California's power companies are trying to stop wildfires by imposing targeted blackouts in high risk areas. Their hope is that this will prevent a downed live wire from sparking a conflagration. This strategy was effective a tamping down fires last year, but in the year of Covid-19, many worry the solution will be nearly as bad as the problem. On this episode of our podcast, Parts Per Billion, California correspondent Emily C. Dooley talks about how power companies are struggling to ensure people fighting the pandemic don't lose power, and also about whether there may be a long-term solution that doesn't require ad hoc power shutoffs.   Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

California Fighting Massive Wildfires With Blackouts

Parts Per Billion is Bloomberg Law's environmental policy podcast. We cover everything from air pollution, to toxic chemicals, to corporate sustainability, and climate change. The reporters from our environment desk offer an inside look at what's happening at Congress, in the courts, and at the federal agencies, and help explain the scientific and policy debates shaping environmental laws and regulations. Host: David Schultz

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It's well known that using PFAS-laden firefighting foam caused big problems for the military, but it's sometimes overlooked that civilian firefighting agencies are facing many of these same problems.
Bloomberg Law reporters Pat Rizzuto and Andrew Wallender are finding more instances of litigation against fire departments over their use of this foam. And they say the main US firefighters' union is now partnering with law firms after cutting ties with companies that make PFAS-coated protective gear—a sign that lawsuits from individual firefighters may soon follow.
Pat and Andrew join this episode of our environmental policy podcast, Parts Per Billion, to talk about this new frontier of PFAS litigation and why revelations about contaminated protective gear are stirring up strong emotions from the firefighting community.
Do you have feedback on this episode of Parts Per Billion? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Firefighters Will Be Suing, Getting Sued Over PFAS

As a multidecade megadrought continues in the West, the Colorado River Basin is drying up. Today we’ll talk about what that means for the millions of people who depend on that water. And we’ll look at what states and regulators are doing to ensure that communities get the water they need to survive.
Seven western states are frantically working to reach an agreement on how to divvy up the available water ahead of a Feb. 1 deadline—at which point the federal government has suggested it would impose its own rules to fix the problem.
That's the topic of discussion on today's Parts Per Billion, our weekly environmental podcast. Bloomberg Law’s water and public lands reporter, Bobby Magill, explains what's at stake—and which states might get first dibs at the dwindling water supply.
Do you have feedback on this episode of Parts Per Billion? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

States Scramble on Water Rights Pact as Deadline Nears

About a year ago, Richard Glick was chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and was poised to get renominated to a new term. Today, he's out of the job.
Glick's plans to more closely scrutinize gas pipeline projects ran afoul of the powerful chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va.). Without Manchin's support, the Biden administration couldn't get Glick's nomination through the Senate.
Bloomberg Law reporter Daniel Moore spoke to Glick shortly before his term at FERC expired and he joins our environmental podcast, Parts Per Billion, to talk about what went down and about how losing Glick will affect the Biden administration's climate change goals.
Do you have feedback on this episode of Parts Per Billion? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

An Energy Regulator Crossed Manchin, Now He's Gone

News of the world's first nuclear fusion reaction with a net energy gain created a lot of excitement, and justifiably so—fusion could one day be an infinitely renewable, carbon-free energy source.
Policy makers, including President Joe Biden, said they want to see a fusion reactor providing electricity to the American grid within 10 years. But scientists say that timeline is probably too ambitious, if not impossible.
On today's episode of our environmental policy podcast, Parts Per Billion, Bloomberg News reporter Will Wade explains the promise of nuclear fusion power, what a realistic timeline for its development looks like, and whether it might draw research funding away from other renewable energy projects.
Do you have feedback on this episode of Parts Per Billion? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Fusion Is Promising, but Isn't a Near-Term Solution

Companies like Google, Amazon, Microsoft, and Meta are now some of the country's largest consumers of electric power. And as Bloomberg Law's Daniel Moore reports, they're starting to wield their strong purchasing power.
Big Tech companies are pushing the energy industry to bring more renewable power projects online, Moore says, and they're also hiring energy lobbyists to achieve these goals in Washington.
Moore joins our environmental policy podcast, Parts Per Billion, to talk about where the tech industry wants the country's electric grid to go and what that means for both utilities and ratepayers.
Do you have feedback on this episode of Parts Per Billion? Give us a call and leave a voicemail at 703-341-3690. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

California Fighting Massive Wildfires With Blackouts

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