Consumers Energy settlement could lead to hundreds of megawatts of solar power

A proposed settlement between Consumers Energy and independent power producers could lead to hundreds of megawatts of solar power being built within the next four years.
On Thursday, the utility filed the proposed settlement with the Michigan Public Service Commission hoping to resolve a more than year-long dispute with solar developers looking to sell power to Consumers.
Multiple developers have challenged the amount Consumers is required to pay them under the federal Public Utility Regulatory Policy Act, or PURPA. Under the 1978 policy, utilities are required to purchase power from independent producers at the “avoided cost,” reflecting the amount it would cost the utility to build itself. Critics have claimed Consumers Energy proposed avoided costs rates that made their projects uneconomic to build.
The settlement is supported by the Solar Energy Industries Association as well as Cypress Creek Renewables, a national solar developer that has been an ongoing critic of Consumers Energy’s PURPA position. The groups had withheld support of Consumers’ proposed Clean Energy Plan calling for 6,000 megawatts of solar to be added to its system by 2040.

Thursday’s agreement says Consumers will use “commercially reasonable efforts” to interconnect 584 MW of solar by Sept. 1, 2023, which developers are ready to build. The utility aims to connect 150 MW of third-party power a year.
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Climate change could raise the risk of deadly fungal infections in humans

Outbreaks of Candida auris have recently erupted around the world

While fungal diseases have devastated many animal and plant species, humans and other mammals have mostly been spared. That’s probably because mammals have body temperatures too warm for most fungi to replicate as well as powerful immune systems. But climate change may be challenging those defenses, bringing new fungal threats to human health, a microbiologist warns.

From 2012 to 2015, pathogenic versions of the fungus Candida auris arose independently in Africa, Asia and South America. The versions are from the same species, yet they are genetically distinct, so the spread across continents couldn’t have been caused by infected travelers, says Arturo Casadevall of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

FUNGAL THREAT  An emerging fungus called Candida auris (illustrated) can cause deadly infections in people’s blood and organs. Dr_Microbe/iStock/Getty Images Plus

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Insect 'apocalypse' in U.S. driven by 50x increase in toxic pesticides

Bees, butterflies, and other insects are under attack by the very plants they feed on as U.S. agriculture continues to use chemicals known to kill.
America’s agricultural landscape is now 48 times more toxic to honeybees, and likely other insects, than it was 25 years ago, almost entirely due to widespread use of so-called neonicotinoid pesticides, according to a new study published today in the journal PLOS One.
This enormous rise in toxicity matches the sharp declines in bees, butterflies, and other pollinators as well as birds, says co-author Kendra Klein, senior staff scientist at Friends of the Earth US.
“This is the second Silent Spring. Neonics are like a new DDT, except they are a thousand times more toxic to bees than DDT was,” Klein says in an interview.

Picture credit: The New York Times
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Share of Fossil Fuel In Indian Power Mix Drops For 14th Consecutive Quarter

Despite the recent slowdown in capacity addition in the renewable energy capacity in India, and doubts related to future investments in the sector, the share of fossil fuel-based capacity in the country’s installed mix continues to contract.
According to CleanTechnica Research, the share of fossil fuel-based capacity in India’s total installed capacity declined for a 14th consecutive quarter at the end of June 2019. At the end of Q2 2019, the share of power generation capacity based on coal, diesel, natural gas, and naphtha had fallen to 63.05%.

CleanTechnica Research analyzed the trends for 17 quarters between Q2 2015 and Q2 2019 and found that the share of fossil fuel-based generation increased only in two quarters, i.e., Q3 2015 and Q4 2015 when it registered the highest share of 69.81%. Since Q4 2015 this share has declined at a compound annual rate of 0.78%. At the end of Q2 2015, the total installed capacity in the fossil fuel sector was 191 gigawatts which increased to 226 gigawatts at the end of Q2 2019.
The declining share is the direct result of the slow rate of new capacity addition in the fossil fuel sector compared to solar, wind, and the overall renewable energy sector over the last few years. Additionally, there have been several retirements as well as in the fossil fuel sector.

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HAB Bulletin: NOAA Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory - Ann Arbor, MI, USA

NOAA provides forecasts of blue-green algae, or cyanobacteria blooms, in Lake Erie from July to October. Some cyanobacteria blooms can grow rapidly and produce toxins that cause harm to animal life and humans so scientists describe them as harmful algal blooms (HABs). Coastal communities can use NOAA's forecasts as a decision making tool.

NOAA bulletins provide analysis of the location of cyanobacteria blooms, as well as 3-day forecasts of transport, mixing, scum formation, and bloom decline. During the Lake Erie HAB season, which typically begins in July, bulletins are emailed to subscribers twice weekly during a bloom.

Below, you will find the latest HAB Bulletin. Please visit the NOAA Center for Operational Oceanographic Products and Services website at https://tidesandcurrents.noaa.gov/hab/lakeerie.htm for official forecast information or to subscribe to receive the bulletin directly in your inbox.

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1 dead, 5 injured, 7 missing in Kentucky pipeline explosion

Junction City, Ky. – A regional gas pipeline ruptured early Thursday in Kentucky, causing a massive explosion that killed one person, hospitalized five others, destroyed railroad tracks and forced the evacuation of a nearby mobile home park, authorities said.

Some homes were consumed by the blaze when firefighters extinguished the flames hours later, Lincoln County Emergency Management Director Don Gilliam said.


A fire burns after an explosion near Junction City, Ky. A regional gas pipeline owned by Enbridge ruptured early Thursday in Kentucky, causing a massive explosion that killed one person, hospitalized five others, destroyed railroad tracks and forced the evacuation of a nearby mobile home park, authorities said. (Photo: Naomi Hayes, AP)

“The part of the area that has been compromised, there’s just nothing left,” Gilliam said when asked whether residents might return to their trailer homes. “The residences that are still standing or damaged will be accessible. There doesn’t really look like there’s any in-between back there. They’re either destroyed or they’re still standing.”

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Reshaping development pathways in LDCs - Climate CoLab

What are solutions to restore degraded landscapes, helping communities in Least Developed Countries (LDCs) become more climate resilient?

Climate change, population growth, conflicts, and food and nutrition insecurity are linked with ecosystem degradation and biodiversity loss. Climate change is projected to exacerbate the process of ecosystem degradation through the intensification of extreme weather events, undermining the resilience and sustainability of agriculture and food systems and further endangering livelihoods of already vulnerable communities.

With the increasing threats that climate shocks and stresses present, there is an urgent need to reshape development pathways into prioritizing proactive disaster risk reduction instead of reactive measures in the devastating aftermath of the event. Particularly the poorest and most vulnerable countries, such as the LDCs, suffer the worst effects of climate change and experience the highest rates of damage and loss to their natural ecosystems. To foster the climate resilience of these countries, incremental measures must give way to concerted efforts fostering transformation if we are to solve the root causes of vulnerabilities.

To reshape development pathways for the overall achievement of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN Climate Resilience Initiative (A2R) and the Global Resilience Partnership (GRP)[1], are calling for innovative, scalable solutions and best practices to restore degraded ecosystems, helping vulnerable communities in LDCs become more climate resilient.

Supported by the UK Department for International Development

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