Judge orders US officials to weigh coal mine s climate costs
BILLINGS â A judge says U.S officials downplayed climate change impacts and other environmental costs from the expansion of a massive coal mine near the Montana-Wyoming border, in a case that could test how far the Biden administration is willing to go to unwind its predecessors decisions.
The lawsuit over Montana s Spring Creek mine hinges in part on an issue central to President Joe Biden s climate change agenda: Making decisions based on the full costs of fossil fuel extraction, including impacts on a warming planet that are being felt across society.
Print China s State Power Investment Corp representatives react during Brazilian government auction of operating licenses for four hydroelectric plants in São Paulo, Brazil on September 27, 2017. Paulo Whitaker/Reuters
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Blog posts represent the views of CFR fellows and staff and not those of CFR, which takes no institutional positions.
Rogério Studart is a senior fellow of the World Resources Institute and a non-resident fellow of Brazil s Center of International Relations. Margaret Myers is the director of the Asia and Latin America Program at the Inter-American Dialogue. The Council on Foreign Relations acknowledges the Ford Foundation for its generous support of this project.
For generations, coal has been a constant in this northwestern Colorado city. But by 2030, the Craig Station stacks will go quiet as Colorado shifts to renewable energy.
With Colorado coming out of its second worst drought year since 2002 and with scant expectations for a better 2021, the stateâs public agency that deals with wildfires is hoping a California solution could help tamp down the biggest wildfires in the years to come.
Itâs called the Firehawk helicopter. Its manufacturer, Sikorsky, claims it can attack fires at night, in strong Santa Ana winds, maneuver with agility and safety in canyons and terrain from sea level up to 10,000 feet altitude, while dropping water with tremendous precision and force.â The Firehawk is a major component of California s firefighting efforts, with a dozen purchased in 2020 alone.Â
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The
Climate Action Report, a periodic report to the United Nations, was
issued in early June. A media frenzy claimed that this report
somehow contained revelatory new science that changed the debate on
global warming.
The
report has little new science. But since 1992, when America
embarked on the Rio Treaty, a great deal of new science has come
forward. The United States is a leader in studying the subject. The
U.S. has invested some $45 billion in research funding on this
question over the past 10 years.
I
wanted to update you on the latest science since 1992 and assure