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:
- 01 August 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 01August 2021
- 01 August 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 01August 2021
Over the past seven days, the US has had more new Covid infections than any country on earth, which is remarkable in that we didn’t even rank in the top ten for new infections before the 4th of July. But at the end of last week, we already ranked fifth, having passed the 7-day average of new cases in Iran and Russia. Then we exceeded the new case count of both India and Brazil on Tuesday of this week, and by Friday we had exceeded the weekly new case counts of Indonesia and the UK. Today, we’re already pulling away from the pack. If you’re interested in following that kind of data, you can watch that ongoing global horse race here; it’s updated almost continuously.
Despite anomalously low reporting on Saturday, new cases reported in the US during the week ending July 24th were 46.9% higher than those reported during the week ending July 17th, and they’re now than four times higher than those reported during the week ending June 26th. However, they’re still 29.7% below the new cases recorded during the week ending July 25th of last year, which was the peak of last summer’s Covid surge. Again, with only eleven states reporting deaths on Saturday, US deaths attributed to Covid over the past week were 3.9% lower than those reported during the prior week, and 18.1% fewer than the number of deaths reported during the week ending June 26th. Moreover, our Covid deaths of this past week were 73.0% below those reported during the week ending July 25th of 2020, which was still a few week’s away from last summer’s mid-August peak .
Meanwhile, new Covid cases reported globally during the week ending July 24th were only 3.3% higher than those reported during the week ending July 17th, but 42.3% higher than those reported during the week ending June 18th, which was the week that new cases bottomed out globally, after the spring surge. Unfortunately, global Covid death reports are now rising, after several weeks with little change, and were 3.9% higher this week than last, but still 42% below the week ending May 1st, which was the high for this year’s global spring wave.
The worldwide growth of new cases has slowed because the countries which were the epicenter of the global surge a month ago are now seeing their case counts fall, offsetting the rising new case counts in countries such as the US, the UK, and France, where new cases were up 164% this past week. Four weeks ago, Brazil, India, Columbia and Argentina were reporting the most new cases globally; now, cases in Brazil are down by nearly half from their late June peak; cases in Columbia are down 56.5% over the same period; cases in Argentina are down 61% from their peak, and most remarkably, new cases in India over the past week were down by more than 90%, ie they now have less than 10% of their peak level of cases during the week ending May 8th.
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 August 03):
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 03 August. The third graphic shows the cummulative total vaccine doses delivered to date.
Here’s the week’s environment and energy news. With indictments from the Feds coming down this week, there’s also a handful of articles on Ohio’s utility corruption at the end:
Over 200 People In 27 States Being Monitored For Monkeypox: CDC -The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) is monitoring over 200 people in 27 states for potential exposure to monkeypoxafter their contacts were traced with a Texan who contracted the rare disease while traveling in Nigeria weeks ago.According to Stat, state and local health officials are working with federal authorities to monitor those who were in contact with the monkeypox patient, who flew into Atlanta international airport on July 8, and then on to Dallas Love airport the next day. One week later, he was diagnosed with the rare disease, which can be transmitted through bodily fluids and respiratory droplets, according to the CDC.Monkeypox has an incubation period of three to 17 days. The individuals who came in contact with the man include passengers who sat within six feet of the patient, or used the mid-cabin bathroom during the overseas flight. They will be monitored until July 30, according to the report. Also included are airline workers and family members.”We’re in the timeframe where we certainly want to closely monitor people.””We define indirect contact as being within 6 feet of the patient in the absence of an N-95 or any filtering respirator for greater than or equal to three hours,” McCollujm continued.Monkeypox is caused by a virus that is related to smallpox, the only human virus to have been eradicated. It causes less severe illness than smallpox, but is still quite dangerous. The CDC said thatthe fatality rate for the strain of monkeypox seen in the Dallas case is about 10%. Monkeypox is rarely seen in people. There was a large outbreak in the U.S. in 2003, when a shipment of animals from Ghana contained several rodents and other small mammals that were infected with the virus; 47 confirmed and probable cases were reported in five states. The outbreak was the first time human cases of monkeypox were reported outside of Africa. -StatNigeria has seen a sharp uptick of monkeypox cases over the past few years, while seven cases have been reported outside its borders; four in the UK, and one in Singapore, Israel and the United States. First identified in 1970 in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, the original source of the monkeypox virus has yet to be identified – however cases have been linked to the handling of bushmeat as well as the trade of exotic small mammals, according to McCollum.
Superbug fears as supermarket pig farms escalate use of antibiotics – The Bureau of Investigative Journalism –The use of certain antibiotics deemed critical to human health has surged on British pig farms supplying major supermarkets, prompting fresh concerns about the rise of antibiotic-resistant superbugs. Previously unpublished industry data seen by the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, Vet Record and the Guardian shows the use of a class of antibiotics prescribed for various infections in humans more than doubled on UK pig farms between 2015 and 2019, with experts warning of a potential further rise because of impending changes to the sector. The Bureau’s investigation has established the drugs are in use on pig farms supplying pork to Tesco and Waitrose. The increase in usage of this class of drugs, known as aminoglycosides, came even as livestock farmers in the UK cut back on the overall use of antibiotics following stark warnings that the drug resistance crisis could lead to the deaths of millions of people around the world by 2050. Jim O’Neill, who chaired the UK government’s review into superbugs, said the Covid-19 pandemic has underlined the need to put the issue of drug-resistant bacteria back on the global political agenda. He said: “There needs to be much stronger international agreement, and discipline following those agreements, that we will dramatically reduce the use of antibiotics in animals – especially those that are critical for human health.” Tesco and Waitrose acknowledged they allow the use of the drugs by pork suppliers but insisted they are used responsibly. Antibiotics are widely used in livestock production to treat and prevent disease, particularly on factory farms where pigs and poultry are often reared in overcrowded conditions in which bacteria can flourish. These farms can act as incubators for potentially fatal drug-resistant diseases in humans.
The vomiting bug norovirus is surging in the the UK as it prepares to lift of all of its COVID-19 restrictions Public health experts are warning of a surge in the so-called “winter vomiting” bug as the UK government prepares on lifting all of its COVID-19 restrictions, the BBC reported. Cases of the norovirus, which is a highly contagious disease that causes projectile vomiting and diarrhea, usually peak in the winter. But the stomach bug is making a rare early appearance, with Public Health England (PHE) saying on Friday that 154 norovirus outbreaks have been reported in the last five weeks, compared to an average of 53 over the same time period in the previous five years. “Norovirus, commonly known as the winter vomiting bug, has been at lower levels than normal throughout the pandemic with less opportunity to spread between people in the community but as restrictions have eased we have seen an increase in cases across all age groups,” Saheer Gharbia from Public Health England said, according to the BBC. Although the symptoms can be extremely unpleasant, norovirus usually only lasts for two days and can be treated by staying at home and drinking lots of fluids. However, norovirus is highly contagious and is easily transmitted through contact with infected people or contaminated surfaces.
15,000-year-old viruses discovered in Tibetan glacier ice. – Scientists who study glacier ice have found viruses nearly 15,000 years old in two ice samples taken from the Tibetan Plateau in China. Most of those viruses, which survived because they had remained frozen, are unlike any viruses that have been cataloged to date.The findings, published today in the journalMicrobiome, could help scientists understand how viruses have evolved over centuries. For this study, the scientists also created a new, ultra-clean method of analyzing microbes and viruses in ice without contaminating it.”These glaciers were formed gradually, and along with dust and gasses, many, many viruses were also deposited in that ice,” said Zhi-Ping Zhong, lead author of the study and a researcher at The Ohio State University Byrd Polar and Climate Research Center who also focuses on microbiology. “The glaciers in western China are not well-studied, and our goal is to use this information to reflect past environments. And viruses are a part of those environments.”The researchers analyzed ice cores taken in 2015 from the Guliya ice cap in western China. The cores are collected at high altitudes – the summit of Guliya, where this ice originated, is 22,000 feet above sea level. The ice cores contain layers of ice that accumulate year after year, trapping whatever was in the atmosphere around them at the time each layer froze. Those layers create a timeline of sorts, which scientists have used to understand more about climate change, microbes, viruses and gasses throughout history. Researchers determined that the ice was nearly 15,000 years old using a combination of traditional and new, novel techniques to date this ice core. When they analyzed the ice, they found genetic codes for 33 viruses. Four of those viruses have already been identified by the scientific community. But at least 28 of them are novel. About half of them seemed to have survived at the time they were frozen not in spite of the ice, but because of it.”These viruses have signatures of genes that help them infect cells in cold environments – just surreal genetic signatures for how a virus is able to survive in extreme conditions. These are not easy signatures to pull out, and the method that Zhi-Ping developed to decontaminate the cores and to study microbes and viruses in ice could help us search for these genetic sequences in other extreme icy environments – Mars, for example, the moon, or closer to home in Earth’s Atacama Desert.”
What is Monkey B virus, which has caused the first human death in China? – China has reported the first human infection case with Monkey B virus (BV) after a Beijing-based veterinarian was confirmed with the same a month after he dissected two dead monkeys in early March, according to China CDC Weekly.The 53-year-old male vet, who worked for an institution researching on non-human primates, started showing early-onset symptoms of nausea and vomiting in April. The vet died in May raising concerns amid the existing coronavirus pandemic.It said that there were no fatal or even clinically evident BV infections in China before, and therefore, the vet’s case marks the first human infection case with BV identified in China.The virus, initially isolated in 1932, is an alphaherpesvirus enzootic in macaques of the genus Macaca. B virus is the only identified old-world-monkey herpesvirus that displays severe pathogenicity in humans.The infection can be transmitted via direct contact and exchange of bodily secretions of monkeys and has a fatality rate of 70 per cent to 80 per cent. According to the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, Macaque monkeys commonly have this virus, and it can be found in their saliva, feces (poop), urine (pee), or brain or spinal cord tissue. The virus may also be found in cells coming from an infected monkey in a lab. B virus can survive for hours on surfaces, particularly when moist. Humans can get infected if they are bitten or scratched by an infected monkey; get an infected monkey’s tissue or fluid on broken skin or in eyes, nose, or mouth; scratch or cut oneself on a contaminated cage or other sharp-edged surface or get exposed to the brain (especially), spinal cord, or skull of an infected monkey.
Maine Becomes First U.S. State to Ban ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Products –Maine enacted a groundbreaking law on Thursday, banning the use of so-called “forever chemicals” in all products by 2030, except in instances deemed “currently unavoidable.” Maine is the first state in the U.S. and first government in the world to implement a ban on the toxic chemicals per- and polyfluoroalkyl, known as PFAS, which are notorious for not breaking down easily in the environment and can remain in a person’s body for decades after exposure. The man-made chemicals can be found in soil, drinking water, the air, food packaging, cosmetics, cookware, various household products, and industrial workplaces – resulting in widespread exposure to humans and the environment. A 2015 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found PFAS present in 97% of Americans’ blood.Democratic state House Representative Lori Gramlich who sponsored the bill, told Reuters, “PFAS is at a crisis level here in Maine – it’s in the soil, groundwater, and household items, and it is making people severely sick.” PFAS have been associated with numerous health effects, including low infant birth weights, liver and kidney disease, disruptions of the immune and reproductive systems, and cancer. While the statewide ban does not take affect until January 2030, manufacturers will have to begin reporting the presence of PFAS chemicals in their products to the Maine Department of Environmental Quality starting in January 2023.”This policy sets a strong national precedent that sends a clear signal to industry that we need to move quickly toward safer chemistry and away from toxic chemicals like PFAS,” said Sarah Doll, the national director of Safer States, a public health advocacy group that advocates for stronger legislation on PFAS at the state level.
Report: 650,000 lead pipes still carry water in Ohio; 2nd most in U.S. – As many as 650,000 lead pipes statewide deliver water to Ohioans, according to a report released last week by the Natural Resources Defense Council. This makes Ohio the second worst state in the nation as measured by the estimated number of lead pipes (technically known as lead-containing service lines) in the water system, behind only Illinois with 730,000.“It matters because it’s like drinking your water through a lead straw,” said Erik Olson, a senior strategic director for health at the NRDC, in an interview.Lead is a neurotoxin, and there is no safe level of exposure. Children and infants areespecially vulnerable to lead exposure, which has been linked to damage to the central nervous system, learning disabilities, impaired hearing and impaired formation and function of blood cells.Acidic water sources corrode the pipes, leaching their lead into the water. Clinical testing detected at least 3,533 Ohio children with elevated blood levels in 2019, according to state data. There’s no surefire way to confirm the NRDC’s estimate – Ohio doesn’t have a comprehensive estimate of the number of lead service lines in the system. The NRDC figures come from a 2016 water industry self-survey, that auditors with the U.S. Government Accountability Office believe to be a lowball.Nationwide, somewhere between 9.7 million to 12.8 million lead pipes are believed to run water to Americans’ homes, according to the report. That’s 6.2 million known lead water pipes, plus 3.5 million to 6.6 million service lines that are of “unknown” material but may be lead.The Public Utilities Commission of Ohio deferred questions to the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency. OEPA spokeswoman Heidi Griesmer said while the data is “informative,” the agency can’t verify its accuracy.Griesmer said the agency is collecting lead service line data and requiring utilities to take inventory of all lead pipes “to be submitted to us in upcoming years.” She did not respond when asked for a more specific timeline. It’s an expensive problem. One pipe is usually 15- to 20-feet, according to Olson, but some even reach 50 feet.Each pipe costs somewhere between $2,400 and $7,100 to replace, according to Kristy Meyer, associate director of Freshwater Future, which advocates for clean water. Unless a utility keeps meticulous records on pipe installation, these estimates don’t factor in their costs of digging down to determine whether a service line contains lead. Freshwater Future requested in a letter to lawmakers that they take $1 billion of the American Rescue Plan of 2021, which allocated more than $5 billion to Ohio, and use it for lead service line replacement. State lawmakers recently passed House Bill 168, which among other distributions, allocates $250 million to the Ohio Department of Development (not the OEPA) to establish and administer a water and sewer quality program. Monies will be granted to cities and counties for water and sewer quality projects.
Evacuations Ordered Over Chemical Venting at Dow Plant Near Houston – Residents of a Texas city southeast of Houston woke up to evacuation and shelter-in-place orders Wednesday morning following an incident at a Dow chemical plant.The first alert was issued by La Porte Emergency Management (OEM) at 7:30 a.m., urging residents east of the city’s Bay Area Boulevard to remain inside and turn off their air conditioning, as KHOU 11 reported. “Go inside, close all doors and windows, and turn off A/C systems,” OEM tweeted in a later update. “Remain sheltered in place until you receive an All Clear phone call from the City.”OEM gave the all clear at around 10:47 a.m. local time.The La Porte Fire Department also issued an evacuation order for the half-mile radius surrounding the plant, at 13300 Bay Area Boulevard.That order did remain in effect as of 10:47 a.m.The orders were sparked by an incident at Dow’s Houston Operations Bayport site. Dow Houston Operations first announced on Facebook that a tank was venting an unknown chemical at 8:40 a.m. Wednesday. In a 9:05 a.m. update, they announced that the chemical was Hydroxy Ethyl Acrylate (HEA), an acrylic used in both coatings and adhesives to make them more resistant to scratches, chemicals and weatherization, Houston Public Media reported.The chemical escaped from a tank vent when the tank wagon overpressurized, according to Harris County Pollution Control. HEA can cause serious burns and eye damage, as well as an allergic reaction in the skin. It is also harmful if swallowed. However, both Dow and Pollution Control said the chemical had not left the site.”There is no indication by monitoring data that this event has caused off-site impact. However, out of abundance of caution, employees were evacuated and we continue to work with the Office of Emergency Preparedness on a shelter in place,” Dow wrote on Facebook. “Thanks to the work of our employees, contract partners and emergency services, there are no injuries associated with this ongoing event.”Video footage reported by KHOU 11 showed firefighters spraying down tanker trailers, but no flames or smoke were visible as of 9:05 a.m. local time.Most of the area being evacuated houses industrial facilities, KTRK reported. However, one neighborhood did lie within the half-mile radius, and La Porte police said fewer than 10 homes were impacted.The Dow plant at La Porte covers 139 acres, makes one billion pounds of products yearly and employs 225 workers and 150 contractors, according to Dow’s website.The incident is far from the first time an event at a Texas chemical plant has prompted evacuations. An explosion at the Texas Petroleum Chemical plant in 2019, for example, forced 60,000 people to flee their homes the day before Thanksgiving.
Red Tide Leaves Hundreds of Tons of Fish Dead in Florida’s Tampa Bay -A deadly red tide has returned to Florida’s Tampa Bay, prompting protests over government inaction.The solid waste division of Pinellas County, where Tampa Bay is located, said they had picked up 600 tons of dead marine life since late June, as NPR reported.”The bay is really hurting right now,” Pinellas County resident Maya Burke told NPR. “It’s significant numbers of dead fish all up and down the food chain, from small forage fish all the way up to tarpon, manatees, dolphins… If it’s swimming in the bay, right now it’s washing up dead.”The devastation prompted more than 100 protestors to march along the St. Petersburg waterfront on Saturday, as The AP reported. The demonstrators called on Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis to declare a state of emergency in order to provide funds to address the problem. “This is not political,” protest organizer Aimee Conlee said at the demonstration, as The AP reported. “This is life. This is water, and water is life.”The St. Petersburg City Council backed the call with a resolution passed last week, but DeSantis has said there is enough funding available from the state’s Department of Environmental Protection without a declaration.Red tides are caused by an overabundance of the algae Karenia brevis, The Smithsonian explained. This algae is naturally occurring in the Gulf of Mexico, but is made worse by nutrient pollution, according to The AP. It is unusual for these blooms to occur in Tampa Bay during the summer months, NPR reported. Instead, they typically begin in the fall and end by January. The last serious summer red tide was in 2018, and this year’s outbreak looks to be worse. “This is not normal,” NOAA oceanographer Richard Stumpf told NPR. “The fact that it’s been three years since the last one is not good.” The outbreak comes around three months after a major leak at a phosphate plant wastewater pond located in a Piney Point reservoir near Tampa Bay. Experts say pollutants from the leak could be worsening the tide, but are unlikely to be its original source.
After Recent ‘Heat Dome,’ Washington Issues Warning Not to Eat Raw Shellfish – Washington State health officials have urged consumers not to eat locally harvested raw oysters and other shellfish after an outbreak of intestinal disease caused by bacteria that multiplied rapidly after a recent “heat dome” baked the Pacific Northwest. State health officials said that recent high temperatures and low tides were most likely to blame for the outbreak of the disease, vibriosis, which has sickened at least 52 people this month, the most ever recorded in July. The disease – which usually lasts between four hours and four days and causes diarrhea, abdominal cramps, nausea, vomiting, headache, fever and chills – is associated with eating raw or undercooked shellfish, especially oysters that are contaminated with vibrio, a bacteria that is found naturally in coastal waters. In low numbers, the bacteria do not pose any threat to people who eat shellfish. But the bacteria multiply quickly in warm conditions, so oysters are more likely to be contaminated in hot summer months when many like to savor the briny delicacy with a chilled glass of wine. Late last month, a “heat dome” enveloped the Pacific Northwest, shattering records across the region. Seattle broke a record on June 28 for the highest temperature ever recorded by the National Weather Service there: 108 degrees. The previous high of 105 degrees had been set in July 2009. “It was a perfect storm of these super low tides we’ve been having this month and the high heat,” Washington State health officials recommended that people cook shellfish at 145 degrees Fahrenheit for 15 seconds to destroy vibrio bacteria, that they check the department’s Shellfish Safety Map before heading to the beach to harvest shellfish recreationally, and that they always keep oysters chilled on ice or refrigerated. “We’re recommending, if you don’t want to get sick, don’t eat raw oysters,” Ms. McCallion said. “Cook them. Make sure they’re fully cooked.”
Landfills across the U.S. are raking in millions. Here’s how – America has long remained one of the most wasteful countries in the world, generating 239 million metric tons of garbage every year, about 1,600 to 1,700 pounds per person. While some view it as a threat to our environment and society, the solid waste management industry sees an opportunity. “It’s a profitable industry,” according to Debra Reinhart, a member of the Board of Scientific Counselors for the EPA. “It’s a difficult industry but it is profitable if it’s done right.” Two private companies, Waste Management and Republic Services, lead the solid waste management sector. Together they own about 480 landfills out of the 2,627 landfills across the United States. The two companies have seen staggering performance in the market, with the stock prices of both doubling in the past five years. Both Waste Management and Republic Services declined CNBC’s request for an interview. “They’ve learned how to be best-in-class businesses,” said Michael E. Hoffman, a managing director at Stifel Financial. “Their publicly traded stocks outperformed the market handily between 2015 and 2019 and underpinning it is a meaningful improvement in their free cash flow conversion.” The stocks have continued to outperform. Since its inception, landfills have made a majority of their revenue via tipping fees. These fees are charged to trucks that are dropping off their garbage based on their weight per ton. In 2020, municipal solid waste landfills had an average tipping fee of $53.72 per ton. That translates to roughly $1.4 million a year in approximate average gross revenue for small landfills and $43.5 million a year for large landfills just from gate fees. Tipping fees have seen steady growth over the past four decades. In 1982, the national average tipping fee sat at $8.07 per ton or about $23.00 when adjusted for inflation. That’s nearly a 133% increase in 35 years. While tipping fees make landfills sound like a risk-free business, they are still quite an expensive investment. It can cost about $1.1 million to $1.7 million just to construct, operate and close a landfill. For this reason, private companies have replaced municipal governments to own and operate the majority of the landfills across the U.S. “I think it’s because the trend has been to go larger and larger so the small neighborhood dump can’t exist because of the regulations and the sophistication of the design,” Reinhart said. “So we are tending to see large landfills, which do require a lot of investment upfront.”
The Dangers of Runoff From Land – According to the United States Geological Survey, runoff naturally occurs after rain falls onto a landscape. The water doesn’t just sit on top of the ground; some seeps into soils to refresh groundwater, but most flows across ecosystems as surface runoff. In this way, runoff is an important part of the natural water cycle. Runoff becomes a problem when stormwater picks up potential pollutants as it flows overland. According to USGS, stormwater pollutants can include anything from sediment, nutrients from agriculture such as phosphorous and nitrogen, bacteria from animal and human waste, pesticides from lawn and garden chemicals, to metals from rooftops and roadways. All of these things accumulate as water flows down drains and/or towards streams, lakes and ultimately the sea. They also degrade water quality and can pose danger to plants, animals and people, USGS reported.Unfortunately, high concentrations of nutrients contained in most runoff are what cause harm, he said. Nutrient runoff can cause a multitude of problems in ecosystems worldwide, Rolsky emphasized.Trash, excessive nutrients and other pollutants are making their way together down drains and streams and harming aquatic life along the way. Just as with trash, there are “downstream consequences” of this runoff and wastewater that are often overlooked. Here are a few:
- Excess phosphorous from agricultural sources has led to algal blooms that deplete oxygen from aquatic and marine ecosystems. This causes massive die-offs of aquatic and marine life and can release toxins harmful to humans. In Tampa, FL, one such red tide is currently devastating marine life.
- Water pollution has caused massive seagrass die-offs, which is starving Florida manatees.
- Nitrogen released when fossil fuels are burned can create acid rains that damage lands and waters around the planet.
- Methamphetamines excreted by users pass through sewage systems and then discharge from wastewater treatment plants, and can cause trout to become addicted, CNN reported.
- Sea turtles, especially endangered green sea turtles that live near urban coastlines, often develop debilitating fibropapilloma tumors on their eyes and flippers. “Studies suggest that there are links between FP and human effects on the environment, including various forms of pollution” in the water, NOAA reported.
- Animal waste and fertilizer runoff from industrial meat farms created the largest marine dead zone ever in the Gulf of Mexico where nothing can survive in the oxygen-depleted waters.
- Car pollution has contributed to 100% mortality of endangered Coho salmon in the Puget Sound Basin through stormwater runoff along the transportation grid.
All of these unfortunate events underline how humans pollute the natural environment far beyond what is visible.
World’s Coral Scientists Warn Action is Needed Now to Save Even a Few Reefs from Climate Change – Over the past century, sea surface temperatures have risen by an average of about 0.13 degrees Celsius (0.23 F) per decade as the oceans absorb the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions from human activities, largely from the burning of fossil fuels. The temperature increase and changing ocean chemistry affects sea life of all kinds, from deteriorating the shells of oysters and tiny pteropods, an essential part of the food chain, to causing fish populations to migrate to cooler water.Corals can become stressed when temperatures around them rise just 1 C (1.8 F) above their tolerance level. With water temperature elevated from global warming, even a minor heat wave can become devastating.These events and rising global temperatures are why the International Coral Reef Society, which represents thousands of coral scientists, issued an urgent call to governments on July 20, 2021, to do more to protect coral reefs. As part of its report on the state of the world’s reefs, it listed ways to help reefs survive, including investing in conservation, management and restoration; committing to slow climate change, reduce pollution and stop overfishing; and supporting efforts to help corals adapt to warming waters. With swift action to slow climate change, the group writes, about 30% of reefs could survive the century; if global temperatures rise by 2 C (3.6 F) or more, only about 1% will still exist. At stake is an estimated US$10 trillion in annual economic value and coastline protection.In 2015, the ocean heat from a strong El Niño event triggered the mass bleaching in the Chagos reefs and around the world. It was the third global bleaching on record, following events in 1998 and 2010.Bleaching doesn’t just affect the corals – entire reef systems and the fish that feed, spawn and live among the coral branches suffer. One study of reefs around Papua New Guinea in the southwest Pacific found that about 75% of the reef fish species declined after the 1998 bleaching, and many of those species declined by more than half.Research shows marine heat waves are now about 20 times more likely than they were just four decades ago, and they tend to be hotter and last longer. We’re at the point now that some places in the world are anticipating coral bleaching every couple of years.That increasing frequency of heat waves is a death knell for reefs. They don’t have time to recover before they get hit again.
Australia Lobbying Thwarts Push to List Great Barrier Reef as Endangered – An intense lobbying campaign by the pro-fossil fuel Australian government succeeded Friday in keeping the Great Barrier Reef off a list of World Heritage Sites considered “in danger,” despite experts’ warnings that the biodiverse ecosystem is increasingly imperiled by the global climate emergency.The 21-nation World Heritage Committee – organized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) – voted down a push to categorize the Great Barrier Reef as endangered, an effort that the right-wing Australian government fervently opposed with the backing of Saudi Arabia and other oil-friendly countries.Instead of designating the Reef as “in danger,” the World Heritage Committee on Friday instructed the government of Australia to produce a progress report on the structure’s condition by February 2022.David Ritter, CEO of Greenpeace Australia, said in a statement that Friday’s vote “is a victory for one of the most cynical lobbying efforts in recent history.””Under the UNESCO treaty, the Australian government promised the world it would do its utmost to protect the Reef – instead it has done its utmost to hide the truth,” said Ritter. “This is not an achievement – it is a day of shame for the Australian government.”Lesley Hughes, a spokesperson for Climate Council, an Australia-based advocacy organization, slammed the government lobbying blitz and said lawmakers “must stop censoring science.””The science is clear: climate change is accelerating and is the single, greatest threat to the Great Barrier Reef. In the past five years it has been repeatedly and severely damaged by three marine heatwaves,” said Hughes, a professor of biology at Macquarie University in Sydney. “Until we see credible climate action, and the phasing out of fossil fuels like coal, oil, and gas, this situation will worsen, not improve. The Great Barrier Reef is in danger, and trying to hide the facts won’t change a thing.”
Biden proposes restoration of northern spotted owl habitat, reversing late Trump rule – The Biden administration is proposing to restore protections for millions of forests home to the northern spotted owl in the Pacific Northwest, the latest reversal of environmental protections undone by the Trump administration. In a Federal Register notice Tuesday, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service determined there was “insufficient rationale and justification” behind the Trump-era removal of protections. The affected 3.4 million acres stretched across nearly 45 counties in Oregon, Washington and Northern California. The agency said it would instead curtail protections on about 200,000 acres in Oregon, following up on a 2020 proposal. The environmental group Oregon Wild said that while the reversal was necessary, it was shy of the action needed to protect the species. “We’re not going to get any new critical habitat out of this,” Steve Pedery, the group’s conservation director, told The Washington Post. “This is great, it absolutely needs to happen, but it’s not, in and of itself, going to recover spotted owls or protect salmon.” Meanwhile, the timber industry has argued expanding protected forests prevents controlled forest management, which is often used as preventative measure against forest fires, the number one threat to the owl. “We strongly support the Biden administration’s move, but it is important to recognize this is still going to result in the loss of hundreds of thousands of acres of mature and old-growth forest habitat on public lands,” Steve Pedery, the group’s conservation director, told The Hill. “It’s like worrying that your bank account was overdrawn by $3.4 million, then being happy it is only $200,000.” “If the administration is going to meet its climate goals, and protect rare species like the owl, it needs to go much further in protecting ancient forests on public lands,” he added. “A good start would be a moratorium on logging mature and old-growth in the temperate rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. They have already taken this step in the Tongass, but they need to think more broadly.” OVERNIGHT ENERGY: Democrats lay out vision for
France to Ban Shredding and Gassing of Male Chicks –The culling of male chicks will be outlawed next year in France, Agriculture Minister Julien Denormandie announced on Sunday. Each year, 50 million male chicks are killed by being shredded, or gassed with carbon monoxide because they don’t produce eggs nor grow as large as female chicks, according to Raidió Teilif’s Éireann (RTÉ), Ireland’s National Public Service Media. “France is the first country in the world, along with Germany, to end the crushing and gassing of male chicks,” Denormandie said on the daily news website Le Parisien, according to Reuters.Germany banned the culling of male chicks by 2022 in May, according to Republic World. German Agriculture Minister Julia Klockner said culling was not “to be ethically acceptable,” according to Republic World. Switzerland banned the shredding of male chicks in 2019.This initiative comes after years of pushback by animal welfare groups and the measure will be pushed to be adopted at a European level, Denormandie said, according to Reuters.In 2022 chick breeders will need to adopt machines that can detect the sex of chicks before they hatch, according to Reuters. However, farmers said that there’s no easy or affordable way to find out a chick’s sex before hatching at mass production facility, according to The AFP. An EU directive from 2009 allowed farmers to shred male chicks after hatching as long as death is “immediate” and the chick is less than 72 hours old, according to The AFP. In addition to banning the culling of male chicks, Denormandie also said that the castration of live piglets will also be prohibited in 2022, according to Reuters.
‘Just like any other livestock’: Drought’s effect on beekeeping in South Dakota. – Drought has taken a toll across the state of South Dakota. From corn and wheat to cattle, producers have made been put in a tough spot while keeping a hopeful eye on the sky. Another group that has been watching for rain is beekeepers. Bret Adee is the owner of Adee Honey Farms, with an operation in Roscoe, S.D.,which is currently listed on the drought monitor as being under extreme drought.,. Just like any other livestock, he says bees need moisture to produce. “You’ve got to have green plants,” said Adee. Pollen and nectar are essential for honey production, and the drought has resulted in a difficult season so far. “The plants look okay,” he says “but they aren’t producing nectar.” Adee says that he hopes they can get about three inches of rain by the end of August. “Very stressed plants put out lots of nectar after rain,” he says. This is because the plants go into survival mode, according to Adee, putting available energy into producing seed, pollen and nectar rather than into growing larger. Adee says even with the way the season has gone so far, a decent amount of rain could allow them to salvage a good if not great season.The main crops in the region that provide nectar, according to Adee, are clover, soy beans, alfalfa and sunflowers. He says that if you can smell the plants from the road, it’s a good sign that they’ve gotten moisture and are producing nectar.As for the bees themselves, Adee says the drought can take a toll on them too. The bees go dormant, he says. They put their resources toward surviving, producing fewer larvae and focusing on maintaining their population rather than growing. In the absence of nectar to gather, Adee says the bees will focus on securing water resources.Adee says that the farm makes effort to find the bees forage – places they can gather nectar – in these conditions, and that they have even resorted at one point to giving them sugar water to keep them sustained, but doing so is both time consuming and expensive.
‘True Cost’ of Food Is 3x What Americans Pay, Report Finds – Americans’ grocery bills reflect only a third of a true cost of food, according to a new report, which evaluated factors including healthcare costs, spending associated with biodiversity loss, and the direct environmental impacts of farming and ranching to determine that the U.S. spends at least $3.2 trillion on food each year.Officially the cost is believed to be $1.1 trillion, but as the Rockefeller Foundation explains in its report, True Cost of Food: Measuring What Matters to Transform the U.S. Food System, “our food system rings up immense ‘hidden costs’ from its impact on human health, the environment, and social and economic inequity.” The organization evaluated 14 metrics including air pollution, food insecurity, antimicrobial resistance driven by the widespread use of antibiotics in farming, and greenhouse gas emissions and found that “externalized costs” amounting to at least $2.1 trillion annually are being incurred by consumers, producers, and future generations.”Don’t think we’re getting a good deal here,” the organization said in a video posted to social media. “We’re actually getting squeezed. Society pays that balance not out of our pockets but through other means like rising healthcare costs, effects of climate change, and food workers who are often underpaid and undervalued.” “Americans pay that high cost even if consumers don’t see it in the checkout line,” reads the report. “And, if we don’t change our food system, future generations will pay those high costs, too.” The report identifies human health impacts as the biggest hidden cost in the food system, amounting to $1.1 trillion per year, including $604 billion that’s “attributable to healthcare costs related to diet-related diseases such hypertension, cancer, and diabetes.” “The additional costs are impacts from healthcare costs from workplace injuries, food insecurity and pollution, and additional costs attributable to obesity,” reads the report. Many health-related costs of the food system would be eliminated through a concerted effort by policymakers to expand access to healthy food for all Americans, business incentives, infrastructure investment, and other reforms, the report says.
Historic crop loss as severe frosts hit Brazil – Farmers across Brazil are reporting widespread crop loss due to severe frosts affecting the country over the past 3 weeks. After several destructive cold waves, another blast is expected over the weekend, July 24 and 25, followed by yet another at the end of the month.The new week has begun with the already-shattered corn market in Brazil enduring yet another blow as a new cold wave swept the center-south of Brazil, bringing frosts to corn-producing states and raising fresh concerns about export volumes and contract breaches,Agricensus reports.”It is going to be a historic crop loss,” Daniele Siqueira from local consultancy Agrural told Agricensus.On Monday, July 19, frosts hit parts of the states of Paranfl and Mato Grosso do Sul, with late-planted corn areas likely affected.The cold wave reached its peak on Tuesday, July 20 with forecasts showing potential fresh frosts in the states of Paranfl, Mato Grosso do Sul, São Paulo, and Minas Gerais.According to a report by Marco Antonio dos Santos of Rural Clima, Tuesday’s frost hit crops including sugar cane, coffee, and orange. Coffee brokers said this frost was stronger than the last one.”Output losses will be extremely large across all producing states apart from Mato Grosso… Paranfl and Mato Grosso do Sul will have no export capacity whatsoever,” Siqueira said.”The situation is so dramatic that there will not be any corn left in the market in September and the country will need to import much more from Argentina,” Victor Martins from Hedgepoint Global Markets said.According to Soybean and Corn Advisor president Dr. Michael Cordonnier, temperatures in southern Brazil dipped below freezing three weeks ago and it’s expected to be even colder this week.”The coldest in 20 years in some of these areas. And I like to tell people that 20 years ago there was not much Safrinha corn. And now that crop accounts for three-quarters of all of Brazil’s corn production.” Cordonnier told Brownfield the Brazilian frost events are the equivalent of the U.S. Corn Belt experiencing three nights below freezing in mid-July.
At least 70 large wildfires burning in US west as fears mount over conditions – At least 70 large wildfires are burning across the US west and nearby states – engulfing more than 1m acres in flames – as fears mount that shifting conditions can worsen an already dire situation. Significant areas of these states are in the grips of drought conditions that are considered “extreme” and “exceptional” – the most severe categories.In California, a rapidly growing wildfire south of Lake Tahoe jumped a highway, prompting more evacuation orders and the cancellation of an extreme bike ride through the Sierra Nevada on Saturday.The Tamarack Fire, which was sparked by lightning on 4 July, exploded overnight and was over 20,000 acres as of Saturday evening, according to the Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest.The blaze was threatening Markleeville, a small town close to the California-Nevada state line, with thousands of bikers and spectators gathered for the 103-mile (165-kilometre) Death Ride stranded in the small town and racing to get out.In Oregon, authorities have said that arid, windy and unstable conditions will continue fueling the 281,208-acre Bootleg fire, which is just 22% contained, according to National Interagency Fire Center and InciWeb. The smoke and heat have spurred giant “fire clouds“, which are dangerous columns of ash and smoke that can spiral up to six miles skyward.At least 2,106 firefighting personnel are battling Bootleg, which is now the largest US forest fire. Officials have also worried that this inferno might merge with the nearby Log fire, which totals at least 4,830 acres. Meteorologists also detected a larger, more extreme type of fire clouds earlier this week – ones that can make their own weather, such as “fire tornadoes”. This extreme fire behavior is expected to worsen over the course of this weekend.
Lake Tahoe Wildfire Prompts Evacuations – The New York Times -A wildfire that has been burning for two weeks just south of Lake Tahoe in California quickly expanded on over the weekend, jumping a highway and prompting a wave of evacuations and event cancellations. It was one of several blazes around the state that have strained crews and threatened property. Track Wildfires in the West See the latest wildfires and air quality in California, Oregon, Washington and surrounding states. The Tamarack Fire, which started with a lightning strike on July 4, was more than 18,000 acres large and zero percent contained as of late Sunday night, fire officials said. Heavy smoke grounded all firefighting aircraft on Sunday as the blaze spread, they said. Several surrounding communities, including Markleeville, Grover Hot Springs, Shay Creek and others near the Nevada border, were under evacuation orders. A portion of Highway 89 was closed and a section of the Pacific Crest Trail was also closed. The fire forced the cancellation of this year’s Death Ride, a 103-mile extreme cycling event that would have had its 40th anniversary this weekend. The Associated Press reported that the fire left bikers and spectators racing to evacuate on Saturday. Nearly 800 fire and emergency personnel were assigned to that wildfire, according to officials from the Humboldt Toiyabe National Forest. A red flag warning, indicating conditions were ripe for fires, was in place through Monday morning. Farther north, the Beckwourth Complex in Plumas County continued to spread over the weekend, reaching more than 100,000 acres by late Sunday night. That fire, comprising the Dotta Fire, which lightning sparked on June 30, and the Sugar Fire, which started July 2 also by lightning, is 82 percent contained. More than 2,000 personnel were assigned to that fire. In Butte County, Calif., the Dixie Fire, has grown to more than 18,000 acres since it started last week, according to the stage agency Cal Fire. Officials said the fire was 15 percent contained, had injured one person and was burning in remote areas of steep terrain, with limited access. Evacuations orders were in place for parts of Butte and Plumas Counties. Tony Brownell, a fire operation section chief, said in a news conference on Sunday that there were many challenges facing crews in getting the Dixie Fire under control. “We will get around this thing,” he said. “We fight a fire aggressively, but we’re not going to hurt anybody. We don’t want the public to get hurt and we don’t want the firefighters to get hurt.”
Dangerous conditions for Western wildfires as Oregon blaze grows to the size of Los Angeles – Erratic winds and parched Oregon forests added to the dangers for firefighters on Monday as they battled the largest wildfire in the U.S., one of dozens burning across several Western states. The destructive Bootleg Fire was considered one of the largest in modern Oregon history and was burning more than 476 square miles, an area about the size of Los Angeles. The blaze just north of the California border was 25% contained. Meteorologists predicted critically dangerous fire weather through at least Monday with lightning possible in both California and southern Oregon. “With the very dry fuels, any thunderstorm has the potential to ignite new fire starts,” the National Weather Service in Sacramento, California, said on Twitter. Thousands of people were already facing evacuation orders, including some 2,000 people residing in the largely rural areas of lakes and wildlife refuges near the fire, which has burned at least 67 homes and 100 outbuildings while threatening many more. Extremely dry conditions and heat waves tied to climate change have swept the region, making wildfires harder to fight. Climate change has made the West much warmer and drier in the past 30 years and will continue to make weather more extreme and wildfires more frequent and destructive. Firefighters said in July they were facing conditions more typical of late summer or fall. Pyrocumulus clouds – literally translated as “fire clouds” – complicated containment efforts for the Dixie Fire in northern California on Sunday, as well as flames that spread to remote areas with steep terrain that are harder for crews to reach, officials said. New evacuation orders were issued in rural communities near the Feather River Canyon. The Dixie Fire remained 15% contained and covered 29 square miles. The fire is northeast of the town of Paradise, California, and survivors of that horrific fire that killed 85 people watched warily as the blaze burned. A growing wildfire south of Lake Tahoe jumped a highway, prompting more evacuation orders, the closure of the Pacific Crest Trail and the cancellation of an extreme bike ride through the Sierra Nevada. The Tamarack Fire, which was sparked by lightning on July 4, had charred about 28.5 square miles of dry brush and timber as of Sunday night. The blaze was threatening Markleeville, a small town close to the California-Nevada state line. It has destroyed at least two structures, authorities said. A notice posted Saturday on the 103-mile Death Ride’s website said several communities in the area had been evacuated and ordered all bike riders to clear the area. The fire left thousands of bikers and spectators stranded in the small town and racing to get out.
Oregon wildfires creating ‘fire clouds,’ potential for ‘fire tornadoes’ –The wildfires ripping through Oregon are generating “fire clouds” capable of creating their own dangerous weather patterns, The Associated Press reports. Authorities note that the massive blaze has led to columns of smoke and ash that can be seen more than 100 miles away. For four days in a row, the bootleg fire has created these clouds, which tend to form between 3 p.m. and 5 p.m. The largest and most intense of these fire clouds, called pyrocumulus clouds, are being created above a section of dead forest, which burns at a faster rate.The bootleg fire, currently the largest wildfire burning in the U.S., has mostly generated fire clouds of lesser intensity; however, the National Weather Service on Wednesday spotted a pyrocumulonimbus cloud. These superclouds, dubbed by NASA as the “fire-breathing dragon of clouds,” are able to create their own dangerous weather patterns. At their worst, pyrocumulonimbus clouds can lead to a “fire tornado,” the AP notes. Firefighters had to abandon their efforts Thursday when one of the fire clouds partially collapsed, causing intense winds and sending embers falling down on them. “We’re expecting those exact same conditions to develop today and even worsen into the weekend,” fire spokeswoman Holly Krake told the AP on Friday.
Air quality in NYC, Philly plummets due to smoke from 2,500 miles away – After a smoky sunset Monday evening, heavy smoke continued to hang over the Northeast on Tuesday, as a result of more than 100 wildfires burning in the western U.S. and more in Canada. Air quality advisories were in effect for much of Canada and had been issued for Pittsburgh, Philadelphia and New York City as the smoke descended from the upper levels of the atmosphere.The AQI reading in New York City Tuesday evening was an unhealthy 137, the highest this year so far. At this elevated number, health effects can be immediately felt by sensitive groups. Healthy individuals may experience difficulty breathing and throat irritation with prolonged exposure, and should limit outdoor activity.The smoke spread up to 2,500 miles downwind of the locations of the wildfires. “Due to the fact that smoke particles are small and light, they can be transported hundreds if not a few thousand miles away from their source,” AccuWeather Meteorologist Alex DaSilva explained.”While the smoke is not thick enough to obstruct surface visibility, it is thick enough to create poor air quality in some areas and allow for vibrant sunrises and sunsets,” DaSilva said. Wildfire smoke consists of gases and fine particles from burning trees, plants, buildings and other burning materials, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Anyone can get sick from inhaling the smoke, butthose at particular risk are people with asthma, Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), heart disease, children, people who are pregnant, and first responders.” Air quality was in the unhealthy range in the New York City area on the afternoon of July 20, 2021. Elderly individuals and people who may have breathing problems should try to avoid long periods of outdoor activity,” DaSilva said, but overall most people in the Northeast won’t be at risk.”The smoke out West is a lot closer to the ground because that’s where the fires are,” he explained. “It’s more of a health concern out there.”Locations from Washington, D.C., all the way to the Great Lakes had ideal conditions to witness a colorful sunset Monday night and sunrise Tuesday morning, in areas without clouds.This is not the first time the wildfire smoke from the West has trekked all the way to the opposite end of the country. Just last year, wildfire smoke from California, Oregon and Washington produced some hazy skies in the Midwest and Northeast.
Why West Coast Fires Are Producing Smoke & Bad Air On The East Coast – A remarkable situation is evident right now. Fires over the western U.S. are producing a dense veil of smoke that moved across the continent and then descended over the East Coast.And there is a great irony in all this: most of the West Coast has excellent air quality while the air is unhealthy over the northeast U.S.To illustrate this strange situation, here is the latest AIRNOW air quality map showing the air quality based on PM2.5, small particles that can move deep into your lungs. ( I want to acknowledge UW Bothell professor Dan Jaffe, who brought this to my attention)Green is good air quality while red is unhealthy.Really bad air quality in parts of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. But air quality is really good along the West Coast! You can visualize the movement of smoke by an image showing the smoke distribution at 11 AM this morning from the wonderful NOAA HRRR model. Smoke generated over eastern Oregon, northern CA, and eastern WA moved northward around a ridge of high pressure centered over the Rockies and then headed southeastward towards the northeast U.S. The smoke was quite apparent over the Northeast in the visible satellite imagery mid-day today (see below). The grayish stuff is smoke.The air reaching the East Coast has an interesting three-dimensional trajectory (the path of air in 3D space). Using the NOAA Hysplit software, I found the origin of the air ending over New Jersey at 11 AM PDT today at 500 meters, 1500 meters, and 2500 meters above the surface ( see below). Wow..the air reaching near the surface in New Jersey started over Washington State (red line). First, the smoky air rose over the Northwest, gained altitude to catch stronger winds aloft, and then got mixed down to the surface over the East Coast. A Washington import that may not be as popular as wine, apples, or cherries.
What’s in Wildfire Smoke? A Toxicologist Explains the Health Risks – Fire and health officials began issuing warnings about wildfire smoke several weeks earlier than normal this year. With almost the entire U.S. West in drought, signs already pointed to a long, dangerous fire season ahead.Smoke is now turning the sky hazy across a large swath of the country as dozens of large fires burn, and a lot of people are wondering what’s in the air they’re breathing. In parts of the West, wildfire smoke now makes up nearly half the air pollution measured annually. A new study by the California Air Resources Board found another threat: high levels of lead and other metals turned up in smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire, which destroyed the town of Paradise. The findings suggest smoke from fires that reach communities could be even more dangerous than originally thought because of the building materials that burn. What exactly is in a wildfire’s smoke depends on a few key things: what’s burning – grass, brush or trees; the temperature – is it flaming or just smoldering; and the distance between the person breathing the smoke and the fire producing it.The distance affects the ability of smoke to “age,” meaning to be acted upon by the Sun and other chemicals in the air as it travels. Aging can make it more toxic. Importantly, large particles like what most people think of as ash do not typically travel that far from the fire, but small particles, or aerosols, can travel across continents.Smoke from wildfires contains thousands of individual compounds, including carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, carbon dioxide, hydrocarbons and nitrogen oxides. The most prevalent pollutant by mass is particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, roughly 50 times smaller than a grain of sand. Its prevalence is one reason health authorities issue air quality warnings using PM 2.5 as the metric. The new study on smoke from the 2018 Camp Fire found dangerous levels of lead in smoke blowing downwind as the fire burned through Paradise, California. The metals, which have been linked to health harms including high blood pressure and developmental effects in children with long-term exposure, traveled more than 150 miles on the wind, with concentrations 50 times above average in some areas. There is another reason PM2.5 is used to make health recommendations: It defines the cutoff for particles that can travel deep into the lungs and cause the most damage. The really small particles bypass these defenses and disturb the air sacs where oxygen crosses over into the blood. Fortunately, we have specialized immune cells present called macrophages. It’s their job to seek out foreign material and remove or destroy it. However, studies have shownthat repeated exposure to elevated levels of wood smoke can suppress macrophages, leading to increases in lung inflammation.
Haze from western wildfires hampers visibility in NC, makes breathing difficult for some – – Do you notice a haze to the sky or perhaps smell a little bit of smoke in the air outside? Believe it or not, smoke from wildfires over the western part of the United States and even Canada is traveling all the way across the country and has made it to North Carolina.The smoke prompted a Code Orange alert for air quality over nearly all of North Carolina on Thursday.It blocked the sun so much that the WRAL solar farm in Garner put out about 10% less power Thursday than on the same day last week.The alert means the environment outside could be unhealthy for sensitive groups and people with existing conditions. Young children, the elderly and those with heart and lung disease and people exercising are encouraged to limit time outdoors.“It’s a rare day to have a Code Orange day in North Carolina, said Taylor Hartsfield, regional office supervisor at the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality.The last one linked to smoke or “fine particulate matter,” as it is described by DEQ, came in 2017.DEQ has two air quality monitoring stations across the state that can monitor the air, minute-by-minute, for smoke. The state monitors the air quality and releases the next day’s forecast each day at 3 p.m. There are currently 80 large wildfires spanning 13 states out west. The largest fire is the Bootleg Fire in Oregon, burning more than 350,000 acres so far and only 30% contained.
PG&E says its equipment may have sparked Dixie fire – Utility equipment from Pacific Gas & Electric Co. may have sparked the Dixie fire, which has scorched more than 30,000 acres in Butte and Plumas counties over the past week, according to a report the utility company filed Sunday. PG&E said in the report submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission that an employee responding to an outage Tuesday noticed a blown fuse at Cresta Dam in a heavily forested area of Butte County around the Feather River Canyon. The worker approached the pole about 4:40 p.m. and found two blown fuses and a tree leaning into a power lines conductor, “which was still intact and suspended on the poles,” the report said. “He also observed a fire on the ground near the base of the tree.” The worker removed a third fuse that hadn’t blown, reported the fire, and his supervisor called 911, according to the document. California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection officials quickly swarmed the area, dropping fire retardant and water. But by 8 a.m. Wednesday, the blaze had grown to 500 acres. Dangerous fire weather conditions followed, with gusty winds and low humidity, leading Cal Fire to issue a red flag warning. By Wednesday evening, the fire – by then dubbed the Dixie fire – had reached 2,200 acres and was 0% contained.
Southern Oregon’s Bootleg Fire Grows To Nearly 400,000 Acres The Bootleg Fire in Southern Oregon is now one of the largest in the nation and will continue to increase in size as the fire season rolls on. As of Wednesday morning, nearly 400,000 acres of forest and grasslands have burned. There’s a risk that months of back-to-back heatwaves could increase the fire to as much as 100,000 acres, according to Portland news KOIN. The fire is currently 32% contained.The fire has been raging for about two weeks. Last Monday, we noted the fire was likely to “double in size.” Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday warned the situation could get worse. She said 5,000 firefighters are battling wildfires across the state. “The good news is there’s a lot of excellent work happening on the ground to protect Oregonians, to protect our homes, and our land,” Brown said. She conveniently blamed “climate change playing out before our eyes” for the wildfires and, of course, said her administration is working on new legislation for climate action.“I’ve been very, very clear we are working hard to increase our level of thinning and prescriptive burning to create healthier landscapes,” the governor said.The Bootleg Fire is so large and intense that it’s creating its only weather. “The fire is so large and generating so much energy and extreme heat that it’s changing the weather,” said Marcus Kauffman, a spokesman for the state forestry department, NYTimes quoted. “Normally, the weather predicts what the fire will do. In this case, the fire is predicting what the weather will do.”Local news KATU said Bootleg Fire has merged with the nearby Log Fire.Across 13 states, 83 large wildfires have burned 1,293,636 acres, according to the National Interagency Fire Center. The wildfires hitting across the U.S. West have unleashed a massive amount of smoke that is currently transforming blue skies in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast states into a murky yellow/orange.
The Bootleg Fire Is So Massive, It’s Creating Its Own Weather – As the Bootleg fire in Southern Oregon rages on, the massive wildfire is creating its own weather systems.”The fire is so large and generating so much energy and extreme heat that it’s changing the weather. Normally the weather predicts what the fire will do. In this case, the fire is predicting what the weather will do,” Marcus Kauffman, a spokesman for the state forestry department, told The New York Times.The massive inferno has created a pyrocumulous cloud, also known as a “fire cloud,” that extends from the top of the blaze to 30,000 feet into the atmosphere. The cloud is currently producing lightning, and has the capacity to create dangerous thunderstorms that will make the fire harder to contain on the ground, the Salem Reporter noted. When that built-up mass comes back down towards Earth, it will force surface air outward, “creating strong winds in all directions that can spread the fire,” said The New York Times.”A pyrocumulus cloud is similar to a normal cumulus cloud, but it is formed through large amounts of smoke from nearby wildfires. As a wildfire quickly heats the air near the ground, the thick, smoky air rapidly surges into the sky. This becomes a vicious cycle. As the wildfire burns, it creates a thunderstorm, which eventually leads to windy conditions at the surface, which allows the wildfire to grow even larger over time,” meteorologist Joe Curtis told AccuWeather.It’s the same phenomenon documented in January 2020 during the Australian bushfires that burned for nearly 80 days. Ultimately, the clouds created fire tornadoes – vortexes of heat, ash, smoke and high wind – that killed one firefighter, according to CNBC. A video taken in 2018 shows a fire tornado ripping through California’s Carr Fire.The Bootleg fire started on July 6, and is the largest of more than 80 major fires searing across 13 states. Heat waves and drought caused by climate change, as well as high winds are aiding the spread of the fires and making it more difficult to tamp out, said the BBC.On Thursday night, the northern edge of the Bootleg fire jumped a barrier treated with a chemical retardant meant to contain its edges, forcing firefighters to back off. It was the latest example of the massive blaze barreling through a firebreak, The New York Times reported.
Couple charged over deadly California wildfire sparked by gender reveal party – A couple whose gender reveal party sparked a Southern California wildfire last year has been charged with involuntary manslaughter for the death of a firefighter who died while fighting the blaze. San Bernardino County District Attorney Jason Anderson announced during a press conference Tuesday afternoon that the defendants, who he identified as the Jimenez family, pleaded not guilty the previous day. The fire in question broke out on Sept. 5 when the couple held a gender reveal at the foot of the San Bernardino Mountains at El Dorado Ranch Park. A smoke-generating device that the couple had placed in a field quickly caused the surrounding dry grass to catch on fire. The couple attempted to put out the fire with water bottles, but strong winds caused the fire to spread through national forests about 75 miles east of Los Angeles. Charles Morton, 39, leader of the Big Bear Interagency Hotshot Squad, was killed on Sept. 17 when flames overran a remote area where firefighters were cutting fire breaks, or gaps in vegetation or other combustible materials meant to slow the spread of fires. The couple currently faces one felony count of involuntary manslaughter, three felony counts of recklessly causing a fire with great bodily injury, four counts of recklessly causing a fire to inhabited structures and 22 misdemeanor counts of recklessly causing fire to property. The fire burned about 35 square miles of land before being contained in mid-November. Hundreds of people were forced to evacuate, 13 people were injured and five homes were destroyed.
Wildfires consume 2.5 million ha (6.2 million acres) of forests in Yakutia, Russia – According to statistics released by the Russian Ministry of Emergency on July 20, the 2021 wildfires in Yakutia (Republic of Sakha) — the largest and coldest republic of the Russian Federation — have so far consumed 2.5 million hectares (6.2 million acres) of forests.
- Overall, Yakutia wildfires in 2021 are less destructive than in 2020, when they raged through most of July and August.
- In addition, they are now further south, nearer the main areas of population.
- As of July 20, there are more than 400 hotbeds of natural fires across Russia – most of them in Sakha.
There are now more than 300 wildfires in Yakutia but only half of them are being actively suppressed. Thousands of firefighters are being helped by aircraft and, where possible, artificial rain technology developed in Soviet times.To make the rain, the ministry is using Antonov-26 cloud-spiking plane to lace the clouds with a chemical cocktail of weather-changing silver iodide, liquid nitrogen, and dry ice.”Most of the areas of fires in 2021 fall in the zone of 60 – 65° N,” said Evgeny Ponomarev, associate professor at the Siberian Federal University, and senior researcher at the Sukachev Institute of Forest.”In 2020, the greatest damage was recorded in the zone of 65 – 70° N. So the extreme movement of fires to the north of the region has not yet been repeated,” Ponomarev added.In 2020, almost 69% of all areas covered by fires accounted for the zone north of 65° N. In addition, almost 30% of all fires in Yakutia were recorded north of the Arctic Circle (67 ° N).”In 2021 – about 9%, and the area of fires in the circumpolar regions today is almost 10 times lower than it was in 2020,” Ponomarev said.The total estimated burned area, which includes forest and all types of non-forest fires in Siberia, from the beginning of the 2020 fire season in March through the end of September, was about 26 million ha (64 million acres), according to the International Association of Wildland Fire (IAWF). Please note that the IAWF number is for the entire Siberia, not just Sakha, and is different from official data, which would cover fires only in forest zones.From the IAWF 2020 overview1:
- ~31% (8.4 million ha / 20.8 million acres) of the fires in 2020 occurred in the steppe regions in southern Siberia.
- 13% (3.5 million ha / 8.6 million acres) was in the tundra to the north.
- ~37% (14.3 million ha; 35.3 million acres) was in various forest types, including pine, mixed conifer, and larch forests.
Total burned areas in 2020 ranged from about 6.1 million ha (15.1 million acres) between 60 and 65 degrees N to 6.8 million ha (16.8 million acres) between 65 and 70 degrees N. The number of fires, varied markedly in the different zones, with many small fires in the south, and a lesser number, but larger, fires in the north.
Northern Ireland records its highest ever temperature as UK bakes – Northern Ireland records its highest ever temperature as UK bakes – The hottest day of the year so far has been recorded in all four UK nations and forecasters believe it could be even warmer on Sunday. It was the hottest day on record in Northern Ireland with 31.2C recorded in Ballywatticock, in County Down, at 3.40pm, beating the previous highest temperature of 30.8C, reached on 12 July 1983 and 30 June 1976.In England, 30.3C was recorded in Coton in the Elms, Derbyshire, on Saturday, surpassing the 29.7C recorded in south-west London on 14 June.The year’s highest temperatures so far were also recorded in Usk, Monmouthshire, Wales, at 29.6C, and in Threave, in the Dumfries and Galloway region of Scotland, at 28.2C.But the Met Office said temperatures could rise yet higher in England and south Wales on Sunday as the summer heatwave continues. Tom Morgan, meteorologist at the Met Office, said: “Temperatures are expected to increase even further on Sunday, reaching highs of 33C in the south of the UK.” He added that an extended hot spell of weather is expected to last for much of the week ahead: “It’s going to mean that people are really going to feel the effects of the heat as we go through this week.”
Greybull breaks record reaching 107 degrees; Casper ties record set in 1943 – . – Wyoming saw multiple locations break or tie heat records for July 19 on Monday, according to the National Weather Service in Riverton. Greybull saw the hottest temperatures at 107 degrees, breaking the previous record of 103 degrees set in 2007. Worland was next hottest reaching 106 degrees, breaking their previous record of 102 degrees set in 1998. Casper reached 94 degrees on Monday, tying a record set in 1943. Buffalo reached 101 degrees, breaking their previous record for July 19 of 97 degrees, set in 2012. Both Riverton and Lander reached 100 degrees, breaking their previous records of 99 and 98 degrees, respectively. Both records were set in 1998. Rock Springs reached 96 degrees on Monday, breaking their record of 94 degrees set in 1998. Big Piney reached 94 degrees, breaking the record of 92 degrees set in 2006. Cody tied their previous record of 98 degrees, last seen in 1960. Jackson was one of the few major communities that didn’t set or tie records. Jackson reached 92 degrees on Monday, not hot enough to beat their record for July 19 of 96 degrees, set in 1934.
The Western drought is worse than you think. Here’s why – It has lasted longer than the Dust Bowl of the 1930s. It’s dropped water levels perilously low at two of the nation’s largest reservoirs, forced ranchers to sell off herds and helped propel scorching wildfires. And worst of all, the drought blanketing the western United States is not going away. A group of experts featuring federal and state officials and farmers and ranchers spent nearly three hours yesterday chronicling the devastation caused by drought conditions that now cover almost every inch of seven Western states. Half of the U.S. population lives in a drought-stricken area. The virtual session, organized by NOAA, sought to draw attention to the vast effects of the drought – and to the Biden administration’s effort to help suffering communities and industries and to warn about climate change. “In Oregon, a wildfire the size of Los Angeles is burning now,” “And this is only the start of the wildfire season out West.” The drought has been particularly hard for Western farmers and ranchers, many of whom are facing water scarcity that is stunting crops and thinning herds as ranchers sell livestock because of feed shortages. “We’re seeing 10% to 25% herd reductions,” Schafer said, noting the effects of a widespread shortage of animal feed. “No water for a farmer means no crop, no foods and a very limited ability to take care of his or her family.” Although recent heat waves have helped drive the Western drought to its current expanse, conditions have been building for over 20 years due to above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation. Drought conditions now afflict 96% of seven Western states – Arizona, California, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon and Washington – the highest percentage since record keeping began in 2000. “Starting around 2000 or the late 1990s, we’ve seen many years of below-normal precipitation,” said climatologist David Simeral of the Desert Research Institute. Asked to compare the current Western drought to the Dust Bowl, which hit parts of the West and the Great Plains in successive waves in the 1930s, Simeral said, “This has been a more prolonged period of drought that’s occurred than back in that era. We’re looking at nearly two decades.” The drought has reduced river and stream flows across the West, most notably on the Colorado River, threatening electric plants that rely on hydropower and water supplies in Southern California. Lake Mead, the nation’s largest reservoir and a water source for 20 million people in Arizona, California and Nevada, is at just 35% of its capacity. That’s the lowest level since the reservoir was filled in 1935, said Demetri Polyzos of the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California. Southern California is handling decreased water imports from the Colorado River and from Northern California by relying on water that the southern region has stored in recent years, Polyzos said. “This year, we’re prepared for the dry conditions,” Polyzos said. “Our concern is that the outlook for both imported systems is pretty bleak.”
Severe flooding hits Colorado and New Mexico, U.S .– At least 3 people have been killed and 3 others remain missing after severe flooding hit parts of Colorado and New Mexico, U.S. late Tuesday (LT), July 20, 2021.At 01:44 UTC on July 21, the Larimer County Sheriff’s Office in northern Colorado issued a mandatory evacuation order for residents and business occupants in the area of Highway 14 from Rustic to Ted’s Place (Highway 14/Highway 287) due to immediate and imminent danger.”Avoid areas subject to flooding including dips, low spots, ditches, etc. and do not attempt to cross flowing streams or creeks. If driving, be aware that the road may not be intact under floodwaters.””Never drive through flooded roadways – turn around and go another way. If your vehicle stalls, leave it immediately and seek higher ground. If you cannot leave the area, move to higher ground immediately.”The evacuation order was lifted at 04:30 UTC but residents were asked to remain alert to the weather conditions in the event additional evacuations may be necessary.A large mudslide event was reported in the Poudre Canyon in Larimer County, sweeping away three people. Larimer County Sheriff’s Office said the body of one of the victims was found but 2 people are still missing.At least five houses were destroyed and several roads damaged.The storms also hit the El Dorado area, NE of Albuquerque, New Mexico after 42.1 mm (1.6 inches) of rain fell in just one hour. Three people went missing after they were swept into the water channel in Albuquerque. Firefighters recovered two bodies on Wednesday.Albuquerque Fire Rescue (AFR) spokesman Tom Ruiz said they will keep looking over the area on foot and with drones.Water levels in the channel were about 1.8 m (6 feet) high, moving at about 8 m (25 feet) per second, Ruiz said, adding these were among the highest levels he has ever seen in his 17 years at AFR.NWS said the foothills got more than 25 mm (1 inch) of rain in under 15 minutes.
Monsoons could break droughts in Southwest -Monsoons bringing rain across the Southwestern U.S. could help break droughts. The rain comes as virtually the entire Grand Canyon state is under some level of drought, according to a map from the U.S. Drought Monitor released Thursday. The heaviest rain is concentrated in the worst drought regions in Arizona, which are along the border of New Mexico up the eastern side to the Utah border, CNN reported. Flash flood watches are currently in effect in all three states. The National Weather service said the monsoon driven by heavy rainfall is expected through the weekend. There is a moderate risk of excessive rainfall in parts of Arizona and New Mexico through Sunday morning. A slight risk of excessive rainfall is also in place for parts of southwest Utah, central New Mexico and southwest Colorado. Roughly 1-4 inches of rain fell across the Tucson, Ariz. area on Friday, CNN reported. Tucson International Airport recorded 0.48 inches of rain Saturday morning, pushing its monthly total to 3.45 inches of rain as of June 15, the National Weather Service said. More rain was expected on Saturday. As of 5 am, the #Tucson Intl airport has recorded 0.48″ this morning. This pushes the July monthly total to 3.28″ which ranks as the 26th wettest July on record. Meanwhile in Phoenix, Phoenix Sky Harbor broke its record for daily rainfall on Friday with 0.80 inches of rain, eclipsing a previous record set in 2002 when 0.41 inches fell. Rainfall for the entire monsoon is at 1.172 inches at Sky Harbor since June 15.
Coast to coast heat dome to deliver sweltering weather next week –Summer is supposed to be hot. But this season has featured many large-scale North American heat waves that have roasted significant swaths of the country, helping temperatures skyrocket and toppling records.Another heat wave is set to park over the Lower 48 next week, bringing anomalous summertime heat to parts of the central and eastern United States that may have missed out on previous events.Early estimates indicate that most of the contiguous United States will see highs running 10 to 15 degrees above average. When combined with climbing humidity, it’ll feel like it’s well into the triple digits for millions. The pattern could also spark severe thunderstorms, perhaps packing strong winds, that could roll through the northern Great Lakes and New England during late July and August.On Friday, most of the heat was relegated to the north central United States, where temperatures in the Dakotas were forecast to near 100.Billings, Mont., has already measured 13 days topping 95 degrees this month. Monday spiked to 107 degrees, a degree shy of an all-time record. With highs in the upper 90s to lower 100s projected every day over the coming week, it is possible that tally may climb to near 20 by the end of July. That would mark the most 95-plus degree days in Billings in July since 1936.Next week’s heat wave looks to be more impressive in duration than in magnitude. Heat advisories are in effect for parts of Minnesota and the Upper Midwest, the Plains and Corn Belt and along the Gulf CoastIn addition to daytime highs in the upper 90s with heat indices reaching 105 degrees, nighttime lows will struggle to drop. “Overnight lows will not cool to less than 70 to 75 degrees,” warned the Weather Service in Kansas City, where an excessive heat warning is in effect. “This will make the recovery from daytime heat tougher to overcome.”
Almost 200 dead, many still missing after floods as Germany counts devastating cost – Almost 200 people were dead and more than 700 injured, with many still missing Monday, as Germany counted the cost of the devastating floods and asked whether more could have been done to save lives. Torrential rain last week led to severe flooding and destructionacross western Europe, wreaking havoc in parts of Belgium and the Netherlands, and leaving Germany reeling from its worst natural disaster in decades. As the death toll continued to grow, the country grappled with what or whom to blame, from climate change to political leaders.Officials confirmed the deaths of at least 117 people in the worst-affected German region, Rhineland-Palatinate, bringing the total confirmed dead to 196 with another 749 injured as of Monday morning.Another 46 were killed in the neighboring state of North Rhine-Westphalia and at least two people died in the southern state of Bavaria, while 31 were killed in Belgium.Rescuers were engaged in a desperate search for survivors, with hundreds of people still unaccounted for.Police in Koblenz told NBC News they are currently searching for as many as 170 people who have been reported missing in Rhineland-Palatinate. Meanwhile, in neighboring North Rhine-Westphalia, police in Cologne have said they are still searching for at least 150 people who are still unaccounted for. NBC News spoke to one man, Jurgen Lenz, who said he was trapped on the fourth floor of a building in the town of Heimersheim for two days, waiting for the waters to recede. In Ahrweiler, Mike Ahrens said that six cars smashed into his house at 2 a.m. when the floods hit, and were then washed away in the rising tide. “It was more than scary, it was like a dream that you hope you wake up from,” he said via a translator. The damage to infrastructure not only hampered immediate rescue efforts, but also threatened to leave the affected regions facing a long and difficult road to recovery.Phone and power lines were down across the area, police said, potentially complicating efforts to contact loved ones. At least 80 train stations were closed and a dozen lines out of service, Germany’s main train company Deutsche Bahn said in a statement Sunday, a sign of the sheer scale of the damage. In an interview with a regional newspaper in Passau, Germany’s transport minister said 20 of the 35 bridges along the River Ahr, a tributary of the Rhine, had been destroyed. Supplies of drinking water in the most heavily affected regions were also likely disrupted for weeks. German Chancellor Angela Merkel called for more to be done to tackle climate change in the wake of the floods on a visit to the region Sunday, but questions are now being asked over whether authorities were also at fault for a lack of preparation. “As soon as we have provided the immediate aid that stands at the forefront now, we will have to look at whether there were things that didn’t go well, whether there were things that went wrong, and then they have to be corrected,” Economy Minister Peter Altmaier told the Bild newspaper.
Dozens Killed After China’s Henan Hit With Worst Rainstorms In 1,000 Years Large areas of China’s central Henan province were inundated with floodwaters on Wednesday following the worst rainfall in 1,000 years, according to Reuters. From Saturday to Tuesday, 26.5 inches of rain fell on Zhengzhou, surpassing the annual average of around 24 inches. Just on Tuesday, 8.2 inches fell in a single hour. Zhengzhou, the capital of Henan, is a massive industrial hub. The largest iPhone assembly plant, operated by Foxconn, said operations have yet to be affected. They released a statement that said: “no direct impact on our facility in that location to date,” adding it was closely monitoring the situation. However, Nissan Motor halted production at its facility due to devastating floodwaters. The extent of the damage to businesses in the city and across the province is unknown. The city’s transportation network has come to a screeching halt as the metro system was closed on Tuesday after roads and tunnels were flooded. FT reports twenty-five people are dead, and seven are missing in Zhengzhou. Twelve were killed and five injured in subway tunnels when floodwaters trapped commuters. We noted Tuesday night, yet, another dam, this time in Zhengzhou, collapsed, the third in 48 hours, after rising water levels spilled over the dam’s crest and weakened the structure, resulting in a structural failure. The dam is the third to fail in recent days: over the weekend, two dams in Hulun Buir City in North China’s Inner Mongolia collapsed due to severe rain.Meanwhile, dozens of reservoirs and dams have hit emergency high water levels prompting authorities to evacuate more than 100,000 people. There’s still an additional risk of other dams collapsing. Reuters notes the rainstorms are the worst in 1,000 years. More than 6,000 military and fire service personnel are involved in rescue operations.Here’s more video of the devastation across Zhengzhou.
Massive flooding hits Zhengzhou after more than 200 mm (7.8 inches) of rain in just 1 hour, China – Extremely heavy rains hit the capital of China’s Henan Province – Zhengzhou (population 10.3 million) on Tuesday, July 20, 2021, causing massive floods. This was the third and the strongest day of heavy rainfall in the province. Zhengzhou received average precipitation of 457.5 mm (18 inches) within 24 hours to 17:00 LT on July 20, making it the highest daily rainfall since the weather records in the city began. The city has also reported record-high hourly precipitation of 201.9 mm (7.9 inches) between 16:00 and 17:00 LT (08:00 – 09:00 UTC). The accumulated rainfall reached 449 mm (17.6 inches) on average from 18:00 LT on Sunday, July 18 to 00:00 LT on Tuesday, July 20. From Saturday, July 17 to Tuesday, July 20, the capital city recorded 617.1 mm (24.2 inches) of rain, nearly its annual average of 640.8 mm (25.5 inches). This is a level seen only ‘once in a thousand years,’ according to local meteorologists. Zhengzhou’s average monthly rainfall for July is 193 mm (7.6 inches). July is also its wettest month, followed by August with 147 mm (5.8 inches) and September with 87 mm (3.4 inches). Severe waterlogging has led to the virtual paralysis of the city’s road traffic, Xinhua reports. 260 flights have been canceled, over 80 bus lines suspended and more than 100 temporarily detoured. The subway service has also been temporarily suspended and some trains delayed. At least 160 000 people have been evacuated and an unknown number rescued from raging floodwaters. Water and electricity supply has been disrupted in parts of the city. The city’s Guojiazui reservoir had been breached but there was no dam failure yet. The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhengzhou University – the city’s largest with over 7 000 beds – has lost all power. Even backup supplies were down as the hospital raced to find transport to relocate about 600 critically ill patients, Reuters reports. “Nearly all the hotels in the city have cut the prices to shelter the citizens who can’t go home,” Global Times’ reporter Rita Bai said. “The municipal library and science museums opened their doors to take in trapped people and provide them with hot water and food.”
Dam Near China’s Flooded Zhenghou City Collapses, Third In Last 48 Hours – A dam near the city of Zhengzhou in central China’s Henan province has been destroyed by heavy flooding, after being seriously damaged in heavy storms that killed several people and brought the region to a halt, local media reported. The dam is the third to fail in recent days: over the weekend, due to severe rain, two dams in Hulun Buir City in North China’s Inner Mongolia collapsed. Fortunately, however, no injuries have been reported.According to Xinhua News Agency, the meteorological bureaus of Henan and Zhengzhou have raised the level of emergency response to meteorological disasters to the first level. The Chinese media report that the subway in Zhengzhou was flooded, and rescuers evacuated blocked passengers.The Chinese army warned that a stricken dam in the centre of the country “could collapse at any time” after being severely damaged in torrential storms that killed at least three people and brought the region to a standstill. Weather authorities also issued the highest warning level for central Henan province as downpours caused widespread disruption and the evacuation of residents of flooded streets.On Tuesday evening the regional unit of the People’s Liberation Army warned that the relentless downpour had caused a 20-meter breach in the Yihetan dam in Luoyang — a city of around seven million people — with the risk that it “may collapse at any time.”The PLA’s Central Theater Command said it had sent soldiers to carry out an emergency response including blasting and flood diversion.”On July 20, a 20-meter breach occurred at the Yihetan dam ….the riverbank was severely damaged and the dam may collapse at any time,” it said in the statement according France 24. Earlier in the day, state media also reported that the army sent about 20,000 personnel to carry out emergency work to preserve the integrity of the dams.
Catastrophic floods caused by extremely heavy rains claim lives of at least 29 people in Henan, China – At least 29 people have been killed and 7 others remain missing after heavy rains affecting China’s central province of Henan since July 16 intensified on July 20, 2021. 25 of them died and 7 remain missing in Henan’s capital Zhengzhou after massive floods caused by a month’s worth of July rains in just one hour. 4 people died in severe floods that hit the city of Gongyi on the same day.
- Zhengzhou meteorologists said the level of rains the capital received in 3 days was ‘once in a thousand years.’
- Heavy rains are expected to continue affecting parts of the province over the next 2 days.
- More than 3 000 PLA soldiers and personnel were dispatched to help with search and rescue operations.
Zhengzhou received average precipitation of 457.5 mm (18 inches) within 24 hours to 17:00 LT on July 20, making it the highest daily rainfall since the weather records in the city began.The city has also reported record-high hourly precipitation of 201.9 mm (7.9 inches) between 16:00 and 17:00 LT (08:00 – 09:00 UTC).The accumulated rainfall reached 449 mm (17.6 inches) on average from 18:00 LT on Sunday, July 18 to 00:00 LT on Tuesday, July 20.From Saturday, July 17 to Tuesday, July 20, the capital city recorded 617.1 mm (24.2 inches) of rain, nearly its annual average of 640.8 mm (25.5 inches). This is a level seen only ‘once in a thousand years,’ according to local meteorologists.Zhengzhou’s average monthly rainfall for July is 193 mm (7.6 inches). July is also its wettest month, followed by August with 147 mm (5.8 inches) and September with 87 mm (3.4 inches).Other parts of the province were also badly affected, with dozen other cities flooded.At least 4 people were killed in Gongyi, a city located by the banks of the Yellow River, like Zhengzhou. Local media reported widespread collapse of homes and structures due to heavy rains.At least 31 large and medium-sized reservoirs have seen water levels rise above the alert level after torrential rains battered most parts of the province on Monday and Tuesday, July 19 and 20.In Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, floods affected more than 16 000 people, as two dams collapsed on July 18 after two days of heavy rainfall — the highest since record-keeping began 60 years ago.
China flooding: Death toll rises in Henan as passengers recount horror of Zhengzhou subway floods – At least 33 people have died and eight remain missing in central China, as authorities ramp up rescue and recovery efforts following devastating floods that submerged entire neighborhoods, trapped passengers in subway cars, caused landslides and overwhelmed dams and rivers.Torrential rains have battered Henan province since last weekend, displacing hundreds of thousands of people and causing 1.22 billion yuan (about $190 million) of economic damage, Henan authorities said Thursday.Zhengzhou, the provincial capital of 12 million people, is one of the worst-hit areas, with 12 killed after being trapped for hours on a flooded subway line. But many smaller cities and villages have also been badly ravaged. With more rains forecast for the region, the death toll is expected to rise as rescue work continues. In Gongyi, a county-level city to the west of Zhengzhou, at least four people were killed as gushing floodwaters swept through streets. Heavy rains also caused widespread collapse of homes and landslides, hampering rescue operations. In another city, Xinxiang, rivers have swelled beyond warning levels and seven reservoirs have overflowed, affecting 58 counties and 470,000 people, according to state-run People’s Daily. Enter your email to sign up for the Wonder Theory newsletter.close dialog The severity of the flooding was captured by numerous videos shared on Chinese social media, which showed people and cars swept away in surging torrents. On Thursday, stranded residents have continued to call for help on Wechat and Weibo, the country’s two largest social media platforms, with some sharing photos and information of their missing family members. Home to 99 million residents, Henan is one of China’s most populous and poorest provinces, with large swathes of farmlands and factories.
Two dams collapse after heavy rains hit Inner Mongolia, China (video) Two dams in North China’s Inner Mongolia collapsed on Sunday, July 18, 2021, after heavy rains falling since Saturday. Local citizens were evacuated before the collapse and while material damage is huge, there are no reports of casualties. The combined water storage capacity of both reservoirs was 46 million m3 (1.6 trillion ft3). The first dam collapsed at the Yongan Reservoir in the city of Hulunbuir at 13:48 LT, sending a large amount of floodwater into Xinfa reservoir, located 13 km (8 miles) downstream. At about 15:30 LT, the second dam collapsed at Xinfa reservoir (capacity 38 million m3 (1.3 trillion ft3)).”On the night of the 18th, the flood has merged into the mainstream of the Nuomin River. Flooding caused the G111 national highway in Mo Banner to collapse, causing road disruptions. Downstream villages and farmlands have been turned into a sea of water,” according to China Observer.According to the Ministry of Water Resources, 87 mm (3.4 inches) of rain fell in Hulunbuir on July 17 and 18 and as much as 223 mm (8.8 inches) at the Morin Dawa monitoring station.Hulunbuir city officials said 16 660 people have been affected and 21 775 ha (53 807 acres) of farmland submerged. 22 bridges were destroyed, as well as 124 culverts and 15.6 km (9.7 miles) of highways.According to 2021 statistics from the Ministry of Water Resources, most of the dams in China have exceeded or are approaching the end of their design life. China Observer presents more information in the video:
At least 25 killed as landslides hit Mumbai, India (videos) At least 25 people have been killed after a series of landslides hit Mumbai, India on July 18, 2021. Heavy rains started affecting the region on Saturday night, July 17, and continued into July 18, causing severe water-logging and disruption of both rail and road traffic. Heavy to very heavy rains are expected in the region over the next 4 days.The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation said the city recorded 156 mm (6.1 inches) of rain, followed by 143 mm (5.6 inches) in eastern suburbs and 125 mm (4.9 inches) in western suburbs from 20:00 on July 17 to 02:00 LT on July 18.The heaviest rain was reported between midnight and 02:00 LT on July 18, with waterlogging reported in several places in the city, including Borivali, Kandivali, Malad, Andheri, Chembur, Kurla, Gandhi Market, Hindmata.Within 24 hours, authorities reported 11 incidents of houses or walls collapsing in the Mumbai area. In just one neighborhood, some 6 shacks located at the base of a hill collapsed on top of each other.
Over 100 dead as monsoon rains trigger floods and landslides in India –At least 112 people have died in the western Indian state of Maharashtra, authorities said on Friday, after torrential monsoon rains caused landslides and flooded low-lying areas, cutting off hundreds of villages.Parts of India‘s west coast received up to 23 inches of rainfall over 24 hours, forcing authorities to evacuate people from vulnerable areas as they released water from dams that were threatening to overflow.”Unexpected very heavy rainfall triggered landslides in many places and flooded rivers,” Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, who heads Maharashtra’s state government, told journalists. “Dams and rivers are overflowing. We are forced to release water from dams, and, accordingly, we are moving people residing near the river banks to safer places.”The navy and army were helping with rescue operation in coastal areas, he added.At least 36 people were killed in Taliye, 112 miles southeast of the financial capital Mumbai, when a landslide flattened most of the small village, said Vijay Wadettiwar, a minister in the state governmentAt least four people died in Mumbai after a building collapsed, and another 27 were killed in other parts of Maharashtra due to landslides and accidents linked to the heavy rainfall, state government officials said. Several dozen people were also feared to have been trapped in landslides in Satara and Raigad districts, said a state government official who asked not to be named.”Rescue operations are going on at various places in Satara, Raigad and Ratnagiri.Due to heavy rainfall and flooded rivers, we are struggling to move rescue machinery quickly,” he said.
At least 130 dead as severe flooding hits India – At least 130 are dead after severe flooding in India, officials in the country said on Saturday. Around 136 people are confirmed to be dead after monsoon rain hit the country causing massive flooding and landslides, officials said, CNN reported. One landslide in the country went through a small village and killed 38 people, government officials said. A person from the country’s Disaster Management, Relief and Rehabilitation department told CNN there were also 90,000 people evacuated from their homes due to the rain and more than 10 people trapped after a landslide. Nine more landslides killed 59 people in parts of Maharashtra while 15 were killed from accidents caused by the rain. “Unexpected very heavy rainfall triggered landslides in many places and flooded rivers,” Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray, the head of Maharashtra’s state government, said. “Dams and rivers are overflowing. We are forced to release water from dams, and, accordingly, we are moving people residing near the river banks to safer places,” he added. Monsoon season is hitting many countries with China having to evacuate millions due to the rain. The Philippines are evacuating thousands on Saturday while struggling to maintain coronavirus social distancing rules in emergency shelters. More than 180 are also dead in Germany and Belgium due to flooding.
Heavy rain in Maharashtra breaks 40-year July record, India (video) Incessant rain over the last 48 hours has led to devastating floods in parts of Maharashtra, with three districts flooded and two districts facing a flood-like situation. The rains intensified on July 21, making this July the wettest in 40 years.From July 1 to 22, Ratnagiri recorded 1 781 mm (77.1 inches) of rain, the highest July rainfall in 40 years. Its monthly rainfall average in July is 972.5 mm (38.2 inches).The India Meteorological Department (IMD) said Satara District received 1 074.8 mm (42.3 inches) of rain in 48 hours to July 23 — 480.4 mm (18.9 inches) to July 22 and 594.4 mm (23.4 inches) to July 23. Massive rescue operations are ongoing across the state and the number of casualties is rising.
Typhoon “In-Fa” nearing Okinawa, forecast to rapidly intensify on its way toward Taiwan and China – Typhoon “In-Fa” — the 6th named storm of the 2021 Pacific typhoon season — is approaching Okinawa, Japan on its way toward Taiwan and China. In-Fa will continue strengthening today and possibly rapidly intensify by July 22 while passing south of Okinawa. The current forecast track takes it along the northern tip of Taiwan on July 23 and into mainland China by July 25. At 09:00 UTC on July 20, its center was located about 275 km (170 miles) SE of Kadena Air Base, Okinawa, Japan. In-Fa’s maximum 10-minute sustained winds were 110 km/h (70 mph), with gusts up to 155 km/h (100 mph). Its maximum 1-minute sustained winds were 120 km/h (75 mph). The minimum central barometric pressure was 980 hPa and the system was moving W at 13 km/h (8 mph). Animated multispectral satellite imagery depicts deep convection, robust poleward outflow in the upper levels, and a ragged 65 km (40 miles) wide eye. The typhoon will continue its westward track through 09:00 UTC on July 23 under the influence of the steering ridge, according to JTWC. The system will intensify only slightly over the next 6 hours due to a slight increase in vertical wind shear and the entrainment of dry air along the southern and southeastern periphery of the system. After that, a repositioning of the upper-level ridge positioned to the north of the system will allow for enhanced poleward outflow.
Typhoon “Cempaka” to make U-turn after landfall over China’s Guangdong Province –Typhoon “Cempaka” — the 7th named storm of the 2021 Pacific typhoon season — is slowly approaching China’s Guangdong Province where it’s expected to make landfall on July 20, 2021.At 06:00 UTC on July 20, the center of Cempaka was located about 215 km (135 miles) WSW of Hong Kong. It had maximum 10-minute winds of 100 km/h (62 mph), with gusts to 150 km/h (90 mph). 1-minute sustained winds were 130 km/h (80 mph).The minimum central barometric pressure was 992 hPa and the system was almost stationary.Animated multispectral satellite imagery shows the system has maintained overall convective signature and a defined, albeit cloud-filled eye, as it tracked very slowly toward China, JTWC forecasters noted.The typhoon is forecast to continue moving NW and make landfall shortly after 15:00 UTC along the southeastern Chinese coast near Yangjiang, Guangdong.After 15:00 UTC on July 21, Cempaka is expected to begin making a tight left U-turn tracing the west coast of Leizhou Peninsula into the eastern tip of Hainan before exiting back into the South China Sea, JTWC said.By July 25, Cempaka will be accelerating northeastward in the middle of the South China Sea between Hong Kong and Luzon, Philippines. Land interaction with the rugged Chinese interior will rapidly decay the cyclone down to 55 km/h (34 mph). However, increased moisture from the Gulf of Tonkin will revive it and by July 25 it will be up to 75 km/h (45 mph).In preparation for the storm, the Hong Kong Observatory issued a Signal No.3 warning, indicating wind speeds up to 60 km/h (40 mph).The typhoon is expected to bring heavy rains to the SE portions of China through much of this week.The provinces of Guangdong, Guangxi, and Hainan can expect widespread rainfall up to 200 mm (8 inches), with isolated 500 mm (20 inches) in places through Friday, July 23.
Typhoon “In-Fa” moving over Okinawa, landfall expected south of Shanghai, China – (video, weather graphics) Typhoon “In-Fa” — the 7th named storm of the 2021 Pacific typhoon season — is slowly moving over Okinawa, southern Japan on July 23, 2021. After passing over Okinawa, In-Fa is expected to move north of Taiwan before making landfall south of Shanghai, China on July 25, with maximum sustained winds up to 140 km/h (87 mph).At 11:00 UTC on July 23, the center of In-Fa was located about 345 km (215 miles) SW of Kadena Air Base, Japan. The typhoon had maximum 10-minute sustained winds of 150 km/h (90 mph) with gusts up to 215 km/h (130 mph), making it a Category 1 hurricane equivalent on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Its minimum central pressure was 955 hPa (28.20 inHg), and the system is almost stationary.After moving over Okinawa, In-Fa is expected to pass north of Taiwan while approaching the central coast of eastern China on July 25, with maximum sustained winds up to 140 km/h (87 mph) and very heavy rain.Emergency warnings (level 4/5) for storm surge have been issued for Yaeyama Islands (southern Ryukyu, Japan), while red warnings for heavy rainfall, floods and high waves are in effect for the Ryukyu Islands.In Taiwan, extremely heavy rain advisories have been issued for northern areas of the Island.
Rare tornado hits Ontario, leaving ‘catastrophic’ damage, Canada (videos) A rare tornado tore through the city of Barrie, Ontario, Canada around 14:30 LT on July 15, 2021, leaving what officials described as ‘catastrophic’ damage. At least 11 people were injured. Environment Canada said the tornado received a preliminary rating of EF-2 with wind speeds of up to 210 km/h (130 mph). The tornado’s path was about 4.8 km (3 miles) and up to 100 m (330 feet) wide at some points.Barrie Mayor Jeff Lehman said a total of 11 people were injured, with four of them taken to hospital.A total of 25 buildings were damaged and three of them were demolished.”The damage is catastrophic. It is significant. It is major,” Barrie police spokesperson Peter Leon said, adding that there have been power outages and damage to some gas lines.”There’s houses that have come off their foundation, obviously lots of roofs that have been blown off,” Barrie-Innisfil Member of Parliament John Brassard told CBC News. “I’ve seen trampolines in people’s pools, so the damage is quite devastating.”AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Alan Reppert said tornadoes in Barrie are not common, but they can still occur on occasion. On May 31, 1985, the city’s Allandale area was hit by an EF-4 tornado, killing 8 people and injuring more than 100 others. At least 600 homes were destroyed.
Sirung volcano erupts, Aviation Color Code raised to Orange, Indonesia – Ash emission was observed at the Indonesian Sirung volcano, East Nusa Tenggara starting at 08:44 UTC (16:44 LT) on July 21, 2021. The last known eruption of this volcano took place in 2015, with ash rising up to 1.5 km (5 000 feet) above sea level.The best estimate of ash-cloud top is around 2.8 km (9 158 feet) above sea level but it may be higher than what can be observed clearly, the Sirung Volcano Observatory said.Ash-cloud is moving north. Its height was assessed by a ground observer.Seismicity at the volcano has not shown significant changes, however, ash emission may reoccur.The last eruption at Sirung volcano took place on July 8, 2015, when the ash plume drifted 55 km (34 miles) W of the volcano at an altitude of 1.5 km (5 000 feet) a.s.l.A 3-hour long eruption took place at Sirung volcano on May 8, 2012. The eruption was accompanied by loud sounds and incandescent tephra observed rising 10 m (33 feet) above the crater.The explosion created an ash plume that rose up to 3.5 km (11 500 feet) a.s.l. and drifted to the north, producing ashfall up to 4 mm (0.15 inches) thick near the crater.On May 12 (2012), authorities raised the Alert Level to 3 (on a scale of 1-4) and recommended that visitors not approach the volcano within a 2.5 km (1.5 miles) radius.
How the moon’s ‘wobble’ worsens coastal flooding due to sea-level rise – Full moon, new moon. High tide, low tide. These are dependable rhythms of our planet. It is not surprising then, that news of a “wobble” in the moon’s orbit – one with implications for the growing problem of U.S. coastal flooding – has piqued the curiosity of many. . What the media has termed the “wobble” is actually a cycle as regular as the seasons but occurring over decades rather than months. More specifically, the path of the moon’s orbit around Earth is tilted in space and rotates once every 18.6 years with a motion similar to the undulations of a spinning coin just before it falls flat. This motion is more precisely described as lunar nodal precession, and it is most certainly not a new discovery. Astronomers have observed this phenomenon for millennia by documenting gradual changes to the moon’s position in the night sky. Precession of the moon’s orbit is not merely an astronomical phenomenon – it also affects ocean tides, which is how this esoteric “wobble” is connected to coastal flooding and made it into the headlines. The effect of precession on tides is not the same everywhere: To get an idea of the size of the effect, consider St. Petersburg, Florida, where the height of the highest tides changes over the lunar precession cycle by a little less than two inches. That may not seem like much, but keep in mind that the total amount of global average sea-level rise over the last decade is also a little less than two inches. That means that the “wobble” has roughly the same impact on the height of high tides as the most recent decade of global sea-level rise. These seemingly small changes can have big consequences becausehigh-tide flooding is a game of inches, where benign high water levels suddenly become impactful as the edge of a storm drain or sea wall is breached. Not to mention that the extent and frequency of such events increases rapidly with every incremental increase in the height of high tides. In St. Petersburg, for example, increasing the height of high tides by four inches (similar to the influence of the “wobble” plus a decade of sea-level rise) can produce an increase from 10 high-tide floods per year to 45 floods per year. That same four inches in Honolulu, Hawaii can produce an increase from 10 to almost 70 high-tide floods per year. Inches matter.
The Sun sends us a wake-up call –Two powerful solar events erupted from the Sun over the past couple of days. While they both missed Earth, ‘we are very lucky they did,’ Ben Davidson of the Suspicious Observers said in the video. The solar maximum is building now, and Earth’s magnetic field continues weakening.It’s never too late to start preparing.
CO2 emissions set to hit record levels in 2023 and there’s ‘no clear peak in sight,’ IEA says — Only a small chunk of governments’ recovery spending in response to the Covid-19 pandemic has been allocated to clean energy measures, according to the International Energy Agency, with the Paris-based organization forecasting that carbon dioxide emissions will hit record levels in 2023. Published on Tuesday, the IEA’s analysis notes that, as of the second quarter of this year, the world’s governments had set aside roughly $380 billion for “energy-related sustainable recovery measures.” This represents approximately 2% of recovery spending, it said. In a statement issued alongside its analysis, the IEA laid out a stark picture of just how much work needed to be done in order for climate related targets to be met. “The sums of money, both public and private, being mobilised worldwide by recovery plans fall well short of what is needed to reach international climate goals,” it said. These shortfalls were “particularly pronounced in emerging and developing economies, many of which face particular financing challenges,” it added. Looking ahead, the Paris-based organization estimated that, under current spending plans, the planet’s carbon dioxide emissions would be on course to hit record levels in 2023 and continue to grow in the ensuing years. There was, its analysis claimed, “no clear peak in sight.” Commenting on the findings, Fatih Birol, the IEA’s executive director, said: “Since the Covid-19 crisis erupted, many governments may have talked about the importance of building back better for a cleaner future, but many of them are yet to put their money where their mouth is.” “Despite increased climate ambitions, the amount of economic recovery funds being spent on clean energy is just a small sliver of the total,” he added. Birol said governments needed to “increase spending and policy action rapidly to meet the commitments they made in Paris in 2015 – including the vital provision of financing by advanced economies to the developing world. “But they must then go even further,” he added, “by leading clean energy investment and deployment to much greater heights beyond the recovery period in order to shift the world onto a pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050, which is narrow but still achievable – if we act now.”
IEA Warning: CO2 Emissions Will Keep Reaching ‘All-Time High’ if Rich Nations Keep Skimping on Clean Energy –The International Energy Agency warned Tuesday that global carbon dioxide emissions are on track to soar to record levels in 2023 – and continue rising thereafter – as governments fail to make adequate investments in green energy and end their dedication to planet-warming fossil fuels.In a new report, IEA estimates that of the $16 trillion world governments have spent to prop up their economies during the coronavirus crisis, just 2% of that total has gone toward clean energy development.Fatih Birol, executive director of the IEA, slammed what he characterized as the hypocrisy of rich governments that promised a green recovery from the pandemic but have thus far refused “to put their money where their mouth is.” Research published last month revealed that between January 2020 and March 2021, the governments of wealthy G7 nations poured tens of billions of dollars more into fossil fuels than renewable energy.On top of being “far from what’s needed to put the world on a path to reaching net-zero emissions by mid-century,” Birol said that the money allocated to green energy measures thus far is “not even enough to prevent global emissions from surging to a new record.””Governments need to increase spending and policy action rapidly to meet the commitments they made in Paris in 2015 – including the vital provision of financing by advanced economies to the developed world,” Birol continued. “But they must then go even further by leading clean energy investment and deployment to much greater heights beyond the recovery period in order to shift the world onto a pathway to net-zero emissions by 2050, which is narrow but still achievable – if we act now.”The IEA’s analysis – which examines roughly 800 policies implemented throughout the coronavirus crisis by more than 50 countries – finds that “full and timely implementation” of the economic recovery measures would result in CO2 emissions surging to an “all-time high” in 2023 and continuing to rise in the following years, more than wiping out the pandemic-related emissions drop.”While this trajectory is 800 million tonnes lower in 2023 than it would have been without any sustainable recovery efforts,” the analysis notes, “it is nonetheless 3,500 million tonnes above” what’s necessary to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.The Paris-based agency’s latest findings come just months after it said world governments must immediately halt all new investments in oil and gas projects in order to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis, which is wreaking havoc across the globe in the form of catastrophic flooding, deadly heatwaves, drought, and wildfires.
Struggling global Covid-19 response dims hopes for climate change action – Across the world, Covid-19 is again surging. The global number of new coronavirus cases grew by at least 12 percent over the past week, theWorld Health Organisation announced on Wednesday, with a rise ininfections seen in almost all regions. In the United States, the seven-day average of infections soared nearly 70 percent, the White House said last week. Asian nations including Bangladesh, Indonesia and Thailand are seeing their worst waves of infections yet. Meanwhile, Reuters reports that Europe on Monday became the first region to see more than 50 million Covid-19 cases. Countries in Latin America, a region that has already seen an enormous number of deaths from Covid-19, are witnessing another upswing. And in sub-Saharan Africa, once largely spared from the worst of the crisis, the virus is hitting hard in many countries, with the continent seeing its deadliest period of the pandemic so far.WHO Director General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in an address at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee on Wednesday that the “pandemic is a test” – one that “the world is failing.” That assessment does not bode well for a world confronting other looming, global problems. The pandemic is hardly the world’s only major threat. Disastrous weather events, from heat waves and wildfires in North America and Russia to floods in China and Europe, have left hundreds dead. These events have shaken many, offering all-too-real evidence that once freak-weather incidents are no longer unusual in our changing climate. Although wealthier nations have been hit hard this summer, it is often poorer nations that suffer the most. In southern Madagascar, a climate-change-linked drought threatens to push half a million people into famine, even though few even own cars.“These people contributed zero to climate change,” Lola Castro, the World Food Programme’s regional director for southern Africa, toldWashington Post’s Today’s WorldView in June of those worst affected. (Despite numerous public calls for help, experts on the ground say the situation in Madagascar remains dire.) Though climate change and the coronavirus pose different problems, they share alarming similarities. And in some cases, they feed into each other: A report released Tuesday said that the global rebound from the pandemic could lead to carbon emissions “climbing to record levels in 2023,” with the money allocated for clean energy in global spending plans failing to “reach international climate goals.” They also show the limits of a global system that focuses on short-term patches for long-term problems, putting a handful of leaders from powerful nations in charge of making decisions for the entire world. As Aaron David Miller, a former State Department official now with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, put it on Twitter on Monday, it is “stunning” how multilateral institutions dropped the ball not only on the pandemic and climate change, but on much more.
Are We Prepared for Pandora’s Box of Climate Catastrophes? – Will this be the summer we all remember what we were doing? A monstrous landslide after record rainfall in Japan left fifteen dead and dozens missing. Biblical flooding in Germany has caused hundreds of deaths with many more unaccounted for. More than a million acres of the west coast of North America are on fire after temperatures soared to 122°F (49.9°C). Will this be the moment we woke up and demanded action? Or will it be the coolest summer of the rest of our lives? With the planet only warming by just over a degree, natural-disaster loss events have more than tripled in the past forty years. Since 2004, the number of events has already doubled. What can we expect to happen if we continue on our current path? One thing keeping scientists awake at night is the sleep inducingly named Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), or the Gulf Stream. This is the ocean current that begins in the warm Gulf of Mexico, carries warm water up the northeast coast of the United States, and across the Atlantic to Northern Europe. The Gulf Stream is often credited with stopping countries like the U.K. and Ireland from freezing over in winter. What has scientists concerned is that the current has been slowing down, and it is possible that it may ‘switch off’ completely. The slowing down is being caused by the increasing amount of freshwater melt coming off the Greenland ice sheets as a result of manmade warming. Between 1900 and 1970, 1,919 cubic miles (8,000 cubic kilometres) flowed into the seas surrounding Greenland, and that figure rose to 3,119 cubic miles (13,000 cubic kilometres) between 1970 and 2000. During the 20th century, the current slowed down between fifteen and twenty per cent. Scientists believe that Europe will still continue to get warmer due to climate change, unless the Gulf Stream turns off completely. They are unsure of this likelihood, although Western European winters are predicted to become colder as the stream slows down further. Whilst Europe may avoid completely freezing over, the Gulf Stream, along with the North American Polar Jet Stream, are expected to drive extreme weather events. In research published in the journal Nature, scientists predict ‘climate chaos’ as water gushes from Greenland into the oceans. They expect weather to be strongly impacted and temperatures on both sides of the Atlantic to vary more wildly from year to year. The jet stream is like the weather distribution manager for North America. It decides where to send high and low pressure, and how strong to make them. When the jet stream is managing the weather effectively, weather rushes along a torrent from west to east, bringing rain every three to five days. Unfortunately, as the Arctic warms, and the temperature difference between the equator and the North Pole narrows, the jet stream acts unpredictably. The flow is strongest when the temperature variance is highest, but as the Arctic is warming faster than the equator, the flow has slowed down. Recently, the weather is not really rushing, it’s more like a child dragging their feet, hanging around in areas for long periods. The June 2019 fires in Alberta, Canada, were caused by a high-pressure ridge hanging out and causing drought and fire. Then further out east, low pressure ridges cause rain and flooding which festers (33). Likewise, the jet stream was meandering slowly in an Omega pattern (Ω) in July 2021 and this helped caused therecord heat and resulting wildfires in Canada and the western US. Whatever weather pattern emerges, be it a drought, heavy rainfall or heat wave; that pattern basically persists for longer and amplifies the associated risks.
DOE Quietly Backs Plan for Carbon Capture Network Larger Than Entire Oil Pipeline System –An organization run by former Obama-era Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz, with the backing of the AFL-CIO, afederation of 56 labor unions, has created a policy “blueprint” to build a nationwide pipeline network capable of carrying a gigaton of captured carbon dioxide (CO2).The “Building to Net-Zero” blueprint appears to be quietly gaining momentum within the Energy Department, where a top official has discussed ways to put elements into action using the agency’s existing powers.The pipeline network would be twice the size of the current U.S. oil pipeline network by volume, according to the blueprint, released by a recently formed group calling itself the Labor Energy Partnership. Backers say the proposed pipeline network – including CO2 “hubs” in the Gulf Coast, the Ohio River Valley, and Wyoming – would help reduce climate-changing pollution by transporting captured carbon dioxide to either the oil industry, which would undo some of the climate benefits by using the CO2 to revive aging oilfields, or to as-yet unbuilt facilities for underground storage.The blueprint, however, leaves open many questions about how the carbon would be captured at the source – a process that so far has proved difficult and expensive – and where it would be sent, focusing instead on suggesting policies the federal government can adopt to boost CO2 pipeline construction. Climate advocates fear that building such a large CO2 pipeline network could backfire, causing more greenhouse gas pollution by enabling aging coal-fired power plants to remain in service longer, produce pipes that could wind up carrying fossil fuels if carbon capture efforts fall through, and represent an expensive waste of federal funds intended to encourage a meaningful energy transition. In March, over 300 climate and environmental justice advocacy groups sent a letter to Congress, arguing that subsidizing carbon capture “could entrench the fossil economy for decades to come.”
Will carbon capture play a key role in the race to net zero emissions? Not everyone agrees – Carbon capture technology is often held up as a source of hope in reducing global greenhouse gas emissions, featuring prominently in countries’ climate plans as well as the net-zero strategies of some of the world’s largest oil and gas companies.The topic is divisive, however, with climate researchers, campaigners and environmental advocacy groups arguing that carbon capture technology is not a solution.The world is confronting a climate emergency, and policymakers and chief executives are under intensifying pressure to deliver on promises made as part of the landmark Paris Agreement. The accord, ratified by nearly 200 countries in 2015, is seen as critically important in averting the worst effects of climate change.Carbon capture, utilization and storage – often shortened to carbon capture technology or CCUS – refers to a suite of technologies designed to capture carbon dioxide from high-emitting activities such as power generation or industrial facilities, that use either fossil fuels or biomass for fuel.The captured carbon dioxide, which can also be captured directly from the atmosphere, is then compressed and transported via pipeline, ship, rail or truck to be used in a range of applications or permanently stored underground. Proponents of these technologies believe they can play an important and diverse role in meeting global energy and climate goals.Carroll Muffett, chief executive at the non-profit Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL), is not one of them. “If you look at the history of carbon capture and storage, what you see is nearly two decades of a solution in search of a cure.”Some CCS and CCUS facilities have been operating since the 1970s and 1980s when natural gas processing plants in south Texas began capturing carbon dioxide and supplying the emissions to local oil producers for enhanced oil recovery operations. The first one was set up in 1972.It wasn’t until several years later that carbon capture technology would be studied for climate mitigation purposes. Now, there are 21 large-scale CCUS commercial projects in operation worldwide and plans for at least 40 new commercial facilities have been announced in recent years. A report published by CIEL earlier this month concluded that these technologies are not only “ineffective, uneconomic and unsafe,” but they also prolong reliance on the fossil fuel industry and distract from a much-needed pivot to renewable alternatives.
Would Upper Midwest carbon capture pipelines offer a lifeline to coal plants? –An environmental group is warning that a proposed pipeline network that would carry carbon emissions to underground storage in Illinois and North Dakota could also extend the life of fossil fuel power plants in the Upper Midwest. The recently announced projects would immediately benefit ethanol producers, but the Sierra Club says they might also offer a regulatory or economic lifeline to coal-fired power plants in the region under future federal emissions policies. The pipelines and storage sites, still in very early planning stages, are being promoted as a solution for ethanol refineries. But Andy Knott of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign said, “we certainly have a concern” that later on carbon capture could encompass coal plant emissions. If the federal government should impose a carbon emissions reduction policy, carbon capture and storage could help a power plant “to clear that bar,” said Jeremy Fisher, senior advisor for strategic research and development for the Sierra Club’s environmental law program. Secure underground storage sites abound in the Midwest, most notably in North Dakota, Nebraska and Illinois, according to Brad Crabtree, vice president for carbon management at the Great Plains Institute. One of them has been in operation since 2017, when ethanol manufacturer Archer Daniels Midland began injecting about one million tons of CO2 each year thousands of feet underground directly beneath its plant in Decatur, Illinois. More Midwestern projects are planned. Using a similar approach, a partnership of Battelle and Catahoula Resources envisions burying waste CO2 from Nebraska’s 25 ethanol plants in nearby saline reservoirs. Two pipelines, announced in the past few months, would deliver CO2 from Midwestern ethanol plants to salty storage beds located deep underground in North Dakota and Illinois. Navigator CO2 Ventures and the investment firm BlackRock are planning a 1,200-mile pipeline to collect carbon dioxide from “industrial sources” in North Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska, Iowa and Illinois and stashing it underground in Illinois. A tentative route angles from northwest to southeast Iowa. It would pass fairly close to three of the state’s four largest coal-burning power plants: the George Neal Energy Center and the Louisa and Ottumwa generating stations.
Bezos: Trip to space ‘reinforces my commitment to climate change’ – Amazon founder Jeff Bezos on Tuesday said his space flight has reinforced his commitment to addressing climate change and environmental issues. In an interview with MSNBC News, Bezos told host Stephanie Ruhle that his Blue Origin space launch on Tuesday was significant for building a path for future generations in space travel. He also said it was a reminder of the fragility of the planet Earth. “We have to build a road to space so that our kids and their kids can build the future … when you get up and there you see it, you see how tiny it is and how fragile it is, we need to take all heavy industry, all polluting industry and move it into space, and keep Earth as this beautiful gem of a planet that it is,” Bezos told Ruhle.
Democrats lay out vision for Civilian Climate Corps –A group of more than 80 House and Senate Democrats on Tuesday laid out their vision for a climate jobs program called the Civilian Climate Corps that is expected to be part of a sweeping $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation bill filled with Democratic priorities. A new letter from Democrats spanning the ideological spectrum pushed for the program to prioritize natural climate solutions, clean energy, climate resilience and addressing environmental justice. The lawmakers also called for “ambitious” labor standards, including a living wage and an award to help participants pay for college or pay back student loans. The letter did not specify how much money should be provided for that program. They said half of the climate program’s investment should be directed into front-line communities disproportionately impacted by environmental issues and that half of the Corps’ members should be recruited from such communities. The push was spearheaded by Reps. Joe Neguse (Colo.), Alexandria-Ocasio Cortez (N.Y.), Judy Chu (Calif.), Marcy Kaptur (Ohio) and Bobby Rush (Ill.) and by Sens. Ron Wyden (Ore.), Chris Coons (Del.) and Ed Markey (Mass.). Some of these lawmakers have already introduced legislation with different specifications for the program. In their letter, the lawmakers acknowledged those differences, saying that “while each of these bills vary in detail, we collectively ask that the upcoming reconciliation package include text that supports and funds a Civilian Climate Corps program as outlined in this letter.” During the press conference, Ocasio-Cortez described this as a “yes, and” approach, saying the proposals are “inclusive” rather than competitive.
Manchin could get top role in writing clean energy standard – Democrats are grappling with jurisdictional questions that will help determine whether their signature climate policies get enacted into law, and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) could end up with a leading role in developing a clean electricity standard.The Senate Budget Committee last week struck a deal on a broad $3.5 trillion outline for reconciliation, but lawmakers are beginning the delicate process of writing a budget resolution and determining which other committees will draw up some of the Biden administration’s marquee proposals.The White House has pushed Congress to include a clean electricity standard (CES) in the reconciliation process (E&E Daily, June 30). Last week, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said that she expects such a provision to be in the package (Energywire, July 12).Now, Senate Democrats are coalescing around a CES that would cut emissions by half and generate 80% clean power by 2030. Lawmakers, budget experts and people involved with the effort expect the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which Manchin chairs, to be charged with writing it, but other committee chairmen are signaling their own interest.“Sen. Manchin’s committee and Sen. Manchin are very important,” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), who for months has been assembling a CES proposal she hopes can pass the complicated rules that govern reconciliation. “I’ve spoken to Sen. Manchin several times about the CES, and he has told me that he remains open to the idea,” Smith told reporters last week.Manchin’s office did not return a request for comment yesterday, but his support for a continued role for fossil fuels in the nation’s energy mix has already drawn complaints from progressive groups. The West Virginian emerged from a meeting with President Biden and Senate Democrats last week saying that proposals to eliminate fossil fuels are “very, very disturbing.”CES advocates, however, noted that Manchin has an incontrovertible role in writing clean energy policy, given that he already controls the crucial swing vote in the Senate.“Sen. Manchin is one of the votes we’re going to need for everything that is going to be in budget reconciliation, so he’ll be in all of the relevant conversations,” said Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), a member of ENR. “I don’t think this is any different.”
One of the biggest myths about EVs is busted in new study – A new study lays to rest the tired argument that electric vehicles aren’t much cleaner than internal combustion vehicles. Over the life cycle of an EV – from digging up the materials needed to build it to eventually laying the car to rest – it will release fewer greenhouse gas emissions than a gas-powered car, the research found. That holds true globally, whether an EV plugs into a grid in Europe with a larger share of renewables, or a grid in India that still relies heavily on coal. This shouldn’t come as a big surprise. Fossil fuels are driving the climate crisis. So governments from California to the European Union have proposed phasing out internal combustion engines by 2035. But there are still people who claim that EVs are only as clean as the grids they run on – and right now, fossil fuels still dominate when it comes to the energy mix in most places. “We have a lot of lobby work from parts of the automotive industry saying that electric vehicles are not that much better if you take into account the electricity production and the battery production. We wanted to look into this and see whether these arguments are true,” says Georg Bieker, a researcher at the nonprofit research group the International Council on Clean Transportation (ICCT) that published the report. The ICCT’s analysis found that those arguments don’t hold true over time.
Renewable Energy and Battery Jobs Fared Better Than Energy Sector Overall in 2020 – Employment in renewable energy and battery-related sectors was far more resilient to the shock of the novel coronavirus pandemic, according to an annual DOE report released Monday.Overall, one in 10 U.S. energy workers lost their jobs in 2020, with oil and gas workers hit hardest despitebillions in bailouts and substantial payouts to executives. Wind energy employment grew by nearly 2%. Jobs in the electric and hybrid-electric vehicle sectors grew by 8% and 6% respectively, and battery storage jobs also increased.”While we do have work to do to make our energy sector more robust, we also have a lot of work to do in making our energy sector look like America and to make sure that these new clean energy jobs are paying family-sustaining wages, with good benefits and union membership,” DOE Secretary Jennifer Granholm said during a virtual report release.As reported by Reuters:The U.S. energy workforce, from fossil fuels to solar power, shed 840,000 jobs in 2020 as the global health crisis sapped demand for transportation fuels and slowed new projects, according to the annual U.S. Energy Employment Report.The largest declines were in petroleum and natural gas fuels with a combined loss of 186,000 jobs, or 21% of their workforce, according to the report. Employment in the wind energy industry was among the only sectors to grow, rising a modest 1.8%.The Biden administration is pushing several initiatives to boost clean energy industries as part of a sweeping infrastructure package being hashed out by Congress, arguing that a transition away from fossil fuels can create millions of good-paying union jobs while countering climate change.
Ohio’s attack on renewable energies – Westlake | Bay Village Observer – On Monday, July 12, Governor Mike DeWine signed into law SB 52. This bill specifically targets wind and solar projects in Ohio. Prior to this bill, all energy projects had to apply first- and only- to the Ohio Power Siting Board (OPSB) for approval. OPSB is a governor-appointed/senate-approved board comprised of energy experts. With the passage of SB 52, businesses that would like to build wind and solar farms in Ohio must now hold a public meeting in the county they are proposing their project at least 90 days before applying to OPSB. This gives county commissions the power to reject a specific project or ban wind and solar projects altogether in the county. However, citizens would still be able to canvass signatures and put the restricted development up for popular vote. Please keep in mind that this new hoop for energy businesses in Ohio only applies to wind and solar: local officials have no power over coal mines, oil or gas well projects in Ohio. In fact, local governments are NOT allowed to ban natural gas activity (fracking) and local efforts to regulate it have been struck down. But now local governments will be allowed to ban wind and solar farms. At a time when the Biden administration is gearing up to fund renewable energy projects nationwide, this definitely feels like a step backwards for Ohio. It could mean missed opportunities for generating a greater percentage of energy from renewables and for new job growth. Opponents of the bill believe that Ohio will be passed over for renewable projects and neighboring states will benefit instead. An Ohio University report from fall of 2020 found that solar energy could support between 18,000-54,000 jobs over the next several decades. And that report just examined solar energy, not wind. The bill did not have any support from Democrats. Additionally, 10 Republicans from both the House and the Senate also opposed the bill. At the very least, each type of energy project should have the same standards in Ohio. Farmers should also keep their rights over their own land should they choose to lease it to a company for wind or solar energy. This bill gives the government control over private land.
Condo owners’ appeal could be last legal hurdle for offshore wind in Great Lakes – A legal challenge by two lakeview condo dwellers seeking to block Lake Erie’s first offshore wind farm faces a high legal bar before the Ohio Supreme Court – with equally high stakes for clean energy in the region.The Icebreaker Windpower project’s six turbines would sit roughly 8 to 10 miles northwest of Cleveland and produce roughly 20.7 megawatts of electricity per year. The Lake Erie Energy Development Corporation, or LEEDCo, has worked on the project for more than a decade.The Ohio Power Siting Board approved the project in October, putting it on track to become not just the first offshore wind project in Ohio but also the first freshwater offshore wind project in North America. The developer has achieved several regulatory wins, including the removal of a “poison pill” from an earlier version of the siting board’s approval, which would have mandated nightly shutdowns of the turbines for eight months of the year. There was no evidence that the shutdowns would have been necessary to protect wildlife.The project’s primary resistance now comes from two intervenors in Bratenahl, Ohio, a suburb east of Cleveland with median annual earnings above $80,000, according to U.S. census data. W. Susan Dempsey watches birds and sunsets from her balcony, and Robert Maloney enjoys birding and regularly takes his boat out to fish on Lake Erie, their lawyers wrote in 2018.Their case challenging the siting board’s decision, now before the state’s top court, faces a much narrower path than it had before the board. The Ohio Supreme Court won’t overturn the Ohio Power Siting Board’s ruling unless it was unlawful or unreasonable. Generally speaking, the court is supposed to affirm the Ohio Power Siting Board as long as it correctly applied the law to the facts before it. And the board’s factual findings depend in large part on its technical expertise. So, the court won’t disturb those findings unless they are manifestly against the weight of the evidence or so clearly unsupported as to show misapprehension, mistake or a willful disregard of duty, the state’s brief noted.“The court gives deference to the technical opinions of the agencies,” said Dave Karpinski, who heads up LEEDCo. In his view, “there are really no new arguments in their appeal,” which haven’t already been considered and rejected by the board.“Because Icebreaker Wind is the first ever offshore wind project proposed in Ohio, it is one of the most thoroughly reviewed projects ever to be approved in the state, having been comprehensively studied and analyzed at length,” said Miranda Leppla, vice president of energy policy for the Ohio Environmental Council.
Thune, Brown Introduce Bipartisan Bill to Increase Biogas Production, Promote Investment in Rural America — U.S. Sens. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) introduced bipartisan legislation to encourage investment in biodigester and nutrient recovery systems, while establishing a market for farmers who already have a surplus of waste materials that can be used for biogas production. Thune and Brown’s bill, the Agricultural Environmental Stewardship Act, will help expand the market for renewable biogas by providing a 30 percent investment tax credit to help offset the upfront costs associated with building biodigester systems. U.S. Reps. Ron Kind (D-Wis.) and Tom Reed (R-N.Y.) introduced companion legislation in the House of Representatives.’This bill is a commonsense solution to help South Dakota’s dairy producers, boost our economy, and better preserve our environment,’ said Thune. ‘I’d like to thank Senator Brown and our colleagues in the House for this bipartisan effort to invest in sustainable biogas technology and American jobs, and I look forward to working to get this bill enacted into law.”Ohio farmers are struggling to safely dispose of livestock waste that could be used for renewable energy,’ said Brown. ‘This legislation will encourage investment in the technology needed to convert these waste materials into renewable fuel that can be used to power farms, households, and businesses across the country. We need to do all we can to protect Lake Erie and our waterways, and this bill provides another tool to ensure clean water.’ Farmers across the country have a surplus of organic material like manure, food scraps, agricultural residue, and wastewater solids and liquids, all of which can be used to produce biogas that can be used to produce heat, electricity, and fuel and can be injected into natural gas pipelines. They can also be used to process wastewater up stream, which reduces runoff and containments that impact potable water in a number of communities.
In Connecticut, another boost for fuel cell industry reignites subsidy debate – Connecticut’s fuel cell industry scored a win last week when Gov. Ned Lamont signed into law a bill requiring the state’s electric distribution companies to solicit up to 30 megawatts in new fuel cell generation projects by Jan. 1. The legislation is the latest example of the state’s long efforts to bolster an industry that has made Connecticut a leader in fuel cell development, but the debate over the bill also underscored tensions between economic development interests and the urgency of eliminating carbon emissions.Connecticut is a national leader in fuel cell technology; the state is home to two major manufacturers and second only to California in the number of generators deployed. The units generate electricity through a chemical reaction fueled primarily by hydrogen. They are more than twice as efficient as typical combustion technologies,according to the U.S. Department of Energy, and do not emit the poisonous nitrogen oxides that are so harmful to humans and the climate.Supporters see fuel cells playing a pivotal role as backup power sources for microgrids and other scenarios where resilience demands rule intermittent renewables like wind and solar. But because most fuel cells currently derive their hydrogen from natural gas, they emit carbon. And some environmentalists argue that incentivizing their use is working against climate interests. “We should not be subsidizing dirty energy,” said Samantha Dynowski, state director of Sierra Club Connecticut. “There are methane leaks everywhere in the extraction and transport of natural gas. It’s really alarming to hear legislators, some of whom are good on climate, repeating this messaging that fuel cells are cleaner and will help us reach our goals.”
Feud between energy giants puts state’s climate goals at risk – A proposal to build a $1 billion transmission line to bring hydropower from Canada to Massachusetts has survived years of thorny negotiations and court challenges to win critical state and federal permits. The 145-mile line, Governor Charlie Baker has said, is critical to curb the state’s reliance on fossil fuels and reduce emissions. But none of that matters if Avangrid, a Connecticut-based subsidiary of a massive Spanish energy company, can’t connect the line to New England’s power grid, which requires expensive upgrades to a critical circuit breaker at the Seabrook Nuclear Power Plant in New Hampshire. Seabrook is owned by NextEra Energy, a Florida company that has taken aggressive action to stop the power line from being built.The increasingly bitter feud between the two energy behemoths has now put at risk the state’s ability to comply with its ambitious new climate law, which requires Massachusetts to reduce emissions by 50 percent below 1990 levels by the end of the decade and effectively eliminate them by 2050. It also highlights the complexities the state faces as it tries to clean up a power grid composed of many interconnecting, often competing, players. “”This conflict is symptomatic of a myriad of hurdles facing many large energy infrastructure projects, including green ones,” said Paul Patterson, an analyst at Glenrock Associates, a New York-based energy research firm. “One cannot underestimate how difficult it can be to overcome these hurdles.”Most recently, the dispute between the companies has devolved into rival complaints filed against each other with regulators, including one that Avangrid lodged with the Nuclear Regulatory Commission – a typically confidential filing the company publicized – in which it alleged that Seabrook poses a threat to public safety if the circuit breaker isn’t upgraded. NextEra officials allege that their competitor is “whitewashing the real issues” and “jeopardizing the development of renewable energy projects across New England.” Avangrid officials say their rival “chooses to lie” in an effort to protect its fossil fuel business and nuclear power plant.
Maine mining project CEO’s comments about Indigenous rights stir controversy – Wolfden Resources, a Canadian mining company looking to develop a precious minerals mine in Maine, is under criticism for claims made to investors regarding Indigenous rights in the state and the environmental impact the mine will have on the area’s bodies of water. The claims originate from Wolfden CEO Ron Little’s presentation at a 2019 investor conference in Vancouver on the Pickett Mountain Mining Project, based in northern Penobscot County. About three minutes into the presentation, which was recorded on video by conference organizer Cambridge House International, Little showed a slide discussing the location of Wolfden’s property. Wolfden is seeking a rezoning permit on its land from the Maine Land Use Planning Commission. “There are no Indigenous rights in the state of Maine,” Little said in the video. “So this really streamlines the permitting process.” Little reiterates the claim in another video posted by Wolfden to YouTube in September 2020. The Natural Resources Council of Maine, one of the most prominent environmental groups in the state – long critical of the project – recently collected these two videos, among others, and shared them with the tribes and posted them to its website. The council condemned the statements about Indigenous rights as racist and ignorant of Maine’s laws. Now Little is facing criticism for what he told the investors Wolfden largely relies on for cash flow. “These videos demonstrate that Wolfden lacks respect for Maine law, Maine people and the truth,” Natural Resources Council of Maine Staff Scientist Nick Bennett said. “This behavior should disqualify Wolfden from receiving a rezoning from the Land Use Planning Commission.”
Illinois Commerce Commission greenlights Nicor Gas renewable natural gas pilot program – A program floated by Nicor Gas – the Renewable Gas Interconnection Pilot – received approval from the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) earlier this month, paving the way for new renewable natural gas (RNG) facilities to be interconnected. By encouraging the development of RNG production facilities within its service territory, Nicor Gas hopes to determine how such gas could be efficiently integrated into its natural gas distribution system at large and fill out its offerings with cleaner, reliable fuel. RNG is a sustainable non-fossil fuel produced from food and animal waste, wastewater plants and landfill gas, relying on the methane produced from decomposing organic waste. The Interconnection pilot project will take this methane and convert it to RNG to replace geologic natural gas.
Canadian cryptocurrency company plans to buy North Tonawanda power plant – Because of the power demands connected with the large number of supercomputers needed for elaborate calculations, cryptocurrency mining can be extremely expensive. But there is a way around that: buying one’s own power plant, as Digihost, a Canadian cryptocurrency company, plans to do in North Tonawanda. Digihost has a deal to buy the Fortistar North Tonawanda natural gas-burning power plant at 1070 Erie Ave., and stock the site with supercomputers needed for investments in Bitcoin and other digital currencies. Monday, the Niagara County Planning Board approved the project, on the condition that it’s an allowable use under the North Tonawanda zoning ordinance. Amy E. Fisk, county senior planner, said she can’t tell if the ordinance allows data-mining. She suggested the city was looking into it, but City Attorney Luke A. Brown said Monday he knows nothing of the project. City approval would be needed. Digihost announced in March that it had purchased a 60-megawatt power plant somewhere in the state for $3.5 million, plus $750,000 worth of company stock. But it didn’t say where. In April Digihost and Fortistar jointly petitioned the state Public Service Commission for approval of the North Tonawanda plant sale. The request is being reviewed and is now subject to public comment, a PSC spokesman said.
Gas share in MISO power generation stack defies gravity of high prices – Coal retirements in the Midwest Independent System Operator are giving natural gas-fired power surprisingly large market share in the ISO territory this summer, despite historically elevated gas prices. So far in July, gas has accounted for about 31% of total power generation in MISO, up from an annual low at just 20% market share in late February. Growing market share for gas in MISO this year has accompanied steadily rising prices for the fuel and doesn’t appear to be correlated with any established seasonal pattern in market share for gas. At the Chicago city-gates, cash prices have averaged about $3.49/MMBtu this month – up from levels around $2.50 in late February. At the Mich Con city-gate, another key Midwest hub, prices have followed a similar trajectory, gaining nearly $1 over the past five months to average $3.47/MMBtu this July, S&P Global Platts data shows. Historically, rising gas prices have incentivized increased dispatch of coal-fired power. Thanks to recent coal retirements, though, generator demand for gas in MISO has become increasingly price inelastic. Since December 2020, at least seven coal plants in the ISO’s territory have been retired including Dallman units 1 and 2, Hoot Lake units 2 and 3, R. Gallagher units 2 and 4 and Petersburg Station 1. The closures have subsequently removed some 830 MW of coal-fired power from the generation stack, according to data compiled by S&P Global Platts Analytics. Despite the recent plant retirements, coal remains the fuel of choice for most Midwest generators this summer. In July, coal has generated an average 838 GWh in MISO, and accounted for about 45% market share. In comparison, month-to-date gas generation has averaged just 578 GWh, equivalent to about 31% market share, ISO data shows. Compared to July 2020, total generation in MISO is down, thanks mainly to cooler Midwest temperatures this month.
Heatwave, wildfires heightens urgency for Western RTO: Glick, Clements – With heatwaves and wildfires raging in the West, the need for reliability is more critical than ever, and should spur stakeholders to move quickly to advance an organized market in the region, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s Democratic commissioners. The prospect of creating a Western regional transmission organization (RTO) was raised “again and again,” during FERC’s technical conference on resource adequacy in the West, said Commissioner Allison Clements during the commission’s monthly meeting on Thursday. “While it won’t help us get through this summer, I agree that a Western RTO – designed by Westerners for Westerners – goes a long way toward addressing the West’s needs in the decades to come,” she said. Chair Richard Glick, who in June similarly called for the West to “finish the job” of creating an RTO, echoed those sentiments to reporters after the meeting.Their comments follow a call from a coalition of previous FERC commissioners and chairs to expand RTOs across the West and Southeast, the only two regions in the U.S., excluding California, that remain outside an organized power market. California’s grid is managed by the California Independent System Operator, but the rest of the West remains unstructured, with electric customers largely beholden to traditionally-regulated, vertically-integrated monopoly utilities. Proponents of RTO expansion say organizing the West and Southeast can accelerate the energy transition and create more market transparency. Though some ex-FERC commissioners and chairs urged the commission to take this job on unilaterally, Glick and Clements indicated that such a policy should come from Western stakeholders themselves. But while the region has made some progress, such as the expansion of the Southwest Power Pool to create a Western Energy Imbalance Services market, Glick said the region needs to move faster.”I believe there needs to be an RTO in the West, I think the time has come for it,” said Glick. He added that “this commission has been very deferential and will continue to be deferential to the region. But at the same time, I think those discussions need to move forward … instead of working incrementally.”The impact of climate change on the region should accelerate those discussions, Glick and Clements said.”The effects of climate change on the electricity system requires a recognition by all stakeholders of the magnitude of the challenge. It also requires a willingness to open our thinking to collaborative, bold steps going forward,” Clements said. “We know from public reports that I think more than 4,000 MW of transmission capacity from the north to the south – from the Northwest into California, for instance – was taken out for a time period because of one of the major wildfires out there,” said Glick. “And we know it’s not going to get any any better. … It’s actually going to get worse.”
A stronger electricity grid is crucial to cutting carbon. Does that make it green? –Can slicing a 100-mile-long trench into the bed of the Columbia River – the iconic giant whose flow binds British Columbia, Washington and Oregon – be good for the environment? The answer is a big yes, says a team of energy developers that proposes submerging power cables in the riverbed. The developers say the submerged cables could deliver “clean” energy that will be crucial for getting the most densely developed areas of Cascadia off fossil fuels. A proposal by renewable energy developer Sun2o Partners and transmission developer PowerBridge would insert the cables into the Columbia at The Dalles in Oregon. This electrical on-ramp is near the towering wind farms and expansive solar farms installed along the Columbia Gorge in eastern Oregon and Washington. The cables also would intersect and plug into the monster transmission lines at the Bonneville Power Administration’s Big Eddy substation, drawing cheaper solar power from the Southwest, steadier wind power from Montana and Wyoming, and reliable backup power from British Columbia’s supersized hydropower reservoirs. But even climate-conscious developers can’t make plans involving a natural resource like the Columbia River without causing uneasiness among those concerned with ecosystems and communities. Along the Columbia, those affected would include tribal nations and unique cultural interests.Regulators and environmentalists are likely to find themselves caught in the middle – wanting environmental justice for tribal nations, as well as limits to the impacts of energy projects on ecosystems, yet also eagerly seeking rapid action on projects designed to slow climate change. Sun2o and PowerBridge propose to bring their cables ashore in Portland, helping to electrify industries, buildings and vehicles while reducing the use of coal- and gas-fired power plants. Hence the project’s name: Cascade Renewable Transmission. “The only places you can site solar and wind at scale are, for the most part, east of the Cascades. But the demand, the need for the electricity, is in Portland and Seattle, on the west side,” says Corey Kupersmith, the New York – based renewable energy developer who cofounded Sun2o and dreamed up the cable scheme. And existing power lines that link east and west are filling up fast, he says.
Someone Is Buying Up Power Plants and Critical Infrastructure in 22 Countries. The Trail Leads to JPMorgan – a Bank Repeatedly Charged with Rigging Markets – Pam Martens – According to the Merger and Acquisition database at PitchBook, entities tied to JPMorgan Asset Management have been buying up energy and infrastructure assets around the world including solar power plants, wind farms, airports, water companies and the 120-year old El Paso Electric which provides electricity to approximately 437,000 retail and wholesale customers in west Texas and southern New Mexico.The acquisitions can be traced back to an entity called the Infrastructure Investments Fund (IIF). When IIF is seeking regulatory approval, as in the case of buying El Paso Electric, it contends it is not controlled by JPMorgan. But when JPMorgan is pitching the fund to institutional investors around the globe, the bank points out that 50 of the bank’s employees are actively engaged in the fund – along with “70 independent portfolio company directors.”The brochures (flipbooks) for IIF are marked “Strictly Private/Confidential” but one dated 2019 used to pitch California’s Mendocino County Employees Retirement Association and another from 2020 that was used to pitch a pension fund in the U.K., are available for anyone to read on the Internet.The 2019 flipbook states that IIF was founded in 2006 and “grew out of the JPMorgan Real Estate Group.” At that time, according to the flipbook, IIF included $6.1 billion in 15 portfolio companies in 15 countries. The 2020 flipbook states that IIF has 17 portfolio companies in 22 countries with a net asset value of $12.4 billion.The 2019 flipbook also shows that foreign investors owned 73 percent of the fund. Foreign ownership interest became a problem in 2019 when the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) had to approve IIF’s purchase of El Paso Electric, which owned part of the Palo Verde nuclear power plant in Arizona. Under federal law, nuclear power plants are to remain under the control of U.S. entities. The NRC approved the El Paso deal despite the foreign ownership interests.According to IIF’s flipbook, companies in which IIF held a 100 percent control includeVärmevärden, a heating company based in central Sweden; Summit Utilities, which owns natural gas distribution and transmission subsidiaries that operate in Arkansas, Colorado, Maine, Missouri and Oklahoma; SouthWest Water Company, which owns and operates regulated water and wastewater systems serving over half a million residential and business customers in Alabama, California, Florida, Oregon, South Carolina, and Texas. According to PitchBook, a subsidiary of SouthWest Water Company, via JPMorgan Asset Management, last year acquired the South Carolina wastewater utility operations of Ni Pacolet Milliken Utilities (Ni) from Pacolet Milliken, LLC. Ni owns regulated wastewater and water utility companies serving customers in South Carolina and Florida. Ni’s holdings include Palmetto Utilities,Palmetto Wastewater Reclamation, and Ni Florida.IIF’s 2020 flipbook for investors brags about the monopolistic aspects of its portfolio companies, writing that: “Essential services that often operate on a monopolistic basis either by regulatory structure or long-term contract, which drives visibility into strong EBITDA [earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization] margins & cash yield.”IIF also has 66.1 percent control of North Queensland Airports (NQA) in Australia, which currently owns and operates Cairns and Mackay Airports, which service approximately five million passengers each year. IIF also owns Nieuport Aviation which owns and operates the Billy Bishop Airport in Toronto, Canada, which services 2.8 million passengers according to its website. IIF’s 2020 flipbook says that it has control of 100 percent of the power being generated by Sonnedix Power Holdings, which owns solar plants, and Ventient Energy, a portfolio of wind farms.
Peabody utility plans to shutdown older plant – Plans to build a 55-megawatt natural gas-powered “peaker” plant along the Waters River are forging ahead, but the Peabody Municipal Light Plant officials recently announced their decision to decommission an existing 20-megawatt fossil fuel-burning plant at the same location. According to PMLP Manager Charles Orphanos, the decision to retire the older, less efficient plant was made after hearing the concerns of ratepayers and analyzing new census data which shows an increase in the number of “environmental justice areas” surrounding the plant. “I expect this will help reduce some of the health concerns as well as some of the environmental concerns, specifically in the environmental justice areas here in Peabody,” Orphanos said, adding that the decision was made over the past month by the lighting commission, PMLP management, and PMLP attorneys. Plans to build a new peaker plant, which would only run during periods of especially high demand for electricity, have been in the works since 2015. The plant, referred to as Project 2015A in public documents, would be owned and operated by the Massachusetts Municipal Wholesale Electric Company (MMWEC) and was previously approved to be built at PMLP’s Waters River substation, behind the Pulaski Street Industrial Park. On May 11, MMWEC announced they were pausing the $85 million Project 2015A in order to address the environmental and health concerns of residents, seek input from stakeholders and consider alternative energy options. During a June 24 Lighting Commission meeting, Orphanos said MMWEC made multiple changes – including the elimination of one of two 200,000 gallon oil tanks and the switch from ammonia to urea – over the past 2-½ months in order to lessen the environmental impact of the plant, but he added that PMLP had no plans to decommission wither of the two existing plants.
Sale to developer pulls plug on Avon Lake power plant – cleveland.com — Charah Solutions Inc. has purchased the Avon Lake power plant from its current owner, GenOn, for teardown and redevelopment of its 40 lakefront acres. The transfer of ownership is scheduled for early April 2022 after the coal-fired, electricity-generating station ceases operation. Mayor Greg Zilka said current employees will be provided services to help them find jobs after the closing. In the meantime, Charah noted in a press release that “GenOn will continue to maintain responsibility for the plant and operate the plant in the normal course of business through closing.” As part of the agreement, Charah notes that it “will acquire the 40-acre area located on Lake Erie, which consists of multiple parcels of land adjacent to the generating plant, including the generating station, submerged lands lease in Lake Erie, substation/switch gear and transformers, administrative offices and structures, coal rail and storage yard parcels south of Lake Road, as well as the interconnection agreement.” Charah Solutions has a subsidiary, Avon Lake Environmental Redevelopment Group (ALERG), that will oversee the redevelopment of the property and will work with the city “to expand economic activity and benefit the surrounding communities through job creation and enable this site to provide the best potential use for the community and City of Avon Lake moving forward,” the press release notes.
Another coal-burning power plant faces its end – The village of Moscow, Ohio, population 185, sits along U.S. 52 about 18 miles from the Interstate 275 outer belt around Cincinnati. Standing at the post office parking lot and looking toward the skate park, you can’t miss the William H. Zimmer power plant. Its single smokestack and its cooling tower dominate the landscape there at Moscow. The plant has been in operation since 1991, making it one of the newer coal-burning power plants in this part of the Ohio Valley, if not the newest. It originally was to have been a nuclear power plant, but construction problems led its developer to build a coal-burning plant instead. About 150 people work at the plant. In a common occurrence these past few years, Zimmer’s owners announced Monday the plant will be retired no later than May 31, 2022, ahead of its scheduled retirement in 2027. The reason for Zimmer’s closure could indicate problems for other coal-burning plants in this area. It’s also a problem for West Virginia, as most of the coal Zimmer burns comes from the Mountain State. The problem is the PJM capacity auction for 2022-23. PJM is the regional grid operator from New Jersey to eastern Illinois and from Lake Erie south to the North Carolina border. In short, other power plants in the region can sell power into the grid for less than Zimmer. “The Zimmer coal-fueled power plant has recently struggled economically due to its configuration, costs, and performance. The PJM capacity revenues are critical to Zimmer, and unfortunately, without them, the plant simply doesn’t make money,” Curt Morgan, chief executive officer of Vistra, the plant’s Texas-based owner, said in a statement issued Monday. As explained in the Vistra statement, “May’s PJM capacity auction for 2022-23 cleared much lower than expected – nearly 50% lower than the 2021-22 auction in the zone where Zimmer is located. Due to this lower clearing price, Zimmer was unable to sell any generating capacity in the auction. In addition, indications suggest future PJM capacity auctions have the potential to experience low clearing price results, as well, resulting in a multimillion-dollar loss in expected future capacity revenues compared to previous years.”
Consortium to Look at Pulling Critical Minerals from Appalachian Coal Waste – Funded by a $1.2 million U.S. Department of Energy grant, a consortium of researchers will determine if critical minerals can be extracted from the waste byproducts of Appalachian coal mining. More measures like this could be a “game changer” for the rural Appalachia regions once dependent on coal for their economy, experts say. Critical minerals include metals and non-metals like gallium, indium, tungsten, platinum , cobalt, magnesium, and lithium that are considered vital for the world’s economy, yet whose supply may be at risk because of scarcity. The minerals are used in the manufacturing of diverse products such as mobile phones, flat screen monitors, wind turbines, electric cars, solar panels and other high-tech applications. The minerals are produced almost entirely by foreign countries, however. China alone produces about 85% of the world’s supply of critical minerals. The minerals are typically found in the ground in low concentrations, and harvesting is not only costly, but also environmentally damaging. By looking for the minerals in coal and its waste products, researchers hope to find an affordable and more environmentally friendly alternative. The Department of Energy found that those critical minerals can be drawn out of coal-based resources like coal waste, refuse, over/under burden materials, ash and acid mine drainage. In 2011, the DOE identified 16 critical elements in coal-based resources that are essential for making wind turbines, electric vehicles, PV cells and fluorescent lighting. Five rare earth elements – dysprosium, terbium, europium, neodymium and yttrium – were found to be critical to making magnets for wind turbines and electric vehicles.
Oklahoma Sues Federal Agency Over Coal Mining Oversight On Tribal Lands (AP) – Oklahoma is suing the U.S. Department of the Interior over the federal agency’s plan to strip Oklahoma of its jurisdiction to regulate coal mining on tribal reservations, Gov. Kevin Stitt announced Monday. The lawsuit, filed last week in federal court in Oklahoma City, names as defendants U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement and that agency’s acting director, Glenda Owens. The U.S. Department of the Interior notified the state earlier this year it planned to strip Oklahoma of its jurisdiction to regulate surface coal mining within the Muscogee Nation reservation following last year’s U.S. Supreme Court’s McGirt decision, which determined the tribe’s reservation in eastern Oklahoma was never disestablished by Congress. “The Department of the Interior and other defendants in this case are dead wrong about their decision,” Stitt said in a statement. “They are attempting to unlawfully federalize mines that have been regulated by Oklahoma for almost 40 years by ignoring the clear limitations in the McGirt decision.” Stitt claims that the decision applies only to criminal jurisdiction. The U.S. Department of the Interior and the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the lawsuit.
Manchin, Barrasso strike deal on coal reclamation program – Senators from the leading coal-mining states have reached an agreement to renew the soon-to-expire fee coal companies pay to clean up abandoned mines in a deal that includes an $11.3 billion reclamation investment. The compromise between Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) is a significant step toward reconciling geographical differences among coal-state lawmakers before the abandoned mine land fee lapses on Sept. 30. The agreement would lower AML fees current mine operators pay for each ton of coal mined by 20% until 2034 and inject the Interior Department’s reclamation fund with an additional $11.3 billion. Manchin, chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, added the measures to his broader $98 billion energy infrastructure legislation, which that panel approved yesterday during a markup. “Thank you for including our compromise on reauthorizing the abandoned mine land reclamation fee,” Barrasso, the top Republican on the panel, told Manchin at the hearing. But the Wyoming senator added that he couldn’t support the broader legislation. Tens of thousands of mines orphaned before Congress passed the strip mining law in 1977 remain hazards to the environment and public safety. Since that year, Congress has only ever lowered the AML fees to accommodate industry. Manchin first pitched a straight-forward reauthorization of the current fee levels, which are set at 28 cents per ton at surface mines, 12 cents at underground mines and 8 cents for lignite. Under the Manchin-Barrasso plan, companies would pay 22.4 cents at surface mines, 9.6 cents at underground mines and 8 cents for lignite. Barrasso, whose state mines about 40% of the country’s coal, had pushed to reduce the fees even further in previous legislation. His position was similar to that of the mining industry, which has seen demand for coal in the electric power sector plummet in the past decade. Wyoming is the hub of the modern U.S. coal industry – it mined 41% of the nation’s coal last year. But it has already completed its high-priority AML reclamation work, meaning AML fees paid by Wyoming coal operators fund cleanup in other states. Most abandoned sites are in Appalachian states like West Virginia and Pennsylvania, where the coal industry boomed long before it did in Wyoming. Coal mining’s migration west has created tensions between lawmakers from the two regions over AML fees. Environmentalists and citizens’ groups have pushed to keep AML fees at their current rates to help ensure hazardous mine lands are restored to their natural states or transformed into centers of economic activity.
Environmentalists concerned about plans for TVA coal ash clean up – There is growing concern about the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plan to haul hazardous coal ash from the old Allen plant on President’s Island across the south side of Memphis. The plant was shut down in 2018 and the material needs to be removed from the site. Environmentalists and those potentially in the path of those trucks have a lot of questions. “The federal definition of coal ash falls short of calling it toxic, but it has toxic stuff in it and people get sick from it,” said Scott Banbury with the Sierra Club. Banbury said he is concerned about what will happen to the coal ash from the old TVA Allen fossil plant. Three million yards of ash, the leftover product from when it was a coal burning power plant, needs to be moved from the site. Tuesday, Memphis City Council members were surprised to learn the TVA planned to move the ash to the South Shelby landfill on Holmes Road. “I would like to know how you are actually moving this ash across South Memphis and how are you dumping it in South Memphis,” said council member Cheyenne Johnson. The distance between the Allen plant on President’s Island to the South Shelby landfill is about 20 miles. While an exact route has not been announced, environmentalists are concerned not only with what is being transferred, but how it will be transported, and the route it will go. “It’s going to take 8 or 9 years, several hundred of trucks a day, and it’s going to be something we are living with, and we have to know it’s safe,” said Banbury. “What is the plan going to be during rush hour ? Are they not going to run trucks while kids are going to school in the morning, and people going to work and same in the evening time,”
Barrasso says new legislation sets stage for new Wyoming Natrium nuclear reactor – – Wyoming’s U.S. Sen. John Barrasso on Friday helped introduce the “American Nuclear Infrastructure Act,” legislation which he says would set the stage “to deploy advanced nuclear technologies like the Natrium reactor coming to Wyoming.” “The American Nuclear Infrastructure Act will strengthen both America’s energy and national security,” Barrasso said in a press release shared by his office on Friday. “In the face of Russian and Chinese aggression, it’s critical we remain the world’s leading developer of nuclear energy technology. This bipartisan legislation gets that done. Nuclear power is dependable and clean. Our bipartisan bill supports the continued operation of America’s existing reactors and sets the stage to deploy advanced nuclear technologies like the Natrium reactor coming to Wyoming.” Governor Mark Gordon announced this June that Wyoming has been selected for the construction of a new “advanced” nuclear reactor, saying it would be “game-changing and monumental” for Wyoming.The system would be built at one of four sites in Wyoming. It was co-developed by TerraPower, founded by Bill Gates and GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy. The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded TerraPower $80 million in initial funding to demonstrate the Natrium technology, which TerraPower claims can offer “improved reactor economics, greater fuel efficiency, enhanced safety and lower volumes of waste.”The Natrium reactor would be a sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), utilizing different technology than existing reactors in the United States, which are either pressurized water reactors and the remaining or boiling water reactors. Whether the Natrium technology would actually improve on existing reactors is debated, with the Union of Concerned Scientists exploring the issue in their“‘Advanced’ Isn’t Always Better” report.
A year out, $60M bribery scandal felt in business, politics (AP) – The arrests one year ago Wednesday of then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and four associates in connection with an alleged $60 million bribery scheme have rocked business and politics across the state, and events over the last year suggest a federal probe’s tentacles only continue to grow.Householder, a Republican, has pleaded not guilty and maintains his innocence. He was removed from the speakership last year, reelected to office in November despite the felony racketeering charges he faces, then expelled from the chamber last month in an historic vote.His longtime political adviser Jeff Longstreth, lobbyist Juan Cespedes and Generation Now, a dark money group accused of taking millions in bribes, have pleaded guilty and await sentencing.Former Ohio Republican Chair and lobbyist Matt Borges has pleaded not guilty, admitting in a separate campaign finance probe that he spent the money but insisting legally so. Longtime Statehouse lobbyist Neil Clark died by suicide in Florida in March. DeVillers, an appointee of Republican former President Donald Trump, resigned in February to allow the new president to pick a successor. Democratic President Joe Biden has yet to nominate DeVillers’ permanent replacement.The legislation at the heart of the scandal, House Bill 6, included a $1 billion bailout for two nuclear power plants operated at the time by a wholly-owned subsidiary of Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp. The federal criminal complaint said the conspiracy to pass the bill had partial roots on a flight FirstEnergy provided to Householder and his son to Trump’s January 2017 inauguration.Soon after the trip, $1 million from FirstEnergy began flowing to Generation Now, controlled by Householder, in $250,000 increments. That cash and more were used to elect Householder-backed candidates and win him the speakership, prosecutors say.Step two was passing the bill, titled the Ohio Clean Air Program, in July 2019. Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed it within hours. Step three was FirstEnergy spending around $38 million to finance a campaign to prevent a repeal referendum from reaching the ballot.State lawmakers have since rescinded the nuclear bailout and another provision of HB 6 guaranteeing FirstEnergy’s three Ohio utilities revenue equal to what they earned in 2018, a year of weather extremes. Majority Republicans blocked calls to repeal the entire bill, which they said was voluminous and contained some good energy policy.
Feds lay out corrupt scheme in which they say FirstEnergy paid $4.3 million bribe to former top state regulator – –— In new new court filings, FirstEnergy Corp. officials say that in exchange for a $4.3 million bribe, former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo helped them push for changes worth hundreds of millions of dollars to the Akron-based company after he became the state’s top public-utilities regulator.In the filings, made Thursday as FirstEnergy entered into what amounts to a corporate plea deal with the federal government, the company said it negotiated the payment while coordinating its agenda with Randazzo in the days before and after Republican Gov. Mike DeWine hired him in February 2019 to run the PUCO.Company officials also admitted that Randazzo helped them to develop strategy and legal language for House Bill 6, which was aimed at bailing out two nuclear plants owned by a former FirstEnergy subsidiary, and included a “decoupling” provision guaranteeing the company’s revenues at high 2018 levels. The bill is at the center of a federal corruption probe that led to Thursday’s charge against FirstEnergy.And, as PUCO chairman, Randazzo also pushed to cancel a 2024 rate review case that the company believed would hurt its bottom line by forcing it to reduce the rates it charged customers, the court filings say. Company officials referred to the the looming 2024 case as “the Ohio hole.” FirstEnergy first disclosed the $4.3 million payment to Randazzo last October, saying it discovered the payment as part of an internal investigation that it started after the FBI arrested then-House Speaker Larry Householder in July 2020, alleging that FirstEnergy bribed Householder and four others in exchange for help passing HB6. The legislature since has canceled the bailout and repealed the decoupling provision.On Nov. 20 last year, Randazzo resigned as chair of the PUCO, just days after the FBI searched his Columbus home as part of the investigation into the bribery scandal. His resignation came one day after the $4.3 million payment by FirstEnergy was revealed. In late October, shortly before disclosing the $4.3 million payment, FirstEnergy officials announced they had fired CEO Chuck Jones and two other top company executives. The company since has promoted Steve Strah, a longtime executive, to become its new CEO.But the new filings lay out the payment in greater detail, and in them, FirstEnergy officials admit that paying it was a crime. In a statement shared by his attorney, Roger Sugarman, Randazzo said the payment wasn’t improper. Although FirstEnergy has admitted to illegally paying Randazzo, Randazzo himself has not been charged with a crime. Vipal Patel, acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio, on Thursday declined to discuss whether he would be.
Federal prosecutors charge FirstEnergy with conspiracy over House Bill 6 scandal – cleveland.comFederal attorneys filed a deferred prosecution agreement against the company in U.S. District Court in Cincinnati. FirstEnergy is charged with conspiracy to commit honest services fraud involving what authorities called the largest bribery scandal in Ohio history. “We have been waiting a really long time for Company A to be held accountable,” said Catherine Turcer, the executive director of Common Cause Ohio, referring to how federal authorities have identified FirstEnergy in court documents during the past year. “A lot of us wondered, ‘Is FirstEnergy going to get away with it again?’ It has run the Statehouse for years. This is a good day.” The agreement means the company will pay the fine and cooperate with the federal investigation. The charge will be dismissed in three years if the Akron-based utility meets several compliance obligations, including a strict internal review of campaign contributions. The agreement, however, does not prevent federal prosecutors from charging the utility’s top executives individually. “The company wants to put this chapter behind it [because it] wants to turn a new leaf. But it’s not as simple as them signing [with] a pen and it being over,” said Vipal Patel, the acting U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio. Court filings allege the company paid bribes to then-Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder and Samuel Randazzo, the former chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. Neither is named, though the descriptions from the document make it clear Householder and Randazzo are the officials involved in the case. The agreement calls for the company to pay $115 million within 60 days to the U.S. Treasury. It also must pay $115 million to a program the Ohio Development Service Agency runs for low-income utility users. If the state program “is unable or unwilling to accept the funds, FirstEnergy Corp. shall pay the $115 million to the U.S. Treasury,” the document says. Prosecutors also are seeking to seize $6.4 million through forfeiture from a nonprofit called Partners for Progress, which FirstEnergy used to funnel money in the scheme.
FirstEnergy to pay $230 million penalty in Ohio bribery probe | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette – To possibly avoid a conspiracy conviction, Akron-based FirstEnergy Corp., the utility at the heart of a $61-million Ohio Statehouse bribery scandal, has agreed to pay a $230 million penalty for its role in the scheme. And Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine on Thursday issued a statement distancing himself from his one-time appointee as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio, Sam Randazzo, who is portrayed in the agreement as having committed improper acts. “That’s the largest criminal penalty ever collected as far as anyone can recall in the history of this office,” said Acting U.S. Attorney Vipal J. Patel at a Thursday news conference in Cincinnati. The corporation has been charged with conspiracy to commit “honest services wire fraud,” devising a scheme to use interstate wiring of monies to engage in bribery of public officials – former Ohio state House Speaker Larry Householder and Mr. Randazzo – and to hide the true purpose of the funds. However, the charge could be dismissed after three years if FirstEnergy meets its end of the settlement, including continued cooperation with prosecutors. The filing says the utility has provided “substantial cooperation.” FirstEnergy admits that it conspired with public officials and others to use nonprofit entities to conceal its actions and the purpose of its cash. It also admitted to paying $4.3 million to a second public official to act in his official capacity to further FirstEnergy’s interests in connection with two nuclear power plants owned by what was then a subsidiary. While not specifically named, that individual is Mr. Randazzo, a powerful former utilities lobbyist appointed PUCO chairman by Republican Governor DeWine. FirstEnergy was a major Randazzo client, something Mr. DeWine has said was well known before he made the appointment. Mr. Randazzo resigned as chairman late last year after the FBI raided his home. He has denied wrongdoing and is not among those who have been charged.
FirstEnergy paid $4.3 mil to top energy regulator and reaped the benefits, court docs state – An energy lobbyist who Gov. Mike DeWine appointed as the state’s top regulator of public utilities received $22 million from FirstEnergy Corp. in the decade before his appointment – including $4.3 million paid just before assuming the post and specifically to execute official duties to benefit the Akron-based utility – court documents revealed Thursday. Sam Randazzo, who resigned as chairman of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio after federal agents raided his Columbus home, used his PUCO chairmanship to scuttle a requirement that FirstEnergy undergo a rate review set for 2024, which company executives believed would hurt its bottom line, the documents state. FirstEnergy entered into a deferred prosecution agreement – in which the U.S. Department of Justice could drop the charge if the company meets certain conditions including a $230 million criminal penalty – on one count of wire fraud. It also agreed to a stipulation of facts detailing its nearly $61 million in payments to an account the former speaker of the Ohio House allegedly controlled and spent to pass House Bill 6, legislation worth an estimated $1.3 billion to the company. Thursday’s filing, however, is flush with new details about FirstEnergy’s long relationship with Randazzo, dating back to a contract in 2010 and a consulting deal inked in 2013. The agreement states one FirstEnergy executive texted another on Nov. 15, 2019 that Randazzo is “going to make the requirement [for a rate review] to file go away, but I do not know specifically how he plans to do it.” The document doesn’t directly identify the executives. On Nov. 21, 2019, PUCO issued an order finding it is “no longer necessary or appropriate” that three utilities owned by FirstEnergy file a new case when its current rate structure expires in 2024.
Householder alleged to have promoted FirstEnergy interests during Trump roundtable – Facing serious financial trouble and pushing for a federal bailout, the FirstEnergy Corporation saw opportunity in August 2018 when President Donald Trump announced a trip to Ohio.The Akron-based company wanted someone to make the case to Trump in person, so it turned to a reliable political ally: Larry Householder.The Perry County Republican’s alleged connections with the energy company were further outlined in a new deferred prosecution agreement between federal prosecutors and FirstEnergy announced on Thursday. The agreement sheds more light on the years of political maneuvering that preceded the 2019 nuclear bailout in the form of House Bill 6. Awaiting Householder’s ascendancy to the speakership, FirstEnergy spent much of 2018 lobbying the Trump administration to provide emergency support toward its coal and nuclear plants, it was reported at the time.Trump traveled to the Buckeye State on Aug. 24, 2018 to headline the Ohio Republican Party’s annual dinner. After a visit to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, Trump headed to the Greater Columbus Convention Center to meet with supporters at a roundtable event.(Householder was an invited speaker during the 2016 Republican National Convention and had met with Trump White House aides earlier in 2018 ostensibly to discuss the issue of “sanctuary cities.”)According to the deferred prosecution agreement, FirstEnergy executives arranged for Householder to attend the presidential roundtable with the express purpose of asking Trump if his administration “intended to fix FirstEnergy Corp.’s issues at the federal level.”Householder would later tell a FirstEnergy lobbyist he didn’t speak during the roundtable because of poor acoustics in the room. But he described having a chance to talk “one on one” during a photo opportunity after the roundtable ended.
Cuyahoga County Council tweaks, advances plan to create a county-run public utility – – A Cuyahoga County Council committee on Tuesday approved plans to create a public utility at the county level, but only after making changes to the legislation in response to legal concerns raised by Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost. The full Council must still sign off on County Executive Armond Budish’s goal of creating a Division of Public Utilities. That vote could come as soon as the first week of August and would lay the groundwork for county-led power projects, like creating micro-grids as back-up energy sources. The Council committee had pushed off Tuesday’s vote for months because it first wanted Yost’s opinion about the legality of a county utility – specifically, whether Ohio law allowed the county to establish and operate one. The opinion was delivered to Council earlier this month. It stated that cities would have to sign off on any utility projects within their borders before the county could move forward. In response to the opinion, the Council committee on Tuesday approved a new version of legislation that explicitly requires the county executive to get advance permission from cities for such projects. The new language also requires County Council to approve any public utility agreements between the county and cities. The Budish administration has said Yost’s opinion would have little impact because the county had already intended to get city approval before moving forward on microgrid plans. Creating a county utility would give the county authority to establish a microgrid, or grids, which would serve as back-up power supplies for businesses that want a constant stream of electricity. The idea has been billed as an economic development tool that could encourage companies to move to the county.
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