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"content": "\u003cp>The top regulator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in San Francisco left that job Wednesday without an explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As EPA’s Region 9 administrator, Mike Stoker supervised environmental enforcement in California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, the Pacific Islands and 148 tribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molly Block, a spokeswoman for the EPA, confirmed in an email that Stoker is “no longer with the Agency.” She did not elaborate on the reason for his departure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deb Jordan is the acting regional administrator, Block added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan is a 30-year EPA employee. She’s worked as an assistant regional administrator in San Francisco since 2016, the San Francisco Chronicle \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Controversial-head-of-EPA-s-San-Francisco-15034001.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the get-go, elected officials and environmentalists criticized Stoker as the Trump administration’s choice to run the regulatory office. He publicly doubted the scientific consensus around man-made climate change and had previous ties to the oil and gas industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Californians will not miss Mike Stoker, a climate skeptic and former oil lobbyist who spent tens of thousands of dollars on taxpayer-funded travel,” Rep. Anna Eshoo, of Palo Alto, said in an emailed statement. “My constituents and all Californians need an EPA administrator who day in and day out is dedicated to promoting clean air, clean water and addressing climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists protested his appointment when he took the job in 2018, and celebrated his abrupt dismissal less than two years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Stoker’s departure is good news, but this oil industry ally should never have been in charge of protecting our environment,” said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the job, he received fierce \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061653561\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">criticism\u003c/a> from EPA lawyers, watchdog groups and Sen. Dianne Feinstein for managing a San Francisco-based staff of hundreds from his home city of Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last March, the EPA’s inspector general documented what it called a pattern of Stoker’s taxpayer-funded travel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the San Francisco Chronicle story:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In March 2019, the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General investigated a ‘hotline complaint’ about how much time Stoker was spending away from San Francisco and ‘his excessive number of trips.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The office issued a ‘Management Alert’ that documented how he spent $43,875 in taxpayer funds on 35 separate trips between May 2018 and February 2019, including two trips to Hawaii, one to Japan and another to Saipan, in the Mariana Islands. The report, which did not reach any conclusions about the propriety of his travel, said he spent only 30 out of 145 workdays in San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after he became the region’s top EPA regulator, Stoker \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926287/new-epa-region-chief-questions-climate-science-but-favors-co2-cuts\">told\u003c/a> KQED’s Danielle Venton that his priority was to clean up sewage at the border between the U.S. and Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote] About climate change, the former EPA regional administrator told KQED: “I personally believe there’s questions on how much of it is man-made and how much of it is caused by Mother Nature and I have my personal feelings on global warming.”[/pullquote]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, he told KQED’s Venton that he doubted the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change. He did add that he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926287/new-epa-region-chief-questions-climate-science-but-favors-co2-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">supported\u003c/a> “anything that reduces carbon emissions because that’s good for everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I personally believe there’s questions on how much of it is man-made and how much of it is caused by Mother Nature and I have my personal feelings on global warming,” he said. “The whole global warming debate is a debate for Washington DC, and whatever they tell me is what I implement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to Stoker’s departure, the Center for Biological Diversity’s Siegel said, “He accomplished virtually nothing at the EPA besides helping oil companies get permission to pollute California aquifers and alienating agency staff who actually care about our planet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added, “the fact that Stoker lasted this long highlights the Trump administration’s utter contempt for the air we breathe and the water we drink.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From Washington, the environmental agency’s administrator Andrew Wheeler thanked Stoker “for his service to the EPA” and wished “him and his family the best in their future endeavors,” the Chronicle reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stoker’s Background\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stoker is a Republican from Central California who served as a Santa Barbara County supervisor from 1986 to 1994.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also was chairman of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board and he spent two years as California deputy secretary of state, from 2000 to 2002. Afterward, he worked as a lawyer for the agricultural industry and as a spokesman for an oil and gas company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stoker has run unsuccessfully for Congress and the California Legislature. He was a Trump delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention and has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1924459/new-chief-of-epa-region-9-has-deep-ties-to-industry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reportedly\u003c/a> been \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.com/news/2017/jan/19/santa-barbarans-stoked-trump/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">credited\u003c/a> with starting the “lock her up” chant about Hillary Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stoker has taken reliably pro-industry stances in the past, Nick Welsh, managing editor of the Santa Barbara Independent, told Venton. He has known Stoker for about 30 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a county supervisor, Stoker argued against a ballot measure that would have placed limits on offshore oil drilling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>The top regulator for the federal Environmental Protection Agency’s regional office in San Francisco left that job Wednesday without an explanation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As EPA’s Region 9 administrator, Mike Stoker supervised environmental enforcement in California, Nevada, Arizona, Hawaii, the Pacific Islands and 148 tribes.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Molly Block, a spokeswoman for the EPA, confirmed in an email that Stoker is “no longer with the Agency.” She did not elaborate on the reason for his departure.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Deb Jordan is the acting regional administrator, Block added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jordan is a 30-year EPA employee. She’s worked as an assistant regional administrator in San Francisco since 2016, the San Francisco Chronicle \u003ca href=\"https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Controversial-head-of-EPA-s-San-Francisco-15034001.php\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reported\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the get-go, elected officials and environmentalists criticized Stoker as the Trump administration’s choice to run the regulatory office. He publicly doubted the scientific consensus around man-made climate change and had previous ties to the oil and gas industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Californians will not miss Mike Stoker, a climate skeptic and former oil lobbyist who spent tens of thousands of dollars on taxpayer-funded travel,” Rep. Anna Eshoo, of Palo Alto, said in an emailed statement. “My constituents and all Californians need an EPA administrator who day in and day out is dedicated to promoting clean air, clean water and addressing climate change.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Environmentalists protested his appointment when he took the job in 2018, and celebrated his abrupt dismissal less than two years later.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Stoker’s departure is good news, but this oil industry ally should never have been in charge of protecting our environment,” said Kassie Siegel of the Center for Biological Diversity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On the job, he received fierce \u003ca href=\"https://www.eenews.net/stories/1061653561\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">criticism\u003c/a> from EPA lawyers, watchdog groups and Sen. Dianne Feinstein for managing a San Francisco-based staff of hundreds from his home city of Los Angeles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last March, the EPA’s inspector general documented what it called a pattern of Stoker’s taxpayer-funded travel.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From the San Francisco Chronicle story:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In March 2019, the EPA’s Office of the Inspector General investigated a ‘hotline complaint’ about how much time Stoker was spending away from San Francisco and ‘his excessive number of trips.’\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The office issued a ‘Management Alert’ that documented how he spent $43,875 in taxpayer funds on 35 separate trips between May 2018 and February 2019, including two trips to Hawaii, one to Japan and another to Saipan, in the Mariana Islands. The report, which did not reach any conclusions about the propriety of his travel, said he spent only 30 out of 145 workdays in San Francisco.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Shortly after he became the region’s top EPA regulator, Stoker \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926287/new-epa-region-chief-questions-climate-science-but-favors-co2-cuts\">told\u003c/a> KQED’s Danielle Venton that his priority was to clean up sewage at the border between the U.S. and Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the time, he told KQED’s Venton that he doubted the scientific consensus on anthropogenic climate change. He did add that he \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1926287/new-epa-region-chief-questions-climate-science-but-favors-co2-cuts\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">supported\u003c/a> “anything that reduces carbon emissions because that’s good for everyone.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I personally believe there’s questions on how much of it is man-made and how much of it is caused by Mother Nature and I have my personal feelings on global warming,” he said. “The whole global warming debate is a debate for Washington DC, and whatever they tell me is what I implement.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In response to Stoker’s departure, the Center for Biological Diversity’s Siegel said, “He accomplished virtually nothing at the EPA besides helping oil companies get permission to pollute California aquifers and alienating agency staff who actually care about our planet.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added, “the fact that Stoker lasted this long highlights the Trump administration’s utter contempt for the air we breathe and the water we drink.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>From Washington, the environmental agency’s administrator Andrew Wheeler thanked Stoker “for his service to the EPA” and wished “him and his family the best in their future endeavors,” the Chronicle reported.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Stoker’s Background\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stoker is a Republican from Central California who served as a Santa Barbara County supervisor from 1986 to 1994.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He also was chairman of the California Agricultural Labor Relations Board and he spent two years as California deputy secretary of state, from 2000 to 2002. Afterward, he worked as a lawyer for the agricultural industry and as a spokesman for an oil and gas company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stoker has run unsuccessfully for Congress and the California Legislature. He was a Trump delegate to the 2016 Republican National Convention and has \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1924459/new-chief-of-epa-region-9-has-deep-ties-to-industry\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">reportedly\u003c/a> been \u003ca href=\"https://www.independent.com/news/2017/jan/19/santa-barbarans-stoked-trump/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">credited\u003c/a> with starting the “lock her up” chant about Hillary Clinton.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Stoker has taken reliably pro-industry stances in the past, Nick Welsh, managing editor of the Santa Barbara Independent, told Venton. He has known Stoker for about 30 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As a county supervisor, Stoker argued against a ballot measure that would have placed limits on offshore oil drilling.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "After Setbacks, Calif. Governments Press Their Climate Suit Against Fossil Fuel Companies",
"headTitle": "After Setbacks, Calif. Governments Press Their Climate Suit Against Fossil Fuel Companies | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Three federal judges heard arguments in Pasadena Wednesday about whether major oil and gas companies are financially responsible for the damages caused by climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In lively back-to-back hearings, the judges, from the 9th District Circuit Court, pushed with skepticism at both sides’ arguments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco, Oakland, and a coalition of about a dozen other cities and counties want to hold the fossil fuel industry responsible for the remediation costs and property damage from increasingly severe wildfires, rising sea levels and intense storms that batter coastal communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cities seek damages related to climate change from Chevron, ExxonMobil, Phillips 66 and major other oil and gas companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuits are reaching a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1956277/cities-lawsuits-seeking-damages-for-climate-change-reach-critical-juncture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">critical juncture\u003c/a>. After a string of losses in federal courts, the cities asked the federal panel Wednesday to allow them to argue their lawsuit in the California state courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the panel agrees that the cases belong in state court, it would be the state judge, applying state laws, who decides whether we can proceed with this case to protect our residents, workers, and businesses from the costs and damage these fossil fuel companies knowingly imposed on our communities,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker said in a written statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fossil fuel companies are trying to move the cases into the federal courts with the aim of obtaining the ear of the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“State tort law is not an appropriate vehicle—and state courts are not an appropriate forum—for regulating worldwide energy policy or punishing lawful, global commercial activity that is vital to every sector of the global economy,” lawyers for Chevron wrote in a legal brief. \u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe 9th Circuit panel heard arguments in two separate lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers representing San Francisco and Oakland are trying to revive their lawsuit in state court after William Alsup, a judge for the Federal District Court in San Francisco, tossed it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The law and precedent supporting our position is strong, and such a ruling would be consistent with orders issued by four other federal judges,” Herrera and Parker said in their statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of his deliberation, Alsup asked the cities to offer him a primer in climate change science. The tutorial included a seminal 1992 \u003ca href=\"http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2018/20180323_docket-317-cv-06011_exhibit.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">paper\u003c/a> published in the journal \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em> that detailed rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a June \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/26/climate/document-Judge-Dismisses-Climate-Suit-Against-Oil-Companies.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">opinion\u003c/a>, the judge wrote that the “problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal court has already remanded to state court the other case, brought by San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Marin counties, along with Richmond, Santa Cruz and other cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been two years or more since our communities first filed these cases to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the climate change-related damages they knowingly caused and the high costs our taxpayers are already incurring as a result,” the governments said in a written statement. “It is time for the defendants to be held accountable for their decades-long campaign of public deception about climate change and its consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alex Katz, a spokesman for the Oakland city attorney’s office, said that the city does not know when the judges will decide on the case. He suggested it could take several months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Three federal judges heard arguments in Pasadena Wednesday about whether major oil and gas companies are financially responsible for the damages caused by climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In lively back-to-back hearings, the judges, from the 9th District Circuit Court, pushed with skepticism at both sides’ arguments.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>San Francisco, Oakland, and a coalition of about a dozen other cities and counties want to hold the fossil fuel industry responsible for the remediation costs and property damage from increasingly severe wildfires, rising sea levels and intense storms that batter coastal communities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cities seek damages related to climate change from Chevron, ExxonMobil, Phillips 66 and major other oil and gas companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuits are reaching a \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1956277/cities-lawsuits-seeking-damages-for-climate-change-reach-critical-juncture\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">critical juncture\u003c/a>. After a string of losses in federal courts, the cities asked the federal panel Wednesday to allow them to argue their lawsuit in the California state courts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If the panel agrees that the cases belong in state court, it would be the state judge, applying state laws, who decides whether we can proceed with this case to protect our residents, workers, and businesses from the costs and damage these fossil fuel companies knowingly imposed on our communities,” San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera and Oakland City Attorney Barbara Parker said in a written statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The fossil fuel companies are trying to move the cases into the federal courts with the aim of obtaining the ear of the conservative majority on the U.S. Supreme Court.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“State tort law is not an appropriate vehicle—and state courts are not an appropriate forum—for regulating worldwide energy policy or punishing lawful, global commercial activity that is vital to every sector of the global economy,” lawyers for Chevron wrote in a legal brief. \u003cstrong>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/strong>\u003cbr>\nThe 9th Circuit panel heard arguments in two separate lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawyers representing San Francisco and Oakland are trying to revive their lawsuit in state court after William Alsup, a judge for the Federal District Court in San Francisco, tossed it out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The law and precedent supporting our position is strong, and such a ruling would be consistent with orders issued by four other federal judges,” Herrera and Parker said in their statement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As part of his deliberation, Alsup asked the cities to offer him a primer in climate change science. The tutorial included a seminal 1992 \u003ca href=\"http://blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change-litigation/wp-content/uploads/sites/16/case-documents/2018/20180323_docket-317-cv-06011_exhibit.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">paper\u003c/a> published in the journal \u003cem>Nature\u003c/em> that detailed rising levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a June \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/26/climate/document-Judge-Dismisses-Climate-Suit-Against-Oil-Companies.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">opinion\u003c/a>, the judge wrote that the “problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The federal court has already remanded to state court the other case, brought by San Mateo, Santa Cruz and Marin counties, along with Richmond, Santa Cruz and other cities.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It has been two years or more since our communities first filed these cases to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the climate change-related damages they knowingly caused and the high costs our taxpayers are already incurring as a result,” the governments said in a written statement. “It is time for the defendants to be held accountable for their decades-long campaign of public deception about climate change and its consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alex Katz, a spokesman for the Oakland city attorney’s office, said that the city does not know when the judges will decide on the case. He suggested it could take several months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp> \u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Neq_CwpkPvsGmMG7hVOy7A?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pD-rCxklQwf1V61yTviMEq?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can natural gas be part of a climate change solution?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s what the American Petroleum Institute argues in a \u003ca href=\"https://energyforprogress.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new campaign\u003c/a> it has launched ahead of this year’s elections, pushing back against some Democratic candidates who support bans on new development of oil and gas. The campaign echoes a refrain that supporters from both political parties have pushed for years: that gas is a cleaner fuel than coal and can serve as a bridge to a low-carbon future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The industry points to data showing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions are at their \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07012020/infographic-united-states-emissions-2019-climate-change-greenhouse-gas-coal-transportation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lowest level in decades\u003c/a>, as coal power generation has been replaced by gas, which produces about half the carbon dioxide emissions when burned, and by renewable energy sources like wind and solar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But experts agree that those official figures understate emissions of methane, the primary component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas released in leaks throughout the oil and gas development supply chain. And while there’s uncertainty about how much methane is leaking, several studies show that the benefits of the switch from coal to gas over the last decade are smaller than government data suggests, perhaps substantially smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many oil and gas companies have pledged to reduce their methane emissions. But beyond the methane leaks, emissions from new petrochemical plants and liquid natural gas export facilities in coming years, spurred by the gas boom, are set to surge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With costs of renewable energy sources like wind and solar now competitive with natural gas, many experts who have studied the industry’s emissions say that even though the switch from coal to gas has likely provided some climate benefits, marginal as they may be, it’s harder to argue that it can continue doing so in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David Lyon, a scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, which has collaborated with the oil and gas industry in working on methane, said asking whether gas is better than coal may be the wrong question. “Compared to coal, I think there are a lot of advantages to natural gas,” he said. “But renewables have a lot more advantages.””Compared to coal, I think there are a lot of advantages to natural gas,” he said. “But renewables have a lot more advantages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jessika Trancik, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Institute for Data, Systems and Society, who recently co-authored a study about the coal-to-gas switch, said continuing to rely on natural gas will grow increasingly difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It has served as a bridge,” she said. “But we’re kind of nearing the end of the bridge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Far Have Emissions Fallen?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Official EPA data says \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-04/documents/us-ghg-inventory-2019-chapter-3-energy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">methane emissions from the oil and gas industry\u003c/a> were down slightly from 2005 to 2017 and were down significantly from 1990 levels. Over the same period, oil and gas production has grown substantially, and the industry points to this as a sign of its efforts to limit emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Given the seriousness and risks of climate change, natural gas and oil operators are working harder than ever to capture as much methane as possible during production and transmission,” said Reid Porter, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet while EPA hasn’t published data for the past two years, other sources suggest methane emissions may be rising. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says the industry’s venting and flaring—venting is the intentional release of methane to the atmosphere, while flaring burns the methane to emit carbon dioxide instead—\u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_prod_sum_a_EPG0_VGV_mmcf_a.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">jumped by about 66 percent\u003c/a> in 2018. That doesn’t include unintended leaks from equipment. An \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/preliminary-us-emissions-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">analysis by the Rhodium Group\u003c/a> of more recent data found that the industry’s methane emissions were up last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whatever the official numbers say, actual emissions are almost certainly far higher. Figuring out how much methane is leaking is critical for climate accounting: while methane remains in the atmosphere for a much shorter period than carbon dioxide, it traps far more heat while it’s there. Scientists say methane is responsible for about one-quarter of the warming the world has experienced so far. And the oil and gas sector appears to be a growing source of these emissions globally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956353 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/gas-oil-methane-problem-529.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"766\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/gas-oil-methane-problem-529.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/gas-oil-methane-problem-529-160x232.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2018, \u003ca href=\"https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6398/186\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a study by scientists\u003c/a> with the Environmental Defense Fund and more than a dozen research institutions pulled together measurements taken around the country and estimated that the industry leaked about 2.3 percent of all the gas it produced in 2015. That’s about 60 percent more than EPA reported. Others have suggested the rate could more like 3 percent. Lyon, one of the study’s authors, said the scale of the leaks suggests the benefits of gas are much less than they appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Probably the average national loss rate is low enough that there are immediate climate benefits of replacing coal with gas,” he said. “But it’s going to be close.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the biggest uncertainties comes from so-called “super-emitters”—a term that refers to uncommon events that release massive volumes of methane. Last year, Dutch scientists published research drawing on satellite data suggesting that one 2018 accident at an Ohio gas well \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/climate/methane-leak-satellite.html\">l\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/climate/methane-leak-satellite.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">eaked more methane\u003c/a> than the entire oil and gas industry of Norway does in a year. ExxonMobil, which operated the well through a subsidiary, said internal data had shown the volume of leaked gas was smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The American Petroleum Institute has also \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03032017/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency-methane-greenhouse-gas-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">supported\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29082019/methane-regulation-oil-gas-storage-pipelines-epa-rollback-trump-wheeler\">steps\u003c/a> by the Trump administration to weaken regulations enacted by the Obama administration to improve reporting and reduce leaks. Porter said other state and federal regulations already control methane emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beyond the U.S., new evidence suggests natural gas use is \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03122019/fossil-fuel-emissions-2019-natural-gas-bridge-oil-coal-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">growing so fast globally\u003c/a> that the rise in carbon dioxide emissions from gas has eclipsed the decline in emissions from coal. And that’s not even counting methane leaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Looking Ahead\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if gas has provided a benefit so far, there’s growing evidence it’s becoming an increasingly bad bet for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Precisely how bad depends in part on how methane is compared with carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas. Since methane traps more heat but breaks down much more quickly, scientists use a sliding scale to convert methane emissions into “carbon dioxide equivalents.” If you compare the two gases over the course of a century, methane is roughly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. If you look over a 20-year timeframe, methane is more than 80 times stronger. The EPA uses the 100-year conversion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“What that does is it greatly discounts what methane can do for the decade or three that it’s in the atmosphere,” said Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology at Cornell University, speaking about the EPA’s approach. “I and others have been arguing we should use a shorter time frame, because we’re concerned about reaching tipping points in the climate system over the next one to two to three decades, and methane can drive us over those tipping points.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In December, Trancik and Magdalena Klemun, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, \u003ca href=\"https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2577\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published a study\u003c/a> about whether gas can continue to help drive down greenhouse gas emissions by replacing coal in the electricity mix, given the methane leaks from the supply chain. They found that if you focus on methane’s short-term warming impact, the industry would need to eliminate up to 90 percent of its methane emissions in order to help meet a goal of cutting total greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But methane leaks are just part of the story. While a natural gas-fired power plant emits only about half the carbon dioxide as a coal plant, that’s still far from zero. And record-high gas production has sent prices plummeting, driving a boom in industrial activity to use all that cheap gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A pair of recent studies used data from permits for planned and recently completed projects such as chemical plants and liquid natural gas export facilities to estimate what this boom in industrial development could mean for emissions. One, \u003ca href=\"https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/news/oil-and-gas-industry-expansions-could-add-as-much-greenhouse-gas-pollution-as-50-coal-plants-by-2025/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by the Environmental Integrity Project\u003c/a>, an advocacy group, found that by 2025, the planned development could contribute a level of emissions equal to that of 50 coal plants. Another, \u003ca href=\"https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5e6f/pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published this month\u003c/a> by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, projected out to 2030 but limited its scope to development in Texas and Louisiana. It found even higher figures. If every proposed project were to move forward, they determined, the industry’s expansion in the region could lead to an additional 541 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2030, equal to about 8 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And methane leaks were only a piece of that. The expansion of petrochemical plants, like those that \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16012020/plastics-marine-oceans-climate-change-oil-gas-carbon-emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">produce plastics from gas\u003c/a>, account for nearly 40 percent of the additional emissions. New liquified natural gas terminals, which allow companies to export gas overseas, make up nearly 20 percent of the emissions. The study was funded by the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, which was founded by a former energy executive who pioneered using hydraulic fracturing to produce gas from shale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea of natural gas as a bridge fuel to a more renewable future “is a thing that is said,” said Andrew Waxman, the paper’s lead author. “My main response is that the jury is still out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Another Way\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You only build a bridge as long as it needs to be. And increasingly, many advocates and energy experts are saying that in the transition to low-carbon energy, we’ve already reached the other side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wind and solar power are now often cheaper than gas. The costs of large batteries are coming down rapidly, too, which could allow wind and solar power to provide a higher proportion of the grid’s electricity, even though they produce energy intermittently. Already, construction of new renewables \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/campaign-archive/clean-economy-weekly/1827189\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">is outpacing gas\u003c/a> in terms of capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the aim is to get to zero net emissions by midcentury, Trancik said, “then you have to transition away from natural gas.” At this point, she said, any new natural gas power plant or pipeline, which may be expected to continue operating for decades, creates a new financial incentive to continue to use more gas, making it that much harder to phase out fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I think we should be very hesitant of investing in new infrastructure with a long life,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cem>An earlier version of this article incorrectly characterized the Environmental Defense Fund’s relationship with the oil and gas industry. EDF collaborates with companies in working on the methane problem but does not receive money from the industry.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Neq_CwpkPvsGmMG7hVOy7A?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pD-rCxklQwf1V61yTviMEq?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Can natural gas be part of a climate change solution?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">That’s what the American Petroleum Institute argues in a \u003ca href=\"https://energyforprogress.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">new campaign\u003c/a> it has launched ahead of this year’s elections, pushing back against some Democratic candidates who support bans on new development of oil and gas. The campaign echoes a refrain that supporters from both political parties have pushed for years: that gas is a cleaner fuel than coal and can serve as a bridge to a low-carbon future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The industry points to data showing the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions are at their \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07012020/infographic-united-states-emissions-2019-climate-change-greenhouse-gas-coal-transportation\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">lowest level in decades\u003c/a>, as coal power generation has been replaced by gas, which produces about half the carbon dioxide emissions when burned, and by renewable energy sources like wind and solar.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But experts agree that those official figures understate emissions of methane, the primary component of natural gas and a potent greenhouse gas released in leaks throughout the oil and gas development supply chain. And while there’s uncertainty about how much methane is leaking, several studies show that the benefits of the switch from coal to gas over the last decade are smaller than government data suggests, perhaps substantially smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Many oil and gas companies have pledged to reduce their methane emissions. But beyond the methane leaks, emissions from new petrochemical plants and liquid natural gas export facilities in coming years, spurred by the gas boom, are set to surge.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">With costs of renewable energy sources like wind and solar now competitive with natural gas, many experts who have studied the industry’s emissions say that even though the switch from coal to gas has likely provided some climate benefits, marginal as they may be, it’s harder to argue that it can continue doing so in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">David Lyon, a scientist with the Environmental Defense Fund, which has collaborated with the oil and gas industry in working on methane, said asking whether gas is better than coal may be the wrong question. “Compared to coal, I think there are a lot of advantages to natural gas,” he said. “But renewables have a lot more advantages.””Compared to coal, I think there are a lot of advantages to natural gas,” he said. “But renewables have a lot more advantages.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Jessika Trancik, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Institute for Data, Systems and Society, who recently co-authored a study about the coal-to-gas switch, said continuing to rely on natural gas will grow increasingly difficult.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“It has served as a bridge,” she said. “But we’re kind of nearing the end of the bridge.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>How Far Have Emissions Fallen?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Official EPA data says \u003ca href=\"https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2019-04/documents/us-ghg-inventory-2019-chapter-3-energy.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">methane emissions from the oil and gas industry\u003c/a> were down slightly from 2005 to 2017 and were down significantly from 1990 levels. Over the same period, oil and gas production has grown substantially, and the industry points to this as a sign of its efforts to limit emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Given the seriousness and risks of climate change, natural gas and oil operators are working harder than ever to capture as much methane as possible during production and transmission,” said Reid Porter, a spokesman for the American Petroleum Institute, in an email.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Yet while EPA hasn’t published data for the past two years, other sources suggest methane emissions may be rising. The U.S. Energy Information Administration says the industry’s venting and flaring—venting is the intentional release of methane to the atmosphere, while flaring burns the methane to emit carbon dioxide instead—\u003ca href=\"https://www.eia.gov/dnav/ng/ng_prod_sum_a_EPG0_VGV_mmcf_a.htm\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">jumped by about 66 percent\u003c/a> in 2018. That doesn’t include unintended leaks from equipment. An \u003ca href=\"https://rhg.com/research/preliminary-us-emissions-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">analysis by the Rhodium Group\u003c/a> of more recent data found that the industry’s methane emissions were up last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Whatever the official numbers say, actual emissions are almost certainly far higher. Figuring out how much methane is leaking is critical for climate accounting: while methane remains in the atmosphere for a much shorter period than carbon dioxide, it traps far more heat while it’s there. Scientists say methane is responsible for about one-quarter of the warming the world has experienced so far. And the oil and gas sector appears to be a growing source of these emissions globally.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956353 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/gas-oil-methane-problem-529.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"766\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/gas-oil-methane-problem-529.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/gas-oil-methane-problem-529-160x232.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In 2018, \u003ca href=\"https://science.sciencemag.org/content/361/6398/186\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a study by scientists\u003c/a> with the Environmental Defense Fund and more than a dozen research institutions pulled together measurements taken around the country and estimated that the industry leaked about 2.3 percent of all the gas it produced in 2015. That’s about 60 percent more than EPA reported. Others have suggested the rate could more like 3 percent. Lyon, one of the study’s authors, said the scale of the leaks suggests the benefits of gas are much less than they appear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“Probably the average national loss rate is low enough that there are immediate climate benefits of replacing coal with gas,” he said. “But it’s going to be close.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">One of the biggest uncertainties comes from so-called “super-emitters”—a term that refers to uncommon events that release massive volumes of methane. Last year, Dutch scientists published research drawing on satellite data suggesting that one 2018 accident at an Ohio gas well \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/climate/methane-leak-satellite.html\">l\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/16/climate/methane-leak-satellite.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">eaked more methane\u003c/a> than the entire oil and gas industry of Norway does in a year. ExxonMobil, which operated the well through a subsidiary, said internal data had shown the volume of leaked gas was smaller.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The American Petroleum Institute has also \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03032017/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency-methane-greenhouse-gas-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">supported\u003c/a> \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29082019/methane-regulation-oil-gas-storage-pipelines-epa-rollback-trump-wheeler\">steps\u003c/a> by the Trump administration to weaken regulations enacted by the Obama administration to improve reporting and reduce leaks. Porter said other state and federal regulations already control methane emissions.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Beyond the U.S., new evidence suggests natural gas use is \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03122019/fossil-fuel-emissions-2019-natural-gas-bridge-oil-coal-climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">growing so fast globally\u003c/a> that the rise in carbon dioxide emissions from gas has eclipsed the decline in emissions from coal. And that’s not even counting methane leaks.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Looking Ahead\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Even if gas has provided a benefit so far, there’s growing evidence it’s becoming an increasingly bad bet for the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Precisely how bad depends in part on how methane is compared with carbon dioxide, the primary greenhouse gas. Since methane traps more heat but breaks down much more quickly, scientists use a sliding scale to convert methane emissions into “carbon dioxide equivalents.” If you compare the two gases over the course of a century, methane is roughly 30 times more potent than carbon dioxide. If you look over a 20-year timeframe, methane is more than 80 times stronger. The EPA uses the 100-year conversion.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“What that does is it greatly discounts what methane can do for the decade or three that it’s in the atmosphere,” said Robert Howarth, a professor of ecology at Cornell University, speaking about the EPA’s approach. “I and others have been arguing we should use a shorter time frame, because we’re concerned about reaching tipping points in the climate system over the next one to two to three decades, and methane can drive us over those tipping points.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In December, Trancik and Magdalena Klemun, a postdoctoral researcher at MIT, \u003ca href=\"https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab2577\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published a study\u003c/a> about whether gas can continue to help drive down greenhouse gas emissions by replacing coal in the electricity mix, given the methane leaks from the supply chain. They found that if you focus on methane’s short-term warming impact, the industry would need to eliminate up to 90 percent of its methane emissions in order to help meet a goal of cutting total greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">But methane leaks are just part of the story. While a natural gas-fired power plant emits only about half the carbon dioxide as a coal plant, that’s still far from zero. And record-high gas production has sent prices plummeting, driving a boom in industrial activity to use all that cheap gas.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">A pair of recent studies used data from permits for planned and recently completed projects such as chemical plants and liquid natural gas export facilities to estimate what this boom in industrial development could mean for emissions. One, \u003ca href=\"https://www.environmentalintegrity.org/news/oil-and-gas-industry-expansions-could-add-as-much-greenhouse-gas-pollution-as-50-coal-plants-by-2025/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">by the Environmental Integrity Project\u003c/a>, an advocacy group, found that by 2025, the planned development could contribute a level of emissions equal to that of 50 coal plants. Another, \u003ca href=\"https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab5e6f/pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published this month\u003c/a> by researchers at the University of Texas at Austin, projected out to 2030 but limited its scope to development in Texas and Louisiana. It found even higher figures. If every proposed project were to move forward, they determined, the industry’s expansion in the region could lead to an additional 541 million tons of carbon dioxide equivalent per year by 2030, equal to about 8 percent of total U.S. greenhouse gas emissions today.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">And methane leaks were only a piece of that. The expansion of petrochemical plants, like those that \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/16012020/plastics-marine-oceans-climate-change-oil-gas-carbon-emissions\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">produce plastics from gas\u003c/a>, account for nearly 40 percent of the additional emissions. New liquified natural gas terminals, which allow companies to export gas overseas, make up nearly 20 percent of the emissions. The study was funded by the Cynthia and George Mitchell Foundation, which was founded by a former energy executive who pioneered using hydraulic fracturing to produce gas from shale.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The idea of natural gas as a bridge fuel to a more renewable future “is a thing that is said,” said Andrew Waxman, the paper’s lead author. “My main response is that the jury is still out.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Another Way\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">You only build a bridge as long as it needs to be. And increasingly, many advocates and energy experts are saying that in the transition to low-carbon energy, we’ve already reached the other side.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Wind and solar power are now often cheaper than gas. The costs of large batteries are coming down rapidly, too, which could allow wind and solar power to provide a higher proportion of the grid’s electricity, even though they produce energy intermittently. Already, construction of new renewables \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/campaign-archive/clean-economy-weekly/1827189\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">is outpacing gas\u003c/a> in terms of capacity.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">If the aim is to get to zero net emissions by midcentury, Trancik said, “then you have to transition away from natural gas.” At this point, she said, any new natural gas power plant or pipeline, which may be expected to continue operating for decades, creates a new financial incentive to continue to use more gas, making it that much harder to phase out fossil fuels.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">“I think we should be very hesitant of investing in new infrastructure with a long life,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400;\">\u003cem>An earlier version of this article incorrectly characterized the Environmental Defense Fund’s relationship with the oil and gas industry. EDF collaborates with companies in working on the methane problem but does not receive money from the industry.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "After a Dry January, California Snowpack is Trending Below Normal",
"headTitle": "After a Dry January, California Snowpack is Trending Below Normal | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>State water officials say the snowpack near Lake Tahoe is 79 percent of the historical average for this time of year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Releases/2020/January-2020-Snow-Survey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> conducted the second monthly snow survey of the year Thursday morning at Phillips Station snow course in the Sierra Nevada, south of Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s one of 260 stations that measures snowpack statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Snowpack across the state is averaging 72 percent of what’s normal for the start of February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR’s Jan. 2 snow survey tracked the Sierra snowpack at close to average for the beginning of the year. But California experienced a dry January that slowed the accumulation of snowpack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In comparison to where we were just a month ago … snow and precipitation statewide were well below average,” said Sean de Guzman, chief of DWR’s Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Section.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>https://twitter.com/CA_DWR/status/1222981468147740672\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Scientists \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936797/why-we-cant-stop-talking-about-californias-sierra-snowpack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">record snowpack\u003c/a> as Snow Water Equivalent (also known as Snow Water Content); it measures how much water the snow contains. They record the depth in inches that would be produced by melting the snow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data helps scientists determine how much water will melt during the spring and summer months to replenish California’s reservoirs. The runoff of melting Sierra snow provides about one-third of California’s \u003ca href=\"https://sierranevada.ca.gov/ca-primary-watershed/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">water supply\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this month’s below average snowpack measurements, de Guzman says the water supply in California’s reservoirs is currently in good shape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Luckily, our reservoirs statewide are either at or above their historical averages for this time of year thanks, in part, to just how wet of a water year 2019 was,” de Guzman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California typically receives about half of its annual precipitation in the months of December, January and February. De Guzman says a few big storms could bring the state’s snowpack back on track for 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We still need to wait and see what the next few months will bring us,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water officials will continue to monitor snowpack through April 1, when it typically reaches its peak and the spring runoff begins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>State water officials say the snowpack near Lake Tahoe is 79 percent of the historical average for this time of year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/News/News-Releases/2020/January-2020-Snow-Survey\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> conducted the second monthly snow survey of the year Thursday morning at Phillips Station snow course in the Sierra Nevada, south of Lake Tahoe.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s one of 260 stations that measures snowpack statewide.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Snowpack across the state is averaging 72 percent of what’s normal for the start of February.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>DWR’s Jan. 2 snow survey tracked the Sierra snowpack at close to average for the beginning of the year. But California experienced a dry January that slowed the accumulation of snowpack.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In comparison to where we were just a month ago … snow and precipitation statewide were well below average,” said Sean de Guzman, chief of DWR’s Snow Surveys and Water Supply Forecasting Section.\u003c/p>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\n\u003cp>Scientists \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1936797/why-we-cant-stop-talking-about-californias-sierra-snowpack\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">record snowpack\u003c/a> as Snow Water Equivalent (also known as Snow Water Content); it measures how much water the snow contains. They record the depth in inches that would be produced by melting the snow.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The data helps scientists determine how much water will melt during the spring and summer months to replenish California’s reservoirs. The runoff of melting Sierra snow provides about one-third of California’s \u003ca href=\"https://sierranevada.ca.gov/ca-primary-watershed/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">water supply\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Despite this month’s below average snowpack measurements, de Guzman says the water supply in California’s reservoirs is currently in good shape.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Luckily, our reservoirs statewide are either at or above their historical averages for this time of year thanks, in part, to just how wet of a water year 2019 was,” de Guzman said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California typically receives about half of its annual precipitation in the months of December, January and February. De Guzman says a few big storms could bring the state’s snowpack back on track for 2020.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We still need to wait and see what the next few months will bring us,” he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Water officials will continue to monitor snowpack through April 1, when it typically reaches its peak and the spring runoff begins.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "Cities' Lawsuits Seeking Damages for Climate Change Reach Critical Juncture",
"headTitle": "Cities’ Lawsuits Seeking Damages for Climate Change Reach Critical Juncture | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Neq_CwpkPvsGmMG7hVOy7A?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pD-rCxklQwf1V61yTviMEq?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">With a dozen state and local governments in court seeking damages related to climate change from fossil fuel companies, the U.S. Supreme Court may be the final stop for an industry seeking protection from billion dollar verdicts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">At some point, one of the lawsuits is likely to drop into the lap of the high court and its newly cemented conservative block of justices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rhode Island, Baltimore, \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27062018/coastal-cities-lawsuit-fossil-fuel-oil-climate-change-sea-level-rise-damage-imperial-beach-california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tiny Imperial Beach, California \u003c/a>and the other localities for the most part want the cases tried in state court and out of federal jurisdiction, arguing that climate-induced extreme weather linked to oil and gas consumption has led to billions in property damage and huge remediation costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">ExxonMobil, Chevron, Phillips 66 and the other oil and gas giants, on the other hand, have gone to federal court over the issue of jurisdiction, arguing that the Clean Air Act and other federal laws preempt any claim under state law that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels cause climate change and related property damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On both sides, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The localities and a 13th plaintiff—the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations—want to make the fossil fuel industry responsible for the cost of sea level rise, more intense wildfires, hurricanes and flooding that climate scientists attribute to a warming planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy companies want the opposite—protection from those costs in the form of court rulings that could go all the way to the Supreme Court, holding that global issues like climate change have no business being litigated in either state or federal court. If the high court concurs, it could set environmental, social, political and economic precedents for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 13 climate cases are all now pending federal appeals court rulings that address the jurisdiction question, not the substantive issues linking the fossil fuel companies to climate change. Two cases addressing the question of whether they should be heard in state or federal courts have been argued before federal appellate courts, with rulings expected before summer. Hearings have been scheduled over the next few months for most of the other cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal experts believe the first significant test in the high court could come after one of the federal appeals courts renders an opinion on the jurisdiction issue. The energy companies are counting on a high court ruling that blocks the lawsuits on jurisdictional grounds. That way, the core climate change issues raised by the municipalities will never even be considered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They will argue the cases should all be summarily thrown out,” said Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at the Vermont Law School. “They’re counting on the conservative justices being willing to slam the door on climate cases.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cities, states, counties and fishermen’s associations that are plaintiffs in the suits are trying to build the case that fossil fuel companies knew of the dangers created by their products and failed to warn the public, thereby imposing huge costs on communities that have to deal with the impacts of sea level rise and other consequences of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This focus on the conduct of the fossil fuel producers differs from earlier climate cases in which plaintiffs focused on emissions, and blamed the utility and fossil fuel industries for producing the greenhouse gases warming the planet. The Supreme Court ruled in response to those suits that emissions were governed under the Clean Air Act, and as such, were not matters for the courts to consider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the high court has also said that there may be a basis under state common law for some of the more recent cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s over the issue of jurisdiction that the industry will wage its most fierce fight, said Katherine Trisolini, a Loyola Law School professor specializing in climate change and energy law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court is much more likely to consider this procedural question, she said, than to weigh in on matters of substance related to the claims made in the various lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The jurisdiction question is a bit more clear for review,”\u003ca href=\"https://www.lls.edu/faculty/facultylists-z/trisolinikatherine/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Trisolini\u003c/a> said. “That’s where the door is most widely open for a Supreme Court review.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost as soon as the lawsuits were filed, the fossil fuel companies began the fight to have the cases heard in federal court where the companies believe—on the basis of the earlier rulings on emissions—that they have the advantage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The companies are arguing that, while the local governments might have fashioned their complaints under state law, they actually involved issues best decided by a federal court, where precedent favors the companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But so far, the industry’s efforts to get the climate suits out of the state courts have been largely unsuccessful, setting the stage for the federal appeals. In all but two of the 13 cases, federal district court judges have agreed that the lawsuits should be heard in state courts guided by various state laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26062018/california-cities-climate-change-lawsuits-dismissed-fossil-fuels-industry-rising-sea-levels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A federal judge in San Francisco has been the exception, rejecting lawsuits\u003c/a> filed by San Francisco and Oakland on the grounds that state courts were not the proper place to deal with global issues like climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case,” U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup wrote in\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4559977-Case-Dismissed-6-25-2018.htmlhttps:/www.documentcloud.org/documents/4559977-Case-Dismissed-6-25-2018.htmlhttps:/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/26/climate/document-Judge-Dismisses-Climate-Suit-Against-Oil-Companies.html\"> his opinion.\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, six other California lawsuits, filed by the cities of Imperial Beach, Santa Cruz and Richmond; and the counties of San Mateo, Marin and Santa Cruz, remain in state court after \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4414439-Judge-Chhabria-Rules-IB-Case-to-Stay-in-State.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">U.S. District Court Jusge Vincent Chhabria ruled \u003c/a>that was the proper jurisdiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similarly, U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander in Maryland, ruling on Baltimore’s climate suit, wrote that the industry’s desire for federal jurisdiction was nothing more than a “hijacking” of state authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To allow the case to move forward in federal court “enhances federal judicial power at the expense of plaintiffs and state courts,” Hollander\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6567331-Baltimore-Judge-Rebuffs-Industry.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> wrote. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She went on to explain that the public nuisance claims alleged by the city could only be decided in a state court. The city, she noted, “nowhere even alleges that the defendants violated any federal statutes or regulations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry didn’t like that slap down, and sent its lawyers to the Supreme Court for help, as it did after two other similarly adverse rulings. They argued before the high court that state cases should not be allowed to move forward until the federal appellate courts resolve the jurisdictional questions about where climate nuisance claims belong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6567332-Fossil-Fuel-Companies-to-SCOTUS-in-Baltimore-Case.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Industry lawyers told the high court\u003c/a>, “It’s difficult to imagine claims that more clearly implicate substantial questions of federal law and require uniform disposition than the claims at issue here.” The lawsuits,” they added, “seek to transform the nation’s energy, environmental, national security and foreign policies by punishing energy companies for lawfully supplying necessary oil and gas resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high court didn’t bite, however. It declined to take up the issue, though the refusal cannot be interpreted as a tip of the court’s hand one way or the other as to whether the justices will eventually invite an appeal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they do, the conservative majority on the high court may seize on the larger question of separation of powers, reasoning that the judiciary should not be part of a resolution to such momentous matters, said\u003ca href=\"https://www.vermontlaw.edu/directory/person/parenteau-pat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Parenteau\u003c/a>, of the Vermont Law School, who has consulted on several of the climate cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In taking up any review, the justices may say, “Courts simply have no business adjudicating disputes over a global problem like climate change,” he said. “The oil industry is providing a vital service to the nation and the world. There is no obvious alternative. What to do about all this is a matter for Congress and the Executive Branch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added: “In other words—the industry’s playbook.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Significantly, the high court’s refusal to halt state-level proceedings, as the industry had asked, means the cases will go forward pending an appellate court ruling on the jurisdictional issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That opens the door for the localities to obtain potentially explosive material in the discovery process related to the industry’s knowledge of the links between fossil-fuel combustion and climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the industry does not prevail in the pending federal appeals, the Supreme Court may be reluctant to weigh in, said Ann Carlson, an environmental law expert at UCLA School of Law, who has consulted for some of the plaintiffs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not clear these issues raised under state common law claims are the kinds of issues the Supreme Court may want to insert itself into,”\u003ca href=\"https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/ann-carlson/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlson\u003c/a> said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high court simply may feel that it’s best left to the state courts to hash out the issues based on prevailing state laws, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Supreme Court may look at this and say these claims do not raise federal, constitutional questions,” Carlson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, she said, the cases will be “long fought,” with the Supreme Court being asked to weigh in at times—and perhaps serving as the final arbiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a roll of the dice each time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Big oil and gas companies maneuver to steer the lawsuits into federal court, setting the stage for a possible showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court.",
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"description": "Big oil and gas companies maneuver to steer the lawsuits into federal court, setting the stage for a possible showdown in the U.S. Supreme Court.",
"title": "Cities' Lawsuits Seeking Damages for Climate Change Reach Critical Juncture | KQED",
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"headline": "Cities' Lawsuits Seeking Damages for Climate Change Reach Critical Juncture",
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"slug": "cities-lawsuits-seeking-damages-for-climate-change-reach-critical-juncture",
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"nprByline": "David Hasemyer \u003cbr />InsideClimate News\u003cbr>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Neq_CwpkPvsGmMG7hVOy7A?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pD-rCxklQwf1V61yTviMEq?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">With a dozen state and local governments in court seeking damages related to climate change from fossil fuel companies, the U.S. Supreme Court may be the final stop for an industry seeking protection from billion dollar verdicts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">At some point, one of the lawsuits is likely to drop into the lap of the high court and its newly cemented conservative block of justices.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rhode Island, Baltimore, \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27062018/coastal-cities-lawsuit-fossil-fuel-oil-climate-change-sea-level-rise-damage-imperial-beach-california\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tiny Imperial Beach, California \u003c/a>and the other localities for the most part want the cases tried in state court and out of federal jurisdiction, arguing that climate-induced extreme weather linked to oil and gas consumption has led to billions in property damage and huge remediation costs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">ExxonMobil, Chevron, Phillips 66 and the other oil and gas giants, on the other hand, have gone to federal court over the issue of jurisdiction, arguing that the Clean Air Act and other federal laws preempt any claim under state law that carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels cause climate change and related property damage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On both sides, the stakes couldn’t be higher. The localities and a 13th plaintiff—the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations—want to make the fossil fuel industry responsible for the cost of sea level rise, more intense wildfires, hurricanes and flooding that climate scientists attribute to a warming planet.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The energy companies want the opposite—protection from those costs in the form of court rulings that could go all the way to the Supreme Court, holding that global issues like climate change have no business being litigated in either state or federal court. If the high court concurs, it could set environmental, social, political and economic precedents for generations.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 13 climate cases are all now pending federal appeals court rulings that address the jurisdiction question, not the substantive issues linking the fossil fuel companies to climate change. Two cases addressing the question of whether they should be heard in state or federal courts have been argued before federal appellate courts, with rulings expected before summer. Hearings have been scheduled over the next few months for most of the other cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Legal experts believe the first significant test in the high court could come after one of the federal appeals courts renders an opinion on the jurisdiction issue. The energy companies are counting on a high court ruling that blocks the lawsuits on jurisdictional grounds. That way, the core climate change issues raised by the municipalities will never even be considered.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“They will argue the cases should all be summarily thrown out,” said Pat Parenteau, a professor of environmental law at the Vermont Law School. “They’re counting on the conservative justices being willing to slam the door on climate cases.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The cities, states, counties and fishermen’s associations that are plaintiffs in the suits are trying to build the case that fossil fuel companies knew of the dangers created by their products and failed to warn the public, thereby imposing huge costs on communities that have to deal with the impacts of sea level rise and other consequences of climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>This focus on the conduct of the fossil fuel producers differs from earlier climate cases in which plaintiffs focused on emissions, and blamed the utility and fossil fuel industries for producing the greenhouse gases warming the planet. The Supreme Court ruled in response to those suits that emissions were governed under the Clean Air Act, and as such, were not matters for the courts to consider.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the high court has also said that there may be a basis under state common law for some of the more recent cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It’s over the issue of jurisdiction that the industry will wage its most fierce fight, said Katherine Trisolini, a Loyola Law School professor specializing in climate change and energy law.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Supreme Court is much more likely to consider this procedural question, she said, than to weigh in on matters of substance related to the claims made in the various lawsuits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The jurisdiction question is a bit more clear for review,”\u003ca href=\"https://www.lls.edu/faculty/facultylists-z/trisolinikatherine/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Trisolini\u003c/a> said. “That’s where the door is most widely open for a Supreme Court review.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Almost as soon as the lawsuits were filed, the fossil fuel companies began the fight to have the cases heard in federal court where the companies believe—on the basis of the earlier rulings on emissions—that they have the advantage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The companies are arguing that, while the local governments might have fashioned their complaints under state law, they actually involved issues best decided by a federal court, where precedent favors the companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But so far, the industry’s efforts to get the climate suits out of the state courts have been largely unsuccessful, setting the stage for the federal appeals. In all but two of the 13 cases, federal district court judges have agreed that the lawsuits should be heard in state courts guided by various state laws.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26062018/california-cities-climate-change-lawsuits-dismissed-fossil-fuels-industry-rising-sea-levels\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">A federal judge in San Francisco has been the exception, rejecting lawsuits\u003c/a> filed by San Francisco and Oakland on the grounds that state courts were not the proper place to deal with global issues like climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The problem deserves a solution on a more vast scale than can be supplied by a district judge or jury in a public nuisance case,” U.S. District Court Judge William Alsup wrote in\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4559977-Case-Dismissed-6-25-2018.htmlhttps:/www.documentcloud.org/documents/4559977-Case-Dismissed-6-25-2018.htmlhttps:/www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/26/climate/document-Judge-Dismisses-Climate-Suit-Against-Oil-Companies.html\"> his opinion.\u003c/a>\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, six other California lawsuits, filed by the cities of Imperial Beach, Santa Cruz and Richmond; and the counties of San Mateo, Marin and Santa Cruz, remain in state court after \u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4414439-Judge-Chhabria-Rules-IB-Case-to-Stay-in-State.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">U.S. District Court Jusge Vincent Chhabria ruled \u003c/a>that was the proper jurisdiction.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Similarly, U.S. District Judge Ellen L. Hollander in Maryland, ruling on Baltimore’s climate suit, wrote that the industry’s desire for federal jurisdiction was nothing more than a “hijacking” of state authority.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To allow the case to move forward in federal court “enhances federal judicial power at the expense of plaintiffs and state courts,” Hollander\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6567331-Baltimore-Judge-Rebuffs-Industry.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> wrote. \u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She went on to explain that the public nuisance claims alleged by the city could only be decided in a state court. The city, she noted, “nowhere even alleges that the defendants violated any federal statutes or regulations.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The industry didn’t like that slap down, and sent its lawyers to the Supreme Court for help, as it did after two other similarly adverse rulings. They argued before the high court that state cases should not be allowed to move forward until the federal appellate courts resolve the jurisdictional questions about where climate nuisance claims belong.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/6567332-Fossil-Fuel-Companies-to-SCOTUS-in-Baltimore-Case.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Industry lawyers told the high court\u003c/a>, “It’s difficult to imagine claims that more clearly implicate substantial questions of federal law and require uniform disposition than the claims at issue here.” The lawsuits,” they added, “seek to transform the nation’s energy, environmental, national security and foreign policies by punishing energy companies for lawfully supplying necessary oil and gas resources.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high court didn’t bite, however. It declined to take up the issue, though the refusal cannot be interpreted as a tip of the court’s hand one way or the other as to whether the justices will eventually invite an appeal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If they do, the conservative majority on the high court may seize on the larger question of separation of powers, reasoning that the judiciary should not be part of a resolution to such momentous matters, said\u003ca href=\"https://www.vermontlaw.edu/directory/person/parenteau-pat\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> Parenteau\u003c/a>, of the Vermont Law School, who has consulted on several of the climate cases.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In taking up any review, the justices may say, “Courts simply have no business adjudicating disputes over a global problem like climate change,” he said. “The oil industry is providing a vital service to the nation and the world. There is no obvious alternative. What to do about all this is a matter for Congress and the Executive Branch.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He added: “In other words—the industry’s playbook.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Significantly, the high court’s refusal to halt state-level proceedings, as the industry had asked, means the cases will go forward pending an appellate court ruling on the jurisdictional issue.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That opens the door for the localities to obtain potentially explosive material in the discovery process related to the industry’s knowledge of the links between fossil-fuel combustion and climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the industry does not prevail in the pending federal appeals, the Supreme Court may be reluctant to weigh in, said Ann Carlson, an environmental law expert at UCLA School of Law, who has consulted for some of the plaintiffs\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s not clear these issues raised under state common law claims are the kinds of issues the Supreme Court may want to insert itself into,”\u003ca href=\"https://www.ioes.ucla.edu/person/ann-carlson/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Carlson\u003c/a> said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The high court simply may feel that it’s best left to the state courts to hash out the issues based on prevailing state laws, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The Supreme Court may look at this and say these claims do not raise federal, constitutional questions,” Carlson said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Nevertheless, she said, the cases will be “long fought,” with the Supreme Court being asked to weigh in at times—and perhaps serving as the final arbiter.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It’s a roll of the dice each time,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Warm Water 'Blob' Led to Fatal Whale Entanglements. Here's Why",
"headTitle": "Warm Water ‘Blob’ Led to Fatal Whale Entanglements. Here’s Why | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>Much of the West Coast’s ocean bounty comes courtesy of the California Current, an up-welling of cold, nutrient-rich water in the late winter and early spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That stimulates the development of a rich food web that is sort of like a Serengeti of the ocean,” said Jarrod Santora, a research ecologist at UCSC and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humpback whales travel all the way from Hawaii to feast in the cold waters off the coast. But between the years 2014 and 2016, a severe marine heat wave, nicknamed “the blob,” coincided with an unprecedented number of humpback fatalities stemming from entanglements with fishing gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a new paper \u003ca href=\"https://news.ucsc.edu/2020/01/whale-entanglements.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published \u003c/a>Monday\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>Santora and colleagues say they know why: Warm water pushed the cold water into a long narrow band along the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since cool water is where the whales forage for food, finding it only along the coast was like discovering all the restaurants in town are closed, except along one narrow strip. Unfortunately, the compression of feeding grounds coincided with crabbing season, so that the new dining hotspots were also littered with ropes connected to crab pots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Lewison, a \u003ca href=\"http://www.conservationecologylab.com/rebecca-lewison.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">biology professor\u003c/a> at San Diego State University, who was not involved in the research, said in an email the paper is “an exciting example of the type of data integration and analyses that are needed to manage ocean resources sustainably given current and projected changes in the ocean.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA tracks the number of whales entangled each year, and prior to 2014, Pacific Coast whale entanglements numbered about 10 per year on average. But they jumped to 30 in 2014 and skyrocketed to 53 in 2015, then 56 in 2016. The numbers dropped the next two years but were still high historically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spate of deaths prompted the Center for Biological Diversity to file a lawsuit against the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for insufficient regulation of commercial crabbing fleets. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11735659/california-dungeness-crab-fishery-to-close-three-months-early-to-protect-whales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">settlement\u003c/a> reached in March 2019 allows for more regulations and a potential end to the entire season if endangered whales become entangled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crisis also prompted the formation of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.opc.ca.gov/whale-entanglement-working-group/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group\u003c/a>, comprised of scientists, fishermen and managers who can share information to reduce entanglements. This year, after aerial surveys revealed large numbers of whales in crabbing waters, the industry pushed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951057/crab-for-thanksgiving-dont-count-on-it-commercial-season-delayed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">delay the start\u003c/a> of commercial season to protect them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santora, a science adviser for the group, believes the working group can be a model for other geographical areas, and that improved ocean monitoring and swift communication between stakeholders will be key to keeping entanglement numbers low in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing the same problems on the East Coast for \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/right-whales/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">right whales\u003c/a>,” Santora said, “with changes in ocean conditions, changes in the whale’s prey, resulting in a redistribution of the whales so that they are becoming more entangled with lobster gear. It’s happening globally. We need to have new tools to deal with this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lewison agrees: “This work demonstrates clearly why we need flexible and adaptable management approaches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dynamic ocean management strategies, she explains, help fisheries managers, industry and the conservation community to “think retrospectively, to evaluate what went right or wrong from a management perspective, and also think proactively, to forecast what situations are likely to occur in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jon Brooks contributed to this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Between 2014 and 2016, a severe marine heat wave, nicknamed 'the blob,' coincided with an unprecedented number of humpback whale fatalities stemming from entanglements with fishing gear. Researchers say it was no coincidence.",
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"title": "Warm Water 'Blob' Led to Fatal Whale Entanglements. Here's Why | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Much of the West Coast’s ocean bounty comes courtesy of the California Current, an up-welling of cold, nutrient-rich water in the late winter and early spring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That stimulates the development of a rich food web that is sort of like a Serengeti of the ocean,” said Jarrod Santora, a research ecologist at UCSC and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Humpback whales travel all the way from Hawaii to feast in the cold waters off the coast. But between the years 2014 and 2016, a severe marine heat wave, nicknamed “the blob,” coincided with an unprecedented number of humpback fatalities stemming from entanglements with fishing gear.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In a new paper \u003ca href=\"https://news.ucsc.edu/2020/01/whale-entanglements.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">published \u003c/a>Monday\u003cstrong>, \u003c/strong>Santora and colleagues say they know why: Warm water pushed the cold water into a long narrow band along the coast.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Since cool water is where the whales forage for food, finding it only along the coast was like discovering all the restaurants in town are closed, except along one narrow strip. Unfortunately, the compression of feeding grounds coincided with crabbing season, so that the new dining hotspots were also littered with ropes connected to crab pots.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Rebecca Lewison, a \u003ca href=\"http://www.conservationecologylab.com/rebecca-lewison.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">biology professor\u003c/a> at San Diego State University, who was not involved in the research, said in an email the paper is “an exciting example of the type of data integration and analyses that are needed to manage ocean resources sustainably given current and projected changes in the ocean.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>NOAA tracks the number of whales entangled each year, and prior to 2014, Pacific Coast whale entanglements numbered about 10 per year on average. But they jumped to 30 in 2014 and skyrocketed to 53 in 2015, then 56 in 2016. The numbers dropped the next two years but were still high historically.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The spate of deaths prompted the Center for Biological Diversity to file a lawsuit against the California Department of Fish and Wildlife for insufficient regulation of commercial crabbing fleets. A \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/news/11735659/california-dungeness-crab-fishery-to-close-three-months-early-to-protect-whales\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">settlement\u003c/a> reached in March 2019 allows for more regulations and a potential end to the entire season if endangered whales become entangled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The crisis also prompted the formation of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.opc.ca.gov/whale-entanglement-working-group/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">California Dungeness Crab Fishing Gear Working Group\u003c/a>, comprised of scientists, fishermen and managers who can share information to reduce entanglements. This year, after aerial surveys revealed large numbers of whales in crabbing waters, the industry pushed to \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951057/crab-for-thanksgiving-dont-count-on-it-commercial-season-delayed\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">delay the start\u003c/a> of commercial season to protect them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Santora, a science adviser for the group, believes the working group can be a model for other geographical areas, and that improved ocean monitoring and swift communication between stakeholders will be key to keeping entanglement numbers low in the future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“We’re seeing the same problems on the East Coast for \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/mammals/group/right-whales/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">right whales\u003c/a>,” Santora said, “with changes in ocean conditions, changes in the whale’s prey, resulting in a redistribution of the whales so that they are becoming more entangled with lobster gear. It’s happening globally. We need to have new tools to deal with this.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lewison agrees: “This work demonstrates clearly why we need flexible and adaptable management approaches.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dynamic ocean management strategies, she explains, help fisheries managers, industry and the conservation community to “think retrospectively, to evaluate what went right or wrong from a management perspective, and also think proactively, to forecast what situations are likely to occur in the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>Jon Brooks contributed to this post.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>Each fall, monarch butterflies from across the western United States flutter their way to the California coast to hole up for the winter. Mild temperatures, abundant nectar and protection offered by coastal forests have historically made California an ideal place for monarchs to survive into spring, and the majority of the population west of the Rocky Mountains make the annual trip to the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote]The conservation society that conducts the annual monarch butterfly count recommends Californians plant native milkweed in inland breeding areas, as well as nectar-producing flowers for monarchs to feed on.[/pullquote]As recently as the 1980s, these iconic orange and black butterflies numbered in the millions. This season’s count, however, was much in line with the monarch’s decades-long \u003ca href=\"https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">severe decline\u003c/a>. This year’s estimate, released last week, stands at about 29,000 monarchs, just above last year’s all-time low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This population has declined by over 99 percent,” said Emma Pelton, a conservation biologist with the \u003ca href=\"https://xerces.org/western-monarch-call-to-action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation\u003c/a>, which conducts the survey each year around Thanksgiving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelton says the numbers indicate the historic western monarch migratory population is in danger of going extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring, monarchs fly inland to lay their eggs on milkweed plants. The caterpillars that hatch feed on the leaves. Milkweed is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/Monarch_Butterfly/habitat/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">only thing monarch caterpillars eat\u003c/a> and essential to their survival. The new generation will help populate areas from California to the Rockies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That first generation that’s born in the new year in California is really the generation that’s going to continue the migration.” Pelton said. “They’re going to populate the western United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eastern monarchs make a similar migration to Mexico for the winter months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s the only place in the U.S. where monarchs spend the winter in large numbers and that is worth protecting,” Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reasons for the Decline\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samantha Marcum, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says habitat loss, the use of pesticides, disease and the changing climate have all likely contributed to the decline of western monarchs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1956198\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1956198\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monarch butterflies from the across the Western U.S. spend the winter in California. Pictured above, monarchs in Pacific Grove on the Central Coast. \u003ccite>(Carly Voight/Xerces Society)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s no singular reason for the extreme drop in numbers over the last two to three decades.” Marcum said. “There’s several factors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One major reason for the drastically reduced numbers, she says, is the loss of coastal forest groves, where monarchs can safely roost in the winter months, and their shrinking springtime breeding habitat, due to land development, forest management practices and wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Drought, increased storm frequency and intensity, and temperature extremes” have also likely made California a less hospitable place for monarchs, said Marcum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal officials are considering listing monarch butterflies for protection under the Endangered Species Act. A decision is expected in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marcum says protecting and restoring the forest groves where monarchs spend their winter on the California coast will be key to their recovery. The Xerces Society \u003ca href=\"https://xerces.org/western-monarch-call-to-action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recommends\u003c/a> Californians plant native milkweed in inland breeding areas, as well as nectar-producing flowers for monarchs to feed on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelton says citizen science efforts like monarch counts help researchers monitor butterfly populations and target conservation efforts. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.monarchmilkweedmapper.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">iNaturalist App\u003c/a> are two ways people can record their own monarch sightings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if you’re not someone that necessarily thinks of yourself as someone who likes bugs, you probably know what a monarch looks like,” Pelton said. “The fact that they move and travel all over the United States and Canada and Mexico is just a really incredible story of a single species connecting us across the country.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>Each fall, monarch butterflies from across the western United States flutter their way to the California coast to hole up for the winter. Mild temperatures, abundant nectar and protection offered by coastal forests have historically made California an ideal place for monarchs to survive into spring, and the majority of the population west of the Rocky Mountains make the annual trip to the state.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>As recently as the 1980s, these iconic orange and black butterflies numbered in the millions. This season’s count, however, was much in line with the monarch’s decades-long \u003ca href=\"https://www.westernmonarchcount.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">severe decline\u003c/a>. This year’s estimate, released last week, stands at about 29,000 monarchs, just above last year’s all-time low.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This population has declined by over 99 percent,” said Emma Pelton, a conservation biologist with the \u003ca href=\"https://xerces.org/western-monarch-call-to-action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation\u003c/a>, which conducts the survey each year around Thanksgiving.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelton says the numbers indicate the historic western monarch migratory population is in danger of going extinct.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the spring, monarchs fly inland to lay their eggs on milkweed plants. The caterpillars that hatch feed on the leaves. Milkweed is the \u003ca href=\"https://www.fs.fed.us/wildflowers/pollinators/Monarch_Butterfly/habitat/index.shtml\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">only thing monarch caterpillars eat\u003c/a> and essential to their survival. The new generation will help populate areas from California to the Rockies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“That first generation that’s born in the new year in California is really the generation that’s going to continue the migration.” Pelton said. “They’re going to populate the western United States.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Eastern monarchs make a similar migration to Mexico for the winter months.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“California’s the only place in the U.S. where monarchs spend the winter in large numbers and that is worth protecting,” Pelton said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Reasons for the Decline\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Samantha Marcum, a biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, says habitat loss, the use of pesticides, disease and the changing climate have all likely contributed to the decline of western monarchs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1956198\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 800px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-1956198\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-800x600.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"800\" height=\"600\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-800x600.jpg 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-160x120.jpg 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-768x576.jpg 768w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-1020x765.jpg 1020w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Monarch-2-1920x1440.jpg 1920w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Monarch butterflies from the across the Western U.S. spend the winter in California. Pictured above, monarchs in Pacific Grove on the Central Coast. \u003ccite>(Carly Voight/Xerces Society)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>“There’s no singular reason for the extreme drop in numbers over the last two to three decades.” Marcum said. “There’s several factors.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One major reason for the drastically reduced numbers, she says, is the loss of coastal forest groves, where monarchs can safely roost in the winter months, and their shrinking springtime breeding habitat, due to land development, forest management practices and wildfire.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Drought, increased storm frequency and intensity, and temperature extremes” have also likely made California a less hospitable place for monarchs, said Marcum.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Federal officials are considering listing monarch butterflies for protection under the Endangered Species Act. A decision is expected in December.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Marcum says protecting and restoring the forest groves where monarchs spend their winter on the California coast will be key to their recovery. The Xerces Society \u003ca href=\"https://xerces.org/western-monarch-call-to-action\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">recommends\u003c/a> Californians plant native milkweed in inland breeding areas, as well as nectar-producing flowers for monarchs to feed on.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Pelton says citizen science efforts like monarch counts help researchers monitor butterfly populations and target conservation efforts. The \u003ca href=\"https://www.monarchmilkweedmapper.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Western Monarch Milkweed Mapper\u003c/a> and the \u003ca href=\"https://www.inaturalist.org/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">iNaturalist App\u003c/a> are two ways people can record their own monarch sightings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Even if you’re not someone that necessarily thinks of yourself as someone who likes bugs, you probably know what a monarch looks like,” Pelton said. “The fact that they move and travel all over the United States and Canada and Mexico is just a really incredible story of a single species connecting us across the country.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Neq_CwpkPvsGmMG7hVOy7A?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pD-rCxklQwf1V61yTviMEq?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frustrated with the sight of plastic bags and styrofoam containers piling up in its harbor, the city of Charleston, South Carolina, rang in the new year with a promise to start enforcing a ban on single-use plastic containers and utensils.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s one of hundreds of similar bans that have been launched across the U.S. and \u003ca href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_2631\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Europe\u003c/a>, amid a growing backlash to an industry that is expanding despite increasing evidence of the harm its products can do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In just the past year, researchers have shown that tiny particles of plastic are pervasive in the environment, even high in the mountains and inside human bodies. Dead whales have washed up with dozens of pounds of plastic waste in their stomachs. And a new awareness of the role the plastics industry plays in climate change is emerging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If it’s in our marshes, it’s in our oysters, it’s in our fish and it’s in our dolphins,” said Caroline Bradner, the Land, Water & Wildlife Project Manager for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. “And if there is plastic in them, there is plastic in us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The scientific studies and images of plastic waste have been shifting how the public sees plastics, and that has gotten the industry’s attention at the highest levels. The industry has been simultaneously fighting to prevent local plastics bans and trying to promote itself as a solution, while its production keeps growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, one giant plastics plant is under construction, and a second awaits a decision on financing in an Appalachian region that federal officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/12/f58/Nov%202018%20DOE%20Ethane%20Hub%20Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have said\u003c/a> could support even more manufacturing—an effort that the Trump administration may assist with loan guarantees this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the Gulf Coast, seven large petrochemical facilities have been approved since 2015. Environmentalists are fighting them, with the latest lawsuit filed last week over the federal permits for what would be one of the world’s largest plastics plants, planned near a wetlands area along the Mississippi River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is “an incredible disconnect” between public concerns about what plastics pollution is doing to the environment and all of the industry funding and tax dollars being invested in new plastics manufacturing, said Judith Enck, a former official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who in 2019 founded the Beyond Plastics campaign, a nonpartisan initiative that seeks to end plastic pollution. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956118 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"764\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px-160x231.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Industry officials contend that they are just trying to meet consumer demand, and they say they are looking for ways to improve recycling and reduce waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We fundamentally think plastics don’t belong in the environment,” said Keith Christman, managing director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry lobby group with members in the alliance. But, he added, plastics are essential. “You may be able to do without a plastic bag, but most products there really isn’t a substitute for or an ability to go without it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Climate Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">From scientific research papers to reports by environmental groups, 2019 delivered a relentless stream of evidence about environmental and health concerns related to plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I must say it’s been pretty uncomfortable … as we have watched images of plastic strewn over beaches and pictures of sea animals with ingested plastic,” Patty Long, the interim chief executive officer of the Plastics Industry Association, lamented at the Global Plastics Summit last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We see it over and over and over again,” she \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06072019/plastic-waste-ocean-global-summit-industry-solutions-recycling-climate-change\">told\u003c/a>\u003c/b> the industry gathering, co-hosted by the Plastics Industry Association and IHS Markit, which closely tracks the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For example:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n\u003cli>Plastic particles were found in the stomachs of the deepest known marine animals, nearly seven miles below the surface of the sea.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The wind\u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-47947235\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> deposited\u003c/a> as much microplastic per square meter in a secluded area high in the Pyrenees Mountains, along the French and Spanish border, as researchers would expect in the city of Paris.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The average American now ingests more than 70,000 particles of microplastics per year, according to a\u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b01517\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> study\u003c/a> in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The carcass of a dead sperm whale\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/dead-pregnant-whale-plastic-italy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> washed ashore\u003c/a> in Italy with 49 pounds of plastic in its stomach; and a beached young Cuvier’s beaked whale died in the Philippines, with a necropsy\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/18/704471596/stomach-of-dead-whale-contained-nothing-but-plastic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> revealing\u003c/a> 88 pounds of plastic including plastic bags from grocery stores.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Center for International Environmental Law also\u003ca href=\"https://www.ciel.org/reports/plastic-health-the-hidden-costs-of-a-plastic-planet-may-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> published\u003c/a> a report in May that found greenhouse gas emissions from the plastics lifecycle—from natural gas extraction to plastics production and disposal—could reach 850 million metric tons in 2019, about the same as 189 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The total is projected to rise to 1.34 billion metric tons per year by 2030, equivalent to the emissions from nearly 300 coal plants of that size.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group, working with the Environmental Integrity Project, FracTracker Alliance and others, concluded that the plastics’ and petrochemical industries’ plans could make it impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, the most challenging benchmark established under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Plastics have been a climate crisis hiding in plain sight,” said Carroll Muffett, president and chief executive officer of the law center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christman, with the chemical industry lobby group, argued that the law center should have compared the carbon emissions from plastics when they are used as substitutes to materials like glass or steel. Greenhouse gas emissions are spared when cars are made lighter and more fuel-efficient with plastic parts, he said, and when plastic wrapping preserves food to avoid spoilage and disposal in methane-producing landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“With all of these issues, yes, we have to avoid regrettable substitution,” Muffett responded. But the “simple argument that all the possible substitutes are going to be worse than plastics” is wrong, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Plastics Could Grow 3.5 to 4 Percent Annually Through 2035\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For years, the public relied on recycling to justify its plastics use, but now that, too, is in crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2018, China’s decided to stop accepting most plastic materials for recycling, and last May, 187 countries added plastics to an international treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste around the globe, requiring exporters to obtain government permission before shipping lower quality plastic wastes to their countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s not all that’s preventing effective recycling. The economics of recycling “are still upside down,” largely because of a glut of the fossil fuels used to make plastic, said Nina Bellucci Butler, the chief executive officer of More Recycling, a research and consulting company that works with the plastics industry on recycling,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We are just awash in natural gas and oil,” she said. “The only thing we can do is make an incredible amount of plastics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plastics industry has tried to show that it is responding to waste concerns. It \u003ca href=\"https://endplasticwaste.org/latest/the-alliance-launches-today/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced\u003c/a> a $1.5 billion Alliance to End Plastic Waste with the goal of improving plastic waste management in Asia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it is also moving ahead with new plastics manufacturing plants, as the oil and gas industry eyes plastics as a growing part of its future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The data firm IHS Markit has forecast that plastics production will grow on average 3.5 to 4 percent per year through at least 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In western Pennsylvania outside Pittsburgh, hundreds of workers \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25022019/plastics-hub-appalachian-fracking-ethane-cracker-climate-change-health-ohio-river\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are building\u003c/a> a massive Shell Polymers plant to turn ethane—a product of a decade-old natural gas fracking boom there—into the basic building blocks of plastic products. Analysts have \u003ca href=\"https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/petrochemical-cluster-a-bright-future-for-the-tristate-region.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said\u003c/a> the region could support as many as five of these plants, which “crack” ethane molecules to make ethylene and polyethylene resin pellets. \u003ca href=\"http://pttgcbelmontcountyoh.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">One \u003c/a>has already obtained environmental permits in Belmont County, Ohio, and is awaiting a financing decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2020, the Trump administration could decide whether to provide $1.9 billion in loan guarantees for the development of \u003ca href=\"https://aongrc.wvu.edu/reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">underground storage\u003c/a> for ethane it\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-perry-announces-appalachian-ethane-storage-hub-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> says\u003c/a> would help establish a whole new plastics manufacturing hub in Appalachia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/organizational_sign_on_letter_opposing_dept._of_energy_backing_petro_hub-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Environmental groups\u003c/a> and some Democrats in Congress are fighting the loan guarantees, which would go to a West Virginia business, Appalachia Development Group, that has proposed developing the storage in mined salt or limestone caverns underground.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956119 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"924\" height=\"693\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px.png 924w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-800x600.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Near the Gulf Coast, environmentalists are also fighting new or expanding petrochemical and plastics manufacturing plants. The Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_70830ffe-0a1c-11ea-b387-b768e1c2ecc8.html\"> reported\u003c/a>\u003c/b> in late November that seven large petrochemical facilities and expansions had been approved in that area since 2015, and five more were awaiting permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of them stands out for its cost and size: the $9.6 billion Formosa plastics and petrochemical complex, proposed on 2,400 acres in St. James Parish. In early January, it was granted air quality permits, and the Center for Biological Diversity is now \u003ca href=\"https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administrations-fast-tracking-of-louisiana-plastics-project-2020-01-15/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">suing\u003c/a>, arguing that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to disclose environmental damage and public health risks of the plastic facility under the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09012020/trump-nepa-environmental-review-changes-climate-change-infrastructure-pipelines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Environmental Policy Act\u003c/a>. More lawsuits are expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Congress Eyes Competing Approaches to Plastics Regulation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the state level, lawmakers introduced at least 95 bills in 2019 related to plastic bags, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most, including those in \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/nyregion/plastic-bag-ban-.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/maine-bans-single-use-plastic-grocery-bags-by-earth-day-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maine\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/vermont-adopts-most-comprehensive-single-use-plastics-ban/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vermont\u003c/a>, sought to ban or place a fee on plastic bags. However, some went in the opposite direction, attempting to prevent local governments from making their own decisions on how to manage plastic waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota all blocked their cities from passing local bag rules in 2019. South Carolina lawmakers have been trying to pass a similar law, \u003ca href=\"https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article226176810.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">promoted by lobbyists\u003c/a> for the industry. A “ban on bans” bill, \u003ca href=\"https://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=394&session=123&summary=B\">S.394\u003c/a>, will pick up this month where it left off last year, and could come to a vote before the full South Carolina Senate, said Bradner, of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether a divided Congress in a heated election year can pass meaningful legislation remains an open question. But some federal lawmakers are trying, with competing approaches focused either on government funding or manufacturer responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The industry backs bills like Save Our Seas 2.0 and the\u003ca href=\"https://cardenas.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/c-rdenas-bucshon-introduce-recover-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> RECOVER Act\u003c/a>, which aim to improve waste management and recycling. Neither would slow the production of plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) are floating another proposal that would require plastics producers to establish a national container deposit program, collect fees on non-reusable plastic bags, increase the amount of recycled plastic used in new products and establish a moratorium on new plastics manufacturing plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The financial burden of cleaning up pollution should not be solely on the taxpayers,” Lowenthal said at a Congressional hearing last fall. “It’s imperative the the companies that manufacture and sell these products take ownership of their environmental impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "Environmentalists cite “an incredible disconnect” between government support for plastics manufacturing and evidence of the industry’s pollution and climate impact.",
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"title": "Business is Booming, But Public Anger Toward Plastics Grows With Environmental Harms | KQED",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>\u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/Neq_CwpkPvsGmMG7hVOy7A?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">InsideClimate News\u003c/a> is a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. Sign up for the ICN newsletter \u003ca href=\"https://protect-us.mimecast.com/s/pD-rCxklQwf1V61yTviMEq?domain=insideclimatenews.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">here\u003c/a>.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Frustrated with the sight of plastic bags and styrofoam containers piling up in its harbor, the city of Charleston, South Carolina, rang in the new year with a promise to start enforcing a ban on single-use plastic containers and utensils.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">It’s one of hundreds of similar bans that have been launched across the U.S. and \u003ca href=\"https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/IP_19_2631\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Europe\u003c/a>, amid a growing backlash to an industry that is expanding despite increasing evidence of the harm its products can do.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In just the past year, researchers have shown that tiny particles of plastic are pervasive in the environment, even high in the mountains and inside human bodies. Dead whales have washed up with dozens of pounds of plastic waste in their stomachs. And a new awareness of the role the plastics industry plays in climate change is emerging.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“If it’s in our marshes, it’s in our oysters, it’s in our fish and it’s in our dolphins,” said Caroline Bradner, the Land, Water & Wildlife Project Manager for the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League. “And if there is plastic in them, there is plastic in us.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The scientific studies and images of plastic waste have been shifting how the public sees plastics, and that has gotten the industry’s attention at the highest levels. The industry has been simultaneously fighting to prevent local plastics bans and trying to promote itself as a solution, while its production keeps growing.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, one giant plastics plant is under construction, and a second awaits a decision on financing in an Appalachian region that federal officials \u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/sites/prod/files/2018/12/f58/Nov%202018%20DOE%20Ethane%20Hub%20Report.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">have said\u003c/a> could support even more manufacturing—an effort that the Trump administration may assist with loan guarantees this year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">On the Gulf Coast, seven large petrochemical facilities have been approved since 2015. Environmentalists are fighting them, with the latest lawsuit filed last week over the federal permits for what would be one of the world’s largest plastics plants, planned near a wetlands area along the Mississippi River.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">There is “an incredible disconnect” between public concerns about what plastics pollution is doing to the environment and all of the industry funding and tax dollars being invested in new plastics manufacturing, said Judith Enck, a former official with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency who in 2019 founded the Beyond Plastics campaign, a nonpartisan initiative that seeks to end plastic pollution. \u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956118 alignright\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"764\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Plastics-Demand-Chart-529px-160x231.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Industry officials contend that they are just trying to meet consumer demand, and they say they are looking for ways to improve recycling and reduce waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We fundamentally think plastics don’t belong in the environment,” said Keith Christman, managing director of plastics markets for the American Chemistry Council, a chemical industry lobby group with members in the alliance. But, he added, plastics are essential. “You may be able to do without a plastic bag, but most products there really isn’t a substitute for or an ability to go without it.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>‘A Climate Crisis Hiding in Plain Sight’\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">From scientific research papers to reports by environmental groups, 2019 delivered a relentless stream of evidence about environmental and health concerns related to plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“I must say it’s been pretty uncomfortable … as we have watched images of plastic strewn over beaches and pictures of sea animals with ingested plastic,” Patty Long, the interim chief executive officer of the Plastics Industry Association, lamented at the Global Plastics Summit last year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We see it over and over and over again,” she \u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/06072019/plastic-waste-ocean-global-summit-industry-solutions-recycling-climate-change\">told\u003c/a>\u003c/b> the industry gathering, co-hosted by the Plastics Industry Association and IHS Markit, which closely tracks the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For example:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul style=\"font-weight: 400\">\n\u003cli>Plastic particles were found in the stomachs of the deepest known marine animals, nearly seven miles below the surface of the sea.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The wind\u003ca href=\"https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-47947235\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> deposited\u003c/a> as much microplastic per square meter in a secluded area high in the Pyrenees Mountains, along the French and Spanish border, as researchers would expect in the city of Paris.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The average American now ingests more than 70,000 particles of microplastics per year, according to a\u003ca href=\"https://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.est.9b01517\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> study\u003c/a> in the American Chemical Society journal Environmental Science & Technology.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The carcass of a dead sperm whale\u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/04/dead-pregnant-whale-plastic-italy/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> washed ashore\u003c/a> in Italy with 49 pounds of plastic in its stomach; and a beached young Cuvier’s beaked whale died in the Philippines, with a necropsy\u003ca href=\"https://www.npr.org/2019/03/18/704471596/stomach-of-dead-whale-contained-nothing-but-plastic\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> revealing\u003c/a> 88 pounds of plastic including plastic bags from grocery stores.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The Center for International Environmental Law also\u003ca href=\"https://www.ciel.org/reports/plastic-health-the-hidden-costs-of-a-plastic-planet-may-2019/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> published\u003c/a> a report in May that found greenhouse gas emissions from the plastics lifecycle—from natural gas extraction to plastics production and disposal—could reach 850 million metric tons in 2019, about the same as 189 new 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The total is projected to rise to 1.34 billion metric tons per year by 2030, equivalent to the emissions from nearly 300 coal plants of that size.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The group, working with the Environmental Integrity Project, FracTracker Alliance and others, concluded that the plastics’ and petrochemical industries’ plans could make it impossible to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming, the most challenging benchmark established under the 2015 Paris climate agreement.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“Plastics have been a climate crisis hiding in plain sight,” said Carroll Muffett, president and chief executive officer of the law center.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Christman, with the chemical industry lobby group, argued that the law center should have compared the carbon emissions from plastics when they are used as substitutes to materials like glass or steel. Greenhouse gas emissions are spared when cars are made lighter and more fuel-efficient with plastic parts, he said, and when plastic wrapping preserves food to avoid spoilage and disposal in methane-producing landfills.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“With all of these issues, yes, we have to avoid regrettable substitution,” Muffett responded. But the “simple argument that all the possible substitutes are going to be worse than plastics” is wrong, he added.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Plastics Could Grow 3.5 to 4 Percent Annually Through 2035\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">For years, the public relied on recycling to justify its plastics use, but now that, too, is in crisis.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2018, China’s decided to stop accepting most plastic materials for recycling, and last May, 187 countries added plastics to an international treaty that controls the movement of hazardous waste around the globe, requiring exporters to obtain government permission before shipping lower quality plastic wastes to their countries.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">That’s not all that’s preventing effective recycling. The economics of recycling “are still upside down,” largely because of a glut of the fossil fuels used to make plastic, said Nina Bellucci Butler, the chief executive officer of More Recycling, a research and consulting company that works with the plastics industry on recycling,\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“We are just awash in natural gas and oil,” she said. “The only thing we can do is make an incredible amount of plastics.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The plastics industry has tried to show that it is responding to waste concerns. It \u003ca href=\"https://endplasticwaste.org/latest/the-alliance-launches-today/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">announced\u003c/a> a $1.5 billion Alliance to End Plastic Waste with the goal of improving plastic waste management in Asia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">But it is also moving ahead with new plastics manufacturing plants, as the oil and gas industry eyes plastics as a growing part of its future.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The data firm IHS Markit has forecast that plastics production will grow on average 3.5 to 4 percent per year through at least 2035.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In western Pennsylvania outside Pittsburgh, hundreds of workers \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25022019/plastics-hub-appalachian-fracking-ethane-cracker-climate-change-health-ohio-river\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">are building\u003c/a> a massive Shell Polymers plant to turn ethane—a product of a decade-old natural gas fracking boom there—into the basic building blocks of plastic products. Analysts have \u003ca href=\"https://ihsmarkit.com/research-analysis/petrochemical-cluster-a-bright-future-for-the-tristate-region.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">said\u003c/a> the region could support as many as five of these plants, which “crack” ethane molecules to make ethylene and polyethylene resin pellets. \u003ca href=\"http://pttgcbelmontcountyoh.com/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">One \u003c/a>has already obtained environmental permits in Belmont County, Ohio, and is awaiting a financing decision.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">In 2020, the Trump administration could decide whether to provide $1.9 billion in loan guarantees for the development of \u003ca href=\"https://aongrc.wvu.edu/reports\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">underground storage\u003c/a> for ethane it\u003ca href=\"https://www.energy.gov/articles/secretary-perry-announces-appalachian-ethane-storage-hub-report\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> says\u003c/a> would help establish a whole new plastics manufacturing hub in Appalachia.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">\u003ca href=\"https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/sites/default/files/organizational_sign_on_letter_opposing_dept._of_energy_backing_petro_hub-2.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Environmental groups\u003c/a> and some Democrats in Congress are fighting the loan guarantees, which would go to a West Virginia business, Appalachia Development Group, that has proposed developing the storage in mined salt or limestone caverns underground.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1956119 aligncenter\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"924\" height=\"693\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px.png 924w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-160x120.png 160w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-800x600.png 800w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/natural-gas-to-plastics-manufacturing-1058px-768x576.png 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 924px) 100vw, 924px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Near the Gulf Coast, environmentalists are also fighting new or expanding petrochemical and plastics manufacturing plants. The Times-Picayune and New Orleans Advocate\u003cb>\u003ca href=\"https://www.nola.com/news/environment/article_70830ffe-0a1c-11ea-b387-b768e1c2ecc8.html\"> reported\u003c/a>\u003c/b> in late November that seven large petrochemical facilities and expansions had been approved in that area since 2015, and five more were awaiting permits.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of them stands out for its cost and size: the $9.6 billion Formosa plastics and petrochemical complex, proposed on 2,400 acres in St. James Parish. In early January, it was granted air quality permits, and the Center for Biological Diversity is now \u003ca href=\"https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/lawsuit-challenges-trump-administrations-fast-tracking-of-louisiana-plastics-project-2020-01-15/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">suing\u003c/a>, arguing that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to disclose environmental damage and public health risks of the plastic facility under the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09012020/trump-nepa-environmental-review-changes-climate-change-infrastructure-pipelines\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">National Environmental Policy Act\u003c/a>. More lawsuits are expected.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Congress Eyes Competing Approaches to Plastics Regulation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">At the state level, lawmakers introduced at least 95 bills in 2019 related to plastic bags, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Most, including those in \u003ca href=\"https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/28/nyregion/plastic-bag-ban-.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">New York\u003c/a>, \u003ca href=\"https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/maine-bans-single-use-plastic-grocery-bags-by-earth-day-2020\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Maine\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.nationalgeographic.com/environment/2019/06/vermont-adopts-most-comprehensive-single-use-plastics-ban/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Vermont\u003c/a>, sought to ban or place a fee on plastic bags. However, some went in the opposite direction, attempting to prevent local governments from making their own decisions on how to manage plastic waste.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Oklahoma, Tennessee and North Dakota all blocked their cities from passing local bag rules in 2019. South Carolina lawmakers have been trying to pass a similar law, \u003ca href=\"https://www.thestate.com/news/politics-government/article226176810.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">promoted by lobbyists\u003c/a> for the industry. A “ban on bans” bill, \u003ca href=\"https://www.scstatehouse.gov/billsearch.php?billnumbers=394&session=123&summary=B\">S.394\u003c/a>, will pick up this month where it left off last year, and could come to a vote before the full South Carolina Senate, said Bradner, of the South Carolina Coastal Conservation League.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Whether a divided Congress in a heated election year can pass meaningful legislation remains an open question. But some federal lawmakers are trying, with competing approaches focused either on government funding or manufacturer responsibility.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">The industry backs bills like Save Our Seas 2.0 and the\u003ca href=\"https://cardenas.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/c-rdenas-bucshon-introduce-recover-act\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"> RECOVER Act\u003c/a>, which aim to improve waste management and recycling. Neither would slow the production of plastics.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) and Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.) are floating another proposal that would require plastics producers to establish a national container deposit program, collect fees on non-reusable plastic bags, increase the amount of recycled plastic used in new products and establish a moratorium on new plastics manufacturing plants.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"font-weight: 400\">“The financial burden of cleaning up pollution should not be solely on the taxpayers,” Lowenthal said at a Congressional hearing last fall. “It’s imperative the the companies that manufacture and sell these products take ownership of their environmental impacts.”\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Time's Up on Groundwater Plans: One of the Most Important New California Water Laws in 50 Years Explained",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Much of California’s water supply is a hidden asset: Deep below the surface, rocks, gravel and sand store water like a sponge, in an underground zone called an aquifer. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[pullquote] Managers for 21 ‘critically overdrafted’ basins have a Jan. 31 deadline to submit groundwater management plans. [/pullquote]\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In dry years, this groundwater has been tapped to save farms, keep grass green and provide drinking water to millions of Californians. But over time, people have taken more water out than nature has put back in. Estimates vary, but according to the U.S. Geological Survey, California pumped 41 trillion gallons of water fom the ground in about 100 years, through 2013. In some parts of the Central Valley, that means land has been dropping \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/centers/ca-water-ls/science/land-subsidence-san-joaquin-valley?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">around a foot a year\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The landmark \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sustainable Groundwater Management Act\u003c/a>, or SGMA, requires some of the state’s thirstiest areas form local “Groundwater Sustainability Agencies” and submit long-term plans by Jan. 31 for keeping aquifers healthy. Together, those plans will add up to a big reveal, as g\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">roundwater managers finally disclose how badly they believe their aquifers are overdrawn, and a collective picture emerges. It’s a major shift and arguably the most important new California water law in 50 years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some key things to know about the groundwater situation in California and how the law will impact the state. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Until six years ago, California did not routinely regulate or monitor groundwater. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The California Constitution decrees that water use has to be reasonable and beneficial, but the state has placed few limits on how water can be pumped from the ground. A 1914 law empowering the state water board to manage the resource omitted groundwater. You can blame the lack of regulation partly on 18th-century Spanish colonists who brought with them the idea that a landowner is entitled to all of the water below the surface, without any obligation to share it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the beginning of the 20th century, water was still plentiful in California, and the idea of unfettered access to groundwater made sense in a state lush with wetlands. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So for the last century, landowners continued to think of groundwater as pretty much a birthright. It’s become an essential component of California’s water portfolio: S\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tate officials say 30 million residents rely on groundwater for at least some portion of their drinking supply, and i\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">n the driest years, people keep basically sticking a straw into the earth to slake their thirst. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Water at the surface is connected to the water hidden below. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The water from California’s rivers and streams, along with rainwater, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seeps into the ground, where it remains among the rocks, gravel and sand. Between these surface and sub-surface supplies lies the water table, which is what hydrologists call the top of the area that has been saturated underground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using too much groundwater affects not only surface water supplies but also entire ecosystems. Pumping from the earth deep enough to suck water out can lower the groundwater table and dry out surface soils. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rivers and streams feed more than 500 aquifers around California. Less than a quarter of these account for the overwhelming majority of groundwater pumping. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>In these basins, this landmark law already has begun to transform the Central Valley. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For decades, farmers fought the regulation and monitoring of groundwater tooth and nail. Now that it’s here, SGMA has already begun to change the region’s economy and landscape, as some farmers have sold or fallowed land in antipation of the coming changes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Policy Institute of California \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/water-and-the-future-of-the-san-joaquin-valley/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">predicts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that agricultural interests may have to let 750,000 acres of land go fallow, mostly in parts of the San Joaquin Valley where the most severe overpumping has occurred.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Farmers may also have to cycle current crops out for those requiring less water. For example, almonds are water-intensive but have been profitable in recent years; those margins would change if water becomes much more expensive than it is now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Some local water managers have a lot of work to show by the end of the month. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are 21 “critically overdrafted” basins for which officials must submit groundwater management plans by Jan. 31. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In each area where people have habitually pumped more than has come back in, local water managers have to figure out how much they’ve taken from underground, and how water at the surface replenishes those stores. Each region has to propose ways to monitor groundwater over multiple intervals: day-to-day, short-term, seasonal, and yearslong. Basically, they’re creating monitoring systems, in some cases from scratch, to help determine whether conditions are changing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The groundwater plans are built around models for how to share water in a way that’s sustainable by 2040. Each one can be a little different, but local managers and the state have to check up on every single one and meet interim deadlines every five years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\">Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> can accept the plans as is or ask for tweaks. DWR can also refer the plans to the state water board for intervention, meaning that local officials may have to try again if the state judges a plan unlikely to succeed. In extreme cases, the state may have to step in to settle disputes over local rights.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This isn’t just a Valley problem.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Balancing aquifers like bank accounts will cost money and effort in the Bay Area and other parts of the state. Two years from now, managers for dozens more groundwater basins with state-designated risk ratings of high or medium must submit their own plans to the State Water Resources Control Board. They include water managers in Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though these plans will take years to come into focus, plenty of political decisions remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State requirements for sustainable regional groundwater management haven’t taken away anyone’s rights; the rules have changed how localities must meet their water needs from now on. Even the plans submitted by the locally formed groundwater agencies that will meet this year’s deadline haven’t absolutely nailed down who gets to use what in the future. The coming decisions and politics about water may be tense, but the alternative is that one day, wells could run dry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In dry years, this groundwater has been tapped to save farms, keep grass green and provide drinking water to millions of Californians. But over time, people have taken more water out than nature has put back in. Estimates vary, but according to the U.S. Geological Survey, California pumped 41 trillion gallons of water fom the ground in about 100 years, through 2013. In some parts of the Central Valley, that means land has been dropping \u003ca href=\"https://www.usgs.gov/centers/ca-water-ls/science/land-subsidence-san-joaquin-valley?qt-science_center_objects=0#qt-science_center_objects\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">around a foot a year\u003c/a>. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The landmark \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Sustainable Groundwater Management Act\u003c/a>, or SGMA, requires some of the state’s thirstiest areas form local “Groundwater Sustainability Agencies” and submit long-term plans by Jan. 31 for keeping aquifers healthy. Together, those plans will add up to a big reveal, as g\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">roundwater managers finally disclose how badly they believe their aquifers are overdrawn, and a collective picture emerges. It’s a major shift and arguably the most important new California water law in 50 years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Here are some key things to know about the groundwater situation in California and how the law will impact the state. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Until six years ago, California did not routinely regulate or monitor groundwater. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The California Constitution decrees that water use has to be reasonable and beneficial, but the state has placed few limits on how water can be pumped from the ground. A 1914 law empowering the state water board to manage the resource omitted groundwater. You can blame the lack of regulation partly on 18th-century Spanish colonists who brought with them the idea that a landowner is entitled to all of the water below the surface, without any obligation to share it. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">At the beginning of the 20th century, water was still plentiful in California, and the idea of unfettered access to groundwater made sense in a state lush with wetlands. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">So for the last century, landowners continued to think of groundwater as pretty much a birthright. It’s become an essential component of California’s water portfolio: S\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">tate officials say 30 million residents rely on groundwater for at least some portion of their drinking supply, and i\u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">n the driest years, people keep basically sticking a straw into the earth to slake their thirst. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cbr>\n\u003cb>Water at the surface is connected to the water hidden below. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The water from California’s rivers and streams, along with rainwater, \u003c/span>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">seeps into the ground, where it remains among the rocks, gravel and sand. Between these surface and sub-surface supplies lies the water table, which is what hydrologists call the top of the area that has been saturated underground. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Using too much groundwater affects not only surface water supplies but also entire ecosystems. Pumping from the earth deep enough to suck water out can lower the groundwater table and dry out surface soils. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Rivers and streams feed more than 500 aquifers around California. Less than a quarter of these account for the overwhelming majority of groundwater pumping. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>In these basins, this landmark law already has begun to transform the Central Valley. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">For decades, farmers fought the regulation and monitoring of groundwater tooth and nail. Now that it’s here, SGMA has already begun to change the region’s economy and landscape, as some farmers have sold or fallowed land in antipation of the coming changes.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Public Policy Institute of California \u003ca href=\"https://www.ppic.org/publication/water-and-the-future-of-the-san-joaquin-valley/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">predicts\u003c/span>\u003c/a>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> that agricultural interests may have to let 750,000 acres of land go fallow, mostly in parts of the San Joaquin Valley where the most severe overpumping has occurred.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Farmers may also have to cycle current crops out for those requiring less water. For example, almonds are water-intensive but have been profitable in recent years; those margins would change if water becomes much more expensive than it is now. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>Some local water managers have a lot of work to show by the end of the month. \u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">There are 21 “critically overdrafted” basins for which officials must submit groundwater management plans by Jan. 31. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In each area where people have habitually pumped more than has come back in, local water managers have to figure out how much they’ve taken from underground, and how water at the surface replenishes those stores. Each region has to propose ways to monitor groundwater over multiple intervals: day-to-day, short-term, seasonal, and yearslong. Basically, they’re creating monitoring systems, in some cases from scratch, to help determine whether conditions are changing. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The groundwater plans are built around models for how to share water in a way that’s sustainable by 2040. Each one can be a little different, but local managers and the state have to check up on every single one and meet interim deadlines every five years. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The \u003ca href=\"https://water.ca.gov/Programs/Groundwater-Management/SGMA-Groundwater-Management\">Department of Water Resources\u003c/a> can accept the plans as is or ask for tweaks. DWR can also refer the plans to the state water board for intervention, meaning that local officials may have to try again if the state judges a plan unlikely to succeed. In extreme cases, the state may have to step in to settle disputes over local rights.\u003cbr>\n\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cb>This isn’t just a Valley problem.\u003c/b>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Balancing aquifers like bank accounts will cost money and effort in the Bay Area and other parts of the state. Two years from now, managers for dozens more groundwater basins with state-designated risk ratings of high or medium must submit their own plans to the State Water Resources Control Board. They include water managers in Sonoma, Napa, San Mateo and Santa Clara counties. \u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even though these plans will take years to come into focus, plenty of political decisions remain.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-weight: 400;\">State requirements for sustainable regional groundwater management haven’t taken away anyone’s rights; the rules have changed how localities must meet their water needs from now on. Even the plans submitted by the locally formed groundwater agencies that will meet this year’s deadline haven’t absolutely nailed down who gets to use what in the future. The coming decisions and politics about water may be tense, but the alternative is that one day, wells could run dry.\u003c/span>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"title": "California Sues Federal Government Over Central Valley Drilling Proposal",
"headTitle": "California Sues Federal Government Over Central Valley Drilling Proposal | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>California on Friday officially \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/1%20Complaint.pdf\">challenged\u003c/a> a Trump administration plan to open up more than a million acres of public land in the state to fossil fuel development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the Bureau of Land Management \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951605/its-official-feds-open-up-central-california-to-more-drilling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">finalized\u003c/a> a fracking and drilling plan that spans eight counties in Central California, ending a federal moratorium on new leases in the state. The proposal includes land in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura Counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called the federal plan “half-baked” and “misguided” and says it conflicts with California policy of reducing emissions of planet- warming gases 40% by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the big concerns is this would set us back in our goals to address emissions of greenhouse gases,” Becerra said. “But it goes far beyond that. This is an issue of health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit is the latest action in California’s ongoing fight with the Trump administration over energy and climate policy. The state is aggressively scaling back fossil fuel extraction, increasing oversight of drilling operations and pursuing ambitious climate targets. At the same time, the Trump administration is seeking to expand drilling on public land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re talking about a million acres in California, federal public land, that this administration wants to open up to a process which is now substantiated to pose lots of risks,” Becerra said. “When you try to move forward with the plan that you didn’t run through the process properly, according to the law — whether it’s the environmental law, or our procedures law — we’re going to take action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California contends that more drilling will damage ecologically sensitive areas and endanger millions of Californians by contributing additional pollution in places already choked by dirty air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra said that the risks to the state are too high to ignore. “One in every four children in the Central Valley suffers from asthma,” he said. “And all the issues that would confound our ability to protect the health of residents in the state are involved. It’s not just the risk of asthma, but heart disease, lung disease, cancer, all those things go up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra says the plan is based on “incorrect assumptions” about the amount of fracking that could take place on public lands, and that energy companies have shown little to no interest in the locations proposed, a point on which industry experts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951384/california-is-phasing-out-fossil-fuels-trump-wants-to-expand-drilling-somethings-gotta-give\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agree\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokeswoman for the BLM’s Central California District, Serena Baker, said in an emailed statement that the bureau received a copy of the lawsuit and is reviewing it. The agency’s environmental analysis relied on the best available science, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added that the environmental impact of any new drilling project would be “addressed at the site or project-specific level in subsequent tiered environmental analysis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BLM manages less than 10% of oil and gas operations in California with the state managing the remaining 90%,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom co-signed the lawsuit, which the state filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, along with the California Air Resources Board, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the California Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October, BLM released a separate plan that opened up nearly 800,000 acres of the state’s Central Coast plus land in Alameda and Contra Costa counties for gas and oil extraction. California has not sued the agency over this plan, but conservation groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, have filed suit over both drilling plans.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "California Attorney General Xavier Becerra said the federal plan conflicts with the state's goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>California on Friday officially \u003ca href=\"https://oag.ca.gov/system/files/attachments/press-docs/1%20Complaint.pdf\">challenged\u003c/a> a Trump administration plan to open up more than a million acres of public land in the state to fossil fuel development.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In December, the Bureau of Land Management \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951605/its-official-feds-open-up-central-california-to-more-drilling\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">finalized\u003c/a> a fracking and drilling plan that spans eight counties in Central California, ending a federal moratorium on new leases in the state. The proposal includes land in Fresno, Kern, Kings, Madera, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, Tulare, and Ventura Counties.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California Attorney General Xavier Becerra called the federal plan “half-baked” and “misguided” and says it conflicts with California policy of reducing emissions of planet- warming gases 40% by 2030.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“One of the big concerns is this would set us back in our goals to address emissions of greenhouse gases,” Becerra said. “But it goes far beyond that. This is an issue of health.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The lawsuit is the latest action in California’s ongoing fight with the Trump administration over energy and climate policy. The state is aggressively scaling back fossil fuel extraction, increasing oversight of drilling operations and pursuing ambitious climate targets. At the same time, the Trump administration is seeking to expand drilling on public land.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“You’re talking about a million acres in California, federal public land, that this administration wants to open up to a process which is now substantiated to pose lots of risks,” Becerra said. “When you try to move forward with the plan that you didn’t run through the process properly, according to the law — whether it’s the environmental law, or our procedures law — we’re going to take action.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>California contends that more drilling will damage ecologically sensitive areas and endanger millions of Californians by contributing additional pollution in places already choked by dirty air.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra said that the risks to the state are too high to ignore. “One in every four children in the Central Valley suffers from asthma,” he said. “And all the issues that would confound our ability to protect the health of residents in the state are involved. It’s not just the risk of asthma, but heart disease, lung disease, cancer, all those things go up.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Becerra says the plan is based on “incorrect assumptions” about the amount of fracking that could take place on public lands, and that energy companies have shown little to no interest in the locations proposed, a point on which industry experts \u003ca href=\"https://www.kqed.org/science/1951384/california-is-phasing-out-fossil-fuels-trump-wants-to-expand-drilling-somethings-gotta-give\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">agree\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A spokeswoman for the BLM’s Central California District, Serena Baker, said in an emailed statement that the bureau received a copy of the lawsuit and is reviewing it. The agency’s environmental analysis relied on the best available science, she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She added that the environmental impact of any new drilling project would be “addressed at the site or project-specific level in subsequent tiered environmental analysis.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“BLM manages less than 10% of oil and gas operations in California with the state managing the remaining 90%,” she said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Gov. Gavin Newsom co-signed the lawsuit, which the state filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, along with the California Air Resources Board, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife, and the California Department of Water Resources.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In October, BLM released a separate plan that opened up nearly 800,000 acres of the state’s Central Coast plus land in Alameda and Contra Costa counties for gas and oil extraction. California has not sued the agency over this plan, but conservation groups, led by the Center for Biological Diversity, have filed suit over both drilling plans.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Thousands of Dead Birds, Washed Up on Pacific Coast, Linked to Ocean Heat Wave",
"headTitle": "Thousands of Dead Birds, Washed Up on Pacific Coast, Linked to Ocean Heat Wave | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>David Irons was driving past a beach in Whittier, Alaska, on New Year’s Day four years ago when something caught his eye. It was an endless line of white lumps near the water’s edge—piles of something that shouldn’t be there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were dead sea birds, and the bodies were everywhere. “I just couldn’t believe it,” said Irons, a recently retired biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We started counting them, and we just counted a section and we got to 1,500.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, he and his wife, son and a friend found 8,000 dead birds on a beach about a mile long. A dead zone of common murres—a species known for its resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For almost a year, people had been reporting finding dead common murres up and down the Pacific coastline, from California to Alaska. From the summer of 2015 through the spring of 2016, about 62,000 washed ashore, part of a mass species die-off that scientists are attributing to an extreme marine heat wave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1955900\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 648px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1955900\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"864\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1.jpg 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Irons found about 8,000 common murres dead on a beach in Whittier, Alaska, in 2016. The ordinarily highly adaptive and resilient birds had starved to death. \u003ccite>(David Irons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0226087\">study\u003c/a> published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, a group of scientists from various state and federal agencies, universities and bird rescue organizations documented the die-off and concluded from the data that it was caused by a record-breaking ocean heat wave in 2014 through 2016 that triggered systemic changes throughout the ocean ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors estimate that 1 million common murres died during the period, an event they called “unprecedented and astounding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The common murres weren’t the only species to experience mass die-offs during this time—\u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29052019/puffin-deaths-arctic-climate-change-alaska-wildlife-biodiversity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tufted puffins\u003c/a>\u003c/u>, Cassin’s auklets, sea lions and baleen whales died, too. But what the scientists document is by far the largest die-off, one they say was caused by disturbances rippling across the food web, a result in part of ocean warming from \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oceans are warming at a rapidly increasing pace, \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14012020/ocean-heat-2019-warmest-year-argo-hurricanes-corals-marine-animals-heatwaves\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a study\u003c/a>\u003c/u> published earlier this week showed, and last year registered the hottest ocean temperatures on record. As that heat builds up, it’s having devastating consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I heard the numbers of birds being killed in California and Oregon and Washington and many areas of Alaska, as that unfolded, it was biblical to me,” said John Piatt, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who was the lead author of the new paper on the bird deaths and has been studying common murres for 40 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This bird doesn’t fail unless there aren’t enough high density patches of food to serve their high demand needs. And that’s rare,” Piatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Death Toll Grows\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what happened?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As reports came in from up and down the Pacific coast, Piatt was perplexed. Common murres are known for their ability to adapt. “Murres are the ultimate predator—they’re extremely well adapted, they can dive to 200 meters, and they live on the Continental Shelf,” he said. “Anywhere along there is their domain. And they’re the fastest flying sea bird.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet murres were washing in with the tides—sometimes 10 birds at a time, sometimes 100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Irons’ discovery on New Year’s Day, everything changed, said Julia Parrish, a biologist at the University of Washington who leads the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team and was a co-author of the study. Federal agencies started to get involved and were able to fly along the coastline and send more people to conduct surveys.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1955899 alignleft\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations-160x233.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Surveys in the Gulf of Alaska conducted by the Interior Department turned up more than 20,000 dead murres, and the public reported 21,435 more to the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists reached out to bird and rehabilitation centers from southern California to Alaska and found that, out of 66 that responded, 37 reported receiving injured or dead murres—a total of 3,365 birds. The body count ticked higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Investigation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing the scientists needed to know was whether these deaths indicated a danger for human health. Were the birds carrying a disease? A toxin?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carcasses were shipped to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. “They did all sorts of analyses for viral and bacterial diseases, toxins in the tissues,” Parrish said. “We’re trying to eliminate smoking guns. But all of those things—not found. No parasites, nothing we can hang our hat on. But there was lots of emaciation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many of his peers, Piatt was aware that these deaths were happening at the same time that the ocean was experiencing a record high heat wave, exacerbated by a ridge of high pressure on the West Coast that scientists were calling “the Blob.” But still, he wondered, “What could account for a decline in the food supply from California to the Bering Sea all at the same time?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get the answer, the scientists started ruling things out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first question: Could the fish that the murres eat have moved elsewhere in response to the warmer water? It’s well understood that fish respond in specific ways when the ocean temperature changes, sometimes moving north, south or deeper down. “But the thing is, murres can go anywhere in a matter of hours,” Piatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers also looked into whether overfishing could be the answer, but that didn’t hold water, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, they investigated whether the fish were surviving from egg to larvae. Some juvenile stock were failing, sure, but not enough to explain the large number of starving birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Piatt kept looking into it, he said he got pushback from some in the field who wanted to know how, in the absence of a clear explanation, he could still believe it was a single event that caused the birds to starve to death. But Piatt said, “There has never been such a thing. You really think that it’s a coincidence that they’re dying down there and dying up here? It’s connected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">\u003cstrong>\u003cstrong>Finally, Some Answers\u003c/strong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">Piatt began researching how water temperature can change the food supply. He started looking from the bottom up: What were the food sources that the fish were eating? He found that as the water had warmed, phytoplankton and zooplankton, the smallest ocean organisms that provide the base of the food web, had changed.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">\n\u003cp>“The older, fatter, nutritionally richer zooplankton were replaced by southerly or offshore species that weren’t as big and nutritionally rich,” Piatt said. “This was observed in the Gulf of Alaska and off California and in various studies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, Piatt dove into studies that found that when water gets hotter, fish like cod, flounder, pollock and hake respond by increasing their metabolism. “If you turn up the temperature by a couple degrees, they have to double their food intake,” Piatt said. “It’s a huge deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that those fish feed on the same prey as the murres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the murres have an Achilles heel: They have to eat more than half their body mass every day. Based on their normal diet in Alaska, that’s typically 60-120 fatty forage fish every day—double that, if only leaner prey is available. By comparison, cod of similar size to a murre would only need to eat about 0.4-1.5 percent of their body mass per day—just 1 to 3 fatty fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The double-whammy caused by warming waters—less nutritionally rich food sources and more competition for the food available—is what Piatt and his co-authors hypothesize led to the common murres deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If murres can’t fully meet their food demand every day, their body condition begins to decline quickly. “If they can’t find \u003cem>any\u003c/em> food for 3-5 days, they will die of starvation,” the authors write in the new study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Caused the Marine Heat Wave\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extreme heat in the ocean from 2014-2016 was a result of several factors. Piatt describes it like a step ladder:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>At the base is the ocean getting warmer due to global warming. Global warming contributed about 25 percent of the warming in the heat wave.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Next, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability that leads to periods of warming in the mid-latitude Pacific—that contributed about 35 percent of the heat.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>As part of that, there was a strong El Niño from 2015-2016, which led to warming from California’s coast up to Alaska’s.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“If you remove all those signals you’ll see about a quarter of the heat is still unaccounted for, said Piatt. “That’s the Blob.” The Blob developed when a ridge of high pressure formed over the land on the northwestern coast of North America and blocked airflow from the Pacific to the interior, trapping heat over the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was the biggest marine heat wave so far on record,” said Thomas Frölicher, a climate scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland who was not involved in the new study. “Usually, we are used to heat waves over land. They are much smaller in size, and they do not last as long. In the ocean, this heat wave lasted two or three years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past 35 years, marine heat waves have doubled in frequency, Frölicher said. And as global temperatures continue to rise, they will become even more commonplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we follow a high-greenhouse-gas-emissions scenario, these heat waves will become \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0383-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">50 times more frequent\u003c/a> than preindustrial times” by 2100, Frölicher said. A low-emissions scenario, consistent with the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/paris-climate-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris climate agreement\u003c/a>, would still see 20 times more heat waves, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What that means is that in some regions, they will become permanent heat waves,” he said. The mass deaths of common murres suggests what that may look like. “This gives us some insight into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "A new study unravels the mystery of what caused so many of these normally resilient seabirds to starve amid an ocean heat wave fueled in part by global warming.",
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"description": "A new study unravels the mystery of what caused so many of these normally resilient seabirds to starve amid an ocean heat wave fueled in part by global warming.",
"title": "Thousands of Dead Birds, Washed Up on Pacific Coast, Linked to Ocean Heat Wave | KQED",
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"headline": "Thousands of Dead Birds, Washed Up on Pacific Coast, Linked to Ocean Heat Wave",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>David Irons was driving past a beach in Whittier, Alaska, on New Year’s Day four years ago when something caught his eye. It was an endless line of white lumps near the water’s edge—piles of something that shouldn’t be there.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>They were dead sea birds, and the bodies were everywhere. “I just couldn’t believe it,” said Irons, a recently retired biologist with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “We started counting them, and we just counted a section and we got to 1,500.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In all, he and his wife, son and a friend found 8,000 dead birds on a beach about a mile long. A dead zone of common murres—a species known for its resilience.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For almost a year, people had been reporting finding dead common murres up and down the Pacific coastline, from California to Alaska. From the summer of 2015 through the spring of 2016, about 62,000 washed ashore, part of a mass species die-off that scientists are attributing to an extreme marine heat wave.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_1955900\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\" style=\"max-width: 648px\">\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1955900\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"648\" height=\"864\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1.jpg 648w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/common-murre-die-off-700_david-irons-1-160x213.jpg 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 648px) 100vw, 648px\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">David Irons found about 8,000 common murres dead on a beach in Whittier, Alaska, in 2016. The ordinarily highly adaptive and resilient birds had starved to death. \u003ccite>(David Irons)\u003c/cite>\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>In a \u003ca href=\"https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0226087\">study\u003c/a> published Wednesday in the journal PLOS ONE, a group of scientists from various state and federal agencies, universities and bird rescue organizations documented the die-off and concluded from the data that it was caused by a record-breaking ocean heat wave in 2014 through 2016 that triggered systemic changes throughout the ocean ecosystem.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The authors estimate that 1 million common murres died during the period, an event they called “unprecedented and astounding.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The common murres weren’t the only species to experience mass die-offs during this time—\u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29052019/puffin-deaths-arctic-climate-change-alaska-wildlife-biodiversity\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">tufted puffins\u003c/a>\u003c/u>, Cassin’s auklets, sea lions and baleen whales died, too. But what the scientists document is by far the largest die-off, one they say was caused by disturbances rippling across the food web, a result in part of ocean warming from \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/topic/climate-change\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">climate change\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Oceans are warming at a rapidly increasing pace, \u003cu>\u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14012020/ocean-heat-2019-warmest-year-argo-hurricanes-corals-marine-animals-heatwaves\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">a study\u003c/a>\u003c/u> published earlier this week showed, and last year registered the hottest ocean temperatures on record. As that heat builds up, it’s having devastating consequences.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“When I heard the numbers of birds being killed in California and Oregon and Washington and many areas of Alaska, as that unfolded, it was biblical to me,” said John Piatt, a biologist with the U.S. Geological Survey who was the lead author of the new paper on the bird deaths and has been studying common murres for 40 years.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“This bird doesn’t fail unless there aren’t enough high density patches of food to serve their high demand needs. And that’s rare,” Piatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Death Toll Grows\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>So what happened?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As reports came in from up and down the Pacific coast, Piatt was perplexed. Common murres are known for their ability to adapt. “Murres are the ultimate predator—they’re extremely well adapted, they can dive to 200 meters, and they live on the Continental Shelf,” he said. “Anywhere along there is their domain. And they’re the fastest flying sea bird.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Yet murres were washing in with the tides—sometimes 10 birds at a time, sometimes 100.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>After Irons’ discovery on New Year’s Day, everything changed, said Julia Parrish, a biologist at the University of Washington who leads the Coastal Observation and Seabird Survey Team and was a co-author of the study. Federal agencies started to get involved and were able to fly along the coastline and send more people to conduct surveys.\u003cimg loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-1955899 alignleft\" src=\"https://ww2.kqed.org/app/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"529\" height=\"770\" srcset=\"https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations.png 529w, https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/35/2020/01/Common-Murre-Populations-160x233.png 160w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 529px) 100vw, 529px\">\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Surveys in the Gulf of Alaska conducted by the Interior Department turned up more than 20,000 dead murres, and the public reported 21,435 more to the department.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The scientists reached out to bird and rehabilitation centers from southern California to Alaska and found that, out of 66 that responded, 37 reported receiving injured or dead murres—a total of 3,365 birds. The body count ticked higher.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Investigation\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first thing the scientists needed to know was whether these deaths indicated a danger for human health. Were the birds carrying a disease? A toxin?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Carcasses were shipped to the U.S. Geological Survey’s National Wildlife Health Center in Madison, Wisconsin. “They did all sorts of analyses for viral and bacterial diseases, toxins in the tissues,” Parrish said. “We’re trying to eliminate smoking guns. But all of those things—not found. No parasites, nothing we can hang our hat on. But there was lots of emaciation.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like many of his peers, Piatt was aware that these deaths were happening at the same time that the ocean was experiencing a record high heat wave, exacerbated by a ridge of high pressure on the West Coast that scientists were calling “the Blob.” But still, he wondered, “What could account for a decline in the food supply from California to the Bering Sea all at the same time?”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>To get the answer, the scientists started ruling things out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The first question: Could the fish that the murres eat have moved elsewhere in response to the warmer water? It’s well understood that fish respond in specific ways when the ocean temperature changes, sometimes moving north, south or deeper down. “But the thing is, murres can go anywhere in a matter of hours,” Piatt said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The researchers also looked into whether overfishing could be the answer, but that didn’t hold water, either.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Next, they investigated whether the fish were surviving from egg to larvae. Some juvenile stock were failing, sure, but not enough to explain the large number of starving birds.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>As Piatt kept looking into it, he said he got pushback from some in the field who wanted to know how, in the absence of a clear explanation, he could still believe it was a single event that caused the birds to starve to death. But Piatt said, “There has never been such a thing. You really think that it’s a coincidence that they’re dying down there and dying up here? It’s connected.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">\u003cstrong>\u003cstrong>Finally, Some Answers\u003c/strong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv>\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">Piatt began researching how water temperature can change the food supply. He started looking from the bottom up: What were the food sources that the fish were eating? He found that as the water had warmed, phytoplankton and zooplankton, the smallest ocean organisms that provide the base of the food web, had changed.\u003c/div>\n\u003cdiv class=\"media media-element-container media-image_centered_medium\">\n\u003cp>“The older, fatter, nutritionally richer zooplankton were replaced by southerly or offshore species that weren’t as big and nutritionally rich,” Piatt said. “This was observed in the Gulf of Alaska and off California and in various studies.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>At the same time, Piatt dove into studies that found that when water gets hotter, fish like cod, flounder, pollock and hake respond by increasing their metabolism. “If you turn up the temperature by a couple degrees, they have to double their food intake,” Piatt said. “It’s a huge deal.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It turns out that those fish feed on the same prey as the murres.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And the murres have an Achilles heel: They have to eat more than half their body mass every day. Based on their normal diet in Alaska, that’s typically 60-120 fatty forage fish every day—double that, if only leaner prey is available. By comparison, cod of similar size to a murre would only need to eat about 0.4-1.5 percent of their body mass per day—just 1 to 3 fatty fish.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The double-whammy caused by warming waters—less nutritionally rich food sources and more competition for the food available—is what Piatt and his co-authors hypothesize led to the common murres deaths.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If murres can’t fully meet their food demand every day, their body condition begins to decline quickly. “If they can’t find \u003cem>any\u003c/em> food for 3-5 days, they will die of starvation,” the authors write in the new study.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>What Caused the Marine Heat Wave\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The extreme heat in the ocean from 2014-2016 was a result of several factors. Piatt describes it like a step ladder:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>At the base is the ocean getting warmer due to global warming. Global warming contributed about 25 percent of the warming in the heat wave.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>Next, the Pacific Decadal Oscillation, a recurring pattern of ocean-atmosphere climate variability that leads to periods of warming in the mid-latitude Pacific—that contributed about 35 percent of the heat.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>As part of that, there was a strong El Niño from 2015-2016, which led to warming from California’s coast up to Alaska’s.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>“If you remove all those signals you’ll see about a quarter of the heat is still unaccounted for, said Piatt. “That’s the Blob.” The Blob developed when a ridge of high pressure formed over the land on the northwestern coast of North America and blocked airflow from the Pacific to the interior, trapping heat over the ocean.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“It was the biggest marine heat wave so far on record,” said Thomas Frölicher, a climate scientist at the University of Bern in Switzerland who was not involved in the new study. “Usually, we are used to heat waves over land. They are much smaller in size, and they do not last as long. In the ocean, this heat wave lasted two or three years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In the past 35 years, marine heat waves have doubled in frequency, Frölicher said. And as global temperatures continue to rise, they will become even more commonplace.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If we follow a high-greenhouse-gas-emissions scenario, these heat waves will become \u003ca href=\"https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-018-0383-9\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">50 times more frequent\u003c/a> than preindustrial times” by 2100, Frölicher said. A low-emissions scenario, consistent with the \u003ca href=\"https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/paris-climate-agreement\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Paris climate agreement\u003c/a>, would still see 20 times more heat waves, he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“What that means is that in some regions, they will become permanent heat waves,” he said. The mass deaths of common murres suggests what that may look like. “This gives us some insight into the future.”\u003c/p>\n\u003c/div>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"title": "Young People's Climate Suit Dismissed by Appeals Court",
"headTitle": "Young People’s Climate Suit Dismissed by Appeals Court | KQED",
"content": "\u003cp>A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by 21 young people who claimed the U.S. government’s climate policies and reliance on fossil fuels harms them, jeopardizes their future and violates their constitutional rights, potentially bringing an end to a long-running legal battle that activists saw as an important front in the war against environmental degradation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oregon-based youth advocacy group Our Children’s Trust filed the lawsuit in 2015 in Eugene on behalf of the youngsters. It sought an injunction ordering the government to implement a plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions and draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide emission. The case had bounced around the federal courts for five years and multiple trial dates were canceled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2-1 vote for dismissal was a major blow for the climate activists, who have filed numerous similar cases in state and federal courts and currently have nine cases pending in state courts from Alaska to New Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t immediately clear if any further legal avenues were open to the plaintiffs and their attorneys. Our Children’s Trust and Earth Guardians did not immediately respond to telephone messages seeking comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erin Barnhart, a spokeswoman for Children’s Trust, said in an email that the group would release a statement later Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government attorneys repeatedly sought the case’s dismissal and succeeded in having the scope of the claims narrowed and some defendants dismissed during years of back-and-forth litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, the court wrote that the youngsters made a compelling case that action is needed and agreed that climate change is undeniable, but said the proper venue for addressing the nation’s emissions policies and fossil fuel use is the U.S. Congress or the electorate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, the justices wrote that ending the use of fossil fuels in the U.S. alone — which is what the plaintiffs sought — would not be enough to slow or stop climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather, the record shows that many of the emissions causing climate change happened decades ago or come from foreign and non-governmental sources,” the opinion read, adding that experts who testified in the case said such results would require a “fundamental transformation” of the world’s energy system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The youths, who were between the ages of 8 and 18 when the lawsuit was filed in 2015, tied specific incidents that had affected their lives to climate change and U.S. government policies. In one instance, a young woman said she was forced to leave her home on a Navajo reservation because of water scarcity, separating her from her relatives. Others mentioned physical ailments from pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These injuries are not simply ‘conjectural’ or ‘hypothetical;’ at least some of the plaintiffs have presented evidence that climate change is affecting them now in concrete ways and will continue to do so unless checked,” the majority wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sole dissenting justice, Josephine Stanton, wrote that “my colleagues throw up their hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No case can singlehandedly prevent the catastrophic effects of climate change predicted by the government and scientists. … and the mere fact that this suit cannot alone halt climate change does not mean that it presents no claim suitable for judicial resolution,” Stanton wrote in her dissent.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"excerpt": "The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco wrote that although it recognizes the youngsters made a compelling case that climate action is needed, it 'reluctantly' concluded the courts were not the right branch of government for redress.",
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"description": "The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco wrote that although it recognizes the youngsters made a compelling case that climate action is needed, it 'reluctantly' concluded the courts were not the right branch of government for redress.",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>A federal appeals court on Friday dismissed a lawsuit by 21 young people who claimed the U.S. government’s climate policies and reliance on fossil fuels harms them, jeopardizes their future and violates their constitutional rights, potentially bringing an end to a long-running legal battle that activists saw as an important front in the war against environmental degradation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The Oregon-based youth advocacy group Our Children’s Trust filed the lawsuit in 2015 in Eugene on behalf of the youngsters. It sought an injunction ordering the government to implement a plan to phase out fossil fuel emissions and draw down atmospheric carbon dioxide emission. The case had bounced around the federal courts for five years and multiple trial dates were canceled.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The 2-1 vote for dismissal was a major blow for the climate activists, who have filed numerous similar cases in state and federal courts and currently have nine cases pending in state courts from Alaska to New Mexico.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It wasn’t immediately clear if any further legal avenues were open to the plaintiffs and their attorneys. Our Children’s Trust and Earth Guardians did not immediately respond to telephone messages seeking comment.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Erin Barnhart, a spokeswoman for Children’s Trust, said in an email that the group would release a statement later Friday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Government attorneys repeatedly sought the case’s dismissal and succeeded in having the scope of the claims narrowed and some defendants dismissed during years of back-and-forth litigation.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>On Friday, the court wrote that the youngsters made a compelling case that action is needed and agreed that climate change is undeniable, but said the proper venue for addressing the nation’s emissions policies and fossil fuel use is the U.S. Congress or the electorate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, the justices wrote that ending the use of fossil fuels in the U.S. alone — which is what the plaintiffs sought — would not be enough to slow or stop climate change.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Rather, the record shows that many of the emissions causing climate change happened decades ago or come from foreign and non-governmental sources,” the opinion read, adding that experts who testified in the case said such results would require a “fundamental transformation” of the world’s energy system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The youths, who were between the ages of 8 and 18 when the lawsuit was filed in 2015, tied specific incidents that had affected their lives to climate change and U.S. government policies. In one instance, a young woman said she was forced to leave her home on a Navajo reservation because of water scarcity, separating her from her relatives. Others mentioned physical ailments from pollution.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“These injuries are not simply ‘conjectural’ or ‘hypothetical;’ at least some of the plaintiffs have presented evidence that climate change is affecting them now in concrete ways and will continue to do so unless checked,” the majority wrote.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The sole dissenting justice, Josephine Stanton, wrote that “my colleagues throw up their hands.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“No case can singlehandedly prevent the catastrophic effects of climate change predicted by the government and scientists. … and the mere fact that this suit cannot alone halt climate change does not mean that it presents no claim suitable for judicial resolution,” Stanton wrote in her dissent.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
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"soldout": {
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"title": "SOLD OUT: Rethinking Housing in America",
"tagline": "A new future for housing",
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