FIRST LOOK: 

Gas & Coal Failures Widespread During Christmas Freeze: Massive failures of methane gas- and coal-fired power plants during "Winter Storm Elliott" left PJM — the country's largest grid operator — more than 40 gigawatts short over the Christmas weekend officials said during a public meeting Wednesday. Methane gas plant failures accounted for 70% of PJM's total outages, with some plants giving little or no warning of impending failure. “Generation outages were unacceptably high and they occurred at the worst possible time,” Donnie Bielak, senior manager of dispatch at PJM, said during the presentation. “A large portion of our generation fleet failed to perform.” PJM said it may issue as much as $2 billion in fines for power plants that failed to deliver on their obligations to provide power during the storm. “Yet again, system-wide fossil fuel plant failures came close to causing a major disaster,” Tom Rutigliano of NRDC said in a statement. “PJM must plan accordingly, and reform rules that subsidize fossil fuel power plants by pretending they’re more reliable than they really are.” Electricity shortfalls and fossil fuel failures were not at all limited to PJM during the holiday storm. An estimated 1.6 million customers lost power nationwide and ISO-New England also issued $39 million in fines to power generators who failed to meet their obligations, but refused to disclose how many or which power generators underperformed. (PJM: Bloomberg $, Politico Pro $; ISO-NE: E&E $)

Amazon Employees Call For Aid To Pakistan: More than 800 Amazon employees have petitioned the company to elevate its response to climate change through aid to Pakistan, NBC reports. On Monday, dozens of countries and international entities pledged more than $9 billion to assist Pakistan's recovery from floods that submerged one-third of the country earlier this year. The size of the Amazon petition is notable in light of the company's recent layoffs and its history of retribution against employees who call for it to take more ambitious action to address the climate crisis. (Petition: NBC; Pakistan aid: AP, Climate Home, The Guardian, FT $, Bloomberg $)

California Storms Dump Snow Along With Dangerous Rain: California's iconic redwoods may not really mind (and generally benefit from) the repeated deluges of rain pummeling California, snakes — especially those that live or hid underground — certainly do. "Rapidly rising flood water from heavy rain can displace wildlife, including rattlesnakes," Bryan Hughes, owner of Arizona-based snake rescue service Rattlesnake Solutions, told Newsweek, but the colder temperatures will likely slow the cold-blooded reptiles. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, makes extreme precipitation events worse and more frequent and makes precipitation more likely to fall as rain instead of snow, increasing the risk of dangerous flooding and depriving regions of future water released by melting snowpack. The atmospheric rivers deluging California, which have already killed at least 19 people, are likely "just a modest preview of what's to come" as climate pollution continues to increase global temperatures, the Washington Post reports. So far this year, however, the massive onslaught of precipitation has included substantial amounts of snow, and multiple regions of the Sierra Nevada have more than double the amount of snow normal for this date and even more than they normally have on April 1. While the heavy snowpack likely won't end the state's drought crisis, it doesn't hurt either. “It’s still unlikely that we’re going to get completely out of this drought in a single year," Andrew Schwartz, lead scientist at the UC Berkeley Central Sierra Snow Laboratory, told the Mercury News. "But if the storm door stays open… we can put a serious dent in it.” (Redwoods: New York Times $; Snakes: Newsweek; Deaths: LA Times $, San Francisco Chronicle; Climate exacerbating atmospheric rivers: Washington Post $, LA Times $, USA Today; Snowpack: Mercury News, KTLA, KCRA, San Francisco Chronicle; Drought implications: LA Times $, Washington Post $, CBS, New York Times $, CBS; Climate Signals background: Atmospheric river change, Rain instead of snow, Drought)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: New NAACP leader accelerates the fight for environmental justice with and for communities (Forbes), Environmental justice (CBS web extra), Carcinogen found in products used by people of color (E&E $), Reacting to Damar Hamlin’s injury, Ed Reed seems to compare the NFL to slave ‘fields’ (NewsOne), 

CALIFORNIA STORMS: Flooding may turn Monterey Peninsula into an ‘island’ as water cuts off roads, sheriff warns (San Francisco Chronicle), California’s onslaught of storms is far from over. will it ever end? (Washington Post $, AP), Storm-ravaged California scrambles as fresh atmospheric river rolls in (The Guardian, Reuters), Storms bring mudslides, evacuations to California with more rain forecast (Reuters, NPR), California, inundated (New York Times $), Suddenly, California has too much water (The Atlantic), Will storms end California’s drought? that may be the wrong question (New York Times $), Did your apartment flood? Renters insurance is unlikely to help you (LA Times $), Here are the parts of L.A. County most likely to be hit by catastrophic flood (LA Times $), California parents describe horror of losing 5-year-old son swept away by floodwaters (LA Times $), How 50-pound bags of rice saved one L.A. restaurant from the winter downpour (LA Times $)

COP27: A climate fund was born. It still doesn’t have any money. (E&E News)

COP28: UAE to launch COP28 presidency with oil boss tipped for leading role (The Guardian)

COP30: Brazil bids to bring COP30 climate talks to Amazon’s Belem (Climate Home)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: European oil sanctions costing Russia $172 million per day, report says (The Hill), US, allies prepare fresh sanctions on Russian oil industry (Wall Street Journal $)

• GERMANY: Police evict climate activists from German village slated to become a coal mine (Washington Post $, Reuters, AP, The Guardian, Democracy Now), Greta Thunberg to join climate activists facing off with German police over a village sold to a coal mine (CBS)

DENIAL: Climate deniers try to 'fact check' real reporting (Gizmodo)

WORKERS: To get off fossil fuels, America is going to need a lot more electricians (Grist, Canary Media, Reuters), Lawmakers to renew fight over offshore wind workers (E&E News)

GAS STOVES: Biden administration say it has no plans to ban gas stoves, despite air quality concerns (Houston Chronicle, Washington Post $, Gizmodo, The Hill, E&E News, USA Today, Washington Post $, Politico Pro $, NBC, Reuters fact check), GOP thrusts gas stoves, Biden's green agenda into the culture wars (Washington Post $, Washington Post $, E&E News, New York Times $)

LNG: Group warns liquefied gas expansion could hurt Louisiana coast (The Hill), Louisiana regulators are not keeping up with LNG boom, environmentalists say (Inside Climate News)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Democrats’ climate law is about to give a big boost to US solar manufacturing (HuffPost)

AGENCIES: NOAA picks first African American to head severe storms lab (E&E $)

EPA: EPA eyes cumulative pollution to boost environmental justice (E&E News), Health advocates push the EPA to go farther on soot standards (Environmental Health News)

DOI: Biden admin clears path for more Gulf seismic testing (E&E $), Biden admin revisits sage grouse regs, teeing up fresh battles (E&E News)

THE HILL: All-women slate will lead Congress’ efforts to keep the government funded (The 19th* News)

HOUSE: Energy and Commerce GOP targets Clean Air Act permits (E&E $), GOP leader calls for bipartisan deal on energy permitting (Houston Chronicle, The Hill), House Republicans target federal employees' telework (E&E $), Mont. Republicans revive legislation to reverse ESA ruling (E&E $), Republicans float drought bills, seek more water storage (E&E $)

ELECTIONS: Porter bets on climate in Senate bid. She won't be alone. (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: Hawaii stops prosecuting elders who protested telescope (AP), NY weighs East Coast’s first statewide building gas ban (E&E News)

• CALIFORNIA: Will California’s new oil and gas laws protect people from toxic pollution? (Environmental Health News), Newsom proposes climate cuts as Calif. faces budget deficit (E&E $), Youth community center in Richmond, California, becomes a ‘resilience hub’ (Yale Climate Connections)

FERC: FERC approves PacifiCorp’s proposed interconnection process for replacing retired generation (Utility Dive), PG&E plan to sell non-nuclear generation assets could improperly increase rates, groups tell FERC (Utility Dive)

SCIENCE!: Paleoclimatology (CBS web extra), How glaciers move (NPR), The Invisible Problem: Understanding how carbon is warming the Earth (CBS), How ocean water vapor may be an answer to a climate change issue (NPR)

IMPACTS: In Norway, sled dogs train and play in warming Arctic (AP), Magnolia Star Jamila Norman's farm decimated by winter storm in Atlanta: 'We're absolutely devastated' (People), Natural, manmade factors behind New Zealand’s hottest year (AP), Europe’s snowless ski resorts preview winter in a warming world (Washington Post $), Himalayan town sinks, leaving residents to count costs of rapid development (Washington Post $), Siberia sees coldest air in two decades as temperature dips to minus-80 (Washington Post $)

• OCEANS: Oceans surged to another record-high temperature in 2022 (Washington Post $, The Guardian, Axios)2022's series of disasters could be linked to a new ocean record (Gizmodo, Inside Climate News)

DROUGHT: 'Dangerous' Tunisian droughts threaten food security (Reuters)

DEFORESTATION: Deforestation ‘out of control’ in reserve in Brazil’s cattle capital (Mongabay)

RENEWABLES: Amundi to co-invest in Alantra's 1.7 bln euro solar platform (Reuters), Solarpunk: Why 2023 must be the year of the sun (Atmos)

• QCELLS: White House touts biggest single investment in US solar energy by Korean company (The Hill), Qcells to invest $2.5B to build complete US solar supply chain, expand annual capacity to 8.4 GW (Utility Dive, Reuters, Politico Pro $, Canary Media, Wall Street Journal $, E&E $)

"RENEWABLES": Study finds biogas is no silver bullet in Michigan’s climate woes (Energy News Network)

BUILDINGS: Louisiana, North Carolina, Colorado would benefit most from stronger building energy codes: ACEEE (Utility Dive)

COMPUTERS: Why we all should consider the carbon footprint of ‘dark data’ (Energy Monitor)

OIL & GAS: Frackers flush with cash shed huge debt loads (Wall Street Journal $), API president says Biden's oil policies threaten national security (Houston Chronicle), Natural-gas prices have fallen back to earth—except in California (Wall Street Journal $), Will Texas boost natural gas after grid failures? (E&E $), ONEOK, Insurers Agree to $930M Settlement Over Natural Gas Plant Explosion (Insurance Journal)

PLASTICS: Trying to live a day without plastic (New York Times $)

GRID: The electric grid and climate change (NPR), ERCOT can be sued for alleged failures, companies argue (Houston Chronicle)

EVs: RMI partners with General Motors, Google Nest for initiative to promote and support virtual power plants (Utility Dive), Why some of the biggest names in tech and auto are teaming up on virtual power plants (The Verge)

AVIATION: American kids are being exposed to lead from airports (Gizmodo)

AGRICULTURE: 'Raw deal' takes a hard look at the state of the American meat industry (NPR)

EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE: 'Wave of crises' threaten climate action and social stability (Context), Environment risks dominate in 'polycrisis' world - WEF survey (Reuters)

DAVOS: Davos report: Cost-of-living crisis overshadows climate (AP)

FOOD: Food waste is a big problem. These small changes can help (NPR)

WILDLIFE: Florida manatee deaths drop but starvation still a concern (AP), Protecting canids from planet-wide threats offers ecological opportunities (Mongabay)

INTERNATIONAL: Australia must not rely on emissions offsets if it is serious about climate crisis, Ian Chubb says (The Guardian), Hockey or health? World Cup sucks cash from poor Indian mining hub (Context), India may exempt 30 GW of solar plants from equipment duty - sources (Reuters), South African power cuts worsen as Eskom extends worst-ever outages (Reuters), The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is also a looming climate disaster (TIME)

• Environmental racism worsens pandemic outcomes (The Hill, Shanna Edberg op-ed)
• Will the California storms ease the state’s drought? (The Guardian, Jeannie Jones interview)
• Dancing around the obvious climate solution (The Hill, Bob Inglis op-ed)
• Security, migration trump energy dispute at Biden Mexico summit (Reuters, Dave Graham analysis)
• Electric vehicles keep defying almost everyone’s predictions (New York Times, David Wallace-Wells column $)
• Transportation electrification and EVs: Who pays for grid upgrades? (Utility Dive, Michael Hartnack and Jesse Hitchcock op-ed)
• We must save the North Atlantic right whale to save ourselves (TIME, Michael J. Moore op-ed)
• Instead of canceling the gas engine, California should let innovators innovate (The Hill, Paul Dabbar op-ed)
• Should we block the sun to counter climate change? (New York Times, Spencer Bokat-Lindell column $)
• Kathy Hochul’s latest brainstorm (Wall Street Journal Editorial Board $)

New Renewable Energy Jobs More Than Make Up For the 50 Foregone Keystone Pipeline Jobs

To our dismay, the pro-fossil fuel propaganda related to the Keystone XL pipeline just won't stop flowing, just like the oil the pipeline itself is leaking. Conservative disinformation outlets are now lamenting the grand total of 50 jobs that would have been created by the canceled pipeline. 50,000 jobs, you ask? No, literally only 50 permanent jobs.

A Department of Energy (DOE) report published back in December finds that “estimates indicate there would be around 50 permanent jobs once the pipeline was operational.”

In addition to this… modest figure, various studies cited in the report estimate that “there would be between 16,149 to 59,468 temporary jobs supported annually during the two-year construction period of the KXL pipeline” (emphasis added). However, the report immediately goes on to note that “the high-end figure overstates jobs, coming from a study that faced significant criticism for including in its analysis project inputs from India, Russia, and Russian companies in Canada, thus including jobs outside the United States, and also including portions of the Keystone pipeline project outside the XL segment in question.”

But the small size of these figures didn’t stop the conservative disinfo machine from complaining yet again about the pipeline’s cancellation. Last week, Republican Senators James Risch (R-ID) and Steve Daines (R-MT) made a stink about the DOE report, with Sen. Risch wailing about how “President Biden’s decision to cancel the Keystone XL Pipeline sacrificed thousands of American jobs.”

Fox Business then ran with the “16,149 [to] 59,000 jobs” estimate and, of course, conveniently omitted the facts that these jobs would have been temporary and that the upper-end estimate is an overstatement. The Washington Times did muster the bare minimum amount of journalistic integrity to provide this basic context, but its article still ended by quoting Koch-tied lobbyist Daniel Turner, who accused President Biden of putting “petty” climate politics before job creation.

The thing is, if you really want to create new jobs, climate policy is a pretty surefire way to do that. Job creation is a major part of the Green New Deal; just look at the Civilian Climate Corps, for example!

In Georgia alone, the factory building batteries for Ford’s all-electric F-150 already employs some 4,000 people, and—if it can even find enough people to hire—the company will expand to employ 20,000 workers in the US by 2025. Also in Georgia, a pair of solar panel factories will add another 2,600 jobs, adding to the 15,000 expected new jobs at the Rivian and Hyundai EV plants and the 3,500 expected new jobs at a Hyundai and SK battery plant in the state. So, the clean tech jobs in just one state are already replacing the thousands of supposedly "lost" temporary Keystone construction jobs. 

And Georgia is hardly an outlier. The DOE’s June report showed that “Energy Jobs Grew Faster Than Overall U.S. Employment in 2021.”

Six sectors in particular experienced notable job growth that year: “Electric vehicle jobs increased by 26.2%, adding 21,961 new jobs,” “Hybrid electric vehicle jobs increased 19.7%, adding 23,577 new jobs,” “Solar energy jobs increased by 5.4%, adding 17,212 new jobs,” “Wind energy jobs increased by 2.9%, adding 3,347 new jobs,” “Energy efficiency jobs increased by 2.7%, adding 57,741 new jobs,” and “Transmission, distribution, and storage jobs increased by 1.9%, adding 22,779 new jobs.”

Now, if only someone could figure out which is bigger, the 146,617 new jobs in climate tech created in 2021 or the 50 jobs that the Keystone XL would have created, then we might be able to discern if Republicans really care more about workers' jobs than fossil fuel companies’ profits…

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