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| | | | |  | | By Catherine Boudreau and Debra Kahn | | | | | 
Business groups backing plans to have them pay for recycling are drawing skepticism from environmentalists. | (Rich Pedroncelli/AP Photo) | PLASTICS PLAY: After years of opposing efforts to reform U.S. waste laws, business groups are tentatively changing tack. The Consumer Brands Association, Ameripen and the Flexible Packaging Association are endorsing a proposal in Maryland that would tax bottles, food wrappers and other packaging and use the money to improve outdated recycling infrastructure. It's the first concrete evidence that packaging producers are willing to support taxes on their products to fund waste and recycling programs. They came out in favor of packaging fees last year because some member companies – such as Dow Chemical Co., Procter & Gamble and PepsiCo – want access to more recycled material to meet sustainability goals. But then they opposed bills in Maine and Oregon last year, both of which became law. This is the first time they're actually backing a bill. Industry representatives praise its “flexibility” in giving them authority to set their own fees, rather than having the state do it. And they’re pushing for more. The group is asking for several amendments, including removing the 25 percent reduction target so producers can determine what goals are achievable, according to testimony submitted last week. Environmentalists are encouraged but wary. Some advocates involved in Maine's effort say Maryland's doesn't go far enough. They argue that giving industry more leeway risks maintaining the status quo, where only 32 percent of waste is recycled and plastic pollution is increasing. And they say penalties for missing recycling targets are also too small, starting at $5,000 for a first violation. "They spend that on lunch," said Heidi Sanborn, executive director of the National Stewardship Action Council. "You've got to have a penalty that hurts enough to matter.” Read the story from Catherine and Debra here. PSA — The world is producing twice as much plastic waste as two decades ago, and most of it ends up in landfills, is burned or leaks into the environment, according to a report out today from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The U.S. is the top contributor, generating twice as much plastic waste per person as Europe. The report lands ahead of a Feb. 28-March 2 UN Environmental Assembly meeting in Nairobi, Kenya, where global leaders are expected to launch formal negotiations over a plastics treaty. The OECD said international cooperation to reduce plastic pollution should include helping lower-income countries develop better waste management infrastructure.
| | | GAME ON: Welcome to the Long Game, where we'll be delivering the latest on efforts to shape our future. Tuesday through Friday, we’ll have data-driven storytelling, compelling interviews with industry and political leaders, and more news to keep you in the loop on sustainability. Our team is growing! Sustainability editor Greg Mott and deputy editor Debra Kahn are taking the lead and Jordan Wolman joins us as a digital producer. Reach them at gmott@politico.com, dkahn@politico.com and jwolman@politico.com. As always, you can find Lorraine Woellert and Catherine Boudreau at lwoellert@politico.com and cboudreau@politico.com. Thanks to Zack Colman, Marie J. French and Benjamin Storrow for contributing. Want more? Sign up for the Long Game. Four days a week and still totally free!
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After helping stop the Keystone XL pipeline, 350.org stumbled as it moved to expand and diversify. | (Evan Vucci/AP Photo) | NUMBERS DON'T LIE: The environmental group 350.org is a shell of its former self as a result of an overambitious attempt to diversify its ranks and broaden its appeal, Zack Colman reports. Riding high from splashy mass demonstrations against the Keystone XL pipeline, 350.org went on a hiring spree in 2019. The group founded by famed environmentalist professor Bill McKibben and seven Middlebury College students in 2008 aimed to nearly double its staff to almost 300. Instead, it underwent 25 layoffs and 35 resignations worldwide after falling short of fundraising goals. The organization saw its U.S. program office fall from nearly 50 people in 2019 to nine this year and drew complaints from its employees' union that it piled work onto the remaining staffers. It's a cautionary tale, especially for other green groups like the National Audubon Society and Sierra Club that have also grappled with internal dissent as they've tried to diversify. “It’s like the world’s longest Irish wake,” said a former staff member, describing a sense of denial within the organization’s leadership. “It’s really been dead a long time but everybody’s standing around the coffin saying, ‘Doesn’t it look so pretty? They did such a great job with it. It looks so natural.’” The reputation of 350.org, once revered in environmental circles, has taken a hit. Rumblings about internal strife grew loud enough last year for the racial justice organization Action Center on Race and the Economy to walk away from a $100,000 grant 350.org offered to partner on a campaign, said Erika Thi Patterson, climate and environmental justice campaign director for ACRE. Rather than direct action, the group is now focusing on "targeted campaigns," Zack writes, such as getting the Federal Reserve to take climate risks more seriously or prodding China to stop financing overseas coal projects. Read more of Zack's story here. NO. 2 EXPORT: A patchwork of state climate policies is making room for New York dairies to sell methane reductions to California, our Marie J. French reports. California’s credit-trading system for transportation fuels rewards low-carbon alternatives. Not even renewable electricity scores as low as methane captured from cow excrement and landfills. So out-of-state methane producers are collecting their emissions and cleaning them up to sell as renewable natural gas. New York has an emissions target, but no framework yet for getting there — and in-state groups are torn on whether to incentivize methane capture, for fear it will prolong the life of fossil fuel infrastructure. Meanwhile, the export of New York’s methane reductions could have perverse effects on the climate. “The longer the supply chain, the more methane emissions are going to occur,” said Tristan Brown , an associate professor at SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry. “If you really want to maximize the benefits of anaerobic digestion, you want to use the biogas on site.” Read more from Marie here.
| | | CHOPPED LIVER: Don't sleep on last year's infrastructure deal — it could be the country's most potent policy for cutting climate emissions in the near term, writes E&E News' Benjamin Storrow. Sure, it doesn't have Build Back Better's $300 billion in clean energy tax credits, and its climate provisions are mainly focused on helping commercialize more-distant technologies. But the $1.2 trillion infrastructure package has $3.5 billion for weatherization, $2.5 billion to facilitate transmission development, $3 billion in smart grid investments and $6 billion to make nuclear reactors more competitive with natural gas and renewable energy sources. And it has $600 billion for transportation. Depending on how it's spent, it could either cut or boost emissions: Spending more than a quarter of it on highway expansion could increase transportation emissions by 21 million tons in 2030, according to an analysis by the Georgetown Climate Center. Conversely, focusing on maintenance for existing roads, transit and alternative transportation could reduce emissions by 14 million tons. Climate advocates said they are still committed to fighting for Build Back Better. But some acknowledged they have begun to scour the infrastructure law to maximize emission reductions. “We think both are vital for decarbonization. We can’t stop with one,” said Conrad Schneider, advocacy director at Clean Air Task Force. “But that said, one is law and in implementation and we are focused on that.” Read more from Ben here.
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Receding waters on the Great Salt reflect the world's driest stretch in at least 1,200 years. | (Rick Bowmer/AP Photo) | CLIMATE CHANGED: The Southwest U.S. is as parched as it's been in 1,200 years, according to a study published last week . Researchers with Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory updated their previous study with three more years of data to find that the first 22 years of this century have been the driest stretch since at least the year 800. They also estimated that human-caused climate change is responsible for about 42 percent of the drought.
| | | — The electricity grid is becoming increasingly unreliable, just as Americans are becoming more dependent on it than ever. That spells big investments ahead.WSJ has the story. — The asphalt industry made out big in President Joe Biden’s infrastructure package, the NYT points out, thanks in part to a lobbying campaign that framed it as climate-friendly. — A utility in California’s Central Valley is planning to cover some of its irrigation canals with solar panels, Gizmodo reports, which would reduce evaporation while generating renewable energy.
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