FIRST LOOK: 

Ableism Compounds Suffering After Disasters: People with disabilities are disproportionately more likely to suffer major hardship because of extreme weather disasters and are far less likely to return home afterward, new Census Bureau data released Thursday shows. People with disabilities are forced to evacuate at rates wildly higher than the general population — about 21% of blind adults and nearly 31% of adults unable to care for themselves, compared to just 1% of the general adult population, has had to evacuate. Once evacuated, the conditions in which disabled people are forced to live are often repugnant — 70% of deaf evacuees reported living in unsanitary conditions a month after a disaster (compared to 7% of hearing people) and more than 74% of people unable to walk reported a lack of food one month after a disaster (compared to just 9% of people who could walk). Finally, people with disabilities are far more likely to be permanently displaced by a disaster, with 59% of deaf evacuees reporting they never returned home, more than four times the rate of hearing evacuees. The data, though shocking, is unsurprising to advocates. “This is completely in alignment with things we have noted over several years now regarding individuals with disabilities and disasters,” said Justice Shorter, a disaster adviser for the National Disability Rights Network. (E&E News)

Great Salt Lake Will Disappear In 5 Years: Utah's Great Salt Lake is on pace to disappear in just five years, warns an alarming report from Brigham Young University researchers. Presented Thursday to state lawmakers, the report advises the lake needs a "dramatic" influx of water to avoid "unprecedented" danger to the state's public health, environment, and economy. The megadrought across the West, made worse by climate change, has already desiccated the lake to record-low levels of just 37% of its former volume and has exposed 60% of the lakebed, which is now a source of toxic dust pollution. The report calls for an "all-hands-on-deck" water conservation effort — agriculture, especially hay and alfalfa cultivation to feed livestock, is responsible for 70% of Utah's water use — as well as a legal recognition of the lake's right to exist. “This respectful approach to God’s creation,” the report says, “is in line with the religious and cultural teachings of the Indigenous and immigrant peoples of Utah.” (Salt Lake Tribune, Washington Post $, Deseret News, High Country News, E&E $, USA Today, CNN, USA Today, HuffPost, Weather Channel)

EPA Sooting Up To Tighten PM2.5 Standards: The EPA announced Friday a proposed reduction of the allowable annual exposure to industrial soot pollution, and will solicit public comment before making a final decision this year. EPA's proposal would lower the annual PM2.5 limit from an average of 12 µg/m3 (set in 2012) to somewhere between 9 and 10 µg/m3, though EPA Administrator Michael Regan told reporters the EPA is still considering the possibility of setting it as low as 8 or as high as 11 µg/m3. In December of 2020, the Trump administration rejected EPA's findings that reducing the annual limit to 9 µg/m3 could save between 9,050 and 34,600 lives a year. The Biden EPA indicated on Friday it would not change the daily exposure limit, set in 2006, of 35 µg/m3, despite the agency's advisory panel of scientists having urged reducing that limit to 25-30 µg/m3. Soot, known technically as PM2.5 pollution (particulate matter 2.5 microns or smaller, a thirtieth the diameter of a human hair) comes from many sources, like coal-burning power plants, diesel engines, and tobacco smoke, and is linked to a wide array of health harms including pulmonary and cardiovascular diseases. PM2.5 pollution is dramatically and systemically worse in communities of color due to historic racist policies like redlining and present-day racism in the siting of polluting industries and is one of the deadliest air pollutants. NRDC's Vijay Limaye said "the country deserves a safer standard" as the proposal is “a real improvement for public health,” but  doesn't go far enough, and “still leaves too many people dying.” (Washington Post $, E&E News, E&E News, AP, New York Times $, The Hill, CNN, The Hill, LA Times $, Utility Dive, Wall Street Journal $, Washington Examiner, The Verge, NPR)

JACKSON WATER CRISIS: ‘Massive Contribution’: Jackson receiving $795 million for water repairs (Mississippi Free Press), Mississippi agency denies NAACP’s water discrimination claim (AP)

CALIFORNIA'S 'RELENTLESS PARADE OF CYCLONES': ‘Relentless parade of cyclones’ to bring rain, renewed flood risk to California (LA Times $, The Hill, Axios, Reuters, AP), High winds, torrential rains lash California, killing at least two (Reuters, Washington Post $), Bay Area residents are preparing for the Russian river to flood again early next week (NPR), California hit by more storms, braces for potential floods (AP, LA Times $), Several California rivers at increased risk of flooding after major storms (San Francisco Chronicle) 

• ATMOSPHERIC RIVER: An atmospheric river runs through it (NPR), Bomb cyclones to atmospheric rivers: What’s causing the California deluge? (The Guardian), More atmospheric river storms are en route to California. Here’s a timeline of the impacts (San Francisco Chronicle, Axios)
• STILL NOT OVER IT: ‘So much to recover from’ after storm batters Santa Cruz County (LA Times $), Wild weather swings are robbing California of its trees (New York Times $), Photos show storm damage in California as state braces for more bad weather (Gizmodo)
• POWER OUTAGES: 500,000 lose power in California; next atmospheric river may be worse (Washington Post $, Reuters, NBC, CBS)
• DOESN'T WORK LIKE THAT: California is getting drenched. So why can't it save water for the drought? (NPR), Why we can — and cannot — collect rainwater in places like California (NPR), California’s deadly floods won’t break the megadrought (Vox), California rain brings limited relief to dried-out almond farms (Bloomberg $)

GAS STOVES: Gas stoves contribute to nearly 19% of NY’s child asthma cases, analysis estimates (City Limits (NYC))

ELECTION-DENYING INSURRECTIONS: Assault on presidential palace, congress challenges Brazil’s democracy (Washington Post $, AP, Reuters, CNN, Forbes, Vox, Deutsche Welle, Insider, New York Times $, FT $), Governments condemn Brazil protests (New York Times $, Al Jazeera), Biden administration condemns storming of government buildings in Brazil's capital (Politico), Brazil Congress: Lula vows to punish supporters of Bolsonaro after riot (BBC, Axios), (Wall Street Journal $), The attack on Brazil’s seat of government resembles the storming of the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. (New York Times $)

JUST ONE MORE LANE: Widening highways doesn’t fix traffic. So why do we keep doing it? (New York Times $)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Putin’s energy gambit fizzles as warm winter saves Europe (Bloomberg $, Bloomberg $), Germany built LNG terminals in months. Wind turbines still take years. (Washington Post $), European gas prices fall for fourth week as energy crisis abates (Bloomberg $), French nuclear ramp-up aids Europe in battling energy crisis (Bloomberg $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Thirteen critical questions for international climate action in 2023 (Climate Home), Economy, energy row and drugs loom at North American summit (Reuters), Why the US-Mexico energy spat is a tough nut to crack (Reuters explainer)

• PAKISTAN: Pakistan seeks help with $16 billion flood rebuilding at UN conference (Reuters, AP)

2023: What 2023 holds for the fight against climate change (Bloomberg $)

FACT CHECKS: Debunking 3 common climate change myths (Discover Magazine), False claim the term 'global warming' was rebranded to 'climate change' (USA Today fact check)

🐦🗑️🔥: Battle to dethrone Tesla heats up just as Musk is distracted by Twitter (Washington Post $)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Checklist: How to take advantage of brand-new clean energy tax credits (Yale Climate Connections), Buying an electric car? You can get a $7,500 tax credit, but it won't be easy (NPR)

SCOTUS: Fears US Supreme Court could radically reshape clean water rules (The Guardian), Texas asks Supreme Court to take up transmission fight (E&E $)

AGENCIES: White House releases climate guidance for permitting (E&E News, Bloomberg Law, HuffPost, E&E $), Timing slips for power plant climate rules (E&E $)

EPA: Congress urges EPA to maintain clean-air regulations on chemical recycling of plastics (Inside Climate News), EPA ups reporting requirements for 'forever chemicals' (E&E $), Leaked EPA memo: Pebble veto 'will not protect' Bristol Bay (E&E $), The EPA is helping school districts purchase clean-energy school buses, but some districts have been blocked from participating (Inside Climate News)

DOI: Biden moves to end doughnut lures and other bear hunting tactics in Alaska (New York Times $), New FWS Pacific Region chief faces big challenges (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden signs water bills benefiting 3 tribes in Arizona (AP)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: This simple tweak could slash carbon emissions from US military vehicles (Washington Post $)

THE HILL: New Mexico delegation seeks changes to wildfire aid rules (AP)

HOUSE: House Natural Resources Dems announce staff shake-up (E&E $), 

• WELL-OILED MACHINES: McCarthy touts fossil fuels as California reels from atmospheric rivers (Washington Post $), McCarthy elected House speaker in rowdy post-midnight vote (AP, Washington Post $, CNBC), Mccarthy, all carrots and no sticks, grinned his way to the speakership (New York Times $, Washington Post $), Why McCarthy’s slog to speaker could mean dysfunction ahead in the house (New York Times $)

POLITICS: Nation’s oil reserve destined to remain partisan cudgel (E&E News)

TRIBES: Tribes are suing to stop a proposed lithium mine in Nevada, saying the site is sacred (NPR)

CITIES AND STATES AND DISENFRANCHISED COLONIAL TERRITORIES: On first day, Massachusetts Gov. Healey names climate chief (AP, Boston Globe $), Connecticut mandates climate education for public schools (E&E $), In Connecticut, frustration grows over lack of access to Canadian hydropower (Energy News Network), Indiana high court deals blow to state's rooftop solar market (E&E $), Texas cold snap caused massive increase in industrial pollution (Bloomberg Law, Bloomberg $), Gavin newsom's California electric car push faces huge hurdles (Newsweek)

• PUERTO RICO: Why Puerto Rico’s power grid keeps failing (Wall Street Journal $), When people are less important than beaches: Puerto Rican artists at the Whitney (NPR)

FERC: ‘Cautious’ FERC chair could drive consensus and clean energy (E&E News)

IMPACTS: A new climate reality: Less warming, but worse impacts on the planet   (Washington Post $), Alpine ski resorts struggle amid snow shortage – in pictures (The Guardian, Washington Post $, Gizmodo), Bangor warmed at an alarming rate in December (Bangor Daily News), Coastal residents on climate change: "The ocean's coming for you" (CBS, CBS), Diaz-Canel expresses concern about climate impact on the Caribbean (Prensa Latina), Floods, fires and humidity: How climate change affects book preservation (New York Times $), Half of glaciers expected to vanish even under best-case climate scenario, report finds (HuffPost), Scientists report a dramatic drop in the extent of Antarctic sea ice (Inside Climate News), Scientists study how wavy jet stream plus ‘extra warmth’ fuels extreme weather (FT $), Flies are taking over thanks to climate change — while moths and other pollinators disappear (Salon), CU Boulder researchers are creating a new tool that will help us better understand climate change (Colorado Public Radio)

HEAT: She is Africa’s first heat officer. Can she make her city livable? (New York Times $), France’s hottest year was also very dry as warming angst mounts (Bloomberg $)

WILDFIRES: Wildfires are burning state budgets (Inside Climate News)

WATER: Colorado River in Crisis, Part 1: A Dying River (LA Times podcast $), Warning about aquifer’s decline sets up big fight in Kansas (AP)

DEFORESTATION: Brazil keeps protecting Indigenous land in the Amazon. It’s not stopping deforestation. (Grist), Can Brazil's Lula save the Amazon? (NPR)

EMISSIONS: Will global emissions plateau in 2023? 4 trends to watch. (E&E News)

RENEWABLES: Britain produced record amount of wind power in 2022, National Grid says (Reuters), 

BATTERIES: PG&E, Energy Vault plan largest US utility-scale battery, green hydrogen long-duration storage project (Utility Dive), The fate of America's largest lithium mine is in a federal judge's hands (NPR)

EFFICIENCY: Samsung’s home energy management system is 1st mass-market offering to receive ENERGY STAR certification (Utility Dive)

LNG: 5th Circuit upholds water permit for Texas LNG project (E&E $)

OIL & GAS: Authorities working to determine source of oil slick off Santa Barbara coast (LA Times $), EQT eliminates natural gas-powered pneumatic devices, sharply cuts methane emissions (Natural Gas Intel), Petroleum use in everyday items means more pain from higher oil prices (Washington Examiner), Shell expects natural-gas profit rebounded in fourth quarter (Wall Street Journal $), Shell says gas-trading earnings were higher despite LNG woes (Bloomberg $), Shell to take $2 billion fourth-quarter tax hit after new EU, UK levies (CNBC)

PIPELINES: Fuel leak in Virginia shuts down part of Colonial Pipeline (ABC), Minnesota’s first possible carbon pipeline clears hurdle (AP)

COAL: Climate activists dig in to defend [German] village from coal mine (AP), To get rid of coal power, we need smarter coal finance (Canary Media)

UTILITIES: Get ready for a massive SoCalGas bill this month, as natural gas prices soar (LA Times $), Power plant developer Competitive Power Ventures launches retail supply business (Utility Dive), Southern Co. names CEO as Tom Fanning heads for the exit (E&E $), Utility: No gas leaks found near blast that leveled 3 homes (AP)

EVs: Developing nations aren’t ready for EVs—unless they are made in China (Wall Street Journal $), Sales of fully electric vehicles nearly doubled in 2022. Which carmakers came out on top? (Marketplace), The best place to subsidize electric vehicles (Axios), US EV sales jolted higher in 2022 as newcomers target Tesla (Wall Street Journal $, The Hill), Why you might want a heat pump in your electric car (Washington Post $)

ACTIVISM: We need to talk about radical climate protests (Deutsche Welle), A group best known for its disruptive climate protests is hitting pause just as others are ramping up. Here’s why (CNN), More than 100 writers sign letter in solidarity with jailed UK climate activists (The Guardian)

AGRICULTURE: ‘Holy grail’ wheat gene discovery could feed our overheated world (The Guardian), Indoor farming isn't just for the rich (Axios), North Carolina has suffered disastrous floods. Could farmers help? (Yale Climate Connections)

BUSINESSES: Fast food joints can help battle climate change, new study finds—even without reducing paper and plastic use (Fortune), CES 2023: Companies tout environmental tech innovations (AP), In Iceland, start-up founders invent new ways to tackle environmental crises (Washington Post $)

GEOENGINEERING: Inventor in Baja is testing a plan to cool the Earth by mimicking a volcanic eruption (CNBC), This firm has started geoengineering the climate. Should the world let it? (Washington Post $)

EPOCH QUESTIONS: H-bombs or chicken bones: The race to define the start of the Anthropocene (The Guardian)

FINANCE: Wells Fargo upgrades these clean energy names, says climate bill benefits have yet to materialize (CNBC), Why banks aren’t taking responsibility for a huge share of their scope 3 emissions (Energy Monitor)

INTERNATIONAL: China boosts coal production, eases Australia ban to boost energy security (Reuters), China Energy places order to import Australian coal (Reuters), How strained China-Australia relations hit trade in coal, barley, beef and wine (Reuters explainer), Canada's Trudeau urges Alberta to contribute to carbon-capture incentives (Reuters), Europe’s plan to become the first climate-neutral continent (Wired), Germany backs Norwegian plan to capture carbon from cement (Reuters), Great Britain’s windfarm electricity at record high in 2022 but gas use up too (The Guardian), Lula team wants to halt Petrobras sale of natural gas assets (Bloomberg $), Natural History Museum under fire for gagging clause with Danish oil sponsor (The Guardian), Nearly 200 people in Himalayan town evacuated after homes develop cracks (Reuters), South Africa’s ANC signals caution on green energy transition (Bloomberg $)

• How environmental law is misused to stop housing (CAL Matters, Dan Walters commentary)
• Game over for the Mountain Valley Pipeline (Virginia Mercury, Elle De La Cancela op-ed)
• On this flooded island of homeless people, climate change has never been more real (LA Times, Anita Chabria and Erika Smith op-ed $)
• California could capture its destructive floodwaters to fight drought (New York Times, Erica Gies op-ed $)
• What does it mean that (once rare) atmospheric rivers and bomb cyclones are becoming more frequent? (The Hill, Gary Yohe op-ed)
• Kentucky’s anti-ESG attack is anti-reality (Bloomberg, Liam Demming column $)
• Silicon crash shows China’s relentless domination of solar (Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)
• California is leading the nation on cutting plastic trash. But it still needs to do more (LA Times, Los Angeles Editorial Board $)
• Support for Pakistan has ebbed away – yet its deadly floodwaters have not (The Guardian, Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif op-ed)
• Why the environmentalist critics of data centers are wrong (Fortune, Paul Brody commentary)
• Thor the disoriented walrus enthralled Brits, but cut no ice with climate sceptics (The Guardian, Robin McKie op-ed)

Will “Gasophobia” be the New Woke-Wash Buzzword in Climate Disinfo-Land? 

One of the sneakiest tools in the propagandist's playbook is to co-opt the opposition's language in order to mock it and render its key terms meaningless. This is what Trump did with "fake news," what electric utilities tried to do with "private solar," and what fossil fuel companies are doing when they tokenize Black and Indigenous people to "wokewash" their image.

Now, we've spotted a shiny new example of this.

In a disinfo-filled commentary piece published last week in Newsmax and republished in The Daily Signal, Fox News contributor Deroy Murdock argues that “Democrats’ Gasophobia Will Kill Americans.”

He starts off by raving about how “Neo-totalitarian, left-wing eco-extremists are banning new natural gas access in scores of locales.” That’s right: he is labeling even the most basic plans to transition to renewable energy as ‘extremism.’

It is hard to take Murdock’s argument seriously when he mentions real extremism in the same article. He writes, “Here is yet another reason why anti-gas prohibitionism is so pigheaded: Saboteurs keep striking electric equipment.” And he is right about that last point! Far-right domestic terrorism poses a serious threat to the US electric grid, with multiple white supremacist and homophobic attacks against electrical substations occurring in the past year. However, instead of advocating for an end to this domestic terrorism, Murdock argues that when an attack occurs, the best course of action is to huddle around gas stoves for warmth.

In other words, his best argument for the continued reliance on natural gas is that he thinks domestic terrorists are giving us no other choice.

But what's new and interesting in Murdock’s article is the key word that he uses multiple times: “gasophobia.” He's not describing a fear of gas infrastructure exploding your home and killing you and your neighbors, as it does pretty regularly. Instead, he is referring to the "enviro-know-it-alls" to whom "gas is like cyanide… because of 'climate.'"

If the ploy wasn’t so smirkingly obvious, one would wonder why Murdock would invoke a term so strangely similar to ‘homophobia’ when, as an openly gay man, he has first-hand experience with that particular form of discrimination. But since Murdock has aligned himself with a political party that is well known for its violent homophobia and transphobia, his attempt to turn the "-phobic" label on its head is too cute by half. After all, his intended audience of conservatives is probably not far off from proudly declaring themselves as “-phobes” of some kind in order to stand with those who have been ‘canceled’ by ‘woke’ accusations that they are homophobic and transphobic.

Indeed, disinformation outlets have recently published a whole slew of hateful articles related to one of the few gay Republicans, Representative-Elect George Santos.

Instead of reporting on something meaningful, like Santos’ lies about being "Jew-ish" or his dubious claims about developing carbon capture technology, The Washington Times instead published a hateful article in which Opinion Editor Charles Hurt sarcastically declares that Santos and his gay opponent Robert Zimmerman should “both be ‘Woman of the Year’!”

Similarly, the day after running Murdock's piece on gasophobia, The Daily Signal published a column calling Santos a "Child of Woke America" and blaming trans people and gay marriage for Santos’ lies.

Only time will tell if other fossil fuel industry cronies and disinfluencers will jump on the “gasophobia” bandwagon, but given that Republicans seem to grow more transphobic by the day, they might end up being confused about whether or not they should be “gasophobic” too.

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