May 2016 Climate Change Summary Report

“USDA Announces More Than $8 Million in Payments to Support the Production of Advanced Biofuel”

May 31, 2016: Imperial Valley News reports: “Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced that the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) is investing $8.8 million to boost the production of advanced biofuels and sustain jobs at renewable energy facilities in 39 states. USDA continues to lead the way in promotion of advanced biofuel production, from implementing the revised Farm Bill bio-refinery program to the launching of the Green Fleet with the Department of the Navy and developing the Biogas Opportunities Roadmap, which outlines voluntary strategies to overcome barriers to expansion and development of a robust biogas industry within the United States.”

“Fracking approved in England”

Mat 27, 2016: Associated Press reports: “A council has granted the first fracking license to be issued in England for five years, but environmental groups are vowing to fight on against the use of the technology. Fracking was approved near the village of Kirby Misperton, 250 miles (400 kilometers) north of London, despite opposition to the controversial gas extraction technique. Groups including Friends of the Earth said in a joint declaration Tuesday they will continue to fight to protect “our beautiful countryside” from fracking. Activist Simon Bowens called the decision ‘an absolute travesty’ and said the battle to prevent fracking is not over. Various appeals are being studied.”

“UMass Divests From Fossil Fuel Industry That ‘Perpetuates Injustice’”

May 26, 2016: CNS News reports: “The winters are cold in Amherst, Massachusetts, where the state university relies on a modern central heating plant that burns natural gas most of the time, switching to fuel oil when gas is not available. But no matter. Now that spring is here, the heat is coming from students who are horrified at the university’s financial investments in fossil fuels. Following protests (and student arrests) last month, the UMass System announced on Wednesday that it is the first major public university in the United States to fully divest from the fossil fuel industry.”

“A focus on climate change ignores energy poverty”

May 25, 2016: An op-ed in The Hill by William O’Keefe states: “The signing of the Paris agreement on climate change has focused too much attention on how individual countries will meet their obligations. Lost in the pursuit of emissions reductions, which involves either technology to reduce emissions from fossil fuel use or less fossil fuel use, has been attention to what the agreement means for the world’s poor. There is no commercially viable technology for reducing carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuels and most signatories to the Paris agreement are pursuing policies to suppress fossil fuel use. This creates major problems for alleviating global poverty.”

“U.S. top oil and gas producer in 2015”

May 24, 2016: Washington Examiner reports: “The U.S. managed to beat out the Saudis and Russia as the world’s top oil and natural gas producer last year, despite low prices and a persistent supply glut challenging the industry, according to the federal government. ‘U.S. petroleum and natural gas production first surpassed Russia in 2012, and the United States has been the world’s top producer of natural gas since 2011 and the world’s top producer of petroleum hydrocarbons since 2013,’ the Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s independent analysis arm, reported Monday. U.S. and Russia production is almost split evenly between oil and natural gas output, while Saudi Arabia relies heavily on petroleum production, the agency said.”

 

“Professor Says ‘Madness’ Of Fighting Global Warming Will Impoverish Everyone”

May 24, 2016: The Daily Caller reports: “Cambridge University electrical engineering professor Dr. M.J. Kelly concluded in a peer-reviewed journal article that attempts to fight global warming with green energy will impoverish the world. The Monday article found reducing carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions enough to actually slow global warming in a measurable way simply isn’t possible without significantly reducing standards of living by plunging most of the world into poverty, destitution and starvation. ‘Over the last 200 years, fossil fuels have provided the route out of grinding poverty for many people in the world,’ states the article. ‘This trend is certain to continue for at least the next 20 years based on the technologies of scale that are available today.’”

 

“The fuzzy accounting behind renewable energy’s falling prices”

May 23, 2016: White Mountain Independent reports: “Fans of the renewable energy industry like to boast that the costs of solar and wind power are dropping. What they never mention is where most of those ‘savings’ are coming from — American taxpayers. Just listen to President Obama’s most recent State of the Union address: ‘Wind power is now cheaper than dirtier, conventional power [and] solar is saving Americans tens of millions of dollars a year.’ The American Wind Energy Association claims, ‘wind energy is one of the most affordable forms of electricity today.’ And the Solar Energy Industries Association proudly notes that “the cost to install solar has dropped by more than 73 percent.” But these stats only show one side of the ledger. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, federal subsidies — including direct expenditures, tax breaks, and research and development — for solar power totaled $5.3 billion in 2013, the most recent year of data. Wind power pocketed $5.9 billion. Combined, renewable largesse grew nearly 40 percent between 2010 and 2013.”

“New UN climate chief rejects Trump’s plans for Paris deal”

May 23, 2016: The Hill reports: “The future head of the United Nations’s climate office says ‘it would not be easy’ to renegotiate the Paris climate deal, something presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump said this week he would try to do. Patricia Espinosa, a former foreign minister in Mexico, was appointed head of the U.N.’s Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) this week and will take over the post in July. Asked by Reuters about Trump’s hope to rework the climate deal, Espinosa said that would be difficult, and that she hopes Trump won’t push for that if elected president.”

“US House: cars are cleaner, so we should use less ethanol”

May 20, 2016: Autoblog reports: “Some US lawmakers want to lower the minimum amount of ethanol that is required to be blended into the domestic gasoline supply. The irony is that some ethanol advocates have a problem with the fact that better fuel economy may be to blame. The idea of House Resolution 5180 is to bring this year’s annual target usage of renewable fuels down to 18.1 billion gallons from 22.3 billion, a drop of about 19 percent. This would bring the amount of ethanol blended into the national gasoline supply to under 10 percent. Proponents say blending ethanol into gasoline cuts foreign-oil dependency and emissions. Opponents say ethanol production may actually increase pollution while tightening up the supply of corn that would otherwise be used for food stock. Also, some in the vehicle industry aren’t convinced that ethanol doesn’t damage engines, especially at higher blend levels like E15.”

“Driverless Vehicles Could Be a Boon for Energy Efficiency”

May 20, 2016: Morning Consult reports: “Energy-independence advocates say the transportation sector would be a lot more efficient if the country encourages the use of driverless vehicles. But there’s one major political hurdle: State regulations on these cars need to be replaced by a uniform system of rules at the federal level. Securing America’s Future Energy, an organization that advocates for U.S. energy independence, is promoting the use of automated vehicles as a way to cut the reliance on oil for transportation. That recommendation is in addition to more traditional energy policy goals, such as encouraging domestic oil production, in a report issued Thursday. The group hopes to see the U.S. drop the transportation sector’s reliance on oil from 92 percent to 50 percent by 2040.”

“Climate regs could have modest impact on electricity prices – EIA”

May 19, 2016: E&E News reports: “Electricity prices in the later years of U.S. EPA’s Clean Power Plan might be 3 percent higher than without the rule, according to an early release of part of the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s outlook for 2016. Those figures are significantly lower than analyses cited by opponents of the climate rule that project 11 to 14 percent increases (ClimateWire, May 16). ‘The national average prices are higher as the rule’s introduced, and it peaks about 2025, but by 2040 they’re back pretty much to the same place,’ said Paul Holtberg, EIA’s program lead on the analysis. In response to its critics, EPA often insists that while the Clean Power Plan may result in higher electricity prices, electricity bills will be lower under the regulation because of increased energy efficiency and reduced demand.”

“Climate Modeling Dominates Climate Science”

May 18, 2016: Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute writes: “…It looks like less than 4% of the science, the climate change part, is doing about 55% of the modeling done in the whole of science. Again, this is a tremendous concentration, unlike anything else in science… Climate science appears to be obsessively focused on modeling. Modeling can be a useful tool, a way of playing with hypotheses to explore their implications or test them against observations. That is how modeling is used in most sciences. But in climate change science modeling appears to have become an end in itself. In fact it seems to have become virtually the sole point of the research.”

“Emissions fall ‘with or without’ Obama climate plan, feds say”

May 18, 2016: Washington Examiner reports: “The U.S. will continue to reduce greenhouse gas emissions with or without the Obama administration’s far-reaching climate rules, new federal analysis shows. The Energy Information Administration, the Energy Department’s independent analysis arm, began issuing parts of its annual energy projections for 2016 on Tuesday. The agency’s complete energy outlook will be issued in July. The outlook includes the government’s first analysis of the final version of the Clean Power Plan, the centerpiece of President Obama’s climate change agenda, outlining a reference case in which greenhouse gas emissions in the country are falling dramatically and will continue to do so whether or not the climate plan is fully enacted.”

“Electric Vehicles Emit More Pollutants Than Fossil Fuel-Burning Cars, Says Study”

May 16, 2015: The Daily Caller reports: “A study from the University of Edinburgh shows that electric and hybrid vehicles emit as many, if not more, atmospheric toxins than fossil fuel-burning vehicles. The study, conducted by Victor Timmers and Peter Achten at the University of Edinburgh, and published by the journal Atmospheric Environment, found that heavier electric vehicles produce as many pollutants as their lighter weight conventional vehicles. Electric vehicles tend to produce more pollutants from tire and brake wear, due in large part to their batteries, as well as the other parts needed to propel them, making them heavier.”

“Meet Donald Trump’s new energy adviser”

May 13, 2016: Climatewire reports: “Donald Trump’s new energy adviser calls himself a climate skeptic, but he may urge the billionaire celebrity to address climbing temperatures through a hands-off government approach. Rep. Kevin Cramer (R-N.D.) said yesterday he’s preparing at least two white papers on energy policy for the presumptive Republican nominee, who is scheduled to address an oil and gas conference in North Dakota later this month. Cramer, who has expressed support for a small carbon tax to replace the Clean Power Plan, said he may offer Trump advice on climate change that challenges the candidate’s assertions about it being a hoax promoted by Democrats.”

“Electric Cars Are Not Necessarily Clean”

May 13, 2016: Scientific American reports: “Tesla Motors has received more than 325,000 preorders for its hot new Model 3 electric car even though it will not be available for at least another year. That almost equals the 340,000 electric cars and plug-in hybrids now on American roads. Tesla has advertised its vehicles as having zero emissions, helping fuel the mania for the fun-driving sedan, but that’s not necessarily true. Although the battery-powered car itself doesn’t produce any emissions, the power plant that generates the electricity used to charge those batteries probably does. Low emissions, much less zero emissions, are only true in certain places where most of the electricity comes from a mix of low-carbon sources such as the sun, wind or nuclear reactors. Electric cars are great for eliminating oil from transportation, because very little U.S. electricity is generated by burning petroleum. But electric cars may or may not help the country combat climate change—and it all depends on where the electricity comes from.”

“Energy Agency’s International Projections Ignore Paris, CPP”

May 12, 2016: Morning Consult reports: “The U.S. Energy Information Administration angered environmentalists Wednesday with its latest international energy projections because they didn’t account for the historic Paris climate agreement, the U.S.’s Clean Power Plan or any future policy changes. EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski warned that the numbers his agency provides are possibilities for certain scenarios, not actual predictions. He admitted that EIA doesn’t ‘have a huge amount of confidence what those endpoint numbers are.’ The report projected a 33.9 percent increase in worldwide carbon dioxide emissions from 2012 to 2040, including a 5.2 percent increase in the United States.”

“Riding the ‘Solarcoaster’ as Shares Plunge Even More Than Coal”

May 11, 2016: Bloomberg reports: “For all the upbeat forecasts about the growth of solar power, this is a punishing year for the industry. And it won’t improve anytime soon. SunEdison Inc., the world’s biggest clean-energy company, is bankrupt. Yingli Green Energy Holding Co., once the top panel maker, warned it may be inching toward default. And SolarCity Corp., the largest U.S. rooftop installer, plunged as much as 27 percent Tuesday after scaling back its installation forecast for the third time in seven months. They’re not alone. A Bloomberg index of 20 major solar companies has slumped more than 30 percent this year. Soaring installations and growing global demand for clean energy is being trumped by investor concerns that the debt-fueled strategies employed by SunEdison, Yingli and SolarCity are endemic to the industry and dangerous for shareholders.”

“U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2015 are 12% below their 2005 levels”

May 11, 2016: A report from the Energy Information Administration states: “After increasing in 2013 and in 2014, energy-related carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fell in 2015. In 2015, U.S. energy-related carbon dioxide emissions were 12% below the 2005 levels, mostly because of changes in the electric power sector. Energy-related CO2 emissions can be reduced by consuming less petroleum, coal, and natural gas, or by switching from more carbon-intensive fuels to less carbon-intensive fuels. Many of the changes in energy-related CO2 emissions in recent history have occurred in the electric power sector because of the decreased use of coal and the increased use of natural gas for electricity generation. The reductions in CO2 emissions are spread out among the different end-use sectors in proportion to the share of total electricity sales to each sector. Overall, the fuel-use changes in the power sector have accounted for 68% of the total energy-related CO2 reductions from 2005 to 2015.”

“SunEdison Bankruptcy Three Times Bigger than Solyndra”

May 10, 2016: Morning Consult reports: “Does this sound familiar? A shiny new solar company comes onto the scene, satisfying the cries of the solar panel-obsessed clean energy fanatics. Somewhere along the way, Barack Obama and Congress indiscriminately award the solar company millions in taxpayer funds.  A few years pass, and a slow but largely ignored descent into financial ruin ends in scandal. You may be thinking of the famed Solyndra debacle.  Unfortunately for taxpayers, SunEdison, the self-proclaimed ‘largest green energy company,’ filed for bankruptcy protection in late April. Even after becoming the 13th-most subsidized company in the United States, SunEdison misused taxpayer funds and lied, resulting in a recent Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing.”

“A carbon tax is not a simple tax”

May 9, 2016: An op-ed in the Richmond Times-Dispatch by Bill O’Keefe states: “Those who believe or assert that the government must do something to counter the risk of climate change increasingly propose a carbon tax as ‘by far the most powerful and efficient way to reduce emissions,’ in the words of the World Bank president. It is asserted that a carbon tax uses the law of supply and demand and can be implemented without ‘an army of bureaucrats and engineers’ to oversee reductions in carbon dioxide (CO2). The promise is that the revenue raised would be rebated to taxpayers by, in the words of economists, substituting the carbon tax to replace a more distorting tax. Simple and straightforward. It sounds almost too good to be true — because it is too good to be true. There would be nothing simple about a carbon tax implemented by Congress.”

“Interior secretary: ‘Keep it in the ground’ activists ‘naive’”

May 9, 2016: The Hill reports: “Interior Secretary Sally Jewell had harsh criticism for activists who want to dramatically reduce the production of fossil fuels. Jewell said the activists, who call their movement ‘keep it in the ground,’ ignore the fact that for the time being, the country is dependent on oil, natural gas and coal. ‘It’s going to take a very long time before we can wean ourselves from fossil fuels, so I think that to keep it in the ground is naive, to say we could shift to 100 percent renewables is naïve,’ Jewell told The Desert Sun newspaper after a California event to dedicate new national monuments in the desert. ‘We really have to have a blend over time, and a transition over time, that recognizes the real complexity of what we’re dealing with,’ she said.”

“Government Spent Billions Turning 45% Of American Corn Into Ethanol”

May 6, 2016: The Daily Caller reports: “Roughly 45 percent of American corn is now used to produce biofuels like ethanol due to enormous levels of taxpayer support, according to an infographic published Wednesday by a global warming researcher. America supports ethanol via billions in subsidies and federal programs like Renewable Fuel Standard, which requires gasoline sold in the U.S. to contain a certain amount of ethanol. America’s ethanol mandates cost motorists $10 billion annually in additional fuel costs, according to a study published in March 2015 by the Manhattan Institute. The original justifications for the enormous taxpayer financial-support ethanol has received was reducing America’s dependence on foreign oil and to lower carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, according to the Congressional Budget Office, but new research has shown that ethanol hasn’t helped the U.S. meet either goal.”

“US climate chief’s goal: ‘Set in motion’ climate work over next five years”

May 6, 2016: The Hill reports: “President Obama’s top climate negotiator on Thursday said the U.S.’s goal is to put in place the climate action strategies included in last year’s international climate change accord within the next five years. ‘Five years from now, we need to have set in motion all of the pieces the president has talked about,’ Jonathan Pershing, the U.S.’s special envoy for climate change, said at the Climate Action 2016 conference in Washington.”

“World Bank Head: Time to ‘Wake Up From the Fog of Success’ After Paris”

May 6, 2016: Morning Consult reports: “The president of the World Bank had a clear message for world leaders on Thursday: Stop patting yourselves on the back for signing the Paris climate agreement. It’s not enough. World Bank Group President Jim Yong Kim warned that heads of state need to ‘wake up from the fog of success,’ push for stronger climate agreements in the future, and ensure that no country undermines the emission-cutting goals laid out in December.”

“Clean Power what? Most Americans haven’t heard of climate rule”

May 5, 2016: E&E News reports: “The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, considered by many to be the most far-reaching climate regulation ever set forth by the U.S. government, has barely registered in the minds of most American voters. A new national poll found 7 in 10 voters have heard ‘just a little or nothing at all’ about EPA’s regulation to rein in carbon emissions from power plants. In a different poll of Texas voters that was also released yesterday, 85 percent of respondents surveyed had not ‘seen, read or heard of a federal policy called the Clean Power Plan.’ Steven Kull, director of the Program for Public Consultation at the University of Maryland’s School of Public Policy, which conducted the national poll, said it didn’t shock him that EPA’s climate rule hasn’t made waves among average Americans.”

“Elon Musk: ‘people have to revolt against the propaganda of the fossil fuel industry which is unrelenting and enormous’”

May 5, 2016: Electrek reports: “During his talk at the World Energy Innovation Forum (WEIF) today, Tesla CEO Elon Musk called for people to revolt against the propaganda of the fossil fuel industry and he even described a tactic he believes the industry used to smear his companies. ‘We need to appeal to the people – educate people to sort of revolt against this and to fight the propaganda of the fossil fuel industry which is unrelenting and enormous.’ – Musk said. The CEO implied that the LA Times article from last year that misleadingly asserted that Musk’s companies received $4.9 billion in subsidies originated from the fossil fuel industry.”

“New U.N. climate leader ‘set the stage’ for Paris deal”

May 5, 2016: E&E News reports: “A woman credited with helping to resurrect the U.N. climate change process after the disappointing outcome of the 2009 Copenhagen, Denmark, summit will be its newest leader, charged with making global promises struck last year a reality. Mexican diplomat Patricia Espinosa is expected to replace Christiana Figueres as executive secretary of the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change after Figueres departs this summer. Her nomination yesterday by U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon still requires approval by an 11-member body helmed by French Ecology Minister Ségolène Royal. That vote is expected on May 15.”

“Energy: technology and free markets beat mandates”

May 4, 2016: An op-ed in The Hill by Dr. J. Winston Porter states: “Bill Gates is the latest prominent thinker to suggest that it is wrong to achieve our clean energy goals with a carbon tax, or even greater government intervention in the energy marketplace.   Gates believes we would be better served by focusing on the energy supply side.  In other words, we need to encourage innovation to make clean energy cheaper and better so that it can win on its own without government support.  He’s absolutely right.  Government meddling in the marketplace, be it punishing emissions regulations or state renewable portfolios, have cost consumers dearly but achieved little.  Even with tens of billions in taxpayer subsidies, wind and solar power still meet just 5 percent of our electricity demand.”

“California gov. needles visiting Florida gov. on climate change”

May 3, 2016: The Hill reports: “California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) is hitting Florida Gov. Rick Scott on his climate change policies while Scott visits California. Brown welcomed Scott to his state in a Monday letter, and told the Florida governor to ‘stop the silly political stunts and start doing something about climate change’ because the ‘threat is real and so too will be the devastating impacts.’ Scott is skeptical of the scientific consensus that the climate is changing and humans are the main cause. Meanwhile, Brown’s overseen dramatic new climate policies in his state, including a law last year that mandates that half of California’s electricity comes from renewable sources by 2030.”

“Climate roadshow comes to Washington”

May 2, 2016: Washington Examiner reports: “The United Nations is bringing the Paris climate deal to Washington next week as part of a two-day ‘first-of-a-kind’ summit to build momentum for the agreement. The summit will seek to take on Republican opposition to the deal and the presidential elections on the opening day, a U.N. senior official said Friday in response to questions posed by the Washington Examiner on a call with reporters. Robert Orr, U.N. under secretary-general and special adviser on climate change, said a panel will be held Thursday in an attempt to bring the GOP on board. At a lunch briefing, the summit will hear from Republican pollster Bill McInturff, co-founder of Public Opinion Strategies, to hear what the GOP thinks about climate change based on current polling.”

“Interior chief: ‘We will have climate refugees’”

May 2, 2016: The Hill reports: “Interior Secretary Sally Jewell is warning that, regardless of governments’ work to combat climate change, the United States and other countries will have to deal with populations displaced by its effects.  ‘We can stem the increase in temperature. We can stem some of the effects, perhaps, if we act on climate as we are committed to do through the Paris accords,’ Jewell said in Ottawa on Thursday, the Canadian Press reports. ‘But the changes are underway and they are very rapid. We will have climate refugees.’ Jewell pointed to far-flung communities in Alaska, noting that rising sea levels in the Arctic are expected to force the relocation of hundreds of Alaskans from their homes.”