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☆ A Breakthrough in Plastic Recycling Is Coming Up Short
▼ + stars: | 2024-04-05 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

By 2025, Nestle promises not to use any plastic in its products that isn’t recyclable. By that same year, L’Oreal says all of its packaging will be “refillable, reusable, recyclable or compostable.”And by 2030, Procter & Gamble pledges that it will halve its use of virgin plastic resin made from petroleum. To get there, these companies and others are promoting a new generation of recycling plants, called “advanced” or “chemical” recycling, that promise to recycle many more products than can be recycled today. So far, advanced recycling is struggling to deliver on its promise. Nevertheless, the new technology is being hailed by the plastics industry as a solution to an exploding global waste problem.

Persons: Nestle, L’Oreal Organizations: Procter, Gamble

☆ ‘Garbage Lasagna’: Dumps Are a Big Driver of Warming, Study Says
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-28 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

They’re vast expanses that can be as big as towns: open landfills where household waste ends up, whether it’s vegetable scraps or old appliances. These landfills also belch methane, a powerful, planet-warming gas, on average at almost three times the rate reported to federal regulators, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Science. The study measured methane emissions at about 20 percent of about 1,200 large, operating landfills in the United States. It adds to a growing body of evidence that landfills are a significant driver of climate change, said Riley Duren, founder of the public-private partnership Carbon Mapper, who took part in the study. “We’ve largely been in the dark, as a society, about actual emissions from landfills,” said Mr. Duren, a former NASA engineer and scientist.

Persons: Riley Duren, “ We’ve, ” Organizations: Carbon, NASA Locations: United States, Duren

☆ Court Temporarily Halts S.E.C.’s New Climate Rules
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-15 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal court on Friday temporarily halted new rules from the Securities Exchange Commission that require public companies to disclose more about the business risks they face from climate change, siding with two oil and gas companies that criticized the requirements as costly and arbitrary. this month, the rules require some publicly traded companies to disclose their climate risks, and how much greenhouse gas emissions they produce. Ten Republican-led states have also sued to stop the rules. to effectively regulate the controversial issue of climate change,” the two companies wrote in their petition. They were “arbitrary and capricious,” the two companies said, and violated the First Amendment, which protects free speech, by “effectively mandating discussions about climate change.”

Persons: “, ” Organizations: Securities Exchange Commission, Industry, U.S . Chamber of Commerce, U.S ., Appeals, Fifth Circuit, Republican, Fifth, Liberty Energy, Nomad Proppant Locations: U.S

☆ U.S. Approves $500 Million for Bahrain Oil Project, Despite Opposition
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-14 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | More About Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Bahrain deal comes just months after the United States joined nearly 200 other nations in a promise to transition away from fossil fuels, the burning of which is dangerously overheating the planet. It also comes as Mr. Biden is working to shore up support from climate-minded voters as he runs for re-election. In February, plans to finance the Bahrain projects prompted two of the bank’s climate advisers to resign. The Bahrain project is one of several controversial overseas fossil fuel ventures that ExIm Bank is currently considering. Also being considered are a natural gas export project in Papua New Guinea and an offshore pipeline in Guyana, alongside some projects related to renewable energy like a zinc-lead mine in Greenland.

Persons: Biden, Biden’s Organizations: United States, ExIm Locations: Bahrain, Papua New Guinea, Guyana, Greenland

☆ Oil Fields Release Far More Methane Than Thought, Study Finds
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-13 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Oil and gas producers in major oil fields across the United States may be emitting three times as much planet-warming methane gas as official estimates, according to new research published Wednesday, the latest study to suggest that emissions from the fossil fuel sector may be grossly undercounted. In some parts of New Mexico, more than 9 percent of the natural gas produced was escaping into the atmosphere, researchers said in the study, published in the journal, Nature. Methane is the main component of natural gas, and when released unburned into the atmosphere it acts as an extremely powerful greenhouse gas. It can warm the planet more than 80 times as much as the same amount of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period. The release of methane — often through leaks at well sites or gas processing plants, along pipelines or in other energy facilities — is bad news for global warming, which is already causing higher sea levels, fiercer storms, more intense droughts and a greater loss of biodiversity around the world.

Locations: United States, New Mexico

☆ He’s Accused of Smuggling, but Not Drugs or Guns: It’s Greenhouse Gases
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-05 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

On Monday, a California man became the first in the nation to be arrested and charged with smuggling the powerful gases into the United States, a felony offense, according to the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of California. Mr. Hart then posted the refrigerants for sale on OfferUp, Facebook Marketplace and other sites, and sold them for a profit, federal agents say. Mr. Hart pleaded not guilty. He faces charges of conspiracy, importation contrary to law and sale of merchandise imported contrary to law. Attempts to reach lawyers for Mr. Hart were unsuccessful.

Persons: Michael Hart, Hart Organizations: Craigslist, United States Attorney’s Office, Southern, Southern District of, Facebook Locations: California, United States, United, Southern District, Southern District of California, San Diego, coolants, Mexico

☆ Tracking an Invisible Climate Menace From 360 Miles Above
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-03 | by ( Malika Khurana | Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +8 min

Gas sensor housing Infrared sensor Spectrometer Tracking an Invisible Climate Menace From 360 Miles Above There will soon be a new eye in the sky that’s designed to detect emissions of methane, an invisible yet potent gas that is dangerously heating the world. MethaneSAT will sweep the globe using a high-resolution infrared sensor to detect and track methane leaks from oil and gas sites worldwide. Scientists estimate that human-caused methane emissions are responsible for up to 30 percent of the global warming being experienced today. Figuring out where methane emissions are happening, how big they are and who’s responsible has been a challenge. Methane also seeps from natural sources, like flooded wetlands, but the majority of methane emissions today come from human activity.

Persons: ”, Steven Hamburg, ’, Dr, Hamburg, MethaneSAT, “, Drew Shindell, wasn’t, Biden, Bjorn Otto Sverdrup Organizations: Environmental Defense Fund, Google, Duke University, MethaneSAT, Union, Oil, Climate Initiative, Star Locations: Texas, United States

☆ Two Young Climate Scientists. Two Visions of the Solution.
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | Damon Casarez | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two good friends, Rebecca Grekin and Yannai Kashtan, met up one crisp December morning at Stanford University, where they both study and teach. Work that has changed the world. Ms. Grekin and Mr. Kashtan are young climate researchers. I had asked them there to explain how they hoped to change the world themselves. “I’m just not convinced we need fossil fuel companies’ help,” said Mr. Kashtan, 25, as we toured the lab where he works, surrounded by sensitive electronic gear used to detect methane.

Persons: Rebecca Grekin, Yannai Kashtan, Grekin, Kashtan, “ I’m, ” Organizations: Stanford University

☆ E.P.A. Sets New Rules to Limit Damage From Disasters at Chemical Facilities
▼ + stars: | 2024-03-01 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Biden administration issued new rules on Friday designed to prevent disasters at almost 12,000 chemical plants and other industrial sites nationwide that handle hazardous materials. The regulations for the first time tell facilities to explicitly address disasters, such as storms or floods, that could trigger an accidental release, including threats linked to climate change. For the first time, chemical sites that have had prior accidents will need to undergo an independent audit. And the rules require chemical plants to share more information with neighbors and emergency responders. In 2017, severe flooding from Hurricane Harvey knocked out power at a peroxide plant outside Houston, causing chemicals to overheat and explode, triggering local evacuations.

Persons: ” Janet McCabe, Hurricane Harvey Organizations: Biden, Environmental Protection Agency, Administration Locations: Hurricane, Houston

☆ Mercury Pollution Is Falling, but Not in Tuna. This Might Be Why.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-27 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

In the 1960s and 1970s, the horrors of mercury poisoning in Japan and elsewhere shocked the world into curbing releases of the toxic metal. Since then, mercury pollution from human activities, like burning coal and mining, has declined in many parts of the world. But when a team of French researchers analyzed thousands of tuna samples from 1971 to 2022, they found that mercury levels in the fish remained virtually unchanged. Using modeling, they predicted that, even with the most stringent mercury regulations, it would take an additional 10 to 25 years for mercury concentrations to start falling in the ocean. Drops in mercury in tuna would follow only decades after that.

Organizations: Science, Technology Locations: Japan

☆ California Tried to Ban Plastic Grocery Bags. It Didn’t Work.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-15 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Almost a decade ago, California became the first state in the United States to ban single-use plastic bags in an effort to tackle an intractable plastic waste problem. Then came the reusable, heavy-duty plastic bags, offered to shoppers for ten cents. Designed to withstand dozens of uses, and technically recyclable, many retailers treated them as exempt from the ban. But because they didn’t look much different from the flimsy bags they replaced, lots of people didn’t actually reuse them. The unhappy result: Last year, Californians threw away more plastic bags, by weight, than when the law first passed, according to figures from CalRecycle, California’s recycling agency.

Locations: California, United States, CalRecycle

☆ They’re the Stanley Cup Champions. And That’s a Lot of Mugs.
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-09 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

The Stanley Tumbler, this year’s smash hit, is, at first glance, a win for the planet. Unlike the throwaway plastic bottles it’s meant to replace, it doesn’t generate mountains of plastic trash. “Some millennials or Gen-Z are already embarrassed to carry a Stanley,” said Casey Lewis, who writes the trendspotting newsletter, After School. Stanley sold an estimated 10 million “Quencher” water tumblers in 2023, and the company’s total sales for that year are expected to have reached $750 million, up from less than $100 million in 2020. The #StanleyCup hashtag has been viewed billions of times on TikTok.

Persons: Stanley Tumbler, ”, Casey Lewis, Stanley, hashtag Locations: TikTok

☆ Two Climate Advisers Quit U.S. Export-Import Bank Over Fossil Fuel Plans
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-05 | by ( Lisa Friedman | Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

A federal bank that finances projects overseas is set to vote on Thursday on whether to use taxpayer dollars to help drill oil and gas wells in Bahrain, a contentious decision that prompted two of the bank’s climate advisers to resign, according to people with knowledge of their decisions. The project in Bahrain is one of several controversial overseas fossil fuel projects that the Export-Import Bank of the United States is currently considering. The two advisers, who sit on an 18-person board that President Biden created to help the bank take climate change into account when making investments, resigned last week after a meeting about the Bahrain project, according to five current and former bank officials, who spoke on the condition that they not be identified because they were not authorized to discuss internal deliberations. They described mounting frustration among climate advisory board members, who say they are being kept in the dark about upcoming fossil fuel loans and blocked from making recommendations about whether to approve or even modify a particular project.

Persons: Biden Organizations: Export, Import Bank Locations: Bahrain, United States

☆ Bank of America Reverses Its Pledge Not to Finance Fossil Fuels
▼ + stars: | 2024-02-03 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

Two years ago, Bank of America won kudos from climate activists for saying it would no longer finance new coal mines, coal-burning power plants or Arctic drilling projects because of the toll they take on the environment. The bank’s latest environment and social-risk policy reneged on those commitments. Wall Street in particular has come under fire for what some Republicans have called “woke capitalism,” a campaign that has pulled banks into the wider culture wars. States including Texas and West Virginia have passed financial regulations designed to ward off efforts to deny fossil-fuel companies access to banking services. In New Hampshire, state lawmakers have sought to criminalize the business principle known as E.S.G., shorthand for environmental, social and governance.

Persons: ” Organizations: of America, ” Bank, Republican Locations: Texas, West Virginia, New Hampshire

☆ Biden Administration Faces Pushback on Another Gas Project, This Time Overseas
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-26 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

Even as the Biden administration, under pressure from environmentalists, hits pause on its approval of a major natural gas export terminal in the United States, it faces another big gas decision overseas. A $13 billion natural gas export project in Papua New Guinea led by TotalEnergies and Exxon Mobil is on a shortlist of projects set to receive financing from the U.S. Export-Import Bank, or Ex-Im, which supports American businesses around the world. The Papua LNG gas project would join a portfolio of oil and gas projects the bank funds, including an oil refinery in Indonesia and an oil tank project in the Bahamas. The bank is also considering financing an offshore pipeline and natural gas plants in Guyana. Some climate activists see a big contradiction between climate actions the government is taking in the United States versus around the world.

Persons: Biden Organizations: TotalEnergies, Exxon Mobil, U.S . Export, Import Bank Locations: United States, Papua New Guinea, Papua, Indonesia, Bahamas, Guyana

☆ Rare Earth Metals May Be Lurking in Your Junk Drawer
▼ + stars: | 2024-01-20 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

A vast and largely overlooked source of rare earth metals, materials critical for clean energy, could be in our homes, sitting in the back of our cabinets and junk drawers. A new study from researchers in China and the Netherlands estimates that reusing or recycling rare earth metals from old cellphones, hard drives, electric motors and turbines could meet as much as 40 percent of the demand for the metals in the United States, China and Europe by 2050. It’s a promising prospect, particularly for the United States, which relies heavily on imports of these materials, often just called rare earths. That reliance, industry experts say, can make American supply chains vulnerable to disruption and geopolitical risks.

Persons: It’s Locations: China, Netherlands, United States, Europe

☆ Files Suggest Climate Summit’s Leader Is Using Event to Promote Fossil Fuels
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-28 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | More About Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

As hosts of global climate talks that begin this week, the United Arab Emirates are expected to play a central role in forging an agreement to move the world more rapidly away from coal, oil and gas. But behind the scenes, the Emirates has sought to use its position as host to pursue a contradictory goal: to lobby on oil and gas deals around the world, according to an internal document made public by a whistle-blower. In one example, the document offers guidance for Emirati climate officials to use meetings with Brazil’s environment minister to enlist her help with a local petrochemical deal by the Abu Dhabi National Oil Company, the Emirates’ state-run oil and gas company, known as Adnoc. Emirati officials should also inform their Chinese counterparts that Adnoc was “willing to jointly evaluate international LNG opportunities” in Mozambique, Canada and Australia, the document indicates. LNG stands for liquefied natural gas, which is a fossil fuel and a driver of global warming.

Persons: Adnoc Organizations: United, Emirates, Abu, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company Locations: United Arab Emirates, Abu Dhabi, Mozambique, Canada, Australia

☆ Former Coal Towns Get Money for Clean-Energy Factories
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-27 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: 1 min

In Weirton, W.Va., in the heart of coal country, a company started by MIT scientists plans to build a plant that will produce a metal and alloy critical for clean energy, fuel cells and cleaner steel. In Vernon, Texas, also a former coal town, a third-generation wind entrepreneur plans to manufacture turbines suitable for remote, rural locations. And in Vandergrift, Pa., and Louisville, Colo., a window maker plans to retrofit aging factories to produce thin, insulated units that help make buildings more energy efficient. They’re all projects getting federal funding designed to help small- and medium-sized manufacturers bring clean-energy jobs to former coal communities, part of a $1 trillion infrastructure package signed by President Biden in 2021. The Energy Department announced the projects on Monday.

Persons: Biden Organizations: MIT, The Energy Department Locations: Vernon , Texas, Vandergrift, Pa, Louisville, Colo

It’s no secret that fossil fuels are still going strong, as we discussed last month. But a new United Nations-backed report paints an alarming picture of how dramatically coal, oil and gas production is expected to grow in the coming years. If current projections hold, the United States will drill for more oil and gas in 2030 than at any point in its history, our colleague Hiroko Tabuchi reports. In fact, almost all of the top 20 fossil fuel-producing countries plan to produce more oil, gas and coal in 2030 than they do today. “We cannot address climate catastrophe without tackling its root cause: fossil fuel dependence.”

Persons: Hiroko Tabuchi, António Guterres Organizations: United Nations Locations: United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia

☆ Nations That Vowed to Halt Warming Are Expanding Fossil Fuels, Report Finds
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-08 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | More About Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And over the past decade, governments and businesses have made progress in weaning themselves from fossil fuels by ramping up wind and solar power, for example, and investing in electric vehicle infrastructure. Yet the report issued on Wednesday, led by researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute, found that nations of the world plan to keep increasing coal production until 2030, and oil and gas production decades beyond that. The world was also set to overshoot, by 69 percent, the amount of fossil fuels consistent with limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius. Beyond those thresholds, the world faces the danger of irreversible and catastrophic damage from climate change, scientists say. The authors partly credited nations’ nascent efforts to rein in their emissions under the 2015 Paris Agreement, and the rapid growth in clean energy.

Organizations: Stockholm Environment Institute Locations: Stockholm, Paris

☆ Inside Poland Spring’s Hidden Attack on Water Rules It Didn’t Like
▼ + stars: | 2023-10-24 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +14 min

The BlueTriton bottling plant in Poland Spring, Maine, this month. Water Clashes NationwideBlueTriton finds itself pitted against local water boards, environmentalists and other groups across the country. Aquifers Water bottling facility BlueTriton facility Aquifers Water bottling facility BlueTriton facility Aquifers Water bottling facility BlueTriton facility Water bottling facility Aquifers BlueTriton facility Water bottling facility Aquifers BlueTriton facility Water bottling facility Aquifers BlueTriton facility Sources: U.S. Geological Survey; Continental U.S. aquifer map data from GebreEgziabher, Jasechko and Perrone, Nature Communications (2022) Mira Rojanasakul/The New York TimesIn California, BlueTriton has publicly criticized and vowed to fight a cease-and-desist order issued by the state’s water board to stop diverting millions of gallons of water from a spring in San Bernardino County. Poland Spring water was first packaged as a local elixir in the mid-1800s. The original Poland Spring water source.

Persons: BlueTriton, ”, Elizabeth M, Frazier, haven’t, Christopher Kessler, Bottlers, Ms, Frazier didn’t, Anthony Moffa, Mark Lawrence, Lawrence, Mira Rojanasakul, State Legislature’s, Margaret M, “, John Mullaney, Roger Crouse, Cheryl Dieter, Metropoulos, Nestlé, John McGowan, Natalie DiPentino, DiPentino, Poland Spring, BlueTriton’s Organizations: The New York Times, Times, Democratic, Energy, Utilities, Technology, Maine State House, ”, Industries, University of Maine School of Law ., Democrat, Water, . Geological Survey, Continental, Nature Communications, New York Times, State, Poland, U.S, Geological, Water Science, Industry, Maine Water Utilities Association, United States Geological Survey, Rock Capital Partners, Metropoulos, Moody’s Investors Service Locations: Maine, Poland, Poland Spring , Maine, South Portland, Michigan, Colorado, Augusta, In Colorado, Arkansas, United States, Continental U.S, GebreEgziabher, California, San Bernardino County, In Michigan, Lincoln, Lincoln , Maine, New York, BlueTriton’s Poland, Chaffee County , Colorado

☆ ‘Monster Fracks’ Are Getting Far Bigger. And Far Thirstier.
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-25 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | Blacki Migliozzi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +23 min

Dallas TEXAS Austin Houston San Antonio Dallas TEXAS Austin Houston San Antonio TEXAS TEXAS Amarillo Lubbock Dallas El Paso TEXAS Austin Houston San Antonio Corpus Christi UNCHARTED WATERS ‘Monster Fracks’ Are Getting Far Bigger. Water wells that supply fracking Nationwide, fracking has used up nearly 1.5 trillion gallons of water since 2011. Now they account for almost two out of every three fracking wells in Texas, the Times analysis found. ‘Monster fracks’ take off in Texas Proportion of fracks Source: FracFocus chemical disclosure database as of Aug. 1, 2023. In 2020, New Mexico halted sales of water supplies to oil and gas companies fracking on state land.

☆ Leaked Recording of U.A.E. Officials Reveals the Nation’s Concern Over Its Public Image
▼ + stars: | 2023-09-01 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | More About Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

When the United Arab Emirates hosts this year’s United Nations climate summit, it will elevate the Gulf nation’s global profile. But the conference is also inviting scrutiny of the Emirates’ record on human rights as well as its position as a leading oil producer. A leaked recording of a February meeting between representatives from the United Arab Emirates and summit organizers provides a candid look at their efforts to respond to the criticism. It also highlights the authoritarian state’s focus on its image, managed through contracts with public relations companies, lobbyists and social media specialists around the world. The Times verified the recording with the person who made it, who asked to remain anonymous out of concerns about retaliation.

Organizations: United Arab Emirates, Emirates, United Arab, Centre, Climate, The New York Times, Times Locations: United Nations, United Arab Emirates, London

☆ Maui Sued Big Oil in 2020, Citing Fire Risks and More
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-18 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | More About Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And while lawsuits like the one filed by Maui have been delayed by procedural issues, the fires could be an important part of the county’s claim for damages should the case go to trial, legal experts said. Maui’s arguments are also likely to resonate with a local jury. And while that attribution can take time, scientists have pointed to Hawaii’s declining average rainfall as well as drought, hurricane winds and other conditions linked to climate change as factors that fueled the Maui fire. The fossil fuel industry has tried to move the Maui and other climate cases to federal court, where it hoped for better outcomes. But the U.S. Supreme Court decided last year that they should remain in state courts.

Persons: “, ”, Richard Wallsgrove, it’s Organizations: Environmental, University of Hawaii, Supreme Locations: Maui, Hawaii, Manoa, U.S

☆ It’s Official: Stores Can No Longer Sell Most Incandescent Lights
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-01 | by ( Hiroko Tabuchi | More About Hiroko Tabuchi | ) www.nytimes.com time to read: +1 min

And a few specialized kinds of incandescent bulbs — like those that go inside ovens, and bug lights — are exempt. But most if not all other incandescents will struggle to meet the new efficiency standards, and the same goes for a more recent generation of halogen lights. “Going from an incandescent to an LED is like replacing a car that gets 25 miles per gallon with another one that gets 130 m.p.g.,” he said. With the new rules in place, the Department of Energy expects Americans to collectively save nearly $3 billion a year on their utility bills. In the past, a knock on LEDs was that they were more expensive to buy, but prices for LED bulbs have fallen rapidly to near parity with incandescents.

Persons: ”, Lucas Davis, “ Organizations: “ Energy, Haas School of Business, University of California, Department of Energy, Research, Energy Department Locations: Berkeley

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