The International Energy Agency has released its 2022 Coal analysis and forecast. It is sobering. By the time 2022 is over, world-wide coal consumption will have exceeded 8 billons tonnes for the first time. In other words,...more
Earlier this Month, The Boston Foundation released its “Inaugural Boston Climate Progress Report.” Suffice it to say, there’s a lot to do. The Report identifies four “Big Lifts” necessary to attaining our climate goals. It...more
I’ve written previously about the urgency associated with the problems caused by waste plastic. However, there’s a big difference between me blogging about it and Michael Bloomberg opening his wallet to try to do something...more
Earlier this week, the Senate ratified the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol. The amendment, which has already been ratified by most other countries, will result in the phase-out of hydrofluorocarbons, a group of...more
I’m not much for apocalyptic thinking. I don’t think it’s productive. I have to confess, though, that this story about the Great Salt Lake got me thinking about whether human nature is such that the apocalypse is not that...more
Last month, Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf wrote to the Federal Highway Administration, stating that Oakland “is suffering from a crippling housing and homelessness crisis.”...more
Take my predictions with a grain of salt, because I still remember saying that Ronald Reagan would never fool enough voters to get elected, but it seems very likely at this point that Maura Healey will be the next Governor of...more
4/21/2022
/ Climate Action Plan ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Policy ,
Governors ,
Green Transportation ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Net Zero ,
Offshore Wind ,
Renewable Energy ,
Solar Energy ,
State and Local Government ,
State Elections
Earlier this month, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. As all IPCC reports are, it’s a serious piece of work and not easily summarized at blog length...more
Last week, AIG significantly restricted its underwriting of and investment in fossil fuel projects. Specifically, it announced the following actions:
With immediate effect, committed to no longer invest in or provide...more
Last week, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals again rejected a FERC NEPA review for failure to assess the climate impacts resulting from the downstream use of natural gas supplied by a gas pipeline upgrade project...more
The Fifth Circuit has stayed an order blocking Biden administration use of the “Interim Estimates” of the social cost of greenhouse gases. The Court did not leave much doubt that the administration will prevail on the...more
EPA has now formally restored its waiver under § 209(b) of the Clean Air Act that allows California’s greenhouse gas emissions standards and Zero Emission Vehicle mandate, notwithstanding the preemption of state vehicle...more
The Boston Globe reported yesterday that the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board approved investment guidelines that would have the Board vote against directors of companies in which the Board invests...more
Last week, AIG significantly restricted its underwriting of and investment in fossil fuel projects. Specifically, it announced the following actions:
With immediate effect, committed to no longer invest in or provide...more
The Boston Globe reported yesterday that the Massachusetts Pension Reserves Investment Management Board approved investment guidelines that would have the Board vote against directors of companies in which the Board invests...more
For those of you who don’t think that worrying about climate change is enough to keep you busy, you might want to take a look at this study commissioned by the WWF, Impacts of Plastic Pollution in the Oceans on Marine...more
In the first appellate decision to decide the issue since the Supreme Court decision in BP P.L.C. v. Mayor & City Council of Baltimore, the 10th Circuit ruled this week that climate damage claims brought by several Colorado...more
2/10/2022
/ Appeals ,
Clean Air Act ,
Climate Change ,
Energy Sector ,
Environmental Litigation ,
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Municipalities ,
Preemption ,
SCOTUS ,
State and Local Government
Believing in the importance of aggressive action to address climate change is something of a recipe for bipolar disorder. Trump – depression. Biden first 90 days – elation. News today from ClimateWire (subscription...more
Yesterday, the Baker administration announced that the Transportation Climate Initiative is dead in Massachusetts, at least for now. This is not a surprise, particularly after Governor Lamont’s statement that there is no...more
Last week, the Boston City Council approved amendments to the Building Energy Reporting and Disclosure Ordinance. The changes are being referred to as “BERDO 2.0”, which almost understates the scope of the revisions. As...more
As climate change rightly has dominated recent discussions of environmental policy, it’s been easy to forget how much progress has been made in the past fifty years. I was reminded of the extent of that progress by the story...more
The IPCC has released its Sixth Assessment Report on the physical science basis of climate change. I would say that it makes sobering reading, except any sane person’s immediate response to AR6 would be to go out and have any...more
On August 3, the District of Columbia Court of Appeals held that FERC could not avoid use of the social cost of carbon in assessing the impacts of natural gas projects by arguing that “there is no universally accepted...more
8/6/2021
/ Administrative Procedure Act ,
Appeals ,
Carbon Pricing ,
Climate Change ,
Environmental Impact Statements ,
Environmental Justice ,
FERC ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
NEPA ,
Programmatic Environmental Impact Statement (PEIS) ,
Summary Judgment
In the wake of Engine No.1’s successful effort to elect more climate-friendly directors at Exxon and the increasingly aggressive action by BlackRock to take climate into account in its investment management decisions, the...more
Last week, Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers ruled that the Berkeley ordinance essentially banning use of natural gas in new construction was not preempted by the Energy Policy and Conservation Act. I’m not here to opine on the...more
7/13/2021
/ Carbon Pricing ,
City of Berkeley ,
Clean Energy ,
Climate Change ,
Construction Project ,
Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) ,
Energy Sector ,
Greenhouse Gas Emissions ,
Local Ordinance ,
Natural Gas ,
Renewable Energy