Message From the Editor

This past week, the attorneys general in Washington, D.C. and Minnesota both sued the oil industry for allegedly misleading consumers with its decades-long climate disinformation campaigns. Exxon, Koch, and the American Petroleum Institute all got sued. Dana Drugmand has the latest. 

In Louisiana, two activists are being charged with felonies of “terrorizing” after months earlier delivering to lobbyists a box of Formosa plastic pollution pulled from Texas waters. Yup, a box of plastic.

This week DeSmog also unveiled a major investigation showing that Appalachian and Midwestern states are relying on a financial “house of cards” to fund coal mine cleanup. The situation potentially leaves taxpayers on the hook for hundreds of millions — if not billions — of dollars in environmental reclamation costs as coal companies go bust and walk away from their mines. Read Mark Olalde’s deeply reported investigation.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: editor@desmogblog.com.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Did you know that the fracking industry received billions of dollars in taxpayer help to develop the technology which set the stage for the “shale revolution”?

DC Is the Latest to Sue Exxon and Big Oil for Climate Disinformation Campaigns

— By Dana Drugmand (6 min. read) —

Washington, D.C. is suing the four largest investor-owned oil and gas companies — BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil, and Shell — for allegedly misleading consumers about climate change, including historically undermining climate science and even now using deceptive advertising about the companies’ role in leading solutions to the climate crisis.

District of Columbia Attorney General Karl A. Racine announced the consumer fraud lawsuit on Thursday, June 25. The lawsuit claims that the four oil majors violated the District’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act by engaging in misleading acts and practices around the marketing, promotion, and sale of fossil fuel products, which produce globe-warming pollution. The D.C. lawsuit alleges that these companies knew since at least the 1950s about the harmful consequences of burning fossil fuels and that they engaged in a campaign to deceive the public about those risks.

Louisiana Activists Charged with Felonies After Delivering Box of Formosa Plastic Pollution to Lobbyists

— By Julie Dermansky and Sharon Kelly (6 min. read) —

Two Louisiana environmental activists, Anne Rolfes and Kate McIntosh, were taken in handcuffs and leg irons from a Baton Rouge police station to jail after they voluntarily surrendered themselves on felony charges after months' earlier delivering plastic pollution pulled from Texas waters to fossil fuel lobbyists' homes. The two posted bond and were released later the same day.

“The women are accused of terrorizing oil and gas lobbyists by giving them a file box full of plastic pellets found in Texas bays near a plastic manufacturing facility owned by Formosa Plastics,” NOLA.com reports.

Exposed: West Virginia and Other States Relying on ‘House of Cards’ to Pay for Coal Mine Cleanup

— By Mark Olalde (15 min. read) —

For more than a century-and-a-half, the forests, streams, and hollows of the Appalachian Mountains have been scraped and gashed to unearth their heart of rich black coal. These lumps of hydrocarbons historically played a vital role in America’s electricity mix, accounting for a third of the country’s energy production as recently as 2008.

But over the past decade, a devastating combination of forces has pummeled the industry, from cheap natural gas and the falling cost of renewables to growing public pressure to respond to the climate crisis. U.S. coal production has dropped 40 percent since its peak 12 years ago, and the commodity accounted for only 14 percent of the country’s electricity generation last year.

After a Legal Battle, Juneteenth Ceremony Honors Enslaved Ancestors at Gravesite on Formosa Plastics Land

— By Julie Dermansky (7 min. read) —

“I feel like our ancestors are shouting and rejoicing in heaven about what we did for them today,” Sharon Lavigne, founder of RISE St. James, a community group fighting petrochemical plant construction in St. James Parish, Louisiana, said after a June 19 ceremony held in their honor. “We did not forget them on Juneteenth. We honored them by leaving roses at the site where their remains are buried.”

Late this morning, Lavigne and a couple dozen supporters held the memorial at what they say is a former burial ground for enslaved people that sits on the future site of a $9.4 billion plastics plant complex. But even as widespread protests against anti-Black racism have prompted a national reckoning, the ceremony at the former grave site was met with opposition. FG LA LLC, a local member of the Formosa Plastics Group, owns the property on a former sugar plantation and denied Lavigne’s request to have a Juneteenth ceremony there. It took a last-minute judge’s ruling to force the petrochemical corporation to make the ceremony legal; Lavigne had planned to hold the ceremony there, with or without permission.

Minnesota Attorney General Sues Exxon, Koch and API for Climate Deception

— By Dana Drugmand (11 min. read) —

Minnesota has officially joined the climate accountability movement with the announcement on Wednesday, June 24 of a groundbreaking lawsuit against fossil fuel behemoths such as ExxonMobil and Koch Industries and the nation's largest oil and gas lobbying group for alleged deception on climate change.

Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison announced the lawsuit at a press conference Wednesday. The lawsuit names as defendants ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute (API), and Koch Industries as well as Koch subsidiaries Flint Hills Resources LP and Flint Hills Resources Pine Bend. The lawsuit claims these organizations violated Minnesota consumer protection laws for orchestrating a campaign of deception around climate science and the danger of fossil fuels.

Fossil Fuel Companies and Their Supporters Ask Supreme Court to Intervene in Climate Lawsuits

— By Dana Drugmand (11 min. read) —

California communities last month got an important procedural win in their efforts to get fossil fuel companies to pay for climate-related impacts. On May 26, a federal appeals court ruled that their lawsuits could go ahead in state court, which is their preferred venue, rather than federal court. 

Similar lawsuits filed by Colorado communities, Baltimore, and Rhode Island are also marching on in state courts following unsuccessful attempts by fossil fuel companies to have the cases heard in federal courts, where they are more likely to be dismissed. Overall, the communities lodging these legal battles seem to be gaining momentum.

In Break With Trump's EPA, Nevada Announces Plan to Cut Tailpipe Emissions

— By Dana Drugmand (5 min. read) —

Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak announced on Monday, June 22, that Nevada would be developing a policy to increase the number of zero and low-emission vehicles sold within the state.

With the announcement of the Clean Cars Nevada initiative, Nevada is set to join 14 other states that have fully or partially adopted clean car standards identical to California’s stricter standards authorized by the Clean Air Act.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition

The Advancement of Sound Science Coalition (TASSC) is a now-defunct tobacco and fossil fuel industry front group founded in 1993 to promote what it described as “sound science” in policy decision making. In 1997 it became “the Advancement of Sound Science Center,” run out of the home of climate science denier Steve Milloy, before the group was phased out of existence. The D.C. Attorney General's recent lawsuit against four major oil companies called out the industry's use of fake grassroots groups, including TASSC, in its claim of climate deception.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database or our new Koch Network Database.