FIRST LOOK

CO2 Pipeline Explosion Turned Mississippi Town Into 'A Zombie Movie': In February of last year, a CO2 pipeline exploded, engulfing Satartia, Mississippi in a noxious green fog that left residents confused, convulsing, foaming at the mouth and even unconscious — an episode that augurs danger for what could be a coming wave of new CO2 pipelines across the country, a 19-month investigation by HuffPost and the Climate Investigations Center reveals. The reporting comes as the oil and gas industry is seeking to reinvent themselves, or at least their public image, through massive carbon capture and storage (CCS) investments that would include a whole new network of pipelines. If and when these pipes leak, they will send clouds of CO2 (and in this specific case, poisonous hydrogen sulfide, which gave the cloud its green hue, rotten egg smell and particularly noxious respiratory impacts) into the surrounding environment, where it will displace the lighter air at ground level and threaten to cause “air hunger” and asphyxiate every oxygen-breathing organism incapable of escaping the area — made harder by the fact that gas- and diesel-powered cars also need oxygen to work. “It was almost like something you’d see in a zombie movie, they were just walking in circles" Sheriff’s Officer Terry Gann told Huffpost, while survivor Hugh Martin said the “only thing I been through worse than this was the gas chamber when I was in the Army training for Desert Storm, and that was cyanide gas.” Bad as that may sound though, the situation could have been significantly worse, as they actually “got lucky,” as Yazoo County Emergency Management Agency director Jack Willingham explained. “If the wind blew the other way, if it’d been later when people were sleeping, we would have had deaths.” The Verge called its competitor's reporting a "scathing investigation of the company, Denbury, that operates the pipeline," and its headline exhorted readers to "Go read the harrowing story of the world’s first CO2 pipeline explosion." (HuffPost, The Verge, Industry plans: FT $)

Ida Likely To Hit Gulf Coast As Major Hurricane: Forecasters expect Tropical Storm Ida to develop into a major hurricane in the coming days. As of Friday morning, the Hurricane Watch stretched from the Mississippi-Alabama state line to Cameron, Louisiana — just south of Lake Charles in a region still recovering from the three hurricanes that hit the area last year. Exceptionally warm sea surface temperatures will enable the storm to intensify rapidly all the way up to when it makes landfall on the Gulf Coast late Sunday or early Monday with heavy rain and significant storm surge. And forebodingly, ocean temperatures are highest in exactly the area hit hardest by last year’s Hurricanes Laura, Delta, and Zeta. The storm also threatens to hit New Orleans on the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's landfall. (Washington Post $, CNN, AP, NPR, ABC, New York Times $, Weather Channel, USA Today; New Orleans: AP; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes, 2021 Atlantic Hurricane Season, Sea surface temperature increase)

Climate Impacts Driving Homeowner Interest In Solar Panels With Battery Backup: Homeowners are increasingly interested in installing solar energy systems paired, especially those with battery storage, to make their homes more resilient to extreme weather, CNBC reports. In California, as heatwaves, drought, and wildfires have strained the state's electrical grid, interest in residential solar panel systems (measured by requests for an installation quote) was up 358% from June 30 through August 6 compared to that time period last year. It's not just California either, similar spikes occurred in Oregon (919% increase) and Texas (850% increase) following the respective heatwave and blackouts there. “These folks that experience environmental difficulty gain a whole different perspective on what solar and batteries are,” SolarReviews founder and President Andy Sendy told CNBC. The spike in homeowners' interest in solar with battery backup, however, also highlights the inequitable ability of those wealthy enough to own a home and pay for the up front costs of installing those systems (which will save them money over time) to insulate themselves from the impacts of climate change. (CNBC)

ANALYSIS: 6 bailed-out polluters already spent $15m this year lobbying for subsidies and against climate action (BailoutWatch)

FOSSIL FUEL FINANCE: Singapore exchange plans mandatory climate-related disclosures (Bloomberg $), insurers can afford to drop oil and gas—but many won’t (Bloomberg $)

LOL SAME: Investors ‘running out of patience’ with US oil and gas companies (Yale Climate Connections)

OPINION: Climate action will stall until the finance problem is solved (FT, Sam Arie op-ed $), don’t throw out the baby with the greenwashing (Bloomberg, Mark Gilbert op-ed $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: This group aims to address the biggest blind spot for government funding (Grist)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Exxon sting surfaces in climate litigation (E&E News), how blockbuster U.N. report can help climate lawsuits (E&E $), gas producer’s net zero pledge challenged in court by activist (Bloomberg $), Santos sued for ‘clean fuel’ claims and net zero by 2040 target despite plans for fossil fuel expansion (The Guardian)

MEDIA: Reporting on the climate crisis: ‘For years it was seen as a far-off problem’ (The Guardian), the journalist who won’t give up on Alabama’s striking coal miners (The Real News), in climate coverage, reporting the grim facts, but also the fight (New York Times $)

DENIAL: Climate denial newspaper flourishes on Facebook (E&E $)

THE YEAR THAT KEEPS ON GIVING: Greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea levels hit record highs in 2020: NOAA (The Hill), 2020 was Europe's hottest year on record 'by a considerable amount,' scientists say (CNN, BBC, The Independent)

NSS: Women in energy: 'it makes business sense to increase gender diversity' (Energy Monitor)

MOVING: Climate change be damned. More Americans are moving to high-risk areas (CNN), populations in high-risk climate areas grow: Redfin (The Hill)

AND PREP, PRESUMABLY: FEMA leader visits Louisiana to check out hurricane recovery (AP)

LAWSUITS: Judge skeptical of red states' request to block Biden's social cost of carbon (Politico Pro $)

HOUSE: Butterflies get aid in House proposal and drillers pay tab (Bloomberg $), House Natural Resources Democrats expect up to $6B extra in reconciliation budget (Politico Pro $), Maloney touts climate framework at EJ hearing (E&E News)

SENATE: Schumer's high-stakes climate play (Axios), Sanders not ruling out trips to Manchin, Sinema home states to pitch spending plans (The Hill)

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): The US is inching closer to passing a game-changing climate policy (Vox), Dems’ reconciliation plans: ANWR drilling halt, lease overhaul (E&E News, The Hill)

CLIMATE ADAPTATION CASE STUDY: How government decisions left Tennessee exposed to deadly flooding (New York Times $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Kerry to press China to stop financing coal-fired energy projects (Wall Street Journal $), China says maintaining 'normal communication' with US on trade (Reuters)

CITIES AND STATES: [New Mexico] Governor signs 30×30 executive order (New Mexico Political Report)

CALIFORNIA: After years of failure, lawmakers pave the way for more housing in California (New York Times $)

WEST VIRGINIA: Suit claims coal plant tied to W.Va. governor is a ‘menace’ (E&E News)

IMPACTS: Death toll rises to at least 20 in western Venezuela floods (Reuters, BBC, Al Jazeera)

HEAT: Climate change fueling warm ocean 'blob' causing Chile megadrought - study (Reuters, The Guardian), high temperatures have Americans sweltering from coast to coast (Today Show), it’s time to rethink air conditioning (Vox)

DROUGHT: The West's historic drought in 3 maps (CNN), one California city’s creative drought fix (New York Times $)

WILDFIRES: Here’s what to know as a summer of wildfires prompts air-quality alerts across the West (Washington Post $), Northern California wildfires traveled up to 8 miles in a single day, Cal Fire says (CNN), poor weather conditions hamper firefighting efforts across California. (New York Times $)

• CALDOR FIRE: It’s becoming a reality for us': Evacuation warnings issued as Caldor Fire nears Lake Tahoe basin (USA Today, The Guardian, ABC, AP), Tahoe, Reno areas have worst air quality in country due to smoke, raising concerns about a COVID surge (CNN, New York Times $)
• DIXIE FIRE: When the Dixie Fire threatened home (New York Times $), fires feast on a national park in Northern California (National Geographic), ‘it’s total luck.’ how California wolf pack survived destruction of the Dixie Fire (Sacramento Bee $)
• MINNESOTA: ‘Tinderbox conditions’ fuel [Greenwood] fire in Superior National Forest (AP)

HURRICANES: Tropical Storm Nora a hurricane threat to Mexico’s coast (AP)

THE ORIGINAL AMAZON: Here’s what makes a new Amazon carbon study so unnerving (Yale Climate Connections), valuable background pieces on the Amazon as a carbon source (Yale Climate Connections)

RENEWABLES: A 492% China premium shows why solar firms are heading home (Bloomberg $), India policy support draws investors in renewables, Avaada says (Bloomberg $)

BATTERIES: Battery storage is on a growth spurt that's about to get even bigger, EIA says (Utility Dive), Rio Tinto-led plan for major lithium mine stirs protests in Serbia (Reuters), stealthy battery company backed by Bill Gates, Jeff Bezos has a lot to prove (CNBC)

BUILDINGS: Biden starts with federal buildings to combat climate emissions (Bloomberg Law)

OIL & GAS: Ex-fracker at Walmart reveals one risk to US oil supply growth (Bloomberg $), Phillips 66 refinery sale offers test of future for motor fuel suppliers (Reuters)

ORPHANED WELLS: Labor secretary, congresswoman visit orphaned well in Kirtland (New Mexico Political Report)

COAL: Cause of San Juan Generating Station cooling tower collapse remains unknown (New Mexico Political Report)

NUKES: South Africa's energy regulator backs new nuclear generation (Reuters), Sweden approves plans to expand nuclear waste storage (Reuters)

MOVIES: The environmental cost of filmmaking (Atmos)

UTILITIES: Biden administration expands cybersecurity initiative piloted by electric sector (Utility Dive), California utilities are tackling climate adaptation, other safety work amid stretched resources (Utility Dive)

EVs: Why electric robotaxis might not save the planet (Axios)

ACTIVISM: Animal Rebellion paints Buckingham Palace fountain red (The Guardian), as climate protests return to London streets, what does Extinction Rebellion want? (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

AGRICULTURE: US crops wither under scorching heat (Wall Street Journal $)

BOOKS: ‘The Giving Tree’: How a children’s book became a parable for the climate crisis (Grist), Penguin Classics launches ‘new canon’ of environmental literature (The Guardian)

BUSINESS: A wildfire-predicting startup tries to help insurers cope with climate change (Bloomberg $)

CARBON PRICING: California takes in more than $1B from latest carbon auction (Politico Pro $)

MOVERS AND SHAKERS: Vote Solar’s leader is stepping down. Here’s what he and his group built (InsideClimate News)

CARBON REMOVAL: Swiss Re signed a $10 million carbon capture deal (Bloomberg $)

BOLD CLAIMS: This center in Dubai is growing 'future-proof' food in the desert (CNN)

IN MEMORIAM: Inge ginsberg, Holocaust survivor with a heavy metal coda, dies at 99 (New York Times $)

INTERNATIONAL: Brazil plans to encourage lower energy use amid drought (Reuters), Brazil's indigenous protest ahead of landmark ruling over ancestral lands (Reuters), clean energy interest soars in NSW [Australia] as states resist rules to prop up coal (The Guardian), London golf courses could provide homes for 300,000 people, study says (The Guardian), PetroChina aims for even split for oil, gas, green energies by 2035 (Reuters)

• Used solar panels are powering the developing world (Bloomberg, Adam Minter column $)
• Will blackouts be Gavin Newsom’s downfall? A former governor weighs in (LA Times, Gray Davis interview $)
• The climate crisis requires every tool we've got, including carbon removal (The Hill, Jasmine Sanders op-ed)
• Control methane to slow global warming -- fast (Nature, editorial) 
• Too hot for climate change: limiting population growth (The Hill, Joseph Chamie op-ed)
• What if it’s too late to save our planet without geoengineering? (The Guardian, Moira Donegan op-ed)
• The climate future we envisioned is already here (Bloomberg, Nathaniel Bullard commentary $)
• UN climate summit: Why the Mediterranean should be high on the agenda (The Hill, Roudi Baroudi op-ed)
• The fires in Greece are a terrifying warning (New York Times, Alexander Clapp op-ed $)
• Is there a nuclear option for stopping climate change? (New York Times, Spencer Bokat-Lindell op-ed $)

Greens and Anti-Racists Are The West’s Taliban, Newsweek Op-Ed Claims

Hey, remember earlier this month when Newsweek did a 1990s throwback “Debate” between a professional climate denier and a real climate expert? And we were like, "Oh hey remember that not only is Newskweek owned by a cult and often peddles rightwing conspiracy theories for clicks, but also Newsweek’s opinion editor Josh Hammer also happens to be a professional rightwing operative?" 

Well Hammer’s clearly still hard at work watering down what’s left of Newsweek’s once-prestigious reputation, this time with an op-ed by Joel Kotkin (who happens to also be a contributing editor at the tobacco/Koch/Exxon/etc-funded Manhattan Institute’s City Journal). 

“While we in the West look at the Taliban with horror, a similar kind of fanaticism is taking hold here at home,” Kotkin writes at the outset of this exercise in ridiculous self-parody. He sets up a comparison between the “marauding and medieval cult … famous for banning education for women, forcing young girls into marriage and vicious corporal punishment or worse for those who fail to adhrere to the strictures of their religious fanaticism” and those in the “the West” who are “falling prey to a new form of clericalism.” 

What’s on par with child marriage? Apparently “university faculties, media outlets, and most egregiously, social media oligarchs.” 

Yes, really. 

Social media oligarchs are, apparently, the “most egregiously” like the “clerical class” of the Middle Ages who “enforced the orthodoxy of the day from the Pope and the Bishops.” (We’re hardly Zuck’s biggest fans, but even we think this is a bit much.) However, it's somehow “the green movement” that “offers the best analog to the new Medievalism,” because it “foresees impending doom caused by human activity” and supposedly “much of the climate change prognostications have not, so far, proven enormously accurate.” This is simply false. 

After that, Kotkin (hilariously) describes Roger Pielke (a political scientist) Patrick Moore (not a scientist) and Judith Curry (retired) as “the best credentialed academic climate experts” who are “demonized and marginalized for deviating” from the consensus on climate change. 

Why, though, would universities welcome claims that have — like Kotkin’s claim that climate models haven’t been accurate — have been repeatedly proven to be wrong? 

Apparently they should though, because “you know you’re dealing with encroaching Medievalism when a subject brooks no dissent.” So, not only is climate denial actually the modern choice and not entertaining it even though we know it’s wrong is Medieval, but “other central issues, like the pandemic, or ‘systemic racism’” are also apparently things that Kotkin is mad people face repercussions for spreading hateful disinformation about. 

Now, fortunately, because he’s not a total hack, Kotkin does admit at the end of his piece premised on comparing the green movement to the Taliban that “there is still a big difference between the Taliban and the green movement” because “it’s better to be ignored or censored than beaten or beheaded.” 

Ya think? 

But still, “one need not minimize that difference to sound the alarm.” And that alarm is not that a faction of the country is in the grip of a politically-correct delusion that’s enabling a deadly pandemic to kill thousands more children and vulnerable people because their unvaccinated-by-choice comrades are spreading the disease and hogging ICU beds. Instead, apparently, it's that the basically equally bad “Trump-addled conspiracists on the Right” are just as bad as “our own Medievalists” on the “far Left” who “represent a profound threat to [W]estern civilization’s spirit of inquiry and openness that is so critical to historic growth.” 

Reading Kotkin’s piece is definitely alarming. Though more for what it says about the decline and fall of a once-reputable publication than “Western civilization.”

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