New York Becomes First State To Stop Methane Gas In New Buildings: Starting in 2026, new buildings seven stories and shorter in New York State will not be allowed to use include appliances powered by methane gas or other fossil fuels. Larger buildings will be included under the legislation beginning in 2029. “Changing the ways we make and use energy to decrease our reliance on fossil fuels will help ensure a healthier environment for us and our children,” New York State Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie told The Hill. The law does have exceptions for large commercial and industrial buildings like stores, hospitals, laundromats, and restaurants - but will still have a big impact on climate emissions. Buildings are responsible for about a third of all climate pollution from New York State. New York State follows the lead of Berkeley, California, which become the first US city to stop methane gas in new buildings in 2019. (AP, Reuters, CNN, Gizmodo, The Hill, Canary Media)

Electric Vehicles (EVs) Are Improving Air Quality, But Still Mostly For The Wealthy: Research led by UC-Berkeley finds disadvantaged communities received just 7 percent of California’s EV incentives between 2010 and 2021, and saw smaller reductions in roadway-related pollution - or in some cases even more roadway pollution - compared to more affluent communities. Wealthier Californians have enjoyed progressively cleaner air over the decade that was studied while disadvantaged communities felt their air quality worsen, even as EVs were being adopted across the state. “Emissions may decrease in some locations and increase in others, with implications for equity,” wrote the study authors, who also warned that if the current distribution of EV rebates continues, these inequities will remain. In 2016, California put an income cap on its EV rebate program, but the researchers found the measure had little impact on the equitable distribution of EV incentives.(The Hill, NewScientist $, Bloomberg $)

United Auto Workers (UAW) Won’t Back Biden, Citing EVs: The influential union wants Biden to push more forcefully for better wages and benefits at electric vehicle facilities. General Motors employees who work at a battery facility in Ohio will make about half of what they previously made at a nearby GM plant before it shuttered in 2019, for example. “The EV transition is at serious risk of becoming a race to the bottom,” UAW President Shawn Fain wrote in a memo sent to UAW members. The UAW endorsed Biden in the 2020 race, and has already ruled out backing Trump, describing another Trump term as “a disaster.” Biden has signed onto policies that will quickly electrify all new cars and trucks in the US, including EPA regulations that could push two-thirds of all new cars sold in the US to be electric by 2032.  (New York Times $, CNN, E&E $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Unchecked poultry farming in North Carolina violates civil rights, residents say (Civil Eats), New Mexico delegates renew push for broader Chaco protection (AP), Brazil’s president returns 800 square miles of Indigenous land to its original caretakers (Grist), EPA mobilizes to protect tribal water quality (E&E $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) INJUSTICE: Biden administration proposes water quality standard for tribes (The Hill), Biden’s renewable energy goals blow up against a painful WWII legacy (Washington Post $), How changing the United Nations will help Indigenous peoples and the world (Grist)

COP28: Fossils or not? Nations split on how to meet climate goals (AP), Oil executive who heads U.N. climate talks hints at his approach (New York Times $), COP28 president says fossil fuels still have a role to play, prompting concerns about climate summit’s goals (CNN) 

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Federal agency failed to weigh possible environmental impacts of SpaceX rocket launch, lawsuit claims (Texas Tribune)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: India and China push “multiple energy pathways” not fossil end date in G20 talks (Climate Home), Colombia's Petro urges Spain to lead EU on climate change (ABC), Exclusive: US climate envoy Kerry says China has invited him for talks (Reuters)

WHITE HOUSE:Will Biden’s climate rule have a toxic loophole? (Politico)

GOP: Biodiversity beats climate when it comes to swaying Republicans (Bloomberg $), How Republicans learned to stop worrying and love green jobs (TIME)

THE HILL: Four ways Biden is boosting fossil fuels — and drawing heat for it (The Hill)

VPOTUS: Climate crisis poses an existential threat' VP Harris says as US teams with South Korea on space projects (Space.com)

IMPACTS: Preliminary report of West Reading candy factory explosion investigation: NTSB (CBS), Severe flooding in Italy kills 2; drought persists (AP), Floods and landslides kill more than 120 in Rwanda (New York Times $), ‘A new spike’ in global temperatures in the forecast (New York Times $)

WATER: The water brokers (Grist)

CLIMATE BOTTLENECKS: Bottlenecks (The New Yorker $)

SOLAR: Senate set for bipartisan rebuke of Biden on solar tariffs (The Hill), Will Saudi Arabia ever make good on its solar ambitions? (Energy Monitor)

FOOD: Women advocates from Puerto Rico and US Virgin Islands talk food in­de­pen­dence (NY1)

WIND: NJ GOP seeks wind projects halt to see if whales benefit (AP)

GRID: Texas power demand seen breaking summer record in grid test (Bloomberg $)

FERC: State regulators, others urge FERC to reject PJM plan to delay upcoming capacity auctions (Utility Dive)

H2: Going green: Nel Hydrogen to build in Michigan, work with GM (AP)

AVIATION: Ultra-rich private jet travel has soared since the pandemic – and emissions followed (Energy Monitor)

EVs: Is this the beginning of the end for gasoline?  (Yale Climate Connections), New etiquette developing for charging electric vehicles (CBS News)

KELP: The most mysterious forests on Earth are underwater (Vox)

FINANCE: Fed rate hikes, recession fears and political backlash leave ESG investors at a crossroads (The Conversation)

HYDRO: Energy company aims to build $2.1B, 858-MW pumped storage project in Pennsylvania (Utility Dive)

ACTIVISM: Climate protesters rework Spice Girls song to disrupt Barclays AGM (The Guardian), Climate change protest: a single radical gets more media coverage than thousands of marchers (The Conversation)

GEOENGINEERING: See how a quick-fix climate solution could also trigger war (Washington Post $)

STEE-RIKE!: Study suggests climate change is throwing major league curveballs (Boise State Public Radio)

CRYPTO: Biden wants to hit power-hungry crypto miners with a big tax bill (Gizmodo)

SWIPE RIGHT: Could this new app help people become more climate literate? (Forbes)

INTERNATIONAL: EU vows to stick to green goals despite geopolitical challenges (Bloomberg $), Pressure builds on Council of Europe to put right to healthy environment in law (Climate Home), Germany promises €2bn to global Green Climate Fund (Climate Home), Colombia’s Petro urges Spain to lead EU on climate change (AP), Priest, scientist on trial in Germany over climate protest (AP), 82 per cent of Indians are alarmed or concerned about global warming (Times of India)

• Weather whiplash is the new normal, but it offers ways to capture water for California (Fresno Bee, Ann Hayden and Sarah Woolf)

• A torrid summer risks stalling Asia’s climate goals (Bloomberg, David Fickling $)

• The ski industry faces a slippery slope in climate crisis (Boulder Daily Camera, Natasha Marcoux)

• How a misreading of the Bible fuels many Americans’ apathy about climate change (LA Times, Bart D. Ehrman $)

• Take care before enlisting the oceans in the climate fight (Bloomberg, Lara Williams $)

Are AI Buzzwords A Climate "Solution"? A Denier Thinks So, For Some Strange Reason! 

It's been a little while since we've talked about RealClearEnergy, but that doesn't mean they've slowed down with the disinformation. 

For example, Jonathan Lesser continued his Manhattan Institute-backed anti-EV crusade on Monday with a piece calling Biden's clean car move "a new low." That trainwreck of an article followed another recent piece that made the obviously ridiculous argument that climate pollution (methane gas) is somehow a climate solution. 

But what caught our eye was a column on Monday by Duggan Flanakin of CFACT, the right-wing lobby shop that employs the 'climate lockdown' conspiracist Marc Morano and is one of the dark money outfits pushing anti-offshore wind disinformation. 

Oddly, instead of his usual disinformation attacking climate solutions, Flanakin is now apparently praising a "solution." Specifically, he lauds Tinia Group, a company which is apparently raising money to use AI and the blockchain to send data from individual solar panels to solar energy producers and consumers. Flanakin's column reads like a press release; in fact, it's clearly just a rewritten version of a press release the company put out, with key phrases barely changed. 

One of the few changes Flanakin made is still obvious, with the strikethrough formatting left over where cuts should have been made: "The Tinia platform uses artificial intelligence ('A.I.') algorithms to predict energy production from each solar cell panel in real-time, while the blockchain technology provides a secure and transparent way to track energy transactions." 

Interestingly, the other place where strikethroughs are still left is where Flanakin quotes what Tinia and its co-founder Radu Puchiu call its "solution:" the system of basically replacing grid-load-balancing utilities with the blockchain for users to buy and sell each other solar power directly. After the first use of the word, in which Flanakin is quoting Puchiu calling this system a "solution," subsequent references have the quotes visibly struck, like this: “solution”. 

So maybe Duggan Flanakin wasn't just shilling for Tinia and was actually attempting to be sarcastic about Tinia's "solution," but the RealClear editors just didn't get the joke since they're so used to unquestioningly promoting energy company press releases. 

Or maybe Duggan's just enjoying his easy job at CFACT a little too much. His first RealClear piece, for example, mixed the metaphors of the Hookah-smoking caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland with Puff, the Magic Dragon. An April column claimed "Europeans may be rejecting the EV kool-aid," but that metaphor was about a racist mass murder and not the LSD-laced electric kool-aid that we suspected Flanakin may have over-indulged in when he wrote his bizarre ChatGPT and EV take in February. 

Either way, we'll hold off on endorsing any company claiming that blockchain and AI and other crypto buzzwords are a climate "solution" and not just the source of more pollution!

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