Category Archives: Northeastern

Carbon prices are way down, thanks to the Supreme Court’s hold on Clean Power Plan

by FaithMcnamee Posted on July 6, 2016

Carbon prices are way down, thanks to the Supreme Court’s hold on Clean Power Plan

By on Jul 5, 2016

Cross-posted from

Climate CentralShare

A temporary halt to the federal government’s plan to cut electric power plant emissions has caused carbon prices in the Northeast’s only cap-and-trade program to plummet, according to the U.S. Department of Energy.

Carbon prices in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, have fallen 40 percent since the Supreme Court’s decision in February to stay the Clean Power Plan — from their peak at $7.50 per metric ton of carbon dioxide in December to $4.53 per ton in June.

RGGI is America’s first mandatory market-based cap-and-trade program, which places a collective limit on carbon emissions among its nine member states. Power plant emissions under that limit are called “allowances,” and the program stamps a price on them so they can be traded among polluters. Carbon prices are set at quarterly auctions, and proceeds are invested in state renewable energy, energy efficiency, and other sustainability programs.

The program is one of the Northeastern states’ strategies to comply with the Clean Power Plan if it withstands court challenges. The program is designed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions among all the New England states plus New York, Delaware, and Maryland as a way to reduce their contributions to global warming.

Experts disagree about what the sudden drop means for the future of carbon cutting in the Northeast and what direction the prices will go. Long-term low carbon prices could make it cheap to cut carbon throughout the Northeast, or it could chill future investment in renewables and other carbon-cutting measures because it will be less profitable to do so.

RGGI caps member states’ collective annual carbon emissions at a specific level, and they are set to decline 2.5 percent annually through 2020, encouraging states to develop renewables and other low-emissions energy sources to replace highly polluting ones.

RGGI auction prices for carbon pollution are considered low compared to California’s carbon trading market, where carbon emissions have been valued between roughly $12 and $13 per metric ton since 2014. RGGI prices had increased steadily from about $2 per ton 2012 to about $7.50 per ton 2015, but they fell sharply at the auctions held immediately after the Supreme Court decision.

U.S. Energy Information Administration analyst Thad Huetteman said the agency cannot comment on where prices may be headed because there are too many unknowns about RGGI’s future. But he said that if the Clean Power Plan is upheld in court, the EIA’s forecast suggests prices may remain low.

A spokesperson for RGGI declined to comment.

The James A. Fitzpatrick Nuclear Power Plant in Upstate New York.Nuclear Regulatory Commission

There is wide disagreement about the long-term implications of low RGGI prices and whether they’ll bounce back in the near future.

“Low RGGI prices hamper the region’s ability to pursue additional carbon cuts,” and make clean energy investment less profitable, said Jordan Stutt, a clean energy analyst for the Acadia Center, a New England climate policy think tank.

He said lower prices mean states earn less money from trading carbon, reducing the amount of auction money they will get that can be reinvested in state-run clean energy and energy efficiency programs.

RGGI has not established a carbon emissions cap for after 2020, and a new cap mandating strict emissions cuts could raise prices in the long run, he said.

William Shobe, a University of Virginia public policy professor who was part of the team that designed the RGGI carbon auction, is more optimistic about what low carbon prices mean for carbon cutting in the future.

Shobe said low carbon prices are good news for both the future of the cap-and-trade program and the region’s ability to slash its emissions.

“If you had a choice between high prices and low prices, you’d want low prices because the cost of accomplishing the (carbon cutting) goal is lower,” he said. “That means you’re getting what you want cheaper, and in the end you’ll want to buy more of it.”

The key is that RGGI states’ carbon emissions are determined by the cap they place on them, not the price of those emissions, he said.

“That’s the nice thing about cap-and-trade programs — you’ve got a guarantee you’re going to meet the emissions goal,” Shobe said. “The question is how expensive it’s going to be.”

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Carbon prices are way down, thanks to the Supreme Court’s hold on Clean Power Plan

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No peaches or apricots? Blame the Northeast’s warm, wacky winter.

by RalfMccallister Posted on June 19, 2016

fruitless effort

No peaches or apricots? Blame the Northeast’s warm, wacky winter.

By on Jun 19, 2016 7:06 am

Cross-posted from

Modern FarmerShare

In the Northeast, lovers of stone fruits — peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, and cherries — are in for a tough summer, thanks to a very weird season for Northeastern farmers.

A strange warm spell in mid-winter followed by two brutal deep freezes have, according to surveys and several farmers we spoke to, completely decimated the stone fruit crops in the Northeast, from roughly central New Jersey on north through New York, Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

Here’s what happened: An unusually strong El Niño cycle in late 2015 through 2016, likely with the assistance of climate change’s unpredictability, resulted in a string of about a week in February of mid-50-degree-Fahrenheit days in this region. It was, at that point, the most unusually warm month in recorded history, according to NOAA. “Things like peaches, apricots, they start to come out pretty quick as soon as it gets warm out,” says Steven Clarke of Prospect Hill Orchards, in Milton, New York.

Those crazily warm days tricked the Northeastern stone fruit trees to think spring had arrived, and to begin putting out buds, which would eventually flower and become fruits. But then two absurdly cold spells, one in mid-February and one in early April, froze and damaged nearly every single bud. Some apple varieties were hit as well, though apples tend to bud later and be a little more tolerant of bad weather; Clarke says his Cortland, Mutsu, and Jonagold apples were hurt badly.

Farmers have some methods to deal with cold spells; typically cold air sinks to the ground and pockets of warm air sit on top. That’s called an inversion layer, and farmers can raise the temperature on the ground by mixing the cold bottom air with the warmer air. The techniques for doing that are pretty crazy; some will hire helicopters to hover just above their trees, blasting the warm air downwards, and others have gigantic stationary fans for the same purpose.

But this year, the wind was also incredibly intense during the cold snaps. “Helicopters will work if there’s an inversion layer, but this wasn’t a frost; this was a freeze,” says Rick Lawrence, of Lawrence Farms Orchards, in Newburgh, New York. “There was no warm air to push down; it was just cold, cold.” Even these expensive tactics couldn’t fight the weather. “There was absolutely nothing you could do about it,” says Clarke.

There are no full surveys of farmers in the Northeast, but most believe that in this region, at least 90 percent of the crop has been lost. A study in April found that viability of the peach blossoms was as low as 22 percent. Worse than that, some of the actual trees didn’t survive. “We lost quite a few peach trees ourselves,” says Lawrence. “I know some of the other growers were hit pretty hard.” New peach trees can take years to produce fruit, so it’s likely that the weather this year will have lasting effects in years to come.

What’s even stranger about all this is that none of the farmers I’ve talked to have ever seen this kind of destruction before. “We’ve never had anything like this, as long as I can remember,” says Lawrence. “I’m 60 years old and I can’t remember anything like this.” Though he notes that peaches are not generally a primary crop in this region, Clarke agrees. “I’ve never seen a wipeout like this,” he says.

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No peaches or apricots? Blame the Northeast’s warm, wacky winter.

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Donald Trump Has to Reassure Supporters That He’ll Win Arizona

by weask Posted on June 19, 2016

Mother Jones

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On Saturday afternoon in Phoenix, Donald Trump did something no Republican nominee has had to do two decades: He promised to win Arizona.

He also promised to win Connecticut, said he would do “unbelievably well with the Mexicans,” and promised to solve “all of our problems” if elected president. But less than one month after he secured enough delegates to win the Republican presidential nomination, Trump’s usual bombast was surrounded by signs of his campaign’s own mortality.

For one thing, there was the fact that he was even appearing in Phoenix at all. Arizona was a strong state for Trump in the presidential primary, but it is an unusual place for a candidate to spend much time after winning the nomination. The state hasn’t voted for a Democrat in a presidential year since 1996. No Democrats hold statewide office here, and Mitt Romney won the state by more than 10 points in 2012. If Arizona were to become a battleground state, it would most likely signify a landslide. But Clinton leads Trump in Real Clear Politics‘ polling average of the state, and Trump’s rally on Saturday, at the Phoenix Memorial Coliseum—known locally as the “Madhouse on McDowell”—seemed to belie the state’s deep-red reputation. Trump told the crowd he was “up big in the state,” but then said it was “a very important state” and he would win it in the fall. Speaking a short while earlier, former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, who joined was joined at the event by Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, drew a cheer from the crowd when she promised to “keep Arizona red.” They just might; but the biggest story was that it even needed to be said.

Throughout the event, Trump projected an air of confidence—”I feel like a supermodel except times 10,” he said of his media saturation—but there were signs that all was not going so swell with his campaign. He mocked a Politico story that quoted a Trump adviser suggesting Trump would consider giving up his presidential bid for the right amount of money. According to the story, Trump might accept a $150 million buyout. To hoots from the crowd, Trump boasted that he wouldn’t accept five times that much—but, he conceded, if they offered him $5 billion, he’d be foolish not to consider it. In the build-up to his grand entrance, one surrogate after another had engaged the audience in a call and response. The question was “Who’s the nominee?” After the week he’d had, it was starting to feel a little less than rhetorical.

In his most audacious promise, Trump recalled how he had won victory after victory in northeastern blue states during the Republican primary. His strong showings were a sign, he suggested, that he could compete and win in places like Connecticut in the general election. (A cynical person might note that Republican primaries are usually won by Republicans.) But Hartford will have to wait for another time; for now, he’s just trying to win Arizona.

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Donald Trump Has to Reassure Supporters That He’ll Win Arizona

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Here’s How to Survive Cicada Season

by MarisolMontano Posted on June 6, 2016

If cicadas make your skin crawl, you’re luckyfor about 17 years, that is. That’s how long the “Brood V, Magicicada periodical” cicada lies dormant in the ground, pretty much out of sight and mind.

But then that 17th year happens and watch out! Billions of them crawl up out of the earthto mate, swarming and singing and flying helter skelter, landing on porches, in trees, in the back seat of your car and maybein your hair. And if one bug bugs you, the hordes that are Brood V will probably throw you into a tizzy.

Unfortunately, 2016 is the year when the cicadas, of the order Hemiptera in the Cicadidae family, are supposed to show up. And it won’t be just a few. They can reach a density of 1.5 million cicadas an acre in some areas, reports the Washington Post.

And man, will they make a lot of racket. With so many insects on the loose at one time, they generate what the Post described as a “menacing hum-whistle.” Think of the normal nighttime din you’re used to from a relatively low population of crickets and other bugsand magnify it by about 1,000. You can listen to a cicada “sing” herebut keep in mind, that’s just one. When a few million of them start flexing their tumbals, the drumlike organs found in their abdomens, the noise can be overwhelming.

The good news is, these cicadas are completely harmless. They don’t chew leaves, so while they may alight en masse on branches and bushes, they won’t devour them.

They don’t actually stick around very long, either. While we’re plagued with mosquitoes and flies from early spring until the first frost, these cicadas will only last about six weeks. They emerge and mate. Then the female lays fertilized eggs on live small twigs. Six weeks later the eggs will hatch and nymphs will emerge. The nymphs then fall from the trees and burrow into the ground to a depth of between six and 18 inches. There they’ll stay for the next 17 years, feeding on the juices they find in plant roots.

Here’s another benefit: cicadas don’t sting or bite, so unless they freak you out because they’re so big and garish-looking, you have nothing to fear from them.

But…if flying, noisy insects do give you the heeby-jeebies, here are some suggestions to help you tolerate the Brood V onslaught:

Take a vacation. Brood V cicadas are mostly restricted to the eastern seaboard. This year, reports Cicadamania.com, they’ll be primarily in Maryland, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia. If you live in these states, and the cicadas really freak you out, temporarily relocate, or vacation in the south, Midwest, Great Plains or Rockies if you can. If you’ve always wanted to visit California, now may be the time.

Minimize your exposure. Keep doors and windows closed, including those of your car, so the cicadas can’t fly into your space. If a cicada does get into your house, put a jar over it, use the top to push the cicada inside, then take the jar outside and dump it out. You can also keep a jar in your car in the event you need to get the bug outside. NOTE: It’s less traumatic to trap and release the insect than to kill it and clean up the mess. I know this from personal experience.

Wear earplugs to sleep. If the noise of a billion cicadas singing becomes intolerable, close your windows and wear ear plugs to bed.

Drown them out with the radio or white noise. Keep a radio playing or use a white noise app on your mobile device to help mask the cicadas’ singing.

Tackle your phobia head on. Psychology Today recommends a five-step process: read about cicadas until they become familiar; look at their pictures; get a toy cicada and keep it around you; go to an insect zoo or natural history museum where you can observe cicadas either in real life or on display; if possible, hold a live cicada. This kind of “behavior therapy” can help you overcome the anxiety you feel when you see a cicada.

One thing Cicadamania recommends you DON’T do is eat cicadaseven though millions of people in Asia and Africa regularly dine onthese creatures. The insects bioaccumulate mercury, so ingesting them could give you a concentrated dose. Plus, they’ve been down in the dirt for 17 years, where they may also have been consumingpesticides and fertilizers, warns The Atlantic. Lastly, you could choke on their body parts, which can be hard and sharp.

Far better to enjoy cicadas for what they are: a phenomenon of Nature you’ll only have the chance to witness once every 17 years, if that.

Disclaimer: The views expressed above are solely those of the author and may not reflect those of Care2, Inc., its employees or advertisers.

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Here’s How to Survive Cicada Season

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How the Fight Against Zika Is Playing Out Across Brazil Right Now

by OlaSternmslq Posted on May 30, 2016

Mother Jones

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Brazil is in crisis. Earlier this month, President Dilma Rousseff was ousted from office after a series of scandals led to impeachment proceedings. Newly installed opposition leaders are facing a series of corruption charges of their own. And the Zika virus, first detected in Brazil in April 2015, continues to stymie public health officials concerned about the upcoming Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

So far, the new government’s approach toward Zika has been questionable, at best: The new health minister, Ricardo Barros, is an engineer with no previous experience in health administration. And while Barros listed the fight to eradicate the Aedes aegypti mosquito as one of his top priorities when he took over, he’s got his work cut out for himself: Zika has infected 120,161 Brazilians in 2016, with another 1,434 confirmed cases of microcephaly since October (up from around 150 per year).

But how has Zika affected the lives of average Brazilians? Here are some unexpected ways the virus is impacting people on the ground.

There’s no privacy when it comes to Zika: As part of the government’s Aedes aegypti eradication plan, federal health agents have been going door to door to inspect backyards and educate the public. Ever since Rousseff signed a new rule into law in January, these agents have been allowed to force their way into public and private buildings—including people’s homes—to search for mosquito breeding sites if no one answers the door after two separate visits. If necessary, the police can be called upon to help gain entrance.

There’s been a rush on bug repellent: Last November, right after the government announced that the increase of microcephaly cases in northeastern Brazil was probably related to Zika, many Brazilians—especially pregnant women—rushed to drugstores to buy mosquito repellent. But not just any repellent: Experts in the field started to recommend a specific brand, Exposis, which is the only one in Brazil made with Icaridin, an ingredient said to guarantee up to 10 hours of protection.

According to Paulo Castejón Guerra Vieira, general-director of Osler of Brazil—the lab that produces Exposis—the company had prepared for dengue and chikungunya epidemics but was surprised by the Zika explosion. The resulting shortage led to a repellent black market, with Exposis selling for more than double its already-expensive original price of $16 a bottle. Pregnant women started to stock it. Production increased 30-fold to meet demand. “I had people calling here saying that they were afraid their babies would be born with microcephaly and we should work it out,” Guerra says. “We did everything we could to increase production.” They were finally able to meet demand four months later, in March.

Introducing species-killing, multicolored GM mosquitoes: Millions of genetically modified mosquitoes have been released as part of research projects to reduce mosquito populations across the country. In the most recent test, transgenic mosquitoes helped cause an 82 percent reduction in larvae in a neighborhood in the city of Piracicaba, located the state of São Paulo. (The GM mosquito produced by the company Oxitec has an alteration that prevents offspring from developing.) Two cities in the state of Bahia have seen similar results with transgenic mosquitoes.

In the last few months, residents of Piracicaba have been surprised and a little frightened to find pink, blue, and yellow mosquitoes flying through their homes. These GM insects were actually dyed with powdered paint so the researchers could better control their survival in the wild.

Courtesy Oxitec

In vitro fertilization just got even more complicated: There have been countless reports of couples delaying pregnancy because of the risk of microcephaly. But what about those considering in vitro fertilization? According to new rules, they must first take Zika tests.

The exams started to be mandatory in April, following a resolution by the Brazilian equivalent of the US Food and Drug Administration, and it is now a requirement for the couple and for sperm and egg donors. According to geneticist Ciro Martinhago, who runs a São Paulo laboratory specializing in reproductive genetics, many couples who had gone through fertilization procedures at the end of last year decided to postpone the embryo transfer until the beginning of Brazil’s winter, when there are fewer mosquitoes.

Martinhago’s laboratory was the first in Brazil to offer a molecular test to detect Zika in semen, and he even got requests from men who weren’t going through in vitro but wanted to make sure they weren’t putting their sexual partners in risk. According to a preliminary data published in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases, the virus could be detected in semen up to 62 days after the first symptoms. On May 10, the Brazilian Ministry of Health recommended the use of condoms to prevent sexual transmission of Zika, especially among pregnant women.

Poor Brazilians are more affected by microcephaly, and officials aren’t sure why: Microcephaly, the most severe condition so far associated with Zika, seems to be impacting the poor more intensely. According to data released by the Secretary of Social Development, Children, and Youth of Pernambuco, one of the first states affected by the microcephaly outbreak, 69 percent of the 1,947 reported cases through the beginning of May came in families living in extreme poverty.

While low-income populations are more likely to be exposed to the mosquitoes, scientists are already looking at other factors that might be increasing their microcephaly risk—specifically, poor nutrition and exposure to previous infections.

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How the Fight Against Zika Is Playing Out Across Brazil Right Now

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This is what it looks like when wildfire sweeps through a city

by CharliB56iyyd Posted on May 6, 2016

This is what it looks like when wildfire sweeps through a city

By on May 6, 2016

Cross-posted from

Climate CentralShare

The Fort McMurray fire is still burning out of control, but footage is beginning to emerge of the destruction left behind in northern Alberta’s largest metro area.

As of Friday morning, the wildfire that flared up in northeastern Alberta on Tuesday had spread to 247,000 acres or an area the size of Dallas, according to the Capital Weather Gang. The wildfire is expected to be one of the most costly natural disasters in Canada’s history. At least 1,600 structures have been destroyed or damaged. The fire has also forced some oil sands extraction operations to go on hold, costing the Canadian economy millions of dollars a day.

Officials ordered 80,000 residents to evacuate ahead of the fire and so far, not a single direct fatality has been reported. Royal Canadian Mounted Police have started escorting evacuees who fled north on Tuesday back to the south toward Edmonton and Calgary where more resources are available. On the way, they’ll pass through a Fort McMurray very different than the one they left a few days ago.

Video shot by firefighters in Fort McMurray reveals the unsettling scenes those evacuees will face in a town reshaped by the forces of the inferno that engulfed it.

Houses have been reduced to smoldering piles of ash and burnt out husks. Footage shows cars piled on top of each other, possibly as a result of explosions or powerful winds driven by the flames themselves. In some areas, flames are still burning while a pall of smoke hangs over the entire town.

Another #fortmcmurray fire pick. This was in the morning. No wind and still cool. #fire #craziness

A video posted by @milochristie on May 4, 2016 at 6:34pm PDT

Analysts at Aon Benfield, a reinsurance company, expect that economic losses from the fire will exceed $1 billion. The Bank of Montreal suggested the fire could cause $2.6 billion CAD ($2 billion USD) in losses if a quarter of Fort McMurray was destroyed, making this the most costly disaster in Canadian history. That number doesn’t include the cost of disrupting the oil sands industry, a major force in the Canadian economy.

The current record holder for costliest disaster is the 2013 Alberta floods, which inundated parts of Calgary and caused $1.65 billion in economic losses.

The risk of more damage isn’t over yet. Extreme fire conditions are expected to continue through this weekend. Hot temperatures and gusty winds could wreak havoc with the efforts of the 1,100 firefighters attempting to contain the blaze.

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This is what it looks like when wildfire sweeps through a city

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Here’s What Today’s Primary Voters Think About the Planet’s Most Important Issue

by JenniHarlow Posted on April 26, 2016

Mother Jones

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Residents of five Northeastern states are voting Tuesday in crucial presidential primary contests. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has a chance to all but clinch the nomination with a strong showing. On the Republican side, Donald Trump is looking for massive victories that could put him one step closer to securing a majority of the delegates at the GOP convention in Cleveland.

The presidential election will, of course, have enormous implications for a range of issues—but some of the biggest consequences will relate to the fight against global warming. Clinton essentially wants to continue President Barack Obama’s climate policies. Her opponent, Bernie Sanders, wants to go even further by enacting a carbon tax. Trump and his closest rival, Ted Cruz, are both outspoken climate change deniers. John Kasich is somewhat less extreme on the issue but has still made contradictory statements about the science, and he refuses to commit to any meaningful action.

But what do the voters think?

Back on March 1—as a dozen or so states around the country voted on Super Tuesday—we pointed out that the electorate that day contained an awful lot of deniers. Less than half of adults in those states—48 percent—agreed with the scientific consensus that humans are mostly responsible for recent warming, according to data from the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. Drawing from more than 13,000 interviews, the Yale researchers used a complicated statistical model to estimate the 2014 views of residents of every state, county, and congressional district on key climate science and policy questions.

This Tuesday, the voters look a bit different than they did on March 1. Residents of the Northeast hold some of the country’s most progressive (and accurate) views on climate change, according to the Yale study. Small majorities in most of Tuesday’s state’s—as well as in nearby New York, which voted last week—embrace the scientific consensus.

Here’s another way to crunch the same data. The researchers combined people who said global warming is caused mostly by humans with those who attribute it to both humans and nature. They also combined two kinds of climate science deniers: people who think the warming is natural and those who don’t think the planet is getting warmer at all.

Those numbers look pretty good for science, especially when you compare them with those from some of the Southern states that voted on Super Tuesday.

But here’s the thing: Trump may insist global warming is a “hoax,” but that isn’t stopping him from winning in states where most people understand he’s wrong. He won Massachusetts and Vermont on Super Tuesday. He won overwhelmingly in New York last week. And he’s leading in the polls in every state voting Tuesday.

That’s probably because voters in Republican primaries don’t have the same views on science as the average resident of their states. In New Hampshire, for instance, large majorities of Democrats and independents say humans are the main cause of global warming. But only a small minority of Republicans agree. Trump won New Hampshire by 20 percentage points.

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Here’s What Today’s Primary Voters Think About the Planet’s Most Important Issue

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“Keystone-ization” is the fossil fuel industry’s new nightmare

by EdisonWJOkpkr Posted on April 26, 2016

“Keystone-ization” is the fossil fuel industry’s new nightmare

By on Apr 25, 2016commentsShare

“Another Pipeline Rejected” is now the go-to headline for updates on new fossil fuel infrastructure in the United States. Does the growing file of scrapped pipeline plans forecast the “Keystone-ization” of our energy future? Yes — proposals for pipelines to transport oil and natural gas are being brought down by public protest so frequently, we now have a term for it.

A quick review: On Friday, the New York Department of Environmental Conservation announced that it would not grant a necessary permit for the 124-mile Constitution Pipeline proposed to run through the northeastern United States. The Earth Day announcement came after backlash regarding potential safety issues from residents, as well as from Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), who said that the plan would be “catastrophic to our air and our climate.” The DEC ultimately refused to grant the permit after concluding that the pipeline would interfere with water resources in its path.

This latest decision follows the rejection, just days prior, of a $3.1 billion natural gas plan proposed by Kinder Morgan. Before that, the 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have run through Virginia and West Virginia, was delayed earlier this year. Georgia’s 360-mile Palmetto Pipeline and Oregon’s 232-mile Pacific Connector Pipeline were both thwarted in March. All that went down in 2016 alone.

The mother of all these killed projects is, of course, the Keystone XL pipeline, a $7 billion undertaking that would have ferried 800,000 barrels of crude oil a day from Canada to the Gulf Coast — had President Barack Obama not vetoed it last November. Since that decision, the phrase “Keystone-ization” has come to connote the death of a proposed oil and gas pipeline — often due to public backlash.

“Fifty years ago, people in the U.S. were much more accepting of new pipelines and new infrastructure,” Rob Jackson, a professor at the Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment who studies energy use and climate change, told Grist. “Today, people don’t want new pipelines and nuclear power plants near their homes and schools. The failure of Keystone emboldened people to fight the next project.”

“Keystone-ization” has become a rallying cry for writer and climate activist Bill McKibben, who uses it to encourage activists to protest new fossil fuel infrastructure. (Editor’s note: Bill McKibben is a member of Grist’s board). McKibben, however, repurposed it — how green of him — from Marty Durbin, President and CEO of America’s Natural Gas Alliance. Durbin said last year that the pipeline had become a model for climate activists, noting that it has changed the way fossil fuel companies operate:

“These aren’t new issues. These are things that pipeline developers have had to deal with for a long time. But we’ve seen a change in the debate. I hesitate to put it this way, but call it the Keystone-ization of every pipeline project that’s out there, that if you can stop one permit, you can stop the development of fossil fuels. That’s changing the way we have to manage these projects.”

Killing a pipeline plan, Jackson explained, could prevent fossil fuel extraction on the condition that there is no other way for the resources to reach the market. But in the case of oil, it also could backfire. If no pipeline is available, oil may travel by train. According to Jackson, pipelines look like a safer option when considering the terrible track record of oil train derailments — and therefore, the “Keystone-ization” of proposed pipelines may not be such a good thing after all.

At the same time, if oil prices remain low (as they are now), the cost of rail transport can be prohibitive — and when a pipeline is rejected, extracting the oil it was meant to transport may no longer be a profitable decision. If this is the case, Jackson explains, nixing a pipeline may help keep fossil fuels in the ground.

“Some people fight pipelines because they oppose any fossil fuel use. Viewed through that lens, blocking oil and gas pipelines makes sense,” said Jackson. “You will see a fight for every new pipeline from now on, I guarantee it.”

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“Keystone-ization” is the fossil fuel industry’s new nightmare

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Clinton Ends Sanders’ Winning Streak With a Victory in New York

by MalindaGonzalez Posted on April 20, 2016

Mother Jones

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Hillary Clinton finally halted rival Bernie Sanders’ recent winning streak on Tuesday, scoring a decisive win in her home state of New York.

With 35 percent of precincts reporting, Clinton led Sanders by more than 20 percentage points, although exit polls showed her with a much narrower lead. The major networks called the race for Clinton about 45 minutes after polls closed.

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Clinton Ends Sanders’ Winning Streak With a Victory in New York

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Trump Dominates New York, Reclaiming Momentum

by RubenDriskell Posted on April 20, 2016

Mother Jones

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Donald Trump emphatically reclaimed momentum Tuesday night in the fight for the Republican presidential nomination, scoring an overwhelming victory in his home state of New York.

The major networks called the race immediately after polls closed at 9 p.m. ET. Exit polls showed Trump winning more than half the vote in the state, with John Kasich and Ted Cruz trailing far behind.

The Republican front-runner’s win follows a string of losses this month, in the Wisconsin primary and at state conventions in Colorado and Wyoming where Cruz outmaneuvered Trump in the delegate selection process. But in New York, which will send 95 delegates to the Republican National Convention in Cleveland in July, Trump worked hard to climb back on top.

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Originally posted here:

Trump Dominates New York, Reclaiming Momentum

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