Month: March 2021

Thanks to Joy Loving for compiling this week’s news roundup in Les Grady’s absence!

Politics and Policy

International:

• NATO is joining the Pentagon in examining climate change threats to its personnel and operations.  (Washington Post)
• Canada’s Supreme Court found its carbon tax legal, despite objections from some of its provinces.  Its Conservative Party refuses to consider the climate threat as real.  (NYTimes, The Guardian)
• China’s carbon reduction goals haven’t stopped its coal addiction.  (Yale Environment 360)

Legislature and Litigation:

• A review of Biden’s climate action track record on energy and the environment in his first 100 days—43 days early—and Congressional, Executive Branch, and state/local responses:  A decidedly mixed picture. The plans place clean energy front and center.  One reporter explores the chances, given that the Democrats have a “second bite at the apple.” (Environmental Health News, NYTimes, Rolling Stone)
• The proposed infrastructure bill could have a major role in climate action. Biden’s plan is complicated and challenging, calling for $3 Trillion in investments “in infrastructure, education, work force development and fighting climate change, with the aim of making the economy more productive.”  One example is a jobs creation, repair program for impoverished areas near leaking oil wells.  The pandemic has illustrated many infrastructure failings but the price tag could be an obstacle.  Republicans have begun raising objections to the massive bill. (E&E News, Washington Post, NYTimes, Climate and Main, NBC WFLA, Washington Post, NYTimes)
• Biden’s early executive order—for a reexamination of “Trump-era fuel economy and emissions standards … and its rule blocking California from setting its own standards”—has raised questions about what the new administration would consider doing.  (American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy)

Administration, regulations, lawsuits, and analysis:

• Using BP money, Louisiana plans to slow sea level rise and its resulting flooding, in part due to the shutdown of oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico.  (Grist, KLFY)
• Louisiana politicians are beginning to confront the legacy of its “Cancer Alley”.  But the state has a long way to go; it joined other states in suing over Biden’s oil and gas leasing moratorium.  (The Guardian, ProPublica, The Center Square, AP News, USA Today)
• Fossil fuel opponents want the Federal Trade Commission to address what they view as corporate greenwashing.  (Grist)
• FERC “assessed a natural gas pipeline project’s contribution to climate change for the first time ever.”  (E&E News)
• The EPA will examine the Trump-era attacks on climate science.  (NYTimes)
• California is considering a program to purchase homes at great risk from coastal flooding.  Residents of poor Houston communities are wrestling with the dilemma of having achieved the “American Dream” of home ownership… in a flood zone.  (OBP NPR, NYTimes)
• Pennsylvania’s governor announced a plan to have half the state government’s electricity to be solar-powered by 2023.  (Pittsburgh Post‑Gazette)
• Rhode Island’s House passed a bill setting a net-zero emissions goal by 2050.  (WPRI)
• The Interior Department reversed its prior decision to remove jurisdiction over part of the Missouri River from a Native American tribe.  (The Hill)
• A proposed Texas highway expansion may not happen because of environmental justice concerns about displacement of “more than 1,000 disproportionately Black, brown and low-income households.”  (The Guardian)
• Car companies may join tobacco and oil companies as targets of lawsuits about their role in the climate crisis.  (E&E News)
• A recent Supreme Court ruling may signal its unwillingness to support Executive Branch efforts to safeguard “environmentally sensitive lands, especially those underwater, in the future.”  Chief Justice Roberts wrote the opinion.  (Slate)
• NASA has a newly appointed climate science advisor.  (NYTimes)

Financial sector:

• A recent study suggests many countries could see their credit ratings sink by 2030 thanks to global warming.  (Reuters)
• The Federal Reserve will convene panels to examine risks of climate change to financial systems.  (CNBC)
• The world’s largest banks have continued bankrolling “oil, gas, and coal” projects since 2016, to the tune of $3.8 Trillion.  (Huff Post, The Guardian)
• Despite increasing investor desire for “good corporate sustainability data”, most companies aren’t supplying it.  (Fast Company)
• Wall Street may prove a Biden ally in the “climate fight.”  RMI’s leader says CEOs need to answer four key questions to make that happen.  (The Breeze, RMI)

Climate and Climate Science

Water, drought, sea ice loss, and sea level rise:

• An in-depth look at Bangladesh’s flooding challenges gives a glimpse into the future of many coastal and island countries—and what “climate migration” means.  (Environmental Health News)
• Australia’s floods are wreaking havoc; thousands have been evacuated.  In addition to the many problems Australians are facing, they also have to contend with massive numbers of spiders that, it turns out, don’t like flood water either.  (The Guardian, Reuters, NYTimes)
• The first story talks about an unexpected result of ocean warming…and great white sharks.  Juvenile great whites are now being seen in Central California, hundreds of miles north of their (previously) usual haunts.  The second:  A recent study showed the importance of sharks to the oceans’ well-being; a stable ecosystem depends on this apex predator.  And a third: “New research says preserving more of the world’s waters would lead to healthier marine life, better fishing and increased carbon absorption.” (NPR, The Guardian, Washington Post)
• Warming oceans will mean more than sharks moving northward, including “Climate Refugees [and] Ocean Benefits” plus migration of other marine species. Sea ice loss also threatens Arctic residents’ lives and livelihoods. (Inside Climate News, CBC)
• Long-standing drought conditions in the US southwest are prompting some states to consider cloud seeding to produce rain.  (The Guardian)
• Nitrogen pollution from agriculture is a source of waterway contamination.  What would prioritizing major sources accomplish?  (Civil Eats)
• Can “conservation, sustainable fishing, and carbon sequestration” be good for the oceans?  A young Mauritian activist recently protested underwater in the Indian Ocean to bring attention to the importance of seagrass and the threats to it.  (NYTimes, CBC Radio)

Environment:

• Some Dutch engineers want to “turn the [Sinai] desert green” again (evidence shows it once was) so it can support farming, wildlife, and wetlands.  (The Guardian)
• Maple producers in New York’s Finger Lakes region are successfully harvesting maple sugar despite the effects of climate change and Covid-19.  (Fox40 WICZ)
• Would it be good if summer was six months long?  Maybe not.  (CNN)
• Warming temperatures may extend grape growing and wineries northward, but there are challenges.  (Eater)

Energy

Renewables, biomass, and nuclear:

• Delays in the opening of a new Georgia nuclear plant will cost ~$25 million/month.  (Albany Herald)
• A “unique hydroelectric pumping station” inside a Tennessee mountain can keep electricity flowing even during ice storms.  (News 19 Huntsville)
• Biomass isn’t really “green energy.”  Felling trees to make wood chips isn’t sustainable and actually contributes to global warming.  (Politico)
• Floating solar next to offshore wind?  Expensive but maybe.  (PV Magazine)

Transportation:

• Automakers are looking hard to come up with “solid state” battery technology for electric vehicles (EVs).  They want the batteries to weigh less and take up less space.  (Inside Climate News)
• A British company will build a factory in North Carolina to build EVs for UPS.  (CNBC, Arrival)
• A Florida State Senate bill would raise taxes on EVs to pay for charging stations.  (89.9 WJCT)
• Duke Energy and other utilities are starting to focus on the potential economic benefits of EVs to their bottom lines.  (Utility Dive)
• Volkswagen wants to overtake Tesla in EV sales and may be making headway.  (Inside Climate News)

Fossil fuels and Extraction:

• Memphis residents facing a proposed pipeline that would lie atop its water systems already have an air pollution problem and adverse health effects. A nearby county that owns land the pipeline would need to run through decided against selling it. (Commercial Appeal, MLK50)
• Georgians living near a coal power plant are experiencing similar problems. (ProPublica)
• What are the pros and cons of leaving in place an inactive Gulf of Mexico oil rig that is a habitat for marine life?  (Bloomberg)
• What if companies had to pay the costs of damages to climate and health their operations and products cause?  (Reuters)
• A coal company’s bankruptcy may leave communities with huge costs for cleaning up abandoned mines.  (89.3 WFPL)
• A new report questions the profitability of the fracking industry.  (Gizmodo)

Plastics and Waste:

• A Florida chemical plant and plastics producer said it would reduce its carbon emissions.  Did it?  It’s complicated, and the company isn’t saying much.  (Inside Climate News)
• Algae in lakes isn’t always a good thing, but it can catch plastic, making it easier to remove.  (Environmental Health News)
• Camels are confusing plastic bags for food, with deadly results.  (Washington Post)
• A proposed new plastics plant in Louisiana’s “cancer alley” may not happen, in part because of lessening market demand.  (Inside Climate News)

Utilities and Electricity Grid:

• What role did clean energy play in Texas’ recent grid problems?  “It is an extreme weather problem, not a clean power problem.”  Though grid weatherization is generally thought necessary, there isn’t consensus on the role of renewables.  (Augusta Free Press, S&P Global)
• Analysts and researchers are trying to get their heads around the scope of the grid threats that climate change is posing.  Not surprisingly, it’s complicated.  Not much comfort to an Austin apartment complex’s residents, without power a month later.  (Bloomberg, Austin American‑Statesman)
• Duke Energy’s 15-year energy plan is receiving very high interest, with so many North Carolina residents, agencies, and companies wanting to comment that the regulator postponed a virtual meeting until it could determine how to accommodate them all.  (Energy News Network)

Potpourri

• Hard hats will be the new symbol of climate change action, say environmental activists pushing for Biden’s new infrastructure plan.  (Grist)
• With spring here, check out eight wonderful US public gardens, New York City’s abundant wildflowers, and a Dorset designer’s private garden.  (NYTimes, NYTimes, NYTimes)
• Georgia voting rights activist Stacey Abrams is also a climate activist.  The Environmental Voters Group wants climate activists to vote. (Grist, Grist)
• Backyard Foodbank is a Harrisonburg citizen’s effort to help people learn to grow their own food.  (The Citizen)
• Washington Post Live interviewed 3 champions of clean drinking water, including actor Matt Damon.  (Washington Post)
• Is “bingeing Netflix” bad for the climate?  The company is looking at ways to reduce its carbon footprint.  And it’s presenting “Seaspiracy” about human threats to marine life and “global corruption” behind it.  (Independent, Netflix)
• Here are seven “emerging technologies” to “tackle the climate crisis”.  Green Cement, Hydrogen Ships, Tree Corridors …  (Rolling Stone)

Closing Thought

“The best protection for forests?  The people who live in them.”  (Inside Climate News)

Compiled by Joy Loving

CAAV Steering Committee

Thanks to Joy Loving for compiling this week’s news roundup in Les Grady’s absence!

Politics and Policy

International:

• Biden administration is weighing how to make climate essential to foreign policy but has other urgent priorities. (NYTimes)
• China’s announced goals—peak its CO₂ emissions before 2030 and attain net carbon neutrality before 2060—are at odds with its coal dependence, because of which it is “the world’s top-polluting nation in recent decades.”  (NYTimes)
• US companies continue to ship plastic waste outside the US despite the 2020 180‑country trade agreement that rich countries would not export plastic pollution to poorer ones.  (NYTimes)
• India is considering setting a net-zero carbon goal rivaling those set by China and the US.  (Reuters)
• The EU wants to work with the US to reduce aviation emissions.  (Reuters)
• The International Renewable Energy Agency said “[r]enewable electricity production needs to grow eight times faster than the current rate to help limit global heating.”  (The Guardian)

Legislature:

• Joe Manchin, West Virginia’s senator, will play a key role in whether Biden’s proposals to address climate change will go anywhere.  He plans to negotiate with both sides of the aisle to achieve results he wants. (Slate, Axios, Vox)
• House Republicans put forth a plan to include more nuclear and natural gas and methane reductions as part of the “clean energy future”.  (The Hill)
• Senate Majority Leader Schumer stalled FEMA plans to increase flood insurance premiums for property owners in coastal floodplains.  (NYTimes)
• Congress is investigating an existing ”multibillion-dollar subsidy for chemically treated coal … meant to reduce smokestack pollution, after evidence emerged that power plants using the fuel produced more smog not less.” (Reuters)
• 35 Pennsylvania lawmakers are urging the state to act following a study showing harmful chemical exposure to Pennsylvanians living near fracking wells.  (Daily Climate)

Administration, regulations, and analysis:

• Deb Haaland was sworn in as Interior Department Secretary, the first Native American and third woman to hold that post.  (Washington Post, The Guardian)
• EPA Secretary Regan announced the agency is working on regulations to control power plant and vehicle emissions to reduce smog, among other results.  (NYTimes, E&E News, Reuters)
• The EPA restored the climate change website removed by Biden’s predecessor.  (Washington Post)
• 12 states’ attorneys general challenged Trump-era energy efficiency regulations they consider inadequate.  (The Hill)
• Georgia advocates want the EPA to block construction of a wood-pellet plant, “arguing its permit was secured without community input and threatens public health.”  (The Hill)
• Some Democrats want Biden to “revoke permits for [a] big Louisiana plastics plant” because of its adverse effects on the local Black community.  Louisiana Senator Cassidy objected.  (The Advocate)
• FEMA is assessing its programs that “distribute billions of dollars to states after major disasters and are thought by some analysts and lawmakers to favor affluent communities and individuals.”  (E&E News)
• The US leads in the number of cities that have enacted some type of fossil fuel ban.  (Gizmodo)
• Energy Secretary Granholm plans to make the department’s $43Mn loan guarantee program available to help decarbonize the grid.  Potential applicants have some reservations.  (Politico)
• DOD Secretary Austin said the department is incorporating the security threats posed by climate change into its planning.  (The Christian Science Monitor)

Financial sector:

• The pressure on financial institutions and corporations to incorporate climate into their planning, investments, and operations yielded different responses from legislators and regulators.  (Texas Tribune, The Guardian)
• US “regulators are pushing corporate America to reckon with the cost of climate change, arguing that global warming poses significant peril not only to the environment but also to the U.S. economy.” Some Republicans disagree with the Federal Reserve action to “further environmental objectives.”  (Washington Post, Washington Post)
• Investors are urging a large EU steel producer reduce the industry’s CO₂ and other emissions.  (NYTimes)

Climate and Climate Science

Water and sea level rise:

• Florida legislators’ funding for projects to protect the state from flooding doesn’t include managed retreat or address its root cause, climate change. (Grist) 
• Avon, North Carolina residents are wrestling with how to save their village from rising seas and how to afford to try.  (NYTimes)
• “Wetlands Can Help Prevent Property Damage and Save Lives During Floods”.  (Circle of Blue)
• The changing climate is altering rivers world-wide with respect to water flow.  (Futurity)
• Neighborhoods redlined in the 1930s face much higher flood risks than those not so designated.  (Bloomberg)

Environment:

• Indigenous peoples could assist multi-nation efforts to protect 30% of earth’s land and water by 2030. (NYTimes)
• Quebec’s seals and its seal tourism industry are struggling because “there’s no ice”. (The Guardian)
• Last month’s fierce storms in the south, with the resultant power outages, caused major disruption to Jackson, Mississippi’s water supply.  Its residents still don’t have reliable water service.  (Slate)
• Some of the loss of Brazil’s Amazon rainforest can be attributed to China’s appetite for beef.  (The Guardian)
• Two adjacent states have different opinions about meat.  Colorado declared a “Meat Out” day, while neighboring Nebraska countered with its “Meat on the Menu” day.  (NYTimes)
• US 2020 wildfire smoke wiped out clean air gains from the pandemic.  (Washington Post)
• Almost half of the US is in drought; NOAA said that will continue and worsen.  (CNBC)
• 10% of poor neighborhoods in 20 southwest US urban areas experience 4^oF average higher temperatures than wealthier areas.  (AZ Central)
• The warming Pacific Ocean threatens Northern California’s sea kelp; sea otters are among those helping to save it.  (Inside Climate News)
• 10Mn people were displaced during 6 months of climate disasters in 2020, most in Asia.  (Reuters)
• Soil below the Greenland ice sheet revealed exciting information about plant life thousands of years ago.  The bad news?  The soil’s contents showed the ice sheet had melted before.  Could it do so again?  (Washington Post, Inside Climate News)

Energy

Renewables:

• The Biden administration okayed the Vineyard Wind project off Martha’s Vineyard. (Grist)
• An Environmental Defense Fund manager believes North Carolina “has much to gain from [offshore] wind power.”  (Coastal Review Online)
• Who knew?  Bladeless turbines can produce wind power.  (The Guardian)
• Residents of Wainscott, in New York’s Hamptons, are at odds about the proposed South Fork wind farm 35 miles offshore.  “[A] cable to connect the wind farm would have to burrow underneath the hamlet’s beach and several of its streets to join with a substation further inland.”  (The Guardian)
• So many wind turbines—where can we put them?  (Inside Climate News)
• A new report touted the “promise and potential” of offshore wind for the US.  (Environment America)
• New technology is on the horizon to make solar more efficient. (Grist)
• Solar power is growing rapidly and providing a substantial source of US power.  Virginia ranked 4^th in 2020 solar installations nationally (Clean Technica, Virginia Mercury, Houston Chronicle)
• Underway:  “The Race to Scale Up Green Hydrogen to Help Solve Some of the World’s Dirtiest Energy Problems.  (Inside Climate News)

Transportation:

• A plan to operate a “green hydrogen” cargo ship is facing an obstacle—not enough fuel. (Grist)
• How quickly will electric vehicles (EVs) “take over” US roads? (NYTimes, Yale Environment 360, Clean Technica)
• Taking its first steps to join the EV bandwagon, Virginia enacted clean car standards comparable to those in California and established an as-yet unfunded rebate process to incentivize Virginians to purchase EVs.  (Energy News)

Fossil fuels and Extraction:

• Kern County California continues its reliance on oil, despite current pollution levels there. (Grist)
• A proposed new approach to carbon capture and storage:  Pipe carbon dioxide produced from ethanol manufacture from Midwest sites to North Dakota, use some to make ethanol, and pump most of it deeply underground. (Grist)
• A proposed natural gas pipeline in the Memphis Tennessee area has raised loud voices about its violation of environmental justice.  (Commercial Appeal, WFPL,)
• Owners of the Transco Pipeline filed suit against Mountain Valley Pipeline owners who want to take land through eminent domain that Transco previously acquired the same way.  (The Roanoke Times)
• The founder of a national parks travel guide described in detail his objections to the proposed oil drilling at Big Cypress National Preserve, urging the Biden Administration to prohibit it.  Other groups also object; the permit allows only “exploratory drilling.”  (National Parks Traveler, Tallahassee Democrat)
• Following Biden’s cancellation of a March oil lease in the Gulf of Mexico, “Louisiana officials say the state’s oil and gas industry is in danger.” (KLFY)
• The Bureau of Land Management is moving forward to allow oil and gas leasing in New Mexico’s San Juan Basin, despite objections of tribal leaders who say they haven’t been adequately informed or consulted.  (Capital & Main)
• A Nevada rancher filed a lawsuit over proposed lithium mining on BLM lands because of the environmental dangers it poses. (Grist)
• Trackers of CO₂ and methane found that massive amounts of colorless, odorless methane are leaking from pipelines in the Texas Permian Basin.  (CNN)
• Indigenous people in Minnesota argued the proposed re-routing of an aging pipeline—Line 3 project—would violate a US treaty with the Ojibwe nations.  (The Guardian, The Relevator)
• The bottom‑trawling fishing industry may produce as much CO₂ as global aviation.  (NYTimes)

Electricity Grid:

• Texas recent grid management challenges and its regulatory policy demonstrated the need to ensure 24/7/365 performance regardless of weather conditions—and many critiques and proposed solutions are on offer.  (Houston Chronicle, CNBC, Inside Climate News)
• Officials at an Arkansas power plant powered by hydro, contend its power source helped keep the lights on during last month’s fierce weather.  (Arkansas Democrat Gazette)

Potpourri

• A Harrisonburg-area resident is eager to help the American chestnut return to the Central Shenandoah Valley.  (The Harrisonburg Citizen)
• Check out Virginia’s outlook for solar job growth by 2050.  (Climate Central)
• “Women’s Leadership is Central to the Climate Fight”.  (ClimateXChange)
• The great-granddaughter of an Idaho farmer who lived in the early 20^th century believes wise agricultural stewardship, such as he practices, can help local communities in their resilience planning.  (NYTimes)
• There’s more than one way for the US to attain net-zero by 2050.  (The Guardian)
• Would you consider living in a building that’s 300 feet underground—if it doesn’t disturb contaminated soil, saves energy, and is heated and cooled with the help of solar?  (Fast Company)

Closing Thought

• A Nashville-based opinion writer found some reasons to be optimistic, or at least hopeful, about the planet’s future.  “Hope is not a license to relax. Hope is only a reminder not to give up. As bad as things are, it is far too early to give up.” (NYTimes)

Compiled by Joy Loving

CAAV Steering Committee

Politics and Policy

A coalition of environmental groups has urged the US to commit to slashing its greenhouse gas emissions by at least 50% by 2030.  On the other hand, a new analysis determined that the US must slash its greenhouse gas emissions by 57% to 63% below 2005 levels by 2030 to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050.  The EU and the US need to align to tackle climate change, John Kerry said in Brussels.  The Pentagon announced the creation of a working group to respond to President Joe Biden’s executive orders addressing the climate crisis.  Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Cory Booker (D-NJ), and Brian Schatz (D-HI) introduced the “Methane Emissions Reduction Act,” which directs the Treasury to assess a fee on methane emissions, while Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) introduced a bill to incentivize companies to weatherize the power grid.  With a vote of 66-34, the Senate confirmed Michael Regan as the next EPA administrator, while the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 20-0 to advance the nomination of David Turk to become deputy Energy secretary.  Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said the US needs to sustainably boost domestic production of the minerals used to make electric vehicles (EVs).  She also said the administration is aggressively pursuing transportation electrification in part to prevent China from cornering the $23 trillion market in carbon-reducing technologies.  Proposals to form a national clean electricity standard have become a central focus of climate change legislation in the new Congress, with support from both parties.  For almost all cars on the road to be electric by 2050, EV sales must ramp up to 100% by 2035 and new programs should be adopted to get gasoline and diesel vehicles off the road.  GM President Mark Reuss said the government should extend investment tax credits for EV manufacturing and supply chains, and expand consumer incentives for EV purchases.  The Washington Post updated its tracking of Biden’s environmental actions.

Twelve states are suing the Biden administration for trying to establish a new value for the “social cost” of greenhouse gases to use in agency rulemaking.  After a three-member panel of the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals found that federal judges lacked the power to order a climate recovery plan, as petitioned by the young people in Juliana v. United States, the plaintiffs filed a motion in federal court to amend their suit.  In 2006, Judge Gladys Kessler wrote in her opinion in the trial against tobacco companies, “Over the course of more than 50 years, Defendants lied, misrepresented and deceived the American public.”  Will the same thing be written about the oil companies?  More than 100 cities, counties, and states around the country have enacted ordinances restricting renewable energy projects.

As major corporations seek carbon credits to offset emissions, critics are questioning the value of “legacy” credits, arguing that the credit system needs to be reformed so that so it delivers actual carbon reductions.  Jonathan Foley, the executive director of Project Drawdown, laid out the overlapping stages of technological progress required to meet climate goals.  Among the many goals in Biden’s climate change agenda, protecting 30% of US lands and ocean territories by 2030 is among the most ambitious and among the most complex, as well as the most likely to face substantial political obstacles.  The controversy over a proposed lithium mine near Thacker Pass, NV, highlights a big challenge the Biden administration must grapple with to transition the US economy to carbon-free energy sources: How to acquire the needed mineral resources without sacrificing biodiversity or the health of communities living near mining projects.  Republican state legislators in Florida announced a suite of measures intended to save the state from rising seas, but they don’t tackle the root cause of the problem.  A group of 17 House Democrats introduced legislation to provide $6 billion to the US Postal Service to buy additional electric delivery vehicles.  Ivy Main looked back at the accomplishments on climate and clean energy by the Virginia GA this year.

Governments around the world are failing to match their rhetoric with action in rescuing their economies from the COVID-19 pandemic, with only about 18% of the funding being considered green.  Climate Home News focused on nine countries that are missing their chance at a green recovery.  A nine-country coalition led by the Netherlands and Denmark called on the European Commission to decide on a phaseout date for the internal combustion engine, drawing a withering response from Germany.

Climate and Climate Science

If governments fail to limit global warming to 1.5°C above the pre-industrial era, areas in the tropical band that stretches either side of the equator risk changing into a new environment that will hit “the limit of human adaptation.”  Humans have degraded or destroyed roughly two-thirds of the world’s original tropical rainforest cover, raising alarm that a key natural buffer against climate change is quickly vanishing.  The first-ever study to examine all of the gases that affect how the Amazon works — not just CO₂ — suggests that the forest is worsening climate change. 

The changing climate is raising concerns about how the saguaro cactus will survive the 21st century in an environment that’s hot and getting hotter, dry and getting drier.  If emissions continue unchecked, summers in the Northern Hemisphere could last nearly six months by 2100, with significant impacts on agriculture, the environment, human health, and the timing of species’ activities such as breeding, feeding, and migration.

A new study suggests that, contrary to previous research, climate change will not cause global drylands to expand.  However, the climate crisis is altering the flow of rivers across the world, with increasing river flows in some regions, such as northern Europe, and decreasing river flows in others, such as southern Europe, southern Australia, and parts of southern Asia.

The downpours that triggered flooding that destroyed homes and bridges in Hawaii and set off mass evacuations on multiple islands this week are an example of the more intense rainstorms officials and climate scientists say are occurring more frequently as the planet warms.  Because of land subsidence due to a number of factors, including groundwater pumping, coastal communities are experiencing an effective sea level rise four times worse than global sea level rise.

Energy

Millions of Americans face the specter of prolonged power outages under the current power grid.  Climate change will have “far-reaching” impacts on the electric grid that could cost billions of dollars.  Investor-owned utilities face a $500 billion capital investment gap to build out resilience efforts and effectively address risks from climate change.

The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management completed its environmental review for an 800 MW windfarm 12 nautical miles off the coast of Martha’s Vineyard, Vineyard Wind, and said that its preferred alternative would allow up to 84 turbines to be installed in 100 of the 106 proposed blocks for the facility.  China built more new windfarm capacity in 2020 than the whole world combined in 2019.

Solar hydrogen production through a photoelectrochemical water-splitting reaction is an attractive alternative to water electrolysis for green hydrogen production because of its potential for higher conversion efficiency and lower cost.  Its adoption has been hampered by the difficulty of separating the hydrogen from the other gases, but now the Japanese have developed a membrane that may solve the problem.  A Japanese-Australian venture has begun producing hydrogen from brown coal in a pilot project that aims to show that liquefied hydrogen can be produced commercially and exported safely overseas.  If the project goes commercial, the CO₂ produced in the process would be injected underground off the coast.  Hyundai Motor Group has broken ground at its Guangzhou, China, fuel cell system plant, the first time the company has constructed this type of facility outside of South Korea.

FedEx has promised to be carbon-neutral by 2040 and has pledged an initial investment of $2 billion to start electrifying its fleet of more than 180,000 vehicles.  Full EVs are expected to account for more than 70% of Volkswagen’s total European vehicle sales by 2030, compared with a previous target of 35%.  While governments and automakers worldwide are making bold pledges to transition to electric-only vehicles, Japanese car companies and regulators are hedging their bets.  Honda has plans to sell two all-electric SUVs in the US for the 2024 model year, and it soon will offer hybrid gas-electric versions of its top-selling models.  LG Energy Solution says it will invest more than $4.5 billion in its US battery production business by 2025 as automakers ramp up production of EVs.

A new study suggests that changes in natural gas markets since the Mountain Valley Pipeline was conceived have undercut the economic case for it.  Analysts have calculated that abandoned oil and gas wells cover more than 2 million acres of the US and determined that if that land is restored, it could deliver billions of dollars in benefit for a fraction of the cost of the restoration.

Global banking giants and investment firms are continuing to bankroll a major driver of the climate crisis: food and farming corporations that are responsible for cutting down vast carbon-storing forests and spewing greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere.  “Food systems” were responsible for 34% of all human-caused greenhouse gas emissions in 2015.

Potpourri

Amy Brady interviewed poet Kathryn Smith about her latest collection, Self-Portrait with Cephalopod, and why she decided to write about climate change.  Jedediah Britton-Purdy reviewed Vaclav Smil’s new book Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made.  During 2020, the overall climate change coverage on corporate broadcast TV nightly news and Sunday shows plummeted by 53% compared to 2019.  The University of Virginia’s Religion, Race & Democracy Lab has produced a publicly available video entitled “God $ Green: An Unholy Alliance”, which addresses decades of what it calls “religious polarization, political propaganda, corporate deal-making, and environmental injustice based on systemic racism.”  Soleil Santana took a long look at the history of solar energy.  Fix recently launched a cli-fi writing contest, so Grist interviewed the judges about their approaches to climate fiction.

Closing Thought

Garner hope from the innovations happening in places like Seattle-based solar start-up BlueDot Photonics.

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.

Politics and Policy

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted 11-9 to advance Rep. Deb Haaland’s (D-NM) nomination to head the Interior Department to the full chamber.  Meanwhile, Interior is moving to lock in key parts of President Joe Biden’s climate agenda, particularly on oil and gas restrictions.  Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said she is ready to reactivate her department’s loan program that went mostly unused in the last four years and has more than $40 billion in funds to boost the transition to clean energy.  She also said the tens of billions of dollars in funding the agency plans to pour into the clean energy sector will likely require companies to create the high-paying jobs promised by Biden.  Ella Nilson of Vox spoke with National Climate Adviser Gina McCarthy about how to achieve a clean energy economy, how to put forgotten coal communities back to work, and how to boost unionization rates to ensure that new energy jobs actually do pay high wages.  While policies and proposals in some states acknowledge the writing on the wall for the coal industry and are working for a just transition, others are denying it and fighting against it; the difference is largely due to the absence of a cohesive national energy transition policy.

The American Petroleum Institute is edging closer to endorsing a carbon tax, but as an alternative to federal regulation and policies aimed at slowing climate change.  The US Trade Representative’s office said a carbon border adjustment would be considered as part of an effort to develop market and regulatory approaches to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  US climate envoy John Kerry urged oil and gas companies to do more to diversify and adopt low-carbon technologies to tackle climate change.  Jeff Goodell at Rolling Stone discussed with Kerry whether the US will finally lead on climate.  Senior House Energy and Commerce Democrats unveiled a template of their plan to combat climate change this Congress — an expanded version of last year’s “CLEAN Future Act” — that would take a sector-by-sector approach to reach net-zero CO₂ emissions by 2050.  On the same day, Rep. David McKinley (R-WV) said that he would reintroduce the “Clean Energy Future through Innovation Act of 2020” as an alternative to the “CLEAN Future Act.”

The Biden administration asked the US Court of International Trade to dismiss a complaint from some members of the solar industry arguing that the tariffs on bifacial solar cells are unlawful.  Deputy Transportation Secretary nominee Polly Trottenberg said the department would analyze the ruling of the International Trade Commission that SK Innovation Co misappropriated trade secrets related to electric vehicle (EV) battery technology from LG Chem.  Bloomberg NEF forecast that solar, wind, and batteries will attract $10 trillion in investments through 2050; consequently, US manufacturing of clean energy equipment is gaining traction.  Several states will likely follow California and adopt stricter vehicle emissions standards if the Biden administration greenlights those efforts.  The consortium that oversees the model building codes for much of the US has stripped local governments of their right to vote on future codes, thereby establishing a major roadblock to decarbonizing the US economy.

All planned coal projects around the world must be cancelled to end the “deadly addiction” to the fossil fuel, UN secretary-general António Guterres said at the opening of a summit of the Powering Past Coal Alliance.  China succeeded in lowering its “carbon intensity” (the amount of CO₂ emitted per unit of GDP) by 18.8% in the five years through 2020, and plans to cut it by another 13.5% during the 2021-2025 period.  However, China’s coal consumption is expected to continue rising in 2021.  The British government has been hit by two reports criticizing its performance on climate change — one saying it has “no plan” to meet climate change targets two years after adopting them and the other that the UN climate conference scheduled for November will fail unless its goals are made clear.  Hungary announced that its last coal-fired power plant will be shut down in 2025 instead of 2030.

Climate and Climate Science

Last week I included an article about the weakening of the Atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC).  This week, The New York Times (NYT) had an article with excellent graphics explaining current research to better understand the AMOC and the impact of climate change on it.

Officials in Miami-Dade County, where climate models predict two feet or more of sea-level rise by 2060, have released an upbeat strategy for living with more water, although climate experts warned that the plan downplays the magnitude of the threat.  Because climate change is causing heavier rain storms and more flooding, it is a significant concern that the American Society of Civil Engineers has given the US’s flood control infrastructure a D grade and estimated the cost of rehabilitating all US dams at $93.6 billion.

A newly released paper in the journal Science concluded that the Atlantic Multidecadal Oscillation (AMO) is very likely an artifact of climate change.  Because of the relationship between the AMO and hurricane activity, this discovery, if true, means that humans — not natural variability — have been the main driving force in the up-and-down cycles of hurricane activity in the Atlantic Ocean.  During the most recent 30-year period — 1991 to 2020 — there has been an increase in Atlantic hurricane activity.

While the US was experiencing some of the coldest weather in a century during February, large areas of the globe were basking in the warmest weather ever observed during winter.  Almost 80% of the Western US is in drought, with nearly 42% of the region in “extreme” or “exceptional” drought.  Hundreds of butterfly species across the American West are vanishing as the region becomes hotter, drier, and more vulnerable to the effects of climate change.

Researchers reported that climate models with a high “climate sensitivity” overstate the cooling effect that arises from interactions between clouds and aerosols and project that clouds will moderate greenhouse gas-induced warming much more than climate records show actually happens.  Meanwhile, an international team of scientists discovered a new mechanism of cloud formation, not currently included in climate models, that could be important over the poles and affect sea ice melting.

Energy

Volvo says it intends to feature an all EV fleet by the year 2030.  Six major utilities unveiled a plan to add EV fast chargers to connect major highway systems across the US.  If you are thinking of buying an EV, the NYT has a guide to some of the environmental factors that should be considered.  According to an analysis by Transport & Environment, fossil fuel cars waste hundreds of times more raw material than their battery electric equivalents.  The goal of the Electric Highway Coalition, made up of six major electric companies in the Southeast and Midwest, is to build enough direct-current, fast-charging, EV charging stations to connect the Atlantic coast, the Midwest, and the South, as well as the Gulf Coast and Central Plains regions.  In order to supply its expanding EV fleet, GM says it’s looking for a site to build a second US battery factory with joint venture partner LG Chem of Korea.  Japanese industrial manufacturer Hitachi Zosen has developed a solid-state battery claimed to have one of the highest capacities in the industry.

Exxon Mobil CEO Darren Woods said that improving economics and government policies are creating opportunities for carbon capture and storage.  He also said that Exxon Mobil would try to set a goal for not emitting more greenhouse gases than it removed from the atmosphere, though it was still difficult to say when that might happen.  Chevron is partnering with Microsoft, Schlumberger, and Clean Energy Systems to build a carbon capture plant in California.  FedEx is investing at least $2 billion toward sustainable energy initiatives, including EVs and carbon capture research, as part of a new pledge to become carbon neutral by 2040.

Lockdowns around the world led to an unprecedented fall in CO₂ emissions of about 7% in 2020, or about 2.6 bn metric tons of CO₂, whereas reductions of between 1 bn and 2 bn metric tons are needed every year for the next ten years to have a good chance of holding the global temperature rise to within 1.5°C or 2°C.  Unfortunately, CO₂ emissions climbed steadily over the second half of 2020, so that by December, emissions were 2% higher than in the same month in 2019.  The US could cut emissions from its electricity grid in half within the next decade through investments in renewables and transmission lines.  Furthermore, a national approach to transmission planning can supposedly deliver large benefits at the speed necessary to meet the challenges of climate change.  Berkshire Hathaway Energy is spending billions to build transmission lines to carry electricity from remote areas where renewable energy is generated to population centers where it is needed.  FERC’s chairman is focused on enabling the construction of long-distance power transmission lines to help bring more renewable power onto the grid.

Governments and energy companies are placing large bets on clean hydrogen playing a leading role in lowering greenhouse gas emissions, although its future uses and costs are highly uncertain.  Shell is moving toward renewable aviation fuel production at its refinery in Rhineland, Germany, where it will conduct research using its bio-power-to-liquid plant and an upgraded hydrogen electrolysis facility.  Siemens Energy announced a US Energy Department grant to study how its electrolyzers could be combined with hydrogen compression and storage, and power plant control technology, to provide long-term energy storage at renewable energy facilities.  By using its tar-sands bitumen as a feedstock for carbon fiber production and by turning its natural gas into blue hydrogen via carbon capture, Alberta hopes to transform its oil and gas industry.

The CEOs of Duke Energy and Xcel Energy have said that natural gas will remain part of their power mix for years to come as they transition to cleaner forms of energy.  A furious industry backlash has greeted moves by cities to ban natural gas in new homes and businesses.

Potpourri

Climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe is joining the Nature Conservancy as its next chief scientist.  The Washington Post Magazine published an interview with her.  The NYT had a review of Elizabeth Kolbert’s new book, Under a White Sky.  At GreenBiz, Joel Makower discussed the concept of “net-zero” and why it can be an instrument for greenwashing.  A UN report revealed that people waste over a billion tons of food a year, placing food waste right behind China and the US as a contributor of greenhouse gas emissions.  Environmental Health News released an important series of four articles, Fractured, documenting their investigation of fracking chemicals in the air, water, and people of western Pennsylvania.  Of the roughly 55,000 Indigenous households located on Navajo Nation lands, around 15,000 do not have electricity.  UN human rights officials issued a report condemning environmental racism in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley,” where the mostly Black population breathes air heavily polluted by an ever-widening corridor of petrochemical plants. 

Closing Thought

Climate scientist Michael Mann talked with Jonathan Watts of The Guardian about his new book, The New Climate War, and why he thinks the tide may finally be turning in a hopeful direction.

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.