Prepare yourselves, dear readers. It’s only been five days since we last talked Exxon, but in that time, there’ve been a number of new stories to cover.
InsideClimate News’s latest investigative piece into the fossil fuel industry’s climate change knowledge dug up a three-page article written in 1982 by Mobil’s former chief executive Rawleigh Warner Jr. He acknowledges the “disastrous consequences” that may arise from the “excessive use” of “heavier fossil fuels” extracted from new shale mining operations (fracking) and admits that the concerns “should be seriously addressed.”
He recognizes that the greenhouse effect “may become a serious issue for the future” before placing his faith in the National Academy of Sciences and UN efforts to “supply us with the information to deal with this problem well before the catastrophic consequences which some predict can happen.” Which is ironic, given that these are the very institutions whose findings the fossil fuel industry spent millions to undercut with the Global Climate Coalition and similar efforts.
This, along with the recent story from DeSmog about Exxon’s Canadian subsidiary admitting that “there is no doubt” that fossil fuels are “aggravating the potential problem of increased CO2 in the atmosphere,” suggests that the #ExxonKnew investigations may be poised to go global.
[Continued after the jump]
In fact, in a way it already has. While Mobil's Warner was confident that the scientific community would steer us to solutions before climate catastrophes hit, thanks to lobbying campaigns by ExxonMobil and others, the public has been deceived for decades about the certainty of climate science. As a result, regulations on fossil fuels have been stalled far longer than the science has been settled, exacerbating extreme weather events and strengthening storms like Typhoon Haiyan. That’s why the Commission on Human Rights of the Philippines is in the process of convening a hearing to determine whether the policies of ExxonMobil and 49 of the biggest fossil fuel companies are sufficiently addressing the intersection of climate, oil and human rights. This could be the first salvo in an international effort to hold the industry accountable for its actions.
Back home in the US, though, the ongoing investigations by state attorneys general continue to face pushback. Politico covers Exxon’s efforts to fight the campaign to publicize the truth of their two-faced approach to climate, and two other editorials offer an important glimpse into what may be the opinion of the press more generally on the issue. The Colorado Gazette takes a straightforward approach of assuming there’s still uncertainty on the science (nothing unusual for them, as a commenter points out) thus demonstrating the success of the carbon-funded denial campaigns.
The Richmond Times-Dispatch editorial, on the other hand, combines the Exxon investigations with two other examples of government efforts to protect the public from profit-motivated deceptions involving the Federal Trade Commission and California AG Kamala Harris.
One important line makes it clear that they (and other papers) aren’t defending Exxon or conservative groups so much as they are themselves: "It’s not hard to see how the logic of such a demand could be extended to other institutions that also engage in political speech about government agencies — such as, oh, newspapers and magazines.”
This thinking is quickly dispatched by a piece from the Union of Concerned Scientists’s Elliott Negin, mocking ExxonMobil’s strategy of “Play[ing] the Victim.” He concludes by quoting NY AG Schneiderman: "The First Amendment, ladies and gentlemen, doesn’t give you the right to commit fraud.”
But since the right to free speech and a free press are both protected by the First Amendment, that Exxon’s (faulty) First Amendment defense is being seconded and third’ed by the fourth estate just makes sense—it all adds up.
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Today’s Top Climate and Clean Energy Stories:
Going beyond one million solar installations—The United States is celebrating a major milestone that has been 40 years in the making: one million solar installations nationwide.
Feds: Energy sector carbon emissions dipped in 2015 | The economy is 15 percent larger than it was in 2015, but the United States used 15 percent less energy per unit of gross domestic product and produces 23 percent fewer emissions by that same measure, the EIA said.
U.S. Denies Permit for Coal Terminal in Washington State - The chairman of the Lummi Indian Business Council, Timothy Ballew II, called the decision “a win for the treaty, a win for the Constitution and a win for all of Indian country.” He added, “The ancestral sites will be protected.”
Big Oil Abandons $2.5 Billion in U.S. Arctic Drilling Rights - companies have relinquished 2.2 million acres of drilling rights in the Chukchi Sea -- nearly 80 percent of the leases they bought from the U.S. government in a 2008 auction.