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A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic [living] community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise.  —Aldo Leopold

Our Climate Crisis

From flooding in Brazil and Houston to brutal heat in Asia, extreme weather seems nearly everywhere in the past month. It’s unprecedented to have so much of the world with its weather in overdrive at the same time. Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist for the Nature Conservancy, comments, “Climate change is loading the weather dice against us in every part of the world.”

One of the most rapid sea level surges on Earth is besieging the American South. Sea levels across the region are at least 6 inches higher than they were in 2010—a change similar to what occurred over the previous five decades.

The severe thunderstorms and high winds that recently swept through Houston and the Gulf Coast left all the destructive traces of a hurricane. As our planet warms, severe storms of all kinds are likely to deliver even bigger payloads of rain because warmer air holds more moisture. The resulting heat energy released into the atmosphere feeds thunderstorms.

The climate refugee crisis is here. Catastrophic flooding in southern Brazil recently forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes. This is not a one off. Floods in Pakistan in 2022 displaced an estimated 8 million people. Floods in Ethiopia in 2023 and Kenya this year forced hundreds of thousands more from their homes.

Local Climate News

An informal Creation Care/Green Team mixer is being planned at the outside pavilion at Harrisonburg Mennonite Church on Saturday, June 22, at 7 pm. This mixer is an outgrowth of the Ecumenical Earth Day Worship Service, and is open to all creation care groups, green committees, and interested individuals. It will be helpful for planning purposes if you RSVP to Steve Pardini at: pardini.steven@hotmail.com.

Local nonprofit GiveSolar launched a National Solar Seed Fund Campaign at the beginning of this year. This is an effort to scale the solar programs of Habitat for Humanity and make them available to all appropriate Habitat homes nationally.  The campaign has now received a $500,000 donation from the EPA Solar for All grant designed to help low-income households to access solar. To date, the campaign has raised $614,580 toward its goal of raising $1M by July.

The Central Shenandoah Planning District Commission and RideShare joined the Virginia Department of Rail and Public Transportation in promoting May as Bike Month—a time to celebrate the joys and benefits of cycling! This promotes biking as a viable and eco-friendly mode of transportation.

The declining number of fireflies in our region is likely due to rising temperatures, housing and commercial development with closely cut lawns, and the use of pesticides. To have more fireflies in your yard and to help the insect population thrive, Virginia Tech entomologist Eric Day recommends that homeowners stop spraying their yards with pesticides and herbicides, tolerate weeds, and mow less.

Community Climate Collaborative—also known as C3—based in Charlottesville, is helping businesses reach carbon neutral emission goals. It involves energy efficiency measures such as sealing up buildings, upgrading lights or replacing appliances using fossil fuels with modern ones. Upgrades can be funded through C-PACE, an innovative way to finance clean energy and resiliency projects on commercial, multifamily, and nonprofit buildings.

Politics and Policy

During Trump’s dinner meeting with Big Oil executives at Mar-a-Lago last month, he asked them to raise $1 billion for his campaign as he outlined his pro-fossil fuels agenda for a second term. Industry officials have already begun drafting the text of executive orders to start reversing the Biden administration’s green policies on day one of a Trump presidency.

In an effort led by Gov. DeSantis, Florida—perhaps the most vulnerable state to sea-level rise and extreme weather—has stripped the term “climate change” from much of state law. The state will, instead, make energy affordability and availability its main focus.

The Vermont state Senate recently passed legislation that would require all utilities to provide 100% clean energy by 2035. This puts Vermont on track to be among the first states to fully decarbonize its power grid. This new standard will underpin other parallel state climate efforts such as electrifying its home heating sector.

In a win for Governor Youngkin, the budget deal he cut with General Assembly negotiators dropped a measure to renew the state’s membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Democrats claimed that Youngkin insisted the RGGI language come out “under threat of veto” but environmentalists fault them for folding without a fight.

The U.S. Interior Department announced that it will end new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, which produces nearly half the coal in the United States. This is one of the biggest steps yet to keep fossil fuels in the ground with major implications for U.S. climate goals.

President Biden announced major tariffs on Chinese clean technologies that they fear will flood the U.S. market and undermine our emerging clean manufacturing. He imposed tariffs of 100% on Chinese EVs, 50% on Chinese solar cells, and 25% on Chinese lithium-ion batteries. The Washington Post editorial board claims that this will slow progress against climate change and provide next to nothing in return. Economist Paul Krugman, however, sees it as unfortunately necessary given the fragile state of our U.S. green energy transition.

Energy

Across the U.S., power companies are increasingly using giant grid batteries the size of shipping containers to address renewable energy’s biggest weakness: the fact that the wind and sun aren’t always available. Over the past three years, battery storage capacity on our grids has grown tenfold. This year, it is expected to nearly double again, with the biggest growth in Texas, California and Arizona.

New York–based startup Voltpost has announced the commercial availability of its curbside EV charging station technology package—creating modular, street-proofed systems, utilizing power from streetlights, that it hopes to deploy in cities later this year. Tapping the power already at light posts is a workaround to the high costs of installing underground electric cables for chargers in urban settings.

The surge in data center power demand in the U.S. is expected to double from 2022 levels by 2030 and reach up to 7.5% of total energy consumption—equivalent to the energy consumption of nearly a third of American homes. Virginia has the biggest data center market in the world and the exponential increase in power demand has created a huge challenge for the goal of decarbonizing its electric grid. Some Virginia lawmakers have tried to hold data centers accountable for their impact on the environment but their proposed legislation was postponed until 2025, effectively killing it.

China has a huge lead over other countries in building the technologies of the energy transition. Around $200 billion was invested in clean technology manufacturing worldwide in 2023—a 70% increase from 2022. China alone accounted for three-quarters of this investment.

Climate Justice

Norfolk, Virginia, is experiencing a double-whammy effect of climate change. Not only are storm related deluges more intense, but sea levels are rising faster here than anywhere else on the East Coast.  One climate resilience project—a winding “blue greenway”—aims to reimagine a neglected, flood-prone poor neighborhood along the city’s neglected east-side waterfront.

Virginia was all in on midsized solar installations on schools, hospitals, churches, and municipal buildings until Dominion Energy dramatically raised prices and changed the rules on interconnection fees. This now makes many of these projects economically unviable. Dominion denies that it is putting up barriers in order to maintain its market share in solar energy.

Internal oil company documents released before a congressional hearing reveal that oil executives promoted natural gas as green even when they knew it wasn’t. This evidence could end up supporting state attorneys general who are suing the fossil fuel industry. Oil companies are currently facing around 30 lawsuits for deceiving the public about the consequences of burning fossil fuels.

New coal mines continue to open each year, and oil and gas companies are still exploring new parts of the world. People—especially Indigenous communities—are, however, increasingly saying no to new fossil fuel developments on their land. And they’re using courts and legislatures to fight back and achieve some significant victories.

The new United Nations “loss and damage fund” to assist developing countries with climate related damages had its first board meeting where it sought to finalize operations and its partnership with the World Bank. The big question is who will pay. Former U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said that the world will “never see a dime” from the U.S. for anything that sounds like an admission of liability or smacks of compensation.

Small island nations won a big climate victory when the International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea unanimously ruled that governments that signed on to the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea have an obligation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This includes several of the world’s top emitters: China, India, the European Union, and Russia. The United States, also a big polluter, is not a party to the convention.

Climate Action

A growing number of ecological innovators around the world are reimagining landscapes, communities, and the way we live. Individuals and organizations are embarking on a hands-on rethinking of the future in projects that range from “ecovillages” in sub-Saharan Africa to regenerative agriculture coworking spaces in Europe, to permaculture projects in Barbados.

The Ulkatcho First Nation in remote British Columbia is installing what will likely be the largest off-grid solar project in Canada. It will provide 64% of their electricity which is currently entirely generated by diesel. Corrine Cahoose, one of their elected councilors, said, “We have to be the stewards of the land. We have to protect in every way, and this project is one of the ways.”

The Bezos Earth Fund, launched in 2020, aims to give away $10bn of the Amazon founder’s $200bn personal fortune to combat the climate crisis and biodiversity loss by the end of the decade. Some in the climate and environmental community are concerned about the level of influence this gives Jeff Bezos over critical environmental institutions. They claim that the projects do not address the key issues of the climate crisis.

Is buying carbon offsets for air flights worth it? Many of them don’t work and some might even be harmful. Better alternatives include flying less and choosing an economy seat when you do fly (premium seats contribute about four times more emissions). And, when you fly, you can donate $1,000 per ton of carbon emitted to your favorite environmental organizations.

The race is on to build California’s 220 mph high-speed bullet train network. When completed, the train network will be a major convenience for people traveling around California as well as a major win for our planet. According to one study, the trains will produce only one-seventh as much greenhouse gas emissions as commercial air travel.

Heating water gobbles energy, leading to higher utility bills and more planet-warming emissions. It’s responsible for more than 10% of annual residential energy use—the biggest share after air conditioning and heating. One way to cut down our energy consumption is to wash our laundry in cold water because heating water consumes about 90% of the energy it takes to operate a washing machine. Also limit taking long, steamy hot showers.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Think about [climate] anxiety as a catalyst—born from empathy. What is it telling you to do?   —Debbie Sturm

Our Climate Crisis

The ocean has been breaking temperature records every day for more than a year by wide margins. The oceans have absorbed the vast majority of the planet’s warming from greenhouse gases but these massive increases are beyond what scientists would expect to see even considering climate change.

Throughout Virginia, scientists are documenting significant warming of water temperatures from inland freshwater streams and rivers, which has huge cascading effects on ecosystems. The rising water temperatures are a result of global climate change as well as localized changes in the environment, like loss of shading from trees that have been removed along streams.

In the past year, anomalously warm ocean temperatures have left a trail of devastation for the world’s corals, bleaching entire reefs and threatening widespread coral die back. The world is now experiencing its fourth global bleaching event, the second in the last decade.

Global levels of the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide rose to 419 parts per million in our atmosphere in 2023, around 50% more than before the Industrial Revolution. Carbon dioxide levels are currently rising at near-record rates—last year had the fourth-highest annual rise.

We’re bending the curve in global greenhouse gas emissions and may be at near peak emissions. Even so, we’re still adding to the total amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. We will need to bring down emissions rapidly in the next decades to avoid the worst of global warming.  

Local Climate News

About 200 enthusiastic members of eight different congregations gathered on a chilly Sunday morning for an outdoor Ecumenical Earth Day Worship Service at Turner Pavilion in downtown Harrisonburg on April 21. Participants were thrilled by their joint energy on such a cold morning and are already talking about doing it again next year.

Climate STARR (Strategies for Climate Trauma, Action, Resilience, and Regeneration) is a three-day in-person training at Eastern Mennonite University June 10-12. It will provide individuals, communities, and climate action organizations who encounter climate angst and fatigue (or experience it themselves) a space to pause, reflect, and gain new skills for living and leading in uncertain times. As a climate activist, you will want to consider registering for the training to enhance your skills and expand your climate network.

Eastern Mennonite University, in partnership with the JMU Center for the Advancement of Sustainable Energy, is hosting a Solar Solutionary Camp for rising 8^th and 12^th graders June 10-14. Students will be challenged with ensuring access to electricity for the nearly one-billion people who lack it today while keeping climate change below 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming.

Politics and Policy

The Biden administration issued new rules ordering power companies to cut pollution from coal plants. This is a major plank in Biden’s efforts to fight climate change, amid complaints from progressive green voters who say he’s done too little to curb fossil fuels. Many of the progressives who helped send him to the White House in 2020 are expressing frustration at his approval of several high-profile oil and gas projects as well as his handling of the war in Gaza.

Marking a major step in US climate change mitigation efforts, the Environmental Protection Agency has set regulations aimed at slashing pollution from heavy-duty trucks. They aim to cut 1 billion tons of CO2 by 2055.

The Department of Energy released its first ever federal blueprint to decarbonize America’s building sector, which accounts for more than a third of the harmful emissions jeopardizing our air and health. The comprehensive plan would reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings by 65% by 2035 and 90% by 2050.

The European Union has been backpedaling on its environmental promises, yielding to agribusiness and far-right demands. In particular, they scrapped initiatives aimed at reducing pesticide usage, protecting nature, and curbing toxic chemicals.  

The Biden administration has approved the construction of a new deepwater oil export terminal off the Texas coast that will be the largest of its kind in the United States. Environmentalists claim it will lead to “disastrous” planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The administration, in turn, claims that it will not substantially increase oil production.

The Biden administration announced $34.7 million in grants to three Virginia projects that will help strengthen transportation infrastructure against the effects of climate change. The projects will address flooding and facilitate emergency evacuations due to extreme weather events in Virginia’s Tidewater and Chesapeake region.

Ranting against wind power during a fundraising dinner with oil and gas industry executives, former president Trump claimed that the renewable-energy source is unreliable, unattractive and bad for the environment. “I hate wind,” he told the executives over a meal of chopped steak at his Mar-a-Lago Club and resort in Florida.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is shaping his independent run for president on a climate platform designed to appeal to supporters of both Biden and Trump. He’s staking out some positions well to Biden’s left—such as calling for a permanent ban on natural gas exports, while criticizing the size of Biden’s subsidies for green energy. He’s adorning these positions with the anti-big-government rhetoric and conspiracy theories that he promoted during the Covid pandemic.

Energy

Massive data centers in Northern Virginia, processing nearly 70% of global digital traffic, are gobbling up electricity at a rate that power grid operators say is unsustainable. Therefore they’re planning several hundred miles of new transmission lines to coal-powered electricity plants in West Virginia that had been scheduled to go offline. Those coal plants will now keep running to fuel the increasing need for more power.

Global renewable energy capacity increased by 36% last year but that is only half as fast as necessary to meet our global climate commitments. Rising energy demand and weak electric grid infrastructure underlie our continued dependence on burning fossil fuels for energy.

Natural gas prices have plunged as the world grapples with an oversupply after a warmer-than-expected winter. The recent heyday in liquefied natural gas boosted prices and profits, spurring a huge wave of investment in the sector.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission approved more than a dozen new solar projects that will significantly expand Dominion Energy’s growing clean energy capacity. They will include four solar projects that will be owned by Dominion Energy and 13 independently owned solar projects.

An old on-demand gas plant in California is being replaced by a billion-dollar, 680-megawatt grid battery—one of the biggest batteries in the U.S. The big advantage of this giant grid battery is that it can supply power instantaneously. The old 800-megawatt gas plant took 12 hours to be fired up before coming online.

Electric vehicles, with an average equivalent of 106 miles per gallon, blow past the energy efficiency of hybrid cars. That number could more than double in the next decades to more than 200 miles per gallon. This growth in efficiency could help ease the strain that electric vehicles are expected to place on the grid and extend battery range.

Energy developers are more eager than ever to build new solar, wind, and battery projects in the U.S. but the interconnection queue is getting longer and longer. It is now taking about five years to get through the queue, which, as a result, is now more than twice the size of the entire U.S. power capacity.

Climate Justice

Installing solar panels on school buildings and big-box stores could provide one-fifth of the power that disadvantaged communities need, bringing renewable energy to people who can least afford it. Research has found that marginalized neighborhoods generate almost 40% less renewable energy than wealthy ones.

The Environmental Protection Agency selected 60 organizations that, under its Solar for All program, will receive a combined $7 billion in grants to bring residential solar to low-income neighborhoods. The funding will flow into state, municipal, and tribal governments as well as nonprofits for low-income solar and battery storage installations and to support existing ones.

The Department of Energy aims for 5 million households around the country to sign up for community solar by next year. Subscribers will pay a monthly charge and then receive a credit on their utility bills—usually larger than the fee they pay—for the power generated by their fraction of a solar array. Community solar has gained bipartisan support because of its benefits to low-income households now burdened by disproportionate energy bills.

Having lost many of their cattle due to drought, traditional herders in Kenya are trying out milk-producing camels that are more resilient to climate change. Jonathan Lati Lelelit, the governor of Samburu, a county about 240 miles north of Nairobi, comments, “We have so many other things to do with the little money we have. But we have no option.”

Climate Action

Rising global temperatures are giving new urgency to geoengineering—trying to engineer our way out of our climate crisis. Lots of resources are being poured into direct air capture systems designed to suck carbon dioxide out of the air and store it underground. Critics say such efforts are dangerous distractions from the more urgent task of rapidly reducing the use of fossil fuels.

The Virginia Department of Transportation selected 18 different sites to receive electric car chargers under the federal Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. This first $11 million tranche of funding focuses on electric car chargers for interstates, while the next rounds will add charging stations along state highways and for freight carriers. Virginia is set to receive about $106 million total funding over the next five years.

Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 10% last year as renewable energy grew in importance. This puts Europe’s biggest economy on course to meet its target for cutting emissions by 65% by 2030. It aims to cut its emissions to net zero by 2045.

The European Court of Human Rights ruled in favor of a group of older Swiss women who claimed that the Swiss government had violated their rights by failing to combat climate change and meet emissions targets. The landmark case sets a legal precedent in the European Union against which future lawsuits will be judged.

America’s first fully battery-powered tugboat is being put into service at the Port of San Diego. Waterfronts are incredible sources of pollution and carbon emissions. Port officials are working to decarbonize not just tugs but also diesel cranes and trucks.

The apparel industry is responsible for somewhere between 8 and 10% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions and about 4% of solid waste in the United States. Jeans contribute to this industry but are not all equal polluters. Chief among ways to mitigate the environmental impact of the jeans you wear is buying jeans made from organic and recycled cotton.

The “Green Islam” movement in Indonesia seeks to kindle an environmental awakening through Islam. Top clergy have issued fatwas, or edicts, on how to rein in climate change. Neighborhood activists are beseeching friends, family and neighbors that environmentalism is embedded in the Quran.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Beyond the damage to our planet, climate change threatens to undermine our social fabric and the foundations of democracy. —Jonathan Foley

Our Climate Crisis

This year was the hottest February on record. Global ocean temperatures in February were also at an all-time high for any time of year. Taken together, the past 12 months have been the hottest 12 consecutive months on record. Researchers say that our weirdly warm winter has the fingerprints of climate change all over it.

Methane emissions from the fossil-fuel industry rose to near-record levels last year, despite technology available to curb this pollution at virtually no cost. Separately, a new study based on aerial surveys of methane leaks shows that US oil-and-gas infrastructure emits three times as much methane into the atmosphere as government estimates suggest.

Sinking cities along the American coastline are pushing sea level rise into overdrive. It will leave them increasingly exposed to destructive flooding by the middle of the century. Coastal subsidence is created by cities and industries pumping water from underground aquifers faster than they can be replenished, a situation exacerbated by climate change-fueled drought.

In its first risk assessment, the European Environment Agency reports that Europe is not prepared for the rapidly growing climate risks it faces. The most pressing risks are heat stress, flash floods and river floods, and the health of coastal and marine ecosystems. These urgent risks are growing faster than societal preparedness, including the need for funds to recover from disasters.

Local Climate News and Events

Approximately eight churches in Harrisonburg are coming together for a special Ecumenical Earth Day worship service downtown at Turner Pavilion (the site of the farmers market). The service will be on Sunday, June 21 at 9:45 am. All are invited.

Join the Shenandoah Sierra Club and Climate Action Alliance of the Valley for a panel discussion with city and community leaders at Court Square Theatre on Sunday, April 21 at 2:30 pm. Our city and community has made great strides and set high aspirations for meeting the challenge of the climate crisis. Come learn about those goals and what is being done to achieve them.

Senator Mark Warner met with transportation stakeholders in Staunton, Virginia to celebrate the planned expansion of Amtrak services in the city from three to seven days a week. This is good news from a climate perspective as it provides a less carbon intensive transportation option.

The Virginia Breeze bus lines could offer east-to-west service across Virginia, from Harrisonburg to Virginia Beach, starting next summer. Last December, the Breeze’s monthly ridership reached 6,126, which was 214% higher than original estimates and 13% higher than in 2022. The Breeze also contributed to a reduction of 270 metric tons of carbon emissions last December.

Volunteers with the Climate Action Alliance of the Valley (CAAV) are using a $35,000 grant from Clean Virginia to help connect low-income people with no-cost energy efficiency upgrades to their housing offered by Community Housing Partners. To do this they are partnering with four local nonprofits already serving these people. It’s a matter of listening, building trust and assisting in the application process.

A small group of local environmental activists protested outside the Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) offices in Harrisonburg this week. They were part of a statewide action by Third Act Virginia urging the DEQ to be more forceful against the Mountain Valley Pipeline in response to its environmental violations.

The city of Harrisonburg draws all its electricity from Dominion Energy according to Harrisonburg Electric Commission general manager Brian O’Dell. It’s generating sources are therefore the same as Dominion, including 10% generated by burning coal, 41% by burning natural gas, 42% percent from nuclear power, and approximately 5% from renewable energy sources primarily solar panels.

Politics and Policy

Oil and gas executives at the CERAWeek by S&P Global energy conference in Houston blasted the Biden administration’s pause on new liquified natural gas (LNG) export infrastructure.   Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm sought to reassure them that it will be short-lived and not alter the U.S LNG industry’s meteoric growth to become the world’s largest exporter.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is drawing up ambitious regulations that would require all new and existing fossil fuel plants to sharply cut or capture their emissions in the next decade, or else face shutdown. But now, the agency has decided to exempt the nation’s 2,000 or so existing gas plants. Officials worried the rule could be overturned in court, and that it wouldn’t help get skeptical voters on President Biden’s side before the election.

For every dollar the federal government has contributed to advancing the transition to clean energy through the Inflation Reduction Act, the private sector has kicked in $5.47, according to analysists at the Rhodium Group and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. This has led to nearly a quarter-trillion dollars flowing into the clean economy in just one year.

Fossil fuels subsidies are the zombies of the US tax code that seem impossible to kill. The oil and gas industry enjoys nearly a dozen tax breaks, including incentives for domestic production and write-offs tied to foreign production. The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development calculated the total subsidies to be about $14 billion in 2022.

A revitalized push for nuclear energy is gaining bipartisan support in Washington as billions of dollars are being funneled into advancing nuclear technology and domestic uranium production. Regulatory changes also aim to streamline the licensing process for advanced reactors, promising to expedite the development of cleaner, more efficient nuclear energy.

The League of Conservation Voters, a leading climate organization, pledged $120 million to President Biden’s election campaign. Pete Maysmith, the league’s senior vice president for campaigns, said, “It’s hard to imagine higher stakes in these elections. We will be communicating with voters in the battleground states and in the key races about the stakes.”

House Republican leaders announced plans to take up six energy-related bills and resolutions for what they are calling “energy week” attacking attack President Joe Biden’s “radical, anti-energy agenda.” The goal is to protect what they call American energy dominance by repealing the greenhouse gas reduction fund, make it easier to build energy projects in wetlands, curb legal challenges from environmental groups, and oppose any potential tax on carbon emissions.

In a recent campaign speech, former President Donald Trump used vivid and violent language to criticize electric vehicles. He associated EVs with significant job losses in the U.S. auto industry, using terms like “assassination” of jobs. He proposed a 100% tariff on electric cars manufactured in Mexico, predicting a “blood bath” for the country if he’s not re-elected.

The U.S. Department of Energy has awarded $6 billion to demonstration projects that aim to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions from heavy industrial sectors. The goal is to make industrial essentials like steel, aluminum, cement, chemicals—and even household staples like ice cream and mac and cheese—a whole lot cleaner.

Solar advocates in West Virginia were dismayed when Governor Jim Justice vetoed a bipartisan bill which would enhance solar energy capacity for utility companies. Justice claimed he vetoed the bill because he didn’t want this bill to limit coal-based energy production in the Mountain State.

Energy

Vast swaths of the United States are at risk of running short of power as electricity-hungry data centers and clean-technology factories proliferate. The numbers are staggering—the projected new energy demand in the next decade has doubled. This is leaving utilities and regulators grasping for credible plans to expand the power grid. Virginia’s 2024 legislative session wrapped up last month without any action to avert the looming energy crisis created by rapidly growing data centers in Northern Virginia.

Solar provided most of our nation’s new electricity capacity last year. Texas and California led a solar surge driven mostly by utility-scale installations, which jumped 77% year-over-year. It was the best year for renewables since the heyday of hydroelectric during the Second World War.

The natural gas company Williams plans to add over 26 miles of pipeline in the county adjacent to its existing Transco corridor in Pittsylvania County, Virginia. It’s part of a larger project to allow its system to carry more natural gas. The Southern Environmental Law Center said the project “would commit the South to methane gas for the next 30, 40, or 50 years when there are cleaner, more reliable, and more affordable energy alternatives available.”

The U.S. clean energy transition has more money behind it than ever. Last year the investment in clean energy reached a total of $239 billion, a record-breaking figure that’s 38% higher than the 2022 total. Much of that growth is due to the boom in domestic clean energy manufacturing. Investment in U.S. clean energy manufacturing in 2022 was around $19 billion. It totaled $49 billion in 2023.

Climate Justice

Native Americans are fighting back against power lines, copper mines, and other clean energy infrastructure on tribal lands. While the Biden administration has worked to repair relationships with Indigenous peoples, that effort is conflicting with another priority of expediting projects essential for the energy transition.

The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to distribute $20 billion for green projects in underserved communities, focusing on community-driven and affordable housing projects.   Over 1,200 Community Development Financial Institutions will play a crucial role in this initiative. Targeting underserved communities with green finance will potentially transform the landscape of community lending.

Climate Action

You may be considering switching to a heat pump to heat and cool your home but wonder if they really lower carbon emissions if they run on dirty grid power. Most electric utilities still get about 60% of their power from burning fossil fuels.  Even so, the answer is an emphatic yes. Depending on their level of efficiency, heat pumps still lower household annual energy emissions on average by 36% to 64% compared to other heating systems.

The Mountain Empire Community College in Southwest Virginia will be the first community college in the state to enter into a power purchase agreement with a solar developer. The agreement with Secure Futures of Staunton, Virginia, for a 1,600 panel installation on their classroom roofs is expected to cut energy costs but the larger benefit will come from the boost to the college’s workforce training program for energy technology.

Muslim environmental scholars drew up a Covenant for the Earth presenting an Islamic outlook of the environment in a bid to strengthen actions that combat climate change and other threats to the planet. It is an endeavor to engage Islamic scholars and Muslim institutions in the effort.

The switch from diesel to electric school buses is accelerating. Thomas Built Buses, the legacy school bus company founded in 1916, has delivered its 1,000th electric school bus to a school system in Georgia.

Circ, a startup circular fashion company in Danville, Virginia, recycles textile waste into new fibers. It is an effort to reduce the fashion industry’s impact on the planet—the world’s third-largest polluting industry.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

“We just need more visionary thinkers who can bring together those in the ecological movement with the anti-racist realities that we’re dealing with.”— Cornel West

Our Climate Crisis

New research finds that the oceans are hotter than they’ve ever been in modern times—having smashed previous heat records for at least seven years in a row. Higher-than-normal sea temperatures cause sea level rise, stress coral reef systems, accelerate the melting of polar sea ice, redistribute fish populations, and deplete oxygen levels. Hotter oceans also create conditions for extreme weather events.

The Quinault Indian Nation, a native American coastal tribe in Washington state, has spent a decade trying to move its villages out of reach of a rising Pacific Ocean and its increasingly severe high tides. Oceanographers say this gives us a sneak peek of the future for many communities as an ever-hotter climate swells the world’s oceans.

Local restaurants are especially feeling the impact as climate change is taking a massive bite out of the global food supply chain according to recent research. José Andrés, a chef, humanitarian and founder of the Global Food Institute, responds, “This research is more than just a collection of data and insights; it’s a rallying cry for chefs, restaurateurs, food producers, policymakers, and all actors across the supply chain.”

Scientists have long been puzzled by parts of the US south-east where temperatures have flatlined, or even cooled, despite the broader warming trend in the US. This is now attributed to an aggressive US government tree-planting program involving 37million acres of reforested area in the south-east in the early 20^th century. Such reforestation, however, is no substitute for the need to drastically cut planet-heating emissions, which hit a new global high last year.

Politics and Policy

The explosion of AI technology is increasing carbon emissions and millions of gallons of fresh water consumption. New legislative efforts in the U.S. and EU aim to assess and regulate AI’s environmental footprint, focusing on energy consumption and resource use.

If states support walking, cycling, public transit, and other clean options, instead of expensive, status quo projects like highway expansion, they can reduce harms and give people of all backgrounds better access to reliable, affordable, and convenient transportation. By investing in these climate-friendly choices, billions of dollars can be avoided in energy, healthcare, and vehicle costs, save lives, and prevent huge amounts of pollution.

Some rural counties in Virginia are pushing back against allowing more solar development. In response, legislation is being introduced in the Virginia General Assembly that would give state regulators the power to approve large solar, wind or battery projects when local officials balk.   Supporters see this as a necessary move because clean energy generation is a statewide issue.

A judge ruled that the lawsuit that seeks to reverse Gov. Youngkin’s administration’s  withdrawal of Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative (RGGI) is allowed to move forward. The Virginia General Assembly voted to join RGGI in 2020 and the Youngkin administration made an executive decision to withdraw at the end of 2023. The lawsuit claims that is illegal because it circumvents current law and the will of the General Assembly.

At least 15% of county governments in the US have effectively halted new utility-scale wind, solar, or both. Even so, a gigantic effort to build green energy is underway. Wind and solar are expected to surpass the amount of electricity made from coal this year. But green energy must increase rapidly to meet U.S. clean energy goals and local governments are making it more difficult.

The US home builder lobby is mobilizing against new state and local building codes that save energy and ease the transition to cleaner technologies by claiming that it adds substantially to the cost of new homes. A recent federal study found that they add at most about $6,500 to the price of a newly built home, not the $20,400 that the lobby claims. These code changes would actually pay for themselves in several years through lower energy costs.

Over the years, utility companies have come under fire for lobbying to stall climate policies and keep fossil fuel plants running. Our monthly energy bills may actually be paying for such efforts. While federal law prohibits utilities from recovering lobbying expenses from customers, those rules lack teeth and aren’t sufficiently enforced. Now, eight states are taking the lead to ban the practice.

Republican House leaders only want to attack Democrats on climate—not develop their own policies. And Donald Trump, the likely Republican nominee for president, has shown no signs of moving away from his denial of climate change science and his rejection of major action to reduce emissions. Even so, the Republican Conservative Climate Caucus is trying to show that they care about actively solving the climate crisis.

Energy

The U.S. is slated to build 55% more electric power capacity in 2024 than it did in 2023. Renewables, batteries, and nuclear will add up to 96% of all new power capacity constructed this year. Even so, about 60% of US electricity is still generated by fossil fuels.

U.S. electric vehicles sales are poised to rise a lot this year. Despite some challenges, EV sales were strong in 2023—up 46% from the prior year. U.S. automotive projections show increases in EV sales ranging from about 20% to more than 30% compared to 2023.

U.S. gas producers are racing to sell liquified natural gas (LNG) to Asia and those plans run through Mexico. The recent fracking boom has transformed the U.S. into the world’s largest gas producer and exporter. Piping the gas to shipping terminals on Mexico’s Pacific Coast will cut travel times to Asian nations roughly in half by bypassing the traffic and drought-choked Panama Canal.

Dominion Energy received the final two federal approvals needed to move forward with the construction and operation of its $9.8 billion, 176-turbine offshore wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach. Construction is expected to begin in May. Once fully constructed in late 2026, the installation will produce 2.6 gigawatts of energy, which would power about 660,000 homes.

Can power plants burn clean hydrogen to make electricity? Utilities say the fuel can potentially help them achieve a carbon-free grid. Some environmentalists worry that it opens up a morass of waste and greenwashing that may impede better solutions. One impediment is the availability of affordable green hydrogen. Another is that specialized turbines that can burn 100% hydrogen are still in the developmental stage.

Americans bought 21% more heat pumps in 2023 than gas furnaces.  Even though sales were down for both heat pumps and gas furnaces, heat pumps continued to widen a lead that first emerged in 2022, when they surged ahead of gas furnaces by 12% and topped 4 million units sold for the first time.

The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) announced the selection of three projects that will receive up to $60 million to demonstrate the efficacy and scalability of enhanced geothermal systems (EGS). The pilot projects will use innovative technology and a variety of development techniques to capture the earth’s abundant heat resources. They also support the DOE’s goal of cutting the cost of EGS 90% by 2035.

Startup Koloma is searching for underground reservoirs of naturally occurring hydrogen that have been largely ignored or lain undetected until now. They just raised an eye-popping $245 million in venture funding to develop tools and technologies to locate and eventually extract the now-coveted gas from the earth. Hydrogen is the gas of the moment because it could replace fossil fuels in certain applications, particularly in energy-intensive industrial processes.

Climate Justice

Newly unearthed documents reveal that the fossil fuel industry funded some of the world’s most foundational climate science as early as 1954. This includes the early research of Charles Keeling—famous for the so-called “Keeling curve” that has charted the upward march of the Earth’s carbon dioxide levels. This makes a mockery of their public denial of climate science for decades and their funding of ongoing efforts to delay action on the climate crisis.

Vermont, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New York are launching a multi-state effort to hold Big Oil accountable for the expensive damage wrought by climate change. Bills on the docket in all four states demand that oil companies pay for a climate Superfund to fund climate actions such as energy efficiency retrofits, water utility improvements, solar microgrids, and stormwater drainage.

Stolen Indigenous land is the foundation of the U.S. land-grant university system. Climate change is its legacy. In 2022 alone, these trust lands generated more than $2.2 billion for these schools. Most of that money comes from fossil fuel extraction and mining.

Climate Action

You’re probably underestimating the willingness of people to take action on our climate crisis. This erroneous perception could hamper climate action.According to a new survey of people in 125 countries, nearly 70% would give up 1% of their household income to stop climate change.

Climate activists are preparing for a long battle over liquified natural gas (LNG) exports even as they celebrate the White House’s recent announcement that it will pause the approval of new export facilities while they study their environmental impact. Export terminals that have already been approved will have the capacity to double those exports.

With Earth at its hottest point in recorded history, a growing number of scientists are proposing various geoengineering fixes. The latest is creating a huge sunshade and sending it to a faraway point between the Earth and the sun to block a small but crucial amount of solar radiation, enough to counter global warming.

Cheap Level 1 EV chargers may be the fastest way to get people into EVs. They’re slow (filling batteries at a rate of about 5 miles an hour) but use a standard 120-volt electrical outlet. That’s doable because most drivers leave their cars parked for at least 12 hours a day and don’t drive more than about 40 miles daily. Installing electrical outlets for Level 1 chargers at apartment complexes, condos, and workplaces is affordable and makes sense.

Parking reform is helping to transform cities. Bad parking policy, such as required parking spaces, inhibits affordable housing, neighborhood walkability, and the prospect of having a greener, cleaner city. By focusing more on housing, and less on the place to park, the barriers to a better urban environment are beginning to fall away.

Local Climate News

Harrisonburg City Public Schools recently received its first two electric school buses. Gerald Gatobu, director of the Harrisonburg Department of Transportation, said that purchasing the buses was made possible by a grant from the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality and was a part of the city’s recent push for sustainability.

The Harrisonburg City Council approved plans to install a 50-kilowatt solar system on the Turner Pavilion rooftop where the farmers market is located. The project will offset all energy usage for the pavilion, in addition to generating surplus energy that would be returned to the electrical grid as “community solar.”

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Our Climate Crisis

Last year, more than 40% of the Earth’s surface was at least 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer beyond the pre-industrial era. This warming has not been evenly distributed around the globe. Roughly one-fifth has already warmed by more than 2 degrees Celsius and around 5% of the planet has warmed more than 3 degrees Celsius. A fast-warming area around the Arctic, stretching into Canada and the American Midwest, is testing the limits of human infrastructure and the ability of the natural world to cope.

After the surprising rise in global temperatures in 2023, some scientists are already speculating: 2024 could be even hotter. That’s because the planet-warming El Niño climate pattern in 2023 is nearing its peak and may continue for the first half of this year. Correspondingly, vast swaths of Earth’s oceans were record-warm for most of 2023, and it would take just as many months for them to release that heat.

Based on the USDA’s 2023 plant hardiness zone map data, Rockingham County shifted from zone 6b to zone 7a—with an average temperature rise of four degrees. The map developers cautioned against attributing the hardiness zone update alone as an accurate indicator of climate change, which is based on trends in overall average temperatures recorded over long time periods.

Extreme draught has dramatically lowered the water levels in the lakes that provide water for the operation of the Panama Canal. This has reduced daily traffic through the canal by nearly 40% compared with last year. This is causing ships to divert to longer ocean routes, which increases both costs and carbon emissions.

Politics and Policy

In a big win for climate activists, the Department of Energy announced that it will pause approvals for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals for several months while it studies the potential climate impacts. Over the past decade, the United States has become the world’s largest exporter LNG and the industry is poised for massive growth.

The Biden administration laid out strict rules for tax credits to produce ​“green” hydrogen, a fuel that could help decarbonize essential industries like steelmaking and shipping. The production must use zero-carbon power delivered from where it’s generated to where it’s consumed and comes from newly built resources rather than existing ones. This will favor states like Texas that have lots of new solar and wind projects in the pipeline.

The state of Washington’s cap on carbon, signed into law in 2021, establishes a statewide limit on greenhouse gas emissions and has already raised $2.2 billion for climate action. It funds initiatives such as better public transit, home weatherization and electrification, and reductions in emissions from industry. Now a wealthy hedge fund manager is funding a petition drive to repeal the law over its minimal effect on higher gas prices.

Kenya launched a national “e-mobility” program last year. The goal is to incentivize the common ‘boda-boda’ motorbike taxis and three-wheeled ‘tuk-tuks’, or auto rickshaws, to go electric. These vehicles, which run on diesel and gasoline, are notorious for causing air pollution in Nairobi and other cities. This program is the centerpiece of a move to make transport green and reduce air pollution.

The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing steep new fees on wasteful methane emissions from large US oil and gas facilities. This is part of a global push to curb methane emissions, a climate super-pollutant and it comes as the US is seeing record gas and oil production.

A tug-of-war is going on in the state legislature over whether Virginia stays the course of the energy transition laid out 2020-2021 or rolls it back hard. Republicans are introducing bills to roll back those laws, which are being defeated by the Democratic majority. Democratic proposals to strengthen them also face a veto by Gov. Youngkin that they will not be able to override. That will be the likely outcome of the proposed Democratic budget language forcing the governor to keep Virginia in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative carbon market.

Energy

Germany’s greenhouse gas emissions hit a 70-year low last year as it reduced its reliance on coal. Emissions from industry also fell significantly, largely due to a decline in production by energy-intensive companies. Electricity generation from renewable sources was more than 50% of the total for the first time, while coal’s share dropped to 26%. This puts the country in line with its target to produce 80% of its electricity from wind and solar by 2030.

The Chinese automaker BYD topped Tesla in 2023 to become the world’s largest EV manufacturer. The company, which is also a top battery manufacturer, recently broke ground on its first sodium-ion battery plant. Sodium offers a cheaper alternative to lithium but has a lower energy density. Sodium-ion batteries will be most useful in low-cost small cars or two-wheelers that don’t need the higher energy density.

US battery storage capacity for the electrical grid is poised for a record year in 2024 and now makes up 21% of new additions to the grid. Texas and California will continue to lead in new additions, after installations reached a new record last quarter.

The world may have a real chance of tripling renewable energy by 2030, the goal set at the COP28 climate change conference. Success in meeting that goal will, however, depend on scaling up financing for emerging and developing economies. The largest growth in renewables is taking place in China, which commissioned as much solar in 2023 as the entire world did in 2022, while their wind power additions rose by 66% year-over-year.

A huge underground hydrogen battery is being built in Utah. Two caverns, each as deep as the Empire State Building is tall, are being created from a geological salt formation on the site of a former coal power plant. The electricity used to create the green hydrogen will come from solar and wind power with no planet-warming emissions. The power plant it supplies will initially run a mix of natural gas and up to 30% hydrogen. Getting to 100% hydrogen in 20 years will require a major rebuild of the plant.

Natural hydrogen, a potential clean energy source, may be more plentiful than realized and a green replacement for fossil fuels. Well-funded efforts to drill for the gas are now underway around the globe. Skeptics say its large-scale use may not be practical or cost-effective and that unleashing it into the atmosphere could have unintended consequences.

Climate Justice

Aside from the destruction, death, and human misery created, a preliminary study shows the extent of the planet-warming emissions generated during the first two months of the war in Gaza. Those emissions were greater than the annual carbon footprint of more than 20 of the world’s most climate-vulnerable nations. This is an instance of the exceptionalism that allows militaries to pollute with impunity.

In a third round of funding for clean school buses, the Environmental Protection Agency awarded nearly $1 billion in grants to 280 school districts to help them go electric. This is a big win for the environment and for school children that are harmed by diesel pollution from buses, especially children of color and those in low-income areas.

With the Mountain Valley Pipeline approaching the final stretch, it might seem hardly worth continuing to fight against it. Yet, as one young woman says, “We cannot let them destroy our land and water.” Furthermore, the pipeline is six years behind schedule, about half a billion dollars over budget, and delayed once again. A goal of those continuing the fight is to make building pipelines so time-consuming and expensive that companies and politicians will think twice about building any more.

Climate Action

Virginia ranks fourth nationwide in the number of electric school buses either on the road or on order despite any specific state funding. It is happening through the resourcefulness of school districts and advocates by plugging into federal dollars, forming public-private ventures, and buying buses directly.

Amid concerns about climate change, demand for rail service in Europe is strong, and both governments and private investors are trying to keep up. Cities could see a flurry of new rail connections in the next few years, as governments and private investors strive to keep up with strong demand.

To slash carbon emissions, a growing number of colleges and universities are installing geoexchange systems (also known as ground source geothermal district heating and cooling) that work like a heat storage bank. In summer, heat is drawn out of warm buildings through air-conditioning and transferred to water, which is sent into pipes in a closed loop network deep underground. This warmed water is then used for heating during the winter months.

Rooftop solar and a heat pump system is being installed on the Pentagon, one of the world’s largest buildings. It will power over 95% of space heating and hot water heating, currently powered by natural gas and oil, with an estimated annual total energy cost reduction of $1.36 million.

If you think you need another car you might consider an e-bike instead. E-bike sales in the United States surged 269% between 2019 and 2022 and part of their appeal is their functionality. Think of it as a cheap second car rather than an expensive bike. It’s good for the environment and you may help change your community’s car-centric ways.

There are several good reasons to install a bidet on your toilet. It helps to save our environment, it’s less expensive, and it’s better than toilet paper in cleaning your tush. You’ll never want to go back to trying to clean yourself with messy toilet paper. We Americans flush the equivalent of millions of trees down the toilet each year and much of this comes from clear-cutting Canada’s boreal forests.

Local Climate News

The City of Harrisonburg received the SolSmart Silver award getting national attention for its work to remove administrative and permit barriers. Keith Thomas, the sustainability and environmental manager for the city, said they started installing solar on city buildings and are doing general community outreach to get more awareness out about solar.

The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors voted 4-1 against bringing a demand-response transportation pilot project to the county in 2024. Valley Interfaith Action, a large local community organization, had been advocating for the service because a lack of transportation is a primary expressed need of area residents. The Supervisors did agree to study the matter to be in a better position to pursue a transit program in 2025.

A bioretention basin was installed at Trinity Presbyterian Church in Harrisonburg to capture and filter stormwater runoff from their building and parking lot. The Harrisonburg Conservation Assistance Program funded about 75% of the cost. An educational sign next to the basin explains how it works and its environmental benefits.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

If negative news about climate change is immediately followed with information explaining how individuals, communities, businesses, or governments can reduce the threat, then this information can empower rather than discourage us.  —Katherine Hayhoe

Our Climate Crisis

Leading scientists warn that it’s “becoming inevitable” that countries will miss the ambitious target of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius that they set eight years ago at the Paris Climate Agreement. That target is slipping out of reach and recent studies suggest that the 1.5 degree threshold will arrive in about six years if we keep burning carbon at current rates.

Hurricanes and flooding, made more severe by climate change, have sent Texas homeowner insurance rates skyrocketing. Rates have increased 22% on average in 2023, twice the national rate. More billion-dollar disasters have occurred in Texas in 2023 than in any other year on record.

The COP28 UN Climate Change Conference

After intense negotiations more than 190 nations at the COP28 UN Climate Change Conference accepted a text that calls on the world to “transition away” from fossil fuels. This was a significant historic first step as past climate conferences had not even mentioned fossil fuels. The big question is if it will spell the eventual end of gas, oil and coal in a time frame that halts the worst effects of global warming.

The conference began with various significant pledges to address our climate crisis but countries have been notorious for not following up on their commitments at past climate conferences. The commitments made at COP28 include:

• The U.S. pledged $3 billion to the Green Climate Fund, the United Nations’ flagship climate fund, but this is contingent on congressional approval.
• Some of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies pledged to reduce methane emissions to near-zero by 2030.
• The U.S. joined dozens of other nations in committing to phase out most coal-fired electric power plants.
• Nearly two dozen countries pledged to triple their use of nuclear energy.
• U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced new standards to limit methane emissions at oil and gas wells.
• The United Arab Emirates set up a $30 billion fund to invest in clean energy and other climate projects worldwide.
• Government, corporate and philanthropic interests coalesced on a call for a binding global agreement to curb methane emissions.
• The U.S. and Canada created a Rail Decarbonization Task Force to develop a U.S.-Canada rail sector net-zero climate model by 2025.
• The International Monetary Fund said that carbon pricing through regulatory compliance, rather than taxes, would raise trillions needed to tackle climate crisis.

Oil firms and lobby groups were out in force at the conference. The oil cartel OPEC even had its own pavilion. Their language of  “lower carbon energy” typically means continuing to produce and use oil and gas—but with somewhat cleaner extraction and processing methods.

The conference provided a roadmap for reducing climate pollution from food and agriculture, a source of about a third of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. It, however, falls short by prioritizing incremental change over wholesale shifts in agriculture, such as moving away from industrialized farming and toward an approach that promotes biodiversity and carbon storage by integrating crops with surrounding ecosystems.

Politics and Policy

The Biden administration proposes giving subsidies to support the development of “sustainable aviation fuels,” capable of powering jet engines from biofuels engineered out of soybeans, animal fat, and conventional types of corn ethanol. They say the program would make the airline industry cleaner while bringing prosperity to rural America. But environmentalists and some scientists express reservations because studies have found that corn-based ethanol gasoline additives actually exacerbate greenhouse gas emissions.

Two new Virginia delegates from Prince William County have joined forces to sound the alarm over the rapid growth of the data center industry. The industry’s growth is pressuring electric utilities to procure new sources of electricity and build lines to transmit a power load growing by 5% a year. Environmental and community groups say residential utility ratepayers should not have to pay the cost of those new generating and transmission facilities and that it is thwarting the state’s renewable energy goals by their continued reliance on fossil fuels.

The Prince William County Board of Supervisors approved a project, which would bring as many as 37 data centers built on about 2,000 acres. The project drew significant community opposition from residents concerned about the environmental impact of the project, including noise and the need for electricity and high-voltage transmission lines. The data centers are projected to generate hundreds of millions of dollars annually in tax revenue for the county.

The CEO of The Clermont Foundation, a Virginia research farm, opposes changing a Clark County ordinance to prohibit solar development because it would block agrivoltaics, which allow power production alongside farming operations.

Energy

The growth in renewables is soaring and the transition to electric vehicles is well underway, but it’s still not enough.  Global carbon emissions from fossil fuels were expected to rise by 1.1% in 2023. Those increased emissions come largely from India and China, which continue to burn even larger amounts of coal to generate more electricity, as well as increased emissions from increases in flying and international shipping.

Harrisonburg’s 2022 Greenhouse Gas Emissions Report is now available. Total emissions were a 4.6% decrease from the 2016 baseline level. The commercial and transportation sectors respectively accounted for 31% and 28% of these emissions, followed by the residential sector and natural gas leakage both at 12.7%. The dominant fuel source for the community emissions was electricity at 38%.

Oil companies offered $382 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico in the last of several offshore oil and gas lease sales mandated under the 2022 climate law. The lease sale was required under a compromise with Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia who cast the deciding vote in favor of the landmark climate law. Manchin insisted that the government must offer at least 60 million acres of offshore oil and gas leases in any one-year period before it can offer offshore wind leases that are part of its strategy to fight climate change.

The United States produced more oil and gas than ever before in 2023. Data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration shows that the U.S. produced an average of 12.8 million barrels of crude oil per day through the first three quarters of 2023, more than double the 2010 average of 5.5 million. And even more crude oil production is forecast for this year—an average of 13.1 million barrels a day, driven by export demand.

The U.S. offshore wind industry is eying a brighter 2024 after progress slowed in 2023 when offshore developers canceled several contracts due to soaring inflation, interest rate hikes and supply chain problems, which increased project costs. The  industry is expected to play a major role in helping several states and U.S. meet goals to decarbonize the power grid.

Climate Justice

An international team of researchers has found that air pollution from fossil fuel use is killing about 5 million people worldwide every year, a death toll much higher than previously estimated. Phasing out fossil fuel use could reduce air pollution mortality by about 61%.

Severe droughts and more frequent and intense cyclones, induced by rising temperatures, are threatening staple foods for hundreds of millions of people in Africa. In response, scientists, government officials and farmers are reviving neglected crops and other measures to boost agricultural productivity. But only a trickle of global climate mitigation funds and almost no private capital are directed to the small farmers who produce the vast majority of the continent’s food.

Frequent natural disasters and rising sea levels have made Bangladesh one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change. It is estimated that by 2050, one in every seven Bangladeshis will be displaced due to climate change—that’s 13.3 million people. The long-awaited fund to pay for loss and damage caused by climate change that countries agreed to launch at COP28 is a hopeful step in addressing this looming crisis.

Communities of color in the U.S. are most affected by climate impacts. A recent poll correspondingly shows that Black voters are more concerned about climate change than the national average, less polarized, and more likely to take action to support climate policy.

Americans who switch to more climate-friendly heating systems, solar panels, cars or stoves are now able to claim thousands of dollars from the U.S. government. Some of that money has been in the form of tax credits but that will change in 2024 as more rebates will be taken off at the point of sale. This will be a boon to lower income households whose income is not enough to take advantage of the tax credits.

Climate Action

A new study from the University of Oxford finds that pathways to bring greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero that are heavily dependent on carbon capture and storage will cost at least $1 trillion more per year than scenarios involving renewable energy. The researchers advised that carbon capture and storage should only be used in very select industries in which abating climate pollutants is especially hard.  

A U.S. Department of Energy study shows that, deployed at mass scale, geothermal heat pumps (GHPs) could decarbonize heating and cooling and save energy in U.S. buildings while reducing the need for new grid transmission. Coupled with building envelope improvements, retrofitting around 70% of U.S. buildings with GHPs could reduce electricity demand by as much as 13% by 2050.

Members of Valley Interfaith Action (VIA) are lobbying the Rockingham County Board of Supervisors to approve on-demand public transit in Rockingham County. A state ‘demonstration grant’ would cover 80% of the $1 million program costs for the first year. VIA is  also engaging with area corporations and businesses to help raise $200,000 as a local match.

Rising sea levels caused by climate change are exacerbating severe flooding in Miami. Xavier Cortada, a Miami-based artist and climate advocate, wants every resident to know how high above sea level their homes sit. He therefore recruited hundreds of students, homeowners and shopkeepers to display their elevations in their front yards and store windows to spark conversations about potential flood damage and skyrocketing insurance rates.

Food manufacturers, restaurants, and supermarkets are racing to cater to people demanding lower-carbon eating choices and eschewing plastic packaging, ingredients flown in from afar, and foods that are environmentally damaging to produce. While climate-based eating might be in its infancy, it is expected to grow as younger consumers increase their concern for the planet.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

By bonding over the values we truly share, and by connecting them to climate, we can inspire one another to act together to fix this problem. But it all begins with understanding who we already are, and what we already care about—because chances are, whatever that is, it’s already being affected by climate change, whether we know it or not. –Katharine Hayhoe

Our Climate Crisis

Kate Marvel, a climate scientist at Project Drawdown, was a lead author on the Fifth National Climate Assessment. She was reluctant to do it one more time because their past dire warnings about our climate crisis have felt like screaming into the void. Although the outlook is still alarming, they were able to report genuine progress this time. She says, “Renewables now make up 80 percent of new electricity generation capacity. Our country’s greenhouse gas emissions are falling, even as our G.D.P. and population grow.”

This year is “virtually certain” to be the warmest in 125,000 years, according to European Union scientists. Last month smashed through the previous October temperature record, from 2019, by a massive margin of 0.4 degrees Celsius. The month of September also breached the previous temperature record by a large margin.

A new study by legendary climate scientist James Hansen and his colleagues has found that global warming is accelerating faster than anticipated and will likely breach the 1.5 degrees C benchmark set by the Paris Climate Agreement by the end of the decade. Other climate scientists, including Michael Mann, dispute how rapidly global warming is accelerating and how much is locked in even after we stop emitting carbon dioxide.  They all agree that it’s an existential crisis.

Politics and Policy

A showdown is brewing over money, oil and carbon at the COP28 climate summit that is opening in Dubai. There will be immense pressure to deliver as global temperatures and greenhouse gas emissions continue to break records. We can expect a fierce fight between high-income and low-income countries over who will pay for climate mitigation. Furthermore, Sultan Al-Jaber, who the UAE chose to lead COP28 discussions, is a controversial choice given that he is the head of their state-run Abu Dhabi National Oil Company.

The United States and China will back a new global renewable energy target and work together on methane and plastic pollution. They made a joint statement on this after a meeting  in California to find common ground ahead of COP28 talks in Dubai later this month. Differences between them remain on issues like phasing out fossil fuels.

Virginia voters all but ended Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s push to roll back climate policies as Democrats maintained their majority in the state Senate and seized control of the House of Delegates. This assures that climate legislation, such as the  Virginia Clean Economy Act, will stay in place. It also assures that he has no legislative path in his efforts to remove Virginia from the Regional Greenhouse Gas initiative. Any new climate legislation will, however, need his support as the Democratic legislative majorities are not big enough to override his veto.

The Inflation Reduction Act helped create 210 major clean-energy projects in its first 12 months. These projects will spur a total of 303,500 jobs each year over a typical five-year construction phase, and a total of another 99,600 jobs each year after that in their long-term operations. It is estimated that this will lead to 9 million new jobs over a decade.

New House Speaker Mike Johnson has a League of Conservation Voters score of 2% which is almost as low as it gets. It’s even generous to call him a climate skeptic. He’s said outrageous things about climate change, what’s causing it, and whether he believes it’s even happening, and has consistently backed Big Oil.

Michigan passed legislation to reach 100% clean electricity by a target year of 2040. This makes it the third state in the Midwest and twelfth in the country to require a shift to clean electricity. Of all those states, Michigan is one of the most ambitious because of the extent of the change it is making. In 2022 it got only 38% of its electricity from carbon-free sources.

Energy

Energy efficiency is the invisible superpower of the energy transition. According to data from the International Energy Agency, gains in energy efficiency since 2010 have saved about ten times as much primary energy as solar and wind added. Even so, renewables get nearly all the headlines. That may be because solar panels and wind turbines are highly visible whereas unused energy is invisible and almost unimaginable.

Electric vehicle sales are up nearly 50% this year despite some inevitable growing pains and gloomy headlines. The EV market is actually well past the tipping point for mass adoption. If buyers continue to snap them up at the current clip, this year they’ll easily surpass 1 million in annual sales for the first time ever.

Solar is now producing 6% of electricity in the US—up from 2% five years ago. Even with that impressive growth, much more is needed to reach the Biden administration’s goal of completely decarbonizing the power grid by 2035. That will require solar to make up as much as 40% of electricity generation.

According to a UN report, the world’s fossil fuel producers such as Saudia Arabia, the US and UAE are planning production expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over. The planned expansions will far exceed the amount of fossil fuel that is possible to burn if global temperature rise is to be kept to the internationally agreed 1.5C. They will even produce 69% more fossil fuels than is compatible with the riskier 2C target.

Dominion Energy says their offshore wind project in Virginia—the nation’s largest—remains on budget and on schedule to be completed in 2026. This gives the industry a boost at a time when it has been plagued by financial challenges, including the recent cancellation of two major projects planned in the waters off of New Jersey.

The Youngkin administration announced a public-private initiative that aims to test out emerging energy technologies in Wise County in Southwest Virginia. The public-private partnership will form an Energy DELTA Lab that tests new wind, solar, nuclear, battery and pumped storage, hydrogen and other emerging energy technologies.

The most promising small modular reactor in the U.S., being developed by startup nuclear company NuScale, has been terminated because it couldn’t secure enough subscriptions from utilities to make the project work financially. It was supposed to build the first next-gen reactor and usher in a new era for nuclear energy. Estimated project costs had risen from $58 per megawatt-hour to $89 per megawatt-hour due to cost overruns and higher interest rates.

The USDA has been funding renewable energy projects for farmers including a recent grant enabling a Rockingham County organic chicken farm to install solar panels to offset energy used by its poultry houses. New grant awards of $2.3 million in Virginia will support eight photovoltaic systems and five grain dryers in the city of Williamsburg and the counties of Accomack, Augusta, Culpeper, Gloucester, Powhatan, Rockingham, Southampton and Tazewell.

Climate Justice

United Nations climate experts said that the world must spend hundreds of billions more a year to help vulnerable people adapt to mounting devastation from severe droughts, catastrophic wildfires and ruinous floods fueled by rising global temperatures. At the next U.N. Climate Change Conference, hosted this year in Dubai, wealthy countries are expected to resist calls to compensate poor nations for such deadly disasters.

Pope Francis implored policymakers and those who deny the existence of climate change to stop dismissing human causes or ridiculing science when Earth may be nearing the breaking point. There is still time to stop global warming, he said, “Our future is at stake, the future of our children and our grandchildren.” He had planned to speak at the COP28 Climate Change Conference in Dubai but had to cancel for health reasons.

Climate Action

Pulaski County in Southwest Virginia is promoting solar energy and green manufacturing with the goal of becoming our nation’s greenest county government. It recently received a “gold” designation from the U.S. Department of Energy-funded Solsmart program and is working toward a platinum status by 2024. That will include installing solar panels on public facilities and land and providing instant approval for residential panel installation.

Trailblazing architects and engineers—and their early-adopter clients—are in a race to erect ever-taller timber towers. The vision is wooden skylines erected with glued lumber laminates that rival steel and concrete in strength and reliability. Trees soak up carbon in their trunks, leaves and roots. Constructing buildings with wood then locks that carbon into the built environment.

You will want to consider a heat pump dryer when you replace your present clothes dryer. While relatively unknown in the U.S., they are popular in Europe and Japan. Though more expensive up front, they can reduce your carbon emissions and save you up to several hundred dollars a year. Drying some of your clothes on an old-fashioned clothes line is even more efficient.

Biochar, a charcoal made from heating discarded organic materials such as crop residues, offers a path to lowering greenhouse gas emissions. Twelve countries have the technical ability to sequester over 20% of their current total emissions by converting crop residues to biochar. Bhutan leads the way with the potential to sequester 68% of its emissions in the form of biochar, followed by India, at 53%.

You can reduce your energy consumption this winter by reducing the amount of air that leaks in and out of your home. Weatherstripping and caulking are two of the most effective and simple air-sealing techniques that can save up to 20% on your energy bills. Also check with your energy provider about having them arrange for an energy audit on your home—a service that is often provided free of charge.

Here’s a simple climate action opportunity. Gather acorns and contribute them to the Virginia Department of Forestry nursery in Crimora. The nursery uses contributions from a donation program that has run for about a decade. This year volunteers sent them 12 tons of acorns. No matter how many seedlings the program produces, there’s always room for more because Virginia has about 16 million acres of forestland.

Action Alerts

Join Valley Interfaith Action for a TAKE THE NEXT STEP! assembly on Thursday, December 7, 6:30 to 8:00 pm at Bridgewater Church of the Brethren. Hundreds of VIA members will ask elected and corporate leaders to join us in taking the next step to establish door-to-door demand response transit and create 250 new pre-k spots that pay a living wage. Please register here. To join other faith based climate activists at the event you can register as a member of “Shenandoah Valley Faith and Climate.”

The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality will host a community meeting at the Massanutten Regional Library in Harrisonburg on Dec. 7 from 6-8 pm. This is part of a series of meeting throughout the state to solicit ideas for measures that could rapidly reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Virginia. Click here for more information.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee