FIRST LOOK: 

Anti-Solar Misinformation Spread By Group Lead By GOP Insider, Former Abramoff Aide: A political group deeply connected to conservative politics and a major fossil fuel investor is spreading misinformation around the country in a coordinated effort to undermine solar energy, especially in rural communities, NPR and Floodlight report. Citizens for Responsible Solar was founded by Susan Ralston, a former aide to Karl Rove who resigned from the George W. Bush administration over her dealings for disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff. When she was launching the group, Ralston consulted with anti-renewable energy activist John Droz who defended Trump's claim that wind turbines cause cancer and her consulting firm received hundreds of thousands of dollars from the foundation of a major fossil fuel investor who is also a leading GOP donor. The group claims it is only against certain solar projects, but its website makes broad and false claims about solar energy overall, including that it contributes to climate change. Once the misinformation spread by CRS and other groups like it takes hold in rural communities, it can harm individuals — like Roger Houser in Page County, Virginia, who was blocked from building a dollar array on his own farm — and efforts to combat climate change more broadly. "It's an enormous concern," said Alan Anderson, a Kansas renewable energy lawyer. "If we can't get projects permitted at counties or townships or whatever local level makes a decision, we can't do any of the goals we think we need to do for climate change." (NPR and Floodlight)

IEA Blasts Oil & Gas Industry For Methane Pollution: Fossil fuel industries are failing to cut methane pollution and in doing so undermining efforts to limit global warming, the International Energy Agency said in its annual Global Methane Tracker report, released Tuesday. Methane, the main component of so-called "natural gas," traps more than 80 times more heat in the atmosphere than CO2 over a 20-year timeframe. “Methane cuts are among the cheapest options to limit near-term global warming,” IEA head Fatih Birol said. “There is just no excuse.” The IEA's annual Global Methane Tracker found the world's oil and gas companies released 120 million metric tons of methane pollution in 2022 — about as much every day as was released by the Nord Stream pipeline explosion. According to the IEA report, about 80% of the tools to cut methane pollution from oil and gas operations could be implemented at zero net cost. (AP, Bloomberg $, EFE vía Prensa Latina)

Ice Absent From Great Lakes, New England: Ice covered just 6% of the Great Lakes on February 15, the smallest amount ever recorded at what is typically the point of maximum coverage for the season, NOAA data showed. The historical average for ice coverage in mid-February is 41%. The falling ice coverage is part of a long-term trend fueled by climate change, mostly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels. It is also not limited to the Great Lakes. Across New England low ice coverage and thinner ice are preventing ice skating and ice fishing — disrupting long-held traditions seriously harming local small business owners. Mark Avery's family has owned a small resort on the shore of Vermont's Lake Morey since 1972, boasting a 4-mile ice skating trail. There used to be three things that were certain: “Death and taxes and frozen ice by early January,” Avery told the Washington Post. “We’re cooking the planet, and we’re feeling it locally firsthand." (Great Lakes: Washington Post $, Michigan Radio, Michigan Live, MinnPost, Newsweek, Detroit News, The Hill; New England: Washington Post $, Wall Street Journal $; Warm February temps: Washington Post $)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: On the frontlines in a ‘Cancer Alley,’ Black women inspired by faith are powering the environmental justice movement (Inside Climate News), Mothers of the movement: Black environmental justice activists reflect on the women who have paved the way (The 19th* News), A highway that doesn’t exist is strangling a Black neighborhood (Bloomberg $), Black Girl Environmentalist rejects climate 'doomism' (Axios), How prisons and jails can go green (Atmos), Natural gas terminals are an increasing threat to marginalized communities in 'sacrifice zones' (Prism Reports)

FREDDY: Madagascar, Mozambique set for “dangerous” Cyclone Freddy (AP, Bloomberg $, AP, The Guardian)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: [NSC spox] John Kirby denies US sabotaged Nord Stream pipelines (Politico), IEA's Birol warns of tighter energy supply next winter (Reuters), Soaring energy costs could push 141 million into extreme poverty, report says (CNN), EU climate czar: Putin’s war accelerated green transition (AP)

9:37 🚂 TO THE PETROCHEMICAL DYSTOPIA: Here’s what the derailed Ohio train was carrying — and what was burned (Washington Post $), Norfolk Southern’s profits and accident rates rose in recent years (New York Times $), The Ohio train derailment is bad. The next one could be much worse (Fast Company), Water testing after ohio derailment — led by rail company itself — condemned as ‘sloppy’ (HuffPost), Administration says civil penalties in the mix for Norfolk Southern derailment (Politico Pro $), Agencies, lawmakers announce federal aid for eastern Ohio (E&E $), Biden admin details Ohio toxic train cleanup, points to Congress (E&E News), Four rail-borne risks moving through American communities (The Hill), The worst US chemical disasters caused by train derailments (Gizmodo), What we know about the Ohio train derailment (Axios), Yes, the Ohio train wreck is an environmental disaster. No, it’s not Chernobyl. (Vox), Buttigieg pushes Norfolk Southern to support higher rail safety standards (The Hill), Environmental groups call on Buttigieg to restore Obama-era train brake rule (The Hill), What a health risk scientist still wants to know about the Ohio train derailment (Gizmodo)

(CLIMATE) DIPLOMACY: EU countries poised to agree push on fossil fuel phase-out -document (Reuters), France's Macron signals electric car subsidy concern on agenda with Harris (Reuters), Uganda, other African nations push for fossil-fuel projects (Wall Street Journal $), UN ocean treaty talks resume with goal to save biodiversity (AP), Why the world needs a deal to protect its oceans (Context)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Austrian children take government to court over climate (AP)

DENIAL & GREENWASHING: Why die-hard climate change skeptics are unlikely to change their minds (Newsweek), Corporations push 'insetting' as new offsetting but report claims it is even worse (Climate Home), This Weather Network, tied to one of Steve Bannon’s platforms, doesn’t talk about climate change (Washington Post $)

BEYOND CARS: How a future with fewer cars may change how communities are designed (Washington Post $), Just how good for the planet is that big electric pickup truck? (New York Times $)

PATHS NOT TAKEN: Jimmy Carter, the president who tried to save the planet (Washington Post $)

GOP vs. ESG: Groups, lobbyists line up to influence the ESG debate (E&E News)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Climate law funds first large grid storage projects (E&E $)

EPA: 24 red states sue Biden over WOTUS rule (E&E $), 5th Circuit to revisit Exxon’s massive Clean Air Act fine (E&E $), EPA struggles to ban asbestos, other chemicals years after congress granted new powers (Washington Post $)

• MERCURY: EPA undoes Trump-era power plant rollback (E&E News, AP, New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $, The Hill, Reuters)

DOI: After centuries of stealing land, the US govt is actually inviting tribes to help manage it (HuffPost)

WHITE HOUSE: Meet the climate scientist helping guide Biden on spy agencies (Washington Post $), Biden gets chance to redefine World Bank role (Politico Pro $), The White House has a plan to close the emissions gap (E&E $), With two key picks, Biden weaves climate into economy and regulations (New York Times $)

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON?: Musk undercuts Biden’s pro-worker climate push (E&E News)

THE HILL: Top 5 takeaways from POLITICO Pro's briefing on the Farm Bill and its climate implications (Politico Pro $)

HOUSE: GOP trumpets fossil fuels in second Permian Basin hearing (E&E $), Markey eyes climate focus on Health subcommittee (E&E $), The House Democrat trying to move his party on NEPA reform (E&E News)

SENATE: Sanders gets funding for home solar; EPA pick gets hearing (E&E $), Climate reparations are not going to be helpful, US Sen. Lindsey Graham says (CNBC), Sen. Whitehouse wants the budget panel to be a climate committee (Washington Post $)

ELECTIONS: Va. special election will decide McEachin's successor (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: Illinois pushes for national monument of Springfield race riots (E&E $), Montana sues to undo Oregon fuel transport ordinance (E&E $), Texas Sen. Menéndez: Performance credit could take years to implement, but efficiency and [demand response] are immediate (Utility Dive), With Duke Energy solar rebates expired, N.C. nonprofits look for new ways to bridge the gap (Energy News Network), Florida's great displacement (Business Insider)

• CALIFORNIA: Electric vehicle chargers in California would have to serve all brands under proposed law (Politico Pro $)
• TEXAS: Two years later, the 2021 Blackout still shapes what it means to live in Texas (NPR), State agency forfeited cleanup funds for lead-contaminated parkways in Los Angeles County (LA Times $)

FERC: FERC approves power plant rules to fight extreme weather (E&E News, Utility Dive), FERC rejects American Clean Power, RENEW Northeast complaint alleging ISO-NE bias towards gas plants (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: Flooding is pummeling the Southeast US These organizers are fighting back. (Yale Climate Connections), Antarctica’s ‘Doomsday Glacier’ is in trouble, reports show (Boston Globe $), Before and after: New photos show remarkable recovery at California’s most beleaguered reservoir (CNN), China provinces and Florida among the most climate-vulnerable regions in the world, analysis finds (CNN, Reuters), Climate crisis brings whiff of danger to French perfume capital (The Guardian), Climate denial is inflating property values — study (E&E $), Drought pushed Bronze Age empire to the brink — research (E&E $), Every coastal home is now a stick of dynamite (The Atlantic), Feds outline Arctic research 'goldmine' (E&E $), In one frigid weekend, four emergency rooms closed. Are hospitals ready for a changing climate? (Boston Globe $), New York’s record warm winter: good for sunbathing, bad for ski slopes (New York Times $), Nearly 30 dangerous feedback loops could permanently shift the Earth’s climate, scientists say (CNN), Spring rushes in weeks early as winter fizzles across the US (Bloomberg $), The climate change real estate bubble risks billions (Axios), There is a myth about mass migration to Europe. But some people do risk it all (NPR), This is what happens to rainforests when there’s not enough rain (Bloomberg $), Why weather may be a missing link in flu prediction (Washington Post $), Wild week of extreme weather ahead in the lower 48: 5 things to know (Washington Post $), Zombie ant fungus' in humans? climate change sparks fungi fears — some serious and some silly (USA Today), How climate change is making tampons (and lots of other stuff) more expensive (New York Times $)

• (NOT SO) FABULOUS: This drag show in Philly is about climate change, and warm weather spoiled its opening night (WHYY)

POLLUTION: Air pollution kills. Why are we so bad at recognizing that? (New Republic)

BUNDLE UP NOW?: A polar vortex disruption is underway. What it means is up in the air. (Washington Post $)

HEAT: ‘Birdsville mindset’: What an outback town where the roads melt can teach us about living with heat (The Guardian), High February temperatures have India already bracing for more heat waves (Washington Post $)

DROUGHT: ‘Not much time left’: Salt Lake City’s mayor on the Great Lake drying up (The Guardian), Italy faces another year of severe drought after little winter rain or snow (The Guardian), La Niña is exacerbating drought conditions for millions (Popular Science)

WATER: ‘Everything should be on the table’: Sen. John Hickenlooper on solving the Colorado River water crisis (Colorado Public Radio), As the Colorado River shrinks, federal officials consider overhauling Glen Canyon Dam (LA Times $), L.A.’s new water war: Keeping supply from Mono Lake flowing as critics want it cut off (LA Times $), Project would pipe water from Mexico to parched Arizona — if anyone can agree on it (The Hill), Tijuana sewage pours through San Diego border canyons after recent pipe break (San Diego Union-Tribune)

KEEP WINTER COLD: Skiiers urge sport’s governing body to act over climate crisis and lack of snow (The Guardian)

SCIENCE: An inside look at how NASA is using advanced radar technology to better understand climate change (CBS), NASA focuses 5 new missions on gathering data about climate change (CBS), Scientists examine dangerous global warming ‘accelerators’ (Inside Climate News), Scientists grow sea stars in lab to understand mass die-off along Pacific Coast (Reuters)

DEFORESTATION: Liberia may have 'parallel system' for illegal log exports (AP)

RENEWABLES: Public lands in the US have long been disposed to fossil fuel companies. Now, the lands are being offered to solar companies (Inside Climate News), New York solar equipment maker Linton Crystal Technologies plans to reshore production (Utility Dive), NJ uses new law to bypass local OK for offshore wind project (AP), Take me out to the wind turbines (Bloomberg $)

BATTERIES: Lithium miner Sigma jumps on report Tesla considering buyout (Reuters)

BUILDINGS: How the ‘electrify everything’ movement went mainstream (Grist), The scientific case against gas stoves (National Geographic)

PLASTICS: Your laundry sheds tiny polluting plastic fibers. Here’s what to do. (Washington Post $)

LNG: US gas export plant hit by blast reopens with uncertain future (FT $)

OIL & GAS: Europe will be hungry for LNG for years, Shell says (Bloomberg $)

NUKES: Smaller, safer, cheaper? Modular nuclear plants could reshape coal country (Washington Post $)

UTILITIES: PG&E is testing different flavors of virtual power plant (Canary Media), Plant Vogtle delayed after technical problem (E&E $)

GRID: New power system cybersecurity architectures can be ‘vaults’ against insider attacks, analysts say (Utility Dive), Why America’s outdated energy grid is a climate problem (CNBC)

EVs: EV charging is a mess. This 4-pound box could help fix it (Bloomberg $), Tesla drivers worry about wait times as Elon Musk opens up supercharger network (Wall Street Journal $)

DUST TO DUST: Human composting is changing the landscape of death care—and it may soon be legal near you (Gizmodo)

THE KIDS ARE … ACTING RATIONALLY: Mycelium Youth Network aims to empower young people on climate change (Yale Climate Connections), Now a political force, research shows GenZ voters crave information on candidates, issues (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)

AVIATION: ‘My kids are being poisoned’: How aviators escaped America’s war on lead (Politico)

BOOKS: New and recent books about climate and environmental justice (Yale Climate Connections), Greta Thunberg hopes 'The Climate Book' is a launching pad for environmental activism (NPR)

GAME NIGHT: 'Water you gonna do?' Board game helps communities prepare for more extreme storms and flooding (Yale Climate Connections)

TRASH: A R.I. startup diverts 1 ton of waste each month from landfills. They’re trying to get businesses to do the same. (Boston Globe $)

RICH WHITE DUDES: Bill Gates sees IRA driving ‘healthy’ growth in new energy tech (Bloomberg $)

WILDLIFE: Study: North Cascades grizzlies could gain more habitat as the climate warms (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

INTERNATIONAL: Canada unveils sustainable jobs plan to prepare workers for future green economy (Reuters), France’s EDF lost $19 billion after nuclear outages (Wall Street Journal $), Germany to accelerate power market reform, minister says (Reuters), India invokes emergency law to force coal-based power plants to up output (Reuters), Italy axes controversial €110 billion push for greener cities (Bloomberg $), No country can protect itself from climate disaster, says Indonesia’s finance minister (CNBC), Pakistan’s plans to rebuild after the floods are flawed. This 82-year-old is trying to fix them (TIME), Why borders as we know them won’t survive the century to come (TIME), World to face wars over food and water without climate action, EU green deal chief says (CNBC)

• AUSTRALIA: Australia at risk of electricity supply shortages as renewable projects lag behind coal plant closures (The Guardian), Australia’s big emitters could cut CO2 by 90% by 2050 without offsets, report finds (The Guardian)
• CHINA: China launches climate prediction model for wind and solar power (Reuters), China's solar, wind power projects need more policy support, says energy authority (Reuters), China’s rebound is the biggest unknown facing oil markets, IEA chief says (CNBC)

• Cancer alley in Louisiana: What is it, and how can legislation address environmental injustice? (Teen Vogue, Sinclair McKinney op-ed)
• Gas stoves are a health hazard — and induction stoves just work better (Canary Media, Brady Seals op-ed)
• Mother nature has the best climate-fixing technology (Bloomberg, Amanda Little op-ed $)
• Over 1,000 trains derail every year in America. Let’s bring that number down. (New York Times, David Sirota, Rebecca Burns, Julia Rock and Matthew Cunningham-Cook op-ed $)
• Jimmy Carter’s presidency was not what you think (New York Times, Kai Bird op-ed $)
• To regulate methane emissions, Colorado needs clear data (The Colorado Sun, Jennifer Miskimins and Jim Crompton op-ed)
• We can vacuum carbon from the sky. Will it make a difference? (Bloomberg, Lara Williams op-ed $)
• Why growth can be green (New York Times, Paul Krugman column $)
• This deadly chemical should be banned (New York Times, Rebecca Fuoco, David Rosner and Gerald Markowitz op-ed $)
• Electric vehicles alone won’t take us to a decarbonized future (The Hill, Thea Riofrancos op-ed)
• Emission cuts will fail to stop climate change. What to do then? (Wall Street Journal, Tunku Varadarajan op-ed $)

Little House on the Prairie Is Libertarian Propaganda, and Other Fun Facts About Free Market Fundies

In 2010, the publication of “Merchants of Doubt” exposed how a small group of industry-backed scientists spread disinformation to undermine climate science. Now, the co-authors Naomi Oreskes and Erik Conway are back with a new book exploring "The Big Myth" of free-market neoliberalism, and why those merchants were able to find the success they did. The key question? "How did so many Americans come to have so much faith in markets and so little faith in government?" 

The Big Myth under their microscope is "free market fundamentalism," the political position that The Market is inherently good and anything the government does to interfere with it is Bad. Be it regulations on exploding petrochemical trains or smoking or other labor laws, industry-funded groups like The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) used the exact same free market rhetoric it uses today to fight climate regulations. If free market fundamentalists got what they demanded, the authors surmise, "cigarettes could be sold to children, who would smoke them during their factory breaks." 

The book is available today, and here's a sneak peak of what's in store for readers.  

When introducing "Milton Friedman, America's most famous market fundamentalist," the authors describe how he argued against voting because it was too easily gamed by special interests "and because in any case most voters were ignorant" (two strategies that free market fundamentalists would go on to cultivate). They quote a Friedman speech where he claims, "the economic market provides a greater degree of freedom than the political market." Sure, it's a banal platitude, but then the authors give the critical context: he said that in South Africa in 1976 "as he encouraged the citizens of that country not to fuss over apartheid, but to preserve and expand their market-based economy." (Side note: what is it with these free market fundamentalists and downplaying apartheid? Oh, right! Racism. It's the racism.) 

Conway and Oreskes are not shy about how free market fundamentalism has "little foundation in fact," so industry "needed to find other ways to shore it up" (namely, "propaganda"). The authors also explain how "market fundamentalists protect their worldview by denying that climate change is real or asserting that somehow 'The Market' will fix it, despite all evidence to the contrary." 

Because evidence was lacking, these free market fundies also built a cultural and religious propaganda apparatus. Sun Oil president and "leading figure in NAM" J. Howard Pew was the biggest donor to a Spiritual Mobilization campaign "to convince Christian clergy that unregulated capitalism was not merely compatible with Christian values but founded upon them."

And then comes the mind-blower. Pew, the proto-Koch donor, "was also friends with libertarian journalist Rose Wilder Lane, daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder, the author of the beloved Little House on the Prairie series. Or ostensible author, for while millions of American readers adored these books – sold as the true story of Wilder's childhood on the American frontier – the stories had in fact been crafted into parables of individual self-sufficiency and government superfluousness by her libertarian daughter." 

The authors go on to describe how Ayn Rand's success was driven largely by the decidedly non-free-market force of free-market-fundamentalist groups buying her books in bulk and giving them away for free to schools (a trick they're still using) and how GE used Ronald Reagan to promote free market fundamentalism as an actor before he went on to do so as president. 

This is just a taste of what you can find in Oreskes’ and Conway’s new book, which will no doubt give all of us something to think about as right-wing disinfo outlets continue to push free-market propaganda.

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