DOI Issues Colorado River Cuts Options: Following western states' continued failure to reach agreement on how to reduce their water usage, the Biden administration outlined three options for addressing the Colorado River crisis on Tuesday — none of them good, one that upends decades of precedent, and one that everyone agrees is very bad. The supplemental environmental impact statement released by DOI's Bureau of Reclamation proposes: (1) do nothing and retain the status quo (an option all parties agree is untenable), (2) cut Colorado River usage according to the seniority of users' water rights (which would benefit California's agricultural regions at the expense of Phoenix and Los Angeles water supplies), and (3) cut water usage by equal percentages across the board. DOI did not indicate which option it prefers. Decades of overuse of the Colorado River based on impossibly optimistic supply assumptions and centuries of racism and violence across what is now the American West — all exacerbated by a climate-fueled megadrought far too severe to be alleviate by one wet winter — have pushed the river to a crisis in which it may cease to flow without drastic action. “We have 19th century laws, we have 20th century infrastructure, and we have 21st century climate,” John Entsminger, the lead negotiator for Nevada, told the New York Times. “And those three things don’t fit very well together.” (New York Times $, Washington Post $, AP, E&E News, Politico, CNN; Climate Signals background: Western megadrought)

EPA Proposes New Tailpipe Pollution Limits: The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed new rules to dramatically reduce pollution from vehicles ranging from passenger cars to semi trucks. The new safeguards, which will be publicly announced today, would require carmakers to cut pollution emitted from cars and pickups in 2032 to less than half of what they produce in 2026. The rules, which only pertain to tailpipe emissions, do not include any electric vehicle sales requirements — though they will almost certainly result in a dramatic increase in EV sales. The moves also follow the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, which included numerous provisions promoting EVs. Consumer demand for EVs is growing even as EVs still make up a small portion of new vehicle sales nationwide. (Washington Post $, New York Times $, AP, CNBC, Wall Street Journal $, Detroit Free Press, NPR, CNET, Electrek, E&E $; Inflation Reduction Act: E&E News; Growing demand: E&E News)

BLM Approves Major WY-CA Transmission Project: The Bureau of Land Management approved a major transmission line on Tuesday that will deliver wind-generated electricity from Wyoming to California. The 732-mile TransWest Express Transmission Project will carry power produced by the 600 wind turbines at the country's largest onshore wind farm in Carbon County, Wyoming, to Las Vegas, NV, where existing transmission infrastructure will carry it into California. The lack of transmission infrastructure is a major barrier to the integration of clean energy resources into the electrical grid, a struggle illustrated by the 18 years required for the project to navigate what TransWest COO Roxane Perruso described as a "spider web of jurisdiction." “Wyoming wind is literally the best onshore wind resource in the nation, and Wyoming is a state known as an energy exporter,” Perruso told E&E. “Now Wyoming can export another energy resource to a market that needs it and expand the market for renewable energy in the West.” (E&E $, The Hill)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Texas Gov. Abbott pushes to pardon Army sergeant convicted of killing BLM protester (NPR, Vanity Fair, Texas Tribune, Black Wall Street Times, Mother Jones, NewsOne, Texas Monthly, NPR), Killed BLM protester’s family reacts to Texas governor’s plans to pardon man responsible (CNN)

• TENNESSEE THREE: Justin Jones returns to state legislature after unanimous Nashville Council appointment (The Tennessean, Politico, The Hill, BBC, Washington Post $, The Guardian, Democracy Now, Black Wall Street Times, NPR), Reinstated Tennessee lawmaker Justin Jones says he’ll continue to call for gun reform (CNN), Tenn. lawmaker Justin Pearson expects to soon be reappointed after unprecedented expulsion (ABC)

ADRIFT: Adrift in the Atlantic, a boat of death and lost dreams (AP, AP), Desperate for new lives, they took to the sea (AP Photos), Takeaways of AP Investigation into deadly migrant voyage (AP)

ORPHANED WELLS: There could be millions of abandoned wells in the US plugging them is a monumental task. (Washington Post $)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: LNG imports test EU resolve to quit Russian fossil fuel (Reuters)

9:37 🚂 TO THE PETROCHEMICAL DYSTOPIA: Truck carrying 40,000 pounds of toxic soil from East Palestine train derailment site crashes on highway (CBS, Washington Examiner), Ohio train derailment highlights waste disposal predicament (AP)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Blue states back D.C. in Big Oil climate fight (E&E $)

(CLIMATE) DIPLOMACY: G7 climate ministers drop language on growing LNG demand in draft (Reuters), UN chief calls for massive international support to Somalia (AP)

DENIAL & FRONT GROUPS: Behind lawsuits targeting offshore wind farms, Texas conservative group looms large (Houston Chronicle)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Houston dealerships could see more interest in electric vehicles ahead of tax credit change (Houston Chronicle), US grid interconnection backlog jumps 40% with wait times expected to grow as IRA spurs more renewables (Utility Dive)

AGENCIES: Biden regs boss: '$100M isn't what it used to be' (E&E $), FEMA sued over using disaster funds to rebuild Puerto Rico’s power grid (Washington Post $)

EPA: Chemicals group, enviros unite behind EPA spending hike (E&E $), Environmental groups sue EPA over wastewater pollution standards (Politico Pro $), EPA acts, finding cancer risk from sterilization chemical (AP, The Hill, Politico Pro $, E&E $)

DOE: DOE proposes major shift in calculation of EV fuel economy (E&E $, Politico Pro $)

DOI: Lawsuit challenges Interior's Mountain Valley pipeline review (E&E $), BLM to auction tracts in Nev. region prized by solar industry (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden wants to sell Americans on electric cars. And some are eager to buy. (Politico)

POLITICS: Youth vs. apocalypse puts working-class young people of color at the heart of the climate fight (Teen Vogue), Why are taxpayers propping up the fossil fuel industry? (New York Times $), Inflation may make people less likely to back climate policy (TIME)

TRIBES: Navajo Nation to receive federal aid for severe flood damage (AP)

CITIES AND STATES: America needs clean electricity. These states show how to do it. (Washington Post $), NYC fossil fuel power plant could be national model for green energy conversion (Politico Pro $)

• TEXAS: Texas bills call for renewables to help save declining fossil fuel sector (The Hill), Texas would boost number of public EV charging stations under pending bills (Houston Chronicle)
• MARYLAND: Md. lawmakers send governor bill to quadruple offshore wind (E&E $), Maryland lawmakers pass offshore wind bill, state targets 8.5 gw by 2031 (offshoreWIND.biz)

IMPACTS: If only the rain fixed California (The Atlantic), Rising seas swell in southeastern US — study (E&E News), Scientists find 'unprecedented' rates of sea level rise along some US coasts that's 3 times higher than global average (CBS), Cyclone Ilsa forecast to batter western Australia with 140 mph winds (Washington Post $, AP)

FLOODING: Floods hit northern Montana as rapid snowmelt swells rivers (AP)

WILDFIRES: 1 dead, hundreds flee wildfire in South Korean seaside city (AP), New Jersey firefighters battle massive 500-acre forest fire (AP)

WATER: Groundwater gold rush (Bloomberg $), Rich people’s swimming pools are fueling water crises in cities, study says (Washington Post $, TIME), Plastic recycling plant could send toxic ‘forever chemicals’ into the Susquehanna River, polluting a vital drinking water source (Inside Climate News), Why your swimming pool may be worse for urban water scarcity than climate change (Inside Climate News)

(DE)FORESTATION: Congo commission recommends terminating 30 forest concessions (Reuters), More forest, more profit? Brazil looks to build a new 'bioeconomy' (Context), Pine beetle infestation: Epidemic of North America’s forests (New York Times $)

METEOROLOGY: Funding for weather stations that provide critical data is under threat (NPR)

RENEWABLES: Why growth in solar and wind is truly unprecedented (Energy Monitor), US home solar installers brace for slowdown as California reform looms (Reuters), World’s deepest offshore wind turbine installed off Scottish coast (The Guardian)

BATTERIES: Why China could dominate the next big advance in batteries (New York Times $)

BUILDINGS: Data from whole-home energy monitors can help homeowners reduce carbon pollution (Yale Climate Connections)

STORAGE: Clean Power Alliance, NextEra Energy OK 75-MW long-duration energy storage PPA in Southern California (Utility Dive)

OIL & GAS: Occidental makes a billion-dollar climate moonshot—so it can keep pumping oil (Wall Street Journal $), Exxon deal hunt signals possible shale M&A wave (Wall Street Journal $)

PIPELINES: Firm restarting oil pipeline involved in California spill (AP)

COAL: Glencore revises bid for teck resources to allay coal concerns (Wall Street Journal $), US coal plant contribution to electric grid plummets to smallest in history: report (The Hill)

HYDROGEN: Blending hydrogen into gas heating ‘could add almost £200’ to UK bills (The Guardian)

NUKES: NARUC, National Association of State Energy Officials launch advanced nuclear power collaboration (Utility Dive), Germany to phase out last three nuclear reactors for good (Washington Examiner), Nuclear phaseout could increase air pollution deaths — study (E&E $)

UTILITIES: Climate, consumer groups request Florida PSC hearing to modernize utility efficiency rules (Utility Dive), Dominion Energy to buy solar project in Virginia (Reuters)

GRID: ABB plans $40M New Mexico plant to fortify US electric grid (Utility Dive)

EVs: 47 percent in new poll say it’s unlikely they would buy EV (The Hill), Automakers face test in reaching US target for electric vehicles (New York Times $), Tesla can’t quit China (Axios), Why leasing an EV might be the smarter choice right now (Axios), 4 in 10 say next vehicle may be electric: AP-NORC/EPIC poll (AP)

AGRICULTURE: More midwest farmers are planting 'cover crops' in the off-season to help the climate (NPR)

BOOKS: Mikaela Loach makes clear exactly what we’re fighting for (Atmos), 12 books for Earth Day (Yale Climate Connections)

CARBON COUNTING: Carbon emissions accounting player grows as data demands escalate (Axios)

CARBON CAPTURE: Texas company set to build its first big CCS gas power plant (E&E $)

IN MEMORIAM: Kwame brathwaite, 85, photographer with a lens on Black pride, is dead (New York Times $)

INTERNATIONAL: India cen[tral] bank puts in place framework for acceptance of green deposits (Reuters), Italy proposes crackdown on 'eco-vandals' damaging monuments (Reuters), Protesters shout down Macron on visit to the Netherlands (Reuters), South Africa should not shy away from costs of fixing power crisis -minister (Reuters), Sri Lanka central bank says sovereign lenders yet to outline debt talks plans (Reuters), War in Ukraine pushes Europe’s militaries to decarbonize (E&E $), Andalusia considers more irrigation near Spanish wetlands (AP)

• ‘Permitting reform’ can’t mean more fossil fuels (The Hill, Lisa Frank and Tony Dutzik op-ed)
• Is Europe gassing Africa with World Bank support? (Context, Dean Bhukumuzi Bhebhe and Naomi Kreitman)
• Does climate breakdown mean we’re doomed? No: if we’re brave, big change can happen fast (The Guardian, Gaia Vince op-ed)
• '1% for 1.5°C' can power green finance (Reuters, Mahmoud Mohieldin op-ed)
• Inequality ahoy! on the meaning of the superyacht (New York Times, Paul Krugman column $)
• Red states win with Inflation Reduction Act — GOP wants to kill it anyway (The Hill, William Becker op-ed)
• Performance-enhancing climate news (Wall Street Journal, James Freeman op-ed $)

Chemtrails and Geoengineering: A Zombie Disinfo Narrative That Just Won’t Stay Dead

When disinfluencers aren’t resourceful or creative enough to find any new disinformation to spread, they resort to dredging up something that happened years ago and pretending it’s recent news. Reduce, reuse, recycle! That’s exactly what happened this week, when disinformers took a speech former CIA Director John Brennan made at the Council on Foreign Relations in June 2016 and spread it around on Twitter as if it was a big new revelation about geoengineering and chemtrails.

Speaking about how “beneficial advances [in technology] can have destabilizing effects in the long run,” Brennan discussed geoengineering, the various dangerous strategies being considered to help cool the Earth’s atmosphere. More specifically, he mentioned “stratospheric aerosol injection, or SAI: a method of seeding the stratosphere with particles that can help reflect the sun’s heat in much the same way that volcanic eruptions do.” Brennan accurately described the many problems with SAI, including that it wouldn’t address climate change consequences like ocean acidification and that it could trigger major geopolitical tensions. He ultimately concluded, “as with other breakthrough technologies, global norms and standards are lacking to guide the deployment and implementation of SAI and other geoengineering initiatives.”

However, Twitter users who might never have heard of geoengineering are getting a very different message this week. Disinformers are using Brennan’s speech — ICYMI, from 2016 — to relentlessly spread false narratives about chemtrails, even though these tired claims have been debunked numerous times. According to Harvard researchers, the chemtrails conspiracy theory alleges with “no evidence” whatsoever that “governments or other parties are engaged in a secret program to add toxic chemicals to the atmosphere from aircraft in a way that forms visible plumes in the sky, somewhat similar to contrails.” This baseless conspiracy theory has been around since the 1990s, yet disinformers just won’t let it die out.

On Saturday, one disinfluencer tweeted a video of Brennan’s speech along with a line reading, “No more conspiracy theory - they admit to using Chemtrail” and captions (on the speech that has been around longer than the Confederacy existed) declaring, “NO LONGER A CONSPIRACY THEORY” and “CIA DIRECTOR ADMITS PLANS FOR GEOENGINEERING VIA CHEMTRAILS.” Over the next few days, at least thirteen other accounts posted the same tweet or very similar disinformation. Not only that, but other Twitter disinformers conflated geoengineering with the chemtrails conspiracy theory using a 2021 Guardian article and spread baseless chemtrails disinformation in multiple languages.

Although this crusty old disinformation might seem amusing, it can have extremely damaging effects. The Pew Research Center found that as of 2021, “A little under half (48%) of U.S. adults say they get news from social media ‘often’ or ‘sometimes,’” and “roughly seven-in-ten U.S. Twitter users (69%) say they get news on the site.” Furthermore, Science Feedback found that after Elon Musk’s toxic Twitter takeover, “Misinformation ‘superspreader’ engagement increased [by] 44%,” so regular people are at higher risk than ever before of seeing harmful climate disinformation on the platform.

The Stop Toxic Twitter coalition is calling on Musk to “prioritize making the platform safer, [and] focus on ushering in an era where the company has stronger policies to protect users against hate, harassment, and toxicity.” Furthermore, the coalition is urging companies to “immediately stop advertising on Twitter.”

Until tech platforms and governments take a stand against digital disinformation, baseless climate conspiracy theories about chemtrails and geoengineering will continue to spread, even when lazy disinfluencers have nothing to rely on but stale, seven-year-old content.

While we wait for surveillance capitalism-reliant CEOs to do the right thing, maybe consider building your profile somewhere else!

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