Ruth Bader Ginsburg speaks onstage at the event Fourth Annual Berggruen Prize Gala Celebrates 2019 Laureate Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg in New York City on Dec. 16, 2019. Ilya S. Savenok / Getty Images for Berggruen Institute
The passing of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg means the nation's highest court has lost a staunch advocate for women's rights and civil rights. Ginsburg was a tireless worker, who continued to serve on the bench through multiple bouts of cancer. She also leaves behind a complicated environmental legacy, as Environment and Energy News (E&E News) reported.
<p>While it was often assumed that Ginsburg would decide in favor of environmental advocates in cases argued before the Supreme Court, the truth is that she often decided based on the nuances of the law rather than the decision that was best for the planet, according to E&E News.</p><p>She sided with the majority in the 5-4 decision of <em><a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ruth-bader-ginsburg-leaves-a-nuanced-legacy-on-environmental-issues/" target="_blank">Massachusetts v. EPA</a></em>. That case, argued before the court in 2006 and decided in 2007, found that the Clean Air Act gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (<a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa" target="_self">EPA</a>) the authority to regulate greenhouse gases that are spewed from the tailpipes of cars, according to <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2020/09/19/ginsburgs-long-environmental-legacy-418324" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">POLITICO</a>.</p><p>That decision was instrumental in the Obama administration raising the tailpipe emissions standard to make new cars 5 percent more efficient annually until 2026. That rule was then rolled back by the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a> administration to make them just 1.5 percent more efficient, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-autos-emissions/trump-finalizes-rollback-of-obama-era-vehicle-fuel-efficiency-standards-idUSKBN21I25S" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p>
<p>And yet, Ginsburg also wrote the opinion of the court in the 2011 decision of <em><a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/10pdf/10-174.pdf" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">American Electric Power Company v. Connecticut</a></em>. That decision stripped the authority of the states and private companies to sue power companies for their contribution to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a> in federal court under a public nuisance law, as E&E news reported.</p><p>Ginsburg, in that decision, emphasized the EPA's authority to regulate greenhouse gases, as POLITICO reported. That authority paved the way for the Obama administration to issue new rules for power plants that drastically reduced how much pollution they could spew into the air and waterways.</p><p>The decision, which on its face seemed to limit the rights of people and states to hold polluters accountable for their actions, actually empowered state attorneys general to sue in state court. This authority has been upheld, despite repeated attempts by the fossil fuel industry to move the cases to the federal courts, according to POLITICO.</p>
<p>Ginsburg did look to expand the authority of regulatory agencies to rein in polluters. She joined the dissent in two notable cases, <em>Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Army Corps of Engineers</em> and <em>Rapanos v. United States</em>, both of which would have expanded the definition of the Clean Water Act, according to E&E News.</p><p>In 2014, Ginsburg wrote the majority opinion in a case that allowed the EPA to regulate coal plants where their emissions blew across state lines and affected the air quality of states that were downwind, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/court-upholds-epa-rule-on-cross-state-pollution/2014/04/29/7978fd14-cfce-11e3-b812-0c92213941f4_story.html" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. That case is credited with putting an end to some of the country's filthiest power plants, according to POLITICO.</p><p>Gina McCarthy, the EPA administrator under Obama and now the president and CEO of the National Resources Defense Council, said in 2014 that the decision was "a resounding victory for public health and a key component" of the agency's attempts to "make sure all Americans have clean air to breathe," as The Washington Post reported.</p>
<p>In an NRDC <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/200918" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a> on Friday, McCarthy praised Ginsburg's life work. "From her pathbreaking advocacy for gender equality to her relentless defense of democracy itself, Justice Ginsburg widened our vision of who we are, enlarged in law the values we share and raised, forever, the possibility of what we might become."</p><p>Other environmental advocates issued statements praising the late justice as well.</p><p>"Justice Ginsburg was a pioneer for gender equality, civil rights, and the right of citizens to sue to protect their environment. The legal community lost a champion for the underdog and the nation as a whole," said Trent Dougherty, general counsel for the Ohio Environmental Council, in a <a href="https://theoec.org/press-releases/rbg0920/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p><p>Michael Brune, Sierra Club executive director said in a <a href="https://www.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2020/09/sierra-club-statement-passing-justice-ruth-bader-ginsburg" target="_blank">statement</a>, "As we mourn the loss of Justice Ginsburg, we should reflect on her words that 'Real change, enduring change, happens one step at a time. Those of us who strive to make change for good in this world — whether it be fighting for racial justice, reproductive rights, or for a livable future — must continue the fight in her honor."<span></span></p>
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Climate Denier Who Supports Fossil Fuel Emissions Is Named to Leadership Role at NOAA
15 September
Politics
Brent Bozell, Founder and President of the Media Research Center, former Governor Sarah Palin, Dr. David Legates and David Rothbard, Executive Producer of the film and President of CFACT, speak during the "Climate Hustle" panel on April 14, 2016 in Washington, DC. Kris Connor / Getty Images
By Julia Conley
Climate scientists were aghast Monday at the news that David Legates, a University of Delaware professor who has repeatedly questioned the scientific consensus that human activity is causing the climate crisis and has claimed that carbon dioxide emissions are beneficial, has been named by the Trump administration to a top leadership role at the federal government's climate research agency.
<p>Legates was appointed—without the knowledge of several NOAA officials, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/13/noaa-hires-david-legates-climate/" target="_blank">according to </a>one person at the agency—to serve as deputy assistant secretary of commerce for environmental observation and prediction and will report directly to acting NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs.</p><p>Gretchen Goldman of the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) called the appointment "a slap in the face to NOAA scientists who work daily to conduct and communicate climate science to the public and decision makers."</p><p>"Until now, NOAA has largely evaded the kind of anti-science political appointees that have devastated the EPA and Interior," Goldman<a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/13/noaa-hires-david-legates-climate/" target="_blank"> told</a> the <em>Washington Post.</em> "With Dr. Legates we risk seeing the same kind of politicization of science and corruption of ethics."</p>
<div id="67907" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="07b8bffcbfbd7bd0664b0b344cd9882e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1305343823430770689" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Oh my word. NOAA taps David Legates, professor who questions the seriousness and severity of global warming, for to… https://t.co/CyvTD2OtLS</div> — Kalee Kreider (@Kalee Kreider)<a href="https://twitter.com/kaleekreider/statuses/1305343823430770689">1600053194.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Legates served from 2005 to 2011 as Delaware's state climatologist, and stepped down under pressure from former Democratic Gov. Ruth Ann Minner when it came to her attention that his views on the climate <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/david-legates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">were</a> "not aligned with those of [her] administration."</p><p>"I am directing you to offer any future statements on this or other public policy matters only on behalf of yourself or the University of Delaware, and not as state climatologist," Minner <a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/david-legates" target="_blank">wrote</a> to Legates in 2007 after he wrote an amicus brief in agreement with the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which opposed Delaware's attempt to force the federal regulation of greenhouse gases.</p><p>The appointment, which one anonymous NOAA official <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/13/noaa-hires-david-legates-climate/" target="_blank">referred to </a>as a surprising "midnight hire over the weekend," comes as the agency is monitoring the approach of <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/14/912658940/sally-is-expected-to-be-a-hurricane-when-it-hits-gulf-coast-tuesday" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Hurricane Sally</a>. The storm rapidly strengthened on Monday and was expected to cause an "extremely dangerous and life-threatening storm surge" on the Gulf Coast. </p><p>NOAA's National Weather Service has also been issuing warnings to the west coast about the wildfires that have overwhelmed the region in recent days, killing <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-54130785" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">more than 30 people</a>. Agency scientists have contributed to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's (IPCC) reports on the climate crisis and the warming of the globe, including the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2018/10/08/un-experts-warn-climate-catastrophe-2040-without-rapid-and-unprecedented-global" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2018 study</a> which warned that greenhouse gas emissions will pose an increasing threat to human life if they are not drastically reduced in the next 10 to 20 years. </p><p>The appointment of Legates to help lead the agency undermines that message, critics say, considering he counts among his climate science work a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/13/noaa-hires-david-legates-climate/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">paper </a>called "The IPCC Reconsidered," a Heartland Institute-funded project which called for more, not fewer, fossil fuel emissions.</p>
<p>"The juxtaposition of the apocalyptic wildfires and the announcement of David Legates' appointment is mind-boggling," Jane Lubchenco, who served as NOAA administrator under President Barack Obama, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/weather/2020/09/13/noaa-hires-david-legates-climate/" target="_blank">told</a> the <em>Post</em>. "Just at the time when we need continued truth from the nation's lead climate agency, a climate denier is hired. This is a travesty."<br></p><p>In his new role, Lubchenco warned, Legates will "be in a position to squelch the free flow of accurate scientific information to the public, to distort or manipulate scientific findings, curtail monitoring and research, and create an overall chilling atmosphere for the high-quality science and scientists that the nation needs."</p><p>Other examples of Legates' work include a <a href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/polar-bears-and-climate-change-what-does-the-science-say" target="_blank">2007 paper</a>—partially funded by Koch Industries, the American Petroleum Institute, and ExxonMobil—which questioned whether the climate crisis is destroying polar bears' habitats as temperatures in the Arctic rise twice as fast as the global average, and sea ice vanishes at a rate of 4% per decade. </p><p>Along with former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, Legates spoke in 2016 at a<a href="https://www.desmogblog.com/david-legates" target="_blank"> panel discussion </a>on Capitol Hill—when both chambers of Congress were controlled by Republicans—about the documentary "Climate Hustle," which called into question the existence of the scientific consensus regarding human-caused climate change. The panel addressed the question: "Are [scientists] trying to control the climate...or you?"</p><p>Brian Kahn, managing editor of <em>Earther</em>, tweeted about a talk Legates gave at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) in 2018 in which the professor posited that the heating of the planet holds benefit for humans and wildlife, such as the growth of larger crabs.</p>
<div id="46223" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="03188a7c8cff9515eb1acde9829f0496"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1304882129633935360" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">NOAA just hired David Legates, a man who has legitimately said with a straight face that climate change is fine bec… https://t.co/AZh6AY5iaG</div> — Brian Kahn (@Brian Kahn)<a href="https://twitter.com/blkahn/statuses/1304882129633935360">1599943117.0</a></blockquote></div>
<div id="a0d1d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d84dab8726d0856d3476ea6eed1705c4"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1304884645583089666" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Anyways, here's the crab love CO2 slide from when he gave the talk at CPAC. This man is being paid with the public'… https://t.co/kpQ84CNkZB</div> — Brian Kahn (@Brian Kahn)<a href="https://twitter.com/blkahn/statuses/1304884645583089666">1599943717.0</a></blockquote></div><p>Legates' presentation was a "total cesspool of misinformation about how carbon dioxide is good, actually," tweeted Kahn.</p><p>"He's not just in left field—he's not even near the ballpark," Lubchenco <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/09/12/912301325/longtime-climate-science-denier-hired-at-noaa" target="_blank">told</a> <em>NPR.</em></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/14/travesty-climate-denier-who-has-argued-favor-fossil-fuel-emissions-named-leadership?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The BP oil refinery in Whiting, Indiana across the street from Marktown Park on Jan. 8, 2019. Scott Olson / Getty Images
We may have already passed peak demand for oil.
<p>This suggestion comes from an unlikely source: <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil-fuel</a> giant <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bp" target="_self">BP</a>. The company released its annual <a href="https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/energy-outlook.html" target="_blank">Energy Outlook</a> report Monday, and found that oil demand may have already peaked in 2019, as the rise in <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/renewable-energy/" target="_self">renewable energy</a> intersects with the impact of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a> pandemic, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2020/sep/14/global-oil-demand-may-have-passed-peak-says-bp-energy-report" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p><p>"(The energy transition) would be an unprecedented event," BP chief economist Spencer Dale told journalists, as <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-bp-energy-idUSKBN26410O?utm_campaign=trueAnthem%3A%20Trending%20Content&utm_medium=trueAnthem&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR0vHKXsFVgZ2wnnv66zvdWrWePzm375mU_kVBe6l_kUWkYQE365kESr-IE" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>. "Never in modern history has the demand for any traded fuel declined in absolute terms."</p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.bp.com/en/global/corporate/energy-economics/energy-outlook/introduction/overview.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">report outlines</a> three possible energy scenarios for the next 30 years.</p><ol><li>The Rapid Transition Scenario (Rapid): This envisions a scenario in which energy-based greenhouse-gas emissions decline 70 percent by 2050, in line with limiting global warming to well below two degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100.</li><li>The Net-Zero Scenario (Net Zero): This scenario imagines the policies adapted in the Rapid scenario are augmented by widespread lifestyle changes, and energy emissions decline by more than 95 percent by 2050, limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels.</li><li>The Business-as-Usual Scenario (BAU): This imagines that <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a> policies continue at a pace consistent with the past several years, and emissions only decline to less than 10 percent of 2018 levels by 2050.</li></ol>
<p>In the first two scenarios, BP concluded oil demand would already have peaked in 2019, according to The Guardian. In the third, it would plateau after 2019 and peak sometime in the mid-2020s, according to BP.</p><p>However, all three scenarios show <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> on the wane and renewable energy on the rise, Reuters reported. They show fossil fuels falling from 85 percent of energy demand in 2018 to 20 to 65 percent by 2050. Meanwhile, they show renewable technologies like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wind" target="_self">wind</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar" target="_self">solar</a> expanding from five percent of energy demand in 2018 to 20 to 60 percent by 2050, according to Reuters and The Guardian.</p><p>"In all three of these scenarios the share of renewable energy grows more quickly than any energy fuel ever seen in history," Dale told The Guardian.</p>
<p>The coronavirus is expected to speed the decline in oil demand in part because it is slowing economic growth in developing countries, which tend to drive energy demand. At the same time, many developed countries are upping their climate ambitions and carbon taxes.</p><p>Other factors that may limit the demand for oil include the transition towards <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/electric-vehicle" target="_self">electric vehicles</a> and the growing movement to phase out single-use <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/plastics" target="_self">plastics</a>.</p><p>The report comes the same year that BP <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/oil-and-gas-emissions-bp-2050-2645140229.html" target="_self">announced plans</a> to be an entirely carbon-neutral energy company by 2050. Monday's report seemingly supports Chief Executive Bernard Looney's plan to "reinvent" the company, Reuters pointed out. It was released as the company begins a three-day event outlining its plans to transition its energy sources.</p>
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New Zealand’s Ardern Pledges 100% Renewable Energy by 2030 if Her Labour Party Wins Next Month’s Election
14 September
Politics
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern prepares to speak at a Business NZ Election Conference on Sept. 11, 2020. Hannah Peters / Getty Images
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has promised to achieve 100 percent renewable energy by 2030 if her party wins re-election in October.
<p>In announcing the new pledge Thursday, Ardern tied the goal to a green recovery from the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coronavirus" target="_self">coronavirus</a>, <a href="https://www.sbs.com.au/news/jacinda-ardern-pledges-to-end-non-renewable-energy-generation-by-2030-if-she-s-re-elected?fbclid=IwAR3mHKgNevjrgvI86bFFCtcEQwgO61svpkLr33eP2CqokGOqfPYQQT1Gg-o" target="_blank">SBS News reported</a>.</p><p>"The COVID-19 economic recovery represents a once in a generation opportunity to reshape New Zealand's energy system to be more renewable, faster, affordable and secure," she said.</p>
<div id="5ea56" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d3959186ce8c9cef202e8b35f654c91e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1303865299951779841" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">#BREAKING: We’ve just released our clean energy policy, which outlines that if re-elected we will bring forward our… https://t.co/xgc78zxlHb</div> — New Zealand Labour (@New Zealand Labour)<a href="https://twitter.com/nzlabour/statuses/1303865299951779841">1599700686.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Ardern's pledge ups her Labour Party's previous goal of phasing out non-renewable energy by 2035. New Zealand currently produces 84 percent of its electricity from renewable sources, according to the government. However, these only account for 40 percent of the energy actually used in the country, since it still imports <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil" target="_self">oil</a> from outside.</p><p>The promise is part of Labour's broader clean energy policy, <a href="https://www.labour.org.nz/release-renewable-electricity-generation-2030" target="_blank">unveiled Thursday</a>. The plan also includes electrifying transportation and industry, investing in new technologies like green hydrogen, working to make energy more affordable and spending an additional $70 million on a pumped hydro storage solution for dry years.</p>
<div id="d95b4" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="cbbf9c0e9f36a745d129ad5ba04ef870"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1303865428200968192" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">...and accelerating the electrification of transport and industrial sectors to position New Zealand as a world lead… https://t.co/zeEpDqeYyw</div> — New Zealand Labour (@New Zealand Labour)<a href="https://twitter.com/nzlabour/statuses/1303865428200968192">1599700717.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"We are setting ourselves the new goal of 2030, five years earlier than our previous goal, for us to become one of the few nations in the world with 100 percent renewable electricity," Labour energy spokesperson Megan Woods said in the announcement.</p><p>As of 2018, Iceland and Paraguay received 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources, while Costa Rica got 99 percent, <a href="https://archive.thinkprogress.org/a-100-percent-renewable-grid-isnt-just-feasible-its-already-happening-28ed233c76e5/" target="_blank">Think Progress reported</a>. At the time, New Zealand's South Island was also entirely powered by renewable energy.</p>
<p>Ardern has emerged as a <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate</a> leader since taking office in 2017. She vowed to focus on addressing the climate crisis <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-trees-2500765147.html" target="_self">during her first campaign</a>, and announced a plan to plant 100 million trees a year upon taking power. During her tenure, she oversaw the passage of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/new-zealand-zero-emissions-2641247378.html" target="_self">New Zealand's Zero Carbon Bill</a>, which set the country a 2050 deadline for carbon neutrality and committed it to the goals of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris agreement</a>.</p><p>However, New Zealand's Green Party said that Labour's clean energy plan did not go far enough. While the Green Party plan also set a 2030 deadline for 100 percent renewable energy, it included further measures such as making it cheaper for people to switch to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/solar" target="_self">solar</a> and ending permits for <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> extraction.</p>
<div id="02383" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6fa8679dfe5aa9767e7b3f714c2764a6"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1303876360578822144" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Read our bold energy plan here: https://t.co/eCJXAbl4FZ
#nzpol</div> — Green Party NZ (@Green Party NZ)<a href="https://twitter.com/NZGreens/statuses/1303876360578822144">1599703323.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The National Party, <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/political-parties/" target="_blank">Labour's current opposition</a>, said the party's energy plan would lose jobs and raise electricity costs by as much as 40 percent.</p><p>"This is a policy that will cost thousands of jobs and put even more people on to the unemployment benefit," National Party leader Judith Collins <a href="https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/political/425709/labour-promises-100-percent-renewable-electricity-generation-by-2030" target="_blank">told RNZ</a>. However, the party still said it wanted more renewable energy.</p><p>Ardern, meanwhile, touted the new renewable energy goal as a job creator.</p><p>"Investment in renewable energy is also jobs rich. Our plan will creating new jobs and develop the high skill workforce our future economy needs to thrive," she said in the plan announcement. "Labour's Clean Energy Plan is a critical element of Labour's wider COVID-19 recovery plan that will both prepare New Zealand for the future while boosting jobs and the economy now."</p><p>The election, which was delayed because of the coronavirus, is slated to take place Oct. 17, according to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2020/sep/09/jacinda-ardern-begins-new-zealand-election-tour-at-parents-house-so-they-can-babysit" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Guardian</a>. Labour is currently favored to win, and may even gain enough seats that it can govern on its own without having to form a coalition. During Ardern's current tenure, Labour governed with <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/political-parties/new-zealand-first-party/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">New Zealand First</a>, with the Green Party <a href="https://www.parliament.nz/en/mps-and-electorates/political-parties/green-party/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">offering support</a> through a Confidence and Supply Agreement.</p>
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Charleston, SC Becomes First City in U.S. South to Sue Big Oil for Climate Costs
11 September
Climate
The number of flood days in Charleston, South Carolina has risen from around four to around 89 in the last 50 years. Diane Cook and Len Jenshel / The Image Bank / Getty Images Plus
The city of Charleston, South Carolina made history Wednesday when it became the first in the U.S. South to sue the fossil fuel industry for damages caused by the climate crisis.
<p>The city sued 24 <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil" target="_self">oil</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/pipelines" target="_self">pipeline</a> companies, including major players like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/exxonmobil" target="_self">ExxonMobil</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chevron" target="_self">Chevron</a>, <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/bp" target="_self">BP</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/royal-dutch-shell" target="_self">Royal Dutch Shell</a>, <a href="https://www.postandcourier.com/news/charleston-sues-big-oil-for-flooding-in-sc-lowcountry-caused-by-global-warming/article_a97f761c-f297-11ea-b9b6-07c93643bc83.html#:~:text=The%20city%20of%20Charleston%20filed,disastrous%20flooding%20in%20the%20city" target="_blank">The Post and Courier reported</a>. The lawsuit contends that the companies knew that their products were heating the global climate but denied the fact in public. It further seeks to charge them for the costs of protecting Charleston from increased <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/flooding" target="_self">flooding</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/extreme-weather" target="_self">extreme weather</a> events.</p><p>"As this lawsuit shows, these companies have known for more than 50 years that their products were going to cause the worst flooding the world has seen since Noah built the Ark," Charleston Mayor John Tecklenburg said during a press conference announcing the suit, as <a href="https://www.live5news.com/2020/09/09/charleston-mayor-holding-news-conference-wednesday-afternoon/" target="_blank">Live 5 News reported</a>. "And instead of warning us, they covered up the truth and turned our flooding problems into their profits. That was wrong, and this lawsuit is all about holding them accountable for that multi-decade campaign of deception."</p>
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<p>Charleston, a low-lying city built on a peninsula between three rivers, is especially vulnerable to <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>, according to <a href="https://apnews.com/fdd1235388b266ded96e4547524a3510" target="_blank">The Associated Press</a>. In the last 50 years, the city has gone from seeing around four flood days a year to almost 89, the suit contends. In addition, the city will feel the impacts of extreme weather events like <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/heat-waves" target="_self">heat waves</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/hurricanes" target="_self">hurricanes</a>. The suit was filed days before the third anniversary of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/hurricane-irma-flooding-records-2484349881.html" target="_self">Hurricane Irma</a>, which inundated Charleston with a nearly 10-foot storm surge, the third highest in the city's history.</p><p>Tecklenburg made his announcement in front of The Battery, where construction crews were working to lengthen an existing sea wall, The Post and Courier reported. The sea wall extension is the city's first project to adapt to rising sea levels. Others include building more than 8,000 feet of new flood drainage tunnels and installing check valves to prevent tidal water from entering the city's storm drain system, according to Live 5 News.</p>
<p>The city expects sea levels to rise two to three feet in the next 50 years and it predicts that adapting to these changes will cost $2 billion, according to The Post and Courier. However, the lawsuit is not asking for a particular amount from the companies, instead hoping a jury will decide what is fair.</p><p>Many of the companies named in the suit did not reply to requests for comments. Those that did said that lawsuits were not the right way to address the climate crisis.</p><p>"Legal proceedings like this waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money and do nothing to advance meaningful actions that reduce the risks of climate change," ExxonMobil spokesperson Casey Norton told The Associated Press.</p><p>Charleston is now the 21st U.S. community to disagree and file a lawsuit against big oil.</p><p>"With today's filing, Big Oil is facing climate lawsuits on both coasts, in the Northeast, the Midwest, the South, the Rocky Mountains, and even Hawaii," Center for Climate Integrity Executive Director Richard Wiles told The Post and Courier by email. "The public is ready to hold this corrupt industry accountable for causing and lying about climate change, and officials across the country are stepping up to take action."</p><p>Charleston's suit comes about a week after a similar lawsuit was <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/big-oil-hoboken-lawsuit-2647462366.html" target="_self">filed by the city of Hoboken, New Jersey</a>.</p><p>It was also followed one day later by another climate liability lawsuit from the state of Delaware Thursday.</p>
<div id="00ba7" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3f5e3d8ac183e5a9a93d3b8aa254e743"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1304084807564111872" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">🚨BREAKING: It's gonna be one of those weeks. Delaware is the latest state to announce another climate lawsuit again… https://t.co/0ljwUNZLqS</div> — Jennifer Hijazi (@Jennifer Hijazi)<a href="https://twitter.com/JenHijaz/statuses/1304084807564111872">1599753021.0</a></blockquote></div>
From Your Site Articles
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- City of Hoboken Files Climate Suit Against Big Oil - EcoWatch ›
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States Are Doing What Big Government Won’t to Stop Climate Change, and Want Stimulus Funds to Help
10 September
Politics
Towns like Breckenridge, Colorado, are part of a national organization, Mountain Towns 2030, that's swapping ideas about how to meet a goal of net-zero carbon emissions within a decade. 12019 / Needpix
By James Bruggers
In Maine, state officials are working to help residents install 100,000 high efficiency heat pumps in their homes, part of a strategy for electrifying the state. In California, an in-demand grant program helps the state's largest industry—agriculture, not technology—to pursue a greener, more sustainable future. Across Appalachia, solar panels are appearing on rooftops of community centers in what used to be coal towns.
<p>The Trump administration may have pulled the United States out of the Paris climate accord, but most states and many rural areas in America have developed their own plans for reducing carbon emissions and moving away from fossil fuels as they maneuver—often aggressively—to address the threat of climate change.</p><p>"Even if the U.S. government has decided to leave the Paris Agreement, we see in the U.S. an enormous movement in favor to climate action," United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in an interview with Covering Climate Now on Monday. "We see companies, we see cities, we see states, we see the civil society fully mobilized."</p><p>Many state and local officials, including those in rural areas, hope stimulus funds aimed at helping rebuild economies ravaged by the Covid-19 pandemic will support renewable energy and other "climate smart" initiatives that cut carbon emissions, while often creating more jobs in emerging industries than traditional infrastructure spending.</p><p>The plans for decarbonizing America have been sown and exist like seeds in a parched field, waiting for a drenching rain. </p><p>Here are five examples. </p>
In Maine, Federal Funding 'Would Make a Big Difference'
<p>The fingerprints of climate change are all over the state of Maine, from the invasion of temperate species into the rapidly warming Gulf of Maine to summers that are now two weeks longer than they were a century ago. But despite all this change, one thing will stay the same: Winter in Maine will still be cold.</p><p>In a state that uses more home heating oil per capita than anywhere in the nation, Maine's climate hawks are looking to make a major change in the way people heat their homes, and help mitigate climate change at the same time.</p><p>In 2019, Gov. Janet Mills signed a bill with the goal of installing 100,000 heat pumps into homes in Maine by 2025. This would represent nearly a fifth of the homes in the state. </p><p>"It's clearly the electrification strategy," said Hannah Pingree, the state's director of the Governor's Office of Policy Innovation and the Future. "Electrify homes, electrify transportation. That's a strong theme of the Climate Council."</p><p>Maine's Climate Council—a group of scientists, industry leaders, local and state officials and residents—is charged with figuring out how Maine will meet a <a href="https://www.maine.gov/governor/mills/news/governor-mills-signs-major-renewable-energy-and-climate-change-bills-law-2019-06-26" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">trio of ambitious goals</a>: reducing emissions by 45 percent by 2030 and at least 80 percent by 2050; increasing the state's renewable energy portfolio standard to 80 percent by 2030 and 100 percent by 2050; and making the state carbon neutral by 2045. </p><p>Heat pumps—which also cool homes—draw in air from outside and use the difference in temperature between inside and outside air to keep a home comfortable. They are run on electricity, and can be paired with clean energy sources like solar or wind power to eliminate the carbon footprint of home heating.</p><p>Mills' plan offers incentives for installing the pumps, thanks to state funding that's being supplemented by some federal low-income housing funds. The program is up and running, but it's something that Pingree said could benefit from an infusion of federal funds.</p><p>"The governor's heat pump program is already ambitious and innovative, but to really get to the full scale and take it even further, federal investment would make a big difference," said Pingree, who co-chairs the Climate Council. "Especially when it comes to people's homes, investments in transportation and housing stock, the federal government's participation is extremely helpful and it helps put people to work."</p><p>The heat pump program is part of a bigger picture of state and local governments working to get consumers to move away from using fossil fuels for heating. <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/12122019/natural-gas-ban-cities-legal-cambridge-brookline-massachusetts-state-law-berkeley-california" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Some local governments</a> in other states are banning natural gas hookups for new construction, and some electric utilities and clean energy advocates are asking California regulators to enact a <a href="https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/california-nears-tipping-point-on-all-electric-building-regulations" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statewide ban</a> as part of the next update of the state's building code.</p><p>Heat pumps are just one part of Maines's strategy, which will likely include a massive expansion of offshore wind and community solar projects and a push to electrify the transportation sector. At a meeting earlier this summer, more than 230 people from six working groups presented ideas to the council—more than 300 actions in all—which are being weighed now.</p><p>"If you look at the recommendations from the working groups, one of the cross-cutting ones is finance. We do need to raise revenue, and we also need the federal government to step up," said David Costello, the clean energy director of the Natural Resource Council of Maine. "It's going to be hard for Maine to implement many of the actions that we'd like to implement without increased funding."</p>California's Grants for 'Climate Smart Agriculture' Are Successful—and Threatened
<p>To say California farm country is central to its ambitious plans to combat climate change seems redundant. The $50 billion agricultural sector is a pillar of the state's economy, the world's fifth largest, encompassing 70,000 farms and ranches. </p><p>With such a vast and vital industry (which includes parts of every county in the state), California has created a suite of "climate smart agriculture" programs. The first-of-their-kind programs, launched in 2014 and expanded in 2017, are <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25062020/california-farmers-coronavirus-emissions-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">helping farms become more resilient </a>to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, conserve land and protect ecosystems and communities. </p><p>The programs provide grant funds and technical assistance to farms in four key areas: conserving agricultural land against non-farm development; increasing on-farm water efficiency; improving soil health and managing manure to mitigate its climate impacts. The programs, popular with farmers, are receiving at least twice as many applications as there are grants.</p><p>They are also popular with nonprofit environmental and agricultural advocacy organizations. The California Climate and Agriculture Network (CalCAN), evaluated the programs' climate benefits and found impressive results. To date, the programs collectively have funded more than 1,250 climate smart agriculture projects and reduced greenhouse gas emissions by more than 1.1 million metric tons of CO2 e (carbon dioxide equivalent) over the life of the projects, the equivalent of removing 67,000 passenger vehicles from the road for a year. The water efficiency programs have saved more than 110,000 acre feet of water (the equivalent of more than 50,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools).</p><p>They are also affordable, costing between $43 and $100 per metric ton of CO2 reductions. In a pre-pandemic California, one with a budget surplus and climate policy priorities, the programs would be expanding. Instead, climate smart agriculture funding is in jeopardy. The state, still partially wracked by the coronavirus, is in a worsening recession. Supporters of climate smart agriculture programs worry the state will spend its funding on other priorities.</p><p>This at a time when the coronavirus has exposed the need for greater investment in farm country, said Jeanne Merrill, CalCAN's policy director. "We're seeing the pandemic impacts on farmers is clearly a major disruption," she said, "and it's a disruption that can point to weaknesses in our current system. We're taking the lessons learned from the pandemic and applying that to how we can prepare for greater climate extremes. Investing in resilient farming is key."</p>Across Appalachia, a New Post-Coal Economy Beckons
<p>Coal mining jobs have been crashing for decades in eastern Kentucky, from roughly 30,000 in 1984 to about 3,000 now, undercutting what has long been among the most impoverished regions of the country.</p><p>For a long time, elected leaders <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24092019/mitch-mcconnell-coal-miners-pensions-fund-appalachia-senate-campaign" target="_blank">held</a> what turned out to be false hope that the coal industry would come back.</p><p>But a nonprofit based in Berea, Kentucky, the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development, has been working toward a post-coal economy since 1976. </p><p>Among its programs: training entrepreneurs and providing low-interest loans to small businesses. In the past dozen years, MACED added energy efficiency and solar power to its mix of programs, saving clients money and cutting carbon emissions at the same time.</p><p>It's an ironic twist that rural Appalachian counties that helped power the nation with cheap—though dirty and climate warming—coal have seen residents' electricity bills <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14082018/coal-energy-prices-appalachia-mining-electric-bill-kentucky-economy-aep-rates" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">skyrocket</a> as coal has given way to cheaper natural gas and increasingly competitive wind and solar. Utility customers have been shouldering the costs of shuttering old coal-burning power plants and cleaning up the toxic messes they leave behind, while the power companies doubled down on more expensive coal.</p><p>Since May 2015, <a href="https://maced.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">MACED</a> has helped with 30 solar installations, saving almost $400,000 in energy costs, said Ivy Brashear, MACED's Appalachian transition director. And since 2008, MACED has helped hundreds of homes and businesses reduce their energy bills by scrutinizing them for errors and helping to pay for energy efficiency retrofits, she said. She added that it included, for example, helping a grocery store stay in business to prevent a rural area from becoming a food desert.</p><p>"We listen and collaborate with people who are living and working in these communities, and help advance that new economy in ways that are really just and really equitable," Brashear said.</p><p>In solar work, MACED has focused on Letcher County, with a population of about 22,000, where businesses, faith communities and nonprofits are <a href="https://www.letcherculture.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">tapping</a> their cultural strengths to create a new economy. </p><p>Whitesburg-based Appalshop, the 50-year-old arts and education nonprofit, for example, partnered with MACED to put solar panels on its new outdoor performance <a href="https://appalshop.org/solar" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pavilion</a>, which opened a year ago, to power its headquarters building and reduce electricity bills.</p><p>"In the last decade, our energy costs have gone up by 50 percent and were expected to keep rising," said Alexandra Werner-Winslow, Appalshop communications director. "That was not sustainable."</p><p>MACED, she said, "was tremendously helpful with our construction," and with the low-interest loan. At the same time, Appalshop sees solar development and energy efficiency as an important economic engine for eastern Kentucky.</p><p>MACED's funding includes grants from government and philanthropic foundations. With Congress weighing further ways to help the nation recover from an economic recession caused by the novel coronavirus, it could further a transition to cleaner energy and energy savings in rural areas through targeted investments and tax rebates, said Peter Hille, president of MACED.</p><p>"Anything that can (bring) down the front-end cost makes a big difference since that also reduces interest cost on financing over the life of the loan," he said.</p>Mountain Towns in the West Hope for a 'Green Pathway' Stimulus
<p>Jessie Burley is the sustainability director for the town of Breckenridge, Colorado, a posh, outdoorsy community in the Tenmile Range. Not only is Breckenridge a member of the statewide Colorado Communities for Climate Action but the town is also part of a national organization, Mountain Towns 2030, that's swapping ideas about how to meet a goal of net-zero carbon emissions within a decade, and one of many tourist towns focused on clean energy long before the coronavirus pandemic.</p><p>And the resulting economic downturn hasn't changed the goal, said Burley. Sustainability-minded communities recognize that jobs and businesses ought to be a focus of the Covid-19 recovery, since the pandemic has revealed how exposed existing economic systems are, she said.</p><p>"Whether it's a virus or whether it's global warming or whether it's some other kind of disaster, we are more susceptible," she said. "We also can't lose sight of the fact that going back to business as usual is not going to be enough."</p><p>Members of a Mountain Towns 2030 task force on Covid-19 are pressing for any new stimulus package to include provisions supporting "green pathway" programs, such as green infrastructure, electric vehicle charging or renewable energy jobs. In that spirit, although Breckenridge has suffered steep, pandemic-related revenue losses, a community solar program is pressing forward this year, its grants scaled back from 25 to 20.</p><p>Similarly, in Montana, where revenue from natural resource industries makes up 12 percent of the state's general fund and paychecks for 1.2 percent of the workforce, a task force is finalizing a statewide climate change plan this month, said Mark Haggerty, an economist with Bozeman-based Headwaters Economics and a member of the governor's climate task force. Planning is still underway to decarbonize Montana's electricity sector by 2035 and to decarbonize Montana's economy by 2050, he said.</p><p>"A lot of this needs to be done in recognition of the fact that [the energy transition] is already happening," said Haggerty, noting that the task force is diverse, including everyone from conservationists to energy officials.</p><p>"It is a broad-based challenge, and everyone is affected regardless of where you live or what your political affiliation is," he said of the new climate goals in a world also dealing with Covid-19's economic fallout. "But, also, we need everyone to buy into and ultimately benefit from the changes that we can enact and that will benefit the entire state."</p>Virginia is the South's First State to Commit to Carbon-Free Energy
<p>In the wake of a political upheaval that put Democrats firmly in control of state government, Virginia in 2020 became the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-solutions/virginia-becomes-the-first-southern-state-with-a-goal-of-carbon-free-energy/2020/04/13/4ef22dd6-7db5-11ea-8013-1b6da0e4a2b7_story.html" target="_blank">first state in the South</a> to commit to 100 percent carbon-free energy and to join the northeast's <a href="https://www.rggi.org/sites/default/files/Uploads/Press-Releases/2020_07_08_VA_Announcement_Release.pdf" target="_blank">Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.</a></p><p>Most of the state's coal power would have to shut down by 2024 under the Virginia Clean Economy Act, which also lays the groundwork for a burst of new renewable energy construction. Lawmakers declared large amounts of solar and wind energy and energy storage to be "in the public interest," sweeping aside the regulatory barriers to new renewable energy projects.</p><p>This transition to renewable energy already has a footprint in the Hamptons Roads area, where the state plans to develop a wind industry hub to be overseen by a newly created state agency aimed at fostering offshore wind farms. The bill that created the agency stated Virginia's opposition to offshore drilling. </p><p>About 25 miles east, Virginia Beach is considering an array of plans to protect homes and businesses from increased climate-related flooding, storm surges and sea level rise, hoping for either state or federal funds to do everything from buying out flood prone homes to possibly building large floodgates to protect its shoreline. </p><p>In Norfolk, the state is supporting construction of new reefs using crushed concrete and granite that can serve as a habitat for the eastern oyster and also help shield the city against storm surges and erosion. The effort enabled state officials last year to declare the Lafayette River fully restored under the Chesapeake Bay Watershed agreement. </p><p>The Legislature, meanwhile, considered, but rejected, the idea of a Virginia "Green New Deal" public works-style program. Instead, lawmakers opted for a business-friendly approach that had the support of the state's big utilities, Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power, by the time the legislation was<a href="https://www.governor.virginia.gov/newsroom/all-releases/2020/april/headline-856056-en.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> signed into law</a> by Gov. Ralph Northam on April 11. </p><p>The new Clean Economy Act makes it easier for rooftop solar to spread across Virginia, by expanding "net metering" for households—giving electricity customers credit for the excess solar energy they produce and sell back to the grid. It enables Virginians for the first time to save money on their monthly electric bills by going solar.</p><p>If utilities fall short on their obligations to cut carbon energy and expand renewables, they will be subject to penalties that will go into an account to fund job training, with priority given to historically disadvantaged communities, veterans and individuals in Virginia's coalfield regions. Some critics note that this set-up means there is no assured funding for worker transition programs, which could be provided by stimulus programs from the federal government.</p><p>Virginia already has more solar jobs (<a href="https://www.thesolarfoundation.org/solar-jobs-census/factsheet-2019-va/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">4,489</a>) than coal jobs (<a href="https://www.eia.gov/coal/annual/pdf/table18.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">2,730)</a>, and the latter are concentrated in the rural southwestern part of the state, a Republican stronghold which has lost political power to the state's burgeoning northern suburbs. Diverse, highly educated and tech-heavy communities in the northern part of the state helped Democrats take full control of Virginia's Legislature in 2019, paving the way for passage of Northam's clean energy agenda. A chief challenge in implementing the law will be ensuring that the Republican-dominated, fossil fuel-dependent rural regions that have been resistant to change don't get left behind.</p>
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A new study finds only 10% of global energy utility companies are expanding their renewable energy capacity at a faster rate than their gas or coal-fired capacity. jwvein / Needpix
By Jo Harper
Only 10% of global energy utility companies are expanding their renewable energy capacity at a faster rate than their gas or coal-fired capacity. That is the main finding of a study by Galina Alova from the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford.
<p>The study, published in research journal <em>Nature Energy</em>, found that of the 3,000 utilities studied most remain predominantly invested in fossil fuels. And of those prioritizing renewable energy growth, 60% had not halted expansion of their fossil fuel portfolios.</p><p>The companies with the slowest transition tended to be larger and from outside Europe, Alova told DW. "The renewables-prioritizing cohort of utilities that I identified comprises companies that are overall larger and own a larger market share in the countries where they operate, compared to the other companies," she said. "The key issue is that the majority of these companies continue in parallel to expand their fossil fuel-based capacity, although they do so at a slower rate."</p><p>Her research highlights a gap between what is needed to tackle the climate crisis and "the actions being taken by the utility sector," she added. These companies face the risk of carbon lock-in, given that a third of their fossil fuel capacity has been added in the last 10 years, so is here to stay for decades. "Unless it is retired early, it will render significant shares of their portfolios stranded," Alova said.</p><p>"Although there have been a few high-profile examples of individual electric utilities investing in renewables, this study shows that overall, the sector is making the transition to clean energy slowly or not at all," she said.</p><p>Alova believes inertia in the electricity industry is one key reason for the slow transition.</p>
The Matter of Gas
<p>The report found that 10% of utilities favored growth in gas-fired power plants, dominated by the US utilities exploiting the country's shale gas reserves, followed by Russia and Germany.</p><p>"Renewables and natural gas often go hand in hand," Alova said, adding that companies often choose both in parallel. "So, it might be just in media reports we are getting this image of investing in renewables, but less coverage on continued investment in gas." </p><p>It might also be the case that gas is viewed as a transition fuel, relatively less carbon emitting and providing load-balancing services to intermittent renewables generation, Alova said.</p><p>Dave Jones, senior electricity analyst for independent climate think tank Ember, agrees with Alova that utilities have hindered the transition by "misunderstanding the future of gas." Utilities have a mindset to build big centralized power plants, replacing a coal power plant with a gas power plant, he said. "Fortunately, most of the gas hype across the world is now dying down, as wind and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/cheap-solar-energy-prices-explained/a-53590607" target="_blank">solar now provide cheaper options</a> for generating electricity," Jones said.</p>Green Movement Taking Place
<p>Over a fifth of Europe's energy was generated by solar panels and wind turbines in the first half of 2020, according to a report by Ember. Denmark came out on top, generating 64% of its energy from these renewable sources, followed by Ireland (49%) and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/renewables-make-up-over-half-of-germanys-power-mix/a-52986924" target="_blank">Germany</a> (42%).</p><p>In Ember's half-year review released in July, renewables exceeded fossil fuel generation for the first time ever, producing 40% of the EU's power, with fossil fuels contributing 34%. However, globally only a tenth of all energy was generated by these sources during the first half of 2020. </p><p>Last year saw the use of coal to generate electricity around the world fall by a record 3%. In part due to COVID-19, coal generation in the first half of 2020 again broke records with a drop of 8.3%. In the EU, the drop was higher, as coal energy generation fell by nearly a third.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzgzODcwOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwOTM5NTQ2Mn0.uKpwljXeUk2jEe8I6p2UqRx9U9kR6tAtXPvcD3KTW1U/img.png?width=980" id="ddf6f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7430067a3d895332e32bf4f45ff8ddc6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>With many projects delayed by the pandemic, the global capacity to produce electricity from renewable sources is predicted to drop by up to 13% overall this year according to the International Energy Agency.</p>
Slowly Getting There?
<p>Utilities have been slow to understand how quickly wind and solar would drop in price, and also how quickly governments would want to move away from coal. "Many utilities have been caught off guard by the speed of the transition, and have suffered financially ever since," said Jones.</p><p>The world this year has generated one-tenth of its electricity from wind and solar, double from the 5% in 2015, and that increase has led to a fall in market share of coal generation, Jones added. </p><p>Valentina Kretzschmar from consultancy Wood Mackenzie says BP's recently announced strategy has created a new industry benchmark. BP plans to increase investment in its low-emission businesses, including renewable energy, by tenfold in the next decade to $5 billion (€4.5 billion) a year, while cutting back oil and gas production by 40%.</p><p>In July, Royal Dutch Shell won a deal to build a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands, while France's Total has agreed to make several large investments in solar power in Spain and a wind farm off Scotland. Total also bought an electric and natural gas utility in Spain. Shell has said it will <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mexico-sells-rights-to-19-offshore-oil-fields-for-over-500-million/a-42393559" target="_blank">delay offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico</a> and in the North Sea.</p><p>US giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, however, have been slower than their European counterparts to commit to climate goals.</p><p>"I have seen a substantial shift between companies in the fossil fuel clusters toward renewables," Alova said. "This signals that the companies that have been growing fossil fuel portfolios in the earlier time periods might be switching to renewables more recently."</p>
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Aviation Accounts for 3.5% of Global Warming Caused by Humans, New Research Says
04 September
Climate
A Boeing 727 flies over approach-lights with a trail of black-smoke from the engines on April 9, 2018. aviation-images.com / Universal Images Group via Getty Images
A new international study that used unprecedented calculations to pinpoint how much global air travel contributes to the heating of the atmosphere found that aviation makes up 3.5 percent of all the activities that contribute to the climate crisis, according to the University of Reading in the UK where some of the research was conducted.
<p>It turns out that in the last 20 years, air travel has doubled its contribution as a driver of the climate crisis.</p><p>"It is growing so rapidly," said David Lee at Manchester Metropolitan University in the UK, as <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2253626-aviations-contribution-to-global-warming-has-doubled-since-2000/#ixzz6X4nSIjmC" target="_blank">The New Scientist</a> reported. "It's just astonishing."</p><p>The study looked at the time frame from 2000 to 2018, so it did not account for the current slowdown in air travel due to the coronavirus pandemic. And yet, Lee said that the current slowdown will be just a blip compared to the long-term damage that has already been done by air travel.</p><p>"It's not going to make much difference in the long term," Lee said, according to The New Scientist.</p>
<p>The paper, published in <em><a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1352231020305689?via%3Dihub" target="_blank">Atmospheric Environment</a></em>, was a collaboration of international scientists. The researchers took the most comprehensive look to date at the various components of air travel, from the use of carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxide, to the effect that the white contrails behind a jet engine have on absorbing sunlight.</p><p>It turns out that those contrails along with a mix of water vapor, nitrogen oxide, aerosol gases and soot make up two-thirds of the environmental impact, according to the <a href="https://research.noaa.gov/article/ArtMID/587/ArticleID/2667/Aviation-is-responsible-for-35-percent-of-climate-change-study-finds" target="_blank">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration</a>. The remaining one-third is attributed to the cumulative effect of greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide.</p><p>"The biggest problem underlying aviation is basically the public's desire to fly," said Lee, as <a href="https://newseu.cgtn.com/news/2020-09-04/How-aviation-s-impact-on-global-warming-has-doubled-TuCf7leGIM/index.html" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">CGTN</a> in Beijing, China reported. "The problem with aviation is that it's highly dependent on liquid fossil fuel, kerosene, to power aircraft. So if we continue to depend on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels">fossil fuel</a> for powering an aircraft, it will become a much larger percentage of total emissions over time."</p>
<p>The five-year study is the first of its kind to use a complete set of calculations that employs a new metric introduced by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in 2013.</p><p>The new metric is called "effective radiative forcing," or ERF, according to the University of Reading. It is a complicated measurement of the energy coming from the sun that compares it with the energy emitted from Earth. It also looks at how the metric compares to the balance of that ratio before industrialization.</p><p>"The new study means that aviation's impact on climate change can be compared with other sectors such as maritime shipping, ground transportation and energy generation as it has a consistent set of ERF measurements," said Lee in a statement.</p><p>The researchers found that aviation's contribution of 3.5 percent of the human activity that drives the climate crisis remained fairly constant from 2000 to 2018. However, that does not mean that aviation didn't change over that period. What it means is that while aviation was contributing more and more to the climate crisis, other factors were as well.</p><p>"It's the growth that is the real feature," said Lee, as <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2253626-aviations-contribution-to-global-warming-has-doubled-since-2000/" target="_blank">The New Scientist</a> reported. "It is rising quite dramatically."</p>
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Climate change protesters disrupt Joe Biden during a campaign event on Oct. 9, 2019 in Manchester, New Hampshire. Scott Eisen / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
A diverse coalition of nearly 150 progressive advocacy groups is demanding that Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden ban fossil fuel executives and lobbyists from his 2020 campaign and commit to barring them from his administration if elected in November, warning that a cabinet stocked with Big Oil representatives would render empty the former vice president's vows to confront the climate crisis with ambition and urgency.
<p>In a <a href="http://oilchangeusa.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/Letter-to-VP-Biden-%E2%80%94-No-Fossil-Fuel-Representatives.pdf" target="_blank">letter</a> Tuesday morning, 145 organizations representing a wide array of progressive interests called on Biden to "ban all fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives from any advisory or official position on your campaign, transition team, cabinet, and administration," arguing there are countless qualified experts and advocates who have not attempted to benefit financially from polluting and extractive industries.</p><p>"People who left government to serve on a fossil fuel industry board, enrich themselves as oil and gas advisors, receive funding from fossil fuel companies to espouse 'reasonable' climate positions, or work with industry front groups should have no role in a Biden administration or campaign," the groups wrote. "Neither should fossil fuel backers on Wall Street, who have attempted to profit off pollution."</p>
<p>The letter's signatories — which include Oil Change U.S., Greenpeace, Justice Democrats, Sunrise Movement, People's Action, and Public Citizen — raised alarm at a Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/climate-hawks-urge-biden-to-shun-obama-era-energy-moderates" target="_blank">report</a> earlier this month indicating that industry-tied individuals like Jason Bordoff, a member of the <a href="https://www.npc.org/members/byNamcon.html" target="_blank">National Petroleum Council</a>, are advising the Biden campaign in an informal capacity.</p><p>"Joe Biden can't address the climate crisis while listening to people taking checks from the fossil fuel industry like Ernest Moniz, Jason Bordoff, Ken Salazar, and Heather Zichal," Collin Rees, senior campaigner at Oil Change U.S., said in a statement. "Biden must act boldly in collaboration with grassroots leaders fighting for environmental and climate justice — which means ruling out positions for dangerous 'all-of-the-above' boosters whose time has passed."</p>
<p>The letter points to <a href="https://filesforprogress.org/datasets/2020/9/dfp_ff_executives_polling.pdf" target="_blank">polling</a> from progressive policy shops Data for Progress and Fossil Free Media showing that 61% of Democratic voters oppose "fossil fuel industry lobbyists or representatives working in the White House and other government agencies." Voters overall oppose fossil fuel industry representatives serving in the federal government by a 22-point margin, the survey found.</p><p>"Banning fossil fuel representatives isn't just good policy — it's good politics," the groups wrote. "Ruling out positions for fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives is a critical way to show your commitment to a future that prioritizes people, not polluters."</p><p>The groups' call comes hours after Biden, speaking in the battleground state of Pennsylvania on Monday, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/31/despite-poll-showing-aggressive-climate-action-winning-issue-biden-boasts-i-am-not" target="_blank">told</a> supporters that contrary to President Donald Trump's claims, he has no plan to ban fracking even as he pushes for <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/07/14/more-work-do-major-step-forward-progressives-welcome-bidens-2-trillion-green-energy" target="_blank">large investments</a> in clean energy and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/20/901380014/fact-check-bidens-address-to-the-dnc-annotated" target="_blank">promises</a> to treat the climate crisis like the "existential threat" that it is.</p>
<p>Tamara Toles O'Laughlin of 350 Action said Biden's approach to the climate emergency will be judged not by soaring rhetoric and promises but by his actions during the presidential campaign and, if elected, while in office.</p><p>"Thanks to the environment and climate movement's decades of tireless work to make decision-makers act boldly, the Biden-Harris campaign has adopted the strongest climate platform of any presidential ticket in history," said O'Laughlin. "However, real progress will be measured by relationship to communities most impacted and investments in the same."</p><p>"Fossil fuel representatives have no place at the table except to hand over their dirty profits to rebuild what they have broken," O'Laughlin continued. "Any accommodation to fossil fuel executives will undermine the promise of our shared work and throw away our chances of a livable future in the climate decade."</p>
<p>Read the full letter:</p><blockquote><em>Dear Vice President Biden,</em><br><em>Congratulations on your nomination as the presidential candidate for the Democratic Party. As you have said, this is a historic time for our nation. Over 180,000 Americans have lost their lives to theCOVID-19 pandemic that continues to ravage the nation. Millions are rising up to demand racial justice and an end to white supremacy. Donald Trump has put our democracy on the line with his attacks on our right to vote and threats to contest the election. Meanwhile, the climate emergency is ravaging our country, as supercharged wildfires burn across western states, climate-intensified floods and derechos slam the Midwest, and sea level rise threatens our coasts.<br></em><br><em>We want to thank you for your bold plans to combat the climate crisis and create millions of good-paying, union jobs in a clean energy economy. We applaud the ways in which you have put environmental justice at the heart of your plans, making sure that the communities of color who are on the frontlines of this crisis are at the forefront of its solutions. Implementing your plans would be a major step toward putting this country back on track to meet our global commitments under the Paris Agreement while centering the communities most harmed by environmental injustice.<br></em><br><em>Your leadership on climate and environmental justice is why we urge you to ban all fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives from any advisory or official position on your campaign, transition team, cabinet, and administration.<br></em><br><em>For decades, oil, gas, and coal executives have lied to the American people about the threat of climate change and lobbied against government action, all while attempting to present themselves as part of the solution. During this election, the American Petroleum Institute is spending <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-gas-climatechange-insight/in-the-run-up-to-u-s-election-drilling-lobby-promotes-natural-gas-as-clean-idUSKCN25E1DB" target="_blank">upwards of $24,000 per day</a> to mislead voters into thinking that fossil gas is "clean" energy, even though methane emissions associated with gas can make it worse than coal. Meanwhile, fossil fuel corporations have continued to expand their operations, destroy our environment, and pollute communities—especially communities of color—across this nation and around the world.<br></em><br><em>The Trump Administration has fully embraced these fossil fuel interests. Former oil and gas lobbyists now run the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior. At their behest, the Trump administration has instigated <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks.html" target="_blank">100 environmental rollbacks</a>, putting our health and safety at risk. During the coronavirus pandemic, the administration has continued to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/21/white-house-coronavirus-regulations/" target="_blank">slash environmental protections</a> and give <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-05-15/-stealth-bailout-shovels-millions-of-dollars-to-oil-companies" target="_blank">billions of dollars</a> in bailouts to fossil fuels.<br></em><br><em>These abuses have real costs in the communities that you have pledged to serve. <a href="https://www.usnews.com/news/health-news/articles/2020-04-21/nearly-half-of-americans-breathe-polluted-air" target="_blank">Nearly half of Americans</a> now breathe polluted air, the <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5800116/#B17-ijerph-15-00016" target="_blank">vast majority</a> of which comes from burning fossil fuels, according to research by the American Lung Association. According to a 2016 NAACP report, <a href="https://www.naacp.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Coal_Blooded_Action_Toolkit_FINAL_FINAL.pdf" target="_blank">71% of African Americans</a> live in counties in violation of air pollution standards. Indigenous people have seen their rights trampled to build dangerous new pipelines like Dakota Access and Keystone XL. Latina women in Texas who live near gas flaring are seeing a <a href="https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/energy/article/Risk-of-premature-births-50-higher-for-mothers-15408663.php" target="_blank">50% increase</a> in premature births.<br></em><br><em>To advance environmental justice, you must stand up to fossil fuel CEOs, stop the expansion of oil, gas, and coal production, and rapidly transition us away from fossil fuels. A Biden administration free of fossil fuel interests would signal your commitment to restoring a government by and for the American people.</em><br><em>Banning fossil fuel representatives isn't just good policy—it's good politics. According to a new <a href="https://filesforprogress.org/datasets/2020/9/dfp_ff_executives_polling.pdf" target="_blank">Data for Progress poll</a>, American voters oppose fossil fuel industry lobbyists or representatives working in the executive branch by a 22-point margin. Sixty-one (61) percent of Democrats oppose fossil fuel industry representatives working in the administration, while only 22 percent are open to the idea. Ruling out positions for fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives is a critical way to show your commitment to a future that prioritizes people, not polluters.<br></em><br><em>This critical need to advance climate and environmental justice is why we are concerned by initial <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-05/climate-hawks-urge-biden-to-shun-obama-era-energy-moderates" target="_blank">reports</a> that people with ties to fossil fuel interests have been advising your campaign and may be angling for roles in your administration. People who left government to serve on a fossil fuel industry board, enrich themselves as oil and gas advisors, receive funding from fossil fuel companies to espouse "reasonable" climate positions, or work with industry front groups should have no role in a Biden administration or campaign. Neither should fossil fuel backers on Wall Street, who have attempted to profit off pollution.</em><br><em>We appreciate your team's recent reiteration of your commitment to eliminate fossil fuel subsidies as part of your comprehensive approach to climate action and environmental justice. A commitment from you to ban all fossil fuel executives, lobbyists, and representatives from your administration would go far to assuage any lingering concerns about your climate commitments that may have been raised when the <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/democratic-national-committee-climate_n_5f3c2907c5b6d8a9173f0268" target="_blank">DNC dropped support</a> for ending fossil fuel subsidies from the 2020 Platform.<br></em><br><em>Many thousands of talented experts, advocates, and community leaders who do not represent coal, oil, and gas companies would gladly serve in your administration and help move our country forward into the clean energy future. They've shown the expertise, principles, and dedication that should be a requirement for any administration role. We urge you to choose them over the fossil fuel CEOs, lobbyists, and representatives who are profiting from climate destruction.<br></em><br><em>We thank you for making combating the climate crisis a top priority for your campaign. We look forward to working alongside you to build back better, create a new, clean energy economy that creates millions of good-paying, union jobs, and address the crises of climate change, Covid-19, mass unemployment, and the environmental injustice and racism that have plagued our nation for too long. Millions of us are ready to get to work: There's no need to slow us down with people tied to fossil fuel interests.</em></blockquote>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/01/isnt-just-good-policy-its-good-politics-145-groups-demand-biden-ban-fossil-fuel" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a></em><em>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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San Juan National Forest in Colorado is an example of the national forests that will be vulnerable to oil and gas drilling. Paxson Woelber / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 4.0
The Trump Administration released a proposed rule allowing oil and gas drilling on millions of acres of protected national forests, The Houston Chronicle reported.
<p>The new rule would allow drilling without public review or environmental reviews that would analyze the impact of industrial actions, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/01/trump-administration-rule-drilling-national-forests" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"By undermining the public participation and environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act, this proposed rule puts the interests of the fossil fuel industry ahead of the public interest," Will Fadely, a senior government relations representative for The Wilderness Society, said in a <a href="https://www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/new-rule-aims-escalate-oil-and-gas-drilling-our-national-forests" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p><p>So far, the U.S. Forest Service allows drilling and exploration in roughly one-third of its protected forests, or about three percent of its lands. Now, a new analysis from <a href="https://www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/new-rule-aims-escalate-oil-and-gas-drilling-our-national-forests" target="_blank">The Wilderness Society</a> finds that the proposed rule will transfer control of the lands from the Forest Service to the Bureau of Land Management, which will then open up drilling on millions of acres in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>The Forest Service would experience a drastically reduced role, with its duties limited to protecting specifically named natural resources.</p><p>Although the rule mostly targets forests in the West, the proposed rule could also affect national forests on the East Coast, according to The Guardian. This means more forests could share the fate of Allegheny National Forest, now home to thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, which taxpayers must pay to clean up, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/josh-axelrod/trump-administration-eyes-forests-oil-and-gas-drilling" target="_blank">The National Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) reported.</p><p>As <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/administration-relaxes-rules-oil-and-gas-drilling-national-forests" target="_blank">the National Audubon Society</a> pointed out, national forests play an important role in storing carbon dioxide and combatting the climate crisis. By eliminating the necessary environmental review, the new leases will have free reign to cleave habitats with roads and pollute pristine lands.</p>
<p>"The administration really outdid itself with a proposal that has the Forest Service walking away from its responsibilities for managing our national forests and grassland while closing the door on public oversight," Nada Culver, vice president of public lands and senior counsel for the National Audubon Society, said in a <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/administration-relaxes-rules-oil-and-gas-drilling-national-forests" target="_blank">statement</a>. "This is not just a conservation issue, it's putting our communities at risk. Replacing forested areas and grasslands with drill pads and access roads not only means fewer birds like Mallards and Prairie Warblers, but also degrades our lands and natural spaces, and threatens water supplies for millions of people."</p><p>The NRDC took exception to how the proposed rule will allow drilling near the lands of Indigenous people. The NRDC noted that despite industrialization and relocation policies, Indigenous people have been stewards of the land and a model of the economic and emotional benefits that healthy forests provide.</p><p>"Tens of millions of Americans hike, camp, fish, hunt, bike and run in our national forests each year," Sharon Buccino, senior director of lands for the Nature Program at NRDC, said in a statement. "This rule would sideline their voices in favor of the fossil fuel industry. We won't allow the Trump administration to shut down public review of drilling in our national forests that the American people don't want and that the climate can't afford."</p>
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Trump Admin Proposes 'Vicious' Plan for Fossil Fuel Lease Sales in California Amid Historic Wildfires
31 August
Politics
Local residents sit next to a vineyard as they watch the LNU Lightning Complex fire burning in nearby hills on August 20, 2020 in Healdsburg, California. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
By Andrea Germanos
Especially given the climate-fueled wildfires ravaging the region, conservationists sounded alarm Thursday in response to a Trump administration proposal for an oil and gas lease sale in California, which would be the state's first such federal auction in eight years.
<p>At issue are over 4,300 acres of public land in Kern County, an area recently <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2020-08-06/boiling-point-heat-waves-should-get-names-too-boiling-point" target="_blank">dubbed</a> "the oil industry's political power center." The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2000634/510" target="_blank">released</a> a draft environmental assessment of the plan Wednesday for the sales, which would occur by the end of the year.</p><p>A BLM <a href="https://www.blm.gov/press-release/bureau-land-management-bakersfield-field-office-seeks-input-assessment-oil-and-gas" target="_blank">statement</a> announcing the proposal notes that California allows fracking—much to the <a href="https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/governor-gavinnewsom-stop-fueling-forest-fires-with-fracking" target="_blank">ire</a> of environmental groups. </p><p>The proposal comes as California <a href="https://calmatters.org/environment/california-wildfires/2020/08/california-wildfires-help-neighbors/" target="_blank">continues</a> to reel from massive wildfires that have stretched firefighting resources thin and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/us/california-fires-tuesday/index.html%20" target="_blank">burned</a> over 1.25 million acres <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disaster-inside-disaster-california-wildfires-covid-19-form-twin-crises-n1238031" target="_blank">amid</a> a heatwave and the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<p>"It's breathtakingly vicious for the Trump administration to expand drilling and fracking while California battles historic wildfires driven by climate change," Clare Lakewood, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-administration-proposes-first-oil-lease-sale-california-eight-years-2020-08-27/" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p><p>Lakewood said that if the sales go through, adverse impacts on the climate will be guaranteed.</p><p>"More oil wells mean more greenhouse gases, more air pollution, and more destroyed habitat," she said, and warned that "selling this public land to oil companies will do significant harm to our environment, despite the administration's ridiculous claims."</p>
<p>Drilling leases haven't been offered in the state since a federal judge <a href="https://www.ksbw.com/article/judge-feds-violated-law-in-monterey-oil-leases/1051409" target="_blank">ruled</a> in 2013, based on a legal challenge from the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, that BLM acted unlawfully in issuing oil leases in Monterey County without considering the environmental impacts of fracking.</p><p>Other bids by the federal government to open public lands in California to fossil fuel drilling have <a href="https://earthjustice.org/cases/2015/defending-federal-land-in-california-from-fracking" target="_blank">suffered</a> similar fates. The Trump administration's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/05/merging-loyalty-oil-industry-and-grudge-against-california-trump-opens-725000-acres" target="_blank">proposals</a> <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article238321848.html" target="_blank">last year</a> to offer up over 1 million acres of public land to oil drilling are the subject of ongoing litigation, the Center for Biological Diversity noted. </p><p>"We've blocked any new federal leasing in California in court for eight years now, and we'll fight this too," said Lakewood.</p><p>The <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2000634/510" target="_blank">public comment period</a> on BLM's plan ends September 25.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/28/trump-rebuked-breathtakingly-vicious-plan-fossil-fuel-lease-sales-california-amid?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Norway’s Largest Private Asset Manager Divests in Chevron, Exxon for Lobbying Against Climate Action
27 August
Business
A fire burns at the ExxonMobil Olefins Plant in Baytown, Texas on July 31, 2019. michelmond / iStock Editorial / Getty Images Plus
A Norwegian hedge fund worth more than $90 billion has become the first major financial institution to divest from companies that lobby against action on the climate crisis, The Guardian reported Monday.
<p>Storebrand, as the fund is called, is the largest private asset manager in Norway, according to <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/uk-climatechange-funds-storebrand/storebrand-divests-out-of-exxon-others-over-climate-lobbying-idUKKBN25K0C1" target="_blank">Reuters</a>. As part of its new policy, it dumped its shares in major U.S. <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/big-oil" target="_self">oil</a> companies <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/exxon" target="_self">ExxonMobil</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/chevron" target="_self">Chevron</a>, as well as in mining giant Rio Tinto and German chemical company BASF.</p><p>"The Exxons and Chevrons of the world are holding us back," Storebrand chief executive Jan Erik Saugestad told The Guardian.</p><p>Storebrand announced the divestments as part of a wider set of new climate policies Monday.</p>
<div id="e7000" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="0b099792cf73397bfc5ce5359e5ef8d3"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1298927639927947269" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">– We are not only vulnerable to the systemic disruptions that #climatechange will unleash on ecosystems, societies… https://t.co/PgDrZl1hAb</div> — Storebrand (@Storebrand)<a href="https://twitter.com/storebrand_no/statuses/1298927639927947269">1598523456.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>In addition to divesting from companies that lobby against the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/paris-agreement" target="_self">Paris climate agreement</a> and climate change regulations, the fund will also:</p><ul><li>Make investment decisions in line with scientific consensus and the goals of the Paris agreement</li><li>Divest from companies that make more than 5 percent of their revenues from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/coal" target="_self">coal</a> or <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-sands" target="_self">oil sands</a></li><li>Make decisions that maintain nature's ability to store carbon dioxide, with a special focus on stopping <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/deforestation" target="_self">deforestation</a></li><li>Increase investments in low-carbon companies</li><li>Connect with <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/energy" target="_self">energy</a> companies with a view towards encouraging them to transition towards <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/renewable-energy" target="_self">renewable</a> sources</li><li>Provide regular progress reports</li><li>Inform clients about low-carbon, sustainable investment funds</li></ul>
<p>"We aim to maintain our position as a leading provider of sustainable solutions," Saugestad said in a <a href="https://www.mynewsdesk.com/no/storebrand-asa/pressreleases/storebrand-strengthens-climate-policy-to-accelerate-green-transition-3028319" target="_blank">statement</a>. "With this policy we will excel and improve our work on climate and greening the financial system. We will use all the tools at our disposal, including divestment, investing more in solutions and engaging with companies in order to achieve substantial change."</p><p>The divestment, completed this year, represented a small share of the fund's assets, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-08-24/a-91-billion-asset-manager-dumps-exxon-chevron-on-climate" target="_blank">Bloomberg News reported</a>. The fund divested a total of $47 million, almost half of it from Exxon and Chevron.</p>
<p>In response, both oil companies said they supported the goals of the Paris agreement and are investing in low-emission technologies.</p><p>"[Exxon] is focused on the dual challenge of meeting the growing demand for energy and minimizing environmental impacts and the risks of climate change," spokesman Casey Norton told Bloomberg News in an email.</p><p>Chevron, meanwhile, said it was considering a shareholder vote that would encourage transparency around climate lobbying.</p>
<p>UK nonprofit <a href="https://influencemap.org/" target="_blank">InfluenceMap</a> has reported that Exxon, Chevron, Shell, BP and Total spend around $200 million a year working to delay or block climate policies, according to The Guardian. While the fund did not divest from major European oil companies like BP or Norway's own Equinor, they are not off the hook.</p><p>"This initial move does not mean that BP, Shell, Equinor and other oil and gas majors can rest easy and continue with business as usual, even though they are performing relatively better than US oil majors," Saugestad told The Guardian.</p>
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Adani Coal Company Attempted to Search Home of Activist Who Opposes Its Australian Mine
27 August
Business
Protestors demonstrate against the Adani coal company outside Australia Environment Minister Josh Frydenberg's Camberwell office on Oct. 3, 2017. John Englart / Flickr
Coal company Adani sought to raid the home of an environmental activist who opposed its controversial mine in Queensland, Australia's Galilee Basin, court documents have shown.
<p>The company tried twice to request a search order known as an Anton Piller order to enter the home of activist Benjamin Pennings, maintaining that he had access to confidential documents that only company higher ups should possess, <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2020-08-27/queensland-adani-secretly-applied-to-raid-ben-pennings-home/12602472?fbclid=IwAR0-8rbCykcC834iCVlLaHC97h6VmMdg4e7yaH_Pd5gybUIDLtqze9fLPWc" target="_blank">Australia's ABC News reported Wednesday</a>.</p><p>"My wife and I have three school-aged children living at home, one with a disability," Pennings said in a statement reported by ABC News. "Adani has failed in two recent Supreme Court applications to raid our family home for corporate secrets they believe I possess. They want to silence dissent about their destructive thermal coal project that a majority of Australians oppose."</p>
<div id="1085f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5cba4ecad661b760f22037d71734405c"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1298832350004953088" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The next step in their leaked ‘Trained Attack Dog’ legal strategy 👇🏼 is approx. 1500 pages of legal documents serve… https://t.co/fixsKbEJE3</div> — Ben Pennings (@Ben Pennings)<a href="https://twitter.com/BenPennings/statuses/1298832350004953088">1598500738.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Pennings handles media and strategy for <a href="https://galileeblockade.net/" target="_blank">Galilee Blockade</a>, an activist group that uses non-violent direct action like boycotts and blockades to prevent <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> extraction in the Galilee Basin.</p><p>Adani's mine is controversial in part because it would open up the area, a currently untapped coal reserve, for eight other mines, according to another activist group <a href="https://www.stopadani.com/why_stop_adani" target="_blank">Stop Adani</a>. Adani's mine alone would add 4.6 billion tonnes (approximately 5 billion U.S. tons) of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere at a time when Australia is already suffering from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/australia-wildfires-climate-models-2645279035.html" target="_self">bushfires</a> and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/about-500-000-cattle-feared-dead-after-historic-queensland-floods-2628662464.html" target="_self">flooding</a> made worse by the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>.</p><p>Adani's attempts to search Pennings' home were intended to bolster a civil case the company served against the activist on Wednesday, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2020/aug/27/adani-fails-to-win-court-order-to-conduct-surprise-search-of-environmental-activists-home" target="_blank">The Guardian reported</a>.</p>
<p>Adani is suing Pennings for financial losses, intimidation, conspiracy and court costs. They claim activist pressure prompted contractors Downer EDI, AECOM and Greyhound Australia to drop their support of the mine.</p><p>Adani also wants Pennings to stop promoting the "<a href="https://galileeblockade.net/dob_in/" target="_blank">Dob in Adani</a>" campaign, which solicits information on Adani's contractors and their activities, ABC News reported.</p><p>Ahead of the suit, the company and its Carmichael Rail Network applied for the Anton Piller order to prove Pennings had "confidential information on a computer at his home" that only company executives should have had access to. Anton Piller orders are used to secure evidence from defendants for legal proceedings.</p><p>Adani and Charmichael first applied for the order in June and then appealed the court's initial rejection in July.</p>
<p>In rejecting the appeal, the court ruled that the company did not have enough evidence to justify a search that could cause undue harm to Pennings and his family.</p><p>"Surely, to permit a search of a defendant's house, with the humiliation and family distress which that might involve, lies at the outer boundary of the discretion," the Court of Appeal judges ruled last week, as ABC News reported. "This is because, for reasons that anyone can understand, the 'shock, anger, confusion' and the 'sense of violation and powerlessness' will be much greater in such a case and may be suffered not only by someone who is proved in due course to be a wrongdoer, but by entirely innocent parties as well."</p>
<p>Adani maintained that, in pursuing legal action against Pennings, it was not seeking to restrict free speech.</p><p>"We really believe that everyone has the right to express their own opinion, we support that. It's a core part of democracy," Adani in Australia communications lead Kate Campbell told ABC News. "But we think it's important that people express their opinions in a way that's legal, that's safe and that does not prevent others from going about their legal and legitimate business. Mr. Pennings is preventing us from going about our business because of the campaign of intimidation and harassment."</p><p>However, Australia's former Greens leader Bob Brown disagreed.</p><p>He said Adani's legal action would "send a shudder through every Australian who values democracy, free speech and the right to peaceful protest," The Guardian reported.</p>
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