[TheClimate.Vote] June 24, 2018 - Daily Global Warming News Digest
Richard Pauli
richard at theclimate.vote
Sun Jun 24 10:50:54 EDT 2018
/June 24, 2018/
[Wall Street Journal]
*Natural-Gas Boom Driving Methane Leaks, Study Finds
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/natural-gas-boom-driving-methane-leaks-study-finds-1529605477>*
Higher levels of the potent greenhouse gas could pose challenge to
efforts to slow global warming
The country's natural-gas boom is putting much higher rates of the
potent greenhouse gas methane into the atmosphere than government
estimates suggest, a challenge for efforts to slow global warming,
according to new research analysis published Thursday in the journal
Science.
Methane leaks are a crucial element of the country's gas boom because
raw emissions can cancel out gains made by lowering carbon emissions
created by burning other fuels. The new report suggests using more gas
does have major benefits at limiting climate change over 100 years, but
may not help in the short term.
That is because leaks and unplanned plumes vented from storage tanks and
processing plants are likely larger than previously realized. They
appear big enough to make a shift from coal to gas effectively
meaningless over a 20-year time span, according to the assessment from
about two dozen scientists working with the Environmental Defense Fund,
a nonprofit environmental group.
The assessment estimates the U.S. energy industry is leaking about 2.3%
of all the gas it produces directly into the atmosphere, meaning that
enough greenhouse gasses are coming from the gas industry to equal
roughly the 20-year climate impact from all the coal-fired power plants
running nationwide in 2015...
- -
Just last month Exxon Mobil Corp. , the country's largest gas producer,
announced plans to reduce methane emissions 15% by 2020. It was the
latest in a series of pledges by major oil companies to voluntarily
curtail emissions. That includes an initiative from the American
Petroleum Institute, the industry's lobbying powerhouse in Washington,
D.C., that brought 39 producers together in a pledge to step up leak
monitoring and install new equipment to limit leaks.
In a statement Thursday, the organization noted methane emissions are
still down over the last few decades. "The natural gas and oil industry
is committed to continuous improvement in operations, including safety,
public health and reducing emissions from exploration and production
sites," Erik Milito, the group's director of upstream and industry
operations, said in the statement.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/natural-gas-boom-driving-methane-leaks-study-finds-1529605477
- - - -
[Study from the journal Science]
*Assessment of methane emissions from the U.S. oil and gas supply chain
<http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/06/20/science.aar7204>*
Science 21 Jun 2018:
Abstract
Methane emissions from the U.S. oil and natural gas supply chain
were estimated using ground-based, facility-scale measurements and
validated with aircraft observations in areas accounting for ~30% of
U.S. gas production. When scaled up nationally, our facility-based
estimate of 2015 supply chain emissions is 13 ± 2 Tg/y, equivalent
to 2.3% of gross U.S. gas production. This value is ~60% higher than
the U.S. EPA inventory estimate, likely because existing inventory
methods miss emissions released during abnormal operating
conditions. Methane emissions of this magnitude, per unit of natural
gas consumed, produce radiative forcing over a 20-year time horizon
comparable to the CO2 from natural gas combustion. Significant
emission reductions are feasible through rapid detection of the root
causes of high emissions and deployment of less failure-prone systems.
http://science.sciencemag.org/content/early/2018/06/20/science.aar7204
[We know why]
*It's Getting Harder for Government Scientists to Talk to the Press
<https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a21754673/its-getting-harder-for-government-scientists-to-talk-to-the-press/>*
Scientists at the United States Geological Survey (USGS) must now get
approval first through their parent office
If they want to talk to reporters, scientists at the United States
Geological Survey (USGS) must now get approval first through their
parent office, the Department of Interior (DOI). That's what anonymous
USGS employees have told the Los Angeles Times.
The new policy allows for the DOI communications office to reject
interview requests on scientific matters. The anonymous employees say
that the new policies present "a dramatic change" in the office's media
practices and will interfere with scientists' ability to quickly respond
to reporters' questions.
The USGS is DOI's only scientific office. Created by an act of Congress
in 1879, it's aim is understanding "changes to the natural world
combined with growing human demands [that] put our health and safety,
national security, and economy at risk."...
- - - - -
Vander Voot said that DOI had simply asked the USGS press office to
comply with media guidelines established by the Obama Administration in
2010. Page 6 of these guidelines states that "all DOI news releases that
involve significant policy announcements or that may generate
significant news coverage, public interest or inquiry must be cleared
by" the office of communications. The policy does not qualify what is
and is not "significant."
The policy also claims to "supports a culture of openness with the news
media and the public that values the free exchange of ideas, data and
information."
"This policy, if it's in fact being implemented as such, has a lot of
concerning implications. It essentially gives political appointees veto
power over science, scientists and information that the American people
should have access to," says Kate Kelly, a former DOI director of
communications, to the Times.
Perhaps the biggest flashpoint between scientists and the higher ups at
DOI would stem from the Administration's view of global warming.
Both Secretary Zinke and President Trump have repeatedlygiven incorrect
information
<http://time.com/5187877/donald-trump-wind-power-ryan-zinke-birds-global-warming/>regarding
wind energy's effects on global warming, and President Trump hasfalsely
stated
<http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/jun/03/hillary-clinton/yes-donald-trump-did-call-climate-change-chinese-h/>that
global warming "was created by and for the Chinese." The DOI hasremoved
factually true information
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/powerpost/interior-department-agency-removes-climate-change-language-from-news-release/2017/05/22/774c122a-3f23-11e7-adba-394ee67a7582_story.html?utm_term=.3a56ab2dbd65>about
climate change from press releases and the agency has also curtailed the
number of scientists on staffwho can attend
<https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/speaking-of-science/wp/2018/06/14/scientists-at-usgs-face-new-scrutiny-on-research-presentations/?utm_term=.badf9f42e4fb>scientific
conferences.
https://www.popularmechanics.com/science/a21754673/its-getting-harder-for-government-scientists-to-talk-to-the-press/
[Well, duh.]
*The threat to climate change mitigation posed by the abundance of
fossil fuels
<https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14693062.2018.1483885>*
Filip Johnsson ORCID Icon, Jan Kjarstad & Johan Rootzen ORCID Icon
Received 29 Jun 2017, Accepted 25 May 2018, Published online: 19 Jun 2018
ABSTRACT
This article analyses the trends in primary demand for fossil fuels
and renewables, comparing regions with large and small domestic
fossil fuel reserves. We focus on countries that hold 80% of global
fossil fuel reserves and compare them with key countries that have
meagre fossil fuel reserves. We show that those countries with large
domestic fossil fuel reserves have experienced a large increase in
primary energy demand from fossil fuels, but only a moderate or no
increase in primary energy from renewables, and in particular from
non-hydro renewable energy sources (NHRES), which are assumed to
represent the cornerstone of the future transformation of the global
energy system. This implies a tremendous threat to climate change
mitigation, with only two principal mitigation options for
fossil-fuel-rich economies if there is to be compliance with the
temperature goals of the Paris Agreement: (1) leave the fossil fuels
in the ground; and (2) apply carbon capture and storage (CCS)
technologies
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14693062.2018.1483885
[AC cooling increases heat, needing more cooling; lather, rinse, repeat.]
*How trying to stay cool could make the world even hotter
<https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44466214>*
By Chris Baraniuk
Air conditioning systems that keep homes, offices and shops cool on hot
days are rapidly gaining in popularity in a warming world. But is all
the extra electricity they use going to exacerbate climate change or can
design efficiencies prevent this?
The world is getting hotter, indeed 16 of the 17 warmest years on record
have occurred since 2001, say climatologists.
It's no wonder demand for air conditioning systems is going through the
roof. The energy they consume is likely to triple between now and 2050,
the International Energy Agency (IEA) says.
This would mean that by 2050, the world's air conditioners would be
using the current electricity capacity of the US, the European Union and
Japan combined.
So scientists and tech companies are trying to make cooling systems more
efficient.
Researchers at Stanford University, for example, have developed a system
that uses cutting edge materials and "nano-photonics".
They've invented a wafer-thin, highly reflective material that radiates
heat even in direct sunlight. The infrared, thermal energy is radiated
at a wavelength that slips through the Earth's atmosphere into space,
rather than being absorbed by it.
In tests, the researchers found that it could be used to cool water
flowing through pipes beneath panels of the material. That water, cooled
on average to a few degrees lower than the outside air temperature,
could then be used to cool a building.
And this is achieved without any electricity at all.
The researchers have set up SkyCool Systems to try to commercialise the
technology.
https://www.bbc.com/news/business-44466214
- - - - -
[Here it is]
*SkyCool Systems REDEFINING COOLING <http://skycoolsystems.com/>*
Harnessing the sky as a renewable resource
with the world's first cooling panel
THE COOLING CHALLENGE
Air conditioning & refrigeration systems consume 17% of electricity
generated worldwide and are responsible for 8% of global greenhouse gas
emissions.
With electricity use for cooling projected to grow 6x by 2050, the
status quo is no longer an option.
http://skycoolsystems.com/
[Nerve toxins they are]
*Warming drives spread of toxic algae in US, researchers say
<https://www.kpvi.com/news/national_news/oregon-water-scare-algae-blooms-happening-more-often/article_16914cf4-bcf0-57df-809c-f61d18f9c096.html>*
By TOM JAMES
SALEM, Ore. (AP) - The words blasted to cellphones around Oregon's
capital city were ominous: "Civil emergency . prepare for action."
Within half an hour, a second official alert clarified the subject
wasn't impending violence but toxins from an algae bloom, detected in
Salem's water supply.
Across the U.S., reservoirs that supply drinking water and lakes used
for recreation are experiencing similar events with growing frequency.
The trend represents another impact of global warming and raises looming
questions about the effects on human health, researchers say.
"When water bodies warm up earlier and stay warmer longer ... you
increase the number of incidents," said Wayne Carmichael, a retired
Wright State University professor specializing in the organisms. "That's
just logical, and it's being borne out."
Technically called cyanobacteria, the ancient class of organisms that
create the blooms are present nearly everywhere water is found but
thrive in warm, still bodies like lakes and ponds. They also create a
unique class of toxins, the impact of which on humans is only partly
understood.
ong linked to animal deaths, high doses of the toxins in humans can
cause liver damage and attack the nervous system. In the largest
outbreaks, hundreds have been sickened by blooms in reservoirs and
lakes, and officials in some areas now routinely close water bodies used
for recreation and post warnings when blooms occur.
But less is known about exposure at lower doses, especially over the
long term.
Small studies have linked exposure to liver cancer - one toxin is
classified as a carcinogen, and others have pointed to potential links
to neurodegenerative disease. But definitively proving those links would
require larger studies, said Carmichael, who helped the World Health
Organization set the first safe exposure standards for the toxins.
"It's absolutely certain in my mind that warming temperatures are going
to end up causing more of these algal blooms," said Steven Chapra, an
environmental engineering professor at Tufts University.
Chapra led a team including scientists from the Massachusetts Institute
of Technology and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in one of the
most comprehensive studies of the interplay between global warming and
the blooms, published in 2017.
Because they prefer warm water, higher summer temperatures and more
frequent heat waves help the organisms. More frequent droughts also
cause reservoirs to be shallower in summer, causing them to warm faster.
And more intense rainstorms, also conclusively linked to climate change,
can wash more nutrients into lakes and reservoirs, especially from farms
where nitrogen and phosphorous-rich fertilizers are used, Chapra said.
In Utah, a 2016 algae bloom in a recreational-use lake sickened more
than 100. When the story made national headlines, other states reached out.
"We started getting calls from other health departments all over the
country saying, 'Hey, we're dealing with an algal bloom in a lake that
has never ever had one before,'" said Aislynn Tolman-Hill, Utah County
Health Department spokeswoman.
Officials only recently started carefully logging the blooms, but they
seem to be becoming more intense, said Ben Holcomb, a biologist for
Utah's environmental agency. "They're starting earlier, they're lasting
longer, and their peaks seem to be getting bigger," Holcomb said. "I
don't think any state is isolated."
In Lake Erie, a major bloom in 2014 caused authorities to warn against
drinking tap water in Toledo, Ohio, for more than two days, cutting off
the main water source for more than 400,000 people.
Now blooms happen every year in Utah and Ohio. Officials in both states
say they've largely been able to stop them from toxifying drinking
water. But the blooms can still sicken people and pets that go in the
water, and often hit recreation businesses that depend on lake access.
Other blooms, including flare-ups affecting drinking water, have been
logged in recent years in New York, Florida and California.
In Oregon, officials lifted Salem's drinking water advisory after
several days, but then had to re-issue the warning. The water supply
serves a population of just over 150,000 in the city, along with
residents outside city limits.,,
Officials also warned that dozens of other water supplies could be
vulnerable, and indeed, when workers from the city of Cottage Grove
inspected another reservoir, they found a bloom, according to a report
by Oregon Public Broadcasting.
Testing for the blooms isn't required by either federal or state law,
officials noted.
Researchers say that needs to change because blooms are likely to become
more common, including in states where low temperatures previously
provided a buffer against them.
"These things like you're seeing in Lake Erie and in Oregon are kind of
like the canary in the coal mine," said Chapra, the Tufts researcher.
"It's going to get worse, and it's going to get worse in a big way."
https://www.kpvi.com/news/national_news/oregon-water-scare-algae-blooms-happening-more-often/article_16914cf4-bcf0-57df-809c-f61d18f9c096.html
[Study - recent Springer title:]
*Communicating climate change information for decision-making
<https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319746685>* offers useful insights
into how climate change knowledge is being applied to support
adaptation. According to a review by Curtis Martin of the center for
Environmental Information: Use and Influence (EIUI) hosted at Dalhousie
University: "The book's thirteen chapters provide insights about how to
increase the use of existing and new climate change knowledge in
decisions, by tracing the information pathways from researcher to
decision-maker in three parts: Developing Climate Change Information,
Communicating Climate Change Information, and Applying Climate Change
Information".
Reference
Serrao-Neumann, S. M., Coudrain, A., & Coulter, L. (Eds.) (2018).
Communicating climate change information for decision-making. Cham:
Springer. ISBN 978-3-319-74669-2. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-74669-2_2
(https://www.springer.com/gp/book/9783319746685)
[Exxonic malfeasance]
*Exxon's Sitting on Key Records Subpoenaed in Climate Fraud
Investigation, N.Y. Says
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22062018/exxon-climate-investor-fraud-investigation-new-york-attorney-general-proxy-costs-subpoena>*
New York's new attorney general isn't letting up on the oil giant.
Investigators want to know if it misled investors and the public about
climate change.
David Hasemyer
BY DAVID HASEMYER
ExxonMobil has yet to turn over key financial records subpoenaed by
state investigators over a year ago in a climate fraud inquiry, New
York's attorney general told a judge in new court filings.
New York Attorney General Barbara Underwood asked Judge Barry Ostrager
to order the oil giant to obey the state's subpoenas, saying that
company employees had told investigators that the records are readily
accessible.
At issue are records that document the company's estimates of how future
limits on global warming pollution would affect its sales of oil and gas.
Known as "proxy costs," these estimates are thought to be laid out in
the cash flow spreadsheets that Underwood's office is seeking. They
could be crucial to understanding whether the assets that underlie
Exxon's value as a company might be stranded if fossil fuels have to be
left in the ground to stave off climate change.
Exxon has steadfastly insisted in public documents and statements,
including its filings with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission,
that none of its oil and gas reserves will become stranded. The Exxon
investigation
<https://insideclimatenews.org/tags/exxon-climate-change-investigation>
in New York and a similar investigation underway in Massachusetts seek
to determine if the company misled investors and the public about risks
related to climate change.
-
"Exxon has repeatedly assured investors that it is taking active steps
to protect the company's value from the risk that climate change
regulation poses to its business," the attorney general says in the
30-page
<https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/4551474-New-NY-AG-Subpoena-6-22-2018.html>
motion filed in the Supreme Court of New York in Manhattan.
*Two Sets of Numbers?*
State investigators suspect that the company used one set of numbers in
describing risks to investors but used a secret set internally to
calculate the impact of greenhouse gas regulations. The internal
estimates are the ones the investigators want to see.
-
The evidence lies in records related to 26 of Exxon's largest projects,
the investigators say.
"Cash flow spreadsheets likely provide the most direct evidence of what
proxy costs, if any, Exxon used, as well as the financial impact of any
failure to abide by the company's public representations," the motion,
some of which was redacted, states.
Exxon has said that searching through hundreds of thousands of documents
for the spreadsheets is too much of a burden to find what investigators
are seeking. But the attorney general's office says that argument has
been undermined by the testimony of Exxon's employees, who have said the
company has the spreadsheets stored in an organized and readily
accessible manner...
-
The attorney general's office issued its first subpoena in 2015
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/05112015/new-york-attorney-general-eric-schneiderman-subpoena-Exxon-climate-documents>,
three months after InsideClimate News published aninvestigative series
of stories
<https://insideclimatenews.org/content/Exxon-The-Road-Not-Taken>disclosing
Exxon's early understanding of the link between burning fossil fuels and
global warming in the late 1970s. The Los Angeles Times laterpublished
similar stories <http://graphics.latimes.com/exxon-arctic/>.
New York investigators latersubpoenaed Exxon records held by company
auditor PricewaterhouseCoopers
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09062017/exxon-climate-accounting-court-document>,
seeking internal records the company may have provided its accountants.
Exxon has faced a series of legal setbacks in the last few months. The
company wasrebuffed in New York federal court
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29032018/exxon-climate-fraud-investigations-ruling-federal-judge-caproni-new-york-schneiderman-massachusetts-healey>in
its attempt to block investigations by both the New York Attorney
General's office and the Massachusetts Attorney General's office. The
company alsofailed to halt the Massachusetts investigation
<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13042018/exxon-climate-change-investigation-massachusetts-supreme-court-ruling-refuses-block-attorney-general-healey>in
that state's highest court.
https://insideclimatenews.org/news/22062018/exxon-climate-investor-fraud-investigation-new-york-attorney-general-proxy-costs-subpoena
*This Day in Climate History - June 24, 2004
<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/politics/24CND-CHEN.html> - from D.R.
Tucker*
June 24, 2004: NYTimes.com reports:
"The Supreme Court handed a major political victory to the Bush
administration today, ruling 7 to 2 that Vice President Dick Cheney
is not obligated, at least for now, to release secret details of his
energy task force.
"The majority of the justices agreed with the administration's
arguments that private deliberations among a president, vice
president and their close advisers are indeed entitled to special
treatment — arising from the constitutional principle known as
executive privilege — although they said the administration must
still prove the specifics of its case in the lower courts.
"'A president's communications and activities encompass a vastly
wider range of sensitive material than would be true of any ordinary
individual,' the court said in a summary of the majority opinion
written by Justice Anthony M. Kennedy.
"By sending the case back to the lower federal courts, the majority
removed a significant political headache for President Bush and Vice
President Cheney. As a practical matter, the outcome today means
that the final resolution will not come until well after the
November elections."
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/24/politics/24CND-CHEN.html
- - - -=
"This case requires us to consider the circumstances
under which a court of appeals may exercise
its power to issue a writ of mandamus to modify or dissolve
the orders when, by virtue of their overbreadth,
enforcement might interfere with the officials in the discharge
of their duties and impinge upon the President's
constitutional prerogatives."
https://www.fas.org/sgp/jud/cheney062404.pdf
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