The War On Wind, Colorado River Watershed Restoration, Gen E Events, & more!

Hey climate heroes! Welcome to The Climate Roundup, where we round up the change, er the news about climate and the environment. As part of the Gen E community, we thank you for making climate action part of everyday life. (Reading this newsletter counts!)

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Philanthropy At Work:

🦫 In this three and a half minute video, you’ll get a visual explanation of two water restoration projects that the National Forest Foundation is working on to help support the Colorado River Watershed. This targeted work aims to bring streams and wetlands back to life after decades of degradation from things like development to drought. The western United States is facing serious dual threats of water scarcity and wildfires, and honest projects like these, where people are working with nature to restore what has been unnaturally lost, are crucial in mitigating the damage. Seeing the work being done in the video to create wetlands, for example, by building beaver-dam-like structures that let water slow down and expand across the land, really makes the concept of nature-based solutions hit home as obvious, simple (vs high tech) implementations that need our support and attention. They sure don’t get enough of it from elsewhere. We don’t always need to reinvent the wheel. Sometimes, maybe oftentimes, we need to let the wheel be as it was originally, perfectly designed. As nature intended. of progress itself should never be assumed.

The War On Wind:

The Trump-led War On Wind has escalated in recent weeks. It defies logic (“energy emergency”, eh?), it’s rooted in his personal insecurities (losing the battle to stop wind turbines from appearing in the coastal view off his Scotland golf course), it is a drain on government resources (see below), it is killing tens of thousands of jobs, it threatens planned electricity reliability and affordability at a time when energy demand is rising, and it hinders our country’s ability to reduce planet-warming emissions while adding a clean, cheap energy source to the mix. Trump’s hatred for wind is stupid and irrational, yet it is a cancer that has spread across our current governing bodies. The most recent and most unhinged of tactics came last week, when we learned of a new mandated, taxpayer-funded witch hunt across six federal agencies with the objective of conjuring up reasons that wind power is bad. Per the NYT, “At the Health and Human Services Department, for instance, officials are studying whether wind turbines are emitting electromagnetic fields that could harm human health. And the Defense Department is probing whether the projects could pose risks to national security.” Wind power and its infrastructure are not new. They’ve already undergone decades of studies and reviews across several domestic and international departments and special interests. There is no legitimate basis for this witch hunt, other than to further twist the dagger in the heart of a renewable energy industry loathed by fossil fuel profiteers.

In addition to the cross-agency witch hunt, the other developing plotline here is Trump’s expanding overreach to not only refuse new wind and solar projects, but to rescind approvals for existing ones. In response to last month’s government order to stop work at the near-complete Revolution Wind farm off the coast of Rhode Island, Orsted, the Danish company building the project, is suing the administration for its ‘unlawful’ request. Rhode Island and Connecticut have also filed a separate lawsuit to overturn the stop-work order. And judging by recent filings, it appears that Trump is preparing to stop more approved projects offshore of Maryland and Massachusetts next. This has caused a group of east coast Democratic governors to band together and try to convince the b-administration to rethink this strategy of revoking approved energy projects.

But it’s not just Dems who oppose this strategy. Nobody wants this, including the politically conservative US Chamber of Commerce, Wall Street, and even Trump-voting New England fisherman, who in fact benefit from employment from offshore wind development (I recommend reading that fisherman story). All these parties object for their own reasons, but generally it’s the risk to investment certainty for approved, permitted, and ongoing construction of large-scale projects of any kind that require federal input. The idea that at any moment, work can be ordered to stop is unsettling to many, and it could apply to fossil fuel projects. Some Republicans don’t like that a future Democratic administration could use this same playbook to shut down in-progress dirty energy projects. At least there could be a silver lining.

All we know for sure is that this series of attacks on wind and renewable energy at large is heating up. Let’s not leave out the recent DOT cancelation of $679M in federal funding for offshore wind infrastructure (somehow there was still more on the table!), and last week’s passing of a spending bill that further cuts budgets for renewables. This war – is it not a modern civil war? – is greatly hurting an industry we so desperately need to grow for every reason under the sun. But also, this tyrannical crusade by Trump to destroy his self-appointed archenemy, Wind, is beginning to fracture his own party and support from his allies. Imagine the beautiful irony if this story ends with Wind being the force that blows this White House down.

Rapid Fire Other News:

✊ 85 awesome scientists submitted a 400+ page report citing the errors in this summer’s DOE climate report (Trump’s Version) written by 5 climate deniers, meant to fabricate a document that downplays climate change for use in legally supporting the EPA’s efforts to allow unabated pollution. No exaggeration!

🚫 A federal appeals court is allowing the EPA to terminate $16B in previously approved grants to nonprofits fighting climate change (they need our help more than ever!)

🔥 Blackrock got fired from managing $17B for a large pension fund in the Netherlands due to its spineless backtracking on climate goals.

🤳 The use of nature-related words has dropped drastically in our modern-day vocabulary as humans increasingly disconnect from nature.

⅒ The realistic application of carbon storage, the process of taking CO2 from the air or from a pollution source and injecting it underground, is found to be a mere fraction of the potential solution it’s been made out to be.

🚮 Straight outta Japan, “Spogomi” is the competitive sport of picking up garbage from the street, and it has its own World Cup.

🌳 In NYC, the Parks Department designates certain trees as “Great”. Here’s an interactive feature on 25 of these majestic and special living wonders.

Upcoming Gen E Events:

🐦 🌿 🧘‍♀️ I’m excited to share some upcoming Gen E events during Climate Week NYC, the week of September 21-27th. If you happen to be in NYC, I’d love to see you! We’ll be birding and learning about nature in Central Park. And doing a sauna, cold plunge, breath work session in Flatiron. These Gen E events aim to reconnect us with nature and our true selves, our inner environmentalists, in order to nourish and energize us. For Earth!