Environment

Op-Ed

"Energy in Depth," "Counter-Insurgency" Tactics, and Astroturf "Energy Citizens"

by Sara Jerving — January 4, 2012 - 8:14am
  • Topics: Corporations, Environment

    • The corporations pushing for expanded "hydraulic fracturing" ("fracking") for "natural gas" are putting big money into PR campaigns due to growing citizen concerns about this damaging drilling process. At a "Media and Stakeholder Relations: Hydraulic Fracturing Initiative 2011" meeting this winter, an industry representative went so far as to suggest that industry public relations agents download the U.S. Army/Marine Corps' "Counterinsurgency Field Manual." He noted that it would be helpful because the industry is "dealing with an insurgency."

    News

    Denial and Delay Winning the Day in Durban

    by Sara Jerving — December 9, 2011 - 1:00pm
  • Topics: Global Warming, Corporations, Environment

    • Amid difficult United Nation climate talks this week in Durban, lead climate change denier -- U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma) -- sent a patronizing video message to delegates in South Africa celebrating what he called the "complete collapse" of the movement to fight climate change.

    His message comes as delegates work night and day in a last-ditch effort to produce a legally-binding deal to restrict the damage already underway due to the rise of carbon content in the atmosphere. United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon said earlier in the week that a new international climate pact might be "beyond our reach" given the "great economic troubles" many countries are experiencing.

    News

    Kids Eating Rat Poison Is an "Acceptable Risk" for ALEC

    by Brendan Fischer — December 6, 2011 - 9:06am
  • Topics: ALEC Exposed, Corporations, Environment, Health, Politics

    • An American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) member is defying Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rules limiting the sale of rat poisons that pose dangers to children and the ecosystem. ALEC representatives say that kids eating rat poison is an "acceptable risk" that does not justify government intervention in the market.

    News

    Koch Brothers’ "Christmas Present" Up for House Vote

    by Rebekah Wilce — December 1, 2011 - 9:52am
  • Topics: Banking, Corporations, Democracy, Economy, Environment

    • The U.S. House of Representatives votes soon on a series of deregulatory bills that, according to the Coalition for Sensible Safeguards (CSS), "threaten vital health, environmental, safety and financial regulations."

    Voting is expected on the Regulatory Accountability Act (H.R. 3010) and the Regulatory Flexibility Improvements Act (H.R. 527) on December 1, and on The Regulations from the Executive in Need of Scrutiny (REINS) Act (H.R. 10) next week.

    Representative Gerry Connolly (D-VA) calls these bills "an early Christmas present to the Koch Brothers, who made this Congress possible."

    Proposed Changes to LEED Building System Would Reward Clearcutters

    by Anne Landman — November 28, 2011 - 3:34pm

    The Rainforest Action Network, Greenpeace, the National Wildlife Federation and ForestEthics have joined together to run an ad (pdf) to raise awareness changes proposed to green building standards by the U.S. Green Building Council that would hinder the trend toward sustainable building construction. Since 2000, the LEED (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design) building certification system has helped drive commercial and residential builders towards using more sustainable building and development practices. Under the LEED system, builders are rewarded with points for using green building techniques and materials, including sustainably-forested wood products, which often cost more. But changes the organization is proposing to the LEED system would erode those guidelines by rewarding builders who use wood logged from rainforests or other areas that have been devastated by clearcutting. Under the new changes, all wood would be considered good for use in construction as long as it was logged legally, without regard to forestry technique or location. This subtle but important change would hand big logging companies a victory by weakening demand for sustainably-raised forest products and encouraging builders to ignore the impacts of industrial-scale, clear-cut logging -- the very practices the LEED system was design to reduce.

    Main Source: 
    ForestEthics, October 6, 2011

    Koch-Funded Climate Skeptic Admits Global Warming is Real

    by Anne Landman — October 31, 2011 - 3:11pm

    A prominent global warming skeptic funded by the Charles G. Koch Charitable Foundation has publicly reversed himself and now agrees with the vast majority of mainstream climate scientists who conclude Earth's temperature really is quickly rising. Richard Muller, a physicist and well known climate skeptic, did his own research and calculated that the land is now 1.6 degrees warmer than it was in the 1950s -- figures that match those produced by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA). Billionaire Charles G. Koch, founder of the Charles G. Koch Foundation, is a well-known funder of global warming skeptics. Together with his billionaire brother, David, the Kochs own the country's largest, privately-held energy company, Koch Industries, which produces significant greenhouse gases and fights efforts to reduce carbon emissions in the U.S. Koch Industries has long worked to undermine environmental protections and protect corporate polluters. Koch Industries is also a long-time member and funder of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a nonprofit group that helps corporate representatives draft and advance "model" bills that benefit their bottom line, and get the bills into the hands of legislators who introduce them in state houses as though they were their own ideas. ALEC also provides corporate-drafted "model" resolutions legislators can introduce that are aimed at thwarting efforts to address climate change.

    Main Source: 
    San Francisco Chronicle, October 31, 2011
    News

    Frac Sand Mining Companies Could Benefit From "Polluters Over People Bill"

    by Sara Jerving — October 28, 2011 - 10:00am
  • Topics: Corporations, Environment

    • Wisconsin's environment and the health of its population might be on the chopping block as state Republicans push for mining deregulation in the name of "jobs."

    A few bills are floating around in the Wisconsin legislature that could jeopardize the state's natural resources in order to make the state more attractive to mining companies. An official mining bill is currently being drafted, led by assembly Republicans, to expedite mining permits in the state. Another bill introduced last week in both the Senate and Assembly has been dubbed the "Polluters Over People Bill," and aims to overhaul the state's Department of Natural Resources (DNR) permitting process.

    Opponents to those bills argue they could lay the groundwork for a massive iron mine, violate Wisconsin's "public trust doctrine" for publicly-owned waters, and otherwise benefit polluters by selling off the state's natural resources.

    Op-Ed

    BP's Gulf of Mexico PR, One Year Later

    by Anne Landman — October 17, 2011 - 8:49pm
  • Topics: Advertising, Corporate Social Responsibility, Environment

    • Finger-pointing over the Deepwater Horizon disaster resumed recently after the U.S. Department of the Interior and the Coast Guard issued a joint report (pdf) which concluded all three corporate participants in the calamity -- BP, Transocean Ltd. and Halliburton -- were at fault. The report concluded all three companies violated federal laws and safety regulations by "failing to take necessary precautions to keep the Macondo well under control at all times." The report also found all three companies were "jointly and severally liable for the failure to comply with all applicable regulations." That means all three companies are mutually responsible for the accident, and each can be held singly responsible for the entire debacle. The report parsed blame among the companies for sloppy materials and workmanship, inadequate training, failure to properly assess risk and conduct proper testing, failure to abide by stop-work work policies after multiple anomalies were discovered, and so on.

    News

    Local Food Ordinances from Maine to California

    by Rebekah Wilce — October 10, 2011 - 7:00am
  • Topics: Agriculture, Environment, Politics

    • Los Angeles County, California, is considering a resolution "recognizing the rights of individuals to grow and consume their own food and to enter into private contracts with other individuals to board animals for food."

    This resolution did not arise in a vacuum. Santa Cruz County, California, recently passed a similar resolution. Nevada County, California, citizens are pushing a similar resolution. And in El Dorado County, California, Farmer Pattie Chelseth has proposed a "Local Food and Self Governance Ordinance."

    News

    Wisconsin Becomes Part of Gas Industry's Land Grab

    by Sara Jerving — October 7, 2011 - 7:50am
  • Topics: Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporations, Environment

    • The methane gas industry is snapping up land across the United States, and it's not only regions with gas reserves its after. Part of the controversial process of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," which has become big business in the nation, requires a fine silica sand. The sand is most easily accessible in the state of Wisconsin, which means the industry is looking to scrape the Midwestern state of it's rolling hills by extracting its sand. This new scramble for sand mining has local residents concerned about the health and environmental impacts on their communities.

    The industry of sand mining is booming along with the national increase in "natural" gas drilling. The industry is touting methane gas as a "bridge fuel" to wean the nation of its petroleum addiction, but the controversial practice of hydraulic fracturing has citizens up in arms because the process leaks harmful toxins into the nation's water supplies -- and the overall process of methane gas drilling is just as dirty, if not dirtier, than using petroleum.

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