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Production and combustion of fossilfuels imposes enormous costs on society, which the industry doesn’t pay for. The closest we’ve ever come to a carbon tax is a limited fee on methane emissions under the new IRA law. A more promising alternative might be a clean-up tax on the fossilfuel industry.
The decision at the Glasgow climate conference to phase down fossilfuels is an important step forward — and not just because of climate change. We think of fossilfuels as a source of climate change, but that’s only a one part of the problem. Fossilfuels are a case in point. Consider coal.
Airpollution is harmful to human health as it exacerbates and causes an increase in health issues, like respiratory illnesses. The poor air quality—juxtaposed with the COP28 climate negotiations underway—made the need for action abundantly clear. I attended the climate conference as part of the UCLA Law delegation.
Gene Yaw (R-Lycoming) announced plans to introduce legislation to prohibit municipalities from receiving Act 13 drilling impact fees if they set more protective standards on the development of natural gas than required in state or federal law and while a challenge to local restrictions is being litigated. Read more here. Read more here.
The power sector is the second highest source of climate pollution in the U.S. The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently published a proposed rule which would limit carbon pollution from fossilfuel burning power plants, a move which is critically important, statutorily required, and long overdue.
Among the commenters was my colleague Sam Wilson , who passionately and effectively called on the EPA to follow the science and enact the strongest airpollution standards to protect people’s health. pollution, half of the deaths are attributable to the burning of fossilfuels. EPA’s PM 2.5 EPA’s PM 2.5
This means that, with few exceptions, new buildings will need to exclusively use electric appliances, and will not be allowed to contain any fossil-fuel infrastructure, like natural-gas lines. All-electric as the new normal. Just as important is the process that led to the new-buildings ordinance.
Municipal zoning laws, meanwhile, allowed companies to build power plants and other industrial facilities in those same neighborhoods. First, there’s airpollution. Gas plants and infrastructure emit nitrogen oxides (NOx) during combustion, which degrade local air quality.
Urban airpollution kills millions of people around the world. Eliminating fossilfuels will radically reduce that problem. We will also get rid of coal mines and oil wells, which produce other kinds of pollution today. Accomplishing that will be no easy feat. What does it buy us?
Background Japan has heavily relied on the use of fossilfuels for its power generation. According to the Japanese Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, the countrys fossilfuel dependency was 83.2% This blog post provides an overview of those cases and the broader landscape of climate litigation in Japan.
Research shows that halting the burning of fossilfuels in homes and businesses is beneficial for the health of residents and vital to combat climate change. Gas stoves are a significant driver of childhood asthma , leaking methane even while turned off and releasing as much nationwide climate pollution each year as 500,000 cars.
The jobs did not come, and while the price of gas didn’t go up, air and water pollution sure did. That means they are going to politicians with their hand out to receive more of your tax dollars with nothing to show for it except receipts from past failures like leaking pipelines, harmful airpollution, and dangerous explosions.
Minnesotans are already experiencing the climate crisis, as well as health impacts, from burning fossilfuels. The Minnesota House has shown strong leadership in addressing the climate crisis and funding the clean energy transition at the scale necessary to swiftly curb heat-trapping emissions from fossilfuels.
Upcoming research from my colleague Dave Cooke shows that electric delivery trucks can reduce climate-warming emissions from driving by up to 92 percent and reduce lifecycle public health impacts by up to 85 percent compared to today’s average fossil-fueled delivery trucks.
The dangerous impacts of a warming, fossil-fuel dependent world span from wildfires capable of destroying entire towns to cancer-causing airpollution that afflicts the next generation. The climate crisis is one of humanity’s most complex conflicts yet.
The state-specific fact sheet, On the Road to 100 Percent Renewables for Minnesota , outlines how it could meet its electricity needs completely and equitably with renewable energy by 2035 and dramatically reduce fossilfuel use in vehicles and buildings.
I applaud Governor Shapiros continued support for Community Solar and look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to get it signed into law. Solar panels do not emit carbon dioxide, methane, nitrogen oxides, or other harmful airpollutants when theyre working.
Prior to Glasgow, the NRDC had concluded that India was on track to meet its previous commitment to have 40% non-fossilfuel power generation by 2030. Much of the shift may have been due to recognition that renewables would provide more energy independence and would help get India’s crippling urban airpollution under control.
Our national overreliance on gas is evidently undermining energy access, not strengthening it, as some fossilfuel industry players would want you to believe. These claims just add to the deluge of greenwashing and disinformation from the fossilfuel industry. Don’t believe the industry spin.
The compromise included critical investments in solar, weatherization assistance, community energy transition grants, and leveraged funds from the federal infrastructure law. The best hope now for Minnesota legislators to act on the climate and energy agreement is a special session. billion in public health cost savings overall.
Switching from fossilfuels like gasoline to increasingly clean electricity sources is vital for hitting climate and airpollution goals. Eliminating gasoline combustion also means getting rid of harmful pollutant emissions like nitrogen oxides and reactive organic gases.
Most household appliances, like furnaces and water heaters, are powered by fossilfuels and emit nitrogen oxides (NOx) —toxic and highly reactive gases that endanger human health and the environment. Zero-NOx appliance standards would benefit public health, cut greenhouse gas pollution, and create jobs.
Statement by Emilia Belliveau, Energy Transition Program Manager Ottawa | Traditional, unceded territory of the Algonquin Anishinaabeg People – At today’s Parliamentary Standing Committee on Environment and Sustainable Development (ENVI), Members of Parliament grilled the fossilfuel industry about their climate pollution.
But these goals will only be achievable if the state has sufficient charging infrastructure to fuel the vehicles, along with available financing to help truck owners purchase or lease them. For this transition to succeed, it will require not just technological innovation but also robust policy support and financial investment.
Through the Clean Air Act , and as affirmed—and reaffirmed—through multiple legal sagas, EPA is statutorily obligated to address carbon pollution from fossilfuel-fired power plants. Indeed, EPA still retains the ability to set strong standards that curtail carbon pollution at the scale, speed, and rigor required.
We need to plan for energy infrastructure that supports our economy and reduces harmful airpollution. These firms recognized that they could not assume the risks of exacerbating climate damage from continued burning of fossilfuels. Some forecasting models must use observations of young people, no?
Along with rising temperatures, drought makes vegetation and forests drier and increases the risk of fires that generate airpollution. Water education should go beyond teaching the hydrologic cycle and incorporate components of local hydrology, regulations, and laws. Water education.
During the shift from fossilfuels to renewable energy sources, it is crucial not only to prevent certain groups from being excluded, but also to guarantee that disadvantaged communities can step into positions of leadership and ownership, and that past injustices are remedied.
That is A LOT of EVs and A LOT less oil use, airpollution and climate emissions. The bipartisan infrastructure law provided up to $7.5 billion in investments to support the buildout of a nationwide charging network through the Charging and Fueling Infrastructure Grant Program and the National EV Infrastructure (NEVI) program.
If passed, this new law would finally put an end to the millions of tonnes of coal – the world’s dirtiest and deadliest fossilfuel – that are shipped overseas from Canada’ west coast every year. Airpollutants from coal plants are linked to chronic heart and respiratory disease, and a host of acute ailments.
Wind and solar energy facilities emit no airpollution and have minimal environmental effects as compared to fossilfuel plants, but like all types of development, renewable energy projects do have impacts. However, misinformation sometimes leads those impacts to be misunderstood or exaggerated.
Since 2019, more than seventy local and state jurisdictions have followed Berkeley’s lead in requiring or strongly incentivizing all-electric or fossil-fuel-free new buildings, with more considering similar approaches. can be fueled by natural gas), and must base these options on a defensible “one-for-one” basis.
The Governor approved a notable slate of climate legislation with a package that includes more stringent greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets and measures designed to reduce the state’s reliance on fossilfuels. Implementation of these new laws will be the true test of that statement, but they provide an exciting starting point.
CT , the Supreme Court said this: We hold that the Clean Air Act and the EPA actions it authorizes displace any federal common law right to seek abatement of carbon-dioxide emissions from fossil-fuel fired power plants. at 528–529. 7411(b)(1)(B); see also §7411(a)(2). Connecticut , 564 U. 410 (2011). Post, at 20.
Tailpipes from our cars, trucks and buses are also a major source of toxic local airpollution that disproportionately harms overburdened and underserved communities. An average global temperature change greater than 1.5 Reducing emissions from our vehicles is a huge part of this.
Building electrification requirements – at times called “natural gas bans,” including on this blog – are subject to a complicated interplay of federal, state and local law, and many local governments have been found or determined themselves to be preempted from one or more approaches.
These communities are often already exposed to lots of airpollution from things like other industries, airports, and nearby highways. Similarly, a study from the Netherlands based on long-term testing also showed the country’s newest facility is emitting much higher levels of dioxin and furans than is allowed by European law.
This support for EV charging, and by extension EV ownership among individuals and businesses, is key for accelerating the electrification of the transportation sector that we need to make progress on reducing greenhouse gas emissions and local airpollution from transportation. Both programs are set to run for five years.
Solar PV Project in Cuba (Photo credit: IRENA ) Today, the Sabin Center for Climate Change Law and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) jointly published a new report titled Building a Cleaner, More Resilient Energy System in Cuba: Opportunities and Challenges. Cuba’s power system is currently heavily reliant on fossilfuels.
Japan’s dependency on fossilfuel s had been slightly declining until 2010. But the country changed course as a result of the 2011 Tohoku Earthquake and Tsunami, which led to the forced shutdown of nuclear power plants and greater reliance on fossilfuels. Civil law cases. In September 2017, in Sendai Citizens v.
PA Bulletin, page 3573 ) Air Quality Permits -- EQT ARO, LLC - COP [state land] Tract 231 Compressor Station: DEP approved an Air Quality Plan Approval for multiple sources of airpollution at the facility located in Snow Shoe Twp., Susquehanna County. ( Beaver County. ( Centre County. ( Juniata County. ( Read more here.
On November 22, the Clean Air Council , PennFuture , and the Center for Biological Diversity announced they appealed an extension of Renovo Energy Center’s airpollution permit for a large gas-fired power plant — a significant source of new pollution within an environmental justice area.
Delivering large removals would likely drive up costs of food and energy, exacerbating food insecurity and fuel poverty. Leaving large residuals would mean continued harms to health from airpollution and continued impacts from fossilfuel extraction and production.
Perhaps most importantly, this rule doesn’t even attempt to grapple with the question of how to eliminate emissions from trucks, focusing exclusively on fossil-fuel powered engines to the exclusion of electrification. Bad news: electric trucks aren’t included in the rule. Sadly, it didn’t.
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