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:
- 08 Aug 2021 – Coronavirus Disease Weekly News 08August 2021
- 08 Aug 2021 – Coronavirus Economic Weekly News 08August 2021
Since the infrastructure bill renews some provisions of earlier proposed Covid relief bills, I’ve included enough on it in the “economic news” collection such that you can understand it and its progress; but left out debate on the amendments and the pure politicking. There’s also more on its energy provisions below.
Both new Covid cases and deaths attributed to the virus again increased this week, even as new cases rose at a slower rate than last week. US Covid infections reported during the week ending August 7th were 24.2% higher than those reported during the week ending July 31st, and that now represents an eightfold increase from the number of Covid cases reported during the week ending June 26th, only six weeks earlier. New cases averaged more than a hundred thousand new cases a day in the US this past week, which is 45.2% more than the worst week of last summer, when we thought Covid was bringing our world to an end. Now, except for a number of school districts reimposing mask mandates and a handful of companies instituting vaccine mandates, it’s pretty much business as usual. The proverbial frog in a pot of slowly boiling water comes to mind.
Meanwhile, US deaths attributed to the coronavirus during the week ending August 7th were 36.4% greater than the prior week, and they’re now nearly double the number of deaths reported during the week ending July 10th, which was the week that US Covid deaths bottomed out this year. However, this week’s Covid deaths were still 40.6% below the deaths logged during the worst week last summer. Even allowing for the likely fact that this year’s death rate has yet to peak, we can expect it to be relatively lower than last year’s, because roughly 20% of this year’s new cases are among the fully vaccinated, whose infections tend to be much less severe. I have yet to see a report breaking down which vaccines are seeing the most of those “breakthrough” cases, nor how much time had elapsed from a person’s being fully vaccinated to their getting infected. We certainly won’t see that data from the CDC, who stopped counting those cases altogether on May 1st.
While still rising, both new infections and deaths reported globally have slowed from the pace of last week. New Covid cases reported worldwide during the week ending August 7th were 4.8% higher than those reported during the week ending July 31st, and up 67.4% from those recorded during the week ending June 26th; Covid deaths reported worldwide this week were 4.2% higher than the prior week, and 22.5% higher than during the week ending July 3rd, when global death totals were at their low for this year. The US now accounts for nearly a sixth of all new cases globally, 2 1/2 times more cases than in India, which had the 2nd most new cases this week. Take out the US surge, and the Covid growth rate for the rest of the planet falls to a manageable 1.7%.
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 10):
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 110 August. The third graphic shows the cummulative total vaccine doses delivered to date.
Here’s the week’s environment and energy news. There are a handful of articles on Ohio’s utility corruption at the end:
Plague-infected chipmunks force closures around Lake Tahoe – California officials have closed down areas near Lake Tahoe due to plague-infected chipmunks, the Tahoe Daily Tribune reported on Monday.El Dorado County spokeswoman Carla Hass told the newspaper that the positive tests were found in chipmunks that had no human contact. The El Dorado County Public Health Department said that the plague is naturally present in some parts of California, according to the Tribune. The plague is an infectious bacterial disease that can spread through various wild animals and rodents, which can lead to humans being infected if they have close contact with the animals, the Tribune reported. The U.S. Forest Service said that nearby locations such as the Taylor Creek Visitor Center and Kiva Beach have been closed until Friday. The Tallac Site and the Kiva parking area will remain open during the duration of the closure. A South Lake Tahoe resident tested positive for the disease in September 2020, prompting Public Health Officer Nancy Williams to share the importance of taking precautions when hiking in the area. “It’s important that individuals take precautions for themselves and their pets when outdoors, especially while walking, hiking or camping in areas where wild rodents are present,” Williams said. “Human cases of plague are extremely rare but can be very serious.”
Lake Tahoe Sites Closed After Chipmunks Test Positive for Plague -Some iconic Lake Tahoe sites were closed to visitors this week after chipmunks tested positive for plague.The closures impact some of the most scenic hiking routes in the area, The Guardian reported, including one that follows a creek to the shore of the lake.”Based on positive plague tests and planned treatments, Taylor Creek Visitor Center and Kiva Beach parking areas will be closed Sunday through Friday,” the Lake Tahoe U.S. Forest Service (USFS) announced Monday on Twitter.The incident comes a little less than a year after the first Californian in five years was diagnosed with the disease responsible for the Black Death, also in the Lake Tahoe area. However, El Dorado County spokesperson Carla Hass told the Tahoe Daily Tribune on Monday that the impacted chipmunks had not come into contact with any people.Plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). It is carried by fleas, and humans usually contract it either being bitten by a flea or handling another infected animal. While it wiped out 50 million people in Africa, Asia and Europe during the 14th century, it can now be treated effectively with antibiotics if caught early.”Bubonic plague is naturally occurring in the Sierra Nevada Mountains and this region,” Lisa Herron, a public affairs specialist for the USFS Lake Tahoe basin management unit, told The Guardian. The disease ended up in the region from rats arriving on steamships in 1900, according to the CDC. These rats brought it to the rural rodents of the Western U.S., and most U.S. cases now occur either in northern New Mexico, northern Arizona, and southern Colorado or in California, southern Oregon, and far western Nevada. On average, seven people in the U.S. contract the disease every year.In the Sierra Nevada specifically, it is spread by squirrels, chipmunks, other rodents and their fleas, which is why regional officials periodically trap these rodents and test their fleas for the plague. If the test result is positive, animal control workers do not target the rodent population but instead treat the area for the fleas themselves. If a human does come into contact with an infected flea or animal, symptoms usually begin within two weeks and include fever, nausea, weakness and swollen lymph nodes, according to The AP. While it’s the result of routine testing, the incident comes at a difficult time for the residents of Lake Tahoe, who are already contending with drought, wildfires and the coronavirus pandemic.
The Invasive Spotted Lanternfly Is Spreading Across the Eastern U.S. – Here’s What You Need to Know – The spotted lanternfly was first detected in Pennsylvania in 2014 and has since spread to 26 counties in that state and at least six other eastern states. It’s moving into southern New England, Ohio and Indiana. This approximately 1-inch-long species from Asia has attractive polka-dotted front wings but can infest and kill trees and plants. It is native to India, China and Vietnam and probably arrived in a cut stone shipment in 2012. The first sighting was in 2014 in Berks County, Pennsylvania, on a tree of heaven – a common invasive tree brought to North America from China in the late 1700s. By July 2021 the lanternfly had spread to about half of Pennsylvania, large areas of New Jersey, parts of New York state, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia. It also had been found in western Connecticut, eastern Ohio, and now Indiana. To give an idea of how fast these lanternflies spread, they were introduced into South Korea in 2004 and spread throughout that entire country – which is approximately the size of Pennsylvania – in only three years.In only seven years, the spotted lanternfly has infested large areas of the Middle Atlantic and has begun to push into Connecticut. New York State Integrated Pest Management Program The lanternflies lay egg masses in late summer and autumn on the trunks of trees and any smooth-surfaced item sitting outdoors. The egg masses, which resemble smears of dry mud, can also be laid on the smooth surfaces of cars, trucks and trains. Then, they can be unintentionally transported to any part of the country in just a few days. Once the eggs hatch, they crawl to nearby host plants to start a new infestation. : They feed by piercing the bark of trees and vines to tap into the plant’s vascular system to feast on sap. For a sucking insect, lanternflies are relatively big. They remove large amounts of sap and excrete copious amounts of clear, sticky “honeydew” that can coat the tree and anything beneath. A black sooty mold grows wherever the honeydew has been deposited. While unsightly, sooty mold isn’t harmful when growing on the bark of the tree or beneath it. Lanternfly feeding seriously stresses trees and vines, which lose carbohydratesand other nutrients meant for storage in the roots and eventually for new growth. Infested trees and vines grow more slowly, exhibit dieback – begin to die from the branch tips – and can even die.
Pesticide Cocktails Kill More Bees, Study Finds – It is clear that the world’s pollinators are under threat. A 2019 study found that almost half of all insects have disappeared since 1970 and 41 percent of insect species are at risk of extinction. Further, one in six beespecies have gone locally extinct in at least one area, as AFP pointed out.But how exactly do the threats these essential animals face interact with each other? To answer that question, a team of researchers analyzed 90 studies to see how pesticide use, parasites and nutritional stress interacted to harm bees. The results, published in Nature on Wednesday, found that a combination of different pesticides was especially damaging.”[I]nteractions between multiple agrochemicals significantly increase bee mortality,” lead author Harry Siviter of the University of Texas at Austin told AFP.In particular, the researchers wanted to know if the different stressors impacted key bee behaviors and health in ways that were additive or synergistic.Siviter explained the difference between the two for BBC News: “If you have a honeybee colony exposed to one pesticide that kills 10% of the bees and another pesticide that kills another 10%, you would expect, if those effects were additive, for 20% of the bees to be killed,” Dr Siviter said. But a “synergistic effect” could produce 30-40% mortality. This is exactly what the researchers found to happen when bees were exposed to multiple pesticides, which is a problem because farmers are often sold a “cocktail” of different chemicals under a single label. The researchers therefore warned that current pesticide regulations were not doing enough to protect bees. They recommended that testing include common chemical combinations in addition to individual ingredients. “Ultimately, our results demonstrate that the regulatory process in its current form does not protect bees from the unwanted consequences of complex agrochemical exposure,” the study authors wrote. “Failure to address this and to continue to expose bees to multiple anthropogenic stressors within agriculture will result in the continued decline in bees and their pollination services, to the detriment of human and ecosystem health.” The research found that parasites and poor nutrition were also a problem for bees, but these issues tended to interact with each other and with pesticide exposure in an additive rather than synergistic way.
Drought Is Driving More Wild Horse Roundups Throughout the West –The plight of the roughly 95,0000 wild horses that roam public lands across the Western United States is bothcomplicated and controversial. This year, unprecedented widespread drought is exasperating the issues the horses face. Because they have no natural predators, wild horse and burro populations in the U.S. can double every four years, quickly outgrowing the landscape and food systems that support them, according to the Bureau of Land Management. Capturing the horses, sterilizing them, and then returning them to public lands has long been the way land managers keep wild horse populations in check.Officials have already rounded up 1,200 wild horses this year, with an original goal of 12,000 for the year. But a recent push to increase that number by 50 percent means about 6,000 additional animals primarily in Nevada, Oregon and Colorado, making for around 18,000 across 10 states from California to Montana this year. The roundups are slated to continue through September, Newsweek reported.Emergency roundups will begin Sunday in Oregon and Monday in Nevada and will focus on places where “chronic overpopulation already has stretched the available food and water to its limits,” the Bureau of Land Management said in a statement.Reducing overpopulation will “achieve healthy, sustainable herd sizes that are more capable of withstanding severe conditions, including prolonged drought, which are becoming more frequent due to climate change,” Nada Wolff Culver, the BLM’s deputy director for policy and programs, said Monday, according to The Associated Press. However, horse advocates say the emergency captures are being driven by pressure from ranchers who graze livestock on public lands. They say the ranchers don’t want the wild herds competing with their livestock for limited food and water, said The Associated Press.
Lake Oroville reaches all-time low level; hydroelectric plant shuts down for first time ever – Four years ago, Oroville Dam, the tallest in the United States, made international news when its massive 10-mile-long reservoir filled to the top in heavy winter storms, and raging waters destroyed its spillway, causing the emergency evacuation of 188,000 people. But now, in the latest symbol of California’s worsening drought, the opposite problem is underway: Lake Oroville’s water level has fallen so low that on Thursday, for the first time since the dam was built in 1967, its power plant was shut down because there is no longer enough water to spin the turbines and generate electricity. “This is just one of many unprecedented impacts we are experiencing in California as a result of our climate-induced drought,” said Karla Nemeth, director of the state Department of Water Resources, which owns the dam. On Thursday, the reservoir was only 24% full, having fallen below an all-time low record set in September 1977. The lake level has dropped a stunning 250 feet in the past two years. The water level has fallen below the intake pipes that normally send water to spin six huge turbines at the Edward Hyatt Power Plant in the bedrock under the dam.The loss of Oroville’s electricity won’t by itself cause blackouts. Even when the lake is full, the Hyatt power plant, one of the largest hydroelectric plants in the state, provides about 1% of California’s peak statewide electricity demand. But the problem illustrates a wider challenge facing California this year from the drought. Reservoirs are low all over. And hydroelectricity is the state’s second-largest source of power, providing about 15% of California’s electricity each year. During the first four months this year, hydroelectric production in California fell 37% compared with the same time last year and 71% compared with 2019, according to the U.S. Department of Energy. That power has to be made up to reduce the risk of blackouts.
Homeless scramble to survive rare cold snap, Brazil (video) An intense polar blast affecting southern Brazil this week made headlines after more frosts hit the country’s agricultural regions and dozens of cities received rare snow and freezing rain.The situation also made authorities, activists, and religious leaders do what they can to limit suffering on the streets as temperatures in some areas of southern Brazil dropped below freezing.On Friday, July 30, 2021, Brazil’s biggest metropolis — São Paulo, recorded 4 °C (40 °F) — its lowest temperature in five years, according to the national meteorological institute. Low temperatures are expected to continue through the weekend, with -10 °C (14 °F) expected in high-altitude areas of the country’s southern region.
Greece sets new European all-time highest temperature record -Greece has set a new European highest temperature record with 46.3 °C (115.3 °F) registered in Makrakomi, Phthiotis on Monday, August 2, 2021. The meteorological station where the temperature was registered is operated by the National Observatory of Athens (NOA). This is the highest ever reading recorded by NOA and its affiliated meteo.grOther Greek mainland areas also recorded extremely high temperatures on Monday, with 45 °C (113 °F) registered in Debra, 44.9 °C (112.8 °F) in Larissa, 44.7 °C (112.4 °F) in Sparta, 44.4 °C (111.9 °F) in Lefkochori and 44 °C (111.2 °F) in Thebes.On the same day, the maximum temperature in the capital Athens reached 42 °C (107.6 °F).”Greece held 5 highest temperatures in Europe on Monday,” said Giannis Kallianos, an MP and meteorologist for Greece’s MEGA TV channel.”Makrakomi, Larissa, and Sparta were the three hottest towns and cities in Europe, followed by two more Greek urban areas — Lefkochori in Phthiotis and the city of Thebes,” Kallianossaid.Due to high temperatures expected to continue through the rest of the week, the Ministry of Culture and Sports announced the closure of open-air archeological sites across the country between 12:00 and 17:00 through August 5.In addition to high risk to the population, Greek authorities said there’s a risk of power outages due to excessive consumption.The country has already broken its electricity consumption record on Monday afternoon, with 11 000 megawatts demanded at the one point, and authorities fear the record might fall again before the end of the week.All citizens were asked to limit demand for electricity, especially during peak hours.Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said Greece is hit by its worst heatwave since 1987 when the country recorded more than 1 000 heat-related deaths.
Extreme Heat Waves in a Warming World Don’t Just Break Records – They Shatter Them –Summer isn’t even half over, and we’ve seen heat waves in the Pacific Northwest and Canada with temperatures that would be hot for Death Valley, enormous fires that have sent smoke across North America, and lethal floods of biblical proportions in Germany and China. Scientists have warned for over 50 yearsabout increases in extreme events arising from subtle changes in average climate, but many people have been shocked by the ferocity of recent weather disasters.A couple of things are important to understand about climate change’s role in extreme weather like this.First, humans have pumped so much carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gases into the atmosphere that what’s “normal” has shifted. A new study, published July 26, 2021, for example, shows how record-shattering, long-lasting heat waves – those that break records by a wide margin – are growing increasingly likely, and that the rate of global warming is connected with the increasing chances of these heat extremes.Second, not every extreme weather event is connected to global warming.Like so many things, temperature statistics follow a bell curve – mathematicians call these “normal distributions.” The most frequent and likely temperatures are near the average, and values farther from the average quickly become much less likely.All else being equal, a little bit of warming shifts the bell to the right – toward higher temperatures. Even a shift of just a few degrees makes the really unlikely temperatures in the extreme “tail” of the bell happen dramatically more often. Watching the Land Temperature Bell Curve Heat Up (1950-2020) – The stream of broken temperature records in the North American West lately is a great example. Portland hit 116 degrees – 9 degrees above its record before the heat wave. That would be an extreme at the end of the tail. One study determined the heat wave would have been “virtually impossible” without human-caused climate change. Extreme heat waves that were once ridiculously improbable are on their way to becoming more commonplace, and unimaginable events are becoming possible.The width of the bell curve is measured by its standard deviation. About two-thirds of all values fall within one standard deviation of the average. Based on historical temperature records, the heat wave in 2003 that killed more than 70,000 people in Europe was five standard deviations above the mean, so it was a 1 in 1 million event.Without eliminating emissions from fossil fuels, studies have found that heat like that is likely to happen a few times a decade by the time today’s toddlers are retirees.
Heat waves to drastically worsen in Northern Hemisphere, studies warn –In July 1936, the central United States roasted during one of the most notable summers of the Dust Bowl-era. Parched lands, low rainfall and a strong ridge of high pressure over the region led to record-breaking temperatures in the Upper Mississippi River Valley – a handful of which still stand today. But if those same conditions happened now, the outcomes would be worse.“If the same weather patterns of the 1930s-era heat waves occurred today again, they would happen in a much, much warmer climate,” said Erich Fischer, scientist at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich. “The heat wave we would experience will be way, way warmer than they were in the 1930s.”As global temperatures have increased, extreme heat events in the Northern Hemisphere have occurred with greater frequency and intensity. Deadly, record-crushing heat waves have scorched parts of the United States, Europe and the Arctic in just the past two decades. The World Health Organizationreports that more than 160,000 heat-related deaths occurred from 1998 to 2017 globally.Recent studies show the magnitude of extreme heat events, and their effect on people will escalate in coming decades if greenhouse gas emissions from human activities are not slashed. Climate models show record-breaking heat waves and heat stress will more than double in the northern midlatitudes before the end of the century.Extreme heat events have been occurring more in recent decades: the 2003 European heat wave, the Russian heat spell in 2010, Australia’s “angriest summer” in 2018-2019, the Siberian heat anomaly in 2020 and the Pacific Northwest heat blitz in 2021. In a study published last week in Nature Climate Change, Fischer and his colleagues ran nearly 100 computer simulations to determine the frequency and intensity of record-breaking heat waves with future projections of Earth’s climate. They defined the intensity of the events by the margin by which they broke previous records.They found week-long record-breaking heat events were up to seven times more likely to occur from 2021 to 2050. From 2051 to 2080, these events were up to 21 more times likely to occur and could happen every six to 37 years somewhere in the northern midlatitudes. These events would break previous heat records by 6.4 to 7.6 degrees Fahrenheit (3.6 to 4.2 Celsius).
Devastation of Boulder 2700 fire seen from Flathead Lake – A wildfire that exploded over the weekend destroyed several structures and forced evacuations along Montana Highway 35 in the Finley Point area. MTN’s Jill Valley got a firsthand look at the boulder 2700 fire near Polson from Flathead Lake.We were able to take a boat near the fire scene around noon Sunday with the permission of the Lake County Sheriff‘s Office and being very careful to avoid all firefighting efforts.From Polson Bay you don’t see much but as we approached we suddenly saw the stretch of smoke and fire on the mountainside.Every now and then a column of smoke would come up but what struck us was the area above Highway 35 had burned so hot Saturday night that the mountainside looked just like ash with some birch trees stuck in between.Two helicopters were working diligently to scoop water out of the lake — a smaller helicopter and a Chinook. Fire trucks could also be seen along Highway 35 patrolling the area to make sure everybody was safe and to keep an eye on the fire spread.There were areas where the fire had gone over the highway burning towards the lake. There did appear to be some structure damage here and there but it’s hard to speculate on what we were seeing.We also had debris and ash coming down on the boat and in the lake itself but none of it was on fireWhen we talk about cabins a lot of these are actually houses and some will be getting the bad news that their property has burned.
‘We lost Greenville’: Dixie wildfire burns down California town –A 3-week-old wildfire engulfed a tiny Northern California mountain town, leveling most of its historic downtown and leaving blocks of homes in ashes as crews braced for another explosive run of flames Thursday amid dangerous weather. The Dixie Fire, swollen by bone-dry vegetation and 40 mph (64 kph) gusts, raged through the northern Sierra Nevada community of Greenville on Wednesday. A gas station, church, hotel, museum and bar were among the fixtures gutted in the town dating back to California’s gold rush era where some wooden buildings were more than 100 years old. The fire “burnt down our entire downtown. Our historical buildings, families’ homes, small businesses, and our children’s schools are completely lost,” Plumas County Supervisor Kevin Goss wrote on Facebook. Plumas County Sheriff Tom Johns, a lifelong resident of Greenville, said that “well over” 100 homes were destroyed, as well as businesses. “We lost Greenville tonight,” U.S. Rep. Doug LaMalfa, who represents the area, said in an emotional Facebook video. “There’s just no words.” As the fire’s north and eastern sides exploded Wednesday, the Plumas County Sheriff’s Office issued an urgent warning online to the town’s approximately 800 residents: “You are in imminent danger and you MUST leave now!” A similar warning was issued Thursday as flames pushed toward the southeast in the direction of another tiny mountain community, Taylorsville, about 10 miles (16 kilometers) southeast of Greenville. To the northwest, crews were protecting homes in the town of Chester. Residents there were among thousands under evacuation orders or warnings in several counties.
Dixie Fire becomes largest single wildfire in California history -The Dixie Fire burning in two Northern California counties is now the largest single wildfire in recorded state history, exploding in size overnight as drought-stricken lands continue to fuel the flames. The fire, which has burned for 23 days and forced mass evacuations, razed the Gold Rush town of Greenville on Thursday, destroying 91 buildings and damaging five others. Smoke from the blaze has blown to lower parts of Northern California, including the state capital of Sacramento where the air quality index on Friday reached “unhealthy” levels. The troubling development reflects not just the dire effects of climate change and neglected forest management, but also that the electric grid remains prone to sparking wildfires. Pacific Gas & Electric disclosed last month that its equipment may have caused the catastrophic blaze. The Dixie Fire is eerily similar to the 2018 Camp Fire, the deadliest and most destructive blaze in state history – and sparked by PG&E. The two fires started less than 10 miles apart from each other in the Feather River Canyon, a heavily wooded area with decrepit transmission lines. The Camp Fire leveled the towns of Paradise and Concow, destroying nearly 19,000 structures and killing 85 people. The blaze pushed PG&E to seek Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection. Last summer, the utility pleaded guilty to manslaughter charges for the disaster. By Friday morning, the Dixie Fire had burned 432,813 acres and was just 35 percent contained, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection. The blaze’s overnight growth gave it the grim distinction of becoming the largest standalone fire in state history, but it still ranks behind two multi-fire conflagrations. The lightning-ignited 2020 August Complex burned over 1 million acres in seven counties, and the 2018 Mendocino Complex burned more than 459,000 acres in four counties. The latter was infamously caused by a man trying to plug a wasp’s nest with a hammer and stake. Warm temperatures, low humidity and high winds continuing to challenge firefighters working to extinguish the blaze. The Butte County and Plumas County DAs are probing PG&E over the Dixie Fire, although Cal Fire has not yet officially announced the blaze’s cause.
PG&E power line may have started the Fly Fire that merged with big Dixie Fire – A smaller wildfire that became part of the huge Dixie Fire now burning in the Sierra Nevada may have started when a tree fell on a Pacific Gas and Electric Co. power line. PG&E said late Monday that it filed a report to state regulators about its possible link to the Fly Fire, which burned more than 4,000 acres before merging with the much larger Dixie Fire. Earlier Monday, PG&E helped the U.S. Forest Service move and examine a tree that was on one of the company’s power lines off Highway 70 in Plumas County, according to the company’s report filed with the California Public Utilities Commission.That’s the same general area, a few miles north of the town of Quincy, where officials say the Fly Fire started on July 22. A few days later, the fire was overtaken by the Dixie Fire, which has destroyed 45 major structures and 22 minor structures and burned about 253,000 acres since it began July 14. It was 35% contained as of Tuesday morning.PG&E previously told regulators that the Dixie Fire may have been ignited when a tree fell on another one of its power lines near the Cresta Dam, west of where the Fly Fire started later.Both fires have burned northeast from where the horrific 2018 Camp Fire nearly leveled the Butte County town of Paradise, becoming the deadliest and most destructive wildfire the state has ever recorded. That fire started after a hook broke on a century-old PG&E transmission tower.According to PG&E’s most recent regulatory report, fire-watching cameras first spotted smoke near Butterfly Valley Twain Road and Highway 70 at about 5:01 p.m. on July 22. The company said its own records show that equipment on a PG&E power line “reported alarms and other activity” between about 4:50 p.m. and 6:10 p.m., when that part of the line was turned off.
Wildfire smoke from out-of-state fires darkens Utah skies – Smoke filled the skies of Utah Friday as a cold front swept wildfire smoke into the state. The front moving in from the west picked up smoke from fires in California and Oregon, including the growing Dixie Fire that leveled a small California town earlier this week, National Weather Service meteorologist Christine Kruse told KSL.com. The level of smoke is expected to linger in Utah through at least Saturday and, maybe into Sunday, The air quality got so bad that the site WorldIQ Air, which tracks air quality across dozens of cities globally, ranked Utah’s capitol among the worst in the world. The Utah Department of Environmental Quality forecast air quality to reach levels unhealthy for all groups of people in Salt Lake, Davis, Tooele and Utah counties. Division of Air Quality recommended everyone avoid outdoor activity as much as possible and limit driving. Those in sensitive populations were recommended to be even more careful. Several schools canceled outdoor activities. Poor air quality is linked to spikes in multiple health issues, such as pneumonia, bronchitis, heart attacks and stroke. It also increases the risk of viral infections, such as COVID-19, said Dr. Denitza Blagev, a pulmonary physician at Intermountain Healthcare.
Oregon Wildfire Could Burn Until Fall, As Fire Season Worsens – Pockets of the American West continued to burn over the weekend, as another nine large fires were reported on Saturday in California, Idaho, Montana and Oregon. The 87 fires still active in 13 states have consumed more than 1.7 million acres. Just shy of 3 million acres have been scorched since the start of 2021, with months left in what experts predict will be a devastating fire season. In southern Oregon, the Bootleg Fire has become the largest active blaze in the country. The 413,000-acre inferno was contained at 56%, as of Saturday night. A fire line has been constructed around the entire perimeter, ranging from 100 to 150-feet wide between the burn and unburned areas. However, that fire line may have to double, up to 300 feet, to prevent the fire from spreading. The U.S. Forest Service is predicting critical fire weather over the weekend in the Bootleg Fire area. Drought conditions, combined with low humidity and strong winds, could increase fire activity, potentially carrying embers and creating nearby spot fires. Residents in neighboring Lake County have been advised to be prepared to evacuate should things take a turn for the worst. Officials don’t anticipate the fire to be entirely contained until the beginning of October. In Northern California, east of Chico, some 5,500 individuals are working to contain theDixie Fire, currently the second-largest fire in the U.S. As of Saturday, the 244,000-acre blaze was contained at 30%, with crews expecting 100% containment in two weeks. More than 22,000 personnel are currently assigned to wildfires across the country, sometimes moving from one incident to another. The two biggest fires are occupying approximately one-third of the nation’s active wildfire personnel. The Bootleg Fire, about the size of the city of Houston, has 1,900 workers tending to it. The Dixie Fire to the south is slightly smaller than the city of San Diego and has almost three times the number of personnel working the area than that of the bigger Bootleg fire.
Wildfires reach outskirts of Athens, seriously damage or destroy more than 100 homes, Greece — (videos) Severe heatwave affecting Greece and neighboring countries over the past 7 days sparked numerous wildfires, including near capital Athens where more than 500 people were forced to evacuate on Tuesday, August 3, 2021.More than 500 firefighters battled the flames on the northern outskirts of Athens into Thursday, August 4, where fires destroyed or seriously damaged more than 100 homes and businesses.The affected areas include Varympompy and Tatoi, located at the foot of Mount Parnitha next to large pine trees forests.According to the AP, the blaze damaged electricity pylons, adding further strain on the electricity network already under pressure due to the widespread use of air conditioning.81 wildfires had been reported around the country in 24 hours from late Monday, August 2 to late Tuesday, August 3. The fires come during the country’s severe heatwave, the worst since 1987, according to local authorities.
Raging wildfires force more than 10 000 people to evacuate, claim 8 lives in southern Turkey – At least 8 people have been killed and more than 10 000 forced to evacuate as raging wildfires spread through parts of southern Turkey over the past 7 days. Authorities said this is the country’s worst fire crisis in a decade.Over the past 7 days, 132 wildfires raging across the country’s south scorched at least 118 790 ha (293 536 acres), according to the European Forest Fire Information System.One of the worst-affected areas is Manavgat, Antalya Province where 7 people lost their lives. The eighth victim was found in Marmaris.More than 2 200 people were evacuated by boats from the tourist resort of Bodrum on July 31 and August 1.Investigations are underway for potential arson, which may have caused the major fires, the Daily Sabah reports.Authorities had earlier stated that it was being investigated whether the PKK terrorist group, which was behind previous arsons, was also the perpetrator of these forest fires.In some neighborhoods of Manavgat, where fires broke out one after another, people have started patrolling streets against ‘arsonists.’
Eight dead as wildfires continue to rage across southern Europe –Eight people have died and thousands have been evacuated from their homes as extreme wildfires continue to rage in parts of southern Europe. The deaths occurred in Turkey, where for the past week firefighters have battled blazes in several coastal resort towns. Ten other people have been hospitalised. On Thursday, Turkish coastguards evacuated hundreds of villagers living close to a burning power plant in the Aegean province of Muğla. In Italy, the number of large wildfires is estimated to have tripled this summer compared to the yearly average, causing millions of euros-worth of damage to the environment and economy in central and southern regions. At the same time, the north of the country has been plagued by severe flooding and landslides in recent days, especially in Lombardy, where heavy rainfall caused Lake Como to burst its banks early on Thursday morning. “Flooding and intense rains in the north, fires in the south – the country has been split in two,” said Fabrizio Curcio, the chief of Italy’s civil protection authority. In Greece, Eleni Myrivili, who was appointed Athens’ first chief heat officer in July, described “apocalyptic” scenes after houses and villages burned down as a result of wildfires in the north-east of the Greek capital amid a protracted heatwave. The most intense days for the fires were Tuesday and Wednesday as temperatures reached 45C. “There was an incredible fight with the fire all day yesterday,” Myrivili told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Thursday morning, adding that the blaze appeared to be subsiding. “The skies were grey and red, and there was ash falling on us. It was apocalyptic. On [Tuesday] night, the smoke came into my house and I had to sleep with a mask because I couldn’t breathe.” She added that it was a struggle to be outdoors under the extreme heat. “You run out of breath and it’s very easy to feel as if you’re getting dizzy, a kind of brain fog.” The Acropolis was also closed to visitors. “It’s an issue of health,” Myrivili said. “We don’t want people to be exposed to the sun and heat for long periods of time in an area where there is no shade. This is the thing with extreme heat – it’s a subtle, slow and invisible kind of enemy.”
In photos: Europe battles wildfires amid scorching heatwaves – A summer of record-setting heat in southern Europe has set off devastating wildfires that have torn through forests, homes and destroyed vital infrastructure from Turkey to Spain. In Greece, firefighters battled flames moving towards ancient Olympia, the birthplace of the Olympic Games. In its capital Athens, residents were told to stay at home to avoid the smoke pollution belched into the atmosphere by fires in a northern suburb. Powerful winds helped fan the flames in Turkey, where apocalyptic scenes followed more than a 100 blazes that broke out across the country. As the country reeled from scorching temperatures, hundreds had to evacuate by sea as they fled the advancing fire in the tourist hotspot of Bodrum. Experts say the heatwaves and fires in Europe this summer are signs of the impact of climate change, and that extreme weather will only get worse in coming years.
Area under wildfires in Yakutia reaches 3.6 million ha (8.9 million acres), Russia – The current area under the wildfires in Russia’s Sakha Republic (Yakutia) is reported to be 3.6 million ha (8.9 million acres). The fire season in the region started in early May.As of Monday, August 2, there are 156 wildfires in the republic.
One of the Coldest Places on Earth Is On Fire – WSJ – The smoke from the fires in Russia’s northeast is so thick it has blotted out the sun, plunging swaths of the region into darkness during the brief summer. A state of emergency has been declared in the city of Yakutsk, where freezing winter temperatures have given it the reputation of being the coldest constantly inhabited city on the planet. Residents have been told to stay indoors while volunteers and firefighters brave temperatures surpassing 100 degrees Fahrenheit. In all, the wildfires have devoured over 10 million acres of land in the Yakutia region this summer, with 175 fires still burning, according to government data. Scientists fear the amount of carbon dioxide released from the Russian blazes could surpass last year’s record. Similar scenes are playing out across several parts of the globe as emergency teams battle wildfires in Turkey, Southern Europe and the U.S., including California and Hawaii, where brush fires have exploded to encompass some 40,000 acres. Scientists say extreme heat in some areas and drought have contributed to sparking the fires. More than 2,400 firefighters have been deployed to battle the Russian wildfires, supported by troops and military aircraft, while volunteers such as Ayil Dyulurkha have pitched in, desperate to stop the wildfires spreading to towns where they could destroy homes and businesses. It is a world away from managing the courier company he founded six months ago in Yakutsk, Mr. Dyulurkha said. “When you come back from the fire, you cough and black soot shoots from your nose,” he said. The 48-year-old businessman rallied other volunteers through Facebook and Instagram and soon he had gathered around a dozen people. The number of the ragtag team sometimes falls to five and at others rises to more than two dozen, Mr. Dyulurkha said. Equipped with respirators and wearing overalls, their 10- to 12-hour shifts include shoveling dirt from the trenches made by tractors to secure the fire break, removing fallen trees that block escape routes, and using backpack water tanks to extinguish spot fires. At night, they keep watch to ensure the fires don’t jump the safety line, Mr. Dyulurkha said. Sometimes the heat is so overwhelming that some of the volunteers’ rubber boots melt as they work. One fire burned down their forest camp, consuming everything from their equipment to fuel and food, he said. Fires have burned around 6.8 million acres of land across all of Russia since the beginning of fire season in May, according to government data, making it the fourth year in the row the world’s largest country has been ravaged. The local branch of environmental organization Greenpeace estimates the devastation is likely much greater. “The situation is very bad,” said Alexey Yaroshenko, head of Greenpeace’s forest department. “The problem is not only with very large fires this year, but also the fact that fire disasters of this magnitude are happening every year in the Russian taiga,” or boreal forest.
Last month was worst July for wildfires on record, say scientists -Last month was the world’s worst July for wildfires since at least 2003 when satellite records began, scientists have said, as swaths of North America, Siberia, Africa and southern Europe continue to burn.Driven by extreme heat and prolonged drought, the ignition of forests and grasslands released 343 megatonnes of carbon, about a fifth higher than the previous global peak for July, which was set in 2014. “This stands out by a clear margin,” said Mark Parrington, a senior scientist in the EU’s Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service, which estimates the carbon releases. “The July global total this year is the highest since our records began in 2003.”The unprecedented mid-summer burn is the latest in a series of unwelcome recent records that underscore the destructive impacts of human-driven global heating.More than half of the carbon came from two regions – North America and Siberia – that have experienced unusually hot and dry weather. In western Canada and the US, forest fires have followed protracted and intense heatwaves. In Siberia, much of the taiga in the Sakha Republic has been engulfed in flames and clouds of toxic smoke that have drifted as far as the north pole.The global conflagration is widening to the eastern and central Mediterranean, where many nations are encountering an unusually fierce start to the fire season.Last week, the heat intensity from fires in Turkey was four times higher than the previous daily national record. So far this year, 128,000 hectares (316,000 acres) have burned – eight times higher than the average, according to the European Forest Fire Information System.
Death toll from floods in central China jumps to 302, more than 50 missing –More than 300 people have died in recent flooding in central China, according to official data released Monday, August 2, 2021. The number is more than three times higher than previously reported.Henan provincial government said 302 people have died and 50 remain missing after extreme rains hit central China from July 17 – 21.297 people were killed in Henan’s capital Zhengzhou and 47 remain missing. 10 others died in 3 other cities.For those of you who don’t remember this event, Zhengzhou received record-breaking hourly precipitation of 201.9 mm (7.9 inches) between 16:00 and 17:00 LT (08:00 – 09:00 UTC) on July 20.From Sunday, July 18 to 00:00 LT on Tuesday, July 20, the accumulated average rainfall in the city reached 449 mm (17.6 inches). 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). 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).According to official data released on July 27, 24 474 houses have been destroyed or severely damaged.In addition, 972 000 hectares (2.4 million acres) of crops in the state have been damaged or destroyed. Henan’s economy is essentially based on agriculture and the province is China’s main wheat producer.
Severe floods leave 5 dead, 7 injured in 7 provinces, Iran – (video) Heavy rains affecting Iran over the past couple of days have left at least 5 people dead and 7 others injured. According to a statement by the Iranian Red Crescent Society (IRCS) on August 3, relief and rescue forces provided services to 846 flood survivors in 7 affected provinces. While relief operations have been completed in 5 provinces, they still continue in Qazvin and Zanjan.The city of Avaj was one of the worst affected after recording just over 36 mm (1.4 inches) of rain in just 40 minutes on August 2, 2021.”Over the last two years, Iran was doused with rain which was unprecedented during the past 50 years, but last year, unfortunately, the country faced drought, which shows a 40% decrease in rainfall,” the Tehran Times reports.Rainfall extremes over the past 3 years slowly questioned the conception that Iran is experiencing a long-term drought and some of the experts announced that a wet spell will embrace the country, the paper noted.”So, some experts claimed that Iran has entered a period of a wet spell after experiencing dry spells over the past few decades, some others highly rejected the claim implying that the country faced a lack of rain by 50 mm (1.96 inches) over the past 50 years.”
Yellowstone registers most energetic swarm of earthquakes since 2017 -The month of July saw the most energetic swarm of earthquakes in the region since the Maple Creek earthquake swarm of June-September 2017, the Yellowstone Volcano Observatory (YVO) reported in their monthly update released August 2, 2021.While above average, this level of seismicity is not unprecedented, and it does not reflect the magmatic activity, YVO said.Earthquakes at Yellowstone are dominantly caused by motion on preexisting faults and can be stimulated by increases in pore pressure due to groundwater recharge from snowmelt. If magmatic activity were the cause of the quakes, we would expect to see other indicators, like changes in deformation style or thermal/gas emissions, but no such variations were detected.There was only one eruption of Steamboat Geyser in July 2021, so the total number of eruptions for the year is now 13. Over the past few months, the time between eruptions has increased, which may indicate that the present period of frequent eruptions is coming to a gradual close.In July 2021, the University of Utah Seismograph Stations, responsible for the operation and analysis of the Yellowstone Seismic Network, located 1 008 earthquakes in the Yellowstone National Park region. This number is preliminary and will likely increase, since dozens more small earthquakes, from July 16, require further analysis.This is the most earthquakes in a month since June 2017, when over 1 100 earthquakes were located.The largest event of the past month was a minor earthquake of magnitude 3.6 located 17.7 km (11 miles) beneath Yellowstone Lake, 11.9 km (7.4 miles) SSE of Fishing Bridge at 18:45 MDT on July 16. This event was part of an energetic sequence of earthquakes in the same area that began on July 16.July seismicity in Yellowstone was marked by seven earthquake swarms:
- 1) A swarm of 764 earthquakes occurred beneath Yellowstone Lake (with several small earthquakes from July 16 still requiring analysis). It began on July 16 and includes the largest event of the month (magnitude 3.6, detailed above). This swarm consists of four earthquakes in the magnitude 3 range and 85 in the magnitude 2 range. These numbers will be updated upon completion of the analysis. This sequence has decreased to only a few earthquakes per day but may continue into August.
- 2) A swarm of 40 earthquakes, ~19 km (12 miles) ENE of West Yellowstone, MT, began on July 19, with the largest event (M2.1) occurring on July 23 at 22:20 MDT.
- 3) A series of 34 earthquakes ~17.7 km (11 miles) NE of West Yellowstone, MT, continued into July from a swarm that began on June 19. The largest July event (magnitude 1.5) occurred at 19:12 MDT on June 30, ~18.5 km (11.5 miles) NE of West Yellowstone, MT.
- 4) A series of 24 earthquakes ~17.7 km NE of West Yellowstone, MT, continued up to July 3rd(MDT) from a swarm that began June 9. The largest July event (magnitude 2.6) occurred on July 3 at 07:31 MDT, ~23.3 km (14.5 miles) NNE of Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park.
- 5) A swarm of 20 earthquakes occurred July 29 – 31 N of Norris Geyser Basin in Yellowstone National Park. The largest event (M1.9) was on July 29 at 09:31 MDT, ~4.8 km (3 miles) N of Norris Geyser Basin.
- 6) A small swarm of 14 earthquakes occurred July 9 – 10. The largest, M2.0, took place at 12:08 MDT on July 10, located 24.9 km (15.5 miles) S of Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park.
- 7) A small swarm of 12 earthquakes occurred July 10 – 15. The largest was M2.7 at 11:35 MDT on July 12, 24.1 km (15 miles) NNE of Old Faithful, Yellowstone National Park.
Subsidence of Yellowstone Caldera, which has been ongoing since 2015, has paused during the summer months, reflecting seasonal groundwater recharge, YVO said. Every summer, water from snowmelt causes the ground to swell slightly, resulting in a pause in subsidence trends or even a minor amount of uplift (less than 1 cm / fraction of an inch). In the area of Norris Geyser Basin, no significant uplift or subsidence has been detected by a nearby GPS station since the start of 2020. No deformation associated with the energetic earthquake swarm beneath Yellowstone Lake was noted.
Major explosive event at Stromboli volcano, Italy – A major explosive eruption took place at Stromboli volcano, Italy at 20:09 UTC on August 1, 2021. This is the second larger than usual explosion at the volcano since July 28.Analysis of the event indicated that the eruptive activity produced a significant emission of volcanic material that reached heights of over 150 m (490 inches) at the mouth and dispersed beyond the crater terrace, affecting the Pizzo area and rolling along the Sciara del Fuoco.No change in activity was recorded after the explosive event.From the seismic point of view, the event was clearly visible on all seismic stations at Stromboli. Regarding the amplitude of the volcanic tremor, a sharp increase was observed from 19:50 UTC with a maximum peak on high values around 20:00 UTC.Strain signals from GNSS and Stromboli clinometric networks show no significant variation associated with the explosive event.All parameters returned to normal at 21:30 UTC.
Equilibrium/ Sustainability – Tree alive ‘when Jesus was on Earth’ threatened by rising seas | TheHill — Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. Subscribe here: thehill.com/newsletter-signup. Rising seas are pushing inland toward the ancient trees of coastal North Carolina’s Three Sisters swamp, where one bald cypress has stood above the Black River since at least 605 B.C., according to The Guardian. “They were here when Jesus was on Earth,” one resident told The Guardian.Trees like this stand just 6 feet above the Atlantic, and creeping salt has left dead-white “ghost forests” as gloomy monuments, The Guardian reported. Data drawn from the cores of more ancient deceased cypresses reveal a grim truth: “Even very long-lived cypress trees in the ancient past can be killed very fast,” environmental archeologist Katharine Napora said.Today we’ll look at the complications of slowing that rise. First, we’ll explore how fossil fuel companies are fighting to avoid disclosing how much carbon dioxide is released when customers burn their products. And then we’ll examine how Asian investment banks are struggling with the complications of quitting coal.
Martha’s Vineyard, Nantucket face dire climate change impact (AP) – The famous islands of Martha’s Vineyard and Nantucket in Massachusettsare facing serious impacts from rising sea levels and more powerful coastal storms driven by climate change, a new environmental report released Wednesday warns.The “State of the Coast” report by the Trustees, a prominent Massachusetts conservation group, says the popular tourist destinations off Cape Cod risk losing hundreds of acres of marshlands to flooding and billions of dollars in coastal homes, buildings and infrastructure to erosion.What’s more, roughly 900 structures on the two islands may experience daily tidal flooding by 2050 as sea levels are predicted to rise more than 2.5 feet, the organization said.“The impacts of flooding and erosion on these beloved Islands will affect thousands who live and work there, and the thousands more who visit each summer,” said Tom O’Shea, a managing director at the Trustees.The island communities, which also include the small and sparsely populated Elizabeth islands, also known as Gosnold, are taking climate change seriously, the organization says in its report.Island communities have hired staff focused on climate change and begun resiliency work, from redesigning harbors, to replenishing sandy beaches, raising roads, and creating living shorelines to protect against coastal erosion.“This is encouraging, but many climate-related projects are in the planning phase, and more needs to be done,” the Trustees said. “We may have only 10 to 20 years before climate change forces our hand.”U.S. Senator Edward Markey said in a statement the report “magnifies the importance of taking bold steps now” to “protect these irreplaceable and invaluable wild treasures.” One challenge for the islands is limited options for retreat inland.Less than 10% of Martha’s Vineyard’s remaining land is considered available for development, and less than 9% is available on Nantucket, according to the report. And since the late 1800s, the two islands have lost nearly 3,300 acres of beaches, dunes, and other coastal areas combined – an area equivalent to about 2,500 football fields, the organization said.
Climate Scientists Detect Warning Signs of Gulf Stream Collapse –Climate change has “almost complete[ly]” destabilized the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC), a critical aquatic “conveyor belt” that plays a major role in global temperature and weather systems, a new analysis published Thursday in Nature Climate Change reveals.Increasing ocean temperatures and, especially, the influx of freshwater from melting ice sheets and glaciers is slowing the AMOC, which includes the Gulf Stream. If circulation shuts off, North America and Europe could be plunged into extreme cold, U.S. East Coast sea levels could rise, and seasonal monsoons critical to much of the world’s water supply could be disrupted.The AMOC has stopped circulating before – at the end of the last ice age, setting off a Northern Hemisphere cold spell that transformed ecosystems and threw human societies into upheaval for 1,000 years.As reported by The Washington Post: After all, there are plenty of other indications that Earth’s climate is in unprecedented territory.This summer, the Pacific Northwest was blasted by a heat wave scientists say was “virtually impossible” without human-caused warming. China, Germany, Belgium, Uganda and India have all experienced massive, deadly floods. Wildfires are raging from California to Turkey to the frozen forests of Siberia.The world is more than 1 degree Celsius (1.8 degrees Fahrenheit) warmer than it was before humans started burning fossil fuels, and it’s getting hotter all the time.And the apparent consequences of the AMOC slowing are already being felt. A persistent “cold blob” in the ocean south of Greenland is thought to result from less warm water reaching that region. The lagging Gulf Stream has caused exceptionally high sea level rise along the U.S. East Coast. Key fisheries have been upended by the rapid temperature swings, and beloved species are struggling to cope with the changes.If the AMOC does completely shut down, the change would be irreversible in human lifetimes, Boers said. The “bi-stable” nature of the phenomenon means it will find new equilibrium in its “off” state. Turning it back on would require a shift in the climate far greater than the changes that triggered the shutdown.“It’s one of those events that should not happen, and we should try all that we can to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as quickly as possible,” [study author Niklas] Boers said. “This is a system we don’t want to mess with.”
‘The Economist’ Notices the Climate – Even The Economist has noticed that the ravages of climate change are coming to this generation, not the next one: Three degrees of global warming is quite plausible and truly disastrousBY THE STANDARDS of the 21st century as a whole, 2021 will almost certainly go down as a comparatively cool year. By the standards of the rest of human history its weather looks disconcertingly like hell.On July 20th, as Belgium, Germany, the Netherlands and Switzerland were still coming to terms with the fact that a stationary system of storms had turned entire towns into rivers and shredded the surrounding countryside, hundreds of thousands of people in the Chinese province of Henan were evacuated in the face of floods of their own; the city of Zhengzhou saw a year’s worth of rain in three days.Also on July 20th Cizre, in Turkey, saw a temperature of 49.1°C (120°F), the highest ever recorded in the country. There has been barely any respite from searingly hot conditions along the northern Pacific coast of North America since the region was hit by an unprecedented heatwave two weeks ago, and already the region is bracing for another. Other places at high latitudes have been seeing similar – if less destructive – anomalies. In the first half of the month Finland experienced its longest heatwave for at least 60 years, with temperatures rising to the low 30°Cs in Lapland. On July 14th the country tossed and turned through its hottest night ever: two weather stations recorded temperatures no lower than 24.2°COn July 11th, a National Weather Service thermometer at Furnace Creek in Death Valley recorded a temperature of 54°C [that’s 129°F]. If confirmed by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO), that would tie a reading taken at the same location last year for the hottest formally recognised daytime temperature ever. On July 19th more than 40% of the Greenland ice cap had meltwater on it. The amount of sea-ice cover in the Arctic was as low as it was at the same point in 2012, which saw the lowest summer sea ice ever recorded.This is what Earth looks like when, according to the latest data from the WMO, it is 1.1-1.3°C warmer than it was before the steam engine was invented. It’s fair to say that what we’ve seen this year will happen almost every year going forward – plus it will get worse. Note that Death Valley reached its all-time record – 54°C or 129°F – in both of the last two years.Almost everyone alive today will see summers with no Arctic ice. That day is not far off. Almost everyone born today will see winters with no Arctic ice. Destruction of the white expanse of Arctic ice, which reflects solar energy back into space before it’s converted to heat – consider the difference between a white surface and a black surface on a bright day – is one of many accelerants our species is pouring with abandon onto the fire of our own demise.It’s clear the editors of The Economists (this was an unsigned, editor-written piece) fully understand that the planet will soon be largely uninhabitable by our species, and in this century. They understand, for example, that while “‘tropical’ nights where temperatures remain above 20°C from dusk till dawn are … mostly the preserve of the Mediterranean shoreline” today, in a 3°C-warming world “they became a regular occurrence in the Baltics,” adding that it’s “the lack of enough cooling at night which, by and large, drives deaths during heatwaves.”
Industry accounts for well over half Louisiana’s carbon emissions, research shows –Louisiana’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a recent study by the LSU Center for Energy Studies, are “dominated by the industrial sector,” which accounts for 61% of the state’s total carbon dioxide emissions. That’s nearly three times the national average share, according to the study. Emissions from all other sectors of Louisiana’s economy measured well below national average shares. Just 20 petrochemical facilities in Louisiana are responsible for more than half the state’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to the LSU Center for Energy Studies. The carbon footprints of residential and commercial consumers each account for a minuscule 1% of the state’s total, according to the LSU study. When David Dismukes, the executive director of LSU’s Center for Energy Studies, presented those findings to the Louisiana Climate Initiatives Task Force on Thursday, some members called for the task force to shift its focus from exploring ideas such as carbon capture to actually reducing the state’s industrial footprint. In addition to entertaining the idea of exploring carbon capture and storage (CCS), a largely untested technology that involves capturing carbon dioxide and injecting it underground to be stored for centuries, the task force has also discussed reducing emissions from vehicles – even though, according to LSU’s findings, eliminating half the state’s cars would only reduce Louisiana’s emissions by 10%. Task force member Flozell Daniels, CEO of the Foundation for Louisiana, asked his colleagues if they really believe capturing carbon and reducing traffic would be enough to reach Gov. John Bel Edwards’ ambitious goal of reaching net zero carbon emissions statewide by 2050. “We have three times the industrial impact, so there just has to be something extraordinary for us to consider when we’re looking at this,” Daniels said. “I don’t believe decarbonization alone will get us there. There’s going to have to be a reduction in footprint as a means of reducing emissions. I don’t see where the data has said anything else to us.” Task force member Collette Battle concurred. “We can’t just produce our way out of this thing,” Battle said. “We can’t just invest our way out of this thing. Some of what we have to do is actually reduce what we’re doing.”
What’s the true cost of shipping all your junk across the ocean? Grist –Take a look around your home and you’ll likely find plenty of goods that traveled by cargo ship to your doorstep. A set of IKEA plates made in China. A dresser full of pandemic-era loungewear, ordered on Target and made in Guatemala, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. Tracing the impact on the environment from shipping any of these goods is incredibly tricky to do. The data – if you can find it – involves many companies, countries, and cargo carriers. Such obscurity makes it hard to count the full cost of our consumption. But a recent report helps unravel some of the mystery.Two environmental groups, Pacific Environment andStand.earth, worked with prominent maritime researchers to track goods imported by the 15 largest retail giants in the United States. They then quantified the greenhouse gas emissions and air pollutants associated with those imports, usually ferried across the oceans on cargo ships running on dirty bunker fuel. In 2019, importing some 3.8 million shipping containers’ worth of cargo generated as much carbon dioxide emissions as three coal-fired power plants. These shipments also produced as much smog-forming nitrous oxide as 27.4 million cars and trucks do in a year, according to the report. “Our report affirms that these retail giants’ dirty ocean shipping is fueling the climate crisis,” said Madeline Rose, climate campaign director for Pacific Environment and the study’s lead author. The study is the first to trace retailers’ shipping-related emissions, and it used data from a separate, larger project to track the industry’s emissions that’s set to launch in October. The findings are likely just a snapshot of the true environmental toll: Researchers said they could only verify emissions for one-fifth of shipments by the 15 retailers, owing to a lack of data and the companies’ use of shell companies and franchises. The largest retail company in the United States, Walmart, was also the biggest polluter of the bunch. In 2019, Walmart imported enough goods to equal 893,000 shipping containers, resulting in some 3.7 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions.
Bill Gates – How the Useful Eaters Live and Travel – Back in April 2021, I posted this missive on Bill Gates and his carbon footprint, an issue that is of some interest given Gates’ repeated narrative that the world cannot survive in its current form without his valuable input on climate change. In that posting, we learned that, among a sample of the world’s elite/high value individuals, Gates has a very large carbon footprint thanks to his extensive global travels in his private jet. In early 2021, Gates was making the talk show circuit, shamelessly promoting his book on climate change and how we can avoid a climate catastrophe. While lecturing us on reducing our carbon-laden impact on the global climate, it became quite clear that it was a clear-cut example of “rules for thee but not for me”. Recent news from Turkey shows that Gates is quite happy to throw his wealth in the faces of the useless eaters who need to wean themselves from their red meat diet and gas guzzling automobiles to save the world. Here is the news item of interest as reported by the Daily Sabah, a Turkish daily news source dated July 28, 2021: (screenshot) Of course, there must be a good reason for Bill Gates to travel to Turkey. Again, according to the Daily Sabah on April 28, 2021, this report appeared: (screenshot) So there you have it. Bill Gates really does have a very, very good reason to travel by private jet and yacht to check out his land holdings in Turkey and treat himself and a few friends/other useful eaters with a $10,000 dinner while the rest of the useless eaters and unwashed masses consume weeds and insects. But then again, it is entirely possible that his yacht and private jet are fuelled with unicorn farts and exhaust fairy dust into the atmosphere, making the world a whole lot better for all of us.
Billionaires ‘kvetching’ about population collapse -Some billionaires are “kvetching” – or griping – again. It’s not about high taxes, government regulations or a shortage of workers. Nor is it about climate change, environmental degradation or pollution. No, this time some billionaires are kvetching about an imagined world population collapse.Instead of focusing on critical issues such as climate change, they have the chutzpah to claim that the greatest risk – potentially – to the future of civilization is population collapse. Moreover, they predict that in the next 20 years the biggest problem the world faces is population collapse. A major reason for an increasing world population centers on their desire for colonizing Mars and for millions of people to permanently live and work in space.Their claim and prediction are pure “bupkis.” To be clear, world population is not likely to collapse soon and the biggest problem the world faces in the coming two decades is certainly not population collapse.The likely demographic future for the world is just the opposite of those claims. The world population, currently 7.9 billion, is increasing, and current projections expect it to reach 9.3 billion in 20 years. During the 20th century, the world experienced extraordinary demographic changes. The world population nearly quadrupled, growing from 1.6 billion in 1900 to 6.1 billion in 2000. Approximately 80 percent of that unprecedented growth occurred during the second half of the 20th century. The world’s most rapid rate of demographic growth and largest population increase also occurred during the second half of the 20th century. The annual growth rate of the world’s population peaked at 2.1 percent in the late 1960s, and by the century’s close declined to 1.3 percent. The peak annual increase in world population occurred in the late 1980s with the addition of 93 million. Today world population is growing at an annual rate of 1 percent, or about 80 million. However, the coronavirus pandemic, which increased deaths and reduced births in 2020, is believed to have affected world population growth at least in the short term. The pandemic’s long-term demographic consequences on fertility, mortality and migration rates remain uncertain. Prior to the pandemic, the world population was projected to reach 8 billion by 2023, 9 billion by 2037, 10 billion by 2056, and close to 11 billion by the close of the century. Although the world population is increasing, that demographic growth is unevenly distributed globally.
New report blasts Facebook for allowing fossil-fuel giants to spread climate misinformation – Amid the millions of advertisements running on Facebook, a new report singles out ads paid for by leading oil and gas companies as being misleading regarding their sustainability initiatives and policies, and faults the social media giant for continuing to host their ads. Compiled by the think tank InfluenceMap, which studies corporate climate policies, the report analyzes the messaging of ads issued by oil and gas companies on Facebook to gauge how accurately they reflect the companies’ actual policies surrounding climate change mitigation Looking at over 25,000 separate ads from 25 leading oil and gas organizations, researchers say that bulk of the marketing content contained misleading information related to the companies’ efforts to switch to clean energy, job creation, and the benefits of using oil and gas as fuel. Researchers at InfluenceMap argue that most of the narratives put forth within the ads aren’t accurate, primarily with the suggestion that oil and gas companies can continue operations while reducing emissions. They also point out that the company was paid $9,597,376 from oil and gas giants, and claims that it hasn’t been consistently applying its fact-checking advertising policies to ads focused on climate change. “Despite Facebook’s public support for climate action, it continues to allow its platform to be used to spread fossil fuel propaganda,” said Bill Weihl, founder of ClimateVoice and the former Director of Sustainability at Facebook. “Not only is Facebook inadequately enforcing its existing advertising policies, it’s clear that these policies are not keeping pace with the critical need for urgent climate action.” The results from the research also retraced when advertisements from oil and gas companies were deployed at larger volumes on Facebook. Several upticks in ads circulating on the platform were observed, some coinciding with critical political moments, such as the days leading up to the U.S. 2020 election and when then-candidate Joe Biden released his $2 trillion climate plan. These ads were also marketed to users in select states. Oil-rich regions, such as Texas, Alaska, and California where drilling for oil and natural gas stands to be contested, received the bulk of the advertising campaigns and had the most impressions, or interactions. Users in politically crucial states also saw large quantities of oil company ads, with Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Ohio recording millions of impressions with these ads. These states are often battleground states, and are liable to swing between Democrat and Republican during an election cycle. The major companies funding these ads include ExxonMobil, who spent over $5 million on advertisements in 2020, the American Petroleum Institute, and OneAlaska.
The infrastructure deal could create pipelines for captured CO2 – A new generation of pipelines could be born out of the bipartisan infrastructure deal making its way through Congress. But instead of hauling oil and gas, the pipelines would carry planet-heating carbon dioxide. The massive bill would allocate funding for new infrastructure devoted to capturing carbon dioxide, and transporting it to places where it can be buried underground or used in products like carbonated soda. Carbon capture technology aims to scrub CO2 directly at the source of emissions – but it’s remained controversial among climate activists, with many seeing it as a false solution that distracts from emission reduction goals. But Congress’ new bipartisan infrastructure plan would invest billions of dollars into the idea, committing the US to ambitious carbon capture and removal schemes that have never been attempted at this large scale.“The infrastructure bill has opened the floodgates for carbon capture piping. Watch out,” tweeted Alan Ramo, professor emeritus at Golden Gate University School of Law.The new provisions focus mostly on using carbon capture and removal to tackle industrial emissions, rather than emissions from the power sector. The Biden Administration has particularly encouraged carbon capture for industries like cement and steel, which are difficult to electrify and decarbonize. (Cement alone is responsible for 8 percent of global CO2 emissions.) Focusing on those industries might keep carbon capture from being used as a way to extend the life of coal plants or other heavy-emitting power sources, a problem that’s come up with carbon capture technologies used in the power sector. The new infrastructure bill would fund a sort of network for industrial carbon capture and storage. There’s already been significant work on scrubber technology that removes carbon dioxide at the source, so the new bill directs much of its funding at building a pipeline network that would can carry that CO2 away from the initial emissions point. The bill also funds projects that could serve as a destination for that CO2, either using it in commercial products or injecting into the ground for storage.
Hydrogen Plan Isn’t Very Green Under U.S. Infrastructure Deal — Building a hydrogen-based energy system in the U.S., which some analysts call key to fighting climate change, would be based largely on fossil fuels under the bipartisan infrastructure bill heading for a Senate vote. The legislation provides for $8 billion in spending to establish at least four “regional clean hydrogen hubs” producing and using the fuel for manufacturing, heating and transportation. At least two would be in U.S. regions “with the greatest natural gas resources,” according to the bill. One hub would demonstrate production from fossil fuels, one would use renewable power, and one would use nuclear power.
Congress proposes “clean hydrogen” production hubs – with coal as a potential source – The bipartisan infrastructure bill headed for a Senate vote includes provisions for “clean hydrogen” hubs that would use fossil fuels, Bloomberg reported Monday. The bill earmarks $8 billion to build at least four “regional clean hydrogen hubs” that would produce hydrogen for uses such as heating, manufacturing and transportation. At least two of these hubs would be located in regions “with the greatest natural gas resources,” according to the bill, and renewable energy, nuclear energy, and biomass are discussed as potential energy sources. However, so is coal. As Bloomberg points out, hydrogen can be stripped from water using electrolyzer devices, which seems to be the plan here, as the bill also includes $1 billion for grants to improve the efficiency of these devices. But that requires a lot of electricity, and the source of that electricity can affect the overall environmental impact of hydrogen production.If the electricity comes from renewable sources, the hydrogen-production process does not generate greenhouse-gas emissions, Bloomberg noted. This so-called “green hydrogen” is currently more expensive than hydrogen produced using natural gas, but costs are expected to fall within a decade, to the point where green sources cost less than fossil fuels, according to Bloomberg. That in turn could make coal-powered hydrogen hubs uncompetitive.A 2020 IHS Markit study predicted that green hydrogen produced using renewable energy could be cost-competitive with hydrogen made from natural gas by 2030. The California Energy Commission came to a similar conclusion, saying in its own 2020 report that hydrogen fuel-cell cars could reach price parity with gasoline by 2025.
‘This Looks Like the Exxon Infrastructure Bill’: Bipartisan Deal Omits Key Climate Protections – The bipartisan legislation currently under Senate consideration falls far short of President Biden’s commitment to transforming the fossil-fueled underpinnings of the U.S. economy, the AP reports.The deal includes hundreds of billions in total to support climate resilience, electric grid updates, and harden infrastructure against cyberattacks and climate change – as well as more than half a trillion for new public works projects. It does not, however, establish a Clean Electricity Standard nor a Civilian Climate Corps and includes just $7.5 billion for EV charging stations.Environmental advocates slammed the bill. “It is clear that the deal does not meet the moment on climate or justice,” said Tiernan Sittenfeld, a senior vice president of the League of Conservation Voters. Others, like Janet Redman of Greenpeace USA, were pithier. “This looks like the Exxon Infrastructure Bill,” she said. “An infrastructure bill that doesn’t prevent a full-blown climate catastrophe by funding a swift transition to renewable energy would kill millions of Americans.”Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey said the bill was “a good start,” adding Democrats would pass a separate $3.5 trillion package without GOP support to “deal with the climate crisis in the magnitude, scope and scale that’s required.”As reported by The Associated Press: The Senate voted, 66-28, Friday to advance the bill, but it’s unclear if enough Republicans will eventually join Democrats to support final passage. Senate rules require 60 votes in the evenly split 50-50 chamber to advance the bill but a simple majority to pass it. The measure also faces turbulence in the closely divided House, where progressives are pushing for increased spending on climate change and other issues and centrist lawmakers are wary of adding to the federal debt. Rep. Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., chairman of the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, called the Senate bill inadequate and pledged to push for changes in the House, which passed a separate, $715 billion transportation and water bill in early July. Transportation is the largest contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S. DeFazio, the House bill’s lead sponsor, said his bill “charts our path forward,″ adding that he is “fighting to make sure we enact a transformative bill that supports our recovery and combats the existential threat of climate change.
Biden’s Agenda Is Tainted by Oil Interests, Say Climate Advocates – Bloomberg – While the new bill includes big wins on some priorities, it also contains provisions to prop up fossil fuels. When negotiators released the more-than-2,700-page text of the infrastructure bill now inching its way forward in the Senate this week, they discussed it as a glass half full – the first, imperfect step toward greening U.S. energy and industry. To many looking at it from outside the government, however, what’s in that glass has been polluted.
Breaking down the infrastructure bill’s impact on climate change | PBS NewsHour – The current infrastructure bill includes $150 billion for clean energy and climate change protections. Tens of billions would also be utilized to fight extreme weather like drought, wildfire, flooding and erosion, with a host of smaller programs like low-emission busses, cleaner ports and even more trees. Rebecca Leber, who covers climate change for Vox, joins Lisa Desjardins to discuss.
Infrastructure bill includes wins for Bakken energy, agriculture in MonDak Much has been written about the $550 billion in new federal spending aimed at revitalizing America’s transportation system, but the bipartisan infrastructure bill that has advanced to the floor of the U.S. Senate also contains billions of dollars for energy and agriculture as well. For agriculture, there’s $65 billion for rural broadband, $2 billion of which is headed to the USDA. There’s also billions for carbon removal, firefighting and forest management resources, tree planting and more. Where the MonDak really wins big, however, are in the energy provisions the bill offers, largely originating from West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin, Energy Chair’s, Energy Infrastructure Act. A number of amendments to the bipartisan infrastructure bill – nearly 50 in all – came straight from Manchin’s bill. Manchin, of course, hails from a state where coal and other fossil fuels are still important sources of low-cost, affordable energy as well as jobs. Among the key provisions for the region is one directing $12.5 billion to carbon capture projects and their commercialization. Of that, $2.1 billion is dedicated to carbon dioxide pipelines. That could benefit major carbon capture and utilization projects in North Dakota, including the $1 billion Project Tundra, which will need significant assistance to prove out its commercial viability. Rainbow Energy Center is another high-profile project that could potentially benefit from this federal funding. The 1.151 MW generating plant in Underwood was recently been sold, and its new owners have said their plans include a focus on carbon capture utilization and storage. Successes there would point the way for other coal plants in both North Dakota and Montana. The bipartisan infrastructure bill also defines “clean” hydrogen as emitting no more than 2 kilograms of CO2 per kilogram of hydrogen. The “blue” hydrogen that North Dakota is working to advance will qualify under that definition.
Environmental justice designation coming under scrutiny – Environmental justice communities, marginalized areas of the state overburdened with pollution from power plants, industrial facilities, and highways, are turning out to be more commonplace in Massachusetts than you might think.Earlier this year, when the Legislature passed a sweeping climate change bill containing language defining an environmental justice, or EJ community, advocates said the measure was needed to protect areas of the state with high populations of people of color, low-income residents, and other marginalized groups that face disproportionate environmental burdens. But as the definition is being applied, the number of EJ communities is turning out to be larger than expected. According to a state analysis of Census data, close to 200 of the state’s 351 cities and towns contain some EJ neighborhoods.There were municipalities containing EJ neighborhoods you would expect, including Chelsea, Everett, Lawrence, and Randolph, where the entire city was an EJ community. Others high on the list included Brockton, Fall River, Fitchburg, Holyoke, Lowell, Malden, New Bedford, North Adams, Quincy, Springfield, and Worcester. But there were also cities and towns containing fairly high concentrations of EJ neighborhoods that one would hardly describe as environmentally overburdened, including Acton, Amherst, Arlington, Avon, Brookline, Lexington, Waltham, Watertown, and Westborough.The state’s EJ designation is based on income, minority, and language metrics in a particular neighborhood, or Census block. According to the state’s definition, a neighborhood is considered an EJ community if its annual median household income is less than 65 percent of the statewide annual median, if minorities comprise at least 40 percent of the population, if at least 25 percent of households lack English language proficiency, or if minorities represent at least 25 percent of the population and the annual median household income of the entire municipality does not exceed 150 percent of the statewide annual median income.Last week, state environmental officials showed just how powerful the EJ designation could be. In setting regulations for the construction of wood-burning power plants, the officials said the facilities would not qualify for essential ratepayer subsidies if they were located in an EJ community or within five miles of one. That ruling meant that 89 percent of the state was essentially off-limits to biomass plants and someone looking to build such a facility in Massachusetts could only locate it in 35 of the state’s 351 cities and towns.Needham, Dover, Weston, Wayland, Lincoln, Concord, and Carlisle have no EJ neighborhoods, but they were largely off-limits to biomass plants because they are near EJ neighborhoods in adjacent municipalities.
Social cost of methane changes the equation for Colorado utility policy | Energy News Network – As a growing list of states pass laws aimed at curbing carbon emissions, Colorado has widened its scope, taking the groundbreaking step of requiring state officials to consider the social cost of methane in regulatory decisions. Methane, the primary constituent of natural gas, has powerful heat-trapping properties before it breaks down into water vapor and carbon dioxide after 12 years. It is 84 to 87 times more powerful than carbon dioxide over a 20-year span, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. “By focusing on methane reduction now, it has the greatest potential to bend the curve on fighting climate change,” said state Rep. Tracey Bernett, a Democrat from Boulder County and a prime sponsor or co-sponsor of several bills passed this year that instruct state utility regulators to use the social of cost of methane when evaluating proposals. Other successful bills seek to reduce natural gas in buildings and other applications, and to stanch leaks in the supply chain of natural gas. Most natural gas is extracted from geological deposits by drilling.Legislative and environmental advocates say the new laws have made Colorado the national leader in tackling emissions from buildings.The social cost of methane emissions was set most recently at $1,756 per short ton by the U.S. Interagency Working Group on Social Cost of Greenhouse Gases, compared to $68 for carbon dioxide. Both metrics estimate the economic damages of releasing emissions into the atmosphere.A Bernett bill, HB 21-1238, tilts the regulatory table in favor of demand-side management programs offered by private utilities that sell natural gas for use in buildings. State regulators must now take a longer-term view of the cost savings of reducing energy use. With that longer view, more programs that reduce demand through improved insulation and other devices will be justified as cost-effective.
An Oklahoma wind farm was deemed a threat to public safety. Now there are plans to fix it –The owner of a dilapidated and dangerous wind farm in northwest Oklahoma plans to remove broken blades from seven towers and to fell two others that are topped with burnt-out nacelles that used to house generators. Those steps will be taken by a contractor hired by Olympia Renewable Platform LLC later this year as the owner works to address public safety threats identified earlier this year posed by the KODE Novus I and II wind facility, southeast of Guymon in Oklahoma’s Panhandle. The Texas company submitted the plans and proof it could pay for the needed work after regulators launched an enforcement action for allowing the development to lapse into disrepair. The company filed a plan to secure the site and a plan to remove associated safety concerns earlier this month. Company officials notified regulators they expected needed repairs could be started sometime next month and take between 20 and 30 days to complete, depending upon relatively calm conditions that would be needed for the work. But as for the facility’s long-term future, that remains unclear. The remediation plan submitted by Olympia addresses nine towers. Seven of those are missing portions of, or entire blades, while two are topped by burnt-up nacelles where blades are no longer attached. .
The solar industry has a supply problem – In the early days of the coronavirus pandemic, the solar industry girded for disaster. Experts predicted 2020 installations would drop below 2019 levels. Analysts forecast that home solar installations specifically could drop by as much as 40 percent. Months later, though, the industry emerged relatively unscathed. Solar developers even logged record growth in 2020. This spring, however, a supply crunch hit like a delayed hangover.Solar materials including aluminum and polysilicon became harder to obtain, whileshipping costs rocketed to unprecedented heights. And the spreading delta variant of Covid-19 has underscored for many that the pandemic is sticking around and could continue to disrupt systems. For solar companies, the pressure doesn’t appear to be letting up.Taken together, the conditions could push up prices for solar contracts and even delay projects, just as the Biden administration is hoping to dramatically boost solar deployment..
Behind the Rise of U.S. Solar Power, a Mountain of Chinese Coal – Solar panel installations are surging in the U.S. and Europe as Western countries seek to cut their reliance on fossil fuels. But the West faces a conundrum as it installs panels on small rooftops and in sprawling desert arrays: Most of them are produced with energy from carbon-dioxide-belching, coal-burning plants in China. Concerns are mounting in the U.S. and Europe that the solar industry’s reliance on Chinese coal will create a big increase in emissions in the coming years as manufacturers rapidly scale up production of solar panels to meet demand. That would make the solar industry one of the world’s most prolific polluters, analysts say, undermining some of the emissions reductions achieved from widespread adoption.For years, China’s low-cost, coal-fired electricity has given the country’s solar-panel manufacturers a competitive advantage, allowing them to dominate global markets.Chinese factories supply more than three-quarters of the world’s polysilicon, an essential component in most solar panels, according to industry analyst Johannes Bernreuter. Polysilicon factories refine silicon metal using a process that consumes large amounts of electricity, making access to cheap power a cost advantage. Chinese authorities have built an array of coal-burning power plants in sparsely populated areas such as Xinjiang and Inner Mongolia to support polysilicon manufacturers and other energy-hungry industries. “If China didn’t have access to coal, then solar power wouldn’t be cheap now.” Producing a solar panel in China creates around twice as much carbon dioxide as making it in Europe, said Fengqi You, professor of energy systems engineering at Cornell University. In some countries or regions that don’t rely heavily on fossil fuels for electricity generation, such as Norway and France, installing a high-carbon, Chinese-made solar panel might not reduce emissions at all, Mr. You said.
China Doubles Down On Coal Despite Global Push To Go Green –Despite global expectations to move away from coal, demand in China is still strong, as rising global temperatures causing heat waves are driving up electricity demand and coal prices. Thermal coal futures reached record highs in July as a heatwave in China sent electricity use soaring. In industrial areas of the country such as Zhejiang near Shanghai, electricity use exceeded 100 million kilowatts per hour as temperatures rose to 37 degrees Celsius. In response to the high energy usage across the country, coal prices exceeded 900 yuan (almost $140) a tonne in mid-July. This follows record prices for Asian coal in May, after an initially pessimistic outlook following the IEA report encouraging countries to move away from fossil fuels towards renewable alternatives. In spite of growing international pressure, coal continues to boom across much of Asia, with China at the helm. Although China is attempting to move away from coal, rationing electricity use to battle the rising demand of the major polluter, hot temperatures are forcing the government to keep on producing as well as importing to meet this demand. “Southern China has been very hot, and the daily power load is consistently breaking new highs,” Huatai Futures Co. analyst Wang Haitao stated. In the Zhejiang region, only 30 percent of its energy comes from renewable sources, meaning that industrial regions across China such as these will still rely heavily on coal for years to come.
Report Predicts 3 Coal Plants Could Close Within 5 Years | WVPB A report published by the National Bureau of Economic Research shows that the John Amos, Mountaineer and Mitchell plants will no longer be economical to operate in five years.The West Virginia Public Service Commission must decide in the coming weeks whether to approve an environmental compliance surcharge on electricity customers.That fee would pay for wastewater treatment projects that are required to keep the plants in operation through 2040. But one of the report’s authors predicts they won’t last to the end of this decade.“Inside and outside our model, 2040 is hard to imagine,” said Scott Holladay, an associate professor of economics at the University of Tennessee. “And even 2030 is feeling optimistic at this point, for sure.”Holladay says his model is mostly accurate, though he noted that the model can’t know every specific circumstance surrounding each plant.Still, Holladay’s model says one of the three units at the Amos plant should already be taken offline because it no longer operates economically. The other two would close in five years.The model predicts one of Mitchell’s two units would close in two years, and the other in three. It predicts Mountaineer’s single unit would shut down in three years.The plants are aging. Mitchell and Amos began operating in 1971, and Mountaineer in 1980. “They’re not very efficient at turning coal into power,” Holladay said, “and new, more efficient technologies coming down the grid and kind of eating their lunch.”
Group Buys Pennsylvania Coal Refuse Plants to Power Bitcoin Mining –A digital mining company has an agreement to purchase a second power plant in Pennsylvania, as the group increases its coal refuse reclamation operations in the state to provide energy for its bitcoin mining operations.Stronghold Digital Mining, a bitcoin (BTC) miner headquartered in Kennerdell, Pennsylvania, on Aug. 3 said its purchase of the Panther Creek Plant, located on 33 acres in Nesquehoning, in Carbon County, adds 80 MW of generation capacity to its portfolio, which also includes the 85-MW Scrubgrass plant. Scrubgrass is located on 650 acres in Scrubgrass Township, in Venango County.Stronghold, founded earlier this year, uses the power plants to convert coal refuse into power that is used to mine bitcoin, an energy-intensive process. Coal refuse is classified by Pennsylvania as a Tier II alternative energy resource, akin to large-scale hydropower. Coal refuse over the years has been left in piles near coal operations; today, circulating fluidized bed technology allows for emissions-controlled conversion of coal refuse into energy.A coal refuse energy operation is featured in POWER’s August issue as a Top Plant award winner.
Somerset power plant owner plans data mining -The company that owns the defunct coal-fired power plant in Somerset plans a data mining project there, but the town supervisor said Tuesday it will not be powered by a restart of the power plant or by a proposed new solar energy project. Beowulf Energy, the parent of plant owner Somerset Operating Co., has created a new subsidiary, Lake Mariner Data LLC, which applied to the town June 24 for permission to erect four large buildings to be filled with computers, just east of the mothballed power plant on Lake Road. The computers are needed for the energy-intensive calculations required for investments in cryptocurrency. The company said in a statement it intends to produce “bitcoin at an industrial scale.” “We are proud and excited to be on the doorstep of new jobs, investment and economic vitality at Somerset, barely a year after going through the painful process of closing the coal plant and laying off so many long-standing, highly qualified and dedicated employees,” Supervisor Jeffrey M. Dewart said the Town Board amended the zoning of the site last week to make way for the data mining project on the grounds of the coal-fired power plant, which Beowulf said in May is being dismantled under supervision from the state Department of Environmental Conservation. Lake Mariner Data’s plan calls for four buildings, each measuring 60 by 400 feet. Dewart said they are to be built in two phases: two buildings to open by November and two others in the ensuing year. Dewart said the project is the first in Beowulf’s proposed Empire State Data Hub, a planned reuse of the power plant property that was announced in 2019. Dewart said the first phase of the cryptocurrency project would create 18 to 20 full-time jobs, paying $40,000 to $60,000 each, plus about 100 construction jobs. In 2019, the New York Power Authority granted Beowulf 10 megawatts of electricity for data centers at the site, but Dewart said as much as 250 additional megawatts might be needed. A NYPA spokesman said the authority will not provide power for the cryptocurrency operation, but the company said it will buy power from the state grid, which “includes significant hydropower from nearby Niagara Falls and is over 90% zero-carbon.”
Bitcoin mining facilities popping up at power plants near the Lehigh Valley – Think about it like mining for gold – no pickax required. Only these miners are racing to unearth Bitcoin, the leading digital currency. To do so, they load up on super powerful computers capable of solving complex puzzles to verify digital Bitcoin transactions and add them to a ledger. For essentially acting as auditors to secure the payment network, miners earn bitcoin – the process by which new bitcoins are put into circulation.Welcome to the world of Bitcoin mining, a growing industry across the globe, and in Pennsylvania, that requires a substantial amount of energy. For that reason, many mining facilities have popped up near power plants.The latest example: Talen Energy Corp. on Tuesday announced a partnership with Maryland-based TeraWulf Inc. to develop up to 300 megawatts of Bitcoin mining capacity adjacent to its Susquehanna nuclear power plant in Luzerne County. The joint venture, dubbed Nautilus Cryptomine, will be built in two phases – the first could be in operation by mid-2022 – and will be powered by the nuclear plant, providing low-cost electricity.“Bitcoin mining, and cryptocurrency mining, takes a substantial amount of electricity, so miners who can find the lowest cost of electricity supply are going to be better off than other miners who have higher costs for electricity,” said Travis Miller, an energy and utilities strategist for Morningstar who tracks the industry.The need for cheap energy is a significant reason why most power-thirsty Bitcoin mining had been concentrated in China, though that is starting to change. Even before China announced a crackdown on Bitcoin mining this year, its share of global hashrate, the total combined computational power that is being used to mine and process transactions, dropped from 75% in September 2019 to 46% in April. During that period, the share in the United States grew from 4% to nearly 17%, according to the Cambridge Bitcoin Electricity Consumption Index.For Talen, a power producer that was spun off from PPL Corp. in 2015 and maintains an office in downtown Allentown, the Bitcoin mining announcement fits into a strategy unveiled last year geared toward repositioning its power fleet away from coal and toward renewable energy. In addition, the move can provide a stable source of revenue for its nuclear plant, pressured in recent years by competition from cheaper natural gas and subsidized renewables such as wind and solar power.
North Carolina DEQ approves expansion of Duke Energy landfill for coal ash – The North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Quality’s (DEQ’s) Division of Waste Management has approved a permit to allow Duke Energy to expand its existing onsite landfill at the Roxboro Steam Electric Plant for the disposal of excavated coal ash. According to the DEQ, the issuance of the permit for the expanded CCR Industrial Landfill aligns with the Roxboro Steam Electric Plant Impoundment closure plan, which the department approved for the facility’s ash basin in August 2020. The closure by excavation of the coal ash impoundment is consistent with the 2020 Settlement Agreement and signed Consent Order between DEQ, Duke Energy, and community and environmental groups. The Roxboro Steam Electric Plant is located at 1700 Dunnaway Rd. in Semora in Person County. The onsite, lined landfill will be expanded to dispose of excavated coal ash residuals. The expanded CCR Industrial Landfill will be located partially within the former footprint of the East Ash Basin. At approximately 80 acres, it will be designed to hold nearly 18.9 million cubic yards of coal ash and will stand 210 feet tall, rising approximately 180 feet above Dunnaway Road.
Hearing on Hammond coal ash pond set for Tuesday; Ga. Power wants to cap the unlined pond -Georgia Power is seeking a permit to leave one of its coal ash ponds at Plant Hammond in place for perpetuity.The state Environmental Protection Division has scheduled a public hearing on the issue for Tuesday. It will be conducted virtually, via Zoom, starting at 6 p.m.The draft coal ash permit for Plant Hammond Ash Pond 3 is the first one that proposes a cap-in-place plan for an unlined pond.Four ash ponds are located at Plant Hammond in Floyd County’s Coosa community but the concern has mainly rested with AP-3. An environmental group study states it lies in a floodplain and, if left unlined, it will leak toxins into the Coosa River.Georgia Power is also seeking to have cap-in-place permits at Plant McDonough near Smyrna, Plant Wansley near Carrollton, Plant Scherer at Juliette and Plant Yates near Newnan. Plant Hammond, which was shut down over a year ago, is on the northern banks of the Coosa River. The ash pond that the utility is seeking to cap in place is just to the east of the plant, coming back toward Rome.
In Three Predominantly Black North Birmingham Neighborhoods, Residents Live Inside an Environmental ‘Nightmare’ – 00 After years of visits to doctors’ offices, Gerica Cammack finally decided to move. “I have to pack up and move for the sake of my health and my kids’ health because we’ve been sounding the alarm,” she said. Two of her kids, ages 2 and 8, have skin problems she thinks are related to pollution from steel, cement and coke manufacturing plants that have dominated parts of north Birmingham for decades. Cammack was fleeing Collegeville, one of the three predominantly Black north Birmingham neighborhoods in the 35th Avenue Superfund site. Collegeville, Harriman Park and Fairmont are archetypal “environmental justice” communities under a Biden administration executive order designed to deliver enhanced benefits in such areas disproportionately harmed by pollution or the adverse effects of climate change. While many communities of color suffer because of their close proximity to hazardous waste Superfund sites, these three north Birmingham neighborhoods are the Superfund site, their homes built decades ago on lots graded with fill from the plants, which is laced with arsenic, lead and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP), a hydrocarbon. BaP and arsenic are both known carcinogens. Michael Hansen, executive director for the Greater-Birmingham Alliance to Stop Pollution, described the neighborhoods as being at the intersection of “environmental degradation and systemic racism” and said of this part of north Birmingham “right now it looks like a war zone.” He and other activists, along with many residents, want the 35th Avenue Superfund site added to the National Priorities List, a registry of the nation’s worst hazardous waste sites that brings additional, long-term cleanup funds. With the Biden administration now targeting enhanced benefits for environmental justice communities under the Superfund program, the residents hope NPL status could include more money for remediation and possible relocation. Neither the Environmental Protection Agency, which began considering the site for inclusion on the NPL in 2014, nor the residents, who saw NPL status as clearly warranted by federal law, had any idea what the proposal would trigger. In 2018, an executive with the Drummond Company, owner of ABC Coke, was convicted in federal court, along with an attorney from a major Birmingham law firm, for bribing a state representative to oppose any move to add the site to the NPL. ABC Coke was one of five local companies notified by the EPA that they could be held responsible for polluting the site. The state representative was also convicted and sent to prison for taking the bribe in the form of a $375,000 contract to his foundation. Although the EPA first proposed that the site be added to the National Priorities List seven years ago, it still has not happened. To be added to the NPL, sites need to score at least 28.5 in the EPA’s Hazard Ranking System, which assesses the relative potential of sites to pose a threat to human health or the environment. The 35th Avenue Superfund site has a score of 50.
ComEd Tells Ill. Judge Customers Can’t Sue Over Bribery – Law360 — Commonwealth Edison Co. told a Cook County judge Tuesday that she lacks the jurisdiction to hear a case brought by customers claiming they paid higher electrical bills after the utility bribed public officials to ensure passage of legislation benefiting it, saying the court can’t reject rates established by a state regulator. A proposed class of Illinois ComEd customers suing the Exelon subsidiary can’t get tort damages from paying rates that are authorized by state law, and the plaintiffs aren’t challenging the validity of that law in their complaint, Matthew Price of Jenner & Block LLP said during remote arguments Tuesday morning.
Utilities Eye Mini Nuclear Reactors as Climate Concerns Grow – WSJ – U.S. utilities are looking to miniature nuclear reactors, as they seek a steady energy source that can help reduce the carbon emissions linked to climate change. While power companies have stopped building big nuclear reactors because of cost overruns and construction delays, not all utilities are giving up on nuclear power. Several U.S. utilities and power consortia – including Energy Northwest, Utah Associated Municipal Power Systems, and PacifiCorp, part of Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. BRK.B 0.51% – have entered into partnerships with manufacturers to build small modular reactors, or SMRs, attracted to their potential to produce carbon-free, 24-hour-a-day power. Dozens of SMR developers world-wide – ranging from 22-person startup Oklo to Bill Gates-founded TerraPower – are testing designs for the reactors, which have less than a third of the generating capacity of traditional nukes and have components that can be mass-produced in factories. Their development is backed by the U.S. Energy Department, which said last fall that it would invest $3.2 billion over seven years to support such projects to boost cleaner technologies and decarbonize the power sector. However, SMR makers are still years away from proving that the technology can live up to its promise. None of the designs being tested across the country have fully made it past the U.S. regulatory review process, and the first miniature reactors likely won’t start delivering power to customers until the end of the decade, at the earliest. Opponents question whether the shrunken nuclear reactors can shed the issues that have plagued the now aging fleet of full-size plants, such as costly development times, nuclear waste management and safety concerns. Some power companies, including Ameren Missouri, say they see promise in the technology but have stopped short of committing to any agreements until it is proven cost-effective. Many SMR makers are keeping the exact price tag on their projects confidential, citing competitive reasons, but analysts think costs could range from tens of millions for the smallest microreactors to low billions for larger projects.
We’ve been here before: Wyoming nuclear project echoes of past —When state officials unveiled in June that a nuclear demonstration project is slated for Wyoming, they touted it as an advanced technology. But critics of the Natrium project say we’ve been here before – with the same technology and the same assurances made – only to see hopes dashed and massive public investments go to waste. The multi-billion dollar Natrium project is a joint effort of PacifiCorp, TerraPower and the U.S. Department of Energy that is expected to place a 345-megawatt power plant in Wyoming. Behind TerraPower is none other than Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft and co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. Gates has injected vast sums from his enormous wealth into finding a solution to the world’s climate crisis that can be implemented in the near future. The investment in Natrium, Gates said during a recorded statement in June, would allow Wyoming to continue being a leader in U.S. energy. The unexpected announcement in early June brought rosy projections and big grins from Gov. Mark Gordon and U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), along with representatives from TerraPower and Rocky Mountain Power. (Rocky Mountain Power is a unit of PacifiCorp.) Gordon declared it “game-changing and monumental for Wyoming,” a state suffering massive budget shortfalls and economic ennui from a long-term downturn in fossil-fuel markets. Critics familiar with the technology and its history, however, doubt whether a commercially operating nuclear power plant will manifest in the next seven years – or ever – in Wyoming. “It would be quite a feat to pull off,” Allison Macfarlane, Nuclear Regulatory Commission chair from 2012-2014, told WyoFile. The history and current state of nuclear energy in the U.S. is long and complicated, but Edwin Lyman, Union of Concerned Scientists’ nuclear power safety director, said one thing is abundantly clear: No U.S. nuclear power project has been successfully completed on time and on budget in recent decades. “To attempt to build and operate a commercial unit without first taking the time to do all the necessary safety testing is a recipe for disaster,” Lyman said of the Natrium project.
Nuclear Plants to Get $6 Billion Lifeline in Infrastructure Deal – Struggling nuclear power reactors would get a $6 billion lifeline under the bipartisan infrastructure bill heading for a vote in the U.S. Senate — a move supported by the Biden administration, but opposed by some environmentalists.A program to evaluate nuclear reactors that are at risk of being shut down and provide them with aid would be created within the Energy Department under terms of the $550 billion, bipartisan infrastructure package.The senators negotiating the package completed the text Sunday, moving the chamber a crucial step closer to likely passage this week. Final congressional action won’t come until after the House returns from a recess in September. The proposed aid for nuclear power, which provides about 19% of the nation’s electricity, comes as the industry has undergone a wave of closures. Reactors have high operating costs and are increasingly struggling to compete with cheaper electricity produced using natural gas and renewables.The assistance could be a boon for operators such asSouthern Co. and Exelon Corp., as well as for uranium miners like Lakewood, Colorado-based Energy Fuels, Inc. Nuclear reactors that use domestically mined and enriched uranium would be given priority under the proposed program.Plant operators would need to show they’re losing money, even after receiving any state subsidies, so only a small number of plant owners would qualify. That could include some Exelon reactors in Illinois, or Energy Harbor Corp. plants in Ohio or Pennsylvania, said Katie Bays, an analyst at FiscalNote Markets.“It’s definitely enough money to support the merchant reactors that are on the cusp of closure,” Bays said.However, the slow and uncertain pace of legislation means the bill may not be much help for some Exelon plants. The operator of the biggest U.S nuclear fleet plans to shutter two sites in Illinois in September and November, and isn’t willing to change those plans without more certainty from Washington, though a proposed state bailout may come in time to save the Byron and Dresden power plants.
DeWine got campaign cash from AEP after SEC subpoena –Ohio Governor Mike DeWine received $25,500 in campaign contributions from American Electric Power’s PAC and some of the electric utility’s top executives one month after AEP revealed it received a subpoena from the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) connected to a growing corruption scandal. In a statement released on June 8, AEP revealed it recently received a subpoena from the SEC’s Division of Enforcement. The subpoena seeks documents related to the financial benefits AEP received from House Bill 6, the same Ohio law at the center of the federal criminal investigation that forced FirstEnergy to admit to paying millions of dollars in bribes to state officials. While state lawmakers repealed some of the provisions of H.B. 6 that most benefited FirstEnergy earlier this year, AEP continues to benefit from increased coal subsidies under other parts of the 2019 law that remain in place. DeWine has been silent on the Ohio Valley Electric Corporation coal plant subsidies that have forced Ohio ratepayers to pay nearly $135 million to AEP, Dayton Power & Light, and Duke Energy since January of 2020 according to a tracker found on the website of the Ohio Consumers’ Counsel. On July 26, DeWine received a $10,000 contribution from AEP’s political action committee (PAC) for his re-election campaign, according to state campaign finance records. The contribution was for a fundraising event on July 22, the same day the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Ohio announced charges against FirstEnergy and made public the deferred prosecution agreement that FirstEnergy reached with federal prosecutors.
FirstEnergy promised huge windfall to former utilities lawyer after company says it got him to change sides on key regulatory issue – – New documents show Sam Randazzo, a former longtime utilities lawyer who years later became Ohio’s top utilities regulator, in 2015 received a huge personal windfall from FirstEnergy Corp. in exchange for what the company has said was his agreement to change sides on a key state regulatory move sought by the company.At the time, Randazzo was in private practice, representing a trade group of large industrial electricity customers, but also had a 2012 consulting agreement with FirstEnergy. In 2015, FirstEnergy more than quadrupled Randazzo’s contract, going from owing him $2.5 million to owing him $11.2 million, according to the documents, obtained Monday through a public records request.In exchange, FirstEnergy has said, Randazzo agreed to stop opposing the company’s bid for state approval for a controversial “power purchasing agreement” that effectively would have bailed out some of its aging power plants, including the Davis-Besse nuclear plant near Toledo and the W.H. Sammis coal plant near Steubenville. The move, which was eventually blocked by federal regulators, was an early iteration of what became House Bill 6, the nuclear bailout law that now is the center of an ongoing federal corruption probe.Randazzo had opposed a similar request from American Electric Power the previous year, arguing it would cause customers’ electricity bills to go up,according to a 2014 report from Energy News Network. In an interview with the outlet, he initially signaled he might oppose FirstEnergy’s request, too.“If it turns out that the proposal FirstEnergy is presenting is not superior to the market and would cost money instead of save money, then not only will it be opposed on factual grounds, but it will be challenged legally,” Randazzo said in 2014.But Randazzo ended up supporting the measure, reads a court filing FirstEnergy made last month as part of a deal with federal prosecutors, with the 2015 changes coinciding with and “in exchange for” Randazzo’s group withdrawing its opposition.
Feds subpoena records from Public Utilities Commission of Ohio as part of ongoing criminal probe – cleveland.com — Federal investigators have requested records related to former Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo and other topics, according to subpoenas the agency provided on Tuesday in response to a public records request.The subpoenas, dated April 13 and May 19, seek Randazzo’s appointment calendars and communications Randazzo had with other government officials regarding House Bill 6, the nuclear bailout law that’s at the center of an ongoing federal corruption probe.They also seek a slew of other law changes and state regulatory moves that helped FirstEnergy Corp. and Energy Harbor, the former FirstEnergy subsidiary that owns the two nuclear plants that HB6 was to have subsidized, as well as records relating to the companies themselves. State legislators largely have repealed the law after the federal corruption probe became public.One topic the subpoenas seek records on is a PUCO case through which Randazzo in November 2019 voted to cancel a planned 2024 review of FirstEnergy’s electricity rates. The vote and its underlying cause were referenced in a deferred prosecution agreement FirstEnergy signed last month that allowed the company to escape being convicted of a crime. In the agreement, FirstEnergy said that its former senior executives worried the 2024 review — which they called the “Ohio hole” — would hurt the company’s bottom line by reducing electricity prices. After Randazzo and other PUCO commissioners canceled the rate case, former CEO Chuck Jones texted Randazzo to thank him, including an image of the company’s increased stock price, the company said in a court filing.The subpoenas were signed by Blane Wetzel, an FBI special agent in the agency’s Cincinnati field office who is a lead investigator on the HB6 probe. Wetzel wrote on the subpoena the records were needed as part of an ongoing criminal investigation. The PUCO sent the requested records to federal investigators, agency spokesman Matt Schilling said.“The PUCO has and is continuing to provide information as requested, and is fully cooperating with the Department of Justice. The PUCO cannot otherwise comment on a pending criminal investigation,” Schilling said.Randazzo has not been charged with a crime, and has denied wrongdoing. But the subpoena is the latest sign that the ongoing federal corruption probe into state government is, in part, targeting him. His lawyer and a spokesperson for the Southern District of Ohio U.S. Attorney’s Office, which is leading the federal investigation, both declined to comment for this story.The FBI raided Randazzo’s Columbus home last November. Days later, FirstEnergy disclosed paying $4.3 million to someone matching Randazzo’s description in January 2019, shortly before that person took a state job regulating the company. The two developments prompted Randazzo to resign. Gov. Mike DeWine had hired Randazzo, a longtime utilities lawyer, to run the PUCO shortly after DeWine took office in January 2019. FirstEnergy since has said the $4.3 million payment to Randazzo was a bribe, according to the deferred prosecution agreement. The company said that in exchange, Randazzo helped push for changes in state government worth hundreds of millions of dollars to FirstEnergy, including lobbying for HB6 and canceling the 2024 rate review.
Amid corruption scandal, energy money continues to flow to state lawmakers – It’s going to take more than a bribery scandal on a historic scale to get energy money out of Ohio politics.Campaign finance reports, submitted late last week, show the campaign contribution pipeline from the natural gas and utility industries to Ohio lawmakers’ campaign accounts is alive and well. The vast majority went to Republicans, who firmly control the statehouse.Even among companies who benefitted from or are facing scrutiny related to House Bill 6 – whose passage yielded the ouster, indictment and looming trial of the former speaker of the Ohio House; threerelated pleas of guilt from lobbyists and a dark money nonprofit for racketeering; and an arrangement with prosecutors akin to a guilty plea from FirstEnergy Corp. – the donations continue to flow.For instance, HB 6 provided a ratepayer funded bailout for two coal plants in Ohio and Indiana, owned by a cooperative called the Ohio Valley Electric Corp.Equity of those plants is split between utilities American Electric Power (43%), Buckeye Power (18%), Duke Energy (9%), Dayton Power & Light Company (4.9%) and others. The legislation tacked a monthly fee on all residential and industrial ratepayers to prop up the failing coal plants – a bailout worth $114 million in 2020 alone and an estimated $700 million to their owners through 2030.Between Jan. 1 and July 31, AEP contributed $60,500 to GOP state lawmakers and Gov. Mike DeWine. Its CEO Nick Akins gave $5,000 to DeWine. Four other AEP executives gave DeWine a combined $5,500 as well.The company has not been charged with any crime related to HB 6. However, it announced earlier this year it received a related subpoena from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. AEP was the sole funder of a nonprofit which donated $700,000 to Generation Now, according to tax records and statements from the company. Generation Now pleaded guilty to its role in the conspiracy and agreed to forfeit $1.5 million to the government.Among the other OVEC shareholders: Buckeye Power contributed $41,200 to lawmakers, mostly Republicans; Duke Energy gave $21,000, mostly to Republicans; DP&L, now known as AES Ohio, gave $10,000 to Republicans.FirstEnergy – which admitted to federal prosecutors last week that it gave $61 million to Generation Now, which was secretly controlled by Householder, and $4.3 million to former PUCO Chairman Sam Randazzo for favorable legal and regulatory treatment – did not report any donations thus far in 2021. Randazzo has not been charged with a crime and maintained his innocence in a statement last week.
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