Shell Pipeline Spill Pollutes Niger Delta: A major Shell oil pipeline spill has poured oil across the Niger Delta, polluting waterways and farmland, the AP reports. Though the actual volume of oil dumped from the Shell-operated Trans-Niger Pipeline has not been determined, but advocates have shared images of blighted farmland and waterways full of dead fish among the sticky sheen of crude oil. A Swiss study in 2017 found infants in the Niger Delta are twice as likely to die in their first month of life if their mothers live near an oil spill. The spill, which began June 11, is “one of the worst in the last 16 years in Ogoniland,” Fyneface Dumnamene, with the Youths and Environmental Advocacy Centre, told the AP. “It lasted for over a week, bursts into Okulu River — which adjoins other rivers and ultimately empties into the Atlantic Ocean — and affects several communities and displaces more than 300 fishers.” Local residents and environmental advocates have opposed Shell's oil major's Niger Delta operations for decades over the pollution and destruction they have caused there. (AP)

Alito's Wife Stood To Profit From Oil & Gas Extraction When He Wrote Sackett Ruling: Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito ruled on multiple environmental cases after his wife leased a plot of land to an Oklahoma oil and gas company, the Intercept reports. Martha Ann Bomgardner Alito stands to make 3/16ths of all the revenue generated by Citizen Energy III from oil and gas extracted from the 160 acres in Grady County, Oklahoma. While Citizen Energy III has not been involved in any cases directly before the Supreme Court, Alito's failure to disclose the potential conflict raises questions in light of Alito's authorship of the Court's Sackett v. EPA in May, which severely undermined EPA authority to prevent water and wetland pollution. The Intercept's reporting comes just days after ProPublica revealed Alito went on a luxury fishing trip with billionaire Paul Singer — a trip Alito never disclosed — and later failed to recuse himself from at least 10 cases in which Singer's hedge fund had before the Supreme Court. “There need not be a specific case involving the drilling rights associated with a specific plot of land for Alito to understand what outcomes in environmental cases would buttress his family’s net wealth,” Jeff Hauser, founder and director of the Revolving Door Project, told The Intercept. “Alito does not have to come across like a drunken Paul Thomas Anderson character gleefully confessing to drinking our collective milkshakes in order to be a real life, run-of-the-mill political villain.” Alito is one of five justices nominated by a president who lost the popular vote upon first taking office. (The Intercept, Business Insider, Daily Beast, Truthout)

Far More Americans At Risk For Flooding Than Gov. Estimates: Federal estimates for extreme precipitation events fail to account for increasingly extreme rainstorms fueled by climate change and thus dangerously underestimate Americans' vulnerability to flooding, a new report from the First Street Foundation warns. The report, which uses a peer-reviewed model to assess how climate change has altered precipitation events in the U.S., reveals more than half of people in the U.S. live in an area that is twice as likely to experience a so-called 1-in-100-year flood event, as NOAA's Atlas 14 would project. Those projections are based on data from "a climate that just doesn't exist anymore," Jeremy Porter, First Street's head of climate implications research, told the New York Times. (New York Times $, Axios, Washington Post $, CNBC, Politico, CNBC, The Hill; Climate Signals background: Flooding, Extreme precipitation increase)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Inside the fight to close the infamous 'slavery loophole' (The Root), Why are Black veterans turned down for VA health benefits at higher rates than white vets? (The Root)

DEFORESTATION: Destruction of world’s pristine rainforests soared in 2022 despite COP26 pledge (The Guardian, Le Monde, Reuters, BBC, FT $, New York Times $), The alarming decline of Earth’s forests, in 4 charts (Vox), Amazon rainforest study: Brazil led deforestation in 2022 (Deutsche Welle)

SOUTHERN HEATWAVE: Seven states face extreme temperatures as Texas heat wave expands (The Hill, Axios, The Guardian, analysis), About 6m across US at risk of extreme weather as over 700,000 without power (The Guardian, Axios), ‘Never occurred before’: How the Arctic is sizzling Texas (E&E News), Texas bakes and breaks records amid searing heat: weather watch (Bloomberg $, New York Times $), US natgas hits over 3-month high on higher export forecasts, heat wave (Reuters, Wall Street Journal $)

• HEAT DOMES: How a heat dome can push temperatures to dangerous highs (CNN), What is a heat dome? Scorching temperatures in Texas are expected to spread to the north and east (AP)

COME AGAIN?: Humans have used enough groundwater to shift Earth’s tilt (Washington Post $)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Europe’s LNG imports overtake pipeline gas for first time (Bloomberg $), Putin extends ban on companies sticking to price cap till end of 2023 (OilPrice)

• MUTINY: Russia mutiny throws new risk into already volatile gas market (Bloomberg $), Oil and natural gas prices rise after weekend of turmoil in Russia (CNN), European gas market shrugs off weekend of major Russian turbulence (S&P Global), Oil markets breathe a ‘sigh of relief’ after Russian mutiny was aborted (CNBC)

MVP: ‘Out there rotting’: Mountain Valley neighbors fear aging pipe (E&E News), They fought a pipeline on their land. Then Congress got involved (Wall Street Journal $)

MONTANA CLIMATE TRIAL: The six big surprises in the Montana youth climate trial (Yale Climate Connections)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Global panel issues climate and sustainability disclosure standards (Politico Pro $), Lack of funds risks Europe missing climate goals, auditors say (Reuters), EU auditors fears reaching ambitious climate targets will run into financial problems (AP)

• PARIS FINANCE CONFERENCE: Paris climate finance summit unlocks billions, but hard work is ahead (Axios), Paris climate finance summit wraps without agreement on shipping tax (Democracy Now)
• WORDS AND THEIR MEANINGS: What does 'unabated' fossil fuels mean? (Climate Home)

DENIAL & GREENWASHING: 

New global rules aim to clamp down on corporate greenwashing (Reuters)

GOP vs. ESG: BlackRock's Fink says he's stopped using 'weaponised' term ESG (Reuters), ESG advocates say GOP backlash gives industry an opportunity (Bloomberg $)

SHIPPING: Shipping emissions could be halved without damaging trade, research finds (The Guardian), How freight shippers are trying to get greener (Bloomberg $)

SCOTUS: Unpacking the historic Brackeen v. Haaland decision (Indian Country Today), Court to hear appeal over Biden-backed Nevada lithium mine opposed by tribes, environmentalists (AP)

AGENCIES: A second life for EV batteries? Depends how long the first is (Reuters)

EPA: Work begins to clean up train derailment in Montana’s Yellowstone River (AP)

DOI: US Interior Secretary Haaland reflects on tenure and tradition amid policy challenges (AP)

DOT: Biden administration announces $1.7 billion for electric and ‘traditional’ buses (The Hill, AP)

THE HILL: California Congress members call for expansion of San Gabriel Mountains National Monument (LA Times $), Democrats introduce federal conversion therapy ban (The Hill)

CITIES AND STATES: Congestion pricing plan in New York City clears final federal hurdle (New York Times $), Busy Paris avenue gets new design to remove car lanes (Bloomberg $), Virginia weatherization groups seek alternatives as Youngkin undercuts funding source (Energy News Network)

IMPACTS: ‘It’s absolutely guaranteed’: The best and worst case scenarios for sea level rise (The Guardian, explainer)

• CHINA: Beijing suffers record-breaking heat wave with more dangerous temperatures forecast (Democracy Now), 4 dead, 900 evacuated after landslides triggered by flash floods in southwest China (AP)

WILDFIRES: Canada wildfire smoke crossed the Atlantic to cover parts of Europe (Bloomberg $), Canada’s explosive wildfires have damaged a forest carbon offset project (Bloomberg $)

DROUGHT: Flash droughts: Climate change’s next big blow (OilPrice)

OCEANS: Climate, environmental change puts 90% of world's marine food at risk -study (Reuters), 'A marine wildfire': Record north Atlantic heat threatens ocean life (Democracy Now)

RENEWABLES: Offshore wind company will retrain NY power plant union for clean energy jobs (Reuters), Why the wind power industry has hit turbulence (Reuters, explainer), Solar is booming in the California desert, if water issues don’t get in the way (Inside Climate News), A giant wind farm is taking root off Massachusetts (New York Times $)

"RENEWABLES": Algae biofuels still a no-go, new research confirms (Canary Media)

BATTERIES: A second life for EV batteries? Depends how long the first is (Reuters), LG kicks off colossal ramp-up of US factories for EV and grid batteries (Canary Media), Tesla leads surge in battered clean-energy stocks (Wall Street Journal $)

STORAGE: Global floating oil storage hits highest level since October 2020 (OilPrice)

POWER: Planet-heating pollution from global energy sector continues to rise as fossil fuels dominate, report finds (CNN)

CEMENT: Cement emits as much CO2 as India. Why is it so hard to fix? (Washington Post $)

LNG: Cheniere and China’s ENN energy lock in 20-year LNG deal (OilPrice), Legal fight continues between Venture Global LNG, Repsol over LNG shipments (The Advocate)

OIL & GAS: OPEC says oil demand will hit 110 million barrels per day in 2045 (CNBC)

COAL: US coking coal mine, terminal disruptions affecting shipments (S&P Global)

HYDROGEN: Saudi Aramco sees 'sound' oil outlook for H2 on China, India demand (Reuters)

UTILITIES: Arizona Public Service reaches settlement with ACC, will raise rates to recover Four Corners investment (Utility Dive)

GRID: UK electricity network faces ‘mind-boggling’ scale of change over net zero (FT $)

EVs: Batteries on wheels: EV school buses shore up US electricity grid (Context), Aston Martin, Lucid surge after Saudi-backed EV supply pact (Bloomberg $), China’s electric vehicle bubble is starting to deflate (Bloomberg $), Japan’s storied automakers are getting crushed on EVs. What happened? (Heatmap $), Tesla may have already won the charging wars (New York Times $)

AGRICULTURE: Agrivoltaics hit ‘watershed moment’ as farmland transitions increase, says farmer-turned-developer (Utility Dive)

BOOKS: Books to help you stay inspired to fight climate change (Yale Climate Connections)

ALL ABOARD!: Flying without wings: The world’s fastest trains (CNN)

GEOENGINEERING: EU looks into blocking out the sun as climate efforts falter (Bloomberg $), EU warns of rising climate-fuelled conflict, risks of geoengineering - draft (Reuters)

FOOD: Why meat eaters may soon be digging into duckweed (Washington Post $)

THROW IT OUT?: Many consumers find food labels confusing, contributing to food waste (Yale Climate Connections)

IN MEMORIAM: John Goodenough, a Nobel Prize-winning co-creator of the revolutionary lithium battery, dies at 100 (AP, New York Times $, Bloomberg $, Reuters, CNN, BBC, KXAN)

INTERNATIONAL: ‘Not realistic’ for Malaysia to achieve net-zero by itself, says Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim (CNBC), Germany, France, Italy to cooperate more on raw material supplies (Reuters), Trafigura cuts Mexico oil-trader jobs as policies crimp margins (Bloomberg $)

• GERMANY: Germany approved only 6% of power lines needed for green transition (Bloomberg $), Germany to roll out measures against heat wave deaths, drawing lessons from France (AP), Nike and Pepsi lead calls for EU to roll out green trucks faster (Bloomberg $)
• SPAIN: Spain announces new department to study effects of very hot weather on health (AP), Spain’s election frontrunners plan U-turn in nuclear power phase-out (Reuters)

• China and India do more than you think to fight global warming (Bloomberg, Carl Pope column $)
• Helping poorer countries fund the climate transition (FT, editorial board $)
• Saudis are tightening the screws on US oil shipments (Bloomberg, Javier Blas column $)
• A renowned economist’s new idea for stopping climate change (New York Times, Peter Coy column $)
• When it comes to transmission, customers must come first (Utility Dive, Tony Clark op-ed)
• An industry that actually welcomes regulation (Bloomberg, Lara Williams op-ed $)
• Russia’s mutiny underscores oil’s fragility (Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)
• Every Supreme Court justice should be matched with a billionaire buddy (New York Times, Jamelle Bouie column $)

Those Peddling UFO Conspiracies For Clicks Can't Complain About Anti-Disinfo Advocacy

We started this month with a fun little story about how The Daily Caller's resident expert on recreational drug use in leisure spaces Kay Smythe put her credentials on the line to go up against a literal NASA rocket scientist and defend a "bogus," "Adam and Eve" conspiracy theory about Earth's magnetic poles. It actually wasn't the first time her Daily Caller coverage came up: Last August, we pointed out that she (and/or the Caller's headline writer) appeared ignorant of a key legal term central to a story pretending it's scandalous that Leonardo DiCaprio funded climate litigation. 

Yesterday, Smythe was back at it, begging unsuspecting internet users to click on an empty story with a clickbait headline: "Multiple People Believe They Saw A UFO Over One State, And No One Has Debunked It Yet." Evidently defending conspiracy theorists with Joe Rogan clips was just the start, and Smythe is now writing about how people are saying that sure the recent Ohio UFO footage “looks like it was computer generated, but no one has seemed to prove that it was (yet)." 

Apparently, it's news that no one has debunked the video after a week, because, Smythe wrote, "it is typically less than 24 hours before the footage is debunked as fake or swept under the rug, or the intelligence community steps in to do … whatever it is they do with our tax dollars." 

Okay, so The Daily Caller, a Facebook-recognized fact checker, likes to have a little fun with aliens and Men in Black — what's the big deal? Just like Michael Shellenberger, who's using a campaign against the "censorship industrial complex" as a "free speech" clout-chasing tactic, the Caller is obviously willing to publish anything that grabs people's attention long enough to sell them an ad (or a Substack subscription, in Shellenberger’s case). 

The problem is that in both cases, those would-be-UFOlogists are also propagandizing against institutions trying to stop the spread of disinformation, and convincing someone that experts are hiding the truth about UFOs makes it that much easier to convince them that experts are hiding the truth about climate change, or COVID, or Critical Race Theory.

For example, the same day The Daily Caller published Smythe's silly piece about UFOs, the outlet also ran a story about UN's work to counter mis- and disinformation. The piece frames the UN’s well-cited policy brief on "information integrity" as a scandal because it's "informed by work from groups that actively push to censor conservative speech online." 

In reality, the UN’s policy brief on digital disinformation is simply based on material from groups that work on digital disinformation, in other words the UN cited experts on a problem, and the people causing the problem are mad about it. 

So here's an easy test to determine if a pundit or grifter or media outlet is serious about good faith journalism and has a standing to argue the finer points of addressing disinformation: if you publish claims about alien craft from outer space as credible for clicks, you don't get to complain about people who are trying to make the internet a more honest cyberspace.

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