Climate Crisis Heats Up From Brazil To Bangalore: Most of Brazil was on a heat alert this weekend, as heat indices reached as high as 140°F. An ocean away, South Sudan is closing its schools in advance of an extreme, two-week heatwave with temperatures forecast to hit 113°F (45°C) in one of the world's youngest, least climate-culpable, and most climate-vulnerable nations. About 3,200 miles east across the Arabian Sea, water is already in short supply in Bangaluru, India with the year's hottest and driest months yet to come and the city (also known as Bangalore) is growing faster than groundwater supplies. February and March have been unusually hot and the region has received little rainfall, in part due to climate change. The city's runaway inequality is only exacerbating the crisis with the extravagant headquarters of multiple global software companies buying up potable water at inflated prices. Bhavani Mani Muthuvel, a 40-year resident of the Ambedkar Nagar neighborhood can only afford about five 5-gallon buckets of water for her family of nine per week. “From taking showers to using toilets and washing clothes, we are taking turns to do everything,” she said. (South Sudan: AP; Bangaluru: AP; Brazil: AP)

Climate Change Driving Up Chocolate Prices: Climate change is disrupting cocoa production, driving up global chocolate prices and threatening the mostly poor farmers who cultivate it — and it's about to get worse. Major cocoa processing facilities in Ghana and Ivory Coast have cut production because they cannot afford to purchase raw cocoa beans, Reuters reported last week. According to the International Cocoa Organization, prices were more than 2.5 times higher than they were last year, leaving producers with dwindling cocoa stock with which to produce chocolate. Approximately two-thirds of the world's cocoa is grown in Ivory Coast and Ghana, where heavy rains exacerbated the spread of black pod disease and swollen shoot virus. "A major crisis is underway in the cocoa sector and any kind of surplus that might have existed in the sector has gone," as the industry enters a fourth year of a supply deficit, Tedd George, of Kleos Advisory, a businesses consultancy firm, told Axios. "With climate change, it's going to be impossible to continue." (Reuters, Axios, ManufacturingDive, CBC; Commentary: South China Morning Post, David Dodwell op-ed)

Pumped Storage Project On Native Land Unlikely To Be Built: A controversial pumped storage project will likely not be built after the Navajo Nation reiterated its opposition following a new FERC rule prioritizing tribal views on projects to be built on their land. Numerous tribes opposed the 'Big Canyon' pumped hydro storage project on the Lower Colorado River, which would threaten the Sipaapuni, a sacred Hopi site representing where the tribe's ancestors emerged from the earth. Almost one-third of Navajo Nation homes lacked electricity as of August 2023, but the power generated would be sold on wholesale markets, "It won't go to us," Rita Bilagody, spokesperson for Save the Confluence, said in 2021. "It's meant to go to people down at Phoenix, Las Vegas or California." (E&E $)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: French oil major faces climate lawsuit (E&E $), UK company directors may be liable for climate impacts, say lawyers (The Guardian)

USA #1 (OR #2 DEPENDING ON HOW YOU MEASURE IT): Why Americans pay so much more than anyone else for weather disasters (Washington Post $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Tuvalu prime minister calls on Australia for sovereignty ‘guarantees’ over treaty (The Guardian)

GAZA: As conflict rages on, Israel and Gaza’s environmental fates may be intertwined (Inside Climate News)

DENIAL & DISINFO: ‘Greenhushing’ is on the rise as companies go silent on climate pledges (Inside Climate News), Inside the right-wing conspiracy to thwart the clean energy transition (Canary Media), This scientist fought his attackers in court—and won (Wall Street Journal $)

TAX ZOMBIES: The zombies of the US tax code: Why fossil fuels subsidies seem impossible to kill (New York Times $)

AGENCIES: Landowner sues EPA, Army Corps over post-Sackett wetlands regulations (Reuters)

DOE: Biden administration boosts EV supply chain with $2B lithium loan (Utility Dive, AP), DOE pushes new plan to measure gas export emissions (E&E $), US grants $750 million for hydrogen projects across 24 states (Reuters)

EPA: 24 states sue over EPA methane rule (E&E $)

DOI: Feds pick New England’s offshore wind development area, drawing cheers and questions alike (AP), Interior cuts Gulf of Maine offshore wind area (E&E $)

SEC: Court halts SEC climate disclosure rule (The Hill, Politico Pro $), Chamber joins legal salvo against SEC over climate disclosure rule (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: US "tracking" to unveil new climate targets this year (Axios), A conversation with Biden’s former top economic advisor, part 2 (Heatmap, Brian Deese interview $)

THE HILL: Democrats mull punishment for US Chamber ‘greenwashing’ (E&E $), Appropriators bullish on rejecting anti-climate riders (E&E $), Republicans announce long-anticipated ‘energy week’ (E&E $)

SENATE: McConnell unleashes effort to kill EPA soot standard (E&E $), Senate bill to expand geothermal gets bipartisan support (E&E $), Senator slams Ex-Im Bank over $500M loan to Bahrain oil project (E&E $), Senators accuse US Chamber of ‘lying’ about climate action (E&E $)

POLITICS: The rough years that turned Gen Z into America’s most disillusioned voters (Wall Street Journal $)

CITIES AND STATES: Controversial Maryland data center bill tests governor’s climate credentials, environmentalists say (Inside Climate News), Maine replaces bill to halt natural gas expansions with plan to study industry’s future role (Energy News Network), Montana, an island of abortion access, preps for consequential elections and court decisions (The 19th* News), Pennsylvania governor unveils plan to cut greenhouse gasses, boost renewables in big energy producer (AP), Virginia lawmakers try to use budget to rejoin RGGI – but success is questionable (Inside Climate News), Georgia could greenlight a mine near one of the South’s last wild places (Washington Post $)

• CALIFORNIA: California not on track to meet 2030 emissions goals: Report (The Hill), The Supreme Court slashed wetland protections. California is trying to fill the gap. (Politico Pro $), LA votes for bus, bike and pedestrian fixes as traffic deaths rise (Bloomberg $), 

IMPACTS: Scientists divided over whether record heat is acceleration of climate crisis (The Guardian), Climate change is spurring a longer spring — with consequences (Axios), Ohio governor declares emergency after severe storms that killed 3 (AP), Meteorologists say this year’s warm winter provided key ingredient for Midwest killer tornadoes (AP), Cherry blossoms hit near-record early peak, a sign of climate change (Washington Post $)

RENEWABLES: Across the US, batteries and green energies like wind and solar combine for major climate solution (AP)

BATTERIES & STORAGE: As water erupts from lithium exploration site, so do fears over project (E&E $), Lithium-ion batteries are everywhere. Fires caused by shoddy ones are on the rise. (Wall Street Journal $), Storing renewable energy, one balloon at a time (New York Times $)

BUILDINGS: How a Virginia company is helping homeowners navigate energy efficiency – and add up the rewards (Energy News Network)

LNG: Major LNG developer lashes out at FERC delays (E&E $)

OIL & GAS: A gas tanker crashed in Birmingham and spilled 2,100 gallons into nearby village creek. Who is responsible? (Inside Climate News), Climate activists across Europe block access to North Sea oil infrastructure (The Guardian), Oil mergers, clean fuels vie for attention at Houston energy conference (Reuters), Shell weakens oil and gas emissions goals (E&E $), TotalEnergies preparing Port Arthur, Texas FCC for restart, sources say (Reuters)

PIPELINES: ‘Bad River’ documents tribal band’s fight against Enbridge pipeline (Prism Reports)

COAL: A ‘gassy’ Alabama coal mine was expanding under a family’s home. After an explosion, two were left critically injured (Inside Climate News)

HYDROGEN: Can natural hydrogen play a role in net zero? (Energy Monitor), Hydrogen could compete with natural gas by 2030, but there’s a catch: report (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES: PG&E aims to raise up to $1B for transmission through leases to Citizens Energy (Utility Dive)

GRID: America’s grid isn’t ready for the green transition (TIME)

EVs: Chart: EVs are definitely cleaner than gas cars over their lifetime (Canary Media), Honda, Nissan to develop EVs together (The Hill), Rivian is turning into the Subaru of EVs (Heatmap $), Why EVs are now almost as cheap as gas cars (Washington Post $)

AVIATION: How you should think about those google flights pollution numbers (Washington Post $)

BOOKS: 12 books and reports for Women’s History Month (Yale Climate Connections)

CARBON REMOVAL: Carbon removal is getting gamified (Heatmap $), Google pledges $35M for carbon removal ‘challenge’ (E&E $), Ex-Biden aide joins board of carbon removal company (E&E $)

OLYMPICS: In Paris, the Olympics clean up their act (New York Times $)

BIG TREES: Hidden giants: How the UK’s 500,000 redwoods put California in the shade (The Guardian)

WILDLIFE: Bull sharks thriving off Alabama despite rising sea temperatures, study says (The Guardian)

INTERNATIONAL: EU eyes easing green rules on farmers to defuse protests (Reuters), German greenhouse gas emissions dropped sharply last year, raising hopes of meeting 2030 target (AP, Reuters), Japanese firms join forces to promote floating offshore wind power development (Reuters), UK doctors involved in climate protests face threat of being struck off (The Guardian), UN official says group moving on deep-sea mining regulations (E&E $)

• The criminalisation of climate activists must stop now (Context, Andrew Firmin op-ed)
• How targeted electrification can support a managed transition for the gas system (Utility Dive, Ari Gold-Parker, Dan Aas, Arne Olson, and Amber Mahone op-ed)
• The best way to find out if we can cool the planet (New York Times, Jeremy Freeman op-ed $)
• Methane tracking from space (Living On Earth, Stephen Conley interview)
• ‘Follow the science’ leads to ruin (Wall Street Journal, Bjorn Lomborg op-ed $)

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