Power Surge 10.3

Volume 10, Issue 3
September 28, 2020 – October 4, 2020
Neha Chauhan '21 | Sabrina Reguyal ‘22 | Joe Kawalec '21 | Rei Zhang ‘21 | Amy Amatya '21

California Plans to Ban Sales of New Gas-Powered Cars in 15 Years
September 23, 2020 | The New York Times | Brad Plumer and Jill Cowan
Governor Gavin Newsom issued an executive order on Wednesday, September 23, pledging to stop the sale of new gas-powered vehicles by 2035. The plan would require automakers to increase production of zero-emissions vehicles, such as electric vehicles or hydrogen-fueled cars, to make up all auto sales. Governor Newsom also highlighted two additional goals in his order: the expansion of public transportation and for all heavy-duty trucks to be zero emissions by 2045. This executive order is the latest example of the way California is setting itself as a national and global leader in climate change policy; transportation is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions for California, making up some 40% of its total emissions.  -RZ

Image from Ben Margot/Associated Press

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China’s Pledge to Be Carbon Neutral by 2060: What It Means
September 23, 2020 | The New York Times | Steven Lee Myers
China, who produces 28 percent of the world’s emissions, has officially pledged to reach “carbon neutrality” by 2060. However, a rise in coal production and carbon dioxide emissions from last year as part of a push to stimulate industrial growth have produced worrisome trends in the eyes of analysts. Still, China has been a leader in clean energy technologies as the world’s largest maker of electric cars and buses, giving them a leg up on transitioning away from fossil fuels as long as there is political support. The Chinese government also plans to release a comprehensive 5-year plan soon that will detail all of the necessary economic, industrial, and environmental changes. -JK

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How to Create Anti-Racist Energy Policies
September 23, 2020 | WBUR | Shalanda Baker
Millions of Americans are currently at risk of losing access to energy due to the expiration of state-enacted moratoria that prevented COVID-related utility shutoffs. However, energy insecurity isn’t a uniquely pandemic problem: lower-income families spend a higher percentage of their income on energy while already using less than higher-income households. Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities are less likely to have access to energy, let alone clean energy, while also being more likely to live in close proximity to toxic fossil fuel byproducts. Anti-racist energy policy today would look like utility shutoff prevention measures, household expenditure caps, investment in clean and local energy for low-income and BIPOC communities, removal of barriers to energy sovereignty, and fierce commitment to climate solutions. -AA

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Power Surge 10.2

Volume 10, Issue 2
September 21, 2020 – September 27, 2020
Neha Chauhan '21 | Sabrina Reguyal ‘22 | Joe Kawalec '21 | Rei Zhang ‘21 | Amy Amatya '21

The Energy Crises Revealed by COVID
July 7, 2020 | Energy Research & Social Science Journal | Kathleen Brosemer
The socially disruptive nature of the COVID-19 pandemic has brought underlying energy justice issues to the fore of the social sciences. Energy, though not an explicit human need, is a means of accessing basic human necessities with a large stake in how we access food, transport water, provide education, and turn shelters into homes. COVID-19 has been a compounding, rather than causal, factor in our country’s already-existing energy crises, including: 1) insufficient power for providing basic health services, 2) increased vulnerability to the Coronavirus in those exposed to energy sector-produced pollution, 3) inability to meet basic energy needs in the wake of joblessness, and 4) corporate control over civilian energy fates and operations. -AA

“Energy sovereignty is defined as the right for communities, rather than corporate interests, to control access to and decision making regarding the sources, scales, and forms of ownership characterizing access to energy services."

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Researchers Urge Federal Moonshot for Clean Energy
September 17, 2020 | Scientific American | David Iaconangelo
A research group at Columbia University has released a document that contains a road map of policies for the winner of this year’s presidential election to start developing clean energy technology. The group has prepared these recommendations to “hit the ground running” on the path to net-zero carbon emissions with the next administration. Some of the plan’s recommendations include tripling funding for energy research and increasing development of clean-tech like carbon capture and hydrogen fuel. This ramped-up funding would also be given to CO2 removal research, which involves “negative emissions” technology that could use direct air capture or bioenergy to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. These “next wave” technologies should be developed rapidly “throughout the next decade,” they wrote. -JK

30 DAC - Direct Air Capture - fans run by the Swiss company Climeworks. Credit: Orjan Ellingvag Alamy

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U.S. Department of Energy Announces Establishment of Office of Arctic Energy
September 17, 2020 | U.S. Department of Energy | U.S. Department of Energy
On September 17th, 2020, the US Secretary of Energy and the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman jointly announced the re-establishment of a Department of Energy (DOE) Arctic Energy Office (AEO). The office was officially established in 2001, but work lapsed due to a lack of funding. The new, reinvigorated AEO will be focusing on the energy future of the Arctic, such as international cooperation on Arctic issues, research on fossil fuels, and development of advanced micro grids and nuclear power systems. The office will be staffed by three interim members in partnership with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks. -RZ