Wall Street Journal: “The oil industry’s top lobbying group is preparing to endorse setting a price on carbon emissions in what would be the strongest signal yet that oil and gas producers are ready to accept government efforts to confront climate change.”
The Growing Problem of E-Waste
Green That Life: “When you think of the main culprit in our global waste crisis, do you think of plastic? I do, but a fierce contender is now e-waste. As we grapple with the environmental issues related to handling humans’ ability to generate ever-increasing quantities of waste, we’ll need to add electrically-powered devices to the list.”
Texas Blackouts Point to Coast-to-Coast Crises In Future
NYT: “The crisis carries a profound warning. As climate change brings more frequent and intense storms, floods, heat waves, wildfires and other extreme events, it is placing growing stress on the foundations of the country’s economy: Its network of roads and railways, drinking-water systems, power plants, electrical grids, industrial waste sites and even homes.”
“Failures in just one sector can set off a domino effect of breakdowns in hard-to-predict ways. Much of this infrastructure was built decades ago, under the expectation that the environment around it would remain stable, or at least fluctuate within predictable bounds. Now climate change is upending that assumption.”
Politico: Texas and California built different power grids, but neither stood up to climate change.
Biden Moves to Reverse Trump’s ‘Water Flow’ Rules
“Former President Donald Trump’s effort to loosen regulations dictating the water-flow levels of many household appliances and fixtures is under threat with the Biden administration announcing it will launch a federal review of several Trump-era rules and regulations governing the topic, in addition to other energy and efficiency-related edicts,” NBC News reports.
Kerry Warns We Have Less Than a Decade on Climate
“The wild winter weather this week has been called historic and unprecedented, and John Kerry, U.S. special presidential envoy for climate, wants to stop it from becoming typical,” CBS News reports.
Said Kerry: “Well, the scientists told us three years ago we had 12 years to avert the worst consequences of climate crisis. We are now three years gone, so we have nine years left.”
U.S. Returns to Paris Climate Pact
The Guardian: “While Friday’s return is heavily symbolic, world leaders say they expect the US to prove its seriousness after four years of being mostly absent. They are especially keen to hear an announcement from Washington in the coming months on the US’s goal for cutting emissions of heat-trapping gases by 2030.”
Don’t Be Greenwashed
Sara Goddard recommends five ways to avoid it and three surprising examples you should know about.
Trump Rules Easing Emissions Limits Vacated by Court
Wall Street Journal: “A federal appeals court on Tuesday vacated the Trump administration’s rules that eased restrictions on greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants, potentially making it easier for the incoming Biden administration to reset the nation’s signature rules addressing climate change.”
Make 2021 a Green New Year
Green That Life has 30 easy and effective New Year’s resolution ideas.
Biden to Unveil Climate and Energy Team
“President-elect Joe Biden is scheduled to publicly introduce his climate and energy team on Saturday, a history-making group that will be tasked with advancing his ambitious climate policy and strengthening safeguards against pollution,” Reuters reports.
“Biden has promised to make tackling climate change one of the pillars of his Democratic administration. But with a slim majority in the U.S. House of Representatives and control of the U.S. Senate still undecided, Biden and his new team may see little success in Congress and instead rely on rules from his regulatory agencies to enact sweeping change.”
Biden Picks Michael Regan for EPA
President-elect Joe Biden will nominate Michael Regan, the secretary of the North Carolina department of environmental quality, to lead the Environmental Protection Agency, the Washington Post reports.
Rules Eased for Showerheads
The Trump administration has relaxed a regulation restricting water flow from showerheads, a pet peeve of President Trump, who complained that he wanted more water to make his hair “perfect,” the AP reports.
Biden Picks Gina McCarthy as Domestic Climate Czar
“President-elect Joe Biden has tapped Gina McCarthy, who ran the Environmental Protection Agency under President Barack Obama and now leads a major advocacy group, to coordinate the new administration’s domestic climate agenda from a senior perch at the White House,” the Washington Post reports.
Biden Mulls Michael Regan for EPA Chief
“Michael Regan, the top environmental regulator in North Carolina, has emerged as a leading candidate to head the Environmental Protection Agency,” Axios reports.
EPA Won’t Tighten Soot Standards
Wall Street Journal: “Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler has decided to retain current standards for soot pollution, saying those standards are sufficient despite research suggesting that tougher standards could save lives. The move retains standards on soot, or fine-particle pollution, adopted in 2012 that set limits at 12 micrograms per cubic meter of air.”
Kerry’s Climate Job Scrambles Biden’s Org Chart
Politico: “He’s been a national figure since his days as a Vietnam vet protesting the war. He carried his party’s banner in 2004. And as secretary of State, he negotiated a major nuclear deal involving the world’s most powerful countries.”
“Now John Kerry is reporting for duty as Joe Biden’s climate envoy, and the exact parameters of his new role remain undefined, raising concerns that he might create confusion and complicate the Biden administration’s diplomatic lines of effort.”
Trump Races to Sell Arctic Oil Rights
“The Trump administration is racing to sell oil drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before Joe Biden takes office so the president-elect can’t revoke the contracts,” Bloomberg reports.
“The Interior Department announced Thursday it will hold the auction on Jan. 6 — an accelerated timetable meant to ensure the oil and gas leases are formally issued before Biden is sworn in Jan. 20. Biden has vowed to permanently protect the refuge, but formal leases are contracts with the federal government and are difficult to cancel.”
GOP Control to Linger Over Agency Key to Climate
“The Biden administration will take over the executive branch on Jan. 20, but the new president won’t have a Democratic majority on an independent commission that holds significant sway over one of his top priorities, a cleaner electric grid, until after June 30,” Roll Call reports.
“That’s because the Senate this week approved by voice vote a bipartisan pair of Trump administration nominees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission — which oversees energy markets, the electric grid, natural gas pipelines and large power projects like wind farms — leaving it with a 3-2 Republican majority until June 30, when the term of Neil Chatterjee, a GOP commissioner, expires.”
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