FIRST LOOK(s): 

Tune in tomorrow at 11:00 a.m. for an America Is All In event on the future of U.S. energy with DOE Secr. Granholm and Sen. Carper. Mayors, businesses, veterans, hospitals and colleges will discuss their support for landmark clean energy investments in front of Congress. Register here: 

New analysis from Energy Innovation shows electric vehicles are now cheaper to own than gasoline-powered vehicles the day they’re driven off the lot in most states, with up to $6,000 in total cost of ownership savings over the vehicle’s lifetime. 

DOI Report Scratches Surface Of Indigenous Children Killed At U.S. 'Boarding Schools': At least 500 Native American children died and were buried at "boarding schools" established or supported by the U.S. government — a number that only scratches the surface of the potentially tens of thousands of children who actually perished — a report from the Department of the Interior released Wednesday revealed. The schools were tools of ethnic cleansing, in which children were taken from their homes, forced to assimilate into white society, and barred from preserving or practicing their own language and culture. "If you want to change the culture," Dakota Sioux historian Jeanne Eder Rhodes told the Arizona Republic "the first thing you do is take away their children and put them where they can't access their culture." Native American communities have and continue to be disproportionately harmed by extractive industries and the impacts of climate change. "Our children had names," Deborah Parker, CEO of the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, told reporters. "Our children had homes. They had families. They had their languages, their regalia, their prayers and religions." (Arizona Republic, Indian Country Today, AP, Buzzfeed, E&E News, NPR, New York Times $, The Hill, ABC, Axios, Business Insider, CNN)

91% Of Great Barrier Reef Bleached For 4th Time In 7 Years: More than 90% of the Great Barrier Reef surveyed by researchers was bleached, Australian government scientists say. "Climate change remains the greatest threat to the Reef," the report said. Rising ocean temperatures cause heat stress for coral, turning them white and increasing their susceptibility to disease. This is the fourth mass bleaching event in seven years, but the first during a La Niña pattern, which coincides with cooler Pacific Ocean temperatures.  (AP, CBS, Weather Channel, HuffPost; Climate Signals background: Coral Bleaching Increase

Fossil Fuel Firms Planning 195 Carbon Bombs: Fossil fuel companies are planning nearly 200 "carbon bomb" projects that would push the climate past international limits, causing catastrophic global disasters, the Guardian reports. The 195 projects, defined by research published in Energy Policy as capable of producing at least a billion tons of CO2 pollution, include 22 oil and gas drilling projects in the U.S. (more than any other country) which, combined, could pump almost four years of global climate pollution into the atmosphere. "Only the colonial mindset of political leaders in rich countries can make the brutal calculation that the interest of fossil fuel giants and their billions in profit is more important than the lives of people who are overwhelmingly black, brown and poor." UK climate justice advocate Asad Rehman told the Guardian. Climate scientists warn immediate fossil fuel cuts are needed to prevent even more catastrophically destructive climate impacts. Industries' plans, 60% of which are already underway, would pump 18 years of current carbon pollution, and the oil and gas industry's plans to expand and drill new projects would release as much climate pollution as China does in a decade. Not only will the planned extraction of fossil fuels acutely harm local communities, but those communities are also some of the most vulnerable to the catastrophic, and worsening, impacts of climate change. “It is already creating a massive amount of disruption for the local fishing and subsistence farmers who are being moved off their land,” Daniel Ribeiro, a member of the Justiça Ambiental campaign group, of plans for a huge offshore pipeline and LNG plant in Mozambique's Cabo Delgado province. “But if it goes ahead and countries like Mozambique are set off on a fossil fuel track, it will be a global disaster. We can forget tackling the climate crisis … we will all suffer.”. (The Guardian)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: How broadcast TV news covered environmental justice in 2021 (Media Matters), ‘Our ancestors are in the rocks’: Australian gas project threatens ancient carvings – and emissions blowout (The Guardian), Apartment building retrofits can help the climate and save tenants money (Yale Climate Connections)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: How can Europe get gas if Russia's supply is disrupted? (Reuters, Factbox), How can the EU end its dependence on Russian gas? (Energy Monitor), Climate goes missing in action in Russia’s war (Politico EU), Do not use Ukraine war to defer climate goals, warns Mark Carney (The Guardian), Where are Russia’s barrels of oil going? (Washington Post $)

• PIPELINES: Ukraine fires a warning shot in Russia gas dispute (Politico Pro $)
• Ukraine stops Russian gas flowing to Europe through key pipeline (Wall Street Journal $)
• WHEAT: Wheat crops almost EVerywhere are coming under threat from extreme weather (TIME)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: 6 months after the climate summit, where to find progress on climate change in a more dangerous and divided world (The Conversation), Kerry, Carney urge faster climate action in shadow of Ukraine war (Reuters)

DENIAL: Coldplay labeled ‘useful idiots for greenwashing’ after deal with oil company (The Guardian)

THE KIDS THESE DAYS: Drowning in student loans and rising tides (Atmos)

NOT GREAT: Coming this summer: spiking electricity bills plus Blackouts (Inside Climate News, Fortune)

OIL & GAS: Oil companies posted huge profits. Here’s where the cash will go (hint: not climate) (TIME), Cash gushes for Big Oil. But climate investments plateau (E&E News), UN says $144 million needed to avert Yemen tanker disaster (AP), High gasoline prices may last for years (E&E News), Oxy is latest oil and gas company to report multi-billion dollar first quarter profits (Houston Chronicle), Exxon doubles down on ‘advanced recycling’ claims that yield few results (The Guardian), Rising gasoline prices upended Biden's energy agenda. Now it's natural gas's turn. (Politico Pro $)

• COOKING THE BOOKS, COOKING THE PLANET: Oil majors have found a sneaky way to look greener on paper (Gizmodo)

AEROSOLS & HURRICANES: Air pollution can mean more, or fewer, hurricanes. It depends where you live. (New York Times $), New research shows aerosol emissions may have masked global warming’s supercharging of tropical storms (Inside Climate News), As hurricane season approaches, experts say to beware of more rapidly intensifying storms (USA Today)

HISTORY LESSON: A climate time capsule (part 1): the start of the international climate change fight (NPR)

AGENCIES: DOJ investigates murders of six Black men during the 1970 Augusta Riot, seeks witnesses (The Grio)

EPA: Racing lawsuit heads for collision with D.C. Circuit (Politico Pro $)

DOE: DOE plans to buy capacity on proposed power lines in first step for $2.5B transmission funding program (Utility Dive)

DOI:  Biden administration cancels Alaska oil and gas lease sale (CBS)

• OFFSHORE WIND: With developers clamoring for leases, offshore wind lining up as America's next big energy boom (Houston Chronicle), Carolinas offshore wind auction yields $300M (Politico Pro $, Reuters), US to kick off latest offshore wind auction for Carolina coast (Reuters), US offshore wind plans collide with fishing concerns off Carolina coast (Wall Street Journal $)
• OFFSHORE FOSSILS: Biden has just weeks to come up with plan for [oil and gas drilling] leasing in the Gulf. Here's what happens if he can't. (Houston Chronicle), Biden pulls 3 offshore oil lease sales, curbing new drilling this year (Washington Post $)
• VERY LEGAL AND VERY COOL: House Democrats seek criminal charges against Bernhardt (E&E News, Politico, The Hill)

FED: Lisa Cook, first Black woman confirmed to federal reserve board, highlights impact of racism on economy (Blavity, AP), First Black woman confirmed to Federal Reserve Board of Governors (The Root)

WHITE HOUSE: White House issues ‘action plan’ to speed up energy reviews (E&E News, The Hill), Why Biden isn’t preaching energy conservation (E&E News)

BUILD BACK BETTER ACT: 

THE HILL: Wildfires are still catching us off-guard. Congress’ plan to fix that isn’t going anywhere. (Grist), Democrats push to overhaul mining law citing clean energy (Washington Post $)

HOUSE: Inside the GOP’s probe of troubled mine safety agency (E&E News), Panel moves bill to scrap NEPA study of Postal Service fleet (E&E News)

SENATE: The Senate battle over abortion is underway. But it’s certainly not a new fight (The Grio), Manchin huddles with fracking billionaire Harold Hamm (E&E News)

ELECTIONS: Trump-backed Mooney ousts McKinley in W.Va. primary (E&E News)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Senate confirms Bedoya to FTC (Politico Pro $, E&E $)

TRIBES: Prairie Island Indian Community uses nuclear waste fund for net-zero carbon goal (Yale Climate Connections)

CITIES AND STATES: Western states balk at administration's 50-mile EV charger guidance (Politico Pro $), 2 governors say they're finally winning on climate (E&E $), New Maine utility law requires integrated planning to support state goals, sets penalties for reliability failures (Utility Dive)

• CALIFORNIA: Environmentalists underwhelmed by California's latest carbon-neutrality plan (Politico Pro $), Calif. rejects plan to be carbon neutral by 2035 (E&E $)

IMPACTS: Global climate crisis brings famine to Africa (ABC), North Carolina beach homes collapse from lumbering coastal storm (Washington Post $, Gizmodo)

50/50: Global warming may exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius in at least one of the next five years, new report finds (CBS, Washington Post $)

CROSSCUTTING CATASTROPHES: The Southwest’s drought and fires are a window to our climate change future (ProPublica), US firefighters in final push for healthcare as wildfires surge (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

• DROUGHT: Droughts increase 29 percent in a generation, only getting worse: UN (The Hill, AP), The largest, most severe drought we've seen in 1,200 years (MSNBC), California braces for extreme summer drought after dismal wet season (Washington Post $)
• WILDFIRES: New Mexico wildfire advances in Rocky Mountains foothills (AP), Largest US wildfire threatens New Mexico town, ski resort (Reuters), New Mexico wildfire spreading north toward mountain resort towns near Taos (The Guardian)

WATER: The biggest potential water disaster in the United States (The New Yorker $, Urgent new water restrictions as extreme drought worsens in the West (ABC), Water use grows during California drought, flouting Newsom’s call for conservation (Sacramento Bee $), Amid drought, California desalination project at crossroads (AP)

HELIUM: Atmospheric helium on the rise, as byproduct of fossil fuels (E&E $)

RENEWABLES: High school’s solar program helps students build a brighter future (ABC), A New York power line divided environmentalists. Here's what it says about the larger climate fight. (Grist), Report: Probe threatens two-thirds of US solar installations (E&E $), The storm clouds over a bright renewables landscape (Axios), Solar projects are on hold as US investigates whether China is skirting trade rules (NPR), US Commerce secretary says she can't influence solar tariff probe (Reuters), Raimondo fails to reassure a rattled solar industry (Washington Post $)

LNG: Venture Global signs another LNG contract with a firm in Asia (The Advocate)

PLASTICS: Recycling plastic is a total bust, industry critics say (CBS)

UTILITIES: DTE shareholders reject proposal to track downstream natural gas emissions (Energy News Network), Fed utility [TVA] weighs coal plant switch options, climate impact (AP)

MINERALS: African conflict zone may supply key US battery material (E&E News)

EVs: Connecticut electric vehicle rebate reforms include point-of-sale vouchers (Energy News Network), Electric scooters for nurses speed up healthcare in Indian mining hub (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Tesla recalls 130K cars over touchscreen display overheating (Axios), Rivian stock jumps as the EV automaker says demand remains high and production is on track (CNBC), Ford F-150 Lightning review: A watershed moment for electric vehicles (Axios), What the future of EV charging holds, according to the CEO building it (Protocol), Rivian set to give business update as stock slumps (Wall Street Journal $), Mary Barra’s ‘long game’: winning the EV race (New York Times $)

AVIATION: Fry the friendly skies: Airports hope it's sustainable to convert used cooking oil into jet fuel (NBC), Hawaiian holdings places bet on electric seagliders for island hopping (Wall Street Journal $)

FINANCE: FHFA joins global climate risk group (Politico Pro $), The pushback on ESG investing (New York Times $), Bank of Spain sees moderate immediate risk to banks from climate policies (Reuters), Big investors reconsider oil and gas upside as supplies remain tight (Wall Street Journal $)

FOOD: Beyond Meat shares drop as losses widen (Wall Street Journal $)

INTERNATIONAL: Egypt signs MoU to produce 300,000 tonnes of green ammonia annually - cabinet (Reuters), EU lawmakers back effective ban on new fossil-fuel cars from 2035 (Reuters), Spain and Portugal's plan to cap gas prices 'reasonable', says Repsol CEO (Reuters), Top Australian writers call for climate action to be at the centre of election (The Guardian), England fails to reach household waste recycling target (The Guardian), MEPs call for 20% reduction in car emissions by 2025 (The Guardian)

• Words of wisdom from three leaders in the environmental health and justice field (Environmental Health News, Dr. Paloma Beamer, Dr. Christina H. Fuller, and Dr. Chandra Jackson interview )
• Dear Coldplay, listen to Massive Attack and save yourselves from greenwashing (The Guardian, Eleanor Salter op-ed)
• From climate to plastics, Big Oil faces a reckoning (The Hill, Richard Wiles op-ed)
• The Democrats really are that dense about climate change (The Atlantic, Robinson Meyer commentary)
• Clean energy can light a new path forward for former coal communities (The Hill, Sec. Jennifer Granholm op-ed)
• ‘Made in America’ – An analog policy that needs to go digital (Utility Dive, Tom Deitrich op-ed)
• What Latin American feminists can teach American women about the abortion fight (The Guardian, Verónica Gago op-ed)

New Conservative Blueprint ‘for a Serious and Sound Climate Policy” Calls For Too-Stupid-For-Trump ‘Red Team’ Attacks on Climate Science

For the umpteenth time, conservatives are taking another shot at pretending to care about climate change. The latest is from a group run by Gabriel Noronha, a former Trump political appointee who was fired from his position at the Department of State when he tweeted “President Trump fomented an insurrectionist mob that attacked the Capitol today. He continues to take every opportunity to obstruct the peaceful transfer of power. These actions threaten our democracy and our Republic. Trump is entirely unfit to remain in office, and needs to go.” 

Considering Noronha told the truth about the events of January 6, one would hopethe Forum for American Leadership (FAL), the rightwing national security group Noronha directs, might tell some modicum of the truth when it comes to climate change. Alas, they pay lip service to the reality that fossil fuels cause climate change, so we were eager to see what a “Serious and Sound Climate Policy” from conservatives could mean, given the deeply unserious and unsound policies currently circulating in the name of climate action. 

And it turns out that the FAL’s policy blueprint IS different from Trump’s! 

It’s worse. 

Because while deniers tried but failed to get Trump to stand up a red team attack on climate science, that’s exactly what Noronha’s group is suggesting needs to be done. 

The blueprint has three main points of “serious and sound” conservative climate policy, and if “sound” sounds fishy, it should. Neither of them are actual policies intending to in any way reduce emissions. Two of them are attacks on science, pretending Steve “Debunked-a-Bunch” Koonin’s too-stupid-for-Trump red team proposal is something that hasn’t already been done. (Providing the latest example of how the industrial disinformation playbook uses never-ending calls for re-examining the science as a way to prevent the debate from ever moving forward.) 

FAL calls for Congress to “require settlement of differences arising in the peer-review of assessment reports by an independent referee, as is the case for research papers, instead of allowing the assessment report’s authors to discard criticism without explanation, as is the case now,” except it’s not the case now and if Congress did decide to set up a science referee to decide what criticism was worth listening to! If past is prologue, we know the right would, of course, throw its back out yelling about how Orwellian and anti-free speech it is to do such a thing. (Just see their response to the Biden administration thinking about doing something about Russian, and other, state disinformation!) 

Then they think UN and US reports should “undergo a formal review by a group of independent climate experts” which is a bad faith, poorly-concealed call for a red team propaganda effort because these reports already go through exactly the sort of review by independent experts they’re calling for! 

The next “big idea” is to “apply sound principles and leverage all strategies and fuels,” where they call for cost/benefit analyses of climate policies, which already happens, and every single solitary time they find that climate policies save countless human lives and bring net benefits. (Quick history lesson for FAL: conservatives pushed the cost benefit analysis thing back in the ‘80s, successfully! Congrats, your suggestion is a good one! Just that it’s like four decades too late, and every climate policy ever has provided far more benefits than costs.)

The final, and our favorite, of the big three buckets is, “Legislate on climate at home and lead abroad.” Yes, their big advice is that Congress should just pass some policy, and finally  misrepresent the Paris agreement by saying it needs to be better by doing what it already does. 

Apparently a sound and serious climate policy is one that is forever mired in explaining the science (and uncertainties) to the public, doing and re-doing cost-benefit analyses until fossil fuels look good somehow, and then just passing legislation in Congress and leading internationally. How would we do that? How do they suggest getting support of fossil-fuel funded politicians for policies that would reduce the use of fossil fuels? 

They don’t. Instead they just say “Congress should lead the debate and enact domestic and international climate policy.” Oh! How?

“Congress should enact legislation establishing a nonpartisan, expert national commission that integrates technology development, economics, and the strategies, principles, and policy options noted above to develop coherent options for Congress to debate and enact.” Who knew it was just that simple?

Congress should just make a commission that would develop options for policies that Congress could debate and enact. Of course! Why hadn’t anyone thought of that! (Another history lesson for FAL: the National Climate Assessment FAL undermines was commissioned by Congress to provide expert advice on climate science and economics and already provides basically everything FAL asks.) 

Oh but before any of that cost benefit stuff has been done, FAL already has its policies in mind- “should fuel switching policies be required, all energy sources should be on the table including nuclear, natural gas, fusion, hydrogen, and advanced biofuels.” 

Hmm, okay, so do a big cost benefit analysis (that already happens and says wind+solar+storage wins) but make sure the end result is that we spend money on more fossil fuels, waste it on forever failing to build new nuclear and forever-20-years-away fusion, make sure the fossil fuel industry can keep polluting with hydrogen, and toss a bone to the Big Ag lobby for biofuels that are climate-counter-productive. Whatever you do, don’t help renewables though!

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