Climate Disruption Tax Costs Americans Billions

Here’s a term that bears repeating: climate disruption tax. What is a climate disruption tax? It’s the cost to the American taxpayer of dealing with the impacts of climate-related weather events, as introduced by NRDC’s Dan Lashof and Andy Stevenson.   The concept of a climate disruption tax is actually hugely important. Why? Because climate change […]

Ryan Budget Includes Mandatory Approval Of Keystone XL, Other Dirty Energy Giveaways

In what is becoming an annual tradition, Republican Representative Paul Ryan has put forth his budget plan for the coming fiscal year.  Ryan’s previous budget proposals were approved by the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives, but rejected along party lines in the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate.  Not unlike his previous budget plans, the new Ryan budget would […]

Keystone Pipeline Consultants ERM Criticized in Past for BP Pipeline Approval in Turkey

DeSmogBlog has found that Environmental Resources Management, the consulting firm behind the Keystone XL Pipeline environmental impact assessment, has been at the center of controversial pipeline projects in the past.  Activists working against the 2002 planned construction of British Petroleum’s Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline in Turkey, singled out Environmental Resources Management (ERM) for what they saw as ERM “grooming” […]

Florida Legislature Pushing ALEC, CSG Sham Fracking Chemical Disclosure Model Bill

Florida may soon become the fourth state with a law on the books enforcing hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) chemical disclosure. The Florida House of Representatives’ Agriculture and Natural Resources Subcommittee voted unanimously (11-0) on March 7 to require chemical disclosure from the fracking industry. For many, that is cause for celebration and applause.  Fracking for oil and gas embedded […]

29 Vermont Communities Say No to Tar Sands Shipments, New England Opposition Grows

Last week in the state of Vermont, 29 communities sent a strong message to elected leaders in Montpelier and Washington, D.C. by passing a non-binding resolution that would prohibit the shipping of dirty tar sands through the Northeast Kingdom portion of the state via The Portland Pipeline. The 236-mile-long Portland pipeline, which runs from Portland, Maine […]

Onslaught of Kochtopus Groups Threaten Kansas Clean Energy

By Connor Gibson, crossposted with permission from Greenpeace USA. A recent flood of Koch-supported think tanks, junk scientists and astroturf groups from inside and outside of Kansas are awaiting the outcome of a bill this week that could stall progress on the growth of clean energy in Kansas. States around the country, including Texas, Ohio, Missouri […]

State Department Keystone XL Study Done by Oil Industry-Connected Firm with Big Tobacco, Fracking Ties

On March 1, the U.S. State Department published its long-awaited Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) on the TransCanada Keystone XL (KXL) tar sands pipeline.  The KXL is slated to bring tar sands crude – also known as diluted bitumen or “dilbit” – from Alberta, Canada to Port Arthur, TX. From Port Arthur, it will be refined and exported […]

Climate Denial Industry Hits Courts And Hollywood As Threats Fly

THE climate science denial industry doesn’t like Penn State University’s Professor Michael Mann very much. Mann is the scientist behind the famous “hockey stick” graph that first appeared in the journal Nature in 1998. Mann and two other scientists Professor Raymond Bradley and Professor Malcolm Hughes had reconstructed temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere from the year […]

Greedy Lying Bastards, New Film Pulls No Punches To Expose Climate Denial Machine

Greedy Lying Bastards is a new film hitting mainstream theaters nationwide in the U.S. this weekend. If you like DeSmogBlog, you’re going to love this film. Here’s the Rotten Tomatoes review including theater times, etc. (Feel free to add your own star rating!)  The film, produced by actress Daryl Hannah and directed by Craig Rosebraugh, essentially tells the DeSmogBlog […]

Don Blankenship, Dark Lord of Coal Country, Implicated in Upper Big Branch Mine Explosion Deaths

Just under three years ago, an explosion in the Upper Big Branch coal mine in Montcoal, West Virginia stole the lives of 29 miners. Many were quick to condemn Massey Energy – the coal giant that operated the mine – for their long record of lax safety oversight, and to bemoan the preventability of the disaster. […]