by Damian Carrington, The Guardian Highlights New research from the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health suggests that air pollution is linked to higher death rates for people that have contracted COVID-19 compared to those living in areas with cleaner air. Living in a polluted city in the past has an effect on death … Read more
My how things have changed. Back in the day, when most of the electricity we used was derived from fossil energy sources, any reduction of electricity use was considered a good thing by those concerned about emission. Now that the grid is on a trajectory toward ever cleaner sources, the dynamic has changed. Fuel switching … Read more
Due to the COVID-19 disruption, the legislature has gone into recess until April 13 at the earliest. While the legislature is on recess, The Climate Center continues to analyze the bills that were introduced in February, and is in the process of determining positions on many of them. Below are several, but not all, of … Read more
By Adam Vaughan, New Scientist Highlights A new comprehensive study finds that electric cars are much more climate-friendly than their gas and diesel counterparts. Florian Knobloch at Radboud University in the Netherlands and his colleagues looked at the average emissions across many classes of car and the projected carbon emissions generated on average over a … Read more
by Jock Gilchrist and Buddy Burch Of all the problems we face in the wake of COVID-19, the slowdown of China’s EV manufacturing may not seem that important. However, this slowdown comes at a particularly bad time– when scientists are realizing just how deadly fossil fuel pollution actually is in the face of the pandemic. … Read more
by Ken Kimmel, President of the Union of Concerned Scientists Highlights Current situation: Federal government response to COVID-19: In Washington DC a bi-partisan effort to help the country cope with COVID-19 is underway. So far, one immediate emergency bill appropriated approximately $8 billion designed to treat and prevent the virus. A second bill has also … Read more
by Brad Plumer and Nadja Popovich, The New York Times Highlights: Major cities across the United States are experiencing decreases in traffic and, subsequently, decreases in air pollution due to self-isolation mandates in various areas. Nitrogen dioxide emissions have dropped dramatically and traffic jams have virtually stopped in Los Angeles. Traffic was reportedly moving 71 percent faster than … Read more
by Laura Millan Lombrana, Jess Shankleman, and Akshat Rathi, Bloomberg Green Highlights: Due to the current pandemic of COVID-19, vehicle sales are expected to plummet, effecting the growth of electric vehicles (EVs) for consumers. Vehicle sales have dropped 44% in China during January when the virus began to spread globally, but sales in Europe are … Read more
Cheap oil, lower investment in renewables and a post-virus rebound will likely offset the emissions drop, but there are climate lessons in the response to the virus.
Below are several selected upcoming committee hearings and several, but not all, of the key bills we are tracking. For a complete list of the 44 bills we are currently tracking in 2020, click HERE. Please send updates, suggestions, corrections to info[at]cleanpowerexchange.org. Our next update will be published here on March 26. SPECIAL NOTE: Due … Read more
