EnviroPolitics Blog

Embattled electric utility breathing easier after court ruling

BY KEVIN RECTORSTAFF WRITER, LA Times

Pacific Gas & Electric customers cannot sue the power giant for losses incurred during power shutoffs designed to protect the public from wildfires, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

Such litigation would interfere with the California Public Utilities Commission’s “comprehensive regulatory and supervisory authority” over such safety shutoffs and is therefore barred under state law, Justice Goodwin Liu wrote in a unanimous decision for the state’s high court.

The ruling is a significant win for embattled PG&E, which crawled out of bankruptcy in 2020 after collapsing under $30 billion in liabilities from wildfires sparked by its equipment. Litigation over safety cutoffs, if allowed, would have potentially exposed the company to billions of dollars of additional liabilities.

Read the full story here

If you liked this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

Embattled electric utility breathing easier after court ruling Read More »

Michigan governor expected to sign clean energy bill that includes incineration

A suite of clean energy bills would transition the state to clean energy by 2040. It counts an existing facility in Kent County as clean while also supporting the use of landfill and AD systems.

A politician stands in front of a podium with the seal of Michigan projected behind her. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at an announcement for an electric vehicle battery plant in February. The clean energy bills passed in November also include battery storage provisions. *Bill Pugliano via Getty Images*

By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive

A suite of clean energy bills that passed the Michigan legislature last week aims to move the state to 100% clean energy by 2040. It includes provisions allowing “incinerator” facilities to count toward local clean energy goals until 2040, setting the waste management strategy up as an interim measure.

SB271, part of a package of five bills approved by the legislature, also counts landfill-gas-to-energy and “methane digester” facilities as clean energy, but it excludes fuels made from post-use polymers, tires, tire-derived fuel, and plastic, among other fossil fuels.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign the bill. Her office did not provide a date for the signing.

Many states have debated the inclusion of combustion facilities in their renewable energy portfolio standards over the years, with operators touting the technology’s potential greenhouse gas benefits over landfilling and environmental advocates raising alarms about pollution concerns.

Debates continue in states such as Maryland, where Gov. Wes Moore floated the idea of removing incineration from renewable portfolio standards in his transition documents, but the state failed to pass a bill doing so this year.

Michigan’s SB271 instructs electric utilities to transition to renewable or clean energy programs while pursuing energy savings initiatives. Incineration is included in the definition of a renewable energy system, but the bill only includes facilities that were generating power before the start of this year

Read the full story here

Michigan governor expected to sign clean energy bill that includes incineration Read More »

Bill advances to increase funds for dams and inland water projects

Seventeen dams and inland waters projects will receive an increase in funding for repairs and restoration thanks to legislation sponsored by Senate Minority Leader Anthony Bucco and approved on November 20, 2023 by the Senate Environment and Energy Committee.

“I’m glad that over $28M will be invested to fund projects in these municipalities, said Bucco (R-25). “These critical dam repairs will preserve and protect our local environment, which is critical to our quality of life. This funding will also protect the flow of clean drinking water to communities throughout the state, support recreational activities, and provide habitats for fish and wildlife.”

Bucco’s legislation, S-3258, appropriates $28,670,924 in 2003 and 1992 bond act monies for loans for dam restoration and repair projects and inland waters projects.

Under the bill, $5.2M dollars will be invested to fund projects in Morris and Passaic counties, including projects in West Milford and Jefferson Township:

High Crest Lake Dam: $1,250,000
Mount Glen Dam: $3,000,000
Upper & Lower Farm Crest Dams: $350,000
High Crest Lake: $500,000
Swannanoa Lake Dam: $100,000

Overall, the funds from the 2003 bond act will provide loans to thirteen projects: High Crest Lake Dam; Mount Glen Dam; Lake Winona Dam; Cooper River Pkwy. Dam; Giffords Mill Dam; Upper & Lower Farm Crest; Lake Plymouth Dam; Braddock Mill Lake Dam; Fawn Lake Dam; Camp Karney Dam; Pine Mill Lake Dam; Holiday Pond Dam; and High Crest Lake.

The funds from the 1992 bond act will provide four loans for the following projects: Mountain Creek Lake Dam; Silver Lake Dam; Lake Garrison Dam; and Swannanoa Lake Dam.

Bill advances to increase funds for dams and inland water projects Read More »

Coming soon: more oil, gas and coal

By David Gelles and Manuela Andreoni, New York Times

It’s no secret that fossil fuels are still going strong, as we discussed last month. But a new United Nations-backed report paints an alarming picture of how dramatically coal, oil, and gas production is expected to grow in the coming years.

If current projections hold, the United States will drill for more oil and gas in 2030 than at any point in its history, our colleague Hiroko Tabuchi reports. So will Russia and Saudi Arabia.

In fact, almost all of the top 20 fossil fuel-producing countries plan to produce more oil, gas, and coal in 2030 than they do today. If those projections hold, the world would overshoot the amount of fossil fuels consistent with limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius — the level scientists say would result in vastly more life-threatening heat waves, drought, and coastal flooding.

“Governments are literally doubling down on fossil fuel production; that spells double trouble for people and planet,” António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, said in a statement accompanying the report. “We cannot address climate catastrophe without tackling its root cause: fossil fuel dependence.”

If you liked this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

Coming soon: more oil, gas and coal Read More »

California makes it harder for schools, farms & rentals to go solar

Regulators have slashed the value of shared-solar systems, starting in 2025. School districts, community advocates, and politicians have expressed outrage over the decision.

Rows of solar panels on a flat roof, with the hills of San Francisco seen in the background — *Solar panels on the roof of Thurgood Marshall Academic High School in San Francisco, Calif. (Lea Suzuki/The San Francisco Chronicle/Getty Images)*

By Jeff St. John, Canary Media

California regulators have ordered changes to the state’s shared-solar programs that critics say will ruin the economics of rooftop solar on apartment buildings, schools, and farms across much of the state.

And while the new regulations approved by the California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday have been modified from the rules proposed earlier this year to reduce the impact of the changes on renters, critics say the current version will still make rooftop solar uneconomic for most rental property owners, putting the benefits of solar further out of reach for the four in 10 Californians who rent their homes.

CPUC President Alice Reynolds said at Thursday’s meeting that the changes will help California “achieve a constellation of goals including grid reliability, greenhouse gas reductions, affordability equity, consumer protections and cost containment of utility bills.” The changes won’t affect existing customers, but they will apply starting in mid-2025 to new projects for customers of Pacific Gas & Electric, Southern California Edison , and San Diego Gas & Electric, the state’s three biggest utilities.

But Reynolds’ comments fly in the face of strident opposition from clean energy groups, renters’ rights advocates, affordable-housing proponents, farming groups, school districts, and more than 135 local elected officials. These groups have warned that the new regulations could derail investments in clean power needed to help the state reach its decarbonization goals while preventing schools, farms, and rental-housing properties from mitigating the burden of utility bills that are already among the highest in the country and are set to rise further in the coming years.

Read the full story here

California makes it harder for schools, farms & rentals to go solar Read More »

Congress investigating Princeton University research fellow

Dr. Seyed Hossein Mousavian

By Olivia Sanchez and Lia Opperman, The Daily Princetonian

The House Committee on Education and the Workforce announced on Thursday, Nov. 16 that it is launching an investigation into University research fellow and former Iranian official Seyed Hossein Mousavian, amid allegations that Mousavian is using his position to advance the interests of Iran.

Mousavian was criticized in the pages of the ‘Prince’ in February 2022 by two former State Department officials because Mousavian smiled while discussing death threats against a US diplomat in an Iranian documentary. Mousavian was defended at the time by Professor Frank von Hippel who described criticism as “a hatchet job against a political opponent.”

The investigation cites two kidnappings of Princeton graduate students: graduate student Elizabeth Tsurkov’s kidnapping in March by a militia linked to the IRGC while conducting research in Baghdad, Iraq, and the recently settled case of former graduate student Xiyue Wang, who filed a lawsuit against the University for their alleged negligence during his 40 months as a hostage in Iran. A letter to President Christopher Eisgruber ’83 asks if Mousavian used his contacts to secure their release.

Read the full story here

Congress investigating Princeton University research fellow Read More »