Message From the Editor

Yesterday was Earth Day, a moment we celebrate our beautiful planet knowing we have to do this with vigilance and care, and with an awareness of how much is at stake.

At DeSmog, this year’s occasion was marked by Big Oil making big bets on artificial intelligence (AI). Sharon Kelly and Bailey Chambers reveal how AI’s exploding energy demands are giving fossil fuel giants like the U.S. and Saudi Arabia fresh reasons to keep drilling.

Right when the International Energy Agency forecast an imminent peak in fossil fuel demand, AI boosters began pitching the industry a new story: that data-hungry technologies could keep oil and gas booming with an endless need for energy.

Now, Big Tech reps, such as former Google CEO and current pro-AI advocate Eric Schmidt, are taking that story to the U.S. the same way they influenced Saudi Arabia, as Sharon and Bailey explain.

AI needs “energy in all forms — renewable, nonrenewable, whatever,” Schmidt testified earlier in April at a Congressional energy and commerce hearing. This perspective is right in line with recent policy shifts from Trump in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia, the world’s two biggest oil producers, where AI development is promoted as a reason to push for energy deregulation.

Could this alliance between AI boosters and fossil fuel giants threaten global climate goals while reshaping the political narrative around energy and innovation? To find out, read more here.

While the Trump administration touts AI as one reason to keep drilling, the president and his cabinet have shown that they don’t need any real reasons to keep the fossil fuel pump flowing — they can just make things up to justify it.

In fact, leaders who trade in climate disinformation have embraced Trump’s cabinet picks for months now, which we saw in spades at Jordan Peterson’s Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC) conference.

In Geoff Dembicki’s lastest deep dive into ARC’s influence, climate crisis deniers hailed Trump’s new energy czar Chris Wright as “terrific,” “very smart,” and someone who “gets it,” as Geoff explains.

And as the Canadian election heats up, Conservative candidate Pierre Poilievre is following in ARC’s footsteps on the campaign trail by doubling down on climate denial. The right-wing leader is pushing a familiar playbook: misinformation and attacks on science-based policy.

His claim that ex-prime minister Justin Trudeau’s Bill C-69 (what Poilievre calls the “no pipelines bill”) killed 16 energy projects? Totally false, as Mitch Anderson writes. Sound familiar? It should. Like Trump, Poilievre is stoking resentment and rewriting facts to serve Big Oil. DeSmog dug into the projects in question and found the truth: Poilievre’s war on “gatekeepers” may be more about opening the gates to climate chaos. Here’s the full story.

As a final note: DeSmog continues to keep you informed about threats to our climate – from up-to-the minute reporting to essential database profiles that help others fight climate denial and delay. At this close of Earth Day 2025, can you donate $10 or $20 right now to support more of this essential work?  

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected]. Want to know what our UK team is up to? Sign up for our UK newsletter.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

Credit: Pierre Poilievre / YouTube

AI Energy Demand Can Keep Fossil Fuels
Alive, Tech Backers Promise World’s
Two Biggest Oil Producers

— By Sharon Kelly and Bailey Chambers (9 min. read) —

An AI-fossil fuel axis is forming in the U.S. and Saudi Arabia as AI advocates pledge an endless need for energy — spelling disaster for the climate.

No, Canada's So-called ‘No Pipelines Bill’ Didn’t Block These 16 Energy Projects

— By Mitch Anderson (4 min. read) —

Fact checking Conservative leader Pierre Poilievre’s revisionist narrative of how the Liberals ruined everything.

Climate Crisis Deniers Explain Why They Like U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright

— By Geoff Dembicki (5 min. read) —

In exclusive interviews, they called the Trump administration official “terrific,” “very smart,” and someone who “gets it.”

How 77 Tons of Radioactive Waste
Ended Up in Brooklyn

— By Justin Nobel (6 min) —

A lawsuit charges National Grid, a major gas utility, with mismanaging a toxic industrial site near two densely-populated residential neighborhoods.

Climate Scientist Michael Mann Fights New Court Penalties in 2024 Defamation Trial

— By DeSmog Staff (5 min. read) —

During trial, judge refused to let Mann’s lawyers present the jury with corrected data, then ruled that they intentionally lied about that data.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Pierre Poilievre

Pierre Poilievre, the current Conservative Party candidate for Canada’s Prime Minister, is a member of the Canadian Parliament representing Carleton riding near Ottawa, Ontario. Poilievre has voted against the environment and climate nearly 400 times during his 21-year career in Parliament, according to House of Commons voting records analyzed by DeSmog. He has consistently opposed carbon tax legislation. In March 2022, he said he would oppose “anti-energy laws” in Canada: “Right now, we have anti-energy laws in this country that are preventing people from harvesting our resources and bringing them responsibly to market,” Poilievre said during a news conference at Brandt Tractor in Regina. At the same event, he promised to repeal Bill C-69, an overhaul of Canada’s key federal environmental regulatory law, as well as Bill C-48, which prohibits crude oil tankers over a certain size from docking in northern British Columbia.

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