Climate Clips: Equity Emphasis Areas in action: New applications of a regional planning concept

Less than a year after being endorsed by the COG Board of Directors and incorporated into Region United: Metropolitan Washington Planning Framework for 2030, Equity Emphasis Areas (EEAs) are becoming part of the region’s planning vocabulary.

See the full story at the COG Newsroom.

More DMV News

Nearly 20 States Push Ahead With Truck Electrification Plan
Utility Dive
Nearly 20 states and jurisdictions have signed on to an action plan striving for 100% electric medium and heavy-duty vehicle sales by 2050. The plan includes policy recommendations for local lawmakers to consider when crafting legislation aimed at boosting adoption of electric trucks and buses.

A Controversial Ruling Puts Maryland’s Utility Companies in Charge of Billions in Federal Funds
Inside Climate News
Critics say the decision, by Maryland’s Public Service Commission, allows utilities to access billions of dollars under the federal Infrastructure Development and Jobs Act without any public oversight or input.

Montgomery County Considering Shift to All-Electric Building Standard, Part of Growing Decarbonization Efforts
Maryland Matters
Montgomery County is considering whether to shift to an all-electric building standard, a decarbonization effort that would be the first of its kind in Maryland. If the proposed bill passes, Maryland’s largest county would become the third jurisdiction on the East Coast to enact this type of legislation, joining a growing number of local governments across the country.

New Big Batteries Operational on Virginia’s Electric Grid
Richmond Times-Dispatch
In an effort to curb planetary warming, both solar and wind energy are increasingly part of the nation’s energy infrastructure. Energy costs from these sources over their design lifetimes are in decline, as neither requires a regular fuel source after their initial build.

National and International News

Senate Democrats Produce a Far-Reaching Climate Bill, But the Price of Compromise with Joe Manchin is Years More Drilling for Oil and Gas
Inside Climate News
The legislation includes unprecedented tax incentives for renewable energy and electric vehicles but requires additional oil and gas leasing on millions of acres of federal land for a decade.

These Hurricane Flood Maps Reveal the Climate Future for Miami, NYC and D.C.
NPR
As climate change warms the planet, drives up sea levels, and energizes hurricanes, the arsenal of dangerous impacts delivered by the fierce storms is expected to get supercharged.

U.S. Emissions Linked to Over $1.8 Trillion of Global Economic Losses, Study Says
The Washington Post
The United States and China, the world’s two leading greenhouse gas emitters, are each responsible for more than $1.8 trillion of global income losses from 1990 to 2014, according to a new study that links the emissions in individual countries to the economic impacts of climate change in others.

Biden EPA to Tackle Coal Industry Carbon With Rules on Other Pollutants
Reuters
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency plans to use new limits on traditional pollutants like ozone and coal ash to help encourage the retirement of the nation’s remaining coal-fired power plants, after the Supreme Court limited the agency’s ability to impose sweeping climate regulations.

How Is the Jet Stream Connected to Simultaneous Heat Waves Across the Globe?
Inside Climate News
The deadly heat waves that have fueled blazes and caused transport disruptions in Europe, the U.S., and China this month have one thing in common: a peculiar shape in the jet stream dubbed “wavenumber 5.”