As the Trump administration rolls back environmental and safety rules for the energy sector, government projections show billions of dollars in savings reaped by companies will come at a steep cost: more premature deaths and illnesses from air pollution, a jump in climate-warming emissions and more severe derailments of trains carrying explosive fuels. [node:read-more:link]
Corporations purchased 13.4 gigawatts of clean power through long-term contracts, more than doubling 2017’s total, helped by demand from new industries and previously untrodden markets. [node:read-more:link]
In an unprecedented move, the Michigan Public Service Commission has prohibited a major utility from using corporate dollars to fund nonprofit political advocacy groups.The deal with Consumers Energy follows a contentious election involving outsized spending from energy-focused nonprofit groups supporting regulated utilities. Sources say it was the commission’s attempt to rein in the practice following complaints about one group’s political spending in the 2018 election. [node:read-more:link]
Soon, the family will stop raising dairy cows because the industry is in trouble. In 2018, Wisconsin lost 638 dairy farms because of falling milk prices. And the Bishops, who farm in Iowa County, still carry debt from when hog prices tanked in the 1990s. Yet a rare opportunity has come the Bishops’ way. [node:read-more:link]
PG&E on Wednesday blasted a federal judge’s plan for wildfire safety as unrealistic, saying his proposal for the utility to inspect every inch of its electrical grid and remove dangerous trees would cost $75 billion to $150 billion and lead to staggering rate hikes.The embattled utility, which plans to file for bankruptcy because of wildfire claims, said it “does not have the ability to raise those funds” and would have to turn to ratepayers for more money. [node:read-more:link]
The Oregon Land Conservation and Development Commission didn’t shut the door on new solar farms being built on high-value farmland Friday, but it did allow counties to choose if they could be built under significant restrictions. [node:read-more:link]
The Trump administration is considering taking steps to limit the ability of states to block interstate gas pipelines and other energy projects, according to three people familiar with the deliberations. The effort, possibly done through an executive order, is aimed chiefly at states in the Northeast U.S., where opposition to pipeline projects has helped prevent abundant shale gas in Pennsylvania and Ohio from reaching consumers in New York and other cities. [node:read-more:link]
Jobs in the renewable-energy sector are a bright spot in the rural economy, according to the report from an environmental advocacy group. Jobs are growing in the clean-energy sector more quickly than in any part of the rural economy.The deployment of clean energy is a major economic engine for the rural Midwest, eclipsing fossil fuel jobs in most states, according to a new report released by an environmental advocacy nonprofit. [node:read-more:link]
Nearly half of Americans say people in the United States are being harmed by global warming "right now"—the highest point ever in a decade-long national survey called Climate Change in the American Mind. The climate communications researchers who conducted the survey believe the results mark a shift in perceptions on the urgency of the climate crisis, with far-reaching implications for the politics of what should be done to address the issue. [node:read-more:link]
A new study confirms the urgency to tackle climate change. While it's known that extreme weather events can affect the year-to-year variability in carbon uptake, and some researchers have suggested that there may be longer-term effects, this study is the first to actually quantify the effects through the 21st century and demonstrates that wetter-than-normal years do not compensate for losses in carbon uptake during dryer-than-normal years, caused by events such as droughts or heatwaves. [node:read-more:link]
