FIRST LOOK: 

The National Academies Climate Conversations: Pathways to Action webinar series will host a discussion on how to protect human health and the built environment in the face of more frequent and severe wildfires in the U.S. on Thursday., August 25.

Fracking Proximity Linked To Increased Childhood Leukemia: Pennsylvania children who grew up near oil and gas fracking sites are at higher risk for leukemia, a study published Wednesday in Environmental Health Perspectives finds. The study's findings are consistent with a plethora of research on health risks associated with fracking. Yale researchers using Pennsylvania cancer registry data, found children between the ages of 2–7 years-old who lived near (within 2km, or 1.25 miles of) a fracking site were more than twice as likely to be diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia. Children born to pregnant people who lived near fracking sites are at triple the risk. Acute lymphoblastic leukemia, though it has a relatively high survival rate, frequently leads to additional problems later in life, including cognitive disabilities and heart disease. Two kilometers is just over 6,500 feet, but Pennsylvania law only requires a 500-foot setback between fracking wells and homes. Colorado only requires 150 feet. (The Guardian, Inside Climate News, NPR State Impact, DeSmog, The Independent, The Hill)

Alaska Fire Season Notable For Tundra Burns: As Alaska's fire season comes to a close, more than 3 million acres have burned, fueled in large part by conditions driven by climate change, KTOO reports. On track for the seventh-biggest season since 1950, the 2022 season is notable for the hundreds of thousands of tundra incinerated this year, including the 166,760-acre East Fork Fire. Alaska's fire season has lengthened over the last 40 years but tundra fires — which themselves release outsized amounts of CO2 — were relatively rare until 2015. (KTOO; Climate Signals background: Wildfires)

Homeowners Priced Out Of Flood Insurance As Flood Risks Increase: Increased flood insurance premiums, pushed up by increasing flood risks, are likely forcing hundreds of thousands of policyholders to drop their flood insurance coverage, leaving them exposed to potentially crippling financial losses. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, is increasing the risk of flooding in the U.S. More than 425,000 policyholders have discontinued their National Flood Insurance Program flood insurance coverage since FEMA began to raise premiums last year to more accurately reflect flood risks. Though it is unclear how many policyholders replaced their NFIP coverage with private insurance, "those who need insurance the most are the least able to afford it,” Carolyn Kousky, a flood insurance expert at EDF, told E&E News. (E&E News; Climate Signals background: Flooding)

Court Tosses Ban On Biden Leasing Pause: The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals struck down a lower court's ruling barring the Biden administration from pausing oil and gas leasing on public lands and in federal waters. The court's ruling, which did not address the merits of the case, comes about a week after a federal judge in Montana reinstated an Obama-era moratorium on federal lands coal lease sales. (Oil & gas: Washington Post $, E&E News, Reuters, Politico Pro $, The Hill; Coal: Washington Post $, AP, E&E $, The Hill, Bloomberg $, Reuters)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: How the huge new US climate bill will save you money (Wired), How will the Inflation Reduction Act help Black communities? (The Grio), Electric cars to solar panels: tax breaks in Biden’s climate law for Americans (The Guardian), Biden secures climate legacy with Inflation Reduction Act, say activists (The Hill), Biden’s former ‘climate candidate’ rival on historic spending law: ‘it’s only the first step’ (HuffPost), Economist says new Inflation Reduction Act a 'small step' in right direction, not historic (MSNBC), Wall Street doesn’t hate this spending bill (New York Times $), Why the climate bill’s impact might not match what many expect (Washington Post $)

• WHAT'S NEXT: After US climate bill win, environmental groups turn to permit reform (Reuters), With climate bill signed, activists demand Biden kill “dirty” Manchin oil deal (Truthout), State climate action could be supercharged by the Inflation Reduction Act (Washington Post $)
• SACRIFICE( ZONE)S: The spending bill will cut emissions, but marginalized groups feel they were sold out (NPR)

CHINA: China and US spar over climate on Twitter (AP, Axios), China races to alleviate drought, power cuts amid record heatwave (Reuters, AP, Wall Street Journal $)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: European energy prices soar on summer crisis, winter gloom (Bloomberg $), How Russian gas crisis took toll on Germany's Uniper (Reuters), Europe’s plan to wean itself off Russian gas just might work (Wired)

GAS LEAKS: Expert says Evansville explosion 'has all the footprints' of a natural gas leak (Evansville Courier & Press)

OIL SPILLS: Oil spill stopped from reaching tributary on Navajo Nation (AP)

CARS KILL: US traffic deaths jumped in early 2022, hitting 20-year high (Washington Post $, AP, Axios, Bloomberg $, Reuters)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Federal judges say New Jersey, Delaware climate suits belong in state court (Politico Pro $)

THIS IS OUR SHOCKED FACE: Influential oil company scenarios for combating climate change don’t actually meet the Paris Agreement goals, our new analysis shows (The Conversation)

GOP vs. ESG: Eighteen US states join Missouri probe into Morningstar ESG (Reuters), Red states decry ‘woke left’ SEC proposal for ESG investing (E&E News)

AGENCIES: FEMA declares new strategy to engage Native American tribes (AP)

EPA: EPA soot proposal poses test case for Biden admin (E&E $)

DOE: DOE outlines challenges for wind. Will the IRA help? (E&E News), DOE opens up $45M for power grid cybersecurity (Politico Pro $)

DOI: Docs reveal BLM role in damaged fossil debacle (E&E News)

WHITE HOUSE: Pure political nonsense': Science group defends Lubchenco (E&E $)

ELECTIONS: The Democrat who could become the first Alaska Native in Congress (New York Times $), Cheney loses big in Wyo., Palin trailing Democrat in Alaska (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: Texas grid gets new leader as reliability worries linger (E&E $), Poll: Arizonans want to ban uranium mining near the Grand Canyon (Grist)

FERC: FERC commissioners prod Vanguard on sway over utilities (E&E $), N.J. pipeline project could shake up FERC gas reviews (E&E News)

IMPACTS: Flooding forces Bangladesh family to flee (AP), First drought, now downpours as storms slam France, England (AP), For many at risk of extreme heat, climate isn't a worry (E&E $)

HEAT: Heat returns to Pacific Northwest Wednesday, Thursday (AP), What's causing the recent US heat waves? (Reuters explainer), New climate report warns of “heat belt,” extreme temperatures (Black Wall Street Times, HuffPost), Scientists warn of dire effects as Mediterranean heats up (AP), Europe’s scorching summer puts unexpected strain on energy supply (New York Times $)

• CALIFORNIA: California urges residents to cut power use as searing heatwave grips US West (The Guardian, Reuters, AP)
• HUMAN LIMITS: The temperature threshold the human body can’t survive (Grist), How Georgia reduced heat-related high school football deaths (NPR), Too hot to work, too hot to play (Inside Climate News)

DROUGHT: France's river Loire sets new lows as drought dries up its tributaries (Reuters), Germany's Rhine is at one of its lowest levels. That's trouble for the top EU economy (NPR), Mideast's Jordan River: Rich in holiness, poor in water (AP)

• COLORADO RIVER: Ariz. lawmakers want other states to share Colorado River cuts (E&E $), A water crisis on the Colorado river is getting worse (NPR), Historic drought and climate change push Colorado river to record low levels (NPR)

WILDFIRES: Apparent human bones found during Los Angeles brush fire (AP), As Europe's forests burn, why are wildfires getting worse? (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Spanish fire crew's brush with death as Valencia wildfire rages (Reuters), Wildfires kill at least 26 in eastern Algeria (AP)

HURRICANES: City comptroller denies every single financial claim for Hurricane Ida flooding (The City), Atlantic hurricane activity could ramp up heading into September (Washington Post $)

(DE)FORESTATION: Greening the Himalayas: Is there a 'wrong' place to plant trees? (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Little talk of rainforest protection in the Brazilian Amazon (AP)

RENEWABLES: Next US energy boom could be wind power in the Gulf of Mexico (The Conversation), Dim start to 2022 clouds bright outlook for US solar power (E&E $), Wind energy boom and golden eagles collide in the US West (AP)

STORAGE: 230MW BESS comes online at Bureau of Land Management site in California (Energy Storage News)

LNG: Lawsuit targets Puerto Rico dredging for LNG tanker passage (E&E $)

OIL & GAS: Companies plan $2.6B investment in major Alaska oil project (AP), US natural gas prices spike to 14-year high. Here's why (CNN), US offshore wind prices fell 13%, to $84/MWh, in 2021 as the project pipeline grew: DOE (Utility Dive)

GRID: Duke turns to electric F-150 truck for grid aid (E&E $)

EVs: Electric school buses are taking students back to school – bringing cleaner air and lower maintenance costs to school districts across the country (The Conversation), Dodge pitches muscle-car fans on EVs as it looks to retire challenger, charger models (Wall Street Journal $), Why buying an electric car just became more complicated (New York Times $)

BIG GREEN: Ex-Sen. Frist elected board chair of The Nature Conservancy (AP)

AGRICULTURE: Moving cattle into the forest could help climate change, farmers and the livestock (NPR)

BOOKS: Books by Black authors to help your kids get ready to go back to school (The Root)

BUSINESS: This bakery wants to be carbon-neutral (New York Times $)

CARBON PRICING: World Bank's IFC taps blockchain for carbon offsets (Reuters)

FINANCE: Church of England pension boss’s shares in Shell ‘shocking,’ say campaigners (The Guardian)

INTERNATIONAL: China unveils ESG reporting guidelines to catch peers (E&E $), Czech government to cap housing, energy costs at 30% of income (Reuters), Echoes of dire 1970s in today's Britain (Reuters), South Africa's Tiger Brands to roll out solar power at manufacturing sites (Reuters)

• The green transition is happening fast. The climate bill will only speed it up. (New York Times, David Wallace-Wells column $)
• The unintended consequences of the Inflation Reduction Act (The Hill, Jay Golden op-ed)
• Headwinds remain for clean energy (Environmental Health News, Peter Dykstra column)
• Biden’s green triumph: What a difference a month makes (The Hill, Stuart P.M. Mackintosh op-ed)
• My abortion at 11 wasn’t a choice. It was my life. (New York Times, Nicole Walker op-ed $)

Anti-ESG Campaign's Got A New, More Accurate Moniker: The Alex Jones of Investing, or Infowars Investing

The fossil fuel industry's coordinated campaign to attack responsible investing by turning Environmental, Social and Governance factors of a company's performance into an evil acronym ESG, a la CRT, has continued chugging along as West Virginia Attorney General and 20 others submitted a comment to the SEC about its ESG rule, but fortunately, there's increasing push-back to the backlash. 

This week Ilana Berger at MediaMatters published a great overview of the campaign — from Pence and the Wall Street Journal to Sri Lanka to Elon Musk. It's a great explainer for those not yet up to speed, and the short version is that "fossil fuel industry allies are clawing to keep their power and profits, discouraging any corporate commitment to climate by vilifying and even prohibiting adherence to ESG standards while advancing pro-oil and gas legislation at the state and federal levels that prohibits investment and business decisions from considering the economic and environmental consequences of fossil fuels." 

But it goes beyond just fossil fuels. As has long been part of the playbook, conservatives are steadily mixing in racism and anti-trans bigotry, because that's the emotional hook that gets their base excited in ways that sticking up for gas companies can't. In fact, they're explicit about it, with rightwing grifter and slow swordplay enthusiast James Lindsay posting on Facebook that “we’re going to do to ESG what we did to CRT,” which means: Lie about it until their idiot base has a visceral negative reaction to the letters and attacks everyone and everything they think it stands for or stands for it. 

And disinformation really is at the core of it, specifically of the thinly-veiled anti-semitic variety. That's the gist of a great op-ed taking down another anti-ESG grifter, Vivek Ramaswamy, by Ryon Harms. Published in ImpactAlpha, Harms calls Ramaswamy the "Alex Jones of investing," who's "eyeing red state treasuries and the nest eggs of hardworking civil servants." 

Harms writes that "Vivek Ramaswamy, CEO of Strive Funds, is a slimmed-down Alex Jones in Armani suits. He’s a smooth-tongued, Ivy League elitist, who condescends to the everyman by draping himself in cliched populist rhetoric." 

Ramaswamy's campaign against ESG is "an extension of Alex Jones’ decades-long war on “the global elite” – itself a continuation of centuries-old antisemitism, with 'elite' standing in for 'Jewish bankers.'" 

While Harms notes that Ramaswamy's has "a history of disdain for the working class he now pretends to defend" in that "as an undergrad, he penned an op-ed for the Harvard Crimson arguing against a living wage for the University’s janitorial staff because: 'I am disinclined to spend a few extra dollars on a needy Harvard janitor.'" 

And now, thanks to the anti-ESG campaign he's waging with Republicans in charge of state pensions, Texas taxpayers have already had to spend "up to $532 million in extra interest in just the first eight months" after canceling a contract with J.P. Morgan Chase, who was servicing the state municipalities' debt. What a deal! Only half a billion dollars, for the added benefit of not working with "the world’s largest funder of fossil fuel extraction." 

Unfortunately, this is likely just a taste of what's to come. Ramaswamy has a new fund, called Strive, that's exploiting red state money morons, but, Harms concludes: 

Even if Ramaswamy fell silent and Strive Funds failed, the seeds of doubt they and their enablers so effectively planted will likely spawn a generation of unwitting Infowars investors risking their nest eggs in pursuit of the latest trumped-up “theories.”

They’ll learn before long that deliberately investing in risky businesses isn’t a smart way to protect and grow investments. But by then, it will be too late, and the teachers, firefighters and police officers whose pensions are on the line will be left with the bill.

Ramaswamy's InfoWars investing angle isn't bad because it deliberately invests in bad companies. It's also bad because it's taking advantage of the money managed on behalf of people who actually have to work for it, only for the Alex Jones of investing to swindle it away.

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