FIRST LOOK: 

May 5, Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW) day, culminates a national week of action with a #MMIWActionNow Twitter Storm at 10am MT, a Twitter chat at 12pm MT, and a webinar uplifting the voices of MMIW surviving families at 1pm MT.

Oil & Gas Money Paved Way For Anti-Choice SCOTUS: The oil and gas industry has given heavily to senators who have voted to confirm the Supreme Court justices who signed onto draft majority opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. Data compiled by Earth Uprising shows all 16 sitting senators who have taken more than half a million dollars from the oil and gas industry have voted to confirm at least one of the five justices, with 13 of those senators voting to confirm at least three. Conservative efforts to remake the Supreme Court, and the American judiciary overall, are not new, and there is a strong correlation between justices who are hostile abortion rights and also hostile to environmental protection. Both disproportionately harm Indigenous people, especially those with a uterus. “The reality is that Indigenous people have been fighting for reproductive rights since colonization,” Indigenous Women Rising executive director Rachael Lorenzo, Mescalero Apache and Laguna Pueblo, told Indian Country Today. “Since Columbus got here, our ancestors were enslaved. Our children were forcibly separated all the way down to taking our kids away, sending them to boarding schools, and forced sterilization by Indian Health Services, which didn't really get acknowledged by the federal government until the Obama administration. We have already been living in a post-Roe reality.” (Oil & gas money: Gizmodo; Indigenous impact: Indian Country Today)

EU To Ban Russian Oil By Year's End: The European Union will implement a phased ban on Russian oil imports by the end of the year, the European Commission said Wednesday. Europe relies heavily on Russian fossil fuels and the ban will not apply to methane gas or coal. The move is consistent with increasing efforts in the West to punish Russian president Vladimir Putin for the February invasion of, and continuing atrocities in, Ukraine — the EU declined to join the U.S. in banning Russian oil imports in early March. (Russia's war on Ukraine has been great for oil and gas companies and executives.) The phased prohibition is intended to give time to ensure member states and their partners can secure alternative supplies, with some countries being given extra time due to their especially high dependency on Russian oil. Earlier this week, Standard Charter said the EU has paid Russia about $50 billion for oil, gas, and coal since Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24. (Import ban: (Washington Post $, Axios, New York Times $, AP, CNBC, The Hill, Climate Home, Politico Pro $, Energy Monitor; $50 billion: OilPrice)

Mountain Valley Pipeline Even More Delayed, Even Further Over-Budget: The beleaguered Mountain Valley Pipeline project will be even more expensive and further behind schedule, the project's developers told analysts Tuesday. The controversial, already delayed and over-budget 303-mile pipeline would carry fracked gas from West Virginia into Virginia. It will now cost at least $6.6 billion, more than double the original estimate and not be in operation until at least late 2023, about 5 years after it was supposed to be finished. The project's developers will seek new permits after suffering multiple, major legal setbacks over key permits, including a state air pollution board determination that a proposed compressor station failed to meet environmental justice requirements, that have already prompted stakeholders to write down over $1 billion of their investments, including NextEra Energy Resources, which wrote off its entire investment after concluding the “continued legal and regulatory challenges have resulted in a very low probability of pipeline completion.” Roberta Bondurant, co-chair of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights coalition, called the pipeline “a dying project that is sucking the life out of the environment and our communities to postpone its final demise," and said “The MVP must admit its final defeat immediately, rather than continuing to ... waste the precious time we have to address the climate crisis.” (The Roanoke Times, AP, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette $, E&E $)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: 'Just another dead Indian': Indigenous woman's murder shows systemic struggles in MMIW cases (USA Today), My daughter is missing': new laws fail to shield Indigenous women from higher murder rates (USA Today), 4 incredible Asian American women who are fighting for environmental justice (Green Matters), Twice burned (Grist)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Companies count the cost of ditching Russia (Reuters, Factbox), Italy calls for clarity on Putin’s ruble order as gas bills loom (Bloomberg $), Russia losing OPEC+ clout as Ukraine war weakens oil market role (S&P Global), Volkswagen is prolonging its use of coal due to Russian energy ‘threat’ (CNBC)

SOUTH ASIA: ‘Extreme heat can be deadly:’ how cricket is handling the climate crisis (The Guardian), Climate change turned up India’s heat. But by how much? (Bloomberg $), India boosts coal production to tackle power crunch amid searing heatwave (FT $), Record heat in India and Pakistan is a wake-up call (Grist)

DENIAL: How the oil and gas industry is trying to hold US public schools hostage (The Guardian), Climate sceptic thinktank [Global Warming Policy Foundation] received funding from fossil fuel interests (The Guardian)

PROXY SEASON: Climate activists take aim at Barclays, StanChart shareholder meetings (Reuters), Blow for Barclays as 20% of shareholders reject climate strategy (The Guardian)

OK, BILLIONAIRE: Venture capitalist donates $1.1 Billion to Stanford for climate change and sustainability school (The Hill, Bloomberg $, New York Times $, Axios, Protocol, Reuters, Washington Post $)

NATURE HAS LIMITS: New reports show forests need far more funding to help the climate, and even then, they can’t do it all (Inside Climate News), The problem with nature-based solutions (Atmos)

RICH BOYS AND THEIR TOYS: SpaceX is harming endangered species, new docs show (Protocol)

FOR PEAT'S SAKE: Who will profit from saving Scotland's bogs? (New York Times $), How do peatlands capture carbon, and why is it so important to the planet? (New York Times $)

SCOTUS: Alito: The Supreme Court’s next environmental law juggernaut? (E&E News)

AGENCIES: Experts press Biden’s ‘Cancer Cabinet’ to target toxics (E&E News)

EPA: Democrats challenge EPA's contentious plastics plan (E&E $), EPA to weigh regulating common plastic [PVC] as hazardous waste (E&E News)

DOE: Senators take their turn grilling Granholm on energy prices (E&E $)

DOT: Industry appeal of pipeline safety rules draws pushback (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: A softer US climate goal? Kerry points to 1.8 degrees (E&E News), Biden lashes out at Republicans' 'extreme' MAGA agenda, touts deficit reduction (Reuters, The Hill), Biden sharpens GOP attack, assailing Senator Scott’s ‘maga agenda’ (Bloomberg $)

THE HILL: Carbon border fee gains traction, but hurdles remain (E&E News)

HOUSE: Oversight Republicans target SEC climate disclosure proposal (The Hill)

SENATE: Senate panel easily clears Kigali treaty limiting climate-warming refrigerant (Politico Pro $, E&E $), GOP blocks 3 land bills over proposed mining, drilling bans (E&E $), Senate environment committee easily advances water infrastructure package (Politico Pro $)

• ICEE HOT: Democrats propose incentives to electrify heating, cooling (E&E $)

POLITICS: Ad with former Navy secretary prods Congress on clean energy (E&E $)

ELECTIONS: Wis. Dems tout climate credentials in Senate primary fight (E&E $), Trump-backed J.D. Vance wins Ohio GOP Senate primary (E&E News)

TRIBES: Arctic Inupiaq leaders take aim at Biden oil policy (Indian Country Today), The $46m for climate resilience in tribal communities: how will it help housing? (Native News Online)

CITIES AND STATES: In N.C., clean energy apprenticeship program set to double this summer (Energy News Network), [North Dakota], feds sue pipeline operator after 2016 spill leaked 600,000 gallons of oil in Billings County (Bismarck Tribune, AP), Why Newsom is talking about saving California's last nuclear plant (Politico Pro $)

FERC: FERC chair backs ‘transmission monitor’ for grid build-out (E&E News)

LANDBACK: Indigenous Endorois fight for their land and rights at UN (Indian Country Today and Grist), Indigenous group fights cattle onslaught, defends uncontacted relatives in the Gran Chaco (Mongabay), Native peoples harvested huge amounts of seafood without harming ecosystems (Gizmodo)

IMPACTS: Smoke and sandstorm, seen from space (New York Times $), With water running out, California faces grim summer of dangerous heat, extreme drought (LA Times $), Why are some climate models running red hot? Scientists have an answer (Bloomberg $)

DROUGHT: As Colorado River shrinks, pain of drought to spread (E&E News), Charging for wasted water helps more Kenyan farmers get a fair share (Thomson Reuters Foundation), One way around California’s water restrictions: Recycle water from your laundry (LA Times $)

• COLORADO RIVER: Feds plan extreme measures to keep Lake Powell generating electricity (Gizmodo)

WILDFIRES: As California burns, environmentalists find new tactic to halt development (Reuters), Why climate change makes it harder to fight fire with fire (New York Times $)

• NEW MEXICO: President declares disaster in New Mexico wildfire zone (AP), The Southwest is on fire, iconic deserts and towns are at risk and one governor is calling for a disaster declaration (The Conversation),

HURRICANES: A better solution to America’s big hurricane problem (Vox)

DEFORESTATION: Satellites over the Amazon capture the choking of the ‘house of God’ by the Belo Monte Dam – they can help find solutions, too (The Conversation), UN program to curb deforestation has murky results — report (E&E $)

RENEWABLES: Clean energy at a crossroads: The Made-in-America push (E&E News)

• SOLAR TARIFFS: US solar trade probe leads to delay in coal unit shutdowns (Bloomberg $), US utility NiSource to delay coal plant shutdown due to solar market freeze (Reuters, Politico Pro $)

BATTERIES: Scramble to tap Latin America's lithium riches accelerates (Reuters Factbox), Sila to make advanced battery materials in Washington state (Bloomberg $), Startup tests technology to recover minerals from mine waste and recycled batteries (Yale Climate Connections), The Salton Sea could produce the world’s greenest lithium, if new extraction technologies work (CNBC)

OIL & GAS: Shell reports a record $9.1 billion profit. (New York Times $), BP reports soaring profits, even as oil production is flat (E&E News), BP’s bumper earnings stoke new calls for windfall tax (FT $), Norway plans record gas volumes for Europe (OilPrice)

Natural gas hits 13-year high in US on growing supply jitters as demand soars (Bloomberg $, CBS), Why surging natural-gas prices haven’t sparked a drilling boom (Wall Street Journal $)

PLASTICS: US plastic recycling rate drops to close to 5% - report (Reuters, Washington Post $, Grist), Glass Half Full recycles bottles into a force for good in New Orleans (NBC)

UTILITIES: PSE&G continues to grow rate base, expects decision on $848M ‘last mile’ program this fall (Utility Dive)

GRID: SunZia, NV Energy, Pinnacle West-Berkshire transmission projects advance across the Southwest (Utility Dive)

CRYPTO: Texas bitcoin miners seek cheap power, land and a place to stay (Bloomberg $), Uzbekistan legalises solar-powered crypto mining (Reuters)

WORDS, MEANINGS, ETC…: PFAS are showing up in children’s stain- and water-resistant products – including those labeled ‘nontoxic’ and ‘green’ (The Conversation)

"INNER GREEN DEAL": EU officials being trained to meditate to help fight climate crisis (The Guardian)

AVIATION: Electric planes take off, as Textron acquires Pipistrel (E&E $)

SHIPPING: Top sea polluters beg for climate rules that no rival can avoid (Bloomberg $)

CARBON CAPTURE: Chevron inks deal to develop first US offshore CCS hub (E&E $)

CARBON REMOVAL: What you need to know about carbon dioxide removal (Yale Climate Connections)

INTERNATIONAL: Johnson rules out UK windfall tax after BP posts mega-profits (Bloomberg $), Record oil exports test Trudeau’s climate-change ambitions (Bloomberg $), South Africa seeks to make climate finance deal global benchmark (Bloomberg $)

• Beware malaria risk from efforts to cool the planet (FT, Anjana Ahuja op-ed $)
• Can FERC convince utilities to build modern transmission systems? (Utility Dive, Ari Peskoe op-ed)
• It’s time to kill this useless and costly desalination project (LA Times, Michael Hiltzik column $)
• No abortion means poor states will get poorer (Bloomberg, Allison Schrager op-ed $)
• There’s a straight line from US racial segregation to the anti-abortion movement (The Guardian, Randall Balmer op-ed)
• Democratic Leaders Are Getting the Abortion Story Wrong — Again (The Cut, Rebecca Traister analysis)
• Criminalizing abortion isn’t just about controlling ‘women’s bodies’ (Prism Reports, Sherronda Brown essay)

Endangerment Finding Stronger Than Ever, EPA Says, Denying Deniers’ Request To Forget About Climate Change

One of the biggest concerns about climate change during the Trump administration was that they would find a way to undo the 2009 Endangerment Finding, in which the EPA determined that climate change caused by carbon pollution from burning fossil fuels was a threat to public health, and therefore needed to be regulated. 

It’s the decision that Facebook exec Joel Kaplan denied back in 2007 when he was in the George W. Bush administration, and the odds weren’t bad that similar political shenanigans would sabotage the EPA once again. Industry-backed front groups tried their hardest, submitting four different petitions to the EPA, in hopes that industry-backed administrators Scott Pruitt then Andrew Wheeler would see to it that the petitions were granted. Fortunately, one of the very last things and only decent things Wheeler did was deny the petitions. 

But that wasn’t good enough for the Biden EPA, which because Wheeler left things open to reconsideration, rescinded his denial, and then on the day before Earth Day 2022, published one of their own. (h/t politicoPRO.)

The response is technical but at times entertaining, because it turned out that all four petitions relied on the same dumb papers, that weren’t even actually peer-reviewed. “EPA’s analysis,” the introduction of the 40-page decision document states, “concludes that the petitioners have provided inadequate, erroneous, and deficient arguments and evidence.” 

The EPA wrote that the denier arguments were based on “what amount to assertions and leaps in logic based on inadequate, cherry-picked evidence that does not meet important standards for quality and peer review.” 

EPA said they were inadequate AND deficient AND wrong! And that’s not it, either. Because one of the other contentions these four lazy petitioners brought were already knocked down in court “during judicial review of the 2009 Endangerment Finding, which were resolved in the 2012 decision of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit upholding the 2009 Endangerment Finding.” 

They’re wrong on the science, and already overruled on the legal portions! 

And they are very, very wrong about the science. In fact, it’s generous even to call what they submitted “science.” Deniers getting deniers to give a paper a thumbs up does not a peer-reviewed article make. 

But still, the EPA looked at the arguments raised and gave them a fair shake, explaining that their claim to debunk three “lines of evidence” attributing warming to carbon pollution that the EPA relied on to make the endangerment determination was misguided. So they’re wrong, but even if they were right, it still wouldn’t mean success, as “even in the absence of definite historical attribution, there is independent scientific evidence regarding projected climate impacts that also supports the finding of endangerment.” 

Moving on, their arguments relied on “flawed assumptions” that failed to “incorporate a physical understanding of the climate system” with “no consideration of thermodynamic laws concerning conservation of energy.” 

A fair mistake! Whomst among us hasn’t forgotten a law of physics in our haste to protect polluters? 

Oh and in case you were wondering, they also didn’t crunch the numbers too well, and forgot “to perform even basic statistical tests,” the kind of problem that would have come up had the “report been subject to an objective, independent, and transparent peer review by scientists with the appropriate expertise.”

The next section is even better. Deniers claimed that the lack of a “Tropical Hot Spot” disproves models, the Endangerment Finding (since it was part of the first line of evidence used to prove warming), and the IPCC. But the term “never appears” in either the EPA’s Endangerment Finding, or the IPCC report where they claim to debunk it.

The EPA then goes on to explain that even if this weren’t a misattributed strawman of an argument, it still isn’t right, and even if it were, it still wouldn’t mean much! 

It goes on for another dozen pages, summarizing and debunking the climate disinfo, but being wrong about a fake strawman in your pretend-peer-review paper is about as laughable dishonest as it gets. 

So we’ll leave you with this, EPA's evaluation of CEI’s claim that warming is natural, which applies to basically all the polluters' claims: “the science regarding the unusual nature of recent temperature change has only grown stronger since the 2009 Endangerment Finding.” 

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