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New Concern Over Quakes in Oklahoma Near a Hub of U.S. Oil

A sharp earthquake in central Oklahoma last weekend has raised fresh concern about the security of a vast crude oil storage complex, close to the quake’s center, that sits at the crossroads of the nation’s oil pipeline network. The magnitude 4.5 quake struck Saturday afternoon about three miles northwest of Cushing, roughly midway between Oklahoma City and Tulsa. The town of about 8,000 people is home to the so-called Cushing Hub, a sprawling tank farm that is among the largest oil storage facilities in the world. Scientists reported in a paper published online last month that a large earthquake near the storage hub “could seriously damage storage tanks and pipelines.” Saturday’s quake continues a worrisome pattern of moderate quakes, suggesting that a large earthquake is more than a passing concern, the lead author of that study, Daniel McNamara, said in an interview. “When we see these fault systems producing […]

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Pennsylvania law okays treated coal-mining water for frac jobs

Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf signed into law a bill intended to encourage more oil and gas companies to use treated coal-mine wastewater for hydraulic fracturing . The law was scheduled to become effective in December. Consol Energy operates coal mines in southwestern Pennsylvania as well as developing and producing natural gas from the Marcellus and Utica shales . Consol Energy already had used wastewaste from its coal mines for fracturing, a company spokesman said. The new law is intended to encourage other gas operators to use treated mine water instead of fresh water. The use of mine water for fracing was among recommendations made by former Gov. Tom Corbett’s Marcellus Shale Advisory Commission. In 2013, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection issued a white paper to promote the practice. Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection officials supported the legislation. Previously, oil and gas companies were reluctant to use treated mine […]

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Why the Earth’s past has scientists so worried about the Atlantic Ocean’s circulation

January–August 2015 blended land and sea surface temperature percentiles. (NOAA) In the last month, there’s been much attention to a cool patch in the North Atlantic Ocean, where record cold temperatures over the past eight months present a stark contrast to a globe that is experiencing record warmth. And although there is certainly no consensus on the matter yet , some scientists think this pattern may be a sign of one long-feared consequence of climate change — a slowing of North Atlantic ocean circulation, due to a freshening of surface waters. The cause, goes the thinking, would be the rapidly melting Greenland ice sheet, whose large freshwater flows may weaken ocean “overturning” by reducing the density of cold surface waters (colder, salty water is denser). If cold, salty waters don’t sink in the North Atlantic and flow back southward toward Antarctica at depth, then warm surface waters won’t flow […]

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Welcome To a New Planet

Not so long ago, it was science fiction. Now, it’s hard science — and that should frighten us all. The latest reports from the prestigious and sober Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) make increasingly hair-raising reading, suggesting that the planet is approaching possible moments of irreversible damage in a fashion and at a speed that had not been anticipated. Scientists have long worried that climate change will not continue to advance in a “linear” fashion, with the planet getting a little bit hotter most years. Instead, they fear, humanity could someday experience “non-linear” climate shifts (also known as “singularities” or “tipping points”) after which there would be sudden and irreversible change of a catastrophic nature. This was the premise of the 2004 climate-disaster film The Day After Tomorrow . In that movie — most notable for its vivid scenes of a frozen-over New York City — melting polar […]

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With Market on Their Side, Electric Utilities Skip Fight Against Carbon Rule

Lynn Good, Duke’s chief executive, is undecided about the EPA’s carbon-dioxide emissions plan. U.S. coal companies and at least 16 state governments are working on challenges to the Obama administration’s new rule limiting carbon emissions from power plants. Most electric utilities have a different strategy: They are embracing it. The main reason, executives and experts say, is that economic forces are pushing the power industry inexorably toward a lower-carbon future. “Everybody is moving in this direction anyway,” said Dominion Chief Executive Tom Farrell. The new regulations just add certainty to companies’ plans to move away from relying on coal to generate electricity, turning instead toward cheap natural gas as well as renewable energy, which is available at increasingly lower cost. “Price is a larger force in electricity markets today than what Washington is doing with regulations,” said Todd Carter, president of Panda Power Funds, a private-equity investor and generating-plant […]

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Oil CEOs Differ on Carbon Strategy, Highlighting Industry Divide

LONDON—The chief executives of Royal Dutch Shell PLC and ExxonMobil Corp. laid out contrasting visions this week for reducing fossil-fuel emissions, illustrating a divide between American and European energy companies ahead of a United Nations climate-change summit. Rex Tillerson , CEO of U.S.-based Exxon, said Wednesday that innovation, free markets and competition were the best tools for curbing emissions. His remarks came a day after Ben van Beurden, chief of Anglo-Dutch giant Shell, said technology wouldn’t be enough to bring about emissions cuts, and that governments needed to step in. Both executives were speaking here at the Oil and Money conference, co-hosted by Energy Intelligence and the International New York Times. The differing messages show that the oil industry hasn’t come up with a unified response to climate change, even as its leaders become increasingly vocal about it in the run-up to the U.N. summit in Paris. Nearly 200 […]

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Volkswagen Withdraws Request to Certify 2016 Diesel Models

Volkswagen’s Audi brand vehicles parked in Brussels last month. Volkswagen AG VLKAY 8.93 % conceded it won’t be able sell diesel-powered vehicles in the U.S. for a prolonged period, withdrawing a request for regulators to certify new models in the wake of an emissions-cheating scandal. Volkswagen’s 2016 model-year diesel-powered vehicles include emissions-control software that requires regulatory approval in the U.S., according to prepared remarks by the auto maker’s U.S. chief executive to be delivered on Thursday at a congressional hearing. The testimony doesn’t make clear whether the software can defeat emissions tests as software on older diesel-powered vehicles does. In his prepared statement, Michael Horn, head of Volkswagen Group of America, offered a “sincere apology” to U.S. lawmakers for the German auto maker’s yearslong deception. “These events are deeply troubling. I did not think that something like this was possible at the Volkswagen Group,” he said in his testimony […]

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Have We Reached A “Peak Water” Tipping Point In California?

It may be a see-saw course, but it’s riding an uphill train. A bit ago I wrote , regarding climate and tipping points: The concept of “tipping point” — a change beyond which there’s no turning back — comes up a lot in climate discussions. An obvious tipping point involves polar ice. If the earth keeps warming — both in the atmosphere and in the ocean — at some point a full and permanent melt of Arctic and Antarctic ice is inevitable. Permanent ice first started forming in the Antarctic about 35 million years ago, thanks to global cooling which crossed a tipping point for ice formation. That’s not very long ago. During the 200 million years before that, the earth was too warm for permanent ice to form, at least as far as we know. We’re now going the other direction, rewarming the earth, and permanent ice is […]

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There Are Half as Many Fish as There Were in 1970

Mankind’s insatiable appetite for seafood has decimated global fisheries. A disturbing new report from the World Wildlife Fund and the Zoological Society of London reveals that the number of fish and other aquatic animals dropped 49 percent between 1970 and 2012. There’s no question that leaving animals off our plates is the most powerful choice each of us can make to help fish populations rebound. alternet

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EPA Sets Stricter Air-Pollution Standard for Ozone

WASHINGTON—The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced a sweeping federal air-pollution limit on ground-level ozone, one of several environmental regulations fueling a clash between the Obama administration and the business community. The EPA is setting a final standard of 70 parts per billion of ozone in the air, down from the current level of 75 parts per billion, EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy said Thursday. The ozone limit is prompting criticism both from environmental groups that say it isn’t strong enough and business executives who didn’t want the EPA to change the standard at all. Some company and state officials have said they could support a standard of 70 but nothing lower, indicating the EPA is seeking to find some middle ground on the hotly divisive issue. “We know that this regulation could have been worse, but it still feels like a punch in the gut,” said Tom Riordan, CEO […]

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Oil Drillers Spared More Misery by U.S. Judge’s Fracking Ruling

A U.S. judge in Wyoming has blocked new rules that tighten controls over fracking on federal lands, granting a measure of relief to producers who would have faced higher costs at a time when profits already are strangled by low crude prices. The order by U.S. District Judge Scott Skavdahl puts a temporary hold on the most closely-watched effort by the Obama administration to ensure that hydraulic fracturing doesn’t contaminate water supplies. While the rules apply only to federal lands, they are designed to spur states to follow suit, magnifying the impact and potentially slowing development of oil and natural gas resources. Skavdahl said the government’s Bureau of Land Management lacks the authority to control fracking. Republican Rob Bishop, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, approved of the ruling as “the right decision because it stops the Obama Administration from shoving this harmful policy down the states’ […]

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Survey of Republican Voters Shows a Majority Believe in Climate Change

Photo A Republican supporter wore a tie decorated with elephant mascots at the Republican National Convention in Tampa, Fla., in 2012. Credit Daniel Acker/Bloomberg, via Getty Images WASHINGTON — A majority of Republicans — including 54 percent of self-described conservative Republicans — believe the world’s climate is changing and that mankind plays some role in the change, according to a new survey conducted by a trio of prominent Republican pollsters. The results echo a number of other recent surveys concluding that, despite the talk of many of the party’s candidates, a significant number of Republicans and independent voters are inclined to support candidates who would back some form of climate action. It may also point to a problem facing Republicans seeking their party’s presidential nomination: The activists who crowd town hall meetings and Republican presidential caucuses and primaries might not reflect the broader attitude of even the Republican electorate. […]

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Volkswagen Scandal Highlights European Stalling on New Emissions Tests

Photo A Volkswagen factory building in Wolfsburg, Germany. The company installed software in 11 million diesel vehicles to provide false information about emissions. Credit Michael Sohn/Associated Press BRUSSELS — European legislators got a jolt this month in their long-running effort to update auto-emissions standards when a German member of the European Parliament suddenly proposed exempting a whole class of vehicles. “This was a huge loophole, and everyone was asking: Where does this idea come from?” recalled Bas Eickhout, a member of the Dutch Green party who sits on the committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety. It did not take long to discover the origin of the contentious proposal: Volkswagen Group. What had seemed a proposal by a legislator was in reality the work of the German carmaker. This was just one particularly brazen example of how European automobile manufacturers have for years sought to thwart or […]

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China carbon trading not all bad news for commodities: Russell

The China Central Television (CCTV) building is seen next to a construction site in heavy haze in Beijing’s central business district, January 14, 2013. – China’s planned national cap-and-trade carbon emissions system may at first appear to be yet another bearish factor for commodity demand in the world’s largest consumer of natural resources. In theory, limiting the amount of carbon emissions by setting a price per tonne and then making polluters pay for permits above their allocated limits will serve to raise costs for carbon-intensive industries, such as steel, aluminum, power generation, copper smelting and oil refining. A cap-and-trade system is only effective when it raises the cost of polluting to the point where the polluter limits output or invests in new technology or takes other steps to reduce emissions. Of course, a polluter can try to raise prices for the goods they produce, but this assumes that they […]

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Volkswagen CEO Promises Action on Emissions Scandal in Letter

He has promised investors and customers a thorough investigation into the emissions cheating scandal that has rocked Europe’s biggest car maker. And in a letter to employees, which was viewed by The Wall Street Journal, Mr. Müller closed ranks with labor representatives, vowing to ensure that such misconduct “never happens again.” “We will be relentless in getting to the bottom of this—fast, open and as decisively as possible,” Mr. Müller and Bernd Osterloh, head of VW’s powerful works council, said in the letter, which is to be sent to employees on Monday. The letter echoes comments Mr. Müller made during his first public appearance after being named CEO of the group on Friday. By sending it together with Mr. Osterloh, the new VW chief is demonstrating his willingness to work closely with labor, a key reason why he was chosen for the job. On Friday, Mr. Müller acknowledged the […]

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Limited Progress Seen Even as More Nations Step Up on Climate

Photo An area of the Amazon rain forest burned to make way for pasturelands. Brazil has pledged to end illegal deforestation. Credit Lalo de Almeida for The New York Times The pledges that countries are making to battle climate change would still allow the world to heat up by more than 6 degrees Fahrenheit, a new analysis shows, a level that scientists say is likely to produce catastrophes ranging from food shortages to widespread extinctions of plant and animal life. Yet, in the world of global climate politics, that counts as progress. The new figures will be released Monday in New York as a week of events related to climate change comes to an end. The highlight was an urgent moral appeal at the United Nations on Friday from Pope Francis, urging countries to reach “fundamental and effective agreements” when they meet in Paris in December to try to […]

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Asia taking climate initiative

Asian Development Bank announces planned increase in climate spending ahead of key pledges from the U.S. and Chinese leaders. File photo by Stephen Shaver/UPI MANILA, Sept. 25 (UPI) — By 2020, the amount of funding to support the fight against climate change will double to $6 billion, the president of the Asian Development Bank said. World leaders gathering in New York this weekend are expected to announce commitments to more than a dozen sustainable development goals. With China, a world emissions leader, planning to lead the announcements, ADB President Takehiko Nakao said the growing Asian economies have a major role to play in the fight against climate change. "Nowhere is tackling climate change more critical than in Asia and the Pacific, where rising sea levels, melting glaciers, and weather extremes like floods and droughts are damaging livelihoods and taking far too many lives," he said in a statement. Nakao […]

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U.S. and China team up on global warming

U.S. President Barack Obama and China’s President Xi Jinping (L) hold a joint news confernce in the Rose Garden of the White House in Washington September 25, 2015. – Tensions between the United States and China are running high on issues including cyber security, the South China Sea and currency values. So why are the U.S. and China working so well together on climate change? And what does it mean for the world? Today, President Barack Obama and President Xi Jinping announced an important climate agreement. If that sentence sounds familiar, there’s a reason. At their first summit (in California in 2013), President Obama and President Xi announced plans to cooperate in phasing out HFCs, a super-pollutant with huge global warming impacts. At their second summit (in Beijing in 2014), the two leaders reached an historic agreement to limit total emissions of heat-trapping gases in each country. Expectations for […]

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E.P.A. to Bolster Testing Because of Volkswagen Scandal

Photo A 2014 Jeep Diesel being tested at the Center for Alternative Fuel Engines and Emissions at West Virginia University. Credit Tom M. Johnson for The New York Times Government regulators said Friday that they planned to step up the testing requirements of cars in the wake of the Volkswagen scandal. The Environmental Protection Agency , which disclosed last week that it had learned that Volkswagen diesel cars had equipment to evade smog-testing standards, said it had sent a letter to manufacturers of gasoline and diesel cars saying that regulators would be looking for so-called defeat devices in all vehicles. The agency said Volkswagen had used a device programmed to fool emissions testers into thinking that the car was emitting much less pollution than it was during regular driving. “Manufacturers should expect that this additional testing may add time to the confirmatory test process,” the E.P.A. wrote in its […]

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California Restores Rule to Cut Carbon in Fuel by 10%

By Alejandro Lazo SAN FRANCISCO–California regulators on Friday voted to reinstate a rule to require a 10% cut in the carbon content of transportation fuels sold in the state by 2020, despite oil industry objections that it would raise gasoline prices. The California Air Resources Board voted 9-0 to move forward with the state’s low-carbon fuel standard, which was the first regulation of its kind in the U.S. when it was established in a 2007 executive order by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. It had been frozen since 2013, as the state made revisions to the law following a court challenge. Oregon adopted its own carbon fuel standard in 2009. The California regulation further tightens the state’s emissions regulations, already the most stringent in the U.S. It requires fuel makers to reduce emissions by developing cleaner fuels or adopting greater use of biofuels. It also requires fuel producers to take into […]

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U.S., China to Announce Steps to Fight Climate Change

U.S. President Barack Obama with Chinese President Xi Jinping on the White House grounds Thursday. The U.S. and China on Friday will announce significant steps in their efforts to combat climate change, including a pledge by China to launch a program by 2017 to cap some emissions and put a price on carbon, senior Obama administration officials said Thursday. The announcements will detail the two countries’ strategies for reaching emissions targets and aim to bolster efforts to complete an international accord to reduce global carbon-dioxide emissions, which is meant to be wrapped up in December. The Obama administration officials, touting a new era of U.S.-China climate diplomacy, said the statement would demonstrate to the world the countries’ commitment to reaching agreed-upon targets. Chinese President Xi Jinping ’s decision to put a price on CO2 emissions with a cap-and-trade system marks the first time China has launched such an initiative. […]

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The Connection Between Cleaner Air and Longer Lives

Continue reading the main story Slide Show Slide Show|12 Photos A Look Back at the Smog A Look Back at the Smog CreditNeal Boenzi/The New York Times Back in 1970, Los Angeles was known as the smog capital of the world — a notorious example of industrialization largely unfettered by regard for health or the environment. Heavy pollution drove up respiratory and heart problems and shortened lives. But 1970 was also the year the environmental movement held the first Earth Day and when, 45 years ago this month, Congress passed a powerful update of the Clean Air Act . (Soon after, it was signed by President Richard Nixon , and it was followed by the formation of the Environmental Protection Agency and passage of the Clean Water Act, making him one of the most important, though underappreciated, environmentalists in American history.) Since that time, the Clean Air Act has […]

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EPA hears widely different views on methane emission threat

AP Photo/Brennan Linsley DENVER (AP) — Over-regulating methane emissions could discourage the use of environment-friendly natural gas, an energy industry representative told the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday. However, a former Colorado air quality official countered that such controls would be a cost-effective way to fight climate change. The EPA heard radically different views as it opened public hearings in Denver on its proposal to slash allowable methane emissions from oil and gas production. Sessions were also scheduled in Dallas on Wednesday and in Pittsburgh on Sept. 29. The proposed rules are aimed at cutting the emissions by 40 to 45 percent by 2025 compared with 2012 levels. Methane is a key component of natural gas and a powerful greenhouse gas that traps heat in the upper atmosphere. The EPA estimates the new rule would cost industry from $320 million to $420 million annually by 2025 but would reduce […]

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After Volkswagen Revelation, Auto Emissions Tests Come Under Global Scrutiny

Photo The Volkswagen plant in Wolfsburg, Germany. The emissions cheating scandal at Volkswagen has initiated a reconsideration of how pollution tests are carried out worldwide. Credit Alexander Koerner/Getty Images In the United States, automakers conduct their own emissions tests and submit the results to the government. In Europe, automakers pick who conducts the tests and where they are done. And these two regulatory systems are considered the world’s gold standards. Questions about the wisdom of allowing automakers so much sway in how air pollution standards are enforced grew on Wednesday after the resignation of Volkswagen’s chief executive , following the company’s diesel emissions cheating scandal . Regulators in several European countries have opened investigations, attorneys general in the United States have joined federal inquiries, and there has been broader criticism of Volkswagen , and diesels, in markets from South Korea to Brazil. Volkswagen has admitted installing software in 11 […]

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As UN says world to warm by 3 degrees, scientists explain what that means

As nations around the world prepare to sign a global climate treaty in Paris this December at the United Nations Conference of the Parties (COP21), the U.N.’s climate chief has said thatthe world is still on track for dangerous warming. Most leaders and scientists have agreed that limiting the global average temperature rise to 2 degrees Celsius over the next century could yet ward off the worst effects of climate change . But the world remains on a trajectory to experience an increase of 3 C — even if the national emission reduction pledges to be codified in the Paris treaty are implemented — said Christiana Figueres, executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change. Her comments came ahead of visiting Pope Francis’ U.N. General Assembly speech on Friday, when he is widely expected to weigh in on the dangers of climate change. Al Jazeera asked scientists […]

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California drought and impending El Niño raise fears of levee breaks

LOS ANGELES — California’s historic drought is in its fourth year and gloom-and-doom scenarios of its impact on everything from killing the state’s vegetation and triggering bug infestation to destroying farming jobs have been trickling in daily. Now, there is another fear: The prolonged drought may have weakened California’s more than 13,000 miles of levees, which could result in floods and affect the quality of water for millions of Californians. That’s a scary prospect for parts of the state that could get doused with torrential rain this winter, thanks to an El Niño weather front triggered by unusually warm Pacific Ocean temperatures. And the mere mention of levee breaks evokes terrifying images of the devastation Hurricane Katrina wreaked on New Orleans 10 years ago. A Mississippi State University civil engineer sounded the alarm in a recent article in Science magazine . “If the drought ends with heavy rainfall-induced flooding, […]

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Texas’ Earthquake Study Gets Off The Ground

The $4.5 million study is intended to provide big picture information on whether there is a link between hydraulic fracturing’s disposal wells and seismic activity. Work is underway on the multi-million dollar TexNet Seismic Monitoring Program, designed by Texas lawmakers to gather and disseminate research on any relationship between disposal wells and an unexpected spate of earthquakes in North Texas. State Rep. Rafael Anchia, a Democrat from Dallas, wrote the legislation this year, which passed as part of the state budget and became effective in September. “Our community is rightfully concerned about the unusually high seismic activity in Dallas, Irving and Farmers Branch,” Anchia said in a statement. The “study should help us get to the bottom of it.” Bringing industry, academia and the government together will ensure that different perspectives will be represented, said Scott Tinker, director of the Bureau of Economic Geology at the University of Texas. […]

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US Catholic groups debate divesting from fossil fuels

When Pope Francis speaks to Congress on Thursday, environmentalists expect him to renew his call for rich countries to do more to combat climate change, and some believe that effort should begin with Catholic institutions in the U.S., which are facing a small but vocal effort to pressure them to divest from the fossil fuel industry. “The [divestment] conversations are happening now at a level they weren’t a year ago,” said Kevin Ahern, a religious studies professor at Manhattan College. “Pope Francis is trying to ask the church institutions, ‘How do we really embody what we’re teaching?’” Pope Francis puts GOP in a corner on climate change Pope’s comments on climate sparks debate on coal In an encyclical issued in June, the pope delivered a dramatic and unambiguous rebuke of humanity’s environmental stewardship . “We know that technology based on the use of highly polluting fossil fuels … needs […]

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Senate Democrats to Unveil Aggressive Climate Change Bill

Photo The Rosebud coal mine in Colstrip, Mont. A measure that Senate Democratic leaders plan to unveil on Tuesday would establish a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions of 2 percent each year through 2025. Credit Kristina Barker for The New York Times WASHINGTON — Senate Democratic leaders on Tuesday plan to unveil a measure intended to signal their full-throated support of President Obama ’s aggressive climate change agenda to 2016 voters and to the rest of the world. The Democrats hope that the bill, sponsored by Senator Maria Cantwell, of Washington, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy Committee, will demonstrate a new unity for the party on energy and climate change, and define Democrats’ approach to global warming policy in the coming years. The measure would establish as United States policy a reduction of greenhouse gas emissions by 2 percent each year through 2025 — a cut even […]

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Pacific Islanders Plead for Urgent Climate Action as Seas Rise

The village where Anote Tong attended school some 40 years ago is no longer there. As the Pacific Ocean encroached on the settlement, the villagers left for higher ground. “There is a church building and a meeting house, but nobody can go there because during high tide they’re sitting out in the middle of the water,” said Tong, now president of the atoll nation of Kiribati. Flooded homes in the village of Taborio on the island of Tarawa. Nowhere are the risks of climate change more evident than in the tiny island nations of the Pacific, where countless communities face inundation. Tuvalu has lost four islands since 2000. Islets have slipped beneath the waves in the Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea. And in Palau, some houses — still occupied — flood daily. The islanders’ plight gives them a powerful moral voice at a December meeting in Paris sponsored […]

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Volkswagen Chief Apologizes for Breach of Trust After Recall

Photo Martin Winterkorn, the chief executive of Volkswagen, speaking before the start of the International Motor Show in Frankfurt. Credit Odd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images FRANKFURT — The chief executive of Volkswagen apologized on Sunday for what he said was a breach of trust that resulted in the company’s being accused by the United States authorities of illegally installing software in its diesel-power cars to evade standards for reducing smog. “I personally am deeply sorry that we have broken the trust of our customers and the public,” Martin Winterkorn, the chief executive of the German automaker, said in a statement . The Environmental Protection Agency has ordered Volkswagen to recall nearly half a million vehicles, and the company could face billions of dollars in fines. Mr. Winterkorn said the company would “cooperate fully” with the authorities and order its own independent investigation into the accusations. In his statement, […]

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The 800 Ways Taxpayer Money Supports Fossil Fuel Industries

Emissions rise from stacks at a power plant in Indiana. Photographer: Luke Sharett/Bloomberg Measures for oil, gas and coal worth $167 billion last year As world leaders converge on New York for a United Nations gathering that’s expected to have a strong emphasis on climate change, the OECD is pointing out 800 ways rich industrial nations support fossil fuels with taxpayer money, along with a handful of countries that are catching up quickly. The measures were worth $167 billion last year for the oil, natural gas and coal industries, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, a Paris-based institution that advises 34 industrial nations. While that number has fallen from almost $200 billion in 2012, it easily exceeds the value of subsidies for renewables such as wind and solar. The findings released Monday are designed to stimulate debate on what constitutes fair support for energy technologies. World […]

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EPRI-NRDC report finds widespread vehicle electrification and a cleaner grid could lead to substantial cuts in GHG by 2050

Widespread adoption of electric transportation, including electrification in the off-road sector, could lead to substantial reductions in greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and could modestly improve air quality, according to a new analysis released by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) and the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC). The report, “ Environmental Assessment of a Full Electric Transportation Portfolio ”, is based on a projection that by 2050 electricity replaces traditional fuels for approximately half of light- and medium-duty transportation and a significant portion of non-road equipment. This study builds on the 2007 Environmental Assessment of Plug-in Hybrid Electric Vehicles by EPRI and NRDC ( earlier post ), which showed that plug-in hybrid electric vehicles could contribute to reductions in national greenhouse gas emissions, while also leading to improved air quality. As with the earlier assessment, this study consists of two separate, but related, analyses: greenhouse gas emissions from 2015-2050, […]

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U.S. accuses Volkswagen of clean air violations

A volkswagen automobile sits for sale on a car lot in Carlsbad, California August 28, 2015. U.S. and California environmental regulators on Friday accused Volkswagen AG ( VOWG_p.DE ) of deliberately circumventing clean air rules on nearly 500,000 diesel cars and the company could face penalties of up to $18 billion. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency alleged that Volkswagen used software in four-cylinder Volkswagen and Audi diesel cars from model years 2009 to 2015 to circumvent emissions testing of certain air pollutants. "Put simply, these cars contained software that turns off emissions controls when driving normally and turns them on when the car is undergoing an emissions test," Cynthia Giles, an enforcement officer at the EPA, told reporters in a teleconference. The feature, known as a "defeat device," results in the cars emitting as much as 40 times emissions allowed under clean air rules meant to ensure public health […]

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EPA Accuses Volkswagen of Dodging Emissions Rules

WASHINGTON—The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency accused Volkswagen AG VLKAY -4.52 % of deliberately dodging air-pollution rules on nearly half a million cars sold, furthering an Obama administration crackdown on auto makers for flouting regulations intended to reduce tailpipe emissions. The EPA, which unveiled the allegations with the California Air Resources Board, issued a notice on Friday alleging the German auto maker used software in the cars to get around government emissions tests. EPA officials said the software, dubbed a “defeat device,” worked to make 482,000 Volkswagen cars appear cleaner than they were. The Clean Air Act requires vehicle manufacturers to certify to EPA that their products meet federal air-pollution standards. EPA officials said Volkswagen violated two parts of the federal Clean Air Act and could face sizable financial penalties of up to $37,500 per car, or more than $18 billion. But it remained unclear whether the government would seek […]

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Citi Says China Going Green Will Hurt Industrial Commodities

China’s demand for industrial commodities will probably be hurt as the biggest energy and metals user intensifies efforts to rein in pollution, according to Citigroup Inc. The country will focus on the environment as never before in its forthcoming 13th Five-Year Plan and may start a carbon trading program next year or the year after, Citigroup said in a report on Friday. Costs for energy-intensive industries will increase, with steel and electricity likely to be the first to implement the scheme, the bank said. Now the world’s biggest carbon emitter, China is moving to address the environmental damage that’s been a byproduct of its breakneck economic expansion. Xi Jinping’s first five-year plan since becoming president in March 2013 will chart the path for the nation’s further development. It’s expected to be delivered at the time of the Communist Party Plenum in October. “Environmental initiatives are likely to be among […]

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U.S., China Build on Plan to Cut Emissions

Next week, President Barack Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping will add to earlier pledges to cut greenhouse-gas emissions with specific guidance on what the two countries will do at home to keep climate change at bay, officials said. The United States and China announced Tuesday that cities, states and provinces in both countries would commit to taking parallel steps to address climate change. The participating Chinese cities and provinces, which represent about 25% of total urban emissions in that country, will offer plans to have their emissions peak sooner than the national target of 2030. Beijing and Guangzhou, two of China’s largest cities, will aim for their peak emissions to come as early as 2020. Climate officials and leaders from both countries are meeting in Los Angeles this week to lay out the steps the regions will take and to set the groundwork for next week’s summit between […]

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Scientists say it’s been 500 years since California has been this dry

A snowboarder threads his way through patches of dirt in Olympic Valley, California. Many Tahoe-area ski resorts have closed due to low snowfall as California’s historic drought continues. (Max Whittaker/Getty Images) Researchers knew California’s drought was already a record breaker when they set out to find its exact place in history, but they were surprised by what they discovered: It has been 500 years since what is now the Golden State has been this dry. California is in the fourth year of a severe drought with temperatures so high and precipitation so low that rain and snow evaporate almost as soon as it hits the ground. A research paper released Monday said an analysis of blue oak tree rings in the state’s Central Valley showed that the amount of mountain snow California relies on for moisture hasn’t been so low since the 1500s. That was around the time when […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple
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World Bank Confident Funding to Back Climate-Change Deal Will Be Secured

MACTAN, Philippines—The World Bank’s special envoy on climate change on Friday expressed confidence that industrialized countries will open their wallets when they gather in Paris later this year to bankroll a global strategy to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. “There will be a finance package and it will be a generous one,” World Bank Vice President Rachel Kyte told The Wall Street Journal at the sidelines of the meeting of Asia Pacific Economic Cooperation ministers in this central Philippine island. Ms. Kyte said talks on the financing package are continuing but she declined to quote the potential size of the financing package. Multilateral financial institutions, including the World Bank, already provide annually a combined $28 billion for projects intended to help developing countries mitigate the impact of and adapt to climate change, she noted. French President François Hollande last month anchored a final deal on climate change during the November-December […]

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Fossil-Fuel License Limits Seen Viable Option to Emissions Cap

Limiting fossil-fuel supplies to combat climate change may be more attractive for governments than trying to negotiate a global emissions cap, according to Andy Howard, an adviser to Critical Resource Strategy & Analysis Ltd. Nations producing coal, oil and natural gas could protect revenue by applying “supply-side discipline” such as handing out fewer drilling licenses, Howard said by phone Wednesday. London-based commodities consultant Critical Resource last month set up a panel headed by former BP Plc chief executive officer John Browne to advise the fossil-fuel industry on United Nations climate talks. Even as nations and the energy industry produce less fossil fuel, “they can still make more money out of it” and help protect the climate as prices rise, said Howard, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. managing director. “If the industry could act in a disciplined way, it could operate profitably at a lower volume.” Andy Howard — […]

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Federal Court Denies States’ Request to Temporarily Block EPA Carbon Rules

WASHINGTON—A federal court denied a request by more than a dozen states on Wednesday to temporarily block the Obama administration’s carbon regulations while they mount a full legal challenge to the rules. The decision is an early victory for the Environmental Protection Agency, which completed the rules last month calling for carbon emissions from power plants to be cut 32% by 2030 from 2005 levels . The regulations are the cornerstone of President Barack Obama ’s climate plan, and Wednesday’s ruling is an early legal salvo in what is expected to be a yearslong court battle over Mr. Obama’s climate agenda. Last month, 15 states asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia to issue an emergency stay blocking the rules , noting that they would be required “to spend significant and irrevocable sovereign resources now” to be in a position to meet the initial deadline […]

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Impact of Exxon Valdez spill on fish far greater than thought, study finds

Federal scientists may have found a link between the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill and a decline of herring and pink salmon populations in Prince William Sound. In a study published Tuesday in the online journal Scientific Reports, researchers from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) found that embryonic salmon and herring exposed to even very low levels of crude oil can develop heart defects. Herring and pink salmon juveniles that were exposed to crude oil as embryos grew slower and swam slower, making them vulnerable to predators, said John Incardona, a research toxicologist at NOAA Fisheries’ Northwest Fisheries Science Center in Seattle, in a prepared statement Exxon Valdez: 25 years later We explore the lasting impacts of oil spills on communities and the country. "These juvenile fish on the outside look completely normal, but their hearts are not functioning properly and that translates directly into reduced swimming […]

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Heitkamp Reacts to Methane Ruling

Global Warming Debate Rages North Dakota senator, Heidi Heitkamp, pushes back against the latest federal mandate to reduce methane emissions. President Obama revealed a plan last month that would require oil and gas companies to cut methane pollution from drilling sites, distribution systems and in other areas of operation. This ruling is part of the President’s broad and aggressive plan to fight climate change, and many believe it would literally transform the energy industry. The EPA said the proposed standards will reduce 340,000 to 400,000 short tons of methane in 2025, the equivalent of reducing 7.7 to 9 million metric tons of CO2. The agency estimates the rule will yield net climate benefits of $120-150 million in 2025. Senator Henkamp is proposing bipartisan, “commonsense solutions” to reduce methane emissions including speeding up the permit approval process for gas-gathering lines and pipeline projects to reduce flaring. Heitkamp commented, “Energy production […]

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Melting Ice Isn’t Opening Arctic to Oil Bonanza

Photo An Orthodox cross in Teriberka, Russia, a poor village on the Barents Sea that the Kremlin had hoped would be a hub for the expanded operations of its energy giant, Gazprom. But despite the melting ice, getting oil and gas out of the Arctic remains a daunting challenge. Credit James Hill for The New York Times TERIBERKA, Russia — The warming Arctic should already have transformed this impoverished fishing village on the coast of the Barents Sea. The Kremlin spent billions in the last decade in hopes of turning it into a northern hub of its global energy powerhouse, Gazprom. It was once the most ambitious project planned in the Arctic Ocean, but now there is little to show for it aside from a shuttered headquarters and an enormous gravel road carved out of the windblown coastline like a scar. “There are plans,” said Viktor A. Turchaninov, the […]

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Former Bakken Operator Pleads Not-Guilty

Saltwater Waste A Southlake, Texas man charged with illegally injecting saltwater into a disposal well in North Dakota pled not guilty to federal charges last week in federal court. Jason Halek, a former operator of a saltwater well in southwest North Dakota, was indicted on 13 federal counts and fined a record $1.5 million in 2013 for putting drinking water at risk by illegally dumping more than 800,000 gallons of salty, oilfield wastewater into a former oil well in Stark County. He entered not guilty pleas to all charges including violating the Safe Drinking Water Act, making false statements and obstructing grand jury proceedings. The indictment claims Halik conspired to hinder by “craft, trickery, deceit, and dishonest means the lawful and legitimate functions of the EPA, in enforcing federal laws relating to the requirements of the North Dakota underground injection control program.” Saltwater is considered an environmental hazard that […]

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Earth’s trees number ‘three trillion’

Image copyright David Zeleny The new estimate includes "ground truth" density data from 400,000 forest plots There are just over three trillion trees on Earth, according to a new assessment. The figure is eight times as big as the previous best estimate, which counted perhaps 400 billion at most. It has been produced by Thomas Crowther from Yale University, and colleagues, who combined a mass of ground survey data with satellite pictures. The team tells the journal Nature that the new total represents upwards of 420 trees for every person on the planet. The more refined number will now form a baseline for a wide range of research applications – everything from studies that consider animal and plant habitats for biodiversity reasons, to new models of the climate, because it is trees of course that play an important role in removing the greenhouse gas carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. […]

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Texas regulator clears oil and gas company of causing quakes

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The regulatory agency overseeing Texas’ oil and gas industry has determined that a series of small earthquakes in North Texas likely wasn’t caused by drilling operations by an Exxon Mobil subsidiary. The preliminary findings mark the first decision by the Texas Railroad Commission since it was authorized last year to consider whether seismological activity was caused by injection wells, which store briny wastewater from hydraulic fracturing. The commission ordered hearings after a university study suggested two companies’ wells were responsible for quakes that shook Reno, Texas, in 2013 and 2014. Commission investigators concluded that a well where Exxon Mobil subsidiary XTO Energy pumps millions of gallons of the wastewater likely didn’t cause the quakes, but also said there wasn’t enough evidence to demonstrate the earthquakes were naturally occurring. Parties have 15 days to respond. The report was released Monday, a day before a new law […]

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Obama Makes Urgent Appeal in Alaska for Climate Change Action

Photo Lt. Gov. Byron Mallott of Alaska hugged Gov. Bill Walker, back to camera, after President Obama arrived Monday in Anchorage. Credit Doug Mills/The New York Times ANCHORAGE — President Obama on Monday issued a global call for urgent action to address climate change , declaring that the United States was partly to blame for what he called the defining challenge of the century and would rally the world to counter it. “Climate change is no longer some far-off problem; it is happening here, it is happening now,” Mr. Obama said here at an international conference on the Arctic. “We’re not acting fast enough. I have come here today, as the leader of the world’s largest economy and its second-largest emitter, to say that the United States recognizes our role in creating the problem, and we embrace our responsibility to help solve it.” In remarks that bordered on the […]

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Washington governor calls wildfires ‘slow-motion disaster’

AP Photo/Elaine Thompson CHELAN, Wash. (AP) — Rising temperatures and increased winds Thursday could cause the largest wildfire in Washington state history to grow even bigger. The National Weather Service issued a red-flag warning for the Okanogan Complex of fires, saying the weather conditions had the potential to spread the flames Thursday afternoon. "The heat coming back on us early is going to be a problem," said Rick Isaacson, spokesman for the fire that grew to 450 square miles on Thursday. The blazes killed three firefighters last week, and have burned at least 40 homes and 40 outbuildings. Heavy smoke that had grounded aircraft this week lifted a bit Thursday morning and helicopters were able to drop water on the flames, Isaacson said. Aircraft were expected to drop retardant in the afternoon. More than 1,150 square miles of Washington are on fire, nearly the size of Rhode Island, the […]

Posted On : Published By : Tom Whipple