Message From the Editor

The Biden administration has been rolling out lots of new rules lately, on everything from air toxics emissions from chemical plants to raising royalties for drilling oil and gas wells on federal lands (for the first time in a century, huh). But it’s clear that we still have a long way to go to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis and a lot of dangerous rhetoric standing in the way.

For starters: As Julie Dermansky reports from Louisiana, even as the EPA announced its new air toxics rules, a Koch Industries methanol plant is poised to expand its footprint alongside many other industrial projects threatening to further pollute the mostly low-income Black neighborhoods in the area.

And in the Midwest, the carbon sequestration company Summit Carbon Solutions has insisted for years that its proposed 2,000-mile carbon pipeline network would not be used to pump more oil out of depleted oil fields in North Dakota. Guess what? Summit Carbon officials recently have been saying they’d be open to selling their CO2 to the oil industry if they’re buying. Get the full story from Taylor Noakes.

Meanwhile, on a virtual panel, U.S. leaders for the meat industry celebrated what they saw as a better than expected outcome at COP28, last December’s climate summit. Globally, agriculture is responsible for roughly a third of climate emissions. But at the UN summit, the meat industry was poised to “tell its story and tell it well,” which based on its leaders’ recent comments, got eaten right up at COP28.

One apparent result? A long-awaited UN food and climate plan failed to recommend cuts to meat-eating. The meat lobby called it “music to our ears.” Scientists, however, called it “bewildering.”

Read the full story by Rachel Sherrington, which DeSmog co-published with the Guardian.

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Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Climate denial and delay are burning the limited time we have left to avoid the worst effects of the climate crisis. Readers like you support DeSmog’s journalism and research exposing greenwashing and false solutions. Can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work?

Image credit: Julie Dermansky

Sell Our CO2 to Pump More Oil? It’s Likely, Says Iowa-based Carbon Capture Project.

— By Taylor Noakes (5 min) —

Despite pledges to the contrary, a massive proposed carbon capture project could in fact be used to pump more oil out of the ground, rather than simply storing carbon emissions from ethanol production, as it was pitched originally.

A recent Reuters report indicates that, according to its review of regulatory filings and recordings of company officials, representatives from Summit Carbon Solutions have said the company is open to using captured carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery (EOR), a potential lifeline to North Dakota’s waning oil sector.

EPA’s New Rule Aims to Cut Toxic Emissions, But Cancer Alley Air Pollution Could Worsen

— By Julie Dermansky (6 min. read) —

Leaders in the fight for clean air from Louisiana’s Cancer Alley joined the Environmental Protection Agency’s Administrator Michael Regan on April 9 in Washington, D.C., for the announcement of a new rule governing air toxics-spewing chemical plants. The rule is intended to prevent cancer in surrounding low-income and minority communities.

The announcement represents a milestone for environmental justice in communities historically overburdened by air-toxics pollution. But a growing number of proposed industrial projects threaten to further pollute the mostly low-income Black neighborhoods along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans — already home to a large number of petrochemical plants and refineries. 

U.S. Meat Lobby Celebrates ‘Positive Outcome’ of COP28

— By Rachel Sherrington (7 min. read) —

Lobbyists for the world’s biggest meat companies have lauded a better than expected outcome at COP28, which they say left them “excited” and “enthusiastic” for their industry’s prospects.

U.S. livestock bosses reflected on the conference’s implication for their sector on a virtual panel, fresh from “sharing U.S agriculture’s story” at the climate summit last December.

The ECHR’s First Climate Ruling: What Does it Mean?

— By Isabella Kaminski (6 min. read) —

The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has today ruled that insufficient action to tackle climate change is a violation of human rights.

In a historic judgement, the court ruled that Switzerland’s failure to do enough to cut its greenhouse gas emissions breached the rights to respect for family and private life of some of its most vulnerable citizens.

Dozens of Ad & PR Industry Directors Have Ties to Heavily Polluting Industries

— By TJ Jordan and Rachel Sherrington (11 min. read) —

Half of the board members at the world’s six largest advertising and public relations companies have ties to polluting industries, DeSmog can reveal. 

Of the 64 total board members at Omnicom Group, WPP, Interpublic Group (IPG), Publicis Groupe, Dentsu and Havas, 32 have significant experience in carbon-heavy sectors such as fossil fuels, fossil fuel financing, plastics, utilities, and aviation. Twenty-two are still serving in roles at such companies.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Koch Industries

Koch Industries is the largest privately owned company in the United States. As of 2020, it had 120,000 employees and sales of $115 billion. The company began in the 1920s when, according to company lore, recent MIT graduate Fred C. Koch developed a better way to convert or “crack” heavy oil into gasoline. Grist reports that Charles Koch, Chairman and CEO of Koch Industries, “has been see-sawing over climate change for years.” While Koch Industries itself has no official stance on global warming, many of the organizations it supports cast doubt on the science and seriousness of climate change. According to data from OpenSecrets, Koch Industries has spent more than $115,372,700 on combined lobbying activities between 1998 and 2017, with approximately 96% of that total going to the oil and gas industry. On April 8, 2024, Cancer Alley community groups in Louisiana held back-to-back press conferences before meeting in court to challenge local officials for permitting Koch Industries’ planned expansion of its looming methanol plant in St. James Parish, which is already underway.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database, Ad & PR Database, and Koch Network Database.