EPA Lifts E15 Fuel Ban | EarthxNews Full Episode - video Dailymotion

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EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/   EPA lifts E15 fuel ban in eight states; a new method to recycle plastics; 'ecocide' could be an international crime; US natural gas to flow through Mexico; conservationists work to save pangolins.   About EarthxNews:  A weekly program dedicated to covering the stories that shape the planet. Featuring the latest updates in energy, environment, tech, climate, and more.   EarthX & EarthXtra  Love Our Planet.  The Official Network of Earth Day.    About Us:  At EarthX, we believe our planet is a pretty special place. The people, landscapes, and critters are likely unique to the entire universe, so we consider ourselves lucky to be here. We are committed to protecting the environment by inspiring conservation and sustainability, and our programming along with our range of expert hosts support this mission. We’re glad you’re with us.     EarthX is a media company dedicated to inspiring people to care about the planet. We take an omni channel approach to reach audiences of every age through its robust 24/7 linear channel distributed across cable and FAST outlets, along with dynamic, solution oriented short form content on social and digital platforms. EarthX is home to original series, documentaries and snackable content that offer sustainable solutions to environmental challenges. EarthX is the only network that delivers entertaining and inspiring topics that impact and inspire our lives on climate and sustainability.       EarthX Website: https://earthxmedia.com/    Follow Us:  Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/earthxmedia/  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/earthxmedia  Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/EarthXMedia/  TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@earthxmedia  YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@EarthXMedia  Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/earthxmedia    How to watch:    EarthX - Cable:  - Spectrum  - AT&T U-verse (1267)  - DIRECTV (267)  - Philo  - FuboTV   EarthXtra - Streaming:  - Plex  - Fire TV  - Xumo  - Sling    #EarthDay #Environment #Sustainability #EcoFriendly #Conservation #EarthX

Transcript

00:00The Environmental Protection Agency is taking steps to increase access to a corn-based fuel in

00:08the U.S. We'll have more on what it could mean for the environment. Plus, Wall Street's top

00:13regulatory body votes to adopt a new set of climate disclosure rules. And scientists are

00:19exploring a new method to recycle plastics that may revolutionize the industry.

00:30Hello and welcome to EarthX News, where we focus on sustainability, conservation and the

00:36environment. I'm Christina Thompson. Let's get into some of the biggest headlines facing our planet.

00:41The U.S. government lifts a seasonal ban on corn-based fuel. Eight states will now have a

00:46year-round access to gasoline blended with 15 percent ethanol after the Environmental Protection

00:52Agency scrapped a policy blocking summertime sales of the fuel called E15. The federal agency decided

00:59to permanently remove the regulations after several governors petitioned the EPA for unrestricted

01:05sales of the blended fuel throughout the year. In the past, the EPA shut down sales of E15 during

01:10the warmer months over concerns it contributed to smog in hot weather. But EPA officials now say

01:16the higher ethanol blend may actually lead to a small decrease in some emissions that cause smog.

01:22Proponents of the EPA's decision to keep the blended gasoline flowing all year say the increased

01:28supply would help lower prices at the pump because it would expand the amount of available fuel and

01:33help farmers. However, critics of the move to ditch the ban, including those in the refining industry,

01:39have voiced concerns, saying the piecemeal approach could lead to distribution challenges.

01:45The EPA's new policy is set to take effect next year. Wall Street's top regulatory body adopts a new

01:51climate disclosure policy. The Securities and Exchange Commission set new rules, saying large public

01:57companies will not have to report their emissions generated by customers and suppliers. However,

02:03despite the SEC dropping the requirements, the new rule will force firms to spill the beans

02:09on their direct emissions and the emissions linked to their energy purchases. Businesses will also need

02:15to start divulging their financial exposure to climate risks, such as severe weather events like hurricanes

02:20and wildfires by next year. And they will have until 2026 to begin disclosing their emissions.

02:27Smaller firms, which make up most of U.S. companies, will be exempt from reporting their greenhouse gas

02:32emissions. Even with the scaled-down rule, many business groups say the SEC is overstepping its authority.

02:40Climate activists are also disappointed because data suggests customers and suppliers can account for up

02:45to 75 percent of a company's overall emissions. A new study says replacing plastics with biodegradable

02:52alternatives would lead to significant carbon emissions reductions. As we know, plastic pollution

02:58and its impact on the environment have become a critical global issue in recent years. Research teams

03:04analyzed 1,000 traditional plastic products, like plastic bags, lunchboxes, and cups, and compared

03:11them to biodegradable plastic products. Researchers found that the biodegradable plastic emitted 62 percent

03:18less carbon than its traditional alternative. The study also found that the optimal waste disposal

03:24methods for biodegradable plastic products were composting anaerobic digestion since they're better

03:29for the environment. However, the high cost of biodegradable plastic products poses a challenge for their

03:35widespread use. Experts say more research is needed to make a production technologies and waste

03:41disposable method that's less expensive to encourage adoption of biodegradable plastic.

03:47Speaking of plastics, have you heard the term microfactories? Researchers are testing out a new

03:52concept that could create a more sustainable process for recycling plastics. The potential solution

03:59is microfactories. And in Arizona, city leaders in Phoenix and scientists at Arizona State University are

04:06teaming up to explore how this type of facility could impact the industry, particularly when it comes to

04:13uniquely shaped products that the public doesn't typically recycle, like a child's old car booster

04:18seat or broken toys. Joining us now to discuss is Alicia Marseille, Senior Director at Arizona State

04:25University. Alicia, welcome on. Thank you. Thank you for having me. So what exactly is a microfactory?

04:33That's a great question. And our efforts are a multi-stakeholder, multi-partnership

04:40project where we are looking at transforming the entire system. And so we're working with

04:45City of Phoenix as well as Goodwill of Central and Northern Arizona and a community economic

04:51development organization to transform the value chain and how we collect, process and convert

04:56recycled plastics into new products. And so we, in this microfactory, are the first to combine

05:04material recovery with remanufacturing and create a closed-loop system here in our region.

05:09So when it comes to recycling these plastics, how much actually gets recycled?

05:14Currently, less than 9% of plastic in the U.S. is recycled.

05:19Wow. That is far lower than I would have thought, than I think a lot of our viewers would have

05:24thought. How does that compare to other recycling rates for items like paper and glass?

05:28Glass is much higher, plastic. There are nuances, right? Because every region recycles and has different

05:39recycling options available. And our goal is to localize, create a hyperlocal system for material

05:47recovery. We're starting with plastics and we're going to actually look at additional materials. But

05:52how do we create a hub-and-spoke model where materials can actually be recovered and remanufactured

05:58and keep the jobs local? So instead of shipping the materials overseas and the jobs overseas,

06:04how do we keep them local and create the opportunities here in our region?

06:08Why do you think there is a disparity?

06:12Oh, that's a great question. Quite complex, if you will. But I think part of it is, you know,

06:16how do we rethink consumer education and that it's not actually waste material? Plastic is actually a

06:22very valuable, pretty amazing material. So we actually collect more. How do we get it,

06:29keep it in the system longer? That's the goal of circular economy, to extend the life cycle of the

06:33product. And something that we talk a lot about through our hubs is how do we bring what's considered

06:40back of house in terms of this type of processing front of house. So people can actually see

06:44their recycled materials going in one end and then products coming out the other. So they're able to

06:49see the value of changing their behavior locally. So with these micro factories, I know we brought up

06:56the example of perhaps a child's car booster seat, but what other types of items would you see getting

07:01recycled that would typically just end up in a landfill somewhere? Yep. So we're starting with,

07:07if you look at the bottom of a lot of your plastic goods, number twos and number fives,

07:10so the rigid plastics, cell phone cases, like the multitude of materials and products are actually

07:16endless. Part of the challenge will be, and what we've started discovering with Goodwill is they're

07:22not all labeled, right? So a lot of the products that we're recycling don't have the triangle at the

07:27bottom. So we've invested in some technologies to sort and grade appropriately to understand

07:32the material properties so we can increase the collections and then drive the consumer education to

07:38increase those collections by materials and products. Alicia Marseille, thank you. In California,

07:44lawmakers want to use $1 billion in bonds to redevelop seaports for offshore wind energy projects,

07:50even as the industry faces challenges like losing subsidies and increasing costs.

07:55You might remember we've reported on several offshore wind developers in the Northeast

07:59canceling or delaying projects because of these growing costs. Nevertheless, California

08:05is forging ahead. Last year, Governor Gavin Newsom signed a new law that gave California the ability

08:10to buy electricity from these wind facilities, regardless of the rate. This was to make sure

08:16that changes in costs would not interfere with the projects and so that companies know there's still

08:21a market for it. The law is expected to increase electricity bills for Californians,

08:26though how much is still not known. Turning now to international news, calls are growing for

08:31ecocide to become an international crime. Broadly defined as the severe widespread and long-term

08:37destruction of the environment, scientists and activists are pushing for the International Criminal

08:42Court to make ecocide the world's fifth international crime. The campaign to expand the ICC law comes amidst

08:50a series of global conflicts, including the wars between Israel and Hamas and Ukraine and Russia.

08:56Currently, the ICC statute includes genocide, crimes against humanity, war crimes and the crime of

09:02aggression. The interest in prosecuting environmental war crimes stems back to the Vietnam War,

09:08but has fluctuated since that conflict's end. In 2019, Vanuatu, a small nation in the South Pacific,

09:14petitioned the court to recognize ecocide as a crime. Then, in 2021, a panel of lawyers prepared

09:21a draft law which created the legal definition of ecocide to mean, quote, unlawful or wanton acts

09:27committed with knowledge that there is a substantial likelihood of severe and either widespread

09:32or long-term damage to the environment being caused by those acts. The concept has since been

09:37adopted by the ICC but still remains unpunishable by law. Other ecocentric laws have been implemented

09:44around the globe. The European Union adopted its own ecocide law this past November. Six different

09:50countries appear to be grappling with the same climate risks. That's according to a UK-based study.

09:55Researchers at the University of East Anglia recently published a collection of eight studies

10:00focusing on Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, Ghana and India. The report, printed in the International

10:07Scientific Journal called Climatic Change, suggested risks like biodiversity, crop losses,

10:13flooding and drought exposure greatly increased for each additional degree of global temperatures.

10:19However, researchers project that by limiting rising temperatures to the parameters set up under the

10:24Paris Agreement, 1.5 degrees Celsius, countries like Ethiopia, China, Ghana and India could see

10:30reductions in the rate of drought severity. While the study was focused on these specific countries,

10:35a co-author of the study, Jeff Price, says other nations are projected to experience similar issues.

10:41The world's largest ocean-based plant for carbon removal is set to be built in Singapore. The

10:48country's National Water Agency announced it was teaming up with the University of California in Los

10:53Angeles and its startup, Aquatic, to construct the facility. UCLA says the facility aims to be operational

11:00by next year, and the $20 million plant will have the capacity to remove more than 8 million pounds of CO2 from

11:07the ocean and the air per year. The U.S.-based university says the facility will use a technology

11:14developed by the school's startup, Aquatic, that uses electrolysis to transform carbon dioxide and

11:20seawater into stable solid forms. The groundbreaking carbon removal technology was so revolutionary,

11:27Time magazine hailed it as one of the top inventions in 2023. And industry analysts say the innovative

11:34process could potentially be a game changer for global climate efforts. Coming up, a new route for American

11:40natural gas may cause a big shift in the international energy landscape. Stay tuned, we'll have more on the

11:46potential ripple effects on the global gas market when we return.

12:07Fracked U.S. gas will now flow through Mexico. The fracking boom turned the United States into the

12:13world's largest natural gas producer and exporter. Energy giants like ExxonMobil, based in the U.S.,

12:20have the supply. Countries around the world, including many in Asia, have the demand. They are using even more

12:26natural gas, partly to move away from coal and oil. Mexico is key to America's continued dominance,

12:32as the natural gas will flow through terminals in or near the Gulf of Mexico, bypassing the drought-stricken

12:39Panama Canal. Recently, we spoke with Baird Langenbrunner, research analyst at Global Energy

12:44Monitor. Here's that conversation. So when it comes to this global supply of natural gas, where does the

12:50U.S. fit in? In terms of exporting natural gas, the U.S. is in the lead in the world and followed

12:57closely by Qatar and Australia. And the U.S. is also the world's largest producer of natural gas.

13:03So then how did the U.S. rise to become such a key player in fracking? And is this a good thing for us?

13:10So, yeah, the U.S. wasn't producing or wasn't exporting a ton of gas. In the mid-2000s,

13:18this fracking boom happened. So U.S. energy producers realized that they could shoot water

13:24into bedrock and release a lot of gas in a couple of different bases in the U.S.

13:27And at the same time, some other forces made natural gas prices go up. So the U.S. started

13:36exporting a lot. The question of whether it's good for us or not, it really, I think, depends on who

13:40you're asking or what you're asking about. I think it's been really good for oil majors and energy

13:48companies. It's also been a good geopolitical tool for the U.S. So that's a positive in some ways for

13:55for some people. And there's also a lot of reasons that that increased gas exports is not great.

14:02They increasing gas exports in the U.S. exposes gas prices to the international market. So it can

14:10raise prices domestically. And so that can affect what we pay at home or at the gas pump. And burning

14:17them creates greenhouse gas emissions so it can lead to climate warming. In order to export it right now,

14:23the Panama Canal is having a whole slew of issues. It's drought stricken. There's a lot of backlog

14:28with boats trying to get through it. So now the U.S. has turned to rely on Mexico for that distribution.

14:34Can you explain some more of the issues happening with the Panama Canal and how

14:39Mexico is now taking on this responsibility? Sure. Yeah. So the U.S.'s natural gas export,

14:48to get natural gas out of the U.S., you have to pipe it out of the basins where it's produced,

14:54and then you have to liquefy it to cool it down a lot from gas to liquid state. You load it on the

14:58ships and you ship it out. And the major places that the U.S. is shipping to are Europe and Asia.

15:05So the majority of export terminals in the U.S. are along the Gulf of Mexico, so along the Louisiana and

15:12Texas coast. And to get natural gas to Europe, it's a pretty straightforward ship trip across the

15:20Atlantic Ocean from the Gulf Coast. But to get that gas to Asia, you have to cross the Panama Canal.

15:25And that is a major thoroughfare for ships going from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean. And this

15:31year specifically, it's an El Nino year, which is leading to a pretty large drought in the region

15:37around Panama and the canal. And because of that and also population change, a lot of the fresh water

15:42that's needed for that canal to operate is not quite there. And Mexico is becoming a potential

15:50alternative for this route because there are some liquefied natural gas export terminals proposed

15:57along the Mexican Baja coast. And that would allow ships to load up on the Baja coast or on the Pacific

16:04Ocean side of things and go straight to Asia without having to go through the canal. So specifically

16:08for Asian gas exports, these terminals in Mexico, which are largely either proposed or under construction,

16:16they could be an alternative route to getting gas out to Asia.

16:20The Biden administration, they also recently suspended the approval process for new export terminals.

16:26Would you know why that is?

16:27Yeah. So what the Biden administration is suspended is the Department of Energy's approval process. So

16:36for these terminals to function, they need to get approvals from a couple of different agencies. And

16:43for terminals in Mexico specifically, they only need approval from the Department of Energy.

16:47But the Department of Energy is tasked with the process of deciding whether any export terminal that's

16:55newly built is in, quote unquote, the public interest. And the Biden administration has effectively asked

17:01the DOE to define that better and use things like greenhouse gas emissions impacts, so climate impacts,

17:08and like domestic price impacts, and national security and energy security impacts to be considered

17:16as part of this approval process. But, you know, this is effectively a push from the Biden administration

17:22to ask the DOE to, you know, have a more specific process in place to understand whether a terminal

17:31really needs to be built and really needs to ship gas out of the U.S.

17:34Listen, I know it's a complicated, tough topic to discuss, but I can't thank you enough for breaking

17:41it down for us and our viewers. Thank you.

17:42Coming up, scientists and conservationists in Kenya are taking steps they hope will offer one

17:48embattled species a lifeline. We'll have more on their efforts when we return.

18:07A conservation effort is aiming to create safe spaces for a critically endangered species in Kenya.

18:13Alex Salvi has more. The pangolin is a creature unlike any other, an insect-eating animal that

18:20looks like a reptile, but is actually a mammal. Its skin is considered a delicacy in some cultures.

18:27Its scales used in many traditional medicines, all contributing to the dwindling population.

18:32Residents in Kenya are trying to prevent that. We are estimating that we have between 30 to 80 giant

18:38ground pangolins left in Kenya. And that all is in this area, we call it Nequiri, because this is the only

18:43place we've confirmed they are. Pangolins are often the targets of poachers and traffickers,

18:48but also find themselves victims of climate change and everyday human activity.

18:53They're protected under international law, with most of the species considered to be critically

18:58endangered, prompting many communities in Kenya to take dramatic action to protect those remaining.

19:03Their first plan of action? Taking punitive steps against violators and making sure they learn

19:08their lesson to prevent any future harm. We've been able to sacrifice one pangolin to understand

19:13how the scales lose their weight, and so that when at the airport you are found with a suitcase

19:19or a bag of pangolin scales, we can be able to determine how many pangolins are in that bag of yours.

19:25How many pangolins did you kill, remove the scale, and are trying to sell or export?

19:30Conventional conservation efforts are proving to be unsuccessful. Researchers hope, however,

19:35that new programs dedicating 10 acres to each animal could offer a renewed sense of hope for

19:40survival. But such an effort requires the collaboration of non-governmental organizations

19:45and individual landowners to make it work. Conservationists believe the most important

19:49step to ensuring the survival of pangolins is through educating people about their plight,

19:54and believe that as residents become familiar with the species, they'll be more willing to take

19:58on a bigger role to fight for their existence. For EarthX, I'm Alex Salvi. Alex Salvi, thank you.

20:06And before we leave you, some new data reveals a surprising discovery about an endangered marine species.

20:12That's a recording of a fin whale song, and according to a new study which tracked the musical patterns,

20:25scientists say the endangered animals are constantly being detected in the waters between

20:30New York and New Jersey. Marine biologists say the fin whale songs were heard year-round in the region,

20:36and appeared to peak in the fall to winter months, indicating potential breeding behavior,

20:41and longer intervals during the spring, possibly representing foraging behavior.

20:46The study from the Wildlife Conservation Society and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution was published

20:52in the journal Scientific Reports and is part of ongoing research efforts to safeguard endangered whales

20:58swimming around the eastern coasts of the United States. Researchers say with continued monitoring

21:04and conservation measures, they hope to ensure the long-term survival of these marine species in the region.

21:09And staffers at the St. Louis Zoo recently welcomed a newborn Situon Taken, which is a subspecies of an

21:17antelope goat. The baby, named Cornelia, was born in January and marks the first Taken birth at the

21:23wildlife facility in nearly a decade. Zoo officials say the little one and her mom, Dawn, are doing well and

21:30made their first trip into their outdoor habitat in the beginning of March. Cornelia's birth marks a bright

21:36spot for the species, which is listed as vulnerable. That's it for this edition of EarthX News. Please

21:41join us again next week. I'm Christina Thompson.

21:47I'm Christina Thompson.

21:51I'm Brian Newton.

21:52You are doing well and we can.

21:56Go on.

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