FIRST LOOK:

TOMORROW at 12:30 p.m. EST., join SEAP, Emory Rollins School of Public Health, APHA and Lancet Countdown for: Southeast conversations on the Lancet Countdown: Climate and Health.

Annapolis Sues Oil And Gas Companies Over Climate Change: Annapolis, Maryland, is suing 26 oil and gas companies for deceiving the public about their products' role in causing climate change. The city is among two dozen state and local governments to file such a lawsuit. “The companies worked to deceive people of the danger, hiding their knowledge and engaging in an intentional campaign to mislead the public about the science, proving the growing danger posed by fossil fuels,” Annapolis Mayor Gavin Buckley told reporters. The city seeks to force the companies to help cover the mounting costs of climate change, including severe flooding that disproportionately harms communities of color. "We're looking at a price tag of almost $100 million," Jacqueline Guild, deputy city manager for resilience and sustainability, told reporters. "And that's just the tip of the melting iceberg, if you will." The Annapolis lawsuit comes as state and local plaintiffs and fossil fuel industry defendants await a Supreme Court decision on BP PLC v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, which could have major implications for states' and municipalities' lawsuits. (Annapolis: Capital Gazette, AP, E&E $; SCOTUS: E&E $)

FERC To Probe Climate Impacts, Potential Market Violations: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission opened a new docket earlier this week on how climate change threatens electric reliability. “The effects of climate change are already apparent,” FERC Chair Rich Glick said in a statement, “And we must do everything we can within our statutory authority to ensure that the electric grid is capable of keeping the lights on in the face of extreme weather.” FERC also opened a separate, but not unrelated, investigation into malfeasance in gas and electricity markets during the recent cold snap that left millions in Texas and Oklahoma without power and threw markets into disarray across a large swath of the country. Wholesale power prices shot up more than 300-fold, spikes reminiscent of the 2000-2001 California energy crisis in which Enron and others jacked up prices artificially. Beyond the racial inequities and human costs, the full impacts of skyrocketing gas prices last week, both in Texas and across the central U.S., are still unfolding. While FERC does not have direct jurisdiction over the Texas grid, it does have jurisdiction over interstate gas transmission. (Reuters, Houston Chronicle, Utility Dive, E&E $, Politico Pro $)

ERCOT Chair, 4 Other Members Resign: Five members, including the chair, of the 15-member board that manages and operates much of the Texas electrical grid resigned following the massive weeklong grid failure that left millions without power and dozens of people dead. All five live outside of Texas. Texas legislators are scheduled to question ERCOT representatives Thursday on the grid failures. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has harshly criticized ERCOT and welcomed the resignations, which come days after the Houston Chronicle reported public utility commissioners Abbott appointed, who oversee ERCOT, fired an independent entity hired to monitor the reliability of the state's electricity system. (ERCOT resignations: Texas Tribune, Houston Chronicle, Dallas Morning News, KPVI, The Hill, Ft Worth Star-Telegram, Bloomberg $, AP, RTO Insider; PUC reliability firing: Houston Chronicle, Texas Standard)

GLOBAL SECURITY: UN Security Council hears of climate threat, does nothing (Politico EU), 5 places where global warming is a security risk (Thomson Reuters Foundation), climate crisis is driving insecurity, [UK PM Boris] Johnson to tell world leaders (The Guardian)(AP), France's Macron proposes appointment of UN climate security envoy (Reuters), David Attenborough to UN: 'Climate change a threat to global security, I don't envy you' (Reuters)

GRASPING AT STRAWS: A trip down the Ohio River reveals the oil and gas industry’s next big move (Popular Science)

THE KIDS ARE NOT ALRIGHT: Many kids have climate anxiety. Here’s how parents can help. (Grist)

TEXAS BLACKOUTS: 4 takeaways from Texas blackout crisis (E&E $), over 7.9 million Texans still facing disrupted water supplies (Reuters), how Texas froze: neglect of power-grid and climate warnings set the icy stage (Yale Climate Connections), new homes fueled Texas power demand ahead of deadly winter storm (Axios)

WHAT HAPPENED: Texas leaders failed to heed warnings that left the state's power grid vulnerable to winter extremes, experts say (Texas Tribune), after Texans died during winter storm, Harris and Travis counties launch investigations into power outages (Texas Tribune), Texas Republicans prioritized nonsense over winterizing the energy grid (HuffPost)

BLACKOUT POLITICS: Texas freeze casts renewable energy as next battle line in US culture wars (The Guardian), 'fossil fuels failed': ad hits Cruz, Abbott (E&E $)

CLIMATE CHANGE: How can electricity grids weather climate shocks? (Thomson Reuters Foundation), climate lessons from Texas' frozen power outages (Yale Climate Connections)

MISINFORMATION: How social media helped fuel false claims about Texas power outages (Washington Post $)

COST OF CHEAP ELECTRICITY: Texas freeze raises concerns about 'ridiculous' variable rate bills (Reuters), Texas grapples with crushing power bills after freeze (Wall Street Journal $), Texas woman who received $9,300 electricity bill files class-action lawsuit against wholesale electricity provider Griddy (Texas Tribune)

AGENCIES: DOE moves to undo 13 Trump efficiency rules (E&E $), EPA standards 'insufficient' for older adults — study (E&E $), EPA watchdog asks Biden to reopen ethylene oxide recommendations (Politico Pro $), IG urges [EPA] to rethink warning towns about carcinogen (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Yellen talks climate stress tests, mum on consequences (E&E $), Treasury may be able to facilitate climate stress tests on financial firms (Wall Street Journal $), ‘climate change’ is back, ‘illegal alien’ is out. New administration changes the language of government. (New York Times $)

THE HILL: Biden administration backs sweeping House lands package (Politico Pro $, E&E $), Steve Cohen calls on Biden to block Tenn. project (E&E $)

POLITICS: Biden faces first test on fracking ban (E&E $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Senate tees up Granholm confirmation vote (E&E $, Politico Pro $), Tom Vilsack confirmed for a second stint as Agriculture Secretary with strong Republican support (Washington Post $, AP, Politico, E&E $), Shirley Sherrod is why Tom Vilsack as Agriculture secretary is a ‘slap in the face to Black Americans’ (NewsOne)

HAALAND NOMINATION: First Native American picked to run Interior Dept. says: ‘It’s not about me.’ It’s about ‘all of us.’ (Washington Post $), Deb Haaland faces hostile Republican questioning in confirmation hearing (The Guardian, The Hill), Deb Haaland's last chance to win over Republicans (E&E $), Interior nominee Deb Haaland looks to thread the needle on oil (Axios, New York Times $, Washington Post $, AP, Politico Pro $, E&E $, NPR, E&E $), Haaland downplays Biden's drilling ban as a 'pause' (E&E $), Haaland skirts fight on Antiquities Act (E&E $), Ocasio-Cortez targets Manchin over Haaland confirmation (The Hill), Senate weighs historic Interior nominee, Republicans to grill her on fossil fuels (Reuters)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: U.S. to issue new Paris climate pact pledge ahead of April meeting (Politico Pro $), Biden, Trudeau aim to move past Keystone pipeline disagreement in first bilateral meeting (Reuters), Biden’s climate envoy, at UN, likens global inaction to a ‘suicide pact’ (New York Times $)

CITIES AND STATES AND COUNTIES: Montgomery County [Maryland] approves limited solar development in agricultural reserve (Washington Post $) 

CALIFORNIA: California's high electricity prices could jeopardize climate goals, experts warn (Politico Pro $), Newsom pushes private seawater desalting plant over local and environmental opposition (LA Times $)

IMPACTS: As deaths surge, scientists study the link between climate change and avalanches (InsideClimate News), Beijing soars to 78 degrees, its warmest winter temperature on record (Washington Post $), for homeowners, the cost of flooding is going through the roof (CBS), hit by hurricanes and COVID, more Central Americans go hungry and plan to migrate (Climate Home), Russian tanker cuts a previously impossible path through the warming Arctic (CBS)

WILDFIRES: California’s plan to save its 1,000-year-old redwoods from wildfires (Wall Street Journal $)

BATTERIES: Solar at night? Mini-utilities plan groundbreaking batteries (E&E $), ‘Mick the miner’ looks to recharge with battery metals (Wall Street Journal $)

EFFICIENCY: Bonus rebate aims to entice Maine small towns to make the switch to heat pumps (Energy News Network)

COAL: Arch Resources winding down massive US coal mine as customer base dwindles (S&P Global $)

EVs: Lucid Motors is going public in a major SPAC merger (The Verge, Axios)

INTERNATIONAL: Why Brexit made the energy transition a necessity for the UK (Energy Monitor), liquefied natural gas terminals to be banned in [Irish] law (The Times), Mexican lawmakers pass bill to favor state power utility (Wall Street Journal $)

• Power outages show why Texas must prepare for climate change (Dallas Morning News, Ginny Catania and Katharine Hayhoe op-ed)
• It’s about much more than who had power in the storm. Dallas must fix long-standing inequities (Dallas Morning News, Sharon Grigsby op-ed)
• Native Americans Finally Have a Cabinet Nominee. Will an Adopted Tlingit Take Her Down? (Politico, Julian Brave NoiseCat analysis)
• The right path forward on climate change (Newsweek, Michael Mann column)
• A 21st century economy needs a 21st century grid (The Hill, Gregory Wetstone op-ed)
• Winter storm response should focus on public safety, not dollars (Texas Tribune, Ross Ramsey column)
• The great climate bill of 2021 is being shaped now (The Atlantic, Robinson Meyer analysis)
• Biden’s strongest climate allies are outside Washington (Bloomberg, Michael R. Bloomberg and Carl Pope editorial $)
• John fetterman gets real on fossil fuel money, fracking, and a just transition (Earther, Q&A)
• Mexico shifts into reverse on electric vehicles (Bloomberg, Shannon K O'Neil op-ed $)
• Now Republicans are offended by mean tweets? (Washington Post, Editorial Board $)
• The polar bear paradox (Wall Street Journal, Walter Russell Mead op-ed $)
• President Biden, who controls our food system matters (The Nation, Bonnie Haugen, Darvin Bentlage and Barb Kalbach op-ed)
• More green blackouts ahead (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

WSJ Columnist (Accidentally?) Offers Sensible Warnings Against Trusting Climate Grifters 

The Wall Street Journal’s opinion page was one of the most prestigious sources of disinformation on the Texas blackouts last week, leading us to wonder — purely out of concern, of course — if offering rank denial on the opinion pages cheapens the Journal's brand as a reliable source of finance reporting. 

And while the Editorial Board has continued to deliberately mislead the Wall Street Journal’s readers with another “but China!” piece on the Paris climate agreement, and yet another “blame renewables!” piece covering for gas and coal’s failures, yesterday we noticed a column that, surprisingly, made some good points! 

Now, we don’t have any delusions that Walter Russel Mead has suddenly wizened up after the argument-from-ignorance he made about climate policies and the financial sector late last year. But his Monday column does offer some important advice for the climate protection community, though perhaps not always in the way Mead intends. 

Mead describes the “polar bear paradox” in which climate activists now find themselves.  “As climate change assumes a more prominent place on the international agenda," he argues, "climate activists will lose influence over climate policy.” 

It’s unclear how this paradox relates to polar bears, who are mentioned only as the unrepresented and potential benefactors of climate policy, but unnecessary metaphor aside, Mead actually has a decent point. 

Because he’s right that even if climate activists were hired throughout the federal government, “geopolitics and greed will get in the way.” It’s a tall order to get a global agreement to reduce emissions, which… is why the Paris agreement was such a big deal! 

On the question of China, he asks “are solar panels built with forced labor OK?” 

… No. No they’re not ok. Why would you even have to ask that? Is there anyone out there suggesting otherwise, or is Mead clumsily and likely accidentally pointing out the need for climate policy to be intersectional and pro-worker? A pro-union stance would be unusual at the Journal, but clearly international worker protection standards are an important safeguard against the abusive labor practices Mead references.

Similarly, Mead warns that “industry will also gain power over climate policy as climate moves up the world’s priority list” and that there will be all sorts of grifters looking to “cash in on one of history’s greatest bonanzas.” 

Yes! No doubt dirty companies are greenwashing, and people like Arkansas Republican Bruce Westerman are latching on to climate concern to peddle fake solutions to benefit their funders — in his case, subsidizing the timber industry under the guise of reforestation to store carbon. In the latest version of his tree planting bill, he even apparently went further to emphasize the intent was to sell the timber, instead of keeping the forests standing and sequestering carbon in the soil like is needed for reforestation to be an effective long-term carbon sink. 

While Mead probably didn’t have his fellow conservatives in mind when issued warnings about those seeking to co-opt the popularity of climate action, he’s not wrong about it!

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