FIRST LOOK:

Dream Corps Green For All released a new report yesterday: Safe at Home in the Time of COVID-19 on the high costs of heating and cooling yesterday. Check it out!

Gas Industry Lobbies In Statehouses Against Local Electrification: Gas utilities and industry trade groups are fighting across the country to prohibit municipalities from taking steps to cut greenhouse gas pollution from buildings, efforts those utilities and groups view as an existential threat, NPR and the Washington Post report. The American Gas Association, which gets its funding from ratepayers via its member utilities, is actively involved in state-level efforts to prohibit localities from requiring new buildings to be fully electric, according to internal reports, emails and recordings of AGA executives reviewed by NPR. Science shows extracting and burning gas is incompatible with cities' net-zero climate pollution goals because not only does gas emit carbon pollution when burned, its extraction and transportation is responsible for millions of tons of methane pollution — a heat-trapping gas far more potent than CO2. Studies also show that gas stoves create unsafe levels of indoor pollution, the Post notes. In addition to paying Instagram influencers, the gas industry mainly uses front groups like "The Empowerment Alliance" and "Partnership for Energy Progress" to push the state preemption laws, the same type of laws long used by the tobacco and plastic bag industries to fight local efforts they viewed as a threat. Four states have already passed preemption legislation, and bills are under consideration in 12 more. (NPR, Washington Post $)

Racism, Inequity Glaring In Texas Grid Failure Impact: Low-income Texans, especially those of color, disproportionately bore the burdens of the state's power grid failure that left them huddling for warmth, and dying, without heat in poorly insulated homes. Authorities across the state prioritized keeping electricity on for critical facilities like hospitals, meaning that the generally wealthier, and whiter, communities that shared those facilities' circuits also had power. This meant that those with limited resources to relocate or take shelter in a hotel were those most likely to lose their power, most likely to lose income from hourly-wage jobs, and least able to pay to replenish the food that spoiled in their refrigerators and freezers, never mind the cost of repairing burst water pipes. Food shortages were also most pronounced in poor Black and Hispanic communities where food deserts are common. Communities of color and poorer communities are also frequently short-changed when it comes to post-disaster aid. “We continue to be the victims of social injustice, food injustice, systemic racism — all of it,” Gloria Vera-Bedolla, a Latina community organizer, told Vox. Bera-Bedolla's neighborhood on the east side of I-35 is home to a vast share of Austin's Black and Hispanic populations. “We’re fighting these systems that were not made for the success of Black and Brown people,” she said. (Texas Tribune, Vox, USA Today, Houston Chronicle, E&E $)

Flood Insurance Woefully Inadequate For Current, Future Risks: Flood insurance premiums far under-account for the increasing flood risks posed by climate change and must be dramatically increased to reflect current risks, a new report released by the First Street Foundation says. The academics and flood modeling experts behind the report say the National Flood Insurance Program policies would need to quadruple premiums on high-risk homes in floodplains just to match current risks. Nationwide, from New England to Appalachia, to the Pacific Northwest and Gulf Coast, the researchers expect flood damages will increase by more than 50% over the next 30 years, necessitating a sevenfold increase in premiums for those in high-risk areas. While sea level rise threatens coastal communities, climate-driven flooding poses a potentially existential threat to hundreds of small towns inland as well. Global warming increases the amount of moisture that can be held in the air, just as a bigger bucket can dump more water, and thus increases the extreme precipitation that causes inland flooding. The research also found homeowners living in whiter, more affluent neighborhoods were getting a better deal on flood insurance while people of color and those in poor neighborhoods are effectively subsidizing the cost of flood insurance around the country. (NPR, New York Times $, CNN, Reuters, Bloomberg $, E&E $, Boston Globe $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: A century-old fight for tribal recognition simmers over the eastern Sierra Nevada’s Mono Lake (LA Times $)

CORPORATE PLEDGES: What’s really behind corporate promises on climate change? (New York Times $)

DENIAL & DISINFORMATION: Memes and fake climate news are a bad combination (Grist)

TEXAS GRID FAILURE, CAUSES: 'Power companies get exactly what they want': how Texas repeatedly failed to protect its power grid against extreme weather (ProPublica), days before blackouts one Texas power giant sounded the alarm (Bloomberg $), Texas officials predicted blackouts ahead of deep freeze (E&E $)

TEXAS GRID FAILURE, AFTERMATH: 'Heads will roll': Grid crisis sparks political firestorm (E&E $), deep freeze mints winners and losers among energy suppliers (Bloomberg $), restarting Texas’s frozen energy heartland will be a climate mess (Bloomberg $), Texas Supreme Court to decide if ERCOT is immune from storm lawsuits (Houston Chronicle)

TEXAS GRID FAILURE, LESSONS: Texas' dangerous week in the dark is a wake-up call for the country's infrastructure (CNN), after the Texas freeze, people are asking: Is electrifying buildings risky? (Grist), Texas blackouts show climate threats to U.S. grid — report (E&E $)

ELECTRICITY BILLS: State of Texas should pay for enormous energy bills after power outages, Houston mayor says (CNBC), Texas officials temporarily halt private energy companies from sending customers absurd bills (Earther), Texans will pay for decades as crisis tacks billions onto bills (Bloomberg $)

CLIMATE CONNECTION: Deadly Texas blackout shows our vulnerability to coming climate extremes (Washington Post $), blaming a wiggly jet stream on climate change? Not so fast (Ars Technica)

AGENCIES: Greens seek to fast-track CAFE penalty dispute (Politico Pro $), EPA advances Trump-era PFAS regulations (Politico Pro $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Democrats look to strengthen federal workforce (E&E $), GOP governors urge Biden to reverse course on leasing (E&E $), judge rejects Biden request for delay in Trump [NEPA] rollback case (The Hill, E&E $), Yellen signals interest in climate-related stress tests for banks (Politico Pro $)

AGENDA: After Texas crisis, Biden’s climate plan hangs on fragile power grid (Bloomberg $)

THE HILL: Dems turn up the heat on Republicans over Texas blackouts (E&E $), Michigan, Maryland governors to testify on new U.S. infrastructure push (Reuters), Oversight Democrats to probe Texas blackouts (E&E $)

HOUSE: House to approve billions for energy, transit aid (E&E $), hearings to discuss climate, USDA IG concerns (E&E $), panel to study water's role in reform package, Biden agenda (E&E $), Republicans prepare to attack Dem lands package (E&E $)

SENATE: [Senate Financial Services subcommittee] to examine financial risk, energy innovation (E&E $), [Senate] EPW to kick-start 'Build Back Better' effort (E&E $), Republican senators take aim at Paris agreement with new legislation (The Hill)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Garland cites climate, pollution in racial justice vow (E&E $, E&E $), Tanden nomination in peril as other picks sail through (E&E $, E&E $)

HAALAND NOMINATION: 'She became an easy target’: GOP opposition to Haaland rankles Native Americans (Politico), 5 things to watch at Deb Haaland's confirmation hearing (E&E $), fight over Deb Haaland, first Native American cabinet pick, reflects partisan divide (New York Times $), Interior nominee Haaland vows ‘balance’ on energy, climate (AP, The Hill), Haaland's allies gird for tense confirmation hearing (E&E $), What’s on Interior’s to-do list? A full plate of public lands issues and Trump rollbacks—for Deb Haaland (InsideClimate News), Interior pick Haaland draws GOP ire with fracking opposition (Bloomberg $), problems, opportunities aplenty await Haaland at Interior (E&E $) 

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Kerry: Sorry about Trump. But world must step up on climate (E&E $), UN Security Council takes up climate change risk for first time (Bloomberg $)

TRANSITION, PERSONNEL: Biden names Audubon attorney [Nada Culver] to replace Pendley [at BLM] (E&E $, Politico Pro $), meet Biden's climate personnel adviser [Jeff Marootian] (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: Duluth looks to cut emissions through sharing more efficient building heat (Energy News Network), Hawaii is ahead of schedule for renewable power adoption (Greentech Media), state regulatory crackdowns may swing low-CO2 electricity (E&E $), Montgomery County [Maryland] to decide whether to allow solar in agricultural reserve (Washington Post $)

FERC: FERC to probe Texas energy market for manipulation (Politico Pro $)

IMPACTS: Russian gas tanker shows Arctic is navigable year-round now (Earther, Bloomberg $)

JUST TRANSITION: How the Biden administration could create jobs for oil and gas workers (Yale Climate Connections), FERC gives preliminary permit to 2.2 GW storage project that would use Navajo coal plant power lines (Utility Dive), this Virginia coal-mining equipment supplier sees a future in clean energy (Energy News Network)

OIL & GAS: [Delaware River Basin Commission] vote on mid-Atlantic drilling ban set for this week (E&E $)

MEDITERRANEAN OIL SPILL: Mystery Israel oil spill is its worst environmental disaster in years (Earther), Israel shuts Mediterranean shore after oil devastates coast (AP), Israel places gag order on probe into oil spill that closed beaches and devastated wildlife (Washington Post $), volunteers mobilize to clean Israel’s tar-coated beaches (AP)

PLASTICS: Big brands suggest a packaging tax to boost supply of recycled plastic (Politico Pro $)

PIPELINES: Charges fading in Pennsylvania 'buy-a-badge' case (E&E $), [Rep. Steve] Cohen asks Biden administration to block permit for [Byhalia] oil pipeline proposed in Memphis and Mississippi (WREG, MLK50, Memphis Flyer), is race factor in oil pipeline route through Memphis? (WKNO), celebrities tweet opposition to Byhalia Pipeline (Memphis Flyer)

COAL: Will Texas blackout offer coal a lifeline? (E&E $), PNM wants customers to pay $300m to exit a coal plant (New Mexico Political Report)

HYDROGEN: Future proofing: Australia's gas networks look to go green with hydrogen (Reuters), Sinopec throws itself into hydrogen for China’s green car goals (Bloomberg $)

GRID: Possible hundreds of billions in US power sector securitizations spur ratepayer protection debate (Utility Dive), Colorado in danger of Texas-style blackouts (Axios)

EVs: How to ensure electric cars aren’t just for rich people (Grist), electric truck maker Xos to go public via $2 billion SPAC merger (Reuters)

FINANCE: Exxon pushed for net-zero goal by activist shareholder (Bloomberg $), ESG investment favours tax-avoiding tech companies (FT $)

DIVESTMENT: Trinity College Cambridge to dump fossil fuel companies this year (FT $)

WILDLIFE: Mountain mammals climb higher to beat the heat (E&E $)

INTERNATIONAL: Iraq plans to build 10 gigawatts of solar projects over 10 years (Bloomberg $, Reuters), 'no other option': deadly India floods bare conflicts from hydropower boom (Reuters), Indian climate activist granted bail over farmer protests (AP), border disputes threaten climate science in the Himalayas (Undark), climate change a grave security threat - Boris Johnson (BBC)

• Texas electric grid is an easy fix, if lawmakers will admit their error (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• Alaskans are trapped between our economics and our climate (Washington Post, Frank Soos op-ed $)
• Australia was the first casualty of the big blackout lie blaming wind power – the US could be next (The Guardian, Ketan Joshi op-ed)
• Texas' power crisis was also a gas crisis (Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)
• Houston is a cheap place to live - if you don't count the trauma tax (Houston Chronicle, Raj Mankad essay)
• Texas failed in a storm, again. Will we be ready next time? (Texas Tribune, Ross Ramsey column)
• The key to beating fossil fuel corps? Global collaboration. (Grist, Sriram Madhusoodanan and Pablo Fajardo Mendoza op-ed)
• Republicans fearmonger about regulation, but deregulation is what left Texas in the dark (Washington Post, Catherine Rampell column $)
• Energy deregulation worsened the Texas crisis — and Enron is partly to blame (Washington Post, Gavin Benke op-ed $)

New Draft Paper Confirms Feeding Trolls Keeps Them Coming Back For More

As the self-proclaimed “front page of the internet,” the (anti)social media website reddit has largely flown under the radar when it comes to the high-profile disinformation failings of Facebook, YouTube, and others. It rightfully made a splash by 2020’s five years too-late banning the hateful cesspool that was the page (called a subreddit) devoted to Donald Trump, but plenty of disinformation still festers there. But the site’s design, in which users subscribe to specific subreddits, means that users can create explicit bubbles, where they will see only the exact sorts of posts that they want. So if you’re not looking for climate denial, for example, you’re not apt to come across (or at least won't subscribe to) the “climate skeptics” subreddit.

But if you did, you might be tempted to post something and try and educate some of the users. After all, popping into an echo chamber with some reality is always helpful, right? 

Maybe not, according to a new draft study. The research by Lisa Oswald and Jonathan Bright has not gone through peer-review yet, but as is customary with computer science papers, has been posted to arXiv.org as a preprint. 

By looking at posts to the “climate skeptics” subreddit, they found that while posts that aligned with the r/climateskeptics subreddit’s climate denial got more upvotes from users, the ones injecting reality, coded as “dissonant,” tended to generate a lot more discussion. 

And while some might have expected those users who engage with dissonant views, and are therefore exposed to facts that challenge their skepticism, might become educated enough to stop posting, the researchers found the opposite. Those who “engaged with dissonant submissions were also more likely to return to the forum.”

Now first, we feel compelled to point out that how reddit works makes this comparison more complicated than it might seem. A simple comparison of upvotes for content consonant with the denial of this subreddit versus content that is dissonant doesn’t capture reddit’s functionality. 

Because how you use reddit shapes what you see. If you just scroll your own “front page,” you see a mix of the popular posts from all the different subreddits you subscribe to- so if you’re subscribed to r/climateskeptics, you’ll see posts that get upvotes, but you’re almost certainly not going to see any of those dissonant posts that are downvoted. 

So how do those posts get downvotes in the first place? By the people who go directly to the r/climateskeptics page, and see all the posts there. The users that engage on those posts, then, are actually a subset of the most dedicated deniers, which in turn skews the study’s treatment of how users engage. 

Their hypothesis was that users who engaged with dissonant posts would then be less likely to keep commenting, but of course they found the opposite, leading to the conclusion that there’s probably little value in trying to inject reality into an echo-chamber like this. 

Which may still be true, but if the intent was to test if exposing facts to people who are only mildly bought in to the “skepticism” would effectively persuade them, this wouldn’t be a good way to test. 

Because what this shows is that the diehard users who spend their days arguing about climate change online aren’t doing it because they’re interested in a good faith debate as a way to discern truth, they’re doing it because it’s fun and feels good to fight for your point of view. 

And those feelings, it turns out, don’t really care about facts! 

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