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 Democratic Congressional Members Call For Stronger Oversight of Gas Stoves: Democrats sent a letter to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) on Wednesday asking for stronger regulation of gas stoves due to the indoor air pollution and negative health impacts they cause. Gas stoves can produce dangerous levels of indoor air pollution and even when turned off, can leak significant amounts of heat-trapping methane as well as numerous other toxic and carcinogenic pollutants, including “BTEX” chemicals (​​benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene, and xylene). The effort was championed by Senator Corey Booker (N.J.) and Rep. Don Beyer (Va.). “As you know, the CPSC has broad authority under the Consumer Product Safety Act to regulate consumer products that pose an unreasonable risk of injury,” the lawmakers wrote. “We ask the CPSC to explicitly evaluate the disparate health outcomes that occur from the coupling of gas stoves with the material realities to which the most vulnerable Americans are subjected.” The CPSC  will be soliciting information in the coming months on the dangers posed by gas stoves to human health. Citing the pollution emitted by stoves, Commissioner Richard Trumka Jr. said, “We need to be talking about regulating gas stoves,” and called phasing out new gas stoves “a real possibility.” (Washington Post (See "On the Hill" after Alaska Native group story), Nexus Media News)

Indiana Ranks Worst Among Mid-Western States For Environmental Justice:

A recent report by the Northeast-Midwest Institute shows that Indiana is dead last in comparison to other midwestern states to protect vulnerable communities from air pollution. In particular, Indiana legislators have failed to pass any impactful environmental justice legislation. Most recently, lawmakers stymied the introduction of a bill that was crafted by youth climate justice activists that would have created a climate and environmental task force in the state. It has been more than 20 years since Indiana updated its strategic plan on environmental justice. Environmental leaders in the Hoosier state believe the state should conduct an analysis that looks at all pollution in an area before approving permits for industrial plants. The Environmental Protection Agency agrees. Earlier this year the agency expressed concern over a permit that was granted to a waste-to-jet fuel plant in a neighborhood in Gary already plagued with a myriad of pollution hazards. Paula Brooks, environmental justice program manager for the Hoosier Environmental Council, said, “neighborhoods who are less able to fight back, they end up just being inundated by these entities,"  According to the report, Midwestern states that have made the most progress regarding environmental justice work have done so with dedicated offices within state agencies responsible for overseeing such issues. Currently, Indiana doesn’t have an agency dedicated to environmental justice. (NPR: WBOI)

College Textbooks Not Adequately Addressing Climate Change: Fewer than three pages in a typical 1,000-page biology textbook from recent decades address climate change, according to the new study, despite climate experts’ warnings that this is one of the biggest environmental threats the world is facing. Researchers analyzed 57 textbooks published between 1970 and 2019. They counted the sentences in the books’ climate-change passages — identified by phrases such as ‘global warming’ and ‘greenhouse gas’ — and found that the median number of sentences per passage rose until the 2000s to approximately 52 but then dropped to 45 in the 2010s. “It’s incredibly useful data,” says Mariëlle Hoefnagels, a science-education specialist at the University of Oklahoma in Norman and author of two general biology textbooks, one of which was analyzed in the study. She says that the paper’s insights concerning climate-change solutions will help her to shape a forthcoming edition of one of her books. However, “books can’t continue to grow indefinitely,” she adds. Experts suggest that references to climate change grew in the 2000s because of a growing awareness of the problem. Joseph Henderson, an associate professor of environment and society at Paul Smith’s College who wasn’t involved in the research, argued that textbooks are only one vehicle for students to learn more about the impacts and effects of climate change, “They could be doing a better job with biology textbooks. It’s important to also think about whether and how teachers are actually using them.” (Washington Post $, Nature, Grist, The Guardian, The Hill, Space Daily) 

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Alaska Native group protects land coveted by Pebble Mine developers (Washington Post $)

COP27: Inside the final moments of loss and damage at COP (E&E $)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Surviving winter: how three factories are coping with Europe’s energy crisis (FT $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Major UN biodiversity deal recognizes Indigenous rights but lacks critical enforcement measures (Democracy Now)

2022: Policy, climate, war make 2022 ‘pivot year’ for clean energy (AP), A year in Bold Types: Innovators trying to combat climate change, from here in New England (Boston Globe $)

AGENCIES: Top House Republican wants NOAA to be independent agency (E&E$)

EPA: EPA orders cuts in heavy vehicle emissions as activists call for urgent move to zero emissions (Democracy Now), EPA ends loophole for air pollution at waste cleanup sites (E&E $), EPA adds new sites to Superfund list (E&E $)

LAWSUITS: Baltimore tells justices climate change lawsuit belongs in state court (Morris County Daily Record)

WHITE HOUSE: Budget deal falls far short on Biden’s promise of climate aid (Washington Post $), Biden's climate agenda struggles at the border (E&E $), 5 new laws strengthen federal response to climate change (E&E $), Democrats push Biden on oil bonding, fossil fuel financing (E&E$)

THE HILL: Lawmakers come up short for agency watchdogs (E&E $), US climate aid pledge runs into Capitol Hill reality (E&E $), Carbon neutral' scores another victory in omnibus (E&E$)

SENATE: Senate passes bill to increase EV battery recycling as part of defense budget (Utility Dive), Senate approves trove of energy, environment nominees (E&E $)

TRIBES: Regional tribes, groups file civil rights complaint against State Water Board (Sacramento News & Review)

CITIES AND STATES: States attempt to help Americans facing rising energy costs (Wall Street Journal $),Virginia wastewater project would be first to serve customers local biogas  (Energy News Network), Detroit restaurants are tackling climate change in the kitchen (Energy News Network), Threatened by sea level rise, this New Jersey town is taking matters into its own hands (TIME), Investigation: Connecticut used disaster aid to rebuild million-dollar homes (E&E $), Rules for major NYC climate law turn heads among developers, environmentalists (Washington Post $), Michigan sues paper company over alleged ‘forever chemical’ contamination (The Hill), Threatened by sea level rise, this New Jersey town is taking matters into its own hands (TIME), Pennsylvania lets polluter resume drilling in protected zone after plea deal (Truthout), 

CALIFORNIA: Can the California grid handle a gas phaseout? (E&E $), Thousands still without power after Northern California earthquake  (The Hill), Tens of thousands without power after California earthquake (AP)

IMPACTS: Arctic air brings dangerous cold to US, could test Texas grid (EcoWatch), Are Christmas trees really the enemy? (Atmos), Winter weather brings pre-holiday chaos (Yale Climate Connections), Kentucky declares state of emergency ahead of ‘really dangerous’ cold weather (The Independent), Winter storm to trigger dangerous blizzard, high winds and arctic cold (Washington Post $), Bomb cyclone, Arctic outbreak put 200 million under weather alerts (Axios), Winter storm will bring bitter cold, piles of snow across US (Wall Street Journal $), Storm adds uncertainty to strong holiday travel demand (AP)

WATER: Community group helps prepare the Anacostia River for climate change (Yale Climate Connections)

LNG: As LNG exports soar, a Florida community fights a proposed terminal (Canary Media)

METHANE: Evaluating CO2 emissions from land use with greater precision (Phys.org)

OIL & GAS: Oil rises to two-week high as US crude stockpiles decline (Bloomberg $), US natural gas steadies as winter ‘bomb’ seen boosting demand (Bloomberg $)

PLASTICS: Plastic pellet pollution can end through coordinated efforts, report shows (Mongabay), A new Shell plant in Pennsylvania will ‘just run and run’ producing the raw materials for single-use plastics (Inside Climate News), Democrats push Biden on plastics following U.N. talks (E&E $)

PIPELINES: Keystone special permit under review, Nord Stream blame latest, and $121 oil (Washington Examiner)

GRID: Rusty batteries could greatly improve grid energy storage (Scientific American), This little-known bottleneck is blocking clean energy for millions (Washington Post $), Texans should prepare for “life-threatening” wind chills, but officials remain confident in power grid (Texas Tribune), Social connections save lives during climate emergencies (Yes Magazine)

AVIATION: Here's why climate change is making air travel more dangerous, according to experts (NBC New York)

AGRICULTURE: Cost of a KitKat: Big brands leave sugar farmers at the mercy of climate extremes (Climate Home), Former Obama family chef discusses sustainable agriculture, climate change (NBC)

ART: A devastating and breathtaking vision of climate change (Hyperallergic)

CARBON REMOVAL: Oil companies had a problem with Exxonmobil’s industry-wide carbon capture proposal: Exxon’s bad reputation (Inside Climate News)

EQUITY: A dangerous side of America’s digital divide: who receives emergency alerts (Washington Post $)

EVs: USPS to acquire 66,000 electric delivery trucks as part of sustainability push (Democracy Now), Three western states to mandate electric vehicles, phasing out combustion engines (PV Magazine), Cutthroat competition and state support power China’s electric car revolution, Feed highway EVs from transmission lines, study says (E&E $) (Washington Post $), EV makers update their safety manuals after battery fires (E&E $)

FINANCE: Energy stocks will be hot again in 2023. But now it’s about dividends (Bloomberg $), HSBC’s oil-rig shaped financing hole (FT $), Can capitalism and nature coexist? (Vox), SBP warns of higher risks to food security (Greenfield Recorder)

HEALTH: What I learned reporting on environmental health in Pittsburgh in 2022 (Environmental Health News), Protecting the Public Health with the Inflation Reduction Act (New England Journal of Medicine)

LIFESTYLE: Your life kit for living more sustainably (NPR)

INFRASTRUCTURE: 10 new train journeys for 2023 (CNN)

WILDLIFE: She was an ABC News producer. She also was a corporate operative (NPR)

INTERNATIONAL: EU approves 28B euro German renewable energy scheme (Reuters), India to bolster carbon trading market with stabilisation fund (Reuters), Germany's LNG import project plans (Reuters), Russia’s invasion & Pakistan’s floods defined 2022 in climate (Climate Home), From bombs to seasonal closure, Indonesian fishers move toward sustainability (Mongabay), The ‘Iberian exception’: A success story? (Energy Monitor), Govt Insists On 3M BPD Oil Production Target Amidst Serious Challenges (All Africa), A ravaged Quebec coast fights climate change by retreating (E&E $)

• Avatar 2 should make us completely rethink our relationship with the planet (The Guardian, Rupert Read)
• Avatar 2 is white man's fantasy of Indigenous resistance (Gizmodo, Jason Asenap)
• All I want for Christmas is my PTCs (Utility Dive, Raymond L. Gifford and Matthew S. Larson)
• Has climate change blinded us to the biodiversity crisis? (New York Times, David Wallace-Wells $)
• Could fusion arrive in time to solve climate change? (New York Times, Spencer Bokat-Lindell $)
• Clean energy in peril if Republicans dismantle climate-crisis committee in US House (Miami Herald, Kathy Castor)

Trade Associations Spend Billions to Obstruct Climate Policy, Further Drafting Climate Into the 'Culture Wars'

It is no accident that in the US, climate change has become inextricably intertwined with the ongoing ‘culture wars.’ Turns out the fossil fuel industry's trade groups spent billions of dollars on public relations to make that happen! 

In a September literature review of climate denial research, Dr. Matthew Hornsey and Dr. Stephan Lewandowsky once again confirm that climate change is in fact, an issue in which many people look for evidence to support their preexisting, values-driven ideologies (rather than evaluate the conclusions that come from actual scientific evidence). The review states “when a scientific issue [like climate change] gets drawn into the culture wars—one that differentiates between political identities—that issue can get sucked into a self-reinforcing feedback loop of political polarization. Once this has occurred, beliefs may reflect more of an identity-expressive motive than an accuracy motive, and so facts become rubbery and subjective.”

The literature review also covers the solid body of knowledge pointing to the fact that climate denial in the US is the result of organized disinformation campaigns by the fossil fuel industry and conservative think tanks. The authors report, for example, that “most environmentally skeptical books [in the US] are published or financed by conservative think tanks.” By contrast, where there haven’t been decades of disinformation, “In most European countries, all mainstream political parties subscribe to the scientific consensus on climate change and, at least until recently, rejection of climate science represented a fringe opinion.”

It is a well-known fact by now that the fossil fuel industry is funding a well-orchestrated effort to sow doubt about climate change, particularly in the US, and grow their profits at the expense of life on Earth. But it's not just companies like Exxon —it's also their trade associations.

A recently published study by Dr. Robert Brulle and Dr. Christian Downie revealed this month that trade associations’ political spending plays a big role in the obstruction of climate policies. Brulle and Downie identified key trade associations working in climate change politics and built an original dataset of the IRS Form 990 filings of 89 trade associations across nine sectors, including oil and gas, utilities, renewable energy, and transportation.

They found that trade associations spent a whopping “$3.4 billion on political activities related to climate change between 2008 and 2018.” (However, we can't "assume that every dollar spent was directly on climate change” because this study examines the total political spending of these trade associations.)

Of the $3.4 billion, the trade associations collectively spent the most money on advertising and promotion ($2.16 billion), followed by lobbying ($729 million), grants ($394 million), and political contributions ($105 million). The authors also note that “The oil and gas sector is easily the largest, with total spending over $1 billion, representing 47% of all spending.”

And that's way more than pro-climate groups spent. Brulle and Downie found that trade associations “generally opposed to climate change action spent an estimated $2 billion, compared to $74.5 million for industries that traditionally support climate action.”

Brulle and Downie also conducted 23 semi-structured interviews with individuals from the largest trade associations in the nine sectors as well as with respondents from “key member firms, and lobbying and public relations firms that work with these trade associations.”

These interviews revealed that “one of the key reasons that trade associations spend more on advertising and promotion than any other activity appears to result from their specific role in maintaining the public reputation of their industry.” Additionally, “trade associations spend more on advertising and promotion and lobbying because these activities are generally viewed as more effective than grants and political contributions.”

With all this money fueling efforts to oppose meaningful climate policies, how can we ever hope to fight back? Well, after reviewing the landscape of research on climate skeptics, Hornsey and Lewandowsky have some suggestions. One of their potential strategies for addressing the negative influence of climate denial is to remind conservative climate deniers of the 97% scientific consensus on climate change, since “Successfully communicating this consensus message has positive downstream influence on climate-friendly attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors.”

But as we've learned from past studies, pro-climate messaging is only effective in conservative audiences until they hear something contradictory, which is why the industry spends billions of dollars to produce politically-charged climate disinformation. The only lasting solution to climate denial is shutting down the disinformation industry's lies and politicizing propaganda!

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