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The Water Hub at Climate Nexus will host a media briefing on climate challenges and solutions in California's Central Valley, a region on the frontline of extreme heat, water stress, wildfire risk, and more. Thurs., March 31 at 10:00 am PT/1:00 pm ET.

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Register now for embargoed materials & interviews with scientists of the next IPCC report, Mitigation of Climate Change Now. Deadline is March 30. Please contact Climate Nexus with any questions.

"BIOGAS" A Distraction From Racist Hog Waste Scourge In North Carolina: The pollution from North Carolina's 4,000 noxious open-pit hog waste lagoons disproportionately harms Black, Latinx, and Native American communities, and plans to turn hog waste into so-called "biogas" merely distract from the problem, joint reporting by Southerly and Scalawag Magazines reveals. North Carolina is the second-largest pork producer in the U.S. Sampson, Duplin, and Bladen counties, which have disproportionately large Black and Latinx populations, host more than 40% of the state's hog farms. And approximately 42% of the residents in Robeson County, the fourth largest hog county in the state, are Native American. Smithfield, the largest pork company in the state, wants to divert waste from 90% of its facilities into "biogas" pipelines in the next eight years, a goal that will require a $500 million+ investment from Dominion Energy to build large facilities and pipelines across the region. Civil rights groups have petitioned EPA for a review of the joint venture. “It’s very disturbing, because biogas is not a clean renewable energy by any means,” said Donna Chavis, senior climate campaigner with Friends of the Earth and citizen of the Lumbee Tribe. (Southerly Mag and Scalawag Magazine)

Financial, Moral Momentum Builds Against East African Crude Oil Pipeline: A fifth reinsurer has refused to underwrite the proposed East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), due to the project’s failure to meet ESG standards. Backed by Total and the China National Offshore Oil Corporation, the proposed 900-mile heated crude oil pipeline from Hoima, Uganda, to the Port of Tanga in Tanzania would cut through agricultural land and threaten wetlands in the Lake Victoria Basin. Hannover Re's announcement follows similar commitments from Swiss Re, Axa, Zurich, and SCOR. It also adds pressure on Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, and Lloyd's of London to renounce the project. Activists, some of whom met with Pope Francis last week seeking his support in their fight against the pipeline, point out the project violates human rights, including the right to property of those it would displace, in addition to the health and wellbeing harmed by its direct pollution and contribution to climate change. “We’ve demanded that they take action but instead we continue to see continued investment in fossil fuels," Ugandan activist Vanessa Nakate told Crux after meeting with Pope Francis. "It is time to escalate our efforts to end the age of fossil fuels and having the Pope acknowledge our campaign to ‘StopEACOP’ lends even more moral authority to our demands.” (Hannover Re: Inclusive Development, Insurance Day, The Insurer; Pope: Crux, AllAfrica)

Renewable Energy Derailed By Misinformation: Misinformation about renewable energy projects is a major barrier to the expansion of renewable energy, NPR reports. "It can really slow down the clean energy transition, and that has just as dire life and death consequences, not just in terms of climate change, but also in terms of air pollution, which overwhelmingly hits communities of color," said Leah Stokes, an associate professor of political science at UC-Santa Barbara. Often catalyzed by fossil-fuel backed groups like the Texas Public Policy Foundation, among others, false and misleading information about renewable energy and climate science denial is widely disseminated across social media and YouTube. Facebook is the largest driver of renewable energy misinformation, Josh Fergen, a researcher at the University of Minnesota Duluth, said. The misinformation, and Facebook's refusal to take meaningful action to prevent false information proliferating on its platform, comes as the destructive impacts of climate change become worse and more frequent, including in the rural communities where many large scale solar and wind projects are concentrated. "I just find it upsetting," Dan Reuman, a professor of ecology and evolutionary biology at the University of Kansas, told NPR in describing the role of misinformation in the opposition to a proposed utility-scale solar project. "I hope that the government doesn't make a compromise between a scientifically based position and a misinformation-based position. Because if you're compromising with misinformation, then there's sort of no limit to that, right?" (NPR)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Europe grapples with 2 crises connected to gas: War, warming (E&E News), Ukraine’s pipelines are still carrying Russian gas to Europe (Washington Post $), Germany, urged to ‘stop Putin’s war machine,’ Resists Russian energy embargo (Washington Post $)

• GAS DEAL: The US will ship more liquefied natural gas to Europe starting next winter (NPR), Unpacking Biden's European energy plan (Axios), Can US natural gas relieve Europe from Russian supply dependency? (FT)
• WHITE SUPREMACY: Fleeing Blacks in Ukraine now housed in long-term detention facilities (Black Wall Street Times)

BACK TO FRIDAYS FOR FUTURE: ‘We are unstoppable’: Youth climate strikes return in full force (Grist), Striking for reparations (Atmos)

WEATHER MEDIA: CBS news and the Weather Channel announce content partnership (Deadline)

RULE OF LAW: Judge calls 'illegality' of Trump plan to overturn election 'obvious,' in ruling for Jan. 6 committee (USA Today, The Independent, AP, Washington Post $, New York Times $, Rolling Stone, Bloomberg $, Reuters, NBC, CNN, The Hill), Inside Ted Cruz's last-ditch battle to keep Trump in power (Washington Post $), Jan. 6 committee backs contempt charges for two former Trump aides (Washington Post $)

FASHION: The carbon footprint of an Oscars dress (Atmos)

ACTIVISM: A climate warrior’s journey from summit talks to street protests (New York Times $)

SCOTUS: Supreme Court pork case could swing state climate reg fights (E&E News), Calls grow for Justice Clarence Thomas to recuse himself or be impeached (Black Wall Street Times), What would an expanded Supreme Court and Black woman justice mean for Black America? (The Grio)

• KETANJI BROWN JACKSON: Committee sets vote on Jackson Supreme Court nomination (E&E News) 

AGENCIES: Commerce Department says it will investigate solar imports from four Asian countries (Reuters, Politico Pro $), Commerce inquiry imperils solar industry, advocates say (AP)

EPA: White House seeks big budget increase for EPA (Politico Pro $, The Hill), Biden budget would hike Interior funding to $17.5B (Politico Pro $) 

DOE: Energy Dept. pushes heat pumps to reduce greenhouse emissions (Washington Post $)

DOI: BOEM sets May auction for offshore wind leasing in 2 areas off the Carolinas (Utility Dive), Interior budget builds on promises, charts some new ground (E&E $)

DOT: Fuel economy penalties soar under new rule (E&E News)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Army Corps defends streamlined pipeline permit program (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Can Biden expand gas and zero out emissions? (E&E News), The White House wants to know whether crypto is bad or good for the planet (Protocol, Axios), Will Biden establish a new national monument in Texas? (Washington Post $)

• BUDGET: Inside Biden’s $5.8T budget: More for climate, clean energy (E&E News), Climate resilience, research and aid would get billions in Biden budget (Politico Pro $), Biden budget aims to boost domestic manufacturing for clean energy (Politico Pro $), Biden tries again on Green Climate Fund, fossil tax breaks (E&E $), Biden's budget boosts military, raises taxes on billionaires, companies (Reuters, NPR, Politico Pro $, The Hill), Deficit would fall by $1 trillion over a decade under the proposed budget. (New York Times $), With a center-leaning budget, Biden bows to political reality (New York Times $, Washington Post $), 3 things to watch in the fiscal 2023 budget (E&E News)

PUBLIC LANDS: The roadless rule is supposed to protect our wild places. What went wrong in the Tongass National Forest? (Grist)

HOUSE: House takes up Coast Guard bill with offshore wind language (E&E $)

SENATE: Senate to advance China innovation bill, OMB nominee (E&E $)

POLITICS: Two stark reminders about the political challenge of tackling climate change (Washington Post $)

ELECTIONS: A GOP Senate candidate’s muddled claim about windmills and greenhouse gas emissions (PolitiFact)

CITIES AND STATES: Harrisonburg Electric Commission to start new solar program (Daily News-Record), Anti-ESG backlash grows as Ky. advances 'boycott' bill (E&E $), Cities need to be redesigned for the climate crisis. Can they make us happy, too? (The Guardian)

• CALIFORNIA: California issued wildfire safety certifications to utilities despite 'serious deficiencies': audit (Utility Dive), Newsom broadens drought order – but again stops short of mandatory urban water cutbacks (Sacramento Bee $, AP)

FERC: FERC official [Elin Katz] on input, equity and a possible 'sea change' (E&E $)

IMPACTS: A drowning world: Kenya’s quiet slide underwater – podcast (The Guardian), Examining the marine heatwave experience last year in the Gulf of Maine (NPR), Strong front is soaking southern California, triggering flood alerts (Washington Post $, AP), Climate change is making pollen season even worse across the country (Washington Post $, Yale Climate Connections)

• WITH GREEN CHILES, YES PLEASE: Pure maple syrup — from New Mexico? (Axios)

OCEANS: Salmon travel deep into the Pacific. As it warms, many ‘don’t come back.’ (Washington Post $)

WILDFIRES: Wildfire chars 450 acres, threatens area near Birmingham (AP), Three months after a wildfire swept through, displaced Colorado residents struggle to rebuild (The Guardian)

WATER: Arizona’s future water shock (Circle of Blue)

OK: Boomers account for nearly a third of greenhouse gas emissions, study finds (EcoWatch)

RENEWABLES: Bountiful wind, sun boost German renewable power this year (AP), EU lodges legal challenge against U.K.’s offshore wind subsidies (Politico Pro $), 'It's our sun': Rural South Africans seek greater gains from clean energy (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Massive food market in Mexico City poised to harness sunshine for power (Reuters), Wisconsin city finds a path to solar despite third-party ownership hurdle (Energy News Network)

"RENEWABLES": From poop to power: Partnership turns pig manure into energy (Yale Climate Connections)

BATTERIES: US seeks new lithium sources as demand for batteries grows (AP)

BUILDINGS: These new double-duty heat pumps can warm both air and water (Canary Media)

OIL & GAS: Barclays: regulations aren't chilling oil output (Axios), Higher prices spark fresh investor interest in oil and gas (Wall Street Journal $)

PIPELINES: A new report reveals how the Dakota Access Pipeline is breaking the law (Grist), Court won't revisit Mountain Valley pipeline permit rejection (E&E $, Politico Pro $)

UTILITIES: Stop litigating and start cutting emissions, Citizens’ Utility Board says to NW Natural and other gas producers (Willamette Week)

(ALLEGED) UTILITY CORRUPTION: FirstEnergy utility gave to pro-Trump dark money group (E&E News)

EVs: E-scooters are having a moment as gas prices surge (Wall Street Journal $), EV interest soars despite supply chain problems (E&E $), Morgan Stanley flags EV demand destruction as lithium soars (Bloomberg $), Russia’s war in Ukraine reveals a risk for the EV future: price shocks in precious metals (Inside Climate News), Study: Electric fleet vehicles are cheaper than gas ones (E&E $)

FINANCE: Data pose biggest hurdle to ESG disclosure: Deloitte (Utility Dive)

INTERNATIONAL: EU should have its own full budget to stabilise economy, survey suggests (Reuters), India working to secure steady supplies of coking coal, says official (Reuters), For Japan’s leader, Russian gas is also a hometown affair (Wall Street Journal $)

• Russia’s murderous regime is propped up by oil and gas – Australia and the world must switch (The Guardian, Ketan Joshi op-ed)
• The boring bill in Tennessee that everyone should be watching (New York Times, Margaret Renkl column $)
• The Supreme Court must protect itself from the Thomas duo (Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin column $)
• Biomass is not health neutral (The Hill, Jonathan Buonocore and Parichehr Salimifard op-ed)
• Biden administration must extend Temporary Protected Status to Black migrants just as it has for 100,000 Ukrainians (The Grio, Nana Gyamfi and Iman Boukadoum op-ed)
• EU leaders need to be ready to rethink electricity market design (Energy Monitor, Dave Keating op-ed)
• Will Boris Johnson get real on energy? (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

Methane Gas Industry Turning Up Heat on Induction Stove and Electrify Everything Campaigns

Stoves that burn dirty methane gas, which the industry wants you to think of as “natural,” are, it turns out, dirtier than electric stoves, because burning stuff is generally not great for your lungs. Homes with gas stoves have approximately 50% to more than 400% higher average concentrations of NO2 pollution than homes with electric stoves, which among other things, can lead to elevated COVID19 death rates. One research team found 12% of all childhood asthma could be attributed to gas stoves, while another calculated that kids in homes with methane stoves are 42% more likely to suffer asthma symptoms. Another study from UCLA found that replacing residential gas appliances in California would save $3.5 billion in reduced health costs alone.   

It’s not surprising that the industry is fighting back, but we are a little shocked by how bad their arguments are. 

Three recent pieces characterize the industry’s rebuttal, and like its denial of climate science, the disinfo here is particularly thin and embarrassing. Media Research Center, recently posted, “environmentalists deserve to lose their war on natural gas,” and while MRC is all about criticizing green group funding, they don’t seem keen to disclose their own history of Koch funding. MRC also doesn’t actually provide any counter-arguments, just a list of complaints about environmentalists successfully pushing to “electrify everything.” 

Meanwhile at the Cato Institute, the intellectual vacuum that remains after it had to close its climate (disinfo) program, is making itself felt, as the latest issue of its Regulation magazine has a piece asking “Why kill natural gas” that tries, and fails, to mount a defense. 

How badly does it fail? Well, Kenneth Costello writes a section on how “the benefits of natural gas exceed the costs,” which contains zero actual figures of costs, and lists dubious benefits like “abundant domestic availability” and “low prices for the foreseeable future.” Apparently Costello didn’t get the memo about prices being so high the Biden administration should cut regulations! 

In fact, Costello manages to dodge the price issue throughout, never once mentioning the actual cost of methane gas these days, though he implies it. For example, a paragraph that begins with a sentence about how “in economic terms, a gas ban fails miserably,” but then it switches to the climate terms, not economic. And “as public policy,” Costello scribbles, “a ban is off the charts as being exceptionally bad.” There is no chart of “policy bad,” but he instead complains that gas in homes and buildings is “less than 9%” of US emissions, which as a country is 15% of global emissions, so in all, electrifying buildings “reduces worldwide emissions by less than 1.5%.” 

Now, considering that global emissions must drop 100%, getting every 1.5% matters just as much as any other, thus defeating this argument.

But since one country acting on one part of a global problem doesn’t solve that global problem, it’s bad policy? Yes, for Costello, at least. “GHG emissions mitigation is a global public good. It can’t benefit anyone without benefiting everyone, and no matter how much one country or region benefits, there always are benefits for others. So, even if a natural gas ban has a detectable effect on climate change, the locale implementing it would receive a trivial share of the global benefits.”

The best argument Costello could come up with as for why kicking a methane gas addiction is bad, is that its benefits are global!  

Seems the $2,163,000 the Koch Institute gave Cato in 2020 (the latest year available) was not sufficient to maintain any sort of coherent climate argument through to 2022. 

Similarly, past Koch money for RealClearEnergy seems to have triggered an echo of Cato, with its own defense of “natural gas: essential for American’s [sic] cleaner energy future.” What’s interesting about this isn’t its projection-dripping line about “biased media coverage” regarding methane stoves’ health and climate impacts, or its copying of the industry’s propaganda attacking the science showing those risks, or even its requisite delivery of the industry’s talking point that “Americans love natural gas and the affordable, reliable and clean benefits it delivers.” 

What’s interesting is that it’s bylined simply as “The Editors at RealClearEnergy,” one of only two pieces there by “The Editors”, with the other being an aggregated link out to a Bloomberg editorial. According to its “About” page, unlike the RealClear pages for Defense, Politics, Investigations, Religion, Science, Life, Markets, World, Policy, and Education, there is no editor listed for RealClearEnergy. 

So who wrote this editorial? Well, an oil industry PR person most likely, but who put it up on RCE? Because up until last summer, Jude Clemente was bylined as “the editor of RealClearEnergy” for a post at RealClearPolitics. Note the singular “the”- he worked alone! 

Same for prior bylines for posts back at the Energy vertical, save for that one time it read “Jude Clemente is editor at RealClearEnergy” so it’s unclear if he was “an” or “the” editor, but it does seem that the editor’s unedited byline is an indication of his abilities, as now he’s neither, and instead relegated to posting on Forbes once a month or so.

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