US Issues 20-Year Ban On Drilling Near Indigenous Cultural Site In New Mexico: The Biden administration announced a 20-year pause on oil or gas exploration on federal lands surrounding the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a 30,000 acre area spanning New Mexico and Arizona that is one of the oldest and most culturally significant ancestral sites in the country. Indigenous groups have pushed for decades to protect this land, which contains more than 4,7000 archaeological sites dating back thousands of years and is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The Interior Department took more than 11,0,000 comments to the rule, and consulted with 24 Indigenous groups as the administration looked to follow through on a 2021 pledge to prevent drilling in the area. (Reuters, AP, The Hill)   

Companies To Pay Billions In PFAS Settlements: Three major chemical companies, Dupont, Chemours and Corteva, reached a $1.18 billion deal to avoid having a judge decide whether they contaminated US drinking water systems with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a family of more than 12,000 chemicals used in firefighting forms and non-stick products. PFAS can be found in thousands of public drinking systems as 83 percent of US waterway samples that were tested last year came back positive, and 97 percent of those living in the US have some amount of PFAS in their blood. PFAS exposure is linked to a variety of health impacts including increased risk of kidney or testicular cancer. Meanwhile, chemical giant 3M is facing a similar suit brought by the city of Stuart, Florida, which Gary Douglas, the lead trial counsel representing the city, told the Hill intends to “prove that 3M is responsible for the contamination of virtually the entire planet, including the water in Stuart and that they withheld information from the public and from the EPA.” Cutting PFAS levels in drinking water will likely require municipalities to invest millions and budget for ongoing maintenance costs. (Grist, Axios, AP, The Hill)

Global Treaty Could End Plastic Pollution, Help Climate: International negotiators at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) have agreed to develop a legally binding treaty to cut pollution from plastics, a product that causes climate pollution at every stage of its life cycle. The plastic industry emitted 1.3 billion metric tons of carbon pollution in 2020, twice as much as Canada. A draft of the international treaty will be prepared before the next session of the UNEP in November, and a coalition of “high-ambition” governments are pushing to end plastic pollution altogether by 2040 through cutting production and limiting what chemicals can be used in plastic production. “It’s not just a plastics crisis; it’s a climate crisis,” Kristen McDonald, a senior director at Pacific Environment told Grist. “Everyone should be coming away from the global plastics treaty table this week understanding that.” Countries with powerful fossil fuel interests - including the US - are lobbying for more plastic recycling instead of production limits. A new report from Pacific Environment finds that plastic production must be cut 75 percent by 2050 to achieve the Paris accord climate goals. (Grist, AP, The Hill, Reuters, Times of India, Financial Times $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) INJUSTICE: Report card: Biden’s accomplishments on climate justice (Yale Climate Connections)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: UAE defends Big Oil’s role at UN climate summit it will host (AP)

THE HILL: The debt limit deal and climate action (New York Times $), House Republicans to dissect EPA power plant rule (E&E $), House Republicans to host another anti-ESG hearing (E&E $)

EPA: EPA spurns Trump-era effort to drop clean-air protections for plastic waste recycling (Inside Climate News)

FERC: FERC approves PG&E plan to spin off 5.6 GW in advance of possible minority stake sale (Utility Dive)

CITIES AND STATES: Cleveland’s tree canopy is in trouble (Inside Climate News), Log and burn, or leave alone? Indiana residents fight US forest service over the future of hoosier national forest (Inside Climate News), ‘This is Boston’s big challenge’: A new plan to defend downtown against sea-level rise (Boston Globe $)

~CALIFORNIA: Outcry over recycling plant next to Watts high school appears to gain traction (LA Times $), California toxics agency to publish lead cleanup reports for homes surrounding Exide plant (LA Times $)

IMPACTS: Near record warm oceans, developing El Niño escalates hurricane risks (Axios), Gulf of Mexico’s Tropical Depression 2 will be short-lived (Yale Climate Connections)

WATER: Arizona seeks to avert groundwater disaster (The Hill), Arizona drought pushes Phoenix to hit pause on construction projects (Gizmodo), As the nation’s second-largest reservoir recedes, a once-drowned ecosystem emerges (Grist), Arizona’s water troubles show how climate change is reshaping the west (Washington Post $)

WILDFIRES: Crews work to contain southern Arizona wildfire burning near Biosphere 2 science facility (AP)

HURRICANES: Tropical Storm Arlene becomes first named storm of 2023 hurricane season (Axios), The early scramble to prepare for hurricane season (Axios), A weakened Arlene could bring heavy rain to south Florida (New York Times $)

SOLAR: Solar beats coal in Europe for first time - but there’s a glitch (Bloomberg $)

CREDITS: A major showdown is brewing over what counts as a carbon credit (Bloomberg $)

OIL & GAS: Saudi Arabia is slashing oil supply. It could mean higher gas prices for US drivers (The Hill), China is digging a big frickin' hole 33,000 feet into the earth (Gizmodo), Iraq’s oil boom blamed for worsening water crisis in drought-hit south (The Guardian), OPEC+ sticks to 2023 oil production targets as Saudi Arabia announces further voluntary cuts (CNBC), Saudi energy minister defends voluntary oil cuts as precautionary (CNBC), US deal could plug Turkmenistan’s colossal methane emissions (The Guardian), Exxon, Chevron near deals to drill in gas-rich algeria (Wall Street Journal $)

FARMING: Five farming technologies take new approaches to climate change (Wall Street Journal $)

INSURANCE: Allstate is no longer offering new policies in California (New York Times $), Catastrophe exposure' pushes State Farm to stop selling insurance in California (Gizmodo), California’s homeowner insurance shakeout is about interest rates, too (Wall Street Journal $)

H2: Federal hydrogen program is cutting out local groups, threatening climate goals, advocates say (Inside Climate News)

GRID: He’s the biggest power broker in Canada whom you’ve never heard of (New York Times $)

EVs: How Ford, GM auto dealers are thinking about Detroit’s EV transition and their future (CNBC), Ultralong-range electric cars are arriving. Say goodbye to charging stops (Wall Street Journal $), The surprising new source of lithium for batteries (Wall Street Journal $)

ACTIVISM: Disruptive climate protests spur police raids in Germany and the US (Inside Climate News), Vietnam faces criticism for arresting climate activist as it closes clean energy deal (NPR), Germany's far-right AfD profits from climate change spat (Deutsche Welle)

LITIGATION: The money behind the coming wave of climate litigation (Financial Times $)

PORSCHE: Can efuels make your Porsche green? (Wall Street Journal $)

PLANKTON: Another climate tipping point to worry about: plankton (Grist)

SHIPPING: An obscure bipartisan shipping clause could derail one of Biden’s big clean energy goals (HuffPost)

ROYALTY: How Prince William’s eco-prize is already helping the planet (CNN)

WILDLIFE: Climate change makes food scarce, but Yellowstone bears are staying fat (The Verge)

INTERNATIONAL: Why Putin’s secret weapon failed (The Atlantic), China’s green revolution is quietly succeeding (Wall Street Journal $)

• Climate change is making California more expensive. Home insurance is the latest bellwether (LA Times editorial $)

• Insurers are fleeing states due to climate realities, not ‘anti-woke’ bullies (The Hill, Stuart Mackintosh)

• Europe’s energy crisis is not over (Energy Monitor, Dave Keating)

• Be tenacious on behalf of life on earth (TIME, Ayana Elizabeth Johnson)

• Is it wrong to bring a child into our warming world? (New York Times, The Ethicist $)

• Could air travel get even more miserable? Yes, and here’s why (New York Times, Bill Saporito $)

• Climate change is the man-made disaster that Nevadans contend with (Las Vegas Sun, Rita Ransom)

• In Alaska, battling climate change in camouflage (Bloomberg, Brooke Sample $)

• Can the climate heal itself? (Wall Street Journal, Andy Kessler $)

• Targeting Toyota for its electric-vehicle heresy (Wall Street Journal, The Editorial Board $)

Is The New England Fisherman Stewardship Association Working With Tobacco Shill And Climate Denier Steve Milloy? 

In April, we noticed that a very PR-savvy fisherman named Jerry Leeman was doing quite a press tour to falsely claim offshore wind is bad for the fishing industry. We wondered if perhaps someone who manipulates media and minds professionally was helping out an otherwise normal-seeming blue-collar fisherman. We thought maybe there'd be a medium-sized fish or two lurking in the depths. Turns out maybe it was none other than the white whale of liars-for-hire… 

Because our dear anti-wind turbine fisherman Jerry Leeman is giving up the sea for a different bounty: lobbying. Leeman is now leading a new fishing industry lobby group that's suspiciously anti-offshore wind, and we have some very fishy clues that the group is connected to larger fossil fuel industry players. 

First off, the New England Fishermen Stewardship Association’s (NEFSA) "Mission" page and Leeman's own Facebook posts use Steve Milloy's tobacco industry-developed "sound science" language, a catchphrase used specifically to cast doubt on science that is perfectly accurate. 

One of the tricks in the disinfo playbook that Milloy ran for Big Tobacco before running it for fossil fuels is to endlessly call for more research and better studies, which is a stalling tactic to postpone regulation without looking like you're acting in bad faith. In order to undercut the science showing their industries have a problem, disinformers demand "sound science" and then hire consultants to produce industry-friendly studies they claim are the "sound science" alternative to whatever shows a problem for their profits. 

So it's not necessarily that no one legitimate or sincere has ever used the phrase, but Leeman is using it in exactly the way that career liars use it to serve their industrial backers like, for example, when Milloy led the "Advancement of Sound Science Coalition" for tobacco giant Philip Morris. 

And what do you know! The very first person to follow NEFSA’s Twitter account, before even Jerry Leeman and other NEFSA employees, was Steve Milloy himself, whose Twitter handle, @JunkScience, is the continuation of his work to attack the science underpinning secondhand smoke regulations. 

NEFSA’s second follower? Matt Whitlock, whose Twitter bio begins with "Republican communicator. Former: @NRSC, @SenOrrinHatch, @SenMikeLee, corporate comms."  

Not only that, but NEFSA also promotes Milloy's anti-wind op-eds in the donor-driven Daily Caller, complete with slickly produced quote cards that are clearly professionally created for sharing on social media.

True to the disinformation playbook, the group is arguing the intricacies of NOAA's record-keeping, which sort of breaks with the hearty, down-home, 'just some humble fisherfolk' vibe captured by their catchphrase "fight salty." This tactic just so happens to fit perfectly with Milloy's remit of using the pretense of scientific uncertainty as a tool to forestall government action potentially impacting profits. 

Otherwise, though, NEFSA’s staff is mostly credible local types, with one exception. The group’s Board Member and Research and Development Director Robert Burke has fundraised and argued in the past that right whales are actually doing fine so there's no need for regulations on lobsters, which doesn't exactly square with the narrative that offshore wind is a threat to right whales. Maybe that's why he's not listed on NEFSA’s Team page?  

But who is listed? A bunch of real fishing industry folks, though it would appear the group’s one-year selectman candidate and “P&V Outreach” Director's Facebook page is a mix of normie stuff you'd expect from someone who still uses Facebook, anti-wind memes, serious content attacking offshore wind, Tucker Carlson clips about Ukraine, and a repost of a message calling President Biden "a walking talking marionette chameleon with a mind turned to cottage cheese" and VP Kamala Harris, former senator and top law enforcer for the largest state in the country, "an airhead political grifter who had the flavor of skin and anatomy that pleased the virtue signaling wokesters." 

But this is definitely about offshore wind and fish, or whales, or whatever…

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