FBI Infiltrated Standing Rock Protests With Up To 10 Informants: The FBI used as many as 10 informants to infiltrate land defender groups protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in 2016, Grist reports. The infiltration tactics were part of a larger surveillance operation including drones, and radio eavesdropping by numerous agencies at all levels of government — including 281 hours of monitoring by MQ-9 Reaper drone (known for remote airstrikes in Iraq and Afghanistan) operated by Customs and Border Protection at a cost of $1.5 million. Energy Transfer Partners paid the state of North Dakota $15 million to cover the costs of its law enforcement officers helping to quell the protests, in addition to its own private security contractor. The news of the FBI's use of as many as nine additional informants (one was previously known) was released as part of a legal spat between the state and federal government over who should foot the bill for policing pipeline protesters. (Grist)

Nearly Entire Planet Breathing Polluted Air: The vast majority of the world's people breathe dangerously polluted air, an analysis compiled by the Swiss firm IQAir reveals. Of the 134 nations for which sufficient data were available, just 10 countries — mostly islands, Australia, and Finland and Estonia — met the World Health Organization's standards of less than 5 micrograms of fine particulate pollution (known as PM2.5) per cubic meter of air. Most of the worst polluted countries were in Asia. PM2.5 pollution leads to millions of premature deaths every year, more than any other type of pollution. The US EPA recently proposed strengthening its standard from 12 to nine micrograms per cubic meter. “Air pollution and climate change both have the same culprit, which is fossil fuels,” Glory Dolphin Hammes, CEO of IQAir’s North American division, told the New York Times. (New York Times $, CNN, The Guardian, Reuters, Bloomberg $, CBC, Indian Express)

IRS, DOE Considering IRA Tax Breaks For Burning Wood: The Biden administration is weighing whether to award renewable energy tax breaks under the Inflation Reduction Act to a power source worse for the climate than burning coal, Inside Climate News reports. Wood was the United States' largest energy source throughout the 18th, and most of the 19th century, and wood pellet manufacturers are lobbying the IRS hard to implement carbon accounting metrics in the U.S. similar to those that have led to the increase in wood-burning in Europe and the UK. The Treasury Department (which includes the IRS) is expected to make a decision by the end of this month. In late January, a group of House Democrats called on the DOE and IRS to reject tax breaks for “carbon-intensive, industrial-scale wood pellet bioenergy producers … which operate wood pellet mills in the U.S. Southeast and then export pellets to biomass power plants in Europe and Asia." The proliferation of wood pellet manufacturing in the American South to meet European demand has inflicted dire, and drastically disproportionate harms on the Native, Black, and poor communities where the facilities are typically built. I “Trees are more valuable alive than dead both for climate and for biodiversity," more than 800 scientists wrote in a 2021 letter to the Biden administration. Manufacturers' claims that wood pellets are made only from waste products are dubious, and carbon capture is unworkable, IEEFA energy data analyst Anika Juhn says, because burning wood produces "all kinds of pollutants you need to clean out before you can capture the C02." Furthermore, even if forests are allowed to regrow and are not burned but wildfires — neither of which is guaranteed — they will not pull carbon out of the atmosphere quickly enough to keep pace with the emissions reductions required to meet the Paris Agreement goals. (Inside Climate News; IRS deliberations: New York Times $)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: In the ‘armpit of the universe,’ a window into the persistent inequities of environmental policy (Inside Climate News), Out of Saddam Hussein’s shadow and into the climate frontline (Atmos), Two-thirds of Chicago kids under 6 exposed to lead in water, study estimates (Washington Post $)

KITTENS: Kitten season is out of control. Are warmer winters to blame? (Grist)

DROUGHT: Barren fields and empty stomachs: Afghanistan’s long, punishing drought (New York Times $), It’s been two months since rain has fallen in Zambia. (CNN)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: European gas jumps with focus on Russia, Freeport LNG (Bloomberg $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Fossil fuel sector should pay climate finance, EU ministers say (Reuters)

THERE'S A CREDIT DEFAULT SWAPS JOKE HERE SOMEWHERE: ‘We don’t know where the money is going’: The ‘carbon cowboys’ making millions from credit schemes (The Guardian)

PUT THE FUN (SAFELY!) BETWEEN YOUR LEGS: Pedal coast-to-coast without using a road? New program helps connect trails across the US (AP)

AGENCIES: HHS to target heat, smoke effects on farmworkers (E&E $), Granholm, Vilsack to defend Biden budget plan (E&E $)

EPA: How EPA could change the power plant rule’s ‘finer details’ (E&E $), Biden taps EPA in women’s health initiative (E&E $), EPA bans asbestos, a deadly carcinogen still in use decades after a partial ban was enacted (AP, Reuters, The Hill, Washington Post $)

DOE: Granholm says LNG pause will end within a year (E&E $), Biden’s gas export pause faces second probe by house Republicans (Bloomberg $), US to return emergency oil reserve to prior levels by year-end (Reuters)

DOI: Watchdog questions BLM’s attempts at ‘culture change’ (E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden’s uneasy energy empire (Politico Pro $)

HOUSE: House Republican calls for national security tariffs on EVs (Politico Pro $), House schedules first hearings on final SEC climate rule (E&E $), House sets first hearings on final SEC climate rule (E&E $), Oversight Republicans request White House communications on LNG pause (The Hill)

SENATE: Manchin says Biden should be proud of energy ‘success’ story (The Hill), Senate committee to question 3 FERC nominees (E&E $)

ELECTIONS: Outside groups pledge over $1 billion to aid Biden’s re-election effort (New York Times $)

CITIES AND STATES: DC Circuit case pits pipeline expansion against NJ's climate ambitions (E&E $)

IMPACTS: Battered by hurricanes and tired of rebuilding, 90% of population has left this coastal town (NBC), D.C.'s cherry blossoms just hit their earliest peak bloom in 20 years. Here's why scientists say it'll keep happening earlier. (CBS), Economists discuss the effects of climate change on the US economy (CNBC), New tool takes the globe's "pulse" as temperatures rise (Axios), Too much Atlantic in Atlantic City: Beach erosion has casinos desperately seeking sand by summer (AP)

WILDFIRES: California’s new megafires are taking a toll on wildlife habitat, researchers find (Yale Climate Connections), Reading the ruins of Amazon fires, scientists see crisis ahead (Context)

OCEANS: Global ocean heat has hit a new record every single day for the last year (CNN, FT $), Can we protect and profit from the oceans? (Vox)

WINTER: Polluters are melting the winter sports they sponsor (DeSmog), How a snowmobile tour company is getting ready for a future with less snow (Yale Climate Connections)

CERAWEEK: CERAWeek begins: Cue the gas debate (E&E $), Big oil sets the agenda on CERAWeek’s opening day (Bloomberg $), Oil mergers, clean fuels vie for attention at CERAWeek (Reuters), View from Houston: CERAWeek's competing visions (Axios)

RENEWABLES: Is it better to save your solar, or sell it? (Heatmap $), Protecting this tiny Texas plant could complicate wind power plans (E&E $), Solar CEOs bet that red state investments will protect them from threat of Trump repealing IRA (CNBC), TotalEnergies hails progress in on-site solar generation contracts (Reuters), Why DC is hot for geothermal (Heatmap $), World’s largest solar manufacturer [China's Longi] to cut one-third of workforce (The Guardian, Bloomberg $, Reuters)

BATTERIES: Arizona’s biggest battery system starts up (E&E $), Finally, a way to tell how clean grid batteries actually are (Canary Media), Utah developer quadruples battery storage to meet new electricity demand (Canary Media)

LNG: Global LNG demand is picking up due to low prices - Shell CEO (Reuters), LNG exec confident export licenses to resume (Axios)

OIL & GAS: AI infiltrates oil industry to speed up drilling, cut costs (OilPrice), Saudi Aramco CEO says energy transition is failing, world should abandon ‘fantasy’ of phasing out oil (CNBC, Bloomberg $), Exxon Mobil CEO says not trying to acquire Hess (Reuters), Louisiana gas project delayed amid spat between energy transfer, developers (Bloomberg $), Norway begins inaugural offshore wind auction (Reuters, OilPrice), Oil companies expand methane detection campaign in emerging economies (FT $), Shell dilutes energy transition strategy, scraps 2035 decarbonization goal (Utility Dive), US gasoline prices rise for third consecutive week (OilPrice)

SHIPPING: Pressure builds for charge on global shipping sector's CO2 emissions (Reuters)

PIPELINES: To stop the mountain valley pipeline, a young activist spends 36 hours inside it (Inside Climate News)

HYDROGEN: Canada signs hydrogen deal with Germany, cites need to shun Russia energy (Reuters, Bloomberg $), Hydrogen adoption will cost Europe, US more than $1 trillion (Reuters)

UTILITIES: What’s the future of gas? In Minnesota, utilities have to share 10-year visions (Energy News Network)

GRID: Up to 58 GW faces retirement in PJM by 2030 without replacement capacity in sight: market monitor (Utility Dive)

EVs: Bidirectional charging could unlock new potential for waste fleet electrification (Utility Dive), Cheap Chinese EVs are putting pressure on Detroit (Bloomberg $), It’s never been cheaper to buy an EV. Here's why. (Washington Post $)

ACTIVISM: Gina McCarthy’s climate pitch to the masses (E&E $)

AVIATION: EasyJet joins calls for UK government to help fund hydrogen-powered flight (The Guardian)

FOOD: ‘Bewildering’ to omit meat-eating reduction from UN climate plan (The Guardian), Banks driving increase in global meat and dairy production, report finds (The Guardian), Cocoa prices double from start of 2024 as easter approaches (Bloomberg $)

CARBON REMOVAL: We need to talk about carbon removal (FT $)

DIVESTMENT: Cambridge University halts donations from fossil fuel groups (FT $)

THEATER: ‘The Shell Trial’ seeks a guilty party in climate change (New York Times $), Descendant of judge who wrote infamous Dred Scott decision pens a play about where we are now (AP)

IN MEMORIAM: Dorie Ann Ladner, civil rights activist who fought for justice in Mississippi and beyond, dies at 81 (AP) (Mississippi Today, Washington Post $, New York Times $)

INTERNATIONAL: Climate protesters can't rely on beliefs in criminal damage cases, UK court rules (Reuters), UK heat pump rollout criticised as too slow by public spending watchdog (The Guardian, FT $), Queensland farming lobby launches legal challenge against Great Artesian Basin carbon capture trial (The Guardian), South Africa can’t afford to climate-proof its infrastructure (Bloomberg $)

• Biden, listen to students and declare a climate emergency (Common Dreams, Ayesha Qazi-Lampert and David McDermott Hughes op-ed)
• No 'clean' gas on a livable planet (Newsweek, Sen. Edward Markey)
• He got US funding to protect his tiny island nation. Now what? (E&E, President Surangel Whipps Jr. interview $)
• Time to fix broken food systems - Sierra Leone president (Context, President Julius Maada Bio)
• Companies still missing in action on methane-cutting goals (Climate Home, Leslie Cordes op-ed)
• America needs wind and solar energy; rural America needs to provide it (The Hill, William Becker op-ed)
• From an Azerbaijan prison, a dissident writes home: ‘Save my life’ (Washington Post, Editorial Board $)
• In 2024, executions ‘in the heart of Dixie’ still rely on Jim Crow (The Hill, Don Siegelman op-ed)
• Joe Manchin: Our energy policy is a success. president Biden should be proud. (Washington Post, Sen. Joe Manchin III $)

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