March 29, 2019 10:15 AM EDT
Despite the abundant water year we’ve had, over the long term climate change is transforming the California snowpack and will make no-snow snow surveys more common in the future. Not only is climate change making good snow years like this one less likely, it’s also changing what good snow years mean for our water resources. And that’s going to mean a very different April snow survey in the future. Read more >
November 8, 2018 12:01 AM EDT
A new report, The Nuclear Power Dilemma, released today by my UCS colleagues, finds that more than one-third of the nation’s nuclear power fleet – that provides more than 20 percent of the country’s nuclear power – are uneconomic or slated to retire over the next decade primarily due to economic, safety, and performance reasons. FirstEnergy is now seeking a bailout from the Ohio legislature to keep two of the uneconomic plants open. In a world where the threat of climate change is increasingly dire and the need to dramatically cut carbon emissions is even more urgent, every source of zero-carbon energy is important. But make no mistake: FirstEnergy’s bailout proposals for its struggling nuclear plants are poorly conceived and must be rejected. Here’s why. Read more >
October 10, 2018 2:57 PM EDT
President Trump’s nomination of Bernard McNamee to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) may not grab a lot of headlines but make no mistake – it’s a blatant (and oft repeated) move by the Trump administration to pollute an independent regulatory body with political operatives intent on carrying out his crony capitalism. A hearing to consider McNamee’s nomination is already set for Tuesday, October 16th – a clear sign that Trump’s political allies are trying to ram through his appointment without thoughtful consideration. But here’s three reasons McNamee is a horrible choice to be a FERC commissioner and why his potential confirmation should worry all of us. Read more >
October 9, 2018 4:47 PM EDT
As a conservationist who has been ringing the alarm bells on climate change threats to biodiversity for more than 25 years, I hardly know where to start in responding to the findings of the newest, and most alarming, Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Special Report on the impacts of a 1.5°Celsius global warming. I’m not surprised that the IPPC delivers more bad news after reviewing more than 6,000 recent scientific reports, but I am surprised by just how bad the news is.
September 13, 2018 1:58 PM EDT
Last year, I thought throwing rolls of paper towels at victims of Hurricane María in Puerto Rico was the lowest that President Trump could go in disrespecting and failing the people of Puerto Rico in the midst of the climatic catastrophe that was personal to me and my family on the island. But this morning he went even lower with his tweets denying the death toll from Hurricane María in Puerto Rico, adding insult to injury to an enormous disaster exacerbated by a failure to prepare and to help the island recover. Read more >
