Climate Point: Fighting national park crowds, sham ESG rankings and charging EVs is cheaper
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson in Palm Springs. Lots of news this week, from New England to the Deep South. That includes our beloved and increasingly over-loved national parks.
If you're dreaming of a summer getaway in Maine's Acadia National Park, or exploring Yosemite National Park in California, get in line. This year, nine national park sites have announced a reservation will be required to see iconic sights, as Jim Fulcher with Travel Awaits writes.
At Joshua Tree National Park three hours east of Los Angeles, the stark beauty and logistical challenges at another one of America’s busiest national parks are on full display. Traffic now backs up for a mile or more on weekends. As superintendent David Smith told me and photographer Jay Calderon as we tagged along on a "new normal" Monday, it's no mystery to him why people love the park’s harsh, heat-blasted landscapes.
“You know, life is hard," he said. "And being in a place like Joshua Tree is a good reflection of what life is like ... life holds on and it thrives here. It for me is a good example of what I want out of life."
Hundreds of lesser-known parks, monuments and historic sites actually saw attendance drop during COVID, while it exploded at 25 spots. If you're able and willing to venture off the beaten path in the popular parks, or try a nearby alternative, you're likely to find the quiet and natural beauty you came for.
Here are some other stories that may be of interest.
Compelling reads
Charging ahead. With prices at gas pumps soaring, electric car and truck sales are roaring, as Beth Weise with USA Today writes. While some reports claim it costs a bundle to charge an EV too, they presume most charging is done at pricy public charging stations. But the Department of Energy estimates on average, 81% of charging is done at home.
On March 7, when the average price of gas hit $4.10, DOE chief analyst Matteo Muratori calculated that filling up a midsize gasoline car cost over $55. The equivalent fueling cost for charging an EV at home was $16 or less, including equipment costs.
Nissan Leaf owner Brent Newman mostly charges at night.
“That’s when electric rates are cheaper, so it costs me about $2.60 to fill my ‘tank’ with electrons," the Denver resident said last week, as the price of gasoline at the pump soared. "Doesn’t that sound attractive right now?”
Socially irresponsible. So-called "ESG" investments are on the hot seat over what they actually do — and don't do. In December, Bloomberg Businessweek did a terrific deep dive on how one firm dominates the fast-growing field of ranking companies via an "Environment, Social, Governance" screen, which most investors assume is meant to ensure a company isn't harming the climate, is protecting workers and is paying attention other key indicators. But the firm, MSCI, does just the opposite, instead ranking what kind of risk a "do-good" action might cause a company.
That means McDonald's, for instance, actually saw its ESG score rise even as its carbon emissions rose. Mind-boggling.
"Doing good" for Putin and fossil fuels. This week, Bloomberg Green writes, criticisms of the ESG industry have grown since Vladimir Putin attacked Ukraine, with news emerging that so-called ESG funds had at least $8.3 billion invested in Russian government bonds and companies, and billions more in oil and gas companies tied to climate change.
Yet ESG investments are soaring, as institutions and individuals alike grapple with how to combat global warming's impacts. Forbes columnist John Quinn has a good primer this week on the confusion, lack of unified standards and the risks. You might aim for companies and funds with "impact" goals or those that allow you to screen out certain industries.
People are talking. Ezra Klein's New York Times column on how rich liberals are in many ways thwarting climate change action as much as fossil fuel lobbyists and Republicans is provocative, with understandable outrage from some. It's worth a read.
Energy clean — and dirty
Southern drive. Oklahoma, Arkansas and Louisiana announced this week they have created a regional "hydrogen hub" with hopes to land a billion dollars or more in federal funds to show off what the states can do. Ultimately it could unleash commercial-scale pilot projects and power cleaner transportation in polluted coastal and inland areas.
Gassing up. An energy void left by the closure of Massachusetts' only nuclear power plant has been filled largely with polluting natural gas, reports Hadley Barndollar for the Cape Cod Times, counteracting much of New England's ambitious goals to slash emissions and reduce dependence on fossil fuels.
Finally. An Indiana town built on contaminated coal ash will be cleaned up by Northern Indiana Public Service Co., or NIPSCO, per an agreement filed Friday between the utility and the EPA. Nearly 50 years ago, toxic ash from a coal-fired power plant was used as fill for yards, at building sites and under the roads of the town of Pines, reports Sarah Bowman with the Indianapolis Star.
Thirty years later, federal and state agencies learned that it was contaminating the town’s aquifer and creating a health risk for roughly 600 residents. The federal consent decree requires the utility to pay nearly $12 million to remove soil contaminated by the ash from under homes.
Sunnyside. Indiana has passed a new law that makes it harder for homeowners associations to prohibit residents from adding solar panels to their homes, reports Sarah Bowman. A review of hundreds of HOAs across Central Indiana suggests as many as half expressly ban solar panels, while many others have vague or limiting language that left the decision up to committees devoid of objective criteria.
Joey Myles, a homeowner in an HOA community in Franklin Township who fought for years for the law, said, “I just can’t believe it, oh my gosh. It’s finally done.”
Hot takes
Withdrawn. Lacking Senate votes for confirmation, Sarah Bloom Raskin withdrew Tuesday as President Biden's nominee for a top regulatory post at the Federal Reserve. She faced harsh criticism from Republicans and coal state Senator Joe Manchin, D-W. Virginia for questioning the Fed's support of fossil fuel companies without examining climate change costs. Joey Garrison and Rebecca Morin, Paste BN
Up and down. On North Carolina's popular Outer Banks, structures rise and fall as climate change looms. Gareth McGrath, Wilmington Star News
Riverine. Climate change can be worsened by human development near rivers. Kyle Bagenstose, USA Today
A greenhouse gas pioneer
Yes she did. In 1856, a scientist named Eunice Foote placed two glass jars in sunlight and measured the rate at which their internal temperatures rose. In one jar she trapped air, and into the other she pumped carbon dioxide, explains the Arizona Republic's Joan Meiners.
After 10 minutes, there was a 20 degree Fahrenheit difference in temperature between the two jars. Once removed from sunlight, the hotter jar with the carbon dioxide also took much longer to cool down.
That year, Foote wrote that "an atmosphere of that gas would give to our earth a high temperature."
Hers is the first known experiment to prove that molecules now called "greenhouse gases" because of their ability to trap heat from the sun in an enclosed space, like a greenhouse, could cause rising temperatures.
Her work was ignored for more than a century, but in honor of Women's History Month, here's to you, Ms. Foote.
That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me on Twitter @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.