Plus, Koch’s AI agenda ...
From the Editor's Desk
Time Magazine recently named “The Architects of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” as Time’s Person of 2025: The titans behind the whiz-bang tech seemingly revolutionizing and reshaping people and planet in record time.
Yet many people don’t yet see that the power brokers deciding AI’s future keep taking steps to ensure its success aligns with that of fossil fuel interests and not of the communities its infrastructure impacts or the climate we all share.
Our reporting this week reveals that Americans for Prosperity (AFP), a right-wing political group backed by oil and gas billionaire Charles Koch, helped influence the Trump administration’s AI Action Plan. As Geoff Dembicki writes [[link removed]], the AFP documents “show that Koch’s political operation is attempting to shape and help implement a U.S. AI technology agenda, which could ultimately profit Koch’s traditional oil and gas business.” Dive into the full story. [[link removed]]
As Joe Fassler reports, another fossil fuel industry already stands to benefit: coal.
His in-depth investigation reveals [[link removed]] that since Trump took office in January, at least 15 coal plants should have retired. Their own plans said so. But then utilities decided to delay closing them, often because of increased power demands due to AI. Yet, in some cases, the Trump administration itself stepped in and ordered very costly, very dirty coal plants to stay open.
How dirty? Last year, these 15 coal plants released more than the total emissions of Delaware, Maryland, and Washington, D.C. combined.
Read the full story to find out which coal plants stayed open, the unfolding drama, and whether coal’s AI resurgence can last. [[link removed]]
Finally, Edward Donnelly brings us the latest, detailed reporting from a massive data center project planned for rural Georgia — a $17 billion complex the size of 600 football fields. Known as Project Sail, the developers and their lobbyists have enjoyed an exclusive level of access denied to local residents who want to know how county officials plan to rewrite zoning laws affecting the booming data center industry.
Meanwhile, as Edward’s reporting reveals via public records, the data center developer name-checked the Trump administration to county officials in an email: “Our CEO had a great conversation with Trump’s Secretary of Interior Burgum last week on Energy, Infrastructure, and Data Centers,” he wrote. Get the full story. [[link removed]]
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 [[link removed]].
Thanks as always and see you with a slew of new stories in 2026,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director
P.S. This reporting exists because of readers like you. Can you pitch in whatever amount you can to help keep us going? [[link removed]]
Image: The Comanche Generating Station, located just east of Pueblo, Colorado. [[link removed]] Credit: Jeffrey Beall [[link removed]], CC BY 3.0 [[link removed]]
The Koch Network Is Pushing Trump to Accelerate AI, Documents Show [[link removed]]— By Geoff Dembicki (5 min. read) —
Right-wing political group Americans for Prosperity, backed by oil and gas billionaire Charles Koch, sees data centers as part of a larger pro-fossil fuel agenda.
READ MORE [[link removed]] These 15 Coal Plants Would Have Retired. Then Came AI and Trump. [[link removed]]— By Joe Fassler (11 min. read) —
Utilities started reversing coal power’s “irreversible” decline. Will it last?
READ MORE [[link removed]] Behind Closed Doors, Georgia County Rewrote Data Center Rules [[link removed]]—By Edward Donnelly (7 min. read) —
Emails obtained by DeSmog show county officials continually met privately with Project Sail lobbyists, something denied to local residents opposing the $17 billion data center.
READ MORE [[link removed]]
‘They Don’t Give A Damn’: Scotland’s Highland Communities Tire of Charm Offensive by ‘Polluting’ Salmon Giant Mowi [[link removed]]
— Brigitte Wear ( 9 min. read) —
Salmon wagons and boat trips for schoolkids distract from environmental damage, say campaigners.
READ MORE [[link removed]]
How a Big Oil PR Firm Helped Top UK Cultural Institutions Defend Their Fossil Fuel Sponsorships [[link removed]]
— By Ellen Ormesher and Kathryn Clare (13 min. read) —
Brunswick Group’s strategies aimed to neutralise growing calls for theatres, museums, and galleries to distance themselves from climate polluters.
READ MORE [[link removed]] From the Climate Disinformation Database: Brunswick Group [[link removed]]
Brunswick Group [[link removed]] is an independent communications agency founded in 1987 by Sir Alan Parker and headquartered in the UK. It has worked for at least 52 clients in the fossil fuel industry, including clients in 2024 such as Aramco, BP, Eren Groupe (an energy company with coal projects in Turkey), Vitol (the world’s biggest oil trader), National Grid (a British utilities company), and two of the world’s biggest coal producers Anglo American and BHP Group. Brunswick Group’s specialty is financial PR, and it advises on crisis management, communications for mergers and acquisitions, regulatory issues, media and investor relations, and corporate campaigns. This includes helping companies to articulate their “purpose” and advising companies on climate change.
In December 2022, openDemocracy revealed that Brunswick Group had been simultaneously working for fossil fuel clients such as BP and Aramco as well as for the UN “high-level climate champions” on the “Race to Zero” campaign, which encourages businesses to act on climate change. Brunswick Group’s Vice Chairman and former chief executive, Neal Wolin, has said the company wants “to be part of the solution” to climate change.
Read the full profile [[link removed]] and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database [[link removed]], Ad & PR Database [[link removed]], and Koch Network Database [[link removed]].
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DeSmog
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Seattle, Washington, 98107
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