Message From the Editor

In January, a trio of climate science deniers with ties to fossil fuel funding published a flawed paper claiming that models of the social cost of carbon pollution are underestimating CO2’s impact on plants and that carbon pollution may actually be beneficial. This is just one way deniers are trying to undermine federal climate rules, reports Dana Drugmand.

Natural gas executives are “scared to death” at how fast public perception of this fossil fuel has gone from “a solution just yesterday” to “not green tomorrow,” reports Justin Mikulka.

As pressure mounts on banks funding fossil fuel projects, JPMorgan Chase is rebuffing efforts from its own shareholders asking the company to disclose the full extent of its carbon footprint

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

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Grab a cup of coffee and settle in for a real-life tale of adventure and tragedy fit for a Hollywood thriller with Justin Nobel’s investigation “The Syrian Job: Uncovering the Oil Industry’s Radioactive Secret.”

Climate Deniers Argue Carbon Pollution Is Beneficial, Again Take Aim at EPA's Endangerment Finding

— By Dana Drugmand (11 min. read) —

Climate science deniers at think tanks with fossil fuel ties are doubling down on attempts to undermine the bases for regulating climate pollution, from attacking estimated carbon pollution costs used in regulatory analyses to urging the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to reverse its own scientific finding that underpins federal climate rules.

Even as experts' understandings of climate science and the costs of carbon pollution have strengthened significantly, opponents of climate action are publishing flawed studies in scientific journals to support false claims that align with the fossil fuel industry’s deregulatory agenda.

Failed Finances and 'the Demonization of Gas' Are Threatening the Future of US LNG

— By Justin Mikulka (7 min. read) —

The U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) market, once the promising golden child of the fossil fuel industry, has a major long-term problem. While it's facing financial disaster due to the current crash in oil and natural gas prices, that's only the short-term threat.

The real issue for the LNG industry is an existential one: It's a fossil fuel in a rapidly warming world, and these polluting fuels are losing public favor fast.

Under Rising Pressure on Climate, JPMorgan Rejects Shareholder Calls to Disclose Full Carbon Footprint

— By Alex Varley-Winter (7 min. read) —

America’s largest bank is shunning calls from shareholders to disclose its full emissions, despite warnings from its own economists that “catastrophic” climate change could end up threatening human life “as we know it.”

JPMorgan Chase, which a coalition of U.S. environmental groups recently claimed is the world’s largest financer of fossil fuels, has instructed its shareholders to vote down a proposal for the bank to report the emissions of its lending activities at its upcoming annual general meeting (AGM) on May 19.

Here’s How Shareholders Are Pressuring Oil Companies to Act on Climate Change

— By Sophie Yeo (7 min. read) —

Oil companies are preparing for their upcoming annual general meetings (AGMs), an occasion where shareholders gather to scrutinise directors, vote on resolutions, and express their concerns about how these businesses are run.

Increasingly, these meetings have become an opportunity for activists to push the fossil fuel industry towards more progressive positions on climate change, with resolutions aimed at everything from greater transparency over lobbying and emissions to forcing alignment with the Paris Agreement.

Bucking GOP Elders, Some Young Republicans Embrace a Slower, Gentler Brand of Climate Activism

— By James Bruggers, InsideClimate News (10 min. read) —

LOUISVILLE, Kentucky—As a teenager, amid the hardwood forests, waterfalls and wildflower meadows of the Parklands of Floyds Fork, Benjamin Myles took a liking to nature.

At the University of Louisville, Myles merged his libertarian-leaning politics with a curiosity about climate change, a subject that kept coming up in English class and in debates with his friends.

'Disaster Capitalism at its Worst': Report Details Big Oil's Efforts to Cash in on Coronavirus

— By Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams (4 min. read) —

Recent lobby filings from major oil and gas paint a picture of “disaster capitalism at its worst.”

So declares a report released Tuesday, May 12 by Friends of the Earth (FOE) showing how Big Oil is working to make sure the legislative response to the coronavirus crisis is beneficial to the industry.

“Big Oil is wasting no time exploiting the coronavirus for profit,” FOE senior policy analyst Lukas Ross said in a statement.

Ross McKitrick is an associate professor of economics at the University of Guelph. McKitrick is also a senior fellow at the Fraser Institute, a libertarian think tank based in Vancouver, British Columbia. This year, Fraser was among the Koch-funded groups that have used the COVID pandemic as a reason to promote the use of plastic bags, citing an article by McKitrick. He has endorsed a declaration stating, “We deny that carbon dioxide — essential to all plant growth — is a pollutant,” and in January published a paper arguing that economic models of carbon pollution’s impacts don’t properly account for the greenhouse gas’ effect on plants.

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

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