View this email in a web browser.
Top Story
NextEra’s Plan to Ditch Carbon Is a Huge Bet on Hydrogen
NextEra Energy Inc.’s plan to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2045 without relying on carbon-capture systems or offsets marks one of the biggest bets yet to make hydrogen a central piece of the energy landscape. The company, which operates Florida Power & Light and owns one of the world’s largest developers of wind and solar power, wants to convert more than two-thirds of its natural gas power plants to run on hydrogen. The fuel, in this case, would be produced by renewable energy with devices called electrolyzers. In addition, NextEra is looking to become a leader in producing hydrogen and developing infrastructure so it can be used to decarbonize power plants, transportation and heavy industry across the country. [ read more … ]
Pollution
In An Unusual Step, a Top Medical Journal Weighs in on Climate Change
The article is just the beginning of a much-needed focus on the consequences of climate issues by leading researchers in the medical community, a deputy editor at the journal said. After the editors of 200 health journals—including the New England Journal of Medicine—signed an editorial in September 2021 urging world leaders to take action against climate change, Caren Solomon, deputy editor at the journal, said she and others felt compelled to redouble their efforts to address the implications for health. “We’re coming together and attempting to address this topic from a range of perspectives,” said Solomon, an associate professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School and a primary care physician. [ read more … ]
EPA finds no safe level for two toxic ‘forever chemicals,’ found in many U.S. water systems
The Environmental Protection Agency stunned scientists and local officials across the country on Wednesday by releasing new health advisories for toxic “forever chemicals” known to be in thousands of U.S. drinking water systems, impacting potentially millions of people. The new advisories cut the safe level of chemical PFOA by more than 17,000 times what the agency had previously said was protective of public health, to now just four “parts per quadrillion.” [ read more … ]
Grid
Can a DOE-backed project help save the grid?
As the nation braces for a summer of drought, heat waves and hurricanes, a group of U.S. utility planners and scientists has begun investigating how power grids should be strengthened for a future of extreme weather that they believe will only get worse. In the first of these studies, the Department of Energy’s Argonne National Laboratory will adapt forecasts of global climate change to predict how future weather threats are likely to hit Commonwealth Edison’s network of generators, power lines and substations that serve greater Chicago and more than two-thirds of Illinois. [ read more … ]
States
Rhode Island lawmakers require 100% renewable energy offsets by 2033
Rhode Island lawmakers have approved legislation to require that all of the state’s electricity be offset by renewable energy by 2033. The measure now heads to the Senate, which last month passed an identical bill. The legislation would not prohibit utilities from using fossil fuels, but backers say it will result in a “corresponding amount” of renewables to be produced in the region and encourages construction of new green energy projects.
[ read more … ]
Congress
House GOP doubts panel’s climate focus amid dire warnings
Republicans continue to support the use of chemicals in agriculture while bemoaning rising prices. At a later press conference, top Agriculture Republicans unveiled a bill that would ease federal agriculture regulations with the goal of lowering prices. At the hearing, some of the most potentially alarming testimony came from Benjamin Houlton, a professor of ecology and global development at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., who said researchers there found that U.S. grain yields are 20 percent lower due to climate change than they would have been without that influence — the equivalent of seven years of production. [ read more … ]
Reconciliation redux? Pelosi, Schumer huddle with Biden
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) huddled with President Joe Biden yesterday afternoon to discuss a host of issues related to inflation that sound a lot like the contours of a potential reconciliation package. “They discussed their plans for fighting the global problem of inflation that is affecting every major economy, such as bringing down prescription drug and energy costs, and adding to the historic deficit reduction we have accomplished,” the White House said in a readout of the meeting. [ read more … ]
SCOTUS
Chevron doctrine survives Supreme Court scrutiny
he Supreme Court avoided a major overhaul to regulatory law in its ruling this morning in a complicated Medicare case. In a unanimous opinion led by Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the court struck down a 2018 Department of Health and Human Services rule that reduced Medicare reimbursements for prescription drugs for hospitals serving low-income communities — but did so without overturning or even mentioning Chevron doctrine, a key principle in environmental law. “Note that although the question presented raised Chevron’s applicability, the opinion makes no mention of Chevron,” he wrote. “This is further evidence the Court is more likely to let Chevron fade away than it is to directly overrule it,” said Case Western Reserve University law professor Jonathan Adler [ read more … ]
Markets
Why Biden’s refinery push may run into trouble
As a result, the remaining refineries in the U.S. are running at more than 90 percent of their capacity and reaping record profits. Analysts at JPMorgan Chase & Co. said in a research note last week that refiners “have the kind of opportunity they wait decades for.” The companies themselves have suggested waiving various regulatory requirements, including the renewable fuels standard and the Jones Act, which bars foreign vessels and crews from transporting cargo between U.S. ports. But reopening refineries will be a heavy lift. It would cost hundreds of millions of dollars for each site, and it would take months. [ read more … ]
Carbon tariffs are coming. Here’s how the U.S. is preparing
The European Union brought carbon border adjustments into the spotlight last year. Since then, the proposal has gained momentum among legislators who want to expand its scope and ambition and raised discussion among other countries considering similar measures. Across the Atlantic, U.S. lawmakers and industry are keeping a close watch, wary of how it might impact American trade and manufacturing. “There’s a real prospect that Canada, E.U. and U.K. all basically bind together on a common carbon border adjustment. And if we haven’t joined up with them, we’re just sort of deliberate losers,” Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) said in an interview after introducing a bill last week that would create a U.S. carbon border fee [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.