FIRST LOOK(s)

Predicted Winter Storms Causes Concern Over Texas Readiness One Year After Catastrophic Blackouts: The expected price of electricity on Friday is already surging in Texas ahead of the expected winter storm. The predicted demand spike will be the biggest test for the state's notoriously independent grid since the storm nearly one year ago that caused catastrophic failures of the gas system and grid, threw energy markets into chaos, led to widespread blackouts and food and water shortages, forced people to burn their furniture for warmth, and killed hundreds of people. Many Texas officials, including GOP Gov. Greg Abbott, falsely blamed the blackouts on renewable energy. Brad Jones, ERCOT's interim CEO boasted last month, "the Texas electric grid is more prepared for winter operations than ever before," but Gov. Abbott said massive blackouts were possible in a press conference on Tuesday — directly contradicting his own promise last December that the state's grid "will remain stable and reliable throughout the entire winter.” Beyond the obvious fears of the horrifically inequitable, and deadly, toll of last year's blackouts, the price spike also raises the spectre of the five-figure electric bills some Texas were hit with after last year. (Bloomberg $, Utility Dive, Weather Channel, MSNBC; Climate Signals background: February 2021 polar vortex breakdown)

EVs Cheaper To Own Than Gas-Powered Counterparts — Report: As EV charging availability in the U.S. continues becoming even more ubiquitous, and growing consumer demand in Europe and China overtakes analysts' projections, a new report finds numerous EVs are cheaper to own than their gas-powered counterparts. Ford's electric F-150 Lightning costs 17% less to own over its lifetime than the gas-powered F-150 (the best-selling car in the U.S. for decades), the Atlas Public Policy report says. Volkswagen’s electric ID.4. is also 15% cheaper to own than Honda's CRV, and a Chevy Bolt is 6% cheaper than a gas-powered Toyota Corolla — whether an EV manufacturer has exhausted its tax credits contributes to the smaller savings for cars relative to trucks and SUVs. Though upfront costs for EVs are still higher than gas-powered competitors, new projections from Bloomberg NEF suggest EVs could be cheaper — even without subsidies — in less than five years. (Cost of ownership: Fast Company; International sales inflection points: Bloomberg $; Charging: AP, Axios, E&E $)

Louisiana Task Force Approves 2050 Net-Zero Plan: A Louisiana task force unanimously approved the state's first climate action plan on Monday. The plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050 marks a significant, albeit first, step for a state with a decades-long reliance on fossil fuels and the petrochemical industry. Gov. John Bel Edwards lauded “the first statewide plan in the Deep South to reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net zero from a top energy producing state.” Black and Indigenous residents, and environmental groups, said they were concerned about the plan's reliance on carbon capture and sequestration as well as the inclusion of blue hydrogen. The task force's plan is not self-executing and will need to be implemented through measures adopted by the state's legislature and executive branches. (NOLA.com, Gonzales Weekly Citizen, BRPROUD, KADN, WWL, Bloomberg Law $)

BLACK HISTORY MONTH: Black history moments in time (The Root), why is Black history month celebrated in February? (NewsOne)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Trial for ex-cop who fired wildly into Breonna Taylor’s home doesn’t account for her death (NewsOne)

• FLOOD RISK: Black neighborhoods face growing flood threat — study (E&E $, The Hill)
• BOMB THREATS: FBI offers noncommittal response to HBCU bomb threats as Black leaders sound the alarm (NewsOne), White House says HBCU bomb threats ‘certainly disturbing’ (The Grio)

COP26: A pledge inked in Glasgow is already in doubt (E&E News)

FOSSIL GEOPOLITICS: Neuberger to travel to Europe as part of effort to beef up Ukraine's cyber defenses (Politico Pro $)

DENIAL & DISINFO: Fox News wanted viewers to hear an anti-vax trooper’s story – until he died of COVID (Media Matters)

PRIVATE EQUITY: Carlyle sets its portfolio companies a 2050 net zero target (Bloomberg $, Reuters), [Lightsmith Group] launches growth fund for climate adaptation (E&E $)

EU LABELING: EU to propose green investment label for gas and nuclear energy, source says (Reuters), four countries urge EU to drop green investment label for gas (Reuters)

DEMOCRACY: What voting rights mean for the planet (Grist)

SCOTUS: Democrats eye bipartisan support for Supreme Court nominee (E&E $), Republican comments about supreme court picks shows America is a long way from respecting qualified Black women (The Root), Ted Cruz says Biden’s pledge to nominate a Black woman Supreme Court justice is an ‘insult to Black women’ (NewsOne), why poll claiming most Americans don’t want Biden nominating a Black woman to SCOTUS is so flawed (NewsOne)

AGENCIES: HUD opens access to $2B in climate, disaster resilience grants (The Hill)

EPA: Biden admin moves to slash air toxics, boost clean energy (E&E News), Biden administration moves to restore mercury rules for power plants weakened under Trump (Grist), EPA moves to restore Obama-era rules on power plants (Wall Street Journal $), the life-or-death implications of curbing air pollution from power plants (Washington Post $)

DOE: DOE coal panel gets new name, focus (E&E $)

DOI: Interior eyes 50 percent hike in onshore oil drilling royalty rates (Politico Pro $, E&E $, Reuters), Interior hires investigator to oversee tribal repatriation law (E&E $), NPS employees face a worsening housing crunch as prices soar (E&E News)

• ORPHANED WELLS: Interior sending states $1.15B for orphan well cleanup (E&E $), federal money on the way to cap Colorado’s hazardous, abandoned oil and gas wells (Denver Post), Biden is sending more than $1 billion to states to plug abandoned oil and gas wells (CNBC), NM eligible for $43.7 million to address orphaned wells (New Mexico Political Report), state Eligible For $55 Million To Cap Orphaned Oil, Gas Wells, Feds Say (West Virginia Public Radio), Feds sending Louisiana $111 million to plug hundreds of 'orphan' oil and gas wells (NOLA.com), Interior Department approves $1B to clean up abandoned wells (AP)

BUILD BACK BETTER ACT: Manchin, key Dem, says Build Back Better bill is ‘dead’ (AP), New clean energy ads as part of Build Back Better push (Axios), ‘it’s dead’: Joe Manchin lobs another f-you at Build Back Better (Rolling Stone), Joe Manchin says Biden's Build Back Better package is 'dead' but cracks the door open to future talks (Business Insider), Manchin says Build Back Better 'dead' as talks stall on Biden agenda (CNN), Manchin says Build Back Better in its current form is 'dead,' leaves door open to new talks (NBC)

THE HILL: Rep. Jamaal Bowman, Sen. Cory Booker make concerted push for African American History Act (The Grio), Republicans slam Homeland Security climate program (E&E $)

SENATE: Senate Dems not feeling House pressure on climate package (E&E News), Senate introduces bill to allow farmers to fix their own equipment (NBC), Senate panel votes down Wheeler nomination; fight not over (AP)

FEDERAL RESERVE: Climate change a rising Fed concern as nominees face hearing (AP)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Biden's remake of the Fed faces key Senate vote on Feb. 15 (Reuters), White House says judge Fed nominee Raskin on her credentials, not marriage (Reuters), Senate committee delays hearing on Interior, DOE nominees (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: Activists urge Massachusetts to take another look at need for peaking plants (Energy News Network), NYC mayor announces environmental policy team with a focus on ‘climate justice’ (Bloomberg $, Politico Pro $), Colorado lawmakers consider first wildfire mitigation bill (AP), environmentalists bristle at early Youngkin moves (The Hill), green groups say New Jersey governor’s greenhouse gas plan doesn’t go far enough (Politico Pro $), New York takes early lead as large-scale offshore wind starts rolling in the US (Canary Media), ‘Reduced risk’ pesticides are widespread in California streams (InsideClimate News)

IMPACTS: ‘We relied on the lake. Now it’s killing us’: climate crisis threatens future of Kenya’s El Molo people (The Guardian), all coral will suffer severe bleaching when global heating hits 1.5C, study finds (The Guardian), climate change may be fueling increase in major northeast snowstorms (Washington Post $), epic week of snow: high plains hammered, northeast nailed (Yale Climate Connections), torrential rains bring landslides and flooding to Brazil and Ecuador (Democracy Now), new metric shows how severe global warming is getting (Axios), repeat photography shows climate change impacts on real places (Yale Climate Connections)

OCEANS: Extreme heat in oceans ‘passed point of no return’ in 2014 (The Guardian), warming ocean leaves no safe havens for coral reefs (InsideClimate News)

FLOODING DOWN UNDER: Flooding cuts off key railway supply routes in central Australia (The Guardian, The Guardian, video)

DROUGHT: Drought prompts Portugal to order hydropower dams to limit water use (Reuters, AP)

POLLUTION: There’s a hurricane-sized hole in Texas air quality data (Grist)

CARS: US traffic deaths rise at record pace (Axios)

RENEWABLES: Big Tech drove record clean energy purchases in 2021 (The Verge), Brookfield Renewable picks up 20 GW of solar, storage projects as developers seek strategic acquisitions (Utility Dive), Europe’s renewables are crowding out gas as coal phase-out slows (Bloomberg $), hotter summer temperatures prompt fly fishing restrictions in Montana (Yale Climate Connections), solar supply chain mishaps could delay coal plant closure (E&E $), the farmers profiting from the solar power boom (Energy Monitor)

BATTERIES: The Consequences Of A 500% Rally In Lithium Prices (OilPrice)

OIL & GAS: Exxon Mobil reports a $8.9 billion fourth-quarter profit as oil prices soar. (New York Times $, Axios), Exxon "cares" (Gizmodo), Harvard study finds link between fracking and premature deaths (Gizmodo), North Sea Abigail oilfield plan approved despite climate goals (The Guardian), TotalEnergies, CNOOC make final decision on $10 bln Uganda, Tanzania oil project (Reuters)

PLASTICS: Plastics clampdown is key to climate change fight, EU environment chief says (Reuters), WHO warns of pandemic's "large increases" in health care waste (Axios, AP)

COAL: Signal Peak Energy fined $1 million for safety, pollution violations (Missoulian, AP, Washington Examiner)

HYDROGEN: Denmark's CIP to lead giant green hydrogen project in Spain (Reuters), hydrogen fuel cell, transportation firm to move HQ to Ohio (AP)

UTILITIES: Georgia Power plans to double renewables, ditch all coal (E&E News)

EVs: Ford predicts it will make $45b from businesses using EV delivery vans, new services (Detroit Free Press), U.S. EV charging network is more robust but provider differences remain (Reuters)

BITCOIN: How coal country lawmakers came to love crypto (E&E News)

WORKERS: Court blocks railroad workers from striking over draconian attendance policy (The Real News), report details sexual harassment, racism at mining giant (E&E News), Mexican autoworkers are on the verge of a historic union vote (The Real News)

FASHION: Dolce & Gabbana announces they're going fur-free (Elle)

ACTIVISM: LGBTQ youth organization appoints their first Black nonbinary leader (The Root)

AVIATION: Germany, Denmark seek more ambition from EU on green aviation fuel (Reuters)

AGRICULTURE: A just transition for farmworkers (High Country News)

CARBON CAPTURE: Report outlines how to build CCS, hydrogen 'hubs' (E&E $)

FINANCE: US markets regulator flags risks for ratings firms in ESG boom (Reuters)

GARDENS: Why gardeners should stop using peat, and what to use instead (New York Times $)

LABOR: In a bellwether year for labor strikes, cable news coverage failed to meet the challenge (Media Matters), part-time work during a labor shortage (New York Times $)

WILDLIFE: Manatees in Florida need greater protection, lawsuit says (AP), penguins offer varied clues to Antarctic climate change (Reuters)

INTERNATIONAL: China's Sinopec to develop four new shale gas wells at Fuling field -Xinhua (Reuters), India to grant additional $2.6 billion for solar manufacturing (Reuters), India's forest-planting push leaves indigenous women out in the cold (Thomson Reuters Foundation), E.U. move to label gas and nuclear ‘green’ prompts charges of 'greenwashing’ (Washington Post $), landslide and floods in Ecuador’s capital kill 24, cover neighborhoods in mud after punishing rain (Washington Post $)

• North Carolina’s coastal highway is disappearing – so I took a road trip to capture it (The Guardian, Megan Mayhew Bergman essay)
• Stop trying to make algae biofuels happen (Canary Media, Eric Wesoff commentary)
• More 'snowmageddon' and 'bomb cyclone' winter storms are in our future (The Hill, Jonathan Overpeck op-ed)
• For a smarter, cheaper clean energy plan, the US should look overseas (The Hill, Nikos Tsafos op-ed)
• California utilities' brazen plan to kill rooftop solar (Utility Dive, William Schulze op-ed)

Fossil Fuel Companies Are Greenwashing Europe With Advertisements, Greenpeace Wants You To Fight Back 

Though this space is generally dedicated to the US-based climate disinformation shenanigans, there does in fact exist a larger world out there, we are told. 

For example, yesterday we came across a Greenpeace tweet that “activists have documented +100 examples of climate killing fossil ads and sponsorships in 40 European cities.” 

It links out to an impressive website from the group, which maps out the ads across the continent, organized by company (including fossil fuel, automotive, and airlines) or by product (coal, gas, etc.).

And lest you think Greenpeace is just amplifying the greenwashing ads, rest assured that they also have a toolkit so you can “hack” the billboards with some of their stickers, though maybe check out your local vandalism laws first! 

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