Message From the Editor

This week, DeSmog reporter Justin Nobel published a major new investigative report at Rolling Stone that delves deep into the risks that the oil and gas industry’s waste — much of it radioactive — poses to the industry’s own workers and to the public.

Nobel shared additional documents with DeSmog, including a report prepared for the American Petroleum Institute that described these radioactivity risks as “significant” in 1982.

Last week, a divided panel of judges dismissed a landmark youth climate lawsuit, recommending these young people take up their grievances with the political system — which, as legal and scientific experts point out, has been corrupted by the same fossil fuel industry causing the climate crisis.

And Sharon Kelly looks back at what a decade of fracking has produced: A precipitous rise in oil and gas drilling, coinciding with devastating climate impacts, all while losing investors billions of dollars.

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

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Don’t forget to give a read to Justin Nobel’s Rolling Stone exposé on oil and gas radioactivity.

1982 American Petroleum Institute Report Warned Oil Workers Faced 'Significant' Risks from Radioactivity

— By Sharon Kelly (10 min. read) —

Back in April last year, the Trump administration’s Environmental Protection Agency decided it was “not necessary” to update the rules for toxic waste from oil and gas wells. Torrents of wastewater flow daily from the nation’s 1.5 million active oil and gas wells and the agency’s own research has warned it may pose risks to the country's drinking water supplies.

On Tuesday, a major new investigative report published by Rolling Stone and authored by reporter Justin Nobel delves deep into the risks that the oil and gas industry’s waste — much of it radioactive — poses to the industry’s own workers and to the public.

Judges Point Dismissed Youth Climate Plaintiffs to Political System Corrupted by Fossil Fuel Cash

— By Dana Drugmand (9 min. read) —

When a pair of Ninth Circuit Court judges ordered dismissal of a landmark youth climate change lawsuit last week, they concluded that the U.S. government may be harming the nation’s youth through its fossil fuel-based energy policy, but that courts cannot stop that harm. “Rather, the plaintiffs’ impressive case for redress must be presented to the political branches of government,” Judge Andrew Hurwitz wrote in a split 2-1 decision dismissing Juliana v. United States.

The decision to dismiss Juliana without a trial raises troubling implications about the state of America’s constitutional democracy and the role that courts can play in harming, rather than protecting, the public interest, according to legal and scientific experts.

After a Decade of Fracking, Billions of Dollars Lost and a Climate in Crisis

— By Sharon Kelly (13 min. read) —

As 2020 begins, the impacts of climate change have become increasingly clear around the world. The new year started amid devastating wildfires, tied to the worst droughts Australia has experienced in hundreds of years, which encircled much of the continent. So far, 29 people have been reported dead. A University of Sydney professor estimated the number of animals killed likely tops one billion.

Today's climate impacts have been shaped heavily by actions taken during the last 10 years, particularly in the U.S., where the climate benefits of coal power plant retirements were undermined by the rise of natural gas. Global carbon emissions had leveled off in the middle of the last decade, but began to climb again in 2017, breaking records anew each year since.

This Problem With Fracked Oil and Gas Wells Is Occurring 'at an Alarming Rate'

— By Justin Mikulka (13 min. read) —

On February 15, 2018, a fracked natural gas well owned by ExxonMobil's XTO Energy and located in southeast Ohio experienced a well blowout, causing it to gush the potent greenhouse gas methane for nearly three weeks. The obscure accident ultimately resulted in one of the biggest methane leaks in U.S. history. The New York Times reported in December that new satellite data revealed that this single gas well leaked more methane in 20 days than an entire year's worth of methane released by the oil and gas industries in countries like Norway and France.

Activists Find Evidence of Formosa Plant in Texas Still Releasing Plastic Pollution Despite $50 Million Settlement

— By Julie Dermansky (8 min. read) —

On the afternoon of January 15, activist Diane Wilson kicked off a San Antonio Estuary Waterkeeper meeting on the side of the road across from a Formosa plastics manufacturing plant in Point Comfort, Texas. After Wilson and the waterkeeper successfully sued Formosa, the company agreed to no longer release even one of the tiny plastic pellets known as nurdles into the region’s waterways. The group of volunteers had assembled that day to check whether the plant was still discharging these raw materials of plastics manufacturing.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Ned T. Nikolov

Ned T. Nikolov works as a physical scientist specializing in forest ecology for the U.S. Forest Service. Nikolov and his former colleague Karl Zeller were the subject of controversy when they were caught trying to publish a paper under pseudonyms Den Volokin and Lark ReLlez multiple times from 2014 to 2016. The pair, which has an association with the climate change denial blog network, has tried to challenge the accepted greenhouse gas theory on climate change, instead suggesting that atmospheric pressure is the cause for warming.
Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database or our new Koch Network Database.