FIRST LOOK: 

Unaccounted Flood Risks Threaten Low-Income Home Values Most: American homes in flood zones are overvalued by as much as $237 billion and a correction to accurately account for risks exacerbated by climate change would disproportionately slash the value of homes owned by low-income residents in GOP-controlled states, a study published in Nature Climate Change warns. The disproportionate risk is borne by property owners in counties with little concern about climate change and no flood risk disclosure requirements. Though the study did not address racial disparities, its findings are not inconsistent with patterns of racist discrimination that forced Black residents into more flood-prone areas. “This is a problem for cities and towns who could struggle financially if property values — and therefore property taxes — take a dive,” Penny Liao, a fellow at Resources for the Future and co-author of the Nature study, said in a statement. “We need to think about flood risk not as a homeowner’s problem, but as a problem for our entire community, city and housing market.” (Washington Post $, Grist, Bloomberg $, E&E $; Climate Signals background: Flooding)

Cat 5 Freddy Bears Down On Madagascar: Cyclone Freddy is on track to hammer Madagascar with extreme winds and significant flooding early next week. The first Category 5 storm of 2023, Freddy is the second-strongest of only five February Category 5 storms ever recorded. It is expected to weaken somewhat over the weekend as dry air reduces its intensity, but could still hit Madagascar as a Category 4 storm next Tuesday with winds around 130 mph. Along with threats of dangerous coastal surge and wind damage, the storm brings heightened flooding threats because it closely follows Cyclone Cheneso in late January, which killed at least 33 people, left 34,000 homeless, and saturated soils across the island nation [and barely garnered any Western media coverage, including in Hot News — Ed.]. (Washington Post $, Yale Climate Connections)

Western Voters Support Conservation: Strong bipartisan majorities of voters across the western U.S. support a 100% transition to renewable energy, protecting public lands from oil and gas extraction, and reducing water use, including through some dramatic measures. The annual Conservation in the West poll conducted by Colorado College surveyed 3,413 voters across Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah, and Wyoming. A full 92% of voters are worried about low water levels, with nearly as many (87%) supporting requiring local governments to determine whether there is enough water available before approving new residential development projects, and more than 6 in 10 supporting banning grass lawns for new homes. Well over half (54%) also support paying farmers to fallow their fields to conserve water. Agriculture operations use far more water in the West than all other users combined. More than 9 in 10 (91%) support both requiring oil and gas companies to update equipment to prevent leaks of methane gas and other pollutants, as well as requiring those companies to pay to remediate drilling sites (instead of taxpayers). Despite the broad public support for conservation policies across the West, Democratic pollster Dave Metz and GOP pollster Lori Weigel, both of Colorado, agree politicians are beholden to their fossil fuel industry campaign donors and a small fringe of base voters. “If you’re in a totally safe seat, your main worry is not getting primaried,” Metz said. “It’s exactly that,” Weigel agreed. “They’re talking to a small number of people in a very specific area.” (LA Times $, E&E $, Axios, Colorado Public Radio, Missoulian, The Colorado Sun, Westword, Las Vegas Review Journal; Climate Signals background: Western megadrought)

KOCHED UP CHEMICAL PLANTS: Any way the wind blows (Grist)

9:37 🚂 TO THE PETROCHEMICAL DYSTOPIA: The Ohio train derailment is a disaster of misinformation (Gizmodo), After toxic train derailment, Ohio residents report rashes and worries (Washington Post $, The Hill, Axios), Norfolk Southern skips East Palestine town hall (Axios), Ohio derailment prompts calls to investigate federal oversight of trains (Axios, Politico Pro $), White House: Norfolk Southern will be held accountable for Ohio train derailment (Axios), EPA chief promises results after Ohio train crash (Politico, AP, The Hill), Environmental health expert says he would not feel safe returning to a home in East Palestine (The Hill), Sherrod Brown calls on Ohio governor to declare disaster over East Palestine derailment (The Hill, Axios), The East Palestine, Ohio, train wreck didn’t have to be this bad (Vox)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Putin is staring at defeat in his gas war with Europe (Politico EU), Soaring fuel bills may push 141m more into extreme poverty globally – study (The Guardian), France’s need to burn gas pushed power emissions to five-year high (Bloomberg $), Notorious drug trafficking hub used for Russian oil shipments (OilPrice), Sanctions on Russian oil are having the ‘intended effect,’ IEA says (CNBC), Why the war in Ukraine is pushing Europe's militaries to decarbonize (E&E $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: G20-backed standards body approves first global company sustainability rules (Reuters)

GOP vs. ESG: Influential local US banks fight back against Republicans’ ESG attacks (FT $), Groups, lobbyists line up to influence the ESG debate (E&E News), Republican AGs want Congress to sink federal ESG rule (E&E $)

WORLD BANK: World bank president to resign early amid backlash to climate crisis denial (Democracy Now, The Guardian, Climate Home), Climate advocates urge World Bank overhaul as leader exits (AP), US leads search for new World Bank chief with climate at heart (FT $), With Malpass out, World Bank looks to 'evolve' on climate (E&E $), World Bank may loosen loan ratio to free up $4 billion a year (Reuters), World bank head denies climate controversy spurred resignation (Washington Post $, Reuters)

HISTORY!: What the New Deal can teach us about how to electrify everything (Bloomberg $)

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?: Tesla fired Buffalo workers seeking to organize, union says (New York Times $, Bloomberg $, FT $, Wall Street Journal $), Tesla recalling 362,000 vehicles due to crash risk caused by self-driving software (The Hill, CNBC)

AGENCIES: Biden orders agencies: Do more on racism, environmental justice (E&E News)

EPA: Biden EPA proposes restoring pesticide protections for farmworkers rolled back under Trump (The Hill, E&E $), 24 red states sue Biden over WOTUS rule (E&E $)

DOE: DOE cyber center crucial as attacks rise, grid official says (E&E $), DOE grid transformer rule draws fire (E&E $), Energy Department eyes ways to hasten LNG permits (Politico Pro $), Meet the millennial scientist leading the Biden administration’s push for a nuclear power revival (Inside Climate News)

WHITE HOUSE: The Biden administration aims to make EV charging as easy as filling up (Grist), Biden admin wants federally funded EV chargers to be made in US and work with any vehicle (EcoWatch), Biden offers rare praise for Musk as Tesla opens charger network (Bloomberg $)

THE HILL: GAO floats climate incentives for crop insurance (E&E $)

HOUSE: Meet the GOP leaders in charge of critical House environmental committees (CNBC), Oversight Republicans probe EPA hydrofluorocarbon rule (E&E $), Republicans take aim at food stamps in growing fight over federal debt (Washington Post $), GOP trumpets fossil fuels in second Permian Basin hearing (E&E $)

SENATE: Takeaways from the Senate Budget panel's climate hearing (E&E $), Sen. Fetterman checks himself into hospital for clinical depression (Washington Post $), Utah senator seeks allies in push to keep EVs out of US biofuel program (Reuters), 'Crisis is not over': Hearing mulls global energy future (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: Can cities be saved from the climate crisis? (Bloomberg $), How Indiana’s flood map went from acclaimed to attacked (E&E News), NJ governor orders 100% clean power. Is it doable? (E&E $), Rising power costs help fuel Gov. Mills’ plan to speed transition to renewable electricity (Portland Press Herald), Virginia governor blocks bill banning police from seeking menstrual histories (The Guardian), Why New Englanders should get ready for high energy prices over the long term (Washington Examiner)

FERC: FERC approves new winter standards for power plants, rejects New England renewables complaint (Politico Pro $), FERC, states weigh solutions to ‘multiplying’ grid attacks (E&E $), DC Circuit upholds FERC decision on Broadview solar-battery PURPA project in blow to NorthWestern, EEI (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: Beware a climate ‘doom loop,’ where crisis is harder to solve, report says (Washington Post $, The Guardian), Water carved New Zealand’s stunning landscape. Now too much is risking lives (CNN), Climate change-linked heat worsened Argentina drought impact, scientists say (Reuters, Bloomberg $), DC cherry blossom tree showing signs of early bloom (E&E $), Free program helps Gulf Coast communities assess climate risk (Yale Climate Connections), The world’s largest outdoor ice rink is closed due to lack of ice (CNN), More than 15 mln Colombians suffer food insecurity - UN (Reuters), Soros says melting Arctic is threat to our survival (Bloomberg $, Bloomberg $), Warm water melts weak spots on Antarctica's 'Doomsday Glacier,' say scientists (Reuters, Gizmodo, Axios, CNN, E&E $, Democracy Now), Great Lakes ice cover plummets to record mid-February low (Washington Post $)

RENEWABLES: BP goes on offshore wind power global hiring spree (Reuters), In scramble for clean energy, Europe is turning to north Africa (Yale Environment 360), The US plan to become the world’s cleantech superpower (FT $), US solar surge collides with higher rates and shifting economics (Bloomberg $), Vestas has a new way to keep wind turbine blades out of the dump (Canary Media)

BATTERIES: Microvast’s $200 million US grant under review; shares plunge (Bloomberg $), Nomad’s mobile batteries deliver utility-scale power where it’s needed (Canary Media)

BUILDINGS: Home heating prices are at their highest in years. Here’s how to reduce your heating bill in Philadelphia (Philadelphia Inquirer)

LNG: Shell: European demand is set to dominate LNG trade in the long term (OilPrice), US LNG producers poised to leapfrog rivals with three new projects (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: What’s fueling California’s high natural gas prices (New York Times $), Oil stampede is on in one of the emptiest places in the Americas (Bloomberg $), Uri fallout sent natural gas spending for electricity sky-high in 2021; inflation piled on last year (Natural Gas Intel), Why are BP, Shell, and Exxon suddenly backing off their climate promises? (Grist)

PLASTICS: Bacteria and the sun can destroy ocean plastic—but is it the fix we need? (Gizmodo)

HYDROGEN: Australia warned it could lose out to ‘huge and aggressive’ green hydrogen support in US and Middle East (The Guardian), Chile puts green hydrogen ambitions on display (Bloomberg $)

UTILITIES: New board in place, US utility [TVA] turns to clean energy study (AP), Amid high energy prices, SCE VP, other experts push to reduce California’s reliance on natural gas (Utility Dive), Extreme cold weather events prompt new rules for US power plants (Bloomberg $)

DOG BITES MAN?: Georgia nuclear plant again delayed at cost of $200M more (AP)

GRID: Proposed distribution transformer standards ‘could significantly impact’ grid reliability, utilities warn DOE (Utility Dive)

EVs: For GM, the EV race is a marathon (Utility Dive), Scholz visits Volkswagen, works council confirms e-SUV in Wolfsburg (Reuters), Tesla Model Y sold out following massive price cuts (OilPrice)

CRYPTO: Crypto is here to save the grid. Or crash it. (E&E News)

ART: Artists in residence at national parks use their work to reckon with settler colonialism (Prism Reports)

BOOKS: Birnam Wood by Eleanor Catton — an explosive climate-change thriller (FT $), We asked lovers of Black literature to curate a Black resistance reading list. Here’s what they chose. (The 19th* News)

CARBON STORAGE: Colorado ponders storing carbon in defunct oil and gas wells (AP) 

CARBON CAPTURE: Exxon taps Honeywell for massive Texas CCS project (E&E $)

FINANCE: BlackRock's president faces climate questions at New York event (Reuters)

INTERNATIONAL: Canada cautions court against climate 'quantum leap' (E&E $), India to blacklist renewable firms for missing project deadlines (Reuters), Italy transport minister calls European ban on fossil fuel cars a 'suicide' (Reuters), UK financial watchdog hit with claim over prospectus climate risk disclosure (FT $), What are the challenges to a just energy transition in Colombia? (Energy Monitor)

• Biden can make the World Bank a leader on climate change (Bloomberg, Mark Gongloff column $)
• Economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram on World Bank, climate emergency, global debt crisis & more (Democracy Now, interview)
• Russia still needs Europe's oil tankers (Bloomberg, Julian Lee column $)
• Climate change has its tipping points — thankfully, so does progress (The Hill, Stuart Mackintosh op-ed)

Conservative Media Spreads Disinfo About Ohio Disaster in an Attempt to Discredit Climate Action

When an environmental disaster strikes, what do you do? Do you advocate for those affected and implement policy solutions to keep the problem from occurring again? Or do you exploit this one environmental disaster to make the argument that other environmental issues are now somehow invalid?

Right-wing media chose the latter option in response to the train derailment and resulting chemical pollution in Ohio.

Here’s what actually happened. On February 3, a train operated by Norfolk Southern carrying toxic petrochemicals derailed in the small town of East Palestine, Ohio. A fire started, and nearby Ohio and Pennsylvania residents were ordered to evacuate. On February 6, Norfolk Southern “released toxic fumes from several derailed train cars that it said were at risk of exploding.”

The EPA started to monitor the water runoff and air quality in the area on February 4, continuing to give updates every day since. On February 8, Ohio Governor Mike DeWine announced that evacuated residents could return home because air quality readings showed safe levels of contaminants.

The National Transportation Security Board (NTSB) began investigating the causes of the derailment disaster alongside other authorities. One potential explanation is that the train cars were wrongly labeled as non-hazardous. Another possible contributing factor is that in 2017, the Trump administration rolled back a rule that “required railroad companies to install electronically controlled pneumatic brakes by 2021,” deciding instead that “railroads with trains carrying highly flammable liquids will not have to update their braking systems.”

Conservative media didn't seem eager to blame the petrochemical industry for the toxic mess, nor did it point to regulations as a solution. Instead, they attacked the people who are calling for more regulations on the petrochemical industry.

On February 13, Fox News pundit Tucker Carlson claimed that the Biden administration did not care about what happened in East Palestine because the county overwhelmingly voted for Donald Trump and because the disaster is unrelated to climate change. That last point is false on multiple levels, since the spilled substances (like vinyl chloride) are related to climate change, in that the plastic industry is basically a byproduct of the fossil fuel industry. Never one for factual fidelity, Carlson snidely remarked, “If you can’t use it to sell solar panels, it’s not really an environmental disaster. That’s the rule in Washington.”

Climate denialist Steve Milloy, who has spent much of his career undermining the EPA and the FDA to protect his clients in Big Oil and Big Tobacco, went on Fox News to say that since he thinks the “EPA lies all the time," he's going to go ahead and “point the finger at EPA.”

Disinformation about the Ohio disaster spread quickly on social media. Conservative media sites like PragerU claimed the issue was not getting enough attention and shared a video of the disaster, which emphasized animal deaths and the arrest of an on-site reporter (whose charges were later dismissed). Conservative commentators like Dan Bongino argued on Facebook that only conservative media sites were covering the derailment and that other media outlets were silent in order to protect the Biden administration, despite numerous stories covering the derailment disaster.

Many social media posts ran with the narrative that mainstream climate activism was ignoring the Ohio derailment. One Twitter user shared a video of the derailment fire alongside an inflammatory statement: “They want to preach about climate change… but do this. #OhioChernobyl.” Multiple Twitter and Reddit accounts posted pictures of plumes of toxic smoke rising above East Palestine, with one Twitter user writing, “If a single sea turtle in CA choked on a plastic straw we’d be bombarded with hyperbolic headlines for weeks. Yet *actual humans* have been breathing in this giant plume of toxic polyvinyl chloride for over a week in Ohio and…barely any news coverage? #OhioChernobyl.”

The fact is that the toxic chemical pollution in East Palestine is an environmental disaster of great proportions, but despite what conservative media would have you believe, environmental organizations and activists are greatly concerned about the situation. We shouldn’t be framing environmental disasters as either/or situations: The Ohio disaster and climate change are both issues of environmental justice that we should work to address. And in case you forgot, Republicans don’t exactly have a stellar record when it comes to the environment, so maybe they should think twice before pretending to be environmental justice activists all of a sudden.

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