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EPA unveils new power plant news; new offshore wind leasing plan unveiled; expanding the US power grid; tracking the world's largest iceberg; and nations discuss treaty to combat plastic pollution.
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EPA unveils new power plant news; new offshore wind leasing plan unveiled; expanding the US power grid; tracking the world's largest iceberg; and nations discuss treaty to combat plastic pollution.
About EarthxNews:
A weekly program dedicated to covering the stories that shape the planet. Featuring the latest updates in energy, environment, tech, climate, and more.
EarthX & EarthXtra
Love Our Planet.
The Official Network of Earth Day.
About Us:
At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.
EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.
EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/
Follow Us:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/
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TVTranscript
00:00Some cleaner air for you and your family could be coming.
00:06The push to cut or capture 90% of pollution from one sector within 10 years.
00:11Plus, a new era of power is blowing in.
00:14The Biden administration's plan for wind farms across America.
00:18And expanding our grid, the new technology that hopes to double its capacity to keep the lights on
00:24as we transition more and more towards clean energy.
00:30Hello and welcome to EarthX News, where we focus on sustainability, conservation, and the environment.
00:40I'm Christina Thompson.
00:41Let's get into some of the biggest headlines facing our planet.
00:44Making strides towards cutting pollution.
00:47President Biden announced his most significant new rules for power plants.
00:51The Environmental Protection Agency's new rules push coal and natural gas power plants
00:56to either cut or capture 90% of their climate pollution over the next eight years.
01:02The hope is the rules will help to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from this sector by 75% to their peak in 2005.
01:11The EPA also announced tougher rules for mercury and smokestacks of power plants
01:15and safer disposal of toxic wastewater and coal ash, which are byproducts of electricity production.
01:22So we should be breathing cleaner air within 20 years,
01:26as these new rules for power plants will prevent nearly 1.4 billion metric tons of planet warming pollution
01:32from entering the atmosphere through the year 2047.
01:36However, there are some critics.
01:38One CEO in the industry saying these rules are, quote,
01:41unlawful, unrealistic, and unachievable.
01:44And West Virginia's Attorney General vowed to challenge the new rules in court.
01:49President Joe Biden is also taking a look at the lithium mining in the U.S.,
01:53specifically in Nevada, where conservationists are worried about threats to endangered wildflowers.
01:58The Bureau of Land Management released more than 2,000 pages of a document
02:02in a draft environmental impact statement for the Rhyolite Ridge mine.
02:07Lithium is a metal needed to create batteries for electric vehicles,
02:10a centerpiece of President Joe Biden's green energy agenda.
02:14Supporters of the lithium-boron mine project say it represents another step by the administration
02:19to support the responsible domestic development of critical minerals to power the clean energy economy.
02:26But some environmentalists say the mine is just another example of the government
02:30prioritizing climate goals over wildlife protection.
02:34Nevada is home to the only existing lithium mine in the U.S.,
02:37and this other one is and will soon house the second,
02:41which is currently under construction about 200 miles north of Reno.
02:45By 2030, worldwide demand for lithium is projected to have grown six times compared to 2020.
02:51The current administration is pushing ahead with wind energy,
02:54announcing plans for up to a dozen lease sales anticipated beginning this year
02:59and continuing through 2028.
03:02Three of the anticipated sales would be for Gulf of Mexico tracks to be offered this year,
03:07in 2025 and in 2027.
03:10Central Atlantic area leases would be sold in 2024 and 2026.
03:15Other anticipated sale areas include the Gulf of Maine, Oregon Waters,
03:19an area of the Atlantic known as New York Bight, as well as California and Hawaii.
03:24Now, the sales will be coordinated by the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
03:28Since the start of President Joe Biden's administration,
03:31the Interior Department has approved the nation's first eight large offshore wind projects
03:35and held four offshore wind auctions,
03:38including the first-ever sales in the Pacific and Gulf of Mexico.
03:42In other offshore wind power news, plans for three projects are unraveling in New York,
03:48a major blow to the state's climate agenda and to the administration's energy aspirations.
03:54New York energy authorities announced they have denied contracts to three major projects
03:58after GE Vernova, a spinoff of General Electric,
04:02backed away from its plan to build the turbines needed for the projects.
04:06State officials say the three projects,
04:08Attentive Energy, Community Offshore Wind and Excelsior Wind,
04:12would have delivered four gigawatts of offshore wind to the state,
04:16amounting to almost half of New York's ambitions to install nine gigawatts of offshore wind by 2035.
04:22Industry analysts say the failed projects are a big blow to the administration's plans
04:27to see enough offshore wind built to supply 10 million homes by 2030,
04:32as well as to New York Governor Kathy Hochul,
04:35who has touted offshore wind's ability to create a wave of jobs and a surge in clean power.
04:41Now, as far as the next steps,
04:42New York's State Energy Research and Development Authority said it will now look to open another
04:47competitive bidding round to fill the hole created by the latest cancellation.
04:51Scientists are testing a controversial idea in the Bay Area for cooling our warming planet.
04:56The University of Washington's Marine Cloud Brightening Project is using the first technology
05:02in the country to test ways to brighten clouds. The plan is to inject sea salt aerosols into clouds,
05:10which scientists hope will reflect sunlight back into space to help cool the Earth.
05:15Brightening clouds is one of several ideas to push solar energy back into space.
05:19Others include solar radiation modification, solar geoengineering, or climate intervention.
05:24Marine cloud brightening would be localized and uses relatively benign sea salt aerosols as opposed
05:30to other chemicals. However, there are concerns over this method as the consequences could be hard
05:36to predict or even measure. Cloud brightening could also alter precipitation patterns, including
05:41decreasing rainfall in one place while increasing it elsewhere. We will certainly keep our eyes on this
05:47story. An invasive species is being put to good use in Hawaii. A new surfboard company called
05:53Albizia Surf and Coffee Bar is making eco-friendly surfboards out of the wood from the Albizia tree,
06:00an invasive tree that's common in the Aloha state. One of the business owners says the highly
06:06invasive wood is very problematic in the state, so any opportunity to make something with it is a win.
06:12Adding the shop gets the unwanted Albizia wood from removal projects and then partners with other
06:18organizations to restore native ecosystems. Turning to international news, Scotland says it will ditch an
06:24ambitious climate pledge. Government officials recently announced its abandoning plans to reduce
06:29carbon emissions by 75% over the next six years. Scotland's decision to walk back their commitment
06:36for 2030 comes after the UK Climate Change Committee sharply criticized Scotland for repeatedly failing to achieve
06:42its climate targets, saying in part, quote, the Scottish government delayed its draft climate change plans
06:48last year despite the 2030 target being only six years away. This has left a significant period without
06:54sufficient actions or policies to reach the target. The required acceleration and emissions reduction in
07:00Scotland is now beyond what is credible. The statement added the government missed its annual climate target
07:06eight times in the past 12 years. Despite the news which outraged many environmentalists,
07:12former First Minister Hamza Youssef vowed Scotland would still meet its target of reaching net zero by 2045.
07:19And now we're tracking the movement of the world's biggest iceberg. The colossal ice mass, also called A23A,
07:27has begun to refloat after being lodged in the mud at the edge of Antarctica's Weddell Sea for over 30 years.
07:34Scientists say the berg is now drifting close to the South Orkney Islands, about 430 miles northeast of
07:42the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Researchers say the iceberg is on a course referred to as Iceberg Alley
07:49along the easternmost point in Canada, which exports a lot of Antarctica's floating ice.
07:55Glaciologists say that means the iceberg could fragment and melt into nothing. The giant ice sheet,
08:01which is more than twice the size of Greater London, originally broke away from the Antarctic coastline
08:06nearly 40 years ago, but it did not start moving again until 2020 due to gradual melting. Scientists say
08:13once it started traveling again, ocean currents and wind swept it north towards warmer air and waters.
08:20If you're headed to Europe, prepare for it to be hot. As some new data suggests, Europe is the world's
08:26fastest warming continent, according to a joint report from two of the United Nations International
08:31Climate Monitoring Organizations. 2023 was one of Europe's hottest. Researchers said parts of the
08:38continent experienced temperatures up to 2.6 degrees Celsius or 4.68 degrees Fahrenheit above pre-industrial
08:46levels, while the Alps saw temperatures at 2.3 degrees Celsius or 4.14 degrees Fahrenheit above average.
08:54Scientists also warned extreme heat stress was present for a record number of days last year,
08:59meaning the feels like temperature was higher than 115 degrees Fahrenheit, according to the research.
09:06The report comes just after the UN climate agency Copernicus said March marked the globe's 10th month in
09:13a row that set its warmest respective month on record. A group of Swiss women win a major climate
09:19case in Europe's top human rights court. Sarah Williamson has more.
09:25I think today's ruling is a huge boost to the climate litigation movement that's happening in Europe
09:31and around the world. A win for the environment, all thanks to more than 2,000 Swiss women taking human
09:39rights into their own hands. Europe's top human rights court ruling in their favor, concluding that the
09:46Swiss government did violate the human rights of its citizens by failing to do enough to combat climate
09:52change. The court holds that the respondent state exceeded its margin of appreciation and failed to
09:59comply with its positive obligations under Article 8 of the Conventional. The court's ruling in the Swiss
10:06case is of huge significance because it affirms that the European Convention on Human Rights applies
10:13to the climate crisis. The governments have legal duties to act and they've upheld the right of
10:19people to go to court and challenge their government's weak climate action. It's a ruling that will resonate
10:25across Europe and beyond. The group of Swiss women, all aged over 64, argue that their age and gender
10:33makes them particularly vulnerable to climate impacts. The Swiss Federal Office of Justice,
10:39which represented the government, took note of the ruling, releasing a statement saying, quote,
10:45together with the authorities concerned, we will now analyse the extensive judgment and review what
10:51measures Switzerland will take in the future. This is just one step in the direction towards climate
10:58justice. We have a very long way to go. We must make sure that first that this is being upheld and
11:09and then that we actually achieve climate justice, that the emissions reduce and that we have a fair
11:13transition. The verdict, which cannot be appealed, will have a direct effect internationally by establishing a
11:21binding legal precedent for all 46 countries that are signatories to the European Convention of Human Rights.
11:29For EarthX, I'm Sarah Williamson. Sarah, thank you. Coming up, scientists are exploring ways to increase
11:36the capacity of the U.S. power grid. Stay tuned. We'll have more on the idea that researchers are
11:42entertaining when EarthX News continues.
11:54A rarely used technique to upgrade old power lines could play a major role in expanding the U.S. power
12:14grid. The method is called advanced reconductoring, and a couple of recent reports suggest the concept
12:20could roughly double the capacity of the electric grid in many parts of the country. Joining us now
12:26to discuss is one of the lead researchers who compiled the data showcasing the benefits of using this
12:32technology, Umed Paliwal, senior scientist at the University of California, Berkeley. Can you tell me more
12:38about advanced reconductoring and what your research has been telling you?
12:44Yeah, thank you for having me here. So essentially, reconductoring is essentially replacing the wires
12:50of an existing power line with newer wires that are made up of advanced materials.
12:55Now these newer wires are able to carry double the amount of electricity as compared to the conventional
13:02wires. And the reason this is so important today is because the U.S. is seeing an unprecedented growth
13:08in the electricity demand. We are getting new manufacturing facilities set up in the U.S.,
13:13a lot of data centers are coming in the U.S., and more and more consumers are buying electric vehicles.
13:19All these users need a reliable supply of electricity. So the solution that we are coming up is that of
13:26reconductoring, that we can just replace the wires of the existing transmission line. And the interesting
13:32thing about this is that this could be done in one to two years as compared to building new transmission
13:37lines, which takes 10 plus years. So that way, the electricity demand that is coming up today,
13:44in one to two years, we could supply that electricity reliably through just changing the wires of
13:50existing transmission lines. What exactly is the difference between the current power lines that
13:54we're using versus if we were to put these advanced reconductoring wires in? So in these newer
14:00wires, what we do is we replace the steel with a material that is made up of carbon fiber. And carbon fiber is
14:0810 times as stronger as steel. And it doesn't sag when it's heated. The conventional wires that are
14:16used today, they are made up of aluminum and steel. It's a century-old technology that has not been
14:21updated so far. And what happens is as you send more and more electricity through these wires,
14:27they heat up. And as we have studied in our physics classes, if something heats up, they expand. And as these
14:34conventional wires, they heat up, they expand and they sag. And what happens then if they sag, they
14:39can come in contact with vegetation. And that could be a safety hazard. So if we send more and more
14:44electricity through these advanced wires, they don't sag. And that's why we can send more electricity through
14:49these wires as compared to the conventional wires. So how big of an increase in capacity does advanced
14:55reconductoring provide? I know you mentioned two times, but is that the peak? We could get up to two times,
15:01but it might be less. Yeah. So what we found in our study is that by 2035, if we adopt reconductoring,
15:10we can add four times as much new transmission capacity as otherwise if you would have just relied
15:16on the conventional wires. So electricity is the foundation of our modern economy. And supply of cheap
15:26and reliable electricity builds the industrial base. And if we have to compete globally,
15:32that is a requirement. If we want the AI revolution to happen in the US as compared to somewhere else,
15:37we need to build this infrastructure. Are there any environmental concerns
15:41tied to building these advanced wires? Yeah. So these wires, the raw material that is used to build
15:49these wires is a byproduct of the oil refining process. So there are some carbon emissions
15:55that are associated with it. But what is, again, interesting is these advanced wires,
16:01they have half as much as electrical losses as compared to conventional wires.
16:06Just to give you a perspective, last year, we lost about 5 percent of the electricity,
16:11and that is equivalent to the total amount of electricity that was generated in the state of California.
16:16But what about the everyday American? Will it save them on their utility bill?
16:22Yeah. So what we found is that by 2050, the electricity costs to the consumers were reduced
16:29by 3 to 4 percent because of these advanced wires. And by 2035, we estimate that the consumers would
16:37save $85 billion. And by 2050, the consumers would save $180 billion, like if we adopt reconductoring.
16:45Where do you see this going in the future?
16:49Yeah. So the utilities, they are a conservative industry. They tend to do what was done last year
16:57and so on last year. So slowly, a lot of utilities are waking up to this opportunity. I mean, it is kind
17:04of like important for them to adopt this technology because it takes 10 to 15 years to build these new
17:10transmission lines. And this solution is much faster and costs half as much as building new lines.
17:17Well, Umid Paliwal, senior scientist at the University of California, Berkeley,
17:21thank you so much for coming on and telling us about this incredible venture that you are a part of.
17:27Yeah. Thank you for having me.
17:28Coming up, global leaders are teaming up in an effort to combat plastic pollution.
17:32Stay tuned. That story is just ahead on EarthX News.
18:07Thousands of international delegates recently gathered in Canada to negotiate the world's
18:12first treaty to address plastic pollution. Caleb Park has more.
18:17That's right. Representatives from countries around the world meeting in Ottawa, Canada
18:22for the international plastics negotiations known as INC4, hoping to help the rapidly escalating problem
18:30of plastic pollution as part of a United Nations environment program. Of grave concern, more people
18:36are breathing, eating and drinking particles of plastic as the equivalent of 2000 garbage trucks full
18:42of plastics are dumped into the world's oceans, rivers and lakes every day. They say it's about the future
18:49of humanity. We are facing a triple planetary crisis. It's climate, it's biodiversity loss and pollution.
18:58And the negotiations for a plastic treaty is embedded in this triple planetary crisis and should,
19:05by its outcome, also contribute to fight this triple planetary crisis.
19:10The delegates aim to create a treaty to stop the production of plastics with sharp disagreements
19:16from countries and companies that produce oil and gas. Industry analysts say Kenya has struggled
19:22with plastic waste for a long time. Kenya is one of East Africa's first countries to limit
19:28single-use plastics where officials are concerned about negotiations in Ottawa. More than 2500 delegates
19:35representing 170 members came together to negotiate the revised draft text of an international legally
19:42binding agreement. Their next meeting will be held in Busan, South Korea in November. For EarthX,
19:48I'm Caleb Park. Caleb Park, thank you. Wild horses at a national park in North Dakota are staying put.
19:56U.S. Senator John Hoven has announced the National Park Service will abandon plans that could have removed
20:01roughly 200 horses from the Theodore Roosevelt National Park and will only be reducing their numbers instead.
20:08The about face comes after park officials started crafting a livestock plan about two years ago that included
20:14proposals to get rid of the horses. But that idea did not sit well with the public, who pushed back against the
20:20idea during a public review of the policy. Conservationists, along with the senator, praised the park's decision to
20:27keep the wild horses in the park. In a statement, Senator Hoven said in park, quote, the move will allow for a healthy herd of wild horses to be maintained at the park, managed in a way to support genetic
20:37diversity among the herd and preserve the park's natural resources. An 18-foot python gets a health check in Australia. Several staffers at the Perth Zoo in Western Australia worked together to hold the big snake in place during her recent annual physical. Zoo officials said the Burmese python, named Samorn, weighs 106 pounds and is nearly 5.5 meters long. The veterinarian team also said they examined her body
21:06condition, mobility, took x-rays from head to tail and concluded she was in spectacular health.
21:14And before we leave you an adorable moment at England's largest zoo, a baby white rhino was recently spotted running and jumping aground the 21-acre conservation area at the wildlife facility just outside of London. Officials say the little one, named Benja, also started venturing outside his den in recent days with his mom.
21:34The zoo is part of a global conservation charity which works to protect endangered species and their habitats.
21:41That's it for this edition of EarthX News. Please join us again next week. I'm Christina Thompson.
21:46Good to get started.
21:57How are you?
21:59.