Drilled

Latest Episodes:

Climate Week 2024: Taking on the Mad Men of Big Oil Sep 24, 2024

Show notes

Long before outright climate denial, the fossil fuel industry relied on sophisticated PR and advertising campaigns to shape how the public understood the economy, the environment, and energy itself. In this Climate Week 2024 episode, we revisit The Mad Men of Big Oil—our 2020 investigative season on the public relations industry’s role in fueling climate disaster. The series helped inspire campaigns to clean up the PR industry and has only grown more relevant, with UN Secretary-General António Guterres now calling out the “Mad Men fueling climate disaster” by name. This is a live recording from Climate Week.

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How Fossil-Funded University Research Shapes Climate Policy Sep 20, 2024

Show notes

Universities can play a powerful role in shaping climate research and public policy. Drilled reporter Molly Taft joins us to talk about newly released information on fossil fuel funding of university research, and shares interviews with climate disinformation researcher Geoffrey Supran, who authored one of the recent studies, and with philosopher of science Craig Callender at the University of California San Diego, which just passed a precedent-setting policy to require disclosure of funding on research.

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Climate and Project 2025: Mary Annaïse Heglar & Amy Westervelt on Spill Sep 09, 2024

Show notes

What does Project 2025 mean for climate policy and what should we expect to hear (or not hear) about climate in this week’s presidential debate? In Spill, our climate talk show, Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt break down the political moments shaping climate action in the United States.

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The Battle Over the Clean Air Act Aug 15, 2024

Show notes

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts vs. EPA that when the United States 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 vs. 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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How Big Oil Sold a “Climate Solution” and Stuck Taxpayers with the Bill Jul 30, 2024

Show notes

Carbon capture has always seemed flawed as a climate solution, but in a blockbuster investigation co-published with Vox, we discovered just how scammy it really is. Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network walks through the many issues with carbon capture technology, from the lack of climate benefit to the massive public health threat it creates.

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Silencing Activists: How an El Savador Cold Case Murder Became a Tool to Criminalize Activism Jul 17, 2024

Show notes

In 2017, El Salvador became the first country in the world to pass an outright ban on mining to protect the country's water and people. Now, self-proclaimed "coolest dictator in the world" Nayib Bukele seeks to lift the ban in an effort 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. Reporter Sebastian Escalon brings us this story, narrated by Yessenia Funes.

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From Damages: Could Oil Companies Be Charged with Murder? Jul 09, 2024

Show notes

With the Supreme Court reshaping the legal landscape, we've been getting a ton of emails about what legal strategies might be available for climate accountability. In this episode of Damages, our climate litigation podcast, we share how Public Citizen has been working to explore the idea of using criminal law to hold oil companies accountable for climate change. Aaron Regunburg, Public Citizen's senior climate policy counsel, joins us to discuss.

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The Great “Greening” of LNG: How Fossil Fuel Lobbying Fuels Climate Delay Jul 03, 2024

Show notes

Liquefied natural gas (LNG) is increasingly marketed as a “green” or “clean” energy solution, but the reality tells a different story. As part of our ongoing series looking into new climate problems the fossil fuel industry is peddling as solutions, we uncover the role of a particularly active lobbying group pushing LNG as a climate solution.

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How Management Consultancies Data-Wash Climate Solutions Jun 25, 2024

Show notes

Fossil fuel companies can't push ideas like "low carbon gas" or oversell technologies like carbon capture alone. Management consultations play a critical, and often overlooked, role in shaping climate narratives. Reporter Maddie Stone investigates multinational consultancy ICF, which is well known for its government climate work, and also produces reports the fossil fuel industry uses to promote oil and gas expansion.

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The Coordinated Attack on Shareholder Activism May 18, 2024

Show notes

The backlash against ESG continues, with a string of lawsuits aimed at shutting down shareholder activism. 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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