Equilibrium — Record pipeline spill threatens Midwest farm culture

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A record spill from the Keystone pipeline system has one Kansas farming family grimly surveying the damage, according to local CBS affiliate KWCH. 

“We know we have pasture grass that’s black, that will probably have to be removed,” local farmer Chris Pannbacker told the Wichita-area news outlet over the weekend.

As of Sunday morning, TC Energy — formerly TransCanada — was still investigating the cause of the spill that began Dec. 7, the company said in a statement.

The rupture released 14,000 barrels of heavy crude oil — a little less than the volume of an Olympic swimming pool — into a local creek, KWCH reported. 

Nearby residents have taken the news in stride, with one 70-year old resident telling Reuters, “Hell, that’s life. We got to have the oil.”

The oil carried was “heavy crude,” a tar-like substance sent to refiners in the Midwest and Gulf Coast, the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported.  

This kind of oil sinks in freshwater and is very difficult to clean up.

“All oil spills are difficult, but tar sands in particular are very toxic and very difficult, so I’m awfully concerned,” longtime Keystone opponent Jane Kleeb, who is also the Nebraska Democratic Party’s chair, told The Associated Press.

Welcome to Equilibrium, we’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Today we’ll start in Florida, where the legislature is trying to keep the hurricane-battered insurance system afloat. Then we’ll turn to Europe, where countries are already preparing for a potential energy crisis next winter.

Plus: A new study links 1 in 100 heart disease deaths to weather extreme.  

Florida legislature to vote on disaster insurance rules

Florida’s legislature on Monday launched a special session aimed at addressing a climate-fueled breakdown in the state insurance industry. 

Key provisions: The new bill aims to create a $1 billion backup “reinsurance” fund for state insurers, force people on the state’s public insurance plan to buy flood insurance and curb the spread of lawsuits, The Associated Press (AP) reported. 

• Uninsured flood losses from Hurricane Ian cost Florida between $8 billion and $18 billion, according to analytics firm CoreLogic. 
  
• By forcing customers of state-run insurance to buy additional coverage, the bill would “reduce taxpayer liability and further increase access to reinsurance,” Senate President Kathleen Passidomo (R) said in a statement. 
  
• Such measures, according to Passidomo, would help “stabilize the insurance marketplace.” 

Crisis point: A long-simmering crisis in the insurance sector reached a boil under the expensive assault of Hurricane Ian in September, the AP reported.

• The industry has seen two years of net insured losses above $1 billion.
   
• The state accounts for 9 percent of homeowners insurance claims — and
  80 percent of homeowners insurance lawsuits. 

Home insurance premiums in Florida are the highest in the nation, according to The Wall Street. 

As if on cue: One South Florida insurance company responsible for 56,000 policies filed for bankruptcy on Monday, Key Biscayne-based Islander News reported. 

EU energy crisis may worsen next winter: agency

While the European Union has largely been able to ward off an energy debacle this year, 2023 could prove to be a “sterner test” for the bloc, the International Energy Agency (IEA) warned on Monday. 

Success may be circumstantial: EU nations have taken steps this year to fill gas storage facilities and curb their reliance on Russian supplies following Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine. 

• But come next winter, Russian provisions could plummet further and global stockpiles of liquified natural gas (LNG) may be tight, according to a new IEA report.  
  
• Meanwhile, the unseasonably mild temperatures that Europe has experienced thus far this season will not necessarily persist. 

Not yet in the clear: “The European Union has made significant progress in reducing reliance on Russian natural gas supplies, but it is not out of the danger zone yet,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said in a statement. 

Birol launched the report alongside European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, ahead of a meeting among EU energy ministers and a European Council session and later this week. 

Acting decisively: “We have been able to manage, we have been able to withstand the blackmail,” von der Leyen said at a press conference in Brussels. 

• She touted Europe’s success in carrying out its plan to reduce demand for Russian gas by two-thirds before the end of the year. 
  
• This vision was supported with investments of up to 300 billion euros
  ($316 billion). 

Significant strides: The bloc has been able to diversify its energy resources by trading Russian provisions for “other reliable, trustworthy suppliers,” von der Leyen said.  

Member nations have also made strides in conserving energy, while increasing the roll-out of renewables, she added. 

Stepping it up: But as preparations for the 2023-2024 winter begin, von der Leyen stressed that the EU must “step up its efforts.” 

• The bloc faces a potential gas gap between supply and demand of 27 billion cubic meters in 2023, according to the report. 
  
• Such a situation could occur if Russia’s gas deliveries drop to zero and if China’s LNG imports rebound following a pandemic-related decline in 2022, the authors explained. 

Solutions exist: Nonetheless, the IEA stressed this gap can be closed through additional actions on energy efficiency, renewables, heat pumps, energy savings and gas supplies. 

To read more about these proposed solutions, please click here for the full story.

1 in 100 heart disease deaths due to severe weather

Exposure to extremely hot or cold temperatures raises a heart disease patient’s risk of dying, according to a new study. 

Raising the risk of death: Such extremes were responsible for about 11.3 additional cardiovascular deaths for every 1,000 such incidents, according to the study, published in the American Heart Association’s Circulation journal.  

The need for mitigation tools: The newly identified link underscores an “urgent need” for tools that can mitigate climate impacts on heart disease, co-author Haitham Kraishah, from the University of Maryland, said in a statement. 

A global problem: Khraishah and his colleagues conducted a global analysis of more than 32 million cardiovascular deaths over 40 years.  

While the definition of extreme varied from city to city, the researchers calculated these thresholds based on the daily temperature at which the lowest death rate is achieved.   

The influence of heat and cold: For every 1,000 cardiovascular deaths, the researchers found that extreme hot days — those that topped 86 degrees Fahrenheit in their home base of Baltimore — were responsible for 2.2 additional deaths. 

They found that extreme cold days — below 20 degrees Fahrenheit in Baltimore — accounted for 9.1 additional deaths. 

Heart failure patients fared worst: Patients with heart failure were more likely than those with other types of heart disease to face negative impacts from heat and cold.  

• These individuals experienced a 12 percent greater risk of dying on extreme heat days, in comparison to optimal temperature days.  
  
• They faced a 37 percent increased risk of dying on extreme cold days. 
    
• Khraishah surmised this “could be due to the progressive nature of heart failure.”

Things might be even worse: The authors acknowledged that their study lacked sufficient data from South Asia, the Middle East and Africa. 

More information from these regions could reveal that extreme heat had an even greater impact than initially measured, they said. 

To read more about their findings, please click here.

Wolves expanding out West

California’s gray wolf population is expanding — part of a new phase of expansion for the pack-dwelling apex predators in the American West. 

• One of the state’s three packs gave birth to eight pups over the spring, according to the California Department of Fish and Wildlife.
  
• The California pack’s expansion is a sign of the broader success of Western wolf policy — and a sign of how one reintroduction can drive others. 

Big news: “The fact that eight pups have made it this far into the year is really exciting,” Amaroq Weiss, a wolf advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, told The Guardian. 

Expanding family: The Whaleback pack, as this extended family is known, had seven pups as of last year, The Guardian reported. 

• Five of these are still with the family and are likely now participating in hunts or babysitting their younger siblings. 
  
• This spring’s pups will soon begin attending hunts with the pack, “just learning and watching,” according to The Guardian. 

Wandering wolves: California’s wolf population was exterminated in the 1920s, according to the Department of Fish and Wildlife. 

• The first modern wolf in California was a male dubbed OR-7, who migrated from Oregon in 2011, the California Wolf Center wrote. 
  
• Oregon’s wolves, in turn, seem to have migrated in from the transplanted Canadian packs introduced into Idaho and Yellowstone National Park, per to Oregon Fish and Wildlife.

COLORADO TO GET ITS OWN PACK 

Colorado’s Parks and Wildlife department on Friday released its plans to reintroduce 50 wolves into the state, The Colorado Sun reported. 

• Colorado’s last wolves were wiped out in the 1940s as well. 
  
• A 2020 state ballot measure to reintroduce wolves narrowly passed.

Social conflict: The program’s biggest challenges will be “from social and political issues rather than biological issues,” Eric Odell, head of species conservation for Colorado Parks and Wildlife, said on Friday, per the Sun. 

• The program offers $8,000 in compensation to ranchers for any animal killed by wolves — which many say isn’t enough. 
  
• It also provides for wolves to be killed if necessary and for their protections to relax as the population grows. 

Broader divides: Whether Coloradans supported or opposed wolf reintroduction corresponded with other social fault lines, according to studies from Colorado State University. 

To read more about how wolves came back — and what wolf supporters have in common with Biden voters — please read the main story here. 

Monday Miscellanies

Government researchers may have made big progress on nuclear fusion, the Biden administration to help boost electric vehicle (EV) battery production and the staggering toll of the summer’s drought on Oregon forests. 

Federal scientists may reveal big breakthrough on nuclear fusion 

• Scientists at a California-based national laboratory may have for the first time produced more energy than was consumed in a nuclear fusion reactor, our colleague Rachel Frazin reported, citing an initial Financial Times story. While a spokesperson declined to confirm the details, the Energy Department is slated to announce a “major scientific breakthrough” on Tuesday.    

Biden administration announces $2.5B loan for EV battery manufacturing 

• The Biden administration has announced a $2.5 billion loan to a joint General Motors and LG venture that will produce electric vehicle batteries, our colleague Zack Budryk reported. The joint venture, called Ultium Cells, plans to establish battery manufacturing plants in Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee.  

Drought caused record conifer die-off in Oregon 

• Oregon’s summer drought killed off more than 1.1 million acres of fir trees — what local wildlife officials are calling a “firmageddon,” NBC reported. “It was almost twice as bad as far as acres impacted than anything we had previously documented,” a U.S. Forest Service aerial surveyor told NBC. 

Please visit The Hill’s Sustainability section online for more, and explore other newsletters here. We’ll see you tomorrow.