FIRST LOOK:

Join Gov. Jay Inslee and other members of the America Is All In Coalition for a virtual press briefing from coalition leaders to share insights from a series of conversations with lawmakers about investment in climate infrastructure. TOMORROW at 12:30 p.m. ET/9:30 a.m. PT

Climate-Fueled Heat, Police Tactics Endanger Unhoused People: The extreme heat broiling the American West poses heightened dangers for unhoused people. Monsoonal humidity in California makes it harder to cool down overnight, the LA Times reports. Even though 35% humidity levels in Southern California are far lower than elsewhere in the country, it diminishes the body's ability to cool down overnight. “Nighttime is the only break we get,” Anthony Wainscott, who lives on the streets of Palmdale, with his dog Roscoe, told the LA Times. “And even then it’s way too hot.” In Portland, Oregon, recent heatwaves made worse by climate change are exacerbating housing insecurity crises already worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. Years of police tactics targeting unhoused populations discourage people from seeking shelter indoors out of fear that police will confiscate their possessions and clear housing encampments as they have done in the past. (California: LA Times; Portland: Grist; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

'Sometimes The Good Guys Win' — Byhalia Connection Canceled: On the Friday before the extended July Fourth weekend, the developers seeking to build the Byhalia Connection oil pipeline through predominantly Black neighborhoods called it quits. The companies blamed the coronavirus pandemic in an SEC filing, but the pipeline, described as a "reckless, racist rip-off" by former Vice President Al Gore had been fiercely opposed by a broad coalition. "The stars aligned for this fight," Ward Archer, founder of Protect Our Aquifer, told the Commercial Appeal. "Sometimes the good guys win and this is one of those times." The pipeline's cancellation comes almost exactly a year after the cancellation of the Atlantic Coast gas pipeline, and just days before news broke that the EPA is recommending the Army Corps of Engineers not approve key water permits to the already behind-schedule and over-budget Mountain Valley gas pipeline. (Byhalia Connection: Memphis Commercial Appeal, Memphis Flyer, MLK50, WMC-5, Fox13, Seeking Alpha, Daily Memphian, Tri-State Defender, Earther; MVP: Politico Pro $, E&E $)

Heat And Fires Strain California Grid: Climate change, which makes heatwaves more intense and more frequent, is threatening the California electrical grid as extreme heat drives up energy demand while wildfires threatening transmission lines make supply unstable. More than 24 million people were under a heat alert Monday as California's grid operator urged customers to limit their electricity consumption. "[C]limate change and these extreme heat waves happening in the earlier parts of the summer now have forced all of us to do things that we really never imagined just a few years ago," ISO President and CEO Elliot Mainzer told reporters. In Oregon, the Bootleg Fire is threatening transmission lines moving power from California to the Pacific Northwest, cutting off 5,500 MW from the Golden State. Nearly 60 wildfires are burning from Alaska to Wyoming. In California, the Beckwourth Complex has now burned upwards of 90,000 acres and whipped up a firenado on Saturday — more than twice as many acres have burned across California in the first half of 2021 as burned there in the first half of last year. “Climate change is real, it’s bad and it’s really affecting our fire weather and our fire danger,” Craig Clements, a professor of meteorology and director of the Wildfire Interdisciplinary Research Center at San Jose State, told the LA Times. “Its fingerprints are all over this stuff.” (Grid pressure: E&E $, LA Times $, TIME, Washington Post $, Bloomberg $; Heatwave: CNN, New York Times $; Firenado: Earther; North American fires: AP, Axios; Record pace: LA Times $, CNN, Democracy Now; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves, Wildfires, 2020 Western wildfire season)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: Biden has a plan to remove some freeways. Will it make cities more healthy? (LA Times $), energy equity depends on data, and experts say there isn't enough of it (Utility Dive), wildfires are especially dangerous for people with disabilities (Yale Climate Connections), rising temperatures and death tolls: a heat emergency at the border (Atmos), 

SEE THE DENIER ROUDNUP FOR MORE: How marginalized communities in the South are paying the price for ‘green energy’ in Europe (CNN)

HEALTH: Climate change also has a mental health toll (ABC)

COP26: Pope to attend November U.N. climate conference in Glasgow, health permitting (Reuters)

DENIAL: Climate change can kill, but medical schools don't teach it (E&E $), China’s extreme weather warnings avoid talk of climate change (Bloomberg $)

FRACKING WITH PFAS: Documents show EPA staff concerns over PFAS in fracking (E&E $, The Hill, Axios), forever chemicals' from fracking are the nightmare nobody asked for (Gizmodo), EPA mulls regulating PFAS as drinking water toxin (E&E $), l'agenzia per la protezione ambientale aveva autorizzato il fracking con sostanze tossiche (la Repubblica)

AGENCIES: IG: FEMA never followed 20-year-old disaster law (E&E $), New [Forest Service] chief brings years of wildfire experience to job (E&E $)

EPA: EPA keeps Trump coal ash rules (E&E $), GAO: No data to show results of Trump EPA enforcement shift (E&E $), weigh environmental justice in haze cleanups: EPA official (E&E $)

DOI: US drilling approvals increase despite Biden climate pledge (AP, HuffPost)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Janet Yellen widens Treasury's climate push (Axios)

THE HILL: Schumer and Pelosi face leadership test as infrastructure push kicks into high gear (CNN), Granholm: budget plan to include clean electricity standard (E&E $)

HOUSE: House Democrats push major DOT spending hike (E&E $), appropriators propose increases for NOAA, climate research (E&E $), bill goes big on renewables, Army Corps projects (E&E $), committee proposes worker, miner safety spending increases (E&E $)

SENATE: Senate Democrats split on size, scope of key tax, spending bill (Bloomberg $), Committee sets vote on commission to study wildfires (E&E $)

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): Senate braces for 'hell of a fight' over Biden's infrastructure plan (Reuters), will Biden's climate goals fail without an energy standard? (E&E $)

POLITICS: Meet the conservatives who want to fight climate change — their way (Washington Post $)

PUBLIC LANDS: Could Sagebrush Rebellion cinders spark fire over 30x30? (E&E $), tourists are desperate to return to national forests … just in time for wildfire season (Grist)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: EPA, Commerce nominees set for committee votes (E&E $), Senate panels to question Biden's Army Corps pick (E&E $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: US-Russia say climate talks a springboard to ease tensions (AP), draft UN agreement on biodiversity targets conservation, pollution, finance (Reuters)

CITIES AND STATES: Schumer joins fight against Astoria power plant proposal (New York Focus and American Prospect), efforts to pursue climate goals in Massachusetts clash with incentives offered that promote fossil fuels (Boston Globe $)

FERC: As Chatterjee's tenure ends, FERC could be 'single most impactful agency' on climate: Rep. Casten (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: Climate drives rise in global damage from storms — study (E&E $), 'wither away and die:' U.S. Pacific Northwest heat wave bakes wheat, fruit crops (Reuters)

DROUGHT: Drought has taken the water from this farmer’s wells, but for her, life still gives (LA Times $), how the drought is affecting California’s crops (New York Times $), once a rich desert river, the Gila struggles to keep flowing (Yale Environment 360), Utah's Great Salt Lake dropped to a record low (Gizmodo), drought hits the southwest, and new Mexico’s canals run dry (New York Times $) Drought is stressing California’s power grid (The Verge)

WILDFIRES: Fast-moving wildfire burning toward critical route to Yosemite park (LA Times $), California’s air monitor finds toxic lead in wildfire smoke (Bloomberg $)

URBAN CENTERS: Top 25 cities account for total 52% of world's urban greenhouse gas emissions: study (Weather Channel, UPI, Reuters, The Hill) 

RENEWABLES: A microgrid powered only by solar and batteries points the way to bigger all-renewable grids (Canary Media), clean energy faces the same problem as fossil fuels: community protests (Wall Street Journal $), how big can renewable energy get in the next 10 years? (Wall Street Journal $), yet another clean energy SPAC: Solar financier Sunlight lists on the New York Stock Exchange (Canary Media) 

ELECTRIFICATION: Study urges fuel standard to lean into electrification (E&E $)

HFCs: Heat pumps are the most climate friendly way to heat homes, but still emit a climate super pollutant, despite the availability of a cleaner chemical (InsideClimate News)

LNG: Shell signs five-year contract to supply PetroChina with carbon neutral LNG (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: America's depressed oil production (Axios), Big Oil keeps brakes on spending even with crude rally windfall (Reuters), oil prices loom over Biden bid to throttle drilling rights sales (Bloomberg $)

PIPELINES: Dominion seeks new buyer for Questar Pipelines after Berkshire Hathaway sale falls through (S&P Global, Reuters, E&E $)

COAL: Study finds cutting coal-generated power will save lives in region (Pittsburgh Business Times $), faulty equipment, poor training are main factors in Illinois coal mining deaths (Energy News Network), Adani boosting coal assets despite vow to be carbon neutral (Bloomberg $), why the American jobs plan would benefit coal-heavy utility stocks (Forbes)

HYDROGEN: New York to test green hydrogen at Long Island power plant (Utility Dive), Shell to join clean hydrogen project in Norway (Reuters), hydrogen is one answer to climate change. Getting it is the hard part. (New York Times $)

TRYING TO FLY INTO SPACE MAKES SENSE NOW: Elon Musk defends SolarCity deal against shareholder lawsuit (The Guardian, Bloomberg $), Musk tells court he dislikes being Tesla CEO as SolarCity trial opens (Reuters)

AVIATION: GE sets 2050 goal of zero emissions from jet engines, gas power (Bloomberg $)

CARBON PRICING: How not to freak out about a carbon tax (Bloomberg $)

FINANCE: Lack of climate risk analysis in US federal retirement fund sparks concern (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Lagarde says most banks fall short on climate risk (Bloomberg $)

SHIPPING: The world’s largest carbon market is set for a historic revamp. Europe’s shipowners are concerned (CNBC)

WILDLIFE: Undersea volcanoes are home to more life than we know (Vox)

INTERNATIONAL: Australian environment groups urge UN to put Great Barrier Reef on ‘in danger’ list (The Guardian), EU aluminium groups seek exclusion from carbon border tax (FT $), Europe's climate masterplan aims to slash emissions within a decade (Reuters)

BOTTOMS UP: This vodka helps fight climate change (CNN)

• [Texas Gov.] Abbott's attack on wind and solar only makes the Texas power grid even weaker (Houston Chronicle, Editorial Board)
• A conversation with the NAACP’s Jacqueline Patterson (Yale Climate Connections, interview)
• Why are White evangelicals embracing an anti-democratic movement? Because they’re panicking. (Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin column $)
• The SEC must require companies to disclose their risk from climate change (Washington Post, Joe Kennedy III and Steven M. Rothstein op-ed $)
• Utility grants helping small business keep lights on (Everett Herald, Steven Li op-ed)
• Fix Texas electricity — and hurry! (Utility Dive, Alison Silverstein op-ed)
• This should be the only priority for Democrats (CNN, Dean Obeidallah op-ed)
• Human activity imperils one of the Earth's great survivalists: dragonflies (The Hill, Michael Moore op-ed)
• ‘Let’s go get us a clean electricity standard’ (A Matter Of Degrees podcast)
• As fears about climate grow, Siemens CEO sees opportunities (AP, Roland Busch interview)
• Joy in Black organizing and activist culture is not ‘unprofessional’ (Prism Reports, Tanya Wallace-Gobern essay)
• There’s no going home with climate change (Slate, Nitish Pahwa essay)
• Our climate change turning point is right here, right now (The Guardian, Rebecca Solnit column)

Europe’s Biomass Blunder Shows Why Trusting GOP’s Trillion Trees Climate Plan Would Be A Bad Idea

The American Conservation Coalition’s campaign to greenwash Republicans exists to generate ‘man bites dog’ type stories, like hits in the Washington Post and Fox News on Monday, about how maybe the GOP isn’t so bad on climate change, since they spout catchphrases like “innovation” and claim to support climate policies (that actually reward polluters), like the Trillion Trees proposal. 

While on the surface the GOP’s trillion trees sound like they might be a great win for the environment and climate, we already know what the reality of this sort of approach would mean: more pollution. We know this is the case because it’s already happening, thanks to a Sequoia-sized loophole in a European Union policy similarly aimed at reducing emissions. 

A recent CNN feature on Enviva’s North Carolina wood pellet production facility (and a major feature by Danielle Purifoy, writing for Scalawag Magazine, Southerly, and Environmental Health News, last fall) make it clear that subsidizing the timber industry is no climate solution. 

It started in 2009, when the EU’s Renewable Energy Directive “classified biomass as a renewable energy source — on par with wind and solar power.” Instead of burning coal, they could burn biomass, and supposedly reduce emissions by making use of waste wood that would otherwise go unused. Unfortunately, though, the policy doesn't require that it has to be waste wood, so now companies are felling forests and sowing plantations across the American Southeast to satisfy European energy demands. (Seriously, the paralells to the slave trade are stark.) As a result, those communities are facing dangerous levels of PM2.5 and other air pollutants, leading to a litany of health complaints. 

CNN spoke with people like Andrea Macklin about symptoms and impacts from the biomass industry, finding issues ranging from a loss of sleep due to the 24/7 noise from the plant, to a majority of residents experiencing high blood pressure, with Macklin’s heart condition forcing the 44-year-old out of work and his wife and son’s asthma being exacerbated by the pollution from Enviva’s plant. “Since the plant started operating,” CNN reported, “his wife and son can’t spend more than five minutes outside without coughing.” 

Adding insult to literal injury? It’s not even actually reducing the levels of greenhouse gasses in the atmosphere. The only place where levels are dropping are in the record-keeping of the European companies, because the biomass’s carbon emissions are recorded based on where the trees were cut, not where the biomass was actually burned. That classification was made to avoid double-counting when doing scientific calculations and was not intended to be the basis for public policy where all emissions end up in our one shared atmosphere no matter where they’re burned. The climate doesn’t care if the wood pellets processed in Northampton County, North Carolina are burned in Northampton, England. The carbon pollution is going back into the same atmosphere. 

While deniers sometimes rail against U.S. climate action by pointing out that it will just push industry out to countries with looser environmental standards, increasing the total amount of pollution on the planet, in this case, the U.S. is that polluter-permitting country whose own citizens are suffering for the illusory benefit of foreign carbon accounting balance sheets. 

As usual, the specific people left to suffer with the downsides of industry are those who already face a disproportionate burden. CNN analyzed records on pollution and demographics, because not only is Northampton, home to the Macklins and Enviva’s plant (along with three additional major air pollution sources), is predominately Black, but eight of Enviva’s nine plants are sited “in communities that have higher percentage of Black residents than their states as a whole.” All nine “are in census tracts that have lower median household incomes than their states.” 

Enviva says it takes environmental justice concerns “very seriously” and that they “work closely” with locals “to ensure our operations bring both positive economic and environmental impact,” before writing off the complaints as “generic” and coming from “the same activists we’ve heard from before.”

Which is not to say that trees aren’t part of the answer. But it’s not just trees, it’s forests. The entire forest ecosystem needs to be functional for carbon to be stored long term. As Dogwood Alliance co-founder Danna Smith explained to CNN,”the forestry industry and the wood pellet industry says that trees are renewable, but we aren’t renewing thousand-year-old ecosystems. They’re renewing forests for commercial production. So you’ll see trees on the landscape that are maybe, you know, 30 years old. That’s not an ecosystem — that’s a fiber farm.”

Still, some conservatives will insist subsidizing the timber industry and further polluting historically excluded communities is an acceptable price to pay to make it look like the GOP is acting on climate. They'll also claim those polluting industries will bring wealth and prosperity to those who live nearby. 

As Smith points out, however, “if the wood products industry and biomass were a way of growing strong rural economies in the southeastern region, these rural communities should be some of the wealthiest on the planet. We are in the world’s largest wood producing region. But you don’t see any evidence in these rural communities of thriving rural economies. The opposite is actually true.”

Subsidizing the timber industry in the name of climate action doesn’t help the climate and offers little-to-no real economic benefits to the local communities it floods with air pollution. Anyone buying into the GOP’s trillion trees greenwashing wood do well to reconsider.

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