FIRST LOOK

Watchdog Formed After Great Recession Warns Climate Crisis Endangers Financial Stability: The climate crisis poses an "emerging threat" to the American financial system, a new FSOC report warns. The Financial Stability Oversight Council, created by the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act in 2010, works to identify emerging risks and provide regulators with guidance on how to respond, among other mandates. Specifically, regulators should give particular scrutiny to the American economy's dependence on methane-based gas for heating and electricity generation. The report warns that "sizable reductions" in the burning of methane-based gas will be required to achieve net-zero climate pollution by 2050, which could cause gas asset values to spiral even more chaotically than coal. The report also calls for more mandated disclosures of firms' emissions and exposure to climate change. However, "the need for better data and tools cannot justify inaction," the report warned. "Climate-related financial risks will become more acute if not addressed promptly." (HuffPost, Axios, Washington Post $, Reuters, CNN, CNBC, New York Times $, Reuters, AP, Washington Examiner, Grist)

More Than Dramatic Sunsets, Smoke From Wildfires Harms More People In The East Than Out West: Smoke from wildfires burning across the American West causes greater health damage east of the Rockies than to their west, a new study shows. About three-quarters of deaths and asthma visits to emergency departments related to smoke over the past decade have occurred in the East because of higher population densities. “Smoke is not just a western problem," Katelyn O’Dell, lead author of the study, told the Washington Post. Wildfire smoke includes numerous pollutants, and the scientists looked specifically at the harms caused by fine particulate matter, known as PM2.5, which gets deep into lungs and worsens and leads to myriad health problems. The research underlines the widespread harms caused by wildfires, which are made worse by human-caused climate change, despite their localized acute destruction. (Washington Post $, CNN; Climate Signals background: Wildfires)

Intelligence Community Warns Climate Crisis Poses Growing Threat To National Security: An unprecedented, wide-ranging assessment released Thursday warns the climate crisis will exacerbate long-standing threats to security around the world. The collection of reports, including the first-ever National Intelligence Assessment on climate change, focuses on the U.S. government response to the climate crisis — specifically, how its impacts like drought and extreme storms will cause hardship, displacement, and thus geopolitical instability. It also warns of tensions in petrostates as demand for oil and gas falls. The assessment also called for "individualized humanitarian protection" in the U.S. for people forced to flee their homes because of the ravages of the climate crisis. “Much of the carbon emissions driving climate change have come from rich nations but the consequences are being borne disproportionately by the poor,” Teevrat Garg, an economics professor at UC-San Diego who specializes in climate migration, told the New York Times. As a result, wealthy countries have “an obligation to support climate refugees.” (New York Times $, Axios, Washington Post $, The Guardian, AP, CBS, Washington Examiner, Wall Street Journal $, The Hill)

No Women Or People Of Color Were Nominated For The AGU Fellows Program. You Won't Believe What Happened Next: When the American Geophysical Union committee charged with reviewing nominees candidates for its prestigious fellows program realized every single one was a white man, the committee chose to highlight the dearth of diversity by refusing to choose any of the nominees. "The honest truth is that they will get nominated again and they will become fellows," Helen Fricker, a glaciologist at Scripps Institution of Oceanography and one of the five committee members, told E&E. "There’s no question there. It will just be a fairer process.” (E&E News)

BAD INVESTMENTS: Some investors say bank pledges to cut funding for Arctic drilling contain loopholes (Wall Street Journal $), global finance industry sinks $119 billion into companies linked to deforestation (FT $) 

BIG OIL: Diversified Energy said emissions fell. Now it says they didn’t (Bloomberg $) 

GREEN FINANCING: Allianz, Calpers to cut portfolio emissions by up to 30% by 2025 (Bloomberg $), net-zero tool backed by BlackRock gives ‘big nudge’ on climate (Bloomberg $), BlackRock opposed re-election of 800 company directors in Q3 - report (Reuters)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: How ‘segregation, disinvestment, and concentrated poverty’ preceded lead troubles in Benton Harbor (PBS NewsHour), in Chicago, cyclists in Black neighborhoods are over-policed and under-protected (Grist)

PLASTICS: Plastics will create more climate pollution than coal in the U.S. by 2030, new study finds (HuffPost, Reuters, E&E News, The Hill, The Guardian), big questions surround microplastics' climate impact (E&E $)

COP26: Emerging economies slam COP26 net-zero push as ‘anti-equity’ (Climate Home), net-zero emissions fight breaks out before COP26 (Axios), no formal COP26 role for big oil amid doubts over firms’ net-zero plans (The Guardian), what is COP26? Here’s how global climate negotiations work and what’s expected from the Glasgow summit (The Conversation), what to know about COP26 in Glasgow (Axios), 'window for action closing' - G20 urged to hike climate pledges (Reuters)

• AMERICA IN GLASGOW: U.S. delays global plan to deliver $100B in climate finance (E&E News), US climate credibility in doubt as legislative wrangles go down to the wire (Climate Home)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Biden climate envoy Kerry to visit Saudi Arabia next week (Reuters), G20 split over coal, 1.5 degree climate limit ahead of Rome summit -sources (Reuters), Greenpeace chief warns of ‘greenwashing’ at UN climate talks (AP, The Hill), oil and coal-rich countries lobbying to weaken UN climate report, leak shows (The Guardian), Yellen to attend G20 meeting in Rome, UN climate talks - Treasury (Reuters), China’s overseas coal ban raises pressure on developing countries to go green (Washington Post $)

FOSSIL VOLATILITY: 4 ways the energy crisis hits U.S. electricity, gas, EVs (E&E News), EU leaders lock horns over response to energy price spike (Reuters), your gasoline, natural gas and electric bills are all going up this winter (Houston Chronicle)

CALIFORNIA DRILLING: California seeks strict limits on new oil drilling near communities (Reuters, AP), Californians living within miles of oil and gas wells have toxic air (Environmental Health News)

CLIMATE COMMS: Language used to describe the climate becoming more urgent, study finds (The Guardian)

AGENCIES: EPA water chief sells lawmakers on agency's PFAS vision (E&E $), BLM considers big solar expansion in Nev.’s Mojave Desert (E&E News)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Biden won't challenge NEPA redo of massive Alaska oil project (E&E $)

LAWSUITS: Conservation group presses court for 'secret' coal council records (Reuters)

HOUSE: Michigan lawmaker [Rep. Rashida Tlaib] tells CBS News Congress needs to do more to fix America's water crisis (CBS), will GOP lawmaker's indictment affect big conservation bill? (E&E $), House votes to ask Justice Department to prosecute Trump ally Steve Bannon for ignoring Jan. 6 subpoena (CNBC, AP, New York Times $, CNN, Axios, MSNBC, NPR, The Guardian)

SENATE: Where does mercurial Sinema really stand on green issues? (E&E News), calling Sinema an obstacle to progress, 5 veterans quit her advisory council (New York Times $, HuffPost, MSNBC), Senator Manchin acknowledges having weighed leaving Democratic Party (Reuters)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden is open to scrapping filibuster for voting rights bill ‘and maybe more’ (New York Times $), White House to roll out ‘climate framework.’ Here’s what we know (E&E News), White House, EPA tout climate wins and goals ahead of COP 26 (E&E News), Biden pushes his agenda as infrastructure talks drag on (Today Show), Jason Furman: ‘a carbon tax’ is a ‘better policy than anything under discussion right now’ (MSNBC), White House: Senators Sinema, Manchin are negotiating in good faith (Reuters)

INFRASTRUCTURE BILL(S): Billions in environmental justice funds hang in the balance (AP), Democratic voters want Biden’s big spending deal—and they’re getting impatient (Wall Street Journal $), chairman of [House Ways and Means] committee says his goal is to get a $2 trillion bill (Reuters), deal on U.S. social spending bill not happening soon -Senator Manchin (Reuters), Biden, Democrats shred spending, tax plans to get a deal done (Reuters, ABC, Reuters), a key senator [Tina Smith] presented an alternative power plant program. But will it stick? (Washington Post $), Grijalva: we're 'clinging' to climate corps funding (E&E $), ‘more than one way’: Dems mull options for climate program (E&E News)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Committee deadlocks on 9th Circuit nominee (E&E News), Panel approves NOAA nominee, delays consumer safety pick (E&E $)

TRIBES: California, Hoopa Valley Tribe try to save salmon and a way of life (Reuters), violence at fairy creek is part of a reckoning over police brutality in Canada (Teen Vogue)

CITIES AND STATES: Colorado organization helps communities plan for a future without coal (Yale Climate Connections), Freetown, Sierra Leone, appoints Africa's 1st heat officer (E&E $), lawsuit says Montana ignored climate in approving $250 mln power plant (Reuters), a California law gave the people power to cut pollution. Why isn’t it working? (Grist)

FALSE CHOICES: How to protect West Virginia from climate change without hurting its economy (NPR)

IMPACTS: Cities worldwide aren’t adapting to climate change quickly enough (The Conversation), finding bright spots in the global coral reef catastrophe (Yale Environment 360), global COVID recovery fuels climate-driven diseases — report (E&E $), forecasters predict warmer winter for two-thirds of US (AP, Washington Post $)

FROM CRADLE TO GRAVE: Where civilization emerged between the Tigris and Euphrates,
climate change is poisoning the land and emptying the villages (Washington Post $)

REQUIEM: Ode to a glacier (Atmos)

CALIFORNIA RAININ': Extreme rain heads for California’s burn scars, raising the risk of mudslides – this is what cascading climate disasters look like (The Conversation), extreme atmospheric rivers to bombard California with beneficial precipitation (Washington Post $, CNN, ABC, NPR, Gizmodo)

HEAT: Study warns of extreme heat in growing cities (The Hill)

DROUGHT: It will take more than rain to end drought in Western U.S. (AP), how did California’s drought get so bad? (New York Times $)

CALDOR FIRE: Fire that threatened Lake Tahoe region is now 100% contained (AP)

HURRICANES: Mayor: Laura left behind 300-400 condemned commercial buildings (American Press, AP)

NOBEL-WORTHY: The key insight that defined 50 years of climate science (The Atlantic)

RENEWABLES: Renewable energy jobs grew globally in 2020 despite COVID-19 crisis (Thomson Reuters Foundation), in Minnesota, old power plants could be the on-ramp for new wind and solar (Energy News Network), meeting state offshore wind, renewable goals requires up to $3.2B in transmission, PJM says (Utility Dive), record renewables drive down electricity prices across Australia (The Guardian), the world’s first solar-powered steel mill is here (Gizmodo)

EFFICIENCY: How Texans could bolster power grid and save money (Houston Chronicle)

METHANE: EU Parliament seeks legal clampdown on planet-warming methane emissions (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: A biodiesel boom (and conundrum) (NPR), oil refiner renaissance under threat from natural gas crisis (Bloomberg $), U.S. slows down oil and gas mergers-sources (Reuters), natural-gas prices fall from peak as warm autumn buoys stockpiles (Wall Street Journal $)

COAL: Biggest U.S. grid changes rules to shore up coal supply as winter approaches (Reuters)

HYDROGEN: Green hydrogen to account for 20% of European power demand by 2050 -Statkraft (Reuters)

(ALLEGED) UTILITY CORRUPTION: NextEra doubles down on green hydrogen, other renewables (Utility Dive, E&E $)

GRID: To secure the energy supply chain, Feds want to reimagine the power sector as defense (Utility Dive)

EVs: Tesla looks to pave the way for Chinese battery makers to come to U.S. (Reuters), Tesla is outrunning the supply chain crunch (Axios), Tesla's German plant hits snag as public consultation repeated (Reuters), Toyota exec: Not everyone should drive a battery electric vehicle (Reuters)

ACTIVISM: Cosmo’s guide to changing the world (Cosmopolitan)

AVIATION: Booming private jet market stretches rich buyers as climate clouds gather (Reuters)

BUSINESS: Leaders in shipping, aviation and heavy industry chart a path to net-zero ahead of COP26 (Canary Media)

HISTORY LESSONS: How ideas from ancient Greek philosophy may have driven civilization toward climate change (The Conversation)

GRETA: Greta Thunberg accuses world leaders of being in denial over climate crisis (The Guardian)

IN MEMORIAM: Diane Weyermann, Participant executive and ‘Inconvenient Truth’ producer, dies at 66 (Variety, LA Times $, Hollywood Reporter, New York Times $)

INTERNATIONAL: How Russia is cashing in on climate change (New York Times $), a few idealistic Canadians are trying to replant the world’s forests with flying machines (Washington Post $), Germany needs to invest $1 trillion to hit climate target (Reuters), New Zealand passes climate change disclosure laws for financial firms in world first (Reuters), water-poor Egypt eyes quadrupling desalination capacity in 5 years (Reuters), searching for Australia’s climate tipping point (New York Times $)

• We’re headed for a global energy crisis. What we need is a transition strategy. (Washington Post, Fareed Zakaria column $)
• There are no real climate leaders yet – who will step up at COP26? (The Guardian, Greta Thunberg op-ed)
• Imagining a day without water isn’t hard for many Texans (Austin-American Statesman, Jeremy Mazur op-ed)
• Now is the time to protect ourselves against the invisible threat of lead service lines (Chicago Tribune, Jeremy Orr and James Coyne op-ed)
• There’s no such thing as Secure energy (Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)
• How not to let corporations kill Biden’s agenda (New York Times, Paul Krugman column $)
• The $2 trillion is phony too (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)
• The west’s energy masochism (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

Colorado Climate Disinformation Complex Provides Microcosm of Fossil Fuel Industry’s Global Deceptions

If something is common sense, then it’s accurate and can’t be argued with, right? Describing one’s position in an argument as the “common sense” approach is a longstanding rhetorical device used to frame your position, clearly actually up for debate, as being so obvious that any other consideration is ridiculous. 

For example, when people in Colorado hear that the Common Sense Institute says fracking is safe and will make you rich, they might not immediately assume that such a “common sense” message is coming from a respected University group that’s been co-opted by funding from the oil and gas industry, who retains all sorts of control over the “Institute.” 

That’s one of the many, many specific examples in a new report from the Union of Concerned Scientists detailing how the fossil fuel industry wages disinformation campaigns to block climate action just in one state, Colorado.  

As report author Ortal Ullman explains in an accompanying post, the industry-backed Common Sense Institute bought its way into the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder and then pushed out industry-friendly reports, getting pro-fracking findings out without having to put the literally toxic industry’s figuratively toxic name on them. 

UCS refers to this practice of buying credibility as “the screen,” one of the four main tactics they describe in cataloging the industry’s disinformation. By running this reputational ruse, they can then push out “the fake,” the sorts of reports that make claims that sound good until you take even the briefest glance at them, but nevertheless serve as talking points for the astroturf groups. 

That’s another main tactic, “the diversion,” of using industry-funded groups like “Protect Colorado” to push the industry-funded reports by other, industry-funded-but-discretely partnerships with otherwise legitimate academic organizations. 

All of this, of course, builds up to the most important tactic: “the fix.” Because in addition to funding a whole ecosystem of astroturf groups, the body that really matters is the one making the laws, so for example, Protect Colorado raised almost $17 million to defeat a proposal mandating some distance between fracking sites and homes and schools. 

So next time you see some supposedly common sense suggestions from a blandly-named local-looking group that happens to sound like it could be coming straight from the industry’s ad team, you can probably just assume that, one way or another, it is.

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