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Let's go on an Energy Adventure!

Arctic bomb cyclones, Jane PAC, Termination Shock revisited

Author

Brad Johnson
March 17, 2022

PRESENTED BY BUSINESS CAPYBARAS

Another day, another story of scientists freaked out by greenhouse pollution wreaking havoc faster than expectations: the Arctic ice is disappearing. Speaking of which, there’s a super-hot bomb cyclone on the North Pole, bringing temperatures 50 degrees above normal to Santa’s workshop.

Climate hawks like Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), and Rep. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) are blasting Big Oil for war profiteering and calling for taxes on their windfall profits.

However, much of the Democratic Party does not agree with the stance that the oil and gas industry should not be allowed to suck billions of dollars from working people while destroying the planet.

Democratic Maryland lawmakers are rushing through a 30-day suspension of the state’s gas tax, the sole source of funding for transportation infrastructure in the state. As bridges collapse and streets crumble, the legislators are handing $94 million to the state’s gas stations, with the hope they’ll then give that money away. As Bruce DePuyt explains:

“State leaders hope that station owners pass along the savings to consumers, though they concede that they lack the power to mandate that."

On the upside, as the seas rise, it will cost the state less to maintain the transportation infrastructure of Eastern Maryland, since it will be underwater.

Some advocates are working to turn the tide: Jane Fonda has launched the Jane Fonda Climate PAC, with former Sierra Club political director Ariel Hayes and Greenpeace co-executive director Annie Leonard, to “make sure politicians who support oil and gas are as afraid for their jobs as we are about the impending climate disaster.” Related:1 Greenpeace USA is looking for a senior digital strategist ($78K+) to manage the Fire Drill Fridays campaign, working with Jane.

PUTIN’S POWER: Another must-read from Jérôme Guillet, on the neoliberal roots of the European Union’s dependency on Russian oil and gas. He takes a close look at how France’s energy policy, which is promoted by corporate lobbyists as a “nukes are great” story, has changed. In reality, France had “a well-thought out, comprehensive energy policy”

“. . . that relied on having a consistent state policy and State-owned companies that implemented that policy. In other words, ‘communism.’”

But in the 1990s, Europe followed the deregulatory lead of the United States, and “energy policy turned into a massive mechanism to promote the use of gas, and the decentralized control of investment in the sector away from States and towards decentralized private market players who cared very little about security of supply.”

Speaking of which: Koch Industries is standing its ground, refusing to stop their Russia operations.

Anita Little writes a elegy to the Epcot ride Ellen’s Energy Adventure starring Ellen DeGeneres, Bill Nye, and Jeopardy! stylings.

“DeGeneres, Nye, Disney and Exxon all did not respond to requests for comment for this story.”

Ellen’s Energy Adventure PRESENTED BY EXXONEllen’s Energy Adventure PRESENTED BY EXXON

MORE GOOD WORK: EPA’s new Interagency Task Force on Illegal Hydrofluorocarbon Trade is cracking down. Renewable advocates have brought a complaint to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission against ISO New England, the corporation that manages electricity transmission in the region, for its systematic, undue preference for gas-fired plants over wind and solar. And Honolulu scores a win against Big Oil in its climate change lawsuit.

NOT SO GOOD WORK: Exxon’s first public lobbying disclosure report, much like Ellen’s Energy Adventure, is full of disinformation. Hannah Story Brown explains how the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division could transform the fight against climate change, if Attorney General Merrick Garland had any interest in doing his job.

From Rob Madole, the review of Termination Shock I wish I had the talent to write:

Where the avatar of Rand’s fiction was the ultra-capitalist captain of industry trailblazing the path for laissez-faire capitalism, the avatar of Stephenson’s fiction is the apolitical, hyper-logical, no-bullshit engineer, who might manage to solve the world’s problems if only people would shut up and let him build things. Of course, the desire to escape politics inevitably yields its own kind of politics, and it’s in Stephenson’s unexamined assumptions that the myopic contours of his worldview begin to reveal themselves

MOAR JERBS: Waxman Strategies, a progressive lobbying shop run by former Rep. Henry Waxman of California, is hiring for several positions in their climate and environment lobby—senior clean-tech public relations (vice president, climate tech and policy communications, $126K-$160K); senior environmental lobbyist with Hill experience (senior director – environmental policy, $96-125K); and a junior environmental policy staffer (environmental policy associate, 50K-$55K).

Elected Officials to Protect America, the coalition of local elected officials working on climate action run by Dominic Frongillo, is also on a hiring spree: organizing director ($45k-$67K), media coordinator ($31K-$45K), and development coordinator ($31K-$45K), in support of programs like their elected official fellowship.

Hearings on the Hill:

Oops: “Sleep experts say Senate has it wrong: Standard time, not daylight saving, should be permanent.” Fortunately, all House Democrats have to do to stop this mistake is to do nothing. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, it’s okay, the scientific consensus that your bill is a health menace is only a few years old, you can adjust your stance to be aligned with public health without any hard feelings.

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. DMs are open—@climatebrad

1. Though independent! No crossing the c(3)/PAC firewall, folks.

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