Category: Climate News Roundup

By bonding over the values we truly share, and by connecting them to climate, we can inspire one another to act together to fix this problem. But it all begins with understanding who we already are, and what we already care about—because chances are, whatever that is, it’s already being affected by climate change, whether we know it or not. –Katharine Hayhoe

Our Climate Crisis

Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at Project Drawdown, was a lead author on the Fifth National Climate Assessment. She was reluctant to do it one more time because their past dire warnings about our climate crisis have felt like screaming into the void. Although the outlook is still alarming, they were able to report genuine progress this time. She says, “Renewables now make up 80 percent of new electricity generation capacity. Our country’s greenhouse gas emissions are falling, even as our G.D.P. and population grow.”

This year is “virtually certain” to be the warmest in 125,000 years, according to European Union scientists. Last month smashed through the previous October temperature record, from 2019, by a massive margin of 0.4 degrees Celsius. The month of September also breached the previous temperature record by a large margin.

A new study by legendary climate scientist James Hansen and his colleagues has found that global warming is accelerating faster than anticipated and will likely breach the 1.5 degrees C benchmark set by the Paris Climate Agreement by the end of the decade. Other climate scientists, including Michael Mann, dispute how rapidly global warming is accelerating and how much is locked in even after we stop emitting carbon dioxide.  They all agree that it’s an existential crisis.

Politics and Policy

A showdown is brewing over money, oil and carbon at the COP28 climate summit that is opening in Dubai. There will be immense pressure to deliver as global temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions continue to break records. We can expect a fierce fight between high-income and low-income countries over who will pay for climate mitigation. Furthermore, Sultan Al-Jaber, who the UAE chose to lead COP28 discussions, is a controversial choice given that he is the head of their state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

The United States and China will back a new global renewable energy target and work together on methane and plastic pollution. They made a joint statement on this after a meeting  in California to find common ground ahead of COP28 talks in Dubai later this month. Differences between them remain on issues like phasing out fossil fuels.

Virginia voters all but ended Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s push to roll back climate policies as Democrats maintained their majority in the state Senate and seized control of the House of Delegates. This assures that climate legislation, such as the  Virginia Clean Economy Act, will stay in place. It also assures that he has no legislative path in his efforts to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative. Any new climate legislation will, however, need his support as the Democratic legislative majorities are not big enough to override his veto.

The Inflation Reduction Act helped create 210 major clean-energy projects in its first 12 months. These projects will spur a total of 303,500 jobs each year over a typical five-year construction phase, and a total of another 99,600 jobs each year after that in their long-term operations. It is estimated that this will lead to 9 million new jobs over a decade.

New House Speaker Mike Johnson has a League of Conservation Voters score of 2% which is almost as low as it gets. It’s even generous to call him a climate skeptic. He’s said outrageous things about climate change, what’s causing it, and whether he believes it’s even happening, and has consistently backed Big Oil.

Michigan passed legislation to reach 100% clean electricity by a target year of 2040. This makes it the third state in the Midwest and twelfth in the country to require a shift to clean electricity. Of all those states, Michigan is one of the most ambitious because of the extent of the change it is making. In 2022 it got only 38% of its electricity from carbon-free sources.

Energy

Energy efficiency is the invisible superpower of the energy transition. According to data from the International Energy Agency, gains in energy efficiency since 2010 have saved about ten times as much primary energy as solar and wind added. Even so, renewables get nearly all the headlines. That may be because solar panels and wind turbines are highly visible whereas unused energy is invisible and almost unimaginable.

Electric vehicle sales are up nearly 50% this year despite some inevitable growing pains and gloomy headlines. The EV market is actually well past the tipping point for mass adoption. If buyers continue to snap them up at the current clip, this year they’ll easily surpass 1 million in annual sales for the first time ever.

Solar is now producing 6% of electricity in the US—up from 2% five years ago. Even with that impressive growth, much more is needed to reach the Biden administration’s goal of completely decarbonizing the power grid by 2035. That will require solar to make up as much as 40% of electricity generation.

According to a UN report, the world’s fossil fuel producers such as Saudia Arabia, the US and UAE are planning production expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over. The planned expansions will far exceed the amount of fossil fuel that is possible to burn if global temperature rise is to be kept to the internationally agreed 1.5C. They will even produce 69% more fossil fuels than is compatible with the riskier 2C target.

Dominion Energy says their offshore wind project in Virginia—the nation’s largest—remains on budget and on schedule to be completed in 2026. This gives the industry a boost at a time when it has been plagued by financial challenges, including the recent cancellation of two major projects planned in the waters off of New Jersey.

The Youngkin administration announced a public-private initiative that aims to test out emerging energy technologies in Wise County in Southwest Virginia. The public-private partnership will form an Energy DELTA Lab that tests new wind, solar, nuclear, battery and pumped storage, hydrogen and other emerging energy technologies.

The most promising small modular reactor in the U.S., being developed by startup nuclear company NuScale, has been terminated because it couldn’t secure enough subscriptions from utilities to make the project work financially. It was supposed to build the first next-gen reactor and usher in a new era for nuclear energy. Estimated project costs had risen from $58 per megawatt-hour to $89 per megawatt-hour due to cost overruns and higher interest rates.

The USDA has been funding renewable energy projects for farmers including a recent grant enabling a Rockingham County organic chicken farm to install solar panels to offset energy used by its poultry houses. New grant awards of $2.3 million in Virginia will support eight photovoltaic systems and five grain dryers in the city of Williamsburg and the counties of Accomack, Augusta, Culpeper, Gloucester, Powhatan, Rockingham, Southampton and Tazewell.

Climate Justice

United Nations climate experts said that the world must spend hundreds of billions more a year to help vulnerable people adapt to mounting devastation from severe droughts, catastrophic wildfires and ruinous floods fueled by rising global temperatures. At the next U.N. Climate Change Conference, hosted this year in Dubai, wealthy countries are expected to resist calls to compensate poor nations for such deadly disasters.

Pope Francis implored policymakers and those who deny the existence of climate change to stop dismissing human causes or ridiculing science when Earth may be nearing the breaking point. There is still time to stop global warming, he said, “Our future is at stake, the future of our children and our grandchildren.” He had planned to speak at the COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai but had to cancel for health reasons.

Climate Action

Pulaski County in Southwest Virginia is promoting solar energy and green manufacturing with the goal of becoming our nation’s greenest county government. It recently received a “gold” designation from the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Solsmart program and is working toward a platinum status by 2024. That will include installing solar panels on public facilities and land and providing instant approval for residential panel installation.

Trailblazing architects and engineers—and their early-adopter clients—are in a race to erect ever-taller timber towers. The vision is wooden skylines erected with glued lumber laminates that rival steel and concrete in strength and reliability. Trees soak up carbon in their trunks, leaves and roots. Constructing buildings with wood then locks that carbon into the built environment.

You will want to consider a heat pump dryer when you replace your present clothes dryer. While relatively unknown in the U.S., they are popular in Europe and Japan. Though more expensive up front, they can reduce your carbon emissions and save you up to several hundred dollars a year. Drying some of your clothes on an old-fashioned clothes line is even more efficient.

Biochar, a charcoal made from heating discarded organic materials such as crop residues, offers a path to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Twelve countries have the technical ability to sequester over 20% of their current total emissions by converting crop residues to biochar. Bhutan leads the way with the potential to sequester 68% of its emissions in the form of biochar, followed by India, at 53%.

You can reduce your energy consumption this winter by reducing the amount of air that leaks in and out of your home. Weatherstripping and caulking are two of the most effective and simple air-sealing techniques that can save up to 20% on your energy bills. Also check with your energy provider about having them arrange for an energy audit on your home—a service that is often provided free of charge.

Here’s a simple climate action opportunity. Gather acorns and contribute them to the Virginia Department of Forestry nursery in Crimora. The nursery uses contributions from a donation program that has run for about a decade. This year volunteers sent them 12 tons of acorns. No matter how many seedlings the program produces, there’s always room for more because Virginia has about 16 million acres of forestland.

Action Alerts

Join Valley Interfaith Action for a TAKE THE NEXT STEP! assembly on Thursday, December 7, 6:30 to 8:00 pm at Bridgewater Church of the Brethren. Hundreds of VIA members will ask elected and corporate leaders to join us in taking the next step to establish door-to-door demand response transit and create 250 new pre-k spots that pay a living wage. Please register here. To join other faith based climate activists at the event you can register as a member of “Shenandoah Valley Faith and Climate.”

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will host a community meeting at the Massanutten Regional Library in Harrisonburg on Dec. 7 from 6-8 pm. This is part of a series of meeting throughout the state to solicit ideas for measures that could rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Virginia. Click here for more information.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Women are at the forefront of collaborative efforts to support each other in the face of our changing climate. In many countries, women’s intimate knowledge of the land means they are quicker to spot environmental changes, to learn from them, and out of necessity, find ways to adapt. —Christiana Figueres

Our Climate Crisis

Recent research indicates that accelerated ice melt in west Antarctica is inevitable for the rest of the century. Even drastic emissions cuts in the coming decades will not slow the melting. If completely lost, the ice sheet would push up ocean levels by about 16 feet. The implications are “dire” and some coastal cities may have to be abandoned.

The world has sweltered through the hottest spell in human history this summer. A conservative tally estimates that extreme weather disasters took more than 18,000 lives, drove at least 150,000 people from their homes, affected hundreds of millions of others and caused billions of dollars of damage.

After our summer of record-breaking heat, things got even worse in September as global temperatures rose far above normal. The average temperature was 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit above the 1991-2020 average for September. That’s the warmest margin above average for a month in 83 years of record keeping.

The unexpected heavy rainfall and flash flooding in New York City at the end of September is an example of how small storm systems can become severe because of global warming. This followed similar downpours in July that created catastrophic flooding that struck parts of Vermont and the Hudson Valley.

Politics and Policy

Clean energy, data centers, and utility influence in Virginia is up for a vote in the off-year election this fall. If he can achieve a Republican majority in both houses of the General Assembly, Governor Youngkin aims to repeal previous clean energy legislation. Particularly in his crosshairs are the Virginia Clean Energy Act, participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, and the Clean Cars law.

At their first Climate Action Conference on Sept. 30, Fairfax County officials said that residents are underutilizing publicly-funded incentives to make their homes more green. Greeting a crowd of community members County Supervisor James Walkinshaw said the focus of the conference was to give residents “all the actionable information and the tools you need to reduce your emissions and save money.”

The European Union has launched a huge climate experiment by imposing a Europe-wide tax on carbon in imported goods. It could have global ripple effects across the entire globe by pushing high-emitting industries to clean up their production. It could also incentivize other countries to launch their own carbon taxes on imported goods. In these respects it could end up being one of the most important climate policies.

As big businesses like Amazon, Microsoft, Walmart, and Apple ramp up efforts to reduce their carbon footprint, they’re putting pressure on their suppliers to do the same. Consumers, investors, regulators, and governments are pushing firms for more progress and transparency.

The US Department of Energy announced the largest-ever investment in America’s electrical grid. The $3.5 billion in grants will expand capacity for wind and solar power, harden power lines against extreme weather, integrate batteries and electric vehicles, and build out microgrids. This will represent more than $8 billion in investment when matched by funds from state and local governments and utility and industry partners.

The Biden administration has green-lighted a record low number of new offshore oil wells. Experts say this decline reflects economics and production strategy as much as shifts in federal oil policy. Many climate activists fault the White House for holding any oil sales, while drillers and GOP allies of the industry say that so few opportunities to buy new drilling rights is undermining national production.

Beliefs on the severity of climate change have not shifted significantly among religious groups in the United States. In fact, among white evangelicals the view that the Earth is in a climate crisis actually dropped from 13% in 2014 to 8% today.

Energy

The International Energy Agency predicts that global demand for oil, natural gas and coal will peak by 2030. Their executive director Fatih Birol says, “The transition to clean energy is happening worldwide and it’s unstoppable.” Even so, a peak in fossil fuel use won’t be enough to stop global warming.

New clean energy grid battery installations are growing exponentially in the U.S., especially in Texas and California. The energy they supply is still just a drop in the bucket of overall consumption but they can deliver quick bursts of power at key moments during times of high demand. Battles with grid electric supply are won or lost on the margins and the megawatts that batteries instantly contribute during moments of crisis can avert power outages.

Electricity production is the biggest source of carbon emissions in the world. Data from a clean-energy think-tank report shows that in the first half of this year, global power-sector emissions rose by just 0.2%, thanks largely to the embrace of wind and solar power. This indicates that the world is approaching a peak in electricity carbon emissions.

The Interior Department approved a plan to install up to 176 giant wind turbines off the coast of Virginia. This clears the way for what will be the nation’s largest offshore wind farm yet. The project to be built by Dominion Energy will produce enough clean electricity to power more than 900,000 homes.

After more than a year of evaluating competing proposals, the US Department of Energy has picked seven “clean hydrogen hubs” where it hopes to turn $7 billion dollars of federal investment into the seeds of a clean hydrogen economy. The industries expected to use the clean hydrogen range from chemicals, steel and fertilizer production to shipping, trucking and power generation.

Through its Rural Energy for America Program, the  U.S. Department of Agriculture awarded $266 million in funding to eight renewable energy and energy-efficiency projects in Virginia. Included was $115,880 awarded to Regeneration Cycle, LLC in Rockingham County for two solar systems for four organic poultry houses. The owner, Corwin Heatwole, said he always wanted to go solar and this project made it possible.

Climate Justice

In a new climate letter, Pope Francis takes direct aim at climate change deniers and castigates Western nations, particularly the United States, for irresponsible lifestyles causing irreparable harm to the planet. He criticizes oil and gas companies for greenwashing new fossil fuel projects and calls for more ambitious efforts in the West to tackle the climate crisis. He says that “avoiding an increase of a tenth of a degree in the global temperature would already suffice to alleviate some suffering for many people.”

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is now on a mad dash to the finish because of West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin’s insistence that Congress approve it to get his vote to raise the national debt ceiling. It stretches just over 300 miles from the northern border of West Virginia to southern Virginia. It traverses ecologically fragile terrain including hundreds of bodies of water and steep mountain slopes and has upended the lives of people who live in its path.

Electric bikes promise to make a significant contribution to driving down greenhouse gas emissions in transportation. The upfront cost, however, puts them out of reach for many people. That’s why cities and states across the United States are rolling out programs to make e-bikes more accessible to lower-income residents. E-bikes also offer other benefits including more mobility than public transit and at a much lower cost than a car.

Climate Action

The Harrisonburg City Council voted to add a set of community engagement goals to the city’s Environmental Action Plan. People who live and work in Harrisonburg will be enlisted to help reduce carbon emissions through efforts like reducing car travel and planting trees. Keith Thomas, the sustainability and environmental manager for the city’s Public Works Department, said, “Total emissions are what matter at the end of the day, so that’s what we’re focusing on.”

Agrivoltaics—on-farm solar arrays combined with grazing or other forms of agriculture—is still rare in California. They could, however, be a game-changer in a state with lots of sunshine where many farmers are struggling to plan for a future with limited groundwater. It could be vital to preserving food production as many farmers face pressure to retire parts of their land to comply with water conservation regulations.

Virginia Tech has been awarded an $80 million grant from the US Department of Agriculture to participate in a climate-smart farming program. The pilot program will pay farmers to voluntarily implement climate-smart practices that help reduce greenhouse gases. The university says that if the program can be scaled up nationally, it could help reduce agricultural emissions by 55% — and reduce total emissions in the U.S. by 8%, after 10 years.

A startup business in Northern Virgina called “LambMowers” is a fun and ecologically innovative approach to how we care for our lawns. The owner, Cory Suter, who grew up here in the Valley, began his flock of sheep as part of his 5 acre permaculture farm in Fairfax. He then came up with the idea of making his sheep available to mow his neighbors’ lawns. Turf grass, including residential and commercial lawns, golf courses and similar landscapes, is by far the largest cultivated crop in the United States, three times bigger than corn.

An often overlooked climate solution is a compact 15 minute city where we can access key things in our lives—work, food, schools and recreation—within a short walk, bike, or transit ride of our home. This concept is catching on in urban planning even though it is running up against existing zoning restrictions and even recently hatched conspiracy theories.

Scientists from the University of Virginia, doing research on the Eastern Shore, have discovered that seagrass beds can permanently lock in carbon. They capture and retain carbon for centuries even in situations where the seagrass dies off. This means that seagrass conservation and restoration can be a significant climate change solution.

Rachel Brown, a retired quilt store owner, recently had a solar array installed on her Augusta County home free of charge through the Income and Age Qualifying Solar program of Dominion Energy. When she first heard about the program, she thought it was too good to be true but her trusted nephew Everett Brubaker, who works for Community Housing Partners, convinced her it was legitimate. Her house was first given a free energy efficiency makeover—as her nephew explained—solar “dessert” follows weatherization “vegetables.”

Fallen leaves are a really important wildlife habitat. So why not be lazy this fall. You will want to remove most of the leaves from your grass but you can place some of them in certain places and put others in your compost bin. Allow a little chaos in parts of your garden. That’s really beneficial for the soil, the animals, and the insects that need to share these landscapes with us.

Action Alert

You are invited to participate in a tree planting event at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church on November 11. We will start with coffee and pastries at 8:00 a.m. in the church fellowship hall. We need to have a count of those who plan to attend beforehand so we can estimate the amount of food and coffee required. If you are interested, please email Steve Pardini: pardini.steve [at] hotmail.com

This is the second phase of a four-phase project to plant 250 trees. The goals of this project are: 1.) To beautify the HMC campus, 2.) Create a spiritual and natural place for meditation, fellowship, and recreation, 3.) Steward the land, sequester carbon, mitigate water runoff, and reduce summer heat.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

In the face of climate change, we all have to be optimistic, not because success is guaranteed but because failure is unthinkable. —Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac

Our Climate Crisis

A UN climate report card on progress since the 2015 Paris Agreement says countries are trying, but urgently need to improve their efforts. Many of the worst-case climate change scenarios now look far less likely yet efforts made thus far still aren’t enough to avoid calamity. The report is meant to serve as the foundation for the next round of climate negotiations, known as COP28, that will start in late November in Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates.

Increased global warming will cause 500 million people around the world, particularly in places such as South Asia and the Middle East, to be exposed to life threatening extreme heat for at least a month by 2030—even if they can get out of the sun. This will create a new global wave of disease and death linked to climate change, according to an analysis of climate data and leading scientific studies. Pakistan will be the epicenter of places that bear the brunt of Earth’s heating.

Climate-fueled weather disasters have exponentially increased the cost of the Federal Crop Insurance Program from just under $3 billion in 2002 to just over $19 billion last year. Annual payouts in 2022 were 546% more than they were in 2001. Farmers pay about 40% of the premiums and taxpayers subsidize about 60%. Roughly 80% of crop insurance payments go to the largest 20% of farms that primarily grow one or two carbon intensive crops.

Politics and Policy

Research shows that the World Bank spent billions of dollars backing fossil fuels in 2022 despite repeated promises to refocus on shifting to a low-carbon economy. The money went through a special form of funding known as trade finance, which lacks transparency on funds used for oil and gas development.  Until that is changed, the World Bank cannot claim to be aligned with the Paris climate agreement.

Virginia utility regulators ruled against Dominion Energy’s attempt to saddle rooftop installations with astronomical grid interconnection fees that were stifling the industry’s gains across Virginia. At stake were medium sized 25 Kw to 1 Mw solar installations that use power purchase agreements. These kinds of solar installations have appealed to universities, public schools, hospitals, churches, municipalities and small commercial ventures.

California is suing five oil companies and their trade group, the American Petroleum Institute, over what the state says is a long-standing pattern of deceiving the public over the risks associated with fossil fuel. According to the complaint, this is causing billions of dollars in damage to communities and the environment. The lawsuit claims the oil companies have created a public nuisance, damaged natural resources and state property and have violated California law with false advertising and misleading environmental marketing.

Energy

The great news is that Virginia is meeting short-term carbon-free targets laid out in the sweeping Clean Economy Act of 2020. A big challenge is that new clean energy projects are gummed-up in their regional grid operator’s transmission interconnection queue, potentially stalling this progress. Off-shore wind is projected to make up a big proportion of new clean energy installations in the coming decades.

Building the world’s first large-scale green steel plant just moved closer to becoming a reality. H2 Green Steel, the company behind the groundbreaking project in Sweden, recently announced that it has raised the necessary funding to build the plant and begin production in 2025. Clean hydrogen will replace fossil fuels in the steelmaking process. The steelmaking industry is responsible for between 7 and 9% of global carbon emissions.

Dominion Energy is seeking an air quality permit from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality to build a new natural gas plant that will be a major new source of greenhouse gas emissions. Dominion claims the plant is needed to provide future projected demand for power from data centers and EVs. Environmental groups are sharply criticizing the proposed plant on the grounds that it goes against the goal of the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which requires Dominion to decarbonize its grid by midcentury.

Offshore wind has had a rough summer due to rising interest rates and delays in getting key components. This has led developers to ask for new terms in existing deals. It’s a messy situation that threatens to undermine the future of offshore wind as a major and affordable source of clean electricity. More positively, rather than backing out of projects, companies are saying they need to renegotiate agreements. While this may mean delays and an increase in costs for consumers, it’s far from a catastrophe.

The European Union is on track to reach the renewable energy goal it set for 2030 three years early according to the 2023 annual report of Solar Power Europe. Solar is on a fast track around the world. In 2022, 45% more solar power capacity was installed than the year before. The positive market developments in the first months of 2023 promise another solar boom year, with expected growth of 43%.

Electric vehicles have heavy batteries that are filled with minerals extracted from around the world. You may have heard that this makes fossil fuel vehicles look good. Global fossil fuel extraction, however, dwarfs mineral mining for clean energy. Fifteen billion tons of coal, oil, and gas were extracted in 2019 compared to seven million tons of minerals that were extracted in 2020 for the entire clean energy economy. Furthermore, unlike fossil fuels, minerals can be reused and recycled.

Climate Justice

Faith leaders joined the demand for climate justice at the Africa Climate Summit in Nairobi hosted by the African Union and the government of Kenya. Activist groups had hoped that the summit would develop a radical vision for Africa, but the final declaration was disappointingly similar to previous climate summits that produced inadequate results. The climate activists then produced their own statement which said the final declaration imposed failed climate policies on the continent and reflected old colonial attitudes.

Kolkata, a city of more than 4.5 million in eastern India, is a microcosm of how global warming unequally affects the urban poor. Since 1950, the city’s average temperature has risen more than any megacity— by 4.7 degrees Fahrenheit. The heat is expected to keep soaring, along with more intense cyclones, monsoon rainfalls and rampant flooding. Living in densely built neighborhoods with narrow streets and alleys, little or no tree cover, and a paucity of basic services like electricity, the urban poor bear the brunt of these climate changes.

Developing countries are often on the frontlines of the climate crisis yet lack the resources to develop clean energy and to enact climate action plans. At the same time, large banks have been pouring some $3.2 trillion into the fossil fuel industry to expand operations in the global south. They have also loaned and underwritten at least $370 billion in developing countries for the expansion of industrial agriculture, which is a major a contributor to global warming.

Bhutan, a small Buddhist kingdom nestled in the Himalayas between India and China, has 70% forest cover and is carbon neutral. It has environmental commitments to maintain at least 60% forest cover and to remain carbon neutral. Despite its exemplary climate stewardship it faces risks from rising temperatures and melting glaciers. Agriculture employs 43% of the labor force with women making up 53.3% of that total. Given agriculture’s vulnerability to climate change, the country is focusing on training girls in climate literacy.  

Looming over the United Auto Workers strike against Ford, General Motors and Stellantis is concern that many EV battery and assembly plants are being built in the South—a region long characterized by low wages and hostility to labor unions. Union leaders are concerned that this shift will lower wages and cut out unions from the auto industry’s future.

Climate Action

Over 75,000 climate activists marched in New York City at the start of Climate Week at the UN General Assembly. They demanded that President Joe Biden stop approving new oil and gas projects, phase out current ones and declare a climate emergency. Speaking to a cheering crowd, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez exclaimed, “We have to send a message that some of us are going to be living on, on this planet 30, 40, 50 years from now. And we will not take no for an answer.”

One day after the March to End Fossil Fuels, climate activists blockaded multiple entrances into the Federal Reserve bank in an act of civil disobedience and more than 100 were arrested. They were calling attention to the fact that globally, government subsidies for coal, oil and gas are equivalent to 7% of global GDP and almost double what the world spends on education.

Electric cars are smashing sales records in the U.S. and now exceed 7% of new cars sold—a critical tipping point for mass adoption. It took 10 years to sell the first million fully electric vehicles in our country, two years to reach the second million, and just over a year to reach the third. We should be well on our way to a fourth million by the time the latest quarter’s figures for 2023 are tallied up.

The Harrisonburg City Council unanimously approved supporting the Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy program that helps businesses in the city adopt renewable energy. Vice mayor Laura Dent was especially enthusiastic because it addresses the missing business sector in the city’s energy efficiency goals for the community.

Action Alerts

NPR is dedicating an entire week to stories and conversations about the search for climate solutions. Reporting teams across the NPR Network have been scouring the world for solutions to climate change. They’re sharing what they found this week. This isn’t just about “covering” the climate — it’s meant to remind everyone that you can always do something. See highlights of specific stories at this link.

Climate Activist Social on Tuesday, October 24, 5pm – until, at Pale Fire Brewing Co., 217 S Liberty St #105, Harrisonburg, VA. Calling all Rocktown climate advocates, seasoned or interested! Come have a drink (or not) with us. Let’s have a meeting without an agenda. This social event is hosted by the Climate Action Alliance of the Valley. There will be a table for things to sign or pick up, but really, this is a social time. Come, invite your friends and RSVP here!

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

If we open our hearts, the seeds of transformative action will flourish. We can take a Giant Leap from the interconnected crisis we face now into a future with a stable climate, clean air, clean water, and food security for all. But to do so, we need to change our way of thinking, and we need to start telling new stories about what is important and what is possible.—Elizabeth Wathuti

Our Climate Crisis

Global warming likely contributed to the severity of the devastating wildfires in Maui in several ways but could not have driven the fires by itself. It was a compound disaster, where many different agents acted together to make the fires so horrific. Other forms of ecological degradation contributed to the conflagration. The landscape had been transformed by large plantations that were once regularly watered and maintained.  As agricultural activity declined, invasive grasses that are highly combustible spread across the abandoned fields.

The Gulf of Mexico, in the second week of August, was the hottest it has been at any point in any year on record by a wide margin. Water temperatures averaged over the entire Gulf of Mexico topped 88 degrees—that’s 2.6 degrees above average and more than a degree above the previous record. Those extra-hot waters are of particular concern with the approach of the peak weeks of hurricane season.

Scientists have been mapping the spread of saltwater intrusion on farmland in Delaware, Maryland and Virginia on the Delmarva peninsula. They found that land area covered by visible salt patches almost doubled from 2011 to 2017, turning over 19,000 acres into marshland. Kate Tully, one of the scientists from the University of Maryland, explains, “Saltwater intrusion often happens in advance of sea level rise, which is why we call it the invisible flood.”

The Indo-Gangetic Plain, stretching across northern India, is one of the most fertile agricultural regions in the world. It is home to 40% of India’s 1.2 billion people. Now the toll of climate change and pollution is changing weather patterns and putting more than 800 million people at risk.

Politics and Policy

One year since it was passed by Congress, the Inflation Reduction Act has kicked off a stunning boom in clean energy. Since then, plans for more than 100 new clean energy manufacturing facilities have been announced in the U.S. Companies from around the world are investing billions of dollars into U.S.-based solar, wind, battery and electric vehicle ventures. Others are crafting plans to scale up early-stage technologies like green hydrogen.

The conservative Heritage Foundation think tank released a plan dubbed Project 2025 that is a “battle plan” for the first 180 days of a future Republican president. It calls for shredding regulations to curb greenhouse gas emissions, dismantling almost every clean energy program in the federal government and boosting the production of fossil fuels. Some Republican climate groups are pushing back, saying that Project 2025 is wrongheaded and not acceptable to the younger generation.

Rejection of climate science took center stage at the first Republican presidential debate. None seized on climate policy or support for renewable energy manufacturing and jobs as a way to stand out. Seeking to dominate the extreme Trumpian edge, technology entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy called climate change a hoax and said, “This isn’t that complicated guys, unlock American energy, drill, frack, burn coal, embrace nuclear.”

The Biden administration announced the first winners in a $3.5B carbon removal program—two direct air capture (DAC) facilities along the U.S. Gulf Coast. Each facility is expected to be capable of removing up to 1 million metric tons of CO2 per year, which is roughly equal to the annual emissions from 2.5 gas-fired power plants. DAC technology is still in its infancy and current systems are extremely energy-intensive and highly expensive to operate. Furthermore, it may  be a fig leaf to big oil, allowing them to keep polluting under the guise of climate action.

Ignoring its climate commitments, Indonesia is building many new coal-fired electric power plants for industry. This will keep the country addicted to fossil fuels for the foreseeable future. Ironically, among the uses of this coal-fired power are aluminum smelters and nickel and cobalt processing facilities that the government is promoting to turn the country into a global hub for the electric vehicle and battery supply chains.

In rural Virginia, overzealous regulation of solar energy hinders progress according to Skyler Zunk, the cofounder of Energy Right, a conservative nonprofit that advocates for renewable energy in Virginia. Many counties are prohibitively restricting landowners and developers from proposing clean energy investments, largely rooted in fearmongering and disinformation. Done correctly, renewable energy investments are good for rural Virginia and move us closer to energy independence as a commonwealth.

A group of U.S. House members from Virginia and North Carolina wrote a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission urging it to deny Mountain Valley Pipeline’s requested extension of the pipeline into North Carolina known as the Southgate project. The letter from Virginia Democrats Jennifer McClellan and Bobby Scott and North Carolina Democrats Valerie Foushee and Kathy Manning was signed onto by two dozen other House Democrats.

Energy

Dulles Airport in northern Virginia is going to host the US’s largest clean energy project at an airport. The $200 million project includes a solar farm that will sit on 835 acres of the airport’s grounds between runways. The power from the 100-megawatt solar farm will go to the grid and provide 37,500 households with power. The project also includes battery storage, EV buses, and EV charging stations at the airport.

The transition to electric vehicles promises to be two-fold, “a win-win” situation for the US, according to Elaine Buckberg, a Stanford University Fellow.  It will reduce our economy’s vulnerability to oil-related geopolitical risk and oil price shocks. Historically, there has been a symbiotic relationship between soaring oil prices and economic recessions. Furthermore, EVs will be powered by increasingly clean and renewable energy sources over time as the grid becomes greener.

Office space in HQ2, Amazon’s new 2.1 million square foot headquarters in Arlington, VA, is designed to operate with zero operational carbon emissions. Furthermore, it is keeping its embodied carbon (the carbon emissions used in construction) to 37% below the industry baseline by making efficient decisions and buying locally. Amazon is seeking the most stringent platinum Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification for the  first phase of HG2 called Metropolitan Park.

General Motors announced that some of its electric vehicles will have bidirectional vehicle-to-home (V2H) charging capabilities by model year 2024 and all of them will have it by model year 2026. Bidirectional charging will enable using the EV battery as a backup electric source for your house or even the grid. PG&E, the largest electric utility in California, envisions a future where EVs feed excess power back into the grid during hours of peak demand.

First Solar, the largest solar energy manufacturer in the Western Hemisphere, announced plans to build a $1.1 billion facility to build solar panels in Louisiana. The facility will use 100% U.S.-made components and expects to create more than 700 new jobs with a total annual payroll of at least $40 million.

Climate Justice

A recent study has found those in the top 10% income bracket of American households are responsible for 40% of our nation’s greenhouse gas emissions. The top 1% of households account for 15 to 17%, and “super-emitters” with extremely high overall greenhouse gas emissions, correspond to about the top 0.1% of households. About 15 days of emissions from a super-emitter is equal to a lifetime of emissions for someone in the poorest 10%. The highest emissions linked to income come from White, non-Hispanic homes, and the lowest come from Black households.

The United States has become the world’s largest exporter of liquified natural gas (LNG) as Europe weans itself off gas imported from Russia following that country’s invasion of Ukraine.  To capture this growing global market, companies like Venture Global LNG are building massive infrastructure along the Gulf Coast. What is a boon to gas companies has become an environmental and health nightmare for low-income communities in the area.

Young environmental activists who filed a lawsuit against the state of Montana scored a remarkable legal victory when the judge ruled in their favor. She ruled that state agencies were violating the youths’ constitutional right to a clean and healthful environment by refusing to evaluate the effects of greenhouse gas emissions when granting fossil fuel permits. The case will serve as a guidepost for attorneys bringing similar suits in other states.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously dismissed environmental groups’ legal challenges against the Mountain Valley Pipeline, saying Congress has eliminated its jurisdiction over the cases. Two of the judges, however, raised questions about the environmental and democratic precedent that has been set by congressional intervention in the cases.

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a suit in Fairfax Circuit Court claiming that Virginia Gov. Youngkin and his administration does not have the legal authority to withdraw Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The petition was filed on behalf of several different climate action groups including the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions.

Climate Action

Talking about climate change causes greater acceptance of climate science, inspires action, and that, in turn, decreases climate anxiety. A growing movement of Americans are seeking out support and power in numbers in climate conversation groups. These groups include the All We Can Save Circles; the Good Grief Network, a peer support network modeled on 12-step addiction programs; and Climate Awakening, founded by climate psychologist Margaret Klein Salamon.

The Roanoke, VA, city council voted to fold their latest Climate Change Action Plan into the city’s master plan. The climate plan calls on the community to slash greenhouse gas emissions by half over the next decade. It is, however, nearly four years behind schedule because of the pandemic and staff turnover.

In a national referendum, the people of Ecuador voted against drilling for oil in Yasuni National Park, a protected area of the Amazon. This vote will require the state oil company to end its operations in a region that’s home to isolated tribes and is a hotspot of biodiversity. The government has however challenged the legitimacy of the referendum and said it would continue drilling.

Berlin could be a realistic role model for major American cities that seek to boost pedestrian and bicycle traffic while decreasing car traffic in a car-loving country. One recent initiative in Berlin was revamping a major street by putting in bicycle lanes, thereby decreasing automobile traffic by 11% and increasing bicycle traffic by 40%. The transition created a palpable sensory experience with less traffic noise and cleaner air.

Action Alert

Here is a great opportunity to contribute to a local project that will reduce energy costs and help drive down greenhouse gas emissions. Mercy House, in partnership with GiveSolar, have launched a crowdfunding campaign to install a 14.58 kilowatt solar system on Mercy House’s family shelter, located on North High St. in Harrisonburg.  Please consider supporting this effort.  To learn more about this project and to donate, go to GiveSolar’s crowdfunding webpage.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

The physical condition of the planet – as this summer’s unprecedented extreme heat and flooding and Canada’s and Greece’s colossal fires demonstrate – has continued to get worse; the solutions have continued to get better; the public is far more engaged; the climate movement has grown, though of course it needs to grow far more. – Rebecca Solnit

Our Climate Crisis

Climate scientists say that recent events indicate Earth’s climate has entered uncharted territory. As worrisome as recent record breaking heat is, it’s just one way the planet is telling us something is gravely wrong. Other indicators that climate change has entered uncharted territory include warming oceans and shrinking Antarctic sea ice. Even so, we can help avert the worst of warming by cutting back on coal, oil, and gas, ramping up development of renewables, and helping farmers store carbon in agricultural soils.

The recent destructive flooding in New York and Vermont hit the news cycle. Most of us are, however, unaware of similar flooding in India, China, Japan and Turkey. While these might seem like unrelated distant events, atmospheric scientists say they have this in common: Storms are forming in a warmer atmosphere, making extreme rainfall a more frequent reality now. Any predicted additional global warming will only make it worse.

Florida is in the midst of a home insurance crisis. Hurricane Ian slammed into the city of Fort Myers as a Category 4 storm last year and caused at least $60 billion in insured losses. Even with premiums about four times the national average, most insurers still can’t turn a profit. Eight carriers went bankrupt in the past two years and two large national carriers announced that they are pulling back their coverage in risky areas. Even if the market recovers from these recent catastrophes climate change will likely keep prices high.

A new analysis of 150 years of temperature data shows that the Atlantic Ocean’s sensitive water circulation system has become slower and less resilient. Scientists are becoming increasingly concerned that this crucial element of the climate system could collapse within the next few decades. Increasing Arctic ice melting could create a “tipping point” around the middle of this century. That would cause an abrupt and irreversible change, like turning off a light switch, and it could lead to dramatic changes in weather on either side of the Atlantic.

Politics and Policy

The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a legal challenge against Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s proposed regulation to withdraw Virginia from the regional carbon market known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. The notice of appeal was filed on behalf of Appalachian Voices, the Association of Energy Conservation Professionals, Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, and Virginia Interfaith Power and Light.

One year in, the Inflation Reduction Act is working to reduce global warming but not fast enough to meet the U.S. Paris Climate Agreement goals. An independent study shows that it is helping to slash U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and is a meaningful improvement over previous years. While the goals are still within reach, getting there won’t be easy. It will require additional national, state, and local policies and legislative initiatives.

Billions of new federal dollars in grants and tax credits are available for churches and nonprofits to go green. The funding for these initiatives is facilitated by the Office of State and Community Energy Programs in the Department of Energy, which partners with state, local and tribal governments and community organizations.

John Kerry, President Biden’s climate envoy, says the U.S. and China must set aside their political differences to jointly tackle climate change. He said the rest of the world is looking to the two economic powers and major polluters to urgently reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are dangerously warming the planet.

The 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals issued a stay of construction on the Mountain Valley Pipeline while it considers arguments that Congress violated the separation of powers doctrine when it passed a law expediting completion of the controversial project. The Mountain Valley Pipeline, in turn, appealed the stay to the U.S. Supreme Court, which promptly lifted the stay blocking construction. Opponents of the pipeline, nevertheless vow to continue the fight.

Dominion Energy and Clean Virginia were the biggest spenders in donations to candidates in the Virginia state legislative primaries this year. Dominion Energy poured in $7 million and the anti-Dominion Clean Virginia Fund came second with $5.2 million. This has led to new calls for campaign finance reforms in the Commonwealth.

House Republicans are proposing planting a trillion trees as they move away from climate change denial. While they are no longer denying that global warming exists, this is their response to sweltering heat, other weather disasters and rising sea levels. They still refuse to abandon their support for American-produced energy from burning oil, coal and gas.

Energy

A huge challenge in our transition to clean energy is upgrading our electrical grid which was built piecemeal over the last one hundred years. Our transmission lines were built for an era of connecting big coal, gas and nuclear power plants to cities and towns. Today, those power plants are more expensive for bill payers than wind, solar and battery storage. They are also proving unreliable in the face of ever more extreme weather.

Our obsession with EV range is all wrong according to some analysts. Only 5 percent of trips in the U.S. are longer than 30 miles and smaller batteries can satisfy well over 90 percent of our driving needs. The trend toward large EVs with massive battery packs is unnecessary and wasteful. Those big batteries will rarely be used, especially if the owner has a place to plug in their car every day.

Regional gas stations are facing a monumental shift in business and customer experience with the rise of electric vehicles. Many are at an inflection point as they face increased electric vehicle sales and declining gasoline demand. While some are trying to electrify, the process is hard and full of red tape—and some still have a foot in the past as they continue to advocate for fossil fuel usage.

DTE Energy, one of Michigan’s largest utilities, announced a 20-year plan to spend $11 billion on clean energy construction. This strategy will also shutter their last large coal plant in 2032, three years ahead of schedule. That move will bring an end to their use of coal power, which supplied 77% of its electricity as of 2005.

Natural gas can be just as bad for the climate as coal because it’s largely made up of methane—a more potent greenhouse gas than carbon emitted from coal. Methane is especially prone to leaking. A new peer-reviewed study shows that about .66% of natural gas leaks during the production process. It can have as big of an emissions impact as coal even if its leakage rate is as low as .2%.  This refutes the claim that it’s the readily available, climate-friendly, bridge fossil fuel we should be relying on.

Dominion Energy is partnering with RWE, a renewable energy company, to build utility-scale solar projects throughout Virginia. It includes a 15 MW project located in Rockingham County, which is in development. Together, these projects will create enough electricity to power 70,000 homes.

Climate Justice

Climate Action Alliance of the Valley (CAAV) received a $35,000 grant from Clean Virginia  to promote weatherization and energy efficiency programs for low-income households. This grant will allow CAAV to continue an innovative partnership with Community Housing Partners (CHP) and other local partner organizations. CHP connects qualified homeowners and renters to free weatherization and home energy programs funded by federal and state governments, as well as from area utilities.  

Billions of snow crabs have disappeared from the Bering Sea. The crab population crash is linked to record-warm ocean temperatures and less ice formation, both associated with climate change. The Indigenous people of St. Paul Island, west of Anchorage, Alaska, depend on them for survival. Their culture and language, which has existed for 10,000 years, is now struggling to survive.

Even before the global average temperature set a new record high in July, extreme heat was already killing more Americans annually than any other natural disaster. The homeless are especially vulnerable in Phoenix, America’s hottest large city. The daily struggle to survive is particularly real in “the Zone,” a large encampment of between 600 and 1,000 unsheltered people on a long stretch of mostly shadeless streets and parking lots west of downtown.

Rising heat deaths are about more than high temperatures. The poor and vulnerable among us suffer the most. As a society—the government, businesses, the church, and individuals alike — have failed to ensure that those most at risk are kept safe. Anglican priest Tish Harrison Warren writes, “So, as heat deaths rise, when we speak of those who die, don’t just say they died of heat. Say they died of poverty, of neglect, of a world that values the wealthy more than those who are not, of a society that looks away from the preventable suffering of the vulnerable.”

Climate Action

The US Department of Transportation awarded the City of Harrisonburg $14,368,180 to convert one driving lane of Liberty Street to a two-way separated bicycle and pedestrian facility. This will support the city’s environmental sustainability, mobility, community connectivity, and economic development goals.

U.S. truck makers have reached a deal to accept a California plan to ban sales of new diesel big rigs by 2036. It’s a major step toward reducing planet warming greenhouse gas emissions. It’s also a big plus for eliminating the pollution affecting people living near ports, warehouses and other facilities involved in the shipment of goods.

Using better farming techniques to store 1% more carbon in about half of the world’s agricultural soils would be enough to absorb the amount of carbon that must be cut by 2030 to stay within 1.5C of global warming. Farmers using regenerative farming techniques could face short-term increased costs while they changed their methods, away from the overuse of artificial fertilizer. After a transition period of two to three years their yields would improve and their soils would be much healthier.

China, the world’s top carbon emitter and greatest user of coal, is rolling out wind and solar renewables at breakneck speed. This year alone, it could add more solar power than the cumulative total in place in the United States. Coal remains the elephant in the room. China’s coal consumption is still increasing and it keeps adding new coal electrical power plants.

An Oxford University study has shown that having big meat-eaters in the U.K cut some of it out of their diet would be like taking 8 million cars off the road. A big meat-eater’s diet produces an average of 23 pounds of planet-warming greenhouse gases each day. A low meat-eater or vegetarian diet produces almost half that per day. And for vegan diets, it’s halved again.

Customers love free returns on online purchases but they’re killing the planet. Returned merchandise cost retailers more than $800 billion in lost sales last year. It also increased greenhouse gas emissions and waste in landfills, where many returned products end up. Changing customer behavior such as taking returns to a local store can make a difference. Such items are more likely to be restocked compared to those that are mailed back.

Action Alert

A Wetlands Watch expert will speak on “Climate Change and Resiliency” at the Harrisonburg Planning Commission Meeting September 19, 6pm, in Council Chambers, 409 South Main Street. There will be an opportunity for Q & A with the public. Please put this on your calendar; plan to participate.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

We are a civilization obsessed with expansion that has suddenly discovered, as it were, that it inhabits an island. Will we cling to our reckless old ideologies, or will we seek to learn a new, more intelligent way of being? –Jason Hickel, in Less is More.

Our Climate Crisis

This July 4^th was the hottest day on record since climate scientists began using our present modeling system to estimate global daily average temperatures starting in 1979. Furthermore, evidence left in tree rings and ice cores indicates that it hasn’t been this warm since at least 125,000 years ago during the previous interglacial age.

Temperatures around the world in June were at their highest levels in decades for this time of year. The heat spike reflects two factors that could create a multiyear period of exceptional warmth for the planet: humans’ continued emissions of heat-trapping gases and the return of the natural climate pattern known as El Niño. This is setting the stage for more-severe hot spells, droughts, wildfires, and hurricanes.

Experts say that the oppressive heat wave roasting Texas and Mexico is an effect of rapid warming in the Arctic. Temperatures there are rising four times faster than the global average. This alters the jet stream, a fast-flowing air current that wraps around the Northern Hemisphere, causing it to dip and meander up and down as it zooms around the globe. A wavier jet stream can cause heat waves, storms and other weather systems to get stuck in place, dragging out for days or weeks on end.

The smoke that Canadian wildfires sent swirling over swaths of the East Coast blanketed cities including New York, Philadelphia and Toronto, shocked many Easterners, broke air quality records and threatened people’s health. Some climate experts say this has created an important opportunity for helping the public make the connection between these kinds of events and climate change. More recently this dangerous smoke pollution has been enveloping cities in the Midwest and may intermittently continue throughout the summer.

The climate crisis is fueling an insurance crisis in disaster-prone areas, leaving homeowners struggling to find affordable coverage. In California, State Farm and Allstate recently stopped selling new home insurance policies after years of catastrophic wildfires. In Louisiana, at least seven insurance companies have failed since Hurricane Ida. And in Florida, most big insurance companies have already pulled out of the storm-battered state.

Politics and Policy

The White House released a report last week on solar geoengineering as a way to slow rising global temperatures. The Biden administration indicated that it is open to studying the possibility that altering sunlight might quickly cool the planet. It, however, added a degree of skepticism by noting that Congress has ordered the review and said that it isn’t changing its climate policy.

About two-thirds of Americans support transformative climate policies like a carbon tax or Green New Deal. Most, however, do not realize that their views are so widely shared. This misperception matters, because when people feel alone in their views, they are less likely to take action.

Agrivoltaics—the double-duty climate solution that pairs solar panels (photovoltaics) with agriculture—enables farmland to host solar and stay in production. This has caught the attention of U.S. senators on both sides of the aisle who recently proposed two bills to boost agrivoltaics that benefit both farmers and ecosystems.

The debt ceiling bill agreed to by GOP house leader Kevin McCarthy and the White House approves all the remaining permits to complete the stalled Mountain Valley Pipeline. This delivered a big win for West Virginia Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito who have received campaign contributions totaling over $70,000 from political action committees for developers of the Mountain Valley Pipeline since the start of 2018.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued an order that the Mountain Valley Pipeline is “authorized to proceed with all remaining construction associated with the project.” The company building the pipeline said that, with this approval, the pipeline could carry natural gas as soon as this winter. It asked to have the two federal legal cases against it dismissed. The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a brief opposing motions to dismiss the cases.

Virginia’s Air Pollution Control Board voted 4-3 to remove the commonwealth from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multi-state cohort aimed at reducing carbon emissions. Ultimately the board, with a majority of Gov. Glenn Youngkin appointees, voted to align with the administration’s wishes. This has looming consequences because the initiative generates hundreds of millions of dollars for energy efficiency for low income households as well as climate mitigation in flood prone areas of the state.

Energy

As India’s overburdened electrical grid strains, rural hospitals and health clinics are finding reliable power in rooftop solar. This enables them to provide constant electricity that keeps the lights on, patients and staff comfortable, and vaccines and medicines safely refrigerated. It also allows them to get rid of toxic, carbon-spewing diesel generators that provide emergency backup electricity.

It took 22 years for global solar power capacity to grow from one gigawatt to one terawatt. New projections indicate the second and the third terawatts will arrive within five years. Another bit of news on the rapid deployment of renewable energy is that 50.9% of installed electricity capacity in China is now renewables and nuclear, meeting a 2025 target two years early.

Nearly everything we do contributes to our carbon footprint. But a two-wheeled solution is zipping through the world at 20 miles an hour. U.S. sales of e-bikes nearly doubled in just one year as commuters looked for accessible and affordable modes of transportation. In 2021, more than 880,000 e-bikes were sold in the U.S., compared with 608,000 electric cars and trucks. That’s up from 450,000 e-bike sales in 2020.

Climate Justice

War, poverty and climate change have created a perfect storm for children around the world, according to a recent United Nations report. This has driven the number of children currently displaced from their homes to an unprecedented 42 million, and it has left those young people vulnerable to criminal violence and exploitation.

The US is racing to produce more biofuels, which use much more land than solar and wind while displacing much less fossil fuel. It’s fairly well-known that biofuels accelerate food inflation and global hunger, but they’re also a disaster for the climate and the environment. It takes about 100 acres worth of biofuels to generate as much energy as a single acre of solar panels.

Coastal land loss has upended life in South Louisiana for the half-dozen Indigenous tribes that rely on the abundance of its wetlands. Some 11,000 Native Americans live in the four most vulnerable coastal parishes (counties). They have been fighting to get the attention of the federal government as they push for coastal restoration efforts that would at least slow the degradation enough for them to plan an orderly retreat.

A pastor in Java, Indonesia recounts how ocean floodwaters exasperated by global warming breached an embankment and flooded their community last year. His church joined others in providing food and relief supplies across religious and ethnic boundaries. He reflects, “As I contemplate the natural disaster, I can see that the ministry of love invites us to bring about justice toward others. But I also know that the breach of the embankment shows that nature and our environment are not doing well.” 

With no public transit available, an innovative E.V. ride-sharing program is bringing low-cost, clean transportation to an agricultural town in California’s Central Valley. The service shuttles low-income residents, many of them elderly, to medical appointments for free. Similar programs are following suit in other parts of California, New York, and Washington, DC.

Climate Action

Dominion Energy is seeking households for its Income and Age Qualifying Solar Program which is no-cost for its customers in Virginia. A two person household qualifies at a yearly income of $46,544 or $93,088 if someone 60 or older lives in the home. You can find out more and see if you qualify by contacting Dominion Energy here . You can also contact Community Housing Partners here to find out more about this program in relation to other no-cost home weatherization and energy efficiency programs.

Pope Francis, in a fresh plea over climate change, called on people to repent for their “ecological sins.” The world must rapidly ditch fossil fuels and end “the senseless war against creation.” Francis has made the protection of the environment a cornerstone of his pontificate. He said that the upcoming U.N. climate summit meeting in Dubai “must listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel.”

Americans generate more than 12% of the planet’s trash, though we represent only 4% of the global population. Our throw-away culture started about a hundred years ago with the rise of mass manufacturing. Now, aided by on-line how-to videos, consumers are showing an increased interest in prolonging the life of the things they own, rather than getting rid of them.  Additionally, so-called “Right to Repair” legislation seeks to make manufacturers provide consumers and independent repair companies access to their parts, tools and service information.

Richmond is joining other cities in scrapping decades-old mandatory parking space requirements. It’s expected to curb emissions of heat-trapping gases in an evolving capital city that prizes walking, bicycling and ready access to public transit. It could also reduce sprawl and free up space for affordable and additional housing.

Outside of catastrophic wildfire events, the leading sources of unhealthy air in the United States are fossil-fuel-powered transportation and electricity generation. A recent report from the American Lung Association indicates how much the most common pollutants would be reduced if the country were to speed up the transition to EVs and a clean energy grid.

The 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law allocated billions of dollars for EV buses but the program can’t keep up with demand. The Department of Energy recently allocated $1.7B in clean-bus grants but saw $8.7B in applications.

You should consider an electric grill when you replace your current gas or charcoal grill. They exist and, according to some advocates, they’re just as good at producing delicious food. They’re less expensive to use and give you one more option to unhook from fossil fuels.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Despair is just deadly. We know how challenging all the climatic problems are that are now unfortunately baked into the environment. But we need to start every conversation with saying, “We can do this.” – Washington Governor Jay Inslee

Our Climate Crisis

The World Meteorological Organization warns that record-hot global temperatures in recent years are just the start of the kind of heat we’re headed toward. That’s because human-caused global warming will be combined with an emerging “El Niño” weather pattern that also warms the globe. There’s a two-thirds chance that at least one of the next five years will breach the 1.5 C threshold of increased global warming set by the Paris Climate Agreement in 2015.

The property insurance market is collapsing along the Gulf Coast following a series of destructive climate related storms. The insurance crisis has been created by insurance associations in Florida and Louisiana being forced to borrow hundreds of millions of dollars to pay the hurricane claims of now insolvent insurers. Borrowing could reach a combined $1.35 billion, leading to soaring premiums and the cancellation of hundreds of thousands of homeowners’ policies.

This spring a heat wave in Southeast Asia has broken all-time heat records. In April temperatures broke former records in both Vietnam and Thailand. This came on the heels of a record-breaking heat wave in Southern Europe and North Africa, which scientists say was “almost impossible” without climate change.

The number of internally displaced people reached a record 71.1 million worldwide last year due to various climate calamities and conflicts such as the war in Ukraine. That number is a 20% increase since 2021, with an unprecedented number of people fleeing in search of safety and shelter.

Politics and Policy

The Environmental Protection Agency recently announced a proposal for the tightest limits ever on power plants’ planet-warming pollution. This is a giant step toward meeting President Biden’s pledge to halve U.S. emissions by 2030 compared with 2005 levels. In response, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia said he’ll oppose every EPA nominee put forward until the administration backs off.

The Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office has become an engine of the Biden administration’s efforts to aggressively advance clean energy. As part of last year’s Inflation Reduction Act, Congress supersized the office’s authority to arrange loans to companies trying to bring emerging energy technologies to market. Its loan capacity increased tenfold from $40 billion to more than $400 billion, making it potentially one of the biggest economic development loan programs in U.S. history.

Skyler Zunk, a young conservative activist, co-founded Energy Right last year to promote solar energy in rural Virginia. Today roughly 6% of Virginia’s electricity comes from the sun. To Zunk, that number falls woefully short. “Virginia has to be producing more energy. We’re a net importer and we need to be an exporter,” he argues. “It’s an enormous opportunity to seize.” His goal is that rural counties will see Energy Right as the nonprofit to seek out when they’re considering solar projects.

Weatherization providers for low-income households, such as Community Housing Partners,  are concerned about losing vital funding as Governor Youngkin continues to push for Virginia to leave the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Funds provided by RGGI finance outstanding repairs on houses before they can qualify for federal or state or utility sponsored weatherization programs.

Texas rolled out the welcome mat for renewables in 1999 by deregulating the electricity market. With ample wind and sunshine, a business-friendly regulatory regime, and state-backed construction of new high-voltage transmission wires, the state quickly became the nation’s renewable energy leader. This makes it hard to understand why Governor Greg Abbott and Republicans in the state legislature are now tripping over themselves to introduce bills designed to kill the Texas clean energy boom.

In a political climate trade-off the White House endorsed a plan by Sen. Joe Manchin to speed the approval of some fossil fuel projects in order to also hasten the construction of new transmission lines critical for meeting President Biden’s climate goals. The announcement of the deal drew swift opposition from many environmental groups, which are still seething over the administration’s support of the Willow oil project in Alaska and the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Virginia and West Virginia.

The U.S. has more than enough proposed clean energy and storage projects needed to clean up the electricity sector. They’re, unfortunately, stuck in the queue and can’t get connected to the grid. Only about 21% of proposed projects get built because of the high costs of connecting to the grid and it takes about 5 years for a project to become operational once it enters the queue. Legislation is needed to help speed up the development of energy projects but Congress is haggling over permitting reforms for clean energy versus fossil fuel projects.

Energy

Dominion Energy says it expects the number of electric vehicles in its territory to roughly double by the end of next year. It forecasts another doubling by 2026. After five years, in 2027, it expects there will be 220,000 electric vehicles in its territory. That will mean a substantial increase in electricity usage. In related news, Dominion has created an energy plan document that completely ignores the legal requirements of the Virginia Clean Economy Act.

The global shift to electric vehicles is unfolding much faster than was expected even one year ago. The International Energy Agency says that by 2030, electric vehicles — including both fully electric and plug-in hybrid models — could make up 35% of new vehicle sales globally.

The investment boom in ​‘renewable natural gas’ (RNG), derived from trash, food, and manure, is sparking debate about its pros and cons. These investments, which are partially driven by federal tax credits, are soaring as energy companies seek what they claim are cleaner ways of powering the economy. The jury is still out on how clean RNG will prove to be. In any respect, it will hardly be a big player in providing clean energy.

The holy grail of fusion nuclear power has always been just beyond our grasp. Now Microsoft has inked a power purchasing deal for electricity with fusion start-up Helion Energy on a timeline beginning in 2028. If real, that would be game-changing but scientists remain skeptical. Both the technology and the cost are huge hurdles that need to be overcome.

China’s carbon emissions grew 4% in the first quarter of this year, reaching a record high. At the same time, renewables and nuclear, passed 50% of China’s installed power capacity for the first time, overtaking coal and other fossil fuel-based capacity. The rapid expansion in low-carbon energy, if sustained, could enable their carbon emissions to peak and enter structural decline in the near future.

Climate Justice

Research by the Common Wealth thinktank shows that the US fund managers BlackRock and State Street use funds with an “environment, social and governance” (ESG) label to invest in fossil fuel firms. Despite claims that their ESG funds offer a green and socially responsible option for investors, they remain significantly exposed to fossil fuel companies.

Our fleet of roughly half a million school buses is our nation’s single biggest transportation fleet. To date, 5,600 electric school buses have been funded or put in operation through government awards. The transition to electric buses will significantly reduce carbon emissions while benefiting local neighborhoods and the more than 20 million students who currently breathe in harmful diesel exhaust. Government funding through the Clean Bus Program is focused on serving lower-income, disadvantaged and rural school districts.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing nearly $11 billion to bring affordable clean energy to rural communities throughout the United States. Rural electric cooperatives, renewable energy companies and electric utilities will be able to apply for funding through two programs. This is the largest single federal investment in rural electrification since President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the Rural Electrification Act in 1936 as part of the New Deal.

Climate Action

Transportation creates 27% of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. Switching to EVs could reduce emissions up to 48% by 2050, but that still leaves us short of our climate commitments. Furthermore, many will still be without access to reliable and affordable transportation options. To significantly reduce transportation emissions, local governments will need to expand public transit, biking, and walking options and enact land use policies that encourage dense development and affordable housing around transit.

It is estimated that by 2050 one in every seven people in Bangladesh will be displaced by climate change, and up to 18 million people may have to move because of sea level rises. One climate mitigation effort is dredging earth from rivers to create a large, oval-shaped plateau that can withstand the oncoming rush of water during monsoons.  This creates a space for safe housing as well as to accommodate displaced families and their possessions during floods.

Food accounts for 10-30% of an American household’s carbon footprint and 75% of that comes from meat or dairy. You don’t need to go completely vegan to make a big environmental impact. The Michael Pollan family recommends eating a “plant-based diet with a focus on vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds with the inclusion of meat and other animal products in moderation.” An added plus is that this is a much healthier diet.

Globally, about 2% of  carbon emissions are produced from burning wood for cooking, roughly the same share as aviation. Additionally, exposure to smoke from cooking fires is linked to an estimated 3.2 million premature deaths annually around the world and remains one of the main drivers of pollution-related disease and death in Africa. Inexpensive and energy efficient insulated cook stoves make a huge difference yet making the switch has been difficult.

Climate Victory Gardens is a movement inspired by the collective action of Americans taken during the WWI and WWII victory gardening movement, when 20 million gardeners produced 40% of the fresh fruits and vegetables consumed in the U.S. at the time. They’re bringing victory gardens back. This time, it’s for the climate. Click onto their website to learn more and to register your own garden, no matter how small it may be.

A staggering one-third of all food in the U.S. gets thrown out and most of that ends up in landfills. Each year, the greenhouse gas emissions from all that discarded stuff represents the estimated equivalent emissions of 42 coal-fired power plants. Yet, there’s a simple solution, beyond simply reducing waste. A new scientific study shows that composting food scraps results in 38 to 84% fewer greenhouse gas emissions than tossing them in landfills.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Only in the last moment of human history has the delusion arisen that people can flourish apart from the rest of the living world. – E. O. Wilson

Our Climate Crisis

Scientists have documented an abnormal and dramatic surge in sea levels along the U.S. gulf coast in the past decade. Sea-level rise in the area has been nearly 5 inches between 2010 and 2022—more than double the global average rate of sea-level rise. This raises questions about whether New Orleans, Miami, Houston and other coastal communities might be even more at risk from rising seas than once predicted.

The Horn of Africa is suffering its worst drought in 40 years after five consecutive years of below-average rainfall. New scientific studies have shown that the drought would not have happened without the human-made impact of the climate crisis. A conservative estimate is that climate change has made droughts in the region about 100 times more likely to occur.

A growing number of young people are “hesitant to have children” because of decades of climate denial and inaction. A global survey of people between the ages of 16 and 25 shows how widespread these sentiments are. Close to 60% say they feel “very” or “extremely” worried about climate change and nearly 4 in 10 said they are therefore “hesitant to have children.”

Politics and Policy

House Republicans are confident that pushing the production and use of fossil fuels will be a winning political strategy in 2024. They’ve already wrapped this agenda into their demands in the national debt standoff. So far, however, the voters they’re hoping to attract don’t seem to care.

Going beyond offering incentives for clean energy, the Biden administration recently announced ambitious Environmental Protection Agency auto pollution rules aimed at accelerating the shift to electric vehicles. Last year EVs accounted for just 7% of vehicle sales. The ambitious goal is to increase that to two-thirds of passenger cars, half of freight delivery vehicles and a quarter of heavy trucks purchased in a decade from now.

The enormous $8 billion Willow oil project on Alaska’s North Slope represents a small fraction of the hundreds of new oil and gas extraction projects approved in the past year across the world. Many more are expected to be approved this year. This surge in extraction ignores the warning from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that fossil fuel production must start declining sharply to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change.

The Environmental Protection Agency is tightening its rules on the emissions of mercury and other harmful pollutants from coal-fired power plants, updating standards imposed more than a decade ago. Such emissions can harm brain development of young children and contribute to health problems in adults. The stricter rules will likely lead to the early retirement of some coal-fired power plants.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit again blocked the Mountain Valley Pipeline from moving forward in West Virginia. The reason for the ruling was that the pipeline builder has repeatedly failed to comply with state stormwater and water quality requirements.

Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is encouraging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to proceed expeditiously on new permits for the Mountain Valley pipeline, the natural gas project favored by West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin and opposed by environmentalists. She made the ironic claim that the pipeline will “play an important role” in supporting the transition to clean energy and in safeguarding our energy system.

After a nearly two-decades-long permitting process, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management gave final approval to begin building the $3 billion TransWest Express high-voltage transmission line. It will carry enough electricity from a large wind energy project in a former coal-mining community in Wyoming to power about 2 million homes in Arizona, Nevada, and California.

Energy

Automakers and battery manufacturers are developing solid-state batteries, which are lighter, less flammable, and have the potential for longer ranges than current lithium-ion systems. Some companies claim they are just a few years from releasing the first cars with solid state batteries.

Installing roof solar on warehouses could generate enough clean electricity to power every household in every state’s most populous cities, according to a report by two environmental research organizations. One of the researchers comments, “If we want to create a clean energy future, we should look first to the already-built environment that could host the tools we need. Warehouse rooftops provide a perfect opportunity—they’re big, they’re flat, and they’re begging to be put to this crucial use.”

Globally, electricity generated from wind and solar surged to 12% last year—up from 10% in 2021 and 5% in 2015. Renewable sources, including nuclear power and hydroelectric, now account for 39% of world electricity. The rest comes from fossil fuels that cause planet-warming carbon emissions. Coal, at 36%, remains the single biggest global energy source.

Virginia regulators approved nine solar projects and one energy storage project totaling about 500 megawatts that will be owned by Dominion Energy. The approved projects also include contracts with third-party developers who will build solar and storage facilities, totaling about 300 megawatts, and sell the energy to Dominion. This is in line with the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which seeks to decarbonize the electric grid by 2050.

The shipping industry is searching for cleaner ways to power the behemoth vessels that underpin the modern economy. Methanol is gaining favor as an alternative ​“drop-in” fuel that can be used immediately as companies develop truly zero-carbon solutions. If made from renewables, it can sharply curb carbon emissions compared to using oil-based fuels.

Climate Justice

While developed countries have historically contributed the most greenhouse gas emissions, that is rapidly changing. The top 10 emitters of greenhouse gases today (other than the United States and Canada) are emerging economies. This means providing international support in lowering emissions in poor countries as well as taking a surgical approach to reducing emissions by country and sector.

The UN Food and Agriculture Organization reports that women working in agriculture “tend to do so under highly unfavorable conditions” – often in the face of “climate-induced weather shocks and in situations of conflict.” Addressing these inequalities and empowering women would improve their well-being and that of their households.

The Menominee tribe has sustainably logged its 235,000 acre forest in Wisconsin for 160 years. The tribe has been recognized by the United Nations and certified by the Forest Steward Council, the gold standard for responsible forestry, among other awards. Foresters from around the world routinely come to study the forest, which is healthier today than it was a century ago.

Small farmers in Malawi are becoming some of the most creative farmers in the world in response to global warming. They are sowing pigeon peas to shade their soils from a hotter, more scorching sun. They are resurrecting old crops, like finger millet and forgotten yams, and planting trees that naturally fertilize the soil. And they are turning away from one legacy of European colonialism, the practice of planting rows of corn and saturating the fields with chemical fertilizers.

Climate Action

Community Housing Partners (CHP) held a weatherization program at Mosby Heights in Harrisonburg last week. The nonprofit makes weatherization improvements, including attic insulation, air sealing, low flow shower heads, LED bulbs, an energy efficient water heater, and even an energy efficient heat pump HVAC system, to low income households at no cost to the homeowner or renter. This is a big win in driving down energy costs while reducing local greenhouse gas emissions. The CHP Weatherization Program application form is available at https://www.communityhousingpartners.org/energy-solutions/weatherization/.

Electrification has become a major tool in lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Transforming the economy so that more things run on clean electricity is a cornerstone of slashing emissions to nearly zero by 2050. It will require major efforts to strengthen and upgrade our electrical grid. Using electric power will be especially challenging in sectors such as aviation and heavy industry. Switching to clean electricity will be a formidable challenge but not impossible.

Our country’s largest solar array is being built in Springfield, Illinois. The massive 593-megawatt Double Black Diamond solar project will power O’Hare Airport and Chicago government buildings. This is part of the commitment of the Chicago city government to use 100% renewable electricity in city buildings by 2025.

A growing concern in rural Virginia is that  solar farms are taking over usable agricultural land. Dominion Energy is combating that with an alternative way of keeping things green at its 200 acre solar farm in Sussex County. Their solar grazing program uses a herd of sheep to clean up more than 40 acres of grass a day across five of their solar farms. Grass-fed animals produce fewer emissions than grain-fed animals, while concentrating that carbon back into the soil.

Woodstock Gardens, in Woodstock, VA,  is one of three garden centers across the state piloting a Virginia Department of Forestry program offering significant discounts to customers who buy and plant native trees and shrubs. Native trees and shrubs require less maintenance and resources and additionally improve water quality by filtering out pollutants, storing harmful greenhouse gases and reducing erosion.

Virginia’s voluntary Pollinator-Smart program encourages pollinator-friendly solar development. Solar energy facilities designed to support bees, butterflies and birds are now beginning to take hold through this innovative program to improve biodiversity. For example, Foxhound Solar, an 83-megawatt solar installation on 600 acres in Halifax County, is the second solar facility to be certified Pollinator-Smart in the commonwealth.

James Madison University is now offering a new Climate Science minor. Program coordinator Bill Lukens says that “human activity is changing Earth’s atmosphere and oceans in ways that we haven’t seen on Earth for millions of years.” Students taking courses in the minor will explore past climates through geological records and then contextualize them within our current and future world.

Researchers at Washington State University have developed a viable formula for a carbon-negative, environmentally friendly concrete that is nearly as strong as regular concrete. They did it by infusing regular cement with environmentally friendly biochar, a type of charcoal made from organic waste, that had been strengthened beforehand with concrete wastewater.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

We need the right kind of climate optimism. Climate pessimism dooms us to a terrible future. Complacent optimism is no better. – Hannah Ritchie

Our Climate Crisis

The recently released synthesis report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change shows hopeful progress in developing low-carbon technologies, more ambitious national commitments, and more funding.  This is, however, still not enough to keep global warming to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels—the threshold necessary to avoid the worst impacts of climate change. Every fraction of a degree of warming we can mitigate will make a big difference.

Scientists have long cautioned that global warming would lead to wetter and drier extremes—increasingly severe rainfall and more intense droughts around the world. A new satellite study shows that it may already be happening. It provides an emerging picture of precipitation extremes over the past 20 years, leading to distortions in the total amount of water both above ground and also in aquifers deep beneath the Earth’s surface.

Antarctic sea ice reached the lowest levels ever recorded by the end of February. This is concerning because open water around the continent can melt its glaciers from beneath. Antarctica holds enough ice to raise sea levels by many feet. On the other pole, Arctic sea ice declined dramatically in 2007 and has never recovered. This may be proof of the sort of climate tipping point that scientists have warned the planet could pass as it warms.

Recent record snowfall and rain have helped to loosen drought’s grip on parts of the American west. Lake Powell on the Colorado River could gain 35 feet as snow melts over the next three months. That may sound like a lot of water for one of the nation’s largest reservoirs, but it will still be only one-third full.

Politics and Policy

The Biden administration approved the controversial Willow project to drill oil in Alaska. Environmentalists roundly criticized the decision despite the administration’s announcement of new protections against future oil production in other North Slope and coastal areas of the state. At peak production Willow carbon emissions will be roughly equal to running two coal-fired power plants during those 30 years.

California will now require half of all heavy trucks sold by 2035 to be electric, complementing their requirement that all cars sold be 2035 be electric. This is an effort to significantly cut carbon dioxide emissions from transportation, the sector of the American economy that generates the most greenhouse gases.

Funding from the federal Rural Energy for America Program could enable cash-crunched small farmers to save big with clean energy and substantially cut their operating costs. The 2022 Inflation Reduction Act allows funding in guaranteed loans and grants of up to 50% of the cost of a clean energy project. The daunting application process is a barrier for small farmers.

Governor Youngkin’s push to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has faced a flood of mostly negative public feedback. Comments on the public portal have been running about 50 opposed to his push for every person who supports it.

The bulk of the funding for Virginia’s Community Flood Preparedness Fund, which provides money to localities that need to reduce their flood risks, comes from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Flood-prone Communities may lose this lifeline if Gov. Youngkin succeeds in his effort to pull the state out of RGGI.

China’s Supreme People’s Court encouraged judges to hear climate-related cases and weigh up carbon impacts to help the country achieve its emission reduction goals. China’s climate goals are to peak its carbon dioxide emissions before 2030 and be carbon neutral before 2060. At the same time, China is rapidly increasing its coal power capacity and decarbonizing the country will be a major challenge.

There is growing bipartisan support in the US Senate for instituting a tariff on carbon-intensive goods. Environmentalists have long considered a carbon tax to be a crucial tool to combat climate change but have been unable to get the necessary political support. The carbon tariff, on the other hand, is seen as a way to level the playing field against carbon intensive products being produced in countries like China.

Energy

Renewable energy is growing rapidly around the world—especially solar. Total capacity was 3.4 terawatts at the end of 2022 compared to 2.2. terawatts in 2017. It continues to gain in overall share of total generation capacity, now standing at 40.2% compared to 38.3% a year ago. China is leading the growth in global solar energy expansion, which now exceeds 1,000 gigawatts, compared to just 100 gigawatts a decade ago.

Georgia’s big new nuclear power plant is billions over budget and years behind schedule. It’s the first new nuclear reactor built in the U.S. in the last 30 years and it may be the last. Rather than representing the dawn of a new nuclear renaissance, it’s more likely the swan song of the conventional nuclear industry in the U.S.

The Virginia General Assembly passed legislation last year allowing gas companies to use biogas, a form of gas made by capturing methane emissions from landfills, sewage plants, manure, and abandoned coal mines. But is it really clean energy? Some environmentalists worry that it will support the existing gas infrastructure while hindering the needed transition to wind, solar, and green hydrogen energy.

Coal use in the UK fell by 15% last year. The last time coal use was that low was in 1757 before the industrial revolution. The decline, driven by strong growth in wind and solar power among other factors, helped drive down the nation’s emissions by 3.4%. The UK is now around halfway to meeting its net-zero emissions target in 2050.

A consortium of energy companies led by BP is investing in a high-tech gamble to make hydrogen clean, cheap and widely available. It involves as many as 1,743 wind turbines and 10 million solar panels in Australia’s Outback. All of the energy produced, equivalent to a third of what Australia’s electric grid currently requires, will be used to manufacture green hydrogen that is cheap enough for industrial uses such as manufacturing steel and concrete.

Toyota was the forerunner in producing hybrid electric vehicles but has been slow to transition to battery electric vehicles (BEVs). That’s because the company has been focused on developing hydrogen cell technology. It is now beginning to market BEVs while still developing hydrogen powered vehicles. The company recently introduced a limited offering of a hydrogen powered vehicle in California.

The Hampton Roads Alliance, in partnership with Virginia Tech Corporate Research Center, is creating a $6.5 million green hydrogen fuel program to help kick-start a local industry. The plan is to be part of a Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub that would add 9,000 new jobs, generate $1.7 billion in economic activity and create $490 million in state and federal tax revenue by 2030.

Climate Justice

The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved a feasibility study on demand-response public transit that provides curb-to-curb service. They were responding to lots of groundwork by Valley Interfaith Action (VIA) culminating in a public event that turned out more than 500 people. The feasibility study is a crucial step toward providing public transit for all as well as lowering transportation carbon emissions in the county. Shenandoah Valley Faith and Climate helped organize with VIA to make this happen.

Stacey Abrams, the Georgia organizer and politician, is leaving campaign politics behind to focus on weaning America off fossil fuels. She recently took a job as senior counsel for the non-profit Rewiring America. Her role will be helping people across America wean their homes and businesses off fossil fuels and on to electricity. A goal will be to especially benefit low-income communities and communities of color.

The American Institute of Architects in DC is offsetting the greenhouse gas emissions from a major renovation of its building with a $500,000 donation to Habitat for Humanity Virginia. The startup Give Solar will coordinate with Habitat in using the donation to cover the cost of solar panels on an estimated 72 Habitat homes. Jeff Heie, who directs Give Solar, says the gift is huge in breaking through barriers in providing solar energy to low income households.

Climate Action

ACTION ALERT: Gov Youngkin is trying a backdoor approach to weaken the Virginia Clean Energy Act through adding anti-climate amendments to energy legislation. Through this  Chesapeake Climate Action Network link, you can send a letter to your VA state senator urging him or her to reject these amendments and hold the line on climate.

Carba, a Minneapolis startup company wants to become a leader in the emerging carbon capture and storage market. They have developed a portable reactor that converts plant waste into a charcoal-like substance called biochar that can be buried to seal carbon in place for generations. This promises to consume a fraction of the energy of other carbon capture technologies, such as direct air capture methods.

Third Act, a climate protest group for people aged 60 and older (calling themselves the Rocking Chair Rebellion) organized an action in D.C. and 100 other locations across the country. The action targeted Chase, Wells Fargo, Citibank and Bank of America, the biggest investors in fossil fuel projects. Collectively, the four banks have poured more than $1 trillion into oil and gas between 2016 and 2021.

It is common knowledge that highly religious Americans tend to deny or express less concern about our warming environment. Some people of faith are now beginning to leverage their faith traditions to drive action. Emerging organizations such as Young Evangelicals for Climate Action, Green Muslims, Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions, and Dayenu are drawing from their own religious and spiritual traditions to engage in climate action.

JAUNT, the public transit agency in Charlottesville and surrounding counties, is conducting a preliminary study on using alternative fuels such as battery electric, or hydrogen fuel cells in their vehicles. Ted Rieck, their executive director, says “One of our goals is to reduce greenhouse emissions by about 45% by 2030 and net zero by 2050.”

The Conservative Energy Network seeks to convince farmers, landowners, evangelicals and state lawmakers that wind, solar and other forms of renewable power are good for their wallets, rights and votes. While the group believes the science underpinning climate change, it eschews terms like “green energy” and “net zero.” Its message, instead, focuses squarely on energy independence, free markets, land rights and consumer choice.

Technology firm Intuit is partnering with Staunton based Secure Solar Futures to develop solar projects and help start job training programs in Virginia and West Virginia. Qualifying community colleges and K-12 public schools will receive awards ranging from $50,000 to $150,000 per campus to deploy solar power solutions and prepare local students for careers in renewable energy.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

The climate crisis is not a science problem. It is a human problem. The ultimate power to change the world does not reside in technologies. It relies on reverence, respect, and compassion—for ourselves, for all people, and for all life. This is regeneration. – Paul Hawken

Our Climate Crisis

The public is increasingly paying more attention to our climate crisis. This is changing the dominant strategy of fighting climate change through global treaties where it’s easy to dream up bold agreements but hard to make them stick. Public buy-in is enabling highly motivated governments and companies to invest in new technologies and business models. They can, in effect, run experiments and quickly learn what works in the drive toward a greener future.

This January was the warmest on record in seven states, including the entirety of New England. It was also the sixth warmest on record for the Lower 48 states and third warmest in Europe.  Five of the six warmest Januaries in the United States have occurred since 1990.

Rising tides are impacting coastal Virginia’s rural communities, which do not have the public infrastructure that urban areas have. This pushes more of the cost burden onto individual households. FEMA is helping people raise their houses but they still need to contend with waterlogged septic systems and water wells that turn brackish. Sea level rise in the Hampton Roads region is up roughly eight inches since 1970.

We have entered a new chapter in the climate and ecological crisis that presents us with difficult decisions. Severe climate events draw focus and resources from tackling the underlying causes of global warming and ecological loss—creating a possible doom loop. Our challenge is to navigate through the shocks while staying focused on creating a more sustainable world.

The megadrought made worse by climate change forced Texas farmers to abandon 74 percent of their planted crops last year. This especially impacted the global supply and price of cotton, made even worse by the cotton crops destroyed by the massive flood in Pakistan. The extreme drought in the American Southwest could re-create the dust bowl conditions of the 1930s.

Last fall, the Alliance for World Scientists published their “Warning of a Climate Emergency 2022” along with a 35 minute documentary. This marks the 30th anniversary of the “World Scientists’ Warning to Humanity,” signed by more than 1700 scientists in 1992. Since then there has been a roughly 40% increase in global greenhouse gas emissions.

Politics and Policy

The gas industry is under fire. It’s fighting back by creating a group dubbed Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future and recruiting prominent Democratic politicians as spokespersons. Among them are former senator Mary Landrieu (D-La.) and former congressman Tim Ryan (D-Ohio). The argument they are making is that, while we need wind and solar power, gas is a needed abundant, cheap, and potentially “clean” energy source.

A new French law will require canopies of solar panels to be built atop all substantial lots in the country. Upon completion, this will generate as much electricity as 10 nuclear power plants and add as much as 8% to France’s current electrical capacity.

Michigan will be home to the $3.5 billion Ford battery factory that Virginia governor Youngkin rejected over his concern that a Chinese company is a partner in the venture. The 2,500 jobs the factory will create now go to Michigan instead of Virginia.

A Republican bill sponsored by Del. Tony Wilt, R-Rockingham, seeking to end a Virginia law tying the state to emissions standards set by California, that will ban the sale of new gas-powered vehicles starting in 2035, died in the state Senate on a party line vote. Virginia Democrats have defended the law on the grounds that it puts Virginia at the front of the line to receive electric vehicles from automakers who are transitioning their fleets and it will improve air quality.

Energy

Texas is building utility scale solar faster than any other state and is expected to soon surpass California as the state with the most solar capacity. Utility-scale solar is surging ahead across the United States, which is forecast to add 29.1 gigawatts of new capacity in 2023.

Energy giant BP has reported record annual profits, which more than doubled to $27.7bn in 2022; other energy firms have seen similar rises. BP had previously promised to lower emissions 35-40% by the end of this decade. It has now cut that target to 20-30%, saying it needs to keep investing in oil and gas to meet current demands.

Methane from cow manure can be purified into a product being billed as “renewable natural gas” (RNG), which is virtually indistinguishable from fossil fuel natural gas. Major fossil fuel companies have inked deals with the dairy industry in California to build manure digesters. But is RNG carbon negative? It depends on if one calculates it as being derived from a waste product versus becoming an integral income stream in the very carbon intensive dairy industry.

The U.S. Department of Energy is providing funding for up to seven pilot projects that will test the efficacy and scalability of enhanced geothermal systems. Geothermal energy currently generates about 3.7 gigawatts of electricity in the U.S.; with the development of these enhanced systems it could provide 90 gigawatts of firm, flexible power to the U.S. grid by 2050.

Dominion Energy reports that its $9.8 billion wind farm 27 miles off the shores of Virginia Beach is on track and on budget. The installation, which could provide carbon-free power to more than 650,000 homes and businesses, is slated for completion by the end of 2026.

Last year European wind and solar production overtook natural gas in electricity generation.  That had seemed unimaginable one year ago on the cusp of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Solar capacity alone has doubled since 2018 and is on track to triple in the next four years.

Climate Justice

Prioritizing a transition to electric cars has an equity problem because low-income Americans cannot afford them and are more likely to use public transit. Sita M. Syal, assistant professor of mechanical engineering at the University of Michigan, says that the EV transition should, therefore, be part of a broader shift to clean mobility that invests in public transit, walking, and biking, as well as systems like EV charging that support private car use.

Minnesota paid Enbridge, the company replacing the corroded Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline and doubling its capacity, $8.6 million to fund police and other agencies to respond to the acts of civil disobedience that the project would surely spark. Protestors, who then experienced mass arrests and detention, now contend that the financial arrangement created an unconstitutional police and prosecutor bias that violated their rights.

Climate Action

ACTION ALERT: Please submit your comments in support of keeping Virginia in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) on the Virginia Townhall website before March 31. Gov. Youngkin is continuing his effort to use regulation to withdraw the state from RGGI through the Air Pollution Control Board. To this end, they recently put this proposed regulation out for public comment. Let him know that there is broad public support for RGGI.

Using an inexpensive inverter, it’s now possible to power your home from your EV during a power outage. This is the leading edge of how EVs will be integrated into of our electrical power grid and become a key step in the transition to renewable energy. In the near future, with a bidirectional charger and a home integration system, your EV will be able to draw energy from the grid when there is ample supply and then resupply it during hours of peak demand.

Many in the younger generation are shunning getting a driver’s license or buying a car. In 1997, 43% of 16-year-olds and 62% of 17-year-olds had driver’s licenses. In 2020, those numbers had fallen to 25% and 45%.

The ability to commercially produce low carbon ethanol from rice and wheat straw, sugar cane, and corn stalks has been tantalizingly just beyond our grasp for decades. A big hurdle has been  collecting and distributing what is essentially a bulky waste product. Another has been processing this dirty, abrasive stuff after it reaches the plant. Now, after many fits and starts, we may be on the precipice of some significant breakthroughs that will make it viable.

Prince William County, the second largest school district in Virginia, is going solar. They will install solar power systems on the roofs of buildings at twelve school sites. The combined electric capacity will be 7.9 megawatts, which will save the district more than $16 million in energy costs over the next 25 years. Students will also be offered training and hands-on science experiments on energy.

The push is on to boost the production of sustainable aviation fuel. United Airlines recently launched a $100 million fund to support startups working to solve the supply problem. The goal is to increase production of sustainable aviation fuel from 1% today to 7.5% by 2030. Thirty-eight major airlines, including United, have committed to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050 or earlier.

News and experiences from the Harrisonburg  Pollinator Program will be included in the new “Parks and Pollinators: Taking Action and Advancing Sustainability” resource put out by the National Recreation and Park Association. The program is enhancing the environmental health of the city and doing its bit to help reverse our climate crisis. Find out more and explore opportunities to get involved here.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee