Climate Progress: Everything You Need to Know About Why the D.C. Circuit Delayed Arguments on Obama’s Climate Plan

The Clean Power Plan will get its day in court, but in September, not June -- and by the full en banc D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals, not the court’s normal three-judge panel that was scheduled to hear it in just over two weeks.

West Virginia v. Environmental Protection Agency is one of the most important environmental cases in almost a decade. The case will decide whether the EPA violated the law when it finalized its carbon rule to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector under the Clean Air Act.

Monday evening, the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals announced it is bypassing its planned June 2 oral arguments over the Obama administration’s signature climate policy.

What does this mean?

Christian Science Monitor: How Portugal Went 107 Hours on Only Renewable Energy

From the morning of May 7 to the afternoon of May 11, Portugal's electricity consumption was fully covered by renewable sources.

For 107 hours, Portugal powered all of its electricity from biofuels, hydropower plants, wind turbines, solar panels and geothermal heat. But this is not the first time that Portugal has boasted an impressive energy statistic.

Climate Central: Power Plant Emissions Fall to Lowest Level in Decades

Carbon dioxide emissions from electric power plants have fallen to their lowest level in decades, and that trend could help states meet their emissions goals under the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan if it survives court challenges, according to new U.S. Energy Information Administration data and a New York University analysis.

Carbon dioxide emissions from generating electricity in 2015 were 21 percent below 2005 levels in the U.S. The goal of the Clean Power Plan is to cut emissions by 32 percent below 2005 levels by 2030, mainly from coal-fired power plants.

New York Times: Australia to Lay Off Leading Scientist on Sea Levels

A pre-eminent scientist in the field of rising global sea levels has been given notice of his dismissal as part of deep cuts at Australia’s national science agency that will reduce the country’s role in global climate research.

The scientist, John Church, confirmed Tuesday that he was one of 275 scientists that the agency, the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, or Csiro, said would be laid off.

“I am impacted by the Csiro restructure and business plan,” Dr. Church said in an email from the Australian research vessel Investigator, where he was taking water measurements in the Ross Sea off the Antarctic ice shelf. He said he had been informed that Csiro was “consolidating” the team studying the effects of sea-level change and “ceasing work” on rising sea levels.

MIT Technology Review: Self-Driving Trucks May Hit the Road Before Google’s Cars

Well before self-driving cars hit the road, fleets of robotic long-haul rigs may be shipping goods across the country.

A startup called Otto is the latest company working on automated truck driving. And Otto’s team includes some engineers from the self-driving team at Google, as well as from Tesla, Apple, and Cruise Automation, who have joined the company to develop technology that turns a conventional truck into a partially automated vehicle.