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California to phase out sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035
California, the world’s fifth-largest economy and the state that created U.S. car culture, will stop selling gasoline-powered automobiles within 15 years, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) announced Wednesday. Facing a record-breaking wildfire season as well as years of heat waves and droughts exacerbated by climate change, the Golden State is seeking to accelerate the shift away from combustion engines on its roads, which account for more greenhouse gas emissions than any other source. [ read more … ]
States
Gov. Whitmer vows state will be carbon neutral by 2050
Whitmer’s executive order offered sparse details on how Michigan would achieve the 2050 goal and an interim 2025 target — leaving that to a future implementation plan. And Michigan’s divided political landscape raises questions about her administration’s ability to carry out its goals. Whitmer, who was floated as a possible running mate to Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden, cast state action as a hedge against federal inaction. [ read more … ]
Climate Change
Republicans Claim Addressing Climate Change Is Too Expensive. Americans Aren’t Buying It
“It’s too expensive.” Republicans have uttered this refrain time and again to reject nearly every proposal aimed at addressing climate change. It’s what drove the U.S. rejection of global climate deals in the 1990s and essentially the only context in which the Trump campaign brings up climate change today. But few Americans are buying it, a new poll shows. [ read more … ]
Democrats: A healthy climate is a constitutional right
Democratic senators introduced a resolution yesterday calling for a national climate recovery plan to insulate vulnerable children from the impacts of global warming. The announcement comes five years after 21 youth plaintiffs ignited the landmark legal battle Juliana v. United States to compel the federal government to recognize what they claimed were inherent constitutional rights to a safe climate. [ read more … ]
EPA
E.P.A. Rejects Its Own Findings That a Pesticide Harms Children’s Brains
The Trump administration has rejected scientific evidence linking the pesticide chlorpyrifos to serious health problems, directly contradicting federal scientists’ conclusions five years ago that it can stunt brain development in children. The Environmental Protection Agency’s assessment of the pesticide, which is widely used on soybeans, almonds, grapes and other crops, is a fresh victory for chemical makers and the agricultural industry, as well as the latest in a long list of Trump administration regulatory rollbacks. [ read more … ]
Hydrogen
Hydrogen Breaks Through as the Hottest Thing in Green Energy
Wind and solar power are the main focus in the fight against climate change, but there are sources of greenhouse gases they can’t clean up. Manufacturing steel, cement and chemicals has traditionally required fossil fuels, either to burn to create the extreme temperatures needed, or as raw materials and catalysts for chemical reactions. That’s why hydrogen is becoming the new climate bet. It burns far more cleanly than fossil fuels, can stand in for carbon in some reactions and so-called green hydrogen — gas produced using electricity from renewable sources — is essentially emissions free. [ read more … ]
EVs
Five years after Dieselgate, has VW changed?
Yesterday, almost exactly five years after admitting to a brazen diesel emissions deception, Volkswagen AG unveiled a new electric car. Scott Keogh, the CEO of American operations, called it “the most important launch for Volkswagen since the Beetle.” It’s not an understatement. [ read more … ]
PJM
Grid operator ‘dismayed’ by utility bribery scandal
Also present at the meeting was the Consumer Advocates of the PJM States Inc., or CAPS. The nonprofit organization’s members represent 65 million consumers in the 13 PJM states and the District of Columbia. Bill Fields, a CAPS member and president of the Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, said PJM does not routinely examine the cost-effectiveness of proposals, as its mission statement requires. He warned that there is a lack of understanding around how PJM’s markets will function with state mandates for higher percentages of renewable generating resources. [ read more … ]
Campaign 2020
Biden couldn’t end fracking even if he tried
If Biden, the Democratic Party’s nominee, did want to ban use of the oil and gas process — and he says loudly now that he doesn’t — he would need to get Congress to agree (Greenwire, Sept. 1). The House and Senate could pass a law to ban fracking, but lawmakers have never shown much interest in doing so. Biden’s official position has been consistent throughout his campaign: He wants to ban new oil and gas production on federal public land and in federal waters. He’s trying to promote a rapid shift away from fossil fuels without a head-on assault against the oil industry and the people it employs. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.