By Kate Zerrenner

Resiliency is a hot button word right now. Ten years ago, advocates focused on “adaptation,” or the idea of adapting to the coming effects of climate change. Now the focus is on “resiliency,” the ability to bounce forward – not backward – when something disastrous happens.

For El Paso, a city on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, resilience is critical. A huge city in the middle of the desert with an average rainfall around 8 inches per year, El Paso needs to be hardy, especially when it comes to water.

El Paso Water Utility (EPWU) is on top of the problem, enacting programs and initiatives to ensure El Paso’s water resiliency. Unfortunately, El Paso Electric – the city’s electric utility – is not doing everything it can to use less water.

To protect the city’s water, the utility should fully embrace no-water solar PV energy and not discourage customers from using solar power at their homes and businesses.

History of conservation

El Paso has been a leader in water conservation for decades. For example, the city cut water demand by more than 40 percent – from a high of 225 gallons per person per day (gcpd) in the 1970s to 132 gcpd in 2013, seven years ahead of its target.

How did El Paso do it? It changed the way city residents make decisions about and pay for water. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the city unveiled a 50-year water resource plan, changed prices to conserve water, and started aggressive water conservation programs.

Further, El Paso reuses about 15 percent of its water, much higher than the statewide average of 1 percent (although some cities, like San Antonio, are higher).

After recently coming out of a severe, multi-year drought (along with the rest of the state), El Paso understands that if it doesn’t effectively manage its water, it won’t have a city to run at all.

El Paso Electric should protect the city’s water and let solar power shine
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Solar’s role

But there’s something missing in El Paso’s water equation: the connection between making electricity and water. While El Paso’s water utility is protecting this precious resource, the electric utility isn’t.

El Paso is a very sunny city, averaging about 302 days of sunshine per year, which means a lot of solar energy potential. And solar PV uses no water to create electricity, as opposed to very thirsty traditional power resources like coal and natural gas.

Moreover, findings from an Environmental Defense Fund project with the Texas National Guard found that National Guard installations in El Paso are at the top for both water stress and solar potential. Clearly, there is significant opportunity to ease water stress by increasing solar power in the area.

One El Paso

Despite the opportunity to help save El Paso’s water by using solar power, El Paso Electric is blocking the growth of customer-owned solar power. The utility’s new proposal hits homes and small businesses that use solar panels with a higher monthly charge.

As is the case with most cities and utilities, energy and water in El Paso tend to be viewed separately. Electric utilities are inclined to plan as though they will always have enough water and water utilities do the same with electricity. But if careful planning for water and energy is not undertaken, there won’t be enough of either to go around.

El Paso should be taking every step needed to strengthen its water resilience, including making wise energy decisions. A resilient city facilitates coordination of resources and plans strategically for wise use throughout the entire system.

By Kate Zerrenner

Resiliency is a hot button word right now. Ten years ago, advocates focused on “adaptation,” or the idea of adapting to the coming effects of climate change. Now the focus is on “resiliency,” the ability to bounce forward – not backward – when something disastrous happens.

For El Paso, a city on the border between the U.S. and Mexico, resilience is critical. A huge city in the middle of the desert with an average rainfall around 8 inches per year, El Paso needs to be hardy, especially when it comes to water.

El Paso Water Utility (EPWU) is on top of the problem, enacting programs and initiatives to ensure El Paso’s water resiliency. Unfortunately, El Paso Electric – the city’s electric utility – is not doing everything it can to use less water.

To protect the city’s water, the utility should fully embrace no-water solar PV energy and not discourage customers from using solar power at their homes and businesses.

History of conservation

El Paso has been a leader in water conservation for decades. For example, the city cut water demand by more than 40 percent – from a high of 225 gallons per person per day (gcpd) in the 1970s to 132 gcpd in 2013, seven years ahead of its target.

How did El Paso do it? It changed the way city residents make decisions about and pay for water. In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the city unveiled a 50-year water resource plan, changed prices to conserve water, and started aggressive water conservation programs.

Further, El Paso reuses about 15 percent of its water, much higher than the statewide average of 1 percent (although some cities, like San Antonio, are higher).

After recently coming out of a severe, multi-year drought (along with the rest of the state), El Paso understands that if it doesn’t effectively manage its water, it won’t have a city to run at all.

El Paso Electric should protect the city’s water and let solar power shine
Click To Tweet

Solar’s role

But there’s something missing in El Paso’s water equation: the connection between making electricity and water. While El Paso’s water utility is protecting this precious resource, the electric utility isn’t.

El Paso is a very sunny city, averaging about 302 days of sunshine per year, which means a lot of solar energy potential. And solar PV uses no water to create electricity, as opposed to very thirsty traditional power resources like coal and natural gas.

Moreover, findings from an Environmental Defense Fund project with the Texas National Guard found that National Guard installations in El Paso are at the top for both water stress and solar potential. Clearly, there is significant opportunity to ease water stress by increasing solar power in the area.

One El Paso

Despite the opportunity to help save El Paso’s water by using solar power, El Paso Electric is blocking the growth of customer-owned solar power. The utility’s new proposal hits homes and small businesses that use solar panels with a higher monthly charge.

As is the case with most cities and utilities, energy and water in El Paso tend to be viewed separately. Electric utilities are inclined to plan as though they will always have enough water and water utilities do the same with electricity. But if careful planning for water and energy is not undertaken, there won’t be enough of either to go around.

El Paso should be taking every step needed to strengthen its water resilience, including making wise energy decisions. A resilient city facilitates coordination of resources and plans strategically for wise use throughout the entire system.

Resiliency is a hot button word right now. Ten years ago, advocates focused on “adaptation,” or the idea of adapting to the coming effects of climate change. Now the focus is on “resiliency,” the ability to bounce forward – not backward – when something disastrous happens. For El Paso, a city on the border between […]

The post El Paso Electric should protect the city’s water and let solar power shine appeared first on Energy Exchange.

Co-authored by Emily Ewing, Restoration Projects Intern, Environmental Defense Fund Coastal Louisiana faces a triple threat from rising sea levels, increased storm intensity and growing energy costs. While these are not necessarily new issues, there are growing concerns over the seeming inevitability and full reality of the implications of these threats. Without fast action, Louisiana will lose thousands of more acres of wetlands that provide critical habitat to wildlife and fisheries, as well as risk reduction benefits to coastal communities ...

Read The Full Story

The post Can Louisiana Coastal Restoration Succeed in the Face of Increasing Climate Impacts and Energy Costs? appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

Co-authored by Emily Ewing, Restoration Projects Intern, Environmental Defense Fund Coastal Louisiana faces a triple threat from rising sea levels, increased storm intensity and growing energy costs. While these are not necessarily new issues, there are growing concerns over the seeming inevitability and full reality of the implications of these threats. Without fast action, Louisiana will lose thousands of more acres of wetlands that provide critical habitat to wildlife and fisheries, as well as risk reduction benefits to coastal communities ...

Read The Full Story

The post Can Louisiana Coastal Restoration Succeed in the Face of Increasing Climate Impacts and Energy Costs? appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

Co-authored by Emily Ewing, Restoration Projects Intern, Environmental Defense Fund Coastal Louisiana faces a triple threat from rising sea levels, increased storm intensity and growing energy costs. While these are not necessarily new issues, there are growing concerns over the seeming inevitability and full reality of the implications of these threats. Without fast action, Louisiana will lose thousands of more acres of wetlands that provide critical habitat to wildlife and fisheries, as well as risk reduction benefits to coastal communities ...

Read The Full Story

The post Can Louisiana Coastal Restoration Succeed in the Face of Increasing Climate Impacts and Energy Costs? appeared first on Restore the Mississippi River Delta.

By Breanna Lujan

By Breanna Lujan, EDF Policy Analyst, and Brian Schaap, Forest Trends Senior Associate

Aerial view of the Amazon rainforest, photo by Neil Palmer (Flickr: CIAT)

When it comes to reducing deforestation, companies and national governments tend to operate in their respective silos. Effectively reducing forest loss, however, will require collaboration between both corporations and governments. According to a report published today, Collaboration Toward Zero Deforestation: Aligning Corporate and National Commitments in Brazil and Indonesia, companies and governments are beginning to work together toward their shared goals of reducing deforestation.

The report presents case studies that explore the ways in which companies and governments are collaborating, and highlights recommendations for how this collaboration could be strengthened—with implications not only for the two focal countries of Brazil and Indonesia, but for tropical forest countries worldwide. Aligning corporate commitments and Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) – official climate action plans submitted by parties of the Paris Agreement–is of critical importance to meeting national deforestation reduction and reforestation goals. Collaboration between companies and governments will not only enable each sector to achieve their respective deforestation reduction goals, but will also pave the way for future partnerships and enhanced action.

Need and opportunity for public-private partnerships

Deforestation continues to account for around 15% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while destroying biodiversity and threatening livelihoods. In 2014, Brazil and Indonesia together accounted for 38% of global tropical deforestation—with the majority of deforestation in each country driven by commercial agriculture.

Many companies and governments have committed to reduce deforestation. As of early 2017, 447 companies have made commitments to reduce deforestation in their supply chains, according to research by Forest Trends’ Supply Change initiative. Concurrently, of the 191 countries that submitted Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), an estimated 80% included plans to address the land sector in their mitigation targets.

Collaboration between these two sectors is essential: corporations need a regulatory and policy environment conducive to their reduced deforestation commitments—which governments can provide; and governments would benefit tremendously from the participation of key corporate actors in order to achieve the reduced deforestation and forest landscape restoration goals put forth in their NDCs.

Finding Synergies: Lessons from Brazil and Indonesia

Brazil

Brazil’s  NDC aims to reduce emissions 37% below 2005 levels by 2025, and 43% below 2005 levels by 2030—and outlines the role that reducing deforestation and increasing forest landscape restoration could play to achieve these emission reduction targets. Many companies with operations in Brazil developed zero deforestation commitments and are collaborating with the government and NGOs in multi-stakeholder initiatives such as Mato Grosso’s Produce, Conserve, Include (PCI) program. The PCI aims to reduce deforestation, increase reforestation, and increase sustainable agricultural and livestock production—all goals that align with Brazil’s NDC. Companies including Marfrig and Amaggi have signed on to this initiative and are contributing to the design, implementation, and mobilization of finance to support the PCI. Another PCI participant, the Sustainable Trade Initiative (IDH), created a de-risking fund to increase cattle intensification and reforestation. Through interactions via the PCI and other partnerships, the private sector is supporting the government to accelerate the implementation of the country’s NDC goals, and revealing the ways in which these collaborations can be scaled-up and amplified throughout the country.

Indonesia

The government of Indonesia, in addition to enacting several policies focusing on peatland and forest conservation and restoration, has made an unconditional commitment in its NDC to reduce emissions 29% below business-as-usual (BAU) estimated emissions by 2030, and a conditional commitment—contingent upon international support, including finance—to reduce emissions 41% below BAU by 2030. Meanwhile, companies committed to reducing deforestation in their supply chains have made No Deforestation, No Peat, No Exploitation (NDPE) commitments of their own. Many of these companies are collaborating with subnational governments in jurisdictional, multi-stakeholder initiatives aimed at achieving their shared goals of reducing deforestation. The Central Kalimantan Jurisdictional Commitment to Sustainable Palm Oil is one of the most advanced public-private collaborations to address deforestation and emissions in Indonesia, and is bringing together representatives from local governments, NGOs, indigenous peoples, smallholder farmers, and oil palm growers and buyers toward the goal of certifying all palm oil produced in the province by 2019—with Unilever as a particularly active private sector participant.

Recommendations

Lessons from Brazil and Indonesia show that corporate zero deforestation commitments—when buttressed by strong government policies and enhanced by multi-stakeholder partnerships—can help countries reach their goals of reducing deforestation and enhancing forest landscape restoration. This type of collaboration is of increasing importance and has come to the fore in countries such as the United States, where businesses and local and state governments are teaming up to uphold the spirit of the country’s Paris Agreement pledge, despite the US federal government’s announcement to leave the Agreement.

Based on the findings of the report, companies and governments from tropical forest countries worldwide should consider the following recommendations to promote more effective public-private partnerships toward reducing deforestation:

Companies

• Advocate for policies that support corporate deforestation-free goals
• Participate in existing multi-stakeholder initiatives and help them scale-up and replicate
• Support efforts to strengthen and enforce regulations that can help to reduce deforestation

Governments

• Conduct transparent consultations on elaborating and implementing NDCs, and solicit corporate input
• Identify ways that private sector actors and subnational initiatives can support NDCs
• Support private sector supply chain sustainability improvements through targeted policies, incentives, and financial mechanisms
• Remove barriers to more stringent conservation efforts by companies
• Better align national definitions of ‘forest’ and ‘deforestation’ with private sector zero-deforestation policies

For more details, please view the full report.

According to a report published today, Collaboration Toward Zero Deforestation: Aligning Corporate and National Commitments in Brazil and Indonesia, companies and governments are beginning to work together toward their shared goals of reducing deforestation.

By Ellen Shenette

A little over a week ago, 20 of the world’s power houses came together for the Group of 20 summit. It was disappointing to see Trump hold firm to his decision to exit the Paris Agreement while 19 world leaders publicly reaffirmed their commitment. But something good has come out of Trump’s climate defiance, and I bet it’s not the reaction he was looking for: climate action.

The inability for the federal government to agree on climate doesn’t stop momentum– it fuels it. An enormous swell of energy and activism has swept across America. Businesses, states, cities and citizens are stepping up, creating plans to pursue lower emissions on their own.

There are now over 1,400 cities, states and businesses that have vowed to meet Paris commitments, sending a message that “we’re still in” and making enormous strides on devising climate solutions that keep the agenda alive. EDF Climate Corps' ten years of experience gives us an inside look into how companies, cities and non-profits are taking action.

4 ways businesses and cities can help meet Paris climate commitments
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Here are four ways that the private and public sector are preparing for a low-carbon future:

1. Scale energy efficiency. The low-hanging fruit of energy efficiency has for the most part been picked. It’s time to take things to the next level by focusing on larger-scale, portfolio-level energy efficiency projects. Last year, Shuvya Arakali worked with American Eagle Outfitters to recommend HVAC retrofits, and other energy efficiency measures that could be deployed across the store portfolio and save thousands of metric tons of CO2e each year.

Manager, EDF Climate Corps

2. Invest in clean, renewable energy. Evaluate opportunities for both onsite and offsite renewable energy projects, like PPAs and VPPAs. Other procurement options includes mechanisms like green tariffs. The City of Fresno enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Katie Altobello-Czescik to help promote clean, smart energy initiatives including renewable generation, battery storage and demand response. Together, they worked on advancing a community-scale energy project aimed at helping local businesses and creating a net zero neighborhood.

3. Make a commitment—then execute. Be willing to set big goals and develop ambitious GHG-reduction targets that are founded upon science. Once they are set, create strategies to meet them. In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio set a goal to reduce New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The New York City's Mayor's Office of Sustainability has deployed multiple EDF Climate Corps fellows to help develop and advance strategies to meet these ambitious goals.

4. Go beyond your own company. Tackling climate change requires looking at the big picture, more than what’s happening within internal operations. Consider your supply chains by engaging suppliers and together identifying ways to reduce scope 3—both upstream and downstream—GHG emissions. This past spring, Walmart set a goal to remove 1 gigaton (1 billion tons) of GHG emissions from its supply chain by 2030. Companies throughout Walmart’s supply chain now have the directive to go beyond “business as usual” to focus on emissions reductions in their operations.

It’s difficult not to feel discouraged when our national climate policy is moving backwards instead of forwards. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the country is. United States’ leadership will continue, albeit in this new form, and businesses and cities will keep continue to advance climate solutions through smart policy, forward-thinking business and cutting-edge innovation.

Follow Ellen on Twitter, @ellenshenette

Stay on top of the latest facts, information and resources aimed at the intersection of business and the environment. Sign up for the EDF+Business blog. [contact-form-7]

 

A little over a week ago, 20 of the world’s power houses came together for the Group of 20 summit. It was disappointing to see Trump hold firm to his decision to exit the Paris Agreement while 19 world leaders publicly reaffirmed their commitment. But something good has come out of Trump’s climate defiance, and […]

By Ellen Shenette

A little over a week ago, 20 of the world’s power houses came together for the Group of 20 summit. It was disappointing to see Trump hold firm to his decision to exit the Paris Agreement while 19 world leaders publicly reaffirmed their commitment. But something good has come out of Trump’s climate defiance, and I bet it’s not the reaction he was looking for: climate action.

The inability for the federal government to agree on climate doesn’t stop momentum– it fuels it. An enormous swell of energy and activism has swept across America. Businesses, states, cities and citizens are stepping up, creating plans to pursue lower emissions on their own.

There are now over 1,400 cities, states and businesses that have vowed to meet Paris commitments, sending a message that “we’re still in” and making enormous strides on devising climate solutions that keep the agenda alive. EDF Climate Corps' ten years of experience gives us an inside look into how companies, cities and non-profits are taking action.

4 ways businesses and cities can help meet Paris climate commitments
Click To Tweet

Here are four ways that the private and public sector are preparing for a low-carbon future:

1. Scale energy efficiency. The low-hanging fruit of energy efficiency has for the most part been picked. It’s time to take things to the next level by focusing on larger-scale, portfolio-level energy efficiency projects. Last year, Shuvya Arakali worked with American Eagle Outfitters to recommend HVAC retrofits, and other energy efficiency measures that could be deployed across the store portfolio and save thousands of metric tons of CO2e each year.

Manager, EDF Climate Corps

2. Invest in clean, renewable energy. Evaluate opportunities for both onsite and offsite renewable energy projects, like PPAs and VPPAs. Other procurement options includes mechanisms like green tariffs. The City of Fresno enlisted EDF Climate Corps fellow Katie Altobello-Czescik to help promote clean, smart energy initiatives including renewable generation, battery storage and demand response. Together, they worked on advancing a community-scale energy project aimed at helping local businesses and creating a net zero neighborhood.

3. Make a commitment—then execute. Be willing to set big goals and develop ambitious GHG-reduction targets that are founded upon science. Once they are set, create strategies to meet them. In 2015, Mayor Bill de Blasio set a goal to reduce New York City’s greenhouse gas emissions by 80 percent by 2050. The New York City's Mayor's Office of Sustainability has deployed multiple EDF Climate Corps fellows to help develop and advance strategies to meet these ambitious goals.

4. Go beyond your own company. Tackling climate change requires looking at the big picture, more than what’s happening within internal operations. Consider your supply chains by engaging suppliers and together identifying ways to reduce scope 3—both upstream and downstream—GHG emissions. This past spring, Walmart set a goal to remove 1 gigaton (1 billion tons) of GHG emissions from its supply chain by 2030. Companies throughout Walmart’s supply chain now have the directive to go beyond “business as usual” to focus on emissions reductions in their operations.

It’s difficult not to feel discouraged when our national climate policy is moving backwards instead of forwards. But that doesn’t mean the rest of the country is. United States’ leadership will continue, albeit in this new form, and businesses and cities will keep continue to advance climate solutions through smart policy, forward-thinking business and cutting-edge innovation.

Follow Ellen on Twitter, @ellenshenette

Stay on top of the latest facts, information and resources aimed at the intersection of business and the environment. Sign up for the EDF+Business blog. [contact-form-7]

 

Trump's budget could kill an urgent coastal recovery project – and slam our economy

Louisiana’s coast is a working coast. Home to nearly 2 million people, the region is an economic engine for our nation, which relies on it for energy, shipping, chemicals and seafood.

But the state is also facing a land loss crisis that threatens to grind this engine to a halt, with billions in industry losses as a potential result.

The Pelican State alone could lose as much as $3.6 billion worth of homes, businesses and other economic infrastructure over the next 50 years if nothing is done to restore the coast – impacts that would ripple through the United States economy. 

This is why the president’s budget proposal to eliminate the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act – which provides critical funding for sustaining and ramping up Louisiana’s coastal restoration – is both alarming and puzzling.

These funds, drawn from energy revenues generated in the waters off the Gulf Coast will soon be the only consistent source of federal support for such projects. It’s also why they were tapped for Louisiana’s 2017 Coastal Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast – a blueprint for coastal restoration that brings hope to the entire region.

EDF Action: Defend the Gulf Coast against these cuts

In all, more than $100 million will be lost annually if the act is repealed. The prospect of this is already bringing uncertainty to communities and thousands of businesses, including some companies with headquarters many states away – all of whom have a stake in the coast.

Billions in economic impact - and potential loss

Louisiana supplies more crude oil than any other state, and generates $47 billion a year in total oil and gas production. Its ports account for 20 percent of annual waterborne commerce in the U.S., and five of the country’s 15 largest ports by volume are in Louisiana.

Both commercial and recreational fisheries depend on the state. Nearly 30 percent of U.S. commercial fishery landings, by weight, happen here. Recreational fisheries, meanwhile, have a $1.8 billion economic impact.

Louisiana generates $47 billion a year in total oil and gas production.

With the U.S. economy as a whole so dependent on the health of the Mississippi River Delta, Louisiana’s unprecedented land loss has wide implications. Since the 1930s, the state has lost more than 2,000 square-miles of land, an area almost the size of Delaware.

Every 100 minutes, a football field worth of coastal wetlands turns into open water because of decades of shortsighted management and, more recently, rising sea levels.

These wetlands provide vital protection against storm surge for cities, homes and nationally significant industries – including oil and gas, navigation, ports and fisheries. When they erode, the economic risk can be significant, as we saw with Hurricane Katrina when idled oil refineries led to millions in lost revenue and spikes in gas prices nationwide.

The largest restoration project of our time

Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan will become the largest restoration program of our time, and its benefits will ripple through the economy like any massive infrastructure project would.

Dedicated and sustained investments in barrier island restoration, marsh creation, reef construction and sediment diversions are expected to support up to 10,500 jobs annually and contribute as much as $1.5 billion in annual output, a recent report found.

Which makes the administration’s decision to eliminate funding for such projects so much more puzzling. If economic growth and good, homespun jobs are on the agenda, saving Louisiana’s coast should certainly qualify. 

EDF Action: Defend the Gulf Coast against devastating budget cuts krives July 26, 2017 - 08:13

Trump's budget could kill an urgent coastal recovery project – and slam our economy

Louisiana’s coast is a working coast. Home to nearly 2 million people, the region is an economic engine for our nation, which relies on it for energy, shipping, chemicals and seafood.

But the state is also facing a land loss crisis that threatens to grind this engine to a halt, with billions in industry losses as a potential result.

The Pelican State alone could lose as much as $3.6 billion worth of homes, businesses and other economic infrastructure over the next 50 years if nothing is done to restore the coast – impacts that would ripple through the United States economy. 

This is why the president’s budget proposal to eliminate the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act – which provides critical funding for sustaining and ramping up Louisiana’s coastal restoration – is both alarming and puzzling.

These funds, drawn from energy revenues generated in the waters off the Gulf Coast will soon be the only consistent source of federal support for such projects. It’s also why they were tapped for Louisiana’s 2017 Coastal Master Plan for a Sustainable Coast – a blueprint for coastal restoration that brings hope to the entire region.

EDF Action: Defend the Gulf Coast against these cuts

In all, more than $100 million will be lost annually if the act is repealed. The prospect of this is already bringing uncertainty to communities and thousands of businesses, including some companies with headquarters many states away – all of whom have a stake in the coast.

Billions in economic impact - and potential loss

Louisiana supplies more crude oil than any other state, and generates $47 billion a year in total oil and gas production. Its ports account for 20 percent of annual waterborne commerce in the U.S., and five of the country’s 15 largest ports by volume are in Louisiana.

Both commercial and recreational fisheries depend on the state. Nearly 30 percent of U.S. commercial fishery landings, by weight, happen here. Recreational fisheries, meanwhile, have a $1.8 billion economic impact.

Louisiana generates $47 billion a year in total oil and gas production.

With the U.S. economy as a whole so dependent on the health of the Mississippi River Delta, Louisiana’s unprecedented land loss has wide implications. Since the 1930s, the state has lost more than 2,000 square-miles of land, an area almost the size of Delaware.

Every 100 minutes, a football field worth of coastal wetlands turns into open water because of decades of shortsighted management and, more recently, rising sea levels.

These wetlands provide vital protection against storm surge for cities, homes and nationally significant industries – including oil and gas, navigation, ports and fisheries. When they erode, the economic risk can be significant, as we saw with Hurricane Katrina when idled oil refineries led to millions in lost revenue and spikes in gas prices nationwide.

The largest restoration project of our time

Louisiana’s Coastal Master Plan will become the largest restoration program of our time, and its benefits will ripple through the economy like any massive infrastructure project would.

Dedicated and sustained investments in barrier island restoration, marsh creation, reef construction and sediment diversions are expected to support up to 10,500 jobs annually and contribute as much as $1.5 billion in annual output, a recent report found.

Which makes the administration’s decision to eliminate funding for such projects so much more puzzling. If economic growth and good, homespun jobs are on the agenda, saving Louisiana’s coast should certainly qualify. 

EDF Action: Defend the Gulf Coast against devastating budget cuts krives July 26, 2017 - 08:13

By EDF Blogs

By Jason Mathers

The high level of confidence that automotive industry leaders have in the future of electric vehicles (EV’s) has been on full display recently.

In just the past few weeks:

• Tesla’s Model 3 started to roll off the assembly line
• Daimler announced a $740 million investment to produce EV batteries in China
• Cummins noted it would have a fully electric truck platformavailable by the end of 2019
• Lyft pledged to provide a billion rides a year powered by electricity by 2025
• Porsche set a 2023 target for having 50 percent of its production be electric vehicles
• Volvo Cars announced that “all the models it introduces starting in 2019 will be either hybrids or powered solely by batteries”

This spurt of corporate announcements has been paired with a bevy of statements of international leadership:

• France declared it would be all electric by 2040
• India challenged itself to be gas free by 2030
• China took the global lead in terms of number of EVs on the road

These developments are more than just excitement about an emerging solution. They are indicators that the market for EVs is developing faster than anticipated even just last year.

Consider the findings of a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It found that:

[L]ithium-ion cell costs have already fallen by 73 percent since 2010.

The report updated its future cost projections to reflect further steep cost reductions in the years ahead, with a price per kilowatt-hour in 2025 of $109 and in 2030 of $73.

Cost reductions on this order would result in EVs achieving cost parity with some classes of conventional vehicles by 2025 – and across most vehicle segments by 2029, according to the report. EV sales are expected to really take off once they achieve cost parity with conventional vehicles, as the vehicles are significantly less expensive to fuel and maintain.

The acceleration in the EV market is great news for climate protection too. A recent assessment found that zero-emission vehicles, such as EVs, need to comprise 40 percent of new vehicles sold by 2030 in order for the automotive sector to be on a path to achieve critical mid-century emissions targets. With the momentum in the EV market, we have a critical window to further boost this market by ensuring greater access of electric vehicles and a cleaner electric grid to power them.

Unfortunately, the U.S. has not demonstrated the same appetite for national leadership on EVs as other countries. Even worse, we are going in the wrong direction – with serious implications for our health, climate and economy.

Instead of leading, the Trump Administration is undermining critical clean air and climate protections including the landmark clean car standards for 2022 to 2025. The actions of individual automakers, however, tell a very different story from the “can’t do it” mantra put forth by the Administration.

Electric vehicles enter the here and now
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In their commitments, investments and new product introductions, automotive manufacturers and their suppliers are clearly telling us that low emissions vehicles can play a much bigger role in the near future.

The fact is that automakers can meet the existing 2022 to 2025 federal greenhouse gas standards through deployment of current conventional technology alone. Now, in addition to the robust pathway automakers have through existing technologies, EV adoption rates in the U.S. will be 10 percent in 2025 if the Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts hold true. This is further proof that the existing standards are highly achievable. Rather than weaken the standard, the Administration should be pursuing options to further scale EVs over the next decade.

Investing in clear car solutions is sound economic policy. These investments enhance the global competitiveness of the U.S. automotive sector.

This is why the UAW in a letter supporting the existing 2022 to 2025 clean car standards, noted:

UAW members know firsthand that Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) standards have spurred investments in new products that employ tens of thousands of our members.

Like other key aspects of the potential of the emerging EV marketplace, the role it can play as an employer has been in the news recently too.

An AM General assembly plant in northern Indiana was acquired by electric vehicle manufacture SF Motors. The company announced that it will make a $30 million investment in the facility and keep on all the 430 employees.

Fittingly, most of the 430 jobs that were saved to manufacture an emerging, clean technology are represented by UAW Local 5 – the oldest continuously operating UAW Local in the country.

This post originally appeared on our Climate 411 blog.

Photo source: Fortunate4now.

By EDF Blogs

By Jason Mathers

The high level of confidence that automotive industry leaders have in the future of electric vehicles (EV’s) has been on full display recently.

In just the past few weeks:

• Tesla’s Model 3 started to roll off the assembly line
• Daimler announced a $740 million investment to produce EV batteries in China
• Cummins noted it would have a fully electric truck platformavailable by the end of 2019
• Lyft pledged to provide a billion rides a year powered by electricity by 2025
• Porsche set a 2023 target for having 50 percent of its production be electric vehicles
• Volvo Cars announced that “all the models it introduces starting in 2019 will be either hybrids or powered solely by batteries”

This spurt of corporate announcements has been paired with a bevy of statements of international leadership:

• France declared it would be all electric by 2040
• India challenged itself to be gas free by 2030
• China took the global lead in terms of number of EVs on the road

These developments are more than just excitement about an emerging solution. They are indicators that the market for EVs is developing faster than anticipated even just last year.

Consider the findings of a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It found that:

[L]ithium-ion cell costs have already fallen by 73 percent since 2010.

The report updated its future cost projections to reflect further steep cost reductions in the years ahead, with a price per kilowatt-hour in 2025 of $109 and in 2030 of $73.

Cost reductions on this order would result in EVs achieving cost parity with some classes of conventional vehicles by 2025 – and across most vehicle segments by 2029, according to the report. EV sales are expected to really take off once they achieve cost parity with conventional vehicles, as the vehicles are significantly less expensive to fuel and maintain.

The acceleration in the EV market is great news for climate protection too. A recent assessment found that zero-emission vehicles, such as EVs, need to comprise 40 percent of new vehicles sold by 2030 in order for the automotive sector to be on a path to achieve critical mid-century emissions targets. With the momentum in the EV market, we have a critical window to further boost this market by ensuring greater access of electric vehicles and a cleaner electric grid to power them.

Unfortunately, the U.S. has not demonstrated the same appetite for national leadership on EVs as other countries. Even worse, we are going in the wrong direction – with serious implications for our health, climate and economy.

Instead of leading, the Trump Administration is undermining critical clean air and climate protections including the landmark clean car standards for 2022 to 2025. The actions of individual automakers, however, tell a very different story from the “can’t do it” mantra put forth by the Administration.

Electric vehicles enter the here and now
Click To Tweet

In their commitments, investments and new product introductions, automotive manufacturers and their suppliers are clearly telling us that low emissions vehicles can play a much bigger role in the near future.

The fact is that automakers can meet the existing 2022 to 2025 federal greenhouse gas standards through deployment of current conventional technology alone. Now, in addition to the robust pathway automakers have through existing technologies, EV adoption rates in the U.S. will be 10 percent in 2025 if the Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts hold true. This is further proof that the existing standards are highly achievable. Rather than weaken the standard, the Administration should be pursuing options to further scale EVs over the next decade.

Investing in clear car solutions is sound economic policy. These investments enhance the global competitiveness of the U.S. automotive sector.

This is why the UAW in a letter supporting the existing 2022 to 2025 clean car standards, noted:

UAW members know firsthand that Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) standards have spurred investments in new products that employ tens of thousands of our members.

Like other key aspects of the potential of the emerging EV marketplace, the role it can play as an employer has been in the news recently too.

An AM General assembly plant in northern Indiana was acquired by electric vehicle manufacture SF Motors. The company announced that it will make a $30 million investment in the facility and keep on all the 430 employees.

Fittingly, most of the 430 jobs that were saved to manufacture an emerging, clean technology are represented by UAW Local 5 – the oldest continuously operating UAW Local in the country.

This post originally appeared on our Climate 411 blog.

Photo source: Fortunate4now.

By EDF Blogs

By Jason Mathers

The high level of confidence that automotive industry leaders have in the future of electric vehicles (EV’s) has been on full display recently.

In just the past few weeks:

• Tesla’s Model 3 started to roll off the assembly line
• Daimler announced a $740 million investment to produce EV batteries in China
• Cummins noted it would have a fully electric truck platformavailable by the end of 2019
• Lyft pledged to provide a billion rides a year powered by electricity by 2025
• Porsche set a 2023 target for having 50 percent of its production be electric vehicles
• Volvo Cars announced that “all the models it introduces starting in 2019 will be either hybrids or powered solely by batteries”

This spurt of corporate announcements has been paired with a bevy of statements of international leadership:

• France declared it would be all electric by 2040
• India challenged itself to be gas free by 2030
• China took the global lead in terms of number of EVs on the road

These developments are more than just excitement about an emerging solution. They are indicators that the market for EVs is developing faster than anticipated even just last year.

Consider the findings of a new report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. It found that:

[L]ithium-ion cell costs have already fallen by 73 percent since 2010.

The report updated its future cost projections to reflect further steep cost reductions in the years ahead, with a price per kilowatt-hour in 2025 of $109 and in 2030 of $73.

Cost reductions on this order would result in EVs achieving cost parity with some classes of conventional vehicles by 2025 – and across most vehicle segments by 2029, according to the report. EV sales are expected to really take off once they achieve cost parity with conventional vehicles, as the vehicles are significantly less expensive to fuel and maintain.

The acceleration in the EV market is great news for climate protection too. A recent assessment found that zero-emission vehicles, such as EVs, need to comprise 40 percent of new vehicles sold by 2030 in order for the automotive sector to be on a path to achieve critical mid-century emissions targets. With the momentum in the EV market, we have a critical window to further boost this market by ensuring greater access of electric vehicles and a cleaner electric grid to power them.

Unfortunately, the U.S. has not demonstrated the same appetite for national leadership on EVs as other countries. Even worse, we are going in the wrong direction – with serious implications for our health, climate and economy.

Instead of leading, the Trump Administration is undermining critical clean air and climate protections including the landmark clean car standards for 2022 to 2025. The actions of individual automakers, however, tell a very different story from the “can’t do it” mantra put forth by the Administration.

Electric vehicles enter the here and now
Click To Tweet

In their commitments, investments and new product introductions, automotive manufacturers and their suppliers are clearly telling us that low emissions vehicles can play a much bigger role in the near future.

The fact is that automakers can meet the existing 2022 to 2025 federal greenhouse gas standards through deployment of current conventional technology alone. Now, in addition to the robust pathway automakers have through existing technologies, EV adoption rates in the U.S. will be 10 percent in 2025 if the Bloomberg New Energy Finance forecasts hold true. This is further proof that the existing standards are highly achievable. Rather than weaken the standard, the Administration should be pursuing options to further scale EVs over the next decade.

Investing in clear car solutions is sound economic policy. These investments enhance the global competitiveness of the U.S. automotive sector.

This is why the UAW in a letter supporting the existing 2022 to 2025 clean car standards, noted:

UAW members know firsthand that Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) and greenhouse gas (GHG) standards have spurred investments in new products that employ tens of thousands of our members.

Like other key aspects of the potential of the emerging EV marketplace, the role it can play as an employer has been in the news recently too.

An AM General assembly plant in northern Indiana was acquired by electric vehicle manufacture SF Motors. The company announced that it will make a $30 million investment in the facility and keep on all the 430 employees.

Fittingly, most of the 430 jobs that were saved to manufacture an emerging, clean technology are represented by UAW Local 5 – the oldest continuously operating UAW Local in the country.

This post originally appeared on our Climate 411 blog.

Photo source: Fortunate4now.