For years, fossil fuel producing states have watched investors shy away from companies causing the climate crisis. Last year, one state decided to push back. Texas passed a law treating financial companies shunning fossil fuels the same way it treated companies that did business with Iran, or Sudan: boycott them. "This bill sent a strong message to both Washington and Wall Street that if you boycott Texas energy, then Texas will boycott you," Texas Representative Phil King said from the floor of the Texas legislature during deliberations on the bill, SB 13, last year. But the Lone Star state is straining to implement the law. Loopholes and exceptions written into the law could sap its impact on financial firms that have aggressive climate policies. - NPR

FRONTLINE examines the fossil fuel industry’s history of casting doubt and delaying action on climate change. This three-part series traces decades of missed opportunities and the ongoing attempts to hold Big Oil to account. - Frontline

The Keystone XL pipeline extension, proposed by TC Energy (then TransCanada) in 2008, was initially designed to transport the planet’s dirtiest fossil fuel, tar sands oil, to market—and fast. As an expansion of the company’s existing Keystone Pipeline System, which has been operating since 2010 (and continues to send Canadian tar sands crude oil from Alberta to various processing hubs in the middle of the United States), the pipeline promised to dramatically increase capacity to process the 168 billion barrels of crude oil locked up under Canada’s boreal forest. It was expected to transport 830,000 barrels of Alberta tar sands oil per day to refineries on the Gulf Coast of Texas. From the refineries, the oil would be sent chiefly overseas—not to gasoline pumps in the United States. - NRDC

The U.S. power generation market has changed dramatically over the past five years. Natural gas has been bleeding market share to cheaper sources of electricity, which include solar, wind, and even nuclear. At roughly $5 per MMbtu, the price of natural gas today is more than double what it was just two years ago. Even at half of that price, natural gas has been unable to compete with solar in the Southwest. - AZ Capitol Times

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Told by people in the UK and the Netherlands, this two-part series reveals the scale and life-threatening impact of the pollution we breathe in every day, as well as the inaction of our governments. - WaterBear Films

But nonetheless, as politicians try to bring down the cost of gas, I want to take a moment to reflect on the true cost of driving. That cost includes not just the price of a vehicle and filling up the tank but also the costs that operating it impose on society, including pollution that drives climate change. Calculating the damage done by pollution and other factors such as traffic and accidents—what economists call externalities—is a fraught process, and economists don’t necessarily agree about all the variables. But one thing is true under any reasoned consideration: driving costs society much more than you’re paying to do it. - Yahoo / Time

Hundreds of cargo ships already use Nautilus’ software system to monitor and optimize their voyages, according to the company. That includes vessels owned or operated by the French oil and gas giant TotalEnergies, Eastern Pacific Shipping and Emirates Shipping Line. So far, Nautilus clients have saved up to 12 percent on fuel costs per voyage, with the overall savings potential expected to reach as high as 30 percent. - Canary Media

After a large crude-oil spill by the Spanish-owned Repsol oil refinery caused suspension of fishing in Peru, more than 2,500 fishermen have been out of work. Those affected are on the poverty line and it remains unclear when they can return to fish.  - CSMonitor

When Earl “Trey” Howe III returned home here after four years of military service, the first thing he noticed was the smell. Howe grew up in and around Ponca City, the site of the Phillips 66 refinery, one of the oldest and largest crude oil refineries and tank farms in the country. The smell from the plant—a sulfur-rich odor somewhere between rotten eggs and freshly paved asphalt—was so constant, he’d never even noticed it. But now, it seemed to follow him everywhere. "Depending on which way the wind is blowing, I’ll get a stronger whiff on some days than others,” Howe, 51, the former chairman of the Ponca Tribe of Oklahoma, said. “It’s overpowering sometimes.” - Inside Climate News

Shareholders of the nation’s largest natural gas utility could be forced to pay nearly $10 million after using customer money to fight public policies that could slow the climate crisis. California officials are poised to levy the fine on Southern California Gas Co., which sells natural gas to millions of homes and businesses for heating and cooking, and to power plant operators for electricity generation. The fossil fuel is a major source of the heat-trapping carbon emissions that have caused worsening heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods, and that are driving many species to extinction. SoCalGas has engaged in a sweeping campaign to block clean energy measures that threaten its business model, including local bans on gas hookups in new housing and statewide efforts to encourage construction of all-electric homes. - LA Times

A small number of “ultra-emitters” of methane from oil and gas production contribute as much as 12 percent of methane emissions from oil and gas production every year to the atmosphere every year — and now scientists know where many of these leaks are. Analyses of satellite images from 2019 and 2020 reveal that a majority of the 1,800 biggest methane sources in the study come from six major oil- and gas-producing countries: Turkmenistan led the pack, followed by Russia, the United States, Iran, Kazakhstan and Algeria. Plugging those leaks would not only be a boon to the planet, but also could save those countries billions in U.S. dollars, climate scientist Thomas Lauvaux of the University of Paris-Saclay and colleagues report in the Feb. 4 Science. - Science News

Russia invaded Ukraine, global oil prices spiked, and one U.S. state in particular will feel the crunch. Hawaii imports all of its oil, much of it from Russia itself. As the U.S. Energy Information Administration succinctly notes, ​“Isolated by the Pacific Ocean, Hawaii is the most petroleum-dependent U.S. state.” And while gasoline prices are rising everywhere, Hawaii is unique among the states in how much it depends on oil for electricity. The geopolitical strife in Eastern Europe catches Hawaii at an awkward moment of transition from fossil-fueled electricity to clean energy. - Canary Media

In the Bylong Valley in the verdant hills of southeastern Australia, a community’s victory over a planned coal mine shows the rising opposition that’s stalling new supply of the fuel and pushing prices higher. For campaigners in this pastoral countryside adjacent to a world heritage site, a decision this month by the High Court of Australia was the culmination of a years-long legal battle against a global corporate giant. For the loser, Korea Electric Power Corp., and for the coal industry as a whole, it was just the latest blow as sentiment hardens against the most-polluting fossil fuel. - Apple News (Bloomberg) or Mining Weekly

When fossil fuel companies flare fossil gas, they do more than burn natural gas. They burn money. Every year, U.S. oil and gas companies set fire to billions of cubic feet of natural gas and directly vent an additional unknown amount. These processes, known as flaring and venting, don’t just waste resources; they also pollute the atmosphere with hazardous, global-warming gases, such as methane. Companies argue that they flare and vent for safety and maintenance and because selling or reusing the gas is not financially feasible. The industry and its regulators even refer to this gas as “waste.” But experts say a valuable resource is being squandered because of weak regulations, ineffective tracking of flaring and venting, and a lack of economic incentives to capture and sell the gas.  - Inside Climate News

As Zimbabwe’s coal industry expands, residents around the western town of Hwange are experiencing the effects of underground coal seam fires. Residents, particularly children, and livestock are at risk from falling into the smoldering fires beneath unstable ground. Unfenced areas above the fires are often used as outdoor toilets, playgrounds, and grazing areas. Victims suffer burned legs, and in one case, a young girl died of her burn injuries. “The [Hwange] community is living in fear of these fires as the number of people getting burned increases by each passing day. Livestock, especially in the Madubasa, Hwange area, have also fallen victim to these fires,” said Fidelis Chima, coordinator of Greater Whange Residents Trust. - EOS

Four major oil companies aren't taking concrete steps to live up to their pledges to transition to clean energy, new research has found. The study, published Wednesday in the journal PLOS One, found that Chevron, ExxonMobil, BP and Shell used terms like "climate," "low-carbon" and "transition" more frequently in recent annual reports and devised strategies around decarbonization. But their actions on clean energy were mostly pledges and the companies remain financially reliant on fossil fuels. "We thus conclude that the transition to clean energy business models is not occurring, since the magnitude of investments and actions does not match discourse," the researchers at Tohoku University and Kyoto University in Japan said. The four major oil companies the study focuses on account for more than 10% of global carbon emissions since 1965, the researchers said. - NPR

Historic abandoned mines litter the Appalachian landscape: unreclaimed high walls scar foothills and threaten landslides, toxic mine drainage leaches into local waterways and some underground mine shafts even catch fire and burn for years at a time. Now, Kentucky is eligible for an unprecedented investment in reclaiming and restoring those abandoned mine lands. With the passage of President Biden’s Infrastructure Investment & Jobs Act, U.S. communities will receive $11.3 billion over the next 15 years for reclamation & restoration of historic mines. - WFPL News

The transition to clean energy won’t be complete without cleaning up the messes left behind by dirty energy. The federal government took a new step toward that goal this week. The U.S. Department of the Interior announced the release of nearly $725 million in funding for cleaning up old coal-mining facilities. It’s the first tranche of a record $11.3 billion dedicated to coal cleanup in last year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to be disbursed over the next 15 years. States and tribes with abandoned coal mines will be able to apply for a portion of the funding in the coming weeks. - Canary Media

U.S. carbon dioxide emissions boomeranged toward pre-pandemic levels in 2021, a turnaround from more than a decade of downward trends, and freight transportation and coal are major culprits, according to a report released Monday by the Rhodium Group, an independent research firm. America’s greenhouse gas emissions grew 6.2 percent last year as the American economy largely recovered from pandemic lockdowns, the Rhodium report estimated. In comparison, between 2005 and 2019, U.S. emissions fell nearly 1 percent annually, on average, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. The uptick occurred largely due to a 17 percent jump in coal-fired power generation, the first annual increase in coal generation since 2014, and a rapid resurgence of road transportation. Coal’s comeback was driven largely by a hike in natural gas prices, which made coal power more economically attractive. - Inside Climate News

The influential rightwing lobby group the American Legislative Exchange Council (Alec) is driving a surge in new state laws to block boycotts of the oil industry. The group’s strategy, which aims to protect large oil firms and other conservative-friendly industries, is modeled on legislation to punish divestment from Israel. Since the beginning of the year, state legislatures in West Virginia, Oklahoma and Indiana have introduced a version of a law drafted by Alec, called the Energy Discrimination Elimination Act, to shield big oil from share selloffs and other measures intended to protest the fossil fuel industry’s role in the climate crisis. A dozen other states have publicly supported the intent of the legislation. Texas has already begun compiling a list of companies to target for refusing to do business with the oil industry after the state passed a version of the law last year. Top of the list is the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock. - Guardian

Mashona Dlamini knew his land was rich long before any mining company told him so.  As a child, he often followed his father, a healer called an inyanga, down through the silver-flecked red dunes around their village to the coast. There, they gathered the octopuses, sea urchins, and seawater that his father used to make medicine. In winter, the land on either side of their path heaved up sweet potatoes and corn, in summer thick bunches of bananas. As long as they took only what they needed, Mr. Dlamini’s father explained as they walked, there would always be more. So when international mining companies began to arrive in the early 2000s – first for titanium in the dunes, and later for gas they said might be beneath the ocean floor – Mr. Dlamini, along with many of his neighbors, wasn’t particularly interested in their pitch.  - CS Monitor