Message From the Editor

Requests for thousands of dollars in sponsorships. A favor for a child’s project. And an ongoing sense of coziness between a company seeking to build a $10 billion liquefied natural gas (LNG) export terminal and pipeline and the local officials charged with reviewing key permits.

Sharon Kelly revealed this and more in her investigation exposing interactions between Jordan Cove LNG’s backers and Coos County, Oregon, commissioners that could have major implications for the project’s future. Read the newly revealed emails in her full report.

Also on the West Coast this week, California communities were in court arguing that their cases against fossil fuel companies for local climate damages are based on the companies’ alleged campaigns of deception and delay around climate science, despite knowing the consequences of continuing to burn their products.

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

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Have you subscribed to DeSmog on YouTube?

Newly Revealed Emails Highlight Coziness and Favors Between Local Officials, Jordan Cove LNG Backers

— By Sharon Kelly (14 min. read) —

Emails exchanged between an Oregon county commissioner and Pembina, the parent company of the proposed $10 billion fossil fuel export terminal Jordan Cove, raise ethics issues and may create openings for legal challenges to key permits for the controversial Jordan Cove project.

The emails, obtained via an open records request by the Energy and Policy Institute and shared with DeSmog, appear to show contacts between Pembina officials and Coos County commissioners — communications that were not disclosed during public hearings. Oregon law generally requires communications with commissioners about a pending permit to be disclosed publicly, so that those from the other side can respond.

California Communities Argue Their Climate Liability Suits Are Based on Fossil Fuel Disinformation Campaigns

— By Dana Drugmand (6 min. read) —

In back-to-back hearings before the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals Wednesday, lawyers representing California cities and counties suing fossil fuel companies over localized climate impacts argued their cases are based on the companies’ alleged campaigns of deception around climate science that downplayed the danger of their products.

Opposing arguments by an attorney representing Chevron as well as a Department of Justice lawyer failed to defend against this core allegation, and instead claimed that global warming broadly is an issue of federal concern that requires federal rather than state court jurisdiction.

Canadian Town Evacuated After Another Oil Train Derails and Burns

— By Justin Mikulka (3 min. read) —

Early in the morning of February 6, an oil train derailed and caught fire near Guernsey, Saskatchewan, resulting in the Canadian village's evacuation. This is the second oil train to derail and burn near Guernsey, following one in December that resulted in a fire and oil spill of 400,000 gallons.

According to the CBC, eyewitness Kyle Brown reported that “he saw a huge fire after the train derailed.”

“It looks like an inferno,” said Brown. “Like a war zone, really. It is pretty bad.”

Dark-Moneyed Denialists Are Running 'Fixing Science' Symposium of Doubt

— By John Mashey (28 min. read) —

The “Fixing Science” symposium, which is hosted by the National Association of Scholars and kicks off today in Oakland, California, includes credible speakers who want to improve some areas of science hurt by the use of poor statistical methods or making irreproducible claims.

Unfortunately, they are outnumbered by people who have often cast doubt on mainstream climate, environmental, and health sciences. For starters, who thinks that long-time fossil fuel–funded Patrick Michaels, a senior fellow with the climate science-denying Competitive Enterprise Institute, will “fix science”?

Peak Permian Oil Production May Arrive Much Sooner Than Expected

— By Justin Mikulka (9 min. read) —

In mid-January, Adam Waterous, who operates the private equity firm Waterous Energy Fund, made a prediction about the crown jewel of the U.S. shale oil industry, the Permian shale play that straddles Texas and New Mexico.

“We think we are at or near peak Permian,” Waterous told Bloomberg. “The North American oil market has been grossly overcapitalized, which is not sustainable.”

Australia's Decade of Burning Environmental Apathy

— By Edward Cavanough, The Nation (5 min. read) —

The country is paying a deadly price for its conservative politicians’ climate denialism.

For more than the last three months, Australia has burned. Across four states, unstoppable fires exacerbated by climate change ravaged millions of hectares. Some fire fronts stretched across 600 miles. Temperatures exceeded 115°F.

Smoke choked Australia’s cities, and the Sydney Opera House disappeared behind a brown haze. Children wore face masks as the air quality deteriorated, leading to canceled sporting events and mail delivery in Canberra, Australia’s capital. At least 25 people died, and many remain missing, not to mention the more than a billion animals and plants incinerated.

'They're Done': CNBC's Jim Cramer Says Fossil Fuel Industry 'In the Death Knell Phase'

— By Andrea Germanos, Common Dreams (3 min. read) —

Climate campaigners drew attention to CNBC's Jim Cramer's comments on Friday, January 31 that he's “done with fossil fuels” because they're “in the death knell phase.”

Cramer added that “the world's turned on” the industry as they did with tobacco.

“They're done,” Cramer said of fossil fuels on the network's “Squawk Box.” “We're starting to see divestment all over the world. We're starting to see … big pension funds saying, 'We not going to own them anymore.”

James M. Taylor is president of the Spark of Freedom foundation, which promotes fracking and nuclear energy, while opposing renewable energy like wind power. He is also a senior fellow with the Heartland Institute, both of which this week were the subject of a damning exposé (in German) by German reporters who went undercover and revealed how Heartland supports climate science denial in Germany.

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