| Dissenting Justice Elena Kagan called it "frightening." Bloomberg Opinion columnists said the US Supreme Court's decision to limit the Environmental Protection Agency's powers were a "wrecking ball" to President Joe Biden's bid to halve emissions by 2030. Our reporters saw slightly more nuance. The EPA "isn't knocked out, but doing its job just got much harder," Leslie Kaufman wrote in today's Bloomberg Green newsletter. (Sign up here.) Germany also had a swing, pushing other world leaders at this week's G-7 summit to allow financing for new gas projects. That would dilute agreements reached at last year's COP26 meeting (where I worked for the UK government). According to Bloomberg's Jess Shankleman (a must-follow on climate matters), the UK pushed back. The compromise allows some new fossil fuel projects, so long as they're described as "temporary". Shankleman's view is G-7 leaders just made success at COP27 harder." Even Germany's own climate envoy is unhappy, she reports. On the home front, ex-Brexit supremo Lord Frost today opened fire on the UK's net-zero ambitions, calling for more gas-fired power stations to deal with a gas-supply crunch. If they are not built, he contends, we will end up with power rationing. We revealed yesterday how National Grid is war-gaming winter. Their sequencing is not far off rationing. Senior energy industry figures suggested to The Readout yesterday that the UK could hoard liquefied natural gas coming to the UK that's destined for Europe. Others messaged today warning Norway could retaliate later in winter. With these kinds of conversations going on, Lord Frost is right to ask questions about energy security. But is gas the answer to a gas crisis? Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng would certainly disagree. Frost asserts that renewables make energy supplies more expensive. Yet just last week Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he will overhaul energy markets, to stop pricing electricity by the highest marginal gas price rather than the lower rate for renewable power. Johnson called the current situation "ludicrous". Here, EV sales are rising, up 17.7% in May, to 15,448 cars. It's still a fraction of the total, but is the rise in gas prices finally making EVs competitive? A viable market second-hand market for used EVs is needed to tempt regular cash-strapped families to make the switch. Gas will play a role as the world weans itself off Putin's fossil fuels. But this week the wrecking balls aimed at net zero didn't knock out all of their low-carbon targets. | 
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