Collected headlines from around the web, every weekday.
The Interior Department on Wednesday reversed a Trump policy that the Biden administration says “improperly restricted” the department’s use of science and data. Similar to what was known as the Environmental Protection Agency’s “secret science” rule, a 2018 Interior Department order limited the agency’s use of studies that don’t disclose all of their data for privacy reasons.
The Hill
Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) on Wednesday became the first Republican senator to say she will vote to confirm Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), President Biden’s nominee to lead the Interior Department. Collins said she made her decision after meeting Haaland personally and reviewing her qualifications, and also cited Haaland’s work on a bipartisan conservation bill that passed last year.
The Hill
The country’s electric utilities are in need of a “massive makeover,” Warren Buffet, one of the richest people on the planet, said in his recent letter to shareholders. Particularly, the famed venture capitalist sees a “staggering” cost in building the kinds of power lines required by a clean power grid, but also a profitable investment. That and more in the latest Inside Clean Energy by Dan Gearino.
Inside Climate News
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on Wednesday called for Texas to weatherize its grid and said the state should consider connecting to grids beyond its borders following last month’s winter storm that resulted in dozens of deaths and left millions without power. Such storms will come in “greater frequency and we have to think about the resilience of the grid,” she said.
The Hill
Pandemic-related lockdowns around the world last year led to an unprecedented fall in carbon emissions, with scientists estimating a drop of 6 to 7 percent. Now a new study says that emissions must fall by that much roughly every other year for the next decade if the world is to avoid the worst effects of global warming by the end of the century, The Guardian reports.
The Guardian
European Union officials on Wednesday formally approved a $21 billion “just transition” fund that will help countries in the bloc to wean from fossil fuels and transition more securely to a clean energy economy, Reuters reports. The bloc set aside part of its budget and Covid-19 recovery fund as part of its plan to cut greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050.
Reuters
House Democrats on Tuesday introduced a revamped version of a major bill aiming to get the country to carbon neutrality by 2050. The latest edition of the CLEAN Future Act sets an interim target of reducing the country’s greenhouse gas emissions by half of 2005 levels by 2030. It would also require energy providers to get 100 percent of their electricity from clean sources by 2035.
The Hill
Many oil and gas companies that are legally obligated to plug and clean up their old wells no longer have the financial means to do so, leaving the government on the hook for the cost, the Texas Observer reports. With approximately 2.1 million unplugged abandoned oil and gas wells across the country, that’s an expensive problem.
Texas Observer
A high-profile bankruptcy case foreshadows the problems communities are now facing in coal country. Blackjewel is the latest in a growing list of coal companies to file for Chapter 11, raising new concerns over what will happen to thousands of acres of environmentally damaged land. Taxpayers could find themselves on the hook for the cleanup, one former federal official warned.
Inside Climate News
The chairwoman of the Public Utility Commission of Texas, the agency that regulates the state’s electric, telecommunication, and water and sewer utilities, resigned Monday after facing harsh criticism in the wake of the Texas power crisis last month, The Texas Tribune reports. DeAnn Walker came under fire during questioning from state officials for not doing more to prevent the deadly blackouts.
Texas Tribune
As the Interior Department awaits its new secretary, the agency is already moving to lock in key parts of President Biden’s environmental agenda, particularly on oil and gas restrictions, the New York Times reports. The moves, which include temporarily suspending lease sales on all public lands, lay the groundwork to fulfill some of the administration’s most consequential climate pledges.
The New York Times
Swedish automaker Volvo announced it intends to feature an all-electric vehicle fleet by the year 2030, saying “there is no long-term future for cars with an internal combustion engine,” The Hill reports. The pledge follows a similar move by U.S. automaker General Motors, which announced last year it would only produce electric vehicles starting in 2035.
The Hill
Global energy-related carbon emissions were higher in December than in the same month of 2019 as polluting activity rebounded from coronavirus lockdowns, a finding that must serve as a “stark warning” to policymakers, the head of the International Energy Agency said on Tuesday. Global emissions fell about 6 percent in 2020 but rose 2 percent year on year in December as economies recovered.
Financial Times
Damaging winds are expected to thrash East Coast states from Maine to New York, potentially blowing down trees and electrical lines and causing widespread power outages, forecasters said. Some 70 million people were under wind warnings Monday evening through Tuesday as gusts in some places were expected to reach 60 miles per hour.
Reuters
A man in Austria with a temperature-dependent form of multiple sclerosis is taking his government to court in an effort to force it to do more to fight climate change, the Associated Press reports. The case will be filed next month with the European Court of Human Rights and comes weeks after the court said it would fast-track a case brought by Portuguese youth suing their government over global warming.
Associated Press
The Biden administration said on Monday it would consider carbon border adjustment taxes to help cut greenhouse gas emissions in global trade. The move would coordinate countries with carbon taxes to levy import fees on goods manufactured in countries without carbon taxes. Biden’s trade agenda would also combat China’s use of forced labor among Uighur Muslims in its western Xinjiang region.
Reuters
Native American protesters helped delay the Resolution Copper mining project planned for Arizona, after officials on Monday temporarily blocked the transfer of federal lands for the project for at least several months, The Hill reports. The Trump administration planned to transfer 2,422 acres of the Tonto National Forest to developers 60 days after an environmental impact statement was completed.
The Hill
Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and prominent climate communicator, is joining the Nature Conservancy as its next chief scientist, the organization announced Monday. The Nature Conservancy is one of the most far-reaching environmental groups and is involved in conservation work in 72 countries.
The Washington Post
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