ALBERTA; Learning to live with no government
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Friday, September 10, 2021
That call comes as four key senators face pressure from climate groups in their states to support fully funding the Clean Electricity Payment Program in Democrats' developing $3.5 trillion package.
The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power's Pine Tree Wind Farm and Solar Power Plant is seen in the Tehachapi Mountains in Kern County, California on March 23, 2021.
JESSICA CORBETT
As Democrats work to rapidly finalize the details of their $3.5 trillion reconciliation package, climate campaigners on Wednesday urged them to exclude fossil fuels and "false solutions" from a new clean energy program intended to cut down planet-heating emissions.
"We need rapid and ambitious climate policy, not another polluter subsidy."—Sarah Lutz, Friends of the Earth
Ahead of the House Energy and Commerce Committee's September 13 markup for emissions reduction policies in the evolving package, more than 300 groups sent a letter (pdf) calling on Democrats to use the Clean Electricity Payment Program (CEPP) to "incentivize the expansion of renewable energy and penalize any expansion of fossil fuels and other false solutions."
A Clean Electricity Standard (CES) requires a certain share of electricity to come from "clean" sources. While Democrats want to include such a policy—also known as a Clean Electricity Standard—in their $3.5 trillion package, lawmakers are constrained by the limits of the budget reconciliation process that they are using to avoid GOP obstruction in the evenly split Senate.
Because of those constraints, and now that both the House and Senate have passed the budget resolution for the full package, congressional Democrats are crafting the CEPP, which relies on financial incentives to utilities to promote a nationwide transition to clean energy.
As E&E News explains:
Utilities would get paid to expand their sales of clean electricity each year. If their sales failed to meet a certain threshold, they'd have to pay a tax. The emphasis on paying companies to install clean electricity is the reason advocates of the idea have a new name for their proposal.
In the context of this proposal, clean electricity includes anything without emissions. So nuclear, hydro, and fossil fuel plants with carbon capture would all qualify, as would traditional renewable energies like wind and solar. This is called a technology neutral approach.
That approach has outraged climate campaigners—including Sarah Lutz of Friends of the Earth, whose group backed the letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), House Energy and Commerce Committee Chair Frank Pallone (D-N.J.), and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.).
"We need rapid and ambitious climate policy, not another polluter subsidy," Lutz said in a statement announcing the letter. "These so-called 'technology neutral' standards are incompatible with the urgent need to transition to sustainable and renewable energy."
Noting that the program, "combined with other tax incentives, will account for over 40% of the infrastructure package's emissions reduction," the groups argue that "because the CEPP does not directly regulate a ramp-down of emissions, the determination of what types of energy can qualify for clean electricity payments will be crucial for the effectiveness of the program."
The letter warns:
A CEPP that incentivizes fossil gas and carbon capture and storage will undermine efforts to transition away from our reliance on fossil fuels—a reliance that has created sacrifice zones and disproportional harms on Black, Brown, Indigenous, and other communities of color in this country. Similarly, false solutions like nuclear energy, so-called bioenergies, and large ecosystem altering hydropower have proven to be extractive and unsustainable—creating disproportionate environmental harms and health burdens in environmental justice communities.
"The climate emergency cannot be fooled or tricked by legislating that polluting energy sources can now qualify as clean. Likewise, greenwashing dirty energies will not change their environmental injustices," the letter concludes. "Therefore, we urge you to direct incentive payments solely to proven and ecologically sound renewable technologies, such as solar, wind, and geothermal."
That message to Democratic leadership echoed previous demands from campaigners and came a week after the launch of activists' "Gas Is Not Clean" campaign urging lawmakers to make sure gas is excluded from the CES in the reconciliation package. It was also sent the same day as letters from more than 100 climate organizations directed at four key senators.
Those letters were sent to Machin—who last week advocated for a "strategic pause" in the reconciliation process, provoking progressive backlash—and three other members of the panel he chairs: Sens. Angus King (I-Maine), Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), and John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.).
Organizations from each senator's state sent similar letters urging them to ensure that the CEPP—an "essential component" of President Joe Biden's Build Back Better agenda—receives the full funding of $150 billion so that "utilities can retire dirty fossil fuel power plants that they have not finished paying off, without passing those costs on to ratepayers."
Each letter is also personalized. The one to Manchin notes that "for over a century West Virginians have carried the burden of our energy needs and it is of utmost importance we don't bear the financial burden as we transition to clean energy." That letter (pdf) continues:
West Virginians have experienced both the positive impacts, like good-paying union jobs but we have also suffered the negative impacts associated with extraction. Our communities and water have been polluted for decades leaving generations with cancer, asthma, and other lasting health impacts. We have the unique opportunity to stay relevant as an energy producer and restore our healthy communities by adapting to renewable energy sources. The Clean Electricity Payment Program will help ensure we not only benefit from this transition but thrive because of it. A recent study shows that a pathway to 80% clean electricity would create over 3,500 full-time jobs and $20.9 billion in solar, wind, and energy storage investments for West Virginia by 2040.
The letter (pdf) to King, who caucuses with the Democrats, says that "Maine's abundant wind, solar, water, and forestry resources are economic drivers, and the Clean Electricity Payment Program can further elevate the state as a leader in renewable energy. With full funding of the CEPP, the state can rapidly deploy affordable wind, solar, other clean energy, and battery storage while focusing on rural and other areas where economic development is most needed."
Kelly's letter (pdf) acknowledges that "Arizona is on the frontlines of the climate crisis—we cannot afford to wait for actions. We continue to see extreme heat, weather, and drought, plus larger wildfires due to our changing climate. That is why we need to act now at a scale to address this significant issue. These important climate investments will both help us move toward stabilizing the climate, but also will benefit our communities with clean energy jobs, cleaner air, and reduced water use. Recent analysis estimated that a national 80% by 2030 policy would lead to $38-48 billion in clean energy investments in Arizona."
The letter (pdf) to Hickenlooper similarly highlights that "in Colorado and across the West, communities are witnessing the intensifying effects of climate change, and they want all levels of government to take steps to address it. Polling results released this month by Data for Progress and Western Resource Advocates show that a large majority of Colorado voters support the key climate and clean energy provisions in the American Jobs Plan, and 73% of those voters support the plan's provisions to transition to a 100% clean electricity grid."
All four letters—which follow reporting that Manchin will only support $1.5 trillion in spending and progressives doubling down on the larger figure, already a compromise—state that "to ensure the Clean Electricity Payment Program and all the other priorities such as the $300 billion clean energy tax incentives in the reconciliation package can be fully funded, it is important to ensure the topline number of $3.5 trillion remains constant. We urge you to oppose any attempt to decrease the overall spending level of the reconciliation package."
Climate campaigners welcomed the letters to lawmakers, with Jamie DeMarco, federal policy director of the CCAN Action Fund, saying that he is "glad to see the constituents of key U.S. senators stepping up to say that we must fully fund the CEPP," which he called "the lynchpin for climate action."
Patrick Drupp, deputy legislative director for climate and clean air at the Sierra Club, agreed that "a clean electricity system is key to fighting the climate crisis."
"Passage of a Clean Electricity Payment Program and other clean energy investments," he said, "will transform our power system and accelerate an equitable transition away from fossil fuels and toward the carbon-free electricity we need to build a clean energy economy for all."
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Reusable cloth masks hold up after a year of washing, drying
New study also confirms that layering a cotton mask on top of a surgical mask—properly fit on one’s face—provides more protection than cloth alone.
Peer-Reviewed PublicationThe reusable cloth masks people have been using for the past year or more may look a little worse for the wear. But new research from the University of Colorado Boulder finds that washing and drying them doesn’t reduce their ability to filter out viral particles.
“It’s good news for sustainability,” said lead author Marina Vance, assistant professor in the Paul M. Rady Department of Mechanical Engineering. “That cotton mask that you have been washing, drying and reusing? It's probably still fine—don't throw it away.”
The study, published in the journal Aerosol and Air Quality Research, also confirms previous research that layering a cotton mask on top of a surgical mask—properly fit on one’s face—provides more protection than cloth alone.
Science for sustainability
Since the start of the pandemic, an estimated 7,200 tons of medical waste has been generated every day—much of which is disposable masks.
“We were really bothered during the beginning of the pandemic, when going out on a hike or going downtown, and seeing all these disposable masks littering the environment,” said Vance, who is also on the faculty in the environmental engineering program.
So Vance was eager to join forces when scientists at the nearby National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) approached her about studying how washing and drying impacts reusable cloth masks.
Their process was quite simple: create double-layered squares of cotton, put them through repeated washing and drying (up to 52 times, the equivalent of a weekly wash for a year) and test them between about every 7 cleaning cycles.
While the masks were not testing using real people—instead, they were mounted on one end of a steel funnel through which researchers could control a consistent flow of air and airborne particles—the researchers tested the masks using realistic to real-life conditions, with high humidity levels and temperatures to mimics the impact on the mask from our breathing.
While the cotton fibers started falling apart over time after repeating washing and drying, the researchers found that did not significantly affect the cloth’s filtration efficiency.
The only noticeable change was that inhalation resistance slightly increased, meaning that the mask may feel a bit more difficult to breathe through after some wear and tear.
Mask fit is critical
A key caveat is that they conducted the testing using a “perfect fit” in the lab.
“We're assuming there are no gaps between the mask material and the person's face,” said Vance.
The shape of each person’s face varies significantly. So depending on a mask’s shape and how well the person adjusts it, it may or may not fit snugly. Previous research has shown that a poorly-fit mask can let as many as 50% of airborne particles we breathe in and out slip through—as well as the virus.
So what mask should you wear?
This study is not the first to find that cloth masks provide less protection than surgical masks or a layered combination of surgical and cloth masks.
Measuring for how well the mask filtered air being breathed in—protecting the person wearing the mask, not reducing transmission from the source—this study found that the cotton cloth masks filtered out up to 23% of the smallest particle size (0.3 microns) on which the virus can travel. Bandanas filtered even less, at only 9%.
In comparison, surgical masks filtered out between 42-88% of the tiny particles, and cotton masks on top of surgical masks reached close to 40% filtration efficiency. KN95 and N95 masks unsurprisingly performed the best, filtering out 83-99% of these particles.
But while this study found that cloth masks alone provide less protection from the virus than a layered approach or disposable masks, such as surgical masks, KN95s and N95s, it remains important information for those who rely on cloth for its comfort, affordability and reusability, said Vance.
“I think the best mask might be the one that you're actually going to wear,” said Vance. “And that is going to fit snugly against your face without being too uncomfortable.”
Additional authors on this publication include: Sumit Sankhyan, Sameer Patel and Hannah Teed of the University of Colorado Boulder; Karen N. Heinselman, Peter N. Ciesielski Teresa Barnes and Michael E. Himmel of the Renewable Resources and Enabling Sciences Center at the National Renewable Energy Laboratory.
JOURNAL
Aerosol and Air Quality Research
ARTICLE TITLE
Filtration Performance of Layering Masks and Face Coverings and the Reusability of Cotton Masks after Repeated Washing and Drying
ARTICLE PUBLICATION DATE
30-Aug-2021
Only a minority of those with alcohol use disorders receives medication
IMAGE: SARA WALLHED FINN, RESEARCHER AND PSYCHOLOGIST AT THE DEPARTMENT OF GLOBAL PUBLIC HEALTH, KAROLINSKA INSTITUTET. view more
CREDIT: PRIVATE PHOTO
Only a minority of Swedes with alcohol use disorders are prescribed alcohol medication, a situation that has remained largely unchanged in the country since the mid-2000. That is according to a study at Sweden’s Karolinska Institutet published in the journal Drug and Alcohol Dependence. Prescriptions of alcohol medication are also unevenly distributed in the society, the study found.
“The result shows there is a large underutilization of alcohol medication as well as unequal provision of treatment between different groups in society,” says corresponding author Sara Wallhed Finn, researcher at the Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institutet, and psychologist within specialist care at Beroendecentrum Stockholm (Stockholm Center for Dependency Disorders, a regional addiction center). “This is problematic given the great suffering caused by alcohol use disorder, both for the individual and for society at large.”
The researchers say there are several plausible explanations, such as low knowledge about these drugs both among physicians and the patients, especially beyond the most prescribed alcohol medication Antabuse (Disulfiram). Another reason may be that the patients prefer psychological treatment over medication. In some cases, there may also be physical barriers, such as liver disease, that makes some types of medications unsuitable.
“There are a myriad of possible explanations that we need to continue to explore to understand why these approved and effective drugs are used to such a small extent, especially when we know that harmful alcohol use increases the risk of several diseases and premature death,” Sara Wallhed Finn says.
In the current study, the researchers wanted to examine the prescriptions of four approved alcohol medications (Disulfiram, Naltrexone, Acamprosate and Nalmefene) to individuals treated for alcohol use disorder. More than 130,000 adults who received a diagnosis of alcohol use disorder in specialist care between 2007 and 2015 were included.
The study showed that the proportion of individuals who collected prescriptions for alcohol medication varied between 22.8 and 23.9 percent, and that the overall level did not change over the nine-year study period. The researchers also found individual differences. For example, alcohol medication was prescribed at a lower degree to men, older individuals, individuals with lower education and income levels, people living in midsized towns or rural areas and people with co-morbid somatic diseases.
“We know very little about the causes of these individual differences,” Sara Wallhed Finn says. “One reason may be that the access to care varies across the country, where specialist addiction care is largely organized in the big cities. An important finding is that the prescription rates are especially low for individuals with other somatic diseases, even in cases where the co-morbidity was not a barrier for prescribing alcohol medication. This is something we need to investigate further to fully understand.”
The researchers underscore that the study only included individuals treated for alcohol use disorder within specialist care, and that the number of individuals with alcohol problems in the general population is much larger. In total, around 4 percent of adults in Sweden are estimated to meet the criteria for alcohol use disorder, but far from everyone receives some form of treatment. This means, according to the researchers, that only about 2–2.5 percent of all individuals with alcohol dependence in Sweden receive alcohol medication.
The study only included data from specialist care, which is a limitation given that nearly half of all alcohol use disorder diagnoses are set in primary care. The study was also limited to collected prescriptions; however, a prior study showed large consistency between prescribed and collected prescriptions which supports the findings.
The research has been financed by grants from the Alcohol Research Council of the Swedish Alcohol Retailing Monopoly, ALF medicine, Region Stockholm, Center for Psychiatry Research, The Söderström König Foundation and the Swedish Medical Association.
Sara Wallhed Finn has written treatment manuals for alcohol use disorders. No other conflicts of interest have been reported.
Alcohol medications in the study:
- Disulfiram (sold under the trade name Antabuse) was the single most prescribed drug, although its proportion of total prescriptions declined during the study period in favor of Naltrexone.
- Disulfiram makes it more difficult for the body to break down alcohol and causes unpleasant symptoms when consuming alcohol. Naltrexone, on the other hand, affects the brain’s reward system and inhibits feelings of well-being associated with alcohol.
- Nalmefene was introduced in 2012 with a lower recommendation from the Swedish National Board of Health and Welfare for treatment for alcohol use disorder than the other drugs. The drug acts through similar mechanisms as those of Naltrexone and had the lowest number of prescriptions in the study.
- Prescriptions of Acamprosate, which affects chemicals in the brain to inhibit cravings, were largely unchanged between 2007 and 2015.
Publication: ”Pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorders – unequal provision across sociodemographic factors and co-morbid conditions. A cohort study of the total population in Sweden.” Sara Wallhed Finn, Andreas Lundin, Hugo Sjöqvist, Anna-Karin Danielsson, Drug and Alcohol Dependence, online Sept. 10, 2021, doi: 10.1016/j.drugalcdep.2021.108964
JOURNAL
Drug and Alcohol Dependence
METHOD OF RESEARCH
Observational study
SUBJECT OF RESEARCH
People
ARTICLE TITLE
Pharmacotherapy for alcohol use disorders – unequal provision across sociodemographic factors and co-morbid conditions. A cohort study of the total population in Sweden
500-million-year-old fossil represents rare discovery of ancient animal in North America
Scientists at the University of Missouri are using an ancient find to unlock new clues surrounding the diversity of species following the Cambrian explosion.
Peer-Reviewed PublicationIMAGE: RESEARCHERS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURI HAVE FOUND A RARE, 500-MILLION-YEAR-OLD “WORM-LIKE” FOSSIL CALLED A PALAEOSCOLECID, WHICH IS AN UNCOMMON FOSSIL GROUP IN NORTH AMERICA. view more
CREDIT: UNIVERSITY OF MISSOURIMany scientists consider the “Cambrian explosion” — which occurred about 530-540 million years ago — as the first major appearance of many of the world’s animal groups in the fossil record. Like adding pieces to a giant jigsaw puzzle, each discovery dating from this time period has added another piece to the evolutionary map of modern animals. Now, researchers at the University of Missouri have found a rare, 500-million-year-old “worm-like” fossil called a palaeoscolecid, which is an uncommon fossil group in North America. The researchers believe this find, from an area in western Utah, can help scientists better understand how diverse the Earth’s animals were during the Cambrian explosion.
Jim Schiffbauer, an associate professor of geological sciences in the MU College of Arts and Science and one of the study’s co-authors, said that while this fossil has the same anatomical organization as modern worms, it doesn’t exactly match with anything we see on modern Earth.
“This group of animals are extinct, so we don’t see them, or any modern relatives, on the planet today,” Schiffbauer said. “We tend to call them ‘worm-like’ because it’s hard to say that they perfectly fit with annelids, priapulids, or any other types of organism on the planet today that we would generally call a “worm.” But palaeoscolecids have the same general body plan, which in the history of life has been an incredibly successful body plan. So, this is a pretty cool addition because it expands the number of worm-like things that we know about from 500 million years ago in North America and adds to our global occurrences and diversity of the palaeoscolecids.”
At the time, this palaeoscolecid was likely living on an ocean floor, said Wade Leibach, an MU graduate teaching assistant in the College of Arts and Science, and lead author on the study.
“It is the first known palaeoscolecid discovery in a certain rock formation — the Marjum Formation of western Utah — and that’s important because this represents one of only a few palaeoscolecid taxa in North America,” Leibach said. “Other examples of this type of fossil have been previously found in much higher abundance on other continents, such as Asia, so we believe this find can help us better understand how we view prehistoric environments and ecologies, such as why different types of organisms are underrepresented or overrepresented in the fossil record. So, this discovery can be viewed from not only the perspective of its significance in North American paleontology, but also broader trends in evolution, paleogeography and paleoecology.”
Leibach, who switched his major from biology to geology after volunteering to work with the invertebrate paleontology collections at the University of Kansas, began this project as an undergraduate student by analyzing a box of about a dozen fossils in the collections of the KU Biodiversity Institute. Initially, Leibach and one of his co-authors, Anna Whitaker, who was a graduate student at KU at the time and now is at the University of Toronto-Mississauga, analyzed each fossil using a light microscope, which identified at least one of the fossils to be a palaeoscolecid.
Leibach worked with Julien Kimmig, who was at the KU Biodiversity Institute at the time and is now at Penn State University, to determine that, in order to be able to confirm their initial findings, he would need the help of additional analyses provided by sophisticated microscopy equipment located at the MU X-ray Microanalysis Core, which is directed by Schiffbauer. Using the core facility at MU, Leibach focused his analysis on the indentations left in the fossil by the ancient animal’s microscopic plates, which are characteristic of the palaeoscolecids.
“These very small mineralized plates are usually nanometers-to-micrometers in size, so we needed the assistance of the equipment in Dr. Schiffbauer’s lab to be able to study them in detail because their size, orientation and distribution is how we classify the organism to the genus and species levels,” Leibach said.
Leibach said the team found a couple reasons about why this particular fossil may be found in limited quantities in North America as compared to other parts of the world. They are:
- Geochemical limitations or different environments that may be more predisposed to preserving these types of organisms.
- Ecological competition, which may have driven this type of organism to be less competitive or less abundant in certain areas.
The new taxon is named Arrakiscolex aasei after the fictional planet Arrakis in the novel “Dune” by Frank Herbert, which is inhabited by a species of armored worm and the collector of the specimens Arvid Aase.
The study, “First palaeoscolecid from the Cambrian (Miaolingian, Drumian) Marjum Formation of western Utah,” was published in Acta Palaeontologica Polonica, an international quarterly journal which publishes papers from all areas of paleontology. Funding was provided by a National Science Foundation CAREER grant (1652351), a National Science Foundation Earth Sciences Instrumentation and Facilities grant (1636643), a University of Kansas Undergraduate Research grant, a student research grant provided by the South-Central Section of the Geological Society of America, and the J. Ortega-Hernández Laboratory for Invertebrate Palaeobiology at Harvard University. The study’s authors would like to thank Arvid Aase and Thomas T. Johnson for donating the specimens analyzed in the study.The new taxon is named Arrakiscolex aasei after the fictional planet Arrakis in the novel “Dune” by Frank Herbert, which is inhabited by a species of armored worm and the collector of the specimens Arvid Aase.
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Editor’s Note: Palaeoscolecid is pronounced “pale-Eo-sko-les-sid.”
JOURNAL
Acta Palaeontologica Polonica