Climate Point: Biden goes big on clean water pipes, electric cars and new jobs

USA TODAY: Biden goes big on clean water pipes, electric cars and new jobs

Friday, April 2

Electric vehicle fleet all being charged.

Biden goes big on clean water pipes, electric cars and new jobs

And another thing: Keep politics local at family dinners to avoid feuds

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. In Palm Springs, Calif., I'm Janet Wilson, where temperatures could approach 100 degrees this Easter Sunday.

In far bigger numbers news, President Joe Biden unveiled a $2 trillion, eight-year plan Wednesday to rebuild the nation's aging infrastructure, including $111 billion to replace dangerous lead pipes and modernize water systems and $174 billion for electric vehicles, including 500,000 charging stations, all to be funded by corporate tax hikes. Clean energy, mass transit and other programs would also receive billions, as Joey Garrison reports for USA Today.

Biden billed the sweeping proposal, dubbed the American Jobs Plan, as a domestic investment not seen since the construction of the interstate highways and the international space race. Public schools, caregivers and high-speed broadband in rural and poor neighborhoods would also get funding. The plan seeks to reshape the economy while fighting climate change and out-competing China in manufacturing, and create millions of "good-paying union jobs."

To see more, check out these charts from USA Today's graphics gurus, which show Biden seeking everything from $100 billion to upgrade the nation's electric grid and $16 billion for clean-up of old oil and gas wells to $10 billion for new public lands and waters workers. Now he just needs to persuade Congress.

MUST-READ STORIES

Local news and opinion can help reduce political polarization, new work concludes.

Nicole Michalou and Joshua Benton / Nieman Lab

Think local, act local. If you're already worried about climate denier Uncle George riling you up at the next in-person family feast, try talking turkey with him about local news. A short new book called "Home Style Opinion" found a drop in polarization when The Desert Sun substituted national columnists with local thought leaders on its opinion pages. With national politics removed, the space filled with state and local concerns, and people did not feel so far apart from one another. In executive editor Julie Makinen's words, "let's talk about home."

And maybe even sneak in a discussion about recycling those beer cans. Joshua Benton at Nieman News has the lowdown.

Oil patch missive. In an opinion piece that has stuck with me, former North Dakota oil field worker Michael Patrick F. Smith writes an absorbing account of both his experiences and the long history of petroleum for The New York Times. "Oil quickly came to replace whale fat as the world's primary illuminate. It was the first spark to truly brighten millenniums of darkness. ... It may seem mundane now, but at the time, this was described in quasi-religious terms." Now we have manmade climate change, but he cautions it's important to "balance our need for bold action with the more modest day-to-day needs of working people."

Windy waste and fried solar. Renewable energy has been on the rise for nearly 20 years. And all those wind turbines and solar panels don't last forever — many are retired after 20 to 30 years. That means thousands of aging blades and solar panel parts are already piling up in landfills across the U.S. Fiberglass blades longer than a Boeing 747 plane wing are being sawed into pieces and thrown out, reports Chris Martin with Bloomberg Green. But between 85 and 90% of the equipment could be recycled, including steel turbine towers or aluminum and glass in solar panels, writes Sarah Bowman with the Indianapolis Star, if necessary processing is put in place.

POLITICAL CLIMATE

US Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan

US EPA

Thanks but no thanks. Newly minted EPA administrator Michael Regan will purge more than 40 key science advisors appointed during the Trump years from advisory panels, a move he says will help restore the role of science and reduce industry influence over environmental regulations. per The Washington Post's Dino Grandoni and others. Former GOP officials said the "ham-handed" move would undermine rather than restore confidence. Environmentalists cheered the decision, saying the Trump administration illegally barred academic advisors who received EPA grants. Former members, including those appointed under Trump, are encouraged to apply, but some have already said they won't. The boards are designed to provide policymakers with expert advice from a range of backgrounds.

We're baaack. US climate envoy John Kerry was in New Delhi Thursday for talks with Indian leaders about reaching a common goal of net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, as Reuters reports. Kerry will also visit the United Arab Emirates and Bangladesh, which experts say is especially vulnerable to climate change, with many residents living in areas barely above sea level, with no infrastructure to protect them from rising seas. Biden has called a summit of 40 world leaders, including India and China, on April 22-23.

Powering down. February blackouts in Texas put more than 4 million people in the dark and cold, forced millions to boil water and killed dozens who froze, were poisoned by carbon monoxide or burned to death trying to stay warm. As bad as it was, it could have been worse. Texas power officials said they were minutes from losing control of the grid, a worst-case scenario that could have left nearly the entire state without power for weeks.

Texas is not alone, writes Ryan Randazzo with the Arizona Republic. It's a doomsday situation of cascading, uncontrolled power outages whose risks are growing, particularly in Western states like Arizona, because of wildfires and extreme temperatures that test the power grid's capabilities.

WHAT'S IN THE WATER

A person filling up a glass with water from the kitchen faucet.

Getty Images

What's in your tap? A joint nine-month investigation on the nation's drinking water by Consumer Reports and Guardian US found widespread contamination with PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances also known as 'forever chemicals'), lead and arsenic, including a significant number of samples that exceeded levels considered safe.

Significant health risks are associated with these contaminants. Exposure to PFAS has been linked to high cholesterol, cancers and learning delays in children. Exposure to arsenic has been linked to lowered IQ in children and cancer. Scientists and the EPA agree that exposure to lead is unsafe at any level. It has been tied to reduced IQ and slowed growth in children, high blood pressure and reproductive problems.

Mine not yours. A protracted fight between southern California farmer Michael Abatti and the Imperial Irrigation District over control of the district's massive allotment of Colorado River water could head to the U.S. Supreme Court. He and his lawyers have petitioned the nation's highest court to take up litigation that has dragged on since 2013, as Mark Olalde reports for The Desert Sun.

The stakes are high. Abatti wants the high court to hand control of IID's water to landowners, a move that would leave most of the valley's water with a few large agricultural operations. As the law stands, farmers have a guaranteed right to water delivery but not a special claim above other users like homes and geothermal plants.

At loggerheads. Federal fisheries experts and engineers say they need to dredge the Atlantic coastline from North Carolina to the Caribbean to help save endangered right whales and two dozen other species nearing extinction. But a plan to dredge portions of Georgia beaches this spring and summer is infuriating state naturalists and area environmental groups who say it would be "devastating" for another species — including the region's beloved loggerhead sea turtles. Mary Landers chronicles the battle for the Savannah Morning News.

Venetian blue beads found in Alaska predate Columbus

University of Alaska Fairbanks

Wild blue yonder. There's more proof that we humans have left our mark on the planet for a long time. Venetian glass beads that archeologists uncovered in the Brooks Range of the Alaskan Arctic, near an ancient trading settlement known to Native Iñupiat, show European products reached North America years before Christopher Columbus's "discovery" of America. They were likely brought from Italy via the Silk Route and then across the Bering Strait. Jenna Kunz tells us more at Native News Online.

This week was one for the books as always. Scientists agree that to maintain a livable planet, we need to reduce the atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration back to 350 ppm. We're above that and rising dangerously. Here are the latest numbers:

The latest' atmospheric carbon numbers.

George Patras / USA Today

That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me @janetwilson66. You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here. And if you are interested in California news, sign up for USA Today's new newsletter, In California, here.