Florida Bill Banning Worker Heat Protections On DeSantis' Desk: A law passed by the Florida legislature, but yet to be signed by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R), prohibits municipalities from implementing heat safety protections for workers in the Sunshine State. Florida is at least the second state to ban local heat protections, following a similar law passed in Texas last summer. In 2020, Florida passed the Zachary Martin Act requiring schools to have emergency medical plans for heat injuries just two months after the mother of a white high school football player who died in 2017 of heatstroke beseeched them to do so. In 2019, Haitian farmworker Clovis Excellent died of heatstroke after pulling stakes from tomato beds in over 90°F heat and at least — the eighth worker to die from heat illness in the state after Martin's death and the passage of the law named for him. Excellent, an undocumented immigrant, had a core temperature was 109°F when he was found unconscious but his death, nor the deaths of the seven other farmworkers who died in those two years, were ever reported by local papers. In both Texas and Florida, the GOP lawmakers behind the laws banning local heat protections claim they are simply standardizing regulations by "follow[ing] OSHA's rule," as Sen. Jay Trumbull (R-Panama City) told South Florida radio station WLRN. The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration, however, has no rule or worker protections for heat. (Tampa Bay Times and Grist; Florida law: The Guardian, E&E $, News4JAX, The Hill; Backlash: Occupational Health and Safety; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

EU Leaders Call For Climate Preparation: The EU must accelerate efforts to prepare for and adapt to the impacts of climate change, the European Commission said Tuesday. The commission did not propose any major new policies in response to the European Environment Agency's report Monday on the escalating risks faced by the continent — new policies will be advanced following the next election — but did announce some changes including updated building codes to account for climate risks. “In the next term, we need to focus just as much and probably more on climate action,” EU climate chief Wopke Hoekstra told Politico, “but also more on the just transition." (Politico EU, Reuters, AFP via Barron's; Risk report: E&E News, Fortune; Ag law: Reuters)

Drought Limits Panama Canal Traffic: A severe drought is limiting the number of ships that can pass through the Panama Canal, disrupting shipping routes, delaying deliveries, and driving up the cost of crossing. Panama is experiencing one of its driest periods in the 110 years of the canal's operation. Climate change, mainly caused by the combustion and extraction of fossil fuels, is making droughts more frequent and severe. The disruption to global shipping is compounded by the dramatic reduction of shipping through the Suez Canal caused by missile and drone attacks on ships in the Red Sea. About 15% of oceangoing trade in and out of the U.S. goes through the Panama Canal, which relies on a system of locks that releases 50 million gallons of water into the ocean with each ship that traverses the canal and falling levels in the canal's reservoir mean just 24 ships can pass per day, instead of the usual 36. (Wall Street Journal $, CBS, Trade Winds News $, AA.com; Climate Signals background: Drought)

COP29: Newly elected leaders to be held to same climate obligations, says COP29 chief (The Guardian), Azerbaijan oil and gas extraction plans are equivalent to an entire year of EU emissions (Energy Monitor)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: The race to host the Africa energy bank is heating up (OilPrice)

DENIAL & DISINFO: Diagram misrepresents human CO2 contribution and its climate effect (Reuters Fact Check), No, the Biden administration is not banning gas cars in the U.S. (KGW Fact Check), False claim operation highjump was to explore Antarctic 'ice wall' (USA Today Fact Check)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: The IRA has injected $240 billion into clean energy. The US still needs more. (Grist)

AGENCIES: USDA seeks boost for climate programs, conservation staff (E&E $), Watchdogs would get more funding under Biden’s plan (E&E $)

EPA: Parsing legal definitions, power industry pushes back on EPA coal ash enforcement (Energy News Network)

DOE: Granholm says climate law can withstand GOP attacks (E&E $)

DOT: Budget would boost private jet taxes, hike DOT spending (E&E $)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: Biden budget plan would slash Army Corps — again (E&E $), DOE’s ARPA-E faces budget cut, FERC to explore AI and other highlights from Biden’s budget (Utility Dive)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden budget seeks permitting money as lawmakers eye deal (E&E $), Biden's Buy America push for EV chargers gets a jolt (Politico Pro $), The White House wants to know more about Tesla’s charging standard (Utility Dive)

• TRUCKING: Biden delivers road map to electrify long-haul trucking routes (Bloomberg $, Electrek, Courthouse News, The Hill)

THE HILL: Greens, GOP clash over mine oversight, cleanup funding (E&E $), Senate Democrats target streamlined pipeline permits (E&E $)

ELECTIONS: Climate, a major separator for Biden and Trump, is a dividing line in many other races, too (AP)

TRIBES: California’s largest tribe votes to oppose offshore wind (E&E $), US, Canada to review pollution of US waters by British Columbia coal mines (Reuters)

CITIES AND STATES: 45 states are now covered by a climate action plan. These 5 opted out. (CBS), Across the nation, lawmakers aim to ban lab-grown meat (Inside Climate News), Bloomberg to give $200 million for emissions cuts in 25 U.S. cities (Axios), Connecticut will tap clean energy technology to find emission-cutting efficiencies on grid (Energy News Network), How vision zero has fared in NYC, ten years later (Bloomberg $), Maryland lawmakers remain uncommitted to ending subsidies for trash incineration, prompting advocate concern (Inside Climate News), Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, shouts down Pennsylvania Gov. Shapiro over a proposed ‘hydrogen hub’ (Inside Climate News), Minnesota utility’s plan for getting off gas isn’t enough, critics say (Canary Media), NM Supreme Court upholds Community Solar Rule (New Mexico Political Report), Red and blue states are competing for Biden’s climate funds. Here’s what they’re planning (CNN), Texas loan program for new gas plants would be open to private generators that also supply ERCOT (Utility Dive), In the fight over NYC sidewalks, tree beds are the smallest frontier (New York Times $), California’s biofuel bias is hampering its EV future. Can that change? (Canary Media)

IMPACTS: Spring is getting earlier. Find out how it’s changed in your town. (Washington Post $), As temperatures rise, Brazil ramps up efforts to combat dengue outbreaks (Reuters), Climate change will make bananas more expensive. Here's why some experts say they should be already. (CBS), In Vietnam’s Mekong Delta, the lure of moving to the city grows even stronger amid climate shocks (AP)

WILDFIRES: The Texas wildfire burned surprising source of carbon credits: soil (Bloomberg $)

WATER: Key Colorado River conservation deadline arrives, with no consensus on the horizon (The Hill)

DEFORESTATION: Squeezed-out Amazon smallholders seek new frontiers in Brazil’s Roraima state (Mongabay), Brazil’s clashing goals: protect the Amazon and pump lots more oil (New York Times $)

SEISMIC SCAPEGOATS: Volcanoes emit carbon dioxide, but not nearly as much as humans (Yale Climate Connections)

ALL ABOARD!: Why Amtrak is attempting to revive the Texas Central bullet train (CNBC)

RENEWABLES: US solar factories are in for ‘rude awakening,’ report warns (Bloomberg $), CSIRO claims new record for energy efficiency in lightweight printed solar cells (The Guardian)

BUILDINGS: Concrete is one of the world’s worst pollutants. Making it green is a booming business. (Wall Street Journal $), Man and woman found dead at scene of 'severe' house explosion in Pennsylvania (NBC, AP), Where heat pumps win — and where they lose (Heatmap $)

• NEWS YOU CAN USE: The best eco-friendly home improvements you can do for less than $100 (Washington Post $)

OIL & GAS: Drillers pull back in Alaska as Biden prepares new rule (Politico Pro $), Largest US gas producer agrees to buy Mountain Valley developer (E&E $), Shell considers slowing the pace of its carbon emissions cuts in strategy update (Bloomberg $, Bloomberg $)

PLASTICS: Detergent pods are only the start of clothing’s microplastic pollution problem (Grist)

GRID: How EV charger hacking threatens personal data and the power grid (Wall Street Journal $)

EVs: Report: EVs beat gas cars on climate emissions — in the long run (E&E $)

ACTIVISM: A pop star’s wonky climate campaign (New York Times $)

PFAS: US Chamber backs ‘forever chemicals’ (E&E $)

AGRICULTURE: Why more CO2 could be bad news for crops (Yale Climate Connections)

SPORT: Australian sport runs financial and legal risks due to climate inaction, new report warns (The Guardian)

CARBON CAPTURE: US-based CarbonCapture raises $80 mln from Saudi Aramco, others (Reuters)

VACATION: 5 getaways that reinvent eco-tourism (New York Times $)

GRETA: Greta Thunberg dragged by police from climate protest outside Swedish parliament – video (The Guardian, Deutsche Welle)

IN MEMORIAM: NOAA’s dial-a-buoy to hang up after 27 years on the line with boaters (Washington Post $)

WILDLIFE: How ‘assisted migration’ could help species survive climate change (Yale Climate Connections)

INTERNATIONAL: No big North Sea fossil fuel country has plan to stop drilling in time for 1.5C goal (The Guardian), Despite Putin promises, Russia’s emissions keep rising (Climate Home), Germany launches bidding for carbon contracts to support climate-friendly industrial production (AP, Reuters), How will Japan reach its ambitious goal in offshore wind energy? (Reuters), Japan to expand offshore wind to exclusive economic zone (Reuters), India's coal-fired electricity output & emissions hit record highs (Reuters), Indonesia understates methane emissions from mining, report says (Bloomberg $), Australian push for fuel emissions standards hits a speed bump (Washington Post $)

UK GAS: UK to allow new gas plants, backtracking on clean grid plan (Bloomberg $, FT $, Reuters)

• California nurse and environmental health pioneer Barbara Sattler on climate change as a medical emergency (Inside Climate News, interview)
• Nuclear energy finance bans prevent the world from buying American (Utility Dive, Kenneth Petersen op-ed)
• The AI revolution needs chips, software — and gas pipelines (Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)
• As COP29 president, I will build bridges between the diverging north and south to keep 1.5C in reach (The Guardian, Mukhtar Babayev op-ed)
• Biden’s State of the Union address should give us hope on climate (LA Times, Sammy Roth column $)

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