EnviroPolitics Blog

This carbon-pricing bill could be the nation’s most far-reaching

Container trucks that run on diesel fuel line up at the Port of Seattle, which seeks to reach net zero emissions by 2050. Under cap-and-invest legislation, Washington refiners of this fuel will have to steadily reduce their carbon emissions, and almost eliminate them by 2050. ( Elaine Thompson / The Associated Press, 2015)

Container trucks that run on diesel fuel line up at the Port of Seattle, which seeks to reach net zero emissions… ( Elaine Thompson / The Associated Press, 2015)

By Hal Bernton, Seattle Times staff reporter

Washington state’s recently passed carbon-pricing legislation appears to be the nation’s most far-reaching state-level attempt to clamp down on greenhouse gas emissions.

It’s also likely to turn the state into a global testing ground for policy to combat climate change.

State Senate Bill 5126, headed to Gov. Jay Inslee’s desk for signing, is designed to help drive down pollution from 2018 levels of about 100 million metric tons to net zero emissions by 2050. That would require huge reductions in the use of fossil fuels in industries, as well as a near phaseout of gasoline and diesel fuel for cars and trucks. Much of the natural gas now used to heat many buildings would likely have to go.

The legislation is the culmination of a yearslong struggle by climate activists who often were not in agreement on how to proceed. The coalition that helped pass it eventually included not only many environmental groups but also powerful corporate players such as Puget Sound Energy and Microsoft, as well as BP, the state’s largest oil refiner, and some tribal governments.

Democrats used their majority control of the Legislature to pass the measure during an intense and historic finale to the 2021 session. Republicans, noting that Washington due to hydropower already has a relatively low-carbon profile, have fought a long-running battle to try to forestall what they view as laws that will unnecessarily push up the cost of energy for Washingtonians.

Rep. J.T. Wilcox, the Republican House minority leader from Yelm, calls it a “regressive tax and crushing blow to working families.”

The legislation, dubbed “cap and invest” by Democrats and “cap and tax” by Republicans, would require the state’s 100 largest emitters, including refiners, gas utilities and Boeing, to reduce pollution. Some of the emitters would have to pay for the right to release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.

The bill is forecast to raise at least $460 million in the fiscal year that starts July 1, 2023, and at least $580 million annually by 2040. The money would be invested in a broad range of activities that include restoration of marine and freshwaters, forest health, renewable energy, and public transportation. A portion of the money is set aside to assist workers and low-income people transition to a clean-energy economy, and some could be used to help fund the state’s working families’ tax rebate.

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In England, the sale of coal and wet wood is restricted

Curbs on the sale of house coal and wet wood for household burning in England have come into force under new rules aimed at cutting air pollution.

A log being put into a wood burning stove

By Justin Rowlatt, Chief environment correspondent, BBC News

People will still be able to use stoves and open fires but they will need to burn cleaner alternatives.

These are the first restrictions on what people can burn in their homes since the clean air acts of the 1950s.

The UK’s air is far cleaner now, but in recent years pollution from log burners has increased dramatically.

Only 8% of households use them, but they are now the biggest source of the tiny pollution particles that are most damaging to health, according to government data.

It shows domestic wood burning in both closed stoves and open fires was responsible for 38% of pollution particles under 2.5 microns in size, three times more than road traffic.

These tiny particles can enter the bloodstream and lodge in lungs and other organs, the Department for Environment Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) warns, and have been identified by the World Health Organization as the most serious air pollutant for human health.

What is wet wood? Read the full story

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N.J. weather: High wind warning issued, power outages possible with gusts up to 60 mph

By Jeff Goldman | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A breezy morning in New Jersey on Friday will turn into an extremely windy afternoon and evening as potentially damaging gusts reach as high 60 mph and cause power outages, according to forecasters.

“This will be a very long-duration, high-wind event with potentially significant impacts to the area,” the National Weather Service said in its Friday morning forecast discussion.

Trees and power lines could come down, with forecasters warning people to secure loose objects that could blow around.

Winds this morning will be about 15 to 20 mph, with gusts to around 30 mph. By early Friday afternoon, winds should increase to 20 to 25 mph, with gusts of 30 to 40 mph that increase to 45 to 55 mph during the evening. The strongest of the winds are likely to occur along the Jersey Shore and in northwestern New Jersey.

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A wind gust of 39 mph was recorded along the Delaware Bay in Fortescue before 7:30 a.m., the state climatologist’s office at Rutgers University said. By 9 a.m., the office reported gusts of 49 mph at High Point Monument in Sussex County, 46 mph in Lower Alloways Creek in Salem County, 45 mph in Harvey Cedars on Long Beach Island, and 42 mph in Point Pleasant in Ocean County.

The weather service recorded a gust of 44 mph at Atlantic City International Airport in Pomona shortly before 9 a.m. Friday.

The strongest winds are expected from about 7 p.m to 2 a.m, with temperatures falling into the 40s overnight.

The gusty winds are being generated by a big gap in atmospheric pressure between a strong storm system off the New England coast — the same system that brought scattered showers and thunderstorms to parts of New Jersey on Thursday — and a strong dome of high pressure building south and west of our region.

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Report: 13 U.S. refineries exceeded emissions limits for cancer-causing benzene in 2020

Sun sets on the Philadelphia Energy Solutions plant refinery in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S., January 9, 2020. REUTERS/Mark Makela

By Laura Sanicola and Laila Kearney, Reuters

Thirteen U.S. oil refineries released the cancer-causing chemical benzene in concentrations that exceeded federal limits last year, according to government data published by the green group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) on Wednesday.

The study is based on the second full year of data reported by U.S. refineries since the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in 2015 began requiring continuous monitoring of air pollutants around plants to protect nearby communities, many of which are disproportionately poor, Black and Hispanic.

In 2019, eleven refineries made the list, EIP said.

“If the Biden EPA wants to act on its environmental justice promises, these neighborhoods near refineries are a great place to start,” Benjamin Kunstman, staff engineer at EIP, told Reuters.

For eight of the 13 refineries, benzene levels exceeded the EPA standard of nine micrograms per cubic meter of air at the fencelines at the end of every quarter in 2020, according to the report.

When refineries monitor results that exceed the action level, the program requires them to undertake root cause analyses and corrective actions to reduce benzene, the EPA said in a statement.

The agency said it was “committed to reducing benzene and other air toxic emissions from refineries and protecting those communities most at risk from air toxics.”

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PennEast will halt its pipeline plan if it loses current case over its right to sue New Jersey in federal court

By Jon Hurdle, NJ Spotlight

The PennEast Pipeline Co. would drop its plans to build a natural-gas pipeline through New Jersey, or substantially alter them if it loses a current appeal before the U.S. Supreme Court, a lawyer for the company told the court on Wednesday.

Paul Clement was asked by Justice Brett Kavanaugh about what would happen if the high court rules against PennEast in its review of a lower court ruling that the company does not have the right to sue the state to take 49 parcels of public land by eminent domain for construction of the pipeline.

“If we lose this case, this pipeline will not be built, at least at anything like its current configuration, and depending on exactly how we lose this case, I think this pipeline, this federal interstate pipeline, will be at the mercy of New Jersey because I don’t think there is a way to reroute this pipeline in a way that doesn’t implicate a state interest in land,” he said, during oral arguments.

PennEast acting on behalf of FERC?

Clement denied, under questioning by Justice Elena Kagan, that the company’s efforts to take the land represent a private company suing the state — which New Jersey argues is unconstitutional — but is in fact the company acting on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval of its plans.

“FERC approved the pipeline route, hearing objections and over 70 route modifications were made,” he said. “That was all done under the auspices of the federal government.”

PennEast is asking the high court to overturn the adverse ruling by the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in 2019, in what may be its final attempt to salvage a $1 billion project that would pump natural gas from Pennsylvania about 120 miles to a terminal in Mercer County. The project has been beset by delays, denial of permits by New Jersey environmental officials and fierce public opposition in some of the New Jersey communities where the pipeline would run.

The company has said it will build the Pennsylvania section of the route first, and then add the New Jersey stretch by 2023.

‘Junior varsity’ eminent domain

Clement said New Jersey’s claim of sovereign immunity from being sued by the company amounted to the federal government’s eminent domain power being reduced to “junior varsity” level. “Where the federal eminent domain authority exists, it is complete, and there can be no sovereign-immunity defense to its implementation,” he said.

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Controversial nuke plant near NYC is closing

By Michael Hill, Associated Press

BUCHANAN, N.Y. (AP) — Indian Point will permanently stop producing nuclear power Friday, capping a decades-long battle over a key source of electricity in the heart of New York City’s suburbs that opponents have called a threat to millions living in the densely packed region.

The retirement of the Indian Point Energy Center along the Hudson River could increase New York’s short-term reliance on natural gas plants, despite the state’s goal of reducing carbon emissions. But Gov. Andrew Cuomo and others who fought for its shutdown argue any benefits from the plant are eclipsed by the nightmare prospect of a major nuclear accident or a terror strike 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of the city.

“There are 20 million people living within 50 miles of Indian Point and there is no way to evacuate them in case of a radiological release. And the risk of that is quite real,” said Paul Gallay, president of the environmental group Riverkeeper.

The actual shutdown will be straightforward: a control room operator for Indian Point’s Unit 3 will push a red button to shut down the reactor Friday night. It will complete a contentious closing of the plant’s two reactors years in the making.

The Unit 2 reactor shut down exactly a year ago under a 2017 agreement among the Cuomo administration, Riverkeeper and the plant’s operator, Entergy Corp. Unit 3′s shutdown under the same agreement paves the way for a decommissioning that is projected to cost $2.3 billion and take at least 12 years. The tall twin domes visible from the river will eventually be demolished.

The two reactors, which went online two years apart in the mid-’70s, had generated about a quarter of the electricity used in New York City and the lower Hudson Valley.

They also generated controversy.

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