Message From the Editor

“Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said on Monday as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report, which calls for a rapid energy transition. That same day, oil giant ExxonMobil made an announcement of its own: a $10 billion investment for oil and gas development in the South American nation of Guyana that the company said would add a quarter of a million barrels of oil a day to its production in 2025. Read on.

Closer to home, the fossil fuel industry is also doubling down on infrastructure. Julie Dermansky reported from a permit hearing for a proposed new liquified natural gas export project in Cameron, Louisiana. At the hearing, environmental advocates said it seemed as if regulators had decided to grant the permit before the proceedings even started, and expressed concern about unrecognized cumulative impacts from the proposed plant and other nearby LNG facilities that already exist — and have permits to expand. Dive in.

We built on an investigation by Documented and the Washington Post that dug into prominent pro-fossil fuel author Alex Epstein’s recently unearthed writings from college, that make disparaging statements about non-western cultures and Martin Luther King, Jr., and argue that an increase in “Black crime” can be connected to King’s campaign for economic justice. In response, Epstein pointed us towards a video he made, in which he largely stands by his earlier statements. Nick Cunningham has the story.

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

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle

Executive Director

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ExxonMobil Announces $10 Billion Oil Investment the Same Day IPCC Signals End for Fossil Fuels

— By Sharon Kelly (4 min. read)—

“Investing in new fossil fuel infrastructure is moral and economic madness,” UN Secretary-General António Guterres said as the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released part of its latest report on Monday. This scientific summary, focused on how the world can cut greenhouse gas emissions, warns of the extraordinary harm to all of humanity caused by fossil fuels and the need for a rapid energy transition away from oil, gas, and coal, calling for meaningful changes over the next three years. “Such investments will soon be stranded assets, a blot on the landscape, and a blight on investment portfolios.”

That same day, oil giant ExxonMobil made an announcement of its own: a $10 billion final investment decision for an oil and gas development project in the South American nation of Guyana that the company said would allow it to add a quarter of a million barrels of oil a day to its production in 2025.

Biden’s Call to Increase LNG Export Capacity on Gulf Coast is Tantamount To Sarah Palin’s Call to ‘Drill Baby Drill’ According to Environmental Advocates

— By Julie Dermansky (12 min. read) —

Travis Dardar, an indigenous fisherman in Cameron, Louisiana, has a front-row view of the expansion of the liquified natural gas (LNG) industry’s export capacity on the Gulf Coast — and it isn’t pretty. “It disgusts me what man is doing to the planet,” Dardar told me as I photographed flares at the recently built Venture Global Calcasieu Pass LNG export facility from his boat out in the Calcasieu Ship Channel, which empties into the Gulf of Mexico.

I met Travis and his wife Nicole Dardar on March 17, before attending an air quality permit hearing held by the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality (LDEQ) in Cameron for another proposed LNG export project by Commonwealth LNG, a Texas-based company.

Fossil Fuel ‘Philosopher’ Wrote About ‘Superiority’ of Western Culture, and Blamed Martin Luther King Jr. for Increase in ‘Black Crime’

— By Nick Cunningham (5 min. read)—

A prominent pro-fossil fuel author, who has argued for the “moral case” for fossil fuels, has a track record of disparaging writings about what he views as “inferior” cultures.

Alex Epstein, a self-styled “philosopher” and director of the for-profit Center for Industrial Progress, has long championed the use of fossil fuels as morally virtuous, and the shift to renewable energy as “immoral” because it would punish the “incredibly life-giving oil and gas industry.”

The Sun’s Pro-Fracking Poll was Paid for by Climate Denial Group

— By Adam Barnett (2 min. read) —

A poll in The Sun that claims 44 percent of the British public supports fracking was paid for by a climate science denial group, DeSmog can report.

The survey was published in The Sun this week (5 April) with the headline “FRACKING IS FINE: Nearly half of voters are in favour of lifting fracking ban” and referenced in the “Sun Says” editorial column. The story did not include any information about who was behind the poll.

As Oil Giants Turn to Bitcoin Mining, Some Spin Burning Fossil Fuels for Cryptocurrency as a Climate Solution

— By Sharon Kelly (7 min. read)—

Flaring — or the burning of stranded natural gas directly at an oil well — is one of the drilling industry’s most notorious problems, often condemned as a pointlessly polluting waste of billions of dollars and trillions of cubic feet of natural gas.

In early March, oil giant ExxonMobil signed up to meet the World Bank’s “zero routine flaring by 2030” goal (a plan that — when you look just a bit closer — doesn’t entirely eliminate flaring but instead reduces “absolute flaring and methane emissions” by 60 to 70 percent.)

The Center for Industrial Progress is a “for profit” think tank founded by Alex Epstein, a philosopher with no science background who is also a blogger at Master Resource (the “Free Market Energy Blog”) and a past fellow of the Ayn Rand Institute. Epstein is the author of The Moral Case for Fossil Fuels, a book that suggests the overall impact of using fossil fuels is to make the world a far better place. The CIP‘s mission is to “inspire Americans to embrace industrial progress as a cultural ideal.”

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