Good morning and welcome to The Climate 202! In today’s edition, we have an exclusive announcement in a White House announcement for more than 650 hospitals that have agreed to halve their emissions by 2030. More on that below. But first:
Environmental lawyers will frantically press the refresh button at 10am this morning Sara Colangelo felt her stomach churn and spread out a bottle of Tums, just as she had done at 10 a.m. on many other days of the month. As a chalk tablet burst in her mouth, Colangelo refreshed the Supreme Court website and SCOTUSblog once again, waiting for the words “West Virginia vs. EPA” to appear on screen. But the words did not appear. Instead, an even higher number flashes on the heart rate monitor on the Garmin watch. “Every morning at 10 a.m., my anxiety erupts,” Colangelo, who heads the Clinic for Environmental Law and Justice at Georgetown Law University, told The Climate 202. Like Colangelo, environmental advocates and climate activists across the country are preparing for the Supreme Court ruling West Virginia v. United States. EPAa challenge to the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the energy sector. After months of waiting, the court is expected to rule on the case this morning, concluding an extraordinary term with explosive guns and abortions. The Conservative majority could undermine the federal government’s ability to tackle coal emissions from power plants, which contribute significantly to climate change. And the court’s delay in resolving the case had a great psychological price. “Everyone around this office has crouched anxiously over their computer at 10 a.m. “Press refresh over and over again in 10 minutes to see what our fate will be,” said Jack Lienke, director of regulatory policy at the Institute for Policy Integrity in New. York University School of Law told The Climate 202. “I do not understand exactly why it is done in this way, in which opinions are published every 10 minutes,” he added. “It creates a lot of suspense.” Jason Rylander, a senior attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said he cleared his schedule at 10 a.m. most days before the Supreme Court, only to realize he would have to wait longer for a decision. “As Tom Petty said, waiting is the hardest part,” Rylander said. While the expected ruling has caused concern among some, it has caused impatience for John Mangalonzo, a spokesman for West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey (R), who spearheaded the legal challenge along with other Republican attorney generals. “Many years have passed,” Mangalonzo told The Climate 202, referring to the conservative legal movement’s decades-long effort to curtail the powers of the administration. “They keep the best for last,” he added. Lienke said the delay in ruling on the case could mean the court would reject it as unexpectedly conceded – or DIG in legal language – as judges did in an immigration case this month. “I hope it is an indication that the judges who voted to hear this case from the beginning have little buyer regret,” he said. But other environmental lawyers have said that scenario seems unlikely. They said it was apparent in oral arguments in February that at least five conservative judges were advocating limiting the EPA’s power to reduce carbon emissions from power plants under Section 111 of the Clean Air Act. “I hope they dig it, but I do not expect it,” said Jodi Freeman, a professor at Harvard Law School, in an email. The biggest question, legal scholars said, is whether the court will issue a narrow or broad ruling with potentially disastrous consequences for the ability of other federal agencies to deal with pressing social problems. A narrow decision would be based on the simple language of the Clean Air Act, which guides the EPA to determine the “best emission reduction system” for power plants. A broad decision could invoke the doctrine of big questions, which says federal agencies need explicit authorization from Congress to decide issues of “major economic and political importance.” Whatever the outcome, the Colangelo – and its heart rate monitor – will be ready. “The stakes,” he said, “could not be higher.”
Exclusive: More than 650 hospitals commit to halving emissions by 2030 The White House will announce today that 61 of the country’s largest hospital and healthcare companies have joined the Health Sector Climate Pledge, pledging to halve greenhouse gas emissions by 2030, according to details released exclusively to The Climate 202 . The new commitment covers more than 650 hospitals and thousands of providers across the country. It includes two of the five largest private hospitals and health systems in the United States, Ascension and CommonSpirit Health. The move is intended to help advance President Biden’s goal of achieving clean zero emissions by 2050, as the healthcare industry accounts for about 8.5 percent of total emissions in the United States. It comes as climate change is increasingly recognized as a public health issue, with research showing that global warming is affecting public health through more frequent and severe weather disasters, extreme heat and threats to food and water safety. “On the first day of his term, President Biden instructed us to mobilize climate ambitions and large emissions reductions from every sector of our economy,” White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy said in a statement. “Today is another milestone in realizing his vision, aligning America’s largest healthcare companies and hospitals with the President’s bold goal of halving emissions by 2030.” Organizations – including public hospitals, health centers, pharmaceutical companies, medical device manufacturers and suppliers – will also develop climate resilience plans for their facilities, including support plans for individuals or communities most vulnerable to change.
Mancin seeks climate, energy concessions as reconciliation talks continue Senator Joe Manchin III (DW.Va.) is seeking concessions from Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (DN.Y.) on controversial climate and energy provisions in President Biden’s budget reconciliation package. Democrats are struggling to reach an agreement on the spending bill ahead of the August break, according to sources familiar with the talks, Laura Davison, Erik Wasson and Ari Natter told Bloomberg News. Manchin wants to make the package more fossil fuel by increasing drilling in the western Gulf of Mexico and including a tax deduction for carbon sequestration technology, which environmentalists say extends the life of coal plants and is not an effective option for prevention of catastrophic overheating. said the people. Manchin has also expressed interest in extending the tax deduction for blue hydrogen, or a type of hydrogen produced from natural gas. And lawmakers are struggling with the value and eligibility requirements for federal electric vehicle tax credit. An end to emissions of methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, is expected to be included in the package, Senate Environment and Public Works Speaker Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.) Said last week.
Climate groups sue Biden government over new oil and gas lease sales
A coalition of environmental groups sued the Biden government on Wednesday over the resumption of oil and gas lease sales on federal land in four western states, Zack Budryk told Hill.
According to the lawsuit, lease sales in Montana, Nevada, North Dakota and Utah violate Federal Land Policy and Management Act, which requires the Department of the Interior to prevent “unwarranted or unjustified downgrading” of public land. Plaintiffs include the Western Environmental Law Center, WildEarth Guardians and the Sierra Club.
“The overwhelming scientific evidence shows that burning fossil fuels from existing land leases is incompatible with a sustainable climate,” Melissa Hornbein, a senior lawyer at the Western Environmental Law Center, said in a statement.
Meanwhile, another coalition of environmental groups is suing Home Secretary Deb Haaland and the Office of Land Management in an effort to halt drilling plans in Wyoming, the site of the largest planned lease with 120,000 acres of public land offered to oil companies. gas, says Ella Nilsen for CNN.
The groups say the federal government has failed to address the environmental consequences of the sale, including its impact on groundwater, wildlife and global warming emissions. Environmental law firm Earthjustice filed the complaint on behalf of the Wilderness Society and Friends of the Earth.
The heat wave drowns the Japanese electricity grid Some 37 million people living near Tokyo have been told to save electricity as one of the most severe heatwaves recorded in Japan has strained the grid, Karina Tsui, Julia Mio Inuma and Ian Livingston told the Washington Post. For the first time, the Japanese government has called on businesses and homes to reduce energy use between 3 and 6 p.m. some days. The guidance has pushed some people to turn off freezers and air conditioners, while others have been advised to work in the dark. The country’s energy demand has been at its peak since 2011 amid the energy crisis sparked by the war in Ukraine, with the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry describing the difference between supply and demand as “serious”. Japan has been experiencing power outages since March, when an earthquake in the northeast shut down some of the country’s nuclear power plants.
