climate change deniers

Attorney General of New York investigating ExxonMobil for lying about the risks of climate change

by

Back in July, I  posted about the ‘disinformation’ campaigns, from tobacco to climate science:

In 1994, Representative Henry Waxman (D-CA), Chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health and the Environment, subpoenaed the top executives of the seven largest U.S. tobacco companies and asked them to testify under oath whether they believed nicotine to be addictive.

Screenshot from 2015-07-12 14:12:37

All of the tobacco executives testified under oath that “I believe that nicotine is not addictive.” Tobacco CEO’s Statement to Congress.

The Waxman hearings represented the pinnacle of the tobacco industry’s decades long campaign to collude together to mislead the public by promoting “controvery” about the harmful effects of smoking and the addictiveness of nicotine.

Just four years later, the four largest U.S. tobacco companies entered into a “global settlement agreement,” i.e., the Tobacco Master Settlement Agreement, in which the attorneys general of 46 states settled their Medicaid lawsuits against the tobacco industry for recovery of their tobacco-related health-care costs — but also exempted the companies from private tort liability regarding harm caused by tobacco use. In exchange, the tobacco companies agreed to curtail or cease certain tobacco marketing practices, as well as to pay, in perpetuity, various annual payments to the states to compensate them for some of the medical costs of caring for persons with smoking-related illnesses.

History is repeating itself with the Carbon Monopoly’s decades long campaign to collude together to mislead the public by promoting “controvery” about the harmful effects of global warming and climate change.

Read more

Paul Gosar embarrasses Arizona (again) with an insult to the Pope

by

The Washington Post recently asked, Can Congress behave itself when the pope visits?

I was with a group of friends the other day and we were speculating about which congressman would win the Joe Wilson “You lie!” Award for shouting at Pope Francis during his address to a joint session of Congress next week.

It turns out that Arizona’s “mad dentist” just couldn’t wait to insult the Pope. Congressman Paul Gosar wanted to make all of the late night comedy shows and keep Arizona’s poor reputation intact, despite the Governor’s silly #Rebrand Arizona campaign. Catholic Congressman Will Skip Papal Address To Congress, Cites Climate Change:

PaulGosarWhen Pope Francis addresses Congress in Washington, D.C. next week, at least one Republican representative won’t be in the audience.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-AZ) wrote a letter in Town Hall this week outlining why he’s skipping out on the pope’s visit to Congress. The main reason? Climate change.

“Media reports indicate His Holiness instead intends to focus the brunt of his speech on climate change — a climate that has been changing since first created in Genesis,” Gosar writes. “More troubling is the fact that this climate change talk has adopted all of the socialist talking points, wrapped false science and ideology into “climate justice” and is being presented to guilt people into leftist policies.”

Read more

Environmental Briefs

by

With President Obama in Alaska this week talking about the effects of climate change on the Arctic, and the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change meeting at the Bonn Climate Change Conference, it is a good time to try to catch up on the environmental and climate science news reported over the past month.

WeathermanBelow is just a sampling from the Washington Post’s “Energy and Environment” reporting, and Think Progress “Climate” reporting. There has been much more environment and climate science reporting over the past month.

You should ask yourself why the media in Arizona does not report environmental and climate science news, especially those bobble-head “meteorologists” on your local TV news who repeat the same damn weather report at least four times every half hour. If they really are “meteorologists,” shouldn’t they be using some of their time to educate and inform their viewers about the environment and climate science?

Perhaps the lack of quality science reporting by the media is why Americans, and Arizonans in particular, are so damn ignorant about the environment and climate science (you know who you are). It’s not like quality science reporting is not available. It is a conscience editorial decision to not report on the environment and climate science — unless it is to provide an echo chamber for Republican attacks on the EPA, or to promote their major advertiser, a utility company from the Carbon Monopoly.

Read more

President Obama announces ‘Clean Power Plan’

by

President Obama  released the final version of the EPA’s “Clean Power Plan” today. GET THE FACTS; Fact Sheet: President Obama to Announce Historic Carbon Pollution Standards for Power Plants.

The New York Times reports, Obama Unveils Plan to Sharply Limit Emissions:

carbon-emissionsPresident Obama on Monday unveiled an aggressive plan to sharply limit greenhouse gases emitted by the nation’s power plants, declaring that time was running out to thwart the most dangerous impacts of global climate change.

“No challenge poses a greater threat to our future and future generations than a changing climate,” Mr. Obama said in a speech from the East Room of the White House as he announced his most ambitious action to date to tackle the planet’s rising temperatures. “There is such a thing as being too late when it comes to climate change.”

Read more

Consientious energy companies find that they can comply with EPA regulations

by

carbon-emissionsThe Arizona Republican has published a series of editorial opinions this year attacking EPA regulations and the effects on Arizona Public Service (APS) and Salt River Project (SRP). See, for example Editorial EPA wants us to change? Show us the bill first; We have the right to know cost of new EPA rules; Editorial Sinema, Kirkpatrick make a wise carbon vote; and New EPA clean-air rules threaten rural power co-ops.

The “editorial board” largely reflects the views of the Rush Limbaugh of The Republic, Doug MacEachern, See for example, EPA regulations good for economy? Bah!, and EPA emissions regulations coming down to cost. Got to keep your major advertisers happy and promote those Republican talking points.

Funny thing about those EPA regulations: those states that have sought to comply with the regulations have found that they can comply with the regulations. The Washington Post reported last week that Outrage over EPA emissions regulations fades as states find fixes:

Even after years of talk about a “war on coal,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell startled some of his constituents in March when he urged open rebellion against a White House proposal for cutting pollution from coal-fired power plants.

The Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan is “extremely burdensome and costly,” the Kentucky Republican said in letters advising all 50 states to boycott the rule when it goes into effect this summer.

The call for direct defiance was unusual even for McConnell, who has made a career of battling federal restrictions on coal. Yet more striking is what has happened since: Kentucky’s government and electric utilities have quietly positioned themselves to comply with the rule — something state officials expect to do with relatively little effort.

Read more