TRANSITION DONE WRONG: A fraught and rocky energy transition pathway (Axios), spiking gas prices are a preview of an energy transition gone wrong (Grist)
CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: How the world could pay for unstoppable climate damage (E&E $), EU objects to union-made electric vehicle tax credits in BBB (Politico Pro $), White House announces diplomatic boycott of Beijing Olympics (Politico)
BIDEN DRILLING ON PUBLIC LANDS: Biden is approving more oil and gas drilling permits on public lands than Trump, analysis finds (Washington Post $)(InsideClimate News)
STRANDED ASSETS: Enbridge says aggressive climate policies shortening life of its pipelines (Star-Tribune $)
SEEMS FINE: Gambling ‘America’s Amazon’ (CNN)
FIRST AND WORST: As eco-anxieties mount, Africa's young people urge action on climate (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
GOOD NEWS: 11 climate justice wins that got US through 2021 (Atmos)
AGENCIES: Justice Department opens civil rights investigation into Mount Vernon, NY police department (The Root)
DOE: Biden administration proposes lightbulb efficiency rule, reversing Trump (The Hill, Politico Pro $)
DOI: Biden administration moves to scrap Cadiz water pipeline right-of-way permit, cleared by Trump (LA Times $, E&E News), Haaland hits the road to talk infrastructure, drought (E&E $)
HOUSE: House climate committee sets hearing on energy prices (E&E $), panel takes up brownfield redevelopment with EJ in mind (E&E $)
WHITE HOUSE: Touting his spending bill, Biden shifts focus to drug prices (New York Times $)
BUILD BACK BETTER ACT: Senate revs up work on $2 trillion spending proposal, aiming to complete vote on Biden-backed bill before Christmas (Washington Post $, E&E News), e-bike sales could get big push from Build Back Better Act (Bloomberg $)
NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: GOP senators prepare gantlet for Biden’s Fed picks after Powell (Bloomberg $)
TRIBES: Biden tribal policy would shake up energy law on public lands (E&E News)
CITIES AND STATES: New York climate plan focuses on electrification (Politico Pro $), Boston’s new Mayor promised free public transit. Can she make it happen? (Grist), Why New York is unearthing a brook it buried a century ago (New York Times $)
CALIFORNIA: California OKs 'bridge' measures to bolster grid against potential extreme circumstances in 2022, 2023 (Utility Dive), crude reality: [California] consumes half the oil from the Amazon rainforest (NBC)
TEXAS: Texas cities weren’t ready for a massive winter storm in February. Has that changed? (Texas Tribune), Texas lowers electricity price cap to $5,000/MWh ahead of winter season (Utility Dive)
FERC: Midwest pipeline gets FERC nod as Supreme Court weighs case (E&E $)
IMPACTS: Bearing witness to Svalbard’s fragile splendor (New York Times $), all coral reefs in western Indian Ocean ‘at high risk of collapse in next 50 years’ (The Guardian), ski resorts are delaying their openings due to warm weather (Today Show), study sheds light on Antarctic Ocean climate riddle (E&E News)
HEAT: New study outlines high costs of extreme heat in Phoenix (AP)
FLOODING: ‘River is getting close’ (Washington Post $), ‘just total chaos’: floods bring death and devastation to dairies (New York Times $), storm brings serious flash flooding to Hawaii along with mountain snow (Washington Post $)
RENEWABLES: SEC probes Tesla over whistleblower claims on solar panel defects (Reuters, FT $), Tesla down 20% from record high following report of SEC probe (Bloomberg $), China starts round 2 of massive desert renewable energy build (Bloomberg $), lawsuit: renewable giant [Iberdrola/Avangrid] engaged in ‘brazen racketeering’ (E&E $), offshore wind grid woes may be worse than previously thought (E&E News), the race to secure clean energy materials (Axios), on the banks of the furious Congo River, a 5-star emporium of ambition (New York Times $)
BATTERIES: What’s better than a big battery? How about a big battery you can move around (Canary Media), 1,000s take to streets in Serbia to oppose government deal for Rio Tinto lithium mine (Democracy Now)
STORAGE: Energy storage is booming — and flexing its political muscle (Canary Media), Danish startup gets billionaire backing to store energy in salt (Bloomberg $)
EFFICIENCY: In charts: global progress on energy efficiency (FT $), water groups pioneer ‘waste not, want not’ energy schemes (FT $)
LNG: Freeport LNG CEO expects 'heavy' LNG demand for decades (Bloomberg $)
OIL & GAS: Demand for oil, gas to remain robust for years, energy leaders say (Wall Street Journal $), earthquake worries force well closures in Texas oil patch (E&E $), Exxon Mobil aims for net-zero emissions from its operations in the Permian Basin by 2030. (New York Times $, Politico Pro $, FT $), Halliburton says the world is entering a period of oil scarcity (Reuters), South African activists, community members protest Shell Oil exploration on pristine coastline (Democracy Now)
DOESN'T SOUND LIKE A MOB BOSS AT ALL: Saudi Aramco warns of ‘social unrest’ if fossil fuels ditched too quickly (FT $)
PIPELINES: Sunoco ordered to dredge lake, pay $4M over [August 2020] pipeline spill (AP), Virginia board rejects gas project, cites environmental justice (E&E $)
HYDROGEN: Elon Musk has strong views on hydrogen. Not everyone agrees (CNBC), Hydrogen airplane enters race for carbon-free travel (E&E $)
UTILITIES: A month after 'malicious' cyberattack, a small Colorado utility still doesn't have all systems back online (Utility Dive)
GRID: Extreme weather, project delays may challenge NY power grid in 2021-2030- operator (Reuters), improving outcomes for everyone: enthusiasm builds for broader Western electricity market (Utility Dive), New England grid operator braces for tight fuel supplies this winter (Politico Pro $)
EVs: General Motors to manufacture electric car battery cells in US (Yale Climate Connections), Europe’s shift to EVs could ax 500,000 car jobs, suppliers warn (Politico Pro $), EV maker Lucid gets SEC subpoena on $24 billion blank-check deal (Reuters), prototype of electric moped with 90-second charge time set to hit the streets in 2022 (Canary Media), Toyota to build $1.29 billion EV battery plant in North Carolina, create 1,750 jobs (CNBC, New York Times $)
AVIATION: ‘Sustainable aviation fuel’ is here, but still has miles to go (Grist)
BUSINESS: Companies race to earn forest credits as incentive to offset global carbon footprint (NBC)
BASED ON A TRUE STORY: "Don't Look Up" draws from climate scientists' experience (Axios), Oscar winners assemble for climate warning comedy 'Don't Look Up' (Reuters)
FINANCE: ‘Green banks’ target the funding gap for New York energy start-ups (FT $), ESG duds have nowhere to hide, world’s biggest stock owner says (Bloomberg $), investors push for faster ways to save energy (FT $)
SMART PEOPLE: Nobel Prizes awarded in pandemic-curtailed local ceremonies (AP)
PHILANTHROPY: Bezos fund awards $443M for environmental justice, climate (E&E News, Politico Pro $, Bloomberg $, The Verge)
INFRASTRUCTURE: US spending on airport expansion flies under the radar for climate activists (Climate Home)
WILDLIFE: Meet the new climate refugee in town: coyotes (Bloomberg $), sharks ‘amassing’ on the East Coast is totally normal, uprising not imminent (Gizmodo)
INTERNATIONAL: British power prices hamper steel sector efforts to cut emissions -report (Reuters)
CAN CONFIRM: Total solar eclipse dazzles skies in Antarctica. The photos are spectacular. (Washington Post $)