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).
Please share this article – Go to very top of page, right hand side, for social media buttons.
Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
- 25 Apr 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 25April 2021
- 25 Apr 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 25April 2021
Both new Covid cases and US deaths attributed to the virus were lower during the past week. New Covid infections during the week ending April 24th were down 16.3% from during the week ending April 17th, and down 76.7% from the early January peak. US Covid deaths were down 2.0% from the prior week, and down 79.0% from the January peak. New infections in the states that had been leading the early spring surge, including Michigan, New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, have all turned lower.
Meanwhile, both new cases and deaths continue to rise globally, with new cases during the week ending April 24th 8.1% higher than the prior week, and up by 121.6% from the week ending February 20th. This week’s Covid deaths were also 8.1% higher than last week’s globally, and up 52.9% from the March low. India accounted for nearly 38% of new infections globally, whereas Brazil continues to account for nearly a quarter of the deaths. However, new infections in most countries that were contributing to the surge in global cases over the past two months have turned lower, with new cases in France, Italy, Poland and Ukraine all down by more that 10% this week.
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 and decline of this thing looks like (data through April 27):
New cases globally continue to increase. (See Johns Hopkins graph below.) This graphic shows the daily global new cases since the start of the pandemic up through 27 April.
Globally deaths are rising again. (See Johns Hopkins graph below.) This graphic shows the daily global deaths since the start of the pandemic up through 20 April.
Here’s the week’s environment and energy news:
Microplastics found to alter shape of and de-cluster human lung cells -A growing body of research has started to illuminate the widespread impacts of plastic pollution, and the downstream effects of it on the environment and human health. A new study has delved into the kind of damage microplastics can cause to human lungs, with researchers observing changes to the shape of lung cells and a slowdown in their metabolism when exposed to these tiny plastic particles.The research was carried out at Florida State University (FSU) and focuses on small fragments of plastic waste that have broken down in the environment. In the past few years, we’ve seen these microplastics turn up in Antarctic sea ice, near the summit of Mt Everest, in snowfall in the Arctic, and in human stool samples collected all around the world.At the same time, scientists have started to investigate how these tiny particles can impact the health of various organisms, with studies finding they can cause aneurysms in fish, impair shell selection in hermit crabs and build up in plants to stunt their growth. The World Health Organization also launched a health review into the microplastics in bottled drinking water, while in separate but related research last week, plasticizers used in BPA-like plastics were found to likely cause alarming damage to brain cells.For this latest study, the FSU team set out to investigate the health risks of inhaling and ingesting these small particles, by carrying out experiments on human lung cells in a Petri dish that were subjected to environmental concentrations of polystyrene particles. After only a few days, the scientist began to observe some strange changes take pace, finding that the plastic particles caused the cells’ metabolism to slow down and hampered their proliferation and growth.“Microplastics didn’t kill the cells, but the cells were definitely not acting normal,” says study author Kerestin Goodman.The plastics also caused the lung cells to decluster, which created gaps in what would normally be a continuous, solid sheet of cells. Additionally, the team found that the particles were actually taken up by the cells to form a ring around the nucleus in the cell.“We saw this attraction to the nucleus happening after only 24 hours and so now we really want to look at why are these pieces going there and what’s happening once they get there,” says Goodman.
First of its kind study links wildfire smoke to skin disease – Wildfire smoke can trigger a host of respiratory and cardiovascular symptoms, ranging from runny nose and cough to a potentially life-threatening heart attack or stroke. A new study suggests that the dangers posed by wildfire smoke may also extend to the largest organ in the human body, and our first line of defense against outside threat: the skin. During the two weeks in November 2018 when wildfire smoke from the Camp Fire choked the San Francisco Bay Area, health clinics in San Francisco saw an uptick in the number of patients visiting with concerns of eczema, also known as atopic dermatitis, and general itch, compared to the same time of the year in 2015 and 2016, the study found. The findings suggest that even short-term exposure to hazardous air quality from wildfire smoke can be damaging to skin health. The report appears on April 21 in the journal JAMA Dermatology. “Existing research on air pollution and health outcomes has focused primarily on cardiac and respiratory health outcomes, and understandably so. But there is a gap in the research connecting air pollution and skin health,” “Skin is the largest organ of the human body, and it’s in constant interaction with the external environment. So, it makes sense that changes in the external environment, such as increases or decreases in air pollution, could affect our skin health.” Air pollution from wildfires, which consists of fine particulate matter (PM2.5), polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs), and gases, can impact both normal and eczema-prone skin in a variety of ways. These pollutants often contain chemical compounds that act like keys, allowing them to slip past the skin’s outer barrier and penetrate into cells, where they can disrupt gene transcription, trigger oxidative stress or cause inflammation. Eczema, or atopic dermatitis, is a chronic condition which affects the skin’s ability to serve as an effective barrier against environmental factors. Because the skin’s barrier has been compromised, people with this condition are prone to flare-ups of red, itchy skin in response to irritants, and may be even more prone to harm from air pollution.
Undisclosed Ingredients in Roundup Are Lethal to Bumblebees, Study Finds -Commonly used herbicides across the U.S. contain highly toxic undisclosed “inert” ingredients that are lethal to bumblebees, according to a new study published Friday in the Journal of Applied Ecology.The study reviewed several herbicide products and found that most contained glyphosate, an ingredient best recognized from Roundup products and the most widely used herbicide in the U.S. and worldwide.While the devastating impacts of glyphosate on bee populations are more broadly recognized, the toxicity levels of inert ingredients are less understood because they are not subjected to the same mandatory testing by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).”Pesticides are manufactured and sold as formulations that contain a mixture of compounds, including one or more active ingredients and, potentially, many inert ingredients,” explained the Center for Food Safety in a statement. “The inert ingredients are added to pesticides to aid in mixing and to enhance the products’ ability to stick to plant leaves, among other purposes.”The study found that these inert substances can be highly toxic and even block bees’ breathing capacity, essentially causing them to drown. While researchers found that some of the combinations of inert ingredients had no negative impacts on the bees, one of the herbicide formulations killed 96% of the bees within 24 hours.According to the abstract of the study:Bees exhibited 94% mortality with Roundup® Ready‐To‐Use® and 30% mortality with Roundup® ProActive®, over 24 hr. Weedol® did not cause significant mortality, demonstrating that the active ingredient, glyphosate, is not the cause of the mortality. The 96% mortality caused by Roundup® No Glyphosate supports this conclusion.“This important new study exposes a fatal flaw in how pesticide products are regulated here in the U.S.,” saidJess Tyler, a staff scientist at the Center for Biological Diversity. “Now the question is, will the Biden administration fix this problem, or will it allow the EPA to continue its past practice of ignoring the real-world harms of pesticides?”According to the Center for Food Safety, there are currently 1,102 registered formulations that contain the active ingredient glyphosate, each with a proprietary mixture of inert ingredients. In 2017, the group filed a legal petition calling for the EPA to force companies to provide safety data on pesticide formulations that include inert ingredients.”The EPA must begin requiring tests of every pesticide formulation for bee toxicity, divulge the identity of ‘secret’ formulation additives so scientists can study them, and prohibit application of Roundup herbicides to flowering plants when bees might be present and killed,” said Bill Freese, science director at the Center for Food Safety. “Our legal petition gave the EPA a blueprint for acting on this issue of whole formulations. Now they need to take that blueprint and turn it into action, before it’s too late for pollinators.”
Latest Filings in Devastating Lawsuit Against Bank of America, Credit Suisse, and Bayer Board Members and Executives Over Disastrous Monsanto Acquisition – –Yves Smith –Even though Covid has produced clogged courts, cases are still moving forward, including a series of cases using similar, novel legal arguments to storm the barricades of incestuously and poorly managed major European companies. We’ve written the most about Bayer, which is in the dock for its disastrous, executive and banker serving acquisition of Monsanto. Even though the misconduct and the destruction of value has been glaring, European shareholders have an uphill road in trying to gain restitution. However, as we’ll explain below, by virtue of having ADRs and significant US shareholdings and operation, the managements, boards, and advisers to these companies can be hauled into court in the US. And that’s where the fun begins. We’ve posted the latest round of filings, all rejoinders to arguments made by the defendants in the Bayer case. But the Bayer case, like its siblings, are derivative lawsuits, which make for complicated lawyering. So we’ll review the foundations before continuing to the latest round of jousting. […] The original filing did a devastating job of describing why Bayer was so keen to do the horrific Monsanto, and on such terrible terms: the above-mentioned all cash offer, which it funded by borrowing boatloads of debt. Bayer was small enough in the world of ever-growing chemical and Pharma behemoths to make for a nice meal. Acquisitive Pfizer had just had a big deal scuppered for legal reasons, and Bayer’s management worried it might be the next target. It settled quickly on Monsanto despite or one might argue because of its terrible reputation; it served as a poisoned pill. The litany of horrors goes on. Bayer was unable to do proper due diligence by being too close a competitor. Monsanto had to sell a trophy asset for anti-trust reasons….yet Bayer didn’t demand a price adjustment. The acquisition process dragged on long enough that the WHO had named glysophate a probable carcinogen, yet Bayer didn’t beat a retreat. Bayer believed the scientists who insisted that glysophate hadn’t been proven to cause cancer, when the WHO designation was more than enough to set off a tsunami of product liability lawsuits, many of which garnered eye-popping awards (among the ugly facts that came out was that Monsanto employees wore hazmat-type gear when working with glysophate yet made no warnings about the need to wear protective coverings to consumers). Mind you, this is only a partial recap; you can find more gory details here.
Another False Start in Africa Sold with Gates Foundation Green Revolution Myths – Since the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) was launched in 2006, yields have barely risen, while rural poverty remains endemic, and would have increased more if not for out-migration. AGRA was started, with funding from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Rockefeller Foundation, to double yields and incomes for 30 million smallholder farm households while halving food insecurity by 2020. There are no signs of significant productivity and income boosts from promoted commercial seeds and agrochemicals in AGRA’s 13 focus countries. Meanwhile, the number of undernourished in these nations increased by 30%! What went wrong? The continuing Indian farmer protests, despite the COVID-19 resurgence, highlight the problematic legacy of its Green Revolution in frustrating progress to sustainable food security. Many studies have already punctured some myths of India’s Green Revolution. Looking back, its flaws and their dire consequences should have warned policymakers of the likely disappointing results of the Green Revolution in Africa. Hagiographic accounts of the Green Revolution cite ‘high‐yielding’ and ‘fast-growing’ dwarf wheat and rice spreading through Asia, particularly India, saving lives, modernising agriculture, and ‘freeing’ labour for better off-farm employment. Many recent historical studies challenge key claims of this supposed success, including allegedly widespread yield improvements and even the number of lives actually saved by increased food production. Environmental degradation and other public health threats due to the toxic chemicals used are now widely recognized. Meanwhile, water management has become increasingly challenging and unreliable due to global warming and other factors. Half a century later, the technology fetishizing, even deifying AGRA initiative seemed oblivious of Asian lessons as if there is nothing to learn from actual experiences, research and analyses. Worse, AGRA has ignored many crucial features of India’s Green Revolution. Importantly, the post-colonial Indian government had quickly developed capacities to promote economic development. Few African countries have such ‘developmental’ capacities, let alone comparable capabilities. Their already modest government capacities were decimated from the 1980s by structural adjustment programmes demanded by international financial institutions and bilateral ‘donors’ AGRA and other African Green Revolution proponents have had 14 years, plus billions of dollars, to show that input-intensive agriculture can raise productivity, net incomes and food security. They have clearly failed.Africans – farmers, consumers and governments – have many good reasons to be wary, especially considering AGRA’s track record after a decade and a half. India’s experience and the ongoing farmer protests there should make them more so.
Climate Change Could Cause ‘Irreversible Impacts’ to Lake Ecosystems –New research shows that lake “stratification periods” – a seasonal separation of water into layers – will last longer in a warmer climate. These longer periods of stratification could have “far-reaching implications” for lake ecosystems, the paper says, and can drive toxic algal blooms, fish die-offs and increased methane emissions. The study, published in Nature Communications, finds that the average seasonal lake stratification period in the northern hemisphere could last almost two weeks longer by the end of the century, even under a low emission scenario. It finds that stratification could last over a month longer if emissions are extremely high. If stratification periods continue to lengthen, “we can expect catastrophic changes to some lake ecosystems, which may have irreversible impacts on ecological communities,” the lead author of the study tells Carbon Brief. The study also finds that larger lakes will see more notable changes. For example, the North American Great Lakes, which house “irreplaceable biodiversity” and represent some of the world’s largest freshwater ecosystems, are already experiencing “rapid changes” in their stratification periods, according to the study.
Americans Are Most Concerned About Drinking Polluted Water, Survey Says -Americans are most worried about water quality compared to other environmental issues, a new Gallup survey finds. The survey compared six environmental concerns: drinking water pollution; pollution in rivers, lakes andreservoirs; tropical rainforest loss; climate change; air pollution; and plant and animal species extinction. While most Americans showed concern for all of these threats, the majority were most worried about polluted drinking water (56 percent), followed by polluted rivers, lakes and reservoirs (53 percent), Gallup reported.”When it comes to environmental problems, Americans remain most concerned about two that have immediate and personal potential effects,” Gallup noted. “For the past 20 years, worries about water pollution – both drinking water and bodies of water – have ranked at the top of the list. The water crisis in Flint, Michigan,laid bare the dangers of contaminated drinking water and no doubt sticks in the public’s minds.”According to a new study, 61.4 million people in the U.S. did not drink their tap water as of 2018, Asher Rosinger, an assistant professor of biobehavioral health, anthropology and demography at Penn State, wrote in The Conversation.”It’s important not to blame people for distrusting what comes out of their tap, because those fears are rooted in history,” Rosinger explained.Meanwhile, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency surveys found that almost 50 percent of rivers and streams and more than one-third of lakes are polluted and unfit for swimming, fishing and drinking, the Natural Resources Defense Council reported. Without action, concerns over water quality will become increasingly relevant as the demand for fresh water is expected to be one-third greater by 2050 than it is today.Gallup researchers have tracked environmental concerns among Americans since 2000, and water quality worries have consistently ranked high, Gallup noted.
US West prepares for possible 1st water shortage declaration (AP) – The man-made lakes that store water supplying millions of people in the U.S. West and Mexico are projected to shrink to historic lows in the coming months, dropping to levels that could trigger the federal government’s first-ever official shortage declaration and prompt cuts in Arizona and Nevada.The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released 24-month projections this week forecasting that less Colorado River water will cascade down from the Rocky Mountains through Lake Powell and Lake Mead and into the arid deserts of the U.S. Southwest and the Gulf of California. Water levels in the two lakes are expected to plummet low enough for the agency to declare an official shortage for the first time, threatening the supply of Colorado River water that growing cities and farms rely on.It comes as climate change means less snowpack flows into the river and its tributaries, and hotter temperatures parch soil and cause more river water to evaporate as it streams through the drought-plagued American West.The agency’s models project Lake Mead will fall below 1,075 feet (328 meters) for the first time in June 2021. That’s the level that prompts a shortage declaration under agreements negotiated by seven states that rely on Colorado River water: Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming.The April projections, however, will not have binding impact. Federal officials regularly issue long-term projections but use those released each August to make decisions about how to allocate river water. If projections don’t improve by then, the Bureau of Reclamation will declare a Level 1 shortage condition. The cuts would be implemented in January. Arizona, Nevada and Mexico have voluntarily given up water under a drought contingency plan for the river signed in 2019. A shortage declaration would subject the two U.S. states to their first mandatory reductions. Both rely on the Colorado River more than any other water source, and Arizona stands to lose roughly one-third of its supply.Water agency officials say they’re confident their preparation measures, including conservation and seeking out alternative sources, would allow them to withstand cuts if the drought lingers as expected.”The study, while significant, is not a surprise. It reflects the impacts of the dry and warm conditions across the Colorado River Basin this year, as well as the effects of a prolonged drought that has impacted the Colorado River water supply,” officials from the Arizona Department of Water Resources and Central Arizona Project said in a joint statement.In Nevada, the agency that supplies water to most of the state has constructed “straws” to draw water from further down in Lake Mead as its levels fall. It also has created a credit system where it can bank recycled water back into the reservoir without having it count toward its allocation.
Water Wars Are Heating Up Between States — Currently the U.S. Supreme Court has on its docket a case between Texas, New Mexico and Colorado and another one between Mississippi and Tennessee. The court has already ruled this term on cases pittingTexas against New Mexico and Florida against Georgia. . Rising temperatures require farmers to use more water to grow the same amount of crops. Prolonged and severe droughts decrease available supplies. Wildfires are burning hotter and lasting longer. Fires bake the soil, reducing forests’ ability to hold water, increasing evaporation from barren land and compromising water supplies. As a longtime observer of interstate water negotiations, I see a basic problem: In some cases, more water rights exist on paper than as wet water – even before factoring in shortages caused by climate change and other stresses. The situation is most urgent in California and the Southwest, which currently face “extreme or exceptional” drought conditions. California’s reservoirs are half-empty at the end of the rainy season. The Sierra snowpack sits at 60% of normal. In March 2021, federal and state agencies that oversee California’s Central Valley Project and State Water Project – regional water systems that each cover hundreds of miles – issued “remarkably bleak warnings” about cutbacks to farmers’ water allocations. The Colorado River Basin is mired in a drought that began in 2000. Experts disagree as to how long it could last. What’s certain is that the “Law of the River” – the body of rules, regulations and laws governing the Colorado River – has allocated more water to the states than the river reliably provides. The 1922 Colorado River Compact allocated 7.5 million acre-feet (one acre-foot is roughly 325,000 gallons) to California, Nevada and Arizona, and another 7.5 million acre-feet to Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico. A treaty with Mexico secured that country 1.5 million acre-feet, for a total of 16.5 million acre-feet. However, estimates based on tree ring analysis have determined that the actual yearly flow of the river over the last 1,200 years is roughly 14.6 million acre-feet. The inevitable train wreck has not yet happened, for two reasons. First, Lakes Mead and Powell – the two largest reservoirs on the Colorado – can hold a combined 56 million acre-feet, roughly four times the river’s annual flow. But diversions and increased evaporation due to drought are reducing water levels in the reservoirs. As of Dec. 16, 2020, both lakes were less than half full. Second, the Upper Basin states – Utah, Wyoming, Colorado and New Mexico – have never used their full allotment. Now, however, they want to use more water. Wyoming has several new dams on the drawing board. So does Colorado, which is also planning a new diversion from the headwaters of the Colorado River to Denver and other cities on the Rocky Mountains’ east slope.
Cheyenne NWS Warns Of ‘Third Winter’ – The Cheyenne Office of the National Weather Service is warning southeast Wyoming residents to brace for freezing temperatures, snow. and poor travel conditions on Monday [today]:”Good morning all, welcome to third winter! A strong cold front has moved through the region this morning and temperatures are not warming up to the unwelcomed guest. Temperatures today will remain for many near freezing today with snowfall expected this afternoon with best timing of accumulating snowfall in the evening hours. Winter weather headlines still remain slated to go in effect later this morning. For evening commuters, plan for some additional time and space as heaviest snowbands expected in that timeframe later today.”
• Potent cold front will shift south across the region late tonight into Monday.
• Main impact time frame across the region 4am – 9pm Monday from light to moderate snow.
o Periods of brief heavy snow will be possible Monday morning through Monday evening. I-80 Summit likely to see strong northwest winds shifting to the northeast and gusting 30 to 40 mph Monday mid morning through the afternoon.
• Travel will become challenging during the afternoon and evening commutes.
• Snowfall rates will decrease late Monday night and end early Tuesday morning.
• Temperatures will be 15-20 degrees below normal Tuesday morning with lows varying from the single digits in the high terrain and valley floors to widespread teens across the High Plains. Update for upgrading the Winter Storm Watch to a Winter Storm Warning for the Interstate 80 Summit between Cheyenne and Laramie for Monday.
“Record-Shattering Cold” Hits Central US – (maps) An unusually cold front moved into the Central US early this week, spilling Arctic air throughout the Plains, Midwest, and Tennessee Valley. By Wednesday morning, “record-shattering cold” temperatures have been reported. From the Canada – US border to Texas, unseasonably cold air has been recorded. For many states in the Central US, temperatures are over 20 degrees below average. BAMWX meteorologist Kirk Hinz wrote in his latest note that cold air spans from southern Canada to near Mexico on Wednesday morning. He posted a chart of dozens of locations in the Central US that set various cold record lows (some were daily and or monthly records). “The record-breaking cold has settled in this morning across the central US, stretching from near Mexico to southern Canada…as cross-polar flow drops in Arctic levels of frost/freeze temps in the late spring season. Additional record cold pushes east into Thursday morning as well before things start to moderate into the weekend,” Hinz said. “Further west it was colder yes but more records were broken today vs yesterday,” Hinz said. None of this should be surprising to readers as we noted days ago that commodity traders were anticipating a cold spell that was supporting corn prices. We also noted the freezing temperatures could have a profound impact on seedling development this spring. The cold blast has likely delayed seeding across the Corn Belt as farmers wait for warmer temperatures. Planting corn in cooler climates is still possible, but colder soil can take corn kernels much longer to germinate and increases the risk of seedling death. Volatile weather for the Heartland could impact crop yields at the end of this year’s growing season.
Unseasonal, record-shattering cold and snow engulf central and eastern U.S. An unusually cold front swept through the central and eastern U.S. Tuesday, April 20, 2021, bringing chilly conditions and snow all the way to Mid-South. By Wednesday morning, April 21, scores of record cold temperatures were set. The cold is expected to settle in across the eastern half of the country, with a number of record low temperatures possible Thursday, April 22, according to the National Weather Service (NWS).At least 80 million Americans were under freeze or frost alerts from the NWS as a wintry blast engulfed much of the central region Tuesday, bringing unseasonably cool temperatures and snow.”The record-breaking cold has settled in this morning across the central US, stretching from near Mexico to southern Canada as cross-polar flow drops in Arctic levels of frost/freeze temps in the late spring season,” wrote BAMWX meteorologist Kirk Hinz. Record cold temperatures were set by Wednesday morning. Oklahoma City saw -1.1 °C (30 °F), beating the previous daily record of 1.1 °C (34 °F) set in 1966. It was also the latest in the season that Oklahoma has recorded such a reading– the average low this time of the year is 10 °C (51 °F).Kansas City dropped to 1.1 °C (34 °F), which was shy of a record but still below average. Dallas also shivered through below freezing levels, breaking the previous record of 3.9 °C (39 °F) set in 1918. Little Rock registered 2.2 °C (36 °F), smashing the past record of 3.9 °C (39°F) in 1983. Chicago dropped to 1.1 °C (34 °F), while Sioux City fell to -2.7 °C (27 °F) and Sioux Falls -7 °C (19 °F).The wintry blast also brought late-season snow, which first blanketed the Rockies and High Plains on Monday night. In Boulder, Colorado, around 20 to 28 cm (8 to 11 inches) of snow fell across the city overall.In Denver, up to 41 cm (16 inches) of snow fell in the mountains north and west of the city. In Rapid City, up to 0.3 m (1 foot) of snow piled up in the Black Hills.A broad 5 to 10 cm (2 to 4 inches) fell across much of Nebraska, while around 30 cm (12 inches) was recorded in Hays. Kansas City registered its biggest snow late in the season with 9 cm (3.5 inches) of snow.Areas to the east in Illinois and Indiana registered 5 to 13 cm (2 to 5 inches), while up to 18 cm (7 inches) fell in Toledo. In Cleveland, the lake-effect phenomenon boosted snowfall totals, with a number of areas recording 15 cm (6 inches) of snow.Indianapolis was covered by roughly 5 cm (2 inches) of snow– the most it has recorded this late in the season. Meanwhile, Paducah, Kentucky, witnessed its latest snowfall ever recorded. In Louisville, record-breaking snow of 5 cm (2 inches) was also observed Pittsburgh saw snow in a two-hour period on Wednesday that was more than during the past two months. In Upstate New York and northern New England, snow and cold were also felt. Snow was seen as far south as West Virginia and Western Maryland.
Intense hailstorms sweep through Saudi Arabia – -Intense hailstorms and heavy rain lashed parts of Saudi Arabia over the past couple of days, completely covering desert sand in Hail city and Asir region.Meteorologists at the Jordan-based ArabiaWeather network said that the intense hailstorm hit Hail on Saturday afternoon, April 17, with temperatures around 28 °C (82.4 °F).According to the Saudi National Centre for Meteorology, heavy thunderstorms and hailstorms, accompanied by snowfall, also took place in several cities in Asir, including Abha, Khamis Mushait, Tanuma and Al Namas.Saudi Arabia’s Civil Defense called on everyone to remain vigilant as more spring thunderstorms are expected in some regions of the Kingdom.
Widespread flooding hits Mauritius after two months’ worth of rain in a day– Widespread flooding hits M – auritius after two months’ worth of rain in a day Flash flooding spread through southeast Mauritius on Friday, April 16, 2021, damaging homes and leaving many people stranded on roads. Up to 408 mm (16 inches) of rain was registered in Plaisance, which is twice the average April rain for this location. Heavy rainfall began Thursday, April 15, inundating parts of the southeastern region. Local media reported damage to several homes and several people trapped in vehicles. Severe weather continued into Friday, resulting in evacuations. In Bambous Virieux, nine people were rescued from several flooded areas, while schoolchildren were saved in a bus stranded in rising waters. The Mauritius Fire and Rescue Service said they carried out more than 30 emergency operations and assistance. Other affected areas included Vieux-Grand-Port, Petit-Bel-Air, Bois-des-Amourettes, and Plaine Mgagnien. In Petit-Bel-Air, a landslide occurred completely blocked access to a road. In Plaisance, up to 408 mm (16 inches) of rain was recorded, which was twice the average April rain.
Heaviest rainfall in 40 years triggers flash flooding in Singapore – Heavy downpour caused flash flooding in Singapore on Saturday, April 17, 2021, with up to 161.4 mm (6.3 inches) of rain recorded in the western region from 04:25 to 07:25 UTC (12:25 to 15:25 LT). The amount was equivalent to 91 percent of the country’s average April rain and is among the highest in 40 years. Prolonged rainfall on Saturday inundated the country, particularly the western and central areas. Since afternoon, Singapore’s National Water Agency (PUB) had been issuing flood risk warnings for more than 20 areas, including Sime Darby Centre, Bukit Timah Canal (Leng Kwang Baptist Church), and Ulu Pandan Canal.While traffic remained passable in affected areas, it made difficult driving conditions for motorists. Authorities quickly responded to the locations to help drivers, as well as pedestrians. Heavy rains also caused water levels in some drains and canals to surpass 90 percent of their capacity.The heaviest amounts were recorded in the western region, where as much as 161.4 mm (6.3 inches) fell in a three-hour period. This was among the highest amounts recorded in the country in 40 years and corresponds to 91 percent of the average April rain.Singapore’s meteorological service said more rain is expected over the next two weeks.
At least 14 dead, 8 165 displaced after flash floods hit Luanda, Angola – (videos) At least 14 people have died while 8 165 have been displaced after heavy rains caused flash floods in Luanda Province, Angola, on April 19, 2021. Widespread damage was also reported, with up to 1 617 homes flooded. Drainage channels blocked by rubbish reportedly worsened the flooding situation. Heavy downpours caused severe flash flooding in Luanda on April 19, resulting in fatalities and widespread damage. Preliminary figures from the provincial government show that 1 617 homes have been flooded and 16 collapsed. As many as 8 165 people are believed to have been displaced or severely affected.Officials said roads in the south were shut after a bridge over the Camorteiro River was damaged.At least 14 people lost their lives in the onslaught of the severe weather, while two others were injured. Some of the victims were electrocuted or buried under collapsed homes. Five deaths were reported in Luanda, three in Cazenga, and two each in the surrounding municipalities of Cacuaco, Viana, and Kilamba Kiaxi.This was Luanda’s second major flood event in a period of four weeks.On March 16, heavy rain triggered severe flash floods in some areas in Luanda, resulting in at least four fatalities and three people missing, according to the National Civil Protection and Fire Service.Earlier, heavy rain had also affected areas of Angola further south. In Cuanza Sul Province, one person died and two were injured after downpours caused damage in Sumbe City on April 16.
Surigae rapidly intensifies into the first Super Typhoon of 2021 — Typhoon “Surigae” rapidly intensified on April 16 and 17, 2021, into the first Super Typhoon of the year. Surigae — known in the Philippines as Bising — is expected to become a powerful Category 5 typhoon over the next 12 hours, without making landfall over the Philippines. However, because there are still uncertainties in its track, a westward shift in the current forecast track may result in potentially significant impacts over the eastern portions of Southern Luzon and Visayas. Surigae entered the Philippine Area of Responsibility (PAR) at 03:00 UTC on April 16 and became a Category 2-equivalent typhoon over the next 12 hours. As it continued its slow WNW motion toward the Philippines, the typhoon underwent explosive intensification and strengthened to a Category 4-equivalent typhoon by 21:00 UTC on the same day. At 06:00 UTC on April 17, its center was located about 490 km (305 miles) NW of Kayangel. Its maximum 10-minute sustained winds were 185 km/h (115 mph) with gusts up to 260 km/h (160 mph) — making it a Super Typhoon. Maximum 1-minute sustained winds were 240 km/h (150 mph), the minimum central barometric pressure 925 hPa, and the system was moving NW at 20 km/h (15 mph). Before reaching PAR, Surigae brought strong winds and waves up to 6 m (19.8 feet) to Sitaro Islands Regency, Sangihe Islands Regency, the Talaud Islands, and the northern Molucca Sea, Indonesia. Micronesia and Palau issued a Tropical Storm Watch for the island of Yap and Ngulu Atoll on April 14, and later modified it into a Tropical Storm Warning for Ngulu Atoll. Locally heavy rainfall occurred in parts of Palau and Yap for several days. On Thursday, April 15, Surigae dumped 231 mm (9.09 inches) of rain on Koror, Palau’s largest city. In Palau, Surigae brought wind gusts up to 90 km/h (55 mph), causing power outages across the island. Large swells from the developing storm brought coastal flooding to Koror and Yap whose residents were advised to avoid reef lines in the north and west.
Super Typhoon “Surigae” (Bising) forces more than 100 000 to evacuate, Philippines -Typhoon “Surigae” — known in the Philippines as Bising — brought more than 380 mm (15 inches) of rainfall across parts of Samar over the past 24 hours, causing floods and landslides and forcing more than 109 000 people to evacuate. While the rainfall totals in some areas are nearing 1 000 mm (40 inches), the threat is still not over as the storm slowly moves along the NE coast of the country. Surigae is the first Super Typhoon of the year and the strongest April tropical cyclone on record, surpassing the 2015 Typhoon “Maysak”. Its winds rapidly intensified from 145 km/h (90 mph) on Friday, April 16 to 305 km/h (190 mph) and 888 hPa on Sunday, April 18 — in just 36 hours. According to local media reports, sporadic landslides and floods affected Catanduanes, Albay, Camarines Sur, and Sorsogon in the Bicol Region, forcing at least 109 815 people to evacuate. On Monday, April 19, the typhoon continued bringing moderate to heavy, at times intense, rains over the Bicol Region, Northern Samar, Samar, Eastern Samar, Biliran, and the northern portion of Leyte.At 09:00 UTC today, Surigae had maximum sustained winds of 195 km/h (120 mph) and gusts to 240 km/h (150 mph), according to PAGASA. Its center was located about 500 km (310 miles) east of Infanta, Quezon, slowly moving north-northwestward. Tropical Cyclone Wind Signal (TCWS) No. 2 remained hoisted over Catanduanes, the eastern portion of Camarines Sur, the eastern portion of Albay, and the eastern and central portions of Sorsogon, the northern portion of Samar (Santo Nino, Almagro, Tagapul-An, Calbayog City, Santa Margarita, Gandara, Matuguinao, San Jose de Buan, San Jorge, Tarangnan, Pagsanghan, Catbalogan City, Paranas, Jiabong, Motiong, Hinabangan, San Sebastian), and the northern portion of Eastern Samar. TCWS No. 1 was hoisted over the eastern portion of Cagayan, the northern and central portions of Aurora (Baler, Dipaculao, Dinalungan, Casiguran, Dilasag), the eastern portion of Quezon including Polillo Islands, Camarines Norte, the rest of Camarines Sur, the rest of Albay, the rest of Sorsogon, and Masbate including Burias and Ticao Islands, the rest of Samar, the rest of Eastern Samar, Biliran, Leyte, and the northern portion of Cebu (Tabogon, Borbon, San Remigio, Bogo City, Medellin, Daanbantayan) including Bantayan and Camotes Islands. Very rough to very high seas will be experienced over the eastern seaboard of Luzon, and rough to very high seas still prevail over the northern and eastern seaboards of Eastern Visayas. Sea travel is risky for all types of seacraft. Rough to very rough seas remain over the northern and western seaboards of northern Luzon, and the eastern seaboard of Caraga. Rough seas also continue over the remaining seaboards of localities where TCWS are in effect and the eastern seaboard of Davao Oriental. Sea travel is risky for small seacrafts. Moderate to rough seas continue over the western seaboard of Central Luzon. PAGASA advised mariners of small seacraft not to venture out over these waters.
Typhoon “Surigae” (Bising) leaves 3 dead, 230 000 displaced in the Philippines – – – (videos) At least three fatalities have been reported and around 230 000 have been displaced due to the onslaught of Typhoon “Surigae”– locally called Bising– in the Philippines, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council (NDRRMC) reported Wednesday, April 21, 2021. The storm remains at sea but continues to threaten parts of Luzon.Surigae is the first Super Typhoon of the year and the strongest April tropical cyclone on record, surpassing the 2015 Typhoon “Maysak”.According to NASA, when the storm reached Category 5 strength on April 17, “it marked the earliest date in the year that any storm in the Northern Hemisphere had reached such intensity in modern record-keeping.”In a preliminary report by the NDRRMC, casualties were confirmed in Bicol, Central/Eastern Visayas, and Davao Region, with 10 others injured and one missing. Cases are still being validated, it added.Among the fatalities was a 79-year-old man, who suffered blunt head trauma after being hit by an uprooted tree. Another victim, a woman aged 47, died after sustaining major injuries due to a fallen tree. A 19-year-old girl in Hagonoy also died in the same manner.Other injured victims were due to either posts or trees felled by strong winds. Meanwhile, search and rescue operations are ongoing to locate a missing man in San Jose, Northern Samar.”The person went to an island on a boat and was caught in bad weather,” said NDRRMC spokesperson Mark Timbal.The storm has also ravaged the agricultural sector in Bicol and Eastern Visayas, with almost 1 million dollars or 50 million pesos worth of damage.Power was down in 63 towns and cities in Bicol and Central/Eastern Visayas. As of Wednesday, the National Grid Corporation of the Philippines and local electric cooperatives are still working on restoring power in these areas. Around 59 098 families or 229 829 people have been affected in 944 barangays in Bicol, Eastern Visayas, and Caraga regions.Out of these figures, 3 848 families or 15 813 people are being assisted in evacuation centers, while roughly 21 648 individuals are staying with relatives or friends.”It’s possible that within the day or tomorrow (April 22) we’ll start sending them home,” Timbal stated. While the weather has started to gradually improve, stormy weather with strong winds is expected to prevail while the storm remains at sea, threatening parts of Luzon.”The typhoon has yet to leave, it’s still there and we hope that we continue to cooperate with the government. If the LGUs order us to evacuate, let’s not dilly-dally. In the evacuation center, let’s make sure to wear a mask, wash hands, sanitize and observe physical distancing.”
Rare Subtropical Storm “Potira” forms off the coast of Brazil — Subtropical Storm “Potira” formed off the coast of Brazil on Tuesday, April 21, 2021, one month ahead of the start of the North Atlantic hurricane season. It is considered a rare tropical system as it has developed too early in the season and formed in a part of the Atlantic Ocean where such systems rarely take place.According to AccuWeather, Potira can be traced back to a non-tropical disturbance that moved off Brazil’s coast over the weekend, before stalling over the ocean just off the coast.As it lingered over the water, it eventually started to develop and gain some characteristics of a tropical storm. It was ultimately declared a subtropical storm by the Brazilian Navy. The storm is expected to drift south over the next couple of days while maintaining subtropical status. It will likely dissipate without direct impacts on land, except brought surf along the nearby coast. Before Potira, only 14 named tropical systems have formed in the Atlantic south of the equator, a majority of which were subtropical. Only one system has ever had a hurricane status in the South Atlantic — Catarina, which became a Category 2 hurricane before making landfall in Brazil in March 2004. Tropical systems are rare in the southern Atlantic Ocean as the conditions south of the equator are different than they are in the north. One of the major factors is wind shear– when this is low, it allows disturbances to form and likely develop into a hurricane. This disruptive wind is higher in the southern Atlantic compared to the north. “Having strong wind shear, it becomes very difficult to nearly impossible to have the genesis of tropical cyclones,” the National Hurricane Center explained. Another factor is that the water temperature in this region is usually lower, reducing the potential for tropical storm development.
New African Rainforest Map Shows Which Areas Are Most Vulnerable to Climate Crisis – Much of the conversation surrounding the ecological benefits of tropical rainforests focuses on South America’s Amazon. However, the forests of Central Africa are just as important. While the Amazon is the largest contiguous rainforest in the world, Central Africa’s rainforests are the world’s second largest, Nature reported. They store more carbon per hectare than the Amazon and host a higher concentration of large trees than any other continent. They are also under threat. A new study published in Nature on Wednesday maps the different forest types present in Central Africa and pinpoints which are most vulnerable to the climate crisis and human activity.”Africa is forecasted to experience large and rapid climate change and population growth during the twenty-first century, which threatens the world’s second largest rainforest,” the study authors wrote. “Protecting and sustainably managing these African forests requires an increased understanding of their compositional heterogeneity, the environmental drivers of forest composition and their vulnerability to ongoing changes.”To accomplish this goal, a France-based research team examined data concerning six million trees from more than 180,000 field plots in Cameroon, Gabon, the Central African Republic, Republic of the Congo and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, AFP reported.The team mapped the forests based on where different plants thrived.”The forest area of Central Africa is far from being a homogeneous green carpet. It is home to a wide variety of forests with different characteristics, including their own particular carbon storage capacity,” The researchers identified 10 types of forest, according to Nature. These include Atlantic coastal evergreens in Gabon and semi-deciduous forests at the northern edge of the Central African study area. The researchers then compared their map with projections for how the region’s climate is likely to change by 2085.Because the various forest types have evolved over time to thrive in different climate niches, the rise in global temperatures might mean that some trees will be less able to adapt to a changing climate.”[T]he forest margins in the north and south of the region, the Atlantic forests and most of those in the Democratic Republic of Congo, which is home to more than half of Central Africa’s forests, are among the most vulnerable,”
The U.S. joins forces with Norway, Britain and companies like Amazon to save the world’s rainforests – The United States has teamed up with the Norwegian and British governments as well as companies like Amazon and Nestle to launch a project aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions and protecting the world’s tropical forests. On board so far are well-known companies from Airbnb, Bayer and Boston Consulting Group to GlaxoSmithKline, McKinsey, Nestlé, Salesforce and Unilever. Those nine companies have committed to working with the U.S., Norway and Britain to invest at least $1 billion in the plan before the year ends, with more money to come in following years. The private-meets-public effort will hopefully rally the financial support needed in the costly fight against climate change. Called the Lowering Emissions by Accelerating Forest finance (LEAF) Coalition, they will pay countries with tropical and subtropical forests for emissions reductions in an effort to curb deforestation. “The LEAF coalition is a groundbreaking example of the scale and type of collaboration that is needed to fight the climate crisis and achieve net-zero emissions globally by 2050,” said U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry. “Bringing together government and private-sector resources is a necessary step in supporting the large-scale efforts that must be mobilized to halt deforestation and begin to restore tropical and subtropical forests.” The coalition doesn’t have much time to waste in their efforts to stop deforestation, as the situation for tropical forests continues to become increasingly dire. According to LEAF, the pace of deforestation actually picked up in 2020, citing data from Global Forest Watch showing a 12 percent increase from the prior year or more than 10 million hectares of primary tropical forest – roughly the size of Switzerland. “Climate change is the greatest threat to our planet, and the LEAF coalition offers us an opportunity to bring together governments and companies to fight it,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “In uniting behind a common cause, the countries and companies of the coalition have a chance to end deforestation by 2030.”
Climate change is making Indian monsoon seasons more chaotic -If global warming continues unchecked, summer monsoon rainfall in India will become stronger and more erratic. This is the central finding of an analysis by a team of German researchers that compared more than 30 state-of-the-art climate models from all around the world. The study predicts more extremely wet years in the future – with potentially grave consequences for more than one billion people’s well-being, economy, food systems and agriculture. “We have found robust evidence for an exponential dependence: For every degree Celsius of warming, monsoon rainfalls will likely increase by about 5%,” says lead author Anja Katzenberger from the Potsdam-Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) and Ludwig-Maximilian University in Munich, Germany (LMU). “Hereby we were also able to confirm previous studies but find that global warming is increasing monsoon rainfall in India even more than previously thought. It is dominating monsoon dynamics in the 21st century.” More rainfall is not necessarily a good thing for the farming sector in India and its neighboring countries. As co-author Julia Pongratz from LMU explains: “Crops need water especially in the initial growing period, but too much rainfall during other growing states can harm plants – including rice on which the majority of India’s population is depending for sustenance. This makes the Indian economy and food system highly sensitive to volatile monsoon patterns.” Starting in the 1950s, human-made forcings have begun to overtake slow natural changes occurring over many millennia. At first, high sun-light blocking aerosol loadings led to subdued warming and thus a decline in rainfall, but since then, from 1980 onwards, greenhouse gas-induced warming has become the deciding driver for stronger and more erratic Monsoon seasons.
Large coastal landslide at Nefyn Bay in north Wales, U.K. – A large coastal landslide took place at Nefyn Bay in north Wales, U.K. on April 19, 2021. The event was captured on camera by Amanda Stubbs who was there when it started. The landslide happened on Nefyn’s coastline in Gwynedd, taking a large part of the garden on the cliff above. It’s at least 40 m (131 feet) wide, according to eyewitnesses. The police secured the area and advised the public to avoid it until further notice. This area — listed as a ‘subsidence hazard zone’ — is known for its coastal erosion, with a history of large and deadly landslides, including rotational failures, flows, falls, and debris slides. Dr. Dave Petley of The Landslide Blog said the landslide is interesting for its timing during an unusually dry period for the time of the year and for its quite long runoff. “It starts as a small retrogressive slump on the margin of what becomes the main slide. This destabilizes the main mass, which fails through a strongly rotational mechanism. After failure, the mass runs across the beach as a high mobility earthflow,” Petley said. “This landslide has received some attention in the UK, but strangely the most interesting element has not really received much publicity. This is that the landslide was captured on video by a woman, Amanda Stubbs, who was standing at the toe.” Amanda took the video just about 180 meters (200 yards) from her holiday home. “Although I’ve seen the aftermath of many small landslides I have never witnessed one of this scale first hand,” she said. Video courtesy Storyful “It was just frightening,” Sue Cookson told the BBC. “There were a few people around and we just made sure there was nobody under the landslip because we thought there could be.” The noise was quite incredible, Cookson said
Wildfire scorches buildings, leaves two people injured in Cape Town, South Africa – A large wildfire in Cape Town’s Table Mountain National Park (TMNP), South Africa, left several buildings damaged, nine structures destroyed, and two firefighters injured, officials reported Sunday, April 18, 2021. As of Tuesday morning, April 20, crews said the blaze has been ‘largely contained.’In a statement, the TMNP said the fire created its own wind, which further increased its speed. “The excessive amount of smoke and related updrafts made it impossible for the aerial support to slow the rate of spread.”Several buildings were damaged, including the University of Cape Town, wherein a fire spread to the veld above the upper campus. Three buildings in the university were also destroyed.The Jagger Library’s main reading room, where rare African books and manuscripts were kept, was scorched and some of the “priceless” works had been gutted.Six other structures near Woolsack Drive were burned down. Mostert’s Mill, a historic windmill built around 1796, has been badly damaged, according to Jermaine Carelse, spokesperson for the Cape Town Fire and Rescue Services.Around 250 firefighters were deployed on Sunday, along with four helicopters, to combat the massive flame. Two of them were injured but had been taken to the hospital.”Never have I experienced a fire that spread so unpredictably fast,” said a resident named Lisette Lombard. She said she was “trying to outrun the fire,” and made it to safety, but her car had been “destroyed.” After the initial investigation, South Africa’s National Parks said a “vacated vagrant fire” may have caused the blaze. “Due to the extreme Fire Danger Index for today, which is Red with temperatures of 36 °C (96.8 °F) noted and an extremely low relative humidity of under 10 percent, the fire spread rapidly in the direction of Rhodes Memorial.”As of Tuesday morning, Carelse announced that the wildfire has been “largely contained” on its third consecutive day.
Another “Explosive Eruption” Detected At St. Vincent Volcano In Eastern Caribbean – The Caribbean Disaster Emergency Management Agency (CDEMA) reports a volcanic eruption has been detected at La Soufriere on the Caribbean island of St. Vincent Sunday afternoon. “At 4:49 pm on 18/04/21, there was another explosive eruption at LS. It’s been 52 hours since the last explosive event. There have now been at least 30 identifiable explosive events since the start of this eruptive phase. We continue to monitor and will provide an update in this evening’s advisory,” CDEMA stated. SkyAlert, a Mexico-based early earthquake warning company, posted a video of the alleged eruption. It said a “high eruptive column and possible pyroclastic surges,” adding that “thousands of people are still sheltered in lower-risk areas.” The latest explosive eruption showed up on satellite imagery. The latest explosive eruption today on the island of Saint Vincent.#LaSoufriere pic.twitter.com/cmMlQ1UBdh St. Vincent’s National Emergency Management Organization (NEMO) released a statement that “ash clouds are moving towards the south and west of the island. “Alert level remains RED,” NEMO warned.
‘Relentless’ climate crisis intensified in 2020, says UN report -There was a “relentless” intensification of the climate crisis in 2020, according to the UN’s World Meteorological Organization.The coronavirus pandemic made the accelerating impacts of global heating even worse for millions of people. But the temporary dip in carbon emissions due to lockdowns had no discernible impact on atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases, the WMO report said.Last year was ranked as the hottest on record, in a tie with 2016 and 2019, despite the cooling effect of the cyclical natural climate phenomenon, La Niña. Without this, 2020 would most likely have been the hottest year yet. The decade 2011-20 was the hottest on record. Extreme weather events broke records across the world, from hurricanes and cyclones in the US and India, heatwaves in Australia and the Arctic, floods in large parts of Africa and Asia, and wildfires in the US. “All the key climate and impacts information in this report highlight relentless, continuing climate change, an increasing occurrence and intensification of extreme events, and severe losses and damage, affecting people, societies and economies,” said Petteri Taalas, the WMO secretary general. The WMO’s State of the Climate report comes just before a global leaders’ summit, convened by the US president, Joe Biden, and as the UK prepares to host the crucial Cop26 UN climate summit in November, at which urgent action must be agreed to meet the goals of the 2015 Paris agreement, to keep the global temperature increase to well below 2C and 1.5C if possible. In 2020, the temperature was 1.2C above pre-industrial levels. “This is the year for action,” said the UN head, António Guterres. “The climate is changing, and the impacts are already too costly for people and the planet. Countries need to submit, well ahead of Cop26, ambitious plans to cut global emissions by 45% by 2030.” The report, produced by the WMO and partners, found that cuts in food production, transport and economic activity caused by the Covid-19 pandemic exacerbated the effects of extreme weather on communities. It said the temporary fall in new carbon emissions had “no discernible impact” on atmospheric concentrations. The report also found that in 2020:
- 80% of the oceans experienced at least one marine heatwave, while record heat accumulated in the seas, which absorb 90% of heat resulting from human activities.
- Sea ice in the Arctic reached its second lowest minimum on record, while hundreds of billions of tonnes of ice were lost in Greenland and Antarctica, helping to push up sea level.
- Severe flooding hit large parts of Africa and Asia, helping trigger a locust plague in the Horn of Africa.
- Extreme drought affected many parts of South America in 2020, with the estimated farming losses near $3bn in Brazil alone, with further losses in Argentina, Uruguay and Paraguay.
- The largest wildfires ever recorded burned in the US, while Australia broke heat records, including a temperature of 48.9°C in western Sydney.
- The north Atlantic hurricane season had its largest number of named storms on record with 30, and a record 12 made landfall in the US.
- Cyclone Amphan hit India and Bangladesh and was the costliest tropical cyclone on record for the north Indian Ocean, while Typhoon Goni which crossed the Philippines was one of the most intense cyclones ever to hit land.
IEA: Energy Demand and Emissions to Rebound – Global energy demand is set to rebound by 4.6% this year, led by developing economies, after falling by 4% last year, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA). Renewables will see the biggest gains, having already performed strongly during the pandemic (IOD Nov.10’20). But demand for fossil fuels will also grow and drive an alarming increase in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions, according to the IEA’s Global Energy Review for 2021. Demand for power from renewables is set to rise by over 8% in 2021, accounting for more than half of the increase in overall electricity supply worldwide. Demand for fossil fuels will also pick up significantly in 2021, with both coal and gas set to rise above their 2019 levels. Oil demand is also undergoing a strong recovery, but is expected to stay below its 2019 peak as the aviation sector remains under pressure. Emissions Warning The IEA warned that the rebound in fossil fuel consumption will cause the world’s energy-related CO2 emissions to surge by 1.5 billion tons in 2021. That would be the second-largest increase in history and would reverse most of the decline seen in 2020 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. “Unless governments around the world move rapidly to start cutting emissions, we are likely to face an even worse situation in 2022,” said IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. This makes the climate summit to be hosted by US President Joe Biden this week “a critical moment to commit to clear and immediate action” ahead of the UN’s November climate conference in Glasgow, Birol added (IOD Apr.16’21). Blame It on Coal The key driver of the expected rise in emissions is coal, for which demand is set to grow by 4.5% this year, surpassing its 2019 level and approaching its all-time peak from 2014, the IEA said. But among fossil fuels, natural gas is on course for the biggest rise relative to 2019 levels. Demand is set to grow by 3.2% in 2021, propelled by rising demand in Asia, the Middle East and Russia. This is expected to push global demand for gas more than 1% above 2019 levels.
Coronavirus Economic Recovery to Drive Second-Highest CO2 Emissions Jump on Record, IEA Warns –One of the silver linings of the coronavirus pandemic was the record drop in greenhouse gas emissions following national lockdowns. But that drop is set to all but reverse as economies begin to recover, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned Tuesday.Overall energy demand is expected to rise 4.6 percent this year compared to 2020 and 0.5 percent compared to 2019, according to the IEA’s Global Energy Review 2021. Demand for fossil fuels is expected to jump to such an extent that emissions will rise by nearly five percent in 2021. This will reverse 80 percent of the emissions decline reported in 2020, to end emissions just 1.2 percent below 2019 emissions levels. Because the lockdown saw the biggest drop in energy demand since World War II, the projected increase in carbon dioxide emissions will still be the second-highest on record, BBC News pointed out.”This is a dire warning that the economic recovery from the COVID crisis is currently anything but sustainable for our climate,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement reported by AFP.Birol said much of that increase was being driven by the resurgence of coal use. In fact, coal demand is expected to increase by 60 percent more than all forms of renewable energy, according to the report. Overall coal demand is expected to increase by 4.5 percent in 2021. More than 80 percent of that growth is in Asia, and more than 50 percent is in China. While coal use is expected to increase in the U.S. and Europe as well, it will remain far below pre-pandemic levels. Still, global coal use is expected to rise to nearly its 2014 peak, BBC News reported. Natural gas demand is also expected to rise by 3.2 percent in 2021, to put it more than one percent above 2019 levels, according to the report. “What seems to be happening now is that we have a massive deployment of renewable energy, which is good for tackling climate change, but this is occurring alongside massive investments in coal and gas. Stimulus spending post-Covid-19 worldwide is still largely funding activities that lock us into high CO2 emissions for decades.”
IEA issues dire warning on carbon emissions, says Covid recovery anything but sustainable – Energy-related carbon emissions are on track to surge by nearly 5% this year, according to the International Energy Agency, reversing most of last year’s decline caused by the coronavirus pandemic. In the IEA’s Global Energy Review 2021, published Tuesday, the group said global energy-related CO2 emissions were on course to rise to 33 billion metric tons this year, up 1.5 billion metric tons from 2020 levels. It would reflect the single largest increase in emissions since 2010 and the second-largest increase in history. “This is a dire warning that the economic recovery from the Covid crisis is currently anything but sustainable for our climate,” Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, said in the report. “Unless governments around the world move rapidly to start cutting emissions, we are likely to face an even worse situation in 2022,” he added. The report comes at a time when policymakers are under intensifying pressure to deliver on promises made as part of the Paris Agreement. President Joe Biden will hold a virtual summit to discuss the climate emergency with dozens of world leaders this week, with global talks due to be held in Glasgow, Scotland in early November. Yet, even as politicians and business leaders publicly acknowledge the necessity of transitioning to a low-carbon society, hopes of limiting global warming – and meeting a crucial global target – are quickly deteriorating. Almost 200 countries ratified the Paris climate accord at COP21 in 2015, agreeing to limit the increase in the planet’s average temperature to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to cap the temperature rise at 1.5 degrees Celsius. It remains a key focus ahead of COP26, although some climate scientists now believe that achieving the 1.5 degrees Celsius target is already “virtually impossible.” “During the Covid crisis, many people thought human beings would be much more environmentally directed, governments are making one pledge after another, and as a result we would have a cleaner energy system. But the numbers show a completely different picture,” Birol told CNBC’s “Street Signs Europe.” “There is a growing gap between what the governments say, what we read in the papers and so on, and what is happening in real life.”
Despite Tensions, U.S. and China Agree to Work Together on Climate Change – The New York Times – The United States and China have said they will fightclimate change “with the seriousness and urgency that it demands” by stepping up efforts to reduce carbon emissions, a rare demonstration of cooperation amid escalating tensions over a raft of other issues. The agreement, which included few specific commitments, was announced on Saturday night, Washington time, after President Biden’s climate envoy, John Kerry, visited China for three days of talks in which the negotiators managed not to be sidetracked by those disputes.“It’s very important for us to try to keep those other things away, because climate is a life-or-death issue in so many different parts of the world,” Mr. Kerry said in an interview on Sunday morning in Seoul, where he met with South Korean officials to discuss global warming. “What we need to do is prove we can actually get together, sit down and work on some things constructively.”The agreement comes only days before Mr. Biden is scheduled to hold a virtual climate summit with world leaders, hoping to prod countries to do more to reduce emissions and limit planetary warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels. Many scientists now argue that warming must be kept below that threshold to avert catastrophic disruptions to life on the planet.China’s leader, Xi Jinping, is among those who have been invited to the virtual summit. While he has yet to publicly accept the invitation, the agreement with Washington appeared to make his participation more likely.On Friday, Mr. Xi said China remained committed to climate goals he had announced last fall, including a promise that its carbon emissions would peak before 2030. At the same time, Mr. Xi suggested that the world’s most advanced nations had a responsibility to take the lead in making deeper cuts.In what seemed to be a retort to the United States, he warned that the climate issue should not be “a bargaining chip for geopolitics” or “an excuse for trade barriers.” “This is undoubtedly a tough battle,” Mr. Xi said in a conference call with President Emmanuel Macron of France and Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, according to an account of the meetingissued by the Chinese foreign ministry.“China is sure to act on its words, and its actions are sure to produce results,” he went on. “We hope that the advanced economies will set an example in momentum for emissions reductions, and also lead the way in fulfilling commitments for climate funding.”Chinese officials and the state news media noted Mr. Kerry’s visit but markedly played it down, focusing instead on Mr. Xi’s meetings. But in the joint statement with the United States, the Chinese government pledged to do more on climate, though without detailing any specific steps.The statement said that both countries would develop “long-term strategies” to reach carbon neutrality – the point when a country emits no more carbon than it removes from the atmosphere – before the next international climate conference in November, in Glasgow. In a joint statement after the White House meetings between Mr. Biden and Mr. Suga, the United States and Japan said they intended to reach carbon neutrality by 2050 by promoting renewable energy sources, energy efficiency and storage, and through innovations in capturing and recycling carbon from the atmosphere.
Blinken says US falling behind China as global leader on climate change – Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday said the U.S. is falling behind China on being a global leader in confronting climate change, part of a push by the Biden administration to invest in infrastructure and technology as a national security and environmental imperative. “It’s difficult to imagine the United States winning the long term strategic competition with China if we cannot lead the renewable energy revolution. Right now, We’re falling behind,” Blinken said in remarks delivered at the Chesapeake Bay Foundation headquarters in Annapolis, Maryland. The Biden administration has identified China as the greatest national security challenge of the 21st century and the president has warned that China’s President Xi Jinping views autocracy as the wave of the future. Blinken warned that China’s distinction as the largest producer and exporter of renewable energy technology – like solar panels, wind turbines, batteries, electric vehicles and holding a third of renewable energy patents – threatens the stake of the U.S. in these markets. “If we don’t catch up, America will miss the chance to shape the world’s climate future in a way that reflects our interests and values, and we’ll lose out on countless jobs for the American people,” Blinken said. Blinken’s speech served as an introduction ahead of President Biden virtually hosting 40 world leaders – including the Chinese leader – this week for a global summit on climate change, expected to take place on April 22 and 23. The secretary’s remarks also fall in line with the Biden administration’s efforts to better sell to middle-class Americans the benefit of U.S. engagement on the world stage with allies and in multilateral organizations. It is an effort to counter former President Trump’s “America First” foreign policy that was critical of cooperating in global forums and often relied on bilateral, often transactional agreements to achieve policy goals. Blinken’s speech also underscored the push by the administration to invest $2 trillion domestically in infrastructure and technology, as a way to reduce the U.S.’s own greenhouse gas emissions and become a leader in the export of such products and technologies to other countries. “Every country on the planet has to do two things – reduce emissions and prepare for the unavoidable impacts of climate change. American innovation and industry can be at the forefront of both,” Blinken said, adding that by 2040, the world will face a $4.6 trillion infrastructure gap in this area. Blinken said the administration is putting the “climate crisis” at the center of its foreign policy and national security, and that the first priority is to prevent catastrophe and natural disasters, which contribute to humanitarian crises, are drivers of migration and contribute to armed conflict.
China’s Xi Agrees to Take Part in Biden’s Climate Summit – Chinese leader Xi Jinping accepted an invitation from U.S. President Joe Biden to join a summit on climate change, one area where the two countries are cooperating despite frosty ties on other issues.Xi will attend via video link on Thursday, China’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement Wednesday. China hopes the conference promotes “a global joint response to climate change,” ministry spokesman Wang Wenbin said at a regular briefing in Beijing. He repeated that the Asian nation is ready to cooperate with the U.S. on the basis of mutual respect.Washington and Beijing are at odds over a range of issues, from allegations of forced labor in Xinjiang and China’s tightening political grip over Hong Kong to U.S. efforts to curb China’s role in supply chains. Xi used a speech Tuesday to the Boao Forum on Asia to challenge Washington’s global leadership, saying the world needed “justice, not hegemony.”Still, the two nations have shown they’re eager to work together to tackle climate change. A joint statement released after U.S. climate envoy John Kerry visited Shanghai last week said Washington and Beijing would supportimplementation of the Paris Agreement and promote a successful United Nations climate change conference in Glasgow this year.“China maintains an open attitude when it comes to climate cooperation and welcomes dialogue,” said Zhang Monan, senior fellow at the U.S.-Europe Institute at the China Center for International Economic Exchanges, a think tank in Beijing.“However, if countries continue to pressure China or adopt confrontational and non-cooperative tactics, then China will address this with corresponding actions,” she said.Xi met German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Emmanuel Macron last week for a virtual climate conference. The European leaders welcomed his renewed commitment for China to achieve CO2 neutrality by 2060, a spokeswoman for Merkel said, and the three also discussed the coronavirus pandemic and global vaccine supplies.Washington dropped out of the Paris climate accord under the Trump administration, and China has been critical of the move. The Chinese Foreign Ministry said during Kerry’s visit that the U.S. is to blame for delaying the agreement’s progress.The U.S. is preparing to host 40 world leaders at the summit on Thursday and Friday. The virtual conference will bring together 17 countries responsible for 80% of global emissions and gross domestic product, the White House said.Biden will pledge to cut U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions by at least half by the end of the decade, the Washington Post reported, citing two people briefed on the plan.
Biden to Pledge Climate Aid for Developing Nations Next Week – The Biden administration is set to announce next week a plan for distributing billions of dollars more in aid to help developing nations adapt to global warming and embrace clean energy, according to people familiar with the matter.The Treasury Department will deliver a blueprint for the spending as President Joe Biden prepares to convene the leaders of up to 40 nations in a climate summit Thursday, said the people, who asked for anonymity before a formal announcement.The finance plan is part of a rush of actions as the administration seeks to prove to the world that the U.S. is back in the global fight against climate change. The president is also preparing to issue anexecutive order addressing the financial risks posed by climate change and to vow to cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions in half by the end of the decade from 2005 levels. Rich countries pledged in 2009 that by 2020 they’d collectively devote $100 billion annually to climate finance but have fallen far short. As the country responsible for the lion’s share of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere today, the U.S. is under pressure to loosen its purse strings.“What America does on climate finance really will set the tone for the rest of the world,” said Joe Thwaites, an associate with the World Resources Institute’s Sustainable Finance Center.“An ambitious pledge from the U.S. is going to unlock more ambition on climate finance from other countries,” Thwaites said, citing the Group of Seven industrial countries. “The rest of the G7 knows that the pressure is on, but they’re all waiting to see what the U.S. does here.”
Biden climate summit offers empty spectacle — President Joe Biden convened a global summit of leaders from 40 countries Thursday, in a two-day event filled with empty promises from the world’s largest producers and consumers of fossil fuels that they will change and do better – by 2030, or 2050, or 2060, or some deadline even further down the road. As for a genuine global plan to tackle the dangers of global warming and climate change, that is nowhere to be found, since the affairs of world capitalism are determined by two factors: the profit interests of giant corporations and the super-rich, and the strategic interests of rival nation-states. Both these fundamental characteristics of world capitalism prevent an event like the global summit from having any real significance.For the Biden administration, the event was a step toward the reassertion of “American leadership” on the issue of climate change, which was abandoned during the Trump administration, when US policy was subordinated to the outright denial of climate change that is the prevailing politics of the Republican Party. Trump withdrew from the Paris Climate Accord, an action which Biden has reversed, while appointing former Secretary of State John Kerry as his climate envoy to the world. The claim of global leadership was somewhat compromised by Biden’s performance Thursday morning, when he addressed the leaders of 40 countries, including China, Russia, India, Japan, Germany, France and Britain, as though he was speaking to an election rally of AFL-CIO bureaucrats in Pittsburgh. He began by declaring, “I see an opportunity to create millions of good-paying, middle-class, union jobs,” and went on to cite the supposed benefits of his policies for electrical workers, oilfield workers, coal miners, autoworkers and construction workers. Biden went from there to emphasizing the critical importance of slowing global warming, declaring that the current decade is “the decisive decade” according to scientists. “This is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of a climate crisis. We must try to keep the Earth’s temperature to an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius.” But while warning about the implications of an increase beyond 1.5 degrees, in terms of “fires, floods, droughts, heat waves, and hurricanes tearing through communities,” he echoed all previous US presidents and their counterparts worldwide in insisting on reliance on “the private sector,” i.e., the capitalist class. At times, Biden’s remarks were so incoherent that it was doubtful they could have been scripted, although he was reading from a teleprompter.
‘Yellen picks investor as Treasury climate czar, sparking backlash from the left – Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Monday faced intense criticism from the left after naming a former private equity investor to be the department’s first-ever climate counselor, a high-profile position that will be key to the agency’s sweeping efforts to combat climate change. Yellen’s pick, John Morton, is returning to government after most recently serving as a partner at the climate-focused investment firm Pollination. He earlier worked in the Obama White House as senior director for energy and climate change at the National Security Council, and as a private equity investor with Global Environment Fund. In an announcement, Treasury said Morton will lead the department’s new “climate hub,” which Yellen is establishing to coordinate climate-focused work across the agency, including at divisions in charge of domestic finance, international affairs and tax policy. He will report directly to Yellen. “Climate change presents new challenges and opportunities for the U.S. economy,” Yellen said Monday. “The steep consequences of our actions demand that the Treasury Department make climate change a top priority.” But news of Yellen’s pick immediately riled environmental activists who want the Biden administration to take a harder line with Wall Street firms that finance fossil fuel producers. Many of them had been urging Treasury to hire former Treasury deputy secretary and Federal Reserve governor Sarah Bloom Raskin, who has been calling for greater regulation of financial firms’ climate-related activities. “Stopping U.S. banks, insurers and asset managers from fueling climate risk will require decisive use of every available regulatory tool and the experience to outmaneuver Wall Street pushback,” said Jason Opeña Disterhoft, climate and energy senior campaigner with Rainforest Action Network. “By choosing someone with no regulatory track record, the Biden administration looks to have stumbled at the first hurdle.” Jeff Hauser, who leads the watchdog group Revolving Door Project, said that Morton has “moved between public service and private business, including private equity, several times.”“As a serial revolver without financial regulatory experience, John Morton is not fit for this job,” Hauser said.
Haaland asks for funding to fight climate change, aid Native Americans ~ In her first congressional hearing as the leader of the Interior Department, Secretary Deb Haaland fielded questions from members of a U.S. House spending panel Tuesday on the major conservation and energy initiatives that President Joe Biden has outlined. She was noncommittal about some contentious and high-profile items of deep interest to Western states, like the pause on new oil and gas leases and the permanent location of the Bureau of Land Management headquarters. But Haaland did urge the subcommittee to send her department robust spending for next fiscal year and longer-term jobs programs.Increased funding for Interior in fiscal 2022, which begins Oct. 1, could help combat climate change, speed a transition to clean energy and provide resources to Native American communities, Haaland told the House Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee.Congress could also take a first step toward funding a Civilian Climate Corps and other Interior-related programs that are part of the jobs and infrastructure proposal the administration released earlier this month. While federal agencies have at points throughout their history engaged in only nominal consultation with tribes, Biden has committed to meaningful tribal consultation on issues that affect them, she said.The administration’s initial budget request called for $17.4 billion in spending for Interior programs, a 16% increase for the department over the last year of President Donald Trump’s administration. A more detailed request is expected later this spring.In the absence of specific line items, Republicans on the panel raised concerns about two of the administration’s major initiatives at the department: Its goal of conserving 30 percent of U.S. land and water by 2030 and its pause of new leases for oil and gas development on federal lands.“The 30 by 30 rule, that scares the life out of us in the West,” Rep. Chris Stewart, R-Utah, told Haaland, adding that he assumed most of the acreage needed to reach that goal would come from Western states.Subcommittee ranking Republican David Joyce, of Ohio, said he worried the 30 by 30 plan would block natural resource extraction and “sustainable, responsible use” on large swaths of land throughout the country, and that the acreage goal would mean a focus on vast Western lands and dissuade people in other parts of the country from doing their part for conservation.
How a Physicist Became a Climate Truth Teller – Barack Obama is one of many who have declared an “epistemological crisis,” in which our society is losing its handle on something called truth. Thus an interesting experiment will be his and other Democrats’ response to a book by Steven Koonin, who was chief scientist of the Obama Energy Department. Mr. Koonin argues not against current climate science but that what the media and politicians and activists say about climate science has drifted so far out of touch with the actual science as to be absurdly, demonstrably false.Mr. Koonin is a Brooklyn-born math whiz and theoretical physicist, a product of New York’s selective Stuyvesant High School. He would teach at Caltech for nearly three decades, serving as provost in charge of setting the scientific agenda for one of the country’s premier scientific institutions. Along the way he opened himself to the world beyond the lab.From deeply examining the world’s energy system, he also became convinced that the real climate crisis was a crisis of political and scientific candor. He went to his boss and said, “John, the world isn’t going to be able to reduce emissions enough to make much difference.” His thoughts seem to be governed by an all-embracing realism. Hence the book coming out next month, “Unsettled: What Climate Science Tells Us, What It Doesn’t, and Why It Matters.”“I’ve been building models and watching others build models for 45 years,” he says. Climate models “are not to the standard you would trust your life to or even your trillions of dollars to.” Younger scientists in particular lose sight of the difference between reality and simulation:For the record, Mr. Koonin agrees that the world has warmed by 1 degree Celsius since 1900 and will warm by another degree this century, placing him near the middle of the consensus. Neither he nor most economic studies have seen anything in the offing that would justify the rapid and wholesale abandoning of fossil fuels, even if China, India, Brazil, Indonesia and others could be dissuaded from pursuing prosperity.The public now believes CO2 is something that can be turned up and down, but about 40% of the CO2 emitted a century ago remains in the atmosphere. Any warming it causes emerges slowly, so any benefit of reducing emissions would be small and distant. Everything Mr. Koonin and others see in the science suggests a slow, modest effect, not a runaway warming. If they’re wrong, we don’t have tools to apply yet anyway. Decades from now, we might have carbon capture – removing CO2 directly from the atmosphere at a manageable cost.Even John Kerry, Joe Biden’s climate czar, recently admitted that Mr. Biden’s “net-zero” climate plan will have zero effect on the climate if developing countries don’t go along (and they have little incentive to do so). Mr. Koonin hopes that “a graceful out for everybody” will be to see the impulse for global climate regulation “morph into much more impactful local environmental action: smog, plastic, green jobs. Forget the global aspect of this.”
The Recycling Industry in America Is Broken – Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. According to The National Museum of American History, this popular slogan, with its iconic three arrows forming a triangle, embodied a national call to action to save the environment in the 1970s. According to Forbes, the Three R’s sustainability catch-phrase, and the recycling cause it bolstered, remain synonymous with the U.S. environmental movement itself. There’s only one problem: despite being touted as one of the most important personal actions that individuals can take to help the planet, “recycling” – as currently carried out in the U.S. – doesn’t work and doesn’t help. Turns out, there is a vast divide between the misleading, popular notion of recycling as a “solution” to the American overconsumption problem and the darker reality of recycling as a failing business model. When it was first introduced, recycling likely had altruistic motivations, Forbes reported. However, the system that emerged was never equipped to handle high volumes. Unfortunately, as consumption increased, so too did promotion of recycling as a solution. The system “[gave] manufacturers of disposable items a way to essentially market overconsumption as environmentalism,” Forbes reported. Then and now, “American consumers assuage any guilt they might feel about consuming mass quantities of unnecessary, disposable goods by dutifully tossing those items into their recycling bins and hauling them out to the curb each week.”. In fact, consumerism was at an all-time high in January 2020 before the pandemic hit, Trading Economics reported.Turns out, consumers were misled – by the oil and gas industry. News reports from September 2020 revealed how the plastic industry-funded ads in the 1980s that heralded recycling as a panacea to our growing waste problem. These makers of virgin plastics were the biggest proponents and financial sponsors of plastic recycling programs because they created the illusion of a sustainable, closed-cycle while actually promoting the continued use of raw materials for new single-use plastics. Generations of well-meaning Americans since the 1970’s and ’80’s – believing these communications masterminds – have dutifully used-then-recycled plastics and other materials. They trusted that their discards would be reborn as new goods instead of ending up in oceans and landfills. Starting Jan. 1, 2018, China banned imports of most scrap materials because shipments were too contaminated, The Times reported; the country no longer wanted to be the “world’s garbage dump.”As a result, the U.S. and other Western nations who had relied on China to offload their recyclables saw a“mounting crisis” of paper and plastic waste building up in ports and recycling facilities, The Times reported. The Western nations began sending recyclable waste to other Southeast Asian countries like Vietnam, Indonesia, India and Malaysia. These countries often lacked the infrastructure to handle recyclables, so a lot of the waste ended up incinerated or landfilled.
Reps. Ocasio-Cortez and Bush Introduce Green New Deal for Cities –In the latest of a flurry of proposed Green New Deal legislation, Reps. Cori Bush and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Monday introduced the Green New Deal for Cities Act of 2021, a $1 trillion plan to “tackle the environmental injustices that are making us and our children sick, costing us our homes, and destroying our planet.”If approved, the bill would provide federal funding for state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to respond to the climate crisis, while creating hundreds of thousands of jobs in communities disproportionately affected by economic inequality.”St. Louis and communities across the nation need the Green New Deal for Cities,” Bush (D-Mo.) said in a statement introducing the bill. The St. Louis native added that Black children in her city “are 2.4 times more likely than white children to test positive for lead in their blood, and are 10 times more likely to visit the emergency room for asthma each year than white children.””Black neighborhoods host the majority of the city’s air pollution sources,” Bush continued. “And there is a nuclear waste site – the West Lake Landfill, which is a catastrophe-in-progress.” “This legislation would make sure every city, town, county, and tribe can have a federally funded Green New Deal,” she added. “This is a $1 trillion investment to tackle the environmental injustices that are making us and our children sick, costing us our homes, and destroying our planet.”
Controversial chicken waste biorefinery moves forward in Sussex County – A unanimous vote from the Sussex County Council pushed forward plans to expand the Perdue AgriRecycle facility near Seaford, Del., for the purpose of converting chicken industry waste products into energy. The council voted 5-0 Tuesday for Cambridge-based Bioenergy Devco’s conditional use application for the newly renamed Bioenergy Innovation Center in Seaford, which project proponents say will produce sustainable energy and healthy soil products from organics that sometimes go to waste. The project will add an anaerobic digester, which breaks down matter using microorganisms at industrial scale, to the existing 220-acre composting facility. The operation will be permitted to process 200,000 metric tons of chicken waste products – like heads, offal and feathers – per year. Capturing the gas from the byproducts in the digester and reselling it as a value-added product keeps the gas out of the air, where it would act as a greenhouse gas contributing to climate change, project managers said. Previously, the project garnered positive votes from the Sussex County Planning and Zoning Commission despite robust opposition from citizen commenters. “Not only will the facility reduce land application and poultry organics from going into landfills, but it will also turn these organics into renewable natural gas and digestate an organic, a virtually odorless soil amendment.” Those opposed to the project cited concerns about the dangers of natural gas, increased local truck traffic, communication from the company, and creating reliance on energy produced from an industry with a checkered environmental track record. Additionally, detractors opposed the siting of the expansion in an area of the county zoned for agricultural and residential uses. “The scheme … (poses) significant risks to public health, safety and environmental justice concerns,” states a release from the nonprofit advocacy organization Food and Water Watch.
Cargill, Love’s announce Nebraska venture to produce renewable diesel (Reuters) – Cargill and Love’s Family of Companies announced Tuesday they have entered into a joint venture to produce and market renewable diesel in the United States.The companies will construct a new production plant in Hastings, Nebraska, that will produce about 80 million gallons annually of renewable diesel, a cleaner fuel which can be made from natural fats, vegetable oils, and greases that can power vehicles with diesel engines.The venture will be the only project of its kind to both produce and market renewable diesel all the way to the retail pump, the companies said in the announcement. Many tools and strategies for disease control commonly found on swine farms today are direct results of the Awards for Advancing Research in Respiratory Disease (AWARRD).A growing number of companies, including oil refiners, have announced investments in renewable diesel over the last year. Companies can earn credits from producing the fuel through state and federal clean fuel incentive programs.As part of the joint venture, Cargill, based in Minnesota, will provide tallow as a feedstock. Once the fuel is produced, Musket, the commodity trading and logistics arm for Oklahoma City-based Love’s, will transport and market the product.The venture, called Heartwell Renewables, will employ at least 50 full-time positions in Hastings, the announcement said. The plant is due to start operating in spring of 2023.“The Heartwell Renewables facility presents an exciting combination of agriculture and renewable energy that will create new jobs and continue to grow our state’s economy,” said Nebraska Governor Pete Ricketts in the announcement. (Reporting by Stephanie Kelly. Editing by Mark Potter.)
Refiner Valero: U.S. Renewable Diesel Stocks Are Running Low – The U.S. renewable diesel market is hot – so hot, in fact, that one of the feedstocks for the highly profitable renewable fuel is running low, according to Valero.That feedstock – used cooking oil, or rather, “waste oil” – is considered less carbon intense than vegetable oil when it comes to making renewable diesel. And this makes it a highly profitable enterprise for those companies hoping to earn trading credits under California’s low-carbon fuel standard (LCFS).In fact, those incentives, which include a $1/gallon blender’s credit, are the main catalyst for the commodity.At the start of the pandemic, when gasoline demand in the United States tanked, several refiners took that time of slack demand to retool their refineries to process used cooking oil – instead of crude oil. At a time when demand was soft, those sizable federal and state incentives looked pretty enticing. Of course, many of those projects could take years.Even without those projects coming online, that feedstock is in such high demand that the United States is “close to being tapped out right now”, Martin Parish, senior vice president of alternative fuels at Valero said on its Q1 earnings call on Thursday, according to Reuters.Compared to crude oil, the used cooking oil market is small, but that doesn’t mean it is without impact. An estimated 21.4 million barrels of renewable diesel are used in the United States each year. And if all the renewable diesel refinery projects announced last year come online as planned, it could mean a removal of 300,000 bpd of would-be crude oil feedstock from the market, according to an August 2020 Reuters analysis.Valero is one of those companies looking to expand its renewable diesel operations – in St. Charles, Louisiana. It hopes to beef up its production capacity by 400 million gallons per year – but the shortage of cooking oil means it will have to rely on other, less LCFSy feedstocks such as animal tallow and distillers corn oil to produce its renewable diesel.
DOE Pledges $162MM to Decarbonize Cars and Trucks – The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) has announced two new funding opportunities, totaling more than $162 million, “to improve efficiency and reduce carbon emissions among cars, trucks, and off-road vehicles”.The programs comprise the SuperTruck 3 funding opportunity and the Low Greenhouse Gas Vehicle Technologies (LGGVT) funding opportunity. As part of the SuperTruck 3 prize, the DOE Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy’s (EERE) Vehicle Technologies Office (VTO) and Hydrogen and Fuel Cell Technologies Office are partnering to offer up to $100 million in funding over four years. This funding will go towards pioneering electrified medium- and heavy-duty trucks and freight system concepts that achieve higher efficiency and lower emissions, the DOE outlined. EERE initially launched the SuperTruck initiatives in 2009, which aimed to improve heavy-duty truck freight efficiency by 50 percent, while the follow-up SuperTruck 2 in 2016 sought to double fuel efficiency for 18-wheeler trucks.As part of the LGGVT funding opportunity, VTO is offering up to $62.75 million for innovative solutions to reduce emissions and increase efficiencies for on- and off-road vehicles. The funding will support the expansion of electric vehicle (EV) infrastructure and charging, along with community-level EV demonstrations that can lower barriers to EV adoption, the DOE highlighted.“Getting to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 means we must aggressively cut down the largest source of emissions; the transportation sector,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer M. Granholm said in a DOE statement.“DOE’s first two SuperTruck initiatives led the biggest truck makers in the American semi market to take massive leaps in fuel efficiency. This new funding triples down on that progress with a push towards electrifying trucks of all sizes, along with efforts to expand EV charging access and develop low-emission car engines,” Granholm added.
The new U.S. plan to rival China and end cornering of market in rare earth metals – The United States has made previous attempts to reemerge as a dominant player in a rare earths supply chain that is responsible for some of the most important materials involved in electric vehicle production, battery making, renewable energy systems and technology manufacturing. Under the Biden administration, the effort is receiving renewed focus, with massive investments planned in climate change technology and a hard line being taken on geopolitical rivalries and the national security threat posed by China.In 2019, China was responsible for 80% of rare earths imports, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, although exports fell last year in part due to Covid-19.President Biden’s sweeping $2 trillion infrastructure legislation seeks to remake the power and transportation markets in the U.S. and rebuild the country’s semiconductor industry. It follows Biden signing an executive order in February designed to review gaps in the domestic supply chains for rare earths, medical devices, chips and other key resources, and in March the Department of Energy announcing a $30 million initiative that will tap into researching and securing the U.S. domestic supply chain for rare earths and other important minerals in battery-making such as cobalt and lithium. “It’s absolutely correct there is a cornering of the market with lithium and other rare earths,” Biden climate envoy John Kerry recently said at a CNBC Evolve summit on the future of energy innovation. But efforts in the recent past to rival China in the rare earths market and rebuild a domestic industry have been stymied.”It’s technically possible to t ry and rebuild the entire supply chain because we once had it,” says Jane Nakano, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic International Studies’ Energy Security and Climate Change Program. “It’s not that we’re not experienced, it’s not that we have no idea of what the domestic supply chain may look like,” Nakano said, but she added that business, environmental and political factors may make the effort difficult to achieve, especially over a short-time frame. Success is dependent on whether the U.S. can quickly scale up processing and refining after the mining of the resources, and compete on cost with a magnet-making and processing market that’s heavily dominated by China. Once extracted from mines, rare earths are shipped to separation facilities, where they are separated from other minerals. Then rare earths are individually separated into oxides, metals and finally magnets that are used in everything from missiles to wind turbines, medical devices, power tools, cellphones and motors for hybrid and electric vehicles. Domestic efforts to extract rare earths are taking place in states including Wyoming, Texas and California, but the recent past provides cautionary tales, such as Molycorp, which reopened the longstanding Mountain Pass mine in California in the early 2000s, only to go bankrupt in 2015.
Take the Train: France Moves to Ban Short-Haul Domestic Flights – Jerri-Lynn Scofield –The French National Assembly voted to ban short-haul domestic flights on routes where the train journey takes less than two and a half hours. Connecting services are not affected.Reuters reported:The measure is part of a broader climate bill that aims to cut French carbon emissions by 40% in 2030 from 1990 levels, though activists accuse President Emmanuel Macron of watering down earlier promises in the draft legislation.The National Assembly vote is the first of three necessary steps before the ban may become law. According to Reuters:Saturday night’s vote in the National Assembly was the first. The bill goes to the Senate before a third and final vote in the lower house, where Macron’s ruling party and allies dominate.The slowdown in air travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic made it easier to press for this measure at this time, as did the French government’s recent investment of further bail-out funds in Air France. Per the BBC:Saturday’s vote came days after the French government more than doubled its stake in Air France. The government had previously offered €7bn ($8.3bn, £6bn) in loans to help the airline weather the pandemic, although France’s economy minister said at the timethe funding was dependent on the airline scrapping some of its domestic flights.In a curiously snippy piece, Treehugger pointed out that there’s a bit less here than meets the eye,It’s making news all over the world as an effort to reduce carbon emissions, but there is actually less to this than it seems.
- President Emmanuel Macron’s Climate Convention citizens panel recommended a four-hour limit (PDF in French) but that got watered down, leaving the biggest and most popular flights, like Paris to Nice or Toulouse, in place. This has outraged the environmentalists and the Green Party. However, the unions and the socialists are angered by the ban because of the “disproportionate human cost” and job losses in the aviation industry. (In French politics, everyone is always outraged.)
- The French government already forced Air France to abandon short routes in its recent $8.3 billion bailout deal; the ban really is designed to keep Air France’s low-cost competitors from grabbing the routes. As Leo Murray, the co-founder of climate charity Possible, noted in an op-ed for The Guardian: “The partly state-owned airline complained that the ban should apply to other airlines too.” A cynic might point out that the government is protecting its investment.
EU carbon price hits record high above 45 euros a tonne – The price of benchmark European Union carbon permits rose to a record high of 45 euros ($54) a tonne on Tuesday, increasing costs for polluters. The contract for EU Allowances (EUAs) was up nearly 2% at 45.12 euros a tonne by 1429 GMT, its highest since the EU’s Emissions Trading System (ETS) was launched in 2005. New podcast: Full Comment with Anthony Furey will go where other media outlets won’t Tracker dslogo The EU ETS is the 27-country bloc’s main tool to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change. It forces power plants, factories and airlines running European flights to buy a permit for each tonne of CO2 they emit, effectively putting a price on pollution. In the power sector, it has helped to make coal plants uneconomic, compared with less-polluting gas plants or renewables. Last week the European Commission said emissions regulated by the carbon market fell by 13.3% last year, as pandemic restrictions stifled economic activity and grounded flights. However, success in cutting emissions has taken time and carbon prices dropped to nearly zero in 2007 during the financial crisis. They have been rising sharply since the European Union agreed last year to toughen its climate targets, which will increase demand for permits to emit. The European Commission is expected to publish details in June on how the carbon market will be reformed to help achieve the tougher target, which is expected to lead to greater demand and scarcity of carbon allowances.
US power sector is halfway to zero carbon emissions – New research from the Department of Energy’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) analyzes historical trends to examine how much progress the power sector has already made in reducing emissions. The study, “Halfway to Zero: Progress towards a Carbon-Free Power Sector,” looks back at the 2005 Annual Energy Outlook from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), the U.S. government’s official agency for data collection and analysis.”Business-as-usual projections saw annual carbon dioxide emissions rising from 2,400 to 3,000 million metric tons (MMT) from 2005 to 2020,” said Berkeley Lab scientist Ryan Wiser, lead author of the study. “But actual 2020 emissions fell to only 1,450 MMT. The U.S. cut power sector emissions by 52% below projected levels – we are now ‘halfway to zero.'”According to the study, relative to projected values, total consumer electricity costs were 18% lower; costs to human health and the climate were 92% and 52% lower, respectively; and the number of jobs in electricity generation was 29% higher.From technological advances to policy, the study identified the main drivers from the last 15 years that contributed to lower carbon emissions in the U.S. power sector. Total demand for electricity was almost exactly the same in 2020 as it was in 2005, and was 24% lower than projected fifteen years earlier. “This drop in demand was due in part to sectoral and economic changes, but also to greater energy efficiency driven by policies and technology advancement,” said Wiser.The researchers found that wind and solar power dramatically outperformed expectations, delivering 13 times more generation in 2020 than projected. This is also a result of technology development and state and federal policies, as prices plummeted for new wind and solar technologies. In addition, nuclear generation has largely held steady, tracking the past projections and helping to ensure no backsliding in carbon emission.The study found that switching from coal to natural gas for power generation played a big role in lowering carbon emissions. Natural gas generation grew rapidly, driven by the shale gas revolution and low fuel prices.The researchers also found that changes over the last 15 years had numerous other economic and environmental benefits. For example, total electric bills for consumers were 18% lower in 2020 than previously projected by EIA, for a total savings of $86 billion per year. According to the study, reduced sulfur and nitrogen emissions led to lower health impacts, such as respiratory disease, with premature deaths falling from 38,000 to 3,100 per year. “Compared to the business-as-usual projection, not only did the nation significantly reduce its carbon footprint, but it did so while also reducing total energy bills and health burdens,”
‘World’s most powerful tidal turbine’ gears up for operation– A tidal turbine weighing 680 metric tons and dubbed “the world’s most powerful” has been launched from the Port of Dundee in Scotland, marking another significant step forward in the development of the U.K.’s marine energy sector. In an announcement Thursday, Scottish firm Orbital Marine Power said its 2 megawatt (MW) turbine, the Orbital O2, would now be towed to the Orkney Islands, an archipelago north of mainland Scotland, for commissioning.The plan is for the turbine to then be connected to the Orkney-based European Marine Energy Centre, where it will become operational.Construction work on the O2, which has a length of 74 meters and uses 10 meter blades, began in the second half of 2019. Orbital Marine Power said its launch marked “the completion of the turbine build.”According to the firm, the turbine is able to produce enough electricity to meet the needs of approximately 2,000 U.K. homes each year. Orbital’s CEO, Andrew Scott, described the launch as a “huge milestone” for his company.Orbital Marine Power’s announcement comes a day after Mocean Energy, which is also based in Scotland, said its wave energy prototype, Blue X, would undertake sea trials at an EMEC test site next month before being deployed at another site in the summer. The machine weighs 38 metric tons and is 20 meters long.With miles and miles of coastline, the U.K. is home to a number of projects and initiatives related to marine energy.Earlier this month, for example, it was announced that a year-long research project focusing on the potential of tidal, wave and floating wind technologyhad secured support from Marine-i, a program centered around innovation in areas such as marine energy.The project will be based on the Isles of Scilly, an archipelago located off the southwest coast of England, and led by Isles of Scilly Community Venture, Planet A Energy and Waves4Power.And back in March, the Port of London Authority gave the go ahead for trials of tidal energy technology on a section of the River Thames, a move which could eventually help to decarbonize operations connected to the river.While interest in marine-based energy systems appears to be growing, the current footprint of the industry and its technologies remains small.Recent figures from Ocean Energy Europe show that only 260 kilowatts (kW) of tidal stream capacity was added in Europe last year, while just 200 kW of wave energy was installed.By contrast, 2020 saw 14.7 gigawatts (GW) of wind energy capacity installed in Europe, according to industry body WindEurope.
Firm plans line to bring future wind energy ashore in NJ (AP) – A Massachusetts company plans to build a high-voltage line to bring electricity from a future New Jersey offshore wind farm onto land, and connect it to the power grid. Anbaric, of Wakefield, Massachusetts, has already obtained several permits from New Jersey environmental regulators for what it calls its Boardwalk Power Link project. It is a 1,200 megawatt transmission line that would connect to an as-yet unspecified wind farm off the New Jersey coast. The line would come ashore in Keyport, in northern Monmouth County on the Raritan Bay, and would run underground along highways for nearly 21 miles (33 kilometers) into Middlesex County where it would connect to a new substation. That substation would be located next to an existing high-capacity power plant in South Brunswick, where power from the offshore wind would be connected to the electrical grid. “As offshore wind began to progress in New Jersey, it became extremely clear that there were going to be opportunities to bring all this energy onshore,” said Janice Fuller, the company’s mid-Atlantic president. It would not connect to the state’s first offshore wind development, Ocean Wind, a 98-turbine wind farm planned for an area off Atlantic City. Rather, it will be available for other wind farms, which are considered highly likely to be built in New Jersey, which has set ambitious goals for wind power development. Gov. Phil Murphy has committed New Jersey to developing at least 7,500 megawatts of wind energy by 2035, enough to power more than 3.2 million homes.
By supporting community solar farms, Ohio will help family farmers, and their neighbors – Like many in Ohio, my family is weighing our desires for independence and financial stability as we chart the future of our small farm. We want a property plan that puts our land to good use and turns a reasonable amount of work into a stable income. Building a community solar farm provides the future we’re hoping for, but families like mine can’t do so without a change in Ohio law.To see why, it’s helpful to understand what it would take to create a community solar installation on my family’s property. An energy supplier would lease a section of our farm for 20 years (a little less than the lifetime of a solar panel). Beyond our written agreement and an occasional meeting, they would handle the entire process, from the paperwork, to the installation, to the final removal of the panels. In fact, the lease would include a legal guarantee that they would remove the solar equipment when it expired, so our land could be returned to whatever use we saw fit. At a going rate of $800 to $1,000 per acre per year in other states, leasing property for a community solar installation is a financially sound choice for our family. There is one problem, though: Ohio utilities law does not allow other homeowners to buy the power produced by a solar farm on our land. Under current state law, my parents can only produce as much power as they consume. Those who want to reap the benefits of clean, cheap, local power, but don’t have the means to produce it themselves, are usually out of luck. This legal state of affairs hurts not only the farmers and others who host community solar, but also the individuals and businesses who benefit from the power source, as well as the electricians who work to bring the solar farms to life. The restrictions on solar are even worse when compared to the lack of production controls on other energy sources. Many landowners enjoy the benefits of unlimited consumption and sale of oil and gas from their land. In contrast, current law limits solar installations based on past electric bills in a way that discourages people from becoming truly energy independent. If a homeowner wants to change their heating source to rely on only the electricity they generate themselves, they cannot install the solar panels in advance. Ironically, one solar provider suggested increasing our allowed solar capacity by installing air conditioning and wasting electricity! That ridiculous logic is a sign of a system in need of reform.
DOE launches 100-day grid security push as Biden ends Trump ban on some Chinese-made equipment -The U.S. Department of Energy and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday announced a 100-day plan to address “persistent and sophisticated threats” to the nation’s electric grid, including a “voluntary industry effort” to deploy technologies to secure industrial control system (ICS) and operational technology (OT). DOE also announced it is revoking a prohibition order issued in 2020, that blocked utilities supplying critical defense facilities from procuring some types of bulk power system equipment from China. And, the agency has issued a new Request for Information (RFI) seeking recommendations for securing U.S. energy system supply chains. The RFI will focus on “preventing exploitation and attacks by foreign threats,” according to DOE, and is part of a larger, coordinated effort to secure energy sector supply chains. Electric utilities say they welcome the White House’s new cybersecurity push to secure ICS technology, “given the sophisticated and constantly changing threats.” “We view cybersecurity as a shared responsibility between industry and government,” Tom Kuhn, president of the Edison Electric Institute (EEI), said in a statement. The group represents investor-owned utilities. EEI and its member companies coordinate on security issues through the CEO-led Electricity Subsector Coordinating Council (ESCC), said Kuhn. “The ICS effort announced today is complementary to other ESCC initiatives already underway, and shows the industry’s willingness to collaborate on new, creative approaches that enhance security,” he said. “The White House is leading the effort – in close coordination with the private sector and its partners.” Those partners include DOE’s Office of Cybersecurity, Energy Security, and Emergency Response (CESER). Outlining its security initiative, DOE said that over the next 100 days CESER “will continue to advance technologies and systems that will provide cyber visibility, detection, and response capabilities for industrial control systems of electric utilities.”
China could save $1.6 trillion by replacing coal with clean energy, report finds – China could stand to benefit economically if it can successfully replace coal with renewable energy, according to a report by financial analytics company TransitionZero. The study looked at the costs, or savings, that the Chinese government would incur if it replaced its existing coal-fired power plants with zero-carbon alternatives. “What we found is China could save $1.6 trillion by doing that,” said Matthew Gray, co-CEO of TransitionZero, a London-based firm. “There’s a huge economic incentive for China to get off coal,” he told CNBC’s “Capital Connection” on Thursday. China last year pledged to bring its total greenhouse emissions to a peak by 2030 and achieve net-zero emissions by 2060. Gray said that will require an “orderly transition” – but that’s “something that we’re not seeing at the moment,” he pointed out. Coal accounted for 56.8% of China’s energy consumption in 2020, according to official national data. The country is also the world’s biggest emitter of carbon dioxide. Research firm Rhodium Group said China’s greenhouse gas emissions increased 1.7% in 2020 to reach 14,400 million metric tons. “We estimate that is the equivalent of the total annual emissions of nearly 180 of the world’s lowest-emitting countries combined,” analysts wrote in the note. They’re going to have to shut down those coal-fired power plants by 2040 or shortly thereafter, and that is going to be a huge challenge. Gray said the first thing China needs to do is stop investing in new coal-fired power plants, noting that they are “long-life assets” that may still be in operation in 40 years’ time. “Anything built now – if China is to meet its net-zero target – will need to be shut down prematurely and therefore be a stranded assets risk problem,” he said. According to data from the Global Energy Monitor (GEM), there are 1,082 coal-fired power plants operating in China. Additionally, 92 plants are under construction and 135 are in the pre-construction phase.
Mississippi Power to retire 976 MW of fossil fuels by 2027 – Mississippi Power plans to retire the majority of its fossil steam fleet, the utility announced in a Friday filing of its 2021 integrated resource plan (IRP). The retirements would shut down 976 MW of its nearly 1.5 GW of gas and coal steam units. The Mississippi Public Service Commission identified that 950 MW of coal- or gas-fired steam turbines were uneconomic and not needed for grid reliability and asked the utility to shutter the units by the end of 2027. The utility would retain more efficient fossil fuel resources that were more economic to dispatch over gas or coal steam units in 2020. Natural gas combined-cycle units became a larger portion of the utility’s energy production amid lower gas prices and declining load growth in recent years, the utility wrote in its IRP. This was the first time Mississippi Power modeled solar and battery options into its models as part of a generic expansion plan, the utility wrote, and it included high electrification of transportation as well as high adoption of demand-side management and distributed energy resource alternatives into its modeling scenarios. The utility modeled scenarios that assumed increasing prices on greenhouse gas emissions and a carbon dioxide intensity scenario that would impose a shrinking annual cap on emissions. But the utility’s modeling of 10 scenarios assuming increased electrification, higher levels of DER, and some form of carbon reduction policy would apply to resource changes in 2031 and beyond, while its more immediate plans would retire nearly 1 GW of extra fossil fuel resources by the end of 2027. Mississippi Power said the fossil steam units it plans to retire at Plant Watson, Greene County and Plant Daniel represented 24% of utility generation in 2020. The staggered retirements would allow the Southern Co. subsidiary to address the local economic and employment impacts of retiring the units, as the Mississippi Public Service Commission directed in a Dec. 17, 2020, order. The utility would keep Watson Unit 5, a gas steam unit with 516 MW in generation capacity. The 2021 IRP scenarios concluded it had a higher economic value than the Daniel coal unit, “primarily due to continued declines in long-term natural gas price forecasts.”
Mine workers union endorses Biden energy policies in exchange for job training – The United Mine Workers of America leadership announced Monday they support President Joe Biden’s green energy policies in exchange for a robust transition strategy, a move the union hopes its membership will support as a way to transition toward new jobs. Fearing further regulations from the Biden administration, the UMWA is pleading with Congress to invest in the industry by allocating funds to training and “good paying jobs” with benefits in renewable energy sectors for miners dislocated by the changes. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.V., the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is joining the union for its announcement Monday morning. “We’re trying to, first of all, insert ourselves to the extent that we can in this conversation because our people, a lot of coal miners in this country, their families have suffered already some traumatic losses,” UMWA President Cecil Roberts told NBC. For many miners, it’s going to be a hard sell. “It’s not fair to take somebody’s job away from them and push them into another career,” Ryan Cottrell, a miner and union member in Harrison County, West Virginia, said in a phone interview. “I love my job. I wouldn’t trade it for anything in this world. And I hope coal is continued to be mined for years after I’m gone.” Progressives in Congress are putting pressure on Biden, the self-proclaimed “most pro-union president,” and he faces a tough decision between preserving jobs in industries like coal and shifting to cleaner power sources. The coal industry has faced a steep decline for decades, with nearly half of mining jobs since 2012 gone as the tug of war between environmental activists and fossil fuel companies continues to play out. The union is also asking Congress and the Biden administration to invest in technologies that would make coal cleaner in order to help preserve the industry, such as carbon capture – something that remains controversial with environmental groups who say it leads to leakages and contamination and would rather invest funds in renewable energy sources. “Don’t fix something that isn’t broke, make it better. Instead of ‘let’s fix the problem with the coal,’ it’s like, they don’t want to do that. They want to kill it. They just want to wipe us out – well when they’re doing that, they’re causing states to go under and West Virginia is one of them,” said Cottrell, who has been working the midnight shift in coal mines for the last decade so he can spend time with his wife and two children. Cottrell says the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations, like those enacted under the Obama administration, affect miners more than people realize. “I’m scared I’m going to lose my job every day – somebody taking my job from me, for the company not being able to produce coal safely and efficiently due to the regulations.” In his $2 trillion infrastructure plan, Biden proposed a sweeping investment in green energy such as wind, solar and other renewable energy projects. In an effort to help fossil fuel workers transition to new jobs, the plan also includes billions of dollars to employ dislocated utility workers in the coal, oil and gas industries. Today, coal is still significant to the economy in coal-producing states like West Virginia, and pays on average $75,000 – well above the median income. “I have no doubt that President Biden wants to create good paying union jobs, but currently, the jobs that are being discussed here are not good paying union jobs. They’re a fraction of what a coal miner makes,”
Mine Workers’ Leader Wants To Save Last Coal Jobs As Biden Tackles Climate – United Mine Workers of America President Cecil Roberts said he’s been hearing the term “just transition” tossed around for more than 20 years as part of the long-running, nearly Sisyphean discussion about climate change, clean energy, and coal country. Simply put: he’s not a fan. “I ask anybody who has been uttering those two words over the last 30 years – point to one, one ‘just transition’ in this country,” Roberts challenged. “And you can’t.” The West Virginia native is the UMWA’s second-longest serving leader, behind only the legendary John L. Lewis. But unlike Lewis, who served during the coal industry and union’s height of power and influence, Roberts’ tenure coincides with an epic decline in coal production and employment in the U.S., and now, what could be the closing chapter for coal. Coal employment has dropped by more than half in the past decade. More than 60 mining companies have declared bankruptcy, coal-fired power power plants are closing ahead of schedule, and the number of hourly coal workers is now at the lowest point since the government began tracking such numbers. Now, a Democratic president who has organized labor’s support is pressing ahead with an ambitious clean energy agenda to combat climate change. At a “climate change summit” this week, timed to coincide with Earth Day, President Joe Biden is expected to announce a goal to cut greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030. Roberts fears that could bring an end to the remaining 44,100 or so coal mining jobs. The administration has pledged to invest in coal communities as it reduces fossil fuel dependence. “We have to act on climate change,” White House Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy pledged in a March interview with the Ohio Valley ReSource, “but we also have to act to make sure that there’s no worker and no community left behind.” Roberts is not persuaded. “It’s one thing to want these things to happen, but it’s another thing for those things to materialize,” he said. “People in Appalachia believe that there’ll be the second coming of the Lord before they see a ‘just transition,’” he said. So Roberts is using the leverage he has – including a close relationship with his fellow West Virginian, Sen. Joe Manchin – in order to sway Biden’s policies to allow room for coal and win support for coal communities. In a joint appearance with Manchin on Monday, Roberts laid out broad principles that he thinks should be included in the administration’s climate and energy policy, including robust support for the controversial technology known as carbon capture and sequestration, targeted tax credits and loans for coal country jobs, and additional support for displaced miners.
India may build new coal plants due to low cost despite climate change – India may build new coal-fired power plants as they generate the cheapest power, according to a draft electricity policy document seen by Reuters, despite growing calls from environmentalists to deter use of coal.Coal’s contribution to electricity generation in India fell for the second straight year in 2020, marking a departure from decades of growth in coal-fired power. Still, the fuel accounts for nearly three-fourths of India’s annual power output. Environmental activists have long rallied against India adding new coal-fired capacity. Solar and wind energy prices are falling to record lows, which would help the world’s third-largest greenhouse gas emitter cut emissions.U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry this month said India was “getting the job done on climate, pushing the curve,” as he began talks with government leaders aimed at cutting carbon emissions faster to slow global warming.But a 28-page February draft of the National Electricity Policy (NEP) 2021 – which has not been made public – showed India may add new coal-fired capacity, though it recommended tighter technology standards to reduce pollution.”While India is committed to add more capacity through non-fossil sources of generation, coal-based generation capacity may still be required to be added in the country as it continues to be the cheapest source of generation,” the NEP draft read.
Utility and fossil fuel interests still ahead in Ohio under House Bill 6 – Utilities, fossil fuel interests and nuclear plants are still reaping advantages over clean energy in Ohio, despite last month’s repeal of part of the law at the heart of an alleged $60 million corruption scandal.A federal complaint released last July alleged an unlawful conspiracy to elect lawmakers who would favor Rep. Larry Householder as House speaker, secure passage of House Bill 6 and defend it against a referendum. More than $56 million went from FirstEnergy, FirstEnergy Service Company or FirstEnergy Solutions (now Energy Harbor) directly or indirectly to Generation Now, the primary dark money group at thecenter of the alleged scheme, or to other entities alleged to have played roles, according to a court filing by FirstEnergy in March.Calls for a full repeal of HB 6 began last summer, with clean energy advocates also pushing for action to redress legislative moves that had hampered industry growth for at least seven years.A surgical repeal of HB 6’s nuclear subsidies and utility decoupling charges was finally signed into law on March 31, eight months after the federal government released its criminal complaint. Energy Harbor (formerly FirstEnergy Solutions) indicated last December that it might want an option to decline the money in any case.“It’s clear we haven’t seen the end of the ongoing HB 6 investigation,” said Miranda Leppla, vice president of energy policy for the Ohio Environmental Council Action Fund. As she sees it, “the rest of HB 6 was only able to pass because of the corrupt actions identified by the FBI. There is no excuse for leaving the remaining pieces of HB 6 on the books – especially when they are making our air quality worse, putting clean energy jobs at risk, and causing our electric bills to rise.”It’s unclear what the partial repeal’s impact, if any, will be on Energy Harbor, now separated from FirstEnergy. Company spokespeople did not respond to requests for comment for this story.The piecemeal repeal may be “destined to backfire if the goal is to take the heat off state lawmakers,” suggested Dave Anderson, policy and communications director for the Energy and Policy Institute. Soon, “you’ll basically have a full year where every time there’s a new revelation about the details of the corruption scandal, the question is going to be why they didn’t repeal it outright.”For the time being, HB 6 continues to tip the scales in favor of utilities and fossil fuel interests. To the extent that it and other pending bills might suppress growth in Ohio’s clean energy sector, nuclear plants arguably benefit as well.
.