"We live in an age of fools"

PRESENTED BY RISKWORLD

The world’s oceans are boiling hot. It’s been a full year of extreme record sea-surface temperatures, and there’s no end in sight. Venezuela’s last glacier is gone, floods are ravaging Brazil, tornadoes now travel in packs, extreme heat is overwhelming Mexico’s power grid, and Bangladesh is facing “blast-furnace heat every day.”

Not to worry, though: House Democrats took decisive action yesterday to protect the job of House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La., no relation), an oil-funded theocrat who is an outspoken global warming denier who calls the Green New Deal a “Greedy New Steal.”

Johnson was threatened by an effort to remove him from the speakership by Rep. Marjorie Taylor-Greene (Q-Ga.), but 163 Democrats, led by Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.), crossed the aisle to keep him in charge. The House then passed a mining free-for-all bill, a crypto deregulation bill, and an anti-immigrant census bill. Johnson, a firm backer of Donald Trump, is now pushing to restrict voting in the presidential election this fall.

Democrats would gain the speakership if only three Republicans switched parties.

Sammy Roth calls bullshit on ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods’ prevarications at the Milken conference, where he spoke with Biden climate advisor John Podesta. Separately, Woods promised that Exxon would still be producing oil and gas in 2050 and beyond.

Today, Podesta is meeting with his Chinese counterpart, Liu Zhenmin, in preparation for the annual climate talks held this year in the petrodictatorship of Azerbaijan. Podesta and Zhenmin will debate renewable-energy trade policies, global climate finance, and each country’s internal pollution commitments.

FRICK FRACK FERC: “A major pipeline that would have moved natural gas through New Jersey and under two bays to New York has been killed,” Wayne Parry reports, “but another plan to transport liquefied gas from Pennsylvania by tanker truck is moving forward.”

In what Clean Ocean Action’s Cindy Zipf called an “extraordinary victory,” Williams Companies gave up on its Northeast Supply Enhancement pipeline project. “NESE has gasped its last gassy breath,” Zipf exulted.

Meanwhile, Delaware River Partners and Bradford County Real Estate Partners told FERC they’re moving forward with a fracked-gas liquefication plant northwest of Scranton—instead of shipping the LNG by rail to the New Jersey coast, they now plan to use tanker trucks.

“This decision is unnecessary and reckless, and the Sierra Club is prepared to continue fighting this project until it is officially canceled,” campaigner Patrick Grenter told Parry.

The Guardian surveyed hundreds of top IPCC climate scientists about their grim expectations for our climate future and how they manage to keep on working.

“I expect a semi-dystopian future with substantial pain and suffering for the people of the global south,” said a South African scientist who chose not to be named. “The world’s response to date is reprehensible – we live in an age of fools.”

Zack Budryk explains how the US financial system helps shelter profits from environmental organized crime.

“Climate change is sending price signals,” Evan Greenberg, CEO of insurance giant Chubb warned attendees of the RIMS Riskworld conference in San Diego. “The cost of climate change, to state the obvious: Going up,” he said. “This is not a short-term thing that’s going to go away.”

The American Friends Service Committee is calling for a global boycott of Chevron for being the leading oil and gas major working with the state of Israel.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. had a brain worm and mercury poisoning from eating too much coal-polluted tuna fish. You might too.

As the election season heats up (get it?), national climate groups are coalescing around support of President Joe Biden. Led by the Democratic climate campaign group Climate Power, a coalition of national environmental organizations, mostly mainline but notably including the Sunrise Movement, have together released a spreadsheet totting up the Biden administration’s climate-friendly actions.¹

One of those policies is the Inflation Reduction Act’s Direct Pay tax credits, which directly fund local governments and non-profits when they build renewable energy projects. Experts with the Local Progress Action Lab and the Congressional Progressive Caucus Center are holding a webinar today at 1 pm on this exciting program.

Hearings on the Hill:

• 9:30 AM: House Appropriations
  Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies
  Member Day – Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies

• 10 AM: Senate Appropriations
  Labor, Health and Human Services, Education, and Related Agencies
  A Review of the President’s Fiscal Year 2025 Budget Request for the Department of Labor

• 10 AM: Senate Foreign Relations
  Nominations of John Nkengasong to be Ambassador-At-Large for Global Health Security and Diplomacy and Kristen Sarri to be Assistant Secretary of State for Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs

Climate Action Today:

• 1 PM: Local Progress Action Lab
  Congressional Progressive Caucus Center
  Webinar: Leveraging Historic Federal Funds for Racial, Economic, and Climate Justice

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. If you’ve got job listings, event listings, or other hot news, I want to hear it. Connect with me—@[email protected], @climatebrad on Threads, and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky.

The seas may be boiling hot, and we may be on a ship of fools, but Hill Heat will continue to shine its light on the passage through the oily darkness. Upgrade to a paid subscription today!

1  They did not assemble a spreadsheet of the administration’s fossil-fuel-friendly actions, which have supported record-smashing LNG exports, crude oil exports, petroleum product exports, and oil company profits.