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Message From the Editor

What happens when a small Pennsylvania conservation district goes from running a maple syrup festival to permitting fossil fuel pipelines feeding a $6 billion Shell plastics plant?

An exploding pipeline, followed by a scandal and investigation. Sharon Kelly has the story. [[link removed]]

In his ambitious new climate plan, Bernie Sanders has drawn a lot of flak for his proposal to phase-out nuclear power. Justin Mikulka explores who’s behind the attacks and why their arguments don’t hold up. [[link removed]]

Once again, the Kochs’ third-highest paid senator, John Barrasso of Wyoming, is pushing their agenda attacking the electric car tax credit in a letter to Congress. The Wall Street Journal editorial board has taken up his cause in an editorial filled with myths. Ben Jervey debunks [[link removed]] the same Koch talking points (again).

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [[email protected]].

Thanks,

Brendan DeMelle

Executive Director

Pipeline Permit Scandal Highlights Confusion Amid Push to Build Plastics Plants [[link removed]]

By Sharon Kelly (9 min. read)

For the past 42 years, the Beaver County Conservation District in western Pennsylvania has hosted their Maple Syrup Festival, an annual all-you-can-eat pancake breakfast featuring syrup made from maple trees in a park in Beaver Falls.

It’s a huge event in this county, population 164,742; organizers expected up to 40,000 attendees at last year’s festival, which included a Civil War re-enactment, pony rides, and craft demonstrations like bobbin lace making. Read more. [[link removed]]

Bernie Sanders' Plan to Phase out Nuclear Power Draws Attacks — Here's Why They're Wrong [[link removed]]

By Justin Mikulka (6 min. read)

Senator and Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders has released an ambitious climate proposal, one which champions of the status quo were quick to criticize. One line of attack, coming from many different sources, focuses on Sanders' plan to phase out nuclear power, but the arguments, and who is behind them, deserve a closer look.

Sanders' proposal refers to nuclear power as one of several “false solutions” to the climate crisis:

“To get to our goal of 100 percent sustainable energy, we will not rely on any false solutions like nuclear, geoengineering, carbon capture and sequestration, or trash incinerators.” Read more. [[link removed]]

Wall Street Journal and Senator Barrasso Still Peddling Koch's Electric Car Myths [[link removed]]

By Ben Jervey (4 min. read)

Senator John Barrasso and the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) editorial board are once again attacking the federal electric vehicle tax credit, and are once again relying on easily debunked talking points born of the Koch network’s influence machine.

Senator Barrasso has reportedly sent a letter to Republican colleagues in the Senate, advising them not to extend the electric vehicle (EV) tax credit.

The Wall Street Journal’s editorial board cheered Senator Barrasso’s act in an editorial published Tuesday. The deception and falsehoods are so rife in the WSJ editorial that it that begs for rebuttal. So here goes. Read more. [[link removed]]

Democratic Presidential Candidates Face 7 Hours of Tough Questions on Climate Change, From Fracking to Fossil Fuels [[link removed]]

By Sharon Kelly (10 min. read)

CNN’s Wolf Blitzer kicked off a seven-hour long town hall on climate change with an unambiguous message of urgency on climate change.

“This unprecedented town hall is dedicated to the climate crisis,” he said, “an issue many voters say needs aggressive action and some scientists say that action needs to happen now.”

Many of the candidates offered multi-trillion dollar plans to address the crisis — as economists warn that the price of failing to act could be $69 trillion worldwide by the end of the century and U.S. firms forecast roughly $1 trillion in climate-related hits to their bottom lines over the next five years. Read more. [[link removed]]

Comment: Rail Industry Publication Attacks New York Times Over Lac-Mégantic Oil Train Tragedy [[link removed]]

By Justin Mikulka (7 min. read)

Six years after the oil train derailment and explosion in Lac-Mégantic, Quebec — which claimed 47 lives and destroyed the downtown of this small lakeside town — The New York Times reviewed what progress has been made since the disaster, with a headline that noted “Deadly Cargo Still Rides the Rails.”

However, Railway Age, the leading rail industry publication, attacked The Times' coverage in an incredibly flawed critique. The title of finance editor David Nahass's take-down is “Clickbait Journalism at The New York Times.” Read more. [[link removed]]

As Aerial Footage of Devastated Bahamas Emerges, Campaigners Ask How Much Destruction and Death Before Global Climate Action Taken? [[link removed]]

Jessica Corbett, Common Dreams (5 min. read)

As the National Hurricane Center announced Tuesday that Hurricane Dorian's core was “finally moving away from Grand Bahama Island,” toward the Southeastern U.S. coast, footage of the storm's devastation flooded the internet alongside calls for governments and the news media to recognize the here-and-now destruction of the climate emergency.

Through Tuesday evening, the center warned, “dangerous winds and life-threatening storm surge” from Dorian would continue to ravage Grand Bahama — over which the storm stalled Monday after making landfall as a Category 5 hurricane on the Bahamas' Abaco Islands Sunday. Read more. [[link removed]]

Phoenix Voters 'Say Yes to the Future,' Rejecting Koch-Backed Effort to Ban Light Rail Expansion in Least Sustainable US City [[link removed]]

By Julia Conley, Common Dreams (3 min. read)

The city of Phoenix dealt a decisive blow to a Koch Brothers-backed measure on Tuesday when voters rejected a proposition that would have banned any expansion of the city's light rail system.

Proposition 105, which was partially drafted by the head of a Koch-funded non-profit, would end expansion of the public transit system that was built in 2008 and prohibit any future building-out of the system, which serves 50,000 residents each day in one of the United States's fastest-growing and least sustainable cities. Read more. [[link removed]]

DNC Shuts Down Climate Debate Compromise [[link removed]]

By Olivia Rosane, EcoWatch (4 min. read)

The Democratic National Committee (DNC) will not let 2020 primary candidates share the stage in a debate devoted to the climate crisis, the party voted Saturday during its summer meeting in San Francisco.

The DNC resolutions committee had already voted against holding a party-sanctioned debate on the topic Thursday, but it did approve language that would have allowed candidates to speak face-to-face on the issue at a third-party sponsored event. That compromise was voted down 222-137 Saturday, CNN reported. CNN and MSNBC both plan to hold climate forums in September, but the candidates will have to speak separately and will not be able to engage each other. Read more. [[link removed]]

Understanding Christians’ Climate Views Can Lead to Better Conversations About the Environment [[link removed]]

By Emma Frances Bloomfield, University of Nevada, Las Vegas (5 min. read)

In their second round of debates, Democratic presidential candidates called for aggressive measures to slow climate change. As Washington Gov. Jay Inslee has said, “We are the first generation to feel the sting of climate change, and we are the last generation that can do something about it.”

Politicians realize that many voters care about this issue. A 2018 survey conducted by Yale and George Mason Universities categorizes 69% of Americans as at least “somewhat worried” about climate change, the highest level these programs had recorded since 2008. Read more. [[link removed]]

On David Koch’s Passing and the Koch Network’s Ongoing War on Clean Energy [[link removed]]

By Ben Jervey (4 min. read)

Billionaire libertarian activist and oil industry tycoon David Koch died on Friday, leaving a toxic legacy that includes helping birth the climate denial movement, fighting against regulations that protect worker and public health, and — critical to our work here on DeSmog's KochvsClean project — helping fund and coordinate a decades-long attack on clean energy and low carbon energy solutions.

We will leave the mourning to his family and friends, and the condemning to those who were immediately impacted by his efforts — a massive group, considering the far-reaching impacts of climate change, which are already being felt across all continents and latitudes. Read more. [[link removed]]

From the Climate Disinformation Database: America Rising

America Rising [[link removed]] is a joint enterprise consisting of America Rising Corporation and America Rising PAC, and was founded in 2013 as an opposition research shop described by the Wall Street Journal as “the unofficial research arm of the Republican Party.” The PAC spends its time attacking democrats, progressives, and environmentalists. America Rising launched the public affairs firm Definers, which was known for stalking and harassing climate advocates but this month is rebranding and splitting following controversy in its use of “campaign-style opposition research” tactics to target Facebook's rival companies.

Read the full profile [[link removed]] and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database [[link removed]] or our new Koch Network Database. [[link removed]]

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