A letter signed by executives from pension plans and other major investors warned the Federal Reserve and other agencies of the financial risks of climate change.Credit…Leah Millis/Reuters
Financial regulators should act to avoid economic disaster, according to a letter from pension funds and other investors representing almost $1 trillion in assets.
WASHINGTON — Climate change threatens to create turmoil in the financial markets, and the Federal Reserve and other regulators must act to avoid an economic disaster, according to a letter sent on Tuesday by a group of large investors.
“The climate crisis poses a systemic threat to financial markets and the real economy, with significant disruptive consequences on asset valuations and our nation’s economic stability,” reads the letter, which was signed by more than three dozen pension plans, fund managers and other financial institutions that together manage almost $1 trillion in assets.
That financial threat, combined with the physical risks posed by climate change, may create “disastrous impacts the likes of which we haven’t seen before,” the letter says. It urges the Fed, the Securities and Exchange Commission and other agencies to “explicitly integrate climate change across your mandates.”
Investors worry that if regulators do not act, climate change may cause the price of some companies to fall suddenly, the effects of which may ricochet through the economy. Providing more information about that risk — for example, by requiring companies to disclose more about their greenhouse gas emissions, or which of their facilities are at risk from rising seas — could help investors make better decisions.
That, in turn, might encourage companies to lower their emissions, or risk losing access to investment or affordable insurance coverage. “Every medium and large business has bank loans and has insurance,” said Steven Rothstein, managing director of the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, a group that works with investors and which organized the letter.
The letter calls on regulators to adopt the steps Ceres outlined last month in a report that makes 51 recommendations to eight federal agencies. At its core are two demands: that the agencies treat climate change as a systemic risk, and that the S.E.C. ensures mandatory and consistent disclosure of climate threats facing companies.
According to Ceres, regulators can adopt each of its recommendations without new legislation from Congress. Still, during the Trump administration, even agencies that are meant to have a degree of independence from the White House have been reluctant to address climate change. President Trump has called global warming a hoax, and he has reversed nearly 70 environmental rules, with another 30 in progress.
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AUSTIN, Texas (Legal Newsline) – The Texas Supreme Court has rejected the state Republican Party’s attempt to “commandeer” the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston this week.
The Texas GOP was supposed to be holding its convention there this week, but Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner announced the cancellation of it, citing coronavirus-related health concerns. The event was supposed to draw about 6,000 people.
The Texas GOP sued Houston, seeking an injunction requiring the center to comply with the contract the sides signed. It sought an order preventing the city from restricting the convention’s events or using COVID-19 as a pretext to cancel the convention.
It said Turner’s reliance on the Force Majeure clause in the contract was a smokescreen to treat the Republicans differently. Turner is a Democrat.
“The Party argues it has constitutional rights to hold a convention and engage in electoral activities, and that is unquestionably true,” the decision says.
“But those rights do not allow it to simply commandeer use of the Center. Houston First’s only duty to allow the Party use of the Center for its convention is under the terms of the parties’ agreement, not a constitution.”
Justice John Devine issued a 10-page dissent, saying he would hold Houston to its word. To invoke the Force Majeure clause, Houston would have had seven days after the “occurrence” to act. It didn’t do so until July 8.
BRICK, NJ — A Brick Township police officer was injured Monday night as a car sped off from a house party that spiraled out of control, drawing more than 400 people to the Baywood section, Brick police said Tuesday.
Darius Edwards, 24, of Brooklyn, has been charged with two counts of assault by auto, eluding, obstruction and possession of marijuana, after he sped off in a white Mercedes and hit Patrolman Joseph Riccio and a detective in the Brick Township Police Department’s Street Crimes Unit, Sgt. Jim Kelly said.
Riccio suffered a knee injury and was treated at the hospital, but the detective was not injured, Kelly said.
Police were called to Atlantic Drive in the Baywood section, at the eastern end of Drum Point Road, about 9:30 p.m. and found more than 400 partygoers, he said. Atlantic Drive and the surrounding streets were blocked with parked vehicles, some of them with people inside, Kelly said.
In addition to loud music, there were reports of littering, public urination and trespassing, and drug use was also evident, he said.
Michelle Cicchillo, the homeowner, told police the party continued to grow until it was beyond her control. She told them she tried to make guests leave “but they were being defiant and refused,” Kelly said.
NORTH BRUNSWICK, NJ — A statewide manhunt is underway for the lone gunman who fired a gun into the foyer of a federal judge’s home Sunday evening in North Brunswick, killing her 20-year-old son and critically injuring her husband, who answered the door.
The judge is U.S. District Judge Esther Salas. Her son, Daniel, 20, was killed and her husband, Mark Anderl, 63, remains in critical condition
The FBI, which is handling the case, said they are looking for one subject “and ask that anyone who thinks they may have relevant information call us at 1-973-792-3001.”
The man was dressed as a FedEx delivery driver, sources told NJ.com, and at 5 p.m. Sunday he arrived at the family’s home on Point of the Woods Drive, which is in the Hidden Lakes development in North Brunswick. Salas’ husband answered the door, was shot multiple times and the couple’s son ran down the stairs to help him; he was shot as well, according to the report.
Salas was in the basement and uninjured in the attack, according to media reports.
“The last thing I heard is that the father ran for the door, Daniel ran down the stairs to get him and I would believe that, that he would run down to help his father,” neighbor Marion Costanza told Patch. She who lives three doors down from the Salas family in Hidden Lakes. “They a very-close knit. That’s the kind of family there were. He wanted to lawyer just like his parents — he was clerking in different law offices.”
Anderl served as an assistant prosecutor in Essex County and now is prominent criminal defense attorney. Salas is the Newark-based federal judge who presided over the convictions of Real Housewives stars Joe and Teresa Giudice. She got her start working as a public defender, said Costanza.
“Daniel was the love of their life, he was their only child, 20 years old,” she said. “Daniel played baseball for St. Joe’s (Catholic high school) in Metuchen and he was a very big baseball fan. Just a good, loving, caring family. I never heard one thing negative about any of them.”
St. Joseph’s released a statement confirming Daniel’s death, saying that he graduated in 2018, writing: “It is with utmost sadness that we inform you that Dan Anderl ’18 was taken from us last night. Dan was a true friend, a proud Falcon, and an overall wonderful human being. He will be truly missed. We pray for Dan’s family and friends during this unbelievably difficult time — please know, we are mourning with you.”
California’s upcoming classification of photovoltaic panels as universal waste is expected to allow for greater efficiencies in handling a material stream that is projected to grow substantially
A long-awaited change to California’s regulations on the handling of solar panel waste is expected to take effect later this year, with implications that could shape the developing U.S. solar panel recycling industry.
A long-awaited change to California’s regulations on the handling of solar panel waste is expected to take effect later this year, with implications that could shape the developing U.S. solar panel recycling industry.In the long run, this move could create a regulatory model that other states can follow, a critical development as the amount of photovoltaic (PV) solar panels that will need to be handled greatly increases in coming decades.
California – which in 2018 produced about two-fifths of all electricity generated by PV solar, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) – attempted to change this regulation seven years ago. But the state’s Office of Administrative Law found the proposed classification was not consistent with federal law, driving the DTSC to seek approval from the U.S. EPA. At the beginning of 2020, the EPA authorized the DTSC’s proposed changes to its hazardous waste program, making it federally enforceable.
“This is the last step in the approval process for regulations to be adopted,” a DTSC spokesperson told Waste Dive. “The PV module universal waste regulation will become effective – earliest expected date of Oct. 1, 2020, – when the regulation package is approved by [the Office of Administrative Law].”
The EPA describes universal waste as subject to a “streamlined” set of standards compared to other types of hazardous waste. The new classification affects how long solar panel waste can be held on site before it is required to be transferred to another facility and reduces requirements for testing for certain hazardous materials.
For example, under the current classification in California, a generator of solar panel waste must move it off-site in under 90 days after generation. But under the universal waste classification, the waste can stay on-site for up to a year, allowing it to be transported to recycling facilities in bulk.
“Some of the advantages of managing PV waste as universal wastes are: reduction of the generator regulatory requirements, accumulation of waste for up to one year, no need for a hazardous manifest, and reduction of the amount of labeling and recordkeeping,” according to a study by researchers from the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB).
This new approach comes as the demand for ways to efficiently and economically recycle solar panels is set to jump due to the quickly increasing prominence of solar power in global electricity generation.
Because the boom in solar power is relatively new, the solar panel recycling industry can be considered to be in its “infancy,” according to Andreas Wade, global sustainability director for First Solar, a major solar module manufacturer that also operates several solar panel recycling facilities around the world. “We don’t have that much end-of-life [PV solar] on a global scale because of the long life” of panels, Wade said in an interview with Waste Dive. Panels produced today can last around 30 years.
From 2010 to 2019, net summer solar PV power capacity in the U.S. alone grew from 393 MW to 35,571 MW, according to the EIA. While solar panels currently make up just a small amount of e-scrap, the need for solar panel disposal will rise dramatically over the next few decades as projects being built today reach the end of their useful lives.
“The industry is working with several vendors to establish responsible, comprehensive end-of-life management programs that account for the volume anticipated over the next few decades,” Evelyn Butler, senior director of codes and standards for the Solar Energy Industries Association, said in an email to Waste Dive. “For those modules that are recycled, nearly 100% of the materials used in PV modules are recyclable or reusable.”
About 50 million metric tons of e-scrap are produced annually around the world, according to the United Nations Environment Programme. Amidst the mountains of computer parts, smartphones and various other devices, solar panels may add up to only about 250,000 tons, according to a 2016 scenario projection from a report from the International Renewable Energy Agency.
But based on projections from the UCSB study, looking at the U.S. alone, PV solar waste may rise to 1.3 million metric tons in 2040 and 5.5 million metric tons in 2050. Globally, it could total 80 million metric tons by 2050, according to a recent National Renewable Energy Laboratory report.
In the U.S., solar waste is currently governed by a “patchwork” of state and local regulations that can make recycling “difficult” for solar asset owners, Wade said. For example, solar project owners frequently have to buy a surety bond to guarantee decommissioning costs will be covered, but exactly what disposal measures are required by the bond may differ at the state or even county level. “There is a need to develop a common approach and harmonized methodology for decommissioning cost bonds,” he said.
As the first state to act, California’s regulatory move could be a step toward tying together that patchwork. “Other states may use the California rule as a roadmap for their own regulations,” attorneys from the law firm Baker Botts wrote in a 2019 blog post about the universal waste classification.
In addition, the U.S. EPA looks to the states to see “how their programs have worked in practice and whether their definitions and regulations should be adopted or refined at the federal level,” Baker Botts attorney Martha Thomsen said in an interview with Waste Dive. For example, in 2019, the agency finalized a rule designating aerosol cans as universal waste after several states, including California, took that step. In a statement, the EPA said this final rule “offers a more uniform, nationwide handling system.”
Overall, Europe’s public and private system for handling solar panel waste is “three to four years ahead of the curve” compared to that of the U.S., Wade said. But, he added, “that is beginning to change” due to a number of initiatives
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