Fracking can’t rely on plastics

Americans support the steps taken by the Biden administration thus far to tackle climate change by large margins, according to a new poll. The widespread support comes as the White House and the U.S. Congress gear up for a major push on a roughly $3 trillion infrastructure proposal, which could potentially mark the most ambitious push on climate action ever attempted in the U.S. Read all about it here.

Campaigners, meanwhile, are calling for polluters to be denied access to this year’s pivotal COP26 summit and locked out of all future UN climate talks. A letter released this week, and signed by over 170 grassroots groups, urged the UK government to “kick out” polluters from sponsoring or even visiting the climate summit, claiming their presence is “poisoning” the climate debate. The letter by campaign group Glasgow Calls Out Polluters reads: “To protect vulnerable communities we urgently need a just transition to a fossil-free world but many polluters, whose profits depend on inaction, won’t let this happen.” Caitlin Tilley has the story.

And a new report warns that developing new shale gas fields in Appalachia “may not end up being profitable” in the years ahead. In addition, the associated petrochemical buildout that the region has pinned its hopes on as the future of natural gas is “unlikely,” the report states. For much of the past decade, the region has seen natural gas prices languish as drillers pumped too much gas out of the ground, which has resulted in persistently low prices. And now a renewed price surge appears unlikely as gas faces growing competition from solar and wind. Nick Cunningham reports.