General
Carmakers among key opponents of climate action
Sandra Laville, The Guardian
Global carmakers are among the leading opponents of action on the climate crisis, according to exclusive analysis of the way major corporations frustrate or undermine initiatives to cut greenhouse gases.
Trump orders agencies to require public input in key ‘guidance documents’
David Shepardson, Reuters
U.S. President Donald Trump signed two executive orders on Wednesday requiring federal agencies to go through a similar process of public input and explanation when they issue key “guidance documents” and pledged White House scrutiny.
EPA set to announce new standards for lead in water
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will announce new standards for lead in drinking water, Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a radio interview Wednesday. Wheeler is set to make the official announcement in Green Bay, Wis., on Thursday afternoon.
Bureau of Land Management Plan Would Ease Way for Mining Discounts
Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg
Under the proposed rule, the producers of the minerals would have to provide less information in seeking reductions to royalty rates, rental fees, or minimum production requirements.
How Elizabeth Warren would address environmental justice
Eric Wolff, Politico
Warren’s plan calls for cleaning up pollution that disproportionately affects low-income communities, building wealth and improving access to health care for affected areas, and helping at-risk areas adapt to global warming. Her plan leans heavily on the Green New Deal, which calls for a rewiring of the U.S. economy as part of the effort to fight climate change.
Chemical companies agree to end fight over pesticide ban
Geoffrey Mohan, Los Angeles Times
Chemical companies gave up their fight over California’s ban of the pesticide chlorpyrifos, which has been linked to learning and development disorders. The accord announced Wednesday with the state Environmental Protection Agency sets the stage for ending nearly all sales of pesticides containing chlorpyrifos by next year, a timeline that probably would not have been met if those companies continued to pursue a hearing on the issue.
Oil Holds Losses on Bearish Headwinds From Trade to Stockpiles
Elizabeth Low and Alex Longley, Bloomberg
Oil held losses near a two-month low as pessimism persisted over the global economic outlook and American crude inventories expanded more than expected.
Oil and Natural Gas
Trump struggles to win back Iowa farmers with new ethanol plan
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill
The proposal earned high praise from corn and ethanol groups that spent months pressuring the White House for a more favorable policy. But farmers here say they are still angry at Trump for destabilizing agriculture markets, a move they say cost some farms hundreds of thousands of dollars.
U.S. West Coast Refiners Most Exposed to Ecuador Oil Exports
David Marino, Bloomberg
Ecuador’s state-owned oil company Petroecuador was forced to declare force majeure on its crude exports, and U.S. West Coast refiners could be the ones hurt the most.
Oil firms to pour extra 7m barrels per day into markets, data shows
Jonathan Watts et al., The Guardian
The world’s 50 biggest oil companies are poised to flood markets with an additional 7m barrels per day over the next decade, despite warnings from scientists that this will push global heating towards catastrophic levels.
Top energy traders bet on further falls for crude
David Sheppard, Financial Times
Heads of Vitol, Trafigura and Gunvor say abundant supply and low demand will cap prices.
Halliburton lays off 650 employees in four western states
Sergio Chapa, Houston Chronicle
In a notice filed on Monday with the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, Halliburton reported that the company laid 178 workers from its Grand Junction, Colo. office.
Aramco’s Long-Delayed Mega-IPO Is Finally Set to Hit the Market
Will Kennedy, Bloomberg Businessweek
Beneath the hype, the sale isn’t quite the exercise in free-market liberalization the prince first suggested. For one thing, there’s no plan to list in a global financial center such as London, New York, or Hong Kong.
Utilities and Infrastructure
California’s huge, humiliating power outages expose the vulnerabilities of PG&E’s power grid
Joseph Serna and James Rainey, Los Angeles Times
With Pacific Gas & Electric Co. expected to cut electricity to 800,000 customers this week, the state is confronting its reliance on a transmission network that predates climate change, solar panels and lithium-ion batteries, depending instead on electric lines strung over thousands of miles on vulnerable wooden poles.
PG&E power outage brings lines for gas, batteries, groceries and generators
Taryn Luna et al., Los Angeles Times
Angie Sheets of El Dorado Hills outside Sacramento noticed that generators were flying off the shelves at the local Costco as she shopped for groceries earlier in the week.
PJM gives FERC a deadline for Order 841
Iulia Gheorghiu, Utility Dive
The grid operator of the largest wholesale market in the U.S. asked federal regulators on Tuesday to act by Nov. 3 on their compliance filing to allow market participation for energy storage.
Renewables
UPS hits the gas on greener delivery truck fleet
Lisa Baertlein, Reuters
United Parcel Service Inc on Wednesday announced plans to buy more than 6,000 natural gas-powered trucks over three years and step up purchases of renewable natural gas (RNG) as part of a new $450 million investment to reduce the environmental impact of its 123,000-vehicle fleet.
California’s power outage mean problems for electric cars. Tesla says charge up, quick
Faiz Siddiqui, The Washington Post
As more than half a million customers in this area lost power Wednesday amid a series of planned outages aimed at thwarting wildfires, Tesla owners were confronted with another troubling possibility: their cars running out of juice.
Coal
Miners’ New Worry: Other People’s Pollution
Rhiannon Hoyle, The Wall Street Journal
An Australian regulator recently told Peabody Energy Corp. and Glencore PLC they couldn’t export coal from a new mine to countries that haven’t signed the Paris climate agreement. Two other Australian coal projects were scuttled this year, partly out of concern about greenhouse-gas emissions overseas.
Nuclear
US nuclear, uranium mining industries hope for Trump bailout
Ellen Knickmeyer et al., The Associated Press
Trump is scheduled to receive recommendations Thursday from a task force of national security, military and other federal officials about ways to revive U.S. uranium mining, which has lagged against global competition amid low uranium ore prices.
Ohio Nuke Referendum Heads to Federal Court
Christen Smith, RTO Insider
Ohioans Against Corporate Bailouts has taken its ballot referendum battle to federal court, accusing supporters of the state’s nuclear subsidies of offering bribes to undermine its attempt to collect 266,000 signatures by an Oct. 21 deadline.
Climate
How Trump agencies’ NEPA reviews lowball climate impacts
Adam Aton, E&E News
Agencies under President Trump are cataloging climate impacts in the mandatory environmental reviews that precede major federal actions. They describe worsening damage to virtually every ecosystem, from entire forests down to the ocean’s smallest life forms.
Rich Counties Get More Help to Escape Climate Risk, New Data Show
Christopher Flavelle, The New York Times
Federal programs to help Americans move away from disaster-prone areas are skewed by the income levels of communities seeking help — rather than being based solely on the risk they face — new data shows, blunting an important tool for helping people cope with climate change.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
The Climate Change We Need: Republicans Ready to Lead on Clean Energy
Sarah E. Hunt, Morning Consult
Recently, young people across the globe led climate change protests, commanding headlines and dominating photospreads. At the U.N. climate change summit, 16-year-old Swedish activist and Nobel Prize nominee Greta Thunberg delivered a speech that went viral on social media.
Donald Trump pollutes America with California scheming
The Editorial Board, USA Today
There recently for a campaign fundraiser, Trump bashed the Golden State for its homelessness and pollution. In the past, he has attacked its film industry as racist, its forestry management as inept and its tech industry as anti-Republican.
The Literal Gaslighting That Helps America Avoid Acting on the Climate Crisis
Bill McKibben, The New Yorker
e’re clearly in a climate moment: it’s possible that more marchers have walked more miles in the past month than in the previous decade combined; more words have been written, more pictures published, more speeches given, more promises made, more hope expressed and anger declared.But, if the United States is going to act as it must in the years ahead, it needs to shed more than its current President.
Research Reports
The Investment of RGGI Proceeds in 2017
The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative
Proceeds from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) have powered a major investment in the energy future of the New England and Mid-Atlantic states. This report reviews the benefits of programs funded in 2017 by $315.6 million in RGGI investments, which have reduced harmful carbon dioxide (CO2) pollution while spurring local economic growth. The lifetime effects of these RGGI investments are projected to save 22.6 million MMBtu of fossil fuel energy and 13.9 million MWh of electricity, avoiding the release of 8.3 million short tons of carbon pollution.
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