FIRST LOOK:

LCV Demands Action On Voting Rights, Filibuster To Win Its Endorsement: The League of Conservation Voters will not endorse any lawmaker who opposes two voting rights bills currently being debated in the Senate or votes against eliminating the filibuster, the group announced Thursday. Every Republican, as well as Democratic Senators Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), oppose eliminating the filibuster which, because of broad Republican opposition, is needed to pass the the Freedom to Vote Act and John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Voting rights are crucial to ensuring the racial equity the Biden administration has vowed to put at the heart of its environmental agenda. “We see it as tied together, you know, civil rights and environmental justice,” Texas Southern Univ. professor Robert Bullard told E&E News. “Our environmental justice movement grew out of civil rights, and the fight for equal protection, the fight and the right to vote and not be intimidated, and not to be treated differently in that way.” (Endorsements: E&E $; Voting Rights-EJ intersection: E&E News)

Climate Change Harms Kids 'From Preconception … Into Adolescence,' Studies Show: Climate change is harming fetuses, babies, and infants worldwide, six new studies published in a special issue of Pediatric and Perinatal Epidemiology show. Increased heat was linked to premature birth, increased hospital admissions for young children, and fast weight gain for babies which can lead to  higher obesity risk. Studies also found air pollution caused by fossil fuel combustion was linked to reduced fertility, and fetal exposure to wildfire smoke doubled the risk of severe birth defects. “From the very beginning, from preconception, through early childhood into adolescence, we’re starting to see important impacts of climate hazards on health,” said Prof. Gregory Wellenius, who edited the issue. “These extreme events are going to become even more likely and more severe with continued climate change [and this research shows] why they’re important to us, not in the future, but today.” (The Guardian, The Hill)

Record Heat in Southern Hemisphere Threatens Crops, Penguins: Epic heat is broiling the Southern Hemisphere. A town in Western Australia tied the all-time record for hottest temperature in the Southern Hemisphere last week, and extreme heat, coupled with extended drought, are threatening important grain-producing regions in southern South America. Multiple weather stations in Argentina, Uruguay, and southwestern Brazil have broken, or came close to, all-time high temperature records in the past week. Argentina is the world's largest soybean exporter and third-largest corn exporter and the heat-drought combination poses serious concerns. Climate change, caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, is making droughts and extreme heatwaves worse and more frequent. “We’re having many days of clear skies where solar radiation is very intense and in a context of an extreme drought Argentina has been going through for about two years,” Cindy Fernandez, a meteorologist at Argentina's National Meteorological Service, told Reuters: “This means that the soil is very dry, and earth that is dry heats up much more than soil that is moist.” The heatwave also highlights the ongoing danger posed by climate change to Patagonian penguins. (South America: Reuters, Yale Climate Connections; Australia: Reuters, Bloomberg $, The Guardian; Penguins: Washington Post $; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves, Drought)

MLK: How Martin Luther King Jr. laid the groundwork for environmental justice (Green Matters, National Geographic), inspired by King’s words, experts say the fight for climate justice anywhere is a fight for climate justice everywhere (InsideClimate News)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Black Americans hit hardest by deadly air pollution (Canary Media), Amitav Ghosh: European colonialism helped create a planet in crisis (The Guardian)

COP27: Egypt names foreign minister Sameh Shoukry to lead COP27 climate talks (Climate Home)

(CLIMATE) DIPLOMACY: Italy appoints diplomat Modiano as special envoy for climate change (Reuters), Russia will maintain its energy stranglehold on Europe for decades (Quartz), the climate challenge after Glasgow summit: making good on promises (Wall Street Journal $)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Activists in historic Shell emissions ruling add targets (E&E $), in the latest rights of nature case, a tribe is suing seattle on behalf of salmon in the Skagit River (InsideClimate News), how Exxon is leveraging Texas courts to silence its climate critics (The Guardian)

PR: Wanted: Environment reporters for an oil giant's 'newsroom' (E&E $)

FOSSIL VOLATILITY: Oil producers aren’t keeping up with demand, causing prices to stay high (New York Times $)

SEAWEED: By cultivating seaweed, Indigenous communities restore connection to the ocean (Mongabay)

THE KIDS ARE … SHOULDERING PAST GENERATIONS' BURDEN: Eco activist Sagarika Sriram is making change through small actions (TIME)

THERE USED TO BE SO MUCH ICE: How the refrigerator became an agent of climate catastrophe (The New Yorker $)

JEWISH EARTH DAY: On Jewish Earth Day, more Jewish groups take climate action (AP)

ABOUT TIME: Power fully restored to Louisiana’s barrier island after Ida (AP)

AGENCIES: DOJ appeals trade court decision striking down bifacial solar tariffs (Politico Pro $), tightened federal water protections won’t slow some projects (AP)

DOE: Biden is ending Trump’s war on green appliances — but not very quickly (Grist), Energy Department slammed for funding ‘false’ plastics solutions (Grist)

DOI: Biden Interior OKs third desert solar facility under plan Trump sought to undo (Politico Pro $, The Hill)

DOT: DOT to allot $27B to fix bridges, ensure climate resilience (E&E News)

FED: Heading for a second term, Fed chair Jerome Powell bucks a global trend on climate change (InsideClimate News), Biden moves to remake the Fed (Politico), Biden nominates climate champ [Sarah Bloom Raskin] as Fed’s bank cop (E&E News), Biden's latest Fed pick signals brewing climate battles (Axios), Fed pick [Lael Brainard] says addressing climate is 'meat and potatoes' (E&E $)

HOUSE: House Democrats question TVA about rates, climate action (E&E $)

SENATE: GOP senator blocks Biden EPA nominees over coal plant decision (The Hill, E&E News, Politico Pro $)

WHITE HOUSE: “Appalling”: climate groups slam Biden for prolonging Trump coal policy (Truthout), Biden has made progress on climate change so far, but it’s not enough, [Evergreen Action] says (Washington Post $)

SCOTUS: Supreme Court shot-or-test rule freeze hits agency powers (E&E News)

POLITICS: With Biden’s signature legislation stalled, Democrats stare into political void (Politico), how a European gas pipeline became a US political weapon (E&E News)

CITIES AND STATES: New Jersey Gov. delays power plant contract after community organizes to protect Newark neighborhood (Democracy Now), governors turn to budgets to guard against climate change (AP), Michigan’s new climate plan is a strong start, but environmentalists say faster action needed (Michigan Live), nearly half of GDP in cities at risk of disruption from nature loss (The Hill), New York inks contracts for two offshore wind projects. What they will do (Politico Pro $), protesters call on the government. hochul, lawmakers to pass sweeping New York climate bill (Democracy Now)

CALIFORNIA: Elon Musk, Hollywood actors criticize California’s plan to cut solar subsidies (Wall Street Journal $)

VIRGINIA: Ex-EPA workers ask Virginia senators not to confirm Wheeler (AP, E&E $, The Hill), Youngkin’s cabinet has more fossil fuel ties beyond Trump’s EPA Chief (Truthout)

FERC: FERC to reconsider embattled Massachusetts natural gas project (Politico Pro $), first 'responsibly sourced' gas filing at FERC draws producer pushback (Politico Pro $)

IMPACTS: Climate-related risks are amplifying tensions in trade, geopolitics and conflicts, expert says (CNBC), extreme weather, pests, fires, and drought threaten forests in Southeast US (Yale Climate Connections), how to prepare for climate change's most immediate impacts (Wired), last year’s overall climate was shaped by warming-driven heat extremes around the globe (InsideClimate News), old climate clues shed new light on history (Wired), rural California residents confront growing risks from extreme weather (Wall Street Journal $), the most startling facts in 2021 climate report (Axios), the world’s troubling new tempo of temperature records (Bloomberg $), warming temperatures lead these dog sledders to race on dry land (WBUR), rural California residents confront growing risks from extreme weather (Wall Street Journal $)

HEAT: One of the world’s wealthiest oil exporters is becoming unlivable (Bloomberg $), rising temperatures, dying cattle: Iraq is reeling from climate change (PBS NewsHour)

WILDFIRES: A small town in Oregon is trying to keep its residents from leaving after wildfires (NPR), woman, 91, still missing 2 weeks after massive Colorado fire (AP)

FLOODING: A Tennessee family must decide how to move forward after devastating floods (NPR), largest stormwater project in Fort Lauderdale history underway to help neighborhoods mitigate flooding (CBS4-Miami), to stop floods, Baton Rouge area needs a stronger agency cleaning rivers, bayous, report says (The Advocate)

HURRICANES: Study of health woes in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria shows effects of climate change (USA Today)

HEALTH: As global temperatures continue to rise, climate anxiety will be a growing issue for young people, therapists warn (Yahoo), as heat spikes, US workers seen facing 'health or pay' dilemma (Thomson Reuters Foundation), climate crisis is ‘greatest long term health threat’, says ONS (The Independent), lead pollution and mental health (Environmental Health News)

THINK GLOBALLY, GET AFFECTED LOCALLY: Don’t Look Up director Adam McKay says his California home insurance cancelled over climate-linked disasters (The Independent)

EMISSIONS: Emissions set to rise with global power demand - IEA (Reuters)

WINTER STORM IZZY: Winter storm moves north: fast snowfall shocks forecasters as flights canceled, power outages continue (USA Today, Washington Post $), coastal flooding hits Connecticut, two dead in North Carolina crash (Weather Channel, Washington Post $), winter storm strikes eastern US, causing power outages and flight cancellations (Wall Street Journal $, Asbury Park Press, New York Times $, CNN, CBS), DC has already seen double its typical January snowfall, and more could come (Washington Post $)

RENEWABLES: Clean energy tech needs to be designed for recycling, experts say (The Verge), Scottish wind sale nets nearly $1 billion with Shell, BP among winners (Reuters, The Guardian, New York Times $, Bloomberg $), Nature Conservancy tool helps identify ideal solar farm sites in Georgia (Yale Climate Connections), oil majors launch Texas geothermal alliance (E&E $), one of the world’s biggest offshore wind farms gears up for full operations (CNBC), the renewable energy source Democrats hope will break out (Politico), UK power spikes above £1,000 with extreme wind lull (Bloomberg $), Vietnam firm launches $220 mln offshore wind farm amid renewables drive (Reuters)

BATTERIES: California's Salton Sea is a potential hotspot for lithium production (NBC), how the US fell behind in lithium, the ‘white gold’ of electric vehicles (CNBC), NineDot lands Carlyle investment for New York battery projects (Wall Street Journal $)

BUILDINGS: PearlX has a plan to bring solar and batteries to apartment buildings (Canary Media)

OIL & GAS: Texas earthquakes prompt new fracking rules (Wall Street Journal $), [Western Australia]’s offshore gasfields pay almost no royalties and stoke carbon emissions, report finds (The Guardian), months after an explosion, a town is deserted and without answers (New York Times $), in quest for energy independence, Mexico is buying a Texas oil refinery (New York Times $)

DIESEL SPILL: Corroded pipeline bursts in St. Bernard, killing thousands of fish, animals (4WWL-TV, Earther)

NUKES: Nuclear power: could it be a clean energy solution? (Washington Post $), in tiny Wyoming town, Bill Gates bets big on nuclear power (AP), race to cut carbon emissions splits U.S. states on nuclear (AP)

PLASTICS: Big brands call for global pact to cut plastic production (Reuters, Axios), plastic crisis needs binding treaty, report says (BBC)

COAL: How coal holds on in America  (Washington Post $), China’s coal production hit record levels in 2021 (The Guardian, Reuters), sale of North Dakota's largest coal plant is almost complete. Then will come the hard part (InsideClimate News)

HYDROGEN: Fortescue's Forrest says German hydrogen deal is just the start (Reuters), hydrogen power forecast to bring new dimension to energy geopolitics (FT $), New York: renewable hydrogen hub? (E&E News)

UTILITIES: Biden's climate agenda is stalled in congress. In Hawaii, one key part is going ahead (NPR), Koch Energy sues Texas utility for $21 mln in unpaid deep freeze bills (Reuters), Ohio advocates say there’s still a need to knock on doors before utility shutoffs (Energy News Network)

GRID: Global surge in electricity use could bring three more years of price rises (The Guardian), report: rising electricity demand threatens net-zero plans (E&E $, CNN), Biden decarbonization goals could triple reliance on electric grid: EPRI (Utility Dive)

EVs: Car advertising finally goes electric (Bloomberg $), Chinese EVs find niche making short-haul deliveries in japan (Bloomberg $), European sales of electric cars overtake diesel models for first time (FT $), Indian electric vehicle company EVage raises $28 million (Axios), Tesla is rolling out software ‘fix’ to heat pump issue in cold weather, but some think it’s a hardware problem (Electrek)

GEOENGINEERING: After sun-dimming setback, geoengineers seek a diplomatic fix (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

NOT GREAT: Chemical pollution has passed safe limit for humanity, say scientists (The Guardian)

XR: Extinction Rebellion activists cleared over London rush hour disruption (The Guardian), Extinction Rebellion donor leads world’s top-performing hedge fund (The Guardian)

FINANCE: Bill Gates’ climate fund looks to funnel billions into carbon removal, green hydrogen, and more (The Verge), 

• BLACKROCK: Blackrock’s climate stance is about profits, not politics, Larry Fink says (Wall Street Journal $), it’s not ‘woke’ for businesses to think beyond profit, Blackrock chief says (New York Times $), Blackrock’s sustainable investment funds surge to $509 billion (Bloomberg $)

BITCOIN: Panic as Kosovo pulls the plug on its energy-guzzling bitcoin miners (The Guardian)

CELEBRITIES: Edward Norton wonks out on solar policy and NYT crossword angers clean-energy fans (Canary Media)

WILDLIFE: Beavers have been moving into the Arctic, accelerating the effects of climate change (NPR), loss of Birds and Mammals Makes It Harder for Plants to Adapt to Climate Change (EcoWatch)

INTERNATIONAL: Colombia presidential favorite seeks global anti-oil bloc (Bloomberg $), climate crisis could wipe 1% a year off UK economy by 2045, say ministers (The Guardian), EU advisers concerned about plan for green labels on gas, nuclear investments (Reuters), Europe gas tracks Asian prices lower, Russian supply in focus (Bloomberg $), Europe’s governments face a reckoning as energy prices surge (Bloomberg $), European gas prices jump after collapse of Russia’s talks with US and Nato (FT $), France ramps up nuclear power as Germany closes plants in the name of clean energy (NPR, Bloomberg $), From oil-rich UAE, South Korea president vows climate action (AP), German energy regulator approves network capacity plan until 2035 (Reuters), German transport minister reverses from 15 mln electric vehicles goal (Reuters), [UK] government says its climate change curbs inadequate (BBC), Italy prepares energy package to curb surging bills, sources say (Reuters), leading UK fracking firm taken over by green energy group (The Guardian), Oman teams up with BP in renewable energy development (Reuters), regulator: Canada’s banks have 'no time to waste' on climate risk (Politico Pro $), Shell says electricity to meet 60% of China's energy use by 2060 (Reuters), UK households struggling with energy bills set to triple - think tank (Reuters), Venezuela’s environmental crisis: ‘the beginning of a wave of destruction’ (FT $), China's 2021 diesel exports sink to 5-year low (Reuters), China’s Xi rejects ‘Cold War mentality,’ pushes cooperation (AP), UK plan to curb protests faces opposition in Parliament (AP)

• Voting rights are essential for environmental justice and climate action (The Hill, Carla Walker op-ed)
• Martin Luther King Jr.'s fight for economic justice continues now more than ever (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• I’m a climate scientist: Here’s how climate change directly impacts mothers and babies (Motherly, Dr. Rosimar Rios-Berrios op-ed)
• 2021 was climate chaos. Let's make 2022 better. (Washington Post, Katharine Hayhoe op-ed $)
• How did so much lead get into Santa Ana's ground, what can be done about it? (Voice of OC, Norberto Santana Jr.)
• We put solar panels on 1 million roofs in California. That win is now under threat. (New York Times, Arnold Schwarzenegger op-ed $)
• Here’s how to repay developing nations for colonialism – and fight the climate crisis (The Guardian, Michael Franczak and Olúfẹ́mi O Táíwò op-ed)
• Dolores Huerta: Workers must unite to take on climate (Atmos, interview)
• Bring tech and innovation to the climate-change fight (Bloomberg, Editorial Board $)
• Texas needs to move faster to become clean, green hydrogen hub (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• After the loss of three giants of conservation, Biden must pick up the mantle (The Hill, Christy Goldfuss op-ed)
• OSHA can do more to protect Americans from COVID-19 (New York Times, David Michaels and Jordan Barab op-ed $)
• The Guardian view on high energy prices: buffer stocks can stabilise them (The Guardian, Editorial Board)
• Macro grid will keep the lights on (The Hill, Gregory Wetstone And Rob Gramlich op-ed)
• A politicized Fed endangers the economy (Wall Street Journal, Jeb Hensarling op-ed $)
• Between COVID and extreme weather, it’s an agonizing time to be in your 20s (Seattle Times, Kate Cunningham op-ed)
• California needs to do more than just throw money at climate change. It must act (LA Times, Los Angeles Times Editorial Board $)
• Why protecting the planet is essential to preventing future pandemics (CNN, Marco Lambertini, Gim Huay Neo and Elizabeth Mrema op-ed)
• California is poised to kill rooftop solar, damaging climate and health (The Hill, Mark Jacobson op-ed)
• NIMBYism is good if the N stands for nuclear (Bloomberg, Matthew Yglesias op-ed $)
• Life imitates climate politics—again. (Environmental Health News, Peter Dykstra column)
• As coal use surges, America finds it's hard to unplug from carbon (The Hill, Robert Bryce op-ed)
• Biden plays capture the federal reserve (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)
• The most destructive fire in Colorado history: What I've been working my whole career to prevent (The Hill, Susie Strife op-ed)
• Winter is in full effect, and this year we must make sure our communities are prepared (Blavity, Valencia Gunder op-ed)
• Jennifer Granholm’s green brigade (Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board $)
• Europe's energy conflict fuels outbreak of realism about climate policy (The Hill, William Moloney op-ed)

Conservative Media Accidentally Admits Conservative Climate “Solution” Is Costly Failure

Carbon dioxide removal is the process of removing carbon pollution from the atmosphere via natural and technological methods, and will be an important tool for restoring a safe climate — once we’ve pretty much stopped sending more carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. 

Carbon capture and storage/sequestration (CCS), on the other hand, refers to scrubbing the carbon dioxide out of the emissions from fossil fuel plants, and is essentially a pipe dream that the fossil fuel industry invokes to pretend its continued existence is compatible with a stable climate, which it’s not. CCS is also a major part of the policy platforms of conservatives who want you to think they care about climate change (but not enough to actually reduce fossil fuel extraction or pollution). 

Late last year, the Government Accountability Office published a report showing the $1.1 billion spent on CCS by the Department of Energy since 2009 was largely wasted. That money was for 11 projects, of which only three were built (the other eight were cancelled). And because managers at the DOE waived some cost controls, the government spent an additional and unnecessary $300 million on four of the unbuilt CCS projects. The single CCS project at a coal-fired plant that actually got built was the US’s only real CCS facility — and it shut down in May of 2020. 

“Federal investments for CCS are greenwashing – they are simply fossil fuel subsidies by another name,” Grassroots Global Justice Alliance policy director Adrien Salazar told The Verge. 

Nevertheless, CCS still enjoys ample support from conservatives who want to pretend like they care about climate change, and Democratic coal barons like Joe Manchin (D-ALEC). 

In response to the GAO report detailing how the conservative-loved program is rife with government waste, the Carbon Capture Coalition tried to do some damage control, and apparently sent out a press release the conservative Washington Examiner ran with, about how they’re trying to “correct the record” and insist the technology is still worthwhile.   

Over at the Daily Caller, though, Energy and Environment reporter Thomas Catenacci apparently hasn’t gotten the full memo on CCS being the climate policy conservatives pretend to support, and instead just covered last month’s GAO report just this week, with a frame of government waste for trying to reduce carbon emissions! 

Now to be fair, the government should be investing tons of money in viable climate solutions as well as risky ones the private sector won’t yet risk investment in (Hi, Solyndra, we haven’t forgotten you!) because government support for emerging technologies can yield massive benefits. But when things like CCS fail, as they have over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, and over, that should be a sign to stop burning coal mine dump trucks full of money chasing them. 

Those billions of dollars, instead of getting wasted on unbuilt CCS plants meant to keep coal hobbling along, could have paid for something like 50,000 home solar systems, which tend to be much more costly than utility-scale renewables. And on that, for example, Biden’s DOE in 2021 announced just $128 million in funding to cut the cost of solar by 60%. Think of what ten times that much money could accomplish! 

For another comparison, in 2020, a billion dollar deal got BP a 50% stake in two offshore wind projects big enough to power two million homes — a much better deal than getting a bunch of failed projects that (had they not failed) would have just continued to allow coal plants to pollute anyway. 

A billion dollars is also how much MidAmerican Energy planned to spend in Iowa to replace old wind turbines and add a thousand new ones, adding up with the rest of their fleet to generate enough clean energy to power 95% of MidAmerican Energy customers’ needs. 

Unfortunately, the bipartisan infrastructure package passed last year shells out another $3.5 billion on even more carbon capture demonstration projects. 

CCS has had plenty of time for demonstration projects, and all they’ve demonstrated is how to waste billions of dollars on useless technology. 

But yay, bipartisanship, right?

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