FIRST LOOK:

EPA Floats New Social Cost Calculations On The DL: The EPA has quietly proposed new, dramatically higher, estimates for the societal costs incurred by greenhouse gas pollution. The proposed EPA calculation offers a range of potential estimates ranging from 2.4- to 6.7 times higher than the current interim estimate of $51 per metric ton of CO2 pollution. The newly-proposed calculations do not dramatically increase the social cost of methane but do substantially increase the social cost of nitrous oxide, though not as much as CO2. The calculations — known as the 'social cost' of greenhouse gasses, including CO2, methane, and nitrous oxide — were first made public when President Biden announced EPA's proposed supplemental methane safeguards earlier this month at COP27, though they were not used in that rule but were instead included in a 137-page supplemental document dated September 2022. The proposed EPA social cost calculations are separate from the Interagency Working Group calculation expected in April, but an EPA spokesperson told E&E the IWG could incorporate the draft technical report into its work. Republican attorneys general have tried and failed to use litigation to block the Biden administration's use of social cost calculations. A recent study in Nature also determined the interim social cost of CO2 is substantially lower than the true cost borne by society. (E&E $, Politico Pro $; Proposed calculations on page 9 of EPA .pdf)

High Heating Costs Force Families To Choose Between Food And Heat; Freeport To Resume Exporting Gas In Dec.: Freeport LNG now says it will begin some liquefaction operations in December and will not be fully operational until March. Following a massive explosion in June, the company had originally claimed it would have its LNG facility back online in October, a timeline that has been pushed back, multiple times. The facility accounted for about one-fifth of U.S. gas exports, and the immediate drop in methane gas prices after the initial explosion and subsequent delays illustrates the extent to which LNG exports are driving up methane gas prices. U.S. fossil fuel home heating costs have skyrocketed in the last two years forcing families to choose between heating their homes and putting food on the table while oil companies have pulled down record profits. “It’s 50 or 55 degrees in here. To me that’s not unbearable yet,” Tim Wiseley, a 67-year-old retiree living month-to-month on Social Security benefits, told CNN of his home outside Philadelphia, adding that he won't turn on his furnace until his "teeth chatter." Federal heating assistance programs will have 42% less to distribute this winter as COVID stimulus funds are depleted. “It’s a horrible feeling,” Wiseley said. “It’s a feeling I wouldn’t wish on anyone.” (Houston Chronicle, E&E $, OilPrice, Politico Pro $; Heating costs: CNN, NBC)

Solar Panels Help Ill. Feed Mill Stay In Business: A new, three megawatt solar array is helping an Illinois hog feed mill stay in business, Energy News Network reports. The Griggsville feed mill is operated by the biggest family-owned pig-producing network in the country and supplies feed across Missouri as well as Illinois. Electricity costs had eclipsed cost of grain as the Mschhoff's biggest operating expense, driving up costs and putting the company's profitability in jeopardy. With the help of federal and state incentives, however, the new solar array will slash an estimated $320,000 from the mill's annual energy costs and will pay for itself in five years with another 25 years of savings on the way. “We’re very serious about our people, the pigs, trying to get the costs right,” VP of support operations Gerry Daignault told ENN. The array will displace at least an estimated 3,000 metric tons of CO2 pollution per year. “We are doing our part trying to understand how we can be more socially responsible,” Daignault added. (Energy News Network)

(UN)COUNTED COSTS: Queer climate activists speak out after COP27 in Egypt (Atmos), Chilean Indigenous activist says COP27 promoted devastating mega-projects (Truthout), Counting the rising cost of climate disasters (Reuters, Factbox)

PROGRESS & OUTCOMES: How far has COP27 inched beyond past climate deals? (Reuters, explainer), After 2 weeks of talks, mixed results at COP27 climate summit (WBUR), Diplomatic baby steps amid mounting humanitarian crises (The New Humanitarian)

PROCESS: How vulnerable countries finally got a fund for climate damage (E&E News and Politico EU), Behind a COP promise: A trail of revisions and rejected feedback (Politico), COP27 was a historic compromise, and not nearly enough (Gizmodo)

TAKEAWAYS: Three big takeaways from this year’s United Nations climate conference (The Verge), Instant (but worthwhile) post-game analyses of COP27 (Yale Climate Connections), COP27’s ‘loss and damage’ fund for developing countries could be a breakthrough – or another empty climate promise (The Conversation)

FOSSIL FUELS: Oil sector escapes COP27 with little threat to demand (Houston Chronicle)

WHAT'S NEXT: COP27 heralds 'new paradigm' for climate action. Now the hard work truly starts (TIME), COP27 does little for next month's global agenda: Nature loss (Reuters)

JOHN KERRY: UN summit marks the latest hurdle in John F. Kerry’s long climate crusade (Washington Post $)

CLIMATE x WAR: In war-torn states hurt by climate, scant hope for new funds (AP), Famine propelled by conflict and climate change threatens millions in Somalia (PBS NewsHour)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Coal emissions on pace for record-setting 2022 (E&E News), No ice rinks, fewer lights: Christmas markets across Europe scaled back as energy costs soar (The Guardian)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Baltimore County officials balk at climate lawsuit (E&E $)

GOP vs. ESG: Democratic AGs urge Congress to reject Republican anti-ESG actions (Politico Pro $)

WORKERS: These are the migrants who plant and pick the strawberries in your supermarket (NPR), Key freight rail union rejects deal, increasing strike risk (New York Times $)

EPA: EPA watchdog prods agency to do more to prepare water systems for cyber threats (Politico Pro $), EPA, watchdog clash over water cyberthreats (E&E News), EPA rejects Pennsylvania's plan for Chesapeake Bay cleanup (Politico Pro $), 

DOE: DOE opens $13B funding opportunity for transmission expansion, smart grid integration projects (Utility Dive, Electrek) DOE tool illuminates benefits of 'shared streets' (E&E $)

• DIABLO CANYON: Biden administration will give PG&E $1.1 billion to help keep California nuclear plant online (CNN, Utility Dive, E&E $, New York Times $, Reuters, Politico Pro $)

DOI: Interior Department announces new proposed oil and gas lease sales in Nevada, Utah (The Hill, Politico Pro $), Interior greenlights taking Alaska land into trust for tribes (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: SEC chair riles Wall Street, Republicans — even some Democrats (Politico)

WHITE HOUSE: How to spend $1 trillion? Mitch Landrieu wants a say. (New York Times $), Report details how Biden can protect 30 percent of US lands and waters by 2030 without congress (Washington Post $)

THE HILL: Democrats try to align permitting reform ambitions (E&E $)

HOUSE: GOP house majority could shield industries from new taxes, regulations (Wall Street Journal $), Neguse drops caucus chair bid, seeks new leadership post (E&E $), Sustainability Democrats propose narrow permitting reform effort on electric grid, community involvement (The Hill)

POLITICS: DeSantis loves to talk Everglades, not climate (E&E News), How 2022 has substantially, and favorably, changed global climate outlook (Yale Climate Connections), How to design clean energy subsidies that work – without wasting money on free riders (The Conversation)

ELECTIONS: Anti-ESG W.Va. official launches House bid (E&E $), Youth voter turnout in the 2022 midterms shows strong support for Democrats, abortion rights (Teen VOGUE), Young climate voters could tilt Georgia's runoff election (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: To meet climate mandate, New York needs to learn how to build clean energy again (New York Focus), Indiana, Iowa, Ohio and Wisconsin lag on environmental justice issues (Inside Climate News)

• CALIFORNIA: California moves to accelerate fossil-free energy and vehicles to further cut climate gases and other pollution (Utility Dive)

FERC: FERC advances embattled Northwest pipeline project (E&E $)

IMPACTS: What climate change is already doing to children's brains (TIME)

Climate change made deadly rainfall in west Africa 80% more likely to happen (Grist), Trevor McDougall wins $250,000 science prize for researching ‘thermal flywheel’ of climate system (The Guardian), 6 feet of snow in Buffalo: What causes lake-effect storms like this? (The Conversation), Unusually warm lakes lead to mammoth snowfall (Yale Climate Connections)

DROUGHT: New desalination plant points towards Morocco's drought response (Reuters)

EARTHQUAKES: Texas just had its biggest earthquake in decades, and fracking is a prime suspect (Gizmodo)

POLLUTION: Who were the worst climate polluters in the US in 2021? (Inside Climate News), Beijing is tackling its air pollution problem. Why can’t New Delhi? (New York Times $)

RENEWABLES: Dandelion Energy raises $70M to take geothermal heat pumps mainstream (Canary Media), Hyundai wants to help you put solar and batteries in your home (The Verge), Speeding up clean energy build-out could lessen the impacts of related emissions: study (The Hill), 'Sunny makes money:' India installs a record volume of solar power in 2022 (NPR), Europe’s wind industry is stumbling when it’s needed most (New York Times $), A surprising trigger of western New York ‘thundersnow’: wind turbines (Washington Post $)

BATTERIES: Second-life EV batteries can bolster the energy storage market — if major challenges can be overcome (Utility Dive)

LNG: Global LNG supplies are ‘sold out’ for years, top importer warns (Bloomberg $)

OIL & GAS: Oil execs still rewarded for boosting production — report (E&E $), 

• OPEC: OPEC+ eyes output increase ahead of restrictions on Russian oil (Wall Street Journal $), Saudi Arabia denies report it is discussing oil production increase (The Hill)

PIPELINES: CO2 pipeline developer seeks to void local Iowa ordinances (E&E $)

COAL: India's Jindal wins bid to build Botswana's 300 MW coal power plant (Reuters)

HYDROGEN: ‘We’ve got no choice’: locals fear life as lab rats in UK hydrogen heating pilot (The Guardian)

UTILITIES: What the hike in electricity prices in Connecticut means for residents and their electric bills this winter (Connecticut Insider), AEP’s Public Service Co. of Oklahoma proposes buying 995 MW of wind, solar from Invenergy for $2.5B (Utility Dive)

EVs: Domino’s pizza invests in electric-vehicle fleet to help stores recruit drivers (Wall Street Journal $)

AVIATION: Major airlines are teaming up to tackle planet-warming plane contrails (Canary Media)

MUSIC: Bartees Strange pushes the boundaries of indie rock (PBS NewsHour)

AGRICULTURE: Video: How solar panels and crops can thrive side-by-side (Canary Media)

FOOD: Beyond Meat’s very real problems: slumping sausages, mounting losses (Wall Street Journal $), Beyond Meat’s Pennsylvania plant reportedly had mold and bacteria problems (Gizmodo)

FINANCE: Global financial system needs mosaic of reforms to fund climate needs (Reuters), Morgan Stanley IM launches $1 bln climate-focused private equity strategy (Reuters)

FILM: 'Utama' review – gentle study of Bolivian family facing the end of their way of life (The Guardian)

WILDLIFE: ‘The ghost that haunts Monteverde’: How the climate crisis killed the golden toad (The Guardian), In a first, nonprofit buys insurance for Hawaii’s threatened coral reefs (New York Times $, Reuters), Giving ‘Mother Nature a little bit of a boost’ on the Great Barrier Reef (Washington Post $)

INTERNATIONAL: Australian lawmaker alleges widespread coal industry fraud (HuffPost), Andrew Wilkie’s claims in parliament of coal industry fraud ‘concerning’, resources minister says (The Guardian), China's CO2 emissions fall but policies still not aligned with long-term goals (Reuters), Flaws in Australia’s carbon credits schemes undermine transparency, new report finds (The Guardian), Germany mulls state guarantees for renewable energy production (Reuters)

•  Small-scale farmers feed the world, but we are at a breaking point (Context, Estrella Penunia op-ed)
• Rift over gas cap looms over EU energy crisis plans (Reuters, Gabriela Baczynska commentary)
• COP27 will be remembered as a failure – here’s what went wrong (The Conversation, Mark Maslin, Priti Parikh, RIchard Taylor, and Simon Chin-Yee)
• Texans must choose — less oil and gas, or more immigration? (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• How this climate change fund could fuel populism in richer nations (Washington Post, Henry Olsen column $)
• The West made the world prosperous. COP27 will make us pay (Wall Street Journal, Gerard Baker column $)
• Europe pays for green-energy illusions (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

The Denier Roundup is recovering from COP27. 

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