[TheClimate.Vote] November 16, 2020 - Daily Global Warming News Digest..

[Richard Pauli]

/*November 16, 2020*/

['sloppy and rushed']
*Judge blasts Trump administration's "sloppy" climate analysis in oil case*
The ruling blocked new oil and gas drilling permits on Wyoming public lands
By Matthew Brown | The Associated Press
November 13, 2020
BILLINGS, Mont. -- A U.S. federal court once again blocked new oil and 
gas drilling permits on Wyoming public lands in a ruling Friday that 
rebuked the Trump administration for its "sloppy and rushed" analysis of 
climate change impacts.

U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras said the administration's Bureau 
of Land Management failed to look closely enough at climate change 
impacts from oil and gas extraction and consumption on almost 500 square 
miles (1,295 sq. kilometers) of land in Wyoming.

Contreras first blocked drilling on the parcels in 2019, saying the 
bureau needed to consider greenhouse gas emissions from fuels extracted 
on public lands in the past, present and foreseeable future, including 
in neighboring states such as Colorado and Utah.

In Friday's ruling, he said the land bureau's latest effort to tally up 
the impact of those emissions had again failed and "does not adequately 
consider the climate change impacts of the oil and gas leasing decisions."
The judge pointed to numerous flaws in the bureau's climate change 
assessment such as failing to consider the cumulative impacts of 
multiple lease sales over time. He also highlighted simple math errors 
by officials that taken together "suggests a sloppy and rushed process" 
lacking scientific accuracy.

The ruling marks the latest in a string of court actions over the past 
decade that have faulted the U.S. for inadequate consideration of 
greenhouse gas emissions when approving oil, gas and coal projects on 
federal land.

The case involving the Wyoming parcels originated with leases that were 
sold in 2015 and 2016, under President Barack Obama.

Land bureau spokesperson Richard Packer said the agency's leasing 
decisions were "based on the best available science." He said that the 
agency would continue pushing Trump's agenda supporting domestic energy 
production, but declined to answer whether government attorneys will 
appeal Friday's decision.

President-elect Joe Biden's administration has pledged to ban new oil 
and gas leasing on public lands and waters.
- -
"The oil and gas leasing program is a train wreck right now. They keep 
losing in court because they don't want to acknowledge science and facts 
and the reality of climate change," he said.

Companies pay billions of dollars annually to produce oil, gas and coal 
from federal lands and waters. The money is split between the federal 
government and states where the extraction occurs.

Extracting and burning fossil fuels from federal land generates the 
equivalent of 1.4 billion tons (1.3 billion metric tons) annually of the 
greenhouse gas carbon dioxide, according to a 2018 report from the U.S. 
Geological Survey. That's equivalent to almost one-quarter of total U.S. 
carbon dioxide emissions.
https://www.denverpost.com/2020/11/13/wyoming-oil-gas-permits-ruling-public-lands-climate/


[Economics and global warming = The Fed "Climate Change Causes Financial 
Risk:]
*Trump's Coup, Biden's Dilemma, and the Chinese Challenge – Foroohar and 
Blyth*
Nov 15, 2020
theAnalysis-news
Rana Foroohar (Financial Times) and Marc Blyth (Angrynomics) join Paul 
Jay to discuss the crazy and dangerous decline of the American Empire, 
on theAnalysis.news podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8at17PdpFlY
https://youtu.be/8at17PdpFlY?t=1263 - [Central bankers meeting climate 
issues. Problem is that politicians are doing too little.]



[Oh my. more methane - video ]
*Arctic Methane. Has 2020 triggered a tipping point?*
Nov 15, 2020
Just Have a Think
The summer of 2020 saw record breaking heatwaves across the Arctic 
region resulting in the lowest ever recorded October sea ice levels. 
Those persistently warm temperatures also caused the thawing of 
permafrost and sediment on the seabed allowing the release of very high 
concentrations of methane - in some cases up to 400 times normal levels. 
So, have we now reached the long anticipated tipping point?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A1ChxLmpbz4

- - -

[AGU publications]
The interaction of climate change and methane hydrates
*Abstract *
Gas hydrate, a frozen, naturally-occurring, and highly-concentrated form 
of methane,sequesters significant carbon in the global system and is 
stable only over a range of low-temperature and moderate-pressure 
conditions. Gas hydrate is widespread in the sediments of marine 
continental margins and permafrost areas, locations where ocean and 
atmospheric warming may perturb the hydrate stabilityfield and lead to 
release of the sequestered methane into the overlying sediments and 
soils. Methane and methane-derived carbon that escape from sediments and 
soils and reach the atmosphere could exacerbate greenhouse warming. The 
synergy between warming climate and gas hydrate dissociation feeds a 
popular perception that global warming could drive catastrophic methane 
releases from the contemporary gas hydrate reservoir. Appropriate 
evaluation of the two sides of the climate-methane hydrate synergy 
requires assessing direct and indirect observational data related to gas 
hydrate dissociation phenomena and numerical models that track the 
interaction of gas hydrates/methane with the ocean and/or 
atmosphere.Methane hydrate is likely undergoing dissociation now on 
global upper continental slopes and on continental shelves that ring the 
Arctic Ocean. Many factors--the depth of the gas hydrates in 
sediments,strong sediment and water column sinks, and the inability of 
bubbles emitted at the seafloor to deliver methane to the sea-air 
interface in most cases--mitigate the impact of gas hydrate dissociation 
on atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations though. There is no 
conclusive proof that hydrate-derived methane is reaching the atmosphere 
now, but more observational data and improved numerical models will 
better characterize the climate-hydrate synergy in the future
https://agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/epdf/10.1002/2016RG000534



[Digging back into the internet news archive]
*On this day in the history of global warming - November 16, 2005 *
The Washington Post reports:

"A White House document shows that executives from big oil companies
met with Vice President Cheney's energy task force in 2001 --
something long suspected by environmentalists but denied as recently
as last week by industry officials testifying before Congress

"The document, obtained this week by The Washington Post, shows that
officials from Exxon Mobil Corp., Conoco (before its merger with
Phillips), Shell Oil Co. and BP America Inc. met in the White House
complex with the Cheney aides who were developing a national energy
policy, parts of which became law and parts of which are still being
debated."

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501842.html

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