Death, Taxes, And Systemic Racism Remain, Only The Climate Seems To Be Changing: Systemic inequities and racism contribute to compoundingly disparate impacts of climate-fueled disasters. Racist policy decisions to underinvest in communities of color leave them especially vulnerable to extreme and climate-fueled weather disasters. “I think we need to quit being uncomfortable talking about the intersection of climate change, racism, and disasters,” Sally Ray, from the Center for Disaster Philanthropy, told CNN. “The reality is we have long systemic racist problems across our country, and because of these things, when a disaster comes, it’s much more devastating.” Inequities continue after disasters hit as well, with a new survey of survivors of Colorado's climate-fueled Marshall Fire revealing 70% of households making under $75,000 per year were still in the first "pre-building permit" stage of rebuilding, compared to just 38% of those making more than $200,000. Finally, climate change is destabilizing the federal tax filing process, with potentially dramatic impacts for low-income people and families. While taxes are due tomorrow for most Americans, the IRS has extended due dates for multiple parts of the country that have experienced federally declared "major disasters." While allowing people affected by disasters extra time to file is helpful, the disruptions mean those who need annual, volunteer-run tax prep clinics the most may be unable to use them. “We have to talk about how climate change is affecting our taxes, our vacations, our homes, our jobs, our kids, our health,” Katharine Hayhoe, chief scientist at the Nature Conservancy, told the Washington Post. “Every aspect of our lives is being affected.” (Pre-disaster: CNN; Post-disaster: Axios; Taxes: Washington Post $)

G7 Promises Renewables But Still Promotes Gas: Leaders from the world's seven largest economies pledged to accelerate the clean energy transition on Sunday, but failed to set a timetable for ending new coal and methane gas investments. Ahead of the UN's COP28 climate summit in Dubai this November, the G7 communique "falls short of being the clarion call to action that was needed,” Alden Meyer of E3G said in a Twitter Space, adding the G7 undermines its global authority “every time they allow carve-outs on issues like international fossil fuel finance.” A UN IPCC report released last year called for the immediate end of all new fossil fuel infrastructure, and phasing out existing fossil fuel extraction and combustion, to give us a fighting chance to avoid the worst and most damaging impacts of climate change. But the G7 communique, while acknowledging "fossil fuel subsidies are inconsistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement," nonetheless also stated that in light of the Russian-caused energy crisis, "investment in the gas sector can be appropriate … if implemented in a manner consistent with our climate objectives and without creating lock-in effects." (Bloomberg $, AP, Politico EU, Reuters, FT $, Reuters, The Hill, The Independent; Excerpts: Reuters)

DOE Reapproves AK Gas Export Plan: The Department of Energy late last week reapproved a proposal to export liquified methane gas extracted from Alaska's North Slope, giving the Biden administration's imprimatur to a project first signed off upon by the previous administration and drawing sharp criticism from climate advocates. "Joe Biden’s climate presidency is flying off the rails," said Lukas Ross of Friends of the Earth, with this being the administration's second approval of a "fossil fuel mega-project" in two months. The proposed $39 billion project, which still may not be built, would include constructing an 807-mile pipeline to transport gas that would cut the state in half, running from the North Slope oil and gas operations to a liquefaction facility in Nikiski, on the south-central coast of Alaska. Once liquified, the methane gas would mainly be exported to buyers in Asia and the entire project would be responsible for approximately 18 million tons of climate pollution — roughly equivalent to the annual climate pollution of 3.5 million gasoline-powered passenger vehicles — about half of which would come from the proposed LNG terminal, according to Oil and Gas Watch. (The Guardian, E&E $, AP, Reuters, The Hill, Anchorage Daily News, Natural Gas Intel)

RENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: Environmental justice advocates urge California to stop issuing new drilling permits in neighborhoods (Inside Climate News), In Washington state, a new initiative to boost urban tree cover (Grist), Indigenous Indonesians face new risks in 'green' climate drive (Context)

FLORIDA RAIN: Fort Lauderdale flood has climate change fingertips on it (Miami Herald $), Here’s why downpour in Florida just wouldn’t stop (AP), Fort Lauderdale begins long recovery as floodwaters recede (CNN, Gizmodo, Axios, TIME Photos), Historic downpour in Fort Lauderdale dropped 88 billion gallons of rain (Washington Post $)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Russian oil exports hit new high despite sanctions, IEA reports (Politico Pro $)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: How young Pacific Islanders helped bring climate justice to the world’s court (PBS NewsHour)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Meet [Barbados Prime Minister Mia Mottley] the woman who may revamp climate finance (Axios), Africa needs more help with climate change, debt and food crises (Reuters), Japan, US agree to cooperate on geothermal energy (AP)

• BRETTON WOODS: The climate change debate dividing the World Bank (Politico), Separating climate change and inequality won't work, says Biden's World Bank nominee (NPR)
• G7: Germany says Indonesia will join G7 nations in climate club (Bloomberg $), G7 ministers to offer cautious backing of Japan's climate strategy (Reuters), G7 needs to help emerging countries in reducing emissions, Japan's Nishimura says (Reuters)

DENIAL & GREENWASHING: As the climate suffers, enforcement needed for corporate green pledges (Context), Banks with ‘net-zero’ pledges are among the top funders of fossil fuels (Grist), The 'ninjas' fighting climate change denial on Twitter (BBC), Judges seem skeptical of group's standing to target GHG risk finding (InsideEPA $)

AUSTRALIAN COAL PROTESTS: Dozens of climate activists arrested after shovelling coal from train bound for Newcastle (The Guardian, Reuters, ABC AU, BBC)

FAST CASUAL: Chipotle plans to ditch gas grills at 100 new locations (The Verge)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: The IRA is spurring fossil fuel companies to monitor methane leaks from space (TIME), Democrats' climate law spurs $150B in planned clean energy investments (Politico Pro $), US manufacturing commitments double after Biden subsidies launched (FT $)

SCOTUS: Climate lawsuits await critical Supreme Court ruling (Houston Chronicle), Supreme Court opens agencies to legal attack (E&E $), Clarence Thomas has for years claimed income from a defunct real estate firm (Washington Post $)

AGENCIES: A 15-year-old law would end fossil fuels in federal buildings, but it's on hold (NPR), 

EPA: Biden’s ambitious climate plan for EVs faces these big hurdles (Washington Post $), Chicago’s Blacks in Green gets a major boost from a $10 million EPA grant (Energy News Network), EPA’s waste office dilemma: Deep pockets, no nominee (E&E News)

DOI: Biden administration passes on pitch to drain Lake Powell (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Climate envoy Kerry: No rolling back clean energy transition (AP)

THE HILL: Dems raise concerns about DOE’s plan for hydrogen hubs (E&E $), Rural co-ops will take grid worries to Hill next week (E&E $)

HOUSE: Marjorie Taylor Greene says climate change is a 'scam' and that fossil fuels are 'amazing' (Business Insider)

SENATE: Sherrod Brown, JD Vance form unlikely partnership (The Hill)

POLITICS: Biden's green gamble (Axios), Clean energy is thriving in Texas. So why are state Republicans trying to stifle it? (Inside Climate News)

CITIES AND STATES: [NY] Assembly opposes cap-and-trade pitch while Hochul pushes proposal (Politico Pro $), Wu finalizes new building code aimed at drastically reducing use of fossil fuels in new buildings (Boston Globe $), Awash in toxic wastewater from fracking for natural gas, Pennsylvania faces a disposal reckoning (Inside Climate News), Flood-battered N.J. poised to enact model disclosure law (E&E News), In private, Shapiro’s working group on climate change meets (AP), He made Louisiana history. Now he wants to change the state’s climate future. (The Nation), Midwestern leaders want to sell ethanol in summer despite smog risks (Grist), Phoenix residents learn how to fight back against urban heat (Yale Climate Connections), Texas eyes marine desalination, oilfield water reuse to sustain rapid growth (Inside Climate News)

• VIRGINIA: Regulators OK Dominion Energy plans for solar, storage (AP), Virginia lawmakers kill Youngkin amendment to define nuclear energy as renewable (The Hill)

FERC: FERC to tackle embattled Texas LNG projects next week (Politico Pro $)

IMPACTS: A case of the disappearing waves (New York Times $), ‘It buys us time’: Great Salt Lake still at high risk of disappearing after epic snow, scientists warn (CNN), Fed up with floods, Florida homeowner moves to higher ground (NPR), Tornado alley is expanding — and scientists don’t know why (The Hill), Warming could release toxic disasters from Arctic permafrost (E&E $)

• CALIFORNIA: Thousands of acres are underwater in California, and the flood could triple in size this summer (CNN, Wall Street Journal $), See how California’s recent weather crises brought dead lake back to life (CNN), California’s historic wet winter risks making wildfire season even worse (Bloomberg $) 

DROUGHT: Drought is parching crops across southern Europe for second year (Bloomberg $), Dry start to the year delivers DC drought for first time since 2019 (Washington Post $)

HEAT: Early heat waves can be the deadliest (Vox)

WILDFIRES: A changing climate is contributing to longer wildfire seasons in New Jersey, experts say (WHYY), Seeing a red flag warning in your weather app? Here's what to do (NPR)

CYCLONIC STORMS: Powerful Cyclone Ilsa lashes Australia’s northwest coast (AP), Research suggests first below-average hurricane season since 2014  (The Hill)

WATER: How recycling wastewater could help quench the West’s thirst (Wall Street Journal $), Water cuts could save the Colorado iver. Farmers are in the crosshairs. (Washington Post $), What might cuts to dwindling Colorado River mean for states? (AP)

DEFORESTATION: China and Brazil to cooperate in stopping illegal trade fueling deforestation (Climate Home)

BOOZE: As the climate warms, New Zealand winemakers grapple with a changing landscape (The Guardian)

ENERGY TRANSITION: Drastic climate action is the best course for economic growth, new study finds (Yale Climate Connections), The clean energy milestone the world is set to pass in 2023 (BBC)

RENEWABLES: Pioneering project helps renters cash in on solar savings (Canary Media), The green energy factory facing a storm of China backlash (Wall Street Journal $), Tidal power's fickle future (Hakai Magazine)

BATTERIES: Residents oppose a planned lithium battery storage system next to their homes in Maryland’s Prince George’s County (Inside Climate News), The unlikely center of America’s EV battery revolution (Washington Post $)

BUILDINGS: Building better buildings (New York Times $), Heat pumps need better branding (Bloomberg $), High costs and uncertainties cast a chill over Britain’s heat pump market (The Guardian)

CCS: Why injecting CO2 underground is a legal morass (PoliticoPRO $)

TRAINS: Freight train carrying hazardous materials derails in Maine (The Hill, AP)

OIL & GAS: Oil posts fourth weekly gain as IEA sees higher price threat (Bloomberg $), Surprise oil output cuts from OPEC+ could hurt consumers and derail the economic recovery, IEA warns (CNBC, Wall Street Journal $)

PLASTICS: Evacuation order lifted in area near Indiana plastics fire (AP), The massive recycling warehouse fire is a stark reminder: Plastics are a pollution nightmare (The Verge)

PIPELINES: Feds endorse Mountain Valley pipeline route through forest (E&E $)

COAL: India power giant to add more coal plants to meet soaring demand (Bloomberg $)

HYDROGEN: Fossil-fuel veterans find next act with green hydrogen (Wall Street Journal $), Spanish industry kicks off EU green hydrogen race (AP)

NUKES: Europe’s biggest reactor caps 14-year delay to begin commercial output (Bloomberg $, AP), Germany quits nuclear power, ending a decades-long struggle (New York Times $, Bloomberg $, HuffPost, The Guardian, AP), Europe's most powerful nuclear reactor kicks on in Finland (AP)

UTILITIES: PNM, Avangrid extend merger deadline as state regulators signal readiness to reconsider 2021 denial (Utility Dive)

GRID: US grid congestion costs soared to $13.3B in 2021, will likely grow until transmission capacity is built: report (Utility Dive, PoliticoPRO $)

EVs: A $7,500 tax credit for electric cars changed, again. These are the models impacted (NPR), The $25,000 electric vehicle is coming, with big implications for the auto market and car buyers (CNBC), The EPA wants millions more EVs on the road. Should you buy one? (NPR), The EPA wants to majorly boost electric car sales. It would require a big effort (The Hill)

AMERICAN DREAMS: Unchecked consumerism should ‘stop and make us think,’ warns climate change historian (CNN)

ACTIVISM: ‘It’s my calling’: Mikaela Loach, rising star of the climate crisis campaign (The Guardian), From the frontlines of the climate movement, a message of hope (Inside Climate News), Muslims around the world consider climate during Ramadan (AP)

CARBON REMOVAL: What carbon removal can — and can't — achieve (Axios)

PARENTING: You’re going to have to teach your kids about climate change. Here’s how. (HuffPost)

PFAS: New tech could one day scrub ‘forever chemicals’ from your tap water (Washington Post $)

FINANCE: Vanguard's Galloway: Climate group exit does not change environmental concerns (Reuters), When it comes to climate risk, investors prize disclosure, report suggests (Reuters)

IN MEMORIAM: Bill Hellmuth, pioneer in sustainable architecture who led HOK, dies at 69 (Washington Post $)

WILDLIFE: The fish's nickname is a joke, but it's spurring dam removal (E&E $)

INTERNATIONAL: Britain eyes development roles in Japan offshore wind (Reuters), Canada ready to become critical minerals provider, minister says (Reuters), EU moves to clarify 'sustainable' investments after fund downgrades (Reuters), EU's Dombrovskis sees some progress on steel, battery minerals talks with US (Reuters), French strikes slow the recovery from Europe’s energy crisis (Bloomberg $), Lack of NI government puts net zero targets at risk, UK climate adviser warns (The Guardian), Spanish industry kicks off EU green hydrogen race (AP)

• Floods show persistent need to prepare for climate’s ‘new normal’ (Orlando Sentinel, Vivian Young Column)
• G7: Liquefied natural gas is a bridge fuel to climate disaster (The Hill, Leah Qusba op-ed)
• Grandmothers of the world, unite (New York Times, Mary Pipher op-ed $)
• Republican nihilism on display in the war on ESG (The Hill, Jesse Ferguson op-ed)
• Before western states suck the Colorado River dry, we have one last chance to act (New York Times, Bruce Babbitt op-ed $)
• World Bank shift to climate change isn’t what we need (Bloomberg, Allison Schrager op-ed $)
• Joe Manchin’s faux betrayal and an endless green bill of goods (Wall Street Journal, Allysia Finley op-ed $)
• Can we overcome the hurdles for nuclear power revival? (The Hill, William Fletcher and Craig B. Smith op-ed)
• Lab meat skeptics, please just get out of the way (Bloomberg, Amanda Little op-ed $)
• Chinese supply chains for critical infrastructure threaten the US power grid (Utility Dive, Brien J. Sheahan op-ed)
• Utilities commission needs utilities experts, not politicos (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Editorial Board $)
• Mexico fails the clean energy challenge (Bloomberg, Eduardo Porter op-ed $)
• How to boost US clean manufacturing with a low-carbon product standard (The Hill, Kevin Kennedy and Ankita Gangotra op-ed)
• State-based climate litigation jeopardizes energy security policy (The Hill, Pınar Çebi Wilber op-ed)
• I’m a lifelong environmentalist: President Biden was right on Willow (The Hill, Zack Fields op-ed)
• A Texas-sized energy fiasco (Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board $)
• Germany’s energy self-sabotage (Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal Editorial Board $)

Want To Know When A Business Does Something Decent? Conservative Woke-Up Calls Will Alert You!

In early 2021, surge protector magnate and climate denial funder Barre Seid essentially donated his company to Leonard Leo, a conservative activist whose Marble Freedom Trust nonprofit then sold the company for $1.6 billion. Two months later, Consumers' Research, which counts Leo among key benefactors, started a campaign against a supposedly "woke" Wall Street. 

In the years since, the concerted 'Alex Jones Investing' campaign to erode environmental, social, and governance considerations in investing, known as ESG, has sought to convince conservatives that big business is actually a tool of progressive social justice warriors and so-called climate alarmists. 

The idea that capitalist corporations, reliant on profits derived from paying workers less than the value of what they produce, could ever be truly "woke" in the original sense of being attuned and opposed to (racist) oppression, is of course ridiculous. That's why it requires such sustained efforts to make conservative audiences mad at any company that hires Black people or recognizes that trans rights are human rights or considers the climate crisis to be something to stop, not exploit for profit. 

The latest effort from Consumers' Research, the campaign that they're running with all that money they got, is called "Woke Alert." You give them your name and phone number, and they'll text you any time a company does something "woke." The most recent example, as of Friday when the project launched, is an alert about a 2021 ad campaign that Jack Daniels ran with RuPaul's Drag Race. It's apparently "resurfaced" after the manufactured hate campaign against BudLight for working with Dylan Mulvaney. With almost 11 million TikTok followers, Mulvaney's an obvious choice for an influencer ad campaign, but because she's a trans woman, bigots got big mad.

The baseless hate against Mulvaney, the latest in a sustained, well-funded, anti-trans agenda across conservative media and the GOP, goes to show how desperately reactionary this entire anti-”woke” endeavor is, how intently conservatives are trying to turn back the clock, and how deeply bigoted a supposedly finance-minded effort this is. They’re not just railing against current campaigns but also hatemongering over past ones!

RuPaul appeared in drag on national TV as early as a now nostalgia-inducing 1993 appearance on an episode of Saturday Night Live hosted by Charles Barkley and featuring musical guest Nirvana. So if you'd like an alert about two-year-old ad campaigns that a company ran with a TV show that has been on the air for 15 seasons, with a host who's been a national media darling for three full decades and even does a little fracking, then feel free to sign up. 

Alternatively, you can just keep an eye on right-wing disinfo websites, which were of course all too eager to turn the Woke Alert press release into a story: The Daily Caller, Townhall, and The Washington Times all promoted the effort to their audiences of old men who apparently are going to sign up for texts to get angry at brands for existing in the 21st century.  

More seriously, though, this campaign is an important tacit admission: Even with all the money a campaigner could ask for, the attempts to claw back ESG policies aren't getting traction when they talk about the environmental issues impacting the fossil fuel industry. 

Instead, anti-ESG activists are focusing on social issues, running campaigns attacking transgender people to build support for otherwise deeply unpopular policies that cost states billions of dollars. It's textbook scapegoating, and it's being pushed across conservative media in the same way Asians were scapegoated during the Covid pandemic, and the immigrant "caravan" was in 2018, or the Black Lives Matter protests before that.  

It would be a mistake for the climate community, or any decent people across the country, to stand idly by while people’s lives are endangered by the latest well-funded campaign of hate. Push back on transphobia when you see it, stand in solidarity with the LGBTQ+ community, and show bigots why this is a fight they're going to lose. Again.

Was this email forwarded to you? Sign up to receive Hot News every morning!

Send updates or feedback to nkauffman@climatenexus.org
Submit events and other items for consideration for a First Look using this form
Some articles require logins or subscriptions ($)