Seven heat waves alone created $7.7 billion in health, safety and economic costs in California in the last decade, a report from the state’s Department of Insurance found — and that is far from a complete accounting. (Caelyn Pender, Mercury News)
Newsom’s administration chose not to require two of the state’s largest oil drillers, which just merged, to set aside money to plug low-producing oil wells, which activists say should have been required under existing law. Capital & Main’s Aaron Cantú reported on the issue before the merger was completed. Politico covered the administration’s final decision (scroll down).
Climate on the Ballot organization says: We’ve already written about how Project 2025 calls for repealing the Inflation Reduction Act, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement, shredding regulations that accelerate the clean energy transition, and increasing fossil fuel production — all of which will reverse progress the US has made to combat climate change. But Project 2025’s attack on climate action is more extensive than that, and comes at a time when the US needs to cut emissions in order to slow the progress of climate change and make society-wide adaptations to respond to and prepare for worsening climate consequences. Project 2025 advocates for the deprioritization — and, in some cases, the elimination — of the study of climate science and contingency planning for climate impacts across agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency; the Commerce, Defense, and Energy departments; the Council on Environmental Quality; and the National Security Council.
A California poll finds 59% of respondents support a $10 billion state measure on November’s ballot to fund climate change mitigation programs. (Mercury News)
ANCHORAGE, Alaska— National and community-based environmental groups celebrated a legal victory on Tuesday when a federal district court judge overturned an offshore oil and gas lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet because the federal government violated the law when holding the sale. The Center for Biological Diversity and Natural Resources Defense Council filed the lawsuit together with Earthjustice, on behalf of Cook Inletkeeper, Kachemak Bay Conservation Society, and Alaska Community Action on Toxics.
CLIMATE: Washington state allocates $52 million from its carbon cap-and-invest program to help relocate Indigenous communitiesthreatened by climate change and rising sea levels. (Associated Press)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Starbucks and Mercedes-Benz team up to install fast electric vehicle chargers at 100 locations along Interstate 5 on the West Coast. (Los Angeles Times)
SOLAR: Developers bring the 690 MW Gemini Solar + Energy Storage project online in southern Nevada, making it one of the nation’s largest operational facilities of its kind. (Power)
GRID: Distributed energy provider Sunrun says its virtual power plant composed of some 16,000 residential solar-plus-storage systems sent up to 51 MW to the California grid during a July heat wave.
AN OPPORTUNISM TO MATCH TRUMP’S: In the US, Donald Trump’s newly selected running mate JD Vance has come under scrutiny for his climate scepticism. The Republican vice presidential candidate is “a staunch supporter of the oil and gas industry and an opponent of renewable energy”, according to the Independent, but has reportedly only held such views in recent years, a shift that coincides with his bid for Trump support. He also has investments in “green” technologies, reported E&E News, but the New York Timesemphasised his public anti-climate sentiments and his sponsorship of green legislation repeals as a senator for Ohio.
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The Biden administration is wasting no time making use of a new conservation rule for the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. It’s asking for public comment on whether to add acreage to the “special areas” of the reserve, where oil and gas development is restricted. The reserve is a tract of federal land in the Western Arctic that’s the size of Indiana. About half of it is in special areas, designated as valuable for migratory birds, caribou and marine mammals that use it, and for subsistence hunting. The Bureau of Land Management’s announcement Friday of a 60-day comment period is the first step toward toward possibly expanding the special areas or adding more restrictions.