A new report from Carbon Tracker finds that the fossil fuel industry is pinning its hopes on a plastic boom—and try as it might to spur that demand, it's just not materializing. Report author Kingsmill Bond joins us to discuss.Read the full report here: https://carbontracker.org/reports/the-futures-not-in-plastics/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
New York District Court Judge Loretta Preska has denied repeated requests to delay Donziger's criminal contempt trial until at least one of his lawyers can be present. Barring any last-minute changes, he'll stand trial Monday, November 9th, after which he could be sent to jail for six months. In this ep, reporter Karen Savage brings us the latest and we hear from attorneys Lauren Regan and Ronald Kuby about what sort of precedent this sets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/ad...
The case takes a bizarre turn with a sting operation, U.S. subpoenas, accusations of fraud and bribery, and finally a verdict in Ecuador. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
With the Ecuadorian plaintiffs racking up good press and an endorsement from the country's president, Chevron kicks things up a notch, bringing on new lawyers and PR firms to tell a very different story.Support our work: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In this episode of Generation Green New Deal, Drilled host Amy Westervelt co-hosts with Sam Eilertsen to look at what happened to block climate action in the 90s and and 2000s, why various fossil fuel industry strategies worked at the time, and what makes the youth climate movement's approach different and more effective.Check out Generation Green New Deal wherever you get your pods! https://www.podlink.to/generationgnd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In September 2009, Chevron filed an international arbitration claim against the government of Ecuador over the Lago Agrio case. In the years since the company has pointed to the decisions of that arbitral panel as something akin to court decisions, but they're not—arbitral tribunals exist to help companies protect their profits, and are largely conducted in secret. This system has been quietly shaping environmental and climate policy for years. In this episode, expert Marcos Orellana walks us th...
The trial gets underway in Ecuador, an election changes the calculus, and a global PR war kicks into high gear.Support our work: patreon.com/drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
How did this case come about in the first place? We go back to the early days of oil colonialism in Ecuador, in the 1960s, the partnership between oil men and missionaries, and the impact on indigenous communities in the Amazon.Support our work: patreon.com/drilledRead more: https://www.drillednews.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In August 2019, an American lawyer was put on house arrest as he awaited trial on criminal contempt charges. The charges stem from a decades-long case that began with pollution in the Amazon and has since spanned continents and courtrooms while the victims—indigenous tribes in the Ecuadorian Amazon—continue to seek justice. Welcome to Season 5: La Lucha En La Jungla. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
In addition to S5 of Drilled (coming soon!), Critical Frequency is putting out a terrific slate of great climate and environment podcasts this fall. Check out this sampling, then go subscribe so you won't miss them!Inherited: http://podlink.to/inheritedHot Take: http://podlink.to/realhottakeGeneration Green New Deal: http://podlink.to/generationgndHazard: http://podlink.to/hazardNo Place Like Home: http://fanlink.to/noplacelikehome Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A few weeks ago the Trump administration quietly proposed a rule that would make it harder for financial managers to investment retirement funds in environmentally or socially responsible ways. The fossil fuel industry had been calling for the rule and praised it, noting that the divestment movement has become a serious problem and reduced its access to capital. Journalist David Sirota broke that story and joins us to explain. PLUS: a sneak peek of S5.Check out David's newsletter: https://sirota...
The FBI arrested Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Larry Householder, this month for racketeering, or as the state attorney general put it "bribery, that's what it was." Private utility First Energy bribed Householder and a handful of other state politicians to pass a corporate bailout that kept coal and nuclear plants open and crushed renewables. UC Santa Barbara political science professor Leah Stokes, author of the book Short Circuiting Policy, joins to tell us all about it.Leah's...
What if you were told buying a piece of land in the Mojave Desert could help you be rich one day? That was the dream developers of California City sold to thousands of people. But the reality is much different. California City – the new podcast from LA-ist Studios – chronicles the dark side of the American Dream, where those thousands of people were left with land that is nearly worthless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
An advocacy group in The Netherlands began campaigning for a ban on fossil fuel ads, including event sponsorships, earlier this year. Campaigner Femke Sleegers joins us to explain the roots of the campaign, its goal, and the initial response to it.More information: https://verbiedfossielereclame.nl/dutch-citizens-initiative-ban-fossil-fuel-advertising/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Despite tax breaks, royalty cuts, and other COVID-related incentives, Chesapeake Energy—a pioneer in the American shale gas (fracking) industry—declared bankruptcy this week. It's the first example of what we expect to be many of the government throwing good money after bad in attempts to use COVID relief funds to shore up companies that were failing long before the pandemic hit.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Two big new suits, in Minnesota and D.C., were filed within 24 hours of each other and allege the same thing: that fossil fuel companies misled consumers about climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
A new report from Carbon Tracker finds that not only have oil and gas companies not been budgeting for plugging and abandoning wells, they've been grossly underestimating the cost of that work, especially for fracking wells. The COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted the problem. Report co-authors Rob Schuwerk and Greg Rogers join to talk about the size of the problem, the cost, and who will ultimately pay.Report: https://carbontracker.org/reports/its-closing-time/Support us: https://www.drilled...
Amid nationwide Black Lives Matter protests, some climate activists have been saying "now's not the time to talk about climate." In this episode we bring you an encore presentation of the latest Hot Take episode, in which Amy and Mary Annaise Heglar talk about how justice is justice; the idea that climate and racial justice are all the same thing, and can't be separated. To access the full-length episode, and weekly roundups of climate justice and accountability writing, reporting and analysis, ...
Naomi Klein's book The Shock Doctrine focused on what she calls "disaster capitalism," the sort of corporate feeding frenzy that happens in the wake of major crises. It was on a research trip for that book, to post-Katrina New Orleans, that she connected her work on human rights and labor to climate. Klein shares that journey here, explains the Green New Deal, and talks about what needs to happen to spur a justice-focused transformation in the U.S.You can find Naomi's many great books here: http...
Reporters Alexander Beunder and Jilles Mast have been combing through 150+ boxes of documents from the personal archive of one of the Netherlands' top climate skeptics during the 1990s, a guy named Fritz Böttcher, and made a shocking discovery: throughout his career Böttcher received direct funding from Royal Dutch Shell. It's part of a large project called the Shell Papers at the Platform for Authentic Journalism, in the Netherlands.Read more:Shell Papers: https://www.ftm.nl/dutch-multinational...
Last week, The New York Times ran a story on the GOP's favorite new climate narrative: If you think quarantine is bad, just wait til the Dems impose climate action on you. In this special ep from Hot Take, with Mary Annaise Heglar and Amy Westervelt, we look at how that narrative came about, why it's striking a nerve, and how to wrestle the climate story back.Subscribe to Hot Take: https://realhottake.substack.com/subscribeListen to Hot Take: https://podlink.to/realhottake Learn more about your ...
In April 2020, Fred Singer, longtime king of the climate deniers, died at the age of 95. In this episode, investigative reporter Dan Zegart, author of the book Civil Warriors, about the 1990s tobacco litigation, joins to talk about Singer's place in the history of science denial. Connor Gibson, an investigator with Greenpeace also joins to talk about the climate denial machine Singer built, the legacy he leaves behind, and whether the COVID-19 pandemic may topple science denial and fake free mar...
A lawsuit filed against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over a small project in Massachusetts could have big implications. It aims to force FERC to comply with an order the courts gave it back in 2017, and that it's been ignoring ever since: to evaluate the overall emissions and climate change impact of any new energy project. The case has particular relevance right now as FERC has been rapidly approving every project that crosses its desk. Adam Carlesco, the lead attorney for th...
Political scientist and environmental policy expert Leah Stokes joins us to discuss the many things the new film Planet of the Humans gets wrong about renewable energy, environmentalists and the fight for climate action.Related stories:https://www.vox.com/2020/4/28/21238597/michael-moore-planet-of-the-humans-climate-changehttps://www.drillednews.com/post/planet-of-the-ecofascistshttps://www.drillednews.com/post/is-your-power-company-a-climate-denierSupport our work: https://www.drillednews.com/s...
On the 50th anniversary of Earth Day and the week of the 10-year anniversary of the BP Deepwater oil spill, we head to Louisiana to talk petrochemicals, petroleum, plastic, fossil fueled philanthropy, and how the pandemic is affecting it all. Fossil-Free Fest: https://www.fossilfreefest.org/fff2020/ Bucket Brigade: https://labucketbrigade.org/ Healthy Gulf: https://www.healthygulf.org/ Support us: https://www.drillednews.com/support-us Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoic...
French artist Joanie Lemercier has been a thorn in Autodesk's side for more than a year now, since he first pointed out that the California software company's computer-aided drafting (CAD) software keeps Europe's largest coal mine operating. Tech reporter Maddie Stone started looking into it, and found that Autodesk software is used by not only coal mines but also to design oil and gas pipelines, and for all sorts of other extractive purposes. It's a window into a broader discussion around clima...
In a new report, the Center for International Environmental Law looks at the way oil, gas and petrochemical companies are leveraging the pandemic to push policy and increase profits, and whether these efforts will ultimately be successful. Carroll Muffet, one of our S3 experts, joins to walk us through some of the key points of the report, including how the industry is using the pandemic to push more single-use plastics. Read the report: Pandemic Crisis, Systemic Decline: Why Exploiting the COVI...
Because of their proximity to oil and gas operations, residents of Broomfield, Colorado were at risk of exposure to flowback-driven air pollution during shelter-in-place orders, so the city issued an emergency decree for local operations to cease fracking flowback during the pandemic. Extraction Oil filed for a temporary restraining order to block the city's decree. It's the first test of Colorado's 2019 law prioritizing public health and safety over oil and gas production, which allows local go...
Dr. Julia Steinberger, professor of social ecology and ecological economics at the University of Leeds, has published some really interesting research recently debunking some classic fossil fuel narratives around the industry's importance to society and human wellbeing. Here we dig into her latest study, which found that while fossil fuel use has certainly grown GDP, it has had no effect on life expectancy ... in other words the industry's "benefit" has accrued to relatively few humans. Study: "...
Field investigator Sharon Wilson has spotted a troubling increase in methane emissions from refineries in the Permian Basin, in Texas. Things went from bad to worse in January 2020, and really blew up in early March ... almost as though they knew regulators wouldn't be watching. Support our work: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled More reporting: https://www.drillednews.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
