FIRST LOOK:

As You Sow and Corporate Knights will share their list of the 200 publicly traded companies leading the way to a clean energy future during their Carbon Clean 200 webinar TOMORROW at 10:00 a.m. EST.  

'Communities Of Color ... Keep Getting Dunked On — Every Single Time': The widespread power outages across Texas are highlighting and worsening underlying societal and racial inequities. The outages, primarily caused by the failure of gas, coal, and nuclear plants to cope with the cold weather, are a harbinger of the broad range of unprecedented weather disasters that will become increasingly frequent as the effects of human-caused climate change grow. The state's 34 gigawatt shortfall has forced widespread blackouts, but whiter, more affluent communities have gotten off relatively easily while socioeconomically disadvantaged communities, and especially communities of color, have been left without power. If history is a guide, they will also be the last to be reconnected, while unhoused people are especially vulnerable. “Historically, every year we are caught in this scenario, through no fault of our own. Communities of color are doing everything right. But we keep getting dunked on — every single time,” Maya Ford, a resident of Houston's Third Ward told the Houston Chronicle. Communities of color have also been disproportionately ravaged by the coronavirus pandemic, compounding the danger posed by the cold if households are forced to shelter with family and friends. Between COVID-19, freezing temperatures, and icy roads, families are faced with impossible choices. “My parents have power and we don’t,” Michele Whitebread in Spring Branch told the Chronicle. Whitebread said that, while she did not want to drive her four-week-old daughter several miles on treacherous roads, “The house can’t get too much colder with the newborn.” (Houston Chronicle, New York Times $, Washington Post $, The Guardian; Gas, coal, nuclear failures: Texas Tribune, Vox, Earther, CNN; Climate harbinger: New York Times $, LA Times $)

Texas Power Companies Paying Customers To Leave: While conservatives and gas boosters were busy trying to falsely bame Texas' widespread grid and power failures on renewable energy, retail power companies in the state were scrambling to convince their customers to buy electricity from their competitors. Yes, from their competitors. As Bloomberg reports, Texas' highly competitive electricity market has left power companies, and thus their customers, exposed to skyrocketing electricity prices. Some companies are waiving early termination fees and offering as much as $150 to customers who will leave, but customers of Griddy are in a uniquely vulnerable position. Griddy customers pay a $9.99 monthly fee plus the cost of spot power traded on the Texas grid, so while some customers were getting paid to use electricity at night earlier this month, they were also exposed to power prices about 20 times the usual rate. Hector Torres, an energy trader and Griddy customer, told Bloomberg he spent days trying to find another company who would even let him switch. “I’ll find out in the next week if I’m getting a huge bill,” he said. (Bloomberg $; False causation claims: The Guardian, AP, Texas Tribune, Media Matters)

Indian Gov’t Using 'Toolkit Conspiracy' Arrest Of Disha Ravi To Intimidate Activists: On Sunday, Indian police arrested Disha Ravi, a 22-year-old climate change and animal rights activist who volunteered with Fridays for the Future, on trumped up charges of sedition for her role in editing a protest toolkit. Greta Thunberg had tweeted the toolkit in solidarity with farmers protesting deregulation, generating international attention for the situation. The ensuing arrest of Disha Ravi has garnered significant coverage and triggered a massive backlash against the rightwing political attack on the young climate activist, with outpourings of support for Ravi coming from her fellow Mount Carmel College alumni, the All India Students’ Association, the National Students’ Union of India (NSUI), “Sikhs for Justice,” major english-language newspaper editorials, Aam Aadmi Party workers, and other current and former politicians. NSUI president Neeraj Kundan said in a statement the government “flirting with fascistic techniques of quelling democractic protests is nothing new. By waging a war against the students and youth of India, [Prime Minister] Narendra Modi’s authoritarian face has once again come out.” Ravi’s case is also the subject of viral disinformation, falsely alleging that her full name is Disha Ravi Joseph and that she is a Syrian Christian with ulterior religious motives for attacking the BJP government, while another claim falsely asserted that she is a single mother. (Overview: TIME, Reuters, Vox, Reuters; Solidarity Protests: Reuters, Hindustan Times, India Times, RepublicWorld, TimesNow, FirstPost, Reuters, New Indian Express, Times Now, The Print; Fact Checks: Logical Indian, News Minute, AltNews, News Minute, The Quint, Boom Live, NewsMeter; Interview with Ravi’s mother: New Indian Express; Editorials: The Wire, The Hindu, Times of India, Hindustan Times, Indian Express, Op-eds: Times of India, Gulf News)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: 40% of climate benefits? Explaining Biden's EJ promise (E&E $), Alaska Native village left scrambling for clean water (E&E $), Judge denies Apache bid to block Ariz. copper land swap (E&E $), when climate change and xenophobia collide (The New Yorker $)

FUNDING: Communities of color are saving the planet — why won't funders support what works? (Salon)

STORM IMPACTS: Dangerous Arctic chill leaves more than a dozen dead, widespread power outages across the southern U.S. (Washington Post $), 3 dead, 10 injured as tornado tears through North Carolina coast: ‘something unlike I’ve ever seen’ (Washington Post $), frigid, icy weather plague central and eastern U.S. while millions in Texas remain in the dark (Washington Post $)

CLIMATE CONNECTION: Heating Arctic may be to blame for snowstorms in Texas, scientists argue (The Guardian), how the warming arctic helped drive a deep freeze into Texas (Bloomberg $), the lethal atmospheric setup behind a deadly Arctic outbreak (Washington Post $), topsy-turvy weather comes from polar vortex (AP)

"RELIABLE" ENERGY: Tucker Carlson tries to blame ‘green energy’ for Texas blackouts (The Independent), Sweden shows Texas how to keep turbines spinning in icy weather (Bloomberg $), viral image claiming to show a helicopter de-icing Texas wind turbines is from winter 2014 in sweden (Earther), Texas blackouts fuel false claims about renewable energy (AP, The Guardian)

TEXAS GRID & PLANNING FAILURE: 'We didn't prepare for this': 1.4M in Houston left without power on coldest day since 1989 (Houston Chronicle), energy prices jump as millions left without power in Texas (CNBC), millions in Texas, Oklahoma without power as grid operators call for conservation (Utility Dive), winter storm forces blackouts across Texas (Greentech Media), the status and politics of the Texas power crisis (Axios)

SUPERMARKETS: There’s an invisible climate threat seeping from grocery store freezers. Biden wants to change that. (Washington Post $), undercover investigation reveals supermarkets are destroying the climate (Earther)

THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT: The life-altering effects heat is having on American children (The Guardian), we can’t just hope symptoms will go away': the mental toll of hurricanes on kids (Earther)

AGENCIES: EPA to revamp chemical review process following NAS criticisms (Politico Pro $), Interior approves first lease for ocean wave energy test project (Politico Pro $)

THE HILL: [Appropriations] Committee set to become energy, environment battleground (E&E $), Hoyer: 'bipartisan' earmarks comeback in the offing (Politico Pro $), lawmakers to examine power sector decarbonization (E&E $), Progressive N.Y. freshman [Jamaal Bowman] takes over Energy Subcommittee (E&E $), Senate Democrats push Biden to remake federal fleet (E&E $)

POLITICS: Agribusiness group readies to lobby on climate change (Axios), Fetterman pledges not to accept fossil fuel money in Pennsylvania Senate race (The Hill, E&E $), industry groups want a say in social cost of carbon (E&E $), Biden to meet with unions pushing for infrastructure spending (Wall Street Journal $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Interior secretary nominee on collision course with oil industry (Wall Street Journal $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Climate leaders welcome reforming WTO chief, as carbon trade wars loom (Climate Home), Germany aims for new deal with Washington on Nord Stream 2 (FT $)

CITIES AND STATES: N.Y. renewable plan: A step backward for climate? (E&E $)

CALIFORNIA: California moves to address 'extraordinarily frightening' energy debt amid COVID-19 (Utility Dive), seas are rising, here's how the [California] Legislature is responding (E&E $)

FERC: D.C. Circuit grills FERC on climate analysis (E&E $), FERC reliance on ratepayers to fund utility cybersecurity insufficient to meet rising threat, analysts say (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: Hydropower dams face backlash after Himalayan flood tragedy (Bloomberg $), Japan's stressed power grid faces new test with Arctic blast on way (Reuters), US housing agency faces 'systemic risk' from floods (E&E $)

CARS: Study: car commuters at higher risk of carcinogen exposure (E&E $)

RENEWABLES: A tidal turbine built in Scotland is now producing power in Japan (CNBC), LG releases upgraded solar panels with better energy output (Electrek)

GEOTHERMAL: Chevron and BP back renewable start-up focused on geothermal energy (CNBC, Axios, MarketWatch)

OIL & GAS: Court extends freeze on Alaska drilling project (E&E $), Plans for second Aramco share sale increase oil price pressure on Saudi Arabia (S&P Global $)

PIPELINES: Urging Biden to stop Line 3, indigenous-led resistance camps ramp up efforts to slow construction (InsideClimate News, E&E $), Line 5 pipeline shutdown adds urgency to Michigan’s propane heating debate (Energy News Network)

PLASTICS: The plastic bag is doomed. here are better alternatives backed by walmart and target (Fast Company)

HYDROGEN: Airbus turboprop model gaining favor as first hydrogen plane (Bloomberg $), Britain will build its first hydrogen fueled homes by April, offering public a glimpse of the future (CNBC, Bloomberg $), Enel agrees green hydrogen deal with Italian refiner Saras (Reuters), Luxembourg wants to turn hydrogen green (FT $)

EVs: The auto industry bets its future on batteries (New York Times $), cutting out the middleman on electric car sales (Axios), EV charging to solar panels: how connected tech is changing the homes we live in (CNBC), getting the rates right for a public EV charging build-out (Greentech Media), Jaguar Land Rover lays out electric plans in radical overhaul (FT $, Bloomberg $)

FUN WITH DISTANCE LEARNING: Gas or electric? Thinking algebraically about car costs, emissions and trade-offs (New York Times $)

BUSINESS: IBM pledges net-zero emissions by 2030 (Axios, E&E $)

CARBON PRICING: Carbon tax chatter returns to shake up climate politics (Politico)

• Why on earth would right-wing people with connections to the fossil fuel industry lie about ‘frozen wind turbines’ in Texas? (The Independent, Jamie Henn and Duncan Meisel op-ed)
• Water is a human right. It’s time we start treating it as one. (Washington Post, Debbie Dingell and Rashida Tlaib op-ed $)
• Florida can run on 100 percent clean, renewable energy. Setting goals can make it happen (Miami Herald, Anna Eskamani op-ed)
• Opinion: Want GM to go electric? Raise the gas tax. (Washington Post, Editorial Board $)
• Conservatives are seriously accusing wind turbines of killing people in the Texas Blackouts (New Republic, Kate Aronoff column)
• Texas and California blackouts: a song of ice and fire (Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)
• House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (Politico Pro, Q&A $)

Texas Blackout: It Was Unreliable Gas, Not Predictable Wind, That 'Failed Terribly' (Despite What Fox and WSJ Say)

This week, Texas is experiencing a deadly and record-breaking (climate-change-connected) winter storm that has left nearly five million people without electricity. Predictably, the fossil fuel industry’s defenders, paid and volunteer, were eager to pin the blame for the blackouts on frozen wind turbines, with a seven year old picture of a turbine in Sweden being de-iced. But it’s been gas that has proven incapable of weathering this climate-changed storm.

The Texas grid planners weren’t counting on wind to keep the power on, they were counting on the ample gas power. After all, “reliable” has one of the few key words dirty energy uses to sell their product — “natural gas defines reliability,” according to a 2017 API post about API’s congressional testimony to that effect. Just this last month, API’s State of American Energy page introduced itself with a line about “the foundational role of affordable and reliable energy...” while CEO Mike Sommers released a statement on gas and climate that opened with a reference to “affordable, reliable and cleaner American energy.”  

So according to its backers, one of the great big benefits of gas is that it’s reliable. But it froze. Literally. Pipelines, valves, all the complicated machinery and instrumentation built to keep cool in Texas summers were suddenly iced out, while gas pressure fell in the pipes. Bloomberg reported frozen turbines were the “least significant factor,” accounting for just 13% of the blackouts as of Monday evening, so those who operate in good faith would know that it’s unfair to blame wind turbines after that point when so much more gas, coal, and nuclear power unexpectedly went offline. Those “thermal sources” account for more than two-thirds of the state’s power generation and accounted for 27 of the 34 gigawatts that went down, while wind actually exceeded the forecast. 

But of course deniers don’t operate in good faith so before the facts were in, the party line went out, and the Wall Street Journal published an editorial blaming wind, just like Tucker Carlson would then have the execrable Marc Morano on to do as part of Fox’s pop-up disinfo campaign. But the WSJ news side reporting not to blame renewables did little to dampen the chorus of denial carried the lies through the rightwing echo-chamber, with boosts from local industry fronts like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, and lazy denier content like a denial tag team video of old-school liar for hire Steve Milloy spreading lies with the relatively young for-profit fossil fuel propagandist Alex Epstein, who tweeted his “100% certainty” about the reliability of the gas, coal and nuclear plants on Tuesday morning. (To give Alex credit though, at least he waited until after the facts were available to be 100% wrong.)  

So by Tuesday, there were multiple pieces warning about dirty energy-backing “right wing shitposters,'' like Trump’s former Energy Secretary, unjustifiably brought on to BloombergTV to lie about the facts Bloomberg's own journalists had reported by blaming renewables for Texas’s fossil fueled power failure. 

As U-Texas research associate Joshua Rhodes told Molly Taft of Earther, the grid operators weren’t relying on wind, “but we were relying on natural gas, and it failed terribly in that respect.” 

If the only reason to keep building expensive and dirty gas plants instead of clean and cheap renewables is they’re supposed to be reliable when you need them most. So what does it mean that fossil fuels failed terribly to keep Texans safe and warm? 

And why should something that’s “failed terribly” at reliability, a trait that supposedly worth changing the climate for, deserve continued support? 

After all, wind turbines in places as cold and snowy as, oh, Antarctica, have built-in weatherization and heating systems to ensure they can keep spinning in these sorts of conditions, providing exactly the sort of cheap, reliable and abundant energy the gas industry claims to sell.  

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