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Goodbye and Good Riddance: Canadian pipeline company TC Energy announced it was terminating the Keystone XL pipeline on Wednesday, marking a major win for Indigenous and environmental groups who have been fighting the project for more than a decade. The long-embattled pipeline has largely been considered dead since President Biden revoked a key permit on his first day in office. Even before that, the project faced legal issues after a court ruled in 2018 that the Trump administration did not perform an adequate environmental review of the project when it issued a permit. The news was met with disappointment from the American Petroleum Institute, the Chamber of Commerce, and some Republicans in Congress. Climate activists, on the other hand, were pleased by the move and believe it will add momentum in the fight against other fossil fuel projects. The decision comes just days after thousands gathered in Northern Minnesota to protest the Line 3 pipeline, another tar sands pipeline that would bring oil from Canada. “The termination of this zombie pipeline sets precedent for President Biden and polluters to stop Line 3, Dakota Access, and all fossil fuel projects,” said Kendall Mackey, a campaign manager with 350.org. (Washington Post $, New York Times $, AP, CNN, Buzzfeed, BBC, Reuters, NPR, USA Today, Bloomberg, The Verge, The Hill, Wall Street Journal $, Washington Examiner) 

Rep. Gohmert’s Literal Climate Moonshot: Representative Louie Gohmert from Texas made headlines Wednesday after comments he made about climate change and the orbit of the Earth and moon went viral. In a virtual House Natural Resources Committee hearing, Gohmert asked Jennifer Eberlien, the associate deputy chief for the U.S. Forest Service, whether the Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management can “change the course of the moon's orbit or the Earth's orbit around the sun” because “obviously, that would have profound effects on our climate." This was not the first time Gohmert made comments like this. Last month, in an interview with Fox Business Network, he said, “We can't do anything substantive about the climate change right now, when the moon's orbit is apparently changing some, the Earth's orbit is changing some, according to NASA.” It’s unclear if the comments, which were widely mocked on social media, were made in earnest, or if they were Gohmert’s way of insinuating that addressing climate change is impossible. He may also have been referring to a debunked myth that solar flares are to blame for climate change, as he stated “there’s been significant solar flare activity” before posing the question. Gohmert is a long-time climate change denier, having repeated other classic climate denier talking points over the years. “The ‘science-y sounding’ reasons most politicians use to reject climate change are not primarily due to lack of education or knowledge. No: they are deliberately manufactured and offered as palatable excuses to hide the real problem: solution aversion. They don't want to fix it,” climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe explained on Twitter. (NBC News, Washington Post $, USA Today, CNN, Guardian, The Hill, Yahoo, Rolling Stone, Salon, VICE, Mother Jones, Business Insider)  

Dear G7 Leaders: Ahead of the Group of Seven summit which begins tomorrow, 457 investors managing $41 trillion in assets have signed an open letter calling on world leaders to enact more ambitious climate policy. The letter mentions six specific actions for governments, including committing to achieving net-zero emissions by 2050, strengthening their Nationally Determined Contributions, and implementing mandatory climate risk disclosure. Notably, the world’s top two asset managers, BlackRock and Vanguard, did not sign the letter. However, State Street Global Advisors, the third largest, did sign. "Those who set ambitious targets in line with achieving net-zero emissions, and implement consistent national climate policies in the short-to-medium term, will become increasingly attractive investment destinations. Countries that fail to do so will find themselves at a competitive disadvantage," the letter reads. This letter comes a day after more than 350 organizations signed a different letter calling on G7 leaders to stop financing fossil fuels and support a just recovery from COVID-19, with a particular focus on helping the Global South. (Business Green, Guardian, CNN, Reuters $) 

LINE 3: The Line 3 pipeline protests are about much more than climate change (Grist), thousands came to Minnesota to protest new construction on the line 3 pipeline. Hundreds left in handcuffs but more vowed to fight on. (InsideClimate News), Jane Fonda criticizes Biden's climate policies, says he's failed to enact 'bold' strategies (Yahoo), Line 3: protests over pipeline through tribal lands spark clashes and mass arrests (The Guardian)

INFRASTRUCTURE: Collapse of infrastructure talks puts U.S. climate action at risk (New York Times $), Democrats blast Biden climate adviser over infrastructure remarks (The Hill), climate advocates are set up for an anxious summer (Axios), Biden pitched a bold climate vision. He may be watching it die in Congress. (Politico)

CLEAN WATER ACT: Biden pushes protection for more streams and wetlands, targeting a major Trump rollback (Washington Post $), EPA to expand clean water protections to smaller U.S. waterways, reversing Trump policy (CNBC)

G7: U.K. calls for climate ‘Marshall Plan,’ but will the G7 deliver? (Forbes), in Europe, Biden vows to build alliances and democracy (New York Times $), EU and U.S. eye more collaboration on climate change, summit draft says (Reuters)

WEED: Illegal cannabis farms are making the climate crisis worse (Vice), why is growing pot so energy-intensive? (Slate), how cannabis could save the planet in fight against climate change (Metro)

MIGRANTS: Kamala Harris told migrants ‘do not come’ but didn’t address the biggest cause of displacement (Grist)

POLLING: Compared with seven Western peers, U.S. adults least alarmed about climate change (Morning Consult)

AGENCIES: Lawyer who sued Treasury Department for Exxon nominated to be agency’s general counsel (Gizmodo)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Biden opens overseas trip declaring ‘United States is back’ (AP)

HOUSE: House panel takes up Democrats’ $547 billion roads, transit bill with focus on environment (Washington Post $)

POLITICS: Dem Rep. DeFazio: GOP refusal to address climate change is a "major stumbling block" (Axios)

CITIES AND STATES: A U.S. solar company will build a new factory in Ohio, giving Biden a boost (New York Times $), Alaska Native corporation to protect its land, dealing blow to massive gold mine project (Washington Post $), climate crisis divides Alaskan town into two parts (The Hill), Michigan’s climate-ready future: wetland parks, less cement, roomy shores (Michigan Radio), Cleveland - what climate equity could look like (NPR), Maine Legislature votes to divest public funds invested in fossil fuels (Boston Globe $)

DROUGHT: The drought in the Western U.S. is getting bad. Climate change is making it worse (NPR), PG&E says it’s better prepared to keep lights on despite drought (Bloomberg $), ‘every bushel matters’ as drought keeps crop markets on edge (Bloomberg $), drought and fire danger rapidly increasing across Minnesota (MPR), intensifying California drought promises ‘very concerning’ fire season (Washington Post $), 

DROUGHT + WATER: Nearly 2 million Northern Californians are under a water shortage emergency as state grapples with severe drought (CNN), extreme drought prompts call for reduced water use (E&E $) 

TELEGRAPH FIRE: Arizona town prepares for wildfire (USA Today), Telegraph Fire west of Globe hits 34% containment as flames consume 84,860 acres (Arizona Republic), Arizona governor issues declarations of emergency in response to destructive wildfires (CBS)

WILDFIRES: PG&E says CA wildfire season now far ahead of schedule (Sacramento Bee), wildfires smolder across dry, drought-stricken Southwest (AP), 700-acre fire off Jacks Valley Road reaches 75% containment, evacuations remain (Reno Gazette-Journal), Eastside Winery ditches 2020 vintage due to wildfire smoke impacts (Eater)

WILDFIRES + HOUSING: Why California is building new houses in the path of wildfires (Grist), California’s rising house prices increase the risk of more wildfires — and there could be devastating consequences (MarketWatch), as wildfire threat rises, at-risk communities eye new defenses (Wall Street Journal $)

SEA LEVEL RISE: Boston under water (WBUR)

IMPACTS: Will climate change cause another dust bowl? (Greenbiz)

RENEWABLES: Texas renewables defy GOP backlash with $20 billion in projects (Bloomberg $)

BATTERIES: Solarwatt and BMW cooperate on home batteries (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: Natural gas in transition: Grid-balancing tactics in flux as battery costs fall (S&P Global), Natural gas in transition: Path for US LNG narrows as markets wary on emissions (S&P Global), Natural gas in transition: Emissions-conscious markets weigh on US LNG's future (S&P Global)

BITCOIN: NY bill aims to freeze bitcoin mining pending climate review (Yahoo)

HYDROGEN: California PUC considers sending utilities back to drawing board on hydrogen blending proposal (Utility Dive)

WATER: Climate change, corporate development threaten groundwater wells in Texas and across US (Texas Public Radio)

SHELL: Shell vows faster climate push after Dutch court ruling (Axios), Shell to speed up emissions cuts after landmark Dutch court ruling (The Independent)

CARS: G.M. agrees to tighter federal restrictions aimed at combating climate change (New York Times $)

HOT BOOK SUMMER: 12 books to get your summer reading started (Yale Climate Connections)

FINANCE: Exxon’s board defeat signals the rise of social-good activists (New York Times $), Exxon's board shakeup could force review of billions of dollars in spending (Reuters), Energy transition may be subprime moment for European banks (Bloomberg $) 

ESG: The world’s biggest investors get louder about ESG (Bloomberg $)

FOOD: Greenhouse gas emissions from food production are far greater than previous estimates suggest (InsideClimate News)

LIGHTBULBS: Halogen lightbulb sales to be banned in UK under climate change plans (BBC)

NATIONAL SECURITY: Biden warns climate change is 'greatest threat' to US security: 'This is not a joke' (Fox News)

NET ZERO: Report details fossil fuel industry’s deceptive net zero strategy (Truthout), pathways to net-zero emissions; climate change in our National Parks (WHYY)

PLANTS: Eco-friendly houseplants: Here's how to ensure your indoor plants are good for the planet (Mic)

WORKPLACE: Is talking about climate change taboo at your workplace? (Fortune)

SOLUTIONS: ‘Glimmers of hope' in the effort to stop climate change (PBS NewsHour), this geoengineering trick could maybe save the great barrier reef (Mother Jones)

WILD THEORIES: GOP Guv Stokes wacky far-right fantasy of Biden land grab (Daily Beast)

WILDLIFE: California is loading young salmon into tankers, driving them to the sea due to severe drought (CBS), saved from shuckers, oysters fight rising seas in NYC (E&E $)

INTERNATIONAL: China tempers climate change efforts after economic officials limit scope (Wall Street Journal $), What to do about Jair Bolsonaro, the world’s most dangeroUS climate denier (Rolling Stone), Australia is in no rush to join global stampede to green bonds (Bloomberg $), how island's historic drought could threaten the global economy (CNN), Polish government faces court action over failure to tackle climate crisis (The Guardian)

• A Biden climate test on the banks of the Mississippi (The New Yorker, Bill McKibben column $)
• Finance risks falling behind in a greening world (Bloomberg, Alok Sharma op-ed $)
• Democrats control New York but can’t even pass climate legislation (New Republic, Kate Aronoff analysis)
• Misguided bill kills jobs and sets America back (The Hill, Joshua Baca op-ed)
• The Democrats successfully crafted a bipartisan bill. It’s a failure in every way. (New Republic, Kate Aronoff Analysis)
• As hurricane season begins, new homes are being built at a record rate — but not strongly enough (The Hill, Roy Wright op-ed)
• Climate change is rapidly transforming the Arctic: Why everybody should care (The Hill, John P. Holdren op-ed)
• Unlocking green energy in Africa can impact climate change globally (The Hill, Philippe Benoit op-ed)
• An energy policy group has a new stance on climate change, and it's sobering. Time to get serious. (Des Moines Register, Thom Krystofiak column)
• Coal and LNG’s surge in Asia plays into renewable energy hands (Reuters, Clyde Russell column)

Shellenberger’s ‘California Peace Plan’ Is To Give Cops More Money To Be Meaner to Drug Addicts and People Without Housing

Yesterday we discussed PR professional, nuclear advocate and anti-renewable Republican tool Michael Shellenberger’s newest workstream: the housing, mental health and addiction issues that are totally harshing his California mellow. 

As a professional radical centrist, he is doing the same thing for these issues that he did for environmental ones- claim to be liberal, so criticisms of the left/renewables sound different than  when they come from Republican hardliners, despite being basically the same thing.

Just as he opposes basically everything scientists and activists suggest for the climate crises, Shellenberger’s answer to these intertwined crises only reinforces the structures causing the problem in the first place, while blaming the status quo’s ample failures on the very policies that are beginning to correct those failures, and the vulnerable people they’re trying to protect. 

The headline for this new project that his Environmental Progress organization is presumably getting funding from someone to talk about is the “California Peace Campaign.” To confront the problem of people with mental illness having nowhere to go but the street, he doesn’t suggest something like universal (or even expanded) health care to make sure they get the help they need. And despite the name Environmental Progress co-opting the term, they’re opposed to actually progressive policies like one in San Francisco that directly provides housing for people. 

Instead, the “California Peace Agenda” calls for heavier policing to crack down on “open drug scenes” so that it’s not so easy to buy hard drugs like fentanyl from dealers on the street. (Ignoring that prescription painkillers, made by giant pharmaceutical companies, are the real gateway drugs.)

Another plank of his “peace” agenda is the creation of a state-wide Cal-Psych agency “to remove addicts and the mentally ill from the street through voluntary drug treatment and psychiatric care, as well as by working with the courts to oversee involuntary care…” So voluntary care, unless they don’t volunteer, in which case it’s involuntary. How peaceful! And yet somehow he insists this is an improvement on the incarceration-heavy, punitive approach conservatives have always favored.

Other steps are, true to form, just railing against existing (actually progressive) policies, like  suspending enforcement of minor crimes (because of racist policing) and providing housing units to people otherwise forced to live on the street. Apparently giving homes to people without them is bad, because then they don’t suffer badly enough to want to kick their addiction, meaning a cornerstone of this “peace” plan is intentionally making life worse for those who are already vulnerable and suffering. 

The sixth and final policy is to “Fund the Police”. Why? Because the rhetoric to the contrary is “demoralizing to police officers.” So we’d better give them more money “to ensure that the police prevent homicide and crime” because apparently police will just let murderers go if we don’t. And while Shellenberger’s agenda nods to the “need to do more to reduce police violence and discrimination against communities of color”, it then says “there is nothing deterministically wrong with our institutions that can’t be fixed with reform.” 

Yes. Of course! Half of people killed by cops have some sort of a disability, people with mental illnesses are 16 times more likely to be killed by police, and about one out of every thousand Black American men can expect to be killed by police. Apparently those problems aren’t so bad and can be fixed simply by giving police even more money! Oh, and, police sure aren’t keeping people in custody from overdosing either… 

We should pay cops more to be more aggressive in locking up these crazy homeless addicts is the short version of Shellenberger’s “Peace” initiative. 

When asked on Twitter about medical management of addictions, it turns out Shellenberger is “very practical when it comes to these things. Different things work for different people. I believe people can use methadone, Suboxone, marijuana, nicotine, Adderall, caffeine as substitutes for heroin, fentanyl, meth, etc. Key is behavior change.”  

Of course! We don’t need any systemic changes to make drug companies stop exploiting people’s addiction to opioids for profit, to reform real estate under the guiding value that housing is a human right, or guarantee (mental) health care for everyone regardless of their ability to earn money while sick. They just need to change their behavior and switch to totally safe alternatives, like smoking and prescription drugs. That’ll fix the underlying psychological, economic and social problems that created the conditions for their addiction, right? (The possible funders of this Peace Campaign are as numerous as they are obvious.) 

It’s wisdom like this that really justifies why HarperCollins decided Shellenberger’s advice is worth publishing via another book, which he mentions in a substack post. One can only assume it will be as warmly welcomed by the real experts as his climate book… 

Seriously though, they likely know that there’s always a market for something excusing the structural perpetrators of heinous public profiteering, and blaming the victims instead. If there weren't, Shellenberger wouldn't have a career. 

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