Daily on Energy: The part of Bernie Sanders’ plan that has climate experts worried

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THE PART OF BERNIE SANDERS’ PLAN THAT HAS CLIMATE EXPERTS WORRIED: Bernie Sanders’ new climate change plan is drawing attention for being the most expensive — spending $16.3 trillion, and the most aggressive — calling for 100% renewable energy for electricity and transportation by 2030.

But climate and energy experts tell me Sanders’ proposals for allocating that funding run counter to his goals.

“For Bernie to put together a plan that emphasizes the need for immediate action but completely rejects what scientists tell us we need to do to solve the problem tells me this is a political ideological plan more than a serious effort to solve the problem,” Jeff Navin, a former chief of staff at the Energy Department in the Obama administration, told me. “Bernie, in a lot of ways, has the worst of both worlds. He is putting together a very expensive big plan that isn’t going to get us where we need to be to solve the problem.”

The criticism: Navin is critical of Sanders for opposing nuclear energy and carbon capture and storage technology. Sanders distinguished himself from other major candidates by saying he favors a 100% renewable electricity system — chiefly wind and solar — that does not include other zero-carbon options.

To achieve 100% renewable electricity by 2030, the plan would not rely on “false solutions like nuclear, geoengineering, carbon capture and sequestration, or trash incinerators.”

The United Nations’ climate change panel, in contrast, envisions carbon capture and nuclear as having a significant role in reaching net-zero emissions across the entire U.S. economy by 2050 — an end goal that Sanders shares.

“I see ruling out any valuable low-carbon technologies and policies as fighting the battle with one arm tied behind our backs,” said Noah Kaufman, an energy economist at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy.

While few candidates are explicitly cheering on nuclear power, most recognize that it provides more than half of the nation’s zero-carbon electricity. Sanders, however, wants to impose a moratorium on licence renewals for existing power plants, along with stopping the building of new plants.

“It’s very hard to target a net-zero emission economy by 2050 if we are shutting down nuclear,” Leah Stokes, an assistant professor of environmental politics at the University of California at Santa Barbara, told me. “A lot of people on the left believe that, but very few are willing to say it.”

The defense: Supporters of Sanders’ plan say he is right to focus on renewables at the expense of nuclear, given fears about waste storage and the cost of building new plants.

“This plan is sort of actually now the gold standard and eclipses Jay Inslee’s plan even if he was still in the race,” Brett Hartl, government affairs director at the Center for Biological Diversity Action Fund, told me. “It has the proper level of ambition. On nuclear, he has the right answer.”

Getting into the details: Stokes also criticized Sanders’ for investing a relatively small amount of his $16 trillion in R&D for innovation — less than $1 trillion by her calculation. While Sanders calls for investing $30 billion to boost energy storage, a technology which would be key to achieving his 100% renewables goal, Stokes notes he is proposing more funding — $150 billion — for rural broadband.

“The challenge with the Sanders plan is it’s a lot of money and its not clear that every allocation decision is the smartest it could be in terms of reducing emissions,” Stokes said.

Stokes, however, complimented other parts of Sanders’ plan, including his aggressive plans for penalizing fossil fuel companies for contributing to climate change.

Not only does Sanders call for federal government-led litigation against fossil fuel companies — both criminal and civil — but he also proposes aggressive policies, such as stopping all exports and imports of fossil fuels, and banning fracking.

“There is space for moral clarity on climate change and Bernie speaking out so forcefully against the fossil fuel industry is powerful and positive,” Stokes said. “I don’t think he can back it up with the law. But the fossil fuel industry does need to wake up, and his rhetoric is helpful in that regard.”

Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writer Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe). Email [email protected] for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.

YANG PROPOSES CARBON TAX AND DIVIDEND TO ADDRESS CLIMATE CHANGE: Presidential candidate Andrew Yang released a plan to combat climate change Monday that would focus heavily on helping communities adapt to the effects of global warming.

“Innovation must also be relied on to reverse the damage already caused,” Yang said in a post on his website. “While the role of the federal government is important, much of the work will be done at the state, or even neighborhood, level.”

Yang would extend his trademark universal basic income idea and apply it to climate change, proposing a carbon tax and dividend that would return the revenue to American households. He also would “invest heavily” in carbon capture and geoengineering technologies to “reverse the damage” already caused by climate change.

TRUMP DITCHES G-7 CLIMATE CHANGE MEETING: President Trump did not attend a Group of 7 meeting Monday focused on climate change and the environment.

White House press secretary, Stephanie Grisham, told reporters at the G-7 Summit in France that a senior member of the administration attended the meeting instead of Trump.

The rest of the G-7 leaders attended the meeting focused on climate, oceans and biodiversity.

Trump skipped the meeting despite indicating in a speech last month that he intended to focus on his environmental record heading into the 2020 election.

Asked about ditching the climate meeting, Trump, according to pool reporters, repeated his refrain that “I want clean air and water,” seemingly conflating those things with climate change.

Earlier at the summit, Trump administration officials reportedly criticized French President Emmanuel Macron for focusing the gathering of top world leaders on “niche” issues like climate change.

Trump’s colleagues chose to essentially ignore the Trump administration’s neglect of climate change. Macron told reporters it’s no longer his goal to convince the president to accept the Paris climate accord.

G7 COUNTRIES APPROVE $20 MILLION AID PACKAGE TO HELP FIGHT AMAZON FIRES: G7 countries agreed Monday to provide $20 million in aid to help Brazil fight fires raging in the Amazon rainforest, and also launched a long-term global initiative to protect the Amazon.

Macron announced the agreement after referring to the wildfires as an “international crisis” and a significant contributor to climate change.

The Amazon produces 20% of the world’s oxygen and is considered crucial to sustaining life on Earth. The rainforest is also a hub of incredible biodiversity and is vital to combating climate change by absorbing carbon dioxide. Experts say the current wildfires are sending huge amounts of greenhouse gases back into the atmosphere.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro this weekend ordered the deployment of troops to fight the wildfires in an apparent reversal from previously downplaying the blaze.

Bolsonaro, a right-wing politician, had rejected claims that his government was at fault for negatively impacting the wildfires through policies aimed at deforestation in favor of business development.

Worldwide protests have been held in condemnation of Bolsonaro’s climate policies, and Democratic Senator Brian Schatz of Hawaii advocated for the U.S. to cease all monetary contributions to Brazil until the blazes are extinguished.

PUERTO RICO FACES HURRICANE THREAT FROM DORIAN: Puerto Rico could be hit by a hurricane this week.

Less than two years after Hurricanes Irma and Maria ravaged the island, Tropical Storm Dorian, the fourth named storm of the Atlantic hurricane season, is moving in its direction. Some models show Dorian, which currently boasts maximum sustained winds of 50 mph, reaching hurricane strength as it nears the Caribbean.

Tropical storm warnings have already been issued for islands such as Barbados, St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines.

The National Hurricane Center said in its latest public advisory that it is “too soon to determine the specific time or magnitude of possible direct impacts in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands, or Hispaniola interests in those areas should monitor the progress of Dorian.”

METEOROLOGISTS PAN TRUMP FOR SUGGESTING NUKES TO STOP HURRICANES: A report about Trump suggesting the use of nuclear bombs to prevent hurricanes from hitting the United States received a stormy reaction from meteorologists and weather experts on Sunday.

“Over my 35 years as a meteorologist I have received calls & handwritten letters from people proposing this. I gently try to explain to them that according to @NASA a hurricane can expend as much energy as 10,000 nuclear bombs during its life cycle. Futile and obviously dangerous,” John Morales, a chief meteorologist at NBC 6 in Miami, tweeted.

Ryan Maue, another meteorologist, agreed about the idea’s ineffectiveness.

“Detonating a nuclear bomb inside a hurricane would do nothing to disrupt the storm,” he said. “Instead, you now have a radioactive hurricane.”

Trump denied Monday ever discussing blowing up hurricanes with nuclear weapons, calling the concept “ridiculous.”

OIL INDUSTRY FRETS OVER NEW CHINA TARIFFS, WARNS TRUMP TO END TRADE WAR: The American Petroleum Institute warned Trump Friday that his trade war with China is harming the oil and gas industry, and poised to cause more damage.

The oil and gas industry trade group issued an unusually aggressive statement after China announced another round of retaliatory tariffs on $75 billion worth of U.S. goods, including U.S. crude oil and several other petroleum products.

China had already imposed a 25% retaliatory tariffs on U.S. liquified natural gas, just as the country is poised to be a top consumer of the fuel.

“This escalation of the U.S.- China trade war is another step in the wrong direction, the consequences of which will be felt by American businesses and families,” said Kyle Isakower, API’s vice president of regulatory and economic policy. “In addition to the impacts on the U.S. economy and jobs, U.S. energy leadership and global competitiveness are threatened as U.S. natural gas and oil exports continue to serve as targets for retaliation.”

Already feeling the damage: Even before China’s retaliation against U.S. crude exports, API said the trade war has harmed the oil and gas industry.

From October 2017 to June 2018, China had imported 22% of all U.S. crude oil, but that number has dropped to 3%.

KEYSTONE XL PIPELINE CLEARS KEY HURDLE: The Nebraska Supreme Court upheld the state’s approval Friday of the long-contested Keystone XL pipeline, clearing a major hurdle for the project to be built.

The court ruled in favor of a new route for the pipeline approved by Nebraska regulators in 2017.

Nebraska regulators approved an in-state permit for Keystone XL in November, but they rejected developer TC Energy’s (formerly TransCanada) preferred route, approving an alternative that would move the pipeline further east.

The $8 billion Keystone XL pipeline, which has been in the works for over a decade, would send oil from Canada’s Alberta oil sands to Steele City, Neb., and then on to refineries along the Gulf Coast. But it has been challenged by environmental advocates worried about spills and climate change.

The pipeline still faces challenges: It must overcome an ongoing lawsuit in Montana, after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration did not adequately considered impacts to the environment when it approved a cross-border permit for Keystone XL in 2017.

TC Energy also hasn’t decided whether to build the project, as it decides whether it would be economically viable with low oil prices.

ENERGY DEPARTMENT BOATS OF WIND POWER GROWTH IN 2018: The Department of Energy touted Friday the continued growth of onshore wind power installations, while boasting about progress for offshore wind, in its annual wind market report.

“Onshore wind energy installation continues to grow across the country, and this Administration has proven that we can pursue renewable energy advancements and deployment, particularly wind energy resources, which are predicted to surpass other sources of renewable power generation this year,” said Under Secretary of Energy Mark Menezes.

Driven by “record low costs and prices,” the U.S. wind industry installed 7,588 megawatts of capacity last year, bringing total utility-scale wind capacity to over 96 gigawatts, according to the report, which was produced by DOE’s Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

Texas leads the nation with nearly 25 gigawatts of wind capacity, while California, Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma have more than 5 gigawatts.

Wind provides 6.5% of the nation’s electricity, more than 10% of total generation in 14 states, and more than 30% in Iowa, Kansas, and Oklahoma.

The U.S. offshore wind industry, meanwhile, has a pipeline of 25,824 megawatts in various stages of development off the East Coast. The Trump administration, however, recently delivered a setback to the planned Vineyard Wind project, the nation’s first major offshore wind farm, delaying the final environmental review of the project until next year.

The Rundown

Politico The toxic waste that climate change is making worse

New York Times Tainted water, ignored warnings and a boss with a criminal past

Axios Why climate change is so hard to tackle: Our stubborn energy system

Bloomberg Trump orders biofuel boost in bid to temper farm state anger

Reuters Iran says it has sold oil from tanker released by Gibraltar

Calendar

MONDAY | August 26

House and Senate in August recess.

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