Must-read recap: The New Lede's top stories
LNG export harms; Montana's youth climate lawsuit win upheld; microplastics and health problems; pesticides and pollinators; farm pollution limits; combatting corporate influence; protecting monarchs.
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Boosting LNG exports would harm people and the planet, DOE report concludes
The US Department of Energy (DOE) this week released a report that concludes a rise in exports from the booming natural gas industry would lead to greater global fossil fuel emissions, expose already-vulnerable communities to more pollution and raise gas prices for consumers.
The publication “reinforces that a business as-usual approach is neither sustainable nor advisable,” said US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm in a statement.
“Unfettered” liquified natural gas (LNG) exports would increase the price of wholesale natural gas in the US by over 30%, said Granholm, impacting households, farmers and industry. The study also concluded that current US LNG exports are “already more than enough to meet global demand,” she said, and that while LNG has been suggested as an alternative to coal for some countries, the study “shows a world in which additional US LNG exports displace more renewables than coal globally.” (Read the rest of the story.)
Montana Supreme Court upholds historic youth climate lawsuit win
The Montana Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld a trial court ruling in a youth-led case against the Montana state government, affirming that the sixteen young plaintiffs have a right to a “stable climate system.” The decision marks what legal observers say is a landmark achievement in US climate litigation that is likely to inspire more lawsuits seeking to hold governments accountable for climate change harms in the US and around the world.
In the 6-1 decision, the court ruled against the state in its appeal of the August 2023 verdict in Held et al. v. State of Montana, which went to trial in June 2023. Seeley found that a pair of state laws effectively shielding fossil fuel projects from public scrutiny over their climate impacts, and from judicial review of those impacts under the Montana Environmental Policy Act (MEPA), violate the state’s constitution, including the right to a clean and healthful environment. That environmental right includes the climate system, the court determined, and every additional ton of greenhouse gases emitted from fossil fuels – including from projects like coal mine expansion authorized by Montana regulatory agencies – exacerbates climate change damages and harms to Montana’s environment and the youth plaintiffs. (Read the rest of the story.)
Beware the air you breathe — more evidence links microplastics to health problems
People diagnosed with infertility and certain cancers may have to blame the very air they breathe, according to a new report that adds to evidence that tiny plastic particles in air pollution and other environmental sources could be causing these and other diseases and illnesses.
Researchers at the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) said they reviewed approximately 3,000 studies in determining that exposure to microplastics – plastic particles less than 5 millimeters – may be causing a host of health problems in people, including colon cancer; chronic pulmonary inflammation, which can increase the risk of lung cancer; and infertility issues in both men and women.
The paper was published Wednesday in the Environmental Science & Technology journal.
“We urge regulatory agencies and policy leaders to consider the growing evidence of health harms from microplastics, including colon and lung cancer,” study lead author Nicholas Chartres said in a statement. Chartres, formerly with the UCSF Program on Reproductive Health and the Environment, is now with the University of Sydney. (Read the rest of the story.)
EPA must tighten pesticide rules to protect pollinators like bees and butterflies, petition argues
US regulators should require pesticide makers to more thoroughly tests their products for toxicity to insects before approval, according to a petition submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday by an environmental advocacy group.
Most pesticides registered for use in the US have not been rigorously tested for their impacts on insects other than honeybees, a single non-native species. Scientists and conservationists have argued for years that this system fails to protect pollinators and underestimates the toll of pesticides on these animals, which is especially relevant given the decline of many insect species worldwide.
The EPA only requires that manufacturers perform, at a minimum, three narrow tests on adult bees to study a chemical’s toxicity on insects.
“They’re not an appropriate surrogate for the other 4,000 wild species we have in North America, nor are they a surrogate for other pollinators like moths and butterflies,” said Rosemary Malfi with the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation. (Read the rest of the story.)
Regulators battle Oregon and Washington farmers over limits to farm pollution
SUNNYSIDE, Washington – Waters from the snowpack of the Cascade Mountains support orchards, vineyards and dairies here in the Yakima Valley of eastern Washington State, boosting a flourishing farm economy and helping to stock store grocery shelves nationwide.
But as the waters flow, so do a host of dangerous farm pollutants, contaminating drinking water wells in the valley and through the adjacent Lower Umatilla Basin across the state line in Oregon.
Regulators and citizen groups have been pressing crop and livestock producers for years to document and rein in the pollution, tightening restrictions on some of the nation’s largest dairies, and bringing litigation against several seen out of compliance.
The actions put both Washington and Oregon among a growing number of US states leading a controversial national campaign to make agriculture more accountable for its mammoth wastes. (Read the rest of the story.)
Scientists call on federal regulators to rid US agencies of corporate influence
Scientists are calling for the incoming Trump administration to adopt a set of guidelines designed to ensure scientific integrity at federal agencies and loosen corporate influence on regulators charged with protecting Americans’ health.
The recommendations, published Dec. 16, state that the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other agencies must eliminate financial and political conflicts of interest from environmental health research, halt industry influence on advisory boards and use the best available science to identify the health risks of toxic chemicals, which are contributing to the rise in chronic diseases such as cancer and diabetes.
Conflicts of interest that undermine the scientific process have resulted in “weakened chemical regulations, increased exposure to harmful chemicals, and greater risks to the health of families, workers, and communities,” the authors concluded. (Read the rest of the story.)
Feds propose protecting monarch butterflies under Endangered Species Act
The US Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) on Tuesday proposed listing the monarch butterfly as a threatened species, a move that follows years of mounting concerns about declining counts of the iconic insect.
The decision to grant the butterflies protections under the Endangered Species Act comes after years of analysis and demands from environmental groups for stronger protections for monarchs.
“Today’s monarch listing decision is a landmark victory 10 years in the making. It is also a damning precedent, exposing the driving role of pesticides and industrial agriculture in the ongoing extinction crisis,” George Kimbrell, legal director at the Center for Food Safety, said in a press release. The center is one of the groups that sued the government over the issue several years ago.
The group noted in its statement that the “once-common orange-and-black butterflies have declined by 90% in recent decades, with the latest count showing the second smallest population on record.” (Read the rest of the story.)