Policy and Politics

Growing tension between the world’s major powers is the most urgent global risk and makes it harder to mobilize collective action to tackle climate change, according to a report prepared for next week’s World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.  “Imposing a cost on carbon is the most economically efficient way to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions,” yet public support is an “obstacle” to this, argue three experts on climate policy and climate economics, in the journal Nature. However, “opposition can dissipate once the benefits become clear”, they say.  In letter published Wednesday evening in the Wall Street Journal (subscription required), forty-five top economists from across the political spectrum, including 27 Nobel laureates in economics, all four living former chairs of the Federal Reserve, 15 former chairs of the Council of Economic Advisors, and two former Treasury Secretaries, called for the U.S. to put a tax on carbon, saying it is by far the best way for the nation to address climate change.  Last week, 626 environmental groups sent a letter to every member of Congress calling on them to support the Green New Deal.  However, six of the largest, most influential environmental advocacy groups didn’t sign it.  In its present form, the Green New Deal is very proscriptive regarding clean energy, prompting David Roberts to opine that that is one fight that should be avoided right now.  Daisy Simmons listed six things everyone should know about it at Yale Climate Connection.

Andrew Wheeler, President Trump’s nominee to lead the EPA, stated during his confirmation hearing on Wednesday that he would continue the administration’s aggressive reversal of environmental rules.  The Trump administration’s replacement for the Clean Power Plan would increase greenhouse gas emissions in much of the U.S. more than doing nothing at all, according to new research.  Across the country, cities are implementing new housing and transit laws that have a secondary effect of lowering their emissions of greenhouse gases.  In The New York Times, senior economics correspondent Neil Irwin wrote about the four key issues determining climate change’s impact on the economy.  A new Pentagon report identifies significant risks from climate change at scores of military bases and says the Defense Department is taking protective measures against the threat.  But members of Congress, who requested the report, said it lacks the detail they were looking for.

While the Trump administration envisions energy and mineral exploration as part of the future of the land removed from Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments, because of poor economics it is uncertain whether anyone will lease the land.  In a controversial move, President Trump issued an executive order on the Friday before Christmas that expands logging on public land in the West on the grounds that it will curb deadly wildfires.  Last week the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection reopened a public comment period for modifications to a combined state and federal permitting process that Mountain Valley must complete before it can dig trenches through streams and wetlands for its pipeline.

A modeling study published in Nature Communications found that there is a 64% chance of holding global warming to less than 1.5°C if no new fossil fuel infrastructure is built and all existing such infrastructure is replaced by zero-carbon alternatives at the end of its useful life.  Executives at the major U.S. automakers are pressing the Trump administration and California to agree on standards for fuel efficiency and carbon emissions through 2025.  On Thursday Virginia’s State Corporation Commission rejected most of Dominion Energy’s $6 billion proposal to modernize its electrical grid, stating that the cost to customers was too high.  One of the most conservative legislators in the Virginia General Assembly has proposed using the proceeds from the sale of electricity from solar arrays at schools to help finance badly needed repairs at many schools.  Ivy Main posted her annual compilation of climate and energy bills files with the Virginia General Assembly this year.

With “This Land,” artist David Opdyke melds art and activism, hoping to inspire urgent changes in the perception of climate change.  On BBC Culture, Diego Arguedas Ortiz explored climate fiction by addressing the question: “Can imagined futures of drowned cities and solar utopias help us grasp the complexity of climate change?”.  Last year, academic political theorists Joel Wainwright and Geoff Mann published a book entitled Climate Leviathan: A Political Theory of Our Planetary Future.  Isaac Chotiner interviewed them for The New Yorker.  At Yale Climate Connections, SueEllen Campbell had a short piece highlighting two upbeat articles on strategies for combatting climate change that came out while I was taking Christmas break.  Also, SueEllen Campbell teamed up with philosopher, writer, and climate activist Kathleen Dean Moore to write an inspiring piece about why they won’t quit pushing for climate action.

Climate

A new study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that the rate of ice loss from Antarctica has accelerated since 1979 and is now six times larger than it was then.  Furthermore, the rate of ice loss from East Antarctica is much larger than had previously been thought.  Another study, published Wednesday in the journal Nature Communications, found that vast areas of permafrost around the world warmed significantly over the past decade, intensifying concerns about accelerated releases of methane and CO₂ as microbes decompose the thawing organic soils.  The disintegration of permafrost is also causing big problems for communities and military installations in the Arctic by damaging roads and other infrastructure as the land destabilizes and erodes.  In addition, mountain glaciers around the world are also melting, threatening water supplies for millions of people.  NYT journalist Henry Fountain and photographer Ben Solomon visited Kazakhstan to report on the Tuyuksu glacier, which is rapidly melting.

The same group of scientists that reported last week that the oceans were warming 40% faster than they were five years ago, reported this week that 2018 was the warmest year on record for the oceans.  Furthermore, the top five years of ocean heat content have come in the last five years.  Carbon Brief presented its “State of the Climate” report for 2018.

Research published on Wednesday in the journals Science Advances and Global Change Biology examined the future of coffee plants and found that 60% of the world’s coffee species are at risk of extinction in the wild due to climate change, habitat loss, and the spread of diseases and pests.  Scientist Brad Lister returned to the Luquillo rainforest in Puerto Rico after 35 years and found that 98% of ground insects and 80% of leaf canopy insects had vanished.  The most likely cause is global warming.

Rising global temperatures could lead to many more deaths a year than the 250,000 predicted by the World Health Organization just five years ago, according to an article in the New England Journal of Medicine.  Speaking of rising temperatures, Australia has been in the midst of a record-breaking heat wave this week.

An ambitious report on the global food system from a commission convened by the medical journal The Lancet calls for a radical change in food production.  “The dominant diets that the world has been producing and eating for the past 50 years are no longer nutritionally optimal, are a major contributor to climate change, and are accelerating erosion of natural biodiversity,” The Lancet‘s editors wrote in a commentary accompanying the report, released Wednesday.

Energy

According to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Pacific Gas and Electric, California’s largest power company, intends to file for bankruptcy as it faces tens of billions of dollars in potential liability because of the wildfires that devastated parts of the state over the past two years.  This could have big impacts in the clean energy world.

China put just over 43 GW of new solar generation capacity into operation in 2018, down 18% from a year earlier.  Florida Power & Light Co. announced a major solar plan Wednesday, vowing to install more than 30 million solar panels in Florida by 2030.  In 2019, more renewable energy will be added to the U.S. grid than fossil fuel-based energy, according to estimates from the Energy Information Administration.  A scathing new report from the Rachel Carson Council examines the wood pellet biofuel industry, specifically operations in North Carolina, and its “severely adverse” environmental and health effects.  Wood pellet producer Enviva called the report misleading and factually incorrect.

A former chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission on Thursday cast doubt about whether nuclear technology can be used to combat climate change, calling it “old technology.”  Nuclear power has also remained terribly expensive.

Last week I linked to one of the articles that reported that U.S. greenhouse gas emissions rose 3.4% in 2018.  Part of that increase was caused by increased air traffic, with demand for jet fuel rising 3%.  On the subject of greenhouse gas emissions, Robinson Meyer at The Atlantic sought answers to the question of whether those emissions were following the worst case scenario proposed in the 2014 IPCC report.

Volkswagen has selected Chattanooga, Tennessee as its first North American manufacturing facility for electric vehicle (EV) production, which will require an investment of $800 million and create 1,000 new jobs.  GM is shifting 75% of its powertrain engineers from internal-combustion engines to electric vehicle development as it prepares to unleash of wave of EVs under the Cadillac brand.  Carbon dioxide emissions from EVs are 40% lower than internal combustion engine vehicles, even when the EVs are charged using electricity generated by coal-fired power plants, according to research by Bloomberg New Energy Finance.  Unfortunately, right now, according to Nexus Media, car companies aren’t even trying to sell EVs.  The U.S. Energy Department said on Thursday it is launching a research center on lithium battery recycling in an effort to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign sources for the metal that is used in electric vehicles and electronics.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

Policy and Politics

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to take up ExxonMobil’s latest attempt to block Massachusetts’ investigation into whether the oil giant misled the public and investors about climate change.  The decision clears the way for state Attorney General Maura Healey to force the company to turn over records.  If you would like to read a recap of how the fossil fuel industry got the media to think climate change was debatable, Amy Westervelt provided one at The Washington Post.

President Trump has formally nominated Andrew Wheeler, a former energy lobbyist who has led the EPA in an acting capacity for six months, to serve as EPA administrator.  Meanwhile, the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California ordered the EPA to release about 20,000 emails exchanged between industry groups and 25 Trump officials, including Wheeler.  Nations that abandon the Paris Climate Agreement will ultimately be worse off economically despite some GDP benefits from reneging, according to a new analysis by researchers with the Brookings Institution.

One change with the new Congress is the appointment of a new House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, chaired by Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL).  USA Today interviewed her about her plans for the committee, given its restrictions.  Former Congressman Ryan Costello, a moderate Republican from southeastern Pennsylvania, has joined Americans for Carbon Dividends as managing director.  He warned that Republicans are at risk of losing more seats in Congress if they don’t start offering real solutions to climate change.  Washington Governor Jay Inslee is considering running for president with a campaign centered on climate change.  He has pledged not to accept campaign contributions from the fossil fuel industry should he run.

Signs are emerging that a significant shift is under way in the response to climate change, dividing it into two related, but distinct, priorities: working to curb greenhouse gases to limit the odds of worst-case outcomes later this century, while simultaneously boosting resilience to current and anticipated climatic and coastal hazards.  Hundreds of environmental organizations signed a letter Thursday backing a rapid transition away from fossil fuels in the U.S.  The groups, led by organizations like Friends of the Earth and the Center for Biological Diversity, told members of the House in the open letter that lawmakers should pursue the Green New Deal.  The Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board voted 4-0 in favor of a key permit for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, allowing construction of a 54,000-horsepower natural gas compressor station in a historic African-American community.  Prior to the vote, two former board members maintained that the information available to the board from the utility and staff was inaccurate.  The permit for the compressor station requires the use of technology that will minimize the leakage of methane and other volatile organic compounds.

On Tuesday, Carbon Brief published its annual analysis of the climate-related papers that garnered the most attention in the media last year.  Rob Hopkins had a very interesting interview with artist James McKay at Resilience.  McKay works with engineers, scientists, and ordinary citizens to help them visualize what a low carbon future will look like.  Through his work, McKay has gone from being pessimistic about the future to being wildly optimistic.  Jonathan Watts interviewed climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe for The Guardian.  When asked how much she thought the world will warm, she replied “I hope with all my heart that we stay under 1.5°C, but my cynical brain says 3°C.  Perhaps the reality will be somewhere between my head and my heart at 2°C.”  At Quora, Hayhoe addressed the question “What do the most viable climate solutions look like, and how should they be implemented?”.  Forbes republished her answer.  If you’ve been wondering what it takes to do research on climate in the Arctic, you can read what Kristen Pope learned when she went to Greenland with climate scientist Elizabeth Thomas.  Richard Heinberg had a light-hearted (?) look at the Concretaceous and Hellocene periods of the Anthropocene.

Climate

According to a new report released Tuesday by the independent economic research firm Rhodium Group, U.S. CO₂ emissions rose an estimated 3.4% in 2018, the biggest increase in eight years, suggesting that it will be very difficult for the U.S. to meet its pledge under the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement.  In an essay at Yale Climate Connections, Dana Nuccitelli argued that innovation to lower CO₂ emissions will only be successful when the costs of the fossil fuels leading to those emissions reflect their impacts on the climate.

A new analysis, published Thursday in the journal Science, found that the oceans are heating up 40% faster, on average, than reported five years ago in the 5^th Assessment Report by the UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.  The authors discussed the significance of their findings in a guest post at Carbon Brief.  The EU’s Copernicus Climate Change Service said on Monday that 2018 was the fourth warmest year on record.  Antarctic sea ice is “astonishingly low” this year, raising concerns about the impacts of ocean water on ice shelves.  In a “long read” at The Guardian, Dahr Jamail discussed the impacts of shrinking glaciers and thawing permafrost.

Refugia are areas of relative climate stability that provide a safe haven for certain species during periods of unfavorable climates.  Scientists are working to identify refugia so that they may be protected, thereby providing a haven for plants, animals, etc. as our climate changes.  Unfortunately, as reported in the journal Global Change Biology, just 5% of the Earth’s land surface is currently unaffected by humans.

During 2018 The Weather Channel published a series of articles under the heading “Exodus: The Climate Migration Crisis” that examined the stories of people all over the world being displaced by climate change.  The articles are compiled here.

Climate change and pollution are teaming up to increase the number of jellyfish in the world’s oceans, causing a variety of problems, including increased stings at Australian beaches.  In addition, coral disease outbreaks are becoming more frequent, severe, and widespread around the globe.  Many factors are contributing to the problem, including pollution and nitrogen runoff from fertilizers and coastal sewer and septic systems, but a key culprit is thought to be steadily increasing ocean temperatures.

Energy

Chevron and Occidental are investing in Carbon Engineering, a Canadian company aiming to commercialize technology that captures CO₂ emissions directly from the atmosphere.

In Colorado, wind power paired with a few hours of battery storage is now cheaper than the cost of operating existing coal-fired power plants.  The same is true of solar PV, and in many cases, solar PV paired with battery storage.  With excellent wind and solar resources, Texas is a national leader in renewable energy.  It also has its own power grid, which makes it a good location for testing the incorporation of large amounts of wind and solar power in its energy mix.  Economist Michael Greenstone wrote that with a moderate price on carbon, some advanced nuclear technologies could be competitive with natural gas combined cycle power plants.

Sales of electric and plug-in hybrid vehicles increased by 81% in 2018 in the U.S., with Tesla Model 3 leading EV sales and Toyota Prius Prime leading plug-in hybrid sales.  Bloomberg maintains, however, that new battery technology will be required for EVs to take over.

On Monday French rail multinational Alstom and UK rolling stock operating company Eversholt Rail Group unveiled the design for a new hydrogen fuel cell train that will begin to replace trains that still run on diesel by 2022.

“60 Minutes” on CBS presented a segment about Marshall Medoff, an 81-year-old eccentric inventor from Massachusetts who toiled in isolation with no financial support for more than a decade to develop a method for breaking down cellulose, making its sugars available for biofuel production.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

Policy and Politics

The UN climate conference in Katowice, Poland ended on Saturday after an all-night session.  The major accomplishment was the adoption of rules to implement the three-year-old Paris Climate Agreement.  Carbon Brief summarized the key outcomes from the meeting.  The weakness of the accomplishments in Poland caused Larry Elliott, the economics editor at The Guardian to write in an opinion piece “Katowice was the real Munich and the feeble UN accord the equivalent of the piece of paper Chamberlain brought back home with him from his meeting with Hitler.  Appeasement doesn’t work and merely delays necessary policy action.  That was true in the late 30s and it is true again today.”  In addition, Jonathan Watts, global environment editor at The Guardian wrote: “… [T]he next two years will be among the most fraught and crucial in the history of humanity.  Investment decisions on power stations and infrastructure taken during this period will determine whether carbon emissions can be cut by the 45% needed by 2030 to give the 1.5°C target a chance.”  Many NGOs said national leaders at the summit had failed to address the urgency of climate change and have pledged growing international protests to drive more rapid action on global warming.

Interior Department Secretary Ryan Zinke submitted his resignation to the White House on Saturday.  Deputy Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, a former lobbyist for the oil, gas and water industries that rely on Interior’s decisions, is poised to become acting secretary.  Sen. Jeff Flake (R-AZ) and Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) introduced a carbon pricing bill Wednesday that aims to help cut climate change-causing emissions.  The bill is a companion to legislation introduced in the House in November.  Dino Grandoni explained the “Green New Deal” in his “Energy 202” column at The Washington Post.  A recent poll suggests bipartisan support, but you’ll have to read about the poll here because the findings are too nuanced to be summarized.  Democratic leaders on Thursday tapped Rep. Kathy Castor (D-FL) to head a revived U.S. House panel on climate change, ending a monthlong effort to establish a select committee on the Green New Deal.  Nine Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and the District of Columbia have banded together to develop the Transportation and Climate Initiative, similar to RGGI, to cap transportation emissions and invest proceeds from the program into cleaner infrastructure that could help incentivize the adoption of electric vehicles.  New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced Monday that the state will rejoin RGGI and a petition filed last month in Pennsylvania could give that state an opening to join.  Elizabeth McGowen interviewed Lee Francis, deputy director of The Virginia League of Conservation Voters, about the potential benefits of Virginia joining RGGI.  In direct contradiction to the recent National Climate Assessment, the Congressional Budget Office last week said that climate change poses little economic risk to the U.S.

The Trump administration rolled out a proposal Thursday that could open up oil and gas drilling in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) as early as next summer.  The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has quietly folded its Climate and Health Program into a branch that studies asthma and expunged the word climate from the name of the newly consolidated office.  City lawmakers in the District of Columbia voted unanimously Tuesday to pass the Clean Energy D.C. Omnibus Act of 2018, which mandates 100% renewable electricity in the capital by 2032.

The Virginia State Air Pollution Control Board decided on Wednesday to open up another public comment period on a proposed permit to build a natural gas compressor station in a historic African-American community in Buckingham County.  The vote was 3-1.

Megan Mayhew Bergman is a writer who grew up in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, but now lives in Vermont.  She is a columnist at The Guardian and has started a column in which she will report on her travels throughout the South to speak candidly with people about how their lives are being transformed by climate change.  I found her first two columns to be quite interesting: First and Second.  David Wallace-Wells reflected on what the future may hold for his daughter at the Intelligencer.  Science fiction writer Kim Stanley Robinson considered the future and said that to thrive in the climate change era we need to rethink the rules and assumptions of corporate capitalism.  Amazon has a new cli-fi collection of novellas called Warmer.  Amy Brady interviewed Edan Lepucki, best-selling author of one of the stories, at Yale Climate Connections.  Yale Climate Connections also had an interesting article entitled “How to sort out good-faith questions about climate change.”  You may remember that 10 years ago this week a 27-year old University of Utah student named Tim DeChristopher disrupted a BLM auction of oil and gas leases near Arches National Park in Utah.  He ultimately spent two years in prison for his action.  Brian Maffly interviewed him for The Salt Lake Tribune.

Climate

The Galápagos Islands sit at the intersection of three ocean currents, putting them in the cross hairs of one of the world’s most destructive weather patterns, El Niño, which causes rapid, extreme ocean heating across the Eastern Pacific tropics.  This makes the Galápagos Islands one of the places most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.  Once the final official global annual surface temperature is published, 2018 will be the hottest La Niña year on record, by a wide margin.  UK Met Office scientists have predicted that the average global temperature next year will be around 1.1°C above pre-industrial levels, bringing it close to the record-breaking heat seen in 2016 when temperatures peaked at 1.15°C above those levels.  As part of its Weather 2050 project, Vox examined how average winter low temperatures are projected to shift in the 1,000 largest U.S. cities by 2050 if nothing is done to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.  They found that in 67 cities, the average winter low temperature could increase to more than 32°F, the freezing point of water.

A paper in the journal Botany reported that 55 varieties of potato plants grown at high temperatures grew larger, but tuber production fell by an average of 93%.

Last Thursday at the AGU meeting, a team of climate scientists argued that the American West may currently be experiencing its first mega-drought in more than 500 years.  A record-breaking period of aridity set in around the year 2000 and continues to this day, they said.  Climate change seems to be driving a good portion of the problem.  On the other hand, the continental U.S. as a whole is on pace to have the fifth wettest year on record and eight states are on track to have their wettest year on record.

Two new research papers in the journal Environmental Research Letters have concluded that there is “no statistical evidence” for the much-discussed slowdown in global average surface temperature rise in the early 21st century – often called the “hiatus”.  In other words, it didn’t happen.  Writing at the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, Dana Nuccitelli debunked the popular climate change denier meme that Earth is entering a Little Ice Age.

A new paper in the journal Science warns that Policymakers have severely underestimated the risks of ecological tipping points.  According to the study, 45% of all potential environmental collapses are interrelated and could amplify one another.  With respect to climate- and weather-related disasters, Rob Moore, a policy analyst with the Natural Resources Defense Council said “The federal government isn’t going to be able to put out the kind of resources it did in 2017 every single year or even every other year.  At some point we have to start thinking seriously about a new paradigm, about how we prepare for the impacts of climate change, cope with what the future has in store, as well as recover from these disasters as they occur.”

Energy

Dominion Energy, has partnered with Orsted, a Danish company that purchased Rhode Island-based Deepwater Wind in October, to build two test turbines 27 miles off the coast of Virginia Beach.  Orsted recently selected Siemens Gamesa to supply the turbine blades.  The project is scheduled to be operating by December 2020 on 2,135 marine acres leased by Virginia.

The International Energy Agency’s Coal 2018 report found that global coal demand grew by 1% in 2017 after two years of decline. The rise was chiefly driven by global economic growth.  Despite recent growth, demand is still below “peak” levels seen in 2014 and is expected to hold steady until 2023.  In 2018, renewable energy in Germany probably matched or beat coal power generation for the first time, aided by favorable weather that boosted wind and solar capacity.  Israel said on Monday it would stop the use of coal by 2030.  According to new research, published in the journal International Labour Review, accelerating the transition to clean energy could add 24 million jobs globally by 2030.

Ministers from EU countries agreed on Thursday to reduce CO₂ emissions from trucks and buses by 30% by 2030, with the potential to review this in 2022.  Unlike other countries, such as the U.S., China, Japan, and Canada, the EU currently has no limits on emissions from heavy-duty vehicles.  The California Air Resources Board voted to require that all new buses be carbon-free by 2029.  Environmental advocates project that the last greenhouse-gas-emitting buses will phase out by 2040.  Negotiators from the European Parliament and the Council agreed on Monday to a 15% reduction in CO₂ emissions from cars and vans by 2025 and a 37.5% cut for cars by 2030.  The 2030 target for vans is 31%.

Exxon Mobil Corp sent a letter to the EPA in support of methane gas emission rules put in place under the Obama administration.

Work is underway on an energy storage project in South Australia that will use biogas to generate power to be stored in modules of molten silicon, from startup 1414 Degrees.

A consortium in Oslo, Norway, made up of architects, engineers, environmentalists, and designers is creating energy-positive buildings in a country with some of the coldest and darkest winters on Earth.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

Policy and Politics

President Trump’s top White House adviser on energy and climate stood before a crowd of some 200 people on Monday at the climate conference in Poland and said “We strongly believe that no country should have to sacrifice economic prosperity or energy security in pursuit of environmental sustainability.”  Mocking laughter echoed through the conference room.  In addition, the U.S. joined Saudi Arabia, Russia, and Australia in weakening a reference to the recent IPCC report on holding warming to 1.5°C.  All of this left a void in leadership that other countries were reluctant or unable to fill.  Nevertheless, on Wednesday, the EU, Canada, and New Zealand, along with scores of developing countries pledged to toughen their existing commitments to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to enable the world to stay within a 1.5°C rise in global warming.  On Monday in Poland, green groups released a report calling for a “climate damages tax” on the extraction of fossil fuels to help pay for the growing costs of harsher storms, wildfires, floods, and rising seas, while providing a stronger incentive to wean the world off carbon-heavy energy.  The French government ignored a key point about a carbon tax – it must protect the poor from its impacts – and consequently the tax failed.  The BBC examined this issue.  In the U.S., greens are moving away from a carbon tax, partly because of the defeat of a tax in the state of Washington and partly because many think any tax that is politically palatable will be too little, too late.  However, The Hill reported that new and recently reelected Democratic governors plan a series of aggressive steps to address climate change and bolster renewable energy industries in their states.

President Trump has stated his intention to pull the U.S. out of the Paris Climate Agreement, but he can’t do so for three years and then must wait an additional year for the exit to take effect.  Chris Mooney examined the significance of this timeline in The Washington Post.  The endangerment finding is the legal underpinning for all of the actions on climate change taken by President Barack Obama’s EPA.  Scientific understanding of the risks greenhouse gases pose to public health and welfare has strengthened since that “finding,” according to a new review article published Thursday in the journal Science.  On Wednesday the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development said it will stop financing coal projects, and nearly all oil projects, as part of a global effort by government-owned development banks to address climate change.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) released the list of ranking members for the next Congress and Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) will become the ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.  A coalition of environmental groups is suing the Trump administration for granting “incidental take” permits to seismic-mapping companies that will produce deafening sounds under the Atlantic Ocean while searching for oil and gas deposits.  A New York Times investigation has found that Marathon Petroleum, the country’s largest oil refiner, worked with powerful oil-industry groups and the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) to run a stealth campaign to roll back automobile fuel efficiency standards.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission (SCC) took the unprecedented action last Friday of ordering Dominion Energy to totally redo its 2018 Integrated Resource Plan that it submitted for approval in May.  Environmental groups said that the SCC action called into question the need for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, an assertion that Dominion Energy disputed.  On Thursday, three judges from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit rejected permits for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline to cross two national forests and the Appalachian Trail in Virginia, finding that the U.S. Forest Service “abdicated its responsibility” and kowtowed to private industry in approving the project.  A citizen panel that votes on air pollution permits was set to decide Monday whether Dominion can build a natural gas compressor station in a historical African-American community.  But on Sunday the state announced the meeting was being delayed until Dec. 19 because of a winter storm that has made roads dangerous.

A group of more than 400 investors managing $32 trillion in assets warned governments to take more aggressive steps to address climate change or risk a financial crash several times worse than the 2008 global recession.  Businesses also need to act.  A new study published Monday in the journal Nature Climate Change reported that businesses might be massively underestimating the effect of climate change on their work.  The Economist had an interesting article examining the underlying moral assumptions embedded in economic models applied to climate change; how much should we value a future life?

Climate

The annual meeting of the American Geophysical Union (AGU) occurred in Washington D.C. this week.  Among the events was NASA’s release on Monday of new maps of ice velocity and surface height elevation of Antarctic glaciers, revealing that a group of four glaciers to the west of Totten Glacier in East Antarctica, plus a handful of smaller glaciers further east, are losing ice.  Meanwhile, in West Antarctica, Thwaites Glacier continues to be the big one that ice scientists are most concerned about.  Author Jon Gertner visited with scientists participating in a large study of the glacier and wrote an interesting report about their concerns.  Back at the AGU meeting, NOAA’s release of its Arctic Report for 2018 occurred on Tuesday.  The big news is that although the mass of sea ice present has increased since 2012, the percent of old sea ice has continued to decline, bringing us closer to the time when sea ice will be absent during the summer.  This is of particular concern because the open ocean absorbs about twice as much sunlight as floating sea ice.  Researchers also reported at the AGU meeting that the length of time snow is on the ground in the California mountains is continually “being squeezed” into a shorter time period by climate change.  Researchers from the University of Alaska, Fairbanks reported that they have successfully used radar measurements taken by Japan’s Advanced Land Observing Satellite to estimate methane emissions from lakes formed by melting permafrost.

According to in-depth studies published this week in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 15 extreme weather events in 2017 were made more likely by human-caused climate change.  One would have been “virtually impossible” without human influence.  A new study published Wednesday in the journal Nature reported that as the climate warms, El Niños will become stronger and more frequent, causing “more extreme events” in the U.S. and around the world.

Australian scientists reported in the journal Royal Society Biology Letters that deep water seagrass meadows are as capable of storing carbon as shallow water meadows and that both can remove and sequester significant amounts of atmospheric CO₂.

According to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, if we continue with “business-as-usual” CO₂ emissions, Earth’s climate in 2030 will most closely resemble the overall climate of the mid-Pliocene period, about 3 million years ago.

Earlier Roundups have linked to articles about plants having less protein, zinc, and iron when grown in the presence of CO₂ concentrations expected by mid-century if we continue with business-as-usual CO₂ emissions.  Now, Elena Suglia of the University of California, Davis has put those findings into perspective with respect to their impacts on human nutrition in the future.

Energy

The wind industry is expected to add more than 680 GW of capacity worldwide in the next decade, according to two reports from Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.  Peter Sinclair has a new video explaining how energy storage can help stabilize the grid as more wind and solar are added.  I should have caught this one last week, but I missed it, so I’m including it this week.  We don’t often think about it, but one benefit of wind and solar energy is that they require no water, which is really important in some parts of the U.S.

The EU failed on Tuesday to reach a compromise over how sharply to curb CO₂ emissions from cars and vans as car-producing countries and more environmentally conscious lawmakers could not find a compromise.  Daimler will buy battery cells worth more than $23 billion by 2030 as it plans to launch 130 electric and hybrid vehicles by 2022, in addition to making electric vans, buses, and trucks.  VW says that by the end of 2019 mass production of its new electric car will begin at Zwickau in eastern Germany where an entire factory is being transformed at a cost of about €1.2 billion.  The aim is to eventually manufacture up to 330,000 electric models a year at the plant.

A new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, released on Thursday, calls for a complete rejuvenation of the U.S. fusion energy program.  Among the recommendations is that the U.S. should prepare to build its own fusion power plant.

On Tuesday, Carbon Brief published a guest post containing charts that showed how 25 countries have progressed (or not) on ten indicators of clean energy use.  Ireland’s performance on climate action in response to global warming has been ranked as the worst in the EU and among the worst in the world in a major international assessment by the Climate Change Performance Index.  Part of the reason is the burning of peat for electricity, which emits more CO₂ than coal.  In 2016, peat generated nearly 8% of Ireland’s electricity, but was responsible for 20% of that sector’s carbon emissions.

A recent report from the Rocky Mountain Institute showed that net-zero energy houses can make financial sense in much of the Midwest. The initial extra costs of making a new home net-zero pay for themselves through energy savings in less than a decade in both Detroit and Columbus, Ohio, and in less than 14 years in most of the 50 largest U.S. cities.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

Policy and Politics

In a comment in the journal Nature, two climate scientists and a policy expert explained why global warming will happen much faster than expected over the next 30 years and laid out steps the scientific and policy communities should take to allow a more rapid response to the crisis.  On the same theme, in a recent piece in The Washington Post, reporter Steven Mufson quoted Nobel Laureate William Nordhaus as saying “I never use the word ‘pessimism’; I always use the word ‘realism,’ but I’d say it’s a kind of dark realism today.”  Mufson’s article laid out clearly the seriousness of the climate problem we face today as a result of our collective procrastination.  In a follow-up article, Mufson and James McAuley (in Paris) examined the backlash in France against a carbon tax, the type of action most favored by economists to slow CO₂ emissions.  The French government abandoned the proposed tax on Wednesday.

On Monday night Senator Bernie Sanders (I-VT) hosted a town hall meeting on Capitol Hill that addressed the proposed “Green New Deal” being pushed by Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY).  Coincidentally, economist Dean Baker and anthropologist Jason Hickel are in the middle of an interchange on the subject of whether it is feasible to reduce our emissions and resource use in line with planetary boundaries while at the same time continuing to pursue exponential GDP growth.  The Institute for New Economic Thinking released two working papers from prominent economists backing up the increasingly dire warnings from climate scientists and examining the question of economic growth in an age of climate change.  Writing at The Intercept, Kate Aronoff summarized and analyzed the papers.

For the first time in a decade, a bipartisan climate bill has been introduced in Congress.  The “Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act” would institute a national carbon tax.  As the name implies, the money collected would be returned to American households as a “dividend.”  White House chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow said on Monday the Trump administration will seek to end subsidies for electric cars and renewable energy sources.  It’s unclear how the administration plans to cut the tax credits, since Congress enacted them and would have to act to end them.  The administration seems hell-bent on finding and burning every last drop of oil under the U.S. in spite of the climate impacts, as evidenced by their insistence on conducting seismic surveys along the East Coast that could harm dolphins, whales, and other marine animals.  In addition, on Thursday, EPA’s acting administrator, Andrew Wheeler, announced a proposal to allow new coal-fired power plants to emit up to 1,900 pounds of CO₂ per MW-hr of electricity generated, up from 1,400 pounds allowed now.  However, the administration doesn’t expect any to be built.  According to a study published in the journal Science, the Trump administration’s proposal to roll back automotive fuel economy standards relied on an error-ridden and misleading analysis that overestimates the costs and understates the benefits of tighter regulation.  It further describes the cost-benefit analysis as marred by mistakes and miscalculations, based on cherry-picked data and faulty assumptions, and skewed in its conclusions.

Fighting climate change is one of the best ways to improve health around the world, and the benefits of fewer deaths and hospitalizations would far outweigh the costs of not acting, the World Health Organization said on Wednesday.  Diplomats and policy makers began meeting in Poland this week to hammer out a set of rules for tracking how well countries are meeting their commitments under the Paris Climate Agreement.  The effectiveness of the Agreement moving forward is very dependent on the outcome of these talks.  As occurred last year at COP 23, the Trump administration plans to host a side event touting the use of fossil fuels.

Every two years The Roddenberry Foundation, launched by the family of Star Trek creator Gene Roddenberry, provides $1 million to organizations that help tackle climate change.  This year’s winners were inspired by Project Drawdown and the associated book Drawdown, which focuses on the many overlooked ways in which climate change can be addressed.  Using Matthieu Auzanneau’s new book, Oil, Power, and War: A Dark History as a starting point, petroleum geologist Jean Laherrère wrote about the impact of fracking on world oil production and speculated what is likely to happen in the future.  On the off-chance you were considering giving a book on climate change to someone for Christmas, Michael Svoboda at Yale Climate Connections has compiled a list of 12 books that came out this year you can choose from.

Climate

According to studies published on Wednesday by the Global Carbon Project in two scientific journals (Environmental Research Letters and Earth System Science Data), global CO₂ emissions rose by 1.6% in 2017 and are on course to rise by 2.7% this year, dashing any hopes of their leveling off any time soon.  The Washington Post and The New York Times also had the story.

A new paper in the journal Nature found that the rate of melting of the Greenland ice sheet in recent decades is “exceptional over at least the last 350 years.”  The authors concluded that “Continued atmospheric warming will lead to rapid increases in Greenland ice sheet runoff and sea-level contributions.”  In another part of the Arctic, the Siberian city of Yakutsk is the largest city in the world built entirely on permafrost.  As the Arctic warms, Yakutsk is experiencing permafrost melting, which threatens the structural integrity of some of its buildings.  Since it became possible to measure sea ice extent via satellite in the late 1970s, Arctic sea ice has declined in a manner consistent with a warming Earth.  Antarctic sea ice, on the other hand, increased until 2016 when it began declining precipitously.  Now, a new paper in the journal Nature Climate Change has offered an explanation for the anomalous behavior of the Antarctic sea ice.

Prof Peter Stott of the UK Met Office Hadley Center announced at the UN Climate talks in Poland that the sweltering heat that hit the UK this summer was made 30 times more likely by human-caused climate change.  New research, published this week in the journal Science, has revealed that rapid global warming caused the largest extinction event in the Earth’s history, which wiped out 96% of marine species and more than 67% of terrestrial animals on the planet during the “great dying” 252 million years ago.

Earth’s situation at the start of COP 24 in Poland prompted Robin McKie and others to publish a “Portrait of a planet on the verge of climate catastrophe” in Sunday’s Guardian.  Residents of coastal towns, such as Del Mar, CA, face some difficult decisions as they consider the impacts of sea level rise.  Seth Borenstein of the AP wrote about “The less talked about climate impacts.”

People in rich nations will have to make big cuts to the amount of beef and lamb they eat if the world is to be able to feed 10 billion people, according to a new report by the World Resources Institute.  These cuts and a series of other measures are also needed to prevent catastrophic climate change, it says.  The BBC summarized where we stand in 2018 by using seven interesting charts.  They also provided a guide to what you can do.  The U.S. ranks fourth in mitigating climate change, behind Denmark, the U.K, and Canada, among 25 countries analyzed in a report commissioned by utility Drax Group Plc and compiled by academics at Imperial College London.

Energy

A report by the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected Tuesday that 2018 would see the lowest U.S. coal consumption since 1979, as well as the second-greatest number on record of coal-fired power plants shutting down.  Xcel Energy, a utility serving 3.6 million electricity customers in eight states said Tuesday it will try to eliminate all its carbon emissions from electrical generation by 2050.  In addition, a new global analysis of 6,685 coal-fired power plants by Carbon Tracker found that it is now cheaper to build new renewable generation than to run 35% of them worldwide.  By 2030, that percentage will increase dramatically, with renewables beating out 96% of today’s existing and planned coal-fired generation.  Still, coal is not dead yet.  Riverview Energy Corporation is seeking an air permit for its “clean coal” diesel plant in Spencer County, Indiana, that would turn the state’s abundant coal reserves into diesel fuel while emitting extensive amounts of CO₂.

Katherine Spector of Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy provided perspective on the recent price action in the global oil market.  The Permian Basin’s Wolfcamp and Bone Spring formations in West Texas and New Mexico hold the most potential oil and gas resources ever assessed, the U.S. Interior Department said Thursday.  On Sunday, Alberta’s premier, Rachel Notley, announced that her government would temporarily curtail the province’s oil production, chiefly from the tar sands, because there isn’t enough pipeline capacity to ship the crude to market.

Researchers have found a way to convert CO₂ into plastics, fabrics, and other useful products more efficiently and cheaply than possible before.  The new method, described in the journal Energy and Environmental Science, is a form of artificial photosynthesis.  Likewise, Solidia Technologies has developed a way to produce cement that substantially lowers the carbon footprint associated with the production of concrete products.

A new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council shows the extent to which clean energy is contributing jobs to the rural economies of 12 Midwestern states. It also reflects what the rural Midwest stands to lose from Trump administration actions that harm clean energy.  A question under discussion about North Dakota is equally applicable to the Shenandoah Valley: Do rural Americans have a say in what they see outside their dining-room windows, even if that view extends miles beyond their property lines?  Closer to home, a recent example in northern Virginia is proof that solar companies can navigate aesthetic and other concerns that often arise around projects, particularly in areas new to larger-scale solar projects.

Volkswagen announced on Wednesday that it is scouting a location in North America for a new production factory to build electric vehicles.  It plans to introduce a $30,000 to $40,000 electric vehicle in 2020.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

The biggest climate news over the past two weeks was the release of Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment: Impacts, Risk, and Adaptation in the United States.  The homepage for the report contains links to Summary Findings, an Overview, individual Report Chapters, and downloads.

Climate Central presented a webinar on the report featuring Katharine Hayhoe and provided a recording of it.

The journal Science had three articles about the report.  David Malakoff reported on its release; Jeffrey Mervis reported that President Trump’s nominee to be the chief scientist at USDA, Scott Hutchins, accepts the conclusions of the report and hopes science can help farmers adapt to some of the harmful effects already being caused by climate change; and Scott Waldman reported that the release of the report by the Trump administration on Black Friday only generated more attention than the report might have otherwise gotten.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch had a good article by John Boyer about how Virginia will feel climate change.  Grist provided a region-by-region summary.

The New York Times had three articles about the report shortly after its release.  One provided an overview of the major findings, another focused on what is new in it, and the third examined what prompted the White House to release it on Black Friday.  It also had articles about ways the U.S. will need to adapt and how Trump’s policies will lead to increased greenhouse gas emissions.

Politico reported that Trump said he didn’t believe the report.  Inside Climate News reported that Trump and other deniers launched an all-out response to the report, as did Dino Grandoni at The Washington Post.  Politico reported: “Acting EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Wednesday accused the Obama administration of tilting last week’s federal climate change report to focus on the worst-case outcomes — and indicated that the Trump administration could seek to shape the next big study of the issue.”

The Washington Post reported that the assessment said that damage from climate change is intensifying across the country and it will be expensive.  So did Inside Climate News.

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The 2018 Emissions Gap Report was issued by the UN Environment Programme on Tuesday of this week.  According to the report, there is still a small window to keep global temperature increases below 2°C; the one for achieving the 1.5°C goal is even smaller.  However, if the emissions gap is not closed by 2030, temperatures will likely rise more than 2°C.  Inside Climate News also wrote about the report.

A report in The Lancet warned of cascading health risks from climate change.

Just in case you saw a report of a coming ice age, you can find out where it came from here.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.

Politics and Policy

The ranking members of the House committees on Energy and Commerce; Natural Resources; and Science, Space, and Technology said they plan to hold a series of hearings about climate change over two days at the beginning of next year.  While The Hill reported that Democrats were divided over how to confront climate change, David Roberts of Vox speculated that there may be more unity than meets the eye.  Let us hope so, because as Richard Eckersley wrote this week, “It is barely stretching the truth to say that since the 1960s, we have declared each decade as the time for decisive action on the environment, and as each decade passes, we postpone the deadline another ten years … This profound failure is having far-reaching consequences that go beyond the environment, as it undermines trust in our institutions, notably government and democracy.”  Perhaps change will come from the actions of some of the new members of Congress who have a history of environmental activism.

In a repeat of a strategy that brought strong criticism at last year’s UN climate talks, the Trump administration plans to set up a side-event promoting fossil fuels at this year’s talks next month in Poland.  However, the administration also plans to allow State Department officials to take part in key negotiations.  A new study, published in the journal Nature Communications, assessed the relationship between each nation’s ambition to cut greenhouse gas emissions and the temperature rise that would result if all the countries in the world followed their example.  China, Russia, and Canada are among the worst, leading the world to 5.1°C of warming by 2100, whereas the U.S. goal would lead the world to 4°C warming.

A team of scientists has reported in the journal Science Advances that the U.S. could meet a significant portion of its pledge under the Paris Climate Agreement through the application of natural climate solutions such as reforestation, management of grasslands, and the use of cover crops.  Conversely, in anticipation of looser environmental regulations, deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon jumped almost 50% during the three-month electoral season that brought Jair Bolsonaro to power.  Furthermore, Bolsonaro has chosen a new foreign minister who believes climate change is part of a plot by “cultural Marxists” to stifle western economies and promote the growth of China.

Despite greater attention to the risks of sea level rise, housing construction in the most vulnerable areas of the country is growing more quickly than in safer, drier locations, according to a new report by the research organization Climate Central and the real estate website Zillow.

A bipartisan group of 18 governors is proposing that the federal government take a serious look at integrating the three main U.S. power grids, comparing the importance of grid modernization to the creation of the interstate highway system 60 years ago.

Climate

Two papers published Wednesday in Nature addressed the issue of hurricanes.  One examined the rainfall intensity of Hurricanes Katrina, Irma, and Maria and found that it increased by between 4% and 9% because of climate change.  The other found that Houston’s tall buildings promoted Hurricane Harvey’s heavier rainfall by increasing atmospheric drag.  Scientists behind a major study that claimed the Earth’s oceans are warming faster than previously thought, now say their work contained inadvertent errors that made their conclusions seem more certain than they actually are.

Reporter Marguerite Holloway and photographer Josh Haner went to America’s oldest national park to capture how climate change is altering the landscape and ecosystem.  The result is a stunning but sad article about Yellowstone.  Dana Nuccitelli presented the many ways in which climate change has worsened California’s wildfires at Yale Climate Connections.  Scientists have documented how thawing permafrost in the Arctic is causing rapid erosion of the shoreline.  A study published in the journal Marine Fisheries Review has found that valuable species of shellfish — eastern oysters, northern quahogs, softshell clams, and northern bay scallops — have become harder to find on the East Coast because of degraded habitat caused by a warming environment.  A study published Tuesday in the journal Nature Communications found that heat stress appears to be associated with transgenerational fertility problems in male insects.

The ecosystem in the Andes above 12,500 ft is called the páramo and it is warming faster than anywhere else outside of the Arctic.  Throughout the Andes, the páramos act like a sponge, collecting water from fog, drizzle, and melting mountaintop glaciers, storing it, and then releasing it into the lowlands.  An estimated 40 million people depend on the páramos for drinking water.  Sarah Fecht of Columbia University’s Earth Institute visited the páramos to report on the changes occurring there as Earth warms.  A study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, showed that birds in the Andes are heading uphill to keep pace with warming temperatures and will soon run out of room.  Writing at Yale Environment 360, Richard Conniff used that study as a jumping off place to explore the larger picture of species adaptation to climate change.

Increasing demand for home air conditioning, driven by global warming, population growth, and rising incomes in developing countries, could increase Earth’s temperatures an additional 0.5°C by 2100, according to a new report by the Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI).  The demand is growing so fast that a “radical change” in home-cooling technology will be necessary to neutralize its impact, writes RMI.

Chinese scientists have warned that the melting glaciers in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, known as the world’s Third Pole, will cause a reduced water supply in coming decades.  The plateau is the origin of Asia’s 10 largest rivers, including the Yangtze, Yellow, Indus, Yarlung Zangbo, and Syr Darya rivers, which provide water for three billion people across Asia.

Energy

The good news: Renewable energy is now cheaper than natural gas and coal in parts of the U.S.  The bad news: The International Energy Agency (IEA) projects global energy demand will rise 25% through 2040 if it stays on its current trajectory.  Consequently, CO₂ emissions may continue to rise.  However, new energy saving and renewables targets adopted by the EU on Tuesday put the bloc on course to overshoot its climate goals.  Under the new rules, the EU is targeting energy savings of 32.5% and a renewable energy goal of 32% by 2030.  On the other hand, a new report by Climate Transparency found that 82% of energy in G20 countries is still being provided by coal, oil and gas, which have relied on an increase of about 50% in subsidies over the past 10 years to compete.  Half of the increase in Australia’s annual CO₂ emissions can be linked to the failure to bury greenhouse gases underground at the country’s largest liquefied natural gas development.  Meanwhile, columnist George Monbiot made an impassioned plea in The Guardian for radical action to drastically cut carbon emissions.

Despite years of claims and commitments about clean investment and alleviating climate change, the world’s largest oil companies have contributed just 1% of their spending budgets to green energy in 2018.  The fracking of hard-to-reach oil reserves has helped the U.S. regain its crown as the world’s top crude oil producer, but even the IEA is now worried that the shale boom has been overhyped.

Monday afternoon as a cold front was moving into the area with windy conditions, wind turbine output in Texas reached 17,920 MW, 2% higher than the previous record.  Two Master of Science students at Lancaster University won the James Dyson award for their O-Wind Turbine, which takes advantage of both horizontal and vertical winds without requiring steering.

Volkswagen intends to sell electric cars for less than $23,000 and protect German jobs by converting three factories to make Tesla rivals.  VW is also expected to discuss far-reaching alliances with battery cell manufacturer SK Innovation and rival Ford.  Starting in January, all major manufacturers operating in China, from global giants Toyota and GM to domestic players BYD and BAIC Motor, have to meet minimum requirements there for producing new-energy vehicles, or NEVs (plug-in hybrids, pure-battery electrics, and fuel-cell autos).  Electric school buses are slowly making a debut in school districts around the U.S.  Backed by a state grant, Greenlots will partner with Volvo Trucks to install charging infrastructure for electric trucks in warehouses in Southern California, including onsite solar panels and energy storage.

A proposal by Pacific Gas & Electric, one of California’s three main investor-owned utilities, to deploy large-scale energy storage using batteries to replace peaking natural gas plants has been approved by the state’s regulator.  In Australia, Fluence will supply the latest large-scale battery energy storage system.  Meanwhile, India will take a different approach, with Tata Power planning to purchase a gravity-based energy storage system from Energy Vault.  The U.S. military is increasingly turning to renewables, batteries, and other technology to bolster energy resilience at bases, according to a new report from the Association of Defense Communities.

These news items have been compiled by Les Grady, member and former chair of the CAAV steering committee. He is a licensed professional engineer (retired) who taught environmental engineering at Purdue and Clemson Universities and engaged in private practice with CH2M Hill, the world’s largest environmental engineering consulting firm. Since his retirement in 2003 he has devoted much of his time to the study of climate science and the question of global warming and makes himself available to speak to groups about this subject. More here.