to be a major hurricane when it moves over the Yucatan Peninsula Wednesday and over the Gulf of Mexico through Thursday,” the NHC warned in an 8 a.m. EDT update. 8 AM EDT Tuesday Update: Hurricane #Delta continues to rapidly strengthen and now has maximum winds of 110 mph. Add … https://t.co/RSJ9BIyBI6 – National Hurricane Center (@National Hurricane Center)1601986540.0 The storm could intensify to a Category 4 before it hits the Yucatan Peninsula on Wednesday, CNN meteorologist Michael Guy predicted. It could then make landfall along the Gulf Coast by Saturday morning. It is expected to land somewhere between the coasts of Louisiana, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle as a Category 3 storm, though this could change in the coming days. Still, Louisiana Gov. John Edwards warned coastal areas to prepare now. “It is common for many people to experience hurricane fatigue during a busy season, but we need everyone to take this threat seriously,” Edwards said, as CNN reported.The state already weathered a major hurricane once this year when Laura rammed the Gulf Coast as a Category 4 storm. But first, Delta threatens the Yucatan, where at least six people died last weekend in Tropical Storm Gamma, as USA TODAY reported.
Hurricane Delta Fastest on Record to Rapidly Intensify From Tropical Depression to Category 4 in Atlantic Basin – Hurricane Delta underwent extraordinary rapid intensification from a tropical depression to Category 4 hurricane in less than two days’ time over the Caribbean Sea, smashing an Atlantic Basin record.Delta was first born as Tropical Depression Twenty-Six late Sunday night while it was only 75 miles south of Kingston, Jamaica.By Monday morning, it was already Tropical Storm Delta, the 25th named storm of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.Then Delta shifted into beast mode, undergoing rapid intensification, a term meteorologists use to describe a tropical cyclone whose maximum sustained winds increase by at least 35 mph in 24 hours or less.Late Monday evening, Delta became a hurricane. By late Tuesday morning, Delta flexed into a Category 4 powerhouse.Delta went from a tropical depression to a Category 4 hurricane in just over 36 hours from Sunday night to late Tuesday morning. In that time, Delta’s pressure plunged 52 millibars and its maximum sustained winds skyrocketed from 35 mph to 130. That’s the fastest tropical-depression-to-Category-4 intensification rate on record in the Atlantic Basin, according to Sam Lillo, a NOAA scientist based in Boulder, Colorado, and Tomer Burg, a PhD candidate at the University of Oklahoma. The satellite loop of this rapid intensification was equally stunning, beginning with a disheveled mess of a tropical depression to a compact powerhouse of a hurricane. The supply of very warm water not simply at the surface, but also at some depth, was greater over the western Caribbean Sea than anywhere else in the Atlantic Basin. This warm water served as a reservoir of heat and moisture for Delta to feed on. Wind shear – the change in wind speed and/or direction with height that can rip apart a fledgling tropical storm wannabe – was noticeably absent over the area through its rapid intensification phase, before reemerging later Tuesday.That tiny core was another key to its explosive growth. Small tropical cyclones can concentrate the heat release in their cores, allowing for more rapid strengthening than a larger storm. By Tuesday afternoon, Delta’s eye had shrunk to only 4 nautical miles wide.
All the Records the 2020 Hurricane Season has Broken So Far – The 2020 Atlantic hurricane season has been hyperactive with 25 named storms, including nine hurricanes, spinning across much of the Atlantic basin. Those storms have set several records through early October. Here’s a look at what we’ve seen so far.Twenty-two of the 25 storms through Oct. 5 had their earliest formation date on record. Arthur, Bertha and Dolly are the only letters represented in the list of names that did not have a record-early formation date.For perspective, the average formation date of the Atlantic’s 9th named storm is Oct. 4 for the years spanning 1966 to 2009, according to the National Hurricane Center. We are 16 named storms ahead of that pace as of early October. Nine named storms have made a mainland U.S. landfall this season, and four of those were hurricanes. The nine mainland U.S. landfalls tie 1916 for the most on record in a season, according to Dr. Phil Klotzbach, a tropical scientist at Colorado State University. Hurricane Delta is likely to break this record as the 10th U.S. landfall later this week. Sept. 18, 2020, will be known in history for a frenetic burst of three Atlantic named storm formations in just six hours. Tropical Storm Wilfred formed in the eastern Atlantic Ocean that morning. That was followed by Subtropical Storm Alpha developing just prior to landfall in Portugal, and then Tropical Storm Beta spinning up in the Gulf of Mexico.Klotzbach said Aug. 15, 1893, was the only other day in which three storms formed on the same calendar day.The Atlantic had five active tropical cyclones for a brief time on Sept. 14, including Paulette, Rene, Sally, Teddy and Tropical Depression Twenty-One. While that’s not a record, it’s only the second time the Atlantic basin has had five or more tropical cyclones at one time.
Hurricane “Delta” heads toward Louisiana, after leaving at least 9 people dead in Mexico – Delta made landfall at 10:45 UTC on October 7, 2020, along the northeastern coast of the Yucatan Peninsula, near Puerto Morelos, as a high-end Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 175 km/h (110 mph). The storm is now heading toward Louisiana, U.S., with landfall expected before 19:00 LT on Friday, October 9.
- Delta is expected to grow in size as it approaches the northern Gulf Coast, where life-threatening storm surge and dangerous hurricane-force winds are likely beginning Friday, particularly for portions of the Louisiana coast, NHC forecasters warned. Storm Surge and Hurricane Warnings are in effect, and residents in these areas should follow advice given by local officials and rush preparedness actions to completion.
- Flash, urban, small stream and minor to isolated moderate river flooding is likely Friday and Saturday from portions of the central Gulf Coast into portions of the Lower to Middle Mississippi Valley. As Delta moves farther inland, additional heavy rainfall is expected in the Ohio Valley and Mid Atlantic this weekend.
- Delta is forecast to be the record 10th US landfalling tropical cyclone in a single season, beating 9 landfalls in 1916.
- Areas along the Northern Gulf Coast are at risk for impacts while still dealing with the aftermath of hurricanes Laura and Sally.
The storm weakened into a Category 1 hurricane as it moved over Yucatan, damaging trees and powerlines, and causing other structural damage throughout the peninsula.A 65-years-old man died in Tizimin before the arrival of the storm after falling from the second floor of his house during preparations. Two others were injured in separate incidents before Delta’s arrival.At least 9 people were killed in Yucatan, Tabasco, and Chiapas States after floods and landslides. Over 35 000 people have been evacuated to temporary evacuation centers in Yucatan. Delta strengthened back to a Category 2 hurricane by 06:00 UTC on October 8. At the time, its center was located 780 km (485 miles) SSE of Cameron, Louisiana, U.S. The system had maximum sustained winds of 155 km/h (100 mph) and minimum central pressure of 973 hPa.
Hurricane Delta makes landfall on Louisiana coast – live updates – Hurricane Delta, now a Category 1 storm, made landfall near Creole, Louisiana, on Friday evening, with nearly 11 million people in the storm’s path. The hurricane is bringing 100 mph winds, with a “life-threatening” surge of seawater that could hit communities miles inland, according to forecasters. The hurricane struck the Gulf Coast as a Category 2 storm, but was downgraded to a Category 1 about an hour later. It’s expected to weaken into a tropical storm and eventually into a tropical depression on Saturday. As the storm moves north, some areas in Louisiana could get a foot of rain. The hurricane is threatening the same region that was devastated by Hurricane Laura just six weeks ago. Recovery from that Category 4 storm will likely be set back by weeks. Earlier this week, the hurricane barreled through the Mexican resort areas of Cozumel and Cancun where it caused some streets to collapse and knocked out power to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses. More than 350,000 people are experiencing power outages in Louisiana, according to poweroutage.us. The most outages have been reported in the cities of Vermillion and Beauregard.In Texas, more than 100,000 are without power, according to the website. Strong winds from Hurricane Delta are spreading across Louisiana, hours after the storm made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane. Opelousas St. Landry Parish Airport – which is more than 50 miles inland – has reported a gust of 64 mph, and sustained winds of 39 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm, now located about 10 miles north of Jennings, Louisiana, has maximum sustained winds of about 80 mph, the hurricane center said. The mayor of Lake Charles, Louisiana, said Friday night that tarps that were put up to protect buildings damaged six weeks ago by Hurricane Laura are now flying off in Hurricane Delta’s strong winds. Mayor Nic Hunter told The Associated Press that tarps were being ripped away from rooftops after Delta made landfall Friday evening as a Category 2 hurricane. He also said piles of unsecured debris from Laura are also being tossed about in Delta’s high winds.
Category 2 Hurricane “Delta” makes landfall in Louisiana, U.S. – Hurricane “Delta” made landfall near Creole, Louisiana at 23:00 UTC on October 9, 2020, with maximum sustained winds of 155 km/h (100 mph), making it a Category 2 hurricane.The storm had a minimum central pressure of 970 hPa at the time of landfall and was moving NNE at 22 km/h (14 mph).This is the second hurricane to hit the same region o f Louisiana in 43 days, after Laura on August 27. Delta landed just 22 km (14 miles) east of Cameron, where Laura made landfall. While storm surge inundated coastal areas, powerful winds downed trees and powerlines, leaving more than 641 000 customers in Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi are without power, as of 06:30 UTC on October 10.At least 5 Louisiana Parishes issued mandatory evacuation ahead of landfall, including Calcasieu and Cameron. As of 03:00 UTC on October 10, Delta was moving toward the NNE near 15 mph (24 km/h), and this motion is expected to continue through Saturday morning, followed by NE motion through Sunday night. On the forecast track, the center of Delta should move across central and northeastern Louisiana tonight and Saturday morning. After that time, the system is forecast to move across northern Mississippi and into the Tennessee Valley.Hurricane-force winds extend outward up to 55 km (35 miles) from the center and tropical-storm-force winds extend outward up to 260 km (160 miles).Delta weakened into a tropical storm at 06:00 UTC. At the time, its center was located about 25 km (15 miles) ESE of Alexandria, Louisiana.Delta is the first Category 2+ hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana in October since Category 2 Hurricane “Hilda” in 1964.It is the 10th named storm to make landfall in the continental U.S. (CONUS) this year – the most in a single Atlantic hurricane season on record. Prior to 2020, the most named storms to make landfall in the continental U.S. was 9 — set in 1916, Dr. Philip Klotzbach noted.The 9 previous landfalling storms in 2020 are Bertha, Cristobal, Fay, Hanna, Isaias, Laura, Marco, Sally, Beta.Delta is the 5th hurricane to make landfall in CONUS this year, along with Hanna, Isaias, Laura, and Sally.This is the most CONUS hurricane landfalls in a single Atlantic hurricane season since 2005.Delta is also the 2nd hurricane to make landfall in Louisiana this season, after Laura. 2020 is now is the first year with multiple hurricane landfalls in Louisiana since 2005. Cindy, Katrina and Rita made landfall that year. Louisiana has now had four named storm landfalls in 2020 (Cristobal, Laura, Marco and Delta), tying 2020 with 2002 for the most Louisiana named storm landfalls in a single season on record. In 2002, Bertha, Hanna, Isidore and Lili made landfall in Louisiana, Klotzbach noted
Delta leaves soggy mess in already storm-battered Louisiana (Reuters) – Coastal Louisianans on Saturday surveyed the damage left by the wind and water that Hurricane Delta raked across their already storm-battered homes even as it weakened quickly after coming ashore and moved rapidly toward the northeast. Hundreds of thousands of residents were left without power after Delta made landfall as a Category 2 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 100 miles per hour (161 kph) on Friday near the town of Creole. By Saturday morning, however, Delta barely ranked as tropical storm with winds down to 40 miles per hour (65 kph), although it continued bringing heavy rains to northeastern Louisiana, Arkansas and Mississippi, the National Hurricane Center (NHC) reported. The storm brought local flooding of streets and riverbanks after closely tracking the path of destruction left by more powerful Hurricane Laura, which came ashore in late August with 150-mph (241-kph) winds. “Though Delta may have been a ‘weaker’ storm than Laura, Delta has been more of a water event than a wind event,” Lake Charles Mayor Nic Hunter wrote on Facebook on Saturday. With his entire city without power, Hunter urged residents who had evacuated to stay away for at least another day. Laura damaged tens of thousands of homes, leaving roofs across the region dotted with protective blue tarpaulins and more than 6,000 people living temporarily in hotels. Delta spared many of the rooftop tarps that were still up, but it flooded some streets and littered others with downed trees and branches street. “Laura was much worse,” said Lake Charles resident Matthew Williams, 49. “This was more rain than wind.” Slideshow ( 4 images ) Williams, who had just gotten his power back about a week and a half ago after the outage left by Laura, said he rode out the storm at his home which escaped damage in both storms. By mid-morning on Saturday, some 575,000 customers across Louisiana were without power, down from nearly 600,000, according to PowerOutage.US, which tracks disruptions across the United States. No deaths were immediately reported, but authorities cautioned that many storm-related fatalities occur from accidental falls during cleanup or from carbon monoxide poisoning from improper use of home generators. “With power outages across the state, it’s important for everyone using portable generators to do so safely,” Governor John Bel Edwards said on Twitter. As Delta made its way over the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, energy companies cut back U.S. oil production by about 92%, or 1.7 million barrels per day, the most since 2005, when Hurricane Katrina destroyed more than 100 offshore platforms and hobbled output for months.
California’s Sweeping Wildfires Have Now Burned Through More Than 4 Million Acres – California’s wildfires have burned through more than 4 million acres this year – already far surpassing the previous annual record set two years ago in which wildfires covered less than 2 million acres. The California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire said in a statement Sunday that more than 8,200 wildfires – of which 23 major incidentsare currently active – have led to 31 deaths and the destruction of more than 8,400 structures in 2020. “The 4 million mark is unfathomable. It boggles the mind, and it takes your breath away,” Scott McLean, a spokesman for Cal Fire, told the Associated Press. Just on Saturday alone, firefighters fought and fully contained 27 new wildfires. Although temperatures are expected to stay warm statewide Sunday, “a cooling trend is expected to begin slowly, decreasing temperatures slightly each day,” Cal Fire said.
Record-breaking California wildfires surpass 4 million acres (AP) – In a year that has already brought apocalyptic skies and smothering smoke to the West Coast, California set a grim new record Sunday when officials announced that the wildfires of 2020 have now scorched a record 4 million acres – in a fire season that is far from over. The unprecedented figure – an area larger than the state of Connecticut – is more than double the previous record for the most land burned in a single year in California. “The 4 million mark is unfathomable. It boggles the mind, and it takes your breath away,” said Scott McLean, a spokesman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection, known as Cal Fire. “And that number will grow.” So far, in this year’s historic fire season, more than 8,200 California wildfires have killed 31 people and scorched “well over 4 million acres in California” or 6,250 square miles, Cal Fire said Sunday in a statement. The blazes have destroyed more than 8,400 buildings. The astonishing figure is more than double the 2018 record of 1.67 million burned acres (2,609 square miles) in California. All large fire years since Cal Fire started recording figures in 1933 have remained well below the 4 million mark – “until now,” the agency said Sunday in a Tweet. The enormity of the fires has meant that people living far from the flames experienced a degree of misery that in itself was unprecedented, with historically unhealthy air quality and smoke so dense that it blurred the skies across California and on some days even blotted out the sun. Last month, a relentless heat wave hit the state that helped fuel the fires and caused so much air pollution that it seeped indoors, prompting stores across California to sell out of air purifiers.Despite Sunday’s grim milestone, there were signs for optimism. Powerful winds that had been expected to drive flames in recent days hadn’t materialized, and warnings of extreme fire danger for hot, dry and gusty weather expired Saturday morning as a layer of fog rolled in. Clearer skies in some areas allowed large air tankers to drop retardant after being sidelined by smoky conditions several days earlier.
California wildfires spawn first ‘gigafire’ in modern history — California’s extraordinary year of wildfires has spawned another new milestone – the first “gigafire”, a blaze spanning 1m acres, in modern history. On Monday, the August complex fire in northern California expanded beyond 1m acres, elevating it from a mere “megafire” to a new classification, “gigafire”, never used before in a contemporary setting in the state. At 1.03m acres, the fire is larger than the state of Rhode Island and is raging across seven counties, according to fire agency Cal Fire. An amalgamation of several fires caused when lightning struck dry forests in August, the vast conflagration has been burning for 50 days and is only half-contained.The August complex fire heads a list of huge fires that have chewed through4m acres of California this year, a figure called “mind-boggling” by Cal Fire and double the previous annual record. Five of the six largest fires ever recorded in the state have occurred in 2020, resulting in several dozen deaths and thousands of lost buildings.There is little sign of California’s biggest ever fire season receding. The state endured a heatwave this summer, aiding the formation of enormous wildfires even without the seasonal winds that usually fan the blazes that have historically dotted the west coast.Vast, out-of-control fires are increasingly a feature in the US west due to the climate crisis, scientists say, with rising temperatures and prolonged drought causing vegetation and soils to lose moisture. This parched landscape makes larger fires far more likely. Big wildfires are three times more common across the west than in the 1970s, while the wildfire season is three months longer, according to an analysis by Climate Central. The 2020 fire season has caused choking smoke to blanket the west coast and at times blot out the sun. But experts warn this year may soon seem mild by comparison as the world continues to heat up due to the release of greenhouse gases from human activity. “If you don’t like all of the climate disasters happening in 2020, I have some bad news for you about the rest of your life,” said Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University.
Burning Injustice: Why the California Wildfires Are a Class Crisis – Whether it is the flames of the wet Amazon or the fires of the frozen Arctic, wildfires have become the canary in the gold mine. The urgency of a fire is a far cry from the dry scientific language of global warming. They represent everything that is terrifying about climate change. Fire rips through the natural and physical world, leaving behind a blackened and uninhabitable landscape, like watching the next century play out on fast forward. All that is left is a wasteland, showing us, in the words of T.S. Elliot’s poem, “fear in a handful of dust”. Of the 295,000 people that were evacuated in the 2018 California inferno, two names in particular hit the news. Kim Kardashian and Kanye West were forced to abandon their $60 million mansion in the serene gated community just outside of Los Angeles, known as the Hidden Hills. The Hills are home to several Hollywood stars and celebrities, including Kylie Jenner (the world’s youngest billionaire), Miley Cyrus and Britney Spears. When the fire finally started to die down, the couple found themselves having to put out the flames of their own publicity crisis. Reports started to enfold that the couple had hired a private fire team to protect their mansion, a decision they were publicly burned for as critics raged that they should not be able to pay for protection. In an attempt to stem the crisis, Kim Kardashian appeared on ‘The Ellen Show’ to present a $100,000 donation to a firefighter and his wife who had lost their homes in the fire, in a declaration of their devotion to the public Californian firefighting service. Whether Kim and Kanye were wrong for going private is not really the issue here. But it does raise the question – why couldn’t they rely on the public fire service to protect their home? In answering this question, we will see that the climate crisis is a class crisis. As the world warms and becomes ever increasingly hostile to human life, class divides will be sharpened. This is not inevitable. But there are many features of the 2018 Californian wildfires that show the path we are on, an allegory for a century which will be defined by its relationship to the elements.
Devastating wildfires prompt state of emergency in Paraguay – Paraguay has declared a national state of emergency as more than 5 000 wildfires rage amid drought and record hot temperatures across South America. Paraguay’s Congress declared a national emergency on Thursday, October 1 as more wildfires broke out, scorching wide swaths of the Chaco dry forest. The declaration is to boost financial aid for fire-fighting and open the door for seeking international help. Two firefighting aircraft had arrived in the country, set to douse the worst-hit regions. A total of 5 231 individual forest fires have been raging across the country, with most of them concentrated in the Chaco region. The thick smoke had reached as far as the capital Asuncion. Joaquin Roa, the chief of the National Emergency Secretariat, said the Chaco region was a “breeding ground” for wildfires, with air temperatures rising. “All the fires that have been generated are controlled but we have not won the battle, we cannot lower our guard,” Roa added. The country is also experiencing a heatwave and had registered a record high of 45.5 degC (113.9 degF) last week.
Spectacular fireball lights up the sky over Mexico, hits land and sparks a fire – A brilliant fireball blazed over northeastern Mexico around 03:14 UTC on October 7, 2020 (22:14 LT on October 6), leaving witnesses and sky observers startled as the space object put on a spectacular display. The meteorite hit a small town in Tamaulipas, sparking a bush fire, according to local reports. Residents and night sky enthusiasts were in for a delightful sight as an especially bright meteor exploded over northern Mexico. The fireball was most visible over Nuevo Leon, Coahuila, and Tamaulipas. Some witnesses, security cameras, webcams, and doorbell cameras were able to capture the event as it lit up the sky for more than 20 seconds. Local reports said the meteorite landed near Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas state. News outlet Milenio reported that the object set fire to bushes in the area where it fell. No injuries and damages were reported. The Civil Protection agency retrieved several unusual rocks from the incident site for further study.
2020 Antarctic ozone hole one of the largest and deepest in recent years – The 2020 ozone hole over the Antarctic is one of the largest and deepest in recent years, according to scientists with the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S). The hole had grown to 23 million square km (8.8 million square miles)– over twice the size of the U.S. This is above average for the last decade and is spreading over much of the Antarctic continent.”There is much variability in how far ozone hole events develop each year,” said Vincent-Henri Peuch, Director of Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service at ECMWF.”The 2020 ozone hole resembles the one from 2018, which also was a quite large hole, and is definitely in the upper part of the pack of the last fifteen years or so.””With the sunlight returning to the South Pole in the last weeks, we saw continued ozone depletion over the area. After the unusually small and short-lived ozone hole in 2019, which was driven by special meteorological conditions, we are registering a rather large one again this year, which confirms that we need to continue enforcing the Montreal Protocol banning emissions of ozone-depleting chemicals.”NASA’s Ozone Watch reports the lowest value of 95 Dobson Units recorded on October 1, and scientists are seeing indications that this year’s ozone hole has appeared to have reached its maximum extent.The large and deep ozone hole has been driven by a strong and stable cold polar vortex, which kept the temperature over Antarctica consistently cold.The hole grew fast from mid-August and peaked at around 24 million square km (9.2 million square miles) in early October. It now covers 23 million square km (8.8 million square miles)– above average for the past decade and is spreading over much of the Antarctic.
Ozone Hole Over Antarctica Is One of the Biggest in 15 Years – The hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica is one of the largest and deepest in the past 15 years, the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said Tuesday.The ozone hole over Antarctica usually starts to grow in August and reaches its peak in October, The Associated Press explained. This year, it peaked at 24 million square kilometers (approximately 9.3 million square miles) and is now at 23 million square kilometers (approximately 8.9 million square miles), the WMO said. This means the hole is larger than the average for the past decade and extends over most of Antarctica.”With the sunlight returning to the South Pole in the last weeks, we saw continued ozone depletion over the area. After the unusually small and short-lived ozone hole in 2019, which was driven by special meteorological conditions, we are registering a rather large one again this year, which confirms that we need to continue enforcing the Montreal Protocol banning emissions of ozone depleting chemicals,” Vincent-Henri Peuch, director of the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS) at ECMWF, said in the WMO press release. The ozone layer is important because it protects the earth from dangerous ultraviolet radiation, CAMS explained. In the late 20th century, that layer was damaged by the human release of ozone-depleting halocarbons, which the Montreal Protocol of 1987 sought to control. But the size of the ozone hole every year is also impacted by specific weather conditions. This year, a strong polar vortex has chilled the air above Antarctica, and consistently cold air creates the ideal conditions for ozone depletion.”The air has been below minus 78 degrees Celsius, and this is the temperature which you need to form stratospheric clouds – and this quite (a) complex process,” WMO spokesperson Clare Nullis said at a UN briefing reported by The Associated Press. “The ice in these clouds triggers a reaction which then can destroy the ozone zone. So, it’s because of that that we are seeing the big ozone hole this year.” Specifically, the ice can turn nonreactive chemicals into reactive ones, the WMO explained. Light from the sun then triggers chemical reactions that deplete the ozone layer.
New Study Reveals Global Warming Is Affecting Night-Time Temperatures Differently — From the poles to the tropics, the oceans to our cities, we’ve mapped the fluctuations in temperature that are leading to a climate crisis. But strangely, little attention has been paid to the world’s circadian landscapes of night and day. And a new study shows our nocturnal environment is actually warming at a faster rate than our daytime surrounds – and it could prove too much for many species. After analysing more than three decades of daily temperature data from all over the world, researchers from the University of Exeter have concluded there’s an asymmetry in our planet’s warming as it rotates on its axis. The climate records spanned from 1983 to 2017, providing the team with a hefty database of six-hourly surface temperature readings covering virtually the entire planet during some of the warmest years in recorded history. In some spots, the days warmed considerably while night time temperatures barely budged. There were even times of considerable cooling for some environments. But the bigger picture was surprising. Across more than half of the planet’s land surface, the average annual temperature rise at night was a quarter of a degree Celsius more than that of the day’s. A fraction of a degree each year might sound tiny, but over time these increments of heat could add up to have a significant effect on the ecology. “Species that are only active at night or during the day will be particularly affected,” says ecologist and lead author, Daniel Cox from the University of Exeter.
New Study Shows a Vicious Circle of Climate Change Building on Thickening Layers of Warm Ocean Water -Near the surface of the ocean, global warming is creating increasingly distinct layers of warm water that stifle seawater circulations critical for regulating climate and sustaining marine life. The sheets of warm water block flows of heat, carbon, oxygen and nutrients within the water column, and between the oceans and atmosphere. A new study shows more heat is building up in the upper 600 feet of the ocean than deeper down. That increasingly distinct warm layer on the surface can intensify tropical storms, disrupt fisheries, interfere with the ocean absorption of carbon and deplete oxygen, Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State, said. The intensified layering, called ocean stratification, is happening faster than scientists expected, an international team of researchers reported in the study, published Sept. 28 in the journal Nature Climate Change. And that means the negative impacts will arrive faster and also be greater than expected, said Mann, a co-author of the study. The research suggests that some of the worst-case global warming scenarios outlined in major international climate reports can’t be ruled out, he said. If the ocean surface warms faster and less carbon is carried to the depths, those processes along with other climate feedbacks could lead atmospheric CO2 to triple and the global average temperature could increase 8 degrees Fahrenheit by 2100, he added. Increased stratification of the ocean could drive a vicious cycle of warming, Mann added. If more and more heat stays near the surface of the ocean, the warm water will heat the atmosphere above. And if the layers of warm water slow the ocean’s uptake of carbon dioxide, more heat-trapping CO2 will stay in the atmosphere. The researchers found that, overall, stratification in the upper 600 feet of the ocean increased by 6 percent in the last 50 years. Previous calculations measuring the change over time were not as accurate because they didn’t include as much data, said co-author Lijing Cheng, with the Chinese Institute of Atmospheric Physics.
EU: Earth Has Experienced Its Warmest September on Record – The Earth has experienced its warmest September since record-keeping began, according to a European Union agency’s report published Wednesday.The Copernicus Climate Change Service, which tracks global temperatures, published statistics that show 2020 is, so far, tying with 2016 for the warmest calendar year. Global temperatures in January, May and September exceeded those in 2016 and tied in April and June.”There is currently little difference between 2020 and 2016 for the year-to-date,” Copernicus researcher Freja Vambourg said.The report showed that temperatures in Europe were particularly warm, with the cooling La Nina weather event in the eastern Pacific cooling parts of the southern hemisphere. Arctic sea ice saw its second-lowest September average extent on record, more than 40% below the 1981-2020 average. Temperatures in Siberia were “especially high.”Monitors of the Paris Climate Agreement will view the figures with particular alarm: for the 12-month period through to September 2020, the planet was nearly 1.3 degrees Celsius (2.4 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than pre-industrial levels. This is close to the 1.5 degree Celsius threshold for severe impacts to the planet detailed in a 2018 UN climate report. The Paris Agreement, of which many UN nations are signatories, has nations aim to cap global warming “well below” 2 degrees Celsius and at 1.5 degrees if possible.
World and Europe suffer hottest September ever recorded — The world this year experienced its hottest September on record, scientists have reported. Surface air temperatures last month were 0.05C warmer than in September 2019, making it the hottest September on record globally, experts from the European Union’s Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S) said. It was also the hottest September Europe has seen, beating the previous record for the continent, set in 2018, by around 0.2C. Temperatures were also well above average in other parts of the world including in the Middle East, parts of South America and Australia, the scientists said. And temperatures in the Siberian Arctic continued to be warmer than average, continuing the hot spell that has affected parts of the region since early spring. Monitoring by C3S also confirms that the average Arctic sea ice extent was the second lowest recorded for September, the month when sea ice is at its lowest after the summer melt before it refreezes in winter, after 2012.
Global food production poses an increasing climate threat – According to the authors of a new study published in Nature, rising nitrous oxide emissions are putting reaching climate goals and the objectives of the Paris Agreement in jeopardy. The growing use of nitrogen fertilizers in the production of food worldwide is increasing concentrations of nitrous oxide in the atmosphere–a greenhouse gas 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide and which remains in the atmosphere longer than a human lifetime. The study, which was undertaken by an international consortium of 57 scientists from 14 countries and 48 research institutions, with IIASA in a key role, was led by Auburn University, Alabama, USA under the umbrella of the Global Carbon Project and the International Nitrogen Initiative. The researchers’ objective was to produce the most comprehensive assessment to date of all sources and sinks of the potent greenhouse gas nitrous oxide. The findings point to an alarming trend affecting climate change: Nitrous oxide has risen 20% from pre-industrial levels and its growth has accelerated over recent decades due to emissions from various human activities. “The dominant driver of the increase in atmospheric nitrous oxide comes from agriculture, and the growing demand for food and feed for animals will further increase global nitrous oxide emissions,” “There is a conflict between the way we are feeding people and stabilizing the climate.”
U.S. Emissions Dropped in 2019: Here’s Why in 6 Charts – Greenhouse gas emissions in the United States dropped last year after a sharp increase in 2018, new data released Tuesday show. The drop resumed a long-term downward trend driven chiefly by a shift away from coal power generation. The story of the emissions decline has largely been one of market forces – rather than policies – that have made utilities close coal plants in favor of cheaper natural gas and renewable energy. But this shift to lower-carbon energy has been restricted to the electricity sector, and the nation’s emissions cuts are still not on track to meet the targets it agreed to under the Paris climate accord.In order to meet those goals, experts say, federal policies will likely need to target other sectors that collectively make up a majority of U.S. emissions. Overall, U.S. greenhouse gas emissions fell about 2 percent in 2019, according to preliminary estimates by Rhodium Group, an economic analysis firm. The previous year, strong economic growth and other factors had pushed emissions up roughly 3 percent.The 2019 drop was driven by a nearly 10 percent fall in emissions from the power sector, the biggest decline in decades, according to Rhodium. And the story there is all about coal Coal generation in the U.S. fell by 18 percent last year, the largest annual decline on record, according to Rhodium. Another study, published in December, found a smaller but still dramatic drop for coal generation last year. Renewable power sources such as wind and solar have seen sharp increases in recent years as their costs of generation have fallen below that of coal. But natural gas has replaced far more coal generation capacity than renewables. The fracking boom sent natural gas prices plummeting, helping drive a rapid shift by electric utilities away from coal. But while burning gas is cleaner than burning coal, natural gas power generation still emits carbon dioxide. Yet emissions from other sectors of the economy continued to rise. Emissions from industry rose slightly last year and are now greater than those from coal-fired power plants. Emissions from buildings were up, too. And emissions from other sectors of the economy collectively grew by more.
Anxiety Mounts Abroad About Climate Leadership and the Volatile U.S. Election – Whenever artist Michael Aschauer returns home after an extended stay in the United States, people here pepper him with questions about the direction America is heading. With gallows humor typical of the city, they often ask, “Will it fall apart slowly, or very fast?” he said, adding that Vienna has plenty of experience with how rising and falling empires can destabilize global systems. He said it’s hard to imagine that Americans would re-elect the incumbent president, but that it can’t be ruled out, either, given the current volatility of U.S. politics. “The outcome will have profound consequences for the future of Earth’s climate,” he added. Carbon budgets detailed in recent climate reports show that four more years of pro-fossil fuel policies in the U.S. would make it much harder for the world to reach the Paris climate agreement goal of preventing catastrophic global warming, he said. On the other hand, Biden’s decarbonization plan would accelerate demand for renewable energy in the world’s biggest consumer economy and speed the global shift to a zero-carbon economy. He also said he’s noticed a brain drain away from the U.S. in fields like the arts and technology, and expects that to continue if Trump is reelected. Vienna, Berlin and other European cities are already full of American political refugees, he added. In terms of climate policy, four more years of Trump would be damaging indeed, said Austrian-born Gernot Wagner, a climate economics professor at New York University. “We don’t have another presidential term to waste,” he said. “A Trump win would be devastating, especially since it’s not about emissions in any given year, but about the trajectory.” And what happens in the U.S. affects China, Europe, India, Nigeria and elsewhere, he added. “A lot around climate policy is about momentum: ‘If you do something, then I will, too.’ A race to the top, rather than the bottom,” he said. “That’s what Paris was all about and still is. It’s also where a Biden victory can have the biggest impact.”
Having Rolled Back Obama’s Centerpiece Climate Plan, Trump Defends a Vastly More Limited Approach In the biggest case to reach a federal appeals court so far over President Donald Trump’s dismantling of his predecessor’s climate policy, administration attorneys argued on Thursday that the Clean Air Act gives the Environmental Protection Agency only limited authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from electric utilities. President Barack Obama asserted more expansive powers in his Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of his strategy to combat climate change, which would have cut greenhouse gas emissions by a third. The plan gave states the authority to set emissions goals across the power sector and encouraged them to shift away from coal to cleaner sources of power such as natural gas, wind and solar. It was challenged by industry and 27 states and blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court before Obama even left office. Trump replaced Obama’s plan last year with something he called the Affordable Clean Energy rule, which was based on a far narrower interpretation of the Clean Air Act and empowered the EPA to seek minor emissions reductions at individual coal-fired power plants. Instead of reducing emissions by a third, greenhouse gases would fall by less than 1 percent. The argument Thursday in the U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Columbia came in a lawsuit filed by the American Lung Association and other environmental groups, 20 Democratic states and the District of Columbia to block Trump’s limited approach on grounds that it fails to adequately safeguard public health as the Clean Air Act requires. Jonathan Brightbill, principal deputy assistant attorney general, defended Trump’s Affordable Clean Energy rule, saying Congress only gave the EPA authority to establish standards for power plant operators to achieve greater heat efficiency at individual power plants, thereby reducing emissions.
Climate falsehoods reached millions on Facebook — Thursday, October 8, 2020 — Climate denial groups have used Facebook to spread disinformation to millions of people in the lead-up to the 2020 elections, according to a new report. And they did it on the cheap. The report by InfluenceMap, a London-based nonprofit that tracks climate lobbying, highlighted 51 climate disinformation ads that ran this year on Facebook. They found the ads were targeted to older men in rural areas and that they were viewed an estimated 8 million times. All for the cost of $42,000. InfluenceMap tracked nine groups that spread climate disinformation: PragerU, the Texas Public Policy Foundation, the CO2 Coalition, Turning Point USA, the Capital Research Center, the Clear Energy Alliance, the Washington Policy Center, the Competitive Enterprise Institute and the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. One of those groups, the CO2 Coalition, has told E&E News that it is using Facebook to reach an audience outside conservative media. The findings prompted an outcry from Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, a Rhode Island Democrat and longtime climate activist. He told E&E News that Facebook is “somewhere between complicit and helpless” in stopping the spread of climate disinformation. “This is the company in the last election that didn’t have any bells ring when political ads were being paid for in Russian rubles, so their capacity to make appalling, dumb decisions is pretty robust, and in this case they failed to screen out fraudulent propaganda,” Whitehouse said. The InfluenceMap analysis also provided a window into the audience that climate denial groups are trying to win over, in this case older white men. Broadly, the Facebook ads were targeted more to men across all age groups. They had the highest number of views per person in Texas and Wyoming.
Supreme Court takes up energy companies’ appeal over Baltimore climate suit (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by energy companies including BP PLC, Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell PLC contesting a lawsuit by the city of Baltimore seeking damages for the impact of global climate change. The justices will weigh whether the lawsuit must be heard in state court as the city would prefer or in federal court, which corporate defendants generally view as a more favorable venue. The suit targets 21 U.S. and foreign energy companies that extract, produce, distribute or sell fossil fuels. The outcome could affect around a dozen similar lawsuits by U.S. states, cities and counties including Rhode Island and New York City seeking to hold such companies liable for the impact of climate change. Baltimore and the other jurisdictions are seeking damages under state law for the harms they said they have sustained due to climate change, which they attribute in part to the companies’ role in producing fossil fuels that produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases. The plaintiffs have said they have had to spend more on infrastructure such as flood control measures to combat sea-level rise caused by a warming climate. Climate change has been melting land-based ice sheets and glaciers.
Exxon Carbon Emissions and Climate: Leaked Plans Reveal Rising CO2 Output – Exxon Mobil Corp. had plans to increase annual carbon-dioxide emissions by as much as the output of the entire nation of Greece, an analysis of internal documents reviewed by Bloomberg shows, setting one of the largest corporate emitters against international efforts to slow the pace of warming. The drive to expand both fossil-fuel production and planet-warming pollution has come at a time when some of Exxon’s rivals, such as BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc, are moving to curb oil and zero-out emissions. Exxon’s own assessment of its $210 billion investment strategy shows yearly emissions rising 17% by 2025, according to internal projections. The emissions estimates predate the Covid-19 pandemic, which has slashed global demand for oil and thrown the company’s finances into distress, making it unclear if Exxon will complete its plans for growth. The internal figures reflect only some of the measures Exxon would take to reduce emissions, the company said. The largest U.S. oil producer has never made a commitment to lower oil and gas output or set a date by which it will become carbon neutral. Exxon has also never publicly disclosed its forecasts for its own emissions. But the internal documents show for the first time that Exxon has carefully assessed the direct emissions it expects from the seven-year investment plan adopted in 2018 by Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods. A chart in the documents lists Exxon’s direct emissions for 2017 – 122 million metric tons of COâ‚‚ equivalent – as well as a projected figure for 2025 of 143 million tons. The additional 21 million tons is a net result of Exxon’s estimate for ramping up production, selling assets and undertaking efforts to reduce pollution by deploying renewable energy and burying carbon dioxide. In a statement released after the publication of this story, Exxon said its internal projections are “a preliminary, internal assessment of estimated cumulative emission growth through 2025 and did not include the [additional] mitigation and abatement measures that would have been evaluated in the planning process. Furthermore, the projections identified in the leaked documents have significantly changed, a fact that was not fully explained or prominently featured in the article.” Exxon declined to provide any details on the new projections.
No. 1 fossil fuel funder JPMorgan says it will align with Paris Accord – JPMorgan Chase will establish intermediate emission targets for 2030 for its financing portfolio and begin communicating about its efforts in 2021. It will focus on the oil and gas, electric power, and automotive manufacturing sectors and set targets on a sector-by-sector basis.It will aim to support companies to advance the Paris Agreement goals, including reducing greenhouse gas emissions and expanding investment in low- and zero-carbon energy sources and technologies. JPMorgan Chase will advocate for carbon pricing and the commercialization of new technologies that can help advance decarbonization.It’s also launching the Center for Carbon Transition to provide clients in the Corporate & Investment Bank and Commercial Banking with centralized access to sustainability-focused financing, research, and advisory solutions. The center will also engage clients in their long-term business strategies and related carbon disclosures.JPMorgan Chase will share more details in its next climate report in spring 2021.JPMorgan Chase is the No. 1 fossil fuel bank in the world by a 36% margin, with $268 billion in lending and underwriting to fossil fuel companies in the four years after the Paris Climate Agreement was adopted (2016-2019), according to the Rainforest Action Network (RAN). Its No. 1 fossil fuel client is TC Energy, which is still trying to push through the controversial Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.Further, as Electrek reported on September 24, JPMorgan Chase and Wells Fargo together provide almost 40% of financing for fracking companies, despite warnings that the sector is financially unsustainable. And yesterday, Electrek reported that Exxon plans to actually increase its emissions, according to internal documents. Exxon is JPMorgan Chase’s No. 3 fossil fuel client.
California blackouts caused by climate change, poor planning – Los Angeles Times – California suffered its first rolling blackouts in nearly 20 years because energy planners didn’t take climate change into account and didn’t line up the right power sources to keep the lights on after sundown, according to a damning self-evaluation released Tuesday by three state agencies.The rotating power outages didn’t last long and affected only a small fraction of the state’s 40 million people. Just under half a million homes and businesses lost power for as little as 15 minutes and as long as two and a half hours on Aug. 14, with another 321,000 utility customers going dark for anywhere from eight to 90 minutes the following evening.But officials should have been prepared for the climate-driven extreme heat that caused electricity demand to soar and briefly left the nation’s largest state without sufficient power supplies, the state’s Energy Commission, Independent System Operator and Public Utilities Commission acknowledged in a preliminary “root cause analysis” demanded by Gov. Gavin Newsom. The immediate cause of the power shortages was the heat storm, which saw California experience four of its five hottest August days in the last 35 years, the analysis found. Temperature records were shattered across the American West, limiting the Golden State’s ability to make up for its energy deficit by importing electrons from other states.State agencies failed to adequately plan for that type of heat event despite knowing how quickly the world is heating up, the report concluded. They also failed to direct electricity providers to buy sufficient power supplies to cover the evening hours when solar panels go offline. And they created complex energy market mechanisms that masked the inadequacies.”The combination of these factors was an extraordinary event. But it is our responsibility and intent to plan for such events, which are becoming increasingly common in a world rapidly being impacted by climate change,” wrote Independent System Operator President Elliot Mainzer, Public Utilities Commission President Marybel Batjer and Energy Commission Chair David Hochschild.Careful planning to ensure adequate power supplies will become even more important as California phases out fossil fuels and moves toward 60% renewable energy by 2030 and 100% climate-friendly energy by 2045, as required by state law.
California’s blackouts expose Biden-Harris and the Green New Deal – The nation has been watching California experiencing its first intentional rolling blackouts since the state’s 2001 energy crisis. Gov. Gavin Newsom, pointing out that solar panels don’t work at night and acknowledging the unusually calm winds which don’t move turbines, called the situation “unacceptable.” That situation, the one created by government leaders supplanting reliable, inexpensive, domestic, abundant fossil fuels for the en vogue yet inadequate green energy, isn’t getting better, either, as the energy demand is only increasing and likely to exceed the record reached in 2006. The Wall Street Journal’s Editorial Board referred to this as “California’s green new normal.” If Democratic vice presidential nominee and California Senator Kamala Harris is given the reins to America’s energy policy, rolling blackouts, a consistent lack of energy, and much worse will become a nationwide norm. Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has been inconsistent regarding his energy policy platform throughout the campaign trail. During one of the Democratic presidential debates earlier this year, Biden was very explicit in saying that he “would make sure it’s [fracking] eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those [fracking and coal], either … ” Since then, his campaign team has stated that he does not support a nationwide fracking ban but still wants to stop all oil and gas drilling on federal lands. Senator Harris has been remarkably consistent in her stance on fracking. Harris has repeatedly bragged about her intention to ban fracking and enforce a series of restrictions on the natural gas and oil industry. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s, D-NY, Green New Deal is a codification of the eco-left’s radical agenda – Harris is a proud co-sponsor. At a minimum, the Green New Deal would impose a large and recurring cost on American families. According to a Power The Future study, it would cost a typical household at least $74,000 in the first year of implementation and more than $40,000 every year thereafter. Another report by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute estimates that a ban on fracking in 2021 would lead to the loss of 5.9 million jobs in seven states within the next five years. About 600,000 of these job losses would take place in Pennsylvania, a key swing state.
Prince William launches Pound Sterling50 million Earthshot Prize, with a nod to John F. Kennedy – A Pound Sterling50 million ($64.54 million) prize focused on the environment was launched by Prince William on Thursday, with the Duke of Cambridge describing the next 10 years as “a critical decade for change.” Dubbed “the most prestigious global environment prize in history,” the Earthshot Prize – the name is a reference to the “moon shot” space program associated with President John F. Kennedy – will select five winners a year between 2021 and 2030. The prize itself will look to identify “evidence-based solutions to the biggest environmental problems the planet faces.” It will focus on five “Earthshots,” or aims: Protect and restore nature; clean our air; revive our oceans; build a waste-free world; and fix our climate. One winner per category will be chosen every year, with each receiving Pound Sterling1 million. That money will be used to “support environmental and conservation projects that are agreed with the winners.” Who’s eligible for the prize? Nominations for the inaugural awards, which will take place in London next fall, open in November, with more than 100 “nominating partners” from around the world asked to put forward candidates. According to the Earthshot website, those eligible for the award include “scientists, activists, economists, community projects, leaders, governments, banks, businesses, cities, and countries.” In a statement issued Thursday, Prince William said: “Time is of the essence, which is why we believe that this very ambitious global prize is the only way forward.” Although formally launched today, plans for the prize were announced at the end of 2019 and Prince William, together with the Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge, has been working on the scheme for two years. The awards will be made by Prince William and an Earthshot Prize Council, with experts assisting the judges. The prize is also backed by an alliance of organizations including the WWF, Greenpeace, the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, the Jack Ma Foundation and the Aga Khan Development Network.
China Has Surprised the World With Climate Action Announcement -China’s President Xi Jinping surprised the global community recently by committing his country to net-zero emissions by 2060. Prior to this announcement, the prospect of becoming “carbon neutral” barely rated a mention in China’s national policies.China currently accounts for about 28% of global carbon emissions – double the U.S. contribution and three times the European Union’s. Meeting the pledge will demand a deep transition of not just China’s energy system, but its entire economy.Importantly, China’s use of coal, oil and gas must be slashed, and its industrial production stripped of emissions. This will affect demand for Australia’s exports in coming decades.It remains to be seen whether China’s climate promise is genuine, or simply a ploy to win international favor. But it puts pressure on many other nations – not least Australia – to follow. Coal is currently used to generate about 60% of China’s electricity. Coal must be phased out for China to meet its climate target, unless technologies such as carbon-capture and storage become commercially viable.Natural gas is increasingly used in China for heating and transport, as an alternative to coal and petrol. To achieve carbon neutrality, China must dramatically reduce its gas use.Electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel-cell vehicles must also come to dominate road transport – currently they account for less than 2% of the total fleet.China must also slash the production of carbon-intensive steel, cement and chemicals, unless they can be powered by renewable electricity or zero-emissions hydrogen. One report suggests meeting the target will mean most of China’s steel is produced using recycled steel, in a process powered by renewable electricity. Modeling in that report suggests China’s use of iron ore – and the coking coal required to process it into steel – will decrease by 75%. The implications for Australia’s mining industry would be huge; around 80% of our iron ore is exported to China.
Top Law Firms Called Out for Serving Fossil Fuel Industry Clients in New Climate ‘Scorecard’ – With lawsuits against major fossil fuel producers over climate damages on the rise, a new reportand initiative examines how prestigious law firms are enabling climate breakdown. The student-led initiative, Law Students for Climate Accountability, calls for holding the legal industry accountable for profiting from work defending and lobbying for fossil fuel clients as the world faces what scientists say is a climate emergency. This campaign is emerging as industries ranging from finance to insurance are facing greater scrutiny in a rapidly warming world. “Law firms write the contracts for fossil fuel projects, lobby to weaken environmental regulations, and help fossil fuel companies evade accountability in court. Our research is the first to expose the broad extent of firms’ role in driving the climate crisis,” Alisa White, a student at Yale Law School and a lead author on the report, said in a press release. The 2020 Law Firm Climate Change Scorecard, as the report is titled, looks at the top 100 most prestigious law firms in the U.S. (known as the Vault 100) and grades them according to their work in service of the fossil fuel industry. According to the analysis, the top 100 firms “worked on ten times as many cases exacerbating climate change as cases addressing climate change; were the legal advisors on five times more transactional work for the fossil fuel industry than the renewable energy industry;” and “lobbied five times more for fossil fuel companies than renewable energy companies.” Overall, per this scorecard, only four firms received an “A” grade while 41 firms scored a “D,” and 26 received an “F.” The report summary calls out several of the firms graded “F.” The firm Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison, for example, which represents ExxonMobil in climate liability lawsuits, “worked on as many cases exacerbating climate change as 62 other Vault 100 firms combined,” the report states. Last winter Paul, Weiss faced protests from law students at Harvard, Yale, New York University, and the University of Michigan during recruitment events, with the students calling on the firm to drop Exxon as a client. These protests and the new Law Students for Climate Accountability initiative indicate that legal firms that refuse to drop major fossil fuel clients may start to face recruitment challenges. Young people are increasingly engaging in climate activism and leading the demands for change across all segments of society, including now in the legal field.
Fossil fuel group with Trump ties slams governor, environmentalists – A nonprofit fossil fuel advocacy group with ties to President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign has been targeting environmental organizations, Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and Democratic governors, including New Mexico’s Michelle Lujan Grisham, with criticism of energy policies it calls “radical” and “disastrous.” In July, Power the Future attacked Lujan Grisham for participating in a “clean energy conversation” hosted by the Biden campaign. Larry Behrens, the group’s Western states director, also has published opinion pieces in The New Mexican and other media outlets criticizing the Energy Transition Act, legislation Lujan Grisham signed into law in 2019 to create a timeline for shifting the state to renewable energy. Behrens, who worked as a communications staffer for former Republican Gov. Susana Martinez, has portrayed Lujan Grisham’s administration as left wing and intent on destroying good-paying jobs in New Mexico’s oil, gas and coal industries. Behrens declined a request for an interview on his work but defended it in an email. “I work hard to research issues that are important in the energy conversation both nationally and here in New Mexico,” he said. Power the Future, classified as a 501(c)(4) “social welfare organization” with the IRS, has been conducting opposition research as well as using blog posts, print media, appearances on Fox News and digital advertising to praise Trump’s energy policies and slam what it calls “the eco-left” narrative and Biden’s energy policies. According to the Center for Responsive Politics, Power the Future has spent $157,776 on Facebook ads since it formed in late 2017. In recent months, the group has largely focused on print and TV news organizations and opposition research. Because of its IRS status, it does not have to disclose its donors – raising concerns among so-called good government groups that advocate for transparency in politics.
Marsh Sanctuary alleges special treatment for proposed Mount Kisco solar farm – Marsh Sanctuary, a 156-acre nature conservatory in Mount Kisco, is asking a court to strike a zoning law that it contends was pushed by village officials with a financial interest in building a solar farm on pristine land next to its property.”A municipality may not use its police power to spot zone a particular parcel of land for special treatment,” according to the complaint filed last month in Westchester Supreme Court, “and which serves to benefit only the owner and lessee of the spot zoned parcel.”The lawsuit also names Sunrise Community Solar LLC, owned by Doug Hertz, chairman of the village planning board, and Skull Island Partners, a Florida company that owns the 25-acre property at 180 S. Bedford Road.”It is unfortunate that the few who disagree with thoughtfully and lawfully enacted legislation elect to bring false claims in a lawsuit,” Edward Brancati, the village manager, stated in an email. “The village will have to use taxpayer dollars to defend the solar legislation and to correct all the misrepresentations outlined in this ill-conceived lawsuit.” In 2018, the village amended zoning laws to allow solar panel arrays to be installed in certain places, subject to a special use permit. The original draft did not permit large, ground-mounted arrays greater than 10,000 square feet in conservation districts, according to the complaint. Then the planning board received a last-minute request by “some unknown person” to allow large solar arrays in the conservation district around Marsh Sanctuary.
Nearly 500k clean energy workers remain unemployed since pandemic start – Nearly half a million clean energy workers remain unemployed since the start of the coronavirus pandemic, according to a new analysis. The analysis of unemployment filings by BW Research Partnership shows that 477,900 clean energy workers, or 14 percent of the sector’s pre-pandemic workforce, do not have jobs. Prior to the coronavirus, the sector had been expected to add 175,000 jobs this year. Things got slightly better for the sector in September, when 12,500 jobs were added. The 477,900 unemployment figure is down from the 594,300 jobs that had been lost in March and April. However, clean energy job growth last month was 60 percent slower than job growth nationwide, the analysis said. A large share of the job losses have been in energy efficiency, where 336,700 workers lost their jobs. A total of 75,700 renewable electric power generation workers, 10,000 clean fuels workers, 21,400 clean transmission, distribution and storage workers and 34,200 clean vehicles workers have lost their jobs since the pandemic began. In light of the job losses, clean energy advocates have pushed for targeted stimulus. However, past stimulus bills have lacked significant assistance for the sector, and current negotiations have stalled. “The hard-hitting impacts of COVID-19 continue to roil the renewable energy workforce,” said a statement from Gregory Wetstone, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy. “To keep that unemployment number from rising further, our ask to Congress is simple and urgent: We need temporary refundability for renewable tax credits so that projects can continue to be built in spite of a COVID-constrained tax equity market, and a delay in the scheduled phasedown of existing credits in recognition of the adverse nationwide impact the pandemic has had on the renewable sector this year,” Wetstone said.
Renew the renewables | Toledo Blade editorial – Most of the debate about whether to repeal Ohio’s scandal-tainted House Bill 6 has focused on its main provision, providing a $1 billion bailout to Ohio’s nuclear plants, and the fact that it is at the center of $61 million bribery scandal that led to charges against former House Speaker Larry Householder and his political allies. But as lawmakers mull over what to do with HB6 now that it has been revealed as a vehicle of massive corruption in the state, they ought to consider its other flaws, including the fact that it wiped out Ohio’s genuine renewable energy standards. Gov. Mike DeWine has urged lawmakers to repeal the tainted HB6 and then approve an honest replacement that achieves the same thing – saves the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear power plants and protects the plants’ jobs and communities at the same time. The genuine argument at the heart of HB6 is about preserving Ohio’s energy diversity. In the current age of cheap natural gas, nuclear power just hasn’t been able to compete. But the cost of various energy sources is cyclical and the relative affordability of natural gas, nuclear energy, and other sources will certainly change over time. Among those other sources are true renewable energy such as solar and wind, which took an unconscionable hit in HB6. The bill scaled back renewable-energy goals set in 2008 that would have required Ohio utilities to source 12.5 percent of their energy from renewable sources like solar and wind by 2027. Instead, HB6 sets a goal of sourcing 8.5 percent of Ohio’s energy from renewable sources by 2026 and then the mandates end. Most appallingly, backers of HB6 pointed to this and bragged the bill would reduce consumers’ energy bills. Ohio’s energy policy should encourage more use of renewable energy for a variety of reasons, not the least of which is to improve the state’s environment. But green energy also means jobs in Ohio, particularly for the Toledo region where the solar industry has been growing for years. There are plenty of reasons to wipe away HB6 and replace it with something better. A smart and reasonable renewable energy plan is at the top of the list.
DOE study: Solar-hydro projects could power 40% of world — Linking floating solar panels with hydropower could produce the equivalent of 40% of the world’s electricity, according to a new study by researchers at the Department of Energy. Published this week by a team at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the study provides the first global look by federal researchers at the technical potential of the hybrid concept. The research found that by constructing solar panels on the surface of hydro reservoirs and feeding the power they generate into the same substation, both energy resources might become cheaper, more efficient and more reliable. By turning to solar production during dry seasons, hydropower operators could conserve more of their impounded water, the NREL team said. Transmission lines could also tap into a second, intermittent source of electricity, bringing them closer to their total capacity. Under the concept, solar energy could be used for energy storage purposes by pumping water into upper reservoirs for later use. Solar operators, meanwhile, could count on a firmer resource as backup during cloudy periods, allowing them to claim a higher capacity credit – and curtail less production. Virtual agreements that link solar panels at a separate site to hydro production could also be used with similar results, the study said. If floating solar panels were arrayed on more than 379,000 hydro reservoirs globally, the resultant hybrid could generate anywhere from 16% to 40% of the world’s 2018 electricity production, according to the study, which was published in the journal Renewable Energy. In places like the Southwest, floating panel arrays might also cut down on evaporation at reservoirs, said Nathan Lee, lead author of the study and a researcher on NREL’s Integrated Decision Support team, which often advises the State Department on international renewable energy questions.
UK PM Boris Johnson says offshore wind will power every home in the country by 2030 – U.K. Prime Minister Boris Johnson said on Tuesday that he wanted the country to become the “world leader in low cost clean power generation.” Speaking at the Conservative Party annual conference, which was delivered virtually, Johnson stressed the importance of renewable energy sources, especially offshore wind. “We believe that in ten years’ time, offshore wind will be powering every home in the country, with our target rising from 30 gigawatts to 40 gigawatts,” he said. “You heard me right: your kettle, your washing machine, your cooker, your heating, your plug-in electric vehicle, the whole lot of them, will get their juice cleanly and without guilt from the breezes that blow around these islands,” he added. The pledge to increase offshore wind capacity was included in the Conservative Party’s manifesto for the 2019 general election. Johnson said he remembered how some people used to sneer at wind power 20 years ago, in an apparent reference to himself, given he had once claimed wind farms couldn’t “pull the skin off a rice pudding.” His comments criticizing the effectiveness of wind power were made in 2013, however. The prime minister said Pound Sterling160 million ($207.46 million) would be invested in ports and factories to manufacture what he described as the “next generation of turbines” – a move he later claimed would generate 60,000 jobs – and also acknowledged the role floating offshore wind could play. “As Saudi Arabia is to oil, the U.K. is to wind – a place of almost limitless resource but, in the case of wind, without the carbon emissions, without the damage to the environment,” he said. According to figures from industry body RenewableUK, the U.K.’s operational offshore wind capacity stands at a little over 10.4 gigawatts. The U.K. is already home to a number of large offshore wind farms. These include Hornsea One, in waters off Yorkshire, England, which has a capacity of 1.2 gigawatts. In response to Johnson’s remarks, Hugh McNeal, RenewableUK’s chief executive, said the government had “raised the ambition for offshore wind and renewables, and our industry is ready to meet the challenge.” “A green recovery with renewables at its heart will be good for consumers and jobs, as well as helping to meet our 2050 net zero emissions target,” he added. The pledge to ramp up offshore wind capacity was met with measured optimism from environmental organizations. Mike Childs, who is head of policy at Friends of the Earth, said Johnson’s “U-turn” on wind showed “the renewables argument has clearly been won.” “Investment in off-shore wind is certainly critical for powering a cleaner, fairer future, but Boris Johnson mustn’t ignore the huge contribution onshore wind could make too,” he added, before going on to call for planning restrictions on onshore wind to be “urgently” reversed. “We also need a comprehensive nationwide energy efficiency programme to create jobs, cut fuel bills, prevent people shivering in heat-leaking homes and help face down the climate emergency,” he said. In a tweet reacting to the news Jonathan Bartley, who is co-leader of the Green Party, said it was “good to see the Prime Minister’s conversion” but noted that more detail was needed on how things would be funded. “It still falls far short of what is urgently needed and what could be achieved,” he added.
Once shut out, Maine cannabis industry now eligible for sustainable energy grants – One of Maine’s most energy-intensive industries will no longer be shut out of the state’s energy efficiency incentive programs.The trustees of Efficiency Maine, a ratepayer-funded agency that promotes sustainable energy usage, voted 5-2 on Wednesday to reverse a ban on giving energy-efficiency grantsto state-legal marijuana businesses, concluding they are just as likely to last long enough to produce the energy savings needed to justify the grant as any other kind of business.In 2017, Efficiency Maine trustees worried the Trump administration might crack down on cannabis businesses, even if they are state licensed, because they operate outside of federal law. That would make it impossible for any grant recipient to save enough money to meet the program’s cost-effectiveness requirement. “It takes time to make your money back on these grants,” said Executive Director Michael Stoddard. “Three years ago, we were trying to look into our crystal ball to determine how reasonable it was to determine a cannabis business would have the kind of time it takes to do that. Every project is different, but with most, it takes a number of years.”
Ag officials release gas station upgrade grants for biofuels — Federal agriculture officials said Thursday they awarded $22 million in grants to gas stations, convenience stores and fuel distribution sites in 14 states to upgrade pumps, fuel lines and storage tanks as part of a program designed to increase the use of higher blends of ethanol fuel and biodiesel. U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Sonny Perdue announced the grants in several stops on Thursday including two locations in Iowa as part of a $100 million program announced in May to boost biofuels distribution. The agency said in a statement that the initial funding is expected to increase ethanol demand by nearly 150 million gallons annually. Grants were announced for projects in California, Florida, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, New York, Ohio, Utah and Wisconsin. USDA said it plans on announcing additional grants in the coming weeks. Critics called the timing of the distribution of the money an election year ploy to attract rural voters hesitant to support Donald Trump for re-election after trade disputes and biofuels policies hurt ag sales. “Today we are getting an opportunity to witness one more election stunt from the Trump administration,” said Patty Judge, a Democrat, who once served as lieutenant governor and state agriculture secretary. Ethanol groups welcomed the help. “It represents a major milestone in our efforts to ensure more Americans can access cleaner and more affordable ethanol-blended fuel,” said Emily Skor, CEO of Growth Energy, a biofuels trade group.
Automakers’ risky bet: EVs are better than gas cars — Tuesday, October 6, 2020 — As Ford Motor Co., General Motors Co. and Volkswagen AG recently have unveiled marquee electric cars, they have let slip a remarkable admission for companies built on oil: Electric models will in some ways be superior. Volkswagen has described its upcoming ID.4 SUV as a combination of its best cars. GM suggests future electric vehicles will be “more responsive than its internal combustion equivalents.” Ford says its electric F-150 will transform tailgating parties, while being cheaper to own, and faster and more powerful than any truck it’s ever made. These claims may not surprise EV owners: The vehicles are quiet, require little maintenance, are cheaper in most places to fuel and can rocket off the line from a standstill. But until now, the major automakers have been loath to say so. Embracing EVs is a treacherous pivot in a highly competitive market where traditional automakers must compete against one another while also fending off new electric vehicle makers like Tesla Inc. and Rivian Automotive Inc. – companies that aren’t burdened with a legacy to protect. The foundation of the global automotive market is still the internal combustion engine, and despite the billions of dollars that car companies have committed to building EVs for the future, today’s balance sheet depends on selling the gas-powered ones on the lot.In the span of the next two years, Americans will see Ford electrify the country’s longtime bestselling vehicle, the F-150 truck, and the storied Mustang brand with the Mach-E. GM aims to reinvigorate the Cadillac with an electric crossover called the Lyriq and roll out an electric version of the Hummer, which was once the stereotype of the exhaust-spewing SUV. Meanwhile, Volkswagen is pinning its U.S. hopes on the ID.4, the first in what is expected to be a long line of EVs and a transition away from its diesel scandal five years ago (Energywire, Sept. 24). Marketing experts said that companies like GM, Ford and VW are walking a tightrope by trying to get customers excited about the new product without diminishing enthusiasm for the old. They are at the early phase, when the electric models are promised but not yet delivered.
California’s Salton Sea offers chance for US battery supply chain, despite financial, policy challenges – Developing a lithium industry in California’s Salton Sea, an area that experts think could supply more than a third of lithium demand in the world today, could help set up a multi-billion dollar domestic supply chain for electric vehicle batteries, according to a new report from New Energy Nexus. But doing so will require navigating multiple financial and policy-related challenges, including receiving financial backing for demonstrating and commercializing lithium recovery projects, the report noted – without which, manufacturers could be hesitant to enter into contracts with lithium producers. For the power sector, having a domestic supply chain for lithium-ion batteries could allow projects to move faster, said Todd Tolliver, senior manager of storage technologies at ICF. “And given the volatility in financing that we’ve heard a lot about, to of course the dynamics of the global pandemic … it may help with some of the financing risk that’s involved in the process.” The Salton Sea, located in southeast California, is the largest inland body of water in the state and a geothermal resource, currently hosting 11 geothermal plants. Regulators in California have been eyeing the potential of the region to be a ‘Lithium Valley’ for a while now; in May, the California Energy Commission (CEC) awarded around $10 million in grants for three geothermal-related projects, in part because of the potential to boost the state’s emerging lithium recovery sector. Lithium deposits in the Imperial Valley could result in annual revenues of as much as $860 million, according to the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Renewable Energy Laboratory, the CEC noted at the time. One of the benefits of this resource is that it’s effectively a byproduct of the already existing geothermal power production business in the area, Kennedy said – the brine is already being brought to the surface for industrial purposes and power production, “and then as it’s cooled on the surface, the salts will be precipitated out and extracted,” said Kennedy, adding that this limits the additional physical footprint that’s required to expand lithium extraction opportunities.
Hydrogen-powered trains get the green light as Siemens Energy and Mobility sign joint agreement – The newly-listed Siemens Energy has signed a memorandum of understanding with Siemens Mobility to “jointly develop and offer hydrogen systems for trains.” Announced on Monday, the partnership is the latest example of companies attempting to ramp up and expand the use of hydrogen fuel-cell technology. The collaboration will look to produce “a standardized hydrogen infrastructure solution for fueling the hydrogen-powered trains of Siemens Mobility.” In addition, the idea is that the products of the partnership will be offered to external customers in order to “promote the hydrogen economy in Germany and Europe and support decarbonization in the mobility sector.” The broad aim is to link up Siemens Energy’s work on the production of green hydrogen – a term that refers to hydrogen produced using renewable sources such as wind and solar – with Siemens Mobility’s specialism in transportation. According to the International Energy Agency (IEA), hydrogen is a “versatile energy carrier.” Generating it does have an environmental impact, however. The IEA has said that hydrogen production is responsible for roughly 830 million metric tons of carbon dioxide each year. It’s within this context that the idea of green hydrogen is so attractive.
As the wood pellet industry grows across the South, Enviva targets Alabama and Mississippi for future expansion. – the wood pellet industry continues to grow across the South, Enviva has targeted Alabama and Mississippi for future expansion. The company is building facilities producing significantly larger quantities of wood pellets for export through a deep water marine port and storage silo currently under construction in Pasagoula, Mississippi. In each state, the company’s pitch remains the same: jobs and economic development. “They go into these low wealth communities, promise opportunity, and a lot of residents bite on it,” said Rev. Michael Malcom, executive director of Alabama Interfaith Power and Light. “If we could get ahead of this, we could go in and tell them about the dangers of the wood pellet industry. But unfortunately, the way the system works in Alabama, ADEM keeps things under wraps until it’s time for the public hearing.” Alabama has the third most timberland acreage in the contiguous 48 states, much of it in the form of pine plantations owned by private absentee landowners disconnected from local residents. Enviva’s first Alabama facility will be located in a small Black town called Epes, and is projected to open in 2021, with a production capacity of over one million metric tons of wood pellets per year. The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) approved the permit last December, with additional support from Alabama governor Kay Ivey. The Northampton plant is one of four Enviva plants in North Carolina. Enviva Biomass is world’s largest manufacturers of wood pellets. Photo courtesy of Dogwood Alliance. Malcom said it is likely that Enviva spends as much as a full year making the case for a new manufacturing plant in a community, promising good jobs and low environmental impacts. “When they announce [the facility], it’s already too late. [Enviva has] already gone in [to the community] and greased the wheel,” Malcom told EHN.
Backup battery helps reduce electricity outages in remote Illinois community – As utilities around the country plan for more energy storage on the grid, a battery system in rural Illinois that’s been up and running since 2017 can provide some lessons. Thebes, Illinois, is in the far southwest corner of the state, wedged between the Mississippi River and rugged hillsides – geography that makes it difficult for Ameren Illinois to provide reliable electric service for the town’s roughly 330 residents. The solution was an innovative solar battery system, which has dramatically reduced both the number and duration of outages. Before the system was put into place in Thebes, crews of workers would have to navigate the hilly terrain to restore power, resulting in much lengthier outages, according to Rod Hilburn, manager for Ameren’s Technology Applications Center. “You’ve got the Mark Twain National Forest. You’ve got lots of trees. You have flooding from the rivers that are down there,” Hilburn said. “And so our reliability for these customers was not real good.” With the battery system in place, residents of Thebes enjoy much more reliable electric service. The battery system was especially beneficial in minimizing outages in Thebes during a recent period of rough weather earlier this year, according to Brian Bretsch, communications executive for Ameren Illinois.
Group contends Quebec-NYC powerline would hurt sturgeon – An environmental group has filed a formal objection with federal regulators over the proposed Champlain Hudson Power Express power line between Quebec and New York City, contending that the underwater cable could violate the endangered species act by harming Atlantic sturgeon habitat in the Hudson River. “There can be no doubt that construction of the Project would adversely affect designated critical habitat for sturgeon in the Hudson River,” reads part of a Notice of Violation that the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups sent Thursday to the federal Department of Energy and Army Corps of Engineers. The federal agencies have essentially approved the power line, although it still needs some stormwater permits and customer contracts to move forward. But the complaint notes that the federal National Marine Fisheries Directorate, which is part of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in August 2017 concluded that the Hudson was critical habitat for the sturgeon. That habitat designation came three years after the DOE and Army Corps concluded that the power line was environmentally acceptable, so now the Center maintains the agencies need to take another look at the project. “Since then this additional habitat has been designated under the Endangered Species Act,” said Meg Sheehan, a volunteer lawyer for the North American Megadam Resistance Alliance. “They have to re-initiate the study.” The Alliance has worked with the Center for Biological Diversity on this issue. The formal violation was also signed by the Innu Nation of Labrador, a Native America group in Canada whose members say they’ve been harmed by the dam projects that support CHPE.
IN BRIEF: 9th Circuit vacates FERC orders in PG&E power contracts – Reuters – The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday vacated orders from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission holding that Pacific Gas and Electric Co could not back out of wholesale power contracts without the regulator’s consent, but declined to address the underlying dispute over the contracts.A three-judge 9th Circuit panel concluded in a seven-page decision that because PG&E, which emerged from bankruptcy this summer, did not ultimately cancel the contracts, the underlying dispute is moot. PG&E assumed the contracts in question through its reorganization plan. To read the full story on Westlaw Today, click here: bit.ly/3jH3rcq
Tri-State announces goal to cut rates 8%, give member cooperatives more flexibility – Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, which has taken heat from members for rates and what they say is a lack of flexibility, said Wednesday that it will cut rates by 8% and allow individual electric associations to produce more of their own power. Building on a previously announced plan to boost its use of renewable energy, Tri-State said its goal is to lower wholesale electric rates by 8% by the end of 2023. And the Westminster-based power supplier said starting in early 2021, member cooperatives can say they want to generate more power locally, up to 300 megawatts across the utility’s four-state territory. A longtime 5% cap on the amount of power individual cooperatives could generate has been a point of contention among Tri-State’s members and one of the reasons given by cooperatives that have cut ties with the utility or want to.The utility’s 42 members includs 17 electric cooperatives in Colorado. Tri-State CEO Duane Highley and Wednesday’s announcements are part of ongoing efforts to increase the utility’s use of renewable energy and to cut its carbon emissions. He called the planned rate reduction a “green energy dividend.” Some member cooperatives, environmental advocates and legislators have criticized Tri-State for relying too much on coal and limiting members’ ability to pursue their own renewable energy projects. In the past few years, the utility has added more wind and solar power to its system and closed or announced plans to close some of its coal-fired power plants. In January, Tri-State unveiled its “Responsible Energy Plan.” It includes goals of boosting its renewable energy sources to 50% by 2024 and cutting greenhouse-gas emissions by 90% by 2030 from Colorado facilities it owns or operates.Former Gov. Bill Ritter is director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University. He and his staff worked with Tri-State on the energy plan, convening what he said was a large and diverse group of people to give input.”It demonstrates to me that Tri-State’s commitment is not just a paper commitment but a concrete commitment to how they will be part of the clean energy transition, not just in Colorado but in the United States,” Ritter said during a call with Tri-State and reporters.
Inside the Utility Company Lobbying Blitz That Will Hike Electric Bills – ProPublica – When Democrats campaigned for the Virginia legislature last year, they took aim at the state’s largest power broker: Dominion Energy. The electric utility’s clout was legendary in the state Capitol, where it doled out millions in campaign contributions and employed an army of lobbyists who helped write energy policy for decades. The result was soaring electricity bills and an energy grid heavily reliant on fossil fuels. Democrats vowed to change that. After winning total control at the Capitol for the first time in a generation, lawmakers unveiled the Clean Economy Act. They said it would phase out carbon-based energy and lower consumers’ power bills. In a stark display of role reversal, one of Dominion’s top lobbyists watched from the back of the room as Democratic lawmakers stood alongside environmentalists and clean energy backers to introduce the legislation at a press conference. But over the next 11 weeks, Dominion fought back and ended up as a winner in a bill intended to diminish its influence. By doubling the size of its lobbying corps and tapping its long-standing relationships with legislative leaders and Gov. Ralph Northam, the utility secured in the Clean Economy Act the right to build its top priority: a massive offshore wind farm set to be the most expensive utility project in Virginia history. State regulators estimate a typical residential customer will pay nearly $70 more per month for the same amount of electricity by the end of the decade. About 40% of that increase is tied to the new law.
‘The Coal Industry Is Back,’ Trump Proclaimed. It Wasn’t. – – For decades, waves of electricity poured from this behemoth of a power plant on the high desert plateau of the Navajo reservation in northern Arizona, lighting up hundreds of thousands of homes from Phoenix to Las Vegas as it burned 240 rail cars’ worth of coal a day.But as the day shift ended here at the Navajo Generating Station one evening early this year, all but a half-dozen spaces in the employee parking lot – a stretch of asphalt larger than a football field – were empty.It was a similar scene at the nearby Kayenta coal mine, which fueled the plant. Dozens of the giant earth-moving machines that for decades ripped apart the hillside sat parked in long rows, motionless. Not a single coal miner was in sight, just a big, black Chihuahuan raven sitting atop a light post.Saving these two complexes was at the heart of an intense three-year effort by the Trump administration to stabilize the coal industry and make good on President Trump’s 2016 campaign promise to end “the war on coal.””We’re going to put our miners back to work,” Mr. Trump promised soon after taking office.He didn’t.Despite Mr. Trump’s stocking his administration with coal-industry executives and lobbyists, taking big donations from the industry,rolling back environmental regulations and intervening directly in cases like the Arizona power plant and mine, coal’s decline has only accelerated in recent years. The story of the complex in Arizona demonstrates the lengths the administration went to in helping a favored industry, the limits of its ability to counter powerful economic forces pushing in the other direction and ultimately Mr. Trump’s quiet retreat from his promises.In the years after Mr. Trump’s election, the federal government offered help valued at as much as $1 billion to keep this one power plant and coal mine up and running by embracing an industry plan to relax costly air-quality requirements.A Republican lawmaker from Arizona sought to force one of the state’s largest utilities to continue to buy power from the plant. Peabody, the world’s largest coal company, offered to discount the price of the coal it was selling the power plant from the Kayenta mine. None of it proved to be enough. By late last year, both the Kayenta mine and the Navajo Generating Station had gone offline, a high-profile example of the industry’s broader collapse and the resulting economic and political aftershocks.
Trump’s Latest EPA Rollback Lets Polluters Spew More Lead, Arsenic, Mercury —Trump‘s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has weakened yet another safeguard against air pollution in the midst of a respiratory pandemic.The agency finalized a rollback Thursday of the Clinton-era “once in, always in” policy that required major polluters like industrial plants and refineries to maintain the highest possible levels of pollution controls as long as they continued to operate, Reuters reported.”This is a lawless action that will undoubtedly increase carcinogens and other deadly pollution in our air,” Clinton EPA administrator Carol Browner said in a statement reported by The Hill. “Taking this action during a global pandemic that preys upon people with existing respiratory ailments further confirms that for Andrew Wheeler and the political leadership of the EPA the cruelty is the point.”The agency first proposed reversing the rule in 2018, according to Reuters. The 1995 policy required that major polluters use maximum achievable control technology standards (MACT) throughout the lifetime of their operations. The new policy will allow these facilities to use less stringent standards after they reduce emissions. The so-called “major sources” that reduce their emissions of hazardous air pollutants (HAP) will be reclassified as “area sources,” emitters like gas stations or dry cleaners that emit less than 10 tons of a single pollutant or 25 tons of multiple pollutants each year.”This action reduces regulatory burden and provides a level of fairness and flexibility for sources that reduce HAP emissions below major source thresholds and reclassify as area sources,” the agency explained. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler argued that the change would incentivize companies to invest in better technology to reduce emissions. “Today’s action is an important step to further President Trump‘s regulatory reform agenda by providing meaningful incentives for investment that prevents hazardous air pollution,” he said in a statement reported by The Hill. However, Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) senior attorney John Walke said the reversal was entirely unnecessary. “It’s the triumph of extreme ideology over public health, common sense and the law,” he told The Hill.
EIA raises forecast for coal generation bump in 2021, and more carbon emissions | Utility Dive The Energy Information Administration (EIA) released its latest Short Term Energy Outlook (STEO) on Tuesday, forecasting that coal’s share of U.S. electric generation will rise to 24% in 2021, after falling to 20% in 2020 amid ongoing plant closures. In its prior STEO report, released in September, EIA forecast a smaller rebound for coal, to 22% in 2021. The increase in forecasted coal generation for 2021 comes with an increase in forecasted energy-related carbon dioxide emissions. EIA previously expected those emissions to rise 4.8% in 2021, after projecting a 10% drop in 2020, due to decreased energy use in the commercial and industrial sectors amid the coronavirus pandemic. Now, EIA expects energy-related carbon emissions to increase 5.4% in 2021. EIA sees higher CO2 emissions in 2021 “as the economy recovers and energy use increases.” It also expects a 19% increase in coal production in 2021 compared to 2020, “reflecting rising demand for coal from U.S. electricity generators because of higher natural gas prices compared with 2020.” Coal-fired generation is on a long-term downward trend in the U.S., with plant closures announced on a regular basis and more and more electric utilities announcing net zero carbon targets. But EIA expects the resource will get a bit of a reprieve in 2021, driven by an overall increase in energy use as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic, and by high natural gas prices. The Trump administration has been engaged in a long-term campaign to prop up the coal sector, easing environmental regulations and weighing potential ways to support baseload generation. It is also investing significant amounts of money into clean coal research, along with other coal-relevant technology. In New Mexico on Monday, Deputy Energy Secretary Mark Menezes supported the idea of keeping the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station open past its planned 2022 closure date by retrofitting it with carbon capture use and storage (CCUS) technology. “CCUS is an an incredible example of innovation, one that has the potential to drive emissions down to zero, making fossil fuels as emission-free as renewables,” he said, according to The Associated Press.But failed efforts to stop the closure of plants in Arizona and Kentucky show the limits of the administration’s ability to counter the forces driving coal’s decline, the New York Times reported this week.
Several companies weighing Coal Creek purchase – Several companies are considering acquiring Coal Creek Station and the transmission line that runs from the McLean County power plant to Minnesota, a state official told lawmakers Tuesday. Two companies are “very serious” about purchasing both the plant and the line, North Dakota Transmission Authority Director John Weeda said to the interim Energy Development and Transmission Committee. Plans involve potentially building a system to capture the carbon emissions from Coal Creek, as well as constructing energy storage infrastructure and wind farms in the area. Such an investment could total $2 billion, he said. “It’s not just business as usual,” Weeda said. “It’s business as usual, plus enhancements.” He said he’s hopeful a new plant owner would retain most workers at the plant and adjacent Falkirk Mine, which feeds the facility with lignite coal. Great River Energy announced earlier this year that it intends to close the plant in 2022 unless it can find a new owner, an effort state officials are helping facilitate. Coal Creek has faced financial woes for several years as it’s struggled to compete in a market saturated with cheap natural gas and renewable power. Weeda said at least four companies are entertaining purchasing the high-voltage direct current power line alone, without Coal Creek. Such a prospect would involve new wind development that connects to the line, and Coal Creek would shut down, he said. A new power line owner could potentially build a terminal along the line midway across the state, Weeda said. If that were to happen, it would allow wind farms east of North Dakota’s coal country in the west central part of the state to connect to it. Securing transmission space on the power grid is a problem that plagues the region’s wind developers, who seek an outlet for the electricity generated by new wind farms. Congestion on the wires has stalled some proposed wind projects. “You can pretty much count on the fact that when we get some transmission, wind developers will be back,” Weeda said.
Georgia Power issues progress update on coal ash pond closures – – Significant construction activity is completed or well underway at 19 of Georgia Power’s 29 coal ash ponds across the state slated for permanent closure, the Atlanta-based utility announced Tuesday.The other 10 ash ponds are being closed in place under a plan Georgia Power first unveiled in 2015.The company plans to spend $1.5 billion to $2 billion to close all of its ash ponds at 11 coal-fired power plants to meet federal regulations for handling coal ash as well as a stricter state rule.The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency clamped down on pollution from ash ponds in response to a 2008 spill of 5.4 million cubic yards of coal ash at a plant near Kingston, Tenn., that smothered about 300 acres of land.Milestones Georgia Power cited Tuesday include dewatering of ash ponds, now in progress at six sites: Plant Bowen near Cartersville, Plant McDonough in Smyrna, Plant McManus near Brunswick, Plant McIntosh in Rincon, Plant Branch in Milledgeville and Plant Yates near Newnan, with state-approved plans for Plant Mitchell in Camilla and Plant Hammond near Rome.The company also has installed more than 550 monitoring wells around its ash ponds and on-site landfills to measure groundwater quality.”As Georgia Power continues to make significant progress on our plans to safely close all of our ash ponds, our focus remains on protecting the environment and our surrounding communities,” said Mark Berry, vice president of Environmental and Natural Resources for Georgia Power. Georgia Power also is investing heavily in recycling stored coal ash. Earlier this year, the company announced plans at its retired Plant Mitchell site to remove stored coal ash for beneficial reuse. During the next several years, about two million tons of ash are to be removed from the onsite ash ponds to help create Portland cement, which is used to make concrete. Through July, approximately 11,100 tons of ash had been removed at Plant Mitchell for reuse.
Judge: Roane leaders waited too long to sue TVA over coal ash – A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by Roane County leaders against the Tennessee Valley Authority and contractor Jacobs Engineering over the handling of the cleanup of the nation’s largest spill of toxic coal ash. U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan last week dismissed a 2019 lawsuit filed by elected leaders in Roane County and the cities of Harriman and Kingston at the request of defense attorneys for TVA and Jacobs Engineering.The lawsuit accused TVA and Jacobs Engineering of lying about the dangers of coal ash when 7.3 million tons of the toxic waste spilled from a dump at the utility’s Kingston coal-fired power plant in December 2008. Both TVA and Jacobs Engineering have repeatedly denied misleading or endangering Kingston disaster cleanup workers.Varlan opined in last week’s ruling Roane County leaders have no one to blame but themselves for the lawsuit’s dismissal.They’ve had plenty of time – and lots of publicly available documents – to make their case, he wrote in his ruling, but filed suit only after Kingston disaster cleanup workers won round one in their own toxic tort case against Jacobs Engineering in November 2018. “Here, Plaintiffs, as governmental bodies, cannot reasonably contend that ordinary diligence and inquiry into ‘the largest environmental disaster in United States history’ would not have revealed the dangerous effects of fly ash, one of the toxic chemicals released by the spill, and the threat it posed to Plaintiffs’ communities, particularly in light of a six-year federal public investigation into, and cleanup of, the 2008 spill which was conducted between 2009 and 2015,” Varlan wrote. “Had Plaintiffs exercised diligence in monitoring the spill’s remediation process … or engaged in post-remediation monitoring of their properties and groundwater, Plaintiffs would have discovered the effects of the allegedly deficient remediation process far earlier than they did,” Varlan wrote.
Committee probing Madigan and alleged ComEd bribery scheme won’t meet again till after election – The special statehouse committee probing Michael Madigan’s potential ties to a million-dollar ComEd bribery scheme won’t meet again until after Election Day, thanks to a top Democratic ally of the embattled Illinois House Speaker. State Rep. Emanuel “Chris” Welch, the Hillside Democrat who chairs the Special Investigating Committee, announced Tuesday he’d push its next meeting back to Nov. 5 to shed “the backdrop of a political campaign.” “At every step of this process, our cooperation has been accompanied with the proviso that we will not allow this committee to be used as a stage for political theater – an admonishment our Republican colleagues appear to have taken more as a challenge than as a reflection of this committee’s serious work,” Welch said in a statement. He accused his counterparts across the aisle of revealing “their assumption of guilt” and “wearing two hats” – as impartial investigators and as political campaigners. But the three Republican members of the six-person committee say it’s the Democrats who are driven by politics, delaying the GOP’s “quest for the truth” and protecting Madigan, the man who has been at the center of Illinois politics for nearly four decades. “Chris Welch said that he was going to run a professional investigation. This is not how a professional runs an investigation. This is how a political professional covers up the truth and crushes an investigation,” said state Rep. Deanne Mazzochi, R-Elmhurst, who branded Welch “Chairman Squelch.” “The speaker has spoken, apparently, as he commonly does, through a surrogate, and now that surrogate is Chris Welch,” Mazzochi said. “He’s been told, one way or another, to make it stop.”
Nuclear plants at center of Ohio subsidy fight operating above wholesale prices | S&P Global Market Intelligence As the owner of two Ohio nuclear plants is pressed to open its books on the profitability of the units, the timing of subsidies at the center of a federal criminal investigation may be a larger issue. An S&P Global Market Intelligence analysis shows Energy Harbor Corp.’s 908-MW Davis-Besse and 1,268-MW Perry nuclear plants, both in northern Ohio, have operating costs higher than wholesale electricity prices. A mid-2019 analysis showed the plants with operating costs running below wholesale electricity prices. The most recent analysis shows wholesale prices in the PJM Interconnection rising through the end of 2020 and into 2021, which is when Ohio’s clean air credit for nuclear plants kicks in. House Bill 6, which establishes a $9/MWh credit for clean air resources, provides $150 million in annual financial support for the Davis-Besse and Perry nuclear units beginning Jan. 1, 2021, through Dec. 31, 2027. A comparison of wholesale electricity prices and plant operation and maintenance, or O&M, costs modeled from Market Intelligence’s Generation Supply Curve suggests that both plants were operating at below wholesale electricity prices through the end of 2018. Davis-Besse’s O&M costs were at or above PJM wholesale prices for most of 2019, while Perry generally operated below market prices. In 2019, O&M expenses averaged $25.72/MWh for Perry and $28.11/MWh for Davis-Besse, with the monthly average spot power price in the mid- to high $20s/MWh at the PJM AEP-Dayton hub for the same year. For 2020, modeled O&M costs for both plants hold in the mid- to high $20s/MWh, but the margin against wholesale power prices narrows. PJM AEP-Dayton hub pricing averages approximately $20/MWh in the first nine months of this year, brought down in spring in part because of reduced demand for power due to the coronavirus pandemic. Forwards assessments run in the high $20s/MWh for the remainder of 2020 and throughout 2021. The margins for both plants increase when the proposed clean air credits are included in the analysis. For 2021, Davis-Besse’s O&M costs are expected to average $29.07/MWh, with Perry’s O&M costs forecast at $26.57/MWh. Forwards assessments top out at $34.43/MWh in January 2021 and average $28/MWh for the year excluding the $9/MWh subsidy.
Group Seeks Refunding Mechanism For Coal Plant Subsidies — A consumer advocacy group is filing a complaint with the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, calling on the state regulators to allow for a possible refund on electric bills. The motion has to do with a new charge customers pay to subsidize coal plans through House Bill 6. Listen Listening… The Citizens Utility Board of Ohio says ratepayers with FirstEnergy are sending $1 million a month to two coal plants, one in Gallia County and the other in Madison, Indiana. Each customers pays about $0.58 month for the subsidy. The advocates are asking the PUCO to create a legal mechanism in order to refund those ratepayers. The group’s Tom Bullock says the coal plant subsidies are part of several measures in HB6, which was allegedly passed through a bribery scheme. “We’re pulling on one thread here and they all go back to the source which is that you have public policy driven to benefit the utility perspective and that wasn’t balanced appropriately with consumers and other energy users,” says Bullock. The refunding mechanism which would only go into effect if lawmakers repeal HB6.
Latest challenge raises question of reopening FirstEnergy Solutions’ bankruptcy ruling – Environmental groups have filed a motion asking a federal appeals court to tell FirstEnergy Solutions’ bankruptcy court judge to take action in light of the alleged corruption cases in federal and state court. The Environmental Law & Policy Center, Environmental Defense Fund, Ohio Citizen Action, and the Ohio Environmental Council want the judge to consider suspending execution of the reorganization plan that was confirmed earlier this year. The groups also hope the bankruptcy court will consider if it should revise that confirmation order and conduct additional hearings. The groups filed the motion on Oct. 5. “We’re asking the 6th Circuit to deal with these truly extraordinary circumstances,” in which federal and state corruption charges relate directly to assets involved in the bankruptcy case, said Howard Learner, executive director at the Environmental Law & Policy Center. Among other things, Ohio House Bill 6 authorizes roughly $1 billion in subsidies over the next six years for two nuclear plants owned by Energy Harbor, formerly known as FirstEnergy Solutions. The federal and state cases allege that an unlawful conspiracy used dark money organizations to hide the source of spending from FirstEnergy (known as “Company A” in some documents), its current and former affiliates, and others in order to secure passage of HB 6 and to prevent a referendum on the law. “The remedy that we’re asking in the 6th Circuit complements what the Ohio attorney general has already asked for it its lawsuit,” Learner said. As he sees it, that case effectively asks the state court to “rescramble the eggs” and undo the reorganization. Among other things, the state’s complaint asks that “each Defendant business entity and nonprofit [in the case] be dissolved or reorganized such that no agent, officer or representative found to have engaged in acts in furtherance of [the alleged wrongful conduct] retains a position within the defendant business or nonprofit entity.” The state case also seeks to prevent FirstEnergy Solutions, Energy Harbor, FirstEnergy or other defendants “from receiving any monetary benefit, supplement, credit or offset created by or through” HB 6. Energy Harbor, FirstEnergy and certain current and former subsidiaries have denied any illegal activity. They were not named as parties in the federal case but are defendants in the state case. Likewise, former House Speaker Larry Householder and other defendants have pled not guilty, and no allegations in either case have yet been proven. Nonetheless, the environmental groups say the requested relief is within the court’s authority. “We have framed it very carefully within the 6th Circuit’s equitable power to ask the bankruptcy court to consider whether it should reassess its confirmation order approving the reorganization, in light of the extraordinary revelations that have occurred since the court approved the order,” Learner said.
Judge Declines Ohio Attorney General’s Request For Injunction In HB6 Civil Case | WOSU Radio A Franklin County judge declined Attorney General Dave Yost’s request to stop FirstEnergy, former House Speaker Larry Householder, and others defendants accused in a bribery scheme from donating money to political campaigns. The preliminary injunction asked that FirstEnergy, Energy Harbor, Householder and others be banned from donating money to campaigns or lobbying for HB6, the nuclear bailout law at the heart of the federal racketeering case. Franklin County Judge Christopher Brown ruled against the injunction. Yost says there’s still a possibility of filing another injunction to stop new charges set to appear on electric bills in January if HB6 is not repealed. “We still have that billion-dollar money hose out there, and we didn’t file a preliminary injunction on that because the money isn’t being collected yet and isn’t being dispersed,” Yost says. Federal investigators say a $60 million bribery scheme funneled money from a utility company, believed to be FirstEnergy, through dark money groups to benefit Householder personally and politically. Investigators say the scheme’s end goal was to pass HB6, which provides over $1 billion in subsidies to two nuclear plants owned by FirstEnergy’s former subsidiary, now known as Energy Harbor. FirstEnergy has said Yost’s civil case is without “legal merit.” The company is not yet facing charges in the federal case. The Ohio legislature has held multiple hearings on proposals to repeal HB6, but lawmakers missed a critical deadline if they want to prevent ratepayers from seeing additional charges on their energy bills.
Ohio House committee sits on House Bill 6 repeal legislation – For some reason, the Ohio House’s special committee still hasn’t written and passed an HB 6 repeal. Polls have shown Ohio voters want HB 6 repealed – now. And it isn’t as if HB 6 enjoyed widespread legislative support in the first place. In 2019, the House passed it with 51 “yes” votes; 50 is the minimum number required to pass a bill in the House. The Senate passed HB 6 with 19 “yes” votes; 17 is the minimum number required to pass a bill there. And although Republican Gov. Mike DeWine signed House Bill 6 in a flash, he – like countless other Ohioans – now wants HB 6 gone. Stalling repeal of House Bill 6, assuming it ever is repealed, might be the House’s most brazen defiance of public opinion beyond House and Senate inaction on Ohio school funding (which the Ohio Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional more than 23 years ago). Yet any leverage that Ohio voters might have to get HB 6 repealed will dwindle after Election Day – 30 days from today. Only a cynic would suggest that the House committee’s talkathon aims to keep HB 6 alive past Election Day. In fairness, some members of the special House committee voted against HB 6 in 2019. And those committee members appear to oppose HB 6 now. But committee action requires a committee vote. Permitting votes is up to the committee’s chair. In turn, the chair and the committee’s other Republicans answer to House Speaker Robert Cupp, a Lima Republican whom fellow House Republicans chose to replace Householder after they’d removed Householder from the speakership. Cupp, as a rank-and-file House member in 2019, voted “yes” on House Bill 6. So did nine of the Ohio House’s 38 Democratic members. And so did the special House committee’s chair, Rep. Jim Hoops, a Napoleon Republican. (Hoops is unopposed for reelection in his northwest Ohio district.) Other GOP members of the special HB 6 committee are Reps. Cindy Abrams of suburban Cincinnati, who’s unopposed in November; Brian Baldridge of Canal Winchester, also unopposed; Rick Carfagna of Westerville; lame duck Phil Plummer of Dayton; Mark Romanchuk of Mansfield, who’s running for a state Senate seat in the 22nd Senate District; Dick Stein of Norwalk; Jason Stephens of Lawrence County’s Kitts Hill, also unopposed; and Scott Wiggam of Wooster.
Here’s why Ohio lawmakers haven’t done anything about scandal-tainted House Bill 6 so far – cleveland.com – Following the July arrest of then-House Speaker Larry Householder on a charge he oversaw a bribery scheme to pass House Bill 6, dozens of Ohio lawmakers quickly signed on as co-sponsors of bills to repeal the tainted energy law.But months later, it’s still unclear what, if anything, the Republican-dominated Ohio General Assembly will do about HB6 before the legislative session ends in December and the public starts paying for a $1 billion-plus bailout of two nuclear power plants in January.The main reason, lawmakers and observers say, is because – much like congressional Republicans’ unsuccessful attempts to repeal Obamacare in 2017 – there’s no consensus among GOP lawmakers on what, if anything, to replace HB6 with.Some favor a straight repeal of HB6. Others think it should be replaced, and at least a few believe nothing at all should be done to alter it.”They are all over the place,” said state Rep. Mark Romanchuk of Richland County about his fellow Republicans.There are other reasons as well. Even Republicans who favor repealing and replacing House Bill 6 say they need time to study HB6, an enormously complex law that goes far beyond the nuclear bailout, and make sure that any changes they make to it won’t have unintended consequences for Ohioans.Another factor is that the Senate appears to be leaving it up to the House to decide what to do, as HB6 originated in that chamber. And the House is led by Bob Cupp, a newly elected House speaker who is living up to his reputation for acting deliberatively. “You’ve got Republicans in the caucus who think ‘This is all just going to blow over — if we just stonewall for long enough, people will forget about it,'” said state Rep. David Leland, a Columbus Democrat. “And then you’ve got people who want to do something, but they’re not sure what they want to do. And then you’ve got a speaker who doesn’t know what he wants to do. It’s a multi-faceted problem for the Republican caucus.”
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