Month: August 2016

Let’s start with a little inspiration.  Ashton Hayes is a village of around 1000 nestled in the English countryside.  What makes it unique is that its residents have taken it upon themselves to reduce the village’s carbon footprint and have succeeded in doing so, while also having fun.  Les Anglais is a village of around 3000 in Haiti.  EarthSpark International has built a solar-powered microgrid in town that is currently supplying reliable power to around 2000 people at around 20% of the cost they had paid.

Climate

Arctic sea ice has not melted as rapidly this year as feared at the start of the melt season.  Consequently, it is unlikely that a record low ice extent will be seen by the time the minimum cover is experienced in September, unless something unexpected occurs.  Nevertheless, this hasn’t kept one person from predicting a new record low, much to the dismay of others.  In a guest post on Carbon Brief, Dr. Alexandra Jahn, from the Institute of Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado, explores how accurately scientists can predict when the Arctic will see its first sea ice-free summer.

As spring light returned to Antarctica, scientists were stunned to find that the crack in the Larsen C ice shelf had grown by 14 miles, for a new total length of over 80 miles.  In addition, the width had expanded to over 1000 ft.  It is feared that sometime in the next few years, the crack will expand sufficiently to release an ice island the size of Delaware, thereby making the entire ice shelf less stable.

A new paper just published in the journal Nature reports on new paleoclimate data examining Earth’s temperature back to 1500.  Those studies suggest that human-caused warming began as early as 1830, but others disagree with the authors’ interpretation of their results.

In a beautifully illustrated essay at Mashable entitled “Cruel Summer: Floods, Fires and Heat”, Andrew Freedman connects the dots and argues that the fingerprint of global warming is increasingly apparent in events happening now.  Out west, populations of the American pika are vanishing in many mountainous areas as climate change alters its habitat, according to findings released Thursday by the U.S. Geological Survey.

The South China Morning Post reported on Thursday that it had learned that the leaders of China and the U.S. will announce their countries’ ratification of the Paris Climate Agreement prior to the G20 summit beginning in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, on September 4.  Brazil’s interim president Michel Temer reportedly wants for Brazil to ratify the pact ahead of the US and China.  Brazil has the 7th largest CO2 emissions.  Ed King of Climate Home discusses what will happen once ratification has occurred.

If we continue using fossil fuels at the rate we now do, scientists predict that sea level will rise 6 ft by 2100.  According to a new analysis by the real estate data firm Zillow, this would inundate nearly 1.9 million homes in the U.S., 46,000 of which would be in Virginia.  As expected, Florida would be the hardest hit state, with over 930,000 homes under water (literally).

Research published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives reveals that the number of people in Europe suffering from hay fever due to ragweed pollen could double in 35 years, with climate change being responsible for two thirds of this increase.  Here in the U.S., Climate Nexus and the American Public Health Association have teamed up to develop four infographics that illustrate the connection between climate change and a variety of health-related issues.  Jeremy Deaton and Mina Lee of Nexus Media introduce them in a guest post at Think Progress.

Energy

I have put in information previously about the question of using natural gas (methane) as a bridge fuel to allow us to shut down coal-fired power plants while waiting for wide-scale adoption of carbon-free energy sources.  Nevertheless, I thought that the discussion of the issue at Yale Climate Connections was sufficiently good to include it here.

Southern Co.’s nuclear unit and X-energy LLC have signed a memorandum of understanding to commercialize and use X-energy’s high-temperature, gas-cooled, advanced technology nuclear reactor.  The goal is to have the reactor ready for use in the 2027-2030 time-frame.

Chile accepted a bid from Spanish developer Solarpack Corp. Tecnologica for 120 megawatts of solar energy at the stunning price of 2.91 cents per kilowatt-hour.  This beats the 2.99 cents/kwh bid Dubai received recently for 800 megawatts, making it the cheapest unsubsidized power plant in the world.

Writing at Vox, David Roberts brings us up to date on the status of wind power in the U.S.  In addition, electricity generation from wind, solar, and other renewable energy technologies have set monthly records every month so far this year, based on data released by the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy has released its 2016 International Energy Efficiency Scorecard.  Chris Mooney at The Washington Post summarizes how increases in energy efficiency in the U.S. since the mid-1990’s have helped to decouple GDP growth from energy use.  Kristen Satre Meyer at Ensia reports on how several nations fared on the Scorecard.  Germany came in first; we came in eighth.

Results of a new study funded by the American Petroleum Institute, published in the journal Climatic Change, find that burning ethanol derived from corn in cars results in more CO2 emissions than burning gasoline.  Others strongly disagree with the results.

“Tesla’s Elon Musk unveiled his new lithium-ion battery pack that can deliver an unprecedented 315-mile range for his electric vehicles (EVs). But SolidEnergy Systems, a new startup spun out of an MIT lab, says it is in the process of commercializing a lithium metal battery that can double the range of all existing EVs.”  Joe Romm argues that these developments are really big deals.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

Bill McKibben has a new article, entitled “A World at War” in The New Republic.  Then, on Vox Dave Roberts asks “Is It Useful to Think of Climate Change as a ‘World War’?”.

Climate

The big news this week has been the terrible flooding in Louisiana as a result of over 2 ft of rain in just a couple of days.  I’m sure you’ve read about it, so I won’t link to the news articles.  Rather, Chris Mooney had a good piece in The Washington Post about the relationship between the flooding and climate change.  He also has in interesting analysis entitled “‘A changing climate is and will continue to put people out of their homes’”  In addition, Angela Fritz of the Capital Weather Gang explained the meteorology of the event.

Both NASA and NOAA have analysed the global temperature record and declared July 2016 as the hottest month ever recorded.  The Japan Meteorological Agency agreed.  The record high temperatures are having impacts all over the world.  And, as Dana Nuccitelli explains, we have already locked in a lot more warming, just from the CO2 we’ve already emitted.

As if we didn’t have enough to be concerned about, a new study has found meltwater lakes on the surface of the coastal Langhovde Glacier in East Antarctica.  Such lakes can have a number of negative impacts on glacier stability.  While it is too early to say just how important these lakes will prove to be, their presence has scientists concerned.  Another new concern that is just becoming evident is the formation of marine heatwaves, often referred to as blobs, that persist and cause extensive damage to marine ecosystems.  Michael Slezak provides a primer on them at The Guardian.

The Amazon rain forest is considered to be a major sink for the CO2 we emit into the atmosphere.  Because of the increased incidence of drought and fire in the forest, there is concern that its nature may be changing, as explained in this piece from Yale Climate Connections.

And now for some good news: TV meteorologists are finally getting it and starting to explain to their audiences the links between what is happening in the weather and climate change.  This is a huge change because TV meteorologists are typically the only scientists most people ever encounter.  Be sure and watch the first video at the link, but be prepared for some chilling footage from the Ellicott City, MD flooding on July 30.

Japan and New Zealand have announced that they will ratify the Paris Climate Agreement in 2016, but they are being criticized for the weakness of their commitments.  Meanwhile, China’s lawmakers will consider ratification at a meeting at the end of this month.  The agreement will go into force when 55 countries representing at least 55% of global emissions have ratified it.  With the announcement of Japan and New Zealand, 57 countries have now indicated they will ratify or have already ratified the agreement by year’s end.  They account for 57.88% of global emissions, according to Climate Analytics.

According to new studies, insurance companies are lagging in their adaptation to climate change.  One bad practice by states is the capping of insurance premiums for houses in vulnerable areas, such as coastal regions.  This passes costs on to policy holders in other areas and removes incentives for those in the vulnerable areas to take protective action.  On a related topic, Chelsea Leu takes a look at floodplain maps and their impacts on who must be insured.

Energy

One of the most interesting articles I read this week on energy has to do with power company NRG Energy and its efforts to integrate clean energy sources into its portfolio.  It is a cautionary tale, but perhaps one that the executives at Dominion have taken too much to heart, making them too cautious.  Similarly, the French oil company Total SA is following a very different path from most major oil companies, and investing heavily in renewables and batteries.  David Ferris and Saqib Rahim of EnergyWire examine Total’s strategy and what it may mean for their future.

A growing segment of the solar market is community solar.  Under community solar, consumers who buy into a project don’t directly use the energy produced.  That’s sold to a local utility.  Instead, participants continue to buy power from their local providers, but their electric bills are reduced, based on how much the utility buys from the project.  Also, community projects use the grid to deliver power, and help pay for maintaining the utilities’ infrastructure.  That makes them less of a threat to traditional power companies.  Is there a place for this in Virginia?  Perhaps so, if VA SUN is successful in swaying the VA legislature with its “solar rights” petition drive.

I provided links last week to blog posts about the new fuel economy standards for large trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles.  Well, on Tuesday, the Obama administration issued the final version of those standards.  These Phase 2 standards will impacts trucks in the 2021 to 2027 model years.  Phase 1 standards are currently in effect through model year 2020.  Here is another blog post from EDF about the new standards.

The U.S. Energy Information Agency has projected that CO2 emissions from natural gas will exceed those from coal in 2016.  However, emissions from petroleum still exceed either of the other two fuels.  As far as emissions of natural gas (methane) itself, a new study has found that aircraft-based sensors are capable of identifying super-emitters, allowing the focus of mitigation efforts to be placed on them.

Generating electricity by burning biomass is not as benign as one might think, and that is putting some politicians at odds with EPA as it tries to come up with meaningful regulations for the industry at a time it is having difficulty competing with cheap natural gas.

Is an electric car right for you?  A new MIT study has found that “Roughly 90 percent of the personal vehicles on the road daily could be replaced by a low-cost electric vehicle available on the market today, even if the cars can only charge overnight,” according to the study’s senior author.  Simon Evans has an analysis of the study on Carbon Brief and Chris Mooney has a commentary in The Washington Post.

Native American and environmental activists from all over the country have gathered in a remote part of North Dakota to take a stand against the North Dakota Access Pipeline, which tribal members say threatens to pollute drinking water and damage sacred sites.  More recent news indicates that the developers of the pipeline have agreed to stop construction until a federal court hearing next week in Washington, DC.  Meanwhile, just as property rights issues have been used to fight against natural gas pipelines, they are also being used to fight electric power transmission lines planned to carry wind energy from the Oklahoma panhandle to Southeastern states.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

 

Carbon Brief’s U.S. Election Tracker has been updated to include Trump’s positions outlined in his speech in Detroit on August 8.  A group of more than 50 science organizations is working to have the presidential candidates address key science issues, including climate change.

Bill McKibben had an opinion piece in the “Sunday Review” of The New York Times discussing the stalkers that follow him and his family.  Ben Jervey provides some background on DeSmog about those responsible for funding the stalkers.

Climate

National Geographic Channel will premiere Season 2 of the critically-acclaimed TV series, “Years of Living Dangerously” on Sunday, October 30 at 8 pm (ET).  There is a trailer at the link, as well as an article.  Note that the regular time for the series will be Wednesdays at 10:00 pm, starting with episode 2 on November 2.

Climate scientists have expressed some very sobering thoughts about the likelihood of being able to keep global warming below the aspirational goal of 1.5 C set last December at the Paris Climate Summit.

Conclusions about changes in Arctic sea ice extent are typically based upon the satellite record, which begins only in 1979.  Because of the short length of this record, scientists at the National Snow and Ice Data Center examined a number of other sources containing information about Arctic sea ice extent in an effort to extend the length of the data record.  These included such things as whaling ship logbooks, aerial surveys, and maps from meteorological agencies.  In a guest post on Carbon Brief, scientist Florence Fetterer summarizes their findings.  If you just want the bottom line, scroll to the end of the article and look at the last two figures.  They are startling.

A federal appeals court has ruled that it is valid for the government to include the cost of climate change (in the form of the social cost of carbon) when conducting cost-benefit analyses of new regulations.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science has found that rising sea surface temperatures in the North Atlantic are likely to be behind a recent surge in cases of diarrheal diseases from marine bacteria in northern Europe and the US east coast.  Chris Mooney also reported on the study in the Washington Post.

In a live telephone town hall call-in on Tuesday, Congressman Bob Goodlatte stated that we would be better off spending money to adapt to climate change rather than trying to mitigate it.  He should read the editorial in Monday’s New York Times about the many countries that will need help in adapting.  And, he should read BBC correspondent Justin Rowlatt’s thoughts on what he has observed in India.  Perhaps they will cause him to reconsider his position.  Even more important, if you live in the 6^th district, you can let him know that you care about climate change.  Just give him a call at 202-225-5431.

A heat wave in the Middle East is shattering records all over the region.  For example, the temperature in Jiddah, Saudi Arabia, reached an all-time high of nearly 126 F.  Unfortunately, the heat wave is expected to continue.  Here is the U.S., 2016 through July was the third warmest year on record according to data released by NOAA.  In addition, Florida and New Mexico experienced their hottest Julys on record.

Energy

Last week New York’s governor announced a plan that would effectively subsidize the state’s nuclear power plants by forcing the utilities that rely on them to pay “zero emission credits” to the operators of those reactors.  As a consequence, Exelon, the country’s biggest nuclear power producer, announced it would rescue one of those power plants from being shut down.  Meanwhile, Pacific Gas & Electric has submitted a proposal to the California Public Utilities Commission to close both units at the Diablo Canyon nuclear facility near San Luis Osbispo by 2025, replacing its electricity generation with a combination of renewable sources, energy storage, better energy efficiency, and changes to the power grid.  Closer to home, as noted by Mark Chediak on Bloomberg Markets, “Utilities including Duke Energy Corp., Dominion Resources Inc. and NextEra Energy Inc. are being allowed by regulators to charge $1.7 billion for reactors that exist only on paper, according to company disclosures and regulatory filings.  Duke and Dominion could seek approval to have ratepayers pony up at least another $839 million, the filings show.”

Heavy duty vehicles, such as long-haul trucks, are major consumers of fossil fuel.  Consequently, five years ago President Obama announced the first fuel efficiency and greenhouse gas standards for them.  In 2011 the Obama administration finalized Phase 1 of the Clean Truck standards, which are beginning to have an impact on fuel consumption.  In recognition of these standards, the Environmental Defense Fund has published a series of blog posts about changes in heavy duty trucks.  The first summarizes the economic and environmental benefits of the Phase 1 standards.  Phase 2 standards are currently being formulated and will build on the success of Phase 1.  Finally, Jason Mathers has compiled statements from a variety of sources showing the broad support for the Clean Truck standards.

Last week I provided a link to an article about the cost of replacing aviation fuel with biofuel, thereby reducing the carbon footprint of flying.  The information in the article came from a new report by the International Civil Aviation Authority.  Now Carbon Brief has examined the report to ask how much of the remaining carbon budget for keeping warming below 1.5 C will be used by aviation under several scenarios.  If aviation continues to grow at its current rate and makes no changes in the type of fuel it uses, it will consume 27% of the carbon budget by 2050.  Even if it succeeds in switching to 100% biofuels by 2050 and makes technological improvements to its fleet, aviation will still consume 12% of the remaining carbon budget.

A study of methane emissions in Indianapolis, IN, and its comparison to an earlier study in Boston, has revealed that many sources of methane leakage are unknown and perhaps come from entities such as gas meters, furnaces, boilers and hot water heaters.  When people think of the concept of methane as a bridge to a renewable energy future it is usually as an interim replacement for coal until more renewable energy systems come on line.  (Many question this concept because of the current leakage rates of methane from gas infrastructure.)  However, a new study suggests that methane is serving as a bridge fuel until large-scale and reliable energy storage systems are available.  Only when that happens will power companies be able to phase out rapid-response gas turbines.

Three Virginia counties in the path of the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline have asked FERC to delay issuing a draft environmental impact statement until most of the questions raised have been answered.  Meanwhile FERC has said that it will not conduct a coordinated review of the three pipelines proposed to cross Virginia, including the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines.

In a Thursday letter, EPA’s Science Advisory Board told Administrator Gina McCarthy the agency “should provide quantitative analysis that supports its conclusion that hydraulic fracturing has not led to widespread, systemic impacts on drinking water resources.”

The American Petroleum Institute is making quiet efforts to revamp its climate messaging, creating a task force that could revisit the industry’s long-held opposition to taxing greenhouse gas emissions.  Note, an earlier version of this article was released on June 28, hence the outdated references to the Democratic platform.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

A special thanks to Joy Loving for covering the news last week while Joni and I were at the Chautauqua Institution in Chautauqua, NY attending a week of events examining humans and the environment.  The week was done in collaboration with National Geographic so the main lecture each day was given by either a photographer, an explorer, or a scientist associated with NG.  It was a very inspiring and rejuvenating week.

There is so much election news that it could dominate everything, hence I tend to avoid it in this summary.  One exception is the “U.S. Election Tracker” compiled by staff at Carbon Brief in the UK that summarizes what each presidential and vice-presidential candidate has to say on climate and energy, as well as the views of their energy advisers and their party platforms.  When there are significant updates I’ll let you know.

Climate

EPA recently released a report that shows evidence of long-term changes to our climate, and highlights impacts on human health and the environment in the United States and around the world.  The report, Climate Change Indicators in the United States, features observed trend data on 37 climate indicators, including U.S. and global temperatures, ocean acidity, sea level, river flooding, droughts, and wildfires.  Also, NOAA released its report on the State of the Climate in 2015, complied by more than 450 scientists from 62 countries.  Oliver Milman hit the high points for The Guardian, while Robert McSweeney took a deeper dive at Carbon Brief.  George Monbiot gives his view of what this all means from both the U.S. and UK political perspectives.

More bad news about coral reefs, this time around Guam, where bleaching events have occurred now for four straight years.  This has led to death of 50% of the coral in some areas.  This year’s bleaching event is expected to cause more coral death because bleaching has occurred for so many consecutive years.

The Obama administration has told federal agencies that they must consider the impact of their projects on climate change, in addition to the general environmental impacts that they also must consider.  As might be expected, Democrats and Republicans had differing opinions on the new guidelines.  Looking backwards, perhaps the federal government should have thought more about its assumptions when the military abandoned in place a facility under the ice in Greenland in 1967.  A recent study has found that it won’t be encased in ice forever, as assumed.

An outbreak of anthrax in the far north of Russia is suspected of having come from spores released as permafrost thawed due to high temperatures associated with climate change.  The outbreak killed a 12 year old boy, and sickened 40 other children and 31 adults.  It also killed 2,300 reindeer.

When we think about a warming world, polar bears get a lot of press.  But what about those iconic creatures on the other side of the globe, penguins?  Well, a recent study has examined how Adelie penguins will fare as Antarctica warms.  The bad news is that colonies will decline, but the good news is that the species won’t die out.

In a guest post on Carbon Brief Dr. David Barnes states: “Blue carbon is the term given to carbon stored in coastal or marine ecosystems. It typically refers to salt marshes, mangroves, and seagrass beds, which capture CO2 from the atmosphere and store it in their leaves, stems and in the soil.  A less well-known – but no less important – contribution to blue carbon comes from tiny organisms that live on the seabed.  These creatures, known as zoobenthos, take up carbon from the plankton they eat and the CO2 in seawater they use to build their skeletons. When the zoobenthos die, their bodies are eventually buried in the sediment of the seabed, sequestering carbon in the process.”  Dr. Barnes and a team of scientists are embarking on a voyage around Antarctica to measure the importance of blue carbon as a carbon sink.

Ellicott City, MD received over 6″ of rain in a two hour period last Saturday, causing devastating flooding downtown.  Such a rainfall is expected to occur only once in a thousand years, but is the type of event one would expect in a warming world.  As bad as that flooding was, it was not as widespread and disastrous as that in China, India, Nepal, and Pakistan where hundreds have died and millions have been forced from their homes.

Energy

One idea that is catching on in the power sector is the “virtual power plant”, a network of independent batteries, solar panels, and energy-efficient buildings that are tied together and remotely controlled by software and data systems.  The goal is to reduce customers’ energy demand at peak hours and provide renewable energy supplies in targeted areas, thereby allowing utilities to offset some of the needs for power from conventional sources and avoid disruption on the grid.  Maria Gallucci provides a tutorial about them on Yale Environment 360.  This article is well worth your time so you can tell Dominion what the future might look like.

A report on bird deaths at the Ivanpah solar energy plant in Southern California’s Mojave Desert suggests that they increased in the second year of the plant’s operation, although the authors of the report caution against comparing the two years because of differences in how data were collected.  While the numbers were in the thousands, they were still small in comparison to other human-related causes of bird mortality.

Joe Romm argues that cheap natural gas from fracked wells is the reason that half the nuclear power plants in the U.S. are no longer profitable – not the rise of solar and wind power as some have asserted.

If you like to travel by air, you might consider that replacing conventional jet fuel with carbon neutral alternatives would cost up to $60 billion a year from 2020 to 2050 and would require around 170 new bioenergy refineries to be built every year, according to the UN’s International Civil Aviation Organization.

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, commonly know as RGGI, involves nine states in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic (Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, and Vermont).  Since it was implemented in 2008, RGGI states have seen a 37% decrease in emissions from electricity production, while simultaneously decreasing consumer costs.  Now 70 companies have sent a letter to the governors of the RGGI states urging them to extend the program beyond 2020.  Unfortunately, attempts to get Virginia to join RGGI have been unsuccessful.

Will off-shore wind energy ever take off in the U.S.?  Well, the Massachusetts legislature passed landmark legislation last weekend betting that it will.  In fact, that legislation may well be the catalyst that gets things moving for off-shore wind farms.  Meanwhile, many questions remain to be answered before an off-shore farm of floating wind turbines can be built off the coast of California.

One impediment to electric vehicles (EVs) right now is a lack of charging stations.  So what does one do if the battery is getting low, but no commercial charging stations are within range?  Well, turn to the sharing economy, of course.  The app Plugshare maps tens of thousands of charging stations at private residences for EV drivers.  Regardless of where they are charged, however, Camille von Kaenel of ClimateWire has ideas about how EVs can be made cleaner and benefit the grid.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

Remember COP21, aka the 2015 Paris Climate Accords?  Here’s an update on the world’s progress in meeting the goals, and there’s good and not-so-good news (from Renewable Energy World):  http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/articles/2016/07/part-i-it-ain-t-over-until-it-s-over-a-cop21-reality-check.html

This week’s news about renewable energy covered many aspects, but here are two articles, also from Renewable Energy World, about some municipal approaches to energy efficiency and clean energy that could have some applicability close to home (think:  Harrisonburg and its Harrisonburg Electric Commission):
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/ugc-content/2016/07/25/city-power-play-report-part-1–municipal-utilities.html
http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/ugc-content/2016/07/28/city-power-play-report-part-2–communities-choosing-clean-energy.html

From a Virginia blog, Bacon’s Rebellion, comes an opinion piece from James Bacon about solar–its potential and how Virginia’s stance may put our state way behind as solar becomes cheaper and more available:  http://www.baconsrebellion.com/2016/07/solar-technology-advances-solar-policy-backtracks.html

From another Virginia blog, The Energy Fix, we get Jim Pierobon’s take on a lawsuit challenging the 2015 Virginia legislature’s law restricting the State Corporation Commission’s authority to set utility rates.
http://www.theenergyfix.com/2016/07/26/fast-fix-utility-customers-in-virginia-take-their-challenge-of-a-2015-law-to-the-states-supreme-court/#sthash.KcfATQZb.dpbs
http://southeastenergynews.com/2016/07/15/constitutional-test-looms-over-who-sets-utility-rates-in-virginia/

Here are two admittedly wonky stories from the Washington Post about climate change effects, giving some details on recent scientific reports.  One is about gravity’s effect on melting sea ice and the other provides a graphic illustration of the effects of global warming since 1850.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/27/a-stunning-prediction-of-climate-science-and-basic-physics-may-now-be-coming-true/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/28/these-climate-spirals-perfectly-illustrate-the-human-hand-in-global-climate-change/

Speaking of wonky, here’s a link to a NOAA web site that will give you climate resilience information for a given location.  You may want to try it for, say, Rockingham County, and then take a gander at the projected temperatures between 2020 and 2080:  https://toolkit.climate.gov/climate-explorer2/

This week brought three articles in the Washington Post about water–as a potential source of renewable energy, how human behavior risks harm to drinking water, and how lack of it may lead to conflict.  Also, this week James Cameron released a 5 1/2 minute “short” called “Not Reality TV” that shows, among other things, climate change’s nexus to water; I’ve included also a link to the National Geo web site for “Years of Living Dangerously”, of which the Cameron short is a part.  (Coincidentally, I recently viewed the 1st of several episodes from a chillingly prophetic and not-at-all uplifting 2007 documentary called “The Future of Water” that explores these same themes; check it out if you’re interested.)  And no series of items on water would be complete without one on flooding, this one from the Ohio Valley ReSource; Ohio, you are no doubt aware, is a neighbor of WV (so, no, this isn’t a story about sea level rise which, as it happens, is known to many VA legislators as recurrent flooding).
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/26/the-surprisingly-bright-future-of-americas-overlooked-renewable-energy-source-water/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/26/the-way-were-damaging-the-environment-may-also-be-costing-us-our-drinking-water/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/07/25/how-climate-disasters-can-drive-violent-conflict-around-the-world/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wJJk-kVjWg
http://yearsoflivingdangerously.com/
http://ohiovalleyresource.org/2016/07/22/flood-next-time-warming-raises-risk-disaster/

From Commonwealth Magazine (no, not VA; it’s that other one) comes an oped by Synapse Principal Economist Liz Stanton on New England’s clean energy leadership.  Too bad VA isn’t part of that leadership, but Climate Nexus featured a Southeast Energy article about the July 23 “March on the Mansion” (that’s VA’s governor’s home).  And the Daily Climate provided a link to a Richmond TV station’s coverage.
http://commonwealthmagazine.org/opinion/new-england-is-a-leader-in-fighting-climate-change/
http://southeastenergynews.com/2016/07/22/with-term-running-out-activists-push-virginia-governor-on-fossil-fuels/
http://wric.com/2016/07/23/protesters-march-to-governors-mansion-over-environmental-issues-in-virginia/

Shakespeare, climate change, and a carbon tax!  Huh?  Read this oped from The Daily Climate and a reader’s response in iambic pentameter.  Unrelated to two of these three subjects, but noteworthy nonetheless, The Guardian tells us that Canada is getting ready to put a price on carbon.
http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2016/july/to-tax-or-not-to-tax2014that-is-the-question
http://www.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2016/july/carbon-tax-shakespeare
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/2016/jul/28/canada-emissions-climate-change-justin-trudeau-corporate-business

The Guardian reported on China’s coal peak; some scientists see it as a major milestone:  https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jul/25/china-coal-peak-hailed-turning-point-climate-change-battle

Speaking of coal, OH is not just worried about WV’s flooding.  As this article in Midwest Energy News points out, First Energy is closing coal plants and wants its customers to pay the freight:  http://midwestenergynews.com/2016/07/28/as-firstenergy-announces-closures-bailout-request-keeps-growing/

Remember Keystone XL?  And of course VA has its own pipeline issues.  Here’s some discouraging news from Climate Progress about a new pipeline’s approval in the Midwest and from Inside Climate News about how U.S. planned new pipelines threaten our climate goals:  http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/07/28/3802907/bakken-pipeline-gets-full-approval/

Pipeline Expansion Threatens U.S. Climate Goals, Study Says

Politics has been a hot topic all week; here’s one item.  Climate Nexus reported the following about the two parties’ platform’s climate-change-related provisions and also gave links to many news items about this.
“GOP, Democratic Platforms Polar Opposites on Climate: Side-by-side comparisons of the Republican and Democratic party platforms show that the parties’ stances differ almost completely on key climate and energy issues. The Democratic platform calls for implementing the Clean Power Plan (CPP) and supports renewable energy, while the Republican platform avows to do away with CPP and supports “clean” coal. The two presidential nominees also hold differing viewpoints. GOP nominee Donald Trump is not a “believer of global warming” and wants to “cancel” the Paris Agreement while Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton calls climate change “one of the defining threats of our times” and aims to cut US carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. At present, neither candidate support a carbon tax but Clinton’s campaign said yesterday that she is open to having a conversation if Congress wanted to implement a carbon tax.  (News: Inside Climate News, Carbon Brief,VOA News, Politico Pro $, The Hill, E&E News $, National Journal $. Commentary: USA Today, James Bruggers column; Wall Street Journal, Karen Alderman Harbert op-ed $)”

This week brought a plethora of items about wildfires, drought, algae blooms and rising seas, but we’ll save these doom and gloom stories for future roundups.  Unfortunately, there are sure to be more of them in our future.

These news items have been compiled by Joy Loving, member of the CAAV steering committee and leader of Solarize efforts in the valley.