The AAR provides the freight rail industry with a strong, united voice that policymakers listen to while also facilitating the operations, safety, security and standards that make America’s freight rail network the envy of the world.
That's a Dog Whistle for
We can prevent, or at least stave off, regulations against any railroad business, including coal.
But they can't stave off the market, which is putting coal, along with fracked oil and gas, into systematic bankruptcy.
Videos
What a joke that turned out to be.
Then there was Clean Coal in 2008.
Curiously, YouTube doesn't have any of these coal ads newer than five years old. Do you think we might be getting to them?
I don't have room for all of the anti-coal videos, but I can't pass up a good snarkfest like this.
And we can't end without a coal song. Feel free to add your favorites in the comments.
Web Links
Dec 2, 2019 - A new study concludes that rail is the industry that's injected the most money into climate change denial propaganda efforts in the last 25 years. ... between the fossil fuels industry, including coal and oil and the rail industry.
Nov 14, 2019 - Of course, the U.S. coal industry is in serious decline despite all of the climate denialism funded by the rail and coal industries. Moody's has ...
Railroads Help Fund Climate Change Denial
Dec 19, 2019 - New research shows how utilities, as well as railways and fossil fuel companies, funded climate denial efforts as they claimed to support ...
Dec 17, 2019 - United Nations climate talks ended in widespread disappointment… Long-Running Campaign of Climate Denial to Protect Lucrative Coal ...
Background on Countermovement Denialism
The article in the Atlantic cites these two studies, which go far beyond today's topic. I will come back to them in another Diary soon, I promise.
Networks of Opposition: A Structural Analysis of U.S. Climate Change Countermovement Coalitions 1989–2015*
Robert J. Brulle, Brown University
The climate change countermovement (CCCM) in the United States has exerted an important influence on delaying efforts to address climate change. Analyses of this countermovement have primarily focused on the role of conservative think tanks. Expanding this research, this article initiates an examination of the structure of key political coalitions that worked to oppose climate action. In conjunction with their allied trade associations, these coalitions have served as a central coordination mechanism in efforts opposed to mandatory limits on carbon emissions. These coalitions pool resources from a large number of corporations and execute sophisticated political and cultural campaigns designed to oppose efforts to address climate change. Through an analysis of twelve prominent CCCM coalitions from 1989 to 2015, I show that over 2,000 organizations were members of these coalitions and that a core of 179 organizations belonged to multiple coalitions. Organizations from the coal and electrical utility sectors were the most numerous and influential organizations in these coalitions. The article concludes with suggestions for further research to expand understanding of complex social movements and countermovements.
The first such effort was the formation of the Global Climate Coalition by the National Association of Manufacturers in 1989.
Although the CCCM is comprised of actors with multiple interpretations of how best address climate change, the defining characteristic is a focus on opposing any legislative attempts to enact mandatory restrictions on carbon emissions. In the following thirty years, the CCCM has grown to include a number of organizations, including corporations, trade associations, conservative think tanks, philanthropic foundations, advocacy groups, lobby groups, and public relations firms, with their viewpoints being promulgated by a network of blogs and media outlets.
179 organizations…were a member of two or more coalitions over the time period 1989–2015. A total of 2,020 organizations were members of one or more of the coalitions. These 2,020 organizations created 15,959 distinct yearly connections to the network.
Coalition
|
Frequency
|
Alliance for climate strategies
|
13
|
Alliance for energy & economic growth
|
1,416
|
American coalition for clean coal electricity
|
68
|
Americans for balanced energy choices
|
31
|
Center for energy and economic development
|
210
|
Coalition for affordable and reliable energy
|
62
|
Coalition for American jobs
|
6
|
Coalition for vehicle choice
|
206
|
Cooler heads coalition
|
36
|
Global climate coalition
|
86
|
Information council on the environment
|
4
|
Partnership for a better energy future (PBEF)
|
179
|
Total
|
2,317
|
American Utilities and the Climate Change Countermovement: An Industry In Flux. A report by Cole Triedman, Andrew Javens, Jessie Sugarman, & David Wingate.
A team of four researchers at the Brown University Climate and Development Lab has released a 73-page report investigating ten large investor-owned utility companies. These companies were identified as historically central to the climate change countermovement, a complex network dedicated to opposing climate action and undermining science for the last three decades.
The report profiles Southern Company, American Electric Power, Duke Energy, Dominion Energy, FirstEnergy, Ameren, DTE Energy, Entergy, Consumers Energy, and Xcel Energy. It investigates each company's business and political networks, political activity and spending, and future climate plans.
Key Findings:
- An elite cohort of coal, rail, and the utility companies have long nurtured close business relationships, and have coordinated closely in anti-climate action political organizations.
- All major utility companies have future plans on climate change that initially appear ambitious. In reality, most demonstrate intensive future investment in natural gas and reliance on not-yet-marketable technologies.
And yet they snap up all of the wind and solar power that comes onto the market at prices far below coal and now significantly below natural gas.