Saltwater Intrusion Harming Pregnant People In Bangladesh: Pregnant people in Bangladesh are suffering from alarming rates of negative health effects tied to rising salinity in drinking water due to sea level rise and climate-fueled cyclones, The Guardian reports. Increased salt intake can lead to hypertension, pre-eclampsia, and eclampsia — all of which can have dire, potentially deadly, effects on both the pregnant person and fetus. “When Cyclone Aila hit in 2009, it left behind a trail of destruction, breaching embankments and leaving the entire region submerged in salt water,” said Dr. Santosh Kumar, a gynecologist in Dacope. “With most freshwater infrastructure destroyed, the coastal region has been facing an acute drinking water crisis. The extent of the impact on people’s health is only now being realised.” (The Guardian; Climate Signals background: Sea-level rise, Cyclones)

Dutch Court Hears Shell Appeal of 2021 Ruling: Shell's appeal of a Dutch court order to dramatically slash its climate pollution by 2030 kicked off Tuesday. The landmark 2021 ruling by The Hague District Court ruled Shell must reduce its carbon — from its own operations and from the consumption of its products — by 45% below 2019 levels by 2030. "Demand for oil and gas doesn't exist in a vacuum," Roger Cox, a lawyer for Friends of the Earth Netherlands, which brought the case, said. "It is being sustained by Shell and its peers, through abundant supply." (Reuters, AFP via Barron's, FT $, Seeking Alpha, Bloomberg Law, Reuters explainer)

Community Renewables Empower Region Abandoned By Petro-Colonialism: Turkana County in northwest Kenya endured malicious neglect by colonial powers and now sits on the frontlines of a climate crisis, Atmos reports Until oil was discovered there, British colonizers described Turkana as "the most worthless district in Kenya." "We were considered the dumb people of Kenya,” Lokichar-native Samal Methuswella, 29, told Atmos. A decade ago Tullow, the Anglo-Irish firm that said it found as much as a billion barrels of oil in the South Lokichar Basin and acquired total control of oil licensing rights in the region. Though it initially built schools, water tanks, and transport systems, Tullow then left the region without notifying local communities or continuing to maintain the infrastructure. Renewable energy generation in the region, on the other hand, has brought economic progress. Solar-powered mini-grids enable families to replace kerosene lamps and Renewvia, the U.S.-based company that broke ground on the Nakukulas mini-grid in 2019, is training local residents to maintain the infrastructure themselves, increasing women’s employment, potentially quadrupling household incomes, and boosting school attendance — all with the aim of turning over ownership of the mini-grids to local communities in about 20 years. (Atmos) 

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: ‘It never warms up’: Surviving extreme cold in Texas prisons (Prism Reports)

GASEOUS DIPLOMACY: Europe’s new energy risk: Trading Russia for America (Politico EU)

INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Why Biden's climate law needs a permitting boost (Axios), US climate law has boosted solar, batteries; hydrogen, other initiatives lag (Reuters)

SCOTUS: Mountain Valley pipeline land fight returns to Supreme Court (E&E $), ESA changes may test Supreme Court limits on agency power (E&E News)

AGENCIES: NWS suffers large-scale radar outage during Midwest storms (E&E $), Scientists are sounding the alarm about oceans, but Biden’s budget would slash research data (CNN)

EPA: 3 ways to electrify trucks in the wake of EPA’s climate rule (E&E $), Industry to EPA: Think about us on science policy update (E&E $), The EPA wanted to clean up steel mills. Then a group of rust belt senators got involved. (Grist)

DOE: DOE promotes loans for clean energy projects at old industrial sites (E&E $), Department of Energy releases blueprint for reducing building emissions (Courthouse News), DOE to invest $22M to improve planning, permitting of renewable energy, storage projects (Utility Dive), US DOE expands support for community-led clean energy transitions (Clean Technica)

DOI: Biden administration approves the nation’s eighth large offshore wind project (AP, Reuters), Interior approves 2 wind farms for Massachusetts coast (E&E $), New England offshore wind farm latest to win Biden approval (Bloomberg $)

DOT: ‘Administrative ventriloquism’: Second judge rules against highway climate emissions rule (Politico Pro $), Biden administration announces requirement for 2-person crews on freight trains (The Hill, E&E $)

WHITE HOUSE: International gas projects test Biden's export agency (Politico Pro $), White House open to ending LNG export pause in push for Ukraine aid, sources say (Reuters), Biden and corporate America? it’s ‘complicated.’ (New York Times $)

HOUSE: Grijalva announces cancer diagnosis (E&E $), Iowa Republican Miller-Meeks named new chair of Conservative Climate Caucus (The Hill, E&E $), Johnson outlines plan for Ukraine aid; house could act within weeks (New York Times $), Why natural gas exports may not solve the House GOP's Ukraine aid problems (Politico Pro $)

POLITICS: Antitrust enforcement gets bipartisan love — except for oil deals (Axios), Swing states net half of $114 billion in Inflation Reduction Act factory investment (Bloomberg $)

TRIBES: Electric school buses help tribes bridge the energy transition (E&E News), Canada's Indigenous peoples eye big energy deals, await Trudeau loan promise (Reuters)

CITIES AND STATES: With states leading on climate policy, new tools peer into lobbying ‘black box’ (Inside Climate News), Amid progress on electric vehicles, political setbacks frustrate advocates in Maine, Connecticut (Energy News Network), California’s new rules allow solar and batteries to help out the grid (Canary Media)

FERC: Grid operator sends Western market plan to FERC (E&E $)

INSURANCE: Insurance prices skyrocket in disaster-prone states (E&E $), Judge won’t dismiss lawsuit to block higher flood insurance rates (E&E $)

WILDFIRES: Record wildfires hit Venezuela during climate-driven Amazon drought (Reuters)

WATER: America’s water-starved ‘salad bowl’ fights for its future (E&E $), UN scientists warn about the impacts of unsafe water on women (Forbes)

CALIFORNIA SNOWPACK: ‘Average is awesome’: California pleased with result of critical snowpack survey (The Guardian), California enters spring with vital snowpack above average for a second year (AP), California storms deliver above-average snowpack, replenish reservoirs (LA Times $), Calif. governor uses improved water outlook to renew storage push (E&E $), How the last 20 years of Sierra snowpack stack up, in one graphic (LA Times $)

EXTREME WEATHER: Storm outbreak forecast from Gulf Coast to Ohio Valley, ‘intense tornadoes’ possible (Washington Post $)

RENEWABLES: China could drive Africa's renewable energy revolution, report says (Reuters), Global glut turns solar panels into garden fencing option (FT $), US aiming to ‘crack the code’ on deploying geothermal energy at scale (The Guardian)

"RENEWABLES": Enviva bankruptcy fallout ripples through biomass industry, US and EU (Mongabay)

BATTERIES: Canadian cobalt refiner agrees to buy supply from Congo mine (Bloomberg $)

BUILDINGS: A blizzard put a hyper-efficient home to the test. It passed. (Yale Climate Connections), HOAs are blocking solar panels and Native lawns. Here's how to fight back. (Washington Post $)

AI: AI's rapid growth poses a challenge to big tech's clean energy efforts (OilPrice)

LNG: The US is now the world’s top exporter of liquefied natural gas (HuffPost, The Hill), Qatar prepares to dominate the LNG export market (OilPrice)

OIL & GAS: Oil bosses rip Biden policies even as US production soars (Bloomberg $), Oil options markets turn bullish with rising geopolitical risks (Bloomberg $), Oil prices climb to five-month high on escalating Middle East tensions and fresh supply threats (CNBC), OPEC oil output stays steady as group’s latest cutbacks stall (Bloomberg $), The global gas glut could reach multi-decade highs in the coming years, Morgan Stanley says (CNBC)

PLASTICS: So much produce comes in plastic. Is there a better way? (New York Times $)

PIPELINES: Enbridge kicks off bond sale after ratings cut by Moody’s (Bloomberg $)

COAL: Germany shuts 7 coal power stations after winter ends (Deutsche Welle), The coal was destined for India. Now it’s polluting the air in Baltimore. (Heatmap $), Andrew Wheeler lands at law firm (E&E News)

FUSION: ‘Artificial sun’ sets record for time at 100 million degrees in latest advance for nuclear fusion (CNN)

UTILITIES: Duke Energy Florida files for base rate hike in push for clean energy (Reuters), Utilities to press Biden admin on coal wastewater rule (E&E $)

GRID: CAISO proposes $6.1B transmission plan, mainly for offshore wind (Utility Dive)

EVs: IKEA Foundation backs emerging market EV push with $100 million grant (Reuters), Rivian beats EV production estimates with shipments rebounding (Bloomberg $), What’s behind Tesla’s faceplant? (Heatmap $)

GEOENGINEERING: Warming is getting worse. So they just tested a way to deflect the sun. (New York Times $)

ACTIVISM: Who are today’s climate activists? Dispelling 3 big myths for Earth Month (The Conversation)

CARBON CAPTURE: Wyoming’s largest utility eyes CCS projects on coal plants (E&E $)

CARBON REMOVAL: Burying plant waste removes CO2 from the air. But can it scale? (Canary Media)

FINANCE: Citi says 71% of energy clients lack substantive transition plan or ‘ability to execute’ (Utility Dive), World Bank approves $750 mln climate change loan to Colombia (Reuters)

WILDLIFE: Bird flu is picking its way across the animal kingdom—and climate change could be making it worse (Inside Climate News), We know how to save these beloved endangered whales. Yet we’re mindlessly killing them. (Vox)

INTERNATIONAL: Australia’s soil to become net carbon emitter and threat to climate goals, report says (The Guardian), EU nature law needs to ‘go back to the drawing board,’ Belgian PM says (E&E $), Europe makes it to the other side of winter with record levels of natural gas (OilPrice), Filipino conservationists fear new law rubs salt in mangrove wound (Context), India to monitor capacity, harness surplus power to meet summer demand (Reuters), International court issues first-ever decision enforcing the right to a healthy environment (Inside Climate News), Nigeria to almost triple energy prices, keep subsidy for poor (Bloomberg $), UK will allow heavier tankers to avert repeat of fuel shortages (Bloomberg $), Zambia’s fossil-fuel subsidy cuts help climate and kids – but taxi drivers suffer (Climate Home)

• Rewilding a grieving heart (Yes Magazine, Andrew Kenneson essay)
• Despite official vote, the evidence of the anthropocene is clear (Yale Environment 360, Anthony Barnosky and Mary Ellen Hannibal op-ed)
• A coal-free New England is a victory for the entire country (The Hill, Cathy Corkery op-ed)
• The painful rise in home insurance costs (FT, Editorial Board $)
• Ronald McKinnon made it from rural Alabama to the NFL. Now he wants to see his flooded hometown get help (Inside Climate News, interview)
• The manufacturing renaissance needs well-planned transmission solutions (Utility Dive, Karen Onaran)
• Tesla’s sales flop is even more shocking than Elon Musk (Bloomberg, Liam Denning column $)
• The case for paying ranchers to raise trees instead of cattle (The Guardian, Patrick Brown and Michael Eisen op-ed)
• The GOP is freaking out about an industry that doesn’t even exist yet (Washington Post, Catherine Rampell column $)
• Will MAGA Republicans block Baltimore’s rebuilding? (New York Times, Paul Krugman column $)
• Disneyland is ditching gas cars at Autopia. It’s a great first step for Tomorrowland (LA Times, Sammy Roth column $)
• Biden’s EPA can justify his new EV rules only by cooking the books (The Hill, Benjamin Zycher op-ed)

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