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Daily Briefing |

TODAY'S CLIMATE AND ENERGY HEADLINES

Briefing date 11.04.2019
Trump signs orders to speed up oil and gas pipeline construction

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News.

Trump signs orders to speed up oil and gas pipeline construction
The New York Times Read Article

US president Donald Trump signed two executive orders yesterday that target the power of states to delay natural gas, coal and oil projects, reports the New York Times. One order directs the Environmental Protection Agency to change a part of the US Clean Water Act that allows states to delay projects on environmental grounds, explains Reuters. New York has delayed pipelines that would bring natural gas to New England, for example, and Washington state has stopped coal export terminals. Reuters quotes Trump saying: “My action today will cut through destructive permitting delays and denials…what takes you 20 years to get a permit, those days are gone.” The second order requires the Department of Transportation to create a new rule that would classify liquified natural gas (LNG) similarly to other cryogenic liquids, which would then allow it to be moved by train, says the Hill. “The actions are unlikely to have much of an immediate impact, and they will probably attract legal challenges by state governments seeking to preserve control over such projects,” adds the New York Times. But, the article notes, “the orders are symbolically important for a president who likes to take credit for a boom in energy production and exports. And he delivered the message in Texas, an oil-rich Republican state where Democrats recently made electoral gains”. The Washington Post also covers the story.

In related news, Politico reports that the Trump administration is considering auctioning off Florida’s coastal waters for oil and gas drilling, which Republicans warn “could cost the president dearly in Florida in the 2020 election”. And the Hill reports that more than 50 Democrats in the House of Representatives have signed a letter asking their colleagues in the senate to oppose David Bernhardt’s nomination as secretary of the Interior Department.

UK police repeatedly delayed review on anti-fracking protests
The Guardian Read Article

Police chiefs in the UK have been criticised for repeated delays to an official review of the way they handle anti-fracking protests, the Guardian reports. A series of emails obtained by the investigative website DeSmog UK show that the police had set four deadlines for completing the review, but missed them all. The emails – between Green MEP Keith Taylor and the senior officer responsible for policing anti-fracking demonstrations, Lancashire assistant chief constable Terry Woods — also reveal that the remit of the review changed without the police warning stakeholders and that Woods admitted he had “not realised the scale of work required to undertake a police college-endorsed and -led consultation process”. The police now estimate that the review will be finished by “summer 2019 at the earliest” and that it had been expanded to examine “long-term protest generally” as well as the anti-fracking demonstrations.

Australians go to the polls in a 'fair go' election on 18 May
Reuters Read Article

Australians will go to the polls in a general election on 18 May, reports Reuters, “after prime minister Scott Morrison fired the starting gun on Thursday on a campaign set to be fought over taxation, climate change and inequality”. Morrison and his main opponent, Labor party leader Bill Shorten, both used the Australian phrase “a fair go” to frame their campaigns around a national sense of equality and opportunity – albeit from very different angles, Reuters says. The Guardian marks climate change as one of five key factors that could swing the election. “Sentiment over global warming has sharpened” in recent years, its article says, “with an increasing number of Australians considering climate change a serious and pressing problem”. Guardian Australia reporter Michael McGowan also flags climate change as one of the big campaign issues in his “here’s what you need to know” election piece. Meanwhile, carmarker Hyundai says it will sell every electric vehicle it brings to Australia and has “no fear” of the market changing in order to cut emissions, reports another Guardian article. The company was responding to comments in recent days from prime minister Scott Morrison, who claimed Labor’s electric vehicle target was a threat to Australians who like to drive SUVs. Finally, the Sydney Morning Herald and the Guardian look at the hurdles still facing approval of Adani’s Carmichael coal mine in central Queensland. Carbon Brief recently published a climate and energy profile of Australia.

US bill to boost electric car tax credits could rev GM, Tesla
Reuters Read Article

A bipartisan group of US lawmakers introduced legislation yesterday to expand the electric vehicle (EV) tax credit by 400,000 vehicles per manufacturer, reports a Reuters exclusive. The existing $7,500 tax credit, which allows taxpayers to deduct part of the cost of buying an electric car, phases out once a carmaker hits sales of 200,000 EVs in any year. The bill – dubbed the “Driving America Forward Act” – would extend this credit for an additional 400,000 EVs. Tesla and General Motors hit the existing cap in 2018 and 2019, respectively, notes the Hill, meaning people who buy electric vehicles from those companies get smaller tax credits. However, despite strong backing from carmaker and environmental groups, the bill is likely to face strong opposition as last month the White House proposed an immediately end to the EV credit. Meanwhile, the New York Timeslooks at how US car manufacturers are preparing as the Trump administration looks to weaken Obama-era rules on vehicle efficiency, even as states aim higher. And Axios reports on new research that suggests that “if carmakers have any hope of making money on electric vehicles, they’ll need to re-think how they design and sell them”.

EU, China agree to work together on clean energy
Climate Home News Read Article

The EU and China have affirmed a commitment to tackling climate change and promoting clean energy at a summit in Brussels on Tuesday, reports Climate Homes News. After “fraught talks” on trade and market access, the two reached a last-minute deal, including on areas of climate cooperation. While less detailed than a 2018 joint statement on climate change, the commitment stressed “the importance of showing resolve on the clean energy transition and of assuming greater leadership on the global environmental agenda”, Climate Home News says. It adds that the leaders said they would “reinforce their cooperation on green finance” and work towards a successful outcome at a climate summit to be hosted by the UN secretary general in September.

Comment.

Extinction Rebellion: inside the new climate resistance
Matthew Green, Financial Times Read Article

Writing for the FT, author and journalist Matthew Green goes inside the “new climate resistance” movement of Extinction Rebellion. In this in-depth feature, Green speaks to the founder members who have grown “disillusioned” with formal climate diplomacy. “Inspired by the suffragettes, Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King…[the] team aim to create enough disruption to force the UK to declare a climate emergency, commit to a carbon-neutral economy by 2025 and establish ‘citizens’ assemblies’ — chosen by lot like a jury — to democratically oversee such a monumental transition,” explains Green. Asking whether the group will achieve its aims, Green muses: “Climate models and social systems share a propensity to sudden, hard-to-predict shifts that can lead to a new status quo. In earth sciences, that’s usually bad news. But contemplating non-linear change can also be a source of inspiration. Extinction Rebellion and its allies believe there may still be time to catalyse an evolutionary leap towards a saner model of planetary stewardship.” Elsewhere, Catrin Nye of the BBC’s Victoria Derbyshire programme asks whether Extinction Rebellion’s acts of non-violent acts civil disobedience is “saving the world or wasting police time?”

Glaciers and Arctic ice are vanishing. Time to get radical before it's too late
Bill McKibben, The Guardian Read Article

“Forget ‘early warning signs’ and ‘canaries in coalmines’ – we’re now well into the middle of the climate change era, with its epic reshaping of our home planet,” writes veteran climate campaigner Bill McKibben in the Guardian. Studies published this week show that “frozen portions of the Earth are now in violent and dramatic flux”, says McKibben. We should be “deeply grateful” to activists and scientists, he says, because they “are only people on the planet who seem to understand the scale of the problem”. He concludes: “Now it’s up to the scruffy, the young, the marginal, the angry to do the necessary work. Their discipline and good humour and profound nonviolence are remarkable, from Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to Greta Thunberg. They are what’s left of our fighting chance.”

Climate chaos is coming — and the Pinkertons are ready
Noah Gallagher Shannon, The New York Times Magazine Read Article

Continuing its special edition called “The Climate Issue”, the New York Times Magazine has a feature on how the US private security contractor and detective agency Pinkerton is preparing for climate change. Spending time with some of the company’s executives – and taking part in “various readiness drills” – writer Noah Gallagher Shannon finds that they see a “growing set of anxieties among its corporate clients about distinctly contemporary plagues – active shooters, political unrest, climate disasters”. “If a client has food and water and all the other stuff…then they become a target,“ one employee tells the magazine. Pinkerton is making a twofold bet, notes Shannon: “First, that there’s no real material difference between climate change and any other conflict – as the world grows more predictably dangerous, tactical know-how will simply be more in demand than ever. And second, that by adding data analytics, Pinkerton stands to compete more directly with traditional consulting firms like Deloitte.” While other companies offer pre- and post-disaster services, they cannot “dispatch a helicopter full of armed guards to Guatemala in an afternoon”, says Shannon: “In theory, Pinkerton can do both — a fully militarised managerial class at corporate disposal.” The whole climate series can be found at this link.

Science.

Role of flying cars in sustainable mobility
Nature Communications Read Article

A new study investigates the potential energy use and greenhouse gas emissions of electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft, more commonly known as “flying cars”. As the takeoff and climb of the vehicles would be the most energy intensive element of a journey, longer trips would likely be most efficient, the researchers say. Comparing a “fully loaded” flying car with a ground-based car with an average occupancy of 1.5 passengers, the study finds that emissions per passenger-kilometre of flying cars could be 52% lower than petrol cars and 6% lower than battery electric vehicles.

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