FIRST LOOK:

TODAY at 12:55pm ET, environmental justice leader Mustafa Ali will discuss the Biden-Harris administration’s approach to climate justice with National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy during a day-long BIPOC Climate Justice Dialogue event. You can tune in here.

Spiking Atmospheric Methane Levels 'Very Scary Indeed': Atmospheric methane levels surged in 2020, a new report from NOAA shows, accelerating an increasing trend, alarming scientists, and possibly auguring a vicious cycle of global heating. NOAA also announced global atmospheric carbon dioxide levels are higher than at any point in the last 3.6 million years. “It is very scary indeed,” Euan Nisbet, professor of earth sciences at Royal Holloway University of London, told the Financial Times. About 60% of methane emissions are caused by human activity, and U.S. oil and gas operations are a major driver of recent methane pollution increases. "Although increased fossil emissions may not be fully responsible for the recent growth in methane levels," NOAA research chemist Ed Dlugokencky said in a statement, "reducing fossil methane emissions are an important step toward mitigating climate change." Methane is a far more potent heat-trapping gas than carbon dioxide, and scientists are worried global warming could be triggering accelerated methane releases from tropical wetlands and melting arctic permafrost. “Our path to net zero is obvious, challenging and necessary," Martin Siegert, a professor at the Imperial College London, told the Guardian, "and we must get on with the transition urgently." (FT $, USA Today, The Guardian, The Hill, CBS; Climate Nexus backgrounder)

ERCOT Blackout Report Fuzzy On Details: A report issued Tuesday by ERCOT, the Texas power grid operator, appears to give cover to gas companies and may invite more questions. "It's a key component of competitive markets that there be transparency," Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, told E&E News, but "ERCOT provides anything but transparency." More than half the system's capacity, about 51 gigawatts of power, was offline at the peak of the blackouts the morning of February 16. Internal emails obtained by Earther also show the Texas Railroad Commission, which oversees the state's oil and gas industry — and pushed a climate denier's talking points during the blackouts — lacked necessary supply information during the crisis due to its loose regulatory approach. The ERCOT report pinned blame for 54% of the generation losses on weather-related issues at power plants and another 12% on the failure of the gas system. Nearly 200 people died in Texas as a result of the storm and blackouts, the Houston Chronicle reported last week. (ERCOT report: E&E $, Axios, Houston Chronicle, Washington Examiner, Utility Dive; RCC failures: Earther; Death toll, Houston Chronicle; Climate Signals background: February 2021 polar vortex breakdown)

JPMorgan Sought Aid For Oil & Gas Industry, FOIA'd Emails Show: JPMorgan sought changes in government lending programs to aid the oil and gas sector last spring, Mother Jones reports. Emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act requests by Friends of the Earth show JPMorgan staff asked top Treasury Department officials to make changes to the implementation of the Fed’s Main Street Lending Program (MSLP) specifically to aid the oil and gas sector. Travis Machen, the head of Financial Institutions Corporate Client Banking at JPMorgan, wrote on behalf of banks with exposure to the flailing oil and gas industry and suggested “additional direct government support to the energy sector (similar to programs for the airline industry).” The email exchanges show "a surprisingly candid picture of the risk Big Oil poses to the stability of our financial system," Friends of the Earth program manager Lukas Ross told Mother Jones. Last fall, under pressure from shareholders, JPMorgan said it would take steps to push its clients to cut greenhouse gas pollution. (Mother Jones)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: In Jackson, Mississippi, you can go into debt trying to take a shower (Buzzfeed), a brief history of how racism shaped interstate highways (NPR)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: States press DOJ to chart new course in climate cases (E&E $)

SEEMS BAD: Mysterious plumes of methane gas appear over Bangladesh (Bloomberg $)

ACTIVISM: The emerging frontiers of climate activism (Axios), activist Diane Wilson begins hunger strike to stop dredging project, oil exportation (Victoria Advocate $), as the climate crisis grows, a movement gathers to make ‘ecocide’ an international crime against the environment (InsideClimate News and NBC), students target law firm over fossil fuel work (E&E $)

GENERATIONAL THEFT: Climate-blind borrowing risks 'credit crunch' for future generations (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

DEBT RELIEF: World Bank, IMF eye ways to link debt relief to climate change spending (Reuters), G20 to boost IMF war chest, extend debt-servicing freeze -draft (Reuters)

AGENCIES: BLM [employee] survey finds distrust of Trump-era senior leaders (E&E $), Nada Culver shakes up BLM, oil and climate policy (E&E $), Shell endorses Democrats' move to cancel Trump rollback of methane regulations (Washington Examiner), email shows Biden’s infrastructure focus on fix-it-first, consumer EV rebates — and a new ‘ARPA-I’ (Politico Pro $)

EPA: EPA reverses Trump stance in push to tackle environmental racism (The Guardian), Regan directs EPA to boost environmental justice in enforcement, rulemakings, grants (Politico Pro $, Reuters, E&E $), EPA chief highlights water improvement provisions in infrastructure bill (The Hill), greens petition EPA to regulate methane from dairy, hog operations (Politico Pro $)

THE HILL: Biden ally in US Senate [Chris Coons] says Republicans have until end of May for infrastructure deal (Reuters), House Democrats have little room for differences when it comes to passing Biden’s infrastructure proposal (Washington Post $), Sanders to call Senate Budget Committee hearing on climate change (Politico Pro $)

GOOD FAITH NEGOTIATION: McConnell suggests targeted infrastructure plan without changes to 2017 tax cuts (Reuters)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden to release first budget request Friday, OMB says (Politico Pro $, E&E $), Biden urged to revamp capitalism to tackle racial inequality and climate (Thomson Reuters Foundation), ‘Damn it … I’m sick and tired of ordinary people being fleeced’: Biden defends corporate tax hike (Politico)

AMERICAN JOBS PLAN: Biden infrastructure plan proposes 'Cash for Clunkers'-style rebate program. Would it work? (Washington Examiner), Biden looks to rally support for infrastructure plan (E&E $), Biden says he’s open to compromise with Republicans on $2 trillion infrastructure plan (Washington Post $), report: energy jobs pay far above the national average (Axios, E&E $), Biden tax plan replaces US fossil fuel subsidies with clean energy incentives (Reuters), Biden wants $10 billion for a climate army. It’s not enough. (Grist), does Biden’s American Jobs Plan go big enough on climate change? (Al Jazeera), infrastructure proposals aimed at facilitating the energy transition elicit wider partisan divide than others (Morning Consult)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: White House considering nearly doubling Obama’s climate pledge (Bloomberg $), U.S. infrastructure to headline global climate talks (E&E $), Biden looks to appoint special envoy to kill Russia-Germany energy pipeline (Politico), White House claims climate credibility before summit (Axios)

CALIFORNIA: California fracking bill gets an overhaul ahead of first hearing (Politico Pro $)

IMPACTS: Drought stokes fears of severe fire season in West (Axios), longer droughts and unstable rainfall plague the West (E&E $), your weather forecast update: warmer climate will be the new 'normal' (NPR)

WILDFIRES: The midwest’s active fire season is a warning (Earther)

DEFORESTATION: Amazon deforestation rose 17% in 'dire' 2020, data shows (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

RENEWABLES: During pandemic, the world added a record amount of new renewable energy capacity (The Hill), online map showcases construction-related careers in booming green sector (Utility Dive), wind and solar energy are job creators. Which states are taking advantage? (Yale Climate Connections)

BATTERIES: EV-battery rivals besiege Biden with rare trade veto in balance (Bloomberg $), Opposition wins elections in Greenland, casting doubt on future of rare-earth mine (NPR), the role of battery storage in the energy transition (Energy Monitor)

OIL & GAS: The next Aliso Canyon could happen on L.A.’s Westside (LA Times $)

PLASTICS: Climate-friendly plastics? These companies aim to try (E&E $)

PIPELINES: Can a pipeline company defy a governor’s orders? Gretchen Whitmer is about to find out. (Grist), Enbridge to Biden: lake Michigan pipeline tunnel fits US plans (Bloomberg $)

COAL: Coal power projects grow for first time since 2015 (E&E $), Colombia rejects Glencore unit's return of two coal mining concessions (Reuters), feds yank Oklahoma [coal] mining oversight after tribal lands ruling (E&E $), Wyoming bills to slow coal plant closures sent to governor as 4 other states pursue similar steps (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES: In Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, proposed utility sale rekindles energy debate (Energy News Network)

WATER: Vice President Kamala Harris warns of looming ‘wars fought over water’ (KPIX)

EVs: GM rolls out e-pickup truck, trumpets Biden plan (E&E $), states, utilities must ensure equitable investment in electric vehicle infrastructure, new report warns (Utility Dive)

FINANCE: Climate-risk disclosure requirements will spark huge investments: US official (Reuters)

INTERNATIONAL: India approves incentives for solar panel, white goods production - minister (Reuters), India reaffirms pledge to Paris accord in meeting with Kerry (AP, Reuters), Norway's sovereign wealth fund pushes into renewables with $1.6 billion Orsted deal (Reuters)

• Finally, green infrastructure spending in an amount that starts with a 'T' (The New Yorker, Bill McKibben column $)

• Climate change and HHS: How to build back healthier (The Hill, Howard Frumkin, MD, MPH, DrPH and Georges C. Benjamin, MD, op-ed)

• US building codes need a major retrofit to meet climate goals and spare consumers (SmartCities Dive, Sara Baldwin op-ed)
• Inslee to Biden: Brag more about climate action (E&E, Jay Inslee interview $)
• Biden can go bigger and not ‘pay for it’ the old way (New York Times, Stephanie Kelton op-ed $)
• Four ways of looking at the radicalism of joe Biden (New York Times, Ezra Klein column $)
• New EPA chief Michael Regan relishes ‘clean slate’ after chaos of Trump era (The Guardian, interview)
• Environmental Justice Makes Return to EPA (Arizona Capitol Times, Rev. Katie Sexton-Wood)
• Republicans are trying to distract us from their goal of disenfranchisement (Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin column $)
• Six ways to stay balanced during the climate crisis (Washington Post, Ariella Cook-Shonkoff and Neelu Tummala perspective $)

You Can Nudge Deniers On Personal Projects, But Industry Will Just Make More of Them

A new blog post at Columbia University’s State of the Planet by student journalist Allison Day caught our eye yesterday, because its headline made quite a bold promise: how to nudge climate deniers into doing the right thing. 

Headline use of the now-mostly-debunked-for-big-decisions concept of a public policy “nudge” aside, the post references a 2020 study titled “understanding and countering the motivated roots of climate change denial,” but uses that as the basis for an interview with the study’s lead, Stanford professor Dr. Gabrielle Wong-Parodi, who explained her research. 

And to be totally clear since we’re usually talking about terrible content in this space, we're really not criticizing Day here, who does a great job contextualizing the insights from Dr. Wong-Parodi. (Well-intentioned undergrads writing for their school newspapers are not the problem, well-paid industry-backed professional deniers are.)

The study itself (open manuscript here) is a literature review of the psychology behind climate denial, with a focus on the motivated denial of those who have “access to the facts, but [are] nevertheless denying them” for political, financial, or ideological reasons. But it’s also a review of how to try and work around that reasoning, for example by talking about climate action in terms of keeping things safe (from a changing climate) for those who reactively defend the status quo. 

Changing social norms can shift behavior, studies have shown, while encouraging “self-affirmation” by having people remind themselves that they’re “capable, consistent, and adhering to strong moral and ethical principles and values.” This seems to make people less defensive and sometimes “results in greater openness to threatening information, such as smokers becoming more receptive to anti-smoking information.” 

Building off that, Wong-Parodi told Day how things like saying “environmental change” instead of “climate change” can be helpful in preventing knee-jerk political reactions when working with farmers (in California) who may otherwise be skeptical of a proposed plan to address precipitation changes. But because they’ve felt the changes in rain and water availability as viscerally as anyone, they know something needs to be done, and so a frame of adaptation (protecting their land from changes) helps them embrace what might otherwise be seen as a politically unacceptable policy. 

The research is showing extreme weather events provide “windows of opportunity to talk about climate change,” Wong-Parodi said, again illustrating that when people have to deal first-hand with climate change, it makes it harder to deny. 

But, unfortunately, it doesn’t make it impossible. And that’s perhaps why Wong-Parodi used the term “windows of opportunity,” because the industry is always ready to tell people, especially those in power, that 'fossil fuels are good' and 'climate communism is bad,' and 'make sure that window gets slammed shut quick.'

And because the industry has had a nearly century-long head start in shaping public opinion, cultivating denial and exploiting and expanding on the psychological factors that may make people predisposed to embracing the rejection of reality, no amount of careful language tweaks will produce a big enough nudge to move society meaningfully towards a clean energy transition. 

Sure, maybe a long, in-depth and personal conversation with relevant experts will get people whose lives and livelihoods are already directly and obviously impacted by climate change to consider acting on climate change and not shooting themselves in the foot because Fox News told them to, but wouldn’t it be nice if no one were telling them not to shoot themselves in the foot in the first place?

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