It's Climate Criminal Thursday

Manchin, Johnson, Carlyle, GM, Westerman, Justice [sic]

Author

Brad Johnson
April 27, 2023

PRESENTED BY THE EUROPEAN PIED FLYCATCHER

The Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) era is likely coming to a close, as the state’s term-limited billionaire coal baron governor Jim ‘Thugs’ Justice (R-W.Va.) plans to run for Manchin’s seat in 2024. Justice [sic] is the heavy favorite. Manchin is flirting with the No Labels billionaires for a vanity presidential run. Maybe Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (I-Ariz.) will join in, and the Manchinema ticket will find once and for all just how few votes infinite money plus craven corporate centrism can garner. The 2024 Senate map is currently looking grim for Democrats, but we’ve heard that before.

At yesterday’s climate and health hearing, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wisc.) celebrated how beneficial a polluted climate could be for Wisconsin. He seemed to have missed the news from Wisconsin:

Still, some economist’s1 toy model said that Wisconsin needs to warm up, so Ron’s probably right.

We interrupt our Climate Criminal report for some news about climate hawks:

Climate-hawk Reps. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Mike Levin (D-Calif.) have unveiled the Clean Electricity and Transmission Acceleration Act, which would give the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission siting authority for high-voltage electric transmission lines, support community solar programs, and mandate that electricity rates incorporate the costs of climate pollution, among other provisions.

This afternoon, Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) presents findings of a major new report on plastics and public health, in preparation for future hearings in his ongoing series investigating the petrochemical industry. Plastic production continues to skyrocket, and the megatons now produced every year are poisoning every square inch of the planet, our food supply, our bloodstreams.

BACK TO CLIMATE CRIMINALS: At the annual general meetings of Citigroup, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo yesterday, shareholders rejected multiple climate resolutions to push the banks to stop financing the fossil-fuel industry.

In depressing electric-vehicle news, General Motors is ending production of its massively popular and hyper-efficient Chevy Bolt to focus on making multi-ton mega-man-tanks: the GMC Sierra and Chevy Silverado.

The private equity giant Carlyle Group’s “lopsided energy portfolio has approximately $22.4 billion in carbon-based energy,” a new report from the Private Equity Climate Risks project finds. For every dollar the secretive private bank has invested in renewable energy sources, it invested $16 in fossil fuels. Carlyle’s portfolio of fossil-fuel companies has skyrocketed in the past decade, emitting nearly 300 million tons of greenhouse pollution, about the same as the expected lifetime footprint of the ConocoPhillips Willow carbon bomb. On the other hand, Carlyle’s website talks a lot about “climate resilience” and “net-zero” and “sustainable growth,” and if it’s good enough for Meg Starr, good enough for me!

Greg ‘Peaches’ Bowser, president Louisiana Chemical Association, understandably opposes Senate Bill 35, which would force his industry to install monitors that alert nearby communities when air pollution reaches toxic levels. But I think he needs to work on his talking points: “I worry that generating a lot of data will create a lot of fear.”

If all of this seems unacceptable to you, take a look at today’s JERBS listings below—a lot of corporate climate campaigners are hiring.

ON THE HILL: Before South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol’s address to a joint session of Congress, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee voted on a passel of ambassadorial nominations for career diplomats, including to the highly imperiled island nations of the Maldives, Papua New Guinea, and Vanuatu; the petro-states United Arab Emirates and Kuwait; drought-ravaged Niger and Rwanda; and the former Soviet satellites Georgia, Albania, and Turkmenistan.

The House Natural Resources Committee is planning to mark up several anti-environmental bills, including ones to reverse Endangered Species protections for the lesser prairie-chicken, northern long-eared bat, gray wolf, and grizzly bear, all of whose survival inconveniently conflicts with ranchers or drillers. This morning, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) was looking good in his new beard as he questioned the interest of chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) in protecting species from extinction.

In the afternoon, House Armed Services reviews the $215 billion Air Force and $30 billion Space Force budgets, of which $0.9 billion is climate-related; and Federal Trade Commission chair Lina Khan testifies before House appropriators on her agency’s plans, which include updating its regulations on environmental claims for the first time in a decade.

JERBS: LittleSis is seeking a new senior researcher who is interested in developing more power research analysis and capacity in the climate, energy, and environmental justice movements ($70K-$73.5K, remote).

Climate Defiance is hiring an organizing director to lead their grassroots organizing efforts ($42K-$72K, DC preferred).

Stand.earth’s Climate Finance Program is seeking a part-time communications campaigner on a 6-month, 15-20 hour-per-week contract ($27-$36/hour, remote).

The Sunrise Project is looking for a senior strategist for its US banks campaigns (remote, $116K - $120K) and a director for its Global Corporate Clean Energy Program (remote, $135K-$145K).

Hearings on the Hill:

Climate Action Today:

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1 I’m sorta sorry, Michael Greenstone, but also sorta not.

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