FIRST LOOK

The Summer Of 2021 Was The Hottest Summer On Record: NOAA found that the average temperature of meteorological summer - June, July, and August - was 2.6°F (1.45°C) above the 20th century average, a troubling sign as global temperatures continue to increase faster than previously thought. All seven of the warmest years on record have been the last seven years, and 19 of the 20 warmest years have occurred since 2000. More than 18% of the contiguous U.S. experienced record heat this summer, and several states, including California, Nevada, Utah, and Oregon had their hottest temperatures on record. No state reported temperatures that fell below average. The record heat coincided with extreme weather across the country, including extreme heat, wildfires, drought, and flooding. (CNN, Gizmodo, LA Times $, The Hill, New York Times $, Washington Post $; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves, 2021 Western wildfire season, Drought, Extreme precipitation increase, 2021 Atlanttic hurricane season)

FERC To Get New Commissioner: President Biden will nominate Willie Phillips, a utility regulator for the District of Columbia, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the formerly-obscure panel with jurisdiction over a wide range of energy and environmental justice issues Some climate advocates expressed alarm at the selection, raising questions about Phillip’s record in both government and as a private attorney. The departure of FERC member Neil Chatterjee, a Trump administration appointee, created a political divide in the commission, with two Republican and two Democratic commissioners left to serve. If Phillips is confirmed by the Senate, Democrats will have a 3-2 majority. (The Hill, Reuters, Wall Street Journal $, Bloomberg $, Law360; Advocate concerns: Common Dreams)

Raimondo Calls On Big Business To Support Climate Investments: Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo will pressure big businesses to drop their opposition to President Biden’s $3.5 trillion funding plan, which includes substantial investments to combat climate change. The business lobby — including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Business Roundtable — have been trying to stop or weaken the sweeping legislation that could get passed through the budget reconciliation process. The need for more funding toward climate mitigation and adaptation has become in sharp focus recently, as nearly a third of Americans live in an area where a federal disaster has been declared within the last three months. “Some people ask whether we can afford to spend the money it’s going to take to reverse the climate crisis,” Raimondo said in remarks obtained by NBC News. “We are already paying for the climate crisis. And it’s getting worse. We cannot afford to sit on our hands any longer.” Investments to support clean energy and deal with climate change are expected to be a boost to the U.S. economy. (NBC News, Bloomberg $)

Jet Fuel May Be Going Green: The Biden administration set a goal of replacing all jet fuel with less environmentally-injurious alternatives by 2050, laying out a plan to boost production of jet fuel made from waste or plants. The FAA will also distribute 14 grants totalling more than $3.6 million for the development and testing of sustainable jet fuels. Airlines are backing the plan, committing to use 3 billion gallons of sustainable fuel by 2030, which they say would cut climate pollution from flying by around 20%. The industry used over 18 billion gallons of fuel in 2019. Alternative jet fuels are not a panacea to aviation pollution, however. The International Council on Clean Transportation found sustainable jet fuels can result in smaller emissions savings than claimed and, in some cases, even lead to higher emissions. (Reuters, The Hill, Washington Post $)

OPINION: Renominating Jerome Powell for Fed chair is a mistake that will have serious consequences for our planet (Business Insider)

MORE FED NEWS: Nobelist, senior Democratic economist Stiglitz says Fed's Powell should go (Reuters)

FOSSIL FUEL EXPORTS: Australia stands by coal 'beyond 2030' after UN warns of economic havoc (CNN), Enbridge buys N. America's biggest oil export hub in $3-bln Moda deal (Reuters) 

BONDS: Walmart breaks green-bond record with $2 billion debut sale (Bloomberg)

BAILOUTWATCH ANALYSIS: GOP Firebrand Boosted Fossil Fuels Without Admitting Her Husband Made Nearly $1m From A Driller (BailoutWatch)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: ‘Climate chaos’: Indigenous communities hit by change (Indian Country Today), as clean energy jobs grow, women and Black workers are at risk of being left behind (USA Today), indigenous activists lead months-long campaign to protect vancouver island’s ancient forests (Democracy Now)

IDA: Death toll from hurricane ida climbs to 26 in Louisiana (HuffPost), Hurricane Ida drowned 11 New Yorkers in their own homes. The climate crisis is here (The Guardian), Hurricane Ida power failures prompt calls for more solar energy, tougher grids (Reuters), Ida’s death toll hits 82 as hundreds of thousands remain without power in south (Democracy Now), Louisiana death toll from Hurricane Ida rises to 26 (Reuters)

EPA: EPA seeks protections for Alaska's Bristol Bay, undercutting mining project (The Hill, Washington Post $)

THE HILL: Democrats unveil details of sweeping climate change spending plan (New York Times $), Democrats want a ‘climate corps.’ they just can’t agree how to create it. (New York Times $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Can China and America be frenemies on climate change? (Christian Science Monitor)

CITIES AND STATES: Ohio bills call for a ‘radioactive subsidy’ for one company’s oil and gas byproduct, critics say (Energy News Network), Utah ranchers struggle to stay afloat during unprecedented drought (NBC News), New Orleans built a power plant to prepare for storms. It sat dark for 2 days. (New York Times $)

CALIFORNIA: California drought driving up greenhouse gas emissions: study (The Hill), California’s thirst for water may accelerate global warming (PBS NewsHour), climate change, inequality and a recall vote: How the French Laundry embodies California (Washington Post $)

DROUGHT: Tropical crops could suffer as climate change brings longer dry spells (Phys.org)

IMPACTS: Tropical depression Mindy dumps rain on Florida, Georgia and South Carolina (HuffPost)

FLOODS: Patients die as floods hit Mexican hospital; record drought worsens Brazil’s energy crisis (Democracy Now)

POLAR BEARS: Polar bears are inbreeding as climate change melts away Arctic ice, scientists say (CBS), scientists warn polar bears are inbreeding due to climate change (The Hill)

TYPHOONS: Super typhoon chanthu hurtles toward Philippines and southeast China (Democracy Now)

WILDFIRES:For successful wildfire prevention, look to the southeast (NPR), how one foil-wrapped home survived the Caldor Fire as everything around it burned (San Francisco Chronicle), wildfire raging in southern Spain forces nearly 800 to flee (Reuters)

BATTERIES: Battery makers tied to power grid attract big investors (Wall Street Journal $)

CONCRETE: Inside New York’s messy push to clean up concrete (New York Focus)

MINING: Conservation body calls for global moratorium on deep-sea mining (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

OIL & GAS: U.S. natgas futures ease from 7-year high ahead of storage report (Reuters), U.S. oil output drops by most on record after hurricane ida (Bloomberg $), natural gas excluded in Democrats' budget plan for clean energy (Bloomberg $)

SOLAR: Solar developers, utilities reach agreement regarding interconnection applications for community solar (New Mexico Political Report), solar needs to dethrone coal to meet indonesia goals, study says (Bloomberg $), solar startup born in a garage is beating China to cheaper panels (Bloomberg $)

WATER: Google to replenish 20% more water than it uses by 2030 (Reuters)

WIND: China leads as new global offshore wind projects dip slightly in 2020 (Reuters), global wind farm installations expected to surge after Covid drop, says report (The Guardian)

ACTIVISM: Activist investor urges Germany’s RWE to exit coal quicker (Bloomberg $)

FARMERS: Farmers restore native grasslands as groundwater disappears (Bloomberg $)

FINANCE: Funds go green, but sometimes in name only (Wall Street Journal $), Tom Steyer launches new investment fund with a focus on climate justice (Canary Media), renewable storage firm energy vault reaches $1.6 billion spac deal to go public (Wall Street Journal $)

FRUTTI DI MARE: Is seafood a more climate-friendly option than eating meat? (Gizmodo)

INEQUITY: Climate resilience efforts pose new risks for disabled people (The Hill)

PASTA: Disastrous season means UK shoppers could pay 50% more for pasta (The Guardian)

NASA: Nasa's new tech monitors climate change (NBC Bay Area)

SCIENCE: Ancient sea ice core sheds light on modern climate change (Phys.org), climate change risks triggering catastrophic tsunamis, scientist warns (FT $), why climate change is still the greatest threat to human health (National Geographic), the hottest summer most Americans have ever lived through (Yale Climate Connections)

SURE, SURE: ‘Win their hearts and minds’: Nestle CEO on plans to address young consumers’ sustainability concerns (CNBC)

TREES: Tree planting efforts aren’t replacing burned U.S. forests — not even close (Reuters)

UTILITIES: Utility shutoff moratoriums protected many consumers earlier in the pandemic. What happens now? (Utility Dive)

WOKEWASHING: Big oil’s ‘wokewashing’ is the new climate science denialism (The Guardian)

• Arguments against the Versatile Test Reactor undermine America's climate future (The Hill, Ted Nordhaus and Adam Stein op-ed)

• FEMA must protect the hardest-hit communities from climate change (The Hill, Howard Crystal op-ed)

• How Congress can ensure the US meets the moment on climate change (The Hill, Dan Lashof and Lori Bird op-ed)

• Our food supply is under threat from climate extremes: Congress must act to save it (The Hill, Benjamin Houlton op-ed)

• Reconciliation package's clean electricity program would create over 7M jobs. (The Hill analysis)

• The Guardian view on fossil fuels: a very long way to go (The Guardian, Guardian Editorial)

• Wildfire, plague and political breakdown: Hope may seem naive right now, but we need it anyway (San Francisco Chronicle analysis)

• ‘Never Before’ (NB4) extreme weather events … and near-misses (Yale Climate Connections, Gary Yohe commentary)
• Line 3 resisters light the way in a battle for life on earth (Truthout, Kelly Hayes op-ed)

Racist Rightwing Group Says Biden’s 45% Solar Goal Would Cost $1 Trillion, But That’s Actually How Much It Will Save 

On Wednesday, hours after the Department of Energy released a report detailing how solar power can meet 45% of the country’s energy needs by 2050, Isaac Orr at the Center for the American Experiment scrambled to churn out one of the first, and worst, estimates of how much it would cost. 

He then misrepresented the DOE report as a goal the Biden administration announced, and wrote that meeting it would cost “at least a trillion dollars.” Yikes! What a number! Is it credible? 

Well, first let’s consider the source. If you’re not plugged into Minnesota politics, than the odds are you’ve only thing you’ve ever heard about CAE, a state-level rightwing propaganda shop, is a New York Times piece about its vice president Kim Crockett. 

In her rabid (fake news and racism-fueled) opposition to welcoming (muslim/nonwhite) Somali refugees, Crockett said she thinks “of Amercia, the great assimilator, as a rubber band, but with this -- we’re at a breaking point. These aren’t people coming from Norway, let’s put it that way.” 

Well okay, but just because an organization is helmed by racists doesn’t mean it’s always wrong about everything. So let’s take a look at Orr’s work, which given the time constraints, was as slap-dash as it gets.  

To arrive at a trillion dollars, he just did some quick excel-spreadsheet calculations based on EIA estimates of solar panel installation costs, and multiplied them by how many panels would be needed to meet 45% of electricity demand. “This price tag,” Orr writes, “doesn’t even begin to depict the true cost of the Biden’t administration’s plan” (well he’s sure right about that!) “because it doesn’t reflect the enormous cost of running an electric grid that is too heavily dependent upon unreliable energy sources, like solar panels and wind turbines.” 

Oh, if only there were such a study, that looked at the “true cost” of such a transition! 

Wait, what’s that? The report Orr is misleading about actually does exactly that? 

Well what do you know, flip on over to page 45 of the Solar Futures Study, and it found “central estimates for net savings are $1.1 and $1.7 trillion” (emphasis theirs) for the decarbonization and decarbonization+electrification scenarios modeled.

Because it turns out that when you properly account for the true cost of fossil fuels (emphasis ours), as paid in sickness, death, and climatic chaos, it’s a lot cheaper to just install some solar panels and wind turbines. 

Apparently unless those panels are coming from Norway though, they’re not welcome by CAE…

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