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Washington State Voters Uphold Climate Commitment Act

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10 Nov, 2024

This post was originally published on Eco Watch

In the election held November 5, voters in Washington state upheld one of the biggest climate laws in the U.S. against challenges made by Republicans.

Voters decided against a conservative repeal effort for the Climate Commitment Act, which was first signed into law by Gov. Jay Inslee in 2021. The law set up a state cap-and-invest program that limits greenhouse gas emissions and raises money for climate change resiliency and environmental restoration.

The program works by setting a limit on emissions for the state, and businesses have to buy allowances to cover their emissions. As the state’s Department of Ecology explained, the program is a sealed-bid auction where businesses submit their bids, but the highest bidder doesn’t necessarily win all the allowances.

“Instead, participants can choose to submit a single bid for all their desired allowances, or a series of bids for groups of allowances at different prices,” the department explained. “The bids are then automatically sorted in order of bid price, starting with the highest bid, and allocated to each bidder in that order. Once all the allowances are accounted for, the lowest bid that successfully won allowances is the price that all bidders pay.”

From there, anyone who bid lower than the lowest successful bid has to buy allowances from other participants. As The Associated Press reported, each allowance accounts for 1 metric ton of emissions.

The cap, or number of available allowances, is designed to decrease over time in order to help Washington continue to decrease emissions and reach its climate goals for 2030 (with emissions cut to 45% of 1990 levels), 2040 (70%) and 2050 (95%).

As the Washington State Standard reported, the law helped raise $1.82 billion in 2023 alone. The first auction in 2024 raised $136 million, and another auction is set for June 2025.

However, this year, a ballot initiative was added in Washington to repeal the act, with those who supported repealing the law arguing that it was creating a “hidden gas tax” and raising costs for gas and energy without providing meaningful environmental contributions. As The Associated Press reported, the state’s highest average gas price per gallon was $5.54 in February 2023, before the auctions began.

Those against the ballot initiative argued that fuel and energy costs could still remain high even if the law was repealed while also depleting a source of revenue for climate resilience and environmental protection and restoration efforts.

According to The Seattle Times, the repeal effort failed significantly, with 61.7% voting no on repealing the Climate Commitment Act at the time of writing.

Washington is the second state to enact such a law, following California. In Canada, Québec also has a similar program, and all three governments are planning to discuss linking their cap-and-invest initiatives. California and Québec linked their programs in 2014.

The vote to retain Washington’s Climate Commitment Act puts a spotlight on local and state actions to curb the worst effects of climate change and protect the environment in the face of a second presidency under Donald Trump, who was officially called as the winner on November 6.

Cars line up for the Bainbridge Island ferry at the Seattle Ferry Terminal in Seattle, Washington as vessels were in the process of converting from diesel to electric on Jan. 25, 2024. Annie Barker for The Washington Post via Getty Images

“Trump’s victory presents a real obstacle in the global fight against climate change. Under President Trump’s leadership, the United States will almost certainly step back from global and domestic efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, increasing fossil fuel production,” Alice Hill, senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations and member of the Climate Crisis Advisory Group, said in a statement. 

“However, this outcome does not spell the be-all and end-all for climate action in the United States,” Hill added. “The power of state-level action should not be undermined, with significant progress made at sub-national level in some states. Local political and regulatory intervention will be critical in the fight for a healthier planet — with or without support from the Trump administration.”

The post Washington State Voters Uphold Climate Commitment Act appeared first on EcoWatch.

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ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB receives EPD status for gearless mill drive ring motor

ABB has gained Environmental Product Declaration (EPD) status for its Gearless Mill Drive (GMD) ring motor — technology used to drive large grinding mills in the mining industry.

An EPD is a standardised document that provides detailed information about the environmental impact of a product throughout its life cycle. Based on a comprehensive Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) study, the EPD highlights ABB’s commitment to transparency, environmental responsibility and supporting customers in making informed decisions on sustainability in their supply chains.

ABB analysed the environmental impact of a ring motor across its entire life cycle from supply chain and production to usage and end-of-life disposal. The study was conducted for a ring motor of a semi-autogenous grinding (SAG) mill with an installed power of 24 MW and was based on a reference service life of 25 years.

“Sustainability is at the core of our purpose at ABB, influencing how we operate and innovate for customers,” said Andrea Quinta, Sustainability Specialist at ABB. “By earning the Environmental Product Declaration for our ring motor, we emphasise our environmental stewardship and industry leadership for this technology. We adhered to the highest standards throughout this process, as we do in the ABB Ring Motor factory every day. This recognition highlights to the mining industry what they are bringing into their own operations when they work with ABB.”

The comprehensive LCA was conducted at ABB’s factory in Bilbao, Spain, and was externally verified and published in accordance with international standards ISO 14025 and ISO 14040/14044. It will remain valid for five years.

The ring motor, a key component of the GMD, is a drive system without any gears where the transmission of the torque between the motor and the mill is done through the magnetic field in the air gap between the motor stator and the motor rotor. It optimises grinding applications in the minerals and mining industries by enabling variable-speed operation, leading to energy and cost savings.

The full EPD for the ABB GMD Ring Motor can be viewed on EPD International.

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