Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666
This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at GEI (but can be posted at other times).
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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:
- 30 May 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 30May 2021
- 30 May 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 30May 2021
Last Sunday saw the lowest number of US Covid cases in over a year, and most states have rolled back the Covid related restrictions they once had in place. So it’s not surprising that disease related news is getting harder to come by. New US cases over the week ending May 29th were 22.4% lower than the prior week, and were only 8.1% of the new infections during the peak week of January; furthermore, we’d have to go back to March 2020 to find a week with fewer new cases than this one. US deaths attributed to Covid this week were down 9.1% from a week earlier, while the Covid death rate was still at 15.1% of the January peak. This week’s Covid deaths were also still a bit higher than the week ending July 4th a year ago.
Globally, new cases during the week ending May 29th were 15.9% lower than during the week ending May 22nd, and down 38.6% from the late April peak; however, they’re still higher than any week of February and the first three weeks of March of this year. Global Covid deaths were down 8.1% week over week, and down 17.2% from the peak at the end of April.
Again, new Covid cases are falling most everywhere except in a handful of South American and south Asian countries. Of those, most notable this week was that with a 42% increase, new cases in Columbia were higher than those in the US (but still below those of Brazil and Argentina). Moreover, even though new cases in India were down 26% week over week, they still had more new cases this week than Brazil, Argentina, Columbia, the US, Iran, France, Russia, Turkey, Malaysia, and Nepal – the next ten highest countries – combined.
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 June 1):
New cases and deaths data globally are shown in the Johns Hopkins graphics below (first two graphics).. These graphics shows the daily global new cases (red) and deaths (white) since the start of the pandemic up through 01 June. The third graphic shows the cummulative total vaccine doses delivered to date.
Here’s the week’s environment and energy news (Ohio corruption stories at the end):
Global Spread of the Highly Pathogenic H5N8 Avian Influenza Virus Is a Serious Public Health Concern – The emergence and global spread of the highly pathogenic H5N8 avian influenza virus (AIV), a pathogen that has caused continuous and ongoing outbreaks with massive mortality in both wild and farmed birds across Eurasia and Africa throughout 2020, represents a considerable public health concern – particularly considering the first human cases of H5N8 infection were first reported last December. In a Perspective, Weifeng Shi and George Gao discuss the emergence and zoonotic potential of the H5 AIV lineages. Shi and Gao argue that vigilant surveillance and rigorous infection control measures for these emerging viruses are critical to avoid further human spillovers that could result in new and devastating pandemics.Perhaps overshadowed by the ongoing global COVID-19 pandemic, over the past year, H5N8 infections in both wildfowl and poultry have been identified in at least 46 countries across Europe, Asia, and Africa. While these outbreaks have led to the death or slaughter of many millions of birds worldwide, they’ve also notably resulted in at least one spillover event in Russia, where seven poultry farm workers tested positive for H5N8 virus. According to the authors, the rapid global spread of this AIV and its demonstrated ability to cross the species barrier, transmitting to humans, makes it a major concern to not only farming and wildlife security, but also global public health. Shi and Gao suggest that the surveillance of highly pathogenic AIVs in poultry farms, live markets, and wild birds must become a global priority.
New Coronavirus Threat to Humans Identified: Virus Appears to Have Jumped From Dogs to Humans – Researchers have discovered a new coronavirus, found in a child with pneumonia in Malaysia in 2018, that appears to have jumped from dog to human. If confirmed as a pathogen, the novel canine-like coronavirus could represent the eighth unique coronavirus known to cause disease in humans. The discovery also suggests coronaviruses are being transmitted from animals to humans more commonly than was previously thought. “We are missing them because most hospital diagnostic tests only pick up known human coronaviruses.” Working with visiting scholar Leshan Xiu, a Ph.D. student, Gray was on a team that in 2020 developed a molecular diagnostic tool to detect most coronaviruses from the Coronaviridae family that includes SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19. The team used that tool to examine 301 archived pneumonia cases and picked up signals for canine coronaviruses from eight people hospitalized with pneumonia in Sarawak, a state in East Malaysia. Researchers at Ohio State, led by Anastasia N. Vlasova, grew a virus from one of the clinical specimens, and through a painstaking process of genome reconstruction, were able to identify it as a novel canine coronavirus. “There are probably multiple canine coronaviruses circulating and spilling over into humans that we don’t know about,” Gray said. Sarawak could be a rich place to detect them, he said, since it’s an equatorial area with rich biodiversity. “Many of those spillovers are dead ends, they don’t ever leave that first human host,” Gray said. “But if we really want to mitigate the threat, we need better surveillance where humans and animals intersect, and among people who are sick enough to get hospitalized for novel viruses.”
Lead levels in urban soil are declining but hotspots persist – – Decades after federal bans ended widespread use of lead in paint and gasoline, some urban soils still contain levels of the highly toxic metal that exceed federal safety guidelines for children, a Duke University study finds. To conduct their study, the researchers analyzed and mapped soil lead concentrations along 25 miles of streets in Durham, N.C., a city of about 270,000 people. They found that while soil lead levels have generally decreased since the 1970s, they have decreased much less near residential foundations than along streets. The researchers collected soil samples near foundations of houses built before 1978. Samples within a meter of the older homes averaged 649 milligrams (mg) of lead per kilogram (kg) of soil, more than three times the average level detected near streets, which was 150 mg/kg. EPA guidelines say exposure to soil lead concentrations above 400 mg/kg is associated with potential long-term health risks to children, including possible damage to the brain and nervous system, slowed growth and development, learning and behavior problems and hearing and speech problems. “Urban soil processes are driving lead concentrations down over time, but it’s alarming that lead levels in some locations — typically older, poorer neighborhoods — still far exceed safe levels decades after leaded gasoline and lead paint were phased out,” said lead author Anna Wade, a postdoctoral researcher at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and a 2020 Ph.D. graduate of Duke’s Nicholas School of the Environment. The Duke team shared its findings with Durham public health groups and plans to conduct similar mapping studies in five or six other cities nationwide.
Trump EPA Officials Hid Threats of Toxic Dicamba Herbicide, IG Report Shows —A new report released Monday by a federal oversight agency revealed that before former President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency reapproved use of dicamba in 2018, high-ranking officials in the administration intentionally excluded scientific evidence of certain hazards related to the herbicide, including the risk of widespread drift damage.The Office of the Inspector General found that the 2018 decision by the EPA‘s Office of Pesticide Programs to extend registrations for three dicamba products “varied from typical operating procedures.”Specifically, according to the IG report, “the EPA did not conduct the required internal peer reviews of scientific documents,” which paved the way for “senior-level changes to or omissions” of research detailing the drift risks of the weed-killer.While “division-level management review” of pesticide safety documents is typical, staff scientists at the EPA told the IG that senior leaders were “more involved in the 2018 dicamba decision than in other pesticide registration decisions.” In addition, “staff felt constrained or muted in sharing their concerns,” the government watchdog’s report noted.”Now that the EPA’s highly politicized, anti-science approach to fast-tracking use of this harmful pesticide has been fully exposed, the agency should cancel dicamba’s recent approval, not try to defend it in court,” Stephanie Parent, a senior environmental health attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in response to the new report.”The EPA knows that anything less is likely to result in yet another summer of damaged fields and lost profits for farmers choosing not to use dicamba,” Parent added.Over the past four years, dicamba products sprayed “over the top” of soybean and cotton crops genetically engineered to resist the herbicide have “caused drift damage to five million acres of soybeans as well as orchards, gardens, trees, and other plants on a scale unprecedented in the history of U.S. agriculture,”according to the Center for Food Safety and the Center for Biological Diversity.Recent research also indicates that dicamba endangers human health. Last year, a team of epidemiologistsfound that use of the weed-killer can increase the risk of developing numerous cancers.
Federal Judge Nixes Proposed Monsanto Glysophate Settlement, Deepening Black Hole for Bayer –Today we are providing an update on an effort to settle a large group of pending and potential cases. The short version is that this effort, like an earlier attempt, was rejected by a Federal judge in the Northern District of California. We’ve embedded his order at the end of this post..To catch you up on this sorry story,…[…]… Now to Jerri’s background on this round of settlement talks:In June 2020, Bayer agreed to a $10.9 billion settlement (see my earlier post, Bayer Agrees to $10.9 Billion Glyphosate Settlement). Bayer faced liability for about 125,000 lawsuits throughout the United States. The settlement included between $8.8 billion and $9.6 billion set aside to settle claims brought by lawyers representing some 95,000 plaintiffs. For the remaining 30,000 potential glyphosate plaintiffs who had yet to file lawsuits, the original settlement included $1.25 billion to cover their claims, and a controversial provision to allow a specially-created scientific panel to decide whether glyphosate causes cancer and at what levels, thus taking that decision away from future juries. Bayer and other litigants would nonetheless be bound by the panel’s determination in future proceedings. In July the presiding federal district court judge, Vince Chhabria, disallowed the controversial provision of the settlement, and Bayer withdrew the part of its original settlement proposal that focused on future lawsuits. Bayer has since sweetened its settlement offer, setting aside $2 billion for these claims. The plaintiffs agreed to these settlement terms and this proposal is now pending before Judge Chhabria for preliminary approval (see Reply Brief Filed in Support of Motion for Preliminary Approval of Proposed Class Settlement). A hearing on this proposal is scheduled for May 19, according to Agri-Pulse, Roundup verdict of $25M upheld by federal appeals court.As you can see from the order below, the judge nixed the new and improved proposed settlement. Childrens Healh Defense provided a decent high level summary: The federal judge overseeing nationwide Roundup litigation today denied Bayer’s latest attempt to limit its legal liability from future cancer claims associated with its glyphosate-based herbicides, citing numerous “glaring flaws” in a settlement proposed to apply to Roundup users who develop cancer in the future. Saying parts of the plan were “clearly unreasonable” and unfair to cancer sufferers who would be part of the class settlement, U.S. Judge Vince Chhabria castigated Bayer and the small group of lawyers who put the plan together in conjunction with Bayer. He pointed out that the company has been “losing trials left and right” in claims brought by people suffering from non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) who alleged exposure to Monsanto’s Roundup and other glyphosate-based herbicides were the cause. The “reason Monsanto wants a science panel so badly is that the company has lost the ‘battle of the experts’ in three trials, the judge wrote in his order. “At present, the playing field on the issue of expert testimony related to causation is slanted heavily in favor of plaintiffs.”
Honeybees are accumulating airborne microplastics on their bodies – As honeybees make their way through the world, they are ideally suited to pick up bits and pieces of it along the way. Bees are covered with hairs that have evolved to hold tiny particles that the bee collects intentionally or simply encounters in its daily travels. These hairs become electrostatically charged in flight, which helps attract the particles. Pollen is the most obvious substance that gets caught up in these hairs, but so do plant debris, wax, and even bits of other bees. Now, another material has been added to that list: plastics. Specifically, 13 different synthetic polymers, according to a study of honeybees and microplastics in Denmark. The study was published earlier this year inScience of the Total Environment. The question of how exposure to plastics is affecting bees is still open. it ultimately may prove harmful. In a study published earlier this year in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, scientists in China sought to assess the potential risks that microplastics pose to honeybees. They fed honeybees polystyrene microplastics for two weeks and found it did not change their mortality rate. It did however alter the bees’ microbiome – the assemblage of gut bacteria essential to basic biological functions – in a way that the Chinese team concluded might present “substantial health risks.” In particular, the team found that the bees’ death rate shot up from less than 20 percent to around 55 percent when the bees consumed a combination of polystyrene and tetracycline, a common antibiotic used in beekeeping to prevent a larval disease. “In isolation, microplastics might not be the most toxic contaminant, but the existence of other chemicals might increase their toxicity,” the Chinese researchers concluded. Illaria Negri, a researcher at the Università Cattolica del Sacuro Cuore in Italy, who was not involved with either the Denmark or China studies, expressed similar concerns. The toxic effects of microplastics “could be magnified when they occur in combination with other pollutants, such as pesticides, veterinary drugs, plastic additives,” she said in an email. Certain pesticides can be absorbed by plastic debris, Negri said, and could have “devastating effects” on the health of bees and other wildlife and insects if ingested.
Plastic Pollution Raises Beach Temperatures, Threatening Marine Life, Study Finds — Plastic pollution threatens marine life in many ways, from entangling fish and seabirds to wreaking havoc on their digestive tracts when they mistake it for food. Now, a new study has revealed another danger plastics pose to coastal animals: It can actually heat the beaches they call home. “When you have plastic piling up and piling up, it creates this insulation layer – it rapidly raises the temperature to a point where it is likely unsuitable for most animals,” Dr. Jennifer Lavers from the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies (IMAS), who led the new study, told The Guardian. The research, published in the Journal of Hazardous Materials last week, looked at the extent and impact of plastic pollution on the beaches of two remote islands: Henderson Island in the Pacific and the Cocos (Keeling) Islands in the Indian Ocean. The researchers found a lot of plastic on the islands – up to three kilograms per square meter – even on beaches that were uninhabited. Further, they found that the plastic was having a measurable impact. They took daily temperature readings of beach sediment in six locations on the islands and found that the plastic had increased daily maximum temperatures by 2.45 degrees Celsius and decreased daily minimum temperature by 1.5 degrees Celsius. “Sandy beaches have not been a focus previously, so this is the first time real-world in situ data on circadian thermal fluctuations of beach sediment has been collected – and it reveals that accumulated plastics increase daily temperature extremes,” Lavers said in an IMAS press release. This increase in temperature could have serious impacts on marine life, Lavers explained, especially on animals known as ectotherms. These are animals that rely on outside temperatures to regulate their body heat, and many have adapted to very specific temperature ranges. Beach-dwelling ectotherms include crabs and sea turtles. For sea turtles, warmer temperatures have been linked to an increase in female offspring. While this has previously been blamed on the climate crisis, Lavers told The Guardian that plastic pollution could be a contributing factor in some locations. The hotter beaches could also harm meiofauna, small animals that live in beach sediment and are an important part of coastal ecosystems, as well as an important food source for migratory birds.
Effects of nanoplastics on Canadian and Guadeloupean oysters Oysters’ exposure to plastics is concerning, particularly because these materials can accumulate and release metals which are then absorbed by the molluscs. According to a recent study published in the journal Chemosphere, the combined presence of nanoplastics and arsenic affects the biological functions of oysters. This study was conducted by the Institut national de la recherche scientifique (INRS) in Québec City and the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) at the University of Bordeaux in France. The international research team chose to study arsenic, since it is one of the most common metals absorbed by the plastic debris collected from the beaches of Guadeloupe. “Oysters easily accumulate metals from the environment into their tissues. We therefore wanted to test whether the combined exposure to nanoplastics and arsenic would increase the bioaccumulation of this contaminant,” reported Marc Lebordais, the Master’s student in charge of the research. The scientists proved that the bioaccumulation of arsenic does not increase when nanoplastics are also present. However, it remained higher in the gills of the Canadian Crassostrea virginica oyster than in the Isognomon alatus oyster, found in Guadeloupe. These results are the first to highlight the diverging sensitivity of different species. In addition to bioaccumulation, the team also observed an overexpression of genes responsible for cell death and the number of mitochondria–a cell’s energy centres–in C. virginica. In I. alatus, the expression of these same genes was less significant. “Evaluating the expression of genes involved in important functions, such as cell death and detoxification, gives us information on the toxicity of nanoplastics and arsenic on a cellular level,”
95% of Bull Kelp Forests Have Vanished From 200-Mile Stretch of California Coast Until recently, giant seaweed called bull kelp formed lush underwater forests in northern California’s coastal waters. These kelp forests have long provided critical habitat for many species like salmon, crabs, and jellyfish. But now just a few patches of bull kelp remain.”It’s very desolate looking,” says Meredith McPherson of UC Santa Cruz.She was part of a team that studied satellite images of about 200 miles of California coastline. They foundthat starting in 2014, the area covered by kelp dropped by more than 95%.She says the die-off was driven in part by an underwater heat wave, which depleted nutrients in the water and made it harder for the kelp to grow.Compounding the problem, populations of purple sea urchins, which eat kelp, have exploded in the region.In coming decades, more marine heat waves are expected.”We know that these types of events – these warm water events and stronger El Niños – are going to become more common and frequent with climate change,” McPherson says.So she says warming waters and hungry urchins will make it harder for these kelp forests to survive.
There’s No Compromising on Science When It Comes to Protecting Water Quality in the Nation’s Rivers and Streams – With its “Waters of the United States” rule, President Obama’s administration enacted unprecedented protections of rivers and streams. The Trump administration, ignoring science and the importance of wetlands, tried to return many of those waterways back to polluters by rolling back the Waters of the US rule. Now Michael Regan, President Biden’s EPA administrator, says he wants to forge a compromise.”We don’t have any intention of going back to the original Obama ‘Waters of the U.S.’ [rule] verbatim and we don’t necessarily agree with everything that was in the Trump administration’s version as well,” Regan told a House Appropriations Committee last month. “We’ve learned lessons from both, we’ve seen complexities in both, and we’ve determined that both rules did not necessarily listen to the will of the people.” The attempt at middle ground is understandable as Regan is in the first months of a new administration dealing with the highly organized powers of manufacturing and factory agriculture. But this sounds dangerously close to a false equivalency when it throws some of Obama’s efforts under the bus while suggesting that the previous administration’s reversal of the rules was anything more complex than a hatchet job by industry hacks, most notably former EPA Administrator and ex-coal-industry lobbyist Andrew Wheeler. Before Administrator Regan tries to form one edible fruit out of an apple and an orange in the EPA’s new rules, he must remember one thing: Obama’s regulations for aquatic preservation were based on science. When the Obama administration issued its Clean Water Rule in 2015, it expansively redefined waters eligible for federal protection as Waters of the United States (WOTUS). At that time, nearly half of the nation’s rivers and streams and a third of our wetlands were in “poor biological condition,” according to the EPA’s water quality report to Congress. So the administration sought to protect about 60 percent of water in the nation, including many intermittent and ephemeral streams that experience natural dry periods but flow during rainy periods. Most people don’t realize it but 59 percent of streams in the United States – and 81 percent of the streams in arid Southwestern states – are of this nature. Unfortunately, industry and its political enablers went on a rampage to exempt as much water as possible from federal protection. The US Chamber of Commerce, the American Petroleum Institute, the American Farm Bureau Federation, the National Mining Association, the National Association of Home Builders, and theNational Association of Manufacturers all opposed the rule, often propping up “small farmers” as poster children who would be burdened by having to worry that every “ditch” would be considered federally protected water. Playing on these trumped-up fears, the last administration, led by Wheeler, rewrote the rules to say, essentially, that if you cannot visibly see the connection of small creeks to large rivers and lakes on the surface, then there is no connection deserving of federal protection. The reversal removed half of wetlandsand a fifth of streams and tributaries from protection. This change came despite the strenuous objection of a host of scientists, including Wheeler’s own scientific advisory board.
Not just another drought: The American West moves from dry to bone dry — The American West is having a drought. So, what else is new? And, that’s just the point. The American West has been in an extended drought since 2000, so far the second worst in the last 1200 years. Here is the key quote from the National Geographic article cited above: In the face of continued climate change, some scientists and others have suggested that using the word “drought” for what’s happening now might no longer be appropriate, because it implies that the water shortages may end. Instead, we might be seeing a fundamental, long-term shift in water availability all over the West. That is what climate scientists have been warning about all along. The problems we are now experiencing are not just cycles or fluctuations – although those continue to be important – but rather, permanent changes in the climate (that is, on any timeline that matters to humans). I wrote about this drought when it was only 10 years old. (For a sense of how bad it is now, see the U.S. Drought Monitor.) Back then it did not seem that residents and businesses were taking it seriously, even if some water officials were. There is a reason that most major cities are located near water and not in arid regions. Water is heavy, fluid and not easily transported – though vast and expensive water projects do just that. Water cannot be easily created from its constituents elements, oxygen and hydrogen. That leaves society with two paths: Bring ever greater amounts of water to arid regions which continue to grow in population and water-intensive activities such as farming OR conserve dramatically in order to live within the available water supply. The second choice appears imminent as water authorities across several states are preparing to activate a drought response plan this summer when Lake Mead (the lake behind Hoover Dam) is expected to reach a level that triggers the plan. All those receiving water from the Colorado River and its tributaries are likely to be affected. Again, a look at the U.S. Drought Monitor demonstrates that the drought extends far beyond the Colorado River basin, west to much of California, east into New Mexico and West Texas and north into parts of Oregon. There is a third path which I haven’t mentioned because in polite company and official circles it is unmentionable: People could leave. And, they may do so as the costs and consequences of living with less water mount – especially for those in water-intensive pursuits such as agriculture. Those in the cities may leave, too, as the cost of provisioning water for urban areas rises and supplies are curtailed. That would, of course, hit water-intensive businesses and their employees the hardest. That does not bode well for a people and a culture used to getting its way with nature – something, it turns out, that was really just luck, the luck of having populated and reconfigured the West in a period that was particularly wet in relation to the millennium that preceded it.
Epic drought tests Hoover Dam as water levels in Lake Mead plummet — Hoover Dam towers more than 700 feet above Black Canyon on the Arizona-Nevada state line, holding back the waters of the Colorado River. Eighty-six years after its completion in 1935, the infrastructure at Hoover Dam continues doing what it was designed to do: holding water and sending it coursing through intake tunnels, spinning turbines and generating electricity. But the rules for managing the river and dividing up its water – which were laid down nearly a century ago starting with the 1922 Colorado River Compact and which have repeatedly been tweaked – are now facing the greatest strains since the dam was built. The effects of years of severe drought and temperatures pushed higher by climate changeare strikingly visible along Lake Mead’s retreating shorelines near Las Vegas, where the growing “bathtub ring” of whitish minerals coats the rocky desert slopes.Since 2000, the water level in the reservoir, which is the largest in the country, has dropped about 140 feet. Lake Mead is now just 37% full, headed for a first-ever official shortage and sinking toward its lowest levels since it was filled. One of the driest 22-year periods in centuries is colliding with the river’s chronic overuse. As the reservoir falls toward record lows, its decline threatens the water supplies of cities and farmlands, and reveals how the system of managing water in the desert Southwest faces growing risks. On top of the dam, where sidewalks run along the curving parapet, the views are dominated by four intake towers that protrude from the water. Each of the dam’s two giant spillways, where water last ran in 1983, sits dry and empty, leading to a gaping 50-foot-wide tunnel. Mike Bernardo of the federal Bureau of Reclamation begins leads a team of engineers and hydrologists who plan water releases from Hoover Dam, as well as Davis and Parker dams downstream, sending flows that travel through pipelines and canals to Phoenix, Los Angeles and farmlands in the U.S. and Mexico that produce crops such as hay, cotton, grapes and lettuce.Bernardo’s team also sets power generation goals and produces a monthly report with the latest projections of how reservoir levels will likely change over the next 24 months. Lately, each month’s report has brought worsening numbers. Predicted water-level declines have grown as estimates of inflows into Lake Powell, the upstream reservoir, have shrunk due to extremely parched conditions across the upper watershed in the Rocky Mountains, where much of the river’s flow originates as melting snow. “Unfortunately, due to how dry things have been,” Bernardo says, “what we’re seeing is Lake Powell’s elevations are dropping.” And that will mean less water flowing into Lake Mead for the rest of the year. The past 12 months have been among the driest on record across the Colorado River Basin. Inflows into Lake Powell from April through July are estimated to be just 26% of the long-term average, and that’s leading to rapid declines in both Powell and Mead, the two largest pieces of the river’s water-storage system.
Water crisis ‘couldn’t be worse’ on Oregon-California border (AP) – The water crisis along the California-Oregon border went from dire to catastrophic this week as federal regulators shut off irrigation water to farmers from a critical reservoir and said they would not send extra water to dying salmon downstream or to a half-dozen wildlife refuges that harbor millions of migrating birds each year. In what is shaping up to be the worst water crisis in generations, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation said it will not release water this season into the main canal that feeds the bulk of the massive Klamath Reclamation Project, marking a first for the 114-year-old irrigation system. The agency announced last month that hundreds of irrigators would get dramatically less water than usual, but a worsening drought picture means water will be completely shut off instead. The entire region is in extreme or exceptional drought, according to federal monitoring reports, and Oregon’s Klamath County is experiencing its driest year in 127 years. “This year’s drought conditions are bringing unprecedented hardship to the communities of the Klamath Basin,” said Reclamation Deputy Commissioner Camille Calimlim Touton, calling the decision one of “historic consequence.” “Reclamation is dedicated to working with our water users, tribes and partners to get through this difficult year and developing long-term solutions for the basin.” The canal, a major component of the federally operated Klamath Reclamation Project, funnels Klamath River water from the Upper Klamath Lake just north of the Oregon-California border to more than 130,000 acres (52,600 hectares), where generations of ranchers and farmers have grown hay, alfalfa and potatoes and grazed cattle. Only one irrigation district within the 200,000-acre (80,940-hectare) project will receive any water from the Klamath River system this growing season, and it will have a severely limited supply, the Klamath Water Users Association said in a statement. Some other farmers rely on water from a different river, and they will also have a limited supply. “This just couldn’t be worse,” said Klamath Irrigation District president Ty Kliewer. “The impacts to our family farms and these rural communities will be off the scale.”
Climate-Fueled Drought Puts American West in Peril Ahead of Wildfire Season – At the opening of the 2020 wildfire season, 3% of California was in extreme or exceptional drought and more than 4% burned. This year, more than 73% of the state faces similar drought conditions.In other parts of the Southwest, juniper trees are dying off at increased rates because of the intensification of a megadrought and turning forests, with trees covered in dead needles, into 30-foot-tall tinder boxes.”It’s like having gasoline out there,” Brian Steinhardt, a national forest fire zone manager in Arizona, told the AP. Soil in the western U.S. is drier than at any time since 1895 (the year Frederick Douglass died and Babe Ruth was born), which means “the dice are loaded toward a lot of forest fire this year,” UCLA climate and fire scientist Park Williams told the AP. New research also shows wildfires are burning at higher elevations as climate change dries out forests previously too wet to support large burns.All this adds up, Steinhardt, a veteran of 32 fire seasons, told the AP, to “probably one of the driest and potentially most challenging situations I’ve been in.” California, on the verge of its first ever official water shortage declaration, is increasing its wildfire prevention spending 16-fold, but states across the West, from Oregon to New Mexico, are staring down the barrel of a brutally dry and dangerous fire season. Water shortages that “just couldn’t be any worse,” according to Klamath Irrigation District president Ty Kliewer, threaten massive die-offs of the salmon central to the diet and culture of the Yurok Tribe. One silver lining for the 2021 fire season is that 2020’s record-shattering burns were fueled by a highly unusual concurrence of record-breaking heatwaves and intense, widespread lightning strikes, UCLA meteorologist Daniel Swain told the AP. But, he added, “I’m really grasping at straws here. All we have going for us is dumb luck.”
PG&E to ante up $150M for botched outages, recent wildfires (AP) – Pacific Gas & Electric is getting hit with a nearly $150 million bill for neglect that caused Northern California wildfires during the past two years and mismanagement of blackouts designed to prevent the utility’s crumbling power grid from causing more damage.The one-two punch was delivered Wednesday. California power regulators are fining PG&E $106 million for its mishandling of power outages in 2019. The utility also reached $43.4 million in settlements with government agencies in three counties ravaged by wildfires ignited by its equipment during 2019 and last year.That is just the latest financial fallout from years of perilous behavior affecting some of the 16 million people who rely on PG&E in a sprawling service territory. When the utility’s fraying equipment or inability to properly trim trees around its power lines hasn’t been wreaking havoc in the form of wildfires, PG&E has been exasperating customers with botched blackouts that have at times lasted several days during hot and windy conditions. A series of power outages imposed during the autumn 2019 went so awry that California’s Public Utilities Commission quickly opened an investigation into PG&E’s conduct. An Associated Press investigation later determined t hat only a handful of PG&E’s emergency personnel had received training in the disaster response playbook that California has used for a generation before those 2019 blackouts.In an 89-page decision outlining the reasons for its fine, regulators blasted PG&E for a overwhelmed website that couldn’t handle incoming traffic from customers wondering whether they would have power, as well its failure to give adequate advance warning of the blackouts to about 50,000 customers.Although PG&E is being fined $106 million, the utility won’t be paying that much now. That’s because it is being credited for $86 million that it had already been ordered to refund to customers affected during the lengthy 2019 outages.
Global Cactus Traffickers Are Cleaning Out the Deserts –Andrea Cattabriga has seen a lot of cactuses where they didn’t belong. But he’d never seen anything like Operation Atacama, a bust carried out last year in Italy. A cactus expert and president of the Association for Biodiversity and Conservation, Mr. Cattabriga often helps the police identify the odd specimen seized from tourists or intercepted in the post.This time, however, Mr. Cattabriga was confronted by a stunning display: more than 1,000 of some of the world’s rarest cactuses, valued at over $1.2 million on the black market. Almost all of the protected plants had come from Chile, which does not legally export them, and some were well over a century old. The operation – which occurred in February 2020, but is being made public now because of the cactuses’ recent return to Chile – was most likely the biggest international cactus seizure in nearly three decades. It also highlights how much money traffickers may be earning from the trade. Seeing the collected cactuses brought a profound sadness to Mr. Cattabriga. “Here is an organism that has evolved over millions of years to be able to survive in the harshest conditions you can find on the planet, but that finishes its life in this way – just as an object to be sold,” he said. As with the market for tiger bones, ivory, pangolin scales and rhino horn, a flourishing illegal global trade exists for plants. “Just about every plant you can probably think of is trafficked in some way,” said Eric Jumper, a special agent with the Fish and Wildlife Service. Cactuses and other succulents are among the most sought after, along with orchids and, increasingly, carnivorous species. Trafficking can take a serious toll. Over 30 percent of the world’s nearly 1,500 cactus species are threatened with extinction. Unscrupulous collection is the primary driver of that decline, affecting almost half of imperiled species. Yet this realm of illegal trade is typically overlooked, a prime example of “plant blindness,”or the human tendency to broadly ignore this important branch on the tree of life.
Humans Are Forcing Plants to Adapt at the Fastest Rate Since the Last Ice Age, Study Finds – New research published May 20, 2021 in Science found that humans have stressed plant ecosystems more severely, and for longer, than previously thought.The last time plants were forced to change at this pace was between 16,000 and 8,000 years ago, when mosses, sedges, shrubs and lichens had to quickly adapt to a planet that had warmed by 10 degrees Fahrenheit, National Geographic reports. However, plant populations stabilized after the ice age thawed. It wasn’t until about 4,000 years ago that they began mass adaptations once again, reacting not to retreating ice sheets, but to the changes humans were making to Earth’s landscape.”This work suggests that 3,000 to 4,000 years ago, humans were already having an enormous impact on the world (and) that continues today,” Jack Williams, professor of geography at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the study authors, said in a press release.The researchers analyzed nearly 1,200 samples of ancient fossilized pollen collected from every continent, except Antarctica, which stored data about the mass adaptations Earth’s flora have taken on over millennia. The fossils revealed that the rate of change ecosystems are experiencing today is at least equal to what it was at its peak, just after the ice age, when plants adapted to cover previously frozen ground. Williams and his team expect these rates of change to continue to accelerate in the near future, as climate change exacerbates the need for ecosystems to adapt.The new study also adds to the growing body of data showing that climate change has accelerated changes in global biodiversity, particularly over the last century, ScienceDaily explained. One 2019 study also found that human activity around 3,000 years ago, which included burning land to clear it for agriculture, planting crops and deforestation, had huge implications for ecosystems that continue today.
Bill Gates is the biggest private owner of farmland in the United States. Why? Gates has been buying land like it’s going out of style. He now owns more farmland than my entire Native American nation. Bill Gates has never been a farmer. So why did the Land Report dubhim “Farmer Bill” this year? The third richest man on the planet doesn’t have a green thumb. Nor does he put in the back-breaking labor humble people do to grow our food and who get far less praise for it. That kind of hard work isn’t what made him rich. Gates’ achievement, according to the report, is that he’s largest private owner of farmland in the US. A 2018 purchase of 14,500 acres of prime eastern Washington farmland – which is traditional Yakama territory – for $171m helped him get that title.In total, Gates owns approximately 242,000 acres of farmland with assets totaling more than $690m. To put that into perspective, that’s nearly the size of Hong Kong and twice the acreage of the Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, where I’m an enrolled member. A white man owns more farmland than my entire Native nation! The United States is defined by the excesses of its ruling class. But why do a handful of people own so much land?
Severe flooding affects more than 450 000 people in northern Brazil – (videos) Weeks of severe flooding have affected more than 450 000 people across 52 municipalities in northern Brazil, the Civil Defense reported on Tuesday, May 25, 2021. More than 7 700 people have been displaced as rivers continue to rise.Heavy rain has been affecting northwestern Brazil, particularly the Amazonas state, since early May. As a result, rivers Amazon, Solimoes, and Negro overflowed, flooding nearby areas and damaging many properties.As of Tuesday, the Amazonas State Civil Defense reported that more than 7 700 people have been displaced and over 455 500 affected across 52 municipalities throughout the state.The worst-hit municipalities are Parintins with 47 035 affected people, Manacapuru with 40 052, Carreiro da Varzea with 24 087, and Manaus with 23 960. According to figures from the Geological Survey of Brazil (CPRM), levels of the Solimoes, Negro, and Amazon rivers have surpassed the highest alert level, referred to as Severe Flood Level.In April, the CPRM warned that this year’s flooding in Manaus is likely to be among the highest in previous years and may exceed the highest on record seen in 2012 when the reiver hit 29.97 m (98 feet). As of May 5, the Negro River stood at 29.19 m (95.76 feet).Local media reported five injured people after flooding from May 3 swept through a camp for refugees in Venezuela. As of May 6, Manaus has declared a state of emergency.The State Government of Amazonas is conducting an aid program called Operation Flood 2021, which involves repairing damage, distributing food items, offering credit, and suspending water charges.
At least 9 dead, more than 40 000 people displaced by ongoing floods in Kenya – (video)- More than 40 000 people have been displaced while at least nine lost their lives due to the ongoing flood situation in Kenya, the International Federation of Red Cross (IFRC) reported as of Monday, May 24, 2021. Over 40 000 people from 6 580 families have been displaced across 16 counties since the start of the “long rain” season in Kenya. Among the worst-hit areas are in the counties of Tana River with 3 864 displaced, Homa Bay with 2 046, Kisumu with 7 704, Busia with 4 056, and mIgori with 5 022.IFRC added that some of those evacuated are staying in temporary camps in Ombaka, Nyatike, Osodo, and Bunyala, while others are taking refuge in the homes of relatives, friends, and neighbors.The recent flooding has resulted in at least nine fatalities, including three in Narok, two in Siaya, and some in Nairobi, Garissa, and Elgeyo-Marakwet.The Kenya Red Cross has sent assessment teams to counties Busia, Tana River, Nairobi, Taita Taveta, Migori, Isiolo, and Kisumu to determine the priority needs of affected communities.
Widespread flooding affects 60 000 people in West Java, Indonesia – (videos) Widespread flooding has affected nearly 60 000 residents of Bandung Regency in West Java Indonesia. Figures from the meteorological agency show that the city registered 76.8 mm (3 inches) of rain in a 24-hour period to Tuesday, May 25, 2021, which is nearly half the average May rainfall of 187 mm (7 inches).Light to heavy rainfall from Monday, May 24, caused the Citarum River and its tributaries to burst their banks, flooding areas of Dayeuhkolot, Baleendah, Bojongsoang, and Margarahayu sub-districts of Bandung Regency.Floodwaters reached up to 2.5 m (8 feet) deep, inundating thousands of homes.According to the regional disaster management agency, as many as 8 812 houses, 18 schools, and 28 places of worship have been submerged.Some of the areas affected by the recent flooding were previously hit by the same natural disaster in January and again in March this year.On May 25, Bandung registered 76.8 mm (3 inches) of rain in 24 hours, which is almost half the average rain for this month of 187 mm (7 inches).Initial assessments showed 59 819 people from 16 887 families have been affected, of which 5 761 households were in Dayeuhkolot, 8 624 in Baleendah, 2 482 in Bojongsoang, and 20 in Margarahayu.
97 rivers across China exceed warning levels as country prepares for another heavy flood season – Rainy season came early to China this year and 97 rivers across the country are already exceeding warning levels as of Thursday, May 27, 2021. This represents a rise of about 10% compared to 2020, a record-breaking year when it comes to rainfall and floods. With rivers in parts of southern China already experiencing record highs and precipitation expected to rise further in the weeks ahead, authorities are fortifying flood defenses ahead of what looks to be yet another heavy flood season.47 reservoirs along the Yangtze River basin have been prepared to relieve floods, said Wang Wei, an official with the flood and drought disaster prevention office of the Ministry of Water Resources, adding that most of them have been fully discharged.The Three Gorges Reservoir was at 150.83 m (494.8 feet) as of Wednesday, May 26 and it is expected to fall under the flood limit before June 10, Wang said. The Yangtze River Water Resources Commission urged local authorities to be on 24-hour alert and set up a reporting system to cope with severe flood concerns.Rivers in parts of southern China are already experiencing record highs and precipitation is expected to rise further in the coming weeks.The Ministry of Water Resources said that China is likely to see floods in seven major river basins.Cheng Xiaotao, the former head of the Institute of Flood Control and Disaster Reduction, reassured the public to have confidence in China’s flood control capabilities.The heaviest rainfall over the next 2 weeks is expected in southern China: While no one has been left untouched, some communities and groups bore a larger brunt of the impact.China has already seen a fair share of extreme weather events over the past 30 days, including destructive tornadoes and rapid temperature swings:
- Extreme weather hits China’s Gansu Province, killing 21 ultra-marathon runners
- More than 100 000 affected as severe storms hit Yueyang, China’s Hunan Province
- Tornado rips through Shengze, Jiangsu, killing at least 4 people and injuring 149, China
- Destructive tornado rips through Wuhan, killing 8 people and injuring 280, China
- Severe thunderstorm hits Wuhan, turning day into night, China
Tornado Trail of Damage Selden Kansas – A large and extremely dangerous tornado tracked near Selden, Kansas, on Monday evening, injuring one person and leaving a trail of damage. The twister struck around 6:30 p.m. CDT, the Sheridan County Emergency Management confirmed. It damaged buildings, homes, a silo, trees, and overturned a semi truck and a train.On Tuesday, the National Weather Service gave the tornado a rating of EF1, with estimated peak winds of 110 mph.The dangerous weather was spawned by a severe storm that had a history of spinning up tornadoes along its path as it charged across northwestern Kansas.The thunderstorm first developed southwest of Goodland, Kansas, around 3 p.m. CDT, according to AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Bowers. It then tracked northeastward ahead of a frontal boundary, where over the next few hours, it repeatedly dropped tornadoes that touched down for a few minutes at a time.”There were nearly a dozen tornado reports from this one supercell. The last report coming at 6:26 p.m. CDT at Selden with tree and power line damage along with one injury,” Bowers said.Storm chaser Scott Peake got an up-close view of the tornado touching down near Selden, Kansas. He captured footage of the tornado growing and spinning as Peake approached in a vehicle. The twister can be seen sending a massive sheet of metal flying across a roadway right in front of him. Another group of chasers that collects data from inside and near tornadoes, called CONVEX, captured footage from farther away after an intercept probe was dropped in the path of the storm. People from the team can be heard yelling, “Oh, no! Oh my God!” and “It’s hitting the town!” as the video rolls on, before they scramble to move farther away. According to KSNW, the local NBC station, there were no serious injuries reported, but plenty of damage to property. KSNW reported that the local sheriff said 38 properties sustained significant damage and 84 other properties suffered minor damage.
Lost Italian Village Resurfaces Lake Resia Curon –After more than 70 years underwater, one of Italy’s submerged cities has resurfaced. The lost Italian village of Curon, in northern Italy near the borders with Switzerland and Liechtenstein, recently emerged from under Lake Resia.A lone church tower rising from the middle of a lake was the only indication that a small city, once home to 900 people who lived in 160 homes, ever existed. The historic steeple inspired a novel titled I’m Staying Here and a Netflix show calledCuron.The 14th-century church has also piqued interest among countless tourists who posted images of the unique sight to social media.The village was flooded for a hydroelectric plant and part of the merger of two nearby lakes, Resia and Curon – two of three natural basins in the Resia Pass area of the southern Alps – back in 1950, according to the BBC. Curon had been part of Austria until 1919, therefore many of the residents were unable to speak Italian and were ill-equipped to fight the plan to unite the lakes. Their homes were eventually submerged for the sake of producing hydroelectric energy.
Powerful cyclone Yaas batters eastern India, forcing more than 1 million to evacuate – A powerful cyclone destroyed tens of thousands of mud houses in eastern India on Wednesday, forcing the closure of the busiest regional airport in Kolkata, as it brought storm surges to coastal areas, the second such event within a week.Cyclone Yaas was packing gusts of up to 87 miles per hour as it hit land, authorities said, days after Tauktae tore up the western coast, triggering mass evacuations and piling pressure on authorities battling a deadly second wave of the coronavirus.Authorities said more than a million people had been moved out of the storm’s path, while television broadcast images of rough seas, strong winds and rains lashing the state of Odisha, just south of Kolkata, with shops and homes boarded up.By noon, the “very severe cyclone” would cross Odisha and its neighbor, West Bengal, weather officials said.West Bengal’s chief minister, Mamata Banerjee, told reporters that about 20,000 mud houses and temporary shelters had been damaged in the state.”I have not seen anything like this before,” said another state minister, Bankim Hazra, after seawater gushed into the low-lying areas of Sagar island in the Bay of Bengal and the tourist town of Digha, where a police station was flooded.”Successive high tides battered the coastline,” he added. “It is inundation all around and villages are cut off.”The state’s Kolkata airport was closed to flights until Wednesday evening. Cyclones in the Bay of Bengal are common at this time of year, and often roar ashore, bringing death and destruction to the coastal areas of both India and neighboring Bangladesh.
At Least Six Dead as Tropical Cyclone Yaas Inundates Parts of Northeast India, Bangladesh – At least six people have been killed and thousands of homes were damaged Wednesday as Tropical Cyclone Yaas slammed into India and Bangladesh.The cyclone, the second to hit India in a little more than a week, came ashore in the state of Odisha about 10:30 a.m. local time (1 a.m. EDT), according to the India Meteorological Department.About 20,000 mud houses and temporary shelters had been damaged in the northeast Indian state of West Bengal, Mamata Banerjee, the state’s chief minister, said, according to Reuters. He said at least 10 million people had been affected by the cylone.In the West Bengal resort town of Digha, several roads were inundated and people were seen wading in chest-deep water, the Times of India reported. Boats and shops were damaged in Udaipur, another beach town on the border of West Bengal and Odisha. A pair of reporting stations near the northern Odisha coast reported more than 20 inches of rain since Monday.Airports in Kolkata and Bhubaneshwar shut down and train service was canceled, the Associated Press reported.At least six people have been reported dead, according to AP.A 50-year-old man was killed in Odisha when a tree branch fell on him Wednesday morning, the Times of India reported. The Press Trust of India news agency said he was one of two people killed by falling trees in Odisha, where a third person died when their house collapsed.Another person died in a house collapse in West Bengal, Banerjee said. Two people died Tuesday in West Bengal when they were electrocuted by fallen power lines, AP reported.In Bangladesh, the tidal surge inundated 200 villages and marooned thousands of people, AP reported. More than 20 villages in Rangabali in southern Patuakhali district flooded after river embankments washed away, said Mashfaqur Rahman, the area’s top administrator. At least 15,000 people moved into cyclone shelters.
Rapid heating of Indian Ocean worsening cyclones, say scientists – India’s cyclone season is being made more intense by the rapidly heating Indian Ocean, scientists have warned.Last week India was battered by Cyclone Tauktae, an unusually strong cyclone in the Arabian Sea, resulting in widespread disruption. This week, another severe storm, Cyclone Yaas, formed in the Bay of Bengal, leading to more than a million people being evacuated into safe shelters.The Indian subcontinent has been facing the brunt of costly and deadly tropical cyclones for decades. But scientists say global heating is accelerating the rate of ocean warming, leading to an increased number of cyclones and rapid intensification of weak storms, with severe repercussions for the country.Cyclones are much more likely to gather intensity over warmer waters. The Arabian Sea, part of the west Indian Ocean, generally has a sea surface temperature of below 28C (82F), and recorded just 93 cyclones between 1891 and 2000. By comparison, the warmer Bay of Bengal in the east Indian Ocean, where temperatures are permanently above 28C, recorded 350 cyclones over the same period.Between 2001 and 2021, 28 cyclones formed in the Arabian Sea, along with a marked increase in storm intensity, fuelled by rising sea surface temperatures which reached as high as 31C (88F). A 2016 Nature study found anthropogenic global heating had contributed to the increased frequency of extremely severe cyclonic storms over the Arabian Sea.Roxy Mathew Koll, a climate scientist at the Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, said: “The entire Indian Ocean is warming at a faster rate compared to the Atlantic or Pacific. And within the Indian Ocean, the western parts of the Indian Ocean are warming much more. We see that it [sea surface temperature rise] is connecting well with the changes in the intensity and frequency of cyclones especially in the Arabian Sea and also the rapid intensification.”
Fast-flowing lava from Nyiragongo engulfs hundreds of homes, ash rising up to 13.7 km (45 000 feet) a.s.l., DR Congo – (videos) A new flank eruption started at Nyiragongo volcano around 17:15 UTC on Saturday, May 22, 2021, producing fast-flowing lava flows that reached inhabited areas. Hundreds of homes and other structures were destroyed. According to the Toulouse VAAC, volcanic ash cloud rose to an estimated height of 13.7 km (45 000 feet) above sea level by 21:00 UTC. The government held an emergency meeting late Saturday and activated an evacuation plan.While initial assessment of the eruption showed lava was not flowing toward the city of Goma (population 670 000), new fissures opened on the eastern flank of the volcano several hours after the eruption started, producing fast-flowing lava toward the city.Lava reached the city’s airport late Saturday (LT), May 22, and engulfed an unknown number of homes and other structures in nearby villages. Judging by aerial imagery made by Virunga Alliance early Sunday morning, hundreds of homes were destroyed: (video) The power is reportedly out across much of the city.”Goma is now the target,” Tedesco told Reuters late Saturday. “It’s similar to 2020. I think that lava is going toward the city center,” he said.It’s difficult to forecast. It might stop before or go on, Tedesco added.The government activated an evacuation plan for Goma during an emergency meeting in the capital, Kinshasa.”We hope that the measures that have been taken this evening will allow the population to reach the points that were indicated to them in this plan,” government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said.Panic spread quickly through the city after a huge glow produced by the eruption. “We are panicked because we have just seen the entire city covered by a light that is not electricity or lamps,” John Kilosho told Reuters. “We don’t know what to do. We don’t even know how to behave. There is no information.”A Reuters reporter who is at the scene said early Sunday that the smoking trail of lava appeared to have halted a few hundred meters from the edge of the city.Lava had stopped short of Goma’s airport and the city limits but surrounding villages were hit, he said, adding that lava crossed the main road out of Goma, cutting it off from cities to the north and causing traffic chaos.According to Rwanda’s Ministry in Charge of Emergency Management, more than 3 500 people have crossed into the country. They are reportedly in schools and places of worship.According to the Toulouse VAAC, volcanic ash cloud rose to an estimated height of 13.7 km (45 000 feet) above sea level by 21:00 UTC. The center raised the Aviation Color Code to Red at 21:02 UTC on May 22. Ash cloud was estimated under 9.1 km (30 000 feet) at 03:00 UTC on May 23. Nyiragongo is known to produce the fastest lava flows on the planet, with speeds exceeding 100 km/h (62 mph).
Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo Volcano Destroys Hundreds of Homes; At Least 15 Dead – –A river of lava a half-mile wide gushing from Congo’s Mount Nyiragongo engulfed hundreds of homes and set fires before coming to rest at the edge of the city of Goma. Tens of thousands of people fled late Saturday as the volcano unleashed the lava flow that cast a scarlet glow in the night sky. It was the first time Mount Nyiragongo has erupted in nearly 20 years. “The sky has turned red,” Carine Mbala, a resident of Goma, told AFP by telephone. “There is a smell of sulphur. In the distance you can see giant flames coming out of the mountain.” At least 15 people died, most in car crashes in the chaotic evacuation, the Associated Press reported. UNICEF, the U.N. children’s agency, said more than 170 children were still feared missing.When the volcano began erupting, some people boarded boats on Lake Kivu, which lies on the border between Congo and Rwanda in central Africa. About 5,000 people crossed the border into Rwanda. Another 25,000 went northwest toward the town of Sake, according to UNICEF.Altogether, 17 villages were affected by the lava, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement, according to Reuters. Three health centers, a primary school and a water pipeline were destroyed, he said.The lava has blocked a main aid and supply route running north from Goma, Reuters reported. It also cut the main electricity supply line to the city of 2 million people.On Sunday, Buhene, a neighborhood at the edge of the city, was covered in smoldering heaps of cooling lava. The hardening stone engulfed an area the size of several city blocks, the New York Times reported.Ernestine Kabuo, 68, said her husband was too sick to leave their house as the lava approached and she could not carry him. “I said to myself, I can’t go alone, we’ve been married for the best and for the worst,” Kabuo told Reuters. “I went back to at least try to get him out but couldn’t. I ran away and he got burned inside. I don’t know what to do. I curse this day.”Aline Bichikwebo told AP she tried to save her father but she wasn’t strong enough to move him before their home was ignited by lava. Bichikwebo’s mother also died.“I am asking for help because everything we had is gone,” said Bichikwebo, who managed to escape with her baby. “We don’t even have a pot. We are now orphans and we have nothing.” The lava appeared to have stopped flowing about 3 a.m. Sunday, seven hours after the eruption began, the New York Times reported.
Death toll expected to rise considerably, more than 500 homes destroyed after eruption at Mount Nyiragongo, DR Congo – More scary details are coming to light two days after the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo in the Democratic Republic of Congo on Saturday, May 22, 2021.
- While the main lava flow appears to have stopped in the district of Buhene, it affected 17 villages, destroyed more than 500 homes, left 15 confirmed fatalities and many missing.
- The flow was about 9 m (30 feet) high in some places and about 800 m (2 600 feet) wide.
- Authorities warn that the danger is not over as seismic activity in the area continues, rising the probability of new lava flows.
According to figures released on May 23, at least 15 people have been killed, including 9 in traffic accidents as panicked residents tried to evacuate the city of Goma and its suburbs. The total population in this area exceeds 2 million as more than 1.5 million people moved near the volcano over the past 20 years.On May 24, 7 more people died from inhaling toxic gas while walking across a wide expanse of the cooling lava, bringing the number of casualties to 22. The number of casualties rose to 32 on May 25.Other casualties were four people who tried to escape Munzenze prison and two who were burned to death, government spokesman Patrick Muyaya said in a statement.Unfortunately, the death toll is expected to rise considerably as many people are still missing, including 170 children. 150 people have reportedly lost contact with their families, according to UNICEF.At this time, the main lava flow has stopped in the district of Buhene, a few hundred meters away from the city limit, where more than 500 homes and large buildings were buried. A separate lava flow that headed east over unpopulated terrain towards Rwanda also appeared to have stopped. – In total, lava flows affected 17 villages, three health centers, and a primary school, a government spokesperson said. In addition, a water pipeline and Goma’s main electricity supply line were destroyed. Nyiragongo is monitored by Goma Volcano Observatory (OVG) who’s head warned last year that the volcano’s lava lake is filling up quickly. Unfortunately, the World Bank has cut funding to the observatory in 2020 amid accusations of corruption. In April 2020, Congo’s Office for Good Governance and the Fight against Corruption (OBLC) opened an investigation, seizing bank records and invoices from OVG.However, authorities suspended the investigation two weeks later and it remains incomplete, sources at OBLC told Reuters in March 2021.With this, OVG was left struggling to pay even basic checks like the Internet to run remote sensors and fuel for field trips to manually download the data on memory cards.All this was happening during activity that resembled those before catastrophic eruptions of 1977 and 2002.
Seismicity and soil deformation indicate the presence of magma under Goma and Lake Kivu – Nyiragongo, DR Congo – Authorities in the Democratic Republic of Congo have ordered a precautionary evacuation of part of the city of Goma on Thursday, May 27, 2021, in response to frequent earthquakes in the region after the eruption of Mount Nyiragongo on May 22.Local military governor General Constant Ndima told the media they can’t rule out a new eruption over land or under Lake Kivu.”Current data of seismicity and soil deformation indicate the presence of magma under the urban area of Goma with an extension under Lake Kivu,” Ndima said. “The situation can change rapidly, and is being constantly monitored.” The eruption might occur with very little or no warning signs, Ndima said, adding that several inhabited areas exposed to the risk of destruction will be evacuated.”Goma is still under persistent threat of repeated eruptions and earthquakes. This requires the government to activate as a precautionary measure a gradual evacuation plan for residents as soon as possible before the threat is completely eliminated,” the Ministry of Communication and Media said Thursday.Ndima said evacuation is necessary and should be done calmly and without rushing.The government has arranged transport toward Sake, some 20 km (12.4 miles) west of Goma. “People should take the bare minimum with them, to make sure everyone has a chance to get on,” he added. Initial reports indicate that about 32 people had died, about 12 from lava and gas asphyxiation while crossing lava flows, and most of the rest from accidents while fleeing. Several people, including many children, remained missing, though families were continuing to be reunited. Seismic data during May 22 – 24 showed events seemingly propagating from the summit area to the south into Lake Kivu, GVP reports. Several strong earthquakes shook buildings in Goma, causing some to collapse and injure people. Local media reported that tremor was felt about every 30 minutes beginning around 12:00 LT on May 23. Both airports in Goma closed for security reasons. Hundreds of buildings in neighboring Rwanda were damaged.Cracks a few 10s of cm wide opened in different parts of the city on May 25. The cracks stretched for several hundred meters from the northern city limit down to the lake, and were nearly 100 m (330 feet) long near the airport. Some of them were hot and emitting gasses, and some were flaming.
Lava overtakes artificial dam near the Fagradalsfjall eruption site, Iceland – (videos) Lava has overtaken the artificial dam built near the Fagradalsfjall eruption site in Iceland as of Sunday, May 23, 2021. The lava has entered the valley, leading towards the southern ring road. Lava has overflowed from the artificial dam that had been immediately built near Fagradalsfjall volcano in an attempt to prevent lava from entering the Natthagi Valley.As of Sunday, lava has reached the valley, leading towards the southern ring road. As it descended the northern headwall of the valley, it produced a beautiful lava fall and formed a new flow along the bottom of the valley.The lava is now following and covering the hiking path leading from the parking at the ring road northwards to the eruption site. Its front is now nearing the road at 2 km (1.2 miles) away and may actually reach it if the eruption continues at its steady and gradually increasing rate.
Increase in explosive activity, lava fountain night at Etna volcano, Italy – Three episodes of strong lava fountaining took place at Etna volcano since 20:20 UTC on May 25, 2021, generating an eruptive column up to 7.6 km (25 000 feet) above sea level. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red on 7 occasions since UTC midnight on May 25, with the last one at 10:50 UTC today.The first paroxysm started at 22:20 UTC on May 25 and lasted nearly 60 minutes. It was followed by another at around 08:18 UTC and another at 10:32 UTC, still ongoing at the time of press — the 5th paroxysmal eruptive episode at Etna since May 20 and the 23rd since February 16.According to the forecast model, the eruptive cloud produced by this activity scattered to the E and SW, rising up to 7.6 km (25 00 feet) above sea level.
Explosive eruption at Great Sitkin, Aviation Color Code raised to Red, Alaska – A short-lived explosive eruption began at Great Sitkin volcano, Alaska at 05:04 UTC on May 26, 2021, and lasted for about 1 to 2 minutes. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red at 05:30 UTC.The resulting ash cloud rose up to 4.5 km (15 000 feet) above sea level and drifted east.”Since that explosion, seismicity has decreased and satellite images show that the ash cloud has detached from the vent and is moving towards the east,” the Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO) said at 06:03 UTC.Additional explosions are possible and the Aviation Color Code remains at RED and the Volcano Alert Level at WARNING.Tyler Ellis of Discovery Drilling, who captured the image below from Adak, said it was a very loud explosion:AVO started detecting an increase in local earthquake activity on May 24, indicating an increased potential for eruptive activity, and prompting the observatory to raise the Aviation Color Code to Orange and the Volcano Alert Level to Watch.Last week, elevated surface temperatures and sulfur dioxide emissions were observed in satellite data, and robust steaming was observed by AVO field crews on Adak Island.Elevated surface temperatures have been observed in satellite images beginning in January 2021 and detections have increased over the past two months.Satellite detections of increased volcanic gas emissions have been observed beginning on May 10.
Greenland’s Melting Glaciers Are Polluting Coasts With Shocking Amounts of Mercury – Greenland’s melting ice sheet is unleashing an astonishing amount of mercury into the nation’s rivers and fjords.Downstream of three glaciers in the southwest, researchers have found coastal ecosystems are swimming in high concentrations of the heavy metal, which can build up in the food web to toxic levels.The quantity of mercury observed in three glacial rivers and three fjords in Greenland was among the worst in recorded history. In fact, researchers say the concentrations here are only matched by the polluted waterways of Industrial China, which overall produces about one-third of the world’s mercury pollution.As Greenland’s glaciers continue to melt in line with our worst-case scenarios, experts are worried even more trapped mercury (Hg) could one day be released into the environment. “This large, unaccounted for and climatically sensitive Hg source has not been considered in current global Hg budgets and Hg management strategies, but it should be assessed urgently given the human and economic implications of elevated Hg exposure,” the authors of the new study warn. Mercury is a natural and widespread element, released by wildfires, volcanic eruptions, and erosion. Yet in the past 150 years, industrial activity has been actively pumping even more of this pollutant into the atmosphere. As the metal gradually drifts down from above, the element is passed from one organism to another, gradually concentrating in the food chain. People and animals in the Arctic are more likely to ingest toxic levels of mercuryfrom their food and water, possibly because global circulation carries these heavy metals to the north.
Climate change: Earth’s temperature could pass Paris agreement limit –The odds of the planet continuing to warm over the next several years have increased, top meteorologists said Thursday in a new report. In fact, within the next five years, there’s now a 40% chance that Earth’s annual average temperature will temporarily edge above a limit set by the Paris climate agreement. The report was prepared by scientists from the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), an agency of the United Nations. “These are more than just statistics,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said in a statement. “Increasing temperatures mean more melting ice, higher sea levels, more heat waves and other extreme weather, and greater impacts on food security, health, the environment and sustainable development.” The landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement set a target of keeping warming to a few tenths of a degree warmer than now. Thursday’s report said there is a 40% chance that at least one of the next five years will be 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) higher than pre-industrial times – the more stringent of two Paris goals. The chance of temporarily reaching 1.5 degrees has roughly doubled compared with last year’s predictions, the WMO said. “This study shows – with a high level of scientific skill – that we are getting measurably and inexorably closer to the lower target of the Paris agreement on climate change,” Taalas said. “It is yet another wake-up call that the world needs to fast-track commitments to slash greenhouse gas emissions and achieve carbon neutrality.” The Paris agreement seeks to keep the rise in global temperature well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5 degrees Celsius. National commitments to cut emissions, known as nationally determined contributions, fall far short of what is needed to achieve this target.
IEA’s urgent fossil fuel warning earns mixed reception from producers – (Reuters) – A stark appeal by the world’s top energy body to stop investment in new fossil fuel projects by next year has met a mixed reception from the world’s top producers – from guarded praise and pledges to cut back on coal to outright defiance. The International Energy Agency said in its “Net Zero by 2050″ report last week that investors should not fund new oil, gas and coal supply projects beyond this year if the world wants to reach net zero emissions by mid-century and meet the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change. Its findings aim to encourage ambitious climate targets from countries attending the United Nations’ Climate Change Conference (COP26) in November in Glasgow, Scotland but has yet to garner a full commitment from any country. (Graphic: IEA Net Zero, ) The world’s seven largest advanced economies agreed on Friday to stop international financing of coal projects that emit carbon by the end of this year and phase out such support for all fossil fuels. The United States, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and Japan, plus the European Union, said in a joint statement: “international investments in unabated coal must stop now”. Alok Sharma, the UK minister presiding over the global climate talks in Scotland who requested the IEA publish its Net Zero report, stopped short of committing to the fossil fuel ban. “I welcome this @IEA report, which sets a roadmap to #NetZero and shares many of the priorities of the UK”, Sharma tweeted, adding that the UK wanted to “consign coal power to history”. Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg described the IEA’s roadmap as simply one of “many reports”, telling the NTB news agency it would not change the petroleum policy of Western Europe’s biggest oil producing country. White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy said the IEA advice deserved close scrutiny but that change would be gradual and fossil fuel projects remained in the pipeline. “I think that’s one of the things that we have to think about and struggle with … I’m not suggesting this transformation is going to be quick”, she said, noting that hundreds of new U.S. natural gas units were planned.
The IEA Is Delusional –The IEA is out with its latest “road map” for zero emissions by 2050. Is there a word more expressive than “delusional” in the English language? We have never read such self serving drivel in our lives. It is as “bizarre” as the valuation of Tesla’s stock price.In fact, it seems impossible to us that grown adults can put forth such obvious nonsense and still be taken seriously. I read it and immediately needed a Nurofen, which I didn’t have, so instead I went out and chainsawed a tree down that was pissing me off. Pah, take that!We urge you to have a read of the report and ask yourself: but how is all this going to be achieved? What resources will it take, and at what cost? Are there enough resources in the first place? Will required investments occur if the cost of capital rises (which it will) and can developed countries tell emerging countries how to live their lives (more on this in the next section)? Well, those are just a few macro questions that pop to mind. You may think of others. As an appetiser to the report we have pulled out a few juicy charts. We think the following two sum up the delusion.We are told that replacement is going to be by wind and solar at least from an electricity generation perspective. Wind and solar electricity output goes up about 12x. Not double, not triple, not quadruple. Twelve times!Coal and natural gas are gone. Woosh, like the foreskin on a jewish baby. And nuclear stays unchanged. Where the materials are going to come from to produce all those wind turbines, solar panels, associated infrastructure is an interesting question which goes completely unanswered. And what about the land required for all those “energy farms”?Then, while reading through this piece of fiction, we immediately had to ask ourselves what will be the cost of a megawatt of electricity generated by wind and solar given the massive uptake and the demands on materials used to construct the wind turbines and solar panels?And one final thing, 2020 has some 85% of electricity being generated by baseload technology. But by 2030 according to these dolts 50% will be base load. And as if that wasn’t loopy enough, by 2050 they say it’ll be 35%.So what happens when that wind don’t blow and the sun don’t shine? Now, as you know I’m no engineer, but I do know that to achieve anything that is even a fraction of this delusion there must be energy storage technology which as of today doesn’t exist. Current technology for batteries won’t do it. We already know that.
Biden adviser calls it “ridiculous” to push climate sacrifice now – On “Axios on HBO,” White House national climate adviser Gina McCarthy called for a practical rather than idealistic approach to getting Americans to change their routines to save the planet. McCarthy told me that with all the lost jobs, “Now is not the time to sit them down and say: ‘Let’s talk about climate. How can you sacrifice?’ … [I]t’s never going to be a winning strategy. Right now, it’s ridiculous.” Electric vehicles have had a luxury image. But McCarthy took me for a spin in an electric Chevrolet Bolt before the interview, as part of an effort to show electric vehicles can be an economical part of the average American’s future. McCarthy – the head of the EPA under President Obama, and now in a new job created by President Biden – noted that change is hard, because people love their routines. McCarthy said that with all the new technology, “the whole job is to get people excited about what’s available, get that deployed to its maximum.” “They don’t want to have to do research on things like cars,” she added. “They just want ’em to be what they used to be. And if you want to make the kind of shift that we need for climate, you’ve got to be optimistic about the future.”
BUDGET: Conservation, the grid, EVs: What to watch in Biden pitch — Thursday, May 27, 2021 — Earlier this spring, President Biden outlined a $1.52 trillion discretionary spending plan for fiscal 2022, which would be a $118 billion – 8.8% – increase over current funding.But that preliminary text offered mainly top-line proposals for agencies, with this week’s blueprint set to contain the traditional breakdowns of program and project spending as well as tax proposals.Here are five areas to watch as Biden details his budget plan:
- Pushing the innovation agenda:The White House will spell out where it intends to target $8 billion in clean energy research and development dollars, a 27% increase over current spending that has support from both parties.”Climate goals are really dependent on getting these technologies developed and then deployed,” said Dan Byers, vice president for climate and technology at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Global Energy Institute.
- Conservation push. Expect the White House to highlight several new and expanded conservation efforts.Fiscal 2022 marks the first year Congress will be required to spend $900 million annually on the Land and Water Conservation Fund, under the Great American Outdoors Act that Congress passed last year.Those dollars will automatically be included in the mandatory budget. Biden already has jettisoned controversial Trump administration policies that would have handed state and local officials some veto power over LWCF land acquisitions. Lawmakers are eager to begin shaping how the LWCF dollars are spent.
- Infrastructure ideas. Lawmakers continue to hash out a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill on Capitol Hill. But expect the budget to highlight where the White House would like some of those dollars to go.Senate Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.), whose committee advanced a $350 billion surface transportation bill yesterday that will be part of any broader infrastructure deal, said he expects the fiscal 2022 budget to make some initial investments aimed at electric vehicles (Greenwire, May 26).
- Taxing details. The White House’s budget will offer the clearest picture yet for how it will pay for infrastructure and other priorities.Biden seems likely to align himself with Senate Finance Democrats who yesterday passed a revenue bill that would restore an Obama-era clean energy tax break, known as 48C advanced energy manufacturing credit (see related story). It would do so by eliminating or consolidating dozens of energy tax breaks, including repealing fossil fuel breaks.
- Environmental justice. Greens are thrilled that Biden is proposing billions of dollars in new spending on climate initiatives for fiscal 2022, but they want to be sure that money goes toward environmental justice, or EJ, efforts in hard-hit communities.”What we are particularly looking at is that the money is funded around communities of color and those disproportionately impacted by the cumulative impacts of climate change and environmental pollution,” said Kirin Kennedy, deputy legislative director for the Sierra Club.
Real American Men and the Liberal War on Meat –On 24 April, Fox News broke out in a panic over “plant-based beer” and “grilled brussels sprouts” for a “Green 4th of July.” The tone and tenor suggested environmentalism was a deadly threat to the US, and especially American manhood.Radical Right congressperson, gun enthusiast and Q-Anon supporter Lauren Boebert tweeted that US president Joe Biden’s climate plan would cut 90% of American’s red meat consumption by 2030 and that Biden should “stay out of her kitchen”. The image of Biden in the kitchen evoked fears about the administration’s totalitarian overreach, and suggested an inversion of gender roles – Biden, and all vegetarians, were not real American men. Boebert and others repeated talking points by Larry Kudlow, the Fox Business host and former Trump adviser, who argued the Green New Deal would be the end of grilling and traditional 4 July celebrations, stoking a panic about the end of the most masculine form of cooking and the most American of holidays with casual racism.Those covering the story used Mock Black speech or words or grammar associated by white speakers with Black language – such as “Up in your grill” – to evoke racial stereotypes. This links Biden to imagined urban Blackness and tells the audience that they know the “real American men” are white and suburban. Meanwhile, in order to let everyone know they didn’t support Biden or brussels sprouts, right-wing men flooded Twitter with pictures of their meat. They retweeted several pounds of unseasoned grey T-bones, raw steaks, prime ribs – often accompanied by an American beer. One popularmeme echoed the National Rifle Association, saying we could take their steak from their cold dead hands. Liberal Twitter responded by mocking the Right with #meatbeer; laughing that they didn’t know that beer is always plant-based (except Coors) or that you should order steak medium-rare. Almost nobody mentioned that we should, in fact, eat less meat.This was just the latest in a series of Republican attacks on ‘vegetarian totalitarians’ and the welfare state, from the “broccoli horrible” argument against the Affordable Care Act to stoking fears that the Green New Deal will ban hamburgers. On 13 April 2021 Iowa Republican Senator Joni Ernst proposed the TASTEE Act (Telling Agencies to Stop Tweaking What Employees Eat), which would ban “Meatless Mondays” in federal cafeterias, warning us of a “war on meat” which sounds a lot like the “war on Christmas” or “the war on men“.
The fight for the soul – and the future – of ExxonMobil – A group of insurgent investors backed by the three largest pension funds in America is trying to force ExxonMobil to take climate change much more seriously – not just for the sake of the company’s viability but also for the sake of the planet.The revolt is being led by a hedge fund, called Engine No. 1, which has charged the company not only with poor financial governance but with failing to come up with a viable strategy for dealing with the existential threat of climate change. Their campaign has built momentum by winning widespread backing from pension funds and shareholder advisory services for its proposal to install four new independent directors at ExxonMobil’s annual meeting next week over the objections of the oil giant’s management. Engine No. 1 wants ExxonMobil to pledge to reduce its emissions to net zero by 2050, warning that this was “not just a climate issue but a fundamental investor issue – no different than capital allocation or management compensation – given the immense risk to ExxonMobil’s current business model in a rapidly changing world.”The battle at the iconic ExxonMobil – a descendant of the powerful Standard Oil Co. monopoly that was broken up in 1911 – reflects a broader awakening among shareholders about the need for major corporations to take climate change into account. Shareholders have also filed resolutions at other major firms.“What these campaigns suggest is we’re at a point in time where climate change is so fully part of the mainstream that you can’t separate financial performance from climate strategy,” Andrew Logan, senior director for oil and gas at Ceres, a nonprofit merging climate and financial activism, said. “They’re one and the same. A company not managing its climate risk properly is not managing its financial risk properly.”
Exxon Mobil Faces Off Against Activist Investors on Climate Change – The New York Times – Exxon Mobil’s management will face a big challenge over its climate change policies at an annual shareholder meeting on Wednesday as activists contest the election of one-third of the company’s board. Analysts who follow the company said they could not recall an election in which board candidates nominated by Exxon had lost. A defeat for even one of its nominees would be a rebuke to Darren W. Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive.Led by Engine No. 1, an activist hedge fund, a coalition of investors concerned about the environment has argued that Exxon has not invested enough in cleaner energy, which will hurt its profits in the future. These investors argue that the company should follow European oil companies like BP and Total that have begun investing heavily in renewables like wind and solar energy.Much depends on whether much larger Exxon shareholders back Engine No. 1’s campaign. All eyes are on BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, which has cast itself as a leader in efforts topress companies to do more to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide and other gases that cause global warming.Engine No. 1 is seeking to defeat the election of four of the company’s 12 director candidates with four of its own. Some big pension funds, including the New York State Common Retirement Fund and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, have joined Engine No. 1, which was started last year.“We listen, and we hear,” Mr. Woods said in an interview in which he tried to take a conciliatory tone. “We don’t always agree, but we always understand there is an opportunity to improve.”Exxon has argued that it is addressing climate change via its investments in technology that captures carbon at factories, before it is released in the atmosphere, and stores it. This technology includes a proposal involving emissions from industrial plants along the Houston Ship Channel. On Monday, it announced that later this year it would add two new directors to the board, including a climate expert, but it has not committed to investing in renewable energy. Engine No. 1 dismissed Exxon’s Monday announcement. “What the board needs are directors with experience in successful and profitable energy industry transformations,” the hedge fund said in a statement. “This vote is too important to be influenced by this type of cynical, last-minute maneuvering.” Much depends on whether shareholders with large stakes in Exxon vote with Engine No. 1. Reuters reported on Tuesday that BlackRock, which has a 6.7 percent stake in Exxon, had backed Engine No. 1’s campaign by voting for three of the hedge fund’s candidates. A BlackRock representative declined to comment on the report or its Exxon votes.
Engine No. 1 wins at least 2 Exxon board seats as activist pushes for climate strategy change – Activist firm Engine No. 1 won at least two board seats at Exxon following a historic battle over the oil giant’s board of directors, signaling investors’ support for greater disclosure from the company as the world shifts away from fossil fuels. The vote over a third candidate proposed by Engine No. 1 was too close to call as of 3 p.m. on Wall Street. “We’re looking forward to welcoming the new directors,” Exxon CEO Darren Woods said Wednesday on CNBC’s “Closing Bell.” “I look forward to helping them understand our plans and then hear their insights and perspectives.” Engine No. 1, which has a 0.02% stake in Exxon, has been targeting the company since December, pushing the it to reconsider its role in a zero-carbon world. Wednesday’s vote came during Exxon’s annual shareholder meeting, where Woods fielded questions from shareholders ranging from the company’s dividend to its investments in carbon capture technology. The meeting took place in two parts, with a roughly one-hour recess between the two due to a number of votes still being cast. The vote follows months of back-and-forth between Engine No. 1 and Exxon. The activist firm nominated four independent director candidates and won support from large pension funds, including CalPERS, calSTRS and the New York State Common Retirement Fund. On Monday, Exxon said in a filing that over the next 12 months it will seek to add two new directors, “one with energy industry experience and one with climate experience.” But Engine No. 1 said the changes didn’t go far enough. “What the Board needs are directors with experience in successful and profitable energy industry transformations who can help turn aspirations of addressing the risks of climate change into a long-term business plan, not talking points,” the firm said in a statement Monday. For its part, Exxon’s management has emphasized the steps it is taking toward solidifying its role in a lower-carbon future, including allocating $3 billion for research around carbon capture and other emissions-cutting technologies.
Climate Change Activists Notch Victory in Exxon Mobil Board Elections – NYTimes —Shareholders elected at least two of the four directors nominated by a coalition of investors that said the oil giant was not investing enough in cleaner energy. – Big Oil was dealt a stunning defeat on Wednesday when shareholders of Exxon Mobil elected at least two board candidates nominated by activist investors who pledged to steer the company toward cleaner energy and away from oil and gas.The success of the campaign, led by a tiny hedge fund against the nation’s largest oil company, could force the energy industry to confront climate change and embolden Wall Street investment firms that are prioritizing the issue. Analysts could not recall another time that Exxon management had lost a vote against company-picked directors.“This is a landmark moment for Exxon and for the industry,” said Andrew Logan, a senior director at Ceres, a nonprofit investor network that pushes corporations to take climate change seriously. “How the industry chooses to respond to this clear signal will determine which companies thrive through the coming transition and which wither.”The vote reveals the growing power of giant Wall Street firms that manage the 401(k)s and other investments of individuals and businesses to press C.E.O.s to pursue environmental and social goals. Some of these firms are run by executives who say they see climate change as a major threat to the economy and the planet.Exxon’s top five shareholders include Vanguard, BlackRock and Fidelity, large mutual fund companies. BlackRock, the world’s largest asset manager, and Exxon’s second-largest shareholder with a 6.7 percent stake, has cast itself as a leader in efforts to reduce companies’ carbon dioxide emissions. This year, BlackRock’s chief executive, Laurence D. Fink, said that the coronavirus pandemic had “driven us to confront the global threat of climate change more forcefully.”BlackRock backed three of four candidates nominated by the activists. The vote was not fully tabulated at the end of Wednesday, and there were still two seats undecided on the 12-person board. Eight of the people Exxon’s management nominated won seats. The victory of the hedge fund leading this campaign, Engine No. 1, was a sharp rebuke to Darren W. Woods, Exxon’s chairman and chief executive. It is the culmination of years of efforts by activists to force the oil giant to change its environmental policies and approach. Some big pension funds, including the New York State Common Retirement Fund and the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, had joined Engine No. 1, which was started just last year.Engine No. 1, which owns less than 1 percent of Exxon’s stock, began its campaign last December. But its victory has long been in the making. Over the last decade, European oil companies have increasingly invested in wind, solar and other new energy sources like hydrogen fuel cells, which produce water vapor instead of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.
Chevron shareholders back emissions cut proposal – Chevron shareholders on Wednesday backed a proposal for the company to cut its emissions. A spokesperson for the company confirmed to The Hill that a preliminary total for the measure calling for cuts to the company’s “Scope 3″ emissions showed 61 percent support. Scope 3 emissions are those that aren’t directly tied to the company’s fuel production, but rather those that come from activities like consumer use of such fuel. The support for such a measure shows that shareholders see climate change as a growing concern. In a statement on the company’s annual meeting, chairman and CEO Michael Wirth also mentioned emissions reductions. “We’re optimistic about the future as we work to deliver higher returns and lower carbon,” he said. It’s not the only major oil company to face shareholder pushback on climate on Wednesday.At ExxonMobil, at least two climate advocate candidates were elected to the company’s board. They were tied to a firm called Engine No. 1 which called for Exxon to make more significant investments in clean energy, using stricter approval criteria for new expenditures and an “overhaul” of management compensation. Meanwhile, a Dutch court required Shell to cut its emissions by 45 percent compared to 2019 levels by 2030, though the ruling is onlyenforceable in the Netherlands.
Industry presses House committee on facilitating new transmission critical to Biden climate goals – How the United States plans, permits and pays for new electric transmission investments will be key to achieving decarbonization goals and growing the use of renewable energy, industry panelists told the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis on Thursday. Transmission projects can take more than a decade to complete and along the way many are abandoned due to time and costs, Emily Fisher, general counsel for the Energy Edison Electric Institute, told lawmakers on the committee. Current regional planning processes “are hindering, not helping, stakeholders identify necessary projects and get them built,” she said. Committee Chair Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said there appears to be “common ground” among lawmakers to improve the transmission development process. Republicans, however, question the scope of President Biden’s infrastructure and jobs plan, and its focus on making the economy carbon-neutral by 2050. House Democrats considering the CLEAN Future Act and the LIFT America Act as means to implement Biden’s infrastructure and jobs plan, said Castor. “It’s clear we have a consensus here. Investments in transmission would benefit consumers across the country,” said Castor. “That’s why renewing and modernizing the grid is the centerpiece of President Biden’s American jobs plan.” The CLEAN Future Act would require retail electric providers to generate 100% of their power from zero-emissions resources by 2035, and 80% by 2030. The legislation would also require federal regulators to update U.S. transmission policy to better integrate renewables and provide tax credits for transmission expansions. The LIFT America Act includes billions for energy efficiency, grid upgrades and electric vehicle investment. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has targeted July 4 for bringing an infrastructure bill to the House floor. “This piece of an infrastructure plan, focused on electric transmission, is just going to be critical and I think there is common ground here,” Castor said. She asked panelists what they needed in order to push ahead with a clean energy agenda.
Connecticut looks to join seven other US states in setting energy storage target – Connecticut’s Senate has passed a bill targeting the deployment of 1,000MW of energy storage by the end of 2030, which when signed into law by the state’s governor will make it the eighth state jurisdiction in the US so far to introduce either a target or mandate for energy storage. Senate Bill (SB) 952, ‘An act concerning energy storage,’ was passed by the upper house of Connecticut lawmakers on 20 May. The bill establishes goals, programme requirements and authority to procure energy storage and requires the state’s Department of Energy and Environmental Protection to report back to the legislative General Assembly’s Energy and Technology Committee each year, beginning 1 January 2023, on progress towards achieving those goals. The targets are set for 1,000MW by 31 December 2030, with interim targets of 300MW by 31 December 2024 and 650MW by 31 December 2027. The state regulator, the Public Utilities Regulatory Authority (PURA), must initiate a proceeding by 1 January 2022 to develop and implement programmes and funding mechanisms for storage connected to the state’s electric distribution grid and then report back to the Energy and Technology Committee on progress. The Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP) will be able to issue requests for proposals (RFPs) for transmission and distribution grid-connected energy storage that would count towards those deployment targets. DEEP can then assess the cost-effectiveness of proposals received. Programmes developed and implemented by PURA must include provisions for energy storage at residential, commercial and industrial (C&I) and front-of-meter electric storage, while the regulator must consult with a number of state agencies and authorities on programme design, including the Connecticut Green Bank and DEEP.
Carbon storage offers hope for climate, cash for farmers – The rye and rapeseed that Rick Clifton cultivated in central Ohio were coming along nicely – until his tractor rumbled over the flat, fertile landscape, spraying it with herbicides.These crops weren’t meant to be eaten, but to occupy the ground between Clifton’s soybean harvest last fall and this spring’s planting. Yet thanks to their environmental value, he’ll still make money from them.Farmers increasingly have been growing offseason cereals and grasses to prevent erosion and improve soil. Now, they’re gaining currency as weapons against climate change.Experts believe keeping ground covered year-round rather than bare in winter is among practices that could reduce emissions of planet-warming gases while boosting the agricultural economy, if used far more widely.“For too long, we’ve failed to use the most important word when it comes to meeting the climate crisis: jobs, jobs, jobs,” President Joe Biden said in his April address to Congress. One example, he added: “Farmers planting cover crops so they can reduce the carbon dioxide in the air and get paid for doing it.”Clifton, 66, started growing cover crops several years ago to improve corn, soybean and wheat yields. Then he read about Indigo Agriculture, a company that helps businesses and organizations buy credits for carbon bottled up in farm fields. He signed a contract that could pay about $175,000 over five years for storing greenhouse gases across his 3,000 acres.“If you can get something green on the ground year-round, you’re feeding the microbes in the soil and it’s a lot healthier,” he said, touring a barn loaded with cultivating and harvesting equipment. “And if somebody wants to pay you to do that, it looks to me like you’re foolish not to do it.”
The only way to hit net zero by 2050 is to stop flying – The UK aviation industry this week promised to bring its net carbon emissionsdown to zero by 2050 while growing by 70 per cent, and Prime Minister Boris Johnson boldly predicted that “viable electric planes” would be available in just a few years.But past experience with innovation in aviation suggests that such ambitious targets are unrealistic and distracting. The only way the UK can get to net zero emission aviation by 2050 is by having a substantial period of no aviation at all. Let’s stop placing impossible hopes on breakthrough technologies, and try to hit emissions targets with today’s technologies. Our recent report “Absolute Zero” draws on work at six British universities to explain how.There are three ways to deliver net-zero aviation: invent new electric aircraft, change the fuels of existing aircraft or take the emissions out of the atmosphere.Electric planes already fly. Solar Impulse 2, powered by solar cells flew one person round the world in 2016, but slow progress in photovoltaics mean this is unlikely to scale up. Demonstrations of short battery-powered flights with a few passengers will soon begin. However, the technology is in its infancy and aerospace is, rightly, a highly regulated industry. Commercial long-haul electric flights will not be operating at any significant scale by 2050.Alternative fuels, such as hydrogen or synthetic kerosene, only deliver zero emissions flight if their production is powered by renewable electricity. Right now, green sources supply about 15 per cent of the world’s primary energy consumption. Over the next 30 years, while road vehicles, heating and industry are being electrified, there is unlikely to be spare clean power to make aviation fuel.Finally, there are currently no meaningful negative emissions technologies. It requires more energy to recapture carbon dioxide from the atmosphere than was generated when it was released. Using renewable electricity to power carbon capture rather than to displace fossil fuels does not create a net reduction. And tree planting only goes so far: we must increase the total area of forest in perpetuity to produce a one-off reduction in atmospheric carbon dioxide.So the commitment to net zero aviation by 2050 is really a commitment to zero aviation. Rather than hope new technology will magically rescue us, we should stop planning to increase fossil-fuel flights and commit to halving them within 10 years with an eye toward phasing them out entirely by 2050.Taxing aircraft fuel at the level of the UK’s current road fuel tax would be a useful first step: I estimate that it would make flights up to four times more expensive.Climate policy announcements so far have failed to account for the limited rate at which new technologies can reach significant scale. Fifty years after the Danes began developing wind turbines, they contribute just 2 per cent of world primary energy. Regardless of prices or incentives, new energy generation, transport and industrial processes require public consultation on regulations, land use, funding, environmental impacts and more. This all slows down their adoption.
Airships for city hops could cut flying’s CO2 emissions by 90% – For those fancying a trip from Liverpool to Belfast or Barcelona to the Balearic Islands but concerned about the carbon footprint of aeroplane travel, a small Bedford-based company is promising a surprising solution: commercial airships.Hybrid Air Vehicles (HAV), which has developed a new environmentally friendly airship 84 years after the Hindenburg disaster, on Wednesday named a string of routes it hoped to serve from 2025.The routes for the 100-passenger Airlander 10 airship include Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca in four and a half hours. The company said the journey by airship would take roughly the same time as aeroplane travel once getting to and from the airport was taken into account, but would generate a much smaller carbon footprint. HAV said the CO2 footprint per passenger on its airship would be about 4.5kg, compared with about 53kg via jet plane. “This isn’t a luxury product it’s a practical solution to challenges posed by the climate crisis.” He said that 47% of regional aeroplane flights connect cities that are less than 230 miles (370km) apart, and emit a huge about of carbon dioxide doing so. “We’ve got aircraft designed to travel very long distances going very short distances, when there is actually a better solution,” Grundy said. “How much longer will we expect to have the luxury of travelling these short distances with such a big carbon footprint?” Grundy said the hybrid-electric Airlander 10 could make the same connections with 10% of the carbon footprint from 2025, and with even smaller emissions in the future when the airships were expected to be all-electric powered. “It’s an early and quick win for the climate,” he said. “Especially when you use this to get over an obstacle like water or hills.” HAV said it was in discussions with a number of airlines to operate the routes, and expected to announce partnerships and airline customers in the next few months. The company has already signed a deal to deliver an airship to luxury Swedish travel firm OceanSky Cruises, which has said it intends to use the craft to offer “experiential travel” over the North Pole with Arctic explorer Robert Swan.
Ford ups EV investments, targets 40% electric car sales by 2030 –Ford Motor said Wednesday it expects electric vehicles to make up almost half of its global sales by 2030 under the company’s latest turnaround plan. Its plan includes increasing its investment in EVs to more than $30 billion through 2025. Ford announced the plans during its first investor day under CEO Jim Farley, who took over the helm of the automaker on Oct. 1. The highly anticipated event focused on Farley’s new “Ford+” plan to turn around its operations and expand into emerging markets such as connected vehicles and subscription services. “This is our biggest opportunity for growth and value creation since Henry Ford started to scale the Model T, and we’re grabbing it with both hands,” Farley said. Shares of Ford reached a new 52-week high during intraday trading Wednesday morning. The stock was up by as much as 8.9% to $13.95 a share during the event. It was trading slightly below that afterward. Its market cap is about $54 billion.
Electric vehicles are the future but not reasonably priced right now | Local Columnists My wife and I have aged vehicles – mine a 1999 Subaru and hers a 2012 Prius. So, we were in the market for at least one new automobile. Since we are both rather rabid environmentalists, our minds were pointing the same direction – on an all-electric vehicle. The recent roll-out of the all-electric Ford F-150 pickup got lots of publicity, including a video that featured President Joe Biden behind the wheel and extolling the fast speeds of which the F-150 was capable. Triggered by this publicity, I set out to search for electric cars. On that search, what I found is that electric vehicles are not quite ready for prime time. While the prices are likely to come down because of competition, right now electric vehicles are priced well above what we – and most people – can afford. All of the electric vehicles on the market require a substantial down payment amounting to thousands of dollars. The second thing I found was how long it takes to charge one of these. On household current (120 volts), it takes all night. Even at an electric vehicle charging station, it apparently takes about 30 minutes, plenty of time for visiting the bathroom, lolling about and eating snacks – but a half-hour is a long time, especially if that time is required every 300 miles or so. Then there is the problem of finding a charging station. No problem in St. Louis or Kansas City, but outside of Columbia and Springfield, there’s not much. However, that will likely change as more and more electric vehicles are on the road. Since we go to such far-flung places as Fort Collins, Colorado, and Charleston, South Carolina, I noted that getting there in an electric vehicle would mean that we would likely be discharged somewhere in Kansas or Tennessee. At present there is a woeful lack of EV charging stations nationwide. Speaking of charging stations, most of the electric vehicles have a range of 300 miles or so, some less, a few more. Only Tesla offers a vehicle with a range of a bit more than 400 miles, but to offset that, Tesla is also the priciest. But right now, if driving an electric vehicle, a person might run out of charge before finding a charging station. The electricity used for charging is generated by coal-fired power plants. That is changing as more power plants use fewer polluting sources of energy, such as natural gas. But currently, the vast majority of power plants use highly polluting coal. All in all, I found that as Bob Dylan had it, times are indeed changing, but an electric vehicle is in our future. Not now.
Exclusive: Biden looks abroad for electric vehicle metals, in blow to U.S. miners (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden will rely on ally countries to supply the bulk of the metals needed to build electric vehicles and focus on processing them domestically into battery parts, part of a strategy designed to placate environmentalists, two administration officials with direct knowledge told Reuters. The plans will be a blow to U.S. miners who had hoped Biden would rely primarily on domestically sourced metals, as his campaign had signaled last autumn, to help fulfill his ambitions for a less carbon-intensive economy. Rather than focus on permitting more U.S. mines, Biden’s team is more focused on creating jobs that process minerals domestically into electric vehicle (EV) battery parts, according to the people. Such a plan would help cut U.S. reliance on industry leader China for EV materials while also enticing unions with manufacturing work and, in theory, reduce pandemic-fueled unemployment. The U.S. Commerce Department is organizing a June conference to attract more EV manufacturing to the country. Biden’s proposed $1.7 trillion infrastructure plan earmarks $174 billion to boost the domestic EV market with tax credits and grants for battery manufacturers, among other incentives. The department declined to comment. “It’s not that hard to dig a hole. What’s hard is getting that stuff out and getting it to processing facilities. That’s what the U.S. government is focused on,” said one of the sources. The approach would see the United States rely on Canada, Australia, and Brazil – among others – to produce most of the critical raw materials needed, while it competes for higher-value jobs turning those minerals into computer chips and batteries, according to the two sources. Securing the full supply chain from metals to batteries does not require the United States to be the primary producer of the raw materials, said one of the sources. A full strategy will be finalized after a year-long supply chain review involving national security and economic development officials. Biden officials want to ensure the administration’s EV aspirations are not imperiled as domestic mines face roadblocks, the sources said, both from environmentalists and even some Democrats. “It rings hollow when I hear everyone use this as a national defense argument, that we have to build new mines to have a greener economy,” said U.S. Representative Betty McCollum, a Democrat who has introduced legislation that would permanently block Antofagasta Plc’s proposed Twin Metals copper mine in Minnesota. Ali Zaidi, deputy White House national climate advisor, said the administration was focused on a strategy that “leverages our domestic resources in a way that’s responsible”, noting that included recycling in the supply chain. The U.S. government in April became the largest shareholder in mining investment firm TechMet, which controls a Brazilian nickel project, a Rwandan tungsten mine and is a major investor in a Canadian battery recycler.Washington also funds research into Canadian cobalt projects and rare earths projects in Malawi, among other international investments. The State Department’s Energy Resource Governance Initiative (ERGI) is one of the main programs Washington plans to use to help allies discover and develop lithium, cobalt and other EV metals.
Dominion’s exit from regional capacity market raises some eyebrows – and questions – Citing a controversial federal order that made it difficult for renewables to compete against traditional fossil fuel power plants in regional electricity markets, Dominion Energy this spring withdrew all its Virginia resources from the regional capacity market run by PJM, which coordinates the electric grid in all or part of 13 states and Washington, D.C. Withdrawal “provides a lower cost option for our customers as we add more renewable resources to the system to serve them,” said Dominion spokesperson Rayhan Daudani. The decision, which wasn’t made public until April and was first reported by RTO Insider on May 6, caught many energy industry insiders off guard. “Nobody knew until three weeks ago about it, which was a bit of a head-scratcher,” said Casey Roberts, a senior attorney with the Sierra Club’s Environmental Law Program. The capacity market that has been run by PJM since 2006 is designed to ensure that electric generation in a region can meet demand in the long term. During an annual auction, owners of capacity (which usually refers to power generators, whether reliant on fossil fuels or renewables) offer to make that capacity available three years in the future at a specific price. PJM then tallies up those offers from lowest to highest, accepting the cheapest bid and then successively higher ones until it has ensured enough generation is committed three years ahead. The highest of the accepted offers becomes the “clearing price” that all accepted, lower offers are paid. Any bids above that price are rejected and are described as not clearing the auction, meaning their owners get no payment. In December 2019, however, the system was thrown into turmoil by a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission directive known as the “minimum offer price rule,” or MOPR – pronounced the way you’d describe someone who mopes around. In a nutshell, MOPR sets a lower limit on prices in the capacity market. Originally designed to keep players who both buy and sell capacity in the market from artificially driving down prices, MOPR had historically been applied to natural gas resources within PJM’s capacity market. But in 2019, FERC extended that price floor to any resource that received a “state subsidy,” a term regulators interpreted broadly to include virtually all new power sources that were incentivized by state policy.
Historic Black town in Maryland seeks justice for stormwater discharge –A Maryland power plant has been releasing stormwater for years into a small Patuxent River town founded in the late 1920s as a vacation resort for Black professionals. The outflow has intensified floods and damaged the stream that the community relies on to drain heavy rains, town officials say. A resident of the town, Eagle Harbor, spotted a culvert in a wooded area earlier this year that appears to feed stormwater from a Pepco-controlled portion of the Chalk Point generating station into the town’s drainage system. An official with the Maryland Department of the Environment confirmed in a follow-up investigation that the previously undocumented culvert is “likely contributing” to flooding in the town and “has created an adverse impact” on the stream it flows into. The MDE inspector, Renato Cuizon, declined to cite Pepco with a violation, however. The water flows off the company’s 140-acre switchyard, which, as a type of industrial activity, is not required to get a stormwater permit, said MDE spokesman Jay Apperson. But in his four-page inspection report, Cuizon urged both Pepco and GenOn Holdings, which owns other portions of the Chalk Point facility, to make amends for the situation. Among other steps, he told the companies to stop the discharge into Eagle Harbor and work with the town to fix the damage it had caused. James Crudup, Eagle Harbor’s mayor, said that the discovery of the 36-inch culvert helps explain why flooding has worsened in the community in recent years. A powerful storm last fall left parts of the town covered in sand, silt and other debris. Crudup said it was the worst flooding he had seen in his 50 years in Eagle Harbor. To him the affair looks like a classic case of environmental injustice. “Until we get to the bottom of it, I’m pissed,” Crudup said. “They just thought, ‘Well, here’s a small, Black, dumb township. We’ll just stick the pipe in, and they won’t do anything about it.’”
Program spins out new tech to monitor marine life near offshore wind farms – Three companies are preparing to market new ways to protect marine animals near offshore wind installations, thanks to support from the country’s first large-scale offshore wind farm and a Massachusetts-based climate technology incubator. Companies building night-vision cameras, autonomous watercraft, and weather-resistant aerial drones all participated in the Offshore Wind Challenge. The six-month accelerator program provided an intensive education in offshore wind, technology mentorship, and access to building and testing facilities. The participants also received $35,000 to fund their work from the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center. The result was three new products that industry insiders say offer promising solutions to protect whales and other marine mammals during offshore turbine construction and operations. The challenge was a partnership between Greentown Labs, a startup incubator based in Somerville, Massachusetts, and Vineyard Wind, which recently received federal approval for its 62-turbine installation. The goal was to address obstacles faced by the United States’ nascent offshore wind sector, which faces different circumstances than the more mature European industry, said Greentown Labs’ CEO Emily Reichert. “There’s obviously a different set of ocean conditions, a different set of marine life, and different weather conditions that might pose unique challenges that have not been addressed before,” she said. “In particular, there are marine mammals that are very much sharing the same waters as our future wind farms, so we have to think about, ‘How do these things exist in harmony with each other?’”
Ohio bills would let townships block wind and solar -An Ohio Senate committee is set to take up a proposal Tuesday that would give townships unprecedented control over wind and solar siting decisions.The latest version of Senate Bill 52 would prevent wind or solar companies from applying to build projects unless townships first set up an “energy development district.” As few as 50 people in the smallest townships could force a referendum on the districts, and local boards would be able to veto projects even after they are approved by the Ohio Power Siting Board.Fossil fuel, nuclear, and other energy projects would not be affected by the legislation, which has a companion version in the state House.Clean energy advocates, who were already alarmed about the bill before the most recent changes, say the uncertainty and added requirements would create a de facto ban on utility-scale wind and solar across most of the state.“There is just no reason why you would invest in Ohio if this bill passes,” said Jane Harf, executive director of Green Energy Ohio.The legislation, which has received multiple hearings in both chambers, would also expand property line setbacks for wind and solar projects. Ohio’s wind setbacks are already among the strictest in the country.Under the proposals, developers would not be allowed to file applications with the Ohio Power Siting Board until after a township has created a special district in which it will allow wind and solar projects.After that, 8% of voters could compel a referendum on the decision, building in more uncertainty and months of added delay.“It’s essentially a popularity contest,” said Rebecca Campbell, manager of market development for First Solar, headquartered in Ohio. “There’s no other state in the country that allows renewable energy to be halted through that process.”A township board of trustees could decide that any particular project was not in the public interest at any point before the state has issued a final certificate. The local township finding then would be binding on the Ohio Power Siting Board. “So trustees can effectively end a project at any time up until a certificate is issued,” said Jason Rafeld, executive director of the Utility Scale Solar Energy Coalition, based in Columbus. Along the way, companies will have spent millions of dollars, Campbell said. The substitute bill language could apply to projects that already have spent huge amounts to file pending applications. Provisions might also be triggered if certain changes were necessary during construction, she noted.
Headwinds: Offshore wind will take time to carry factory jobs to U.S. –(Reuters) – When U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration approved the country’s first major offshore wind farm this month, it billed the move as the start of a new clean energy industry that by the end of the decade will create over 75,000 U.S. jobs. Industry executives and analysts do not contest that claim, but they make a clarification: For the first several years at least, most of the manufacturing jobs stemming from the U.S. offshore wind industry will be in Europe. Offshore wind project developers plan to ship massive blades, towers and other components for at least the initial wave of U.S. projects from factories in France, Spain and elsewhere before potentially opening up manufacturing plants on U.S. shores, according to Reuters interviews with executives from three of the world’s leading wind turbine makers. That is because suppliers need to see a deep pipeline of approved U.S. projects, along with a clear set of regulatory incentives like federal and state tax breaks, before committing to siting and building new American factories, they say – a process that could take years. “For the first projects, it’s probably necessary” to ship across the Atlantic, said Martin Gerhardt, head of offshore wind product management at Siemens Gamesa, the global offshore wind market leader in a comment typical of the group. That underscores an uncomfortable truth for the Biden administration as it seeks to show political opponents that a transition away from fossil fuels to fight climate change can be good for the economy: many of the clean energy jobs he aims to create to offset losses in drilling and mining may not materialize until well after his time in the White House ends.
Australia power station explosion leaves thousands without electricity – BBC – Hundreds of thousands of people across the Australian state of Queensland were left without electricity after an explosion at a power station. Energy companies are now scrambling to restore power while local officials have warned of traffic chaos. CS Energy said the fire broke out in the station near the town of Biloela around 13:45 local time (03:45 GMT). About 250,000 customers have since had their electricity restored, according to energy providers. But many are still left without power, with around 375,000 customers initially affected by the outage, according to an earlier statement by power company Energex. Queensland Energy Minister Mick de Brenni asked people living in the area to reduce electricity usage where possible for four hours on Tuesday evening to reduce the burden on the system. The outage hit schools, homes and businesses across a wide swathe of the state. It also briefly affected the airport and traffic lights in the city of Brisbane, with officials warning drivers to take care on the roads, reported the Australia Broadcasting Corporation. Queensland emergency services said they were putting out a “generator turbine fire” and that they expected it to be a “prolonged event”.
Texas’s Winter Storm Killed Hundreds More Than Reported —The true number of people killed by the disastrous winter storm and power outages that devastated Texas in February is likely four or five times what the state has acknowledged so far. A BuzzFeed News data analysis reveals the hidden scale of a catastrophe that trapped millions of people in freezing darkness, cut off access to running water, and overwhelmed emergency services for days. The state’s tally currently stands at 151 deaths. But by looking at how many more people died during and immediately after the storm than would have been expected – an established method that has been used to count the full toll of other disasters – we estimate that 700 people were killed by the storm during the week with the worst power outages. This astonishing toll exposes the full consequence of officials’ neglect in preventing the power grid’s collapse despite repeated warnings of its vulnerability to cold weather, as well as the state’s failure to reckon with the magnitude of the crisis that followed. Many of the uncounted victims of the storm and power outages were already medically vulnerable – with chronic conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and kidney problems. But without the intense cold and stress they experienced during the crisis, many of these people could still be alive today. This was the case for 80-year-old Julius Gonzales, his family believes. As dawn broke on February 15, he made his way to one of his regular dialysis appointments, only to find that the clinic had lost power and was closed. So the retired maintenance worker turned his Dodge Ram around and headed back to the mobile home he’d shared with his wife, Mary, in the small town of Arcola, Texas, for nearly 20 years. Inside the Gonzales home, the lights were out. As temperatures sank into the low 20s, they couldn’t get warm, no matter how many sweaters and blankets they piled on. At around 5 a.m. on February 16, dressed in two sweaters and jeans and socks, Gonzales made a loud noise in bed and didn’t respond to his wife’s pleas. A 911 call later, the paramedics arrived and pronounced him dead. On paper, Gonzales’s death has nothing to do with the storm. When his wife finally received a death certificate months later, it said Julius died from cardiovascular disease, caused by high blood pressure and narrowed arteries associated with diabetes. It also listed his overactive thyroid gland as contributing to his death.
Texas plans billions in financing to pay for winter storm costs —Justin Aguilar’s bingo halls in Corpus Christi lost a week of business and thousands of dollars during February’s deadly winter storm. . And there’s a $120,000 electricity bill waiting to be paid. Since the bookkeeper for Bingoland, Margaret Baldwin, got the eye-popping bill – nearly 50 times more than an average month for the two buildings – she’s just held on to it. . But instead of passing on the obscene costs, Baldwin is hoping for help from Austin. Exorbitant power bills now loom over thousands of Texas businesses like an overfilled dam, waiting. Baldwin and others are waiting for a desperately needed bailout from the Texas Legislature. The February winter storm was one of the most devastating disasters in the state’s history, killing at least 100 people. It was also one of the most expensive because of spikes in wholesale power prices and natural gas prices. Electricity regulators set power prices at the maximum rate – $9,000 per megawatt-hour – for several days in hopes that market dynamics would encourage more electricity to be supplied. Because the freeze knocked out many of the state’s power generators, electricity companies had to buy what little power was available at that exorbitant rate (the average price for power in 2020 was $22 per megawatt-hour). Natural gas fuel prices also spiked more than 700% during the storm. But a package of bills to provide several billions of dollars in financial relief to the state’s electricity and gas market could leave retail electric providers and their customers – mostly commercial real estate companies and small businesses like Bingoland – out of the bailout. “I see no relief at all for the customers, who did absolutely nothing wrong,” Marcie Zlotnick, a co-founder of two small retail electric businesses, said during a Senate committee hearing on Thursday. She estimated that allowing retail electric providers to issue bonds to cover their storm-related costs would cost less than $1 per month for customers, and warned that the cost of not doing so could result in more retail electric provider bankruptcies and huge bills to their customers, which ultimately could mean less competition in the market.
OSHA proposes $194K in fines for Adams County power plant collapse – The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has proposed new fines totaling $192,510 against two contractors involved in the Dec. 9 collapse that killed two men at the Killen power plant in Adams County.Detroit-based Adamo Demolition Co. faces three new violationsalleging the company failed to properly monitor the explosive demolition process, leading to the deaths of Jamie Fitzgerald and Doug Gray. OSHA proposed fines totaling $180,222 for those violations in addition to a $1,502 fine proposed in February for a paperwork violation. East China, Michigan-based SCM Engineer Demolition Inc. also facesthree new violations related to the Dec. 9 collapse. OSHA proposed fines totaling $12,288 against SCM, Adamo’s explosive demolition subcontractor on the Killen project.“Some of the most dangerous construction projects are those that involve demolishing buildings,” said Kenneth Montgomery, a Cincinnati-based OSHA area director, in a press release. “This tragedy could have been prevented if the employer protected their workers with proper planning, training and appropriate personal protective equipment and by complying with OSHA standards.”OSHA’s press release said the companies failed to monitor the site for potential hazards and failed to remove workers from hazardous areas.Adamo released a statement about the OSHA announcement:”Adamo does not agree with the citations and has contested that there was a violation and will be communicating with OSHA regarding an informal resolution of the citations. We do not believe it is appropriate for anyone to discuss the citations while that process is proceeding.”
Lithium, Cobalt, & Rare Earths: The Post-Petroleum Resource Race – With other nations moving in a similar direction, it’s tempting to conclude that the days when competition over finite supplies of energy was a recurring source of conflict will soon draw to a close. Unfortunately, think again: while the sun and wind are indeed infinitely renewable, the materials needed to convert those resources into electricity – minerals like cobalt, copper, lithium, nickel, and the rare-earth elements, or REEs – are anything but. Some of them, in fact, are far scarcer than petroleum, suggesting that global strife over vital resources may not, in fact, disappear in the Age of Renewables.To appreciate his unexpected paradox, it’s necessary to explore how wind and solar power are converted into usable forms of electricity and propulsion. Solar power is largely collected by photovoltaic cells, often deployed in vast arrays, while the wind is harvested by giant turbines, typically deployed in extensive wind farms. To use electricity in transportation, cars and trucks must be equipped with advanced batteries capable of holding a charge over long distances. Each one of these devices uses substantial amounts of copper for electrical transmission, as well as a variety of other non-renewable minerals. Those wind turbines, for instance, require manganese, molybdenum, nickel, zinc, and rare-earth elements for their electrical generators, while electric vehicles (EVs) need cobalt, graphite, lithium, manganese, and rare earths for their engines and batteries.At present, with wind and solar power accounting for only about 7% of global electricity generation and electric vehicles making up less than 1% of the cars on the road, the production of those minerals is roughly adequate to meet global demand. If, however, the U.S. and other countries really do move toward a green-energy future of the kind envisioned by President Biden, the demand for them will skyrocket and global output will fall far short of anticipated needs.According to a recent study by the International Energy Agency (IEA), “The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions,” the demand for lithium in 2040 could be 50 times greater than today and for cobalt and graphite 30 times greater if the world moves swiftly to replace oil-driven vehicles with EVs. Such rising demand will, of course, incentivize industry to develop new supplies of such minerals, but potential sources of them are limited and the process of bringing them online will be costly and complicated. In other words, the world could face significant shortages of critical materials. (“As clean energy transitions accelerate globally,” the IEA report noted ominously, “and solar panels, wind turbines, and electric cars are deployed on a growing scale, these rapidly growing markets for key minerals could be subject to price volatility, geopolitical influence, and even disruptions to supply.”)
The plan to turn coal country into a rare earth powerhouse -At an abandoned coal mine just outside the city of Gillette, Wyoming, construction crews are getting ready to break ground on a 10,000-square-foot building that will house state-of-the-art laboratories and manufacturing plants. Among the projects at the facility, known as the Wyoming Innovation Center, will be a pilot plant that aims to takes coal ash – the sooty, toxic waste left behind after coal is burned for energy – and use it to extract rare earths, elements that play an essential role in everything from cell phones and LED screens to wind turbines and electric cars. The pilot plant in Wyoming is a critical pillar of an emerging effort led by the Department of Energy, or DOE, to convert the toxic legacy of coal mining in the United States into something of value. Similar pilot plants and research projects are also underway in states including West Virginia, North Dakota, Utah, and Kentucky. If these projects are successful, the Biden administration hopes that places like Gillette will go from being the powerhouses of the fossil fuel era to the foundation of a new domestic supply chain that will build tomorrow’s energy systems.In an April report on revitalizing fossil fuel communities, administration officials wrote that coal country is “well-positioned” to become a leader in harvesting critical materials from the waste left behind by coal mining and coal power generation. Several days later, the DOE awarded a total of $19 million to 13 different research groups that plan to assess exactly how much rare earth material is contained in coal and coal waste, as well as explore ways to extract it. “We have these resources that are otherwise a problem,” saidSarma Pisupati, the director of the Center for Critical Minerals at Penn State University and one of the grant recipients. “We can use those resources to extract valuable minerals for our independence.”Those minerals would come at a critical moment. The rare earth elements neodymium and dysprosium, in particular, are essential to the powerful magnets used in offshore wind turbines and electric vehicle motors. A recent report by the International Energy Agency projected that by 2040, the clean energy sector’s demand for these minerals could be three to seven times greater than it is today.
Major bitcoin mining region in China sets tough penalties for cryptocurrency activities – China’s Inner Mongolia region has proposed punishments for companies and individuals involved in digital currency mining as it looks to further crack down on the practice. The move comes after Chinese Vice Premier Liu He said last week in a statement that it ithat it is necessary to “crack down on Bitcoin mining and trading behavior” to prevent the “transmission of individual risks to the social field.” Those comments were seen as Beijing’s intentions to continue a four-year crackdown on bitcoin trading and other cryptocurrency-related activities. Inner Mongolia’s latest draft proposals aim to target companies such as telecommunications and internet firms engaging in virtual currency mining. The Inner Mongolia Development and Reform Commission said such companies could have their business licenses revoked if they are found to be involved in mining. Cloud computing or data centers could have preferential government support policies they currently enjoy revoked. There are also harsh punishments for individuals involved in money laundering of fundraising via digital currencies. Inner Mongolia’s tough stance on mining began in March after it announced plans to ban new cryptocurrency mining projects and shut down existing activity to cut down on energy consumption.. The northern Chinese region failed to meet Beijing’s energy use targets in 2019 and subsequently laid out plans to reduce power consumption. China’s tough stance on cryptocurrencies is not new. China shut down local cryptocurrency exchanges in 2017 and that same year, banned so-called initial coin offerings (ICOs). But traders have continued to operate on the Chinese mainland though exchanges have moved offshore.
Iran Bans Crypto Mining As Blackouts Grow Into Summer: “85% Of Mining Farms Are Unlicensed” — On Wednesday Iranian President Hassan Rouhani announced efforts to combat the growing trend of rampant and unpredictable blackouts experienced across parts of the country of over 80 million people at the start of a hot summer, particularly in already strained major cities. By many accounts what was somewhat already a “norm” under American sanctions has come early this year – namely the sporadic blackouts, increasingly angering the population just ahead of a key presidential election in June.”The ban on the mining of cryptocurrencies is effective immediately until September 22… Some 85 percent of the current mining in Iran is unlicensed,” Rouhani said in a cabinet address aired by state TV. There are an estimated 50 officially licensed mining farms sucking up a total of at least 200 megawatts of power,according to the most recent analysis. Iran’s state-controlled power generation company recently made public its data showing colossal increases in energy consumption far beyond this – mostly due to miners, leading to a nationwide strain that includes periodic blackouts, indeed confirming mining operations that far exceed the aforementioned 50 legal large-scale operations. “Rouhani said legal crypto mining operations in Iran consume about 300MW of electricity, which is very insignificant. But illegal operations consume up to 2,000MW,” Al Jazeera noted of the speech announcing legislation enacting the four month ban.Rouhani did, however, appear to make a passing acknowledgement of the benefit to the country that crypto mining represents (which reportedly netted the country over $1 billion a year in recent years amid its isolation), saying “Now everybody has a few miners laying around and are producing Bitcoins” – which reportedly got some laughs out of top officials, but at the same time slammed illegal mining as coming at the cost of the citizenry’s well-being. As we previously detailed, both private and public crypto mining has exploded in Iran over the past few years, putting itaccording to one recent study among the top ten bitcoin mining countries in the world – accounting for 4.5% of all bitcoin globally – primarily as a means of paying for imported goods and as an easily available way to soften the impact of sanctions amid a hard cash shortage – also given foreign currencies are hard to come by as a result of the prior US-led economic war against the Islamic Republic.
A company wants to build a massive solar project in Montana – of course it’s for crypto – A company looking to build a massive solar project in Butte, Montana claims it would provide 300MW of renewable power and cost $250 million, Gizmodo reported. That’s according to Madison River Equity LLC, whose parent company also manages cryptomining outfit Atlas Power. As Gizmodo reports, Madison would build the solar array, then sell it to Atlas, which hopes to use it to power its cryptocurrency mining operations. If the solar farm, dubbed the Basin Creek Solar Project, is actually built, it could be one of the largest in the US, but it raises questions about the impact of such projects, and about crypto’s impact on energy. While the project would theoretically allow Atlas’ mining and other data center operations to run on renewable power, there are arguments that green energy doesn’t actually make crypto itself green. There’s still the problem of e-waste that’s generated when hardware is no longer profitable, and the question of what will happen if there isn’t enough solar power available to fuel the mining operation. And while the massive solar project does seem to be in line with the goals of some (including Elon Musk) in the crypto community who are trying to move away from fossil-fuel powered mining operations, it also shows the problems that can crop up when trying to create a green energy project, especially one that will be run by a company focusing on crypto.According to the Montana Standard, the Butte-Silver Bow zoning board recently turned down another energy project that was also looking to use residential land, citing nearby residents’ aesthetic concerns. The Standard’s report also includes similar concerns from Butte residents about ruined views regarding the Basin Creek Solar Project.There are also some community members concerned about whether the extra electricity generated will actually benefit Butte, or if it will be sold elsewhere. Add to that the allegedly colorful past of Atlas Power’s owners – the company used to be called CryptoWatt – and it’s understandable why residents would be wary.
Washington County commissioners hear concerns about bitcoin mining –Residents in the Limestone area told Washington County commissioners Monday that a bitcoin mining operation is damaging both the property values and the serenity of their rural community.Craig Ponder, pastor of New Salem Baptist Church, said his congregation and neighbors of the community were being disturbed by the constant noise from the computers and cooling fans used by Red Dog Technologies in its cyber mining operation.He said residents in the area “feel invaded by an army we have no say in.”Bitcoin mining is a process that produces cryptocurrency by using computers to solve very complex math problems.“Our quality of life is being impacted,” Ponder told commissioners.While there was no item on the commission’s regular agenda dealing with bitcoin mining, residents in the Limestone community used the public comment period to address the issue and to warn commissioners that they fear a second bitcoin facility may be in the works at a location near Tenn. Highway 81.
Elected officials weigh in on noise at Tennessee Bitcoin ‘mine’ – A state legislator and a county commissioner, both representing Washington County’s rural New Salem community, said Monday they’re determined to get some sort of relief for citizens complaining about noise from a Bitcoin mining operation in their pastoral neighborhood. The Red Dog Technologies’ “mine” has been disturbing their peace and is loudest at night, residents told News Channel 11 last week. Monday, State Rep. Rebecca Alexander (R-Jonesoborough) and County Commissioner Kent Harris, who represents the neighborhood, said they’ll continue to press for noise mitigation at the site adjacent to a Brightridge substation off Bailey Bridge Road. “It’s heartbreaking when all you can hear is this drone sound constantly,” said Alexander, who visited several homeowners Saturday night and hear the noise herself. “Apparently it’s worst around 4 in the morning.” She said she would attend Monday’s Washington County Commission meeting, where New Salem residents are hoping to bring their complaints before commissioners – as are people from Lamar community, where another substation had been under consideration for a possible Bitcoin mine. Brightridge released a statement Monday afternoon saying any second sites wouldn’t be considered prior to satisfactory mitigation of noise at the New Salem mine. The New Salem property was rezoned to allow for the usage last year, but Harris – who voted to approve it – said he doesn’t think the property’s use was explained to commissioners or area residents in sufficient detail. “We did change the zoning but we were never informed that this was going to be this type of facility,” Harris said. “I was under the impression it was going to be a solar farm.”
Bitcoin Miners Are Giving New Life to Old Fossil-Fuel Power Plants – WSJ –Across America, older fossil-fuel power plants are shutting down in favor of renewable energy. But some are getting a new lease on life – to mine bitcoin. In upstate New York, an idled coal plant has been restarted, fueled by natural gas, to mine cryptocurrency. A once-struggling Montana coal plant is now scaling up to do the same.The lofty price of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies has investors pouring money into power generation – and risking a backlash. Elon Musk tweeted last week that Tesla Inc. would no longer accept bitcoin as payment for vehicles over concerns about fossil-fuel use in bitcoin mining. That rocked the market; bitcoin prices are now down around 25% since last week.The drive for power has its roots in bitcoin’s intractable mathematics: To operate securely, the cryptocurrency’s network relies on computers solving puzzles; in return the solvers get fresh bitcoin. The higher the bitcoin price, the more of these miners compete to solve the puzzles – a process that chews up electricity. The more competition, the harder the puzzles get and the more electricity is used.A University of Cambridge index pegs the annual power consumption of bitcoin mining at around 130 terawatt-hours, more than three times higher than at the beginning of 2019. That would be more than the power consumption of Argentina.The coal-fired Hardin Generating Station in Montana had been struggling for years. Late last year, a Nasdaq-listed miner called Marathon Digital Holdings Inc. MARA +7.16% partnered with Hardin’s owner to transform the power plant into a hub for mining bitcoin.“It was an idle asset,” Fred Thiel, Marathon Digital’s chief executive, said in an interview. “We were able to get access to a large amount of power at a very attractive price.”The project is in the process of scaling up, with more than 100 megawatts of power capacity planned. Marathon Digital, whose investors include BlackRock Inc. and the hedge fund Renaissance Technologies LLC, said that by tapping the Montana coal plant, its break-even costs to produce a bitcoin will fall to $4,600, 38% less than previously. The company is aiming to produce at least 55 bitcoins daily by the first quarter of next year, up from an average of two a day in 2020.Besides mining bitcoin, Marathon Digital said that as of March it had nearly $300 million worth of bitcoin on its balance sheet, in an effort to signal its confidence in bitcoin’s future and attract institutional investors to the stock who might want exposure to the cryptocurrency but were unable to or unwilling to invest in it directly.BlackRock and Renaissance declined to comment.
Appalachian Coal Mines Are Major Sources Of Methane, A Potent Greenhouse Gas – Appalachian coal mines emit more than a million tons of methane a year, and overall the region is the largest U.S. source of the potent greenhouse gas, according to new research.The region was the source of 3 million tons of methane in 2019, 1.1 million tons of it from coal mining, according to European satellite data analyzed by Kayrros, a company focused on climate risk. In 2020, the region’s methane emissions declined to 2.4 million tons as the coronavirus pandemic lowered energy demand, but coal’s share of total emissions held to 1 million tons.The balance of methane emissions in Appalachia comes from the production of natural gas through hydraulic fracturing, or fracking. Methane is the main component of natural gas, and many previous measures of methane emissions focused on oil and gas drilling operations and gas distribution systems. Kayrros said its study is the first comprehensive attempt to measure methane emissions from coal production. Antoine Halff, Kayrros chief analyst and co-founder, said the results were a surprise. “Yeah, we’re surprised because in the coal industry, when people talk about coal, it’s always carbon dioxide,” he said. “It turns out methane is actually significant.”Mining releases the gas from coal and the rock that surrounds it. In 2018, 72% of methane from coal mining was emitted through ventilation from underground mines, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Surface mining and coal storage and transportation can also emit methane. So can abandoned mines. Methane is estimated to have 84 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide in the near term. The United Nations in early May called for a 45% reduction in methane emissions by 2030, with the goal of holding the global temperature increase to no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius this century. Methane accounts for 30% of warming since the pre-industrial era, according to the UN.The combination of coal and natural gas production make Appalachia a larger source of methane than the Permian Basin in West Texas. That region is the source of 40% of the nation’s oil and 15% of its natural gas.Together, the annual methane emissions from fossil fuel production in Appalachia is equivalent to the emissions of 30 million cars, according to Kayrros.
WV’s coal mine cleanup process is an underfunded ‘house of cards.’ – Betsy Lawson remembers being told that the coal companies would be required to clean up the land after they were done mining it, leaving it in better condition than before. That didn’t happen. . Today, Lawson looks out her window at an enormous mountain of excavated rocks and dirt. There are cracks in her floors from the frequent explosions companies used to blast their way down into the earth. She and her husband no longer eat local fish and deer – the streams and rivers have taken on a bright orange color from the heavy metals that drain out of the mine. “That’s what we’re left with,” said Lawson, who is now 67 years old. “What used to be a really attractive, traditional farming community now looks more like an industrial wasteland.” It’s possible to clean up, or reclaim, abandoned mines like the ones around Lawson’s home, but the costs can be mind-bogglingly high, sometimes totaling tens of millions of dollars for a single mine. In West Virginia, the question of who foots that bill has gotten messy, with bankrupt coal companies, insurers, and the state government lacking the capital to pay for full-mine reclamation. The state’s reclamation funding system is broken and needs to be improved immediately – at least that’s the argument laid out in a lawsuit filed last week by the Sierra Club and West Virginian environmental groups against the U.S. Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation, and Enforcement, or OSMRE.“All of the backstops that are supposed to be in place to make sure that at the end of the day nobody has to live next to an abandoned coal mine – all of those backstops are now threatened,” said Peter Morgan, a senior attorney for the Sierra Club.In their complaint, filed in the Southern District of West Virginia, the Sierra Club, Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, and West Virginia Highlands Conservancy accused OSMRE of failing to require the state to improve its dangerously underfunded coal mine reclamation program. Under the 1977 Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act, or SMCRA, states are encouraged to develop their own programs to reclaim abandoned mines, but the federal government oversees the programs and is obligated to require amendments when necessary.
House committee approves bills funding abandoned mine land reclamation –Lawmakers have pushed two bills designed to help coal communities in West Virginia and throughout the country address abandoned mine lands a step closer to passage.The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday advanced two pieces of legislation to the full House of Representatives sponsored by Rep. Matt Cartwright, D-Pa., that would provide funding for mine reclamation.First, the Democratic-majority committee approved the RECLAIM (Revitalizing the Economy of Coal Communities by Leveraging Local Activities and Investing More) Act, H.R. 1733, which would release $1 billion from the remaining, unappropriated balance in the federal fund for abandoned mine lands to states to be spent on reclamation projects in communities affected by abandoned mines and the downturn in coal mining.“With this money, we can support a cleaner environment, new jobs, a stronger economy, and clean up a legacy,” committee Chairman Raúl M. Grijalva, D-Ariz., said during the committee’s session Wednesday.The RECLAIM Act would make about $200 million available from fiscal years 2022 to 2026, with funding required to create favorable conditions in economically distressed mining communities.The committee subsequently approved the Abandoned Mine Land Fee Extension Act. The bill, H.R. 1734, would enact a 15-year extension of the fee levied on coal companies that funds the reclamation program for abandoned mine lands, which is set to expire at the end of September.Federal regulators say it would take more than $10 billion of work to reclaim eligible abandoned mine land sites. The fee helps provide funding for eligible states like West Virginia to address hazardous conditions and pollution left behind by past coal mining.
Marshall County lawmaker fears stakes too high to close Mitchell Power Station – – A state lawmaker from Marshall County believes his constituents need to know the stakes if a major coal fired power plant in northern West Virginia closes down. For now, the American Electric Power Mitchell Power Station is due to close in 2028, but they have requested permission from the Public Service Commission to make upgrades which could keep the plant operating as far out as 2040. Those upgrades would require a rate increase, which would have to be agreed upon by the PSC. “Just to keep it open will cost us pennies on our electric bill. I would rather pay the pennies, keep it open, and keep the people working,” said Del. Charlie Reynolds, R-Marshall County. He’ll host a town hall meeting at the Moundsville Fire Hall Tuesday night to talk about the possibilities. “The Mitchell Plant is an enormous economic engine here in Marshall County. We can’t afford to lose the income,” he said. The plant generates millions of dollars in the local tax base, creates $35 million in wages, and provides close to 180 full time jobs according to WVU researchers. Reynolds worried the closure could create a cascading effect throughout the economy and spread from one employer to the next, ultimately impacting teachers, and other county employees as the property tax base is depleted. Reynolds, speaking on MetroNews “Talkline,” said he wasn’t opposed to alternative forms of power or green energy sources, but said our region is not at the point where it’s a dependable option. He said the plant is too valuable to the local economy and community. He worried about the blackouts experienced in Texas earlier this year where dependence on green energy sources was partly blamed for widespread outages. “It’s going to hurt big time, and we would have to bring power in from other sources, form outside entities. We’d have to raise revenue and raise rates, so you’re just going to have to do it if you want to save the jobs.. If not, you’re going to have foreign countries involved,” he said.
Justices: Lawsuit over Liberty area landfill comes down to coal ash — Several South Carolina Supreme Court justices on Tuesday questioned whether a landfill operator in Pickens County sought to install a liner on a new landfill to ultimately accept coal ash. The long-lasting legal battle over the unused site of more than 400 acres along State 93 and Cartee Road near Liberty could determine the fate of the would-be landfill, which Raleigh, N.C.-based MMR Pickens LLC has previously said could generate $25 million over its lifetime. The five justices heard from lawyers for about an hour Tuesday and did not announce any decisions during the hearing. Justices George James, John Few and John Kittredge each questioned why the landfill would add a liner, a costly step for that type of landfill, unless the landfill operators intended to take additional types of waste, such as coal ash, which require a liner. The legal case is on technical grounds, largely about whether adding a liner to the landfill design was most properly classified as a major or minor change and about whether Pickens County and nearby landowners were required to be formally notified of the potential changes.But, as several justices said repeatedly, the case is really about whether the site will take coal ash and whether county staff and residents are able to be heard if the landfill operators seek to take coal ash in the future. Landfill couldn’t accept coal ash without public input Coal ash is typically generated by coal power plants and can contain toxic heavy metals such as mercury, lead and arsenic which can contaminate ground and surface water. It is classified as “special waste” in South Carolina, and according to a previous court decision, coal ash is generally unsuitable for most landfills.
State to retake coal mining regulation with industry at rock bottom – Tennessee Lookout – “Mister Peabody’s Coal train” doesn’t run much through upper East Tennessee these days. The trains John Prine sang about in his famous song, “Paradise,” are practically non-existent. Compared to the 1950s and ’60s when Claiborne, Campbell and Scott counties were considered coal-mining country, the industry has nearly vanished, according to those who monitor it. Yet the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation is set to resume regulation and permitting of Tennessee’s coal mining, taking over from the federal Office of Surface Mining, Reclamation and Enforcement after 37 years. This includes overseeing mountaintop removal and mining in which the Earth’s surface is removed and equipment digs into the ground to mine coal. Sponsors of the legislation say it will give the Tennessee “primacy” over coal mining – whereas it was the only coal-mining state without that authority – potentially opening investments in blue gem coal, a low-sulfur coal that isn’t used for burning but for making steel and instruments such as solar panels and manufacturing batteries. Critics contend eliminating requirements that the coal industry be self-sufficient will force taxpayers to spend about $1 million annually to subsidize a “collapsing” industry. Jellico resident Tonia Brookman, director of the Woodland Community Land Trust, says few people in the area even know the Legislature passed the Primacy and Reclamation Act this session. “I really do believe it’s going to cost taxpayers more for them to take over this program … because the federal government was paying for it. I don’t know why the state feels that need to take on one more issue,” Brookman says. “I think down the road, it’s just going to come back and cost us more in the long run.” Brookman doesn’t see the resumption of state authority as an economic boon, either. For one thing, the state’s regulations are supposed to be as strict as the federal rules. Secondly, coal mining is at such a low ebb, she sees little chance for a return.
States warn banks – Drop coal, and we drop you – More than a dozen Republican state treasurers are threatening to pull assets from large financial institutions if they agree to decarbonize their lending and investment portfolios, Axios has learned.The Biden administration – led by special presidential climate envoy John Kerry – has leaned on the banks to help reduce U.S. carbon emissions. That’s prompted GOP lawmakers to criticize efforts to “de-bank” fossil fuel firms. The treasurers collectively control hundreds of billions worth of assets.Fifteen of them, led by coal-heavy West Virginia, say they’re prepared to use this financial muscle to push back. The effort includes treasurers from other states with large energy industry presences such as North Dakota, Kentucky, Pennsylvania and Oklahoma. The state officials sent a letter on Tuesday to Kerry, who’s leading the administration’s efforts to enlist banks in its climate policy fight.”We intend to put banks and financial institutions on notice of our position, as we urge them not to give in to pressure from the Biden administration to refuse to lend to or invest in coal, oil and natural gas companies,” the officials wrote. In an interview with Axios, West Virginia state Treasurer Riley Moore said he was prepared to terminate contracts with banks that pull back their fossil fuel industry lending in response to administration pressure. “Frankly, it is not fair for the people of West Virginia to allow a bank to handle our money when they’re diametrically opposed to our way of life,” Moore said. Moore called the issue “a matter of life and death for my people.” He said coal and gas operators in his state have reported difficulties obtaining financing from banks blaming pressure from the Biden administration to try to “green” their portfolios. “If you just cut these guys off at the knees – gas and coal in a state like West Virginia – and they can no longer conduct their business … it is going to destroy us,” Moore said. He cited the industries’ heavy jobs footprint and contributions to the state’s tax base. The state officials signing the letter collectively manage more than $600 billion in assets in state treasuries, pension funds and other government accounts, according to publicly available financials and information provided by the state treasurer offices.Those states work with large financial institutions to invest and grow those funds, to support state spending and retirement payments to former workers. Even for sizable investment banks, such funds can be some of their largest accounts.
Activists want teachers’ fund to divest from coal – A fossil fuel divestment group took aim at the teachers retirement system on Tuesday, urging the organization to divest of the coal stocks they say continue to make up a substantial part of their portfolio. It may be easier said then done, however. “NYSTRS is increasing its exposure to the coal industry,” said Liam Smith, of New Youth Climate Leaders and Divest NY which have been urging public sector pension funds to divest from coal and other fossil fuel industries they say are adding to greenhouse gases. NYSTRS is the New York State Teachers Retirement System. At $120 billion it is the state’s second largest pension system behind the $247.7 billion Common Retirement Fund for public sector workers other than teachers. While the Common Retirement Fund has made some modest moves toward divesting the dirtiest, or most carbon-intensive, oil producers, activists on Wednesday said the value of NYSTRS coal holdings has grown recently. NYSTRS, Divest NY said, has more than $300 million invested in companies with substantial coal reserves and it owns shares of 36 companies heavily invested in coal. It has purchased 6.2 million shares in 24 of those firms as of the end of 2020. Many are in China and India, where coal continues to serve as a major energy source. One of those firms, Shaanxi Coal Industry Co. has the world’s second largest reserves of coal.
DEP approves Raleigh County surface mine permit renewal despite health and environmental concerns -West Virginia environmental regulators have approved renewal of a permit for surface mining in Raleigh County despite concerns over the environmental and health affects of surface mining operations there. Republic Energy LLC had asked the state Department of Environmental Protection to renew a permit for a steep-slope mining operation south of Clear Creek, in the Clear Fork district of Raleigh County, that opponents say would continue damaging the health of nearby residents and the mountains around them. Department of Environmental Protection environmental resources program manager Laura Claypool said Monday the department approved the application Friday after finding it met state mining and reclamation requirements. Republic Energy, a subsidiary of Tennessee-based Alpha Metallurgical Resources, has mostly completed mining operations on the site and primarily moved on to reclamation operations there, Department of Environmental Protection officials noted during an informal conference held last month to allow public comment on the permit renewal application under the department’s consideration. But Coal River Mountain Watch, a group that opposes mountaintop removal and other mining practices the group says have harmed the health of area residents, condemned the permit renewal Monday, objecting that the permit renewal for the site would aid coal transport for active mining operations adjacent to it. The group has argued that blasts from Republic Energy surface mining operations in the area have dispersed carcinogenic silica dust into the air that neighbors breathe a minimum of 2 miles downwind, fearing further blasting if the permit was renewed. Dust from mining has been known to cause cancer.
China’s coal output rises in first four months – (Xinhua) — China’s raw coal output rose 11.1 percent year on year to 1.29 billion tonnes in the first four months of 2021, official data showed.The Jan.-April volume increased by 12.5 percent from the level in the same period of 2019, putting the annual average growth of the past two years at 6.1 percent, according to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS).The country imported 90.13 million tonnes of coal from January to April, down 28.8 percent year on year.In April alone, China’s coal output dipped 1.8 percent from a year earlier to 320 million tonnes, NBS data showed.
Ex-Westinghouse official to plead guilty in South Carolina’s VC Summer investigation — A top former Westinghouse official who helped oversee the construction of a now-abandoned multibillion dollar nuclear plant in Fairfield County was charged Monday with the felony offense of lying to an FBI agent.Carl Churchman, 70, will plead guilty to the offense, which carries a maximum five-year prison sentence, according to records filed in federal court on Monday. No hearing date has been set for the in-person guilty plea, which will take place before a federal judge.A one-page charging document said that Churchman falsely told an FBI agent that he was not involved in communicating how the project was going to SCANA officials. SCANA, the now defunct Cayce-based power company that embarked on the nuclear expansion, had hired Westinghouse to oversee the project.In fact, Churchman – who was managing the project for Westinghouse – was communicating “with colleagues from the Westinghouse Electric Corporation through multiple emails in which they discussed the viability and accuracy of (completion dates) and thereafter, he reported those dates to executives of SCANA and Santee Cooper during a meeting held on Feb. 14, 2017,” the charging document said.The charge against Churchman is the first indication by federal law officials that they have extended their investigation beyond SCANA. Two of SCANA’s top officials have been charged with fraud and pleaded guilty in connection with the nuclear debacle.There may be more ex-Westinghouse officials or others to be charged.
U.S. senators introduce nuclear power credit to help curb emissions – Three Democratic U.S. senators introduced a measure on Wednesday to boost existing nuclear plants to a wide energy tax reform bill, after the Biden administration pushed for such a measure to help curb carbon emissions. Senator Ben Cardin introduced the amendment on the tax production credit with fellow Democrats, Senators Sheldon Whitehouse and Bob Casey. “We’re in danger of seeing the premature closing of the nuclear reactors in this country,” Cardin said before introducing the amendment at a hearing considering the wider bill, the Clean Energy for America Act. Cardin did not ask for a vote on the measure, a move to allow time to refine it as legislation advances. Nuclear reactors are virtually emissions-free, but have been struggling to compete with power generation fueled by natural gas, and wind and solar power. There are 93 reactors in the United States, down from 104 in 2012, as rising security and safety costs put additional pressures on the business. While some environmental groups oppose nuclear power, the Biden administration has signaled support for the credit for nuclear power plants as it seeks to put the country on a path to decarbonize the carbon grid by 2035. Two Republican senators on the Senate Finance Committee also spoke favorably about the amendment, increasing the odds it could eventually pass.
Kevin Kelley subpoenas records connected to HB6 bribery scheme | wkyc.com In July of last year, several people were arrested for a ‘pay to play’ bribery scheme connected to failing power and coal plants. Cleveland City Council President Kevin Kelley signed three subpoenas on Monday, asking for the new statutory agent of Generation Now Ohio Inc., as well as the “Records Custodian” at Fifth Third and Huntington banks, to testify with the Cleveland City Council. The subpoenas are connected to the ongoing investigation into former Ohio Speaker of the House, Larry Householder, and the ‘pay to play’ bribery scheme to bail out several failing power and coal plants formerly operated by FirstEnergy’s subsidiary, FirstEnergy Solutions, until the latter was spun off as its own independent company now known as Energy Harbor following bankruptcy proceedings.“We know that Generation Now seemed to be the first stop for a huge amount of money that was then passed out. We want to know where it went and if it was used against the city of Cleveland and CPP,” said Kelley in a statement provided to 3News. The subpoenas request “any and all financial records including banking account numbers and account transaction records of Consumers Against Deceptive Fees.” FirstEnergy is believed to have paid Householder and several others a sum of $60 million to pass House Bill 6 and defeat a ballot initiative to overturn the legislation. Householder and four others were arrested in July 2020 in connection to the scheme.That same month, Kevin Kelley co-sponsored legislation to repeal HB6, saying that many Cleveland residents who are FirstEnergy customers will be forced to pay for the bailout once the bill kicks in.
Ohio lawmakers move to expel former House Speaker Larry Householder – For months one House Republican and one House Democrat have been trying to hammer out a deal on when to introduce a resolution to expel former Speaker Larry Householder, who was arrested last year on federal bribery and racketeering charges. Those negotiations came to an end Tuesday afternoon when three Democrats announced their own plans to introduce a resolution on Wednesday.”We realized this wasn’t going to start unless Democrats took the lead,” Rep. Jeff Crossman, D-Parma, said. “They were going to file something weeks ago and then it never happened.” A few hours later, two House Republicans filed a resolution to remove Householder from office. “We have always believed that this is a resolution that should be originating from our caucus,” Rep. Brian Stewart, R-Ashville, said in an interview.Stewart couldn’t say what happened to the bipartisan plan. Those conversations were between Crossman and Newark Rep. Mark Fraizer, who didn’t return a request for comment. “My understanding from Mark is the Democratic members broke off from that and said they were going to do their own thing,” Stewart said. “I haven’t seen their resolution.”Federal agents arrested Householder at his Perry County home back in July 2020.Prosecutors accused him and four other men of illegally conspiring together to pass a state bailout of two nuclear power plants. The indictment alleged the men got $61 million in donations from First Energy Corp. and affiliated companies to elect supportive Republicans to office, pass the bailout and then stop opponents from putting the law on the ballot for a vote by all Ohioans. Householder maintains his innocence. But two of the men arrested with Householder have pleaded guilty and so has Generation Now, the nonprofit prosecutors accused of moving money for the massive bribery scheme. The Ohio House removed Householder from his position as speaker a few weeks after his arrest, but lawmakers stalled on whether to remove him from office. Some, like Rep. Bill Seitz, R-Green Township, have maintained an innocent until proven guilty stance. Others like Republican House Speaker Bob Cupp, R-Lima, initially said they were waiting until the new term started in January. The former Ohio Supreme Court justice didn’t think an official could be legally expelled twice for the same thing.Householder faced a handful of write-in challengers in 2020. He won a third term with more than 70% of the vote. Cupp has been tight-lipped about where his caucus stands on expelling Householder since January, telling reporters each week that he has no news on the issue. Though he reiterates his wish that Householder would “do the right thing” and resign.
Akron’s FirstEnergy announces another top executive ‘separated’ –FirstEnergy Corp. has fired another top executive as part of an investigation into the $61 million Larry Householder scandal. The Akron utility late Thursday afternoon in a short regulatory filing said that Eileen M. Mikkelsen, vice president, rates and regulatory affairs, and acting vice president of external affairs, “was separated from the company effective as of May 27, 2021.” The separate was disclosed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission and is related to a previously disclosed $4.3 million consulting payment tied to a now-former Ohio regulatory official. The official is believed to be Sam Randazzo, who has since resigned as head of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. The consulting payment, made in January 2019, is a top reason why FirstEnergy said it fired its former chief executive officer last fall. Mikkelsen was a long-time FirstEnergy employee. The company said it would not have a statement beyond what was in the regulatory filing. “The separation of Ms. Mikkelsen was related to her inaction regarding the amendment in 2015 of a previously disclosed purported consulting agreement with an entity associated with an individual who in 2019 was appointed to a full-time role as an Ohio government official directly involved in regulating FirstEnergy’s Ohio electric utility subsidiaries, Ohio Edison Company, The Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company, and The Toledo Edison Company, including with respect to distribution rates,” FirstEnergy said in the SEC filing. “The consulting agreement had been in place since 2013 and, as previously disclosed, was terminated in 2019 with a payment of approximately $4 million,” according to the filing. “FirstEnergy continues to believe that payments under the consulting agreement may have been for purposes other than those represented within the consulting agreement.” The company said it is reviewing interim organization changes as a result of Mikkelsen’s departure. This is the latest FirstEnergy senior executive departure tied to the ongoing federal and state investigation into an alleged $61 million bribery scheme and former Ohio House Speaker Householder. The investigation involves what was called House Bill 6, which helped prop up two Ohio nuclear power plants formerly owned by FirstEnergy.
Exposing the utility playbook: Ratepayers are stuck paying the bill for utility corruption – In 2020, Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder was arrested and subsequently resigned his speakership after an FBI investigation found that the influential lawmaker accepted $61 million dollars from electric utility FirstEnergy in exchange for passage of a nuclear bailout bill. The legislation sought to subsidize two of the company’s failing nuclear plants by charging Ohioans a monthly fee. Another recent scandal in Illinois saw Michael Madigan, the longest serving state Speaker of the House in U.S. history, lose his position when the state’s largest utility, ComEd, confessed to giving jobs and contracts to Madigan associates for nearly a decade in an effort to sway legislation at the state capitol. Sadly, stories like these are nothing new – and they aren’t surprising. We’ve long known that unregulated monopolies necessarily lead to higher costs, less efficiency and limited innovation. The very nature of our monopoly electric utility model leads to companies who are beholden to their shareholders – not their customers. To compound this issue, bad actors among monopoly companies expend unlimited time, money and resources on achieving regulatory capture. Regulatory capture occurs when the lawmakers and officials who are supposed to protect public interests and regulate these monopolies instead begin working to benefit those very same companies. Ever since Edison fired up the first commercial power plant on Pearl Street in NYC in 1882, many have believed that building, operating and maintaining the electric grid and delivering power to families and businesses should be a vertically integrated industry under monopoly control. For over a century that sentiment was arguably true. After all, who needs dozens of companies running redundant power lines and infrastructure across the country from house to house in every town and city. The historic cost associated with these investments and the local impacts warranted assigning this job to a single regulated actor. However, advances in technology today have led to a reimagining of the traditional utility industry and have made it possible for alternative models centered around competition and free markets to emerge – and most importantly, find success. This threat of competition is understandably scary to many utilities who, for too long, have enjoyed their position as the only show in town. In many ways, they have never had to worry about innovation, efficiency, competition, customer service, etc. The thought of moving to a market structure where they must compete to earn and keep business has driven them to fight back and fight back hard. Stories like those in Illinois and Ohio are just the most recent public examples of utility corruption. Sadly, there is a widespread and long-standing pattern of manipulation, influence and illegal activity among utilities.
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