FIRST LOOK: 

Heat And Air Pollution Compound Death Risk: The confluence of heat and air pollution disproportionately increases the risk of death, a new study published in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine finds. Extreme heat and heatwaves are made worse and more frequent by climate change, mainly caused by the combustion of fossil fuels — which also produces huge amounts of particulate matter pollution. Reviewing more than 1.5 million deaths in California between 2014 and 2019, researchers found a 6% risk of death increase on hot days, a 5% risk of death increase on days with high PM2.5 pollution, and a 21% risk of death increase on days with both. Racist policy decisions, both historically and today, subject people of color to disproportionate heat and pollution burdens, with the elderly, unhoused people, and those who work outside being most exposed. Extreme heat also exacerbates wildfires which release enormous amounts of particulate matter. The study's publication comes as large swaths of the Northern Hemisphere stifle under extreme heat and increased wildfire threats. (Study: E&E $; European heat and wildfires: Reuters, AP, Axios, Washington Post $, AP, Reuters, CBS; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves; Wildfires)

Alaska Renewable Electricity On The Rise: The planned shuttering of Alaska's largest coal-fired power plant and increased investment in renewable energy generation there reflects, and could accelerate the transition away from fossil fuel-ed electricity in the state, High Country News reports. Alaska, burdened by huge oil and gas operations, is also heavily impacted by climate change, which especially harms Indigenous communities. Coal has been the dominant fuel source of Alaska's Interior since the Alaska Railroad completed a track through the region 99 years ago, but its share of the generation portfolio is falling as large-scale wind and farms, hydrokinetic power systems, and geothermal plants have secured funding or come online. “Every place is unique and site-specific,” Kodiak Island regulatory specialist Jennifer King told HCN. (High Country News)

Most New G20 Renewables Cheaper Than Cheapest Coal – IRENA: A significant majority of the renewable energy capacity installed last year in G20 countries was cheaper than even the cheapest coal-fired electricity, a new report from the International Renewable Energy Agency shows. Almost two-thirds of 244 GW of renewable energy capacity installed last year was cheaper than coal, with the cost of onshore wind falling 15% and offshore wind and PV solar falling 13% in 2021 compared to 2020. With methane-based gas prices remaining high in the wake of the Russian war and atrocities in Ukraine, the intergovernmental body's report found wind and solar generation saved Europe as much as $50 billion in imported fossil fuel costs from January to May of this year. (Reuters)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: How climate change could drive an increase in gender-based violence (Nature)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: EU plans steps to cushion impact of sudden Russian gas halt (Bloomberg $), EU lawmakers seek more energy savings to tackle gas crunch (Reuters), Gas won't make EU's next Russian sanctions package, Czech leader says (Reuters), Global oil-supply crisis shows signs of easing, IEA says (Wall Street Journal $), 'Why so generous?': Inside Italy's scheme offering huge subsidies towards low-carbon eco-homes (ITV)

• GERMANY: Germany in talks with Shell for LNG to replace Russian supplies (Bloomberg $), Germany sets climate emergency plan in transport, construction sectors (Reuters), Germany to stop buying Russian coal on Aug 1, oil on Dec 31, says German official (Reuters), Germany’s climate plan: More bike lanes, no car speed limit (AP)
• DEFINITELY NOT EXTORTION: Gazprom says it can’t guarantee functioning of Nord Stream gas pipeline (Politico EU, Reuters)
• VICIOUS CYCLES: Europe is frying in devastating heat, yet is burning more coal (Bloomberg $)

COP27: COP27 summit must focus on how world will adapt to climate change, says UN envoy (The Guardian)

(CLIMATE) DIPLOMACY: First climate agreement to center Indigenous voices gains international support (Grist), What Biden’s Saudi trip says about US climate efforts (E&E News), Pacific island leaders welcome US pledge to triple funding for region (Reuters), US, Israel announce new tech partnership in health, climate (Reuters), Don’t expect Biden’s Saudi trip to bring down oil prices (Politico)

BIG GREENS: Major green groups pledge to tackle staff pay disparities (E&E $)

COST OF POLLUTION: US emissions cost the world $1.9 trillion in economic damages (Grist, E&E $)

AGENCIES: Meet the officials shaping Biden’s offshore energy strategy (E&E News)

EPA: EPA faces legal dead ends after SCOTUS climate decision (E&E News), Groups urge full funding for EPA's enforcement office (E&E $), Meet EPA’s team behind the next power plant rule (E&E News)

DOE: DOE awards weatherization, efficiency funding to address ‘critical gap’ in federal assistance (Utility Dive)

DOI: BLM OKs construction of massive Calif. solar project (E&E News)

WHITE HOUSE: Greens press Biden to take action to meet conservation goal (E&E $)

THE HILL: Democrats push for climate deal as time runs short (The Hill), A big bipartisan wildlife bill could be headed to Biden's desk (Washington Post $), GOP offers offramp in [computer] chips vs. reconciliation fight (E&E News), Republicans attack return of Obama DOJ settlement deals (E&E News)

HOUSE: House Republicans press EPA chief about alleged grid reliability threats from power plant regulations (Utility Dive)

SENATE: Senate Democrats divided on Supreme Court expansion (The Root), Senate Dems threaten to scrap spending bill markups (E&E $)

• JOE MANCHIN: Biden weighs breaking climate pledges to win Manchin’s support on bill (Washington Post $), Inflation report deals blow to Schumer-Manchin budget talks (The Hill, E&E News, The Hill), What happened to the ‘war on coal’ in West Virginia? (Grist)

POLITICS: Young voters are fed up with their (much) older leaders (New York Times $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Biden nominee for Fed’s top banking regulator confirmed as Fed governor (Wall Street Journal $, Reuters, E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: As Biden’s climate corps languishes, states move ahead with civilian service model (Energy News Network), New Fla. law requires sea-level studies for state projects (E&E $)

• PENNSYLVANIA: A win for gas bans? Pa. veto fuels all-electric debate (E&E $), Pa. fights court order blocking entry into RGGI (E&E $)

• NEW YORK: Plan to share local clean-energy-related transmission costs across New York sparks mixed reviews (Utility Dive), Rise Light & Power to redevelop Ravenswood power plant in New York as renewable energy hub (Reuters)
• TEXAS (BLACKOUT WATCH): Texans asked to conserve energy to protect the power grid for the second time in a week (Texas Tribune, Houston Public Media, Austin-American Statesman, The Hill, Reuters), Consumers rode to grid's rescue on Monday, but ERCOT head 'concerned' about future (Houston Chronicle), ERCOT issues another call for Texans to conserve power 

FERC: FERC commissioner pledges EJ focus as agency tackles transmission policies (Politico Pro $), FERC stirs up Mountain Valley pipeline fight (E&E $)

IMPACTS: Scars remain in German region year after floods (AP)

HEAT: How hot is too hot for the human body? Our lab found heat + humidity gets dangerous faster than many people realize (The Conversation), London mayor orders emergency response to heatwave (The Guardian), China opens former air raid shelters amid heat wave 

WILDFIRES: Yosemite wildfire threatens grove of iconic sequoia trees (AP), How to save an ancient, giant tree from a wildfire (New York Times $)

BATTERIES: When does the clean-energy infinity loop start? (The Atlantic)

BUILDINGS: Developers target absolute zero carbon in green office arms race (Bloomberg $)

LNG: Freeport LNG blast knocks down EIA’s export outlook through December (Houston Chronicle, E&E $), Company behind Driftwood LNG will pay $125 million for Haynesville Shale natural gas (The Advocate), Vitol backs Delfin LNG project offshore Louisiana under 15-year supply deal (S&P Global)

OIL & GAS: US refiners step up imports of gasoline-friendly West African crude (Reuters), Natural gas could power new chapter in manure-to-energy (E&E News)

PLASTICS: NIH: Common chemicals linked to preterm births (E&E News), Grassroots: How microplastics memes took over (E&E News)

PIPELINES: Central Texas landowners lawyer-up against new natural gas pipeline (KXAN), Biggest gasoline pipeline in the US reports spill, a year after notorious cyberattack (Gizmodo)

UTILITIES: Summer Blackout fears fuel 300% jump in gauge of US power-plant profit (Bloomberg $), Exelon, PG&E, PSEG and others call on Congress to pass ‘ambitious’ clean energy spending package (Utility Dive), Nuclear industry applauds Tennessee Valley Authority request for 5 GW of clean energy by 2029 (Utility Dive, E&E News)

EVs: A new project in rural Oregon is letting farmers test drive electric tractors in the name of science (Inside Climate News), US electric car sales climb sharply despite shortages (New York Times $)

SCIENCE: Scientists get $1 million prize to fight climate change with ‘photosynthesis 2.0’ (Wall Street Journal $)

AVIATION: Can battery-powered airplanes decarbonize air travel? (Canary Media)

CARBON REMOVAL: Microsoft inks 10-year carbon dioxide removal deal with Climeworks (Protocol)

FINANCE: Bear market puts ESG investing to its first big test (Reuters), EU watchdog calls for common definition of corporate 'sustainability' (Reuters), Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway adds to Big Oil bet (Wall Street Journal $)

LIGHT POLLUTION: Light pollution is disrupting the seasonal rhythms of plants and trees, lengthening pollen season in US cities (The Conversation)

WILDLIFE: Once nearly extinct, bison are now climate heroes (Washington Post $)

INTERNATIONAL: Africa looks to private sector to fund ocean climate action (AP), Canada's climate fund slow to get money out the door (Politico Pro $), Climate adaptation bill for African countries to dwarf health spending (The Guardian), Japan set to expand energy transition support to India (Reuters), Turkey gets landmark $929 million Deutsche Bank loan to buy LNG (Bloomberg $)

• If Texas’ electric grid operator wants energy conservation, it should pay more for it (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• The Guardian view on Europe’s energy crisis: facing down Putin will not come cheap (The Guardian, Editorial Board)
• Logging is slashing US forests’ ability to absorb carbon by over one-third (Truthout, Kathy Egland and Leo Woodberry op-ed)
• Asia imports of thermal coal, LNG hold up despite record prices (Reuters, Clyde Russell column)
• FERC policies leave uncertainty on viability of natural gas infrastructure development (Reuters, Kirsten Gibbs and Pamela Wu op-ed)
• Whatever this is, it won’t be Build Back Better (The Atlantic, Robinson Meyer analysis)

Fossil Fuel Woke-Washer Gets New Gig Attacking Biden Admin Appointees 

Remember Derrick Hollie? 

No? 

What, you don't have an Encyclopedia Lie-tannica in your head? 

Ah, well, in that case, a quick catch-up: Derrick Hollie is a career advertising marketer who first caught our eye in 2019 when he started talking about how the fossil fuels that are disproportionately harming Black people like him are actually good for them. In 2020, we enjoyed his appearance in a press release praising fossil fuels that accidentally acknowledged its Chevron affiliation, and in 2021, he was surfing an industrial wave of woke-washing. 

But now he's got a new gig, one that's seemingly less reliant on his novelty of being a Black man acting as a spokesperson for an industry that harms Black people, and instead just bread and butter political activism: attacking low-level Biden administration staff. 

Staying true to his dirty energy clientele's favorite outlet, Hollie promoted this general anti-Biden advocacy in an op-ed in RealClearEnergy, with a tantalizing headline asking, "What's lurking inside Joe Biden's basement?"

But it's actually "who", because Hollie's real question is, "Who exactly has filled out the thousands of positions in charge of policy, regulation, and oversight in the Biden Administration?" 

With a new explicitly-appealing-to-Hunter-Biden-obsessed-weirdos name and website (with maybe a little Pizzagate innuendo thrown in), Hollie's organization Inside Biden's Basement, "has started by gathering and analyzing thousands of public records exposing who these officials are – from cabinet officials to the special assistants and senior advisors who advise them and fill out the ranks of political leadership at federal agencies. No one gets a pass." 

Which on its face is fine, in that compiling public records about who's employed by the government is the sort of thing that an opposition party should be doing. However, in practice the website's numerous references to Hunter Biden disinformation and the fact that harassing people is a standard tactic in the disinformation playbook suggest that this will be an effort to find vulnerable young people within the administration, attack them on Fox News and hope to "cancel" them from the administration. 

But again, it is generally a good thing for the public to know who's staffing the government. For example, Hollie notes that "the most senior ranks of the Administration are filled with millionaires (436) and former lobbyists (93) who seem immune to the daily struggles of the people they are supposed to be serving. Perhaps this is why Americans are callously instructed to just buy a Tesla when they complain about their pain at the pump."

Not a terrible point! And of course, if we paid our public servants better, the government could attract more diverse and representative talent so that our government isn't disproportionately run by people who can afford the pay cut from the private sector.

Also, how many billionaires is Hollie investigating? We ask, because Derrick Hollie worked for the Department of Transportation's Office of Small and Disadvantaged Business Utilization from October 2020 to January 2021. 

And the Trump administration, you may recall, included such down-home working class characters as billionaire Betsy DeVos, CEO of ExxonMobil Rex Tillerson, and hedge fund manager, movie financier and James Bond villain-couple inspiration Steve Mnuchin. 

Too bad they employed Hollie, otherwise certainly a man of his ethics and morals certainly would have started "Inside Trump's Basement." 

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