Drilled - Critical Frequency

Introducing: Hazard-NJ Dec 08, 2024

A new season of Hazard-NJ is out now, this time diving into PFAS, or "forever chemicals." Find it everywhere you get your pods.

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The Massive Climate Case that Shell Both Won and Lost, and What It Means for the Future of Global Climate Litigation Dec 02, 2024

In November, a Dutch court ruled in Shell's favor on an appeal in a big international climate case. It got loads of headlines around the world, but it wasn't quite the win for Shell that a lot of media coverage has made it out to be. Although it walked back some things, the court reaffirmed a key component of the original ruling: that Shell is legally required to reduce its global emissions.

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Introducing Master Plan Nov 13, 2024

How did our democracy get replaced by a kleptocracy?

Discover the truth on Master Plan, a new podcast from The Lever. Hosted by David Sirota, former speechwriter for Bernie Sanders and Oscar-nominated co-writer of Don’t Look Up, Master Plan exposes the deliberate scheme to legalize corruption in the U.S., allowing the wealthy to buy policies that benefit themselves and screw everyone else.

The Lever has unearthed never-before-reported documents proving this 50-year plot was a coordinated effort by wealthy individuals and political ideologues. Over the course of 10 episodes, the series follows the historic thread from Watergate in the ’70s through the Citizens United decision and the current Supreme Court scandals. It’s a tale of famous villains you already know like President Richard Nixon, Senator Mitch McConnell, and Fox News boss Roger Ailes, plus operatives and oligarchs you’ve never heard of.

Listen to more episodes of Master Plan at https://link.chtbl.com/sIXXlFys?sid=Drilled

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Fuel to Fork: The Role the Oil and Gas Industry Plays in Food-based Emissions Nov 12, 2024

From October-December 2024, Fuel to Fork is taking over the Feed podcast with a 7-episode series exposing the hidden role fossil fuels play in the food we eat. Today, Fuel to Fork co-hosts Anna Lappé and Matthew Kessler join us to talk through that history and why it's remained hidden for so long.

Check out Fuel to Fork here: https://tabledebates.org/fueltofork

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Introducing Reclaimed: The Navajo Nation's Fight for Water Nov 11, 2024

Today we're sharing an episode of the podcast Reclaimed. It centers on a group of Americans who’ve been denied a basic human right: water. I’m talking about the Navajo people. More than one-third of households in the Navajo Nation do not have access to clean water. Right now, there’s a landmark bill in front of Congress that could change this — but it took more than 150 years to get here. “Reclaimed” takes you back to the very beginning when the Navajo reservation was first created. And it reveals the history of oppression and exclusion that led the Navajo to this point — and why their future is still uncertain. You can listen to more episodes of Reclaimed at https://abcaudio.com/podcasts/reclaimed-navajo-nation/

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Genevieve Guenther on the Language of Climate Politics Oct 01, 2024

In her new book, The Language of Climate Politics, Guenther digs into six key rhetorical devices that are being used to slow or block climate action. For an academic book, it's made some folks on the Internet awfully mad. In this episode we talk about why, what went into her research, and what it tells us about the coming months.

Ad Notes: The first 150 of you will receive the first month of a Planet Wild membership from me for free. Click on this link https://planetwild.com/drilled, or use the code DRILLED9 later. Not satisfied anymore? You can cancel at any time. If you want to see how Planet Wild works first, check out their latest YouTube video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPbCjH45uwI&t=2s.

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Climate Week 2024: Finally Tackling the Mad Men of Big Oil Sep 24, 2024

We first released our "Mad Men of Big Oil" season on all the pro-fossil fuel propaganda that came before climate denial, and the role the PR industry has played in helping various polluting industries shape our ideas around the economy, the environment, and the relationship between the two back in January 2020. It inspired various campaigns to clean up the industry and in 2024, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres specifically referenced the need to hold these "Mad Men fueling climate disaster" to account. At this year's Climate Week we did a special live version of this season, and figured it was a good time to re-up it. It's evergreen, and people are talking about it more and more these days. Check your feeds for Season 3 to listen to the rest!

Ad Note: The first 150 of you will receive the first month of a Planet Wild membership from me for free. Click on this link https://planetwild.com/drilled, or use the code DRILLED9 later. Not satisfied anymore? You can cancel at any time. If you want to see how Planet Wild works first, check out their latest YouTube video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPbCjH45uwI&t=2s.

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Denial to Delay: How Fossil-Funded University Research Lays the Foundation for Fossil-Friendly Policy Sep 20, 2024

Drilled reporter Molly Taft joins us to talk about newly released research on fossil fuel funding of university research, and share interviews with climate disinformation researcher Geoffrey Supran, who authored one of the recent studies, and with philosopher of science Craig Callender at UCSD, which just passed a precedent-setting policy to require disclosure of funding on research.

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Drilled Presents...Spill: Mary Annaise Heglar & Amy Westervelt on climate in this week's debate, Project 2025, and a whole lot more Sep 09, 2024

This week we bring you an episode of our climate talk show, Spill, for a deep dive from Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt on what Project 2025 lays out for climate, what we might hear (and not hear) about climate in this week's presidential debate, rethinking the climate movement and politics, and more.

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Denial to Delay: The Battle Over the Clean Air Act Aug 15, 2024

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts vs. EPA that when the U.S. Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1970, climate science was “in its infancy,” implying that government officials could never have intended for the legislation to cover the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, SCOTUS doubled down on that idea, ruling in West Virginia v EPA that since the Clean Air Act didn't explicitly talk about climate change, the EPA cannot regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Now, new historical evidence unearthed by a team of Harvard University researchers led by Naomi Oreskes calls the court's understanding of the history of climate science into question, which could have major implications for the government's ability to regulate climate-changing emissions.

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Denial to Delay: How the Fossil Fuel Industry Rebranded an Oil Production Technique as a "Climate Solution" and Got Taxpayers to Foot the Bill Jul 30, 2024

Carbon capture has always seemed a little scammy, but in a blockbuster investigation co-published with Vox this week, we discovered just *how* scammy. Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, joins to walk us through the many issues with the technology, from the fact that it delivers little to no climate benefit to the fact that it creates a massive new public health threat.

Read more here: https://drilled.media/news/ccs

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In El Salvador a Cold Case Murder Has Become a Weapon for Silencing Environmental Activists Jul 17, 2024

In 2017, El Salvador became the first country in the world to pass an outright ban on mining. It was an effort to protect the country's water, and its people. Now, self-proclaimed "coolest dictator in the world" Nayib Bukele wants to bring mining back to boost the economy, which took a major hit thanks to his embrace of Bitcoin as the national currency in 2021. The activists who helped pass the ban are standing in his way. The solution? Accuse them of a decades-old unsolved murder. The activists go on trial this week. Reporter Sebastian Escalon brings us this story, narrated by Yessenia Funes.

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Could You Really Charge Oil Companies with Murder? Plus: Supreme Court Climate Update Jul 09, 2024

This week, we bring you an episode from our climate litigation podcast, Damages, because we've been getting SO MANY emails about what sorts of legal strategies might still be available for climate accountability given everything happening at the Supreme Court. Public Citizen has been working with various prosecutors to explore the idea of using criminal law to hold oil companies accountable for climate change, but is it really viable? The group's senior climate policy counsel, Aaron Regunburg, joins us to discuss.

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Denial to Delay: The Great "Greening" of LNG Jul 03, 2024

As part of our ongoing series looking into new climate problems the fossil fuel industry is peddling as solutions, we did a deep dive into the push to position liquefied natural gas—a fossil fuel—as "green" and discovered one particularly active lobbying group.

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Denial to Delay: How Management Consultancies Data-Wash False Solutions and the Great Gas Lock-In Jun 25, 2024

Fossil fuel companies can't push ideas like "low carbon gas" or overstate the emissions-reduction potential of technologies like carbon capture without the help of a whole system of folks who help them sell the idea. The role management consultancies play in that process has been largely under-covered, but today we dig into just how helpful they've been through the story of one consultancy in particular. Reporter Maddie Stone walks us through how multinational consultancy ICF, which is well known for its government climate work, also works to produce reports the fossil fuel industry uses to promote oil and gas.

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The Coordinated Attack on Shareholder Activism May 18, 2024

The backlash against ESG is continuing, with a string of lawsuits aimed at shutting down shareholder activism. We don't often talk about shareholder activism in the vein of protecting protest, but it's absolutely part of the story. Andrew Behar, CEO of shareholder advocacy group As You Sow, joins us to explain what's going on, and why anyone who cares about basic rights needs to be tuning into the ESG fight.

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Climate News Update: The New Carbon Majors + Swiss Elders Win Landmark Climate Case Apr 16, 2024

Lots of news lately on stories we've been following, so in today's episode: an update! The landmark Carbon Majors report has been updated with some surprising new data, and the European Court of Human Rights has sent down an historic ruling that will shape how EU legislators look at energy and climate.

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Sainte-Soline, the Government Effort to Disband a Movement in France, and the Radical Solidarity of the Earth Uprisings Apr 03, 2024

In France, the unthinkable has happened for polluting industries: the working-class Yellow Vest movement, racial equity movements, and progressive climate activists have joined forces in a multi-racial, cross-class coalition called Earth Uprisings. The response has been shockingly violent and extreme. Reporter Anna Pujol-Mazzini takes us there.

Check out Fatima Ouassak's new book Pour Une Écologie Pirate

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The U.S. Anti-Renewables Movement, Explained Mar 20, 2024

Late last year, Brown University's Climate and Development Lab put out a comprehensive report looking at the opposition to wind energy on the east coast of the U.S., called "Against the Wind." Today, the lead author of that report, Isaac Slevin, walks us through what's real and what's manufactured in this opposition, which has not only continued to grow in the U.S. but now influenced a similar movement in Australia.

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Nearly 30 Years After the Ogoni 9 Tragedy, Nigerians Are Still Resisting Oil Colonialism Mar 05, 2024

Shell announced in late 2023 that it would be shutting down all of its onshore activities in Nigeria and concentrating its efforts offshore. It leaves behind poisoned water, multiple political and economic crises, and a country that is measurably worse off today than when its oil industry began. Meanwhile the government continues to target environmental activists.

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What Ecuador's Yasuní Referendum Really Means for Oil, in Yasuní and Beyond Feb 20, 2024

Last year, headlines all over the world proclaimed victory for the environment: finally, after more than a decade of promises, there would be no more drilling in Yasuní National Park, a large swath of the Ecuadorian Amazon. But as Macy Lipkin reports, all wasn't what it seemed.

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Introducing: Hazard NYC Feb 19, 2024

Check out the limited-run series Hazard NYC from The City, all about how climate change intersects with Superfund sites in New York City. Start with episode one here: https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/02/14/newtown-creek-superfund-pollution-hazardnyc-faqnyc-podcast/

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Dana R. Fisher on the Past, Present and Future of Climate Protest Feb 13, 2024

In her new book Saving Ourselves, Dana R. Fisher compiles years worth of research on protest in general and climate protest in particular for a comprehensive look at tactics, what "works," what a protest "working" even means, where the movement is likely to go next and where it needs to go to achieve real climate action.

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Department of Homeland Security, the Manufactured "EcoTerrorist" Panic, and Cop City Jan 31, 2024

The U.S. government's definition of what constitutes an "ecoterrorist" has long driven backlash against environmental activists and in recent years that definition has only broadened. Investigative reporter and Drilled senior editor Alleen Brown dug into this recently and found that the Department of Homeland Security had been warning officials in Atlanta about the threat posed by "Defend the Atlanta Forest" for months before police raided the forest, ultimately killing one protestor, and charging dozens more with domestic terrorism and racketeering. It was such an overreaction that even mainstream media covered it.

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Meet the UN's First Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders Jan 23, 2024

In June 2022, Michel Forst became the first UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders. In that role he has spent the past year visiting various countries and speaking out about the increasingly onerous laws and aggressive tactics being used against climate protestors. Today he released a statement on the UK, saying he is "extremely worried" about "the increasingly severe crackdowns on environmental defenders in the United Kingdom, including in relation to the exercise of the right to peaceful protest."

In this episode, our France reporter Anna Pujol-Mazzini talks to Forst about his new position, what it means, and what power he has to do something about the creeping crackdown on climate protest.

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How UK Courts Became the New Climate Protest Battleground Jan 16, 2024

About a decade after UK courts made history with the first "climate necessity" ruling in history, the UK government has passed new laws that not only restrict what protesters can do, but also how protesters are allowed to defend themselves in court. Some judges don't apply the new laws so strictly, but others have held people in contempt for just trying to explain themselves.

In some courtrooms, the climate necessity defense has been effectively outlawed. How did that happen? And how did it happen so quickly? That's our story today.

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What Happened At Bayou Bridge? The Other End of the Dakota Access Pipeline Dec 19, 2023

While protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation garnered international news coverage, at the southern end of the pipeline, cops moonlighting as pipeline security were suppressing free speech with impunity. In this episode, reporter Karen Savage tells us what happened at Bayou Bridge, and what lessons the story holds for the climate movement and for anyone who believes in the importance of democracy.

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Seven Years Later, an Environmental Impact Statement for the Dakota Access Pipeline Dec 07, 2023

This month, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers closes the comment period on its draft Environmental Impact Statement for the Dakota Access Pipeline, a 1,172-mile pipeline that’s been pumping 500,000 barrels of oil per day since May 2017.

The pipeline runs from the Bakken oil fields in North Dakota to southern Illinois, crossing the Missouri and Mississippi Rivers. Over the past six years, every court in the country has ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers did not study the pipeline’s environmental impact closely enough before approving the pipeline’s route. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe has maintained all along that the project poses a serious threat to its drinking water. From April 2016 to February 2017 thousands of water protectors from all over the country (and beyond) joined them in protests and direct actions. The resistance at Standing Rock is often cited by the fossil fuel industry, police and politicians as the reason states need new anti-protest laws, while the backlash to that resistance is often cited by water protectors as the reason for PTSD, asthma, and in some cases lost eyes and limbs.

Now, the Army Corps of Engineers says that removing the pipeline would be too damaging to the Missouri River and its surrounding ecosystems. The removal actions it describes in its EIS are the same actions taken to install the pipeline in the first place. The Army Corps suggests that removing the pipeline would be more environmentally harmful than allowing the oil to continue pumping under one of Standing Rock's primary drinking water sources. Nonetheless, this report—seven years late—represents one of the few pathways left to stop the pipeline.

The Standing Rock Sioux tribe is advocating to seal the pipeline off, while some water protectors are advocating for the pipeline to be removed entirely. The public comment period closes Dec 13, 2023.

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Modern-Day Bead Trading: The Fossil Fuel Industry Meets Indigenous Protest with "Redwashing" and Repression in Canada Dec 05, 2023

As we resume our season focused on the global criminalization of climate protest, reporter Martha Troian brings us to Canada, where the Wet'suwet'en people have been fighting for years against a gas pipeline they never authorized on their territory.

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Abeer Butmeh: Living on the Front Lines of a War and the Climate Crisis, in Palestine Nov 14, 2023

Abeer Butmeh, coordinator of the Palestinian NGOs Network, one of the most important Palestinian environmental organizations, spoke to senior editor Alleen Brown about battling for short-term and long-term survival when your identity itself is criminalized.

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Messy Conversations: Magatte Wade, Atlas Network's Center for African Prosperity Nov 01, 2023

We'll be back with the rest of our anti-protest season soon, but in the meantime, welcome to a new Drilled miniseries we're calling "Messy Conversations," getting into all the complicated nuance that unfortunately gets cut out of a lot of climate conversations. This week, Magatte Wade, who runs the Center for African Prosperity at the Atlas Network. She wasn't too happy with our recent coverage of Atlas, so we talked about that, the idea that solving poverty and addressing the climate crisis are mutually exclusive, where free speech ends and property rights begin for libertarians, and a whole lot more.

Links:

Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC): https://www.arcforum.com/
DeSmog profile of ARC: https://www.desmog.com/alliance-for-responsible-citizenship-arc/
DeSmog coverage of ARC 2023 forum: https://www.desmog.com/2023/10/26/gop-climate-denier-vivek-ramaswamy-headlining-jordan-peterson-arc-conference/
Narasimha Rao's Decent Living Energy Project: https://www.decentlivingenergy.org/
Our Guyana season: https://drilled.media/podcasts/drilled#season-8
Center for African Prosperity: https://www.atlasnetwork.org/partners/center-for-african-prosperity

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The Tomato Soup "Controversy" Oct 17, 2023

Globally, climate activism has shifted over the past few years. It’s more constant now and includes more direct action than ever before. Some of that action has critics, including climate scientists and climate advocates, clutching their pearls and worrying that protest will turn the public away from the urgent need to act on the climate crisis. But social science researchers who study structural change and protest say there’s no historical evidence to back that up; that in fact the only time social movements have ever affected change is when they’ve been wildly disruptive, and a whole lot of the people who love to quote MLK are missing a significant part of his approach to social change. In this week's ep we hear from social scientists on how radical or not climate protests really are, and what factors make direct action work or fail.

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In Brazil, A Tale as Old as Colonization: Why Indigenous Land Defenders Are Particularly Targeted by Extractive Industries Oct 10, 2023

From Ecuador to North Dakota, British Columbia to New Zealand, the backlash against Indigenous-led environmental protest is always particularly harsh, infused with colonialist entitlement to land, water, and other resources. Historian Nick Estes walks us through what that looks like in the U.S., and the great team behind the documentary The Territory brings us a recent example from Brazil. Check out the film here.

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Guyana Update: Gas to Energy for Guyana, or Problem to Profit for Exxon? Oct 09, 2023

A new report from the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA) looks at the details of Guyana's planned "Gas to Energy" project and finds mostly benefits for ExxonMobil and more debt for Guyana.

Read the full report here: https://ieefa.org/articles/guyana-gas-energy-project-unnecessary-and-financially-unsustainable

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Joanna Smith on "Conspiring Against the United States" with Fingerpaint Oct 03, 2023

In April 2023, Joanna Oltman Smith walked into the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. with fellow activist Tim Martin, and smeared water-soluble kids' finger paint on the glass display case containing a Degas statue called "Little Dancer." The two read off a statement about the importance of protecting actual, living children as well as we do sculptures of them. Smith and Martin figured they would be charged with vandalism, but each is now facing two felony charges, including one of "conspiring against the United States government." As we covered last month, one thing that makes it easy to criminalize protest is the steady hum of content that paints climate activists as fringe weirdos or out-of-touch elitists. We think it's important to meet these people and bring their stories and voices to you directly.

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Loss Is on the Calendar in Nigeria Sep 26, 2023

From our pals over at Inherited, in today’s episode, Mo Isu looks at one of the reasons climate activists all over the world are protesting: they're already facing the impacts of climate change. Here, Isu traces the cycle of loss and rebuilding in the rural Niger Delta region of Nigeria as the country weathers extreme seasonal flooding. After meeting a flood survivor in his hometown of Lagos, Mo travels twelve hours to Lokoja – the town where Nigeria’s largest rivers converge – to explore how directly impacted flood survivors endure the region’s relentless cycle of damage and repair.

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How Think Tanks Laid the Groundwork to Criminalize Protest Sep 19, 2023

It’s no coincidence that the backlash against climate protest looks the same from country to country. Not only is industry sharing tactics across borders, but also the Atlas Network—a global network of nearly 600 libertarian think tanks—has been swapping strategies and rhetoric for decades. This episode features reporting from Amy Westervelt, Lyndal Rowlands, and Julianna Merullo from Drilled, and Geoff Dembicki from DeSmog. You can see a print version of the story at The New Republic or an even longer print version on our site here.

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In Vietnam, Tax Evasion Charges Help Lock Up Climate Activists Sep 11, 2023

President Biden made his first trip to Vietnam as President this week, with the intention of "upgrading" diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam. Not on the agenda? The country's move to use trumped-up tax evasion charges to suppress civil society groups, including five climate activists that have been imprisoned using this tactic since 2021.

Read The 88 Project's report on this practice: https://the88project.org/weaponizing-the-law-to-prosecute-the-vietnam-four/

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In Australia, A State-By-State Approach to Criminalizing Climate Protest Sep 05, 2023

Since the 2019 passage of the "Dangerous Attachment Devices" bill in response to anti-coal protests in Queensland, Australia's states have moved quickly to follow suit.

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Disha Ravi on Becoming the Face of "Radical" Protest in India Aug 29, 2023

When she was just 22, Disha Ravi, co-founder of Fridays for Future in India, had police show up at her home, borrow a pen and paper to write an arrest warrant on the spot, and bundle her onto a plane to fly across the country to a city she'd never been to. Here she explains what happened, how it's still impacting her two years later, and why she'll never let it stop her activism or force her out of India.

An extended version of this interview will run in partnership with the Heated newsletter next week, as the G20 Summit gets underway in Delhi.

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The Corporate Push to Criminalize Speech Aug 29, 2023

There's a lot of discourse happening about free speech in the context of "cancel culture" these days, but precious little coverage of the push all over the world to criminalize protest...particularly environmental and climate protest. We'll be digging into this trend in detail over the next several months, but first a look at what prompted extractive industries to start agitating for governments to crack down on protest, what tactics they use, and why they've been so effective.

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How the Media Has Helped to Criminalize Climate Protest, with Evlondo Cooper Aug 22, 2023

Media Matters senior researcher Evlondo Cooper put out a fascinating study earlier this month looking at how the media has covered climate activism. In today's episode we look at the role that flawed coverage has helped the fossil fuel industry in its quest to criminalize climate protest.

Check out the study here: https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/national-news-scant-coverage-climate-protests-largely-overlooked-scientific

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Outside/In: When Protest Is a Crime, Part 1 Aug 15, 2023

In the lead-up to our season on the criminalization of protest we're bringing you part 1 of this excellent two-part Outside/In episode looking at this issue in the U.S.

When members of the Oceti Sakowin gathered near the Standing Rock Reservation to protest the Dakota Access Pipeline, they decided on a strategy of nonviolent direct action. No violence… against people.

But sabotage of property – well, that’s another question entirely.

Since the gathering at Standing Rock, anti-protest legislation backed by the fossil fuel industry has swept across the country.

What happened? When is environmental protest considered acceptable… and when is it seen as a threat?

This is the first of two episodes exploring the changing landscape of environmental protest in the United States, from Standing Rock to Cop City and beyond.

Part II is available on Outside/In wherever you get your podcasts

Featuring Chase Iron Eyes, Tokata Iron Eyes, Lesley Wood, Elly Page, and Connor Gibson.

Special thanks to Phyllis Young and everyone at the Lakota People’s Law Project, especially Daniel Nelson and Jesse Phelps. Thanks also to Soundings Mindful Media.

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Introducing Our New Season: The Real Free Speech Threat Aug 15, 2023

Around the world, climate and other environmental protestors are being harassed, attacked, and arrested at an alarming rate. Laws are being passed that levy life-altering prison sentences and fines on protestors arrested near anything deemed “critical infrastructure,” which is defined so broadly it’s hard to find a public space that wouldn’t be near it anymore. Corporations are suing protestors and NGOs, comparing protest to organized crime. Governments are growing increasingly comfortable branding environmental protestors as “domestic terrorists.” And so far the media is largely participating in the rhetorical “othering” of protestors, opting in most cases to focus on the disruption that protest causes rather than the change it seeks, and to marginalize activists. In this print and audio series we’ll take an in-depth look at how climate protest has evolved in recent years, where this backlash is coming from, how it’s grown so quickly, and what it feels like to be someone who’s concerned enough about the future of humanity to join a protest, only to find themselves facing police violence and several years in jail.

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Herb, Ep 3: The Next Citizens United Will Be a Climate Case Aug 01, 2023

In more than 30 climate cases making their way through U.S. courts today, oil companies are using an argument they've been laying the legal groundwork for since the 1970s: that since everything they've ever said about climate change was in the interest of shaping policy or blocking regulation, it's protected speech, even if it was misleading. In this episode we take a look at how those cases are playing out and the likelihood that this new take on "corporate free speech" could make it all the way to the Supreme Court.

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Herb, Ep 2: A Legal Strategy Jul 25, 2023

Worried that all their work creating Mobil's personality and a multi-pronged issue advertising campaign to go with it would go to waste if the TV networks deemed it all "propaganda" Herb and his boss looked to the courts for protection. In this episode we follow the "corporate free speech" movement through the courts, where it got a big assist from tobacco lobbyist-turned-Supreme Court justice Lewis F. Powell.

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Herb, Ep 1: The Panic Jul 18, 2023

In the 1970s, Mobil Oil had invented the advertorial and was aggressively pursuing an entirely new type of marketing, branding the company as a person with a unique personality and opinions that deserved to be heard. When public backlash threatened to undermine their approach, they launched a campaign that would change the course of U.S. history. Transcript

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Industry Backlash to Grassroots Organizing in Louisiana's "Cancer Alley" Jun 20, 2023

ExxonMobil, Chevron and other petrochemical giants are increasingly organizing against grassroots environmental justice activism in Louisiana that are part of the Beyond Petrochemicals campaign. The companies have joined with pro-industry politicians and local Chambers of Commerce to form a “sustainability council,” focused not on environmental sustainability but on the longevity of the petrochemical industry on Louisiana's Gulf Coast. Jo Banner of The Descendants Project and Shamyra Lavigne of RISE St. James, two key organizers in the area, join us to talk about why the industry is suddenly organizing against them.

Read more in The Guardian and Floodlight News exposé here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/04/cancer-alley-louisiana-environment-oil-industry-opposition

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The Anti-ESG Campaign Gets a Boost from RAGA Jun 13, 2023

Ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission announced its intention to make Environmental Social and Governance metrics actually mean something to investors, polluting industries have suddenly turned on ESG. Now that fight has a legal strategy, being carried out by the Republican Attorneys General Association.

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Bingeworthy Interview with Amy Westervelt of Drilled Jun 06, 2023

This week Amy's on the other side of the mic in an interview with Samantha Hodder, who writes the excellent Bingeworthy newsletter, all about narrative podcasts. The newsletter version of this interview, along with Samantha's take on Drilled will be in tomorrow's Bingeworthy, so make sure to subscribe here: https://bingeworthy.substack.com/

Ad links in this ep:

First Leaf: tryfirstleaf.com/drilled for 50% off your first shipment of six bottles

AG1 : athleticgreens.com/drilled for a year's supply of vitamin D plus 5 free travel packs of AG1 with your first order.

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Drilled Presents: Living Planet on Disinformation Jun 02, 2023

Living Planet is a podcast and radio program from Germany’s international broadcaster, Deutsche Welle (DW). Hosted by Charli Shield and Sam Baker, each week Living Planet reports on environment stories from around the world.

In this episode of Living Planet, host Sam Baker speaks with three experts on climate disinformation about how factually inaccurate and misleading information travels around the web. Climate journalist Stella Levantesi, communication researcher John Cook and Wikimedia strategist Alex Stinson participated in this engaging round-table, which originally was broadcast as a live discussion.

More Living Planet episodes are available at: pod.link/livingplanet

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Jake Bittle on the Complexities of Climate Migration May 30, 2023

Jake Bittle's book The Great Displacement looks at how extreme weather events are likely to drive Americans to move from one part of the country (or their state) to another. In this episode, he joins to talk through the complex web of factors that drive migration, and how policies might be changed to ease the burden on people and communities.

Find out more about The Great Displacement and where to buy it: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Great-Displacement/Jake-Bittle/9781982178253

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Thea Riofrancos on Tackling Transition and Consumption May 23, 2023

Electrification offers an opportunity to rethink how we use energy and how we get around. Researcher Thea Riofrancos wants to see the U.S. seize that opportunity and set the country on a path to a better, more equitable future.

Promotions:

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Drilled presents: The Carbon Copy on the War Over Gas Stoves May 17, 2023

We’re sharing an episode from a podcast we love called The Carbon Copy. In January 2023, a new study showing that over 12 percent of childhood asthma cases can be linked to gas stoves took over the discourse. Suddenly, gas stoves were a hot topic on nightly news programs across America. The study ignited backlash from conservative pundits, especially after a commissioner from the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission said stricter regulation of gas stoves was on the table.

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Drilled presents: MongaBay Explores the Congo Basin: The "Heart of the World" Is at a Turning Point May 12, 2023

The Congo Basin contains the world’s second-largest rainforest at a staggering 178 million hectares (just under 440 million acres). It is also one of the biggest carbon sinks on the planet, containing 29 billion metric tons of carbon in its vast peatlands under the rich forest.

One of the basin’s key countries, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), aims to open up protected areas and forested peatlands to oil and gas development, with many experts warning of dire consequences to the rainforest and the world’s climate, should these peatlands be disturbed. Sound familiar? On the heels of our Guyana season, we wanted to bring you this deep dive from the great folks over at MongaBay on what's happening in the Congo right now. You can find the MongaBay Explores podcast here and MongaBay's regular Newscast here. Check them out!

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S8 Bonus: A Verdict May 09, 2023

The day after our season finale last week, we got some incredible news from Guyana: the High Court ruled against the oil company and the government in the big insurance case Melinda Janki filed. We caught up with Janki shortly after the verdict was released for this conversation.

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S8 Ep8 | The Turning Point May 02, 2023

In the last episode of our "Light, Sweet Crude" season we look at what's next for Guyana, and for other Global South countries grappling with poverty and climate change at the same time.

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S8 Ep7 | The Global Oil Rush Apr 25, 2023

What's happening in Guyana isn't just happening there. All over the globe, oil companies are racing to tap as many of the remaining fossil fuel reserves as they can. This week, we're joined by Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Goodell for a story about what the global oil rush looks like in another part of the world: Namibia.

Read Jeff's story: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/oil-drilling-africa-destroy-wild-land-namibia-recon-investors-1234697088/

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S8 Ep6 | Old-School Greenwashing Apr 18, 2023

When we first started reporting this story, people unfamiliar with it would suggest talking to local environmental groups. Surely they would have something to say about a massive new polluting industry springing up in the country! But every group we could find operating in Guyana had taken money from Exxon or one of its partners. Several have made promotional videos praising the project. They argue that oil money is no dirtier than any other source of funding, and if it’s there, they may as well take it to do good conservation projects.

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S8 Ep5 | On Global Poverty and Global Warming Apr 11, 2023

The tension between addressing global poverty and acting on the climate crisis is one the fossil fuel industry, and those who carry water for it, have been increasingly leaning on in recent years. We asked Dr. Narasimha Rao to join us this week to get into the details of that conversation, where there are and aren't tradeoffs, and what his Decent Living Energy Project at Yale can tell us about how to solve both global crises at once.

Download our discussion guideon debunking the "moral case" for fossil fuels!

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S8 Ep4 | Constitutional Violation Apr 04, 2023

Melinda Janki has filed seven separate cases aimed at blocking oil drilling in Guyana, but only one of them explicitly names climate change as a problem the project is guaranteed to exacerbate. It’s a constitutional case that invokes Guyana’s constitutional right to a healthy environment—an amendment Janki herself helped to write. Plaintiffs Dr. Troy Thomas and Quedad DeFreitas argue that the government’s choice to fast-track permits and oil production threatens their right to a healthy environment, and the rights of future generations too. The government of Guyana argues that, ironically, it needs oil money to adapt to climate change.

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S8 Ep3 | Unlimited Liability Mar 28, 2023

One person in Guyana knows both the inner workings of oil companies and the intricacies of Guyanese environmental law better than most. Melinda Janki grew up in Guyana, but went to university at Oxford and then worked as in-house counsel for oil giant BP before returning home. Decades ago she started to help strengthen the country’s environmental laws. In 2018 she started filing suits against the government to block offshore drilling. Her latest suit demands that ExxonMobil be liable for any environmental damage caused to Guyana in case of an offshore catastrophe.

Read more in Antonia Juhasz's Wired story on Guyana: https://www.wired.com/story/the-quest-to-defuse-carbon-bomb-guyana/

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S8 Ep2 | The Contract Mar 21, 2023

After a year’s worth of pressure from local press and civil society groups, the Guyanese government released its contract with ExxonMobil to the public in December 2017. The IMF calls it an unfair deal for Guyana. Some local leaders start calling on government officials to try to renegotiate the contract, but others say that’s a fool’s errand and the only place to fight the contract is in court.

Read more in Antonia Juhasz's Wired story on Guyana: https://www.wired.com/story/the-quest-to-defuse-carbon-bomb-guyana/

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S8 Ep1 | The Boom Mar 14, 2023

Five years ago, Kiana Wilburg was a new reporter when ExxonMobil executives and Guyanese government officials announced they had found oil 40 miles offshore. Wilburg and her newsroom had to quickly learn about the industry and this company that was suddenly so influential in their country and were left with just one question: exactly what kind of a deal had the country signed onto?

Visit https://brilliant.org/Drilled for 30 days free and 20% off a subscription.

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Origins of Climate Denial: The New World War Mar 09, 2023

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows exactly how accurate oil company scientists' climate models were back in the 1970s and 80s. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance.

In this final episode, a look at what it might take to finally act on climate.

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Origins of Climate Denial: Campaigns So Successful They've Landed in Court Mar 06, 2023

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows exactly how accurate oil company scientists' climate models were back in the 1970s and 80s. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance.

In this episode, a look at how successful the fossil fuel industry's decades-long information war was at convincing the public there was nothing to worry about, and how that success led to dozens of lawsuits filed over the past five years.

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New Season Coming Soon: Light, Sweet Crude Feb 28, 2023

On paper, the small South American country of Guyana is the fastest-growing economy in the world, thanks to its oil boom. The country started shipping barrels of oil in 2019. Hotels are popping up all over its capital city. Historic homes are being turned into condos for visiting oil execs. But average citizens say they aren’t benefiting from the boom like they thought they would. And one lawyer is trying everything she can to stop her homeland from being changed from a carbon sink into a carbon bomb. In this special crossover season of Drilled and Damages, a look at 21st century oil colonialism, amid the climate crisis.

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Origins of Climate Denial: Setting the Research Agenda Feb 27, 2023

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows that not only did Exxon scientists suspect climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels was a growing problem that would lead to crisis if nothing changed, but they were terrifyingly accurate in their modeling and predictions. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance.

In this episode, we look at how fossil fuel companies have shaped the research agenda on climate, from the preferred technical solutions to policy frameworks, via strategic investments in research centers at elite universities.

Support us: https://www.drilledpodcast.com

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Origins of Climate Denial: Aggressive Think Tanks, Shouty Pundits, and a New Religious Argument Feb 25, 2023

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows that not only did Exxon scientists suspect climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels was a growing problem that would lead to crisis if nothing changed, but they were terrifyingly accurate in their modeling and predictions. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance.

In this episode, we look at how oil companies and their public relations firms shifted culture, influencing everything from civil discourse to how religious groups viewed the issue of climate change.

Support us: https://www.drilledpodcast.com

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Origins of Climate Denial: Exploiting Scientists' Kryptonite—Certainty Feb 14, 2023

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows that not only did Exxon scientists suspect climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels was a growing problem that would lead to crisis if nothing changed, but they were terrifyingly accurate in their modeling and predictions. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial and Exxon's role in it, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance.

In this episode, a look at how oil companies exploited various weaknesses in science, namely scientists' tendency toward not prioritizing or valuing good communication skills, and their absolute refusal to be certain about anything.

Support us: https://www.drilledpodcast.com

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Origins of Climate Denial: Weaponizing False Equivalence Feb 07, 2023

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows that not only did Exxon scientists suspect climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels was a growing problem that would lead to crisis if nothing changed, but they were terrifyingly accurate in their modeling and predictions. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial and Exxon's role in it, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance.

In this episode, the industry's role in creating and then weaponizing false equivalence on climate—the idea that the opinions of a handful of contrarians are equally valid to those of the majority of peer-reviewed studies on the topic.

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Origins of Climate Denial: The Turn Feb 01, 2023

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows that not only did Exxon scientists suspect climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, was a growing problem that would lead to crisis if nothing changed, but they were terrifyingly accurate in their modeling and predictions. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial and Exxon's role in it, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance.

2015 Exxon Knew Reporting:

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Exxon Was Right: The Bell Labs of Energy Jan 24, 2023

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows that not only did Exxon scientists suspect climate change, driven by the burning of fossil fuels, was a growing problem that would lead to crisis if nothing changed, but they were terrifyingly accurate in their modeling and predictions. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial and Exxon's role in it, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance.

2015 Exxon Knew Reporting:

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Life in a Ticking Carbon Bomb Jan 10, 2023

In this special sneak preview of our next season, we hear from Melinda Janki, a lawyer who's fighting to keep her home country of Guyana from becoming one of the world's largest carbon bombs.

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Rep Ro Khanna on the House Oversight Committee's Climate Disinfo Investigation and a Whole New Batch of Documents Dec 20, 2022

The House Oversight Committee wrapped up its investigation into climate disinformation earlier this month and published a second tranche of revealing internal documents that spell out exactly how the world's largest oil companies have misled the public on their commitments to energy transition. One of the people who spearheaded that investigation, Representative Ro Khanna, joins us to discuss.
Read more:
https://www.drilledpodcast.com/highlights-from-the-climate-disinfo-document-dump/
https://theintercept.com/staff/amy-westervelt/

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Truck Manufacturers Are Lobbying Against Emissions Reductions In the U.S. Dec 13, 2022

A new report from Influence Map shows that despite all their talk of "clean trucks," truck manufacturers are lobbying heavily against emissions reductions at both the state and federal level.
Read the report: https://influencemap.org/report/US-Heavy-Duty-Transport-Climate-Change-20434

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First Climate RICO Filed + James Hansen Sues EPA Dec 06, 2022

November was a big month for climate litigation! The first-ever climate RICO was filed on behalf of 16 Puerto Rican municipalities, plus a cohort of scientists and researchers, including NASA scientist James Hansen, sued the EPA to compel them to regulate greenhouse gas emissions under the Toxic Substances Control Act.

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Loss and Damage, Minus the Fossil Fuels As Development Myth Nov 22, 2022

Loss and damage was a big focus of #COP27 and, ultimately, one of the few things global negotiators could agree on. But media coverage of loss and damage has left out a lot of important history, including how flawed the fossil fuel industry's "fossil fuels = development" myth is.

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How American Climate Denial Fueled Canada's Tar Sands, with Geoff Dembicki Nov 15, 2022

Investigative journalist Geoff Dembicki's new book The Petroleum Papers looks at the fascinating history of climate denial in Canada, and how denial built a bridge between the U.S. and Canadian fossil fuel industries.
Buy the book: https://greystonebooks.com/products/the-petroleum-papers
Attend the U.S. launch: https://climatemuseum.org/2022-events/2022/11/15/book-launch-with-geoff-dembicki
Read Geoff in Vice News: https://www.vice.com/en/contributor/geoff-dembicki

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Why Is One of Big Oil's Top Greenwashing PR Firms Handling Media for COP27? Nov 08, 2022

COP27 is underway in Egypt. Everyone agrees that the stakes have never been higher so why is longtime fossil fuel industry greenwasher Hill + Knowlton handling media for the conference? Today a look back at the firm's longstanding history crafting science denial and delay strategies for both tobacco and fossil fuel companies.

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COP 27 Will Be a Climate Disinformation Inflection Point: Here's How to Neutralize It Oct 26, 2022

The annual Conference of the Parties —a global meeting of negotiators and heads of state to discuss a path forward on climate action—is coming up in a little over a week. Historically these meetings gin up all sorts of climate disinformation. Today, a new report walks journalists and other communicators through the many ways they can counter disinfo without amplifying it.
Report: https://caad.info/report/journalist-field-guide-navigating-climate-misinformation/

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Universities Are Starting to Say No to Fossil Fuel Funding Oct 18, 2022

Beginning with Standard Oil of New Jersey (now Exxon) in the late 1940s, oil companies have invested heavily in universities, not just to fund engineering programs and, eventually, climate science, but also to fund the public policy centers and economics programs that shape policy solutions. Fossil Free Research, a new group formed by many of the same students who pushed their campuses to divest from fossil fuels, is demanding that the world's top universities break their addiction to fossil fuel money and in late September they logged their first big win: Princeton University. In this episode we take a look at the roots of fossil fuel funding in universities and the evolution of the movement to root it out.

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Widening the Lens of Accountability, with Naomi Oreskes, Jennifer Jacquet, Dr. David Michaels, Geoffrey Supran, and Jessica Wentz Oct 07, 2022

Taped live at the Harvard Faculty Club, an interview with Naomi Oreskes about her forthcoming book "The Big Myth," focused on the origin story behind free-market ideology, followed by a panel discussion on how to widen climate accountability to include not only oil companies but also the other industries and enablers that have obstructed climate action.
Resources:
UCS Science Hub for Climate Litigation: https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/science-hub-climate-litigation
Climate Social Science Network: https://cssn.org/
Pre-order The Big Myth: https://www.amazon.com/Big-Myth-American-Business-Government/dp/1635573572
Jennifer Jacquet's The Playbook: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/534048/the-playbook-by-jennifer-jacquet/
Dr. David Michaels' books: https://www.drdavidmichaels.com/books

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Three Congressional Hearings on Climate Disinfo Bring New Industry Documents to Light Sep 20, 2022

Three Congressional hearings shone a light on climate disinformation this week, with one looking at oil companies' role, another looking at the role of PR firms, and a third looking at corporate attempts to limit the free speech of environmental activists.

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West Virginia Is Giving Texas a Run for Its Money on Climate Obstruction Sep 13, 2022

From its state treasurer to its attorney general to its Senator, West Virginia is leading the charge on climate obstruction and dismantling environmental regulation.

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SCOTUS Will Continue to Weigh in On Climate: Here's What's Coming Next Aug 23, 2022

West Virginia v EPA isn't the only big climate case before the Supreme Court this year, from questioning the SEC's disclosure rules to major Clean Water challenges there's a lot more to come. EarthJustice's Sam Sankar and Kirti Datla join to give us a preview of what's coming in the court's Fall session.

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A New Front in Climate Obstructionism: State Treasurers? Aug 16, 2022

Jesse Coleman, senior investigator for Documented, joins to walk us through an eye-opening investigation into the State Financial Officers Federation, an obscure group organizing Republican state treasurers in the fight against "woke capital."

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Here's What the IPCC Report Actually Said About Carbon Dioxide Removal Jul 12, 2022

Everyone else might have moved on but we're still plodding through the latest IPCC report over here. Carbon dioxide removal, or CDR, came up all over this report, and because the summary is vastly more positive about the potential of this tech than the rest of the report (thanks in no small part to influence from Saudi Arabia and the U.S.), I wanted to bring together a more complete picture of what the report actually says about it. Nikki Reisch and Carroll Muffett from the Center for International Environmental Law join to help.

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West Virginia v EPA : Worst-Case Scenario and What Comes Next Jun 28, 2022

The Supreme Court is dragging its feet releasing a ruling in the controversial West Virginia v EPA case. Today we look at the roots of that case, its position in the rightwing judicial strategy, and what avenues for climate action would remain in the wake of a worst-case scenario ruling

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The "Culture War" Embraces Climate Jun 21, 2022

Jennie King, lead author of a new report on climate disinformation from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue, joins to discuss the report's findings, including the way various "culture war"riors have embraced climate denial, and how her team pinpointed 16 superspreaders of climate disinformation.

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As a Supreme Court Decision Hanging in the Balance, a Novel Argument: Regulate Greenhouse Gases Under TSCA Jun 16, 2022

As we wait to hear whether the Supreme Court will toss WV v EPA altogether or apply the major questions doctrine to broadly rule against the EPA regulating greenhouse gases, period, a group of climate scientists and advocates are filing a petition this morning demanding that the EPA regulate greenhouse gas emissions—not under the Clean Air Act, the legislation in question in West Virginia v EPA, but under a law no one has yet applied to climate change, the Toxic Substances Control Act.

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S6 Bonus: Why Is a California Air Board Funding Natural Gas Expansion? Jun 14, 2022

Floodlight's Miranda Green is back with a new story about the push for natural gas in southern California. This time an air board tasked with cleaning up pollution is giving millions of dollars in grant money to gas projects.
Read the story: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jun/07/california-air-pollution-natural-gas?CMP=share_btn_tw

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False Friends of the Court: Why Every Rightwing Think Tank Has an Amicus Program, with Senator Whitehouse Jun 07, 2022

I have been wondering for months what possible sense it makes for every right-wing think tank to have an amicus program. I mean...is any judge really surprised to learn that the Cato Institute is against regulation? But these are not folks who spend money on things for no reason, and the presence and size of amicus programs at conservative "public interest" law firms and think tanks have been growing exponentially over the years, so I reached out to the only person I've ever seen mention this in public: Senator Sheldon Whitehouse. He had all the answers I was looking for and then some.

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S6, Part2 | Ep 5: The Disaster Capitalist Response to Russia-Ukraine May 25, 2022

In the response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the gas industry is now fully embracing it's new role. Right alongside the API, Chevron, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the industry moved quickly to capture the narrative in the early days of the invasion, going from disinformation blitz to policy wins within a matter of weeks.

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Bonus: As Australia Heads to the Polls, a Look at Morrison's "Gas-Fired Recovery," Carbon Capture, and Greenwashing May 19, 2022

This weekend Australians will vote in the first national election since catastrophic bushfires burned tens of millions of acres and blanketed the country in smoke for weeks. In the lead-up to that election, a look at some of the current government's climate policies, and a risky new move to store carbon deep in the ocean.

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S6, Part 2 | Ep 4: Epic Astroturfing May 17, 2022

Even before the gas industry got into the front group business it was using some questionable tactics to stave off electrification. In this episode, LA Times energy reporter Sammy Roth and Floodlight's deputy editor and investigative climate reporter Miranda Green join to walk us through a wild story from the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.
Check out more from them here: https://www.latimes.com/business/story/2021-08-16/clean-air-gas-trucks-la-long-beach-ports

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S6, Part2 | Ep3: Anatomy of a Front Group May 03, 2022

A year after San Luis Obispo took the lead in Southern California on a gas ban, the coastal town of Santa Barbara was evaluating a similar proposal, and residents were being spammed with texts encouraging opposition to the ban and offering information through a new "grassroots" group: Citizens for Balanced Energy Solutions. Except it wasn't a citizens group at all, it was a front group started by the country's largest gas utility.

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S6, Part 2 | Ep 2: The New Climate Villains Apr 26, 2022

For more than a decade, even environmental advocates promoted the idea of fossil gas as part of the solution on climate change. But while it did help to reduce dependency on coal and thereby reduce CO2 emissions and air pollution, it came with a whole host of its own problems. Today, how the industry is dealing with its new role as part of the problem, rather than the solution.

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S6, Part 2 | Ep 1: A Busload of COVID Apr 19, 2022

In April 2020 when San Luis Obispo announced a plan to become the first city in Southern California to ban gas in new buildings, the region's utility SoCal Gas--the largest gas utility in the country--sprung into action, threatening among other things to bus in large numbers of protestors to crowd the town and city hall, refusing to mask or social distance just as the pandemic was taking hold in the U.S.
Check out the Los Angeles Times for more reporting on this: https://www.latimes.com/environment/story/2020-05-06/socalgas-union-leader-protest-threat-no-social-distancing

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Climate One Collaboration: Breaking Down Climate Misinformation Apr 15, 2022

Fossil fuel companies and others have spent decades casting doubt on climate science to allow them to continue to profit. As documented by climate communication expert John Cook and others, these strategies have taken many forms: deny, dismiss, delay, deflect; and they have evolved over time. They’ve also included a concerted effort to recast political speech, banned and regulated in some contexts, as protected free speech, giving corporations more leeway in broadcasting their messages. In a special collaboration with Climate One, we trace the origins of this free speech argument and break down the tactics used to spread misinformation.

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Conflicts of Interest, Debunking Demand, Media Manipulation & More | IPCC Report, Part One Apr 09, 2022

The IPCC mitigation report dropped this week and it is a *doozy*. We'll be digging into it throughout the month of April to help you make sense of it all.
Read more: www.drilledpodcast.com

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Responsibilities Not Rights: A Tuhoe Perspective Mar 31, 2022

When Tūhoe negotiated legal personhood for their homeland Te Urewera, the global rights of nature community cheered. But in this conversation about how the case connects to rights of nature overall and to the global push for climate action, Tamati Kruger, Tūhoe negotiator and chairman of the board that now oversees Te Urewera, explains that for Tūhoe it's about responsibilities—of people to protect the land and each other—not rights.

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A Landmark Ruling in Ecuador Mar 17, 2022

Last episode we told the story of Ecuador's rights-of-nature journey, today Melissa Troutman and Joshua Pribanic, directors of Invisible Hand and co-founders of the journalism organization Public Herald, join to talk about what the landmark Los Cedros ruling means, not just for Ecuador but the world.
Subscribe to Damages so you won't miss future episodes! https://podlink.to/damages

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Los Cedros: The Cloud Forest v. The Mine Mar 11, 2022

Ecuador was the first country to adopt rights of nature into its constitution, but its Constitutional Court (Ecuador’s equivalent to the U.S. Supreme Court) has not heard many cases in the decade or so since the law was added. The new Constitutional justices made a point of picking several cases to test rights of nature, and in 2021 handed down a major judgement about the future of one of the world's most biodiverse cloud forests.
Subscribe to Damages: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/damages/id1606039896

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West Virginia v EPA and What It Means for Climate Policy Mar 03, 2022

A case argued at the Supreme Court this week—West Virginia v EPA—has potentially huge implications for regulating greenhouse gas emissions. NYU law professor Richard Revesz and Center for Biological Diversity attorney Jason Rylander join us to explain.

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A Brief History of Rights of Nature in the U.S. Feb 24, 2022

Rights of nature first started making its way into U.S. courtrooms via an unlikely source: Disney. Today it's a huge threat to the fossil fuel industry. So much so that the industry is pushing preemptive bans on rights of nature laws in states across the country.

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Drilled Presents: Damages Feb 18, 2022

Damages is following the hundreds of climate lawsuits currently happening all over the country. First up, in Season 1, a look at rights of nature cases all over the world. In this episode, we start with a case that's making its way through the courts right now, on behalf of wild rice, or manoomin in the Ojibwe language. The rights of manoomin case was originally filed in an effort to stop construction of the Line 3 pipeline. That pipeline has been built, but the case is still active, and it could have major implications for other pipeline fights.

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The Right-Wing Web of Climate Delay, with Lisa Graves Feb 12, 2022

Right-wing funders don't just work on climate change, or voter suppression, or attacks on public schools, they tackle all of it together. In this episode, expert Lisa Graves talks us through the tangled web of funding and ideology fighting against climate action.

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An Update on the Big U.S. Youth Climate Lawsuit Jan 28, 2022

Back in 2015, twenty-one young people sued the United States for its actions to drive and exacerbate climate change. The case, Juliana v. United States, looked like it was done for back in 2021 when the 9th Circuit declared the young people did not have standing to bring the case and declined to grant a rehearing, but it's been mandated back to district court where the Juliana 21 have amended their complaint and are gearing up for round 2.

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Exxon Takes Its First Amendment Battle to Texas Supreme Court Jan 21, 2022

Guardian journalist Chris McGreary joins to discuss ExxonMobil's attempts in Texas to cast litigation against it as a conspiracy to muzzle its free speech rights.
Read Chris's story: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/exxon-texas-courts-critics-climate-crimes

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Redefining Environmentalists Jan 14, 2022

For decades, the fossil fuel industry has successfully framed environmentalists as silly, elitist, radical, and out of touch. And for a long time the climate movement has gone along with it, self-flagellating for caring about nature, buying into the idea that humans and nature are separate. It's well past time to rethink what it means to be an environmentalist.

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Climate Crisis, Meet Democracy Crisis Jan 07, 2022

A conversation with Max Berger, a longtime progressive organizer who helped incubate the Sunrise Movement and has also worked in the past for Cori Bush and Elizabeth Warren, about movement building, the climate crisis, and the current unraveling of American democracy.
(Check out Scene on Radio's climate season here: http://www.sceneonradio.org/the-repair/)

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Drilled Presents | Scene on Radio, The Repair | Episode 9: Pachamama Dec 17, 2021

In several countries around the world, including Ecuador, New Zealand, and the U.S., some people are trying to protect the planet using a legal concept called “rights of nature”—infusing the law with Indigenous understandings of Mother Earth.
Listen to the complete Scene on Radio season: http://www.sceneonradio.org/the-repair/
Check out Degrees podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/degrees/id1536627537

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The Influence Industry and Climate Obstruction Dec 10, 2021

Groundbreaking new research from Brown University's Dr. Robert Brulle shows just how much oil companies have spent on PR in recent decades, and tracks how PR firms helped to architect climate obstruction. PR whistleblower Christine Arena joins with Dr. Brulle to discuss his research and the many tentacles of the influence industry.

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One PR Firm Works on More Climate Obstruction Than Any Other Dec 07, 2021

In a new study, sociologist Robert Brulle examined which PR firms work for the various industries obstructing climate action. Only one firm was in the top 3 for every single segment. Listen to find out which one, and learn about some of their other contributions to the world of spin

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Fracking the Outback: Australia's Plan to Go Big on Fracking & Plastic Nov 26, 2021

As the rest of the world is beginning to realize that fracking comes with more downsides than upsides, Australia is readying itself for a fracking boom, eyeing basins on Indigenous land.

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Melissa Aronczyk on the History of Greenwashing Nov 19, 2021

Melissa Aronczyk, media studies scholar at Rutgers University, is one of my go-to sources on all things disinformation. In this episode, she walks us through the history of environmental PR and how it's shaped the broader disinformation system we're all grappling with today. This history is also the subject of Aronczyk's new book, with co-author Maria Espinoza, A Strategic Nature (https://global.oup.com/academic/product/a-strategic-nature-9780190055356?cc=us&lang=en&)

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The ABCs of Oil | Katie Worth on the State of Climate Education in the U.S. Nov 05, 2021

Reporter Katie Worth has been researching climate education in the U.S. for years and that research forms the basis of her new book Miseducation. In this interview we delve into what she found.

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The ABCs of Big Oil | So... What Do We Do About This? Oct 29, 2021

Over the last five episodes we've tracked how long the fossil fuel industry has been investing in schools, why, and what impact it's had. In this episode, we look at what can be done, and who's trying to do it.

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The ABCs of Big Oil | Ben Franta Talks to Us About Big Oil on Campus Oct 22, 2021

Bringing you our entire interview with Stanford researcher Ben Franta on fossil fuel influence at universities because it was just too good not to share.
Check out Degrees pod: https://link.chtbl.com/degrees?sid=podcast.SHOWNAME

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The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 4: We're Going Streaking Oct 15, 2021

We're wrapping up our series with Earther this week, with a look at how fossil fuel companies influence curricula and research at the university level. (Also working on a bonus episode on solutions to this problem, stay tuned for that!)

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The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 3: High School Oct 08, 2021

In the third episode of our mini-series with Earther, we head to high school, where the fossil fuel industry's efforts to shape Americans' thinking on economics and policy really ramps up.

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S5 Update: Donziger Sentenced to Six Months in Jail Oct 03, 2021

Steven Donziger, the attorney who's been on house arrest for more than two years on a contempt charge that arose as a result of his work on the Chevron-Ecuador case, was sentenced Friday October 1st. Judge Loretta Preska handed down the maximum sentence, six months in jail. She also denied bail. Donziger's legal team is appealing both the conviction and the denial of bail, and he remains at home on house arrest pending those appeals.

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The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 2: Elementary School Oct 01, 2021

Since the 1920s, oil companies have been creating music, activities, coloring books, comic books, movies and more to shape how American kids think about society, the economy, and the environment. Today, we look at their efforts in elementary school.
Read more: www.earther.com

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Presenting Scene on Radio, Season 5: The Repair Oct 01, 2021

Drilled host Amy Westervelt is co-hosting this season of the documentary podcast Scene on Radio, all about the climate crisis—what drove it and what could propel the world out of it. If you like what you hear in episode 1, you can keep listening here: http://www.sceneonradio.org/the-repair/

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The ABCs of Big Oil | Ep 1: First Day of School Sep 24, 2021

Fossil fuel companies didn't start infiltrating schools when climate change appeared on the scene, they were there shaping the minds of future citizens for decades before then. The industry has been laying the groundwork for inaction on climate since long before this crisis reared its ugly head, limiting how Americans are allowed to think about the environment and the economy. In this first episode of our new miniseries with Earther, Dharna Noor and Amy Westervelt look at how Big Oil first got into the education game, and why it worked so well.
Read more: https://gizmodo.com/the-abcs-of-big-oil-why-big-oil-infiltrated-schools-1847734544
Pre-order Katie Worth's book Miseducation: https://globalreports.columbia.edu/books/miseducation/
Check out the Frontline report on the Marshall Islands: https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/article/the-last-generation/

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Drilled + Earther Present: The ABCs of Big Oil Sep 13, 2021

In this collaboration with Earther, we look at the fossil fuel industry's influence in school—not just in shaping our understanding of environmental problems, but also in narrowing the spectrum of solutions we're allowed to consider. Earther reporter Dharna Noor co-hosts, and we'll be bringing you a four-part series over the next several weeks. Subscribe so you won't miss it! And make sure to check out the Earther site for complementary posts and web bonuses.

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S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 5: Whack-a-Mole Sep 13, 2021

In the final episode of part 1 in our Bridge to Nowhere season, we look at the chronic whack-a-mole problem in frontline communities. Just as one facility gets shut down or cleaned up, another is waiting to take its place. In a lot of ways, the plastic problem itself is a whack-a-mole issue catalyzed by progress in shifting away from fossil fuels in the transport and building sectors. How can policy makers and activists predict and prevent these sorts of problems?

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S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 4: Keeping Oil Alive Aug 06, 2021

The team at UnEarthed, an investigative journalism project funded by Greenpeace in the UK, went undercover and got ExxonMobil execs on tape talking through the company's climate playbook in detail. Today, an unpublished part of that report, in which a former Exxon lobbyist details the company's and the industry's plans on plastics.
More from UnEarthed:
Watch the ExxonMobil video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFBjcrU5Pc&ab_channel=GreenpeaceUnearthed
Read the story: https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2021/06/30/exxon-climate-change-undercover/

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S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 3: And Then There Was Covid... Jul 30, 2021

Just as the fossil fuel industry was starting to worry about demand for single use plastics, along comes a global pandemic that they could leverage to push more of the stuff. And they did! But was it enough to save them entirely?

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S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep2: Erasing the Imaginary Line Jul 23, 2021

Diane Wilson couldn't keep Formosa out of her town, but down the coast in Louisiana the community in St. James Parish, led by Sharon Lavigne, is fighting like hell to keep them out.

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S6 Part 1 | Plastic Pipelines | Ep 1: Don't Mess with Texas Jul 16, 2021

This time we're doing something a little different: a season in three parts, all about the gas industry and how it's managed to embed itself into society. First up, Part 1 Plastic Pipelines: A look at how the fracking boom led to a plastics boom, through the story of one petrochemical company operating on the Gulf Coast, and the two women—one in Texas, the other in Louisiana—taking them on.

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Welcome to S6: The Bridge to Nowhere Jun 17, 2021

A new season about the natural gas industry, presented in three parts. Coming soon, Part 1: Pipelines to Plastic about the direct connection between the fracking boom and the plastics boom, told through the story of Formosa Plastics, a company with an environmental record so bad it couldn't get permits in its own country so it searched the globe for a new home, with weaker environmental regulations, and found it in the American South.

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Update: Donziger's Trial in New York May 27, 2021

Steven Donziger went to trial for the criminal contempt charge that's kept him on house arrest for 600 days and counting. Paul Paz Y Mino of Amazon Watch brings us an update on the trial

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Climate Guilt, Brought to You by Big Oil May 17, 2021

A new study from Harvard science historians Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran points to the use of language targeted specifically to downplay the reality of climate change and shift responsibility entirely onto consumers. Geoffrey Supran, the lead author on the study, joins to discuss.
Study: https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(21)00233-5
Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/climate-change-exxonmobil-harvard-study-1169682/

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New Study: The Health Impacts of the Coal-to-Gas Transition May 11, 2021

A new study out from Harvard University explores the health impacts of transitioning from coal to other combustible fuels. The findings are important for climate policy, particularly the fact that biomass is a huge contributor to air pollution despite representing only a small percentage of energy generation and that natural gas still contributes significantly to air pollution and its associated health impacts.

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Rep Ro Khanna on Fossil Fuel Subsidies Apr 22, 2021

It's Earth Day 2021 and the first Congressional hearing of the day is focused on fossil fuel subsidies. Their elimination was written into Biden's infrastructure bill, and House Democrats want to make sure that provision stays in the bill. Today's hearing will detail what those subsidies are, why getting rid of them is critical to climate action, and how the government can pull it off without raising the cost of living for average Americans.
Watch the hearing at 10am ET: https://oversight.house.gov/legislation/hearings/on-the-role-of-fossil-fuel-subsidies-in-preventing-action-on-the-climate-crisis

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S5 Update: Latest on Donziger's Case Apr 17, 2021

Steven Donziger, the American attorney we profiled in S5 is scheduled for trial May 10th, but his lawyers have filed another motion to dismiss, alleging vindictive prosecution. Karen Savage joins for an update on this story.

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Corporate Personhood? What About Ecosystem Personhood Apr 10, 2021

We talked about rights of nature a bit in the Ecuador-Chevron season, the Latin American country was the first in the world to integrate the concept of rights of nature in its Constitution. Now the Constitutional Court is reviewing its first rights of nature case. U.S. communities are pursuing the idea as well, and the fossil fuel industry is trying to block rights of nature laws from ever passing. Josh Boaz Pribanic and Melissa Troutman, co-founders of Public Herald join to talk about their new documentary on the rights of nature, Invisible Hand.
Check out Invisible Hand: https://www.invisiblehandfilm.com/premiere/

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Infrastructure Week! Build Back Better, THRIVE, and More with Kaniela Ing Mar 31, 2021

The Biden Administration has rolled out its Build Back Better plan and it includes a lot of progressive wishlist items, but the left is still pushing for more scale. The THRIVE Act, reintroduced by Sen Markey and Rep Dingell last month is what they're pushing towards and Peoples Action Climate Justice director Kaniela Ing joins to walk us through the asks, and what he's hearing from folks on the ground.
Learn more:
https://www.thriveagenda.com/
https://www.markey.senate.gov/news/press-releases/senator-markey-rep-dingell-reintroduce-thrive-resolution-to-build-back-economy-following-coronavirus-pandemic
https://peoplesaction.org/

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All Eyes on Weymouth as FERC Signals Interest in Environmental Justice Mar 27, 2021

Local activists and legislators have been fighting the Enbridge natural gas compressor in Weymouth for years. It's too close to residents and businesses, and poses too many health risks to a community that's already borne the burden of too much pollution, they say. The project was approved by FERC in 2019, built and became operational in 2020. Then it had an emergency shutdown. And another. Now FERC is considering the unprecedented move of re-thinking its permit, a decision that could have broad ramifications.
Check out Miriam Wasser's ongoing reporting on this at WBUR: https://www.wbur.org/earthwhile/2021/03/19/weymouth-compressor-ferc-precedent-enbridge-natural-gas

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How the Fossil Fuel Industry Is Undermining Free Speech Mar 20, 2021

Fossil fuel-backed anti-protest laws have been passed in 14 states and are making their way through statehouses in several more states, including six different bills in Minnesota, the only state with a big pipeline fight this year: Line 3. Researcher Connor Gibson joins to talk us through how this all started and where it's at.
Read more:
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pipeline-protest-laws-coronavirus_n_5e7e7570c5b6256a7a2aab41
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/fossil-fuel-protest_n_602c1ff6c5b6c95056f3f6af
https://montanafreepress.org/2021/02/24/increasing-penalties-for-damaging-energy-infrastructure/
https://grassrootbeer.substack.com/p/a-refinery-lobbyist-told-kansas-legislators
https://grassrootbeer.substack.com/p/a-refinery-lobbyist-told-kansas-legislators

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Frackalachia and the Great Fracking Jobs Myth Mar 12, 2021

When a report makes oil and gas companies—and the politicians they help elect—this mad, you know the author is on to something. Researcher Sean O'Leary, with the Ohio River Valley Institute, joins us to talk about his new report, which found that the local economic benefit of fracking to communities in the Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia gas corridor was slim to none.

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Presenting: Hot Take — Blood for Oil, with Antonia Juhasz Mar 10, 2021

A special presentation of the podcast Hot Take, featuring investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz on all the many ways oil, war, and climate change intersect.
Read more:
https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/light-sweet-crude-a-former-us-ambassador-peddles-influence-in-afghanistan/
https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/the-new-war-for-afghanistans-untapped-oil/
https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/why-rex-tillerson-could-be-americas-most-dangerous-secretary-of-state/
Subscribe to the Hot Take newsletter: http://realhottake.substack.com/subscribe

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The API Was Pushing Climate Denial Way Earlier Than Anyone Thought Mar 05, 2021

Stanford researcher Ben Franta joins to talk about a bombshell new discovery: the American Petroleum Institute not only knew about climate change back in the 70s, it started pushing climate denial as early as 1980.
Read Ben's article: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/09644016.2020.1863703

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S5 Ep 11 | ¿Ahora Que? Dec 19, 2020

Donziger is still on house arrest and disbarred, the settlement seems impossible to collect, now what? In this episode we look at what this case says about accountability and the power of oil companies, and what options remain for the Ecuadorians seeking justice.
Support our work:

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S5 Ep 10 | The Kill Step Dec 11, 2020

Chevron makes good on its promise to fight the Ecuadorian judgement until hell freezes over ... and then fight it out on the ice. Donziger loses his appeal of the RICO judgement, then finds himself facing contempt charges and disbarment.

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S5 Ep9 | The Judge Dec 04, 2020

Corruption charges against both the Ecuadorian judge and the American judge fly as the RICO gets underway.
Support our work: patreon.com/Drilled

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S5 Ep 8 | Damages Nov 20, 2020

Chevron's legal team shocks the Ecuadorian plaintiffs with a massive racketeering claim in the U.S. alleging fraud, witness tampering, and even bribery.
Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled

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S5 Ep7 | The Linchpin Nov 13, 2020

Chevron's attorneys go after Joe Berlinger, the filmmaker behind the documentary about the case, Crude. They subpoena his outtakes, kicking off a years-long First Amendment battle.
Support our work: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled

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Big Oil's Bad Bet on Plastic Nov 06, 2020

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/

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Update: Donziger Headed to Trial with No Representation Nov 06, 2020

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.

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S5 Ep6 | A Verdict and a New Charge Oct 30, 2020

The case takes a bizarre turn with a sting operation, U.S. subpoenas, accusations of fraud and bribery, and finally a verdict in Ecuador.

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S5 Ep5 | The Big Guns Oct 23, 2020

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

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Special Episode: Generation Green New Deal Oct 18, 2020

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

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S5 Ep4 | The Secret Tribunal Oct 16, 2020

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 through this shadowy system, this case in particular, and what it all means for global climate action.
Support our work: patreon.com/drilled

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S5 Ep3 | The Trial Oct 09, 2020

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

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S5 Ep2 | The Colonizers Oct 02, 2020

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/drilled
Read more: https://www.drillednews.com/

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S5 Ep1 | Lockdown Sep 25, 2020

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.

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Climate Podcast Bonanza! Aug 29, 2020

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/inherited
Hot Take: http://podlink.to/realhottake
Generation Green New Deal: http://podlink.to/generationgnd
Hazard: http://podlink.to/hazard
No Place Like Home: http://fanlink.to/noplacelikehome

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Big Oil Fighting Divestment + Sneak Preview of S5! Aug 22, 2020

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.substack.com/
Subscribe to Drilled now to get early access to episodes! https://www.patreon.com/Drilled

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That Ohio Utility Corruption Scandal, with Leah Stokes Aug 01, 2020

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 book: https://www.leahstokes.com/book

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California City Jul 29, 2020

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.

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A Proposed Fossil Fuel Ad Ban in The Netherlands Jul 14, 2020

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/

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Pioneering Fracking Company Chesapeake Energy Goes Bust Jun 30, 2020

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

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Minnesota and D.C. File Climate Fraud Suits Jun 26, 2020

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.

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Big Oil's Multi-Billion-Dollar Blind Spot Jun 18, 2020

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/
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Yes, It's Still Time to Talk About Climate (from Hot Take) Jun 14, 2020

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, please consider becoming a Hot Take premium subscriber: https://realhottake.substack.com/subscribe

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Naomi Klein and How the Shock Doctrine Applies to America Right Now Jun 07, 2020

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: https://naomiklein.org/books-and-films/
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What Shell Knew: A Surprising Report from The Netherlands Finds that Shell Was Directly Funding Climate Denial in the 1990s May 29, 2020

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-multinationals-funded-climate-sceptic
Shorter summary of Böttcher report: https://desmog.co.uk/2020/05/14/bottcher-shell-funding-european-climate-science-denial

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No, Climate Action Will Not Be "Just Like Quarantine Only Worse" — Why Letting Go of the Climate Narrative Never Works, a Special Bonus Ep f May 22, 2020

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/subscribe
Listen to Hot Take: https://podlink.to/realhottake

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The Climate Deniers Have Lost Their King, and Still They Soldier On May 19, 2020

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 marketeering forever.
Singer obituary: https://www.drillednews.com/post/fred-singer-obituary-climate-denier
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The U.S. Government Has Been Rubber-Stamping New Oil and Gas Projects—This Lawsuit Hopes to Change That May 09, 2020

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 the plaintiffs, joins to walk us through the case.

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Old and Wrong: Leah Stokes on the Many Flaws of Michael Moore's Planet of The Humans Apr 29, 2020

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-change
https://www.drillednews.com/post/planet-of-the-ecofascists
https://www.drillednews.com/post/is-your-power-company-a-climate-denier
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Earth Day in Louisiana: A Petro-state Fights Back Apr 22, 2020

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/

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Computer-Aided Destruction: Art, Autodesk, and What Accountability Looks Like for the Tech Industry Apr 22, 2020

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 climate accountability and tech these days that asks the question: how do we hold tech companies responsible for the damage their products might do?

Read the feature here: https://www.drillednews.com/post/computer-aided-destruction

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How Big Oil Is Using the Pandemic to Push More Plastic Apr 16, 2020

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 COVID-19 Crisis Will Not Save the Oil, Gas, and Plastics Industries

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In Colorado, Seniors Held Hostage by Fracking Apr 15, 2020

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 governments to set safeguards that are more stringent than state regulations.

Climate-COVID-19 policy tracker: https://www.drillednews.com/post/the-climate-covid-19-policy-tracker

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New Research Shows Fossil Fuels Are Not As Essential As The Industry Would Like You to Believe Apr 07, 2020

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: "Your Money or Your Life?" Environmental Research Letters https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7461/meta

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Transcript: https://www.drillednews.com/post/new-research-questions-societal-benefit-of-fossil-fuels

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Amid the Pandemic Free-for-All, Unlit Flares at Texas Shale Refineries Are Dumping "Unimaginable" Amounts of Methane into the Atmosphere Apr 03, 2020

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.

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Reporter Justin Mikulka on Why ExxonMobil and Chevron Are the Biggest Opponents to a Shale Gas Bailout Apr 01, 2020

The American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil and Chevron have been amongst the biggest opponents to bailouts for shale gas companies as part of the coronavirus relief package. DeSmog's Justin Mikulka joins us to explain why.

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There Will Be Fraud: How the Coronavirus Pandemic Turned into Christmas for Big Oil Mar 28, 2020

The oil and gas industry was headed for broke long before COVID-19. Now the Trump administration wants to use the pandemic to put it on life support, while the American Petroleum Institute uses it to get the industry's deregulation wishlist.

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Special Episode—Hot Take: Seeing Climate Through Coronavirus Glasses with David Wallace-Wells Mar 25, 2020

Drilled will be back with bonus episodes soon. In the meantime, check out one of our other climate podcasts, Hot Take. In this episode, hosts Mary Annaise Heglar and Amy Westervelt talk to David Wallace Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth and deputy editor of New York magazine, about the intersection of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.
Get ad-free eps and support Drilled's reporting: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled
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S3, Ep 9: Jay Rosen and Nicholas Johnson on What the Media Can Do About Disinformation Feb 29, 2020

This season we've traced the creation of Big Oil's big propaganda machine. In this episode, the season finale, we look at what can be done about it now that it has delivered us into an era of disinformation. NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen and former FCC commissioner Nicholas Johnson join us to talk about everything from the Fairness Doctrine to cable access to today's "post-fact" world, and where we can really go from here. Special thanks to Mary Catherine O'Connor for additional reporting.

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S3, Ep 8: Meet the Harrisons Feb 28, 2020

E. Bruce and Patricia Harrison launched the E. Bruce Harrison Company in 1973 and ran it until 1996, working for a mix of chemical companies, oil & gas companies, and tobacco companies. E. Bruce is considered the father of environmental public relations ... or by his critics, "the godfather of greenwashing." Together the Harrisons ran multiple cross-industry coalitions and front groups, aimed primarily at stopping regulation on everything from smoking to carbon emissions. Today, Ms. Harrison is the president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a position she's held since 2005.

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S3, Ep 7: John Hill and the Tobacco-Oil-Plastic Triangle Feb 27, 2020

John Hill, founder of Hill & Knowlton, was an Ivy Lee devotee who worked for Standard Oil in the 1930s, strategized against labor movements and the New Deal, and wound up representing the American Petroleum Institute and the Tobacco Industry Research Committee—a fake research group formed by the CEOs of all the major tobacco companies in the 1950s—at the very same time. His manipulation skills were so good they even fooled the legendary Edward R. Murrow.

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S3, Ep 6: Manipulating the Masses and Predicting the Future—Edward Bernays and W. Howard Chase Feb 25, 2020

Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, coined the term "public relations" when propaganda started to become a negative term. His specialty was using psychological know-how to manipulate the masses and orchestrate cultural shifts in his clients' favor (clients like Standard Oil, the American Tobacco Company, and General Motors). A few decades later, W. Howard Chase built onto that foundation with the idea of issues management—predicting an industry's potential issues, and manipulating political, social, and cultural forces to neutralize them. Chase is responsible for one of the best-known examples of greenwashing, the so-called "crying Indian ad," which introduced the idea of "litter bugs" and individual responsibility for pollution.

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We Interrupt This Podcast for New Research + Emily Atkin and Guardian CEO Anna Bateson on Banning Fossil Fuel Ads Feb 18, 2020

We'll be back with more Mad Men tales next week, we promise! While we're out chasing leads, listen to this great interview from Emily Atkin with The Guardian's interim CEO Anna Bateson about that publication's decision to stop taking ads from fossil fuel companies.

Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled

Transcript and more info here: https://www.drillednews.com/

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S3, Ep 5: Oil Slick, Part 2—False Equivalence and Free Speech Feb 11, 2020

In part two of our episode on former Mobil VP Herb Schmertz, we dig into how Schmertz's approach bred false equivalence, and why he pushed so hard for the extension of First Amendment rights to corporations.

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Transcript: https://www.dropbox.com/sh/gxt69wolj570ghu/AACi6NovOxbn5VryZmpCfhM1a?dl=0

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Check out our sister podcast, Hot Take: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/hot-take/id1488414960

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S3, Ep 4: Oil Slick, Part 1—The Rise of the Corporate Persona Feb 04, 2020

Mobil Oil's longtime PR guy Herb Schmertz really started to aggressively manipulate the media. He introduced so many new bells and whistles to Big Oil's propaganda apparatus, we're going to stay with his story for two episodes. In Part 1: Corporate personhood. First Schmertz worked to humanize oil companies by creating the "corporate persona" then he fought for First Amendment rights to be extended to corporations.

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S3, Ep 3: Psychological Warfare, Astroturfing, and Another Tobacco-Oil Connection Jan 28, 2020

Daniel Edelman learned the tools of his trade combating Nazi propaganda in WWII, then came home and put his psychological warfare training to work for American industry, including tobacco and Big Oil.

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S3, Ep 2: The Oil-Nazi-Propaganda Triangle Jan 21, 2020

Ivy Lee worked with Standard Oil and the Rockefellers for the rest of his life, helping to establish the American Petroleum Institute in 1919, and working for the company's various joint ventures as well, including a petrochemicals partnership with German chemical giant IG Farben. That job, later in his life, took Lee to Germany, to meet with Goebbels and Hitler and give them advice on dealing with the American press. He was under investigation by Congress for his role in Nazi propaganda at the time of his death. Lee's work creating and building the API was one of his most important contributions to fossil fuel propaganda, it's the foundation on which the next 100 years was built.

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