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There is this concept called “Social License to Operation”. This basically refers to what the industry is generally considered to be legal or acceptable. As climate scientists increasingly discover that new coal, oil and gas projects are incompatible with a safer planet, fossil fuel companies are becoming the essential companies they are worthy of and committed to making our planet. I was looking for a way to check their social license by promoting the idea of ​​being. Make the world a better place.

Two examples of that campaign caught my attention this week.

The first concerns Politico, a news agency best known for its coverage of Washington politics and policy. In the climate newsletter Heated, journalists Ariel Samuelson and Emily Atkin put the fossil fuel group in the spotlight. Definitely pay for misleading advertising Politico and other media outlets have argued that natural gas is a key solution to the climate crisis.

What really caught my attention was Politico’s response. Asked about the organizations running misinformation ads, Politico executives said, “It’s not up to us to decide what’s true, what’s accurate, and what’s not.” he told Heated.

The second thing that caught my attention concerns everyone’s favorite baseball team, the (cheating) Houston Astros.

Three years after using a sign-stealing scheme to beat the Dodgers in the World Series, the team signed an advertising deal with Occidental Petroleum. This would see the Astros player wear the Occidental logo his patch on his jersey over the next seven his seasons.

“One of the things we love about Oxy is that they have a shared value of giving back to the community,” explained an Astros executive. Matt Young of the Houston Chronicle reported“They were really committed partners.”

In the months leading up to 2030, the year scientists say we need to cut climate pollution by almost half, the baseball team in America’s fourth-largest city will serve the big oil company’s good image. It means to continue

By the way, this is the same baseball team that once signed another energy company, Enron, to a $100 million stadium naming deal. That deal collapsed after Enron’s infamous market manipulation contributed to California’s energy crisis.

The battle continues for the hearts of sports fans and news consumers alike.

For that matter, here’s what’s happening in the West.

top story

“Why do we have rules if we don’t actually follow them?” Governor Gavin Newsom has used emergency powers to ask California regulators to hold back more water in reservoirs and reduce the amount of water flowing into San Francisco Bay through rivers. If his demands are granted, it could be devastating to salmon populations, critics say, reports Ian James of The Times. Even with heavy rains and snow in the last few months, we don’t know what the water supply will be like for the rest of the year. Case in point: My colleague Hayley Smith found that climate change-induced high-altitude wildfires are melting snowpacks in California faster than ever before, unbalancing water supply and demand. I am reporting on a new study.

Members of Congress are urging the Federal Environmental Protection Agency to help clean up toxic lead in southeastern Los Angeles County, citing an LA Times investigation revealing major failures in California’s cleanup efforts. . Rep. Robert Garcia of Long Beach wrote: California Senators Diane Feinstein and Alex Padilla. For more information from his colleague Jessica Garrison. And be sure to read our research by Garrison, Tony Briscoe, and Aida Ylanan. If you want to protect the most vulnerable people in society and support strong accountable journalism, consider paying for The Times digital his subscription.

Global warming kills more people as temperatures rise — but will those deaths be offset by a decline in cold deaths, which are even more dangerous than heat? was fun this fascinating work The Washington Post’s Harry Stevens delves into one of the most important issues of our time. The short version: “Predictions suggest that milder temperatures may actually help people in the wealthier northern countries of the planet. It’s already getting colder, and people can’t afford weather protection.” But the heat will afflict people in warmer, less affluent parts of the world, where every rise in temperature can lead to death, and air conditioning often remains an illusion.

energy transition

A Tesla charger in Kettleman, California.

(Carolyn Cole/Los Angeles Times)

Tesla has the best electric vehicle charging network in the country — and now Elon Musk’s company is being paid by the Biden administration to open up that network to non-Tesla electric vehicles. Here’s an article by Russ Mitchell of The Times that Musk has promised to provide 7,500 open access chargers by 2024. In other clean transportation news, climate justice activists urge Los Angeles County leaders to: Public transport should be freeThat’s because, as LAist’s Erin Stone reports, most LA Metro riders are Latinos or blacks making less than $35,000 a year.

Some renewable energy companies have warned that New Mexico’s proposal to establish a constitutional right to a clean environment could be used to sabotage solar and wind projects. showing concern. Click here for details From Adrian Hedden of Carlsbad Current Argus. It’s a compelling example of the growing tension between clean energy and conservation in the American West.And Los Angeles and other parts of the state are already buy clean power Originally from New Mexico.

Remember, there are other climate-friendly power options besides solar and wind. The Biden administration has announced a $74 million grant to support “enhanced” geothermal energy technology. Generating clean electricity from underground heat As Minho Kim writes for E&E News, it’s almost everywhere on Earth.i also enjoyed This Q&A By Dan Giarino of Inside Climate News Biden Administration Scientists Are About to Start a Nuclear Energy Renaissance Using Smaller, Cheaper Reactors.

political situation

Indigenous activists are deeply disappointed with President Biden’s proposed methane regulation, saying it will not be enough to prevent fossil fuel companies from releasing heat-trapping gases. Autumn Jones, author of Inside Climate News Note The president’s proposal “falls short of the Biden administration’s pledge to eliminate routine venting and flaring by the oil and gas industry by 2030,” it said. In another federal climate dispute, a judge blocked the Interior Department’s Trump-era approval of coal mining expansion in Montana’s Bull Mountains. Click here for details From Amanda Eggert for the Montana Free Press.

The Biden administration will provide $125 million to upper Colorado states to pay farmers and ranchers to temporarily dry their fields. that is the most money ever made available To that end, writes Michael Booth of the Colorado Sun.Lake Powell, along the Utah-Arizona border, has hit an all-time low, and Alex Hager told radio station KUNC in northern Colorado that the reservoir is Only 22% filledIt also occurred when Utah Governor Spencer Cox told Californians to “stay in California instead of coming to Utah as refugees.” One reason he says is because of water shortages in his state, reports Alexandra E. Petri of The Times.

California promised to help unemployed oil workers by training them to plug abandoned oil fields, but that program is now threatened by budget cuts. Governor Gavin Newsom’s latest budget proposal states: No new funding for the program, reports Sacramento Bee’s Maggie Angust, despite oil workers seeking additional help to survive the transition to renewable energy. In 2021, I wrote about some oil workers’ unions’ willingness to support the transition to clean energy. As long as it helps you keep going.

around the waist

Brent Eldridge received a gas bill of $907.13 in January. He suspects it was because he ran a spa.

(Luis Cinco/Los Angeles Times)

How are Californians coping with high natural gas prices? According to my colleague Laura J. Nelson, by taking public transportation to save money on gas, wearing silk undershirts to keep warm, and potentially canceling cables. spoke with a Southern California Gas Co. customer about the sticker shock they experienced when they received a $907.13 bill in January. In related news, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has not said if it will launch a formal investigation into the high natural gas prices in the West.But the agency is investigating price spikes at least to some extentSan Diego Union-Tribune’s Rob Nicolevsky reports using “enhanced scrutiny” to investigate whether market manipulation or other illegal activity may have occurred.

Three wildlife crosswalks will be built on the tracks of the planned high-speed rail from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, ideally to help bighorn sheep find food, water and safe habitat as the desert heats up. increase. Here’s an article by Christian Martinez for The Times that says railroad construction is set to begin this year — given the long and eventful history of high-speed rail between LA and Vegas, I think it See and believe it. Civil Eats’ Ann Marshall-Chalmers says the good news for wildlife is that farmers who plant hedges along the edges of their fields Brings beneficial wildlife, fewer pests and more carbon to the soilHer story focuses on the Sacramento Valley.

The U.S. Forest Service plans to shoot a wild buffalo from a helicopter over New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness. Conservationists believe that animals damage streams and rivers, as Susan Montoya Bryan reports for the Associated Press. Ranchers have criticized the scheme as cruelty to animals, and the Forest Service has accused it of “wasting economic resources.”As Jonathan P. Thompson notes in his book land desk newsletterThat said, “the livestock industry usually favors shooting wolves (because they can eat cows) and wild horses (because they compete with cows for fodder).”

one more

The Palm Springs Ropeway takes visitors to Mount San Jacinto State Park.

(Christopher Reynolds/Los Angeles Times)

California folks, this is so cool. Free state park pass At a local library, according to Brooke Staggs of the Orange County Register. Check out the rucksack (donated by REI) full of gear for enjoying the outdoors.

Three toasts to public libraries!

That’s what today is all about. It will be back in your inbox on Thursday. If you liked this newsletter, or previous edition, please consider forwarding it to a friend or colleague.Follow us for more climate and environmental news @ Sammy Ross on Twitter.