FIRST LOOK:

The Environmental and Energy Study Institute (EESI) will hold a congressional briefing on wildfires in its Living With Climate Change series. Monday, June 13 at 1:00 pm ET.

Beset By LNG And Hurricanes, SW Louisiana Residents Live In 'Sacrificial' Zone: Southwest Louisiana has been ravaged by numerous, powerful hurricanes in recent years and the methane-based gas and petrochemical industry has turned the region into a hub of operations — forcing local residents to live in a sacrifice zone. The proliferation of LNG export terminals in the area is raising concerns over point-source pollution and the terminals' climate impacts. “They’re an absolute powerhouse for greenhouse gas emissions,” said Naomi Yoder, a staff scientist at Healthy Gulf, told the AP. Cindy Robertson's community in Sulphur has endured seven federal disasters in two years. “The more we have more pollution from greenhouse gases,” the 62-year-old organizer whose family worked in coal mining, told the AP, “the worse our storms are going to get.” The U.S. recently became the largest exporter of LNG. Five of eight currently operating terminals are along the Louisiana and Texas coasts and another 16 are proposed, mostly in the same region. “We have a big homelessness problem … Our schools look horrible. If LNG is doing so much for the state, why is it like that?” Roishetta Ozane, a single mother of six and an organizer for Healthy Gulf, said of tax breaks given to the LNG industry. “I feel Southwest Louisiana has been made a sacrificial lamb," she said. (AP, AP video)

Federal Environmental Justice Screening Tool Skirts Race: Experts and advocates are calling on the Biden administration to explicitly include race in its definition of "disadvantaged" communities for the purposes of its environmental justice efforts while the administration worries about legal challenges, E&E News reports. In February, the Council on Environmental Quality released a preliminary version of Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool for determining which communities would qualify for additional funding, and did not explicitly include race as a factor in the tool’s list of 21 environmental, economic, and health indicators. While the included factors correlate highly with race, without race, the list is incomplete, environmental justice experts, and many of the comments received by CEQ, say. “Race is the primary predictor of where polluting facilities are sited. It doesn’t matter what the income of that community is,” Peggy Shepard, head of New York-based WE ACT for Environmental Justice and co-chair of White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council, told E&E News. The administration appears to have designed the rule to withstand challenges before a Supreme Court hostile to race-conscious programs. A CEQ spokesperson told E&E, “Because this tool is indispensable to confronting long-standing environmental injustices, it must be built for the long run, be updated and improved over time, and endure.” (E&E News)

EPA Proposes Reinstating State, Tribal CWA Review Authorities: The EPA is seeking to restore greater state and tribal authority to evaluate the impacts of proposed infrastructure projects under Sec. 401 of the Clean Water Act. While not explicitly targeting fossil fuel projects, the proposed rule would give states and tribes broader authority to deny permits to methane-based gas pipelines, coal export terminals, and other projects that threaten to pollute or harm waterways within their jurisdiction. The proposed rule would reverse a major weakening of state and tribal environmental protection authority by the previous administration. For the first time, the Clean Water Act review process would also allow for state and tribal input on the definition of a "reasonable time" in which a review must be conducted. (Washington Post $, AP, E&E News, New York Times $, The Guardian, Axios, The Hill, Politico Pro $, Reuters)

GOP vs. ESG: Texas' anti-business, pro-fossil fuel law is spreading (Gizmodo)

INVESTING & INVESTORS: Engine No. 1 rushes to back ESG disclosures at top companies (Reuters), ESG market in Canada faces greenwashing risks due to poor data (Bloomberg $), Investors backslide on climate-related resolutions (E&E $), Stakeholder capitalism is ‘not woke’, says JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon (FT $)

ALL ABOUT THE TRUTH: Report sheds light on Fidelity’s little-known fossil fuel ties (Grist), SEC climate rule sparks backlash from business groups (E&E News)

• Global cracks complicate West’s energy transition (Reuters, Edward Chancellor column)
• Watchdog's new chief says high prices can support greener palm oil (Thomson Reuters Foundation, Joseph D'Cruz interview)
• Uvalde shooting: a case for defunding the police and disarming teens (Teen Vogue, Olayemi Olurin op-ed)
• Farm robots will solve many of our food worries (Bloomberg, Amanda Little op-ed $)
• To fight inflation, pass EV tax credits now (The Hill, Robbie Orvis)
• Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz on Uvalde, the Second Amendment, and the great American arms race (The Real News, Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz interview)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: To combat climate change, Gulf groups to hold 1st environmental justice festival in Baton Rouge (WWNO)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: How Russia could try to get around the European Union’s oil sanctions (CNBC), RWE to buy gas-fired power plant from Vattenfall in $534 mln deal (Reuters), The pollution from Russia’s war will poison Ukraine for decades (Vox)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Hawaii youth sue state over transportation emissions (E&E $, Grist)

AGATHA/ALEX?: Disturbance 91L in the southeastern Gulf of Mexico likely to become the Atlantic’s first tropical cyclone of 2022 (Yale Climate Connections), Potential Tropical Storm Alex to bring flooding rains to Florida (Washington Post $)

GOP "CLIMATE" PLAN: House Republicans' climate strategy draws Democrats' jeers (Washington Post $)

PROFITABLE DEATH: How is Big Tobacco connected to DDT? Here’s a toxic history most don’t know (LA Times $)

SOUTH ASIA: Sweltering India turns to superheating coal for cooling (E&E News)

UNELECTED MONARCHY: Twelve arrested after climate activists disrupt Queen Elizabeth's military parade (Reuters)

EPA: EPA proposes updating gasoline regs, slashing emissions (E&E News), EPA raises pride flag for first time (E&E News)

DOE: D.C. Circuit won't ax Trump DOE boiler rule (E&E $), DOE launches grid interconnection initiative to cut ‘gridlock’ hampering clean energy progress (Utility Dive)

DOI: US Interior must weigh climate impacts of oil, gas leasing -settlement (Reuters)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden finds limited options for lowering gasoline prices (E&E News), US economic officials says Biden considering oil & tax windfall tax (OilPrice), White House officials push back against report about ‘mass exodus’ of Black staffers (The Grio)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: As Senate sits on TVA nominees, Biden’s climate goals wither (E&E News)

TRIBES: ‘Dreams coming true’: Federal water rights agreement to bring water to Utah Diné (Navajo Times)

CITIES AND STATES: Inslee: Feds need to increase nuclear waste cleanup funds (AP), NJ aims to implement environmental justice law by Dec. 31 (AP)

• CALIFORNIA: California pulls key floating wind action plan at last minute to weigh up '50GW by 2045' (Recharge News)

• NEW YORK: New York plans 22 renewable energy plants to reach climate goals (Bloomberg $), Inside Ithaca’s plan to electrify 6,000 buildings and grow a regional green workforce using private equity funds (Utility Dive)

• TEXAS: A Texas county wants to punish polluters. The state won’t let it. (Grist, The Investigating Reporting Workshop, and Public Health Watch)

IMPACTS: Extreme weather is making mining waste a major problem (Grist), How humid air, intensified by climate change, is melting Greenland ice (Washington Post $), Rich nations’ toxic habits bring African refugees to their doors (Bloomberg $), 'Real science?' Pinpointing warming's role in disasters (E&E $), 'This is our heritage': Woman saves [Outer Banks] graves from rising sea levels (CNN), The vanishing Rio Grande: warming takes a toll on a legendary river (Yale Environment 360)

OMINOUSLY GREEN: Global heating is turning white Alps green, study finds (The Guardian, Gizmodo, NBC)

DROUGHT: Wall of rock collapses into historically low Lake Powell (Gizmodo)

WATER: Arizona braces for further Colorado River cuts (E&E $)

ZOONOTIC SPILLOVER: Pathogens jumping to humans from animals becoming more frequent, warns WHO (Reuters)

RENEWABLES: Solar giants’ fates may hinge on a fight over 28 millimeters (Bloomberg $), Texas Democrats, unions call on Interior to protect workers’ rights in offshore wind leasing (The Hill), Pacific Northwest needs more renewables in 5 years — report (E&E $), South Africa's Harmony Gold starts construction of three 10 MW solar photovoltaic plants (Reuters), Three common myths about solar energy, demystified (Yale Climate Connections), Why hydropower is the forgotten giant of clean energy (CNBC)

WOOD: Maine plan for wood-fired power plants draws praise and skepticism (Energy News Network)

BATTERIES: This Tesla-supplying battery maker has lost some of its power (Wall Street Journal $)

OIL & GAS: Libya oil firm says crude gushing from desert pipeline (Deutsche Welle)

• NORTH SEA: Britain, Netherlands approve new North Sea gas projects (AP), Climate activists vow to fight as new gasfield gets go-ahead in North Sea (The Guardian)
• OPEC: OPEC+ agrees to pump more oil ahead of possible Biden Middle East trip (Politico, The Hill), OPEC+ boosting oil production by 50% more than expected (Axios), OPEC+ decides to speed up oil production hikes to offset sanctions on Russia (S&P Global) (CNBC)
• ANWR: Once eager to drill, oil companies exit leases in arctic refuge (Washington Post $, E&E $)

NUKES: The energy in nuclear waste could power the US for 100 years, but the technology was never commercialized (CNBC)

COAL: Coal India to issue two tenders for imported coal to address local shortage (Reuters), Red-hot coal prices threaten more increases in power bills (Wall Street Journal $)

HYDROGEN: Air Liquide targets growing demand for hydrogen fuel cell vehicles with new Las Vegas facility (Utility Dive)

(ALLEGED) UTILITY CORRUPTION: 

GRID: The power grid explained — plus demand response, virtual power plants and more (Canary Media)

EVs: The best EV policies are ones that keep them off the road (Protocol), DeLorean previews 'back to the future' EV (E&E $), Driving with electricity is much cheaper than with gasoline (Yale Climate Connections), Ford to create 6,200 union jobs, invest $3.7 billion in EV, gas-engine production (Wall Street Journal $), Rising costs won’t stymie the global EV market, but BNEF identifies ‘growing risk’ of inequitable transition (Utility Dive), The Chevy Bolt bucks the trend (Protocol), What it’s like to rent an electric car for the first time (Washington Post $)

CARS: The simple, impactful way to make cars cleaner (Vox)

FINANCE: Deutsche banker takes over asset manager in the eye of an ESG storm (FT $)

WILDLIFE: Australia lists koala as an endangered species across most of its range (Yale Climate Connections)

INTERNATIONAL: China’s oil giant sees its future in hydrogen and clean energy (Bloomberg $), South Africa court to rule on Shell offshore oil exploration (AP), South Australia turns to diesel generators as gas shortage and price spike hits (The Guardian)

Two Questions Debunk GOP's Pretend Climate Conversion: How's It Different From MAGA? (It's Not.) Will It Reduce Emissions? (No.) 

As we pointed out in the last week of May, the GOP is ramping up its election-season push to pretend it cares about climate change so that suburban women will vote for its candidates. BloombergGov fell for it, though it did report the true aim is to flip seats to elect more Republicans to Congress and thereby prevent real climate action, while Politico Pro/E&E credulously suggested an intentionally impossible policy proposal of a carbon tariff without a domestic carbon tax represents progress for the GOP. 

And now we know why, as both stories were the build-up to the GOP's release of a supposedly "new" energy policy platform that addresses centrist voters' climate concerns without actually addressing the fossil fuel emissions that are causing climate change (and funding the GOP). 

The key question that reporters should be asking Republicans claiming a new climate conversion is: Will this plan enable the U.S. to meet its commitments to the Paris Agreement and help put the world on a path to limit warming to 1.5°C? But, that's a really serious question, with a simple "no" answer, and we know political reporters need some sugar to help the medicine go down, so here's another: How is this a break from Trump's MAGA agenda, in terms of actual policy changes? 

Clearly the messaging of climate change is real but not that bad so we should burn more fossil fuels is slightly different from Trump's approach of climate change is a hoax so we should burn more fossil fuels, but the policy platform has remained exactly the same. 

And they're not even shy about it! Back in 2020, you may recall us pointing out, Louisiana Rep. Garret Graves reassured conservatives in his party that what they're "asking members to do is to double down… so it's not like we've gone out there to the Freedom Caucus to say 'We are asking you to take a hard left turn.'"

Perhaps someone, like Josh Seigel who got that quote from Graves for the Washington Examiner back in 2020 and just wrote basically the same story Politico in 2022 (with some skepticism this time, at least), should ask Graves if this new change is a doubling-down on the MAGA agenda, or an actual policy shift? 

The answer is obvious, but it highlights the bind Republicans are in. If they say they've changed, to appeal to moderate voters who considered MAGA too extreme, then they risk losing the support of the MAGA, racist, misogynist, climate deniers that compose the GOP base. 

If they admit it's just a doubling-down, like Graves did to members, then those moderate voters might recognize that different messaging but the same policies does not, in fact, represent a change.  

That's not all, though! Because at the same time Republicans are trying to look reasonable, according to the Daily Signal, they are also promising to lead more Benghazi-esque witch hunts if/when they seize control of the House in the midterms. 

After claiming they're going to moderate their climate messaging to appeal to centrist voters, once they have power they're going to use it to attack green groups for allegedly being Russia-funded (based on disinfo originated by a guy who fought mothers against drunk driving on behalf of alcohol companies and now pushed by Chris Horner, a lawyer for big tobacco before switching to suing climate scientists and others for checks from coal companies); a matter cleared up by the Panama Paper leaks.

You know, perfectly normal, moderate, centrist stuff appealing to those women voters they'll need to win over in the suburbs, perhaps after the right wing SCOTUS justices overturn Roe v. Wade, basic gun control measures, and the EPA's authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a climate pollutant.

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to receive Hot News every morning!

Send updates or feedback to nkauffman@climatenexus.org
Submit events and other items for consideration for a First Look using this form
Some articles require logins or subscriptions ($)