FIRST LOOK:

The Water Hub hosts a Twitter Space TODAY at 10:00 am PT (1:00 pm ET) with US Water Alliance, the Water Equity & Climate Resilience Caucus, the Rural Community Assistance Partnership, the Tribal Clean Water Initiative, West Street Recovery & DIGDEEP for Imagine a Day Without Water. 

Emissions Growth Slows But Countries' Goals 'Woefully Inadequate': The expansion of renewable energy and EVs are expected to limit global climate pollution growth this year, but countries' commitments to slashing greenhouse gas emissions are "woefully inadequate" to halt global warming. The reports on global emissions, from the International Energy Agency, and on national emissions reductions commitments, (known as Nationally Defined Contributions, or NDCs), from the World Resources Institute, were both released Wednesday. A Tuesday report from Ember and E3G also found new EU renewables this year alone have saved the bloc €11 billion ($10.8 billion) in avoided gas costs since Russia invaded Ukraine nearly eight months ago. In order to limit global temperature increases to 1.5°C (2.7°F), the target set in the 2015 Paris Agreement, global emissions must fall by 43% below 2019 levels by 2030, but if countries meet all their current NDC pledges, emissions will drop just 7% over that period, the WRI report found. (IEA: Reuters, Protocol, The Hill, Axios, E&E $; WRI: Reuters, Bloomberg $; BOTH: AP; Ember & E3G: The Verge)

California Study Finds Gas Stoves Leak Benzene Into Homes Even When Turned Off: Methane gas-burning appliances leak carcinogenic benzene into homes even when those appliances are turned off, a study published today in Environmental Science and Technology found. The study also found gas appliances and infrastructure in California (including outdoor pipelines) leak an estimated 4 tons, or more, of benzene into the atmosphere every year, as much benzene as 60,000 cars. Even with gas stoves turned off, the researchers discovered, they continued to leak at least 12 hazardous air pollutants, including "BTEX" chemicals (​​benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene), of which the most hazardous is benzene, which is linked to cancers including leukemia and other blood disorders. The risk posed by the carcinogen increases linearly with a person's exposure;  “There’s no safe level of benzene,” Philip Landrigan, a pediatrician and public health professor at Boston College, told the AP. "Simply opening the windows or turning on a range hood while the stove is on” will not eliminate the risk, Kelsey Bilsback of PSE Healthy Energy, told the New York Times. Methane, the main ingredient in so-called "natural gas", traps more than 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than CO2 over a 20-year timespan; buildings are the source of approximately 13% of U.S. climate pollution, mostly from methane gas burned in ovens, water heaters, and furnaces. While the methane gas industry has lobbied against state and local efforts to encourage building electrification, the study's findings dovetail with those from a similar study in Massachusetts, as well as numerous previous studies finding increased levels of indoor air pollution in homes with gas stoves, and significant methane emissions from gas stoves. (New York Times $, AP, The Hill, NBC)

(Re)Insurers Abandoning Fossil Fuels, Especially Coal: Primary and secondary insurance companies are increasingly refusing to insure new coal power projects outside of China, according to a new report from Insure Our Future. More than 60% of the reinsurance market is covered by companies no longer reinsuring coal projects and 39% of the primary insurance market is also covered by coal exclusions. “Like banks, insurers can leverage access to their services as an incentive to reduce greenhouse gas emissions or exposure to the physical risks of climate change,” Jason Thistlethwaite, an expert on the economic impacts of extreme weather at the University of Waterloo, Canada, told the AP. Munich Re, the world's largest reinsurer, also announced earlier this month it will quit underwriting oil and gas, bringing more than one-third of the reinsurance market under oil and gas exclusions as well. Peter Bosshard, of Insure Our Future, said both public and internal pressure have driven the changes. “Insurance companies have warned about climate risks for decades and have made climate action part of their public brands. So pressure from the outside I think has also triggered pressure from within," he told The Guardian. (AP, The Guardian, EuroNews)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Germany to cap electricity prices by taxing excess profits (Reuters), Putin terminates Exxon Mobil’s interest in oil project as the oil major officially leaves Russia (Houston Chronicle), Rapid industrial electrification could avoid EU gas rationing (Energy Monitor), Ukraine wants Russia to pay for the war's environmental impact (TIME), Ukraine’s nuclear chief says winter cold raises the risk of disaster at Zaporizhzhia (HuffPost)

COP27: Small island states to propose ‘response fund’ for climate victims at COP27 (Climate Home), Germany: No guarantee UN climate talks will end with a deal (AP), COP27 is all about the money (Quartz)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Big Oil project developer Uganda says committed to net zero goal (Bloomberg $), Europe fears US climate act will tip ‘level playing field’ (AP), Renewables shift lays bare Africa's energy dilemma (Reuters), 

CLIMATE LITIGATION: New Jersey joins other states in suing fossil fuel industry, claiming links to climate change (Inside Climate News, Democracy Now), NJ invokes Superstorm Sandy wreckage in new climate lawsuit (E&E $)

GOP vs. ESG: 19 states investigate major US banks for pushing ESG policies 'killing' American companies (Fox Business)

PUBLIC OPINION: Concern about climate change shrinks globally as threat grows - study (Reuters)

EPA: EPA calls out environmental racism in Louisiana’s Cancer Alley (ProPublica and Grist), Lobbying over WOTUS rewrite ramps up (E&E News), What a Republican Congress would mean for EPA (E&E News)

DOE: DOE funds 'equity-oriented' climate research in Baltimore (E&E $), DOE lab: Offshore wind faces 'recruiting challenge' (E&E $), DOE awards $2.8B to boost EV mineral production (Politico Pro $), US awards $2.8B in grants for EV batteries in 12 states (AP)

TREASURY: Treasury to insurers: Divulge your climate risks (E&E News)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: SEC records reveal lobbying blitz on disclosures of greenhouse gas emissions (Axios)

WHITE HOUSE: After raising hope, Biden still lacks climate migration plan (AP), Biden taps oil reserve in attempt to curb gas prices (Axios, E&E News, AP, Politico, Wall Street Journal $, Reuters), Biden: Strategic oil reserve release ‘not politically motivated at all’ (The Hill), What is the strategic oil reserve, and can it lower gas prices? (Washington Post $, AP, explainer), The question Kamala Harris asks astronauts (E&E $), See everything the White House wanted, and everything it got (New York Times $)

THE HILL: Drought bill would tax Ariz. water used by Saudi cows (E&E $), Democrats passed a huge climate bill. Now they’re talking oil. (Politico Pro $), Congress wagered on ‘low-carbon’ concrete. Will it pay off? (E&E News)

HOUSE: Ahead of the midterms, energy lobbyists plan for a Republican house (New York Times $)

SENATE: Sen. Warren leads probe of Bitcoin impact on Texas power grid, ERCOT use of demand response ‘subsidies’ (Utility Dive), US senator [Lindsey Graham] to hold EV battery hearing if GOP takes control (Reuters)

POLITICS: EV bonanza flows to red states that denounce Biden climate policies (New York Times $)

ELECTIONS: As GOP deploys gas price attacks, Dems have few answers (E&E News), Grassley points to experience, travel as Senate race tightens (E&E $), Mehmet Oz energy plan promotes gas pipelines, exports (E&E $), NM race a test for high-flying Republican, green Democrat (E&E $), Sinkholes attributed to gas drilling underline the stakes in pennsylvania’s governor’s race (Inside Climate News), Wis. governor’s race may dictate fate of clean energy (E&E News), Election deniers could make deep changes to Arizona voting (AP)

TRIBES: Buffalo, for the land and the people (Atmos)

CITIES AND STATES: Florida coastal living reshaped by hurricane housing codes (Wall Street Journal $)

• CALIFORNIA: Californians who fortify their homes against wildfires will now pay less for insurance (Gizmodo), Battle brews in California over taxing the rich to fund electric cars (Washington Post $)

IMPACTS: India's women farm workers suffer job losses from climate shocks (Context), Pacific Northwest endures a hot and smoky October (New York Times $), Climate Questions: Why do small degrees of warming matter? (AP), Microphones dropped into ocean off Greenland to record melting icebergs (The Guardian), Mississippi River basin adapts as climate change brings extreme rain and flooding (NPR), Oceans are warming faster than ever. Here’s what could come next. (Washington Post $)

• NIGERIA FLOODING: Catastrophic flooding in Nigeria uproots millions and severs gas production (Wall Street Journal $), Nigeria's flooding spreads to the Delta, upending lives and livelihoods (Reuters)
• AUSTRALIA FLOODING: Flooded Australian towns ready levees, sandbags ahead of more rain (Reuters), Floods and warm weather perfect storm for Japanese encephalitis outbreak in Australia, researchers warn (The Guardian)
• PAKISTAN: Pakistan: World Bank estimates floods caused $40B in damages (AP)

HURRICANES: Florida sees rise in flesh-eating bacteria amid Ian concerns (AP), Travelers earnings hit by Hurricane Ian losses (Wall Street Journal $), East Coast hurricanes intensified faster since 1980 (E&E $), Sanibel Island causeway washed out by Ian reopens early (AP)

WATER: How a Utah utility is helping an Estonian oil company hoard Colorado river water (Grist)

RENEWABLES: Perovskites can make solar panels more efficient than silicon alone (Canary Media), US offshore wind is taking off. Can industry keep up? (E&E $), Xcel, First Solar, other clean energy companies warn building standard change threatens wind, solar projects (Utility Dive)

"RENEWABLES": Shell bids for Nature Energy, as biogas deals heat up (Axios)

BATTERIES: Climate law spurs ‘big jumps’ in US battery investments (E&E News)

LNG: Global natural gas crisis dampens momentum for 'cleaner' LNG (Reuters), LNG freight rates hit $450,000 a day as Russia disrupts fuel supplies (Wall Street Journal $)

OIL & GAS: Biden’s climate law solved a major problem with a polarizing fossil fuel technology (HuffPost), China accidentally made our gas much cheaper (The Atlantic), Saudis pressed Arab nations to publicly support OPEC+ cut (Axios)

PIPELINES: Jury awards $10.4M for trauma suffered in pipeline explosion in NW Portland (The Oregonian)

UTILITIES: Electric utility CEO pay gap widens as groups push to link executive compensation and decarbonization (Utility Dive)

GRID: Texas set to enact first-of-a-kind virtual power plant (E&E $)

EVs: BMW investing $1.7B in South Carolina as automaker shifts to EVs (AP), Electric car sales are soaring but what speed bumps lie ahead? (Context explainer), Florida warns about hurricane-damaged electric vehicles (Good Morning America), Germany to massively expand electric car charging network (AP), EVs start with a bigger carbon footprint. But that doesn’t last. (New York Times $), EV supply chains have a human rights problem. Can tech fix it? (Washington Post $)

CRYPTO: Cryptocurrencies use more electricity in a year than Norway (Yale Climate Connections), Can you fight the climate crisis with crypto? (Context)

PROTESTS: ‘Climate justice is bigger than public opinion’: Are Just Stop Oil’s tactics right? (The Guardian)

PFAS: Lack of ‘forever chemicals’ testing could be leaving most victims in the dark (The Hill)

MUSEUMS: A fossil museum uses the past to reimagine climate’s future (New York Times $)

BUSINESSES: Corporate climate disclosures jump again in 2022 - CDP data (Reuters)

CARBON REMOVAL: Terraset launches new approach to CO2 removal (Axios)

WILDLIFE: Almost half of bird species are in decline due to human-made threats, report finds (WBUR), Crustacean decimation due to climate-change-driven cannibalization (TIME)

INTERNATIONAL: Australia promises billions for renewable projects to 'rewire' power grid (Reuters), Italian economy faces threat from climate change - central bank (Reuters), Truss faces major rebellion on fracking as senior Tories pledge to defy whip (The Guardian)

• Showdown on reparations is looming for UN climate talks (Yale Environment 360, Fred Pearce analysis)
• What the world will lose if ancient trees die out (New York Times, Jared Farmer op-ed $)
• Do we really care more about Van Gogh’s sunflowers than real ones? (The Guardian, George Monbiot op-ed)
• The effects of climate change can begin in the womb (New York Times, Jessica Grose op-ed $)
• The US-Saudi rift over oil prices is déjà vu all over again (Wall Street Journal, Karen Elliott House op-ed $)
• It’s time for climate compensation at COP27 (Context, Yusuf Jameel op-ed)
• Get ready for the big chill (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

For Climate And Energy Expertise, FoxNews Turns To Tequila & Hair Care Billionaire

What do tequila, salon-quality shampoo, and the global transition to clean energy have in common? 

Nothing! 

But that didn't stop FoxBusiness from interviewing Patron and John Paul Mitchell co-founder John Paul DeJoria, and running a story about how you can't "take a nation almost to its knees because you want to go green immediately." Not that anyone's saying to cut off the pumps before there are clean replacements available (it's a matter of scaling them up!) but nevertheless, DeJoria said, "It’s got to be done as a business person would. Here’s the oil and gas consumption, here’s what we want to do, and let’s gradually get into it." Of course, with wisdom like that, no wonder the Daily Wire picked up the interview, too! 

We mean no particular disrespect to Mr. DeJoria, who is doing some philanthropy and the occasional Caribbean land grab, as billionaires tend to do.  

But he's not a climate scientist! Or an energy systems expert! Or anyone even remotely qualified to talk about the complexities involved, and it's obvious. After giving his advice on global energy, they turned to the economy: "For the stock, the stock market goes down, the stock market goes up." Wow! 

"It's got to be done as a business person would," he says. Newsflash: Business people have been doing it their way for decades! And guess what? They've made money hand over fist, and emissions have kept right on climbing! 

Next time we want to have flawless hair while pounding tequila shots, maybe we'll ask for DeJoria's input. 

Which actually sounds pretty good…Think he's free this weekend?

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