Survey Lists the Best and Worst Financial Funds When it Comes to Climate Change Risk

Is your pension fund or insurance company a leader or laggard when it comes to avoiding risky bets on the future impacts of climate change? A new survey released today finds that many major institutional investors, like retirement funds and insurance companies, are putting their investments (read: your money) at risk by not addressing the negative […]

Port Metro Vancouver Hires Disgraced Edelman PR Firm, American Lobby Group to Push Coal Exports

When it comes to shipping coal, it looks like the Vancouver Port Authority is taking a page out of the U.S. coal lobby’s books. In an effort to combat negative public opinion about coal and the proposed expansion of coal exports through Fraser Surrey Docks, the port authority has hired public relations firm Edelman Vancouver […]

TransCanada Begins Injecting Oil Into Keystone XL Southern Half; Exact Start Date A Mystery

Keystone XL‘s southern half is one step closer to opening for business. TransCanada announced that “on Saturday, December 7, 2013, the company began to inject oil into the Gulf Coast Project pipeline as it moves closer to the start of commercial service.” The Sierra Club’s legal challenge to stop the pipeline was recently denied by the […]

Urban Fracking Bonanza Threatens Dallas Suburbs

When a representative from Chesapeake Energy knocked on Phyllis Allen’s door in 2003 and offered $300 for her mineral rights and an invitation to a lease-signing pizza party, she turned them down.   Allen’s home is in the United Riverside neighborhood, predominately poor and working class African American, the place where fracking first took hold in […]

Texas Fracking Bonanza: How Arlington Fell to the Frackers

Fort Worth was the first major city in America to allow extensive fracking within the city limits — but it wasn’t the last. Arlington, Texas, fell to the frackers next — only this time, the frackers were required to make their installations less of an eyesore. Berms were built up around fracking sites and compressor centers […]

Stink Tanks: Historical Records Reveal State Policy Network Was Created by ALEC

A 1991 report tracked down by DeSmogBlog from the University of California-San Francisco’s Legacy Tobacco Documents reveals that the State Policy Network (SPN) was created by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), raising additional questions over both organizations’ Internal Revenue Service (IRS) non-profit tax status.  Titled “Special Report: Burgeoning Conservative Think Tanks” and published by the National Committee for Responsive […]

U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Backing Mitch McConnell, Other Coal Candidates In 2014

Republican Senate minority leader Mitch McConnell is facing an uphill battle for reelection in next year’s midterms.  But luckily for McConnell, his powerful allies in the dirty energy industry have deep pockets and are willing to shower his campaign with cash to help increase his chances of victory. Over the last year, McConnell has been described […]

Texas Fracking Executive Mark Grawe Threatened to Label Residents "Terrorists"

This is a guest post by Eric Moll, originally published on Occupy.com Eagleridge Inc. Chief Operations Officer Mark Grawe brought an armed cop with him to a November 13 Homeowners Association meeting in Mansfield, a suburb of Fort Worth, Tex., and told residents that anyone who protested his company’s gas wells — some of which are […]

Stink Tanks: State Policy Network Internal Budget Documents Revealed by The Guardian

It’s been a rough week for the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC). The “corporate bill mill” group’s annual States & Nation meeting was overshadowed by damaging evidence of misconduct revealed by The Guardian.  And it just got a whole lot rougher with yet another investigative installment in The Guardian series. This time, instead of focusing on ALEC alone, Guardian reporters Suzanne Goldenberg […]

Boston Globe Columnist Jeff Jacoby Distorts Survey And Study To Deny Climate Consensus

This is a guest post by Climate Nexus, and originally appeared on Climate Science Watch. Jeff Jacoby’s recent Boston Globe op-ed misses the mark on the climate consensus. His argument boils down to the claim that there’s no consensus among scientists on the causes and effects of global warming – plus, the very idea of […]