Caldor Fire Threatens 'Urban Conflagration' Of South Lake Tahoe: The Caldor Fire breached Echo Summit on Monday, crossing the Sierra Nevada and posing a direct threat to the population centers around Lake Tahoe, forcing more than 50,000 people to evacuate. A wildfire has crossed over the Sierra Nevada just once before in recorded history: less than two weeks ago the Dixie Fire crossed the mountain range farther north. “We haven’t had fires burn from one side of the Sierra to the other,” Thom Porter, head of Cal Fire, told reporters Monday. “We did with Dixie, and now we do with the Caldor — we need to be cognizant that there is fire activity happening (here) that we have never seen before.” Even at high elevation, high heat, strong winds, and dry foliage fuel the fire, which now threatens to incinerate 20,000 buildings and wipe out South Lake Tahoe. If the embers blown by high winds ignite in the valley, it could cause a catastrophic "urban conflagration," UC Merced fire scientist Crystal Kolden told the LA Times. “It’s so dry that it is perfect kindling,” she said. In an area full of old, wooden homes, “You’ve got his potential for it to really start jumping from building to building to building, and it’s just a completely different beast and they can’t fight it.” Mass evacuations clogged the roads not already closed by the flames. Wildfires like the Caldor Fire — which had burned 186,568 acres as of Monday evening and was just 15% contained — are supercharged by heat, and drought made worse by climate change caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels. Other climate impacts also make it harder to fight wildfires. A helicopter crew from the Louisiana National Guard that had been set to help firefighters battling the Caldor Fire was recalled to respond to Hurricane Ida. (Sacramento Bee, LA Times $, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee, Tahoe Daily Tribune, Mercury News, Record-Courier, Washington Post $, New York Times $, LA TImes $, CBS Sacramento, Reuters, Earther, CNN, AP, LA Times $, AP explainer; Photos: San Francisco Chronicle; Sacramento Bee, Earther; Climate Signals background 2021 Western wildfire season)
Biden Administration Creates ‘Small’ Climate Health Equity Office: The Biden administration launched a new effort to address the inequitable public health impacts of climate change on Monday. The Office of Climate Change and Health Equity will be housed within the Department of Health and Human Services. The $3 million initiative, which officials described as "small," has three main goals: improving resilience to climate health impacts, reducing hospital emissions and improving their resiliency, and combining climate resilience with health equity. (New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $, The Hill, Politico, Reuters, AP)
Ida, Gas Plant Failure Plunge NOLA Into Darkness As Cops Focus On 'Looting': Huge swaths of New Orleans could be without power for weeks after Hurricane Ida destroyed all eight transmission lines that deliver power to the city. Now downgraded to a tropical depression, Ida's official death toll has risen to four. “We have no electricity, no communication. Our water systems are down. We’re losing pressure,” Jefferson Parish President Cynthia Lee Sheng said in a video call with the White House. “It’s going to be a difficult life for quite some time.” Entergy, the region's main utility still does not know how long it will take to restore service to its nearly 900,000 customers in the area or the several hundred thousand customers of other utilities who are also in the dark. Mass outages like this were supposed to be mitigated by a new gas power plant built in the city, right next to predominantly Black and Vietnamese American neighborhoods last year — but it's down too. “The gas plant was built over our objections,” Monique Harden, assistant director for public policy at the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, told the New York Times. The utility built the plant despite calls for distributed solar energy installations backed by battery storage. “If anything happened to the transmission, this gas plant was supposed to supply power to the City of New Orleans,” she added. “This is going to require some investigation.” Residents are not optimistic for a quick return of electricity service. “The city could be out of power for a month, and when I hear people in power say a month, I hear as much as three months because I know New Orleans,” Laura Paul, executive director of Lowernine.org, a nonprofit group formed after Hurricane Katrina, told the Washington Post. Paul said residents stuck in their hot, dark homes are in serious need of solar generators and small, solar-powered phone-charger/lantern combinations. Meanwhile, the New Orleans police department has deployed forces focused on preventing survivors from desperately seeking food and potable water following the storm, "put[ting] Black lives in particular danger," Ko Bragg, a New Orleans-based editor at Scalawag, tweeted. (Outages: Washington Post $, AP, Wall Street Journal $, NOLA.com, CBS, Utility Dive, Black Wall Street Times, FT $, ABC, CNN, New York Times $, New York Times $, NOLA.com, NOLA.com; Gas plant failure: New York Times $; Death toll: Washington Post $; Police: Mother Jones, NewsOne; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes) |
IDA: Louisiana governor expects death toll to jump: Ida update (Bloomberg $), no water, no power, no communications -- St. Charles Parish took Hurricane Ida's big punch (NOLA.com), what needs to happen now in Louisiana after Category 4 hurricane (MSNBC), Hurricane Ida seen costing insurers at least $15 billion (Bloomberg $), Hurricane Ida leaves destruction in Houma, Louisiana (NBC), Louisiana hospitals battered by storm (Washington Post $), Louisiana surveys the wreckage left by Hurricane Ida (New York Times $), parts of ceiling ‘peeled away’ as Hurricane Ida tears through New Orleans TV station (HuffPost)
- STILL DANGEROUS: As Ida shifts north, biggest threat remains flooding (Washington Post $), officials warn of continued threat to areas in Ida’s path, including possible flash flooding in Mississippi (Washington Post $), Mississippi highway collapses, 2 killed, at least 10 injured (AP), Ida brought disaster to Louisiana. Here’s what the storm is doing next. (Washington Post $, Axios)
- TENNESSEE: Flood-ravaged Tennessee community braces for Ida remnants (AP, Gizmodo), Middle Tennessee is clawing its way out of devastation from recent flooding. It sits right in Ida's crosshairs (CNN), Depression Ida brings threat of flash flooding across Southeast (Axios)
- CLIMATE CONNECTIONS: How climate change is fueling hurricanes like Ida (NPR), climate change lurks behind Hurricane Ida's unnerving intensification rate (Axios), climate change fueled Hurricane Ida with warm, deep seawater (Bloomberg $), Hurricane Ida's strength may have seemed surprising. But not to forecasters. (USA Today), Shape-shifting storms like Ida are cities’ worst nightmare (The Verge)
- LEVEES: Louisiana governor: Levees should hold against Hurricane Ida (Politico), New Orleans' levees got a $14.5 billion upgrade. Will they hold? (Reuters, Yale Climate Connections), The defenses built around New Orleans worked, but also showed their limits. (New York Times $), New Orleans-area levees provided mix of good and bad responses to devastating Hurricane Ida (NOLA.com), New Orleans levees pass Ida’s test while some suburbs flood (AP)
- CANCER ALLEY + OIL & GAS: Ida’s aftermath raises environmental fears in ‘cancer alley’ (Bloomberg $, Wall Street Journal $), Hurricane Ida hits oil industry in Black & Native communities on Louisiana coast amid climate crisis (Democracy Now), Hurricane Ida shuts down more than 90% of oil and gas production in the Gulf of Mexico (Gizmodo, New York Times $, New York Times $), what we know about Hurricane Ida's energy impact (Axios), workers evacuated hundreds of oil, gas production facilities in Gulf, federal agency says (Washington Post $), Energy Dept: U.S. fuel supplies high enough to counter Ida disruptions (Politico Pro $)
- SEARCH AND RESCUE: No cell service, no water: After devastating Ida, some Lafourche residents still wait for rescue (The Advocate), emergency teams struggle to reach Grand Isle after Hurricane Ida (NBC, ABC, NBC, CBS), rescue operations underway in Louisiana as Ida death toll expected to rise (Reuters), stranded residents rescued from Ida flooding in LaPlace: 'The rain just wouldn't stop' (The Advocate), displaced by Ida: Low on funds, family of 7 looks for refuge (AP), after Hurricane Ida, Lafitte residents left stranded on rooftops, attics: 'It's horrible' (NOLA.com)
- NOLA: New Orleans locals survey damage wrought by Ida: ‘It’s like God took a razor and sheared it all off’ (Washington Post $), mayor describes 'catastrophic' damage from Hurricane Ida (CNN), here's what a part of New Orleans looks like after Hurricane Ida (CNN), how Hurricane Ida could reshape New Orleans' future (National Geographic), Tulane to bus students to Houston for flights home, convert to online instruction due to Hurricane Ida (NOLA.com)
- HELP: How to help Hurricane Ida victims right now (Gizmodo), mutual aid groups offer help as Hurricane Ida moves across the Gulf Coast (NewsOne), local mutual aid groups (Southerly Twitter thread)
- PHOTOS: Hurricane Ida pummels Louisiana (Axios, CNN, New York Times $), photos show damage in LaPlace, La. (Washington Post $), photos show widespread damage across New Orleans, wider Louisiana after Ida (HuffPost)
(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: 'America is segregated, and so is pollution' (Slate)
GREENWASHING: Dutch ad watchdog tells Shell to pull ‘carbon neutral’ campaign (Bloomberg $)
UNLEADED WORLD: Cars have been guzzling leaded gasoline for 99 years. Not any more (CNN), the world is officially free of leaded gasoline (Gizmodo, AP, Reuters, The Hill, Bloomberg $, CBC, Electrek, FT $)
CROSS-CUTTING CRISES: A new breed of crisis: war and warming collide in Afghanistan (New York Times $)
THE YOUTHS: Climate change is radicalizing young people — here’s what that means and how to combat despair (CNBC)
LINE 3: Minnesota court deals yet another setback to pipeline foes (AP)
LONG LUNCH FIRE READS: The battle of High Hill (The Atlantic)
DOI: Interior denies request for new ANWR survey (Politico Pro $)
GAS PRICES: Biden administration ramps up antitrust efforts amid worries about high prices (Washington Post $, Axios, Politico Pro $)
LAWSUITS: Judge sinks Trump WOTUS rule (E&E $)
INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): Coalition urges Democrats to restore $10 billion in transit funding (The Hill)
POLITICS: Business groups aim to divide Democrats on $3.5T spending bill (The Hill), Dems dig in on debt as painful September looms (Politico)
CITIES AND STATES AND SMALL TOURIST TOWNS: Virginia project shows benefits, costs of ditching fossil fuels in low-income homes (Energy News Network), New Jersey turns to property assessed financing to boost commercial clean energy investments (Utility Dive), Adams’ climate change plans are largely unknown (Politico Pro $), what climate action looks like in a small, island tourist town in Maine (Energy News Network)
PRIVATE $ECTOR: FERC's Chatterjee to join law firm, pro-markets climate group (Politico Pro $, Washington Examiner)
DROUGHT: 'It's critical that the rivers continue to flow.' Environmental activist Nicole Horseherder on reclaiming water rights for Native Americans (TIME)
WILDFIRES: a tale of two wildfires: lessons from Europe’s blazing summer (Bloomberg $), human remains found in area of wildfire near Sonora (AP), new threat emerges as crews fight Minnesota wildfire: bears (AP)
- CALIFORNIA: The fires are different this year - bigger and faster. What's fueling the change? (San Francisco Chronicle), California wildfires are climbing higher up mountains, putting more forest at risk of flames (San Francisco Chronicle), Caldor Fire is throwing harvest into chaos in up-and-coming El Dorado wine country (San Francisco Chronicle)
HURRICANES: Tropical Storm Kate develops in the Atlantic (CNN, New York Times $)
RENEWABLES: Wind farms off Long Island, New York, to create new jobs (Yale Climate Connections), China’s biggest solar giant is extending its global reach (Bloomberg $), costly and complex maintenance could cloud the outlook for floating wind (Canary Media), Record 2020 wind installations represented 42% of new power (Bloomberg $, Politico Pro $), driven by Texas, wind turbine construction hits record (Houston Chronicle), Eskom considers $7.2 billion in wind and solar investment by 2030 (Bloomberg $)
OIL & GAS: Exxon’s oil drilling gamble off Guyana coast could turn country from a carbon sink to a “carbon bomb” (Democracy Now)
COAL: Bucking global shift to cleaner energy, Zimbabwe digs deeper into coal (Thomson Reuters Foundation), New Mexico panel considers future of coal-fired power plant (AP)
UTILITIES: After a clash over costs and carbon, a Minnesota utility wants to step back from its main electricity supplier (InsideClimate News), Wyoming's biggest utility is closing the curtains on coal (Casper Star-Tribune)
EVs: Cities can play a key role in the transition to electric vehicles (Yale Climate Connections), why Rivian's IPO is worth watching (Axios)
MENTAL HEALTH: We all deserve some help (Atmos)
XR: Extinction Rebellion protesters block London's Tower Bridge (Reuters)
STEEL: Australia's Fortescue sets sights on becoming world's first supplier of green iron ore (Reuters, Bloomberg $)
ARCHITECTURE: Architecture warms to the greenhouse effect (FT $)
FINANCE: How the clean-energy revolution is sweeping through markets (Bloomberg $)
NUKES: Nuclear reactors of the future have a fuel problem (Utility Dive), Westinghouse, feds reach $21M deal on failed V.C. Summer nuclear project (Politico Pro $)
WILDLIFE: What is the COP15 biodiversity summit, and why is it so important? (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
INTERNATIONAL: First German election debate reveals gulf on climate change policy (FT $), Haiti's hunger crisis bites deeper after devastating quake (Reuters), Indonesia approves Ubadari natural gas field, Vorwata carbon project (Reuters), Russia sees possible increase in West Nile virus cases this autumn (Reuters), Saudi Arabia’s grandiose climate plans struggle to take off (FT $), Trudeau pledges tighter rules for oil companies to cut emissions (Bloomberg $), US climate envoy in Japan to push efforts to cut emissions (AP) |
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