'Beast Mode' Biden Vows 'Strong Executive Action' On Climate: President Biden pledged to take "strong executive action" to address the climate crisis on Friday after coal millionaire Sen. Joe Manchin III joined the entire Republican party in opposing action on climate change. "I will not back down," Biden promised, speaking from Saudi Arabia (after fist-bumping Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who ordered the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi). Biden did not yet declare a national climate emergency, reinstate a ban on crude oil exports, or ban new drilling on federal lands, but these are the sorts of executive actions climate advocates on and off the Hill are calling for now that negotiations have failed. "Free at last. Let's Roll. Do it all and start now," Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) tweeted after news broke of Manchin's decision not to support climate legislation. "With legislative climate options now closed, it’s now time for executive Beast Mode." (AP, E&E News, The Guardian, Reuters, CNBC, The Hill, Bloomberg $, Reuters; Calls for executive action: Bloomberg $, Reuters)
Europe Suffers Through Extreme Heat: Two years ago, the UK Met office produced an evening news weather segment-style PSA on what climate-driven extreme heat would mean for the country in 2050, with a mock forecast of extreme heat of 40°C (104°F) in London. On Friday, the forecast came true 28 years early as the UK declared a national emergency and the Met Office issued its first-ever red extreme heat warning as temperatures there could break records by topping out at 41°C (106°F). The declarations mean train lines will be slowed, schools will close early, and some hospital appointments will be canceled to accommodate the expected heat impacts, which officials warn can cause illness and even thousands of deaths like the heatwave in 2003 that killed 15,000 people, many of them elderly and living in homes without air conditioning. Across continental Europe, extreme heat is threatening human health and fueling wildfires from Portugal to Spain, France, Italy, and Greece. "Climate change affects everyone," Miguel Angel Tamayo, forced to evacuate from his home in Spain's Jerte valley, told Reuters. French cyclist Thibaut Pinot described the temperatures as "a furnace" as Tour de France organizers prepared to dump tens of thousands of liters of water on roads to prevent the asphalt from getting so hot it melts. (UK: BBC, Washington Post $, BBC, The Guardian, New York Times $, Yale Climate Connections, USA Today, Bloomberg $, Bloomberg $, CNN, FT $, Washington Post $, FT $, Wall Street Journal $, Bloomberg $, HuffPost, CNN, AP, CNBC, AP, Reuters, Bloomberg $; 2050 PSA: CNN; Europe: Bloomberg $, Weather Channel, New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $, Reuters; Wildfires: (BBC, Reuters, Washington Post $, BBC, The Guardian, AP, BBC, AP, Thomson Reuters Foundation, The Guardian, AP, Axios, New York Times $, AP; Tour de France: AFP, VeloNews, CyclingTips, CyclingTips; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)
Orphaned Wells Threaten Health, Environment Across Louisiana: At least 4,600 documented orphaned oil and gas wells are spread across Louisiana, with major human health and climate ramifications for the 230,000 people, including 15,000 children under five years old, who live within a mile of an orphan well. Many of those wells, plus the unknown number of undocumented wells and unsealed "idle" wells that are not technically abandoned, are leaking toxic chemicals into ground water and heat-trapping methane into the atmosphere. Rickey Jordan, his daughter, and two granddaughters, who live about 10 feet from a leaking 83-year-old gas well in their mostly Black neighborhood showed PBS the leak by pouring soapy water on it. “You can hear it. You can clearly see it. We just stopped the kids from playing back there in the yard. I worry because I don’t actually know what’s going on underground." Mr. Jordan added, "I fear it’s just building up pressure." (PBS NewsHour) |
(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Extreme heat threatens Latino residents in Texas (Latino Rebels)
FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Europe to ration gas if Nord Stream stays shut, Ineos says (Bloomberg $), Europe’s new long-term gas deals must be flexible, watchdog says (Bloomberg $), German climate activists aim to stir friction with blockades (AP), Germany hopes to outrace a Russian gas cutoff and bone cold winter (New York Times $), Putting a price cap on Russian oil won’t solve energy supply issues, Indonesian minister says (CNBC), Russia’s squeeze on gas means germany’s energy giant is having to draw supplies from storage (CNBC), Scholz: Germany’s increased coal, oil use will be temporary (AP)
COP27: UN urged to move COP27 from Egypt over ‘LGBTQ+ torture’ (The Guardian)
CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: An American climate failure (New York Times $), US climate promises hang in the balance as Manchin upends talks (Washington Post $), Biden, Egypt's al-Sisi discuss cooperation, global supplies of food, energy (Business Standard), As Xi Jinping seeks more power, the world’s window into China’s climate action narrows (Climate Home), US envoy confident that Gulf oil producers will boost supply (Bloomberg $), Berlin hosts envoys for heart-to-heart talks on climate (AP)
- PACIFIC: Pacific bloc, united, demands climate action as China, US woo (Reuters), Pacific island national leaders declare climate emergency (AP), Pacific islands welcome Australia’s renewed climate ambition – and ask for more (Climate Home)
CRYPTO / TEXAS BLACKOUT WATCH: Energy use from US cryptomining firms is contributing to rising utility bills (The Guardian), Cryptomining capacity in US rivals energy use of Houston, findings show (New York Times $, The Hill), Democratic lawmakers ask federal agencies to crack down on crypto mining (The Verge, Mashable, E&E News), Cryptominers defend gigawatt-scale energy usage called out by Congress (Tech Crunch)
- TEXAS: Living through Texas’ hottest summer (New York Times $), Texans are cranking the AC, prompting worries about the state's power grid (NPR), Texas meteorologist's warning of Blackouts quickly gets all too real (HuffPost), Texas expands industrial demand response program as grid goes to the brink of rolling outages (Utility Dive), Limiting crypto helped the Texas power grid weather a heat wave (Washington Post $), Texas GOP leaders take action on everything but the power grid (MSNBC)
AGENCIES: NASA just launched a powerful new instrument to study dust (The Verge)
EPA: EPA audit bashes Colo.'s industrial air permit management (E&E $), Here are 3 ways the EPA can still regulate climate pollution (Grist)
DOE: DOE shuffles clean energy, EJ staff (E&E $)
DOI: BLM approves construction for Starwood’s 3.2 GW Arizona-to-California transmission line (Utility Dive)
EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Four ways the United States can still fight climate change (New York Times $)
WHITE HOUSE: Biden concedes defeat on climate bill as Manchin and inflation upend agenda (New York Times $), Biden team slow-walked green agenda in failed bid to woo Manchin (Bloomberg $), Senate climate setback puts pressure on Biden (Wall Street Journal $), What's left of Biden's shrinking Build Back Better plan after Manchin's latest blow (CNN), White House sidelined as Manchin again crushes Biden’s policy ambitions (Washington Post $)
THE HILL: Congress faces climate roadblock after Supreme Court ruling (E&E News), Republicans use spending bill to roll back Biden agenda (E&E $)
SENATE: [Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.)] questions why Manchin is chairman of Natural Resources panel (The Hill), Joe Manchin is 'intentionally sabotaging the president's agenda': Bernie Sanders (ABC), Resolution targeting Biden NEPA rule gains momentum (E&E $)
- JOE MANCHIN: Coal baron Manchin kills what could be nation’s last best chance on climate (Truthout), Fury from Dems, greens after Manchin blocks climate bill (E&E $, Axios, The Hill), Joe Manchin is the ultimate gaslighter (Gizmodo), How many of Joe Manchin’s “energy sector” donors does it take to screw in an apocalypse? (Mother Jones), How one senator doomed the Democrats’ climate plan (New York Times $), Joe Manchin, who just torpedoed Democrats' climate agenda, has long ties to coal industry (CNN), Joe Manchin’s fickleness is a needless catastrophe (The Atlantic), Manchin denies tanking climate spending bill, wants to wait on inflation stats (Washington Examiner), Manchin says he’ll reconsider Biden’s tax, climate plan in September (Bloomberg $), Manchin says inflation report killed climate and tax talks with Schumer (The Hill), What Sen. Joe Manchin’s rejection of new spending means for the climate change fight (PBS NewsHour), Manchin: ‘I want climate’ (E&E News)
POLITICS: For Democrats, trying to slow climate change is good politics (Washington Post $), 5 new political realities on climate (E&E News), A GOP generation gap on climate change (Axios), As the planet cooks, climate stalls as a political issue (New York Times $), Democrats fumble on the climate crisis again as US suffers consequences of inaction (CNN), A wilting climate response (New York Times $)
EMISSIONS TARGETS: The US plan to avoid extreme climate change is running out of time (Washington Post $)
ELECTIONS: If the Republicans win the midterms you’re not likely to get climate legislation, says Strategas’ Clifton (CNBC)
TRIBES: Tó Niłtólí members want Lake Powell lands returned (Navajo Times)
CITIES AND STATES AND DISENFRANCHISED DISTRICTS: As Mass. lawmakers consider energy bills, power suppliers press to continue residential retail choice (Utility Dive), In face of recurring drought, cities seek security in wastewater recycling projects (LA Times $), Oregon teachers, students lead push for sweeping expansion of climate change curriculum (Oregon Public Broadcasting), The [Massachusetts] legislature is closing in on a major climate bill. Will real estate developers stand in the way? (Boston Globe $), Washington set to be 2nd East Coast city with gas ban (E&E News)
IMPACTS: Heatflation: how sizzling temperatures drive up food prices (Grist), As weather disasters increase, deaths from them have actually fallen (NPR), NASA, NOAA reports: June was among the hottest on record (The Hill), Traveling in Chile is a lesson in the ravages of climate change (Washington Post $), UN says flooding kills 12 people in Sudan’s Darfur region (AP), Golf’s birthplace faces a risky future on a warming planet (New York Times $)
HEAT: How heat waves are messing up your sleep (Wired), Northeast enjoys blissfully mild summer as Plains and South bake (Washington Post $), The lure of air conditioners ignores the vicious climate cycle (FT $), Weekend temperatures soaring into triple digits in parts of Southern California (LA Times $)
DROUGHT: The Western drought is getting weird (Gizmodo), They sounded alarms about a coming Colorado River crisis. But warnings went unheeded (LA Times $), Warming rivers threaten France's already tight power supply (Reuters)
WILDFIRES: Crews gain on Yosemite National Park, California wildfires (AP)
HURRICANES: Tropical Storm Estelle strengthens off southern Mexico (AP)
WATER: A water crisis restricts usage to 6 hours a day in one of Mexico's largest cities (NPR), Celebrities are guzzling water while regular Californians cut back (Gizmodo), Kansas town taps ranch water 70 miles away, ignites legal fight (E&E News)
WORKERS: ILO promotes green jobs to address climate change (Prensa Latina), This map will make you optimistic about fighting climate change (Bloomberg $)
RENEWABLES: In a twist, old coal plants help deliver renewable power. Here's how. (New York Times $), Solar stocks sink as senator Manchin says he won’t support climate bill (CNBC), US renewable PPA prices up nearly 30% year-over-year despite two-year solar tariff moratorium (Utility Dive)
BUILDINGS: Energy-efficient homes often sell faster and for more money (Yale Climate Connections)
OIL & GAS: Boosting supply is the best way to stabilize oil prices, says OECD chief (CNBC), Hilcorp Energy, Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips release the most greenhouse gasses among US oil and gas companies (CNBC), Permian Basin drives 46 percent of oil and gas business deals last quarter, research shows (Houston Chronicle), US natgas jumps 6% on output drop, hotter forecasts (Reuters), US oil and gas drillers add four rigs during a week of chaotic oil prices (Houston Chronicle), Why natural gas could ditch its ‘evil’ energy reputation (Politico Pro $)
PRIME DAY: Prime day ain't that 'green' (Gizmodo)
UTILITIES: Coal, solar and EVs: A pitfall for electric utilities? (E&E News), Xcel taps Colorado leader to help prepare utility for carbon-free future (Energy News Network)
EVs: How Sheetz partnered with Tesla and brought EV charging to rural America (Bloomberg $), To escape high gas prices, many are searching for electric vehicles. They’re nowhere to be found. (Boston Globe $)
COPPER: Pending copper shortfall threatens energy transition, greenhouse gas reduction goals: S&P Global (Utility Dive)
REALIZING STUFF: Kylie Jenner and Travis Scott criticized for instagram of private jets (Teen Vogue)
HEALTH CARE: Massachusetts hospitals are joining the climate fight (Boston Globe $)
AGRICULTURE: Manure-eating worms could be the dairy industry’s climate solution (Inside Climate News)
CARBON DRAWDOWN: Alaska Air, Microsoft pursue CO2-powered planes (E&E $), This supercharged tree might help fight climate change (CNN)
FINANCE: Climate projects need public backing, achieve positive returns (Bloomberg $), Energy-focused funds reclaim investor favor (Wall Street Journal $)
SUMMER: Beach trips can be costly to the environment. Here’s how to reduce your impact. (Washington Post $)
🙃 : Crypto crash stalls WeWork founder Adam Neumann’s climate venture (Wall Street Journal $)
WILDLIFE: Endangered salmon will swim in California river for first time in 80 years (LA Times $)
INTERNATIONAL: China says relationship with Australia ready to ‘set sail again’ amid hopes coal import ban will be scrapped (The Guardian), End of coal ban would stabilize China relations, Australia says (Bloomberg $), Germany to do ‘everything’ to fight climate crisis, Scholz says (Bloomberg $), Ukraine conflict could speed up Germany's green energy transition, study says (Reuters)
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Will You Fight For Climate Action As Hard As Joe Manchin Defends His Coal Business?
When it looked like Obama would live up to his campaign promise to confront climate change, Joe Manchin sprang into action, using his inherited position as West Virginia royalty to coast into the Senate on a promise to destroy Obama's attempts to confront climate change.
A decade and change later, Manchin's tenacity and single-minded drive to protect his coal company's income stream remains unchanged, as he did what we knew he would but pretended like he wouldn't, and made it clear he wasn't going to vote for any climate policies. The legislative branch of the US government may be nominally run by the Democratic party, but clearly the fossil fuel industry has its own veto power.
This comes, of course, after a Supreme Court packed with minoritarian justices installed in no small part with fossil fuel money basically just told the executive branch that it couldn't do anything about climate change because the people responsible for the right-wing supermajority's seats on the Court don't like it.
The situation is grim, to put it mildly. And there's no hiding that it's incredibly difficult to look at a future of climate calamity and feel like that's a place where you would want to live. On Friday, Britt Wray at GenDread addressed the mental health crisis that's tailing the climate crisis, as the feelings of despair become overwhelming for those who see no way out. Wray, responsibly, passes the pen to Caroline Hickman, a psychotherapist, to respond to a 17 year old climate activist's letter describing their struggle with suicidal thoughts.
We strongly recommend you read it, regardless of your current mental state. We're quite firmly in agreement with the young activist that "action is a powerful antidote to climate grief." However, we also agree, as Hickman notes, "it’s important that we do not look for quick and easy answers." We're not about to provide anything quick or easy, but still, worth a reminder that, "Anyone who thinks they have a neat and simple answer is more than likely looking for a quick fix to reduce their own anxiety. This is a mistake, because it is our anxiety that will help guide us towards soul making rather than soul crushing relationship with our changing world. Anxiety will show us how to navigate this, if we treat it with respect rather than try to fix it and make it go away because of its inconvenient disruption to our peace of mind. We should not be at peace with things as they are."
Things are deeply broken. The political system has been very carefully and deliberately sabotaged by decades of industrial disinformation and campaign contributions.
As if that weren't enough, while conservative polluters and partisans like Joe Manchin (and the entire Republican party) and Charles Koch and Justice John Roberts are busy dismantling the good parts of American democracy, their collaborators on the far-right are as busy as ever stoking racism and bigotry.
"They are preparing for war. And not talking about it does not make us safer. What we're heading toward is an insurgency, which is a form of a civil war," political science professor Barbara Walter explained to the Washington Post's KK Ottesen last March.
But maybe there's hope! "We know the warning signs. And we know that if we strengthen our democracy, and if the Republican Party decides it’s no longer going to be an ethnic faction that’s trying to exclude everybody else, then our risk of civil war will disappear."
… Oh. The hope is that Republicans stop being racist and using white supremacy to cling to power they can't win fairly in elections? Huh…
What are our other options? In a somewhat critical review of Walter's work, James Meek flips the script, and posits that while Walter rightly worries about a right-wing coup, what happens if Trump gets legally elected in 2024, perhaps only thanks to voting suppression? While he notes "there was a lot of malice, aggression, hate, bitterness and ignorance in the mob" that stormed Congress on January 6, 2021, "there was also a wasted sincerity, ruthlessness and will. Who, I wondered, would do for the truth what these people were ready to do for a lie?"
It's not a rhetorical question. The time for normal politics is over.
It's time to start fighting, for more Justice(s), for more Democracy, for our lives. But how? What more could you, a clearly climate concerned person, do?
Well there's always direct action. As the social contract gets brokener and brokener, it seems not unlikely we'll see more escalations beyond the passive, disruptive, non-compliance protests we've seen thus far. As Andreas Malm explains: "Property destruction – targeting the most egregious forms of luxury emissions and other kinds of fossil-fuel infrastructure – could potentially contribute to building popular pressure and delegitimise these practices, pressuring various levels of the state apparatus to start closing these emissions sources down."
The question is: Are you more committed to a livable planet than Joe Manchin is to his coal? |
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