Mon May 3, 2021 Some parts of the United States are uninhabitable without air conditioning. And even in major cities, before air conditioning became widely available, people slept on balconies and fire escapes in stifling heat. Beyond comfort, the lack of air conditioning in Europe has killed thousands. Mostly the elderly. Do Americans Need Air-Conditioning? a New York Times piece asked in July. Air conditioning, it argued, is bad for the environment and makes us less human. It ran quotes suggesting that, first world discomfort is a learned behavior , and urging a certain degree of self-imposed suffering . Temperatures in Paris hit 108.6 degrees. Desperate Frenchmen dived into the fountains of the City of Lights with their clothes on. Parisian authorities announced that they were deploying heat wave management plan orange, level three, which meant setting up foggers in public parks and distributing heat wave kits. The kits consist of leaflets tel
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In an act reminiscent of Luther and the church door, Joe Manchin (D-WV) wrote in the Washington Post that he would not vote to change the Senate filibuster rule nor was he keen on using the budget reconciliation process as the vehicle for enacting President Biden’s $2.4 trillion infrastructure plan much of which is about decarbonizing the economy.
Manchin, like Biden, is an old school politician where
back-in-the-day loyalties were more to the nation than the party. In his marmish manner, Manchin believes refusing to eliminate the filibuster and voting against budget reconciliation will force Republicans and Democrats to work through their differences in a collegially combative sort of way just like it used to be.”
Dive Brief:
House Democrats unveiled legislation on Tuesday that would bring economy-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to net-zero by 2050, and cut emissions 50% below 2005 levels by 2030 or sooner.
The CLEAN Future Act proposes a national Clean Energy Standard that would require all retail electric providers to generate 100% of their power from zero-emissions resources by 2035, and 80% by 2030. It would also require the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to update U.S. transmission policy in order to better integrate renewables onto the grid, and direct greater investment in energy storage, microgrids, distributed energy resources and more.
The bill also targets transportation electrification, environmental justice, economic transition for fossil fuel workers, building efficiency and more. It would also include major changes to the Federal Power Act (FPA) and the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act (PURPA).
Opinion By Rich Powell
February 24, 2021 at 5:00 am ET
Addressing climate change is undeniably a top priority for the Biden administration. As the tragic weather events in Texas and across the Midwest wreak havoc on our energy system, preparing our grid to be reliable needs to be front and center.
However, President Joe Biden’s emerging strategy – governing via executive orders, revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, placing a moratorium on all oil- and gas-related leasing and permitting actions on federal lands – seemingly hasn’t focused on grid reliability and does not involve Republicans.
Contrary to the rhetoric in some circles, Republicans have ambitious climate proposals too, and have spent the last two Congresses busily ena
Dive Brief:
Federal Energy Regulatory Commissioner Neil Chatterjee on Tuesday called on Congress to update federal energy policy to alleviate some of his agency s work load. Legislative intransigence in Washington has put more and more of the critical decision making in the hands of agencies throughout the government that may not necessarily have the tools to address the complex challenges before us, he said during a virtual webinar hosted by K&L Gates.
He noted that most policy that s been passed since 2005 has been either in the form of tax bills or omnibus appropriations such as the American Energy Innovation Act included in stimulus spending. That lack of action has made it more difficult to regulate the fast-changing energy sector, Chatterjee said.