Environmental News For The Week Ending 22November 2019

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:

• 22 Nov 2020 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 22November 2020

• 22 Nov 2020 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 22November 2020

Summary:

We again set records for new US infections and hospitalizations, and hit a 6 month high for covid deaths. But growth in the 7 day moving average of new cases has been slowing all week and is now less than 18% greater than a week ago. However, Covid-19 deaths jumped mid-week to a 2,000 per day average over the last three days of the week, and as a result the week over week increase in US covid deaths has risen to 32%.

Globally, new infections rose to a record 665,668 on Friday (over 200,000 of those were in the US). But the weekly growth rate for global cases has slowed to less than 5% over the past three weeks and would be tapering off if not for the sharp US increases. Meanwhile, global covid deaths have now topped 11,000 for 4 straight days. That pace would make covid-19 the third leading cause of death worldwide, following heart disease and stroke.

Globally, new infections rose to a record 665,668 on Friday (over 200,000 of those were in the US)…but the weekly growth rate for global cases has slowed to less than 5% over the past three weeks and would be tapering off if not for the sharp US increases…meanwhile, global covid deaths have now topped 11,000 for 4 straight days…that pace would make covid-19 the third leading cause of death worldwide, following heart disease and stroke.

Below is a copy of today’s graph of new US cases from WorldOMeters so you can get a visuallization of what the growth of this thing looks like. There appears to be a leveling off in the prior rapid rise in new cases over the past several days. So far it is within the variability shseen in recent months.

US hospitalizations for Covid-19 are also rising daily (over 88k on November 24). Covid-19 related deaths have not been rising as rapidly over the last 7 days and still averaging over 1K per day.

For perspective, here is the graphic below from Johns Hopkins, showing the daily global new cases since the start of the pandemic up through 24 November.

Calculated Risk continues to track US testing. The decline in positive test results over July and August ended in September. The trend is now up. In September the increase in new cases was attributed to increased testing. In October that has changed – increases in new cases are now arising more from increased percentage of tests returning positive. The November 24 graphic:

Here’s this week’s other environmental news (latest news on the Ohio nuclear bribery scandal is at the end):

Childhood lead exposure leads to structural changes in middle-aged brains More than three decades after they were found to have elevated blood lead levels as children, a group of middle-aged adults were found to have some small but significant changes in brain structure that corresponded to their dose of lead exposure in early life.MRI scans at age 45 revealed some small but significant changes in the brains of the people who had higher lead exposures measured at age 11. For each 5 micrograms per deciliter more lead they carried as children, the study participants lost an average of 2 IQ points by age 45. They also had slightly more than 1 square centimeter less cortical surface area and 0.1 cubic centimeter less volume in the hippocampus, which plays a role in memory, learning and emotions. Participants with the highest childhood lead exposures also demonstrated structural deficits in the integrity of their brains’ white matter, which is responsible for communication between brain regions.The research participants themselves reported no loss of cognitive abilities, but people close to them said otherwise, noting that they tended to display small everyday problems with memory and attention, such as getting distracted or misplacing items.”We find that there are deficits and differences in the overall structure of the brain that are apparent decades after exposure,” said Duke University doctoral candidate Aaron Reuben, who is a co-first author on the study, which appears Nov. 17 in the Journal of the American Medical Association. “And that’s important because it helps us understand that people don’t seem to recover fully from childhood lead exposure and may, in fact, experience greater problems over time.”

Air pollution costs Utahns billions annually and shortens life expectancy by two years – Air pollution has been a problem in Utah since before the territory was officially recognized as a state. The mountain valleys of this high elevation region are particularly vulnerable to the buildup of air pollution from vehicles, household heating and power production. Together with high per-capita energy use, this has resulted in periods of poor air quality. However, with so many types of pollution and regional conditions, determining the overall effects of air pollution on Utah’s health and economy has been a major challenge. A new study from 23 Utah-based researchers, including five from the University of Utah, sought to do just that.The study estimated that air pollution shortens the life of the average Utahn by around 2 years. And pollution costs Utah’s economy around $1.9 billion annually. But many state-level actions, such as increasing vehicle and building efficiency, could reduce air pollution by double-digit percentages while benefitting the economy, the researchers found. Combining expertise from public health, atmospheric science and economics, the researchers assessed what types of disease and economic harm could stem from Utah’s air pollution. The study was published in the peer-reviewed journal Atmosphere in a special issue on air quality in Utah. They estimated that air pollution in Utah causes between 2,500 and 8,000 premature deaths each year, decreasing the median life expectancy of Utahns by 1.1 to 3.6 years. This loss of life expectancy is distributed across most of the population, they found, rather than only affecting “sensitive groups.” For example, 75% of Utahns may lose 1 year of life or more because of air pollution and 23% may lose 5 years or more.This substantial health burden is caused by many illnesses and conditions that most people might not associate with air pollution. For example, exposure to particulates and other pollutants increases occurrence of heart and lung diseases, including congestive heart failure, heart attack, pneumonia, COPD and asthma. These conditions account for 62% of the pollution impact on health, according to this study. The remaining 38% of health effects are associated with stroke, cancer, reproductive harm to mothers and children, mental illness, behavioral dysfunction, immune disease, autism and other conditions–all exacerbated by exposure to dirty air.

Young asymptomatic ‘super spreaders’ keep malaria viable by infecting local mosquitoes — Malaria researchers, working in an area of Uganda where infections have been dropping dramatically, discovered a small number of infected but asymptomatic school-age children can serve as stealth “super spreaders” responsible for the vast majority of malaria parasites still circulating in local mosquitoes. The new findings, reported today at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH), reveal a hidden reservoir that’s a barrier to long-term efforts to eliminate malaria and an immediate threat for disease resurgence if control measures like bednets and indoor spraying falter. “We now have the first direct evidence that even in places under very intensive malaria control, a small number of asymptomatic super spreaders can quietly sustain transmission–and finding and treating them could prove very challenging,” said lead author Chiara Andolina, MSc, a PhD student and malaria expert at Radboud University Medical Center in The Netherlands. “The existence of asymptomatic malaria infections is well known,” she said, “but it was surprising to see just how much they can contribute to infecting mosquitoes.” Malaria parasites are dependent on a life cycle in which they constantly move back and forth between humans and mosquitoes. Successfully interrupting transmission of the disease includes clearing parasites from human hosts, which can be accomplished with anti-malaria drugs. Andolina and her colleagues were investigating how malaria could remain viable in mosquito populations in an area of eastern Uganda that has been targeted with intensive malaria control efforts, including regular distribution of insecticide-treated bednets, indoor residual spraying (IRS) with insecticides and access to potent malaria drugs. As a result, infections, or at least those that cause symptoms, have fallen precipitously. Andolina said a significant challenge is that identifying potential super spreaders and treating them to clear their parasites is costly and time consuming. She and her colleagues in Uganda tested some individuals up to 19 times for their ability to transmit their infections. Densities of infections showed marked fluctuations–sometimes even the most sensitive diagnostic tests would pick up nothing while the next test would show evidence of parasites that were subsequently transmitted to mosquitoes.

When temperatures rise, dog ticks more likely to choose humans over canines – A variety of ticks that carry the bacteria causing the deadly disease Rocky Mountain spotted fever (RMSF) are more than twice as likely to shift their feeding preference from dogs to humans when temperatures rise, a sign that climate change could expand and intensify human disease risks, according to a new study presented today at the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH). “Our work indicates that when the weather gets hot, we should be much more vigilant for infections of RMSF in humans,” said Laura Backus, MPH, DVM, who led the study at the University of California, Davis School of Veterinary Medicine (UC-Davis). “We found that when temperatures rose from about 74 to 100 degrees Fahrenheit, brown dog ticks that carry the disease were 2.5 times more likely to prefer humans over dogs.” Cases of RMSF and related diseases, collectively known as spotted fever rickettsiosis, haverisen dramatically over the last 20 years. The disease is treatable with antibiotics if detected in the first week of infection, but once an infection takes hold, the fatality rate for RMSF victims can exceed 20%. Complications can include damaged blood vessels; inflammation of the heart, lungs or brain; and kidney failure. Over the last 10 years, public health authorities have been particularly alarmed by a rash of deadly RMSF outbreaks among indigenous communities in Arizona and northern Mexico. Backus said there have been indications from earlier work that brown dog ticks, which are found throughout the continental United States, may be more aggressive toward humans in hot weather. And scientists warn that climate change is greatly expanding areas of the country experiencing multiple days when temperatures top 100 degrees Fahrenheit, or about 38 degrees Celsius. Backus and her colleagues at UC-Davis wanted to gain more definitive insights into how rising temperatures might elevate the risk of RMSF infections.

Pesticides commonly used as flea treatments for pets are contaminating English rivers – Researchers at the University of Sussex have found widespread contamination of English rivers with two neurotoxic pesticides commonly used in veterinary flea products: fipronil and the neonicotinoid imidacloprid. The concentrations found often far exceeded accepted safe limits. These chemicals are banned for agricultural use due to the adverse environmental effects, but there is minimal environmental risk assessment for pesticides used on domestic cats and dogs. This is due to the assumption that there are likely to be fewer environmental impacts due to the amount of product used. To investigate this, Professor Dave Goulson and Rosemary Perkins from the University of Sussex analysed data gathered by the Environment Agency in English waterways between 2016-18. They found that fipronil was detected in 98% of freshwater samples, and imidacloprid in 66%. “The use of pet parasite products has increased over the years, with millions of dogs and cats now being routinely treated multiple times per year”. “Fipronil is one of the most commonly used flea products, and recent studies have shown that it degrades to compounds that are more persistent in the environment, and more toxic to most insects, than fipronil itself. Our results, showing that fipronil and its toxic breakdown products are present in nearly all of the freshwater samples tested, are extremely concerning.”

Exposure to Common Herbicide Potentially Harms Endangered Species – An herbicide commonly used in corn and sorghum fields to kill grasses and weeds is being reviewed by the Environmental Protection Agency as being harmful to endangered species, according to a biological evaluation draft currently open for public comment. The exact number of species the herbicide atrazine affects is unknown. However, many environmental groups, such as the Center for Biological Diversity, say more than 1,000 species could be at risk. For example, frog and fish species that are exposed to atrazine show damaged reproductive systems, even at very low concentrations. “Finally the EPA has been forced to acknowledge atrazine’s far-reaching harms,” Nathan Donley, a senior scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity said in a statement. “This alarming assessment leaves no doubt that this hideously dangerous pesticide should be banned in the U.S., just as it is across much of the world.” The new report, released Nov. 5, details how the herbicide’s reach is measured. The EPA “considers overlap of the species range (or critical habitat) with areas directly treated with atrazine and those receiving spray drift,” the executive summary explained. “To address uncertainties associated with how treated acres may be distributed within a state (relative to a species range or critical habitat), and the magnitude of usage on any given year, approaches are employed to represent a central estimate of overlap.” In addition to its use on crop fields, atrazine is also frequently used on household lawns. In September, the agency reapproved continued use of the weed killer for two years, with prohibitions in Hawaii, five U.S. territories and Christmas tree farms. Atrazine is banned throughout the European Union. After glyphosate, an herbicide that has been used for more than 45 years, atrazine is the most common weed killer in the U.S. Swiss-based Syngenta is the largest worldwide manufacturer of atrazine. It was noted earlier this year in Vermont that while overall herbicide use is decreasing, farmers increased using atrazine due to its lower price. In 2018 the EPA concluded that atrazine and two other herbicides “share a common neuroendocrine mechanism of toxicity which results in both reproductive and developmental alterations,” in humans. It is often designated a pollutant in ground and drinking water.

Dairy cows exposed to heavy metals worsen antibiotic-resistant pathogen crisis – Dairy cows, exposed for a few years to drinking water contaminated with heavy metals, carry more pathogens loaded with antimicrobial-resistance genes able to tolerate and survive various antibiotics. That’s the finding of a team of researchers that conducted a study of two dairy herds in Brazil four years after a dam holding mining waste ruptured, and it spotlights a threat to human health, the researchers contend. The study is the first to show that long-term persistence of heavy metals in the environment may trigger genetic changes and interfere with the microorganism communities that colonize dairy cows, according to researcher Erika Ganda, assistant professor of food animal microbiomes, Penn State. “Our findings are important because if bacterial antimicrobial resistance is transferred via the food chain by milk or meat consumption, it would have substantial implications for human health,” she said. “What we saw is, when heavy metal contamination is in the environment, there is potential for an increase of so-called ‘superbugs.'” Antimicrobial resistance occurs when bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites change over time and no longer respond to medicines, making infections harder to treat and increasing the risk of disease spread, severe illness and death.

Oceanfront Property Tied to Obama Granted Exemption From Hawaii’s Environmental Laws –Officials in Honolulu have granted the developers of a luxury, oceanfront estate tied to Barack Obama a major exemption from environmental laws designed to protect Hawaii’s beaches.The shoreline permit, issued by Honolulu’s Department of Planning and Permitting on Monday, clears the way for the controversial multimillion dollar renovation of a century-old seawall in the heavily Native Hawaiian community of Waimanalo.Under state and county laws, such projects are typically banned. Scientists and environmental experts say seawalls are the primary cause of beach loss throughout the state, and officials expect older ones to fall into obsolescence.But the property owners, including Marty Nesbitt, chair of the Obama Foundation, argued they needed an exemption to protect the sprawling compound they are building in eastern Oahu. State officials and community members say the former president, who was born and raised in Hawaii, is expected to be among the property’s future occupants. Representatives for Nesbitt and Obama did not return requests seeking comment for this story.As the Honolulu Star-Advertiser and ProPublica reported this summer, the so-called shoreline setback variance is just one of several loopholes that developers have exploited across the islands over the past two decades to get around policies that are supposed to protect the state’s treasured beaches and sensitive coastlines. The consequences are stark. Oahu has already lost about a quarter of its beaches to seawalls, which essentially cause beaches to drown. Future projections are more dire, with scientists warning that most of Hawaii’s beaches could be lost if hundreds of homes, condos, hotels and roads that line the coasts aren’t moved inland.Beach advocates and some community leaders in Waimanalo had urged government officials to require Nesbitt to take down the crumbling wall, or at least move it farther inland to restore a portion of the public shoreline. The beach there is virtually gone. The turquoise ocean now slams up against the seawall most of the time, leaving no room for the public to fish or sit along the coast.

Citing Her Ties to Agribusiness and Fossil Fuels, 160+ Groups Tell Biden That Heitkamp Is ‘Wrong Choice’ for USDA –As part of progressives’ broader battle to push President-elect Joe Biden to claim his “FDR moment” by choosing a Cabinet well-equipped to tackle the nexus of crises the country currently faces, more than 160 organizations came together Tuesday to oppose former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp to lead the U.S. Department of Agriculture.The coalition of environmental, social justice, sustainable agriculture, labor, animal welfare, public health, family farmer, consumer advocacy, and anti-hunger groups sent a letter (pdf) to Biden, Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and their transition team detailing Heitkamp’s political record as well as her ties to agribusiness and fossil fuels.Although she is considered the frontrunner to become Biden’s agriculture secretary, “progressives have knives out for Heitkamp,” Politico reported Monday. Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio) has expressed interest in the job and progressives have also pointed toRep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) or Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) as possible picks.”Heitkamp is the wrong choice for the USDA because she has aligned herself with corporate agribusiness at the expense of family farmers, supports fossil fuel interests, and holds views that are out of step with the Democratic Party and the majority of Americans,” says the letter, spearheaded by Friends of the Earth (FOE). “There will be a big fight on Heitkamp if Biden puts her name forward,” Kari Hamerschlag, FOE’s deputy director of food and agriculture, told Politico. In a statement Tuesday, Hamerschlag added that “if President-elect Biden is serious about meeting his climate goals, he cannot name Heitkamp as USDA secretary.”

Biden Must Take a Leadership Role Against Wildlife Crime –Joseph Biden was elected to office as the world continues to struggle with a global pandemic that has killed more than a million people and wreaked devastating economic havoc. The pandemic has highlighted how humankind’s abuse of our planet and the irreversible loss of the biodiversity and ecosystem services upon which we all rely for our very existence simply can’t go on.I work for TRAFFIC, a nongovernmental organization addressing issues related to wildlife trade, and the COVID pandemic has thrust this topic into the limelight. While we fully acknowledge and appreciate support received under previous administrations, it’s clear that the world has underestimated the importance and potential impacts of failing to manage wildlife trade in a way that’s legal, sustainable and, critically, includes measures to mitigate against the risk of zoonotic-disease spillover events.How do we move forward? First, I would argue that allocating resources to understanding the risks associated with trade in animals – from any source – and how to lessen the danger of disease spillover events is a wise investment. At the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, USAID gave the go-ahead to activities under a second phase of a Wildlife Trafficking Response, Assessment and Priority Setting (Wildlife TRAPS) Project implemented by TRAFFIC, with a renewed zoonotic disease risk focus. TRAFFIC will endeavor to ensure it’s money well spent.Meanwhile welcome global attention has been paid to addressing the wildlife crime that undermines society and threatens the future of many of the world’s wild plants and animals. But we’re still not there in curbing these crimes. More resources will help get us over the line.These include better equipment, training and working conditions for the rangers on the front lines; enhanced use of wildlife forensics; training of detector dogs; and even access to skilled translators to assist enforcement agencies with interpreting transactions involving foreign nationals. We also need to see renewed efforts by governments, helped by nongovernmental organizations and others, to reduce the consumer demand that fuels such trade.

Gianforte names team to recommend leaders of DNRC, DEQ – Montana Gov.-elect Greg Gianforte on Friday released the names of people who will advise him on appointments to lead two state agencies, the Department of Environmental Quality and Department of Natural Resources and Conservation. The list included people who are a part of or represent the coal, oil and gas, mining, ranching and lumber industries, as well as engineers and a former DNRC director, in addition to a big game conservation organization. It does not include a member from an organization that as its main purpose advocates for a clean environment, though it does include one person who served as a member of the public on the state Environmental Quality Council. In a press release, Gianforte said he wants new heads of the agencies that will approach projects faster while still protecting the environment. “We can responsibly develop our abundant resources and simultaneously protect our environment, but for too long, state government has stood in the way with DNRC and DEQ serving as project prevention departments. With the right leadership at these agencies, we can eliminate needless delays, streamline permitting processes, protect our environment, and create more good-paying Montana jobs,” said Gianforte, a Republican.

1,000 Giant Sequoias Likely Killed in Castle Fire, Many Had Lived for Over 500 Years – The Castle Fire killed likely more than a thousand giant sequoias – including many that had stood for well over 500 years and some for 1,000 – on the western slopes of California’s Sierra Nevada mountains, the Los Angeles Times reported. “This fire could have put a noticeable dent in the world’s supply of big sequoias,” Nate Stephenson, a research ecologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, told the Times. Sequoias are designed to survive and thrive with fire – their cones cannot release their seeds without it. But, tinder-like fuel, dried by climate change, and centuries of fire suppression by European settlers combined to set the stage for monstrous conflagrations so intense they burned the gargantuan, fire resilient “monarchs” into what Christy Brigham, science chief at Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks, described as “blackened toothpicks.” Prior to this year, the worst known fire season for sequoias was in 1297, the year in which William Wallace defeated the English at the Battle of Stirling Bridge, during the Medieval Warm Period. The September 2020 Castle Fire, Stephenson said, however, was probably worse.

Latest Trump Rollback Allows Increased Logging in National Forests – The Trump administration has finalized yet another environmental rollback that would allow more logging in national forests without environmental review.The new rule, finalized Wednesday, would allow the U.S. Forest Service to log or manage 2,800 acres of national forest in the Western U.S. without first conducting an environmental review, The Washington Post explained. However, the rule is written in such a way that nearly 200 million acres of forest could be impacted.”This is yet another blatant attempt to undermine bedrock environmental law and public input, while giving companies free rein over our treasured natural resources,” Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) Director of Federal Affairs Kabir Green said in a statement emailed to EcoWatch. “Add this rule to the long list of ill-conceived actions the Biden administration is going to have to toss and redo the right way.” The new rule works by expanding the Forest Service’s ability to use “categorical exclusions,” The Washington Post reported. These exclusions allow the Forest Service to bypass requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) that require it to study the environmental impact of any planned development and share the scientific analysis with the public.The Trump administration argued that the change would make it easier to perform necessary maintenance.” However, conservation groups worried that the new categorical exclusions would be used to approve activities beyond trailmaking and brush clearing. Wilderness Society senior attorney Alison Flint told The Washington Post that the exclusions would act as “permission slips” for loggers and road-builders. Green from the NRDC agreed. “Rather than addressing the climate and biodiversity crises we face, the Trump administration continues to make our problems worse,” Green said. “Today it’s ramming through sweeping changes that will open national forests to large-scale logging, roadbuilding – and even oil drilling and mining. Each of these will exacerbate our climate crisis.” The Trump administration has now initiated or completed 104 environmental rollbacks, according to a running tally from The New York Times. It is unclear whether Democrats in Congress will be able to reverse the new Forest Service rule, along with other rules passed in the last days of the Trump administration, The Washington Post reported. The Congressional Review Act allows Congress to accept or reject late-term rules, but control of the Senate hinges on two run-off elections in Georgia in January.

Biden eyes new leadership at troubled public lands agency –The Biden transition team is in the early stages of developing a shortlist of potential nominees to lead the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), a public lands agency critics say has slipped into disarray during the Trump administration. The BLM could be a particularly useful agency for an administration intent on shifting climate policy and reducing emissions, but it has largely been hollowed out in the past four years. The bureau has lost nearly 70 percent of its Washington-based staff during the Trump administration, and many environmentalists decry what they see as an effort by Trump officials to forge ties with oil and gas companies that drill on public lands at the expense of conservation. “They pushed Humpty Dumpty off the wall, and someone needs to put Humpty Dumpty back together again,” said Ken Rait, who directs the public lands project at the Pew Charitable Trusts. There’s a growing consensus among the agency’s proponents that the next director needs to be someone who is intimately familiar with the organization in order to stabilize BLM and boost the morale of its remaining employees. Under its current leadership, BLM underwent a controversial relocation of its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Grand Junction, Colo., while scattering the rest of the Washington-based staff to various federal offices around the West. Many opponents saw the move, and the resulting brain drain, as a way to dismantle the agency, leaving just 61 of the agency’s 10,000 employees in Washington, compared with about 350 employees in previous administrations. “The only way to be successful, particularly with the heavy lift that is required to deal with all disruption caused by Trump administration, is really to find someone from within who doesn’t have to prove their credibility to the rank and file from the outset, but then, with their confidence, can begin representing them with leadership in the department and on Capitol Hill and with other agencies,” a former high-ranking Interior official told The Hill. Public lands advocates have floated a number of possible contenders for BLM director in the Biden administration: Steve Ellis, who held the highest-ranking career position at BLM during the Obama administration; Nada Culver, a lawyer with the Audubon Society; and Neil Kornze, who led the agency under former President Obama.

Environmental Justice Reporters Face Deadly Threats, Intimidation – Shubham Mani Tripathi, newspaper reporter, India: shot dead in June 2020 for exposing illegal sand mining. Maria Efigenia Vasquez Astudillo, radio reporter, Colombia: struck and killed by a projectile in October 2017 while covering clashes between the Indigenous community and local police. Joseph Oduha, journalist, South Sudan: fled the country in 2019 after imprisonment and torture for uncovering environmental destruction by international oil companies.These are just three of the individuals highlighted by Reporters without Borders (RSF). According to the press freedom group, at least 20 journalists have died over the past decade as a result of their reporting on cases of environmental destruction.Environmental journalists in Europe also face intimidation and harassment, said RSF spokesperson Christoph Dreyer, pointing to cases connected to the destruction of the Hambach Forest in northwestern Germany or unsustainable agriculture practices in Brittany, France. But most of these attacks, more than 65%, are recorded in Asia and the Americas.”These cases exist in places where raw materials are being mined or where land is being seized for agriculture, in countries where the government is on the side of industry,” said Dreyer.It’s in these areas, where Indigenous communities often live amid untapped natural resources and unspoiled forest, where local journalists are usually the first to report on the conflicts. Often, they’re the only ones on the scene.”In some Latin American countries, the dominant traditional media are heavily controlled by the economic and political elites,” said Dreyer. “They often hold back from critical reporting on environmental issues, because it clashes with their interests.” As a result, when local media decide to take a closer look they’re put under extreme pressure, he added.The work of local journalists is extremely important for Indigenous communities, said Kathrin Wessendorf, head of the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). “Each Indigenous community has its own language, and only community reporters can report in that language,” she told DW. “They also know how best to approach the community to spread the message.” Patricia Gualinga, who fights for Indigenous rights in Ecuador, told DW that large national media networks are often slow to report on environmental and human rights issues. “It’s really very difficult to get coverage on TV. And if an issue isn’t reported by the media, it doesn’t exist,” she said.

Study: Glass Bottles Harm the Environment More Than Plastic Bottles –Glass bottles could have an even bigger impact on the environment than plastic ones, a new study has found.Researchers at the University of Southampton in England set out to determine which common beverage containers cause the most and least harm to the environment. They found that glass is actually more detrimental than plastic because it is mined from rare materials and requires more fossil fuels to produce and ship.”It might come as a surprise, but glass bottles actually ranked last in our analysis,” study coauthors Alice Brock and Ian Williams wrote in The Conversation. “You might instinctively reach for a glass bottle to avoid buying a plastic alternative, but glass takes more resources and energy to produce.”In a study published in Detritus, Brock and Williams investigated the most and least impactful container options for three beverage types: milk, fruit juice and pressurized fizzy drinks. In order to determine each container’s impact, Brock and Williams conducted life cycle assessments and compared the containers based on several indicators of environmental harm, including their contribution to global warming, depletion of resources and impact on human health and terrestrial and marine environments.For each type of beverage, Brock and Williams were then able to rank the containers from most to least harmful.

1. Fizzy Drinks: Glass bottles were the most harmful and 100 percent recycled aluminum cans were the least. In between, from most to least impactful, came recycled glass bottles, plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) bottles and non-recycled aluminum cans.
2. Fruit Juice: Glass bottles were again the most harmful and Tetra Paks were the least. In between came recycled glass bottles and PET bottles.
3. Milk: Glass was the most impactful and cartons were the least. In between were recycled glass bottles and high-density polythene (HDPE) plastic bottles.

While each beverage category had a least impactful option, the researchers noted that even the minimally impactful choices still caused harm. Non-recycled aluminum cans, for example, ranked high for having toxic impacts on marine environments despite being the second-least impactful fizzy drink container type overall.

Waste Watch: Carbon Emissions to Increase in the UK from Waste Disposal; Yet Another Reason We Need To Cease Making So Much Plastic – Jerri-Lynn Scofield – An article in Monday’s Guardian caught my eye, Increase in burning of plastic ‘driving up emissions from waste disposal’: By 2030 the government’s push to increase incineration of waste will increase CO2emissions by 10m tonnes a year, mostly from the burning of plastics, the groups said. They argue that the growth in energy-from-waste incineration means the UK will not be able to meet its commitment to net zero carbon emissions by 2050.The coalition, which includes Extinction Rebellion’s zero waste group, Friends of the Earth, the UK Without Incineration Network (UKWIN), Greenpeace and the MP John Cruddas, says the expansion of waste incineration is forcing up carbon emissions.In an open letter to the prime minister they are calling for a law requiring the waste sector to decarbonise by 2035, similar to legislation passed in the Scandinavian countries and Finland.The link between increased use of plastics and increased emissions is I think not as well understood as is the basic waste disposal problem for plastics. It’s not emphasized as much as it should be. Nor, for that matter, is increased recycling a solution for to counteract the increase in emissions.Note that Yves highlighted the inadequacy of NJ’s recently passed ban on plastic (and paper) packaging in a recent post, and yet one more reason that NY’s finally enacted plastic bag ban falls so short of what’s necessary. Both these virtue-signalling bans fall far short of necessary actions. Recycling will undoubtedly drop further worldwide as a result of the pandemic, as governments are unlikely to reinstate recycling services and initiatives suspended during the COVID-19 crisis. That means incineration will correspondingly increase to manage the need for ongoing waste disposal, at least for the short-term, thus exacerbating the global emissions problem,

Secondhand Clothing Sales Are Booming – and May Help Solve the Sustainability Crisis in the Fashion Industry A massive force is reshaping the fashion industry: secondhand clothing. According to a new report, the U.S. secondhand clothing market is projected to more than triple in value in the next 10 years – from US$28 billion in 2019 to US$80 billion in 2029 – in a U.S. market currently worth $379 billion. In 2019, secondhand clothingexpanded 21 times faster than conventional apparel retail did.Even more transformative is secondhand clothing’s potential to dramatically alter the prominence of fast fashion – a business model characterized by cheap and disposable clothing that emerged in the early 2000s, epitomized by brands like H&M and Zara. Fast fashion grew exponentially over the next two decades, significantly altering the fashion landscape by producing more clothing, distributing it faster and encouraging consumers to buy in excess with low prices.While fast fashion is expected to , secondhand fashion is poised to grow 185%.As researchers who study clothing consumption and sustainability, we think the secondhand clothing trend has the potential to reshape the fashion industry and mitigate the industry’s detrimental environmental impact on the planet. The secondhand clothing market is composed of two major categories, thrift stores and resale platforms. But it’s the latter that has largely fueled the recent boom. Secondhand clothing has long been perceived as worn out and tainted, mainly sought by bargain or treasure hunters. However, this perception has changed, and now many consumers consider secondhand clothing to be of identical or even superior quality to unworn clothing. A trend of “fashion flipping” – or buying secondhand clothes and reselling them – has also emerged, particularly among young consumers.

Historic deal revives plan for largest US dam demolition (AP) – An agreement announced Tuesday paves the way for the largest dam demolition in U.S. history, a project that promises to reopen hundreds of miles of waterway along the Oregon-California border to salmon that are critical to tribes but have dwindled to almost nothing in recent years. If approved, the deal would revive plans to remove four massive hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River, creating the foundation for the most ambitious salmon restoration effort in history. The project on California’s second-largest river would be at the vanguard of a trend toward dam demolitions in the U.S. as the structures age and become less economically viable amid growing environmental concerns about the health of native fish. Previous efforts to address problems in the Klamath Basin have fallen apart amid years of legal sparring that generated distrust among tribes, fishing groups, farmers and environmentalists, and the new agreement could face more legal challenges. Some state and federal lawmakers criticized it as a financially irresponsible overreach by leaders in Oregon and California. “This dam removal is more than just a concrete project coming down. It’s a new day and a new era,” Yurok Tribe chairman Joseph James said. “To me, this is who we are, to have a free-flowing river just as those who have come before us. … Our way of life will thrive with these dams being out.” : A half-dozen tribes across Oregon and California, fishing groups and environmentalists had hoped to see demolition work begin as soon as 2022. But those plans stalled in July, when U.S. regulators questioned whether the nonprofit entity formed to oversee the project could adequately respond to any cost overruns or accidents. The new plan makes Oregon and California equal partners in the demolition with the nonprofit entity, called the Klamath River Renewal Corporation, and adds $45 million to the project’s $450 million budget to ease those concerns. Oregon, California and the utility PacifiCorp, which operates the hydroelectric dams and is owned by billionaire Warren Buffett’s company Berkshire Hathaway, will each provide one-third of the additional funds. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission must approve the deal. If accepted, it would allow PacifiCorp and Berkshire Hathaway to walk away from aging dams that are more of an albatross than a profit-generator, while addressing regulators’ concerns. Oregon, California and the nonprofit would jointly take over the hydroelectric license from PacifiCorp while the nonprofit will oversee the work.

Over 800 000 homes without power as severe storms hit Midwest and Northeast U.S. – Severe storms accompanied by high winds led to widespread power outages in the Midwest and the northeastern U.S. over the weekend, affecting more than 800 000 customers. Property damage was also reported, as well as flooding along the shores of the Great Lakes into Monday, November 16. A deepening area of low pressure brought winds of up to 122 km/h (76 mph) across much of the Midwest and northeastern regions, causing power outages, flooding, and property damage, according to AccuWeather meteorologist Brett Rossio. The system formed Saturday, November 14, and by Sunday afternoon, November 15, a wide area of wind gusts ranging between 64 and 122 km/h (40 and 76 mph) hit Missouri, Indiana, and Ohio. In Ohio, more than 350 000 power outages were reported, while 210 000 customers lost electricity in Michigan. By Sunday evening, more than 800 000 customers in the region lost access to power. High winds also resulted in one fatality in Ohio– the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office reported that a 63-year-old woman was killed after being hit by a fallen tree. Strong winds knocked down trees, caused property damage, and triggered lakeshore flooding across the Great Lakes, which persisted through Monday. The National Weather Service (NWS) Detroit has issued a high wind warning for the Detroit area and much of Michigan. As of Monday morning, 198 885 people remain without power in Michigan, 112 718 in Ohio, 58 794 in Pennsylvania, 40 764 in New York, and 21 936 in Maine.

Destructive EF-3 tornado and severe hailstorm leave 6 people dead in South Africa — At least 6 fatalities have been confirmed while dozens of properties have been damaged or destroyed after severe storms — including hail reportedly bigger than a golf ball, an EF-3 tornado, lightning, and strong winds — lashed eastern provinces of South Africa on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 17 and 18, 2020. In KwaZulu-Natal, two people were reported dead while one person remains missing after a major hailstorm accompanied by lightning hit the province. A 10-year-old child was injured in Umuziwabantu. Hailstones that were described as larger than a golf ball damaged about 70 homes in the Msunduzi municipality. “A 22-year-old female is still missing and is believed to have been swept away, trying to cross the local river in Umlazi F Section in eThekwini,” said official Sipho Hlomuka. Multicell thunderstorms traveled to the east, and during the next three hours, it traveled almost 280 km (174 miles) from Graaf-Reinet to Bofolo, while an intensifying storm south of Burgersdorp moved for about 78 km (48 miles) southeast, SAWS explained. Shortly after, there was another change of storm movement– very high winds from the intensified multicell storm resulted in damage to properties, houses, and vehicles, including to the Mthatha Airport. Heavy downpours also resulted in localized flooding, while high winds uprooted trees. Computer labs, books and printing machines were destroyed. The area has been without electricity since Tuesday thus leaving teachers with no option, but to ask to make exam question paper copies in school in town. pic.twitter.com/lLUeKAeUEX

Record November rain and snow hit Lower Dir, Pakistan – Up to 108 mm (4.2 inches) of rain and more than 1 m (3 feet) of snow fell in Lower Dir District as upper parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan, received the season’s first snow over the weekend. The numbers were record totals for the month of November, according to local media SAMAA.Rains started falling in various parts of the province on Friday, November 13, and continued into Monday, November 16. Lower Dir recorded 108 mm (4.2 inches) into Sunday, while more than 1 m (3 feet) of snow was registered in Kumrat and Kohistan– these were record totals for the month of November, according to SAMAA TV.Many parts of Peshawar were affected by prolonged power outages during the rain, while rainwater accumulated on main roads.In Swat, heavy snowfall was reported in mountainous areas of the district, including Malam Jabba, Madyan, Miandam, Bahrain, Kalam, Mankyal, Utror, Matiltan, Gabral, Gabin Jabba, Lalku, and Sulatanr. Due to the snow, many motorists were stranded on roads, while several roads were blocked.

State of emergency in the Russian Far East after destructive unseasonal ice storm collapses all key infrastructure systems (videos) Several people froze to death and over 150 000 were left without electricity, water, and heating in the Russian Far East after a destructive unseasonal ice storm hit the region on November 18, 2020. The chief regional meteorologist said wires and trees were encrusted in up to 1.2 cm (0.5 inches) of ice — an occurrence not seen in 30 years.In the city of Vladivostok, Russia’s Pacific capital, all key systems from electricity, water, and heating to transport and communication collapsed after the storm downed frozen trees and ice-laden power lines. Temporary accommodation centers were open for residents on November 19, with snow and strong winds continuing into November 20. The destruction is widespread and the electricity may not be restored to some homes for several days, local authorities said.Boris Kubay, the chief of the regional meteorological service, said the situation has been aggravated by a strong gale wind ‘that breaks everything.’Kubay said the ice storm was a result of a clash between two storms — one carrying hot air and another carrying cold. Wires and trees were encrusted in up to 1.2 cm (0.5 inches) of ice — an occurrence not seen in 30 years, Kubay said.

Pyroclastic flow at Sinabung volcano, lava dome continues to grow, Indonesia – A pyroclastic flow was reported at Sinabung volcano in In donesia on November 18, 2020, with a sliding distance of 1 500 m (4 921 feet) to the southeast. An eruption occurred at 06:44 UTC, accompanied by an ash plume rising up to 3.6 km (12 000 feet) above sea level.. The Aviation Color Code remains at Orange.On November 17, seismographs recorded 24 avalanche earthquakes, six low-frequency quakes, one local tectonic quake, and two distant tectonic earthquakes on the volcano. The dome continues to grow, making it more cantilevered. On November 18, the volcano emitted pyroclastic flow as far as 1 500 m (4 921 feet) to the southeast. Armen Putra, head of the Sinabung Volcano Monitoring Post, said the mountain had to be monitored as its activity remains high. “People must stay away from the red zone with a radius of 5 km (3 miles) to the East-Southeast sector, and 4 km (2 miles) to the North East from the summit of Mount Sinabung.””Together with the TNI and Polri, we are increasing security at every entrance to the foot of Mount Sinabung. This is done so that no residents enter the red zone,” he added.The lava dome continues growing and its development continues to be closely monitored. Seismic activity is characterized by continuous volcanic tremor.

Typhoon “Vamco” makes landfall in disaster-stricken Central Vietnam – Typhoon “Vamco” has made landfall in Da Nang, Central Vietnam on Sunday, November 15, 2020, with winds of up to 150 km/h (93 mph), further inflicting damage to properties in the region already pounded by successive storms that had left at least 230 people dead or missing and more than 400 000 homes damaged or destroyed. “This is a very strong typhoon,” said Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc prior to the storm’s landfall, warning provinces in the storm’s path to prepare as authorities planned to evacuate about 470 000 people.Airports and beaches have been closed, and a fishing ban has been enforced. State media added that hundreds of thousands more may have to flee.Vamco made landfall roughly 100 km (62 miles) northwest of Da Nang on Sunday morning, with winds of 150 km/h (93 mph). High waves caused damage to boats and ships, as well as some houses along the coast of Thua Thien Hue. Many sections of embankments and sidewalks have been hit hard. Roofs of houses and schools have been completely blown away. Local media reported damage to classrooms, collapsed walls, uprooted trees, and smashed pavements along the banks of the Han River.

Cagayan submerged in its worst flood in history, Typhoon “Vamco” (Ulysses) death toll rises to 67 – Philippines –in the Cagayan Valley, which has been engulfed in its biggest and worst flooding in history, the provincial information office said in a statement. Given the dire situation, the provincial board has approved the recommendation of governor Manuel Mamba to declare a state of calamity on Saturday, November 14.According to governor Manuel Mamba, water from other provinces and water released from the Magat Dam that flowed toward the area caused the flood. “Right now, Cagayan looks almost like an ocean,” said Mamba. “It’s almost its third day but the waters are still high.” NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Timbal, on the other hand, said the widespread flooding was not due to the release of water from Magat Dam, but the swelling of the Cagayan River. “These flooding incideTyphoon “Vamco” (locally called Ulysses) has left a total of 67 fatalities, 13 others missing, and more than 1.7 million affected after lashing the Philippines, according to the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) update released on Sunday, November 15, 2020. A state of calamity has been declared in the Cagayan Valley as the province has been submerged in its worst flooding in history.In the NDRRMC’s situational report on Sunday afternoon, it was reported that a total of 428 657 families or 1 755 224 people in Regions I, II, III, V, CALABARZON, MIMAROPA, NCR, and CAR have been affected by Vamco.Of these, 85 357 families or 324 617 persons are being accommodated in 2 991 evacuation centers, while 52 574 families or 231 701 people are being served outside shelters.The NDRRMC estimated damage to agriculture at about 1.2 billion pesos or 24.7 million dollars, and damage to infrastructure at about 470 million pesos or 9 million dollars. The figures are expected to rise as authorities are still assessing the extent of the destruction.The death toll has risen to 67 while 21 others were injured and 13 others remain missing in regions II, V, CALABARZON, and CAR. Most of the fatalities occurred nts are the cumulative effects of the continuous rains experienced in Luzon,” he said, adding that there has been “more than a month’s worth of rainy days,” to at least five successive tropical cyclones that hit Luzon.

Philippines’ typhoon deaths rise as worst floods in 45 years hit north (Reuters) – The death toll from the deadliest cyclone to hit the Philippines this year has climbed to 67, while many areas remained submerged in a northern region hit by the worst flooding in more than four decades, officials said on Sunday. President Rodrigo Duterte flew to Tuguegarao province to assess the situation in Cagayan Valley region, which was heavily flooded after Typhoon Vamco dumped rain over swathes of the main Luzon island, including the capital, metropolitan Manila. Twenty-two fatalities were recorded in Cagayan, 17 in southern Luzon, eight in Metro Manila, and 20 in two other regions, said Mark Timbal, the disaster management agency spokesman. Twelve people were still missing and nearly 26,000 houses were damaged by Vamco, he said. “This is the worst flooding that we had in the last 45 years,” Cagayan Governor Manuel Mamba said during a briefing with Duterte. “We see that it is worsening every year.” The accumulated effects of weather disturbances and huge volumes of water from a dam affected thousands of families in Cagayan, some of whom had fled to rooftops to escape two-storey high floods. Six cyclones hit the Philippines in a span of just four weeks, including Vamco and Super Typhoon Goni, the world’s most powerful this year. But Mamba also lamented about denuded forests in Cagayan, prompting Duterte to order him to curb logging operations in the province. “We always talk about illegal logging and mining but nothing has been done about it,” Duterte said. Relief and rescue operations continued in Cagayan even as the nearby Magat Dam was still releasing water, two days after releasing a volume equivalent to two Olympic-size pools per second, based on government data. Vamco, the 21st cyclone to hit the Philippines this year, also caused the worst flooding in years in parts of the capital.

Entire Luzon under state of calamity after devastation caused by typhoons Goni and Vamco, Philippines – (videos) The entire island of Luzon, Philippines, has been placed under a state of calamity as of November 18, 2020, following the devastation of successive typhoons Goni (locally named Rolly)– the world’s most powerful storm of the year and the country’s strongest landfalling tropical cyclone– and Vamco (locally known as Ulysses), which triggered the Cagayan Valley’s worst flooding in history. Both storms left massive damage, hundreds of thousands of houses and buildings submerged, and at least 98 people dead, according to the situational report of the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC).During a meeting with cabinet members, President Rodrigo Duterte confirmed that he has signed the proclamation of a state of calamity, which will remain in effect until he decides to lift it.The declaration would make it easier for local government units to access fast response and calamity funds, which have been depleted for many localities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It also triggered an automatic price freeze on essential items.Super Typhoon “Goni” caused widespread destruction, especially in the Bicol region. A total of 139 122 families or 504 807 persons were pre-emptively evacuated.According to the NDRRMC, the storm left at least 25 people dead, 399 injured, 6 missing persons, and a total of 170 773 houses affected. The damage to infrastructure amounted to 12.8 billion pesos or 265 million dollars, while the damage to agriculture is approximately 5 billion pesos or 103 million dollars. Goni made landfall on October 31 with maximum sustained winds of 225 km/h (140 mph) and gusts to 280 km/h (174 mph), making it the world’s most powerful storm of the year and the country’s strongest landfalling tropical cyclone on record.Typhoon “Vamco” made landfall on November 11 with maximum sustained winds of 155 km/h (96 mph) and gusts to 205 km/h (127 mph). It triggered catastrophic flooding in various parts of Luzon, including Isabela, Rizal, Marikina, and Cagayan, which locals described as worse than the 2009 Typhoon “Ketsana” (Ondoy)– the second most devastating tropical cyclone that year.”We haven’t experienced this kind of flooding for so many months or years. That’s why everyone was surprised,” said Marikina mayor Marcelino Teodoro. Cagayan Valley bore the brunt of the floods as the province was submerged in its worst inundation in history, leaving more than 1.7 million people affected. This prompted governor Manual Mamba to declare a state of calamity for the province on November 14.

Iota Becomes Second Major Hurricane to Threaten Central America This Month — Hurricane Iota, the 30th named storm and 13th hurricane of a record-breaking season, is now bearing down upon Central America less than two weeks after Hurricane Eta devastated the region. Iota was a Category 1 storm 10 a.m. Sunday, with winds of around 90 miles per hour, The New York Times reported. However, it strengthened rapidly overnight and is now a Category 4 storm with winds up to 155 miles per hour, according to a 7 a.m. EST update from the National Hurricane Center (NHC). “Iota could be a catastrophic category 5 hurricane when it approaches Central America tonight,” the NHC warned. Iota is expected to make landfall in northeastern Nicaragua or eastern Honduras Monday night. It threatens a storm surge of up to 12 to 18 feet above normal tide levels, as well as “catastrophic wind damage” as it moves onshore. The NHC predicts it will dump eight to 16 inches of rain on Honduras, northern Nicaragua, Guatemala and southern Belize, with some parts of Nicaragua and Honduras seeing up to 20 to 30 inches. “This rainfall will lead to significant, life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding, along with mudslides in areas of higher terrain,” the NHC warned. The situation will likely be made worse by the after-effects of Hurricane Eta, the NHC noted Sunday night. The fact that the soil has not yet dried out after the earlier storm could make landslides and floods even more likely, The Independent explained. “Our ground is already saturated, so it’s to be expected that we have more farming and infrastructure damage,” Guatemalan President Alejandro Giammattei said, as BBC News reported. Hurricane Eta killed at least 200 people in Central America. One of the worst tragedies occurred in Guatemala, when mudslides in the village of Quejfl buried dozens of homes and likely killed around 100 people. Overall, the storm displaced thousands of people after it made landfall as a Category 4 storm Nov. 3, as CNN reported. More than 3.6 million people in the region were impacted by the storm in some way, the Red Cross said. Now, Central Americans face further evacuations to prepare for Iota. There are around 63,000 hunkering down in 379 shelters in northern Honduras, The Independent reported. In Nicaragua, 1,500 people were evacuated from low-lying areas as of Sunday afternoon, but 83,000 people in the area were actually in danger. “In a 36-hour period [Eta] went from a depression to a very strong category 4,” Climate Adaptation Center CEO Bob Bunting told The Guardian. “That is just not normal. Probably it was the fastest spin up from a depression to a major hurricane in history.”

Iota strengthens to strongest Atlantic hurricane of the year before making historic landfall in Nicaragua – Extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane “Iota” made landfall along the coast of northeastern Nicaragua — just 24 km (15 miles) from the area struck by Category 4 Hurricane “Eta” on November 3 — with maximum sustained winds of 250 km/h (155 mph), just 2 km/h below Category 5 hurricane. With many parts of Nicaragua and Honduras still recovering from massive rain dropped by Eta, more extreme rainfall produced by Iota may lead to some of the worst floods the region has seen in a thousand years or more.

• Iota is still a significant hurricane, NHC said. Damaging winds and a life-threatening storm surge are expected along portions of the coast of northeastern Nicaragua during the next several hours, where a hurricane warning is in effect.
• Life-threatening flash flooding and river flooding is expected through Thursday, November 19 across portions of Central America due to heavy rainfall from Iota. Flooding and mudslides across portions of Honduras, Nicaragua and Guatemala could be exacerbated by Hurricane Eta’s recent effects there, resulting in significant to potentially catastrophic impacts.

Iota strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 260 km/h (160 mph) — the strongest of the 2020 Atlantic season — before it made landfall, and now ranks as the second-most intense November hurricane in the Atlantic ocean on record. The strongest ever November hurricane in the Atlantic remains the 1932 Cuba hurricane — the deadliest and one of the most intense tropical cyclones to make landfall in Cuba. Together with Iota, the 1932 Cuba hurricane is the only Category 5 Atlantic hurricane ever recorded during the month of November.Iota explosively intensified before landfall, 61 hPa in 24 hours (71 hPa in 36 hours) — which is far beyond the rapid deepening threshold. There are only 3 Atlantic hurricanes on record that have deepened more than 61 hPa in 24 hours — Gilbert in 1988, and Rita and Vilma in 2005. Iota is the only one in November. This rapid intensification rate makes Iota the 4th rapidly deepening hurricane of the 2020 season — which is the most in a single Atlantic season, and the largest deepening this year. Iota is now the strongest November hurricane on record to make landfall in Nicaragua, surpassing the previous record set by Eta (230 km/h / 140 mph) just 13 days ago. Together with Eta, Hurricane “Iota” is now among the top 5 tropical cyclones ever to hit Nicaragua.”Catastrophic flooding is anticipated because the ground is still saturated from Eta, and rain from Iota will run off into already swollen and flooded streams and rivers,” AccuWeather CEO and Founder Dr. Joel N. Myers said. “The mountainous terrain will add to the dangers of flooding and mudslides.””This may be one of the worst floods in some of these areas in a thousand years or more,” Myers said. “Some of these countries may not completely recover for 5 to 10 years.”

Hurricane Iota Breaks Records as It Slams Nicaragua – Hurricane Iota made landfall along the coast of northeastern Nicaragua at 10:40 p.m. Monday night as an “extremely dangerous” Category 4 storm. The landfall location was just 15 miles away from where the devastating Hurricane Eta made landfall 13 days earlier, according to the National Hurricane Center (NHC). It was also the most powerful storm to make landfall in Nicaragua in November, Colorado State University meteorologist Philip Klotzbach noted on Twitter, breaking the record set by Eta. “This is double destruction,” Nicaraguan Business owner Adfln Artola Schultz told The Associated Press. “This is coming in with fury.” “This hurricane is definitely worse” than Eta, Bermúdez told The Associated Press. “There are already a lot of houses that lost their roofs, fences and fruit trees that got knocked down. We will never forget this year.” Before it even made landfall, the storm blew a metal roof off of a hospital in Bilwi where victims of Hurricane Eta were being treated, The New York Times reported. Most of the city has been without power since 3 p.m. Monday. Iota is the 30th named storm of the record-breaking 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, the most of any season. It is also the ninth storm this season to rapidly intensify, a phenomenon linked to the climate crisis, The Associated Press reported. Iota strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane but weakened before coming ashore. It was the latest Category 5 storm on record, Klotzbach said. While it was still a Category 5 storm, Iota lashed the Columbian islands of San Andres and Providencia, CNN reported. “It’s the first time that a Category 5 Hurricane has reached our territory since records began,” Colombia President Ivan Duque told reporters. “We are facing an issue with characteristics never before witnessed by our country.” At least one person died on Providencia and 90 percent of the island’s infrastructure has been impacted. Both islands also lost electricity, The New York Times reported. The Colombian city of Cartagena also experiencedflooding. Iota has now weakened into a tropical storm with winds reaching 75 miles per hour, according to a 9 a.m.update from the NHC. It is currently located about 85 miles west of Bilwi and heading further inland across northern Nicaragua today and over southern Honduras tonight.

Iota leaves more than 20 people dead or missing, unprecedented damage reported in Providencia and San Andrés – At least 13 people were killed and 11 others remain missing after extremely dangerous Category 4 Hurricane “Iota” made landfall in Nicaragua on November 17– considered the strongest storm to hit the country and the most powerful tropical cyclone of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season. It moved directly over Providencia and San Andres, Colombia on November 16 as a Category 5 hurricane, causing “unprecedented” damage and marking the first time a Category 5 hurricane directly struck the country. Hundreds of thousands have been affected by floods and landslides, further worsening the situation in the region still reeling from the devastation of Hurricane “Eta.”The full extent of the damage left by Iota is still unclear.Iota strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds of 260 km/h (160 mph) prior to its landfall, making it the strongest tropical cyclone of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season.It weakened into a Category 4 hurricane, just 2 km/h below Category 5, prior to landfall, making it the strongest November hurricane to hit the Central American country on record.The storm made landfall near the town of Haulover, Nicaragua, on November 17 — just 25 km (15 miles) south of where Eta made landfall on November 3.According to the Nicaraguan government, Iota is now considered the most powerful storm to hit the country in history.As of early November 18, Iota is blamed for the deaths of at least 6 people in the country, two of whom were minors. More than 62 000 people have been evacuated in 683 government shelters following the storm. In the city of Bilwi, also known as Puerto Cabezas, there is almost no communication due to fallen power lines. Heavy rains associated with a tropical wave and Iota caused extensive damage in Colombia, and left at least 7 people dead and 11 others missing. Massive damage took place in the Mohfln sector of Dabeiba, where landslides killed three people, injured 20, and left 8 others missing.On November 15 and 16, Iota passed close to the outlying Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina as a Category 5 hurricane. The hurricane’s eye directly hit Providencia, causing “unprecedented” damage, according to President Ivfln Duque Mflrquez.This marked the first time a Category 5 directly struck the country. Communication was temporarily lost with the island on November 16. In a press conference Tuesday morning, November 17, Duque said they have started rebuilding Providencia Island, where 98 percent of the infrastructure had been destroyed.

Iota is the first Category 5 hurricane to hit Colombia – destroys 98 percent of infrastructure on the island of) Providencia (videos) Hurricane “Iota” strengthened into a Category 5 hurricane — peak winds of 260 km/h (160 mph) — on November 16, 2020, as it was passing over the Colombian Archipelago of San Andrés, Providencia and Santa Catalina, making it the strongest tropical cyclone of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season and the strongest-ever to hit Colombia. It weakened into a Category 4 hurricane, just 2 km/h below Category 5, prior to landfall in Nicaragua, making it the strongest November hurricane to hit the Central American country. According to Colombian authorities, 98% of the infrastructure on the island of Providencia (population 5 011) has been damaged or destroyed, including the local hospital, which has been completely destroyed. Communication with the island was temporarily lost.A preliminary assessment indicates at least 2 dead, while the total number of people affected is not yet known. The neighboring island of San Andres (population 43 000), also faced damage to its infrastructure. National emergency teams have been mobilized, including the delivery of 4 000 tents and 2 field hospitals, DG Echo reports. Iota’s passage over the archipelago marked the first time a Category 5 directly struck the country. In addition, heavy rains associated with a tropical wave and Iota caused extensive damage in mainland Colombia, leaving at least 7 people dead and 11 others missing. Massive damage took place in the Mohfln sector of Dabeiba, where landslides killed three people, injured 20, and left 8 others missing. In a press conference Tuesday morning, November 17, Colombian President Ivfln Duque Mflrquez said they have started rebuilding Providencia Island, where 98 percent of the infrastructure had been destroyed. “We began to remove rubble from the island, accelerate the delivery of humanitarian aid and tents to enable family spaces.”

In a Warming World, Hurricanes Weaken More Slowly After They Hit Land -Hurricanes are not just intensifying faster and dropping more rain. Because of global warming, their destructive power persists longer after reaching land, increasing risks to communities farther inland that may be unprepared for devastating winds and flooding.That shift was underlined last week by an analysis of Atlantic hurricanes that made landfall between 1967 and 2018. The study, published Nov. 11 in Nature, showed that, in the second half of the study period, hurricanes weakened almost twice as slowly after hitting land. “As the world continues to warm, the destructive power of hurricanes will extend progressively farther inland,” the researchers wrote in their report.Scientists have known for some time that, as global temperatures warm, hurricanes are intensifying, and are more likely to stall and produce rain. But Pinaki Chakraborty, senior author of the study and a climate researcher with the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology, said the new analysis found that with warming, hurricanes also take longer to decay after landfall, something researchers had not studied before. “It was thought that a warming world has had no pronounced effect on landfalling hurricanes,” Chakraborty said. “We show, not so, unfortunately.”Tropical storms and hurricanes are the costliest climate-linked natural disasters. Since 2000, the damage from such extreme storms has added up to $831 billion, about 60 percent of the total caused by climate-related extremes tracked by a federal disaster database.Noting the findings, Jim Kossin, a hurricane expert with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration who also did not participate in the study, said,”I find it somewhat remarkable that these trends we keep discovering are so disproportionately for the worse.” He added, “The news is rarely good, unfortunately.”

Climate Change Will Make Parts of the U.S. Uninhabitable. Americans Are Still Moving There.– Over the past year, the advent of a professional economy powered by people working from home has quickened the conversation about where to live, particularly among millennials. “Is now the right time to buy property in Minnesota?” “Is Buffalo the new place to be?”How important is proximity to fresh water? Should you risk moving somewhere that has fire seasons? How far north do you have to go to find liveable summers?Americans have defied the norms of climate migration seen elsewhere in the world, flocking to cities like Phoenix, Houston and Miami that face some of the greatest risks from soaring temperatures and rising sea levels.Those patterns seem likely to change.New data from the Rhodium Group, analyzed by ProPublica, shows that climate damage will wreak havoc on the southern third of the country, erasing more than 8% of its economic output and likely turning migration from a choice to an imperative.The data shows that the warming climate will alter everything from how we grow food to where people can plausibly live. Ultimately, millions o f people will be displaced by flooding, fires and scorching heat, a resorting of the map not seen since the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. Now as then, the biggest question will be who escapes and who is left behind.

Red Cross: ‘No Vaccine for Climate Change’ – “The Covid-19 pandemic has shown how vulnerable the world is to a truly global catastrophe. But another, bigger, catastrophe has been building for many decades, and humanity is still lagging far behind in efforts to address it.”So begins Come Heat or High Water, the 2020 World Disasters Report published Tuesday by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies (IFRC).While “Covid-19 has demonstrated that humanity has the capacity to recognize and respond to a global crisis,” the authors wrote, “climate change is an even more significant challenge to humanity… one which literally threatens our long-term survival.”Indeed, “the impacts of global warming are already killing people and devastating lives and livelihoods every year,” including in 2020, the report noted. “Climate change is not waiting for Covid-19 to be brought under control.”The analysis showed that more than 100 climate change-related disasters occurred in just the first six months of the pandemic, affecting over 50 million people.”Many people are being directly affected by the pandemic and climate-driven disasters all at once,” the report said, drawing attention to what researchers called “compounding shocks.””And the world’s poorest and most at-risk people are being hit first and hardest,” which is consistent with “trends in vulnerability and exposure” that have led scholars to describe climate as a “risk multiplier.” While there is hope that one or more vaccines will soon provide protection against the coronavirus, IFRC Secretary-General Jagan Chapagain told reporters that “unfortunately, there is no vaccine for climate change.”According to the IFRC:

• In the past 10 years, 83% of all disasters triggered by natural hazards were caused by extreme weather- and climate-related events, such as floods, storms and heatwaves;
• The number of climate- and weather-related disasters has been increasing since the 1960s, and has risen almost 35% since the 1990s;
• The proportion of all disasters attributable to climate and extreme weather events has also increased significantly during this time, from 76% of all disasters during the 2000s to 83% in the 2010s;
• These extreme weather- and climate-related disasters have killed more than 410,000 people in the past 10 years, the vast majority in low and lower middle-income countries; and
• Heatwaves, then storms, have been the biggest killers. A further 1.7 billion people around the world have been affected by climate and weather-related disasters during the past decade.

How the U.S. fell behind China in the fight against climate change (CNBC video) Since President Donald Trump took office in 2017, the U.S. has stepped back from its international climate commitments by leaving the Paris Agreement and rolling back dozens of Obama-era climate policies, leaving a void in international climate leadership that China aims to fill.In some ways, the country is well poised for climate leadership. China has become the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels, lithium-ion batteries and electric vehicles. It buys more than half of the world’s new electric cars, and nearly all the globe’s electric buses.In September, China’s president, Xi Jinping, announced the country’s intent to be carbon neutral by 2060, strengthening previous commitments.But “climate leader” is a complicated designation for a country that also burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. While experts say international pressure could push China to decarbonize more quickly, frayed U.S.-China relations might make climate cooperation difficult for President-elect Joe Biden. Here’s how the U.S. fell behind China in the fight against climate change, and what it means for the future of our planet.

How much does animal agriculture and eating meat contribute to global warming? – This post is an updated intermediate rebuttal to the myth “Animal agriculture account for 51% of CO2 emissions“. It was written by Zack Chester as part of the George Mason University class Understanding and Responding to Climate Misinformation. While animal agriculture is a significant contributor to GHG emissions, it is not actually the biggest contributor, as the myth claims. The calculations used to get the 51% of global GHG emissions are, at times, inaccurate or inappropriate, leading ultimately to a misrepresentation of the impact of animal agriculture. The 51% claim comes from a non peer reviewed paper, containing a series of flaws and fallacies used in arriving at their number. A peer reviewed critique of the paper highlights many of the flaws that consistently exaggerate the effects of animal agriculture. One example is how the paper handles livestock respiration. When animals and humans breathe, CO2 is emitted into the atmosphere and taken in by plants, then converted to oxygen. We breathe and eat the plants and the cycle continues, so when we breathe out, we are returning CO2 that was already there. This is why human and animal respiration are excluded from carbon dioxide emission assessments, as the carbon cycle is accepted to be net zero over the span of years to decades.Figure 3 helps illustrate the carbon cycle. If this paper chose to take a stance that animal respiration is not net zero, it is possible to account for animal respiration in the emission budget. However, it is also important to calculate the absorption and consumption of CO2 as well to quantify the imbalance due to respiration, which is not done. On top of that, and more pertinent to the matter, if the authors of the paper think that the carbon cycle is not net zero, it would also be necessary to include human respiration in the calculations to adequately assess the appropriate contribution of human CO2 emissions. They assume that the emissions of over 7.5 billion humans alive today are net zero, and livestock emissions are not, which is cherry picking. As is, the paper oversimplifies the issues, leading to a misrepresentation of animal agriculture’s contribution to global GHG emissions. Accounting for these issues would cause a major change to the 51% value in the report, as over 26% of the reported emissions by animal agriculture come from animal respiration.Oversights of this sort occur throughout the paper. Another example is CO2 emissions from land and land use, which contributes to 8.2% of the animal agricultures emissions. In the paper, the myth partially arises from, an extra source of CO2 emission being added to animal agriculture’s contribution using a hypothetical ‘what-if scenario’. The paper postulates that if land for animal agriculture were converted to activities such as growing crops for humans or biofuel, there could be emissions savings. These potential savings were then added to the other sources of animal agriculture emissions and treated as a way that animal agriculture contributes to total GHG emissions.

1% of people cause half of global aviation emissions – study –Frequent-flying “‘super emitters” who represent just 1% of the world’s population caused half of aviation’s carbon emissions in 2018, according to a study.Airlines produced a billion tonnes of CO2 and benefited from a $100bn (£75bn) subsidy by not paying for the climate damage they caused, the researchers estimated. The analysis draws together data to give the clearest global picture of the impact of frequent fliers. Only 11% of the world’s population took a flight in 2018 and 4% flew abroad. US air passengers have by far the biggest carbon footprint among rich countries. Its aviation emissions are bigger than the next 10 countries combined, including the UK, Japan, Germany and Australia, the study reports.The researchers said the study showed that an elite group enjoying frequent flights had a big impact on the climate crisis that affected everyone.They said the 50% drop in passenger numbers in 2020 during the coronavirus pandemic should be an opportunity to make the aviation industry fairer and more sustainable. This could be done by putting green conditions on the huge bailouts governments were giving the industry, as had happened in France. Global aviation’s contribution to the climate crisis was growing fast before the Covid-19 pandemic, with emissions jumping by 32% from 2013-18. Flight numbers in 2020 have fallen by half but the industry expects to return to previous levels by 2024. “If you want to resolve climate change and we need to redesign [aviation], then we should start at the top, where a few ‘super emitters’ contribute massively to global warming,” “The rich have had far too much freedom to design the planet according to their wishes. We should see the crisis as an opportunity to slim the air transport system.” “The benefits of aviation are more inequitably shared across the world than probably any other major emission source,” he said. “So there’s a clear risk that the special treatment enjoyed by airlines just protects the economic interests of the globally wealthy.”The frequent flyers identified in the study travelled about 35,000 miles (56,000km) a year, Gössling said, equivalent to three long-haul flights a year, one short-haul flight per month, or some combination of the two.The analysis showed the US produced the most emissions among rich nations. China was the biggest among other countries but it does not make data available. However, Gössling thinks its aviation footprint is probably only a fifth of that of the US.

House, Senate leaders express desire to establish work programs on climate issue – Planning work to address flooding from rising sea levels, similar to how the state maps out road and bridge projects for five years, is being considered by the new Republican leaders of the Florida House and Senate. House Speaker Chris Sprowls, R-Palm Harbor, and Senate President Wilton Simpson, R-Trilby, expressed a desire Tuesday to establish work programs that would address the increased impacts of rising sea levels in coastal communities. “We need to identify our most vulnerable areas, where the need is,” Simpson said. “And it’s not like we don’t have engineers that can tell us that around the state and develop a priority list.” Their comments, which came after they were sworn in to lead the House and Senate for the next two years, represented a further evolution in the position of Florida Republicans about climate change. But environmentalists said the GOP leaders are not going far enough. “They’re acknowledging the need – how can you not in Florida acknowledge the need to start making our communities more resilient?” Florida Conservation Voters Executive Director Aliki Moncrief said. “But they still sort of have their heads deliberately in the sand when it comes to tackling what’s actually causing the problem in the first place.” Before a legislative organization session Tuesday, Florida Conservation Voters sent a letter to Sprowls and Simpson urging the creation of a joint committee on climate change to look beyond the issue of coastal flooding by delving into economic and social impacts and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Simpson suggested working with local governments to put budgets together to establish future work plans in line with the Department of Transportation’s five-year work program for roads and bridges. The Department of Transportation has long used the program to set plans for projects. Sprowls, meanwhile, suggested shifting environmental spending from land acquisition to addressing rising waters that flood streets, damage homes and ruin businesses. “We need to stop treating our environmental budget like a giant pork-barrel buffet. We need to bring the same long-range planning and strategic discipline to our environmental programs that we bring to our transportation work plan,” Sprowls said. “We need to stop fixating on land purchases as the sole measure of conservation and embrace the spectrum of priorities from beach renourishment to septic tank conversion to flood mitigation.” Moncrief called Sprowls’ comment about land acquisition “jarring,” as a category in the state’s Florida Forever land-acquisition program is designed to address climate change impacts. “Part of the land acquisition strategy is to make sure that we’ve got resilient shorelines, that we are protecting places that protect people, that prevents flooding,” Moncrief said.Tuesday’s comments by the House and Senate leaders came less than two years after Republicans in Tallahassee, led in part by Sprowls, started to reverse nearly a decade of refusing to acknowledge climate science or even saying the phrase “climate change.”

Secretive Club For Ultra-Wealthy Environmentalists Revealed –Ultra-wealthy investors looking to direct vast sums of money into green investments (perhaps to atone for ‘climate sins’) have been joining in a secretive nonprofit dedicated to ‘speeding up the flow of capital into investments that can slow global warming,’ according to Bloomberg. The club, Creo Syndicate, works with around 200 families who pay a ‘very reasonable’ flat fee to join, and must commit to making their first investment in climate and sustainability within six months, according to founder and director, Régine Clément.Creo’s members include investor Jeremy Grantham and Nat Simmons – the son of Renaissance Technologies’ billionaire founder James Simmons. According to the report, “Part of building trust with wealthy families is keeping their secrets. In addition to Grantham and Simons, the group’s ranks include other well-known billionaires whose names Creo won’t disclose. A mantra is “no tourists allowed.””This is not philanthropy, this is investment,” said Clément, adding “We grow entirely through introductions. We never seek out a family.”Creo currently has over $800 billion under management, according to the report.Acting essentially as a mini-investment bank, the nonprofit vets approximately 300 deals per year – connecting member investors with potential partners, while researching technologies for future investments. And because Creo makes no fees on any deals, and ultra-wealthy families ‘generally aren’t trying to pitch to each other,’ “There’s not a lot of hidden agendas.””Members have invested in everything from batteries and hydrogen fuel to regenerative farmland and greener product packaging. Portfolios include still unproven technologies such as methods for carbon capture and true long shots like fusion reactors.” –Bloomberg

Jeff Bezos plays it safe on his $10 billion climate giveaway — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Monday announced nearly $800 million in grants to some of the country’s most prominent environmental organizations, spelling out the first details on his massive climate change push since he unveiled it in February. The $10 billion program, called the Bezos Earth Fund, is one of the biggest charitable commitments ever and the largest to date by Bezos, the world’s richest person. The lion’s share of the money from Bezos is funding nonprofits that are prominent even outside of environmental circles. If you were hoping for the tech billionaire to makemoonshot investments in unheard-of but highly effective charities, Bezos’s gifts will disappoint you. But if you were hoping for massive cash injections into well-financed, uncontroversial, and long-established organizations, Bezos fulfills your expectations. Bezos is awarding $100 million each to the Environmental Defense Fund, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Nature Conservancy, the World Resources Institute, and the World Wildlife Fund. Those five groups are among the largest environmental nonprofits in the country. The Nature Conservancy had almost $1 billion in revenue in the most recent fiscal year on file, and the other four had over $100 million each.

Biden to enlist Agriculture, Transportation agencies in climate fight – President-elect Joe Biden is eyeing the departments of Agriculture and Transportation as key partners for achieving his climate goals, exciting progressives by broadening efforts beyond traditional environmental agencies. Biden’s climate plan calls for harnessing the power of agriculture to capture and store carbon while innovating to reduce its own footprint. In the transportation sector, he’s called for a massive investment in transit and electric vehicle infrastructure to reduce reliance on gas-powered vehicles. But some of Biden’s potential picks are already generating concern from left-leaning interest groups, particularly those that want the incoming administration to surpass former President Obama’s accomplishments by using the full force of the federal government to tackle climate change. Among those considered to lead the Department of Agriculture (USDA) are former Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D.) and Rep. Marcia Fudge (D-Ohio.). Fudge has been openly campaigning for the job, telling Politico earlier this month that she’s been “very, very loyal to the ticket” and encouraging the Biden administration to place Black leaders in roles beyond traditional posts like Housing and Urban Development secretary. Heitkamp has been more circumspect but didn’t rule out interest. After losing reelection in 2018 after only one term, she formed the One Country Fund, a political action committee that seeks to bolster Democratic prospects in rural America, an area where Democrats have struggled to make inroads. “Joe Biden has the opportunity to put together a Cabinet that reflects all parts of America, and I know what decision he makes is going to be the right one,” Heitkamp told The Hill. “We all have to make America unified to work again, so I’m very, very excited about Joe Biden as our next president of the United States and for Kamala Harris as our next vice president.” Heitkamp’s government record before coming to Congress included defending North Dakota’s anti-corporate agriculture law as state attorney general in the 1990s. In Washington, she served on the Senate Agriculture Committee. But her potential nomination for Agriculture secretary is already facing resistance from a host of left-leaning environmental and farmworker groups, hitting the former senator for her moderate voting record, acceptance of campaign contributions from large agribusiness and her overall environmental record. More than 130 groups, including Friends of the Earth and Farmworker Justice, sent a letter to the Biden transition team urging them to avoid selecting Heitkamp due to her acceptance of donations from fossil fuel companies and her support for President Trump’s first Environmental Protection Agency chief. Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) was the only other Democrat to support Scott Pruitt when he was nominated.

Joe Biden Just Appointed His Climate Movement Liaison. It’s a Fossil-Fuel Industry Ally. – Joe Biden says confronting climate change is one of his top priorities. But today, he appointed as his liaison to the climate movement a congressman who has raked in big money from the fossil fuel industry while voting to help oil and gas companies. Following a campaign promising bold climate action, president-elect Joe Biden’s transition team named one of the Democratic Party’s top recipients of fossil fuel industry money to a high-profile White House position focusing in part on climate issues.On Tuesday, Politico reported that Biden is appointing US Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-LA) to lead the White House Office of Public Engagement, where he is “expected to serve as a liaison with the business community and climate change activists.”During his ten years in Congress, Richmond has received roughly $341,000 from donors in the oil and gas industry – the fifth-highest total among House Democrats, according to previous reporting by Sludge. That includes corporate political action committee donations of $50,000 from Entergy, an electric and natural gas utility; $40,000 from ExxonMobil; and $10,000 apiece from oil companies Chevron, Phillips 66, and Valero Energy.Richmond has raked in that money while representing a congressional districtthat is home to seven of the ten most air-polluted census tracts in the country. Richmond has repeatedly broken with his party on major climate and environmental votes. During the climate crisis that has battered his home state of Louisiana, Richmond has joined with Republicans to vote to increase fossil fuel exports and promote pipeline development. He also voted against Democratic legislation to place pollution limits on fracking – and he voted for GOP legislation to limit the Obama administration’s authority to more stringently regulate the practice.

Progressive group slams Biden White House pick over tie to fossil fuel industry – Progressive environmental group the Sunrise Movement on Tuesday criticized President-elect Joe Biden’s selection of Rep. Cedric Richmond (D-La.) to be his senior adviser over Richmond’s fossil fuel donations. The group called the appointment of Richmond, who was also a national co-chairman of the Biden campaign, a “betrayal.”“One of President-Elect Biden’s very first hires for his new administration has taken more donations from the fossil fuel industry during his Congressional career than nearly any other Democrat, cozied up to Big Oil and Gas, and stayed silent and ignored meeting with organizations in his own community while they suffered from toxic pollution and sea-level rise,” said Varshini Prakash, the group’s executive director, in a statement. “That’s a mistake, and it’s an affront to young people who made President-Elect Biden’s victory possible. President-Elect Biden assured our movement he understands the urgency of this crisis; now, it’s time for him to act like it,” Prakash added. In response to the statement, a Biden-Harris transition official stressed that the president-elect “knows that climate change is the challenge that will define our American future” in an email to The Hill. “The incoming White House staff members are committed to building an administration that will tackle the climate crisis and fight for environmental justice,” the official said. Richmond, who represents parts of the New Orleans area, had nearly $113,000 in campaign donations this cycle from the oil and gas sector, more than any other sector that donated to his campaign, according toOpen Secrets. He was also one of a few Democrats who voted in favor of authorizing the Keystone XL pipeline.

Progressives urge Biden away from including Obama energy secretary in administration — A coalition of more than 70 groups, including progressive and environmental organizations, is urging President-elect Joe Biden not to include a former Energy secretary who served with him under former President Obama in his incoming administration. The groups’ opposition to Ernest Moniz, who is seen as a leading contender to reprise his role as the nation’s top energy official, stems from connections to the fossil fuel industry and his positions on fossil fuels. “During the campaign, we applauded your commitment to restore trust in government and to address the climate emergency, environmental injustice, and the array of other crises that working families and communities face today,” the groups wrote in a letter on Monday. “Therefore, we are writing to urge you to commit to ensuring Ernest Moniz holds no public or private role, whether formal or informal, in your transition team, cabinet, or administration.” Moniz served as Energy secretary from 2013 to 2017, supporting an “all of the above” energy strategy that backed both fossil fuels and renewable energy. He also helped negotiate the Iran nuclear deal. Moniz has served as a consultant for oil and gas company BP. In their letter, the groups argued that Moniz’s “employment and financial ties situate him firmly in the revolving door between government and fossil fuel corporations.” Biden to enlist Agriculture, Transportation agencies in climate fight UK moves up deadline to ban sales of new gasoline and diesel vehicles Groups that signed on to the letter include the Sunrise Movement, Greenpeace Inc. and 350 Action. A spokesperson for Moniz’s Energy Futures Initiative (EFI), a nonprofit focused on energy innovation, didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. However, the EFI spokesperson recently shared with The Hill a statement in which Moniz and others said they “stand ready to assist the Biden Administration – and the country – in achieving a clean energy future” and are “laser-focused on the net-zero emissions goal advanced by the President-elect and examining all pathways that enable progress towards successfully meeting this essential goal.”

Greenpeace Releases Sweeping Policy Plans To Fight Inequality, Racial Injustice, COVID-19 and Climate Crisis –The “just, green, and peaceful future we deserve is possible and together we can build the power to manifest it.”So declares Greenpeace USA’s new “Just Recovery Agenda.” Released Tuesday and packed with more than 100 sweeping policy recommendations for President-elect Joe Biden and members of the next U.S. Congress to embrace, the visionary document plots out a path for erecting new systems that no longer put corporate greed above the public and planet’s well-being.”Going back to normal is not an option,” the report bluntly states, because what “we knew as ‘normal’ was a crisis.” The coronavirus crisis has thrown that truism into relief, says Greenpeace, but the worsening climate and ecological crises and deep inequality have long made the case for a bold transformation of the dominant economic system.With post-pandemic policies now being charting out – and a new presidential administration just months away – Greenpeace says it’s crystal clear now is the time for pivotal change.”The policy choices we make in this disruptive moment will shape the path forward for millions of people – the Covid-19 crisis and clarion call for racial justice in 2020 must mark a turning point for federal policy-making,” the report urges. Greenpeace USA campaigns director James Mumm put the new report in the context of former Biden’s victoryover President Donald Trump.”Over the past four years, we have cared for one another,” he continued. “Now, we must come together to ensure that Joe Biden and the new Congress care for us, and to see that everyone – no matter their race or where they come from – has what they need to thrive.”The report expands on what that means by pointing to “dignified work, healthcare, education, housing, clean air and water, healthy food, and more.” In this new work, says Greenpeace, the world must “shift from an economy that is extractive and exploitative to one that regenerates and repairs.”Centering all the prescriptions – which range from boosting voting rights to expanding renewable energy – are values of equity, community justice, freedom, compassion, and creativity. Actions demanded of federal lawmakers include establishing a federal minimum wage of $15 per hour; strengthening the National Environmental Policy Act; enacting and enforcing new antitrust standards to curb corporate power; “passing bold and just recovery legislation in line with the THRIVE Agenda to lay the groundwork for a Green New Deal and world beyond fossil fuels”; enacting the pro-democracy the For The People Act of 2019; banning permits for new or expansions of existing factory farms; “enacting The BREATHE Act to police brutality and racial injustice by investing in Black communities and re-imagining community safety”; and enacting a ban on deep sea mining.

LAW: Meet the Republican AGs who could fight Biden in court — Wednesday, November 18, 2020 — A new cast of Republican attorneys general are ready for their star turn if President-elect Joe Biden tries to make good on his ambitious environmental goals. They will follow what’s become a legal paradigm: attorneys general on one side of the political aisle challenging the environmental policies of a White House held by the opposing party. The practice ramped up during the Obama administration, as red states challenged EPA’s aggressive environmental and climate rules. The trend exploded during the Trump years, with blue states suing over a long list of EPA rollbacks. After this year’s elections, Republicans hold 26 state attorney general offices. And they are preparing to wield their power in court. “The attorneys general in 2021 are developing strategies to push back against” the Biden administration, said Kelly Laco, a spokeswoman for the Republican Attorneys General Association. The tactic has paid off for both sides, in part because both the Obama and Trump administrations were more active in issuing environmental rules – giving the attorneys general more targets. But it has been used particularly effectively by Democratic attorneys general during the Trump era. Bblue-state attorneys general have filed about twice as many lawsuits and won more often challenging Trump rules. They saw a roughly 80% success rate from the challenges they filed during Trump’s four years in office (Greenwire, May 26). “This grand plan to set aside decades of environmental and clean energy law has failed,” said David Hayes, a former Obama administration official and executive director of the State Energy & Environmental Impact Center at the New York University School of Law. “And I credit the state AG community for an enormous piece of this.” In partnership with environmental groups, Democratic attorneys general notched wins in several early procedural challenges of the Trump administration’s efforts to delay implementation of Obama-era environmental rules. Later in Trump’s term, green groups and blue states celebrated more substantial victories when federal courts struck down rescissions of Obama-era Interior Department rules governing oil, gas and coal valuations, as well as methane emissions from energy operations on public lands. A separate court later struck down the Obama administration’s underlying methane rule. California Attorney General Xavier Becerra (D), who has filed more than 100 lawsuits against the Trump administration, said the reason California and other blue states have been so successful in court over the last four years is that the Trump administration failed to craft legally defensible rules. He said he doubts the Biden team will make the same missteps.

FERC’s carbon pricing statement draws criticism, cautious support | S&P Global Platts – The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s draft policy statement on carbon pricing in wholesale power markets was met with support from merchant generators and skepticism from states with individual clean energy policies. A draft policy statement issued last month by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission encouraging carbon pricing rules in wholesale power markets has generated mixed feedback. Merchant generators and some industry trade groups urged the agency to move forward with the proposed guidelines for accommodating state-set carbon pricing in wholesale power markets, while environmental groups and states themselves signaled skepticism and, in some cases, outright opposition. FERC issued the draft policy statement in October after hosting a technical conference (AD20-14) on carbon pricing following a series of orders aimed at countering the market impacts of states’ clean energy policies, which in many cases include renewable energy mandates. During the technical conference, legal experts generally agreed that FERC has authority under Section 205 of the Federal Power Act to review proposals submitted by regional transmission organizations and independent system operators that incorporate a state-determined price on carbon emissions. While the draft guidance is unlikely to be finalized under newly named Chairman James Danly, experts have speculated FERC could do so after President-elect Joe Biden replaces Danly with a Democrat. In Nov. 16 comments, the PJM Interconnection and ISO New England noted that 10 of their member states already participate in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, the nation’s first cap-and-trade scheme for carbon emissions from power plants. Virginia is also set to become a RGGI member next year and Pennsylvania is in the process of joining the program, as well. While bids from generators operating within RGGI indirectly reflect their environmental compliance costs, embedding a carbon price directly within wholesale electricity markets “is possible,” PJM said. However, PJM stressed that market-based emission reduction programs are most efficient when they are implemented on a large, regional scale. In contrast, the single-state New York ISO – which has been working on a carbon pricing program since 2016 and is likely to be the first to file a proposal with FERC – said it “firmly believes” that its plan represents a “powerful tool” to maintain efficient market outcomes while achieving the state’s clean energy requirements. New York’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act mandates a 100% carbon-free electric grid by 2040. Meanwhile, the New England States Committee on Electricity, or NESCOE, pointed to a recently released six-state vision statement for the region’s electric grid, confirming the coalition’s opposition to a “separate carbon pricing-style mechanism” through ISO-NE’s markets.

Senate advances energy regulator nominees despite uncertainty of floor vote –The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted on Wednesday to advance the nominations of Allison Clements and Mark Christie to be commissioners at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). However, it’s not clear whether the two nominees, whose confirmations would restore the commission to a full five members, will get a floor vote as the Senate session comes to a close. Committee Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) acknowledged the time frame in her opening remarks on Wednesday. “It’s perhaps too early to say what the floor schedule will allow in December,” she said. “But if these nominees are confirmed, FERC would at least have a full complement of five commissioners headed into 2021, which is a far better place than the start of 2017.” Neither nominee passed the committee unanimously. Republican Sens. John Barrasso (Wyo.), Steve Daines (Mont.), John Hoeven (N.D.), Mike Lee (Utah) and Cindy Hyde-Smith (Miss.) voted against Clements, and Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) voted against Christie. FERC regulates natural gas and hydropower projects and the interstate transmission of natural gas, oil and electricity. It’s not supposed to have more than three members of any one party. Adding Clements and Christie, a Democrat and Republican, respectively, to the commission would create a 3-2 Republican majority on the panel.

U.S. solar group pushing Biden to end tariffs, extend subsidies (Reuters) – The U.S. solar industry on Tuesday laid out a list of policies it says could be enacted early next year as President-elect Joe Biden works to deliver on his pledge to ramp fire up clean energy development to create jobs and fight climate change. The Solar Energy Industries Association, the top U.S. solar trade group, is banking on the support of a Biden administration to achieve its goal of providing 20% of U.S. electricity by 2030, up from just 3% currently. While the industry has grown rapidly under the administration of Donald Trump, the president has voiced skepticism about the technology and in 2018 imposed steep tariffs on imported panels that dominate U.S. supplies. Among the $18 billion solar industry’s top asks would be an executive order to lift those tariffs, SEIA President Abigail Ross Hopper said on a conference call with reporters. The tariff at first increased the price of imported panels by 30% and have dropped by 5% ever year. They are scheduled to fall to 18% next year before ending in 2022. Solar companies also want Congress to extend by five years lucrative tax credits for solar energy systems that have begun to phase out. They want the credit to remain at the original 30% level for five years, SEIA said, and are also seeking a similar credit for energy storage. The tax credit will help solar keep up its momentum as the economy recovers from the coronavirus pandemic and “provide a roadmap for getting people back to work,” Hopper said. Four other top priorities include pushing Biden to appoint a “climate czar” who would advance an environmental justice agenda, name Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioners who support clean energy, incentivize development of renewable energy on federal lands, and develop policies that would invest in domestic manufacturing.

Illinois’ legislative lockdown will leave solar industry waiting until 2021 As surging coronavirus cases prompt leaders to cancel a November legislative session, solar developers and advocates fear irreparable harm to the industry.Hopes for new Illinois energy legislation this year have been dashed by the pandemic-related cancelation of the state’s annual November veto session. Several new energy bills are pending in the state legislature, including the Clean Energy Jobs Act, backed by clean energy and community groups, and the Path to 100 bill, backed by renewable energy developers. With the veto session nixed, solar developers and advocates are looking to 2021 but say the nascent industry may suffer irreparable harm in the meantime. The news comes as several solar projects are being unveiled, demonstrating the success of incentives created by the 2017 Future Energy Jobs Act – incentives that will no longer be available unless new legislation passes. The state’s largest solar installation on a school went online this month, part of 23 megawatts of solar developed and owned by ForeFront Power. The company has invested $46.7 million in Illinois under the Future Energy Jobs Act, with more major projects slated to go online soon, according to Rachel McLaughlin, vice president of sales and marketing. Meanwhile, suburbs north of Chicago this month launched a program to offer residents guaranteed 20% savings if they subscribe to community solar projects that were also made possible by the 2017 law. When the Future Energy Jobs Act passed, “all of a sudden solar made sense for customers in Illinois,” said McLaughlin. “But now the incentives are gone. We have demand from customers every day, but we won’t be able to do [new installations] without something like Path to 100. … Without a long-term consistent program that provides certainty for the market, we’ll continue to see these boom and bust cycles.”

Energy Efficiency Jobs Plummet By More Than 18K In Florida During Pandemic –A new report shows energy efficiency jobs were growing locally and nationwide when the coronavirus pandemic hit, before declining during the ensuing economic crisis, but the industry is struggling to recover as quickly as the rest of the economy. The 2020 Energy Efficiency Jobs in America report, prepared by E2 (Environmental Entrepreneurs) and the E4TheFuture, with data collected and analyzed by BW Research Partnership, shows that as of Oct. 2020, nearly 322,000 energy efficiency jobs have been lost (a 13.5% decline) since the pandemic struck, including more than 18,000 in Florida alone (down 14.7%). Many of those lost jobs have been in construction. Prior to this rapid decline, energy efficiency jobs had been growing at twice the rate of overall nationwide employment since 2017, reaching nearly 2.4 million workers at the end of 2019. The industry was projected to add another 71,000 jobs to the economy this year. The industry has seen some improvements over the last few months, but according to Phil Jordan, vice president of BW Research, the addition of about 16,800 jobs means the recovery has been slower than that of the overall economy. “We found the return of 862 jobs [in Florida], which is less than 1% growth,” he said. “Not only is it very low, in terms of the scope of the jobs lost across the state, but it’s also really not that much more than jobs were growing on a monthly basis prior to the pandemic.”

Underground pipeline for methane gas proposed in eastern NC – A joint venture between pork producer Smithfield and Dominion Energy would create an underground 30-mile pipeline in Eastern North Carolina, carrying methane gas from hog farms to a facility in Duplin County. According to the company, the biogas processing facility will collect methane gas from 19 hog farms in the area through underground pipelines and convert the gas into electricity that will heat more than 3,000 homes and businesses. “We are capturing the methane that is produced from the hog manure, and we’re putting it to good use to heat people’s homes and businesses,” said Aaron Ruby, Align RNG’s spokesperson, “instead of allowing it to be released into the atmosphere and contribute to climate change.” Jennifer Daniels is a hog farmer in Sampson County and a member of the Pork Council. Daniels said Sampson County’s livelihood depends on the hog industry. “If you were to pull the pork production out of Sampson county, it would be devastating for our economy,” she said. Daniels was one of more than 200 participants that joined a virtual public hearing for the project’s air quality permit. She spoke in support of the Align RNG project. Ruby said both the farmers who sell their methane gas and the people who allow the pipes to run on their properties will be compensated. But those who lives near the hog farms involved in the project are not sold on the idea. “Why don’t they pick another area, besides this one, there’s enough in this area already,” said Larry Faison, who has lived in Sampson County for most of his life. Faison said the hog farms came to Sampson County nearly three decades ago, bringing the odor with them. Faison said the odor comes and goes, but tends to sit heavily at night. Faison said in Turkey – the town in Sampson County where he lives with his family – many have lost trust in the establishment. He hesitates to believe this project won’t make the odor worse. “They’re out there for the dollar and I understand that, but they’re not thinking about the people,” he said.

Smithfield, Dominion propose major swine gas project, but details are secret, troubling residents | NC Policy Watch Smithfield Foods and Dominion Energy plan to deploy 30 miles of underground pipeline in Sampson and Duplin counties, part of a controversial project to buy methane generated by area hog farms and inject it into a larger system owned by Piedmont Natural Gas.In and of itself, decreasing methane emissions in the atmosphere isn’t controversial. Such reductions are key to curbing climate change because methane is even more potent in heating the planet than carbon dioxide. And the state’s Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard (REPS) requires investor-owned utilities to generate or buy a minute amount of their power – just 0.07% – from swine and poultry waste, based on the previous year’s retail electricity sales.But key details of the $30 million proposal, billed as the largest swine waste-to-energy project in North Carolina, have been kept secret, even from state regulators. Nor is the energy completely “clean.” A central gas collection facility on the Duplin-Sampson county line would emit more than 60 tons of pollution each year, according to the draft air permit submitted to the Division of Air Quality.While the participating farms, 19 so far, would cover their lagoons to capture the methane, it is yet unclear to what extent that would control emissions. Community members, most of them Black or Latinx, who have lived with the stench of these hog farms for decades, are unimpressed. They say Smithfield has long refused to adopt advanced waste management technologies to replace the outdated open lagoon and spray field system. Now, many residents say, the company is monetizing the their misery. “They say there is no harm because they’re covering the lagoons,” said Elsie Herring, one of dozens of plaintiffs suing Smithfield in federal court for nuisance related to odor, flies, vultures and truck traffic at the farms. “But this just enables them to do business as usual.”

NCDAQ looking for public comment on proposed Duplin County biogas facility – (WNCT) – Duplin County could soon be home to a renewable gas project. North Carolina’s Division of Air Quality wants to hear from people in Duplin and Sampson counties about a proposed biogas facility. It’s called Align RNG. It’s a partnership between Dominion Energy and Smithfield Foods. The project involves converting manure from 19 local hog farms into renewable energy. “The methane product that is created, it gets inserted into this natural gas pipeline that’s then used for commercial and residential use,” said Zaynab Nasif, spokesperson for the NCDAQ. The State Department of Environmental Quality held a virtual public hearing Monday to allow people in those counties to voice their opinions on the project. One hundred nine people signed up to speak. Some were in favor of the proposed project. “This project will indisputable enhance the quality of our air,” said Santiago Vazquez, hog farmer. “Eastern North Carolina is home to many local farms that will greatly benefit from the ingenuity of this entire concept.” Others were opposed. “Dominion and Smithfield continue to make money off of a banned, outdated system of waste management,” said Kyle Cornish, who spoke at the public hearing. “This project would submit nearby communities to more than 100,000 pounds of toxic air chemical pollutants.”

Utilities, Tesla, Uber create U.S. lobbying group for electric vehicle industry (Reuters) – A group of major U.S. utilities, Tesla TSLA.O, Uber UBER.N and others said on Tuesday they are launching a new group to lobby for national policies to boost electric vehicle sales. The new Zero Emission Transportation Association wants to boost consumer electric vehicle incentives and encourage the retirement of gasoline-powered vehicles. It also advocates for tougher emissions and performance standards that will potentially enable full electrification by 2030. Under President Donald Trump, the White House rejected new tax credits for electric vehicles as it proposed to kill existing credits and made it easier to sell gas-guzzling vehicles. President-elect Joe Biden promises new tax incentives, including new rebates to buy EVs and a dramatic expansion of charging stations for electric vehicles – policy measures automakers have long advocated. “We can own the electric vehicle market – building 550,000 charging stations – and creating over a million good jobs here at home – with the federal government investing more in clean energy research,” Biden said Monday. Biden’s measures are in line with the group’s call for “strong federal charging infrastructure investments” and its goal to reach 100% electric vehicle sales by 2030. Uber chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said the group will support “Uber’s work to move 100% of rides to EVs in (the United States), Canadian and European cities by 2030 and go fully zero-emissions by 2040. It will take all of us working together to address the urgent crisis of climate change.” Automakers in the United States sold 326,000 EVs in 2019, accounting for about 2% of total U.S. auto sales. Tesla sold nearly 60% of the total. Other members include ConEdison, Duke Energy, PG&E along with EV charging companies like Chargepoint and EVgo, fledging automakers like Lordstown Motors, Rivian and Lucid Motors. Also part are Albemarle Corp, the world’s largest producer of lithium for electric vehicle batteries, Piedmont Lithium and Siemens.

Texas electric vehicles and hybrids topic of revenue bill – One Texas state lawmaker is trying again to add the Lone Star State to the list of states that collect additional revenue from owners of electric vehicles and hybrids. Rep. Ken King, R-Hemphill, has filed a bill for consideration during the upcoming regular session to impose an additional fee for the registration and renewed registration of electric and hybrid vehicles. The bill, HB427, would collect an additional fee of $200 for electric vehicles and $100 for vehicles that use a combination of fuel and electric power, or hybrid vehicles. In 2019, King introduced an identical bill. The effort received a public hearing but the House Transportation Committee failed to advance the bill. Collecting the additional fees is estimated to raise $55 million over the next two years for the state’s highway fund, according to a fiscal note.

Quebec to ban sale of new gasoline-powered cars from 2035 (Reuters) – The Canadian province of Quebec said on Monday it will ban the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger cars from 2035, joining California and others in announcing moves to shift to electric vehicles and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Canada’s second-most populous province announced the ban as part of a C$6.7 billion ($5.1 billion) plan over five years to help Quebec meet a target of reducing its greenhouses gases by 37.5% by 2030, in comparison with 1990 levels, Premier Francois Legault told reporters in Montreal. The ban will bring Quebec in line with other jurisdictions such as California, the largest U.S. auto market, which in September announced a move to electric vehicles starting in 2035. Brian Kingston, president of the Canadian Vehicle Manufacturers’ Association, reacting by Twitter on Monday to Quebec’s announcement, said: “Consumers need more support to buy new (zero-emission vehicles) ZEVs, not bans on internal combustion vehicles.” The Canadian province of British Columbia has already moved to phase out fuel-powered cars and trucks over a two-decade period, with a total ban on their sale or lease coming into effect in 2040. The United Kingdom is also said to be working on a similar decision.

The UK plans to ban sales of diesel and petrol cars from 2030 -The U.K. will stop selling new diesel and petrol (gasoline) cars and vans from 2030 under plans announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson. The move is part of a wider 10-point plan for a so-called “green industrial revolution” aimed at generating as much as 250,000 jobs and combatting climate change. Announced late Tuesday night in an article written by Johnson in the Financial Times, and published on the government’s website Wednesday morning, the plan will focus on a range of areas including carbon capture and storage, low-carbon hydrogen generation, offshore wind and nuclear energy. The vehicle ban represents an acceleration of prior targets; U.K. authorities had previously said the sale of new petrol and diesel vans and cars would end in 2040. In February, they announced an ambition to bring this forward to 2035. The new 2030 target comes after what the government described as “extensive consultation with car manufacturers and sellers.” The government will, however, continue to “allow the sale of hybrid cars and vans that can drive a significant distance with no carbon coming out of the tailpipe until 2035.” In terms of funding, £1.3 billion (around $1.72 billion) will go towards improving electric vehicle (EV) charging infrastructure, while £582 million will be set aside for grants to lower the cost of electric vehicles and encourage uptake. In addition, almost £500 million will be spent across the next four years on “the development and mass-scale production of electric vehicle batteries.” Given that internal combustion engine vehicles still represent the majority of vehicles driven on U.K. roads, there are clear hurdles to overcome if the 2030 target is to be met. “Less than 10% of cars sold in the U.K. during 2020 so far have been battery EVs,” Tom Heggarty, a principal analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said in a statement. “Getting to 100% will require a huge effort across the entire supply chain, as well as ensuring that enough fast charging infrastructure is available to keep all new electric vehicles … on the road,” he added. The U.K. is one of many countries looking to end the sale of petrol and diesel vehicles. Denmark, for example, has proposed a phase-out of new diesel and petrol car sales in 2030. And Norway, long recognized as a world leader in the adoption of electric vehicles, wants all new light vans and passenger cars sold to be zero emission by the year 2025. Back in the U.K. Mike Hawes, who is chief executive of the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT), said the “new deadline, fast-tracked by a decade, sets an immense challenge.” Hawes went on to add that the SMMT was pleased to see the government “accept the importance of hybrid transition technologies” and “commit to additional spending on purchase incentives.” “Investment in EV manufacturing capability is equally welcome as we want this transition to be ‘made in the U.K.’, but if we are to remain competitive – as an industry and a market – this is just the start of what’s needed.”

Climate Deniers Are Claiming EVs Are Bad for the Environment – Again. Here’s Why They’re Wrong. | DeSmog — A new paper published Tuesday, November 17, by the conservative think tank the Competitive Enterprise Institute (CEI), raises environmental concerns with electric vehicles in what appears to be the latest attempt by organizations associated with fossil fuel funding to pump the brakes on the transportation sector’s transition away from petroleum and towards cleaner electricity. In the U.S., the transportation sector is the largest contributor to planet-warming emissions. Climate and energy policy experts say electrifying vehicles is necessary to mitigate these emissions. In fact, scientists recently warned that if the country has any hope of reaching the Paris climate targets of limiting warming to below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit), 90 percent of all light-duty cars on the road must be electric by 2050. But the Competitive Enterprise Institute – a longtime disseminator of disinformation on climate science and supported by petroleum funding sources including the oil giant ExxonMobil and petrochemical billionaire Koch foundations – dismisses this imperative and instead tries to portray electrified transport as environmentally problematic in a papertitled, “Would More Electric Vehicles Be Good for the Environment?” “This is a grab bag of old and misleading claims about EVs [electric vehicles],” said David Reichmuth, a senior engineer in the clean transportation program at the Union of Concerned Scientists. “If you want to answer this question [posed by the report’s title], you have to also look at the question of what are the impacts of the current gasoline and diesel transport system, and this report just ignores that.” While electric vehicles are not without some level of adverse environmental impacts, particularly in the vehicle and battery manufacturing process, CEI uses the rhetorical trick of focusing exclusively on these impacts – in some cases overstating or misrepresenting them – while pretty much ignoring the comparative environmental disadvantages of petroleum-powered transportation.

Cutting the Total Cost of Electrification for EV Bus and Truck Fleets –Electric trucks and buses may be approaching cost parity with their fossil-fueled counterparts, and they’re certainly cheaper to fuel over the long run – and that’s not counting their carbon and pollution emissions benefits. But that’s just a slice of the costs of switching bus and truck fleets from fossil fuels to batteries. Unexpected costs and bottlenecks in charging infrastructure, fleet operations and maintenance, and permitting and financing weigh on cities and states mandating electric bus fleets, as well as private companies with large-scale delivery-truck electrification goals. Solving this “total cost of electrification” equation will be a critical step in pushing EV trucks and buses from the margins to the mainstream in the coming decade, according to a report released Wednesday by Environmental Defense Fund, MJ Bradley and Vivid Economics. “We’re seeing the technology increasingly ready and capital increasingly eager to invest in sustainability” via fleet electrification, Andy Darrell, EDF’s chief of global energy and finance strategy, said in an interview. “And yet the deployment, especially in the medium- and heavy-duty sector, might not be moving as quickly as we’d like to achieve big climate goals.” Estimates on the global market for electric trucks and buses range into the tens of billions of dollars over the coming decade, he noted. Cities including Los Angeles, Seattle, New York and Houston have set aggressive zero-emissions goals for bus fleets. California has mandated a completely zero-emissions heavy-duty vehicle fleet by 2045, and other states may follow suit. Companies including Amazon, FedEx, Pepsi and Anheuser-Busch are piloting tens of thousands of electric trucks.But there is “a pretty wide set of barriers” between pilots and full-scale deployments, Darrell said. Beyond the costs of equipping depots with the EV chargers and grid infrastructure to support them, drivers and mechanics need training to ensure these facilities are run efficiently and avoid expensive downtime.

Electric School Bus Fleets Test the US Vehicle-to-Grid Proposition – Electric school buses just might be the breakout vehicle-to-grid (V2G) technology in the United States. At least, that’s how Duncan McIntyre, CEO of Highland Electric Transportation, sees it. McIntyre, who founded renewable energy procurement and analysis marketplace Altenex in 2011 and sold it to Edison International in 2015, started Highland Electric two years ago to build a “business entirely around the school bus electrification market.” The idea is to replace the upfront and ongoing costs of EV buses and charging infrastructure with a fixed annual fee, equal to or less than a school district’s current budget for owning, fueling and maintaining their existing diesel-fueled fleets. Highland finances the arrangement and recoups the investment by finding ways to earn money from the new fleet’s battery capacity when the buses are not on the road. A major part of that equation relies on tapping their energy storage capacity for soaking up low-cost overnight or midday power – and more importantly, discharging it during grid-stressed evening peaks. That’s the big difference between V2G technologies, which actively tap EV batteries, and the far more common “V1G” approach of simply throttling or halting EV charging to reduce grid impacts. Out of all the EVs out there, “we think electric school buses are the killer V2G app,” McIntyre said in an interview last week. Not only do the nearly 500,000 school buses in North America spend most of their time parked, “they’re idle in the middle of the day, they’re idle in the evening, and they’re idle all summer,” a schedule that fits almost perfectly with emerging grid needs.

Conn. Attorney General Scrutinizes Eversource Outage System –After this weekend’s strong storms, Connecticut’s Attorney General says he’ll investigate failures in Eversource’s power outage reporting system. Attorney General William Tong said the energy company’s automated system has been riddled with errors and dysfunction since it was first developed at taxpayer expense after storms in 2011 and 2012. “Communication generally was down for a good part of the extreme weather events,” Tong said. “That’s not acceptable, it has to stop and I’m going to get to the bottom of it.” Tong said he’ll add the issue to an open docket on Eversource’s response to Tropical Storm Isaias currently before the state’s Public Utilities Regulatory Agency. “We paid for them to upgrade their communication systems. We expect those communication systems to work and to work well. And time and again these systems continue to fail us.” A spokesperson for Eversource said they agreed with Tong that issues with the reporting system were unacceptable, and said the company is committed to ensuring it doesn’t happen again.

Hundreds of ‘critical’ facilities around Connecticut were left in dark for days after Isaias – -The lights went out as Tropical Storm Isaias winds blew harder heading into the afternoon and evening hours on Aug. 4, and for ever-longer stretches: Stamford Hospital; Aquarion water plants in New Canaan, Westport and Newtown; and police stations in more than a dozen towns including Bethel, Brookfield and Redding.In all, more than 1,100 such facilities lost power during Tropical Storm Isaias – with close to a third of those left in the dark more than four days, ranging from supermarkets and pharmacies, to fire departments and emergency medical services, to nursing homes and dialysis centers. Eversource filed its restoration times for critical facilities last week with the Connecticut Public Utilities Regulatory Authority, as part of an ongoing PURA probe into the preparation and responses of Eversource and Avangrid subsidiary United Illuminating to Isaias, which left some customers without power more than a week.More than 35,000 customers got a fresh reminder of the inconveniences of lost power even for short durations, after a derecho band of high winds raced through Connecticut Sunday night. An Eversource spokesperson did not provide comment immediately Tuesday on whether the company is revising its policies on power restoration for critical facilities, given some of the lags evident after Isaias with more than 30 such locations out of power for seven days or more. In a PURA filing summarizing its policies, Eversource stated its top priority is on “make safe” work to clear roads for police, fire and ambulances responding to immediate emergencies, then move on to other roads blocked by wires. Critical facilities – so designated at the request of municipal leaders – are next on the list, followed by downed power lines that serve the largest numbers of customers. Eversource stated the make-safe model emerged from the 2012 storm Sandy and that it provides a framework for restoration priorities, but “does not resolve all issues … given that each storm event is occasioned by wholly unique and individual circumstances” in its words. Bridgeport Mayor Joe Ganim, Danbury Mayor Mark Boughton and town officials throughout Connecticut had sharp criticism for Eversource and United Illuminating’s responsiveness after Isaias. .“There is a senior housing facility in the center of [Ridgefield]. Eversource did not restore power there until Sunday, August 9,” . “Because of the medical needs of many of the residents, including some who required oxygen, and the stifling heat during these days, Eversource’s failure threatened the lives of these senior residents.”In response, the Connecticut General Assembly passed a “take back the grid” act signed into law in October by Gov. Ned Lamont. Under the law, Eversource and United Illuminating can be forced to reimburse customers for spoiled food and medicine and inconveniences as a result of outages lasting more than four days.

Hilco, contractors pay $370K to settle state suit for Little Village demolition dust cloud – Chicago Sun-Times – Hilco Redevelopment Partners and two contractors will pay $370,000 to settle a lawsuit brought by the state over air pollution violations after a botched demolition in Little Village blanketed the community in a thick plume of dirt and dust last spring. Hilco, which is redeveloping the former Crawford Power Generation Station site on South Pulaski Road into a warehouse and distribution hub for Target, used explosives to implode an almost 400-foot smokestack Easter Weekend that fell over and created a massive dust cloud, caught on video, that coated nearby homes, cars and yards and provoked outrage among residents. Lea este art’culo en español en La Voz Chicago, un servicio presentado por AARP Chicago. Beyond the demolition debacle, the warehouse development is also controversial because it is expected to bring hundreds of diesel trucks in and out of the area every day, creating more pollution in an industrial area that already suffers from poor air quality. Community activists fought for years to shut down the Crawford coal-fired power plant and are angry that the replacement for the site will be another big source of air pollution.

Utilities’ to trim trees more aggressively in NJ? –New Jersey regulators may turn to state lawmakers to give electric utilities more leeway to trim trees on homeowners’ properties – even those not in the utilities’ rights of way.In a comprehensive report on power outages caused during a tropical storm this past August, the staff of the state Board of Public Utilities is recommending the agency urge the Legislature to help tighten rules on tree-trimming to prevent such outages. Downed trees caused most of the outages for more than 1 million customers during August’s Tropical Storm Isaias.The issue has been a perennial source of controversy. More aggressive vegetation management programs proposed by the agency have typically met stiff resistance from local communities, mostly in well-established, tree-lined suburbs, where many residents oppose tree-trimming on their properties.In the report, BPU staff suggested the state explore legislation that would allow New Jersey’s four electric utilities to trim or remove off-ROW (off-rights of way) “hazard’’ trees that threaten overhead power lines. Such options could only occur when the electric utilities secured the permission of the property owner. “Until and unless we reckon with the relationship between severe weather and widespread tree-related damage to utility infrastructure, large scale outages, especially in heavily forested areas of the state will continue to occur,’’ the report said.

Solar Energy Projects Hold Bright Prospects Where Coal Mines Once Prospered [http://www.forbes.com%20-%20it/]– It wasn’t long ago that the 20,000 acres of southern West Virginia now home to theDevil’s Backbone Adventure Resort was once home to a lucrative coal mine. Not anymore. Now instead of piles of coal and earth moving machines, the site features log cabins, all-terrain vehicles and mountain biking paths along the famed Hatfield and McCoy Trail. It is all part of the grand makeover to convert lands once mined by coal operators into something that can make money. Back in the day, the Devils Backbone netted $1 million in coal-mining leases. Now just one year into its new venture, the group raked in $500,000 – and growing. But one venture is now absent and one the owners say would be a natural fit for the enclave: a solar farm. That may be coming: American Electric Power’s subsidiary Appalachian Power has issued a request for proposal for up to 200 megawatts of solar energy. It wants to reduce energy bills and to diversify its offerings. And West Virginia’s southern coalfields might be the right spot to locate. “As soon as AEP AEP -0.6% made this announcement earlier this year, we started fielding phone calls from four or five solar companies,” says Ruffner Woody, general manager of the adventure park. “And it doesn’t take much: they just need relatively flat land and to be near a transmission system. Everyone is looking for that post-coal game plan. That is why we developed a resort. “We would be totally open to a solar project,” he continues. “It would burnish the natural image we have created. We all know coal is not what it used to be. You can’t find anyone to lease your property for that purpose.”

IB Q3 output totals 16.8 million st, up 19.6% on quarter: MSHA | S&P Global Platts – Illinois Basin coal production totaled nearly 16.8 million st in the third quarter, up 19.6% from the previous quarter, Mine Safety and Health Administration data showed Nov. 13. From the year-ago quarter, output was down 31%, the data showed. Alliance Resource Partner’s Riverview mine was the top producer in Q3 with 2.7 million st. From Q2, output jumped 103%, while year on year it declined 2.4%. Prairie State’s Lively Grove mine and Foresight Energy’s MC#1 mine followed, both with output of over 1.5 million st. While Lively Grove production declined 12.9% quarter on quarter and dropped 1.4% from the year-ago quarter, MC#1 output rose 16.7% from Q2 and fell 52% from the year-ago period. Since the start of the year, the following mines have stopped and not restarted production: Paringa Resource’s Poplar Grove mine, Solar Sources Shamrock mine, Hallador Energy’s Carlisle mine, Murray Energy’s Genesis mine and Foresight’s Shay No. 1 mine. Of those mines, only Shamrock mine remains active, while the Genesis and Shay No. 1 mines status are nonproducing-active. On a company basis, Alliance output was over 5.2 million st in the third quarter, up 136% from Q2 and down 27.1% from the year-ago quarter. Foresight Q3 output totaled over 3.3 million st, up 8% quarter on quarter and down 32.6% from the year-ago quarter. Peabody Energy production was about 2.7 million st, up 6% from the previous quarter and down 37.7% from the year-ago quarter. Third-quarter Hallador production declined 15.7% from Q2 to 1.2 million st. Year on year, it dropped 35.2%

Coal states flex as Barrasso seeks Senate Energy gavel — Thursday, November 19, 2020 —Wyoming Sen. John Barrasso’s decision to become top Republican on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee will leave coal state lawmakers largely in charge of energy and environmental policy in the Senate.Three of the four senators expected to lead environment and energy panels in the 117th Congress hail from coal-mining states.Barrasso’s decision yesterday to take the top GOP spot on the ENR Committee would allow West Virginia Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito to take Barrasso’s EPW gavel, while fellow Mountain State Sen. Joe Manchin is expected to retain the top Democratic role on the Energy panel.Who will chair the committees remains in limbo, with control of the Senate dependent on two runoff races in Georgia in January.Barrasso nodded to his state’s coal-mining history in a statement yesterday announcing his decision (E&E News PM, Nov. 18).”Our abundant energy supplies help power the nation. Our national parks and other special public lands are prized by locals and visited by millions from around the globe,” he said. “The enjoyment, protection, and utilization of these special places and resources are at the very heart of our economy and western tradition.”While coal is in steep decline as an energy fuel, mining state lawmakers will have considerable power to shape energy research and regulatory agenda at the Department of Energy and EPA, and they’ll be able to wield influence over the Biden administration’s energy and climate agenda.Still, all four committee leaders – including EPW Committee ranking member Tom Carper (D-Del.) – have bipartisan records, raising hopes among lawmakers and advocates that the panels will be actively producing legislation, even in a divided government.”You’ve got four folks leading those committees that have all been pretty solid on infrastructure investments,” said National Wildlife Federal President Collin O’Mara, who has been floated as a potential EPA administrator under President-elect Joe Biden (Greenwire, Nov. 9).”I don’t think we’re ever going to reach a solution that doesn’t significantly invest in coal country,” he said.O’Mara pointed to Barrasso’s work on the “USE IT Act,” S. 383, to boost carbon capture and sequestration and the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act, the bipartisan wildlife bill that became law last month.Barrasso also led committee passage of a highway authorization bill that included a $10 billion climate title, though he has also faced years of criticism from green groups for stymieing efforts to address global warming. Manchin, who helped craft an energy package with current ENR Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), said he expects bipartisanship on the Energy panel to continue. “The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources has a long history of strong bipartisan leadership and has served as an example for how the Senate can work when partisanship is not at the forefront,” Manchin said in a statement. “Senator Barrasso and I both come from states that are blessed with a wide array of natural resources, and I know that will serve as a basis for us to work together in the 117th Congress,” he added.

Federal Watchdog Finds Coal Safety Regulator Not Protecting Miners From Silica Dust – The Mine Safety and Health Administration is not doing enough to protect coal miners from deadly silica dust, according to a new report from the Department of Labor’s Office of the Inspector General. The IG found that MSHA’s standards for exposure to deadly silica dust were out of date, and MSHA lacked the ability to issue fines when coal companies violate air quality standards. The IG also said the mine safety agency’s sampling methods were too infrequent to guarantee that miners were protected. The report comes after years of increased scrutiny following reporting from NPR and the Ohio Valley ReSource that found clusters of advanced black lung disease among Appalachian coal miners. “They’ve finally admitted that they know now that they need to do more testing, and that they need to regulate silica dust, and that there’s a direct correlation between coal dust and silica,” said black lung rehab director Marcy Martinez. “I really think it’s going to be different this time.” The average time it takes for federal agencies to implement a rule change is four years, the report said, but MSHA has spent 20 years studying a rule change that would help protect coal miners from deadly silica dust. MSHA’s current standards for silica have not substantively changed in over 50 years, the report found, despite growing consensus that silica, also known as respirable quartz dust, is a major contributor to a surge in black lung disease that’s centered in the Ohio Valley. According to the report, the agency gestured towards making a change in 1996, 1998, 2003, 2010 and 2014 amid growing pressure from stakeholders, with no substantive change implemented in any of those efforts. MSHA again initiated the rulemaking process in August of 2019 with a request for information and has since said it would publish a proposed rule, but has not provided a timeframe for that announcement. “All MSHA is doing is saying, ‘We are aware of these cases, there’s a suggestion that it’s related to silica, so tell us what you think about this, let us know if you have any ideas,’” Celeste Monforton, a former MSHA regulator and now an outspoken critic of her former agency, said of the 2019 effort. “Decades of scientific evidence and real world experience have proven that exposure to respirable silica dust is deadly and MSHA has not sufficiently protected miners,”

Virginia officials, Justice reach agreement on back taxes – – The Tazewell County Board of Supervisors on Wednesday announced the county has reached an agreement with James C. Justice Companies Inc. on back taxes dating up to 2018, settling what has been ongoing litigation. The money will be used to enhance ATV trails. “Tazewell County will enter into a settlement agreement for the purpose of expanding ATV trails throughout the northern end of the county,” the board said. “In forming the agreement, Justice has agreed to pay in full the taxes, penalties and interest for all outstanding real estate and personal property taxes through 2019, which totals $298,026. Justice has also agreed to pay $58,000 per year toward satisfaction of taxes, penalties, and interest for outstanding mineral taxes from 2018 onward. The settlement agreement also dismisses all longstanding litigation between Justice and Tazewell County.” The company is based in Roanoke and Justice, who is Governor of West Virginia, is listed as the key principal by Dun & Bradstreet. In 2016, Tazewell County officials seized more than $850,000 of equipment at a coal mine owned by then-gubernatorial candidate Jim Justice for failure to pay property taxes. Justice was elected Governor in 2016 and re-elected this year. Tazewell County Treasurer David Larimer said in 2016 the distress/seizure warrant was executed after the county did not receive payment of $850,000 in property taxes that were due in December. Justice owned three coal mines in Tazewell County, Justice Low Seam Mining Inc., Black River Coal LLC and Chestnut Land Holdings LLC, Larimer said, noting all of these fall under The Justice Group. Larimer said the taxes were due in December, and a second notice was sent out in January stating that the taxes needed to be paid by Feb. 19. The county received no response to the notice, he said.

Court denies DEP’s motion to dismiss case that raises coal mine reclamation concerns -A federal court has denied state environmental regulators’ motion to dismiss a lawsuit that raises questions about the financial health of West Virginia’s surface coal mining reclamation program. The Ohio River Environmental Coalition, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Sierra Club claim the state Department of Environmental Protection violated its duty to inform the feds of a substantial change in its special reclamation fund. Friday’s decision by the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia allows the lawsuit environmentalists filed in July to proceed. Their complaint stems from the Surface Coal Mining and Reclamation Act, under which the federal government allows states to regulate their own surface coal mining and reclamation operations while the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement maintains some oversight to keep state programs in compliance with the federal law, enacte d in 1977. The environmental groups claim the state DEP should have informed the federal Surface Mining office that some permit holders have or will become insolvent. Failing to advise the feds violates the Reclamation Act’s mandate that states notify the Surface Mining office of “a significant change in funding or budgeting,” the environmental groups claim. Permit holders slipping into insolvency could overwhelm the DEP’s bonding system, the groups say. The DEP in March sued in Kanawha County Circuit Court to appoint a special receiver to assume the responsibilities of ERP Environmental Fund, Inc., a company that acquired more than 100 mining permits following Patriot Coal Corporation’s bankruptcy in 2015. ERP laid off all its employees and management as of March 20 and ceased operations, leaving its mining sites abandoned and public health and safety threatened, according to the DEP motion. The DEP reported the costs of reclaiming and remediating ERP’s sites totaled more than $230 million. Indemnity National Insurance Company, which issued about $125 million in surety bonds backing ERP’s obligations under its mining permits, agreed to provide $1 million in funding to Doss Special Receiver, LLC to fund its operations for an initial period of 90 days, leaving a $114- to $229-million deficit between reclamation costs and available money, depending on DEP’s ability to collect ERP’s bonds.

Report: Other States Have Safely Closed Coal Ash Ponds, So Can Indiana –Indiana lags behind other states when it comes to closing toxic coal ash ponds safely. That’s according to a new report by the Hoosier Environmental Council. Coal ash is a byproduct of burning coal. Exposure to it can cause cancer, damage your nervous system, and cause other health problems.Indra Frank with the HEC said other states – like Virginia, Florida, Tennessee, Georgia, and the Carolinas – have shown coal ash can be contained safely in cement or in lined landfills on high ground. North Carolina alone has required Duke Energy to excavate 80 million tons of coal ash at its facilities in the state.“Yet in Indiana, we’re seeing the state starting to approve plans that would leave coal ash in the floodplain and contaminating groundwater,” she said.Instead of removing the coal ash, some Indiana utilities’ plans call for capping ponds in place without a protective liner. “Building a cap over the top of the coal ash prevents precipitation from soaking downward into the coal ash,” Frank said. “But if the bottom of the ash is unlined and deep enough, the groundwater still comes into contact with coal ash – and anytime water is in contact with coal ash, we get contamination of the water.” Angeline Protogere is a spokesperson for Duke Energy in Indiana. She said the utility plans to cap half of its coal ash ponds in place and excavate the other half. Protogere said every coal ash pond is different and requires careful engineering, which is why federal law allows for both kinds of closures. Though just how protective capping in place is has been challenged in court. Protogere said Duke also plans to monitor the groundwater at capped sites for at least 30 years. Coal ash concerns have already forced some Indiana utilities to provide municipal or bottled water to residents in the past – such as in the town of Pines near NIPSCO coal ash disposal sites as well as people living near Duke Energy’s Cayuga, Gibson and Noblesville plants. Protegere said Duke Energy found elevated levels of boron at those sites, but the federal government doesn’t regulate boron in drinking water. She said providing other options for those residents was done out of an abundance of caution.

CPS Energy says hefty debt means coal plant has to stay open – for now – CPS Energy’s chief executive said Wednesday that the city-owned utility owes too much money on its newer coal-fired power plant unit to commit to closing it this decade – a move some activist groups are demanding. In a virtual meeting with the San Antonio Express-News’ Editorial Board, CPS president and CEO Paula Gold-Williams said the utility still owes $1 billion on its Spruce 2 coal unit, which went online in 2010. CPS has previously committed to closing the older Spruce 1 unit by 2030, about a decade and a half ahead of schedule. Spruce 1 went online in 1992. Organizers of the Recall CPS petition drive – including Sierra Club San Antonio and Public Citizen – have targeted the Spruce 2 coal unit, calling for the utility to shut it down by 2030 at the latest. The petition also seeks to disband the utility’s current board of trustees and replace the governing body with City Council members, speed up CPS’s transition to renewable energy and restructure customers’ rates. Gold-Williams said closing the Spruce 2 plant before 2030 would force CPS to find other sources of power generation while still passing off the debt payments for the plant to customers. “Spruce 2 is only 10 years old,” Gold-Williams said. “All the debt that goes along with the bonds doesn’t go away.”

Despite Trump opposition, TVA keeps CEO as highest paid federal employee — Despite President Trump’s appeal that the Tennessee Valley Authority cut the pay for its CEO “by a lot,” TVA boosted the salary and performance bonuses given to TVA President Jeff Lyash in fiscal 2020 to keep the leader of America’s biggest government utility as the highest-paid federal employee in the U.S. Lyash was given a 15% boost in his salary and higher performance bonuses from the previous year in fiscal 2020, a year in which TVA exceeded most of its goals even amid the coronavirus pandemic. The 58-year nuclear engineer, who previously headed Ontario Power in Canada before joining TVA in April 2019, was paid direct compensation of nearly $3.8 million in the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, in addition to another $3.5 million in long-term pension benefits and one-time relocation payments. Lyash’s direct pay was more than nine times as much as the $400,000-a-year salary paid to President Trump, who earlier this year called Lyash’s pay “ridiculous” and later fired the TVA chairman after he defended Lyash’s pay. Trump first publicly blasted Lyash’s pay in April and in August called upon the TVA board to cut Lyash’s pay to only a fraction of his current pay. “The new CEO must be paid no more than $500,000 a year,” Trump said. “We want the TVA to take action on this immediately.” The president appoints the directors to TVA’s 9-member board, but the utility is an independent federal corporation that no longer receives taxpayer funds and sets its own pay and rates in accordance with the TVA Act. Under TVA’s governing act as revamped in 2004 by the U.S. Congress, TVA’s board is directed to pay competitive salaries and benefits to its employees. In response to President Trump’s pay concerns, the TVA board hired an independent consulting firm, Frederic W. Cook & Co., Inc, to help evaluate competitive compensation. TVA Chairman John Ryder said the board will review the new study at its next meeting in February. The TVA board has asked outside counsel to give an opinion to the board on what are the legal requirements for executive compensation. The TVA Act, as amended in 2004, directs TVA to pay competitive wages in the industry and says that TVA is not bound by other federal pay caps.

TVA to choose from 2 landfills for coal ash removal project (AP) – The Tennessee Valley Authority is considering moving toxin-laden coal ash from a retired plant in Memphis to one of two off-site landfills as it begins preparing for the $500 million removal project, the federal utility said Monday. A TVA report said it has narrowed down the primary destination for coal ash removed from the retired Allen Fossil Plant to either a landfill in Shelby County, Tennessee – not far from the location of the Allen plant, or a landfill in Tunica, Mississippi, about 30 miles (48 kilometers) south of Memphis. The federal utility plans to remove move 3.5 million cubic yards (2.6 million cubic meters) of coal ash, the byproduct of burning coal for power. The project is expected to take eight to 10 years, said Angela Austin, construction manager at the retired plant. TVA is fielding public comments on the plan until Dec. 17, the report said. The utility, which provides power to more than 10 million people in parts of seven Southern states, has come under scrutiny for its handling of coal ash at other Tennessee plants. In 2017, high levels of arsenic, lead and fluoride were found in monitoring wells at Allen, sparking fears that the aquifer that supplies Memphis’ drinking water could become tainted. Testing has since deemed the public water supply unaffected. But a report released by the utility also showed a connection between the shallow aquifer where toxins were found and the deeper Memphis Sand Aquifer that provides the city’s slightly sweet-tasting drinking water. Allen’s three coal-fired units were retired in 2018. The authority then began supplying power to the grid from the site with the natural gas-powered Allen Combined Cycle Plant. TVA had previously mentioned other sites in the South where the coal ash could be transported. Other landfills that were considered were in Uniontown, Alabama; Mauk, Georgia; and Bishopville, South Carolina. Austin said that while the other sites have not been completely ruled out, the primary destination of the coal ash will be landfills in either Shelby County or Tunica. Proximity to the former Allen plant was a main reason why those sites were chosen, and negotiations about cost, daily loads and other factors are ongoing, Austin said.

Removing Toxic Coal Ash From Allen Plant Enters Logistics Phase- The process of relocating toxic waste – about 3.5 million cubic yards of it – will soon begin at a Southwest Memphis industrial site. For the next month, the public can comment on the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash removal plan that has local environmentalists demanding strong oversight. When the TVA shut down its coal-burning Allen Fossil Plant in 2018, it left behind two storage ponds full of ash, which contain poisonous substances like arsenic and lead. Due to concerns that these toxins could seep into Memphis’ drinking water, the federally-owned utility faced added pressure to remove the ash from the site. TVA has proposed trucking the coal ash to either or both the South Shelby Landfill, which is about 20 miles away, or nearly 30 miles south to the Tunica Landfill in Mississippi. TVA says that either dump site will be lined so the ash doesn’t seep out. At a virtual presentation Tuesday night, members of the public submitted electronic questions about how the ash would be removed, transported and eventually stored. “We want them to dig up that ash, and get it away from our aquifer, but we also don’t want it to cause people problems somewhere else,” said Scott Banbury with the Tennessee Chapter of the Sierra Club. “We want worker safety measures put in place to avoid what happened in Kingston.” The Kingston Fossil Plant in East Tennessee is the site of the country’s largest coal fly ash spill in 2008. The cleanup led to lawsuits by workers hired to remediate the mess. They’ve argued that the contractor Jacobs Engineering failed to provide them proper safety equipment, resulting in dozens of deaths and hundreds of others developing serious illnesses such as cancer.

Coal ash pond closures at Plant Hammond could take up to 15 years – The dewatering and closure of the three remaining coal ash ponds at Georgia Power’s Plant Hammond west of Rome will take another 15 years to complete. Georgia Power executives took community leaders on a virtual tour of the dewatering process Tuesday in a bid to make sure they develop a confidence that the Coosa River will be protected. Scott Hendricks, manager of water and natural resources permitting for Georgia Power, said removal of the water from the solids represents the first major step in the overall ash pond closures. The dewatering is slated to begin in December and will continue throughout the entire 15-year closure process. “That does sound like a considerable amount of time, but it reflects a highly engineered and heavily overseen process,” said Dominic Weatherill, an environmental affairs officer with Georgia Power. Each pond on the Georgia Power property has a site specific plan approved by the Georgia Environmental Protection Division. The EPD has the authority to conduct site visits at any stage during the process. The removal of water from the stored coal ash has been designed and will be operated by a third party contractor, Evoqua Water Technologies, and results will be posted on the Georgia Power website. “Other third party vendors will conduct sampling,” Hendricks said. “We have accredited third party laboratories that analyze the data, and then other professional engineering companies that process the data and help put it into a form that can be distributed on the website.” Plant Hammond was on the Georgia Water Coalition’s 2019 Dirty Dozen list because of the potential for damage to the Coosa River from its coal-ash ponds. This year’s Dirty Dozen simply includes Georgia’s groundwater and alludes to coal ash pollution and well water issues near Juliette, about an hour south of Atlanta.

Nasty river goo to remain in Congaree for years – It will be at least four years before cleanup crews remove tons of toxic coal tar from the Congaree River, but that’s only if federal regulators cooperate and bad weather doesn’t delay the work, utility officials responsible for the pollution say. During a public online meeting Tuesday night, officials said the project is an ambitious one that involves building two temporary dams, checking for Civil War-era explosives in river mud and trucking coal tar through city streets to a landfill outside Columbia. The project has so many moving parts that power company Dominion Energy won’t be in position to build the dams until May 2022, officials said. The cleanup would then take at least two years, with the targeted end of the project in 2025. The project involves digging and scraping tar from the riverbed. Tar cleanups have occurred in other parts of the country before, but a Dominion official said he doesn’t know of one exactly like the Congaree’s. “We are working with a design from world class geotechnical engineers. But as far as I know, no one has ever approached this kind of project the way that we have.’’ Coal tar contains a variety of harmful pollutants, but has been most associated with skin irritation among swimmers or waders who come in contact with it.Effinger and officials with the S.C. Department of Health and Environmental Control did not provide details on how the project is different from others, but they said the work could be slowed if heavy rains swell the Congaree River so high that the temporary dams are overtopped. River flooding has occurred frequently in the past five years on the Congaree.The pyramid-shaped dams will be built between the Gervais and Blossom street bridges to dry out the river bed so that coal tar can be dug up. If water pours over the top and into the excavation area, it will delay the project.

Dominion Energy rewards Virginia political allies with bipartisan, off-year campaign contributions in 2020 – Energy and Policy Institute – Dominion Energy has contributed $750,500 to Virginia General Assembly members and political committees so far this year, according tocampaign finance reports that its political action committee filed with the Virginia Department of Elections through September.The utility directed more than a third of those funds toward House and Senate appropriations committee members; those committees months later would kill a proposed measure to refund hundreds of millions of dollars in Dominion over-earnings to erase electric customers’ debts amid the COVID-19 pandemic.State legislators were not up for election this year, save for one special House of Delegates race in which Dominion contributed to the victor. But Virginia’s lax campaign finance laws permit candidates to pilfer campaign funds for personal use, rendering Dominion’s donations to friendly lawmakers virtually unrestricted. Dominion is one of only a handful of businesses to have increased its political giving in Virginia compared to this time in 2018, the last “off-cycle” year in the state. A pair of graphs from the Virginia Public Access Project (VPAP) show contributions from most business-related PACs “down sharply” this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic and recession. Dominion’s political contributions to members of the Virginia General Assembly grew steeply from $113,381 in 2018 to $615,500 in 2020, according to VPAP’s analysis. VPAP excluded Dominion from its graphs, as the magnitude of the company’s giving would have so compressed their scale. Dominion funneled $265,000 to seventeen members of the state House and Senate appropriations committees, which quashed a proposal from Gov. Ralph Northam that would have required the company to return $320 million in excess profits it has taken from consumers since 2017 to forgivecustomer debts during the COVID-19 crisis. As part of the state’s budget process, appropriators instead passed a measure that would apply a lesser amount from Dominion – $125 million, the company estimated in a recent earnings call – to forgive outstanding bills of 30 days or more as of the end of September. Unlike in the original proposal, Dominion could still pass those costs back onto its ratepayers in the future by reducing the amount of refunds they could receive as a consequence of the utility’s rate case next year.

NYC-area nuclear plant sale for decommissioning is approved (AP) – The Nuclear Regulatory Commission’s staff have approved the sale of the Indian Point nuclear power plant north of New York City to a New Jersey company for dismantling, despite petitions from state and local officials to hold public hearings before taking action. The five-member NRC said Monday that it expects to issue an order next Monday allowing the plant’s owner, Entergy Corp., to transfer its license to Holtec Decommissioning International, which plans to demolish the plant by the end of 2033 at a projected cost of $2.3 billion. The staff also approved Holtec’s request to use part of a $2.1 billion trust fund set aside for decommissioning to manage spent nuclear fuel stored in dozens of steel-and-concrete canisters that will remain on the site. New York Attorney General Letitia James has called the Holtec deal “very risky,” questioning Holtec’s financing and experience. The Unit 2 reactor at the plant along the Hudson River was shut down permanently in April. The last operating reactor will shut down in April 2021 under a deal reached in January 2017 between Entergy, the state of New York and the environmental group Riverkeeper. Holtec, which has already received NRC approval to purchase the Oyster Creek and Pilgrim nuclear power plants in New Jersey and Massachusetts, has said it has the financial and technical qualifications to complete each decommissioning.In a letter to the NRC on Monday, Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand and regional members of Congress said it was “deeply troubling” that the commission’s staff was issuing a decision on the license transfer without providing a timeline for numerous public hearing requests.

Point Beach owner seeks to run Wisconsin’s last nuclear plant for 80 years The operator of Wisconsin’s only remaining nuclear power plant wants to keep the 50-year-old plant running through 2050.NextEra Energy submitted an application Monday to the Nuclear Regulatory Commission seeking to add 20 years to the licenses for the Point Beach Nuclear Plant in Two Rivers, according to a document filed with state regulators.A spokesman for NextEra Energy said the plant will continue to provide benefits for consumers as Wisconsin pursues Gov. Tony Evers’ goal of carbon-free electricity by 2050.“We think there’s tremendous value in having emissions-free power,” said Peter Robbins. “It essentially has the reliability of a natural gas plant but the emissions profile of a solar panel.” Situated on Lake Michigan between Manitowoc and Green Bay, the 1,200-megawatt plant is Wisconsin’s single-largest source of energy and a cornerstone of utility efforts to produce carbon-free electricity by 2050. It is also one of the most expensive sources of energy.Robbins said the plant employs about 600 people plus “hundreds” of contractors. “We view this as a win not only for the environment … but also for the economy,” he said. Last renewed in 2005, licenses for the two units are set to expire in 2030 and 2033. An NRC spokesperson said the license application is being reviewed for sensitive information and would be made publicly available in the coming weeks.

Why NASA wants to put a nuclear power plant on the moon – NASA and the U.S. Department of Energy will seek proposals from industry to build a nuclear power plant on the moon and Mars to support its long-term exploration plans. The proposal is for a fission surface power system, and the goal is to have a flight system, lander and reactor in place by 2026.Anthony Calomino, NASA’s nuclear technology portfolio lead within the Space Technology Mission Directorate, said that the plan is to develop a 10-kilowatt class fission surface power system for demonstration on the moon by the late 2020s. The facility will be fully manufactured and assembled on Earth, then tested for safety and to make sure it operates correctly.Afterwards, it will be integrated with a lunar lander, and a launch vehicle will transport it to an orbit around the moon. A lander will lower it to the surface, and once it arrives, it will be ready for operation with no additional assembly or construction required. The demonstration is expected to last for one year, and could ultimately lead to extended missions on the moon, Mars, and beyond.”Once the technology is proven through the demonstration, future systems could be scaled up or multiple units could be used together for long-duration missions to the moon and eventually Mars,” Calomino said. “Four units, providing 10 kilowatts of electrical power each, would provide enough power to establish an outpost on the moon or Mars. The ability to produce large amounts of electrical power on planetary surfaces using a fission surface power system would enable large-scale exploration, establishment of human outposts, and utilization of in situ resources, while allowing for the possibility of commercialization.”NASA is working on this with the Idaho National Laboratory (INL), a nuclear research facility that’s part of the DOE’s complex of labs. But is the plan realistic, and is delivery possible six years from now? According to Steve Johnson, director of the Space Nuclear Power and Isotope Technologies Division at the Idaho National Laboratory, the answer is “yes.” “We are able to leverage years of research and development work on advanced fuels and materials as well as recent commercial space transportation advances to reduce risk to the schedule, to meet the 2026 date,” Johnson said. “We really are striving to bring the commercial nuclear industry innovation to the table to work with NASA and the aerospace industry utilizing existing technologies.”Calomino said that the technologies that are critical to the success of this project are a nuclear reactor, power conversion, heat rejection and space flight technology.

Mike Madigan confidant and ex-ComEd CEO charged with bribery in lobbying scheme – Chicago Sun-Times – Federal prosecutors marched deeper into House Speaker Michael Madigan’s inner circle Wednesday, charging longtime confidant Michael McClain and ex-ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore in a bribery scheme designed to curry favor with the powerful Southwest Side Democrat. Also named in the 50-page indictment are ex-top ComEd lobbyist John Hooker and Jay Doherty, the former president of the City Club, who was accused of helping to funnel hundreds of thousands of dollars to three people with ties to Madigan’s 13th Ward. All four are charged in a document that also makes frequent references to ex-ComEd executive Fidel Marquez, who has already pleaded guilty to bribery. And it repeatedly mentions “Public Official A,” who is not named – but is clearly identified as Madigan. What it does not do is charge Madigan with any crime, despite an intense federal probe that clearly has him in its sights. Joseph Fitzpatrick, a spokesman for U.S. Attorney John Lausch, said the investigation that led to Wednesday’s indictment “remains ongoing.” McClain, 73, Pramaggiore, 62, Hooker, 71, and Doherty, 67, are each charged with bribery conspiracy, bribery and willfully falsifying ComEd books and records. Their defense attorneys vowed Wednesday to fight the latest public corruption case from Lausch’s office. The details of the new indictment track closely with those revealed in July when federal prosecutors charged ComEd with bribery in a bombshell case that has continued to reverberate politically in the four months that have passed. It prompted a legislative probe of Madigan’s dealings with ComEd, and it has led to questions about whether Madigan will be able to hold onto power. ComEd agreed to pay a $200 million fine – believed to be the largest criminal fine ever in Chicago’s federal court. And while it formally pleaded not guilty in court, it admitted to many of the feds’ allegations in a so-called deferred prosecution agreement. If ComEd abides by its terms, the bribery charge filed in July will likely be dismissed. The new indictment alleges that McClain, Pramaggiore, Hooker and Doherty arranged for Madigan’s associate and allies to get jobs, contracts and money – even while doing little or no work – “for the purpose of influencing and rewarding” Madigan. It focuses on the retention of an unnamed law firm, the favoring of intern applicants from the 13th Ward, Madigan’s attempt to have former McPier CEO Juan Ochoa appointed to ComEd’s board of directors and the hiring of other individuals associated with Madigan. It also says the four would conceal the nature of their conduct by referring to Madigan not by name, but as “our Friend” or “a Friend of ours.”

Ohio judge calls for diverse counsel to lead First Energy shareholder lawsuit | Reuters — A federal judge in Ohio said on Monday that he will consider how diverse three plaintiffs’ firms are when determining who should lead a proposed shareholder class action against utility FirstEnergy Corp over alleged bribes to a state lawmaker.During a hearing on competing motions, U.S. District Judge Algenon Marbley in Columbus asked attorneys for three state pension funds to lay out how many women and minority attorneys are partners at their firms, saying that whether attorneys reflect the fund participants they represent goes to the question of adequate representation, one of the factors courts consider when appointing lead counsel. To read the full story on Westlaw Today, click here: bit.ly/38OafT7

Ex-Ohio GOP leader Matt Borges says he didn’t bribe anyone – Former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges says he never bribed anyone, and his role in the nuclear bailout scandal has been overstated dramatically. “I did not break the law,” Borges told The Enquirer. “I did not conspire to break the law. I did not intend to break the law. I was not aware of anyone else breaking the law if it was happening.”Borges and four others, including former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, were arrested July 21 and later indicted with racketeering in connection with an alleged conspiracy to help Householder gain control of the House of Representatives, pass a law to subsidize nuclear plants in northern Ohio and defend that law against a ballot effort to upend it. Borges said he had no role in helping Householder come to power and played little part in passing House Bill 6. He was registered as a lobbyist for FirstEnergy Solutions, which owned two nuclear plants that stood to benefit from the bill, but didn’t talk with lawmakers about the legislation, he said. Borges’ primary focus was blocking the ballot referendum that would have killed about $1 billion in subsidies to FirstEnergy Solutions, now called Energy Harbor.That included organizing a legal team for an Ohio Supreme Court challenge – they argued the fee was a tax – and pointing out problems with signatures the House Bill 6 opponents gathered, he said. (They ultimately didn’t gather enough signatures for that to matter.)Borges also tipped off FirstEnergy Solutions lobbyist Juan Cespedes that opponents of House Bill 6 would pursue a referendum to block it on the ballot, according to the 81-page federal complaint. The federal complaint accuses Borges of bribing an employee of the anti-House Bill 6 ballot initiative effort, later revealed as Columbus political consultant Tyler Fehrman, “to provide inside information about the ballot campaign such as number of signatures collected, the number of collectors and geographic focus of collection efforts.”In September 2019, Borges contacted Fehrman and, during a meeting the next day, offered money, a job or payment of Fehrman’s debts in exchange for information about the ballot effort, according to the federal complaint.

FBI conducts search at house of PUCO chairman Sam Randazzo – FBI agents removed boxes of materials Monday from the Columbus home of Sam Randazzo, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, the state’s top utilities regulator. What they were after wasn’t immediately clear. Randazzo, who was appointed PUCO chairman by Gov. Mike DeWine in 2019, has connections to Akron-based FirstEnergy, the power company at the heart of the state’s nuclear bailout scandal.Agents could be seen carrying boxes out of the condominium in the 600 block of Grant Avenue in German Village, which is owned by Randazzo, according to Franklin County auditor records. “FBI agents are conducting court-authorized law enforcement activity in that area in relation to a sealed federal search warrant,” FBI spokesman Todd Lindgren said. “Due to this matter being sealed, no further details can be released at this time.” “We are aware of the search warrant,” DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said. “We are monitoring this as it progresses.” The PUCO declined comment. The regulatory agency recently initiated an audit of FirstEnergy. Before leading the commission, Randazzo was a lobbyist and an attorney for energy companies and Industrial Energy Users-Ohio, which represents some of the state’s largest industries. Randazzo’s company, Sustainability Funding Alliance of Ohio, was listed as a company used by former FirstEnergy subsidiary FirstEnergy Solutions, now called Energy Harbor, on the company’s December 2018 bankruptcy report. Randazzo testified in the Ohio House in May 2019 as an interested party on House Bill 6, the legislation that passed that summer that bails out the state’s two nuclear power plants, shores up two coal-fired power plants and guts requirements for energy efficiency and renewable energy.

DeWine backs PUCO chairman, says no indication he’s under federal investigation – Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Tuesday said he has no indication that PUCO Chairman Sam Randazzo is the target of a federal investigation, despite the fact that FBI agents executed a search warrant this week at Randazzo’s condo in Columbus. DeWine, who appointed Randazzo to lead the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio in April 2019, said he has not discussed the situation with Randazzo. “We have no indication that he’s under investigation or that he’s the target of an investigation. We’ll wait until we find additional facts,” DeWine said. When asked how an early morning search and confiscation of boxes of material doesn’t indicate someone is the target, DeWine said: “Look, the FBI many times will indicate if someone is a target. They have not indicated he’s a target. I have no reason to think he’s a target. I don’t know. So, we’re waiting for additional information, quite candidly. I hired him. I think he’s a good person. If there is evidence to the contrary, we’ll act accordingly, but not going to act without facts.” Randazzo could not be reached for comment.

PUCO chairman skips meeting after the FBI searched his home — The chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, whose home was searched by the FBI on Monday, was a no-show at Wednesday’s commission meeting. Beyond roll call, there was no mention of Sam Randazzo during PUCO’s 10-minute meeting held online as the commissioners quickly went through their agenda. The PUCO said after that Randazzo had the day off. It also noted that he missed the meeting on Nov. 4 for a planned surgery.Randazzo’s home in German Village was searched Monday morning.Gov. Mike DeWine appointed Randazzo’s in 2019. He was a longtime utility attorney and lobbyist before the appointment.Why Randazzo’s home was searched and what the FBI are looking for isn’t clear, and the FBI and PUCO have declined comment.Randazzo has connections to Akron-based FirstEnergy, the power company at the heart of the state’s scandal over House Bill 6, which bails out two nuclear power plans.DeWine, speaking at a news briefing to discuss the latest measures in the state’s effort to control the coronavirus epidemic on Tuesday, deflected questions about the search of Randazzo’s home. In response to a question, the Republican governor said there were no indications that Randazzo was under investigation or the target of an investigation.“We’re waiting for additional information, quite candidly,” DeWine said. “I hired him. I think he’s a good person. If there’s evidence to the contrary, we’ll act accordingly. But I’m not going to act without the facts.” The PUCO chair is one of the most powerful positions in state government, able to influence the regulation of utilities in the state impacting utility profits and rates charged to customers. As PUCO chair, Randazzo also is chair of the Ohio Power Siting Board, which has oversight approval for new electric-generating facilities.

FirstEnergy reveals $4 million payment being investigated – A $4 million consulting payment with apparent ties to a state regulator looks to be at the heart of why FirstEnergy senior executives, including its chief executive, were fired last month, according to a FirstEnergy regulatory filing late Thursday. The firings are tied to the ongoing federal investigation into the $61 million Larry Householder bribery scandal. As part of that investigation, the FBI earlier this week took records from the home of Sam Randazzo, chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. ” … Certain former members of senior management violated certain FirstEnergy policies and its code of conduct related to a payment of approximately $4 million made in early 2019 in connection with the termination of a purported consulting agreement, as amended, which had been in place since 2013,” FirstEnergy said in the filing. “The counterparty to such agreement was an entity associated with an individual who subsequently was appointed to a full-time role as an Ohio government official directly involved in regulating the Ohio companies, including with respect to distribution rates. “At this time, it has not been determined if the payments were for the purposes represented within the consulting agreement,” FirstEnergy said. “The matter is a subject of the ongoing internal investigation related to the government investigations.” The filing does not name specific individuals; it says the Akron utility continues with its internal investigation and is cooperating with federal investigators. The document FirstEnergy filed was its latest quarterly financial report, called a 10-Q. The utility previously announced that it would be late filing the report because of matters related to the Householder investigation. FirstEnergy said in the SEC filing that former senior managers, including former CEO Chuck Jones, “did not maintain and promote a control environment with an appropriate tone of compliance in certain areas of FirstEnergy’s business, nor sufficiently promote, monitor or enforce adherence to certain FirstEnergy policies and its code of conduct. “Furthermore, certain former members of senior management did not reasonably ensure that relevant information was communicated within our organization and not withheld from our independent directors, our Audit Committee, and our independent auditor,” the company said.

FirstEnergy statements could support broad scope for PUCO-ordered audit | Energy News Network –FirstEnergy’s legal papers in a regulatory case state it can’t categorically deny that money from Ohio ratepayers was spent for activities related to the state’s nuclear and coal bailout law. The limited comments could support a broad scope for anindependent audit ordered by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio earlier this month.The PUCO may come under increased scrutiny in the wake of FBI agents’ Nov. 16 search at the home of Chair Sam Randazzo, a longtime critic of renewable energy, who had been the general counsel for the Industrial Energy Users-Ohio trade group and who had also been linked to a couple of creditors in FirstEnergy Solutions’ (now Energy Harbor’s) bankruptcy case. Randazzo and the PUCO had already drawn some criticism for waiting nearly two months to tell FirstEnergy’s utilities to prove they hadn’t directly or indirectly used ratepayer money on House Bill 6. The law is at the heart of an alleged $60 millionbribery and conspiracy scheme, which the Department of Justice announced on July 21. And only on Nov. 4 did the PUCO finally call for an independent audit of FirstEnergy spending on HB 6. FirstEnergy isn’t a named defendant in the federal criminal case but is instead referred to as Company A. The company’s statements about an inability to admit or deny statements about the use of ratepayer money for HB 6 activities came in response to information requests, called discovery, in the regulatory case that started in September.FirstEnergy’s evasion or apparent backtracking from earlier statements “certainly requires a lot of new questions and hopefully more answers from FirstEnergy about what exactly is going on here,” said Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy & Policy Institute. The Office of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel attached the company’s statements to a motion filed last week, asking the PUCO to compel full responses to its discovery. In the case, the PUCO told FirstEnergy’s utilities to prove that “the costs of any political or charitable spending in support of [House Bill 6 and a subsequent referendum effort] were not included, directly or indirectly, in any rates or charges paid by ratepayers in this state.” Among other things, the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel asked FirstEnergy’s utilities to admit or deny that they or any affiliates used any money from rates, riders or other charges collected from Ohio electric customers for charitable or political spending or for HB 6 activities. In recent years, those charges included nearly half a billion dollars for a no-strings-attached rider that was ultimately held unlawful.

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