Climate Change News - January 2, 2018 | Newsletter

Wind energy development has been flourishing in Texas for years, despite the political debates that sometimes accompany renewable energy projects. Image courtesy of pixabay.com.

Senate Compromise Preserves Clean Energy Financing Program

Negotiations between Senate staff, consumer advocates, mortgage companies, and clean energy supporters have yielded a compromise on the Property Assessed Clean Energy program (PACE). The compromise, devised by the Senate Banking Committee to address fraud concerns, would grant the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau the authority to regulate PACE and establish lending and repayment standards. The program has assisted more than 180,000 homeowners in financing solar panels and energy efficient appliances through their local tax bills. PACE is not a federal program, but is instead administered at the local level and often facilitated by state legislation. The PACE model was originally used for financing the replacement of infrastructure before being adapted as a tax assessment for individual energy projects. Repayment of the tax assessment is the responsibility of the homeowner, comes at no cost to other taxpayers, and can be passed on to a new owner if a property is sold. Energy savings resulting from the upgrades are often enough to cover the cost of borrowing for property owners.

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Bloomberg

EPA Is Shedding Scientists and Other Employees, with Replacements Unlikely

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has seen its workforce decline by more than 700 people since the start of the Trump administration. More than 200 of these departed employees were scientists, with another 96 categorized as “environmental protection specialists,” a broad job set that can deal with the analysis and investigation of pollution levels. Dozens of attorneys and program managers, as well as nine department directors have also left. The employees have quit, retired, or been bought out and most are not being replaced. The Trump administration has publicly declared its desire to reduce the agency’s workforce by 20 percent (3,200 jobs). Republican-led budget cuts caused EPA to shrink to about 15,000 employees during the Obama administration. EPA offices that deal with science and research have been hit particularly hard, causing observers to worry that EPA’s capabilities in these fields will be diminished over the long-term and hinder its ability to safeguard public health.

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ProPublica

Natural Disasters Took a Historic Toll on U.S. Communities in 2017

A steady stream of hurricanes, wildfires, heat waves, tidal flooding, and extreme rainfall have put 2017 on track to be the costliest year in American history in terms of natural disasters. Property damage to residences, transportation infrastructure, and the electrical grid has stressed government programs, insurance agencies, and individuals. Hurricane Maria alone is estimated to have caused $40 billion in lost economic output and $55 billion in property damage. The U.S. territory of Puerto Rico was among the locales hardest hit by the storm, with the government still struggling to restore basic utility services. California’s wildfires have caused $9.4 billion in damages so far this year, even with the damage from ongoing wildfires in the southern portion of the state not yet accounted for. There were at least 15 extreme weather events costing at least a billion dollars each in 2017, with the cumulative damages eliminating 0.2-0.3 percent of U.S. wealth. Another consequence is the long-term shuttering of local businesses and the evacuation of residents, placing a community’s jobs and growth on hold.

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The Atlantic

Study: Europe Could See Significant Increase in Asylum Seekers Due to Climate Change

According to a new study in the journal Science, Europe could see a significant increase in asylum seekers due to climate change by 2100. Under current climate change scenarios, the continent would have three times as many migrants applying for asylum versus today’s levels, independent of other political and economic factors. Bob Ward, policy director at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, said, “Hundreds of millions, perhaps billions, of people will be exposed to coastal sea level rise and shifts in extreme weather that will cause mass migrations away from the most vulnerable locations. We know from human history that such migrations often lead to conflict and war.” Ward added that models examining the economic impacts of climate change often neglect to account for migration-related conflicts. Europe could be a particularly attractive destination for asylum seekers due to its economy, climate resilience, and infrastructure. The study examined asylum requests for the European Union over a 14-year period and determined that people from countries with greater climate stressors tended to submit more applications.

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Guardian

Texas Continues to Reap the Benefits of Wind Energy

The wind industry has transformed the landscape in Texas, a state historically known for its oil and gas production. Past governors George W. Bush and Rick Perry helped create a regulatory path for wind farms to spring up in Nolan County back in 2001. The installation of key infrastructure and Texas’ near-autonomous electric grid also facilitated the wind industry’s growth, while production tax credits brought federal incentives for capital investment. If it were an independent nation, Texas would be the sixth-largest wind energy producer in the world, with Nolan County accounting for a significant chunk of the electricity generated. As of 2016, at least one-fifth of the country’s 100,000 wind industry jobs were based in Texas. The industry’s growth has led to substantial benefits for the region. Ken Becker, executive director of the Sweetwater Economic Development Corp, said, "In pre-wind, our county taxable value was $500 million. In 2008, it was $2.8 billion,” funding education and healthcare improvements and providing a source of steady income for landowners that host the turbines.

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InsideClimate News