'Disaster Capitalism At Its Finest'- Maui Fires A Colonial Inheritance: Hawaiian Electric Company may be responsible for proximately causing the fire that devastated Lāhainā, as Maui County alleged in a lawsuit late last week, but the stage was set for the inferno by more than a century and a half of plantation agriculture driven by colonial invaders, the Guardian reports. Lāhainā, once an agriculturally diverse and productive wetland, was reportedly described as the "Venice of the Pacific'' by early Europeans. But, “The rise of plantation capital spawned the drying of the west side of Maui,” Kamana Beamer, a historian and former Hawaii water resource management commissioner, told The Guardian. “You can see the link between extractive, unfettered capitalism at the expense of our natural resources and the ecosystem.” Sugar magnates and other capitalists overthrew the Hawaiian Kingdom’s Queen Liliuokalani in 1893, leading to the U.S. annexation of the archipelago five years later with Sanford Ballard Dole, cousin of Dole Plantation's founder, sitting as the territory's first governor. More than a century later, when the last sugar plantations closed in 2016, real estate speculators allowed the land to be overrun by invasive grasses — fuel for wildfires — while developers diverted water to luxury subdivisions, away from Indigenous families living downstream. Now, locals and Native Hawaiians are concerned the affordable housing crisis in and around Lāhainā will become even worse, along with false water scarcity created by water rights acquisition. “It’s another slap in the face to people in Lahaina who have lost everything,” Lucienne de Naie, an east Maui historian and chair of the Sierra Club Maui group, told The Guardian. “They’re pitting farmers against farmers, Native Hawaiians against Native Hawaiians,” said Hōkūao Pellegrino, a seventh-generation taro farmer in central Maui who leads the stream protection nonprofit Hui o Nā Wai ʻEhā, calling it "disaster capitalism at its finest." (Colonial plantations: The Guardian; Maui County suit: AP, AP, Democracy Now, Gizmodo, E&E $, The Verge, Washington Post $; Affordable housing: NPR; Climate Signals background: Wildfires)

Green Groups Trying To Become Less White: Historically white-lead and -staffed environmental groups are trying to improve their outreach to, and employment of, people of color, the AP reports, while young and diverse environmentalists have also taken to founding their own organizations. Environmental groups have recognized the problem of the movement's whiteness — a history that goes back all the way to its founding — and though communities of color are disproportionately harmed by pollution and climate change, the largest green groups are still predominantly run and staffed by white people. “I don’t think BIPOC are choosing not to be in the outdoors, they’re just not given the same opportunity,” said Kristy Drutman, the Filipino and Jewish founder of the Green Jobs Board, who also runs the Brown Girl Green podcast. “Urbanization, racial segregation, all these histories have separated BIPOC from neighbors with more green spaces,” she added. “It’s become a white people’s thing because of that.” (AP)

Marathon Raced To Quench Refinery Fire As Louisiana Struggles With Wildfires: Record-breaking heat and extreme drought are supercharging an "unprecedented" wildfire season in Louisiana, with the entire town of Merryville forced to evacuate ahead of the Tiger Island Fire, one of the 441 wildfires in the state this month alone. “This is unprecedented. We’ve never had to fight this many fires simultaneously and at this duration," Mike Strain of the Louisiana Dept. of Agriculture and Forestry, told reporters. "We’re fighting between 25 and 30 (wildfires) today." Meanwhile in Garyville, LA, residents were forced to evacuate due to a fire at the third-largest oil refinery in the country. Marathaon's refinery, in the heart of Cancer Alley, has already burned three times so far this year, and many residents around the 2-mile evacuation zone are concerned about the chemicals they are breathing from the fire. "You look outside your house and the sky is black," Hilary Cambre, a local resident forced to evacuate, told 4WWL. (Wildfires: AP, NBC; Refinery fire: 4WWL, AP, Louisiana Illuminator, The Advocate/NOLA.com, Bloomberg $, WAFB, NOLA.com, AP, ABC, Washington Post $, WGNO, Argus Media, CNN, WDSU, Common Dreams; Climate Signals background: Wildfires, Drought, Extreme heat and heatwaves)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Ami Zota on the hidden dangers in beauty products—and why women of color are particularly at risk (Inside Climate News, interview), Racially motivated hate crime claims the lives of three people in Jacksonville, Florida (Ebony), Black leaders denounce Jacksonville shooting on heels of March on Washington anniversary (The Hill, The Root), Workers continue the fight 60 years after the March on Washington (Prism Reports)

• COP CITY: Cop City referendum would give Atlanta voters a voice on the police training facility’s future (Teen Vogue), Activists furious Democratic leaders haven’t denounced plan to check every ‘Stop Cop City’ signature (AP)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: The Montana climate kids’ lawsuit has energized activists, including this one (Washington Post $), Win for Montana youth fuels another climate battle in Hawaii (E&E $), Children have a right to sue nations over climate, UN panel says (New York Times $)

WORKERS: Workers exposed to extreme heat have no consistent protection in the US (AP)

IDALIA: Hurricane watch issued for Florida Gulf Coast as Idalia gains strength (Washington Post $, Yale Climate Connections, New York Times $, AP, The Hill), Tropical Storm Idalia eyes Florida, to intensify in record-warm Gulf (Axios)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: 'Delay and denial': Kerry attacks opponents of climate science (E&E $), Countries adopt multibillion-dollar fund to protect nature (Reuters), John Kerry says US can't reach climate goals without global cooperation (NPR), UN rights experts raise climate change concerns with Saudi Aramco (Reuters), World must stop new unabated coal-fired power - US climate envoy Kerry (Reuters)

GRID: 4 takeaways from the grid’s record-breaking summer (E&E News)

• TEXAS: ERCOT asks Texans to conserve electricity for fourth day in a row (Houston Chronicle, San Antonio Express-News, FOX7, KXAN), Texas grid operator appeals for conservation as heat wave persists (Reuters), Texas heat wave spurs power prices to their highest since 2021 freeze (Reuters), Texas power grid sets 10 all-time peak demand records in extreme summer heat (Weather Channel), Texas tapping 'virtual power plants,' increasing grid reliability and earning homeowners money (WFAA), CenterPoint among the worst-performing utilities in the nation on energy efficiency, report finds (Houston Chronicle)

AGENCIES: Natural disasters aren't going anywhere. FEMA is stepping up to tackle them (NPR)

DOE: DOE details wind’s post-climate law headaches, growth (E&E $), DOE rule regulating ceiling fans targeted by House Republicans (Washington Examiner), A chat with Becca Jones-Albertus, director of DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies Office (Canary Media, interview), 

DOI: Appeals court upholds Obama-era royalty rule for oil and gas (Politico Pro $, E&E $), Energy interests and environmentalists fight Biden oil lease plan from different sides (AP), Environmental groups sue to block September offshore oil lease sale (Politico Pro $), Oil companies sue US over Gulf auction changes meant to protect whale (Reuters)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden denounces Jacksonville shooting: ‘White supremacy has no place in America’ (The Hill), Biden's climate moves (NPR), Climate activists call on Biden to take more forceful action (The Hill)

THE HILL: It’s so hot, Congress may actually pass a law about it (Heatmap $)

POLITICS: Greens urge Dems to hold line against cuts to IRA, agencies (E&E $), How ‘disaster politics’ could help make — or break — Newsom’s future (The Hill), Republicans take aim at the ‘next Solyndra.’ Will voters care? (E&E News), The staying power of fossil fuel subsidies (Axios)

ELECTIONS: Bernie Sanders pans progressive Democratic primary against Biden (The Hill), Climate change made it in the GOP debate. Some young Republicans say that's a win (NPR), GOP presidential candidates blame China, not US, for climate change (Washington Post $), The GOP debate's energy moments (Axios), When it comes to climate, the Republican Party has a woman problem (The 19th* News)

TRIBES: 'It’s going to kill our oil field': Tribal leader blasts Biden regs (E&E $), New dawn for Arctic’s first people: The Inuit plan to reclaim their sea (The Guardian)

CITIES AND STATES: How a climate-fueled disaster led a native Detroiter to a career helping her neighbors (Energy News Network), 'We're all Maui': Climate change tests emergency alert systems across US (Reuters), Climate change is making schoolyard play dangerously hot. California has a solution (NPR)

FERC: American Clean Power asks FERC to hold conference on capacity accreditation (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: First crops, now animals: Climate change hurts Bangladesh farmers (Context), South-east Australia marine heatwave forecast to be literally off the scale (Australian Associated Press via The Guardian), ‘Risk blindness’ is making the climate crisis worse (Bloomberg $), After America’s summer of extreme weather, ‘next year may well be worse’ (The Guardian), Climate risks loom over Panama Canal, a vital global trade link (New York Times $), Coral reefs: How climate change threatens the hidden diversity of marine ecosystems (The Conversation), For low-lying communities, what happens when the water keeps rising? (Wall Street Journal $), Heatwaves, flood and fire: what it's like to survive 2023's extreme weather – video (The Guardian), How climate change is disrupting the global food supply (PBS NewsHour), Indonesia’s tropical Eternity Glaciers could vanish within years, experts say (The Guardian), Looking for a US ‘climate haven’ away from heat and disaster risks? Good luck finding one (The Conversation), Record heat waves put 2023 on track to become hottest year in human history (Democracy Now), The soaring price of rice is affecting many parts of the world where it's the staple diet (NPR), Where 2 inches of rain can kill you (Heatmap $), Are we ready for a $100 billion catastrophe? how about $200 billion? (Wall Street Journal $)

• THE OTHER OIL CRISIS: Climate change is coming for your olive oil, too (Grist)

HEAT: Simultaneous record heat hits multiple continents (Axios), Sweltering temperatures disrupt the new school year (New York Times $), As Chicago broils, neighbors find ways to keep each other cool (Grist), Could common medicines make heatwaves more dangerous? (Yale Climate Connections), Exceptional heat is baking the central US but is soon to relent (Washington Post $), Global warming link to intense rains in India's Himalayas, scientists say (Reuters), How to stay cool without air con – and help take some heat off the planet (The Guardian), More than 111 million people in the US face extreme heat (New York Times $), Phoenix temperatures will heat up to the extreme once again this weekend (AP), To escape the heat in Dubai, head to the beach at midnight (New York Times $)

WILDFIRES: A season of contradictions for wildfire (E&E News), Greece wildfire 'worst on European soil in years', Copernicus says (Reuters), How Indigenous techniques saved a community from wildfire (New York Times $), More than 600 firefighters backed by water-dropping aircraft struggle to control wildfires in Greece (AP), Some wildfire evacuations end in British Columbia, but fire threatens community farther north (AP), The death toll from wildfires in Greece this week rises to 21 after another victim is found (AP), Over 100 confirmed safe on Maui’s list of people missing after wildfire (Washington Post $)

DEFORESTATION: Illegal logging thrives in Mexico City’s forest-covered boroughs, as locals strive to plant trees (AP)

SCIENCE: Buried under the ice (Washington Post $), Scientific journal retracts article that claimed no evidence of climate crisis (The Guardian), Women working in Antarctica say they were left to fend for themselves against sexual harassers (AP)

AIR POLLUTION: COVID closed the nation’s schools. Cleaner air can keep them open. (New York Times $)

BOOZE: France has too much wine. It’s paying millions to destroy the leftovers. (Washington Post $)

RENEWABLES: At 30%, solar panel tax credits are at a high point for now (New York Times $), Chart: Global renewables deployments to hit record levels in 2023 (Canary Media), The Gulf of Mexico is a very hard spot to build a wind farm (Heatmap $), Bloom energy can finally live up to clean power buzz (Wall Street Journal $), The race to unlock a vast source of clean energy beneath our feet (New York Times $)

BATTERIES: As companies eye massive lithium deposits in California’s Salton Sea, locals anticipate a mixed bag (Inside Climate News)

EFFICIENCY: Utility efficiency spending falls, leading to 5.4% drop in energy savings: ACEEE (Utility Dive)

LNG: An LNG plant could bring millions to bankrupt Chester. Leaders and residents are saying no thanks. (Philadelphia Inquirer), Chevron LNG workers in Australia allow union to call for strike (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: Big oil companies are not meeting their climate pledges — and blocking new agreements (NPR), BP urges more oil, gas investment while speeding energy transition (Reuters)

PIPELINES: Feds seek tougher gas line rules after fatal Massachusetts blast (E&E $), Mountain Valley Pipeline construction resumes in Virginia (Washington Post $), New gas pipeline rules floated following 2018 blasts in Massachusetts (AP)

HYDROGEN: Falling gas, oil prices unlikely to slow renewables’ growth but could impact hydrogen: S&P (Utility Dive)

NUKES: Will a coup in one of the world’s biggest uranium producers squeeze nuclear energy? (HuffPost)

UTILITIES: Must utilities do more to protect customers from fire? (E&E $), Hawaii utility faces collapse as others delay on extreme weather risks (Washington Post $, AP), Hawaiian Electric CEO's bonus lacked incentive to cut wildfire risk, documents show (Reuters)

EVs: Auto workers vote overwhelmingly to let union leaders call strikes against Detroit companies (AP, Politico Pro $), Forget fast charging. America needs to fix slow charging. (Heatmap $), Labor groups target Hyundai, and Biden, over transition to electric (New York Times $), Rich collectors are converting classic cars to EVs (TIME)

RICH BOY'S TOYS: SpaceX blast left officials in disbelief over environmental damage (Bloomberg $)

ACTIVISM: ‘I’m not the guilty one’: the water protector facing jail time for trying to stop a pipeline (The Guardian), Succession' actor Jeremy Strong's pitch for climate disruptors (E&E $), You’re doing it wrong: recycling and other myths about tackling climate change (Washington Post $)

SHIPPING: Shipping containers account for 2% of global emissions — wind-powered sails could help (NPR)

WILDLIFE: In the Gulf of Maine, scientists race to save seabirds threatened by climate change (Environmental Health News), Thousands of penguin chicks killed by early sea ice breakup, study says (Washington Post $, HuffPost, Gizmodo), Scientists hope to breed a heat-resistant saguaro as more die in a warming climate (NPR), Secrets of the Octopus Garden: Moms nest at thermal springs to give their young the best chance for survival (The Conversation), What’s more harmful to birds in North Dakota: Oil and gas drilling, or corn and soybeans? (Inside Climate News)

INTERNATIONAL: Brazil aims to raise $2 billion in ESG sovereign bonds in September (Reuters), Campaigners threaten EU with legal action over climate policy (Reuters), Canadian minister makes rare China trip for talks on climate, biodiversity (Reuters), Cause of Kenya’s longest power outage in memory remains unclear as grid suppliers exchange blame (AP, AP), Labeled climate culprits, European farmers rebel over new standards (New York Times $), Norway to spend $6 million a year stock-piling grain, citing pandemic, war and climate change (AP), Tracking Australia’s progress on the climate crisis and the consequences of global heating (The Guardian)

• In the battle to save the world’s forests, women are leading the resistance (The Guardian, Elif Shafak op-ed)
• We must keep Marching toward Dr. King’s dream (Washington Post, Joe Biden op-ed $)
• As fires and floods rage, Facebook and Twitter are missing in action (Washington Post, Will Oremus analysis $)
• A legacy of colonialism set the stage for the Maui wildfires (New York Times, Yarimar Bonilla op-ed $)
• The March on Washington: 60 years and a dream (NewsOne, Antjuan Seawright op-ed)
• Jacksonville domestic terrorist attack part of anti-Black campaign (Black Wall Street Times, Deon Osborne op-ed)
• Electric cars and solar cells rely on Chinese minerals. Here’s how to curb the risks. (Washington Post, Editorial Board $)
• The Guardian view on hydrogen hype: it’s perhaps not as green as you think (The Guardian, Editorial Board)
• Bangladesh confronts growing threat of warming-driven floods (Context, explainer)
• How China’s downturn could save the world (Bloomberg, David Fickling column $)
• The world is burning. Who can convince the comfortable classes of the radical sacrifices needed? (The Guardian, Justine Toh op-ed)
• Hawaii's fire alarm for the normally safest of stocks (Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)
• EPA staffing hits crisis point as Biden sends disaster relief workers to Hawaii (The Hill, Marie Owens Powell op-ed)
• Hungry mosquitoes, irritable bears and the glories of wilderness (New York Times, Nicholas Kristof op-ed $)
• Technologies to enhance the power grid exist, we just need to deploy them (The Hill, Philip Giudice op-ed)
• Bitcoin’s dirty history offers a lesson for AI’s future (Bloomberg, Tim Culpan column $)
• Whistleblowers could help prevent wildfires (Wall Street Journal, Tommy Waller op-ed $)
• Why our EV policies are so extremely stupid (Wall Street Journal, Holman Jenkins, Jr. op-ed $)

The Denier Roundup will return next week! 

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