FIRST LOOK: 

EESI and NRDC will hold a briefing on pathways to regenerative agriculture and farm policy in the 21st century TODAY at 12:00 pm ET.

Murdered Remains Of Reporter, Indigenous Activist Believed Recovered In Brazil: Brazilian authorities believe they have recovered the bodies of Dom Phillips, a freelance reporter for The Guardian, and Bruno Araújo Pereira, a former government official and Indigenous Brazilian activist. The 10-day search for the two missing people apparently concluded when a fisherman arrested in connection with their disappearance confessed to their murder and led police to their bodies. Pereira helped found patrol teams working to combat illegal fishing in the Javari Valley Indigenous reservation and Phillips was there interviewing members of those patrols. (New York Times $, CNN, HuffPost, The Guardian, ABC)

Air Pollution Shortens Global Life Expectancy More Than Smoking: Global life expectancy is shortened more by breathing than from smoking, booze, or conflict and terrorism, a new report shows. The annual Air Quality Life Index, from the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, found particulate air pollution (including soot, fumes, and dust) shortens global lifespans by two years. Smoking cigarettes and drinking alcohol reduce life expectancy — for those who choose to — by 1.9 years and eight months, respectively. The report also found the economic slowdowns associated with the COVID-19 pandemic barely affected air pollution levels. “It would be a global emergency if Martians came to Earth and sprayed a substance that caused the average person on the planet to lose more than 2 years of life expectancy,” Michael Greenstone, director of Chicago’s Energy Policy Institute, said in a statement. “Except we are spraying the substance, not some invaders from outer space.” (Washington Post $, Reuters, The Guardian, Environmental Health News, CBS, CNBC, BBC, E&E $, Times of India, The Hill, AFP)

Children Especially Vulnerable To Fossil Fuel Pollution, US Could Save Millions Of Lives With Climate Action: Infants, children, and fetuses are especially vulnerable to the effects of burning fossil fuels — both climate change and air pollution — an evidence review in the New England Journal of Medicine found. A separate report from the Climate Impact Lab found the U.S. has the potential to save 7.4 million lives worldwide by the end of this century if it achieves net-zero climate pollution by 2050. (Children: The Hill, CNN; Lives saved: The Guardian)

Flooding Shuts Down Baby Formula Production: Heavy rains and flooding inundated an Abbott Laboratories baby-formula production facility in Sturgis, Michigan this week, halting formula production amid a nationwide shortage of baby formula that has foisted yet another crisis on parents of young children. Extreme rainfall is a clear signal of climate change, which is mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels. The facility is located about 100 miles south-southeast of Midland, where heavy flooding just over two years ago caused dam failures. (Wall Street Journal $, CNN, News Channel 3, Axios, WOOD-TV; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation increase)

Texas Oil Town Left Without Water In Searing Heat: Odessa, Texas, famous for oil and high school football, is without running water as the city's 165,000 residents swelter in triple digit heat. The outage was caused by a water main break. “We have no water on 92nd! Did you see that HUGE RIVER OF WATER yesterday? Guess that was ours,” one resident wrote on social media. City officials hoped the system would be back up and running by today, but residents would likely need to continue boiling their water through at least Friday. (AP, CBS7, Washington Post $, Today Show; Social media: Ft Worth Star-Telegram; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

CLIMATE (IN)JUSTICE: The rich are driving climate change (Bloomberg $)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Berlin Blasts ‘Political Decision’ in Gazprom’s Gas Squeeze (AFP), EU signs gas deal with Israel, Egypt in bid to wean itself off Russian supplies (Wall Street Journal $, Washington Post $), Europe’s warm embrace of LNG raises methane emissions concerns (Forbes), European natural-gas prices jump as Russia cuts supplies again (Wall Street Journal $), Romania sees an opening to become an energy power in Europe (New York Times $), Russia again cuts natural gas exports thru European pipeline (AP), Europe imports more South African coal as Russian ban looms (Reuters)

PAIN AT THE PUMP: High US fuel exports are contributing to $5-a-gallon gas (Wall Street Journal $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: China rejects ‘major emitter’ label in talks to step up climate action (Climate Home), Ten EU nations warn against diluting green plan before key vote (Bloomberg $)

FINANCE: Why investors suddenly care about saving the environment (Vox), Carney-led climate group asks investors to ‘make good’ on net zero (Bloomberg $), Bank group accused of exploiting loopholes and ‘greenwashing’ in climate pledge (The Guardian), Banks can fund high-carbon assets with a 'retirement' plan – net-zero alliance (S&P Global), ESG’s legal showdown: ‘There’s nothing to suggest DWS is a one off’ (FT $), Global banking regulator urges closer links between pay and climate risks (FT $), Global regulators set out climate checklist for banks (Reuters), Goldman investigation tarnishes ESG halo as investors bail (Bloomberg $), UN campaign toughens standards for company net-zero plans (Reuters), UK insurers need to look closer at climate risks, watchdog says (Bloomberg $), ESG investment cools as the sector’s notoriety grows (Bloomberg $)

• GOP v ESG: Proposed ESG reporting rule in GOP crosshairs (The Hill)

MEDIA: L.A. Times ‘extreme heat’ investigation honored with Covering Climate Now journalism award (LA Times $)

AGENCIES: FEMA flood program could violate civil rights law (Politico), FAA says future planes will need to reduce carbon emissions (AP), FAA unveils climate rules for commercial planes (Axios)

EPA: EPA warns toxic ‘forever chemicals’ more dangerous than once thought (Washington Post $, Axios, The Hill)

DOE: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm on record-high gas prices (CBS)

DOI: Federal watchdog found oil and gas company likely defrauded government amid agency missteps (CNN)

SEC: US needs climate reporting as foreign rules come, Gensler says (Bloomberg Law), The SEC war on greenwashing has begun (Bloomberg $), Gensler sees limit to SEC rule on carbon emissions disclosure (Utility Dive)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: The US Army has launched its first floating solar array (The Hill)

LAWSUITS: Environmental groups sue Biden administration to block 3,500 oil and gas drilling permits (CNN, The Hill, Wall Street Journal $), Can a law protecting endangered animals stop new oil drilling? (New York Times $)

WHITE HOUSE: Fossil fuel leasing program undercuts Biden's climate goals, report says (Washington Post $), A timber sale in Oregon tests Biden’s pledge to protect older trees (Washington Post $), Biden’s been in office for more than 500 days. He still hasn’t appointed a top official to oversee coal mine reclamation (Inside Climate News)

• "NOT ACCEPTABLE": Biden tells oil refiners: Produce more gas, fewer profits (AP, Bloomberg $, New York Times $, MarketWatch, Fortune, Reuters, Al Jazeera, MSNBC, NPR, The Hill, Wall Street Journal $, ABC, Today Show, CNBC, Fox Business, CNN, Axios, USA Today)

THE HILL: Big Oil windfall tax proponents ‘encouraged’ by Biden letter (The Hill), House GOP welcomes a new Chamber, declares war against the old one (Axios), Critical mineral woes delay Grijalva mining reform bill (E&E $)

POLITICS: A hotter, poorer, and less free America (The Atlantic)

TRIBES: How mapping Indigenous knowledge is helping nomadic communities to fight climate change—and extinction (Wired

CITIES AND STATES: A look at state efforts to combat climate change in 2022, so far (The Hill), As a heat wave grips the US, lessons from the hottest city in America (Grist), Eric Adams suddenly feels fine about crypto mining (Protocol), Satellites zoom in on cities’ hottest neighborhoods to help combat the urban heat island effect (The Conversation)

• CALIFORNIA: Utilities, solar industry square off as California reopens record in net energy metering process (Utility Dive), California debates listing western Joshua tree as threatened (AP), To survive severe drought this summer, California should learn from Cape Town's water crisis (TIME)

IMPACTS: The cruelest summer yet? California is facing drought, heat, Blackouts and fires — all at once (San Francisco Chronicle), Climate change could trigger toxic disasters along Lake Michigan, new report finds (Chicago Sun-Times), Forecasting the monsoon is complicated. Climate change made it a whole other game (Arizona Republic), May 2022 was Earth’s 6th-warmest May (Yale Climate Connections)

ARCTIC: It’s hard to do climate research when your glacier is melting (Wired), New data reveals extraordinary global heating in the Arctic (The Guardian)

HEAT: Phoenix is shockingly hot right now—and its nighttime temps are even scarier (Gizmodo), Prolonged heat wave baking much of central, eastern lower 48 (Washington Post $, Axios, The Hill, New York Times $),  Heat, humidity kill at least 2,000 Kansas cattle, state says (Reuters, Washington Post $)

• EUROPE: Heat wave spreads across Europe as summer highs come early (Bloomberg $), Sizzling June heat in UK is happening more often (Bloomberg $)

YELLOWSTONE FLOODING: Flooding closes Yellowstone, in a sign of crises to come (New York Times $, Grist), Yellowstone's northern half is unlikely to reopen this summer due to severe flooding (NPR, Washington Post $, Washington Examiner), Yellowstone floodwaters threaten water supplies in Montana (AP)

TORNADOS: Grappling with scientific understanding of tornadoes and climate change (Yale Climate Connections)

WILDFIRES: Largest of 2 wildfires in northern Arizona now 31% contained (AP), The federal government started New Mexico’s largest wildfire. It had good intentions. (Vox)

HURRICANES: Blas becomes hurricane in Pacific off southwestern Mexico (AP)

RENEWABLES: Green energy 'stagnates' as fossil fuels dominate (BBC), Germany to require states to allocate land for wind farms (Reuters, AP), GM invests in offshore wind startup (Axios), In Southern Illinois, there’s growing faith that clean energy transition will pick up (Energy News Network)

• YOUR MOVE, FLORIDA: Germany’s solar panels generate more power than ever before (Bloomberg $)

BATTERIES: How to prepare for the coming flood of used EV batteries (Canary Media), Next step in combating climate change? Massive batteries that harness the power of the sun. (USA Today)

BUILDINGS: Meta’s Silicon Valley home, Menlo Park, plans to electrify 95% of its buildings (CNBC)

LNG: Environmental groups continue to push back against Louisiana’s growing LNG sector (The Advocate), As US LNG expands in Europe, a hidden threat grows (DeSmog)

METHANE: Satellite spots world's 'largest' methane leak in a Russian coal mine (CNN), One site, 95 tons of methane an hour (New York Times $), Experimental airship over N.M. desert could keep watch for methane (E&E $)

OIL & GAS: Emissions from new US natural gas projects will equal 18 million cars (Gizmodo), Libya oil output strangled from infighting in world starved of energy (Washington Post $), Oil-supply growth expected to lag behind demand next year (Wall Street Journal $)

PLASTICS: River trash traps chew at huge ocean plastics problem (AP)

NUKES: Inside the US government project to create tiny nuclear reactors like batteries (CNBC), Nuclear is back on the table for a green future (New York Times $), Smaller reactors may still have a big nuclear waste problem (Grist), Nuclear is back on the table for a green future (New York Times $)

COAL: In energy-strapped Europe, coal gets an encore (AP)

HYDROGEN: BP beefs up hydrogen team in bet on fuel's future (Reuters, Reuters, Bloomberg $, CNBC), NextEra’s plan to ditch carbon is a huge bet on hydrogen (Bloomberg $)

UTILITIES: Arizona utility regulator proposes confidential infrastructure meetings with state’s businesses community (Utility Dive)

GRID: PJM proposes ‘first-ready, first-served’ interconnection review process, steps to clear backlog (Utility Dive)

EVs: As electric cars gain popularity, states will need to make up lost gas-tax revenue (Yale Climate Connections), Ford recalls nearly 50,000 Mustang Mach-Es, halts deliveries over safety defect (Detroit News, Bloomberg $), This electric speedboat is fast, quiet, clean — and pricey (Canary Media), UPS tests tiny battery-powered cycles in congested cities (AP)

ACTIVISM: Hali Hewa episode 1: Youth and women (Climate Home), Student activist on relationship between climate change and immigration, tips on pet boarding (WPR)

AGRICULTURE: Fertilizer prices are soaring – and that’s an opportunity to promote more sustainable ways of growing crops (The Conversation), Tomatoes are the latest victim of climate change (Modern Farmer)

CARBON PRICING: Lawmakers strike deal ahead of EU carbon market vote (Reuters), Offsets watchdog aiming for clarity on net zero risks creating confusion (Bloomberg $)

ART: Net-zero Picasso: Museums rethink art shows to cut climate impact (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

FOOD: Climate change could be to blame for the Sriracha shortage (NPR)

FASHION: 'Love Island' dumps fast fashion for second-hand eBay partnership (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

WILDLIFE: Why the Chesapeake Bay’s beloved blue crabs are at an all-time low (Inside Climate News)

INTERNATIONAL: Australia commits to reducing greenhouse emissions by 43% (Politico), Climate groups blast minister’s support of new Australian gas projects as ‘fact-free spin’ (The Guardian), Australia power market halted in dramatic move to avert blackouts (Reuters, The Guardian)

• Indigenous people and Black femmes should lead the climate conversation (i-D, Yessenia Funes commentary)
• Climate denial’s racist roots (Atmos, Mary Annaïse Heglar Essay)
• Investors deserve to know the climate risks their assets face (New York Times, Brad Lander op-ed $)
• Something extraordinary is happening in france (New York Times, Cole Stangler op-ed $)
• What if we had spent the money on climate? (New York Times, David Wallace-Wells op-ed $)
• We will soon find out if FERC is serious about climate and environmental justice (The Hill, Ramón Cruz and Ruth Santiago op-ed)
• Heat wave bakes one-third of Americans, highlighting urgency of climate legislation (The Hill, Susan Joy Hassol and Michael E. Mann op-ed)
• The importance of local government in making carbon removal a public service  (The Hill, Susie Strife op-ed)
• Is $6 a gallon gasoline next? (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)
• ‘I got in the car and he blindfolded me. I was willing to risk death’: five women on abortions before Roe (The Guardian)

Four Disinfo Examples At RealClearEnergy: Obvious, Covert, Co-Option and Blackmail

This week, the Koch climate disinfo hub RealClearEnergy has run four pieces that illustrate some flavors of professional climate denial. 

The first was a short pitch for more fossil fuel infrastructure on Monday, coming from Ed Finklea of the "Alliance of Western Energy Consumers," a fossil fuel lobby group. Supposedly the natural (methane) gas the US produces is protecting consumers from price shocks resulting from the Russian invasion of Ukraine, because fracking decoupled US gas from global oil prices. Which may be true, but if it is, then his suggestion that the US invest in export infrastructure to ship our methane to Europe would then raise prices by increasing demand. (Something American Gas Association VP of Energy Markets Richard Meyer admitted to reporters in May.)

So which is it, Ed? Should we export more gas to Europe, or should we keep it in the US to keep prices low? Can't have both! In fact, the recent explosion at an export terminal has caused US prices to drop 16%, and Europe's to jump 16%, illustrating that Finklea is either intentionally being deceptive, or is someone who has "represented energy consumerism regulatory matters since the 1980s," per his byline, yet would very clearly flunk the first test in an Economics 101 course. (Our lawyers advise against saying Finklea is either stupid, or a liar.) (And they said we definitely shouldn't offer "both" as a third option.) 

On Tuesday, RealClearEnergy featured something by Murray Hitzman, whose paragraph-length byline features the notable inclusion of "technical advisor" to a mining company, who wants readers to know "There Will Be No Just Energy Transition Without Mining In Our Backyards." 

"The question is," Hitzman poses, "if green policy advocates in Europe and North America are serious about ensuring a more just global transition to a decarbonized future, can they bring themselves to encourage more responsible mining in our own backyard?" 

The answer, of course, is that climate advocates would welcome responsible mining in their own backyard. It's the companies who fail to meet the environmental and social standards Hitzman handwaves with a recognition "very legitimate concerns" underpinning lawsuits that halt mining due to "potential possible harm to local land and water along with equity for marginalized communities, which are often Native American." 

Why, then, are we supposed to lower our standards and put marginalized communities at risk, when the companies could just be responsible? (Profits are higher the dirtier you're allowed to be.) 

Hitzman's piece is essentially blackmail: let mining companies pollute Native American communities (again), or the climate gets it! 

The next day, RealClearEnergy kept up the lobbying to repeal bedrock environmental protection laws with the latest attempt to GOP-wash the Republican party's climate denial by pretending that a pro-fossil-fuel platform is good for the climate, courtesy of Heather Reams. She's president of the Citizens for Responsible Energy Solutions, a political lobby group dedicated to making Republicans look like they care about climate change, without abandoning their fossil fuel donors. By co-opting language feigning concern about climate, CRES is helping Republicans in moderate areas get elected by softening their extremist image that's alienating the college-educated, suburban white women they need to stay in power.

But that doesn't mean the professional disinformation network is giving up on its more brazen denial, as per the fourth example, from FreedomWorks VP of policy Cesar Ybarra. Turns out the industry-funded group is opposed to the plan to get the Postal Service using Electric Vehicles. Ybarra points to the higher up-front costs of purchasing and building charging stations, and of course conveniently forgets to mention that the long-term costs of EVs are lower because they are far cheaper and easier to maintain and you don't have to keep buying gasoline.  

Which is, of course, classic denial: showing only half the picture, the half that hides the benefits of climate action and the industry's payout to the person making the claim.

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