This is the 570th edition of the Spotlight on Green News & Views (previously known as the Green Diary Rescue). Here is the August 18 edition. Inclusion of a story in the Spotlight does not necessarily indicate my agreement with or endorsement of it.
OUTSTANDING GREEN STORIES
Merry Light writes—Saturday Morning Garden Blogging Vol.14.34 Where there's smoke ...: “You get used to it, after a while. Or you don’t. Wildfire smoke gives me cold or allergy symptoms, i.e. my nose starts to run like crazy and I start sneezing. My throat is irritated and my eyes are red. During the Coal Seam fire, which was in our valley and not a few valleys over, my symptoms were the same, only worse. Next time I’ll have to move away. Where? The smoke that is bothering me right now is from California. It’s a global economy and a global climate, for sure. Fortunately, the fires closest to us are mostly contained. I got a few pictures of the Lake Christine fire after it was beaten back from the houses in El Jebel (and it was unbelievable, what those hotshot firefighters saved!!), and it gives you an idea of what our summers can look like in the Rocky Mountains. We all go about our business, underneath that conflagration, knowing someone is up there working on a fireline or flying a plane loaded with water or fire retardant. You learn a lot about firefighting. The coolest thing to see are the Chinook helicopters taking water from the nearest body of water and flying it up to the fire to dump it from the air. It’s quite a sight! It can be nerve-wracking, too.”
Pakalolo writes—As Climate Scientists Speak Out, Sexist Attacks Are on the Rise: “Environmental and social justice activists across the Earth are murdered, villages torched and forests destroyed. Eureka Alert shared Chalmers University of Technology, the ‘world's first global research network into climate change denial has now been established,’ where they pronounce that ‘two strong groups have joined forces on this issue—the extractive industry, and right-wing nationalists. The combination has taken the current debate to a much more dramatic level than previously, at the same time as our window of opportunity is disappearing.’ As previously noted, all climate scientists are at risk from right-wing attacks, but Scott Waldman and Niiana Heikkinen of E&E News report that it is women who endure the most wrath from the bullies in the right-wing. The lengthy story in E&E News is quite compelling and is worth a read. Here are a few snippets. Threats of death, rape and other forms of violence have left a number of researchers feeling concerned for their safety. They worry about opening envelopes with handwritten addresses and answering phone calls from unfamiliar numbers. Anonymous emails that try to entice a response cause agitation. ‘We get this additional layer of hate mail, and people, I think, find it easier to put us down because we are women, or feel like they have more right in telling us what is right or wrong despite our expertise, which is always frustrating,’ said Andrea Dutton, a geologist at the University of Florida and an expert on sea-level rise.”
CAHughes writes—Florida's Water Crisis & The Last Man Standing. How Polluters & Corruption Destroyed Florida: “On a Clean Water Facebook page during the current water crisis in Florida in which 267 TONS of species of fish and wildlife washed up dead on South Florida beaches, someone asked, ‘Why is Florida this way?’ A critical question. To help you understand my background on this issue, I became an environmental organizer after our mother moved us from Florida to NY, near Love Canal. My sister and I traveled back and forth from NY to FL for years to visit our father who taught us a love of boating and swimming in the Florida waters. But in NY after seeing the devastation to the community in Niagara Falls from toxic waste contamination I felt I had to get involved. [...] At that time when I was doing that work in the ‘90s, there were many moderate Republicans in public office. In fact, I even interned with a moderate representative who had incredibly strong advocacy record on water issues as well as an environmental science degree. He had a 100% rating with the League of Conservation Voters, which produces a yearly scorecard available on their website that shows how elected officials vote on environmental and water issues. But things change.”
CRITTERS AND THE GREAT OUTDOORS
Milly Watt writes—The Daily Bucket - Dry Summer at Hurricane Ridge: “On August 7, Mr Watt (aka grnchile) and I finally got up to Hurricane Ridge to inventory wildflowers along the Hurricane Hill trail. This is part of a personal project that we started in 2009 to record the blooming times of wildflowers at Hurricane Ridge in the Olympic National Park. By hiking the same trail and taking pictures of every flower we see, we’ve collected a nice dataset. (i.e. date stamped photos) from 13 hikes so far. Every year, I learn more and discover new wildflowers that I simply missed before. Previous buckets report on hikes on August 6, 2013, June 11, 2014, July 24, 2014, May 22 and June 22, 2015, August 20, 2015, and July 2016. You can see the flowers earlier in the 2018 season in owktree’s recent bucket. It’s rather late in the season, but we’ve run into various scheduling delays. The most important complication is that the park service is closing the trail for 8 days at a time, then reopening it for 6 days (and repeat) to do trail reconstruction. This project will be going on for 3 summers. If you are planning a trip, consult the schedule. To further complicate matters, the trail will be closed for mountain goat relocation in September.”
BrownsBay writes—Daily Bucket: Ruby Mountains - Nevada: “The Ruby Mountains are located in the northeastern corner of Nevada, one of many north-south oriented mountain ranges that characterize the Great Basin. My first literary acquaintance with the Rubies was through an outdoor magazine article I read by Galen Rowell, about a winter ski traverse he undertook along the backbone of the range. This article later became a chapter in his book High and Wild, of which I hold an author-autographed copy, a treasured volume on our bookshelf. A seed was planted, at least to contemplate an exploration of the Rubies and other Great Basin ranges. Over the intervening years the opportunity never quite materialized except for visits on the Great Basin’s eastern fringe to the White Mountains and the ranges surrounding Death Valley.[...] I snapped a few pictures to share with you the rare beauty found in a mountain range carved by glaciers and literally surrounded by desert. A view looking down Lamoille Canyon. Not a more perfect example of a glacier-carved valley exists outside of Yosemite.”
BrownsBay writes—Daily Bucket: Cache Creek Nature Preserve: “Cache Creek Nature Preserve is located on the lower end of the Sacramento Valley, on the Valley’s western side, where Cache Creek flows eastward out of the northern Coast Ranges. As the creek charts a path through the Coast Ranges, it carries with it pieces of the range; silt, sand, and gravel. Where the creek asymptotically flattens upon reaching the valley floor, this material, alluvium, falls out as the creek flow slows and loses energy. The creek constantly moves and reworks the alluvium along its braided channel.The alluvium forms a rich and sought after source of aggregate, sand and gravel, the essential ingredient of concrete. As a result, the Cache Creek sand and gravel deposits have been extensively mined to support our headlong journey into the Anthropocene. Satellite views show a number of surface mines along the stream course.”
owktree writes—Daily Bucket: Marymere Falls and Ruby Beach: “Photos in this diary from a few stops along US-101 in Washington while driving from Port Angeles, WA to Astoria, OR during week 2 of the PNW vacation in late June of 2018. First stop was at the ranger station by Crescent Lake in Olympic NP. That is the start of a trail into the forest to Marymere Falls.”
Lenny Flank writes—Fungus Among Us: A Walk in Freedom Park: “Freedom Park, in Williamsburg VA, gets it name because of a few wooden cabins inside the park. In 1803, farmer William Lee died. In his will, he granted freedom to his three slaves and also set aside a sum of money to be used to construct cabins for them at Green Spring. They were eventually joined there by other freedmen, and the village became known as ‘The Free Black Settlement.’ Today, the area is part of Freedom Park, and three cabins have been reconstructed there as an exhibit. On the day I visited the park, it had been raining a few days, and the mushrooms were out in profusion. So here are some photos of the park and its fungi. [...] “Mushrooms” are actually the fruiting body of fungi that are largely invisible and live as a network of fine threads penetrating the soil. Here are some of the mushrooms seen in the park. If anyone who is more fungus-knowledgeable than I can ID any of these, that’d be great. :)”
OceanDiver writes—The Daily Bucket - smoke: “I’ve been away from home the past few days, elsewhere in western Washington. Home last night. The wildfire smoke is really bad right now. Started moving in again Sunday night. Yesterday morning wasn’t extreme but throughout the day it deteriorated big time. [...] I went out for a quick look at the bay before dark yesterday evening to check it out. The view above was at about 6:30pm. Sunset isn’t until after 8m these days but you can see how dark it was already. [...] The smoke is actually blowing out to sea, as easterly and northeasterly winds send wildfire smoke from British Columbia and Eastern Washington. The forecast is for an onshore flow tomorrow night but it will take another day to push all that toward the east, clearing western Washington. Somebody on my Facebook feed, grousing about this nasty toxic miasma we’re in now, actually asked Why are we getting these fires all of a sudden? There really are folks out there so cocooned they have no awareness of the unprecedented effects the world has been seeing this summer from global warming, much less the heat, dry forests, changing wind patterns, etc, right here in the Pacific Northwest. Seems incredible, but if anything might get these folks’ attention, seems like this might.”
Pakalolo writes—California's wildfire smoke nearly engulfed subtropical storm Ernesto in the Atlantic: “Post-Tropical Storm Ernesto is currently battering parts of the United Kingdom and Ireland today with rain and strong winds that remarkably carry wildfire smoke from California and Canadian. The storm that formed in the Atlantic was “choked” by the 3 largest wildfires from California on August 16, 2018. The smoke wafted over 3000 miles across America before meeting the sub-tropical storm that was forming in the Atlantic. That smoke is able to travel that far is not unheard of, but it is extremely rare according to atmospheric scientists. Mark Kaufman of Mashable notes that the collision event “is yet another stark consequence of climate change enhancing Earth's natural processes”. Wildfires are a natural summer occurrence, but record heat in North America has desiccated the soil and vegetation in the Western U.S. and Canada enabling deadly and expansive firestorms to form. Mashable makes the critical point that it takes a lot of smoke to create this kind of global impact. California provided the necessary smoke for the phenomenon.”
CLIMATE CHAOSI
Pakalolo writes—Arctic’s strongest sea ice breaks up for the first time on record: “Arctic sea ice works as the planet’s air conditioner in that it keeps the polar regions cold and helps keep the global climate stable, according to the NSIDC. Sea ice has a bright white surface so that nearly 80% of the sunlight that strikes it is reflected back into space. When sea ice melts, it exposes the darker ocean surface. The dark water does not reflect solar energy but instead absorbs 90% of the sunlight while heating the ocean and causing Arctic temperatures to rise further. In climate science, this is called the albedo effect, and, it is a vicious feedback loop that should scare the bejeebus out of people. The Arctic Ocean’s thickest and oldest sea ice is located to the north of Greenland and in the Canadian Archipelago. The seawater in this area is frozen, even in the summer. The media has reported, without mentioning climate change of course, on this freakish weather year with records that have been broken for heat waves, floods, droughts, and wildfires in the world’s temperate zones; it also broke records in the Arctic, the fastest warming region on Earth.”
Pakalolo writes—One of Ryan Zinke’s high-school football buddies is blocking the nation's climate research: “Steve Howke, one of Zinke’s high-school friends, oversees this unprecedented review process required by Zinke. Howke is a Senior Advisor to Acting Assistant Secretary of Policy, Management and Budget Scott Cameron at the Department of the Interior. [...] Howke’s highest degree is a bachelor’s in business administration. Until Zinke appointed him as an interior department senior adviser to the acting assistant secretary of policy, management and budget, Howke had spent his entire career working in credit unions. The department, which manages a significant portion of the US landmass, has attributed the slower pace of funding approval to efforts to reduce ‘waste, fraud and abuse.’ Yet the policy, which has been in place for six months, is already hindering some research. One of the largest programs affected is the Climate Adaptation Science Centers, a network of eight regionally focused research centers located at universities across the country.”
Groundnut writes—It is Reasonable to Call Big disasters Climate Change: “Certain kinds of weather disasters should be called ‘climate change.’ The new methods of scientific attribution of a single event is causing confusion. A large disaster is chosen and modeled on a computer. The model will examine the probability of the event in a warming vs. a pre-industrial world. If the likely-hood of that event increases enough with climate change they will say global warming was a factor. The science of attributing individual events is driven by improvements in modeling local effects, which is interesting to scientists. Every year the meteorological society publishes a list of papers on individual events, to see if a climate connection can be made. In the 2016 report a grim milestone was passed in that there were 3 events , all heat waves, that could not be modeled using a pre-industrial earth, and could thus be unequivocally attributed to climate change. This is vary alarming, but it did not mean that there has not been a clear connection between climate and disasters for a long time. This same problem exists with smoking.”
Susan Strong writes—Framing Our Climate March Messages to Persuade: September 2018: “So the next step in our strategic framing process is being clear about our various audiences’ feelings. My thinking is that politicians are feeling very nervous right now, in view of the coming election. The other, non-hard core GOP groups described above might be united in horror at something the current administration and Congress are doing. What they may also be feeling is despair and hopelessness, as well as rage and helplessness. Those same feelings are no doubt shared by all shades of Democrats and Independents, as we watch the Administration and Congress destroy not only all previous steps to contain climate damage, but every existing measure to keep our air, water, and coastal seas clean. The August 5, 2018 New York Times magazine just published a bitter 30 year history of fossil fuel industry lying and public manipulation designed to stop all efforts to make the clean energy shift we must have. But feeding people’s rage and despair with angry, negative, sarcastic, satiric, or ironic slogans, no matter how witty, won’t give them (or us) anything new. What’s needed most is the story of what we want instead and our right to it. Stories like that can persuade.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—My Cousin Venny: The Six Overlapping Conditions That Give Rise to Denial: “Writing in CleanTechnica last week, Michael Barnard summarized the six overlapping conditions that taken together, can explain the existence of climate change denial. While not necessarily presenting anything we haven’t covered before, it’s an illustrative example of why writing that ignores any one of the six elements tells an incomplete story. The issue is these factors are often portrayed as competing. Is it Daniel Kahan’s cultural cognition theory, that tribalism that prevents Republicans from accepting the scientific reality that fossil fuels drive climate change? Or is it Lewandowsky’s conspiracy ideation that allows for people to accept the wacky alternative explanations? Or is it the fault of decades of industry-funded misinformation? The answer is yes, to all of them. By thinking about them as an overlapping set of conditions instead of separate phenomena, Barnard is able to distill the complexities of the psychological, political and sociological factors at play into a simple image.”
Hatrax writes—Climate, Trash, Pollution... How Much Can We Do? How Much of a Difference Have We Already Made? “This diary consists of a single, long-winded question about climate change. I’m hoping to engage any Kossacks who are climate scientists, meteorologists, scientists in general, or have great lay knowledge of climate science, recycling, and pollution to possibly give me an answer. [...] I’m old enough to remember when Lake Erie was essentially dead, and you’d have to be crazy to eat a fish you caught out of it. Now, people fish there all the time, and I wouldn’t mind swimming in its waters at all. So positive change can happen. But climate change keeps getting worse. So my question is this: how much of an impact am I, are we, really having? I guess the question is: if things are this bad with human-made climate change, how much worse would things be if we didn’t have things like community recycling programs and gas mileage standards? How much more full would the landfills be? How much of an impact are we really having, and is there a way to make a significant dent in the Sword of Damocles hanging over all our heads?”
MindysTURN writes—PG&E’s Negligence A Much Bigger To Threat to Climate Than Its’ Bankruptcy: "Wildfires are so damaging to the quality of our air that they jeopardize much of the progress our state has made to reduce emissions from fossil fuels. The long-term climate impacts of these fires are even worse than current conditions indicate. Charred and burnt forests continue to expel an especially toxic form of black carbon for years. But that threat to our environment should not be confused with PG&E’s threats of bankruptcy. While PG&E’s management has repeatedly blamed climate change for recent wildfires, climate change doesn’t ignite wildfires, although it may cause them to spread more quickly. It’s even more disingenuous for PG&E to suggest that its bankruptcy would somehow impact its’ financial ability to continue ‘climate progress’ in California, as both the company and Governor Brown have. The truth is that PG &E’s renewable energy purchases and subsidy programs for everything from EV chargers to solar panels come directly out of customers’ pockets. Investors don’t pay for those projects. So unless PG&E is planning to divert the money customers pay for clean green electricity into payouts for damages, green energy programs won’t be impacted by PGE&’s wildfire liabilities."
craigdewe writes—Donald Trump’s Scientific Illiteracy Is Killing Our Planet: “In a recent speech to some big-money donors of his, Donald Trump hilariously ranted about such nonsense as ‘clean coal,’ and claimed that windmills were responsible for killing birds ... and that birds were responsible for killing windmills. Truly, the transcript which illustrates the president’s baffling incompetence when it comes to being coherent or logical in any way must be read to be believed. As funny as it may be to laugh at the president’s stupidity, the death of our planet is no laughing matter. All jokes aside, President Trump is an obvious threat to the wellbeing of his own people, particularly since he’s so eager to roll back regulations that will let fossil fuels dump more poison into our atmosphere and streams. Americans deserve a president who appreciates and respects the findings of fact-loving scientist. As long as Donald Trump is in charge, we’ll never have a leader who cares about our the health of our nation or longevity of the environment.”
Extreme Weather & Natural Phenomena
terrypinder writes—Category 5 Hurricane Lane approaches Hawaii: “Hurricane warnings are up for the Big Island, and Hurricane watches are up for the remaining islands. [Hurricane] Lane will take several days to move past and through the Hawaiian Islands, with the worst beginning Thursday, Hawaii time. Sea surface temperatures are warm enough to support a major hurricane, but land interaction with the tall volcanoes, and increasing shear, should weaken the hurricane some. Nevertheless, this could still be a catastrophic event for the entire state.”
OCEANS, WATER, DROUGHT
Dan Bacher writes—Breaking: State Water Board delays meeting on San Joaquin River flows until November 7: “This just in from the State Water Resources Control Board in Sacramento, California: Recognizing the complexity and sensitivity of its work to update flow requirements for the Lower San Joaquin River and its tributaries—the Stanislaus, Tuolumne and Merced rivers – the State Water Resources Control Board announced it will continue its meeting until Nov. 7. After receiving extensive written comments and hearing many hours of testimony from a wide range of perspectives over the past two days, the Board formally continued the meeting to Nov. 7. Testimony was heard from more than 150 individuals and groups. Continuing the meeting and deferring final action on this complex and critical decision will provide the State Water Board members with additional time to weigh and consider the information and comments.”
Dan Bacher writes—Fishermen, tribal members and conservationists push for increased flows on San Joaquin River: “One day before the State Water Resources Control Board’s hearing on increased flows for the San Joaquin River and its three tributaries was held in Sacramento on August 21, Jonas Minton, Senior Water Policy Advisory for the Planning and Conservation League, expressed exactly what is is at at stake in the board’s decision. ‘The truth is the truth. Fish need water,’ said Minton at a press conference held by a coalition of environmental organizations, Northern California Indian tribal members, and commercial and recreational fishing organizations on the West Steps of the State Capitol. ‘In the 23 years since the Plan was last updated the fisheries of the Sacramento - San Joaquin watershed have been decimated, some to the very edge of extinction,’ said Minton. ‘Californians cannot afford further delays in the adoption of strong standards that protect our rivers for current and future generations’.”
Dan Bacher writes—Secretary Zinke issues memo to maximize Central Valley project deliveries at expense of fisheries: “On Friday, August 17, U.S. Secretary of Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke issued a controversial memo calling for actions to be taken to “maximize Central Valley Project deliveries” to agribusiness and other water contractors. These actions include “streamlining” Endangered Species Act (ESA) and National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) consultations, reassessing legal interpretations, identifying infrastructure upgrades, and preparing legislative and litigation measures. Fishing groups, conservation organizations, Tribes and environmental justice groups oppose these actions that will result in diverting water needed to restore imperiled populations of salmon, steelhead and other fish species in the San Joaquin, Sacramento and Klamath/Trinity River watersheds. The memo was spurred by the apparent failure of negotiations on water between the state and federal government. ‘While the State and Federal Governments have engaged in negotiations, our infrastructure has degraded,’ wrote Zinke.”
Lefty Coaster writes—Michigan judge rules state's Health Director will face criminal charges for Flint's Water Crisis: “It’s about time someone were held accountable for this tragedy that we call Flint's Water Crisis. This was a man-made disaster fueled by cheapskate Republicans who were only focused on the money involved. Michigan official faces manslaughter trial over Flint deaths A judge on Monday ordered Michigan’s health director to stand trial for involuntary manslaughter in two deaths linked to Legionnaires’ disease in the Flint area, the highest-ranking official to face criminal charges as a result of the city’s tainted water scandal. Nick Lyon is accused of failing to issue a timely alert about the outbreak. District Court Judge David Goggins said deaths likely could have been prevented if the outbreak had been publicly known. He said keeping the public in the dark was ‘corrupt.’ When the judge announced his decision, a woman in the gallery said, ‘Yes, yes, yes’.”
BYPRODUCTS, TRASH, TOXIC & RADIOACTIVE WASTE
lone1c writes—Toward a sustainable world: Kroger stores to phase out single-use bags—by 2025: “The Kroger supermarket chains have recently announced that they are, over the next seven years, going to phase out single-use plastic bags from their stores [...] So they’re on the right path but there is a legitimate concern that they’re dragging out the process significantly. Seven years is a long time in a crisis that’s growing in urgency every day. However, if this means moving to a system of recyclable and reusable bags similar to what is done in Europe, the long-term impact should be manageable both from the environmental and consumer relations perspectives. (You are charged in many European countries for shopping bags, but the bags are of sufficient quality and durability that they’re actually worth paying for!)”
ENERGY
Fossil Fuels
Merlin1963 writes—Pig-pen Trump to Roll in Coal to Wash Away His Woes and Help Republicans This Fall: “Trump was in WV tonight soothing his raging psyche and bringing lumps of coal for the people’s stockings: The Trump administration has hailed its overhaul of federal pollution restrictions on coal-burning power plants as creating new jobs, eliminating burdensome government regulations and ending what President Trump has long described as a ‘war on coal.’ The administration’s own analysis, however, revealed on Tuesday that the new rules could also lead to as many as 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 from an increase in the extremely fine particulate matter that is linked to heart and lung disease, up to 15,000 new cases of upper respiratory problems, a rise in bronchitis, and tens of thousands of missed school days. Those poverty stricken kids in Appalachia don’t need no stinkin’ school days to get them some edumacation. Clean and indestructable coal is coming back and bringing jobs!”
Dan Bacher writes—50+ Bay Area Officials Call on Gov. Brown to Phase Out Oil and Gas Production in California Dan Bacher: “Echoing severe concerns that fossil fuel production threatens the health and safety of residents, scores of Bay Area officials are joining with more than 150 local officials from a majority of counties across California calling on Governor Jerry Brown calling for a statewide plan to phase out oil and gas drilling. The growing network of state, county, and city officials, Elected Officials to Protect California, is taking action both within their respective districts and across California to end the extraction of dirty fossil fuel that harms their constituents and the environment. The network is urging Gov. Brown to take the first step by halting permits for new fossil fuel projects, prohibiting drilling within 2,500 feet of homes and vulnerable areas and committing the state to 100 percent renewable energy. ‘Despite its reputation as a global climate leader, California is one of the nation’s top oil-producing states. As we see the crisis of growing fires, we should take the opportunity to improve both our economy and our public health by moving toward more sustainable transportation and energy strategies that benefit our community’, said Rebecca Kaplan, Councilmember, City of Oakland.”
Dan Bacher writes—Brown's Last Chance Activists Arrested in Sit In Against New Oil Drilling at CA State Capitol: “The California Highway Patrol arrested four activists as they tied themselves to a mock ‘oil derrick,’ sang songs and blocked the driveway of the entrance to the garage at the State Capitol on Monday, August 20. The arrests were the culmination of a day of protest against Governor Jerry Brown’s expansion of offshore and onshore drilling in California. The day began with a press conference on the sidewalk of the north steps of the State Capitol, followed by a sit outside the doors of the Governor’s Office inside the State Capitol. People participating in the sit in sang songs, including ‘Which side are on you on, Jerry Brown?’ They also shouted chants, including “No justice, no peace, no oil relief.” However, the climate justice advocates weren’t arrested until they blockaded the entrance to the capitol garage, where the legislators, governor’s staff and other officials park.”
Dan Bacher writes—Most of the 21,000 oil wells approved under Gov. Brown are in low-income areas, communities of color: “Despite California’s image as a ‘green’ and ‘progressive’ leader, there has been a massive expansion of oil and gas drilling in the state under Governor Jerry Brown — and most of these new wells are located in communities with above average poverty rates and/or communities of color. The state’s Division of Oil, Gas and Geothermal Resources (DOGGR) approved 21,397 new wells between Jan. 1, 2011 and April 14, 2018, according to a new analysis from the Center for Biological Diversity (CBD). ‘Of the 16,554 of those wells with available geographic information, 76 percent are located in communities with above-average poverty rates for California, while 67 percent are located in communities of color,’ said CBD in a press release. The total number of wells includes the hundreds of offshore wells approved under the Brown administration. Brown’s regulators approved 238 new wells in state waters under existing leases in Ventura and Los Angeles Counties in just four years, from 2012 to 2016.”
Emissions Controls & Carbon Pricing
Meteor Blades writes—Trump regime's lethal 'dirty power plan' includes a blockheaded retreat on conserving oil: “As if the ACE plan weren’t retrograde enough, in a July memo from the Department of Energy in support of another of the regime’s witless energy moves—rolling back vehicle mileage standards—the message is essentially that conserving oil no longer matters. The memo, of course, made no mention of climate change. But it does say that increased use of natural gas ‘affects the need of the nation to conserve energy’ and that hydraulic fracturing to free petroleum from shale formations has given “’United States more flexibility than in the past to use our oil resources with less concern’: But Tom Kloza, an oil analyst with the Maryland-based Oil Price Information Service, said: ‘It’s like saying, “I’m a big old fat guy, and food prices have dropped—it’s time to start eating again.” ‘If you look at it from the other end, if you do believe that fossil fuels do some sort of damage to the atmosphere ... you come up with a different viewpoint. There’s a downside to living large.’ Of course, if you don’t believe in human-caused climate change, which is true of many of Trump’s top minions and at least half the Republican members of Congress, then there is no downside. They ignore growing worldwide climate impacts that are already killing people. But then lots of these fellows no doubt think they’ll be dead before anything serious happens where they live, or figuring they and their ilk can just move to higher ground, without taking into account myriad other effects of a warming world that have nothing to do with sea-level rise. They also figure they can keep driving whatever guzzler gives them the most pleasure and prestige because they’ll be in the cemetery before anyone can hold them to account.”
Rmuse writes—Trump's EPA destroys his justification for slashing California fuel economy standard: “It is no joke. Trump’s EPA is promoting an archaic idea to frighten Americans to convince them that California’s fuel efficiency targets have to be drastically weakened to prevent more Americans from dying. It is noteworthy that 17 other states have joined a California-led coalition suing to block Trump’s gift to big oil because it includes revoking ‘the authority California and other states were granted under the Clean Air Act to pursue clean air targets’– something that actually protects citizens’ health. Now California and its cohort states have Trump’s EPA warnings to justify their battle to provide their residents something every American alive likely believes is not insane – higher fuel efficiency automobiles and cleaner air due to less carbon emissions.”
Dartagnan writes—Trump's EPA admits thousands of Americans will suffer and die from rollbacks announced today: “In its heedless and myopic rush to wipe out everything good the Obama Administration ever did for American citizens, the Trump Administration targeted President Obama's Clean Power Plan, an effort to speed up the closure of antiquated, polluting, poison-chemical-and CO2-churning coal-fired power plants around the country. Its replacement is a wholly industry-written plan that does little or nothing to reduce the harmful effects of these plants both to the immediate environment, and their long term harm to the world’s climate. It would be charitable to say that at least they are being honest about it, but the truth is more likely that no one in the Administration bothered to take the time to read it. WASHINGTON — The Trump administration on Tuesday made public the details of its new pollution rules governing coal-burning power plants, and the fine print includes an acknowledgment that the plan would increase carbon emissions and lead to up to 1,400 premature deaths annually. As Trump travels today to West Virginia to brag about how he’s making coal great again, even he is probably unaware that his plan actually spells out how many more Americans will die because of it.”
Dartagnan writes—Trump Set To Brag About Allowing Release Of Hundreds Of Millions Of Tons Of CO2 Into Atmosphere: “On Tuesday Donald Trump will take a break from tweeting and travel somewhere, West Virginia most likely, where he will stand in front of a crowd of loudly cheering, MAGA hat-wearing, ignorant racists and brag about how he’s destroying the environment their children and grandchildren will grow up in. The audience will eat it up. President Trump plans this week to unveil a proposal that would empower states to establish emission standards for coal-fired power plants rather than speeding their retirement — a major overhaul of the Obama administration’s signature climate policy. The plan, which is projected to release at least 12 times the amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere compared with the Obama rule over the next decade, comes as scientists have warned that the world will experience increasingly dire climate effects absent a major cut in carbon emissions. Americans who voted for Trump knew exactly what they were getting. He promised them a return to the filthiest form of energy the nation produces, so a few thousand coal miners could continue to toil in one of the most dangerous and deadly jobs imaginable, for an industry whose insiders knew full well was on death’s door.”
First Amendment writes—Make America sick again: E.P.A. predicts that new Trump coal pollution rules will kill 1,400 people: “America continues going dangerously backwards under Donald Trump. The E.P.A. admits and predicts that Donald Trump’s new coal pollution rules will lead to more pollution and more deaths: The Trump administration on Tuesday made public the details of its new pollution rules governing coal-burning power plants, and the fine print includes an acknowledgment that the plan would increase carbon emissions and lead to up to 1,400 premature deaths annually. The proposal, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, is a replacement for the Obama-era Clean Power Plan, which was an aggressive effort to speed up the closures of coal-burning plants, one of the main producers of greenhouse gases, by setting national targets for cutting carbon dioxide emissions and encouraging utilities to use cleaner energy sources like wind and solar. 1,400 more premature deaths. More pollution in our air, that’s linked to heart and lung disease. The Trump administration is destroying our environment one executive order at a time.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Trump Okay Killing 1,400 Americans Annually in Order to Not Save Coal: “President Donald Trump and acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler announced the proposed replacement for Obama’s Clean Power Plan yesterday, the Affordable Clean Energy rule. But its own analysis admits, the new rule is neither affordable nor clean. But it is an energy plan, and one that is a gift to the coal industry. The Administration's said plenty about how great the policy supposedly is. What they didn’t say, however, is the proposal’s Regulatory Impact Analysis, as NYTimes’ Lisa Friedman reported, acknowledges that as many as 1,400 Americans could die every year by 2030 due to the increase smog and soot from dirty fossil fuels. (The CPP would have saved some estimated 3,500 lives a year, though as many as 80,000 more people will die per decade because of Trump’s other regulatory rollbacks.) The RIA also admits that the new rule would forego billions in public health benefits that the CPP would have saved--so much so that the costs from increased health effects would outweigh the financial benefits of the replacement rule. PoliticoPRO reports that the health impacts of the new rule would lead to net costs of $12.8 to $72 billion through 2037.”
FlannelGuy writes—Who Loves Oil? We All Love Oil! ”I drive a 4-cyl SUV, which gets about 32-34 mpg under most conditions. It’s great for me because of my commute. And it’s affordable for my fuel budget. That’s a conscious decision I made based on my personal situation. I’d much rather have a nice pickup though, like we did when I was a kid. It does not mean, though, that I am in favor of moving to lower the federal fuel-economy standards. That leap of logic just does not compute to this middle-aged dude. Unfortunately, our current administration seems to think that lowering the standards is a splendid idea. According to them, ‘Conserving oil is no longer an economic imperative for the U.S.’ Even under the oil-infused administration of W, this was not so blatantly discussed out in the open. Heck, W even signed the Lightbulb Law. For this current administration though, the spigot must stay flowing freely. The Department of Energy is once again giving Interior a run for its $$ as the dumbest cabinet-level agency seen right now when it recently announced a move to relax fuel economy standards, noting that increased production of oil was more than enough reason to say, ‘nope, let’s reverse course’.”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—The Not-So-New New Source Review Change in Trump’s Dirty Power Plan: “One of the biggest hopes of deniers for Trump’s presidency remains that the administration will overturn the Endangerment Finding, which requires the EPA to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Fortunately, the administration still appears reluctant to touch the Finding.The Dirty Power Plan is the latest evidence: if Trump’s team were going to try and overturn the Endangerment Finding, they would simply have repealed the Clean Power Plan and fought the finding in court. But the replacement is an attempt to provide the weakest possible enforcement of the rule, technically meeting its requirements while allowing as much coal as possible. That’s why one of the biggest problems the Trump administration is likely to face when it defends its Dirty Power Plan in court will be the likelihood that, as Emily Atkin at the New Republic recently pointed out, it actually increases pollution compared to no policy at all. Atkin’s surprising conclusion comes from a change to something called the New Source Review rule. Meredith Hankins at Legal Planet has a great explainer on the policy, which has something of a storied courtroom history that should worry polluters and offer some hope to the rest of us.”
Renewables, Efficiency & Conservation
R Holloway writes—No, Donald Trump. Wind turbines do NOT kill more birds than fossil fuels: “Among the several lies that Donald Trump told at a recent political fundraiser speech (Utica, NY--August 13, 2018) to boost fossil fuels at the expense of clean energy, there was one that is particularly pernicious, and that is the implication (a favorite of the climate-change denialists precisely because it is so pernicious) that fossil fuels are more bird-friendly than wind power: You can blow up a pipeline, you can blow up the windmills. You know, the wind wheels, [mimics windmill noise, mimes shooting gun] Bing! That's the end of that one. If the birds don't kill it first. The birds could kill it first. They kill so many birds. You look underneath some of those windmills, it's like a killing field, the birds. We know that this implication is a lie (of the red-herring species), because the peer-reviewed academic research tells a totally contradictory story: ... wind farms are responsible for roughly 0.27 avian fatalities per gigawatt-hour (GWh) of electricity while nuclear power plants involve 0.6 fatalities per GWh and fossil-fueled power stations are responsible for about 9.4 fatalities per GWh. What is true is that conventional wind turbines do constitute a threat to birds, and as a society we should do everything we reasonably can to reduce that threat.”
Pipelines & Other Oil and Gas Transport
Michael Brune writes—How to Beat a Pipeline: “As anyone who opposed Keystone XL between 2008 and 2016 knows, stopping a major pipeline isn’t exactly easy even when the president actually cares about the environment. With fossil-fuel–fetishizing Donald Trump in charge, it should be even harder. And yet we’ve seen major setbacks for three significant pipeline projects: the Nebraska section of the Keystone XL pipeline, which would carry tar sands oil, and the Atlantic Coast and Mountain Valley pipelines, which both would carry fracked gas. That’s great news because these pipeline projects are dirty, dangerous, and unnecessary. Besides the obvious environmental risks to lands and waterways, building pipelines has serious human consequences, both in terms of property seized and exposure to toxic pollution. On top of that, at a time when we should be doing all we can to transition quickly to clean and inexpensive renewable energy, building unnecessary pipeline infrastructure is like forging our own dirty-fuel shackles. So how is it that, with Donald Trump as president, we can win pipeline battles?”
ClimateDenierRoundup writes—Pipeline Protest Stories Show Difference Between Real Reporting and Daily Caller Garbage: “Two stories this weekend, one from the Washington Post and the other from the Daily Caller, demonstrate the two ways to report on the colorful characters often found at protests. One way is to tell the subjects’ story with dignity and respect, providing important context while still playing up the oddball characters to keep things interesting. The other is the “point and laugh” style, which mocks protesters to generate clicks, while being devoid of any real insight. You can guess which outlet went with which style. The Washington Post beckoned readers with the enticing odd-couple headline for Gregory Schneider’s story, ‘The Baptists and the yogis join to fight a pipeline.’ It’s a cheeky and enticing description of what turns out to be a relatively blatant example of environmental racism. The protest revolves around the small Virginia community of Union Hill, founded by freed slaves after the Civil War, and Yogaville, a yoga retreat founded in 1979. As part of the (troubled) Atlantic Coast Pipeline, Dominion Energy is planning on putting a compressor station in the area. A common enemy has made friends of Yogaville’s Swami Dayananda and Rev. Paul Wilson, who ‘calls himself an evangelical, apostolic, Pentecostal preacher who believes the Bible is the literal word of God.’ In the face of Dominion’s planned pollution, the two have formed an unlikely, or at least uncommon, bond between their spiritual communities.”
MISCELLANY
Bret VandenBos writes—Freeways can give us cleaner air. Is that something you’d be interested in? “These policies have the added benefit of being practical, tangible, and physical—as opposed to the kind of 40-year commitments and percentage targets we often hear about on the state or national level. One particularly interesting project along these lines can be found in the western hemisphere’s most polluted metropolis, Mexico City,though it’s not without potential tradeoffs. There, a project called Via Verde is bringing vertical gardens to freeway pillars. Now at the moment, the scale of this project is somewhat limited, but the implications are compelling. Using reclaimed rainwater, the vertical gardens will filter an estimated 27,000 tons of toxic exhaust fumes annually. That equals cleaner air for 25,000 people and a greener, more vibrant cityscape. The plan is to expand these vertical gardens to more than 1,000 freeway pillars across Mexico City, and it’s currently financed entirely by the private sector.”
Hulying B Chan writes—Prisoners risk their lives fighting California wildfires for $2 a day: “Wildfires continue to ravage California. Instead of hiring firefighters to put out the fires, the government is turning to the labor of incarcerated people. Over 3,400 incarcerated people risk their lives every day to tackle the wildfires. While the average California firefighter earns $74,000 plus benefits, imprisoned people are paid as little as $2 a day. By relying on prison labor, California avoids spending $80 to $100 million a year. I first learned about the exploitation of imprisoned laborers during the snowpocalypse that hit Boston in 2015. Imprisoned workers were paid 20 cents an hour for shoveling the city in the freezing cold no one else wanted to venture in. It dawned on me then that prison wasn’t just about gruesome punishment; it’s about profit. And prison labor is responsible for more of this country’s everyday products and services than is let on. Today, the United States holds 5 percent of the world’s population, and incarcerates 25 percent of the world’s prisoners. Over 2 million people are separated from their families, deprived of basic human rights, abused, and left to suffer in cages. Incarceration has increased by 500 percent in the last 40 years even though crime rates have decreased. Over half of all federal prisoners are incarcerated for a nonviolent drug offense.”