POPE:
• Pope Francis’ much anticipated encyclical, released today, warns that a variety of human activities, including reliance on fossil fuels, risks irreparably ruining the planet. (CNN)
• Climate action advocates are planning myriad events to call attention to the Pope’s message because it amplifies their message that humans must rein in greenhouse gas emissions. (Greenwire)

POLLS:
• American Catholics are about as divided on climate change as the rest of the general public, the Pew Research Center found in a survey ahead of the Pope’s encyclical released today. (Pew Research Center)
• Nearly six in 10 residents of Houston and other parts of Harris County, Texas, agree that climate change is mainly man-made—a sizable increase in just a few years, according to a Rice University poll. (Texas Climate News)

PRESIDENTIAL RACE:
• Catholic Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush said Wednesday that Pope Francis will not be informing his policies on climate change. (The Hill)
• As governor of Wisconsin, likely Republican presidential contender Scott Walker consistently dismissed environmental science and sided with polluters. (Scientific American)

PIPELINE: Kinder Morgan said Wednesday it is soliciting shipping contracts along a proposed 1,100 mile, liquid natural gas pipeline running from the Marcellus and Utica shales to the Texas Gulf Coast. (FuelFix)

FRACKING: Denton, Texas, the first town in the state to ban fracking, repealed the voter-approved measure early Wednesday, after a seven-month battle with oil and gas interests and state lawmakers. (Associated Press)

WATER POLLUTION: Regulators are severely underestimating the health risks from the pollution that power plants dump into waterways, the Sierra Club said Wednesday. (The Hill)

BATTERIES: On Monday, Nissan announced it will sell stationary systems built around used Leaf batteries to businesses, while General Motors said Tuesday it had a similar setup using Volt batteries. (The New York Times)

NUCLEAR: Nuclear energy is a costly failure and states should focus on alternative energy, according to a report released Wednesday by the Vermont Law School. (Port Clinton News Herald)

DIVESTMENT: A committee at MIT has thrown its support behind targeted divestment from coal and tar sand companies and called for the creation of a new institute dedicated to climate change. (The Boston Globe)

COAL:
• Republican senators on Wednesday aired concerns with the EPA’s rule on coal ash disposal, which takes effect in October, saying they might try to revise it. (The Hill)
• Petcoke remains a problem in Chicago despite city regulations and may become a problem in other parts of the state without limits or rules on storage, according to a diverse group lobbying the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency. (Midwest Energy News)

INVESTMENT: Members of Congress of all stripes are continuing to fuel their personal wealth with investments in the energy sector, according to recently released financial disclosure reports. (E&E Daily)

WIND: Facing the loss of some tax incentives at the end of 2016, Oklahoma’s wind industry may accelerate the already rapid pace of wind development over the next 18 months to beat the deadline. (Tulsa World)