OIL & GAS: A fossil fuel-funded advocacy group is paying to publish pro-natural gas content in Politico, Axios, and E&E News, including articles that cite industry-funded studies to make a climate case for the fossil fuel. (Heated)
ALSO:
• Major oil companies quietly backtrack on climate and environmental commitments amid reporting of record profits. (Grist)
• Environmental groups blast the U.S. EPA for not challenging the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plan to replace a retiring coal-fired plant with natural gas. (Associated Press)
CLIMATE:
• Global ice sheets are at risk of “unstoppable, irreversible melting” if the world doesn’t quickly act to limit warming to 1.5°C, potentially leading to as much as a foot of sea level rise by the end of the century. (E&E News)
• As scientists discover a massive glacier is melting at a startling pace, the head of the United Nations warns rising sea levels could spur mass migration on a “biblical scale.” (Washington Post)
• World Bank President David Malpass will step down amid criticism over his climate denialism. (New York Times)
COURTS: When targeting Biden administration environmental policies, Republican-led states continually count on one particular circuit court that is stacked with Trump appointees. (E&E News)
EMISSIONS:
• In contrast with progress in other sectors, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture continue to grow, with Iowa, Kansas, Illinois and Nebraska the biggest contributors after Texas. (Gazette/Investigate Midwest)
• U.S. greenhouse gas emissions shot up a record 5.5% in 2021 from the year before, largely due to a pandemic-induced emissions drop in 2020. (The Hill)
CLEAN ENERGY:
• New Jersey will accelerate its 100% clean energy goal from 2050 to 2035 and restrict new car sales to all-electric models only by 2035, among other new clean energy goals. (NBC New York)
• Some energy experts are skeptical that a plan to get New York’s public power authority to build more clean energy projects can work in the face of labor pushback. (American Prospect)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The Biden administration releases standards for developers looking to build electric vehicle chargers with federal incentives. (Grist)
• An electric vehicle charger manufacturer announces plans to expand its Tennessee factory to eventually produce up to 30,000 fast chargers a year. (Tennessean)
GRID: States in the MISO region are beginning to consider aggregated demand response as a potential asset to improve grid reliability. (Utility Dive)
SOLAR:
• New Jersey has the second most solar installed at K-12 school buildings in the country, a clean energy nonprofit reports. (NJ Advance Media)
• Iowa State University researchers will raise bees and plant vegetables within the footprint of a solar array as part of a federally funded study. (news release)
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