FIRST LOOK

Protesters Arrested In DC Want More Action From Biden: Indigenous-led protesters gathered on Piscataway and Nacotchtank (Anacostan) land outside the White House and Department of the Interior on Wednesday and Thursday, respectively, to call on the Biden administration to step up its opposition to fossil fuels. On Wednesday, 90 activists were arrested outside the White House, and 55 were arrested Thursday at DOI. They demanded the Biden administration end all fossil fuel leasing on public lands and put a stop to pipelines across tribal lands. “We don’t need anymore oil infrastructure in the Dakota’s,” Joye Braun, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe and an organizer with the Indigenous Environmental Network, told E&E. “We want clean water, air, soil and [the Interior] Department can help with that.” The People vs. Fossil Fuels rallies, organized by the Build Back Fossil Free coalition will conclude today with a march to the U.S. Capitol. (White House and DOI: E&E $, MTV News, Democracy Now; Capitol and DOI arrests: Washington Post $)

Biden Bringing Most Of The Cabinet To COP: President Biden, Dr. Jill Biden, 11 cabinet officials, and the president's two top climate advisors will attend the upcoming COP26 climate summit in Glasgow. The number of high-level officials demonstrates the administration's commitment to reengaging on climate change as an international partner. "In Glasgow, the United States will showcase President Biden's whole-of-government approach to tackling the climate crisis," a White House official told CNN. "They will demonstrate the strength of the entire US government working in lock-step to reduce emissions and achieve our international climate commitments — and that the countries who take decisive action on climate will reap the economic and jobs benefits of the clean energy future." (CNN, The Hill, E&E News, CNBC)

Lauren MacDonald Confronts Shell CEO, Does Not Throw Away Shot: Lauren MacDonald gave Shell CEO Ben van Beurden the reception he deserved, though likely not the one he expected at a TED Countdown forum in Edinburgh on Thursday. After van Beurden touted the oil major's funding of clean energy and shifted blame for climate change to consumers, an industry tactic dating back to the early 1970s, MacDonald was invited to speak. MacDonald, a local climate activist, then looked the multinational oil and gas conglomerate CEO in the face and explained how his company was pushing to drill for oil near her home in Scotland. “You should be absolutely ashamed of yourself,” she said. MacDonald detailed Shell's long history of pollution and contribution to the climate crisis and noted its reported complicity in the murder of Nigerian activists in the 1990s. van Beurden, MacDonald said, sitting just feet away, is “responsible for so much death and suffering” and then directly asked him, “If you’re going to sit here and act like you care about climate action, why are you appealing the recent court ruling that Shell must decrease its emissions by 45% by 2030?” When van Beurden declined to say Shell would withdraw its appeal of the Dutch court's ruling, MacDonald took off her mic and walked off stage. (Earther, Fortune, The National; Full video: TED)

UTILITY SHUTOFFS: ‘I have never felt so hopeless’: millions in US fear utility shutoffs as debts rise (The Guardian) 

FINANCE: Emerging markets need $1 trln a year to get to net zero - BlackRock (Reuters), Harvard’s investment report card (New York Times $)

RISKS: White House plans to address economic risk of climate change (AP, Axios), regulators must act to protect financial system from climate risk: report (The Hill) 

FOSSIL FUELS: Despite spills and air pollution, fossil fuel companies award CEOs for environmental records (Washington Post $) 

HAVE STOCK, WILL GO TO MEETING: Shareholder democracy is getting bigger trial runs (New York Times $)

GREENWASHING: Over 90% of firms aren’t measuring emissions correctly, BCG says (Bloomberg $), fund managers brace for correction as greenwash rules go global (Bloomberg $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Michigan officials promise to fix lead pipes in 18 months amid water crisis (NBC)

COP26: Development banks told to ramp up green ambitions ahead of COP26 (Bloomberg $), Scottish rail and refuse workers vote to strike during COP26 (FT $), Australian prime minister will attend Glasgow climate talks (AP)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Facing existential threat from climate change, Pacific Islanders urge world to listen (Axios), Biden to meet with Pope, push for global minimum tax at G20 in Rome (Reuters), Biden to discuss climate change with Pope Francis at Vatican (Bloomberg $), why banning financing for fossil fuel projects in Africa isn’t a climate solution (The Conversation), Britain’s queen expresses irritation at world leaders who won’t commit to climate summit (Washington Post $, AP)

DOING THE WORK: Black-led organizations break ground on New Orleans anti-flooding projects (CBS), after storms batter Louisiana’s parishes, Black women lead the way in picking up the pieces (The 19th* News)

FOSSIL VOLATILITY: Federal officials warning of increase in home heating costs this winter (The Hill, Axios), high energy prices no excuse to slow green transition - IMF committee chair (Reuters), energy crisis reignites demand for oil, threatening climate targets, says IEA (The Guardian, Reuters, Axios), the EU’s electricity market and why soaring gas prices are driving bills higher (FT $), energy crisis tests Biden’s clean electricity agenda (E&E News), what’s behind the energy crunch in Britain and Europe (New York Times $)

MEDIA: Efforts to track diversity in journalism are lagging (AP), Bianca Graulau is documenting Puerto Rico's disappearing beaches on TikTok and YouTube (HuffPost)

SOCAL OIL SPILL: Aging equipment, spills test ties between oil, California (AP), Coast Guard estimates California oil spill at nearly 25,000 gallons (Axios, AP), experts to ask Congress for more offshore oil oversight as California cleanup continues (LA Times $)

INSURRECTION REPERCUSSIONS: Former DOJ environment chief called to testify in Jan. 6 probe (E&E News)

AGENCIES: Labor Department looks to reverse Trump ESG investing rules (E&E News), NOAA is raising its climate profile, its head says (Axios)

EPA: Regan ties soot standards review to environmental justice (E&E $), EPA keeps Trump-era air permitting change — for now (E&E $), EPA unveils plan to address tribal water woes (E&E News)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: U.S. wants federal contracts to reflect climate risk (Reuters)

THE HILL: Democrats begin scrutiny of abandoned offshore oil equipment (Bloomberg $), Coal-state Republicans urge advisory board renewal (E&E $), congressional Republican opposition to Biden to harden as election nears (Reuters), moderates split over climate plans in Democrats' spending package (The Hill), lawmakers seek answers from Luma Energy over worsening Puerto Rico power crisis (NBC)

MANCHINEMA: To woo Manchin, Dems could OK climate funds for coal and gas plants (Politico), U.S. Senator Manchin promises to block mining royalty plan (Reuters), U.S. Senator Sinema rejects vote on big Biden package before infrastructure-source (Reuters), Chris Hayes to Kyrsten Sinema: What are you doing here? (MSNBC)

WHITE HOUSE: Climate change will dominate Biden’s agenda when he heads to Europe in two weeks (CNBC), Biden bets big on wind power ahead of climate summit (The Hill), Biden heads to climate talks weakened by infighting at home (Bloomberg $), Biden's winter energy chill (Axios)

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): What’s going on with the Build Back Better plan in Congress? (The 19th* News explainer), Democrats' central climate program is in trouble (Washington Post $)

CITIES AND STATES: Montana tests biochar to reduce wildfire risks, with potential for mine remediation (Energy News Network)

CALIFORNIA: Battle over California fire insurance policies intensifies (AP), electric mowers poised to cut down gas models in Calif. (E&E $)

FERC: 3 takeaways from yesterday’s FERC hearing (E&E News), FERC deadlock clears the way for launch of controversial Southeast energy market (Canary Media), FERC deadlock may shift renewables’ future in South (E&E News)

IMPACTS: This website helps you imagine what extreme climate change will do to your home (CNN), In Taiwan tea country, a scramble to adapt to extreme weather (Reuters), La Niña has arrived and will stick around. Here is what that means for the dry Southwest and US hurricanes (CNN, Washington Post $), La Nina’s back and it’s not good for parts of dry West (AP, explainer), 'our whole life depends on water': Climate change, pollution and dams threaten Iraq’s Marsh Arabs (Reuters)

COMPOUND IMPACTS: Greece: Severe storm, floods batter Athens, fire-hit island (AP, Reuters)

DROUGHT: The drought in California this summer was the worst on record (CNN)

WILDFIRES: Alisal Fire in California rages while forecast calls for more strong winds (Washington Post $)

HURRICANES: Remnants of former Hurricane Pamela head for Texas, Oklahoma (AP)

RENEWABLES: As turbines rise, small-scale fishermen have the most to lose (E&E News), U.S. solar group seeking tariffs seeks to maintain confidentiality (Reuters), Virginia’s first offshore wind turbines have become a haven for marine life (The Virginian-Pilot), $4.5B clean energy complex planned for southeast Louisiana (AP)

BATTERIES: Can the US take the lead on cleaner lithium production? (Canary Media), Chile launches lithium auction to rev up stalled production (Reuters)

BUILDINGS: How mortgage portfolio standards could heat up building renovation (Energy Monitor), Britons to get more money for discarding gas boilers (Bloomberg $)

EFFICIENCY: These 7 efficiency policies could help Texas avoid $8B in new gas plants, ACEEE says (Utility Dive), Boulder students win national competition with hyper-efficient home (Yale Climate Connections)

LNG: China looks to lock in U.S. LNG as energy crunch raises concerns (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: A tiny Alabama company owns more gas wells than Exxon (Earther), as western oil giants cut production, state-owned companies step up (New York Times $), Icahn escalates feud with Southwest Gas, launches tender offer (Bloomberg $)

STEP BACK QUESTIONS: Is cost-benefit analysis the right tool for federal climate policy? (Yale Climate Connections)

COAL: China’s chastening over coal dependency will boost clean energy (Bloomberg $), coal is ‘king’ as gas prices soar, Total CEO says — and it’s backfiring on cleaner energy goals (CNBC), a multibillion-dollar clean coal plant never worked, and now it’s been imploded (Earther)

HYDROGEN: Hydrogen fuel firm ECombustible eyes up to $1 billion SPAC deal (Bloomberg $)

UTILITIES: Rocky Mountain Power's distributed battery grid management system puts Utah 'years ahead' of California (Utility Dive), Southern, Duke SEEM proposal takes effect as FERC deadlocks on market plan (Utility Dive)

GRID: PJM market monitor calls for penalties on generators to spur grid flexibility (Utility Dive)

EVs: For renters in Rhode Island, charging is a barrier to electric vehicle adoption (Energy News Network), China may soon beat Tesla at its own game (Bloomberg $)

STEEL: BP is financing the world's first solar-powered steel mill (Bloomberg $)

SOLIDARITY FOREVER: Striketober' in full swing as nearly 100,000 workers authorize work stoppages across U.S. (Salon), Audubon regional offices seek to join union (E&E $), striking Kellogg’s workers show the country what solIdarity looks like (The Real News), more than 10,000 John Deere workers on strike after rejecting contract (Washington Post $, NPR, AP, Yahoo, New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $), Elizabeth Warren backs Deere strike, saying workers have gotten the short end of the stick 'for decades' (CNN), striking John Deere workers convince truck driver not to cross picket line (Jalopnik), 

U.S. Sen Chuck Grassley says Deere strikers are exercising their right (Des Moines Register)

FILM: Fehinti Balogun asks, Can I Live? (Atmos)

DIRECT ACTION: Insulate Britain pauses roadblocks to give PM ‘chance to do the right thing’ (The Guardian, AP)

FOOD: Plant-based food companies face critics: environmental advocates (New York Times $)

AVIATION: UN's Guterres blasts shipping, aviation climate targets as too lax (Bloomberg $, Climate Home), as post-COVID travel picks up, should we cut business flights? (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

BUSINESS: Companies' climate disclosures still lacking -task force (Reuters), what comes after GE’s 129 years of greenhouse gas (Bloomberg $)

FINANCE: BHP's London investors endorse climate change plan (Reuters), BHP overcomes opposition from some investors to climate plan (Bloomberg $)

WILDLIFE: On biodiversity treaty, U.S. stays on the sidelines (E&E $)

INTERNATIONAL: Court orders French government to ‘repair’ carbon emissions overshoot (AFP), French presidential hopeful Le Pen threatens renewable subsidies (Bloomberg $), Turkey set to receive 3.1 bln Euro loans to help Paris climate goals -sources (Reuters)

• Building codes are wonky and dense. But they can slash emissions and pollutants. (Grist, Denise Grab and Jonny Kocher)
• Better a lighter Biden bill than none (FT, Editorial Board $)
• Private equity is quietly keeping fossil fuel companies in business (New Republic, Kate Aronoff column)
• Forget net zero – let’s have a ‘fossil freedom day’ (The Guardian, Mark Lynas op-ed)
• The UK’s reliance on gas imports leaves us open to unpredictable prices (The Guardian, Michael Bradshaw op-ed)
• How to tackle decarbonization when fossil fuels are the backbone of the economy (The Hill, Michael Lenox and Becky Duff op-ed)
• America’s next great migrations are driven by climate change (Scientific American, Parag Khanna, Susan Joy Hassol op-ed)
• Clean energy industry has come a long way since Solyndra bankruptcy (The Hill, Peter Davidson and Jonathan Silver op-ed)
• California oil spill shows why we need the climate investments in Build Back Better Act (The Hill, Rep. Nanette Diaz Barragán op-ed)
• Can lab-grown burgers help stop climate change? (New York Times, Spencer Bokat-Lindell op-ed $)
• Green infrastructure projects underway in New Orleans’ minority communities (Big Easy Magazine, Danae Columbus op--ed)

Deniers Debunk Themselves: Climate Concern Polls and Fossil Fuel Trolls

Last spring, the fossil fuel-funded Competitive Enterprise Institute hired KellyAnn Conway’s old polling company to put out a fantastically misleading poll that, unsurprisingly, only the most gullible reporters picked up. Specifically, Valerie Richardson of the Washington Times carried it uncritically, even though a quick look at the findings totally undercut CEI’s rhetoric, and showed that a majority of the public was concerned about climate change and willing to spend their own money on it. Even though, as we've noted, it should be on the fossil fuel industry to clean up their pollution, not the public. 

Well they’re back, and it looks like Richardson was yet again an easy target for CEI’s pitch. And while CEI once again tried to spin their own findings to downplay climate concern by pointing out that despite 71% of registered voters expressing concern about climate, 39% of people don’t want to pay more for electricity and gas and “one-third of voters [are] unwilling to spend anything to counter climate change.” 

Now, the geniuses at CEI and the Washington Times might not be aware of this, but if one-third are unwilling to spend anything, doesn’t that mean two-thirds of people are willing to pony up? 

Sure enough! Comparing this poll to the old one from last spring, it turns out that CEI’s own crooked poll shows a 5% increase in the number of people “very concerned” about climate change, from 36 to 41% of registered voters. While “somewhat concerned” remained flat at 30%, and the somewhat/not very concerned set shrunk by 4%, down to 28% of registered voters they polled. 

We want to be very clear about this: CEI is bragging about a poll that shows their own ongoing failure to persuade people to not care about climate change. 

CEI wants you to focus on the 39% of people who don’t want to spend any extra on electricity and gas (which, again, they shouldn’t need to because the industries that lied and heated the earth for profit should). They neglect to mention, however, that tallying up the responses for those who are willing to pay a decent amount, starting at $91-$100 (10%) and working all the way up to the 1% willing to spend $9,000-$10,000, shows that 39% of registered voters are willing to spend significantly on climate change. 

There are just as many people willing to pay $100 as there are people unwilling to pay anything. Why isn’t that a headline? And, factor in the respondents willing to pay more for electricity or gasoline in increments of $1 to $51-$60 (20%) and it turns out that 59% of people — a majority(!) — are willing to pay their own money to clean up the fossil fuel industry’s mess. 

Speaking of fossil fuel industry messes, the ongoing energy price surge continues to be a talking point for right wing bozos and industry hacks intent on blaming Biden for global energy prices, like Holman Jenkins Jr. at the Wall Street Journal (which also just ran a column from Lomborg making the same dumb point CEI does, but with different data.) 

But the fact that fossil fuels are expensive and unreliable is so obvious that even other conservatives are balking at the bad-faith “Blame Biden” Bandwagon. George David Banks, energy advisor to the right’s beloved failed businessman turned reality TV star turned (former) viral social media influencer turned one-term President and insurrection leader Donald Trump, told the conservative Washington Examiner that “no objective person is going to blame the [Biden] administration for the current global energy crisis.” 

A Trump guy, in a stalwart and far-right approved outlet, just pointed out that every so-called journalist and columnist straining to ignore the reality of a global pandemic’s impact on energy are not objective people. 

Apparently the schoolyard taunt still rings true: it takes one to know one!

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to receive Hot News every morning!

Send updates or feedback to nkauffman@climatenexus.org
Submit events and other items for consideration for a First Look using this form
Some articles require logins or subscriptions ($)