Environmental News For The Week Ending 12June 2019

Written by rjs, MarketWatch 666

This is a collection of interesting news articles about the environment and related topics published last week. This is usually a Tuesday evening regular post at GEI (but can be posted at other times).

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Note: Because of the high volume of news regarding the coronavirus outbreak, that news has been published separately:

• 13 Jun 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 13June 2021

• 13 Jun 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 13June 2021

The deceleration of new US Covid infections has slowed considerably over the past week, while the US Covid death rate has almost stopped falling altogether. New US cases during the week ending June 12th were just 5.1% lower than those recorded during the week ending June 5th, but were still down by more than 94.5% from the rate we were seeing during the worst week of January. However, even with that near 95% drop, we’re still seeing the fifth largest incidence of new cases among all the countries on earth, which includes quite a few nations that are still being decimated by the pandemic. Meanwhile, US deaths attributed to Covid-19 this week were down just 0.7% from the prior week, and down 88.7% from the January peak. I had expected US covid deaths to drop more to reflect the rapidly falling new cases we’ve seen over the past several weeks, but that hasn’t happened. Hence, deaths as a percentage of new cases has been rising. I don’t know why and haven’t seen an explanation as to why that is so.

Globally, new Covid cases were 12.7% lower over the past week than over the prior week, and down 54.4% from the late April peak. However, global deaths from the virus were 6.0 higher this week than the prior week, and are now down only 25.2% from the end of April. India has seen a re-acceleration of its death rate, reversing from a 19% death rate decline last week to a 12% increase this week, and Brazil, still the country with the second most new cases and second most Covid deaths, has seen its death rate climb 20%. Ominously, South Africa, where the Beta Covid variant is dominant, also saw its death rate rise 37% this week. So it appears the mutant Covid strains that originated in those countries are again making their presence felt.

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 are copies of graphs WorldOMeters so you can get a visuallization of what the growth and decline of this pandemic looks like in the U.S. (data through June 15):

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 15 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):

Michigan woman sickened with rare hantavirus after cleaning up after rodents – A Michigan woman was hospitalized aftercontracting a deadly rare virus linked to the excrement of rodents.Health officials announced the state’s first case of the Sin Nombre hantavirus Monday, The Detroit Free Press reported.The disease can be transmitted to people that are in close contact with rodent droppings, urine and saliva, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The CDC has only reported 21 cases of the hantavirus in the US from 1993 through 2018, the last year statistics were made available on its website.The disease kills about 40 percent of people that catch it, and can cause “coughing and shortness of breath, with the sensation of, as one survivor put it, a ‘ … tight band around my chest and a pillow over my face’ as the lungs fill with fluid,” according to the government’s website. More manageable symptoms include fever, chills, body aches, headache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain, according to the CDC It is rarely passed from person to person, officials said.

MERS-Causing Coronavirus Could Trigger Another Pandemic With Just a Few More Mutations: Study –An international team of researchers has found that the Middle East respiratory syndrome coronavirus (MERSâ€CoV), which causes the Middle East respiratory syndrome, is just a few mutations away from becoming a serious pandemic threat!But before we understand how it could potentially trigger another pandemic, let us first understand what the disease itself is. As per the World Health Organisation (WHO), the Middle East respiratory syndrome (MERS) is a viral respiratory disease that was first identified in Saudi Arabia back in 2012. It is highly lethal, with approximately 35% of reported patients with MERS-CoV infection having succumbed to the disease.Just like COVID-19, the clinical spectrum of MERS-CoV infection ranges from no symptoms (asymptomatic) or mild respiratory symptoms to severe acute respiratory disease and death. Typical MERS symptoms include fever, cough and shortness of breath.Most human cases of MERS-CoV infections have been attributed to human-to-human infections in healthcare settings. However, the virus does not seem to pass easily from person to person unless there is close contact – like the kind that occurs when providing unprotected care to a patient. Such healthcare-associated MERS outbreaks have occurred in several countries in the past, with the largest seen in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and the Republic of Korea. The disease is caused by the coronavirus named MERS-CoV – a zoonotic virus that was transmitted to humans through direct or indirect contact with infected dromedary camels (Arabian camels). MERS-CoV has been identified in dromedaries in several countries in the Middle East, Africa and South Asia.

Residents angered over terms of Flint, Michigan water crisis settlement as concerns over bone scans mount – As more information comes to light about the Flint, Michigan water crisis settlement it is becoming clear that residents are being victimized once again and that any compensation won by residents will be less than a drop in the bucket to what is owed to those impacted by the lead contamination of the city’s water which began in 2014.Last week, Thermo Fisher Scientific, the manufacturer of the device used to test for lead in the bones of Flint residents, explicitly declared that it is unfit for use on humans in a letter sent to the primary law firm Napoli-Shkolnik. It is believed that the Napoli firm bought or rented at least two devices and has been exposing residents to radiation from the device since as early as September 2019 – more than a year before the settlement was given preliminary approval by US District Judge Judith Levy. Only the firm’s clients and those who have retained attorneys affiliated with Napoli have access to the device without charge. All other residents are charged a $500 fee.The $641.25 million settlement is less than 1 percent of the State of Michigan’s $67.1 billion annual budget. The present terms of the settlement provide a feeding frenzy for the herd of lawyers involved. The compensation that will actually go to residents will be cut by more than 32 percent after the lawyers are paid, leaving the equivalent of slightly more than one-half of 1 percent of the state’s budget going to the victims of the water poisoning.The situation has further angered residents and medical professionals, particularly because the terms of the settlement – acknowledged by Attorney General Dana Nessel and others – claim the bone lead test is “voluntary” and “optional.” However, subjecting adults and children to the test is the only way within the scope of the present settlement that residents can hope to get compensated for more than $1,000 per household. Jessica, a Flint resident whose children range from 23 years old to two-and-a-half-years-old, told the WSWS, “It appears to me that a lot is going on by all the power players and that they are all in bed together. I’m not sure if the Judge [Judith Levy] is a party to this or not, but they are all fighting for blood money. The judge has marginalized the great concerns of the residents.” Jessica had the bone lead test in March, “I was under the assumption, like many others, that if it wasn’t safe it would not be permitted to be used in the first place.” Referring to the settlement which includes the bone lead test as “optional” she continued, “This is another indication of the judge’s lack of integrity. It comes down to this – those who are interested in the money and those who are interested in the human condition of wounded people. “Many people in Flint are well aware of the BS. Just because we are the ‘little people’ doesn’t mean we are stupid.” Since the bone lead test, Jessica has been given the runaround trying to get her results. She has had several email exchanges. Typical is the May 19 email from Patrick Lanciotti, one of the attorneys with the Napoli law firm, which read, “I understand you are looking for the results of your bone scan performed on March 14, 2021. Please send Dr. Specht a check in the amount of $500 so he can provide the report. …”

Car pollution killed hundreds in Mass. and thousands across 12 states, researchers say – Boston Globe — Ozone and fine particulate matter from vehicle emissions claimed approximately 7,100 lives in 12 states and Washington, D.C., in 2016, including about 620 in Massachusetts, a new study from Harvard and the University of North Carolina found. The study, published Tuesday in the journal Environmental Research Letters, was led by researchers from the Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment at Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s Institute for the Environment, the Chan School said in a statement. The team, the statement said, reviewed 2016 data for ozone and particulate matter formed from on-road vehicle emissions, taken from the most recent national emissions inventory.

EPA to reconsider Trump decision not to tighten soot air quality standards –The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Thursday that it will reconsider air quality standards for soot that the Trump administration declined to tighten. A statement from the agency said that it would take a second look at the standards for the pollution, also known as particulate matter, because “available scientific evidence and technical information indicate that the current standards may not be adequate to protect public health and welfare.” The EPA said that it anticipates proposing a new rule next summer and promulgating a final rule in spring 2023. “The most vulnerable among us are most at risk from exposure to particulate matter, and that’s why it’s so important we take a hard look at these standards that haven’t been updated in nine years,” Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. Exposure to a smaller form of particulate matter called fine particulate matter has been linked to health risks including heart attacks, asthma attacks, and premature death. The EPA in December finalized a decision to retain standards set by the Obama administration in 2012 for both fine and coarse forms of particulate matter. Administrator Andrew Wheeler at the time defended the standard as “protective of public health.” But, a policy assessment from agency staff last year found that long-term exposure to the current maximum standard for fine particulate matter could result in thousands more people being put at risk than if the standard were tightened. It said that scientific evidence and air quality analyses “can reasonably be viewed as calling into question the adequacy of the public health protection afforded by the combination of the current … standards” for fine particulate matter. “A conclusion that the current … standards do provide adequate public health protection would place little weight on the broad body of epidemiologic evidence reporting generally positive and statistically significant health effect associations,” it continued.

It’s Raining ‘Forever Chemicals’ Around the Great Lakes, Scientists Find –In the Great Lakes region, it is quite literally raining toxic chemicals. “You can actually say it’s raining PFAS at this point,” said Marta Venier, an environmental chemist at Indiana University, according to Grist.A team of American and Canadian scientists found high levels of PFAS chemicals, also known as “forever chemicals,” after studying the rainfall in six different sites across the Great Lakes region.The scientists collected samples of ambient air and rainwater from Cleveland, OH, Chicago, IL, Sturgeon Point, NY, Ontario, Canada, Sleeping Bear Dunes, MI, and Eagle Harbor in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, according to Cleveland.com.PFAS are per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. They were first used in the U.S. in the 1940s. The chemicals don’t break down and can accumulate as time goes on – making exposure to them harmful to humans, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).At each testing site, there were more PFAS in the samples than other pollutants like polychlorinated biphenyls and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. This finding shows that PFAS are a major contaminant in the region and they’re in snow and rain.The samples of rainwater contained PFAS levels of 100 to 400 parts per trillion (ppt). To put these statistics into perspective, the EPA’s safe limit for drinking water is 70 ppt. In Cleveland, Ohio, two weeks of rainwater collected contained around 1,000 ppt of PFAS compounds, according to MLive. According to a peer review study conducted by scientists from the Environmental Working Group, PFAS contamination may be in drinking water that supplies 200 million Americans. The study also found that there are 2,337 locations in 49 states that have PFAS contamination. This new research in the Great Lakes area was conducted by the Integrated Atmospheric Deposition Network, a program funded by the EPA’s Great Lakes National Program Office, and is managed by Indiana University, according to Cleveland.com.PFAS are synonymous with certain man-made substances like fast food containers, microwave popcorn bags, non-stick cookware, cleaning products, and other grease-resistant products. Firefighting foam is another large source of PFAS.”All of these products that we use in our everyday life are treated with PFAS,” Venier said in a report to Grist. “So every time we use them, there is either dust or air where these chemicals are released.”

UN Report Assesses Dire State of Global Soil Pollution by Jerri-Lynn Scofield – Two UN entities released a report on Friday, Global Assessment of Soil Pollution: Summary for Policymakers, describing the dire state of soil pollution worldwide. According to the Abstract: Soil pollution is invisible to the human eye, but it compromises the quality of the food we eat, the water we drink and the air we breathe and puts human and environmental health at risk. Most contaminants originate from human activities such as industrial processes and mining, poor waste management, unsustainable farming practices, accidents ranging from small chemical spills to accidents at nuclear power plants, and the many effects of armed conflicts. Pollution knows no borders: contaminants are spread throughout terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems and many are distributed globally by atmospheric transport. In addition, they are redistributed through the global economy by way of food and production chains. The hefty summary report makes for gloomy reading, as it describes the many types of pollutants that contaminate soil. I found Figure 4, Main effects of soil contaminants on human health, indicating the organs or systems affected and the contaminants causing them, on p. 6, to be particularly enlightening, but also depressing, as it provides a summary of the damage various pollutants cause, arranged to correspond to the part of the human body where particular damage concentrates.So much comes down to soil health, a subject that it cannot be said is widely understood. And so many modern practices – including but not limited to industrial agriculture, damage rather than support soil health.According to Business Green, ‘Utmost importance’: Worsening soil pollution among planet’s biggest challenges, UN warns: Soil pollution is deteriorating worldwide as a result of unsustainable farming practices and industrial processes, all of which poses a major and growing threat to global food production, human health, and the environment, the United Nations has warned. Industrial and mining activities, poorly managed urban and industrial waste, fossil fuel extraction and processing, as well as unsustainable agricultural practices and transport are the main culprits behind damaging soil pollution identified in a report by the UN’s Environment Programme (UNEP) and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) released late last week.The joint assessment of the health of the world’s soils underscores the scale of the soil crisis and its myriad impacts, concluding that environmental degradation caused by soil pollution is one of the world’s most pressing challenges.

Environmental Activists Call on Biden Administration to Pursue Ratification of the Basel Convention to Block U.S. Exports of Plastics and e-Waste by Jerri-Lynn Scofield -California lawmakers and environmental activists have launched a campaign to press the Biden administration to pursue congressional ratification of the 1989 Basel Convention, according toWaste Dive.The Basel Convention on the Control of Transboundary Movements of Hazardous Wastes and their Disposal was adopted in 1989. Although the United States signed the agreement, it’s one of only eight countries, including East Timor, Grenada, Haiti, San Marino, South Sudan, Fiji, and the Solomon Islands that have not ratified the convention, and the only OECD country to have failed to do so.The parties to the convention recently adopted further amendments to cover shipment of plastics waste. According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):Basel plastic scrap and waste amendments were adopted by Parties to the Basel Convention in 2019 to control exports and imports of most plastic scrap and waste. As a result of these changes, transboundary movements of most plastic scrap and waste to countries party to the Convention are allowed only with the prior written consent of the importing country and any transit countries, a process known as prior notice and consent. The amendments take effect on January 1, 2021.California state Assembly member Cristina Garcia has scheduled a hearing on June 14 on (non-binding) Resolution AJR-4,, which calls for U.S.ratification of the Basel Convention. Proponents argue that “[U.S.]ratification would help curb the export of certain types of plastic pollution from U.S. ports, particularly in California, which the Basel Action Network says is responsible for about 27% of “plastic waste,” according to Waste Dive.Kelani River faces threat of being mixed with furnace oil -The Kelani River is facing the threat of being mixed with furnace oil following heavy rain. Separator tanks containing furnace oil at the Sapugaskanda Oil Refinery managed by the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation, has overflowed. The Sri Lanka Navy and Coast Guard have been deployed to skim the furnace oil from the flood waters and prevent a further spread. The Navy said that the Heiyanthuduwa area in Sapugaskanda has been flooded due to heavy rains and there is a risk of the furnace oil mixed with water in the Sapugaskanda area drifting into the Kelani River through the Pattivila canal. Steps are being taken by the Navy and Coast Guard to place a floating boom to prevent a further spread of furnace oil and use an oil skimmer to prevent the oil from reaching the Kelani River. If the oil reaches the river it will have an adverse impact on water distribution from the Ambathale and Biyagama water treatment plants.

Virus Spreads From B.C. Fish Farms to Wild Chinook Salmon, Study Finds –A virus is being transmitted between net-pen salmon farms and wild juvenile Chinook salmon in British Columbia waters, according to new findings published Wednesday in Science Advances. The study traces the origins of piscine orthoreovirus, or PRV, to Atlantic salmon farms in Norway, and found that the virus is now almost ubiquitous in salmon farms in B.C. The virus has been shown to sicken fish. The collaborative, peer-reviewed study was done by the University of British Columbia and the Strategic Salmon Health Initiative – a partnership between Fisheries and Oceans Canada, Genome BC and the Pacific Salmon Foundation. The research also showed that wild Chinook salmon are more likely to be infected with PRV the closer they are to salmon farms, which suggests farms transfer the virus to wild salmon. “Both our genomic and epidemiological methods independently came to the same conclusion, that salmon farms act as a source and amplifier of PRV transmission,” said Gideon Mordecai, a viral ecologist and Liber Ero fellow with UBC Science and researcher with UBC Medicine, who led the study. The finding that PRV is transmitted between farmed and wild salmon stops short of showing that it also causes disease in wild salmon, said Ken Warheit, director of fish health for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife, who provided some of the data used in the study. Warheit praised the scientists for their research, but said more work is needed to show what the findings mean for wild Pacific Chinook. “This proves transmission. It doesn’t prove disease,” Warheit said.

Life After Wildlife Trafficking: What Happens to Rescued Animals? –In 2013 authorities at Bangkok’s main airport busted a smuggler carrying 54 ploughshare tortoises from Madagascar crammed in a suitcase. The seizure of what amounted to about 10% of the critically endangered species’ wild population made news around the world.What happened to those animals later did not generate as many headlines, says Jan Schmidt-Burbach, head of wildlife research and animal welfare at World Animal Protection.Half of the tortoises died soon after their rescue – a surprise, he says, because the animals are tough and should have been able to survive. The rest went to a government rescue center in Thailand, only to end up among a group of animals that later disappeared and were suspected stolen. That second suspected crime was possible, in part, because there was resistance from center managers, he says, to marking the tortoises’ shells to make them traceable.Cases like this illustrate two of the biggest problems with the fight against the illegal wildlife trade: the scarcity of regulations for the treatment of animals after they’ve been rescued, and the lack of data regarding what happens to them.”That lack of transparency with confiscated wild animals opens doors to laundering and just inappropriate handling,” says Schmidt-Burbach. International pressure to tackle the illegal wildlife trade has increased in recent years. But a resulting increase in successful seizures of live wildlife also means authorities are often overwhelmed with animals, including species that require specialized care or are dangerous.A recent paper published in the journal Animals examines what happens to these creatures, and why. Focusing on Southeast Asia, a wildlife trading hot spot, the researchers found that illegally traded wildlife are often not handled in a way most beneficial to the animals due to a combination of corruption, exploitation, and lack of policy, funding, expertise and capacity.”Yes, they were essentially rescued,” says conservation scientist Shannon Noelle Rivera, the paper’s lead author. “But seizure does not mean rescue by any means, and a lot of times they end up right back in the trade.” Handled correctly, some of these animals could be successfully returned to their home habitats and help replenish populations of threatened species. Instead, they are often kept in captivity, in centers that lack the expertise, funding or the will to care for them properly.

Great Apes Could Lose 94% of African Home Due to Climate Crisis and Other Human Actions, Study Finds – A new study published in Diversity and Distributions Sunday warned that Africa’s great apes could lose more than 90 percent of their habitat within the next 30 years due to the combined pressures of human population growth, resource extraction and the climate crisis.”It’s a perfect storm for many of our closest genetic relatives, many of which are flagship species forconservation efforts within Africa and worldwide,” study leader and Liverpool John Moores University biologist Joana Carvalho told The Guardian. “If we add climate change to the current causes of territory loss, the picture looks devastating.” All of Africa’s great apes – chimpanzees, gorillas and bonobos – are already listed as either endangered or critically endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN), as the Max Planck Society noted. In order to determine how these iconic species would fare in the future, an international team of researchers from almost 50 universities, institutions and conservation groups, including the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, turned to the IUCN’s apes database, as The Guardian explained. This database provides information on population, threats and conservation efforts at hundreds of sites over the last 20 years. Building on this data, the researchers then modeled the impacts of climate change, population growth and land-use change through 2050 using both a best and worst-case scenario.In the best case scenario, the apes would still lose 85 percent of their range, 50 percent of this outsidenational parks and other protected areas. In the worst case scenario, they would lose 94 percent of their range, 61 percent outside of national parks.. Part of the problem is that 30 years is simply not enough time for great apes to migrate to more suitable habitats as the climate shifts. Another problem is that higher temperatures will push ideal conditions from the lowlands to the highlands, but not all great apes live in areas that have easy access to higher environments.

To stem nature loss, start by ending harmful subsidies (Thomson Reuters) – Raising huge new sums of “nature” finance to better protect the planet’s ailing biodiversity will have no significant impact unless the underlying economic rules now driving environmental losses are shifted, economists warned on Tuesday. Raising and spending the hundreds of billions of dollars needed each year to protect and repair natural systems would have only a “trivial” impact compared to reforming economic incentives – including ditching agricultural and related subsidies, said Cambridge University economist Partha Dasgupta. In an online event, he urged governments and global financial institutions to focus more on eliminating fishing, logging and agricultural incentives that lead to nature loss than on raising vast sums to try to rebalance those impacts. Governments between 2017 and 2019 provided more than $500 billion a year in agricultural subsidies alone, which distorted markets and harmed the environment, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) said in 2020. Dasgupta, who released a landmark study in February on the economics of biodiversity, said ensuring businesses that profit from nature pay for the full value of the benefits they gain also could create a new source of income to protect the planet. If commercial fishing trawlers or forest-fellers were “charged appropriate rent for using the global commons, we’re looking at a massive source of revenue that could be used for all sorts of purposes”, he said. One way of doing that could be to expand “fair trade” certification systems that aim to ensure workers get a decent wage, so as to also secure just treatment for nature, he added. Making that work, however, would depend on mandatory disclosures by businesses of their impacts on nature, with tough international monitoring systems, he and others said. Andrea Meza Murillo, Costa Rica’s environment minister, agreed that new international funding for nature protection efforts could not be effective as long as governments kept incentives in place that encourage environmental damage. “We cannot be doing one thing with this hand, and destroying it with this other hand,” she said during the event on investing in nature. In a report released last year, U.S. environmental groups and Cornell University estimated that protecting the planet’s plants, animals and ecosystems, and repairing the damage done by humans, would cost about $700 billion a year in extra funding from governments and business over the next decade. But putting together that kind of money will be hugely difficult, not least as the COVID-19 pandemic hits government and company budgets.

Severe drought grips western states | Farm Progress Almost three-fourths of the western U.S. is gripped by drought so severe that it’s off the charts of anything recorded in the 20-year history of the U.S. Drought Monitor. Mountains across the West have seen little precipitation, robbing reservoirs of dearly needed snowmelt and rain, said Brad Rippey, a meteorologist and Drought Monitor author with the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The parched conditions mean the wildfire threat is high and farmers are struggling to irrigate crops. Meanwhile, dropping water levels in Lake Oroville, one of California’s largest reservoirs, forced authorities to remove more than 100 houseboats, according to the Weather Channel. “Water supply is the big story for the West, and we are getting in trouble with all the interests that try to compete for a slice of that water,” Rippey said by telephone. “There is not a lot to go around this year.” Unlike the eastern U.S., in the West most water comes in winter months in the form of rain that gushes into reservoirs or snow that piles up on mountainsides. Last year, drought cost the nation $4.5 billion, according to the U.S. National Centers for Environmental Information. This year, what little snow that fell soon melted away and seeped into dusty ground rather than rivers, streams and reservoirs. “We have never seen a drought at the scale and the intensity that we see right now, and it is possible that this may be the baseline for the future,” Elizabeth Klein, senior counselor for the Department of Interior told a Congressional hearing last week. “California is currently experiencing its third-driest year on record; the second two driest years on record, and the driest year since 1977.” Through the end of April, 1.7 million acre-feet of water melted off California’s mountains, down from the normal rate of 8 million, Rippey said. In the last two years, there has only been 4 million. “This is, by far, the worst recharge year in modern history,” Rippey said. In addition to the drought figures, officials are concerned about the Colorado River, which powers hydroelectric plants and provides drinking and irrigation water across much of the Southwest and parts of Mexico. Based on paleohydrology, scientists say the Colorado is experiencing one of its driest periods in 1,200 years, Klein said.

Nevada bans ‘non-functional’ grass to combat drought –Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak (D) on Saturday signed a law that bans “non-functional” grass in an effort to combat the effects of a drought that is threatening one of the state’s primary sources of water: the Colorado River.The ban targets “non-functional turf,” which is defined as grass that no one uses, at office parks, in street medians and at housing development entrances. Single-family homes, parks and golf courses are exempt from the law, The Associated Press reported.According to the AP, the measure will ban about 40 percent of the grass in the Las Vegas area, which gets around 90 percent of its water supply from the Colorado River.The ban will go into effect in 2027 and will apply only to areas under the jurisdiction of the Southern Nevada Water Authority.”It’s incumbent upon us for the next generation to be more conscious of conservation and our natural resources – water being particularly important,” Sisolak said, according to the AP.The governor pointed to the “bathtub ring” that passengers flying into Las Vegas can see around Lake Mead as evidence of badly needed water conservation. The new law will require that about 6 square miles of grass be replaced in the metro Las Vegas area, the AP reported, with officials estimating that the region could conserve 10 percent of its total available Colorado River water supply and save approximately 11 gallons per person per day.Although other local and state governments have enacted temporary grass bans during droughts, Nevada is the first to outright ban certain uses of grass.

Southeast Wisconsin’s severe drought could get worse, officials say –Thursday the National Drought Mitigation Center declared the Southeast region of Wisconsin to be under a severe drought. The affected areas included parts of Ozaukee, Washington, Jefferson, and Rock counties, as well as the entire counties of Waukesha and Milwaukee. According to the National Weather Services, we currently are seeing a deficit of 4 to 7 inches of rain and typically we should be seeing 1 inch of rain each week.Meteorologist Mark Gehring from the National Weather Services says farmers without irrigation resources will be impacted directly by the drought this month. “Many farmers don’t have the equipment, I believe it is expensive,” says Gehring. Back in 2012, Southeast Wisconsin saw extreme drought conditions leading to conservation water restrictions created by the County. “They were asking you don’t water the lawns and don’t take too many showers,” says Gehring. While it’s too soon to predict the worst, Gehring believes we must see consistent widespread showers to combat the potential severity.”If it hits your farm field that’ll be good for you, but for many people, it will miss or it just won’t be enough.” Gehring warns if we do not see more precipitation by the end of July, counties could experience similar extreme water restrictions to that of 2012.

Severe Drought Is Taking a Toll on California and Western U.S. –California, along with much of the rest of the western United States, is once again mired in drought. In fact, California has experienced significant drought conditions in 13 of the 22 years (60%) since the turn of the century.A 2020 study in the journal Science concluded that 2000 through 2018 was the second-driest 19-year period in the U.S. Southwest in at least the past 1,200 years, and a 2014 paper in Geophysical Research Letters found that 2012 through 2014 was the driest three-year period in California over that same timeframe.Nearly the entire state is currently in the ‘severe’ drought category or worse, and three-quarters is experiencing ‘extreme’ to ‘exceptional’ drought, according to the U.S. Drought Monitor. The consequences of drought in California are felt well outside the state’s borders. California is effectively America’s garden – it produces two-thirds of all fruits and nuts grown in the U.S. The state’s agricultural industry generates $50 billion each year, which is more than the entire gross domestic products of Vermont and Wyoming, and as large as the economy of Alaska or Montana. California produces nearly all of the almonds, artichokes, avocados, broccoli, carrots, celery, kiwi, figs, garlic, grapes, raisins, raspberries, strawberries, honeydew melons, nectarines, olives, pistachios, plums, tangerines, mandarins, and walnuts grown in the U.S. About 80% of all almonds in the world are grown in California: The state’s almonds alone generate $6 billion annually. But nut trees are water-intensive (though notably less so than the alfalfa and pastureland grown for animal agriculture), and unlike seasonal crops, they cannot be fallowed in a dry year. Given the lack of water in 2021, some farmers have been forced to resort to tearing out valuable almond trees and instead planting less thirsty crops. About 80% of the state’s developed water use goes to the agriculture industry, so anyone who enjoys eating fruits and nuts should be concerned that climate change is increasing the odds of megadroughts permanently drying California.

U.S. Southwest, Already Parched, Sees ‘Virtual Water’ Drain Abroad — Driving into southern California’s Palo Verde Valley from the Arizona border, fields of vibrant green appear out of the desert like a mirage. Near the town of Blythe, water from the Colorado River turns the dry earth into verdant farmland, much of it to grow a single crop – alfalfa, a type of plant used mainly to feed dairy cows.For decades, a significant portion of alfalfa grown here and elsewhere in the western United States – as much as 17 percent in 2017 – has been loaded onto trucks, driven hundreds of miles to ports on the west coast, and shipped around the world, mainly to China, Japan, and Saudi Arabia. A little over five years ago, one company decided it made more sense to own the land, and the water that came with it, outright.The company, a Saudi Arabian dairy firm called Almarai, purchased 1,790 acres in the Palo Verde Valley to secure a supply of alfalfa for its dairy cows. Soon after, Saudi Arabia began phasing out domestic alfalfa production to preserve its water supplies, which were dwindling after years of overuse for agriculture. The purchase made headlines as critics including local politicians and environmentalists questioned whether it was fair for a foreign entity to use up valuable groundwater resources for products that wouldn’t ultimately benefit Americans.But the company is far from alone. Foreign corporations are increasingly purchasing land in the U.S.; in the Southwest, thanks to longstanding laws on water rights, these purchases often come with unlimited access to the valuable water underneath the soil. Combined with nearly year-round sunshine, this has made the area a magnet for companies looking to grow water-intensive crops and raise livestock. Over the last 20 years, foreign companies have purchased more than 250,000 acres of land in six Southwestern states to raise cattle and pigs, as well as to grow everything from almonds to alfalfa, according to an analysis of purchase data that Undark obtained from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.mCorporate farms, researchers and policymakers warn, drain aquifers and threaten access to water for drinking and future crop production. The export of crops and the water used to grow them, known as virtual water, has been accelerating for decades, despite concerns that in drought-stricken areas such as the Southwest, this system is unsustainable in the long term. Although virtual water itself is not inherently problematic – and can even reduce water usage in some cases – its extraction from water-stressed communities is sounding the alarm as water crises become more urgent. Even as the Colorado River Basin enters its 21st year of sustained drought and climate change threatens to further exacerbate water scarcity, virtual water trading is expected to triple globally by 2100, with a large share moving from the U.S. to other countries.

Northern California under water shortage emergency, farmers warn water is unnecessarily let out to sea – Nearly two million people in Northern California have been placed under a water shortage emergency on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, as a severe drought continues to worsen in much of the western U.S. Mandatory water restrictions have been issued for Santa Clara County, while almost 17 million endangered salmon are being transported to the sea as rivers are drying up. Meanwhile, Lake Mead, the reservoir created by the Hoover Dam on the Nevada-Arizona border and the largest in the U.S., has reached historically low levels as the water dropped to 326.61 m (1 071.57 feet) above sea level. Meanwhile, farmers are warning that water from reservoirs is unnecessarily being let out to sea.Much of the western U.S. has been suffering from severe drought, extreme heat, and fire risk this year, with Northern California already declaring a water shortage emergency on Wednesday.”Santa Clara County is in extreme drought. We can’t afford to wait to act as our water supplies are being threatened locally and across California,” said Tony Estremera, director of the Santa Clara Valley Water District, in a news release.”We are in an emergency and Valley Water must do everything we can to protect our groundwater resources and ensure we can provide safe, clean water to Santa Clara County residents and businesses.””Increased conservation is also necessary to protect local water supplies and guard against groundwater overdraft, subsidence, and dry domestic wells, especially if the drought extends into next year.”Under the declaration, almost two million Northern California residents are being asked to reduce their water usage by 15 percent as compared to 2019. People are also advised to limit watering their lawns and filling their pools. “These actions are necessary as we face further challenges to our local water supply,” added Estremera. “We can’t predict how long this drought will last. But we know now is the time for action to protect our groundwater basins and make sure there is enough water for all our communities.”

Hundreds ordered to evacuate as 2 large wildfires rage in Arizona -Two large wildfires are raging in Arizona, U.S., over the past couple of days, forcing hundreds of people to evacuate. The first one, Telegraph Fire, has so far spread through 16 636 ha (41 109 acres) and the other — Mescal Fire, 20 084 ha (49 631 acres) as of Monday, June 7, 2021.The Telegraph Fire has been raging south of Superior since Friday afternoon, June 4, and is now near the southern edge of Tonto National Forest.An evacuation has been ordered for residents in the area of Top-of-the-World, a community of around 250 inhabitants, the Pinal County Sheriff’s Office said Sunday, June 6.”If you choose to ignore this advisement, you must understand emergency services may not be able to assist you further,” it warned.As of Monday, the Telegraph Fire has burned 16 636 ha (41 109 acres), according to InciWeb.The second blaze, Mescal Fire, started on June 1 southeast of Globe and northeast of Drippings Springs.On Saturday, June 5, the fire prompted authorities to evacuate people on the side of State Route 77 near El Capitan, as well as the Soda Canyon near San Carlos Lake. El Capitan is a community of about 4 800 people. It wasn’t confirmed how many people were evacuated.Evacuation orders included the area of San Carlos High School, according to the tribal emergency response commission.Mescal has scorched 20 084 ha (49 631 acres).No casualties or injuries have been reported so far, and the causes of both fires are under investigation.Officials noted that winds and dry conditions, including dry grass and shrubs, have helped generated the flames.

Skies open up leaving much of south-central US underwater —The saturated state of Arkansas will need more than a couple of hours of sunshine to dry up all the rain that fell in recent days, as will other parts of the south-central United States. The intensely heavy rain triggered the National Weather Service (NWS) to issue the rarely used flash flood emergency warning for the southeastern portion of Arkansas on Tuesday. The issuance is reserved for the “exceedingly rare situations when a severe threat to human life and catastrophic damage from a flash flood is happening or will happen soon,” the NWS explained in a graphic. As drivers who attempted to navigate the submerged roads around Pine Bluff, Arkansas, could attest, Tuesday’s conditions certainly met that criteria. “A slow-moving storm has been swamping the region for the last few days with rounds of showers and heavy to at times, severe thunderstorms,” AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Dave Houk said. “Around Pine Bluff, Arkansas, there has been nearly 10 inches of rain in the last three days.” That would be near-normal rainfall for the entire summer in the Pine Bluff area, Houk added. Such intense rain forced the closures of dozens of roadways in the state. Many roads that stayed open became traps for stranded drivers. Video shared by motorists showed water levels as high as vehicle doorhandles. The floodwater was deep enough for waves to be created by the cars driving through it. According to the Magnolia Reporter, up to 3 feet of water was reported on some roadways in the area of the flash flood emergency. Farther south, in Mississippi, the city of Selby posted the highest rainfall total with nearly 12 inches over 24 hours.

Severe floods and landslides hit Sri Lanka, leaving at least 17 people dead and more than 210 000 affected (videos) At least 17 people have died and more than 271 000 have been affected after heavy rains hit Sri Lanka over the weekend, officials reported on Monday, June 7, 2021. Tens of thousands have been forced to evacuate their homes as days of deluge caused rivers on the island’s southern and western plains to overflow, inundating low-lying areas.10 districts on the island have been experiencing heavy rains since Thursday, June 3, including Colombo and suburbs, where many homes and paddy fields have been submerged. A total of 88 divisions have been impacted.”Water levels are receding but landslide warnings are still in place in 10 districts,” Pradeep Kodippili, assistant director of the National Disaster Management Center, said Monday. More than 270 000 people have been affected and around 100 000 buildings lost electricity, he added.At least 17 fatalities have been reported– 10 of whom died in floods, while seven lost their lives in mudslides. Among the victims was a family of four who died when a chunk of earth collapsed into their home in Kegalle District. Two others remain missing.The Sri Lanka Navy has deployed 33 teams to the flooded areas and has rescued 66 people so far who were stranded in the waters.Tens of thousands have been forced to flee their homes. Around 22 932 persons in 5 700 households are reportedly staying in the homes of their relatives. More than 800 houses have been damaged.

The Front Lines of Climate Change: Cyclone Yaas and the Sundarbans – Jerri-Lynn Scofield – Last month, cyclone Yaas made landfall in the Indian state of Odisha. Due to a full moon tidal surge, the storm’s most severe impact occurred in the Sundarbans, the world largest mangrove forest, spanning parts of eastern India and Bangladesh. Yaas is only the latest cyclone to form in the Bay of Bengal during the last year. According to an article in The Times of India, Rising surface temperature at sea behind frequent cyclones: Experts: In the past 12 months, there have been four cyclonic storms in Bay of Bengal – severe cyclone Amphan (May 16-21), severe cyclone Nivar (Nov 22-26), cyclonic storm Burevi (Nov 30-Dec 5) and Yaas (May 23-27). Climate scientists say the cyclogenesis or triggering of very severe cyclonic storms in Bay of Bengal is a result of climate change. The water around the Indian sub-continent is warmer than usual. The threshold value forsea surface temperatures (SSTs) for formation of cyclones is 28 degC, but SST over the Bay of Bengal, Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean 30 degC-32 degC. These storms haven’t caused many deaths – nothing approaching the half million that died when cyclone Bhola struck Bengal in 1970. Both the Indian and Bangladeshi governments have developed a system for warning people and evacuating them safely to shelters. So far, this system has continued to function well, despite the COVID-19 pandemic.Deaths aren’t the only devastation the storms cause. The homes and livelihoods of people in the low-lying Sundarbans have been particularly hard-hit. According to an article In photos: In the Sundarbans, Cyclone Yaas leaves flooded farmland and devastated lives in Scroll:Islands in the Sundarbans are a protected by embankments, which run around 3,500 km. More than 134 embankments were breached, the state government said, devastating many villages. As the embankments were damaged, previous farmland was destroyed as saline water flooded in. Tens of thousands of homes in the region were damaged, as were livestock and poultry farms. The West Bengal government estimated by the cost of damages caused by Cyclone Yaas at Rs 20,000 crore.Rising sea-surface temperatures may be the cause of the more frequent, intense cyclones in the Bay of Bengal, scientists say. Since 2007, there have been 16 major cyclones in the Bay of Bengal. Many islands in the Sundarbans, such as Mousuni, were already facing the threat due to the rapid sea-level rise.I encourage readers to click on the Scroll link above, to see pictures of the devastation Yaas has caused.

Heavy monsoon rains leave 11 people dead in Mumbai, India – At least 11 people have died while seven others were injured as heavy monsoon rains hit Mumbai, India on Wednesday, June 9, 2021, authorities reported on Thursday. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a yellow alert for the city for the next four days, forecasting heavy to very heavy rainfall to continue.The southwest monsoon arrived in Mumbai on Wednesday, June 9, dropping very heavy rains, flooding homes, and causing a residential building to collapse in a Mumbai slum. At least 11 people were killed, of which 8 were children, seven were injured and several more are feared missing.”Three persons are still suspected to be trapped and the search operation is on to find them,” Prabhat Rahangdale from the Mumbai city authority told the Indian Express. “It’s an unfortunate incident. It was a G+2 building that fell on another building. Eighteen people have been rescued, of whom 11 died. Police will carry out a proper investigation and take further action,” added officer Dilip Sawant.Residents from nearby buildings have been evacuated, considering the situation to be dangerous. Of the injured, one is in critical condition, while the six others were stable and recovering.Mumbai registered 222 mm (9 inches) of rain in a 12-hour period, while tidal waves reached up to 4.6 m (13 feet). Water-logging was reported in various parts of the city, disrupting travel and suburban train services. The Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj International Airport also witnessed a total of four aborted landings. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) had deployed 15 teams across Maharashtra state in anticipation of heavy rains. Building collapses are common in the country during the monsoon season, which spans June to September. Heavy rains weaken the foundations of poorly built structures. The IMD has issued an orange alert for the city until June 13 and a red alert for the district of Raigad until June 12, as heavy to very heavy rainfall is expected.

Heavy rains trigger landslides and worst river flooding since record-keeping began, Brazil -(videos) Several tributaries of the Amazon River in Brazil are registering the biggest floods ever recorded as heavy rains continued lashing parts of the country. On June 5, 2021, the Negro River in Manaus reached 30 m (98 feet), becoming the city’s largest flood since record-keeping began in 1902. In Santa Catarina, flooding and landslides prompted more than a hundred people to evacuate since June 8.In the Amazonas state, the Solimoes River is currently at 20.8 m (68 feet), the highest levelsince its water volume began to be measured in 1972.In Anama, local media reported that the situation is even more critical, where 9 670 people have been affected. Medical crews had to use boats to reach people as the Solimoes River flooded the Francisco Salles de Moura Hospital.The Amazon River, measured in Itacoatiara, is at its second-highest level ever recorded having reached 15.2 m (49.9 feet). The record of 16.04 m (52.6 feet) was observed in 2009.Several neighborhoods in the city have been inundated since March, leaving families and businesses severely affected.The Negro River reached 30 m (98 feet), surpassing the record level in 2012 by 3 cm (1.2 inches). With this, Manaus registers its largest flood in history, since records began in 1902. More than 24 000 families have been affected by floods that have hit at least 15 neighborhoods, according to the Civil Defense.

Record-setting blob of ‘sea snot’ has environmentalists concerned — Thick layers of unsightly brown foam, nicknamed “sea snot,” have developed along the coast of Turkey, and officials warn the phenomenon could have major impacts on the environment and is in danger of lasting all summer. The slimy substance that ranges in color from off-white to brown that is collecting along the shores of the Marmara coast of northern Turkey is called marine mucilage. The mucilage blooms can also be seen developing along the coast of the adjoining Black and Aegean seas during the spring and summer as water temperatures rise. The mucilage is an organic material that is produced by algae that thrive in warm and nutrient-dense waters. Most of the nutrients come from pollution and wastewater that is dumped into the sea. Sea snot was first documented along the coasts of Turkey and Greece in 2007, but this year’s bloom is the largest on record, according to The Guardian. Cevahir Efe Akcelik, an environment engineer and secretary-general of the Union of Chambers of Turkish Engineers and Architects, told the Guardian that the foam could cover the sea all summer unless urgent measures are taken. “Studies show the mucilage is not only on the surface now but also goes 25 to 30 [meters] (80-100 feet) deep,” he added. The mucilage can have devastating effects on marine life in the area. Muharrem Balci, a biology professor at Istanbul University, said that when algae grow out of control in the springtime they can block out the sunlight, which depletes oxygen in the water, suffocating fish and other marine life. Balci added that when the mucilage drops to the sea floor it can impact that ecosystem and poison shellfish, such as crabs. The fishing industry has been affected by the sea snot outbreak, said Mahsum Daga, a local fisherman, adding that the sludge prevents shellfish from closing again once they open up.

Large cloud of Saharan dust reaches the Caribbean and South America – (video, satellite) A large cloud of Saharan dust moving across the Atlantic Ocean over the past week has reached the Caribbean and South America.The dust will remain over the region for the next couple of days, limiting visibility and lowering air quality. After that, it’s expected to head toward the southeastern United States.The largest Saharan dust cloud in 50 years — dubbed the “Godzilla dust cloud — engulfed the Caribbean in June 2020, causing record hazardous air quality levels. Saharan Air Layer (SAL) is a mass of very dry, dusty air that forms over the Sahara Desert during the late spring, summer, and early fall. “SAL activity typically ramps up in mid-June and peaks from late June to mid-August, with new outbreaks occurring every three to five days. During this peak period, it is common for individual SAL outbreaks to reach farther to the west – as far west as Florida, Central America, and even Texas – and cover extensive areas of the Atlantic (sometimes as large as the lower 48 United States),” said Dr. Jason Dunion, a University of Miami hurricane researcher working with NOAA’s Atlantic Oceanographic and Meteorological Laboratory.The SAL has unique properties of warmth, dry air and strong winds that can act to suppress hurricane formation and intensification.Additionally, its iron-rich particles reflect sunlight and reduce the heating of the ocean surface while the cloud is passing over.

Massive sinkhole in Puebla continues to expand, now at 110 m (360 feet), Mexico — (videos) The enormous sinkhole in Puebla State, southeastern Mexico, has grown to 110 m (360 feet) in diameter as of Monday, June 7, 2021, prompting authorities to widen the security perimeter. The hole has already destroyed a nearby house’s bedroom and part of a wall and is threatening to swallow the entire structure as continues to expand.The sinkhole appeared in Santa Mar’a Zacatepec, in the town of Juan C. Bonilla, and is confirmed to be 9 m (30 feet) deep. It measured 80 m (262 feet) in diameter on May 29 and has grown rapidly ever since.As of Monday, the sinkhole has grown another 13 m (43 feet), now measuring 110 m (360 feet) across at its widest point. The Sflnchez Xalamihua family, who owns the home near the sinkhole, said they heard a loud boom the day the sinkhole appeared.”We heard something like a rumbling,” Magdalena Xalamihua, the matriarch, told the media. “We thought it was fireworks, but we looked outside and saw the earth moving and water coming up, like waves. We ran.”She and her husband, along with their two children, had only just moved into the house in 2020. According to local media, Puebla State Governor Miguel Barbosa had not visited Zacatepec but admitted that the situation is a “matter of enormous risk,” assuring that the government will remain vigilant to prevent further tragedy. A team of geologists from the Meritorious Autonomous University of Puebla is working on a report to study the event, which authorities hope could be ready by the end of June. “These faults are already present within the soil. They may have existed for 5 000 to 10 000 years before being reactivated,” he said. “It just needs nature to provide the impact so that they appear on the surface. This phenomenon, as far as I can see, was going to happen sooner or later.”

Intense earthquake swarm near Salton Sea, Southern California —An intense earthquake swarm is taking place near the Salton Sea in Southern California, U.S. on June 5, 2021, starting with M2.2 at 08:05 UTC (01:05 LT). The USGS has registered 285 earthquakes by 21:24 UTC. The swarm is still in progress and new earthquakes are being registered every few minutes, sometimes 2 or 3 within 1 minute. (Update: 805 earthquakes were registered by 21:29 UTC on June 6)The strongest so far was M5.3 at 17:55 UTC (10:55 LT). The quake struck 11 km (7 miles) W of Calipatria and 11 km N of Westmorland at a depth of 5.8 km (4.6 miles). 3 000 people are estimated to have felt strong shaking, 9 000 moderate, and 201 000 light. More than 1 050 people submitted ‘I felt it’ reports.

Earthquake swarm under Mount Hood volcano, Oregon – The Cascades Volcano Observatory (CVO) has detected an earthquake swarm in the Mount Hood area, Oregon on June 5, 2021. The swarm continued into June 6 when the activity started to quiet down. The last known eruption of this volcano took place in 1865 and 1866 (VEI 2). The last major eruptive period began in 1781 and lasted to ~1801. A magnitude 3.9 earthquake was registered at 03:51 UTC on June 6 (20:51 PDT on June 5) approximately 4 km (2.5 miles) south of the summit of Mount Hood at a depth of 4.3 km (2.7 miles) below sea level that was felt in the vicinity around Mount Hood. It was preceded by several earthquakes in the hour prior to the M3.9, and tens of aftershocks have occurred so far with event rates declining in a manner typical of mainshock-aftershock sequences, CVO said in a statement issued at 04:38 UTC on June 6.

Significant eruption, pyroclastic flow at Sinabung volcano, Indonesia – A significant eruption took place at the Indonesian Sinabung volcano at 16:35 UTC on June 6, 2021, producing a pyroclastic flow and ejecting volcanic ash up to 9.1 km (30 000 feet) above sea level. The eruption lasted for 421 seconds and was not clearly observable due to fog and clouds.Three volcanic ash levels were observed at 21:40 UTC — to 9.1 km (30 000 feet) a.s.l. moving WSW, 7.3 km (24 000 feet) a.s.l. moving W and to 4.2 km (14 000 feet) a.s.l. moving N.The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red at 17:53 UTC and lowered back to Orange at 06:25 on June 7. The Alert Level remained at 3 (on a scale of 1 – 4), with a general exclusion zone of 3 km (1.8 miles) and extensions to 5 km (3.1 miles) in the SE sector and 4 km (2.5 miles) in the NE sector.In the event of ashfall, people are advised to wear masks when leaving the house to reduce the health impact of volcanic ash. Secure drinking water facilities and clean roofs of houses from heavy volcanic ash so that they do not collapse.People who live near rivers that originate at Mount Sinabung are advised to stay alert to the dangers of lahars.

Lava cuts off famous viewing hill of eruption near Fagradalsfjall in Geldingadalur, Iceland -The famous viewing hill providing a glimpse of the ongoing volcanic eruption site near Fagradalsfjall in Geldingadalur, Iceland, has been cut off as lava has made its way through the hiking trail on Monday, June 7, 2021. The spectacular sight of a volcano spewing lava at great heights has been attracting thousands of visitors to the area.On Monday morning, responders were notified that lava has started flowing through the hiking trail that led up to the viewing hill where many tourists go to witness the erupting volcano in Geldingadalur. The area was previously closed by authorities for safety purposes, due to the possibility of visitors being trapped on the hill if lava were to flow through the path. Hjfllmar Hallgr’msson, the site manager, told local media that lava had made its way over the trail very quickly. Fortunately, there were very few people at the eruption site.Hikers will still be able to have a view of the volcano despite losing access to the viewing hill, renowned for its glimpse into the volcano’s interior.The historic volcanic eruption near Fagradalsfjall began on March 19, 2021, after more than 50 000 earthquakes registered since February 24. The last eruption in the area occurred in 1340 (VEI 1) – 681 years ago.As the eruption continued, it produced a spectacular view of flowing lava, attracting many visitors to the site despite the hazard.Powerful jets of lava have been observed, with some reaching unusual heights beyond 460 m (1 500 feet). The volcanic eruption has also brought mesmerizing red skies over the area during cloudy days, leaving witnesses in awe, many of whom have taken to social media to share their photos and videos of the amazing scenery.

Longest underwater avalanche monitored in action continuously self-accelerated for over 1 000 km In a new paper, scientists have reported what they say is the longest sediment avalanche measured so far in action and the only monitored flow to continuously self-accelerate for over 1 000 km (620 miles). The event occurred off the coast of West Africa, in a deep canyon leading from the mouth of the Congo River. The event was triggered by severe flooding and unusually large spring tides. The underwater avalanche kept moving for two whole days and ran out for more than 1 100 km (684 miles) across the floor of the Atlantic Ocean. The event would have gone undocumented if not for the fact that the slide broke two submarine telecommunication cables, causing slow internet and data traffic between Nigeria and South Africa in the process. Researchers were also able to line the length of the Congo Canyon with instruments that can measure current and sediment velocities. “We had a series of oceanographic moorings that were hit by the event, which broke them from their seafloor anchors so that they popped up to send us an email,” said study author Peter Talling from Durham University in the UK. “This thing gradually got faster and faster. Because it erodes the seabed as it goes, it picks up sand and mud, which makes the flow denser and even quicker. So, it has this positive feedback where it can build and build and build.” The event, more properly called a turbidity current, was initiated on January 14, 2020. Scientists only reported the underwater avalanche as they needed time to recover the sensors and fully study their data. According to the team, two factors combined to prime and then trigger the prodigious flow. The first was an exceptionally large flood along the Congo River in December 2019, which was a one-in-50-year occurrence. It delivered large quantities of sand and mud to the head of the underwater canyon two weeks before the slide. Then some unusually big spring tides followed in January 2020. “The turbidity current we think was triggered at low water, at low tide,” said author Dan Parsons from the Hull University. “As the loading of the ocean above declines, so you get a change in the pore water pressure within the sediment – and that’s what allows it to fail.” “But first you have to load the dice by delivering the sediment. Then the tidal signature can kick everything off.”

A slowing current system in the Atlantic Ocean spells trouble for Earth – When it comes to the motion of the ocean, what is called the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation, or “AMOC” for short, is essentially a complex system of conveyor belts. The first belt contains warm water that flows north, where it cools, evaporates and increases the salinity of the ocean water. That water then cools, sinks and flows south, creating a second major belt. These currents are connected to each other by regions in the Nordic Sea, Labrador Sea and Southern Ocean, keeping sea levels down on the United States’ eastern seaboard and warming up the weather in Europe.This current system connects many different pieces of life on Earth: tides, hurricanes, sea levels, ocean life, salinity, fisheries, water pollution, temperatures, weather – all are affected by this current system. A sudden shift in how the Atlantic current system works would drastically change life on Earth.Yet the more we learn about ocean currents, the more we have cause for alarm. AFebruary study published in the journal Nature Geoscience reconstructed the history of the current going back 1,600 years and found that circulation is weaker now than at any other point in that span. They identified the most likely culprit as global warming. With the Greenland Ice Sheet and Arctic ice melting as the planet heats up, and rain and snow levels increasing, the water flowing north loses much of its salinity and density. This causes the water to flow south more slowly and weakens AMOC overall. More recently, another study in the journal Nature Geoscience that identified the important role played by winds in causing changes in ocean circulation. As lead author Dr. Yavor Kostov of the University of Exeter said in a press release, scientists have struggled to understand the variability in AMOC because there are so many variables that have an effect on it. He noted that after learning that winds influenced circulation in both sub-tropical and sub-polar locations, scientists concluded that “as the climate continues to change, more efforts should be concentrated on monitoring those winds – especially in key regions on continental boundaries and the eastern coast of Greenland – and understanding what drives changes in them.””This won’t lead to another ice age (like ‘The Day After Tomorrow,’ which is a caricature of the science), but it may well threaten fish populations and lead to accelerated sea level rise along the U.S. east coast,” Mann told Salon. “This is furthermore a reminder that there are surprises in the greenhouse, and often they are unwelcome ones. If we want to avoid more and more of these unwelcome surprises, we need to bring carbon emissions down dramatically in the years ahead.”Kevin Trenberth, a distinguished senior scientist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, told Salon by email that if AMOC stopped moving heat northwards, the topical Atlantic would get much warmer. That in turn would lead to more frequent and devastating hurricanes, even as Iceland and parts of Europe cool immensely.

Despite pandemic, level of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere hits historic levels – Economies worldwide nearly ground to a halt over the 15 months of the coronavirus pandemic, leading to a startling drop in global greenhouse gas emissions.But the idle airplanes, boarded-up stores and quiet highways barely made a dent in the steady accumulation of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, which scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said Monday had reached the highest levels since accurate measurements began 63 years ago.The new figures serve as a sober reminder that even as President Biden and other world leaders make unprecedented promises about curtailing greenhouse gas emissions, turning the tide of climate change will take even more massive efforts over a much longer period of time.The report of a climb in atmospheric carbon dioxide was also published on the eve of a meeting of the Group of Seven industrialized countries, where climate change is expected to be at center stage. The G-7 meeting is intended to prod major emitting countries toward more ambitious actions ahead of a major international climate conference in Glasgow in November.”Fossil fuel burning is really at the heart of this. If we don’t tackle fossil fuel burning, the problem is not going to go away,” Ralph Keeling, a geochemist at Scripps , said in an interview, adding that the world ultimately will have to make emissions cuts that are “much larger and sustained” than anything that happened during the pandemic.Scientists from Scripps and the NOAA said on Monday that levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide peaked in May, reaching a monthly average of nearly 419 parts per million.That represents an increase from the May 2020 mean of 417 parts per million, and it marks the highest level since measurements began 63 years ago at the NOAA observatory in Mauna Loa, Hawaii. Twice in 2021, daily levels recorded at the observatory have exceeded 420 parts per million, researchers said.

CO2 concentration levels hit record high, show no impact from pandemic —The concentration of carbon dioxide in Earth’s atmosphere reached historic levels in May after emissions plunged in the first months of the coronavirus pandemic, according to data released Monday by the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).The annual peak reached 419 parts per million (PPM) in May, according to the research, with “no discernible signal in the data” from the reduced industrial activity in 2020. This is the highest level recorded in the 63 years concentration levels have been tracked, with researchers saying daily levels have surpassed 420 PPM on several occasions. It also represents an increase from 417 PPM in May 2020.Annual carbon dioxide concentration values peak in May, the end of the period when plants in the northern hemisphere begin taking in large amounts of CO2 from the atmosphere. This trend is known as the Keeling Curve, after Charles David Keeling, the scientist who first observed the phenomenon.”The ultimate control knob on atmospheric CO2 is fossil-fuel emissions,” Keeling’s son Ralph Keeling, who runs the Scripps program at the NOAA’s Mauna Loa observatory, said in a statement. “But we still have a long way to go to halt the rise, as each year more CO2 piles up in the atmosphere. We ultimately need cuts that are much larger and sustained longer than the COVID-related shutdowns of 2020.” Ralph Keeling told Axios the concentration will likely exceed 420 PPM in 2021, adding ,”We’re moving deeper and deeper into a territory we almost certainly never would have wanted to get to.”Although carbon emissions fell 17 percent globally in spring 2020, they were on the rise again by September, with research from the World Meteorological Organization indicating they fell only a net 6.4 percent last year.Experts have said emissions will likely rebound as more people return to their daily automobile commutes and that reduced ridership for public transportation also has worrisome implications for emissions.

Carbon dioxide levels hit 50 percent higher than preindustrial times -The annual peak of global heat-trapping carbon dioxide in the air has reached another dangerous milestone: 50 percent higher than when the industrial age began. And the average rate of increase is faster than ever, scientists reported Monday. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said the average carbon dioxide level for May was 419.13 parts per million. That’s 1.82 parts per million higher than May 2020 and 50 percent higher than the stable pre-industrial levels of 280 parts per million, said NOAA climate scientist Pieter Tans. Carbon dioxide levels peak every May just before plant life in the Northern Hemisphere blossoms, sucking some of that carbon out of the atmosphere and into flowers, leaves, seeds and stems. The reprieve is temporary, though, because emissions of carbon dioxide from burning coal, oil and natural gas for transportation and electricity far exceed what plants can take in, pushing greenhouse gas levels to new records every year. “Reaching 50 percent higher carbon dioxide than preindustrial is really setting a new benchmark and not in a good way,” said Cornell University climate scientist Natalie Mahowald, who wasn’t part of the research. “If we want to avoid the worst consequences of climate change, we need to work much harder to cut carbon dioxide emissions and right away.” Climate change does more than increase temperatures. It makes extreme weather – storms, wildfires, floods and droughts – worse and more frequent and causes oceans to rise and get more acidic, studies show. There are also health effects, including heat deaths and increased pollen. In 2015, countries signed the Paris agreement to try to keep climate change to below what’s considered dangerous levels.

Atmospheric CO2 Reaches Its Highest Level in Human History –Last month, EcoWatch reported that atmospheric carbon dioxide (CO2) levels this year were expected to climb to beyond 2019 levels, despite falling during the pandemic. Now we know just how much. Two separate reports published Monday detailed that CO2 levels have indeed spiked, and that the annual peak reached 419 parts per million (PPM) in May, the highest level in human history, Axios reported.Scientists from the Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), who published the new reports, have been tracking atmospheric CO2 for more than 60 years, according to The Hill. But using other data, researchers were able to estimate that CO2 levels haven’t been this high on Earth in more than 4 million years, NPR reported“We are adding roughly 40 billion metric tons of CO2 pollution to the atmosphere per year,” Peter Tans, a senior scientist with NOAA’s Global Monitoring Laboratory, said in a statement. “That is a mountain of carbon that we dig up out of the Earth, burn, and release into the atmosphere as CO2 – year after year. If we want to avoid catastrophic climate change, the highest priority must be to reduce CO2 pollution to zero at the earliest possible date.”Carbon-based fossil fuels used for electricity production and transportation, including oil, gas and coal, cement manufacturing, deforestation and agriculture are all main drivers of CO2 pollution, the statementnoted.May is the month with the highest mean atmospheric CO2 because plants in the northern hemisphere are just beginning to enter the growing season when they suck large amounts of CO2 from Earth’s air, according toNOAA. Levels will likely drop from here, but the data is alarming.While the year-to-year increase in the May 2021 CO2 peak was slightly smaller than previous years, “CO2 measurements at Mauna Loa [Observatory, in Hawaii] for the first five months of 2021 showed a 2.3 ppm increase over the same five months of 2020, close to the average annual increase from 2010 to 2019,” the statement read. The brief dip in greenhouse gas emissions in 2020 did not make a difference in bringing down current numbers, according to the report. “The data provides yet another warning that countries are still very far from getting their planet-warming greenhouse gases under control,” The New York Times reported.

Climate tipping points could topple like dominoes, warn scientists – Ice sheets and ocean currents at risk of climate tipping points can destabilise each other as the world heats up, leading to a domino effect with severe consequences for humanity, according to a risk analysis.Tipping points occur when global heating pushes temperatures beyond a critical threshold, leading to accelerated and irreversible impacts. Some large ice sheets in Antarctica are thought to already have passed their tipping points, meaning large sea-level rises in coming centuries.The new research examined the interactions between ice sheets in West Antarctica, Greenland, the warm Atlantic Gulf Stream and the Amazon rainforest. The scientists carried out 3m computer simulations and found domino effects in a third of them, even when temperature rises were below 2C, the upper limit of the Paris agreement.The study showed that the interactions between these climate systems can lower the critical temperature thresholds at which each tipping point is passed. It found that ice sheets are potential starting points for tipping cascades, with the Atlantic currents acting as a transmitter and eventually affecting the Amazon.”We provide a risk analysis, not a prediction, but our findings still raise concern,” said Prof Ricarda Winkelmann, at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK) in Germany. “[Our findings] might mean we have less time to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and still prevent tipping processes.”The level of CO2 in the atmosphere required to push temperatures beyond the thresholds could be reached in the very near future, she said. “In the next years or decades, we might be committing future generations to really severe consequences.” These could include many metres of sea-level rise from ice melting, affecting scores of coastal cities.”We’re shifting the odds, and not in our favour – the risk clearly is increasing the more we heat our planet,”

Doctors, healthcare workers sound alarm over health risks of climate change – A growing number of doctors and front-line healthcare workers are turning to climate activism to urge global leaders to declare climate change a public health emergency.Doctors and health workers, some clad in white coats and brandishing placards, marched to the headquarters of the World Health Organisation (WHO) in Geneva on Saturday to demand that health authorities and governments prioritise climate change to avert a global health crisis.Their demands for immediate action included a focus on preventative healthcare with education programmes in schools and the wider community, more equitable distribution and access to medical care, reducing the carbon impact of health care, and stricter control of industries to ensure clean water and air. Underscoring the progressive nature of their platform, the protesters also called for the creation of citizen assemblies to steer strategic health decisions. Their demands were listed in a petition, signed by more than 1,200 prominent doctors and healthcare workers from around the world. WHO chief Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, who welcomed the protesters, said that while “the pandemic will end, there is no vaccine for climate change”. He later tweeted that health and climate change were “inextricably intertwined” and that the WHO would be “standing in solidarity and urging global action” with the demonstrators. Indeed, the WHO and the prestigious Lancet medical journal have declared climate change the biggest threat to global health in the 21st century – a declaration made even before the Covid-19 crisis.Front-line health workers and researchers may have been sounding the alarm on climate change for years, but it is only recently that more voices have stepped up to lead rallies, sign petitions and publish studies with the same fierce urgency as grassroots activists.

Climate Inaction Will Cost G7 Countries Billions of Dollars – The world’s richest countries face billions of dollars in economic losses if they fail to take stringent measures to curb climate change, Oxfam said on Monday, citing research by the Swiss Re Institute.According to the report, the G7 (Group of Seven) economies – Germany, France, Italy, Japan, Canada, the UK and the US – could see annual average losses of up to 8.5% by 2050 if CO2 emissions continue unabated.Total losses could amount to $4.8 trillion (euro 3.95 trillion) a year, double the GDP losses caused by the coronavirus pandemic.The Swiss Re report looked out how different aspects of changing climate, including heatwaves, rising sea levels and degradation of agricultural land, may impact economic activities in 48 countries.Although the report concluded that the richest countries would be badly hit by the consequences of runaway climate change, poorer countries would fare much worse.It predicted that up to 35% of the Philippines’ economy could be wiped away while India, home to over 1.3 billion people, may see its economic activity shrink by 27%.Oxfam added that between 32 and 132 billion people could be pushed into extreme poverty by 2030 due to climate change, citing a recent report by the World Bank. Oxfam called on the leaders of the G7 countries to immediately increase the pledges to cut carbon emissions, pointing out that most were falling short of necessary reductions to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees. The charity also demanded that the G7 countries – who represent some of the world’s worst emitters of CO2 historically – stick to their pledge to provide $100 billion annually to help poorer countries deal with the impacts of climate change.

International Energy Agency report underscores inadequacy of US government response to climate change – The International Energy Agency (IEA), a Paris-based affiliate of the Organisation for Economic Co-ordination and Development (OECD), has released a special report outlining various pathways to ensure a world with a net zero carbon emissions rate by 2050. The report, which is titled Net Zero by 2050, states that in order to achieve a carbon neutral world by that year producers will need to immediately stop any new fossil fuel production. This is only one of 400 “milestones” along the road to 2050, and its implausibility only underscores the difficulties of combining a rational, science-based response to the danger of climate change with the maintenance of global capitalism, driven by private profits and the interests of rival nation-states. Countries will need to increase solar and wind production by roughly 400 percent more than the current rate. This would occur with a phasing out of coal and gas plants, in favor of solar and nuclear plants, as well as the retrofitting of coal and gas plants with carbon capture devices, where the carbon will later be injected underground. According to the special report, this transition must finalize before 2040. As it stands, roughly 80 percent of the world’s energy grids are powered by fossil fuels. By 2040, a significant amount of air travel would have to be done with renewable fuels like hydrogen. By 2030, the majority of cars sold would need to be electric. By 2035 most vehicles involved in the transportation of goods would also need to make this transition. The pathways described by the IEA also include enabling access to clean electricity and cooking to everyone in the world and making the world’s electric grid completely carbon neutral by 2040. “The sheer magnitude of changes needed to get to net zero emissions by 2050 is still not fully understood by many governments and investors,” stated IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol. Typifying such inadequate responses was US President Joe Biden’s climate initiative announced on international Earth Day in April. The president unveiled his plan at a climate summit at the White House that was attended by numerous world leaders. A fact sheet presented by the White House declared that it has set “ambitious goals,” which put “the United States on an irreversible path to a net-zero economy by 2050.” Biden revealed that the United States would cut carbon emissions in half by 50 percent by 2030. The emissions the Biden administration has pledged to cut in half are based on levels from 2005, a year with especially high pollution. Since 2005, the US has achieved a 14-15 percent decrease in overall emissions. This means that Biden, who will be long gone by 2050, can take credit for decreases that happened before he was even elected. While the IEA’s report called for an immediate stop to any new fossil fuel production within the US, the Biden administration has, within its first few days of power, issued 31 drilling permits on federal land. The Biden administration has also approved 22 offshore drilling permits to companies, such as Shell and British Petroleum. Biden’s Department of Justice (DOJ) recently contested a lawsuit brought forth by environmental groups to stop a Trump-approved oil extraction operation in northern Alaska. The project, dubbed “Willow,” is expected to extract roughly 100,000 barrels of oil a day for the next 30 years.

GM asks for flexibility in meeting emissions target — General Motors (GM) has asked the Biden administration for leeway on the carbon reduction targets for automakers. In a Wednesday letter to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Michael Regan, CEO Mary Barra said the company backs the emissions reductions goals in a 2019 deal between industry and the state of California, according to Reuters. However, Barra also asked the federal government for incentives to hasten the transition to electrified vehicles. “We believe an electric vehicle compliance pathway is a key component to setting the industry on an irreversible path towards a zero-emissions future, which can only be achieved with a tailpipe-free light duty fleet,” she wrote. An EPA spokesperson told The Hill in a statement Thursday that “Regan spoke this week with leaders from auto manufacturers to discuss EPA’s priorities to reduce climate pollution from the transportation sector.” “These conversations have been constructive as the agency moves forward on actions to address emissions from cars and light duty trucks,” the spokesperson added. GM had earlier supported the Trump administration in its litigation against California’s tougher emissions standards, but withdrew from the lawsuit in late November shortly after President Biden’s electoral victory. “We believe the ambitious electrification goals of the President-elect, California, and General Motors are aligned to address climate change by drastically reducing automobile emissions. We are confident that the Biden administration, California, and the U.S. auto industry, which supports 10.3 million jobs, can collaboratively find the pathway that will deliver an all-electric future,” the company wrote in the November letter.

The ‘Big Con’ Revealed: Report Details Fossil Fuel Industry’s Deceptive ‘Net Zero’ Strategy –A new report published Wednesday by a trio of progressive advocacy groups lifts the veil on so-called “net zero” climate pledges, which are often touted by corporations and governments as solutions to the climate emergency, but which the paper’s authors argue are merely a dangerous form of greenwashing that should be eschewed in favor of Real Zero policies based on meaningful, near-term commitments to reducing global greenhouse gas emissions.The report, The Big Con: How Big Polluters Are Advancing a “Net Zero” Climate Agenda to Delay, Deceive, and Deny, was published by Corporate Accountability, the Global Forest Coalition, and Friends of the Earth International, and is endorsed by more than 60 environmental organizations. The paper comes ahead of this November’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland and amid proliferating pledges from polluting corporations and governments to achieve what they claim is carbon neutrality – increasingly via dubious offsets – by some distant date, often the year 2050.However, the report asserts that “instead of offering meaningful real solutions to justly address the crisis they knowingly created and owning up to their responsibility to act beginning with drastically reducing emissions at source, polluting corporations and governments are advancing ‘net zero’ plans that require little or nothing in the way of real solutions or real effective emissions cuts.””Furthermore… they see the potential for a ‘net zero’ global pathway to provide new business opportunities for them, rather than curtailing production and consumption of their polluting products,” it says.According to the report:After decades of inaction, corporations are suddenly racing to pledge to achieve “net zero” emissions. These include fossil fuel giants like BP, Shell, and Total; tech giants like Microsoft and Apple; retailers like Amazon and Walmart; financers like HSBC, Bank of America, and BlackRock; airlines like United and Delta; and food, livestock, and meat producing and agriculture corporations like JBS, Nestle, and Cargill. Polluting corporations are in a race to be the loudest and proudest to pledge “net zero” emissions by 2050 or some other date in the distant future. Over recent years, more than 1,500 corporations have made “net zero” commitments, an accomplishment applauded by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change and the U.N. Secretary General. “Increasingly, the concept of ‘net zero’ is being misconstrued in political spaces as well as by individual actors to evade action and avoid responsibility,” the report states. “The idea behind big polluters’ use of ‘net zero’ is that an entity can continue to pollute as usual – or even increase its emissions – and seek to compensate for those emissions in a number of ways. Emissions are nothing more than a math equation in these plans; they can be added one place and subtracted from another place.”

Electric power sector CO2 emissions drop as generation mix shifts from coal to natural gas –Over the past 15 years, the U.S. electricity generation mix has shifted away from coal and toward natural gas and renewables, resulting in lower CO2 emissions from electricity generation. In 2019, the U.S. electric power sector produced 1,724 million metric tons (MMmt) of CO2, 32% less than the 2,544 MMmt produced in 2005.Lower CO2 emissions have largely been a result of a shift from coal to natural gas in the electricity generation mix. In 2005, coal made up 50% of U.S. electricity generation; that share declined to 23% in 2019. Conversely, natural gas increased from 19% of total generation in 2005 to 38% in 2019. For the next few years, this trend may be changing. In the recent releases of our Short-Term Energy Outlook, we forecast that higher natural gas prices will lead to less natural gas-fired generation and more coal-fired generation in 2021. However, in 2022, we expect both coal and natural gas to lose a portion of their shares to renewables. When generating electricity, coal emits significantly more CO2 than natural gas. In 2019, coal-fired generation produced 2,257 pounds of CO2 per megawatthour (MWh) of electricity. Natural gas-fired generation produced less than half that amount at 976 pounds of CO2/MWh. CO2 emissions associated with generating electricity from coal and natural gas differ because of differences in the fuels themselves – coal has more carbon content per unit of energy. In addition, coal-fired plants and natural gas-fired plants differ in how efficiently they convert their respective fuels to electricity. The amount of CO2 produced when a fuel is burned depends on a fuel’s carbon content. Coal produces more CO2 per unit of energy than natural gas does when burned. Coal consumption for electricity generation produces 209 pounds of CO2 per million British thermal units (MMBtu), compared with 117 pounds of CO2/MMBtu for natural gas.

US power grid: Energy secretary says adversaries have capability of shutting it down – Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Sunday warned in stark terms that the US power grid is vulnerable to attacks.Asked By CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” whether the nation’s adversaries have the capability of shutting it down, Granholm said: “Yeah, they do.””There are thousands of attacks on all aspects of the energy sector and the private sector generally,” she said, adding, “It’s happening all the time. This is why the private sector and the public sector have to work together.”The secretary’s warning comes amid a rise in ransomware attacks in America’s public and private sectors in the recent weeks, creating a sense of urgency in the Biden administration on how to confront cyber vulnerabilities. The issue will take an outsized role during President Joe Biden’s first foreign trip this week, during which he is set to talk with European leaders and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland.Last week, the White House issued a letter to companies calling on them to take the threat of ransomware attacks more seriously, following back-to-back attacks by Russian hackers against the Colonial Pipeline Company last month and the JBS meatpacking plant. Asked Sunday on NBC if the US government is better prepared to deal with another potential ransomware attack on a gasoline pipeline, Granholm said new regulations from the Transportation Security Administration, which regulates pipelines, now require companies to report when attacks are happening in real time. “The TSA actually just put out a series of regulations requiring pipelines to let us know if they have been the victim, and whenever in the real-time… where are these attacks happening, so that we know and we can coordinate with our intelligence community to determine not just how to respond in the long-term, but how to respond immediately. So to that extent, yes,” Granholm saidon “Meet The Press.”

Reducing the burp burden: Cargill will soon sell high-tech, methane-mitigating masks for cows – In a bid to teach uncultured bovines a thing or two about manners, Cargill will soon start selling masks to cover up those unseemly cow burps. Technically it’s less about “etiquette” and more about “mitigating methane emissions,” but please allow us to pretend this development was made in service of haute heifer dinner parties. Jokes aside, the last decade has seen an increasing focus on the role that reducing livestock emissions could play in climate change. And contrary to long-held myths about these emissions coming from flatulence, 95 percent of the methane cows release is from burps and through the nose. The Cargill masks, which are somewhat elaborate in construction, utilize “a set of fans powered by solar-charged batteries” and that “sucks up the burps and traps them in a chamber with a methane-absorbing filter.” Once the filter is saturated, a chemical reaction converts the methane to COâ‚‚ and releases it. The masks, which were initially developed by U.K. startup Zelp, will go on sale to farmers in 2022. Bloomberg has more.

Factory farm biogas is bad for Iowa – Iowans deserve vibrant communities that protect the people and places we care about, both now and for future generations. Instead, we’re getting factory farm biogas.Factory farm biogas originates from the potent greenhouse gas methane that is generated by the massive cesspools of animal manure generated by industrialized livestock systems. The gas is added to regional pipelines and the energy grid, and the residual manure waste products are land-applied to agricultural fields. None of this process is renewable or clean – despite the industry’s greenwashed branding of it as “renewable natural gas” – nor does it reduce the manure applied to fields that can ultimately run off into Iowa’s waterways.Factory farm biogas in Iowa means more pipelines, more factory farms and more pollution. And for what? Iowa is fast becoming a sacrifice zone, destroyed for the benefit of out-of-state investors. As The Gazette recently reported, biogas won’t make progress on reducing climate-destroying greenhouse gas emissions.The same industrial powerhouses that littered our rural areas with factory farms (Big Ag) and incited a yearslong battle over the Bakken pipeline (Big Gas) have teamed up to feed Iowa their latest scheme.These industries are working to entrench the dirty practice in our state, starting with the Gevo-funded facility that broke ground last month in northwest Iowa. The massive factory farm biogas operation is financed by venture capitalists and contracted to provide gas to California. While it is projected to rake in $9-16 million a year for Gevo investors, the project is a nightmare for people living in rural Iowa. First, there are the environmental hazards associated with the installation of pipelines and the certainty that, at some point, every pipeline leaks. Critically, for rural landowners, many factory farm biogas projects will likely require the use of eminent domain to secure pipeline pathways. As the Sioux County Supervisors discussed the Gevo project, they recommended eminent domain be utilized as a last choice – but a last choice still is a choice. With the passage of HF 522 this month, Iowans can be assured that Gevo is only the first of many such facilities – and we can expect our tax dollars to finance their construction too. Without public money, these facilities wouldn’t be financially viable in the first place.

Granholm launches ‘Earthshot’ goal of reducing hydrogen energy cost to $1 –The Energy Department announced on Monday that it was starting an “Earthshots” initiative to reduce the costs of clean energy within a decade – starting with its first goal of reducing the cost of clean hydrogen to $1 per kilogram. The Energy Earthshots Initiative will seek to, within a decade, speed up breakthroughs in affordable and reliable clean energy, according to a department statement. “The Energy Earthshots are an all-hands-on-deck call for innovation, collaboration and acceleration of our clean energy economy by tackling the toughest remaining barriers to quickly deploy emerging clean energy technologies at scale,” Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. The goal for hydrogen energy seeks to reduce the fuel’s cost by about 80 percent, as hydrogen produced using renewable energy currently costs about $5 per kilogram, according to the department. Hydrogen fuel cells produce electricity by dividing hydrogen molecules into protons and electrons and moving the electrons through an external circuit. This type of electricity can be produced using various types of energy, but the initiative appears to be focused on cells that run on energy from water, renewables, nuclear or fossil fuels when technology is used to capture their emissions. In her statement, Granholm described clean hydrogen as a “game changer.” “It will help decarbonize high-polluting heavy-duty and industrial sectors, while delivering good-paying clean energy jobs and realizing a net-zero economy by 2050,” she said. As part of the initiative, the department put out a request for information on Monday that asks questions about the potential for emissions reductions, what regions would be best suited for hydrogen projects and possible needs or challenges.Granholm has previously called for slashing the cost of hydrogen by 80 percent, saying in April that this would make it “competitive with natural gas.” At that time, she also called for cutting battery cell prices in half to make electric vehicles more affordable.

Clean Energy Transition Drives Demand For Minerals — According to a new report put out by the International Energy Agency, the demand for some minerals will skyrocket by 2040 as the world transitions towards clean energy technologies.Lithium was the most affected, with clean energy technologies alone expected to fill up between 74 and 92 percent of global demand by 2040. Cobalt and nickel demand will be bracing for a similar scenario. Between 40 and 70 percent of extracted cobalt could go towards renewable energy goals in 2040, as could between 30 and 60 percent of nickel.Translated into absolute numbers, as Statista’s Katharina Buchholz notes, the increased demand for crucial minerals in renewable energy would require deliveries to the sector to double or even quadruple. While demand stood at 7 million tons in the sector in 2020, it is expected to rise to between 15 and 27 million tons depending on the speed of sustainable development. To reach a net-zero energy future by 2050, the sector would even devour 43 million tons of minerals in 2040 – six times the current amount.Minerals in renewable energy are often associated with electric vehicles and battery storage, even though renewable electricity generation currently has a way larger demand, especially for copper, zinc and silicon used in wind turbines and solar panels. Moving closer to clean energy goals, however, EVs and batteries are expected to start taking up an equally large part of demand and even surpass electricity generation in case the world moves towards a net zero future. The subsector is especially hungry for lithium, copper, nickel and graphite.While the market for some of these minerals is bound to diversify in the clean energy revolution, many of them currently rely on very few producers. According to the IEA, almost 70 percent of cobalt came out of the Democratic Republic of the Congo in 2019, while around 60 percent of rare earths and graphite originated in China. For nickel, only three countries produced more than half of global output: Indonesia (33 percent), the Philippines (12 percent) and Russia (11 percent).

Energy Secretary says US wants ‘responsible’ lithium mining (AP) – Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said the Biden administration wants to see lithium needed for electric cars to be mined “in a responsible way” that respects the environment and Native American tribes.Granholm said during a visit to Nevada on Thursday to promote President Joe Biden’s sweeping infrastructure plan that lithium, used for electric vehicle batteries, could become a big source of job creation in the state, in addition to furthering the president’s ambitious climate agenda.Nevada is home to the only large-scale lithium mine currently operating in the U.S. Two proposed lithium mines in Nevada are facing legal challenges and pushback from conservationists.This week, plans for one of the mines appeared in jeopardy after the U.S. government announced it intends to propose protecting an extremely rare wildflower that grows only in Nevada at the mine site under the Endangered Species Act. A third proposed mine near the Nevada-Oregon border has attracted legal challenges and opposition from ranchers, Native Americans and environmentalists.The challenges test the Biden administration’s ability to straddle its promises to protect public lands while pushing aggressive clean energy goals like getting more electric cars on the road.Granholm on Thursday said the administration wants find a way to achieve both aims. “The administration wants to see mining happen in a responsible way in this country to be able to get the lithium, cobalt, the nickel that are necessary for battery production for electric vehicles,” Granholm said. “It can be done in a way that respects Indigenous communities. It can be done in a way that respects the environment.”

Biden Administration Moves to Fix Supply Chain Bottlenecks – – The Biden administration on Tuesday outlined a swath of actions and recommendations meant to address supply chain disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic and decrease reliance on other countries for crucial goods by increasing domestic production capacity. In a briefing with reporters, White House officials said the administration had created a task force that would tackle near-term bottlenecks in construction, transportation, semiconductor production and agriculture. The group will be led by Mr. Biden’s cabinet secretaries. The officials also outlined steps that had been taken to address an executive order from President Biden that required a review of critical supply chains in four product areas where the United States relies on imports: semiconductors, high-capacity batteries, pharmaceuticals and their active ingredients, and critical minerals and strategic materials, like rare earths. “This is about making sure the United States can meet every challenge we face in the new era,” Mr. Biden said in February, when he signed the order. The review was governmentwide. Cabinet members were ordered to provide reports to the White House within 100 days. The move was intended to address concerns about supply chain resiliency and long-term competition with China. The Department of Health and Human Services, for instance, will use $60 million from the $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill to develop technologies to increase domestic production of active ingredients in key pharmaceuticals. The Interior Department will work to identify sites where critical minerals could be produced in the United States. And several agencies will work on creating supply chains for new technologies that will reduce reliance on imports of key materials. The Biden administration also signaled that it was prepared to use trade policy to bolster domestic supplies of key minerals and components. As part of that effort, the Office of the United States Trade Representative said it would establish a so-called strike force that could propose actions against overseas companies deemed to be engaged in unfair trade practices. The Commerce Department will evaluate whether to investigate the global trade of neodymium magnets under Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962. The Trump administration wielded that law to impose tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum, after concluding that domestic production of those materials was essential for national security. As part of his plans to address climate change, Mr. Biden wants Americans to drive millions of new electric vehicles and get more of their energy from renewable sources like wind and solar power. But experts have long pointed out that the shift to cleaner energy will require vast supplies of critical minerals, many of which are currently produced and processed overseas. Most of the world’s lithium, a key ingredient in the batteries that power electric vehicles, is mined in Australia, China, Chile and Argentina. China dominates global production of rare earth minerals such as neodymium, used to make magnets in wind turbines. It has also largely cornered the market in lithium-ion batteries, accounting for 77 percent of the world’s capacity for producing battery cells and 80 percent of its raw-material refining.

Alaska Native corporation deal with conservation nonprofit complicates planning for massive Pebble mine project – – Sarah Thiele had a childhood defined by sockeye salmon. Her father caught the fish in summer by the net-full as a commercial fisherman while her mother would cure and cold-smoke hundreds of fillets so Thiele and her eight siblings, plus the family’s team of sled dogs, could dine on sockeye year-round. Now 66, Thiele is a board member of the Pedro Bay Corp., an Alaska Native group that owns land near Bristol Bay, the site of the most prolific sockeye fishery in the world. It is also the precise spot where the backers of the Pebble Mine hope to build a road to transport ore. Late last month, Thiele and nearly 90 percent of the corporation’s shareholders voted to let the Conservation Fund, an environmental nonprofit organization, buy conservation easements on more than 44,000 acres and make the land off limits to future development – including the mining road. “I feel like we are doing our mission of preserving our heritage and our pristine lands from any development,” she said. “That is totally our identity, the fish and our land.” In exchange for the surface rights, the corporation would receive nearly $20 million, including $500,000 for education and cultural programs for those in the village. The deal will make it difficult for backers of a massive open-pit gold and copper mine to carry out their project because the new protections cover a portion of a critical route the Pebble Limited Partnership plans to use to transport ore from the mine. n”I would say if it’s not the nail in the coffin, it’s just waiting for the last tap of the hammer,” Tim Troll, executive director of the Bristol Bay Heritage Land Trust, who helped negotiate the easement, said in a phone interview. Given the agreement, he added, “I just don’t see any way that they could do this.”

California tells public to prepare for heatwave; power prices soar (Reuters) -The California power grid operator told the public to prepare to conserve energy next week if needed as homes and businesses crank up their air conditioners to escape what is forecast to be a brutal heatwave. The California ISO, which operates the state’s power grid, said in a release that “It is still too early to know the precise impact that next week’s high temperatures will have on the electric grid.” But the ISO said it will notify the public if it needs to take steps to reduce electricity use, including a call for public conservation and if the grid becomes seriously stressed, rotating outages. Last summer, a heatwave in August forced California utilities to impose rotating blackouts that left over 400,000 homes and businesses without power for up to 2-1/2 hours when energy supplies ran short. High temperatures next week will reach the low 90s degrees Fahrenheit (about 34 C) in Los Angeles on Monday-Wednesday, which is about 20 degrees higher than the normal high for this time of year, according to AccuWeather forecasts. The group responsible for North American electric reliability has already warned that California is the U.S. region most at risk of power shortages this summer because the state increasingly relies on intermittent energy sources like wind and solar, and as climate change causes more extreme heat events, drought and wildfires across the U.S. West. Power traded on Friday for Monday jumped to $151 per megawatt hour (MWh) at Palo Verde in Arizona and $95 in SP-15 in Southern California, their highest since the February freeze caused prices across the country to soar.

US power grid: Energy secretary says adversaries have capability of shutting it down – Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Sunday warned in stark terms that the US power grid is vulnerable to attacks.Asked By CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” whether the nation’s adversaries have the capability of shutting it down, Granholm said: “Yeah, they do.””There are thousands of attacks on all aspects of the energy sector and the private sector generally,” she said, adding, “It’s happening all the time. This is why the private sector and the public sector have to work together.”The secretary’s warning comes amid a rise in ransomware attacks in America’s public and private sectors in the recent weeks, creating a sense of urgency in the Biden administration on how to confront cyber vulnerabilities. The issue will take an outsized role during President Joe Biden’s first foreign trip this week, during which he is set to talk with European leaders and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland.Last week, the White House issued a letter to companies calling on them to take the threat of ransomware attacks more seriously, following back-to-back attacks by Russian hackers against the Colonial Pipeline Company last month and the JBS meatpacking plant. Asked Sunday on NBC if the US government is better prepared to deal with another potential ransomware attack on a gasoline pipeline, Granholm said new regulations from the Transportation Security Administration, which regulates pipelines, now require companies to report when attacks are happening in real time. “The TSA actually just put out a series of regulations requiring pipelines to let us know if they have been the victim, and whenever in the real-time… where are these attacks happening, so that we know and we can coordinate with our intelligence community to determine not just how to respond in the long-term, but how to respond immediately. So to that extent, yes,” Granholm saidon “Meet The Press.”

Bill to give local control over wind and solar projects making its way through Ohio legislature – cleveland.com – A bill making its way through the Ohio legislature would let local officials ban large wind and solar farms in their communities, usurping the authority than now rests with the Ohio Power Siting Board.If adopted into law, Senate Bill 52 would place a severe damper on renewable energy projects in the state, according to advocates for wind and solar farms, but it would do more than that, says a prominent Republican.It would change the rules midstream and endanger projects already in development, including in some cases after substantial investments have been made, said Sen. Matt Dolan, Republican from Chagrin Falls.And that, he said, would send “a message to everyone that Ohio is not a stable place to invest in.”Dolan was among five Republicans who joined eight Democrats to vote against the bill, which passed the Ohio Senate 20-13 on Wednesday.Several business organizations including the Ohio Chamber of Commerce expressed concerns about the bill as it worked its way through the Senate Energy and Public Utilities Committee.A letter dated May 20 from the chamber, the Ohio Business Roundtable, Toledo Regional Chamber of Commerce and Columbus Partnership, to key Republicans in the legislature acknowledged the desire for more local input, but said the state should not erect barriers to renewable energy investment and the economic opportunity it represents. Steve Stivers, president and CEO of the Ohio Chamber and a former U.S. congressman, said changes to the bill have made it more palatable, but that two primary issues remain. One is concern that the law could be applied retroactively to wind and solar projects already in development. The other is that there could conceivably be 88 different siting standards, one for each county, instead of having a single standard set by the state.The bill, among other things, would allow county commissioners to prohibit the construction of wind and solar farms for whatever reason, said Jason Rafeld, executive director of the Utility Scale Solar Energy Coalition of Ohio.But there’s also a concern that projects substantially in development would have to start the process all over again, subject to the new law, he said.Another element of the legislation would give county commissioners the ability to designate an “energy development district,” thereby preventing wind and solar projects elsewhere in the county, and potentially have residents vote to either approve or reject such designations.

US power grid: Energy secretary says adversaries have capability of shutting it down – Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Sunday warned in stark terms that the US power grid is vulnerable to attacks.Asked By CNN’s Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” whether the nation’s adversaries have the capability of shutting it down, Granholm said: “Yeah, they do.””There are thousands of attacks on all aspects of the energy sector and the private sector generally,” she said, adding, “It’s happening all the time. This is why the private sector and the public sector have to work together.”The secretary’s warning comes amid a rise in ransomware attacks in America’s public and private sectors in the recent weeks, creating a sense of urgency in the Biden administration on how to confront cyber vulnerabilities. The issue will take an outsized role during President Joe Biden’s first foreign trip this week, during which he is set to talk with European leaders and meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Geneva, Switzerland.Last week, the White House issued a letter to companies calling on them to take the threat of ransomware attacks more seriously, following back-to-back attacks by Russian hackers against the Colonial Pipeline Company last month and the JBS meatpacking plant. Asked Sunday on NBC if the US government is better prepared to deal with another potential ransomware attack on a gasoline pipeline, Granholm said new regulations from the Transportation Security Administration, which regulates pipelines, now require companies to report when attacks are happening in real time. “The TSA actually just put out a series of regulations requiring pipelines to let us know if they have been the victim, and whenever in the real-time… where are these attacks happening, so that we know and we can coordinate with our intelligence community to determine not just how to respond in the long-term, but how to respond immediately. So to that extent, yes,” Granholm saidon “Meet The Press.”

Duke Energy Gallagher Station power plant retired – At Louisville’s Shawnee Park, the 129-year-old green space on the city’s western edge, two grayish smokestacks stretch high above the expansive green canopy. Down below, on the Indiana side of the Ohio River, sits Duke Energy’s Gallagher Station, a coal-fired power plant that has spewed emissions into a borderless sky for more than a half century. That ended on June 1, when Gallagher Station was officially retired. “This is a really big win for us,” said Arnita Gadson, a Louisville environmental activist who has fought pollution and polluters for decades. Though the plant has operated at reduced capacity in recent years, Gadson said its decommission and eventual demolition is a welcome development after decades of polluting Louisville’s predominantly-Black west end. “I don’t think people, even some people in West Louisville, realize the impact of that plant,” said Gadson, the Executive Director of the West Jefferson County Community Task Force and the Environmental Justice Director for the Louisville NAACP. The ramp down at the plant began nearly a decade ago. In 2012, Duke Energy closed two of its four units and outfitted the other two with pollution control devices, including bag houses to reduce particle emissions and technology to drive down sulfur dioxide.Those moves came after the company settled a federal lawsuit over Clean Air Act violations. According to the U.S. Justice Department, Duke Energy made making illegal modifications to the plant that “caused significant increases in sulfur dioxide,” a pollutant known to negatively effect those with respiratory and cardiovascular diseases.

Coal plants in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio to shut down (AP) – The owner of three coal-fired power plants in Maryland, Pennsylvania and Ohio said Thursday that it will shut them down. Houston-based GenOn Holdings LLC said it will shut down a generating unit at both Avon Lake station on Lake Erie near Cleveland and Cheswick station on the Allegheny River outside Pittsburgh by Sept. 15. It said it will shut down two generating units at the much larger Morgantown station on Maryland’s Cobb Neck peninsula by next June 1. Combined, the four coal-fired units can provide up to 2,421 megawatts. In a statement, GenOn blamed “unfavorable economic conditions, higher costs including those associated with environmental compliance, an inability to compete with other generation types and evolving market rules that promote subsidized resources.” Coal power has fallen out of favor in the climate change era amid a push for cleaner power sources that produce less pollution and greenhouse gases. U.S. coal production has been in steady decline, down by about one-third over the past decade. Coal also has been buffeted by a flood of cheaper natural gas from shale formations, including the vast Marcellus Shale reservoir underneath Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. Shutdown of the units is subject to a 90-day reliability review period by the regional electric grid operator PJM, GenOn said.

Appalachian Power president says closing Mitchell plant would save ratepayers $27 million annually – Appalachian Power Company President and COO Chris Beam testified during a hearing before the state Public Service Commission Tuesday that it would save ratepayers $27 million a year if the company closes the Mitchell Power Plant in Marshall County. Appalachian Power is before the PSC seeking approval to install environmentally mandated equipment on its coal-fired power plants in West Virginia including Mitchell, Mountaineer in Mason County and John Amos in Putnam County. The company proposes spending between $286 million and $317 million to modify the plants. It would initially seek to recover approximately $23 million through a surcharge that would raise customers’ bills approximately 1.5% Appalachian Power is proposing several options including making the pollution control modifications to all three plants or closing Mitchell by 2028 and making the modifications to John Amos and Mountaineer. Most of the public comments at a hearing last week focused on the Mitchell plant. Congressman David McKinley was among those to testify in favor of keeping the plant open until 2040. Beam would not favor one plan over another Tuesday, the first day of what could be a four-day evidentiary hearing before the PSC. He said he was not making a recommendation of which option would be more prudent. Beam said it’s entirely up to the PSC to decide which option. “Our evaluation looks at it from the customer’s perspective and that’s what we’ve presented in this filing, what is the view from the customer’s perspective,” Beam said. He said taking Mitchell offline in seven years would save $27 million a year. Beam said the company likes to take at least five years to transition to closing of a plant. He said the company would participate in a ‘just transition’ for the community.

Enchant: San Juan to stay traditional coal plant till 2025 » Enchant Energy Corp.’s plan to turn the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station into the world’s largest carbon-capture power plant is facing yearslong delays. When Public Service Company of New Mexico abandons the facility in June 2022, Enchant says it now plans to simply continue running the site as a carbon-emitting coal plant for up to three years until it can fully install the carbon-capture technology, company officials told the Journal this week. Enchant announced in 2019 that it would convert San Juan into a massive carbon-capture facility, in partnership with the city of Farmington, after PNM and other plant co-owners depart from the site next year. Until recently, Enchant said it would begin construction on plant conversion by 2021 and start operating it with carbon capture in place by January 2023. But its plans are now more than two years behind schedule because of difficulties in raising funds to finance the $1.4 billion project, plus delays in completing an engineering and design study it needs to sign a construction contract with industry partners. As a result, the company is now targeting year-end 2024 to have carbon capture partially operational at San Juan, and mid-2025 for it to be fully functioning.

Judge: US can’t delay challenge to public land coal sales (AP) – A U.S. judge has rejected the Biden administration’s attempt to delay a lawsuit from several states and environmentalists who are seeking to end lease sales for coal mining on federal lands. The coal leasing program was temporarily shut down under President Barack Obama because of concerns about climate change, and then revived by the Trump administration. There have been few sales in the years since because the use of coal has plummeted as utilities turn to cleaner-burning fuels. Environmentalists want to shut down the program permanently and have been frustrated by the Biden administration’s attempts to delay a legal challenge pending before U.S. District Brian Morris in Montana. Morris issued an order late Thursday denying the administration’s attempt to delay the case for another three months, after already being granted a two-month extension in March. Morris said lease applications are pending for thousands of acres of land holding at least 1 billion tons of coal, and the plaintiffs in the case face potential damage if their challenge to the program is stalled by the administration. Growing concerns over climate change have put a spotlight on the once-obscure coal leasing program, which has gone largely unchanged and not been through a major environmental review since 1979. Companies have mined about 4 billion tons of coal from federal reserves in the past decade. The program brought in more than $500 million for federal and state coffers through royalties and other payments in 2019, the most recent data available. California, New Mexico, Washington state and New York sued after then-Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke revived coal lease sales in 2017. The Northern Cheyenne Tribe joined by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups also filed a legal challenge, while state officials from Wyoming and Montana have argued against reviving the moratorium. In April, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland canceled Zinke’s order. But officials said that did not automatically reinstate the coal moratorium and Haaland said her agency needed to further review the issue. Attorneys for the tribe and environmental groups said in court documents that the Haaland order was not enough, and asked Morris to intervene so that a moratorium on coal sales is restored. “Although the Biden administration has identified the critical need to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions that cause climate change, Federal Defendants have not yet signaled any change from the prior administration’s coal-leasing policy that is a major source of such emissions,” wrote Earthjustice attorney Jenny Harbine, who represents environmental groups and the Northern Cheyenne.

Ship Carrying Coal Ash From Puerto Rico To Georgia Spills ‘Very Nasty Stuff’ Off Jax Coast – On March 14, 2021, a cargo ship called the Bridgeport departed Guayama, Puerto Rico, bound for a private port in Jacksonville. The ship’s cargo was 12,000 tons of coal ash – an industrial byproduct that can contain, among other things, arsenic, lead, boron, and lithium. It was a load equivalent to about 800 standard garbage trucks. On March 22, the Bridgeport ran aground about a mile south of the mouth of the St. Johns River. It listed to the left in about 30 feet of water, its hull submersed in soft sand. In the coming days, maritime diving, salvage and towing companies would assess the damage and develop a plan to transfer the Bridgeport’s cargo and refloat the listing barge. An ocean salvage crane called the Farrell 256 arrived in Jacksonville on April 8, and the shipper brought in a 2,000-ton hopper barge called the JMC 171 to receive the cargo from the Bridgeport and transport it to land for safe disposal. Between mid-April and early May, more than 4,000 tons of flaky gray ash would be loaded off the Bridgeport and onto the JMC 171 and carted back to shore. But on May 16, official Bridgeport response communications showed that rough weather conditions had shifted the barge. “While current conditions do not allow personnel to board the Bridgeport at this time to do a full physical inspection, it appears that the barge has now settled in twenty feet of water,” wrote Jim Lawrence, the spokesman for the recovery effort. “Cargo may have also washed out of the hopper.” Even before Lawrence’s notice that coal ash may have spilled into the coastal waterway, a newspaper editor in Puerto Rico was sounding the alarm. “‘Catastrophic’ risk,” wrote Omar Alfonso; “If an ash discharge occurs in the area where the Bridgeport remains stranded, the environmental consequences could be disastrous.”

The true price of coal –Real News Network (video report)-It’s been over two months since 1,100 union coal miners in Brookwood, Alabama, hit the picket line, citing unfair labor practices against Warrior Met Coal. The strike itself has gained more national attention, which has also put a spotlight on the harsh tolls that coal mining takes on workers, their bodies, and their families. From work-related diseases like black lung and silicosis to methane explosions and roof cave-ins, coal mining has always been a dangerous job, and coal miners today still face many hazards. In the latest installment of “Battleground Brookwood,” TRNN contributor Kim Kelly continues her coverage of the strike at Warrior Met Coal by investigating the true price of coal production.

The United Mine Workers Strike at Warrior Met Coal — Lambert Strether –Thank goodness Teen Vogue has a labor reporter, because without Kim Kelly, we might not be hearing anything about the United Mine Workers of American (UMWA) strike at Warrior Met Coal in Brockwood, Alabama, where over 1,000 miners have been on strike for over two months. Here is the UMWA strike page (which permits donations by check, but not online, which seems a little old school). Warrior Met coal isn’t used for power; it’s a premium product, metallurgical coal. It’s possible to reverse engineer the high-level economics behind the strike from the Warrior Met company page: Warrior is a large-scale, low-cost producer and exporter of premium met coal, also known as hard coking coal (HCC), operating highly efficient longwall operations in its underground mines based in Alabama. The HCC that Warrior produces from the Blue Creek, AL, coal seam contains very low sulfur and has strong coking properties and is of a similar quality to coal referred to as the premium HCC produced in Australia. The premium nature of Warrior’s HCC makes it ideally suited as a base feed coal for steel makers and results in price realizations near the Platts Index price. So, high prices and low costs. And why are the costs so low? Well, Warrior Met has a history. Coal barons gotta coal baron, and it’s been that way for some time. From the Montgomery Herald, “Recovery includes humane priorities“:Warrior Met was once known as Jim Walter Resources, . In Alabama, the firm had North America’s deepest coal mines at 2,000 feet that produced methane gas and high-quality metallurgical coal. On Sept. 23, 2001, a cave-in caused a release of methane gas that sparked two major explosions, killing 13 UMWA members. Then U.S. Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, spouse of U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., cited Jim Walter for 27 violations and $435,000 in fines. In the fulness of time, Jim Walter Resources went bankrupt – and emerged in 2016 as Warrior Met. The UMWA offered contract concessions: over five years Warrior Met become profitable. Now it’s payback time, except not. From WHBM, “Alabama Coal Workers Strike For Better Wages, Fair Treatment“: Warrior Met Coal took over and workers agreed to cut their wages and benefits to keep the mines open. Employees said the company promised to restore some benefits after five years. Warrior’s latest offer is about a 10% pay increase, but that doesn’t cover what they lost.“Oh it’s a slap in the face,” [miner Courtney Finklea] said. “All we wanted was a piece of the pie, and I guess the pie was never given to us.” Sadly, the company’s initial offer was insultingly low: Shortly after the strike was launched and more than three-quarters of the workers walked out, the company came up with a tentative agreement with UMWA negotiators, which only offered a wage hike of [$1.50] per hour increase, over the next five years. This deal was overwhelmingly voted against by union members with over 91 percent voting ‘no’. On April 12, union members voted along similarly large numbers to continue their strike. It’s also about working conditions. From AL.com, “Striking Alabama coal miners endure arrests, see little progress: ‘We’re just standing together‘”:

Georgia monitors predict more Vogtle nuclear delays (AP) – Already years behind schedule, Georgia Power Co.’s nuclear expansion of Plant Vogtle is even further behind than the company recently acknowledged, independent state monitors and state regulators said. The first of two new reactors likely won’t be in operation until at least the summer of 2022, and the project’s total costs are likely to rise at least another $2 billion, according to one key monitor’s report Monday, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported. The unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co. had in recent years been aiming to complete the first unit in November, but officials told investors last month that it would probably be finished in December. The project, located south of Augusta, is now projected to cost more than $26 billion for all its owners, including Georgia Power, electric cooperatives and municipal utilities. Ultimately, most electric customers in Georgia – except those in the northwest corner of the state served by affiliates of the Tennessee Valley Authority – will have to pay for the plant. Florida’s Jacksonville Electric Authority is also obligated to buy power from Vogtle. The further delay was disclosed in testimony from independent monitors and state regulators. “Many of the problems encountered by SNC should have been resolved long before” the current testing, PSC staffer Steven Roetger and monitor William Jacobs wrote. Monitor Donald Grace added that the reactor “is in a worse condition than past U.S. new construction nuclear plants were at this same stage of construction/testing.” The second new reactor is slated to be fully running no later than November 2022. But in the latest testimony, Grace said the second reactor is unlikely to be up and running until at least June 2023.

Vogtle Nuclear Plant in Georgia Faces More Construction Delays – WSJ – The only nuclear-power plant under construction in the U.S. is facing delays and additional costs. Again. Earlier this week, an engineering expert working for the Georgia Public Service Commission testified that the startup of the Alvin W. Vogtle Electric Generating Plant would likely be delayed until the summer of 2022 and could cost $2 billion more than expected. Southern Co., the Atlanta-based utility building the nuclear-power plant, said it expects the first reactor to be completed during the first quarter of 2022. A spokesman for the company said its judgment was based on current information and that “risks remain on the project and it is possible that the cost estimate could increase in the future.” Any delays after November 2021 would result in a reduction in the regulated profit that Southern subsidiary Georgia Power receives for building the nuclear reactor. Vogtle has been beset by numerous delays and cost overruns. It was originally scheduled to open in 2016, and the total cost of the two planned Vogtle reactors tops $27 billion – more than double the initial estimates approved by state regulators in 2008. The problems finishing Vogtle have lessened enthusiasm for what was hailed a decade ago as a possible nuclear renaissance in the U.S. Today, the facility located near Augusta, Ga., highlights the financial and industrial difficulty of building a nuclear-power plant in a country that hasn’t completed a new one in three decades. Georgia almost gave up on the project amid cost overruns and delays. In 2017, state officials voted to continue building the reactors, but limited Southern’s future returns on the project if further postponements occurred. At the time, Southern promised that a new contractor would resolve construction delays. The utility later took a charge to its earnings and promised to have the first of two new reactors completed and generating electricity by November 2021. “They will be late and they will pay a penalty,” said Tim Echols, vice chairman of the Georgia Public Service Commission. “They were willing to negotiate then because they thought they would be on time. I think they are regretting it today.”

Low prices in PJM’s capacity auction spell trouble for Exelon’s Illinois nuclear fleet -Mid-Atlantic grid operator PJM reported dramatically lower prices for its first capacity auction in three years, with little indication of a strong effect from the Trump-era regulation that many feared would restrict state-subsidized carbon-free generators from participating. In fact, nuclear, wind and solar power – the same resources subject to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s “minimum offer price rule” that led to a three-year delay for the country’s biggest capacity market – increased their share of the 144,500 megawatts of capacity to supply the transmission network serving about 65 million people from Chicago to the Eastern seaboard. But the roster of nuclear plants that cleared the auction didn’t include the two in Illinois that utility Exelon has said it will close by year’s end unless they receive state subsidies. And other nuclear power plants struggling to remain economically competitive in PJM’s 13-state footprint could face serious trouble if capacity prices remain this low in years to come, industry analysts said. PJM on Wednesday reported average prices of $50 per megawatt-day for 144,477 MW of capacity resources, well below the $140 per megawatt-day reached in its 2018 auction. Prices in the more congested regions of PJM are higher than that average, but still well below 2018 levels: $97.86 for its eastern region including New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania, well below the $166 in 2018, and $68.96 for the northern Illinois region served by utility ComEd, compared to $196 in 2018. “We were expecting the MOPR to have more teeth to put an upward pressure on prices by filtering out state-subsidized resources,” George Katsigiannakis, VP of energy power markets at ICF, said in a Thursday interview. That “filtering” of clean energy resources supported by state decarbonization policies is the reason why environmental and clean energy groups, as well as states with clean energy mandates including New Jersey, Maryland and Illinois, have fought the MOPR rule. FERC Chair Richard Glick, appointed by President Joe Biden in January, voted against the rule and has made it clear he hopes to see it replacedsoon, whether through legal challenges or action by PJM and its stakeholders to craft a successor market structure. It’s quite likely that this week’s auction could be the last to impose the MOPR on state-subsidized resources. In its latest plan to revamp its capacity market rules for next year’s auction, PJM stated it intends to presume that “state policies are done in good faith” and not pursue attempts to ban state-subsidized resources from its capacity market unless instructed to do so by FERC.

Fate of Illinois nuclear plants in balance after 3 fail to clear PJM auction and subsidy plan stalls -Exelon Corp. reports that three of its nuclear plants in Illinois failed to clear the PJM Interconnection’s capacity auction last week. Exelon, in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, revealed that its Bryon, Dresden and Quad Cities nuclear plants in Illinois all failed to sell their power at the PJM auction, losing out to other power plants and energy resources. Bryon and Dresden are currently slated to be retired this fall, with Quad Cities remaining open thanks to previously awarded subsidies from the state of Illinois. The fate of Illinois’ nuclear power sector, meanwhile, remains in the balance, as an impasse drags on in the state legislature over an energy bill that would provide hundreds of millions of dollars in subsidies to the sector. PJM, the regional grid operator which supplies power to 65 million people in thirteen states, made news earlier this week when it held its semi-annual capacity auction. The grid operator said it secured commitments for power for 2022-2023 at $50/MW-day, compared to the $140/MW-day at the last auction three years ago. That represents a 64% decline. It also comes on the heels of a study commissioned by the Sierra Club and Natural Resources Council that was critical of the PJM capacity auction. The study by Wilson Energy Economics, argued the previous capacity auction in 2018 resulted in PJM buying too much power at inflated prices. Susan Buehler, a spokesperson for PJM, declined to comment on the study, but noted, in an email, the auction resulted in significantly lower prices due to “a lower load forecast and reserve requirement,” which in turn, “decreases the amount of capacity PJM needs to procure.” There was also a 19% decline in the Cost of New Entry (CONE) or the cost to build a new generator and bring it online, as well as lower bids offered by the various power providers who took part in the auction, the company said. Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker has thrown his support behind a sweeping energy bill that includes as much as $540 million in subsidies for Exelon’s nuclear plants, according to WBEZ in Chicago. But with the bill in limbo, state lawmakers earlier this week left the state capitol with the end of the legislative session, WBEZ reported, though legislative leaders have indicated they may call lawmakers back to finish work on key bills. In its filing with the SEC, Exelon warned that even two nuclear plants that successfully bid to provide power in the PJM auction remain in danger of “premature retirement.” The culprit, the company states, are “unfavorable market rules that favor (carbon) emitting generation.”

New Energy Bill Pushed By Gov. JB Pritzker Would Save Nuclear Plants – But Cost Customers Nearly $700 Million – Exelon customers would be on the hook for $694 million in higher subsidies to keep three Illinois nuclear plants afloat under a sprawling, revised green-energy package that surfaced late Thursday and could be voted on by state lawmakers next week. The 866-page omnibus pushed by Democratic Gov. JB Pritzker could move one of the major unresolved issues from the spring legislative session closer to fruition and would fulfill a Pritzker campaign pledge to reduce the state’s reliance on fossil fuels if it prevails. But equally significant, the measure, if it passes, could hand the state’s most powerful utility company a financial boost even as its corporate subsidiary, Commonwealth Edison, remains at the center of a still active federal criminal investigation that cost former Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan his job earlier this year. The plan would phase out coal use in Illinois by 2035 and natural gas by 2045 and authorize $4,000 rebates for purchasers of electric vehicles as part of a strategy aimed at getting 1 million of those vehicles on Illinois roads by 2030. The legislation also would end a controversial ratemaking formula that delivered windfall profits to ComEd, which last year acknowledged engaging in a long-running bribery scheme to curry favor with Madigan by showering no-work jobs and contracts on his close associates. Madigan has not been charged. And the package would require state utility regulators to open an investigation into ComEd’s illegal lobbying that potentially could lead to some form of restitution for utility customers, though how much is not spelled out in the legislation.

Nuclear Subsidies May Be Slowing Transition to Clean Energy, Advocates Say – The fight to define what counts as clean energy has grown more contentious as the Biden administration’s infrastructure bill takes shape. Many activists, scientists and lawmakers agree that nuclear energy – which provides one fifth of power in the U.S – is by definition not “clean” or renewable, given that spent fuel remains radioactive and dangerous for thousands of years. But a rift remains around the role that nuclear power, and state support for it, should play in phasing out fossil fuels, given that it does not directly produce climate-altering carbon dioxide but is more expensive than cleaner alternatives. A group of staunch advocates say billions in state and federal subsidies that prop up the nuclear industry – payments that the Biden administration has signaled it may continue to support – may be slowing the transition to a truly clean energy economy. On April 30, New York State’s last downstate reactor – the Indian Point Energy Center Unit 3 – went dark, a closure that was much celebratedby environmentalists who have been pushing to close the plant for decades on account of a slew of safety concerns: groups like Waterkeeperand the Natural Resources Defense Council had long noted that a potential accident could have delivered a fatal blow to 25 million people living within a 50 mile radius of the reactor. Additional ongoing concerns included a 2015 transformer fire that led to the release ofthousands of gallons of oil into the Hudson River and the subsequentimpact on local fisheries. But the fate of other nuclear power plants is far from certain. Four days after Indian Point shuttered, on May 4, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) approved a 20-year license renewal for two Dominion Energy reactors in Virginia, now slated to run until May 25, 2052. Half of the United States’ nuclear fleet of 93 remaining reactorswill similarly be required to seek license extensions by 2040, or retire. California is similarly projected to burn more natural gas when its last nuclear plant closes mid-decade, which would cumulatively raise global warming and air pollution emissions over the next 10 years. But, Clemmer added, it doesn’t have to be that way. “With sufficient planning and strong policies, existing nuclear plants like Diablo Canyon can be replaced with renewables and energy efficiency without allowing natural gas generation and heat-trapping emissions to increase,” he said. In the case of California, a February 2021 UCS analysiscalled for more rigorous emissions standards, and accelerating wind build-outs while slightly slowing solar and battery storage build-outs. Elizabeth Moran, environmental policy director for the New York Public Interest Research Group characterized New York’s failure to replace Indian Point’s energy output with clean energy as “a total lack of planning.” Moran is among a group of clean energy advocates who have deemed New York’s ongoing reliance on both nuclear energy and natural gas as unnecessarily postponing the work required to achieve what’s laid out in the state’s climate law, the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act. “These are bridges to nowhere,” Moran said. “They delay investment in what we truly need to be putting money towards, which is safe, clean, green renewable energy like solar, wind and geothermal.”

Bill to expel Householder advancing – The Vindicator – A resolution to remove former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder, under federal indictment, from office by Democratic state Reps. Michele Lepore-Hagan and Jeffrey A. Crossman has been assigned to a committee. “Our resolution sends a forceful message that corruption has no place in the Ohio General Assembly and that alleged criminal misconduct of this magnitude will not be tolerated,” Lepore-Hagan, D-Youngstown, said. She added: “Its swift consideration and passage will represent a critical step in restoring the public’s trust and confidence in their government, both of which have been battered” by this “scandal.” The resolution was introduced May 26. It was referred Tuesday to the House Rules and Reference Committee. “I’m glad to see the speaker (Bob Cupp, R-Lima) has finally referred the Householder expulsion resolution to committee, but time for action is long overdue,” Crossman, D-Parma, said. “We intend to continue pushing until an expulsion resolution receives a vote on the House floor.”

Ohio utility gets SEC subpoena regarding tainted energy bill (AP) – The electric utility AEP Ohio said Tuesday that the Enforcement Division of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has subpoenaed documents related to subsidies it has received from a now-tainted energy bill for two aging coal plants partly owned by the company. A document on the company’s website says the SEC is seeking various documents, including those regarding the energy bill passed in July 2019 and those “relating to our financial processes and controls.” “As we have previously stated, we continue to have no reason to believe that AEP was involved in any wrongful conduct,” the company said, adding that it is cooperating with the SEC. Federal authorities last July accused Akron-based First Energy Corp. of secretly funding a $60 million bribery scheme to win legislative passage of a $1 billion subsidy for two Ohio nuclear power plants operated at the time by a wholly-owned FirstEnergy subsidiary. A subsidy for the coal plants, which AEP has a 43% ownership stake in, was later added to the energy bill. Two other Ohio investor-owned electric utilities, AES Ohio, formerly Dayton Power & Light, and Duke Energy have smaller ownership shares of the plants, one of which is in Indiana. The energy bill required nearly all electric customers in the state to subsidize the coal plants. Previously, only Ohio customers of the AEP, Duke and AES paid the subsidy, which amounted to $114 million last year. The plants owned by a consortium called the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation were built in the 1950s to provide power to a uranium enrichment facility in Piketon, Ohio. Government contracts with OVEC ended in 2003 but the plants continue to operate, typically selling electricity to the regional grid at a price less than what it costs to produce. Critics have pointed out that AEP initially opposed the nuclear bailout but later gave its support when the coal plant subsidy was added to the legislation. A spokesperson for Charlotte, North Carolina-based Duke Energy said on Tuesday the company has not been subpoenaed by the SEC. A request for comment was left Tuesday with AES officials. FirstEnergy officials have said the company is cooperating with investigations by the SEC, the U.S. Justice Department and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission regarding its role in the bribery scandal. The company has been accused by federal prosecutors of secretly funding a $60 million scheme to win legislative passage of the energy bill. In a recent answer to a shareholder lawsuit filed in Cuyahoga County Common Pleas Court, attorneys for FirstEnergy acknowledged the company paid large sums of money to a dark money group controlled by then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder.

Ohio public corruption case delayed to give time to review material -Federal prosecutors have forked over 1.2 million pages of documents to the defense in Ohio’s state-level public corruption case. And there is more coming.U.S. District Court Judge Timothy S. Black on Thursday agreed to give defense attorneys representing Rep. Larry Householder and Matt Borges more time to review the “extraordinary volume” of materials. Black set the next status conference for Sept. 2.Assistant U.S. Attorney Emily Glatfelter, the lead federal prosecutor on the case, told the court that 1.2 million pages of documents have been shared with the defense so far. That tally doesn’t include images or material pulled from devices, such as hard drives or phones.While the bulk of material has been shared, more records are expected to be turned over by August, Glatfelter said.Householder and Borges, the former chairman of the Ohio Republican Party, have pleaded not guilty in the case that experts say is the biggest public corruption case in the nation.They are accused of running a criminal enterprise that allegedly took $60 million in bribes from Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. and affiliated companies through dark money groups to put Householder in power, pass a bailout bill to help the utility, and defend the law against a referendum attempt.Political operative Jeff Longstreth and lobbyist Juan Cespedes agreed to plead guilty. Lobbyist Neil Clark died by suicide. As expected, the court dismissed the case against Clark on Thursday.FirstEnergy Corp. disclosed it is in talks with federal prosecutors to get a deferred prosecution agreement. The company has fired key executives, including chief executive Chuck Jones.FirstEnergy distributes electricity to 6 million customers and employs 12,000. It owns 10 electric companies that distribute power across five states. It was listed at No. 294 on the Fortune 500 list in 2020. Meanwhile, the Ohio House on Thursday began debate on two resolutions that seek to expel Householder from his seat in the Legislature.

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