FIRST LOOK:

Environmental and Energy Study Institute will host a briefing on how Energy Efficiency Means Business on Friday at 12:00 noon.

Sky-High Levels Of Fracking Chemicals In Children's Bodies: While the hazards of fracking to human health are well-documented, first-of-its-kind research from Environmental Health News shows the actual levels of biomarkers for fracking chemicals in the bodies of children living near fracking wells far higher than in the general population. The research fills a gap in the science between the health harms experienced by those living near fracking and the known harms caused by fracking chemicals: whether fracking chemicals were actually in people's bodies. They are. Of the southwestern Pennsylvania families who participated in the study, those who lived closer to fracking wells had higher levels of fracking chemicals or their biomarkers than those who lived far away. One nine-year-old boy had biomarkers for toluene, which can damage the nervous system or kidneys, 91 times higher than the average American. Another had biomarkers for ethylbenzene and styrene, 55 times higher than the average American. Exposure to ethylbenzene and styrene is linked to skin, eye, and respiratory tract irritation, reproductive harm, endocrine disruption, and increased cancer risk. The research is part one of a multi-part series by Environmental Health News exploring the multifaceted "body burden" of fracking. (Environmental Health News; Series overview: Environmental Health News)

Citi, Exxon Make Climate Moves: Citigroup will strive to reach net-zero greenhouse gas pollution across its lending portfolio by 2050 and in its own operations by 2030, the investment group announced Monday. The plan, published by CEO Jane Fraser, on her first day in the role, included few details but promised more within the coming year. Citi's pledge follows similar announcements by Morgan Stanley, Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase amid efforts by the group BankFWD to push U.S. banks to slash greenhouse gas pollution from their investments. Those three firms, plus Citigroup, have provided more than $705 billion to fossil energy companies since the Paris Agreement went into effect. Also Monday, Exxon Mobil Corp. named activist investor Jeffrey Ubben and former Comcast executive Michael Angelakis to its board, in a move to parry calls for the oil giant to focus more on clean energy. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission determined both Citigroup and Exxon could not prevent shareholders from voting on resolutions tied to racial equity and climate change. (Citigroup: The Hill, Politico Pro $; Fossil investments: E&E $; Exxon: Wall Street Journal $, Reuters, Axios; SEC: Bloomberg $)

Gas Utilities Meddle In Texas Cities' Electrification, Decarbonization Efforts: Local gas utilities aggressively sought, with some success, to prevent at least two Texas cities from adopting plans to eliminate fossil fuels from their heat and electricity grids, according to reporting by Floodlight, a partnership of the Guardian and Texas observer and San Antonio Report. The utilities' interventions in Austin and San Antonio reflect a broader effort by the gas industry to stymie electrification efforts needed to cut fossil fuel use and thus greenhouse gas pollution. In Austin, Texas Gas pushed through revisions to the city's plan, including eliminating building electrification goals, so successfully that that city is now going back to its original plan after backlash to the changes. In San Antonio, CPS Energy spent $650,000 to influence the city's goal of reaching net-zero carbon pollution by 2050, including putting its preferred consulting firm in charge, and successfully weakened the plan so that the city will no longer be carbon neutral by 2050. (The Guardian/Floodlight, Texas Observer and San Antonio Report)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Black mass incarceration in the so-called free state (The Real News), Colorado in drought — state's residents have coped with extreme dryness for generations (The Gazette), how inequity gets built into America’s vaccination system (ProPublica)

WATER RACISM: 'It's a toxic blend': where the kids are warned not to swallow the bath water (The Guardian), a recent survey casts new light on America’s racial divide in clean tap water access (Forbes), thousands of Jackson residents enter third week without running water (Mississippi Today)

PIPELINES: 'Pipe dream': Enbridge escalates local tensions (Indian Country Today), Enbridge deal-making over Line 3 divides Ojibwe bands in Minnesota (Star Tribune $), how a gas company grossly underestimated one of the biggest pipeline spills in US history (New Republic)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: 'A duty of care': Australian teenagers take their climate crisis plea to court (The Guardian)

DENIAL: Environmental policy smothered by election lies at CPAC (E&E $)

TEXAS: ‘Look what you did to us’: The big chill of Texas politics (Politico Pro $), Texas blackout bills plunge power supplier Brazos into bankruptcy (Wall Street Journal $, Reuters), Texas gas regulator punts outage blame back to electric industry, 'we got us out of the problem' (Utility Dive), Texas sues power provider Griddy, alleging deceptive advertising and marketing (The Hill), Texas utility commission chief resigns after Blackouts (Wall Street Journal $, New York Times $)

CERA WEEK: Bill Gates urges need to reduce 'green premium' in energy transition (Reuters), energy leaders grapple with climate targets at virtual CERAWeek (Reuters), oil executives say demand will rise, despite emphasis on renewables (Reuters), oil industry riding wave of change as CERAWeek starts (Politico Pro $), oil companies can't fight energy transition, Amazon and BP leaders say (Houston Chronicle)

PUBLIC OPINION: When it comes to influencing the impacts of climate change, corporations, governments outstrip individuals, public says (Morning Consult)

AGENCIES: Environmental justice advisers eye more muscular [EPA] role (E&E $), Biden’s new Energy Secretary eyes big investment to boost clean technologies, harden electric grid (Wall Street Journal $), inside Biden’s uphill battle to restore the EPA after Trump (Grist), pandemic bill would stop disaster fund from going broke (E&E $), Biden admin rescinds Hammonds' grazing permits (E&E $), Forest Service revokes approval of Ariz. copper land swap (E&E $, AP), USDA hires racial equity adviser, launches commission (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Biden administration wades into major fight over green building codes (HuffPost)

AGENDA: After stimulus, Biden to tackle another politically tricky issue: infrastructure (New York Times $)

THE HILL: Energy and Commerce leaders to unveil climate bill (E&E $), Manchin, Stabenow float $4B coal community investment bill (E&E $, Politico Pro $), panel takes up bill to help territories manage climate change (E&E $), what Dem troubles with COVID-19 bill say about climate push (E&E $)

SENATE: Democratic senators propose clean energy tax credits (AP)

POLITICS: How Deb Haaland's confirmation bid became a 'proxy fight' over fossil fuels (The Guardian), [American Petroleum Institute] is poised to endorse carbon pricing (Wall Street Journal $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Senators to grill Biden picks for CEQ, EPA, other agencies (E&E $), votes set on Raimondo for Commerce, Garland for Justice (E&E $), [Senate Judiciary] OKs Merrick Garland for attorney general (E&E $), Former EPA deputies back Biden's pick [Janet McCabe to be the Deputy Administrator] (E&E $)

TRANSITION, PERSONNEL: EV, clean energy expert joins Biden's EPA (E&E $), meet Stefanie Feldman, Biden aide and climate negotiator (E&E $), Wall Street titan [Mark Gallogly] joins Kerry's climate shop (Axios)

CITIES AND STATES: More states follow California's lead on vehicle emissions standards (The Hill), cities are starting to ban new gas stations (Axios)

FLORIDA: Florida lawmakers tackle flood risk with slate of climate change bills (Axios)

IMPACTS: It's not just Texas. The entire energy grid needs an upgrade for extreme weather (NPR), how fast are oceans rising? The answer may be in century-old shipping logs (NPR), Miami says it can adapt to rising seas. not everyone is convinced. (New York Times $)

EMISSIONS: Energy-related emissions up in December despite pandemic (AP)

RENEWABLES: Biden's 'Buy America' plan may hit a solar wall (E&E $), after year of slow sales, First Solar looks to rebound in 2021 with focus on innovation, manufacturing (Utility Dive), as wind industry goes big, this New England startup looks to shrink turbines (Energy News Network), body heat: The new renewable power source (E&E $), pure nonsense: debunking the latest attack on renewable energy (Ars Technica), wind power company vows to help save critically endangered California condor (The Guardian)

TRANSITION: This company helps roughnecks find renewable energy jobs (Bloomberg $), Wyoming coal mines eyed for disposal of old windmill parts (AP)

BATTERIES: To go electric, America needs more mines. Can it build them? (Reuters), 

greens sue BLM to block Nev. lithium project (E&E $)

PLASTICS: Report: Grocers move at 'snail's pace' on plastic reduction (E&E $)

COAL: New Mexico regulators want more details on [coal-fired] power plant sale (AP)

UTILITIES: A legacy of the New Deal, electric cooperatives struggle to Democratize and make a green transition (InsideClimate News)

EVs: Battery, semiconductor shortages disrupt Nikola's electric vehicle plans (Utility Dive), the debate over EV charging at interstate rest stops (Utility Dive), fossil fuel cars make 'hundreds of times' more waste than electric cars (The Guardian), how Europe became the world’s biggest electric-car market—and why it might not last (Wall Street Journal $)

MOVERS & SHAKERS: Climate ‘champion’ Katharine Hayhoe joins Nature Conservancy as chief scientist (Washington Post $, E&E $)

SOLUTIONS: 'Run the oil industry in reverse': fighting climate change by farming kelp (NPR)

BITCOIN: Crypto tears: Bitcoin miners face blame for Abkhazia energy crisis (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

BUSINESS: More companies under pressure to disclose climate lobbying (E&E $)

INSURANCE: U.S. insurers face more pressure, scrutiny on role in climate change (Reuters), British insurer Aviva sets out net zero 2040 climate strategy (Reuters, The Guardian)

WILDLIFE: Climate change cues tree swallows to nest earlier in spring (Yale Climate Connections)

INTERNATIONAL: Banks in EU to publish world's first 'green' yardstick from next year (Reuters), banks urged to steer clear of East Africa oil pipeline financing (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Britain wrestles with climate dilemma as it navigates post-Brexit trade (Politico Pro $), Colombia urges oil firms to diversify as it pursues massive CO2 cuts (Reuters), Nicaraguan coffee farmers brew fresh plans after hurricanes wreck harvests (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

• To save the planet from climate change, gas guzzlers have to die (LA Times, Editorial Board $)
• Climate change and infrastructure collapse are our future if we don't act (Teen Vogue, Kandist Mallett op-ed)
• What happened in Texas is only the beginning (The Hill, Michael Webber op-ed)
• How the loss of soil is sacrificing America’s natural heritage (Yale Environment 360, Verlyn Klinkenborg essay)

Floodlight: Emails Reveal Gas Industry Waters Down Climate Plans, Even As It Claims To Be A Climate Solution

For ages, the oil and gas industry has told gullible politicians, centrists, pundits, and Very Serious People about how it totally cares about climate change, is really, totally, super serious about supporting a carbon price, and just wants “a seat at the table” with policymakers. API president Mike Sommers said it in a puff-piece interview at the Washington Examiner last week about President Biden’s agenda and it’s, AGA president Karen Harbert said “if you are not at the table, you’re on the menu” back in 2019, and then-AGA chair David McClanahan said it in 2007 when the Demcratic party was taking control of Congress. The list goes on.

But should they get that seat? Do they deserve it? More importantly, what are they going to do with it? 

For starters, no. So long as the industry continues denying the dangerous health impacts of its operations it absolutely does not deserve a chance to lie directly to policymakers. (Instead of having to go through their usual channels of media-esque websites, paid pundits, and campaign contributions.)  

If you’re the kind of person who looks at powerful polluters, though, and sees a potential ally and constructive partner in policy-making, then a new investigation into how the fossil fuel industry behaves when it gets that seat at the table should be instructive. 

As part of a new project called Floodlight, the Guardian’s Emily Holden partnered with Amal Ahmed of the Texas Observer and Brendan Gibbons of the San Antonio Report to expose exactly how the gas industry undermines climate action.  

Through emails between industry and policymakers, the Floodlight investigation shows how the gas industry sought to influence climate policy, making it more amenable to continued gas use. Edits show how, by giving the industry a seat at the table, science-based policies calling for building electrification become “net-zero carbon,” for example, which allow for that gas industry to continue polluting locally by offsetting elsewhere. 

In Austin, the city’s climate program manager Zach Baumer was apparently the sort of person who wants to be a good sport and show they’re operating in good faith by giving Texas Gas a seat at the table. In exchange for his goodwill, the company dominated meetings. Baumer said in an email that the company’s meddling was “kind of crashing a party” as it aggressively pushed for its interests. 

Still though, he listened to the company, watering down a goal of eliminating gas use in buildings by 2040 to requiring just a quarter of buildings get off gas by 2030. He said he thought it was “a compromise position,” but “the people who were part of the plan” weren’t too happy about it. “Everybody was pissed at me. I had to call and apologize to people because we sort of gave into what Texas Gas wanted.” 

In the end, the city scrapped the gassy goals and reinstated the original ones. Texas Gas didn’t get what it wanted, but not for lack of trying — and it managed to waste everyone’s time to boot!

Elsewhere in Texas, San Antonio’s local power and gas utility, CPS Energy, spent $650,000 to shape the city’s climate planning process to meet its goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, with the utility funding its own preferred consulting firm instead of having independent UT-San Antonio faculty do the planning. But then, to work the negotiating process in its favor, the company also created its own “Flexible Path” plan, which offered a fig leaf of renewable support but also kept its coal plants operating into the 2060s. After multiple rounds of drafts and lobbying, the city eventually adopted the utility’s plan, despite the fact that the plan didn’t even attempt to meet the carbon neutral by 2050 goal.

Clearly, the oil and gas industry isn’t interested in just having a seat at the table, they’re intent on crashing the party, eating the food, drinking the beer, and taking over the music. 

And all while complaining they're the real victim because they weren't invited in the first place.

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