Collected headlines from around the web, every weekday.
President Biden on Wednesday will direct federal agencies to determine how expansive a ban on new oil and gas leasing on federal land should be, part of a suite of executive orders that will effectively launch his agenda to combat climate change, The New York Times reports. The move would fulfill a campaign promise and is expected to be the most prominent of several actions announced this week.
The New York Times
From the polar caps to the glaciers of Europe, Asia and South America, global warming is melting the planet’s ice faster than ever and speeding the inundation of the world’s coastlines. New research shows the annual melt rate grew from 0.8 trillion tons in the 1990s to 1.3 trillion tons by 2017. At that pace, the world is on track to see the worst-case scenario for sea level rise by the end of this century.
Inside Climate News
Federal officials aim to free up as much as $10 billion at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to protect against climate disasters before they strike, including spending that money on projects such as building seawalls or elevating flood-prone homes, The New York Times reports. The move shows how rapidly the Biden administration is overhauling the climate policy of its predecessor.
The New York Times
Economic development groups in West Virginia, Kentucky and other coal-producing states are asking President Joe Biden, who has promised to tackle climate change and environmental justice, to include their workers in his “just transition” to a clean economy. Among other things, the groups want the administration to create a new task force that’s focused on rebuilding the economies of coal communities.
Inside Climate News
President Joe Biden on Monday vowed to replace the U.S. government’s fleet of roughly 650,000 vehicles with electric models as the new administration shifts its focus toward clean energy. “The federal government also owns an enormous fleet of vehicles, which we’re going to replace with clean electric vehicles made right here in America made by American workers,” Biden said Monday.
Reuters
Billions of cicadas that have spent 17 years underground are set to emerge across large areas of the eastern United States, bringing swarming numbers and loud mating calls to major towns and cities, The Guardian reports. The last such event occurred in 2004 across 15 states, including New York, Ohio, Illinois and Georgia.
The Guardian
By 2100, billions of people are at risk of facing more flooding, higher temperatures and less food and water, a new study warns. The research found that climate change will cause the Earth’s tropical rain belt—a latitudinal area near the equator responsible for a significant portion of the planet’s precipitation—to unevenly shift in areas that cover almost two-thirds of the world.
CBS News
The White House is expected to roll out another series of environment-related actions this week. But activists are already praising President Biden for actions he took on his first day, which many say put an unprecedented focus on racial equity and environmental justice. Two executive orders will “serve as a north star” for the federal government in terms of equitable policy, one activist said.
Inside Climate News
The United States will mark its return to the global fight against climate change on Monday by joining high level talks on ways to better protect people and economies from the effects of global warming. John Kerry, Biden’s special climate envoy, will join world leaders online for the Climate Adaptation Summit less than a week after the president announced the U.S. was rejoining the Paris Agreement.
Reuters
Earth’s ice is melting faster today than in the mid-1990s, new research suggests, as climate change nudges global temperatures ever higher. Altogether, an estimated 28 trillion metric tons of ice have melted away from the world’s sea ice, ice sheets and glaciers since the mid-1990s. And the annual melt rate is now about 57 percent faster than it was three decades ago.
Reuters
Eminent domain—the government practice of taking private land for public use—has become easier for fossil fuel companies to utilize under President Trump, who removed regulatory barriers for the process. But environmentalists warned that move would disproportionately affect Black communities. That prediction already seems to be playing out in the southwest region of Memphis, Tennessee.
Inside Climate News
The most coal-dependent utilities in the United States plan to keep around 75 percent of their coal-fired power plants running for another decade, according to a new analysis by the environmental group Sierra Club. The report, which reviewed the plans of 50 utilities, reflects the challenges President Biden will face as he pursues his ambitious climate agenda, including decarbonizing the power sector by 2035.
Reuters
President Biden, vowing to restore environmental protections frayed over the past four years, has ordered the review of more than 100 environmental rules and regulations that were weakened or rolled back by his predecessor. But legal experts warn that the process could take two to three years, or Biden’s whole first term, The New York Times reports.
The New York Times
Some Western Republicans have launched a longshot bid to block President Biden’s executive orders to rejoin the Paris climate accord and revoke the permit for the Keystone pipeline. The lawmakers, many from big energy-producing states like Montana, plan to introduce two pieces of legislation that would give Congress a say in the decisions.
The Hill
President Joe Biden will announce a second round of executive orders focused on combating climate change early next week as he rushes to reverse Trump-era environmental rollbacks, according to a memo seen by Reuters. The White House will make the announcement, including a series of climate-related regulatory actions, on Jan. 27, but didn’t provide further details.
Reuters
The Biden administration is poised to name Dan Utech, who worked on climate change and energy issues during the Obama years, as the Environmental Protection Agency’s chief of staff, Bloomberg reports. His pick is the latest signal that President Biden plans to make climate change and the environment a fundamental part of his administration.
Bloomberg
Pete Buttigieg, President Biden’s choice to lead the Department of Transportation, vowed to make climate change a top priority during his Senate confirmation hearing on Thursday. But that raises a question: How much can a transportation secretary realistically do to reduce emissions from America’s vast fleet of cars, trucks and airplanes—all of which the agency oversees, to varying degrees?
The New York Times
American rivers have been changing color over time, according to a new study that looked at satellite images of major rivers in the United States from 1984 to 2018. About a third of those have significantly changed color in less than 40 years. The significance of the changes are still unclear but could reflect various ways in which humans are impacting the environment, the study’s authors said.
The Guardian
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