Climate Point: Beyond the 98th meridian

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Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate change, energy and the environment. I'm Sammy Roth, a reporter based in Southern California, and today I'm here to tell you there is a 10-year-old kid suing Florida Gov. Rick Scott over climate change (story by Florida Today's Isadora Rangel). The kid, Levi Draheim, was also part of a group of young people who sued the Obama administration over global warming.

Even if you think lawsuits aren't the right way to fight global warming (plenty of people are skeptical), Levi is unbelievably articulate about why climate change matters to him. And he's working a lot harder to try to make the world better than I was at age 10.

Here are some other things you might want to know:

MUST-READ STORIES:

Beyond the 98th meridian: The explorer John Wesley Powell famously identified the 100th meridian — a north-south line that cuts through the Dakotas, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma and Texas — as the dividing line between the wetter eastern half of the United States and the drier western half. But new research shows the wet-dry line has shifted 140 miles east over the past century due to global warming, as Paste BN's Doyle Rice reports. Basically, the dry climate of the Great Plains is creeping toward the Midwest, and has now reached roughly the 98th meridian. The line is expected to keep moving east as the planet heats up, which could have a huge impact on farming.

The Trump vs. California fight nobody's talking about: I spent the last few weeks reporting on a big environmental battle that's somehow managed to fly under the radar. The Trump administration may undo an Obama-era plan that protects millions of acres of pristine public lands in the California desert, as I reported for The Desert Sun. Unsurprisingly, state officials and environmentalists are pretty ticked. The twist, though, is the Trump administration claims it wants to open more of those protected areas to solar and wind farms, which environmentalists generally love because they help fight climate change. Whether that's really Trump's goal is a question I tackle in the story.

ALL ABOUT CLEAN ENERGY:

Be careful what you breathe: The American Lung Association released its annual "State of the Air" report, and lo and behold, the air in many U.S. cities in still dangerous for you to breathe (even though it's much cleaner than it used to be). Eight of the 10 cities with the worst smog pollution are in California, as Paste BN's Doyle Rice reports; places like Portland, Milwaukee and New York City also suffer from air that's frequently unhealthy to breathe. It's worth noting that global warming is making things worse, since warmer temperatures mean smog is more likely to form. It's also worth noting that President Trump just ordered the EPA to loosen air-quality rules in areas with high air pollution in order to boost manufacturing, per Paste BN's Ledyard King.

Clean energy politics, never not heated: I've told you a few times about the political battle over rooftop solar in Kentucky, and now there's a conclusion: A bill that critics say would have decimated the rooftop solar industry died in the legislature without a vote, as Morgan Watkins reports for the Courier-Journal in Louisville. Solar advocates, it seems, were more powerful than the utility companies. Meanwhile, in Arizona, the big electric utility continues to argue against a renewable energy ballot measure, despite having already basically neutered it in the legislature, as I mentioned a few weeks ago. The utility is now arguing that a higher renewable energy mandate would force it to shut down a giant nuclear power plant, as Ryan Randazzo reports for the Arizona Republic.

POLITICAL CLIMATE:

More climate skeptics at NASA, EPA: After months of delay, the Senate narrowly confirmed Jim Bridenstine — a Republican member of Congress from Oklahoma who has no scientific background, and who has expressed skepticism about the scientific consensus on climate change — to lead NASA. Here's the story from Paste BN's Ledyard King. (Bridenstine's confirmation was made possible when Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, who had insisted that a space professional should lead the space agency, finally caved.) Meanwhile, the Senate also confirmed Andrew Wheeler — who is not only a climate skeptic but also a bona fide former coal lobbyist — to the second-in-command post at the EPA. Here's that story from Coral Davenport at the New York Times.

The Trump administration just made it easier to kill birds: It's possible you haven't heard of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, which makes it illegal to kill migratory birds. Now that you've heard of it, I can tell you the Interior Department has gutted the century-old environmental law, as Darryl Fears and Dino Grandoni report for the Washington Post. Before, if you accidentally killed migratory birds you could be prosecuted; now, according to the Trump administration, you have to *intentionally kill* birds to be prosecuted. The biggest beneficiary may be the oil industry. Oil companies paid $225 million in fines for killing birds after the Deepwater Horizon and Exxon Valdez disasters.

AND ANOTHER THING:

How can I describe Don Blankenship? He's a former coal executive who spent a year in prison for conspiracy to violate mine safety standards, following a mine explosion in West Virginia that killed 29 people. Fresh out of prison, he's now running for U.S. Senate in that state. He also thinks he's got something in common with Nelson Mandela.

That's not a joke: Blankenship described himself as a "political prisoner" of the Obama administration during his time behind bars. And in a new interview with Paste BN's Nicole Gaudiano, he compares himself to the late South African leader Nelson Mandela, who was imprisoned for 27 years after fighting the country's apartheid government.

The West Virginia Republican primary is May 8. Polls show Blankenship has a chance.

That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me on Twitter @Sammy_Roth. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox here.