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Sinema OKs Climate Deal, Passage Expected Next Week: Senator Kyrsten Sinema agreed to move ahead on the $369 billion Inflation Reduction Act, paving the way for passage of a long-awaited package of climate and clean energy investments. The Arizona Democrat announced Thursday night that she and Democratic leaders had struck a deal to change some of the pay-fors in the bill, which under Senate reconciliation rules can pass with just 50 votes but may only deal with issues of taxing and spending. Changes to the tax provisions appear to have increased the revenue side of the bill’s ledger: It removes the language narrowing the so-called carried interest loophole, which impacts hedge fund managers and private equity and was to have raised $14 billion, and accelerated depreciation of investments, which would have brought in $40 billion. Instead, the senators agreed to levy a new excise tax on stock buybacks, which some analysis projected would net between $73 billion and $125 billion. The new deal also adds $5 billion in drought resiliency provisions. Provided there aren’t any major curveballs from the Senate parliamentarian from the process, known as the Byrd Bath, to determine if all the included provisions meet the rules under reconciliation, the final Senate vote would take place late Monday or early Tuesday. Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said he plans to begin procedural votes on Saturday, which will be followed by Monday’s “voterama” where senators from both parties will put forward dozens of poison-pill messaging amendments, none of which is likely to end up in the final legislation. The House is on recess, but is expected to return sometime before the Affordable Care Act subsidies that are extended in the bill expire on August 17. Independent studies peg the IRA’s emissions reductions at 40% or more from 2005 levels by the end of this decade, putting the U.S. within reach of its Paris climate targets. Analyses also predict the legislation would create between 1.5 and 9 million jobs, prevent thousands of premature deaths and nearly half a million lost workdays by mid-century, and save households hundreds of dollars per year on utility bills. (Sinema: Washington Post, Sinema $, CNN, New York Times $, NPR, Politico, USA Today, NBC News, The Guardian, AP, The Hill, Bloomberg $, Reuters, E&E $; Analyses: Energy Innovation, Rhodium, the REPEAT Project, Blue-Green Alliance, Resources for the Future, Moody’s Analytics, BailoutWatch)

World’s Top Coal Firm Rakes in Cash as Energy Bills Soar: Glencore, the world’s largest coal shipper, is cashing in on the global energy crisis to the tune of nearly $9 billion in the first six months of 2022, and plans to pay out more than half – $4.45 billion – to shareholders in dividends and buybacks. The Switzerland-based trader on Tuesday reported a first half earnings increase of 877% over the same period last year. Glencore produces more than 100 million tonnes a year of thermal coal at its mines in Australia, Colombia, and South Africa. And unlike most of its direct competitors who have shifted some mining business to commodities such as iron ore or copper, which have both fallen significantly this year, Glencore spurned investor pressure to move away from the dirtiest source of fuel. It is now reaping the benefits as countries across Europe and around the world delayed or scrapped plans to wind down coal power generation as Russia’s war in Ukraine has limited the global gas supply, tripling the price of coal. Similarly, the gas industry is raking in record earnings. While the record payouts are legal, critics say the fossil fuel industry is essentially profiteering off war and climate disaster, especially as consumers are being forced to sharply cut their energy consumption yet see their utility bills spike. On Tuesday, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres accused the industry of “grotesque greed” and urged leaders to impose a windfall tax that would be used to help people struggling to pay their energy bills. “It is immoral for oil and gas companies to be making record profits from this energy crisis on the backs of the poorest people and communities, at a massive cost to the climate,” Guterres said. “I urge all governments to tax these excessive profits, and use the funds to support the most vulnerable people through these difficult times.” (Quartz, Reuters, FT, Mining.com, Wall Street Journal $Wall Street Journal $)

Coordinated State GOP Anti-Climate Campaign Costs Consumers: Republican state treasurers are coordinating with each other and conservative groups to execute a well-funded campaign to block climate policies at the state and federal level, a New York Times investigation Friday revealed. The group meets regularly to exchange tactics and talking points, taking cues from one another on implementing policies that protect fossil fuel interests in their states against any efforts to promote a clean energy transition. Most recently, West Virginia Treasurer Riley Moore announced that major banks, including Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and Wells Fargo would be barred from doing business in the state, not because they are boycotting the fossil fuel industry – far from it! – but because their long-term strategies acknowledge that it makes economic sense to wind down investments in fossil fuels. Kentucky, Tennessee, and Oklahoma join Texas and West Virginia in passing bills that bar state investments in businesses that are divesting from fossil fuels; the treasurers of Louisiana and Arkansas joined West Virginia in pulling hundreds of millions of investments out of BlackRock; while Utah and Idaho’s treasurers are pressuring the private sector to abandon “woke” practices. They have also coordinated attacks on Biden administration nominees who have said they planned to use their offices to reduce emissions, forcing Office of the Comptroller of the Currency nominee Saule Omarova and Fed board nominee Sarah Bloom Raskin to withdraw from their appointments. The effort is backed by a Kansas-based nonprofit, State Financial Officers Foundation, with ties to conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, both of which have longstanding associations with the denial-funding oil billionaire Koch brothers. It also has links to Leonard Leo, the longtime vice president of the Federalist Society who is credited with spearheading a decades-long effort to stack federal courts with conservative judges. The result of their efforts will cost households directly, slowing the market’s natural trajectory toward cheaper and more plentiful renewable energy, while keeping in place global warming-causing fossil fuels whose emissions will contribute to worsening climate impacts, with a hefty price tag from extreme weather damage, worse health outcomes and lost productivity. “These officials are using the public finance market to make political statements,” said Daniel Garrett, a professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. “They can use these laws as a carrot or stick as they desire, but the costs can be potentially quite large.” (New York Times $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: Why climate change hits some communities harder than others (CNN)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) JUSTICE: Two in three Americans support spending more federal funds on communities hurt by pollution: poll (The Hill), White House meets another environmental justice benchmark (E&E $), Anti-redlining law could soon account for climate change (E&E News)

FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Global energy crisis drives rethink of nuclear power projects (Reuters), European gas storage on track to meet target but at a cost (Reuters), U.S. bid to cap Russian oil prices draws skepticism over enforcement (New York Times $), Russia undercuts Saudi oil in India as competition heats up (Bloomberg $)

TUG OF WAR: UN, IMF disagree on who should foot the bill of the energy crisis (Climate Home), IMF tells Europe to let consumers bear the brunt of higher bills to encourage energy saving (CNBC)

COP27: African climate diplomats reject African Union’s pro-gas stance for COP27 (Climate Home)

DENIAL: Beware of this fake pro-climate group (Heated)

MEXICO MINE RESCUE: Rescue workers race to save 10 trapped in flooding mine (Washington Post $), Day after Mexico mine collapse, families fret over 10 trapped miners (Reuters)

BUILD BACK BETTER BUILDING A BETTER AMERICA INFLATION REDUCTION ACT: Democrats’ climate deal puts U.S. emissions goals in reach, 3 separate studies show (HuffPost), Inflation Reduction Act would spur 42% US carbon emissions cut by 2030: Princeton-led study (Bloomberg $, Utility Dive), Manchin finally signs onto Democrat's agenda, but is it enough? (The Root), The new deciders on corporate taxes (New York Times $), Manchin deal could raise new hurdles for electric vehicle incentives (The Hill, Washington Examiner), What to make of the Democrats' last-minute climate bill (Volts Podcast), The Inflation Reduction Act's name says a lot about the climate fight (TIME), Democrats seek to reshape global supply chains for clean energy through spending bill (Houston Chronicle), Manchin deal: Renewables boon or states' rights menace? (E&E $)

JOE’S PIPE(LINE) DREAM: Manchin’s pipeline could be the last of its kind, if it survives more (Bloomberg Law), In exchange for climate legislation, Joe Manchin was promised a pipeline. Will he get it? (Grist)

CTL+Z: Republican push to overturn Biden permitting rules passes Senate, with Manchin's support (Politico)

COURTS: Judge rejects federal plans for fossil fuel mining in Powder River Basin  (The Hill, E&E $)

SAN BRUNO: Feds finalize gas pipeline rule 12 years after fatal blast (E&E $)

EPA: EPA touts lead pipe guidance as key to equity push (E&E $)

POLITICS: ‘It’s very bad’: GOP hones climate attacks before elections (E&E News)

ELECTIONS: ‘Pragmatism’ vs. ‘urgency’: Here’s where the frontrunners for US house stand on climate policy (VT Digger)

CITIES AND STATES: [Iowa] State auditor encourages school districts to seek aid for energy-efficient buses (The Cedar Rapids Gazette), In a New Orleans ward ravaged by climate change, leaders nurture the next generation (Washington Post $), Maryland launches major job training program for offshore wind industry (Morris County Daily Record), Ohio’s Paradox Prize projects offer transit solutions for car-dependent communities (Energy News Network)

• CALIFORNIA: History of DDT ocean dumping off L.A. coast even worse than expected, EPA finds (LA Times $), Burbank to ban outdoor watering in September; other cities may follow (LA Times $), Wrangling over renewables: Counties push back on Newsom administration usurping local control (CAL Matters)
• WILL MASS AXE GAS? 'Bated breath' as Mass. weighs landmark gas ban (E&E $)

IMPACTS: ‘They are not slowing down’: The rise of billion-dollar disasters (Washington Post $), Extreme summer: How climate change turned a season of joy into a season of disaster (Washington Post $), These communities are trapped in harm’s way as climate disasters mount (Mother Jones), Revealed: How climate breakdown is supercharging toll of extreme weather (The Guardian)

CORAL: Start-up plans 2500 artificial coral reefs to fight climate change (New Scientist), Great Barrier Reef has most coral in decades. Global warming could reverse it. (Washington Post $, The Hill), Coral levels in some parts of the Great Barrier Reef are at the highest in 36 years (NPR)

VOLCANOS: Climate change makes some volcanic plumes less effective at reducing global temperatures (Phys.org)

THANKS BUT NO THANKS: Humidity, the mosquito, and me (Grist)

FLOODING: New report quantifies the costs of buying a home that has previously flooded (Grist), Floods affect thousands in Gambia after heaviest rainfall in decades (Reuters), Kentucky’s floods took Appalachian history with them (New York Times $), Sea level rise is causing record-breaking coastal flooding. It's only expected to get worse – even on days without rain. (CBS), Northern Japan heavy rain causes widespread flooding, infrastructure damage (Weather Channel)

HEAT: Heatwave in Paris exposes city's lack of trees (Reuters), China warns that its temperatures are rising faster than global average (Reuters), Not enough cooling centers in New York City’s hottest areas, study finds (New York Times $), ‘Oppressive’ heat to spike in the northeast (New York Times $), Heat triggers alerts for more than 80 million in central, eastern US. (Washington Post $), Stockholm instead of Rome? October instead of July? How heat waves are changing tourism in Europe (New York Times $), How to protect the people you care about from extreme heat (NPR)

DROUGHT: Gov't inaction could wipe out a defining feature of the Grand Canyon, environmentalists say (HuffPost)

‘DEADPOOL STATUS’ Millions at risk of power and water shortages as two of the nation's largest reservoirs on the brink of "dead pool status," U.N. warns (CBS)

WELL IF IT ISN’T THE CONSEQUENCES OF THEIR ACTIONS: Low Rhine water level to hit output at two German coal plants (Reuters)

OUTTA THIS WORLD SOLUTION: Faced with drought, a wine region in central California looks to develop a spaceport (NPR)

WILDFIRES: Wildfires in Europe burn second-biggest area on record (Reuters), Texas wildfires continue to erupt; firefighters keep moving (AP), Washington town told to leave due to wildfire, 10 homes lost (AP), Fire victims seek over $85 million for Tamarack Fire damages (AP), Climate Migration: California fire pushes family to Vermont (AP)

HURRICANES: Latest outlooks for Atlantic hurricane season: Less frenzied, but still above average (Miami Herald, Yale Climate Connections)

MELTING: Troubling new research shows warm waters rushing towards the world’s biggest ice sheet in Antarctica (The Conversation)

WHEEE: The Earth is spinning faster than ever and it's making our days shorter (NPR)

RENEWABLES: Geothermal heating and cooling: Renewable energy’s hidden gem (Yale Climate Connections), US crackdown on Chinese solar means sales recovery ruled out (Bloomberg $)

NOT JUST ABOUT CLIMATE: Solar power opens the door to banking for rural Indians (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

BUILDINGS: Manufactured home residents often left out of energy-efficiency conversation (Yale Climate Connections)

OIL & GAS: Oil down more than 10% this week with slowdown hitting demand (Bloomberg $), Oil falls below $90 for first time since war as demand slows (Bloomberg $)

JUST A GIANT PILE OF MONEY: Permian provides a gusher of profits as Oxy, Pioneer join oil’s bonanza (Houston Chronicle), Cheniere more than doubled its revenues in Q2 as overseas gas demand soared (Houston Chronicle), Houston-based Marathon Oil reports $966 million in second quarter profits (Houston Chronicle), Houston oil company Apache nearly triples profits; announces $505 million acquisition in Permian (Houston Chronicle)

ORPHANED WELLS: ‘It’s all gone’: Beachside residents fear deadly 2020 blast came from abandoned oil well (National Observer)

PFAS: The latest toxic concern for those near fracking (Environmental Health News)

PIPELINES: Water spills again from aquifer breached by northern Minnesota pipeline (Minnesota Star Tribune $), One woman’s fight to save peaceful Canadian paradise from destructive pipeline expansion: ‘We need those places right now’ (The Independent)

UTILITIES: Duke sees ‘robust market’ for sale of $4 billion renewable unit (Bloomberg $)

(ALLEGED) UTILITY CORRUPTION: A dirty scandal for a clean energy leader (Inside Climate News), Who benefits from renewable energy subsidies? In Texas, it’s often fossil fuel companies that are fighting clean energy elsewhere (The Conversation), NRG to use renewable-finance strategy to build new gas plants (Bloomberg $)

MINING: How the energy transition was used as justification to continue mining during the pandemic (Energy Monitor)

EVs: Electric cars’ surging prices mean fewer buyers can use tax credit (Bloomberg $)

CRYPTO: Bitcoin gains spur miners to turn on rigs in midst of heat wave (Bloomberg $)

IN VINO VERITAS: The problem with wine bottles (New York Times $)

CARS: Drivers aren't just driving less — they're driving better cars (Bloomberg $)

HATERS GONNA AVIATE: Personal behavior — even Taylor Swift's — is a minor part of climate change (Axios)

FINANCE: How the skepticism over ESG investing may make it stronger (Barron's)

HEALTH: Climate change causing poorer fitness in children: study   (The Hill)

SCIENCE RULES: New methods are helping scientists link extreme weather events to climate change (WBUR)

RULES FOR TALKING SCIENCE: An extreme weather/climate change communications ‘masterclass’ (Yale Climate Connections)

SPORT: Is cricket sustainable amid climate change? (New York Times $)

TECH: Wildfire fighter Bridger Aerospace to go public via SPAC (Axios)

WILDLIFE: Climate change will severely impact birds by 2080 (Earth), Irish farmers help save a bird whose calls used to herald summer (New York Times $), How machine learning could help save threatened species from extinction (The Verge)

INTERNATIONAL: The Taliban’s black gold: Militants seize on coal to reboot economy (FT $), Long a climate straggler, Australia advances a major bill to cut emissions (New York Times $),  Australia knocks back major coal project near Great Barrier Reef (Bloomberg $), U.S. bolsters aid for Cambodia amid efforts to ease global food crisis (New York Times $), Can President Petro crack Colombia's reliance on oil and coal? (Thomson Reuters Foundation), India approves new emissions targets to tackle climate change (Reuters), Landmark climate change lawsuit moves forward as German judges arrive in Peru (State of the Planet), Russia to spend $30 billion on Northern Sea Route by 2035 (Reuters), US investors visit South Africa with eye on renewable energy (Bloomberg $)

• 5 ways the Inflation Reduction Act will help American families (CNN, Van Jones and Jessie Buendia op-ed)
• As oil and gas industry's profits soar, corporations can afford to fight climate change (Houston Chronicle, Chris Tomlinson column)
• Why electricity is more expensive and less reliable (Utility Dive, Brien Sheahan op-ed)
• Germany’s switch to diesel from gas comes at a cost (Bloomberg, Javier Blas column $)
• As flash flood risks rise, protecting Americans in a warming climate only gets harder (The Hill, Jen Brady op-ed)
• Floods, storms and heatwaves are a direct product of the climate crisis – that’s a fact, so where is the action? (The Guardian, John Vidal column)
• Congress is finally addressing climate crisis with Inflation Reduction Act (The Hill, Ramón Cruz op-ed)
• Your home is missing a crucial safety alarm (St Louis Post-Dispatch, Ron Lazarus op-ed)
• The State Department must step up on Arctic diplomacy (The Hill, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska op-ed)
• No, Biden's climate-change bill won't tax the middle class (New York Times, Paul Krugman column $)
• Enough is enough: This winter I will be refusing to pay my energy bills (The Guardian: Anonymous op-ed)

[Editor's Note: The Denier Roundup is on vacation this week. Will return on August 9th!] 

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