Most recent 20 articles: Washington Post - Energy 202
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No September on record in the West has seen a heat wave like this - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Sep 08, 2022) |
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Sep 08, 2022 · The heat wave that’s been gripping California and other parts of the West for 10 days and counting is the most severe ever recorded in September, weather experts have said - confirming what California’s governor is calling the “hottest and longest on record” for the month.
The data supporting the assertion is overwhelming. Records began falling on Aug. 30 when Seattle and Portland set calendar day records of 90 and 100. And it’s not yet over - while the region’s heat wave peaked on Tuesday, it’s expected to continue until Saturday, ending after a total of 12 days.
In just the past week, nearly 1,000 heat records have been broken, including more than 270 monthly records. ... Read more ...
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Glaciers in Europe are experiencing the most severe melting on record - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Aug 18, 2022) |
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Aug 18, 2022 · Pascal Egli has run on trails winding through the Alps for nearly two decades, but until this summer, he had never seen the mountains so bare.
Extreme heat waves had transformed the mountain landscape. Routes once considered easy were now dangerous. Snow bridges over crevasses collapsed, making certain areas impassable. Rocks had tumbled unexpectedly from glaciers and bare mountainsides, injuring and even killing some in their path.
“By mid-June, it was really, really kind of shocking,” said Egli, who received his PhD in glaciology from the University of Lausanne in Switzerland this summer. “It was getting so hot and things are melting so fast, you couldn’t safely do ... Read more ...
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Carmakers say the climate bill sets impossible targets - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Aug 03, 2022) |
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Aug 03, 2022 · Automakers are chafing at the ambitious plan Democrats are advancing to bring down the cost of electric cars and accelerate the transition from gas-powered vehicles.
The Senate climate package poised for a vote as early as this week includes tax credits that slash the cost of electric cars by thousands of dollars - but only for buyers who purchase from companies that relocate their supply chains out of China and other nations with which the United States does not have a free-trade agreement. It is a heavy lift for an industry that has limited access to minerals and components crucial to the production of EV batteries.
The timelines in the measure, some auto companies and ... Read more ...
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Analysis | Why Saving the Climate Requires a Tough Taxonomy: QuickTake - Washington Post - Energy 202 (May 25, 2022) |
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May 25, 2022 · Floods, droughts and food shortages are just some of the effects of climate change, while exploitation and corruption drive social injustice around the world. Governments tackling these issues are realizing that to solve them, they need first to define and measure them. Some are turning to so-called taxonomies that establish which economic practices and products are harmful to the planet and which aren’t. The idea is that the price of goods and services must reflect the human and environmental cost of both production and disposal, which in turn would spur much needed change. But designing a code is fiendishly difficult.
1. What are taxonomies?
They’re essentially systems ... Read more ...
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Interior Department approves first large-scale offshore wind farm in the U.S. - Washington Post - Energy 202 (May 11, 2021) |
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May 11, 2021 · The Biden administration on Tuesday approved the first large-scale offshore wind farm in the United States, a project that envisions building 62 turbines off Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts and creating enough electricity to power 400,000 homes. Vineyard Wind is the first of several massive offshore wind-farm proposals that could put more than 3,000 wind turbines in the Atlantic Ocean from Maine to North Carolina. Read more ...
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The Energy 202: Biden pleases some once leery liberals with new climate plan - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jul 15, 2020) |
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Jul 15, 2020 · Joe Biden has won over some left-leaning parts of the Democratic coalition skeptical of his bid for president with a new climate plan.
As Matt Viser and I report, the former vice president and presumptive Democratic presidential nominee unveiled a proposal Tuesday pledging to eliminate carbon pollution from power plants by 2035 and spend $2 trillion to turbocharge the clean energy economy.
His plan, much of which would require the consent of Congress, would put the United States on a 15-year timeline for a 100 percent clean electricity standard and is aimed at the twin goals of rebuilding the economy and fighting climate change.
Former Vice President Joe Biden ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: More than a dozen states unite to boost electric trucks - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jul 14, 2020) |
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Jul 14, 2020 · More than a dozen states are teaming up to boost sales of pickup trucks, school buses and big rigs that run entirely on electricity and do not pump climate-warming pollution into the air.
Leaders from Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and 10 other states, along with the District of Columbia, say they will try to make sure every new medium- and heavy-duty vehicle sold within their borders is fully electric by the middle of the century.
The agreement is not legally binding, and it promises to send a fleet of electric trucks onto the road before the technology to do so is fully developed. But it is the latest sign of Democratic-controlled ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: Trump's nomination of public lands manager tees up tough vote in the Senate - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jul 02, 2020) |
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Jul 02, 2020 · President Trump's nomination of an outspoken conservative activist to lead a major public lands agency tees up a tough vote in the Senate in the middle of an election year.
Trump officially tapped William Perry Pendley on Tuesday to lead the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) after a year running the agency in an acting role.
Pendley had generated controversy for his statements in favor of selling the very lands he is charged with overseeing. The BLM runs the federal government's oil, gas and coal-leasing program and manages more than a tenth of the nation’s landmass.
Bureau of Land Management acting director William Perry Pendley. (AP Photo/Matthew Brown)
In a ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: John Hickenlooper pledges climate action after beating Green New Deal supporter in primary - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jul 01, 2020) |
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Jul 01, 2020 · Former Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper beat back a challenge from his left by a Green New Deal supporter in a tougher-than-anticipated Democratic primary race in which energy issues were a key point of contention.
Now Hickenlooper, an ex-petroleum geologist who is among the most oil-friendly Democrats running for Senate, will try to define himself as a champion on climate change and other environmental issues when he faces first-term Republican incumbent Sen. Cory Gardner in November.
During a speech aired online Tuesday night, Hickenlooper called climate change an "urgent need" that is "being ignored."
Gardner, too, is trying to cast himself as a conservationist ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: House Democrats' sweeping climate plan comes with political risks - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 30, 2020) |
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Jun 30, 2020 · House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) will unveil Tuesday an ambitious package of climate proposals designed to eliminate the U.S. economy's contributions to climate change by 2050 through a combination of government mandates, tax incentives and new infrastructure.
The sweeping set of proposals from House Democrats is a signal what party leaders broadly are willing to do to tackle climate change should they retake the control of the Senate and White House from Republicans in 2021.
As Steven Mufson and I report, the proposals would require electrical utilities be net-zero emitters of greenhouse gases by 2040 and carmakers produce only ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: Oil industry lobbies to relax bank lending guidelines due to pandemic - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 26, 2020) |
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Jun 26, 2020 · Oil and gas companies are putting pressure on the Trump administration to loosen bank guidelines put in place under President Barack Obama so they better access emergency loans during the coronavirus pandemic.
The oil and gas sector has been hit hard by the downturn in demand for gas and jet fuel as many people stay indoors during the viral outbreak. Many small to midsize petroleum producers see a little-known, four-year-old lending guidance document as obstructing the main goal of the stimulus packages passed by Congress - to keep workers employed and prevent companies such as theirs from going bankrupt.
Oil storage tanks in Cushing, Okla. (Daniel Acker/Bloomberg ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: Biden consolidates support from mainstream environmentalists with new endorsement - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 25, 2020) |
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Jun 25, 2020 · Joe Biden further consolidated the support of mainstream environmentalists by scoring the endorsement of a major green group on Wednesday.
The political arm of the Natural Resources Defense Council announced that it is backing the former vice president in his bid to beat President Trump.
Citing Biden's four decades working in Washington, the group's chair Gina McCarthy wrote in a blog post that the nation"need a leader who can rebuild us from the crises we are reeling from today, and make us stronger and more resilient against the demands of the next. That person is Joe Biden.”
McCarthy served as President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency chief for ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: Stacey Abrams wants the South to do more to tackle climate change - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 24, 2020) |
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Jun 24, 2020 · The South is behind on climate change, Stacey Abrams says. She has a plan to change that.
The region, already battered by raging hurricanes and sweltering summers, is among the most vulnerable to the dangers posed by rising global temperatures.
But it is lagging behind other parts of the country in taking action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from a group Abrams founded after losing the Georgia governor’s race in 2018.
“The South is doing bits and pieces,” Abrams said in an interview Tuesday. “We have not taken the concerted and, I would say, persistent action that we need.”
Stacey Abrams speaks at a Selma, Ala. church in March. ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: House Democrats push aid for wind and solar in new infrastructure bill - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 23, 2020) |
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Jun 23, 2020 · House Democrats are trying to throw a lifeline to wind and solar developers struck hard by the coronavirus pandemic.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders included extensions of tax breaks long sought by the renewable energy sector as part of a $1.5 trillion infrastructure package.
A wind turbine in Lempster, N.H. (AP Photo/Charles Krupa)
The decision to include them is a victory for environmentalists and environmentally minded Democrats in Congress, who had pressed for more aid to the clean energy sector, which has lost 620,000 jobs since the start of the pandemic.
But the move also sets up a fight with congressional Republicans, ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: How a Great Lakes wind farm may get beaten by birds - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 22, 2020) |
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Jun 22, 2020 · A plan to put hundreds of wind turbines in the waters of Lake Erie just had its wings clipped - by ornithologists and others concerned about their blades killing birds.
As Zachary Lewis reports for The Post, what would be the nation’s first freshwater wind farm is in limbo after regulators in Ohio told wind developers that they need to do more work to understand how their turbines will impact migrating birds.
The city of Cleveland at the edge of Lake Erie. (AP Photo/Amy Sancetta)
That the pilot project may have to be scuttled highlights how renewable energy projects - pursued to combat climate change - can hit some of the same environmental snags as that oil, gas ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: Senate passes big conservation bill to spend billions on national parks and other public lands - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 18, 2020) |
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Jun 18, 2020 · The Senate approved a bill that would funnel billions of dollars to fixing roads, trails and other infrastructure in national parks and on other public lands, as well as expanding their size.
Backers of the bill, called the Great American Outdoors Act, hailed it as one of the most significant pieces of conservation legislation in decades. It is also a bit of bipartisan lawmaking that has become rare in an increasingly polarized Washington.
“People are accustomed to politicians exaggerating,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.), one of the bill's backers, told reporters Wednesday. But, he added, “the action that the Senate today is the most significant step to being good ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: This is New Jersey's plan to become 'the Houston of American offshore wind' - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 17, 2020) |
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Jun 17, 2020 · New Jersey wants to be the capital of the offshore wind energy industry. So it is building a giant port.
Gov. Phil Murphy (D) announced on Tuesday that his state will stage construction for the colossal turbines that may one day dot the East Coast horizon as Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic states rush to build more renewable energy.
“We’ll be able to be the focal point for the industry in this part of the country,” Murphy said in an interview.
A large cooling tower and other buildings currently on Artificial Island in rural Salem County, N.J. (Mel Evans/AP)
“We have a huge opportunity,” said Tim Sullivan, chief executive of the New Jersey Economic Development ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: Trump’s EPA chief drops into battleground states ahead of election - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 16, 2020) |
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Jun 16, 2020 · President Trump’s top environmental deputy is going to battleground states to champion his boss’s record on clean air and water ahead of the 2020 election.
Over the past month, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler has visited a toxic waste site in Michigan, a landfill in Pennsylvania, and a university in Wisconsin - all swing states. He also took a trip to Georgia, a Republican stronghold that Democrats are seeking to turn blue.
His trips through states Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic nominee, hopes to capture comes as the Trump campaign aims to win back voters concerned that the president is doing too little to tackle climate change and ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: Forest Service sparks controversy for pushing logging, oil during pandemic - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 15, 2020) |
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Jun 15, 2020 · The Trump administration's “blueprint” paving the way for more logging, grazing and energy extraction is the newest flashpoint over regulatory rollbacks during the coronavirus pandemic.
Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s order on Friday, meant to cut through legal red tape around chopping down trees, garnered praise from Republicans in Congress.
But it is also drawing protest from conservationists concerned Trump officials are taking advantage of the pandemic to develop more of the 193 million acres of forests and grasslands managed by the U.S. Forest Service.
An observation cab in Tahoe National Forest. (Photo by Erin Williams for The Washington Post)
In ... Read more ...
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The Energy 202: Trump boasts oil is 'back in business.' Others are a lot more cautious - Washington Post - Energy 202 (Jun 12, 2020) |
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Jun 12, 2020 · President Trump painted a rosy picture of the petroleum industry's recovery from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic - one that clashes with the pain a lot of drillers still feel on the ground.
Speaking at a roundtable discussion in Dallas yesterday, Trump praised his administration’s efforts to aid the ailing oil industry hit this year by a one-two punch - a severe downturn in domestic energy demand amid stay-at-home orders and a production war between Saudi Arabia and Russia.
President Trump speaks during a roundtable discussion in Dallas on Thursday. (Alex Brandon/AP)
“I think we’ve done a fantastic job with bringing back the oil in a rapid fashion,” Trump ... Read more ...
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