Top News

Dems Lack Unified Plan For Pushing Paris Climate Bill. According to The Hill, “The House this week is expected to pass its first major climate-focused bill in almost 10 years, but some Democrats say the party is failing to put its best foot forward on an issue they consider a top priority requiring urgent action. The measure, which the House is expected to pass Thursday along party lines, would bind the Trump administration to the carbon-cutting goals of the 2015 Paris climate agreement — the international accord that the president vowed to withdraw the U.S. from almost two years ago. Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) has said the Climate Action Now Act shows Democrats are ‘taking first strong steps to protect our planet and our future.’ But unlike almost every other high-profile bill, no Democratic senator has introduced a companion measure, suggesting further disunity following the divisive Green New Deal championed by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.). Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), the bill’s sponsor and chairwoman of the House Select Committee on Climate Crisis, told The Hill she was at a loss for why Senate Democrats haven’t been involved. ‘I wish I could shed more light on the operations of the U.S. Senate — it confounds all of us on the House side,’ Castor said. […] Holding a vote on H.R. 9 in the Senate would very well create a similar headache for Senate Democrats, especially with lawmakers like Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) opposed to the Paris climate agreement.” [The Hill, 4/29/19 (=)]

In A Switch, Some Republicans Start Citing Climate Change As Driving Their Policies. According to the New York Times, “When John Barrasso, a Republican from oil and uranium-rich Wyoming who has spent years blocking climate change legislation introduced a bill this year to promote nuclear energy, he added a twist: a desire to tackle global warming. Mr. Barrasso’s remarks — ‘If we are serious about climate change, we must be serious about expanding our use of nuclear energy’ — were hardly a clarion call to action. Still they were highly unusual for the lawmaker who, despite decades of support for nuclear power and other policies that would reduce planet-warming emissions, has until recently avoided talking about them in the context of climate change. The comments represent an important shift among Republicans in Congress. Driven by polls showing that voters in both parties — particularly younger Americans — are increasingly concerned about a warming planet, and prodded by the new Democratic majority in the House shining a spotlight on the issue, a growing number of Republicans are now openly discussing climate change and proposing what they call conservative solutions. ‘Denying the basic existence of climate change is no longer a credible position,’ said Whit Ayers, a Republican political consultant, pointing out the growing climate concern among millennials as well as centrist voters — two groups the G.O.P. will need in the future.” [New York Times, 4/30/19 (+)]

O'Rourke Releases Plan To Fight Climate Change With $5 Trillion Investment And Net-Zero Emissions By 2050. According to CNN, “Beto O’Rourke on Monday released his plan to tackle climate change in his first major policy proposal as a 2020 candidate. O’Rourke plans to invest $5 trillion over 10 years in infrastructure and innovation and also sets a goal to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, according to an outline of O’Rourke’s proposal which his campaign put out ahead of a tour of Yosemite National Park on Monday. The former Texas Democratic congressman’s plan called climate change ‘the greatest threat we face’ and outlined a four-part framework to address this ‘existential threat’ and ‘growing emergency.’ If elected president in 2020, O’Rourke’s ‘very first bill he sends to Congress ... will mobilize $5 trillion over 10 years — spurred by the single largest investment to fight climate change in history — to transform our aging infrastructure, accelerate innovation, and empower our people and communities to lead the climate fight,’ according to his plan. O’Rourke’s ambitious, first major policy rollout comes amid questions from voters and critics about how he would take on key issues should he be elected president.” [CNN, 4/29/19 (+)]

Dems Want Climate Change, Tax Hikes In Infrastructure Deal. According to The Hill, “The top two Democratic leaders on Monday told President Trump that any bipartisan infrastructure package needs to take into consideration climate change and include ‘substantial, new and real revenue’ — a preview of the coming fight over tax hikes. Trump will host Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) at the White House on Tuesday for discussions on a major infrastructure bill, one of the few policy areas that could see action amid divided government and as the 2020 race heats up. Democrats want the measure for roads, bridges, waterways and other projects to be paid for with tax increases, and with a final price tag of at least $1 trillion over 10 years. Trump’s fiscal 2020 budget calls for $200 billion in federal spending on infrastructure, which White House officials say will leverage an additional $800 billion in investment through public-private partnerships over the next decade. ‘America’s unmet infrastructure needs are massive, and a bipartisan infrastructure package must meet those needs with substantial, new and real revenue,’ Pelosi and Schumer wrote in a letter to Trump on Monday. ‘We look forward to hearing your ideas on how to pay for this package to ensure that it is big and bold enough to meet our country’s needs.’” [The Hill, 4/29/19 (+)]

New York’s Cuomo Is Pitching A Green New Deal. Climate Activists Say It’s Not Green Enough. According to the Washington Post, “As federal lawmakers fail to pass a Green New Deal to address climate change, blue-state politicians are seizing on the moniker popular with the national progressive base to pitch their own plans to curb climate-warming emissions. But divisions on the left are emerging in one key state, New York, where environmental advocates say the Green New Deal proposed by Gov. Andrew Cuomo (D) doesn’t go nearly far enough. Cuomo’s bill aims to make the state’s electricity sector carbon-free by 2040 and to create a council that would develop a plan to transition the state’s entire economy to net-zero carbon emissions. ‘Let’s take the next step on the Green New Deal, which tackles climate change and starts building the green economy for tomorrow,’ the Democratic governor told lawmakers at his state of the state address in January. But a coalition of more than 170 environmental justice, labor and community groups is throwing its weight behind another bill, one that would go even further to mandate that all the state’s energy sectors, not just electricity, be carbon-free by 2050. The bill backed by the New York Renews coalition, the Climate and Community Protection Act, also funnels spending to disadvantaged communities bearing the brunt of climate change.” [Washington Post, 4/30/19 (=)]

Group Backing Green New Deal Blasts O'Rourke's Climate Plan. According to The Hill, “A major group behind the Green New Deal on Monday attacked a campaign climate proposal from former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas), arguing the plan isn’t aggressive enough when it comes to certain timelines and goals. O’Rourke on Monday released a plan that calls for a $5 trillion commitment to fighting climate change and achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The Sunrise Movement, a youth climate organization that backs the Green New Deal, points to scientists who argue the U.S. must act by 2030. ‘We’re glad to see Beto release a climate plan as his first policy and commit to making it a day one priority for his administration. He gets a lot right in this plan,’ Varshini Prakash, executive director of the group, said in a statement. ‘Unfortunately, Beto gets the science wrong and walks back his commitments from earlier this month in Iowa to move to net-zero emissions by 2030. Beto claims to support the Green New Deal, but his plan is out of line with the timeline it lays out and the scale of action that scientists say is necessary to take here in the United States to give our generation a livable future.’ Sunrise wants every 2020 candidate to commit to a 2030 timeline.” [The Hill, 4/29/19 (=)]

From Apples To Popcorn, Climate Change Is Altering The Foods America Grows. According to the New York Times, “The impact may not yet be obvious in grocery stores and greenmarkets, but behind the organic apples and bags of rice and cans of cherry pie filling are hundreds of thousands of farmers, plant breeders and others in agriculture who are scrambling to keep up with climate change. Drop a pin anywhere on a map of the United States and you’ll find disruption in the fields. Warmer temperatures are extending growing seasons in some areas and sending a host of new pests into others. Some fields are parched with drought, others so flooded that they swallow tractors. Decades-long patterns of frost, heat and rain — never entirely predictable but once reliable enough — have broken down. In regions where the term climate change still meets with skepticism, some simply call the weather extreme or erratic. But most agree that something unusual is happening. ‘Farming is no different than gambling,’ said Sarah Frey, whose collection of farms throughout the South and the Midwest grows much of the nation’s crop of watermelons and pumpkins. ‘You’re putting thousands if not millions of dollars into the earth and hoping nothing catastrophic happens, but it’s so much more of a gamble now. You have all of these consequences that farmers weren’t expecting.’” [New York Times, 4/30/19 (=)]

EPA

States Back Environmentalists’ Bid To Preserve IRIS’ EtO Value For Air Rules. According to Inside EPA, “State regulators are joining environmentalists in urging EPA to continue using strict risk values for ethylene oxide (EtO), developed by its embattled Integrated Risk Information System (IRIS) program, in its air toxics rules for hydrochloric acid (HCl) plants, though the states stop short of threatening to sue over the issue as environmentalists are. In its March 28 comments, the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA), representing air regulators from 41 states, says ‘it is correct and appropriate for EPA to use the updated IRIS risk value for EtO for regulatory purposes. It is troubling that the agency would even consider doing otherwise.’ At issue is EPA’s proposed risk-and-technology review (RTR) for the HCl manufacturing sector, an eight-year review of the adequacy of federal air toxics rules, where the agency invites comment on whether it should continue to rely on its conservative 2016 IRIS risk value for EtO. The assessment affirmed long-suspected claims that the chemical, used as an intermediate to make other chemical products like detergent, antifreeze and polyester, and to sterilize medical equipment and foods, causes breast and lymph cancers.” [Inside EPA, 4/29/19 (+)]

State Water Regulators Urge Senate To Reject EPA’s FY20 Grant Cuts. According to Inside EPA, “State water regulators are urging Senate appropriators to reject EPA’s proposed fiscal year 2020 cuts to grants aimed at helping states implement the Clean Water Act (CWA), saying maintaining or exceeding current funding levels would demonstrate a clear commitment to the collaborative federal-state relationship. An April 26 letter from the Association of Clean Water Administrators (ACWA) to Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and Tom Udall (D-NM) focused on CWA section 106 and section 319 funds echoes recent calls from the Environmental Council of the States to House appropriators to preserve State and Tribal Assistance Grants (STAG) covering all media. Murkowski is the chair and Udall is the top Democrat on the appropriations subcommittee with oversight of EPA’s budget. ‘Reducing STAG funding by any amount will severely limit states’ ability to implement core water protection programs as required by the Clean Water Act,’ especially funds for section 106 and section 319 activities, ACWA President Allison Woodall writes. Section 106 funds help states develop water quality standards, set pollution reduction loads, issue permits, confirm compliance, monitor results and report on successes.” [Inside EPA, 4/29/19 (+)]

EPA Drops Threshold From PFAS Guide, Raising Removal Bar, Critics Say. According to Inside EPA, “The White House’s decision to drop from EPA’s groundwater cleanup guide for per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) a default threshold above which regulators could order removals is sparking charges that regulators may not pursue some cleanups because they will be harder to justify though EPA says the limit was dropped to avoid confusion. The elimination of a removal action threshold is a ‘big loss’ because it is now not clear if EPA will take an emergency removal action to respond to groundwater contamination, says Betsy Southerland, a former EPA Superfund and water office official now with the Environmental Protection Network (EPN), a group of more than 400 former agency officials who advocate for EPA’s environmental protection mission. ‘Without an emergency removal action level, the public does not know at what concentration EPA will step in to take action to protect people from contamination without waiting for a responsible party to be identified and required to . . . address the contamination,’ she says in a statement issued by EPN when the guidance was released.” [Inside EPA, 4/29/19 (=)]

EPA Backs Idaho Water Limit, Setting Precedent On Fish Consumption Rate. According to Inside EPA, “The Trump EPA has approved Idaho’s water quality standards (WQS) after years of debate over how the state should best protect the health of groups that consume large amounts of fish, a reversal of the Obama administration’s stance and a possible precedent for how the agency is likely to approach the issue in high-profile cases in other states. EPA Region 10 Administrator Chris Hladick informed Idaho April 4 the agency was approving a WQS package the state had submitted for review in 2016, including new and revised human health criteria, acknowledging the approval is a change from the Obama EPA’s position. The approval comes as EPA has indicated it may want to revisit similar water quality standards in Washington and after a federal judge last year granted the agency’s request to reconsider water quality standards in Maine. The National Association of Clean Water Agencies, which objected to the Obama EPA approach of dictating to these states how they should handle fish consumption, says EPA’s approval of ‘Idaho’s standards reaffirms the state’s lead role, and includes language that will help in other states where this issue has arisen.’” [Inside EPA, 4/29/19 (=)]

Wehrum

The Inside Ethics Advice For Air Chief. According to E&E News, “EPA ethics officials drafted multiple recusal statements for Bill Wehrum, the agency’s air chief whose industry ties have attracted scrutiny. Records obtained by E&E News under the Freedom of Information Act shed some light on the ethics considerations behind Wehrum’s dealings with companies and trade groups with interests regulated by EPA as well as the 10-month process to have him sign a recusal statement. Sworn in at EPA in November 2017, the agency’s ethics officials soon began to work on drafting such a statement for Wehrum that would list his potential conflicts of interests with the multitude of clients he represented in private practice. ‘We will also need to start working on his recusal statement,’ said Justina Fugh, EPA’s senior counsel for ethics, in an email the day after Wehrum was sworn in. About a week later, Wehrum was sent a recusal statement and asked to meet to discuss its terms. More drafts would follow. In March last year, Josh Lewis, chief of staff for EPA’s air office, sent Wehrum a recusal statement dated that month. ‘Bill, Attached is the latest draft of your recusal,’ he said in an email. Fugh shared another recusal statement dated last May with Kevin Minoli, then EPA’s top career lawyer and designated agency ethics official. The email’s subject line read, ‘that Wehrum thing.’” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (+)]

White House

White House Threatens Veto For House Paris Climate Bill. According to Politico, “President Donald Trump’s advisers would recommend he veto legislation H.R. 9 (116) barring the U.S. from withdrawing from the Paris climate accord should it reach his desk, according to a statement of administration policy. ‘H.R. 9 is inconsistent with the President’s commitment to put American workers and families first, promote access to affordable, reliable energy sources and technologies, and improve the quality of life for all Americans,’ the statement reads. ‘H.R. 9 would also interfere with the President’s constitutional authority to conduct foreign relations, including the authority to withdraw from an executive agreement.’ Trump announced his intention to leave the landmark climate accord in June 2017, but cannot formally do so until November 2020. The House Rules Committee this evening is considering what amendments will be debated along with the measure on the floor later this week. The bill is expected to pass the House, but is unlikely to come up for a vote in the Senate.” [Politico, 4/29/19 (-)]

An Unexpected Current That's Remaking American Politics. According to Politico Magazine, “At the annual National Republican Congressional Committee dinner in Washington this month, President Donald Trump made news with some curious remarks about wind power. What went viral was his untrue suggestion that the noise from wind turbines causes cancer, but his warning that home values instantly plunge 75 percent when a windmill is built nearby was equally false. He also claimed wind power is inordinately expensive, when in fact in much of America it is now the cheapest source of electricity. The president then play-acted a scene of a woman complaining to her husband about wind power’s supposed unreliability: ‘I can’t watch television, darling. Darling, please tell the wind to blow!’ That was baseless, too, yet at the same time it actually did refer to a serious challenge for the clean energy revolution: the ‘intermittency’ of wind and solar electricity. As more renewable power replaces Trump’s preferred coal plants, and more states aim to eliminate fossil fuels from their electric grids, utilities are grappling with how to make sure they can ensure uninterrupted service when the wind isn’t blowing and the sun isn’t shining.” [Politico Magazine, 4/29/19 (=)]

National

Congress

House Sets Vote On Dozens Of Amendments To Paris Bill. According to E&E News, “Republicans came to the Rules Committee last night with a message: Climate change is real, but the Paris Agreement is bad. The panel, however, rejected all but a handful of their proposed amendments to H.R. 9, the Democratic bill aimed at keeping the United States in the Paris Agreement, setting up a slew of other Democratic proposals for floor debate this week. The final rule, set for a vote ahead of floor debate, allows for consideration of 30 of the more than 90 proposed amendments, most of which are minor additions to recognize various scientific findings or tweak the bill’s language. The Rules panel discussion, often a proxy for larger interparty squabbles, was a distillation of recent climate clashes on Capitol Hill as Democrats have emphasized the issue this year. Most Republicans nominally acknowledged the existence of man-made climate change but rejected Democratic attempts to address it and derided H.R. 9 as a messaging bill. They recited common criticisms of the Paris Agreement — that it should have been ratified by the Senate and that India and China are not meeting their targets, meaning U.S. efforts could ultimately be fruitless.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

House Preps For First Climate Vote Since Democratic Takeover. According to Politico, “The House will consider climate legislation this week for the first time since Democrats retook the majority. Democrats are pushing a bill that would force President Donald Trump to recommit to the Paris climate accords — which he renounced in 2017 despite objections from several energy companies, GOP lawmakers and even his own daughter. But few Republicans are expected to add their support, and some are angling to keep the focus areas of Democratic division over what to do about climate change and whether to endorse a ‘Green New Deal.’ Republicans faulted President Barack Obama for not submitting the 2015 Paris deal to the Senate for ratification, a step Democrats at the time said was unnecessary because the pact is not legally binding. While virtually every nation on earth joined the deal, each country’s commitment varied, with the largest burden falling on developed economies that put the bulk of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere since the industrial revolution. Obama pledged the U.S. would reduce its emissions 26 to 28 percent below 2005 levels by 2025, but China said that its emissions would keep rising as late as 2030.” [Politico, 4/30/19 (=)]

Graham Rules Out Carbon Tax, Seeks GOP 'Consensus' On Warming. According to E&E News, “Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) wants Republicans to offer their own plan to address climate change, but he’s not in a rush to push the kind of policies that many scientists and economists say would be needed to drastically reduce emissions. Graham last week offered a plan for a Republican-led climate bill with a focus on energy innovation, calling on the GOP to ‘cross the Rubicon’ on climate and provide a counteroffer to the Green New Deal (Energywire, April 26). He offered sparse details about that potential legislation yesterday but suggested his ultimate goal is Republican acknowledgment of man-made climate change. ‘What I’d like to do is see if we can get a consensus that it’s a problem,’ he told reporters last night. ‘I think the way to move the needle on technology is a fund that would be accessible to private-sector innovation, rather than picking winners and losers in the economy.’ But Graham ruled out more ambitious measures to slash emissions, such as a carbon tax, demonstrating the limits of the recent Republican evolution on climate as Democrats juice the issue with new energy in the House.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

Democratic Spending Bill Would Boost Mine Safety Agency. According to E&E News, “Billions of dollars more would go toward domestic programs, including the Mine Safety and Health Administration, under the first fiscal 2020 spending bill proposed by House Democrats. The House Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education Appropriations Subcommittee will mark up its fiscal 2020 spending bill today that would provide a total of $189.8 billion, an $11.7 billion increase over current spending. Democrats say it would be $47.8 billion more than the Trump administration’s budget request. The committee proposes a large increase for the mine safety agency to $417.3 million, a $43.5 million bump over its current spending of $373.8 million. It would also be far larger than the $2.2 million increase sought by the White House. Democrats would boost a wide range of public health efforts via funding increases at both the National Institutes of Health and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The bill would increase funding for studying the health impacts of climate change from $5 million to $15 million, according to a Democratic summary.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

Republicans Pick Trump, Bush Veterans To Staff Climate Panel. According to E&E News, “The top Republican on the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis is filling out the panel’s minority staff positions with high-ranking environmental policy veterans from the Trump and George W. Bush administrations. Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) announced yesterday that Marty Hall would be staff director for the minority GOP, while George David Banks would be the chief strategist. Together, Hall and Banks have decades of experience in government and industry on environmental policy issues. Their hirings further indicate Graves will seek to push industry-friendly climate policies that do not challenge the underlying science of climate change. Graves said he met with Hall for an hour yesterday, adding that the pair of high-profile additions are intended to be ‘strategic thinkers’ for the GOP side. ‘Let’s keep in mind, this committee does not have legislative jurisdiction,’ Graves told reporters last night. ‘And so we think that this crosscutting jurisdiction can best be served by spending time thinking about how to best utilize the different jurisdictions of the committees — working with Natural Resources, working with [Energy and Commerce].’” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

Democrats Press Trump On 'Clean Energy And Resiliency'. According to E&E News, “President Trump is set to meet with Democratic leadership today about infrastructure legislation, as questions swirl over funding options and climate change components of the bill. The high-profile meeting will take place at the White House and will involve Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), among other Democratic lawmakers invested in the issue. Schumer and Pelosi sent the White House a letter yesterday calling for bipartisan cooperation on a broad infrastructure package that addresses a variety of issues, rather than a narrower surface transportation bill that only addresses roads and bridges. The pair stressed that the package must include climate change components, echoing an earlier call from Schumer (E&E Daily, Dec. 7, 2018). ‘A big and bold infrastructure package must be comprehensive and include clean energy and resiliency priorities,’ the pair wrote. ‘To truly be a gamechanger for the American people, we should go beyond transportation and into broadband, water, energy, schools, housing and other initiatives,’ they added. ‘We must also invest in resiliency and risk mitigation of our current infrastructure to deal with climate change.’” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

House Natural Resources Democrats Stick To Calls For Bernhardt Appearance. According to Politico, “The House Natural Resources Committee is declining an offer from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to meet privately with lawmakers, insisting that he appear before the committee at a public hearing. The letter represents an escalation in tensions as Bernhardt, confirmed to the secretary’s position earlier this month, has so far declined to accept the committee’s repeated requests to appear. Interior Department staff told the committee on April 12 that Bernhardt would prefer a private, off-the-record meeting, according to the letter Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent Interior today. ‘I am aware that during your time at the Department and as a lobbyist, you have made extensive use of private, even secret meetings,’ Grijalva wrote in the letter. ‘In contrast, a public, on-the-record hearing better serves the interests of the Committee and the public, and I once again urge you to appear.’ Bernhardt has also drawn scrutiny from Interior’s Office of Inspector General, which is reviewing whether he influenced policy decisions to benefit clients of the lobbying firm he worked at. Meanwhile, the National Archives and Records Administration is probing whether he violated record-keeping laws.” [Politico, 4/29/19 (=)]

GOP Senators Urge Trump To Back Ship-Fuel Rules. according to E&E News, “More than a dozen Republican senators are calling on President Trump to support international low-sulfur shipping fuel standards slated to take effect next year. Echoing calls from domestic refiners and led by Sen. Bill Cassidy (R-La.), the group of 14 Republicans today made their case for the International Maritime Organization’s 2020 clean fuel rules, which will reduce sulfur limits from the current maximum of 3.5% to 0.5%. ‘Thanks in good part to your pro-energy policy agenda, the U.S. now leads the world in oil and gas production and is ready to be the leading fuel provider to our citizens at home and our allies abroad,’ the senators wrote. ‘Timely implementation of the IMO 2020 standards will bring tremendous advantage to our country and serve as another success story in your mission to achieve American energy dominance. These standards will benefit workers, consumers, manufacturers, and the country as a whole.’ The standards would be a boon for U.S. refineries, which have prepared for the switch over the last decade.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Green New Deal

House Republican Plans Discharge Petition On Green New Deal. According to The Hill, “Conservative Rep. Jody Hice (R-Ga.) plans to introduce a discharge petition on the progressive-backed Green New Deal on Wednesday. The push to bypass Democratic leadership and force a Green New Deal vote on the House floor is the latest attempt by GOP lawmakers to get Democrats on the record on the controversial legislation. Republicans are working to get signatures from Democrats to utilize the procedural tool. ‘I’m looking forward to it — the American people need to know where their representatives stand by the Green New Deal, and I’m hopeful we’ll be able to gather 218 votes and give that choice to the people of America,’ Hice told The Hill. ‘Ninety-two of them are signed onto it now as far as cosponsoring, so hopefully at least 20 of them will have the guts to say, yeah let’s vote on it.’ The resolution — which has garnered national attention amid its support from progressive firebrands such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) — calls for net-zero greenhouse gas emissions, which proponents argue will lead to high-paying jobs.” [The Hill, 4/29/19 (=)]

Green New Deal Isn't Going Away. According to E&E News, “Congress can’t seem to escape the Green New Deal. More than two weeks after the Senate rejected the progressive climate policy outline — and more than two months after the nonbinding resolution was originally introduced — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) was on the floor talking about it. His speech just before Congress left town for a two-week recess only underscored what has been apparent for months now: The Green New Deal is a 2020 presidential issue, and Republicans are likely to continue blasting it for the sake of messaging. While the Senate vote is over, the Green New Deal will likely permeate every climate debate in the near future, even in the few pockets of Capitol Hill where climate change isn’t so partisan anymore. McConnell even conceded on Fox News earlier this month that the Green New Deal tally last month was a ‘show vote,’ despite his past complaints about wasting the Senate’s time […] Shortly before the vote, Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) suggested a ‘New Manhattan Project’ for clean energy, which proposes to double Department of Energy research spending. Barrasso said he’s talked to Alexander about it and is interested, as is Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska).” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (+)]

Los Angeles Unveils Version Of Green New Deal. According to E&E News, “Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) today unveiled an ambitious plan to make the nation’s second-largest city a Green New Deal leader, with lofty goals for electric vehicles and zero-emissions buildings. The city, long known for smog and traffic congestion, would have people driving fewer miles and getting behind the wheel of cleaner cars. Garcetti’s plan would cut so-called vehicle miles traveled 13% by 2025, 39% by 2035 and 45% by 2050. Garcetti wants the share of zero-emissions vehicles in the city to hit 25% by 2025, 80% by 2035 and 100% by 2050. The second-term mayor cast it as necessary to address an existential crisis. ‘Climate change is a global emergency,’ Garcetti told reporters in a phone call. ‘There’s no greater threat to our national security, to our economic growth, to the very survival of our cities, our world and future generations.’ The city is already dealing with wildfires, torrential flooding that destroys houses and temperatures that hit triple digits, Garcetti said. A Federal Emergency Management Agency regional leader recently said the agency had spent more on flood-related funding in the past two years than in the past 27 — $80 billion from 2016 to the present.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Election 2020

Beto O’Rourke Releases $5 Trillion Climate Change Proposal. According to the New York Times, “Beto O’Rourke released the first major policy proposal of his presidential campaign on Monday, outlining a $5 trillion plan to combat climate change through measures including executive action. The choice by Mr. O’Rourke, who has been criticized for his lack of a concrete platform, to focus his first formal proposal on climate change was noteworthy for what it said about the political environment and voters’ priorities. Democrats have long agreed that climate change is real and ought to be addressed, but they have never made it a decisive issue before. Now, it is tied with health care at the top of Democratic primary voters’ list of concerns. The plan, which calls for net-zero emissions by 2050, would recommit the United States to the Paris Agreement and restore Obama-era power plant regulations and fuel standards, two points that every Democratic presidential candidate supports.” [New York Times, 4/29/19 (=)]

O'Rourke Rolls Out $5 Trillion Climate Change Plan. According to The Hill, “Former Rep. Beto O’Rourke (D-Texas) on Monday rolled out his most ambitious policy proposal to date, calling for the United States to invest $5 trillion over the next decade in an effort to cut the country’s greenhouse gas emissions to net zero by 2050. O’Rourke aims to update aging U.S. infrastructure, accelerate innovation and invest climate sustainability in local communities. His campaign said it would be the ‘largest investment in fighting climate change in history.’ The climate proposal also includes executive actions that O’Rourke’s campaign said he would sign on day one if elected. Under his plan, the U.S. would reenter the Paris climate agreement and there would be a moratorium on new oil and gas sales on federal lands and offshore, while setting a 2030 net-zero emissions target for federal lands. Emissions from drilling on public lands currently account for roughly a quarter of all U.S. emissions. ‘The greatest threat we face — which will test our country, our democracy, every single one of us — is climate change,’ O’Rourke said in a statement. ‘We have one last chance to unleash the ingenuity and political will of hundreds of millions of Americans to meet this moment before it’s too late,’ he added.” [The Hill, 4/29/19 (=)]

Beto O’Rourke Is The Latest Democrat To Make Climate Change Central To His Campaign. According to Buzzfeed News, “Beto O’Rourke on Monday pledged to spend trillions to combat the climate crisis in the first major policy proposal of his presidential campaign, making him the latest Democrat in the 2020 race to embrace climate change as a top issue. ‘The greatest threat we face — which will test our country, our democracy, every single one of us — is climate change,’ O’Rourke told supporters in a campaign email. His plan, starting day one in the White House, would include spending a record $5 trillion on climate action over ten years and mandating the US reduce its emissions to net zero by 2050. (This means the nation, by midcentury, would no longer be emitting more climate pollution into the atmosphere than it was pulling out of it through trees and other ways.) ‘This is one more demonstration that if you want to be a serious candidate, having a real plan to tackle climate change is essential,’ Derek Walker, vice president for US climate at the Environmental Defense Fund, told BuzzFeed News. Up until now, O’Rourke has been loose on policy platforms for his presidential campaign.” [Buzzfeed News, 4/29/19 (+)]

O'Rourke Pushes Dems On Climate With Texas-Sized Plan. According to E&E News, “The ambitious climate plan unveiled yesterday by Beto O’Rourke underscored the new reality of global warming politics: Aggressiveness on the issue — at least on the left — has shifted from Congress to the presidential campaign trail. The former Texas congressman provided a vision that includes legislation to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 — a tall order. It also calls for $5 trillion in spending or tax incentives over 10 years for a wide range of climate projects. That includes specific ideas — such as $250 billion to research climate science and carbon-cutting technologies — and broader goals such as boosting access to mass transit. Part of the initiative would be paid through changes to the tax code that would ‘ensure corporations and the wealthiest ... pay their share’ and by ending ‘tens of billions of dollars of tax breaks currently given to fossil fuel companies,’ according to his proposal. O’Rourke’s climate pitch comes a week after five other Democratic candidates for president outlined their plans for global warming in a series of town hall events on CNN.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (+)]

Beto's $5 Trillion Climate Plan Aims For Net-Zero Emissions By 2050. According to Axios, “2020 Democratic candidate Beto O’Rourke revealed an ambitious $5 trillion climate change proposal Monday, and the former Texas congressman is taking an aggressive and detailed stance to aim for net-zero carbon emissions by 2050. Why it matters: This is O’Rourke’s first major policy proposal, and it stakes out an aggressive position on tackling global warming through executive action and legislation. The plan is highly detailed and includes provisions related to making the country more resilient to extreme weather events. Show less It suggests that O’Rourke sees moving left on emissions as a way to attract younger and more progressive voters. It’s also a sign that he wants to compete directly for the climate candidate mantle with Sen. Bernie Sanders as well as Washington Gov. Jay Inslee, who has made climate the centerpiece of his long-shot run. But, but, but: Several major elements would require new legislation on Capitol Hill, including its call for a ‘legally enforceable’ standard for achieving net-zero emissions by 2050. The reliance on Capitol Hill for key elements heavily clouds its prospects due to widespread GOP resistance to aggressive emissions policies.” [Axios, 4/29/19 (+)]

Beto O'Rourke Rolls Out Climate Plan With $1.5 Trillion Federal Investment. According to CBS News, “Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke announced a climate plan that would include a federal investment of $1.5 trillion over 10 years, in what his campaign is calling the ‘largest investment in fighting climate change in history.’ The first major policy proposal put forward by the former Texas congressman, O’Rourke’s campaign laid out a four-part plan to address climate change, what he calls ‘the greatest threat we face.’ ‘We have one last chance to unleash the ingenuity and political will of hundreds of millions of Americans to meet this moment before it’s too late.’ O’Rourke said. ‘The actions we’re announcing today will help us get there.’ The plan, released Monday, claims the initial $1.5 trillion investment would spur $5 trillion in infrastructure, innovation and communities most at risk to the effects of climate change. O’Rourke is also calling to increase pre-disaster mitigation grants ten-fold, saying the grants would save $6 for every $1 invested. Funding for the bill would come from taxes levied on the wealthy and corporations and ending tax breaks given to fossil fuel companies. The O’Rourke campaign says the investment will ‘drive economic growth and shared prosperity – spurring job creation and adding to our GDP.’” [CBS News, 4/29/19 (+)]

O'Rourke Has A $5 Trillion Plan To Combat Climate Change. Here's Who Would Pay For It. According to Fortune, “Democratic presidential hopeful Beto O’Rourke released a $5 trillion plan to combat climate change over the next decade with a goal of achieving net-zero emissions in the U.S. by 2050. The former congressman from the oil and natural gas producing state of Texas said he would put the U.S. back in the Paris Agreement, if elected, and seek legislation in his first 100 days in office to set a ‘legally enforceable’ requirement that the nation remove as much greenhouse gases as it emits, with half of that goal completed by 2030. The legislation would include a requirement that public companies measure and disclose climate risks as well as greenhouse gas emissions in their operations and supply chains. O’Rourke also said he would halt new fossil fuel leases on federal land. O’Rourke proposes to pay for his plan through changes to the tax code ‘ensuring corporations and the wealthiest among us pay their fair share and that we finally end the tens of billions of dollars of tax breaks currently given to fossil fuel companies.’ It would include $1.5 trillion in direct federal funding.” [Fortune, 4/29/19 (=)]

Beto O'Rourke Unveils Plan To Fight Climate Change. According to the Texas Tribune, “Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke on Monday unveiled an ambitious plan to combat climate change that spurs $5 trillion for the cause and aims to achieve net-zero U.S. emissions by 2050. In making the first major policy announcement of his campaign, O’Rourke is seeking to get specific on an issue that has dominated the Democratic primary and increasingly animated the party more broadly — including in Congress, where U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has made waves with her crusade for a Green New Deal. That plan calls for net-zero global emissions over the next three decades. ‘The greatest threat we face — which will test our country, our democracy, every single one of us — is climate change,’ O’Rourke said in a statement. ‘We have one last chance to unleash the ingenuity and political will of hundreds of millions of Americans to meet this moment before it’s too late.’ O’Rourke’s proposal has four main components. On his first day in office, he would take executive action to reduce pollution by doing things such as recommitting the United States to the Paris climate accord that President Donald Trump withdrew the country from in 2017.” [Texas Tribune, 4/29/19 (+)]

O'Rourke Steps Into The Climate Fray. According to E&E News, “Beto O’Rourke wants to stop all new fossil fuel leases on federal lands, joining a growing list of Democratic presidential candidates taking cues from the ‘keep it in the ground’ movement. The proposal is part of a broader climate plan released today by O’Rourke’s campaign that draws heavily on the Green New Deal. In some places, O’Rourke goes well beyond the vague ideas laid out in the Green New Deal, but he holds back from the progressive resolution’s more ambitious proposals, such as a federal job guarantee and health care for all. The policy outline is among the most detailed climate proposals in the race so far and could help O’Rourke assuage critics in progressive circles who have pushed him to sign a pledge to reject contributions from fossil fuel executives and political action committees. Among other things, it calls for a $5 trillion investment in infrastructure, communities and energy technology over 10 years, mirroring the Green New Deal’s call for a 10-year national mobilization to fight climate change.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (+)]

O'Rourke Calls For $5T To Fight Climate Change. According to Politico, “Democratic presidential candidate Beto O’Rourke labeled climate change ‘the greatest threat we face’ as he called for $5 trillion to be spent over the next decade with the goal of neutralizing carbon emissions in the U.S. by mid-century. The former Texas congressman’s plan is among the most detailed of the crowded Democratic 2020 field, but it does not define how it would achieve dramatic reductions in greenhouse gas emissions. Its goal for getting the U.S. to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 also aligns with the ambitious aims of the Green New Deal, a lofty set of climate priorities advanced by activists and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). O’Rourke said he wanted the government and private sector to spend $5 trillion over 10 years on clean energy infrastructure, framing the investment as a way to limit significant future economic and health costs caused by climate change while also bridging racial, generational and economic inequities. ‘The stakes are clear: We are living in a transformed reality, where our longstanding inaction has not only impacted our climate but led to a growing emergency that has already started to sap our economic prosperity and public health — worsening inequality and threatening our safety and security,’ O’Rourke said on his campaign website.” [Politico, 4/29/19 (+)]

Sunrise Movement Looks To Build On Last Year's Success. According to E&E News, “The Sunrise Movement made its first political endorsement of the 2020 campaign and backed a Democrat running for the House in California’s Central Valley. Audrey Denney, who designs training programs for agriculture, is mounting a rematch in the 1st District against Rep. Doug LaMalfa (R), a four-term congressman who beat her last year by nearly 9 points. The endorsement came after an historic wildfire season in the Central Valley that killed dozens and that scientists believe was exacerbated by climate change and its effects. Sunrise said Denney is an environmental champion who, if elected, would unseat an outspoken opponent of climate policies. ‘She’s spent her life working to help farmers and rural communities in the district, [to] put food on the table for their families, and be part of environmental solutions,’ Varshini Prakash, Sunrise’s co-founder, said in a statement after announcing the endorsement Saturday at a Chico, Calif., rally to support the Green New Deal proposal.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

Courts and Legal

Justices Reject Frozen Wetlands Case, Pipeline Disputes. According to E&E News, “The Supreme Court will not get involved in a challenge to an Army Corps of Engineers determination that certain frozen Alaska acreage qualified as wetlands, triggering federal permitting requirements. The justices declined a petition from Tin Cup LLC, a pipe fabrication company challenging the government’s wetlands classification for an area covered in permafrost. They also turned down two pipeline-related cases today. At issue in the Alaska case is Tin Cup’s 455-acre property near the city of North Pole, near Fairbanks, where it hopes to build a new pipe fabrication and storage facility. The Army Corps in 2010 granted the company a Clean Water Act permit to fill in wetlands for the project, subject to various mitigation conditions, after finding the system was part of a larger wetlands complex highly valuable to wildlife along the Tanana River. Tin Cup, represented by the conservative Pacific Legal Foundation, appealed the determination, arguing that the permafrost-covered land cannot qualify as wetlands under the technical requirements of the Army Corps’ own manual — which, the company says, Congress required the agency to use to delineate wetlands.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

County Eyes Ending CWA Groundwater Suit To Avoid High Court Precedent. According to Inside EPA, “The county government of Maui, HI, is weighing a bill that would settle or withdraw a high-profile Supreme Court case over Clean Water Act (CWA) penalties for groundwater-borne pollution, potentially averting a ruling the county fears could ‘damage’ the CWA by setting a nationwide precedent that the law does not apply to such pollution. According to the Associated Press, Maui County Council President Kelly King has proposed a resolution that would require the county to settle Hawai’i Wildlife Fund, et al., v. County of Maui, rather than taking the case to oral argument before the high court this fall, in order to avoid a decision barring penalties for groundwater pollution. And an attorney with Earthjustice, which represents plaintiffs in the suit, tells Inside EPA that the group has reached out with a settlement offer to the country -- a signal that King’s proposal is being taken seriously, though the two sides have tried and failed to settle the case before.” [Inside EPA, 4/29/19 (=)]

Judge Who Weighed WOTUS, Flint Crisis Dies At 96. According to E&E News, “A federal appellate judge who handled litigation over the Flint water crisis, mountaintop-removal mining and the Obama-era Clean Water Rule died yesterday. Senior Judge Damon Keith, 96, was a Carter appointee who had served on the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals since 1977. He was a federal district court judge before that. His daughter, Debbie Keith, told The New York Times he died yesterday in Detroit. Keith, the former co-chairman of the Michigan Civil Rights Commission, gained national acclaim for his civil rights and civil liberties record on the bench. He famously ordered the Nixon administration to hand over transcripts from illegal wiretaps related to an alleged plot to bomb a CIA building in Ann Arbor, Mich., a ruling that was later upheld by the Supreme Court. The longtime judge also had extensive experience with environmental law, including the recent high-profile battle over the Clean Water Rule. Keith dissented from his colleagues who found the 6th Circuit had jurisdiction to hear lawsuits involving the regulation, also known as the Waters of the U.S., or WOTUS, rule (Greenwire, Feb. 22, 2016). The Supreme Court later ruled that those WOTUS lawsuits belonged in district courts.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Lawyer Fighting Palm Oil Among 6 To Win Environmental Prize. According to E&E News, “When Alfred Brownell arrived in a remote Liberian village, the surrounding tropical rainforest had been leveled by bulldozers. Burial grounds were uprooted, religious shrines were desecrated and a stream people depended upon for water was polluted. Brownell, an environmental lawyer and activist, blamed the devastation on the palm oil company Golden Veroleum Liberia. The company had been given a green light in 2010 by the government to expand in the country and was poised to turn more than 800 square miles of lush forest into palm oil plantations. Brownell today was awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize for exposing alleged abuse by the company and helping to prevent it from converting about 20 square miles of forest that is home to elephants, pygmy hippopotamuses and chimpanzees. He said he was forced to flee the country in 2016 after the government threatened to arrest him for his activism. ‘It was total annihilation,’ said Brownell, now a visiting scholar at Northeastern University’s School of Law in Boston.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Extreme Weather

Farming Heads Indoors To Escape Punishing Weather. According to E&E News, “Hurricane Michael knocked down pecan trees and blew cotton to shreds in Peach County, Ga., early last October. But two crops survived unscathed: tomatoes and cucumbers, coming into bloom in a 25-acre greenhouse just steps away from a pecan grove. The site in central Georgia, just a 10-minute drive from Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue’s hometown of Perry, is where Pure Flavor, an Ontario, Canada-based company, is working on the ultimate defense against climate change: climate-controlled greenhouses. Pure Flavor recently opened the first phase of what will eventually be 75 acres of indoor-grown tomatoes and cucumbers, a harvest destined for grocery stores throughout the Southeast. When the facility is complete in the next few years — the second and third phases are scheduled for 2020 and 2022 — it will be the biggest of its kind in a region that covers 10 states. The current 25-acre structure is large enough to hold almost 19 football fields. ‘On this scale, in winter here in Georgia, this has never been done before,’ said Chris Veillon, chief marketing officer for Pure Flavor, a division of Pure Hothouse Foods Inc., as he weaved through rows of tomato plants packed with red-ripe fruit. ‘We’ve completely removed seasonality,’ he added.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Blaze Breaks Out In Woods That Inspired Winnie-The-Pooh. According to E&E News, “British firefighters are tackling a blaze in the woodland that inspired Winnie-the-Pooh. East Sussex Fire & Rescue Service says its crews were called Sunday evening to a blaze in southern England’s Ashdown Forest, inspiration for the Hundred Acre Wood in A.A. Milne’s children’s stories. The fire service says the blaze, which covers 14 acres, is under control but firefighters remain on the scene today. Fire service spokesman Andrew Gausden told the BBC that the fire did not appear to have been started deliberately. He said it spread quickly through dry undergrowth. Two fires damaged the same forest in February. Milne had a home just north of Ashdown, and the forest helped inspire his stories about lovable bear Pooh and his friends.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Death Toll Jumps To 38 After Latest Cyclone. According to E&E News, “The death toll from Cyclone Kenneth in northern Mozambique jumped to 38, the government announced today, as flooding and pounding rains hampered efforts to deliver aid to badly hit communities several days after the storm. An estimated 160,000 people were at risk from the second powerful cyclone to hit the southern African nation in just six weeks, officials said. It was the first time in recorded history that two cyclones had targeted Mozambique in a single season. Just as most of the more than 600 deaths from last month’s Cyclone Idai were caused by flooding in the days that followed, heavy rains in the wake of Kenneth have raised fears of a similar scenario. The storm made landfall on Thursday with the force of a Category 4 hurricane. Flooding was ‘critical’ in parts of the country’s northernmost province of Cabo Delgado including Ibo island and the districts of Macomia and Quissanga, where more than 35,000 buildings and homes had been partly or fully destroyed, the government said.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Floods Kill At Least 31; Thousands Displaced. According to E&E News, “Floods and landslides from torrential rains in Indonesia have killed at least 31 people and displaced thousands in the past few days, the country’s disaster agency said today. It said 29 people have died in Bengkulu province on the island of Sumatra over the weekend. Two people died from flooding in parts of the capital Jakarta last week and more than 2,000 were displaced. In Bengkulu, 13 people are missing and more than 12,000 have fled their inundated homes, the agency said. Thousands of people are involved in the search-and-rescue effort, it said, but distribution of aid has been hampered by power cuts, inaccessible roads and large distances between various disaster-hit areas. The highest number of deaths was in central Bengkulu, where a landslide killed nearly two dozen people. Deforestation, reduced water catchment areas and inappropriate land use in high-risk areas have increased vulnerability to floods, according to the disaster agency.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Infrastructure

Democratic Leaders Pitch Trump On Infrastructure. According to the Washington Post, “Ahead of a scheduled meeting between House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), the Democratic leaders sent a letter to the president calling for a ‘big and bold’ infrastructure plan. The letter insists any bill should take climate change into account. ‘A big and bold infrastructure package must be comprehensive and include clean energy and resiliency priorities,’ they wrote. ‘To truly be a gamechanger for the American people, we should go beyond transportation and into broadband, water, energy, schools, housing and other initiatives. We must also invest in resiliency and risk mitigation of our current infrastructure to deal with climate change.’” [Washington Post, 4/30/19 (=)]

D.C. To Guard Buildings From Climate Risks. According to E&E News, “The nation’s capital plans to either retrofit or remove by 2050 all buildings that are at a high risk from climate impacts. The proposal unveiled yesterday is part of a broader initiative to prepare Washington, D.C., for stronger storms, floods and heat waves. ‘Through Resilient DC, we have the opportunity to work together across disciplines to tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow and make DC a model for cities across the nation,’ Mayor Muriel Bowser (D) said in a statement. The initiative, which is D.C.’s first urban resilience strategy, is in response to a number of what city officials call ‘major shocks’ over the past two decades. They include Hurricane Isabel in 2003, major flooding in 2006 that caused up to 3 feet of water to cover areas of the city and a 2012 derecho that was one of D.C.’s most destructive storms in history. The plan calls for using climate projections to identify which buildings are most at risk from flooding and heat waves, and developing programs and regulations to protect the city from climate-related hazards.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

Agriculture and Farming

How Does Your Love Of Wine Contribute To Climate Change? According to the New York Times, “The exquisite vulnerability of grapes to nuances of weather makes wine both particularly susceptible to climate change and a harbinger of what’s to come for many other agricultural products. Do wine consumers have a role in encouraging producers to take stronger steps to combat climate change? Some in the wine industry think they do, particularly by throwing their economic support to companies that are already acting decisively. ‘The consumer is the key to this,’ Adrian Bridge, the chief executive of Taylor Fladgate, the historic port producer, wrote in an email. ‘Changing our own behavior matters, and asking others to change theirs as well. This does mean buying from companies that are doing a good job and avoiding companies that are not.’ It’s equally important for consumers to make clear to the wine industry that fighting climate change is an urgent issue. Both through their buying decisions and through old-fashioned advocacy — which might include letters and emails to producers, importers and wine publications, as well as direct conversations with wine merchants and restaurateurs — consumers must demand that the wine industry take action.” [New York Times, 4/30/19 (=)]

International

Adviser Set To Recommend Zero-Emissions Target By 2050. According to E&E News, “The U.K. government’s official adviser on climate change is set to recommend the country adopt a target to drive net fossil fuel emissions to zero by 2050, according to people familiar with the plan. If adopted, the proposals would give the U.K. the tightest emissions rules of any of the leading economies. Pollution is rising up the political agenda across Europe after insurers had a record $160 billion in climate-related losses last year including wildfires in Sweden and more violent storms in the south of the continent. The Climate Change Committee will suggest that Scotland can reach that goal by 2045, according to the people who asked not to be named ahead of a report from the committee due on May 2. Wales would get until the middle of the century to cut greenhouse gases by 95%, the people said. An official from the committee declined to comment. The report also shows how quickly the cost of low-polluting technologies is coming down, concluding that the recommendations can be implemented for the same cost as the previous target set in 2008. That was to reduce emissions by 80%. It would also mean British consumers planting more trees, replacing domestic boilers that use natural gas and eating less red meat, one of the people said.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

Indonesia To Relocate Capital From Sinking Jakarta. According to The Hill, “Indonesia has announced plans relocate its capital city away from Jakarta, one of the world’s fastest-sinking cities, according to the BBC. Planning Minister Bambang Brodjonegoro announced President Joko Widodo had made the decision to relocate the capital, according to the news outlet. The idea of moving the capital from Jakarta, home to 10 million people, has been discussed since Indonesia achieved independence from the Dutch over seven decades ago, but the pace at which the island is sinking–one of the fastest rates in the world–has reportedly added incentive. Parts of the city may be entirely submerged by 2050, with the northern part of Jakarta sinking eight feet in 10 years and sinking an average of 1-15 centimeters annually, according to the BBC. The city’s traffic congestion has also been a major bone of contention, with Brodjonegoro saying traffic costs the national economy the equivalent of about $6.8 billion a year. Cabinet ministers made the decision to move the capital after discussing other options such as creating a special zone for government offices outside the current capital or moving the capital to just outside of Jakarta. Eventually, the president decided on building a new capital on another island, according to the BBC.” [The Hill, 4/29/19 (=)]

Other Agencies

Agriculture

USDA Officials Endorse Climate-Smart Ag At G-20 Meeting. According to Politico, “Top USDA officials endorsed climate-related priorities like developing new technology to reduce greenhouse gas emissions during a G-20 meeting in Tokyo last week, a move that comes as President Donald Trump has been hostile to scientific research and policies aimed at tackling the problem. The call to scale up climate-smart technology is part of a longer list of priorities in the communiqué out of the G-20 Agricultural Chief Scientists meeting — an event the U.S. has attended since it began 2012. The annual meeting allows global leaders to identify and coordinate food and nutrition research. The U.S. and other members of the G-20 reaffirmed a commitment to science-based decision-making when it comes to global food production, as well as recognized the serious threat posed by plant pests, which may be exacerbated by changing climate conditions and a more globalized society.” [Politico, 4/30/19 (+)]

Energy

'Cyber Event' Disrupted U.S. Grid Networks — DOE. According to E&E News, “A ‘cyber event’ interrupted grid operations in parts of the western United States last month, according to a cryptic report posted by the Department of Energy. The March 5 incident lasted from 9 a.m. until nearly 7 p.m. but didn’t lead to a power outage, based on a brief summary of the electric disturbance report filed by the victim utility. If remote hackers interfered with grid networks in California, Utah and Wyoming, as the DOE filing suggests, the event would be unprecedented. A cyberattack is not known to have ever disrupted the flow of electricity anywhere in the United States, though Russian hackers briefly cut off power to parts of Ukraine in 2015 and again in 2016. DOE uses a broad definition of ‘cyber event,’ describing it as any disruption to an electrical system or grid communication network ‘caused by unauthorized access’ to hardware, software or data. That leaves open the possibility that a utility employee or trespasser, rather than a remote hacker, triggered the March 5 event.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

Former Hill Aide Gets Senate Backing For DOE Post. According to E&E News, “The Senate voted 63-32 yesterday to advance the nomination of William Cooper to be general counsel at the Department of Energy. Thirty-two Democrats, including independent Bernie Sanders, voted no. Five members were not present for the roll call. Cooper, an attorney, has worked for the House Natural Resources and Energy and Commerce panels. He’s been serving at DOE as an adviser. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved him in March. It had also approved him last August, but senators let the nomination lapse. Yesterday, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said the recent rules change would mean picks such as Cooper would begin to move faster. ‘Two years of unprecedented obstruction can’t be reversed overnight,’ he said of Democrats. ‘But we’ve taken some important steps in the right direction, and this week we’ll take several more.’ Several judicial nominees are on track for votes on the floor and in the Judiciary Committee. The panel will vote on Jeffrey Rosen on Thursday for deputy attorney general.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

DOE General Counsel Nominee Clears Key Senate Hurdle. According to Politico, “The Senate today easily advanced the nomination of William Cooper to be the Energy Department’s general counsel on a bipartisan 63 to 32 vote, setting up a final vote on the selection tomorrow. Originally nominated to the position in July 2018, Cooper’s nomination was held up when Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) placed a hold on all DOE nominees until the agency committed not to ship more plutonium into her state and removed what it had already shipped there. That leverage vanished when Senate Republicans moved in early April to drastically scale back the amount of debate time on most executive nominees, but Cortez Masto said she’d received a commitment from Secretary Rick Perry over the phone by then. Prior to his nomination, Cooper worked at the law firm of McConnell Valdes LLC and served as a senior aide on several House committees.” [Politico, 4/29/19 (=)]

Department Of Energy Official: No Plans For Coal Subsidies. According to Politico, “The Department of Energy is not working on any plans to subsidize coal, DOE Assistant Secretary Bruce Walker said on Monday, though it is working to improve the grid’s ability to withstand cyber or physical threats. The comments by Walker, who heads DOE’s Office of Electricity, are the latest sign that the Trump administration is shelving plans to prop up the struggling coal sector after failing to push through subsidies in the past two years. ‘Nobody I know is looking at subsidizing coal, period,’ he told reporters at a National Rural American Electric Cooperative Association Legislative Conference. ‘My office is not working on anything to do with subsidizing coal.’ Though he shot down the idea of a coal bailout, Walker said he is concerned about the risks posed by the power sector’s growing reliance on natural gas, since a disruption on a single pipeline could lead to major power disruptions. And he echoed arguments used by coal backers to call for policies to protect fuel security as a defense against the loss of a major pipeline.” [Politico, 4/29/19 (=)]

Interior

Grijalva Presses Bernhardt To Testify In Mid-May. According to E&E News, “House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva is re-upping his request for newly minted Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to testify before his committee on May 15. The Arizona Democrat sent another letter to Bernhardt yesterday asking for a response by tomorrow. The letter comes just two weeks after Grijalva’s April 15 request. This marks the third time Grijalva has asked Bernhardt to come before the panel; Bernhardt declined both the January and March invites. ‘You have led the Interior Department during this entire period and appearing before Congress is among your fundamental responsibilities,’ Grijalva wrote in yesterday’s letter. The Senate confirmed Bernhardt, who had been acting secretary since the end of last year, on April 11. Grijalva in the letter said Bernhardt’s staff indicated the Interior secretary ‘would prefer a private, off-the-record meeting.’ The Democrat said he would be ‘more than happy to arrange a private meeting’ after Bernhardt accepts his invitation to testify in public. Interior spokeswoman Faith Vander Voort said the department received Grijalva’s letter but did not say whether Bernhardt would testify before the panel on May 15.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

Interior Disbands Controversial Royalty Policy Committee. According to Politico, “The Interior Department’s royalty policy committee has disbanded after the department failed to renew its charter, a source familiar with the situation said. The committee charter, which former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke signed on April 2017, expired earlier this month. It had been criticized from the start for a membership weighted toward mining and fossil fuel drilling industry representatives who recommended that the department reduce the amount of money mining, oil and gas companies paid the government for the fossil fuels they produced on federal land. ‘The RPC and its subcommittees are unable to meet or take any action without a valid current charter,’ said a source at one of the committee’s member organizations. ‘There’s no word on charter renewal.’ Interior did not immediately reply to questions. The committee met half a dozen times during its existence. It postponed a meeting originally scheduled for January 2019.” [Politico, 4/29/19 (=)]

Interior Failed To Meet FOIA Requirements — Plaintiffs. According to E&E News, “Opponents of President Trump’s 2017 cuts to the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument accused the Interior Department of failing to meet court-ordered requirements for releasing public documents and asserted that the agency is inflating the number of pages it makes public by repeating some documents. In response to a lawsuit filed by the Conservation Lands Foundation, Grand Staircase Escalante Partners and the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology, Interior is required to produce 1,500 pages of documents each month to meet a Freedom of Information Act request. The lawsuit was filed in December 2017 after Trump issued a presidential proclamation that reduced the southwestern Utah monument to a little more than 1 million acres from its previous 1.9-million-acre footprint. Interior is required to provide documentation on both its review of dozens of national monuments and its eventual decision to recommend reductions to the Grand Staircase-Escalante site. But in a joint status report filed Friday, plaintiffs in the lawsuit accused Interior of failing to meet the court-ordered minimum, asserting that the agency provided less than 700 pages of documents in its March release.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Former Interior Secretary Manuel Luján Jr. Has Died. According to E&E News, “Manuel Luján Jr., who spent 20 years as a Republican congressman and later as a U.S. Interior Secretary and who drew fire from environmentalists for challenging the Endangered Species Act, has died. He was 90. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Luján Grisham, who was a distant cousin, said Luján died Thursday at his home in Albuquerque. He had a long history of heart trouble and underwent triple-bypass surgery after a 1986 heart attack. ‘Manuel Luján was the picture of a statesman,’ the Democratic governor said in a statement Friday. ‘Over the course of ten Congressional terms and four years as secretary of the Interior, he fought for his constituents, striving for balance between competing interests.’ Luján represented New Mexico’s 1st District from 1969 to 1989. He gained a reputation as an advocate for Native Americans, business and constituents in a majority-Democratic district. As Luján’s final term wound down, President George H.W. Bush tapped him for his Cabinet. As Interior secretary, Luján sought to strike a balance between business interests and the Endangered Species Act, which he said was too tough on regional economies.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Luján Leaves A Mixed Legacy. According to E&E News, “The late Manuel Luján Jr. wasn’t the first Interior secretary to be vexed by the Endangered Species Act, and he surely won’t be the last. But he may have been among the bluntest. ‘Nobody’s told me the difference between a red squirrel, a black one or a brown one,’ Luján confessed at a National Park Foundation banquet in May 1990. ‘Do we have to save every subspecies?’ The breezy comment landed with a thud, prompting retorts from environmentalists and some quick explanatory backfilling from Interior’s staff, but it was also vintage Luján. He was a Western conservative and could speak his mind, if sometimes a bit too plainly or undiplomatically. Luján, who died Thursday at age 90, served an eventful four years as Interior secretary during President George H.W. Bush’s administration, following two decades representing New Mexico in the House of Representatives (Greenwire, April 29). Some of the events during his tenure were of Luján’s own making, while others came with the territory. On his watch, Interior officials wrestled over protecting the endangered spotted owl and other species. The National Park Service confronted controversy over low fees and concessionaire ownership at Yosemite and other parks.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Opinion Pieces

Op-Ed: Why Are Taxpayers Subsidising The Oil And Gas Companies That Jeopardise Our Future? According to an op-ed by Clive Lewis in The Guardian, “Last October, the world’s most renowned climate scientists warned governments that humanity has just 12 years to prevent climate catastrophe. The UK government faces three choices to deal with carbon-heavy fossil fuels: force people to stop using them immediately; facilitate a rapid transition from fossil fuels to renewable energy; or hope business-as-usual market forces solve our problem for us. Strip away the rhetoric, and the Tory government is still relying on the latter option. A few weeks ago, lost in the never-ending fog of Brexit, the cross-party public accounts committee released a damning report on the public cost of decommissioning oil and gas infrastructure. Their report vindicates every argument Labour has made against the government’s massive tax breaks for oil and gas companies, under its Transferable Tax History (TTH) policy. TTH uniquely allows companies buying North Sea oil and gas fields to inherit the tax histories of the sellers. The aim is to boost further extraction of oil and gas, when existing companies no longer can. British taxpayers will now subsidise multi-billion-pound companies in accelerating the collapse of our natural world.” [The Guardian, 4/30/19 (+)]

Op-Ed: To Address Climate Threat, California Must Lead The Way On Green Bonds. According to an op-ed by Fiona Ma in The Sacramento Bee, “We celebrated Earth Day last week, but climate change threatens our quality of life and poses material risk to our communities every day. A recent article by the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco points out that climate change also poses a real threat to our economy. Similarly, other reports identify tens of billions of dollars in infrastructure needs in California. They also say new infrastructure must be resilient, adaptable and responsive to the threat of climate change. Last year, California’s leaders committed the state to eliminating fossil fuels from its electrical grid by 2045. At his first State of the State Address, Gov. Gavin Newsom reaffirmed that California ‘will never waver on achieving the nation’s most ambitious clean energy goals. California’s long-time commitment to the environment and to fighting climate change remains as strong as ever.’ California has an opportunity now to demonstrate its continued leadership in two ways. First, we can recognize the value green bonds can contribute to meeting the state’s infrastructure needs – and use California’s market presence to ensure that green bonds marketed to investors truly are green.” [The Sacramento Bee, 4/30/19 (+)]

Op-Ed: Let’s Seize The Moment And Create A Green New Deal For The UK. According to an op-ed by Ed Miliband, Caroline Lucas, and Laura Sandys in The Guardian, “Three things stand out from the recent youth climate strikes, the visit of Greta Thunberg and the peaceful protests of Extinction Rebellion. The first is the call for truth. The campaigners have all been united in their call for politicians and policymakers to tell the truth about climate change – its impacts and the scale of the response required. The second has been the demand to treat the climate crisis as an emergency and the recognition that ‘business as usual‘ is now in effect a form of ‘climate appeasement’. The third has been the sense of hope. An increasing number of people, young and old, see that the way we run our economy is damaging our climate, our environment and our society, but that, crucially, it is within our power to change it for the better. And change it we must. On Tuesday, the Institute for Public Policy Research launches its Environmental Justice Commission and we are coming together across Conservative, Labour and Green parties to serve on it. We are doing so with a very specific task in mind: to ally the issue of climate change with the economic and social transformation that we believe our country and citizens so urgently need and deserve. To act on that sense of hope.” [The Guardian, 4/30/19 (+)]

Op-Ed: Why Beto’s Climate Plan Is So Surprising. According to an op-ed by Robinson Meyer in The Atlantic, “The first 2020 presidential candidate out with a comprehensive climate-change policy is … Beto O’Rourke? I was surprised too. The former Texas congressman, whose campaign has previously been somewhat skimpy on policy proposals, debuted on Monday a $1.5-trillion proposal meant to rapidly move the economy away from fossil fuels and slow the advance of climate change. ‘We will ensure we are at net-zero greenhouse-gas emissions by the year 2050, and that we are halfway there by 2030,’ said O’Rourke in a video posted to Twitter. His plan calls climate change ‘the greatest threat we face—one which will test our country, our democracy, and every single one of us.’ O’Rourke says his proposal is the ‘most ambitious climate plan in the history of the United States.’ Certainly it is—so far—the most wide-ranging climate plan debuted by any Democratic presidential candidate in the 2020 race, though a number of contenders say their own proposals will come out shortly. And it makes for a dramatic contrast with the agenda of President Donald Trump, who has repealed major federal rules restricting carbon pollution and staffed the federal government with former fossil-fuel lobbyists.” [The Atlantic, 4/30/19 (=)]

Op-Ed: Florida Is Still Hurting From Hurricane Michael — Will DC Lend A Helping Hand? According to an op-ed by Greg Brudnicki in The Hill, “True or false: With less than six weeks to go before the start of the 2019 hurricane season, our nation’s leaders have come together to send assistance to the Florida Panhandle communities that were devastated by October 2018’s Hurricane Michael. As anyone who is living through the enduring impact of that storm will tell you, the answer is a resounding ‘false.’ Washington, D.C., has been agonizingly slow to react. That’s why I’m coming to D.C. this week to meet with the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Department of Housing and Urban Development, National Security Council and the Education Department, as well as Florida Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott and Rep. Neal Dunn, among others. We need to keep the issue on the radar of our nation’s leadership. Lest we needed a reminder about the seriousness of Hurricane Michael, this month NOAA gave the storm the official designation of a Category 5 hurricane. Michael was the strongest hurricane to ever make landfall in the Panhandle, and the first Category 5 hurricane to make landfall in the U.S. since Hurricane Andrew leveled parts of South Florida in 1992.” [The Hill, 4/29/19 (+)]

Op-Ed: Congress, Help Rural Americans Before Hurricane Season Strikes. According to an op-ed by Tom Martin in The Hill, “This week as Congress returns from spring recess, the first order of business should be passing a disaster recovery package. This year’s hurricane season is just weeks away, yet, the forest and landowners affected by last year’s Hurricanes Michael and Florence have not yet even begun to recover. The same can be said for the landowners from our western states, who are still reeling from a horrendous 2018 wildfire season. If we are to continue to support our rural economies and the important ecological resources that come from our forests, then Congress needs to focus on what matters most: helping our fellow rural Americans after these devastations. Across the U.S., families own the largest portion of forests, not the federal government or corporations. What’s more, their hard work is felt far beyond their property lines. They support the clean water supply that flows to the faucets of millions of Americans. They provide critical habitat for our wildlife, including at-risk species. And their forests provide more than 50 percent of the nation’s wood supply and support more than 1.1 million rural jobs.” [The Hill, 4/30/19 (+)]

States

Arizona

Popular River Overlook In Ariz. Now Has Parking Fee. According to E&E News, “Parking at a spot near the edge of an Arizona canyon where the Colorado River makes a sharp U-turn now comes at a cost. You can blame that mostly on social media. Countless posts have celebrated the wonder of Horseshoe Bend, where the bluish-green river takes a 270-degree turn just outside the town of Page, near the Utah border. Photographs on Facebook, Instagram and elsewhere show tourists dangling their feet over a more than 500-foot drop, staring contemplatively or throwing their hands in the air. Chances are, the tourists are surrounded by hundreds of people from around the world who marveled at the site online and wanted to see it in person. The traffic and safety concerns that come with the site’s popularity are what led officials to start charging a parking fee this month. ‘Most people in Page will say that as short as five to six years ago, it was a relatively local spot, and then it just started growing exponentially,’ said Mary Plumb, a spokeswoman for Glen Canyon National Recreation Area, which encompasses the canyon. ‘Most people believe it’s caused by Instagram.’” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

California

Los Angeles Unveils Plan Aiming For All Emission-Free Vehicles By 2050. According to The Hill, “Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti (D) on Monday announced a sweeping new sustainability plan touted as the city’s version of the Green New Deal. The plan calls for 80 percent of the city’s electricity to come from renewable resources and 80 percent of its cars to run on zero-emission fuel or electricity by the mid-2030s, according to the Los Angeles Times. It updates a previous sustainability plan the city launched in 2015 and has been in the works for the past several years. ‘While politicians in Washington talk about a Green New Deal, they can look to Los Angeles to see how we get it done. Our plan gives every other city in the country and the world a ‘greenprint’ to follow our lead,’ Garcetti tweeted Monday. The Green New Deal is a progressive plan developed by Democrats in Congress that aims to commit the U.S. electric grid to full reliance on renewable energy by 2030 and jump-start the economy by increasing green energy industry jobs. But the term has become somewhat synonymous with many comprehensive climate efforts meant to curb greenhouse gas emissions.” [The Hill, 4/29/19 (=)]

Inside California's Fight Against Pollution. According to The Hill, “Mary Nichols, the woman who for more than 15 years has led the fight to improve California’s poor air quality, says she’s not a fan of a nickname she’s acquired: Queen of Green. ‘I actually hate the title,’ Nichols told The Hill during a recent phone interview. ‘We live in what is intended to be a representative democracy, so queens are not our thing.’ But Nichols, who has twice headed the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and more recently has led the state in its battle against the Trump administration’s rollback of key car emissions regulations, has nevertheless become a reigning environmental figure. ‘I do this work because I believe in it. And over the years, I’ve become even more committed than I was when I first started to the notion that air pollution is an affront to civilization,’ she said. While Nichols’s name might have long found recognition in the Golden State, it has increased in national prominence in the past two years in conjunction with California’s forceful opposition to a Trump administration decision last summer to weaken auto emissions standards originally agreed to under former President Obama.” [The Hill, 4/30/19 (+)]

In Response To Lawmakers, CARB Finds No ‘Oversupply’ Of GHG Credits. According to Inside EPA, “The California Air Resources Board (CARB) and Cal/EPA are reiterating previous declarations that there is no ‘oversupply’ of greenhouse gas credits in the state’s cap-and-trade program, telling state lawmakers that there is no reason to withdraw any credits from the system as some experts have recommended to meet ambitious carbon targets. But some lawmakers say CARB’s response is not alleviating their concerns about the program, and that they may pursue additional ‘action’ to address outstanding issues. ‘Our analyses, and those of several independent market analysts, forecast continued and steady increases in allowance prices over time, sending the critical price signal for companies to act to reduce their GHG emissions,’ states an April 22 letter to Sen. Ben Allen (D-Santa Monica), chairman of the Senate Environmental Quality Committee, signed by CARB Chairwoman Mary Nichols and Cal/EPA Secretary Jared Blumenfeld.” [Inside EPA, 4/29/19 (=)]

Florida

Maui County Could Settle Clean Water Act Case. According to E&E News, “The biggest environmental case on the Supreme Court’s docket in years might not happen after all. Earthjustice confirmed to E&E News today that it made a settlement offer last week to Maui County in closely watched litigation over the scope of the Clean Water Act. ‘I think, as in all things settlements, nothing’s happened until it happens,’ attorney David Henkin said. ‘We certainly have been trying to work with the county since 2008, since four years before we brought the litigation, to try and get the county to focus on addressing the harm to the environment.’ At issue in the case is Maui County’s process of pumping wastewater into underground injection wells, where the waste can migrate into groundwater and land in the Pacific Ocean. Hawai’i Wildlife Fund and other local environmental groups represented by Earthjustice sued the county in 2012 for operating the wells without Clean Water Act permits to account for the ocean impacts.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Maine

Democratic-Controlled Statehouses Endorsing Clean Energy. According to E&E News, “Soon after taking office, Maine’s Democratic governor, Janet Mills, announced renovation plans for the governor’s mansion. She wanted to add solar panels. The move was seen as a rebuke to her predecessor, Republican Gov. Paul LePage, whose administration put a moratorium on new wind turbines and enacted policies that critics say stymied solar energy in the state. Mills has moved quickly to scrap the turbine moratorium and signed a bill that would eliminate a LePage-era policy that put a fee on power generated by residential solar panels. Maine is among 11 states, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures, that either flipped the governor’s seat from Republican to Democrat or saw Democrats win newfound control over the Legislature in the 2018 elections. All have passed or are weighing legislation that would expand renewables in their states, the Associated Press found.” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (+)]

Pennsylvania

Regulators Seek Carbon Cap And Nuclear Subsidies. According to E&E News, “Pennsylvania regulators yesterday released a plan that calls for subsidizing ailing nuclear plants and putting in place a cap-and-trade program to slash greenhouse gas emissions. The proposals outlined by the Department of Environmental Protection offer a first look at how Gov. Tom Wolf (D) intends to fulfill an executive order issued in January that committed Pennsylvania to cutting greenhouse gas emissions 26% of 2005 levels by 2025 and 80% by 2050 (Climatewire, Jan. 22). Wolf also announced that Pennsylvania will become the 24th state to join the U.S. Climate Alliance, a coalition of states committed to the terms of the Paris climate accord. In a press conference yesterday, Wolf cited floods and tornados that have ravaged Pennsylvania in recent years as the reason to take action. ‘We know why storms are becoming more frequent and more intense. We know why more residents are losing everything due to these increasingly severe weather patterns,’ Wolf said. ‘We know why our planet is becoming warmer, and we know we need to change course before it is too late.’” [E&E News, 4/30/19 (=)]

Groups Sue U.S. Steel Over 'Unlawful Emissions' At Pa. Plants. According to E&E News, “U.S. Steel Corp. faces a lawsuit from two environmental groups alleging repeated Clean Air Act violations at several Pittsburgh-area plants. The citizen enforcement suit, filed today, charges that the company kept running the three plants ‘at close to full capacity’ for several months, even though air pollution controls at one of the facilities were not working after a Christmas Eve fire. The result was ‘unlawful emissions’ of hydrogen sulfide, sulfur dioxide and other pollutants that left nearby residents fearing for their health and property, the suit says. Because of the plants’ history of noncompliance and other factors, the violations are likely to recur, the filing says. The plaintiffs want a judge to require the facilities to comply with their operating permits and require U.S. Steel to address the harm done by the alleged violations. ‘No one, including U.S. Steel should be allowed to jeopardize our health by running what amounts to a doomsday machine with no off-switch,’ said Ashleigh Deemer, a director with PennEnvironment, in a news release. Together with the Philadelphia-based Clean Air Council, the group brought the suit in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania.” [E&E News, 4/29/19 (=)]

Virginia

Emergency Crews Rescue 5 Men Trapped In Cave. According to the Associated Press, “Authorities say five men have been rescued from a cave in southwest Virginia where they became trapped after heavy rains. Virginia Department of Emergency Management search-and-rescue coordinator Billy Chrimes said Sunday evening that all five men were taken to hospitals after being pulled from the cave Sunday, one by air transport. Chrimes said they were suffering from hypothermia and exhaustion. Officials say six men entered Cyclops Cave near Cleveland and had planned to camp overnight Saturday until conditions worsened because of drenching rains. The rains also made it difficult for them to get out. A 22-year-old man managed to get out about 2 a.m. Sunday and alerted authorities that the others, ranging in age from 34 to 59, remained behind suffering from fatigue and cold.” [AP, 4/28/19 (=)]

Chad Ellwood

Research Associate

cellwood@cacampaign.com

202.448.2877 ext. 119