SCOTUS Strikes Down Race-Conscious Affirmative Action: The Supreme Court on Thursday outlawed race-conscious affirmative action, a ruling that upends decades of precedent, could hamper efforts to advance environmental justice, and, critics argue, will further entrench systemic racism throughout American society. “The devastating impact of this decision cannot be overstated,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in dissent, joined by Justices Elena Kagan and Ketanji Brown Jackson. “The majority’s vision of race neutrality will entrench racial segregation in higher education because racial inequality will persist so long as it is ignored.” The conservative supermajority's application of strict scrutiny toward race-conscious admissions practices augurs danger for any environmental policy that accounts for the decades of environmental racism that has sited highways and polluting industries in communities of color while simultaneously superheating those same communities with concrete and lack of greenspace. In crafting environmental justice policies, the Biden administration has repeatedly avoided explicit mentions of race, including in a Council on Environmental Quality screening tool. Each of the justices in the majority in this case — which still allows affirmative action based on whether an applicant's parent attended the school (legacy admissions) or whether the applicant attended an expensive prep or boarding school — has been credibly accused of sexual misconduct, was nominated by a president who lost the popular vote upon first taking office, or both. (Affirmative action: Washington Post $, AP, SCOTUSblog, NewsOne, The Root, TIME, ABC, Capital B News, Axios, Wall Street Journal $, NBC, The 19th* News, The Guardian, USA Today, CNN, New York Times $, Politico, NPR, Prism Reports, Colorlines explainer; Environmental justice implications: E&E News; Legacy admissions: Politico, NBC, Harvard Crimson)

Solar Bailing Out Texas Grid: As the death toll of the so-called Texas heatwave — officially — climbed to 14 on Thursday, renewable energy generation has so far kept lights on, air conditioners running, and electricity prices relatively low in Texas. “[Wind and solar] are really cranking,” Joshua Rhodes, a research scientist at the University of Texas, told Heatmap. The brutal heat, made worse and more likely by climate change, caused 8 megawatts of methane gas- and coal-fired power generation to fail, the state's grid operator said. Even so, “wind and solar are giving us a big enough buffer that even when we have a handful of power plants go offline, it isn’t causing disruptions,” Dan Cohan, a Rice University professor of civil and environmental engineering, told the Washington Post. The extreme heat, which is blanketing a large swath of the South as well as Mexico, subjected more than 60 million people in the U.S. to extreme heat on Thursday. (Texas deaths: AP, The Guardian); Renewables: Heatmap $, Washington Post $, PBS, Gizmodo; Broader heatwave: AP, Washington Post $, Inside Climate News, The Hill, Axios, Washington Post $; Calls for worker protections: The Hill; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

Clean Energy Jobs Grow To 40% Of Energy Sector Employment: The U.S. energy sector workforce grew by 300,000 jobs last year, with clean energy jobs swelling to make up 40% of employment in the sector, according to a DOE report issued earlier this week. The 3.9% increase in employment in clean energy jobs bested the economy overall, which grew by 3.1% over the same period. Jobs in the electric vehicle battery sector increased by 28,000, a 27% increase over the previous year, the fastest growth of any energy technology. The solar industry gained 12,000 workers (3.7%), onshore wind gained 5,000 workers (4.4%), and the energy efficiency sector added 50,000 workers (2.3%) in 2022 with expectations for far greater expansion in the coming year. “The clean energy transition is accelerating, with job growth across every pocket of America,” Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm said in a statement. Bob Keefe, head of the nonpartisan business group E2 was even more succinct. "We're only getting started," he said in a statement. (Utility Dive, HuffPost, Reuters, The Hill, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, WV Public Broadcasting)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Fertilizer plants add to toxic loads in Louisiana’s 'Cancer Alley' (Columbia Missourian)

COP28: Art Partner launches #CreateCOP28, an open call focused on climate justice (Vogue)

WILDFIRE SMOKE: Dangerous heat and heavy wildfire smoke March across north America (New York Times $), Millions face a relentless summer of smoke that won’t end anytime soon (Washington Post $), Canada wildfire season declared worst on record (Axios), How large are the Canadian wildfires, and who is suffering the smoke? (Washington Post $), 

CLIMATE LITIGATION: US climate lawsuits peaked in 2020 — report (E&E $)

• MONTANA CLIMATE TRIAL: Meet one of the teens suing Montana over climate crisis. She says planet’s future is at stake (Democracy Now)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: EU to propose exit from Energy Charter Treaty over climate concerns (Reuters), Latin America leads resistance to global shipping emission tax (Climate Home), Lifting the curtain on carbon colonialism (Atmos)

GREENWASHING & DENIAL: The climate change-denying TikTok post that won't go away (BBC), 'Climate washing' lawsuits jump as more activists challenge corporate claims, report shows (Reuters)

MEDIA: 'Climate silence': corporate media still failing to link wildfires & extreme weather to climate crisis (Democracy Now)

HOUSEHOLDER SENTENCE: A $60 million bribe. a $1.3 billion bailout. a 20-year prison sentence. (New York Times $, Columbus Dispatch, Ohio Capital Journal, AP, CNN, The Hill, Axios), Former Ohio House speaker called ‘quintessential mob boss’ faces long prison term (Wall Street Journal $)

BILLIONS OF PR WELL-SPENT: America's surprising energy and climate views (Axios), Poll shows public skepticism for EVs, fossil fuel phaseout (E&E $)

AFFIRMATIVE ACTION: Can college diversity survive the end of affirmative action? (Vox), Service academies exempt from Supreme Court affirmative action ruling (Military Times), Supreme Court just reversed affirmative action. What that means for workplace diversity. (USA Today), What will happen without affirmative action in colleges? University leaders fear a lapse in diversity efforts. (The 19th* News)

• DEMOCRATIC RESPONSE: Biden: 'I strongly disagree' with Supreme Court ruling against affirmative action (NBC), Dems train fire on Supreme Court over affirmative action ruling (Axios)
• DISSENT: Justice Jackson rips Supreme Court’s ‘ostrich-like’ logic on affirmative action (The Hill, CNBC), Sotomayor’s biting dissent: Ruling rolls back ‘decades of precedent and momentous progress’ (The Hill)
• CRITICISM: Black leaders blast Supreme Court for overturning affirmative action (The Hill), SCOTUS “losing moral authority” after affirmative action ban (Black Wall Street Times)
• SATIRE: Harvard admits first white student (The Onion)

AGENCIES: Biden’s Forest Service is dragging its feet on protecting ancient trees from logging (HuffPost)

EPA: At rules hearing, US EPA hears human toll of unaddressed coal ash pollution (Energy News Network), Biden admin aims to fast-track WOTUS. Courts may block that. (E&E $), EPA air permitting equity plan faces skepticism (E&E $), EPA launches $7B program to fund solar development in low-income and disadvantaged communities (Utility Dive), The EPA was on the cusp of cleaning up ‘Cancer Alley.’ Then it backed down. (Grist)

DOI: Biden blocks activist bid to slash oil output from federal lands (Bloomberg $)

WHITE HOUSE: Climate response key to ‘Bidenomics’ (E&E News), The climate rifts Biden and Modi couldn't heal (TIME)

ELECTIONS: DeSantis calls for eliminating DOE (E&E $)

TRIBES: Utah tribe slams Biden admin over Colorado River ruling (E&E $), Western tribes' last ditch effort to stall a large lithium mine in Nevada (NPR), Why Native Americans are refusing to take a $2bn payout for ‘theft’ of the Black Hills (New York Post)

CITIES & STATES & DISENFRANCHISED COLONIAL TERRITORIES: Ohio AG asks high court to freeze ex-utility regulator's assets (E&E $), On EV policy, states are making ‘incremental progress, not transformational’: ACEEE (Utility Dive), Why Maine’s climate-conscious governor vetoed an offshore wind bill (Grist), New Mexico regulators fine oil producer $40 million for burning off vast amounts of natural gas (AP)

• PUERTO RICO: Puerto Rico’s utility bankruptcy plan draws fire from all sides (Politico Pro $), Hundreds in Puerto Rico protest proposed increase in electricity bills (AP)

IMPACTS: ‘Off the charts’: Earth’s vital signs are going haywire (WFLA), Meltwater is hydro-fracking Greenland’s ice sheet through millions of hairline cracks – destabilizing its internal structure (The Conversation), A hail-battered June adds to billions in US storm damage this year (Yale Climate Connections), American Samoa’s coastal communities face worsened sea level rise (Yale Climate Connections), El Niño is here — how bad will it be? (Nature), How climate change harms children’s health (Yale Climate Connections), Rainfall extremes increasingly threaten mountain regions and areas downstream from them (Inside Climate News, E&E $)

POLLUTION VISUALIZATION: Watch one year of carbon emissions take over the planet (TIME)

HEAT: How does extreme heat affect the body and what can you do about it? (The Guardian, explainer), A guide to the hottest measurements in temperature (Heatmap $), Global heat waves show climate change and El Niño are a bad combo (NPR), How to sleep when it's really hot outside (TIME)

WILDFIRES: London's burning? UK seeks to snuff out rising wildfire threat (Context), The world’s wildfire models are getting torched (Heatmap $)

HURRICANES: Tropical Storm Beatriz forms off Mexico’s Pacific coast and may soon become a hurricane (AP)

DROUGHT: Midwest Drought: Corn and Soybeans Suffer as Forecasters Expect No Quick Relief for Farmers (Modern Farmer), Central US is now getting worst of the drought. Corn crops are stressed, rivers are running low (AP)

RENEWABLES: Can rooftop solar alone solve climate change? Here’s the answer (LA Times $), Rise in solar provides a ray of hope for Dutch green goals (Reuters), Rooftop solar was overlooked. Now it’s closing a New England power plant. (E&E News)

BUILDINGS: The race to build a better air conditioner (Wall Street Journal $)

METHANE: Funding to cut methane emissions 'woefully' short of what's needed (Bloomberg $)

OIL & GAS: Big oil mulls a slippery future (Wall Street Journal $), Campaigners vow to step up action against new North Sea oilfield (The Guardian), ConocoPhillips faces potential $914,000 fine over Alaska gas blowout, leak (AP)

PIPELINES: Canadian climate activist: Big Oil oil is fueling fires. We must stop funding new fossil fuel pipelines (Democracy Now), Fate of Mountain Valley Pipeline’s North Carolina extension still unclear (Energy News Network)

UTILITIES: PG&E seeks roughly $7 billion federal loan to reduce California wildfire risk (Wall Street Journal $)

GRID: Most US regions get D+ or below for transmission planning, development: benchmark report (Utility Dive)

EVs: General Motors debuts EV system that can feed the grid (E&E $), Minnesota is the Midwest leader on electric vehicles, report says (Minnesota Reformer), The US’ billion-dollar EV bus program can’t keep up with demand (Canary Media)

AGRICULTURE: How this urban farm in Houston is going 'off-grid' (Houston Chronicle)

BOOKS: Extreme heat is here to stay. Why are we not more afraid? (New York Times $)

CARBON PRICING: Voluntary carbon markets get a new rulebook (E&E $)

CARBON CAPTURE: Carbon capture technology: The future of clean energy or a costly and misguided distraction? (CBS), Carbon capture technology removes CO2 from power plant emissions, but is it a climate solution? (CBS), Landmark North Dakota CCS project adds 3 new developers (E&E $)

GEOENGINEERING: The European Union is getting nervous about atmosphere-altering geoengineering (Gizmodo)

SHIPPING: As emissions soar, cargo shipping faces a critical climate crossroads (Canary Media)

FINANCE: Shuffling deckchairs on the Titanic: is ESG a redundant concept? (Energy Monitor)

WILDLIFE: Big potential and immense challenges for great ape conservation in the Congo basin, experts say (Mongabay)

INTERNATIONAL: Australian sea dumping law changes condemned amid warnings of gas industry expansion (The Guardian), Canada's oil province Alberta can cut power grid emissions to net-zero, report says (Reuters), China races ahead on renewables, but coal remains king (E&E $), In Namibia, kelp forests help lock up planet-heating carbon (Context), Iraq plants mangrove forest to fight climate disaster (Reuters), Philippines gets $1 billion ADB loan for low-carbon bus programme (Reuters), Rohingya hit hardest after Myanmar junta cuts aid to storm survivors (The New Humanitarian)

• While Texas heats up, its climate denying politicians seek federal help (TIME, Eugene Linden commentary)
• Young climate activists aren’t leading tomorrow — they are leading today (Truthout, Kwolanne Felix op-ed)
• KitKats are no longer carbon neutral. That's good. (Bloomberg, Mark Gongloff column $)
• You should be getting paid to prevent heat wave power outages (New York Times, Michael Webber op-ed $)
• Senegal shows African countries are not passive beneficiaries of climate finance (Climate Home, Secou Sarr commentary)

No One's Taking Your Pizza Away, Even For The Climate

Few things are as sacred to New Yorkers as their pizza, so when deniers caught wind of climate policy brushing up against the city's prized pies, it was time for an urban version of the "Biden's gonna take your burgers" disinformation tactic. This week was filled with shrill alarmist cries that the city's climate policy is going to outlaw coal and wood-fired pizza ovens. Spoiler alert: it's not. 

One conservative troll got a police citation for throwing pizzas at City Hall (lol) and the New York Post not only ran a story on it, but also got Marc Morano to publish an op-ed on the topic. Not to be outdone, "On June 27, Fox aired 52 minutes discussing the Post's pizza story," MediaMatters reported. 

But as HEATED pointed out, "There was just one problem: the story, like so many others, is a lie." The policy in question is meant to address the particulate matter emissions from the ovens, not the carbon emissions, and "the only thing the rule requires is for pizzeria owners to have an architect or engineer come check out the oven, and see if it’s feasible to install an emissions scrubber. If it’s not, they can apply for a waiver." In other words, all it’s mandating is to have someone check and see if it's possible for the pizza places to pour a little less cancer-causing smoke into their neighbors' air.

But that’s not all! The New York law is finally going into effect now after being passed way back in 2015, so unless time travel is real, the new rules were not created by “Green New Dealers,” as the Post’s editorial board claims.

And remember: If the pizza joints can't put in scrubbers, THEN THEY CAN JUST GET WAIVERS! The law was expressly designed so that it wouldn't require iconic NYC establishments to stop serving up slices, but that's exactly the narrative deniers are spreading to fearmonger about climate policy. And as Emily Atkin observed in a follow-up HEATED piece, plenty of mainstream outlets that should've known better followed suit. 

There’s no doubt the Fourth of July holiday will provide another opportunity for disinfluencers to virtue signal on behalf of BBQ grills and burgers, but you, faithful Denier Roundup readers, will be on your own. We're taking some time off, and we’ll resume cursing you with the knowledge of what's happening in denierland on July 18th. 

Try not to miss us too much! And if you do, remember there are other great resources out there! 

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