DOE Divvies Up $6 Billion To Boost Industrial Decarbonization: The Biden administration, Monday morning, announced $6 billion in new funding to help decarbonize the heavy industry and manufacturing sectors, responsible for about one-quarter of U.S. climate pollution. The money comes from the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and will help fund 33 demonstration projects in 20 states, including electric boilers and heat pumps to dry Kraft macaroni, and replacing coal-burning blast furnaces with electric units to recycle steel. While the total climate pollution cut from these specific projects will be relatively small, each project involves "replicable" and "scalable" technologies that will, according to DOE Sec. Jennifer Granholm, "set a new gold standard for clean manufacturing in the United States and around the world." (AP, New York Times $, Washington Post $, Bloomberg $, Axios, E&E $, The Verge, Reuters, USA Today, Canary Media, Politico Pro $)

Santander Bankrolling LNG: Major international bank Santander claimed it would stop financing oil and gas fracking, then invested millions in exporting methane gas from the U.S. Gulf Coast, report Grist and The Bureau of Investigative Journalism. Then, Santander quietly expanded the policy loophole for supposed energy security reasons, opening up the possibility of even more investments beyond the $28 billion Santander helped raise for fracked gas last year. While not technically involving fracking operations themselves, the LNG export terminals rely on fracked gas. The proliferation of LNG export facilities on the Gulf Coast are helping prop up gas companies while polluting the disproportionately poor and BIPOC communities where the terminals are sited. LNG exports raise gas prices for American families and businesses while boosting the profits of oil and gas companies with fracking operations in the Permian Basin; along with increased energy demand from AI operations and data centers, gas companies are relying on LNG for future profit maximization. (Santander: Grist and Bureau of Investigative Journalism; Gas industry bet on LNG: Reuters)

State Farm To Cancel 72,000 California Policies: State Farm will not renew insurance policies for 72,000 California dwellings as the U.S. slides further into its uninsurable nation era. The state's largest insurer blamed increasing risks of wildfires and other catastrophes as well as what they consider an outdated regulatory regime; new rules allowing insurers to consider future risk projections, not just historical data, will take effect at the end of this year. While the 30,000 houses and 42,000 apartments set to lose their coverage represent about 2% of State Farm's policies in the Golden State, they also represent State Farm's complete withdrawal from the commercial apartment market. State Farm's announcement came as the New York Times reported insurance commissioners from Florida, Texas, Louisiana, and seven other states said they would withhold data pertaining to climate risks faced by insurers in their states. The decision by three highly climate-vulnerable states threatens to undermine an agreement reached less than three weeks prior between National Association of Insurance Commissioners and the Treasury Department under which state insurance regulators said they would collect and share climate risk data to alleviate complaints over federal disclosure requirements. (State Farm: AP, LA Times $, San Francisco Chronicle, Sacramento Bee $, Fox Business; State insurance data: New York Times $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) SEXIM: Women and girls suffer first when droughts hit poor and rural areas, says UN (The Guardian)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Ukraine rejects claims of Western pressure over attacks on Russian oil facilities (Politico)

HOT & TOXIC: Ad campaign uses humor to urge Americans to ditch natural gas (Reuters)

AI: Big tech’s latest obsession is finding enough energy (Wall Street Journal $)

EPA: EPA advisers urge changes to air quality standards reviews (E&E $), EPA imposes record fine for greenhouse gas smuggling (E&E $)

DOE: Sixteen Republican-led US states sue federal government over ban on LNG permits (Reuters, Axios, E&E $), DOE charts path for offshore wind grid network (E&E $)

SEC: Challenges to SEC's climate rules sent to conservative-leaning US appeals court (Reuters), Federal court revives SEC climate disclosure rule (E&E $), SEC rule to shine light on climate-juiced disasters (E&E $)

TREASURY: US revises tax credit rule to help offshore wind projects (Reuters, E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: Kamala Harris lauds Puerto Rico’s ‘grit’ after disasters (E&E $)

THE HILL: Dems join Republicans to pass anti-carbon tax measure (E&E $)

HOUSE: House passes repeal of ‘green bank,’ methane fee (E&E $), Scalise talks IRA repeal, EVs and hopes for Trump (E&E interview $)

SENATE: Capito, Manchin warn of ‘destructive’ lime plant regulations (E&E $), Senate may take up amendment against EPA tailpipe rule (E&E $)

POLITICS: How Toyota, a laggard on electric cars, got its fight back (New York Times $), NBC’s Chuck Todd lays into his network for hiring former RNC chief Ronna McDaniel as an analyst (AP, Politico, Daily Beast, USA Today, CNN, New York Times $)

ELECTIONS: John Curtis treads lightly on climate in Utah Senate race (E&E $), Oil and gas execs are unhappy with Biden — but not eager for Trump’s return (Politico)

CITIES AND STATES: In Denver, e-bike vouchers run out as fast as Taylor Swift tickets (Grist), Alaska governor blames Biden for LNG project’s investment woes (E&E $), Environmental groups appeal court order on drilling under Ohio park and wildlife areas (Energy News Network), Florida blocks heat standards from being passed across the state (Prism Reports), Georgia bill would give utility regulators extra years in office without facing voters (AP)

TEXAS: ERCOT admits Texas grid faces risk of ‘cascading outages’ in wait for new CPS transmission line (San Antonio Express-News)

FERC: 3 takeaways from the FERC confirmation hearing (E&E $)

IMPACTS: Death toll from heavy rains in southeastern Brazil jumps to 23 (AP), California zombie lake turned farmland to water. A year later, is it gone for good? (The Guardian), Radar gaps threaten millions as severe weather season ramps up in US. (Washington Post $), These lakes are usually still frozen over. See how they look now. (Washington Post $)

HEAT: The ‘Taylor Swift effect’ aims to provide water during Brazil’s life-threatening heat waves (AP) ‘When it’s this hot, time stands still’: surviving west Africa’s blistering heat (The Guardian), 

DROUGHT: Malawi follows Zambia in declaring drought disaster as El Niño brings hunger to southern Africa (AP), To make water last year-round, Kenyans in dry regions are building sand dams on seasonal rivers (AP)

WILDFIRES: Rain helps contain still-burning wildfires in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley; state sending more aid (AP), National Guard helicopters help battle West Virginia wildfires in steep terrain (AP)

WATER: The Klamath River’s dams are being removed. Inside the effort to restore a scarred watershed (LA Times $)

CERAWEEK: From AI to oil, demand dominates the talk in Houston (Bloomberg $)

RENEWABLES: US offshore wind energy development could ensure East Coast grid reliability- study (Reuters), Germany’s solar panel industry, once a leader, is getting squeezed (New York Times $)

"RENEWABLES": Sustainability targets, customer interest driving natural gas utilities to RNG (Natural Gas Intel)

BUILDINGS: North Carolina court rules landlord had no repair duty before explosion (AP), George Oliver:  ‘We have the technologies to cut building emissions; let's use them’ (Reuters)

METHANE: Chart: Methane emissions are a problem. Where do they come from? (Canary Media), ESG Watch: New satellites mean oil and gas companies will have no place to hide on methane emissions (Reuters), Mexico's Pemex put off repairs despite vast methane leak (Reuters)

OIL & GAS: Big oil companies are failing on Paris climate goals, study finds (Axios), What do Schwarzenegger, Fonda and Newsom have in common? They’re fighting oil drilling (LA Times $)

COAL: Coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, prepares for a long goodbye (Bloomberg $)

EVs: Suburbia is the real battleground for electric cars (Heatmap $), Japan’s Nissan promises an aggressive electrification push to cut costs and boost global sales (AP)

ACTIVISM: British Museum closes to visitors as Energy Embargo for Palestine group gathers outside (The Guardian)

REAL ESTATE: Real estate investors turn to lawyers after ‘huge’ CO2 shock (Bloomberg $)

FASHION: This startup promised to help fashion go green. Brands didn’t want to pay for it. (Wall Street Journal $)

INTERNATIONAL: Climate-conscious investors put nuclear dead last on list of desirable Australian ventures (The Guardian), German wind power sector welcomes government offshore terminal funding (Reuters), India has millions of dairy farmers. It’s creating a methane problem that’s tricky to solve (AP), Trudeau government survives no confidence vote over Canada carbon tax rise (Reuters)

• L.A. may not get another wet winter for a while. We should prepare for drier times (LA Times, Editorial Board $)
• Elon Musk is preoccupied with something he doesn’t understand (New York Times, Jamelle Bouie column $)
• Instructions for surviving the age of excess (Bloomberg, Max Hastings column $)
• Natural gas is essential to any realistic path toward greenhouse gas reduction (The Hill, Ryan Lance op-ed)

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