PLUG IN: ArcStar News Feed: Re Fed Carbon taxes and regs

Thursday, September 12, 2019

Re Fed Carbon taxes and regs

---------- Forwarded message ---------
From: Climate Changed <noreply@mail.bloombergbusiness.com>
Date: Thu, Sep 12, 2019, 3:21 PM
Subject: 'Trump insurance'
To: <mbannerman@arcstarenergy.com>

Major oil, power and consumer products manufacturers released their most specific plans yet for a proposed nationwide tax on carbon dioxide that aims to halve U.S. emissions by 2035. The blueprint unveiled by the Climate Leadership Council calls for an initial $40 levy on each ton of CO2. The council, which unites major fossil fuel companies and some conservation groups, even agreed to jettison one of its most controversial initial proposals—a shield against climate-related lawsuits. But Big Oil and conservatives want something in return: In exchange for the fee, federal regulations targeting CO2 emissions from power plants, refineries and other industrial facilities would be swept away. —Josh Petri

"It quickly becomes a very daunting, and sometimes demotivating, topic."

—Kaitlin Crouch of ING Groep NV. Big banks are finally starting to account for climate change risk, but it's not easy.

Top stories

In addition to the trillions of dollars needed to wean the world off of fossil fuels, and thus hopefully slow global warming, humanity has to spend a similar amount to deal with the damage already done—and yet to come. About $1.8 trillion is needed by 2030 to just prepare civilization for the effects of the climate crisis, a new report said. However, there's a silver lining: the payoff could be four times as much.

As markets start to put a price on pollution, carbon farming is gaining in popularity. The agricultural technique, which stores CO2 emissions by regenerating soil and vegetation, could be a lifeline for U.K. farmers after Brexit (assuming Brexit even happens).

Natural-gas fired plants killed the economics of coal. By 2035, those same plants will be undercut themselves by wind and solar plants, a study found.

California legislators will vote on a bill that would require state agencies to preserve federal standards on the environment, public health and worker safety that were in place on Jan. 19, 2017—the last full day of the Obama administration. The provisions would sunset at the end of President Trump's potential second term in January 2025. They're calling it "Trump insurance."

Global warming has opened up Arctic passages to new shipping routes. Now the melting ice is handing an opportunity to other industries. Submarine data cables have become easier to lay in previously frozen regions, offering a shorter route for communications between the world's major economic centers, and giving a competitive edge to high-frequency traders, data centers and connected factories.

What we've been reading

Trump told staff to squelch government experts who contradicted his incorrect claim and doctored map about Hurricane Dorian. NOAA administrator Neil Jacobs, who was reportedly told appointees might be fired, assailed his own meteorologists. Democrats are investigating.

In the U.S., people who lose their homes to hurricanes often remain and rebuild. Canada, on the other hand, has responded to the escalating costs of the climate crisis by limiting aid after disasters, and even telling people to leave their homes for good.

Vox lays out extreme weather scenarios for vulnerable parts of the U.S.: Hurricanes in Florida, extreme heat waves in Arizona and wildfires in California. It also reports on the controversy over Jonathan Franzen's New Yorker essay about how the battle to slow climate change is already lost.