Estimated rainfall totals for July 25, showing the dry weather in areas under the influence of the large "heat dome" over the Central States. Click on the image for a larger version. Credit: NOAA/Climate Central.

by Andrew Freedman, via Climate Central

The massive U.S. drought, which is already driving food prices skyrocketing and prompting federal disaster declarations, has only grown worse during the past week. According to the latest edition of the U.S. Drought Monitor, released Thursday morning, between July 17 and July 24, the portion of the country affected by “extreme” to “exceptional” drought jumped from 14 percent to about 21 percent. The portion of the country affected by exceptional drought, which is the most significant drought category, rose from 1 percent last week to 2.4 percent this week.

In all, 33 of the lower 48 states were experiencing moderate drought or worse, with every state in the lower 48 experiencing at least “abnormally dry” conditions. For the fourth straight week, the U.S. set a record for the largest area of moderate drought conditions or worse since the U.S. Drought Monitor began in 2000. And climate outlooks for the next few months don’t offer much hope for sustained rainfall in the most severely affected drought regions, with above-average temperatures and below-average precipitation likely during the rest of the summer.

As it has for most of the summer so far, the weather pattern across the U.S. was dominated by a huge dome of High Pressure, more popularly referred to as a “heat dome,” that brought stifling air to the Central states. High temperatures were in the 100s Fahrenheit from the Great Plains to the Midwest. St. Louis, Mo., for example, set a record for the most days with a high temperature of 105°F or greater in a single calendar year with 11. That beat the record of 10 such days, set during the Dust Bowl year of 1934, and included a high temperature of 108°F on July 25.

While the drought is likely related to natural climate variability, including a long-lasting La Niña event that is still winding down, manmade climate change has likely made the drought worse by making the drought hotter than it otherwise would be. Extreme heat can help perpetuate drought conditions, since soils dry faster during periods of higher temperatures. This dynamic occurred during the 2011 Texas drought and heat wave, which cost farmers and ranchers in that state billions in losses.

“This drought is two-pronged,” said Brian Fuchs, a climatologist at the National Drought Minitgation Center in Lincoln, Neb., said in a press release. “Not only the dryness but the heat is playing a big and important role. Even areas that have picked up rain are still suffering because of the heat.”

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romleys, via Flickr

by Noreen Nielsen and Jackie Weidman

Chevron, the second largest oil company in the United States and eighth largest in the world, announced earning $7.2 billion in profits in the second-quarter of 2012, bring their total profits for the first six months of this year to $13.7 billion. The slight drop in profits is being attributed to “weakened oil prices from the year before, though fatter refining margins cushioned the blow.”  Chevron’s production has decreased by nearly 5 percent (4.7%) compared to this time last year, from 1.88 billion barrels of oil (+ liquid natural gas) to a current rate of 1.78 billion barrels per day.

Below is a glimpse at where Chevron is spending its billions in profits:

• Chevron has already spent over $5 million on lobbying in 2012, coming in as the fourth highest spender of the oil and gas industry. Collectively, the oil and gas industry has already spent nearly $70 million on lobbying this year, with Exxon, Shell, Koch Industries, Chevron and BP topping the list.
• Chevron has already contributed nearly $700,000 to federal campaigns this year, with 89 percent of contributions going to Republicans.
• Chevron paid a 19 percent effective federal tax rate in 2011, well below the statutory corporate rate of 35 percent.
• Chevron spent 18 percent of its Q2 profits buying back stocks ($1.3 billion), which enriches the largest shareholders.
• Chevron CEO John Watson received over $17 million in compensation last year.
• Chevron is sitting on cash reserves totaling $21.2 billion, up from $15.8 billion in January.

With just BP left to report its profits on Tuesday, four of the five Big Oil companies have already made over $57 billion in the first half of 2012.

By Jessica Goad

Sometimes it takes a bit of humor to reveal the core of bad policy ideas.  This is just what happened on the Daily Show two nights ago, when former Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain stopped by for an interview with Jon Oliver on energy policy.  As part of the interview, Cain called for selling off national parks:

Jon Oliver:  Gas prices are strangling Americans.

Herman Cain:  Yes.  Let’s sell some of these federal lands that contain newly discovered oil shale resources.  Let’s sell some of these parks that are nice to have but do we really need millions of acres of parks in order to say that we are environmentally friendly?

Oliver:  How much can one family picnic?

Cain:  Exactly.  And in today’s world, where we are a 24/7, 365 information overload society, how much picnicking are the kids doing if they are texting while picnicking?

Oliver:  That’s what I’m talking about right there!

Cain:  So we don’t need as many parks.

Oliver:  That’s just an ecological fact.

Watch it:

While it’s no surprise that Cain’s policy ideas are often radically far right, the truth is selling off national parks and other public lands has recently been proposed by a handful of Republicans.

In March, Rep. Cliff Stearns (R-FL) told a town hall gathering that “we don’t need more national parks in this country, we need to actually sell off some of our national parks.”  And former Rep. Richard Pombo proposed selling national parks to mining companies in 2005, which likely contributed to his election loss.

Also, Mitt Romney told the “Reno Gazette Journal” that he doesn’t know “the purpose of” public lands, which include 397 national park units on 84 million acres.  National parks provide $31 billion in economic contributions every year and support 258,000 jobs.

Jessica is the Manager of Research and Outreach for the Public Lands Project at the Center for American Progress.

Powerhouse Museum, via Flickr

Apple is producing enough clean power, through solar panels and fuel cells, at its data center in North Carolina that it says it can cover 60 percent of the total energy needs of the data center. Will the tech giant be doing the same thing at its new planned $1 billion data center just outside of Reno, Nevada? While details are few at this point, it sure looks like Apple is looking to have a significant amount of its data center power needs met with clean, and grid-independent, power. [GigaOM]

The percentage of buyers willing to consider an all-electric model has deteriorated since January from a bit over 5% to about 4.5% as of last month, CNW Research says. That might not sound like much until you consider it translates into 25,000 to 40,000 potential sales a year. The other bad news for electric car fans is that buyers say they aren’t willing to pay more than $800 for an electric car compared to a conventional car. In January, it was $850, CNW says. [USA Today]

The oil and natural-gas production boom sweeping the U.S. may be good for the country’s economic health, but it hasn’t recently been much help to energy giant Exxon Mobil Corp. Lackluster second-quarter financial results from Exxon’s U.S. oil and natural-gas production cast a shadow on the record global profit the company reported Thursday. [Wall Street Journal]

A U.S. Energy Department program designed to promote use of alternative fuels for vehicles gave out about $5 million in grants to individuals with conflicts of interest, the agency’s inspector general said. [Bloomberg]

Strong summer thunderstorms that pump water high into the upper atmosphere pose a threat to the protective ozone layer over the United States, researchers said on Thursday, drawing one of the first links between climate change and ozone loss over populated areas. [New York Times]