(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Baby formula shortage taking toll on Black mothers, families (Black Wall Street Times), Is the energy transition hitting a glass ceiling? (Energy Monitor), Man fights eligibility of 13K voters. It’s the county Oprah visited in 1987 to ask why Black people were forced out (The Grio), One-third of Afro-Latinos checked ‘white’ on the census. BLM, racism drove others to embrace Blackness (The Grio), Woman sentenced to 5 years for voter fraud gets second chance to plead her case (The Grio)
TEXAS / GAS / RACISM: Black communities are last in line for disaster planning in Texas (Washington Post $), A 67-foot pipeline rupture in Texas triggered massive methane plume (Bloomberg $), Study finds higher density of gas leaks where people of color live (Bloomberg $)
CARBON BOMBS: US fracking boom could tip world to edge of climate disaster (The Guardian), ‘Our ancestors are in the rocks’: Australian gas project threatens ancient carvings – and emissions blowout (The Guardian), ‘We can’t eat a new road’: Guyanese voice fears over true cost of Exxon’s oil bonanza (The Guardian), Climate chaos certain if oil and gas mega-projects go ahead, warns IEA chief (The Guardian), Governments must say no (The Guardian, Editorial Board)
ABORTION & POLLUTION: What overturning Roe v. Wade means for pregnant people in pollution hotspots (Grist)
FOSSIL FUELED WAR: EU considers shelving ban on Russian oil as Hungary blocks sanctions (Politico Pro $), Europe is running out of time to find alternatives to Russian gas (CNN), EU readies 195 billion euro plan to quit Russian fossil fuels (Reuters), How Germany’s LNG terminals will morph into green hydrogen hubs (Bloomberg $), Iraq feels pull of European demand for Russian crude alternatives (S&P Global), More oil from US strategic petroleum reserve heads to Europe (OilPrice), Russia could cut gas supply to Finland on Friday -newspaper (Reuters), Ukraine won't restart gas flows to Europe until it has control of pipelines (OilPrice), European gas Surges as Germany clashes with Russia over supply (Bloomberg $), Senegal sees opportunity and ‘hypocrisy’ in Europe’s search for gas (Washington Post $), Spain approves cap in Europe’s boldest effort to tame gas prices (Bloomberg $)
CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: US climate envoy John Kerry warns world against turning back to coal (FT $)
CLIMATE LITIGATION: New climate frontier: Gender-based lawsuits (E&E $)
REFINED CARCINOGENS: Cancer-causing gas emission spikes continue at refineries (E&E News)
GASOLINE GOUGING: House plans to vote next week on energy price-gouging bill (E&E News), Gas prices reach record highs as Biden calls inflation top priority (Washington Post $)
SOUTH ASIA HEAT: The extraordinary heat wave in India and Pakistan, explained (Vox), India heatwave throws food security for loop (Reuters)
DRIBBLING, AND NOT SHUTTING UP: NBA goes full-court press on climate change (E&E $)
POLITICS: Appalachian activists renew calls for federal climate action as time ticks away on current Congress (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
FEDERAL RESERVE: Lisa Cook confirmed as first Black woman on Federal Reserve Board (Black Wall Street Times, Atlanta Black Star)
AGENCIES: Justice Dept. tries to shift environmental justice efforts from symbolic to substantive (New York Times $)
COMMERCE: Biden admin defends solar probe, spurs industry outrage (E&E News, E&E $)
EPA: EPA blocks bid to review basis for climate regs (E&E News), Race car fans argue EPA wants to slow them down (E&E $), US EPA distributes $250 mln to clean up polluted sites (Reuters)
DOE: DOE plans to buy capacity on proposed power lines in first step for $2.5B transmission funding program (Utility Dive)
DOI: 2nd Interior lease sale boosts N.C. offshore wind (E&E News), Biden administration cancels drilling sales in Alaska and gulf of Mexico (New York Times $)
EXECUTIVE BRANCH: How Congress is routing climate policy through the Army Corps Of Engineers (Grist), SEC gets aggressive in demanding climate data (E&E News)
WHITE HOUSE: CEQ chair fires back on NEPA changes: 'It is about science' (E&E $), Executives, tribes and greens meet at White House on mining (E&E $), Offshore move highlights Biden’s mixed message on oil (E&E News)
THE HILL: A ban on excessive gasoline prices heading to congress for vote (OilPrice)
HOUSE: House panel will investigate USPS plan to purchase 8.6 mpg trucks (Washington Post $, E&E News)
SENATE: Coal miners press Manchin to back reconciliation bill to extend black lung funding (The Hill), Failure to advance Women’s Health Protection Act puts spotlight on absence of Black women senators (NewsOne), Manchin rips Biden for canceling offshore oil lease sales: 'Just awful' (Politico Pro $), Senators seek funding for DOJ's new environmental justice arm (Axios), Whitehouse seeks compromise on carbon border fee (E&E News)
ATTACKS ON DEMOCRACY: Jan. 6 investigation subpoenas McCarthy, Jordan, 3 other House Republicans (Politico, NPR, USA Today, NBC, New York Times $, CNN, CBS, Washington Post $, The Hill), Schiff: Congressmen subpoenaed claim to have 'relevant information' for Jan. 6 investigation (MSNBC)
NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: US Senate panel to question Fed nominee Barr on May 19 (Reuters), Biden Taps 7 Nominees To Fill Out Sentencing Commission (Law360 $), Biden nominates [Judge Carlton W. Reeves] first Black chair of US sentencing commission (The Root)(NewsOne)
CITIES AND STATES: Oregon adopts strongest worker protections in US against heat and wildfire smoke (Yale Environment 360)
CALIFORNIA: California is betting big on offshore wind power (Gizmodo)
California regulators reject governor’s pitch for carbon neutrality by 2035 (Grist)
IMPACTS: Southwest 'megadrought' leads to wildfires and new homicide evidence (Axios), Radon – yet another higher risk from thawing permafrost (Yale Climate Connections), The swift march of climate change in North Carolina’s ‘ghost forests’ (Washington Post $), The tick that causes a meat allergy is on the move (New York Times $)
EXTREME WEATHER: Record heat fueling severe storms, tornadoes in central US (Washington Post $), Hurricane-force winds, dust storm blast Upper Midwest (Washington Post $)
AGRICULTURE: Crop insurance costs climb as climate change deepens (E&E $)
DROUGHT: Far from Lake Powell, drought punishes another Western dam (LA Times $)
HURRICANES: How less air pollution makes hurricanes stronger (E&E News)
RENEWABLES: Following record growth in 2021, renewables on track for new high in 2022 (Yale Environment 360), BP bids for two Dutch offshore wind power leases (Reuters), Duke Energy, TotalEnergies win North Carolina offshore wind leasing auction with $315M in total bids (Utility Dive), Finnish city taps sewers for energy in sprint for net zero (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Renewable power growth seen slowing next year on supply-chain woes (Bloomberg $, Protocol)
BATTERIES: Silicon battery maker Amprius to go public in $1.3 billion SPAC merger (Wall Street Journal $)
BUILDINGS: Living costs in outer suburbs would be slashed under plan to ‘electrify everything,' analysis finds (The Guardian)
STORAGE: Storage to play key role in Hawaii grid reliability as coal plant nears retirement, experts say (Utility Dive)
LNG: US natural gas, LNG future brightens on demand shifts, quest for supply security (S&P Global)
OIL & GAS: Oil and gas sector's new climate policies still overheat the planet: report (Bloomberg $)
PLASTICS: Recycling pledges from Coca-Cola and Nestlé are a joke (Gizmodo)
GRID: PJM releases road map for creating ‘grid of the future’ to handle coming renewables, storage wave (Utility Dive)
EVs: EVs can be cheaper on a monthly basis than gas-powered cars (Canary Media), VW is looking to bring back the Scout brand as an electric vehicle (CNBC), Rivian recalling 502 electric trucks over potentially faulty air-bag sensors (Wall Street Journal $)
- MANLY TRUCKS FOR VERY SECURE MEN: 2022 Ford F-150 Lightning: the everyman’s EV (Wall Street Journal $)
INSPIRATION & DESPERATION: The 2022 inspiration list – Katharine Hayhoe (NBC), The fire that Wynn Bruce lit (The Real News)
BOOZE: Are sheep a crucial ingredient for vineyards and ecosystems? (New York Times $)
CARBON PRICING: Offset markets need to know their carbon—and their customers (Bloomberg $)
CARBON REMOVAL: This London startup has a cheaper way to suck carbon from the air (Bloomberg $), Trees aren’t a climate change cure-all – 2 new studies on the life and death of trees in a warming world show why (The Conversation),
CARBON CAPTURE: Chevron, Saudi Aramco invest in carbon capture startup (E&E $), UK startup raises $150 million in largest round for carbon capture (Bloomberg $)
IF IT WORKS FOR KETCHUP…: Heinz working on paper ketchup bottle (Axios)
TRASH: Environmental justice advocates urge new incinerator rules (E&E $)
WILDLIFE: China-funded dam could disrupt key Argentine glaciers and biodiversity (Mongabay), What’s killing the world’s biggest fish? (Vox)
INTERNATIONAL: Lebanon election shuns climate issues, despite fires, floods and power cuts (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Mexican environmentalists, Indigenous leaders denounce Mayan Train project (NBC), Ministers delay plans to force UK corporate environmental disclosure (FT $), Trudeau’s oil pipeline gets government-backed $7.7 billion loan (Bloomberg $)