EPA director Lisa Jackson chided Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, the parent of our beloved Fox News, for its double-talk on the value of lowering carbon emissions. News Corp. announced in 2007 that it was "going carbon neutral." Yesterday, Murdoch announced that it achieved that goal and it was good for business.
"I am proud to announce that News Corporation has reached its first major sustainability milestone: We have become carbon neutral across all of our global operations and we are the first company of our kind to do so," Murdoch wrote in a memo sent to News Corp. employees. "We made a bold commitment in 2007 to embed the values of energy efficiency and environmental sustainability into all of our businesses -- for the benefit of our communities and our bottom line."
Selling climate change denial while radically cutting its carbon footprint deserves more than gentle mockery. This is like a tobacco executive quitting smoking and telling his fellow executives to do the same.
Make no mistake. News Corp.'s accomplishments are great.
The investments in energy efficiency yield an average of $180 per ton of carbon avoided, according to Liba Rubenstein, the company's global energy initiative director. That can add up when you consider that News Corp.'s absolute emissions in fiscal year 2010 were 2 percent lower than 2006 levels, and 9 percent lower than peak emissions in 2008. The company offset 110 percent of its FY 2010 carbon footprint by investing in emissions reduction projects that include capturing landfill gas and destroying potent refrigerants.
Greenbiz, March 2, article by Tilde Herrera
And its long-term goals are even better.
Rubenstein's team will now work toward a series of measurable 2015 goals, including:
• Reducing absolute greenhouse gas by 15 percent, compared to 2006 levels
• Reducing greenhouse gas intensity by at least 15 percent
• Investing in clean energy equal to 20 percent of electricity used
• Engaging its 100 largest suppliers on improving their environmental impacts
• Measuring its waste footprint and developing a strategy to reduce it
News Corp. also created a set of intentionally broad long-term goals with no time horizon:
• Power all of its operations with clean energy
• Grow its business without growing its greenhouse gas emissions
• Minimize the amount of solid waste sent to landfill from its production operations
• Continue to engage its readers, employees and customers on sustainability
Greenbiz, March 2, article by Tilde Herrera
Now, it would be one thing if the only lie told by Fox and company was that regulatory attempts to modestly reduce greenhouse gas emissions would harm business. That would merely be hypocritical. Just because they sell Republican talking points does not mean they have to use the product. It just looks bad when you get caught.
Fox News single-handedly convinced their conservative viewers that the world is flat and climate change was a liberal hoax. They sold climate zombie Republican candidates. They not only sold the "climategate" nonsense, but they cheered efforts by radical Republicans to persecute climate scientists. They sold snowstorms as proof that world cannot be warming while discounting the significance of rising global temperatures, melting Arctic ice, droughts, heat waves, and extreme precipitation events. They scuttled efforts by the world's second worst carbon polluter to transition to a low carbon energy economy, stifling job creation and innovation in the process. It was all part of a deliberate disinformation campaign.
This borders on treason to sell policies that maintain our dependence on fossil fuels, which are environmentally and economically destructive. News Corp. makes money by selling lies and saves money by doing what it tells others not to do. Good for them. Bad for us.
Jackson came under fire from Republicans on the committee Wednesday, who argued that efforts to regulate greenhouse gas emissions will impose major burdens on industry and kill jobs.
The Hill, March 2
Director Jackson, fossil fuels impose burdens on business and consumers. Fossil fuels kill jobs. Fossil fuel companies cost us billions in subsidies and tax breaks while destroying our natural resources in their orgy of extraction. A little wag of the finger at Murdoch and News Corp. ignores the six billion metric ton elephant in the room. Ignoring that elephant allows its rampage to continue.