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Vicious Climate Cycle Spins As Russia Burns: Rising temperatures heated by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels like oil and gas are melting permafrost — land previously frozen year round — and causing problems for Russia's oil and gas industry, the Wall Street Journal reports. Over the last 45 years, Russian temperatures have risen 2.5 faster than the global average. The melting permafrost on which two-thirds of the country sits is also physically destabilizing oil and gas infrastructure and forcing companies to spend millions to prevent disasters, like when a ruptured tank in remote Siberia hemorrhaged 20,000 tons of diesel fuel. The hotter temperatures and melting permafrost are accelerating vicious climatic cycles by releasing heat-trapping methane previously frozen underground and fueling almost incomprehensible wildfires. Russian wildfires have burned 65,000 square miles (41.6 million acres) so far this year, Grist reported last week, and in July and August alone produced more CO2 pollution than the entire country of Germany in a year. (Wall Street Journal $, Grist; Climate Signals background: Arctic amplification, Wildfires)

IMF Details Global Fossil Fuel Subsidies, Euro Campaign Mounts To Ban Ads: Momentum is growing in Europe for bans on fossil fuel and some transportation advertising and sponsorships, mirroring similar bans on tobacco advertising, Thomson Reuters reports. A coalition of more than 20 groups is calling for the publicity bans in light of fossil fuel firms' historical denial of climate science. "The fossil fuel firms also copied the smoking companies' strategies when they fed into climate denial," Bas Eickhout, a Dutch Green MEP and vice-chair of the European Parliament's environment committee, told Thomson Reuters. "It's time we copied what was done with cigarette ads." The fossil fuel industry, like Big Tobacco before it, is expected to fight the effort, but, "The momentum for a complete ban on fossil fuel advertising and sponsorship in Europe is starting to feel unstoppable," Yannick Jadot, the French Green candidate in next year's presidential election, told Thomson Reuters. The mounting pressure comes as a new IMF report revealed the fossil fuel industry was effectively given $5.9 trillion in subsidies, including direct payments and external costs to the environment and public health, last year — about $11 million every minute. (Advertising: Thomson Reuters Foundation; Subsidies: The Guardian)

Energy Transfer Faces Criminal Charges For Pipeline Violations 'All Across' Pennsylvania: The Pennsylvania attorney general announced 48 criminal charges against Energy Transfer over the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline on Tuesday. The charges cover multiple drilling fluid leaks as well as the use of unapproved chemical additives and reporting failures. The controversial pipeline was intended to transport fracked gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale field in Ohio across the commonwealth to a facility just south of Philadelphia. Construction was halted after the company dumped as much as 28,000 gallons of drilling fluid into Marsh Creek Lake in Chester County. “This was a major incident,” AG Josh Shapiro told reporters. “But understand it wasn’t an isolated one. This happened all across the commonwealth.” Shapiro also called on lawmakers to toughen penalties for corporate violators. Energy Transfer faces fines if convicted, punishment Shapiro says is insufficient. (Philadelphia Inquirer, Washington Post $, NPR-State Impact, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette $, Politico Pro $, AP, Reuters)

COP26: Climate pressure mounts for Biden as a major conference looms (TIME), what you need to know about the U.N. climate summit this fall -- and why it matters (Washington Post $), can COP26 help poorer countries save the world? (Reuters), global citizens' assembly debates climate solutions ahead of COP26 summit (Thomson Reuters Foundation), spending the climate finance kitty (Energy Monitor)

HELLUVA BUSINESS MODEL: Utilities cut power to US customers while taking huge COVID tax credits (The Guardian)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: EU too: Brussels gets mad at Ted Cruz (Politico)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Clean environment could become U.N. human right. Not so fast, say U.S., Britain (Reuters)

IDA, ONE MONTH LATER: A month after Ida's landfall, Louisianians decry 'Third World' conditions (Reuters), a month after Hurricane Ida, thousands of kids have yet to return to school (NPR), Louisiana creates temporary housing program for Ida victims (AP), questions amid Ida’s destruction: Stay? Move? How far? (AP), most Americans would rather rebuild than move if natural disaster strikes, poll finds (NPR)

SOCAL OIL SPILL: Orange County oil spill renews calls to ban offshore drilling (LA Times $, E&E News, Washington Post $, AP), Newsom ties Orange County oil spill to move away from fossil fuels (LA Times $), Newsom declares state of emergency in Orange County to help with oil spill cleanup (The Hill, Axios, CBS, ABC, NBC), California’s massive offshore oil spill: What we know (E&E News), evidence suggests ship anchor snagged, dragged oil pipeline (AP), regulators order California oil pipeline to remain shut amid questions about leak reporting (Politico Pro $), the California oil spill could endanger birds and sea life for years, experts say (NPR), federal regulation of oil platforms dogged by problems long before O.C. spill (LA Times $), delay after alarm puts California spill response in question (AP), first federal lawsuit filed as residents take stock of losses (LA Times $)

LANDBACK: A historic rainforest and other lands have been returned to Indigenous Australians (NPR)

DENIAL: Caesars palace to host 3-day climate denier conference (HuffPost)

NOBEL PRIZE: Climate change huge threat to humanity, physics Nobel winner Parisi says (Reuters, The Hill), central banks lack tools to fight climate change -Nobel laureate (Reuters), Nobel Prize in physics awarded for climate change research (Axios, Wall Street Journal $, E&E News)

CLIMATE COMMUNICATION: If climate change threatens us all, shouldn't everyone be talking about it? 'That's the only way revolutions ever start' (CBS)

CORAL REEFS, RIP: Climate change killed 14% of the world’s coral reefs in a decade, study finds (Washington Post $, NPR, New York Times $, Reuters, HuffPost)

LINE 3: Revealed: pipeline company paid Minnesota police for arresting and surveilling protesters (The Guardian), Biden's silent climate betrayal (Heated)

EPA: Regan: Hold administration accountable on EJ spending (E&E $)

DOI: Biden admin will review status of threatened polar bear (E&E $), NPS to allow permanent display of rainbow flag at Stonewall (E&E News)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Navajo group revives NEPA battle over N.M. drilling permits (E&E $), a sea of choices confronts Biden admin in ocean protection (E&E News), Corps of Engineers considers nature-based flood control (AP), SEC’s Gensler aims to save investors money by squeezing Wall Street (Wall Street Journal $)

SENATE: Schumer makes his case for compromise on reconciliation (Politico Pro $), Senate approves flood forecasting, fisheries aid bills (E&E $)

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): Build Back Better Act would reduce the burden of household energy costs (Canary Media), Dems cite environmental justice in pushing solar incentive (E&E $), Dems dig in on climate action as they eye slimmed-down package (E&E $), Manchin opens door to deal in range of $1.9T to $2.2T (The Hill)

• BULLY PULPIT: Biden hits the road to sell multi-trillion dollar spending plans (NBC, ABC), Biden to shift focus from D.C. gridlock to swing-state benefits (Reuters), Biden says infrastructure and reconciliation bills are 'about competitiveness versus complacency' (CBS)

POLITICS: Moderates love Dems’ climate agenda. What changed from 2009? (E&E News), Democrats' infrastructure delays squeeze an endangered species: GOP centrists (Politico Pro $)

CITIES AND STATES: As winter nears, tensions rise over how to prevent Texas blackouts from happening again (Houston Chronicle), Duke Energy would see timely cost recovery under bipartisan North Carolina energy bill (Utility Dive), Mississippi's childhood lead exposure interventions don't do enough for kids (Scalawag Magazine), New Jersey advances grid plan seen as national model for renewables (E&E News), 106 restrictions on abortions have become law this year. It’s a record. (The 19th* News)

CALIFORNIA: California considers increasing Aliso Canyon's gas storage to boost reliability, despite calls to shut it down (Utility Dive)

FERC: FERC knocks New York, California plans on distributed energy access to grids (Politico Pro $)

IMPACTS: The king tides are coming this week (Yale Climate Connections), how ‘nuisance’ flooding is hurting coastal economies (Yale Climate Connections), Fall on hold: Forecasters predict long-lasting warm temperatures in Eastern U.S. (Washington Post $)

HEAT: Dangerous heat exposure has tripled since the 1980s (E&E News, The Hill)

WELP: Deluge in Italy sets European record: 29 inches in 12 hours (Washington Post $)

RENEWABLES: Massive, controversial solar project near Lake Charles offers peek into Louisiana's energy future (The Advocate), lights out feared for NYC new community solar projects as state credits fade (The City)

OIL & GAS: Big Oil courts U.S. clean-energy startups in bid to speed green transition (Reuters)

PLASTICS: The US falls behind most of the world in plastic pollution legislation (Environmental Health News)

PIPELINES: Pipeline company asks Supreme Court to halt decision that could shut it down (The Hill)

HYDROGEN: IEA: $1.2 trillion in low-carbon hydrogen funding needed to reach global net zero emissions by 2050 (Utility Dive)

EVs: Midwest states agree to create regional EV charging network (E&E $)

PRICES: Putin blames Europe energy market 'hysteria' on green transition (Reuters)

INDIVIDUAL ACTION FACILITATION: The polluting elite: Why the climate needs 'radical' lifestyle changes (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Google is updating Maps, Search and other products to help consumers save energy and reduce emissions (CNBC, The Verge, AFP, Bloomberg $, Axios, Wall Street Journal $)

DIRECT ACTION: Climate activists who gridlocked London have crossed the line, minister says (Reuters)

AGRICULTURE: Scientists potty-trained a group of cows in Germany to help combat climate change (Washington Post $)

BUSINESS: Largest U.S. aluminum producer releases net-zero plan (E&E $), world's largest miners pledge net zero carbon emissions by 2050 (Reuters)

CARBON PRICING: Please put a price on carbon', says Europe's biggest utility (Reuters)

SHIPPING: Shipping industry group aims for net-zero emissions by 2050 (AP)

• Hurricane Ida's destruction was the result of years of systemic racism (Salon, Rashad Robinson op-ed)
• Mexico's internally displaced are an unrecognized migration crisis (The Hill, Andrew Rudman op-ed)
• A scary energy winter is coming. don’t blame the greens. (New York Times, Tom Friedman column $)
• Asia's energy crunch boosts coal and LNG, but threatens their future (Reuters, Clyde Russell column)
• Renewable natural gas can be a clean energy distraction (Tallahassee Democrat, Munir Humayun and Steve Been op-ed)
• The necessary voice of the global south (Project Syndicate, Javier Solana commentary)
• Deploy heat officers, policies and metrics (Nature, Ladd Keith , Sara Meerow , David M. Hondula , V. Kelly Turner & James C. Arnott)
• Kyrsten Sinema's privacy isn't more important than American lives (Teen Vogue, Lexi McMenamin op-ed)
• Why Democrats would be fools to slash Biden’s housing plan (Politico, Paul Williams and Cea Weaver op-ed)
• Schumer must push to end lead in drinking water (Buffalo News, Erick Weltman op-ed)
• California needs to quit ignoring the public health and climate cost of pesticides (Daily Climate, Nathan Donley and Sarah Aird op-ed)
• York County Republican: My party in PA must stop blocking air pollution solutions | opinion (York Daily Record, Mitchell Hescox op-ed)
• Hurricane Ida's destruction was the result of years of systemic racism (Salon, Rashad Robinson op-ed)
• How not to do an energy transition (Wall Street Journal, Rochelle Toplensky analysis $)
• Eerily empty beaches and globs of oil. The full impact of the California oil spill is yet unknown (LA Times, Karin Klein column $)
• The Huntington Beach oil spill is a once and future catastrophe (LA Times, Teresa Sabol Spezio op-ed $)

Climate Scientists Have Nobels, Climate Deniers Have Blogs- And Big Oil Money

Yesterday the Nobel Prize in Physics went to three scientists whose work was pivotal for understanding climate change, and deniers were not thrilled. Physicist Luboš Motl, for example, quickly wrote a very “I’m totally not jealous” blog about how the win was undeserved and “justified by buzzwords” like “the nonsensical superstitious phrase ‘global warming.’” 

Apparently the climate models that have (accurately) predicted warming, developed in large part by co-winner Syukuro Manabe, haven’t “led to any new yet reliable insights” and the “complexity” of climate change “has been one of the key pillar [sic] underlying the climate religion.” Wow, what a surprise the Nobel committee isn’t knocking down Motl’s door!

“The deceitful statements about the climate change are driven by people with a muddy thinking and the shortage of integrity who love to hide in the chaos,” concluded Motl, who was forced to resign from Harvard for reasons officially unknown but definitely-not-not-his misogyny that could accurately be described as chaotic and lacking integrity. 

While one may be tempted to offer some sympathy for deniers with obvious inferiority complexes, there’s no need, because they’re already getting offered something much better: jobs. 

Specifically, the American Enterprise Institute recently hired Steven Koonin, who has been successfully working the conservative media circuit to sell his book-length version of a stupid and debunked 2014 WSJ op-ed.  

Koonin’s sales pitch so far has been to trade on his brief stint as an Obama DOE appointee, making his garden-variety climate denial seem somehow more credible than if he bragged about working for BP before that.

And now Koonin’s working once again for the fossil fuel industry and other death merchants, as AEI has taken millions of dollars from not just climate polluters like ExxonMobil and the Koch foundation, but also the somehow-even-more-toxic tobacco industry. 

While it’s disappointing that Koonin now, in addition to “educating” his students at NYU, will also be doing disinformation for a paycheck, if there’s a silver lining let’s hope it’s that people stop referring to him as an Obama-era official, and start accurately describing him as someone who spreads disinformation about climate change on behalf of the fossil fuel industry. 

Or, to put it a little more concisely, a liar. 

Good thing there’s no Nobel Prize in corruption and deceit, or deniers might have a chance to win!

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