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How the Virus Slowed the Booming Wind Energy Business
The coronavirus pandemic has delayed deliveries and disrupted construction of a wind project being built in Nebraska by EDF, a French energy company. Even as businesses around the world shut down this spring, executives at EDF Renewables were hopeful they would finish installing 99 wind turbines in southern Nebraska before a year-end deadline. Then, in early April, the pandemic dealt a big blow to the company.
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Solar Energy
China’s human rights abuses may threaten U.S. solar
Alleged human rights abuses in China’s autonomous region of Xinjiang could slow expansion of the U.S. solar industry, analysts say. The region is a center for production of polysilicon, a key material in solar photovoltaic cells. More than half of China’s production capacity is located there, and China accounts for over 70% of the world’s supply, according to consultancy IHS Markit Ltd. The human rights allegations involve as many as 1 million Uighurs, a largely Muslim minority group with a strong presence in Xinjiang. Last week, President Trump’s Deputy National Security Adviser Matt Pottinger said in a speech that Uighur Muslims in China were living in “concentration camps.” [ read more … ]
Trump Thwarted in Latest Bid to Kill Solar-Tariff Loophole
A U.S. trade court on has temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s latest bid to end a loophole it had granted on two-sided solar panels. The order on Saturday came weeks after President Donald Trump moved to eliminate a tariff exemption for the two-sided, or bifacial, panels. Prior to that proclamation, the government tried for more than a year to revoke the exemption, only to get repeatedly thwarted by the trade court.
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Carbon Capture
DOE: Major CCS project ‘not financially attractive’
High operating and capital costs could make carbon capture, utilization and storage “not financially attractive” at a large coal plant visited by Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette this month, according to a Department of Energy analysis recently made public. DOE Assistant Secretary for Fossil Energy Steven Winberg told congressional lawmakers last year the department was hoping to demonstrate CCUS at the Colstrip power plant in Montana. The price tag of the project was not immediately clear. [ read more … ]
Climate Change
Exclusive: GM, Ford knew about climate change 50 years ago
Scientists at two of America’s biggest automakers knew as early as the 1960s that car emissions caused climate change, a monthslong investigation by E&E News has found. The discoveries by General Motors and Ford Motor Co. preceded decades of political lobbying by the two car giants that undermined global attempts to reduce emissions while stalling U.S. efforts to make vehicles cleaner. [ read more … ]
How support for climate policy breaks down in the states
Majorities in every state (except a few where data wasn’t available) acknowledge climate change and humans’ role in it and want the U.S. government to do more to curb warming, according to new polling released today by Resources for the Future and Stanford University. For example, at least 60% of people in each state surveyed say they believe future warming will occur, and at least 70% of people in each state say warming has been caused by human activity. States in the South and some in the Midwest and West have the greatest levels of skepticism about human contribution to climate change, according to the polling. [ read more … ]
Extreme Weather
Utility cuts power to 117,000 Californians over wildfire risk
Pacific Gas & Electric Co. cut power Sunday to more than 100,000 California customers and planned outages for many more to prevent the chance of sparking wildfires because of extreme fire weather. More than 1 million people could be affected by planned outages as California braces for a return of gusty winds and bone-dry weather that carry the threat of downing or fouling power lines or other equipment, which in recent years have been blamed for igniting massive and deadly blazes.
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California Outages Open New Chapter in State’s Climate Fight
California’s hurricane-strength gusts and latest blackouts are yet another stark reminder of the Golden State’s battle with Mother Nature. Just two months after a summer heat wave prompted the region’s first rolling blackouts in almost two decades, the state’s largest utility has cut power again, affecting an estimated 1.1 million people. This time, it’s to prevent live wires from toppling into dry brush and sparking blazes as the violent winds rattled Northern California. [ read more … ]
Campaign 2020
Can the Trump-Biden fracking fight really swing Pa.?
It’s clear that Pennsylvania could decide the presidential election, considering the makeup of the Electoral College. What is less certain is whether the fierce dispute between President Trump and Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden over hydraulic fracturing, which erupted again in last night’s debate, will make a difference with voters in the Keystone State. [ read more … ]
Commentary
A Conservative Supreme Court Will be Better for Climate Action
Concerns that a conservative Court would topple Massachusetts versus EPA—which found that EPA could regulate greenhouse gas emissions—are overstated. Conservative justices hold historical legal precedent in high regard. The authority granted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is not in question. The Clean Air Act’s regulatory authority is well-established. And the science linking anthropogenic contributions to our changing climate has only become more robust and well-understood over since EPA’s endangerment finding in 2009. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.