biden administration

December 19, 2024

Boosting LNG exports would harm people and the planet, DOE report concludes

By Shannon Kelleher

The US Department of Energy (DOE) this week released a report that concludes a rise in exports from the booming natural gas industry would lead to greater global fossil fuel emissions, expose already-vulnerable communities to more pollution and raise gas prices for consumers.

The publication “reinforces that a business as-usual approach is neither sustainable nor advisable,” said US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in a statement.

“Unfettered” liquified natural gas (LNG) exports would increase the price of wholesale natural gas in the US by over 30%, said Granholm, impacting households, farmers and industry. The study also concluded that current US LNG exports are “already more than enough to meet global demand,” she said, and that while LNG has been suggested as an alternative to coal for some countries, the study “shows a world in which additional US LNG exports displace more renewables than coal globally.”

The report, published Dec. 17, comes after the Biden administration last January announced a pause on pending applications for facilities that export liquified natural gas (LNG) while the DOE reviewed the approval process, citing climate change considerations. In September, more than 125 scientists signed a letter addressed to Granholm and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, warning that the increase in natural gas production threatens to worsen climate change and jeopardize public health and the environment.

“Our hope is that we can now assess the future of natural gas exports based on the facts and ensure authorizations are reviewed in a manner that truly advances the public interest of all the American people,” said Granholm. “Special scrutiny needs to be applied toward very large LNG projects,” she added, noting that a project that exports 4 billion cubic feet of LNG per day would singlehandedly emit more climate-warming greenhouse gases than almost three-quarters of the world’s countries each did in 2023.

July 3, 2024

Proposed rule could protect 36 million workers from hazardous heat

By Shannon Kelleher

As dangerous heat waves sweep the US, the Biden administration this week announced a first-of-its-kind proposed rule that could help protect about 36 million workers from heat-related deaths and injuries.

If finalized, the safety standard, proposed July 2 by the Department of Labor’s Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), would require employers to develop plans to address workplace heat hazards and to put in place requirements for rest breaks and access to shade and drinking water.

The announcement came as the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a new report on the impacts of climate change on health and the environment in the US, revealing that almost 1,000 workers died from heat exposure between 1992 and 2022, about one-third of which were construction workers. The report also found that the average number of heat waves increased from two per year in the 1960s to six per year in the 2010s and 2020s.

“Workers all over the country are passing out, suffering heat stroke and dying from heat exposure from just doing their jobs, and something must be done to protect them,” Doug Parker, Assistant Secretary for Occupational Safety and Health, said in a press release. The proposal marks “an important next step in the process to receive public input to craft a ‘win-win’ final rule that protects workers while being practical and workable for employers,” said Parker.

January 26, 2024

Biden hits the brakes on controversial gas export projects

By Shannon Kelleher

The Biden administration will temporarily pause pending applications for facilities that export natural gas, citing climate change considerations, the White House announced Friday.

The announcement, which comes after heavy pushback from environmental groups and affected communities along the Gulf, will put the brakes on eight new export terminals while the Department of Energy (DOE) reviews its approval process, including how to account for the impact of greenhouse gas emissions. The pause will not affect liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals that are already operating.

“Today, we have an evolving understanding of the market need for LNG, the long-term supply of LNG, and the perilous impacts of methane on our planet,” said the White House in a statement. “We also must adequately guard against risks to the health of our communities, especially frontline communities in the United States who disproportionately shoulder the burden of pollution from new export facilities.”

“The pause, which is subject to exception for unanticipated and immediate national security emergencies, will provide the time to integrate these critical considerations,” the White House statement said.

LNG is made of methane, a potent contributor to climate change. While industry groups have called LNG “the cleanest of the fossil fuels,” new research from Cornell currently undergoing peer review suggests its total greenhouse gas emissions are higher than those from coal.

January 12, 2024

As Biden awards nearly $1 billion for electric school buses, can utilities keep up?

By Johnathan Hettinger

The largest form of mass transit in the US is getting an overhaul – as long as utility companies can keep up.

The Biden administration this week announced nearly $1 billion for 2,700 cleaner school buses across 37 states in an attempt to curb fossil fuel pollution and improve children’s health. The vast majority of the $965 million, which is awarded by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), went to electric school buses that are supposed to replace older diesel buses.

“As the wheels of the new, electric school buses go round and round, carbon emissions and pollution are going to keep going down and down,” said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer in an EPA statement.

The funding for the five-year, $5 billion Clean School Bus Program comes through the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure and Jobs Law. So far, the program has invested nearly $2 billion to fund around 5,000 electric and low-emission school buses. In this week’s award, 86% of funding went to low-income, tribal or rural communities. But the rollout of electric school buses faces some practical challenges, according to the EPA’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), which released two reports about the program last month.

While the EPA’s top watchdog found that supply chain issues are not likely to arise because companies are ramping up production, the watchdog raised concerns about utility providers’ abilities to upgrade infrastructure.

“The increased demand on manufacturers and utility companies may impact the timeliness of replacing diesel buses and ultimately may delay program health and environmental benefits,” the report said.

The biggest hurdle to the electric fleet is how quickly utility companies can build infrastructure for the buses, the EPA said in another recent report. Bus chargers often lead to a need for new transformers, electrical lines and switch changers, according to the report. In order to be successful, school districts need to plan ahead, the EPA said.

“One utility company we interviewed stated while it had experience with electric vehicles and buses, it did not have experience at the projected scale,” said the report. “One utility company explained that it could take nine months to two years to complete construction.”

December 20, 2023

170 scientists urge Biden to reject huge proposed gas export project

By Shannon Kelleher

In the wake of the COP28 climate summit, 170 US scientists from the US and around the world sent a letter Tuesday calling for the Biden administration to reject a massive natural gas export facility proposed for Louisiana, as well as similar pending projects.

The facility, Calcasieu Pass 2 (CP2), would be the largest liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminal in the Gulf, spanning about 546 acres and shipping up to 24 million tons of LNG to other countries each year.

CP2 would be the second LNG export terminal built in the Gulf region by the company Venture Global and would result in annual emissions equivalent to 42 million gas-powered cars – 20 times more than the recently approved Willow oil project in Alaska.

“You have often said that your policies will be guided by listening to the science,” the letter says, addressing President Biden. “As scientists we are telling you in clear and unambiguous terms that approving CP2 and other LNG projects will undermine your stated goals of meaningfully addressing the climate crisis and put us on a continued path toward escalating climate chaos.”

The letter to President Biden follows a Dec. 11 letter from over 230 organizations that also implored President Biden and Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm to halt the project.

“I think what we’re seeing is the logical response to continued and repeated inaction from the Biden administration to meaningfully address any platform to phase out fossil fuels,” said Jim Walsh, policy director for the environmental group Food & Water Watch.

September 14, 2023

New scientific integrity policy lacking teeth, critics warn

A draft policy meant to curtail improper interference in federal scientific work falls far short of what is needed, according to a warning issued this month by a group of public health and science advocacy groups.

The draft issued by the US Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is the first to come from a key federal agency in answer to a call by President Joe Biden for federal agencies to strengthen policies meant to protect the integrity of their research. HHS is expected to release its final policy by February 2024.

The HHS oversees government entities that play critical roles in evaluating harmful chemicals, tracking and analyzing data on important public health threats, and conducting research into human health and disease, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Food and Drug Administration, and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

The HHS works to “enhance the health and well-being of all Americans depends on the development and use of accurate, complete, and timely scientific and technical information,” HHS states in the draft policy.

But according to a letter sent to HHS this month by 11 advocacy organizations, the draft policy would do little to stem what has become a systemic problem in key federal agencies whose work is supposed to protect the public but too often is swayed by political and/or corporate interests.

“Under this proposed policy, every aspect of enforcing scientific integrity principles would remain a captive of the political process inside the agencies,” Jeff Ruch, the Pacific director of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), said in a press release.

August 9, 2023

Rise in air pollution fuels antibiotic resistance, study suggests

By Grace van Deelen

Air pollution could be helping drive a rise in drug-resistant infections, which pose a dangerous threat to global public health, according to a new study.

The paper, published Monday in Lancet Planetary Health, concludes that particulate air pollution (PM2.5), which comes from burning fossil fuels for energy, industrial processes, and transportation, may be one of the largest contributors to the spread of antibiotic resistance worldwide. The link between the two phenomena has strengthened over time, according to the research.

“The benefits of controlling air pollution could be two-fold: not only will it reduce the harmful effects of poor air quality, it could also play a major role in combating the rise and spread of antibiotic-resistant bacteria,” said Hong Chen, the paper’s lead author and a professor of environmental science at Zhejiang University in China, in a statement.

The vast majority of the world’s population lives in areas where air pollution exceeds health standards set by the World Health Organization (WHO), meaning that they breath air containing high levels of pollutants, including PM2.5. Breathing polluted air raises the risk of premature death from heart disease, lung disease, stroke, and cancer affecting the lungs or airways. The Biden Administration has proposed multiple new policies to try to limit PM2.5, including tighter standards for soot pollution, new vehicle emissions standards, and improved reporting of air pollutants.