Equilibrium/Sustainability — Ford cuts EV prices as Tesla competition heats up

Ford will build more electric Mustang Mach-Es at newly reduced prices, The Detroit Free Press reported. 

The Mach-E could sell at discounts ranging from $900 to nearly $6,000 in comparison to previous prices, according to the Free Press. 

Ford is the latest electric vehicle (EV) company to cut prices on a signature car — a trend launched in mid-January by arch-rival Tesla, according to CNBC. 

Many experts believe that Tesla cut prices to make up for decreasing demand for their cars. 

But those cuts are also helping to push down prices across the EV market, analysts told CNBC. 

Tesla’s discounts of up to 20 percent “make all other EVs … look incrementally more expensive,” Adam Jonas of Morgan Stanley wrote on Friday, CNBC reported.  

That is pushing Ford to play catchup — and falling supply prices are making it easier to do so, executives said. 

“We are responding to changes in the marketplace,” Marin Gjaja of Ford’s electric division told reporters, according to the Free Press. 

Gjaja emphasized that Ford was “not going to cede ground to anyone.”  

Welcome to Equilibrium, a newsletter that tracks the growing global battle over the future of sustainability. We’re Saul Elbein and Sharon Udasin. Send us tips and feedback.

Today we’ll start with an icy storm slated to freeze huge swaths of middle America, followed by a look at just how many households coped with power losses during the pandemic.

🧯 Plus: How firefighters are taking action on chemical exposures.

Millions of Americans to face frigid forecasts 

A large swath of the country is bracing for ice, snow and other winter hazards this week, Nexstar Media Wire reported.   

Cold across the Midwest: The most threatening stretch of winter weather will extend from Texas through Oklahoma, according to Nexstar Media Wire.  

• Also at risk is Arkansas, Missouri, Tennessee, Kentucky, southern Illinois, Indiana and West Virginia.  
  
• More than 23 million people across the nine states were under a Winter Weather Advisory on Monday. 

Ice on the way: The storm is expected to bring torrents of freezing rain, which can coat roadways, power lines and tree branches, Nexstar Media Wire reported, citing the National Weather Service.  

• Ice storms are in the forecast for more than 3 million residents of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi.  
  
• Parts of central Texas near Austin could see more than a half-inch of ice accumulation.  

Denver breaks records: Some parts of the country were already coping with extreme cold on Sunday and Monday. 

Temperatures in Denver tied a cold record set in 1985 on Monday morning, according to Nexstar affiliate KDVR. 

• The temperature hit negative 10 degrees at Denver International Airport, according to the National Weather Service.  
  
• Denver’s coldest temperature ever recorded was negative 29 degrees on Jan. 9, 1875. 

No snow yet in New York: On the East Coast, however, New Yorkers are grappling with the fact that they’ve had no measurable snow this season, The New York Times reported.  

• On Monday, the city set a record for its latest-ever first measurable snow of the winter, beating Jan. 29, 1973. 
  
• Less than a week later, New York is expected to surpass its biggest streak of consecutive days without such snow.  

Nearly 6M homes had power cut since 2020

Utility companies in the U.S. have disconnected customers an estimated 5.7 million times since early 2020, according to a report published Monday.

The disruptions have come even as those companies have paid billions to shareholders and executives, according to the report from the Center for Biological Diversity, BailoutWatch and the Energy and Policy Institute.

What they’re saying: “No one should ever have to choose between having food on the table and keeping the heat on,” Selah Goodson Bell, a campaigner with the Center for Biological Diversity’s energy justice program, said in a statement.  

“It’s inexcusable for utility executives and shareholders to profit while Americans suffer climate extremes and get punished for being poor,” he added.  

Cut off: The three organizations estimated that the first 10 months of 2022 saw 29 percent more power disconnections and 76 percent more gas disconnections than in the same period of 2021.  

• Just 12 companies were responsible for 86 percent of these shutoffs from 2020 to October 2022.  
  
• From 2019 to 2021, these companies paid top executives an average of about $5.9 million per person per year.  

Avoidable pain: The groups charge that these companies could have avoided turning off power or gas to late-paying residents at the cost of just 1 percent of the dividends doled out to shareholders over the same period. 

• The worst offenders were NextEra Energy Inc., Duke Energy Corp., and Exelon Corp., they found.  
  
• Equilibrium has reached out to each of these companies for comment  

To read the rest of the article, please click here.  

Firefighters’ union mounts legal push against PFAS

The International Association of Fire Fighters called on Monday for the elimination of gear that contains “forever chemicals,” as well as swift regulatory action to address these substances.   

Cleaning up gear: The union — which has more than 333,000 members — announced that it has retained the services of three nationally recognized law firms to pursue these goals.  

The toxins in question, per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), are known for their presence in both jet fuel firefighting foam and the protective gear warn by firefighters.  

Why are PFAS problematic? These cancer-linked compounds are notorious for their ability to linger in the human body and in the environment.  

They are also common in a variety of household items, such as nonstick pans, cosmetics and waterproof apparel.  

‘It stops now’: “We need to combat what is killing us,” Edward Kelly, general president of the International Association of Fire Fighters, said in a statement.  

“Cancer is the number one killer of firefighters,” he continued. “It stops now. This initiative will accelerate our search for PFAS-free gear.” 

Seeking solutions: The union president announced the selection of Motley Rice LLC; Simmons Hanly ConroyLLC; and Sullivan Papain Block McGrath Coffinas & Cannavo P.C. at a training summit in Las Vegas. 

• The firms will be working to change the regulatory standards that the union says have enabled toxins in firefighting gear.  
  
• They will also demand that this gear be replaced with PFAS-free alternatives.
   
• Meanwhile, the law firms will be available to be retained by those members and their families seeking compensation for PFAS-related injuries.  

A historic battle: “This is the challenge of our generation — and I refuse to let it become a challenge for our children and their children,” Kelly said.  

Federal concern: The Biden administration wildfire strategy earlier this month listed reducing cancer risk from forever chemicals among its top priorities for 2023, as we reported. 

Uncovering exposure: The International Association of Fire Fighters also hosted the world premiere screening of “Burned,” a documentary produced by actor Mark Ruffalo.

• The short film tells the story of how Diane Cotter, the spouse of a firefighter, identified significant exposure to PFAS in turnout gear following her husband’s cancer diagnosis.  
  
• “It’s always passed off as a given — ‘Well, you’re going to get cancer,’” her husband Paul said in the film.   

‘Encapsulated’ in chemicals: Ruffalo, meanwhile, stressed how the gear is “awash in these forever chemicals — both on the outside and the inside.” 

“It’s not fair that you are literally encapsulated in these chemicals every single day, every moment you do your job,” he added. 

To read the full story, please click here. 

Wild dolphins fish with humans for mutual benefit  

Research has long recognized human fishers in southern Brazil for working with local dolphin pods to boost their catches.  

But a recent study has shown that the dolphins were in on the deal — in what scientists say is a rare example of a wild apex predator collaborating with humans. 

Cultural touchstone: For at least 140 years, net-slinging fishers in southern Brazil have used the movements of dolphins offshore to determine the best moment to cast their nets.  

The fishers catch more fish by working with the dolphins, according to the study, published on Monday in PNAS.  

• “We knew that the fishers were observing the dolphins’ behavior to determine when to cast their nets,” lead author Mauricio Cantor, of Oregon State University, said in a statement.  
  
• “But we didn’t know if the dolphins were actively coordinating their behavior with the fishers,” Cantor added.  

Winning strategy: By listening in to the dolphins underwater using hydrophones and other equipment, researchers determined that the marine mammals were working as active partners with the Brazilian fishers.  

The dolphins chase schools of mullet toward shore — and slap their tails or suddenly dive to signal the fishermen to cast their nets, according to an Oregon State blog post.  

• Dolphins who did so had a survival rate 13 percent higher than those who did not, the PNAS study found.  
  
• They also noted that there was no genetic component to the practice: meaning dolphins had taught their children for generations to work with fishers.  

Why this helps: The sudden disruption of the mullet school caused by the thrown nets helps the hunting dolphins “to separate the mullet school and trap individual prey,” Oregon State dolphin researcher Leila Lemos wrote in an earlier blog post.  

Exquisitely rare: There are only three known remaining examples of cooperation between humans and other marine mammals, Lemos noted.  

• There is historical evidence of widespread cooperative fishing between Australian Aborigines and bottlenose dolphins and orcas, according to a 2015 study.  
  
• The other two examples cited occurred off the coasts of Mauretania, in Africa, and of Myanmar, in Southeast Asia.  

Uncertain future: While the collaboration is currently mutually beneficial, this activity “is unlikely to continue if either the dolphins or the fishers no longer benefit from it,” Damien Farine, of the University of Zurich, said in a statement.  

Declining mullet stocks could switch the dolphin-human relationship from cooperation to competition, the researchers noted.  

Monday Miscellanies

Scientists struggle to tell how much water the Colorado River has lost, the failure of traditional soil conservation methods creates business opportunities and Israel backs off a plastics tax. 

More than 10 percent of Colorado River water disappears 

• More than 10 precent of the water flowing through the Colorado River ends up evaporating, leaking or spilling, The Associated Press reported. As the West endures a megadrought that has sent reservoir water levels plunging to record-lows, hydrologists argue that this “massive water loss” can no longer be ignored. 

Soil degradation spawns iffy new solutions 

• A global crisis of degraded and depleted soils is leading to a boom in new and unproven methods to revitalize the foundation of the global food supply, Reuters reported. With traditional no-till and cover-cropping methods outmatched by extreme weather and erosion, businesses are marketing products like biochar, liquid clays and fly larvae, according to Reuters. 

Israel scraps disposable plastic tax 

• The Israeli cabinet has voted to eliminate a tax hike on disposable plastic goods — fulfilling a demand of ultra-Orthodox politicians whose community uses large amounts of such items, The Times of Israel reported. The previous government had enacted the tax, as Israel is the world’s second biggest consumer per capita of single-use plastic, according to the Times of Israel.  

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