Just what the doctrine ordered

It's time to stop playing ball with climate criminals

Author

Brad Johnson
June 12, 2024

PRESENTED BY GREENHOUSE BLANKETS

So argues long-time U.S. Navy officer Mark Nevitt, now a law professor at Emory, in Stanford Law Review. Nevitt takes a detailed look at the fraught consequences for coastal communities from sea level rise, with broader application to all kinds of climate disasters. He concludes: “Antiquated doctrine cannot rise to meet climate change’s destabilizing effects.”

California Attorney General Rob Bonta is pushing to change that antiquated doctrine with his lawsuit against Big Oil for their decades of climate deception, amended yesterday with new evidence and backed by a new state law against deceptive practices.

The New York legislature has also taken a major step to change that antiquated doctrine, passing the Climate Change Superfund Act at the end of its legislative session, following Vermont’s lead. The landmark legislation (S02129), which will require oil companies to pay into a disaster fund, will soon head to Gov. Kathy Hochul (D-N.Y.) for her signature. Given that Hochul just folded to fossil-fuel interests and killed New York City’s congestion-pricing plan, it wouldn’t be a surprise if she vetoes the climate superfund.1

The global equivalent to a climate superfund is known as a loss and damages fund or climate reparations; Ishac Diwan and Dani Rodrik recommend an approach that ties climate reparations to debt relief and green investment.

But what if it’s all a hoax?

At 10:30 am, Rep. Thomas Massie (R-Ky.), chair of the House Judiciary antitrust subcommittee, began a conspiracy-theory hearing on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing, charging corporations with “decarbonization collusion.” The hearing is accompanied by a 41-page report arguing there is a devious “climate cartel” that insists that fossil-fueled climate change is real.

This is an novel use of antitrust statutes, to claim that any response to the scientific consensus on climate change is a form of illegal collusion. The invited witnesses are Mindy Lubber, CEO of the climate corporate-responsibility group Ceres; Dan Bienvenue, interim chief investment officer of the giant state pension fund CalPERS, and influential sustainability advisor Natasha Lamb, managing partner of Arjuna Capital.

Of course, oil companies are the real murderous cartel. Having successfully stymied federal legislation limiting climate pollution for decades, the polluter-backed GOP is now trying to use our “antiquated doctrine” to kill off voluntary corporate action.

This is literally why blanket statements are bad

And now, fun headlines!

Whale of a protest

Whale of a protest: 33 climate activists dressed as orcas arrested Tuesday at Citibank’s Wall Street headquarters. Credit: Dean Moses

The weeklong climate blockade at the New York headquarters of Citibank, the world’s largest financier of fossil-fuel expansion, continues today, led by climate scientists like Dr. Sandra Steingraber, Dr. Peter Kalmus, and Dr. Rose Abramoff. There were 27 arrests this morning by the bad boys in blue, including 9 members of Scientist Rebellion.

This evening, Climate Defiance is enacting its openly promised blockade of the Congressional Baseball Game at Nationals Park. Our oily legislators really should wear Nascar-style outfits emblazoned with their corporate sponsors.

Affirming the need for climate activists to protest our fossil-fueled lawmakers, the Democratic-led U.S. Senate is working through the three nominees to fill the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s seats today to solidify the commission’s pro-fracking majority. The current FERC gave the final greenlight for the Mountain Valley Pipeline to begin pumping fracked gas last night.

Cattle egret

At 9 am, the full House Appropriations Committee began marking up the Fiscal Year 2025 State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs and Homeland Security bills. The subcommittee mark, which the full committee is not likely to improve, prohibits implementation of the Paris Agreement, eliminates John Podesta’s role as the Presidential climate envoy, prohibits US support for international climate funds, and bans implementation of executive orders on climate.

At 10:15 am, the House Natural Resources Committee marks up ten bills, seven of which are bipartisan. The three controversial bills are Rep. John Rose’s (R-Tenn.) H.R. 1437, which would permit ranchers to shoot black vultures without a permit, and two pieces of legislation to expand the Critical Minerals List, which was created by the Energy Act of 2020 to include minerals involved in renewable energy and batteries. Rep. Juan Ciscomani’s (R-Ariz.) H.R. 8446 would add copper, fluorine, silicon, and silicon carbide; Rep. Kat Cammack’s (R-Fla.) H.R. 8450 would add fertilizer precursors such as potash and phosphate.

Wednesday afternoon is unusually busy.

At 2:30 pm, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), a former petroleum geologist, chairs a Senate Labor subcommittee hearing on building the critical minerals workforce with Penn State mining engineer Barbara Arnold and Colorado School of Mines mining engineer Bill Zisch, Center for Strategic and International Studies mining economist Gracelin Baskaran, and lithium CEO Jon Evans.

At the same time, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto chairs a Senate Energy subcommittee hearing on twenty public lands, forests, and mining bills with Bureau of Land Management official Karen Kelleher, Forest Service official Troy Heithecker, and Utah assistant attorney general Tess Davis.

At 3 pm, Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) chairs a Joint Economic Committee hearing on the boom in U.S. manufacturing investment. Witnesses include solar technology CEO Kevin Hostetler and full-employment advocate Skanda Amarnath.

Other hearings on Wednesday:

Hearings on the Hill:

Climate Action Today:

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1  Advocates of the plan to make drivers pay a fee to enter downtown Manhattan to provide $15 billion for public transit argue that Hochul doesn’t actually have the authority to kill it.

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