Fracking Breakdown

PRESENTED BY LO-FI BERNIE

When running greenwashing ads on Politico Power Switch and Punchbowl News AM and New York Times, Chevron touts “renewable fuels.” But of course, Chevron is a sociopathic fossil-fuel corporation which uses the national press to lie to the public, as CEO Michael Wirth reminded the audience at the GasTech conference in Houston yesterday. Wirth blasted Joe Biden’s administration, which has overseen massive growth in natural gas production and exports, as the enemy:

About those benefits: North Carolina was submerged on Monday by more than twenty inches of rain by a storm that wasn’t even a named tropical system, thanks to Chevron.

With wildfires out of control, Portugal has declared a state of calamity, thanks to Chevron. Record floods have swamped eastern Europe, killing at least 23 people, thanks to Chevron.

“We face a Europe that is simultaneously flooding and burning. These extreme weather events ... are now an almost annual occurrence,” EU Crisis Management Commissioner Janez Lenarcic told reporters. “The global reality of the climate breakdown has moved into the everyday lives of Europeans.”

Back to Wirth: He’s betting on the fracking-to-AI-pipeline as well. “AI’s advance will depend not only on the design labs of Silicon Valley, but also on the gas fields of the Permian basin.”

Chevron’s product may cause flooding and wildfires, but it can also help you generate disturbing Gordon Ramsay footage, so net benefit for humanity there.

Twelve Democrats want to remind us they’re in the pocket of the natural-gas industry, sending a letter to the White House calling for accelerated LNG exports: Reps. Marcy Kaptur (Ohio), Lou Correa (Calif.), Jim Costa (Calif.), Don Davis (N.C.), Chris Deluzio (Pa.), Sylvia Garcia (Texas), Vicente Gonzalez (Texas), Chrissy Houlahan (Pa.), Mary Peltola (Alaska), Marie Gluesenkamp Perez (Wash.), Marc Veasey (Texas) and Susan Wild (Pa.).

Fortunately, most Democrats are not in the tank for Big Oil. Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee are exposing the fossil-fuel agenda with a roundtable discussion today, Holding Big Oil Accountable for Extortion, Collusion, and Pollution.

The roundtable, chaired by Rep. Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.), will discuss the Project 2025 agenda and Big Oil’s price-gouging collusion. The panelists are Kristina Karlsson, the deputy director of climate policy at the Roosevelt Institute, Alex Witt, senior advisor on oil and gas for Climate Power, Bekah Hinojosa, co-founder of the South Texas Environmental Justice Network, and Chris Marshall, energy and environment director of Accountable.US. The roundtable will take place at 1 pm in HC-6 and is viewable as a livestream.

On the other side of the aisle, some House Republicans don’t want to nix the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean-energy tax credits, so that’s good, mostly, though some of the tax credits are actually not so clean.

HARD LEDES: Let’s take a look at some great stories that are worth the click.

HuffPost’s Chris D'Angelo and Jason Gulley, in “Amazon River Dolphins Are Facing Mass Die-Offs In Brazil”:

Texas Observer’s Lise Olsen in “Pipeline Explosion in Deer Park Reveals Hidden Hazards Texans Face”:

The Guardian’s Rebekah White in “Stark before and after photographs reveal sharp decline of Norway’s seabirds”:

Admittedly, this quotation from seabird ecologist Signe Christensen-Dalsgaard is near the conclusion of the story, not the lede. But it’s definitely hard.

No matter how much we’ve already lost, there’s always something left worth saving.

Activists with the Youth Climate Finance Alliance have pulled together a report on the state of the youth climate movement, looking back on how the COVID pandemic, right-wing attacks, and internal conflicts challenged campus organizing. YCFA is planning to disrupt Citi’s on-campus recruitment programs this year.

Hearings on the Hill:

• 10:15 AM: House Natural Resources
  Federal Lands
  Federal Lands Legislation

Climate Action Today:

• 1 PM: House Natural Resources Democrats
  Roundtable: Holding Big Oil Accountable for Extortion, Collusion, and Pollution

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