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Climate Change Forcing Central Americans To Flee Home: Climate change is a major factor forcing Central Americans, left with no other option, to flee their homes, as the dual threats of drought and extreme weather have destroyed crops and productive farmland, Bloomberg reports. Central America is responsible for less than 1% of global carbon pollution yet is one of the most vulnerable regions on the planet to the ravages of climate change. Nearly one-third of residents of Guatemala, Honduras, and El Salvador, the so-called Northern Triangle, suffer from crisis-level food insecurity. "They're not leaving because they want to," Vice President Kamala Harris said in Guatemala on Monday. No legal framework for climate-driven migrants (they are not technically "refugees" under international law) exists but the Biden administration is exploring the issue with a report due in August. Northern Triangle farmers have endured five drought years in the last 10, and Hurricanes Eta and Iota devastated the region, submerging Honduras's agriculturally productive Sula Valley and turned Guatemalan farming communities into cemeteries. Climate change is also exacerbating coffee leaf rust, killing off one of the region's top exports. The International Organization for Migration has found a relationship between hurricanes in Central America and increased migration to the U.S. from the region and a paper published in April found a link between the severe drought in El Salvador in 2014-'15 and migration to the U.S. “These consecutive years of extreme drought are really driving poverty and food insecurity in the region and pushing families to abandon agriculture and to migrate to survive,” Marie-Soleil Turmel, a scientist with Catholic Relief Services, which works with farmers in the area, told Bloomberg. “Whole communities are being wiped out.” (Bloomberg $; Climate migration legal issues: The Conversation)

White House-GOP Infrastructure Negotiations Break Down: As President Biden ended infrastructure negotiations with Sen. Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va) after the GOP refused to compromise, his top domestic climate advisor said some of the current climate and clean energy provisions would likely not be included in future legislation. While National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy insisted to Politico that the administration was still "going for it" on climate investments in the infrastructure plan, she acknowledged, "every piece like a clean electricity standard may not end [up] in the final version." Because Sens. Joe Manchin (D-W. Va) and Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) oppose eliminating or reforming the filibuster, a clean electricity standard, among other policies, would need to pass the 50-50 Senate with at least 60 votes. While talks on a bipartisan legislative package will continue with a group of 5 Republican and 5 Democratic Senators, any climate- or clean energy-focused provisions will likely need to be passed through the more restrictive budget reconciliation process. Negotiations: Politico, Washington Post $, AP, New York Times $, The Hill, NBC, NPR, CNN, Wall Street Journal $, USA Today, E&E $, CNBC; McCarthy: Politico)

Ride Hailing And EVs Mirror LA Inequalities: Systemically-perpetuated cycles of income inequality, EV charging access, and the disproportionate pollution burden borne by low-income neighborhoods could all be reinforced as ride-hailing companies work to comply with California EV mandates, a new RMI report warns. Transportation network companies like Lyft and Uber must increase their "electric vehicle miles traveled" to 90% by 2030 under a recently-enacted California standard, but the benefits of reduced tailpipe pollution likely will not be felt by those who most need it. That’s because Los Angeles EV charging stations are concentrated in wealthy neighborhoods, where single-family homeowners can install chargers that renters and multi-family units often can’t. This means that low-income communities (where most drivers actually live) are serviced by polluting internal combustion engine-powered vehicles, while wealthy neighborhoods enjoy the reduced local pollution benefits of  EVs. It also means that without new policy to build out charging infrastructure in low-income neighborhoods, these companies will likely reduce, if not eliminate, services to those neighborhoods to meet the new standard for EV use. (Bloomberg $, E&E $, Canary Media)

LINE 3: Protesters maintain blockade at Minnesota oil pipeline site (AP), Jane Fonda calls on Biden to end Trump-approved pipeline projects (CNN, The Hill), what pipeline protests reveal about Biden's oil plan (E&E $), why a rural pipeline is a climate battleground (AP, explainer)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Activists launch first climate lawsuit against Italian government (E&E $)

PARIS SHORTFALLS: The huge gap between today's policies and Paris goals (Axios)

COLONIAL PIPELINE: Hackers only needed a single password to disrupt Colonial Pipeline, CEO testifies (Insurance Journal, Reuters, Washington Post $), Colonial Pipeline CEO grilled over ransomware attack (The Hill), Colonial paid ransom to avoid disastrous consequences of prolonged shutdown, CEO says (Politico Pro $), Colonial CEO apologizes for pipeline attack's impact (The Hill, E&E $)

BUILDINGS: 'Cool’ roofs, cooler designs as the building industry embraces energy sustainability (Washington Post $)

AGENCIES: The Department of Energy is trying to make clean hydrogen this generation’s ‘moonshot’ (Grist, Reuters), Interior Department gauging interest in Gulf of Mexico wind power (AP, E&E $, Politico Pro $), federal pipeline agency: Methane rules are coming (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: 'Duty to warn': Military leaders outline global climate risk (E&E $)

THE HILL: Capitol riot tests far-flung alliances on renewables bill (E&E $), Haaland replacement's environmental experience runs deep (E&E $), House panel to take up Democrats’ $547 billion transportation bill with focus on environment (Washington Post $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden: $45B to go to replacing lead pipes (MSNBC)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Republicans grill Biden public lands agency pick [Tracy Stone-Manning] over finances, advocacy (The Hill, AP, E&E $, Politico Pro $), 5 takeaways from the BLM nominee confirmation hearing (E&E $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Climate talks face rich-poor coronavirus vaccine divide (Politico Pro $), Ban Ki-moon wants to solve the climate crisis with kindness (Grist), Biden aims to bolster U.S. alliances in Europe, but challenges loom (New York Times $)

CITIES & STATES & UNREPRESENTED NON-STATES: New York project to combine solar power with high-speed broadband (Axios), four Democratic incumbents, one Republican ousted in Virginia House primaries (Washington Post $, E&E $), Colorado legislators direct all transmission utilities to join an organized wholesale market by 2030 (Utility Dive), Connecticut legislators approve 1 GW energy storage target for the end of 2030 (Utility Dive), DC approves disputed Pepco rate increase in new approach to utility regulation (Utility Dive)

TEXAS: Why the Texas grid failed, according to science (Earther), Texas governor says power grid fixed; experts cite problems (AP)

FERC: 2 FERC commissioners warn Alabama solar fees may violate PURPA (E&E $)

IMPACTS: ‘It was sad having to leave’: Climate crisis splits Alaskan town in half (The Guardian), ‘glacier blood’ is our latest nightmare (Earther), climate change might be threatening the future of apples (Bloomberg $), it’s not just your imagination — ticks are out of control this year (Grist), this is how climate change may alter 10 of the world's natural wonders (ABC), what the Ottoman Empire can teach us about the consequences of climate change – and how drought can uproot peoples and fuel warfare (The Conversation)

DROUGHT: Scenes from the western drought (New York Times $), California, ‘America’s garden,’ is drying out (Yale Climate Connections), how capturing floodwaters can reduce flooding and combat drought (InsideClimate News)

WILDFIRES: Rural Arizona residents wait as wildfire spreads uncontained (AP)

HURRICANES: Watching potential for tropical development in the western Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico (Washington Post $)

POST-DISASTER RESCUE: Scream-detecting drones could save you (Earther)

REAL ESTATE: Our love of living near water persists despite the dangers (New York Times $)

CARS: Study warns of danger by wind-carried car emissions (E&E $)

SUPPLY CHAINS: White House vows new moves to shore up battery supply chain (Axios, E&E $, Politico Pro $), US to work with allies to secure electric vehicle metals (Reuters), global supply chain squeeze, soaring costs threaten solar energy boom (Reuters)

RENEWABLES: Renewable energy boom unleashes a war over talent for green jobs (Bloomberg $), wind vs. solar: what wins the job race? (E&E $), US company bets on solar manufacturing upturn with new plant (Bloomberg $), Biden clean energy plan faces permitting 'choke point' (E&E $), one oil company’s rocky path to renewable energy (Wall Street Journal $)

BATTERIES: Energy Department announces new steps on US battery production (The Hill)

OIL & GAS: The retreat of Exxon and the oil majors won’t stop fossil fuel (Bloomberg $), 3 more federal lawsuits filed over Seacor Power disaster (E&E $)

COAL (COUNTRY): Former Murray Energy mine to close in Pennsylvania (E&E $), in the shadow of a reclaimed mine, this Kentucky center is retraining coal workers for high-tech manufacturing (Energy News Network), the true price of coal (The Real News)

NUKES: Advanced nuclear tech in 'early innings' but essential to widespread decarbonization, utility execs say (Utility Dive), nuclear fusion has attracted more than $2 billion in VC and private funding (Canary Media)

HYDROGEN: Los Angeles plans to jump-start a green hydrogen market in the US (Canary Media)

UTILITIES: Southwest utilities bet on solar, storage for resilience against wildfires (Energy News Network), West Coast is facing power shortage this summer, but Northwest is poised to weather the storm (Spokane Spokesman-Review)

PFAS: NMED investigates size of PFAS plumes (New Mexico Political Report), it’s literally raining PFAS around the Great Lakes, say researchers (Michigan Live)

EVs: Carmakers try to spark US love affair with electric pick-up trucks (FT $)

MINERALS: Copper boom: how clean energy is driving a commodities supercycle (FT $)

GEOENGINEERING: Geoengineering: A worst-case Plan B? Or a fuse not to be lit? (Yale Climate Connections)

FINANCE: 'No place to hide': central banks ramp up scrutiny of climate risk (Politico), [Bank of England] unveils sweeping new climate test of banks and insurers (Bloomberg $, The Guardian, FT $), planet needs a world bank for natural assets, Dasgupta says (Bloomberg $)

INTERNATIONAL: Climate targets are easy but ‘concrete measures’ are needed in Germany, expert says (CNBC), German solar company pursues assets of tiny kingdom of Lesotho (FT $)

• It’s time to nationalize Shell. Private oil companies are no longer fit for purpose (The Guardian, Johanna Bozuwa and Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò op-ed)
• Where to frack next: La La Land (Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)
• Carbon offsets can help in the transition to net zero (FT, Anne Finucane op-ed $)
• Don't wait: start planning for worsening hurricane seasons (The Hill, Andrew Pershing op-ed)
• From Jerusalem to Glasgow, peacebuilding must address climate stressors (Climate Home, Janani Vivekananda op-ed)

Michael Shellenberger’s New Schtick Is A 'Peace Campaign’ To Bring His Brand Of Centrist Denial to Mental Health, Addiction and Housing Issue

It’s pretty obvious that deniers have no qualms about jumping from one subject to the next, with a pattern of behavior that remains remarkably stable despite the dramatically different academic fields they seek to colonize. 

Yesterday we touched on three examples of this, but today and tomorrow we’re going deep on one particularly illustrative case, as Michael Shellenberger has announced he’s expanding the focus of his very-much-not-progressive Environmental Progress group from pro-nuclear anti-renewable advocacy to include work on housing and drug addiction. 

Now, instead of just pretending to be a reformed environmentalist used as a tool by Republicans who published a climate denial book and promoted it to climate deniers, who also rails against the Pope, defends greed, and lies about renewables, he’s now playing addiction expert and housing and urban development planner calling for California to “Fund the Police.”

What qualifies Shellenberger as an expert on the complicated problems of drug addiction and the housing crisis? Well he has to see some drug dealers and unhoused people in California, and it really bothers him. There are also some parents of kids who have died from drug overdoses who he exploits to build his branding in this new field. 

In a post on his substack Monday, Shellenberger claims “drug abuse, not climate change, is America’s biggest problem.” He compares the 308 people who died of natural disasters in 2020 to the nearly 90,000 who died from drug overdoses or poisonings in 2020, downplaying climate change and of course, by criticizing progressives, positioning himself as the Smart Man In The Middle who is the only one that Sees The Problem Clearly.  

Point one is that fossil fuel pollution kills millions of people a year (and point one-point-five is that nobody is denying that drug overdoses are a serious problem). But beyond that, it’s interesting to see him take exactly the same approach he’s had on the environment, and apply it to drugs and housing. (Issues in which we’re not experts, but you don’t have to be to spot B.S.!) 

On climate, Shellenberger’s approach has been to emphasize nuclear power and downplay renewables as a way to shore up conservative support by criticizing the left. By arguing for solutions that don’t actually change the status quo, instead allowing major polluters to keep polluting while blaming the left for anything and everything, he can claim to be the Sensible Voice that isn’t embracing the right’s fossil fuel fealty, or the left’s radicalism. 

Similarly, his supposed “answer” to the problems of people without housing and addicted to drugs, largely because they lack access to mental health care, is one that deftly avoids laying any blame on powerful actors like drug companies who make and sell dangerous opioids, or the political party that’s fought making health care more accessible and gutted mental health funding for decades.

To understand Shellenberger’s triangulation, you have to understand his messaging strategy: The left is always wrong, and the right is right but too blunt about it, so you soften that just a tad with a few euphemisms to make regressive policies sound moderate. 

You can’t wholly adopt the left’s language though, so for example he repeatedly uses the dehumanizing language of calling people “homeless” as though it’s a permanent state and not something that acknowledges that they’re still people and not living stepping stones on Shellenberger’s path to political relevance, or on his way to the grocery store. 

Shellenberger’s substack post announces both that he’s got a book deal from Harper Collins to write about this, and that his organization, Environmental Progress, is launching a “California Peace Campaign.”

This is getting long though, so tune in tomorrow for an analysis of the plan. But if you can’t wait, here’s a hint: his plan seems a lot like the failed War on Drugs. The main difference? “Peace” is in the name!

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