SCOTUS Declines To Hear Big Oil Venue Appeal: The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday effectively rejected appeals by multiple oil and gas companies to have cases brought against them heard in federal court. The Supreme Court declined to hear the appeals from Exxon Mobil, Suncor Energy, and Chevron, leaving lower court rulings that the cases brought against them by Rhode Island and counties and municipalities in Maryland, Colorado, California and Hawaii should be heard in the state courts in which they were filed. States and municipalities are seeking to hold fossil fuel firms accountable for deceiving the public about the climate-heating effects of their product, and the harm caused by those impacts, and the fossil fuel defendants believe they have a better chance of winning if they can get the cases heard in federal court. “The Supreme Court’s decision today is a significant victory for climate justice and climate lawsuits filed across the United States and around the world," Delta Merner of the Union of Concerned Scientists said in a statement. "The communities involved in this case suffered unimaginable losses due, in large part, to the recklessness and greed of the fossil fuel industry, and now they are one step closer to having their day in court.” (AP, The Guardian, Bloomberg $, NBC, The Hill, Politico Pro $, Reuters, San Francisco Chronicle)

Goldman Prize Winners Announced: Six activists from around the world were awarded the Goldman Environmental Prize, often known as the "Green Nobel Prize," on Monday. Alessandra Korap Munduruku, a leader of the Munduruku Indigenous people in the Amazon, successfully fought off British mining company Anglo American's attempts to mine Indigenous land and her ancestral home. Zambian community organizer Chilekwa Mumba won a six-year legal campaign ultimately holding the UK parent company of a local subsidiary accountable for the pollution it released into local drinking water. Delima Silalahi led an effort that successfully secured legal guardianship of 17,824 acres in Indonesia’s North Sumatra province for six Indigenous communities. Finish scholar and NGO head Tero Mustonen helped convene Western Scientists and Sámi Indigenous knowledge holders to protect and restore local culture and large areas of peatlands. In Turkey, former civil engineer Zafer Kızılkaya established that country's first community-managed marine protected area in Gökova Bay and successfully convinced the country to further protect over 300 miles of coastline. Diane Wilson helped secure a significant legal victory against Formosa Plastics' plant at Point Comfort, Texas. (AP, The Guardian, Axios, E&E $, Mongabay)

Euro Countries Agree To Collab On North Sea Wind Power: Nine European countries announced plans to both expand and increase interconnection between renewable energy generation on and around the North Sea on Monday. The various projects, including building offshore windfarms and developing interconnected infrastructure will both cut fossil fuel use and climate pollution as well as the countries’ reliance on Russian gas. A draft declaration from leaders of seven EU countries (France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, and Denmark), the UK, and Norway aims to dramatically expand the current combined 25 gigawatts of North Sea offshore wind capacity to 120 GW by 2030 and 300 GW by 2050. (Reuters, The Guardian, New York Times $, EcoWatch, OilPrice)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Fired cop who shot Breonna Taylor hired as deputy in Kentucky (NewsOne)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: US stresses importance of LNG for Europe (OilPrice)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Former president of Kiribati backs legal case against Australia over inaction on climate crisis (The Guardian), UK, Netherlands plan cross-border power link to boost energy security (Reuters)

EARTH DAY: The Vessel Project of Louisiana celebrates Earth Day (KPLC-TV7)

GOP vs. ESG: State leaders targeting climate investing have quiet stakes in the fossil fuel industry (CNBC), Business fights back as Republican state lawmakers push anti-ESG agenda (Reuters), Indiana lawmakers give approval to anti-ESG investing bill (AP)

🐦🗑️🔥: Twitter changes stoke Russian, Chinese propaganda surge (AP)

MEDIA: Fox News ousts Tucker Carlson, its most popular host (AP, Washington Post $, NPR, Wall Street Journal $, New York Times $, Bloomberg $, Black Wall Street Times, Washington Post $, CNN, Axios, CNN, Forbes), 13 terrible things Tucker Carlson said that didn’t get him fired (Rolling Stone, New York Magazine), Tucker Carlson’s Fox News ouster dismays GOP (The Hill), 8 times Tucker Carlson picked environmental fights (E&E News), 'I am stunned': Don Lemon fired by CNN, network disputes details (USA Today, Black Wall Street Times, The Hill, Axios, Bloomberg $, CNBC, Washington Post $, Politico, The Independent, Deadline, AP, Daily Beast, New York Magazine, New York Times $, CBS, The Guardian, NBC, Variety, BBC), Broadcast bloodbath: Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon are out in major media shake-up (Politico, TIME)

AGM SZN: Climate activists spray protests on US bank offices on eve of annual meetings (Reuters)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Dems fight Inflation Reduction Act ignorance (Axios), So is the IRA in danger, or what? (Heatmap $)

AGENCIES: DHS warns gunfire assaults on US power grid could spread to transportation, telecommunications infrastructure (Politico Pro $), FEMA quadrupled mitigation grants. It's still not enough. (E&E $), NOAA warns of grid risks amid powerful solar storm (E&E $)

EPA: Biden EPA to issue power plant rules that lean on carbon capture (Reuters, E&E News), Biden plans new EPA power plant rule. Will SCOTUS kill it? (E&E News), The next big US power plant fight is coming (Gizmodo), What to watch in EPA's power plant climate rules (Axios)

DOE: Granholm supports Mountain Valley Pipeline pushed by Manchin (Politico Pro $, E&E News, The Hill), US carbon management investment opportunity could hit $600B by 2050: DOE (Politico Pro $), US DOE tightens LNG export extension policy, denies request from Lakes Charles LNG (S&P Global), US energy loans deliver ‘ridiculously good’ returns: BNEF update (Bloomberg $)

WHITE HOUSE: Many young voters bitter over Biden’s support of Willow oil drilling (New York Times $), Biden to announce climate 'deliverables' this week (E&E $), White House lags on creation of carbon capture task forces (E&E $), Susan rice to leave role as White House domestic policy chief (Washington Post $, E&E $, Politico, AP, CNN)

• SOLAR TARIFFS: Biden to veto congressional efforts to overturn solar tariff waivers (OilPrice, Bloomberg $, The Hill, Politico Pro $, Reuters, E&E $), US solar boom on hold as industry awaits subsidy rules (Climate Home)

HOUSE: Debt-limit plan won't be changed, House GOP leaders tell holdouts (Politico Pro $), McCarthy’s authority is on the line as debt ceiling crisis mounts (CNN)

ELECTIONS: Biden announces 2024 reelection bid: ‘Let’s finish this job’ (AP, Washington Post $, NPR, Politico, New York Times $, CNN, CNBC, CBS, The Hill, Axios), Trump’s latest false climate figure is off by more than 1,000 times (CNN Fact check)

TRIBES: Hoopa Tribal member fights to save California’s Trinity River and its salmon (Yale Climate Connections)

CITIES AND STATES: Educator, environmentalist, union leader, senator, [Maryland's] Paul Pinsky now gets to turn his climate ideals into action (Inside Climate News), Environmental groups criticize governor for a lack of leadership on climate in recent years (New Mexico Political Report), Governors Island to be site of $700 million climate campus (New York Times $), Minnesota legislation aims to boost speed and scale of green financing (Energy News Network), Moving NY to clean energy is top 2023 challenge - NY Power Authority head (Reuters)

• MONTANA: Montana Republicans won't let this trans lawmaker speak in the legislature (CBC), Montana transgender lawmaker silenced: What to know (AP), Riot police arrest protesters backing silenced transgender lawmaker at Montana capitol: ‘Let her speak’ (The Independent)
• TEXAS: Could Texas lawmakers end the state’s renewable boom? (E&E News), Texas bill seeks to keeps lights on in midst of disaster (The Hill), Texas agriculture commissioner orders employees to wear clothes 'consistent with their biological gender' (Texas Tribune, Texas Observer)

FERC: FERC approves incentive framework for voluntary cybersecurity investments (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: ‘Do people have to die?’ Why these Californians fear catastrophic floods. (Washington Post $), The ‘Ike Dike’ is the Army Corps of Engineers’ largest project ever. It may not be big enough. (Grist), The melting Arctic has a Russia problem (Heatmap $), US forests are failing to keep up with climate change (Bloomberg $), What will 'the big melt' look like in California — and how much could it affect fire season? (KQED), As epic snow melts, a California community braces for floods (AP), A mystery in the Pacific is complicating climate projections (Yale Climate Connections)

HEAT: Deadly heat threatens the lives and livelihoods of 1 billion people in India (Grist), Heatwaves in India drive leading clean-energy state back to coal (Context)

WILDFIRES: As extreme fires multiply, California scientists zero in on how smoke affects pregnancy and children (Inside Climate News)

SPAIN: Spain to bake in summer-like heat as Europe braces for hot spring (Bloomberg $), No rain in Spain pushes olive oil prices to record levels (FT $)

WATER: Running and cycling to raise awareness of global water issues (LA Times $), A new front in the water wars: Your internet use (Washington Post $)

(DE)FORESTATION: Arbor Day: Why planting trees isn’t enough (The Conversation), World’s largest logjam holds 3M tons of carbon (E&E News)

RENEWABLES: Panel: Climate change, not wind prep, is threat to whales (AP), Scramble for clean energy metals confronted by calls to respect Indigenous rights (Native News Online), European leaders commit to more wind energy production (AP), Floating wind power gains traction but can it set sail? (Reuters), Is this solar panel American? Companies eyeing US subsidy await rules (Reuters), Staggering boom in renewables seen in US by 2030, BNEF predicts (Bloomberg $), Work starts on UK’s largest solar plant (FT $)

BATTERIES: Are multiday batteries key to a low-cost, carbon-free grid? (E&E News), Chile brings lithium under majority state ownership (Axios), Tesla’s battery-storage sales are growing way faster than EV sales (Canary Media)

MINERALS: Greenland has climate change-fighting minerals. Will it mine them? (Atmos)

BUILDINGS: Span snags $96M to become a ​‘Swiss Army knife’ for electric homes (Canary Media)

LNG: Tellurian’s driftwood LNG: A solid project or a pipe dream? (OilPrice)

OIL & GAS: Methane emissions from Gulf of Mexico oil drilling higher than estimated, study finds (CBS), How ESG is creating weird market outcomes in the world of Big Oil (Bloomberg $), Shale-gas drillers brace for $8 billion cash-flow shock on price drop (Bloomberg $), Total’s reluctance to move Congo oil shuts only export route (Bloomberg $), North Sea drilling: Greenpeace prepares to challenge ‘disastrous’ UK decision (The Guardian)

COAL: How the Clean Air Act lets closed coal plants keep polluting for years (Reuters)

FUSION: New cash for 'micro-fusion' startup (Axios), Nuclear fusion ‘could be plugged into the grid in ten years’ (Energy Monitor)

UTILITIES: NRG says it would build new gas plants if Texas approves payouts (Bloomberg $)

GRID: State regulators urge PJM to speed interconnection for new generation in face of power plant retirements (Utility Dive)

SHIPPING: Global shipping is under pressure to stop its heavy fuel oil use fast – that’s not simple, but changes are coming (The Conversation)

BUSINESSES: DuPont raises emissions reduction target (Reuters), European firms warn renewables need policy, funding support to stay on track (Reuters)

CARBON CAPTURE: CCS policy road map calls for tax credit, safety changes (E&E $)

FINANCE: Berkshire Hathaway’s utility company is about to hit a major renewable energy milestone (CNBC), Climate change fight a 'core duty' for central banks - ECB's Villeroy (Reuters)

MOVIES: Fossil-fuel sabotage comes to Hollywood (High Country News)

THEATRE: Shakespeare’s environmentalism: How his plays explore the same ecological issues we face today (The Conversation)

CARS: The future of the auto industry is electric. Will mechanics be out of work? (CBS)

WILDLIFE: Armadillo invasion: Why the creatures are rapidly moving north (Axios), Environmental hero’s mission to save the most over-fished sea in the world (CNN), The more degraded a forest, the quieter its wildlife, new study shows (Mongabay)

INTERNATIONAL: Blackout-beset South Africa may delay closing coal stations (AP), Climate protesters try to bring Berlin traffic to a halt (AP), EU regulators set out ideas to plug climate 'insurance gap' (Reuters), As sand miners prosper in Uganda, a vital lake basin suffers (AP)

• No, nuclear power isn’t the ‘big bazooka’ climate fix you might think (CNN, Paul Hockenos op-ed)
• Wall Street is finally going to make money off the Permian (Bloomberg, Javier Blas column $)
• Efforts to accelerate permitting could learn a thing or two from nuclear energy (Utility Dive, Jessica Lovering and Judi Greenwald op-ed)
• Even Fox News admits climate change is real now (Bloomberg, Mark Gongloff column $)

Tucker Carlson Kicked Off Fox, And SCOTUS Kicks Big Oil Back To State Courts

It's not often that we get good news, so today's roundup is going to be short, sweet, and celebratory.

To start, the Supreme Court denied Big Oil’s request to block the litany of local accountability lawsuits from moving to the federal level. Exxon and other defendants have routinely tried to have the cases moved to federal court because they hope they'll get a more favorable ruling there than in state courts. They're still going to try to stonewall and drag out the cases as much as possible, but now at least we know the Supreme Court isn't eager to step in. 

But even more exciting was yesterday's surprise announcement that Tucker Carlson's final Fox News broadcast was last Friday, a move that apparently caught even Fox's programmers off guard as they were still running promos for Tucker's show as of Monday morning. Per The Washington Post, Carlson's show wasn’t canceled because it was packed with racism (and climate disinformation) or even because of Tucker's eagerness to share false claims about the 2020 election. Instead "it was Carlson's comments about Fox management, as revealed in the Dominion case, that played a role in his departure from Fox." (Though there's also speculation and sources claiming it could be more due to potentially damaging revelations from a lawsuit brought by one of Carlson's former producers.)

Tucker wasn't even given a chance to say goodbye to viewers, leaving a promo for the bug-eating special we talked about last week as possibly "the last frame from his last Fox broadcast."

Now, will Carlson parlay his fame and fortune into a presidential campaign, independent podcast, or other media effort? Unfortunately, we're probably not going to be lucky enough to never hear from him again. After all, Tucker's not the first former Fox News fixture to part ways with the company. Remember Bill O'Reilly? He spent two decades on Fox enjoying record ratings until revelations that the company had to pay women millions of dollars to keep quiet about sexual harassment allegations led to his unceremonious removal from Fox's lineup. 

In the six years since, O'Reilly has launched a podcast, streaming service, and radio show, gone on  public speaking tours, and otherwise done his best to remain relevant. But without Fox's MAGA-megaphone, he's certainly not doing the damage he once did. 

We can only hope the same will be true for Tucker, and since wins don't come easily, we'll just forget for a minute that someone else will easily fill Carlson's role, like he did with O'Reilly’s time slot, and be happy that one of the most noxious people in the world is no longer regularly broadcasting to millions of people watching Fox "News." 

Hopefully, Tucker can now spend all his time eating bugs and working on his tan, having accomplished the incredible feat of being fired by all three major cable news channels: MSNBC, CNN, and Fox. 

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