Congress has less than a week left to finish delivering promises for their donors before they head out for a month-long August recess undoubtedly filled with campaigning, and members aren’t wasting any time in their attempts to suck up to the dirty energy industry. It is simple math: Congress currently has
Continue readingAuthor: Farron Cousins
DeSmogBlog: BBC Pulls The Plug On Climate Change Deniers
Corporate-controlled media outlets have figured out that debate, or more appropriately heated debate and confrontation, can generate larger audiences than a bunch of people sitting around a table agreeing with one another. And this can work for some topics, such as the best way to tackle immigration reform or how
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Obama Administration Secretly Weakening EPA Rules
One of highest hopes that environmentally-minded Americans had for President Obama when he first entered office was that he would finally put an end to the secrecy that marred the former Bush administration when it came to environmental policy. The image of then-Vice President Dick Cheney meeting in secret with
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Have $10,000? Then You Can Join Heartland’s Climate Denial Machine!
The Heartland Institute is once again pulling no punches in their quest to spread misinformation on climate science. In the run-up to the odd return of Heartland’s infamous Denial-a-Palooza conference series next month in Las Vegas, the right wing think tank has purchased a large ad section of the conservative newspaper
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: House Spending Bill Contains Huge Giveaways To Dirty Energy
The House Appropriations Committee is currently debating a spending bill that would set America back decades when it comes to energy policy and environmental protection. The 2015 Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill will designate money to everything from nuclear waste cleanup to renewable energy investments, and
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: TransCanada Cries Foul Over New Keystone XL Security Risk Analysis
It doesn’t take much to hurt the dirty energy industry’s feelings. Less than a day after NextGen Climate released a report detailing the vulnerabilities of the Keystone XL pipeline to a terrorist attack, the company fired back at the group claiming that they were being singled out. The report was commissioned
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: US Chamber Predicts Economic Apocalypse From New Carbon Rules Despite Opposite Reality
It has been less than a week since the EPA announced new rules for carbon emissions — rules that are being heralded as the most comprehensive effort to tackle climate change by any sitting U.S. president — but big business groups have been spreading misinformation about these new rules for weeks.
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Life Saving Regulations Stalled In Bureaucratic Abyss
There is an unspoken rule in American politics: when you have bad news to deliver, do it on a Friday afternoon. This helps to ensure that fewer people will see it, fewer will have time to analyze it, and the media will forget all about it over the weekend. If
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: New Report Exposes Fossil Fuel Front Groups Behind Attacks on Renewables
Fossil fuel exploitation in the United States has reached a fevered pitch. Oil production is at a near-record high, and fracking activities have made the U.S. the number one producer of natural gas. All of this comes at a cost. In 2013, the oil industry averaged 20 oil spills per
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Marco Rubio Wants To Let The Planet Burn
Republican Senator Marco Rubio isn’t convinced that human beings are responsible for climate change. But don’t get him wrong. Marco Rubio firmly believes that climate change is happening. In fact, as he said in two separate interviews this past week, the climate “is always changing.” Rubio, who represents the climate
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: American Minimum Wage Earners Held Hostage Over Keystone XL
One of the biggest political issues facing the United States right now is economic inequality and the fight for a fairer minimum wage. Unfortunately for American workers, that fight is being held up by another political fight that isn’t quite as large in scale, but it has some powerful proponents
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Favorable Court Ruling Lets Americans Breathe Easier
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) scored a huge court victory recently, with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruling that the agency’s Mercury and Air Toxics Standard (MATS) is within the EPA’s realm of enforcement. The rule, which was put in place in 2012 and would
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Report: Arctic Oil Spill Readiness Virtually Nonexistent
Sea ice in the Arctic Circle is currently melting at a pace far greater than scientists had originally projected. While this is bad news for the planet — sea ice helps reflect the sun’s rays and keeps the arctic cooler — it has created new paths for the oil industry to
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Deepwater Horizon: BP’s Toxic Legacy
It has now been four years since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded, killing 11 men and leaking an estimated 210 million gallons of crude oil into the Gulf of Mexico. The media attention has disappeared, but the oil that continues to wash up along the Gulf Coast is a
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Industry Funded Politicians Hope To Thwart Pollution Penalties In North Carolina
On March 6th of this year, North Carolina Superior Court Judge Paul Ridgeway handed down a ruling that Duke Energy must immediately prevent toxins from their coal ash ponds from leaking into the water supply, and also that the energy giant had to develop a plan to clean up all of the groundwater
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Coal Exporter United Bulk Sued For Polluting Mississippi River
A coalition of environmental advocacy groups filed a lawsuit earlier this week against United Bulk, alleging that the company is responsible for numerous violations of the Clean Water Act for polluting the Mississippi River. United Bulk operates coal export terminals along the Mississippi and the Gulf Coast. The suit alleges
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Fracking California’s Coast: Billions of Gallons of Fracking Pollution Legalized By Feds
If an energy company accidentally spilled 9 billion gallons of toxic waste into the ocean, the media, the public, and the government would be all over the situation. But when it isn’t an accident, there is no reason for anyone to pay attention. Such is the case with the fracking
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Environmental Review Thrown Out By House Legislation
The U.S. House of Representatives is serious about job creation. So serious, in fact, that they are willing to sacrifice a healthy environment just so corporations have the “potential” to create new jobs without having to worry about all of that burdensome red tape that so often comes with environmental
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Harvard President Says Fossil Fuel Divestment Unnecessary, "Hypocritical"
A degree from Harvard University was once seen as the pinnacle of achievement in higher education. Parents would boast proudly that their child was attending one of the most prestigious universities in America, and a diploma from Harvard could almost guarantee you a job in whichever field you chose. But
Continue readingDeSmogBlog: Mardi Gras: Beads, Bands…And BP Oil
More than one million tourists have flocked to the South for Mardi Gras, and hundreds of thousands of those revelers have settled in for a few days along the Gulf Coast. Those who decided to enjoy the festivities along the Gulf of Mexico might be in for something they didn’t
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