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THE WITNESS
The Center for Media and Democracy has released a new report on the State Policy Network, a web of interconnected groups that attack climate change science and oppose support for renewable energy. The new guide details the $80 million that right-wing billionaires and corporations are spending each year to fuel Tracie Sharp’s State Policy Network (SPN) and its 59 state “think tank” members. Continue reading
Donors Trust climate denial funding skyrockets
A new Greenpeace analysis released today shows that Donors Trust, a shadowy funding vehicle, has laundered $146 million in climate denial funding from 2002 to 2011. Yesterday’s article in the Guardian referenced part of the Greenpeace analysis. Continue reading
The North Carolina legislature is taking the unprecedented step of firing 131 officials from several policy and regulatory boards, including the Utilities Commission overseeing Duke Energy, the Environmental Management Commission, and two bodies overseeing policies for the N.C. Coastal Management Program. The bill, SB 10, has already passed in the state Senate and is expected to make its way through the House before winding up on Gov. Pat McCrory’s desk.
Contributions from freshly-merged Duke Energy and Progress Energy to the SB 10 SPONSORS total $147,000:
3 of 3 primary sponsors: $102,500 from Duke Energy and Progress Energy
4 of 9 co-sponsors: $44,500 from Duke Energy and Progress Energy
While Duke Energy recently shut down a couple old coal plants, it also just started operating a new coal boiler at its Cliffside Steam Station in NC. Duke’s coal pollution already contributed to over 400 deaths in North Carolina each year according to the Clean Air Task Force (see also this map). NC Governor Pat McCrory worked for Duke Energy for 28 years, and has already hired several other former Duke executives for his transition team and cabinet.
Groups like NC Warn and AARP of North Carolina were already concerned about incoming Gov. McCrory’s ability to promote industry-friendly regulators to open positions in the NC Utilities Commission. With SB10 well on its way toward McCrory’s desk, the situation is far more grave than good-government advocates realized.
It appears that between Duke Energy, McCrory’s new multimillionaire budget director Art Pope, and shill groups bankrolled by Pope and the billionaire Koch brothers, North Carolina’s government is co-opted and poised to deliver some serious blows to the state’s environment, the global climate, and the health of people affected by pollution and climate-related disasters.
Something is happening in North Carolina that has profound repercussions for the rest of the country.
As we speak, Senate Bill 10 (SB 10) has passed the North Carolina Senate and will make its way to the House before it goes to the Governor, who has the option to veto or sign it. That’s nothing out of the usual, until you read the text of the bill. Continue reading
Earlier this year internal documents from the Heartland Institute, a major hub of climate change denial and right-wing extremism, were publicly leaked. The documents exposed the Heartland Institute’s funders and strategies for attacking climate science, and led to a mass exodus of Heartland’s corporate funders. 
Today, a newly updated report based in large part on Heartland’s internal documents has revealed two new insights into the way in which the anti-climate science movement has been supported and financed over the last decade.
In total over $311 million has been put through twin organizations known as Donors Trust and Donors Capital Fund which share an address in Alexandria, Virginia. Continue reading
Long-time climate skeptic Richard Muller, UC Berkeley physics professor, has completed his “total turnaround” and now believes that carbon pollution from human activity causes global warming.
Since the vast majority of climate scientists reached this conclusion decades ago, Muller’s temperature study is noteworthy mainly because the oil-billionaire Charles Koch, climate-denier extraordinaire, provided the lion’s share of funding for Muller’s work. Continue reading
Activists outside the Wisconsin Capitol displayed a 70-foot banner reading “Koch Brothers: Dirty Money” to protest the role of David and Charles Koch in supporting Governor Scott Walker’s efforts to roll back workers’ rights.
The oil billionaires’ dirty money supported Governor Walker’s election with campaign contributions and television advertising, and Koch-funded front group Americans for Prosperity is supporting the anti-union effort.
Today, Guardian writer Ed Pilkington took a fresh swat at Governor Sarah Palin’s use and defense of Exxon-funded junk science on polar bears in the State of Alaska’s attempts to to kill the listing of the polar bear under the Endangered Species Act.
We have covered the evolution of this story on ExxonSecrets for over a year here and here with links to articles and documents of interest.
Much has been made of Palin’s denial of global warming since she was nominated as the GOP Veep candidate, but no one has questioned her credibility for using ‘research’ that was funded by ExxonMobil, American Petroleum Institute and Charles Koch Foundation.
We are wondering if Gwen Ifill of PBS will ask Ms. Palin a pointed question tomorrow? or if Senator Biden has read the Guardian story?
Tom Kizza at the Anchorage Daily News has followed this story the best, filing two good articles earlier in the year here and here.
This classic ExxonSecrets map of the junk science authors from the Dyck, Soon, et al article shows once again the tentacles of the Denial Machine (see page 9 for acknowledgement of funding from Exxon and friends). Palin’s goon squad cited the Dyck, Soon paper 6 times and even attached a copy of the article (pre-publication) to their 49 page submission to the Department of Interior.
All the background documents can be found on Greenpeace Investigations:
No reporters have questioned Exxon or API about funding this research and no one has gotten the scientists themselves on the record as to how much money they got from Exxon and friends and the marching orders attached to that funding.