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Pollution Worst In Racially Segregated Neighborhoods: Racially segregated communities in the U.S. are subjected to double the overall air pollution, five times the lead pollution, and 10 times more toxic metals pollution than more integrated communities, a study published Tuesday in Nature Communications found. “Industries such as fossil fuel, coal and other industries create toxic footprints in Black communities that exacerbate long-term health issues for Black communities,” said Abre’ Conner, the NAACP’s director of environmental and climate justice. While the disproportionate pollution burden imposed on people of color due to systemic environmental racism is well-established, the study closely examined disparities not just between people of color and white people, but those living in segregated communities. “Studies like this one highlight how legacies of racist federal, state, and municipal policies have led to current patterns of residential segregation,” Rachel Morello-Frosch, a professor at U-C Berkeley who studies how race and class are linked to air pollution risks, told the Washington Post. The study also found that not only are residents of segregated communities breathing more pollution, they’re also breathing more deadly types of pollution, with higher concentrations of cancer-causing heavy metals. “We must continue to center Black communities and communities of color in any solutions and investments regarding environmental injustices,” Conner said. (Washington Post $, ABC)

National, Corporate Net-Zero Plans Wildly Optimistic About Tree Planting — Report: Countries' pledges to reduce their greenhouse gas pollution rely on impossible amounts of tree planting and distract from the necessary focus on emissions reduction, a new report warns. “Countries are loading up on land pledges to avoid the hard work of steeply reducing emissions from fossil fuels, decarbonizing food systems and stopping the destruction of forests and other ecosystems,” Kate Dooley, the lead author of the "Land Gap Report" and a researcher at the University of Melbourne, told Inside Climate News. In order for countries to meet their pledges, officially known as Nationally Defined Contributions (NDCs), would require 4.6 million square miles of newly forested land — approximately the size of the entire U.S. and Mexico. "Countries treat land like a limitless resource in their climate plans," Kate Dooley, lead author and a researcher at the University of Melbourne, told Reuters. "Using a land area equivalent to half of current global croplands for tree planting simply won’t work." Though not quantified in the report, businesses' voluntarily adopted "net-zero" plans — to they extent they are transparent about their pathways at all — also rely on unrealistic assumptions of tree planting to pull CO2 out of the atmosphere. "Corporations are currently pushing for scale in the voluntary carbon markets to service claims of carbon neutrality, but no one is doing the math on what is actually possible," said co-author Jens Friis Lund of the University of Copenhagen. (Reuters, Inside Climate News, Mongabay; Carbon markets: Washington Post $; Corporate opacity: E&E $)

US Crops Hit Hard By Climate Impacts: The U.S. is not immune to the devastation wrought by floods, droughts, and other climate-fueled disasters on agricultural production, the Guardian reports. Crop damage and devastation worldwide, exacerbated by Russia's war in Ukraine, have caused or contributed to increased food prices, shortages, and potentially famine around the world this year. U.S. wheat growers plant different varieties of wheat at different times of year, and none have been spared. Yields of the wheat used to make bread, bagels and pizza are down 25%. Heavy rains and a surprise spring blizzard waterlogged spring crops, and now drought has so dramatically lowered the level of the Mississippi River that growers are struggling to ship their yields to market.  In Florida's Citrus Belt, Hurricane Ian literally ripped more than half of oranges right off their trees. California farmers planted about half as many acres of rice as usual, the least of any time in the last 70 years, due to the water shortages caused by the years-long megadrought, which will also likely reduce the region's tomato yields by about 10%. Least critical for global sustenance (but perhaps most emotionally tragic – Ed.), New Mexican green chile harvests were devastated by heavy rains with parts of the state recording their wettest monsoon season since the second Cleveland administration. (The Guardian; Climate Signals background: Drought, Extreme precipitation increase, Western megadrought)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: 'It comes to race': Marin City residents demand flood protections (KQED)

COP27: Ahead of COP27, researchers call for climate compensation fund (Reuters), Why these climate talks are different than other COPs (E&E News), Brazil's Lula to attend COP27 climate change summit (Reuters), British PM leaves door open to attending climate summit (The Hill), DOD hopes to build 'strategic partnerships' at climate talks (E&E $), UK criticised for failing to pay $300m in promised climate funds ahead of COP27 (The Guardian)

• POLITICAL PRISONERS: Activist Alaa Abdel-Fattah, on "full hunger strike" in Egypt prison, will refuse water during COP27 (CBS, Democracy Now)
• US: John Kerry: Carbon offsets can help wean developing countries off coal (Climate Home)

BANKS: As banks fund oil pipeline, campaigners question their environmental pledges (Mongabay), Carney-led finance group calls for more G20 climate plan details (Reuters)

OIL PROFITS: Phillips 66 reports profit soared in Q3 with high fuel demand (Houston Chronicle), Saudi Aramco profit jumps 39% on high oil prices (Wall Street Journal $), Saudi Aramco reports $42 billion in profit as cash rolls in for oil giants (New York Times $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: US and UAE sign strategic partnership deal to spur $100 billion in clean energy investment (CNBC, The Hill)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Russian oil is fueling American cars via this sanctions loophole (Wall Street Journal $), This winter, UK households can get paid to help prevent grid blackouts (Canary Media)

• LNG: U.S. regulators want more data on Texas Freeport LNG plant before restart (Reuters), Freeport LNG hasn’t filed plan to regulators as export restart date looms (Bloomberg $), Russia’s near-record LNG shipments show world’s struggle to cut reliance (Bloomberg $)

THE BEST SCIENCE MONEY CAN BUY: How the agriculture industry funds pro-beef 'science' (Gizmodo)

TURNING POINTS?: Three major developments in 2022 may shift the world’s climate trajectory (Washington Post $)

CLIMATE MIGRATION: Nomads move to towns in warming Ladakh (AP)

GOP vs. ESG: GOP to probe ‘cancer’ of climate-friendly investing after midterms (Washington Post $), Political spat over climate risks in investments gets hotter (AP)

AGENCIES: Forest Service under pressure to act on wildfire funding (E&E $)

DOE: Top US energy official back to Puerto Rico amid power woes (AP)

DOI: Ex-NPS chief wants ‘political football’ split from Interior (E&E News), Feds to Colorado river states: Reduce water usage, or we will do it for you (Grist), Fish and Wildlife seeks accord with Alaska Natives (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden tells oil companies to 'stop war profiteering' and threatens new corporate taxes amid record petroleum profits (Gizmodo), Biden puts $13B toward lowering home energy costs this winter (Politico Pro $)

THE HILL: Republicans say Biden slashed oil drilling. The facts say otherwise. (Politico Pro $)

HOUSE: Republicans plan an energy agenda designed to keep Democrats on their heels (Politico)

POLITICS: Documents show lobbyists went all-in to shape climate bill (E&E $)

ELECTIONS: Fortune 500 companies have given millions to election deniers since Jan. 6 (ProPublica), In Colorado swing district, GOP bets on fossil fuels (E&E $), In Nevada’s Senate race, energy policy is a stark divide between Cortez Masto and Laxalt (Inside Climate News), Texas’ deadly blackouts could open the door for this Democrat to make history (HuffPost), New Mexico House race wrangles oil and gas, climate change (Reuters), Conspiracy theories, records requests and lies: What running an election looks like right now (The 19th* News), FEC deadlocks on Russian-funded energy company donations to Louisiana GOP lawmakers (Politico Pro $)

TRIBES: Hoopa Valley Tribe sues US over California water contracts (AP, E&E $), Tribe seeks to adapt as climate change alters ancestral home (AP)

CITIES AND STATES: How Tucson, Arizona is facing up to a megadrought (BBC), In court, the Maryland Public Service Commission quotes climate deniers and claims there’s no such thing as ‘clean’ energy (Inside Climate News), Wisconsin regulators should look to Iowa for third-party solar model, advocates say (Energy News Network), Diesel big rigs have belched smog for years. California may soon ban them. (Washington Post $)

IMPACTS: Ahead of COP27, new climate reports are warning shots to a world off course (Inside Climate News), Ghana's historic slave forts are being swallowed by rising seas (Context), France had hottest month of October since 1945 (Reuters), ‘Coldest village in France’ reports rare frost-free October (The Guardian), Climate change and rising seas threaten Egypt’s breadbasket (AP), Data centers aren’t prepared for the climate crisis (Protocol)

PHILIPPINES: Philippine President Marcos inspects landslide-hit province, death toll at 110 (Reuters)

HURRICANES: Intensifying Tropical Storm Lisa heads toward Belize; Martin forms in central Atlantic (Yale Climate Connections), Tropical Storm Lisa moves toward Central America (AP), Ian ruins man-made reefs, brings algae bloom to Florida (AP), Why experts worry about ‘rapid intensification’ of hurricanes (Yale Climate Connections), After Ian, Florida’s waterways could remain polluted for months (Washington Post $)

• THE MORE YOU KNOW: Hurricane or typhoon? How tropical cyclones get their names. (New York Times $)

DROUGHT: The Mississippi River's water level is at a record low, which affects grain exports (NPR)

WATER: He was accused of stealing huge amounts of water over 23 years. Here’s why no one noticed (Sacramento Bee $)

RENEWABLES: Energy prices threaten Mass. offshore wind project (E&E $), Rikers: a bright green future for a dark place? (New York Times $)

• MICROGRIDS: Puerto Rico will link up 7,000 solar systems to help its shaky grid (Canary Media), 7.000 sistemas solares vinculados van a ayudar a la red central en Puerto Rico (Canary Media)

"RENEWABLES": A new tax credit for biogas could be a boon to factory farms (Grist)

STORAGE: Zinc-based storage manufacturer Eos delays some production to 2023 to capitalize on federal tax credits (Utility Dive)

OIL & GAS: West accused of double standards over oil and gas exploration in DRC (The Guardian), Sale of oil and gas permits casts shadow over world’s second-largest rainforest (The Guardian), OPEC Sec Gen: Oil investment lag sowing seeds for future energy crises (Reuters), Oil and gas profits are an easy political target (Wall Street Journal $), US natgas futures drop 10% on profit-taking, mild forecasts (Reuters), Africa must use its gas reserves to drive the economy, industry officials say (Reuters)

ORPHANED WELLS: ‘All for naught.’ Biden orphan well plan faces trouble in Pa. (E&E News)

PLASTICS: Plastic makes up 81% of trash in national parks, report says (E&E News), The world's largest whales likely consume about 10,000,000 pieces of microplastic every day off California's coast, study finds (CBS)

PIPELINES: Pipeline developer outlines next steps for Mountain Valley (E&E $)

HYDROGEN: Nikola strikes hydrogen supply deal with Pa. hub developers (E&E $)

UTILITIES: Xcel to retire Texas coal-fired power plant early, speeding up companywide exit from coal to 2030 (Utility Dive, E&E $), PG&E formally asks NRC to extend Diablo Canyon power plant license to 2030 to boost grid reliability (Utility Dive), California’s natural-gas bans push largest gas utility to find a new strategy (Wall Street Journal $)

GRID: PJM capacity market flaws reduced latest auction revenue by $706M, or nearly 25%: market monitor (Utility Dive)

EVs: The country’s biggest electric bus microgrid is open for business (Canary Media)

HALLOWEEN: Drag queen Pattie Gonia wanted a scary halloween costume. She went as climate change (NPR), Pumpkins can be composted, donated to farms, fed to wildlife (AP)

ARTSY ACTIVISM: The activist who threw soup on a van Gogh says it's the planet that's being destroyed (NPR)

AVIATION: Iceland: Land of Fire and Ice — and ​“carbon-free” flights? (Canary Media)

DIRECT ACTION: Climate activists face charges after autobahn stunt delays emergency help (Reuters)

AGRICULTURE: Fertilizer producers add back cut production amid lower gas prices (Wall Street Journal $)

NEWS YOU CAN USE: 10 free (or nearly free) ways to save money on heat and hot water (New York Times $)

BOOKS: Chelsea Manning's memoir reflects on tormented childhood, gender and value of freedom of information (WBUR)

BUSINESSES: Google signs solar power supply deal with SoftBank-backed SB Energy (Reuters)

INTERNATIONAL: Brazil's 2021 climate emissions highest since 2005, report says (Reuters), Lula's victory in the Brazil elections is a win for the planet (TIME), Peers called on to kill [UK] public order bill targeting climate activists (The Guardian), Toxic air returns to haunt India's smog-choked capital (CBS), What’s next for the Amazon? (New York Times $)

• East Africa should promote renewable energy, not oil pipelines (Mongabay, Dickens Kamugisha op-ed)
• How do we mourn an island? Where do we mark its grave? (The Guardian, Kathy Jetn̄il-Kijiner op-ed)
• If we protect it, the ocean can help solve the climate crisis (Context, Frank Bainimarama op-ed)
• We should eat more plants. Here’s which ones are best for the planet. (Washington Post, Tamar Haspel column $)
• Climate doomsday is nigh—again (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

New 'Truth In Energy & Climate' Page Offers Anything But: Latest Project From The Guy Who Spent All The Heartland Institute's Dirty Money

The United States is a land of second chances, so when we saw that Frank Lasee is "now President of Truth in Energy and Climate," in his byline on a piece in TownHall about how ESG standards "will kill capitalism and democracy," we were intrigued. 

Not by the content, which is just the latest Infowars Investing screed calling ESG — financial risk assessments incorporating environmental, social and governance factors, meant to prevent investments in child labor or sweatshops or polluting industries — is "soft fascism." 

What stood out was in the byline — or rather, what wasn't in there. It was a long one, describing Lasee as a former member of Gov. Scott Walker's administration, and a Wisconsin state senator whose district "had two nuclear power plants, a biomass plant and numerous wind towers" and thus "he has experience dealing with energy, the environment, and the climate."  

Only after all that did it then say he's now "President of Truth in Energy and Climate"  as though this latest pop-up front group were the entire concept of truth. And THEN they provide a written-out but non-hyperlinked URL for the website Truthinenergyandclimate.com.

But what they didn't find any room to mention there was what Lasee was doing after his Wisconsin work, but before his current job. In 2020 he was the President of the Heartland Institute, one of the leading industry-funded conservative propaganda producers in the country. But it didn't last long, as Frank here has the noble distinction of being one of the most effective saboteurs of climate disinformation, in that he spent less than a year as the President of the Heartland Institute, and ran the organization straight into the ground. 

But don't take our word for it.

"Heartland is broke," a staffer told a friend in 2020, when the organization laid off nearly a dozen staff. “Frank Lasee spent all of our money in six months including the savings. They had to lay off more than half the staff today and more coming. What an asshole.”

Ten days later, E&E reported Lasee was "forced out" of his recently-acquired position. According to Heartland's 2020 disclosures, unavailable at the time those stories ran, the organization had a revenue of roughly $3.78 million that year, down considerably from highs of $5.7 million in 2017 and 2018, and $4.56 million the year prior in 2019. 

But while Lasee couldn't seem to manage to raise funds for Heartland, that he's now back with a new project suggests someone's paying for his skills. 

What those are, though, is unclear. 

It's certainly not website branding and design, as the URL "truthinenergyandclimate.com" isn't exactly succinct and the page isn't exactly appealing. It looks like basically every other "pink slime" fake news operation, except it's just all about energy and climate disinformation. There's a lot of content syndicated from Lasee and other professional disinformers, as well as things like an "electric grid basics" essay that feels like it was written by a middle schooler in detention and "model legislation" on the grid that's more "model UN" than it is a model of legitimate legislation. 

And then there's his liberal use of bolding throughout essays, giving them a nostalgic mid-aughts chain email feel of promising big returns if you just forwarded this to five more friends. 

Well apparently it worked, because someone's paying for Lasee's new "Truth in Energy and Climate" project, the only questions are: Who? And more importantly, given how quickly he proved disastrous for Heartland: Why?

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