Today we are highlighlighting a statement from The Society of Environmental Journalists condemning not only the violence by police against the Black community, protesters, and journalists, but also “the silencing of Black voices in any newsroom, as well as voices from other underrepresented communities.”
Over the past week, a growing number of accounts of newsrooms and media outlets silencing, not compensating, controlling and generally creating a toxic work environment for journalists of color have come to light. The lack of diversity in newsrooms and the unfair burden placed on Black and other journalists of color is nothing new, and unfortunately this reckoning has come too late for many Black journalists, as Jenna Wortham with the New York Times Magazine pointed out on Twitter. Additionally, the #PublishingPaidMecampaign is highlighting the underpayment of Black authors compared to their non-Black peers in the publishing industry.
Groups Battling Exxon Targeted By Hacking-For-Hire Attack: American nonprofits engaged in the #ExxonKnew campaign were targeted by a sophisticated hacking-for-hire operation, according to a report by Citizen Lab made public Tuesday. Citizen Lab’s research uncovered a sprawling operation that is now the subject of a federal law enforcement investigation. The targeted organizations include the Rockefeller Family Fund, the Climate Investigations Center and Greenpeace, all of which had been battling with Exxon for years, and the hackers also targeted journalists, in an apparent attempt to uncover their sources, and family members, including a minor child. While the report was unable to determine with certainty whether the hackers were successful in gaining access to those groups’ networks, the hackers used sophisticated and targeted spear phishing techniques with content connected to the groups’ work on Exxon and climate change and the emails were sent from accounts impersonating others involved in the campaign, including lawyers. The report said Citizen Lab had no strong evidence linking the hacking to a corporate sponsor and did not accuse Exxon Mobil of wrongdoing. Exxon declined to comment. (New York Times $, Bloomberg $)
U.S. Can Reach 90% Clean Electricity by 2035: The U.S. can generate 90% clean electricity by 2035 with no added cost or new fossil fuel plants, and could create more than half-a-million jobs per year, a new report from UC Berkeley found. The 2035 timeframe to remove most carbon from the electric grid is 15 years faster than the majority of federal and state policies currently target. The bulk of the clean electricity in 2035 would come from wind and solar, with coal generation ceasing entirely and existing gas generation reduced by 70%. A rapid buildout of additional renewable energy could contribute to the country’s economic recovery effort, pumping $1.7 trillion of investment into the economy and increasing energy sector jobs by up to 530,000 a year. The report was accompanied by a policy paper from Energy Innovation that outlines a range of policies available to achieve the outcomes, including a technology-neutral national Clean Energy Standard and policies to ensure just transition for fossil fuel-dependent communities. (Fast Company, Greentech Media, Utility Dive, E&E $, Electrek, Nexus Media News)
First Black American Appointed To Virginia Corporation Commission: After Senate Republicans blocked his appointment on the final day of the 2020 legislative session, Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam appointed Jemal Hudson to the Virginia State Corporation Commission on Tuesday. Hudson will be the first Black American to serve on the powerful body since its inception in 1902. The SCC oversees the Commonwealth’s utility regulation, insurance, and state-charged financial institutions. Prior to his appointment to the SCC, Hudson worked on Capitol Hill for Congressional Democrats and then-Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton before holding multiple roles at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and most recently serving as VP for government affairs for the National Hydropower Association. Hudson’s appointment, if approved by the General Assembly early next year, will run through 2026. (Virginia Mercury, Virginia Business, WSET, WVVA)
Climate News
THE FED: What’s next from the Fed will help decide the course for markets (CNBC), the Federal Reserve to take on more risk to aid small business loan program (Axios), US Federal Reserve's help comes with no strings attached (NPR)
POLLUTERS: In Trump response to coronavirus, left sees environmental injustice (The Hill)
PROTESTS: In Louisiana, stepping onto oil and gas industry land may soon get you 3 years or more in prison (InsideClimate News), activists catalog nearly 600 videos of officer violence against protesters (Truthout)
IMPACTS: Tropical Depression Cristobal could make historic Lake Superior landfall (Gizmodo), will Miami be around in 2067? (New York Times $)
CORONAVIRUS: EIA: Power sector emissions to dip as pandemic curbs coal power (Politico Pro $), The power needed to stamp out coronavirus (Axios)
STIMULUS: How to grow green (Bloomberg $), oil could benefit again from Fed loan program tweaks (Washington Examiner)
EXECUTIVE BRANCH: ‘Unexplored territory.' Trump jumps into NEPA legal limbo (E&E $), Trump advisers foresee big energy moves in second term (E&E $)
CITIES AND STATES: ‘Life and death': Blue states ask court to boost [environmental] enforcement (E&E $), as EPA steps back, states face wave of requests for environmental leniency (NPR), California plans for future of gas system amid 'patchwork' of electrification policies (Utility Dive)
OIL AND GAS: Chesapeake Plans Bankruptcy With Exits Closing on Shale Pioneer (Yahoo), Greener power alone can’t solve climate change, Shell says (Bloomberg $), US frackers to zero in on richest oil fields after coronavirus (Wall Street Journal $), federal court upholds Enbridge’s Great Lakes spill plans (AP)
OCEANS: Capturing the green energy of the deep blue sea (Washington Post $), Susan Collins distances herself from Trump on lifting fishing restrictions off of New England (Washington Post $)
UTILITIES: Ex-SCE&G executive to plead guilty for defrauding customers over failed $9B nuclear project (Charleston Post and Courier), SoCalGas ramps up use of Aliso Canyon, site of worst gas leak in U.S. history (LA Times $)
EFFICIENCY: New England business groups make case to suspend energy efficiency surcharges (Energy News Network), St. Louis adopts Midwest’s first building performance standard (Greentech Media)
FINANCE: Sustainable finance boosted by new rules on ESG-linked bonds (Bloomberg $)
INTERNATIONAL: Huge fire breaks out at India gas well blowout (The Guardian), Africa should ‘leapfrog’ the rest of the world when it comes to renewable energy (Bloomberg $), Bangladesh leads climate-threatened nations in push for global action (Reuters), Britain poised to hit two months without power from coal plants (Reuters, The Guardian, The Hill, BBC), Greta Thunberg looks to UN security council election for leverage on climate (Climate Home), major fuel spill in Russia north spreads toward arctic ocean (New York Times $), Mexican renewables win court fight against energy ministry rules (Bloomberg $), no water or work: Climate stress pushes Indian delta-dwellers to the edge (Reuters), Shanghai renewable subsidies to support solar and offshore wind (Bloomberg $), surging coal use in China threatens global CO2 goals (E&E $), hundreds of thousands displaced in deadly China flooding (AP)
THIS IS BAD: In Georgia, primary day snarled by long lines, problems with voting machines — a potential preview of November (Washington Post $)
Trump’s “Absurd and Unnecessary” NEPA Rollback Is Nothing Compared To His Second-Term Agenda
Donald Trump has been using cover of COVID-19 and his wannabe strongman response to Black Lives Matter protests to continue his pro-polluter agenda, recently with an Executive Order tossing basic environmental protections out the window under guise of economic recovery.
Fortunately, this appears to be yet another pointless distraction., As Niina Farah and Jennifer Hijazi make clear in E&E, legal experts are not impressed by the move. According to former EPA attorney Joel Mintz, "there is a real question as to whether or not the president can contradict the directives of Congress and essentially suspend environmental laws that are in effect." The “real question” is really whether or not he’ll get away with it, because the idea that the president can “contradict the directives of Congress” is pretty obviously unconstitutional.
According to NYU Law’s Elizabeth Klein, while emergency authority is certainly a valid power, “this is not the kind of emergency” those powers were meant for, and that waiving NEPA and other reviews “in the name of economic recovery is absurd and unnecessary.”
On top of that, Brett Hartle of the Center for Biological Diversity points to some rhetorical sleight of hand in the rule, which accurately cites that the emergency is hurting the economy, but that emergency is the pandemic, not the economic downturn. “What he’s telling the agencies to do,” Hartle explained to E&E, “is approve projects to help the economy, not approve projects to address COVID. That’s a big vulnerability.”
But of course, that’s only if it survives legal review. And on that front, UC Berkeley law professor Dan Farber is skeptical, writing that it’s on “legally shaky” grounds and “a tweet or phone call would have had the same effect” as the EO. But “who knows what happens in November,” after which a new president could easily undo Trump’s various executive orders.
On the other hand, if Trump wins a second term, we’re in store for a fully unleashed fossil fuel bonanza, if the “energy advisers who work closely with the White House” who talked to Scott Waldman at E&E are to be believed.
While reelection concerns stymied deniers’ efforts to to get the federal government’s insignia on denial with a Red Team program, a second term would see an all-out assault on science in defense of the fossil fuel industry.
Top of the chopping block, according to fossil fuel funded hacks, is to lift restrictions on shipping gas internationally with a five-year “pause” to the Jones Act to give the industry time to construct an American-made fleet of gas transporting ships.
Another idea is a “Pittsburgh air accord” to replace the Paris agreement, which would set air quality standards that would limit coal use and thereby boost gas. More regulatory rollbacks and “streamlining” are likely in the works, as well as a directive to add up and officially publish all government spending on climate across the various federal agencies, and a look at temperature datasets (because maybe the scientists are using thermometers wrong?).
And finally, of course, is the white whale, the EPA’s Endangerment Finding. Various denial groups have petitioned the government to reconsider it, and a second Trump term would be their best, and hopefully last, shot.
Talk about absurd and unnecessary…
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