Bitcoin 'Propping Up Our Fossil Fuel Industry': When Winter Storm Uri froze power plants across Texas in February of 2021, approximately 700 people died, and millions more paid outrageous prices for power, despite the outages. Part of those sky-high power bills went to Bitcoin company Bitdeer, which over the course of five days, made over $18 million from the state- to not operate. Bitdeer's business of running computers constantly to create imaginary digital currency consumes about 6,500 homes worth of electricity, and it was paid $175,000 an hour to keep those wasteful CPUs offline so that power could be used to keep people warm and alive. A New York Times investigation revealed 34 such bitcoin mining operations in the US, like one in Kearney, Nebraska that uses "about as much electricity as the 73,000 homes around" it or one in Dalton, Georgia that sucks up "nearly as much power as the surrounding 97,000 households." The biggest? Texas, of course, Riot Platforms' facility in Rockdale "uses about the same amount of electricity as the nearest 300,000 homes." Combined with the Bitdeer facility less than a mile away, the pair "use more power than all of the households within a 40-mile radius." That additional demand has raised costs for consumers by $1.8 billion, and in total, it's like adding 3.5 million gas cars worth of emissions. The bitcoin facilities identified by the Times use "nearly the same amount of electricity as the three million households that surround them… as if another New York City's worth of residences were now drawing on the nation's power supply." An analysis calculated that these mines are adding 16.4 million tons of carbon pollution to the atmosphere every year. While supporters like to claim bitcoin can run on renewables, 85 percent of the demand is being met by coal and methane gas plants. "They are propping up our fossil fuel industry," North Dakota Commissioner of Commerce said, "and that’s exactly what we want.” (New York Times $)

Deniers Get Expelled From Teacher Conference For Passing Out Comic Books: In what is surely not their first time disrupting the educational experience, a group of climate deniers working for the CO2 Coalition were recently expelled from the National Science Teaching Association's convention after passing out comic books with climate disinformation, Maxine Joselow at the Washington Post reports today. Apparently seeking to appeal to what an old person thinks "nongeriatric" people are into besides apps, the CO2 Coalition gave teachers copies of a comic book called "Simon the solar-powered cat," a story about a cat that eats CO2, described as "the miracle molecule." The pro-CO2 argument from the group that a Greenpeace sting once exposed as a vehicle for concealing payments from fossil fuel sources in exchange for producing climate disinformation, is as intellectually honest as it is logically coherent. It's "like telling a drowning person they need water to survive," climate scientist Andrew Dessler told Joselow. "It's kind of like if you're talking about cigarettes, and all you talk about is how cool they make you look." (Washington Post $)

Citigroup's Denial? Divestment Activists Taking Nun Of It: Banking giant Citigroup is being called on to repent for its role in funding fossil fuel pipelines by the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace, a group of nuns who own a stake in the bank. In a resolution to be voted on at Citi's April 25th AGM, the Sisters ask the bank to disclose its efforts thus far to protect Indigenous rights that may be impacted by the bank's financial decisions, with the $5 billion provided to Enbridge as the main point of contention. Enbridge's Line 3 and Line 5 pipelines transporting oil from the US to Canada have been opposed by local and Indigenous communities, but the bank countered the nuns claims that it was funding Line 3 and Line 5 "untrue," because it was just funding the company, not those specific projects. But it doesn't look like the company's fooling anyone. "The bank knows only too well that the money it has provided to Enbridge has enabled the company to fund the damaging Line 3 and Line 5 projects," Airelle Swernoff of Stop the Money Pipeline told the Financial Times. And while the direct fiscal impact of activism like this may be limited, the larger social impact is quite a bit larger, according to new research. When divestment tweets went viral, for example in 2018 when Ireland announced it would divest from fossil fuel companies, the biggest US oil and methane companies took a $14 billion hit on the market–despite Ireland's holding only 16 of the 40 stocks that fell. Overall, researchers found that viral divestment tweets lowered the average share price of major US carbon emitters by 1 percent, which over a three-day period, led to an average $1.5 billion loss per company. (Citi vs Sisters: Financial Times $; Divestment tweets: Financial Times $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Environmental injustice in Tennessee (HEATED), The unequal racial burdens of rising seas (New York Times $)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: War in Ukraine pushes Europe's militaries to decarbonize (PoliticoPRO $)

9:37 🚂 TO THE PETROCHEMICAL DYSTOPIA: In Ohio, regulators are letting the polluter guide a toxic cleanup (HuffPost)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Hawai'i teens lead second youth climate trial in US history (Hawai'i Public Radio), Blue states back D.C. in Big Oil climate fight (PoliticoPRO $) 

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Largest habitat on Earth is finally getting protection (Vox), G-7 nations tussle over bid to phase out coal power by 2030 (Bloomberg $), G7 climate ministers drop language on growing LNG demand in draft (Reuters), Yellen to push next steps for development bank evolution at spring meetings (Reuters), Climate change and poverty pose challenge to World Bank (WSJ $), The World Bank is getting a new chief. Will he pivot toward climate action? (New York Times $)

DISINFO: How The Right Weaponizes Tragedy To Target LGBTQ+ (The Serfs), India residents try to save a river, officials deny problems (AP)

FOSSIL VOLATILITY: Fewer Americans see US energy situation as 'very serious' (The Hill) 

🐦🗑️🔥: Social media is resource extraction and you are the resource (Posting Through It), Twitter isn't a company anymore (Slate), After Matt Taibbi leaves Twitter, Elon Musk 'shadow bans' all Taibbi's tweets, including the Twitter Files (TechDirt), Twitter targets its rival Substack, forcing well-known journalists to choose (Washington Post $)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Climate law could insulate Biden's EV push in court (PoliticoPRO $)

• NEWS YOU CAN USE: Buy an electric vehicle now or wait? Here's how to decide (Washington Post $) 

GNARLY, DUDE: A case of the disappearing waves (New York Times $)

FASTER HORSES: Less than half say next vehicle is an EV: AP-NORC/EPIC poll (AP), EPA rule nods to public demand for EVs (PoliticoPRO $), Market trends likely to aid ambition of imminent EPA vehicle plans (InsideEPA $), AP sources: EPA car rule to push huge increase in EV sales (AP), Automakers face test in reaching U.S. target for electric vehicles (New York Times $), More EV sales could come from anticipated Biden rule (The Hill), What is an EV heat pump? (And why you should want one) (Slashgear)

OH COOL: Study: Greenhouse gas 'tipping points' preceded major earlier warming events (The Hill) 

NOT CACT-YOU, BUT CACTUS: Climate change wiped out thousands of the West's most iconic cactus. Can planting more help a species that takes a century to mature? (Inside Climate News) 

POLLENHATERS: How climate change is making your seasonal allergies symptoms worse (TIME, ABC)

NOW THE APPLE NEEDS A DOCTOR?: Climate change is fuelling the spread of viral diseases in plants (New Scientist $)

PICKING (WINNERS AND) LOSERS: Texas bills call for renewables to help save declining fossil fuel sector (The Hill)

AGENCIES: Brennan named new director for National Hurricane Center (AP)

EPA: GOP renews fears over EPA's third-party methane monitoring plan (InsideEPA $)

DOE: Part of a law to have federal buildings stop using [methane] gas was never implemented (NPR), DOE proposes major shift in calculation of EV fuel economy (PoliticoPRO $) 

DOI: Interior poised to wade into states' Colorado River fight (PoliticoPRO $)

CITIES AND STATES: In Oregon, a microchip gold rush could pave over long-protected farmland (Grist), Md. lawmakers send governor bill to quadruple offshore wind (PoliticoPRO $)

• CALIFORNIA: Shoppers to see higher prices for produce after atmospheric rivers flood California (CBS)

IMPACTS: Miami and New Orleans face greater sea-level threat than already feared (Guardian, Gizmodo, PoliticoPRO $), How researchers track weather on top of Mount Washington, home to the 'world's worst weather' (CBS)

HEAT: As summer heat looms, Japan urged to curb impact, emissions (AP) 

HURRICANES: Climate change may drive more hurricanes towards the US east coast (New Scientist)

DROUGHT: Did this winter solve the Colorado River crisis? No– but it took some pressure off, for now (CNN)

WATER: Indulgences of the rich fueling urban water crises: study (The Hill)

RENEWABLES: Surging costs to hit offshore wind projects, expert warns (Times UK)

BUILDINGS: Long Island Sales of Heat Pumps, Geothermal Systems Up 20% PSEG Says (Newsday) What Is the Role of Renewables in Building Electrification and Efficiency? (Facilities Net)

OIL & GAS: Pioneer Natural jumps on report of buyout talks with Exxon (Reuters)

PIPELINES: Lawsuit challenges Interior's Mountain Valley pipeline review (PoliticoPRO $)

GRID: DeSoto, other N. La. parishes to get economic boost from transmission line construction (KTBS), Texas grid advances proposal to add $500 million in power costs (Bloomberg $) 

AGRICULTURE: Rice producers' methane problem (SCMP)

FINANCE: Japan's three megabanks to face votes on climate change (Reuters), How big banks can make real progress against climate change (Popular Science), Climate bank backed by stars plans sweeping layoffs (PoliticoPRO $)

WILDLIFE: Scientists say climate change, rising water temperatures, responsible for right whale sightings (Boston.com)

• Advancing climate justice in New York (PBS, Yessenia Funes op-ed)
• Current heat warning systems are woefully inadequate in an age of climate change (STAT, Ashley Ward op-ed)
• The global EV transition hinges on one Chinese company (Bloomberg, Anjani Trivedi column $) 
• California's race against time to build power lines (Los Angeles Times, Sammy Roth column $)
• Climate emergency is the biggest health crisis of our time – bigger than Covid (Guardian, Pascal Soriot op-ed)
• Squirrels 9,000 miles apart hint at the effects of climate change (Washington Post, John Kelly column $)
• Climate anxiety is real (Albuquerque Journal, Judith Polich op-ed)
• David Attenborough's online Wild Isles isn't too hard-hitting for TV– it doesn't go far enough (Guardian, Dave Goulson review)
• Industrial heat set for major energy source overhaul by 2050 (Reuters, Gavin Maguire column)
• The Fed's climate studies are full of hot air (WSJ, David Barker op-ed $)
• The Hill, Donald J. Kochan op-ed)

As Major Questions Arise Over Clarence Thomas's Hitler-Artifact-Collecting-Billionaire Vacation Buddy, Deniers Use 'Major Questions Doctrine' To Challenge Climate Policy

Remember last summer when the Supreme Court "fucked the planet" with the so-called "major questions doctrine" that basically gives the Court the authority to revoke any regulation it considers too big for its congressional britches? 

Unsurprisingly, defenders of dangerous industries certainly remember, as they've been using it for exactly its intended purpose: providing an excuse to oppose meaningful regulations on polluting products. 

For example, in response to the Biden administration's proposal to regulate tailpipe emissions from cars (something that is unquestionably not just authorized but required by the Clean Air Act), The Washington Examiner ran an op-ed by James Rogan arguing that these regulations are an "illegal move." The regulations' standards will require two-thirds of cars sold to be electric by 2032 in order to protect human health, and according to Rogan, that's akin to "legislation to ban" gas cars. Supposedly, it's not only unconstitutional because "the President cannot make law" but also because it "ignores" the Supreme Court's "major questions doctrine." 

Now, until the conservative takeover of the Supreme Court, the "major questions doctrine" was the sort of thing that dangerous industries, their front groups, and their unofficial defenders used as more of a stall tactic than anything else, because no judges ever fell for it. 

Unfortunately, between the 'not so sure about democracy anymore' Federalist Society having installed partisan judges up and down the bench and Clarence Thomas (who is married to an election denier and parties every year with a billionaire who "has a garden full of dictator statues"), these days the judicial branch is open to legal theories cooked up in smoky back rooms by billionaires' legal lackeys.  

This conservative corruption of the legal system is probably why we're seeing 'major questions' pop up across the disinfosphere. Trump transition team alum Michael McKenna cited the doctrine a few weeks ago in a RealClear piece about the budget and EV regulations, congressional Republicans cited it a month ago in a letter to the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF) that questioned gun control rules, and back in November, Trump's team used it to try and fight Special Counsel Jack Smith's investigation. 

As Reuters explained in March in its reporting about the doctrine’s use in the student loan forgiveness cases, "the court has repeatedly applied to Biden policies the so-called major questions doctrine," invoking "it to scuttle a pandemic-era residential eviction moratorium, a COVID-19 vaccination-or-testing mandate for large businesses and federal limits on carbon emissions from power plants." 

Time and time again, the Supreme Court has let companies put lives in danger for profit, striking down regulations to protect people from pandemics, profiteers, and pollution, in between vacations with a billionaire who collects Hitler memorabilia, politicians and judges alike. 

And yet calls for justice among justices are still portrayed as partisan. 

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