FIRST LOOK: 

Spate Of Wartime LNG Contracts A 'Bait And Switch': American oil and gas companies are exploiting the war in Ukraine by locking in long-term LNG contracts unlikely — and possibly not even actually intended — to alleviate Europe's short-term energy crunch but certain to cause huge amounts of climate pollution, a new report warns. U.S. fossil fuel firms have nailed down 45 long-term contracts or contract extensions since Russia invaded Ukraine a year ago — more than triple the number signed in 2021 — according to the analysis from Friends of the Earth, Public Citizen, and BailoutWatch. Methane gas won't be delivered under the contracts until at least 2026 and most of the contracts have at least 20-year terms. The annual climate impact of the wartime contracts is equivalent to the climate pollution released by 94 coal-fired power plants every year. The long-term gas export contracts will also raise U.S. energy prices. With EU leaders reluctant to agree to long-term fossil fuel contracts unaligned with their countries' climate goals, much of the methane gas will likely, increasingly end up in Asia. "There’s somewhat of a bait and switch going on here," Public Citizen's research director Alan Zibel told The Guardian. "The public have been told that these terminals and these exports are to help Europe, but in reality, the bulk of the contracting volume is still going to Asia." The report comes as blast-shuttered Freeport LNG received approval to restart operations. (The Guardian; Freeport:  Reuters, Wall Street Journal $)

Climate Change Could Threaten Global Internet Connections: The extraction and combustion of fossil fuels pollutes the air we breathe, while the impacts of climate change could actually deprive us of something at least as elemental to life as we know it — the internet. New research published in Earth-Science Reviews warns damage from extreme weather events, and the impacts of melting polar sea ice, could damage transglobal undersea cables. “Our reliance on cables that are no wider than a garden hose is a surprise to many, who regard satellites as the main means of communication,” lead author Mike Clare said in a statement. “But satellites simply don’t have the bandwidth to support modern digital systems. The ‘cloud’ is not in the sky — it is under the sea.” Damage to undersea cables from specific human activities, like fishing operations and anchor strikes, are far more common than major storms. However, hurricanes and typhoons can inflict greater damage, such as by undermining the stability of the continental shelf, across a much wider area, knocking out cable systems across whole regions. (E&E News)

Deadly Flooding Hits Kentucky: At least one person was killed by, and several others were rescued from, flash floods in eastern Kentucky last week. The deluge, which dropped more than three inches of rain in some places, was reminiscent of the widespread, catastrophic flooding that killed 44 people last summer. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels, makes extreme precipitation events worse and more frequent, increasing flooding risks. Last week, before the most recent flooding, Kentuckians for the Commonwealth called on the Department of the Interior to investigate the strong correlation between drowning deaths during the 2022 floods and coal strip mines. (Grist; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation increase, Floods)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: Social justice and climate justice: How one environmental leader is moving forward (NPR)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: How Russia’s war shattered global energy routes (E&E News), Report: world’s fossil fuel subsidies surged to $1 trillion after Ukraine invasion (Grist), Russian gas out, renewables in? Europe clings to green goals (Context), What Europe showed the world about renewable energy (Vox)

9:37 🚂 TO THE PETROCHEMICAL DYSTOPIA: EPA takes charge of cleanup in toxic Ohio train derailment (AP, E&E News, Washington Post $, NPR), EPA orders Norfolk Southern to pay for train crash clean-up (Politico Pro $, The Hill, Axios), The train derailment in Ohio was a disaster waiting to happen (Grist). Buttigieg urges safety changes after fiery Ohio derailment (AP, Politico Pro $)

FREDDY: Category 3 Cyclone Freddy hits Madagascar (Yale Climate Connections, AP)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Brussels seeks to woo Washington into setting up raw materials club (Politico Pro $), G20 finance chiefs to discuss debt, crypto, inflation (Reuters)

DENIAL & GREENWASHUING: Fighting corporate lies (New York Times $)

FOSSIL VOLATILITY: Why energy bills skyrocketed in the US West (E&E News)

WORLD BANK: 'First step': Reformers react to World Bank plan to free up climate spending (Climate Home), German minister: Next World Bank boss should be a woman (Reuters)

WORKERS: Biden wants to build a green future. Where are the workers? (Politico Pro $)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Climate researchers: Michigan set for 'economic boom' due to Inflation Reduction Act (Michigan Radio)

SCOTUS: SCOTUS stocks docket with blockbuster regulatory battles (E&E $)

AGENCIES: Telework is better for the planet, federal union argues (Washington Post $)

EPA: EPA reverses Trump-era decision on power plant mercury standards, paving way for stricter limits (Utility Dive), Power plant rule could shape new regs, environmental justice (E&E $)

DOE: DOE violated law with mobile-home energy rules, groups say (E&E $), Midwest hydrogen hubs join forces to pursue DOE funding (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden climate adviser 'bullish' on greening the grid (E&E $), Biden urged not to approve oil terminals that could create ‘carbon bombs’ (The Guardian), The forgotten story of Jimmy Carter’s White House solar panels (Yale Climate Connections), An exit interview with Brian Deese (New York Times $), Biden administration announces new border crackdown (New York Times $)

THE HILL: Farmers of color urge Congress to fund land access (Axios), Bipartisan legislation would increase US uranium production to promote nuclear energy (Utility Dive), Corporate tax breaks surge in push for chip and electric-vehicle factories (Wall Street Journal $)

• SUPER NORMAL AND FINE: House speaker McCarthy gives Tucker Carlson exclusive access to Jan. 6 riot footage (Washington Post $, Axios, CNN, Forbes, Salon, MSNBC)

ELECTIONS: Rep. Barbara Lee kicks off Senate campaign to replace Feinstein (LA Times $), Anti-ESG fund manager Vivek Ramaswamy files for US presidential run (FT $, Bloomberg $)

CITIES AND STATES: Two power plant projects, miles apart, test Murphy’s [New Jersey] clean power target (Politico Pro $), Meet the Calif. lawmaker who wants to transform the grid (E&E $)

IMPACTS: Climate change and the impact on avalanche cycles (ABC), Climate change is making winter weather warmer and 'weirder' (CBS), Pacific islanders head to Australia for jobs as climate fears grow (Context), Stronger El Niño events may speed up irreversible melting of Antarctic ice, research finds (The Guardian)

HEAT: Increasingly extreme heat could cost Phoenix $2 billion every year (Yale Climate Connections)

WILDFIRES: Australia faces unprecedented grassfires next summer ‘supercharged’ by global heating (The Guardian)

HURRICANES: Hurricane Ian relief payments for individuals exceed $1B (E&E $)

DROUGHT: Lack of rain hurts rainforest diversity — study (E&E $), Italy faces new drought alert as Venice canals run dry (Reuters, AP)

WATER: Are the Feds risking endangered salmon for fries and potato chips? (High Country News and Grist), Parched California misses a chance to store more rain underground (New York Times $)

RENEWABLES: Inside the software running Sunrun’s home solar-battery fleets (Canary Media), Made-in-Ohio solar panels benefit from federal incentives, supply chain politics (Energy News Network), Solar advocates fret over initial rollout of low-income tax credit program (Politico Pro $), State demand for offshore wind nearly doubled in 2022: report (The Hill), Energy company announces world first as its tidal power project hits major output milestone (CNBC)

BATTERIES: Battery industry to Uncle Sam: We still need help (E&E $), New emergency bid to appeal, block huge Nevada lithium mine (AP)

BUILDINGS: In search for sustainable materials, developers turn to hemp (New York Times $), When a green building is no longer green enough (New York Times $)

METHANE: 'No excuse': IEA tells energy firms as methane emissions rise (Reuters, The Hill)

OIL & GAS: Tanzania approves $3.5 billion pipeline project (AFP via Barron's), Are the oil majors destined for extinction? (Energy Monitor), Fracking wastewater causes lasting harm to key freshwater species (Inside Climate News), 

HYDROGEN: We need all colours of hydrogen, says German finance minister (Reuters)

NUKES: PSEG looks to extend life of nuclear plants (Politico Pro $), Poland to develop 1st nuclear power plant with Westinghouse (AP)

UTILITIES: CPUC poised to reject Sunnova’s plan to build microgrids in new residential communities (Utility Dive)

GRID: Federal-state task force grapples with grid protection (Minnesota Reformer, Politico Pro $), Power-grid attacks surge and are likely to continue, study finds (Wall Street Journal $), Developing a revenue model is the next challenge as storage as a transmission asset advances: experts (Utility Dive), PJM to offer time-matched renewable energy certificates as demand for 24/7 coverage grows (Utility Dive)

EVs: China’s leading electric carmaker has arrived in Germany (New York Times $)

PFAS: How widespread are these toxic chemicals? They’re everywhere. (New York Times $)

ACTIVISM: Jane Fonda campaigns to save ‘our brethren in the ocean’ (AP)

AVIATION: A sudden rush to make sustainable aviation fuel mainstream (New York Times $), United’s $100M fund to invest in startups making sustainable jet fuel (Canary Media)

(Wall Street Journal $)

BOOKS: Book review: Greta Thunberg tells it like it is in 'The Climate Book' (Yale Climate Connections), Greta Thunberg says climate crisis is an 'existential emergency' (ABC)

BUSINESSES: EDF signs deals to help L'Oreal reach carbon neutrality targets by 2025 (Reuters)

CARBON PRICING: EU countries approve early carbon market auctions (Reuters), EU carbon hits 100 euros taking cost of polluting to record high (Reuters), Which industries pay CO2 costs in Europe? (Reuters, explainer), Pain and gain for industry as EU carbon hits 100 euros (Reuters)

CLIMATE ON THE TEEVEE: The science that spawned fungal fears in HBO's 'The Last Of Us' (NPR)

INTERNATIONAL: Germany throws weight behind energy transition to defend its turf (Reuters), Bangladesh private power producers seek $1 bln in foreign currency for fuel imports (Reuters), China boosts Australian coal imports on hopes for more easing of curbs -traders, data (Reuters), Denmark to issue offshore wind tenders; may review suspended applications - minister (Reuters), France mounts 'aggressive' nuclear push with eye on EU plan (E&E $), German EconMin highlights measures for boosting energy transition (Reuters), South African cities scramble to keep the lights on (Reuters)

• Ohio is facing a chemical disaster. Biden must declare a state of emergency (The Guardian, Steven Donziger op-ed)
• He’s in hospice care now. But Jimmy Carter is still changing the world (LA Times, Nicholas Goldberg op-ed $)
• John Fetterman can help lift the stigma around mental illness and depression (The Guardian, Akin Olla op-ed)
• Another DC Circuit Chevron special (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

WSJ Goes Doomer, Assumes Climate Failure And Promotes Nerd Chef's Geoengineering Obsession 

Since the dawn of humanity, people have cooked food. From roasting meats over a fire to sourdough starters passed down from one generation to the next, cooking has been a deeply personal yet communal part of the human experience. But if you'd rather cast aside centuries of subjective, place-based, family-driven cooking and turn from the warmth of the hearth to a cold and sterile session in a chemistry lab, then The Wall Street Journal's opinion page has the perfect (fake) climate solution for you! 

A new column by Tunku Varadarajan, a WSJ contributor and fellow at the polluter-backed American Enterprise Institute, lavishes praise on Nathan Myhrvold, the boy-genius-turned-Microsoft-executive-turned-chef-turned-geoengineering-advocate. 

While most WSJ opinion pieces call for delay or downplay, deny, distort, and deceive readers about the reality of climate change, Varadarajan instead mirrors Myhrvold's acceptance of the problem, while still missing the point. The headline, for example, starts with the bald-faced lie that "emission cuts will fail to stop climate change" and then asks what we should do instead, in order to set up Myhrvold's stance that geoengineering is an answer. 

Aside from a misrepresentation of the lag between emissions and warming, Varadarajan doesn't try to prove that reducing the fossil fuel pollution that's causing the climate crisis would "fail to stop climate change." Instead, he trades on Myhrvold's admittedly impressive credentials to lull readers into an unearned sense of trust. With multiple degrees and a stint at Microsoft, Myhrvold's also the man who made a five-volume, multi-hundred-dollar cookbook for "Modernist Cuisine" that invented modern cooking in the same way Christopher Columbus "discovered" America, full of recipes requiring multiple multi-hundred-dollar gadgets and gizmos. Myhrvold essentially boiled down one of the most pleasurable human experiences into the sort of precision laboratory drudgery normally requiring closed-toed shoes, safety goggles, and a firm rule to never taste your science experiment. (There's also a version for home cooks, which at a still-shocking $140, is a perfect metaphor for his climate approach.) 

Instead of simply replacing fossil fuels with renewables, a technologically simple but politically challenging task, Myhrvold thinks we should fight pollution with pollution and pump a bunch more chemicals into the atmosphere in order to block out some sunlight. 

But much like adding extra icing on top of a cake that you accidentally baked with salt instead of sugar isn't going to make the cake edible, you can't just spray some chemicals into the atmosphere to fix climate change. With potential downsides like disrupting monsoon seasons that millions of people rely on for farming, hundreds of scientists recently warned of the incredible risks geoengineering presents. 

These scientists spoke out specifically in response to the Biden administration's plans to research "climate interventions," so even as Myhrvold overstates geoengineering’s viability and ignores its risks, his complaint that people who care about climate change are ignoring this possible solution is also misleading! For example, on the same day the WSJ quoted Myhrvold complaining that "there's no evidence I can see that many of the people involved in the climate debate want a solution," Fox News ran a piece targeting none other than George Soros for his comments about his interest in (a form of) geoengineering. 

Soros offered a much more nuanced version of the pitch to use geoengineering to keep the Arctic frozen, including reference to "proper scientific safeguards" and saying it should be done "in consultation with local indigenous communities."

But Soros, one of the biggest funders of climate groups in the world, is advocating for geoengineering in addition to reducing fossil fuel use, not as an alternative to it. Because, among other things, even if it worked perfectly and without unintended consequences, solar radiation management does absolutely nothing for ocean acidification. Spray all the chemicals you want into the air to block out the sun and temporarily suppress the warming trend in the air, and you're still going to turn the oceans into a coral-killing acidic soup that melts oyster and crab and lobster and shrimp shells. 

But of course The Wall Street Journal and its polluter-backed contributors like Tunku Varadarajan don't actually care about solving climate change. They care about keeping fossil fuels in business for as long as possible, and apparently they are shifting from saying there's no need to reduce pollution, to saying it's too late to reduce pollution, so we better double it instead.  

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