FIRST LOOK: 

On January 1st, 1863, Abraham Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation, technically freeing enslaved people in Confederate states. Southern plantation owners refused to honor it and some even moved to Galveston, Texas, remote and out of the reach of the Union army, to keep hundreds of thousands of people in bondage as the war raged on. It took another two years and six months for Union troops to enforce the order in Galveston, Texas. On June 19th, 1865, the last enslaved Black people in the United States were finally freed.

Climate Nexus will be closed Monday as we commemorate, reflect on, and celebrate the Juneteenth Holiday. Hot News will return on Tuesday the 21st.

Southeast Louisiana far from recovery since Hurricane Ida: Nearly a year after Hurricane Ida unleashed 150 mile-per-hour winds on southeast Louisiana, a housing crisis, coastal erosion, halting government response, and systemic discrimination has exacerbated the storm’s damage. “It feels like a ghost town,” Precious Shephard told PBS in describing her community now. “[I’m] running a generator, not being able to store food the way I used to, eating fast food daily, it’s like I’m still living in a storm.” The region is home to many Native American tribes, who moved to the bayous when colonizers forced them from their land. But the land, trees and marsh grass that protected these communities from storm surges has eroded, and climate change threatens to bring more and stronger hurricanes to the area. The tribes most impacted by Hurricane Ida are engaged in a lengthy, decadeslong process seeking federal recognition, which tribal officials say would improve their access to government programs and federal funds to prepare for hurricanes. (AP, PBS)

EPA could phase out GHGs under TSCA: Yesterday, the EPA received a petition arguing the agency should use the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) to phase out greenhouse gas emissions. According to petitioner and former EPA leader Donn Viviani, “TSCA is like the ruby slippers [in The Wizard of Oz] – it can do just about anything. It can allow you to put a levy on carbon, and can deal with the legacy of carbon emissions. It has nearly international reach, as the US is the biggest market in the world and could apply these measures to imports too.” Under TSCA, amended by a bipartisan vote in 2016, the EPA now has 90 days to determine if greenhouse gasses present "an unreasonable risk of injury to health or the environment," and if so, it would have considerable leeway to regulate. As longtime NASA climate scientist James Hansen told the Guardian, “Using the TSCA would be one small step for [the US president] Joe Biden, but potentially a giant leap for humankind – as a first step towards making the polluters pay." (The Guardian, Petition fact sheet, etc.)

Study finds group of polar bears are adapting to climate change: A paper published in Science finds a unique group of polar bears living on the southeast coast of Greenland have found a way to cope with dwindling sea ice by hunting on freshwater ice that comes from glaciers on land. The freshwater ice falls off in chunks into fjords, where the pieces join together and make a floating platform the polar bears use to stalk seals. The research suggests this new subgroup of polar bears could cope with the accelerating loss of sea ice, but warns the bears could also mark the last survivors of the polar bear species. The Arctic has lost about a third of its winter sea ice in the last two decades, and it continues to melt at a rate of about 13 percent each decade. The way that the newly discovered pack of polar bears has found a way to live suggests freshwater glacial ice could serve as a limited climate refuge for other bears in the future. But the researchers caution there are few regions with abundant freshwater ice and that ice will become increasingly vulnerable if the planet keeps heating up. (AP, The Verge, Vox, NPR, CNN, The Guardian, Reuters, The Atlantic, Washington Post $, New York Times $, Wall Street Journal $)

(ENVIRONMENTAL) RACISM: ‘Fortress conservation’ violently displaces Indigenous people (Grist), The impact of climate change on groups of people (Phys.org), Climate change threatens hidden history of Black cemeteries (Newsy), New Jersey sues Ford over hazardous waste dumping on Native American land (CBS News)

CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Energy price surge threatens UN climate pledge (Wall Street Journal $), Climate change: Bonn talks end in acrimony over compensation (BBC), Rich nations hit brakes on climate aid to poor at UN talks (AP)

CLIMATE LITIGATION: Greens say vacate 3,500 drilling permits in new climate change lawsuit (Reuters), Greenhouse gasses must be legally phased out, US scientists argue (The Guardian)

EPA: New advisory for ‘forever chemicals’ in drinking water announced by EPA (EcoWatch), Study links ‘forever chemicals’ to high blood pressure in middle-aged women (Grist)

WHITE HOUSE: Biden pushes fuel makers to boost capacity, criticizes profits (Wall Street Journal $), Biden administration working to finalize meeting with oil companies (The Hill), Biden hosts climate meeting amid high gas price pressure (AP)

THE HILL: House passes bill to end restrictions on higher-ethanol fuels amid spiraling gas prices (The Hill), House Democrats prod Senate, Biden on climate legislation (Roll Call)

FEMA: Flood-prone homes could lose federal insurance under FEMA plan (Wall Street Journal $), FEMA awards $10M to Martha's Vineyard town to fight erosion (AP)

CITIES AND STATES: Rhode Island lawmakers require 100% renewable energy offsets by 2033 (Utility Dive), Detroit’s commercial buildings carry massive potential for energy efficiency. What’s holding it up? (Energy News Network), ‘Climate change’ increasingly on candidates’ lips in Maryland governor’s race, but will it translate to votes? (Baltimore Sun), How climate change threatens NJ’s toxic Superfund sites (Gothamist), Climate change could trigger toxic disasters along lake Michigan, new report finds (Chicago Sun-Times), ‘At the mercy of the market’: How higher natural gas prices could hamper Louisiana’s chemical sector (The Advocate)

IMPACTS: The collapse of a major Atlantic current would cause worldwide disasters (Gizmodo), Scientists point to climate change as likely cause for Alaska snow crab decline (Anchorage Daily News), "A year ago we were on fire. A year later, we're wet": How climate change could damage America's most treasured national parks (CBS)

HEAT: Extreme heat and humidity kill thousands of cattle in Kansas (Washington Post $), Historic heat wave underway in Europe that will intensify into the weekend (Washington Post $), Hit by heatwaves, cities test fresh ways to cool residents (Thomson Reuters Foundation)

DROUGHT: These maps illustrate the seriousness of the western drought (Washington Post $)

WILDFIRES: Average acreage burned in wildfires doubled since 1991 (The Hill)

FLOODS: Yellowstone wrecked by 'thousand-year' floods (Gizmodo) 

SPACE BUBBLES: MIT scientists propose space bubbles to reverse the worst of climate change (Gizmodo)

RENEWABLES: Solar power floods Europe’s grids as heat wave lifts demand (Bloomberg $)

CARS: Porsche to pay $80m to resolve fuel economy claims on US vehicles (Washington Examiner), Car shoppers seeking more fuel-efficient vehicles come up empty (Wall Street Journal $), Tesla raises prices amid surging costs (Wall Street Journal $)

ETHANOL: Here are the 12 lawmakers who broke with their parties on ethanol fuels bill (The Hill)

KETCHUP: Climate change is coming for your ketchup (Phys.org) 

OIL & GAS: UK bolsters gas stockpile for winter with Ukraine war squeezing supply and sending prices soaring (CNBC), High US fuel exports are contributing to $5-a-gallon gas (Wall Street Journal $), Exxon Mobil, Chevron push back on Biden blaming industry for oil prices (The Hill), White House weighs fuel-export limits as pump prices surge (Bloomberg $), Russia's biggest natural gas field is ablaze (Observer), Russia slashes gas flows, aiming economic weapon at Europe (Wall Street Journal $), Russian gas flows to Europe dip further, slow storage buildup (Reuters), With record pump prices, Biden hard-pressed to ramp up Russia sanctions (Reuters)

OCEANS: The ocean is a critical solution to climate change, groups tell Biden (Washington Post $)

COAL: BHP scraps immediate thermal-coal exit (Wall Street Journal $), BHP to close NSW’s largest coal mine in 2030 after failing to sell it (The Guardian)

HYDROGEN: Island at end of the world pitches $6 billion hydrogen dream (Bloomberg $), Chevron eyes $2.5 billion investments in low-carbon hydrogen (Bloomberg $)

UTILITIES: Con Edison hires Barclays for $4 billion green unit sale (Bloomberg $)

EVs: Democrats keep citing out-of-reach electric vehicles as gas price fix (Washington Examiner)

ACTIVISM: Where have all the climate activists gone? (Grist), ‘It cannot be activism as usual’: Kumi Naidoo and Luisa Neubauer on the way forward for climate justice (The Guardian), La. Bucket Brigade raises environmental concerns about Venture Global LNG (KSLA)

TECH: How Russia’s war is putting green tech progress in jeopardy (Yale Environment 360)

META: The Facebook papers: how Meta failed to fight against American climate denial (Gizmodo) 

HEALTH: How millions of lives can be saved if the US acts now on climate (The Guardian)

SHIPS: US shipping law won’t do much to address soaring cargo costs (Bloomberg $)

FINANCE: GOP attorneys general push back against SEC climate change disclosure initiative (The Hill), Energy inflation derails Biden’s climate agenda (Wall Street Journal $)

WEATHER: Stubborn La Niña looks like it may stick around for a rare third year (LA Times $)

SURFS UP: Surfing sisters’ mission to protect the ocean from climate change (Today)

WILDLIFE: Dead little blue penguins keep washing ashore in New Zealand. Experts say climate change may be to blame (CNN), Climate change could dry up ideal duck habitat in the Northern Plains (Yale Climate Connections), Where are California's bumble bees? (Gizmodo)

INTERNATIONAL: Australia commits to reducing greenhouse emissions by 43% (AP), How climate change, overfishing and COVID drove irregular migration from West Africa (The Conversation), How Germany took over Russia’s vast gas-trading empire (Wall Street Journal $), As Po dries up, Italy's food and energy supplies are at risk (AP), How top coal, LNG exporter Australia ran into a power crisis (Reuters)

• How dangerous must consequences be before US dietary guidelines include sustainability? (Mark Riflkin, The Hill  op-ed)

• We need more renewables and a nimble grid to avoid summer blackouts (Katie Rock, Des Moines Register op-ed)

• Extreme heat isn’t a joke. It’s a public health crisis. (Fernanda Santos, Washington Post op-ed $)

• President Biden’s commitment to energy security needs certainty on natural gas (Richard D. Kauzlarich, Utility Dive op-ed)

• The Golden Opportunity For LNG (Wood Mackenzie, Forbes op-ed)

Fossil Fools to SEC: Please Ignore Our Risky Assets! 

Today is the deadline for submitting comments to the Security and Exchange Commision about a proposed rule that would require companies to disclose their climate-related emissions and financial risks, and the climate-related emissions industry has been hard at work trying to make it look like there's real grassroots opposition to the measure. (The latest in their anti-ESG efforts.) 

Over 75% of the 10,000+ comments have been supportive of the proposal that companies track how much they emit and how much climate impacts cost their bottom line, but what about the comments opposed to such basic due diligence and transparency? Those are coming from the fossil fuel industry lobby groups and its right-wing network, which has waged a coordinated campaign to skew the comments to exaggerate the support behind the 1% they represent. 

A coalition of fossil fuel-heavy states' Republican Attorneys General submitted a comment to the SEC, while the (tobacco & fossil fuel funded) Heritage Foundation was proud to announce that its comment generator spammed the SEC with over 2,600 comments, essentially the entire pushback, though (tobacco & fossil fuel funded) FreedomWorks also ran a (now-defunct) comment submission generator, the CO2 Coalition managed to submit at least one comment, and even Big Ag got in on the disinformation!

And it is obvious disinformation, as the idea that just identifying potential climate risk is going to “destroy” the economy is just the latest version of (alarmist) industry claims against new disclosure rules that they have used since before the creation of the SEC.

The proposal doesn’t require anyone to do anything anti-fossil-fuel, except provide transparency on how much greenhouse gas they pollute and how climate change could impact their bottom line. But since fossil fuels cause climate change, the industry considers measuring the impact of its pollution to be something of a death blow for their ability to keep convincing finance institutions that they're a stable long-term investment. 

For some reason though, their comments don't just say "we oppose this disclosure because then you'd know what a bad deal fossil fuels are." 

Wonder why!

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