INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: In Biden’s big bill: Climate, health care, deficit reduction (AP), A detailed picture of what’s in the Democrats’ climate and health bill (New York Times $)
- POLITICS: Not even a single Republican voted for the climate bill (The Atlantic), The surprising political shifts that led to the climate bill’s passage (Washington Post $), States will decide how much Democrats’ historic climate deal actually cuts emissions (HuffPost), Texas Dems uniformly vote for Biden’s cornerstone climate and health care legislation (Texas Tribune)
- SAUSAGE MAKING: After 25 years of futility, Democrats finally jettison carbon pricing in favor of incentives to counter climate change (Inside Climate News), Critics call Dems’ climate bill a 'devil’s bargain' on climate. Here’s what the devil is getting. (Slate), As historic climate bill heads to Biden’s desk, young activists demand more (New York Times $)
- (ENVIRONMENTAL) JUSTICE: New climate and tax bill seeks to address problems of the Black farmer relief program (Ebony)
- FINANCE: Wall Street, like the climate bill, bets on both green energy and fossil fuels (Wall Street Journal $), VCs say climate bill will help ‘prime the pump’ for startup growth (Bloomberg $), US renewables investors see Senate bill sparking gold rush (Reuters), Biden is set to sign the largest climate bill in history. These stocks could see the biggest boost (CNBC)
- INDUSTRY IMPACTS: The Inflation Reduction Act could revive solar manufacturing in the US (Canary Media), Energy storage wins a long-sought victory with Inflation Reduction Act (Canary Media), The new climate law will help clean up air travel (Canary Media), Climate bill’s success hinges on timely renewable-projects build-out (Wall Street Journal $), What oil companies gain from the landmark climate bill (NPR), What experts say about how valuable the Inflation Reduction Act's green subsidies will be (TIME), Climate bill’s success hinges on timely renewable-projects build-out (Wall Street Journal $), The Inflation Reduction Act could push climate change tech into the future (Washington Post $), New climate deal spurs hopes of more carbon storage projects (AP)
- KITCHEN TABLE IMPACTS: Consumers may qualify for up to $10,000 — or more — in climate tax breaks and rebates in the Inflation Reduction Act (CNBC), How the Democrats’ inflation bill could cut consumer energy costs (The Hill), When you'll see the climate bill's impact (Axios)
- PUBLIC HEALTH: A huge side benefit of the new climate bill (New York Times $), Democrats' bill will make mark on climate, healthcare costs (Reuters)
- COAL COUNTRY: In the heart of coal country, US climate bill could push up green shoots (Reuters), ‘Shocked and disheartened’: How coal country is reacting to Manchin’s climate deal (The Hill), West Virginia coal country will test power of Democrats’ climate bill (Washington Post $)
- EVs: The inflation reduction act could cut EV tax credits but boost battery metals mining in the US (Jalopnik), For electric vehicle makers, winners and losers in climate bill (New York Times $), EV charging companies struggle to build as climate bill boosts incentives (Wall Street Journal $), Climate bill: Could coal communities shift to nuclear? (AP), US climate law will help electrify more USPS mail trucks (Canary Media)
LIKE A MICHAEL BAY MOVIE, BUT NOT: Risk of catastrophic California ‘megaflood’ has doubled due to global warming, researchers say (LA Times $), A ‘megaflood’ in California could drop 100 inches of rain, scientists warn (Washington Post $), A disastrous megaflood is coming to California, experts say, and it could be the most expensive natural disaster in history (CNN, The Guardian, New York Times $, The Hill, NPR, USA Today, USA Today), Catastrophic floods may occur far more than ever before. Here’s how bad it could get in the Bay Area (San Francisco Chronicle)
CLIMATE REFUGEES: Americans moving to places more resistant to climate change (Today Show)
COP27: Egypt, China talk on next global climate summit (Prensa Latina)
DENIAL: JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon: 'Why can't we get it through our thick skulls?' America boosting oil and gas production is 'not against' climate change (Business Insider)
INFLATION: Fight climate change. End fossilflation. Here’s how. (Vox)
RIVER LITIGATION: New Zealand river's personhood status offers hope to Māori (AP)
PUBLIC OPINION: AP-NORC poll: Many in US doubt their own impact on climate (AP)
DOI: Judge reinstates Obama-era coal-leasing ban (Reuters, Washington Post $, AP, The Hill, Bloomberg $, E&E $)
EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Granholm sees US gasoline prices dropping further, with caveat (Bloomberg $)
THE HILL: As Congress funds high-tech climate solutions, it also bets on a low-tech one: nature (Washington Post $)
POLITICS: The new climate politics (Axios)
CITIES AND STATES: How NYC’s upcoming congestion pricing program will reduce traffic — and cut carbon (Grist), Outnumbered: in rural Ohio, two supporters of solar power step into a roomful of opposition (Inside Climate News), New York regulators OK key National Grid, Invenergy transmission projects, reject NextEra solar farm (Utility Dive), Conservationists say New England’s drought is another wakeup call about climate change (Maine Public Radio), How cities around the world are planning for climate change (NPR), [Minneapolis] community members hold climate change circle to push for more city action (CBS)
- MASSACHUSETTS: Baker signs major Massachusetts climate bill despite concerns over fossil fuel limits, other provisions (Utility Dive), Massachusetts’ Republican governor signs far-reaching climate bill into law (Grist)
- CALIFORNIA: California governor proposes $1.4 billion loan to keep nuclear plant open (Reuters), California aims to score big in the race for offshore wind (The Verge), California governor proposes extending nuclear plant’s life (AP), Top California environment official leaving state government (AP), California could lend PG&E $1.4 billion to save Diablo Canyon nuclear plant (LA Times $), Newsom bets on a new plan to combat California drought (LA Times $)
FERC: FERC commissioners press financial giant Vanguard over possible efforts to influence utility power portfolios (Utility Dive)
IMPACTS: Coastal erosion is the latest battle for the US island caught in the crosshairs of climate change (CNN), Monsoon rains to bring flash flooding to West; California to experience scorching temperatures (ABC), 7 million people are under flood watches while 7 million face extreme heat alerts (CNN), It gets hotter every year, and a new study shows how much climate change is already costing the global economy (Fortune), Poland deploys troops as dead fish pile up on river bank in toxic disaster (Washington Post $)
ANTARCTICA: NASA satellites paint grim picture for the future of Antarctica's ice shelves (TIME), Antarctica is in trouble (Gizmodo), Antarctica’s ice shelves may be melting faster than anticipated: study (The Hill)
HEAT: Hotter summers to fuel increase in skin cancers, doctors warn (The Guardian), Rising temperatures could threaten Georgia peaches (NPR), Extreme heat uncovers lost villages, ancient ruins and shipwrecks (Bloomberg $), Broad swathe of China swelters in high temperatures (Reuters), More dangerous heat waves are on the way: See the impact by ZIP code. (Washington Post $)
DROUGHT: Conservationists say New England’s drought is another wakeup call about climate change (Maine Public Radio), Northeastern farmers face new challenges with severe drought (AP)
- EUROPEAN RIVERS: Drought hits Germany's Rhine River: 'We have 30cm of water left' (BBC, Bloomberg $), Europe's drought could signal the death of river cruising (CNN)
- UK DECLARATION: Apples are baking on branches and hosepipe bans hit millions as England falls into drought (CNN), Official drought declared across large parts of England (BBC, CNN, New York Times $, Bloomberg $, Reuters, CBS), 13 rivers in England at lowest level ever recorded as nation suffers from crippling drought (The Independent), Soil healing and olive growing: How UK farms are coping with looming drought (The Guardian), Dead grass and dried-up rivers: drought across the UK – in pictures (The Guardian), Drought highlights dangers for electricity supplies (BBC), Drought in England could carry on into new year, experts warn (The Guardian)UK declares drought in parts of England amid heatwave
WILDFIRES: Western wildfires threaten carbon offsets (CBS), Firefighters continue battling large Hawaii wildfire (AP), Wildfires could release radioactive particles from nuclear sites (Yale Climate Connections), Major wildfire in Spain forces the evacuation of 1,500 (AP)
- FRENCH WILDFIRES: French wildfire stops expanding; workers seek to tame it (AP), Carbon emissions from French wildfires hit record (Reuters), France halts spread of 'monster' wildfire, reopens highway (Reuters), A 'monster' wildfire in France sends thousands out of their homes (NPR), Thousands flee homes as wildfire chars France's wine country and huge swaths of U.K. declared drought zones (CBS)
FLOODING: Seoul vows to move families from 'Parasite'-style basement homes after flooding deaths (CNN), How Seoul failed its most vulnerable, flooded in their basement homes (Washington Post $)
HURRICANES: Tropical Storm Meari hammers Japan with heavy rainfall, wind (AP),
WATER: Deadline looms for drought-stricken states to cut water use (AP), In Los Angeles, the grass isn’t always greener this year (New York Times $)
RENEWABLES: Dulles solar farm would be the nation’s largest at an airport (Washington Post $), Torrent Power and Sembcorp in race to buy Vector Green Energy (Bloomberg $), Developers add less than half of planned US solar capacity in H1 - EIA (Reuters), NC court rules against Raleigh HOA, making it easier for people to install solar panels (WRAL)
INDUSTRY: Can the US fight climate change — and shift industrial policy? (Washington Post $)
METHANE: Methane emissions from US shallow offshore platforms exceed those on land, study finds (Reuters)
OIL & GAS: World embraces dirtier fuels as gas hits exorbitant heights (Bloomberg $), Saudi Aramco’s profit jumps 90 percent on high oil prices (New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $, CNBC)
COAL: Coal giants are making mega profits as climate crisis grips the world (Bloomberg $), Greens propose shutting down all Victorian coal-fired power plants by 2030 (The Guardian), German energy giant RWE to burn extra coal as Russian gas supplies dwindle (CNBC)
UTILITIES: Power companies bet big on natural gas in Louisiana. Now, customers are feeling the squeeze (The Advocate)
GRID: Why the US is struggling to modernize the electric grid (CNBC)
EVs: Rivian’s losses nearly triple to $1.7 billion (Wall Street Journal $), Can the F-150 Lightning make everyone want a truck that plugs in? (New York Times $), Ikea adds electrify America chargers to 25 of its US stores (Jalopnik), EV startup Fisker explores higher production in 2023, US manufacturing (Reuters), A California startup is selling electric vehicle ‘subscriptions’ (Bloomberg $), Tesla and Nikola big rigs race for up to $40,000 US incentives (Bloomberg $)
ACTIVISM: Meet the teenager who helped push Florida toward cleaner energy (NPR), These Latinx and Indigenous TikTokers are teaching sustainability and fighting for change (Gizmodo)
EMERGENCY?: Monkeypox? Climate? Deciding what’s a national emergency (AP)
FOOD: One-third of the food we eat is at risk because the climate crisis is endangering butterflies and bees (CNN)
IN MEMORIAM: Yosemite fire ecologist who urged prescribed burns has died (AP)
TOURISM: In Hawaii, the search for sustainable tourism (New York Times $)
INTERNATIONAL: France risks winter blackouts as nuclear-power generation stalls (Wall Street Journal $), Estonia never needed to import gas by ship. Until it did. (New York Times $), India to miss renewable energy goal, officials, experts say (AP), Germans urged to cap heat in offices this winter to save gas (AP), UK weighs energy bill relief for steelmakers, cement companies (Bloomberg $), Ukraine accuses Russia of using nuclear plant to blackmail west (Wall Street Journal $) |
After Chuckie Koch's Kinder, Gentler Rebrand Attempt, He Spent Over $1 Billion On 2020 Elections
Hey, remember back in 2018 when Politico Magazine told us Chase Koch, son of Charles Koch, "wants to steer the conservative juggernaut his family created toward a kinder, gentler libertarianism?" Or what about in 2020, when the Wall Street Journal's Doug Belkin helped Charles "call me 'Chuckie'" Koch attempt to rebrand as a "philosopher and, he hopes, unifer?"
Well if you were, like us, more skeptical than the "journalists" who credulously served up this PR as "reporting", then congratulations! You're not stupid enough to be a political access-driven DC journalist.
Because it turns out that even as ol' Chuckie was telling the WSJ how much he laments his past partisanship, he was still steering ungodly amounts of money into the election. Belkin claimed that "Koch Industries’ PAC and employees donated $2.8 million in the 2020 campaign cycle to Republican candidates and $221,000 to Democratic candidates," but that seems to have undersold things by an order of magnitude or two.
It's taken two years for all the paperwork to go through, but Connor Gibson crunched the numbers for the Center for Media and Democracy, and tallied up that "Koch Industries spent only $22.4 million on federal lobbying and campaign contributions in the 2020 election cycle."
But even that is "only" a fraction of the total spend, as across the 28 organizations that Koch controls, plus his family and Koch Industries executives, the total Koch spend on the 2020 election cycle was at least $1.1 billion.
Yes, billion, with a "B"!
The supposedly post-partisan Koch network spent $1,100,000,000 influencing American politics, in just one election cycle!
And even THAT is a conservative figure, Gibson notes, because "these calculations likely fail to account for the total policy and political spending overseen by Charles Koch since Koch Industries and a fleet of Koch-controlled limited liability companies (LLCs) do not disclose similar finances."
Over a billion dollars, and that's just from what they're forced to disclose!
"Even though Koch told reporters he was so displeased with Trump," Gibson writes, "that he might even support Democrats — a rhetorical trick he pulls every few years — the tens of millions of dollars his organizations invested in U.S. Senate and House races went almost exclusively to Republicans."
And it's not just the "good" Republicans who respect norms and traditions like not overthrowing Democracy because you're a loser: "Koch has financed groups involved in extremist activity, including the 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol. In 2022, Koch Industries is still financing many politicians who worked to invalidate the results of the 2020 presidential election, despite signaling to Politico that it would discontinue such support."
He's certainly getting what he paid for, too: "His astroturf organization Americans for Prosperity (AFP) spent "seven figures" on efforts to support the confirmations of Trump nominees Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh, and Amy Coney-Barrett—for a total price tag of between $3 and $10 million."
Regardless, who wants to guess which supposedly DC-savvy, access-driven journalistic mockery will fall for it the next time Chuckie Koch wants some sympathetic press? |
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