CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: US spending for global climate response ‘pitifully too low’ (E&E News), Biden administration falls short on crucial climate goal (Gizmodo)
CLIMATE LITIGATION: Court rules Australian minister has no climate duty of care (AP)
FOSSIL FUELED WAR: The climate spillover of Russia's war (Axios), Can the West slaughter Putin’s sacred cash cow? (The Guardian), Why LNG won't fully replace Russian gas in Europe (OilPrice), Will Russia’s war spur Europe to move on green energy? (Yale Environment 360), Europe scrambles for solutions to energy market disruption (FT $), German oil lobby says imports from Russia being reduced (Reuters), Russia exodus shows the level of scrutiny big oil is now under (Energy Monitor), Russia’s war in Ukraine sends tremors into the Arctic (E&E News), Russian energy import stop could cost Germany up to 3% of GDP -economists (Reuters)
- FOSSIL PRICE SHOCKS: An energy expert breaks down what's really going on with gas prices (Gizmodo), The truth about gas prices and oil production (Washington Post, Fact check $), International Energy Agency head: 'Too optimistic' to say the worst of price increases is over (The Hill), India eyeing discounted Russian oil: reports (The Hill), The high cost of Europe’s energy security (Wall Street Journal $), US gas-fired generation gains as Russia-Ukraine war hikes coal prices globally (S&P Global), US shale oil production growth revised downward, natural gas outlook rises: EIA (S&P Global)
- ENERGY FINANCE: Fact-checking 5 claims in Russia energy debate (E&E News), Money flows to green-energy funds amid vows to cut Russian fuels (Bloomberg $), Morgan Stanley downgrades energy stocks Chevron and Occidental, citing valuation concerns (CNBC), Shareholders at four US oil companies to vote on climate proposals (Reuters), German official: Ukraine war will boost low-emissions tech (AP), Major US oil firms set to put climate resolutions to shareholder votes (OilPrice), China sells US LNG to Europe at a hefty profit (Bloomberg $)
DENIAL & DELUSION: Pence falsely blames Biden’s nixing of Keystone pipeline for US reliance on Russian oil (PolitiFact), Former Telegraph editor Charles Moore quits climate denial group (DeSmog),
PIONEERS: Eunice Foote: the first climate scientist’s legacy (Atmos)
SHE GOT COLD AND LEFT BEFORE THEY STORMED THE CAPITOL THOUGH: Ginni Thomas didn't just praise MAGA supporters on January 6. She actually attended the “Stop the Steal” rally (Vanity Fair, Washington Post $, New York Times $, CNN, USA Today, Yahoo, Axios, Forbes, Rolling Stone), Wife of Justice Thomas rebuts claims of conflict of interest (NPR)
SCOTUS: Minnesota climate case is next to test Supreme Court ruling (E&E $)
EPA: EPA brings on air program environmental justice coordinator (E&E $)
DOI: Judge axes Trump-era lease sales to protect sage grouse (E&E News)
THE HILL: Congress set to keep focus on Ukraine, energy prices (E&E News), Water policy deluge: Hearings on infrastructure, equity (E&E $)
HOUSE: House Democrats urge Biden to restart spending bill negotiations and prioritize climate change (Washington Post $, CNN, Axios, The Hill, Washington Examiner, The Independent), Democrats want investigation into Postal Service’s gas guzzlers contract (New York Times $, AP), House Agriculture hearing to revisit climate change debate (E&E $)
SENATE: Progressive groups target Schumer in climate spending push (The Hill),
Manchin ‘very reluctant’ on electric cars in ominous sign for Biden’s climate fight (The Guardian)
NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Senate sets vote on budget office nominee Shalanda Young (E&E $)
CITIES AND STATES: Washington legislators again mandate 100% electric new car sales by 2030 (Utility Dive), Biden taps new director for DOE innovation office (E&E $), Calif. looks to phase out gas-fueled heaters (E&E $), NJ transit sees $550 million hole when COVID aid declines (Bloomberg $)
- VIRGINIA: How Andrew Wheeler’s Virginia nomination came undone (E&E News), Ex-EPA leader Wheeler to serve as adviser to Youngkin (AP, Washington Post $), As Virginia nets another $74 million, RGGI uncertainty lingers (Virginia Mercury)
FERC: FERC Commissioner Willie Phillips (Politico Pro, interview $), FERC allows New York entities to recover costs if transmission project abandoned (S&P Global)
IMPACTS: February 2022: Earth’s 7th-warmest February on record (Yale Climate Connections), Sun sets on Mexico’s paradise beaches as climate crisis hits home (The Guardian)
PROBABLY FINE: Holes the size of city blocks are forming in the Arctic seafloor (CNN)
DROUGHT: Low water levels at key US reservoir 'putting us in uncharted territory,' expert says (Yahoo)
WATER: A dangerous game of chicken on the Colorado River (Writers on the Range)
DEFORESTATION: The Amazon Rainforest is approaching a "tipping point" beyond which it would become barren (Salon)
OOPS: How 5G could send weather forecasting back to the 1970s (Grist)
GEOENGINEERING: Scientists in the US are flying planes into clouds to make it snow more (CNN)
TREES: What a researcher learned from monitoring Atlanta’s tree canopy (Yale Climate Connections)
RENEWABLES: Australian billionaires put more money into $15 billion solar power export project (Reuters), China sets $63 billion to pay subsidies owed to renewables firms (Bloomberg $), Solar growth, new installations slowing in the face of 18% price increases, report says (Utility Dive), Swedish wind power generation to rise 70% by 2024 - agency (Reuters), Urban Indians beat space crunch by investing in digital solar power (Thomson Reuters Foundation), Welsh solar farm exceeds expectations in powering Swansea hospital (The Guardian)
BUILDINGS: BlocPower hopes to fight climate change by electrifying buildings (CNBC), The green building that’s flunking New York’s climate law (Bloomberg $)
OIL & GAS: Study finds flaring can impact the health of people 60 miles away (New Mexico Political Report), As oil spikes, clean energy firms see opening (Houston Chronicle), Drilling permits spiked then plunged under Biden (E&E News), Fracking company boss makes last gasp plea to [UK] government to lift moratorium on shale gas (The Independent), The oil crisis is making fossil fuel executives cocky and vengeful (New Republic)
PLASTICS: Plastics resolution tees up battle over oil industry’s plan B (Climate Home)
PIPELINES: Judge dismisses KXL border permit case (E&E $), [Mountain Valley] Pipeline developer urges court to rethink permit rejections (E&E $)
COAL: Coal country crawfish get critical habitat protections (E&E $), Faced with turmoil, China turns to its old reliable — coal (Bloomberg $), [Australia PM] Scott Morrison says coal power stations should ‘run as long as they possibly can’ (The Guardian)
NUKES: How Russia’s invasion is affecting US nuclear (E&E News), US funds projects on tackling waste from advanced nuclear plants (Reuters), UK looking to extend life of nuclear plant by 20 years amid energy crisis (FT $)
UTILITIES: Why your electric bill is soaring—and likely to go higher (Wall Street Journal $)
EVs: How an electric truck factory became a lightning rod in Georgia (New York Times $), Ford to ramp up EV offering in Europe, plans major battery facility in Turkey (CNBC)(FT $), Electric delivery vans set to take off in the US (Canary Media)
BITCOIN: EU Parliament backs off plans to phase out energy-hungry cryptocurrencies (The Verge)
AVIATION: How Frontier’s merger with spirit will impact the agenda of the ‘world’s greenest airline’ (Fortune)
AGRICULTURE: In the San Francisco Bay area, the pandemic connects rural farmers and urban communities (Inside Climate News)
SHIPPING: The world’s cargo ships are sailing into worse climate risks: report (Bloomberg $)
FINANCE: Goldman accused of breaching coal pledge with Peabody deal (FT $), Investors push 10,000 companies to disclose environmental data to CDP (Reuters), Carbon Collective aims to solve climate change using your 401(k) (Axios), ECB accuses eurozone banks of ‘white noise’ on climate risks (FT $), Net-zero pledge from $55 billion Australian pension giant lags peers (Bloomberg $), What's an ESG mutual fund? Here's how to invest in equitable and sustainable companies (CNN)
PFAS: PFAS are leaving a chemical fingerprint in pine needles (Environmental Health News)
WILDLIFE: Here’s where biodiversity is disappearing the quickest in the US (Popular Science)
INTERNATIONAL: Australian court allows government appeal against climate ruling (Bloomberg $), Canada's rare new skiing adventure (BBC), China slams firms for falsifying carbon data (Reuters), China's Guangdong seeks to create Greater Bay carbon market (Reuters), Number of European companies with science-based climate targets rises 85%(Energy Monitor), Yorkshire’s lost ‘Atlantis’ nearly found, says Hull professor (The Guardian) |
Facebook Friends Conservative Climate Denying Election Stealers Because FB VP Joel Kaplan Is A Republican Climate Denying Election Stealer
All the way back in the year 2000, during a contested presidential election, a group of supposed election integrity protestors violently stopped the Florida vote recount in what became known as the “Brooks Brothers riot” (because the “protestors” were well-dressed white men). They could afford silk ties and such because many of them were, it turned out, Republican operatives. It was an early test of how the United States would take concerted acts of political violence meant to inflict terror against the election officials conducting a vote-counting process they might lose.
Clearly, we failed.
Not only was the violence rewarded with their preferred electoral outcome, but those responsible went on to key positions in the Bush administration. One, described as “a key part” of the riot because he was the Republican election observer who could have calmed the rioters by saying he was watching and nothing shady was happening. But he didn't, saying it wasn’t his job. But it would lead to one in the W. Bush administration, where he would then, among other things, thwart the EPA’s efforts to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant.
Joel Kaplan could’ve cut off the “Brooks Brothers riot” but felt no need to tell his compatriots to stand down, and after his tenure in the Bush administration using political power and dirty tricks to prevent the finding that climate change is a public health threat from moving forward, he went on to work at Facebook.
There, Kaplan would come to dominate the company’s policy decisions, and again and again acted in exactly the way someone who deliberately stole an election and then denied the harm caused by climate change would: by preventing any changes to the platform that would limit Republicans’ ability to steal elections, lie about climate change, and otherwise preach hate.
That’s the very short version of a very long piece Benjamin Wofford published in Wired last week, profiling Joel Kaplan’s role in steering Facebook through, and perhaps into, controversy. Though some employees, including Democratic ones, stuck up for Kaplan, Wofford’s feature is as detailed as it is damning.
Here’s some excerpts, but we strongly recommend anyone concerned about the global ramifications of Facebook’s intentional design as a conservative propaganda machine find the time to read it. We’ll keep it to the climate-related content though, for sake of length.
In 2007, the EPA had found carbon dioxide emissions causing climate change were a threat to public health, and therefore should be regulated. But Kaplan stepped in to stop it, and when he couldn’t force the EPA to disavow it as a mistake, he instructed an official not to open the email containing the EPA’s finding, because that way they wouldn’t have to start the rule-making process. Instead, as “the email sat unopened for weeks,” EPA begged Kaplan for “help in bringing these issues to closure.” Six months later, the Bush EPA issued a different finding, and “this time,” Wofford writes, “it did not make any formal recommendation” to regulate CO2.
Fast forward 10 years, and Kaplan is calling the shots at Facebook. When it came to the question of whether the Daily Caller, which at the time got nearly half its annual revenue from the Koch disinfo network, should be allowed to be an official fact-checking affiliate. Facebook’s “Civic Integrity” staff thought “the move would harm the program’s reputation” because the Koch-y outlet “was a frequent offender for misinformation.” Kaplan didn’t care, and said “they’re a legitimate news site.”
At the time, the Daily Caller was getting nearly 40% of its annual revenue from the Koch network, and regularly pumping out climate disinformation.
Kaplan was not only sympathetic to outlets like the Caller that kept hiring white nationalists during the period in question (and did and still peddles climate disinfo), he was also a staunch defender of Breitbart, an outlet that very literally solicited editing feedback from white supremacists (and also peddles climate disinfo).
By 2020, Facebook’s fact-checking program was underway, but for some reason, kept excusing Breitbart and other blatantly false disinformation from the right. One “employee documented evidence that Breitbart was appealing directly to Policy team contacts to override penalties for misinformation” and “within hours, all of Breitbart’s misinformation strikes were erased.”
Similarly, when it came to Charlie Kirk and his election-steal-encouraging, ALEC-partnering, Koch-network-funded Turning Point USA page, the overturning of a “partly false” rating by fact-checkers was done with “a note that read ‘PRIORITY–WAS ASKED BY JOEL.”
“Of three dozen such escalations,” Wofford reports, “a ‘significant majority’ came from conservative publishers, while none were from outwardly progressive ones.” So, the employee asked on FB’s internal message system, perhaps rhetorically, ‘What led to this disparity?’”
Wofford’s piece makes an undeniable argument that the reason Facebook is full of violent rightwing extremists spreading climate denial and disinfo, is because that’s exactly what loyal Republican Joel Kaplan wants.
When Senator Frank Lautenberg questioned Kaplan about his complicity in the Brooks Brothers riot and why he didn’t do anything to quell the violence, Kaplan demurred that he “was not in charge of the people.” Mayco Villafaña, the local government representative attacked by the Brooks Bros rioters,“suspected he knew the answer to Lautenberg’s question,” Wofford wrote: “To win at all costs.”
These days Kaplan is leading hundreds of lobbyists in the country’s second-largest political influence teams in the country, and Wofford's reporting makes it crystal clear that Kaplan is very much in charge of the people. There’s no question that Villafaña’s assessment is right, and that Kaplan’s going to help Republicans win at all costs.
The only uncertainty is what that cost will be, as now it looks like it may be democracy, and perhaps even the climate itself, and its capacity to sustain human civilization. |
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