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Today, we are looking at the GOP push to register voters at gasoline stations. This is an attempt by academics to stop universities accepting fossil fuel funding for research.
Rachel Frazin, Zack Budryk and I are The Hill’s editors. Send tips to [email protected], [email protected].
Let’s get started.
GOP launches voter registration drive at gas stations
Republicans launched a series on voter registration drives at gas stations throughout the country in an effort to draw attention and raise awareness to an issue that they view as a political liability to President Biden going into the November midterm election.
The Republican National Committee (RNC), started the effort with voter registration drives in Arizona, North Carolina, and Georgia on Saturday. The party plans on expanding the campaign to other states, including California, Colorado and Florida, Iowa, Michigan. Maine, Ohio. Texas, Wisconsin, and Mississippi.
While the coronavirus pandemic caused some rises in gas prices and disruptions to global demand and supply, prices rose after Russia’s invasion.
The rise in gas prices is not only happening in the United States, but is also outside the president’s reach. However, Republicans are trying to blame Biden for rising gas prices.
Ronna McDaniel, RNC Chairwoman, stated that the Biden Gas Hike was a product of her own making and that Americans have been facing record-high gas prices.
“The RNC mobilizes at gas stations across the nation to register voters and remind people that the anti-American energy from Biden and the Democrats is causing them more.”
Experts say that the spike in gas price is largely due in part to Russia’s invasion and pandemic-related supply/demand incongruencies. However the RNC’s voter registration drives show that the party will attempt to make rising gas prices a central issue in this years midterms.
To regain control of Congress, the GOP needs to win just five seats in Congress’ House and one in its Senate chambers in November. After winning the White House and Senate majority in 2019, Democrats are facing historical headwinds.
Max Greenwood, The Hill’s editor, has more information about the initiative.
Academics: Don’t accept money from the fossil industry
On Monday, more than 500 academics called for the United States and Britain to stop accepting funding from fossil fuel companies for climate research.
The letter stated that the acceptance of such funding would compromise the academic integrity and effectiveness of the research it allows.
“To be clear, we are not concerned with academic integrity. The letter states that our concern is not with the integrity of individual academics but rather the systemic issue of the context in which academics must function, one where fossil fuel industry funding could taint climate-related research.
The writers compared accepting funding from fossil fuels to accepting money from public health researchers, which many institutions already have a policy of rejecting. These policies, they claim, are based on the conflict-of-interest and the history of the tobacco sector of obfuscating health issues and its product.
The letter draws a parallel between this misinformation, and the fossil fuel industry’s history of hiding the link between fossil fuel burning and climate change. Carolyn Maloney (D.N.Y.), Chairwoman of the House Oversight Committee asked fossil fuel executives whether they had knowingly obscured the link in a hearing last year. All the witnesses refuted the question.
Cornel West (activist and philosopher, former Archbishop Canterbury Rowan Williams, and Michael Mann (Pennsylvania State University climateologist) were among the signers of the letter.
Find out more about the letter.
COUNTRIES ARE FAILING TO MEET GLOBAL AIR QUALITY STANDARD
According to a survey by iQAir, no country met the World Health Organization’s (20 WHO) air quality standards for 2021. The survey was released on Sunday.
According to iQAir’s map showing particulate matter concentrations within cities, no country was able to meet WHO’s guidelines for quality air. The concentrations of fine particulate matter (or PM 2.5) were taken into account in the survey.
This type of pollution has been linked with premature deaths, heart attacks, and decreased lung function.
The WHO issued new guidelines in September recommending that PM2.5 concentrations be reduced to 5 micrograms/cm2. This is half the amount of the 2005 recommendation. This is significantly lower than the U.S. annual average of 12 micrograms/cubic meter.
IQAir surveyed 107 cities and found that 96 percent exceeded the WHO guidelines for PM2.5 concentrations. Only four cities, including San Juan, Puerto Rico and Charlotte Amalie (U.S. Virgin Islands), were found to meet WHO standards for air quality in 2021.
Only Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, New Caledonia and the French-controlled island of New Caledonia met WHO standards. Other countries, such as Australia, Japan, and Denmark were close to meeting WHO standards for air quality but had higher particulate matter concentrations than recommended.
In 2021, Pakistan, Chad, and Bangladesh were the three most polluted countries in terms of air quality, with PM2.5 concentrations ranging from 66 to 77 microns/cm2. The average PM2.5 concentration in the U.S. was 10.3 microns/cm, which is two times higher that the WHO’s recommendations.
You can read more from Joseph Choi, The Hill.
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Astronomy’s contribution is equal to that of some countries (NPR)
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Will War make Europe’s switch to clean energy even more difficult? (The New York Times)
ICYMI
Finally, something offbeat or offbeat: Corvid competencies
This is it for today. Thanks for reading. Visit The Hill’s website. Energy & Environment PageGet the latest news and coverage. We’ll be there tomorrow.