Environmental News For The Week Ending 26June 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:

• 27 Jun 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 27June 2021

• 27 Jun 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 27June 2021

New Covid cases and deaths attributed to the virus were still falling in the US over the past week, but not by much. After what seems to have been a modest upward revision to the prior week’s data, new cases diagnosed during the week ending June 26th were 2.7% lower than new cases diagnosed during the week ending June 19th, and down 95.2% from the worst week in January. Meanwhile, US deaths attributed to the coronavirus during the week ending June 26th were 4.0% lower than the prior week, and down 91.0% from the worst week in January.

However, new cases of Covid are now up slightly globally from last week, even as the global death rate continues to fall. New cases of Covid reported during the week ending June 26th were 1.0% higher than during the prior week, but still down 56.1% from the late April global peak. This week’s global increase was driven by new case increases of 25% in Russia, 58% in Indonesia, 47% in South Africa, and 53% in the UK, all countries whose new cases have surpassed those of the US in recent weeks. Brazil, India, Columbia and Argentina still had more cases this week than the previous four, but except for Columbia with an 8% increase, their new cases continued to fall. New cases in the US and Iran round out the current top ten globally.

This week’s 53% increase in new cases in the UK should be a matter of immediate concern in the US. New cases in the UK have now increased nearly fivefold over the past 5 weeks, where the Delta mutant, originally from India, is now said to be dominant, replacing their home grown Alpha covid strain. Meanwhile, the vaccination rate in the UK is comparable to ours. In speaking of that, the BBC reported on June 25:

“So far, almost 44 million people have had a first vaccine dose – more than 80% of the adult population – and 32 million have had a second.”

So that means more than 58% of Brits have had two vaaccine doses. Meanwhile, as of June 26th, the CDC reported that 65.9% of US adults have at least one dose, and 56.5% have had two. So it appears that the UK is now a bit ahead of us on getting vaccinated, even as their new cases go through the roof.

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 29):

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 29 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):

NY Times test finds no identifiable tuna DNA in Subway’s tuna sandwich A New York Times analysis found no identifiable tuna DNA in Subway’s tuna sandwich, the newspaper reported over the weekend, citing tests conducted by a commercial lab. The Times bought 60 inches of Subway tuna sandwiches from three different Subway locations in Los Angeles. A reporter for the newspaper then removed and froze the tuna and sent it to an unidentified commercial food testing lab. The newspaper said it paid roughly $500 for the lab to conduct a PCR test to see if the substance had one of five different tuna species. After a month, the lab said it found “no amplifiable tuna DNA was present in the sample and so we obtained no amplification products from the DNA.” “Therefore, we cannot identify the species,” the lab said. Elaborating on the results, a spokesperson for the lab told the Times that there were two different conclusions. “One, it’s so heavily processed that whatever we could pull out, we couldn’t make an identification,” the spokesperson said. “Or we got some and there’s just nothing there that’s tuna.” Subway declined to comment to the Times on the lab results. The Hill has reached out to the company. The Times noted that the Food and Drug Administration identifies 15 species of nomadic saltwater fish that can be labeled “tuna.” The test comes as Subway faces a class-action lawsuit alleging that its tuna sandwich is not actually made of tuna. The suit was first filed in a California federal court in January. In an amended complaint dated June 7, the plaintiffs allege that Subway claims to sell sustainably caught skipjack and yellowfin tuna but was instead selling “anything less than healthy stocks.”

Your Makeup Is Probably Toxic. The U.S. Senate Is Trying to Protect You -High levels of a marker for toxic “forever” substances have been found in 52 percent of makeup products tested in a new study. Accordingly, the U.S. Senate has recently moved to ban them from cosmetics.According to CNN, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) are a class of man-made chemicals that are pervasive in modern life. They’re widely used because they’re resistant to heat, water and oil, thePennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA DEP) reported. A 2015 report by the CDC detected PFAS in the blood of 97 percent of Americans. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) believes most people have been exposed to them through food, water, clothing, furniture, etc. In homes, PFAS are most commonly found in non-stick cookware Teflon coatings, fast food wrappers, shampoo, detergent and paint. Outside the home, they’re used in carpeting, commercial aircrafts, firefighting foams and more.The EPA believes these chemicals lead to adverse health effects in humans. PFAS are endocrine disruptors and can interfere with natural hormones in people’s bodies. PFAS have also been linked to cancer, thyroid disease, liver damage and decreased fertility. The toxins even increase the risk of severe coronavirus. PFAS are often called “forever” chemicals because they do not readily degrade or break down in the environment with air, sun or water, the PA DEP reported. They also persist and bioaccumulate in humans and animals over time, increasing multiple health risks.A recent study of makeups found that 52 percent of products surveyed in the United States and Canada showed high levels of a marker for PFAS. In cosmetics, the forever chemicals are intentionally added to make skin appear shiny or to create consistent, smooth products, CNN reported. The study, published in the journalEnvironmental Science & Technology Letters, found the highest levels of PFAS in waterproof mascara (82 percent), foundations (63 percent) and long-lasting lipstick (62 percent). “It’s a little shocking and hopefully a wake-up call for the cosmetics industry in terms of how widespread the PFAS contamination is across types of makeup products,” “PFAS chemicals are not necessary for makeup. Given their large potential for harm, I believe they should not be used in any personal care products,” the study’s co-author Arlene Blum said in a press statement. In response to the study, the U.S. Senate introduced the “No PFAS in Cosmetics Act,” a bill that would ban the addition of PFAS into cosmetics. According to CNN, the proposed act would direct the FDA to issue a proposed rule banning the intentional addition of PFAS in cosmetics within 270 days of enactment, with a final rule to be issued 90 days thereafter.

CDC investigating TB cases linked to tainted bone repair product used in more than 100 patients –Federal and state health officials are investigating a rare tuberculosis outbreak among more than 100 patients who may have been infected after having spinal surgery or fracture repairs this spring with a bone product contaminated with the bacteria that causes TB.The manufacturer of the bone repair product has recalled 154 containers of the material – a malleable bone putty that includes human cells and is used in a variety of orthopedic procedures. The products were shipped to 37 facilities in 20 states between March 3 and April 2, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.The product, made by Aziyo Biologics Inc., a regenerative medicine company, came from a single donor, or cadaver, the company said.Of the total, 136 were implanted into 113 patients, according to CDC officials. Eight patients died after their procedures, but the cause of death is still being determined, CDC spokeswoman Martha Sharan said Thursday. Aziyo said in a statement it is “continuing to collaborate with FDA and the CDC on an investigation into the matter and at the appropriate time, we will provide more information.”In the meantime, public health officials are recommending that the remaining patients who received these bone repair products be treated for tuberculosis even if they are not showing symptoms. Health-care providers are contacting 105 patients who used this product and all but four are being treated for the disease, the CDC said in a statement Thursday.States were able to sequester 18 of the affected products to prevent additional surgeries, the CDC said. The agency is investigating the outbreak with state health departments, the Food and Drug Administration and the companies that manufactured and distributed the product.

OSHA will not investigate death of independent contractor in Iowa farm tank dive -The federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) will not investigate the death of independent contractor Bob Baenziger Jr., 54, of East Moline, Illinois after he died June 8 while performing a dive to repair a broken cable at the bottom of a million-gallon anaerobic digester tank at Sievers Family Farm in Stockton, Iowa. Anaerobic digesters, or biodigesters, are enclosed structures used on farms worldwide to break down manure and other organic matter with bacteria in the absence of oxygen. The digester captures methane gas released by the bacteria in the process, which can then be burned for heating and electrical power.OSHA’s rejection of an investigation was first reported in the press on Thursday. Iowa OSHA, the state-level regulator, will not investigate either, as it falls under the same limitations as the federal agency. As an independent contractor, Baenziger was exempt from OSHA inspections. Because the farm where he worked at the time of his death officially had fewer than 10 employees, it was not subject to Iowa OSHA regulations, according to administrator Russell Perry, who spoke to The Gazette of Cedar Rapids, Iowa .Baenziger was an experienced diver who had been trained in the US Army, according to his mother, who was interviewed by The Gazette. He worked for many years diving to repair offshore oil wells. He spent his entire adult life working, according to his son Quinton, who spoke to the Dispatch –The refusal of OSHA to investigate Baenziger’s death came as potentially serious safety violations on the part of Sievers Family Farm came to light. Before he died in the tank, Baenziger’s fiancee, Eliza Bisbee, who accompanied him, attempted to pull him up after he relayed to her through radio communications that he was removing his helmet, according to Scott County Sheriff’s Captain Joe Caffery. According to Caffery, only Baenziger’s helmet surfaced after Bisbee tried to pull him up through the waste with a rope.

EPA to review part of cancer-linked chemical regulation after industry request —The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will reconsider decisions underlying a rule governing emissions of a chemical that it has deemed carcinogenic following a request from an industry group.The agency told stakeholders in letters dated last week that it would reconsider its risk information for ethylene oxide, a chemical the EPA currently says is carcinogenic if it is inhaled. The EPA also said it would reconsider its prior decision not to use a much lower risk finding from the state of Texas as an alternative risk value. The backstory: Last year, the American Chemistry Council (ACC), a trade group representing chemical manufacturers, petitioned the EPA to both reconsider its risk information system value for ethylene oxide and to consider the Texas assessment. Environmentalists have raised concerns about the Texas finding and sued in an attempt to compel the state to release the documents used as the technical basis for it. And what do people think??? The ACC praised the Biden administration’s move to reconsider these parts of the rule in a statement. Environmental advocates argued that some good could come from the EPA’s current review if it affirms its existing risk value, and they hope the agency would use that affirmation to strengthen the rule. But some have also expressed worry that they still are waiting to find out if the Biden administration will take stronger action to protect people.

EPA chief reinstates science advisory board he dismantled (AP) – The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday he has fully reinstated one of two key advisory boards he dismantled earlier this year in a push for “scientific integrity” at the agency. The new seven-member Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee features four scientists who have served on the panel previously – including two who were on the board when it was dismantled in March. The five women and two men on the panel include three people of color, making it the most diverse panel since the committee was established more than 40 years ago.”From the very beginning of my tenure, I have committed to ensuring that science is restored as the backbone of everything EPA does to protect people and the environment from pollution,” EPA Administrator Michael Regan said in a statement. The new advisory panel will provide “credible, independent expertise to EPA’s reviews of air quality standards that is grounded in scientific evidence, he said.Regan has said that advisers appointed under the Trump administration were overly friendly to business, adding that his March 31 “reset” of the clean-air panel and the Science Advisory Board would return EPA to its practice of relying on advice from a balanced group of experts.Regan’s overhaul removed more than 45 members of the two advisory boards, including some whose terms do not expire this year. The panels provide scientific expertise and recommendations for air quality standards and other policies intended to protect public health and the environment.The new chair of the clean-air committee is Lianne Sheppard, a professor in environmental and occupational health sciences and biostatistics at the University of Washington. Sheppard, who has expertise in epidemiology, biostatistics and exposure assessment, served on the committee from 2015 to 2018.Other members include James Boylan, an air protection official with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. Boylan served on the panel under President Donald Trump and was on the committee when it was dismantled, along with Dr. Mark Frampton, a physician and professor emeritus in medicine at the University of Rochester Medical Center.

Worrying insights into the chemicals in plastics –Every year, more than 350 million tonnes are produced worldwide. These plastics contain a huge variety of chemicals that may be released during their lifecycles – including substances that pose a significant risk to people and the environment. However, only a small proportion of the chemicals contained in plastic are publicly known or have been extensively studied. A team of researchers led by Stefanie Hellweg, ETH Professor of Ecological Systems Design, has for a first time compiled a comprehensive database of plastic monomers, additives and processing aids for use in the production and processing of plastics on the world market, and systematically categorized them on the basis of usage patterns and hazard potential. The study, just published in the scientific journal Environmental Science & Technology, provides an enlightening but worrying insight into the world of chemicals that are intentionally added to plastics.The team identified around 10,500 chemicals in plastic. Many are used in packaging (2,489), textiles (2,429) and food-contact applications (2,109); some are for toys (522) and medical devices, including masks (247). Of the 10,500 substances identified, the researchers categorized 2,480 substances (24 percent) as substances of potential concern.”This means that almost a quarter of all the chemicals used in plastic are either highly stable, accumulate in organisms or are toxic. These substances are often toxic to aquatic life, cause cancer or damage specific organs,” explains Helene Wiesinger, doctoral student at the Chair of Ecological Systems Design and lead author of the study. About half are chemicals with high production volumes in the EU or the US.In fact, 53 percent of all the substances of potential concern are not regulated in the US, the EU or Japan. More surprisingly, 901 hazardous substances are approved for use in food contact plastics in these regions. Finally, scientific studies are lacking for about 10 percent of the identified substances of potential concern. Wang stresses that even more chemicals in plastics could be problematic. “Recorded hazard data are often limited and scattered. For 4,100 or 39 percent of all the substances we identified, we were not able to categorize them due to a lack of hazard classifications” he says.

Should California Turn Contaminated Land Into Affordable Housing? – In a busy five-acre industrial pocket of Lincoln Heights, north of Downtown Los Angeles, zigzagged with metro lines and freeways and car-choked roads, developers plan to build a 468-unit apartment complex called the Avenue 34 Project. But the project, which provides 66 units for “very low income” households, can’t escape the area’s polluted legacy. That’s because the site sits adjacent to Welch’s former industrial dry cleaners that operated for nearly 70 years. During that time, massive amounts of toxic chemicals and solvents, including possiblecarcinogens like trichloroethylene (TCE) and perchloroethylene (PCE), leaked or were dumped into the soil and groundwater, requiring extensive cleanup. The Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC) recently ordered the developers to conduct tests on the proposed building site, which detected elevated levels of these same chemicals, among others. A group of local residents and environmental advocates, however, insist that if it hadn’t been for the concerted pressure they placed on the DTSC, construction on the project would likely have already started with a different soil testing plan that left the community potentially vulnerable to toxic exposures. “The DTSC did not fulfill their responsibility,” says Angelo Bellomo, former deputy director for health protection for the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health, about the agency’s job policing the site. Indeed, just last November, the DTSC wrote that it “does not believe that residual chemicals in soil or groundwater beneath the Former Welch’s Uniform Facility pose a risk to future occupants” at the proposed development. Further evaluations are believed to have begun to better understand the scope of the potential contamination. The story of Avenue 34 unfolds at a time when the city and state are grappling simultaneously with a dire need to provide housing for a vast homeless diaspora and a filthy industrial legacy left by businesses that have been poorly regulated for decades. More pointedly, the competing forces behind Avenue 34 – a fervent push toward inner-city building along with concerns over lax regulatory oversight – also capture the kinds of arguments surrounding state plans to clean up many other polluted lands dotted around California.

Mystery Disease Killing Hundreds of Birds in Six States + DC — A mysterious ailment is killing off hundreds of birds in at least six states and the nation’s capital, and wildlifeexperts don’t know why.The strange disease was first widely observed in Washington, DC, Virginia, Maryland and West Virginia in late May, according to the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). Since then, it has also spread to Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana, the Evansville Courier & Press reported.”This is truly scary,” Jim Monsma, who runs the Washington, D.C.-based rescue organization City Wildlife,told DCist. “We don’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, as it were, yet. And it’s just every day more and more birds.”Monsma said his organization had dealt with 174 dead or ill birds as of June 15. The birds brought to City Wildlife suffer from seizures, loss of balance, swelling, crusty eyes and blindness. These same symptoms are being observed in wildlife departments across the U.S. South and Midwest.”They’ll just sit still, often kind of shaking,” Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources avian biologist Kate Slankard told NBC News. “It’s pretty safe to say that hundreds of birds in the state have had this problem.”The most often-afflicted species are blue jays, common grackles and European starlings. However, the ailment has also been observed in American robins and Northern cardinals, among others, Indiana Department of Natural Resources ornithologist Allisyn-Marie Gillet told the Evansville Courier & Press. No one yet knows what is causing the outbreak. Samples gathered in Indiana tested negative for both bird flu and West Nile virus. One possibility is that the disease is linked to the emergence of Brood X cicadas, Smithsonian Migratory Bird Center ornithologist Brian Evans told DCist. The disease has been observed in the same states as the cicadas, and emerged at around the same time. If this is the case, it could be that the birds are being harmed by an insecticide or a pesticide present in the cicadas, or by a fungus that is attacking the insects. For Evans, this would actually be a close-to-best-case scenario. “A population can take a once-every-17-year hit without any major long-term impact to the population,”

Large birds are dropping from heat stroke in Arizona as temperatures near 120 degrees – Temperatures are nearing 120 degrees in parched Arizona, and the heat is causing the state’s large raptors to drop from heat stroke.As many as 20 birds a day are being treated this week by Arizona raptor rescue agencies, including large birds found sitting in traffic.The Arizona Department of Public Safety reported Thursday a state trooper stopped to investigate a pile of “debris” on Interstate 17 near Camp Verde, and discovered it was a delirious golden eagle. The bird – about the size of a beagle – was unable to fly.”Turns out this blazing heat was to blame,” Arizona Game & Fish officials posted on Facebook.The National Weather Service declared an “excessive heat warning” for southern Arizona this week, due to “dangerously hot conditions” in the afternoons. Temperatures have topped 100 degrees many days this month and are predicted to rise as high as 118 degrees in coming days, NWS forecasters say.Arizona-based raptor rescue Wild At Heart says the golden eagle rescued off Interstate 17 is one of a growing number of “heat stressed” birds it is treating. The eagle was “overheated” rather than injured and recovered after receiving a fluid IV and meal, officials said.”With 20 raptor intakes today, WAH had its busiest day of 2021 so far as this heat wave is really taking a toll on the young birds,” the agency reported Thursday.”Please put out water for our young birds that can’t fly yet to water and all the birds and wildlife that need shade and water to survive this summer.”Extreme heat in Arizona has also been known to cause some species of hawks to leave the nest too early, leaving them stuck on the ground and unable to fly, according to Tucson Audubon Society. The agency says concerned people should avoid picking up the fallen hawks “unless they are in imminent danger from a predator. Their parents are nearby and are taking care of them.”

Hundreds of thousands of salmon dying in ‘climate catastrophe’ – Hundreds of thousands of juvenile Chinook salmon are dying off in a large Northern California river, threatening tribal communities in the region that depend on the fish for their livelihoods and traditions, according to SFGate. The deaths of the fish in the more than 250-mile Klamath River is a consequence of the state’s historic drought. Low water levels in the river have allowed a deadly parasite known as Ceratonova shasta to thrive in the waterway and infect large numbers of salmon. Typically, sufficient water flows rushing down the river kept the parasite population in check. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation also decided against releasing water from a dam on the Upper Klamath Lake to increase water flow. The Yurok Indian Reservation is located on a 44-mile stretch of the river, and the tribe’s fishery department monitors salmon populations. Last month, the tribe warned that the massive disease outbreak has put the salmon on a path to extinction. “Right now, the Klamath River is full of dead and dying fish on the Yurok Reservation,” Frankie Myers, the Yurok Tribe’s Vice Chairman, said in a statement. “This disease will kill most of the baby salmon in the Klamath, which will impact fish runs for many years to come. For salmon people, a juvenile fish kill is an absolute worst-case scenario,” he said. Each year the Yurok Fisheries Department monitors the river for the deadly parasite. Officials said more than 70 percent of the juvenile Chinook salmon it recently trapped were dead. The tribe said the Klamath fish runs have been some of the lowest on record over the last five years. “The impacts are very real to the people here on the Klamath River. We understand these fish aren’t going to return in the numbers we need them to be when they come back as adults to feed the tribe and to support the local businesses and the local fisherman,” he told the outlet.

U.S. Navy Detonates 40,000-Pound Bomb off Florida Coast – Marine mammal experts this week expressed deep concern over the potentially devastating effects of the U.S. Navy’s recent detonation of 40,000 pounds of explosives off the Atlantic coast of Florida on sea life, while progressive observers blasted what they called the government’s misplaced spending priorities.The Navy set off the massive blast – which registered as a magnitude 3.9 earthquake on shore – on June 18 about 100 miles off Palm Coast as the first in a series of full ship shock trials on the USS Gerald R. Ford, a $12.8 billion nuclear-powered aircraft carrier commissioned in 2017.”The U.S. Navy conducts shock trials of new ship designs using live explosives to confirm that our warships can continue to meet demanding mission requirements under harsh conditions they might encounter in battle,” the Navy explained in a press release.The statement claimed the explosion occurred “within a narrow schedule that complies with environmental mitigation requirements, respecting known migration patterns of marine life in the test area.”The region is home to various marine mammal species including bottlenose dolphins, humpback whales, and North Atlantic right whales. While whales are not typically seen off the northern Florida coast in June, marine experts nevertheless expressed alarm over potential harm to mammals and other sea life.”The Navy’s own modeling indicates that some smaller species of marine mammals would be expected to die within one to two kilometers of the blast, and that some marine mammal species would suffer injury including hearing loss out to 10 kilometers of the blast,” Michael Jasny, director of the Natural Resources Defense Council’s (NRDC) Marine Mammal Protection Project, told The Guardian. “That gives some sense of the power of the explosives we are talking about.”

Study Warns of Severe Drying in Amazon Rainforest -Researchers at the University of Leeds in Britain published new research Tuesday – World Rainforest Day – showing that massive swaths of the eastern Amazon are at risk of severe drying by the end of this century if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced.Analyzing the results of 38 known Amazon climate models, researchers found that large quantities of carbon dioxide would be released from the forest into the atmosphere as a result of drying, exacerbating the greenhouse gas effect and further fueling climate change.Severe droughts in the Amazon would also adversely affect the rainforest’s water cycle, biodiversity, and Indigenous peoples who live there.”People in Brazil and across the globe are rightly concerned about what the future holds for the Amazon, and its valuable store of carbon and biodiversity,” said study lead author Jessica Baker of the School of Earth and the Environment at Leeds University. “The Amazon is at risk from the twin threats of deforestation and climate change.””This new study sheds light on how the Amazon climate is likely to change under an extreme warming scenario,” Baker continued. “It should ring alarm bells for governments around the world that this vital global resource must not be taken for granted. Protecting and expanding existing forests – which absorb and store carbon – is of paramount importance to combating climate change.” “This study shows that dry season rainfall reductions in parts of the Amazon could be similar to the drying seen during the major Amazon droughts of 2005 and 2010, which caused widespread tree mortality and had major impacts for Amazon communities,” Coelho added. A 2019 study by researchers at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California revealed that the atmosphere above the Amazon rainforest has been drying out over the past two decades, primarily as the result of human activity, leaving critical ecosystems increasingly vulnerable to fires and drought.

Telegraph Fire Slowly Grows to 180K Acres, Damages 52 Structures – While the growth rate of the Telegraph Fire in Arizona has decreased, it has burned over 180,000 acres as of Monday. –According to an update posted on the InciWeb national wildfire information system, the Telegraph Fire has burned 180,685 acres and is currently 67 percent contained. The fire has damaged/destroyed at least 52 structures and its cause is listed as human but remains under investigation.On June 16, fire officials reported on InciWeb that the Telegraph Fire burned at least 148,299 acres, making it the sixth largest wildfire in Arizona history. While the fire’s size increased by nearly 40,000 acres since June 16, it’s growth has slightly slowed as its size increased by less than 1,000 acres since Sunday.Containment of the fire has continued to teeter near 70 percent as fire officials said it was 68 percent contained last week, then 58 percent contained on June 16.”Overnight, favorable weather conditions decreased fire activity and pushed the fire away from Government Springs Ranch, as well as communities and infrastructure along Dripping Springs Road and State Route 77. The southeast corner of the fire on Mescal Mountain remained active,” fire officials wrote in an InciWeb update on Monday morning. “Firefighters continued to monitor the fire and potential threats to the electrical transmission lines supplying the San Carlos Apache communities. The fire continued to back down with low intensity through pine stands on Pinal Mountain.”According to the most recent update on Monday, fire officials issued a “Go” evacuation order for residents in Dripping Springs, Wind Spirit, Hagen Ranch, Slash S Ranch, Government Springs, urging them to evacuate immediately. In addition to the Telegraph Fire, fire officials in Arizona are also currently battling the Pinnacle Fire, located near the Santa Teresa Wilderness on the Coronado National Forest, approximately 18 miles south of Bylas, Arizona.

Northeast China rivers reach historic levels amid persistent heavy rain —Persistent heavy downpours have caused 13 rivers to rise to record levels in parts of northeastern China, the Ministry of Water Resources reported Saturday, June 19, 2021. As of Tuesday, June 22, provincial authorities in Heilongjiang upgraded to a level two emergency response.Several parts of northeastern China have been hit by incessant heavy rains since last week, prompting authorities to warn people of flooding as water levels in the region’s rivers reach historic levels.The ministry said 13 rivers, mostly in Heilongjiang, have hit above-normal water levels. The affected rivers included the main stream and tributaries of the upper reaches of Heilongjiang, the Emur River, Pangu River, and Huma River, and the Dobukur River and Gan River, the upper tributaries of the Nenjiang River in Inner Mongolia.Five rivers, including the Luogu River, a section of the upper reaches of Heilongjiang and its tributaries, Emur, Pangu, and Dobukur, a tributary of the Nenjiang River, have all surpassed highs last recorded decades ago.In some areas, flash flooding swept away bridges and submerged farms along the riverbanks.According to China News, the current average precipitation in the Heilongjiang River Basin is reportedly the highest since 1961.Since May, the average rainfall in the basin has reached 155 mm (6 inches), which is almost twice the previous record.On Monday, around 500 residents in Huma County were evacuated after authorities raised the flood emergency response to the highest level.

Illinois tornado 2021: Naperville, Woodridge and Darien residents continue to clean up storm damage – ABC7 Chicago — Neighbors are helping neighbors clean up after the strong EF-3 tornado whipped through Naperville, Woodridge, Darien, and Burr Ridge Sunday night. Naperville police kept watch all night to make sure the area remains safe. One house was reduced to rubble. Though there is damage to homes on either side, those homes are still standing, an example of the random nature of this storm.A Naperville couple had to be rescued from under the debris of their destroyed home after a EF-3 tornado hit the western suburb late Sunday night. The grandparents in the home were sleeping upstairs when the tornado hit late Sunday night. Firefighters were able to rescue them buried under the rubble. Amazingly, they survived. The cleanup process in Woodridge is fully underway after Sunday’s EF-3 tornado. At least 100 homes were damaged and many areas are still littered with trees. Given all of the damage, it is remarkable no one was seriously hurt. On Janes Avenue, there is much work to be done. Twelve-month-old Violet is one of the youngest tornado survivors. She and her parents rode out the storm in a laundry room in their home with no basement. “She was with us when our roof flew off and our windows came in,” said tornado survivor Alexis Reeder. “And I’m sorry, I’m going to start to cry. And she, and we were OK. He jumped on top of us, and we hunkered down.”

LIVE UPDATES: 130 Homes Damaged In Tornado In West, Southwest Suburbs As Dangerous Storms Hit Chicago Area Sunday Night – CBS Chicago – Severe and dangerous thunderstorms brought a tornado to the ground late Sunday night and brought heavy rain and dangerous wind to the entire Chicago area. Monday morning, residents in Naperville and Woodridge area waking up to extensive damage after a tornado touched down. CBS 2’s Charlie De Mar found tree limbs stacked more than 6 feet high in Woodridge, where many customers also remained without power. In Naperville, CBS 2’s Jermont Terry encountered many people shaking their heads in disbelief at the devastation – with tree limbs stacked high, and homes boarded up after being cleared out on one side of a street while homes were completely unaffected on the other side. A light pole was even left bent more than 90 degrees from its original upright position. Indeed, the path of destruction was evident, yet the resilience of the community was overshadowing. While no tornadoes touched down within the city of Chicago Sunday night, there was some damage in some neighborhoods. In Gage Park near 53rd Street and Homan Avenue, fierce winds did a lot of damage to trees and cars. Volunteers from My Block, My Hood, My City stepped in – working late into the evening to help neighbors. A second tornado has been confirmed as part of the storms that pounded the Chicago area Sunday night and left a path of destruction. In addition to the EF-3 tornado that hit Woodridge and Naperville, the National Weather Service also confirmed another EF-0 tornado with winds of 85 mph, from just north of downtown Plainfield to Mistwood Golf Course in Romeoville.

Tornado sweeps through suburban Chicago, causing damage – ABC News– A tornado swept through communities in heavily populated suburban Chicago, damaging more than 100 homes, toppling trees, knocking out power and causing multiple injuries, officials said. There was relief Monday, though, as authorities reported that it appeared no one had died. Less than a dozen people were hurt in the tornado that touched down after 11 p.m. Sunday, and all were expected to recover. At least eight people were hospitalized in Naperville, where 22 homes were left “uninhabitable” and more than 130 homes were damaged in the suburb of 147,500 people that’s about 25 miles (40 kilometers) west of Chicago. Two people initially described in critical condition had improved by Monday afternoon, said Naperville Fire Chief Mark Puknaitis. “It could have been a lot worse, I will say that,” Puknaitis said. “When you look at the destruction that has occurred over this five square block area or so, it’s amazing that we can stand here and report that we only had eight people that were transported to a hospital.” Officials in the nearby village of Woodridge said a tornado damaged at least 100 structures. The village’s fire chief said three people were taken to hospitals, but he could not provide more detail on their injuries during a Monday press conference. Woodridge Police Chief Brian Cunningham said early warnings likely minimized the number of injuries. “It was a nighttime event, a lot of people were sleeping, weren’t aware of what was going on,” he said. “The early warning got people to shelter. And the fact that there’s only three people injured and the amount of devastation that’s in the community, it’s just amazing.” The storm destroyed the second floor of Bridget Casey’s Woodridge home. She sat in a lawn chair in the driveway before sunrise Monday. Her 16-year-old son, Nate, said he was watching TV when the storm swept through and he raced to help his mother get his three younger siblings to the basement. Mayor Gina Cunningham called the damage to homes and other property in the village “extensive.” “I’m just emotional because it is devastating to drive through the community that I grew up in and worked in and share with so many wonderful neighbors,” she said. The tornado was confirmed by radar, and a team with the National Weather Service began surveying damage Monday to determine its strength and path. The agency said one tornado likely caused damage in Naperville, Woodridge and Darien.

Severe thunderstorm spawns destructive tornado in Belgium (video) Severe thunderstorms struck parts of Belgium on Saturday, June 19, 2021, leaving 92 homes severely damaged and 17 people injured. Heavy downpours also triggered flooding in portions of Flanders. A tornado reportedly struck the town of Beauraing in Namur Province, injuring 17 people and leaving as many as 92 houses severely affected, 10 of which were declared unfit for habitation. More than a dozen cars were damaged. The local cultural center provided shelter for residents whose homes sustained damage. “The wind was incredibly strong. Houses and cars got damaged, trees were uprooted,” Beauraing Mayor Marc Lejeune told Francophone public broadcaster RTBF.According to VRT’s weather presenter Frank Deboosere, the phenomenon could either be a local tornado or a strong downwind, which was triggered by the massive downpour that created a downward air movement. In Rochefort, a dozen homes and a church lost their roofs due to strong winds. In Saint-Servais, a house was set on fire after being struck by lightning. In Hainaut, various reports of flooding were sent, including around Peruwelz, Leuze-en-Hainaut, and Lessines. The fire services had to attend to 40 calls for help. InEast Flanders, local thunderstorms caused damages, particularly in the Oosterzele, Wetteren, and Aalst regions. The fire services received about 90 calls to intervene, mostly about flooded cellars.

Deadly tornado leaves path of destruction in Auckland, New Zealand – (video) A devastating tornado struck South Auckland, New Zealand, on Saturday, June 19, 2021, killing one person and leaving a trail of destruction. Around 62 houses have been deemed uninhabitable and 32 people were evacuated from their homes. Clean-up continued in the area on Monday, June 21. The tornado touched down around 20:00 UTC (08:00 LT), ravaging houses and injuring at least two people in the region. 62 houses have been destroyed and about 32 people spent overnight in emergency accommodations. Power outages were reported on Freyberg Avenue. On Ballance Avenue, a house had its roof ripped apart and windows shattered, but the family chose to sleep among the rubbles, fearing their properties might be looted if they left. “The windows were shaking, so I went to check the front door and the door just flew open… like it nearly came off the hinges. So I ran to my friends and got them to get under the table. I thought it was an earthquake,” said Roy Rogers, the homeowner. “Within the span of 30 seconds, it was already gone. I opened the door, and just saw the devastation.” Debris was scattered all over the area, with mounds of twisted metal, branches, roof tiles, and guttering seen outside homes. Streets were filled with shattered windows, toppled chimneys, downed powerlines, and cars squashed. A devastating tornado struck South Auckland, New Zealand, on Saturday, June 19, 2021, killing one person and leaving a trail of destruction. Around 62 houses have been deemed uninhabitable and 32 people were evacuated from their homes. Clean-up continued in the area on Monday, June 21. The tornado touched down around 20:00 UTC (08:00 LT), ravaging houses and injuring at least two people in the region. 62 houses have been destroyed and about 32 people spent overnight in emergency accommodations. Power outages were reported on Freyberg Avenue. On Ballance Avenue, a house had its roof ripped apart and windows shattered, but the family chose to sleep among the rubbles, fearing their properties might be looted if they left. “The windows were shaking, so I went to check the front door and the door just flew open… like it nearly came off the hinges. So I ran to my friends and got them to get under the table. I thought it was an earthquake,” said Roy Rogers, the homeowner. “Within the span of 30 seconds, it was already gone. I opened the door, and just saw the devastation.” Debris was scattered all over the area, with mounds of twisted metal, branches, roof tiles, and guttering seen outside homes. Streets were filled with shattered windows, toppled chimneys, downed powerlines, and cars squashed. “It’s… a lot more long term. We can clean all this up now, but with holes in the roof and with the rain, because it’s winter, it’s just going to carry on building up with droplets inside… so we’re going to have to fix that,” said Rogers. On Freyberg Ave, the tornado threw parts of resident Julie Wharton’s carport into her son’s bedroom. He escaped by lying flat on the floor. Auckland Council building inspectors assessed hundreds of homes, while volunteers delivered food parcels to the affected residents. As of Monday, Auckland Emergency Management was still cleaning the debris. A contractor named Janesh Prasad died in the scene after being picked up by the twister and thrown against an object.

Deadly tornado hits Mascouche in southern Quebec, Canada — (videos) A tornado killed one person in Mascouche near Montreal in southern Quebec, Canada, the deputy premier and minister of public safety confirmed Monday, June 21, 2021. Several dozen buildings were damaged and many others were injured. Dozens of people were cleaning up debris from their damaged homes in the aftermath of a tornado in Mascouche on Monday. On some residential streets between Route 125 and Highway 25, shingles were missing from roofs, power lines were downed, trees split down the middle, and trampolines suspended on sheds as firefighters worked to block off downed lines. The twister killed one man, who may have taken shelter in his shed, according to Mascouche police. His neighbors added that he didn’t seem to have time to make it into his house as the incident happened so fast. “He was really nice; in winter, he always helped everyone with snow removal,” said one of his neighbors, Mathieu Hamel. The tornado ripped the top of Hamel’s house, which was several months into an expansion he and his partner have been working on. Hamel added that their four children, all under 10, were on the bus on their way home from school when they witnessed the tornado lift their house into the air.

Destructive storms bring giant hail, tornado and flooding to parts of France (videos) Severe storms pummeled parts of France over the weekend into Monday, June 21, 2021, bringing flooding rain, giant hailstones, and a tornado that resulted in damages and one person missing. Around 44 000 lightning strikes were recorded.In Saint-Nicolas-de-Bourgueil, a tornado inflicted damage to a chuch in Indre-et-Loire village. Fallen stoneworks collapsed into cars underneath, smashing windscreens. Trees and vines were also ravaged. No injuries were reported.In Vercel-Villedieu-le-Camp, hailstones the size of tennis balls wrecked through car windows. Heavy rains triggered flooding while strong winds caused material damage in Essonne in Ile-de-France, and in Reims, Grand Est. Widespread flooding submerged roads in the northeastern city of Reims as downpours continued. Power outages also occurred in some areas.According to Reuters, which dubbed the storm’s aftermath as France’s “darkest day” — around 44 000 lightning strikes were recorded during the storm’s onslaught. An 18-year-old man remains missing as of Tuesday morning, June 22, according to local news Courrier Picard. Fire services had to attend to 400 calls for emergency. More storms are forecast to sweep the country on Tuesday, Meteo France warned.

Major tornado hits Czech Republic, causing massive destruction – (videos) A powerful storm accompanied by hail and a major tornado hit communities near the city of Hodonin in South Moravia, Czech Republic on June 24, 2021. Several hundred homes have been damaged or destroyed, more than 200 people injured and an unknown number killed. This is the strongest tornado to hit the country in modern history.The twister completely destroyed the village of Lu�ice, half of Hruky and parts of Moravskfl Novfl Ves, MikulÄice and three others. According to a Czech Television meteorologist, the tornado may have reached F3 or 4 strength, making it the strongest tornado to hit the Czech Republic in modern history and the first since 2018. Local reports mention 200 people injured and at least 5 killed. Sadly, many are still believed buried under debris or trapped in flooded homes.The storm left more than 121 000 customers without power.Firefighters said they received hundreds of calls for help, adding that they are overloaded. Interior Minister Jan HamflÄek said all units of the integrated rescue system are moving to the Hodonin region.Help is also coming from neighboring Austria and Slovakia.The deputy prime minister is urging citizens to stay at home as more storms could hit the region.

Two violent tornadoes hit China, destroying homes and claiming at least 8 lives – (video) At least two large and violent tornadoes touched down in China on June 25, 2021, destroying homes, tossing cars, and leaving at least 8 people dead. Local authorities fear the death toll will continue to rise. Survey teams are on the scene today.The first violent tornado hit Baochang in Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, destroying many homes and leaving at least 6 people dead.According to extreme weather enthusiast Eric Wang, the tornado made EF3+ damage. “There are tons of houses damaged or destroyed.” The second violent tornado hit Guyuan in Hebei Province minutes later. There are reports of homes completely gone and brick facilities vanished. “I’ve heard another two fatalities attributed to this one,” Wang said.

Claudette regains tropical storm strength over Carolinas after killing 13 in Alabama, U.S.Claudette regained its tropical storm status on Monday morning, June 21, 2021, as it neared the coast of the Carolinas. This was after the storm left at least 13 people dead in Alabama; widespread damage and flooding in the neighboring states of Mississippi and Louisiana; and about 13 000 homes and businesses without power across the Florida Panhandle. Tropical Storm Claudette formed at 09:00 UTC on Saturday, June 19, as the third named storm of the 2021 Atlantic hurricane season. It made landfall in southeast Lousiana but weakened into a depression as it turned northeastward before moving through Mississippi, Georgia, and Alabama. The storm brought gusty winds, flash flooding, and several tornadoes to much of the Southeastern U.S., with areas in Alabama and Mississippi as the worst hit. Several areas of the Gulf Coast were flooded as Claudette moved across land throughout the day. Several tornadoes caused major damage and left dozens injured in Alabama.”We’ve got probably about 50 homes pretty much destroyed,” said Escambia County Sheriff Heath Jackson. Two people were critically injured and two mobile home communities were badly affected, he added. At least 13 people died in the state of Alabama. According to Butler County Coroner Wayne Garlock, 10 of the victims– nine of whom were children– were involved in a multi-vehicle collision on Saturday. The children were in a van for a youth home for the abused when it likely hydroplaned, said Garlock. In a separate incident, a 24-year-old father and his 3-year-old son died in their house after a fallen tree struck the residence in Tuscaloosa County. A 23-year-old woman also lost her life after her car ran off the road into a flooded creek, DeKalb County Deputy Coroner Chris Thacker told WHNT-TV. Search operations are underway for a man believed to have fallen into floodwaters in Birmingham. Crews were using boats to search Pebble Creek. Tornadoes were also reported in several areas. In Pace, Florida, several houses were damaged. No injuries were reported. Wind gusts of up to 130 km/h (80 mph) were recorded in Pensacola Beach, where some windows were blown away and at least one hotel and a tractor-trailer blew over on the I-10. Highways and bridges were closed throughout the region, including portions of Highway 90 between Biloxi and Pass Christian, Mississippi. Flooding and sand engulfed much of the roadway, while elevated homes in Hancock were surrounded by floodwaters. In Sidell, Louisiana, police deployed rescue vehicles due to widespread flooding. “We are currently clearing/have cleared approximately 40 to 50 vehicles out of the roadways due to them being flooded with water,” said authorities. “Last night/early this morning, we had to rescue multiple people from their flooded cars, along with a woman, who was on her way to the hospital, possibly going into labor.” The storm left around 13 000 homes and businesses without electricity across the Florida Panhandle counties of Santa Rosa and Escambia. Downed trees, power lines, and damaged buildings were reported after high winds and a possible tornado struck Saturday morning. According to the National Hurricane Center (NHC), Claudette regained its tropical storm status and is located around 104 km (65 miles) east-southeast of Raleigh, North Carolina, packing maximum sustained winds of 65 km/h (40 mph) as of 09:00 UTC (05:00 LT) on Monday, June 21.

‘People are wiped out’: Costs pile up as hurricane season begins | Southerly -Hurricanes, a winter storm, and spring floods have left low-income Gulf Coast residents exhausted and cash strapped before this year’s season, with no significant aid in sight. When Chrishelle Palay inherited her great-aunt’s home in Kashmere Gardens, a flood-prone neighborhood in northeast Houston, there was still damage from Hurricane Harvey. Water had seeped into the kitchen and family room floors; the roof was leaky. The house was insured by Allstate, but Palay discovered her aunt’s policy didn’t cover water damage. Then, the company dropped the house, claiming the roof was too old to qualify for coverage. “We had to find a new policy and company, even though my aunt had been with this company for 15 years,” said Palay, the executive director of the Houston Organizing Movement for Equity Coalition, which helps low-income communities with hurricane recovery. The new policy required a $4,000 upfront fee for flood insurance. “Most families don’t have that [money], especially in my neighborhood,” she said. “They’re left exposed and vulnerable to the environment.” In Kashmere Gardens and other low-income communities across the Gulf Coast, families are still recovering from past storms – Harvey in 2017, Imelda in 2019, Laura and Delta in 2020, flash flooding this spring. Experts predict 2021’s hurricane season to have several severe hurricanes. Coastal residents have found themselves perpetually caught between storm preparation and recovery, which are both costly. Prior to hurricane season, emergency managers recommend gathering several days’ worth of food and water and extra necessary medication. People are encouraged to buy storm shutters, generators, and carbon monoxide detectors, often during state tax holidays so the equipment is tax-free. But these items still aren’t cheap – and for some low-income households, they are unaffordable luxuries.

60 percent of banana crops in Colima wiped out by Tropical Storm “Dolores” Tropical Storm “Dolores” — the 4th named storm of the 2021 Pacific hurricane season — made landfall just northwest of the town of Punda San Telmo, near the border of the Mexican states of Colima and Michoacfln, on June 19, 2021, with maximum sustained winds of 115 km/h (70 mph) and a minimum central pressure of 990 hPa. Days of heavy rain ahead of landfall — brought by the precursor of Dolores synchronized with the precursor of Tropical Storm “Claudette” — affected widespread areas of southern Mexico, including Oaxaca, Guerrero, and Michoacan, and Central America, causing rivers to overflow and leaving at least 2 people dead. While only minimal infrastructural damage was reported as Dolores made landfall, at least 232 downed trees were reported in Colima, and up to 400 mm (15.75 inches) of rain. According to the president of Banana Producers in the state of Colima, Gustavo Arceo Solis, banana producers in the state are in a very critical situation. “Dolores brought floods and strong winds which downed more than 60% of the crops, which is irreversible damage… more than 90% of the flowers were damaged,” Solis said. “We are talking about around 9 000 ha (22 240 acres) of bananas in the state of Colima, especially in the region of Cerro de Ortega, Tecoman and part of Madrid and Caleras, which is where we have to most damage and where the most banana production exists in the state.” Solis said about 35 000 families in Colima live, directly or indirectly, from banana cultivation. The state’s banana production was already in dire condition due to severe drought, but now with this additional damage, the price of bananas in the state will rise.

Very thick Saharan dust cloud moving over the Mediterranean into Italy and SE Europe – (graphics, satellite images) A very thick Saharan dust cloud is moving over the Mediterranean Sea into Italy and Southeast Europe over the past couple of days. Coupled with exceptionally high temperatures affecting the region, this dust is contributing to lower visibility, respiratory issues, and lower Air Quality Index. The worst affected on June 23 are Sicily and southern Italy, most of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Albania, and western Greece. On June 24, dust cloud will spread over large parts of SE Europe, including Slovenia, Croatia, and Serbia. The worst affected on June 25 will be southern Italy and western Greece.

Suwanosejima ejects large rocks 1 km (0.62 miles) from the crater, Japan – Suwanosejima volcano erupted at 15:04 UTC on June 22, 2021 (12:04 JST, June 23), ejecting large rocks as far as 1 km (0.62 miles) from the crater and prompting the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) to raise the Volcanic Alert Level from 2 to 3 (on a scale of 1 – 5). At this level, residents of Toshima Village and tourists are advised to refrain from entering the danger zone. A smaller explosion occurred at the volcano’s Otake crater at 01:54 UTC on June 21, ejecting large volcanic material 900 m (2 959 feet) NW of the crater. The explosions intensified and became more frequent on June 22, with 5 explosions within 6 hours. The volcanic ash plume rose up to 1 200 m (3 940 feet) above the crater — this is 1 996 m (6 550 feet) a.s.l. JMA warned the volcano has the potential to eject big rocks within about a 2 km (1.2 miles) radius of the crater.

Violent lava fountains at Etna, ash rises up to 10 km (32 800 feet) a.s.l., Italy – Increased activity continues at Etna volcano, Italy, with numerous violent paroxysmal eruptive episodes and ash rising up to 10 km (32 800 feet) above sea level. Over the past couple of days, the Aviation Color Code was mostly Red. Strombolian activity at the Southeast Crater increased again at 23:50 UTC on June 24. This activity gradually evolved into lava fountaining by 01:00 UTC on June 25. A lava overflow was recorded at 01:15 UTC, spreading in an SW direction. Lava fountaining episode ended at 01:48 UTC but weak Strombolian activity continued. The eruptive cloud reached a height of about 8.5 km (27 900 feet) above sea level, drifting east of the volcano. Lava effusion continued at the southeastern side of the Southeast Crater, feeding two main lava flows of which the longest one is at an estimated altitude of 2.7 km (8 860 feet) a.s.l. The Aviation Color Code was raised to Red at 09:29 UTC on June 24, during previous paroxysms, and lowered back to Orange at 04:34 UTC today. A 10 km (32 800 feet) tall eruption column was recorded late afternoon (UTC) on June 24

New slow-slip event detected near Gisborne, New Zealand – A slow-slip event started around June 14, 2021, near Gisborne, New Zealand and models suggest several cm of movement has occurred at the plate boundary so far. This is the second slow-slip event off the coast of North Island since the May 2021 event near Porangahau. GeoNet scientists have so far measured about 2 cm (0.8 inches) of eastward displacement at the on-land GPS site at Gisborne. The slow-slip record at Gisborne has shown regular events every 1 – 2 years with much larger events every 4 – 6 years. The last event of similar size near Gisborne occurred in April – June 2019. During that slow-slip event, GeoNet recorded many small-to-moderate earthquakes in the area, including a M5.1 quake near Mahia Peninsula. “We expect to see a similar pattern of small earthquakes near Gisborne for this current slow-slip event, in line with what has been observed during previous events,” said Laura Wallace, GNS Science Geophysicist. A cluster of about 60 small earthquakes was detected north of Gisborne over the past two weeks, coincidental to the timing of the slow-slip event. Five of these have been over M3. The largest was a magnitude 4.2 on Wednesday, June 16 that wasn’t widely felt. Most of these events have been unnoticeable. This is the second slow-slip event off the coast of North Island since the Porangahau event of May 2021. “Even though these two East Coast slow-slip events are a couple of hundred kilometers apart, we often see such events clustering in time. For example, a series of slow-slip events like this occurred in 2011 and 2016,” Wallace said. The PÅrangahau event lasted for about 2 weeks and finished up in early June. In addition, GeoNet has located 50% more earthquakes in this region in the last month. “Our scientists had been anticipating the PÅrangahau slow-slip event, as there is a record of one happening in the region about every five years,” Wallace said. GeoNet has located 50% more earthquakes in the PÅrangahau region in the last month.

Many feared dead after Florida beachfront condo collapses – ABC News – A wing of a 12-story beachfront condo building collapsed with a roar in a town outside Miami early Thursday, killing at least one person and trapping residents in rubble and twisted metal. Rescuers pulled out dozens of survivors and continued to look for more.Nearly 100 people were still unaccounted for at midday, authorities said, raising fears that the death toll could climb sharply. But officials did not know how many were in the tower when it fell around 1:30 a.m. “The building is literally pancaked,” Surfside Mayor Charles Burkett said. “That is heartbreaking because it doesn’t mean, to me, that we are going to be as successful as we wanted to be in finding people alive.” Hours after the collapse, searchers were trying to reach a trapped child whose parents were believed to be dead. In another case, rescuers saved a mother and child, but the woman’s leg had to be amputated to remove her from the rubble, Frank Rollason, director of Miami-Dade Emergency Management, told the Miami Herald. Video showed fire crews removing a boy from the wreckage, but it was not clear whether he was the same person mentioned by Rollason. Gov. Ron DeSantis, who toured the scene, said television did not capture the scale of what happened. Rescue crews are “doing everything they can to save lives. That is ongoing, and they’re not going to rest,” he said. Teams of 10 to 12 rescuers were entering the rubble at a time with dogs and other equipment, working until they tire from the heavy lifting, then making way for a new team, said Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis, the state’s fire marshal.

Miami-Dade building collapse: At least 1 dead, almost 100 unaccounted for in Surfside, Florida, officials say – CNN – An intense search and rescue effort is underway after part of a 12-story residential building collapsed early Thursday in the South Florida town of Surfside, killing at least one and leaving almost 100 people unaccounted for. About 55 of the 136 units at Champlain Towers South collapsed around 1:30 a.m., officials said, leaving huge piles of rubble and materials dangling from what remained of the structure in the beachfront community a few miles north of Miami Beach. At least 99 people were unaccounted for as of Thursday afternoon, according to Miami-Dade Police spokesperson Alvaro Zabaleta. At least one person died because of the collapse, Miami-Dade County Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said. Two people have been pulled from the rubble, Miami-Dade Fire Rescue Assistant Chief Ray Jadallah said, without addressing their medical conditions. Rescuers helped a boy from the debris alive, a witness said, and video showed responders helping others leave the standing portions of the building, sometimes using a bucket atop a fire truck’s ladder. “We still have hope to be able to identify additional survivors,” Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters near the scene. “The state of Florida, we’re offering any assistance that we can.” Besides the two pulled from rubble, 35 others had been helped from standing parts of the building, Jadallah said. Surveillance video obtained by local Fox Sports radio anchor Andy Slater appears to show the collapse: A huge section of the building fell first, followed by another portion about nine seconds later. A resident on the third floor, Barry Cohen, heard what he thought sounded like an explosion. His apartment was intact, but when he opened his door and tried to leave, he “looked down the hallway … and there was nothing there,” he said. After about 20 minutes, a rescue crew used a cherry picker to help him, his wife and another resident from a balcony, he said.

Collapsed Miami condo had been sinking into Earth as early as the 1990s, researchers say – A Florida high rise that collapsed early Thursdaywas determined to be unstable a year ago, according to a researcher at Florida International University. The building, which was constructed in 1981, has been sinking at an alarming rate since the 1990s, according to a 2020 study conducted by Shimon Wdowinski, a professor in the Department of Earth and Environment at Florida International University. When he saw the news that the condo had collapsed, he instantly remembered it from the study, Wdowinski said. “I looked at it this morning and said ‘Oh my god.’ We did detect that,” he said. Wdowinski said his research is not meant to suggest any certainty about what caused the collapse of the condominium. The building was sinking at a rate of about 2 millimeters a year in the 1990s, and the sinking could have slowed or accelerated in the time since. In his experience, Wdowinski said even the level of sinking observed in the 1990s typically results in impacts to buildings and their structures. He believes that very well could have been the case for the Champlain building in the 1990s, based on his findings. “It was a byproduct of analyzing the data. We saw this building had some kind of unusual movement,” Wdownski said. But Daniel Deitch, who served as Surfside’s mayor from 2010-2020, warned against drawing conclusions too soon. “This is an extraordinarily unusual event and it is dangerous and counterproductive to speculate on its cause,” he said.

Sea level rise due to climate change eyed as contributing factor in Miami-area building collapse – As the search for survivors of the collapse of a 12-story beachfront condominium in Surfside, Fla., continued on Friday, building experts began looking at the possibility that sea level rise caused by climate change may have contributed to the disaster that has left at least four people dead and 159 missing. From a geological standpoint, the base of South Florida’s barrier islands is porous limestone. As the oceans encroach on land due to sea level rise and the worsening of so-called king tides, groundwater is pushed up through the limestone, causing flooding. That brackish water, which regularly inundates underground parking garages in South Florida, can potentially lead to the deterioration of building foundations over time. “Sea level rise does cause potential corrosion and if that was happening, it’s possible it could not handle the weight of the building,” Zhong-Ren Peng, professor and director of the University of Florida’s International Center for Adaptation Planning and Design, told the Palm Beach Post. “I think this could be a wakeup call for coastal developments.” While it is too early to say whether climate change is to blame for the collapse of the 40-year-old Champlain Towers South, or if it also threatens thousands of similar structures along Florida’s coastline, sea levels rose by 3.9 inches between 2000 and 2017 in nearby Key West, according to a 2019 report by the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact. Future projections are much more dire. “Just using the U.S. government projections, we could be at 11 to over 13 feet [of sea level rise] by the end of the century,” Harold Wanless, director of the University of Miami’s geological sciences department and a leading expert on sea level rise, told Yahoo News. “There’s only 3 percent of Miami-Dade County that’s greater than 12 feet above sea level.” The Champlain Towers South, which had been built on reclaimed wetlands, was found to have sunk by roughly 2 millimeters per year between 1993 and 1999, the Washington Post reported. Though federal and state investigators will attempt to pinpoint the cause of the collapse, rising seas and flooding from king tides (exceptionally high tides that occur during a full or new moon) will certainly be examined as a possible contributing factor. But even if climate change is ruled out as a significant contributor to this particular instance of structural failure, there is no avoiding the fact that if seas continue to rise, the habitability of much of South Florida will be put in question.

Can The Fate Of Dolphins and Louisiana’s Fishing Industry Stop A $50 Billion Mississippi River Diversion Plan? – The tide is turning against Louisiana’s proposed $2 billion Mississippi River sediment diversion project, that supporters say is needed to save the coast from rapid land loss due to subsidence, damage done by the oil and gas industry, extreme weather events, and sea level rise quickened by climate change.The proposed Mid-Barataria sediment diversion project, is a key part of the state’s $50 billion master plan to restore the rapidly eroding coast. If constructed, the diversion is designed to let the river’s natural land building process restore Louisiana’s disappearing marshland.The state says it must be built, as it is the best chance for restoring the coast. A growing number of opponents of the project, however, see it as a risky, expensive experiment that, rather than creating the meaningful coastal restoration, will degrade the country’s most productive estuary, harming dolphin populations and the region’s fishing industry.Earlier this year, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the federal agency responsible for issuing a permit for the project, released a draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on March 5 which is largely supportive of the diversion project. The Corps found that the projected benefits of creating up to 28 miles of self-sustaining marsh in the rapidly eroding Barataria Basin outweigh the likely negative impacts. This includes increasing flooding for those who live near where the project is slated to be constructed, including the Black community in Ironton, and killing off a large portion of bottlenose dolphins along with brown shrimp and oysters in the country’s most productive estuary.”The Army Corps is part of the problem,” Acy Cooper, head of the Louisiana Shrimp Association, said at a recent meeting about the project. He doesn’t think the agency should play a role in making a decision about it; he blames the Army Corps for what he describes as the mess at the mouth of the Mississippi River where there is rapid land loss and a growing deadzone where the river’s polluted river water enters the Gulf.The diversion project was designed by the Louisiana Coastal Protection and Restoration Authority (CPRA), a state agency formed in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita and tasked with developing a master plan to rebuild and protect the state’s rapidly eroding coast. It plans to open a section of the Mississippi River levy on the West bank of lower Plaquemines Parish and build a channel through it that will reconnect the Mississippi River to Barataria Bay, an area where the river previously deposited land-building sediment before levees were built over a hundred years ago. The diversion will have a controlled, gated system that allows operators to control the flow of water and sediment from the river into Barataria Bay. It will mimic the spring floods that were common before levees were built to contain the river – floods and sediment that built the Mississippi Delta in the first place.

Industrial waste, unplanned urbanization blight Turkey’s Sea of Marmara – The marine mucilage, or sea snot, that first started to appear in the Sea of Marmara in January, mostly on Istanbul’s shores, has continued to spread over the past months. It recently covered the coasts of almost all the provinces that have a coast to the Sea of Marmara and brought a major environmental disaster to the surface. When marine mucilage was first seen on the beaches, it was thought to be just a layer over the sea. However, scientists have explained that its greatest impact takes place underwater. The mucilage layer on the bottom particularly affects sea creatures. The layers seen on the surface prevent sea creatures from getting the necessary oxygen, causing them to die. Thus, the entire marine ecosystem is rapidly disappearing. Alice Alldredge, an expert on marine mucilage and a professor emeritus at University of California, Santa Barbara, told The Scientist: “Sea snot is a colloquial term for the mucus that is exuded by a lot of different phytoplankton species.” She added: “[t]he main problem is that the material eventually sinks and completely smothers the organisms that are on the bottom. It kills corals, it kills fish, it kills all the crustaceans down there, the bivalves – it kills pretty much everything because there’s not enough oxygen.” Studies have shown that the pollution is not limited to the Marmara Sea, which is an inland sea. The pollution has been seen both in the neighboring Aegean and Black Seas. Like all environmental problems, it ignores artificial national boundaries and has an international character. Alldredge said: “There have been scum events like this in the Adriatic [Sea] going back to the 1800s. … It seems these events are increasing in the Mediterranean. It used to be just the Adriatic, in the area around Sicily. Now, there’s been some events up around Corsica and the Italian-French border. So, it’s not just Turkey that’s suffering from this.” Scientists agree that this mucilage originates from industrial and urban wastes that have been dumped into the Marmara Sea for decades, as well as from climate change. If comprehensive measures are not taken soon, Marmara will turn into a completely dead sea.

Arctic heat roasts Finland and Russia, melts sea ice — An intense and expansive heat wave has gripped parts of Siberia, northwestern Russia and Scandinavia, inducing a record plunge in sea ice cover in the Laptev Sea, which is part of the Arctic Ocean. Due largely to human activities such as fossil fuel burning and deforestation, the Arctic is warming at a rate more than twice as fast as the rest of the globe. Sweeping changes there are reverberating beyond in the form of melting permafrost, increased wildfires and altered weather patterns. In addition, sea ice melt is turning the Arctic into an increasingly competitive space for shipping, oil and gas drilling, and military posturing between the U.S., Russia and China. The details: In parts of north-central Siberia, temperatures have reached 45 degF above average for this time of year, while other parts of Arctic Russia and Scandinavia have baked in record heat as well.

• Some of these same areas saw record heat and wildfires grip the landscape and melt adjacent sea ice last year.
• In Helsinki, the temperature did not drop below 72.5 degF on the night of June 21-22, setting the national record for the highest minimum temperature recorded in June.
• Several locations in Finland set monthly June high-temperature records, and the national June record almost fell Tuesday.
• Record heat also affected Belarus and Latvia.

Scientists are keeping close tabs on climate trends in Siberia due to the massive amounts of carbon and methane stored in now-melting areas of permafrost.Also, researchers are monitoring the 2021 Arctic sea ice melt, which will hit its annual minimum extent in September or early October.

Ground Temperatures Hit 118 Degrees in the Arctic Circle – Newly published satellite imagery shows the ground temperature in at least one location in Siberia topped 118 degrees Fahrenheit (48 degrees Celsius) going into the year’s longest day. It’s hot Siberia Earth summer, and it certainly won’t be the last.While many heads swiveled to the American West as cities like Phoenix and Salt Lake City suffered shockingly hot temperatures this past week, a similar climatological aberrance unfolded on the opposite side of the world in the Arctic Circle. That’s not bizarre when you consider that the planet heating up is a global affair, one that isn’t picky about its targets. We’re all the target!The 118-degree-Fahrenheit temperature was measured on the ground in Verkhojansk, in Yakutia, Eastern Siberia, by the European Space Agency’s Copernicus Sentinel satellites. Other ground temperatures in the region included 109 degrees Fahrenheit (43 degrees Celsius) in Govorovo and 98.6 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius) in Saskylah, which had its highest temperatures since 1936. It’s important to note that the temperatures being discussed here are land surface temperatures, not air temperatures. The air temperature in Verkhojansk was 86 degrees Fahrenheit (30 degrees Celsius) – still anomalously hot, but not Arizona hot.But the ground temperature being so warm is still very bad. Those temperatures beleaguer the permafrost – the frozen soil of yore, which holds in greenhouse gases and on which much of eastern Russia is built. As permafrost thaws, it sighs its methane back into the atmosphere, causingchasms in the Earth.Besides the deleterious effects of more greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, the permafrost melting destabilizes the Siberian earth, unsettling building foundations and causing landslides. It also exposes the frozen carcasses of many Ice Age mammals, meaning paleontologists have to work fast to study the species that thrived when the planet was much colder. For all the talk of reanimating the woolly mammoth, one’s got to remember: the place they knew is long gone.The same region also suffered through a heat wave that led to a very un-Siberian air temperature reading of 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius) exactly a year ago to the day from the new freak heat. It’s the hottest temperature ever recorded in the region. It was also in the 90s last month in western Siberia, reflecting that the sweltering new abnormal is affecting just about everywhere. And it’s not just the permafrost suffering; wildfires last year in Siberia pumped a record amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, ensuring more summers like this are to come.

NASA: Earth Is Absorbing an ‘Unprecedented’ Amount of Heat – Ominous new research shows that the Earth is taking in a shocking amount of heat. In the past 15 years, the amount of incoming solar radiation trapped on the surface and in the oceans has doubled.The findings, published in Geophysical Research Letters by scientists at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, are a deafening klaxon that the planet is rapidly shifting outside the boundaries that have allowed civilization to thrive.The Earth’s energy balance is climate science 101. (It was actually a presentation on it that drew my wife into the field, so thank you for studying it, scientists.) The Earth is just like you and me. It has a budget. It absorbs energy from the sun and emits an equal and opposite amount of energy back into space, much like an average person gets paid and then uses that money to pays bills. However, the Earth’s budget is becoming increasingly unbalanced.Scientists at NASA and NOAA decided to study this energy imbalance, which is currently just 0.3%, meaning the planet is currently taking up more energy from the sun than it’s putting back into space. That energy has to dosomething here on Earth, and the end result is generally more heat. To gauge how that imbalance has changed since 2005, the researchers pulled satellite data looking at the top of the atmosphere and a network of autonomous floats that gather data in the upper 6,561 feet (2,000 meters) of the ocean. The former shows what kind of energy is coming and going while the latter offers a look at where 90% of the world’s heat gets stored.The results show a major change over the 15 years of records. Both datasets show the planet has roughly doubled the amount of heat it has taken on since 2005. That the two sources of data are in such close agreement gives the researchers confidence in the disturbing trend.”It is a massive amount of energy,” Gregory Johnson, an oceanographer for NOAA’s Pacific Marine Environmental Laboratory and co-author of the study, told the Washington Post. “It’s such a hard number to get your mind around.” Among the analogies he mentioned in an attempt to help you get your head around it are that the heat is equal to dropping four atomic bombs equivalent to the one dropped on Hiroshima every second, or all 7 billion-plus of us firing up 20 electric tea kettles and just letting them run. I appreciate the effort, but even those stats are confounding. I don’t even have 20 outlets in my apartment.

NASA Warns Earth Trapping Twice As Much Heat As In 2005 The amount of heat being trapped by Earth has roughly doubled since 2005, NASA warned. Researchers from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found in a new study released earlier this week that Earth’s “energy imbalance approximately doubled during the 14-year period from 2005 to 2019.”The energy imbalance is how much heat the Earth absorbs from the sun, compared to how much “thermal infrared radiation” the Earth radiates back into space. Norman Loeb, the study’s lead author and a NASA investigator, said: “The magnitude of the increase is unprecedented.” Researchers pointed to human activity as one of the main catalysts. The study said the greenhouse gases from human activity were trapping heat in the atmosphere that then melted snow and ice, which in turn put more water vapor into the atmosphere, thereby preventing radiation from escaping. It also said that a “naturally occurring” shift in the Pacific Ocean from a cool phase to a warm one likely played a big part. The researchers used a series of satellites and a network of ocean floats to reach their findings, and compared the data from each. Loeb said: “The two very independent ways of looking at changes in Earth’s energy imbalance are in really, really good agreement, and they’re both showing this very large trend, which gives us a lot of confidence that what we’re seeing is a real phenomenon and not just an instrumental artifact. “The trends we found were quite alarming in a sense.”

Joint NASA, NOAA Study Finds Earth’s Energy Imbalance Has Doubled – Researchers have found that Earth’s energy imbalance approximately doubled during the 14-year period from 2005 to 2019.Earth’s climate is determined by a delicate balance between how much of the Sun’s radiative energy is absorbed in the atmosphere and at the surface and how much thermal infrared radiation Earth emits to space. A positive energy imbalance means the Earth system is gaining energy, causing the planet to heat up. The doubling of the energy imbalance is the topic of a recent study, the results of which were published June 15 in Geophysical Research Letters.Scientists at NASA and NOAA compared data from two independent measurements. NASA’s Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) suite of satellite sensors measure how much energy enters and leaves Earth’s system. In addition, data from a global array of ocean floats, called Argo, enable an accurate estimate of the rate at which the world’s oceans are heating up. Since approximately 90 percent of the excess energy from an energy imbalance ends up in the ocean, the overall trends of incoming and outgoing radiation should broadly agree with changes in ocean heat content.Increases in emissions of greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane due to human activity trap heat in the atmosphere, capturing outgoing radiation that would otherwise escape into space. The warming drives other changes, such as snow and ice melt, and increased water vapor and cloud changes that can further enhance the warming. Earth’s energy imbalance is the net effect of all these factors. In order to determine the primary factors driving the imbalance, the investigators used a method that looked at changes in clouds, water vapor, combined contributions from trace gases and the output of light from the Sun, surface albedo (the amount of light reflected by the Earth’s surface), tiny atmospheric particles called aerosols, and changes in surface and atmospheric temperature distributions.The study finds that the doubling of the imbalance is partially the result an increase in greenhouse gases due to human activity, also known as anthropogenic forcing, along with increases in water vapor are trapping more outgoing longwave radiation, further contributing to Earth’s energy imbalance. Additionally, the related decrease in clouds and sea ice lead to more absorption of solar energy. The researchers also found that a flip of the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) from a cool phase to a warm phase likely played a major role in the intensification of the energy imbalance. The PDO is a pattern of Pacific climate variability. Its fingerprint includes a massive wedge of water in the eastern Pacific that goes through cool and warm phases. This naturally occurring internal variability in the Earth system can have far-reaching effects on weather and climate. An intensely warm PDO phase that began around 2014 and continued until 2020 caused a widespread reduction in cloud coverage over the ocean and a corresponding increase in the absorption of solar radiation.

Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal Omits Big Climate Measures – The New York Times – A deal reached Thursday between President Biden and a bipartisan group of senators for $579 billion in new spending to repair the nation’s roads, rails and bridges does relatively little to fight climate change, an issue that the president has called an “existential threat.” The deal does provide funding for public transit, passenger and freight rail, electric buses and charging stations for electric vehicles, all designed to try to reduce pollution from passenger vehicles and trucks. And it includes $47 billion to help communities become more resilient to disasters and severe weather caused by a warming planet. Still, it contains few of the ambitious ideas that Mr. Biden initially proposed to cut the fossil fuel pollution that is driving climate change. The president had hoped to use a sweeping infrastructure bill as a vehicle to enact a national “clean electricity standard” requiring power companies to gradually ratchet up the amount of electricity they generate from wind, solar and other sources until they’re no longer emitting carbon dioxide. That is not included in the bipartisan bill, nor are the hundreds of billions of dollars in spending on tax incentives for wind, solar and other clean energy. Democratic leaders and environmentalists are hoping those proposals can be included in a separate infrastructure bill that would pass through a fast-track process known as budget reconciliation. That process would not require Republican support and could be enacted with a simple majority vote. But that’s a difficult proposition, as Senate rules require that legislation enacted through the reconciliation process pertain directly to federal revenue – such as taxes and spending. The Senate parliamentarian could determine that a clean electricity standard does not qualify. Mr. Biden said Thursday that he intends to move forward with more provisions in the second package. “I’m getting to work with Congress right away on the other half of my economic agenda as well,” he said. “The American family plan. To finish the job on child care, education, the caring economy, clean energy and tax cuts for American families and much more.” A senior White House official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said that Mr. Biden still intends to push for passage of a clean electricity standard, either in the reconciliation process or in a separate standalone bill. Failure to pass bold climate legislation could make it difficult for Mr. Biden when he travels to Scotland this year for a United Nations climate conference, where he intends to try to persuade other nations to take aggressive steps to curb global warming. Mr. Biden has pledged that the United States will slash its planet-warming emissions roughly in half over the next decade. He wants to reposition the world’s largest economy as a leader in global efforts to halt warming. “The United States right now has an opportunity to back up its ambitious claims with a detailed and defensible plan to honor those commitments. If we have that plan we’ll be able to compel other countries to make similar changes,” Michael Brune, executive director of the Sierra Club, said in an interview. “If we don’t pass climate legislation through reconciliation, we won’t have the credibility to compel other countries to act at the scale and speed that’s needed,” Mr. Brune said. Scientists have warned that the world needs to urgently cut emissions if humanity has any chance to keep average global temperatures from rising above 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared with preindustrial levels. That’s the threshold beyond which experts say the planet will experience catastrophic, irreversible damage. Temperature change is not even around the globe; some regions have already reached an increase of 2 degrees Celsius.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Manchin floats big energy proposals as talks ramp up — Monday, June 21, 2021 — Joe Manchin, the hub around which most infrastructure talk has spun, has come out with a massive draft bill that seems to be a wish list for the energy infrastructure spending portion of a larger deal.

INFRASTRUCTURE: Manchin thinks he can sell his big energy package — Friday, June 25, 2021 — While President Biden gave his blessing for a bipartisan infrastructure framework yesterday, Sen. Joe Manchin was already pushing the committee he chairs to get a jump-start on its portion of the spending.Manchin, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has long pressed for a bipartisan infrastructure package. Indeed, the West Virginia Democrat is widely seen as the key reason negotiations on a deal have persisted.Now all Manchin needs to do is get everyone on board with his $95 billion draft proposal.”This bill will go into our infrastructure package,” Manchin told E&E News yesterday in the midst of a hearing on his proposal, which emerged late last week as the negotiations on a bipartisan deal began ramping up.The timing of yesterday’s hearing – just hours before Biden backed the $1.2 trillion bipartisan infrastructure framework agreed to by White House negotiators and a group of senators that included Manchin – was no accident.Former Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who was one of the 10 senators who spent hours this week negotiating the agreement with top Biden administration officials, said yesterday that her successor atop the panel used the weeks of meetings to inform his draft bill.”We have the contours of the energy infrastructure in our framework,” Murkowski said in an interview after returning from a meeting with Biden on the plan.”What Manchin has done – and keep in mind, this has come together very, very quickly – is to try to write a bill utilizing the framework that has been under discussion now for these past few weeks.”However, while the framework released by the White House contains a $73 billion line item for “power infrastructure including grid authority,” it leaves the details to Congress.”We got to write the bill,” Murkowski noted. Manchin conceded the point yesterday. “Everything that you are seeing in that framework the president put out, that has to be all worked in every committee of jurisdiction,” he said. “So we started ours because we knew where we were at and how much we had to work with.”Yesterday’s hearing, which will be followed by a markup after the July 4 recess, “gives us a little bit of a jump on everybody,” he said. “That’s why we wanted to do the hearing now.”Manchin’s draft legislation would infuse $95 billion into efforts like fortifying fragile electric grids, bolstering supply chains for critical minerals and ramping up energy efficiency efforts.The proposal also includes the creation of a $1.2 billion annual credit program that would give the executive branch the power to help financially struggling nuclear power plants stay online. It would also fully fund clean energy demonstration projects approved by the Energy Act of 2020.

Sunrise Ends 400-Mile Climate March With Arrests at Ted Cruz’s House – After six weeks of marching 400 miles from New Orleans to Texas amid fruitless federal infrastructure negotiations, Sunrise Movement activists concluded their march on Monday with arrests outside the Houston home of renowned Republican climate villain Sen. Ted Cruz.Eight demonstrators with the movement’s “Generation on Fire” campaign were arrested on the Texas Republican’s lawn while delivering a message to President Joe Biden.”We protested outside of Ted Cruz’s house to clearly lay out the choice Biden was making. We need Biden to work for us, not Cruz, the insurrectionist climate denier,” Roshni Khosla, one of the Gulf South marchers, told Common Dreams.Biden has many progressive lawmakers and activists concerned he may endorse a bipartisan infrastructure package that has been watered down from the White House’s initial two-part proposal – which Sunrise and various experts already dubbed inadequate.”We are a bit worried, but we know that we can make Biden bend,” Khosla said. “Our powerful California march just ended last week. Our Gulf South march ended today. Our Philadelphia march is ending next Monday.”Noting plans for a rally in Washington, D.C. next week to pressure the president to support the Civilian Climate Corps (CCC) for Jobs and Justice Act, she added that “we are far more powerful than the insurrectionist climate deniers Biden is choosing to negotiate with over us, Gulf South Youth marchers.” Sunrise campaigners on Monday held signs that said, “Our Homes Flood, Our People Freeze, Cruz Abandons Us” – referencing when Cruz vacationed in Mexico while Texans endured power outages earlier this year – as well as “Pass a Bold Civilian Climate Corps” and “Which Side Are You On, Biden?”

RENEWABLE ENERGY: Bird law complicates Biden’s offshore wind push — Tuesday, June 22, 2021 — President Biden’s plan to dramatically expand offshore wind power within a decade could come at a hefty price: the accidental killing of many migratory birds.

Biden weighs ban on China’s solar material over forced labor – POLITICO – The Biden administration is considering banning imports of a critical solar panel material from China’s Xinjiang region, according to four people familiar with the administration’s plans, a move that would assuage bipartisan pressure to crack down on human rights abuses but could undermine the White House’s aggressive climate change goals. At issue is polysilicon, the material inside most solar panels, which President Joe Biden hopes will help replace fossil fuels and allow the U.S. to eliminate carbon emissions from power generation by 2035. Currently about half the world’s supply of polysilicon comes from Xinjiang, where the Chinese government has been accused of rounding up hundreds of thousands of ethnic Uyghur Muslims in what the State Department has labeled a “genocide.” “The kind of brutality that we’re talking about is offensive to just about anybody who would ever see these sorts of practices being used,” said Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.), one of the lawmakers pushing Biden to act. “And they’re doing it to the economic benefit of companies that are putting American companies at risk.” For months, a bipartisan group of lawmakers has pushed Biden to impose import restrictions on polysilicon similar to ones the Trump administration placed on cotton, tomatoes and other products exported from Xinjiang. Now, the White House is considering an effective region-wide ban on polysilicon from Xinjiang, according to the four sources in the industry and on Capitol Hill with knowledge of administration plans. For the solar industry, which is coming off its latest record year of installations and is expected to see capacity quadruple this decade, the potential threat to supplies could hurt the supply chain that is already slowing projects and raising costs. That could slow deployment of the technology helping to drive Biden’s effort to put the country on a path to eliminate carbon dioxide emissions from the power grid by 2035.

First Solar CEO: Getting rid of Trump tariffs would pose challenges – (transcript) China’s solar industry monopoly took a hit earlier this month when a new Ohio-based solar panel factory was announced. First Solar, the only US-headquartered major manufacturer of solar panels, is investing $680 million investment into the factory, and its technology is not dependent on the Chinese at all, according to CEO Mark Widmar. First Solar is building a factory in Ohio, creating the biggest plant for making solar panels outside of China. CEO Mark Widmar talks to CNN’s Julia Chatterley about their semiconductor technology.

New Mexico’s clean-energy future depends on Carlsbad – The blue van turned onto the pitted road, and for miles the tallest objects on the horizon were the brush and yucca. Suddenly, what looked like a hidden city appeared and the landscape was filled with warehouses, tall cylindrical gas storage tanks and, as far as the eye could see, rusted, bobbing oil pump jacks. Inside the van were three members of Citizens Caring for the Future (CCFF), practically the lone organized resistance to the oil and gas industry in Southeastern New Mexico. The Permian Basin stretches from Carlsbad, New Mexico, 30 miles across the Texas border. It is 75,000 square miles of metal and tubes and spire-like pipes burning gas, all above jackrabbit scrubland. Depending on your feelings about the industry, the Permian Basin is either awe-striking or nauseating. An inescapable fact is that it stinks. A hard-to-place mixture of rotten eggs and the oily undercarriage of a car wafted in the wind, and it was the source of this smell – gas leaks – that Eddy’s $70,000 camera and its special lens were designed to find. “Oh my gosh,” Brown said at one point, begging the others to close their windows. “It’s really bad here. Oh my gosh.” In its 2020 annual report, the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association credited the industry with bringing $2.8 billion to state coffers – totaling one-third of New Mexico’s annual budget. “And that percent is just from royalties,” noted Eddy County Commissioner Ernie Carlson, a former industry accountant who wears a stockman’s brimmed cowboy hat and speaks in a matter-of-fact rural tone. “There are a lot of other industries tied to oil and gas, and if you measure that it’s about 45 percent of the state’s budget.” Carlson and other industry proponents argue that without oil and gas, New Mexico’s economy would dry up and blow away. They point to the fact that the industry in 2019 underwrote $1.36 billion of the state’s education costs, and are quick to suggest what might happen if regulation ever got the upper hand. As a recent ad from the New Mexico Oil and Gas Association warned voters, “Our kids have had to overcome a lot this year, but now they’re facing yet another challenge – the New Mexico legislature. Proposed laws aimed at oil and gas would take billions away from public education, gutting our schools. Reading programs, sports, even school lunches – all at risk.” These same figures are cited by environmentalists and energy economists as evidence that New Mexico is long overdue for a weaning. They argue that the state needs to diversify its economy. And what better way to do it than with renewable energy, like solar and wind? “Just from wind, the energy potential is 20 times what the state consumes,” said Doug Howe, a board member of the New Mexico Renewable Energy Transmission Authority. “To really monetize that as an economic driver, we have to turn to thinking of exporting all that energy to nearby states.”

West Risks Blackouts as Drought Reduces Hydroelectric Power – WSJ – States across the West are at risk of electricity shortages this summer as a crippling drought reduces the amount of water available to generate hydroelectric power. Some of the region’s largest reservoirs are at historically low levels after a dry winter and spring reduced the amount of snowpack and precipitation feeding rivers and streams. The conditions are especially dire in drought-stricken California, where officials say the reservoir system has seen an unprecedented loss of runoff this spring – 800,000 acre-feet, or enough to supply more than a million households for a year. The California Department of Water Resources operates eight major hydroelectric facilities that are now forecast this year to be about 30% of their 10-year average generation, the agency said. Hydroelectric power, some of which was imported from other states, accounted for about 16% of California’s generation mix in 2019, according to state data. California needs all the electricity it can get when temperatures climb: The margin for error is slim when it comes to balancing supply and demand, so any reduction in generation capacity can pose significant challenges. Meanwhile, streamflow forecasts for Utah, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico and Arizona are among the five driest on record, according to an update this month by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. The Colorado River’s Lake Powell is projected to receive only 25% of the water it normally would between April and July, according to the agency. Lake Powell is the main reservoir that feeds Nevada’s Lake Mead, where the Hoover Dam is located. The dam is one of the nation’s largest hydroelectric facilities, capable of producing enough power to serve about 1.3 million people. About 23% of its output serves Nevada, and 19% serves Arizona. Most of the remainder serves Southern California. Hoover Dam’s current generation capacity is 1,567 megawatts, down 25% from its peak of 2,074, said Bureau of Reclamation spokeswoman Patti Aaron. Already, power grids across the West and South are under strain this week amid a heat wave that has caused a surge in electricity demand, the first of several expected this summer. Grid operators in both Texas and California have called on people to conserve power by reducing reliance on air conditioning, among other things, to avoid the need for rolling blackouts to bring demand in line with supply. The West is gripped in one of the most severe droughts on record, with California among many places getting less than half of average precipitation. Mostly dry years over the past decade – fueled in part by climate change – have left so little moisture in the ground that it is sopping up much of the runoff normally destined for reservoirs, hydrologists say.

A California reservoir is expected to fall so low that a hydro-power plant will shut down for first time – Water in a key California reservoir is expected to fall so low this summer that its hydroelectric power plant will be forced to shut down for the first time, officials said Thursday, straining the state’s already-taxed electric grid.An unrelenting drought and record heat, both worsened by the changing climate, have pushed the water supplyat Northern California’s Lake Oroville to deplete rapidly. As a result of the “alarming levels,” officials will likely be forced to close the Edward Hyatt Power Plant for the first time since it opened in 1967, California Energy Commission spokesperson Lindsay Buckley told CNN.The water in Lake Oroville – the state’s second largest reservoir – is pumped through underground facilities to generate electricity, which can power up to 800,000 homes when operating at full capacity. While the water level in the reservoir is currently hovering around 700 feet above sea level, if it continues to fall at the currently projected rate to 640 feet there will not be enough water to continue operating the Hyatt plant in two to three months, coinciding with the typical peak of the summer heat and wildfire season.”If lake levels fall below those elevations later this summer, DWR will, for the first time, cease generation at the Hyatt power plant due to lack of sufficient water to turn the plant’s electrical generation turbines,” said Liza Whitmore, Public Information Officer of DWR’s Oroville Field Division.The announcement came as California Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a statewide heat wave emergency Thursday, with record setting temperatures and increased electricity use adding pressure to the grid.

With Its Power Grid On The Verge Of Failure, California Begs Residents To Change Their EV Charging Routines -It appears as though California’s plans to become an environmental and socialist utopia are running face first into reality.The latest dose of reality came this week when the state, facing triple digit temperatures, began to “fret” about pressure on the state’s power grid as a result of everybody charging their electric vehicles all at once.The state’s power grid operators have been telling residents to “relieve pressure” from the grid by charging their EVs at off-peak hours, Newsweek wrote. Twice last week the California Independent System Operator (ISO) told residents to conserve energy voluntarily, including asking to charge their EVs at certain off-peak times. The ISO also suggested “avoiding use of large appliances and turning off extra lights,” the report says. The state’s Flex Alert Twitter account posted on June 18: “Now is the perfect time to do a load of laundry. Remember to use major appliances, charge cars and devices before #FlexAlert begins at 6 p.m. today.”Despite the fact that the state seems hell bent on converting all of its residents to EVs, Patty Monahan, the lead commissioner on transportation at the California Energy Commission, said that when residents choose to charge their vehicles will be important “in keeping the power grid balanced”. “Charging behaviors matter when it comes to California grid goals,” she said. “By incentivizing, primarily through rates, charging behaviors that capitalize on when renewable energy is being generated – we basically have a win for the grid, and we have a win for the drivers in terms of reduced rates. Rates are a climate strategy, and California plans on using rates to help drive the charging behaviors that are going to help the state electrify transportation while cutting carbon from the grid and saving ratepayers and drivers money.”

Bipartisan $973B infrastructure proposal alarms EV advocates with annual surcharge on vehicles | Utility Dive -A bipartisan group of 21 senators has recommended an annual surcharge on electric vehicles (EV), among other measures, to help pay for $579 billion in new infrastructure spending. The proposal, which has alarmed EV advocates, was first reported by Politico. The EV surcharge is part of a broader $973 billion infrastructure proposal backed by 10 Democrats and 11 Republicans. EV advocates oppose the plan, fearing the surcharge will hold back EV adoption and delay progress on domestic manufacturing. President Joe Biden was expected to review the plan over weekend, according to The Wall Street Journal.The bipartisan infrastructure plan includes $15 billion for electric vehicle infrastructure, but advocates say placing a surcharge on consumer EVs to pay for it will ultimately hold back the transition to electric transportation.”Let’s be clear – EV taxes are not about boosting revenue or creating fairness, and they should be rejected as a pay-for in any infrastructure bill,” Joe Britton, executive director of the Zero Emission Transportation Association, said in a statement. “These consumer penalties are being pushed by oil refiners to deter EV adoption and to further lock us into a fossil fuel-based transportation system.””Generally speaking, I think it’s a mistake to apply surcharges to EVs for anything, be it grid improvements or charging infrastructure or road maintenance,” said Chris Nelder, who hosts The Energy Transition Show podcast and previously managed RMI’s carbon-free mobility practice.Adding “excess and unfair cost burdens is exactly what the oil-auto complex wants in order to preserve the status quo,” Nelder said. It is not clear if Biden would accept a surcharge on electric vehicles, as the president has pledged not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $400,000 annually. On Friday, the White House said it would not support indexing the gas tax to inflation for that reason, though it was included as a “placeholder” in the bipartisan proposal. A spokesperson for the U.S. Department of Energy said the agency could not address the potential for an EV surcharge.

How Energy Transition Models Go Wrong – Gail Tverberg –I have written many posts relating to the fact that we live in a finite world. At some point, our ability to extract resources becomes constrained. At the same time, population keeps increasing. The usual outcome when population is too high for resources is “overshoot and collapse.” But this is not a topic that the politicians or central bankers or oligarchs who attend the World Economic Forum dare to talk about.Instead, world leaders find a different problem, namely climate change, to emphasize above other problems. Conveniently, climate change seems to have some of the same solutions as “running out of fossil fuels.” So, a person might think that an energy transition designed to try to fix climate change would work equally well to try to fix running out of fossil fuels. Unfortunately, this isn’t really the way it works.In this post, I will lay out some of the issues involved. [1] There are many different constraints that new energy sources need to conform to. These are a few of the constraints I see:

• Should be inexpensive to produce
• Should work with the current portfolio of existing devices
• Should be available in the quantities required, in the timeframe needed
• Should not pollute the environment, either when created or at the end of their lifetimes
• Should not add CO2 to the atmosphere
• Should not distort ecosystems
• Should be easily stored, or should be easily ramped up and down to precisely match energy timing needs
• Cannot overuse fresh water or scarce minerals
• Cannot require a new infrastructure of its own, unless the huge cost in terms of delayed timing and greater materials use is considered.

It is really the overall cost of the system that is important. The reason why the overall cost of the system is important is because countries with high-cost energy systems will have a difficult time competing in a world market since energy costs are an important part of the cost of producing goods and services. For example, the cost of operating a cruise ship depends, to a significant extent, on the cost of the fuel it uses.In theory, energy types that work with different devices (say, electric cars and trucks instead of those operated by internal combustion engines) can be used, but a long delay can be expected before a material shift in overall energy usage occurs. Furthermore, a huge ramp up in the total use of materials for production may be required. The system cannot work if the total cost is too high, or if the materials are not really available, or if the timing is too slow.

Bitcoin miners flocked to an upstate New York town for cheap energy – then it got complicated –After dealing with a host of problems caused by a cryptocurrency mining craze, the former mayor of Plattsburgh, New York, on Thursday cast doubt on the economic benefits of miners setting up shop in a region.”Counties and cities are enticed by all these promises of job creation, which – when you look into it, and I have – they just don’t materialize,” Colin Read said on CNBC’s “The Exchange.”“We had one of the biggest bitcoin operators in the world operating here and generated only a handful of jobs,” said Read, who was elected in 2016 and served one four-year term. He’s a professor of economics and finance at SUNY Plattsburgh.Bitcoin mining is an energy-intensive process that generates new bitcoins when miners, using high-powered computers, solve computational puzzles to verify transactions across the blockchain network.There’s been a push by some politicians, such as Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, to attract bitcoin miners to their cities or states, particularly after China recently took steps to restrict miners’ operations in the country.But, a few years ago, when bitcoin miners flocked to Plattsburgh, a small city of about 19,000 in upstate New York, for its cheap energy derived from the Niagara River, it didn’t take long before the city began to experience a huge spike in electricity prices.Prominent investor Scott Minerd predicts the ‘real bottom’ in the price of bitcoinJPMorgan stays bearish on bitcoin, says big investors just aren’t buying the dipBitcoin drops below $30,000, then recovers: We asked 5 experts what they’re doing After the crypto miners began using up the energy quota – which Read said was 1.9 cents per kilowatt at an hour industrial rate – he said it caused “constituents to be in an absolute uproar because of the much higher electricity costs that incurred.” Once that quota was used up, Read said, Plattsburgh had to foot the bill across the entire city for the difference.

Once on the fast track, super-secret energy bill derailed over costs, nukes, and unproven claims | NC Policy Watch – Rep. John Szoka says House Bill 951 “is not perfect.” That, opponents say, is an understatement. For the past five months, the workings of a top secret energy group was so hush-hush that if someone was caught leaking information they would be expelled as an outcast and a pariah. Lawmakers in the group, otherwise largely composed of business trade associations and Duke Energy, raised the curtain yesterday on their 47-page opus magnum, House Bill 951, at a meeting of the House Energy and Public Utilities Committee. So publicly confident were they in the bill, that primary sponsors Reps. John Szoka (R-Cumberland) and Dean Arp, (R-Union) had planned to fast-track it, with a rush to the House floor before the end of the month. “We’re minimizing environmental impacts and lowering our carbon footprint,” Arp said, at the House Energy Committee. “We’re not picking winners or losers. We’re here for the people of North Carolina.” The measure, Szoka proclaimed, “would transform North Carolina’s energy future.” The response from fellow lawmakers of both parties: suspicion. Most of the major trade associations, including manufactures and textiles: skepticism, even outright opposition Environmental advocates: contempt. “I believe in keeping our environment clean,” said Rep. Charles Graham (D-Robeson). “But this bill has consequences, and I’m not sure what they are for our businesses, families and farmers.” The bill contains several controversial provisions:

• $50 million for a modular nuclear reactor;
• An estimated 50% rate hike over 10 years;
• Multi-year ratemaking, so unpopular it was trounced out of a bill two years ago;
• Language that would partially handicap the state Utilities Commission’s ability to regulate;
• A reduction in the number of public comment periods on major utilities commission actions; and
• A continued reliance on natural gas, a source of methane, which accelerates climate change.

After state rejects controversial powerline project, company files appeals to try to make it happen – –Just over a month after the four-member Pennsylvania Utility Commission voted unanimously to reject a controversial overhead powerline project proposed for construction in southcentral Pennsylvania, the contractor hired to obtain necessary regulatory approvals to build it has filed appeals.Transource Energy officials filed an appeal Tuesday with the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Pennsylvania and will file Wednesday with the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania. The appeals challenge the commission’s order, which denied the Pennsylvania portion of constructing the Independence Energy Connection project.PJM Interconnection, the regional grid transmission operator, said experts had identified the project’s “need” almost five years ago. Officials claimed that there was an infrastructure “bottleneck” that didn’t allow power to freely flow south into northern Maryland.The project was supposed to be constructed in Franklin and York counties and spanned the Pennsylvania-Maryland line.”In its filings, Transource explains that the PJM determination of need is the requirement that should be followed to efficiently and reliably operate a multi-state regional transmission system,” Transource officials said in a statement. “Participation in the PJM Interconnection and its regional grid operations bring significant benefits to its member’s states, including $3.7 billion of annual savings.” But, neither PUC Administrative Law Judge Elizabeth Barnes, who was assigned to oversee the case, nor PUC commissioners, who agreed with her recommendation, didn’t calculate a benefit for Pennsylvanians.

U.S. Power Reliability: Are We Kidding Ourselves? – Our obsession with reliability indices (which, in my opinion, are misleading to the extreme) has diverted our attention from the bigger picture. Like many of you, I’ve also traveled overseas and seen different approaches to improving reliability. And I have a greater respect for the potential capabilities of the distribution system.Several years ago, IEEE Spectrum had an article(U.S. Grid Gets Less Reliable) that looked at decreasing reliability. More recently, a study by credentialed researchers looked at the industry’s performance from generation to regulators. Some of their findings made me sit up straight in my chair.For example: “The average U.S. customer loses power for 214 minutes per year. That compares to 70 in the United Kingdom, 53 in France, 29 in the Netherlands, 6 in Japan, and 2 minutes per year in Singapore. These outage durations tell only part of the story. In Japan, the average customer loses power once every 20 years. In the United States, it is once every 9 months, excluding hurricanes and other strong storms. Despite decades of sober technical reports written by investigation teams in the aftermath of blackouts, the frequency of electric power outages in the United States is no less today than it was a quarter-century ago. Whether measured in terms of city-sized blackouts or smaller events, the statistics show that reliability has not improved. Indeed, if the data show any trend in the past few years, it is toward lower reliability.” (Here’s another study with an intriguing graph from Saviva Research.) In the past, we’ve always tried to fix reliability issues in the transmission system where we had more control and were willing to make the bigger financial and technology investments; the distribution system was more the neglected step child. But now the distribution/customer system, with growing DG, microgrids and automation/smart grid, is becoming the center of technical/financial/regulatory attention. Some folks are suggesting that we’ll soon have DSOs (distribution system operators). What a hoot!

TVA studies plan to idle Kingston coal plant where ash spill destroyed homes, polluted river – Twelve years after the worst coal ash spill ever from a U.S. coal power plant, the Tennessee Valley Authority is considering shutting down the plant where the spill occurred and replacing its coal-fired generation with a cleaner source of power.TVA will conduct a public hearing next week to begin an environmental assessment on a plan to shut down its Kingston Fossil Plant in the next decade. The nine-unit coal plant built in 1954 at the confluence of the Clinch and Emory rivers is capable of generating 1,398 megawatts of power, or roughly enough power to supply the electricity needs of all of Chattanooga. TVA’s long-range power plan adopted in 2019 recommended the retirement of 2,200 megawatts of coal-fired generation by 2038 and since then TVA President Jeff Lyash has said the utility plans to phase out all of the remaining units in its coal fleet by 2035.At its peak, TVA operated 59 coal-fired units that collectively supplied nearly two thirds of TVA’s power, but the federal utility has boosted its generation from nuclear, natural gas, solar and hydro over the past two decades to cut its carbon emissions by 63% below the 2005 levels and replace the aging coal fleet it phases out across TVA’s seven-state region.On its website, TVA stated its coal plants generally are “among the oldest in the nation” and are having trouble with performance. It described the coal plants as “contributing to environmental, economic and reliability risks.”Those risks produced one of the biggest environmental disasters three days before Christmas in 2008 when a coal ash impoundment at the Kingston Fossil plant collapsed and spilled 5.4 million cubic yards – or about 1.2 billion gallons – of wet coal ash spilled onto 300 acres of residential farmland and into the Emory River.The coal ash spill was one of the biggest environmental spills ever and led TVA to spend billions of dollars to clean up the Kingston spill and replace similar coal ash ponds at other fossil plants.Environmental groups concerned about coal ash, air pollution and greenhouse gases linked to global warming from coal plants are pushing TVA to make plans to shut down its entire coal fleet over the next decade and a half.

Illinois coal plants closing even as energy bill stalls – The surprise announcement on June 17 that the coal-fired power plant in Waukegan, Illinois will close in 2022 was bittersweet for Ortiz and other members of the group Clean Power Lake County. It came just after a sweeping state energy bill yet again failed to pass, leaving in doubt “just transition” provisions that Waukegan residents say are desperately needed to help their town economically weather the closure and begin to mitigate the environmental injustice they say the plant has caused. The bill was widely expected to pass last week as the legislature had reconvened for a special session to consider it. But the Senate decided not to vote on the bill, reportedlybecause of opposition related to the impact on a $1.3 billion natural gas-fired plant under construction in downstate Grundy County. The latest version of the bill was spearheaded by Gov. J.B. Pritzker and hashed out over many months by a wide range of stakeholders. It demands coal plants close by 2035 and gas plants by 2045, ratcheting down emissions on the way. It also increases funding for renewables at a level meant to achieve 100% clean energy by 2050 and 40% by 2030 – ideally jump-starting a solar market that had boomed and then stalled after incentives created by a 2017 law ran out. J.C. Kibbey, clean energy advocate for the Natural Resources Defense Council, called the last-minute stalemate yet another “11th hour” roadblock put up by fossil fuel interests. The bill had previously been expected to pass during the final stretch of the state legislature’s regular session in May, but it failed in the final stretch because of opposition from backers of the Prairie State Energy Campus, Illinois’ largest coal plant. The revised bill allows Prairie State to remain open if it can capture and sequester 90% of its carbon emissions by 2034. “This was the first anyone heard of it,” Kibbey said of the opposition related to the gas plant. “As bill drafts were out for months or years, [fossil fuel closure plans] should not have been a surprise to anyone. Whoever was raising that concern either didn’t understand the way the bill was structured or was trying to create a disruption.” After the gas plant-related opposition arose, legislators clarified that the declining emissions caps would be aggregate, and the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency could decide to let some gas plants keep emitting more carbon while forcing others, especially in environmental justice communities, to ratchet down sooner. Kibbey said he has questions about the economics and doesn’t want to see too much concession around emissions reduction plans. “We should have zero emissions in 2045, but not all roads to zero emissions are created equal,” he said.

Consumers Energy proposes to end coal use by 2025 — Consumers Energy proposed on Wednesday to stop using coal as a fuel source for electricity by 2025 and instead purchase existing natural gas power plants to provide reliable energy during the transition. The proposal is part of a 20-year plan from the subsidiary of Jackson-based CMS Energy Corp. that requires regulatory approval. It would end the use of coal 15 years ahead of schedule and make the company one of the first to go coal-free. The overall plan is expected to save customers $650 million through 2040. “We are proud to lead Michigan’s clean energy transformation and be one of the first utilities in the country to end coal use,” Consumers Energy CEO Garrick Rochow said in a statement. “We are committed to being a force of change and good stewards of our environment, producing reliable, affordable energy for our customers while caring for our communities during this transition.” If approved by the Michigan Public Service Commission, the updated plan from Michigan’s largest energy provider would speed the closure of three coal-fired units at the Campbell generating complex near Holland. Campbell 1 and 2, collectively capable of producing more than 600 megawatts of electricity, would be retired in 2025 – roughly six years sooner than scheduled. Campbell 3, capable of generating 840 MW, would also be retired in 2025 – roughly 15 years sooner. The updated proposal also calls for moving up the closure of Karn 3 and 4, units that run on natural gas and fuel oil and can generate more than 1,100 MW to meet peak demand, to 2023 – about eight years sooner than their design lives. Altogether, the coal units employ 510 employees. “Consumers Energy is committed to a just transition away from coal as a fuel source for electricity,” Brandon Hofmeister, senior vice president for governmental, regulatory and public affairs, said in a statement. “We supported employees and communities impacted by our 2016 coal retirements by finding new roles for workers who wanted to stay, fulfilling our environmental responsibilities at the sites and helping local leaders pursue new economic possibilities. We plan to follow the same philosophy to help those affected by the proposed Campbell and Karn retirements.” The natural gas plants Consumers Energy has identified to acquire represent roughly an equivalent generation. The natural gas plants are Covert Generating Station in Van Buren County and Dearborn Industrial Generation in Wayne County. Additionally, Kalamazoo River Generating Station in Kalamazoo County and Livingston Generating Station in Otsego County are smaller and would be used primarily to meet peak demand. The proposed purchases require state and federal regulatory approvals.

This Barge Capsized and Leaked a Massive Stream of Toxic Coal Ash Near Florida — A barge carrying over 14,000 tons of coal ash that capsized and partially sank off the coast of Florida has now been raised – but not before leaking as much as 5,000 tons of coal ash a mile south of the St. Johns River. The barge was carrying coal ash, the byproduct from burning coal for electricity, from the Puerto Rican power company Applied Energy Services (AES) plant in Guayama to be disposed of on Chesser Island, Georgia, after Puerto Ricans refused to accept the toxic waste on their own island. The barge was stuck on coastal jetties for almost two months before storms capsized the ship in mid-May. It was finally refloated on Sunday.In drone images shot over the barge on June 14 by Cameron Beard, a consultant for the Public Trust, a Florida-based environmental legal institute, a plume of ash, roughly twice the length of the 416-foot barge, spilled out of the half-submerged vessel.”The barge (was) located directly in front of where everyone is surfing and recreating, and there’s been zero health alerts, zero notifications, and most people in the community are completely unaware there’s any kind of spill going on,” said Nicole de Venoge, chair of the First Coast chapter of Surfrider, a nonprofit focused on ocean protection. Two weeks after the barge capsized, a unified command response team including the party responsible for the barge, Dann Ocean Towing, the United States Coast Guard, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, and the Florida DEP, hired an environmental consulting firm to collect sediment and water samples around the barge and on the shoreline. RPI’s findings, released Tuesday, show some levels of heavy metals in water near the barge were higher than Florida and EPA Region 4 screening levels, including barium, a contaminant considered a hazardous waste by the EPA, and boron.

PFAS ‘forever chemicals’ found at site of Grand Haven’s former power plant – – PFAS compounds, toxic “forever chemicals,” have been discovered at the site of the former Sims power plant in Grand Haven. The site has multiple contaminants, with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances) the latest to be discovered on the city’s Harbor Island. The Grand Haven Board of Light and Power is in the midst of planning for remediation of the site and recently voted to sell up to $50 million in bonds to clean up the site and develop a smaller gas-powered electric generating plant there. The city council must approve the bond sale. PFOS (perfluorooctane sulfonate acid) and PFOA (perfluorooctanoic acid) are two types of PFAS chemicals regulated by Michigan due to health risks from the chemicals, linked to cancer and other adverse health effects. Both were discovered at levels above regulatory limits in groundwater at the site of the now demolished J.B. Sims Electric Generating Station, according to a news release from the BLP. They were discovered during testing for compounds not related to coal ash, which was produced by the plant and buried on site. Testing and monitoring of the PFAS chemicals, as well as other contaminants, continues, according to Grand Haven City Manager Patrick McGinnis. He stressed that the city’s drinking water remains safe. In addition to PFOA and PFOS, cyanide, ammonia and total inorganic nitrogen also were found in the groundwater at unacceptable levels, according to the news release. Before Sims opened in the 1960s, the Harbor Island site was the location of a garbage dump. The BLP and the state are negotiating a remediation plan for the site. The BLP prefers to keep as much of the ash and trash buried – and therefore undisturbed – as possible. However, it expects to be required to remove some of the ash amid concerns that there are leaks in the clay liners of ash impoundment areas. “The goal of any ash removal plan should be to avoid exacerbation of contaminant levels in the groundwater, or any release of these contaminants to the Grand River from these other materials historically disposed of on the site,” The testing that turned up the PFAS contamination was conducted to determine how to handle groundwater that will be pumped at the site to allow for coal ash remediation, according to the news release.

Byron power plant in danger of shutting down– The Byron Nuclear Plant took one more step towards closure as paperwork was filed for a shutdown in less than three months. In 2020, Exelon announced it planned to close its Byron and Dresden nuclear power plants because of a drop in revenue and energy costs. Then on June 16, Exelon filed papers with grid operator PJM Interconnection to deactivate one cooling tower on September 14 and the other September 16. Last week, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said the House and Senate could pass a new clean energy bill in the next few weeks, but only if the bill includes meaningful decarbonization measures and moves us toward a clean energy economy. Haub’s kids view the nuclear power plant in Byron as something special as identified by the steam and water vapor coming from the cooling towers. But those identifying markers could soon disappear. “It’s going to be terrible. I don’t know how we are going to able to support all the people. we will. we’ll work together and support the families and help them as much as we can. I know there’s a lot of hard working people that work at those facilities and they need to keep those open so they can stay there,” said Haub. Despite no bill at the moment, state lawmakers say they can pass an energy bill that will keep the plant open. “We’ve continued to make good progress on this. over the course of the spring negotiations it was characterized that the nuclear piece was the one point of discrepancy,” said Representative Tom Demmer (R), 90th District.

Ohio bill to reform electric rates aims to preserve coal plant subsidies under attack in wake of corruption probe –A new plan is on the table to phase out rate programs that have let Ohio’s electric utilities collect billions in subsidies over the past dozen years. But the bill aims to continue coal plant subsidies and cuts authority for utility energy efficiency programs. Critics also worry that vague wording will continue cross-subsidies in another guise. For years, consumer advocates, environmental organizations and conservative groups have pushed to end so-called Electric Security Plans, or ESPs, which allow utilities to add riders and other charges without full regulatory review. Many of those producedcross-subsidies that ratepayers can’t avoid. In one extreme example, a Cleveland neighborhood group received a $70 monthly bill in 2019 for a single lamppost, with only 38 cents going to electricity. A 2017 bill tried to end the practice, but it stalled in the Ohio House. Now, House Bill 317 would slash statutory provisions for the plans. The bill, introduced last month, comes from Rep. Shane Wilkin, R-Hillsboro. Wilkin was a primary sponsor of HB 6, the 2019 nuclear and coal bailout law that also gutted the state’s clean energy standards. Wilkin was one of 21 lawmakers voting against the expulsion of Rep. Larry Householder following his indictment in a $60 million bribery scandal over the legislation. Attorney Rob Kelter of the Environmental Law & Policy Center called ESPs “a terrible way of utilities getting all these different riders onto people’s bills without having to go through a rate case that goes through all their costs and revenues. That’s fundamentally the problem.”Full-blown rate cases “look at all the utility’s costs and revenues together,” Kelter said. If utility costs go up in one place but down somewhere elsewhere, the regulators would consider all of that. “Whereas the rider just adds whatever new expense the utility has to the bill on top of everything else.” For example, FirstEnergy’s utility customers paid nearly half a billion dollars under ano-strings-attached rider that was ultimately held unlawful. However, the Ohio Supreme Court didn’t order refunds because regulators didn’t specify that when they approved the charge. An ongoing audit is supposed to dig into whether FirstEnergy used money from the charge to pass and defend HB 6. ESPs trouble critics even when riders are for potentially helpful projects. Several regulatory cases approved ad hoc riders for smart meters, distribution upgrades and other measures, said Ned Hill, a professor of economic development at Ohio State University.”Do we piecemeal modernization through ESPs versus a full-blown rate case?” Hill asked. Full ratemaking would let the Public Utilities Commission evaluate a utility’s overall modernization plan and avoid “gold-plated” capital expenditures. In contrast, he said, ESP riders let companies “build up the rate base to increase the rate of returns.”

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