Carlyle Heavily Invested In Fossil Fuels: Private equity powerhouse The Carlyle Group's portfolio was responsible for as much climate pollution from 2011-2021 as ConocoPhillips' Willow Arctic oil project will emit over its lifetime, a new report from Private Equity Climate Risks reveals. Carlyle is heavily invested in fossil fuels, with $22.4 billion invested in carbon-based energy and just $1.4 billion (less than 1% of its total assets under management) invested in renewable and sustainable energy companies. Unlike publicly-traded companies, private equity firms are largely exempt from transparency requirements and in recent years the sector has increasingly bought up the heavily polluting "dregs" of the oil industry. “Despite its public statements to the contrary, Carlyle is a driving force behind climate change,” Oscar Valdés Viera, of the Americans for Financial Reform education fund and a co-author of the report, told The Guardian. “Without meaningful regulatory oversight, private equity firms like Carlyle will continue to get away with endangering low-income and Black and brown communities, who are at greater risk from pollution and environmental harm.” (The Guardian)

Catastrophic East Africa Drought Crisis Impossible Without Climate Change: Climate change makes droughts like that currently devastating East Africa at least 100 times more likely and the catastrophic humanitarian crisis there would not have happened without climate change, a new report from World Weather Attribution finds. The results highlight the devastating inequity of pollution released by the world's wealthiest nations causing famine (in all but name) so dire in Somalia that mothers are forced to poison their children with detergent in the hopes they can receive food in a medical center, or renting out their children to other beggars because people begging with children are given more than those begging alone. Climate change, mainly caused by the extraction and combustion of fossil fuels has heated global temperatures an average of 1.2°C (2.2°F) above preindustrial averages. The international team of scientists assessed myriad factors — including hotter temperatures, increased evaporation, and La Niña's impacts on rainy seasons — and determined the contributing factors would not have led to drought at all in a 1.2°C cooler world. The Horn of Africa is responsible for essentially no climate pollution, and in large part because it has no fossil fuels to burn, is largely shut out from international climate aid.  “I have six children, and this is the only way I can get food,” one mother, Maceey Shute, told The New Humanitarian. “I poison my children in order to survive.” (Drought attribution: Washington Post $, AP, New York Times $, The Guardian, Bloomberg $, FT $, France24, Axios, Reuters, Carbon Brief, CNN, Inside Climate News, Al Jazeera; Crisis: The New Humanitarian; Climate Signals background: Drought)

Flooding In Upper Mississippi River And California: Residents along the Upper Mississippi River are scrambling to protect or flee their homes ahead of potentially record-breaking floods. The heavy snowpack in northern Minnesota is melting rapidly, forcing residents of Campbell, Wisc., to canoe to their homes. “It’s pretty stressful,” Amy Werner told the AP. “It’s bubbling up from the ground. I’ve been living my life by every hour for about 10 days now, and it’s not over yet." About 60 miles downriver in Prairie du Chien, the river was already more than 6 feet above flood stage on Wednesday, with streets submerged under a foot of water, and flood waters were expected to rise to nearly 25 feet by Saturday. In California, flood waters have arrived and will continue to rise. (Upper Mississippi: AP; Prairie du Chien: WKBT; California: LA Times $, NBC; Yosemite closed: Washington Post $, The Hill)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: Climate pledge mobilizes $120M to focus on environmental justice (Axios), Sustainability power player: Why climate activist Jerome Foster II uses his voice for the marginalized (Ebony)

• SINOPHOBIA: Anti-China fervor casts a dark cloud over solar and u.s. climate goals (Washington Post $)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Greenpeace warns Europe’s LNG hunt risks locking in pollution (Bloomberg $), Widespread Russian oil price violations likely took place in Asia in the first quarter (Bloomberg $)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: The Supreme Court just unleashed a flood of lawsuits against Big Oil (Grist), SCOTUS decision helps climate case — D.C. attorney general (E&E $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: UN Permanent Forum: Native women key relation to land (Navajo Times)

FIREFIGHTERS & FIRELIGHTERS: From farmworkers to land healers (Yes Magazine),

ACCURACY IN COMMUNICATION: Drop the ‘natural’ in natural gas, climate activists urge US officials (Bloomberg $)

SMALL EVs 😢: The Chevy Bolt, GM's popular electric vehicle, is on its way out (NPR, E&E News, OilPrice), The death of the Chevy Bolt is bad news for Earth (Gizmodo)

AGM SZN: Shareholders at three big banks reject climate resolutions (E&E $)

MEDIA: The voices of NPR: How four women of color see their roles as hosts (The 19th* News), Tucker Carlson, Don Lemon and Jeff Shell lost their TV news jobs. Misogyny has a lot to do with it, experts say. (The 19th* News)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: IRA to accelerate renewables but financial challenges still acute: Bank of America, Ørsted Americas (Utility Dive)

SCOTUS: SCOTUS Justice Gorsuch sold house to guy whose firm brought clean power plan lawsuit (Gizmodo)

EPA: EPA aims to end waiver for 'force majeure' air toxics releases (E&E $), EPA won’t require carbon capture at all power plants — sources (E&E News), For years, the EPA and Texas ignored warning signs at a chemical storage site. Then an inferno erupted. (Texas Tribune, Public Health Watch and Grist), DuPont fined $12 million for deadly gas release in Texas (Courthouse News)

DOE: DOE seeks LNG emissions strategies as it promotes exports (E&E $)

DOI: Conservation groups file suit over oil and gas production on federal lands (New Mexico Political Report, E&E $), Interior advances plans for offshore wind in Northeast (E&E $), Deb Haaland visits Tulalip to hear from  boarding school survivors (Indian Country Today)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: ‘A large portion of this base is going to be underwater’: US military hub adapts to climate (Wall Street Journal $)

WHITE HOUSE: White House slams passage of House GOP debt limit bill: ‘No chance of becoming law’ (The Hill), Biden climate vow imperils Indonesian oil refinery loan (Bloomberg $), Biden’s big bet to take on coal power (Politico), Climate protesters trail Podesta, Zaidi (E&E $), Energy transition is ‘more profound than the internet,’ says John Podesta (Bloomberg $), Podesta on Inflation Reduction Act: We have to get the guidance right (Bloomberg $)

THE HILL: Ag Republicans: Let's put IRA programs in farm bill (E&E $), Congress should adopt 30% tax credit, streamlined permitting for regional transmission, clean grid group says (Utility Dive), Congressional Democrats blast proposed repeal of green tax credits in debt limit bill (The Hill), Ethanol, clean energy fuel drama over GOP debt limit deal (Washington Post $)

HOUSE: Republicans pass debt-ceiling hike as US creeps toward financial calamity (Reuters), House passes debt bill with more clean energy cuts (E&E News, The Hill), House Republican moves to undo Boundary Waters protections (E&E $)

SENATE: Why the Senate isn't jumping at the opportunity to end the debt crisis (Politico Pro $), Q&A: Whitehouse on Big Oil probe, committee plans (E&E interview $), IRA repeal threats, Biden snub: What’s up with Joe Manchin? (E&E News), U.S. Sen. Manchin joins effort to repeal Biden solar tariff waiver (Reuters, The Hill, E&E $), Trio of Democratic senators back resolution to undo Biden's solar tariff pause (Politico Pro $), Senate passes resolution targeting truck rule but Biden pledges veto (Politico Pro $, The Hill)

ELECTIONS: Climate law emerges as focal point for 2024 elections (E&E $), Why Republicans see electoral gold in talking up energy (Politico Pro $)

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Senate committee approves nominees for top EPA posts (E&E $, Politico Pro $, The Hill), Senate takes up 9th Circuit nominee (E&E $)

TRIBES: Federal storm disaster aid approved for California tribe (AP)

CITIES AND STATES: Massachusetts prepares to launch new electric vehicle rebates early this summer (Energy News Network), Montana Republicans bar transgender lawmaker from house floor (Washington Post $)

IMPACTS: Bringing climate risk home, one property at a time (The Hill), Dermatologists have bad news to share about climate change (Heatmap $)

HEAT: Record ocean temperatures put Earth in ‘uncharted territory’, say scientists (The Guardian), These are the places most at risk from record-breaking heat waves as the planet warms (CNN)

DROUGHT: Fish rescued from dried-out river as drought, torrid heat hit Spain (Reuters)

WATER: Lorelei Cloud is the first-ever tribal member on Colorado’s top water board. Here’s how she plans to tackle her new role. (The Colorado Sun), ‘It’s gotten really ugly.’ A community of freedom-lovers squares off against climate change in the Arizona desert (Yale Climate Connections)

RENEWABLES: Unlocking Indigenous energy (Indian Country Today), Enel says Oklahoma is top candidate for its US solar panel factory (Reuters), BPU asks grid operator to get ready for more offshore wind energy (Politico Pro $), How the rooftop solar industry is adapting to California’s new rulebook (Canary Media), SolarShare Wisconsin Cooperative aims to make investing in clean energy accessible to all (Yale Climate Connections)

"RENEWABLES": Renewable Natural Gas maker Divert secures $63M (Axios)

BATTERIES: Can Latin America really build an OPEC for lithium? (Heatmap $), 

Battery startup Sparkz strikes partnership with auto workers union (Reuters), South Korean battery groups’ domination of EV market in US faces China challenge (FT $)

BUILDINGS & APPLIANCES: Airbnb will help some hosts pay for new heat pumps (Canary Media), German company sells heat pump business to US firm Carrier (AP, New York Times $)

OIL & GAS: Oil patch is poised for buyout wave as US drillers seek new land (Bloomberg $, Bloomberg $), CEO of shale giant Pioneer Natural Resources to retire (Wall Street Journal $), Why gas prices tend to fall right before summer (Axios)

PLASTICS: Meet Mr. Trash Wheel, a champion for the end of single-use plastics (Grist)

COAL: Bank: Asia must quit coal faster to stem worst climate woes (AP)

HYDROGEN: Green hydrogen startup Ohmium raises $250 million in latest funding round (Reuters, AP)

NUKES: Company seeks first-time restart of shuttered nuclear plant (AP), Idaho National Lab’s open-source microreactor design and test bed spur start-up interest (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES: ‘Billions of dollars sitting on the sidelines’: NextEra executives cite big plans for renewables, hydrogen (Utility Dive), Energy transition threatened by permit roadblocks, Duke ECO says (Bloomberg $), Florida's largest electric utility [FP&L] doubles solar goal (E&E $), Utilities seize control of the coming boom in transmission lines (Inside Climate News)

EVs: One in five cars sold in 2023 will be electric, says International Energy Agency (FT $), China charges ahead in electric car battle (FT $), Electric car sales surged by 55% last year to surpass 10 million, and China led the way: IEA (CNBC), EVs have a sabotage problem (Heatmap $), Kia aims to lift electric-vehicle sales after record profit (Bloomberg $), Tesla says lack of lithium refining capacity will become EV production ‘choke point’ (Utility Dive)

CARBON CAPTURE: New rules for power plants could give carbon capture a boost. Here’s how. (New York Times $), British industry in push to make carbon capture a reality (FT $)

WILDLIFE: Climate-hit wetlands lay bare Britain's biodiversity struggle (Context)

INTERNATIONAL: Dutch government outlines new package to reduce emissions (AP), EU agrees rules to boost use of sustainable fuels in aviation (FT $), EU lawmakers seek methane curbs on Europe's fossil fuel imports (Reuters), How 60 million South Africans are being failed by the west's green ambitions (Bloomberg $), London court allows Greenpeace’s legal challenge of UK oil, gas drilling plan (Bloomberg $), South Africa seeks renewable energy procurement proposals (OilPrice), Will Paraguay’s elections usher in a new era for the Itaipú dam? (Energy Monitor)

• American road deaths show an alarming racial gap (New York Times, Adam Paul Susaneck op-ed $)
• The University of California system must stop taking millions from big oil (Sacramento Bee, Adam Cooper op-ed $)
• Joe Biden’s petroleum puppetry is pulling the strings of war and environmental racism (Black Agenda Report, Anthony Rogers-Wright)
• BP to feel the heat over curtailed climate vow (FT, Camilla Palladino column $)
• Big Oil should play its part in the energy transition (FT, Editorial Board $)
• Europe raises green energy climate hurdles with red tape revamp (Reuters, Gavin Maguire column)
• We lift every voice and sing to a healthier Colorado, too (Denver Post, Portia Prescott op-ed)
• Reporting on climate adaptation is a mess – here’s how to fix it (Climate Home, Richard Klein, Nella Canales, and Biljana Macura op-ed)
• Congress should consider water quality in this year’s farm bill (The Hill, Tom Zimnicki and Sara Walling op-ed)
• The ‘woke police’ are coming for ESG — here’s why they should stand down (The Hill, William Becker op-ed)
• A new chapter begins (Atmos, Yesenia Funes)

Study Finding Peer Pressure Moves People On Climate Is like "Handmaid's Tale," According To Denier

On Monday, we talked about how $795,000 homeowner Anthony Watts is working with the Heartland Institute to sell $2,000 thermometers to compete with the global temperature records. But what’s up with Watts’ namesake blog, WattsUpWithThat? 

These days? Not much. Last week, for example, Watts' replacement blogger Eric Worrall was triggered by a Scientific American story covering a literature review paper showing that peer pressure is the most effective way to get people to adopt more climate-friendly behaviors. 

According to the study, just providing information was the least effective way to motivate people to change their behavior, followed by showing people specific feedback about their behavior, such as a meter for personal energy consumption. Having people make a commitment and simply urging them to act sustainably were a bit more effective, and financial incentives were a bit more effective, still. 

But the biggest response was to social comparisons, highlighting the sustainable behaviors of others seems to set an expectation that people are eager to meet. Predictably, people were much more likely to take the easiest behavior change routes, like recycling, saving water, and not littering, with fewer willing to consume less or walk or bike instead of drive. 

From that rather milquetoast study arose a completely unhinged response from Worrall. "Can you smell the whiff of Chinese social credit systems," he begins after quoting Scientific American, "in which the government increasingly becomes involved in bullying people who don’t conform to the direction of their leaders?" 

No, we can't, and if you're smelling things that don't exist like Worrall, you may be having a stroke. 

"What's next?" he asks, moving from one entirely imagined horror story to the next. He wildly brings up imaginary climate fines and “neighborhood interventions” before ending up at "a 'climate inquisition', which coerces ordinary people reported by their neighbours into publicly confess [sic.] their climate sins." 

No, that's not what’s next. It's not anything, except the ramblings of a scared man who literally backs up his point that America is free and Communist China is bad with an embedded video clip from Seinfeld where a bunch of Americans pressure Kramer about not wearing an AIDS ribbon. Apparently, Warrell thinks this parody of American social pressure in the '90s is an apt metaphor for how the "freedom from social bullying" is what  differentiates between "free societies like America and communist tyrannies like Communist China." (Which is communist, in case you weren't sure.) 

"But the climate bullies are deadly serious," Worrall wrote, after the not serious Seinfeld clip. "Nobody will be laughing if the climate bullies get their way," which is also false because the climate bullies are already laughing at you, Eric, for spending your time proverbially licking Big Oil's boots as though fossil fuels are your father and a kid on the playground just said their dad, renewables, can totally kick your dad's butt.

But then Worrall’s article does take a rather serious turn: "Authors of stories like 'The Handmaid’s Tale' and 'If this goes on' fantasised about the threat of religious fanaticism overthrowing the Republic, about the USA becoming a Iranian style religious dictatorship, but they picked on the wrong religion. It is the climate religion which is the real and present threat to Western liberty." 

Fact check: In June of 2022, the US Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade and now states across the country are denying reproductive rights due to Christian fanaticism. 

But according to Worrall, it's actually "green zealotry, with its demands that everyone abide by its tenets regardless of whether you believe, with its intolerance for freedom and non-conformity" that is the villain. He calls climate concern "the religion which threatens to deliver us all into tyranny and subservience to the state, unless we push back against its autocratic demands." 

Uh huh. Last we checked it wasn't climate activists passing laws to ban library books, or ban financial institutions from considering certain types of risk when investing, or try and unconstitutionally kidnap trans children.

But maybe Worrall has a point. To the extent that "Western" is used as code for "fossil-fueled patriarchal Christian white supremacist extractive capitalism," then yes, the "climate religion" should absolutely be considered a threat to its oppressive status quo. 

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