ExxonMobil

By David Tong, et. al. - Oil Change International, September 2020

As oil and gas companies claim to be part of the solution of the climate crisis, the reality couldn’t be more different. Our new discussion paper analyzes the current climate commitments of eight of the largest integrated oil and fossil gas companies, and reveals that none come close to aligning their actions with the urgent 1.5°C global warming limit as outlined by the Paris Agreement.

This discussion paper measures oil and gas company climate plans against ten minimum criteria, focusing on the ambition, integrity, and ability necessary to implement a just transition and achieve a 1.5°C aligned managed decline of oil and fossil gas. Focusing on the oil majors, BP, Chevron, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Shell, and Total, we find that only one company has committed to cutting oil and gas production over the next decade, and even that pledge (BP’s stated commitment to cut production by 40% by 2030) excludes around a third of the oil and gas it invests in extracting via its major share in oil giant Rosneft. Below is a summary table of these criteria included in the discussion paper.

Read the text (PDF).

By John Kostyack, Karen Torrent, Laura Peterson, and Carly Fabian - National Whistleblower Center - July 2020

In the past several years, U.S. states, cities, counties and individuals concerned about climate change have filed important lawsuits against fossil fuel companies, asserting that the companies are responsible for climaterelated damage due to their carbon pollution. These cases confront “what might be the greatest scam in history,” in the words of historian Naomi Oreskes: the massive disinformation campaign designed to stall action on climate change by persuading decision makers and the public that it is not a problem to be taken seriously.

In this report, the National Whistleblower Center focuses on a related deception that, with a small handful of notable exceptions, is unaddressed in the climate change lawsuits filed to date: the dramatic understatement of risks posed by climate change to fossil fuel companies’ own financial condition and to the economy at large. We describe an important pathway to ensuring proper disclosures of climate risks: collaborative work by whistleblowers, prosecutors and regulators to enforce anti-fraud laws.

This report is a call to action for executives of fossil fuel companies and others with knowledge of improper accounting and disclosure practices, such as external auditors, to take the steps needed to obtain protected whistleblower status and work with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), other regulators and law enforcement officials to help expose and prosecute fraud. For the first time, legal strategies are provided for whistleblowers and others to expose and prosecute climate risk fraud in the fossil fuel industry. This is also the first report to use the methods of professional fraud investigators to identify fossil fuel industry financial disclosure practices that are likely to be fraudulent.

Climate risks—comprised of “transition risks,” the financial risks to some companies due to the world’s shift away from fossil fuels, and “physical risks,” those associated with climate change- related damage to property— uniquely threaten the finances of fossil fuel companies. Fossil fuel companies, fearful of losing access to investment capital and loans, are therefore highly motivated to conceal their exposure to these risks.

Concealment of climate risks is a matter of great public interest because when it is successful, it harms investors, the environment and the economy. Investors who provide capital to these companies suffer because they invest based on a false sense of the companies’ readiness for the transition to a low-carbon economy and for the physical shocks of climate change. This deception undercuts efforts to address climate change because it slows the shift of investments to businesses developing and deploying low-carbon technologies. It harms the economy by leaving financial institutions such as banks and insurers less prepared for the stresses of rapid asset deflation.

Read the report (PDF).

By Scott Parkin - CounterPunch, October 24, 2018

“Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.”
–Martin Luther King Jr.

By Demand Climate Justice - The World at 1°C, September 9, 2017

Unless you are an environmental geographer or a regular reader of The World at 1°C, chances are you apply the term “natural disaster” to events such as Hurricane Harvey, the landslides in Sierra Leone which claimed 1000 lives, or any of the other countless climatic shocks felt over the last month.

The fact is that nothing could be more unnatural:

“In every phase and aspect of a disaster […] the contours of disaster and the difference between who lives and who dies is to a greater or lesser extent a social calculus.”

This is true enough of events which occur irrespective of human activity, such as volcanic eruptions, but when it comes to the droughts, storms, floods, and famines (and, actually, even some earthquakes) caused by climate change or extractive industries, the term natural disaster hides not only a truth about differentiated impacts — it also masks a truth about where responsibility lies.

ExxonMobil, for example, has known that its continued existence causes climate change for decades. And ExxonMobil lied about having this knowledge with such abandon that now even their ex-employees are suing them (in addition to Californian communities affected by climate change). A journal article published this month was the first to analyse all of Exxon’s communications about climate change. It concluded that the corporation knew the facts thanks to its own scientists, yet continued to peddle doubt and foster confusion (including through paid editorials in liberal papers like the New York Times).

The very same ExxonMobil, which now has a major ‘in’ at the White House via Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, has been repeatedly let off the hook by authorities. One emblematic story recently published in The Intercept explains how the company has been poisoning a black community in Beaumont, Texas, for decades, by pumping millions of tonnes of toxic chemicals into the air while refining “sour crude.” The community, where people suffer from high rates of hair loss, birth defects, asthma, and cancer, tried to get the EPA to do something (the Exxon refinery regularly broke the law), but were ignored for 17 years. Those who could afford to moved away. Those who could not still live in the shadow of Exxon’s stacks, which stand as monuments to greed and indifference to human suffering.

The market-based “logic” of greenwashed capitalism is that if corporations must pay for doing things like ruining people’s lives or even ruining the planet, then they won’t do it, or at least not as much. But that is demonstrably untrue. Last year, Exxon’s Beaumont refinery illegally released 2,125 pounds of carbon monoxide, sulfur oxide, nitrogen dioxide, and hydrogen sulfide. They were fined $7001. Even when companies are fined much more — as Exxon was when one of its decrepit pipelines burst in 2013, flooding an Arkansas community with 200,000 gallons of Tar Sands oil — they are often able to appeal, as Exxon did.

If a conviction somehow sticks, corporations are sometimes able to ignore the ruling altogether, as these 3 companies appear to be doing in Indonesia. Following successful convictions with penalties in billions of dollars, the Indonesian government has been unable to collect. While the corporations make billions exploiting Indonesia’s vast mineral reserves and precious forests, the communities in the way are left destitute and savaged by both corporate mercenaries and state military forces.

Cognizant of (negative) publicity, corporations are careful to cover themselves with the fig leaf of “corporate social responsibility” and other such meaningless phrases which sound good but don’t mean much in practice. In a case that has echoes of ExxonMobil’s climate change cover-up, Monsanto was recently exposed in The Poison Papers as having made and sold a toxic industrial chemical known as PCB almost a decade after being told by their scientists that:

“The evidence proving the persistence of these compounds and their universal presence in the environment is beyond questioning.”

In addition to covering up the horrendous health impacts of its PCB products, newly revealed documents show that Monsanto also conspired with a consultancy firm to “ghost write” a supposedly independent review of the health impacts of its flagship herbicide Roundup. Monsanto has since attempted to force the documents offline, out of sight.

What these examples make clear is that the ways in which people are made to suffer under the dominant social, political, and economic systems are not natural or innate. People suffer by design. And the designers have names like Exxon and Monsanto.

By Daniel Ross - Truthout, May 18, 2017

At 8:48 a.m. on the morning of February 18, 2015, an explosion at the ExxonMobil Torrance refinery in Southern California ripped through the facility with such ferocity, the resulting shockwaves registered on the Richter scale. Dust was scattered over the densely populated neighborhood up to a mile away from the blast. Four workers suffered minor injuries. A hulking 40-ton chunk of debris from the refinery's Electrostatic Precipitator narrowly avoided hitting a tank containing tens of thousands of pounds of highly toxic modified hydrofluoric acid.

The damning findings of a Chemical Safety Board (CSB) review of the accident were made public earlier this month. Among some of the problems identified in the report: the refinery repeatedly violated ExxonMobil's corporate safety standards leading up to the incident, while multiple gaps existed in the refinery's safety systems.

"It was only sheer luck that the hydrofluoric acid tank wasn't hit," said Dr. Sally Hayati, president of the Torrance Refinery Action Alliance. If it had been hit, the collision could have released a toxic ground-hugging cloud with the potential to kill for nine miles and cause serious and irreversible injuries for up to 16 miles under worst-case scenario projections, she added.

"This is yet another symptom of how in our country we always put profit ahead of safety," Hayati said.

Just before Obama exited office, his Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) put in place a new federal rule setting tougher safety procedures at facilities covered by the EPA's Risk Management Program (RMP). The rule is designed to prevent accidents like the 2015 Torrance refinery explosion from happening again, and to better protect first-responders and the communities perched in the shadow of facilities that store and use potentially dangerous chemicals.

According to EPA data, over 1,500 accidents were reported by RMP facilities between 2004 and 2013, causing more than $2 billion in property damages.

The new rule was supposed to come into effect in March. But after a petition opposing the rule was filed by a coalition of trade associations, the EPA initially stayed its implementation for three months. Then, after various states and companies in the refining, oil and gas, chemical and manufacturing sector filed further petitions, the EPA proposed to extend the stay an additional 20 months -- until February 19, 2019 -- in order to win time to consider these various petitions, and to possibly "revise" the RMP amendments.

Fearing that the EPA under Scott Pruitt will take the side of industry and further delay, weaken or even try to abrogate the new rule entirely, a coalition of community groups, scientists and environmental organizations filed a motion to intervene in the lawsuit last month.

"We don't expect Pruitt to defend [the rule]," said Gordon Sommers, associate attorney with Earthjustice, who filed the motion on behalf of the coalition. In a letter to the EPA last year when still Oklahoma attorney general, Pruitt asked the agency to withdraw the rule, citing national security concerns.

"We know where he stands and we know that his arguments are the same arguments that the big industries are making," said Sommers. "We know his priority is not protecting these communities."

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, September 20, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Chevron PR Firm's Local "News" Site Draws Attention from Koch Industries, Alarm from Media Watchdogs – By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, September 18, 2016
• Challenging Rising Inequality – By Mark Goldring, The Ecologist, September 17, 2016
• Corporations rule the world? Not quite. But we must stop them while we still can! – By Aisha Dodwell, The Ecologist, September 13, 2016
• Chevron’s "Hell Freezes Over" Tour – By Paul Paz y Miño and Kevin Koenig, Amazon Watch, September 12, 2016
• Just 90 companies are to blame for most climate change, this 'carbon accountant' says – By Douglas Starr, Science, August 25, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Australia's Climate Denialist Senator Malcolm Roberts Fails High School Science in Maiden Speech – By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, September 15, 2016
• ARENA is down – but not out – By Tristan Edis, REnew Economy, September 14, 2016; [related]: Myth of gas; has South Australia capitulated to fossil fuels? – By Dr David Shearman and Dr Graeme Mcleay, REnew Economy, September 14, 2016 | Turnbull marks 1st anniversary with act of clean energy vandalism – By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, September 14, 2016 | Australia Reaches Cross-Bench Agreement To Cut Renewable Energy Funding By $500 Million – By Joshua S Hill, Clean Technica, September 13, 2016
• Leaked documents reveal secretive influence of corporate cash on politics – By Ed Pilkington, The Guardian, September 14, 2016
• Sugar Industry Paid Harvard Scientists to Shift Blame to Fat – By Genna Reed, Union of Concerned Scientists, September 14, 2016
• Trump and the Republican Party are doing Big Oil's bidding – By Dana Nuccitelli, The Guardian, September 14, 2016
• Garbage in, garbage out: Why the CCA got it so wrong – By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, September 12, 2016
• Here Are All the Ways That Politicians Lie About Science – By Erica Langston, Climate Desk, September 12, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• Oil-Backed Lawmakers Accused of Orchestrating 'Charade' on Behalf of ExxonMobil – By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, September 14, 2016; [related]: N.Y. investigation looking at Exxon’s valuation of reserves – By Bloomberg, FuelFix, September 16, 2016 | Does Congress have authority to subpoena AGs over climate change? – By James Osborne, FuelFix, September 14, 2016 | The #ExxonKnew hearing was perfectly on brand for Congress right now – By Samantha Page, Think Progress, September 14, 2016 | Lamar Smith Hearing Attempts to Bolster Legal Argument for Subpoenas – By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, September 14, 2016 | Lawyers told House Science Chair Lamar Smith his subpoenas are trash – By Emma Foehringer Merchant, Grist, September 14, 2016 | Is There a Legal Precedent for Fighting Lamar Smith Subpoenas? Try 1960 – By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, September 13, 2016 | Constitutional Scholars Object to Lamar Smith's Exxon Subpoenas – By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, September 12, 2016
• Six Months Without Berta, Six Months Without Justice – By Laura Carlsen, CounterPunch, September 14, 2016

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 17, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• US Court Rules in Favor of Chevron in Ecuador Pollution Case - By Reuters, Telesur, August 8, 2016; [related]: Amazon Watch Response to Decision to Uphold Flawed Chevron Retaliatory Lawsuit - By Paul Paz y Miño, Amazon Watch, August 8, 2016 | Chevron won’t have to pay for its own version of Chernobyl - By Katie Herzog, Grist, August 8, 2016
• Brazil’s sewage woes reflect the growing global water quality crisis - By Joan Rose, The Conversation, August 7, 2016
• Why Say No to the TPP? Corporations Already Have Too Much Power - By Sarah van Gelder, Yes! Magazine, August 3, 2016
• Alaskans Witness Collapsing Mountains, Shattered Lives - By Dahr Jamail, Truthout, August 1, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• New Koch-Funded Group ‘Fueling US Forward’ Aims to Promote the "Positives" of Fossil Fuels - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, August 14, 2016
• Republican Politicians Love Oil & Coal Money, Destroy Human Health & Life - By Zachary Shahan, Clean Technica, August 12, 2016
• The Slow Poisoning of Health and the Environment - By Colin Todhunter, CounterPunch, August 12, 2016
• Enron and the power boys played Ralph Klein's government as suckers - By David Climenhaga, Rabble.Ca, August 10, 2016
• The Galileo gambit and other stories: the three main tactics of climate denial - By Stephan Lewandowsky, The Conversation, August 10, 2016
• Colorado Readies for 'All Out War' as Anti-Fracking Measures Advance to Ballot - By Lauren McCauley, Common Dreams, August 9, 2016
• Exclusive: Documents Show FERC-hired Contractor Did Not Disclose Work on Related Spectra Pipeline in Atlantic Bridge Project - By Itai Vardi, DeSmog Blog, August 9, 2016
• Exxon’s climate fight with ‘green’ states heats up in court - By Bloomberg, FuelFix, August 9, 2016
• Thousands of Pages of Confidential Think Tank Documents Detail Corporate Ties, New York Times Reports - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, August 9, 2016; [related]: NYT Reveals Think Tank It’s Cited for Years to Be Corrupt Arms Booster - By Adam Johnson, FAIR, August 12, 2016 | How Think Tanks Amplify Corporate America’s Influence - By Eric Lipton and Brooke Williams, New York Times, August 7, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• FOIA Request Probes Extent of Government Spying on Climate Protesters - By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, August 11, 2016; [related]: Public Records Sought Over Federal Surveillance of Climate Protesters - By Taylor McKinnon, Center for Biological Diversity, August 11, 2016 | Right-Wing Group Continues to Diligently Stalk Environmental Leaders - By Climate Denier Roundup, EcoWatch, August 9, 2016 | Embarrassing Photos of Me, Thanks to My Right-Wing Stalkers - By Bill McKibben, New York Times, August 5, 2016
• A Deadly Shade of Green: The Dangerous Situation Facing Environmental Defenders in Latin America - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, August 10, 2016
• State AGs and Groups Defy Lamar Smith's Subpoena Over Exxon Climate Probes - By David Hasemyer, Inside Climate News, July 27, 2016; [related]: Exxon Sues a Second Attorney General To Fight Off Climate Fraud Probe - By David Hasemyer, Inside Climate News, June 16, 2016

Greenwashers:

• California Regulators Sued Over Plan To Turn Aquifer Into Permanent Oil Waste Dump - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, August 10, 2016
• Exxon’s Latest Campaign to Stymie Climate Action - By Elliott Negin, EcoWatch, August 10, 2016
• Fact-Checking The Biomass Lobby’s New Website - By Mike Gaworecki, DeSmog Blog, August 10, 2016
• What's Fishy About the Feds' Salmon Promises? - By Judith Lavoie, DeSmog.Ca, August 10, 2016
• BP Greenwashes the Olympics … Again - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 8, 2016
• New Subsidy Loophole Will Boost Profits for Unsustainable Corn Biofuel Industry - By Almuth Ernsting, Independent Science News, August 8, 2016
• Wake Up: These Unneeded Instruments Can Wreck Mass Destruction - By Ralph Nader, CounterPunch, August 8, 2016
• Why the UK government’s fracking payout claim is just not true - By Damian Kahya, Greenpeace, August 8, 2016; [related]: Opposition Grows to UK Government’s Fracking “Bribe” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 8, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Louisiana Floods: A “classic signal of climate change” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 15, 2016
• Flint’s lead-poisoned water cost the city nearly 100 times as much as it was supposed to save - By Katie Herzog, Grist, August 9, 2016

Other News:

• “Why don’t people demand action on climate change?” - By Andy Rowell, Oil Change International, August 11, 2016
• Insane Trump Energy Policy Would Put Entire World At Risk - By Steve Hanley, Gas2, August 10, 2016
• Hundreds of oil and gas-related spills affected water sources in 2015 - By Jesse Prentice-Dunn, Center for Western Priorities, August 8, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 10, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Cities Need More Public Transit, Not More Uber and Self-Driving Cars - By Kevin Cashman, Truthout, August 2, 2016
• On Trade, Our Choices Aren’t Only Xenophobic Nationalism Or Neoliberal Globalization - By Leon Fink, In These Times, August 2, 2016
• Post-Paris Climate Talks: implementation at any price - By Simon Fischer, New Internationalist, August 2, 2016
• "You Can't Handle the Truth!" - By Richard Heinberg, Post Carbon Institute, August 1, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• In California Clean Air Fight, Environmental Justice Takes a Leading Role - By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, August 5, 2016
• Will Happer Drills For Support With Lamar Smith, Ted Cruz And Texas Public Policy Foundation - By John Mashey, DeSmog Blog, August 5, 2016
• The right now wants a “Clexit,” because Brexit went so well - By Katie Herzog, Grist, August 4, 2016 [related]: After Brexit, Climate Science Denialists Form New Group to Call for a Clexit - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, August 3, 2016
• Koch Bros’ Summer Reading List for Donors Promotes Freedom, Fossil Fuels, and Matt Ridley - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog UK, August 3, 2016
• The Kochs, Big Oil Are Taking Their War With The EPA To The Ballot Box - By Josh Israel and Samantha Page, Think Progress, August 3, 2016
• Behold, the death of memes at the hand of the fracking lobby - By Cody Permenter, Grist, August 2, 2016
• Climate Denier Jim Inhofe Goes Full Conspiracy Theorist In Unhinged Rant About Global Warming - By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, August 2, 2016
• Fastest-Growing Source Of Electricity ‘Not Working So Good,’ Trump Claims - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, August 2, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• How America Rising Ties the GOP Establishment to the Stalkers Harassing Bill McKibben and Tom Steyer - By Ben Jervey, DeSmog Blog, August 6, 2016

Greenwashers:

• Bavaria Suing Volkswagen Over Diesel Emissions Cheating Scandal - By James Ayre, Clean Technica, August 3, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Louisiana Parish Hit by Third Oil Spill in Ten Days As Pressure Grows To Hold Oil and Gas Industry Accountable for Coastal Damage - By Julie Dermansky, DeSmog Blog, August 3, 2016
• "When You Dial 911 and Wall Street Answers": How Private Equity Profits off Our Daily Lives - Danielle Ivory interviewed by Juan Gonzáles and Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, August 3, 2016
• Utility Won’t Clean Up Toxic Coal Ash Pits Because It’s Too Expensive - By Alejandro Dávila Fragoso, Think Progress, August 1, 2016

Other News:

• Leaked Government Report Reveals Failed Coal Mine Rehabilitation Costing Taxpayers $3.2 Billion - By staff, Lock the Gate Alliance, August 5, 2016
• We Were Promised The Greenest Olympics Ever. We Got An Ecological Disaster - By Natasha Geiling, Think Progress, August 2, 2016; [related]: Dave Zirin: Protests by Athletes and Displaced Rio Residents Accompany Opening of 2016 Olympic Games - By Dave Zirin interviewed by Amy Goodman, Democracy Now!, August 5, 2016 | Rio Olympics Opening Ceremony Reminds World That Climate Change Is Very Real - By Esther Yu Hsi Lee, Think Progress, August 2, 2016 | Athletes Forced To Live With Disgusting Conditions And Poor Security In Rio Olympic Village - By Lindsay Gibbs, Think Progress, August 1, 2016
• End the Stink in Endicott! - By Joan McKiernan, The People's Press, July 24, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, August 2, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• They Killed Keystone. Now What? - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, July 29, 2016
• An Inside Look At How Rio Fell So Far, So Fast - By Lindsay Gibbs, Think Progress, July 28, 2016
• The Color of Pollution: How Environmental Contamination Targets People of Color - By Larry Buhl, DeSmog Blog, July 28, 2016
• TTIP: The most dangerous weapon in the hands of the fossil fuel industry - By Andreas Sieber and Pavlos Georgiadis, The Ecologist, July 27, 2016
• ALEC 2016 Agenda Boosts Charters, Coal, and Other Corporate Funders - By Jessica Mason, PRWatch, July 26, 2016
• Moving Gulf Fossil Fuel Lease Sales Online Won't Halt Public's Growing Opposition to Offshore Drilling - By Blake Kopcho, et. al., Center for Biological Diversity, et. al, July 25, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• ALEC in Indianapolis: ExxonMobil and the #WebOfDenial - By Connor Gibson, Greenpeace, July 30, 2016
• At Oil Industry Funded DNC Event, Surprising Turn: Protests, Ex-Governor Admits "Mistake" Over Fracking - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, July 29, 2016
• Fracking Colorado: This Is What (Buying a) Democracy Looks Like - By Jesse Coleman, Greenpeace, July 29, 2016
• Oil and gas industry events 'polluting' Democratic convention, say activists - By Oliver Milman, The Guardian, July 28, 2016
• Revealed: AARP Is Funding ALEC - By Nick Surgey and Calvin Sloan, Exposed, July 28, 2016
• At Federal Energy Conference, Forecasts Predict Bright Future for Fossil Fuels - By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog, July 27, 2016
• Sinking Tarballs, Whale Collisions: Potential Impacts of Energy East on the U.S. Coast Detailed in New Report - By James Wilt, DeSmog Canada, July 27, 2016
• Donald Trump's Top Energy Aide Could Profit From GOP-Promised Keystone XL Permit - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, July 26, 2016
• Jim Inhofe’s Granddaughter Asked Him Why He Didn’t Understand Global Warming - By Ryan Koronowski, Think Progress, July 26, 2016
• Oil Lobby Paid Washington Post and Atlantic to Host Climate-Change Deniers at RNC - By Alex Emmons, The Intercept, July 22, 2016
• Mike Pence Is a Loyal Friend to Polluters - By Sarah Anderson and Janet Redman, Alternet, July 18, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• 3 reasons we’re opposing a Congressional move to protect Exxon - By May Boeve and Annie Leonard, 350.org and Greenpeace, July 27, 2016; [related]: Exxon allies cry foul over law firm in climate probe - By Timothy Cama, The Hill, July 23, 2016
• Fossil Fuel Industry Continues Wrath on Renowned Climate Scientist Michael Mann - By Sierra Rayne, EcoWatch, July 26, 2016

Greenwashers:

• BP deal renewed. We vow to overturn it - By staff, BP or Not BP, July 28, 2016
• Delta Tunnels: Restoring An Estuary by Diverting Its Water? - By Dan Bacher, Daily Kos, July 27, 2016; [related]: Crowd chants “Ban fracking now” to Governor Brown at DNC - By EmilyJ, 350.org, July 28, 2016 | The Hired Gun: Jerry Brown Snags Bruce Babbitt as New Point Man For Delta Tunnels - By Dan Bacher, CounterPunch, July 27, 2016
• Promoting Cutting Trees to Store Carbon? It’s 1984 All Over Again - By staff, Global Justice Ecology Project, July 26, 2016

Disaster Capitalism:

• Michigan AG Bill Schuette: State employees ignored warning flags in Flint - By John Wisely, Detroit Free Press, July 29, 2016
• Back to tragedy: more news of the BHP Billiton/Vale tailings dam collapse in Brazil - By Richard, London Mining Network, July 28, 2016

Other News:

• The Struggle Deep in the Forests of the Philippines - By Zeph Repollo, 350.org, July 29, 2016
• Over 130 Organizations Challenge EPA to Consider Prisoners in Environmental Justice Plan - By Panagioti Tsolkas, Prison Ecology Project, July 28, 2016
• Ecuador Refuses to Pay Chevron Nearly $100 Million in Damages - By staff, Telesur, July 9, 2016

For more green news, please visit our news feeds section on ecology.iww.org; Twitter #IWWEUC; Hashtags: #greenunionism #greensyndicalism #IWW. Please send suggested news items to include in this series to euc [at] iww.org.

Compiled by x344543 - IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus, July 27, 2016

A supplement to Eco Unionist News:

Lead Stories:

• Did Industry Ties Lead Democratic Party Platform Committee to Nix Fracking Ban? - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, July 23, 2016
• Planned Gas Pipeline Construction on East Coast Puts Climate at Risk: Report - By Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog, July 22, 2016; [related]: Report: Gas pipeline proposals could threaten US carbon pledge - By Robert Walton, Utility Dive, July 25, 2016 | As Major Parties Embrace Fracking, Report Shows Natural Gas 'Bridge to Climate Disaster' - By Deirdre Fulton, Common Dreams, July 22, 2016 | 19 Proposed Fracking Pipelines Would Push Us Past Point of No Return, Report Finds - By Lorraine Chow, EcoWatch, July 22, 2016
• Koch Brothers' Fingerprints Can Be Found All Over GOP Convention - By Mary Bottari, PRWatch, July 21, 2016
• The End of the Extraction Economy - By Cliff Moser, Strong Towns, July 18, 2016

The Man Behind the Curtain:

• Heartland Institute Tries To Reshape Its 'Unabomber Billboard' Image With Hyper Patriotism - By Farron Cousins, DeSmog Blog, July 24, 2016
• EIA AEO is DOA - By Steve Kretzmann, Oil Change International, July 21, 2016
• Rail Industry Requests Massive Loophole in Oil-by-Rail Safety To Extend Bomb Trains Well Beyond 2025 - By Justin Mikulka, DeSmog Blog, July 21, 2016
• Escalating Battle Over Exxon Investigation Subpoenas Could End Up in Court - By David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News, July 20, 2016
• Murdoch media gets it hopelessly wrong on wind energy. Again. - By Giles Parkinson, REnew Economy, July 20, 2016
• Sen. Capito’s $15,000 worth of regulations - By Ken Ward Jr, Charleston Gazette-Mail, July 20, 2016
• Smoke and Fumes: Six Decades of Oil-Tobacco Nexus of Deception and Attacks on Science - By Brendan DeMelle, DeSmog Blog, July 20, 2016; [related]: Big Oil, Not Big Tobacco, Wrote the Public Skepticism Playbook: Report - By Nadia Prupis, Common Dreams, July 20, 2016 | Way back when, Big Oil taught tobacco companies a few tricks - By Katie Herzog, Grist, July 20, 2016
• The Koch and Exxon Funded Think Tanks Supporting, and Being Courted by, Britain’s Brexit Campaigners - By Kyla Mandel, DeSmog Blog, July 19, 2016
• The slippery slope just turned into a slippery cliff - By Mike Spille, The Cost of the Pipeline, July 19, 2016
• Three U.S. states sue Volkswagen, say executives covered up diesel cheating - By David Shepardson, Reuters, July 19, 2016 [related]: The 4 most scandalous charges against Volkswagen - By Heather Smith, Grist, July 22, 2016  | Volkswagen Emissions Scandal Just Got Worse - By Samantha Page, Think Progress, July 19, 2016 | VW execs covered up diesel cheating, state lawsuits allege - By David Shepardson, Automotive News, July 19, 2016
• While Reviewing Spectra Energy Gas Pipeline Project, FERC Contractor Did Not Disclose Its Hiring by Spectra for Five Other Projects - By Itai Vardi, DeSmog Blog, July 19, 2016
• Australia Appoints “Mr Coal” As New Climate Change Minister - By Graham Readfearn, DeSmog Blog, July 18, 2016
• Exxon Increases Funding to Energy Think-Tank Run By Former Top Obama Energy Aide - By Steve Horn, DeSmog Blog, July 18, 2016
• Golden Rice and Scientific Consensus - By Carmelo Ruiz, Food First, July 15, 2016
• Monsanto Tries to Build a Society of GMO and Pesticide Devotees, One Child at a Time - By Lorraine Chow,  AlterNet, July 4, 2016

Green is the New Red:

• 'The Dam Builders Could Not Stop My Mother' So They Killed Her - By Salvador Edgardo Zuniga Cáceres, EcoWatch, July 19, 2016
• Federal Agents Went Undercover To Spy on Anti-Fracking Movement, Emails Reveal - By Lee Fang and Steve Horn, The Intercept, July 19, 2016
• Free Kara Wild! - By Free Kara Wild!, Earth First! Journal, July 19, 2016