Ft. Lauderdale Submerged By 2+ft. Of Rain In 1 Day: A record-obliterating storm deluged the Fort Lauderdale area on Wednesday, triggering dangerous floods, knocking out power for the city's main hospital, shutting down a major airport, and turning streets into rivers. The storm dumped more than 25 inches of rain at the airport — a third of the region's annual rainfall and more than 10 inches more than the previous one-day record. Even though the storm hit at low tide (a small but meaningful stroke of good fortune) it still leaves brackish floodwaters behind where they will stagnate and almost certainly cause long-lasting damage. “This is worse than any hurricane we have had,” Fort Lauderdale city commissioner Warren Sturman told the Washington Post, adding that thousands of people will likely be displaced by the storm. Increasingly heavy downpours, facilitated by a warmer atmosphere capable of holding and releasing more moisture, are some of the clearest impacts of climate change. In the case of this event, the intense rain was likely partially fueled by ocean temperatures that are 2 to 3 degrees higher than normal for this time of year.  “...no city can prepare for this,” Fort Lauderdale mayor Dean Trantalis told the Washington Post. (Washington Post $, Broward Sun-Sentinel, AP, CNN, USA Today, New York Times $, Miami Herald, USA Today, New Scientist, CNN, Reuters, CBS, Quartz) (USA Today, CNN, Washington Post $, Axios, The Hill, KEYT, WPTV, Axios, Washington Post Photos $; Climate Signals background: Extreme precipitation increase)

Climate Change Making Droughts Faster, More Furious: Climate change is making droughts hit harder and faster, giving farmers even less time to prepare, a study published Thursday in Science finds. In addition to the impacts on regular droughts, so-called "flash droughts" that occur in the growing season cause outsized damage because they come on so quickly as the air gets extremely hot and dry, pulling water right out of plants and soil. A flash drought struck China’s Yangtze River basin last summer, coinciding with extreme heat and wildfires. Another, one of the worst droughts since the 1930s Dust Bowl, hit the central U.S. in 2012, causing $30 billion of damage. Both flash droughts developed in less than a month. (AP, New York Times $; Climate Signals background: Drought)

Louisiana Polluted, Robbed By Wasteful Oil & Gas Operations: Louisiana oil and gas wells wasted more than 27 billion cubic feet of planet-heating methane into the atmosphere — more than 80% of it from leaks — in 2019, a new Synapse Energy Economics report shows. The report, commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund and Taxpayers for Common Sense, outlines far greater pollution from the state's oil and gas industry than what was previously known. Methane, the main component in so-called "natural gas," traps more than 80 times* more heat in the atmosphere than CO2 over a 20-year timeframe. The widespread leaking, flaring, and venting of methane gas is extremely wasteful — Louisiana oil and gas operators released enough gas in 2019 to meet half the state's residential methane gas demand that year — and also robbed taxpayers of $82 million in state revenue because oil and gas companies do not pay royalties on the gas lost in leaks. A disproportionate amount of the pollution came from low-producing operations. “Methane flaring and venting is bad for the environment, the state economy and state budget,” Ned Randolph of the Louisiana Budget Project told NOLA.com. “It robs all of us of important revenue which needs to be made up by other taxes.” Not only is slashing methane pollution, especially by fixing leaks, the most cost-efficient and effective way to limit near-term planetary heating, it also has other benefits. “Mitigation is a job creator,” Randolph added. “And it gets us closer to a clean energy transition.” (NOLA.com, AP, Louisiana Illuminator)

* An earlier version of this newsletter misstated how much more heat is trapped by atmospheric methane. Methane traps 80 times more heat than CO2 over 20 years.

TENNESSEE THREE: Why Tennessee expulsions matter for climate action (Atmos)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Austria’s go-slow effort to kick its Russian energy addiction (Politico Pro $), Russia ordered to pay Ukraine’s Naftogaz $5 billion for assets seized in Crimea (Wall Street Journal $, Politico Pro $), Ukraine lawmakers urge US, EU to hit Russian LNG with secondary sanctions (Reuters)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: ‘I’m all for climate change’: Axel Springer CEO faces heat over leaked messages (The Guardian), Denmark latest EU country to plan Energy Charter Treaty exit (Reuters), Japan is pushing G7 to step up gas investments - source (Reuters, Politico Pro $), Natural gas exporters skirt Washington’s scrutiny of China (Politico)

• BRETTON WOODS: Developing countries call for new government funds for World Bank (Climate Home), German government is satisfied with consultations to reform the World Bank (Reuters), Kerry to World Bank: Help lead on climate finance efforts (E&E $), World Bank steering committee and US urge for reforms on climate lending (Climate Home)

EAST AFRICA: UN says Somalia faces catastrophic hunger as climate crisis fuels drought (Democracy Now)

FOSSIL BANKS: Banks say they’re acting on climate, but continue to finance fossil fuel expansion (Inside Climate News), Banks keep pouring cash into fossil fuels. US lenders lead the way. (Barron's, DeSmog, MarketWatch), [Royal Bank of Canada] becomes world’s biggest fossil-fuel bank, topping JPMorgan (Bloomberg $, Yahoo, FT $), France's Credit Mutuel to stop financing energy groups that aren't cutting oil and gas output (Reuters), Les banques continuent de financer largement le secteur des énergies fossiles (Le Monde), Japan's largest banks hit by shareholder climate action (Environmental Finance), BNP Paribas, Barclays: The European banks that fund fossil fuel extraction revealed (EuroNews)

ALL ABOARD!: Study finds high-speed rail increases happiness (Vice)

SENEGAL GAS: Senegal gas deal drives locals to desperation, prostitution (AP), Takeaways from AP report on impact of Senegal's gas project (AP)

PLASTIC FIRE: The fire at an Indiana plastics recycling plant has been extinguished, though residents’ health concerns remain (CNN, AP)\(NPR, HuffPost, New York Times $, USA Today, CNN), Where there’s plastic, there’s fire. Indiana blaze highlights concerns over expanding plastic recycling (Inside Climate News, TIME), Richmond plastics recycling warehouse that caught fire had previous safety citations (Indianapolis Star)

DENIAL & PAYCHECKS: Harvard environmental lawyer under fire for oil industry ties (Boston Globe $)

🐦🗑️🔥: Twitter’s new limits may block your next tornado warning (Washington Post $)

COINTELPRO: After infiltrating Standing Rock, Tigerswan pitched its ‘counterinsurgency’ playbook to other oil companies (Grist)

LANDBACK: Want to protect your health? Start by protecting Indigenous land. (Grist)

SMALL WATERWAYS: California wants to cover its canals with solar panels (New York Times $), Mini hydro company raises $18M to generate power in canals (AP, Fast Company)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: How Biden’s climate legislation keeps poor Americans paying more than their fair share (TIME)

SCOTUS: Billionaire Harlan Crow bought property from Clarence Thomas. The justice didn’t disclose the deal. (ProPublica, Rolling Stone, Washington Post $, New York Times $, NPR, Axios, CNN, USA Today, Salon, NY Mag, New Republic, Business Insider, The New Yorker $), Clarence Thomas’ mom definitely still lives in the house the billionaire bought (Slate)

AGENCIES: Barr to lead pro-business effort to challenge Biden rules (The Hill), Biden releases $1B for urban trees (E&E News), Lawsuit: Feds violated NEPA with Puerto Rico grid repairs (E&E $)

EPA: EPA awards $177 million to environmental justice groups (AP), EPA proposes major air pollution reforms to lower residents’ cancer risk near industrial facilities (ProPublica), EPA sued over failure to set, update pollution limits (Minnesota Reformer), EPA used the climate law on cars. Power plants are next. (E&E News), New US car and truck emissions standards will make or break Biden’s climate legacy (Inside Climate News), Proposed federal rule would regulate coal plant wastewater for the first time (Energy News Network), The EPA says Americans could save $1 trillion on gas under its auto emissions plan (NPR)

DOE: High energy costs threaten climate goals, energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm warns (Wall Street Journal $), US Energy secretary says G7 can lead global emissions cuts (AP)

WHITE HOUSE: Orgs press White House for tougher scientific integrity plan (E&E $)

THE HILL: Progressive Democrats press Biden administration to suspend Willow oil project permits (Politico Pro $), Fetterman meets farmers affected by Ohio train derailment (E&E $)

POLITICS: Biden’s EV push sparks lobbying surge (E&E News)

ELECTIONS: Tim Scott brings cold climate record into the GOP primary (E&E $)

CITIES AND STATES: New blue majority in Mich. eyes 100% clean energy law (E&E News), New Hampshire bill would offer new path for utilities to procure electricity (Energy News Network), Texas electricity bills could rise more frequently under pending legislation (Houston Chronicle, Marketplace), Oklahoma moves closer to banning gender-affirming care for trans youth (Black Wall Street Times)

• CALIFORNIA: More clean transportation options are coming to South Los Angeles (Yale Climate Connections), California denies bid from home solar company to sell power as a ‘micro-utility’ (Inside Climate News), California is a rooftop solar giant. New rules could change that (Canary Media)

IMPACTS: March 2023: Earth’s 2nd-warmest March on record (Yale Climate Connections), New England’s most important weather forecast is getting more unpredictable (Heatmap $), Ticks are bringing disease to a backyard near you (Wall Street Journal $), A cyclone-hit Indian hamlet pins its hopes on a sea wall (AP)

HURRICANES: Forecasters predict a slightly below-average 2023 Atlantic hurricane season (Yale Climate Connections, Washington Post $), Severe Tropical Cyclone Ilsa headed toward landfall in northwest Australia (Washington Post $, AP)

DROUGHT: No water, no life': Drought threatens farmers and food in Italy (Context)

WATER: Swimming pools and lavish gardens of the rich are driving water shortages, study says (NPR, Gizmodo)

PEAK DINOS: Peak fossil fuels coming earlier than believed — IEA chief (E&E $)

RENEWABLES: Global wind energy set to hit 1 TW in 2023, double in 8 years: WoodMac (Utility Dive), Houston wind turbine manufacturer hit with $293K in OSHA fines (Houston Chronicle), Hundreds rally against proposed large Idaho wind farm (AP), Look out, California: one of the country’s largest solar arrays is taking shape in… Illinois? (Inside Climate News), Price stability of residential solar may attract consumers amid high power prices: solar executive (Utility Dive), Rooftop solar caused a record-low electricity demand on Easter Sunday (Concord Monitor, E&E $), US manufacturing boom has a real estate problem (Reuters), US power grid to rely on renewable sources, EIA says (Reuters)

BUILDINGS: How electrification became a major tool for fighting climate change (New York Times)

LNG: Tellurian closer to securing LNG project funding: Souki (Bloomberg $)

OIL & GAS: Biden's EV push could upend Texas oil industry (Houston Chronicle), Oil loans plummeted amid global energy crunch (E&E $), OPEC sees oil demand climbing, at odds with Saudi-led production cut (Wall Street Journal $), Soaring electricity prices outrun inflation but have likely peaked as natural gas prices plunge: EIA, BLS (Utility Dive)

PIPELINES: Midwest CO2 pipelines push ahead as bills fizzle (E&E News)

COAL: Ammonia burned with coal cuts carbon emissions, and investors are interested (Wall Street Journal $), Phaseout of coal power far too slow to avoid ‘climate chaos’, report finds (The Guardian)

GRID: On trial now: The fate of a key clean energy transmission line in Maine (Canary Media)

EVs: Biden wants to coax Americans into electric cars. These 3 groups have other ideas. (Politico Pro $), Boosting EV market share to 67% of US car sales is a huge leap – but automakers can meet EPA’s tough new standards (The Conversation), Fast EV chargers to nearly double on US highways under expansion plan (Wall Street Journal $), Here’s the biggest hurdle facing America’s EV revolution (Washington Post $), Italian company plans 10,000 fast chargers across US to meet EV demand (Wall Street Journal $)

BOOZE: Lighter wine bottles don’t affect quality and are better for the planet (Washington Post $)

ACTIVISM: Catherine Coleman Flowers (TIME 100 most influential people), Why older Americans are taking to the streets for climate action (Grist)

ANTHROPOCENE: A golden spike would mark the Earth’s next epoch: But where? (Yale Environment 360)

HYDROGEN: Germany bids farewell to its last nuclear plants, eyes hydrogen future (AP)

FALSE CHOICES: Party gap on environment-economic growth tradeoff widens to record in Gallup survey (The Hill)

CARBON REMOVAL: Stanford initiative aims to scale up greenhouse gas removal (Axios)

NET ZERO: How a 'carbon takeback obligation' can ensure net zero (Energy Monitor)

FINANCE: Wall Street’s biggest banks failing key ESG test in fresh study (Bloomberg $)

OCEANS: In the turbulent Drake Passage, scientists find a rare window where carbon sinks quickly into the deep ocean (The Conversation)

WILDLIFE: Action first, doom later: What octopuses can teach US about climate resilience (Gizmodo), Conservation tends to ignore the most common type of life (The Atlantic), UK bird numbers continue to crash as government poised to break own targets (The Guardian)

INTERNATIONAL: Australia aims to boost critical minerals processing to hedge against China’s dominance (The Guardian), The fight for food in Central America (Axios), UK accused of ‘backward step’ for axing top climate diplomat role (The Guardian)

• How Spanish-language climate misinformation spreads like wildfire in the US (LA Times, Edder Díaz-Martínez op-ed $)
• Before we invest billions in this clean fuel, let’s make sure it’s actually clean (New York Times, Leah Stokes op-ed $)
• China-Russia axis is dangerous for fossil fuel disarming America and the West (The Hill, Fmr. Rep. Don Ritter op-ed)
• This philosopher wants liberals to take political power seriously (New York Times, Danielle Allen interview $)
• The deeper embarrassment in the newly released Fox news-Dominion tapes (Washington Post, Philip Bump column $)
• Grid connections will remain a huge challenge for clean energy if FERC fails to meet this moment (Utility Dive, Sean Gallagher op-ed)
• Harlan Crow, Clarence Thomas and a diminished Supreme Court (Dallas Morning News Editorial Board)
• The highest court has the government’s lowest ethical standards (New York Times Editorial Board $)
• Clarence Thomas enters the danger zone (Washington Post, Ruth Marcus column $)
• Why America’s founders worried about climate change (Wall Street Journal, Peter Frankopan op-ed $)
• ‘Net zero’ will mean a mining boom (Wall Street Journal, Daniel Yergin op-ed $)
• Biden’s EPA remakes the auto industry (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

Biden's Clean Car Rule Leaves Deniers' Grinding Gears, And Accidentally Justify Policy Support 

On Tuesday, we talked about how the "major questions doctrine" is being used to justify opposition to climate policies like the Biden administration’s fuel efficiency standards that will speed up the transition to the cleaner vehicles that the climate needs. 

Biden is simply telling car manufacturers to make their products more efficient so their customers will save money on gas, but it was only a matter of time until disinformers began shouting that “Biden is coming for your car.” However, for the first few days since the news broke, the disinfosphere was decidedly distracted, and the response has been slow to roll out.   

The Daily Caller, for example, buried its coverage half-way down its front page, putting its story on Biden's "strictest-ever car emissions regulations" (that was cobbled together from other outlets) next to "news" about a YouTuber's boxing match and below "allegations of an alien sighting at Donald Trump hearing." 

Breitbart didn't seem to notice the news and instead dedicated space to fearmongering about immigrants, the FBI, gun control, the E Street Band's Van Zandt, and trans people drinking beer and swimming. You know, real, important news stuff—just like what Fox was covering. 

Unlike The Daily Caller, Fox's story did have some originally reported content, though unfortunately, it was from deniers, so that extra effort actually decreased the net information readers would come away with. Thomas Catenacci, Fox's dedicated climate disinfo producer, performed as expected, and his story published at 5:54am on Wednesday included quotes criticizing Biden’s regulations.

One quote complaining about "government coercion" was from Myron Ebell of the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which has received funding from tobacco giant Philip Morris, oil company Texaco, three Koch Foundations, Arch Coal, ExxonMobil, and bankrupted Murray Energy, to name just a few of the companies who benefit from claims that government regulations on dangerous products are bad. Rep. Dan Newhouse (R-WA) called this rule "anti-American," though like Ebell, is backed by government-regulation-adverse interests. His top contributors are Boeing, the beef industry, and Altria, the rebranded Philip Morris. A tweet from Rep. Chip Roy (R-TX) about defunding the EPA is also par for the course, since the oil and gas industry has given Roy $514,445 in funding, with top contributors including pipeline company Nustar Energy, petroleum company Valero Energy, and of course, Koch Industries. Catenacci couldn't find anyone independent of the fossil fuel industry to give a quote about this regulation that would impact the fossil fuel industry, but don't worry, he didn't tell Fox's readers that! 

On Fox Business, Rick Perry called the regulations "ill-thought-out,” which is saying something, considering the Dancing With The Stars alum knows a thing or two about ill-thought-out decisions, like his "regret" for calling to abolish the Department of Energy after Trump appointed him to lead it. 

And after being on Dan Bongino's Fox show, Marc Morano sent out an email promoting his appearance, including this choice quote illustrating how transphobia is being adopted more and more frequently by climate deniers searching for audiences: "It is easier to transition your gender than it is your energy, particularly on the energy timescales they're talking about. So if you think it's impossible for a man to have a baby, well, then it's equally impossible to have solar and wind power our entire economy." 

Ironically, since it's not at all impossible for a man to have a baby, Morano's quote has the opposite meaning from what he intended!

But the outlet that put the most visible effort into producing anti-EV disinformation this week was the Washington Examiner, where "Energy and Environment" reporters Jeremy Beaman and Breanne Deppisch got fancy graphic illustrations for three of the five stories they did as part of a "Stalled out" spate of EV stories. On the 10th, they published a piece about the "big obstacles" facing an EV charging buildout, and their April 11 story discussed problems that EV drivers are encountering as a result of insufficient public policy support for EVs, which this new policy addresses. 

On Wednesday, the Washington Examiner published a straight news piece on the policy announcement, as well as another piece with a headline reading, "EV push threatens to strain power grids and threaten reliability." The new 'news' in that story is a study published last month that's described as being about the dangers of EV adoption, but is actually about how those challenges can be overcome, and concludes the more EVs the greater the benefits to enjoy.

Then on Wednesday afternoon came coverage of a Gallup poll, which informed readers that only 12% of American drivers are "seriously considering" buying an EV. But again, those who click through to the source will get a different understanding, as the Examiner piece fails to mention the category of people who "might consider" buying an EV in the future, which was actually the biggest share of responses at 43%. 

In other words, the Examiner went to great lengths to highlight all the problems with EVs to try to condemn Biden's move, but it just ended up listing reasons why even more public investment is needed in EV infrastructure! 

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