Month: March 2023

In a first, coal company agrees to use social cost of carbon

Read the full story at ClimateWire.

Utah’s largest coal company will relinquish two mining leases and apply the social cost of carbon in the environmental analysis of a third lease as part of a settlement agreement reached last week with environmental groups and the federal government.

The deal, which also includes the state of Utah, would see environmentalists drop their lawsuit challenging the expansion of a coal mine on federal land.

Environmentalists said an agreement involving Canyon Fuel Co. LLC, the Interior Department, the state of Utah and two green groups marks the first time a coal company has voluntarily agreed to calculate the climate damages of its mining operations on federal land.

98% of companies may not wait for SEC climate disclosure rules to become law to begin reporting: Survey

Read the full story at ESG Today.

Nearly all U.S. public companies may begin complying with the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) upcoming climate-related disclosure rules regardless of when they become law, yet most companies admit that they face technology, staffing, and budget challenges in meeting the rules’ requirements, according to a new survey by global professional services firm PwC and business data and reporting solutions provider Workiva.

For the study, PwC and Workiva commissioned a survey of 300 senior-level corporate executives at U.S.-based public companies with at least $500 million in revenues.

Could you power your data center with green hydrogen?

Read the full story at GreenBiz.

Can green hydrogen be the key to more sustainable data center infrastructure? Startup ECL thinks so.

LMV accelerates sustainable aviation with investment in high performance electric motor manufacturer H3X

Read the full story from Environment + Energy Leader.

Lockheed Martin Ventures (LMV), the venture arm of Lockheed Martin Corporation, has invested in H3X Technologies, a company that designs and manufactures advanced electric motors for sustainable aviation and high-performance applications. H3X has raised a total of $9M, which will be used to accelerate technology development and commercialization of their HPDM family of integrated motor drives and to scale up their new headquarters facility in Louisville, Colorado for production.

Wind farms are transforming the Kansas landscape. Here’s an effort to tone down their lights

Read the full story from KCUR.

Wind farms continue to spread across Kansas — but with new features that will tone down the way they interrupt wide open skies with red, blinking lights visible for miles and resented by many rural residents.

This year, Kansas will get its first two wind farms designed to produce less light pollution — High Banks north of Concordia and Sunflower Wind Farm about an hour west of Emporia. Meanwhile, state lawmakers are considering a law to make other wind farms follow suit.

Post office buys 9,250 electric vans, 14,000 charge stations

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

The U.S. Postal Service is buying 9,250 Ford Motor Co. electric vans and 14,000 charging stations as part of a move to switch its fleet to electric vehicles.

The service also is buying another 9,250 internal combustion vans from Fiat Chrysler in North America, now part of Amsterdam-based Stellantis. The Fiat Chrysler and Ford vehicles together will cost just over $1 billion.

Commentary: Achieving climate goals in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin

Read the full story at Energy News Network.

Climate leadership in Minnesota, Michigan, and Wisconsin could revitalize the Midwest. And the timing couldn’t be better.

“It’s almost like a cult.” Activists shout down rural renewable energy projects

Read the full story at Yale Climate Connections.

Officials and farmers report threats and intimidation in small Midwest communities that are considering solar and wind farms.

There’s an environmental rebound problem in the food-sharing economy

Read the full story from Anthropocene Magazine.

In a new study, researchers made a surprising discovery: the environment benefits of online food sharing are often undone by how consumers spend their saved cash.

States Energy Storage Policy: Best Practices for Decarbonization [report and webinar]

Download the report.

This report, published jointly by Sandia National Laboratories and the Clean Energy States Alliance, summarizes findings from a 2022 survey of states leading in decarbonization goals and programs. The report also summarizes findings from a 2022 survey of energy storage developers; and it provides a “deep dive” into key state energy storage policy priorities and the challenges being encountered by some of the leading states, in the form of a series of case studies. The report highlights best practices, identifies barriers, and underscores the urgent need to expand state energy storage policymaking to support decarbonization in the US.

Webinar

Mar 23, 2023, noon CDT
Register here.

Decarbonization of electricity generation is one of the most pressing issues of our time, and scaling up energy storage deployment is key to achieving state decarbonization goals. Yet the most effective approaches to energy storage policymaking are far from clear. A new report by Sandia National Laboratories and the Clean Energy States Alliance (CESA) summarizes findings from a 2022 survey of states leading in decarbonization goals and programs. The report, States Energy Storage Policy: Best Practices for Decarbonization, also summarizes findings from a 2022 survey of energy storage developers, and provides a deep dive into energy storage policymaking in several key states. In this webinar, report authors from CESA and Sandia will present their findings.

Panelists:

  • Will McNamara, Sandia National Laboratories
  • Todd Olinsky-Paul, Clean Energy States Alliance
  • Gabe Epstein, Clean Energy States Alliance (moderator)

This webinar is a presentation of the Energy Storage Technology Advancement Partnership (ESTAP). ESTAP is a federal-state funding and information sharing project that aims to accelerate the deployment of electrical energy storage technologies in the US. ESTAP is funded by the US Department of Energy Office of Electricity under the direction of Dr. Imre Gyuk; managed by Sandia National Laboratories; and administered by the Clean Energy States Alliance.

U.S. Judge: Flint has 5 months to finish long-overdue lead pipe replacement

Read the full story at Bridge Michigan.

A federal judge has given the city of Flint until August 1 to finish a lead line replacement job that has dragged on for three years beyond its original deadline.

In an order issued Friday, U.S. District Court Judge David M. Lawson also gave city officials until May to figure out which Flint residents’ yards are still ripped up from past lead line replacement work. The city must then restore cracked sidewalks and potholed yards.

The order was issued about two weeks after Bridge Michigan reported that many residents still have gaping holes in their yards or chunks missing from their sidewalks after work crews excavated their service line and then failed to clean up the mess.

EU lawmakers approve CO2-cutting targets and expanding forest carbon sinks

Read the full story from Reuters.

The European Parliament gave its final approval on Tuesday to tougher national targets to cut emissions in some sectors, and expand CO2-absorbing natural ecosystems like forests.

The two laws are part of a major package of climate change legislation passing through the European Union’s policymaking process, designed to ensure the 27-country bloc cuts greenhouse gas emissions 55% by 2030, from 1990 levels.

Oregon eyes mandate for climate change lessons in schools

Read the full story from the Associated Press.

Oregon lawmakers are aiming to make the state the second in the nation to mandate climate change lessons for K-12 public school students, further fueling U.S. culture wars in education.

Dozens of Oregon high schoolers submitted support of the bill, saying they care about climate change deeply. Some teachers and parents say teaching climate change could help the next generation better confront it, but others want schools to focus on reading, writing and math after test scores plummeted post-pandemic.

Groups sue to halt expansion of lakeside dump on Southeast Side

Read the full story in the Chicago Sun-Times.

A pair of Chicago organizations are suing the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in federal court over plans to expand a lakeside dump that holds toxic dredged materials from the Calumet River.

EPA proposes PFAS National Primary Drinking Water Regulation

On March 14, 2023, EPA announced the proposed National Primary Drinking Water Regulation (NPDWR) for six PFAS including perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA), perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS), perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA), hexafluoropropylene oxide dimer acid (HFPO-DA, commonly known as GenX Chemicals), perfluorohexane sulfonic acid (PFHxS), and perfluorobutane sulfonic acid (PFBS). The proposed PFAS NPDWR does not require any actions until it is finalized. EPA anticipates finalizing the regulation by the end of 2023. EPA expects that if fully implemented, the rule will prevent thousands of deaths and reduce tens of thousands of serious PFAS-attributable illnesses.

EPA is requesting public comment on the proposed regulation. The public comment period will open following the proposed rule publishing in the Federal Register. Public comments can be provided at that time at www.regulations.gov under Docket ID: EPA-HQ-OW-2022-0114. Information on submitting comments to EPA dockets can be found here.

EPA will be holding two informational webinars about the proposed PFAS NDPWR on March 16, 2023, and March 29, 2023. The webinars will be similar, with each intended for specific audiences. Registration is required to attend. The webinar recordings and presentation materials will be made available following the webinars at this website. For questions related to the public webinars, contact PFASNPDWR@epa.gov. 

EPA will also be holding a public hearing on May 4, 2023, where members of the public can register to attend and provide verbal comments to EPA on the rule proposal. Registration is required to attend and the last day to register to speak at the hearing is April 28, 2023. For questions related to the public hearing, contact PFASNPDWR@epa.gov.