Message From the EditorConfronted with a drought-ridden Australian continent ablaze (as climate models predicted), climate science deniers have resorted to spreading discredited conspiracy theories to distract from the fires’ climate connection. While this week in Louisiana, plastics giant Formosa got key permits to build one of the world’s largest petrochemical plants in Cancer Alley, just a mile and a half from the front door of Sharon Lavigne, a special ed teacher turned environmental justice warrior trying to beat back a massive new wave of polluting industry near her home. Oh yeah, and the Trump administration’s revolving door has spun former Energy Secretary Rick Perry back onto the board of Energy Transfer, the builder of Dakota Access and other controversial oil pipelines. Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected]. Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director P.S. We can hardly believe how many of you donated to support our public interest journalism and research last year. In case you haven’t yet, you can still give $20 or whatever you can to power us into 2020. — By Mat Hope (7 min. read) —Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has doubled down on his refusal to strengthen his administration’s approach to climate policy as his country burns. While Morrison acknowledges that climate change is one factor driving the fires, he is unwilling to consider reversing his government’s poor record on climate action to help prevent similar disasters happening again. In recent days, Morrison’s position has been bolstered by a group of fringe climate science deniers pushing conspiracy theories and misinformation about the relationship between the fires and climate change. READ MORE — By Justin Mikulka (3 min. read) —As unusually intense and widespread bushfires have ravaged a drought-ridden Australia, bots and trolls have begun pushing climate science denial across the internet in the form of conspiracy theories about the fires. Thanks to climate change, exceptionally hot, dry drought conditions have worsened and lengthened Australia's typical fire season. Two of the main conspiracies about the fires are based on the false ideas that they are caused by a spate of arson and they have been worsened by the Green Party's supposed efforts to stop controlled burns as a fire management and reduction measure. READ MORE — By Sharon Kelly (9 min. read) —This week, plans to build one of the world’s largest plastics and petrochemical plants in St. James Parish, Lousiana — the heart of the state’s notorious Cancer Alley — inched forward as Lousiana approved air quality permits that could allow the plant to release 13.6 million tons per year of greenhouse gases — equal to three coal-fired power plants — and a host of other pollutants. The St. James plant would be the single most polluting facility of 157 planned new or expanding refineries, liquefied natural gas (LNG) export projects, and petrochemical plants that have sought or obtained air pollution permits in the U.S., according to a report published today by the Environmental Integrity Project (EIP). READ MORE — By Julie Dermansky (23 min. read) —
On the evening of January 6, Louisiana state regulators issued 15 key permits to the Taiwanese petrochemical corporation Formosa for its $9.4 billion plastics manufacturing complex proposed for the historically black area of St. James Parish. Word spread today about the approvals, which pave the way for the project’s construction, opposed by local and national environmental advocates. Sharon Lavigne, a demure, 67-year-old recently retired special-ed teacher born and raised in St. James Parish, cried when she heard the news. Her community along the Mississippi River is already saddled with petrochemical plants and oil storage tanks, which release known carcinogens into the air that she fears are making her and her family sick. READ MORE — By Sharon Kelly (6 min. read) —Former Trump administration Energy Secretary Rick Perry, who resigned from his cabinet-level post effective last month, has joined the board of directors of the general partner of Energy Transfer LP, according to a filing made today with the Securities and Exchange Commission by Energy Transfer. Before joining the Trump administration, Perry had served on the board of Energy Transfer, the pipeline company behind controversial projects including Dakota Access, Bayou Bridge, and Mariner East, but resigned to become Secretary of the Department of Energy. On January 1, 2020, Perry was appointed as a director of LE GP, LLC, the general partner of Energy Transfer LP, according to today's SEC filing, made after the market closed. READ MORE — By Dana Drugmand (4 min. read) —A Louisiana appeals court heard oral arguments Wednesday, January 8 in a case brought by Louisiana landowners against the Bayou Bridge Pipeline Company that illegally trespassed and began pipeline construction without landowners’ consent. Attorneys for the landowners are asking the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a lower court decision granting the pipeline company’s eminent domain right to seize the land. That granting of expropriation was made despite a finding that the company had unlawfully entered and damaged the land. READ MORE — By Justin Mikulka (10 min. read) —As 2019 drew to a close and the new year ramps up, a number of signs point to the growing risks of transporting oil and gas by rail, with little government oversight to speak of: from increasing oil train traffic into the U.S. to fiery oil train derailments and new approvals for moving liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail. In early December, a train carrying oil from Alberta, Canada, and destined for Oklahoma, home to the biggest oil distribution hub in the U.S., derailed shortly after departing from the loading facility. Many of the oil tank cars ruptured and spilled large amounts of oil, which caught on fire. The train spilled 400,000 gallons of oil and burned for 24 hours. READ MORE — By Julie Dermansky (7 min. read) —What happens in Louisiana doesn’t stay in Louisiana. The state's role in the oil and gas industry impacts both global markets and global climate change. It’s also on the front line of climate change impacts due to sea level rise and is vulnerable to storm systems intensified by global warming. Here is a selection of photos from a decade of my coverage of environmental issues in Louisiana. The decade started with the largest offshore oil spill in U.S. history. The impacts from the BP oil spill are still taking a toll on the environment, and a number of people exposed to the oil and the dispersant used to break up the oil continue to fight the company for compensation due to their health claims. READ MORE — By Dana Drugmand (8 min. read) —As 2019 comes to a close, DeSmog is reflecting on another year that featured high-impact investigations and accountability reporting by our team of journalists about the reckless fossil fuel industry. From new revelations regarding dangerous fossil fuel infrastructure, to new documents shedding light on early efforts to undermine climate science and exert industry influence over climate and energy policy, the past year was filled with exceptional investigative work by DeSmog. The following recaps some of the highlights of our public interest reporting over the past year. READ MORE — By Julie Dermansky (7 min. read) —Here is a selection of photos I shot for DeSmog in 2019, another year when arguably not enough collective action was taken to protect the planet from global warming. Throughout 2019 the Trump administration continued to roll back environmental standards. Meanwhile, advocacy groups and activists ramped up the battle for clean air and water and a livable climate. READ MORE — By Justin Mikulka (9 min. read) —While carbon dioxide — deservedly — gets a bad rap when it comes to climate change, about 40 percent of global warming actually can be attributed to the powerful greenhouse gas methane, according to the 2013 IPCC report. This makes addressing methane emissions critical to stopping additional warming, especially in the near future. Methane is shorter-lived in the atmosphere but 85 times more potent than carbon dioxide over a 20 year period. Atmospheric levels of methane stopped increasing around the year 2000 and at the time were expected to decrease in the future. However, they began increasing again in the last 10 years, spurring researchers to explore why. Robert Howarth, a biogeochemist at Cornell University, recently presented his latest research linking the increase in methane to fossil fuel production, with fracking for natural gas, which is mostly methane, likely a major source. READ MORE — By Dana Drugmand (5 min. read) —Automakers are failing to drive a rapid shift towards low-carbon transport, according to a new analysis, indicating that the industry is not aligned with the Paris Agreement goal of keeping global warming below 2 degrees C. That study, released earlier this month by CDP and the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA), looked at 25 leading auto manufacturers and graded each company on its overall alignment with the transition to a low-carbon economy. No company managed to score an “A” grade, and most of the manufacturers continue to produce fleets made almost entirely of gasoline-powered vehicles. READ MORE — Michael Mann, The Guardian (4 min. read) —After years studying the climate, my work has brought me to Sydney where I’m studying the linkages between climate change and extreme weather events. Prior to beginning my sabbatical stay in Sydney, I took the opportunity this holiday season to vacation in Australia with my family. We went to see the Great Barrier Reef — one of the great wonders of this planet — while we still can. Subject to the twin assaults of warming-caused bleaching and ocean acidification, it will be gone in a matter of decades in the absence of a dramatic reduction in global carbon emissions. READ MORE — By Martin Bush, ClimateZone (4 min. read) —The next decade will be noisy as hell. As more intense wildfires blaze across every continent except Antarctica, the sound of the planet burning will only get louder. Climate scientists are looking back over the last decade, collating the data, and reviewing the numbers. Every single one of the most important metrics are signaling a worsening situation. It’s common knowledge that emissions of the carbon gases continue to increase and that this is driving up global temperatures, but the intensifying impact of heat waves and wildfires is starting to overwhelm governments’ capacity to keep these disasters under control. READ MORE From the Climate Disinformation Database: Christopher Monckton Christopher Monckton is a former British politician affiliated with the UK Independence Party and has a background in journalism. Climate science-denying organizations such as the Science and Public Policy Institute (SPPI) like to point to Monckton as a global warming expert, despite his views being widely discredited by climate scientists. SPPI’s web profile of Monckton for a time claimed he was a Nobel Peace Laureate. Monckton, who once rode into the annual UN climate talks on a camel, this week was one of a number of climate science deniers spreading misinformation about the cause of the Australian bushfires.
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