FIRST LOOK

Fed. Appeals Court Throws Out (Another) MVP Permit, Citing Failure To Consider Climate: The beleaguered Mountain Valley Pipeline suffered yet another setback Thursday. The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously struck down a key project approval, ruling the Fish and Wildlife Service's cursory approval of the controversial 303-mile gas pipeline was "arbitrary" and "failed to account for the one thing we know about climate change: that it will get worse over time." The ruling is the third major setback for the project in less than two weeks. The recent rulings show “the previous administration’s rushed, shoddy permitting put the entire project in question,” the Sierra Club's Kelly Sheehan said in a statement. Pipeline opponents contend the pipeline's string of losses in federal court should convince investors to abandon the project, which is already well behind-schedule and over-budget. Stock in Equitrans Midstream, the near-majority owner of the MVP, fell to near a 52-week low following the court's ruling. (S&P Global, Virginia Mercury, The Roanoke Times, West Virginia Public Radio, Reuters, Pittsburgh Business Times $, Courthouse News, Bloomberg Law, Augusta Free Press; Equitrans stock: Seeking Alpha)

Texas Gas Wells Freeze, Electrical Grid Stable (So Far) As Storm Knocks Out Power Across US: Texas gas wells began to freeze Thursday as both temperatures and output dropped. The frigid temperatures in Texas, and Oklahoma, caused total U.S. gas extraction to fall by about 5%, according to BloombergNEF, and could take several days to recover. Gas system failures during the frigid winter storm almost one year ago were a major contributor to the catastrophic blackouts across Texas and state officials have backtracked in recent days over the readiness of the grid. What is being called Winter Storm Landon knocked out power for more than 300,00 customers across the U.S. as of Friday morning. More than 50,000 Texas customers were without power Thursday, but the outages were caused by transmission problems like downed power lines, not by a lack of supply, as was the case last year. The freezing temperatures are expected to remain over Texas through Sunday. (Frozen gas wells: Bloomberg $; Storm and national outages: Gizmodo, Washington Post $, Axios, Washington Post PHOTOS $); Texas outages: ABC13, Black Wall Street Times; Texas grid: Axios; Climate Signals background: February 2021 polar vortex breakdown)

Big Oil Board Members Refuse To Testify Before Congress On Disinformation: Board members from four major oil companies are refusing to testify before Congress, the House Oversight and Reform Committee said Thursday. The representatives from Exxon, Chevron, BP, and Shell had been called to testify as part of the committee’s investigation of those firms' role in spreading climate disinformation — an investigation that draws clear comparisons to investigations of the tobacco industry's misdeeds. “The Big Oil companies should consider the March [8] hearing their last chance to cooperate,” Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y.) said in a statement. “If their board members refuse to appear, they should expect further action from this Committee.” (Reuters, E&E News, Politico Pro $)

Super Methane Emitters Are Low Hanging Fruit For Combatting Near Term Warming: A relatively small number of major methane emissions events are responsible for as much as 12% of global methane pollution from oil and gas operations, satellite data show. Methane is a far more potent, but less long-lasting, heat-trapping gas than CO2 and research published Thursday in Science shows staunching emissions from these "super" polluters represents a cost-effective way to mitigate global warming in the short term. Most of the major emissions releases documented in the study came from fossil fuel operations in Russia, Turkmenistan, and Iran, as well as the U.S. and parts of the Middle East. (Washington Post $)

BIG OIL: Oil frackers brace for end of the US shale boom (Wall Street Journal $) 

BANK$: Bonuses rain on Wall Street bankers in biggest payout in decade (Bloomberg $), Indiana bill targets banks that divest from fossil fuels, says they can't do business here (The Indianapolis Star)

ESGs STRUGGLE: Many big ESG funds are just glorified market trackers (Bloomberg $) 

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: ‘There’s a connection to all of this’: bomb threats affecting HBCUs have students and alumni concerned (Atlanta Black Star), FBI identifies ‘juveniles’ as persons of interest in HBCU bomb threats (NewsOne), BIPOC educators say Florida’s Stop WOKE Act censors them from teaching history (Prism Reports), Climate policy must focus on Black and Brown communities, advocates say (New Jersey Spotlight News), FlorIda ex-cop accused of beating Black man was one of the Proud Boys attacking police at the Capitol riots (NewsOne)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: US to push forward on climate deal with China despite limited ambition, Biniaz says (Politico Pro $)

DENIAL & DISINFORMATION: The Spotify boycott has grown far bigger than Neil Young. Here are the artists pulling their work so far (Fortune)

FOSSIL LEVERAGE: Europe’s insatiable thirst for Russia’s gas (Wall Street Journal $), European crises and policy give natural gas staying power (Axios), Qatar has not approached Asian buyers over gas diversions to Europe (Reuters), Russian gas crisis stokes Europe's appetite for Russian coal (Reuters), British home energy prices are set to rise 54%. (New York Times $)

METHANE: Study reveals climate and health impact from gas stoves (CBS)

USPS: Biden admin calls on Postal Service to cancel its plans for gas-guzzling fleet of vehicles (Gizmodo)

TROPICAL CYCLONE BATSIRAI: Category 4 Tropical Cyclone Batsirai headed for vulnerable Madagascar (Yale Climate Connections, Washington Post $)

(ALLEGED) CORRUPTION: Trials lie ahead in Ohio’s HB 6 scandal (Energy News Network), New fundraising numbers shed light on behind-the-scenes battle for power in Ohio House Speaker’s race (Cleveland Plain-Dealer), Ex-Ohio house speaker larry householder asks judge to dismiss corruption case, citing no ‘quid pro quo’ (Cleveland Plain-Dealer)

PRE-EXISTING CONDITIONS: Medical schools add climate change into curriculum (WBUR)

TRINITY SPIRIT: Oil tanker capable of carrying 2 million barrels explodes off coast of Nigeria (The Independent, Reuters, Bloomberg $, Newsweek, Washington Examiner)

IMPACTS: ‘We have to adapt’: US Pacific Northwest weighs plans to cope with extreme weather (The Guardian), A seaweed mama’s journey on a vanishing island (Atmos), Earth is likely just a decade a way from hitting 1.5°C of global warming — and scientists say it will be "catastrophic" for coral reefs (CBS), Extreme weather has cost Europe about €500bn over 40 years (The Guardian), Scientists race to gather winter data on warming Great Lakes (AP), These Holiday Inn windows have a secret job (Yale Climate Connections)

EMISSIONS: How 2022 could be a national and global pivot point for carbon emissions (Yale Climate Connections)

DROUGHT: California’s snowpack plummets after a very dry January (New York Times $)

WILDFIRES: ‘A deranged pyroscape’: how fires across the world have grown weirder (The Guardian)

HURRICANES: A new study predicts a huge increase in catastrophic hurricanes for the northeastern U.S. (NPR)

FIGHTING DEFORESTATION: Defending the Amazon: How Indigenous culture protects Colombia's rainforest (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

RENEWABLES: Brazil's BNDES will invest $117 million for wind farms construction (Reuters), CEO of wind turbine giant becomes latest casualty of global supply-chain woes (Wall Street Journal $), Iraqi olive farmers look to the sun to power their production (Reuters), Offshore wind’s ship problem is growing (The Verge), Shipping troubles threaten US offshore wind — report (E&E News)

BATTERIES: In the new world of long-duration battery storage, an old technology holds its own (Inside Climate News)

EFFICIENCY: 2021 was a landmark year for energy efficiency legislation in US states (Grist)

LNG: Biden faces growing pressure to restrict LNG exports following price spike (Houston Chronicle), US cements LNG export crown as Venture Global fires up plant (Bloomberg $), Natural gas shipments, mostly from US, ease Europe’s energy crunch (New York Times $)

OIL & GAS: Ecuadorian court rejects oil drilling on Indigenous lands in Amazon rainforest (Democracy Now), Abu Dhabi’s ADNOC announces a new offshore gas find (AP), Shell woos financial investors, not green ones (Wall Street Journal $)

PIPELINES: Hundreds participate in a hearing on Enbridge’s proposed [Line 5] oil and gas pipeline project (WPR, AP)

COAL: Poland coal mine extension breached EU law, EU court adviser says (Reuters)

UTILITIES: Georgia Power to go coal-free by 2028, double renewables by 2035, but advocates decry gas plans (Utility Dive), Tunneling robot speeds installation of underground utilities, aiding resilience efforts (Utility Dive), TVA: Here's our 'unique contribution' to Biden's climate plan (E&E $)

GRID: California ISO sketches $30.5B draft transmission plan to meet state's clean energy goals (Utility Dive), PJM's plan to open markets to aggregated distributed energy resources seen as 'good first step' (Utility Dive)

EVs: Over 50,000 Tesla vehicles recalled over ‘intentional design choices that are unsafe' (Gizmodo), Do we need roads that charge cars? Detroit thinks so (Canary Media), Teslas stop when they should go, go when they should stop (Gizmodo)

NFTs: You can now buy 'non-fungible animals,' and I hate it (Gizmodo), Why the hell is the World Wildlife Fund selling animal NFTs? (New Republic)

WORKERS: ‘We’re at a crisis level’: Nurses take on union-busting bosses over short staffing (The Real News)

CARBON REMOVAL: The future is carbon farming, not cattle ranching, says Impossible Foods CEO (TIME)

CARS: Covid-era Americans are using public transit less and having more car crashes (The Guardian)

FINANCE: Asset owners shake up passive funds on the way to going green (Reuters), Klarna’s sustainability chief focuses on climate impact, not carbon-neutral claims (Wall Street Journal $)

INTERNATIONAL: ‘Obsessed with optics’: the paradoxes of the UAE’s plan to get to net zero (Grist), Five Insulate Britain members jailed for defying M25 protest injunctions (The Guardian)

• Tackling methane leaks is a climate win — but lets polluters off the hook (The Hill, Andreas Karelas op-ed)
• The opportunity cost of not using nuclear energy for climate mitigation (Utility Dive, Alex Gilbert op-ed)
• Nuclear power, natural gas secure EU backing as ‘green’ investments (Wall Street Journal, Kim Mackrael and Daniel Michaels op-ed $)
• Biden's climate promises require oil and gas leasing reform (The Hill, Romany Webb op-ed)
• ‘No’ on Sarah Bloom Raskin (Wall Street Journal, Tim Stewart and Kathleen Sgamma op-ed $)
• Why aren’t investors piling in to build new LNG projects? (Energy Monitor, Seb Kennedy op-ed)

American Thinker Says He’s Never Seen Climate Denial Same Day Outlet Publishes (More) Climate Denial

A recurring complaint among climate deniers is that it’s an unfair label because they’re not denying anything, with Anthony Sadar repeating it in the rightwing media-esque American Thinker website on Wednesday. 

Apparently using the term to describe those who question the need for climate action is “a straw-man argument” because challenging the “status quo doesn’t mean they deny reality such as climate change.” It’s a “juvenile, insulting pejorative jargon typically disgorged by those on the political/ideological left,” Sadar writes, that’s “reminiscent of ‘Holocaust denier’” which is both true, and accurate. (Reminder: climate deniers aboslutely love retweeting holocaust denier Peter Sweden.)

But in his “40-year professional career,” Sadar “never met an atmospheric scientist who has serious reservations about the consensus view of climate change and is also a climate denier or climate change denier.”

We believe him! There aren’t many climate deniers among the atmospheric science set! But he need not look that far or for 40 years to find a prime example of why climate deniers deserve the moniker. 

Because also published on Wednesday at the American Thinker is an article by Chet Richards, in which he repeats a number of standard tropes denying the reality that fossil fuel pollution is worth reducing before the climate totally cooks us. 

Richards opens with the classic climate both-sides “warming and cooling,” and claims emphatically that when it comes to how much we’re “impacting the climate, and is that impact harmful? The answer is we don’t know!” 

Ah well, there ya go. Because what other phrase fits, besides denial, for describing one who asserts not to know something that is definitely well known? We could think of a few (lying, false advertising for the fossil fuel industry, selling out current and future generations) but we doubt Sadar is likely to find those any more palatable. 

After some gish galloping on how we “successfully adapted” to past climatic changes, in ages before industrial infrastructure was built along sea levels and before nation-state borders limited immigration and before billions of people relied on an agricultural system fine-tuned to the climate of the past 10,000 years, Richards offers more prime examples of denial, for example that “it isn’t just that the climate models are demonstrably wrong.” [They are not.] “There has been substantial cheating as well.” 

So, not only does Richards deny the validity of climate models, he also engages in conspiracy theories about the U.S. government, scientific journals, and climate modelers, and then caps it all off by denying “the influence of carbon dioxide on the climate,” calling it “way over-estimated” before then referring to it as “an essential plant nutrient,” another staple of climate disinfo. 

Finally, he implores readers to “reject ‘climate crisis.’ Don’t take this wooden nickel!” 

What is that, if not climate denial? 

And if you’re still not convinced it’s an apt moniker, consider Daniel Turner, a Koch-alum running a dark money dirty energy group. Yesterday he quote-tweeted HuffPost reporter Alex Kaufman pointing out that “30 minutes of a gas-power leaf blower produce as much air pollution as driving a Ford F-150 from Texas to Alaska. 1 hour produces smog-forming pollution equal to driving 1,100 miles.” He then linked to his sources for the admittedly quite incredible claim. 

Turner’s response? “I can’t believe this is real. We’re to believe 1/2 liter of gas in a Boston leaf blower is the same as 150 gallons to drive an F150 from Alaska to Texas. Think about the sheer stupidity of this equation. One HuffPost reporter is dumber than 9,000 kittens with a laser pointer.” 

Turner didn’t read the reporting, he just immediately denied the validity of a claim he didn’t like, and lashed out at the messenger delivering it. 

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