FIRST LOOK: 

The Climate Impact Lab has launched a new interactive tool that calculates how many lives can be saved around the world by different actions to reduce emissions in the US, at the city, state, and national levels. 

Pollution Caused 1 In 6 Deaths From 2015-'19: Pollution killed 9 million people, every year, from 2015 to 2019, even as deaths from indoor air pollution fell due to increases from other sources of pollution, including fossil fuel combustion, a study published this morning in The Lancet Planetary Health reveals. “The bad news is that it’s not decreasing,” Philip Landrigan, director of the Global Public Health Program and Global Pollution Observatory at Boston College, told the AP. “We’re making gains in the easy stuff and we’re seeing the more difficult stuff, which is the ambient (outdoor industrial) air pollution and the chemical pollution, still going up.” Death rates are worst in Africa and Asia; the U.S. is the only fully industrialized nation in the top (worst) 10 countries in terms of total pollution deaths. "Exposure to (tiny pollution particles) like that generated from the burning of fossil fuels is causal for heart disease and death.” Dr. Renee Salas, an emergency room doctor and Harvard professor who wasn’t part of the study, told the AP. While very few deaths are directly attributed to pollution on death certificates, causes of death like heart disease, stroke, lung cancer, other lung issues and diabetes that are “tightly correlated” with pollution by epidemiological studies, and “that cannon of information constitutes causality,” Landrigan said. The study counted deaths from numerous types of pollution including water and toxic chemical pollution, but air pollution caused the vast majority of deaths. “While people focus on decreasing their blood pressure and cholesterol," Salas said, "few recognize that the removal of air pollution is an important prescription to improve their heart health.” (AP, Washington Post $, Gizmodo, AFP, Deutsche Welle, The Guardian, Forbes, ABC, Reuters, The Hill, The Independent, NBC, Inside Climate News, Wall Street Journal $, BBC)

Europe Aims To Cut Russian Fossil Fuel Dependence: European leaders announced their plan to end "the EU's dependence on Russian fossil fuels … and tackl[e] the climate crisis" today. The European Commission's REPowerEU Plan includes improving energy efficiency requirements, accelerating the build out of renewable energy, and diversifying its sources of methane-based gas. The EU gets 40% of its methane-based gas from Russia and the plan aims to cut purchases from the country committing atrocities across Ukraine by two-thirds by the end of the year. The push to import more liquified methane-based gas from the U.S. is contributing to new long-term contracts with six deals announced in the last five months. Exporting even more gas would undermine President Biden's climate and methane-reduction goals. Exporting gas also increases energy prices for families and businesses in the U.S. and with summer heat approaching prices are expected to go even higher. Also today, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and Denmark announced plans to build 150 GW-worth of offshore wind capacity in the North Sea in the next 28 years. (EC plan: AP, Bloomberg $, Euractiv, BusinessGreen, Politico Pro $, Reuters); LNG deals: The Advocate; Gas prices: CNBC; North Sea wind: Reuters, AP; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

Drought Threatens Hydropower Generation In Western US: The massive drought parching the western U.S., and in the Colorado River basin in particular, is causing major concerns for the long-term reliability of hydroelectric electricity generation. Hydroelectric dams produced 16% of the West's electricity last year and 53% of the renewable energy supply. As climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, makes droughts and extreme heat worse and more frequent, the loss of hydropower generation could exacerbate problems for the already-stressed power grid. (In August 2020, a shortfall of just 0.5% of total demand caused California's first rolling blackouts in the state in nearly two decades.) “It’s our largest low- or no-carbon emissions energy source that we can turn on and off when we need it,” Adrienne Marshall of the Colorado School of Mines told The Sun. “At the same time, our ability to generate hydropower is significantly threatened by drought.”  (The Colorado Sun, The Conversation; Climate Signals background: Western U.S. megadrought, Extreme heat and heatwaves)

DOMESTIC TERROR AND UNDERLYING INEQUITY: Suspect in Buffalo rampage cited 'ecofascism' to justify actions (Washington Post $), The Buffalo community honors victims of the tops shooting and calls for big change (NPR), What we know about the victims of the buffalo shooting (NPR)

• GUN VIOLENCE: Buffalo victim fought against gun violence (Black Wall Street Times)

• FOOD (IN)JUSTICE: Buffalo supermarket targeted in mass shooting was oasis in a ‘food desert’ (The Guardian, NPR, Quartz, Reuters), ‘This is the only grocery store in a three- to five-mile radius’: Buffalo supermarket shooting made a ‘food desert’ in a Black neighborhood even worse. (MarketWatch, New York Times $, AP, NBC, Mashed)

• HELP: Buffalo unites to feed 'food desert' after mass shooting closes supermarket (Buffalo News, WUTV, WGRZ), Here’s how to help the Buffalo community now in a food desert after the shooting (Essence)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: U.N. warns of 'catastrophic' child malnutrition due to price hikes, Ukraine war (Reuters), How Germany is curing its dependence on Russian energy (Wall Street Journal $), Russia to permanently ‘decouple’ with west on energy, gas producers say (FT $), Omens of decline for Russia’s once world-leading energy industry (New York Times $)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Court won't reconsider Baltimore climate suit ruling, teeing up SCOTUS appeal (Politico Pro $)

POWERLESS IN THE PANDEMIC: Gas, electric companies cut off 270,000 Ohioans amid pandemic and billions in profit (Ohio Capital Journal)

BRO$: How Big Tech is financing Big Oil (Protocol)\

AGENCIES: National Hurricane Center spokesman [Dennis Feltgen] retiring June 1 (AP)

EPA: Audit dings EPA over ongoing Flint water crisis response (E&E $)

DOE: DOE provides $505M to advance long-duration energy storage fed by renewables (Utility Dive)

DOI: How the courts have shaped Biden’s leasing strategy (E&E News), Biden's canceled oil sale draws fire in Alaska (E&E $), Judge reverses Trump-era ESA sage grouse move (E&E News, Politico Pro $)

WHITE HOUSE: White House tries to soothe solar probe fallout (Axios), How fossil fuels have fared under Biden (Washington Examiner)

• NEPA: The Trump policy that climate advocates want Biden to keep intact (mostly) (Politico Pro $)

THE HILL: How earmarks will affect energy, enviro projects (E&E News), Coalition lobbies Congress to spur regenerative agriculture (The Hill)

HOUSE: House Democrats delay, look to beef up gouging bill (E&E News), House Democrats plan to hold vote on domestic terror bill this week (The Root), House panel unveils water projects, sea-level rise package (E&E News), Lawmakers escalate fight against solar trade probe (E&E $)

SENATE: In West Virginia, the clean-energy transition rests on Joe Manchin (Washington Post $), GOP senators try again with social cost of carbon probe (E&E $), Senators question Biden delay on critical minerals legislation (Houston Chronicle)

POLITICS: How a return to deficit politics helps Biden’s climate push (E&E News)

ELECTIONS: Activist and lawmaker Attica Scott is in the run for congress (The Root), Breonna Taylor case looms over Louisville mayoral race (The Root)

CITIES AND STATES AND DISENFRANCHISED COLONIAL TERRITORIES: Ratepayer advocates seek protections in [Virginia] offshore wind case (AP), In 'El Apagón,' Bad Bunny tackles [Puerto Rico] gentrification and power outages (Gizmodo), Why Boulder and Flagstaff are enlisting cities to suck carbon out of the atmosphere (Grist)

• CALIFORNIA: California governor floats 5-GW, $5.2B ‘reliability reserve’ amid possible electricity shortfalls (Utility Dive), Environmentalists oppose more life for California nuke plant (AP)

• TEXAS: ERCOT warns of record power demand. But officials say they’ve got this. (Houston Chronicle), Scorching heat threatens Texas power grid, again (Gizmodo)

IMPACTS: Achoo! The hay fever season lasts longer than ever. Here’s what we can do about it (The Guardian), Young people question whether to have kids during a climate crisis: ‘What will the world look like?’ (KCUR), Western architecture is making India's heatwaves worse (TIME)

DROUGHT: Western states turn to homeowners to deflect drought (E&E News), Recent European drought was the most intense in at least 250 years (Yale Environment 360)

WILDFIRES: One month in, New Mexico’s largest-ever fire fuels anger and despair (Washington Post $, Gizmodo), New Mexico fires prompt forest closures; governor seeks aid (AP), The wildfires burning in the southwest are bad but 'not unprecedented' (NPR), 

FLOODING: New website offers 'flood mitigation to the masses' (E&E $)

IN GOOD HANDS?: Climate change is hurting insurers, report says (Reuters)

GEOENGINEERING: Climate geoengineering must be regulated, says former WTO head (The Guardian)

ACT LOCALLY: The global impact of local carbon cuts (Axios)

RENEWABLES: Report: US clean power tops 200 GW, but headwinds emerge (Politico Pro $), The US hit a renewable energy milestone. Now comes the hard part. (Protocol), Renewable energy lessons from European communities (Yale Climate Connections), US renewable industry sees ‘unnecessary barriers’ ahead (E&E News), UN floats plan to boost renewables as climate worries mount (AP)

EFFICIENCY: New federal funding helps low-income households afford energy-efficiency upgrades (Yale Climate Connections)

OIL & GAS: Gas prices pass $4 per gallon in every US state for the first time (Washington Post $)

CRYPTO: This gas would have stayed in the ground if it wasn’t for Bitcoin (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)

PIPELINES: Carbon dioxide pipelines are going dangerously unregulated (Gizmodo)

UTILITIES: Duke eyes gas and renewables in N.C. carbon plan (E&E $), SRP cites ‘serious risk’ to reliability in 2024, asks Arizona regulators to reconsider gas plant expansion (Utility Dive)

EVs: Move over: The women steering India's electric vehicle drive (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Electric evolution increasingly seen as inevitable for waste and recycling fleets (Utility Dive), Electric heavy-duty trucks are hitting the roads in California and beyond (Canary Media), Group launches campaign to secure EV tax credits (E&E $), Uber increases EV incentives to achieve its all-electric by 2030 goal (Utility Dive)

DIRECT ACTION: New England climate activists sentenced for anticoal civil disobedience action (Boston Globe $)

AVIATION: Do airline climate offsets really work? Here's the good news, and the bad. (New York Times $)

AGRICULTURE: Soil is a finite resource and a program helps farmers prevent erosion (NPR), Ditching gas to save the planet risks mass starvation, top U.N. economist says (Politico Pro $), Report: Europe’s chicken supply chain has a human rights problem (Grist)

CARBON PRICING: EU lawmakers back rules to share out emissions cuts, hike airlines' CO2 costs (Reuters, Reuters)

CARS: US needs strong truck rule to meet Paris goals — advocates (E&E $), US traffic deaths hit highest level in 16 years (Axios)

FINANCE: BNP Paribas shareholder meeting disrupted by green activists (Reuters)

WILDLIFE: ‘GMA’s’ Michael Strahan learns about puffins in Iceland (ABC)

INTERNATIONAL: Élisabeth Borne: France’s new PM faces immediate pressure to act on climate (The Guardian), The end of Australia's climate wars? (Energy Monitor), US to ease a few economic sanctions against Venezuela (AP, Washington Post $, Politico Pro $), Vulnerable cities offer climate jobs to migrants (E&E $), With gas pumps all but dry, Sri Lanka faces its ‘most difficult time’ (New York Times $), Australian leader won’t say who might attend Tokyo summit (AP)

• Fire Tucker Carlson, Ben Shapiro and all other racists who promote "white replacement theory" (The Root, Candace McDuffie op-ed)
• The activist investor who shook up the board at ExxonMobil, on how—or if—it changed the company (Inside Climate News, Charlie Penner interview)
• Can you even call deadly heat ‘extreme’ anymore? (New York Times, David Wallace-Wells op-ed $)
• Let’s save forests to fight climate change (The Hill, Kerry Cesareo op-ed)
• How President Biden can win the energy war with Russia — and lower gas prices (CNN, Kevin Johnson and Mark Ruffalo op-ed)
• Biden can make good on EU gas supply and climate pledges by ending methane leaks (The Hill, Mark Brownstein op-ed)
• Oregon must take action to stay in the race to cut emissions (Energy News Network, Meredith Connolly and Shelley Wenzel op-ed)
• We tried to tell y’all (The Grio, Michael Harriot op-ed)
• Unleash American energy production at home (The Hill, Rep. Kat Cammack op-ed)
• Conserving biodiversity, preserving mental health (Atmos, Tori Tsui essay)
• Congress: No fossil-fuel bailouts (The Hill, William Becker op-ed)
• Why do we swallow what Big Oil and the green movement tell us? (New York Times, Thomas Friedman op-ed $)

The Dumbest Take Yet? Bitcoiner Blames Enviros For Cars Not Being Nuclear Powered

On Monday we pointed out that the Koch'd up RealClear ran a Koch'd up pundit's propaganda, so we won't spend today looking at the pieces it ran attacking Deb Haaland, cheerleading for nukes, and lobbying against regulations, even though the latter came from an energy consultancy with 48 people on its "about" page, of which only nine are women (of whom four are the firm's only executive assistants). There are three white guys named "Chris," but zero Black employees. Since part of what ESG entails is equitable hiring practices so that companies aren't publicly embarrassed when someone points out that roughly one in five Houstonians are Black yet Pickering Energy Partners' hiring practices apparently disqualified every single one of them, we'll skip what they have to say about the value of ESG standards. 

Instead, we're bringing you one of the most impressively, creatievely stupid takes ever. 

How does one achieve ground-breaking stupidity? Well first, start by putting your brain in a blender until you can believe that Bitcoin's wasteful energy consumption somehow produces something of value. It doesn't, the opposite is true, but bear with us here, because you then have to combine that with not-canceled-for-college-racism Alex Epstein's fossil fuel cheerleading that ignores (denies) the costs of destabilizing the planet's life support system. 

The result is Jimmy Song's Bitcoin Magazine piece claiming "wind and solar are the altcoins of energy." Apparently renewables require "too much real estate for the energy they provide but they grow through propaganda and subsidization like preferred pronouns on Facebook."  

Ah, yes, of course, couldn't be some Bitcoin-y climate denial without tossing in some casual transphobia for good measure! "But through fiat money," a totally serious Song wrote, "these boondoggles continue their rent-seeking existence like a gender studies professor at a mid-tier university," packing a second gender-based joke into the opening paragraph, just to be safe. 

Song rants that there is "little to no discussion of the downsides of the schemes they favor, like inflation from rampant money printing or the unreliability of 'green' energy." Could be that there are few downsides to green energy, but no, "they’re like altcoiners," Song continues, "who change topics when you point out that the founder of their altcoin is a serial scammer or that the incentives of their system will result in a death spiral. Like a procrastinating teenager, they believe that not thinking about something will make it go away." 

One could write that same thing about Bitcoiners generally, but also about Song specifically, as he considers the "upside" of wind and solar to be "relatively modest: lower emissions of CO2." 

Ah yes, the relatively modest quality of not turning the thin blanket of air currently protecting us from the vacuum of space into a polluted soup that shortens millions of lives a year and kills at least 50,000 Americans annually. Just that! But in exchange, wind and solar "take up too much real estate and are only good for electricity," Song writes, adding that "they ignore the role of fossil fuels for heating and transportation," ignoring heat pumps and electric cars. 

Song is "not denying" that "CO2 is bad" and "causes the atmosphere to warm." It's just that he wonders "how bad is the warming compared to all the other things that fossil fuels enable us to do?" Warming is worse! That's the point! That's the whole reason for the energy transition! Every single study not funded by fossil fuels comes to that conclusion! Just the 50,000 American lives saved by the reduction in PM2.5 pollution would save us $600 billion, and that's not even including the benefits of the avoided climate impacts, like sea level rise not putting 10% of the global population under water. 

For Song though, it's apparently clear that "we can trace this hysteria around fossil fuels back to fiat money," because of the Bretton Woods system ending and the gas crisis, "fossil fuels became the scapegoat and renewables became salvation." Of course! We hear "Bretton Woods" all the time when talking to climate activists about what got them started! Definitely a very serious analysis, not at all wrapped in the author's tin foil conspiracies. 

But that's still Song being serious. It's not until the end that he makes it clear he's either the stupidest person alive, or the world's best living satirist. If "the market chooses what it wants rather than the government," then "the best fuels will win and more development of sources like nuclear will commence."  But the market has never liked nuclear power, which has always been heavily subsidized — $12 billion in the early years until 1979, and  $6 billion in 2022 alone, with modern projects requiring an additional $700 million in Illinois, and $300 million in New Jersey. In Georgia new plants have doubled cost estimates at $30 billion and are still not online, while South Carolina spent $9 billion to fail to build a nuclear plant. 

Despite having "developed nuclear submarines in the 1950s" Song writes that it's environmentalists who have held back the industry, and "blame squarely goes to them for the fact that we don't have nuclear cars or airplanes that don't need refueling." 

…You know what, fine. No one correct him. 

We can all thank environmentalists for ensuring that 9/11 wasn't a nuclear disaster, and for preventing nuclear-powered cars when we already sacrifice 3,700 lives to cars every day. 

In the course of a year, 1.35 million people die in car accidents, and 20-50 million are injured, making cars the leading cause of death for everyone aged 5 to 29. And not that fossil fuels aren't inherently volatile and given to explosion, but if you would like to take the risk of a nuclear bomb to be a part of each and every one of those millions of accidents that occur every year, well then you're probably exactly the type of mark that's buying into Song, Epstein, and Bitcoin.

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