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Tag: Pollution

  • Lawrence Livermore grabs two spots in DOE’s Energy Earthshot program

    Lawrence Livermore grabs two spots in DOE’s Energy Earthshot program

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    Newswise — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory scientists will lead and co-lead projects in support of the Department of Energy’s (DOE) new Energy Earthshot program.

    The Energy Earthshots Initiative calls for innovation and collaboration to tackle the toughest topics in energy-related research. In January, DOE announced Office of Science funding for the Energy Earthshot Research Centers (EERCs)—they will build off a concept the DOE successfully demonstrated in the previous Energy Frontier Research Centers (EFRCs) and the Scientific Discovery Through Advanced Computing (SciDAC) program. The new EERCs will support fundamental research to accelerate breakthroughs in support of the Energy Earthshots Initiative.

    The Energy Earthshots are designed to stimulate integrated program development and execution across the DOE’s basic science and energy technology offices. They are part of an all-hands-on-deck approach to provide science and technology innovations that the nation needs to address tough technological challenges required to achieve our climate goals. The Energy Earthshots will accelerate breakthroughs toward more abundant, affordable and reliable clean energy solutions and the carbon dioxide removal needed to counterbalance hard-to-abate greenhouse gas emissions.

    Six Energy Earthshots have been announced so far: Hydrogen Shot™, Long Duration Storage Shot™, Carbon Negative Shot™, Enhanced Geothermal Shot™, Floating Offshore Wind Shot™ and Industrial Heat Shot™. They are supported by the three primary Office of Science program offices: Advanced Scientific Computing Research, Basic Energy Sciences and Biological and Environmental Research.

    Jennifer Pett-Ridge, head of LLNL’s Carbon Initiative, will lead a $19 million center called “Terraforming Soil,” which will support the Carbon Negative Shot. Of the total award, LLNL will receive ~$17 million.

    LLNL scientist Jiaqi Li will serve as the deputy director for the “Center for Coupled Chemo-Mechanics of Cementitious Composites,” which will support the Enhanced Geothermal Shot. Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL) leads this center, and LLNL will receive $1.9 million over four years for its role of the project.

    Terraforming Soil

    To reduce the United States’ net carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions to zero and limit the impacts of global warming, it is essential to actively remove CO2 from the atmosphere. Soils store a vast amount of carbon in both organic and inorganic forms — on the order of 3,000 billion tons globally — this is more carbon than is found in the atmosphere and land plants combined.

    While the United States’ 166 million hectares of agricultural soils have lost a vast amount of carbon in the past century due to cultivation and erosion, there is clear potential to reverse this trend and actively manage agricultural lands with strategies that capture CO2 from the atmosphere. The Terraforming Soil Energy Earthshot Research Center (EERC) will research new bio- and geo- engineered techniques to understand, predict and accelerate scalable and affordable CO2 drawdown in soils, via both organic and inorganic carbon cycle pathways.

    “Our goal is to advance the fundamental understanding of CO2 drawdown in soils through both organic and inorganic pathways, measuring soil C storage capacity, durability and regional variations that affect needed land-management practices,” Pett-Ridge said.

    The Terraforming Soil EERC team includes 50 world-class experts in soil carbon cycling, photosynthesis biochemistry, plant/microbial gene engineering and genomics, mineral geochemistry, machine learning, exascale modeling and computing, additive manufacturing and in situ isotope-based characterization.

    The center will bridge cutting-edge analytical and computational studies with a commitment to engage with community stakeholders, exploring the technical, social and economic implications of engineered soil CO2 drawdown. In addition, the team will emphasize diverse training opportunities for students and early career scientists and amplify equity and inclusion throughout the research pipeline.

    Collaborators include the University of California Berkeley, University of California Davis, Rice University, Princeton University, Yale University, Carleton College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Northern Arizona University, Colorado State University, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Andes Ag, Inc. and the Woodwell Climate Research Center.

    Center for Coupled Chemo-Mechanics of Cementitious Composites

    LLNL will conduct fundamental research to understand and predict chemo-mechanics of sustainable materials within Enhanced Geothermal System (EGS) environments and develop new materials to overcome major challenges in deploying cost effective EGS.

    Geothermal well environments are arguably the most challenging for cement to survive, and multiple problems of wells durability and performance are associated with cementing materials and well-cementing methods. These include, but are not limited to, poor cement acid resistance, poor thermal and mechanical stress resistance under cyclic thermo-mechanical loads, poor bonding with metal casing and, as a result, poor casing corrosion protection. Well integrity issues linked to cement degradation and failure are more severe for the high temperature conditions that EGS wells undergo during hydraulic stimulation operations and thermal shocks. Furthermore, cementing operations during geothermal well constructions suffer from cement slurries losses into formations, long waiting times for cement to solidify or rapid uncontrolled cement solidification followed by drill out operations or abandoning the well. 

    “To address the durability and sustainable issues of enhanced geothermal wells, a fundamental understanding of chemo-mechanics of alternative cementitious materials that could provide cost-effective, and sustainable solutions for EGS is required,” Li said.

    The proposed work will focus on gaining fundamental understanding of reaction mechanisms, equilibrium and phase compositions, mechanical properties for cementitious composites under EGS conditions designed industrial wastes. The knowledge generated by the project will form a comprehensive framework for informed development and commercialization of 1) environmentally sustainable, durable, cost effective well materials, including cementitious composites and inorganic coatings and 2) new well designs forgoing the use of cementitious materials in EGS wells. To achieve this goal advanced high-energy analytical and computational techniques will be used in design, monitoring and characterization of model systems.

    Besides BNL and LLNL, collaborators include Sandia National Laboratories, Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Cornell University, Princeton University, The University of Texas at Austin and the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

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    Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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  • Lego drops prototype blocks made of recycled plastic bottles as they “didn’t reduce carbon emissions”

    Lego drops prototype blocks made of recycled plastic bottles as they “didn’t reduce carbon emissions”

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    Copenhagen, Denmark — Denmark’s Lego said on Monday that it remains committed to its quest to find sustainable materials to reduce carbon emissions, even after an experiment by the world’s largest toymaker to use recycled bottles did not work. Lego said it has “decided not to progress” with making its trademark colorful bricks from recycled plastic bottles made of polyethylene terephthalate, known as PET, and after more than two years of testing “found the material didn’t reduce carbon emissions.”

    Lego enthusiastically announced in 2021 that the prototype PET blocks had become the first recycled alternative to pass its “strict” quality, safety and play requirements, following experimentation with several other iterations that proved not durable enough.

    The company said scientists and engineers tested more than 250 variations of PET materials, as well as hundreds of other plastic formulations, before nailing down the prototype, which was made with plastic sourced from suppliers in the U.S. that were approved by the Food and Drug Administration and European Food Safety Authority. On average, a one-liter plastic PET bottle made enough raw material for ten 2 x 4 Lego bricks.

    Despite the determination that the PET prototype failed to save on carbon emissions, Lego said it remained “fully committed to making Lego bricks from sustainable materials by 2032.”  

    The privately-held Lego Group, which makes its bricks out of oil-based plastic said it had invested “more than $1.2 billion in sustainability initiatives” as part of efforts to transition to more sustainable materials and reduce its carbon emissions by 37% by 2032, Lego said.

    How Lego makes its Lego bricks


    How Lego makes its Lego bricks

    31 photos

    The company said it was “currently testing and developing Lego bricks made from a range of alternative sustainable materials, including other recycled plastics and plastics made from alternative sources such as e-methanol.”

    Also known as green methanol, e-methanol is composed of waste carbon dioxide and hydrogen, created by using renewable energy to split water molecules.

    Lego said it will continue to use bio-polypropylene, the sustainable and biological variant of polyethylene — a plastic used in everything from consumer and food packaging to tires — for parts in Lego sets such as leaves, trees and other accessories.

    The art of Lego


    The art of Lego

    10 photos

    “We believe that in the long-term this will encourage increased production of more sustainable raw materials, such as recycled oils, and help support our transition to sustainable materials,” it said.

    Lego was founded in 1932 by Ole Kirk Kristiansen. The name derived from the two Danish words, leg and godt, which together mean “play well.” The brand name was created unaware that lego in Latin means “I assemble.”­­

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  • After climate summit, California Gov. Gavin Newsom faces key decisions to reduce emissions back home

    After climate summit, California Gov. Gavin Newsom faces key decisions to reduce emissions back home

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    SACRAMENTO, Calif. — California Gov. Gavin Newsom made big waves in the climate world recently by announcing a lawsuit alleging major oil and gas companies deceived the public about the risks fossil fuels posed for global warming and saying he would sign the nation’s most sweeping emissions reporting rules for large companies.

    Newsom must now decide whether to go even further. Lawmakers have sent him bills aiming to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, help schools adapt to the changing climate and ease the cost to taxpayers for the cleanup of orphan oil and gas wells.

    After the Legislature wrapped up for the year earlier this month, Newsom touted California’s leadership on environmental issues at a United Nations climate summit in New York. In California, he said, climate change has led to “places, lifestyles and traditions being destroyed right in front of our eyes, despite all of that leadership.”

    “If you read the newspaper or turn on your TV … you see a state, not just of dreamers and doers, but you see a state that’s burning up,” Newsom said.

    Newsom said he would sign a bill requiring companies making more than $1 billion in annual revenue to disclose a wide range of greenhouse gas emissions. He also said he would sign legislation requiring companies making more than $500 million annually to disclose how climate change can affect their businesses financially and how they plan to adapt.

    There were some major climate proposals that did not pass the Legislature this year, including rules to expand what pollutants have to be monitored near refineries and legislation to divest the state’s public employee and teacher retirement system funds from the fossil fuel industry.

    Newsom has until Oct. 14 to decide whether to sign bills into law, veto or allow them to become law without his signature. Here are some of the climate proposals that California lawmakers did, or did not, pass this year:

    The Legislature passed a bill requiring companies receiving the right to operate a well to demonstrate the financial ability to clean them up. One way they could do this under the bill would be posting a bond to pay for the full cost of well cleaning.

    In California, there are more than 5,000 wells without an active owner able to properly seal and close them, the state estimates. These are known as orphan wells.

    With no active owner, the state has the responsibility to clean up the wells. That is a problem because taxpayers should not be on the hook for oil and gas companies not properly closing wells, said Ann Alexander, a lawyer with the Natural Resources Defense Council.

    Improperly closed wells can become a public health risk through pollution capable of contaminating drinking water, according to the California Department of Conservation.

    The state already requires companies to post bonds to pay for well cleanup, but the amount often falls short, Alexander said.

    The Western States Petroleum Association says the bill could “exacerbate” the state’s orphan well problem by adding another financial barrier for companies that might otherwise acquire a well.

    California is among the top 10 crude oil-producing states. But production has decreased from about 230,000 barrels annually in 2005 to fewer than 125,000 barrels in 2022, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

    Lawmakers sent a bill to Newsom’s desk requiring state regulators to find an approach to reduce planet-warming emissions from buildings.

    The sector makes up about a quarter of California’s greenhouse gas emissions, the state estimates. Those emissions stem from sources including electricity used to power buildings and refrigerants used for cooling.

    The state plans to cut these emissions from homes, stores and other buildings as part of its broader 2030 target of reducing California’s greenhouse gas emissions by 40% below the 1990 level.

    Under the bill, the California Energy Commission would have to submit a report to the Legislature in 2026 recommending the state’s next steps for lowering building emissions.

    Opponents say the bill could lead to burdensome energy efficiency requirements for housing providers.

    A proposal to expand a program requiring certain pollutants to be monitored near refineries was made a two-year bill, enabling lawmakers to revisit it in January. The bill would change the program to include biofuel refineries, which use materials derived from plants or other living things.

    A key Assembly committee earlier this month blocked a bill requiring schools to come up with a heat reduction plan in outside areas on campus, for example by replacing asphalt with less heat-absorbing surfaces.

    Advocates say the legislation would have helped increase shaded areas at schools in low-income areas where they aren’t already abundant. Another bill requiring the California Energy Commission to create a plan to help schools adapt to climate change effects reached Newsom’s desk this year.

    State Sen. Lena A. Gonzalez, a Democrat representing part of Los Angeles County, introduced a bill to divest the state’s public employee and teacher retirement systems from the fossil fuel industry. The bill passed the Senate, but didn’t get a hearing in the Assembly. Lawmakers can take it up again in January.

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    Sophie Austin is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow Austin on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter: @sophieadanna

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  • Bill Gates: ‘Republicans for climate change action are gold’

    Bill Gates: ‘Republicans for climate change action are gold’

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    “Republicans for climate change action are gold,” said Bill Gates, the billionaire climate philanthropist and investor, on Thursday at the Climate Forward event in New York City.

    The number of Republicans convinced that responding to climate change is a priority has “got to be a number that we manage to increase over time,” Gates said.

    That’s because climate change mitigation and adaptation will require sustained investment and support from the public and private sector, Gates said.

    The Inflation Reduction Act, which was packed full of tax credits to drive the development of the clean energy economy, was passed entirely along party lines in both the House and Senate. No Republicans voted for it.

    The political divide on Capitol Hill mirrors that of the general public.

    More than half, 54%, of Americans consider climate change a “major threat” to the well-being of the United States, but that is starkly divided by party lines, according to survey data from the Pew Research Center. Almost eight in ten Democrats, 78%, consider climate change a major threat, up from 58% ten years ago. Only 23% of Republicans consider climate change a major threat, almost equivalent to the 22% of Republicans who considered climate change a major threat a decade ago. The most recent survey for this data was conducted in March 2022.

    The IRA included tax credits designed to kickstart the development of clean hydrogen, long-duration energy storage, and technologies to capture and remove carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, to name a few.

    “The IRA is a very dramatic set of money to bootstrap key technologies, including into areas that most climate people don’t talk about,” Gates said, like, for example, industrial processes. “Industrial emissions, if you don’t solve that, the whole thing doesn’t get solved,” Gates said.

    “It’s a fantastic climate bill,” Gates said.

    But the longevity of the IRA and those tax credits depends on whichever party rules Washington D.C.

    “We don’t have that much time to keep this thing intact,” Gates said. “It’s not guaranteed that tax credits necessarily last out the full 10 years, because they can be repealed if you get a change in political control.”

    That’s a problem because building and scaling hard technology involving heavy equipment, manufacturing, and infrastructure-scale solutions takes time — much longer than a single administration’s tour through Washington D.C.

    “These are 30-year investments in steel factories, fertilizer factories, and new ways of making meat,” Gates said. “It requires a constant, full-speed-ahead in order for the U.S. to be an exemplar.”

    While Gates emphasized the importance of getting Republicans to take climate policy seriously, he also said he doesn’t like to demonize them.

    Instead, Gates asks the question: “Why have we failed to bring more people along? And this is a super important thing,” he said.

    When Gates interacts with philanthropists who are investing in climate, he encourages those who have relationships with Republicans to work with them to try to increase their commitment to climate. “I think that’s extremely valuable,” he said.

    The United States’ ability to sustain its investment in climate technology will have global implications.

    While the majority of global emissions come from middle-income countries, the United States and other wealthy nations have to lead the way in developing and bringing down the cost of new technologies, Gates said.

    Clean technologies have to be better and cheaper because that’s the only realistic way to see them scale in less wealthy countries, according to Gates. It’s also unrealistic to expect rich countries to pay for the distribution of clean technologies in less wealthy countries unless they’re better and cheaper than the dirty, legacy way of operating. The political will isn’t there.

    “Sadly if you try to subsidize it, you are at many multiples of what the foreign aid budget is,” Gates said. “The voters aren’t going to come up with that. So innovation is the only way you can achieve these goals.”

    At this point, the question is not whether the globe will overshoot the goal target established by the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement to keep global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, but by how much.

    “We are not on a path to get to a 1.5 degree limitation,” Gates said. And indeed, António Guterres, the secretary-general of the United Nations, earlier in the week said the planet is right now,heading towards a 2.8 degree temperature rise, or more than 5 degrees Fahrenheit.

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  • Enhancing Chemical Identification Challenges

    Enhancing Chemical Identification Challenges

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    Newswise — What chemicals are we exposed to on a daily basis? That is the central question of ‘non-targeted analysis’ or NTA, an emerging field of analytical science that aims to identify all chemicals around us. A daunting task, because how can you be sure to detect everything if you don’t know exactly what you’re looking for? In a paper in Environmental Science and Technology, researchers at the Universities of Amsterdam (UvA, the Netherlands) and Queensland (UQ, Australia) assess this problem. In a meta-analysis of NTA results published over the past six years, they estimate that less than 2% of all chemicals have been identified.

    According to Viktoriia Turkina who performed the research as a PhD student with Dr Saer Samanipour  at the UvA’s Van ‘t Hoff Institute for Molecular Sciences, this limitation underscores the urgent need for a more proactive approach to chemical monitoring and management. “We need to incorporate more data-driven strategies into our studies to be able to effectively protect the human and environmental health”, she says.

    Samanipour explains that current monitoring of chemicals is rather limited since it’s expensive, time consuming, and requires specialized experts. “As an example, in the Netherlands we have one of the most sophisticated monitoring programs for chemicals known to be of concern to human health. Yet we target less than 1000 chemicals. There are far more chemicals out there that we don’t know about.”

    A vast chemical space

    To deal with those chemicals, some 15 to 20 years ago the concept of non-targeted analysis was introduced to look at possible exposure in an unbiased manner. The idea is to take a sample from the environment (air, water, soil, sewer sludge) or the human body (hair, blood, etc ) and analyse it using well-established analytical techniques such as chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectroscopy. The challenge then is to trace the obtained signal back to the structures of chemicals that may be present in the sample. This will include already known  chemicals, but also chemicals of which the potential presence in the environment is yet unknown.

    In theory, this ‘chemical space’ includes as many as 1060 compounds, an incomprehensible number that exceeds the number of stars in the universe by far. On the other hand, the number of organic and inorganic substances published in the scientific literature and public databases is estimated at around 180 million. To make their research even more manageable, Turkina, Samanipour and co-workers focused on a subset of 60.000 well-described compounds from the NORMAN database. Turkina: “This served as the reference to establish what is covered in NTA studies, and more importantly, to develop an idea about what is being overlooked.”

    The vast ‘exposome’ of chemicals that humans are exposed to on a daily basis is a sign of our times, according to Samanipour. “These days we are soaking in a giant ocean of chemicals. The chemical industry is part of that, but also nature is running all a whole bunch of reactions that result in exposure. And we expose ourselves to chemicals by the stuff we use – think for instance of the problem of microplastics. To solve all this we have to be able to go beyond pointing fingers. With our research, we hope to contribute to finding a solution together. Because we all are in the same boat.”

    Much room for improvement

    The meta analysis, which included 57 NTA papers, revealed that only around 2% of the estimated chemical space was covered. This can indicate that the actual exposure to chemicals is indeed quite low, however, it can also point to shortcomings in the applied analyses. According to Turkina and Samanipour, the latter is indeed the case. They focused on NTA studies applying liquid chromatography coupled with high resolution mass spectrometry (LC-HRMS) -one of the most comprehensive methods for the analysis of complex environmental and biological samples.

    It turned out that there was much room for improvement. For instance in sample preparation, they observed a bias towards specific compounds rather than capturing a more diverse set of chemicals. They also observed poor selection and inconsistent reporting of LC-HRMS parameters and data acquisition methods. “In general”, Samanipour says, “the chemical analysis community is to a great extent driven by the available technology that vendors have developed for specific analysis purposes. Thus the instrumental set-up and data processing methods are rather limited when it comes to non-targeted analysis.”

    To Samanipour, the NTA approach is definitely worth pursuing. “But we need to develop it further and push it forward. Together with vendors we can develop new powerful and more versatile analytical technologies, as well as effective data analysis protocols.” He also advocates a data-driven approach were the theoretical chemical space is ‘back calculated’  towards a subset of chemicals that are highly likely to be present in our environment. “Basically we have to better understand what is the true chemical space of exposure. And once those boundaries are defined, then it becomes a lot easier to assess that number of 2% we have determined.”

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    Universiteit van Amsterdam

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  • Shrinking Salton Sea raises health alarms for surrounding community

    Shrinking Salton Sea raises health alarms for surrounding community

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    Shrinking Salton Sea raises health alarms for surrounding community – CBS News


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    Without replenishment from the Colorado River, the Salton Sea in Southern California is rapidly receding, exposing to the wind a dry and toxic lakebed that could pose ongoing health risks to the surrounding community. Jonathan Vigliotti has more.

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  • Are paper wine bottles the future? These companies think so.

    Are paper wine bottles the future? These companies think so.

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    Are paper wine bottles the future?


    Are paper wine bottles the future?

    01:55

    Ipswich, England — A British company is replacing glass wine bottles with a unique paper alternative, and bringing the product to the United States. Frugalpac designs and manufactures paper wine bottles in an effort to help decarbonize the drink industry.

    “The overall carbon footprint is much, much lower on a paper bottle than it is on the equivalent glass bottle. We believe it’s up to six times lower,” Frugalpac’s product director JP Grogan told CBS News.

    The Frugalpac bottle weighs less than 3 ounces — almost five times lighter than a conventional glass bottle, saving on fuel and emissions in transport. Because each bottle starts its life flat-packed, it also means more of them can be transported at once.

    In their factory in Ipswich, southern England, the pre-cut recycled cardboard goes through a purpose-built machine that bends and folds the paper into the shape of a bottle and inserts a plastic pouch to hold the drink.

    Grogan insists the new format does not alter the taste of the wine. 

    “Some of our customers have tested with wine and we’ve tested with vodka. People have not been able to find the difference between our products and a product that’s been stored in a control glass bottle,” he told CBS News.

    paper-wine-bottles.jpg
    Paper wine bottles made by the British company Frugalpac are seen on a production line at their facility in Ipswich, England. 

    CBS News


    Wine put into paper bottles won’t have as long a shelf-life as that packaged in conventional glass, however. The company estimates red wine can be kept for 18 months in its bottles, while white wine will only last around a year.

    This year, the Monterey Wine Company became the first American firm to adopt the innovation. The California-based producer purchased the assembly machine that will allow it to complete the paper bottles in-house for shipment.

    “Our partnership with Frugalpac has allowed us to get behind the scenes of how this bottle is made and find U.S. producers for the [card]board and supply the materials right here from the U.S.,” the Monterey Wine Company’s Shannon Valladerez told CBS News.

    Frugalpac hopes the reduced carbon footprint and unique shelf appeal of its paper bottles will convince more producers around the world to adopt its model and purchase their assembly machines.

    “The whole idea is that we locate the machine close to the producers of the beverages and just limit the amount of movements,” Grogan said. “We put the machines in the different locations and allow them to source components from their own suppliers.”

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  • Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California State University, Bakersfield and Livermore Lab Foundation sign MOU to advance clean energy

    Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, California State University, Bakersfield and Livermore Lab Foundation sign MOU to advance clean energy

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    Newswise — Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL), California State University, Bakersfield (CSUB) and the Livermore Lab Foundation (LLF) have signed an agreement to collaborate on advanced and clean-energy technologies, research opportunities and community partnerships that have the potential to shape the future of energy in the state and bring high-quality jobs to the region.

    The memorandum of understanding (MOU) will build on the region’s position as an energy pioneer and innovator as well as CSUB’s new Energy Innovation Building, funded in the 2022-2023 California budget and set to break ground next year. 

    In addition to the clean-energy focus, LLNL, CSUB and LLF will collaborate in decarbonization science, materials and advanced manufacturing, hydrogen technologies, energy storage, critical materials, STEM-student engagement and public outreach programs. The collaboration also will benefit the region through student fellowships, an innovation lab, future convenings and potential trips to the Lab by community stakeholders. “This collaboration builds upon Bakersfield’s strong academic commitment to educate the next generation of STEM leaders,” said LLNL Director Kim Budil. “It will also advance energy technologies and community engagement as a collaborative effort in the region. We’re pleased to help support Kern County’s energy transition with this agreement.” 

    “This expression of common cause and collaboration to advance climate resiliency and a new era in energy represents an unprecedented opportunity for CSUB and our entire region,” said CSUB President Lynnette Zelezny. “The pre-eminent climate and energy scientists in the nation will have a home base at CSUB, and the discoveries made here will cultivate a new generation of researchers. I want to thank Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and Livermore Lab Foundation for their partnership and belief in the promise of our region to lead.” 

    The memo of understanding builds upon the Lab’s and Foundation’s commitment to Kern County that began in 2020 when the Laboratory published its “Getting to Neutral” report. Kern County was identified as an important focus area to help California achieve its ambitious climate and net-neutrality goals because of the region’s potential for carbon storage. 

    The report cited Kern’s oil fields as strong candidates for carbon storage sites, while also supporting the creation and scale up of carbon-negative technologies and clean technology jobs to further the county’s strong commitment to energy innovation. 

    Other work activities identified in the MOU include the exchange of researchers between LLNL and CSUB facilities, faculty sabbaticals, post-doctoral internships and the possibility of joint publications, joint grant proposals, lectures, symposiums and strategic meetings. 

    In collaboration with both LLNL and LLF, the exchange could also include undergraduate internships and fellowships. Two CSUB students were recently selected by the Foundation to serve as inaugural carbon fellows at LLNL this summer– with research projects specific to carbon removal and net neutrality. In addition, the MOU highlights the creation of STEM programs and the development of community benefit plans as well as science and equity-based community engagement in the greater Kern County region.  

    In 2019, LLNL launched the Laboratory of Energy Applications for the Future (LEAF), a center designed to deliver solutions that enhance energy security, infrastructure reliability and climate resilience. The goal is to deploy Laboratory solutions and developments to external stakeholders in industry, academia and government. The center is advancing technologies, including architected and solid-state batteries, supercapacitors, capacitive water deionization, carbon capture and conversion, solar cells, biomaterials for sorbents and catalysts and hydrogen production and storage. 

    The MOU also opens the door for CSUB to create a laboratory with objectives like those of LLNL’s LEAF lab. CSUB students, as well as industry innovators would have the facilities and mentoring to work closely on projects in carbon management, geological carbon removal and storage, new and advanced materials and energy storage and transport, working closely with LLNL experts. 

    “Kern County has a tremendous opportunity to play a critical role in strengthening the STEM workforce pipeline and create good-paying jobs.  The Livermore Lab Foundation is delighted to support CSU Bakersfield on that journey as part of this unique triad agreement,” said Sally Allen, LLF’s executive director. 

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    Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

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  • Cheaper, Abundant Recycled Plastics Can Be Sound Ingredients for Plastic Bottles, Food Packaging

    Cheaper, Abundant Recycled Plastics Can Be Sound Ingredients for Plastic Bottles, Food Packaging

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    Newswise — Washington D.C. – New research on the growing uses of recycled polypropylene in plastic packaging finds it performs well and has the potential to meet environmental goals and reduce raw material costs.

    Conclusions suggest both cost optimization of additives can be improved and sustainability goals can be reached by increasing the use of post-consumer recycled (PCR) materials in food packaging.

    These findings come as many packagers are relying more on polypropylene and similar plastics than widely-used polyethylene terephthalate (PET) in bottled water and similar beverages.

    Polypropylene (PP) has a resin identification code of #5 and a high melting point and is often used in containers for hot liquids. It can also be found in yogurt containers, syrup, medicine bottles, caps and straws.

    The new study was conducted by Iowa State University scientists who gathered a small collection of recycled plastics and after testing, found they performed well mechanically in terms of strength, flexibility, integrity and other indicators like heat resistance.

    If future performance studies support these findings, and outside chemicals remain below regulatory limits, it could be a win-win for those seeking more sustainable packaging and efficiencies in their packaging recycling programs.

    According to the authors, “This study demonstrates the viability of a significant source of polypropylene and its notable long-term impacts, increasing profits by using PCR materials.” But the potential upside doesn’t end there.

    “This approach will produce environmentally responsible food plastic packaging in compliance with legislation in the circular economy,” the paper concludes.

    According to Iowa State’s Drs. Keith Vorst and Greg Curtzwiler, the findings are important because “they demonstrate PCR plastics can have higher value than just sustainability alone. PCR materials can also be used as a source of critical additives that would not need to be added to virgin plastics when blended together.”

    According to lead author Dr. Ma. Cristine Concepcion D. Ignacio, the research is unique in that it focuses on “determining the compliance and physical performance of extrusion blow molded material recovery facility (MRF)-recovered post-consumer PP bottle for direct food-contact applications.”

    The article appeared in a recent issue of the peer-reviewed journal Polymers and was supported by IAFNS’ Food Packaging Safety and Sustainability Committee.

    The study is available here.

    The Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences (IAFNS) is committed to leading positive change across the food and beverage ecosystem. This paper was supported in part by IAFNS’ Food Packaging Safety and Sustainability Committee. IAFNS is a 501(c)(3) science-focused nonprofit uniquely positioned to mobilize government, industry and academia to drive, fund and lead actionable research. iafns.org

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    Institute for the Advancement of Food and Nutrition Sciences

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  • Shipping giant Maersk unveils ‘trendsetter’ green vessel as it aims to be carbon neutral by 2040

    Shipping giant Maersk unveils ‘trendsetter’ green vessel as it aims to be carbon neutral by 2040

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    A.P. Moller-Maersk, is one of the world’s biggest container shippers with a market share of around 17%, and is widely seen as a barometer of global trade.

    Andia | UIG via Getty Images

    Copenhagen, DENMARK — Shipping giant Maersk on Thursday presented its first container vessel moved with green methanol, a landmark moment for one of the world’s most polluting industries.

    The new container ship, ordered in 2021, has two engines: one moved by traditional fuels and another run with green methanol — an alternative component, which uses biomass or captured carbon and hydrogen from renewable power. Practically speaking, the new vessel emits 100 tons of carbon dioxide less per day compared to diesel-based ships.

    “It’s a really symbolic day of our energy transition, really becoming a reality, something concrete that we can actually demonstrate, not just commitments and hard work, but actually something that everybody can see,” Maersk CEO Vincent Clerc told CNBC.

    This is “the first step for us. But it’s the first step for the industry as well. The ship was ordered only in 2021, and she was really the first of its kind. Today, just a couple of years later, we have 125 ships that have been ordered by different companies to actually work on the same technology and the same energy transition. So this ship is really a trendsetter for a whole industry,” Clerc said.

    Evergreen and other shipping firms have ordered similar vessels, though they have less ambitious carbon neutrality targets than Maersk.

    Shipping accounts for around 3% of global carbon emissions, an amount comparable to major polluting countries. However, decarbonizing the sector has been challenging.

    Denmark’s Minister of Industry Morten Bodskov said this is because it is a global industry.

    Around 90% of the traded goods in the world are carried via ocean shipping, according to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.

    “And if you want to make a global agreement, you have to have, I mean, more or less all countries behind the agreement, and then it is a industry in a highly competitive market. That has also been a key factor,” Bodskov told CNBC.

    A so-called shipping tax is a good example of the challenging global conversations on how to accelerate decarbonization efforts.

    In June, a group of 20 nations supported a plan for a levy on shipping industry emissions. But China, Argentina and Brazil were among the nations pushing back against such an idea.

    Speaking to CNBC, Maersk’s chief said his firm is supportive of such a tax.

    “We’ve long advocated the implementation of a carbon tax to really level the playing field and provide the right economic incentives for companies to really lean into the green transition,” he said.

    “I’m worried about the rhetoric that energy transition is a downside and not really a great opportunity,” he added.

    Supply concerns

    This vessel is the first of a wider order of 25 that are due to arrive in 2024. Maersk is looking to become climate neutral by 2040, so these new vessels will be an important part of meeting that deadline and updating its fleet of about 700 ships.

    However, analysts are worried that Maersk and its competitors might struggle to find enough supply of green methanol. The fuel is scarce and costly to transport.

    “When I look at the market for these green fuels, methanol is definitely one of the most advanced products out there at the moment. But what I can hear from the industry and from market participants is that the wrap up of methanol, green methanol, it hasn’t ramped up very fast,” Ulrik Bak, research analyst at SEB, told CNBC on Wednesday.

    “There will be a significant time where I believe that we will have more methanol vessels, then there will be green methanol to [supply] those vessels,” he said.

    Maersk has signed at least nine agreements with suppliers of green methanol from all over the world in an attempt to push these firms to produce more of the commodity.

    “This has been actually the main, the main headache for a while,” Clerc said.

    “And it continues to be as we need to scale this up … It continues to be one of the key focus areas that we need to have today,” he said, adding “we are more confident today than we were a year ago (regarding securing supply)”.

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  • Biden rules on clean cars face crucial test as Republican-led challenges go to appeals court

    Biden rules on clean cars face crucial test as Republican-led challenges go to appeals court

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    WASHINGTON — Efforts by the Biden administration to limit pollution from automobile tailpipes — a major source of planet-warming emissions — face a crucial test as legal challenges brought by Republican-led states head to a federal appeals court.

    The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit will hear arguments Thursday and Friday on three cases challenging Biden administration rules targeting cars and trucks. Transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions that contribute to global warming, and the legal cases could go all the way to the Supreme Court.

    Republican attorneys general say the legal challenges are needed to curtail government overreach, while environmental groups and the Biden administration say an adverse ruling could jeopardize protections against deadly pollution that contributes to climate change.

    The cases before the appeals court will test a 2021 Environmental Protection Agency rule that strengthened tailpipe pollution limits and a 2022 EPA decision that restored California’s authority to set its own tailpipe pollution standards for cars and SUVs. At least 15 states and the District of Columbia have signed on to California’s vehicle standards, which are stricter than federal rules and are designed to address the state’s severe air pollution problems. Seven of the 10 U.S. cities with the worst ozone pollution are in California.

    A third case challenges mileage standards set by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.

    Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is leading a coalition of GOP-leaning states and oil industry groups that are challenging the tailpipe rule.

    “At a time when American gas prices are skyrocketing at the pump, and the Russia-Ukraine conflict shows again the absolute need for energy independence, (President Joe) Biden chooses to go to war against fossil fuels,” said Paxton, who faces an impeachment trial in the Texas Senate on unrelated charges of corruption and bribery.

    He said the rules will disadvantage Texas and other oil and gas producing states.

    Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, who is leading a separate case challenging the California standards, said the waiver was a delegation of federal authority to a state — and an improper one at that.

    But Peter Zalzal, a senior attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund, an advocacy group that is involved in two of the legal cases, said the rules were “lawful, constitutional and vital.”

    The Natural Resources Defense Council, another environmental group, called the lawsuits “an unprecedented attack” on federal clean-air standards by the oil industry and Republican-led states.

    “The fossil fuel industry and its allies want to kneecap the EPA and NHTSA so that the next round of clean car standards cannot achieve the carbon pollution reductions needed to address the climate crisis,″ NRDC lawyer Pete Huffman wrote in a memo this week.

    A spokesman for the EPA declined to comment, citing ongoing litigation.

    But Todd Kim, assistant attorney general for the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, said in a legal filing that the EPA acted well within its authority to regulate tailpipe pollution.

    The court cases come as the Biden administration pushes the auto industry to quickly adopt electric vehicles as part of its climate agenda. The 2021 infrastructure law and 2022 climate law include billions in incentives for purchase of new and used EVs and a national network of new charging stations. Fully electric vehicles represent just 6.7% of new vehicle sales in the U.S., but analysts expect that to rise rapidly in coming years. Major automakers, including General Motors and Ford, have pledged full commitment to EVs, and GM has said it will end sale of new gasoline-fueled passenger vehicles by 2035.

    The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, which represents companies that make 98% of the new cars sold in the U.S., said in a court filing that EPA’s tailpipe rule for model years through 2026 “will challenge the industry.″ But it said EPA designed the rule “to balance overall stringency with critically important flexibilities” that allow carmakers to use a range of pollution controls while also adopting EV technology.

    “Reducing (greenhouse gas) emissions from all sectors of the U.S. economy is a national priority,″ the group wrote. “The members of Auto Innovators are committed to doing their part.″

    The Justice Department disputed a claim that the tailpipe rule falls under the so-called “major questions” doctrine cited by the Supreme Court in a landmark ruling that limited how the EPA can regulate carbon dioxide emissions from power plants. The court’s June 2022 ruling in West Virginia v. EPA held that Congress must speak with specificity when it wants to give an agency authority to regulate on an issue of major national significance.

    “Far from doing something unexpected or novel” in the tailpipe pollution rule, “EPA merely tightened existing standards,” Kim wrote. In doing so, EPA was “using the same regulatory approach that it has used in every vehicle greenhouse-gas rule,” he said.

    In a separate filing, Kim said Ohio’s complaint that the California waiver was illegal is “unsupported by text, history or precedent.”

    Ohio and other states don’t have standing to challenge the California waiver because they are not regulated by the waiver, Kim said.

    Zalzal, the EDF attorney, called Ohio’s challenge ironic, noting that the state is not seeking the right to set its own standards. “They just want to deny California’s traditional authority as guaranteed by federal law for more than 50 years,” he said.

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  • Groups sue EPA in an effort to strengthen oversight of livestock operations

    Groups sue EPA in an effort to strengthen oversight of livestock operations

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    A coalition of civil society groups is seeking to force the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen its regulation of large livestock operations that release pollutants into waterways

    BySCOTT MCFETRIDGE Associated Press

    September 11, 2023, 5:00 PM

    FILE – Pigs eat from a trough at the Las Vegas Livestock pig farm, April 2, 2019, in Las Vegas. On Friday, Sept. 8, 2023, a coalition of civil society groups filed a lawsuit seeking to force the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen its regulation of large livestock operations that release pollutants into waterways. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

    The Associated Press

    DES MOINES, Iowa — A coalition of environmental groups is seeking to force the Environmental Protection Agency to strengthen its regulation of large livestock operations that release pollutants into waterways.

    Food & Water Watch and a dozen other environmental and community groups filed a lawsuit Friday in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco. The lawsuit came nearly a month after the EPA denied two petitions filed by the groups in 2017 that sought tighter oversight of the largest U.S. hog, cattle and chicken operations.

    The suit asks the court to reconsider changes the groups sought in those petitions, including clarification about what farms must comply with federal regulations and what kinds of discharges are exempt from regulations.

    The EPA said in an Aug. 15 response to the groups that it would study its program for regulating the livestock farms and existing pollution limits before deciding whether it should change its regulations. The agency said it would establish a panel comprised of representatives of environmental groups, agriculture and researchers to delve into the matter over 12-18 months.

    The groups that filed the lawsuit rejected the need for additional study and on Monday accused the EPA of enabling polluters by refusing to take action.

    “Factory farms are polluters by design — true environmental protection requires a willingness by EPA to confront this industry head on,” Tarah Heinzen, legal director of Food & Water Watch, said in a statement. “It is high time EPA addressed the crisis it has spent decades enabling.”

    An EPA spokesperson said that because of the pending legislation, the agency had no comment.

    The EPA regulates large livestock operations, known as Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations, or CAFOs, under the Clean Water Act. The agency oversees environmental discharge requirements on facilities where the animals are held, as well as manure storage systems and land where manure and wastewater are spread.

    Manure and fertilizers from CAFOs and farms run into streams, creating algae blooms and unhealthy water in rivers, lakes and the Gulf of Mexico.

    The environmental groups argue the EPA doesn’t understand where the large livestock operations are located and is lax in enforcing existing rules.

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  • Nonprofit deploys high-tech barges to collect plastic from rivers

    Nonprofit deploys high-tech barges to collect plastic from rivers

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    Nonprofit deploys high-tech barges to collect plastic from rivers – CBS News


    Watch CBS News



    High-tech barges are being used to scoop up tons of floating plastic. The mission of nonprofit Ocean Cleanup is to ultimately collect 90% of floating plastic pollution from the world’s waterways. Ben Tracy has more.

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  • Arctic beavers boost methane emissions

    Arctic beavers boost methane emissions

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    Newswise — The climate-driven advance of beavers into the Arctic tundra is causing the release of more methane — a greenhouse gas — into the atmosphere.

    Beavers, as everyone knows, like to make dams. Those dams cause flooding, which inundates vegetation and turns Arctic streams and creeks into a series of ponds. Those beaver ponds and surrounding inundated vegetation can be devoid of oxygen and rich with organic sediment, which releases methane as the material decays.

    Methane is also released when organics-rich permafrost thaws as the result of heat carried by the spreading water.

    A study linking Arctic beavers to an increase in the release of methane was published in July in Environmental Research Letters. 

    The lead author is Jason Clark, a former postdoctoral fellow at the University of Alaska Fairbanks Geophysical Institute. Research Professor Ken Tape, also of the Geophysical Institute, was Clark’s adviser and is a co-author. Other co-authors include Benjamin Jones, a research assistant professor at the UAF Institute of Northern Engineering; and researchers from the National Park Service and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

    Tape has done extensive research about the northward migration of beavers and their resultant impact on the Arctic environment.

    “What we found is that there are lots of methane hotspots right next to ponds and they start to diminish as you go away from the pond,” he said.

    The new study is the first to link large numbers of new beaver ponds to methane emissions at the landscape scale. It suggests that beaver engineering in the Arctic will at least initially increase methane release. 

    “We say ‘initially’ because that’s the data we have,” Tape said. “What the longer-term implications are, we don’t know.” 

    As a greenhouse gas, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere.

    It accounts for about 20 percent of global greenhouse gas emissions, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The agency says human activities have more than doubled atmospheric methane concentrations in the past two centuries.

    The new research focused on 166 square miles of the lower Noatak River basin in Northwest Alaska. Data was obtained by airborne hyperspectral imaging through NASA’s Arctic-Boreal Vulnerability Experiment program. That program and the National Science Foundation funded the research.

    Hyperspectral cameras image an area in hundreds of wavelengths across the electromagnetic spectrum, including many not visible to the human eye. That differs from other cameras, which typically only image in the primary colors of red, green and blue.

    The researchers compared the location of methane hot spots to the locations of 118 beaver ponds and to a number of nearby unaffected stream reaches and lakes. They analyzed the area up to approximately 200 feet from the perimeter of each water body and found a “significantly greater” number of methane hot spots around beaver ponds.

    “We have these datasets that largely overlap, in space and mostly in time,” Tape said. “It’s kind of a simple design relying on a new tool.”

    Additional research about the relationship between beaver migration and Arctic methane release will occur next year.

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    University of Alaska Fairbanks

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  • Rubber plumbing seals can leak additives into drinking water, study says

    Rubber plumbing seals can leak additives into drinking water, study says

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    Newswise — As drinking water flows through pipes and into a glass, it runs against the rubber seals inside some plumbing devices. These parts contain additives that contribute to their flexibility and durability, but these potentially harmful compounds can leak into drinking water, according to a small-scale study in ACS’ Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The authors report that the released compounds, which are typically linked to tire pollution, also transformed into other unwanted byproducts.

    To enhance rubber’s strength and durability, manufacturers typically mix in additives. Scientists have shown that tire dust can transport these substances, such as 1,3 diphenylguanidine (DPG) and N-(1,3-dimethylbutyl)-N’-phenyl-1,4-benzenediamine (6PPD), into waterways. DPG and 6PPD have also been detected in drinking water samples, though it’s unclear how the compounds got there. In previous research, Shane Snyder and Mauricius Marques dos Santos found that these rubber additives can react with disinfectants in simulated drinking water. Their lab tests generated a variety of chlorinated compounds, some of which could damage DNA. Now, the team wanted to assess whether real-world rubber plumbing fixtures can release DPG and 6PPD and form chlorinated byproducts in drinking water samples.

    In this pilot study, the team collected tap water from 20 buildings and detected polymer additives at parts per trillion levels in every sample. The researchers explain that these compounds are not currently regulated, but the measured levels are potentially concerning, based on their previous study’s results from human cell bioassays. And the samples from faucets with aerators contained the highest total amounts. All of the samples contained DPG and one of its chlorinated byproducts, whereas 6PPD and two other chlorine-containing compounds were each found in fewer than five samples. This is the first report of chlorinated DPG byproducts in drinking water, according to the researchers.

    To see if these compounds could have come from plumbing fixtures, the team tested rubber O-rings and gaskets from seven commercial devices, including faucet aerators and connection seals. In the experiment, the rings sat in water with or without chlorinated disinfectants for up to two weeks. Most of the seals, except for the silicone-based ones, released DPG and 6PPD additives. Additionally, plumbing pieces sitting in disinfectant-treated water generated chlorinated forms of DPG in amounts that were consistent with those observed in the drinking water samples. Because some of the rubber plumbing seals released DPG and 6PPD, the researchers say that drinking water, as well as tire pollution, could be a route of human exposure to these compounds.

    The authors acknowledge funding from the Merlion programme; the French Ministry of Europe and Foreign Affairs; the Nanyang Technological University; the National Research Foundation of Singapore; and the Public Utilities Board, Singapore’s National Water Agency.

    The paper’s abstract will be available on Sept. 6 at 8 a.m. Eastern time here: http://pubs.acs.org/doi/abs/10.1021/acs.estlett.3c00446

    The American Chemical Society (ACS) is a nonprofit organization chartered by the U.S. Congress. ACS’ mission is to advance the broader chemistry enterprise and its practitioners for the benefit of Earth and all its people. The Society is a global leader in promoting excellence in science education and providing access to chemistry-related information and research through its multiple research solutions, peer-reviewed journals, scientific conferences, eBooks and weekly news periodical Chemical & Engineering News. ACS journals are among the most cited, most trusted and most read within the scientific literature; however, ACS itself does not conduct chemical research. As a leader in scientific information solutions, its CAS division partners with global innovators to accelerate breakthroughs by curating, connecting and analyzing the world’s scientific knowledge. ACS’ main offices are in Washington, D.C., and Columbus, Ohio.

    To automatically receive news releases from the American Chemical Society, contact [email protected].

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    American Chemical Society (ACS)

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  • EPA delays new ozone pollution standards until after 2024 election

    EPA delays new ozone pollution standards until after 2024 election

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    WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is delaying plans to tighten air quality standards for ground-level ozone — better known as smog — despite a recommendation by a scientific advisory panel to lower air pollution limits to protect public health.

    The decision by EPA Administrator Michael Regan means that one of the agency’s most important air quality regulations will not be updated until well after the 2024 presidential election.

    “I have decided that the best path forward is to initiate a new statutory review of the ozone (standard) and the underlying air quality criteria,” Regan wrote in a letter to the EPA advisory panel last month. The letter cites “several issues” raised by the panel in a recent report that “warrant additional evaluation and review.”

    The review, which will last at least two years, will “ensure that air quality standards reflect the latest science in order to best protect people from pollution,” Regan said.

    Regan’s decision avoids a potentially contentious, election-year battle with industry groups and Republicans who have complained about what they consider overly intrusive EPA rules on power plants, refineries, automobiles and other polluters.

    The delay marks the second time in 12 years that a Democratic administration has put off a new ozone standard prior to an election year. Former President Barack Obama shut down plans to tighten ozone standards in 2011, leading to four-year delay before the standards were updated in 2015.

    Paul Billings, senior vice president of the American Lung Association, called EPA’s decision “profoundly disappointing” and a missed opportunity to protect public health and promote environmental justice. A recent report by the lung association showed that minority communities bear a disproportionate burden from ground-level ozone, which occurs when air pollution from cars, power plants and other sources mixes with sunlight. The problem is particularly acute in urban areas.

    Billings called the ozone rule “the public health cornerstone of the Clean Air Act,” adding that “millions of people will breathe dirty air for many more years” as a result of the delay. An increased number of asthma attacks, sick days and even premature death are likely to occur, he and other public health advocates said.

    Raul Garcia, vice president of policy and legislation for Earthjustice, called the delay “shameful” and unjustified. “The science tells us we are long overdue,” Garcia said.

    Democratic lawmakers also were disappointed. “Inaction threatens public health and puts those with underlying conditions such as asthma or lung disease, at an elevated risk,” said Rhode Island Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse. He and 51 other Democrats had urged swift action on a new rule.

    “Unfortunately we’ve seen the process for updating the ozone standards repeatedly swept up in political games that risk lives,” the lawmakers said in an Aug. 7 letter to EPA.

    Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, applauded EPA’s decision “not to race ahead with an unnecessary revision of the ozone standards,” which have not been changed since 2015. The current standard was reaffirmed in December 2020 under then-President Donald Trump.

    Bernstein, whose members produce coal and other fossil fuels, urged officials to reconsider other regulations that he said target coal-fired power plants and endanger reliability of the electric grid. “It’s clear — and deeply alarming — that EPA (does not) understand the cumulative impact its rules will have on the grid and the nation’s severely stressed power supply,” he said.

    A spokeswoman for the American Petroleum Institute, the top lobbying group for the oil and gas industry, said current ozone limits are among the most stringent in the world. “Any tightening of the standard could impact energy costs, threaten U.S. energy security and impact businesses and American consumers,” spokeswoman Andrea Woods said in an email.

    The EPA’s decision comes after two advisory panels — the EPA’s Clean Air Scientific Advisory Committee and the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council — urged the agency to lower the current ozone standard of 70 parts per billion.

    “Based on the scientific evidence currently available, it is concluded that the level of the current standard is not protective with an adequate margin of safety,” the EPA panel said in a June report. A limit of 55 to 60 parts per billion “is more likely to be protective and to provide an adequate margin of safety,” the panel said.

    Lianne Sheppard, a University of Washington biostatistics professor who chairs the scientific advisory panel, said Regan’s decision was “his alone” to make.

    “However, I am disappointed, given the robust scientific evidence that ozone is harmful to public health and welfare,” she told E&E News last month.

    The White House environmental justice council, meanwhile, cited the “horrible toll of air pollution” and its disproportionate effect on minority communities. In a letter to the White House, co-chairs Richard Moore and Peggy Shepard said the problem is “compounded by the inadequate monitoring and enforcement in many of our communities.”

    Moore is co-director of Los Jardines Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico, while Sheppard is co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice in New York City.

    Tomas Carbonell, a top official in EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, said the report by the scientific panel left EPA with little choice but to launch a comprehensive review even though all but one panel member supported a stricter ozone standard.

    “When we’re looking at our national air quality standards, there’s really no way to cut corners around that process,” Carbonell said in an interview.

    The agency will convene workshops next spring to gather information and will release a review plan for action in late 2024, he said. A final decision could be years away.

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  • Africa Climate Summit links ‘unfair’ debt burden with calls to make continent’s green assets pay off

    Africa Climate Summit links ‘unfair’ debt burden with calls to make continent’s green assets pay off

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    NAIROBI, Kenya — Climate change is “relentlessly eating away” at Africa’s economic progress and it’s time to have a global conversation about a carbon tax on polluters, Kenya’s president declared Tuesday as the first Africa Climate Summit got underway.

    “Those who produce the garbage refuse to pay their bills,” President William Ruto, a host of the summit, said to an audience that included senior officials from China, the United States and the European Union — some of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

    The rapidly growing African continent of more than 1.3 billion people is losing 5% to 15% of its gross domestic product growth every year to the widespread impacts of climate change, according to Ruto. It’s a source of deep frustration in the resource-rich region that contributes by far the least to global warming.

    He and other leaders urged reforms to the global financial structures that have left African nations paying about five times more to borrow money than others, worsening the debt crisis for many. Africa has more than 30 of the world’s most indebted countries, Kenya’s Cabinet secretary for the environment, Soipan Tuya, said.

    The U.S. government’s climate envoy, John Kerry, acknowledged the “acute, unfair debt.” He also said 17 of the world’s 20 countries most impacted by climate change are in Africa — while the world’s 20 richest nations, including his own, produce 80% of the world’s carbon emissions that are driving climate change.

    Asked about the Kenyan president’s call for a carbon tax discussion, Kerry said President Joe Biden has “not yet embraced any particular carbon pricing mechanism.”

    Ruto said Africa’s 54 countries “must go green fast before industrializing and not vice versa, unlike (richer nations) had the luxury to do.” Transforming Africa’s economy on a green trajectory “is the most feasible, just and efficient way to attain a net-zero world by 2050,” he said.

    Climate finance is key, speakers said. A pledge by richer nations of $100 billion a year to help developing nations achieve their climate goals remains unfulfilled, and Ruto said the summit declaration will “firmly encourage” everyone to keep their promises.

    The United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the next United Nations climate meeting later this year, announced it plans to invest $4.5 billion in Africa’s “clean energy potential.”

    The African continent has 60% of the world’s renewable energy assets and more than 30% of the minerals key to renewable and low-carbon technologies. One goal of the summit is to transform the narrative around the continent from victim to assertive, wealthy partner.

    “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to explain to our people, particularly to our youth, the contradiction: resource-rich continent and poor people,” Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde said.

    Africa’s GDP should be revalued for its assets, which include the world’s second-largest rainforest and biodiversity, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said.

    “Africa cannot be nature-rich and cash-poor,” he said.

    But divisions are evident around the issue that was little mentioned in the opening speeches and yet is at the heart of the tough conversations ahead: fossil fuels.

    Africa must use its natural gas resources — a growing interest of Europe — along with renewable energy sources, Adesina said. “Give us space to grow,” he said.

    Ruto, however, has criticized the “addiction” to fossil fuels. His country now gets more than 90% of its energy from renewables.

    “We don’t have to do what the developed countries did to power their industries. It will be harder to use renewable energy exclusively, but it can be done,” said one local summit attendee, Martha Lusweti.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the summit attendees that it’s time for the world to “break our addiction to fossil fuels.” Worldwide spending on fossil fuel subsidies reached $7 trillion in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund.

    European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said African nations could produce enough clean energy to power the continent and export abroad, “but for this, Africa needs massive investment.”

    Some of Africa’s biggest economies rely on fossil fuels. South Africa’s coal-fired plants are struggling. Parts of Nigeria’s Niger Delta are slick from oil extraction. Some of Africa’s cities have the world’s worst air pollution. A TotalEnergies pipeline project in Uganda and Tanzania is being challenged.

    Missing from the summit were the leaders of a number of Africa’s largest economies including South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt, as well as forest-rich Congo.

    Also missing from the leading speakers was China, the world’s largest emitter of heat-trapping gases, Africa’s largest trading partner and one of its biggest creditors.

    Some African leaders gave passionate descriptions of climate change’s toll.

    “The seas that once serenaded us with lullabies now warn of rising tides,” Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, said. “It is an African story, and I daresay it’s a global story, too.”

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the climate at https://apnews.com/climate-and-environment and of Africa at https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • Africa Climate Summit links ‘unfair’ debt burden with calls to make continent’s green assets pay off

    Africa Climate Summit links ‘unfair’ debt burden with calls to make continent’s green assets pay off

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    NAIROBI, Kenya — Climate change is “relentlessly eating away” at Africa’s economic progress and it’s time to have a global conversation about a carbon tax on polluters, Kenya’s president declared Tuesday as the first Africa Climate Summit got underway.

    “Those who produce the garbage refuse to pay their bills,” President William Ruto, a host of the summit, said to an audience that included senior officials from China, the United States and the European Union — some of the world’s largest emitters of greenhouse gases.

    The rapidly growing African continent of more than 1.3 billion people is losing 5% to 15% of its gross domestic product growth every year to the widespread impacts of climate change, according to Ruto. It’s a source of deep frustration in the resource-rich region that contributes by far the least to global warming.

    He and other leaders urged reforms to the global financial structures that have left African nations paying about five times more to borrow money than others, worsening the debt crisis for many. Africa has more than 30 of the world’s most indebted countries, Kenya’s Cabinet secretary for the environment, Soipan Tuya, said.

    The U.S. government’s climate envoy, John Kerry, acknowledged the “acute, unfair debt.” He also said 17 of the world’s 20 countries most impacted by climate change are in Africa — while the world’s 20 richest nations, including his own, produce 80% of the world’s carbon emissions that are driving climate change.

    Asked about the Kenyan president’s call for a carbon tax discussion, Kerry said President Joe Biden has “not yet embraced any particular carbon pricing mechanism.”

    Ruto said Africa’s 54 countries “must go green fast before industrializing and not vice versa, unlike (richer nations) had the luxury to do.” Transforming Africa’s economy on a green trajectory “is the most feasible, just and efficient way to attain a net-zero world by 2050,” he said.

    Climate finance is key, speakers said. A pledge by richer nations of $100 billion a year to help developing nations achieve their climate goals remains unfulfilled, and Ruto said the summit declaration will “firmly encourage” everyone to keep their promises.

    The United Arab Emirates, which is hosting the next United Nations climate meeting later this year, announced it plans to invest $4.5 billion in Africa’s “clean energy potential.”

    The African continent has 60% of the world’s renewable energy assets and more than 30% of the minerals key to renewable and low-carbon technologies. One goal of the summit is to transform the narrative around the continent from victim to assertive, wealthy partner.

    “It’s becoming increasingly difficult to explain to our people, particularly to our youth, the contradiction: resource-rich continent and poor people,” Ethiopian President Sahle-Work Zewde said.

    Africa’s GDP should be revalued for its assets, which include the world’s second-largest rainforest and biodiversity, African Development Bank President Akinwumi Adesina said.

    “Africa cannot be nature-rich and cash-poor,” he said.

    But divisions are evident around the issue that was little mentioned in the opening speeches and yet is at the heart of the tough conversations ahead: fossil fuels.

    Africa must use its natural gas resources — a growing interest of Europe — along with renewable energy sources, Adesina said. “Give us space to grow,” he said.

    Ruto, however, has criticized the “addiction” to fossil fuels. His country now gets more than 90% of its energy from renewables.

    “We don’t have to do what the developed countries did to power their industries. It will be harder to use renewable energy exclusively, but it can be done,” said one local summit attendee, Martha Lusweti.

    U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres told the summit attendees that it’s time for the world to “break our addiction to fossil fuels.” Worldwide spending on fossil fuel subsidies reached $7 trillion in 2022, according to the International Monetary Fund.

    European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen said African nations could produce enough clean energy to power the continent and export abroad, “but for this, Africa needs massive investment.”

    Some of Africa’s biggest economies rely on fossil fuels. South Africa’s coal-fired plants are struggling. Parts of Nigeria’s Niger Delta are slick from oil extraction. Some of Africa’s cities have the world’s worst air pollution. A TotalEnergies pipeline project in Uganda and Tanzania is being challenged.

    Missing from the summit were the leaders of a number of Africa’s largest economies including South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt, as well as forest-rich Congo.

    Also missing from the leading speakers was China, the world’s largest emitter of heat-trapping gases, Africa’s largest trading partner and one of its biggest creditors.

    Some African leaders gave passionate descriptions of climate change’s toll.

    “The seas that once serenaded us with lullabies now warn of rising tides,” Sierra Leone’s president, Julius Maada Bio, said. “It is an African story, and I daresay it’s a global story, too.”

    ___

    Follow AP’s coverage of the climate at https://apnews.com/climate-and-environment and of Africa at https://apnews.com/hub/africa

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  • Oil giant led by COP28 boss to spend an ‘eyewatering’ $1 billion a month on fossil fuels this decade, research says

    Oil giant led by COP28 boss to spend an ‘eyewatering’ $1 billion a month on fossil fuels this decade, research says

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    Sultan Al Jaber, chief executive of the UAE’s Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) and president of this year’s COP28 climate summit gestures during an interview as part of the 7th Ministerial on Climate Action (MoCA) in Brussels on July 13, 2023.

    Francois Walschaerts | Afp | Getty Images

    UAE oil giant ADNOC — run by the president of the COP28 climate conference — is expected to spend more than $1 billion every month this decade on fossil fuels, according to new analysis.

    This is nearly seven times higher than its commitment to decarbonization projects over the same timeframe, the research says.

    It comes ahead of the COP28 climate summit, with Dubai set to host the U.N.’s annual conference from Nov. 30 through to Dec. 12. Viewed as one of the most significant climate conferences since 2015’s landmark Paris Agreement, COP28 will see global leaders gather to discuss how to progress in the fight against the climate crisis.

    The person overseeing the talks, Sultan al-Jaber, is chief executive of ADNOC (the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company) — one of the world’s largest oil and gas firms. His position as both COP28 president and ADNOC CEO caused dismay among civil society groups and U.S. and EU lawmakers, although several government ministers have since defended his appointment.

    Analysis conducted by international NGO Global Witness, and provided exclusively to CNBC, found that ADNOC is planning to spend an average of $1.14 billion a month on oil and gas production alone between now and 2030 — the same year in which the U.N. says the world must cut emissions by 45% to avoid global catastrophe.

    It means that ADNOC is forecast to spend nearly seven times more on fossil fuels through to 2030 than it does on “low-carbon solution” projects.

    By 2050, the year in which the U.N. says the entire world economy must achieve net-zero emissions, ADNOC is projected to have invested $387 billion in oil and gas. The burning of fossil fuels is the chief driver of the climate emergency.

    ADNOC, which recently became the first among its peers to bring forward its net-zero ambition to 2045, disputes Global Witness’ analysis and says the assumptions made are inaccurate.

    “The analysis of, and assumptions made, regarding ADNOC’s capital expenditure program beyond the company’s current five-year business plan (2023 to 2027) are speculative and therefore incorrect,” a spokesperson at ADNOC told CNBC via email.

    The Abu Dhabi energy group announced in January this year that it would allocate $15 billion for investment in “low-carbon solutions” by 2030, including investments in clean power, carbon capture and storage and electrification projects.

    High-rise tower buildings along the central Sheikh Zayed Road in Dubai on July 3, 2023.

    Karim Sahib | Afp | Getty Images

    Global Witness arrived at its projections by analyzing ADNOC’s forecasted oil and gas capital expenditure, exploratory capital expenditure and operational expenditure for the period from 2023 to 2050. The data was sourced from Rystad Energy’s UCube database.

    Rystad’s data is not available to the public, but is widely used and referenced by major oil and gas companies and international bodies.

    “Fossil fuels companies like to burnish their green credentials, yet they rarely say the quiet part out loud: that they continue to throw eyewatering amounts at the same old polluting oil and gas that is accelerating the climate crisis,” said Patrick Galey, senior investigator at Global Witness.

    “How [al-Jaber] can expect to lecture other nations on the need to decarbonise and be taken seriously is anyone’s guess, while he continues to provide vastly more funding to oil and gas than to renewable alternatives,” he added.

    “He is a fossil fuel boss, plain and simple, saying one thing while his company does the other,” Galey said.

    The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the analysis conducted by Global Witness. The Conference of the Parties (COP) is the supreme decision-making body of the UNFCCC.

    Main priority for COP28

    Al-Jaber was the founding CEO of Abu Dhabi state-owned renewable energy firm Masdar, which works in more than 40 countries worldwide and has invested in or committed to invest in renewable energy projects with a total value of over $30 billion.

    Speaking earlier this year, al-Jaber said the main priority for the COP28 summit will be to keep alive the fight to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

    The Paris Agreement aims to limit the increase in the global average temperature to “well below” 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius. Beyond the critical temperature threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius, it becomes more likely that small changes can trigger dramatic shifts in Earth’s entire life support system.

    The International Energy Agency says no new oil, gas or coal development is compatible with the goal of curbing global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

    In response to a request for comment from CNBC, an ADNOC spokesperson said that energy demand is increasing as the world’s population is expanding. “All of the current energy transition scenarios, including by the IEA, show that some level of oil and gas will be needed into the future,” the spokesperson said.

    “As such, it is important that, in addition to accelerating investments in renewables and lower carbon energy solutions, we consider the least carbon intensive sources of oil and gas and further reduce their intensity to enable a fair, equitable, orderly, and responsible energy transition. This is the approach ADNOC is taking,” they added.

    The spokesperson said its 2022 upstream emissions data confirmed the energy group as one of the least carbon-intensive producers worldwide. The company will seek to further reduce its carbon intensity by 25% and target near zero methane emissions by 2030, they added.

    “As we reduce our emissions, we are also ramping up investments in renewables and zero carbon energies like hydrogen for our customers,” the spokesperson said.

    A separate report published in April last year by Global Witness and Oil Change International found that 20 of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies were projected to spend $932 billion by the end of the decade to develop new oil and gas fields.

    At that time, Russian state company Gazprom was estimated to spend the most on fossil fuel development and exploration projects through to 2030 ($139 billion), followed by U.S. oil majors ExxonMobil ($84 billion) and Chevron ($67 billion).

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  • Greening cities cuts carbon

    Greening cities cuts carbon

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    Newswise — Dozens of European cities could reach net zero carbon emissions over the next 10 years by incorporating nature into their infrastructure, according to a new study.

    Published recently in the journal, Nature Climate Change, the analysis shows the ways cities can orchestrate a wide range of green solutions like parks, streetscaping and roof gardens to not only capture carbon emissions, but help reduce them.

    The study was undertaken by researchers from Sweden, the U.S. and China. It recommends the most effective approaches for natural carbon sequestration in 54 cities in the EU. And it shows how blending these steps with other climate actions can enable cities to reach net-zero carbon and actually reduce emissions by an average of 17.4 percent.

    Zahra Kalantari, an associate professor in Water and Environmental Engineering at KTH Royal Institute of Technology, says the researchers focused on the indirect ways that so-called “nature-based solutions” can contribute to carbon neutrality.

    “Nature-based solutions not only offset a proportion of a city’s emissions, but can contribute to reduction in emissions and resource consumption too,” Kalantari says.

    The results are based on integrating data from previous studies on the effects of nature-based solutions. These include urban farming, permeable pavements which enable rainwater absorption into the ground, narrower roads with more greenery and trees, wildlife habitat preservation, and creating more agreeable environments for walking and bicycling.

    For example, urban parks, greenspace and trees promote more walking, bicycling and other environmentally positive habits that replace automobile driving. Combined with other solutions like green infrastructure, these measures can further improve urban microclimates by absorbing heat and cold, and as a result reduce energy use in buildings.

    It also provides guidance on which measures should be prioritized and where to locate them for the best effect, she says. For example, in Berlin the study recommends prioritizing green buildings and urban green spaces, which could result in an emissions reduction rate of 6 percent for residences, 13 percent in industry and 14 percent in transportation.

    “There are many studies that examine the effects of individual nature-based solutions, but this merges all of them and analyzes the potential systemic effect,” she says. “That’s new.”

    The study was a collaboration by researchers from KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm, MIT, Stockholm University, University of Gävle, Linköping University, Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

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    Kungliga Tekniska Hogskolan (KTH) [Royal Institute of Technology]

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