FIRST LOOK: 

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Pakistan Flooding Death Toll Increases As Long-Term Damage Looms: Another 54 people died in Pakistan in a 24-hour span earlier this week, bringing the official death toll of the extreme rains and flooding to 1,481. The unprecedented monsoon rains submerged one-third of the country — including much of the nation's main agricultural region — and left 33 million homeless. Estimates of the total costs of the flooding continue to rise, and multiple intersecting and potentially compounding crises loom — including food shortages for both people and livestock, the spread of waterborne and mosquito-vectored diseases, and a dire shortage of maternity care  — in addition to the collective trauma and economic devastation in a nation responsible for a negligible amount of historic climate pollution. Authorities also scrambled over the weekend to fortify flood protections around a power station supplying electricity to millions of people in Sindh province, which has already received 466% more rain than average — the flooding of which will travel through the Dadu district where the power station is located due to the region's geography. More rain is expected. (AP, Democracy Now; Agriculture impact, mounting calls for aid: NPR; Livestock: Reuters; Maternity care: The Guardian; Power station: Reuters; Climate signals background: Extreme precipitation increase)

Private Equity Gets Failing Grades On Climate Risk Exposure: Private equity firms are exposing investors, including retired teachers, nurses, and firefighters, to unknown levels of financial risk by continuing to invest billions of dollars in fossil fuel projects with no exit strategy, a new report concludes. The analysis, from Americans for Financial Reform Education Fund and the Private Equity Stakeholder Project, finds private equity firms — which are largely immune to financial disclosure rules — have poured billions of dollars into fossil energy projects since 2010, despite many publicly claiming to support climate action. Carlyle, Warburg Pincus, and KKR were the worst offenders of the eight firms reviewed. Three-quarters of Carlyle's energy investments are in fossil fuels and KKR has said it will continue to invest in fossil projects. “Private equity firms have created large climate risks for the investors providing the capital, especially as they act as fiduciaries of public sector workers’ retirement savings. As societal sentiment grows in support of a clean energy economy, the risk of doubling down on dirty energy assets is becoming clear," Riddhi Mehta-Neugebauer, climate research director for PESP, told The Guardian. (The Guardian, Bloomberg $)

Peruvian Farmers Rehab Pre-Columbian Dams In Face Of Water Shortage: Farmers in the Peruvian Andes are refurbishing pre-Columbian dams to mitigate the harms caused by drought, Reuters reports. Repeated below-average rainy seasons have forced farmers in the district of Pamparomás to idle their barley, alfalfa, and tuber fields — crops they grow both for sustenance and income — for over half the year. Climate change, caused mainly by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, exacerbates extreme weather patterns and makes droughts worse and more frequent. "It's very dry, we've had few rains for the past two, three years," Damian Quiroz, a farmer and father of eight in Pamparomás, told Reuters. Using both local materials and modern geotextile, farmers built a three-meter dam on top of remains identified by an Argentinian archeologist for a tenth of the cost of a concrete dam. "We are very impatient," Quiroz said. "With the water we'll feed some cows to make cheese, and guinea pigs for us and hopefully to sell." (Reuters)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: 'A lesson in discrimination': A toxic sea level rise crisis threatens west Oakland (KQED)

• JACKSON WATER CRISIS: Robert Bullard on Jackson water crisis: ‘Textbook case of slow-moving disaster’ (NBC), Jacksonians have been concerned for decades over access to clean water (Prism Reports), Corporate involvement in Jackson’s infrastructure set stage for its water crisis (Truthout), EPA watchdog to probe Jackson water crisis (The Hill)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Leaked paper reveals EU is unlikely to cap price of Russian gas (The Guardian), Europe's plan to tackle winter energy crisis (Reuters Factbox), Economists, activists call for $100B climate fund in Germany (AP), Eiffel Tower to go dark earlier as Paris saves energy (AP, CBS)

COP27: Egypt rejects reports of stifling environment activism (AP)

COLORADO COAL FAIL: A heat wave wasn’t the only reason Xcel Energy locked customers out of their thermostats — their largest coal plant broke down (Colorado Public Radio)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: UN sums up climate science: World heading in wrong direction (AP, People), UN chief slams rich world failure to finance climate preparations (Politico Pro $), World heading into ‘uncharted territory of destruction’, says climate report (The Guardian)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: First climate lawsuit against Russian government launched over emissions (The Guardian, Reuters), German court rejects environmental group’s suit vs Mercedes (AP, Reuters), Big Oil’s new strategy in climate cases: Cite Captain Planet (E&E News)

GOP vs. ESG: Ex-Trump, Hill aides join free market group targeting ESG (E&E $), How ESG investing got tangled up in America's culture wars (NPR)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: ‘The future of America is bright’: Biden celebrates Inflation Reduction Act (Politico Pro $), How Democrats, greens are selling the climate law (E&E News), How the new climate law can save you thousands of dollars (New York Times $), IRA ‘turbocharging’ of clean energy tax credits could boost NextEra, AES, other renewable developers: S&P (Utility Dive), Where the new climate law means more drilling, not less (New York Times $), White House unveils climate bill website for consumers (E&E News)

• SIDE DEALS: ‘Sleazy backroom deal’: Progressives tangle one more time with Manchin (Politico Pro $), Progressives flex against Manchin side-deal on permitting reform (The Hill, Washington Examiner), Energy permitting bill to be attached to stop-gap spending bill -US Senate leader Schumer (Reuters), Senate Republicans introduce separate permitting-reform bill (The Hill), Manchin deal might not save Mountain Valley pipeline (E&E News)

MENTAL HEALTH: Campuses are offering therapy for anxiety over climate change (Washington Post $)

EPA: EPA ramps up outreach on power plant carbon rules (E&E News), Regan reaffirms support for biofuel mandates (E&E $), Regan: EPA to craft rule for permanent, year-round E15 sales (Politico Pro $)

DOI: Biden moves to tighten safety rules for offshore drilling (Houston Chronicle, The Hill, E&E $, Wall Street Journal $), BLM legal settlements target Trump public lands policies (E&E $), Colorado WWII site could be next national monument (E&E News), Interior outlines tribal co-management steps for agencies (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Bank regulator hires expert to oversee climate risk (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden ‘committed’ to permitting deal with Manchin (E&E News), Biden touts climate bill at big White House ‘celebration’ (E&E News), Vice President Harris hosts civil and reproductive rights leaders at White House to talk about abortion access (The Grio), Democrats urge Biden administration to use HIPAA to protect abortion rights and privacy (The 19th* News)

THE HILL: As Dems squabble, GOP floats its own permitting bill (E&E News), Republicans seek to help politically wired metals company (E&E News), Stock trades reported by nearly a fifth of Congress show possible conflicts (New York Times $)

HOUSE: A day of firsts for Peltola in Congress starts a sprint to another election (New York Times $), Mary Peltola, first Alaska Native elected to Congress, will be sworn in today (NPR), Committee sets vote on climate, national security bill (E&E $), This congresswoman can't wait to grill Biden energy team (E&E $)

SENATE: Republican wants to raise office temperatures at DOE, EPA (E&E News), Lindsey Graham proposes 15-week federal abortion ban (The Cut, Black Wall Street Times, Rolling Stone, Washington Post $, AP, New York Times $, CNN, Politico, Business Insider, Politico, Bloomberg $, NBC, Axios)

ELECTIONS: For climate voters, the future is female (E&E News), Idaho’s far right suffers election loss to 18-year-old climate activist (The Intercept), Lower gasoline prices fuel Democrats’ midterm optimism (E&E News)

CITIES AND STATES: The price of private equity’s New York power plant grab (New York Focus and The Nation), New York announces $16.6M for hydrogen and 4 other long-duration storage demonstration projects (Utility Dive), [Colorado Water Quality Control Commission] rules in favor of restoring protections to South Platte, Clear Creek (Westword)

• CALIFORNIA: A very California lesson on just how weird electricity is (The Atlantic), Gas prices falling across US, but not in California (Politico Pro $), Top 4 takeaways from POLITICO Pro's briefing on California's climate change agenda (Politico Pro $)

FERC: FERC review puts proposed La. LNG terminal under EJ scrutiny (E&E $), A decade after FERC tried to tackle New England gas issues, concerns remain and solutions are uncertain (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: A month after record flooding, a "crooked road" lies ahead for eastern Kentucky (NPR), Acid test: are the world’s oceans becoming too ‘acidic’ to support life? (Mongabay), Southern California mudslides damage homes, carry away cars (AP, CBS, ABC), Climate impacts heading to 'uncharted territories of destruction' -UN chief (Reuters), Rising sea levels could claim millions of US acres in next few decades, research shows (The Hill), There’s a new map of climate disasters in America (The Verge)

• NEWS YOU CAN USE: How to pack a go bag for climate disasters (Gizmodo), What should you do during a flood? Stay out of the water. (Yale Climate Connections)

HEAT: How to keep older adults safer during heat waves? Give them housemates. (Grist), Why heat wave warnings are falling short in the US (NPR)

DROUGHT: Shocking photos show Spain's punishing drought (Gizmodo), What the Western drought reveals about hydropower (E&E News)

WILDFIRES: California’s Mosquito Fire forces thousands to evacuate, destroys dozens of structures (Wall Street Journal $), Smoke from western fires fuels dangerous air quality (Washington Post $, Democracy Now), Seattle had the worst air quality of any major city in the world this weekend (Gizmodo)

CYCLONIC STORMS: Typhoon Muifa forecast to hit Shanghai at hurricane strength (Washington Post $)

WATER: In Arizona, worry about access to Colorado River water (AP), Stressed Colorado River keeps California desert farms alive (AP)

DEFORESTATION: Displaced by drought, climate migrants clash with Zimbabwe’s timber industry (Climate Home), Mining is necessary for a clean energy future. It also destroys forests. (Grist)

RENEWABLES: Accelerating zero-carbon push could save globe $12 trillion: study (The Hill), Global ‘stilling’: Is climate change slowing down the wind? (Yale Environment 360), Inside America’s offshore wind hub: Boats, cables and elation (E&E News), Wake steering' could unlock more power from wind farms (E&E $)

BUILDINGS:  Building group to set guidelines for climate protection (E&E $), As gasoline prices drop, electricity and some heating costs rise (Wall Street Journal $), An oily challenge: Evict stinky old furnaces in favor of heat pumps (New York Times $)

STORAGE: Charging startup TeraWatt infrastructure raises more than $1 billion (Wall Street Journal $, Canary Media)

OIL & GAS: Cheniere raises dividend for shareholders as Houston’s LNG market booms (Houston Chronicle), OPEC reiterates warning about disconnected oil market (Wall Street Journal $), Looming rail strike sparks fear of energy chaos (E&E News)

NUKES: About 80% of US coal plant sites suitable to host nuclear reactors -US DOE report (Reuters), Hurdles ahead for saving Michigan nuclear power plant (Reuters)

HYDROGEN: Argentina’s troubled road towards green hydrogen (Energy Monitor), Scrap metals recycler Romco eyes green hydrogen to power furnaces in Africa (Reuters)

UTILITIES: Fight over Virginia offshore wind project shines spotlight on monopoly utility power (Politico Pro $), Energy providers hit by North Korea-linked Lazarus exploiting Log4j VMware vulnerabilities (Utility Dive), In Georgia, ratepayers face a big bill for coal ash cleanup, while a utility profits (Energy News Network), Soaring electricity bills are the latest inflation flashpoint (NPR)

PFAS: 'Forever chemicals' are everywhere. The battle over who pays to clean them up is just getting started. (Politico)

GRID: Real-time pricing, new rates and enabling technologies target demand flexibility to ease California outages (Utility Dive)

EVs: The Nissan Leaf can now officially power buildings using bidirectional charging (The Verge)

CRYPTO: As ether adopts energy-saving 'merge', will bitcoin follow? (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Ethereum could face an impending e-wastepocalypse (Protocol), Fears of 'subprime' carbon assets stall crypto rainforest mission (Thomson Reuters Foundation), What happened when crypto companies entered the carbon market? (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

BOOKS: A new book tracks the rise of right-wing extremism in the US (New York Times $)

CARBON PRICING: Climate tech firm Patch nets $55 million to streamline carbon-offset transactions (Reuters)

RELIGION: How evangelical leaders are citing the Bible to combat climate change (CNN)

FAST FASHION: Kourtney Kardashian wants to make Boohoo’s fast-fashion sustainable. Spoiler alert: she can’t (The Guardian), Kourtney Kardashian addresses Boohoo collaboration backlash: 'It's definitely making some noise' (People)

WILDLIFE: Wildlife conservation tends to save charismatic species. that may be about to change (NPR)

INTERNATIONAL: Colombia's Ecopetrol asks to suspend fracking contracts for 90 days (Reuters), EU lawmakers support ban of goods linked to deforestation (AP), South Africa close to producing plan for Western climate aid despite hurdles (Reuters)

• UNELECTED MONARCHY: The crown and climate (New York Times $), Anti-royal family protesters are being arrested in the UK (Teen Vogue), Climate change could strain relations between King Charles III and UK Prime Minister Liz Truss (TIME), The many paradoxes of Charles III as ‘climate king’ (Washington Post $)

• We need to stand by our climate pledge to vulnerable nations (The Hill, Ani Dasgupta op-ed)
• Americans now have thousands of dollars to make their homes climate-friendly (The Hill, Ari Matusiak op-ed)
• Putin’s economic war on Europe coming to our shores, energy prices likely to rise (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• Bill Gates: ‘We’re in a worse place than I expected’ (New York Times, David Wallace Wells column $)
• Pakistan didn’t contribute to climate change — but it’s paying the price (Washington Post, Hamid Mir op-ed $)
• The UK needs better insulated homes to free us from Putin and the fossil fuel giants (The Guardian, Helena Bennett op-ed)
• A big win for nuclear: Palisades plant may reopen in Michigan (The Hill, Robert Bryce op-ed)
• Our water infrastructure: Extolling low rates only increases inequities (The Hill, Robert Powelson op-ed)
• A psychology-based recipe for climate action (The Hill, Thomas Bateman and Michael Mann op-ed)
• China’s coal power boom (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)
• Putin’s new cold war: freeze Europe (New York Times, Thomas Friedman column $)

Conservative Pundit Accidentally Argues For Nationalizing Energy Industry

Yesterday we talked about a Washington Examiner columnist's accidental argument in favor of conservatives fighting climate change and racism (so libs will stop using them as excuses for supposed failures) and it was so much fun we're going to do something similar today. 

Because in its unceasing quest to prop up fossil fuel propaganda in its opinion pages, Wall Street Journal columnist Joseph Sternberg has accidentally made a pretty good case for nationalizing the energy industry. 

First he makes it clear that he's operating in disinfo-world, with the intro: "Let’s come right out and say it: Anyone who still thinks climate change is a greater threat than climate policy to financial stability deserves to be exiled to a peat-burning yurt in the wilderness." 

Of course! Apparently the UK "may be facing" a "wave of business bankruptcies" and "the culprit is energy prices" which "are rising for British businesses in intervals of several hundred percent at a time and sometimes with steep deposit requirements from utilities that fear precisely a wave of bankruptcies." 

German businesses are similarly feeling the pressure, and Sternberg worries that "the only politically viable solution for this winter will be subsidies on a monumental scale," which will require lots of government spending and borrowing which "adds up to an extraordinary threat to financial stability." 

But if you're really worried about the size of the payments crashing the global financial market, as Sternberg is, then surely it would be cheaper to cut out the profit-driven entity, and instead of governments subsidizing businesses and people to pay utility bills, with the companies then reaping the profits of sky-high prices, the governments could instead just pay the lower, direct cost of producing the energy, cutting out the middlemen getting rich(er) off the energy price spikes resulting from Putin's war? 

Perhaps that's something he wrote off as not politically viable, but hey, given how much conservatives love to say that domestic energy is a national security issue, and we need to frack to keep the country safe from foreign oil barons, then shouldn't those companies be nationalized, too? 

Surely our national security is too important to trust to some "woke" oil company!

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