FIRST LOOK:

Congressional Climate Camp #3: Lessons Learned from Past Congresses and Current Attitudes on Climate, hosted by the Environmental and Energy Study Institute. TOMORROW at 2:00 p.m. EDT.

Annova LNG Export Project Cancelled: Developers announced Monday they were scrapping the beleaguered Annova liquified gas export facility proposed near Brownsville, Texas. An Annova spokesperson said the decision was driven by stagnant demand for liquified gas exports, known as LNG, and confirmed the project will not be revived. During its six years of development, Anova failed to secure even one long-term contract and faced numerous lawsuits over wildlife harms and shipping channel impacts. Rebekah Hinojosa, of the Sierra Club, told E&E the cancelation was "the result of six years of tireless efforts" from communities in the Rio Grande Valley that are looking to "protect their health, their precious coastline and the climate" from the project. (E&E $, Reuters, S&P Global $, Houston Chronicle)

Lending To Fossil Fuel Cos. Increased After Paris Agreement: The world's biggest banks gave fossil fuel companies $3.8 trillion in financing in the years following the Paris Agreement, according to a new report. Even though 2020 lending was down 9% compared to the previous year, it was still higher than in 2016, when the Paris Agreement took effect, and lending to the 100 fossil fuel companies with the biggest plans to expand actually rose by 10%. American and Canadian banks accounted for 13 of the 60 banks reviewed in the report, with JPMorgan Chase providing more fossil fuel financing than any other bank. “Despite this significant drop from 2019 to 2020, the overall trend of the last five years is one heading definitively in the wrong direction,” the report said. The report comes as pressure is mounting on financial institutions to stop investing in fossil fuels driving climate change and multiple banks have touted promises to cut and offset their greenhouse gas pollution, including JPMorgan, HSBC, and Citigroup. (The Guardian, Reuters, AFP, Bloomberg $, Morning Consult, CNBC, HuffPost) [This summary corrects a typographical error included in the morning emailed newsletter regarding the amount of money lent.]

County Refuses To Sell Land To Byhalia Pipeline: Shelby County, Tennessee, will not sell two vacant properties to the Byhalia Connection oil pipeline, commissioners voted Monday evening. The vote is a win for the opponents of the pipeline, which as proposed would be built through predominantly Black communities in South Memphis. “I have yet to hear a truly compelling reason why we need this (pipeline),” said Commissioner Michael Whaley, who co-sponsored a separate resolution calling for federal reexamination of the pipeline's permits. “Climate friendly infrastructure also drives the economy, drives creating jobs, but not at the expense of quality of life, the people impacted by this.” (Commercial Appeal, Daily Memphian, MLK50, WMC, WREG)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Justice for the Negro League will mean more than just stats (New York Times $), stop blaming Tuskegee, critics say. It's not an 'excuse' for current medical racism (NPR)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Are automakers the next climate target in court? (E&E $)

DENIAL: Heritage Foundation announces leadership shake-up (E&E $)

AUSTRALIA FLOODING: Australian floods kill two, more evacuations as clean-up begins (Reuters), the town 'smashed' as water levels rose 40ft in hours (Sky News), rains ease, but fears persist over water levels (BBC), Australian orchard owner fears for family farm as flood waters rise (Reuters), the Australian floods are devastating wildlife (Earther), yes, Australia is a land of flooding rains. But climate change could be making it worse (The Conversation), Australia’s 100-year floods hit houses, mines and farms (Wall Street Journal $), coal markets roiled as Australia’s flood crisis worsens (Bloomberg $, S&P Global $)

TRANSITIONS: EV battery startup poaches oil veterans to build Arctic factory (Bloomberg $)

AGENCIES: Biden team scraps Trump-era opinion that gave away tribal lands (HuffPost), explainer: why is Biden halting federal oil and gas sales? (AP), Interior memo: brass must review most leasing decisions (E&E $), Regan has team reviewing EPA advisory committees (Politico Pro $), lawsuit: BLM approval of Calif. oil leases violated NEPA (E&E $)

VERY LEGAL AND VERY COOL: Pollution deal exposed Trump EPA official to ethics charges (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Fed creates financial stability climate group, sharpening focus on global warming (Politico Pro $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden administration officials put together $3 trillion economic plan (Wall Street Journal $), McCarthy discussed 'shared priorities' with Big Oil (E&E $, Axios), why Biden’s climate agenda might be very, very ‘quiet’ (Grist), Biden's New Deal: Re-engineering America, quickly (Axios)

INFRASTRUCTURE: Biden’s recovery plan bets big on clean energy (New York Times $), Biden’s team is teeing up a massive climate and infrastructure bill (Grist), ‘big structural change': What greens want on infrastructure (E&E $), Biden's energy infrastructure push is starting to take shape (Axios)

THE HILL: Bill would increase burden of proof for eminent domain (E&E $), Democrats introduce package to crack down on fracking (E&E $), New Mexico Dems prep bills in response to Biden energy agenda (E&E $), Oversight panel adds Green New Deal muscle (E&E $), Merkley, Lowenthal relaunch effort to end plastic waste (Politico Pro $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Senate confirms Marty Walsh for Labor secretary (E&E $), Shalanda Young gets bipartisan backing for OMB deputy (E&E $), Duckworth backs off threat to oppose Biden nominees over lack of Asian American representation (Politico)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Blinken says Nord Stream 2 pipeline is 'bad idea' (Politico Pro $), China hosts ‘normal’ climate talks despite sanctions blow up (Politico Pro $)

TRANSITION, PERSONNEL: Biden's climate deputy has fossil fuel ties (E&E $), climate diplomacy vet joins Biden's team (Axios)

CITIES AND STATES: Bills to defend Wyoming's coal industry clear House, head to Senate (KPVI), from fake news to flash floods, simulations help cities cope with crises (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Minnesota may add climate impacts to environmental review (MPR), Ohio on track to waste billions of dollars on energy over next decade, study says (Energy News Network)

FERC: FERC's Chatterjee says he's 'not wedded' to MOPR (Politico Pro $)

REAL ESTATE: Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac face 'growing' climate risk (Politico Pro $)

IMPACTS: Arctic lightning strikes tripled in a decade (Bloomberg $)

WILDFIRES: Judge mulls requiring PG&E to turn off power more frequently (AP)

WATER: California, get ready for water cutbacks. Cities, farms receive grim warning about supply (Sacramento Bee)

OCEANS: What’s good for the ocean may also be good for business (New York Times $)

RIVERS: The rivers that 'breathe' greenhouse gases (BBC)

ELECTRIFICATION: Gas ban fight roils Nevada (E&E $)

RENEWABLES: Canada predicts largest oil province Alberta to lead growth in renewables (Reuters), China to inspect renewable power consumption to improve offtake (Reuters), how a New Deal legacy is building clean energy in rural North Carolina (NPR)

BATTERIES: The Georgia GOP is begging Biden to act on battery plant, while Dems stay silent (HuffPost), Green Minerals listed in Oslo with aim to mine ocean floor in 2026 (Reuters)

STORAGE: Energy groups, greens push for action on storage credit (E&E $)

OIL & GAS:  Appalachia’s fracking industry may never be profitable again (Earther), former Citgo executive pleads guilty to accepting $7 million in bribes (Houston Chronicle), it hasn’t been this cheap for U.S. shale to refinance in seven years (Bloomberg $), the fossil fuel industry would be screwed without the U.S. government propping it up (Earther) 

PLASTICS: John Oliver takes on the plastics industry (EcoWatch, HBO)

PIPELINES: Need for disputed [Enbridge Line 3] pipeline argued in Minnesota appeals court (AP), Ohio, Louisiana argue against Line 5 shutdown in federal court (Michigan Live)

COAL: Federal mine funds send millions to Kentucky Appalachian region (AP), world's largest coal miner Coal India bets on solar, eyes further mine closures (Reuters)

HYDROGEN: Oil majors, utilities form low-CO2 hydrogen coalition (E&E $)

UTILITIES: Damage from virus: utility bills overwhelm some households (AP), it's getting harder for U.S. utilities to cut carbon — study (E&E $), imagining power sector climate legislation (Axios)

NUKES: California's last nuclear plant is poised to shut down. What happens next? (Utility Dive)

GRID: Top cyber official warns of rising 'ransomware' grid threat (E&E $)

EVs: Are EVs destroying the car dealership? (E&E $), Tesla boss Elon Musk’s China charm offensive rolls on with praise for climate plans (Wall Street Journal $)

ACTIVISM: Artist and scientist install fake bakery storefront in Chicago to draw attention to climate change (Yale Climate Connections)

ART & MUSIC: Musician Brian Eno on convincing fans to care about climate change (Bloomberg $)

BUSINESS: Berkshire lags major U.S. emitters on net-zero path — report (E&E $), Warren Buffet and other deadbeats’ climate commitments are missing the mark (Earther)

CARBON PRICING: Court sides with First Nations in dispute with New Brunswick government over carbon-tax sharing (CBC), oil company leaders support carbon pricing plan (Wall Street Journal $)

INTERNATIONAL: Green groups dispute power station claim that biomass is carbon-neutral (The Guardian), lands grabs and other destructive environmental practices in Cambodia test the International Criminal Court (InsideClimate News), Russia discusses green bond deal as ESG pressures build (Reuters), Sweden to increase airport fees for high-polluting planes (The Guardian), Russia wants to use a forest bigger than India to offset carbon (Bloomberg $), EU urges trading partners to impose CO2 price to avoid levy (Bloomberg $)

• Dr. Robert Bullard, the ‘father of environmental justice,’ is watching the movement grow up (Grist, interview)
• Indicators to watch as the Chamber's new leader approaches climate change policy (The Hill, Kevin Moss op-ed)
• Colorado’s new cleanup and financial obligations of the oil and gas industry (Steamboat Pilot, Rodger Steen op-ed)
• The EU is tarnishing its green jewel (Reuters, Sandrine Dixson-Declève op-ed)
• John Roberts’ attack on environmental protections is bad history and bad law (Slate, Mark Joseph Stern analysis)
• Solving the migrant crisis means going beyond our border (New York Times, Rep. Veronica Escobar op-ed $)
• These killings can happen because the U.S. celebrates the sale of weapons made for war (Washington Post, Editorial Board $)

Amazon Profits Off Of Climate Denial, But Wants To Be A Climate Champion

In a 2013 study, Riley Dunlap and Peter Jacques analyzed how climate denial books are closely tied to organized denial think tanks, and while most consensus climate books are accurate and peer reviewed, Dunlap and Jacques concluded that “at least 90% of denial books do not undergo peer review, allowing authors or editors to recycle scientifically unfounded claims that are then amplified by the conservative movement, media, and political elites.” 

That study period considered books published by 2010, but a decade later there's no indication it's any less true. Deniers are still recycling debunked claims that are uncritically amplified by the conservative media apparatus. For example, Mike Shellenberger’s book was resoundingly debunked last year, but that didn’t stop Republicans in Congress from once again calling him up — today! — to testify about the Texas blackouts.

But if the denial books published last year didn’t satisfy your craving for denier blog posts in book form, you’re in luck! Longtime fossil fool Marc Morano has a “new” book out about how “the Green New Deal is even worse than you think.” ($24.99 on Amazon) Featuring none other than NY Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on the cover, because of course Morano would drive a little hate towards a woman, the book explains the definitely new and novel idea that, according to the Amazon synopsis, “‘climate change’ is the perfect Trojan horse for the socialist agenda of the Left”. 

Hey Marc, lazy liar James Delingpole called from 2011. He wants the political, “green on the outside, red on the inside” watermelon metaphor back. ($90.00 on Amazon for the paperback, $5.00 on Kindle) Wait, no he doesn’t, he actually recanted that back in 2019, so perhaps it’s yours to recycle after all!

According to a breakdown by Joe Bastardi, published by Morano’s employer CFACT, the book looks like just another attempt to convince conservatives that science is actually a conspiracy. That’s something Marc’s been hard at work on this year. Defending the novel coronavirus’s right to infect and kill people like himself who refuse to wear a mask (while he’s not encouraging more violent sedition) has served as great practice for his interview with white supremacy-laundering Breitbart to rehash his COVID-climate conspiracy.  

If you’re wondering who on Earth would publish a career liar’s book of regurgitated old blog posts, may we introduce reliable conservative propaganda producer Regnery publishing. You may recognize them as the publishing house set up by a man whose nephew would grow up to inherit millions of the family’s wealth, only to squander it, becoming what BuzzFeed called “the most influential racist you’ve never heard of.” 

You may also recognize it as the publishing house that had a tantrum at the New York Times Bestseller list a couple years back, claiming bias against conservatives but more likely bristling at the new self-bought disclosures because Regnery has long been known for buying its conservative authors’ books in bulk to game the bestseller lists. 

But to help sell some books beyond what Regnery will likely purchase to juice sales figures, Morano’s also working the disinformation circuit, illustrating Dunlap and Jacques’ point about conservative books being amplified by the conservative movement with an interview at the Heritage Foundation’s Daily Signal, a chapter-by-chapter summary by fired-no-resigned from Harvard because of misogynistic-but-unclear-circumstances blogger Lubos Motl, and a review by an intern at the billionaire-backed Federalist in just a couple days.

Somewhat interestingly, Morano actually thanks Motl and Bastardi as two of a list of usual suspects “whose work was invaluable in writing this book,” which perhaps explains why their reviews were so glowing! 

Though what Morano might be most proud of is that his book is the #1 New Release in Amazon’s so-niche-everyone-can-be-a-winner “United States National Government” section. 

Given that Amazon claims to want to be a climate savior, how does it justify selling books like this, and so, so many others, that very intentionally work against a goal of climate action?

You can either be a climate champion, or you can sell and profit off of climate denial books like Morano’s, that “recycle scientifically unfounded claims that are then amplified by the conservative movement, media, and political elites.”

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