FIRST LOOK: 

Flash Flooding Kills At Least 8 People In Eastern Kentucky: Heavy rain overnight Wednesday into Thursday caused devastating flash flooding in Eastern Kentucky, killing at least eight. The death toll is expected to rise as responders comb through submerged homes, vehicles, and roads. This is the second deadly extreme rainfall event caused by the weather system that struck the St. Louis area earlier this week. Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency and activated the Kentucky National Guard as high waters and strong currents are making rescues difficult for first responders. More than 25,000 residents were without power as of Thursday afternoon, and more heavy rain events could continue through Friday, NOAA warns. While a variety of factors contribute to flooding, researchers expect that as climate change continues to worsen flash floods will increase and get “flashier,” meaning they will be shorter, but more intense. Extreme precipitation events driven by climate change have increased significantly over the past 100 years. The U.S. National Climate Assessment finds heavy rainfall is now about 20% to 40% more likely in and around eastern Kentucky than it was around 1900. (CNN, Axios, USA Today, Washington Post $, The Weather Channel, Accuweather; Flashier floods: New York Times $; Climate Signals background: Flooding, Extreme precipitation increase)

Senate Budget Deal Would Be The Biggest Climate Change Action Ever, But Doesn’t Come Without Concessions: If passed, the bill’s $369 billion energy and climate provisions could put the U.S. on a path to cut climate pollution 31% to 44% below 2005 levels in 2030. Not everything is swell, though. The compromise includes a number of fossil fuel giveaways – such as requiring new lease sales for drilling on public lands and offshore, and money for fossil-fueled power plants to do carbon capture and sequestration – and creates requirements for domestic critical minerals production while leaving out funding for public transit or the job-creating Civilian Conservation Corps. Some climate advocates reacted with surprise and delight while other advocates argue the bill is riddled with poison pills that will take the U.S. in the wrong direction. (Explainers: USA Today, CNN, ABC News, The Cut, Gizmodo, New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $, Canary Media, CNBC, Vox, Axios Reactions: CNBC, The Hill, Yahoo, NPR, The Guardian, Wall Street Journal $, NPR, Utility Dive)

Climate Change Made Britain's Heatwave At Least 10x Times More Likely: Britain experienced its highest temperatures ever recorded in an extreme heat wave last week, as temps rose to over 104°F. Analysis by the World Weather Attribution group — composed of scientists from around the world — found that the same heatwave in a preindustrial world would have been around 10% cooler, making the current British heatwave “extremely unlikely” without human-caused climate change. Heat of last week’s intensity is highly unusual for Britain. Report authors estimate the chances of seeing the daytime highs recorded in some parts of the country were 1-in-1,000. “It’s still a rare event today,” Friederike Otto, a climate scientist at Imperial College London, and author of the report, told the New York Times. “It’s a worrying finding that suggests that if carbon emissions are not rapidly cut, the consequences of climate change on extreme heat in Europe, which already is extremely deadly, could be even worse than we previously thought.” Hundreds of people are estimated to have died during the scorching heat, though official figures have not yet been released. (Reuters, CNN, USA Today, Sky News, Axios, The Guardian, New Scientist, Washington Post $, New York Times $; Climate Signals background: Extreme heat and heatwaves)

CLIMATE MIGRATION: Climate migration growing but not fully recognized by world (AP), Climate Migration: Honduran couple flee amid storms, threats (AP)

ELECTIONS: ‘Dormant’ climate voters could swing elections in key states, new poll suggests (HuffPost)

THE HILL: Manchin wins big nods to oil in deal ending logjam on climate (Bloomberg $), Solar stocks jump as Schumer, Manchin announce climate spending deal (CNBC),  Oil, gas industry methane fee survives in Manchin spending deal (Bloomberg $)

CITIES AND STATES: Tropical heat returns to a better-prepared pacific northwest (Bloomberg $), Report: Maine is ahead of schedule to meet climate change goal (Portland Press Herald), New NYC storm surge map shows how climate change threatens affordable housing, upscale waterfront (Gothamist), Climate change could cost Ohio cities $6 billion by 2050, report finds  (WCMH), Illinois prepares to reboot low-income solar program to improve access for all (Energy News Network), California governor proposes multibillion-dollar plan to address climate change (CBS)

IMPACTS: The future of global catastrophic risk events from climate change (Yale Climate Connections), Climate change exposes growing gap between weather we've planned for—and what's coming (Phys.org) 

HEAT: Is this heat climate change or just weather? (Deseret News), 35 million Americans are under heat alerts in US (ABC News)

WILDFIRES: How 'spreading like wildfire' is getting a terrifying new meaning in the California of climate change (CNN), Fireproofing your home isn't very expensive — but few states require it (NPR)

HURRICANES: Hurricanes are getting stronger. Blame the climate crisis (The Independent)

RENEWABLES: It’s back to the future for zero-carbon energy in the US (Bloomberg $), Here’s how the new US climate deal could make energy bills cheaper (Bloomberg $)

EVS: Nearly 20 states push ahead with truck electrification plan (Utility Dive), Climate bill could be a huge help for EV buyers (Axios)

OSW: New York announces 2-GW offshore wind solicitation with a focus on supply chain infrastructure (Utility Dive)

COAL / METHANE: Europe’s heat waves force shift back to coal and natural gas (Wall Street Journal $),

HYDROGEN: Can hydrogen fuel cells power Microsoft data centers? (The Verge)

ACTIVISM: Climate activists demonstrate outside Congressional Baseball Game (Washington Post $)

CARBON PRICING: Carbon pricing isn’t enough to mitigate climate change (Foreign Policy)

CARBON CREDITS: Indigenous Peoples and loggers win cash, and a truce, from coveted carbon credits (Wall Street Journal $)

MORALITY: Climate change is a moral crisis. but our political system doesn't treat it that way (TIME)

GDP: Climate change is probably a drag on growth, but it’s unclear how much (New York Times $)

FINANCE: To fight climate change, change your bank (Washington Post $), Yellen urges US financial watchdogs to do more on climate change (Bloomberg Law), Treasury Department launches new hub to aid climate change financial regulations (Washington Examiner), 

GOP vs. ESG: West Virginia won't work with major banks that pledged to fight climate change (Axios), West Virginia punishes banks that it says don’t support coal (New York Times $)

FUNGI: Unearthing the secret superpowers of fungus. (New York Times $), 

OIL & GAS: Oil companies are making record profits—but not more jobs (Gizmodo)

POLLING: A majority of people around the world are concerned about climate change, says poll (Phys.org), More than half of Americans say they’ve personally felt the impacts of climate change, poll finds (The Hill)

WILDLIFE: Climate change is killing more elephants than poaching, Kenyan officials say (Washington Post $), Climate change could be making it harder for seabirds to feed, study finds (Phys.org), Climate change, vanishing islands in Louisiana threaten brown pelicans (Chicago Sun-Times)

INTERNATIONAL: In Canada's north, environment-minded Pope to get climate change close-up (Reuters), Multi-billion dollar train project in Mexico continues despite threat to prehistoric sites (NBC News)

• The Vatican acts on climate change, but US bishops dawdle (National Catholic Reporter, NCR Editorial Staff)

• Climate change isn’t about saving the planet: It’s about saving the people (The Hill, Deborah Brosnan, PH.D.)

• I'm living in a state that's on fire (CNN, W. Kamau Bell)

• Biden must act against climate change if Manchin-Schumer deal falls through (The Hill, Brad Bannon)

• Building a clean energy future means securing vital minerals today (The Hill, Michelle Michot Foss)

• Supreme Court’s EPA Ruling does not doom the SEC’s climate disclosure rule (The Hill, Todd Phillips)

• Humanity can’t equivocate any longer. This is a climate emergency (The Guardian, Rebecca Solnit and Terry Tempest Williams)

• The Schumer-Manchin tax and subsidy pact (Wall Street Journal, Editorial Board $)

[Editor's Note: The Denier Roundup will be on vacation next week, enjoying a beach before the seas rise up and take it back. We'll return on August 9th!] 

Fossil Fueled Anti-ESG Campaign Gets Real As GOP Abandons 'Free Market' Pretense

Do Republicans actually support a "free market," or is that phrase just longstanding code for the party's support for whatever happens to make their donors more money? 

It's the latter, and always has been, but there's no longer any way for anyone to pretend otherwise. 

As we discussed seven months ago, the professional disinformation crew has taken on an anti-ESG campaign to attack businesses that are at least pretending to try to be decent corporate citizens, and not suckers who invest in loser industries like smoking and coal. (Un-)professional bigots like Jordan Peterson are making it part of their grift, and in May, Mike Pence all but confirmed that it's a priority for the Koch network. 

A year after Koch cronies started it, the campaign is up and running, with elected Republicans doing the bidding of companies that kill the climate and fund their campaigns. 

The Republican Study Committee recently published a memo with its anti-ESG talking points and an exclusive at white-supremacy-laundering Breitbart. "ESG is a cornerstone of Democrats’ Green New Deal agenda" said Jim Banks (R-IN), "and one of the most serious long-term threats to energy independence and Americans’ pocketbooks. The Republican Study Committee will push to make combatting ESG a priority after 2022." 

That means totally serious bills like the "Ensuring Sound Guidance (ESG) Act," which Breitbart (copying from the RSC's memo verbatim but just putting quotes around the funniest part) reported "would force investment advisers and ERISA plan sponsors to prioritize maximizing financial returns over 'fake ESG factors.'” Yes, factors like — to choose one company at totally random — not subjecting your Black workers to "plantation" conditions and women to situations where they may get a $250,000 settlement because the CEO allegedly flashed and propositioned them, factors like that are apparently "fake"!

Other bills would block the SEC's climate disclosure rule, "rein in proxy advisors" who do ESG ratings, and somehow "empower American investors by giving them a seat at the table and providing transparency in the corporate governance system." 

Republicans at the state level aren't waiting for their party to win back Congress. Florida Governor, Murdoch-darling, and weirdo Ron DeSantis announced this week that the state's pension-fund managers can't use "political factors when investing the state's money," and since "political factors" are whatever a politician says, apparently, that means ESG investing. But Emilie Oglesby, the State Board of Administration spokeswoman, told News4Jax "neither the SBA nor its managers use ESG factors as a way to screen or limit the available investment opportunity set.” 

Things are going much smoother in West Virginia, where yesterday state treasurer Riley Moore announced he was banning five big finance firms because they refuse to waste money on the coal industry. JPMorgan told the New York Times that “this decision is shortsighted and disconnected from the facts,” because its “business practices are not in conflict with this anti-free market law.”

Similarly, BlackRock said it “does not boycott energy companies” or "pursue divestment from sectors and industries as a policy," and Morgan Stanley said it too "does not boycott fossil fuel energy companies." 

But hey, if elected Republicans were going to let facts and reality dictate their policies, they'd get primaried by dark money interests, and wouldn't stay elected for long.

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