Earth Matters: GOP 'energy week' blasts Biden on climate; taxes subsidize polluting plastic makers

Republicans hated the Inflation Reduction Act and its climate-friendly provisions from the get-go. Not a single GOP senator or representative voted for it in 2022. Over the past few years, a number of congressional Republicans have given up outright climate change denial because facts on the ground have made that stance embarrassingly blockheaded. They now concede that the climate is changing. However, they remain wed to the idea that the IRA and various other Democrat-initiated measures to expand clean-energy facilities and curb toxic air pollution and greenhouse gases are part of President Joe Biden’s “radical green agenda” or “extremist climate agenda” or “radical, anti-energy agenda.”

They obviously don’t actually accept what scientists, in ever-more alarming tones, are telling us about climate data. If they did accept the warnings, they wouldn’t be fighting fang and claw to smash even modest government policies and programs designed to mitigate or prevent the worst climate impacts. And even though the IRA is unprecedentedly large, it is still modest compared to the need, a compromise that was all that could be achieved under the political circumstances at the time.

In the face of the deluge of findings about the climate’s scary trajectory, what’s extremist is these Republicans still playing puppet to fossil fuel interests. As The Guardian pointed out in a Friday story, while many of the world’s 25 largest oil companies are touting their own supposedly green agendas, not a single one of them is on track to meet its pledge to align with the goal of the Paris Agreement to keep the average global temperature from rising more than 2 degrees C (3.6 degrees Celsius) above preindustrial times.

Last week, House Republicans, led by Majority Leader Steve Scalise of Louisiana, challenged the Biden-Harris administration’s climate efforts with consideration of several screw-the-environment bills in a so-called. “energy week.” Here’s Scalise in a paywalled interview with Kelsey Brugger at E&E Daily:

During energy week, you have talked about these bills in the context of national security, foreign policy and affordability. In contrast, Democrats have talked about the existential threat of climate change. What’s your response and remind us of your position on human-made climate change?

So, I don’t think man is destroying the Earth.

If you go back 10,000 years before there was a combustion engine, then the earth’s temperature is warmer. There was going to be a freezing period in the ’70s that they were talking about, then it was going to be acid rain in the ‘80s.

It’s the same people who always have some kind of hysteria that they want to get people worked up about, and their answer is always to raise your taxes and to kill American energy.

So you disagree climate change is an existential threat?

Yeah.

Among the bills House Republicans took up:

H.R. 7023, the “Creating Confidence in Clean Water Permitting Act” was introduced by Rep. David Rouzer of North Carolina. It would curtail the Clean Water Act’s scope by restricting local input and environmental analyses on federal permitting decisions or industrial projects and other facilities that pollute wetlands and surface waters. The bill passed the 213-205 with two Democratic votes in favor—Henry Cuellar (TX), Don Davis (NC).
H.R. 1121, South Carolina’s Rep. Jeff Duncan introduced the “Protecting American Energy Production Act” that would prohibit a moratorium on hydraulic fracking for oil and natural gas. The bill passed 229-188. The bill got 15 Democratic votes in favor—Colin Allred (TX), Dan Bishop (GA), Brendan Boyle (PA), Chrissy Houlahan (PA), Marcy Kaptur (OH), Mary Peltola (AK), Marie Perez (WA),Yadira Caraveo (CO), Matt Cartwright (PA), Jim Costa (CA), Henry Cueller (TX), Lizzie Fletcher (TX), Vincente Gonzalez (TX), Gabe Vasquez (NM), Marc Veasey (TX).
H.R. 6009. Colorado’s Rep. Lauren Boebert put forth the “Restoring American Energy Dominance Act,” which would block Bureau of Land Management from increasing royalty rates for oil companies drilling on public lands. The bill passed 213-200, with three Democratic votes in favor—Vincente Gonzalez (TX), Henry Cuellar (TX), Don Davis (NC).
The House passed H.Res. 987, introduced by Rep. Dan Newhouse of Washington, to denounce “the harmful, anti-American energy policies of the Biden administration.” The resolution passed 217-200 with four Democratic votes in favor—Mary Peltola (AK), Vincente Gonzalez (TX), Don Davis (NC), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (WA). Seriously? Four Democrats are calling the Biden administration anti-American?
H.R. 1023, the “Cutting Green Corruption and Taxes Act.” Rep. Gary Palmer of Alabama introduced this bill to repeal the Inflation Reduction Act’s methane emissions reduction program and its greenhouse gas reduction fund, which provides grants for work to address climate change. The bill has yet to clear the Rules Committee.

Even if one or more of these bills passes the Senate, and some might get a handful of Democratic votes, they are ultimately headed for a Biden veto. They nonetheless answer the question of where Republicans will take us if the November election goes in their favor—down the tubes.

Meanwhile, Biden’s announcement earlier this month that he would ask Congress for $8 billion over 10 years to fund 50,000 youthful hires annually into the American Climate Corps sparked another rancorous Republican response. Emma Dumain at E&E Daily wrote:

“Not to be dramatic,” the Senate Western Caucus—a right-leaning group of lawmakers keen on promoting Western interests—posted on social media, “but lighting $8 billion on fire would probably be a better use of money and time.”
[…]
The new climate corps has come under scrutiny from Congressional Republicans who are unlikely to approve Biden’s request as is. The conservative think tank Americans for Tax Reform in a press release bashed the program as a publicly funded corps of “climate busybodies.” “They are building an extralegal political machine with your tax dollars,” said Grover Norquist, the group’s president.

Gee whiz. It’s been a while since the guy who wants to “drag [the government] into the bathroom and drown it in the bathtub” has been in the news.

Republican Rep. Dan Crenshaw of Texas, who is one of those erstwhile deniers who has more recently conceded the climate is changing but still doesn’t support legislation to do anything serious about it, said of the corps, “It’s just some big, useless government agency with no real direction, just to hire a bunch of climate activists.” The sneer couldn’t get much louder. For good measure, in December Crenshaw introduced the “Cancelling Climate Crusaders Act,” H.R. 6849. It has little chance of passing, but then so does the $8 billion funding.

Even though the administration watered down the new tailpipe emissions rule for cars and light trucks issued last week by Environmental Protection Agency, major environmental groups still cheered what they view as significant progress. The rule sets emissions targets that would result in 60% of new cars being electric in 2030, and 67% in 2032. Estimates put annual savings from lower fuel costs and the health and climate benefits at $100 billion, with 2,000 premature deaths and 7 billion tons of greenhouse gas emissions avoided each year.

Nevertheless, Republican Sen. Dan Sullivan of Alaska plans to introduce a Congressional Review Act resolution to blast the tailpipe rule into oblivion. Unfortunately, he may get a couple of Democratic votes—the retiring Joe Manchin and John Fetterman. The Pennsylvania senator said Wednesday that the emissions rule “seems aggressive, and I know a lot of American consumers are uncertain about EVs. … I understand why we want to migrate more towards that, but at the end of the day, perhaps it might be overly aggressive.”

At the end of the day, failing to be aggressive on climate policy will guarantee us an even nastier payday than is already barreling down on us.

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WEEKLY ECO-VIDEO

RESOURCES & ACTION

BIDEN-HARRIS ADMINISTRATION’S ENVIRONMENTAL EFFORTS

GREEN BRIEFS

Mayors’ green building initiatives fuel job growth in the United States

As the green transition gears up, one of the oft-heard plaintive cries comes from employers who say they cannot find enough skilled workers to meet the expected need for reducing energy bills and attaining pollution-cutting goals,

Buildings in the United States can contribute as much as 75% of a city’s greenhouse gas emissions. Consequently, cities want to create a pathway for jobs in the green construction industry in order to retrofit buildings, eliminate the use of fossil fuels, and consume less energy. Projects that include weatherizing, installing energy-saving windows, and replacing heating and air conditioning systems all demand workers with unique skills and knowledge. One big shortage in the drive to electrify everything is electricians.

‘A new 40-page report from C40 Cities and the National League of Cities that demonstrates how cities can develop such a workforce highlights an array of ongoing efforts to overcome the scarcity of trained workers in various cities, including Seattle’s Green New Deal and Boston’s Buildings Pathways:

“In the shelter I was staying at—that’s where I saw the flyer that said in big bold letters: Build A Life That Works,” said Ayesca Machado. She is one of hundreds of people who have participated in Boston’s Building Pathways program, an initiative that trains and connects traditionally underserved communities with opportunities in the building and construction industry. “When I read and saw that they were actually recruiting women for construction, I was very happy.” […]

In Seattle, Yaharia Garcia joined the Green New Deal apprenticeship program. “I didn’t go to college and I wanted a job that helped people,” Yaharia shared. “I got enrolled and fell in love with carpentry … Now, I get to build schools for kids. The school we’re building has solar panels—so it’s better for the environment”.

The report notes: “The demand for workers presents an opportunity for cities to partner with employers, unions, and others to build a more inclusive, fair, and diverse workforce for vulnerable groups, such as women, youth, migrants, and Black, Indigenous and people of color who are disproportionately concentrated in lower-paying construction jobs.”

In a press release, Laura Jay, regional director for North America at C40 Cities, said: “The opportunities created by the green economy for job growth are immense. Retrofitting existing buildings improves lives for residents, reduces carbon emissions, and creates economic prosperity for workers—especially those who have been historically marginalized in the sector. It’s exciting to see mayors across the country launching programs that ensure good, green jobs in their cities. Cities are taking advantage of federal funding, and taking action to turn the promise of a green economy into reality.”

That federal funding includes $48 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act and $800 million in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act for workforce development. Since 2019, green jobs have increased by 50% in the United States, and the Inflation Reduction Act is projected to generate an average of 912,000 new jobs annually for 10 years. A 2023 U.S. Energy and Employment Report found that every state saw an increase in clean-energy jobs, a sector which grew faster than employment overall. The Department of Energy found that 62% of employers in the energy sector struggle to hire workers—especially for construction positions.

Here’s another of the city programs the EIP report spotlighted:

Denver’s Sustainable Investments for a Resilient Future

In 2020, Denver voters approved a ballot measure that allocates a small percentage of all city-collected sales tax to the newly created Climate Protection Fund. The first allocation of funding set up six different divisions, including Denver’s Green Workforce Division, which uses a mix of mini-grants and larger funding opportunities to bolster Denver’s green workforce. The mini-grants provide seed funding for emerging initiatives that build the workforce, and the larger opportunities scale the efforts that are proving to be successful.

The Green Workforce Division is also working with other municipal governments across the Denver metropolitan area to fully understand the supply and demand aspects of the workforce needed to decarbonize buildings. They are also using policy and contracting requirements to embed ‘high roads’ workforce requirements to ensure that the funding from the Climate Protection Fund is supporting underserved communities by leveraging private sector employers to meet green workforce sustainability goals.

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Taxpayers Subsidize U.S. Plastics Plants That Illegally Pollute Communities of Color

The Environmental Integrity Project published its “Feeding the Plastics Industrial Complex” in mid-March. The key findings: 64% of plastics manufacturing plants built or expanded since 2012 received tax subsidies totaling $9 billion, and 84% violated federal air pollution limits.

These subsidies cost nearly twice as much as the combined budgets of the state agencies in Texas and Louisiana tasked with regulating most plastics plants in their jurisdictions.

EIP scrutinized records of U.S. 50 plants producing major primary chemical components for plastics that did not include molding of final products like toys. All the plants were built or expanded since 2012, with 15 engaging in plastics resin manufacturing, while 27 ethane were “crackers.” Some of those operations produce polyethylene and polypropylene, which are used to make plastic bags, milk containers, and food packaging, as well as polyvinyl chloride) and polyethylene terephthalate used in packaging and manufacturing water bottles.

Those plants emitted 63 million metric tons of greenhouse gases, equivalent to the emissions of more than 15 coal-fired power plants, 471,744 pounds of benzene (a known carcinogen), 27,923 tons of nitrogen oxide contributing to smog, and 20,182 tons of carbon monoxide.

The researchers found that “[m]ore than 66 percent of the people living within three miles of the factories that manufacture the main ingredients in plastic products are people of color, living in communities that are over-exposed to air pollution while schools and other public services are chronically underfunded.” They looked into “whether the public funds used to subsidize this industry are addressing these inequities or making the problem worse by depriving local communities of tax revenues while harming their quality of life.”

The EIP team evaluated three case studies in Texas, Pennsylvania, and Louisiana. In the latter case:

There, in 2015, an international plastics company called Indorama—the world’s largest producer of PET resins used to make soda bottles and single-use packaging—was drawn to the city of Westlake by the falling price of fracked natural gas, a primary ingredient in plastics. Indorama, based in Thailand, struck a deal with Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal’s administration that the company would reopen a long-closed industrial site if the state would subsidize the project. The company received a $1.5 million grant from Louisiana to renovate the former Equistar chemical plant, which separates—or “cracks”—the components of natural gas or petroleum into ethylene, which is used to make plastic. But more importantly, Louisiana gave Indorama an exemption from paying any local taxes for schools, roads, fire departments or anything else—a subsidy worth at least $73 million over a decade. In exchange for the public support, Indorama promised that it was “committed to being a positive influence in southwest Louisiana,” and pledged “to meet or exceed all environmental regulations.”

Indorama kept neither promise. Public records show the plant repeatedly violated its air pollution limits—including by releasing, in the first five months of 2019, more than 90 times the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) it was permitted to release in a year under the Clean Air Act. VOCs contribute to smog and can irritate the lungs and eyes, and cause headaches, nausea, and other health problems.

Given the inadequate environmental regulations, the EIP researchers said that it’s alarming that over the next five years, 10 new plants to make plastics or their chemical ingredients have been proposed along with 17 expansions of existing plants. That could mean another annual emission of 35.5 million tons of greenhouse gases.

The team proposed five umbrella recommendations to improve the situation: strict permit limits and denials for single-use plastics; better monitoring to detect pollution, accountability for breaking the law; public access to pollution data; and rejecting subsidies and tax breaks that contribute to negative health and other impacts.

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HALF A DOZEN OTHER THINGS TO READ (OR LISTEN TO)

South Fork Wind becomes first US utility-scale offshore wind farm to complete construction by Diana DiGiangi at Utility Dive. South Fork Wind, a joint Eversource and Ørsted project, began construction in early 2022 and installed its first monopile foundation in June. The project isn’t fully complete, as commissioning is still ongoing, but it is the first utility-scale offshore wind farm to complete construction in the U.S. “Completion of the first utility-scale offshore wind farm in the United States is an important national milestone, a significant step toward achieving New York State’s ambitious climate goals, and essential for delivering clean energy directly to New Yorkers,” said Jessica Ottney Mahar, policy and strategy director at The Nature Conservancy in New York. The state has set a goal of deploying 9 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035. The South Fork Wind farm has enough capacity to supply 70,000 Long Island households with electricity. Most projects still under construction off the state’s shores are larger than South Fork Win. In February, the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority selected the 810-megawatt Empire Wind 1 and 924-MW Sunrise Wind projects as part of the state’s fourth offshore wind solicitation.

In June 2023, this was the first of the 12 South Fork Wind turbines now installed off the New York coast.

World’s First Commercial Seaweed Farm In An Offshore Wind Farm by Tina Casey at CleanTechnica. The dream of building the world’s first commercial scale seaweed farm within an offshore wind farm edged a little closer to reality last week, when the Irish firm Simply Blue Group stamped its seal of approval on the North Sea Farm 1 project. The rough-and-tumble environment of an offshore wind array is not the easiest place to establish a new aquaculture venture, but the crowded North Sea provides seaweed farmers with few other options. A group of seaweed industry stakeholders is determined to make it happen, and if all goes according to plan the idea will spread to wind farms all over the North Sea. North Sea Farm 1 is a creation of the trade organization North Sea Farmers. The plan calls for a new seaweed operation to be deployed and seeded in an offshore wind farm, in the North Sea off the coast of the Netherlands. […] The company states: “Simply Blue Group is focused on replacing fossil fuels with clean ocean energy, removing CO₂ from the atmosphere, and developing sustainable sources of protein, while attracting investment into coastal communities. It has a keen interest in multiple use of wind farms and believes that efficient use of sea space is key to working with the oceans on climate change and bring more local communities and supply chains into the transition to a low carbon economy.”

Toxic air lingers in Texas Latino community, revealing failures in state’s air monitoring system by Alejandra Martinez and Wendy Selene Pérez at The Texas Tribune, Environmental Health Sciences, and in Spanish at palabra. On a hot, humid October day, Cristina Lazo readies her youngest daughter Alina for a bike ride and whispers in Spanish, I pray to God nothing happens to you. Lazo, a 42-year-old mother of six, knows that tonight she’ll rub Vick’s Vaporub on her daughter’s chest, and in the morning Alina will still wake up with congestion and what Lazo calls “itchy spider webs” in her eyes. […] Even though doctors haven’t been able to pinpoint what causes Alina’s symptoms, Lazo suspects the air outside, which she said often reeks of chemicals—she calls it a “poison-like smell.” So she limits Alina’s outdoor activities and buys an antibiotic ointment at a Salvadoran pharmacy for her daughter’s itchy eyes. Cloverleaf, where 79.4% of its 24,100 residents are Latino, is one of a string of communities that sits in the shadow of the 52-mile-long Houston Ship Channel, one of the world’s largest petrochemical complexes where more than 200 facilities process fossil fuels into plastics, fertilizers and pesticides. Lazo can’t see the smokestacks from her home, but most days they release dark clouds of chemicals that permeate Cloverleaf and nearby communities like Channelview, Galena Park, and Pasadena.

New Genetic Tools Have Dramatically Changed Wildlife Conservation by Lourdes Medrano at UnDark. On a sunny fall morning, biologist Andy Hubbard set up a makeshift lab next to small pools at a national park’s outcropping of ancient granite rocks. Immersed in the stillness of a cactus forest, he and his team filled tiny bags with murky water and meticulously strained it through minuscule filters. Those filters would later be sent to a laboratory to test for genetic material shed by animals in the water. By collecting environmental DNA, or eDNA, Hubbard and three other members of a National Park Service team hoped to detect signs of native critters and the invasive bullfrogs that have proved devastating for their existence. “This technology will end up being critical because it’s a more efficient way to detect invasive species, as well as rare species,” said Hubbard, program manager for the NPS Sonoran Desert Network in Tucson, Arizona. Around the world, scientists like Hubbard are increasingly turning to eDNA to detect species from discarded bits of skin, scales, and mucus in water, soil, and air. In the field of conservation research, the emerging technology is opening new frontiers to monitor endangered species, track invasive ones, and sample general biodiversity. It’s also cheaper. And while the field still faces limitations around accuracy and precision, scientists say eDNA is fast becoming a game-changer for wildlife conservation efforts.

Members of the National Park Service team get ready to start collecting water from pools for eDNA analysis. Hubbard (right) and his team spent the morning collecting and filtering roughly four cups of water in an effort to track the spread of the American bullfrog.

Thousands of Chicago children are exposed to lead-tainted drinking water by Erin McCormick at The Guardian. About 129,000 Chicago children under the age of 6 are exposed to poisonous lead in their household drinking water because of lead pipes, according to a study published on March 18. The study used artificial intelligence to analyze 38,000 home water tests conducted for the city of Chicago, along with neighborhood demographics, state blood samples, and numerous other factors. It found that Black and Latino residents are more likely to have lead-contaminated water because of lead pipes. And it estimated that the 19% of Chicago children who use unfiltered tap water as their primary drinking source have about twice as much lead in their blood as they would otherwise. “These findings indicate that childhood lead exposure is widespread in Chicago, and racial inequities are present in both testing rates and exposure levels,” said the researchers in the study, published by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health in Jama Pediatrics. “We estimated that more than two-thirds of children are exposed to lead-contaminated drinking water.”

How $9 Billion From Taxpayers Fueled Plastics Production—and Illegal Pollution by Sara Sneath at DeSmog. Through billions in tax breaks and subsidies, taxpayers in Louisiana, Texas, and other states have supported the construction or expansion of dozens of facilities manufacturing plastics in the United States since 2012. However, many of these plants have also repeatedly exceeded legal limits on the air pollution they release into surrounding communities, disproportionately affecting people of color. That’s according to an Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) report published March 14. For instance, in 2015, then-Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal welcomed Indorama Ventures—one of the world’s biggest producers of single-use plastic—to the state with a $1.5 million grant to renovate a dormant petrochemical plant in Westlake, across the Calcasieu River from Lake Charles. Indorama also received an industrial tax exemption worth $73 million, absolving the Thai-based corporation from paying property taxes for 10 years that would have gone to local schools, fire departments, and the sheriff’s office. In return, the corporation promised to be an “industry leader in safety” and to “meet or exceed all environmental regulations.” But as Indorama began its startup of the facility’s ethylene cracker unit, in 2019, its flare roared day and night. […] Within the first five months of 2019, the facility released more than 90 times the amount of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) allowed by its air permit. (VOCs are a group of chemicals tied to a broad range of potential health impacts, from nosebleeds to cancer.) .

ECO-QUOTE

“If we humans are good at anything, it’s thinking we’ve got a terrific idea and going for it without acknowledging the potential consequences or our own ignorance.”—David Suzuki

ECOPINION

What’s the deal with “scope 3″emissions? At his “Volts” Substack, David Roberts conducted an interview about “Scope 3” emissions with Laura Draucker of Ceres, a nonprofit that works with capital market leaders and investors to encourage sustainability. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission, or SEC, released its much-anticipated rule on disclosure of climate risks. To the great dismay of climate activists and advocates, it was substantially weakened and watered down relative to earlier drafts. One thing that fell out was the controversial requirement that companies disclose their “Scope 3” greenhouse gas emissions. Scope 1 emissions come from combustion of fossil fuels as in trucks or gas-burning furnaces, Scope 2 comes from electricity generation. Scope 3 gets into all the emissions for which you are indirectly responsible: the emissions embedded in your supply chain, your products’ end-of-life disposal, and your investments.Three things about scope-3 emissions: One, they are generally larger than scope 1 and 2. Two, they are somewhat more difficult to measure precisely. Draucker explained where the concept came from, how the emissions are calculated, who is currently required to disclose them, and what might be next in U.S. disclosure policy.

How to hold shipping financially accountable for its climate impacts by Ana Laranjeira at Climate Home News. A growing number of governments and industry players back putting a price on international shipping emissions, so that polluters pay their fair share for the transition through a levy. But the devil is in the details, and all eyes must be on the International Maritime Organization, where the final decisions will be taken. A well-designed levy will speed up the phase out of GHG emissions, help close the price gap between fossil and sustainable alternative fuels, and send a strong market signal to move towards zero emission solutions. But this must be done in a way that is just and equitable, particularly for those in the developing countries most impacted by the climate crisis. Crucially, a good levy will also generate significant revenues—between $1 trillion to $3.7 trillion could be raised by 2050. As called for by the Pacific islands at IMO, and supported by analysis from the World Bank, these funds ought to be allocated first and foremost towards supporting climate-vulnerable countries.

Animal-Free Agriculture Is Key to Restoring Biodiversity by Jimmy Videle at Wiki Observatory. Unsustainable exploitation of nature’s resources to meet our own needs is destroying the ecosystem. The global food system, for instance, is the leading cause of biodiversity loss. “Biodiversity loss will continue to accelerate unless we change the way we produce food,” states a 2021 report, “Food System Impacts on Biodiversity Loss.” The need to produce more food at lower costs, especially in the last decades, has increased the usage of “fertilizers, pesticides, energy, land and water” in agriculture, the report points out. This has led to the global food system becoming a leading cause of climate change as well. There is a growing and urgent need to explore alternatives to these destructive agricultural practices, otherwise, “[f]urther destruction of ecosystems and habitats will threaten our ability to sustain human populations,” warns the report. Veganic farming is a way forward toward repairing the damage done to the ecosystem. Veganic growing not only seeks to cultivate food for humans but also attempts to do it in a way that benefits all floral and faunal biodiversity, as much as is humanly possible. Veganic farming is the growing, gardening, cultivation, and production of food and fiber crops with a minimal amount of exploitation of animal and plant species. It does not use any animal products or byproducts, adhering to the main philosophy of cultivating for the benefit of all beings. Adopting this approach has become increasingly important given the negative impact large-scale animal farming has on our environment.

President Richard Nixon bowling in the White House bowling alley April 14, 1970. — President Richard Nixon in the White House bowling alley on April 14, 1970.