Aliso Canyon is here to stay.After eight years of study, the California Public Utilities Commission voted unanimously last week not to close the San Fernando Valley gas-storage field, which sprung a record-breaking methane leak in 2015. Instead, the agency will keep studying whether it’s possible to shut down the storage field, probably not until the 2030s, as California continues to shift from fossil fuels to clean energy.Here’s the full story from The Times’ Andrew J. Campa.“Aliso Canyon must be closed for good, but without harming working families with skyrocketing utility bills,” Gov. Gavin Newsom, who appoints the utilities commissioners, said in a statement after the vote. He isn’t the only politician talking about affordability and clean energy as if they’re in conflict. As Sacramento Democrats gear up for a legislative session focused on cost-of-living issues — including gasoline and electricity prices — Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas (D-Hollister) has vowed that California “will continue to lead on climate, but not on the backs of poor and working people,” per this story by Politico’s Wes Venteicher.NewsletterYou’re reading Boiling Point Sammy Roth gets you up to speed on climate change, energy and the environment. Sign up to get it in your inbox twice a week. Enter email address You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times. That kind of rhetoric is unfortunate because it hides the costs of oil and gas that we tend to ignore, or to accept as inevitable: higher rates of asthma, heart attacks, cancer and deaths; infrastructure damage from heat waves; more dangerous storms and sea level rise driven by climate change; and exposure to global oil and gas markets that can be manipulated or thrown into chaos by political adversaries such as Russia.If fixing the climate crisis were easy, we would have done it already. Change is hard. But letting the climate crisis get even worse is way more expensive than phasing out fossil fuels.That’s why the Biden administration is pushing out so much clean energy funding on its way out the door. The federal Energy Department made a $15-billion conditional loan guarantee to Pacific Gas & Electric, which will will fund hydropower, batteries, virtual power plants and more, as Jeff St. John reports for Canary Media.In other federal climate action:Officials proposed protecting monarch butterflies, many of which winter along the California coast, under the Endangered Species Act. The Trump administration could try to change course. (Lila Seidman, L.A. Times)The Biden administration submitted the United States’ new climate emissions target under the international Paris agreement: 61% to 66% below 2005 levels by 2035. (Fiona Harvey, the Guardian)President Biden speaks during a Hanukkah reception in the East Room of the White House on Dec. 16.(Rod Lamkey / Associated Press) In other big federal news, the Environmental Protection Agency appr
Mer. Dic 25th, 2024
