Mark your calendars!

On Monday, February 28, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change will release its Working Group II report on climate adaptation and vulnerabilities. It will discuss the impacts of climate change on migration, food, water, health, and more. 

Russian Forces Advance to Ukraine’s Capital, as Biden Announces Sanctions: As the Russian invasion enters a second day, Ukrainian forces are preparing to defend the capital, Kyiv, from advancing troops. ​​Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Russians were targeting civilian areas, and announced that 137 Ukrainians had been killed and 316 wounded. According to the United Nations, more than 100,000 people have fled their homes. Supply concerns pushed global crude oil prices over $100 a barrel on Thursday, for the first time since 2014. In Europe, gas prices surged more than 40 percent as Russia supplies a third of Europe’s gas. To stop the rising prices, President Joe Biden has suggested the US may release oil from its strategic reserve. In announcing the larger sanctions yesterday, President Biden explained that they are designed to spare the Russian energy sector, including oil giants like Rosneft. “Over the last month," Jade Begay, climate justice campaign director for NDN Collective told Indian Country News, "fossil fuels have been at the center of how nations are holding leverage against one another, point and case, the Nord Stream 2 Pipeline. This should be a clear signal to our leaders that we need a Just Transition & Green New Deal now, so that we are liberated from this toxic dependency on oil [and] gas.” (The Hill, Axios, CNN, NPR, Indian Country Today, Reuters, Grist. Sanctions: Politico, Bloomberg, Axios.  Commentary: Reuters, Neil Unmack breakingviews column; Guardian, Fiona Harvey explainer; Bloomberg, Gernot Wagner column $)  

Renewables Offer a Solution: Amidst the European market crash, the European Renewable Energy Index rose more than nine percent, in anticipation of an accelerated transition to renewables and greater energy security. Next week, the European Commission is expected to announce a strategy to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas imports, calling for a 40 percent reduction in fossil fuel use by 2030 and speed permitting for renewable energy projects. “We are doubling down on renewables. This will increase Europe’s strategic independence on energy,” explained European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Meanwhile in the United States, the largest auction of offshore wind sites off the shores of New Jersey and New York saw a record bid of $3.3 billion as of Thursday evening and bidding continues today. (EU: Bloomberg $, Washington Post $, ABC News, The Independent, CNBC, MIT Tech Review, Axios, E&E News $. Offshore wind: AP, Reuters. Commentary: The Conversation, Susan Rimmer & Ellie Martus op-ed)

Key SCOTUS Oral Argument on Monday: The Supreme Court will hear oral argument on Monday in the case of West Virginia v. EPA. A coalition of 19 Republican-led states and coal industry interests contend that EPA's authority should be limited under the Clean Air Act to regulate carbon emissions from the power sector. The decision by the conservative-leaning court to consider an argument about a hypothetical regulation that EPA has not even proposed is an ominous sign according to onlookers. “It’s unusual for the [S]upreme [C]ourt to hear a case where there is no active rule to challenge,” explained Richard Revesz, an environmental law professor at the New York University School of Law. “In normal times, when the court wasn’t so skeptical of regulation, this case would’ve been dismissed. It would have . . . pernicious consequences if it were allowed because it could severely restrict agencies’ ability to regulate and these power stations are such big emitters.” A favorable Supreme Court decision could significantly undermine the authority of the Biden administration—and future administrations—to limit greenhouse gas emissions and abate an intensifying climate crisis. Notably, the oral argument falls on the same day as the release of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change Working Group II report on adaptation and impacts on the world. (Reuters, Guardian, Independent, ClimateWire $, Washington Post $)

ORIGINAL ANALYSIS: Fossil Fuel Profits Surged In 2021 (BailoutWatch) 

FED NOMINATIONS: Senate Panel To Try Again Next Week To Advance Biden's Fed Nominees (Reuters) 

STRANDED ASSETS: Governments Should Not Foot the Bill for Stranded Assets (FT) 

GREEN (AND NOT SO GREEN) INVESTING: ESG Litigation Over Social Issues Is Poised to Rise (Bloomberg), Green Investing: The Risk of a New Mis-Selling Scandal (FT)

MISINFORMATION: John Kerry fears Russia-Ukraine war will distract from climate change (Fox News), Fox is using the Ukrainian crisis to suggest the Biden administration’s climate policies emboldened Putin (Media Matters)

UKRAINE: A Louisiana LNG surge amid Russia-Ukraine fight? Only under these conditions, experts say (The Advocate)

IPCC: US seeks to remove ‘losses and damages’ from scientific report on climate impacts (Climate Home)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Bahamas will work to reduce impact of climate change but needs help - PM (Reuters)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Hawaii Circuit Court judge rules against throwing out suit against oil corporations (Honolulu Star Advertiser)

FOSSIL VOLATILITY: Oil prices are another headache for Biden—who can’t do much about it (Wall Street Journal $)

AGENCIES: White House science office to hold first event on countering climate change denial and delay (Washington Post $)

EPA: EPA to eye Hawaii fuel tank operations after water tainted (AP)

SOTU: Climate groups launch pressure campaign aimed at Biden ahead of State of the Union (CNN, The Hill) 

NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Did a federal court just reveal Biden's Supreme Court nominee? (CNN)

LABOR: A top labor official joins Greenpeace USA. (New York Times $) 

CITIES AND STATES: Officials rejected an offer to continue air monitoring at a Greeley school where a spike in toxic chemicals was detected (Colorado Public Radio), Georgians want the state to take a stand on climate change (Axios)

CALIFORNIA: California cap-and-trade auction fails to sell out (Bloomberg $, Capital and Main)

IMPACTS: Climate change will affect New Hampshire's maple industry (WMUR), Alaska worries for its salmon run as climate change warms Arctic waters (Reuters)

DROUGHT: As drought persists, minimal water deliveries announced for the Central Valley Project (LA Times $)

WILDFIRES: New Jersey wildfire season is back, and getting longer thanks to climate change (Bergen County Record)

NUCLEAR: Feds rescind license extension for Florida nuclear plant (AP), Feds walk back plans for nuclear reactors to run 80 years (ClimateWire $)

LNG: How a Tacoma gas facility started a fight over climate change, sovereignty and human rights (High Country News)

PLASTICS: Can the tide of plastic pollution be turned? (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Manufacturers lobby to weaken UN global plastics treaty proposal (FT $)

MUSK: SEC probes trading by Elon Musk and brother in wake of Tesla CEO’s sales (Wall Street Journal $)

UTILITIES: Investor-owned utilities underestimate potential costs of carbon, climate change, Deloitte finds (Utility Dive)

LAND: Using land to tackle climate change could have ‘adverse impacts’ on global hunger (Carbon Brief) 

INSIDE AFRICA: These African heritage sites are under threat from rising seas, but there's still time to save them (CNN) 

CRITTERS: In Antarctica, does a burgeoning krill fishery threaten wildlife? (Reuters), Capybaras, marsh deer, anteaters flee Argentina wildfires; many don't escape (Reuters)

INTERNATIONAL: Brazil mudslides: Climate change turns favelas into disasters waiting to happen (Washington Post $)

AUSTRALIA: Greens unveil $19bn plan to subsidize coal workers to transition away from fossil fuel jobs (The Guardian)

SOME LEVITY, WE NEED IT: Freya the walrus has been spotted in Denmark after Northumberland visit (ITV)

• Support in Michigan for electric vehicles (Holland Sentinel, Richard Killmer column)
• The US Military Has Long Stood in the Way of Climate Change Action (Jacobin, Michael Franczak op-ed)
• Can Germany function without Vladimir Putin’s gas? (The Guardian, Kate Connolly analysis)
• Will the fight for hegemony survive climate change? (The Nation, Alfred McCoy analysis)
• Corporations are more likely to create a better world than governments (Fortune, Alex Veytsel op-ed)
• Democrats Used to be able to get things done. What happened? (New York Times, Michael Kazin op-ed $)
• Americans want to fight climate change with nature (The Hill, Quill Robinson op-ed)
• Wealthy countries still haven’t met their $100 billion pledge to help poor countries face climate change, and the risks are rising (The Conversation, Rishikesh Ram Bhandary op-ed)
• John Kerry’s Ukraine emissions (Wall Street Journal, editorial $)
• Biden’s war on fossil fuels has strengthened Putin and weakened America (Washington Post, Marc A. Thiessen column $)

Fossil Fueled Authoritarian Invades Ukraine, Fossil Fuel Apologists Blame Greta and Biden

Russia invaded Ukraine yesterday, because President Biden supports transgender rights, canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, and like all world leaders, was bent to the incredible power of international energy and climate overlord Greta Thunberg. 

That’s the view from denierland, and we honestly wish we were joking or exaggerating or otherwise misrepresenting the online reactions from climate and general rightwing “experts”

So here’s the roundup of reactions from crazytown: 

No quicker than you can say “moment of uncertainty ripe for disinformation,” Tucker Carlson (who’s been defending Putin) had Marc Morano on his show to –what else – blame Biden and climate concern for the Russian invasion. 

Matt Walsh, a comedian of sorts who works at Ben Shaprio’s fracker-funded propaganda shop and has written a whole “children’s book” attacking trans people, tweeted that he was “so glad that the west (sic) gave up on energy independence because Greta Thunberg yelled at us.” This is of course exactly backwards. If Greta’s calls for replacing fossil fuels with renewables were heeded, then countries would already be providing clean energy for themselves without needing to rely on Russia’s fossil fuels. 

And despite what you may expect, Walsh was hardly the only one attributing Putin’s aggression to Greta Thunberg, as though that makes any sense at all. 

Similarly nonsensical is tobacco-shill turned fossil fool Steve Milloy, who claimed Putin’s invasion is just like COVID and climate mandates, also quote-tweeted a story about Ukrainian people in traffic leaving Kyiv, with the comment “imagine you were in this and driving an EV”. As though it would be better to be beholden on the fossil fuels imported from Russia while Russia invades your country, than it would be to merely be reliant on the electricity generated by power plants running on Russian fuels. 

While we’re imagining though, imagine having an electric car and clean energy grid to power it, so you’re not reliant on Russian fossil fuels for your car or electricity!

Similarly wrong yet Right was Dan Crenshaw, Texan Republican who has received $689,000 from the oil and gas industry for his campaigns for one of the most obviously gerrymandered districts in the country. He suggested that the Keystone XL pipeline could have replaced the fossil fuels we import from Russia, as though that pipeline was for US consumption (and not the global market it’s already reaching anyway). “Relying on Russian oil is a choice.” he added, “And it’s a stupid one.” 

And he’s right! It’d be infinitely smarter to not rely on oil at all! 

(But we somehow doubt that’s what he meant.)  

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