Racial disparities are apparent when it comes to rooftop solar installation, researchers have reported. In Minnesota, there are efforts to close these gaps, and those involved point to the selection of three Twin Cities areas for a key project. The Lake Street Council in Minneapolis and two other groups have been offered to join the Solar Energy Innovation Network, which is under the umbrella of the U-S Energy Department. The network is designed to reduce barriers for underserved communities to adopt the technology.
Matt Kazinka, senior strategic initiatives manager for Lake Street Council, said its focus is on helping smaller BIPOC and immigrant-owned businesses in South Minneapolis.
"These businesses are the lifeblood of our community, but it is a struggle," Kazinka said. "They put a lot on the line to just operate their business, and that means a lot of the time they don't have the bandwidth and the resources to explore new ways of doing business or new opportunities."
For solar access, a 2019 study that relied on census tracts found that Black residents have 69% fewer solar installations compared with non-racially diverse areas. The nonprofits will help owners navigate the process, including financing and working with companies that can establish trust in these communities. The other targeted corridors in the Twin Cities include West Broadway and University Avenue.
Terry Austin, community engagement manager of the Northside Economic Opportunities Network, will help to spur solar adoption along the West Broadway corridor. He said business owners and residents in disadvantaged neighborhoods are overlooked when it comes to renewable-energy education, and added that paves the way for bad actors to prey on these areas, creating more long-term harm.
"And when they're taken advantage of on the technology, that can affect their business and their home. These things have more of a generational effect," Austin said.
Meanwhile, Kazinka added many of these businesses are in older buildings in need of upgrades, and said the project could help them pursue energy efficiency at a time when solar costs are coming down, and government incentives are more readily available.
"We're in a time right now where solar is becoming a better deal than it's been in a long time because new federal legislation is making the tax credits more generous, we have more long-term certainty and [it'll] be easier to access in a few different ways," he said.
The local project is one of just eight nationwide recently selected to join the network.
get more stories like this via email
Dana Nessel, Michigan's Attorney General, joined Indigenous and conservation groups at a demonstration Thursday in Cincinnati, highlighting what they said are the risks to their region from the Line 5 oil pipeline.
In the Sixth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, Nessel's office delivered oral arguments in a lawsuit asking to decommission the aging pipeline owned by Canadian company Enbridge.
Nessel argued the company puts its own profits above the state's natural resources. She told the crowd the case has been in limbo while Enbridge has requested it be moved from court to court.
"This is a Michigan case, brought under Michigan law, by Michigan's Chief Law Enforcement Officer on behalf of the people of the State of Michigan -- on behalf of our Great Lakes -- and it belongs in a Michigan court," Nessel asserted.
More than 60 tribal nations support the motion to bring the case back to Michigan. They contend the pipeline operates "illegally" through the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa's reservation in northern Wisconsin. Enbridge acknowledged Line 5 was built in the 1950s but said it is monitored 24/7.
The dual pipeline continues under the Straits of Mackinac in Michigan.
David Holtz, a member of the board of directors of the Sierra Club, said the prospect of an oil pipeline rupturing in the Great Lakes would be catastrophic to Michigan, the region and the entire country.
"This over 70-year-old pipeline that has deteriorated and is being held up by anchor supports in currents in the Strait lakes that have the power of the Niagara Falls," Holtz pointed out. "It's a really, really risky proposition."
He added President Joe Biden has the power today to step in and revoke a permit, which would shut the pipeline down.
Disclosure: The Sierra Club contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, Energy Policy, Environment, and Environmental Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
click here.
get more stories like this via email
Advocates are asking Maryland lawmakers to establish a superfund to help hold fossil fuel companies accountable for the costs of climate change.
Both houses of the General Assembly are debating the "Responding to Emergency Needs from Extreme Weather Act." It would establish a Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation Fund, targeting the 40 largest companies extracting or refining gas and oil with a fee totaling $9 billion over 10 years.
Sen. Katie Fry Hester, D-Howard, citing the expense of infrastructure upgrades, said the state needs help paying these costs.
"Unfortunately, it has become the responsibility of the Maryland taxpayer to foot the bill for the costs of climate mitigation, adaptation and recovery measures," Hester pointed out. "Not anymore. It's time to ensure that the polluters pay."
The bill would enable the Department of the Environment to use the fund for stormwater and sewer system improvements, bridges and rail infrastructure, flood recovery, clean energy projects and more. In a recent Senate committee hearing, some lawmakers expressed concern about the targeted businesses passing the cost on to consumers.
The Center for Climate Integrity estimated by 2040, Maryland will have to spend more than $27 billion to protect against the possibility of moderate sea-level rise.
Jamie DeMarco, Maryland director of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said climate change mitigation is already costing the state hundreds of millions.
"Howard County is spending $228 million to bore an 18-foot diameter drainage tunnel through granite bedrock to prevent flooding," DeMarco noted. "It's the biggest capital expenditure in the history of the county. Annapolis is spending $50 million renovating their dock from nuisance flooding. The same thing is happening everywhere across the state."
Recent polling by Data for Progress found 73% of likely voters support assessing a fee on big oil and gas companies to pay part of the cost of climate change mitigation. Either version of the measure needs to pass one chamber by March 18 in order to have a future in the current session.
Disclosure: The Chesapeake Climate Action Network contributes to our fund for reporting on Climate Change/Air Quality, and Sustainable Agriculture. If you would like to help support news in the public interest,
click here.
get more stories like this via email
The founder of the Baltimore Compost Collective wants Baltimore to ditch trash incineration, fight climate change and grow healthier food.
Marvin Hayes began composting in Baltimore more than a decade ago and has grown the operation into a collection service picking up around 1,500 pounds of food waste each week. Hayes operates a composting facility at the nonprofit Filbert Street Garden, where the organic material is turned into rich soil for use at the urban garden.
Hayes sees a revolution, a better way of life for Baltimore's Black community to help fight what he calls "food apartheid" and end the city's reliance on a giant, polluting waste-to-energy incinerator and fight climate change.
"People didn't know that the incinerator was causing $55 million in health damages, or they didn't know what the incinerator was," Hayes recounted. "People didn't know that Baltimore County trash gets brought here and burned. Howard County's trash gets brought here and burned."
In September the Environmental Protection Agency announced a $4 million grant as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure bill to build a solar-powered composting facility in south Baltimore to accept food scraps and other organic material. The agency estimates the facility will keep 12,000 tons of waste out of the city's incinerator.
Incinerators release large quantities of lead, mercury and other harmful pollutants into the air. In late 2020 Baltimore signed a 10-year contract to continue incineration, much to the chagrin of environmental advocates such as Hayes, who have long advocated for composting as a viable alternative to toxic trash incineration.
A 2018 study by the Baltimore Office of Sustainability noted compost-amended soil can reduce contamination of urban pollutants by 60% to 95%, and protects against the danger associated with lead in urban soils.
Hayes' composting facility has a limited capacity. When it is full, he transports the rest of his food scraps to a bigger organic compost facility in Upper Marlboro in Prince George's County.
"If PG County is doing it, why shouldn't Baltimore be following the same practices?" Hayes asked. "Make a large scale composting facility, so when the residents put their recycling out, they'll put their composting out, it'll go to a large-scale composting facility, create four times more jobs than incinerators, two times more jobs than the landfill."
This story was produced based on original reporting by Aman Azhar for Inside Climate News.
get more stories like this via email