Public health officials in Colorado are urging the public to be vigilant after a squirrel tested positive for bubonic plague. Courtney McGough / Flickr
The plague has recently seen an uptick in cases, and the World Health Organization has categorized it as a re-emerging disease. That's why public health officials in Colorado are urging people to be vigilant after a squirrel tested positive for bubonic plague.
<p>The squirrel was found in the town of Morrison, west of Denver. Jefferson County Public Health (JCPH) officials announced the discovery of the plague-infected squirrel in <a href="https://www.jeffco.us/CivicAlerts.aspx?AID=1275" target="_blank">a statement</a> over the weekend. It's the first case of plague in the county, according to the statement, as <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/bubonic-plague-colorado-squirrels-test-positive/" target="_blank">CBS News</a> reported.</p><p>"Plague is an infectious disease caused by the bacteria Yersinia pestis, and can be contracted by humans and household animals if proper precautions are not taken," officials from JCPH said in the statement.</p>
<p>The county was prompted to test the squirrels after someone in Morrison reported seeing at least 15 dead squirrels around the town. Officials tested one, and since it was positive for bubonic plague, they expect others to be infected, according to CBS News.</p><p>The disease has been around for centuries and is responsible for the deadliest pandemic in human history. An estimated 50 million people in Europe died during the Black Death pandemic of the Middle Ages. JCPH warns the public that it can infect both humans and animals if proper precautions are not taken, according to <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/14/us/bubonic-plague-squirrel-scn-trnd/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>Every year, there are approximately 1,000 to 2,000 reported cases, but that is likely an undercounted number as there are many unreported cases, according to the WHO, as CNN reported. The U.S. reports up to a few dozen cases every year, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Two people died in Colorado from the plague in 2015, according to CNN.</p>
<p>Rodents are the main vector of plague transmission from animals to humans, but the disease can also be passed on through flea bites or from person to person. People can be infected from direct contact with blood or tissues of infected animals such as a cough or a bite, according to <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/squirrel-tests-positive-bubonic-plague-colorado/story?id=71769840" target="_blank">ABC News</a>.</p><p>That danger hit home on the other side of the world this week when a teenage boy in Mongolia died from bubonic plague after eating a marmot, according to a separate report from <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/07/15/asia/mongolia-plague-death-scli-intl/index.html" target="_blank">CNN</a>.</p><p>Marmots are large ground squirrels, a type of rodent, that have historically been linked to plague outbreaks in the region. Tests confirmed the teenager had contracted bubonic plague and authorities imposed quarantine measures in the Tugrug district of Gobi-Altai province, according to CNN.</p><p>The quarantine began on Sunday, but so far the 15 people authorities isolated who came into contact with the teenager have all been healthy.</p>
<p>JCPH warned pet owners that cats are highly susceptible to the plague from things like flea bites, a rodent scratch or bite, and ingesting an infected rodent. Cats can die if not treated quickly with antibiotics after contact with the plague. Dogs, on the other hand, are far less likely to pick up the plague. However, they can contract it through fleabites, according to ABC News.</p><p>In its statement, JCPH recommended several precautions to protect against the plague, including eliminating sources of food and shelter for wild animals, avoiding sick or dead wild animals and rodents, and consulting with vets about flea and tick control, as CBS News reported</p><p>"Risk for getting plague is extremely low as long as precautions are taken," the statement said.</p><p>The statement also added that plague symptoms include sudden onset of high fever, chills, headache, nausea and extreme pain and swelling of lymph nodes, which could occur within two to seven days after exposure to the bacteria.</p>
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More than 1,000 people were told to evacuate their homes when a wildfire ignited in the foothills west of Denver Monday, Colorado Public Radio reported.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Elephant Butte Fire sparked in Evergreen, Colorado around 2:30 p.m., <a href="https://kdvr.com/news/local/elephant-butte-fire-in-evergreen-what-we-know/" target="_blank">KDVR reported</a>. As of Tuesday morning, it had spread to 50 acres and was zero percent contained, the Jefferson County Sheriff's Office tweeted.</p>
<div id="ee717" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c382c3bf5156f3c108c5b46303ead1d1"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1283030707460354051" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Day 2 Update on the #ElephantButteFire Fire is still at 50 acres in size with zero containment. No evacuation order… https://t.co/1BF7UMdl6f</div> — Jeffco Sheriff (@Jeffco Sheriff)<a href="https://twitter.com/jeffcosheriffco/statuses/1283030707460354051">1594733332.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>One of the families forced to evacuate Monday told <a href="https://denver.cbslocal.com/2020/07/13/elephant-butte-fire-lincoln-family/" target="_blank">CBS4</a> the land they fled had been in the family for 100 years.</p><p>"It's completely made out of wood. It's a 104-year-old house. I've lived there all my life," teenager Aidan Lincoln told CBS4. "It's been there since before my dad was born. It means a lot to my family."</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Right now we’re at 700 homes evacuated in the <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/ElephantButte?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#ElephantButte</a> fire in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Evergreen?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Evergreen</a>. I talked with a 17 year old who was in tears believing his family home has gone up.<br>Latest on <a href="https://twitter.com/CBSDenver?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@CBSDenver</a> <a href="https://t.co/EAhaVawPN4">pic.twitter.com/EAhaVawPN4</a></p>— Alan Gionet (@AlanGTV) <a href="https://twitter.com/AlanGTV/status/1282824359397208067?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 13, 2020</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p>Lincoln feared the family home had caught fire, but the sheriff's office says no homes have been lost. Fire officials also said no one had been injured as of 6:30 p.m. Monday, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/07/13/evergreen-wildfire-elephant-butte-fire/" target="_blank">The Denver Post reported</a>.</p><p>The fire is burning in the Upper Bear Creek Road and Overlook Trail area, according to Evergreen Fire Rescue. The evacuation area initially covered a five-mile radius and around 250 homes but was later increased to cover around 1,000 homes. The Elk Meadow and Alderfer/Three Sisters parks were also both closed because of the blaze.</p>
<div id="e2b09" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e665c6f540754d83a6eb94ba8f6e04fa"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1282818933762875393" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Elk Meadow and Alderfer/Three Sisters Parks are both CLOSED due to the #elephantbuttefire #jeffco @efr_co https://t.co/nyHki32PjB</div> — Jeffco Sheriff (@Jeffco Sheriff)<a href="https://twitter.com/jeffcosheriffco/statuses/1282818933762875393">1594682842.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>There were more than 100 people fighting the fire Monday and at least three air tankers and several helicopters, Colorado Public Radio reported.</p>
<div id="ab90e" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d20a60932bf9aa3d5c9336d1c31edb57"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1282863366071914496" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Though these images were taken about an hour ago, they give you a different perspective of what the… https://t.co/Rcvn7TtlCQ</div> — Jeffco Sheriff (@Jeffco Sheriff)<a href="https://twitter.com/jeffcosheriffco/statuses/1282863366071914496">1594693435.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Monday's weather made battling the flames more difficult. Firefighters on the ground had to pause in their efforts a little before 7 p.m. Monday because of lightning in the area, and wind pushed the fire up into the treetops of one ridge. There was a little rainfall, but it proved disappointing.</p><p>"Unfortunately the rain didn't help as much as we hoped," the sheriff's office wrote on Facebook, as Colorado Public Radio reported.</p><p>Conditions are expected to be more favorable Tuesday because of a cold front, KDVR reported.</p><p>The immediate cause of the fire is under investigation, according to The Denver Post. However, the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a> has helped to increase the size and frequency of wildfires in the Western U.S. Of the more than 40,000 fires that burned from Colorado to California between 1950 and 2017, 61 percent ignited in the last two decades, according to the <a href="https://climate.nasa.gov/blog/2830/six-trends-to-know-about-fire-season-in-the-western-us/" target="_blank">National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)</a>. At the same time, global temperatures have gotten hotter, encouraging ideal fire conditions like high temperatures and dry air.</p><p>"Those fire conditions all fall under weather and climate," NASA Langley Research Center wildfire expert Amber Soja said. "The weather will change as Earth warms, and we're seeing that happen."</p><p>Before the Elephant Butte Fire ignited, Jefferson County had implemented a burn ban because of hot, dry weather, Colorado Public Radio reported.</p>
<p><em>Correction: An earlier version of this article attributed a quote to the sheriff's office on Twitter. The quote was posted on Facebook.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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Across the country, millions of people live within half a mile of fracking sites, like this one in Frederick, Colorado. milehightraveler / Getty Images
By Emily Pontecorvo and Naveena Sadasivam
On a spring weekend morning a few weeks ago, Judy Kelly stepped outside of her house in Broomfield, Colorado, to grab the newspaper when her nose perked up. It smelled like something was burning.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Kelly, who's 73, lives in an upscale, 55-and-up retirement community called Anthem Ranch, which sits below the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. The 1,300-home development is manicured and quiet, with green lawns and landscaped roads that flower out into smaller cul-de-sacs. Its active residents enjoy their own private fitness center, pool, movie theater, and more than 90 clubs that meet in a central community center. But about a quarter of a mile away from the southern border of this retirement dreamland sits a circle of fortress-like walls that enclose the Livingston fracking site, which contains 18 wells owned by Extraction Oil and Gas.</p><p>Kelly is among <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vLyFee6vdXi_uaZliyDRYTkdKP1wmHoE/view" target="_blank">more than 200</a> Broomfield residents who have submitted complaints to the city since November, reporting chemical smells and symptoms like headaches, burning eyes, and nosebleeds that they believe are caused by oil and gas activity in the area.<span></span></p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI0MDUwMC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0MjUxNTQzMn0.RVnAakHo_HY7Zn933bFrr_AMoraKwiNnqoH98oIbTkQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="fc523" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="906f763cc7878ec90aea69f45896cd18" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An excerpt from an email sent to the city by a resident concerned about the Livingston fracking site.
<p>When she notified the city about the smell that morning, she was told that a city inspector had been on the site already and nothing was wrong. But Kelly was on high alert. Just a few days earlier, Extraction had begun "flowback," a part of the fracking process that is <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2019/10/17/oil-and-gas-drilling-health-impacts-colorado/" target="_blank">associated with</a> <a href="https://garfield-county.com/air-quality/files/sites/33/2019/06/Garfield-County-CSU-Final-Report-presentation-06_16.pdf" target="_blank">some of the highest emission</a> rates of carcinogenic chemicals like benzene. Even under normal circumstances, flowback scared Kelly, who had followed the devastation in neighboring Weld County when one of Extraction's wells <a href="https://www.hcn.org/issues/50.18/energy-industry-how-site-workers-and-firefighters-responding-to-a-2017-natural-gas-explosion-in-windsor-colorado-narrowly-avoided-disaster" target="_blank">exploded</a> during the process in 2017, causing a major fire and injuring a worker. Kelly and her husband, who has pulmonary interstitial fibrosis, a lung disease, had planned on leaving town to stay with their son when flowback at Livingston began.</p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic threw a wrench in those plans. On March 25, when Colorado Governor Jared Polis issued a statewide stay-at-home order to stop the coronavirus's spread, Kelly and her neighbors were suddenly trapped, trying to avoid one health hazard while worrying about being exposed to another. After all, fracking <a href="https://grist.org/energy/coronavirus-has-states-hitting-pause-except-when-it-comes-to-oil-and-gas-drilling/" target="_blank">remained a "critical" business</a>, according to the state.</p><p>"Where am I going to go?" Kelly asked. "I can't go to a hotel. I can't risk that with my husband. I have nowhere to go now."</p><p>Kelly's dilemma is not unique. Across the country, <a href="https://oilandgasthreatmap.com/threat-map/" target="_blank">millions of people</a> live within half a mile of fracking sites and other oil and gas activity and are exposed to a slew of toxic chemicals in their day-to-day lives. <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6616936/" target="_blank">Researchers have found</a> that those living close to fracking are more likely to suffer from cardiovascular and respiratory illnesses — the very underlying conditions that make them more vulnerable to the most severe outcomes from COVID-19. While many residents may have found ways to seek respite from these toxic emissions during normal times — whether it was working or going to school elsewhere, or simply moving in with friends and family during the most intense periods of activity — those options went out the window when state governors began announcing stay-at-home orders.</p><p>For its part, Extraction says that Anthem Ranch residents have nothing to worry about. The company did not respond to Grist's detailed list of questions, but in legal filings and public testimony it has stated that the new technology it uses for flowback has been shown to keep emissions far below the levels associated with traditional techniques. In a complaint filed in a Colorado court, the company's lawyers said that the "anxiety and stress" experienced by Broomfield residents was "self-induced."</p>
Broomfield vs. Extraction
<p>The unsettling bind that the stay-at-home order put many residents in was not lost on Laurie Anderson, a Broomfield city councilwoman who lives just half a mile from the fracking site in another neighborhood called Anthem Highlands. The night Governor Polis' order came down, a special meeting of the city council was scheduled to <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/10m9nX3vilG4IEOl0zJdfMsKIZz68jte8/view" target="_blank">discuss</a> the potential dangers of work continuing at the Livingston site during the pandemic. The council decided to draft a proposal ordering Extraction to postpone flowback — a process where the chemical-laden water used to fracture open the shale flows back to the surface and must be collected, treated, and disposed of — until the stay-at-home order was lifted.</p><p>"The thought was to protect these residents, to delay flowback, understanding that it has to happen because they've already fracked these wells," said Anderson, who is also an organizer for Moms Clean Air Force, a national advocacy group that fights polluters. "It was only going to delay them for a couple weeks."</p><p>Of particular concern was Anthem Ranch, where the median age is 70 years old. The city's public health staff drafted up an order and included <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vLyFee6vdXi_uaZliyDRYTkdKP1wmHoE/view" target="_blank">data</a> showing that people over 65 are more susceptible to COVID-19 complications, that the top symptom reported by older Broomfield residents in the city's <a href="https://broomfield.org/2842/File-an-Immediate-Concern" target="_blank">oil and gas complaint system</a> was "anxiety/stress," and that stress and anxiety are linked to poor health outcomes in general.</p><p>But two days later, before the council could discuss the draft proposal, Extraction headed them off at the pass. The company secured a temporary restraining order from the Seventeenth Judicial District Court in Colorado, which prohibited the city from halting or delaying its operations. According to court documents, Extraction alleged that the city was acting in bad faith, trying to "shut down Extraction's operations not because they pose any real health risk, but because they are unpopular." Then, on March 30, the company filed an official complaint with the district court against the city, seeking damages for a breach of contract.</p><p>It's true that this was far from the first time Broomfield had tried to interfere with Extraction's … extraction. The city has battled the company at every stage of the drilling process in response to complaints from residents about odors, health symptoms, and <a href="https://www.kunc.org/post/broomfield-tried-limiting-oil-and-gas-noise-now-company-pushing-back-0#stream/0" target="_blank">noise</a>.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI0MDUwOC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMjcxNTc5OH0.tq-Dc7C2szR3mE0MrYLfio6FLQkNxWLmV20ArQ4zwJg/img.jpg?width=980" id="534dc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="674f50ef2de67f27aca1a58936eb425e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An excerpt from an email sent to the city by a resident concerned about the Livingston fracking site.
<p>Several times the city has contacted the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC), a state regulatory body, to address those complaints. According to Megan Castle, a COGCC spokesperson, the agency intervened once in response to a noise issue and a second time to request the company swap drilling fluids which were causing odor complaints. Castle said the agency has conducted additional noise monitoring and did not find that the site was out of compliance with state regulations.<br></p><p>Andrew Bare, a spokesperson for the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment, said that the nature of some of the complaints — such as odors that would likely have dissipated by the time inspectors reached the site — made taking action against Extraction "difficult." Bare said that the agency sent a mobile air monitoring lab to the site in response to residents' concerns and that the lab will remain near the Livingston site for at least another two weeks.</p><p>In legal documents, Extraction claims it has gone above and beyond the best management practices required by its operating agreement with the city, including investing more than $250 million on a "Next Generation Flowback" system to reduce emissions during the <a href="https://broomfield.org/DocumentCenter/View/29674/Current-Broomfield-Project-Schedule---10-31-19?bidId=" target="_blank">two to three months</a> flowback is expected to last. At the public meeting last month, representatives from the company <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-SOMCErjKsJtHr3mjeBesrKqbwDzvMSt/view" target="_blank">explained</a> to the council that instead of storing and processing the flowback fluid on site, the company would ship it via pipeline to a facility in Weld County. They asserted that the design eliminates "99.9 percent of emissions" and significantly reduces the duration of the flowback phase. Later at the meeting, Barbara Ganong, a petroleum engineer who was hired by the city as a consultant, asserted that Extraction's decision to pipe fracking fluids offsite represented a "paradigm shift."</p><p>Air quality experts hired by the city gave a <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1_N4HobIw7JMmHlD9r0kZnLPSjZnKoASR/view" target="_blank">presentation</a> showing that without this new closed system, emissions during flowback could have been 31 times higher than during fracking. Still, when they measured emissions during flowback at another Extraction well in a less populated part of town, they said emissions were still double those during fracking, even with the new system.</p>
<p>Broomfield residents interviewed by Grist were not reassured by Extraction's new technology. Kelly said the company told Broomfield that it was using the latest technology in every step of the process so far, but that the city has nevertheless had to step in multiple times after residents complained of noise and health symptoms.</p><p>"They've done nothing to make me feel like I can trust them and trust what they say," said Elizabeth Lario, who lives with her husband and daughter in the Wildgrass neighborhood a little less than a mile south of the Livingston site. Lario said she and her family have experienced migraines, nose bleeds, stress and anxiety, and throat irritation since drilling began last summer.</p><p>Broomfield fought the company's restraining order, and on April 6, the same judge who originally issued the temporary order agreed to dissolve it. He found that it was granted too soon, considering the city had not even officially taken action to delay or halt Extraction's operations yet. But the judge also issued a warning: If Broomfield exercised its regulatory powers in a way that was "arbitrary and capricious and not rationally related to combating the spread of COVID-19," it would be back where it started, facing more legal action from Extraction.</p><p>The judge's warning created a new problem for Broomfield: The city's order was designed to protect public health, but it had nothing to do with preventing the spread of the virus.</p><p>Two days after the judge dissolved the restraining order, the city council finally put its public health order to a vote, but by that point, it had become harder to justify. Anderson and other city council members tried to rewrite the order in a way that didn't flout the judge's ruling. If they did, they thought Extraction was likely to take them to court again and the restraining order might be reinstated.</p><p>"I kept thinking we'll find a way forward," said Anderson. "But sometime between that Tuesday and Wednesday it became clear that there just wasn't a way forward that wouldn't result in a legal battle."</p><p>Ultimately, Anderson and the majority of the council voted the public health order down 9 to 1.</p><p>It was a devastating blow for Kelly and some other residents. As a member of the League of Oil and Gas Impacted Coloradans, a nonprofit representing community groups and residents affected by fracking, Kelly has been at the forefront of the battle with Extraction, and in the past, the city has taken bold action to protect residents. While her home is about a mile from the Livingston site, she said she's most worried about some of her neighbors who are as close as a quarter-mile from the site.</p><p>"People that I've gotten to know over the last … almost seven years, who I really care about, are very close to it," she said. "And it scares me to death."</p>
‘Why Didn’t You Protect Us?’
<p>Leading up to that final vote, the city council was flooded with emails begging them to forge ahead with the public health order. After it decided to drop the issue, community members were on edge. Kelly said she understands why the city did what it did. But others are incredibly frustrated with the outcome. "I get so many calls from people that say, 'why didn't you protect us?'" she said. "They're so concerned about their health that they would have rather seen us in court."</p><p>One concern is what residents will do in case there is an emergency, like a major emissions release or an explosion like the one in Weld County. The Broomfield police department has told families that live within a half-mile of the site to keep a bag packed in case an evacuation is necessary. But Elizabeth Lario is not sure where her family would go. Under normal circumstances, the city's emergency shelter is its recreation center, but as long as social distancing is necessary, that no longer feels like a safe option. "The evacuation plan is to wait and hear what the evacuation plan is," Lario said.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzI0MDU1Mi9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxMDg5MjEzMn0.JG28Mziva9UU324p428TQ1zzphopRnHpBOfc0Og5bdY/img.jpg?width=980" id="6d77a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="2470d4f20b48740b060fc1e459495de4" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
An excerpt from an email sent to the city by a resident concerned about the Livingston fracking site.
<p>On April 13, the Broomfield Office of Emergency Management held a telephone town hall to present evacuation instructions. Residents told Grist that instructions on where they should go were not very clear, and that the evacuation plan was fluid depending on the scale of emergency and the status of the pandemic. "It was a plan left in chaos, in my opinion, that fortunately hasn't had to be used," said Anderson.</p><p>The Broomfield police department told Grist that it uses a cell phone alert system for emergency notification. An "Emergency Management Update" powerpoint created by the department instructs residents to "follow the instructions you receive" and monitor the situation on the city's social media accounts. In the case of an evacuation, it says to go to the home of a family member or friend — and to go to the recreation center only if needed. The department advises that residents who do elect to evacuate to the recreation center remain in their cars "if quarantined/isolated."</p><p>Not all of Broomfield's citizens are worried about the fracking site. In fact, some actively opposed the city's idea to delay Extraction's work. Anderson said there had been pressure from residents who felt that the city was already wasting too many public dollars on its clashes with the company, and worried that another lawsuit could bankrupt the city. A former council member <a href="https://westernwire.net/broomfield-criticized-for-oil-and-gas-witch-hunt/" target="_blank">accused</a> the city of conducting a witch hunt.<br></p><p>Broomfield has indeed spent a significant amount of money on oil and gas oversight, including hiring additional personnel, outside counsel, and consultants. It has also deployed systems to monitor air quality and noise. The Broomfield Enterprise, a local newspaper, <a href="https://www.broomfieldenterprise.com/2020/01/10/broomfield-to-consider-emergency-noise-ordinance-2/" target="_blank">reported</a> that the city spent $1.8 million in 2018, $1.5 million in 2019, and is expected to spend $3.1 million this year just on oil and gas-related personnel and programs. The city has approved approximately <a href="https://www.broomfieldenterprise.com/2019/12/23/broomfield-air-quality-monitoring-contract-updated/" target="_blank">$1.5 million</a> for air quality monitoring contracts in 2020 alone.</p><p>Broomfield's <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CqZGbwWaZgVMWnTpC1BYfJ1FtcjDlnkp/view" target="_blank">air monitoring system</a> is impressive, given that it's a city of only about 70,000 people. The city currently has 11 new sensors set up to monitor emissions, as well as two mobile air quality laboratories and <a href="https://engr.source.colostate.edu/to-monitor-air-quality-scientists-chase-methane-plumes-in-dead-of-night/" target="_blank">a mobile "plume tracker"</a> — a Chevy Tahoe equipped to measure real-time methane concentrations in the air — from Colorado State University that will be deployed periodically. The city's sensors do not measure the specific amount of benzene and other harmful compounds in the air, but they set off "triggers" to take an air sample any time they register a spike in emissions.</p><p>Anderson hopes that collecting this data will give the town a clearer picture of the public health risks fracking poses to residential communities. She said that part of the reason the town's order was abandoned was due to a lack of data showing that flowback would put residents at greater risk. Now they are collecting that data — but by the time any potential harms come into focus, it will be too late. Residents will have been exposed.</p><p>"This community feels like guinea pigs, and I'm right there with them," she said. "We're doing things that we don't have the data to show that it's safe."</p>
<p class=""><em>This story originally appeared in</em> <a href="https://grist.org/" target="_blank"><em>Grist </em></a><em>and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climate story.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The Denver Zoo may be closed to visitors to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, but, for the animals inside, life goes on.
<p>This is especially the case for the zoo's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/lions" target="_self">lion</a> pride, which welcomed two new members Thursday, April 23, the zoo <a href="https://denverzoo.org/zootales/a-new-pair-in-the-pride/?CMPID=?utm_source=_FB_&utm_medium=_SOCIAL_&utm_campaign=_AC" target="_blank">announced Tuesday</a>. The new cubs were born to mother and father Kamara and Tobias, who are both four years old.</p><p>"We're seeing a lot of positive signs that things are going well, and will continue to keep a close eye on [Kamara] and the cubs in these critical first days and weeks," Assistant Curator of Predators Matt Lenyo said.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f96eccaf46b561e843b73461dc794a6e"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/yjBZ5RDUHWk?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>The births come little less than a year after the zoo welcomed another lion cub named Tatu, <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2020/04/28/denver-zoo-lion-cubs-video/" target="_blank">The Denver Post reported</a>. Tatu is also the child of Tobias, meaning he now has two half-siblings. (Their sexes are still unknown.) His mother is Kamara's mother, Neliah, and his birth is now helping the new mom care for her own cubs.</p><p>"We are watching Kamara closely to make sure she's showing appropriate maternal behaviors, like nursing and grooming," Lenyo said. "She learned a lot by watching Neliah and interacting with Tatu last year, which really prepared her to be a mom."</p><p>The cubs' birth is good news for lion <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/conservation" target="_self">conservation</a>. African lions have decreased by fifty percent since 1994, <a href="https://wildnet.org/" target="_blank">Wildlife Conservation Network</a> (WCN) told <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/environment-and-conservation/2019/07/where-lions-once-ruled-they-are-now-quietly-disappearing" target="_blank">National Geographic</a>. While they once roamed almost the entire African continent, they are now absent from 94 percent of their historic range and are considered <a href="https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/15951/115130419" target="_blank">vulnerable</a> by the <a href="https://www.iucn.org/" target="_blank">International Union for Conservation of Nature</a>. The primary threats to their survival are loss of prey and habitat, as well as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/poaching" target="_self">poaching</a>.</p>
<p>"Lions are truly one of the world's universal icons, and they are quietly slipping away," WCN director of conservation programs Paul Thomson told National Geographic.</p><p>The new cubs' birth is part of an effort to combat this trend. Tobias, their father, was moved to the Denver Zoo in 2018 from Buffalo in the hope that he would mate with Kamara and Neliah, the zoo said. The move was recommended by the Lion Species Survival Plan, a plan for ensuring healthy, genetically diverse lion populations in zoos belonging to the <a href="https://www.aza.org/" target="_blank">Association of Zoos and Aquariums</a> (AZA).</p><p>"Kamara and Tobias were a very genetically valuable match," General Curator Emily Insalaco said in the birth announcement. "And these cubs are an important contribution to the species' population in AZA facilities, and will help inspire visitors to learn more about their wild cousins."</p>
<p>While the zoo isn't receiving visitors right now, the cubs won't know the difference. They will be secluded with their mother for two months to give them time to connect with her and meet the rest of the pack, which also includes an unrelated seven-year-old female named Sabi.</p><p>You can still follow the cubs remotely via the zoo's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/DenverZoo/" target="_blank">Facebook</a>, <a href="https://twitter.com/DenverZoo" target="_blank">Twitter</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCzlJHwWxz2INhrSbLlK4xRQ" target="_blank">YouTube</a> and <a href="https://www.instagram.com/denverzoo/?hl=en" target="_blank">Instagram</a> accounts.</p>
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A large fracking operation with Mount Meeker and Longs Peak looming in the background on December 28, 2017 in Loveland, Colorado. Helen H. Richardson / The Denver Post / Getty Images
by Andrea Germanos
The Trump administration on Friday released a new land use plan for southwestern Colorado that community and conservation advocacy groups warn is a "dangerous" pathway towards increased fossil fuel extraction that makes no "climate, ecological, or economic sense."
<p>Published officially Friday in the <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/04/10/2020-07316/notice-of-availability-of-the-record-of-decision-for-the-uncompahgre-field-office-approved-resource" target="_blank">Federal Register</a>, the Bureau of Land Management's "Approved Resource Management Plan" for the Uncompahgre Field Office affects 675,800 acres of public lands and 971,220 acres of federal mineral estate and spans six counties. It gives a 20-year blueprint for how the land can be used for purposes such as oil and gas drilling as well as livestock grazing, and was issued by the Interior Department over objections raised in public comments.</p><p>The advocacy groups opposed to the plan <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-administration-plan-expands-fossil-fuel-extraction-across-southwestern-colorado-2020-04-09/" target="_blank">say</a> that expanding fracking in the region over the next decades will not only add fuel to the planetary climate crisis, but will also adversely impact local organic agriculture and endangered species.</p><p>"This plan, unconscionable as the connections between fossil fuel emissions and global climate change become clearer every day, has the potential to exponentially increase greenhouse gas pollution in the region over the next decade, when we need to be drastically reducing emissions," said Melissa Hornbein with the Western Environmental Law Center.</p>
<p>According to the groups,</p><blockquote>The plan would allow fracking on more than half of the 675,000 acres of public land and almost a million acres of federal minerals that it covers, and coal extraction on another 371,000 acres. The BLM's environmental impact analysis fails to tally direct and indirect climate pollution that would result from fossil fuel production.<br></blockquote><p>According to Natasha Léger, executive director of Citizens for a Healthy Community, the plan is "exactly the type of federal action that is responsible for accelerating climate and environmental degradation, which cannot be allowed to stand if we have any hope of protecting present and future generations, rare and irreplaceable ecosystems like the North Fork, and meeting Colorado's goals for a clean and renewable energy future."</p><p>The new plan sets up a clash between Colorado's new law calling for a halving of carbon emissions by 2030 and what the advocacy groups say could be a 2,300% increase over the next decade in climate pollution as a result of the BLM's proposal for increased oil and gas extraction.</p><p>"Ultimately," said Rebecca Fischer, climate and energy program attorney for WildEarth Guardians, "the Trump administration is testing Colorado's commitment to its new climate law, and its success depends on the state stepping up to defend bold climate action."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/10/trump-advances-climate-doom-massive-fracking-expansion-federal-lands-colorado" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- Fracking Fight Continues in Colorado - EcoWatch ›
- A Must Read Account of Fracking Colorado - EcoWatch ›
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Colorado River Has Lost 1.5 Billion Tons of Water to the Climate Crisis, 'Severe Water Shortages' May Follow
21 February
Climate
Horseshoe Bend (seen above) is a horseshoe-shaped meander of the Colorado River in Page, Arizona. didier.camus / Flickr / public domain
Millions of people rely on the Colorado River, but the climate crisis is causing the river to dry up, putting many at risk of "severe water shortages," according to new research, as The Guardian reported.
<p>Longer periods of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" rel="noopener noreferrer">drought</a> and rising temperatures have decreased the river's annual flow by 20 percent compared to the last century. The researchers, who published their study in <a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2020/02/19/science.aay9187" target="_blank">Science</a>, say that global heating has caused mountain snowpacks that feed the river to disappear, which leads to increased evaporation, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/02/20/climate-change-has-stolen-more-than-billion-tons-water-wests-most-vital-river/" target="_blank">The Washington Post reported</a>.</p>
<p>"That's the thing I found most fascinating about this study," lead author Chris Milly of the U.S. Geological Survey said to <a href="https://www.knau.org/post/study-colorado-river-s-flow-decreases-9-percent-every-degree-warming" target="_blank">KNAU</a>. "As the snow cover dwindles due to warming, it's reflecting less sunlight back to the atmosphere. So the basin's absorbing more sunlight. That sunlight is powering evaporation out of the basin. Now when that evaporation—the water is taken out of the basin due to the evaporation, there's less water flowing down the river to the 40 million people that are waiting for it."</p>
<p>Snow and ice reflect sunlight back away from the Earth's surface, a phenomenon known as the albedo effect. The loss of snow and ice means the Earth absorbs more heat.</p>
<p>Milly and his research partner, Krista A. Dunne, found that for every degree Celsius of warming, the river's flow decreases 9.3 percent. Recent studies have confirmed that the river's steady decreased flow since 2000 is due to rising temperatures. The decline has amounted to 1.5 billion tons of missing water, equal to the annual water consumption of 10 million Americans, as The Washington Post reported.</p>
<p>About 40 million people live along the Colorado and it supports nearly $1 trillion in economic activity each year and provides 16 million jobs. Its waters cover a wide expanse, according to The Washington Post. Its waters are channeled as far away as California's Imperial Valley and central Arizona, where its used to irrigate crops, as well as across the Rockies to supply <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drinking-water">drinking water</a> for Colorado's biggest cities. The Colorado feeds the two largest water reserves in the U.S., Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Lake Mead supplies Las Vegas with almost all of its water, as The Guardian reported. The huge reservoir formed by the Hoover Dam has dropped to levels not seen since the 1960s.</p>
<p>So far the world has heated up by about 1 degree Celsius over pre-industrial times, but it is on course to rise 3 degrees Celsius by the end of the century unless emissions are drastically cut, as The Guardian reported. For the Colorado River this means, an "increasing risk of severe water shortages," the study says. Increased rainfall will not offset the loss in reflective snow. </p>
<p>"This has important implications for water users and managers alike," Brad Udall, a senior scientist at Colorado State University and an expert on water supplies in the west who was not involved in the research said, as The Guardian reported. "More broadly, these results tell us that we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions as soon as we possible can. We've wasted nearly 30 years bickering over the science. The science is crystal clear – we must reduce greenhouse gas emissions immediately."</p>
<p>Andrew Mueller, general manager for the Colorado River District, who was not involved in the study, wrote in an email to The Washington Post that the new findings provide "confirmation of significantly grim indicators about future flow in the Colorado River."</p>
<p>He added that the amount of water that would disappear with another 1 degree C temperature rise is nearly five times what Las Vegas uses each year. "A decline in flows of this magnitude will present a significant challenge to all inhabitants in the Colorado River Basin."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- Unprecedented Colorado River Water Shortage Could Be Declared ... ›
- Remarkable Drop in Colorado River Water Use Sign of Climate Adaptation - EcoWatch ›
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A zero-emission electric car in Vail, Colorado on July 31. Sharon Hahn Darlin / CC BY 2.0
By Simon Mui
States across the country are stepping up to make clean cars cheaper and easier to find. Colorado's Air Quality Control Commission (AQCC) voted Friday to adopt a Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) program that will increase the availability of electric vehicles in the state, improve air quality and increase transportation affordability.
<p>In doing so, Colorado joins together with ten other states that have already adopted ZEV programs and follows up on its adoption of state <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/simon-mui/colorado-moves-adopt-clean-car-standards" target="_blank">clean car requirements</a> limiting emissions of greenhouse gases and criteria pollutants from all new passenger vehicles. All told, 30% of the U.S. vehicle market is now covered by a ZEV program.</p><p>The adoption is the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/climate/trump-governors-clean-car-rules.html" target="_blank">latest rebuff</a> to the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" rel="noopener noreferrer">Trump</a> administration's proposed rollback to federal clean car standards, which Consumer Reports <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/08/07/trumps-rollback-fuel-economy-standards-could-cost-americans-460-billion-consumer" target="_blank">estimates</a> will cost U.S. consumers $460 billion more at the gas pump. Governors from <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/09/climate/trump-governors-clean-car-rules.html" target="_blank">24 states</a>, including Colorado's Jared Polis, now oppose the rollback.</p><p>NRDC — as part of the broader Environmental Coalition that includes Western Resource Advocates, Environmental Defense Fund, Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and Sierra Club — provided comments supporting strong ZEV standards as good for the environment, good for consumers and good for Colorado. Some of the other supporting parties included the Environmental Justice Coalition, Colorado Communities for Climate Action representing 25 local governments and the Local Government Coalition.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMDU3ODQ0OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMTI5NjkzOH0.Nt3soMj4MmW8W4CDhKm5y6VQd9Y24DXw0LcYumOXiQc/img.jpg?width=980" id="986df" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="64d4ced1ccc8a9d4919792107b6722b0" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Environmental Coalition's expert witnesses (Shannon Baker-Barnstetter, Chuck Shulock, Aaron Kressig, Gwen Farnsworth, John German, Chet France, Tom Bloomfield, Sarah Keane). Right to Left.
<p>Coloradans and people across the country are excited about clean cars. They're passionate about clean air, having more electric vehicle options at dealerships and reducing their contributions to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a>. Here are three things that will happen in Colorado as a result of the ZEV program:</p>
<h3>Consumers Will Have More Electric Vehicle Options at Dealerships</h3><p>If we want more clean cars on the road, automakers will need to make more clean cars available to Colorado consumers. Period. While automakers offer 41 EVs in the U.S., it turns out Coloradans are not being provided with these choices. Based on a survey of all dealership inventories, a Denver customer would only be able to find 24 out of those 41 models. That number drops to just 16 models available in Fort Collins, seven in Colorado Springs, three in Pueblo and just two models in Grand Junction. Consumers face an EV desert in Colorado.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMDU3ODQ1Mi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYxNzE3MDIzMX0.p1y_CiuO2yyDQMnVGMrbN0iVMZ0NoYGF6z4WxAL37Nw/img.png?width=980" id="d0d0b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="498f7ba582f4b53cd09dec41c88b66d5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
Source: Dealership inventory from Cars.com with assistance by NESCAUM.
<p>A look at automakers' current advertising in Colorado reflects a similar story. Most automakers spent virtually nothing in Colorado on EV advertising or education for consumers compared to the tens of millions spent annually for gas-guzzling models they sell. Nissan appears to be a standout based on the data, but unfortunately, they are the lone exception rather than the rule.<br></p><p>With the adoption of the ZEV program, 4 to 5% of the vehicles that automakers deliver for sale to dealers would need to be EVs by 2025. We note that the sales level reflects the Commission's adoption of an alternative proposal developed by the Colorado Department of Energy and Department of Transportation, the Auto Alliance of Manufacturers and Global Automakers that provides a significantly easier path to meeting the original proposal, which would have required 7 to 8% sales by 2025.</p><p>While some automakers such as Nissan, BMW and Volvo are already exceeding the more modest 2025 requirements as of 2018, other automakers are far behind and not even making EVs available in Colorado, despite making them available elsewhere. Colorado's adoption will help push all automakers, especially laggards, to do more and will set up the state for even higher volumes after 2025.</p>
<h3>Less Carbon Pollution and Improved Air Quality</h3><p>Throughout the hearings, state government representatives, the Regional Air Quality Council and residents suffering from <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution" rel="noopener noreferrer">air pollution</a> testified on the need to move toward electric transportation to help address air quality problems in Colorado, particularly in the <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2019/06/03/colorado-air-pollution-terrible-but-improving/" target="_blank">Front Range</a>. One of the benefits of the program is avoiding vehicles with internal combustion engines. EVs are the only technology that, once on the road, is projected to get cleaner over time as the electricity grid gets cleaner in Colorado. By comparison, emission controls from internal combustion engines can suffer from the impacts of deterioration, malfunction or even tampering — these events can lead to "super-emitters" on the road that emit 2 to 4 times more emissions when on the road than they are supposed to emit. EVs bypass this problem entirely because they don't have any tailpipe emissions.</p><p>All told, if EVs reach about 8% sales in Colorado, carbon pollution would be conservatively reduced by an estimated 2.2 million metric tons through model year 2030. Smog-forming pollutants would also be reduced.</p>
<h3>All Consumers Benefit From EVs</h3><p>Both primary and secondary buyers of EVs stand to see significant economic benefits from the ZEV program. With battery prices continuing to drop rapidly, the costs of EVs are projected to reach initial, up-front cost parity with gasoline internal combustion engines between 2024 and 2029 depending on the vehicle class, according to a study by <a href="https://theicct.org/sites/default/files/publications/ev_Colorado_cost_2020_20190613.pdf" target="_blank">ICCT</a>. In terms of lifetime vehicle savings, EV drivers are expected to save between $3,200 and $12,000 depending on the vehicle class. Those savings are largely driven by significant reductions in fuel and maintenance costs.</p><p>Accelerating EV adoption with the ZEV program will benefit not only EV drivers but all residents in the form of downward pressure on rates. Two studies by MJ Bradley and Associates, commissioned by NRDC, show that adoption of EVs will lead to improved utilization of the electricity grid, especially since most EV charging occurs at night when there is spare capacity on the grid. An assessment of utility revenues in California from EV charging shows EV customers contribute much more to the grid than they cost from the grid. Regulated utilities are required to return that additional revenue to all utility customers in the form of lower rates and bills, as my colleague has blogged on <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/max-baumhefner/electric-vehicles-are-driving-rates-down" target="_blank">here</a>. A second study by MJ Bradley projects <a href="https://mjbradley.com/sites/default/files/CO_PEV_CB_Analysis_FINAL_13apr17.pdf" target="_blank">similar results</a> for Colorado as it ramps up its EV fleet.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMDU3ODQ2MC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzMjI2MDM4M30.DcFdlEEWgGJ7CHY3-DKRCK__GL4kJe4RZRU89JCGhOk/img.jpg?width=980" id="e2484" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8ba85422e830e0e799f07e7c78fee6a7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>Clean cars mean cleaner air, which means fewer ozone days, easier breathing for Coloradans and a meaningful reduction in pollutants that contribute to climate change. But we won't see as much of these benefits without more zero-emission vehicles on the road. A Colorado ZEV program will have a meaningful impact by ensuring all automakers start making more EV products available to consumers.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Why Aren't School Buses Electric? These Coloradans Are Sick of Diesel <a href="https://t.co/wEb5Dla1R2">https://t.co/wEb5Dla1R2</a></p>— Enviro Voter Project (@Enviro_Voter) <a href="https://twitter.com/Enviro_Voter/status/1071106522233626624?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">December 7, 2018</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
<p><em>Simon Mui is a senior scientist in the Climate & Clean Energy program with the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>.</em></p>
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Emma Bray of Denver, a plaintiff on the youth-led climate lawsuit, Martinez v. COGCC. @youthvgov / Twitter
Colorado's oil and gas industry breathed a sigh of relief on Monday after the state's highest court overturned a lower court decision that said state regulators must consider public health and the environment in permitting oil and gas production.
The unanimous ruling was a disappointment for the teenage plaintiffs, including high-profile climate activist Xiuhtezcatl Martinez, who led the closely watched lawsuit against the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (COGCC).
<p>
"To know that the judges in the highest court of my state believe that the interests of the oil and gas industry come before the public health, safety and welfare of my fellow Coloradans is shameful," the 18-year-old from Boulder said in a
<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/01/14/co-supreme-court-hands-another-victory-oil-and-gas-industry" target="_blank">press release</a>.
</p><p>
"But," Martinez added, "I want you all to know that this fight for climate justice is far from over. My fellow plaintiffs, youth around the world, and I will continue to stand up for our right to a healthy future."
</p><p>
<span></span>The lawsuit—backed by <a href="https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org" target="_blank">Our Children's Trust</a>, the same non-profit supporting the young plaintiffs in the landmark federal lawsuit <em><a href="https://www.ourchildrenstrust.org/us/federal-lawsuit" target="_blank">Juliana v. United States</a></em>—was originally filed in November 2013 on behalf of seven young Coloradans who are all members of the Boulder-based youth group <a href="https://www.earthguardians.org/" target="_blank">Earth Guardians</a>.
</p><p>
They demanded that the COGCC refuse oil and gas development permits "unless the best available science demonstrates, and an independent, third-party organization confirms, that drilling can occur in a manner that does not cumulatively, with other actions, impair Colorado's atmosphere, water, wildlife, and land resources, does not adversely impact human health, and does not contribute to
<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/6-colorado-teenagers-file-appeal-in-fracking-and-climate-lawsuit-1891078043.html" target="_blank">climate change</a>."
</p><p>
Ultimately, as
<a href="https://coloradosun.com/2019/01/15/colorado-supreme-court-martinez-oil-gas-explained/" target="_blank">the Colorado Sun</a> noted, the activists were hoping to stamp out Colorado's oil and gas activities and prompt a "state-wide ban on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fracking">fracking</a>," as then-13-year-old Martinez <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PsEhlK2tccE&feature=youtu.be&t=46" target="_blank">explained</a>.</p><p>
Instead, Justice Richard Gabriel ruled Monday that
<a href="https://law.justia.com/codes/colorado/2016/title-34/oil-and-natural-gas/article-60/section-34-60-102/" target="_blank">current state law</a> requires <span></span>regulators to balance oil and gas development with protecting public health, the environment and wildlife.
</p><p>
The decision states:
</p><blockquote>
"[T]he pertinent provisions make clear that the Commission is required (1) to foster the development of oil and gas resources, protecting and enforcing the rights of owners and producers, and (2) in doing so, to prevent and mitigate significant adverse environmental impacts to the extent necessary to protect public health, safety, and welfare, but only after taking into consideration cost-effectiveness and technical feasibility."
</blockquote><p>
Basically, the ruling upholds the "Colorado way of doing business," Dan Haley, president and CEO of the Colorado Oil and Gas Association, said as quoted by <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2019/01/14/colorado-supreme-court-oil-gas-martinez-decision/" target="_blank">The Denver Post</a>.
</p><p>
He added that under state law, the COGCC's regulations for the oil and natural gas industry are the most extensive and stringent in the country.
</p><p>
For fracking opponents, it's the law itself that's the problem. Julia Olson, the executive director of Our Children's Trust and co-counsel for the youth plaintiffs, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2019/01/14/co-supreme-court-hands-another-victory-oil-and-gas-industry" target="_blank">stated</a> that the Supreme Court's interpretation of the state's Oil and Gas Conservation Act makes it clear that the rule should be "amended or set aside as unconstitutional" as it allows "unfettered discretion to promote Colorado's dangerous and pervasive oil and gas development at the expense of the people."
</p><p>
Undeterred by the ruling, State House Speaker KC Becker said she will work to change Colorado law so the fossil fuel industry will do more to protect public health and the environment, as reported by <a href="https://www.cpr.org/news/story/colorado-supreme-court-finds-for-state-regulators-in-martinez-oil-and-gas-case" target="_blank">Colorado Public Radio</a>.
</p><p>
"It puts the decision back into the hands of lawmakers to take action and we are committed to addressing this concern this legislative session," <a href="https://twitter.com/kcbecker/status/1084900168061804544" target="_blank">Becker</a> also tweeted.
</p><p>
In an online <a href="https://www.colorado.gov/governor/news/gov-polis-responds-colorado-supreme-court%E2%80%99s-decision" target="_blank">statement</a>, new Gov. Jared Polis—who <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/colorado-governor-polis-renewable-energy-2618515156.html">wants to</a> transition Colorado to 100 percent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy" target="_self">renewable energy</a> by 2040—said he was "disappointed" by the court's ruling.
</p><p>
He noted, "it only highlights the need to work with the Legislature and the Colorado Oil & Gas Conservation Commission to more safely develop our state's natural resources and protect our citizens from harm."
</p><p>
The plaintiffs also remain optimistic.
</p><p>
<span></span>"The last couple years have proven that youth have the opportunity to be heard in the courts and the community. Not a single person, company or corporation can silence the young generation's voices," Emma Bray, 19-year-old plaintiff from Denver, said in a press release. "We will continue the fight for our Earth and our future, despite the mountains we need to climb and the setbacks that we will overcome. Regardless of the court's decision in our case, the fight will continue."
</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="7cd5b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="EUZQL11576662586"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="857744933872185349" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">3,000 Wells Shut Down in Colorado After Fatal House Explosion https://t.co/1itEkcKDEX @EcoWatch</div> — DeSmogBlog (@DeSmogBlog)<a href="https://twitter.com/DeSmogBlog/statuses/857744933872185349">1493337303.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
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Glen Canyon Dam, Colorado River. Sharon Mollerus, CC BY 2.0
By Tara Lohan
In the last few weeks of 2018, the Trump administration set the stage for a big battle over water in the new year. At stake is an important rule that defines which waters are protected under the Clean Water Act. The Trump administration seeks to roll back important protections for wetlands and waterways, which are important to drinking water and wildlife.
<p>This is just one of the upcoming water battles that could serve to define 2019. It's also poised to be a year of reckoning on the Colorado River, which supplies water to 40 million people and 5.5 million acres of farmland. A long-anticipated multi-state agreement is close to completion after an ultimatum from the federal government. And it could also be a landmark year for water management in California, with several key issues coming to a head.</p><p>Big things may also happen on the water infrastructure front and in efforts to address clean-water concerns. Of course, underlying many of the water issues is the specter of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>, which is bringing both severe <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought">droughts</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding">floods</a> and exacerbating water-supply problems.</p><p>Let's dive into some of the issues experts say we need to keep an eye on in the coming year.</p><h2>Clean Water Rule Change</h2><p>The biggest looming water issue this year has to do with a law passed nearly 50 years ago.</p><p>On Dec. 12 the Trump administration unveiled a proposal to redefine the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/wotus-rule" target="_blank">Waters of the U.S. Rule</a>, also known as the Clean Water Rule, which was adopted in 2015 by the Obama administration to set clear guidelines on how certain waterways and wetlands are regulated under the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/laws-regulations/history-clean-water-act" target="_blank">1972 Clean Water Act</a>. The action came after two Supreme Court <a href="http://legal-planet.org/2017/07/03/the-epa-sets-in-motion-its-plan-to-rescind-the-waters-of-the-united-states-rule/" target="_blank">rulings</a> in the early 2000s created some uncertainty about what the Clean Water Act protects.</p><p>Obama's rule slightly widened what was protected under the Clean Water Act (much to the chagrin of many industry groups and developers). For example, the 2015 rule included automatic protections for wetlands and ponds that are "within 100 feet or within the 100-year floodplain of a protected waterway," Vox reporters Brad Plumer and Umair Irfan <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2017/2/28/14761236/wotus-waters-united-states-rule-trump" target="_blank">explained</a>. And they wrote last month, "In the past, tributaries of navigable rivers were evaluated on a case-by-case basis. But under the new rule, they're automatically protected if they have a bed, a bank and a high-water mark." Overall the change amounted to clarifying protections for about 3 percent of waterways.</p><p>The newly proposed Trump administration rule, however, would swing widely in the other direction, limiting protections to only major waterways, tributaries and adjacent wetlands. As written now, the new rule would strip protections from 18 percent of streams and just over half of the country's wetlands, but there's concern the final rule could be even more restrictive.</p><p>Industry officials praised the Trump plan. Zippy Duvall, president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, called the Trump administration's proposal, "The Christmas present of a lifetime!"</p><p>Environmental groups had a very different opinion. The loss of protections, they said, threatens drinking water and wildlife, with the western U.S. poised to be affected most. In Nevada 85 percent of streams would lose protections, as would more than half in New Mexico and Arizona.</p>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA1OTY5Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MTc3OTIzNn0.bPChwfyL6xHzdbFjnHB9O0DPodpu3ZsUpyStKLrm2H4/img.jpg?width=980" id="9b8f3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="c50915d1555c1e9c334e057953497ea2" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Ash Meadows National Wildlife Refuge, Nevada</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Cyndi Souza / USFWS)</small></p> <p>"The rollbacks to the Clean Water Act the Trump administration is proposing are the greatest threat to this nation's waterways in 50 years," said Dan Estrin, <a href="https://waterkeeper.org/" target="_blank">Waterkeeper Alliance</a> general counsel and advocacy director. This <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/5410914-WAC-Comments-on-WOTUS-Repeal-9-27-17.html" target="_blank">industry-supported</a> proposal would "incentivize polluters to move pollution upstream, where they won't have to worry about federal or citizen enforcement," he said.<br></p><p>A 60-day <a href="https://www.epa.gov/wotus-rule/step-two-revise" target="_blank">public comment period</a> on the proposed regulation is underway. Meanwhile Republicans in the legislature are already attempting to push through <a href="https://www.eenews.net/eedaily/2018/12/19/stories/1060110073" target="_blank">their own version</a> of what kind of wetlands and waterways should be protected by the Clean Water Act—in this case, it would only cover permanently "navigable" waters.</p><p>It's not clear what will happen on this front, but however things move forward it will be critically important. "The Waters of the United States law will be tested, implemented, suspended or revoked," said Peter Gleick, president emeritus of the global water think-tank the <a href="http://pacinst.org/" target="_blank">Pacific Institute</a>. Expect the debate over the rule change to be contentious and the final product legally contested.</p><h2>Colorado River Agreement</h2><p>2019 will be a year of reckoning for the Colorado River. It has to be—both nature and the federal government have issued ultimatums.</p><p>First, nature's part: With the basin in a drought for nearly two decades, the river's flow has dropped almost 20 percent (human-caused <a href="https://www.newsdeeply.com/water/articles/2017/06/22/climate-change-is-shrinking-the-colorado-river" target="_blank">warming is responsible</a> for at about a third of this reduced flow). By 2020 Lake Mead, the largest reservoir in the watershed, could fall low enough to <a href="http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/2018/12/dcp-by-the-numbers/" target="_blank">trigger shortages</a> to Arizona, Nevada and eventually California. In 2020 the water users must also begin a massive renegotiation of how the Colorado River is managed and how we prepare for a future with less water—an epic task that needs to be completed by 2026, when the current agreement expires.</p><p>The three states have been busy working on a <a href="https://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/arizona-environment/2018/12/14/climate-change-looms-over-talks-colorado-river-drought-plan/2317125002/" target="_blank">drought contingency plan</a> to slow the decline of Lake Mead, a process that will need to be completed before the larger negotiations begin in 2020. One major snag has come from Arizona, which is trying to resolve <a href="https://www.azpm.org/p/home-articles-news/2018/12/28/143410-a-look-back-at-water-negotiations-at-years-end/" target="_blank">in-state disputes</a>.</p><p>Things are about to get even more interesting, though. At a recent meeting of Colorado River water users, U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman set a deadline of Jan. 31 for the three states to settle their plan or else the federal government will step in, which would be a widely unwelcome scenario.</p><p>"This could be very messy," John Fleck, director of the University of New Mexico's Water Resources Program, wrote recently on his <a href="http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/" target="_blank">blog about Colorado River water</a> issues. "It suggests that either voluntarily (through interstate agreement) or imposed by the feds, we'll have new shortage guidelines in place by 2020 to slow the decline of Lake Mead."</p><p>Even if a new shortage agreement is reached in the next month, Gleick said we're still likely to see political conflict among basin water users as water levels in Lake Mead continue to fall. It's not just California, Nevada and Arizona duking things out—the river is also shared with upstream states Wyoming, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico, as well as with Mexico downstream. What happens to the Colorado affects much of the West, including cities like Denver, Phoenix and Los Angeles.</p><p>And the drought contingency plan is also only a stopgap measure to give all the water users time to pause the crisis until the elephant in the room needs to be officially addressed: The Colorado River simply doesn't have enough water for all the claims made to it.</p><p>"Now, whether through ignorance or malfeasance, we now have communities that have come to expect that fictionally large supply, and few rules to determine who gets less, and how much," <a href="http://www.inkstain.net/fleck/2018/12/beyond-the-colorado-river-drought-contingency-plan/" target="_blank">wrote Fleck</a>.</p><p>This year's work will be a crucial one for setting the stage for these future talks and better understanding the new climate reality.</p><h2>Climate Change</h2><p>2018 ended with some momentum on climate action. International climate talks in December at COP24 in Poland limped to a close with an agreement in hand, but one that fails to meet the urgency and scale of the problem.</p><p>And while the U.S. was conspicuously absent from international dealings, more movement to address climate challenges are afoot on the home front, with increasing calls for political action and a <a href="https://www.vox.com/energy-and-environment/2018/12/21/18144138/green-new-deal-alexandria-ocasio-cortez" target="_blank">Green New Deal</a>.</p><p>Significant climate legislation will likely be out of reach with a Republican Senate and White House, but climate change impacts will continue to make a mark, regardless, and could help to motivate more public action and pressure on elected officials and corporations.</p><p>"Somewhere in the U.S. we'll see unprecedented flooding and somewhere else, unprecedented drought, as climate change continues to worsen extreme hydrologic events," said Gleick. "Temperatures will continue to rise." And all of this will compound water woes like declining flows in the Colorado River, <a href="https://therevelator.org/trump-drinking-water/" target="_blank">harmful algal blooms</a> across the country, the vulnerability of our croplands and declining groundwater levels.</p>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Drought-impacted forests in California's Sierra Nevada</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Photo by USGS</small></p>
<p>"I think that the overall story is that catastrophic times are here," said Kimery Wiltshire, CEO and director of <a href="http://www.carpediemwest.org/" target="_blank">Carpe Diem West</a>, a nonprofit that tackles water and climate issues. We need to accelerate the pace and scale of restoration to meet our ecological challenges, she said. "Fortunately, there are a number of communities taking smart, positive steps for water resiliency in the face of climate change."<br></p><h2>California's Grand Bargain</h2><p>In California several long-term and contentious decisions over future water management will be headline-generating in the coming year, and we could see either compromise or conflict between the state and the Trump administration.</p><p>California's Water Resources Control Board has been working on a plan that would increase the amount of water left in key rivers that drain to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the linchpin in California's vast water infrastructure network, to try to protect water quality and wildlife. It's a move that has made municipal and agricultural water users concerned.</p>
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<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Snow geese take flight above a field on Twitchell Island in the California Delta. </small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Kelly M. Grow/ California Department of Water Resources</small></p>
<p>But just before 2018 closed out a new "grand bargain" was beginning to emerge between state agencies, federal agencies, irrigation districts and urban water agencies.<br></p><p>If the deal comes to fruition, "it could be revolutionary" in terms of the region's water management, said Ellen Hanak, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California and director of the <a href="https://www.ppic.org/water/" target="_blank">PPIC Water Policy Center</a>. The parties have committed to hammering out the agreement in 2019. "Federal, state and local parties are on the threshold of something really different and potentially much more impactful than what the regulatory situation can do on its own," said Hanak.</p><p>The plan would provide a funding stream for habitat restoration projects for ailing fish populations and also trim water exports from the watershed by urban and agricultural water users. Environmental groups, which were not part of the negotiations, think those water cuts are not nearly enough to protect fish, some of which are endangered.</p><p>"It appears that California's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon">salmon</a>, thousands of fishing jobs and the health of the Bay Delta estuary are the sacrificial lambs in these series of agreements between the Trump and the Brown administrations," Doug Obegi, a lawyer for the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a>, told <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/latest-news/article223114775.html" target="_blank">The Sacramento Bee</a>.</p><p>As the possible settlement is further negotiated this year, the Trump administration could throw another wrench into the plan as it attempts to roll back environment regulations for the delta in an effort to appease the agriculture industry.</p><p>"What's the state water board going to do if they enact stricter regulations just as Trump is undoing a bunch of environmental protections?" asked Chris Austin, publisher of <a href="https://mavensnotebook.com/" target="_blank">Maven's Notebook</a>, which chronicles California's water issues.</p><p>There are also two other major infrastructure issues where California may butt heads with the Trump administration (and others) in the new year. The first is an effort to raise the height of Shasta dam. Another is a $17 billion project to construct new water conveyance tunnels. Both will also be big decisions for the future of imperiled species.</p><h2>Infrastructure and Clean Water</h2><p>There's one more key issue that should dominate water discussions and policy in the next year: Many Americans still don't have access to safe drinking water. The American Society of Civil Engineers has given our nation's water infrastructure a <a href="https://www.infrastructurereportcard.org/cat-item/drinking-water/" target="_blank">D grade</a>, and billions are needed to upgrade aging pipes, pumps and plants.</p><p>Hanak thinks that more progress will be made in efforts to address <a href="http://toxictaps.newsdeeply.com/" target="_blank">water inequities</a> in California, where hundreds of thousands of people, mostly in low-income and communities of color, have chronically contaminated drinking water.</p><p>Issues abound elsewhere, too.</p><p>"The ongoing saga of Flint, Michigan, will go on, and the discussion about the country's failing water infrastructure will continue, with new urban water quality challenges," said Gleick.</p><p>Will there be any progress this year? "There is a chance for some bipartisan action on water infrastructure as part of the broader push to pass infrastructure funding in the U.S. Congress," said Gleick. Like all of these issues, though, that could evaporate quickly as the Trump administration continues its attacks against environmental regulation and protection.</p>
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</p><div id="29098" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0LL8PR1576662461"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1072190235403042816" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">New EPA Rule Would Sabotage Clean Water Act https://t.co/HpPkePSyYy</div> — Enviro Voter Project (@Enviro Voter Project)<a href="https://twitter.com/Enviro_Voter/statuses/1072190235403042816">1544465047.0</a></blockquote></div>
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<p><em>What water issues do you think will matter most in the coming year? Share your thoughts on Twitter using the hashtag <a href="https://twitter.com/search?src=typd&q=%23water2019" target="_blank">#Water2019</a>.</em><br></p><p><em>Tara Lohan is deputy editor of The Revelator.<br></em><em><em>Reposted with permission from our media associate <a href="https://therevelator.org/water-2019/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em></em></p>
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Wind farm with solar panels in southern California. 4kodiak / E+ / Getty Images
By Jeff Deyette
Despite the Trump administration's ongoing attempts to prop up coal and undermine renewables—at FERC, EPA and through tariffs and the budget process—2018 should instead be remembered for the surge in momentum toward a clean energy economy. Here are nine storylines that caught my attention this past year and help illustrate the unstoppable advancement of renewable energy and other modern grid technologies.
<h3>1. California Goes All-In for Carbon-Free Electricity</h3><p>In late August, California—the world's 5th largest economy—committed to the target of fully decarbonizing its power sector by 2045. The <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/news/press_release/california_cements_climate_leadership" target="_blank">landmark legislation</a> also strengthens the state's renewable portfolio standard (also known as a renewable energy standard, or RES) from 50 to 60 percent by 2030. What's more, at the bill signing, Governor Jerry Brown signed an <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/adrienne-alvord/even-more-than-100-clean-californias-audacious-net-zero-carbon-challenge" target="_blank">executive order</a> that establishes a goal of achieving carbon-neutrality across all sectors of California's sprawling economy by 2045, cementing the state's place as a global leader in climate action.</p><h3>2. Several States Strengthen Their RES Requirements</h3><p>State-level renewable electricity standards continued to be a primary driver of new renewable energy development in 2018. In addition to California, legislatures in <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/04/12/nyregion/new-jersey-renewable-energy.html" target="_blank">New Jersey</a> (50 percent by 2030), <a href="https://www.ct.gov/deep/cwp/view.asp?Q=603448&A=4965" target="_blank">Connecticut</a> (40 percent by 2030) and <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/massachusetts-2018-clean-energy-bill" target="_blank">Massachusetts</a> (35 percent by 2030) all adopted stronger targets for renewable energy, accelerating their states' transitions away from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuels</a>. In addition, voters in <a href="https://www.renewableenergyoutlook.com/2018/11/15/nevada-voters-approve-50-renewable-portfolio-standard-by-2030/" target="_blank">Nevada</a> overwhelmingly approved a measure to increase their state's RES to 50 percent by 2030 (the measure must be approved again in 2020 to officially become law).</p><h3>3. Clean Energy Champions Win Gubernatorial Races</h3><p>One of the bright spots in November's election results was the number newly elected governors who campaigned on aggressive clean energy and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a> agendas. Newly elected governors in at least 10 states, including California, Colorado, Connecticut, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, Nevada, New Mexico and Wisconsin, have pledged to accelerate clean energy and carbon reductions in their states by supporting U.S. commitments to the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement">Paris agreement</a>, joining the <a href="https://www.usclimatealliance.org/" target="_blank">U.S. Climate Alliance</a> and/or calling for renewable energy targets of 80 to 100 percent. These election results demonstrate the widespread support for greater investments in renewable energy and signal the push for even stronger clean energy policies in the coming year.</p><h3>4. Record Low Prices for Renewables</h3><p>Innovation, growing economies of scale and attractive financing continued to drive the costs down for renewables in 2018. Power purchase agreements for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a> and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar">solar</a> projects in states like Arizona, Nevada, Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas have reportedly ranged between $20 to $30 per megawatt-hour, well below the cost of natural gas generation—and the technologies are positioned for further cost reductions to continue to be low-cost options even as federal tax incentives change. What's even more exciting is that the many of these low-priced projects also include energy storage components, increasing their value to the grid.</p>
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<h3>5. Major Utilities Commit to Low-Carbon Portfolios</h3><p>Earlier this month, <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/joseph-daniel/xcel-commits-to-100-carbon-free-energy" target="_blank">Xcel Energy</a> became the first major utility to commit to a completely carbon-free electricity supply across the eight states it operates in. In doing so, it joins a <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/jeremy-richardson/utilities-look-toward-a-clean-energy-future-yet-the-administration-keeps-looking-back" target="_blank">growing number of utilities</a> that are committing to phasing out their use of coal and transitioning to substantially lower carbon energy portfolios. Also this year, both <a href="https://www.apnews.com/f876e5b74bc941fcadea30a99760aa59" target="_blank">Consumers Energy</a> in Michigan and <a href="https://nawindpower.com/indianas-nipsco-plots-coal-phaseout-transition-to-renewables" target="_blank">NIPSCO</a> in northern Indiana announced plans to phase out coal generation and utility giant <a href="https://www.powermag.com/aep-american-power-giant-sets-goal-to-slash-carbon-emissions-80-by-2050/" target="_blank">American Electric Power</a> announced a goal of reducing its carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. What's especially exciting about these utility actions is that they are <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/sam-gomberg/trump-clean-energy" target="_blank">driven primarily by economics</a>, clearly demonstrating the competitiveness of clean energy technologies.</p><h3>6. Corporate Renewable Energy Purchases Keep Growing</h3><p>Low renewable energy prices continue to attract major corporations looking to save money and achieve ambitious <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sustainability">sustainability</a> goals. As a result, direct corporate purchases of renewable energy have become a major driver of renewable energy deployment. In 2018, the Rocky Mountain Institute <a href="https://rmi.org/press-release/corporate-renewable-energy-procurement-continues-to-break-records-in-2018/" target="_blank">reports,</a> corporate renewable energy purchases—led by companies like Facebook, Walmart, ATT and Microsoft—reached more than 6.4 gigawatts (GW). The <a href="https://www.rmi.org/our-work/electricity/brc-business-renewables-center/" target="_blank">number of corporations</a> investing in renewables expanded at a record pace this year as well, with nearly two-thirds of Fortune 100 and nearly half of Fortune 500 companies now having set ambitious renewable energy goals.</p><h3>7. Offshore Wind Moves Forward</h3>
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<small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Kim Hansen / Wikimedia Commons</small></p>
<p>While no new <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-wind">offshore wind</a> projects came online in the U.S. this year (the next project—off the Virginia coast—is scheduled for 2020), the industry did take some big leaps toward becoming a major player in the nation's power supply. For example, the <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/low-price-offshore-wind-massachusetts" target="_blank">winning bid</a> for Massachusetts' first request for offshore wind proposals to help meet the state's offshore wind requirements passed in 2016 went to an 800-megawatt project from Vineyard Wind at a shockingly low price of about 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. In addition, the latest U.S. Bureau of Ocean Energy Management <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/derrick-jackson/auction-sets-america-on-course-for-offshore-wind" target="_blank">auction</a> for leasing parcels of water for future projects resulted in 11 bidders and $405.1 million in winning bids, both smashing previous records. And strong state policies, including <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/offshore-wind-massachusetts-rhode-island-new-jersey" target="_blank">new offshore wind requirements in New Jersey</a> and elsewhere, mean that there's a lot more action to come.</p><h3>8. Storage Steps Into the Spotlight</h3>
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<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8xOTA0NTM4NS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNTAwNTg5N30.omEye9FYOO3TjOiWQPO-XImBKe0VJ1zpdcEeUfHDWW4/img.jpg?width=980" id="7f379" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7046e6104690287c1e001ebc573fbec9" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Lithium-ion batteries for advanced energy storage</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">Argonne National Laboratory / Flickr</small></p>
<p>Once a fringe player in the electric power sector, the energy storage industry is quickly emerging as a game changer in the transition to a clean energy economy as a tool for integrating much higher levels of renewable energy. In 2018, the pipeline for new storage projects doubled to nearly 33 GW as more utilities are investing in the technology thanks largely <a href="https://www.lazard.com/perspective/levelized-cost-of-energy-and-levelized-cost-of-storage-2018/" target="_blank">rapidly falling prices</a> and growing support from state policies. While California has led the nation in storage deployment to date, <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-york-psc-sets-states-energy-storage-target-at-3-gw-by-2030/544371/" target="_blank">New York</a> recently established the strongest storage requirement in the country at 3,000 MW by 2030. Earlier this year, <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/new-jersey-sets-aggressive-target-2-gw-by-2030-for-energy-storage/524422/" target="_blank">New Jersey</a> set an ambitious storage target of 2,000 MW by 2030 and <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/john-rogers/massachusetts-2018-clean-energy-bill" target="_blank">Massachusetts</a> significantly increased its storage requirement to 1,000 megawatt-hours by 2025. At the federal level, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/ferc-order-opens-floodgates-for-energy-storage-in-wholesale-markets/517326/" target="_blank">Order 841</a>, which directs regional grid operators to set market rules that allow energy storage to participate on a level playing field in the wholesale energy, capacity and <a href="https://www.logicenergy.com/what-are-ancillary-services-and-why-do-power-grids-need-them/" target="_blank">ancillary services</a> markets.</p><h3>9. PG&E Turns Down the Gas With Storage and Renewables</h3><p>In one particular sign of what's to come in 2019 and beyond in terms of how these technologies fit together to displace fossil fuels, one of the most exciting <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/storage-will-replace-3-california-gas-plants-as-pge-nabs-approval-for-worl/541870/" target="_blank">regulatory decisions</a> I saw this year was the California Public Utility Commission's approval of PG&E's plan to use energy storage to replace retiring gas generators. One of the key barriers to fully transitioning to a carbon-free economy is replacing natural gas generation and the ancillary services they provide to the power grid. This decision, which marks the first time a utility will directly replace power plants with <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/battery-storage/">battery storage</a>, should spur <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/clean-energy/ca-and-western-states/turning-down-gas" target="_blank">many more similar projects</a> to move forward in California and across the country and open the door for integrating much higher levels of renewable energy onto the power grid.</p><p>These nine stories are just a sampling of what occurred in 2018 to further the clean energy transition. As the year comes to a close, UCS will continue to work hard to keep up the clean energy momentum in 2019.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="5dfb0" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="EBO0FK1576662462"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="952909011506139136" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">All Renewables Will Be Cost Competitive With Fossil Fuels by 2020 https://t.co/QectZLGqOF #renewables @350… https://t.co/9rc89HJlCz</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/952909011506139136">1516026187.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p>
<p><em>Jeff Deyette is the director of state policy and analysis at the <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/jeff-deyette/9-clean-energy-stories-from-2018" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>.</em><br></p>
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Why Aren't School Buses Electric? These Coloradans Are Sick of Diesel
07 December 2018
Renewable Energy
Buses head out at the Denver Public Schools Hilltop Terminal Nov. 10, 2017. Andy Cross / The Denver Post via Getty Images
By Corey Binns
Before her two kids returned to school at the end of last summer, Lorena Osorio stood before the Westminster, Colorado, school board and gave heartfelt testimony about raising her asthmatic son, now a student at the local high school. "My son was only three years old when he first suffered from asthma," she said. Like most kids, he rode a diesel school bus. Some afternoons he arrived home struggling to breathe.
<p>Osorio and her family live just north of Denver, where children are at particularly high risk for respiratory illnesses. Air quality there ranks among the worst in the nation, according to an American Lung Association <a href="https://www.lung.org/our-initiatives/healthy-air/sota/city-rankings/most-polluted-cities.html" target="_blank">report</a>.</p><p>That evening at the school board meeting, Osorio stood alongside a Spanish translator working with <a href="https://conservationco.org/protegete/" target="_blank">Protégete</a>, the Latino outreach arm of the environmental nonprofit <a href="https://conservationco.org" target="_blank">Conservation Colorado</a>. The group runs a <a href="http://origin.lcv.org/chispa/clean-buses-healthy-ninos/" target="_blank">Clean Buses for Healthy Niños</a> campaign, an initiative of the League of Conservation Voters, which advocates across the country for states to trade in their diesel school buses for <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicles">electric</a> ones, particularly in <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/juanita-constible/us-air-pollution-completely-outrageous-1" target="_blank">communities of color and low-income areas, which suffer disproportionately from air pollution</a>.</p><p>In Colorado, more than 4,000 yellow school buses run on diesel. They carry 42 percent of the state's school kids and spew out nearly 50,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions a year. Each electric school bus can save districts nearly $2,000 a year in fuel and $4,400 a year in maintenance costs, according to a <a href="https://copirgfoundation.org/reports/cof/electric-buses" target="_blank">report</a> by the Colorado Public Interest Research Group (CoPIRG) Foundation, Frontier Group and Environment Colorado.</p><p>Colorado school districts may now apply for state funding for a new fleet of electric buses via the <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2016/160628-0" target="_blank">Volkswagen diesel emissions cheating scandal settlement</a>, as Osorio explained. That settlement resulted in more than $4 billion being split among 44 states plus Washington, DC and Puerto Rico for use in environmental mitigation and to promote adoption of zero-emissions technology. "It is our responsibility to clean up our contaminated air," Osorio told the board members.</p><p>Thanks in part to the efforts of Conservation Colorado, CoPIRG, the Southwest Energy Efficiency Project and NRDC, Colorado has earmarked <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/23/colorado-volkswagen-pollution-settlement-plans/" target="_blank">$18 million of its settlement funds</a> to replace about 450 trucks, school buses, shuttle buses and other vehicles with alternative-fuel or electric vehicles. Another portion of the funds will pay for charging stations, a necessary part of the electric vehicle infrastructure.</p><p>Advocates say that improvements in our transportation sector—one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gases across the nation—are key to addressing both our changing <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate</a> and public health challenges. CoPIRG director Danny Katz noted that Denver puts out ozone alerts to urge residents to stay indoors on bad days, something he calls incongruous with the state's reputation as a destination for nature lovers. "<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution">Air pollution</a> is literally impacting our ability to live an active outdoor lifestyle that is central to our quality of life here," he said. "This is especially bad for the 343,000 Coloradans with asthma, but ultimately this impacts everyone."</p><p>Still, the momentum for change has been slow to build. For example, in Westminster, the school board has so far deemed the program impractical for its district's use. "Given [our] size—9,500 students—and the fact that we replace, at most, one vehicle a year, the electric bus program does not make sense for the district," said its chief communications officer, Steve Saunders. And while nearby Denver Public Schools has been in conversation about alternative fuels and electric school buses and their benefits, the district has made no purchase plans. But on the northern side of the Denver metro area, Adams County School District 12—which serves about 39,000 students across five municipalities—has applied for grants for eight buses.<br></p><p>Meanwhile, environmental advocates are eagerly awaiting leadership on the issue by the state's incoming governor, Jared Polis, who was <a href="https://conservationco.org/2018/11/elections-2018-recap/" target="_blank">endorsed by Conservation Colorado</a> for his record on fighting for clean air and climate action. They are also waiting for the technology itself. Blue Bird—North America's top school bus manufacturer—<a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/cars/2018/07/17/volkswagen-diesel-emissions-settlement-buyback-repair/788575002/" target="_blank">delivered its first</a> electric buses to districts in Ontario and California only this past September. (In December 2016, <a href="https://www.energy.gov/eere/articles/energy-department-announces-18-million-investment-accelerate-development-plug-electric" target="_blank">the corporation received $4.4 million from the U.S. Department of Energy</a> for research and the development of a zero-emissions electric school bus using vehicle-to-grid technology by 2019.)</p><p>Despite the modest pace of the transition, however, analysts see promise: <a href="https://about.bnef.com/blog/e-buses-surge-even-faster-evs-conventional-vehicles-fade/" target="_blank">Bloomberg New Energy Finance</a> (BNEF) estimates that in the second half of the 2020s, electric buses will take off even faster than electric vehicles, filling 84 percent of the market by 2030. As Colin McKerracher, lead analyst on advanced transportation for BNEF, noted in May, "Developments over the last 12 months, such as manufacturers' plans for model roll-outs and new regulations on urban pollution, have bolstered our bullish view of the prospects for EVs."</p><p>Those prospects could be further improved if fleet managers and school districts partner up with electric utilities. As NRDC senior attorney <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/max-baumhefner" target="_blank">Max Baumhefner</a> explained, utilities are increasingly looking to use the big batteries in electric school buses to lower the cost of managing a grid with large amounts of variable electricity generation like wind and solar. "Putting kids in zero-emission buses is motivation enough," he noted, "but when those buses are stationary (which is most of the day and all night), they can be charged when wind or solar generation is abundant, and [school districts] can get paid to put that electricity back onto the grid when it is most needed."</p><p>Grassroots groups are poised to play a big role in electric bus adoption in Colorado. During the past two years, Protégete has worked hard to bring attention to the issue in the Latino community in Denver. Juan Pérez Sáez, one of the group's community organizers, led a team in collecting comments from Latino residents and bringing people to the state's public hearings. Some described how high housing prices forced them to live, work and play in the city's industrial outskirts, next to highways and near factories and refineries, where dirty air is a daily fact of life and asthma rates are high.</p><p>In fact, as Pérez Sáez noted, <a href="https://www.lung.org/about-us/blog/2016/05/kids-missing-school.html" target="_blank">asthma is a leading cause across the U.S. for absenteeism in schools</a>. "It means children are not having the opportunity to be educated in an environment that is safe for them," he said, "and that should be a priority for everyone."</p><p>In July, Pérez Sáez traveled with fellow community members and environmental justice leaders from Nevada, Arizona and Colorado to the <a href="https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/23/colorado-volkswagen-pollution-settlement-plans/" target="_blank">Rally for Clean Air</a> in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a state that has seen <a href="https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2018-07-19/environment/air-quality-methane-rally-ahead-of-u-s-governors-meeting-in-santa-fe/a63369-1" target="_blank">increasing air pollution yet little progress on electric school buses</a> or other climate action under the outgoing Republican governor, Susana Martinez. Under Martinez, the New Mexico Environment Department has argued that electric buses wouldn't be a cost-effective use of its VW settlement funds, despite the fact that 1 out of every 11 of the state's children has asthma.</p><p>The rally took place as Martinez and other state lawmakers were gathering for an annual meeting of the National Governors Association. Protégete joined forces with the <a href="http://www.cleanride4kids.org/blog/stories/a-peoples-convening-rally-for-clean-air-cleanride4kids-at-the-nga-2018-summer-meeting/" target="_blank">League of Conservation Voters, Chispa</a> activists, <a href="https://www.momscleanairforce.org/state-of-new-mexico/" target="_blank">Moms Clean Air Force</a>, <a href="https://cvnmef.org/juntos/" target="_blank">Juntos</a> and other organizations to demand justice for communities disproportionately affected by asthma and other respiratory illnesses. Pérez Sáez marched alongside a crowd of parents and students, with some kids wearing surgical masks and dressed in yellow school bus costumes.</p><p>We should change the narrative of the environmental movement, Pérez Sáez said. "If you want to be an environmentalist, you can be an environmentalist. You don't need to have the money to buy your own electric car, but we can all advocate to get public transit, to get electric zero-emission school buses. And that will impact everyone at the same level."</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="f68e3" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="92N0F51576661968"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1033036763277807616" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A #Koch-Fueled Attack on #Electric Buses Picks Up Speed #electricvehicles https://t.co/v98YI1cN2U</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1033036763277807616">1535130131.0</a></blockquote></div>
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Democratic Colorado Governor-elect Jared Polis arrives onstage with running mate Dianne Primavera on Nov. 6 in Denver. Rick T. Wilking / Getty Images
Jared Polis, who won Colorado's gubernatorial race to become the nation's first openly gay governor-elect, is charting the state's bold path towards clean energy.
The Democrat, who has served in the House of Representatives since 2009, ran on a platform of transitioning Colorado to 100 percent renewable energy by 2040—the most ambitious renewable goal in the entire country, Climate Home News reported. That's even faster than California and Hawaii, which both aim to phase out of fossil fuel generation by 2045.
<p>
<span></span>On his <a href="https://polisforcolorado.com/energy/" target="_blank">campaign website</a>, Polis said the green energy transition would create tens of thousands of jobs and save consumers 10 percent on energy costs. Pointing to a government study, he said that utility-scale <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind">wind</a> is now cheaper than natural gas and that new energy storage technology would further improve these cost benefits. That's not to mention the public health benefits of cleaner air and water.
</p><p>
Aside from a strong environmental platform, Polis campaigned on other progressive issues such as Medicare-for-all, paid family medical leave and stronger gun laws. <span></span>
</p><p>
"At the end of the day we all believe in our children's future, we all believe in protecting our amazing parks and open space, we all believe in saving people money in health care," Polis said in his <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUEfqkhHP_k" target="_blank">victory speech</a> Tuesday night. "And together we are going to get back to work because we have work to do to turn a bold vision into reality here in our amazing state of Colorado."</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="50240d678c25601a0509ebc3b5556c72"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/NUEfqkhHP_k?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">Jared Polis speaks after defeating Walker Stapleton in Colorado's gubernatorial race</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NUEfqkhHP_k" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p>The fossil fuel industry has a major presence in the Centennial State—the sixth largest and one of the fastest-growing U.S. oil producing states. Oil and gas companies and their supporters poured about $40 million into a campaign to help <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/midterm-results-environment-climate-change-2618493194.html">successfully defeat</a> Proposition 112, according to the <a href="https://coloradosun.com/2018/11/07/prop-112-fails-oil-gas-fight-statehouse/" target="_blank">Colorado Sun</a>.<br></p><p>
<span></span>The ballot initiative, which Polis did not support, would have banned oil and gas drilling on 85 percent of the state's land, but was voted down 57 percent to 43 percent on Tuesday.
</p><p>
But with a Democrat in the governor's seat, a Democratic-controlled legislature and the 825,000 Coloradan voters who supported 112, the fight against polluting energy companies is not over yet.
</p><p>
<span></span>Polis had the endorsement of the <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/colorado" target="_blank">Colorado Sierra Club</a>, which praised his plans to make Colorado energy independent and his efforts to protect the state's outdoor spaces.
</p><p>
"The Colorado Sierra Club—with 100,000 members and supports across the state—threw our wholehearted support behind Jared Polis from the early days of his candidacy because of his leadership on climate and protection of public lands," club director Jim Alexee said in a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2018/11/colorado-sierra-club-celebrates-jared-polis-election-governor-colorado" target="_blank">press release</a>. "As the Trump Administration rolls back critical pollution protections and tries to stifle our nation's clean energy leadership, the state of Colorado is moving forward with our clean energy future with Jared Polis as our Governor."
</p><p>
The club also praised Polis for being a leader on environmental issues during his time in Congress. The press release noted that Polis is a founding member of the Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition, that he introduced legislation to designate 90,000 acres of wilderness in Colorado's high country, led the effort to cut fossil fuel subsidies, defended President Obama's rules on methane and partnered with environmentalists and ranchers to protect the sage grouse's habitat.
</p><p>
"The Sierra Club was proud to support Jared Polis throughout this race and we are thrilled to congratulate him on this victory," National Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said in the press release. "Coloradans made a clear choice in this election to support Jared Polis because he will defend Colorado values from the Eastern Plains to the Western Slope. Jared will lead Colorado to 100 percent clean, renewable energy by 2040, and work to build an economy that works for everyone, not just those at the top."</p><p><em>Correction: A previous version of this post said Polis was in favor of Proposition 112. He supported 2,000-foot drilling setbacks four years ago but did not support the measure itself because the measure did not include surface use agreements.</em></p>
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With her win, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez became one of four Democrats heading to Congress to push for a Green New Deal. Rick Loomis / Getty Images
Results from the U.S. midterm election are mostly in, and, when it comes to what they mean for the environment, they're a real mixed bag.
<p>On the plus side, the Democrats took the House of Representatives, which, as <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-46067264" target="_blank">BBC News pointed out</a>, means that President <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> can't pass any more major legislation without their approval. Since big legislative pushes in the Republican controlled House over the past two years included an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/endangered-species-act-republicans-2586332924.html" target="_self">attack</a> on the Endangered Species Act and a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/farm-bill-anti-environment-policy-riders-2582389975.html" target="_self">Farm Bill</a> that would have limited controls on toxic pesticides and water pollution, this can only be an improvement.</p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="b3823" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="KYY06Z1576662090"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1060089995078365185" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The latest US election results: Democrats have won their 218th House seat, securing their majority and setting up a… https://t.co/xEe718OY0x</div> — Financial Times (@Financial Times)<a href="https://twitter.com/FinancialTimes/statuses/1060089995078365185">1541580125.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>On the minus side, the Republicans increased their majority in the Senate. Since the Senate is the body that confirms all of the president's judicial and political appointments, there will still be nothing blocking Trump from appointing more judges like Brett Kavanaugh with a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/kavanaughs-environmental-record-2610220986.html" target="_self">dubious environmental record</a>. They will also be able to sign off on whoever Trump finally chooses as <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/scott-pruitt" target="_blank">Scott Pruitt</a>'s permanent replacement at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self">EPA</a>). The House is more likely now to investigate corruption-prone, industry-friendly Interior Secretary <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/ryan-zinke" target="_self">Ryan Zinke</a>, but the Senate could go right ahead and confirm a replacement equally likely to sell out <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/public-lands" target="_self">public lands</a> to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> interests.<br></p><p>When it comes to the environmental implications of individual races and ballot measures, the night was about equally full of gains and losses. But it's important to remember that no matter who wins, popular movements can always make a difference. So whether your favorite candidate won or lost last night, you can and should continue fighting to halt <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change" target="_self">climate change</a> and ensure a healthy, thriving environment for all life on earth.</p><p>That said, here are a few of the key takeaways from last night.</p><p><strong>1. Big Oil's Big Spending Paid Off</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-rebelmouse-proxy-image">
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vbWVkaWEucmJsLm1zL2ltYWdlP3U9JTJGbWVkaWElMkZEclgyeUV4VkFBRW11elouanBnJTNBbWVkaXVtJmhvPWh0dHBzJTNBJTJGJTJGcGJzLnR3aW1nLmNvbSZzPTk0NiZoPWZmNDVhMjg3MzRhYThlNjZlYjMwOWVlODhmMzQzNjhjZTFmYzMxYmIwNjI1MDk1YzBiNDA5YmQxYzY2Njc4ZjMmc2l6ZT05ODB4JmM9OTQ1MTk3NjY0IiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0ODA0Mjk5OX0.-X-2nrVyWzI_WcIkEf99DusQZiOaUCPuc3ZKiXmQQ2g/img.jpg" id="ddafc" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7a0e4dd5257c851e2194534ee7509b14">
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">A graphic showing the results of Washington state's voting on I-1631</small><small class="image-media media-photo-credit" placeholder="add photo credit...">
<a href="https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DrX2yExVAAEmuzZ.jpg:large" target="_blank">pbs.twimg.com</a>
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</p><p>Probably the most disappointing result from a climate change perspective is the fact that Washington's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/washington-carbon-tax-big-oil-2616808725.html" target="_self">Initiative 1631</a>, which would have created the nation's first fee on carbon emissions, was defeated in the polls. Colorado's <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/colorado-fracking-homes-2608344422.html" target="_self">Proposition 112</a>, which would have banned oil and gas drilling on 85 percent of the state's land, also failed. The fossil fuel industry put more than $73 million into defeating the two initiatives, <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/green-new-deal-progressive-democrats_us_5be26f5be4b0769d24c6a954" target="_blank">the Huffington Post reported</a>, so in this case money power was sadly stronger than people power.<br></p><p>In terms of the other ballot measures <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/environmental-ballot-measures-to-watch-2618270364.html" target="_self">EcoWatch was tracking</a>, Arizona's Proposition 127, which would have upped the state's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a> target to 50 percent by 2030, <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Arizona_Proposition_127,_Renewable_Energy_Standards_Initiative_(2018)" target="_blank">was also defeated</a>, as <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Alaska_Ballot_Measure_1,_Salmon_Habitat_Protections_and_Permits_Initiative_(2018)" target="_blank">was Alaska's Ballot Measure 1</a>, which would have imposed new restrictions on projects that threaten <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/salmon" target="_self">salmon</a> habitat. Florida's unusual Amendment 9, banning both <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/offshore-oil-drilling" target="_self">offshore oil drilling</a> and indoor vaping, was the <a href="https://ballotpedia.org/Florida_Amendment_9,_Ban_Offshore_Oil_and_Gas_Drilling_and_Ban_Vaping_in_Enclosed_Indoor_Workplaces_Amendment_(2018)" target="_blank">only one to succeed</a>. </p><p><strong>2. Climate Change Tipping Point</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="e05e7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="OOHBCD1576662090"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1060004940414926848" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Carlos Curbelo didn't lose, @DebbieforFL won.
This race was fought on climate change and won on climate change.
T… https://t.co/hc6DMi0XSc</div> — Eric Holthaus (@Eric Holthaus)<a href="https://twitter.com/EricHolthaus/statuses/1060004940414926848">1541559846.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p></p><p>Climate change was also a campaign issue in several key races, and, while it's hard to pinpoint what issue tipped a candidate over the edge to victory, there were some wins where it might have made a difference.<br></p><p>Before the election, <a href="https://grist.org/article/midterms-2018-climate-election-map/" target="_blank">Grist</a> assembled an analysis of five hotly contested races in districts where more than two-thirds of residents were worried about climate change. Turns out, all of the Democrats in those races won or are currently leading in the polls, according to <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/11/06/us/elections/results-house-elections.html?action=click&module=Spotlight&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>.</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li>Anti-pipeline and offshore drilling Democrat Tom Malinowski beat Republican incumbent Leonard Lance in New Jersey's seventh district.</li><li>Democrat Colin Allred, who wants to rejoin the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris agreement</a>, defeated incumbent Republican Pete Sessions, who wants to scale back the EPA. This is in Texas' 32nd district, which saw unusually deadly storms and <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> this fall. </li><li>Also in Texas, Republican incumbent John Culberson lost to Democrat Lizzie Pannill Fletcher in the seventh district that includes parts of Houston deeply impacted by <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricane-harvey" target="_self">Hurricane Harvey</a> last year. </li><li>Florida's 26th district is its southernmost point, already grappling with tidal flooding due to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>. Republican incumbent Carlos Curbelo <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/gop-new-carbon-tax-bill-2590411558.html" target="_blank">was not a climate denier</a>, and in fact founded the bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. But Democrat Debbie Mucarsel-Powell promised more environmental action and won.</li><li>The race between Republican incumbent Dana Rohrabacher and Democratic challenger Harley Rouda for California's 48th district, which includes parts of coastal Orange County at risk from sea level rise, is still too close to call. But Rouda, who opposed offshore oil drilling and promised clean energy, is leading. </li></ul><p><strong>3. Rise of the Green New Deal:</strong></p><p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-youtube">
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="074dea21725eace9c13bc3895d6fd7d7"><iframe type="lazy-iframe" data-runner-src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/zcQZtpbgVoY?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<small class="image-media media-caption" placeholder="add caption...">The Green New Deal: fixing climate and the economy?</small>
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<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcQZtpbgVoY" target="_blank">www.youtube.com</a>
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</p><p>The brightest glimmer of hope to come out of the midterms is the fact that there are now four Democrats in the House who are calling for a Green New Deal, a massive government push to turn away from fossil fuels and build renewable energy infrastructure, The Huffington Post reported.<br></p><p><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/alexandria-ocasio-cortez-climate-2581756053.html" target="_self">Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez</a> confirmed her win after her surprise primary victory in New York's 14th district this summer, and she is joined in championing the issue by the first two Muslim women in Congress: Ilhan Omar in Minnesota's 5th District and Rashida Tlaib in Michigan's 13th. Antonio Delgado beat Republican John Faso in New York's 19th district to round out the group. </p><p>While some influential champions of the idea, like Florida Democratic gubernatorial candidate Andrew Gillum, lost their races, Penn State University climate scientist Michael Mann said it was important that the idea was gaining ground given the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change-ipcc-report-2610866229.html" target="_self">dire warnings</a> of the most recent <a href="http://www.ipcc.ch/" target="_blank">Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change</a> report on limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. </p><p>"This is the sort of bold and audacious thinking that we need when it comes to confronting the ever-pressing challenge of averting catastrophic climate change," Mann told the Huffington Post.</p>
<p class="shortcode-media shortcode-media-twitter_embed">
</p><div id="bd989" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="FMEBFV1576662090"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1055421267803746304" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">New Green Strategy: Change the Electorate, Not the Election #ClimateVoter #VoteOnClimate #IVoted https://t.co/JGhLvyxC3Z</div> — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch)<a href="https://twitter.com/EcoWatch/statuses/1055421267803746304">1540467013.0</a></blockquote></div>
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