Climate Roundup: Extreme Heat Protections For Workers! And Some Other Stuff.
One of those mixed bag days.
Just to dramatize the contrast between Democrats and Republicans on climate policy, in Louisiana Tuesday, a Trump-appointed federal judge put a hold on the administration’s decision to pause approvals of new terminals to export liquefied fossil gas, knocking out for now a key action in Joe Biden’s climate policy. (Oh no!)
But also on Tuesday, the Biden administration released new proposed safety rules to protect indoor and outdoor workers from extreme heat (Yay!). The timing couldn’t be more appropriate, in a summer that’s already seen its first major heat wave. Republican governors in two of the hottest states have been knocking down cities’ requirements that workers get water breaks, so this rule is quite probably going to save some lives, at least if it’s not thrown out by insane federal judges.
It’s A Greenhouse Gas, Gas, Gas
The Louisiana case blocked the Energy Department from continuing its pause on approvals for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminals, announced in January. The department said it needed to reassess whether the export facilities would increase gas costs for Americans and what their effect on greenhouse gas emissions would be.
Climate activists have long argued that growing LNG exports represents a “carbon bomb” that would greatly increase greenhouse gas emissions, so the pause in approving more of the damned things was simply smart climate policy. Supporters of the pause noted that current US exports have allowed Europe to get by without Russian gas that stopped flowing after the Ukraine invasion, which also led European countries to ramp up renewable energy capacity, so we don’t need another 17 export terminals. The pause would prevent significant new growth in emissions of two potent greenhouse gases: methane (the chief ingredient in “natural” gas), which inevitably leaks during LNG production and transport; and carbon dioxide, which is released when fossil gas is burned.
The US is already the world’s biggest exporter of LNG, and is on track to double LNG exports by the end of the decade just with the plants we have now and another five already under construction. As Miss Jean Brodie might say, more would be vulgar.
But there’s a hell of a lot of money involved, so 16 Republican states sued to block the pause on new LNG terminal approvals. In his order granting the injunction, US District Judge James Cain, a Trump appointee, said the Energy Department’s action was “completely without reason or logic,” because there’s no global warming in the law that covers LNG exports. Cain explained that the Natural Gas Act simply tells the Energy Department to “ensure expeditious completion of all” applications for new LNG facilities unless it can make “an affirmative showing of inconsistency with the public interest.”
Now, simple souls like you and I might think that roasting the planet with more greenhouse emissions would be very inconsistent with the public interest, but Cain sided with the fossils who argued that their states would be harmed by losing all that revenue and business, so that was apparently the only public that matters.
To be sure, Cain did cite a 1976 court case finding that the “public interest” means promoting “the orderly production of plentiful supplies of . . . natural gas at just and reasonable rates,” so obviously the public interest can’t include anything but more and more greenhouse heating until large parts of the human and animal population of Earth croak in a wave of plenty.
Cain also insisted, almost hilariously, that the fossil fuel states had the most relevant evidence, writing that he had “reviewed the voluminous studies attached as exhibits, all of which boast of both the economic and environmental benefits of exporting natural gas.”
Energy Department spokesperson Charisma Troiano said that the department “disagrees with today’s ruling” and that it will continue “to review the court’s order and evaluate next steps.” She did not, however, urge Wonkette readers to acknowledge that “Charisma Troiano” is a very kick-ass name for a bureaucrat; that’s all on us.
As the Washington Post points out (gift link), Cain’s ruling may not mean any new LNG export plants breaking ground anytime soon, noting that the Natural Gas Act’s “expeditiously” is not a firm time limit, and that the consideration of whether the plants are in the public interest can certainly include negative effects, too.
As with almost all petrochemical industry, most of the proposed plants are in industrial corridors on the Gulf Coast that already have fucktons of pollution, to say nothing of the climate impacts of more greenhouse emissions. Hello, Gulf Coast at the beginning of what’s predicted to be an especially bad hurricane season.
There’s also this brief note from Axios about Judge Cain’s climate jurisprudence.
Cain […] in 2022 ruled that the Biden administration couldn't use the social cost of carbon as a metric for carbon emissions. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reversed that action.
If your climate decisions are too extreme for the Fifth Circuit, you just might be a fossil fuel hack judge.
It’s Gettin’ Hot Out Therre, So Have Some OSHA Rulles
For some sanity on a warming planet, the Department of Labor yesterday released a new rule aimed at protecting about 36 million American workers from the “significant health risks of extreme heat.” In a press release, the Labor Department noted that heat is the leading cause of weather-related deaths in the US, and that excessive heat in the workplace can lead to heat stroke and even death. The department also pointed out that while anyone can be affected by extreme heat, “workers of color have a higher likelihood of working in jobs with hazardous heat exposure.” There goes that woke Biden administration with its focus on environmental justice again, thank Crom.
The proposed rule from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration would require employers to “develop an injury and illness prevention plan to control heat hazards in workplaces affected by excessive heat.” As the Labor Department announcement says,
Among other things, the plan would require employers to evaluate heat risks and — when heat increases risks to workers — implement requirements for drinking water, rest breaks and control of indoor heat. It would also require a plan to protect new or returning workers unaccustomed to working in high heat conditions.
Employers would also have to provide training to employees and supervisors to recognize signs of heat-related illness and to have procedures in place to help workers in heat distress.
You can imagine that big employers will be unhappy with this, since if people are allowed to stay hydrated and rest, they won’t be picking crops or processing chickens or pounding nails, and America’s economy will grind to a halt. Besides, if they aren’t all exhausted from the heat, they might get it in their heads that they have other rights in the workplace.
In remarks yesterday at the Emergency Operations Center in Washington DC, President Joe Biden introduced the new worker safety rule and outlined several ways the government is planning for extreme weather, not only this summer, but going forward in a world where climate change is far more real than Republican judges recognize.
More people die from extreme heat than floods, hurricanes and tornadoes combined. […] These climate fueled extreme weather events don’t just affect people’s lives. They also cost money. They hurt the economy, and they have a significant negative psychological effect on people.
Biden also ripped Republicans who deny the reality of climate change, pointing out that no Republicans voted for his signature climate bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, and that they’re even now trying to repeal it. If Donald Trump and MAGA chuds get the chance, he said, they will undo all the climate progress Biden’s administration has made.
“I, quite frankly, think it’s not only outrageous, it’s really stupid,” he said. “When disaster strikes, there are no red states or blue states.”
The new heat regulations were hailed by unions, and booed by the usual suspects like business interests, because protecting workers from keeling over in the heat would be haaaard.
Also, in a great moment of search engine optimization that we found while researching this story, we saw that Spectrum News NY1 initially headlined its story on the new rule, “Biden proposes new standards to protect workers in heat,” although it has since been revised to a more respectable hed. That’s still how it shows up in Google results, though.
Stay cool, folks.
[Reuters / WaPo (gift link) / Louisiana v. Biden injunction / Axios / Labor Department / OSHA / AP / Guardian]
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>> on Tuesday, the Biden administration released new proposed safety rules to protect indoor and outdoor workers from extreme heat <<
Matthew Kacsmaryk has entered the chat.
"US District Judge James Cain, a Trump appointee, said the Energy Department’s action was “completely without reason or logic,” because there’s no global warming in the law that covers LNG exports."
I can't anymore. These fuckers just want to kill everybody for a fucking conman and a few dollars.