[GWSG] Risk rating; squeezing fossils; leaking gas; astrogas; hybrid renewables; home safety hours; retreat strategy; glacial melt rate; Luntz conversion

[Tilley, Al]

1. Communities and companies have not typically seen their credit rating impaired by their exposure to climate risk. Moody’s has acquired a majority interest in Four Twenty Seven, which specializes in calculating climate risk. Communities and companies which have ignored the risks posed by climate—drought, floods, heat, fires, sea level rise, and so forth—may now see their credit rating suffer. https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/climate/moodys-ratings-climate-change-data.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_190725?campaign_id=2&instance_id=11094&segment_id=15528&user_id=8c547d53af6ff6fc7d49cb8612c07102&regi_id=436283740725
[https://static01.nyt.com/images/2019/07/24/climate/24CLI-RISK/24CLI-RISK-facebookJumbo.jpg]<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/climate/moodys-ratings-climate-change-data.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_190725?campaign_id=2&instance_id=11094&segment_id=15528&user_id=8c547d53af6ff6fc7d49cb8612c07102&regi_id=436283740725>
Moody’s Buys Climate Data Firm, Signaling New Scrutiny of Climate Risks<https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/climate/moodys-ratings-climate-change-data.html?nl=todaysheadlines&emc=edit_th_190725?campaign_id=2&instance_id=11094&segment_id=15528&user_id=8c547d53af6ff6fc7d49cb8612c07102&regi_id=436283740725>
www.nytimes.com
The bond-rating agency's purchase of Four Twenty Seven suggests that governments and companies that ignore climate threats could be penalized.


2. Rhode Island is suing 21 large fossil fuel corporations for expenses related to climate disruption. The corporations wanted to move the suit to the federal court system. A federal judge has remanded it to the state, the third such suit to be remanded to state courts recently. State courts are more likely, in part because of legal precedents, to be sympathetic to arguments that fossil fuel producers have externalized costs and should be required to reown then. Thanks to Brian Paradise for the story. https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/23/big-win-rhode-island-court-battle-make-polluters-pay-consequences-climate-crisis?cd-origin=rss
[https://www.commondreams.org/sites/default/files/headline/thumbs/gettyimages-981471031.jpg]<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/23/big-win-rhode-island-court-battle-make-polluters-pay-consequences-climate-crisis?cd-origin=rss>
'Big Win' for Rhode Island in Court Battle to Make Polluters Pay for Consequences of Climate Crisis | Common Dreams News<https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/07/23/big-win-rhode-island-court-battle-make-polluters-pay-consequences-climate-crisis?cd-origin=rss>
www.commondreams.org
In what one advocate called a "big win" for climate liability litigation, a federal judge on Monday remanded Rhode Island's lawsuit targeting 21 fossil fuel giants to state court, where the oil and gas companies are more likely to be forced to pay for their significant contributions to the global climate crisis.


3. It is not news that methane leakage from gas production and usage is larger than the EPA estimates. After all, the EPA figures were drawn from sources identified for analysis by the methane industry. It is news that by direct measurement the air above six cities registers leakage well over triple that reported from the whole Bakken shale gas production site. The issue is significant because of industry claims that “natural gas” is cleaner than other fossil fuels. At 3% leakage it is not. Direct measurements over production sites have detected leakage rates as high as 10%. (And even at low rates of leakage, methane is still a dirty, dangerous, expensive fuel.)  https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/major-us-cities-are-leaking-methane-twice-rate-previously-believed
[https://www.sciencemag.org/sites/default/files/styles/article_main_large/public/IMG_4499-1280x720.jpg?itok=gvo0pnFl]<https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/major-us-cities-are-leaking-methane-twice-rate-previously-believed>
Major U.S. cities are leaking methane at twice the rate previously believed | Science | AAAS<https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2019/07/major-us-cities-are-leaking-methane-twice-rate-previously-believed>
www.sciencemag.org
Major U.S. cities are leaking methane at twice the rate previously believed. By Sid Perkins Jul. 19, 2019 , 2:30 PM. Natural gas, long touted as a cleaner burning alternative to coal, has a ...


4.   SoCalGas, a large CA utility, used ratepayer funds to establish Californians for Balanced Energy Solutions, a supposed consumers group to argue for the continued use of methane through slogans, misinformation, and scare campaigns. (I trust that some of the people involved are unaware that they are being used as puppets. It is a common blindness when a corporation succeeds in establishing some slogan as collective wisdom. Who is against “balanced solutions”?)   https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/26/us-natural-gas-ban-socalgas-berkeley
[https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/231c238cb0257d5cde06c192744c410e2a18aed8/0_126_3000_1800/master/3000.jpg?width=1200&height=630&quality=85&auto=format&fit=crop&overlay-align=bottom%2Cleft&overlay-width=100p&overlay-base64=L2ltZy9zdGF0aWMvb3ZlcmxheXMvdGctZGVmYXVsdC5wbmc&enable=upscale&s=4c5ea7fb87d76e66130b7274f083e8cf]<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/26/us-natural-gas-ban-socalgas-berkeley>
US gas utility funds 'front' consumer group to fight natural gas bans | US news | The Guardian<https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/jul/26/us-natural-gas-ban-socalgas-berkeley>
www.theguardian.com
SoCalGas crews and technical experts attempt to stop the flow of natural gas leaking from a storage well at the utility on 3 November 2015. Photograph: Javier Mendoza/AP America’s largest gas ...


5. NextEra is building a 700 megawatt hybrid renewable facility in Oklahoma, teaming solar, wind, and power storage. It is cheaper than gas.  https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/nextera-inks-even-bigger-windsolarstorage-deal-with-oklahoma-cooperative?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Daily&utm_campaign=GTMDaily#gs.s6oznw
[https://www.greentechmedia.com/assets/content/cache/made/assets/content/cache/remote/https_assets.greentechmedia.com/content/images/articles/Wind-Plus-Storage-Livestream-River_500_409_80.jpg]<https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/nextera-inks-even-bigger-windsolarstorage-deal-with-oklahoma-cooperative?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Daily&utm_campaign=GTMDaily#gs.s6oznw>
'Cheaper Than a Peaker': NextEra Inks Massive Wind+Solar+Storage Deal in Oklahoma | Greentech Media<https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/nextera-inks-even-bigger-windsolarstorage-deal-with-oklahoma-cooperative?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Daily&utm_campaign=GTMDaily#gs.s6oznw>
www.greentechmedia.com
PGE's Wheatridge deal leans hard on wind, with solar providing one-sixth the nameplate capacity as the wind component. The storage delivers power capacity equivalent to 60 percent of solar ...


6. When power fails in extreme weather, homes can be equipped to maximize hours of safety—that is, the time that the house will provide a livable environment despite the heat or cold outside. https://rmi.org/how-many-hours-of-safety-do-our-homes-have-in-extreme-weather/

7. The Earth Institute at Columbia U held a conference on the problems surrounding the relocation of communities threatened by sea level rise. In Florida that is looking more and more like a current condition of life, at least the salt life. The communities should make their own decisions; people need places to work (and play) as well as live; they should have something attractive to look forward to; the situation and needs of everyone require representation in decisions.  https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/07/17/managed-retreat-conference-rising-seas/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=july2019
[https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/land-loss-LA.jpg]<https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/07/17/managed-retreat-conference-rising-seas/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=july2019>
Conference Raises Tough Questions About Retreat from Rising Seas - blogs.ei.columbia.edu<https://blogs.ei.columbia.edu/2019/07/17/managed-retreat-conference-rising-seas/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=july2019>
blogs.ei.columbia.edu
As the global thermostat climbs and polar ice melts, the oceans are swelling and swallowing up coastlines. By some calculations, rising seas could displace 13 million Americans by 2100. Nearly every state in the U.S. will be affected by people migrating in and out. During three days in June, the ...


8. Direct measurement of underwater glacial melt shows an ambient melting rate up to 100 times greater than that predicted by previously accepted theory. https://phys.org/news/2019-07-underwater-glacial-higher.html
[https://www.bing.com/th?id=OVF.8lYleruZ8KYPNUQWivdIRA&pid=Api]<https://phys.org/news/2019-07-underwater-glacial-higher.html>
Underwater glacial melting is occurring at higher rates than modeling predicts<https://phys.org/news/2019-07-underwater-glacial-higher.html>
phys.org
Researchers have developed a new method to allow for the first direct measurement of the submarine melt rate of a tidewater glacier, and, in doing so, they concluded that current theoretical models may be underestimating glacial melt by up to two orders of magnitude.

The scientists involved in the study discuss the impact of the findings on estimates of sea level rise and on the ecosystems in the regions around glacial outlets. “"Maybe glaciers are more sensitive to changes in temperature than we might have expected before." https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25072019/glacier-melting-warming-oceans-climate-change-arctic-antarctica-study
[https://insideclimatenews.org/sites/default/files/styles/opengraph_large/public/article_images/margerie-glacier-alaska-0900_eric-e-castro-cc-by-30.jpg?itok=ob9eHQgd]<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25072019/glacier-melting-warming-oceans-climate-change-arctic-antarctica-study>
Oceans Are Melting Glaciers from Below Much Faster than Predicted, Study Finds | InsideClimate News<https://insideclimatenews.org/news/25072019/glacier-melting-warming-oceans-climate-change-arctic-antarctica-study>
insideclimatenews.org
Tidewater glaciers are being ‘eaten away on both ends’ as global warming worsens, suggesting faster sea level rise and ice melt that can alter ocean ecosystems. Beneath the ocean's surface ...


9. Frank Luntz’s CA home came close to burning in a wildfire. He has decided there is a climate crisis and has some advice. It looks useful. https://climatecrocks.com/2019/07/26/darkness-into-light/
[http://img.youtube.com/vi/py2L7UY06kQ/0.jpg]<https://climatecrocks.com/2019/07/26/darkness-into-light/>
Darkness Into Light? | Climate Denial Crock of the Week<https://climatecrocks.com/2019/07/26/darkness-into-light/>
climatecrocks.com
One of the Dark Side’s most dangerous and amoral hitmen says he’s had a change of heart, wants to do something about climate. Author of the famous “Luntz memo”, pollster Frank Luntz helped shape devious language and tactics for a generation of Republican politicians who delayed, dissembled, and disinformed their followers on what scientists have been telling us.


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