Biden Admin. Announces $20B For Clean Energy Lending: The EPA announced $20 billion in clean energy financing to be targeted towards historically excluded communities on Thursday, one of the Biden administration's biggest climate investments so far. The funds come from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, established in the Inflation Reduction Act, and will help poor communities and communities of color invest in clean energy and efficiency projects. Eight entities will receive funds through the program, which they will then redistribute in the form of grants, low interest loans, or through other mechanisms. Reginald Parker, head of solar company Optimal Technology Corp., co-founded Freedmen Green Bank & Trust last year to help communities of color access IRA funding. “People in these communities are usually what we call the first, worst and hardest-hit by climate change,” Parker told the Washington Post. “This can give them the climate resiliency that they deserve.” (Washington Post $, AP, E&E $, New York Times $, Bloomberg $, Impact Alpha, Newsweek) 

Indonesian Trans Women Left Out Of Adaptation Plans: Indonesian trans women engaged in survival sex work are especially hurt by climate change as longer rainy seasons increasingly prevent them from making a living and expose them to greater violence, Context reports. Trans women are especially stigmatized in Indonesian society — historically accepting of gender fluidity, but becoming more oppressive due to a rise of conservative Islam — and are pushed out of the formal economy, and literally outside into the elements. "No one is coming out during the longer rainy season," Joya Patiha, a 43-year-old transgender woman, who did sex work for 10 years in Bandung. "It is very hard to make money during that unpredictable weather." Survival sex work is a complex topic for gender minorities. Many cultures heavily discriminate against trans women, but because of the cross cultural driving desire for trans women sexually, survival sex work has historically prevented the community from being wiped out economically in many contexts around the world, including in Indonesia and the U.S. Indonesian government plans to protect vulnerable groups from climate change mention "[cisgender] women, the elderly, and people with disabilities," Arif Budi Darmawan, a researcher at the Bandung-based Resilience Development Initiative, told Context, "but there is no provision for sexual and gender minorities." The means trans women, who face even more exclusion than other LGBTQ+ groups, are among the hardest hit by extreme weather. "Climate change makes the vulnerable even more vulnerable," Darmawan said. (Context)

Climate, Insurance Crises Making Swaths Of US 'Uninhabitable': The impacts of climate change, combined with a national insurance crisis, are limiting Americans' ability to choose where to live, The Hill reports. Decades of American housing policy laid the foundation for a national insurance crisis tipped over by climate change, in which insurers are raising premiums and deductibles, cutting risky properties from their portfolios, or fleeing climate-vulnerable states altogether. The crisis is especially acute in California and along the Gulf Coast. When an area becomes uninsurable, "it becomes uninhabitable," Public Citizen's Anne Perrault told The Hill, and the flight of private insurers is pushing increasing numbers homeowners to state-backed 'insurers of last resort.' All of this is increasing the already-expensive cost of housing and sticking homeowners, like those in Paradise, California, who survived the 2018 Camp Fire, into an impossible situation. "They can’t stay in their home,” said Seana O’Shaughnessy, of the Community Housing Improvement Program, "but they can’t leave either, because they can’t sell their home. And anyway, their community is here." The impacts of the overlapping crises are especially dire for communities of color. “We see that those formerly redlined neighborhoods are the ones exposed to polluting facilities or elevated heat — which is one of most common causes of health-related issues,” Michela Zonta, a housing policy analyst at the Center for American Progress, said. Black communities are disproportionately at risk for flooding, Zonta added, and "A lot of insurance companies are abandoning areas with flooding risks." (The Hill)

COP30: Brazil hopes COP30 climate summit boosts ecotourism (Reuters)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: As legal challenges against the fossil fuel industry notch some successes, are livestock companies the next target? (Inside Climate News), Los Angeles County’s climate costs foreshadow legal showdown (E&E $)

DENIAL & GREENWASHING: The PR industry isn’t ready to crack down on greenwashing (Semafor)

TESLA: 'Unmitigated disaster': What's behind Tesla's Q1 delivery stunner (Axios, OilPrice, E&E $), Faltering Tesla faces a familiar question: is it an ESG stock? (Bloomberg $), What Tesla’s troubles signal for the EV revolution (New York Times $)

HOT NEWS' FAVORITE MOUNTAIN MAN: Citizen scientist measured Rockies snowfall for 50 years. Two new hips help him keep going (AP)

AGENCIES: FEMA stuns Florida with pricey hurricane penalty (E&E News), Data outage affects National Weather Service amid severe storms (Axios), Report hits USDA conservation program on climate goals (E&E $)

EPA: The EPA cleaned up the ‘Valley of the Drums’ outside Louisville 45 years ago. Why did it leave the ‘Gully of the Drums’ behind? (Inside Climate News)

DOE: Coal-to-nuclear transition can be an economic boon for communities: DOE (Utility Dive), DOE releases first-ever road map to decarbonize buildings (E&E $)

DOT: Second judge axes Biden highway climate emissions rule (E&E $)

TREASURY: Biden administration awards $4B in clean energy manufacturing tax credits (Utility Dive), Treasury secretary heads to China to talk trade, anti-money laundering and Chinese ‘overproduction’ (AP)

FED: The Fed blocks stricter global ESG rules for banks (OilPrice)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: NRC underestimates climate risks to nuclear power, watchdog says (E&E $, Axios)

WHITE HOUSE: White House talks down prospect of LNG deal with Johnson (E&E $)

THE HILL: Hill climate caucus warns EPA of ‘crippling’ delays on carbon storage (E&E $)

HOUSE: Crenshaw moves to block EPA crackdown on hazardous materials (Houston Chronicle)

CITIES AND STATES: Massachusetts commission recommends faster approvals of clean energy projects, infrastructure (Utility Dive), Pennsylvania makes ‘historic’ bid for cash to slash emissions (E&E $)

• CALIFORNIA: California regulators suggested scrapping Scope 3 from landmark corporate climate bill (Politico Pro $), Thanks to termite tents, California is top US emitter of a planet-warming pesticide (LA Times $, E&E $, Inside Climate News)

IMPACTS: Shrinking Arctic ice redraws the map for internet cable connections (Politico EU)

DROUGHT: Hunger grips southern Africa as Zimbabwe declares drought a disaster (Reuters)

DEFORESTATION: Global forest loss remains high, despite recent progress (New York Times $), Rio Tinto faces possible Norway fund divestment over alleged deforestation links (Wall Street Journal $), How to revive a burned forest? Rebuild the tree supply chain (New York Times $)

MEAT: Taxing meat to fight climate change (Boston Globe $)

RENEWABLES: America's solar and wind energy hotspots, mapped (Axios), China solar industry faces shakeout, but rock-bottom prices to persist (Reuters), Goldman renewables spinoff MN8 Energy secures $325M investment (Utility Dive), Texas, California dominated wind and solar power generation in 2023: Report (The Hill), US experienced staggering growth in solar and wind power over the last decade (Grist)

BUILDINGS: Green mortgages set to take off as US makes homes fit for future (Context)

METHANE: US landfills emit way more methane than previously thought (Canary Media)

OIL & GAS: Is fracked gas better for the environment than coal? (WFLA), Dutch Senate puts off vote to shut Groningen gas field for good (OilPrice), United adds direct flights to Guyana from Houston as oil companies tap its bounty (Houston Chronicle)

NUKES: New NRC licensing road map aims to add clarity for advanced reactor applications (Utility Dive), Lawsuit challenges $1 billion in federal funding to sustain California’s last nuclear power plant (AP)

GRID: In the central US, an electric grid bottleneck persists (Stateline), Low-carbon shift raises risk of blackouts, grid execs warn (E&E News)

EVs: Auto industry must halve EV battery weight over next decade, Stellantis CEO says (Reuters)

AGRICULTURE: Can Africa one day help feed the world’s growing population? (FT $)

POP CULTURE WARS: Billie Eilish defends 'wasteful' vinyl variants stance after backlash from Taylor Swift fans (Teen Vogue)

CARBON CAPTURE: US Steel plant in Indiana to host a $150M carbon capture experiment (Canary Media), US steel is trying carbon capture. Experts aren’t impressed. (Heatmap $)

FINANCE: Fed blocks tough global climate-risk rules for Wall Street banks (Bloomberg $), KKR homes in on ‘growth-infra’ climate investments (Wall Street Journal $)

WILDLIFE: Butterfly study finds sharpest fall on record for small tortoiseshell in England (The Guardian), Florida’s tiny ‘fairy tale’ deer are losing habitat as seas rise (Yale Climate Connections), Global warming will enable tropical species from the Atlantic to colonize the Mediterranean Sea (Inside Climate News)

INTERNATIONAL: EU investigates Chinese bidders over Romania solar tender (Reuters), Hungary’s new gas deal fuels Russia fears (E&E $), Ivory Coast bets on solar as part of renewables drive (Reuters), Nigeria to almost triple energy prices, keep subsidy for poor (Bloomberg $), Reindeer herders battle power line needed for Norway’s climate goal (Reuters), Southeast Asian countries consider ways to boost ‘green financing’ as region chokes on smog (AP)

• Montana scientist on her lifetime spent with wolves (E&E, Diane Boyd interview $)
• Nordic nations outpace mainland Europe in power output recovery (Reuters, Gavin Maguire column)
• A big week for climate policy in Australia: What happened and what to make of it (The Guardian, Adam Morton op-ed)
• Supporting strategic end uses is key to making hydrogen hubs the building blocks to scale (Utility Dive, Cihang Yuan and Daniel Riley op-ed)
• Biden’s LNG ‘pause’ threatens Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry (The Hill, Rep. Mike Kelly op-ed)
• Climate alarmists’ bad science (Wall Street Journal, David Barker $)
• Biden builds a domestic green army (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

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