FIRST LOOK: 

Biden Issues More Public Lands Drilling Permits Than Trump In First Year: The Biden administration approved 3,557 permits for oil and gas drilling on public lands during its first year, almost 900 more than the previous administration approved during its first year in office, an analysis by the Center for Biological Diversity found. Many of the permits were for oil and gas drilling in the Permian Basin region of New Mexico. Oil and gas operations in the Permian Basin are a major source of methane pollution. A new report from EDF and Carbon Mapper based on aerial surveys found just 30 oil and gas sites in Texas and New Mexico released methane pollution equivalent to the climate pollution of half a million cars over the last three years. The Biden administration was also criticized last week by Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) for continued offshore oil and gas leaking and lacking "the political courage necessary to confront the realities of climate change." (More leasing than Trump: Politico Pro $; Permian methane: Reuters; Offshore permits: E&E $)

Biden Administration Makes Moves On Building Efficiency: The Biden administration launched a new partnership with multiple cities and states on Friday to improve building efficiency and in doing so slash climate pollution. The 33 state and local governments comprising the "Buildings Performance Standards Coalition" represent one-fifth of the U.S. population and building footprint. The administration is also proposing new, stronger standards for manufactured home efficiency. Efficiency standards for mobile homes have not been updated in almost three decades and the administration projects the upgraded standards will save mobile home residents thousands of dollars and prevent millions of tons of greenhouse gas pollution. The dangers of poorly-insulated mobile homes were on tragic display during Winter Storm Uri in Texas last year. (Cities and states: The Hill, WTGS; Mobile homes: Washington Post $; Climate Signals background: Feb. 2021 polar vortex breakdown)

Biden Criticized For Judicial Nominee Connected To Chevron Attacks On Donziger: President Biden renominated Jennifer Reardon to a lifetime appointment on the federal bench last week. Reardon, a New York corporate lawyer who worked for the firm representing Chevron in its efforts to take down environmental lawyer Steven Donziger, was nominated for the judgeship in the Southern District of New York by the previous president but her nomination expired before being acted upon. Reardon has given prolifically to politicians of both parties in the tri-state area. Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) blasted Reardon's renomination over her role in "the outrageous Chevron legal assault on human rights lawyer Steven Donziger," according to The Hill. Tlaib described Reardon's renomination as "a slap in the face to the very people who put President Biden in the White House" and called on Biden to withdraw it immediately. (The Hill, Sludge)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: 'Code red' heat: the climate emergency is sending more kids of color to the emergency room (USA Today)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Baltimore, Big Oil to square off tomorrow in court (E&E News)

FIRE SEASON?: Rare, ‘terrifying’ winter Big Sur fire burns down to iconic Highway 1 bridge (Mercury News, AP, Reuters, New York Times $, Axios, Washington Post $, Al Jazeera, photos)

COP 26: The dust has settled on COP26. Now the hard work begins (CNBC)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: 'Emergency mode': U.N. chief laments failed global governance (Reuters), Germany’s reliance on Russian gas limits Europe’s options in Ukraine crisis (Wall Street Journal $, Marketplace), climate, COVID, China: takeaways from online Davos event (AP)

HIGH COST OF CRAPPY LIGHT BULBS: Old-fashioned, inefficient light bulbs live on at the nation’s dollar stores (New York Times $)

DENIAL: Climate change denial on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter and TikTok is ‘as bad as ever’ (USA Today)

POPULAR CULTURE: Can works like ‘Don't Look Up’ get us out of our heads? (New York Times $), Leonardo DiCaprio puts a nine-year ‘ticking clock’ on climate crisis- is he right? (The Independent)

ACTIVISM: The road warriors (Bloomberg $), how young people can make effective change in the climate crisis, according to experts (ABC), why Al Gore is optimistic about the future of our planet (CBS)

AGENCIES: DOE, DOT scramble to hire 'Energy Corps,' roll out EV charging network (Utility Dive)

EPA: EPA hires additional criminal investigators — but advocates call for more (The Hill), EPA plans streamlined reviews for biofuels (E&E $), EPA seeks input on candidates for ozone standards review (E&E $), GOP senators press Regan to reverse pesticide restrictions (E&E $)

DOE: Creative financing needed to boost EV charging infrastructure: DOE (Utility Dive), Granholm presses US concerns over Mexico's proposed energy policies (Politico Pro $, Reuters)

BUILD BACK BETTER ACT: ‘Give Manchin the pen’: Markey, Khanna on how to get climate in Build Back Better (MSNBC), Biden seeks to save what he can from Build Back Better (The Hill), Chris Hayes: lawmakers must prioritize climate in the Build Back Better bill (MSNBC), Democrats may have to sacrifice something big for the climate (Vox), Democrats want to break up BBB. What does that mean? (E&E News), if Build Back Better fails, federal climate policy may depend on Republican cooperation (Grist), it’s Manchin’s climate bill now. Here’s what might be in it (E&E News), the steep climb to get climate measures passed in slimmed-down bill (Axios)

THE HILL: GOP, eyeing Hill takeover, mulls energy and climate agenda (E&E News)

HOUSE: House Oversight asks Big Oil board members to testify (E&E News, The Hill)

SENATE: Arizona Democratic Party censures Sinema over voting rights stance (Politico)

WHITE HOUSE: As Biden struggles, Harris touts California wildfire aid (AP), Biden comments add momentum to spending bill's climate measures (The Hill), Biden preps full-court press to curb coal as emissions spike (E&E News), Biden officials talking to Qatar about supplying gas to Europe (Bloomberg $), Biden trumpets infrastructure, energy wins (E&E $), Biden wants climate action abroad but can’t find it at home (E&E News), this top Biden climate official knows you're anxious and they're working on it, all right??? (Buzzfeed),Top climate diplomat to leave State Department (E&E News, The Hill, New York Times $, Politico Pro $)

POLITICS: 'We were off to a great start' with Biden until Republicans obstructed (NBC, Bernie Sanders interview), Republicans focus on effects, not causes, of climate change (Wall Street Journal $, Bloomberg $)

ELECTIONS: This Ariz. Senate candidate likes Trump and solar energy (E&E $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Senate advances judicial nominees, sets action on more picks (E&E News)

CITIES AND STATES: In Georgia, bloated costs take over a nuclear power plant and a fight looms over who pays (InsideClimate News), Los Angeles may ban urban oil and gas fields after decades of complaints (The Guardian, AP), after months of delays, state approves doubling of solar energy (Boston Globe $), Chicagoans call for better recycling, more public transportation as city designs 2022 climate action plan (Chicago Tribune), Maryland gives itself B-minus for adapting to climate change in coastal areas (WTOP), New Jersey environmentalists sue Gov. Phil Murphy's administration over climate change inaction (Philadelphia Inquirer), public power supporters amping up the pressure on Kathy Hochul (City and State NY), union joins fight against Trump-era EPA boss (E&E $)

CALIFORNIA: California solar group files ballot initiatives ahead of major agency vote (Politico Pro $), wineries, farms eligible for last-ditch California insurance (AP), will having rooftop solar panels in California get more expensive? (ABC7), a fight over rooftop solar threatens California’s climate goals (New York Times $)

TEXAS: A warning for Texas gas? Company accused of shut-off threat (E&E $), Texas hunkers down for the cold (Gizmodo), Texas may get a coastal storm barrier, but will it be too late? (Texas Tribune), Texas natural gas prices drift lower, despite Permian Basin production freeze-offs (S&P Global) 

FERC: Court gives FERC 10 days to respond to emergency petition by Connecticut gas plant (Politico Pro $), FERC meeting: Gas fights, EJ shifts and a ‘legal weapon’ (E&E News), FERC orders PJM to scrap 'adder' mechanism seen bolstering capacity prices (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: Climate crisis could still be affecting size of Greenland ice sheet in thousands of years (The Independent), climate change will likely worsen West Coast blackouts and cause energy price spikes, studies find (Yahoo), colossal iceberg spilled 168 billion tons of freshwater near wildlife-rich island (Gizmodo), data may be Colorado’s best bet to mitigate increasing wildfire risk on the Front Range (The Colorado Sun), fact check: NASA did not deny warming or say polar ice has increased since 1979 (USA Today), more surprises await scientists at Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier' (Axios), this map may make you feel better about the state of the planet (Vox), why Russia's thawing permafrost is a global problem (NPR)

HEAT: Africa’s first heat officer faces a daunting task (Bloomberg $), climate change makes it deadlier to cross the US-Mexico border (Popular Science)

DROUGHT:  Drought conditions improve in US West, but more snow is needed (Washington Post $)

WILDFIRES: Climate change and population growth creating conditions for more fires like the Marshall Fire (Rocky Mountain PBS), runoff from land scarred by wildfires can contaminate drinking water (Yale Climate Connections)

HENAN FLOODING: China says local officials underreported deaths in flooding (Wall Street Journal $), Chinese officials arrested for concealing true scale of flood death toll (The Guardian)

CANDY: Climate change is coming for Indonesia’s cocoa farms; candy companies aren’t helping (Popular Science)

GEOENGINEERING: Should the world ban solar geoengineering? 60 experts say yes. (Grist), scientists say it should be illegal to fight climate change by blocking out the sun (Futurism)

RENEWABLES: 2022 Outlook: US solar and wind boom continues despite supply chain woes, Build Back Better uncertainty (Utility Dive), big-box stores could power half of energy needs with solar, report says (The Hill), Chart: The top 10 countries with the most solar power (Canary Media), could Florida turn off the sun? Advocates say a utility-backed bill imperils rooftop solar in the Sunshine State (CNN), Siemens energy shares slump after inflation hits wind-power unit (Bloomberg $, Reuters), supply chain issues likely slowed 2021 solar development in Southeast US, may persist (S&P Global), Warren Buffett’s MidAmerican Energy plans $3.9 billion renewables project in Iowa (CNBC), world's biggest offshore wind developers eyeing Louisiana for Gulf's first turbines (NOLA.com)

BATTERIES: Fortescue to buy battery tech firm to decarbonize mine trucks (Bloomberg $), how NineDot Energy will use $100M to install distributed batteries in NYC (Canary Media), Lithium hits record in EV boom, spurring a ‘land grab’ among miners. these stocks could be winners (CNBC)

LNG: Asian prices fall amid Chinese LNG cargo sale tenders (Reuters), Cheniere’s Sabine Passass sees record LNG flows on European demand (Bloomberg $), Venture Global's Calcasieu Pass plant in Louisiana close to producing LNG (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: ConocoPhillips’ plan for extracting half-a-billion barrels of crude in Alaska’s fragile arctic presents a defining moment for Joe Biden (InsideClimate News), climbing crude oil heads for reckoning (Axios), Exxon, SABIC launch chemical plant near Corpus Christi (Houston Chronicle), oil could reach $100 or more this year as geopolitical tensions flare (CNBC), 0il majors TotalEnergies and Chevron withdraw from Myanmar citing worsening humanitarian crisis (CNBC, The Hill), Royal Dutch no more - Shell officially changes name (Reuters), US summer natural gas briefly trades over winter despite current freeze (Reuters)

ORPHANED WELLS: Abandoned oil well counts are exploding — now that there’s money on the table (Grist)

PIPELINES: Enbridge says it has fixed aquifer ruptured while building Line 3 oil pipeline in Minnesota (Minneapolis Star Tribune $, Brattleboro Reformer)

NUKES: Everyone’s least favorite climate fix? Nuclear power gets fresh look. (Christian Science Monitor), French nuclear giant’s fall risks energy security for all Europe (Bloomberg $), the growing financial support for nuclear energy (Axios)

COAL: Global aid deals to end coal urged to prioritise workers, transparency (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

HYDROGEN: Liquid hydrogen wants a clean energy future (Bloomberg $)

• NOT THE ONION: Saudi energy minister touts pink hydrogen made by 'emancipated young ladies' (Climate Home)

UTILITIES: Alabama Power to pay state fine, stop coal burning at plant (AP), what will best keep Xcel's grid reliable in a pinch: Gas plants or batteries? (Minneapolis Star Tribune $), Xcel’s long-range plan faces pushback over role of fossil peaking plants (Energy News Network), PG&E’s criminal probation to end amid ongoing safety worries (AP)

EVs: States to receive federal cash for EV chargers this year (E&E $), take two: an EU recharging and refuelling network for net zero (Energy Monitor), the best ways to buy an electric car (FT $), the simplest way to sell more electric cars in America (The Atlantic)

VIDEO GAMES: Mapping Climate Grief, One Pixel at a Time (The New Yorker $), Microsoft’s Activision Blizzard deal poses sustainability challenge (Wall Street Journal $)

HUMAN NATURE: Humans do a poor job of calculating risk. That's terrible for the climate crisis (CNN)

AVIATION: A teen's solo transatlantic flight calls attention to wasteful 'ghost flights' (NPR)

AGRICULTURE: A return to Native agriculture (Civil Eats), nonprofit The Farmlink Project matches farmers with surplus produce with those in need (CBS)

BUSINESS: CEOs look to 2022 with optimism, with a focus on combating climate change (Fortune), energy CEOs: here’s how to overhaul DOE to slash CO2 (E&E News), More Australian executives see tipping point on climate change (Bloomberg $)

CARBON PRICING: China's carbon market may get stricter under a new proposal (Bloomberg $)

CARBON CAPTURE: 3 major energy companies back Texas CCS hub (E&E $)

FOOD: Big Food is ready to sell you more plant-based meat (Vox), lab-grown meat could make strides in 2022 as start-ups push for US approval (CNBC)

FINANCE: Blackstone makes ESG splash with green-energy lending strategy (Bloomberg $, Wall Street Journal $, Reuters), new fund aims to back 'revolutionary,' climate-friendly tech (Axios)

CRYPTO: Crypto mining gulps power. Can it help renewable energy? (E&E $)

IN MEMORIAM: Lisa Goddard, 55, dies; brought climate data to those who needed it (New York Times $)

WILDLIFE: As climate change melts Antarctic ice, gentoo penguins venture further south (Mongabay), beloved California desert plants threatened by climate change, thirsty animals (Desert Sun), saving the manatees — rescue by rescue, rehab by rehab (Washington Post $), Tahiti’s newly discovered coral reef is an absolute masterpiece (Gizmodo), what climate change means for black bears (WVTF)

INTERNATIONAL: Scientists lambast EU over gas and nuclear’s ‘green’ energy label (FT $, Reuters), Brussels faces threat of legal challenge over sustainable finance rules (FT $), China moves to freeze production of climate super-pollutants but lacks a system to monitor emissions (InsideClimate News), Germany blasts Commission’s nuclear plans, calls for softer rules on gas (Politico Pro $, Reuters, Bloomberg $), tax on parking: UK cities to impose levy on cars in bid to cut pollution (The Guardian)

• Transition Colorado’s school buses to electric (The Colorado Sun, Alexandra Simon op-ed)
• The Climate Movement Needs to Hold Itself Accountable (Hot Take, Amy Westervelt column)
• Sunrise Movement's Varshini Prakash on not losing hope on climate change: 'I'm still here fighting' (Salon, interview)
• Chevron builds a ‘newsroom’ to tell stories it doesn’t think an independent press will cover (LA Times, Michael Hiltzik column $)
• US has a blueprint to electrify its country roads (Bloomberg, Liam Denning op-ed $)
• Set the underground rivers free (Boston Globe, Miles Howard op-ed $)
• Can we turn a desert into a forest? (New York Times, Raul Roman, Lauren Kelly, Rafe H. Andrews and Nick Parisse op-ed $)
• To fully mitigate climate change, we need to curb methane emissions (Scientific American, Rep. Sean Casten op-ed)
• Unions have the potential and the responsibility to advance a 'just transition' (Truthout, Norman Rogers interview)
• Where is the people’s solar? (Nevada Independent, Ruth Nolan, Shannon Salter and Claire Vaye Watkins op-ed)
• The Fed has a clear mandate to mitigate climate risks (The Hill, Todd Phillips op-ed)
• Is Germany a reliable American ally? Nein (Wall Street Journal, Tom Rogan op-ed $)
• Why the sustainable investment craze is flawed (Wall Street Journal, James Mackintosh column $)
• EHN reporter Kristina Marusic discusses the alarming link between air pollution and mental illness (Environmental Health News, interview)

Texans Froze Last Year When Fossil Fuels Failed And The Grid Went Down, And It Could Happen Again

A cold weather advisory last week in Texas has people noting the upcoming inauspicious anniversary of last year’s Valentine’s Day blackout, and while you would think lawmakers would have done everything in their power to prevent another catastrophe that killed hundreds of people and left even more burning their furniture for warmth, it seems the fossil fuel industry prevented that from happening once again. 

In case you’ve forgotten, some context: last February’s blackouts were primarily the fault of gas infrastructure and power plants that weren’t prepared for the freezing temperatures, despite ample warning and a similar event in 2011. But Texas politicians and other petro-pundits were quick to go on rightwing media and falsely blame renewables, based in part on the viral success of an image (from 2014) showing a (Swedish) wind turbine being defrosted. Because social media companies did essentially nothing to constrain the spread of the lie, it became an article of faith among climate-denying, fossil-fuel-loving conservatives. 

As Russell Gold writes in a great feature at Texas Monthly, “Blaming renewables was, of course, a politically convenient lie. Yes, some wind farms in West and South Texas had frozen up—their operators hadn’t invested in blades with internal warming coils that allow windmills to function perfectly fine in other states and regions, including north of the Arctic Circle in Norway. But many windmills kept working, helping to prevent a worse disaster. Even [Republican Texas Governor Greg] Abbott admitted (while the blackouts were ongoing) that the biggest culprit was power plants that ran on gas.” 

Certainly, then, Texas did something about those gas plants, right? 

Wrong! 

As Gold explains, there was a proposal to require both electric utilities and gas companies to weatherize their facilities to withstand another freeze event. But thanks to industry lobbying, the rule that emerged only required electricity providers to winterize, whereas the gas plants that supplied those electric providers could simply opt-out of the winterization regulations by paying $150 to file a form admitting they simply aren’t “prepared to operate during a weather emergency.” 

Back in November, regulators “appeared to reverse course,” on the hilariously pathetic loophole, Gold reports, “at least rhetorically” and announced pipelines and gas plants would need to winterize- “but thus far the commission has engaged in delay tactics. The rules won’t be finalized until sometime later this year– after the winter.” 

Meanwhile, the fiscal fallout continues. Despite its failure, because of … shall we say … peculiarities in the Texas grid (namely its lack of federal regulation and lack of interconnection to nearby grids), the gas industry raked in some $11 billion during the freeze in which it failed to keep the lights on, and hundreds of people died as a result. On just February 16 alone, Texans paid more for electricity ($10.3 billion) than they did over the entirety of 2020 ($9.8 billion.) The February 2021 total was $50 billion. 

Per Gold, “gas producer Comstock Resources president Roland Burns put it much more plainly, saying it was ‘like hitting the jackpot.’”

A jackpot paid by Texans, and paid out to the industry that failed them. And now, adding insult to injury, pipeline company Energy Transfer threatened to cut off a Texas company with a $21.6 million debt outstanding to the pipeline company after last year’s freeze spiked prices – even though they made over $2B during the storm. They’ve since rescinded the threat to hold thousands of Texans hostage. Still, it’s just another reminder that oil and gas companies, and their propaganda puppets, tell you they’re cheap and reliable specifically because that’s exactly what they aren’t. 

And it’s been messing with Texas.

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 ($)