Dominion Resources' coal-fired power plant located in central Virginia beside the James River. Edbrown05 / CC BY-SA 2.5
Corporations that flouted environmental regulations and spewed pollutants into the air and dumped them into waterways will not be required to pay the fines they agreed to during the pandemic, according to The Guardian.
<p>The forbearance of payments totals $56 million from ten corporations for a variety of violations across the country, including polluting air and water in already vulnerable communities, like East Chicago, Indiana, according to legal proceedings.</p><p>The companies agreed to settlements with the U.S. government that forced them to pay fines without admitting liability. However, the U.S. Department of Justice advised most of the companies of extensions in letters that were obtained by the government watchdog group <a href="https://www.accountable.us/" target="_blank">Accountable.US</a> via public records requests, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/27/epa-corporation-environmental-fines-decision" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>The Department of Justice said the move is intended to "mitigate the financial impact" of the coronavirus. However, enforcement attorneys who have spent years targeting the companies expressed shock over the blanket policy, according to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/493216-doj-lets-companies-skip-paying-penalties-during-pandemic" target="_blank">The Hill</a>.</p><p>"It's unprecedented in how broad it is," said Francis Lyons, a partner with Schiff Hardin LLP who previously worked on environmental enforcement issues at the Justice Department, to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/493216-doj-lets-companies-skip-paying-penalties-during-pandemic" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. "I think this policy goes beyond what is necessary under the circumstances."</p>
<p>In one example that <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/27/epa-corporation-environmental-fines-decision" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> provided, KP Kauffman, a Denver-based oil and gas company, has spent $200,000 lobbying the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/epa">EPA</a> in 2019 and 2020. It also hosted a meeting with oil executives and Donald <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump">Trump</a> in 2016. Now, the company has stopped paying the fines it agreed to for allegedly violating air pollution laws when the company emitted smog-forming compounds in the Denver-Julesburg Basin, an area that wasn't meeting smog standards.</p><p>"This is exactly the time to make sure support is flowing to the federal, state and local governments that need a hand with responding to the coronavirus crisis and with the environmental problems that these special interests have caused," said Chris Saeger, director of strategic initiatives at Accountable.US, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/27/epa-corporation-environmental-fines-decision" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"When we're facing a public health crisis that causes respiratory problems, this is a time to be holding companies to a higher standard of air quality, not a lower one."</p>
<p>Not surprisingly, a number of companies that do not have to pay the fines they agreed to are ones with deep ties to the Trump administration. Dominion Energy in Virginia agreed to pay for a coal ash impoundment that seeped pollutants into the groundwater along the James River. That company has several ties to the administration, including a former top EPA enforcement official and Attorney General William Barr, who leads the Department of Justice.</p><p>Similarly, ArcelorMittal, one of the world's largest steel companies, agreed to pay $5 million for polluting the air in Indiana and Ohio. Its CEO dined with Trump in Davos in January and was part of the president's roundtable in India in February. And Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross is a former employee of ArcelorMittal, as <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/may/27/epa-corporation-environmental-fines-decision" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"This policy cuts off income to the federal government at a time when there's this massive spending by the federal government to keep the economy afloat, so you'd think they'd care about other funds coming in," said Joel Mintz, a former EPA enforcement attorney who later worked as a law professor at Nova Southeastern University in Florida, to <a href="https://thehill.com/homenews/administration/493216-doj-lets-companies-skip-paying-penalties-during-pandemic" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. "It kind of sends a message to these companies that you're letting them off the hook."</p>
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Harmful algal blooms, seen here at Ferril Lake in Denver, Colorado on June 30, 2016, are increasing in lakes and rivers across the U.S. Helen H. Richardson / The Denver Post / Getty Images
During summer in central New York, residents often enjoy a refreshing dip in the region's peaceful lakes.
But sometimes swimming is off-limits because of algae blooms that can make people sick.
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<p>"Some of the algae may produce chemical toxins that can have harmful effects on people, fish, shellfish, terrestrial and marine mammals, and birds," says Jennifer Graham, a research hydrologist with the United States Geological Survey.</p><p>She says reports of harmful algal blooms are increasing across the country, and climate change could be part of the reason.</p><p>Some harmful algae prefer warm temperatures, so blooms may be growing more common as rivers and lakes warm.</p>
<p>Extreme weather can also contribute to algal blooms because heavy rain can cause nutrients to run off farm fields and sewage systems into waterways.</p><p>"Nutrients are basically the food source for algae," Graham says.</p><p>In New York's Finger Lakes and other locations across the country, the USGS is monitoring algal blooms.</p><p>Graham says they are trying to better understand toxic bloom growth and severity, so local agencies can make informed decisions about how to protect people.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/05/as-u-s-lakes-and-rivers-warm-reports-of-harmful-algal-blooms-are-on-the-rise/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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EcoWatch Daily Newsletter
Climate Explained: Why Higher Carbon Dioxide Levels Aren’t Good News, Even If Plants Grow Faster
20 May
Science
At first sight, it seems more CO₂ can only be beneficial to plants, but things are a lot more complex than that. sarayut Thaneerat / Getty Images
By Sebastian Leuzinger
Climate Explained is a collaboration between The Conversation, Stuff and the New Zealand Science Media Centre to answer your questions about climate change.
If you have a question you'd like an expert to answer, please send it to climate.change@stuff.co.nz
If carbon dioxide levels were to double, how much increase in plant growth would this cause? How much of the world's deserts would disappear due to plants' increased drought tolerance in a high carbon dioxide environment?
Compared to pre-industrial levels, the concentration of carbon dioxide (CO₂) in the atmosphere will have doubled in about 20 to 30 years, depending on how much CO₂ we emit over the coming years. More CO₂ generally leads to higher rates of photosynthesis and less water consumption in plants.
At first sight, it seems more CO₂ can only be beneficial to plants, but things are a lot more complex than that.
<p>Let's look at the first part of the question.</p><p>Some plants do grow faster under elevated levels of atmospheric CO₂, but this happens mostly in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0098847215300253" target="_blank">crops</a> and young trees, and generally not in <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-020-2128-9?proof=trueHere" target="_blank">mature forests</a>.</p><p>Even if plants grew twice as fast under doubled CO₂ levels, it would not mean they strip twice as much CO₂ from the atmosphere. Plants take carbon from the atmosphere as they grow, but that carbon is going straight back via natural decomposition when plants die or when they are harvested and consumed.</p><p>At best, you might be <a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-why-your-backyard-lawn-doesnt-help-reduce-carbon-dioxide-in-the-atmosphere-122312" target="_blank">mowing your lawn twice as often</a> or harvesting your plantation forests earlier.</p><p>The most important aspect is how long the carbon stays locked away from the atmosphere - and this is where we have to make a clear distinction between increased carbon flux (faster growth) or an increasing carbon pool (<a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/355/6321/130.summary" target="_blank">actual carbon sequestration</a>). Your bank account is a useful analogy to illustrate this difference: fluxes are transfers, pools are balances.</p>
The Global Carbon Budget
<p>Of the almost 10 billion tonnes (gigatonnes, or Gt) of carbon we emit every year through the burning of fossil fuels, only about half accumulates in the atmosphere. Around a quarter ends up in the ocean (about 2.4 Gt), and the remainder (about 3 Gt) is thought to be <a href="https://www.earth-syst-sci-data.net/10/2141/2018/" target="_blank">taken up by terrestrial plants</a>.</p><p>While the ocean and the atmospheric sinks are relatively easy to quantify, the terrestrial sink isn't. In fact, the 3 Gt can be thought of more as an unaccounted residual. Ultimately, the emitted carbon needs to go somewhere, and if it isn't the ocean or the atmosphere, it must be the land.</p><p>So yes, the terrestrial system takes up a substantial proportion of the carbon we emit, but the attribution of this sink to elevated levels of CO₂ is difficult. This is because many other factors may contribute to the land carbon sink: rising temperature, increased use of fertilisers and atmospheric nitrogen deposition, changed land management (including land abandonment), and changes in species composition.</p><p><a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s41598-017-03818-2" target="_blank">Current estimates</a> assign about a quarter of this land sink to elevated levels of CO₂, but estimates are very uncertain.</p><p>In summary, rising CO₂ leads to faster plant growth - sometimes. And this increased growth only partly contributes to sequestering carbon from the atmosphere. The important questions are how long this carbon is locked away from the atmosphere, and how much longer the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41559-017-0274-8" target="_blank">currently observed land sink will continue</a>.</p><p>The second part of the question refers to a side-effect of rising levels of CO₂ in the air: the fact that it enables plants to save water.</p><p>Plants regulate the exchange of carbon dioxide and water vapour by opening or closing small pores, called stomata, on the surface of their leaves. Under higher concentrations of CO₂, they can reduce the opening of these pores, and that in turn means they <a href="https://theconversation.com/rising-carbon-dioxide-is-making-the-worlds-plants-more-water-wise-79427" target="_blank">lose less water</a>.</p><p>This alleviates drought stress in already dry areas. But again, the issue is more complex because CO₂ is not the only parameter that changes. Dry areas also get warmer, which means that more water evaporates and this often compensates for the water-saving effect.</p><p>Overall, rising CO₂ has contributed to some degree to the <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/nclimate3004" target="_blank">greening of Earth</a>, but it is likely that this trend will not continue under the much more complex combination of global change drivers, particularly in <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0098847217301168" target="_blank">arid regions</a>.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/sebastian-leuzinger-797584" target="_blank">Sebastian Leuzinger</a> is a Professor at Auckland University of Technology.</em></p><p><em>Disclosure statement: Sebastian Leuzinger receives funding from the Royal Society.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><a href="https://theconversation.com/climate-explained-why-higher-carbon-dioxide-levels-arent-good-news-even-if-some-plants-grow-faster-137235" target="_blank"><em>The Conversation.</em></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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More than 700 New Yorkers marched across the Brooklyn Bridge on April 18, 2019 to demand Governor Andrew Cuomo block the controversial Williams Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) Pipeline, which would carry fracked gas through New York Harbor. Erik McGregor / Pacific Press / LightRocket via Getty Images
New York state has rejected the controversial Williams pipeline that would have carried fracked natural gas from Pennsylvania through New Jersey, running beneath New York Harbor and the Atlantic Ocean before connecting to an existing pipeline system off Long Island.
<p>The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (NYSDEC) <a href="https://www.dec.ny.gov/press/120414.html" target="_blank">announced</a> the decision Friday, arguing that pipeline construction would have harmed <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water" target="_self">water</a> quality and threatened <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/marine-life" target="_self">marine life</a>.</p><p>"New York is not prepared to sacrifice the State's water quality for a project that is not only environmentally harmful but also unnecessary to meet New York's energy needs," DEC spokesperson Erica Ringewald said in a statement <a href="https://www.politico.com/states/new-jersey/story/2020/05/15/cuomo-administration-cites-new-climate-law-in-denying-controversial-new-york-new-jersey-pipeline-1284299" target="_blank">reported by POLITICO</a>.</p><p>The decision is a victory for grassroots activists who have long campaigned against the pipeline. After Oklahoma-based company Williams submitted its most recent application, New Yorkers sent in more than 25,000 comments opposing the pipeline in two weeks, <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5bc942dbb10f255d8dde1e5c/t/5ebf10266fb5fa69a13fd327/1589579814146/%5BPRESS+RELEASE%5D+2020+Williams+NESE+Pipeline+Denial+With+Prejudice.pdf" target="_blank">according to the Stop the Williams Pipeline Coalition</a>.</p><p>"We know [New York State Gov. Andrew] Cuomo only did this because we pressured him to do so," anti-pipeline campaigner Lee Ziesche told <a href="https://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/cuomo-williams-pipeline_n_5ebdbe5dc5b6c9c1874157a6?ri18n=true" target="_blank">HuffPost</a>. "At the end of the day, he still needs to make a plan to get New York off of gas."</p>
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<p>The rejection comes a little less than a year after New York state passed ambitious <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/grassroots-climate-campaign-new-york-2638905712.html" target="_self">climate legislation</a> requiring the state to achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. That deadline is one of the reasons that NYSDEC rejected the pipeline, according to POLITICO.</p><p>"While the Department recognizes that many building assets in the State currently rely on natural gas for heating and other energy uses, the continued long-term use of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuels</a> is inconsistent with the State's laws and objectives and with the actions necessary to prevent the most severe impacts from <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate change</a>," DEC wrote in a <a href="https://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/permits_ej_operations_pdf/nesewqcdenial05152020.pdf" target="_blank">letter</a> explaining its decision. "Without appropriate alternatives or GHG mitigation measures, the Project could extend the amount of time that natural gas may be relied upon to produce energy, which could in turn delay, frustrate, or increase the cost of the necessary transition away from natural gas and other fossil fuels."</p>
<p>NYDDEC also said that construction would disturb toxic sediments like copper and mercury and harm habitats like shellfish beds.</p><p>Williams disagreed with New York's assessment.</p><p>"We continue to believe that the fundamentals of our project align with New York's clean energy goals because it would have improved local air quality and, at the same time, supported economic development and led to lower heating bills," Williams said in a statement <a href="https://www.nj.com/news/2020/05/ny-rejects-controversial-pipeline-across-raritan-bay-nj-could-soon-do-the-same.html?utm_source=tw&utm_medium=tweet&utm_campaign=NESE" target="_blank">reported by NJ.com</a>.</p><p>New York utility National Grid has argued that the pipeline is necessary to meet growing demand, according to HuffPost, but a study released in April by the <a href="https://ieefa.org/ieefa-report-proposed-nese-gas-pipeline-may-stick-nys-ratepayers-with-one-billion-dollar-cost/" target="_blank">Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis</a> found no evidence this was the case.</p>
<p>While the Williams pipeline, officially called the Northeast Supply Enhancement Pipeline, has been rejected before by both New York and New Jersey officials, this rejection is more final, HuffPost explained. The previous rejection was without prejudice, meaning the pipeline owners were invited to reapply if they addressed environmental concerns. Friday's rejection was with prejudice.</p><p>"That's the end of the line," anti-pipeline campaigner and former NYSDEC regional director Suzanne Mattei told HuffPost. "A denial with prejudice means the department has determined the environmental impacts of the pipeline are unacceptable and that the company has not given it reason to believe that it can make changes to its proposal that would convert it into an acceptable proposal."</p><p>The project received yet another blow later Friday, when New Jersey also denied the pipeline the permits it would have needed to cross the state, NJ.com reported.</p>
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<p>"This month, new reporting from New York indicated that the energy needs proposed to be served by this project could be met through existing infrastructure, energy efficiency, and other means," the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection said in a statement Saturday. "With no compelling public need demonstrated, and a denial issued by New York, DEP denied approvals for the project on May 15, 2020."</p>
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California, along with eight other states, sued the EPA for suspending enforcement of air and water pollution monitoring and reporting from places like the Shell refinery in Martinez, CA, seen here on April 1, 2004. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
On Wednesday, nine states sued the Trump administration over the Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) decision to temporarily relax various environmental regulations during the coronavirus pandemic.
<p>The move has been called an implicit "<a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-worst-president-environment-2645034831.html" target="_self">license to pollute</a>," according to <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/497630-9-states-sue-epa-for-suspending-pollution-monitoring-requirements" target="_blank">The Hill</a>, and allegedly violates numerous federal pollution laws as well as the EPA's duty to protect the environment.</p><p>The states' <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/New%20York%20v.%20EPA%20Complaint.Filed_.pdf" target="_blank">complaint</a> challenges a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-03/documents/oecamemooncovid19implications.pdf" target="_blank">March 26 EPA memo</a> in which the agency put forth a new, relaxed policy. Polluters are allowed, at their sole discretion, to stop monitoring and reporting <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution">air emissions</a> and water pollution levels during the outbreak.</p><p>The memo was produced by the EPA's compliance director, Susan Parker Bodine, three days after she received a request from the American Petroleum Institute to halt pollution enforcement, reported the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/California-sues-EPA-for-suspending-pollution-15268344.php#photo-18445984" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</p>
<p>In the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2020-03/documents/oecamemooncovid19implications.pdf" target="_blank">memo</a>, Bodine announced that the new, relaxed policies would be retroactive to March 13, when <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">President Trump</a> declared a state of emergency regarding COVID-19. Due to outbreak-related "potential worker shortages" and "travel and social distancing restrictions," companies could decide for themselves when it would no longer be practical to monitor pollution and report it to federal, state and local agencies, the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/California-sues-EPA-for-suspending-pollution-15268344.php#photo-18445984" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a> reported.</p><p>Bodine said businesses should try to follow reporting and monitoring regulations but that noncompliance would not be penalized if caused by coronavirus, reported the San Francisco Chronicle. She did not indicate how the EPA could learn of any violations or dangerous emissions if reporting isn't required, the news report added.</p>
<p>Similarly, the regulation change is "temporary," but no end date is indicated in the memo. And, while companies are required to document their noncompliance, critics fear the environmental damage will already be done, reported <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/497630-9-states-sue-epa-for-suspending-pollution-monitoring-requirements" target="_blank">The Hill</a>.</p><p>EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said that the EPA recognized that challenges created by COVID-19 "may directly impact the ability of regulated facilities to meet all federal regulatory requirements," reported the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/California-sues-EPA-for-suspending-pollution-15268344.php#photo-18445984" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</p><p>Wheeler also said the agency would still "expect facilities to comply with their obligations under the law" unless, of course, Covid-19 made it "impracticable," reported <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/states-sue-trumps-epa-over-rule-relaxation-during-pandemic-1" target="_blank">Bloomberg Law</a>.</p>
<p>The states' <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/New%20York%20v.%20EPA%20Complaint.Filed_.pdf" target="_blank">lawsuit</a>, filed in New York federal court, alleges that the EPA lacks the legal authority to "effectively waive critical monitoring and reporting obligations" that alert the public to environmental and health hazards, reported <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/states-sue-trumps-epa-over-rule-relaxation-during-pandemic-1" target="_blank">Bloomberg Law</a>. It also argues that the EPA failed to properly weigh the public health impacts the relaxed policy will have amid the coronavirus pandemic, reported <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-epa/nine-u-s-states-sue-epa-for-easing-environmental-enforcement-amid-pandemic-idUSKBN22P36U" target="_blank">Reuters</a>.</p><p>"Rather than exercising enforcement discretion as authorized by law, EPA issued a broad, open-ended policy that gives regulated parties free rein to self-determine when compliance with federal environmental laws is not practical because of Covid-19," the <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/New%20York%20v.%20EPA%20Complaint.Filed_.pdf" target="_blank">complaint</a> stated.</p><p>The enforcement suspensions will lead to more chemical spills and "likely will result in increased air and water pollution," endangering residents who live nearby, downwind or downstream, the suit added, reported the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/California-sues-EPA-for-suspending-pollution-15268344.php#photo-18445984" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</p>
<p>The states also argued that the EPA failed to demonstrate both the need for the drastic change and any rationale for bypassing the traditional notice and comment period required for new rules, reported <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/497630-9-states-sue-epa-for-suspending-pollution-monitoring-requirements" target="_blank">The Hill</a>. The Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act both require companies to monitor and report emissions to the EPA, and the agency has therefore exceeded its authorities under both regulations, the complaint says, reported The Hill.</p><p>"The Trump Administration cannot give industries the green light to ignore critical environmental and public health laws, especially during a public health crisis," said New York Attorney General Letitia James, reported <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/states-sue-trumps-epa-over-rule-relaxation-during-pandemic-1" target="_blank">Bloomberg Law</a>.</p><p>California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said, "The Trump Administration is trying to use the current public health crisis to sweep environmental violations under the rug," reported <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/497630-9-states-sue-epa-for-suspending-pollution-monitoring-requirements" target="_blank">The Hill</a>.</p><p>"What's worse, the Administration is doing so even as evidence grows that communities exposed to air pollution are at increased risk from coronavirus," he added, reported The Hill.</p><p>The EPA would not comment on the litigation, but told The Hill that "the EPA temporary policy is a lawful and proper exercise of the Agency's authority under extraordinary circumstances." In the same statement, the EPA noted, "This is not a nationwide waiver of environmental rules."</p>
<p>The EPA was also sued on April 16 by environmental groups seeking to require the agency to determine when companies stopped complying with environmental laws and to immediately notify the public, reported the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/California-sues-EPA-for-suspending-pollution-15268344.php#photo-18445984" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</p><p>The nine states filing the complaint are California, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Oregon, Vermont and Virginia. The suit alleges that the regulation rollback, if allowed to persist, will force states to try to "fill EPA's enforcement shoes at a time when they are increasingly strapped for resources, or risk the health of our residents," reported the <a href="https://www.sfchronicle.com/environment/article/California-sues-EPA-for-suspending-pollution-15268344.php#photo-18445984" target="_blank">San Francisco Chronicle</a>.</p>
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With the water level of the Missouri River at an all-time low and falling on June 30, 2002, a bait and dock manager at Standing Rock Indian Reservation near Mobridge, South Dakota points out the dry, cracked mud where boat launching river water used to stand. MARLIN LEVISON / Star Tribune via Getty Images
For the first decade of the 2000s, the Missouri River, the nation's longest river, was drier than it's been in more than 1,200 years. The culprit is the climate crisis, according to a new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, or PNAS.
<p>Since global temperatures continue to warm, the severe <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/drought" target="_self">droughts</a> like the one the Upper Missouri River basin experienced are likely to happen again, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/11/missouri-river-drought-climate-change/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported. Rising temperatures that reduced the amount of snowpack melt in the Rocky Mountains in Montana and North Dakota caused the drop in the water level that persisted from 2000 to 2010, according to the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/05/1916208117.short?rss=1" target="_blank">study</a>.</p>
<p>"In the Upper Missouri River basin, what we're really worried about is a future of snow droughts," said Erika Wise, an associate professor in the geography department at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and study co-author, to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/11/missouri-river-drought-climate-change/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. "Snowpack in the Rocky Mountains is very sensitive to warming temperatures. Snow provides the water for stream flow to the Upper Missouri, and we've designed our agriculture and infrastructure around expectations that this water will be provided at a certain pace over a certain part of the year."</p>
<p>The Missouri River runs 2,300 miles from western Montana to St. Louis, where it joins the Mississippi River. It runs through North and South Dakota and past Nebraska, Iowa, Kansas and Missouri, where it supports farming in several states and provides fresh water for dozens of municipalities.</p><p>"In terms of the most severe flow deficits, the driest years of the Turn-Of-The-Century-Drought in the [Upper Missouri River Basin] appear unmatched over the last 1,200 years," the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/05/1916208117.short?rss=1" target="_blank">study</a> said, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/11/missouri-river-drought-climate-change/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported. "Only a single event in the late 13th century rivaled the greatest deficits of this most recent event."</p><p>The basin also had drought in the past decade, most notably in 2012, 2013, and 2017, but researchers do not yet know how severe it was compared to the Turn-Of-The-Century-Drought. What they do know, though, is that the severity of the drought at the beginning of the 2000s was worse than the Dust Bowl.</p>
<p>Prolonged drought disrupts agriculture and hurts the local economy, the researches noted. It also harms marine life that must cope with lower water levels and animals like waterfowl that rely on fish to survive, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/11/missouri-river-drought-climate-change/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p><p>"Future warming is anticipated to cause increasingly severe droughts by enhancing water deficits that could prove challenging for water management," the <a href="https://www.pnas.org/content/early/2020/05/05/1916208117.short?rss=1" target="_blank">study</a> said.</p><p>As <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/11/missouri-river-drought-climate-change/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported, the researchers were surprised to find such a decreased water table in the Midwest.</p><p>"We don't tend to think of the upper Missouri region as being as drought-threatened as a region like the Southwest United States," said Wise to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/11/missouri-river-drought-climate-change/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>. "These findings show that the upper Missouri Basin is reflecting some of the same changes that we see elsewhere across North America."</p>
<p>These findings echo another recent study that focused on the American Southwest. That study, published in <em><a href="https://science.sciencemag.org/content/368/6488/314" target="_blank">Science</a>,</em> found that the region is likely to soon experience the most severe drought since the 800s, as <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/southwest-drought-climate-crisis-2645742986.html">EcoWatch</a> reported.</p><p>Scientists at NASA and Columbia University had thought that such severe drought would occur around 2030, but last month's study of tree rings showed that the phenomenon has already started. "The megadrought era seems to be reemerging, but for a different reason than the [past] megadroughts," said Park Williams, the study's lead author and a researcher at the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University, as <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2020/05/11/missouri-river-drought-climate-change/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a> reported.</p>
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Federal Judge: Pipelines Must Not Cross Streams Without Considering Endangered Species
12 May
Energy
Gnats hover near a barn equipped with solar panels and a wind turbine on Oct. 11, 2014 in Polk, Nebraska. The barn was built directly in the path of the proposed Keystone XL Pipeline by Bold Nebraska, an organization opposed to the pipeline. Andrew Burton / Getty Images
A federal judge upheld his April 15 ruling Monday, tossing a key permit required by the Keystone XL and other pipeline projects to cross streams and wetlands.
<p>Montana U.S. District Judge Brian Morris affirmed that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers cannot use a blanket water-crossing permit to approve new <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/oil-and-gas" target="_self">oil and gas</a> pipelines without considering their impacts on <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a>.</p><p>"The court rightly ruled that the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/trump-administration" target="_self">Trump administration</a> can't continue to ignore the catastrophic effects of <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/fossil-fuels" target="_self">fossil fuel</a> pipelines like Keystone XL," <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> (CBD) senior attorney Jared Margolis said in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/federal-court-upholds-ruling-blocking-permit-critical-keystone-xl-other-oil-and-gas-pipelines-2020-05-11/" target="_blank">press release</a>. "Constructing pipelines through rivers, streams and wetlands without analyzing the impacts on imperiled species is unconscionable. We'll continue to fight to protect vulnerable species, our waters and the climate from this kind of reckless development."</p>
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<p>At stake is a permit called Nationwide Permit 12, which the Army Corps uses to fast-track approvals for construction across waterways, <a href="https://apnews.com/2664f71668c4961a90000f74e3567921" target="_blank">The Associated Press explained</a>.</p><p>Morris ruled in April that the Army Corps did not consult with the Fish and Wildlife Service as to how these crossings would impact endangered species when it renewed the permit in 2017, <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipelines-court/montana-judge-upholds-ruling-that-canceled-keystone-xl-pipeline-permit-idUKKBN22O07T" target="_blank">Reuters reported</a>.</p><p>Morris' April ruling was in response to a lawsuit brought by environmental groups focusing on the approval process for the Keystone XL pipeline specifically. However, the ruling blocked the use of Nationwide Permit 12 for all projects, CBD explained.</p><p>Utility groups and the government asked Morris to alter his ruling, arguing that it interfered with thousands of construction projects, according to The Associated Press. In response, Morris said that the permit could be used for electrical lines or pipeline repairs, but not the construction of new oil and gas pipelines.</p><p>"To allow the Corps to continue to authorize new oil and gas pipeline construction could seriously injure protected species and critical habitat," Morris wrote, according to The Associated Press.</p>
<p>The ruling does not actually block construction work on Keystone XL or other pipelines, but it is another setback for the long-delayed project, since it now cannot build across streams without further environmental review.</p><p>The Keystone XL pipeline would carry around 830,000 barrels of oil a day along 1,200 miles from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada to Nebraska, where it would connect with pipelines traveling to refineries along the U.S. Gulf Coast. It was first <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/breaking-president-obama-rejects-keystone-xl-pipeline-1882117930.html">blocked by President Barack Obama</a> over fears it would contribute to the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/climate-change/" target="_self">climate crisis</a>, but President <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/donald-trump" target="_self">Donald Trump</a> <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/state-department-approve-kxl-2326597009.html" target="_self">resuscitated</a> it in 2017.</p><p>Pipeline owner TC Energy said it would "promptly" appeal the ruling, according to Reuters.</p>
<p>Other members of the fossil fuel industry also plan to appeal.</p><p>"Arbitrarily singling out certain new projects only prolongs the highly disruptive nature of this order," Amy Conway of the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America told The Associated Press.</p><p>But environmental advocates thought the law was on Morris' side.</p><p>"Our courts have shown time and time again that the law matters," <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/" target="_blank">Natural Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) attorney Cecilia Segal said in the CBD Press release. "Today's ruling makes clear that climate-busting pipelines like Keystone XL cannot be built until the federal government does its job and properly analyzes these projects' devastating effects on their surrounding communities and wildlife. If that analysis is based on science and facts, pipelines like Keystone XL will never see the light of day because they remain, and always will be, a dire threat to our water, wildlife and climate."</p>
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A cave at the Mediterranean Sea in Sicily. ClaraNila / iStock / Getty Images Plus
Not even underground ecosystems are safe from human pollution.
<p>New research <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0232742" target="_blank">published in PLoS ONE May 6</a> examined how <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water" target="_self">water</a> runoff from the surface impacted the communities of microbes in the Monte Conca cave system in Sicily. The answer? Quite a lot. Potentially human-introduced bacteria made up less than 4 percent of the microbial community during the dry season, but shot up to almost 90 percent during the wet season, after heavy rains.</p><p>"Anthropogenic microbial contaminants originating from outside of the cave environment can replace endemic cave communities," the researchers concluded.</p>
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<p>The Monte Conca cave system is one of many caves formed by a process called sulfuric acid speleogenesis, by which <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/groundwater" target="_self">groundwater</a> containing sulfur dissolves limestone. Communities of microbes within the caves contribute to this process, the researchers explained.</p><p>But the study, carried out by a team of microbiologists and geoscientists at the University of South Florida (USF), indicates that bacteria from urban and agricultural areas can enter these unique communities via runoff from surface water, the <a href="https://www.usf.edu/news/2020/researchers-find-human-driven-pollution-alters-environment-even-underground.aspx" target="_blank">university press release explained</a>. This happens despite the fact that the Monte Conca system sits below a nature preserve.</p>
<p>To assess the impact of surface-level bacteria on the cave's microbial communities, the researchers compared their composition between the dry and wet seasons.</p><p>During the dry season, more than 90 percent of the microbes were sulfur oxidizers. These are bacteria uniquely adapted to use both oxygen from the cave and sulfur from its spring pool. But during the wet season, when large amounts of rainwater enter the cave, the composition radically changed. <em>Escherichia</em> and <em>Lysinibacillus</em> bacteria jumped from 3.7 percent of the microbial community to 89.5 percent. These are fecal and soil bacteria researchers identified as influenced by human activity, including the fecal bacteria <em>Escherichia coli, or E. coli.</em></p>
<p>Researchers also found evidence of a transition period between the wet and dry seasons in a sample taken when rains were 50 percent of typical wet season levels. During this period, the human-introduced bacteria made up 67.3 percent of the microbes, while sulfur-oxidizing bacteria and nitrogen-fixing bacteria were also present.</p><p>More research is needed to understand the impact of these changes on the cave ecosystem itself and on groundwater, lead author Dr. Madison Davis of USF's Department of Cell Biology, Microbiology and Molecular Biology said in the press release.</p><p>However, the pollution of caves and the groundwater that springs from them is already a known problem across the U.S., as <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pollution-caves-water-wildlife-trout/" target="_blank">Scientific American reported</a> in 2009:</p><blockquote>Examples abound, including raw sewage flowing into Shalers Brook inside Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky, an animal feedlot in eastern Missouri washing waste down sinkholes into Crevice Cave and dirt runoff from logging activity choking Whispering Canyon Cave at Tongass National Forest in Alaska.</blockquote>"People need to be aware that there's a subterranean ecosystem and that what happens on the surface impacts these unique ecosystems in a very real way," American University in Washington, DC cave expert and biologist David Culver told Scientific American at the time.
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Trending
A large school of fish swim in a fish farm. wildestanimal / Getty Images
By Jake Johnson
President Donald Trump issued an executive order late Thursday that environmentalists warned will accelerate the corporate exploitation of oceans by relaxing regulations on and streamlining the construction of industrial offshore aquaculture facilities, which critics deride as "floating factory farms" that pump pollution and diseases into public waters.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The Don't Cage Our Ocean Coalition, which was formed to oppose ocean industrial fish farming, said in a <a href="https://foe.org/news/trump-exploits-covid-19-crisis-to-advance-corporate-aquaculture-agenda/" target="_blank">statement</a> that Trump's <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions/executive-order-promoting-american-seafood-competitiveness-economic-growth/" target="_blank">Executive Order on Promoting American Seafood Competitiveness and Economic Growth</a> "mandates federal agencies to craft a program for rapid authorization of industrial offshore aquaculture facilities, which use giant floating cages to cultivate finfish, allowing toxic pollution to flow into open waters."</p><p>Rosanna Marie Neil, policy counsel for Northwest Atlantic Marine Alliance, a member of the coalition, said the Trump White House is "supporting the corporate takeover of our oceans while they hope we aren't paying attention."</p><p>Environmental attorney Marianne Cufone similarly accused Trump of exploiting the Covid-19 pandemic to "push through dangerous short-cuts to regulatory processes, while communities struggle to stay healthy, pay rent, and put food on the table."</p><p>"The federal government should strengthen local food security during this health crisis by supporting sustainable seafood," said Cufone, "rather than allowing corporations to pollute the ecosystems we depend on."</p>
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<p>Trump's executive order Thursday was just the latest step the president has taken amid the coronavirus pandemic to loosen regulations on polluting industries. In late March, as <em>Common Dreams</em> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/27/holy-crap-insane-citing-coronavirus-pandemic-epa-indefinitely-suspends-environmental" target="_blank">reported</a>, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a sweeping suspension of pollution regulations and empowered the fossil fuel industry to police itself indefinitely.</p><p>Environmental groups <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/media/2020/200416" target="_blank">sued</a> the EPA over the move, which they condemned as a "free pass for polluters."</p><p>In an <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/trump-lifts-the-net-off-american-fishing-11588875561" target="_blank">op-ed</a> for the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> Thursday, White House advisers Joe Grogan and Peter Navarro touted Trump's aquaculture executive order as a step toward making the U.S. "the world's seafood superpower."</p><p>"President Trump's executive order creates a task force to enact policies that encourage fair and reciprocal trade for America's seafood industry, and strengthens enforcement of illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing," Grogan and Navarro wrote.</p><p>But environmentalists cautioned that the order simply hands U.S. mega-corporations more power to plunder oceans without oversight, imperiling local fishing communities and the health of public waters.<br></p><p><span></span>"It is outrageous and unethical for the federal government to use the current public health crisis to bolster this polluting industry," Hallie Templeton, senior oceans campaigner at Friends of the Earth, said in a statement. "Now is the time to prioritize our health, security, sustainable food systems, and American farmers and fishermen, not corporations."</p>
<p class=""><em>Reposted with permission from </em><a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/05/08/trump-signs-executive-order-greenlighting-corporate-takeover-our-oceans-while-they?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank"><em>Common Dreams.</em></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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An oil pipeline stretches across the landscape outside Prudhoe Bay in North Slope Borough, Alaska on May 25, 2019. This photo was featured prominently in The Washington Post's Pulitzer prize-winning series 2°C: Beyond the Limit. Bonnie Jo Mount / The Washington Post via Getty Images
Environment and climate stories made strong showings in this year's Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists, which were announced Monday.
<p>The Washington Post won the top prize for explanatory reporting for its "2°C: Beyond the Limit" series, which used temperature data from across the globe to examine places where warming has already exceeded the 2 degrees C threshold.</p><p>Other climate-related stories were also named as finalists across several different categories, including The New York Times's work on the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a> administration's war on <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/" target="_self">science</a>; the Los Angeles Times's explanatory reporting on how Californians are adapting to <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/sea-level-rise" target="_self">sea level rise</a>; the Wall Street Journal's series on PG&E's failures in the lead up to, and aftermath of, the deadly Camp Fire; a Minneapolis Star Tribune editorial on a copper mine's <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water" target="_self">water</a> pollution; and a feature piece in the Boston Globe on how climate change is threatening Cape Cod. </p>
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<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong><br/></p><p>Links to Pulitzer pieces: <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/rosanna-xia-swetha-kannan-and-terry-castleman-los-angeles-times?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8w7qY5Hxgt5Tx4QjZLf91CpaEUEcwEifNEqCyP_THmbEPUhIAS-QftlolmuLalmvqKSJQV&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/new-york-times-2?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8TwmmS-9hkVDjkPhkWxG-6ZgxP-yTcdi_5KZBO5zf478ePfSiaNwN_RHSD6p538CnKoHff&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/rosanna-xia-swetha-kannan-and-terry-castleman-los-angeles-times?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--XKZY0FC9ImiJtdSStMs0s4VUtOOPjsC068IC4wMBioj_zgQM3tXd_yhN2q5ty0zDbmjYP&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Los Angeles Times</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/staff-wall-street-journal-0?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--T4d4T1nBDc_gi5YqXvPbtAK_uyamPzjtQN1lL2IvyORUvyTiAiaP8UA-OjR5jIbfcp0Qm&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/jill-burcum-star-tribune-minneapolis-minn?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8jH09M0ICvW8wvvOorVk6t_MWR0OQG3UFkW2Dow5vdsWY234Ri-7X0DrIEUSqj52I457yw&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Star Tribune</a>, <a href="https://www.pulitzer.org/finalists/nestor-ramos-boston-globe?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=87424542&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9ntXQqKWUar9frzlh_x4sSIheWj5eHCgKwVVTS_5ZMeudJX6mL5SlcmVoQ4KOa5oqVPUMf&utm_content=87424542&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Boston Globe</a></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Beaver ponds can help prevent erosion and reduce flooding after heavy precipitation. NPS / Kent Miller
Beavers often get a bad rap for cutting down trees and building unwanted ponds on private property.
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<p>But Jen Vanderhoof of Washington State's King County Department of Natural Resources and Parks wants to help redeem this hard-working rodent's reputation.</p><p>"We're very obviously concerned about <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-change">climate change</a>, and I feel like beavers could help us," she said.</p><p>In the Northwest, warming temperatures and earlier snowmelt could cause <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/water">water</a> shortages in the summer. But Vanderhoof said that after beavers build a dam, "not only do you have more water being stored on the surface, but it's also filtering down into the groundwater, and so you're storing more water both above and below the surface that way."</p><p>Beaver ponds can also help slow water down as it flows through a watershed. That can help prevent erosion and reduce flooding after heavy precipitation.</p><p>Vanderhoof said the wet landscapes that beavers create can even help control <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildfires">wildfires</a>.</p><p>"They are basically creating natural fire breaks," she said.</p><p>So she helps people find ways to manage beavers on their properties without killing or trapping them. And she said in some areas, introducing beavers can provide important climate benefits.</p><p>"They've got it all figured out," she said. "If we can just figure out how to work with them a little bit better."</p>
<p><em>Reporting credit: Sarah Kennedy/ChavoBart Digital Media.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/04/beavers-could-help-in-adapting-to-climate-change/" target="_blank">Yale Climate Connections</a>.</em></p>
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