Biden calls bluff on carbon capture with new power plant rules
Biden calls bluff on carbon capture with new power plant rules
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On the face of it, the federal rules unveiled Thursday to require coal plants to capture nearly all of their carbon emissions by 2039 directly conflict with the country’s need to triple electricity generation in the next decade to meet surging AI needs. Legal challenges and a smackdown by the U.S. Supreme Court are almost inevitable.
This is not just a climate Hail Mary by President Joe Biden and the Environmental Protection Agency in an election year, though. Biden is calling the bluff of the fossil fuel industry that carbon capture technology is the preferred way to clean up the climate while continuing to drill and burn.
The new rules, one of the biggest climate efforts of the Biden presidency, would require coal-fired power plants to capture up to 90% of their carbon emissions in the next 15 years or shut down. These plants represent about a third of harmful carbon emissions in America.
Carbon capture technologies — which are improving but nowhere near enough to scale to such dramatic levels — would be a massive investment for plant owners who want to keep their plants alive, instead of switching to renewable energy. More than half of U.S. coal plants are slated to close in the next decade anyway. This will either speed that up or force fossil fuel firms to exponentially upgrade their capture technology.
By requiring this type of scale, the government is basically telling the fossil fuel industry to put up or shut up on its claims that carbon capture provides a safe and effective future for oil, coal, and gas generation of electricity. How the industry will respond is sadly predictable.
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Zeus: Wildfire app brings old reporting to new climate media
. . . . Tech entrepreneur John Mills didn’t set out to jump into the climate business when a wildfire threatened his Sonoma County home five years ago. He just wanted to find out what was going on. But by rounding up some of the best radio operators and fire volunteers in California to found Watch Duty, a non-profit app that tracks wildfires out West, Mills inadvertently created a new type of climate media. A just-the-facts-ma’am, fast-breaking reporting, social media service that is quickly becoming a must have for anyone in a wildfire area, and for any of the tens of thousands of people who fight them each summer. David Callaway takes a look at Watch Duty.
Latin American carbon markets expand as regimes clear way
. . . . Latin American governments are rapidly expanding their carbon markets to package and preserve environmental treasures such as the Amazon Basin, despite criticism that selling carbon credits allows polluters such as mining and oil companies to buy their way to a better climate footprint, writes Michael Molinski. Countries such as Mexico and Brazil are leading the way to develop what could be a regional carbon credit market, such as the one in Europe and being attempted in China.
Satellite data reveals intra-urban heat pockets in lower-income neighborhoods
. . . . Great investigative piece this week by our partner ClimateCrisis 247 showing the 20 cities in the U.S. with the most heat inequality between rich and poor neighborhoods. Using government data, reporter Evan Comen found that in some cities there can be a difference of up to 20°F within the same city, depending on variables such as elevation and slope, and that the hottest areas also tend to be the lowest income ones. In some places, a $10,000 adjustment higher in income can lead to a surface temperature up to 2 degrees cooler. Check out if your city is among the top 20. . . .
Thursday’s subscriber insights
Carmakers rev up bid to enter EV-to-grid power market
. . . . When Ford, GM and others introduced two-way technology that could flow power back from vehicles into the grid or individual homes, it caught a lot of attention. Now car companies are trying to get in on the financial action. We explain how. Read more here. . . .
New study shows which brands top plastics waste list
. . . . With talks going on in Canada to establish a plastics treaty, who are the world’s biggest plastic polluters? A new global study published in a scientific journal reveals the culprits. Read more here. . . .
Editor’s picks: Photographer’s ‘adventure with a purpose’
Watch the video: Photographer James Balog has become one of the foremost chroniclers of human-caused climate change, as his cameras have tracked the dramatic effects — vanishing ice, rising seas, fires, and the toll climate change is taking on all living things. He tells CBS correspondent Ben Tracy that his photos are his testimony, a record of our past and present, and a message for the future.
Asia is the world’s most disaster-affected region
Asia remained the world’s most disaster-affected region in 2023 due to weather, climate and water-related hazards. Storms and floods have hit the hardest, a new report published by the World Meteorological Organization said on Tuesday. The State of the Climate in Asia 2023 report highlights the accelerating rate of climate change across several indicators such as surface temperature, glacier retreat, and sea level rise. “The report's conclusions are sobering. Many countries in the region experienced their hottest year on record in 2023, along with a barrage of extreme conditions, from droughts and heatwaves to floods and storms,” said Celeste Saulo, WMO Secretary-General. Climate change has exacerbated the frequency and severity of such events that profoundly impact societies, economies, and, most importantly, human lives, she underscored. The news on Asia follows the group’s release Monday of a similar report for Europe, Heatwave deaths increased across almost all Europe in 2023.
Latest findings: New research, studies and projects
Climate change exposure and firms’ cost of equity
Institutional portfolio rebalancing triggered by firms’ climate change exposures affects S&P 500 firms’ cost of equity via the incurred climate change price pressure (CCPP), say the authors of new research titled Climate-Triggered Institutional Price Pressure: Does it Affect Firms’ Cost of Equity? The work focuses on the years 2005 to 2021. The authors estimate stock-level CCPP stemming from physical and transition exposures, in a demand-based asset pricing setting. From the abstract: “We proxy firms’ cost of equity by real-time, forward-looking, option-based measures. The average CCPP is sizable up to -8%. A one-standard-deviation decrease in CCPP increases firms’ cost of equity by up to 6% of its average value, the effect being greater (smaller) for CCPP stemming from opportunity and physical (regulatory) climate change exposures. Banks and insurance companies contribute primarily to CCPP by on average underweighting stocks with high climate change exposures.” The authors note that despite facing a higher cost of equity from more negative CCPP, firms do not reduce future climate change exposures and carbon emissions, except over periods of heightened media climate change attention. Authors: George S. Skiadopoulos, University of Piraeus, Department of Banking and Financial Management; Queen Mary, University of London, School of Economics and Finance; and Cheng Xue, Queen Mary University of London.
More of the latest research:
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Words to live by . . . .
“This is all about improving the health and the resilience of our lands, whether that’s forests and deserts or farms and coastal areas. Healthy, resilient lands ... do a better job absorbing and storing carbon, and avoiding emissions.” — Wade Crowfoot, California’s natural resources secretary, speaking of a new state initiative to reach carbon neutrality by 2045.