• The Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Transportation are set to propose a five-year return to Obama-era tailpipe emissions standards, rules that could come as soon as next week, according to industry and government officials briefed on the plan. And the administration is expected to subsequently phase in more stringent standards that would reduce greenhouse gas emissions and encourage 40 percent of U.S. drivers to choose electric vehicles by the end of the decade. (The Associated Press)
• In a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee hearing, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said the department is “evaluating” its options for resuming the sales of oil and gas leases on federal land, after a federal judge ordered the Biden administration to lift its pause on the sales roughly six weeks ago. Facing criticism from seven of the committee’s 20 senators, Haaland said Interior will release an interim report “soon” to guide future leasing decisions, which is expected to recommend increasing the royalty rates charged to companies looking to extract fossil fuels. (Bloomberg)
• The Biden administration is in the early stages of weighing a plan to pay the U.S. commercial fishing industry for any potential disruption to its operations caused by expanding offshore wind in the Atlantic Ocean, according to state and federal officials involved in those conversations. The commercial fishing industry has historically opposed offshore wind projects, pushback that has already disrupted large-scale wind projects and prompted a letter from nine coastal states asking the administration to develop “mitigation frameworks for demonstrated negative impacts” on fisheries. (Reuters)

Three degrees of global warming is quite plausible and truly disastrous

The Economist

Biden Pick for DOJ Environment Division Wins Senate Approval

Ellen M. Gilmer, Bloomberg Law

Longtime government lawyer Todd Kim is poised to take the helm of the Justice Department’s environment division after the Senate approved his nomination on Tuesday.

Lawmakers Say Infrastructure Deal Within Reach

Kristina Peterson and Andrew Duehren, The Wall Street Journal

Bipartisan Senate negotiators are working through transit funding and other issues that bogged down talks on $1 trillion package.

‘Tiger of the House’ claws his way through infrastructure talks

Sarah Ferris and Heather Caygle, Politico

Peter DeFazio has made his life’s work about transportation. Now, at a pivotal moment, the Democratic committee chair’s being boxed out.

‘Bombshell’ report: DOD failed to protect troops from PFAS

Jacob Wallace, E&E News

The Department of Defense waited five years to warn military members about the dangers of PFAS and potential contamination, according to a new report issued by government watchdogs on Friday.

Satellite images of wildfires are saving lives. The Pentagon might let the program expire

Jennifer Haberkorn and Anna M. Phillips, Los Angeles Times

When a brush fire trapped more than 100 hikers and campers last year in the Sierra National Forest, California firefighters needed to know precisely where the blaze was — and they needed to know fast.

Artificial Intelligence Could Dramatically Speed Up Climate Action

Akshat Rathi, Bloomberg

The list of applications for AI keeps on growing, but the industry needs guardrails to ensure solutions are climate aligned.

Brookfield Seeks $12.5 Billion for New Impact Fund

Scott Deveau, Bloomberg

Brookfield Asset Management Inc. said it has raised $7 billion for the initial close of its new impact investment fund, pulling in money from Singapore’s state investor and Canadian pension managers for an investment vehicle that will help businesses cut their carbon emissions.

India Ditches Key Climate Meeting After Disrupting G-20

Jess Shankleman et al., Bloomberg

Global efforts to tackle climate change suffered another setback this week as India — the world’s third-biggest emitter — failed to attend a key diplomatic gathering in London.

Wildfires rage and a tool to combat climate change goes up in smoke

Debra Kahn, Politico

Massive wildfires in Oregon and Washington are torching more than vegetation. They’re also burning through a system used by states and businesses to fight climate change.

The pandemic slashed the West Coast’s emissions. Wildfires already reversed it.

James Temple, MIT Technology Review

Major fires and resulting emissions are set to continually increase across the world’s forested regions, fueling more warming and more fires to come.

Is This the End of Summer as We’ve Known It?

Shawn Hubler, The New York Times

In the state that perfected if not invented the American summer, the smell of 17 million gallons of spilled sewage lingered last week on a Southern California beach. There were bare rocks where snow once capped the Sierra Nevada and bathtub rings where water once glistened in Shasta Lak

Oregon governor signs ambitious clean energy bill

Sara Cline, The Associated Press

Oregon’s clean energy bill, which sets one of the most ambitious timelines in the country for moving to 100% clean electricity sources, was signed by Gov. Kate Brown on Tuesday.

Employment in the energy sector will dramatically expand as economies decarbonize

Sarah DeWeerdt, Anthropocene

A team calculated that a decarbonized world could lose 9.5 million fossil fuel jobs—and gain a whopping 17.4 million renewable jobs.

Solar-panel supplier’s links to alleged abuses in China imperil US climate goal

Michael Copley, S&P Global Market Intelligence

​​The dominance of China’s LONGi Green Energy Technology Co. Ltd. in supplying solar panels to the U.S. highlights the challenge authorities face in trying to eliminate alleged labor abuses from the country’s supply chains without smothering an industry that is vital to the Biden administration’s efforts to limit climate change.

Shell to buy Inspire Energy in green energy push

Reuters

Royal Dutch Shell Plc said on Tuesday it would buy renewable energy retailer Inspire Energy Capital LLC, as the European major looks to expand its renewable power business in the United States.

Summer’s gasoline recovery could fizzle on rising infection cases

Stephanie Kelly et al., Reuters

The summer rebound in global fuel demand could be turning into a slowdown, as analysts expect gasoline consumption to taper off due to resurgent coronavirus cases and structural changes in commuting patterns.

Equinor Q2 profit jumps, eyes volatile oil, gas markets

Terje Solsvik, Reuters

Norway’s Equinor posted a sharp increase in second-quarter profit on Wednesday as prices of oil and gas rose, but its earnings fell short of expectations as its Norwegian unit missed forecasts.

U.S. oil refiners set for first profit since onset of pandemic

Arathy Nair, Reuters

U.S. oil refiners are set to post their first quarterly profit since the COVID-19 pandemic, even though higher oil prices and weaker margins in June have tamed analysts’ optimism fostered by the rebound in fuel demand.

Airlines Struggle With Fuel Shortages at Some Smaller Western U.S. Airports

Alison Sider, The Wall Street Journal

Airlines are grappling with shortages of jet fuel at some smaller airports in the western U.S. as the region wrestles with a travel boom even as that fuel is in demand to fight wildfires.

A sewage crisis is bubbling up in communities of color across the country

Jena Brooker, Grist

Biden’s infrastructure bill could provide some relief.

​​Historic floods fuel misery, rage in Detroit

Hannah Northey, E&E News

Terrie Henderson woke June 26 to find her car floating into the street as a historic storm battered her home in the Marina District neighborhood along the Detroit River.

Wildfires are increasing health risks of already-polluted regions of the U.S., experts warn

Cresencio Rodriguez-Delgado, PBS News

As wildfires in the western United States pump harmful smoke into the atmosphere, communities with existing air pollution challenges find themselves at an increasingly higher risk of negative health effects. 

Heavy wildfire smoke linked to increased COVID-19 risk, researchers say

Joseph Choi, The Hill

A study published in the Nature science journal found that heavy wildfire smoke could be linked to an increase in COVID-19 cases.

Why giant coal mines are part of China’s plan to reduce its dependence on coal

Mary Hui, Quartz

China wants to cut carbon emissions, and has set itself the ambitious goal of being carbon neutral by 2060. To get anywhere close to achieving that task, it will have to sharply curtail its coal consumption, which for decades has made up the bulk of its energy mix.

A Year of Fire and Ice Has Proven Grid Modernization Cannot Wait

Tom Deitrich (President and CEO, Itron), Morning Consult

The massive wildfires darkening the skies of the West right now and the bruising ice storms in Texas this winter paint a harrowing backdrop for the discord in Washington over infrastructure investment. Frozen powerplants and pipelines caused more damage in Texas than Hurricane Harvey – underscoring how urgently we need to harden the grid on a national scale.

We’re in a Water Crisis. We Need to Act Like It

José Andrés and Caryl Stern, TIME 

One of the greatest lessons of the pandemic is that we can meet the challenges of existential threats when we combine the collective power of our creativity, innovation and industry. As the climate crisis worsens, we need to address protecting and preserving water with the same urgency that we put into creating vaccines. We need to act like lives are hanging in the balance—because they are.

Extreme weather raises stakes at COP26

Editorial Board, Financial Times

Window is closing to prevent a much warmer and more unstable planet.