Hospital water and sewer use is gradually declining, but that doesn’t mean hospitals are saving as much money as they are water: prices are rising, now averaging 42 cents per square foot versus 24 cents as recently as 2007, indicates a new report.
Fossil Fuels
President-elect Donald Trump has reportedly selected Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a vocal EPA critic and climate skeptic, to head the EPA.
Africa wants to become fertile ground for new energy investment — investments that would help electrify parts of the continent and make it ripe for news businesses and new jobs.
According to the International Energy Agency’s 2016 World Energy Outlook, the big winners through 2040 are natural gas and renewables. Meanwhile, both coal and oil will get scaled back.
Despite Trump’s predilection toward the fossil fuels, renewables in their own right have gain the legs that they need to compete.
US carbon emissions would be 16 percent higher — or 3.4 billion tons more — after two terms of a Trump presidency than they would after two terms of Hillary Clinton, according to Lux Research.
A carbon tax initiative — the first of its kind in the US — will go before Washington state voters next week.
The plan to cut nitrogen oxide emissions that cause respiratory illness will no doubt get another challenge in court. Even if it could win such a case, the trend toward retiring older coal-fired plants is well underway. And it’s no doubt getting sped up by the Clean Power Plan.
Exxon Mobil Corp.’s investment in algae biofuels may turn out to be good for business, and public relations. The oil giant, under pressure from states attorneys general and shareholders about what it had previously known about climate change, is letting the general public know about its forays into clean energy.
New York State is moving forward with an idea that could become a harbinger of things to come, nationally. It’s the Clean Energy Standard, which focuses more on producing clean power and less on renewable energy standards.
The largest electric producers in the US continue to reduce emissions of key air pollutants, according to an annual analysis of power plant emissions.
ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies have found allies in attorneys general from 13 states who have signed an open letter calling for an end to fraud investigations into these companies for their statements about climate change.
