SCOTUS Social Media Cases Have Big Disinfo Implications: Two cases before the Supreme Court could have significant implications for climate disinformation on social media platforms, Inside Climate News reports. The laws were passed in Texas and Florida in response to social media companies banning the former president for inciting an insurrection and make it much harder for the companies to deplatform users over political content. The cases were brought by a social media company trade group. The Court heard oral arguments in the cases last week and, if it sides with the states, would dramatically hinder social media companies' efforts — albeit halting — to limit the spread of climate disinformation on their platforms. “I think there’s a lot at stake for climate disinformation and disinformation of all kinds,” Michael Khoo, a climate disinformation researcher and member of the Climate Action Against Disinformation Coalition, told Inside Climate News. “The vast majority of Americans believe in climate change and they want their online discussions to reflect that.” (Inside Climate News)

Drax, California Sign Wood Pellet Agreement: Biomass manufacturing giant Drax and a state-connected California nonprofit finalized an agreement under which the UK company will produce a million tons of wood pellets annually from trees in the Golden State. Drax uses carbon accounting loopholes to market the wood pellets as "carbon neutral" to international buyers, even though burning wood for energy “is not effective in mitigating climate change and may even increase the risk of dangerous climate change," according to European Academies Science Advisory Council research. The Drax-Golden State Natural Resources agreement came as a BBC investigation revealed the firm burned more than 40,000 tons of old-growth forest in British Columbia. In addition to emitting up to 150% more carbon dioxide than coal per unit energy produced, wood pellet manufacturing produces numerous harmful pollutants and, especially in the American South, disproportionately harms Black and poor communities, invoking echos of the Atlantic Slave Trade. (DeSmog, BBC)

Studies: Sea Ice Even More Threatened Than Previously Thought: The low sea ice levels and high temperatures in Earth's latitudinal extremes in 2023 are a preview of the heated world to come, two new studies show. Research, published in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, referenced observed 2023 conditions against long-accepted computer modeling and found last year looked more like a world 3°C (5.4°F) warmer than preindustrial averages than the current 1.48°C (2.66°F). A separate study, published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth ­­& Environment, found Septembers in the North Atlantic could be consistently devoid of sea ice as soon as 2035, more than 10 years earlier than previous projections. “The climate of 2023 with all the disasters, you know, with all the wildfires in Canada and all the flooding events in Europe and everything, you can interpret this as, this what we will have every year. Year after year after year in the 3-degree world,” Till Kuhlbrodt, author of the BAMS study, told the AP. “You don’t want to go there.” (BAMS: AP; NREE: The Guardian, LA Times $, Gizmodo; Climate Signals background: Sea ice decline)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: How the legacy of a Reconstruction-era massacre shapes voting rights today (Capital B News)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: UN-backed bank group seeks to avoid departures with new climate guidelines (Reuters)

DENIAL & DISINFO: Climate Reality Check' measures accurate representation of climate change in movies, TV shows (Fox News)

MISOGYNY: Financial toll of climate crisis hitting women harder, UN says (The Guardian)

AGENCIES: Watchdogs face flat funding, new transparency requirements (E&E $)

DOE: A new Energy Department program aims to recycle wind turbine magnets (Canary Media)

SEC: SEC takes up landmark rule that would require companies to disclose emissions, climate risks (AP, CNBC), Why the SEC’s new climate rules matter (Heatmap $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden's scaled-back power rule raises doubts over US climate target (Reuters), White House moves to stem wave of Chinese EVs (Axios), Why is Biden blocking the cheapest, most popular EVs in the world? (Vox)

THE HILL: 5 things to know about Congress’s plan to avert a shutdown this week (The Hill, E&E $), Takeaways from the $459B spending package (E&E $), Citing steelmakers, Dems buck Biden on air toxics action (E&E $), Could a looming tax hike present an opening for bipartisan carbon policy? (Houston Chronicle)

HOUSE: House Republicans set vote on DC's electric car 'mandate' (E&E $/Politico Pro $)

SENATE: Independent Sen. Kyrsten Sinema of Arizona says she won’t seek reelection, avoiding 3-way race (AP)

POLITICS: Want clean electricity? These are the overlooked elected officials who get to decide. (Grist), Most Republicans support expanding clean energy — survey (E&E $)

ELECTIONS: In the NC governor’s race, the GOP frontrunner is a climate denier, and the Democrat doesn’t want to talk about it (Inside Climate News, E&E $), Record heat, rising sea levels: the stakes for the climate couldn’t be higher in 2024 elections (Yale Climate Connections)

CITIES AND STATES: Your guide to electricity and energy policy in Georgia (Grist), California utility regulator swats down community solar proposal (E&E $), LA City Council plans to streamline solar, battery installation review process (Utility Dive)

LAW & ORDER: US files first criminal charges for smuggling of greenhouse gases (Washington Post $, Axios, New York Times $), 

IMPACTS: With a million cases of dengue so far this year, Brazil is in a state of emergency (NPR), Cherry blossom buds hit stage 2 ‘florets visible’ much earlier than normal (Washington Post $), On the brink: California’s luxe clifftop mansions in peril after record rain (The Guardian), US cities post new daily high temperature records: weather watch (Bloomberg $), World on brink of fourth mass coral reef bleaching event, NOAA says (Reuters)

WILDFIRES: Many homes burned in the Texas wildfires weren’t insured, creating a steep path to recovery (Texas Tribune), A massive Texas wildfire is finally dying down. Its impact could last years. (Washington Post $)

HURRICANES: Why the Atlantic hurricane season could be an active one (Axios)

WATER: One of the world's most populated cities is nearly out of water as many go 'days if not weeks' without it (CBS), After years of protest by Native Americans, massive dam removal project hopes to restore salmon population in Northern California river (CBS)

RENEWABLES: Geothermal developer Fervo Energy raises $244M as it builds 400-MW Utah project (Utility Dive), Offshore wind’s in trouble if Trump wins (E&E $)

BUILDINGS: Getting off fossil fuels is hard, but this city is doing it — building by building (NPR), A growth spurt in green architecture (New York Times $)

OIL & GAS: New $1 million ad casts gas stoves in ‘toxic’ reality TV role: ‘We’re all cancer!’ (HuffPost), Gas[oline] prices rise ahead of spring break season (Axios), 

FRACKING: Hollowed out (Public Source)

PLASTICS: Could ‘microfactories’ pave a new path forward for plastic recycling? (Inside Climate News), Study of human placenta samples found microplastics in EVery single one of them (Truthout), Under pressure from activist investors, big brands agree to report and reduce plastics use (Grist)

PIPELINES: Despite repression, activists continue to shut down Mountain Valley Pipeline (Truthout), Midwest CO2 pipeline project snags energy giant (E&E $)

UTILITIES: Utilities are buying pricier ‘responsible gas.’ But for what climate benefit? (DeSmog), PacifiCorp ordered to pay Oregon wildfire victims another $42M. Final bill could reach billions (AP)

EVs: For century-old Mack Trucks, the 18-wheeled, bulldog-big rig future is still going to be EV (CNBC), Where electric vehicles are (and aren’t) taking off across the US (New York Times $)

THE HOLOCENE ENDURES: Are we living in an ‘age of humans’? Geologists say no. (Washington Post $, New York Times $), Whatever we call this age, humans are changing the planet. Here's how. (New York Times $)

SHIPPING: How to hold shipping financially accountable for its climate impacts (Climate Home)

GETTING AWAY: Now trending in travel: 'Coolcations' (Axios)

FINANCE: Leading U.S. banks drop project finance group support, website shows (Reuters)

IN MEMORIAM: Estella Bergere Leopold dies at 97; found climate clues in ancient pollen (New York Times $), Ross Gelbspan, who highlighted climate change failings of industry and journalists, dies at 84 (Boston Globe $)

PUTTING THE 'WILD' IN WILDLIFE: Good news! Scientists are throwing a sex party ... for giant marine snails. (Vox)

INTERNATIONAL: Brazil power industry makes new hydro push despite environmental concerns (Reuters), Europe’s biggest pension fund ABP tightens green guardrails (E&E $), Green scepticism greater in EU than in neighbours, EBRD finds (Reuters), Singapore seeks to woo drivers to EVs with splashy campaign (Bloomberg $), Spain aims to replace energy windfall tax ‘in coming weeks’ (Bloomberg $), Spain urges EU to take tougher stance on Russian LNG imports (Bloomberg $), Tesla accuses Australian car lobby group of making ‘false claims’ about Labor’s vehicle emissions plan (The Guardian)

• Why Biden can’t tame the ‘radical flank’ (E&E, Dana Fisher interview $)
• How to hold shipping financially accountable for its climate impacts (Climate Home, Ana Lajanjeira op-ed)
• Baby boomers are in their climate era (Atmos, Bill McKibben essay)
• Climate change and nuclear waste are a toxic stew (Bloomberg, Mark Gongloff column $)
• To expand EV charging, merge the gas station and electrify-everything models (Utility Dive, Will Sierzchula op-ed)

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