Which side are you on, Guv?
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed a bill Friday night that would have required public health warning labels on gas-burning ranges and cooktops, saying the measure was “highly prescriptive” and would be difficult to amend in the future as scientific knowledge evolves. AND…
- California Gov. Gavin Newsom vetoed legislation Friday that would have allowed schools and apartment buildings to use on-site solar instead of having to buy it back from utilities.
- The Governor also vetoed a bill aimed at providing more protections for farmworkers overcome by extreme heat.
- A new California administration sponsored law delays a requirement that oil and gas companies detect and fix leaky wells near homes and schools until 2030, after state regulators said they needed more time to test techniques and develop specific policies.
Washington is among the states where climate and clean energy progress is on the ballot, as opponents seek to repeal its landmark cap-and-trade law through a ballot measure.
Hurricane Helene has stopped production at North Carolina factories that are some of the only sources of high-purity quartz used to make computer chips and solar panels, as Geoff Brumfiel, Scott Neuman and Camila Domonoske report for NPR. The factories are in Spruce Pine, N.C., where heavy rainfall has led to power outages and flooding. Spruce Pine isn’t the world’s only source of high-purity quartz, but it is the largest and is known for having the highest quality.
How the North Carolina Legislature Left Homes Vulnerable to Helene: “Over the past 15 years, North Carolina lawmakers have rejected limits on construction on steep slopes, which might have reduced the number of homes lost to landslides; blocked a rule requiring homes to be elevated above the height of an expected flood; weakened protections for wetlands, increasing the risk of dangerous storm water runoff; and slowed the adoption of updated building codes, making it harder for the state to qualify for federal climate-resilience grants.” [NC is an extremely gerrymandered state, for and by Republicans]
About 40 million people in portions of California, Arizona and Nevada are under heat alerts, according to The Washington Post.
Landmark: The UK’s last coal-fired power station will shut down later on Monday, drawing to a close Britain’s 142-year reliance on one of the dirtiest fossil fuels to produce electricity. Coal accounted for about 80 per cent of UK power in 1990, falling to 39 per cent in 2012. Since then, 15 coal power plants closed or switched fuels and last year the fossil fuel made up just 1 per cent of the UK’s supply, according to data from National Grid’s electricity system operator. Meanwhile, renewables, mainly wind and solar power, now make up more than half of the mix, according to government statistics. Dhara Vyas, deputy chief executive of Energy UK, said: “Ten years ago, coal was the leading source of this country’s power – generating a third of our electricity. “So, to get to this point just a decade later, with coal’s contribution replaced by clean and low carbon sources, is an incredible achievement.”
A contractor completes the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the lower Klamath River in California and Oregon, giving fish free run of the stream for the first time in over a century.
8,000: This is how many square meters of tree cover is lost per second around the world (Bloomberg Green)
After pressure from several countries, the European Union offered to delay for a year the introduction of rules to stop imports of products linked to deforestation, The Associated Press reported.
New Mexico regulators raise the cap on community solarstatewide from 200 MW to 300 MW over utilities’ objections, saying it will give the program room to “grow organically to the size it should be.” [California’s Public Utility Commission is going in the opposite direction, as is the Governor with his veto of SB 1374.
Take Action
Last Monday 350 Humboldt sponsored a zoom conversation with Ciara Emery from the wind developer RWE and Erik Peckar from the wind developer Vineyard Offshore. We had to end the zoom meeting before all the questions were answered. If you have a question that we didn’t get to, or didn’t attend but have questions, please contact Ciara or Erik using the information below:
Ciara Emery M.A., Local Government and Stakeholder Engagement Manager, RWE Offshore Wind Services, LLC. Phone: 707-981-6579; Email: [email protected]
ERIK PECKAR, Director, External Affairs, West Coast, Vineyard Offshore. Phone: (703) 244-9585; Email: [email protected]