Author:  Inside Climate News    Publshed: 8/3/2024  Inside Climate News

Before the sun set on his inauguration day, Joe Biden reversed a raft of his predecessor’s deregulation policies with the stroke of a pen. Among them was an order revoking the permit for the controversial Keystone XL oil pipeline.

Canceling the project was a campaign pledge to address the climate crisis. But looming over that decision was the risk that an obscure but powerful international legal system could force the United States to pay billions of dollars to Keystone XL’s Canadian developer, TC Energy.

That system—embedded in thousands of trade and investment treaties—allows corporations to drag governments before panels of arbitrators, usually behind closed doors. Governments have been ordered to pay billions of dollars in damages to oil and mining companies for violating those treaties. While the system was intended to protect foreign investors from unfair treatment or asset seizure, many environmental advocates, lawyers and politicians say it is now being used to win awards from governments that enact new environmental regulations or raise taxes on polluting industries.

Increasingly, these critics warn the system threatens climate action by punishing governments that phase out fossil fuels.

More of our coverage of the biggest story on the planet:

• Vice President Kamala Harris grabs an endorsement from the Green New Deal Network, a key coalition of progressive, youth-led and environmental justice-focused climate advocates.

• Indirect emissions from a company’s financial investments can be tricky to measure, but a new study is putting a number on a hidden carbon footprint in the oil and gas sector.

• A forthcoming study seeks to establish once and for all that the lawmakers who shaped the Clean Air Act in 1970 knew scientists considered carbon dioxide an air pollutant.

Should Companies Get Paid When Governments Phase Out Fossil Fuels? They Already Are BY KATIE SURMA, NICHOLAS KUSNETZ A common part of free trade agreements helps fossil fuel companies force big payouts from governments phasing out oil and gas projects. The United States narrowly avoided a $15 billion claim over the shuttered Keystone XL pipeline.

‘Vance Profits, We Pay The Price’: Sunrise Movement Protests J.D. Vance Over Billionaire Influence and Calls on Kamala Harris to Take Climate Action BY KEERTI GOPAL The youth-led group highlights Vance’s Big Oil ties and argues that Harris has an opportunity to win the youth vote through climate policy.

Three Facilities Contribute Half of Houston’s Chemical Air Pollution BY DYLAN BADDOUR Air Alliance Houston tallied federal data to list the top polluters in the nation’s capital of oil and gas.

International Human Rights Commission Condemns ‘Fortress Conservation’ BY KATIE SURMA The landmark decision from the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights ordered the Democratic Republic of Congo to give Indigenous Batwa peoples title to their ancestral lands.

After Navajo Nation Condemns Uranium Hauling on Its Lands, Arizona Governor Negotiates a Pause BY NOEL LYN SMITH The temporary halt is intended to allow the tribe and Energy Fuels Resources to reach an agreement over transporting the radioactive material.

Minnesota Settles ‘Deceptive Environmental Marketing’ Lawsuit Over ‘Recycling’ Plastic Bags BY JAMES BRUGGERS The lawsuit was among a burgeoning crop of plastics litigation amid growing awareness of a global plastics crisis.

Aggressive Algae Bloom Clogged Water System, Prompting Boil Water Advisory in D.C. and Parts of Virginia BY AMAN AZHAR Warming waters in the Chesapeake Bay and rising temperatures will make algae events more frequent, experts say.

North Carolina Environmental Regulators at War Over Water Rules for ‘Forever Chemicals’ BY LISA SORG In June, the state found PFAS at an elementary school at levels up to 233 times greater than federal limits. But the N.C. Chamber of Commerce wants to delay regulations.

After a Study Found Lead in Tampons, Environmentalists Wonder if Global Metal Pollution Is Worse Than They Previously Thought BY VICTORIA ST. MARTIN Activists say the research marks a growing awareness connecting everyday life to the toxic contamination of the planet and ongoing harm to the climate. More research is examining how women are disproportionately impacted.

As Wildfire Season Approaches, Phytoplankton Take On Fires’ Trickiest Emissions BY JENAYE JOHNSON Microbial marine life can thrive off the black carbon released from wildfires and bolster the oceanic carbon sink. Scientists still emphasize their sequestration role has its limits.

Tropical Glaciers in the Andes Are the Smallest They’ve Been in 11,700 Years BY ALEXA ROBLES-GIL Four different glaciers along the Andes range no longer have hospitable conditions.

For Marine Species Across New York Harbor, the Oyster Is Their World BY LAUREN DALBAN As water quality improves, Pete Malinowski wants to fill New York City Harbor with oyster reefs, creating a habitat for the many marine species that once thrived in these estuaries.

‘A Repair Manual for the Planet’: What Would It Take to Restore Our Atmosphere? BY PHIL McKENNA “Optimism and hope are muscles we have to exercise,” climate scientist Rob Jackson says. His new book offers a paradigm for how to think about climate change and the health of the planet.

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‘Not Caused by an Act of God’: In a Rare Court Action, an Oregon County Seeks to Hold Fossil Fuel Companies Accountable for Extreme Temperatures BY VICTORIA ST. MARTIN Multnomah County recorded its highest-ever temperatures during heat dome conditions in 2021 that killed 69 people.