Climate Point: 1 million solar roofs in Calif.; tax credit to fall
Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and environment news. I'm Janet Wilson, reporting from sunny Palm Springs, Calif. The Golden State now has a million solar rooftops, as Sammy Roth with the LA Times reports. Guess which city has the most? Not LA.* And If you want to install solar panels, a 30% federal tax credit goes away Jan. 1, though you'll still get 26% in 2020.
Here are some other stories that may be of interest:
MUST-READ STORIES
Continental divide. Europe lurched toward becoming the first carbon-free continent, The New York Times reports. The European Commission inked a possible pact that would require major changes in everything from food to travel, per The Guardian. Poland, which runs on heavily polluting coal, was the holdout, says Reuters.
Up north. The Arctic is on thin ice, with "unprecedented" warming and "exceptionally low levels" of sea ice bringing rapid, dramatic and disruptive changes to the polar region, as Doyle Rice writes for USA Today.
Fall 2019 snowiest on record. Forget foliage. Montana was buried in white stuff.
ENERGY CLEAN AND DIRTY
NY loses against Exxon. A New York state judge found Exxon Mobil did not engage in fraud in statements accounting for costs of climate change regulation. But the judge noted the decision had nothing to do with whether the oil giant or others contributed to climate change, and several other jurisdictions are also suing the company, as The New York Times' John Schwartz reports.
Open for biz. Despite protests, the Trump administration will open 1.2 million acres of California to fracking and oil drilling, per Andrew Sheeler with The Sacramento Bee. As USA Today's Gabrielle Canon told us earlier, drilling could occur near Yosemite, Sequoia and other popular parks and forests. The action comes after Gov. Gavin Newsom halted new fracking and steam drilling.
How much natural gas for how long? California faces crossroads on energy.
POLITICAL CLIMATE
Bag it. In Ohio and across the US, red states and blue states are divided over ... plastic bags? Jesse Balmert with The Cincinnati Inquirer explains. New Jersey and Hawaii, meanwhile, are vying for the toughest bag bans in the US it seems. New Jersey's proposed law could even ban paper bags, writes North Jersey Record's Scott Fallon. But Hawaii's Big Island, Maui and Honolulu have all passed strict Styrofoam, single-use utensil and bag bans, as Jason Ubay and Ashley Mizou with Hawaii Public Radio report.
Downriver. Arizona, Nevada and Mexico will start taking less water from the Colorado River in January, as a hard-fought set of agreements kicks in to reduce the risk of reservoirs falling to critically low levels, as Ian James with The Arizona Republic chronicles. Talks are already underway on more possible cuts.
Murky waters. A powerful Congressional Democrat nixed bans of carcinogenic "forever chemicals" this week, as Ariana Figueroa with E&E reports. But a Michigan shoe factory that for decades used the PFAS compounds, causing widespread contamination, is near a $70 million settlement with the state and two towns, as Keith Matheny with The Detroit Free Press reports.
AND ANOTHER THING
All that glitters. Those sparkly holiday gift wrappings can't be recycled, but if you're about to begin a wrap-a-thon, there are green alternatives, writes Lori Blevins with MakeItGrateful.com for USA Today. Festoon brown paper bags (hear that New Jersey?), use old magazines, pretty aprons or other cloth, or stash small items in reusable wine bags. Cheers!
Scientists say to keep a livable planet, we need to reduce carbon emissions to 350 ppm. We're above that and rising. Here are the latest numbers:
*San Diego. Per Roth's story, 150,000 San Diego Gas & Electric customers have gone solar, compared to 34,000 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power customers.
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. And if you are interested in California news, sign up for USA Today's new newsletter, In California.