FIRST LOOK: 

Manchin reverses course, sings a new tune on climate reconciliation package. Yesterday afternoon, Senators Schumer and Manchin unveiled a revenue and spending deal dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 that includes $369 billion for climate and energy programs. The legislation, if passed, could cut climate pollution by around 40 percent by 2030 and would be the biggest federal investment in clean energy ever made in the U.S. The tax credits and incentives in the bill cover wind and solar power, “clean” hydrogen, direct air capture, new and used clean cars, including electric vehicles, and the domestic production of critical minerals needed for batteries and other clean technologies. As a concession to Manchin, the bill would also require the Department of the Interior to reinstate oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico. The spending would be covered by changes to tax law that would raise $739 billion over the next decade. The next step will be for the Senate Parliamentarian to assess whether the proposal meets the strict Senate budget rules that govern the budget reconciliation process, and then head to a Senate vote where just a simple majority is needed to pass. The deal still faces multiple hurdles before it can make it to the President’s desk, including having to pass both chambers of Congress, where any Democrat could sideline or delay passage. (ABC News, NPR, Axios, Guardian, CNBC, The Independent, New York Times $, Washington Post $, Wall Street Journal $, E&E $, Bloomberg $, AP, BBC)

Leaked documents show Florida’s largest utility funded far-right news website to smear political opponents. The documents show how Florida Power and Light (FPL) funneled money to a “news” website that promptly published pieces defending the utility’s policy positions and attacking its critics.The leaked papers, reviewed by the Orlando Sentinel and Miami Herald,  also reveal a how the editor of the fake news outlet - called the Capitolist - created a series of shell companies controlled by FPL consultants and pre-screened articles for FPL staff before publishing. “I find this to be horrifying and undemocratic,” Gianna Trocino Bonner, a former chief legislative aide with a political opponent of FPL told the Guardian. “It’s unfortunate that our process allows for something like this to exist without accountability.” Read more in our Denier Roundup below! (The Guardian, USA Today, Gizmodo, Orlando Sentinel, Sun Sentinel, Anchorage Daily News)

Shell posts record profits as gas prices continue to surge. Shell and TotalEnergies posted yet another record profit in their second quarter earnings as fallout from the war on Ukraine continues to hurt people and benefit companies. The disruption to global oil and gas flows combined with resurgent consumer demand, as COVID-19 lockdowns eased, pushed fossil fuel prices to record highs in the last quarter, sending profits for European oil producers Shell and TotalEnergies soaring into the tens of billions. The companies are using these windfalls to buy back stock shares for their investors while simultaneously rejecting calls for tax increases. Other oil companies, including Exxon and Chevron are due to announce results later this week. (New York Times $, The Independent, Reuters, FT $, Bloomberg $, CNBC)

Biden announces plan to connect lower-income homes with solar energy. The plan includes programs that will expand access to community solar in subsidized housing areas and households that receive federal assistance to pay utility bills. While a lot of homeowners say they want solar power, just 6 percent have solar installed, as upfront cost remains a big barrier, especially for lower-income households. Just 14 percent of the solar-equipped households in the US had annual incomes less than $50,000, according to the Department of Energy and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. The administration says expanding community solar to these homes will save as many as 4.5 million families an average of 10% per year on electricity.  (The Verge, The Hill, Business Insider, Washington Times)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Indigenous leaders say Africa’s conservation plan puts lives at risk (Grist)

DISINFO: Climate disinformation leaves lasting mark as world heats (AP)

SCOTUS: One climate rule won't provoke the Supreme Court (E&E $)

AGENCIES: Energy Department gives major loan to facility for processing electric vehicle materials (The Hill)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden administration launches website to help people cope with extreme heat (TIME), The Biden administration launched a climate change website. Yay? (Mic), A plan to lower gas prices—and (maybe) help the climate (The Atlantic)

THE HILL: Sen. Wyden tees up bill to protect grasslands amid drought, wildfires (Washington Post $), Senate approves $280 billion bill to boost U.S. chipmaking, technology (Wall Street Journal $)

CITIES AND STATES: North Carolina's Cooper blames climate change for need to change flood policy for state buildings (Washington Examiner), Texas is skirting federal environmental law to push for highway expansion (Grist), In Maine, heat pumps are proving themselves even against extreme cold (Energy News Network), New York Seeking a Third Offshore Wind Solicitation (WBNF)

IMPACTS: They were married at their midpines home. They watched the Oak Fire burn it to the ground on the evening news (San Francisco Chronicle), Climate change exposes growing gap between weather we've planned for – and what's coming (USA Today), Fires, floods and drought: scenes of extreme weather from space (Washington Post $), Washington's Gov. Inslee on fighting climate change amid heatwave, wildfire threats (MSNBC)

VOLCANOES: Climate change could cause heavier rainfall on volcanoes (New Scientist)

HEAT: Northwest grapples with days of extreme heat, a year after deadly event (Washington Post $), Searing heat in the Pacific Northwest and the Southeast to continue through the week (CNN), Heat wave in the Pacific Northwest brings record temperatures (NBC News)

WILDFIRES:Wildfires in the EU have nearly quadrupled the 15-year average (CNN), Fires ravage drought-stricken West (CBS News), Climate change exposes growing gap between weather we've planned for – and what's coming (USA Today)

RENEWABLES: Renewables industry marks slowest quarter since 2019 with installations down 55% (Utility Dive)

OIL & GAS: Energy prices in Europe surge after Russia slashes gas flows (Wall Street Journal $), Europe energy prices keep soaring as Russia tightens supply (Bloomberg $), Putin’s new gas squeeze condemns Europe to recession and a hard winter of rationing (CNBC)

HYDROGEN: Nuclear option? What's next for 'clean' hydrogen (E&E $)

ACTIVISM: Climate activists’ plot to make liberal politicians squirm (E&E $)

MEOW: Smoke from California wildfires puts cats at risk of developing deadly blood clots (LA Times $)

DRAKE Does Drake understand climate change? (The Cut), Drake’s private jet shows the climate impact of the influencer economy (Grist)

NASA: Fact check: NASA says modern climate change caused by human activity, not solar orbital cycles (USA Today)

RIP: Environmental scientist James Lovelock, whose Gaia theory sees the Earth imperiled by human activity, has died at 103 (AP), James Lovelock, who theorized that Earth is a living organism, dies at 103 (NPR)

DESANTIS: DeSantis says Florida won’t invest in ‘woke’ corporations (Miami Herald), Gov. DeSantis takes aim at ‘ideological’ investing, wants ESG prohibitions (News4JAX), Ron DeSantis takes aim at ‘woke CEOs’ (Bloomberg $)

BUILDINGS: New revolution in the construction industry? Skyscrapers made of wood (NBC News)

METHANE: Hidden menace: massive methane leaks speed up climate change (AP)

WILDLIFE: Climate change and vanishing islands threaten brown pelicans (AP)

INTERNATIONAL: The God of São Félix (Washington Post $), African nations talk climate ahead of major UN meeting (AP), UK, Germany approves $180 billion funding to accelerate energy shift (Bloomberg $), Oil block auction in DRC punctures Africa's climate goals (AP)

• Republicans shouldn’t get a pass on climate (The Nation, Mark Hertsgaard)

• What Biden should do about climate change (The Week, Harold Maass)

• Local zoning control is CT’s best tool for addressing climate change (CT Mirror, Alexis Harrison)

• ‘Fossil-flation’ fuels the climate crisis and costs Americans money: Electrification is the answer (The Hill, ARI MATUSIAK)

• Looking for someone to blame for the extreme heat? Try Wall Street (The Guardian, Alec Connon)

• Hardly anyone talks about how fracking was an extraordinary boondoggle (New York Times, David Wallace-Wells $)

• Export ban would mean higher gas prices for Americans (Wall Street Journal, Kyle Isakower $)

• This Mining Law Is 150 Years Old. We Really Need to Modernize It. (New York Times, Martin Heinrich and Chris Wood $)

Florida Utility Secretly Took Over Locals News Page, Ran Spoiler 'Ghost' Candidates, And More

Last week we pointed out Fox dot com hired two new disinfo spreaders, and it seems like they want to prove us right. Thomas Catenacci, for example, learned how to be a hack at the Koch-y Daily Caller, and proved that's what he's at Fox for by calling on career disinfo spreader Myron Ebell and the debunked Patrick Anderson to criticize electric vehicles as "experts." 

Then, Haris Alic, of the cult-y Washington Times and racist Breitbart, published a piece claiming climate activists keep getting doomsday deadlines wrong, a narrative Bjorn Lomborg copied from, again, Myron Ebell, who in turn got the schtick from Obama Birther/SandyHook Truther/Covid and climate conspiracy theorist Tony Heller. 

hat's not even the most egregious example of the fake news shenanigans we saw this week. That prize goes to Florida Power and Light (“FPL”) CEO Eric Silagy and the "Matrix" consulting group they funded. Those political consultants bribed a "ghost" candidate to unseat a climate champ after Silagy told them to "make his life a living hell" because he proposed a bill to allow landlords to sell solar power direct to renters, cutting FPL out. And they did, through both traditional mudslinging and extreme measures like paying someone with the same last name as the then-sitting state senator Jose Javier Rodriguez $45,000 to run against him, netting 6,000 votes in a race that Rodriguez ended up losing by less than 40 votes. 

These details and more, are in an explosive report from Floodlight, the Orlando Sentinel, and the Miami Herald, based on documents that were leaked to press after Birmingham-based Matrix imploded when Jeff Pitts, then-CEO, spun off his own new group, with many of Matrix's employees and clients. Apparently, Matrix founder Joe Perkins wasn't quick enough to hand over the reins to Pitts and supposedly had no knowledge of the shell games and front groups Pitts was using. In the ensuing litigation, someone leaked a bunch of Matrix documents. 

hady aspects of the work involved the takeover of The Capitolist, a small digital news outlet in Tallahassee that Miami Herald's Sarah Blaskey reported FPL used "as part of an elaborate, off-the-books political strategy to advocate for rate hikes, agitate for legislative favors, slam political opponents and eliminate anything — even home solar panels — that the publicly-traded utility worried might undermine its near monopoly on selling power in the Sunshine State." 

For example, based on the leaked emails, Blaskey reported: 

Just three days before the 2018 election, the vice president of state legislative affairs at FPL, Daniel Martell, ordered a hit piece about the Democratic candidate for governor, Andrew Gillum, who was running neck and neck with Ron DeSantis. In a text to the consultants, the FPL executive said he wanted a story that Gillum had neglected his mayoral responsibilities, proposing the following narrative: 'Since the primary xxx shootings have happened in Tallahassee.' 

Less than three hours later, the Capitolist had a story up.

FPL said "jump" and the Capitolist said "is this high enough?" 

Though perhaps a different metaphor is in order, because Matrix is plenty happy taking the lowest road. As the Floodlight team reported, when South Miami mayor Phillip Stoddard "helped pass an ordinance in 2017 mandating rooftop solar panels on new construction, a network of 10 FPL-aligned operatives mobilized to ensure his ouster." 

And it wasn't by honest-to-goodness politicking, either! Per Floodlight: 

Along with a private investigator, the group delved into Stoddard’s past for episodes to weaponize against him, such as a South Miami commissioner’s claim on Facebook that Stoddard had forcibly kissed her. Documents show Matrix operatives arranged for the commissioner to record a robocall in which she called Stoddard “a creep”. Pitts at the time forwarded a draft of the script to two FPL executives. Newman in his memo also took credit for a Miami Herald story about the allegation.

Meanwhile, Matrix-led non-profits funded a blizzard of ads against Stoddard, accusing him of using public money for 'vendettas' and placing him alongside infamous sex offenders Bill Cosby and Harvey Weinstein.

The plan ultimately failed, and Stoddard was re-elected. He has denied the allegations.

This wasn't the first time Matrix had run that playbook, and worse. Floodlight noted that Matrix's "Perkins and Pitts worked together for more than 25 years, expanding the firm into a national operation with dozens of clients in myriad industries. But wherever the pair went, indictments often followed." 

But "from the beginning, Matrix showed no aversion to unsavory political tactics. In 1998, the firm distributed copies of a video in which a sex worker falsely alleged she had been sexually assaulted by a candidate for lieutenant governor. The sex worker later testified the allegations were untrue, and that she had been paid by a Birmingham businessman to make them." 

South Miami mayor Phillip Stoddard, also attacked by Matrix with weaponized sexual assault allegations, told Floodlight “an organization that acts like a mafia should be treated like one."

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