by Zack Budryk, The Hill Highlights: General Motors (GM) hopes to revive the Michigan auto manufacturing industry by investing $2 billion in their Detroit plant. This location will be used to manufacturing their new all electric truck starting in 2021. GM claims the opening of the plant will create over 2,000 new manufacturing jobs in … Read more
by Mathieu Benhamou, Emily Chasan and Saijel Kishan, Bloomberg Highlights: Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Funds are gaining popularity as sustainability-focused investing becomes the new trend. Big funders are focused on investing in companies that tackle energy efficiency and minimize environmental impact Tech, healthcare, and financial services companies are some of the top ESG funds, as their … Read more
by Nick Mott, NPR Highlights: An estimated half of wetlands across the country and 18% of streams will not have federal protection with the new rollback of water regulation The wetland mitigation industry fears their jobs could be lost due to these new environmental rollbacks Many wetlands have been restored with the help of “mitigation … Read more
by Mark Olalde, Desert Sun, January 24, 2020 Highlights Decommissioning and cleaning up oil and gas wells throughout the state may cost billions, but only $110 million is saved for this process. Many wells become abandoned as oil and gas prices take sharp downturns and environmental policies result in the decrease of the use of … Read more
by Kathy Hipple, IEEFA, January 28, 2020 Highlights Forty-two companies within the United States that have fracking based portfolios filed for bankruptcy in 2019: In total, the aggregate debt of these companies was $26 billion The fracking sector struggled due to overproduction, gas and oil prices, and increasing debt throughout the past 5 years Moody’s … Read more
by BloombergNEF Highlights: Corporations bought a record amount of clean energy through power purchase agreements, or PPAs, in 2019, up more than 40% from the previous year’s record. The majority of this purchasing occurred in the United States. BloombergNEF’s 2020 Corporate Energy Market Outlook found that approximately 19.5GW of clean energy contracts were signed by … Read more
by Lennox Yearwood Jr. and Bill McKibben, NY Times Highlights: JPMorgan Chase is among the worst companies to aid the rapid warming of the earth by lending billions to gas and oil companies. “Wells Fargo lent over $151 billion, Citibank lent over $129 billion and Bank of America lent over $106 billion” and “JPMorgan Chase … Read more
Highlights: As of January 1, 2020, new houses in California are required to install rooftop solar. “One utility, Sacramento Municipal Utility District, has asked regulators to approve a plan that says builders in its territory can comply with the solar mandate by subscribing to the utility’s community solar programs instead of putting solar on every … Read more
Highlights: A report found that the top methane point source polluters are landfills. The three landfill operators, Republic Services, Waste Connections and Waste Management, “represent 26.8% of all methane from California facilities – the warming equivalent of more than 725,000 cars on the road annually.” The large emitters have plans to offset their emissions generated … Read more
by Jana Randow, Bloomberg Green, January 20, 2020 Highlights: Climate change threatens to provoke “green swan” events that could trigger a systemic financial crisis unless authorities act against such risks, according to the Bank for International Settlements Many central banks already contribute to the effort by monitoring climate-related risks through stress tests, incorporating environmental, social … Read more
