Nurdle Patrol is on a roll!

Goldman Prize, Supreme Court surprise, back-SLAPPs

PRESENTED BY HOW TO BLOW UP A HELI-SKIING SUPERYACHT

Let’s talk winners, shall we?

This year’s six winners of Goldman Environmental Prize, established in 1989 by Robert and Rhoda Goldman with some of the Levi Strauss fortune, are, from Alessandra to Zafer:

Defying expectations, our cartoonishly corrupt Supreme Court surprisingly rejected ExxonMobil and Chevron’s joint attempt to move their climate-liability lawsuits to federal courts. Oil investor Samuel Alito recused himself, but Amy Coney Barrett, whose father is a long-time oil-industry lawyer, did not. Brett Kavanaugh indicated he wanted to hear the case.1

Also in the winner’s circle: Greenpeace. Last week, “the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed a seven-year lawsuit against Greenpeace USA and Greenpeace International brought by Resolute Forest Products. After Greenpeace exposed Resolute’s unsustainable forestry practices, the Canadian logging company sued Greenpeace offices for $100 million in an attempt to silence and bankrupt their critics.” SLAPP-ed back!

And President Joe Biden’s Earth Day executive order formally established the Office of Environmental Justice within the White House Council on Environmental Quality. Enough for Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) to endorse Joe for re-election and the Sierra Club and the League of Conservation Voters to use Biden’s campaign slogan to “finish the job.”

FROM FLOOD… Significant flooding is happening along the Mississippi River this week, from Minneapolis to Davenport, Iowa. Yosemite Valley will close this weekend because of the potential for flooding along the Merced River. California Gov. Gavin Newsom visited the flooded fields of the San Joaquin Valley yesterday, “where the long-dry Tulare Lake has stunningly re-emerged, pledging support for the rural towns taking in floodwater.”

In the meantime, fossil-fuel money continues to flood into our political system. Frackers are planning to spend at least $4 million on a campaign to overturn Eugene’s ban on gas hookups in new homes, Anna Phillips reports. Republican Louisiana state Rep. Markham Scott “Scott” McKnight is running to be the sinking petro-state’s treasurer; his campaign is unsurprisingly oil-soaked, with donations from ExxonMobil and the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association.

…TO FAMINE: Virtually the entire D.C. and Baltimore region is in drought, which has “helped fuel outdoor fires, contributed to a punishing pollen season, decreased river flow rates and started to impact crops.”

The nation’s winter wheat crop was mostly seeded in drought, heightening the risk of above-average flour prices into 2024.

The biggest wildfire in the continental United States in 2022 and the biggest in New Mexico history was lit by an ill-prepared and understaffed U.S. Forest Service crew who “didn’t properly account for dry conditions and high winds when it ignited prescribed burns meant to limit the fuel for a potential wildfire.” Hundreds of local residents burned out of their homes are still struggling for housing, with little to no support from the federal government.

Conspicuous-consumption journalist Michael Cameron describes the “Ultimate Luxury Adventure Experience”:

“If you can get your head around the fact that you’re skiing on completely untouched descents in the last true frontier on Earth, then skiing in Antarctica offers an unforgettable experience full of pleasant surprises. Skiers are able to carve all the way down to the waterline and be greeted by the local wildlife. Antarctic seals and penguins are unused to human contact and are surprisingly placid.”

I think I know what the sequel to How To Blow Up a Pipeline is going to be now.

Climate hawk Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) continues his regular series of climate hearings as chair of the Budget Committee, with this morning’s hearing Under the Weather: Diagnosing the Health Costs of Climate Change.

Also at 10 am, Environment and Public Works chair Tom Carper (D-Del.) hosts Opportunities to Improve Project Reviews for a Cleaner and Stronger Economy, looking for a version of permitting reform that’s an improvement on Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) “shit sandwich.”

On the House side, Republicans are also focusing on climate policy, with House Energy and Commerce’s Critical Materials Subcommittee Chair Bill Johnson (R-Ohio)’s entertainingly-titled “Exposing the Environmental, Human Rights, and National Security Risks of the Biden Administration’s Rush to Green Policies.” Because, you see, climate inaction is the only safe path.

Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.) chairs a hearing on Tunisia, whose severe fossil-fueled drought is devastating the populace. Two hearings continue the development of Mexico as a carceral state for climate migrants seeking to reach the United States; in the morning the House Foreign Affairs committee marks up legislation to give the Secretary of State wide latitude in coordinating immigration control with Mexico, and in the afternoon Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) chairs “The effects of increased migration on communities along the southern border.” No need to mention the causes, of course.

Hearings on the FY2024 budget are ongoing, though at a more reasonable pace than in previous weeks.

Other hearings of interest on Wednesday include the committee vote on the impressive Julie Su as Secretary of Labor and a full-day House Agriculture hearing for producer perspectives on the 2023 Farm Bill.

Hearings on the Hill:

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1 Oil lawyer and Democratic megadonor Theodore J. Boutrous Jr.’s argument against these lawsuits is that the damage caused by the oil industry’s climate pollution is too apocalyptic to be handled by the justice system: “Climate change is an issue of national and global magnitude that requires a coordinated federal policy response, not a disjointed patchwork of lawsuits in state courts across multiple states. These wasteful lawsuits in state courts will do nothing to advance global climate solutions, nothing to reduce emissions, and nothing to address climate-related impacts.”

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