Climate Deniers, You're Climate Deniers--Deal With It

Climate Deniers, You're Climate Deniers--Deal With It  (@pdykstra)

From Scientific American, more on Exxon and climate science denialism.  For information on how Washington University's Murray Weidenbaum Center (aka Center for the Study of American Business) participated in Exxon's (probably criminal) obfuscation of climate science, see here.

For information on how Washington University participates in Peabody, Arch, and Ameren's obfuscation of public knowledge with the phrase "clean coal" – I call this criminal, in Britain they determined it was false advertising at least – see here.

" Tillerson has acknowledged climate change for many years, but his company funded denial-based think tanks and scientists, all while Exxon’s own internal science affirming climate impacts was deep-sixed."

Read the full story from Scientific American here. 

Clean Energy Futures: This is a very cool report on how utilities are spending money to dig in their heels and protect the status quo. Guess what? Ameren made their top 20 list. Nation’s Top Utility Companies Take Varied Approaches to Business Risks Posed by Climate Change, from Forward-Looking to Defense of Status Quo | IRRCi

Article here: Nation’s Top Utility Companies Take Varied Approaches to Business Risks Posed by Climate Change, from Forward-Looking to Defense of Status Quo | IRRCi

Ameren (Missouri) is one of the more backward looking utilities in the study, spending money to preserve the status quo (i.e. keep burning coal).

Full report here: http://irrcinstitute.org/reports/the-top-25-u-s-electric-utilities-climate-change-corporate-governance-and-politics/


Partial graph of rankings...

http://irrcinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Table-1Large.jpeg

The Students Were and Are Right: Washington University Needs to Disassociate Itself from Peabody Energy: S.E.C. Is Criticized for Lax Enforcement of Climate Risk Disclosure

Two years ago, when students demanded that Washington University end its relationship with Peabody Energy, many scoffed at them. Others ridiculed them.  Yet, more and more stories emerging show that the students were right.  And board, administration, and acquiescent faculty are mere pawns in a bigger, seemingly crooked game, to deceive the public and continue polluting as long as possible.

S.E.C. Is Criticized for Lax Enforcement of Climate Risk Disclosure: New York Times on the Case of Peabody Energy

"As recently as 2011, shares in Peabody Energy, the world’s biggest private sector coal company, traded at the equivalent of $1,000. Today, they hover around $4 each. Over that time, investors who held the stock lost millions.

Peabody, like other coal companies, has been hammered as cheap natural gas erodes the demand for coal. But concerns about climate change are also an issue for the company as customers and investors turn away from fossil fuels.

Peabody saw this coming. Even as the company privately projected that coal demand would slump and prices would fall, it withheld this information from investors. Instead, Peabody said in filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it was not possible to know how changing attitudes toward climate change would affect its business.

Peabody’s double talk was revealed as part of a two-year investigation by the New York attorney general. In a settlement in November, Peabody agreed that it would disclose more about climate change risks in its regular filings with the S.E.C."

This is what methane leakage looks like if you have the right kind of camera, and it's very bad for the climate

And here's the story: From Desmog Blog:

Aging Infrastructure, Fracking Eyed in Massive Porter Ranch, California Methane Leak

By Sharon Kelly • Wednesday, January 20, 2016 - 13:26

5 Years Ago & Blankenship is still a free man: Remembering the Upper Big Branch Tragedy Apr. 5, 2010

The Upper Big Branch Mine Disaster: April 5, 2010 (via Coal Tattoo; Ken Ward)

Today's Lecture: Deepwater Horizon and BP's Criminal Negligence: The 11 Workers Who Died During The Deepwater Horizon Explosion

Remembering The 11 Workers Who Died During The Deepwater Horizon Explosion

Excellent Overview of court settlements, payouts, ongoing litigation, and distribution of fines.

And, an overview of the science on the spill.

And an interactive map.

New York Times interactive video on explosion.

Guardian graphic on multiple human and mechanical failures.

A documentary on the disaster.

Wall Street Journal on Blankenship and Massey Energy: criminal coal

Read all about the Don Blankenship case - Ken Ward

Re: Today's lecture #justiceforthe29

Blankenship and Massey are not exceptions, they reflect a systematic "culture of deviance" or, what is ingrained in an anti-regulatory, anti-labor, anti-safety industry.

Read about the latest mine fatality in WVa Murray Mine (Taylor Kuykendall)

And, learn more about rib failure or rib rolls (CDC)

And, read all about the Don Blankenship case (by Ken Ward)

After Toxic Ash Spill, Energy Company And Locals Struggle Over Solution

After Toxic Ash Spill, Energy Company And Locals Struggle Over Solution

Coal and Industrial Homicide: Judge keeps Blankenship case files sealed, abridges first amendment in name of impartiality?

http://www.wvgazette.com/article/20150107/GZ01/150109496/1419