Climate Change News - February 19, 2018 | Newsletter

The Trump administration's Fiscal Year 2019 budget proposal contains deep cuts for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Photo courtesy of wikimedia.org.

Trump Administration Proposes Deep Cuts to EPA's Budget Once Again

On February 12, the Trump administration released its annual budget proposal for Fiscal Year 2019. The proposal would reduce EPA's budget by 23 percent, a cut of more than $2.5 billion. It also proposes to eliminate several dozen programs, including partnerships to clean up the Gulf of Mexico and other large water bodies. Nearly all of the agency's climate change programs would be eliminated, including slashing a third of the funding for EPA's Office of Science and Technology. Meanwhile, the administration's priorities of Superfund cleanups and storm and waste water infrastructure would see an increase in support. EPA's popular Energy Star program is no longer on the administration's chopping block, but it would be funded entirely through fees, under the proposal. Overall, the Trump administration has sought to reduce EPA's workforce by more than 20 percent, dating back to its Fiscal Year 2018 budget. Environmental groups have been highly critical of the proposals, stating the agency cuts are a vehicle for culling federal environmental safeguards across the board.

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Washington Post

Intelligence Chief Warns Congress of "Abrupt" Climate Change Consequences

On February 12, Director of National Intelligence Dan Coats warned members of Congress about the devastating impacts of a warming climate and how they are likely to cause economic and social turmoil. Coats said, “Research has not identified indicators of tipping points in climate-linked earth systems, suggesting a possibility of abrupt climate change." Coats' words mark the first time a Trump administration intelligence official has assigned such a high degree of urgency and risk to climate change. Recently, Defense Secretary James Mattis said that the military is preparing for climate change, although the Pentagon did not address climate action in its latest National Defense Strategy. The Trump administration did include a $720 million request for a new heavy icebreaker in its Fiscal Year 2019 budget request, a vessel the Coast Guard called essential as warming temperatures open up new territory in the Arctic region. There is no official requirement for the White House to act on the intelligence community’s warnings.

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E&E News

Interior Department to Loosen Rule for Capturing Methane Emissions on Federal Land

The Department of Interior (DOI) intends to replace a 2006 regulation for methane emissions produced by oil and gas extraction on federal lands. DOI is expected to revert back to regulations that were in place prior to the Obama administration. The announcement marks the fourth time the Trump administration has delayed, set aside, or replaced this rule, which was finalized in late 2016. The rule requires energy companies to capture methane released at drilling sites, often through burning it off or flaring. Methane is a primary component of natural gas, with an estimated $330 million worth of methane from operations on federal lands wasted each year. However, many energy companies regard regulations to control the waste emissions as “unnecessary and overly intrusive.” A federal judge rejected the administration's attempt to wholly repeal the rule in 2017, citing a lack of a "reasoned explanation" for doing so. The current effort would replace, rather than eliminate the existing methane rule.

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SFGate

White House Continues to Neglect Key Science and Technology Appointments

The Trump administration has yet to nominate an individual to serve as the president’s chief science advisor at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP). Instead, the role is currently occupied by OSTP’s deputy assistant, Michael Krastios, who has no professional scientific background. One of the rumored nominees to take over the job is William Happer, an emeritus physics professor at Princeton University, who espouses “there is no problem from CO2.” Prior advisors caution that leaving the position vacant makes the country more vulnerable to crises that require a scientific leader to manage a rapid and informed response. In a letter, a group of Democratic senators urged the President to appoint a science advisor, writing, “Scientific and technical input would have contributed to decisions around climate change, the Iran nuclear deal, and North Korea's nuclear program — areas where key decisions have been made over the past nine months in absence of a science adviser."

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Scientific American

Energy Firm Rescinds Request for U.S. Financing of Coal-Fired Plant in Vietnam

On February 15, the Vietnamese state-controlled company PetroVietnam withdrew its application for financial support from the Export-Import Bank of the United States. PetroVietnam had hoped to purchase millions of dollars’ worth of turbines and equipment from General Electric for a coal-fired power plant currently under construction in Vietnam. Although no reason was given for the decision, the project has come under intense scrutiny from environmental groups that claim its impact would be substantial. International lending institutions, such as the World Bank, have begun to shift away from financing fossil fuel projects in developing nations. The Vietnamese government views coal as a key resource for meeting the country’s future energy demand and may choose to move ahead with the plant without the support of its American partners. Basav Sen of the Institute for Policy Studies noted, “It was easy for the Ex-Im Bank to back out of this project [because it] was going to get its coal from Indonesia and Australia. It may have been a different story if the project were a market for U.S. coal.”

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New York Times

Alaskan Fishing Communities Explore Adding Climate Risk to Accounting Metrics

Climate change is becoming a real threat to the economy in Alaska’s coastal fishing communities, as the state is warming twice as fast as the rest of the country. Dramatic changes in the marine ecosystem are affecting communities that rely almost entirely on their fishing industries, like the small town of Unalaska on the Bering Sea, which, along with other towns, is considering the addition of climate risks to their balance sheets. Even though the state’s treasurer, Deven Mitchell, said that climate change is not a risk to the state’s credit, some hold that having a credit rating for individual cities can help communities better understand their particular financial situation, especially when it comes to funding large infrastructure needs. Unalaska Mayor Frank Kelty noted that fishing is the region's only major industry, adding, “The trickle-down effect you get for jobs throughout the community is all driven by the health and well-being of the seafood industry.”

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Alaska Public Media

Satellite Data Shows Sea Levels Rising at Accelerated Rate

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences found that the annual rate of global sea level rise is accelerating. The researchers used 25 years of satellite data to measure fluctuations in the oceans over time. They observed a total global sea level increase of 7 centimeters, which lined up with the generally accepted current rate of 3 millimeters per year. Lead author Steve Nerem of the University of Colorado-Boulder explained, "This acceleration, driven mainly by accelerated melting in Greenland and Antarctica, has the potential to double the total sea level rise by 2100 as compared to projections that assume a constant rate, to more than 60 centimeters.” The study’s findings also concur with the most recent climate models published by the authoritative Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which projects sea level rise of 52-98 centimeters under a “business as usual” scenario. More than half of the current sea level rise was found to be the result of thermal expansion, with the rest resulting from melting glacial melting.

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CNN

Bat Populations Are Migrating Earlier and Staying Longer As Climate Warms

Each spring, millions of bats fly towards their breeding cave near San Antonio, Texas, with scientists tracking their movement by radar. Scientists recently reviewed this data and found that the bats are migrating two weeks earlier than they did just 20 years ago, with 3.5 percent of the population spending the winter in Texas as well. Researchers suspect this change in migration is due to altered food chains and weather patterns caused by climate change. Spring is seeing the highest temperature increases of all the seasons, which could disrupt the seasonal pest control cycle that the bats provide, causing crop damage and a heightened need for pesticides. In addition, increased temperatures mean bats may run out of a primary food source, the corn-earworm moth, potentially affecting their ability to reproduce. Overall, there is already not much for the bats to eat in the hot and dry climate of Texas, and global warming is intensifying that plight.

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InsideClimate News

Study: As Oceans Acidify, Cold-Water Coral Reefs May Face Severe Decline

Hard corals prefer specific seawater saturation levels of a calcium carbonate called aragonite. According to a new study in Nature, ocean acidification can alter these saturation levels, creating corrosive conditions that can dissolve coral skeletons over time and leave fewer habitable regions for them. The study found that up to 70 percent of the cold-water coral living below depths of 1,500 meters in the North Atlantic Ocean may be threatened by the impacts of ocean acidification by midcentury. The researchers investigated changes to a "global conveyor belt" known as the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, which is now transporting acidified seawater to the deep ocean. As a result, transport of aragonite to the deep oceans has dropped by 44 percent since the Industrial Revolution and may continue to drop until the flow is only a fraction of pre-industrial levels. Without cold-water reefs, some marine ecosystems may lack a place for fish to gather and breed in an otherwise barren landscape.

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Carbon Brief

Study: Decline in Krill Poses Threat to Antarctic Wildlife

According to a new study in the journal Plos One, a combination of climate change and industrial-scale fishing is harming the krill population in the Antarctic, threatening the regional ecosystem. The tiny animals are at the base of the Antarctic food chain and serve as a key source of nutrition for whales, seals, and penguins. The krill themselves feed on marine algae and carbon-rich food, excreting this waste when they move to deeper, colder waters. Since the 1970s, krill populations have declined by 80 percent. The study also estimated that krill size could shrink by up to 40 percent in parts of the Scotia Sea, leading to a drop in predator populations. This drastic reduction has been partly attributed to global warming reducing the ice surfaces where the krill's food sources, algae and plankton, reside. Krill populations are facing additional pressures from a growing global demand for krill-based products and advances in fishing technologies that enable larger catches.

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Guardian