FIRST LOOK:

A new report from Resources for the Future and the Environmental Defense Fund outlines policies to support fossil fuel workers and communities in the shift to a low-carbon economy.

Senate Dems To Nullify Trump Methane Rollbacks With CRA: Senate Democrats plan to nullify the Trump administration's rollbacks of methane regulations via the Congressional Review Act. The relatively obscure process will reinstate the Obama administration's methane leak detection and flaring regulations with a simple majority vote in the Senate — far more quickly than the Biden administration would be able to enact new safeguards through what would likely be a yearslong regulatory process. The CRA has been used to undo 15 regulations, with 14 of those coming in the first 16 weeks of the Trump administration. The Hill reports Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) will co-sponsor the bill along with Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). The Trump rollbacks were finalized prior to the presidential election and were so extreme the American Petroleum Institute worried they would undercut the oil and gas industry's efforts to portray gas as a clean energy source. (New York Times, The Hill)

Soil's Carbon Sink Doesn't Grow With Atmospheric CO2, Study Says: Soil's capacity to store carbon may be less than previously thought, according to a study published in Nature. The amount of carbon stored in soil is approximately triple that stored in living plants, but as rising CO2 levels increase plant growth, the scientists found, soil carbon storage decreases. “We expected faster plant growth and more biomass to increase soil organic carbon, as extra leaves and biomass fall to the forest floor [but] it didn't.” Stanford professor and senior author Rob Jackson told Earther. The findings, the scientists say, mean global heating could accelerate more quickly than previously expected. “If we really want to stop global warming," César Terrer, who led the research while at Stanford University, told the Guardian, "we need to stop emissions, because ecosystems only take up a fraction of all the CO2 emissions.” (The Guardian, Earther)

Kansas GOP Split Over Anti-Wind Bill: A Kansas bill to sharply curtail the land available for wind turbines is splitting Republicans in the country's fifth-largest wind energy-producing state. "I don't speak in hyperbole when I say this bill ends the renewable energy industry in Kansas," Kimberly Svaty, a lobbyist for a renewable energy advocacy group that works across the Great Plains, told E&E. Wind became Kansas' biggest electricity source in 2019, providing about 41% of the state's portfolio. The bill's sponsor is State Senate Utilities Committee Chairman Mike Thompson, a retired TV weatherman, climate denier, and renewable energy critic. If passed, the measure would be "the most wind-unfriendly legislation in the entire Wind Belt," Dave Kerr, a former Republican Kansas Senate president, told E&E. (E&E $, AP, Topeka Capital-Journal, KCUR)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Bills aimed at safe water in tribal communities, repealing racist laws advance after historic cabinet change (Oregon Public Broadcasting), the island where it rained oil (Washington Post $), zoned out: one woman’s half-century fight to desegregate Berkeley (Grist), FERC grilled over [LNG export] CO2, environmental justice reviews (E&E $)

AUSTRALIA FLOODS: Australia's floods: what the disaster tells us about a climate crisis future (The Guardian)

COP26: Australia's climate policies not ambitious enough for summit invite, Boris Johnson told Scott Morrison (The Guardian)

IMPACTS' IMPACTS: [Climate change and COVID-19] are making things worse at the border. But they're not getting much attention (CNN), over 30 million people 'one step away from starvation', UN warns (The Guardian)

EPA: Regan vows 'aggressive' action on tailpipe emissions (Politico Pro $), EPA to review attacks on science under Trump (New York Times $, The Hill), Regan updates staff on scientific integrity action plan (E&E $), EPA head: 'COVID-19 created a perfect storm for environmental justice communities' (The Hill), EPA urged to tighten truck, bus emissions (E&E $)

DOT: Rolling back a rollback: Buttigieg deletes some Trump-era limits on regulation (Washington Post $)

TREASURY: Yellen puts climate on first financial-stability meeting agenda (Bloomberg $, Reuters, The Hill)

LAWSUITS: Biden ‘moratorium’ on oil leasing targeted by GOP-led states (Bloomberg $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Doubling down: Fed to launch 2nd climate initiative (E&E $)

INFRASTRUCTURE: Republicans won't 'take the bait' on infrastructure (E&E $), a trillion-dollar bet on clean energy (New York Times $), renewable-energy backers want 10-year tax credits in Biden plan (Bloomberg $)

THE HILL: Warren presses Yellen to ramp up BlackRock oversight (The Hill), [House] Members launch bipartisan offshore wind caucus (E&E $), Angus King signals he would nix filibuster for voting rights (The Hill), Senate bill worth $35B would address [water project] loan inequities (E&E $, The Hill), EPW advances water infrastructure bill on unanimous vote (Politico Pro $), bipartisan bloc to push bill to expand carbon capture tech (Politico Pro $)

TEXAS HEARING: Regulator: evidence suggests Texas 'absolutely' didn't follow recommendations to winterize power equipment (The Hill), [Houston] Mayor Sylvester Turner testifies Texas blackouts were 'foreseeable and preventable' (Houston Chronicle), Texas gas, power players need to winterize, but witnesses differ over renewables (S&P Global $), Texas officials grilled over blackout crisis (E&E $)

POLITICS: Democrats say increased recognition of climate change puts more pressure on GOP (The Hill)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: CEQ, EPA nominees advance out of committee on narrow vote (Politico Pro $), Senate confirms David Turk as deputy Energy secretary (The Hill, Politico Pro $), Rachel Levine, historic transgender nominee, confirmed as assistant health secretary (Washington Post $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Biden team treads lightly on climate cooperation with China (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: Federal study finds Los Angeles could reach 100 percent renewables by 2035 (Politico Pro $)

TRANSIT: Riders are abandoning buses and trains. That’s a problem for climate change. (New York Times $), traffic wars: who will win the battle for city streets? (The Guardian)

CALIFORNIA: California debating the future of rooftop solar's biggest incentive (Reuters)

FERC: Court backs FERC pipeline permit after N.Y. challenge (E&E $, Politico Pro $), Hot-button market rule at 'inflection point' — Chatterjee (E&E $)

PUBLIC LANDS: Chief Justice Roberts invites Antiquities Act challenges (E&E $)

IMPACTS: 'Winter is vanishing' from the deep waters of Lake Michigan (CNN), by the end of the century, summer weather could last half a year (and that's not a good thing) (CNN), rising risk of wildfires across UK from climate crisis, scientists warn (The Guardian)

RENEWABLES: Biden's dilemma: land for renewables (E&E $), the intense, lobster-fueled fight over America’s first floating wind farm (Earther), solar surpasses wind in India (PV Magazine India), ‘solar could supply half of [India's] new 600 GW clean energy ambition’ (PV Magazine India)

OIL & GAS: US oil companies lag far behind greener Europe rivals (Bloomberg $), [Chesapeake Energy] to pay $1.9M for damage to [Pennsylvania] wetlands, waterways (AP), has Exxon Mobil turned over a new, green leaf? (Reuters)

BAD DAY AT THE OFFICE: Stuck suez canal boat raised oil prices, because that's oil folks (Earther), 13 million barrels of oil could be affected by Suez Canal blockage (OilPrice)

UTILITIES: Major gas utility [Southern California Gas] goes net-zero: Game changer or green washing? (E&E $)

EVs: The electric bucket trucks are coming (The Verge), [Federal Highway Administration] exploring allowing EV charging stations along highways (Politico Pro $)

BUSINESS: Ralph Lauren to cut down on water waste with new dyeing process (Bloomberg $)

CARBON PRICING: Carbon tax could ease Biden's oil troubles — report (E&E $)

FINANCE: Central bankers note costs of climate action in cautious report (Reuters, Bloomberg $)

METHANE: Permian Basin methane emissions are back at pre-pandemic levels (Bloomberg $, E&E $)

INTERNATIONAL: Canada votes to collect data to document 'environmental racism' (Reuters), UK government to allow new North Sea oil and gas exploration (The Guardian), Scottish seabed windfarm auction set to bring in £860m (The Guardian), a hotter planet has Sweden predicting a new monetary policy era (Bloomberg $), Brazil's JBS pledges net zero greenhouse emissions by 2040 (Reuters), Brazil’s military fails in key mission: defending the Amazon (Reuters), how illicit oil is smuggled into North Korea with China’s help (New York Times $)

• There are costs for climate change whether leaders take action or not (The Hill, Alex Brill op-ed)
• Our survival depends on treating nature with more respect (CNN, Audrey Azoulay, Hoesung Lee, Ana María Hernández Salgar, Peter Thomson, Jane Goodall, Princess Sumaya of Jordan, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim and Nicolas Hulot op-ed)
• Texas lawmakers slow-walking desperately needed electric grid reforms (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• Alaska’s delegation should support Vanita Gupta (Indian Country Today, Heather Kendall Miller op-ed)
• Scientists need to face both facts and feelings when dealing with the climate crisis (The Guardian, Kimberly Nicholas op-ed)
• It’s not too late for Australia to forestall a dystopian future that alternates between Mad Max and Waterworld (The Guardian, Michael Mann op-ed)
• Addressing severe climate change impacts in Puerto Rico, other territories while we still can (The Hill, Rep. Raúl Grijalva op-ed)

Minnesota Denial Group’s New Blackout Fearmongering Ad Campaign Promoted With A Dash of Racism, For Good Measure  

This week, the Center for the American Experiment is launching a new ad campaign, complete with a 30-second TV spot and billboards, according to a post about “the harm done by environmentalists,” by CAE head and Power Line blogger John Hinderaker. (The same John Hinderaker who once said he is “keeping a sharp division” between his “hobby” as a Powerline blogger and job leading CAE, but he said that nearly a year after saying he would “use the Power Line to promote the center. And I am going to use the center’s content … as a source of supply for Power Line.”) 

The inherent unreliability of Hinderaker to stay true to the word of Hinderaker aside, what harm are environmentalists doing? Well, they're causing blackouts that kill people in Texas and California, and dangerous mining conditions around the world, apparently. 

The billboard tells people to “demand reliable energy” instead of the blackouts “like [in] California and Texas,” pointing to a “green energy fails” website with a stock “Dear Legislator” letter for people to copy and paste, followed by a lengthy compilation of propaganda blaming wind and solar for the Texas blackouts, to cover for the failure of methane gas to be as reliable as promised.  

It's not exactly surprising that CAE would be a local vector for organized denial’s energy propaganda in Minnesota — it’s a member of the Kochs’ State Policy Network, and has a pretty poor reputation in the state. For example, MinnPost columnist Louis Johnston read one of their recent reports trying to argue that regulations have hampered economic growth, and was not impressed. “Though it looks like a research paper,” Johnston wrote, “the report is actually an advocacy document more akin to a 40-page op-ed than an academic study.” 

What is slightly surprising was Hinderaker’s decision to add a dash of racism to the post, with a parenthetical aside to pose the question of “Which has killed more people, reliance on wind and solar energy or unjustified killings by police officers? (emphasis ours)" Locals who remember the organization’s opposition to settling Somali refugees may not be surprised to find out CAE is both “corrupt and racist."

The TV ad says if Minnesota doesn’t mine its metals, it’ll happen somewhere else, as video shows CBS coverage of toxic mining and child labor in Africa. Instead, Minnesotans should be doing that mining in their own state, where the adult miners would be protected by fancy clean suits, according to the (stock) footage shown next. 

The irony, or hypocrisy rather, is that CAE exists to oppose the very regulations that would make Minnesota mining cleaner. It’s because of environmentalists and labor laws that mining in Minnesota would be cleaner than somewhere else, yet CAE wants to blame them for preventing mining because of those very protections? 

Not that it much matters, as the odds are slim that very many Minnesotans are going to see the toxic mining conditions presented in the ad and think “oh, yeah, that’s what I want in my backyard!” 

That said, as one of CAE’s op-eds-disguised-as-a-report claimed last year, the PolyMet and Twin Metals mines hoping to extract “some of the largest undeveloped copper and nickel deposits in the world” are currently going through the permitting process. 

Which likely explains why CAE is running this ad campaign in the first place.

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