PROGRAMMING NOTE:

Hot News will return on Monday, November 28, after the Thanksgiving holiday.

Biden-⁠Harris Administration Launches Environmental Justice Screening Tool:

Yesterday, the White House released the latest version of the Climate and Economic Justice Screening Tool intended to help direct billions of federal dollars to disadvantaged communities. “Every community, regardless of zip code, should have clean water to drink, healthy air to breathe, and protection from extreme climate events,” said CEQ Chair Brenda Mallory. The screening tool, in development for years, is intended to be used by federal agencies to ensure funds are distributed in accordance with the administration's Justice40 goal of directing 40% of climate-related spending to disadvantaged communities. The newest iteration of the screening tool does not include race — which is a greater identifyier of areas overburdened by pollution than other factors — as a factor, but does display race and age data. The administration has cautioned that including race as an explict factor would make the screening tool vulnerable to lawsuits with a conservative Supreme Court supermajority hostile to acknowledging racial inequities in American Society. “As someone who has fought for equitable access to water infrastructure across America, I’m grateful for a tool that outlines a path for federal agencies to deliver resources to those who need them most,” said Catherine Coleman Flowers, founding director of the Center for Rural Enterprise and Environmental Justice and vice chair of the White House EJ Advisory Council. (E&E News)

Safe Drinking Water At Risk Due To Railroad Company Intransigence: Safe drinking water could be threatened as railroad companies continue to refuse to provide paid sick time and other quality-of-life improvements. One of the country's biggest rail unions joined three others on Monday rejecting substantial bonuses from Management. “When you’ve got to offer $20,000 to get somebody to go to work for the railroad in Lincoln, Nebraska, you’ve got a problem. People used to stand in line there,” Dennis Pierce, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen union, told the AP. “The reason for that is the word is out that if you go to work here, you’re not going to ever see your family.” Shutdown — or even the near shutdown — of the U.S. railroad network could have catastrophic impacts on the country's drinking and wastewater systems that rely railroads to deliver chemicals like chlorine. “All of the utilities would be impacted, every single one,” Kevin Morley, manager of federal relations for the American Water Works Association, told E&E News. “The majority of that product moves by rail to a distributor, and if the distributor doesn’t get it, there’s nothing for 16,000 [publicly owned water systems] … or 50,000 community water systems.” A rail shutdown would also halt shipments of multiple fossil fuels and petrochemical products. (E&E News, AP, Axios: Fossil fuels: E&E $)

EU Proposed Price Cap On Methane Gas: The executive branch of the European Union proposed a price cap on methane gas on Tuesday with the goal of limiting the economic damage wrought by Russia's war in Ukraine. The European Commission set the price cap at €275 per megawatt-hour, well over double the current €120/mWh. The high cap, which would only be activated if strict conditions are met, raises questions over whether it will ever actually be implemented and drew derision from some nations seeking more decisive intervention. The price cap is ultimately a compromise between those countries and a small, but powerful, group of countries, including Germany, that argue any price cap would result in methane gas supplies going elsewhere and disincentivize demand reduction measures in Europe. “The mechanism is carefully designed to be effective, while not jeopardizing our security of supply, the functioning of EU energy markets and financial stability,” Kadri Simson, the EU's commissioner for energy, said in a statement. (Reuters, Bloomberg $, CNBC, Euractive, FT $, Wall Street Journal $, The Hill, Bloomberg $; Commentary: Reuters, Gabriela Baczynska Jan Strupczewski)

ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: Indigenous and Black communities find common cause for land justice (Yes Magazine)

COP27: After COP27, all signs point to world blowing past the 1.5 degrees global warming limit – here’s what we can still do about it (The Conversation), Inside the COP27 fight to get wealthy nations to pay climate reparations (Grist), Scientists warn data gaps must not block loss and damage (Climate Home), US receives stinging criticism at COP27 despite China’s growing emissions (The Guardian), How people with disabilities fought for formal recognition at COP27 (Grist), Who will pay for climate 'loss and damage'? (Reuters, explainer), Uncertainties about climate compensation fund trigger skepticism (The Hill)

FOSSIL FUELED ENERGY CRISIS: Global executives see Ukraine conflict accelerating energy transition (Reuters), Russia threatens to reduce gas exports to Europe further (Wall Street Journal $)

GOP vs. ESG: Biden eases Trump-era restrictions for financial advisers on ESG (The Hill), Idaho lawmakers working on additional ‘ESG’ legislation (AP)

IN MEMORIAM: In memory of @bpdeeznutzz, the best greentrolling account to ever grace Twitter (Gizmodo)

PUT THE FUN BETWEEN YOUR LEGS: The best electric bike for every type of rider (Bloomberg $)

NEWS YOU CAN USE: Thanksgiving conversation starters for clean-energy nerds (Canary Media)

AGENCIES: New Biden rule allows socially conscious investing by retirement plans (Reuters)

EPA: EPA reports drop in significant Clean Water Act violations (The Hill), As EPA’s region 3 administrator, adam ortiz wants the mid-Atlantic states to become climate-conscious and resilient (Inside Climate News) 

WHITE HOUSE: Top climate aide leaves the White House (E&E $), Report details how Biden can protect 30 percent of US lands and waters by 2030 without congress (Washington Post $)

TRIBES: Bison spread as Native American tribes reclaim stewardship (AP)

CITIES AND STATES: Tampa tries sidewalk solar panels as backup power for traffic lights (Utility Dive), California’s last operating nuclear plant just got a $1.1 billion lifeline (The Verge)

FERC: Dynegy manipulated MISO’s 2015/16 capacity auction, driving up Illinois prices: FERC enforcement office (Utility Dive)

IMPACTS: What climate change is already doing to children's brains (TIME), What happens when humans meddle with nature? (The Guardian), Gaza beekeepers who survived blockade struggle with unstable climate (Reuters), Decline of the Tigris spells doom for Iraqi fishermen (Context), Shipping canals risk failure as climate warms — report (E&E $)

HEAT: Extreme Heat Takes the Field (New York Times $)

DROUGHT: Drought in hawaii is fueling rare November wildfire concerns (Washington Post $), Salt, drought decimate buffaloes in Iraq’s southern marshes (AP)

WATER: How floating wetlands are helping to clean up urban waters (Yale Environment 360), Hundreds of arizona households set to be without water by end of year (Gizmodo), Public utility to pipe water to residents of ‘Gasland’ town (AP)

RENEWABLES: Western states ponder regional grid as renewables grow (E&E News), Mass. offshore wind project defends viability (E&E $)

BATTERIES: Swell raises $120M for virtual power plants to link solar and batteries (Canary Media)

BUILDINGS: Wind energy giant Ørstead to open Houston office (Houston Chronicle)

EFFICIENCY: Wisconsin program aims to boost diversity in clean energy economy (Yale Climate Connections)

LNG: ConocoPhillips agrees to buy more than a third of LNG produced per year at proposed Port Arthur project (Houston Chronicle)

OIL & GAS: Biden admin mulls new oil leasing, enacts stiffer rules (E&E $), Biden administration approves $550M for community-based clean energy (The Hill), BP declines to reveal how much ‘loophole’ saved it in windfall tax (The Guardian), Chevron snags 50-plus cng stations, builds out rng supply (Natural Gas Intel), Gas bans' next target: Your kitchen (E&E $), Gas, CO2 price surge makes nuclear attractive, says PGE CEO (Reuters), Just Stop Oil protesters guilty of criminal damage to Van Gogh frame (The Guardian), Western allies aim to agree on Russian oil price cap wednesday (Wall Street Journal $)

UTILITIES: Michigan regulators reject most of DTE’s rate increase following public pushback (Energy News Network)

GRID: The power grid faced heat waves, record demand and tight conditions in 2022. What happens next? (Utility Dive)

EVs: EVs to become cheaper in Australia after crossbench strikes deal with Labor (The Guardian)

CRYPTO: New York enacts 2-year ban on some crypto-mining operations (New York Times $)

ACTIVISM: Climate activists are on the right side of history (The Guardian)

BUSINESSES: Is Patagonia the end game for profits in a world of climate change? (CNBC)

TRAVEL: Planning your 2023 travel? Skip these places in order to save them (Grist)

FINANCE: Morgan Stanley IM launches $1 bln climate-focused private equity strategy (Reuters)

WILDLIFE: Wild turkey: Climate survivor or destined for decline? (E&E $), Expedition retraces a legendary [European] explorer’s travels through the once-pristine Everglades (Inside Climate News), Starving manatees need endangered status, greens say (E&E $)

INTERNATIONAL: Australia faces worsening extreme weather events latest BoM and CSIRO climate report finds (The Guardian), Bangladesh clean energy shift gives women little chance to shine (Context), China’s record coal output to weigh on prices amid weak demand (Bloomberg $), How China, the world’s top polluter, avoids paying for climate damage (Washington Post $), Tanzania drops murder charges against 24 Maasai land defenders (Grist), US aims to sanction Brazil deforesters, adding bite to climate fight (Reuters), Vietnam boosts coal use plan for 2030 as G7 climate offer stalls (Reuters), Why China and US disagree on forced labor in Xinjiang (Bloomberg $), Longer Australian bushfire seasons, more wild weather seen as climate warms - report (Reuters), Report offers a road map to restore the rule of law in the Brazilian Amazon (Mongabay)

• Congress – put planet over party (The Hill, Darci Vetter op-ed)
• It’s time to create an ‘After Carbon’ agenda for Africa (Context, Fatima Denton op-ed)
• GOP-controlled House: Children playing poorly in the climate change sandbox (The Hill, Gary Yohe op-ed)
• China on track to hit new clean & dirty power records in 2022 (Reuters, Gavin Maguire column)
• Charging Up: A chat with Thais Lopez Vogel, co-founder of the VoLo Foundation (Canary Media, interview)
• Today’s rate designs are defective. How can utilities better recover their fixed costs, and from whom? (Utility Dive, Kenneth Costello op-ed)
• Drops of climate finance start to fill an ocean of need (Reuters, Simon Jessop and Aidan Lewis analysis)
• These three issues stand in the way of energy permitting reform (The Hill, Xan Fishman op-ed)

The Denier Roundup is preparing for the Thanksgiving holiday.

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