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Fires Burn Through Minnesota Like A 'Freight Train': The Greenwood Fire barreled through northern Minnesota forests like a "freight train" Monday, doubling in size and burning so fiercely it created its own weather. “Once it starts rolling,” incident commander Brian Pisareck told reporters Monday night, “it starts to build up steam and feed off itself.” The intense heat from the fire, which had burned nearly 20,000 acres as of Tuesday evening, created pyrocumulus clouds (a.k.a. "fire clouds") towering an estimated 10,000 to 12,000 feet into the atmosphere. Severe and exceptional drought conditions across Minnesota, the Northern Plains, and Western U.S., made worse by climate change, have set the stage for the massive conflagration, one of 13 within Superior National Forest, including four new fires on Monday alone. Those fires, and specifically the John Elk and Whelp Fires have forced the closure and evacuation of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. (Greenwood Fire: New York Times $, Star Tribune, Duluth News Tribune, MPR, KSTP5, KBJR6, KMSP9, KARE11; Drought: New York Times $; BWCAW: Duluth News Tribune, Star Tribune, E&E $, Duluth News Tribune, AP, MPR; Climate Signals background: Drought, Wildfires)

Week Of Contrasting Extremes Illustrates American Climate Change: The Mr. Hyde and other Mr. Hyde of extreme weather across the U.S. in the last week is largely consistent with how climate change is making extreme weather more extreme, scientists say. Across the Northern Plains and West, Extreme and Exceptional drought conditions are forcing North Dakota ranchers to sell off their cattle before they starve and creating the tinder-like conditions fueling multiple 100,000-acre megafires across California. “We’re at the epicenter of a changing climate,” North Dakota State University professor and state climatologist Adnan Akyuz told the New York Times. Meanwhile, extreme rainfall and subsequent flooding in the Eastern U.S., also a hallmark of climate change, killed at least 27 people in Tennessee and North Carolina in the last week while Henri dealt an estimated $4 billion worth of damage to the Northeast. “This is very abnormal,” Jim Rouiller, lead meteorologist at the Energy Weather Group, told Bloomberg. “There is also a stronger signal for global warming in the picture. I do believe now more than I have that it is occurring. I just don’t know the magnitude but the change is happening and it is going to keep on increasing.” (Bloomberg $, New York Times $; North Dakota drought: New York Times $; Henri damage: Bloomberg $; Climate Signals background: Drought, Extreme precipitation increase)

Renewables Post Strong Growth in Q2, But Policy Still Needed To Reach 2035 Goals: New renewable energy installations are on record pace this year, new industry data shows. The Q2 report from the American Clean Power Association shows more than 2 gigawatts of solar energy were installed in April through June, along with nearly 3 gigawatts of wind capacity. Battery storage installed this year almost matches the storage installed throughout all of 2020. Texas, by far the leading state in terms of installed clean power capacity, installed almost 1.5GW of clean power in QW2 alone, nearly triple runner-up California. Despite the industry's robust growth, both it and the White House agree new policy is needed to ensure the President's goal of achieving 100% carbon-free power by 2035 is met. (Axios, S&P Global, PV Magazine, Politico Pro $)

APPARENTLY THE PANDEMIC IS OVER: Global electric power demand returns to pre-pandemic levels (Washington Post $), after historic fall, carbon emissions are now coming back fast (Bloomberg $)

MOVEMENT CULTURE: Sierra Club and Sunrise Movement react to criticism for toxic workplace cultures (Grist)

TICK, TOCK: Line 3 is about to come online. What will Biden do? (E&E News)

MEDIA: Cartoonists’ ‘Code Red’ caricatures of new IPCC Report (Yale Climate Connections)

EPA: EPA rebuffed warnings its auto emissions plan was too weak (Bloomberg $), the EPA may finally reckon with aviation’s dirty secret: leaded fuel (Grist)

THE HILL: Congress nears historic coal mine cleanup investment (E&E News)

HOUSE: House passes $3.5 trillion budget plan for vast expansion of safety net (New York Times $, Politico Pro $, Washington Post $, Reuters, Politico Pro $), Cheney aims to neutralize 30x30 conservation campaign (E&E $), Sierra Club pressures Democratic House moderates to end budget standoff (Politico Pro $), [Rep. Kinzinger] urges Biden use emergency powers to save Illinois nuclear plants (Reuters)

SENATE: Democrats push for oil drilling reforms in reconciliation (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Top energy, finance, tech execs to attend White House cybersecurity meeting (Politico Pro $)

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): Infrastructure bill winners: Highways conceived decades ago (E&E News)

POLITICS: Climate activists fear this is the last chance to pass meaningful legislation (Washington Post $), scientists say the world urgently needs to cut methane emissions. The politics aren't as simple. (Politico)

CITIES AND STATES: Maui to go 100% renewable in 2 years (E&E $)

NEW YORK: Generators, labor groups urge New York to develop incentives for nonrenewable generation (Utility Dive), climate activists say Cuomo was a reluctant ally on New York’s targets for reducing carbon emissions (InsideClimate News)

CALIFORNIA: California directs Tulare County city to extend water service to neighbors in need (Fresno Bee), California to boost solar and wind capacity to meet renewable goals (Reuters), the dark side of California's emergency grid rescue plan: More dirty emissions from backup generators (Canary Media)

IMPACTS: Floods to heatwaves: can we tell if extreme weather is linked to climate change? (Thomson Reuters Foundation), North America’s very wet weekend bears the fingerprints of climate change (Grist), scientists warn of increased frequency of extreme weather events (FT $), this hauntingly beautiful image shows Greenland’s massive melt (Earther), Tennessee woman killed by rushing floodwaters posted a video moments before she was swept away: ‘This is scary’ (Washington Post $)

HEAT: Afghan refugees are trapped on a US base in Qatar without air conditioning amid 107-degree heat (Earther), Washington [DC] has surpassed its annual average of 90-degree days, with more hot ones ahead (Washington Post $)

DROUGHT: Afghanistan at risk of hunger amid drought and Taliban takeover (Climate Home), historic drought slashes hydropower generation in California, other Western states (Utility Dive), monsoon rains help reservoir levels, but won’t end drought in New Mexico (New Mexico Political Report), record Northwest drought leaves reservoirs 'basically empty' (E&E $), scientists launch effort to collect water data in US West (AP)

WILDFIRES: Smoke from California wildfires closes Reno schools again (AP)

• CALDOR FIRE: Pristine Lake Tahoe shrouded in smoke from threatening fire (AP), devastating wildfire travels through Northern California (ABC)

HURRICANES: Three tropical disturbances in the Atlantic to watch (Yale Climate Connections, Washington Post $)

RENEWABLES: Japan targets floating wind farms for its deep coastal waters (CNBC)

BUILDINGS: We already have the low-cost tools we need to cut the carbon hidden in buildings (Canary Media)

NUKES: ‘A combination of failures:’ why 3.6m pounds of nuclear waste is buried on a popular California beach (The Guardian)

OIL & GAS: Recommendations target US oil, gas leasing across the West (AP), data reveals where Big Oil is building renewables businesses (Energy Monitor), Chevron expanding push into dairy-to-gas fuel to cut emissions (Bloomberg $), energy production contributes to tens of thousands of premature US deaths each year (Yale Climate Connections), Iraq approves BP plan to spin off giant Rumaila oilfield (Reuters), Russia is pumping a lot less natural gas to Europe all of a sudden — and it is not clear why (CNBC), state oil companies take their first ungainly steps toward climate neutrality (Bloomberg $), oil spill from power station spreads along Syria’s coast (AP)

PIPELINES: Ukraine foreign minister vows to ‘never shut up on Nord Stream 2’ (Politico Pro $)

HYDROGEN: Sea change: a passenger ferry powered by hydrogen (Axios)

UTILITIES: Minn. court affirms regulators' approval of $700 million natgas power plant (Reuters)

GRID: Fight over ‘peaker’ plants poses grid climate test (E&E News), report calls for national framework to boost transmission (E&E $)

SHIPPING: Maersk takes biggest step yet to decarbonise container shipping (FT $), Maersk spends $1.4 billion on ships that can run on ‘carbon neutral’ methanol (CNBC, Bloomberg $)

USE A LOT, CUT A LOT: [World Resources Institute] lays out options for large energy users to decarbonize beyond renewables procurement (Utility Dive)

ACTIVISM: Extinction Rebellion blocks junction in London’s West End in latest protest (The Guardian, Democracy Now)

AVIATION: ‘Decarbonising aviation’: the Electric EEL could be the future of flying (The Guardian), FAA grants could clean up airport emissions (The Verge, Axios)

CARBON PRICING: ‘Seriously flawed’: Experts clash over social cost of carbon (E&E News)

CARBON REMOVAL: South Africa aims to bring pilot carbon capture project online in 2023 (Reuters)

FINANCE: Credit Suisse names top stocks for carbon reduction after ‘code red’ U.N. climate report (CNBC), S&P warns BHP oil and gas exit threatens its credit rating (FT $)

INTERNATIONAL: China warns Tibet climate risks could soar despite short-term gains (Reuters), from 1m trees to a tree graveyard: how Dubai’s conservation plans went awry (The Guardian), Mexico City taps solar energy to clean up historic Aztec-era canals (Reuters), Spain counts cost of agribusiness in rising desertification (FT $), Spain plans government aid for regions affected by wildfires (Bloomberg $)

• A century ago: Backlash and bloodshed in West Virginia (Williston Herald, David Shribman op-ed)
• Will it take another uprising to pass George Floyd Justice in Policing Act? (Black Wall Street Times, Deon Osborne op-ed)
• Making FERC hot can keep the climate cool (Utility Dive, Devin Hartman op-ed)
• Get ready for the nuclear fusion revolution (Bloomberg, Editorial Board $)
• Maersk points the way to a lower-carbon future (FT, Editorial Board $)
• ‘Time to fold’: The rebels threatening Biden’s agenda are increasingly isolated (Washington Post, Greg Sargent column $)
• UN Glasgow summit may be our last chance to prevent self-created climate disaster (The Hill, Joel Mintz op-ed)
• The climate crisis is worse for women. Here's why. (New York Times, Katharine Wilkinson interview $)
• Here in British Columbia, we have spent the summer running from cruel wildfires (The Guardian, Mary Stockdale op-ed)
• Democrats shouldn't squander the opportunity to pass transformative legislation (The Hill, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver op-ed)
• Climate action will stall until the finance problem is solved (FT, Sam Arie op-ed $)

Chevron’s Carbon Intensity Climate Excuse Debunked By Chevron’s Own Emissions Data

In 2021, the fact that fossil fuel companies are devoting serious resources to greenwashing should be a given. Much like how it’s not a question of whether or not climate change caused a particular extreme weather event but instead a question of how warming influenced the event, it’s not a question of whether or not Big Oil is lying, it’s just a matter of figuring out how they’re deceiving the public. 

One would expect that anything a company like Chevron, with decades of greenwashing history, voluntarily discloses to the public would make them look good, while perhaps glossing over anything that would make them look bad. The chart generator feature on the sustainability section of their website does exactly that. It also shows just how dishonest the company’s climate commitments are. 

As Josh Eisenfeld explained for Earthworks on Tuesday, Chevron’s using the tool to make it look like they’re reducing their emissions while they’re actually polluting more.  

The key is that Chevron, like other oil and gas companies and coalitions, would like you to focus on “emissions intensity.” That’s the metric that describes how much pollution they emit per unit of oil or gas. It’s not how much their product pollutes, it’s how much they pollute while producing the oil and gas. So if they get more efficient at pumping fossil fuels, their emissions intensity can go down, while the overall amount of greenhouse gasses they emit will go up. 

And that’s exactly what happened. Which shouldn’t be a surprise, but it is surprising that Chevron made it so easy to see with the graph generator. As Eisenfeld shows, “According to their own data, from 2016 to 2020 Chevron reduced its methane intensity by 56%, flaring intensity by 55%, oil Intensity by 32%, and gas intensity by 18%.” 

Yay! Doesn’t that sound incredible!? Whyever would anyone suggest that such companies might need to be regulated when they’re already cutting whatever “flaring intensity” is in half! 

“At the same time,” however, Eisenfeld continues, “Chevron increased overall emissions (its carbon footprint) by nearly 40 million metric tons or 6%. Between 2016 and 2019 they increased by nearly 80 million metric tons before production slowed down due to the pandemic.” 

And there you go. Chevron is going to tell you it’s doing its part to reduce emission intensity, while actually increasing how much it pollutes, and just hope that you don’t look into it. 

"In March we filed a complaint with the FTC against Chevron for misleading advertising,” Eisenfeld told us. “Now, thanks to Chevron, we know the advertising wasn't just misleading, it was false."

Great job, Chevron! 

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