Tag Archives: climate & energy
Emmanuel Macron is breaking up with coal sooner than expected. Is he … serious about us?
The Environmental Protection Agency relaxed regulations on some major sources of pollution on Thursday. The agency repealed its “once in, always in” policy under the Clean Air Act, which had been used to regulate major polluters since 1995.
Basically: Until just now, if you own a factory or power plant that qualified as a major polluter, but was modified to reduce hazardous output, you still had to comply with the regulations that apply to major polluters.
Why is it important to regulate sources of pollution even after they’re retrofitted to emit less? Because industry has a tendency to do the bare minimum to bring factories just below the “major polluter” threshold to subvert regulations.
The “once in, always in” rule has been effective in mitigating some of the negative effects of air pollution, which include brain damage, infertility, and cancer.
That’s why environmentalists are up in arms about the EPA’s decision to repeal the policy. It’s possible that hundreds of factories will profit from the reduced regulation.
“And those harmed most would be nearby communities already suffering a legacy of pollution,” John Walke, the NRDC’s clean air director, said in a statement.
Read this article:
Emmanuel Macron is breaking up with coal sooner than expected. Is he … serious about us?
France’s ban on oil drilling could keep 5 billion barrels in the ground.
For a country that already imports 99 percent of its oil, France’s decision to end all new oil development and phase out existing projects by 2040 may not seem all that meaningful. The Guardian called it a “largely symbolic gesture.”
But actually, as geoscientist Erik Klemetti noted, France is committing to keeping a massive oil reservoir in the ground. The Paris Basin, a region in northern France, may contain nearly as much underground petroleum as the huge Bakken Formation in North Dakota. Extracting that oil and gas would require extensive fracking.
Klemetti calculates that France could extract 100 years worth of oil for the country by fully exploring the Paris Basin — which could contain, according to the top estimate, 5 billion barrels of oil. At current oil prices (around $58 per barrel), that’s worth about $290 billion.
Instead, France decided to say au revoir to oil and gas altogether.
Earlier this year, the country also announced it would ban internal combustion engines by 2040. With decisions like these, France is positioning itself on the right side of history. And it’s sending a message to a world that’s floundering on climate change: A more just and prosperous future is possible, and it doesn’t require the dirty fuels of the past.
Read original article:
France’s ban on oil drilling could keep 5 billion barrels in the ground.
Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, ONA, PUR, Ringer, solar, Uncategorized
Tagged bakken, climate & energy, country, engines-by-2040, extracting, lai, nearly-as-much, paris basin
Comments Off on France’s ban on oil drilling could keep 5 billion barrels in the ground.
California is preparing for a weekend of wintertime wildfires.
Forests in the American West are having a harder time recovering from wildfires because of (what else?) climate change, according to new research published in Ecology Letters.
Researchers measured the growth of seedlings in 1,500 wildfire-scorched areas in Colorado, Wyoming, Washington, Idaho, and Montana. Across the board, they found “significant decreases” in tree regeneration, a benchmark for forest resilience. In one-third of the sites, researchers found zero seedlings.
The warmest, driest forests were hit especially hard.
“Seedlings are more sensitive to warm, dry conditions than mature trees, so if the right conditions don’t exist within a few years following a wildfire, tree seedlings may not establish,” said Philip Higuera, a coauthor of the study.
Earlier this month, a separate study found that ponderosa pine and pinyon forests in the West are becoming less resilient due to droughts and warmer temperatures. Researchers told the New York Times that as trees disappear, some forests could shift to entirely different ecosystems, like grasslands or shrublands.
You’d think the rapid reconfiguration of entire ecosystems would really light a fire under us to deal with climate change, wouldn’t you?
Read article here:
California is preparing for a weekend of wintertime wildfires.
Posted in alo, Anchor, Eureka, FF, G & F, GE, Jason, LAI, ONA, organic, solar, solar power, Uncategorized, Wiley
Tagged california, climate & energy, los angeles, organic, philip, right, times, washington, wildfire, wiley
Comments Off on California is preparing for a weekend of wintertime wildfires.
Coastal cities are in serious jeopardy, new sea-level rise study shows.
Called “Build Back Better,” the plan focuses on providing immediate relief while also making the island’s energy infrastructure more resilient to future storms. That means fortifying the electric transmission system and bulking up defenses at power plants and substations.
The plan also envisions a Puerto Rico dotted with solar farms and wind turbines, linked by more than 150 microgrids. Of the 470,000 homes destroyed in Maria’s high winds, the report points out many could be built back with rooftop solar. New battery storage systems would allow hospitals, fire stations, water treatment plants, airports, and other critical facilities to keep the lights on without power from the grid.
Overall, $1.5 billion of the plan’s budget would go to these distributed renewable energy resources.
The plan was concocted by a bunch of industry and government groups working together, including the federal Department of Energy, Puerto Rico’s utility, several other state power authorities, and private utility companies like ConEd. If enacted, it would take the next 10 years to complete.
With a $94 billion Puerto Rico relief plan in Congress right now, it’s actually possible that $17 billion of that could go to building a renewable, resilient energy system for the future. It’d be a steal.
See the article here:
Coastal cities are in serious jeopardy, new sea-level rise study shows.
Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Prepara, PUR, solar, Uncategorized, Wiley, wind energy, wind power
Tagged build-back, climate & energy, congress, department, keep-the-lights, lai, maria, Plan, private, solar, wind power
Comments Off on Coastal cities are in serious jeopardy, new sea-level rise study shows.
Trump’s lawyers tried (and probably failed) to throw out the kids’ climate lawsuit.
Called “Build Back Better,” the plan focuses on providing immediate relief while also making the island’s energy infrastructure more resilient to future storms. That means fortifying the electric transmission system and bulking up defenses at power plants and substations.
The plan also envisions a Puerto Rico dotted with solar farms and wind turbines, linked by more than 150 microgrids. Of the 470,000 homes destroyed in Maria’s high winds, the report points out many could be built back with rooftop solar. New battery storage systems would allow hospitals, fire stations, water treatment plants, airports, and other critical facilities to keep the lights on without power from the grid.
Overall, $1.5 billion of the plan’s budget would go to these distributed renewable energy resources.
The plan was concocted by a bunch of industry and government groups working together, including the federal Department of Energy, Puerto Rico’s utility, several other state power authorities, and private utility companies like ConEd. If enacted, it would take the next 10 years to complete.
With a $94 billion Puerto Rico relief plan in Congress right now, it’s actually possible that $17 billion of that could go to building a renewable, resilient energy system for the future. It’d be a steal.
Read this article:
Trump’s lawyers tried (and probably failed) to throw out the kids’ climate lawsuit.
Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Prepara, PUR, solar, Uncategorized, Wiley, wind energy, wind power
Tagged Better, Build, climate & energy, island, Plan, points-out-many, politics, private, pur, trump nation
Comments Off on Trump’s lawyers tried (and probably failed) to throw out the kids’ climate lawsuit.
Climate change is disappearing from government websites — and from research, too.
Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, G & F, GE, global climate change, Green Light, LAI, LG, ONA, solar, solar power, Uncategorized
Tagged alo, climate & energy, climate-change, epa, g & f, news, politics, solar, trump nation
Comments Off on Climate change is disappearing from government websites — and from research, too.
Nebraska’s Keystone XL decision won’t hinge on Thursday’s 210,000-gallon spill.
Nearly two months after Hurricane Maria, public health researchers in Puerto Rico are limited by the same lack of power, clean water, and infrastructure they are there to study.
Puerto Rico–born José Cordero is one such scientist. In the journal Nature, he describes leading a team through the devastated landscape to collect data on how drinking water contamination affects pregnant women. The scientists have to hurry to finish their work everyday, before night falls across the largely powerless island. Limited telephone access makes it difficult to get in touch with subjects.
Cordero’s project started six years ago to focus on water pollution and pre-term births, but this year’s hurricane has changed both the focus and the level of difficulty of the work. Other researchers have been hampered by hospitals that can’t administer routine tests and hurricane-damaged equipment, making it difficult to collect data on how air and water pollution are affecting health.
Still, Cordero’s team has managed to contact several hundred woman and collect samples of groundwater and tap water from homes near flooded Superfund sites. As he told Nature: “The kind of work we’re doing … has to be done now, because a few years from now, it’s too late.”
More –
Nebraska’s Keystone XL decision won’t hinge on Thursday’s 210,000-gallon spill.
Posted in alo, Anchor, Casio, FF, G & F, GE, LAI, LG, ONA, Uncategorized
Tagged both-the-focus, Casio, climate & energy, cordero, data-on-how, keystone xl, king, limited, nature, Ona, superfund
Comments Off on Nebraska’s Keystone XL decision won’t hinge on Thursday’s 210,000-gallon spill.
Trump’s pick for environmental adviser got grilled on climate change. It was a trainwreck.
Kathleen Hartnett White, President Donald Trump’s nominee to lead the White House Council on Environmental Quality, stammered through her confirmation hearing on Wednesday.
When Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, a Democrat, asked if she believes climate change is real, she wavered but settled on the right answer: “I am uncertain. No, I’m not. I jumped ahead. Climate change is of course real.”
That’s a surprise. Hartnett White, a former chair of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, has a long history of challenging climate science and promoting fossil fuels. Notably, she has said that carbon dioxide isn’t a pollutant.
But that’s not to say she’s made peace with established science. Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, a Democrat from Rhode Island, quizzed Hartnett White over how much excess heat in the atmosphere is absorbed by oceans. “I believe there are differences of opinions on that,” she said, “that there’s not one right answer.” For the record, the number is about 90 percent.
Then things got bizarre. Appearing frustrated with equivocating answers, Whitehouse pressed her on basic laws of nature, like whether heat makes water expand. “I do not have any kind of expertise or even much layman study of the ocean dynamics and the climate-change issues,” she said.
Watch below, if you dare:
After the hearing, Whitehouse tweeted, “I don’t even know where to begin … she outright rejects basic science.”
Source:
Trump’s pick for environmental adviser got grilled on climate change. It was a trainwreck.
Posted in alo, Anchor, FF, GE, ONA, PUR, solar, Uncategorized
Tagged climate & energy, council, hartnett, hartnett-white, island, kathleen hartnett-white, news, pur, rhode, senator, solar
Comments Off on Trump’s pick for environmental adviser got grilled on climate change. It was a trainwreck.
The U.S. government just released a report confirming everything we know about climate change.
At a hearing on the federal response to the 2017 hurricane season, New York Congressman Jerrold Nadler questioned the EPA’s decision to declare water drawn from the Dorado Superfund site OK to drink.
In 2016, the agency found that water at Dorado contained solvents that pose serious health risks, including liver damage and cancer. Yet after CNN reported that Hurricane Maria survivors were pulling water from the site’s two wells, the EPA conducted an analysis and found the water fit for consumption.
When Nadler asked Pete Lopez, administrator for Region 2 of the EPA, why his agency changed its position, Lopez responded that the chemicals are present in the water, but are within drinking water tolerance levels.
The EPA’s standards for drinking water are typically higher than international norms, John Mutter, a Columbia University professor and international disaster relief expert, told Grist. Nonetheless, he believes it is unusual for the EPA to declare water safe to drink just one year after naming it a Superfund site.
At the hearing, Nadler said the situation was “eerily similar” to the EPA’s response after 9/11 in New York. One week after the attacks, the agency said the air in the neighborhood was safe to breathe. But since then, 602 people who initially survived the attack have died from cancer or aerodigestive issues like asthma, and thousands more have become sick.
“The [EPA’s] history of making mistakes makes you feel like perhaps they should be challenged,” says Mutter, citing the water contamination crisis in Flint, Michigan.
Link –
The U.S. government just released a report confirming everything we know about climate change.
Posted in alo, Anchor, Casio, FF, GE, LG, ONA, oven, solar, solar power, Uncategorized, wind power
Tagged anthropocene, climate & energy, cnn, columbia, dorado, federal, hurricane maria, king, professor, university, wind power
Comments Off on The U.S. government just released a report confirming everything we know about climate change.
