ENVIRONMENTAL (IN)JUSTICE: The problem of global energy inequity, explained by American refrigerators (Vox)
FOSSIL FUELED WAR: Progressives warn Europe against rush to LNG reliance (E&E News), Germany and Italy approved Russian gas payments after nod from Brussels - sources (Reuters), Qatar limited in supplying LNG to germany with output maxed out (Bloomberg $), Fearing Russian cutoff, German industry braces for gas rations race (Reuters), China quietly ramps up low-cost Russian oil purchases: report (Washington Examiner), War plus climate change equals a perfect storm (Bloomberg $)
- FINLAND: Russia cuts off gas exports to Finland in symbolic move (AP, The Hill, BBC, Politico Pro $, Axios, Bloomberg $)
- HUNGARY: In Hungary, cheap Russian oil fuels right-wing culture wars (New York Times $), Hungary's Orban opens CPAC by telling conservatives "we need to coordinate the movement" of allies (CBS), MAGA makes the pilgrimage to authoritarian hungary (Mother Jones), Trump shares CPAC Hungary platform with notorious racist and antisemite (The Guardian, Rolling Stone), Viktor Orbán tells CPAC the path to power is to ‘have your own media’ (The Guardian), The European country where “replacement theory” reigns supreme (Vox, Salon)
SHELL GAMES: Shell consultant quits, says company causes ‘extreme harm’ to planet (Politico EU)
CLIMATE DIPLOMACY: Kenyan climate activist Elizabeth Wathuti says COP27 must deliver for ‘neglected’ Africa (The Independent), EU lawmakers move to block green investment label for gas and nuclear (Reuters)
CLIMATE LITIGATION: Farmer sues VW over climate change; German court has doubts (AP), Volkswagen faces court case to eliminate polluting cars by 2030 (Bloomberg $)
DENIAL & GREENWASHING: Spot the greenwashing (New York Times $), Watchdog re-ups IRS complaint against a nonprofit fighting Biden’s conservation goal (HuffPost)
HOUSING: Better housing policy might be the best climate policy for the US (Bloomberg $)
AUSTRALIAN ELECTION: Australia’s ‘climate election’ finally arrived. will it be enough? (New York Times $, Bloomberg $, Reuters, BBC, Jacobin, CNN), Australian women unleash new political force on climate, integrity (Reuters), Australia’s rightwing government weaponised climate change – now it has faced its reckoning (The Guardian), Australian election results: revenge of the barbecued koalas (Mother Jones)
DAVOS: At Davos, a sense of ‘high urgency’ about energy security (New York Times $), What are the key climate themes at Davos? (AP explainer), Train, not plane means scenery, carbon cutting (AP)
EPA: Ariz. Dems: EPA water programs 'failing' communities (E&E $), EPA proposes deadlines for 2023 renewable fuel volumes in deal with biofuels group (Politico Pro $)
DOE: Biden admin announces $3.5 billion in carbon dioxide removal funding (Gizmodo, E&E $), Granholm addresses crypto energy, climate worries (E&E $), North American Energy Standards Board to work with DOE, national labs on distributed resource definitions (Utility Dive)
WHITE HOUSE: Biden under pressure to declare climate emergency (E&E News), Biden administration to kick off bipartisan law’s cleaner school bus program (The Hill)
THE HILL: Congressional progressives warn Biden, EU natural gas reliance may hurt climate goals (The Hill)
SENATE: Senators unload on Haaland, Granholm over gasoline prices (E&E News), Peters introduces bill to bolster pipeline safety agency (E&E $), Sinema pushes to open up mining (Axios)
ELECTIONS: John Fetterman’s past life: Climate advocate (E&E News)
NOMINEES & CONFIRMATIONS: Biden to renominate FERC Chair Glick (Politico Pro $, E&E $), Biden’s EPA air nominee draws miners’ endorsement (E&E News), Fed pick emerges unscathed from nomination hearing (E&E News)
CITIES AND STATES: In Minnesota, the polymet mine pits renewable energy needs against tribes and the EPA (Grist), New York [state] is facing a pandemic-fueled home energy crisis, with no end in sight (Inside Climate News)
- CALIFORNIA: Calif. defends Clean Air Act waiver against GOP attack (E&E $), California water regulators still haven’t considered the growing body of research on the risks of oil field wastewater (Inside Climate News)
FERC: FERC chair on grid: ‘The old way doesn’t work’ (E&E News), FERC to monitor gas, power markets for manipulation as forward summer electricity prices jump up to 233% (Utility Dive)
IMPACTS: Human-induced climate crisis is making Japan's cherry blossoms bloom earlier (CNN), Parris Island wages battles, not war, against climate change (AP), South Africa on highest alert amid heavy rain in flood-hit area (Bloomberg $)
- WMO REPORT: Major climate indicators set "alarming" records in 2021, the U.N. says, "bringing us ever closer to climate catastrophe" (CBS)
NEWS YOU HOPEFULLY WON'T NEED TO USE: How to stay safe in hurricanes, wildfires and summer's intensity (NPR)
IMPACTS' IMPACTS: Climate migrants lack a clear path to asylum in the US (Inside Climate News), The town at the center of California’s climate refugee crisis (The Guardian)
MENTAL HEALTH: 3 surprising ways to cope with climate change (Mashable), The climate scientists are not alright (Washington Post $)
WILDFIRES: Drought, heat and extreme wind bring ‘explosive fire behavior’ to US (The Guardian), Climate graphic of the week: Historic blaze in New Mexico as extreme global weather events rise (FT $), Better weather conditions aid crews working New Mexico fires (AP), Extreme fire threats prompt US suspension of planned burns (AP, Wall Street Journal $, Axios), Priceless seeds, sprouts key to US West’s post-fire future (AP), Some New Mexico wildfire evacuees worry about their future (AP)
HURRICANES: It’s a La Niña year, and that means bigger, badder hurricanes (Gizmodo)
WATER: Water outages loom over major South African hub (Bloomberg $)
FORESTS: Tropical trees are ‘dying faster’ in Australia with potential consequences for climate change (The Independent)
RENEWABLES: Siemens Energy makes $4.3 billion Gamesa takeover offer (Bloomberg $), How robots can help build offshore wind turbines more quickly (Bloomberg $), More accurate wind forecasts can save Americans millions in energy costs (The Verge), The NY Bight could write the book on how we build offshore wind farms in the future (Popular Science), What the closure of Germany’s only wind blade factory says about its energy transition (Energy Monitor), Velshi: It’s possible to step away from fossil fuel while keeping economic growth a priority (MSNBC), Carpenters trade union bets big on America's transition to renewable energy (HuffPost)
BATTERIES: Chinese lockdowns halt lithium's record run (Reuters), The lithium war next door (HuffPost and The Assembly)
BUILDINGS: International commission votes to allow use of more climate-friendly refrigerants in AC and heat pumps (Inside Climate News), Rental listings with energy scores prompt greener choices (Bloomberg $)
OIL & GAS: Why shale drillers are pumping out dividends instead of more oil and gas (Wall Street Journal $), US oil rig count up 60% on year to highest since pandemic struck as prices soar (Washington Examiner)
NUKES: UK nuclear power stations’ decommissioning cost soars to £23.5bn (The Guardian)
UTILITIES: In blow to Biden climate goals, Entergy shuts nuclear power plant (Reuters, HuffPost)
(ALLEGED) UTILITY CORRUPTION: Former PUCO chair texted he knew FirstEnergy charge was likely unlawful, but company would keep money anyway (Energy News Network)
EVs: Automakers are jacking up prices on electric vehicles to bake in rising materials costs (CNBC), Electric aviation startup Beta Technologies raises $375 million (Axios), Electric cars are cheaper to own in New Jersey than California (Bloomberg $), Public health expert promotes benefits of electric vehicles (Yale Climate Connections), Renault reveals electric-hydrogen hybrid concept car, says it will have range of up to 497 miles (CNBC), Uber issues incentives to spur EV adoption (E&E $), The world's car buyers are ready to go electric (Axios)
- GEORGIA: Georgia electrical vehicle factory becomes Kemp, Perdue campaign battle (NBC), Hyundai plans $5.5 billion factory complex in Georgia for electric vehicles (Wall Street Journal $, E&E News, The Verge, CNBC)
- TESLA: Tesla’s aura dims as its plunging stock highlights the risks it faces (New York Times $), Tesla battles for battery engineers commanding CFO-like salaries (Bloomberg $)
CRYPTO: Upstate New York becomes hotbed for cryptocurrency mining. It might not last. (Politico)
AGRICULTURE: Electric farms are using solar power to grow profits and crops (Bloomberg $)
FOOD: The climate threat hidden in your hamburger (Bloomberg $)
CARBON PRICING: A carbon fee on US imports? Concept gains ground among centrist senators (Houston Chronicle)
FINANCE: 33-year-old who runs a multimillion-dollar start-up to help fight climate change: ‘You can be altruistic and successful’ (CNBC), Financial firms assure Texas they don’t 'boycott' the energy industry (Washington Examiner), Home Depot fails to derail shareholder push on old forests (E&E $)
PHILANTHROPY: Can philanthropists help fuel a global clean energy transition? (Washington Post $), Scotland’s billionaires are turning climate change into a trophy game (The Atlantic)
ENTRENCHED POWER STRUCTURES PROTECT THEMSELVES: Bombshell 400-page report finds Southern Baptist leaders routinely silenced sexual abuse survivors (Houston Chronicle, Washington Post $, AP, CNN, NPR, New York Times $)
INTERNATIONAL: In South Korea, an emphasis on recycling yields results (New York Times $), The Black feminist activist who could be Colombia’s vice president (Washington Post $), More than $1 billion of [Australian] Coalition’s climate funding could go to fossil fuel projects, analysis finds (The Guardian)
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Fake Reporters At Fake News Site Quote Fake Experts On Fake Gas Price Story From All-Too-Real Fox News
Last Tuesday, the conservative Washington Examiner's energy and environment reporter Jeremy Beaman published a series of charts showing "how fossil fuels have fared under Biden." It pits Biden's "campaign pledges to crack down on fossil fuels" with the reality that "domestic oil and gas production has recovered from the pandemic recession to near all-time highs under President Joe Biden."
Oil production? "Now headed toward all-time highs." Methane gas? "Production reached its highest level on record in December 2021." Active oil and gas drilling rigs? "Up by 261, a nearly 175% increase, for the year ending May 13." Yet prices are still high, because the industry really loves paying CEOs millions while cutting salaries for workers.
Unfortunately, it seems Republicans missed the story, because the next day Ted Cruz and a bunch of other senators called on the Biden administration to stop worrying about the pesky permitting process and just let Big Oil do whatever it wants, for the sake of gasoline prices.
And like the compliant GOP media arm it is, Fox's Tyler O'Neil also ignored the Washington Examiner's empirical findings to "report" on the Cruz letter, and ends with a quote from tobacco shill turned Big Oil lawyer Steve Milloy, who said "I blame Biden for all lack of production. He has scared away investment."
Of course! A fake expert delivering a false quote to Fox News. What could be better? How about a false Fox narrative quoting a fake expert, but in a literal fake news outlet, by an actually fake reporter?
One "Scout Titterington" at Beam.land appears to have pulled the full text from the O'Neil's story, resulting in the first line of her story being the Fox caption for a semi-related video at the top of their coverage, an interesting detail that will make sense in a minute.
Because in order to not literally plagiarize and steal Fox's work, Titterington simply changed words around- including direct quotes from the story!
O'Neil's reported that the "Republican senators slammed the Biden administration for a 'de facto ban on new drilling.'"
Titterington wrote that "Republican senators criticized Biden Administration for a 'virtual ban on new drilling.'"
O'Neil included a paragraph-length quote from the Senators, which Titterington barely rewrote in the same fashion, changing "fault" to "blame," and "sitting idle" to the inaccurately-different "stopping work." In Fox, it's the Department of Interior. At Beam, the US apparently has a "Ministry of the Interior," and Milloy's quote about how Biden has supposedly "scared away investment," got turned into "the investment has taken him away," which somehow makes even less sense.
That's the end of the story- but where things really start to get weird. Scout Titterington's bio reads “Infuriatingly humble alcohol fanatic. Unapologetic beer practitioner. Analyst.”
Aww, how cute and kitschy! It's apparently house style.
Gardner Bailey, who ripped off a Reuters story, is a “Infuriatingly humble analyst. Bacon maven. Proud food specialist. Certified reader. Avid writer. Zombie advocate. Incurable problem solver.” Caldwell Hampton is a “Total coffee junkie. Tv ninja. Unapologetic problem solver. Beer expert.” Wynne Daves? “Lifelong beer expert. General travel enthusiast. Social media buff. Zombie maven. Communicator.” Keeping with the theme, Talia Quinn's an “Alcohol enthusiast. Twitter ninja. Tv lover. Falls down a lot. Hipster-friendly coffee geek." And Blake Rodriquez mixes the lot of them, as a “Typical beer trailblazer. Hipster-friendly web buff. Certified alcohol fanatic. Internetaholic. Infuriatingly humble zombie lover.”
Wow, either this is the hippest, most zombie-obsessed beer-swilling workplace this side of 2010, or someone fed a million terrible twitter bios into a machine learning algorithm, and this is what it spit out.
And while the latter seems less likely, the fact that none of the above problem solvers seem to exist outside of Beam's website suggest it may actually be the more likely choice. No search results on Google, and reverse image searching their profile pictures suggests they're just stock photos, though Thalia Quinn uses the same pic as Emma Lefèvre of MEDIAS FRANCE on LinkedIn, and Paola Moraes on Twitter, who posted links to a french media page, while Gardner Bailey also apparently goes by Dwanye Menzie at the Prudent Press Agency.
A reporter without a real online presence in 2022 isn't unheard of, but 6 for 6?
And all six happen to produce identically AI-esque copies of mainstream media coverage?
Beam.land appears to be some sort of marketing content aggregator, scraping stories from the internet, without attribution, and running them under the bylines of their own reporters.
Fake news with fake reporters posting fake stories from Fox, which is supposedly real news, but also full of fake experts and false narratives. |
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