Current conditions: A severe storm system this weekend threatens 30 states with extreme weather ranging from fires to blizzards to tornadoes • Schools are closed in Florence after heavy rain triggered floods in Italy • The La Niña weather pattern looks to be on its way out.
THE TOP FIVE
1. Government shutdown deadline looms
Members of Congress have until midnight to pass a stopgap bill to fund the federal government, or else face a government shutdown. The House approved the GOP legislation earlier this week, but the Senate has yet to do so (though Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said he’d vote for it), and Democrats have concerns about its contents. The bill would keep funding the government at current levels until September, though it would also increase defense spending by $6 billion and decrease non-defense spending by $13 billion. There are a few items in the bill that are related to climate change and energy, including:
- $1.4 billion in cuts to Army Corps of Engineers funding that would have gone toward mitigating damage from hurricanes and floods.
- cuts to funding aimed at helping farmers participate in conservation activities.
- a provision that would hamper lawmakers’ ability to force a vote on whether to eliminate a president’s power to impose tariffs. “That would help Republican members avoid a politically painful up-or-down vote on ending Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico,” according to CNN.
The bill does not boost the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s disaster relief fund, nor does it include disaster relief for California. But it does raise federal wildland firefighters’ pay.
In a speech announcing he would support the measure, Schumer said “a shutdown would give Donald Trump the keys to the city, the state, and the country.”
2. Farmers sue Trump administration over frozen DOA grants
Five farms and three environmental nonprofits are suing the Trump administration for unlawfully freezing Department of Agriculture grants awarded through the Inflation Reduction Act. The grants for farmers were to go toward energy efficiency upgrades like solar panel installations. The farmers say they’ve already started investing in these upgrades with the expectation that the government would pitch in, and now they have bills to pay. The nonprofits were awarded Forest Service grants to support tree equity in historically underserved communities. “The Trump administration’s unlawful actions are hurting communities across the country,” said Hana Vizcarra, senior attorney at Earthjustice, which filed the lawsuit. “This is not government efficiency. It is thoughtless waste that inflicts unwarranted financial pain on small farmers and organizations trying to improve their communities.”
3. Insurers fret over NOAA cuts
Insurers are worried that the Trump administration’s cuts to key science programs across the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, NASA, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, and the U.S. Geological Survey will make it harder for them to forecast natural disaster risks like hurricanes, according to the Financial Times. As Heatmap’s Jeva Lange has reported, NOAA collects more than 20 terabytes of environmental data from Earth and space daily, and through its paleoclimatology arm, it has reconstructed climate data going back 100 million years. Layoffs at NOAA are hampering those data collection efforts, introducing gaps and inconsistencies. Flawed and incomplete data results in degraded and imprecise forecasts. In an era of extreme weather, the difference of a few miles or degrees can be a matter of life or death. While Congress mandates that certain data be collected, it does not mandate that data be made public, creating the risk that the administration could cut off access. The FT reports that lobbyists from the insurance industry have been urging Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick not to do that.
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4. CERAWeek winds down
The energy industry’s annual CERAWeek conference comes to a close today. Most of the biggest headline-making news (Energy Secretary Chris Wright saying climate change is a “trade off” for modernization; Interior Secretary Doug Burgum pushing to reopen coal plants; tech giants pledging to support a target of tripling nuclear capacity by 2050) happened in the event’s first two days. But one theme bubbling in the background is that peak oil production isn’t far off. Some oil and gas executives, including Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub and ConocoPhillips CEO Ryan Lance, projected that U.S. oil production will peak before 2030. “We don’t have many oil plays left in this country,” shale pioneer Scott Sheffield told Bloomberg. “The inventory is getting worse, naturally, because we drill so many wells. You’re fighting the inventory deterioration at the same time you’re trying to improve efficiencies.”
U.S. oil producers will meet with President Trump next week to talk trade, tariffs, and LNG.
5. Rep. Grijalva, a staunch environmental advocate, dies at 77
Representative Raúl Grijalva, Democrat of Arizona, died yesterday at the age of 77 from cancer complications. Grijalva served 12 terms in Congress and was a champion of environmental protection, including as chair of the U.S. House Natural Resources Committee. “He led the charge for historic investments in climate action, port of entry modernization, permanent funding for land and water conservation programs, access to health care for tribal communities and the uninsured, fairness for immigrant families and Dreamers, student loan forgiveness, stronger protections for farmers and workers exposed to extreme heat, early childhood education expansion, higher standards for tribal consultation, and so much more,” Grijalva’s office said in a statement. He helped write the National Landscape Conservation System Act and the Federal Lands Restoration Act, and advocated for permanently protecting the Grand Canyon. A special election will take place later this year to replace him.
THE KICKER
Greenhouse gas emissions in the United Kingdom fell last year by 3.6% to their lowest levels since 1872.
