FIRST LOOK

Sen. Tina Smith, D-Minn., joins meteorologist and climate leader Paul Douglas, Science Museum of Minnesota President Alison Brown, and Fresh Energy for a discussion to talk about her push to include a clean energy standard in infrastructure legislation. TODAY, April 9th, at 10 a.m. CST. Register here.

World A Huge Mess, Intel Report Says: Climate change, the coronavirus pandemic, and growing inequality will exacerbate global volatility over the coming decades, a report by top U.S. intelligence officials released Thursday warns. The Global Trends report, released every four years by the National Intelligence Council, predicted the impacts of climate change – rising temperatures, intensifying extreme weather and droughts that increase food insecurity, health risks, and conflict – would accelerate the trend of massive migration, and with it, global instability. COVID, the report said, exposed the fragility of the world order, worsening “more and cascading global challenges, ranging from disease to climate change to the disruptions from new technologies and financial crises,” the authors wrote. “The international system – including the organizations, alliances, rules, and norms – is poorly set up to address the compounding global challenges facing populations.” Under the best case scenario, democracies would take advantage of the opportunity to use pandemic recovery efforts to reorient national and international priorities toward solutions that would plan and adapt for climate change and other crises. Unfortunately, said Maria Langan-Reikhof, the director of the council’s strategic futures group, “greater divisions, increasing fracturing… [are] likely to continue and probably worsen.” (New York Times $, Washington Post $, Wall Street Journal $, Reuters, The Hill)

Florida Robs (Poor) Peter to Pay Paul: Florida, which has been on the frontlines of the climate crisis in the U.S. for years, passed legislation on Thursday to spend up to $100 million a year to address flooding and sea-level rise. The funding, which sailed through the Florida House unanimously and now heads to Gov. Ron DeSantis for signature, is meant to help coastal communities develop resilience strategies. Also this week, state representatives voted along party lines to approve a measure that would redirect more than half of a $400 million trust fund that has traditionally gone to pay for affordable housing, shifting $111.7 million to sea-level rise expenses and $111.7 million to pay for sewage treatment projects. “This plan is built on a false choice,” said Rep. Omari Hardy of Palm Beach, a Democrat. “It says that the only way that we can address these issues, the only way that we can fund these vital measures, which I support, is to fund it on the backs of working-class Floridians who are struggling to find a place that they can live in and a place that they can afford.” (Miami Herald, AP)

Biden Administration Decides DAPL’s Fate: The immediate fate of the Dakota Access Pipeline is at stake on Friday, as the Biden administration decides whether to intervene to shut operations down at the North Dakota pipeline for months while it conducts an environmental review. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is expected to tell the U.S. District Court of Appeals in D.C. whether it will revoke the pipeline’s permit to operate under a Mississippi River aquifer that serves as a water source to the Standing Rock Reservation. In January, the court ruled the Trump administration had not conducted a thorough enough environmental review when it granted a 2017 easement allowing the pipeline’s construction, but reversed a lower court decision revoking its permit, allowing it to continue operations while a more thorough review took place. The Army Corps was expected to make a decision by Feb. 10, but the court granted the new administration an extension. President Biden has been under increasing pressure from Indigenous peoples, activists and some Democratic lawmakers to unilaterally cancel the project – as he did with the Keystone XL pipeline upon taking office – as well as the Line 3 pipeline project in Minnesota. Indigenous youth held a rally in Washington last week to protest the pipelines, which pose catastrophic risks to tribal land and water and violate treaty rights. (Reuters, The Hill)

PURSESTRINGS: Fossil fuels get too many government handouts. Biden wants to cut them off (Vox), Treasury puts a number on its fossil tax plan (Axios)

SHELL SHALE SHENANIGANS: Private equity sees shale escape route by building cash flow (Bloomberg), Shell threatens to leave US trade groups over climate disagreements (Houston Chronicle)

PLANNING FOR A PLAN: Biden plans to order climate risk strategy for financial assets (Bloomberg)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Racism, inequities move to the center of the climate debate (Environmental Health News), Biden urged to use clean energy benefits more to fight inequality (Reuters), how the nonprofit Green 2.0 is tackling the environmental movement's diversity problem (Yale Climate Connections)

CORONAVIRUS: Climate vulnerability should be factored into debt relief, says IMF head (Climate Home)

NOVEL TACTICS: This river is now a person (Grist)

DIVINE INTERVENTION: Congregation’s lawsuit says gas pipeline violates its religious freedom (Catholic News Service)

HOUSE: U.S. House bill seeks $8 billion for abandoned oil and gas well cleanup (Reuters)

DEPT. OF DON’T HOLD YOUR BREATH: House Republicans plan legislation to counter Biden's climate summit and Paris Agreement reentrance (Washington Examiner, Bloomberg $)

SENATE: Senator Bernie Sanders wants fossil fuel execs to testify to the budget committee (CBS)

DAILY MANCHIN: West Virginia's Manchin, flexing political muscle, leaves U.S. Senate Democrats in lurch (Reuters), Senator Joe Manchin didn’t ask to be a kingmaker—but he is one (Bloomberg $)

AMERICAN JOBS PLAN: House progressives have a list of demands (Politico), within Biden's infrastructure plan lies an agenda to address climate change (NPR), Biden’s infrastructure sales force knows its potholes and bridges (New York Times $, The Hill), EPA chief says Biden infrastructure bill will help the U.S. face climate change (NPR), Joe Biden’s climate gamble (Economist), down to the wire: Biden's green goals face a power grid reckoning (Politico)

EXECUTIVE BRANCH: NEC Deputy Director Bharat Ramamurti (Washington Post $)

NATSEC: Biden proposes $715 billion for Pentagon in first budget outline (Bloomberg $)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: White House considering nearly doubling Obama’s climate vow (Bloomberg $), in Asia, John Kerry urges bold action on climate to avoid global ‘suicide pact’ (Washington Post $, The Hill), John Kerry to push India on net zero target ahead of global meeting (Bloomberg $), Yellen tells world's big economies: Spend big, danger lurks (Reuters), Biden faces key test on EV battery trade dispute (Reuters)

OH LA LA: Japan looks to raise 2030 emissions cut target to at least 40% (Reuters, Climate Home)

TEXAS: Texas wind farm denied protection from Citi over $113 million storm bill (Wall Street Journal $), solar farms planned in Texas to test market in wake of freeze (Bloomberg $)

CITIES, STATES, & NATIONS: Navajo Nation finalizes solar plant leases on tribal land (AP), Phoenix may take a run at one of longest stretches of 90-degree heat in April (AccuWeather), Rhode Island lawmakers pass sweeping climate change bill (MassLive), Southwest Virginia group wins grant to help companies move beyond coal (Energy News Network)

CALIFORNIA: California unveils sweeping wildfire prevention plan amid record fire losses and drought (LA Times $, Sacramento Bee, The Guardian, AP)

IMPACTS: A third of Antarctic ice shelf risks collapse as our planet warms (CNN, New Scientist, The Guardian)

WILDFIRES: Citing high wildfire risk, judge halts construction of massive Tejon Ranch (CA) development (LA Times $, AP), wildfire that evacuated Pinal County (AZ) town now 20% contained (AP)

OCEANS: Shrinking sea meadows store more carbon than forests. Scientists are racing to track what’s left (Reuters), algal blooms could spew lethal toxins into the air, new study suggests (EcoWatch)

HURRICANES: Experts predict another abnormally active hurricane season in the Atlantic (Washington Post $, Miami Herald, Yale Climate Connections)

EMISSIONS: The link between economic growth and CO₂ emissions is weakening (Axios), methane has never risen this fast in the atmosphere (Earther)

RENEWABLES: With renewables on an upswing, the natural gas boom appears to be going bust (MPR), high stakes at sea in global rush for wind power (Reuters), the coast-to-coast battle over rooftop solar (InsideClimate News)

BATTERIES: The U.S. is facing a lithium-ion battery shortage as electric vehicle production ramps up (CNBC)

PULLING TEETH: Chevron shareholders to vote on climate change proposals (Reuters)

OIL AND GAS: Shell is back, baby :( (Earther)

PIPELINES: Can a pipeline firm defy a governor’s orders? Gretchen Whitmer is about to find out. (Mother Jones), Valley Creek fouled at Mariner pipeline construction site (Daily Local News, Chester County, PA)

COAL: Early closure for Vistra coal plant prompts fresh call for Illinois solar-storage transition policy (Energy Storage News), global coal use is falling but not fast enough to tackle climate change (DeSmog)

WATER: The water fight over the shrinking Colorado River (BBC)

EVs: Electric trucks 'can compete with diesel ones' (Yahoo), Volvo, SSAB plan first fossil-free steel trucks on road to carbon neutrality (Reuters)

ACTIVISM: The emerging frontiers of climate activism (Axios), scientist rallies fellow moms to save the planet: The 'most important thing' is our kids' future (People), teen activist is making climate change resources accessible to non-English speakers (Yahoo)

AGRICULTURE: The meat of the matter (Modern Farmer)

NOOOOOOOOO: Could climate change spell the end of Colombian coffee? (Euronews)

BITCOIN: China’s bitcoin mining is threatening its climate change targets, study says (CNBC), could a ‘Crypto Climate Accord’ erase cryptocurrencies’ carbon footprint? (The Verge)

FINANCE:  Carney aims for global banking climate pledge at Biden summit (Bloomberg $), banks should invest in nature to fight climate crisis, says Prince William (The Guardian), Anglo American to spin off South African coal assets. Why that matters for ESG investors. (Barron's) BlackRock closes renewable energy fund at $4.8 billion (Pensions & Investments, FT $)

GEOENGINEERING: Why a landmark experiment into dimming the sun got canceled (Grist)

GRETA: Greta Thunberg says she will not attend COP26 climate summit (The Guardian)

PUBLIC LANDS: Haaland says all sides will be heard in Utah monuments fight (Wall Street Journal $)

TREES: To fight climate change with trees, America needs more seedlings (Smithsonian Magazine)

TRASH: Made of plastic: Cleaning up Bolivia's Uru Uru lake (Reuters)

WILDLIFE: Current emissions put the world on track for biodiversity collapse (Bloomberg $)

INTERNATIONAL: Oil nations face perilous future without energy transition support (Energy Monitor), Bolsonaro oversaw a Connecticut-sized chunk of deforestation in the Amazon last year (Earther), Canada is a test of climate ambition (Bloomberg $), [Canadians’] sense of urgency around climate change is trending up (Maclean's), how an election in Greenland could affect China — and the rare-earth minerals in your cellphone (Washington Post $), threatened by climate change, Guatemalans see opportunity in migrating to U.S. (CBS), Japan's coal and gas burn spikes in December (Argus Media), Norway’s huge oil-backed wealth fund invests in an offshore wind farm (CNBC), Saudis plan major solar development in bid to cut emissions (Bloomberg $), drought in Taiwan pits chip makers against farmers (New York Times $)

• We must stop cutting China slack on climate (The Hill, Christopher Barnard op-ed)
• Biden’s infrastructure plan seems to be selling itself (Washington Post, Jennifer Rubin column $)
• Why investments in clean, renewable energy will avoid blackouts at a low cost (The Hill, Mark Jacobson op-ed)
• A national climate plan needs a Texas component (Austin-American Statesman, Rep. Gina Hinojosa op-ed)
• Let's not forget: 'Build Back Better' applies to buildings, too (The Hill, Timothy Unruh op-ed)
• Why we need all hands on deck to invent the technologies needed to beat climate change (MarketWatch, Jessika E. Trancik op-ed)

Banking Industry’s Role In Financing Fossil Fuel Projects Under Increasing Scrutiny and Opposition

Yesterday we noticed a tweet from Konstantin Kisin getting shared around by a bunch of the usual suspects in denier Twitter. Kisin disapprovingly quote-tweeted a video of a climate protest showing seven women (in suffrage movement colors) protesting Barclay’s position as the biggest financier of fossil fuels in Europe, and seventh biggest in the world, early Wednesday morning. 

The women affixed “in case of climate emergency break glass” posters on to the windows of Barclays’ London headquarters, then used chisels and hammers with messages like “for my Grandson” written on them to carefully break holes and cracks in the glass, without destroying or shattering it in a way that wound endanger anyone. Then, they sat down and waited to be arrested.  

But Kisin, a “comedian” who got famous for refusing to not be racist, was apparently triggered by this political activism and thought “behaviour like this does their cause no good whatsoever.” 

This careful and deliberate, practically OSHA-approved destruction of property, done in response to a company’s complicity in a crisis of global proportions despite its assurances – “better broken windows than broken promises” – otherwise, was apparently too far for this anti-PC “comedian.” This is the same guy who was very worried for violent insurrectionists who stormed the Capitol and killed cops getting kicked off of social media, and who called himself “a centrist with a strong libertarian bent” in a piece in the alt-right, race-science peddling Quillette defending Louis CK from mean tweets after the disgraced comedian made fun of Parkland survivors. (Surely it wasn’t because he was jealous of the fawning media attention the survivors were getting...)

Anyway, clout-chasing conservative comedian’s views aside, as R.H. Lossin wrote in The Nation last summer, “plate glass windows don’t bleed.”

This protest came amidst an otherwise… not great week for the climate-friendly image the banking industry has been trying to cultivate with various goals and promises and ambition statements. For example, one of Rebecca Leber’s last pieces as Mother Jones (before jumping over to Vox, where we look forward to more great stuff like this) was to expose that JP Morgan lobbied the Trump administration for bailout money for the oil industry with a detailed plan and “menu of ideas for the federal government to intervene on the banks’ behalf” that the bank now claims was sent in error. 

And on Tuesday, a (newly redesigned!) DeSmogBlog post described their analysis of bank directors, which found that “65% of directors from 39 banks had 940 past or current connections to industries that could be considered climate-conflicted.” 

Emily Atkin and Emily Holden ran with the findings in a piece for HEATED and Floodlight/Guardian that focuses on American banks, as “three out of every four board members at seven major US banks (77%) have current or past ties to climate-conflicted companies or organizations – from oil and gas corporations to trade groups that lobby against reducing climate pollution.” 

As if we needed a reminder, people don’t accidentally include plans to give them money in emails to the government, and that these big banks with enough money to afford not to fund fossil fuels aren’t funding dirty pipelines like Line 3 for fun, the piece notes JP Morgan Chase “tops the list for directors with climate conflicts. All of its 10 directors have current or past ties to companies or organizations contributing to the climate crisis. Wells Fargo comes in second, with 12 out of 13 directors.” 

After that is Morgan Stanely, Citi, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and TD Bank. Of those, only Goldman Sachs isn’t one of the top 12 banks financing fossil fuels in the years since the Paris agreement was signed in 2016.

Maybe if Kisin wants to actually tell some jokes, he should mine these banks’ climate pledges for material. 

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