FIRST LOOK:

The World Resources Institute will hold a press call to preview the UN Decade on Ecosystem Restoration that begins June 5. Wednesday, May 26, at 9:00 a.m. EDT.

Climate Change Makes Zombie Fires More Common, Fueling Climate Change: As if drought, flooding, extreme hurricanes, and deadly heat waves weren't enough, climate change could make zombie forest fires more common, scientists say. Research published Wednesday in Nature found zombie fires — wildfires in Arctic and sub-Arctic regions, so-called because they continue to smolder under winter snows and reignite once the snow melts — are becoming more common as global temperatures rise due to humans' extraction and combustion of fossil fuels. Making matters worse, the Arctic is heating faster than the rest of the planet. The fires and warming fuel a vicious cycle: Higher temperatures enable longer fire seasons and more zombie fires, which lead to the release of more methane and CO2 from carbon-rich peatlands — just 10% of CO2 from Alaskan fires comes from burning trees — which further accelerates global warming. “Ten years ago, someone asked me, 'How often do these happen?' And I said, 'Ehhh, they’re interesting but they don’t happen very often,'” Randi Jandt, a fire ecologist with the University of Alaska, Fairbanks, told National Geographic. But, she added, “We definitely seem to be seeing them more, in my 30 years of observation and asking people up there about [overwintering fires] before that.” (New York Times $, National Geographic, CNN, Axios, The Guardian, Reuters, BBC, Vice, ABC, Wired, Popular Mechanics, E&E $)

Lake Charles Flooding 'Just Insult To Injury': More than 15 inches of rain have fallen in places across Texas and Louisiana already this week with more expected as the battered region contends with flash floods, severe thunderstorms, and even tornados. At least four people have died so far this week in Louisiana, and states of emergency have been declared across the region. Extreme precipitation is a clear signal of human-caused climate change — global warming increases ocean evaporation and the amount of moisture the atmosphere can hold, effectively creating and filling a bigger bucket that can dump more water when it rains. In Lake Charles, Louisiana, still recovering from Hurricanes Laura and Delta, close to 15 inches of rain fell over just a six-hour period, forcing residents to be rescued from their homes by boat or big trucks. The storm and flooding are, “Just insult to injury,” Phillip Tarver, who represents Lake Charles in the State Legislature and is a car dealer in the city, told the New York Times. “It’s been a tough nine months. It really has.” (New York Times $, AP, Washington Post $, The Advocate, KATC, WAFB, KPLC; Lake Charles rain: KATC; Climate Signals: Extreme precipitation increase, Flooding, 2020 Atlantic hurricane season) 

Kuperberg Reinstated To Head Up NCA: The Biden administration reinstated climate scientist Michael Kuperberg to his old job coordinating the National Climate Assessment. The move, Wednesday, came after he was exiled to the Energy Department by the previous administration just days after the 2020 election. Kuperberg ran the U.S. Global Change Research Program, which coordinates the production of the nation's premier report on climate science and the impacts of climate change across 13 federal agencies, for six years under Democratic and Republican administrations. “I’m really excited to be back,” Kuperberg told the Washington Post. “We’re coordinating science and we’re trying to get to the nation the very best possible science,” he said. “This is not politics." (Washington Post $, New York Times $, E&E $, Axios, Politico Pro $, NBC, The Hill)

COP26: Queue-jumping? Global vaccine shortage imperils Glasgow climate talks (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

FIRST, WORST, AND FUTURE: Arctic youth want a seat at the climate table (E&E $)

DELUSION, DENIAL, AND CHARADES: Laura Ingraham: Left used COVID lockdowns to groom public for climate change lockdowns (HuffPost), anonymous donors keep the climate denial machine chugging (Earther), right seizes Trump playbook to blame migrants for environmental harm (The Guardian), how natural gas propaganda made it into elementary classrooms in deep blue America (Grist), see the grim climate graphs censored by Trump (Mashable), the biggest climate trial of the year was a Chevron-fueled ‘charade’ (Earther)

WHIR! WHIR!: 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning electric pickup could change how America travels and works (Detroit Free Press, Washington Post $, Politico), Ford F-150 Lightning revealed: an electric truck for the masses (The Verge, New York Times $, Axios), why Ford unveiling an electric F-150 is a big deal (NPR, The Atlantic, The Guardian), Ford says electric F-150 will start under $40,000. It can also power your home (NPR), Ford's F-150 Lightning starts under $40K, has up to 300 miles of range (Detroit News, Wall Street Journal $, Car and Driver, CNBC, Fox News, Ars Technica, CNN, Tech Crunch), how much Ford’s F-150 Lightning electric truck costs vs. regular F-150, Chevy, Ram (Motor Trend)

RANSOM PAYMENTS: Colonial Pipeline CEO tells why he paid hackers a $4.4 million ransom (Wall Street Journal $, The Verge, Axios, Politico Pro $), Colonial touts cyber 'best practices.' It was still hacked (E&E $), denial of electricity service could become next geopolitical weapon (Wall Street Journal $)

NO SHOWS: Porter blasts oil CEOs: 'Declined to answer to the American people' (The Hill), fossil fuel execs skip hearing, and proceedings turn sour (E&E $), Ro Khanna mulls subpoena of fossil fuel executives (E&E $)

CYCLONE TAUKTAE: India’s navy searches for dozens missing after cyclone kills 26 (Wall Street Journal $)

ART: Along the Columbia River, making a monument of the land (New York Times $)

AGENCIES: Granholm expresses openness to pipeline cyber standards after Colonial attack (The Hill), pipeline agency [PHMSA] adds NEPA, methane staff as it shifts focus (E&E $), New York City official blasts FEMA over flood insurance revamp (Politico Pro $), NASA officials call for 'renewed focus' on climate (E&E $)

THE HILL: House, Senate Republicans push infrastructure counteroffers (E&E $)

HOUSE: House Republican transportation bill proposes major boost to highway spending (Washington Post $, Wall Street Journal $, Politico Pro $, E&E $), committee OKs pipeline cyber bill but questions remain (E&E $), bipartisan bill would put DOE in charge of pipeline security (Politico Pro $), lawmakers move TSA cyber bill amid pipeline oversight questions (E&E $)

SENATE: Senate Democrats unveil resolution calling for carbon-free electric sector by 2035 (The Hill, E&E $), coastal lawmakers in both parties condemn flood rate hikes (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden negotiates infrastructure behind the wheel of an EV (E&E $), Gina McCarthy talks CCS, nuclear, environmental justice (E&E $), [Gina McCarthy]: Americans will 'keep demanding' upgraded infrastructure after Biden (The Hill), renewable energy with White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy (Washington Post, interview $)

POLITICS: An ‘army of 16-year-olds’ takes on the Democrats (New York Times $), conservative group launches bid to sell GOP on carbon tax (E&E $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Biden faces big decision on Fed leadership (The Hill)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: US envoy Kerry urges to climate laggards to commit to 1.5C goal (Reuters)

CALIFORNIA: California’s next climate challenge: replacing its last nuclear power plant (LA Times $), California’s race to secure its grid against summer blackouts (Canary Media)

FERC: FERC rejects MISO's bid to extend storage order compliance deadline, dismissing reliability concerns (Utility Dive), Glick eyes transmission reform amid renewables bottleneck (E&E $)

IMPACTS: Study: war, climate displaced tens of millions in 2020 (AP), climate change boosted Hurricane Sandy’s damage by $8 billion, study finds (Washington Post $, E&E $), climate crisis to put millions of British homes at risk of subsiding (The Guardian), golf thrives on the ocean’s edge. What happens when the oceans rise? (Washington Post $), intruder pests may drain trillions from Africa’s economies, study finds (New York Times $), Guatemala's coffee exports to fall up to 3% this season (Reuters)

CLICK FOR THE PICS: The case of the disappearing cicadas (New York Times $)

DROUGHT: As the West faces a drought emergency, some ranchers are restoring grasslands to build water reserves (Civil Eats), emergency water urged for rural Latino communities before California drought worsens (San Francisco Chronicle), severe drought, worsened by climate change, ravages the American West (New York Times $)

WILDFIRES: It’s California wildfire season. But firefighters say federal hotshot crews are understaffed (LA Times $), the meaning and history of a controlled burn (New York Times $)

HURRICANES: Atlantic hurricane season starts June 1 – here’s what forecasters are watching right now (The Conversation), Hawaii area can expect 2 to 5 storms during hurricane season (AP)

RENEWABLES: Renewable energy jobs are booming in Texas (Houston Chronicle), Sudanese turn to solar energy amid electricity shortages (Reuters)

EFFICIENCY: Biden decarbonization focus shifts to buildings, with goal to triple efficiency, see up to $200B in savings (Utility Dive)

METHANE: Large methane cloud detected over prolific Canadian gas basin (Bloomberg $)

COAL: Once key to the economy, Bosnia's coal mines face closure (Reuters), will the dying coal industry leave its mess for others to clean up? (Canary Media)

ELECTRICITY PROVIDERS: Solar prices and customer prodding push rural electric co-ops past coal (Energy News Network)

STOP US IF YOU'VE HEARD THIS BEFORE: Plant Vogtle delayed until 2022 (E&E $)

ACTIVISM: Sunrise activists are marching 400 miles to demand a Green New Deal jobs program (Truthout)

AVIATION: Race for world's first commercially viable electric plane: The battle for "Tesla of the skies" (CBS), Air-France-KLM launches first long-haul flight with eco-fuel (AP), hydrogen cars failed to deliver. Investors hope planes are different. (Wall Street Journal $), the oil that cooked your fries is now refueling your aircraft (Bloomberg $)

AGRICULTURE: From beef to chocolate, illegal deforestation found behind many everyday foods (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

BUSINESS: Google, Microsoft, other companies pursue new certification to back 24/7 clean energy claims (Utility Dive), Google taps Fervo Energy's geothermal for corporate clean energy (Canary Media), inside Google's "moonshot goal" to rely on carbon-free energy by 2030 (Axios)

CARBON PRICING: UK polluters face higher costs as breakaway carbon market goes live (Wall Street Journal $)

FINANCE: BlackRock's climate views put it center stage in Exxon boardroom fight (Reuters), investors need to get the measure of carbon (Wall Street Journal $)

CLIMATE FOOTPRINT: The rise of the climatarian (New York Times $)

WILDLIFE: Amid climate pressures, a call for a plan to move endangered species (Yale Environment 360)

INTERNATIONAL: Asia snubs IEA's call to stop new fossil fuel investments (Reuters), Brazilian minister in charge of protecting Amazon is investigated for illegal lumber exports (Wall Street Journal $, Reuters), citizen lawsuit seeks court’s help in battle for clean air in Jakarta (New York Times $), EU lawmakers call for 'climate justice', shy away from links to migration (Reuters), why is Australia building a $600m gas power plant as world experts warn against fossil fuels? (The Guardian)

• The future of water is recycled sewage, and we'll all be drinking it (Bloomberg, Amanda LIttle op-ed $)
• Tin squeeze highlights critical minerals supply problems (Reuters, Andy Home column)
• The particular psychology of destroying a planet (The New Yorker, Bill McKibben column $)
• What Liz Cheney got wrong — about climate change (The Hill, Deborah Loomis op-ed)
• Shell’s net zero plan will be judged on science, not spin (Climate Home, Johan Rockström and Gail Whiteman op-ed)
• The electric grid of the future requires major upgrades — we must start today (The Hill, Shay Bahramirad and Jeff Schlegelmilch op-ed)
• How an all-electric building energy code can support California’s economy and fight climate change (San Diego Union-Tribune, Vincent Mudd op-ed)
• Where should batteries be put to manage wind and solar power? (Utility Dive, Will Gorman op-ed)
• Protecting the climate is loving our neighbor (Religion News Service, Diane Randall op-ed)

Denier in Disguise: Michael Shellenberger’s Very Serious Interview with E&E News

As we mentioned recently in regard to a certain “Obama scientist,” deniers who pretend they’re Serious-Thinking Democrats, yet built up a public persona using conservative media as a venue for criticizing environmentalists, are increasingly common now that outright denial is gauche. 

An established member of that “sure I think climate change is real, but…” club is one Michael Shellenberger, who’s the subject of a quietly stinging profile by Scott Waldman at E&E. Waldman introduces Shellenberger as Republicans’ “new ally to help deliver their global warming message,” describing him as the “pro-nuclear, pro-fracking former Democractic gubernatorial candidate from California.” But even that is somewhat generous, as he was hardly a serious candidate, and didn’t even come close to making it out of the primary. He ran a vanity campaign that consisted primarily of Tucker Carlson appearances and netted him 0.5% of the vote, putting him in 9th place.

After that though, Waldman’s generosity runs out. He points out that if the “redeemed activist” role Shellenberger plays “seems straight out of Fox News, it’s because it is. The network has repeatedly booked Shellenberger to air his views.” Ouch! Not a whole lot of actual Democrats are invited back on to Fox, at least not as anything more than a punching bag, which Shellenberg is definitely not. But Waldman isn’t exactly being mean either, or in any way misrepresenting Shellenberger’s persona. 

For example, in an interview with E&E, Shellenberger apparently thought the best retort to how some portray him based on his most incendiary commentary, “which can at times be seen scrolling across a Fox News chyron,” Waldman notes, is to use some lovely homophobia-adjacent language. 

“You may want to go and find something” Shellenberger told Waldman, “that I know a lot of progressives are butt-hurt about, a lot of climate alarmists are butt-hurt about. That would be cherry-picking one particular thing in my nearly 20 years of writing on this topic and trying to suggest that it stands for the whole.” 

… okay but if you use the phrase “butt-hurt” in an on-the-record interview in the same way countless rightwing trolls have used it in comment sections, you might deserve to be judged for it. 

Shellenberger certainly talks like a right-wing hack. And aside from this story, his media hits are all Fox News and the like, while Waldman notes that Shellenberger has been invited by Republicans to testify in congress six times since January 2020. Yet he remains committed to the ruse, as Waldman indicates in a parenthetical that “Shellenberger claimed he was invited by both parties because the official invitation he received was signed by the Democratic committee chair as well as the ranking Republican.” What’s more, he was invited to the Republican retreat in Florida last month where he gave them talking points about how renewables would drive up prices and cause more blackouts. (But he’s definitely totally different from other deniers, really!)

Probably the biggest indication that Shellenberger just plain sucks is that Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Cancun) likes him, tweeting praise for his book, just like denier groups have done, Waldman reports. CO2 Coalition and CFACT, two denial organizations that exist solely to turn industry money into Republican talking points, love Shellenberger, as do Breitbart News and the Daily Caller, which Waldman writes “regularly touts Shellenberger’s public claims with headlines such as ‘Here’s How Renewable Energy Actually Hurts the Environment.’” 

So this guy’s supposedly a Democrat, totally isn’t a denier, but went on the Heartland Institute’s podcast to say “Thank you, guys [he’s right to use the gendered language, not too many women in denierland] for sounding the alarm on these issues longer than I have, and I’m sorry it took me so long to basically get into a position where I could tell the truth.” 

But apparently he only goes on fossil-fueled media because “progressive media figures won’t engage with his ideas for fear of upsetting their audience,” Waldman writes. 

Shellenberger said the real question is “Why won’t Rachel Maddow have me on her show; why won’t Anderson Cooper have me on his show; why won’t Stephen Colbert have me on their show?” 

Well, Michael, maybe because Stephen Colbert is a comedian with a comedy show, and he can see what an incredibly unfunny joke of an attention-seeking grifter you are.

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