[✔️] March 16, 2023- Global Warming News Digest |Greens sue Biden, Texas turns mean, history influences future, global traveler meets bad weather, crash course video, value sunshine.

Thu Mar 16 08:54:42 EDT 2023

/*March 16, 2023*/

/[ Quick reaction ]/
*Greens Sue Biden Over Willow Oil Project Approval*
The groups charge BLM with failing to consider the project’s impacts on 
lands used for subsistence by Alaska Natives and argue the Fish and 
Wildlife Service failed to properly consider Willow’s potential impacts 
on endangered species such as polar bears.
March 15, 2023 Alex Guillen  POLITICO
Acoalition of environmental groups on Tuesday filed a quick legal 
challenge against the the Biden administration’s decision to approve the 
controversial Willow oil project in Alaska.

Biden’s decision to allow ConocoPhillips to build its massive project on 
federal land in the Alaska wilderness has caused an uproar among 
environmentalists. They argued in their lawsuit that the approval 
violated four environmental laws despite the fact that the Bureau of 
Land Management greenlit a smaller version of the project than 
ConocoPhillips had sought.

“Willow would result in the construction and operation of extensive oil 
and gas and other infrastructure in sensitive arctic habitats and will 
significantly impact the region’s wildlife, air, water, lands, and 
people,” the groups wrote in their lawsuit, which asks the Alaskan court 
to vacate the Biden administration’s approval of the project.

BLM failed to follow requirements under the National Environmental 
Policy Act to consider alternatives that would lessen the project’s 
impact on the National Petroleum Reserve–Alaska, or NPR-A, or to take a 
required “hard look” at the project’s cumulative impacts, including on 
climate change, the suit alleges.

The groups also charge BLM with failing to consider the project’s 
impacts on lands used for subsistence by Alaska Natives. And the suit 
argues the Fish and Wildlife Service failed to properly consider 
Willow’s potential impacts on endangered species such as polar bears.

“Interior attempted to put a shiny gloss over a structurally unsound 
decision that will, without question, result in a massive fossil fuel 
project that will reduce access to food and cultural practices for local 
communities,” Bridget Psarianos, lead attorney for Trustees for Alaska, 
which represents the environmental groups, said in a statement. “This 
new decision allows ConocoPhillips to pump out massive amounts of 
greenhouse gases that drive continued climate devastation in the Arctic 
and world. The laws broken on the way to these permits demonstrate the 
government’s disregard for those who would be most directly harmed by 
industrial pollution and ignores Alaska’s and the world’s climate reality.”

Willow is estimated to produce about 600 million barrels of oil, with 
production projected to be over 180,000 barrels of oil per day at its peak.

The project is also expected to generate around 280 million tons a year 
of greenhouse gases over its expected 30-year lifetime — the equivalent 
of two coal-burning power plants every year, according to government 
estimates.

The Alaskan court in 2021 overturned a Trump-era approval of the project 
after determining its underlying environmental analysis was flawed.

The suit was brought in the U.S. District Court for the District of 
Alaska by the Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, Alaska Wilderness 
League, Environment America, Northern Alaska Environmental Center, 
Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society.

The groups said a second suit spearheaded by Earthjustice, which had 
previously said it was reviewing the administration’s analysis of the 
project’s environmental impact as a basis for a possible lawsuit, will 
be filed soon as well.

The Interior Department declined to comment. The White House could not 
be immediately reached for comment.
Alex Guillén is an energy reporter for POLITICO Pro, where he covers 
EPA, the Clean Air Act, coal, mining and other energy regulatory issues.
https://portside.org/2023-03-15/greens-sue-biden-over-willow-oil-project-approval

- -

/[ sour, bitter and crafty politics ]/
*Texas Lawmakers Have a New Scheme to Punish Renewables and Prop Up 
Fossil Fuels*
A suite of bills introduced in the state legislature last week aims to 
restrict wind and solar—despite their success.
By  Molly Taft
March 14, 2023

Texas Republicans are at it again. Last week, Republican politicians in 
the state legislature introduced a package of bills intended to punish 
renewable energy and boost fossil fuels, despite the fact that Texas is 
currently one of the nation’s top generators of renewable power.

On Thursday, Texas state senators Charles Schwertner and Phil King 
introduced nine bills that they said would help solve issues with 
Texas’s beleaguered power grid. According to the Dallas Morning News, 
the bills include one that would create up to 10,000 megawatts of 
natural gas-fueled generation; one to smooth out what Schwertner said 
were pro-wind and solar “market distortions” that federal tax breaks 
create; one to get rid of any remaining state tax credits for 
renewables; and one that would limit new renewable energy facilities 
being built based on how much natural gas facilities are also being 
built, in an attempt to keep natural gas competitive.

The bills are an echo of some of the concepts raised in bills introduced 
two years ago, the last time the legislature was in session, introduced 
shortly after a 2021 winter freeze and subsequent blackouts killed 
hundreds of people—and while the GOP was still erroneously trying to 
blame the issues with the grid exclusively on renewable energy (a lot of 
the blame actually lay with natural gas supply). While the renewables 
bill didn’t end up passing, Texas Republicans have kept beating the drum 
to try to use grid reforms to sink renewables and prop up fossil fuels.

As the Dallas Morning News reported, Texas leadership are all for these 
types of measures. Earlier this month, Governor Greg Abbott said he 
would not allow wind and solar companies to get corporate tax breaks 
under a new state program. Meanwhile, last week Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick 
praised the bills at the press conference, saying in a release that they 
will “fix the Texas power grid once and for all.” Patrick said that he 
has designated two of the bills—the one to create the new natural gas 
generation and one dealing with the “market distortions”—as part of his 
hand-picked suite of 30 priority bills that he would be pushing during 
this legislative session.

What’s truly wild about this set of possible laws is just how well 
renewable energy is doing in Texas. Last year, the state was the number 
one producer of wind energy in the country and the number two producer 
of solar. The International Energy Agency predicted last year that 
renewables’ work on the grid could grow even more in 2023, pushing 
natural gas use down.

“These bills will subsidize those dirty energy sources at a big cost to 
consumers and the environment,” Luke Metzger, executive director at 
Environment Texas, told Earther in an email. “Folks at the Texas 
Legislature used to speak of the importance of not picking winners and 
losers in the energy marketplace. Well, that’s exactly what these bills 
do. The state of Texas is dispensing with the free market to subsidize 
polluting power plants and discriminating against wind and solar energy.”

The Texas power grid’s issues are a hell of a lot more complex than 
‘renewables bad, fossil fuels good.’ It’s going to take more 
uncomfortable reforms to iron out what actually is going to work for the 
state, but we can count on Republicans to take any opportunity to use 
renewable energy as a political punching bag.
https://gizmodo.com/texas-legislature-bills-punish-renewable-energy-grid-1850223286

/[research report from Nature Communications - how history influences 
the future  ] /
*Information about historical emissions drives the division of climate 
change mitigation costs*
Alessandro Del Ponte, Aidas Masiliūnas & Noah Lim
Nature Communications volume 14, Article number: 1408 (2023) Cite this 
article

Published: 14 March 2023
*Abstract*
Despite worsening climate change, the international community still 
disagrees on how to divide the costs of mitigation between developing 
countries and developed countries, which emitted the bulk of historical 
carbon emissions. We study this issue using an economic experiment. 
Specifically, we test how information about historical emissions 
influences how much participants pay for climate change mitigation. In a 
four-player game, participants are assigned to lead two fictional 
countries as members of either the first or the second generation. The 
first generation produces wealth at the expense of greater carbon 
emissions. The second generation inherits their predecessor’s wealth and 
negotiates how to split the climate change mitigation costs. Here we 
show that when the second generation knows that the previous generation 
created the current wealth and mitigation costs, participants whose 
predecessor generated more carbon emissions offered to pay more, whereas 
the successors of low-carbon emitters offered to pay less.
- -
*Discussion*
We found that when participants with greater historical emissions were 
informed about it, they offered to pay a larger share of climate 
mitigation costs. This behavior is consistent with collective 
responsibility30,31, even though the generation that pays for climate 
change mitigation and the generation who created climate change never 
interacted. Our findings suggest that citizens in developed countries 
may accept paying more for climate change mitigation if the link between 
past emissions, present wealth, and present climate costs is made clear 
to them. Recent advances in climate science enable policymakers to 
communicate this information with greater accuracy than ever before7.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37130-7

/[ video - my favorite virtual traveler met with global warming weathers 
in Morocco - she travels the world solo by motorcycle ]/
*Crazy weather conditions in Morocco 🇲🇦 |S7 - E13|*
Itchy Boots
108,529 views  Mar 15, 2023  TATA
In this episode, I finally manage to leave Tata. There has been a strong 
cold and rain front that went over Morocco, causing heavy rainfall and 
snowfall. The usually dry riverbeds, the wadis, turned into raging brown 
rivers, resulting in the closure of roads. On top of that, strong winds 
cause more sand to be picked up in the air, and reducing the visibility. 
Somehow, I decide to ride 640 kilometers though!

Want to learn how to use drones, GoPros and 360 cameras to film your 
solo motorcycle adventure? Check out: www.itchyboots.com/academy
Here I teach all my filming techniques including getting drone shots 
while riding!

Follow my journey on: WWW.ITCHYBOOTS.COM
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqYV3ve50oc

/[ Crash Course produces lessons for the young and old - aimed at anyone 
who does not yet know,  ]/
*How Will Climate Change Continue to Affect Us?: Crash Course Climate & 
Energy #8*
CrashCourse
Mar 15, 2023
Our warming planet isn’t just a threat to future generations; it’s a 
threat to us right now. If we don’t mitigate it, the continued rise in 
global temperature will have ripple effects throughout ecosystems and 
communities. In this episode of Crash Course Climate and Energy, we’ll 
look at how climate change has already affected our planet, and what the 
future might hold.

    Chapters:
    Introduction: Climate Change 00:00
    Global Warming 1:03
    Extreme Weather Events 2:08
    Climate Models 4:29
    Climate Change's Ripple Effects 6:54
    Feedback Loops 10:22
    The Future of Climate Change 11:16
    Review & Credits 12:43

Transcript: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZPwpSF8Oa_1JokSdsyl2hQ7zXVOvSnCUSnucEcSAagY/edit
Sources: 
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rRJ-L9TLNfPwPfzn3LdjDEw-wHtThwTfDUe2rDtFXQQ/edit
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVUuwHGLIYo

/[ Your roof as energy source -- See how much your patch of sunshine is 
worth ]/
*Google Project Sunroof*
How Project Sunroof Works
Your own personalized solar savings estimator, powered by Google Earth 
imagery.

1  Search for your home
We use Google Earth imagery to analyze your roof shape and local weather 
patterns to create a personalized solar plan.

2  Personalize your solar analysis
Adjust your electric bill to fine-tune your savings estimate and the 
recommended number of solar panels for your home.

3  Compare finance options
Compare loan, lease, and purchase options for your solar panels based on 
your results.

Customized savings estimate
Solar savings are calculated using roof size and shape, shaded roof 
areas, local weather, local electricity prices, solar costs, and 
estimated incentives over time. Using a sample address, take a look at 
the detailed estimate Project Sunroof can give you.
- -
Why are we doing this?
As the price of installing solar has gotten less expensive, more 
homeowners are turning to it as a possible option for decreasing their 
energy bill. We want to make installing solar panels easy and 
understandable for anyone.

Project Sunroof puts Google's expansive data in mapping and computing 
resources to use, helping calculate the best solar plan for you.

How it works
When you enter your address, Project Sunroof looks up your home in 
Google Maps and combines that information with other databases to create 
your personalized roof analysis. Don’t worry, Project Sunroof doesn't 
give the address to anybody else.

Customizing for your roof
Project Sunroof computes how much sunlight hits your roof in a year. It 
takes into account:

Google's database of imagery and maps
3D modeling of your roof
Shadows cast by nearby structures and trees
All possible sun positions over the course of a year
Historical cloud and temperature patterns that might affect solar energy 
production

Choose what you need
Project Sunroof recommends an installation size to generate close to 
100% of your electricity use, based on roof size, the amount of sun 
hitting the roof, and your electricity bill.

We recommend an installation that covers less than 100% of your 
electrical usage because, in most areas, there is little financial 
benefit to producing more power than you can consume.

Computing your savings
Project Sunroof uses current solar industry pricing data to run the 
numbers on leasing, taking a loan, or buying solar panels for your house 
to help you choose what's best for you.

Project Sunroof also compiles the following incentives to calculate your 
final cost:

    Federal and state tax credits
    Utility rebates
    Renewable energy credits and net metering

https://sunroof.withgoogle.com/

/[The news archive - looking back]/
/*March 16, 2011*/
March 16, 2011: CBS News reports on the aggressive anti-science 
attitudes of the 112th Congress.*
*

    *House Republicans reject climate change science*
    BY LUCY MADISON

    MARCH 16, 2011 / 2:38 PM / CBS NEWS

    All 31 Republicans on the House Energy and Commerce Committee
    declined on Tuesday to vote in favor of a series of amendments
    acknowledging the scientific consensus around climate change.

    The three amendments were attached to a bill aiming to curb the
    Environmental Protection Agency's power to regulate greenhouse
    gasses. They posited that "Congress accepts the scientific finding
    ... that 'warming of the climate system is unequivocal'"; that the
    scientific evidence regarding climate change "is compelling"; and
    that "human-caused climate change is a threat to public health and
    welfare."

    The committee passed the measure, but voted down the amendments,
    with 30 of the 31 Republicans voting against them and one - Marsha
    Blackburn, of Tennessee - declining to vote either way. Democrats
    unanimously voted in favor of the amendments.

    Republicans, who have strongly opposed Obama administration efforts
    to regulate greenhouse gasses, have been pushing to strip the EPA of
    its regulatory power. The party blocked Democratic efforts last year
    to pass climate change legislation.

    Rep. Henry Waxman (Calif.), the committee's ranking Democrat who
    offered one of the three amendments, said they should not even be
    necessary because the "finding is so obviously correct."

    Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), however, contended that the science of the
    issue was "not settled."
    "My good friend from California tries to make it clear that the
    science is settled. I would say it's not settled," Barton said of
    Waxman's amendment, according to the Hill.

    The global scientific community is largely unified in the belief
    that the climate is warming as a result of human actions, among them
    the release of greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere.

    Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) said Republicans' rejection of Waxman's
    amendment showed "what it means to be on the wrong side of history
    and the wrong side of science."

    Daniel Lashof, the Director of the Climate Center at the National
    Resources Defense Council (NRDC), told Hotsheet the GOP refusal to
    acknowledge climate science reflected Republicans "substituting
    ideology for science" in the face of political interests.

    "They started with a conclusion - which is they don't want to limit
    carbon pollution - and then worked backwards and put themselves in a
    position where they had to deny science," he said, adding that he
    thought the tendency to "ignore the facts and substitute politics"
    was "disturbing."

    Politico reported in January that nearly all of the leading GOP
    presidential contenders have at some point expressed concerns about
    the impact of climate change - including Tim Pawlenty, Mitt Romney,
    and Mike Huckabee. (Huckabee is even purported to have at one time
    supported cap-and-trade legislation - a charge he now vehemently
    denies.)

    Senate Democrats are also scrambling to block efforts in their
    chamber to keep the EPA from having regulatory power over greenhouse
    gases .

    In a statement on Tuesday night, a White House spokesperson slammed
    the Senate GOP's efforts, arguing that an amendment from Senate
    Republicans "rolls back the Clean Air Act and harms Americans'
    health by taking away our ability to decrease air pollution."

    "Instead of holding big polluters accountable, this amendment
    overrules public health experts and scientists," the statement
    continued, according to the Hill. "Finally, at a time when America's
    families are struggling with the cost of gasoline, the amendment
    would undercut fuel efficiency standards that will save Americans
    money at the pump while also decreasing our reliance on foreign oil."

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-republicans-reject-climate-change-science/

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