FIRST AND FOREMOST:

The First 100 is a new, short-run newsletter from Grist available only through April. It features an analysis of the latest federal climate policy changes during the first 100 days of the Biden administration. 

Extreme Winter Weather: Extreme winter storms wreaked havoc across the United States this weekend causing deaths and widespread power outages. Human-caused climate change is making extreme cold events less likely overall, but it is increasing average air temperatures, and thus the amount of moisture the air can hold, which means prolonged cold can yield even greater snowfall. Climate change is also linked to the destabilization of the jet stream, which can lead to outbreaks of Arctic air. In this instance, the Arctic air mass is coming from Siberia, by way of the North Pole. The cold and power outages had cascading effects across Texas. Austin authorities were inundated with calls from residents struggling with burst water pipes, and Abilene was forced to shut off its water treatment plant Monday night. The total number of people killed by the storm is unknown, but it includes an unhoused man in Harris County, Texas, a woman and girl who died of carbon monoxide poisoning while using their car for heat, and six people killed in a 130-vehicle pile up on I-35 near Fort Worth. (Washington Post $, New York Times $, AP, Washington Post $, Weather Channel, Texas Climate News; Power outages: Bloomberg $; Climate Signals background: Winter storm risk increase)

Winter Storm Wreaks Havoc On Grid, Energy Markets: Nearly 5 million electricity customers across the United States lost power over the weekend as extreme weather, including frigid temperatures and ice storms, drove up demand and shut down electricity generation. The widespread outages underscore the vulnerability of the power grid to extreme weather events made more frequent, powerful, and unpredictable by climate change. “I cannot recall an extreme weather event that impacted such a large swath of the nation in this manner — the situation is critical,” Neil Chatterjee, a member of the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told Bloomberg. The outages are most dire in Texas, where nearly 4 million customers were still without power Tuesday morning. The state's grid operator said 34 gigawatts, as much as 40% of its generation capacity was forced offline, sending electricity prices skyrocketing to the legal limit of $9,000 per megawatt-hour and forcing the implementation of rolling blackouts. The lost generation capacity was driven in large part by the 27 gigawatts of coal-, gas-, and nuclear-generated electricity forced offline by the cold and ice. Wind generation exceeded the Texas grid operator's daily forecast through the weekend. The storms wreaked havoc on U.S. methane gas markets, as physical delivery gas prices in Oklahoma smashed previous records. More than 3 million barrels of daily oil-processing capacity also shut down Monday as the largest refineries in North America were forced to halt operations because of the cold. (Bloomberg $, Bloomberg $, New York Times $, AP; Generating sources' performance during storm: Bloomberg $, TechCruch; Oklahoma gas prices: Financial Post; Refineries: Bloomberg $; Climate change links: Washington Post $, Washington Post $, Weather Channel, Texas Climate News; Climate Signals background: Winter storm risk increase)

FERC To Increase EJ Consideration: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will step up its consideration of environmental justice concerns in its determinations, FERC chair Richard Glick announced last week. Though not legally required to account for impacts on front-line communities, Glick said, "Environmental justice and equity needs to be taken into account in all of our decision making processes." Glick also announced the creation of a new senior position at the commission dedicated to ensuring environmental justice and equity concerns are given full consideration. Studies show Black, Indigenous, Latino and low-income white communities bear a disproportionate burden from pollution caused by energy extraction, generation and infrastructure. FERC has never rejected a proposed project on environmental justice grounds. (E&E $, Politico Pro $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Vaccine rollout won’t be equitable unless health care reckons with racism (The Verge), forty years of good intentions: Will environmental justice get a jump-start from President Biden? (Environmental Health News)

INDIA PROTESTS: Climate activist jailed in India as government clamps down on dissent (New York Times $), India's arrest of activist tied to Greta Thunberg's movement sparks outrage (Reuters, The News Minute, Scroll.in, New Indian Express)

DENIAL: How corporations gave politicians permission to deny reality (The Brick House and Nexus Media News), a Bay Area 'news website,' funded by Chevron, has yet to report on the company's massive oil spill (San Francisco Chronicle)

WATER:  ‘They thought I was so low’: women say they were harassed, bullied, ignored at powerful water agency (LA Times $), ‘am I going to regret it?': forever chemicals dilemma for breastfeeding mothers (The Guardian)

EPA: EPA fines Hawaii oil refinery for safety, waste violations (AP), EPA says U.S. reduced greenhouse gas emissions 1.7 percent in 2019 (Politico Pro $), EPA to jettison major Obama climate rule, as Biden eyes a bigger push (Washington Post $)

DOI: Interior postpones March oil leases onshore and offshore (AP, Politico Pro $), Interior faces backlog of more than 5K drilling permits (The Hill)

AGENCIES: HUD sat on this disaster report. Here's why it matters (E&E $), will Biden's scientific integrity memo help whistleblowers? (E&E $), Yellen is creating a new senior treasury post for climate czar (Wall Street Journal $, The Hill)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Biden admin, tribes to discuss climate change, racial justice (E&E $), Biden’s task forces take on COVID-19, climate change (Wall Street Journal $)

THE HILL: Climate hawk Merkley to chair EPA-Interior funding [subcommittee] (Politico Pro $), [Senate] leaders release new energy, environment appropriators (E&E $), Agriculture [Committee] Dems focus on race, social justice (E&E $), Dems repel more energy amendments to COVID-19 package (E&E $)

JOE MANCHIN: Manchin pushes natural gas in letter to Biden (The Hill, E&E $)

POLITICS: Senators huddle with Biden on 'Build Back Better' plan (E&E $), China central to GOP efforts to push back on Biden (The Hill)

AGENDA: Biden bets the farm on climate (Modern Farmer), White House launches clean energy effort, $100 million in technology funding (Reuters), Biden climate goals mean conflict with natural gas, the resource behind recent emissions reductions (Washington Examiner), Biden pledges to fix decrepit U.S. infrastructure in bipartisan push (Reuters)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Gina Raimondo nomination rekindles fish vs. [offshore wind] turbine fight (E&E $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Biden aims to isolate China on coal — but it could blow back on the U.S. (Politico), Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala believes the WTO can change the world. but first it needs reform (TIME)

CITIES AND STATES: 3 ways Biden could transform Texas energy (E&E $), Biden's conservation push could trigger state backlash (E&E $), Indiana lawmakers debate environmental regulation, rollbacks (AP), Indiana NAACP: carbon tax resolution ignores harm to low-income, Black, Brown communities (WVPE)

GLOBAL FINANCE: Climate change 'stranded assets' could slash countries' credit ratings: Fitch (Reuters)

IMPACTS: Last rites: Himalayan helicopter flies flood-hit villagers home to mourn (Reuters), Indian rescuers find 11 more bodies after glacier flooding (AP), 2 Tibetan glaciers crumbled, and the whole landscape changed (E&E $), climate change upends Lebanon’s wine industry (Washington Post $), late ice cramps anglers’ appetite, research of crucial fish (AP), saving sea level records: what historical records tell us about the rising ocean (NPR)

DEFORESTATION: Pillagers of tropical forests can't hide behind clouds anymore (NPR)

RENEWABLES: Biden sets the stage for an offshore wind energy boom (OilPrice), oil majors are driving a wind energy revolution (OilPrice)

"RENEWABLES": Dakota Access developer pivots to renewables (E&E $)

OIL & GAS: Oil industry’s dash for gas comes with risks (Wall Street Journal $)

PIPELINES: How Keystone XL politics have changed (E&E $)

UTILITIES: TVA: 'gas isn't forever' (E&E $)

GRID: 14 states issue map for overcoming clean grid challenges (E&E $), Midwest transmission line challenged on NEPA grounds (E&E $)

EVs: Jaguar cars to go all-electric by 2025 as JLR plans full range of e-models by 2030 (Reuters), 'I saved £5,000 by charging my electric car for free' (BBC)

BUSINESS: Inside IKEA's ambitious plan to make cheap furniture last forever (Mother Jones)

CARBON PRICING: Podesta: Biden administration can meet its climate goals without carbon pricing (Politico Pro $)

RICH GUYS: Bill Gates discusses confronting climate change, says Joe Biden's energy and emissions goals are within reach (USA Today, Wall Street Journal $, Business Insider, Politico Pro $, Reuters, The Guardian, HuffPost, Politico, Forbes, BBC), Elon Musk says the Biden administration shot down his carbon tax pitch (The Verge, Electrek, Business Insider, CNBC), a GOP donor gave $2.5 million for a voter fraud investigation. Now he wants his money back. (Washington Post $)

INTERNATIONAL: EU readies reforms to energy treaty as climate criticisms mount (Reuters), Italy gets green superministry as Draghi eyes EU funds (Reuters), Mexico was once a climate leader – now it's betting big on coal (The Guardian), Zimbabwe's too-productive mango growers look to the sun to boost incomes (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

• Power Shift 2021 will feature Angela Davis, Black youth organizers (Teen Vogue, Destiny Hodges op-ed)
• Why Biden is reviving climate change’s magic number (Bloomberg, Eric Rosten column $)
• Boomers must lead the charge to electric vehicles (The Hill, Jeff Alson op-ed)
• The root cause of migration to the United States, Mr. President, is us (The Hill, Sarah Sherman-Stokes op-ed)
• Bitcoin could push global emissions above 2 degrees celsius, scientists say (Truthout, Alexis Goldstein op-ed)
• Investment in city infrastructure is an investment in America's future (The Hill, Alicia John-Baptiste, Marysue Barrett, and Tom Wright op-ed)
• How does Bill Gates plan to solve the climate crisis? (New York Times, Bill McKibben book review $)
• Coal plants present dilemma for power producers as they confront climate change (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• Gina McCarthy on crafting climate policy that endures (E&E interview $)
• Hilary Tompkins on being the top Native woman at Interior (E&E interview $)
• A deep greene freeze (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

Yes, We Would Like You When You’re Angry: Eco-Anger Motivates Action Better Than Anxiety Or Depression 

How does climate change make you feel? Are you anxious about the future or depressed about the current state of affairs? Are you angry? 

A perennial question of climate activism is how dealing with the only-barely-proverbial end of the world makes people feel, and what messengers should do about that. Does focusing intently on the worst of the doom and gloom – on how bad it’s going to be or already is – motivate people to take action, or does it just leave them overwhelmed and depressed? Is it better if audiences feel anxious about how pollution is going to sicken and ruin lives and ecosystems, or is it better if they feel angry at those blocking action? 

The Denier Roundup has been pretty firmly in the “everyone should be super-mega-pissed about deniers lying about climate change on purpose for money for decades as deaths stacked up” camp, and though we are uniquely immune to saying “we told you so,” we are happy to report that a new paper confirms we’ve been right all along. 

According to a new study in The Journal of Climate Change and Health, the more angry Australians reported being about climate change, the more likely they were to engage in collective climate activism and individual emissions reduction efforts. Those who reported feeling more eco-anxiety and/or eco-depression, on the other hand, did not appear to take more personal actions, and were less likely to join collective actions than the outraged were.  

Eco-anger was the strongest, and only, significant predictor of both individual and collective actions, “suggesting that more intense experiences of frustration and anger in relation to climate change are associated with greater attempts to take personal actions to address the issue.” 

Additionally, they write:

“Our findings highlight that frustration and anger about the climate crisis are adaptive responses. Experiences of injustice or unfairness tend to provoke group-based anger, motivating collective (and not individual) action. If we think about climate change as an injustice (e.g., generationally, socially, and geographically), the equally strong eco-anger–personal behaviour association suggests that, in the climate change context, the eco-angry recognise the importance of addressing their own daily behaviours as part of the collective goal of mitigating climate change.” 

Eco-anxiety, on the other hand, doesn’t seem to make people more likely to join collective actions, and in fact reduces engagement levels, suggesting “disengagement with the pro-climate movement.” Eco-depression, fittingly, didn’t seem to do all that much either way, showing only a weak (p<.01) but positive relationship with collective action, and a not significant (p>.05) but barely reduced effect on individual action. But eco-depression also makes people feel bad, so they “do not suggest encouraging eco-depression to motivate climate action. Instead, our results suggest encouraging eco-anger may promote positive pro-climate behavior change, while preserving mental health.” 

Because in addition to the climate-specific-feelings question, the survey included a component about mental health generally. It found that those who were angry reported better overall mental wellbeing, making it a more adaptive (healthier) response. While eco-depression and eco-anxiety are more common among those experiencing poorer mental health, the study says “eco-anger may be a uniquely adaptive response to the climate crisis, as it related to lower anxiety, depression, and stress (moderate effects).”

Not only is being angry good for the climate, it’s also good for your mental health! 

So you know all those times you read something here about the greedy, lying scumbags whose lives are dedicated to protecting polluter profits at the expense of public health and it really pissed you off? 

You’re welcome.

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