Environmental News For The Week Ending 30January 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:

• 31 Jan 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 31January 2021

• 31 Jan 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 31January 2021

New US Covid cases for the week ending January 30th were down 13.6% from the prior week, and down about 32% from two weeks earlier; in fact, new US Covid infections this past week were the lowest in any week since the week ending November 14th. Globally, new case counts have slid around 10% each of the past three weeks, and are now at their lowest level since October.

However, there was a modest uptick in US Covid deaths; for the week ending January 30th, covid deaths were 1.8% higher than a week earlier, but they still remained 5.3% below those of two weeks earlier. Based on the Johns Hopkins dashboard, global Covid deaths for the week ending January 29th appear to be down fractionally from a week earlier, but still a bit higher than 2 weeks earlier. The US still accounts for a quarter of all Covid cases globally, and a fifth of all Covid deaths.

With the Covid counts down and the Biden administration hitting the ground running, the news media focus has turned away from incessant reporting on the disease to reporting on the White House, and hence this week’s ‘disease’ collection was sparser than in recent weeks, and almost absent the usual demographics. Most of this past week’s coverage is on the vaccines; their rollout & their efficacy, and on the mutant viruses that are spreading worldwide. The CDC and Dr Fauci both expect the highly contagious UK strain to be dominant in the US by March, but there’s not much evidence of that yet; last I saw, there were 123 confirmed cases of that strain in 29 US states, a little better than double those of a week ago. However, since only a small fraction coronavirus infections are being sequenced, we have to figure the reported incidence of confirmed mutated virus infections is only the tip of the iceberg.

Last week also saw the first US confirmed case of the Brazilian mutant (in Minnesota) and the first couple cases of the South African strain (in South Carolina and Maryland). That’s the one we need to watch, since neither previous Covid infection nor the current vaccines appear to confirm immunity to that mutant variant.

Some of the COVID-19 graphics presented in the articles linked at the beginning of this post have been updated below.

Summary data graphics:

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.

New cases globally continued to increase. (See Johns Hopkins graph below.) This graphic shows the daily global new cases since the start of the pandemic up through 02 February.

Calculated Risk continues to track US testing. The decline in positive test results over July and August ended in September. The test results continue to vary widely with no apparent overall pattern other than generally upward trend in positive results from the first part of October until the end of December when they started a steep decline. The 30 January graphic (the latest one posted):

Here’s this week’s other environmental news, with two stories emanating from Ohio’s nuclear bribery scandal at the end:

Air pollution linked to higher risk of irreversible sight loss – Small increases in air pollution are linked to an increased risk of irreversible sight loss from age-related macular degeneration (AMD), a large UK study has found. Previous work had already found a link between dirty air and glaucoma and a link to cataracts is suspected. The scientists said the eyes have a particularly high flow of blood, potentially making them very vulnerable to the damage caused by tiny particles that are breathed in and then flow around the body.The study is the first to assess the connection between air pollution and both diagnoses of AMD that the patients said they had been given, and measurements of harmful changes in the retina. It found a small increase in exposure to tiny pollution particles raised the risk of AMD by 8%, while small changes in larger pollution particles and nitrogen dioxide were linked to a 12% higher risk of adverse retinal changes. The biggest risk factors for AMD are genetics and poor physical health issues, such as smoking and obesity. But as lifestyles become healthier, the impact of air pollution will become more important, the researchers said, and, unlike genetics, levels dirty air can be reduced with the right policies.Air pollution is being linked to an increasingly wide range of diseases, and the World Health Organization says 90% of the world population live with dirty air. A global review in 2019 concluded that air pollution may be damaging every organ in the human body, as inhaled particles travel around the body and cause inflammation.”There is an enormously high flow of blood [to the retina] and we think that as a consequence of that the distribution of pollutants is greater to the eye than to other places,” said Prof Paul Foster, at University College London, UK, and who was part of the study team. “Proportionately, air pollution is going to become a bigger risk factor as other risk factors are brought under control.” “It’s important to keep things in context – people shouldn’t be looking outside their door and thinking: ‘I can’t go out because it is polluted out there’,” he said. “The study gives people information that they can use to alter their lifestyle choices. For example, it may be another reason why we might consider going for an electric car, instead of buying a diesel.”

Forever Chemicals Are Widespread in U.S. Drinking Water – Scientific American – Many Americans fill up a glass of water from their faucet without worrying whether it might be dangerous. But the crisis of lead-tainted water in Flint, Mich., showed that safe, potable tap water is not a given in this country. Now a study from the Environmental Working Group (EWG), a nonprofit advocacy organization, reveals a widespread problem: the drinking water of a majority of Americans likely contains “forever chemicals.” These compounds may take hundreds, or even thousands, of years to break down in the environment. They can also persist in the human body, potentially causing health problems. A handful of states have set about trying to address these contaminants, which are scientifically known as perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs). But no federal limits have been set on the concentration of the chemicals in water, as they have for other pollutants such as benzene, uranium and arsenic. With a new presidential administration coming into office this week, experts say the federal government finally needs to remedy that oversight. “The PFAS pollution crisis is a public health emergency,” wrote Scott Faber, EWG’s senior vice president for government affairs, in a recent public statement. Of the more than 9,000 known PFAS compounds, 600 are currently used in the U.S. in countless products, including firefighting foam, cookware, cosmetics, carpet treatments and even dental floss. Scientists call PFASs “forever chemicals” because their chemistry keeps them from breaking down under typical environmental conditions. “One of the unique features of PFAS compounds is the carbon-fluorine bond,” explains David Andrews, a senior scientist at EWG. “That bond is incredibly strong.” Ultimately this means that if PFASs enter the environment, they build up. These chemicals can linger on geologic time scales, explains Chris Higgins, a civil and environmental engineer at the Colorado School of Mines. Because of their widespread use, release and disposal over the decades, PFASs show up virtually everywhere: in soil, surface water, the atmosphere, the deep ocean-and even the human body. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Web site says that the agency has found PFASs in the blood of nearly everyone it has tested for them, “indicating widespread exposure to these PFAS in the U.S. population.” Scientists have found links between a number of the chemicals and many health concerns-including kidney and testicular cancer, thyroid disease, liver damage, developmental toxicity, ulcerative colitis, high cholesterol, pregnancy-induced preeclampsia and hypertension, and immune dysfunction.

The latest story of toxic deceit and delay: PFAS – Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances for PFAS-a group of persistent toxic chemicals often referred to as “forever chemicals”-are everywhere. Don’t take my word for it. Here is a list posted on the site of the U.S. Environmental Protection (EPA) agency:

• Food packaged in PFAS-containing materials, processed with equipment that used PFAS, or grown in PFAS-contaminated soil or water.
• Commercial household products, including stain- and water-repellent fabrics, nonstick products (e.g., Teflon), polishes, waxes, paints, cleaning products, and fire-fighting foams (a major source of groundwater contamination at airports and military bases where firefighting training occurs).
• Workplace, including production facilities or industries (e.g., chrome plating, electronics manufacturing or oil recovery) that use PFAS.
• Drinking water, typically localized and associated with a specific facility (e.g., manufacturer, landfill, wastewater treatment plant, firefighter training facility).
• Living organisms, including fish, animals and humans, where PFAS have the ability to build up and persist over time

PFAS are even found in animals in Antarctica. Here is a list of health effects again provided by the EPA:

• Infant birth weights
• Effects on the immune system
• Cancer (for PFOA)
• Thyroid hormone disruption (for PFOS).

PFOA and PFOS are specific kinds of PFAS. Perhaps of most interest right now because of the ongoing pandemic are the deleterious effects of these chemicals on the immune system including reducing the effectiveness of vaccines. And, perhaps the most important thing you need to know about PFAS is thatscientists keep reducing their estimates of what is a safe exposure as more data accumulates.PFAS have been around since the 1950s. So, how did these dangerous chemicals-which don’t break down in the environment-escape the notice of regulatory officials for so long? The answer is all too familiar and echoes similar trajectories for such toxic legacies as unleaded gasoline, glyphosate, chlorofluorocarbons, and bisphenol A. A 2018 piece by a renown public health researcher in Environmental Health details the long and sordid history of repression of scientific knowledge about PFAS and a dangerous irony about the way we assess risk from such substances. Let me highlight just a few of his main points:

Biden executive order enhances independence of federal scientists from political appointees | Federal News Network – President Joe Biden signed a presidential memorandum Wednesday to prevent political appointees from interfering with the work of career federal scientists. The memo, in addition to raising the profile of senior career officials at scientific agencies, seeks to increase transparency around agency research and regulations, and to make federal data sets more accessible to researchers and the public. It also directs agencies to review their websites for content created since the start of the Trump administration and update content that is “inconsistent with the principles set forth in this memorandum.” Biden said in the signing ceremony the measure would “protect our world-class scientists from political interference and ensure they can think, research, and speak freely and directly to me, the vice president and the American people.” The memo also addresses some of the frustrations groups representing federal scientists have expressed during the Trump presidency. In a 2018 survey of 63,000 federal scientific experts led by the Union of Concerned Scientists, 20% identified the White House or political appointees at their agency as a top barrier to science-based decision-making. Half of the respondents said more generally that “political interests” hindered their work. “For the last four years, we’ve seen science deliberately and repeatedly excluded from federal policymaking,” Andrew Rosenberg, the director of the UCS Center for Science and Democracy, said in a statement. Biden’s executive action, by contrast, he called an “encouraging start.” “We need a new direction – and with today’s executive actions, President Biden and his team are acknowledging the important role that science should play in solving the very real problems we face,” Rosenberg said.

Georgia nitrogen deaths: Leak kills six at Gainesville poultry plant – A leak of liquid nitrogen at a poultry plant in the US state of Georgia has killed six people. Officials say 12 others were hospitalised following Thursday’s incident at the Foundation Food Group plant in the city of Gainesville. Several firefighters who were called to the scene were among those treated. Georgia is a leading poultry-producing state and Gainesville is at the centre of the industry. Thousands of people work in the city’s processing plants. The cause of Thursday’s leak at the plant, formerly known as Prime Pak Foods, is being investigated. Zach Brackett, Hall County Fire Department Chief, said emergency services were called to the scene at 10:12 local time (17:12 GMT) to a report of people with burns. Chief Brackett said on arrival they found a “large contingent of employees” who had evacuated the plant, including some experiencing “medical emergencies”. In total 130 people were taken for to a local church for medical evaluation following the incident. Five people were found dead at the scene and one died after being taken to hospital, officials said. Beth Downs, a spokeswoman for Northeast Georgia Medical Center, said three of those taken to hospital were in a critical condition. A number of the injured, including three fire officials who complained of breathing difficulties, were later discharged.A representative for Foundation Food Group said a preliminary investigation suggested a nitrogen line had ruptured inside the facility in what he described as a “tragic accident”. Those who died included maintenance, supervisory and management team members, spokesman Nicholas Ancrum said.

Invasive tawny crazy ants have an intense craving for calcium – with implications for their spread in the US –Tawny crazy ants (Nylanderia fulva) -named for their fast, erratic movements-can blanket the ground by the millions. Originating in South America and now established in parts of the southern U.S., theyharm other insects, asphyxiate chickens and even short-circuit electronics in homes. Crazy ants are liquid feeders that consume nectar from plants-and honeydew (or secretions) from certain insects. Ants crave these sugary resources, which boost their colony growth, enabling them to outcompete native species and ultimately spread. The nutritional content of nectar and honeydew vary widely, however, depending on the nutrients available in a particular ecosystem. There are 25 chemical elements required to build life-too much or too little of one may cause disease. So far, ecologists only really know about the importance of macronutrients, like nitrogen and phosphorus, that are abundant in living tissue. My team wanted to learn more about what micronutrients might be important to crazy ants.We conducted a fertilization experiment at the University of Houston’s Coastal Center and were able to demonstrate that the abundance of tawny crazy ants decreased 24% where there was more potassium and 45% where there was more sodium and potassium.What greatly surprised our team was the discovery that ants were 13% more abundant in areas where there was more calcium-even in areas that had more sodium and potassium. This finding, published in the journal Ecology, could have big implications for the continued spread of crazy ants.Ours is the first study showing calcium is important to an invasive ant, which is somewhat surprising given ants don’t have bones. It turns out, though, calcium is important in their egg production, larval development andphysiological regulation.If the spread of crazy ants continues north, the calcium-rich limestone bedrock of the lower U.S. Midwest may provide ideal conditions for populations to explode. Farmlands may be at risk because calcium is found in many fertilizers. Additionally, cities often have more calcium than surrounding areas, thanks to heavy cement use, limestone quarrying and destruction of buildings. Tawny crazy ants not only are a major threat to the biodiversity and conservation of ecosystems but also cost the U.S. billions of dollars in damage annually.

Massive locust swarms attack Saudi Arabia, bigger invasion ongoing in the Horn of Africa –Massive locust swarms have invaded Saudi Arabia while a bigger and deadlier attack is ongoing in the Horn of Africa, which is set to descend on large parts of Ethiopia and Kenya, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) warned Sunday, January 24, 2021.In Saudi Arabia, locust swarms hit areas along the coast from Jizan to Lith, extending nearly to Duba on the north coast. Control operations are in progress, particularly against second instar hopper groups and a few bands.Footages on social media show the insects blanketing the skies, highways, and wide fields. Meanwhile, FAO warned Sunday that dry weather conditions across the Horn of Africa region are expected to facilitate locust swarms, making the invasion in Kenya bigger and deadlier. About 15 out of 47 counties in Kenya have been affected so far. “As conditions remain dry in some areas, the swarms are expected to disperse throughout southern and northern Ethiopia as well as north-central Kenya,” FAO wrote in its latest report. “Any rainfall that occurs in the coming weeks will cause swarms to mature and lay eggs that will hatch and give rise to hopper bands during February and March.” Agriculture Minister Peter Munya said in a news conference that while Kenya is well-prepared to battle the second invasion, the threat is far from over. “The [East African] country is under the second invasion by desert locusts which entered from Ethiopia and Somalia. To date, 15 counties have reported desert locust invasion.” Kenya has deployed 9 surveillance and sprayer aircraft and 21 vehicles mounted with sprayers for ground control operations. Three more aircraft are on standby.

Cicada Mania Begins This Spring; Hungry Americans May Be Eating Insects – Billions of cicadas, tiny winged insects that have spent nearly two decades underground, are set to emerge this year across the easter half of the U.S, according to Newsweek. Periodical cicadas – unlike annual cicadas – emerge every 17 or so years – and that cycle of reemerging is this spring. A map created by Newsweek/Statista, citing data from Cicada Mania, shows the states where Brood 10 cicadas will emerge from the ground after a 17-year-long sleep. The critters were last seen in 2004. From May to June, cicadas will be seen in Virginia, North Carolina, Georgia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, and Ohio. Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states will also see billions of bugs. Cicadas are very distinguished by their muscular bodies, broadheads, clear wings, and massive eyes. The insects are harmless to humans but are considered a nuisance. According to National Graphic, cicadas – like most insects – are a good protein source and have about the same amount per pound as red meat. Billions of tiny insects could be an incredible source of protein for struggling Americans this year as food insecurity has become a problem for tens of millions of folks. We noted, the food industry is set to take a giant leap forward towards sustainability, with the world’s largest insect food processing plant expected to be built in central Illinois.

Victoria drenched by a month’s worth of rain in 12 hours while historic rains hit NSW, Australia — Parts of Victoria, Australia, have seen a month’s worth of rain in 12 hours into Friday, January 29, 2021, while New South Wales was hit by historic rainfall, and is set for further heavy downpours and damaging winds, with severe thunderstorm warning in place.Many locations, not only in Melbourne but also right across western and central Victoria had a month’s worth of rain in less than six to 12 hours, said Dean Narramore from the Bureau of Meteorology (BOM), as the state “copped a drenching in the last 24 hours.”Melbourne metro recorded 40 mm (1.6 inches) in just four hours, almost hitting the average January rain of 47 mm (1.8 inches).In a 24-hour period to Friday morning, widespread rainfall totals of 20 to 40 mm (0.8 to 1.6 inches) were recorded across the state’s western region, while totals of 60 to 70 mm (2.4 to 2.7 inches) were recorded in the upper Avoca and Wimmera catchments.The deluge resulted in inundations, prompting state emergency services to rescue trapped people. Most of the rescues were stranded drivers and passengers in their vehicles.Almost 100 State Emergency Services (SES) units responded to more than 600 emergency calls in the past 24 hours, most of which were due to leaking roofs and flood damage. “We know flash flooding comes up out of nowhere, so we can’t plan for where it may impact,” In NSW, the BOM recorded 98 mm (3.8 inches) of rain in a 24 hour period in Condobolin– a quarter of the town’s yearly rainfall average of 424 mm (16.7 inches). Temora in the Riverina registered 56 mm (2.2 inches), which was the highest daily fall in a decade. Other parts of the state also received significant rainfall amounts.

Storm Hortense hits Mallorca with wind gusts up to 170 km/h (105 mph), Spain – Storm Hortense left a trail of destruction after it made landfall in Mallorca, Spain on January 23, 2021. Significant damage was reported across the island and at least 2 people were injured. Aemet reported a gust of 130 km/h (81 mph) at Son Sant Airport, which broke a record set in February 1996 at 118 km/h (74 mph). In the Tramuntana Mountains, a gust of 144 km/h (90 mph) was registered at the Alfabia weather station, though gusts elsewhere reached 170 km/h (105 mph). According to Spanish media, 26 roads in Mallorca were closed to due landslides and a number of downed trees. Emergency Services and Police said they were saturated with calls for help, the majority of them from Calvia, Llucmajor, Manacor, and Palma.Severe damage was reported in Palma, the Majorca Daily Bulletin reports. The entire ledge of a 3-story building collapsed in Carrer de Pere Dezcallar I Net, crushing a nearby parked car. The winds lifted to roof off a car in Poligono Can Valero, injuring a passer-by as it flew through the air. In addition, fallen trees blocked the streets in Son Rapinya and Can Pastilla and strong winds lifted a massive tarpaulin off a building site in Carrer de la Dragonera. A Calvia Police Officer was hit in the back by a metal plate from a construction site in El Toro and had to be taken to hospital and an old mill in Son Pelat that was renovated by Pedro Cirer just over a year ago collapsed during the storm, destroying a car.

At least 12 killed after Tropical Cyclone “Eloise” makes landfall near Beira, Mozambique – (videos) Tropical Cyclone “Eloise” made landfall just south of the port city of Beira, Mozambique early Saturday morning (LT), January 23, 2021.

• At least 13 people have been killed since the storm formed – 1 in Madagascar, 9 in Mozambique, and 3 in Zimbabwe.
• The storm peaked shortly before making landfall in Mozambique with 1-minute sustained winds of 165 km/h (105 mph), making it a Category 2 equivalent hurricane on the Saffir-Simpson hurricane wind scale.
• It left a trail of destruction in Beira, Manica, and Quelimane. The same area that was hit by the highly destructive Tropical Cyclone “Idai” in 2019, which left more than 1 300 people dead, many more missing, and over 100 000 displaced.
• Eloise moved inland after making landfall, bringing heavy rains to southern Zimbabwe, northern South Africa, and far eastern Botswana.

At least 9 people have been killed in Mozambique — all of them in the worst-hit port city of Beira (population 500 000). Most of the deaths were caused by falling trees. Severe flooding and damage were also reported in the districts of Buzi and Nhamatanda, where thousands of hectares of farmland were flooded. In their first detailed report issued on January 24, Mozambique’s National Institute for Disaster Risk Management and Reduction (INGD) said Eloise had injured 12 people and displaced 6 859. 1 069 homes were destroyed, 3 434 partially destroyed and 1 500 flooded. 136 755 ha (337 928 acres) of crops were damaged, 11 hospitals were damaged, 9 schools destroyed and 17 others damaged.At least three people were swept away in eastern Zimbabwe when they tried to cross flooded rivers, Reuters reports.Eloise has dissipated by Sunday, January 24, and its remnants are now slowly moving over the Zimbabwe-Botswana-South Africa border region. The threat of more severe flooding remains throughout the region.

Deadly flooding and landslides hit Santa Catarina after half a month’s worth of rain falls in 6 hours, Brazil – Flooding and landslides killed at least two people in Santa Catarina, Brazil, after 104 mm (4 inches) of rain fell in a six-hour period on Sunday, January 25, 2021. This is equivalent to half a month’s worth of January rain.Heavy rainfall has been lashing Florianopolis in Santa Catarina since January 21. More downpours hit the state in the following days, with almost 40 mm (1.6 inches) in a 1-hour period on Sunday.According to the Civil Defense, 86 mm (3.4 inches) of rain fell in a 3-hour period while up to 104 mm (4 inches) of rain fell in just six hours– this was equivalent to more than half the average rainfall for the state for the month of January, which is 195 mm (7.6 inches).Floodwaters and landslide debris blocked roads, as well as other parts of the city. The fire service evacuated 70 people in the Lagoa da Conceicao neighborhood after embankments of a sewage treatment pond collapsed, resulting in at least 35 homes damaged. Two people died after flooding caused a wall to collapse in the region of Saco Grande. The victims were identified as mother and daughter.Over the past few days, the Civil Defense has reported rain-related incidents in 31 municipalities of Santa Catarina. More than 2 000 people have been affected by flooding in Guabiruba, Itajai Valley, where around 240 houses were damaged and 30 people were evacuated.

Containership-Bound For California Loses 750 Containers Due To “Rough Seas” —It’s happened again. Hundreds of containers carrying goods such as furniture, fitness equipment and electronics have fallen overboard from a California-bound ship. This time it was the Maersk Essen en route from Xiamen, China, to the Port of Los Angeles last Saturday when, according to the ocean carrier, the container ship experienced a “rough sea encounter.” The Danish-flagged Essen, with a capacity of 13,100 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs), sails on Maersk’s TP6 Asia-U.S. West Coast service. The Essen “experienced heavy seas during her North Pacific crossing,” Maersk said, “resulting in the loss of approximately 750 containers overboard.” “All crewmembers are safe and a detailed cargo assessment is ongoing while the vessel continues on her journey,” Maersk said in its brief media release issued Wednesday. It had been unclear when the Maersk Essen would berth at the Port of LA. Some reports had it arriving as early as Friday, but San Pedro Bay is filled with container ships waiting to berth and port congestion apparently is worsening. The Los Angeles Times reported that 45 vessels were anchored outside the ports of LA and Long Beach on Tuesday. That’s up double digits from the 32 at anchor a week earlier. Maersk has now reported that the Essen has changed course and is sailing for the Port of Lazaro Cardenas in Mexico, with an estimated arrival date of Jan. 29 “for cargo survey, port operations and initial repair.” Regardless where the Maersk Essen berths, it likely could be weeks before it is known what was inside the 750 containers that went overboard – as well as the dozens of others that could have been damaged on deck. FreightWaves, however, has visibility to what the Maersk Essen was carrying when it sailed from Xiamen. According to to FreightWaves’ SONAR data, the Essen was carrying more than 4,000 TEUs of furniture. Also on board were nearly 850 TEUs of footwear and some 170 TEUs of electronics. Other listed products included tires totaling 150 TEUs and 79 TEUs of kitchenware. Fitness equipment at 82 TEUs does not include 52 TEUs of “smart treadmill[s] with auto incline.”

Biggest Windstorm to Batter Yosemite in 25 Years Topples Two Sequoias –California’s iconic Yosemite National Park will remain closed until at least Saturday, Jan. 30 after a windstorm caused millions of dollars of damage in the park and toppled two giant sequoias.The storm that struck Yosemite also battered most of California beginning Monday, Jan. 18, The Associated Press reported. It toppled trees and power lines. Around 300,000 homes and businesses lost power from the storm directly, while tens of thousands of people had their power shut off by utilities to prevent wildfires.Yosemite spokesman Scott Gediman told The Sacramento Bee that the storm was the biggest he had observed in his 25 years of working for the park, in terms of both wind speed and damage caused.Yosemite originally said it would reopen Tuesday, Jan. 26, but announced Monday it would delay its reopening until at least Saturday.”Park staff continue to work toward restoring safe conditions after last week’s Mono wind event,” the park tweeted.The storm hit Yosemite the night of Jan. 18, The Associated Press reported. The winds knocked over hundreds of trees in the park, according to The Sacramento Bee. The fallen trees included two giant sequoias from the lower grove of Yosemite’s Mariposa Grove of Giant Sequoias, Gediman said. Fallen trees in the lower grove also crushed a boardwalk and bathroom that had been added during a $40 million restoration completed in 2018. All told, Gediman estimated that damage to vehicles, employee homes and facilities was in the millions of dollars.

Large tornado hits Fultondale, causing significant damage, Alabama (videos) At least one person has been killed and more than 20 injured after a large tornado ripped through Fultondale, Alabama, U.S. at around 22:30 CST on January 25, 2021 (05:30 UTC, January 26), causing significant material damage and downing trees. The tornado was described by the NWS as ‘large and extremely dangerous.’ ‘The search and rescue mission was still in progress early Tuesday morning (LT). “We do have possible fatalities, can not confirm the number yet. We still have search and rescue crews out working,” Assistant Fire Chief Justin McKenzie said at around 03:30 CST, January 26.McKenzie also confirmed earlier Tuesday morning there were ‘many injuries or deaths at this time,’ according to the WBRC.Authorities confirmed several structures on Walker Chapel Road were damaged, including a Hampton Inn, Comfort Inn and Suites, a Chili’s restaurant and possibly an Outback Steakhouse.There are also reports of damage to homes in the Fultondale area, and serious damage at the intersection of North Pine Hill Road and Carson Road.A roof of Hildale Baptist Church on Sunhill Road in Center Point was also damaged.At least 5 people have been hospitalized, with injuries ranging from minor to severe, Fultondale Police Chief said. 17 people were reportedly rushed to the hospital and 11 treated on scene. First responders urged the public to avoid the Fultondale and Center Point areas to allow them to safely continue their operations.

Large EF-3 tornado leaves a trail of destruction in Fultondale, Alabama (videos) The tornado that struck Fultondale (population 9 000), Alabama at around 22:30 CST on January 25, 2021 (05:30 UTC, January 26), has been given a preliminary rating of EF-3 with peak winds around 240 km/h (150 mph). The tornado left significant material damage, 1 person dead and more than 30 injured.The EF-3 damage was focused near Lykes Blvd to New Castle Rd, NWS Birmingham said. “We will continue to review, but don’t anticipate a change in rating.”The tornado left a 14-year old person dead and more than 30 injured. It had a path length of 15 km (9.5 miles) and a maximum width of 457 m (500 yards). See our initial report, here.The teenager was killed and several of his family members critically injured when the tornado blew a tree onto their home, the police said.”They were doing what they were supposed to be doing,” Fultondale Police Chief D.P. Smith said.Pieces of buildings, furniture, appliances and trees were strewn about and vehicles ended up in awkward positions as if a child had flung his collection of Matchbox cars into the air, CBS News said. One car landed upside down against some tree branches on a large pile of debris. Fultondale also caught the tail end of an EF-4 tornado that moved across Alabama from Tuscaloosa to northern Jefferson County on April 27, 2011, killing 65 people and injuring 1 500. The damage path was more than 130 km (80 miles) long.

480,000 people killed by extreme weather in last 20 years, analysis shows –Almost half a million people have died in natural disasters linked to extreme weather events in the last 20 years, according to a new assessment of the direct threat posed to humanity by climate change. The mortality burden of climate-related catastrophes such as storms, flooding and heatwaves is overwhelmingly borne by developing countries.At the start of the Climate Adaptation Summit, held virtually this year due to the pandemic, the think tank Germanwatch calculated that these disasters have cost the global economy a staggering $2.56 trillion this century.An analysis of more than 11,000 extreme weather events showed nearly 480,000 fatalities since 2000, with Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti the worst hit areas, it said. Under the 2015 Paris climate deal, wealthier nations are supposed to provide $100 billion every year to help poorer states mitigate temperature rises and adapt to the changing climate.But recent research suggests the true amount of funding available to developing countries for climate action is vastly lower.Germanwatch’s Global Climate Index examined the impact of two decades of extreme weather events, particularly the 2019 storm season, which produced hurricanes and cyclones that devastated parts of the Caribbean, east Africa and south Asia.”This shows that poor vulnerable countries face particularly great challenges in dealing with the consequences of extreme weather events,” said co-author David Eckstein. “They urgently need financial and technical assistance.”

Multiple storms impacting U.S. with winter weather from coast to coast – Multiple winter storms will impact much of the U.S. with winter weather over the next few days, the National Weather Service (NWS) warns.

• One storm is producing heavy snow from the Midwest into the Great Lakes and Northeast with a wintry mix in the Mid-Atlantic.
• Another cold system will move through the Four Corners region with heavy mountain snow.
• Finally, a major winter storm will strike California with excessive rain and heavy mountain snow.

Multiple systems across the United States are producing impactful precipitation and will continue to do so over the next few days, NWS forecaster Campbell said. The leading low pressure system is lifting through the Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys. Lines of thunderstorms are tracking ahead of the cold front within the warm sector over the Gulf states, Tennessee Valley, and parts of the Southeast and southern Mid-Atlantic. Periods of moderate to heavy rainfall may lead to excessive rainfall and/or localized flash flooding conditions for parts of the eastern Tennessee Valley and Central Appalachians through Tuesday morning (LT), January 26. Multiple winter storms will impact much of the U.S. with winter weather over the next few days, the National Weather Service (NWS) warns. One storm is producing heavy snow from the Midwest into the Great Lakes and Northeast with a wintry mix in the Mid-Atlantic. Another cold system will move through the Four Corners region with heavy mountain snow. Finally, a major winter storm will strike California with excessive rain and heavy mountain snow. Multiple systems across the United States are producing impactful precipitation and will continue to do so over the next few days, NWS forecaster Campbell said. The leading low pressure system is lifting through the Mississippi and Tennessee Valleys. Lines of thunderstorms are tracking ahead of the cold front within the warm sector over the Gulf states, Tennessee Valley, and parts of the Southeast and southern Mid-Atlantic. Periods of moderate to heavy rainfall may lead to excessive rainfall and/or localized flash flooding conditions for parts of the eastern Tennessee Valley and Central Appalachians through Tuesday morning (LT), January 26. Freezing rain/sleet may be present from northern Missouri to the northern Mid-Atlantic/southern Northeast and lead to accumulations of up to 13 mm (0.50 inches). The highest accumulations will likely occur in the higher terrain of eastern West Virginia, western Virginia, western Maryland, and southwest Pennsylvania. Consequently, travel may quickly become hazardous. Snow is expected on the northern periphery of the precipitation shield over the Ohio Valley, Great Lakes, and Northeast. This system will continue moving east through Wednesday, January 27 before moving offshore. Over 30 cm (1 foot) of snow could fall across southeast Nebraska and southwest Iowa, this includes Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska. Numerous Winter Weather Advisories and Winter Storm Warnings have been issued for the impacted regions. Scattered to widespread snow is falling across parts of Arizona, Utah, and parts of the Southwest as a low pressure system tracks through the Great Basin. The higher elevations will likely have heavy snow with this system, possibly yielding a foot or more of accumulations. Travel through this part of the country may be hazardous. Light snow can be expected from the central Plains to the lower Ohio Valley. Moderate snowfall amounts up to 150 mm (6 inches) will be possible Wednesday night, January 27 across the southern Appalachians.

More than 330 000 customers without power as major winter storm hits California –A strong frontal system — Category 3 atmospheric river — impacting California and parts of Nevada through Thursday, January 28, 2021, is bringing gusty winds, very heavy rain, and mountain snow, in some parts extreme. Whiteout/blizzard conditions and heavy snow in the Sierra Nevada may cause road closures and travel delays. Extreme avalanche danger is expected across Central Sierra Nevada Mountains from Wednesday, January 27 through Friday, January 29. Additionally, flash flooding and debris flows are possible across parts of central and southern California. Over the next three days, as much as 250 – 380 mm (10 to 15 inches) of rain could fall along the central California coast roughly between Monterey and Santa Barbara. This amount of rain in a 72-hour period is very rare for this region, with an annual exceedance probability of only 2%. Another significant storm is expected to reach the region early next week! Excessive heavy lower elevation rain is expected to bring dangerous flash flood risk to coastal California into Wednesday, January 27, NWS warns. Meanwhile, extreme snowfall amounts are expected across the Sierra Nevada through Thursday. As a result of strong winds, more than 330 000 customers in California are without power, as of 09:00 UTC on January 27, and the number keeps rising. Several major highways were already closed on Tuesday and evacuation orders triggered in San Mateo County in anticipation of heavy rain. Authorities warned that the 34 800 ha (86 000 acres) of land burned around the Santa Cruz Mountains in the fall of 2020 by the massive CZU Lightning Complex fire is especially vulnerable. Burn scars left by the Dolan fire, which destroyed over 48 560 ha (120 000 acres) nearby, are also vulnerable. The soil is now weak without vegetation to hold it in place and at heightened risk for debris flows and mudslides, the LA Times reports.

‘Atmospheric River’ Causes Disastrous Flooding, Mudslides in California – Exceptionally heavy rain caused debris flows and flash flooding that damaged as many as two dozen homes and buildings in California’s Salinas Valley on Wednesday.In Paso Robles, unhoused people living in the Salinas Riverbed are especially in danger and local officials were working to alert them to the potential 20-25-foot rise in water levels. The heavy rains produced by an atmospheric river also caused flooding and knocked out power for thousands in the Bay Area and the threat of landslides and debris flows remains across the state after the state’s record-smashing 2020 wildfireseason.The landslides are an example of the compound disasters made more frequent as human caused climate change makes wildfires more extreme and extreme precipitation more frequent.As reported by KPIX: The heavy rain triggered a mudslide in the River Road area near the Salinas River and Highway 101 south of Salinas. KSBW reported an estimated 50 large animals that were stuck in mud that had to be rescued. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Monterey County confirmed Wednesday afternoon that it had taken in 41 animals for shelter due to people having to evacuate the area. As of Wednesday afternoon, SPCA Monterey County had taken in nine dogs, 14 cats, 17 horses and a donkey for residents who did not have anywhere else to take the animals.Anyone in the county who needs assistance with sheltering animals is asked to call the organization at (831) 373-2631 during day hours and (831) 264-5424 at night.River Road has been closed by the California Highway Patrol from Chualar River Road north to Parker Canyon Road due to flooding and mud.MCRFD working with local property owners on damage assessment In the River Rd area. Thank you to all the local ranc … https://t.co/7PgkagcJsV The weather service said its tracking has the Big Sur coastline as the ‘bullseye’ for the storm front that has been intensified by the moisture from an atmospheric river.“Our local in-house model is showing extensive storm totals in the Big Sur hills in excess of 20 inches with a bullseye amount in excess of 31 inches,” the weather service said.

Des Moines breaks single-day snowfall record set in 1895, Iowa – Des Moines in Iowa set a new single-day snowfall record on Monday, January 25, 2021, after the city recorded up to 26.2 cm (10.3 inches), breaking the previous record of 25.4 cm (10 inches) set in 1895.Snow started falling Monday noon in central Iowa and continued into Tuesday morning, creating hazardous travel conditions across the state.The weather also disrupted flights into and out of Des Moines International Airport, while many school districts were prompted to dismiss or cancel classes. By the end of Monday, the city registered 26.2 cm (10.3 inches) of snow, according to the National Weather Service (NWS). It smashed the record for January 25, previously set when 25.4 cm (10 inches) of snow fell 126 years ago, in 1895.Between Monday morning to Tuesday noon, the Iowa State Patrol responded to 147 crashes, eight of which resulted in injured passengers. Crews also responded to 45 stalled vehicles. By Tuesday noon, 32.8 cm (12.9 inches) of snow had fallen in the airport, marking the 12thhighest two-day snow total in the city’s history and snowiest storm in Des Moines since a blizzard dumped 39.4 cm (15.5 inches) over December 8 to 9 in 2009. NWS meteorologist Taylor Nicolaisen told the Associated Press that it’s not common for the region to get more than a foot of snow from a single storm, adding that it has been decades since some cities had this much snow.

Joe Biden executive orders: a new goal to triple protected lands and ocean waters – Biden took the next leap in pursuing his climate agenda Wednesday, signing the latest in a spate of environment-focused executive orders. One of the most ambitious goals buried in the order he put forward is to conserve nearly a third of US land and ocean waters by 2030. Currently, only 12 percent of the country’s land and 26 percent of its oceans are protected, according to a 2018 report by the Center for American Progress. This was achieved byslowly expanding protected areas over the past few decades – until former President Trump took office. In his first year, his administration dramatically shrank two Utah monuments, Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante – the largest removal of federal land from protection in US history, according to the New York Times. Now the Biden administration will have to quickly reverse course to meet the new goal. The “30 by 30” target is based on scientific recommendations for addressing the rapid loss of biodiversity and using natural ecosystems to fight climate change. The biodiversity crisis may still be invisible to many people, but it has had profound effects. One recent study found that North America has lost over a quarter of its bird population since 1970. And biodiversity isn’t just for birdwatchers, it also underpins the health of the ecosystems that sustain agriculture and many other essential activities.Advocates of the 30 by 30 target, who’ve been pushing for it for several years, say addressing our various planetary crises requires this kind of bold action. “30 by 30 is rising to the level of ambition we need to see,” Greg Zimmerman, director at Protect 30×30, told Vox.In the same executive order today, Biden announced a pause on new leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands – a shift that could free up more land for conservation. And that is only one of many tools the administration might use to fulfill the new goal. Here’s a quick rundown of the science behind 30 by 30 and how it might become reality.The target of 30 by 30 is ambitious, but it is actually only a step toward an aggressive new approach to conservation scientists say is needed to limit the biodiversity crisis and climate change. Under the pressures of population growth, increasing consumption, habitat destruction, and rising temperatures, species have been disappearing alarmingly fast: going extinct at 100 to 1,000 times the normal rate seen over the past millions of years. In a major May 2019 biodiversity report, the UN warned that 1 million species are at risk of extinction across the world. The “sixth mass extinction” is in fact set to accelerate, a study published in PNAS one month later confirmed.

A large number of gray whales are starving and dying in the eastern North Pacific – It’s mid-January 2021, and the first gray whales from the eastern North Pacific population have started to arrive in the breeding lagoons in Baja California, Mexico. Since the start of their southbound migration from their high latitude feeding grounds, several sightings of emaciated gray whales have already been reported along their migration route. This has raised concern among scientists that the unusual mortality event (UME, an unexpected phenomenon during which a significant number of a marine mammal population dies), that started in January 2019, and which so far has resulted in 378 confirmed gray whale deaths, and possibly many more unrecorded, is entering its third year. Gray whales undertake annual migrations between feeding grounds in the Bering, Chukchi, and Arctic Seas, and breeding grounds from the Southern California Bight to lagoons along the Pacific coast of Baja California, Mexico. During the summer feeding season, between May and October, the whales build up large amount of energy reserves, mainly in the form of blubber, to support the energetic costs of migration and while residing on the breeding grounds. Sufficient energy reserves is crucial for the reproduction and survival of gray whales, which do not feed during the migration and breeding season. In 2017, Dr. Fredrik Christiansen from the Dept. of Zoology at Aarhus University, and Professor Lars Bejder from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa, joined LSIESP to study the body condition of gray whales with the use of drone photogrammetry. The technique involves measuring thebody length and width of gray whales from vertical photographs taken by drones above the whales, from which a measure of relative body condition (or fatness) of individual whales can be obtained. Already in the second year of sampling, the researchers found a marked decline in the body condition of juvenile and adult gray whales visiting Laguna San Ignacio. The decline was also visible in 2019, at the start of the current UME. The decline in body condition also coincided with a drop in the number of mother-calf pairs sighted in Laguna San Ignacio, which indicated a reduction in the reproductive rate of female gray whales. A similar UME occurred in 1999-2000, when 651 gray whales were recorded dead along the west coast of North America. During that two-year event, the gray whale population declined with about 25% from about 21,000 animals in 1998 to about 16,000 in 2002. It is yet unknown what effects the current UME is having on the eastern North Pacific population.

Oceanic Shark Populations Dropped 71% Since 1970 – Scientists have known for decades that individual shark species are declining, but a new study drawing on 57 global datasets underscores just how dramatically worldwide populations have collapsed in the past half century.More fromSea-Doo Maker Seeks Growth Beyond Fan Base After Pandemic BoomNippon Life to Make Portfolio Carbon Neutral, Kyodo SaysOil-State Republicans Say White House Rebuffed MeetingBiden Revokes Oil Drilling Permits for Additional ReviewGlobally, the abundance of oceanic sharks and rays dropped more than 70% between 1970 and 2018, according to a study published Wednesday in the journal Nature.And 24 of the 31 species of sharks and rays are threatened with extinction, while three species – oceanic whitetip sharks, scalloped hammerhead sharks and great hammerhead sharks – are considered critically endangered.”The last 50 years have been pretty devastating for global shark populations,” said Nathan Pacoureau, a biologist at Simon Fraser University in Canada and a co-author of the study.Sometimes sharks are intentionally caught by fishing fleets, but more often they are reeled in incidentally as ” bycatch,” in the course of fishing for other species such as tuna and swordfish.Sharks and rays are both fish with skeletons made of cartilage, not bone. In contrast to most other kinds of fish, they generally take several years to reach sexual maturity, and they produce fewer offspring.”In terms of timing, they reproduce more like mammals – and that makes them especially vulnerable,” said Pacoureau. “Their populations cannot replenish as quickly as many other kinds of fish.”The number of fishing vessels trolling the open ocean has risen steeply since the 1950s, as engine power expanded ships’ range. And while climate change and pollution also imperil shark survival, increased fishing pressure is the greatest threat for every oceanic shark species.”When you remove top predators of the ocean, it impacts every part of the marine food web,” said Stuart Pimm, an ecologist at Duke University, who was not involved in the study. “Sharks are like the lions, tigers and bears of the ocean world, and they help keep the rest of the ecosystem in balance.”

Shark and Ray Populations Declining Rapidly, Scientists Call for Urgent Fishing Limits – An alarming new study reports that the global population of sharks and rays has declined 71 percent since 1970. The crash, due to overfishing, underscores the need for international policymakers to reverse the species’ impending collapse.Published in Nature, the study is one of the first global assessments of its kind, The New York Times reported. But the results may not capture the full extent of the loss, scientists warn. Due to incomplete data and growth in the fishing industry, before the study began, shark and ray numbers are most likely lower than reported.”The decline isn’t stopping, which is a problem,” Nathan Pacoureau, a researcher at Simon Fraser University in Canada and the lead author of the study told The Guardian. “Everything in our oceans is so depleted now.”While oil and gas drilling and the increasing impacts of the climate crisis are threatening the species, increased overfishing is the main cause for the drastic population reduction, The Guardian reported.Often depleting stocks faster than a species can restock itself, fishing has increased drastically since 1970, pushing more than half of the 31 oceanic shark species onto the endangered or critically endangered list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature, The Guardian reported.Sharks and rays, which are often killed for their meat, fins and oil, are often caught accidentally by fishermen,The New York Times noted. But catching sharks and rays doesn’t have to be an “inevitable” part of commercial fishing. We have volumes of scientific studies now about how you might avoid catching sharks to begin with, and certainly a lot about the best practices for releasing the shark safely and making sure it survives,” Sonja Fordham, an author of the study and the president of Shark Advocates International told The New York Times. “It matters, for example, how long a shark struggles on the line, so fishermen should monitor their lines regularly. They should avoid shark hot spots and use shark-friendly gear that allows the creatures to break free while keeping tuna and swordfish on the line.”

The Atlantic Ocean Is Getting Wider, Scientists Think They Know Why – The Atlantic Ocean is getting wider and, after a uniquely ambitious expedition, scientists finally think they know why. The reason? An upwelling of matter from much deeper below Earth’s crust than is usually observed.”This was completely unexpected,” Dr. Kate Rychert from the University of Southampton said in a press release. “It has broad implications for our understanding of Earth’s evolution and habitability.”Rychert is a coauthor on a Nature study published Wednesday that details the new findings, which provide a new window into how plate tectonics work beneath the world’s second largest ocean. Scientists have long known that the tectonic plates beneath North and South America are moving apart from those beneath Africa and Asia, widening the Atlantic Ocean at a rate of about 1.5 inches a year, Business Insider explained. This is happening at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, an undersea mountain range that separates the North American and South American plates on the Western side from the Eurasian and African plates to the East. But, until recently, scientists were not sure how.That’s because plates tend to move as gravity pulls the denser parts of plates into Earth, the press release explained. But the Atlantic Ocean is not surrounded by dense plates. Instead, the researchers discovered that material from Earth’s mantle is swelling up beneath the ridge and pushing the plates apart from below. What’s more, this material is coming from depths of more than 600 kilometers (approximately 371 miles). Usually, upwellings of this sort are much shallower, originating from depths of 60 kilometers (approximately 37 miles.). When they are deeper in origin, they tend to occur in more isolated areas. “Upwelling from the lower to the upper mantle and all the way up to the surface is typically associated with localized places on Earth, such as Iceland, Hawaii and Yellowstone, and not with mid-ocean ridges,”

Large sinkholes still opening one month after destructive M6.4 earthquake in Petrinja, Croatia – —One month after the most powerful earthquake in the history of Croatia — M6.4 in Petrinja on December 29, 2020 — large sinkholes are still opening near the epicenter.Numerous sinkholes have opened up in the village of MeÄenÄani, located about 25 km (15 miles) from the epicenter, after the earthquake struck on December 29. Thousands of aftershocks were registered after the quake, with new ones still being detected every day.Some of the holes are several meters wide, with the largest up to 30 m (100 feet) and more. The largest hole is about 15 m (50 feet) deep, but most of the holes are filled with water, making depth estimates difficult.The existing holes are still growing, displacing residents, and new ones are still opening in the area every day.Some of the growing holes are so close to homes, there are fears some of them might get swallowed in.According to locals, holes started appearing 2 days before the mainshock, but their number rapidly increased on December 29.10 days after the quake there were 15 holes in the village, with at least another 15 nearby. Experts said sinkholes in this karst region would open up eventually even without the quake.

Over 68 earthquakes recorded near Rotorua, New Zealand -More than 68 shakes have been recorded near Rotorua, New Zealand, since 18:47 UTC on January 24, 2021 (07:47 LT on January 25), with magnitudes up to 4.9 and depth of 5 km (3 miles), according to GeoNet.More than 5 200 people reported feeling the tremors on the GeoNet website, with a residentdescribing one shake as the biggest. “[It was] the biggest I have felt in years. I am still shaking.” Another resident also said, “The biggest one went so long I didn’t think it would end,”The first quake had a magnitude of 4.5 located 20 km (12 miles) east of Rotorua at a depth of 4 km (2.5 miles). It was then followed by an M4.9 aftershock in the same area, at a depth of 5 km (3 miles), as well as several more tremblors.Bay of Plenty Civil Defence stated in a post on social media that a lot of people reported swaying, but “at this stage, we are not aware of any damage.””Some things are still being checked as a precaution, especially because they were such shallow quakes.”GeoNet wrote that the earthquakes looked like a swarm, which they often experience in the area. “We’ve recorded over 68 events since 18:47 UTC on Sunday (07:47 LT on Monday).”The last swarm with quakes of this size within the caldera was in July 2004 located just north near Lake Rotoehu and before that in 1998, just to the south of today’s sequence.”

Significant eruption at Merapi volcano, ash to 12.2 km (40 000 feet) a.s.l., Indonesia – A significant eruption took place at the Indonesian Merapi volcano at 06:40 UTC on January 27, 2021. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red. Due to the meteorological cloud, ash estimate to 12.2 km (40 000 feet) above sea level was based on the IR temperature. Ash cloud is moving NNW, the Darwin VAAC reports. Multiple ground reports warned of a significant eruption, the center added. In addition, volcanic ash below 7.3 km (24 000 feet) a.s.l. is expected to move NE. The volcano produced at least 14 pyroclastic flows today, with a maximum distance of 1.5 km (0.93 miles). This time, pyroclastic flows were observed on the southwest flanks of the volcano, reaching Krasak and Boyong rivers. As a result, ashfall was reported in several villages in Tamansari District, Boyolali Regency, and Boyolali City.BPPTKG reported that the ‘2021 lava dome’ continued to emerge just below Merapi’s SW rim from January 8 to 14, producing a total of 128 incandescent lava avalanches that traveled as far as 900 m (3 000 feet) down the Krasak River drainage on the SW flank. A comparison of photos taken on January 7 and 14 showed that the morphological changes in the summit area were attributed to the emergence of new lava domes. The 2021 dome volume was an estimated 46 766 m3 (1.6 million feet3) on January 14, with a growth rate of about 8 500 m3 (300 000 feet3) per day.

Eruption at La Soufriere remains effusive, lava dome continues growing, St. Vincent and the Grenadines – The eruption at La Soufriere volcano remains effusive, however, that could change given the historical activity at the volcano, UWI-SRC director Dr. Erouscilla Joseph said. At the moment, the eruption is localized close to the crater itself, but the volcano does have the potential for more powerful activity, and residents in the hazard areas should be vigilant.The University of the West Indies Seismic Research Centre (UWI-SRC), the official source for information on earthquakes and volcanoes in the English-speaking Caribbean, is urging the people of St Vincent living with the potential risks from the ongoing eruption to listen to official sources, familiarise themselves with emergency protocols, and be prepared — if necessary — to evacuate. “Magma is gently oozing out through a vent and forming a dome,” said Joseph.”The possibility of this type of eruption going from effusive to explosive does exist. This volcano can show both types of eruptions. At this time, based on the information we have, the definitive timeline of this happening, or if it will happen at all, cannot be answered.”The alert level remains at Orange. People living in areas close to the volcano should expect strong sulfur smells for several days to weeks, depending on changes in wind direction.The National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) continues to appeal to the public to desist from visiting the volcano, especially going into the crater, since doing so is extremely dangerous.The latest estimated dimension of the new dome, as of January 27 — length 428 m (1 300 feet), width 217 m (712 feet), height 80 m (262 feet), the total estimated volume is 4.45 million m3(157.2 million feet3). On January 16, the height of the dome was 90 m (295 feet), length 350 m (1 150 feet), and width 160 m (525 feet).

Flames observed at Kilauea volcano, lava erupting from vents on NW side of HalemaÊ»umaÊ»u crater, Hawaii – Eruptive activity is ongoing at Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano, with lava erupting from a vent on the northwest side of the crater. As of January 25, 2021, the lake was around 205 m (673 feet) deep, while SO2 emission rates remain elevated. The volcano is currently on Alert Level Watch alert level and Aviation Color Code Orange.From January 23, the sulfur dioxide emission rate measurements are about 2 200 t/d, which is lower than the emission rates from the pre-2018 lava lake of 3 000 to 6 500 t/d.Seismicity is elevated but stable, with steadily elevated tremblors and a few minor quakes, according to the U.S. Geological Survey’s (USGS) update released on Tuesday, January 26.Geodetic monitors show that the upper part of the East Rift Zone contracted, while the summit deflated. No seismic or deformation data are present to indicate that additional magma is moving into either of the volcano’s rift zones.SO2 and H2S emissions from PuÊ»u ʻŌʻŠwere below detection levels when measured on January 7.Meanwhile, a low fountaining from the west vent supplies the lava pouring into the lake within the HalemaÊ»umaÊ»u lava crater.”At the moment effusion rates correlate, positively, with Uwe tilt and RSAM activity; higher (inflationary) tilt and RSAM values, greater lava effusion,” wrote USGS.Flames have been observed numerous times at the western fissure in Halema’uma’u.”We are not sure what the combusting gas is, but flames were observed numerous times in Halema’uma’u during the early 1900s lava lake.” High levels of volcanic gas, rockfalls, explosions, and volcanic glass particles are the main hazards of concern. Huge amounts of volcanic gas, primarily water vapor (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2), and sulfur dioxide (SO2)-are continuously emitted during eruptions of Kilauea.As SO2 is spewed from the summit, it will react in the atmosphere with oxygen, sunlight, moisture, and other gases and particles, and will convert to fine particles within hours or days.The particles scatter sunlight and cause the visible haze that has been observed downwind of the volcano known as volcanic smog or vog, during previous summit eruptions.

Researchers investigate what happens if ‘perfect solar storm’ hits Earth – In a new study published in Space Weather journal, researchers investigated what might happen if a ‘perfect’ coronal mass ejection (CME) hit the Earth. Using stateâ€ofâ€theâ€art computer models to simulate the worst-case solar storm, the team found that the event could be 10 times stronger than previously thought.For years, scientists have been wondering what’s the worst the Sun could do.In 2014, a study by Bruce Tsurutani from NASA JPL and Gurbax Lakhina from the Indian Institute of Geomagnetism introduced a perfect interplanetary coronal mass ejection, stating that it could generate a magnetic storm with intensity greater than the Carrington storm.The Carrington Event was the largest geomagnetic storm on record, which produced auroral displays as far south as the tropics.The study found that the interplanetary shock would arrive at Earth within 12 hours, giving emergency managers a short period of time to prepare as the storm eventually hits the magnetosphere at 45 times the local speed of sound. “It would be fast, leaving the Sun around 3 000 km/s and aimed directly at Earth. Moreover, it would follow another CME, which would clear the path in front of it, allowing the storm cloud to hit Earth with maximum force,” wrote the researchers. In response to the shock, a geomagnetic storm around twice as powerful as the 1859 Carrington storm would happen. “None of this if fantasy,” Dr. Tony Phillips of SpaceWeather.com notes, “The Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO) has observed CMEs leaving the sun at speeds up to 3 000 km/s. And there are many documented cases of one CME clearing the way for another.” A new study in 2020 led by physicist Dan Welling of the University of Texas at Arlington took a new look at Tsurutani and Lakhina’s perfect CME and came up with fresh conclusions. The team discovered that geomagnetic disturbances in response to a worst-case solar storm could be 10 times more powerful than what the previous study had calculated, especially at latitudes above 45 to 50 degrees.Welling stated that the findings “exceed values observed during many past extreme events, including the March 1989 storm that brought down the Hydro-Quebec power grid in eastern Canada; the May 1921 railroad storm; and the Carrington Event itself.”

World’s Ice Is Melting 65 Percent Faster Than in 1990s —The rate of worldwide ice loss has increased by more than 60 percent in the past three decades, a study published in The Cryosphere on Monday found.”The ice sheets are now following the worst-case climate warming scenarios set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change,” Dr. Thomas Slater, study lead author and research fellow at Leeds’ Center for Polar Observation and Modeling, said in a University of Leeds press release. “Sea-level rise on this scale will have very serious impacts on coastal communities this century.”Previous studies have used satellite data to assess ice loss from individual sources, such as polar ice caps,The Guardian explained. However, this is the first one to consider all sources of ice loss. The study found that the world lost around 31 trillion U.S. tons between 1994 and 2017. During that time, the rate of ice loss also increased 65 percent, from 0.9 trillion U.S. tons a year to 1.4 trillion U.S. tons a year. Ice loss from ice sheetsin Antarctica and Greenland largely contributed to that number, the press release stated. The paper also broke down which sources had lost the most ice in total terms between 1994 and 2017. Amounts are approximate and in U.S. tons:

1. Arctic sea ice: 8.4 trillion
2. Antarctic ice shelves: 7.2 trillion
3. Mountain glaciers: 6.7 trillion
4. Greenland ice sheet: 4.2 trillion
5. Antarctic ice sheet: 2.8 trillion
6. Southern Ocean sea ice: one trillion

The study also examined the leading cause of ice melt for each source, according to the press release. For Arctic sea ice and mountain glaciers, rising atmospheric temperatures have driven melting. For the Antarctic ice sheet, rising ocean temperatures have been the main cause. And for the Greenland ice sheet and Antarctic ice shelves, melting has been increased by a combination of the two. All told, melting from Antarctica, Greenland and mountain glaciers have increased sea levels by around 34.6 millimeters, the study found. While this might not sound like a lot, every centimeter of sea level rise puts around a million people in low-lying areas at risk of being flooded out of their homes, the press release said. Moreover, sea level rise isn’t the only threat from melting ice.

Wind-Blown Dust Is Causing Greenland’s Ice to Melt Faster – As the world’s ice sheets melt at an increasing rate, researchers are looking for explanations beyond just a hotter climate. A recent study found one answer may lie in the dust.Published on Monday in Nature Communications, the study found that phosphorus, a mineral found in dust, is a key nutrient for an extensive glacier algae bloom on Greenland’s ice sheet, known as the “dark zone.” As the algae grow, the ice becomes darker, decreasing its ability to reflect sunlight and causing the ice to melt faster and sea levels to rise.”It’s important to understand the controls on algal growth because of their role in ice sheet darkening,” Dr. Jenine McCutcheon, who led the study published in Nature Communications, told the University of Leeds. “Although algal blooms can cover up to 78 percent of the bare ice surfaces in the Dark Zone, their abundance and size can vary greatly over time,” Dr. McCutcheon added.Since 2000, the dark zone’s melting season has “progressively started earlier and lasted longer,” according to the University of Leeds. Glacier algal blooms are responsible for up to 13 percent of surface melting in this region, the study noted.But until recently little was known about how these algal blooms developed.Researchers found that phosphorus can cause the photosynthesis rate of the ice algae to improve significantly, McCutcheon said, according to the University of Leeds.Although researchers examined dust sourced from local rock, they warned that dust can be transported thousands of miles by the wind.”As dryland areas in northerly latitudes become even drier under climate change, we can expect to see more dust transported and deposited on the Greenland Ice Sheet, further fueling algal blooms,” Researchers are also asking how these algal blooms will grow and darken in a warming climate. “In 2019 our glaciers and ice sheets [are] already being darkened by dust, soot, and ash from our industrial world, which provides the perfect home for algae to flourish,” Alexandre Anesio, a professor in Arctic biogeochemistry from Aarhus University, who was not affiliated with the University of Leeds study, told The Guardian. “As the organisms reproduce, they melt even more snow, which in turn allows them to proliferate again. So it’s like a cycle. A very bad one.”

Earth’s Ice Loss Reflects Worst-Case Scenario, New Study Finds – Earth’s ice is melting 57 percent faster than in the 1990s and the world has lost more than 28 trillion tons of ice since 1994, research published Monday in The Cryosphere shows.”It was a surprise to see such a large increase in just 30 years,” said Thomas Slater, a study co-author. There have been huge efforts to study ice loss research in individual regions of the world, allowing the researchers to combine data to assess ice loss worldwide. Their findings show that Arctic ice is disappearing the fastest, with 7.6 trillion tons melting between 1994 to 2017. The report also found land ice melt alone contributed to a global average sea level rise of 3.5 centimeters. However, land ice is only a small portion of the world’s ice. Sea ice shelves, which float on water, are disappearing quickly. If they collapse, the land ice (glaciers) some sea ice shelves hold in place would be released and could accelerate sea level rise for centuries.As reported by The Guardian:The greatest quantities of ice were lost from floating ice in the polar regions, raising the risk of afeedback mechanism known as albedo loss. White ice reflects solar radiation back into space – the albedo effect – but when floating sea ice melts it uncovers dark water which absorbs more heat, speeding up the warming further in a feedback loop.Glaciers showed the next biggest loss of ice volume, with more than 6tn tonnes lost between 1994 and 2017, about a quarter of global ice loss over the period. The shrinking of glaciers threatens to cause both flooding and water shortages in some regions, because as large volumes melt they can overwhelm downstream areas, then shrunken glaciers produce less of the steady water flow needed for agriculture.Ines Otosaka, report co-author and a PhD researcher at the University of Leeds centre for polar observation and modelling, said: “As well as contributing to global mean sea level rise, mountain glaciers are also critical as a freshwater resource for local communities. The retreat of glaciers around the world is therefore of crucial importance, at both local and global scales.”

Greta Thunberg’s Message to World Leaders at Davos Summit – My name is Greta Thunberg and I’m not here to make deals. You see, I don’t belong to any financial interest or political party. So I can’t bargain or negotiate. I am only here to once again remind you of the emergency we’re in. The crisis that you and your predecessors have created and inflicted upon us. The crisis that you continue to ignore. I am here to remind you of the promises that you have made to your children and grandchildren. And to tell you that we are not willing to compromise on the very minimum safety levels that still remain. The climate and ecological crisis can unfortunately no longer be solved within today’s systems. According to the current best available science that is no longer an opinion; that’s a fact. We need to keep this in mind as countries, businesses and investors now rush forward to present their new so-called “ambitious” climate targets and commitments. The longer we avoid this uncomfortable truth, and the longer we pretend we can solve the climate – and ecological emergency – without treating it like a crisis – the more precious time we will lose. And this is time we do not have. Today, we hear leaders and nations all over the world speak of an “existential climate emergency”. But instead of taking the immediate action you would in any emergency, they set up vague, insufficient, hypothetical targets way into the future, like “net-zero 2050.” Targets based on loopholes and incomplete numbers. Targets that equal surrender. It’s like waking up in the middle of the night, seeing your house on fire, then deciding to wait 10, 20 or 30 years before you call the fire department while labeling those trying to wake people up alarmists. […] Because you still say one thing, and then do the complete opposite. You speak of saving nature, while locking in policies of further destruction for decades to come. You promise to not let future generations down, while creating new loopholes, failing to connect the dots, building your so called “pledges” on the cheating tactics that got us into this mess in the first place. If the commitments of lowering all our emissions by 70, 68 or even 55 percent by 2030 actually meant they aim to reduce them by those figures then that would be a great start. But that is unfortunately not the case. And since the level of public awareness continues to be so low our leaders can still get away with almost anything. No one is held accountable. It’s like a game. Whoever is best at packaging and selling their message wins. As it is now, we can have as many summits and meetings as we want, but unless we treat the climate and ecological crisis like a crisis, no sufficient changes will be achieved. What we need – to begin with – is to implement annual binding carbon budgets based on the current best available science. Right now more than ever we are desperate for hope. But what is hope? For me hope is not more empty assurances that everything will be alright, that things are being taken care of and we do not need to worry. For me, hope is the feeling that keeps you going, even though all odds may be against you. For me hope comes from action not just words. For me, hope is telling it like it is. No matter how difficult or uncomfortable that may be. And again, I’m not here to tell you what to do. After all, safeguarding the future living conditions and preserving life on earth as we know it is voluntary. The choice is yours to make. But I can assure you this. You can’t negotiate with physics. And your children and grandchildren will hold you accountable for the choices that you make. How’s that for a deal?

Kerry on climate talks: ‘I regret that my country has been absent’ U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told the United Nations on Monday that he regrets America’s absence from the fight against climate change during the previous administration. “Three years ago scientists gave us a stark warning. They said we have 12 years within which to avoid the worst consequences of climate change. Now we have nine years left and I regret that my country has been absent for three of those years,” Kerry said at the United Nations Climate Adaptation Summit. Kerry’s speech was one of his first official acts since President Biden named him a special envoy on climate and follows the president signing an executive order to recommit the U.S. to the Paris climate accord. “We’re proud to be back. We come back, I want you to know, with humility for the absence of the last four years, and we’ll do everything in our power to make up for it,” Kerry said. “President Biden has made fighting climate change a top priority of his administration. We have a president now, thank God, who leads, tells the truth and is seized by this issue.” Biden has pledged to put the U.S. on a path to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. But one of his first steps will be sorting out a new goal under the Paris agreement, a so-called nationally determined contribution (NDC). “We have already launched our work to prepare a new U.S. nationally determined contribution that meets the urgency of the challenge and we aim to announce our NDC as soon as practicable,” Kerry said, adding that the U.S. would also be upping its global financing to help other countries address climate change.

As Kerry Touts U.S. Climate Diplomacy, Biden Is Urged to End Dirty Energy Subsidies – While President Joe Biden’s top climate envoy John Kerry told world leaders at a virtual climate summit that the U.S. will fulfill its commitment to provide financial support to developing countries as they grapple with the deadly consequences of a warming planet, campaigners are urging the U.S. to follow the lead of European Union officials who on Monday pledged to stop subsidizing fossil fuels and instead invest in a just transition toward clean energy.”Ending government support for fossil fuels is a no-brainer,” Laurie van der Burg of Oil Change International said Monday in a statement responding to the EU’s newly stated commitment to phasing out dirty energy subsidies and helping to fund a global push toward renewable energy. “Globally, governments are still propping up fossil fuels with huge sums of public money, behavior that is incompatible with keeping global warming below 1.5C.”Oil Change International’s Collin Rees said that “today’s commitment by the EU to end overseas investment in oil, gas, and coal projects is yet another indication that the fossil fuel era is over. As a new administration takes power in Washington, this is a powerful signal that clean energy is ascendant and that the EU stands willing to work with President Biden and others to end all finance for dirty energy.”Noting that Biden “has committed to end fossil fuel subsidies and dirty energy finance,” van der Burg pointed out that the UK in December “announced an end to their overseas public finance for fossil fuel.”According to van der Burg, “This creates a powerful opportunity for the EU, UK, and U.S. to collaborate to finally end government-backed finance for oil, gas, and coal ahead of the UK-hosted UN climate summit in November.”Rees argued that “Biden should act boldly on his campaign commitments to end finance for dirty energy projects.” “By building on past commitments to end coal finance and extending this to oil and gas,” Rees added, “Biden can join the EU and UK in transforming international finance to address the challenges of the next century, not prop up the remnants of the last century’s infrastructure.”

Pentagon declares climate change a ‘national security issue’ – The Pentagon will now consider climate change when planning war games and will incorporate the issue into its future National Defense Strategy, according to a Wednesday announcement. “There is little about what the [Defense] Department does to defend the American people that is not affected by climate change. It is a national security issue, and we must treat it as such,” Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a statement. “The Department will immediately take appropriate policy actions to prioritize climate change considerations in our activities and risk assessments, to mitigate this driver of insecurity.” Austin announced the change after President Biden earlier on Wednesday signed a series of executive orders aimed at addressing the climate crisis. The shift means the Department of Defense (DOD) will now “include the security implications of climate change in our risk analyses, strategy development, and planning guidance,” according to Austin. “As a leader in the interagency, the Department of Defense will also support incorporating climate risk analysis into modeling, simulation, wargaming, analysis, and the next National Defense Strategy. And by changing how we approach our own carbon footprint, the Department can also be a platform for positive change, spurring the development of climate-friendly technologies at scale,” he said. The Pentagon since 2010 has acknowledged that climate change could pose a threat to where the military operates and its roles and missions. Heavy downpours, drought, rising temperature and sea level, and repeated, raging forest fires affect the military not only at home but extending to abroad as they can have significant geopolitical impacts. The DOD has spent hundreds of millions of dollars to help bases prevent or repair climate-related damage, including Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., which was damaged by Hurricane Michael in 2018, and Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., which flooded in 2019. Under former President Trump, who repeatedly indicated he thought climate change is a “hoax,” Pentagon officials have had to tiptoe around the issue as the president routinely dismissed the scientific consensus that the phenomenon is real and caused by human activity.

The Biden climate plan, Part 2: Preparation for war – As Biden has assembled his new administration, he devoted Wednesday, January 27, to unveiling his plans to fight climate change, with former Secretary of State John Kerry as his “climate envoy” and former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy as the top White House adviser on climate change.The record of these two leaders of the Biden climate policy demonstrates both the insincerity of the new administration’s appeal to widespread popular concerns over global warming and the alignment of its policies with the worldwide interests of American imperialism.McCarthy was head of the EPA during the worst pollution event in recent history, the systematic poisoning of the population of Flint, Michigan in the lead-in-water scandal that came to light in 2015. The federal EPA shared responsibility with state and local officials for covering up the profit-driven decisions that produced this catastrophe, leading to the deaths of dozens of people and the poisoning of tens of thousands, including many children who may suffer lifelong consequences. As for Kerry, the former senator, presidential candidate and secretary of state, he has so many crimes in the service of American imperialism on his dossier that it would take another article of this length just to list them all. Suffice it to say that he has supported all the American wars in the Middle East, including the 2003 invasion of Iraq, the US attack on Libya in 2011, and the ongoing interventions in Syria and Yemen, as well as the war in Afghanistan, now more than 20 years old.His selection as climate envoy is a declaration by Biden that US efforts in relation to environmental issues will be driven, first and foremost, by the geopolitical needs of American imperialism, and particularly its predatory aims for the subjugation of China and Russia, which Washington regards as its two biggest military and security rivals.

Schumer calls for Biden to declare climate emergency – Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said on Monday night that President Biden should consider declaring an emergency when it comes to the climate. “It might be a good idea for President Biden to call a climate emergency,” Schumer told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow. Schumer appeared to be referencing Biden making a national emergency declaration, with the Senate leader noting that former President Trump used it for the border wall. “He can do many, many things under the emergency powers … that he could do without legislation,” Schumer added about what authority Biden would have if he used his emergency powers. “Trump used this emergency for a stupid wall, which wasn’t an emergency. But if there ever was an emergency, climate is one,” Schumer added. Declaring a national emergency would give Biden more leeway on combating climate change, including being able to direct additional funding. Schumer’s suggestion is what many Republicans feared would happen the next time a Democrat was in the White House after Trump used the emergency declaration to get more funding for the border wall in the face of congressional opposition. “If today, the national emergency is border security … tomorrow the national emergency might be climate change,” Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) told CNBC in 2019. Schumer’s push comes as the president has already issued climate-related executive orders including rejoining the Paris climate agreement. The Washington Post reported on Monday night that he’ll also impose a moratorium this week on new federal oil and gas leases. But Democrats have pledged to make climate change a top priority as they have control of both chambers in Congress and the White House for the first time in roughly a decade. Though legislation typically needs 60 votes to clear the Senate, Schumer told MSNBC that Democrats were also studying ways that they could include climate change legislation and parts of Biden’s Build Back Better plan under reconciliation. The budget tactic allows some spending-related bills to pass the Senate with only a simple majority. But Democrats are limited in how frequently they could use it. Schumer noted that the first reconciliation bill was likely to go toward coronavirus relief because Democrats want to move quickly and Biden’s $1.9 trillion relief proposal has gotten GOP pushback.

Schumer Wants Biden to Bypass Congress on Climate | Rigzone — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer called for President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency, a controversial move that would give the new administration sweeping authority to circumvent Congress to combat global warming. Declaring a climate emergency could unlock new powers for Biden, including the ability to redirect funding for clean energy projects, shut down crude oil exports, suspend offshore drilling and curtail the movement of fossil fuels on pipelines, trains, and ships. Former President Donald Trump used the tactic in February 2019 to divert billions of dollars to start construction on the wall along the southern border after Congress refused to appropriate the funding. “Now, Trump used this emergency for a stupid wall, which wasn’t an emergency,” Schumer said in an interview with MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow that aired on Monday night. “But if there ever was an emergency climate is one. So I would suggest that they explore looking at climate as an emergency, which would give them more flexibility.” Any such move would almost certainly face court challenges — just as Trump’s wall funding maneuver did. In July 2019, the Supreme Court cleared his administration’s plan to use disputed Pentagon funds to construct more than 100 miles of fencing along the Mexican border. Schumer also said he thought his party could advance major parts of a climate agenda — even a ban on conventional, gas-powered cars — through budget reconciliation, a process that allows easier passage of some tax and spending legislation on a simple majority vote. Republicans used the process in 2017 to mandate the sale of Arctic drilling rights. The Senate is now divided 50-50, with Vice President Kamala Harris giving the Democrats a tie-breaking vote. That makes it difficult to enact sweeping new programs through traditional legislation. On most major bills, Democratic leaders will have to navigate around moderates in their own party — including Senator Joe Manchin of coal-rich West Virginia — and lure 60 votes including some Republicans to overcome a filibuster. Schumer emphasized that Democrats could use reconciliation to enact a ban on the manufacture of internal combustion engines powered by oil- and plant-based fuels. He has previously said that if Democrats won control of the Senate he would put an ambitious $454 billion plan on the floor to remove gas-powered vehicles from American roads by 2040.

‘We Need to Be Bold,’ Biden Says, Taking the First Steps in a Major Shift in Climate Policy – The sweeping executive orders that President Joe Biden signed on Wednesday will not, by themselves, cut greenhouse gas emissions. He will have to forge consensus in a closely divided Congress, sparring with both progressives and fossil fuel industry advocates to set the nation on course to net-zero carbon pollution by mid-century. But the package of measures signal that even as his new administration grapples with Covid-19 and economic crisis, Biden aims to follow through on his campaign pledge to integrate climate change into decision-making across the federal government. And the orders underscore how dramatic a reversal will be needed to regain the ground lost after the Trump administration’s four years of ignoring the scientific imperative to cut carbon emissions. “This is not a time for small measures,” said Biden. “We need to be bold.”Where former President Donald Trump’s team dismissed the notion that climate was a national security threat, Biden is seeking to quantify the extent of the danger, ordering the first ever National Intelligence Estimate on the security implications of climate change. Where the Trump administration abandoned the U.S. drive for more efficient vehicles, Biden wants to accelerate, with the federal government buying enough clean cars to jump-start the market and create jobs. Where the Trump administration removed protections from vast swaths of land, turning national monuments into fair game for industry, Biden set a national goal of conserving at least 30 percent of the nation’s lands and oceans by 2030. And where the Trump administration sought to loosen all restraints on oil and gas production, Biden is calling for an indefinite halt of new leasing on federal land and waters, as a precursor to ending the dependence of the United States on fossil fuels. Perhaps most striking, Biden, in Wednesday’s executive orders, elevated racial justice and scientific integrity as two pillars of his climate program. It was an implicit condemnation of Trump regulatory rollbacks, of their outsized impact on communities of color and of the former administration’s sidelining of mainstream science.

Biden to place environmental justice at center of sweeping climate plan – President Biden made tackling America’s persistent racial and economic disparities a central part of his plan to combat climate change Wednesday, prioritizing environmental justice for the first time in a generation. As part of an unprecedented push to cut the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions and create new jobs as the United States shifts toward cleaner energy, Biden directed agencies across the federal government to invest in low-income and minority communities that have traditionally borne the brunt of pollution. “Lifting up these communities makes us all stronger as a nation and increases the health of everybody,” Biden said. Biden signed an executive order establishing a White House interagency council on environmental justice, create an office of health and climate equity at the Health and Human Services Department, and form a separate environmental justice office at the Justice Department. The order also directs the government to spend 40 percent of its sustainability investments on disadvantaged communities. “It’s hard,” the president said, referring to communities that are just a fenceline away from polluting facilities. “The hard-hit areas like Cancer Alley in Louisiana, or the Route 9 Corridor in the state of Delaware. That’s why we’re going to work to make sure that they receive 40 percent of the benefits of key federal investments in clean energy, clean water and wastewater infrastructure.” Cathleen Kelly, a fellow who focuses on energy and environment at the Center for American Progress, a liberal think tank, called the actions “a historic commitment.” “The executive order will help to lay out a clear path to implementing President Biden’s climate and justice commitments,” Kelly said. “It will get the gears turning in each agency across the federal government. With Biden in the White House and the current leaders we have in Congress, this year represents an unprecedented opportunity to have executive and legislative action.”

Biden pitching a much vaster climate plan than Obama ever attempted – President Joe Biden is launching his sweeping assault on climate change with a much larger army of allies than Barack Obama had 12 years ago – a coalition that ranges from labor unions, anti-fracking activists and racial justice advocates to leaders of Wall Street, the auto industry and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. But Biden also faces a challenge: holding together this teeming coalition, with its many competing agendas, long enough to break the logjam in Congress that doomed Obama’s efforts to force his policy changes through Congress. He’s also pitching a much vaster climate plan than Obama ever attempted, with calls for trillions of dollars in new spending along with efforts to make combating global warming a prime mission for the entire executive branch. “That big of a tent requires a big bank account, and that really to me is more of the question – how much money are they going to be willing to commit to this?” said Phil Smith, spokesperson for the United Mine Workers of America labor union. “How much money is Congress going to be willing to let them commit to this?”The factions pushing to influence Biden’s agenda also have far different priorities – including Bernie Sanders-supporting green groups that want to ban all oil and gas drilling, automakers anticipating new markets for electric cars and fossil fuel companies that hope U.S. climate action will leave room for them to continue to produce the oil and gas whose production had boomed under the previous three presidents. Biden drew a sharp line between his plan to fight climate change and the Trump administration, which rolled back regulations, denigrated the science and turned its back on the global efforts to rein in the greenhouse gases pumping up the Earth’s temperatures. Wednesday’s flurry of executive orders have their roots in the policies he rolled out during the campaign and the pledge to make climate change policy one of the administration’s top priorities.

Sen. Joe Manchin will determine how much President Biden can achieve on climate – The Washington Post –He’s a coal country native, born to a family of mining town mayors. As West Virginia governor, he sued the Environmental Protection Agency. He has scuttled efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, criticized the Paris climate agreement and famously shot a copy of a cap-and-trade carbon proposal full of lead.Now the fate of the most ambitious climate agenda ever proposed by an American president rests in his hands.Sen. Joe Manchin III, who is set to become chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is a conservative Democrat from one of the reddest states in the country. In a Senate split 50-50, Manchin is also a crucial swing vote on contentious legislation, defining the limits of what President Biden and the Democrats can accomplish. Over the weekend, he led a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers in talks with the White House over its proposed $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief package.But perhaps few of Biden’s priorities will be as polarizing as the environment. The president ran on a $2 trillion plan to transition the U.S. economy toward renewable-energy sources and cut the planet-warming pollution that comes from oil, gas and coal. Biden has framed his proposal as a jobs plan, but the fossil fuel industry – including coal companies – warns of economic fallout: lost jobs and tax revenue and higher consumer costs.Manchin has already said he doesn’t support eliminating the filibuster as a way to enable Democrats to pass bills without Republican votes. If Democrats are to fight climate change, he wants them to do it the old fashioned way – his way. That means deals forged through compromise, the gears of government greased by long-standing relationships and the occasional Mason jar of moonshine served during negotiations.”I want to work with them and hear all different sides of it, from the environmental to the industrial base,” Manchin said in a recent interview.But the physics of greenhouse gases accumulating in the atmosphere are nonnegotiable. Scientists say nations need to dramatically cut emissions to avoidcatastrophic warming that would come with its own economic toll: devastating fires and floods, water scarcity, displacement, disease, and death.

The Battle Lines Are Forming in Biden’s Climate Push – – As President Biden prepares on Wednesday to open an ambitious effort to confront climate change, powerful and surprising forces are arrayed at his back. Automakers are coming to accept that much higher fuel economy standards are their future; large oil and gas companies have said some curbs on greenhouse pollution lifted by former President Donald J. Trump should be reimposed; shareholders are demanding corporations acknowledge and prepare for a warmer, more volatile future, and a youth movement is driving the Democratic Party to go big to confront the issue. But what may well stand in the president’s way is political intransigence from senators from fossil-fuel states in both parties. An evenly divided Senate has given enormous power to any single senator, and one in particular, Joe Manchin III of West Virginia, who will lead the Senate Energy Committee and who came to the Senate as a defender of his state’s coal industry. Without a doubt, signals from the planet itself are lending urgency to the cause. Last year was the hottest year on record, capping the hottest decade on record. Already, scientists say the irreversible effects of climate change have started to sweep across the globe, from record wildfires in California and Australia to rising sea levels, widespread droughts and stronger storms. “President Biden has called climate change the No. 1 issue facing humanity,” Gov. Jay Inslee of Washington said. “He understands all too well that meeting this test requires nothing less than a full-scale mobilization of American government, business, and society.” Mr. Biden has already staffed his government with more people concerned with climate change than any other president before him. On his first day in office, he rejoined the Paris Agreement on climate change. But during the campaign, he tried to walk a delicate line on fracking for natural gas, saying he would stop it on public lands but not on private property, where most of it takes place.

Winters: ‘Hundreds of billions’ needs to move to firms combating carbon emissions – A large and “credible” carbon market is needed to transfer hundreds of billions of dollars into assets involved in reducing global emissions, according to Standard Chartered CEO Bill Winters. Winters chairs the Institute for International Finance’s Taskforce on Scaling Voluntary Carbon Markets, launched by U.N.’s Special Envoy for Climate Action Mark Carney. The group aims to build a voluntary carbon market to enable corporations to reach net zero emissions, and has suggested that this will need to scale at least 15 times, and potentially 160 times, its current level. These markets allow the trading of emissions allowances and effectively puts a price on carbon. Speaking to CNBC from the World Economic Forum’s virtual Davos Agenda event, Winters acknowledged that since large companies like Standard Chartered cannot practically reduce their carbon output to zero, they can offset their output by purchasing assets which aid global efforts to combat climate change. “What that really means is we are going to have to transfer some of our money into the pockets of people that actually remove carbon from the environment, or who can go that extra step in terms of investing in technologies or processes that will reduce the carbon emissions from existing business models,” Winters said. “We estimate that we will need tens of billions of dollars, eventually hundreds of billions of dollars, to transfer from people like us to people who are actually able to make a difference in terms of affecting the ultimate outcome of carbon emissions.” A “robust and liquid and credible” carbon market will be necessary to facilitate these transactions between private buyers and sellers over the coming years, Winters said, voicing hopes that this action from the private sector will also help to drive governments toward policies aimed at reducing carbon emissions. The taskforce is seeking to establish common standards, a verification regime and governance structure to ensure market transparency, and will reveal more details about these efforts on Wednesday. “We have had to work very quickly to take these ideas and this framework and turn it into an actual market that everybody in the world can participate in with confidence that the money that they are investing is going into the hands of people that are really solving this problem,” Winters said.

Largest-Ever Climate Poll: 64% Say Climate Change Is a Global Emergency – Taking an unconventional approach to conduct the largest-ever poll on climate change, the United Nations’ Development Program and the University of Oxford surveyed 1.2 million people across 50 countries from October to December of 2020 through ads distributed in mobile gaming apps.The survey found that 64 percent of people think climate change is a global emergency and only 10 percent think world leaders are doing enough to address it. The number of people who considered climate change an emergency was even higher – 69 percent – among those ages 14 to 18.The survey also asked respondents to rank 18 specific policies to address climate change, and found that the most popular policies were restoring forests, using renewable energy, and using climate-friendly farming techniques. “There is a groundswell of people that are saying even during a pandemic that climate change is an emergency and here’s how we want to solve it,” Cassie Flynn, UNDP’s strategic adviser on climate change and head of its Climate Promise initiative, told Al Jazeera.As reported by The Independent: More than 30 million invites to the survey were issued to people when they played a popular mobile game – such as Words With Friends, Angry Birds, Dragon City or Subway Surfers.The findings were weighted by polling experts at Oxford University to be as representative as possible for each country.Cassie Flynn, the UNDP’s strategic adviser on climate change, told The Guardian: “The voice of the people is clear – they want action on climate change.“If 64 per cent of the world’s people are believing in a climate emergency then it helps governments to respond to the climate crisis as an emergency.“The key message is that, as governments are making these high-stakes decisions, the people are with them.”

Jennifer Granholm, Energy Nominee, Stresses Climate Action – Former Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm is expected to refocus the Department of Energy on climate change if she’s confirmed as the next secretary of energy. In a confirmation hearing Wednesday before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Granholm echoed President Biden’s emphasis on new jobs created through achieving his goal of net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. “I am obsessed with creating good-paying jobs in America,” Granholm said in her opening statement. She cited her time as Michigan’s governor when two of the largest automakers had declared bankruptcy amid the Great Recession. She worked with the Obama administration on a bailout package that encouraged them to turn to cleaner technologies such as electric vehicles. Several times during the hearing, Granholm mentioned she drives a Chevrolet Bolt EV and praised the car’s acceleration. Environmental groups generally support Granholm’s nomination and look forward to the agency improving energy efficiency standards for everything from light bulbs to stoves and furnaces. Former President Donald Trump made it a personal crusade to weaken such standards, even targeting showerheads in his last days in office. “She’ll also be inheriting a backlog of work and a shortage of career staff resulting from the Trump administration’s efforts to erode the department’s clean energy activities,” said Arjun Krishnaswami, policy analyst at the Natural Resources Defense Council. Article continues after sponsor message

BlackRock tells CEOs to prepare for a zero-emissions economy – Larry Fink is telling companies to prepare for a zero-emissions world. The CEO of BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, told CEOs at its portfolio companies to outline their plans for getting to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to show that their board of directors has reviewed the plans. “There is no company whose business model won’t be profoundly affected by the transition to a net zero economy – one that emits no more carbon dioxide than it removes from the atmosphere by 2050, the scientifically-established threshold necessary to keep global warming well below 2C,” Fink wrote in his annual letter to CEOs on Tuesday. BlackRock last year made waves when it said it would put environmental sustainability at the center of its investment strategy, including divesting from fossil-fuel producers. The move by Blackrock, with a portfolio over $7 trillion, effectively pressures other finance firms to increase their own climate commitments, according to environmental advocates.”The signal is becoming undeniable to the boardroom that mainstream finance truly regards climate risk as financial risk, and it is their business to create and disclose credible transition plans,” said Ben Ratner, senior director of EDF+Business, a partnership between the Environmental Defense Fund and businesses pledging to decarbonize.Ratner said that BlackRock’s call for specific plans could prod companies into revealing details that they have so far avoided disclosing.

25 states promised to stay in the Paris Agreement. Did they follow through? – Four years ago, just hours after former President Donald Trump promised to pull the United States out of the Paris Agreement, the governors of California, Washington, and New York announced the formation of the “U.S. Climate Alliance” – a group of states committed to following through on the country’s broken promises. “If the president is going to be AWOL in this profoundly important human endeavor,” Governor Jerry Brown of California said at the time, “then California and other states will step up.”Today, the alliance boasts 24 states and one territory: Puerto Rico. All have vowed to collectively cut emissions 26 to 28 percent by 2025, compared to 2005 levels. Many have set ambitious goals to cover their states in wind turbines, electrify cars and trucks, and slash the amount of dangerous pollutants in the air. With President Joe Biden in the White House, and with the U.S. back in the Paris Agreement, hopes are high for action on the climate crisis. But the states’ struggles over the past four years demonstrate that it may be a long road ahead.Most of the states that have promised sweeping emissions cuts by 2025 – which include the U.S. Climate Alliance members and the state of Louisiana – are still off-track to meet the U.S. commitment under the Paris Agreement, according to an analysis by the Environmental Defense Fund released last month. The study, based on data from the research firm Rhodium Group, found that if the country recovers fairly quickly from COVID-19, U.S. emissions in those states would only fall 18 percent by 2025, missing the goal of cutting emissions by 26 percent.

Let’s try this (climate change bill) again -WITH LITTLE FANFARE and no drama, the House and Senate on Thursday enacted and sent to the governor the same climate change bill he vetoed on January 14. The Senate approved the bill on a series of voice votes and the House enacted it by a vote of 144-14, with 13 of the 31 Republicans voting no along with Rep. Colleen Garry, a Democrat from Dracut. The last time the governor got the bill it was at the end of the 2019-2020 legislative session – too late for him to make amendments and send it back to the Legislature for action, so he pocket-vetoed it. This time he is expected to amend a number of sections he objects to, including the requirement that the state cut emissions 50 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. The administration favors a 45 percent reduction. It’s unclear whether the Legislature will insist on the version sent to the governor.

D.C. Circuit Court Stays EPA Action Granting Refinery Waivers – In Washington, D.C., in response to an emergency motion filed by the Renewable Fuels Association, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ordered that EPA’s action on Tuesday to grant three small refinery petitions must be “administratively stayed pending further order of the court.” The order prevents EPA from further processing the small refinery exemptions, at least until the court has had “sufficient opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay.” EPA has until February 3 to respond to the motion, and any replies are due to the court by February 10. The stay comes roughly 36 hours after EPA approved two 2019 waiver petitions and one 2018 petition, which-if allowed to stand-would erase another 260 million gallons of Renewable Fuel Standard blending requirements. “We took this action immediately to prevent the agency from doing further economic damage to an industry already reeling from the impacts of COVID-19,” said RFA President and CEO Geoff Cooper on Tuesday when the motion was filed. “To avert additional harm to the ethanol industry, EPA must be prevented from returning any compliance credits (RINs) to the unidentified refiners who were given these last-minute exemption handouts.”

Shell agrees deal to buy electric car-charging company ubitricity – Shell has agreed to buy one of Europe’s largest on-street electric car-charging companies to accelerate its move into low-carbon transport. The oil company, which faces growing pressure to cut its carbon emissions, expects the deal to buy the German car-charger ubitricity to be finalised by the end of the year. The car-charging network includes more than 2,700 charge points across the UK, or 13% of the existing market share, and more than 1,500 charge points across Germany and France. Istvan Kapitany, the head of Shell’s global mobility business, said ubitricity’s work with local authorities to fit car chargers to existing street infrastructure such as lamp-posts and bollards would help make owning an electric vehicle more convenient. “On-street options such as the lamp-post charging offered by ubitricity will be key for those who live and work in cities or have limited access to off-street parking,” he said. “Whether at home, at work or on the go, we want to provide our customers with accessible and affordable EV [electric vehicle] charging options so they can charge up no matter where they are.” The deal is set to accelerate the race to corner the market in electric vehicle charging, which is gaining pace among energy companies because of the UK’s plan to ban the sale of new fossil fuel vehicles by 2030. Shell was one of the first energy companies to set out plans for “green” forecourts in the UK, which offer electric charging, hydrogen cell refuelling and biofuels rather than petrol and diesel. It also installed the UK’s first 150kW electric vehicle charger, in the summer of 2019, which can charge a car in half an hour.

All EVs by 2035? Report shows roadblocks — Monday, January 25, 2021 — Even as anticipation builds that President Biden will go big on building electric vehicle infrastructure, a new study out of California shows the need might be bigger than anyone thought. This study, an update by the California Energy Commission on the state’s EV charging needs, is the first to try to game out the implications of Gov. Gavin Newsom’s earthshaking order to ban the sale of internal-combustion engines by 2035. The short answer: Charging stations will need to propagate like rabbits, and electricity demand will drastically shift. The Golden State alone will need to have a total of 1.5 million EV chargers by 2030, or three times what Biden promised for the entire nation while on the campaign trail. It is unclear where the money will come from. Furthermore, a massive 15% surge of electricity demand could arrive at midnight, when people are charging during off-peak hours. That could prompt a wholesale rethinking of how to move electricity around. The conclusions show “we need to supercharge our efforts,” said Nancy Sutley, the chief sustainability officer of the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, on a webinaryesterday about California’s 2035 goal. “The needs,” she added, “are evolving more quickly than we thought even a few months ago.” The California Energy Commission prepares the report every other year. This one takes stock of an EV landscape that has changed dramatically in the past few years. California policymakers looking to dial down transportation emissions by 2035 understand that ride-hailing companies, like Uber and Lyft, have an outsize role in climate pollution. So do medium- and heavy-duty electric trucks, which are racing to market with a huge and poorly understood impact on the grid. California, with its 40 million citizens and aggressive car emissions rules, has long been at the bleeding edge of clean transportation. A succession of executive orders ratcheted up its ambition on electric cars. The order unveiled by Newsom (D) in September – as the state choked on smoke from a catastrophic fire season – takes the impact on fueling and the electric grid to a whole new level. California’s experience is instructive for the rest of the country because others are starting to follow its lead. New Jersey and Massachusetts have started fashioning rules that match California’s, and Washington state is reconsidering an effort that failed last year Energywire, Feb. 14, 2020).

Biden plan to electrify federal fleet will boost EV market, but many questions remain, experts say — President Joe Biden on Monday called to transition the federal government’s vehicle fleet to all-electric and American-made, spurring optimism within the electric vehicle (EV) sector for increased adoption of emissions-free cars.As part of an executive order announced on Wednesday, Biden directed “federal agencies to procure carbon pollution-free electricity and clean, zero-emission vehicles to create good-paying, union jobs and stimulate clean energy industries.”There were about 645,000 vehicles in the federal fleet in 2019, according to the General Services Administration. Electrifying all of them could take a decade or more, according to experts, and that process will help bring stability to the burgeoning EV marketplace. “The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean, electric vehicles made right here in America,” Biden said Monday. He added that the switch would represent “the largest mobilization of public investment in procurement, infrastructure, and R&D since World War Two.”EV advocates and analysts highlighted the significance of Biden’s EV actions. “The federal government stepping in as a major buyer will have an enormous impact on the market,” said Chris Nelder, a manager with Rocky Mountain Institute’s (RMI) mobility practice. “It will create demand for all kinds of electrified vehicles.”A plug-in federal fleet would be “a big thing,” said Plug in America Executive Director Joel Levin. “For manufacturers, it obviously means a significant increase in demand – and a reliable one. Manufacturers like selling to fleets because they are big purchasers, and they’re more stable than individual customers.”The federal government embracing EVs could help speed broader adoption among consumers, experts say.”The government stepping forward and starting to electrify government fleets is a positive on a number of different fronts,” said Gary Rackliffe, vice president of market development and innovation at Hitachi ABB Power Grids. Along with making economic sense, “it’s an important signal to the country.” “When the federal government leads by example, it can accelerate market transformation, which is also strategic for assuring American competitiveness,

“‘Not slowing down’: Solar will be cheapest power resource in US by 2030: WoodMac Based on developing technology already in the pipeline, a new report by Wood Mackenzie projects that solar costs will fall another 15-25% over the next decade, potentially making solar the lowest-cost power resource in all U.S. states by 2030. Rapid adoption of solar energy allowed the industry to scale and cut costs much faster than analysts in the early 2010s expected would be possible, according to Ravi Manghani, head of solar research for Wood MacKenzie. Demand for solar continues to exceed installation capacity, and could continue to do so for some time, according to Manghani. But without affordable storage options, he said, solar installations could end up essentially giving power away. How cheap could solar power get? So cheap, Wood MacKenzie’s Manghani said, that someday power generators may let solar energy “go to waste” by installing more solar capacity than needed and simply turning off the excess generation when it’s not. “It’s not a bad thing, because at the end of the day, if the cost is still below the other resources, you might still go with solar,” Manghani said. In the early 2010s, Manghani said, analysts who watch the solar industry anticipated slow but steady cost reductions as the industry grew. What they didn’t see coming, he said, was the exponential rate at which the industry would reduce costs as it scaled rapidly. “That’s the most fascinating part,” he said. “The industry, or even industry observers such as [Wood Mackenzie] underestimated the potential of scaling.” These cost declines might make one think that the age of falling solar prices is behind us, Manghani said, but he doesn’t believe that is the case. “The cost decline trend is not slowing down any time soon,” he said. “Yes, there are some externalities that may change, on a short-term basis, but the level of innovation we’ve seen in the industry makes us feel good about the cost reduction possibilities that exist.” But the industry must also manage a balancing act, Manghani said. Until the industry has an affordable, viable solution to storing and shifting the availability of variable solar energy, there is a chance that solar could essentially grow itself out of a job. In this scenario, Manghani said, demand for solar could plummet and drag prices along with it. At present, Manghani said, this scenario seems unlikely, with storage on track to fill the coming need. But in the meantime, he said, the industry will experience another growing pain: there is currently greater demand for solar than there is capacity to deploy it, and bottlenecks have begun to build up around permitting and interconnection. Consequently, although the actual equipment and technology continues to grow more affordable, Manghani said overall PPA prices have actually begun to rise.

Ohio regulators sign off on Madison County solar farm – State regulators have signed off on construction of a solar farm in Madison County, the second solar project to be approved in central Ohio in a month.The 180-megawatt Madison Fields Solar Project in Pike Township will take up about 1,000 acres of a 1,932-acre project area near Rosedale, according to the Ohio Power Siting Board. The project is one of about two dozen solar farms in various stages of development in Ohio. Project developer Savion expects construction to start in the spring of 2022 with the project to be completed in June 2023. Last month, the board approved a 200-megawatt Savion project for Deer Creek and Perry townships, near the village of Williamsport in Pickaway County. The project will occupy 1,375 acres of a 2,276-acre project area. Construction of that project will start in August with the project coming online in 2022.

Environmental Priorities — Solar Energy and Land Conservation — Compete in the Legislature -Competing environmental priorities will come to a head again in Hartford as lawmakers consider whether to add more regulations in an effort to prevent new solar projects from impacting tracts of farmland and forest.The General Assembly’s Environment Committee agreed on Wednesday to consider legislation this session on the siting of solar projects on certain farmlands and forests. As part of a larger energy bill passed in 2017, the legislature adopted regulations requiring that the Connecticut Department of Agriculture review any solar project proposed for prime farmland with a total generating capacity of more than 2 megawatts, and that the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection review any solar project proposed for core forest land. Lawmakers have introduced legislation on the topic, including State Rep. Maria Horn, D-Salisbury, who proposed a bill that would reduce the threshold for review on prime farmland to 1 megawatt, establish a fund to purchase conservation easements on farmland to offset losses to solar, and would require a bond for decommissioning solar projects on prime farmland as defined by state and federal rules. The 2017 law has not resolved a struggle between land conservation advocates and advocates of expanding generation of renewable energy – competing interests that recently came to a head in southeastern Connecticut when the Connecticut Siting Council finally approved a 15 megawatt projectthat will require cutting 75 acres of core forest in Waterford, despite years of opposition from local activists, who say they are concerned about the impact on water quality in area. Last November, the council also approved a 3.2 megawatt project in Bristol that will cover 11.2 acres of prime farmland.

Vineyard Wind resumes push to build offshore wind farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard – Officials at Vineyard Wind on Monday told the Biden administration that the company would like to resubmit the plans for a wind farm 15 miles south of Martha’s Vineyard that it yanked from federal review in early December. After the latest in a string of permitting delays imposed on the project by the Trump administration, Vineyard Wind on Dec. 1 announced that it was pulling the 800-megawatt offshore wind project out of the federal review pipeline in order to complete an internal study on whether the decision to use a certain type of turbine would warrant changes to the project’s construction and operations plan. On Monday, less than a week into a new Biden administration that has signaled an interest in offshore wind advancement, Vineyard Wind said it determined that no changes are needed and that “the Federal Permitting Process can be Completed” by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. “Since there are no changes required to the COP, we expect that BOEM can finalize their review based on the extensive analysis and studies of the project over the last three years,” Vineyard Wind CEO Lars Pedersen said. “We look forward to completing the permitting phase of the project and to finalizing the engineering, contracting and financing of the first utility scale offshore windfarm in the US.” It remains unclear how the new Biden administration will treat the Vineyard Wind project. When developers of the Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners and Avangrid Renewables joint venture pulled the project from review in December, Trump’s administration officially declared Vineyard Wind’s federal permitting process “terminated” with a posting published in the federal register. The developers projected an air of confidence in their announcement Monday morning, declaring that its decision to rescind its request to withdraw its COP — a request which the Trump administration appears to have already granted — would have the effect of “allowing the federal permitting process to resume.” Vineyard Wind also said it remains “slated to become the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States” and still expects to financially close in the second half of 2021 and to begin delivering clean wind energy to Massachusetts in 2023.

Aiming to ease fishing industry’s concerns, Mills proposes moratorium on offshore wind – Portland Press Herald –In a bid to defuse opposition and avoid conflict with Maine’s fishing interests, Gov. Janet Mills proposed a series of actions Monday to advance a floating wind research project planned for far offshore in federal waters, while protecting the near-shore waters valued for lobstering and coastal tourism.In a letter to licensed commercial fishermen, Mills announced that she will ask the Legislature to approve a 10-year moratorium on new offshore wind projects in waters managed by the state, which extend three miles from shore. The ban, however, wouldn’t include the already permitted New England Aqua Ventus demonstration site off Monhegan island. That venture, which would feature a single turbine atop a floating platform pioneered at the University of Maine, is being developed in a $100 million partnership with two global ocean energy companies, Diamond Offshore Wind and RWE Renewables.No other applications are pending for wind projects in state waters, Mills noted. But it was clear Monday by the reactions from representatives of the lobster, ground fishing and scallop fisheries that fishermen are skeptical and wary of the state’s efforts. Fishermen already are facing a variety of pressures on how and where they operate, from restrictions aimed at reducing right whale entanglement to rebuilding stocks of haddock and cod. To them, turbines anywhere in the gulf take away somebody’s productive fishing area. “What we’re talking about is replacing food production with energy production,” said Ben Martens, executive director of the Maine Coast Fishermen’s Alliance. Asked if he sees room to compromise in siting the offshore research project, which would operate under a 20-year permit, Martens said it would be difficult. “I don’t know how the industry can come to the table and say, ‘We’re going to lose fishing grounds for the next generation,’ ” he said.

Indiana Republicans want to regulate universities’ clean energy investments –A new element of controversy surfaced in an already contentious debate in the Indiana legislature this week, as an amendment that could limit state-funded universities’ investments in clean energy was added to a bill (HB 1191) regarding electrification of home heating. On Tuesday, the state’s House utilities and energy committee passed a bill that would prohibit local governments from requiring that new construction not use natural gas for home heating. A number of municipalities in California and the Northeast have passed such measures to promote electrification of home heating, though no such proposals currently exist in Indiana. The bill passed 9-4 along party lines in the Republican-dominated committee, with an amendment added that potentially restricts state-funded higher education institutions’ clean energy investments. As bill co-author Rep. Jim Pressel explained in Tuesday’s hearing, the measure would mandate that investments in projects like energy-efficient new buildings and electric vehicles be cost-effective, including with a 10-year payback time. Legislators were confused about the amendment’s contents and the reason for its inclusion, as they made clear in the hearing. Bill author Rep. Edmond Soliday said the amendment wouldn’t necessarily hamper the construction of individual projects, but it would restrict universities’ boards from adopting policies on clean energy investments. Pressel said that, for example, a university could not decide that all new construction would be built with adobe and windows positioned for maximum sunlight. Rep. Matt Pierce, a Democrat and critic of the bill, said the amendment would add unnecessary and costly bureaucratic requirements and questioned its origin. “I’m just trying to figure out which contractor got mad about not getting a contract from a university and decided to come in here and seek relief from the General Assembly,” said Pierce at the hearing. “Where did this amendment come from? Who wanted this amendment?””Is there evidence of trustees being fiscally irresponsible in their procurements?” he added. Pressel said he had no complaints about university spending decisions, but, “times do change, things happen, this is just a little safeguard maybe.”

Transmission trouble: Pipeline woes presage challenges for clean energy buildout – President Joe Biden’s $2 trillion plan for the U.S. economy includes a renewable energy infrastructure build-out expected to help target carbon-free electricity by 2035 and net-zero economywide emissions by 2050. But the decarbonization goals may not keep clean energy projects from facing the same headwinds that recently upended the oil and gas pipeline industry under the pro-fossil-fuel Trump administration. “People hate infrastructure; it really doesn’t matter what it is,” “If you are building a wind facility on sage grouse habitat, you are going to have just as many people freaking out about that as there are about Mountain Valley [pipeline].” Pipeline project opponents in recent years found ways to require more environmental analyses under the National Environmental Policy Act, or NEPA, which also have the effect of delaying projects and driving up costs. During 2020, major legal setbacks forced Dominion Energy Inc. and Duke Energy Corp. to cancel their Atlantic Coast natural gas pipeline project and Williams Cos. Inc. to scrap its Constitution gas pipeline project, as the Equitrans Midstream Corp.-led Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC faced additional delays. Similar to the way environmental groups have litigated pipelines’ Federal Energy Regulatory Commission certificates in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, landowners opposed to interstate renewable transmission projects are looking to state courts to overturn public utility commission approvals. In Missouri, for example, opponents continue to fight Invenergy Transmission LLC’s Grain Belt Express even after the state supreme court upheld the Missouri Public Service Commission’s 2019 approval of the project. The line would run roughly 780 miles from western Kansas, through Missouri and Illinois, and into Indiana. The Missouri Farm Bureau and other groups contend that Grain Belt Express does not qualify for power of eminent domain since it is neither a public utility nor an electrical corporation.While regulators in Kansas and Indiana have also signed off on the project that would deliver largely wind-generated power to customers in Kansas, Missouri and states further east, an Illinois appellate court in 2018 reversed the state commission’s approval. Still, the Invenergy LLC subsidiary plans to begin construction prior to Illinois regulatory authorization.

Allegheny County inks 35-year deal to use hydropower generated in Emsworth for government buildings – The power used by the Allegheny County Courthouse, jail and other government buildings will be generated by hydroelectric energy harnessed from the Emsworth Lock and Dam, county Executive Rich Fitzgerald said Thursday. Fitzgerald was joined by Paul Jacob, CEO of Boston-based Rye Development, which has an office in Downtown Pittsburgh, and other officials as they celebrated a milestone toward using more climate-friendly energy sources. The project has been in the works for several years and was the second piece of good environmental news shared by the county recently. On Tuesday, the county announced that all eight of its air quality monitors met federal air quality standards – something that hadn’t been accomplished since the standards were put into place more than two decades ago. “This is a historic week in Allegheny County,” Fitzgerald said during Thursday’s virtual news conference. Both moves show the county’s commitment to being stewards of the environment, Fitzgerald said. The county has inked a 35-year agreement to buy power generated by the Emsworth plant from Rye. It’s expected to generate 17.8 megawatts, Jacob said. Excess power will be supplied to other entities, Jacob said. It’s a $50 million project that’s one of 10 hydropower projects in southwestern Pennsylvania on the Allegheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers in coming years.

This Finger Lakes power plant wants to add a Bitcoin mine – With water being traded on the stock exchange, the Finger Lakes continues to fight to protect the largest water body solely within the state’s borders – Seneca Lake – from a savvy new Bitcoin deal that has far-reaching implications across New York.Greenidge, a 1950s-era relic of New York’s past, is operating at less than half the efficiency of more modern natural gas power plants, and is a direct assault on the intent of Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s nationally leading Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act – to reduce greenhouse gas levels 85 percent by 2050.This previously mothballed coal-burning plant along Seneca’s western shores was originally transitioned to burn natural gas and serve as a “peaker plant” for public use when additional energy was needed. Since getting approval, however, Atlas Holdings Inc. has applied to expand its energy production – not for public consumption but to fuel its privately owned Bitcoin mining operation. If approved, the facility would generate enough energy to power 93,000 homes, emit more greenhouse gases that it has in the past, and completely evade Cuomo’s CLCPA requirements by operating “behind the meter.”What damages our fragile ecosystem in the Finger Lakes will also damage our agritourism industry. Discharging water at up to 108 degrees into the Keuka Outlet, which empties directly into Seneca Lake, this project would stress trout and other cold-water fish and increase risks to annual spawning.The hot water will also increase incidences of harmful algal blooms, exacerbating an already-troublesome issue for the Finger Lakes. Furthermore, the system is not using protective measures to prevent fish, eggs, and other aquatic life from being killed at its water intake location.In addition to harming Seneca Lake, a drinking water source for over 100,000 people, this facility will increase noise levels, not only in the surrounding area but also across the lake, since noise travels easily across open water. Traditional data centers prohibit the use of Bitcoin servers because they make so much noise, use too much energy and generate too much heat.Greenidge received $2 million in state regional economic development funds in 2015 to build the gas pipeline extension to bring gas to the plant. Now Greenidge is saddling our region with all of the environmental and economic risk and little to no reward.

With Biden in charge, N.J.’s clean air advocates hope the days of diesel are numbered – For years, clean air advocates in New Jersey have put a bullseye on some of the state’s most common polluters: Diesel trucks, trains and ships. The transportation sector is the Garden State’s largest source of air pollution, and communities living near heavy traffic have borne the brunt of that burden. As a result, they’ve been left with higher rates of respiratory disease, and likely have been made more vulnerable to COVID-19. For four years, former President Donald Trump’s administration showed little interest in making transportation cleaner, and often took action to loosen pollution regulations instead. That effort was highlighted by two high-profile moves: A lowering of national fuel efficiency standards, and a failed attempt to keep older, dirtier diesel engines on the road. But now, with Trump out and President Joe Biden in, activists are expressing a new hope. Last week, days before the White House changed hands, a national coalition of environmental justice groups sent a letter to Biden urging him to address long-standing air pollution problems tied to fossil fuel-powered engines. The main request? Replace the medium- and heavy-duty diesel, gasoline and natural gas-powered vehicles dominating highways, railroads and ports with electrics and other zero emissions alternatives. “For decades, the freight industry has bombarded our communities with harmful pollution and other impacts,” the coalition’s letter read. “Addressing the rampant environmental injustice from this industry and fulfilling your promises requires regulations and policies to advance zero-emissions solutions powered by zero emissions power generation. We cannot continue to rely on combustion equipment, which produces large quantities of pollution in our communities.” Melissa Miles, the executive director of the New Jersey Environmental Justice Alliance, said the federal government should do all it can to hasten the transportation sector’s transition away from diesel. “We see that there is a certain degree of technology that exists when it comes to medium and heavy duty trucks,” Miles said. “But more research has to be done, more incentives, more directives to help the industry become cleaner.”

Biden Has An Ambitious Agenda. What Will It Mean For The Ohio Valley? – Biden has outlined his plans for economic aid, and major investments in clean energy and new infrastructure – much of it planned for the early months of his presidency. We asked Ohio Valley ReSource listeners for their thoughts on the new administration’s agenda, and what will be most important for their communities. The responses show a mix of hope for some help on long standing areas of need and anxiety about the potential costs associated with rapid change. “This country’s infrastructure needs overhauling,” one listener wrote. “It’s a great way to jump the economy.” The economy was the top concern our listeners identified, and some remarked on the connection between the economic recovery and recovery from the pandemic. “Getting the pandemic under control will help get people back to work and help out [the] economy and small businesses,” a listener wrote. Listener comments also reflected both the urgency of addressing climate change, and the uncertainty about what such action might mean for an energy-producing region long tied to fossil fuel extraction. One listener said a transition to renewables is imperative because “climate change [is] an existential threat.” Another expressed concern about what Biden’s clean energy plans mean for the jobs still tied to fossil fuels and “what effect their energy and climate policies are going to have on the middle class.”

THE DIRTY TRUTH About Utility Climate Pledges (pdf) Sierra Club – To protect our planet and communities from disaster, we must do everything we can to limit global warming to 1.5 degC (2.7 degF). This next decade is critical to our chances to decarbonize and hit an emissions pathway consistent with a 1.5 degC future. While this is a daunting timeline, the clean energy alternatives are available to make this transition on the needed time frame. There is no time to waste and no excuse for failing to act. Cleaning up the electricity sector is the key to economy-wide decarbonization, and electric utilities have a large role to play in making sure we are on the path toward a livable future. Many utilities have stated climate goals. However, those goals are meaningless greenwashing without utilities taking the necessary actions to decarbonize. There are three key things utilities must do to enable us to avoid catastrophic warming: They must retire existing coal plants by 2030, terminate plans to build new gas plants, and build clean energy much faster. In this report, we examine utilities’ performance on each of these three necessary actions. Our analysis is based on integrated resource plans (IRPs) and major announcements for the 50 utilities that remain the most invested in fossil fuel generation.3 These include investorowned utilities, power authorities (like the Tennessee Valley Authority), generation and transmission co-ops, and large municipal utilities. Overall, we examine plans for 79 operating companies owned by 50 different parent companies, as detailed in the appendices.4 These 50 companies own half of all remaining coal and gas generation in the nation – 1,310 million megawatt-hours (MWh) of coal and gas generation.5 We find there is a stark difference between utilities’ existing coal and gas generation (1,310 million MWh) and how much clean energy they plan to add this decade (only 250 million MWh). In other words, despite 33 of these companies having a public climate goal, there is an enormous gap between utilities’ current practices and what they need to do to protect people and the planet. We scored companies based on their plans to retire coal-fired power plants, stop building new gas plants, and build clean energy, all of which are necessary steps to keep warming under 1.5 degC. We find that, apart from a few leaders, these companies are falling short on all three of these necessary actions.

Many U.S. utilities plan to hang on to their coal plants for a decade: Sierra Club (Reuters) – The most coal-dependent U.S. utilities plan to keep around 75% of their coal-fired power plants running for another decade, according to an analysis by the environmental group Sierra Club released on Monday, posing a threat to the climate. The report here, which reviewed the plans of the 50 U.S. utilities most invested in coal and gas generation, reflects some of the obstacles President Joe Biden will need to overcome to achieve his administration’s goal to decarbonize the power sector by 2035.The Sierra Club analysis of utility public filings found that the companies, which together account for 43% of the nation’s power production, have committed to retiring just a quarter of their coal capacity by 2030.It also found the companies plan to add new wind and solar capacity over that period amounting to less than one-fifth of their current coal and gas generation. It said the study shows companies are not moving fast enough to transition away from fossil fuels and are unlikely to reduce greenhouse gas emissions quickly enough to align the United States with the Paris agreement goal of limiting global warming to 1.5 degC, to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Biden has re-engaged the United States with the Paris deal after former President Donald Trump withdrew from it. The U.S. power sector contributes about 27% of the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions, making it the second largest source behind transportation, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Coal Communities Across the Nation Want Biden to Fund an Economic Transition to Clean Power – Coal-state economic development groups, labor leaders and environmentalists are asking President Joe Biden’s administration to fund a “just transition” from coal to renewable energy, given his focus on climate change, environmental justice and racial and economic equity. Thirteen groups from areas as diverse as West Virginia and Kentucky in Appalachia to the Navajo Nation in Arizona, along with their national partners, want the immediate creation of a White House Office of Economic Transition, focused on rebuilding the economies of coal communities. They also asked the administration last week in a letter to create a task force on communities dependent for jobs on coal and power plants. “What we are saying is we recognize the inevitable shifts in the energy economy landscape as a result of the measures we must take to address climate change,” said Peter Hille, president of the Mountain Association, a nonprofit that serves counties in the coalfield of eastern Kentucky and is working for a new economy there. “The justice we are calling for is represented by the new investments needed to help these coal-impacted communities.”Biden entered the White House last week with the most ambitious climate agenda of any president, having put forth a $2 trillion plan that seeks to tie curbing heat-trapping greenhouse gases with economic growth in renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. On his first day, the president moved to rejoin the Paris climate accord and directed his administration to review and begin rolling back more than 100 rules on the environment put in place by the Trump administration, many of which benefited the fossil fuel industry. Biden’s plan includes the goal of a “carbon pollution-free power sector by 2035.”During the campaign, Biden also promised his administration would “invest in coal and power plant communities and other communities impacted by the climate transformation.” His campaign website said he would create a task force on how best to transition such communities. What the coal state groups are doing is reminding Biden of his promises. They say that adding a voice in the White House for coal communities alongside those advocating for climate action will help to keep the communities a priority-especially as the coronavirus pandemic has accelerated the decline of the coal industry.

Environmental groups sue to stop alleged surface mine pollutant discharge into Kanawha River tributary –Conservationist groups have taken their concerns about a Kanawha County surface mine’s alleged pollution of a creek that flows into the Kanawha River to federal court.The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy and the Sierra Club filed a lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of West Virginia Thursday against JMAC Leasing, Inc., alleging that JMAC’s Briar Mountain Surface Mine was discharging pollutants into waters near the mine that violate federal water pollution and coal mine regulation laws.The lawsuit alleges that JMAC’s selenium levels in discharges from an outlet that discharges into Cabin Creek have exceeded permit limits since it began reporting the levels in March 2015, even after the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection approved constructing a passive biological treatment system to treat and remove selenium from discharges at the outlet following a 2015 administrative consent order from the DEP that required JMAC to address its selenium noncompliance. Cabin Creek flows into the Kanawha River. Selenium is toxic at high concentrations, and chronic exposure in fish and other aquatic life can cause reproductive harm. The conservationist groups are asking for the court to declare that JMAC is violating the Clean Water Act and Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, and issue an injunction prohibiting JMAC from operating the Briar Mountain Surface Mine and its facilities in what they say would be further violation of its permits under those acts. The groups also seek orders forcing JMAC to pay civil penalties of up to $56,460 per day for each violation of the Clean Water Act under the law and their attorneys’ and expert witness fees.

Duke Energy, NC officials announce coal ash expense deal (AP) – Duke Energy, North Carolina officials and a conservation group announced Monday an agreement on how the utility pays to get rid of coal ash stored in the state. The proposed settlement would shift an estimated $1.1 billion in expenses away from customers over the next decade to the nation’s largest electric utility and its shareholders. The agreement was announced a month after the state Supreme Court ruled regulators should revisit an order that would have placed nearly all of the expense upon Duke’s 3.4 million electric customers in the state. Under the settlement, which still must be approved by the North Carolina Utilities Commission, the amounts covered by those customers would be reduced from roughly $4 billion through 2030 to $3 billion, Duke Energy spokeswoman Meredith Archie said. “It’s wrong for North Carolinians to bear the full cost of cleanup. Duke’s shareholders should pay its fair share,” Attorney General Josh Stein said at an online news conference. His office was involved in the negotiations with the commission’s Public Staff, which represents consumers, and the Sierra Club. Stein and these groups had challenged Utilities Commission orders over cleanup costs ultimately issued in 2018. Charlotte-based Duke Energy, which operates two electric subsidiaries in the state, is working on closing all 31 of its pits or ponds in the state in part by excavating over 120 million tons of coal ash – residue from operating coal-fired power plants for generations. The ash landfills often are near waterways, raising the threat for toxins to seep into rivers and groundwater.

Extreme Cold and Lower Renewable Energy Output Spike Electricity Prices in Europe and Asia – Record cold temperatures have hit parts of Europe and Asia causing electricity prices to spike as the normal generating supplies of electricity could not keep prices in check. Spain registered its coldest temperature on record, at -35.6 degrees Celsius, and several areas of the country, including Madrid, are under 18 inches or more of snow and may get record-breaking snowfalls. The electricity price in Spain soared to nearly euro 95 ($116) per megawatt hour-up 123 percent from prices the previous week and nearly three times higher than the 2020 average. Frigid temperatures, as low as -10 degrees Celsius, are gripping much of Japan and electricity prices jumped to record highs of 222.30 yen ($2.13) per kilowatt hour. (For comparison, average electricity prices in the United States in October 2020 were 10.64 cents per kilowatt hour.) The surge in Spain’s electricity prices results in an increase of 27 percent in the average user’s electricity bill. Factors that have driven up the costs to heat and power households include reduced output of renewable energy from the cold and stormy weather and the evolution of the natural gas market at a global level, which recently sustained a price shock. As a result, Spain has dipped into its subterranean natural gas reserves, which is 80 percent full. In Germany, day-ahead power prices hit the highest level in two years with temperatures in Berlin dropping close to freezing; prices could increase further with temperatures expected to dip as low as minus 6.9 degrees Celsius by Sunday (January 17) in the German capital. Residential electricity prices in Germany are already 3 times the average cost in the United States owing to their rapid adoption and subsidization of renewable wind and solar energy. A sub-zero blast is expected to worsen conditions in Europe with a weather phenomenon known as a sudden stratospheric warming. The event can disrupt the polar vortex, the winds that usually keep cold air contained in the far north, and allow freezing weather to head south. The calm conditions associated with it are expected to stifle Europe’s wind generation, causing dependence on its thermal energy. France usually exports excess power from its nuclear units to neighboring countries, but scheduled nuclear plant maintenance is adding to the power supply shortages and to the strain from the cold. France also has a much higher level of electric heating than most other European nations, making its own electric demand more sensitive to cold weather.

2021’s ‘Doomsday Clock’ Stays at 100 Seconds to Midnight – One hundred seconds to midnight. That’s how close humanity is to the apocalypse, and it’s as close as the world has ever been, according to Wednesday’s annual announcement from the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, a group that has been running its “Doomsday Clock” since the early years of the nuclear age in 1947. Although the scientists cite the COVID-19 pandemic, which has killed 1.7 million people around the world and has “revealed just how unprepared and unwilling countries and the international system are to handle global emergencies properly,” they acknowledge that the coronavirus does not pose an existential threat to Homo sapiens. However, nuclear weapons and, increasingly, catastrophic global heating caused and exacerbated by human activity – the climate crisis – do. “Accelerating nuclear programs in multiple countries moved the world into less stable and manageable territory last year,” the scientists say. “Development of hypersonic glide vehicles, ballistic missile defenses, and weapons-delivery systems that can flexibly use conventional or nuclear warheads may raise the probability of miscalculation in times of tension.” “Events like the deadly assault earlier this month on the U.S. Capitol renewed legitimate concerns about national leaders who have sole control of the use of nuclear weapons,” they say. “Nuclear nations, however, have ignored or undermined practical and available diplomatic and security tools for managing nuclear risks.” “By our estimation, the potential for the world to stumble into nuclear war – an ever-present danger over the last 75 years – increased in 2020,” they conclude.

How Ohio’s controversial HB 6 law pandemic-proofed utilities’ revenue – When the coronavirus pandemic struck last spring, energy use patterns were among the many things it upended. As millions of people were forced to change their routines, electricity use changed, too, with an overall decline nationwide. How much electricity customers use is typically a big factor in determining utility rates and revenue. An unexpected drop in sales can cause utilities to come up short of what they planned to collect from customers. In Ohio, FirstEnergy and other utilities had less to worry about, though, thanks to a measure in the state’s controversial power plant bailout law that cut the linkbetween revenues and the amount of electricity sold. The concept is known as decoupling, and it’s usually used as a tool to overcome utilities’ financial disincentive to invest in energy efficiency and conservation. Utilities that help customers conserve energy still collect the money they need to cover costs and a reasonable return for investors. In Ohio, however, lawmakers didn’t use decoupling to offset losses due to energy conservation. Instead, HB 6, the law at the heart of an alleged corruption conspiracy, gave utilities that spoonful of sugar without any medicine. In fact, HB 6 eliminated energy efficiency standards for Ohio utilities.The end result: Amid a pandemic that saw the state’s economy falter, FirstEnergy’s utilities were guaranteed steady revenues – at the expense of ratepayers struggling to make ends meet.”In Ohio’s case, what they’re calling decoupling I wouldn’t call decoupling at all,” said Martin Kushler, a senior fellow at the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy. “It’s basically a guaranteed set of revenues based on a very high revenue year in perpetuity, which makes no sense at all. It’s not connected to anything tangible that I can see, other than guaranteed revenues for the companies.”Specifically, House Bill 6 gives utilities the option of pegging their revenue to 2018 electricity sales levels. Former FirstEnergy chair Chuck Jones once boasted that the law’s revenue-guarantee provisions effectively made its utilities “recession-proof.” Full year-end figures aren’t out yet. FirstEnergy’s earnings per share were down a bit through the third quarter last year, due partly to depreciation. Yet operating earnings per share were a few cents above the same time in 2019. “Incremental rider revenues” from Ohio helped shore up the results.

Toledo looks to join lawsuit blocking H.B. 6 nuclear bailout fees — The city of Toledo has asked to join a lawsuit that claims the subsidies that were set to be added to every Ohioans’ electric bills on Jan. 1 are unconstitutional and the result of “a scheme to corrupt the legislative process.” It’s the latest reaction to a $1 billion nuclear bailout law, House Bill 6, at the center of a $60 million bribery probe. The suit was filed in Franklin County Common Pleas Court in October by the cities of Columbus and Cincinnati, and now both Toledo and Dayton are asking to join as well. Republican Attorney General Dave Yost also filed suit on behalf of the state in September against Energy Harbor, a former subsidiary of FirstEnergy Corp., the state’s largest utility. “The fee Toledoans are being asked to pay on their electric bills is based on a fraud, in fact, the largest fraud in the history of the state of Ohio. There is no way on Earth we should be helping First Energy pay off their illegal bribes,” Toledo Mayor Wade Kapszukiewicz said Monday.

Ohio bribery scandal will continue after U.S. Attorney DeVillers leaves – From the moment he took the oath of office as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio in November 2019, David DeVillers knew his days were numbered. “Some president was going to fire me eventually,” DeVillers said. “I wasn’t sure which one, but I knew that would happen at some point.” The respected, longtime prosecutor, known on the streets as the “Devil Man” for his penchant for cracking down on criminals, is flattered by the public support and calls for President Joe Biden to retain him as the current top federal prosecutor over 48 Ohio counties, including the cities of Columbus, Cincinnati and Dayton. But DeVillers, who has worked in the Southern District office for nearly two decades, is also realistic. Federal officials, including Democratic U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, are already accepting applications from those interested in the job. With an expected departure by mid-summer, DeVillers is spending his final days making sure ongoing investigations, including the House Bill 6 racketeering case, and new ones are progressing and ready for the office’s next leader. DeVillers also has been the face of the investigation and prosecution of corruption cases, including racketeering allegations connected to the enactment of House Bill 6, a billion-dollar nuclear bailout.Former Republican House Speaker Larry Householder, longtime associate Jeffrey Longstreth, lobbyists Neil Clark and Juan Cespedes, and former Ohio Republican Party Chairman Matt Borges were arrested in July in what prosecutors ranked as among the largest public corruption scandals in state history. Investigators say Householder and the others used dark money from First Energy and related entities to bankroll candidates’ campaigns, ensuring the eventual passage of HB 6 and blocking referendum efforts to overturn the new law.Longstreth and Cespedes pleaded guilty last year to racketeering counts that carry potential prison sentences of up to 20 years. Court proceedings continue against Householder, Clark and Borges. The investigation started more than a year before DeVillers was nominated as U.S. attorney, and it will continue after he leaves.

Groups ask utilities commission to investigate ex-chairman – Environmental advocacy groups asked the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio on Wednesday to expand its investigation of Ohio’s largest electric utility to include whether the commission’s former chairman was unduly influenced by the company, Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. A motion filed by attorneys for Chicago-based Environmental Law & Policy Center and the Ohio Environmental Council argues the utilities commission should expand and consolidate several cases, including a probe into charitable giving and political donations made by FirstEnergy to support passage of scandal-tainted legislation that aimed to provide $1 billion in subsidies to two nuclear power plants once owned by a FirstEnergy subsidiary. The groups want the commission to investigate ties between the company and its former chairperson, Samuel Randazzo. Randazzo resigned as Ohio’s top utility regulator in November days after FBI agents searched his Columbus townhome and FirstEnergy revealed in a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that former top executives at the company paid $4 million in early 2019 to end a consulting contract to someone who fit Randazzo’s description. Randazzo became chairman of the utilities commission and the Ohio Power Siting Board, which regulates energy projects, in April 2019. FirstEnergy is the subject of multiple investigations after federal authorities alleged last July that the company funded a $60 million bribery scheme to get the legislation, known as HB6, approved and to prevent a referendum issue on the bailout from reaching the Ohio ballot. The former Ohio House speaker and four others were subsequently indicted on a federal racketeering conspiracy charge. Wednesday’s filing noted the firing of FirstEnergy CEO Chuck Jones and other top company executives last fall and other events that “further support” the utilities commission’s “duty to provide a robust investigation into the First Energy Utilities’ involvement in the passage of HB6.”

Dispatch Editorial: Gov. DeWine, Ohioans need an advocate on PUCO – Gov. Mike DeWine has a lot of good reasons to appoint someone to the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio who is free of any financial ties to the utility corporations the PUCO is charged with regulating. The most important reason is because that’s what Ohioans deserve: commission members who can be expected to look out for their interests rather than those of the utilities. We sympathize with those consumer advocates who are unhappy that DeWine on Wednesday rejected all four candidates proposed for a PUCO opening by the agency’s Nominating Council. The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel, the left-leaning policy group ProgressOhio, and the Ohio Consumer Power Alliance all said that two of the candidates on the rejected list would have been good choices. Angela Amos is a policy adviser at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and Gregory Poulos is executive director of Consumer Advocates of the PJM States, a nonprofit group. “Why would Gov. DeWine turn away professionals with extensive utility market expertise who could have brought a fresh start and much-needed perspective to a PUCO that is currently in the shadows of scandal?” demanded Ohio Consumers Power Alliance Director Rachel Belz. It’s a good question; after all, the PUCO vacancy exists only because former Chairman Sam Randazzo, a DeWine appointee, resigned Nov. 20, shortly after the FBI searched his home. The search came after Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., the utility at the center of a $60 million bribery scandal, revealed that it had paid $4 million to a firm owned by a “state official” whose description fits Randazzo. Randazzo has not been charged or even named in the FBI probe, but his appointment to the PUCO was questioned, justifiably, from the start. When DeWine named him in early 2019, environmental and consumer advocates raised alarms because he had done extensive work for FirstEnergy and long had been known as an advocate for utilities and opposed to development of wind, solar and other clean-energy technologies. That’s another reason for DeWine to go out of his way to make a consumer-friendly appointment: The PUCO’s recent history has been one of favoring utilities over consumers. Lawmakers and other public officeholders are supported by FirstEnergy and other utility campaign with contributions large enough to raise questions about the influence wielded by those donors. The matters under investigation by the FBI, related to the passage of House Bill 6 in 2019, are all too clear an example. The FBI charges that former House Speaker Larry Householder and four associates illegally controlled a political action committee funded by FirstEnergy. The money helped Householder win election as speaker and paid for a massive lobbying and media campaign to win passage of the bill – which provides a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear plants owned by a former FirstEnergy subsidiary — and to defeat an effort to overturn the bill by referendum. Lastly, DeWine needs to demonstrate independence from influence by utilities because recent tax records show that FirstEnergy money, channeled through two different dark-money groups, helped fund his 2018 campaign for governor and his daughter’s unsuccessful campaign for Greene County prosecutor.

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