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<font size="+2" face="Calibri"><i><b>March 16, 2023</b></i></font><font
face="Calibri"><br>
</font> <br>
<i>[ Quick reaction ]</i><br>
<b>Greens Sue Biden Over Willow Oil Project Approval</b><br>
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.<br>
March 15, 2023 Alex Guillen POLITICO<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
The Alaskan court in 2021 overturned a Trump-era approval of the
project after determining its underlying environmental analysis was
flawed.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
The Interior Department declined to comment. The White House could
not be immediately reached for comment.<br>
Alex Guillén is an energy reporter for POLITICO Pro, where he covers
EPA, the Clean Air Act, coal, mining and other energy regulatory
issues.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://portside.org/2023-03-15/greens-sue-biden-over-willow-oil-project-approval">https://portside.org/2023-03-15/greens-sue-biden-over-willow-oil-project-approval</a><br>
<p>- -<br>
</p>
<i>[ sour, bitter and crafty politics ]</i><br>
<b>Texas Lawmakers Have a New Scheme to Punish Renewables and Prop
Up Fossil Fuels</b><br>
A suite of bills introduced in the state legislature last week aims
to restrict wind and solar—despite their success.<br>
By Molly Taft<br>
March 14, 2023<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
“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.”<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://gizmodo.com/texas-legislature-bills-punish-renewable-energy-grid-1850223286">https://gizmodo.com/texas-legislature-bills-punish-renewable-energy-grid-1850223286</a><br>
<br>
<p></p>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[research report from Nature Communications
- how history influences the future ] </i><br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"><b>Information about historical
emissions drives the division of climate change mitigation costs</b><br>
Alessandro Del Ponte, Aidas Masiliūnas & Noah Lim <br>
Nature Communications volume 14, Article number: 1408 (2023) Cite
this article<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Published: 14 March 2023</font><font
face="Calibri"><br>
<b>Abstract</b><br>
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.</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">- -</font><br>
<font face="Calibri"><b>Discussion</b><br>
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.<br>
</font> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37130-7">https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-023-37130-7</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ video - my favorite virtual traveler met with global warming
weathers in Morocco - she travels the world solo by motorcycle ]</i><br>
<b>Crazy weather conditions in Morocco 🇲🇦 |S7 - E13|</b><br>
Itchy Boots<br>
108,529 views Mar 15, 2023 TATA<br>
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! <br>
<br>
Want to learn how to use drones, GoPros and 360 cameras to film your
solo motorcycle adventure? Check out: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://www.itchyboots.com/academy">www.itchyboots.com/academy</a> <br>
Here I teach all my filming techniques including getting drone shots
while riding!<br>
<br>
Follow my journey on: <a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="http://WWW.ITCHYBOOTS.COM">WWW.ITCHYBOOTS.COM</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqYV3ve50oc">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqYV3ve50oc</a><br>
<br>
<p><br>
</p>
<i>[ Crash Course produces lessons for the young and old - aimed at
anyone who does not yet know, ]</i><br>
<b>How Will Climate Change Continue to Affect Us?: Crash Course
Climate & Energy #8</b><br>
CrashCourse<br>
Mar 15, 2023<br>
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.<br>
<blockquote>Chapters:<br>
Introduction: Climate Change 00:00<br>
Global Warming 1:03<br>
Extreme Weather Events 2:08<br>
Climate Models 4:29<br>
Climate Change's Ripple Effects 6:54<br>
Feedback Loops 10:22<br>
The Future of Climate Change 11:16<br>
Review & Credits 12:43<br>
</blockquote>
Transcript:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZPwpSF8Oa_1JokSdsyl2hQ7zXVOvSnCUSnucEcSAagY/edit">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZPwpSF8Oa_1JokSdsyl2hQ7zXVOvSnCUSnucEcSAagY/edit</a><br>
Sources:
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rRJ-L9TLNfPwPfzn3LdjDEw-wHtThwTfDUe2rDtFXQQ/edit">https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rRJ-L9TLNfPwPfzn3LdjDEw-wHtThwTfDUe2rDtFXQQ/edit</a><br>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVUuwHGLIYo">https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVUuwHGLIYo</a><br>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[ Your roof as energy source -- See how much
your patch of sunshine is worth ]</i></font><br>
<font face="Calibri"> </font> <font face="Calibri"><b>Google
Project Sunroof</b></font><br>
<font face="Calibri">How Project Sunroof Works<br>
Your own personalized solar savings estimator, powered by Google
Earth imagery.<br>
<br>
1 Search for your home<br>
We use Google Earth imagery to analyze your roof shape and local
weather patterns to create a personalized solar plan.<br>
<br>
2 Personalize your solar analysis<br>
Adjust your electric bill to fine-tune your savings estimate and
the recommended number of solar panels for your home.<br>
<br>
3 Compare finance options<br>
Compare loan, lease, and purchase options for your solar panels
based on your results.<br>
<br>
Customized savings estimate<br>
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.<br>
- - <br>
Why are we doing this?<br>
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.<br>
<br>
Project Sunroof puts Google's expansive data in mapping and
computing resources to use, helping calculate the best solar plan
for you.<br>
<br>
How it works<br>
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.<br>
</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Customizing for your roof</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Project Sunroof computes how much sunlight hits
your roof in a year. It takes into account:</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Google's database of imagery and maps</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">3D modeling of your roof</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Shadows cast by nearby structures and trees</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">All possible sun positions over the course of a
year</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Historical cloud and temperature patterns that
might affect solar energy production</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Choose what you need</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">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.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">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.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Computing your savings</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">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.</font><br>
<br>
<font face="Calibri">Project Sunroof also compiles the following
incentives to calculate your final cost:</font><br>
<blockquote> <font face="Calibri">Federal and state tax credits</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Utility rebates</font><br>
<font face="Calibri">Renewable energy credits and net metering</font><br>
</blockquote>
<font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://sunroof.withgoogle.com/">https://sunroof.withgoogle.com/</a><br>
</font> <br>
<p><br>
</p>
<font face="Calibri"><i>[The news archive - looking back]</i><br>
<font size="+2"><i><b>March 16, 2011</b></i></font> <br>
March 16, 2011: CBS News reports on the aggressive anti-science
attitudes of the 112th Congress.<b><br>
</b></font>
<blockquote>
<p><font face="Calibri"><b>House Republicans reject climate change
science</b><br>
BY LUCY MADISON<br>
<br>
MARCH 16, 2011 / 2:38 PM / CBS NEWS<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri">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.<br>
<br>
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."<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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."<br>
<br>
Rep. Joe Barton (R-Tex.), however, contended that the science
of the issue was "not settled."<br>
"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.<br>
<br>
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.<br>
<br>
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."<br>
<br>
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.<br>
</font></p>
<p><font face="Calibri">"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."<br>
<br>
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.)<br>
<br>
Senate Democrats are also scrambling to block efforts in their
chamber to keep the EPA from having regulatory power over
greenhouse gases .<br>
<br>
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."<br>
<br>
"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."<br>
</font></p>
</blockquote>
<p><font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="http://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-republicans-reject-climate-change-science/">http://www.cbsnews.com/news/house-republicans-reject-climate-change-science/</a></font></p>
<font face="Calibri"> <br>
<br>
</font>
<p><font face="Calibri">======================================= <br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"><b class="moz-txt-star"><span
class="moz-txt-tag">*Mass media is lacking, many </span>daily
summaries<span class="moz-txt-tag"> deliver global warming
news - a few are email delivered*</span></b> <br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"><br>
=========================================================<br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"><b>*Inside Climate News</b><br>
Newsletters<br>
We deliver climate news to your inbox like nobody else. Every
day or once a week, our original stories and digest of the web’s
top headlines deliver the full story, for free.<br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://insideclimatenews.org/">https://insideclimatenews.org/</a><br>
--------------------------------------- <br>
*<b>Climate Nexus</b> <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*">https://climatenexus.org/hot-news/*</a>
<br>
Delivered straight to your inbox every morning, Hot News
summarizes the most important climate and energy news of the
day, delivering an unmatched aggregation of timely, relevant
reporting. It also provides original reporting and commentary on
climate denial and pro-polluter activity that would otherwise
remain largely unexposed. 5 weekday <br>
================================= <br>
</font> <font face="Calibri"><b class="moz-txt-star"><span
class="moz-txt-tag">*</span>Carbon Brief Daily </b><span
class="moz-txt-star"><a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.carbonbrief.org/newsletter-sign-up">https://www.carbonbrief.org/newsletter-sign-up</a></span><b
class="moz-txt-star"><span class="moz-txt-tag">*</span></b> <br>
Every weekday morning, in time for your morning coffee, Carbon
Brief sends out a free email known as the “Daily Briefing” to
thousands of subscribers around the world. The email is a digest
of the past 24 hours of media coverage related to climate change
and energy, as well as our pick of the key studies published in
the peer-reviewed journals. <br>
more at <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief">https://www.getrevue.co/publisher/carbon-brief</a>
<br>
================================== <br>
*T<b>he Daily Climate </b>Subscribe <a
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