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The Climate Economy Is About to Explode
Late last month, analysts at the investment bank Credit Suisse published a research note about America’s new climate law that went nearly unnoticed. The Inflation Reduction Act, the bank argued, is even more important than has been recognized so far: The IRA will “will have a profound effect across industries in the next decade and beyond” and could ultimately shape the direction of the American economy, the bank said. The report shows how even after the bonanza of climate-bill coverage earlier this year, we’re still only beginning to understand how the law works and what it might mean for the economy. [ read more … ]
Wind Energy
Wind and solar are booming, but emissions aren’t falling
Wind and solar generation surged 22 percent through the first nine months of the year, building on a period of record-breaking renewable energy installations last year. The growth has helped fill a gap in electricity production created by the falling use of coal, which is down 8 percent through September. But emissions impact of the renewable boom has been blunted by the growth of natural gas generation, which is up 7 percent, and falling output from nuclear facilities. [ read more … ]
Congress
How fight over states’ rights may upend permitting overhaul
Lawmakers hope they can revive permitting reform talks over the next three months, but they face fundamental political divides that have dogged environmental debates for decades. The two parties don’t agree on what constitutes “permitting reform.” And like many squabbles in the nation, it comes down to a dispute over states’ rights — albeit from different perspectives. Democrats want to give the federal government more power to bypass states and permit long-distance transmission lines, a prospect that doesn’t sit well with rural state Republicans. [ read more … ]
Pollution
Everyone counts CO2 differently. Scientists have a solution.
The world needs a better system for calculating greenhouse gas emissions to help nations meet global climate targets. While there are dozens of different methods all over the world for keeping tabs on emissions — at all different levels, from the local to the global — a report by the National Academies of Science, Engineering and Medicine notes that there’s little coordination between them. Some systems rely on bottom-up measurements that use observations of human activities. Some systems use top-down measurements that rely on measurements of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. Some systems use a combination of both. Each system has its own strengths and weaknesses. Some are more detailed than others, some are more accurate, some are faster and easier to communicate, and some have more transparent data sources. [ read more … ]
Lung Cancer in Nonsmokers? Study Identifies Air Pollution as a Trigger
“The same particles in the air that derive from the combustion of fossil fuels, exacerbating climate change, are directly impacting human health via an important and previously overlooked cancer-causing mechanism in lung cells,” said Charles Swanton, the lead researcher, in a news release. “The risk of lung cancer from air pollution is lower than from smoking, but we have no control over what we all breathe.” [ read more … ]
Climate
Coal Revival Threatens to Push Power Sector Emissions to Record
Global carbon emissions from power plants may be headed for a record high this year after summer droughts and heatwaves boosted coal- and natural gas-fired generation. The jump in fossil fuel use pushed emissions from electricity production up 1.7%, or 133 million tons, in the first eight months of this year, climate think-tank Ember said in a report Wednesday. Most of the increase was in July and August, as fossil generation was unchanged in the first half from a year earlier. [ read more … ]
Markets
AEP eyes sale of competitive retail business in PJM as company focuses on regulated wires, renewables
American Electric Power is considering selling its competitive retail business, the fourth largest non-residential retail power supplier in the PJM Interconnection and the eighth largest nationally, company officials said Tuesday. Also, AEP agreed to reduce the sale price of its Kentucky utility operations to Liberty Utilities by 7.5%, to $2.65 billion from $2.85 billion, and delay the sale to January, the companies said Friday. [ read more … ]
EVs
U.S. Electric-Vehicle Tax Breaks Rile Asian, European Al
The U.S.’s new tax-break scheme for electric vehicles has drawn angry responses from the country’s key allies in Asia and Europe, highlighting a tension between government support for the domestic automobile industry and courting allies to counter China’s influence. Foreign officials warn that the change, which they say was introduced with little consultation with the U.S.’s trading partners, undermines Mr. Biden’s effort to improve economic ties with allies by sharing technology and building supply chains to better compete with China’s manufacturing clout. [ read more … ]
U.S. shift on child labor may scramble EV sector
The Biden administration declared Tuesday that batteries from China may be tainted by child labor, a move that could upend the electric vehicle industry while giving fresh ammunition to critics of White House climate policies. The Department of Labor said it would add lithium-ion batteries to a list of goods made with materials known to be produced with child or forced labor under a 2006 human trafficking law. The decision was based on many batteries using cobalt, a mineral largely mined in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, where children have been found to work at some mining sites. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.