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Arctic Air Brings Dangerous Cold To US, Could Test Texas Grid: A bomb cyclone of Arctic air is descending on the lower 48 states, bringing with it life-threatening extreme cold, heavy snow and rain, and blizzard conditions. The National Weather Service office in Buffalo, NY — no stranger to extreme winter weather — described it as a "once in a generation winter storm." The coldest temperatures in decades will send wind chills as low as -70°F in eastern Wyoming and the Eastern Seaboard will likely see its coldest Christmas since Taylor Swift was born. The extreme cold will also likely, and tragically, illustrate the heavy toll of extreme weather on people experiencing homelessness. In addition to driving methane gas prices even higher for families across the central U.S., the cold will also likely test the Texas electrical grid, which crashed catastrophically in 2021, mostly due to failure of the methane gas system. More than 7,300 megawatts of new wind, solar, and energy storage capacity has been added to the Texas grid in the past year, and could help keep the grid stable. Research suggests the rapidly warming Arcitc appears to be playing a role in creating more opportunities for cold air to dive south. (Washington Post, AP, CNN, Axios, Reuters; Texas grid: Texas Tribune, Dallas Morning News, Houston Chronicle, Axios, KXAN, Houston Chronicle, OilPrice; Climate Signals background: Arctic amplification)

Russian Gas Pipeline To Europe Explodes: A massive explosion at a pipeline delivering methane gas from Russia to Europe via Ukraine killed three people on Tuesday. The explosion occurred during repair operations, according to government officials. Though the pipeline is one of the main routes of methane gas exported from Russia to the EU since the sabotage of Nord Stream 1 in September, Gazprom said total deliveries were not affected because gas was rerouted along other lines. While Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and the resulting gas crisis in Europe have shone a spotlight on the vulnerability of methane gas delivery systems there, gas pipeline accidents are quite common, and kill someone or cause serious damage an average of every other day in the U.S. Leaks from U.S. methane gas pipelines killed 122 people between 2010 and 2021. (AP, Reuters, Politico EU, Bloomberg $, OilPrice, Natural Gas Intel, Bloomberg $)

USPS Will Buy More EVs: The U.S. Postal Service announced a plan on Tuesday to dramatically (further) increase the number of electric-powered mail delivery trucks and other vehicles it will purchase. After substantial pressure from the Biden administration and outside groups, it also pledged that virtually all vehicles purchased in 2026 and beyond will be electric. The USPS accounts for the biggest portion of the U.S. government vehicle fleet (itself the biggest in the world). The new mail trucks will also include air conditioning, key for mail carriers, who are especially vulnerable to heat stress brought on by extreme summer temperatures. Also Tuesday, the EPA finalized substantially stronger long-term emissions standards for heavy-duty vehicles like semi and garbage trucks. Though some argued the agency should have enacted far tighter restrictions, pushing for the adoption of electric trucks, the new standards will cut NOx pollution by nearly half by 2045. (USPS: Washington Post $, E&E News, AP, Vox, Gizmodo, The Hill, New York Times $, CBS, Ars Technica, MarketWatch, CNBC, Electrek, Bloomberg $, The Hill, CNN, The Verge, Fast Company, Jalopnik, CNET, NY1; EPA: Washington Post $, E&E News, The Hill, CNBC, Politico Pro $)

PAKISTAN: Pakistan pleads for flood relief after ‘cameras have gone’ (Bloomberg $, Bloomberg $), ‘We would all like to move’: Pakistan flood survivors struggle to rebuild (The New Humanitarian)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: EU gas price cap would have been triggered over 40 days this year (Bloomberg $), Europe’s gas price cap threatens to intensify energy crisis (Bloomberg $), Finland unveils grants to help households pay high power bills (Bloomberg $), Finland to get vital floating LNG terminal to secure gas supply (Bloomberg $), Germany says it won’t be buying Russian oil at all in 2023 (Bloomberg $, OilPrice), The EU agreed to limit gas prices, but some analysts are skeptical (CNBC)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Big Oil is behind conspiracy to deceive public, first climate racketeering lawsuit says (The Guardian), Constitution change could sink Mont. kids' climate case (E&E $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Vestager: EU subsidies could match US green push (Politico Pro $)

• COP15: ‘Paris Agreement for nature’ raises biodiversity hopes and doubts (FT $), 7 reasons our planet might not be doomed after all (Vox), Countries reach sweeping deal to protect nature (Grist), Five key biodiversity takeaways from COP15 in Montreal (Bloomberg $), Five options for restoring global biodiversity after the UN agreement (The Conversation), Historic biodiversity agreement reached at UN conference (AP), The world has a new plan to save nature. Here’s how it works — and how it could fail. (Vox)

SYNERGY: How climate denial became the anti-ESG movement (Energy Monitor)

2022: 2022’s US climate disasters, from storms and floods to heat waves and droughts (The Conversation), A look back on life in permacrisis (Atmos), Policy, climate, war make 2022 ‘pivot year’ for clean energy (AP), Our favorite 2022 climate coverage. (some of it’s EVen good news!) (New York Times $)

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Before the blizzard and arctic air strikes: How to prepare (Washington Post $), How to save on winter home heating costs (Yale Climate Connections)

AGENCIES: FEMA must 'radically change' disaster aid, experts say (E&E $)

EPA: Lawmakers move to boost spending across EPA (E&E $, Politico Pro $)

DOE: Omnibus boosts Energy Department funding for clean energy and science (Politico Pro $)

DOI: Interior budget would rise by $574M under spending package (Politico Pro $)

WHITE HOUSE: Zelensky visiting D.C. to address Congress, meet Biden (Axios, New York Times $, AP, Politico), Why Zelensky’s surprise US visit is so hugely significant (CNN), What Zelenskyy wants — but is unlikely to get — from Biden (Politico), Black mayors talk federal support for local issues at White House gathering (NewsOne)

THE HILL: What’s in (and not in) the $1.7 trillion spending bill (New York Times $, Politico), Congress offers $1 billion for climate aid, falling short of Biden’s pledge (New York Times $, Politico Pro $), Lawmakers unveil government funding bill to stave off Friday shutdown (Politico Pro $, E&E News), Climate-focused agriculture bill hitches ride on omnibus (E&E News), Spending bill delivers boost to agencies on frontlines of climate adaptation (Politico Pro $), Spending bill would delay NOAA rules to help right whales (E&E $), Greene and Boebert trade public barbs over McCarthy, ‘space lasers’ (The Hill)

ELECTIONS: What to know about the Democratic ‘firehouse primary’ in Virginia’s special House race (The Hill)

CITIES AND STATES: Oregon approves a ban on the sale of gasoline and diesel cars from 2035 (OilPrice), Oregon, Washington state panels approve transition to zero-emission vehicles (The Hill)

• NEW YORK: New York state climate panel outlines ambitious road map to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (Utility Dive, The Hill, E&E News), Five things to watch for in New York’s final climate plan (Politico Pro $)

FERC: FERC and NRC to see revenue boosts under omnibus (Politico Pro $)

IMPACTS: A ravaged Quebec coast fights climate change by retreating (AP), Researcher helps US Spanish speakers better understand life-saving weather warnings (Yale Climate Connections), Shift in tuna populations could cost small Pacific islands $90 million a year (Yale Climate Connections)

DEFORESTATION: Seven reasons to be cheerful about the Amazon in 2023 – and three to be terrified (The Guardian), The forest in your chocolate (New York Times $)

RENEWABLES: Here’s a model for bringing geothermal to urban areas (Canary Media), New England grid costs stalling renewables, FERC told (E&E $), One farmer set off a solar energy boom in rural Minnesota; 10 years later, here’s how it worked out (Inside Climate News), Solar takes off in Louisiana, sparking growing pains (E&E $)

TRASH: Facing headwinds at home, Europe and Japan are pushing waste-to-energy technology across South East Asia (Energy Monitor)

PLASTICS: Coffee capsules: brewing up an (in)convenient storm of waste (Mongabay), Inside big plastic’s faltering $1.5 billion global cleanup effort (Bloomberg $)

BATTERIES: Raw lithium exports banned in Zimbabwe as demand and prices soar (Bloomberg $), Rusting batteries: A breakthrough for utility storage? (E&E $), Spanish energy company Acciona to acquire largest battery energy storage system in Texas from QCells (Utility Dive), Electric cars are taking off, but when will battery recycling follow? (New York Times $)

BUILDINGS: The great green office crunch (FT $)

OIL & GAS: ConocoPhillips says more US cuts to Alaska plan would kill project (Bloomberg $)

PIPELINES: Keystone boosted oil flows just before Kansas crude spill (Bloomberg $), Why the keystone pipeline oil spill in Kansas is so hard to clean up (Gizmodo)

COAL: High US power prices risk squeezing coal in grid auction (Bloomberg $)

HYDROGEN: Not a ‘panacea’: UK lawmakers play down hydrogen’s role in net-zero shift (CNBC)

NUKES: Entergy: Grand Gulf nuclear plant’s viability threatened by FERC move to advance state, city complaint (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES: Gas for coal? Debate rages on as electric companies invest. (E&E News)

GRID:CAISO adopts energy storage, imbalance market rules to improve grid reliability (Utility Dive)

EVs: Electric cars may be eligible for full tax credit as US delays new rules (Bloomberg $), For US companies, the race for the new EV battery is on (Yale Environment 360), Electric vehicle charging investment approaches the $100 billion mark (Bloomberg $), Tesla gets downgraded on Wall Street over Elon Musk’s Twitter antics, banning of journalists (CNN), Tesla heading into make-or-break 2023 with pandemic shine waning (Bloomberg $), Cutthroat competition and state support power China’s electric car revolution (Washington Post $)

PFAS: 3M will phase out its ‘forever chemical’ production by 2025 (The Hill, E&E $, Washington Post $, Politico Pro $)

SHIPPING: Momentum grows towards 2050 zero carbon shipping target (Climate Home)

BUSINESSES: Amazon, P&G fall short on environmental paper goals, group says (Bloomberg $)

FILM: Avatar: the way of water or how not to make Indigenous futurist movies (Grist)

HAPPY HOLIDAYS: The case for spending less money on holiday gifts (Grist)

BILLIONAIRES: Bill Gates upbeat on climate innovation, even if 1.5C goal out of reach (Reuters), Bill Gates: ‘Our grandchildren will grow up in a world that is dramatically worse off’ if we don’t fix climate change (CNBC)

WILDLIFE: Group seeks to return jaguars to New Mexico (New Mexico Political Report)

INTERNATIONAL: China completes construction of second biggest hydro plant (Reuters), Climate-conscious Indians tap carbon credits for greener fun (Context), EU reaches deal on critical climate policy after marathon talks (E&E $)

• Prioritizing energy efficiency to combat the climate crisis (Utility Dive, Bob Hinkle op-ed)
• Anti-protest laws stifle free expression and threaten democracy (Prism Reports, Sravya Tadepalli op-ed)

Daily Caller's Donors Get Positive Stories In Daily Caller, In Case The Disinfo Wasn't Obvious Enough Already

Happy Holidays, everyone! It's the most wonderful time of the year, Form-990 season! 

Yes, it's that glorious annual occurrence, when the IRS disclosure form fairy delivers paperwork from the year prior, and grateful journalists everywhere can connect the billionaires funding disinformation to some of their lackeys doing the dirty work.

And this week, the Daily Beast's Roger Sollenberger gave us a lovely gift: the Daily Caller News Foundation's 2021 990 form! 

Tucked in there is news that Tucker Carlson's 2020 announcement that he was leaving his journalism propaganda outfit was, like everything else he ever says, a lie. According to the filing, even though he claimed to have quit the Daily Caller to focus on his Fox News show, in 2021 Carlson "continued to hold the chairman position and put in the same hours as in all previous foundation filings—five hours a week." 

But Carlson's grueling 1-hour-a-day schedule overseeing his very legitimate media outlet is hardly the only good tidbit. Because it turns out the filing "includes for the first time a list of donors to the 501(c)(3) organization, a group that is not required by law to disclose donor information." 

Sollenberger notes that while "many of the foundation’s donors are tied to industries and issues that the Caller covers frequently," the "Most notable is the Ariel Corporation, which manufactures natural gas compressors and gave $135,000 to support the news organization—which has for years been criticized for its pro-carbon energy reporting and financial ties to the Koch brothers, the right-wing industrialists." 

What a coincidence, the fossil fuel industry donates to the fossil fuel-friendly website! And this can only be described as an incredible coincidence, because suggesting otherwise would be alleging that the Daily Caller is basically guilty of payola.

Oh but don't worry, it's not just lavishing praise on fossil fuels. It's also getting donations from the groups greenwashing the GOP to make Republicans appear less in love with fossil fuels, as it "received financial backing from conservative green-energy group ClearPath Action, which gave $10,000 in 2021." And, again in what is surely a total and complete coincidence, Sollenberger reports that:

“ClearPath has received favorable coverage from the Daily Caller, which earlier this year cited CEO Rich Powell in an article about his group, without a disclaimer. When Powell landed a Daily Caller op-ed earlier this month, the outlet added a note to the piece and his contributor page that read, “The views and opinions expressed in this commentary are those of the author and do not reflect the official position of the Daily Caller News Foundation.” But those notes did not mention the financial relationship.”

Not a huge donation from ClearPath, but they're small fish, and "An even more influential GOP figure also appears in the filing." Among the donors Sollenberger found is "CRC Advisors, a group headed up by arch-conservative megadonor and judicial activist Leonard Leo," who recently gave that billion dollar donation and is pushing the anti-ESG campaign. 

And as Sollenberger notes, the outlet covers CRC quite favorably, as "The Daily Caller published a piece on Friday based on the results of a CRC poll, without disclosing the relationship." And there's apparently a revolving door between the two shops, as "the two groups also show overlap in their employees, including current CRC vice president Kevin Daley, whose LinkedIn page says he left the Daily Caller in 2020 after four years as a reporter." 

Another Caller donor is Power the Future, which now "appears frequently enough in the Daily Caller that articles about the group have their own tag on the site" and whose "Executive Director Daniel Turner has been cited in multiple Daily Caller pieces as an expert voice." Again, those pieces had "no mention of his status as a foundation donor," definitely by accident because of poor editorial oversight as a result of hiring a Koch-trained operative as a managing editor.

Unfortunately, the biggest donation "is still unknown" as $400,000 came from DonorsTrust, the group the Koch network established to mask donations for essentially this very purpose. Another $300,000 came from "anonymous," which probably was not the mask-wearing hackers. 

Maybe someday we'll find out the true identities of the Daily Caller's $700,000 backers, but those not inclined to wait on miracles might also try just looking at who's getting praised in the Caller’s "reporting."

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