Biden Signs Inflation Reduction Act Into Law: President Biden signed major climate legislation into law on Tuesday. The Inflation Reduction Act includes about $375 billion to fight climate change, along with other health care and tax provisions. "This is a BFD," President Barack Obama tweeted, a reference to then-Vice President Biden's assessment of the passage of the Affordable Care Act over a decade ago. The law, which passed despite the narrowest possible majority for Democrats in the Senate and in the face of unanimous GOP opposition, represents the biggest ever federal investment to address the climate crisis. Though it is not sufficient on its own to achieve the climate pollution cuts necessary to halt global warming, the law is significant not only for the actual emissions reductions it enables and for the international response it could induce. (IRA signing: Washington Post $, NPR, The Guardian, AP, New York Times $, Axios, Rolling Stone, Mother Jones, Teen Vogue, Canary Media, Bloomberg $, Al Jazeera, Wall Street Journal $, E&E $, The Hill, CNBC, CNN, CBS, Politico Pro $, NPR, Grist; Emissions reductions and global response: AP) [More coverage below – Ed.]
EJ Advocates Feel Shortchanged, Again, By IRA Compromises: Environmental justice advocates generally agree the climate provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act include positive and important elements, and also represent predictable and familiar disappointments. Advocates for communities of color, low income communities, and those in the path of fossil fuel projects favored by coal millionaire Sen. Joe Manchin — to whom President Biden gave one of the pens with which he signed the legislation — say they have been sacrificed, once again. “Somehow, we're both a bargaining chip and the people that can save the day when it comes to elections,” said Maria Lopez-Nuñez, a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council (WHEJAC) and deputy director of the Ironbound Community Corp. in Newark, New Jersey. While the administration says the IRA includes approximately $60 billion for environmental justice, analyses from the Just Solutions Collective and the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center say the amount actually going to EJ is closer to $47.5 billion and $49 billion, respectively. “[The IRA] is not perfect," but includes "a lot of good things," Robert Bullard, a preeminent EJ advocate and member of the WHEJAC. “What we have to do is get a commitment that this is not the end of our work on climate justice, and that we have to work better and work more and work harder to ensure that those big gaping holes that are left in this bill are filled with justice.” Jean Su, energy justice director at the Center for Biological Diversity, agreed. “One of the most dangerous parts about the IRA is if people throw up their hands and say, ‘That's it, we're done,’” they said. “Like, ‘We did it. Mission accomplished on climate.’” Advocates say they will fight hard to oppose a deal to fast-track permitting for energy projects — like the long-delayed and far over-budget Mountain Valley Pipeline — in exchange for passage of the IRA, and will push lawmakers against tying that to "must-pass" government funding bills. (Politico Pro $, Bloomberg $; MVP: Mountain State Spotlight; Permitting reform: Reuters; Signing ceremony: Reuters; Commentary: Esquire, Charles Pierce commentary)
Boston Hopes To Electrify Buildings: Boston will seek to electrify all new buildings and major renovations as part of a 10-city pilot project a law signed last week, Mayor Michelle Wu announced Tuesday. If it is selected as one of the 10 cities in the pilot, Boston would join New York City, Washington DC, and Seattle, along with a host of other cities across the country reducing gas use by electrifying their building stock. (Boston Globe $, AP, Bloomberg $, The Hill)
FERC Requests More Info On Brownsville LNG EJ Impacts: FERC is seeking additional information on the environmental justice impacts of the proposed Texas Brownsville LNG project, PoliticoPro reports. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff, on Tuesday, sought information from the project's developers on the neighborhoods around the proposed facility, including “racial, ethnic, and poverty statistics.” A federal appeals court rejected an earlier FERC approval of the project for failing to sufficiently consider the project's climate impact or the impact of the project on a sufficiently large geographical area. The FERC staff's request did not address the proposed project's climate impact. (Politico Pro $)
Atlantic Hurricane Season (Unofficially) Starting Earlier — Study: Tropical storms are increasingly forming and making landfall before the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season as ocean temperatures warm, a new study published in Nature Communications finds. The study's publication comes as NOAA considers moving the official June 1 start date up to May 15. (Washington Post $, USA Today, The Verge, Wall Street Journal $, NBC; Climate Signals background: Hurricanes) |
ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: How US corporations poisoned this Indigenous community (Vox), In Afghanistan, a wrenching choice between drought and migration (Thomson Reuters Foundation)
INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: The US finally has a law to tackle climate change (Vox), One winner from Biden’s climate bill: GOP governors who hate it (Politico), How the huge new US climate bill will save you money (Wired)
- WHAT'S IN IT: The Inflation Reduction Act, explained (Vox), What’s in Democrats’ bill on climate, health and tax policy? (Wall Street Journal $), 4 underrated parts of the Inflation Reduction Act (Vox), Hidden inside the Inflation Reduction Act: $20 billion to help fix our farms (Vox), The Biden climate bill: will it save us? (Rolling Stone), The US climate and healthcare bill has more money for droughts - here’s why (The Independent)
- WHAT'S NEXT: Biden just signed the Inflation Reduction Act. Now the hard work on climate really begins (TIME), Celebrate the Inflation Reduction Act. Then double down on demonizing fossil fuels. (New Republic)
- SECTOR IMPACTS: Clean energy stocks are the winners of the Inflation Reduction Act (Yahoo), Climate bill could create 1,000 new companies, says head of investment at Bill Gates’ breakthrough energy ventures (CNBC), Climate law could spur ‘market transformation’ in home electrification (Canary Media), Climate law may revolutionize US cleantech manufacturing. Here’s how (Canary Media), Why the US climate bill might struggle to deliver on carbon capture (Climate Home), What inflation – and the Inflation Reduction Act – mean for the clean energy sector (Utility Dive)
- LNG: Will Biden’s climate bill really reduce LNG emissions? (E&E News), Exemptions in climate bill fuel debate about LNG emissions (E&E $)
- EVs: The Inflation Reduction Act will soon make it cheaper to buy EVs—if they have north American batteries (TIME), Inflation Reduction Act promises $7,500 electric vehicle credits after Ford and GM raised prices (Washington Examiner), Graphite in EV batteries creates conundrum under US climate bill (Bloomberg $)
- SAUSAGE MAKING: Bill Gates and the secret push to save Biden’s climate bill (Bloomberg $), Al Gore on the Inflation Reduction Act: 'It took so long' (Washington Post $)
COLORADO RIVER CUTS: As talks on Colorado River water falter, US government imposes new restrictions (LA Times $, Washington Post $, Reuters, Axios, AP, WBMA, New York Times $, Marketplace, Bloomberg $, CNN, HuffPost, NPR, The Hill, E&E $, ABC, NBC, CBS, E&E $, Politico Pro $), New water cuts coming for Southwest as Colorado River falls into Tier 2 shortage (CNN), America’s winter lettuce hub set to bear brunt of water cuts (Bloomberg $), They sounded alarms about a coming Colorado River crisis. But warnings went unheeded (LA Times $), Winners, losers in water cuts for Western states (AP, explainer)
- LAKE MEAD & HYDROPOWER: The West's historic drought is threatening hydropower at Hoover Dam (CNN), 'Playing Russian roulette': Water conservation efforts stall as Lake Mead dries up (CNN), How the Western drought is pushing the power grid to the brink (Vox)
- GRAND CANYON: Megadrought emergency in Grand Canyon (NBC)
BIG APPLE BUILDINGS: New York developers rush to reduce emissions as hefty fines loom (New York Times $)
COP27: Caribbean nations should push for climate finance at COP27, Bahamas PM says (Reuters)
CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Climate change to be discussed at Caribbean Community meeting (Prensa Latina)
CLIMATE LITIGATION: Hawaii gas company sues insurer over climate litigation (E&E $)
DENIAL: Kicking oil companies out of school (New York Times $)
- NOTHING SAYS 'SOUND INVESTING' LIKE INFOWARS: With his anti-ESG fund, Vivek Ramaswamy takes a page from the Infowars playbook (ImpactAlpha)
PUBLIC OPINION: Most Americans say government, corporations responsible for tackling climate change (The Hill)
SCOTUS: Supreme Court climate ruling ignites deregulatory challenges (E&E News)
EPA: EPA advances permitting for Arizona copper mine (E&E $), Meet EPA boss Michael Regan’s inner circle (E&E News)
DOE: Can renewables and energy justice coexist? What DOE found. (E&E $)
DOI: NPS draws aid for second 'thousand-year flood' this summer (E&E $), Watchdog urges Interior to improve disaster response (E&E $)
DOT: Infrastructure money to almost double zero-emission buses on road (Washington Post $, The Hill)
WHITE HOUSE: A look at Biden’s past executive orders on climate change (The Hill), National Academy sanctions White House climate adviser (E&E News, Washington Post $, Axios), White House reviewing EPA methane rule supplement (Politico Pro $)
HOUSE: Former Rep. T.J. Cox indicted on fraud, laundering charges (E&E $), Grijalva proposes new Ariz. conservation areas, wilderness (E&E $)
POLITICS: Evergreen places six-figure ad buy highlighting Michigan, Nevada clean energy investments (The Hill)
ELECTIONS: The Inflation Reduction Act was a huge win for Democrats. Will it help them in the midterms? (Mother Jones), Lawyer set to defeat Cheney spent career fighting environmental rules (New York Times $), Lisa Murkowski and Sarah Palin survive primary battles, but a Democrat breaks through (New York Times $)
CITIES AND STATES AND DISENFRANCHISED COLONIAL TERRITORIES: Environmental groups sue US over Puerto Rico dredging plan (AP), Missouri halts solar tax break as federal incentives expand (AP), Shadowy oil and gas interests are deciding Texas' energy fate (Gizmodo), Some cities reimburse residents for the costs of rain gardens or cisterns (Yale Climate Connections), Tab for flood resilience in 2 Boston neighborhoods: $1.3B (E&E $)
- CALIFORNIA: California swelters with power demand poised to hit summer high (Bloomberg $), California unveils proposal to keep Diablo Canyon nuclear plant open with $1.4B loan to PG&E (Utility Dive)
IMPACTS: Climate change has doubled the chance of a California megaflood: study (Yahoo), Eastern Australia faces wet weather and flooding with 70% chance of third consecutive La Niña (The Guardian), Sudan floods continue to tear up homes; 66 people killed (AP), What megafires can teach us about California megafloods (E&E $)
HEAT: Heat wave intensifies energy crisis in Europe (Wall Street Journal $), Too hot to work, too hot to play (Inside Climate News)
DROUGHT: German industry at risk as Rhine level falls (AP), The northeast is in the middle of an intense drought (Washington Post $)
WILDFIRES: California’s giant sequoias are burning up. Will logging save them? (Washington Post $), European wildfires have burned areas equal to one-fifth of Belgium (Bloomberg $)
RENEWABLES: How Puerto Rico could call on rooftop solar to avoid blackouts (Canary Media), EBRD provides $43.6 mln for two wind farms in Croatia (Reuters), Solar developer Nexamp to lead National Grid interconnection pilot (Utility Dive), US wind's share of new energy growth declined in 2021 amid tax credit uncertainty (Politico Pro $), Utility-scale solar capacity delays hit 20% in first 6 months of 2022: EIA (Utility Dive)
BUILDINGS: Climate-conscious architects want Europe to build less (TIME), Maine weatherization contractors race to hire and expand as demand booms (Energy News Network)
LNG: German protesters block train tracks demanding halt to construction of LNG terminals (Democracy Now)
OIL & GAS: Europe gas settles just shy of record as energy misery piles up (Bloomberg $), Russia warns of winter pain as gas prices hit new records (Politico Pro $)
NUKES: Bill Gates' company raises record funds for advanced nuclear (E&E $), Germany to keep last three nuclear-power plants running in policy u-turn (Wall Street Journal $), Is fusion reaching a 'Kitty Hawk' moment? (E&E $), Nuclear waste recycling startup wants to solve the ‘ball and chain’ problem holding back nuclear (CNBC)
PIPELINES: N.J. pipeline project could shake up FERC gas reviews (E&E $)
UTILITIES: National Grid RFI finds ample renewable gas, green hydrogen available in New York, Massachusetts (Utility Dive), Xcel Energy seeks FERC approval to buy 120 MW of Minnesota wind from Allete in $216M deal (Utility Dive)
EVs: The electric car Battery Belt is reshaping America’s heartland (Axios), Car-charging investment soars, driven by EV growth and government funds (Bloomberg $), Which EVs qualify for new US tax credit? Websites offer help (AP), The EV charger that drops from the sky (E&E News)
VANISHING POINT: Dodge will retire Charger and Challenger, its muscle car mainstays (Washington Post $)
FOOD: The three cricketeers: betting on bug food to help the planet (Yale Environment 360)
BOOKS: Want to learn more about climate change? Check out these book recommendations (WBUR)
FINANCE: Investors worth $10T join effort to tackle water crises (E&E $), Money pours into funds targeting solar power, cell towers and data centers (Wall Street Journal $), Private-equity firms with oil-and-gas focus defend sector as investment drops (Wall Street Journal $)
WILDLIFE: Deer are threatening American forests. Is more hunting the solution? (Grist)
INTERNATIONAL: EU greenhouse gas emissions on the rise, but still below pre-pandemic level (Reuters), Mexico sees its energy future in fossil fuels, not renewables (New York Times $) |
Daily Caller Thoroughly Back To Climate Disinformation With Koch's Boy Bastasch At The Helm
It's been a few months now since Koch-trained political hack Michael Bastasch was made managing editor of the once-Koch-reliant Daily Caller, and the propaganda shop is again regularly producing climate disinformation.
In addition to yesterday's hilariously, legally stupid piece, three recent stories confirm the trend. On August 14th, they published a piece headlined that "experts" are saying that "governing elites pushing to slash emissions are disconnected from reality." And who, you might wonder, are those "experts," and what expertise do they have?
Cashing their fossil fueled paychecks, it turns out. Of the 4 supposed experts quoted, all four are affiliated with fossil-fuel-funded disinformation organizations.
The day before, the Daily Caller published an guest opinion piece by Rick Whitbeck of the, you-guessed-it, polluter-defending front group Power the Future. Whitbeck's very clever argument, a staple of deniers, is that lots of places are warming faster than the rest of the world. Australia, Africa, China, Israel, and the Arctic are all warming more quickly than the average global temperature, leading Whitbeck to "ponder: If everything is warming faster than everywhere else, is anything warming faster, or is it all bogus?"
Yes, in the backwards logic of disinfoland, evidence of warming that's faster than the global average is somehow evidence that it's not warming at all. Makes total sense.
Assuming, of course, you're a conspiracy theory-loving moron, which happens to be just the vibe Bastasch seems to be aiming for at the Daily Caller. Case in point is a piece Bastasch himself wrote on August 11th, in which he picks up the "climate lockdown" disinformation narrative with a piece headlined: Europe Is Descending Into Climate Lockdown, Will America Blindly Follow Suit?
If, like us, you missed Europe's climate lockdowns, Bastasch helpfully fills you in on the terrible, horrible, outrageously draconian lockdowns in Europe: Germany isn't heating public pools! Schools in Hungary might use wood stoves! Dutch citizens are being encouraged not to take lengthy showers, and Spain's requiring businesses not to crank the A/C full blast!
Oh woe are the Europeans, sacrificing their heated pools and chilled businesses due to climate change (and that lil' matter of a global pandemic recovery punctuated by Putin's invasion in Ukraine and providing convenient cover for a fossil fuel price spike).
"China’s malfeasance already brought about a COVID lockdown," Bastasch concludes, going all-in on the popular, and racist, Covid-19 conspiracy theory, "it would be a massive, unforced error to let it happen again".
Mock him if you must, but if they can take away your heated pools, there's clearly no limit to how much these supposed climate lockdowns are going to do.
Just think about how terrible your life would be, if you went to jump in the pool to escape the heat of a deadly heatwave made worse by climate change, only to find it cool and refreshing instead of bathtub-warm! All in the name of fighting climate change and, for the most part, reducing the methane gas payments funding Putin's war on Ukraine!?
The horror! |
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