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January 29, 2018
The Trump administration's new tariff on imported solar cells and modules is expected to slow investment in solar energy projects in the United States. Image courtesy of wikimedia.org.
On January 22, President Trump approved a 30 percent tariff on imported solar cells and modules. The tariff will decrease by five percent annually and will end after four years. Industry analysts view the tariff as a step backwards for the fast growing solar industry, with initial projections showing an increase of $0.10-$0.15 per watt in the cost of solar installations. According to the Solar Energy Industries Association, the U.S. solar economy could lose 23,000 jobs in 2018 alone. The cost increase could delay utility-scale solar projects and impact sales for foreign solar companies. For instance, the German firm SMA Solar makes almost half of its sales in America and will likely lose a lot of business in the coming years. The tariff will also hurt Asian manufacturers, as most U.S. solar equipment is imported directly from there due to its low price. South Korean officials have indicated they would "actively respond to U.S. trade protectionism" through avenues such as the World Trade Organization. Meanwhile, China’s Ministry of Commerce said its solar industry's rapid growth has "[made] itself a target of protectionism in some countries." The financial firm Morgan Stanley cautioned that the tariff could cause investors to question the American government's dedication to other free trade policies as well.
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Reuters, Utility Dive
The Trump administration's new tariff on imported solar cells and modules is expected to throw up economic road blocks for domestic investment in solar energy. Duke Energy had been expanding its development of solar projects, but a company spokesperson described the tariff as a "challenge to that." The 29 states with renewable portfolio standards may be discouraged from pursuing more ambitious targets due to the increased cost of solar, particularly New Mexico, Nevada, and other solar-reliant states. California Energy Commissioner David Hochschild predicted the tariff may prevent some solar projects from being built, but that the state will not deviate from its 2030 renewable energy goals. David Mooney, director of the Strategic Energy Analysis Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, said, “[The solar tariff] could have a positive impact on wind deployment overall. If a state has an RPS without a solar-specific requirement, the tariff may make it more cost-effective to meet the RPS objectives with wind energy."
Bloomberg
On January 22, New Jersey's legislature took another step toward rejoining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), which former Gov. Chris Christie pulled out of in 2010 and subsequently vetoed attempts to re-enter. Although the Senate Environment and Energy Committee has formally approved the effort, there is an ongoing debate over how to deploy the revenue that RGGI's cap and trade system would generate for the state. The Committee and its chairman, Sen. Bob Smith (D), have endorsed a measure that would direct the initial $300 million raised toward programs for promoting electric vehicle adoption. Opponents of the electric vehicle proposal instead requested additional investment in climate mitigation and energy efficiency. The Committee also passed a resolution to allocate RGGI revenues toward clean energy and emission reduction programs, breaking with the recent practices of the Christie administration. Smith urged opponents of the measure to work with newly-elected Gov. Phil Murphy on an alternative spending plan. Murphy made rejoining RGGI part of his gubernatorial campaign platform.
NJ Spotlight
Massachusetts state officials are expected to reach a decision soon on six project bids that would power a million homes. Three of those projects could fall to Canadian government-owned Hydro-Québec, which operates 63 dams and reservoirs. The potentially $12 billion, 20-year deal would allow Massachusetts to move closer to its legally mandated goal of cutting its carbon emissions by 25 percent, relative to 1990 levels, by 2020. However, Canada's indigenous peoples have raised serious concerns about the impact of Québec's hydropower network. Hydro-Québec maintains that they have worked to address the concerns of the Pessamit and other indigenous peoples, whose ancestral lands serve as the source for nearly one-third of the company's hydropower. Some of these groups have accused the company of "cultural genocide" and the disruption of economically and culturally important river systems. The Pessamit are concerned that the additional production of energy for Massachusetts could cause greater fluctuations in water levels, leading to flooding and further impacts on fishing and trapping.
Boston Globe
The four-mile road that connects the community of Isle de Jean Charles, Louisiana with the mainland has served as a measuring stick for its vulnerability to climate change. When the road was built in 1956, it was flanked by marshland, but environmental degradation combined with sea level rise has left just a strip of dry land now. The island has lost 98 percent of its land since 1955. A recent study estimated 414 towns, villages, and cities will have to be relocated in the future, even if all carbon emissions were to cease today. At least 17 U.S. communities, most comprised of Native American residents, are considering relocation due to climate change. With the exception of the Isle de Jean Charles Resettlement Project, there is no U.S. government agency or program to deal with climate displacement. Robert Verchick of the nonprofit Center for Progressive Reform, said, “We were surprised that all of the communities [pursuing relocation] were tribal. It’s not a coincidence. Native people have rarely been able to choose the location in which they’re currently living.”
City Lab
Major bond rating agencies, including Moody's and Standard & Poor's (S&P), are examining methods for integrating disaster forecasting and climate impacts into their financial risk assessments. While the agencies have been assessing disaster risks for years, they have only recently begun to integrate their findings into individual ratings. Natural disasters have become more prevalent in the United States lately, with a record-setting $306.2 billion in damages from storms, fires, and floods in 2017. A 2015 Moody's study found $9 trillion in rated debt exposed to environmental issues, while S&P identified 717 cases over a two-year stretch where environmental and climate concerns factored into corporate credit ratings. A lower rating can lead to higher borrowing costs for companies, but a proactive response to environmental risks can also yield more favorable terms. Yet, industry analysts are still not entirely clear how heavily the bond agencies are weighing environmental risk factors, or how accurately the agencies are able to predict outcomes based on complex climate systems.
According to a new study in Nature Climate Change, a technology intended to alleviate the severity of climate change may inadvertently stress other earth systems. Bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) uses harvested trees or other biomass to produce energy and stores the resulting carbon emissions deep in the earth. The plants are allowed to grow back after being harvested, thus capturing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, creating negative carbon emissions. Although biomass power production is already being used, large-scale BECCS is untested. Advocates hope to use it as an option for reaching climate mitigation targets in the future, and it is considered a potential strategy for negative emissions by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). However, the study concluded that deploying BECCS on the massive scale necessary to avert the worst impacts of climate change could result in "extensive environmental damage in many other dimensions," including the use of water, fertilizer, and land. At that scale, the authors assert that millions of square miles of forests would be lost and "freshwater consumption by biomass plantations [would increase] by an amount that more than doubled agricultural uses currently."
Washington Post
Two unusual avalanches happened in Tibet in 2016 only three months apart, faster and bigger than previous events. A study published in Nature Geoscience found that climate change was the driving factor behind both avalanches. Typically, flat glaciers collapse more slowly with a lot of snow and ice, while steep glaciers collapse at a faster rate, but with less debris. However, researchers were alarmed to find that the Tibetan avalanches were the result of flat glaciers moving very quickly. The events were facilitated by climate change producing warmer air in the Tibetan plateau. This warmer air can contribute to significantly more precipitation in the winter and summer months, leading to greater snow accumulation on top of the glaciers and more water reducing friction underneath the glacier, ultimately causing it to collapse. Lead author Andreas Kääb warned that these types of avalanches could pose a severe threat to cities given their size and speed. Kääb said, "If this happens in areas that are not as loosely populated as Tibet, this is a huge disaster."
New York Times
Sugar maples, which provide sap for syrup and showcase fabulous fall colors in Michigan, may decrease their growth rate because of a drier, warmer climate. The conclusion is drawn from a study in the journal Ecology and based on a dataset of 1,016 trees across four forest sites in Michigan over a span of nearly 20 years. The study tried to answer two questions: how the warming climate affects the trees and whether extra nitrogen from human activities may aid the trees' survival. The results showed that if the global average temperature were to increase by five degrees Celsius from today's levels with 40 percent less rainfall, the sugar maple's growth would decline and the species could ultimately disappear from Michigan. The additional nutrients provided by the excess nitrogen would not help stave off the decline. Co-author Donald Zak of the University of Michigan observed that future forest die-offs could "have a feedback effect on global temperatures" as their capacity to take on carbon dioxide lessens.
Newsweek
Climate change is slowly melting Arctic permafrost and revealing organisms that have been buried deep underground over the past 100,000 years. Organic material, including bone and grass, have been preserved for many years, but they are also accompanied by ancient bacteria that convert these carbon sources into the greenhouse gases carbon dioxide and methane. These bacteria are becoming active as temperatures climb and permafrost melts in places such as northern Alaska. NASA chemist Charles Miller said, “We have evidence that Alaska has changed from being a net absorber of carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere to a net exporter of the gas back to the atmosphere," due in part to the melting permafrost. Scientists do not yet have a clear picture of how much carbon dioxide may be released from permafrost or how quickly, but once the process starts it could create an uncontrollable feedback loop that would fuel further global warming.
NPR
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