Climate policy outlook: Ottawa plastics talks wrap up

• Governments from around the globe are meeting in Ottawa, Canada, to continue negotiations for a global plastics treaty. One proposal is to impose a fee of $60 to $90 per metric ton of plastic resin (produced or collected was not specified) to help fund and close financial gaps imposed by a treaty. Meanwhile, the EU parliament passed a law (that is waiting for ratification) to ban certain types of single use plastics, like those found in mini shampoo bottles and plastic grocery bags.

Earlier, GreenBiz vice president of circularity Jon Smieja rounded up the three things that activists are looking for from the eventual treaty. Bottom line: None of them is guaranteed. 

The next session of the talks is scheduled for November in Busan, South Korea. 

Pennsylvania school buses go electric

• Pennsylvania, a crucial swing state in the upcoming 2024 election, received its first round of electric school buses funded by the Biden administration last week. The buses were purchased under the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean School Bus Program, created by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. SEPTA, the regional public transit system for southeastern Pennsylvania, also recently received $80 million to transition to net-zero public buses.

Georgia utility suit draws connection between climate change and racism

• Black voters in Georgia — who sued over the state-wide election of district utility commissioners — are appealing their case to the Supreme Court. Georgia’s utility regulators are required to reside in and represent different districts of the state, but are elected by state-wide voters. The plaintiffs argue that this system dilutes the impact of their votes, citing the last Metro Atlanta representative, a white Republican, who served three consecutive terms, despite overwhelming local opposition according to voting data. One-third of Georgia’s population is Black, and four of the five past utility commissioners were white Republicans. Part of the job of the commission is to decide where the power distributed on district grids comes from, impacting greenhouse gas emissions.