Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

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California: "can i finally have the sunshine state title now"

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HS2 Chiltern Tunnel sinkholes appear in Buckinghamshire

3 hours ago

Sinkholes thought to be caused by the boring of tunnels for the HS2 rail project have opened up in a field.

Two new holes were discovered on land on the outskirts of South Heath, near Great Missenden, Bucks, where the Chiltern Tunnel is being constructed.

It means four craters have been caused by HS2 in the county in nine months.

HS2 Ltd said "safety was its top priority" and both sinkholes had been fenced off amid ongoing tunnelling operations.

The smaller of the two holes was found next to Frith Hill during routine monitoring on 7 February, with a larger feature found in the same field five days later, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-b ... s-68326138

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Biden administration to reportedly relax EV rule on tailpipe emissions

Source: CNBC

Published Sun, Feb 18 2024 11:22 AM EST

U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration intends to relax limits on tailpipe emissions that are designed to get Americans to move from gas-powered cars to electric vehicles, the New York Times reported, citing people familiar with the plan.

The administration would give car manufacturers more time instead of requiring them to rapidly ramp up sales of electric vehicles over the next few years, the report said, adding that the new rule could be published by early spring.

The shift would mean that EV sales would not need to rise sharply until after 2030.

Reuters previously reported that the White House could enact proposed Environmental Protection Agency regulations as soon as March that would mandate dramatic reductions in tailpipe emissions. The administration proposal would require boosting U.S. EV market share to 67% by 2032 from less than 8% in 2023.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/02/18/biden-a ... sions.html

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Biden administration to approve E15 gasoline expansion starting in 2025, sources say

Source: Reuters

February 20, 2024 7:07 AM EST

Feb 20 (Reuters) - The White House will approve a request from a group of Midwest governors to allow year-round sales of gasoline with higher blends of ethanol, but will push the start date into next year, two sources familiar with discussions said.

The decision will likely be bittersweet for the biofuel industry, which wants to expand sales of corn-based ethanol but might be frustrated by the 2025 start date. The one-year delay could put off any potential localized price spikes and supply issues that the oil industry says could arise from the decision until after the U.S. election, the sources said.

Under the plan, the administration would grant a 2022 request from the governors of Illinois, Iowa, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin to allow year-round sales of E15, or gasoline with 15% ethanol, starting next year, the sources said. In the meantime, the EPA could issue a temporary waiver enabling such sales as needed.

Wisconsin and Minnesota are battleground states in this year's presidential contest in November. Inflation and the economy are key vulnerabilities for President Joe Biden's re-election campaign. The U.S. government restricts sales of E15 gasoline in summer months due to environmental concerns over smog.

Read more: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/biden- ... 024-02-20/

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Mercury mystery: Poisonous element persists in tuna

1 hour ago

Levels of mercury persist in tuna, decades after pollution controls were introduced to limit emissions, scientists say.

The poisonous element is released by mining and burning coal and ends up in the ocean, where it builds up in fish.

Levels have fallen dramatically in the atmosphere - but remained stable in tuna since 1971.

Very old mercury lurks deep in the ocean and wells up into the waters where the tuna swim, experts say.

Mercury entering marine ecosystems is converted into methylmercury, the most dangerous form of the chemical.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68339664

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UK quits treaty that lets oil firms sue government

2 hours ago

The UK has withdrawn from an international treaty that lets fossil-fuel companies sue governments pursuing climate policies for billions in compensation for lost profits.

The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) is meant to make it easier and cheaper to trade energy between countries.

But signatories have struggled to reform it - and late on Wednesday, the UK quit the treaty calling it "outdated".

Green campaigners welcomed the news.

Energy Security and Net Zero Minister Graham Stuart said: "Remaining a member would not support our transition to cleaner, cheaper energy and could even penalise us for our world-leading efforts to deliver net zero."

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-68369916

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EU Policy. Right-wing in last-ditch bid to torpedo nature restoration law

23/02/2024 - 16:08

Despite latest efforts from center-right lawmakers to block the bill, Socialists, Greens and The Left are eager to see the adoption of the nature restoration.

The European Parliament will vote next week on legislation intended to reverse decades of ecosystem degradation, but right-wing groups want to renege on a recent political agreement with EU governments and reject the law out of hand instead of giving it the expected rubber stamp.

The Nature Restoration Law, provisionally agreed with the EU Council last November after months of highly politicised negotiations, requires action to improve biodiversity across 20% of all EU land and sea by 2030 and the incremental restoration of all degraded ecosystems by 2050, alongside other measures such as opening up 25,000km of free-flowing rivers and planting at least three billion new trees.

Yet after a considerable watering down from the European Commission’s proposal, announced in June 2022, the European Conservatives and Reformists (ECR) and the Identity and Democracy (ID) groups in parliament both introduced last-minute amendments to the law on Tuesday (February 21) calling on the parliament to reject the law as a whole.

The ECR has also tabled a set of six amendments that would greatly water down the legislation, such as limiting its effect to protected Natura 2000 areas, EU special conservation zones. The adoption of any of the amendments would mean re-opening talks with member states, effectively pushing the adoption of the bill into the next mandate after the EU elections in June.

https://www.euronews.com/green/2024/02/ ... ration-law

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UK gives £600m backing to Jim Ratcliffe’s ‘carbon bomb’ petrochemical plant

Thu 29 Feb 2024 15.35 GMT

The UK government is providing a €700m (£600m) guarantee for the billionaire Jim Ratcliffe to build the biggest petrochemical plant in Europe in 30 years that will turbocharge plastic production.

The huge petrochemical plant has been described as a “carbon bomb” by campaigners. Being constructed in the Belgian city of Antwerp by Ratcliffe’s company Ineos, it will bring plastic production to Europe on a scale not seen before, just as countries are trying to negotiate a binding global treaty to tackle the growing problem of plastic pollution.

More than 350m metric tonnes of plastic waste is produced a year, and by 2060 plastic waste is set to increase to 1bn metric tonnes. Antwerp is a key production centre for plastic in Europe and has created pollution from plastic pellets and emissions that supercharge global heating, campaigners say.

But despite admitting the plant’s adverse impact on climate, biodiversity, the environment and the risks to social and human health, the British government has provided financial guarantees of €700m to support the building of Project One in Antwerp.

The support from the UK government’s export finance department, an arm of the Department for Business and Trade, to Ratfliffe, now a high-profile part-owner of Manchester United Football Club, exceeds that promised by the same department for countries in Africa and the Middle East to adapt to climate breakdown.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... ical-plant

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One of the world's most populated cities is nearly out of water

https://www.msn.com/en-us/weather/topst ... r-BB1jjfU7