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June 29, 2015
One June 25, the National Water and Climate Center published this image displaying the irregular rainfall over the contiguous United States, as compared to historical averages for the same time period. This image shows the leftover precipitation from tropical storm Bill in the Ohio Valley, and lower than average rainfall throughout the Southwest. See the National Water and Climate Center's weekly report for more information.
On June 24, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the Ratepayer Protection Act 247 to 180, permitting states to opt out of complying with the Administration’s proposed Clean Power Plan (CPP) to limit carbon dioxide emissions from existing power plants. Bill sponsor Rep. Ed Whitfield (R-KY) says the CPP is illegal, and represents regulatory overreach by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Rep. Whitfield and other bill sponsors also argue that implementation of the CPP would result in higher electricity costs for consumers. The bill moves to the Senate next, and if passed, President Obama is expected to veto the bill.
For more information see:
Washington Examiner, WBKO, Energy & Commerce Committee
On June 23, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent its draft regulation on methane emissions from newly drilled or modified oil and natural gas wells to the White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) for final review. EPA spokeswoman Melissa Harrison said in a statement, “This routine step is part of EPA’s January 2015 commitment under President Obama’s Climate Action Plan to address methane and smog-forming emissions from the oil and gas industry.” The EPA has said it will share details of the rule and invite public comment on the rule following the OMB review. The draft regulation is part of the Administration’s initiative to cut methane emissions between 40 and 45 percent below 2012 levels by 2025.
The Hill, The White House, The White House
On June 9, the Department of Energy (DOE) published a peer-reviewed study in the journal Environmental Science and Technology, reporting that oil extracted from Canadian tar sands produces 18 to 20 percent more greenhouse gas emissions than conventional U.S. crude oil. According to the study, Canadian tar sands development will double over the next 15 years to 4.81 million barrels a day. The report authors conclude, “Without significant reduction in the energy intensity of extraction, separation, and upgrading of oil sands . . . higher emissions for gasoline and diesel production in the U.S. are expected when oil sands products become a larger fraction of the U.S. fuel mix.” The study authors studied the life cycle emissions since 2008 of tar sands oil at 27 extraction sites in Alberta, Canada.
In related news on June 26, Alberta’s newly elected New Democratic Party government announced it will double Alberta’s carbon tax by 2017. Its current price, C$15 per metric ton, will increase to C$20 in 2016 and C$30 in 2017. In addition, industrial facilities emitting over 100,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide, which are currently required to cut emissions 12 percent, will be required to cut emissions 15 percent in 2016 and 20 percent in 2017.
International Business Times, Newsweek, Wall Street Journal, Study, Calgary Herald
On June 23, the White House hosted a Summit on Climate Change and Health, which examined the link between climate change and public health risks as well as the pivotal role of the public health community in mitigating and educating on climate health risks. During the event, the White House outlined a series of executive initiatives, including a mapping tool to identify high-risk areas; an early-warning system for heat waves; a new climate change subcommittee within an existing federal interagency environmental justice working group; an initiative to ensure health professionals are prepared to address climate change; and more. The meeting featured a video statement from President Obama and speeches by Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCarthy, and Senior White House Advisor Brian Deese, among others.
White House Fact Sheet, The Weekly Standard, USA Today
On June 23, a report published in medical journal The Lancet’s Commission on Health and Climate Change said the impacts of climate change threaten to undermine the major strides made in human health over the last 50 years, declaring that addressing climate change is “the greatest global health opportunity of the 21st century.” The report found the largest barrier to climate action is political will, and that public health effects is underrepresented in political and general climate discourse. The report highlights a range of direct and indirect consequences of climate change—air pollution, disease, famine, floods and droughts, heat waves, mental health impacts, mass migration, severe weather, etc—which present serious risks to health. “When climate change is framed as a health issue . . . it becomes clear that we are facing a predicament that strikes at the heart of humanity,” said Lancet Asia editors Helena Wang and Richard Horton.
The Guardian, Reuters, Washington Post, Report
On June 22, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a report, “Climate Change in the United States: Benefits of Global Action,” which found that a global agreement to curb greenhouse gas emissions could avert 70,000 annual premature American deaths and hundreds of billions to trillions of dollars in economic costs by 2100. The report analyzed the impacts of meaningful mitigation efforts as well as the cost of inaction in six broad sectors: water resources, electricity, infrastructure, health, agriculture and forestry, and ecosystems. “Left unchecked, climate change affects our health, infrastructure and the outdoors we love,” said EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy. “But more importantly the report shows that global action on climate change will save lives.”
The New York Times, Washington Post, Study
On June 21, coal miners from Kentucky, West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania met in West Virginia to collect signatures for a class-action suit against the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) proposed Clean Power Plan. The suit is expected to include 2,000 to 5,000 current and former coal miner plaintiffs (depending upon whether Indiana and Illinois get involved), and would be the second lawsuit to be filed against the proposed regulation. The first lawsuit was dismissed because the courts said it was unprecedented to legally challenge an unfinalized regulation. This class-action suit would not be challenging the rule itself, but rather EPA’s lack of peer review in developing the rule. Plaintiff Kurtis Armann stated, “This is a provision that can be challenged now . . . we are not attacking the rule in its entirety. We’ll let the states and the coal companies do that at a later date.”
WTRF News
On June 24, Indiana Governor Mike Pence (R) sent a letter to President Obama stating that his state would not comply with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Clean Power Plan (CPP) unless the finalized rule was “significantly and demonstrably improved from the proposed rule.” Governor Pence continued, “I am deeply concerned about the impacts of the Clean Power Plan on our state, especially our job creators, the poor, and the elderly who cannot afford more expensive, less reliable energy.” EPA gave Indiana, which produces 85 percent of its power from coal, a draft target of 20 percent emissions reductions below 2005 levels by 2030. Indiana has also stated it will file suit for a second time against the Clean Power Plan, once the final rule is issued (see Climate Change News June 15).
The Hill, ABC 21 Alive, Utility Dive, Indiana
On June 24, a Dutch court ruled in favor of environment group Urgenda against the Netherlands government, saying the Dutch emissions reduction goal of 14 to 17 percent below 1990 levels by 2020 was too low, given the dangers of climate change. The court ordered the Netherlands to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 25 percent from 1990 levels by 2020. A translated version of the court decision reads, “the possibility of damages for . . . current and future generations of Dutch nationals, is so great and concrete that given its duty of care, the state must make an adequate contribution, greater than its current contribution, to prevent hazardous climate change.” The decision is the first time a court has ruled that a state has a legal obligation to its citizens to cut carbon emissions. The Dutch government has not yet decided if they will appeal the ruling.
The Guardian, The New York Times, BBC
On June 19, the Group of 7 (G-7) released an independent report that they commissioned, “A New Peace for Climate,” which assesses the risks climate change poses to political stability, and recommends actions to address them. The report identifies and focuses on seven compound risks that increase the possibility of conflict and instability: local resource competition, livelihood insecurity and migration, extreme weather events, volatile food prices, transboundary water management, sea-level rise and coastal degradation, and unintended effects of climate policies. The report’s recommendations focus on efforts in current climate change adaptation, development cooperation, humanitarian aid, and peacebuilding policies G-7 countries can take to mitigate these threats.
New Security Beat, New Security Beat, Report
On June 22, a study published in the peer-reviewed journal Nature Climate Change presented a scientific case that most severe weather events are affected and influenced by man-made climate change. Lead author Kevin Trenberth of the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) stated that contemporary trends in weather represent a “new normal,” as “the environment in which all weather events occur is not what it used to be: all storms, without exception, are different.” Among other instances, the study lists 2010’s East Coast “snowmageddon,” 2012’s superstorm Sandy and 2013’s supertyphoon Haiyan as “influenced by high sea surface temperatures that had a discernible human component.”
InsideClimate News, USA Today, Study
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