Texto de referencia:
Stephen L. Miller – Coal Industry Strategy Letter To CEO of Peabody Energy – Find that File, 18/06/2004 – President and CEO – http://www.findthatfile.com/search-1215400-hPDF/download-documents-Coal-Industry-Strategy-Letter-To-CEO-of-Peabody-Energy.pdf.htm
Ross Gelbspan (2005) – Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster – Pulitzer Prize – Basic Books – ISBN-13: 978-0465027620 – 288 Págs.
“Today, the White House has become the East Coast branch office of ExxonMobil and Peabody coal, and climate change has become the preeminent case study of the contamination of our political system by money.»
Ross Gelbspan (2005) – Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster – Pulitzer Prize – Basic Books – ISBN-13: 978-0465027620 – 288 Págs.
“If O’Neill, who later resigned, was profoundly disappointed with the administration’s coal and oil-rich energy plan, Englehard, the CEO of Peabody Energy, was not. Peabody’s management was extremely cozy with the Cheney team. Its chief lobbyist, Fred Palmer, had, during the 1990s, headed the Western Fuels Association, a coal consortium that mounted relentless attacks on the findings of mainstream climate scientists.»
Ross Gelbspan (2005) – Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster – Pulitzer Prize – Basic Books – ISBN-13: 978-0465027620 – 288 Págs.
“During the 1990s, that effort had been spearheaded by Fred Palmer who, around the time of the Bush election, was hired as chief lobbyist for Peabody Energy. Prior to his hiring by Peabody, Palmer headed up the Western Fuels Association, a $400-million coal consortium that had funded a tiny handful of industry-funded ‘greenhouse skeptics’ who had long been dismissed by the mainstream scientific community. Throughout the 1990s, Palmer directed an extensive and extremely successful public relations offensive funded by the coal industry that used such prominent ‘greenhouse skeptics’ as Fred Singer, Pat Michaels, Sherwood Idso, and Robert Balling, among others.”
Ross Gelbspan (2005) – Boiling Point: How Politicians, Big Oil and Coal, Journalists and Activists Are Fueling the Climate Crisis And What We Can Do to Avert Disaster – Pulitzer Prize – Basic Books – ISBN-13: 978-0465027620 – 288 Págs.
“In 20001, shortky after the Bush election, Palmer and other members of Peabody Energy met with the Cheney task force a number of times while the administration’s energy plan was being fashioned. Peabody energy executives were among thirty or forty industry officials briefed by members of the task force in meetings set up by the Edison Electric Institute, the power industry’s primary lobbying gropu, according to a report in the New York Times. Those same meetings were closed to the major environmental groups.»
Ross Gelbspan – The Disinformation Campaigns of Big Coal: A Short History – Heat is Online, 28/05/2006 – http://www.heatisonline.org/contentserver/objecthandlers/index.cfm?id=4380&method=full
“From the 1991 «Ice Campaign» run by the coal and utility industries to the Marshall Institute‘s bogus «Study» of 1998 (which was designed to resemble a National Academy of Sciences document) to the recent efforts of ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy to eviscerate efforts to address the climate crisis, in tandem with the Bush White House, the fossil fuel lobby and its ideological supporters have waged a relentless campaign of deception and disinformation to confuse people about the reality of warming-driven climate change.”
Felicity Barringer – Flooded Village Files Suit, Citing Corporate Link to Climate Change – The New York Times, 27/02/2008 – http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/27/us/27alaska.html
“The suit is the latest effort to hold companies like BP America, Chevron, Peabody Energy, Duke Energy and the Southern Company responsible for the impact of global warming.”
Stephan Faris – Conspiracy Theory – The Atlantic, 01/06/2008 – http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2008/06/conspiracy-theory/6812/
“In February, Berman and Susman—along with two attorneys who have previously worked on behalf of the village, and Matt Pawa, an environmental lawyer specializing in global warming—filed suit in federal court against 24 oil, coal, and electric companies, claiming that their emissions are partially responsible for the coastal destruction in Kivalina. More important, the suit also accuses eight of the firms (American Electric Power, BP America, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Duke Energy, ExxonMobil, Peabody Energy, and Southern Company) of conspiring to cover up the threat of man-made climate change, in much the same way the tobacco industry tried to conceal the risks of smoking—by using a series of think tanks and other organizations to falsely sow public doubt in an emerging scientific consensus. This second charge arguably eliminates the need for a judge to determine how much greenhouse-gas production—from refining fossil fuel and burning it to produce energy—is acceptable. “You’re not asking the court to evaluate the reasonableness of the conduct,” Berman says. “You’re asking a court to evaluate if somebody conspired to lie.”
Richard Connif – The Myth of Clean Coal – Yale Environment 360, 03/06/2008 – http://e360.yale.edu/feature/the_myth_of_clean_coal/2014/
“Well, they’ve made a commitment to advertising, anyway. The campaign has been paid for by Americans for Balanced Energy Choices, which bills itself as the voice of “over 150,000 community leaders from all across the country.” Among those leaders, according to ABEC’s website, are an environmental consultant, an interior designer, and a “complimentary healer.” Other, arguably louder, voices in the group include the world’s biggest mining company (BHP Billiton), the biggest U.S. coal mining company (Peabody Energy), the biggest publicly owned U.S. electric utility (Duke Energy), and the biggest U.S. railroad (Union Pacific). ABEC — whose domain name is licensed to the Center for Energy and Economic Development, a coal-industry group — merged with CEED on April 17 to form the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity (ACCCE).”
Ed Pilkington – US: Put oil firm chiefs on trial, says leading climate change scientist – Corp Watch, 23/06/2008 – http://www.corpwatch.org/article.php?id=15122
“Speaking before Congress again, he will accuse the chief executive officers of companies such as ExxonMobil and Peabody Energy of being fully aware of the disinformation about climate change they are spreading. In an interview with the Guardian he said: «When you are in that kind of position, as the CEO of one the primary players who have been putting out misinformation even via organisations that affect what gets into school textbooks, then I think that’s a crime.» He is also considering personally targeting members of Congress who have a poor track record on climate change in the coming November elections. He will campaign to have several of them unseated. Hansen’s speech to Congress on June 23 1988 is seen as a seminal moment in bringing the threat of global warming to the public’s attention. At a time when most scientists were still hesitant to speak out, he said the evidence of the greenhouse gas effect was 99% certain, adding «it is time to stop waffling».”
Mitchell Anderson – Republicans Cribbing from Big Coal? – DesmogBlog, 18/06/2009 – http://www.desmogblog.com/republicans-cribbing-big-coal
“A PowerPoint being trotted out by House Republicans to undermine the Waxman-Markey climate and energy bill was apparently created by none other than dirty fuel giant Peabody Energy… Related teleconference event was apparently intended to ““highlight how the Democrats’ National Energy Tax will make it more expensive for rural Americans to fertilize the crops, put fuel in the tractor and food on the table.”.”
Toby Shute – The New Champion of Natural Gas – The Motley Fool, 21/07/2009 – http://www.fool.com/investing/value/2009/07/21/the-new-champion-of-natural-gas.aspx
“It’s wonderful to see a bona fide environmentalist like RFK Jr. lend his support to natural gas as an abundant and vastly cleaner alternative to coal. With luck, we will see other public figures join him in this call. Now if the natural gas industry only learned to lobby as effectively as Peabody Energy … and the rest of the coal crew, we could see some serious climate progress in relatively short order.”
Brad Johnson – Dirty Coal Group Joining Teabagger Effort to Disrupt Town Hall Meetings – Think Progress, 06/08/2009 – http://wonkroom.thinkprogress.org/2009/08/06/accce-town-halls/
“ACCCE’s [American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity] campaign, representing coal interests from General Electric to Peabody Energy, requires the efforts of multiple Astroturfing companies, including primary contractor Hawthorn Group, as well as known fraud shop Bonner & Associates, and marketing firm R&R Partners. The “ACCCE Army” will be joining right-wing Astroturf efforts funded by the oil and gas industry to disrupt Congressional town hall meetings across the nation. Americans for Prosperity and FreedomWorks, both bankrolled by oil and gas giant Koch Industries, are orchestrating the “tea party protests”.”
Richard Lindzen – Sourcewatch, 30/09/2009 -https://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php/Richard_S._Lindzen
“In a biographical note at the foot of a column published in Newsweek in 2007, Lindzen wrote that «his research has always been funded exclusively by the U.S. government. He receives no funding from any energy companies.» (Emphasis added). However, analysis of Peabody Energy court documents showed that the fossil fuel company backed Lindzen, proving that Lindzen was lying. Ross Gelbspan, journalist and author, wrote a 1995 article in Harper’s Magazine which was critical of Lindzen and other global warming skeptics. In the article, Gelbspan reports Lindzen charged «oil and coal interests $2,500 a day for his consulting services; [and] his 1991 trip to testify before a Senate committee was paid for by Western Fuels and a speech he wrote, entitled ‘Global Warming: the Origin and Nature of Alleged Scientific Consensus,’ was underwritten by OPEC.»[7] A decade later Boston Globe columnist Alex Beam reported, based on an interview with Lindzen, that «he accepted $10,000 in expenses and expert witness fees from fossil- fuel types in the 1990s, and has taken none of their money since.».”
Greening Earth Society – Wikipedia, 05/12/2009 – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greening_Earth_Society
“The Greening Earth Society, now defunct, was a public relations organization which promoted the idea that there is considerable scientific doubt about the effects of climate change and increased levels of carbon dioxide. The Society published the World Climate Report, a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute. It was a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association, with which it shared an office and many staff members. It has been called a «front group created by the coal industry» and an «industry front». Fred Palmer, a Society staffer, is a registered lobbyist for Peabody Energy, a coal company.”
Associated Press – Peabody Energy to buy $15M interest in Calera – Business Week, 29/03/2010 – http://www.businessweek.com/ap/financialnews/D9EJQ6BO0.htm
«On March 22, Peabody Energy Corp. announced that it will buy a $15 million equity interest in Calera Corp., a company that recently claimed to have developed a new method of turning carbon dioxide (CO2) from industrial boiler flue gas into synthetic limestone, valuable for making cement. The technology would potentially reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the many coal-fired plants owned by Peabody Energy. Calera has a pilot project up and running that captures 86 percent of the CO2 from flue gas siphoned off a natural gas-fired electricity generator. Barriers to commercial-scale development of the technology include disposing of the acid produced by the process and scaling up the whole operation to produce durable cement. «Calera’s emerging technology represents an innovative solution to advance our energy, environmental and economic goals by recycling carbon dioxide into beneficial building products,» said Frederick D. Palmer, Peabody’s senior vice president.”
Patrick Reis – Coal Executives Split on Carbon Caps, Climate Science – The New York Times, 15/04/2010 – http://www.nytimes.com/gwire/2010/04/15/15greenwire-coal-executives-split-on-carbon-caps-climate-s-57111.html
“Top executives from Peabody Energy Corp., Arch Coal Inc. and Rio Tinto PLC all called coal an irreplaceable source of energy in the United States and abroad. They stood united on the need for federal support for carbon capture and storage technology that would prevent emissions from coal-fired power plants from entering the atmosphere … Boyce blasted the House-passed energy and climate bill (H.R. 2454 (pdf)) that would put a price on carbon emissions. Congress should wait until carbon capture and storage technology is ready before it regulates carbon, Boyce said. Other companies took a more conciliatory stance on the bill.”
Eric Pooley (2010) – The Climate War: True Believers, Power Brokers, and the Fight to Save the Earth – Hyperion – Deputy editor of Bloomberg BusinessWeek, a former managing editor of Fortune and a former national editor, chief political correspondent and White House correspondent for Time – ISBN-13: 978-1401323264 – 481 Págs. – http://www.ericpooley.com/
“The Hell No Choir—’people like Fred Palmer of Peabody Energy, the nation’s biggest coal producer—-thought that was crazy talk. Palmer had founded the pro-CO2 Greening Earth Society in I998 to convince people that burning fossil fuels is “doing the work of the Lord.” Now he was show- ing signs of crab-walking back from that position, but he wasn’t anywhere close to Rogers and never would be.”
Francesca Grifo (2011) – A Case Study in Scientific Integrity: The Science Behind Greenhouse Gas Emission Standards – Union of Concerned Scientists, 27/09/2011 – Expert on political interference in science and practices to ensure transparency and integrity at the intersection of science and policy – http://blog.ucsusa.org/a-case-study-in-scientific-integrity-the-science-behind-greenhouse-gas-emission-standards
“In December 2009, after years of data analysis, two public hearings, and the assessment of more than 500,000 comments, the EPA released a final endangerment finding. Written by 30 EPA senior scientists, and reviewed by experts in seven agencies, the final document definitively states that greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare of Americans. Ten groups – including the Competitive Enterprise Institute, U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Peabody Energy, and politicians acting on behalf of Texas and Virginia—petitioned the agency to drop the finding. Those petitions attacked the science underlying climate change and the agency’s process for handling the science.”
Doug Struck – Kerry: ‘We have lost the notion of responsible capitalism’ – The Daily Climate, 26/03/2012 – http://wwwp.dailyclimate.org/tdc-newsroom/2012/03/kerry-vents-on-climate
“Kerry blamed brothers David and Charles Koch, oil billionaires who have bankrolled attempts to discredit climate change, as well as opposition from energy companies. «You have Peabody Coal. You have MidAmerican. They have these big old cash cows, these old coal-powered plants. It’s just cash coming in, and they want to keep it that way. «This is unrestrained, least-ethical, bottom-line capitalism,» said Kerry, who ran unsuccessfully against George W. Bush for president in 2004 and now chairs the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. «We have lost the notion of responsible capitalism.» State and local governments have attempted to push ahead on efforts to minimize climate change. Without federal leadership, he said, the effort will struggle.”
Dave Hamilton and Lauren Randall – Clean Energy under Siege: Following the Money Trail Behind the Attack on Renewable Energy – Sierra Club, 01/08/2012 – http://www.sierraclub.org/pressroom/downloads/SierraClub-CleanEnergyUnderSiege.pdf
“It is a testament to the success and rapid growth of clean-energy resources that they are now regarded as enough of a threat to draw fire from some of the largest, most powerful corporations on the planet. But with this rising status, there comes a heightened degree of difficulty that the renewable and efficiency companies — as well as advocates for their products as an environmental solution — must both recognize and contend with. The Koch brothers, Exxon Mobil, Peabody Energy, and others are playing for keeps. They have unlimited resources and we have documented that they are committing them to undermining clean energy. We clearly face a dog-eat-dog environment and must respond with as much vigor and aggressiveness as those who would see wind, solar, geothermal, and other technologies fade into the sunset — a product of a brief period in American economic history when the competitive environment was a friendly place for clean energy.”
About ALEC – The United States of ALEC – 15/09/2012 – http://theunitedstatesofalec.org/aboutalec/
“Some of the corporations include: Koch Industries, Peabody Energy, AT&T, BP, WellPoint, ExxonMobil, and Bank of America. ALEC, founded by conservative movement icon Paul Weyrich, has worked in virtual secrecy to advance an extreme agenda that puts corporate profits ahead of the public interest and often public safety.”
Eric Zuesse – Global Warming’s Villains Are Finally Identified – The Huffington Post, 26/11/2013 – https://www.huffpost.com/entry/globalwarmings-villains-a_b_4329243
“Virtually all 90 of these firms are oil, gas, and coal producers. Starting with #1, the top 20 are: ChevronTexaco, ExxonMobil, Aramco (Saudi Arabia), BP, Gazprom (Russia), Shell (Netherlands), National Iranian Oil Co., Pemex (Mexico), ConocoPhillips, Petroleos de Venezuela, Coal India, Peabody Coal USA, Total (France), PetroChina, Kuwait Petroleum, Abu Dhabi National Oil Co. (UAE), Sonatrach (Algeria), Consol Energy USA, BHP-Billiton (Australia), and Anglo-American (UK, the company that got America’s CIA to install the Shah in Iran).”
Heartland Institute’s Smoke And Mirrors Attempt To Debunk Consensus Science – Media Matters, 08/04/2014 – http://mediamatters.org/blog/2014/04/08/heartland-institutes-smoke-and-mirrors-attempt/198805
“While IPCC’s dozens of authors are unpaid, at least three of the NIPCC’s four lead authors are paid by the Heartland Institute. One of the authors, Craig Idso, used to work for the coal company Peabody Energy and wrote a contracted study for the industry group The American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity. The IPCC reviews the current state of scientific knowledge, while the NIPCC’s references in its Summary for Policymakers include publications that date back to 1904 and few references from this century other than non-peer-reviewed reports from itself and its authors. As climate scientist Donald Wuebbles noted at the end of the Fox News report, the NIPCC report is «full of misinformation» and «not peer-reviewed.».”
Jeffrey D. Sachs – The Limits of Climate Negotiations – Project Syndicate, 23/06/2014 – http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/jeffrey-d-sachs-says-that-the-fight-against-global-warming-is-mainly-a-technological-problem
“But let’s stop pretending that this is a poker game, rather than a scientific and technological puzzle of the highest order. We need the likes of Musk, Lackner, General Electric, Siemens, Ericsson, Intel, Electricité de France, Huawei, Google, Baidu, Samsung, Apple, and others in laboratories, power plants, and cities around the world to forge the technological breakthroughs that will reduce global CO2 emissions. There is even a place at the table for ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Peabody, Koch Industries, and other oil and coal giants. If they expect their products to be used in the future, they had better make them safe through the deployment of advanced CCS technologies. The point is that targeted and deep decarbonization is a job for all stakeholders, including the fossil-fuel industry, and one in which we must all be on the side of human survival and wellbeing.”
Kerryn Higgs – What’s the limit to the planet’s growth? – Ockham’s Razor, 16/02/2015 – Author of Collision Course: Endless Growth on a Finite Planet – http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/ockhamsrazor/whats-the-limit-to-the-planets-growth/6092186
“How come the Club of Rome got such a terrible press … The new corporations of the early 20th century banded together into industry associations and business councils. These organisations exploited the newly emerging public relations industry, launching a barrage of private enterprise propaganda which has gone uninterrupted for more than a century and is still very healthy today. Peabody coal, for example, recently signed up one of the world’s PR giants, Burson-Marsteller, for a PR campaign to convince leaders that coal is the solution to poverty.”
Mike Gaworecki – Coal Companies Talking Out Both Sides Of Their Mouths When It Comes To Climate Change – Desmogblog, 24/03/2015 – http://desmogblog.com/2015/03/24/coal-companies-talking-out-both-sides-their-mouths-when-it-comes-climate-change
“Peabody executives may be simply hedging their bets, but if they think they face no potential consequences for trying to have it both ways on climate change — accusing regulators seeking to rein in emissions from coal plants of overreacting while assuring investors they take climate change seriously and can be relied upon to guide the company through what’s shaping up to be an uncertain future for the entire coal industry — they are wrong. “That information does not square,” Jim Coburn, a manager at the sustainable investment group Ceres, told Greenwire in response to Peabody’s statements. “That’s a real problem for the company because the company is misleading investors in its SEC filings.” It’s not just Peabody: Greenwire found other U.S. companies like Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal, and Cloud Peak Energy that oppose climate regulations admit to shareholders that climate change is a legitimate cause for concern. Fittingly, they all focus more on government scrutiny and “tend to steer clear of climate-related infrastructure issues posed by sea-level rise or the potential for increasingly severe natural disasters.”.”
Peabody chief questions climate science, backs ‘clean coal’ – Responding to Climate Change, 01/05/2015 – http://www.rtcc.org/2015/05/01/peabody-chief-questions-climate-science-backs-clean-coal/
“Greg Boyce outlines “five point plan” to accelerate transition to low carbon economy based on carbon intensive fuel.”
Dan Zegart – Peabody’s Five Point Plan for Getting the World to Adapt To Peabody – Climate Investigations Center, 06/05/2015 – http://www.climateinvestigations.org/peabody-coal-five-point-plan-transition-low-carbon-economy
“When a coal company chief executive officer offers a decarbonization plan, it means one of two things. One, he has finally seen the light, and realizes that coal is irremediably dirty. Or two, this is just “green talk” intended to paper over business as usual. Once you know that the CEO in question is Gregory Boyce of Peabody Energy, who has released what he called a “Five-Point Plan to Accelerate Transition to a Low-Carbon Economy,” you probably know the answer. And if you also know that Peabody is entering the final round of its struggle against the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan, intended to cut carbon emissions by 30 percent by 2030, and that the rule is to be finalized this summer, you understand the timing of Boyce’s manifesto, which was addressed directly to “Congress and political leaders.”.”
Suzanne Goldenberg – The truth behind Peabody’s campaign to rebrand coal as a poverty cure – The Guardian, 19/05/2015 – http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/may/19/the-truth-behind-peabodys-campaign-to-rebrand-coal-as-a-poverty-cure
“The world’s largest privately-held coal company has a long history of attacking climate science. Now it is working to change the conversation from a climate crisis to one of global poverty – with coal as the solution.”
Megan Darby – Fossil fuel giants reject calls to keep oil, gas and coal in ground – Responding to Climate Change, 21/05/2015 – http://www.rtcc.org/2015/05/21/fossil-fuel-giants-reject-calls-to-keep-oil-gas-and-coal-in-ground/
“Very few fossil fuel executives today openly reject the basic science of man-made climate change. US coal giant Peabody’s recent attack on “flawed models” was an exception. Indeed, at this week’s Business and Climate Summit in Paris bosses of Statoil, Glencore and Total are joining calls for an effective global emissions-cutting deal. Saudi Arabia’s oil minister is present, talking up his country’s renewable energy plans. But their responses to warnings coal, oil and gas assets could be “stranded” by climate action tell a different story.”
Suzanne Goldenberg – Angry US republicans tell Pope Francis to ‘stick with his job and we’ll stick with ours’ – The Guardian, 13/06/2015 – http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/13/climate-change-conservatives-catholic-teaching
“The fossil fuel industry, including the American Petroleum Institute lobby group and Peabody Coal, has cast fossil fuels as a route out of poverty in the developing world. Ultra-conservative and climate change denial think-tanks, such as the Heartland Institute, which has been funded by the oil industry, have argued that climate change was the cure for drought and famine in Ethiopia in the 1980s.”
Lindsay Abrahams – Big Oil’s decades of deception: Report reveals that Exxon’s known the truth about climate science since 1981 – Salon, 08/07/2015 – http://www.salon.com/2015/07/08/big_oils_decades_of_deception_report_reveals_that_exxons_known_the_truth_about_climate_science_since_1981/
“According to Leonard S. Bernstein, a former chemical engineer at the company, Exxon recognized the potential for global warming concerns to lead to regulations that would impact the project and others like it. The year was 1981. The Union of Concerned Scientists has brought to light Bernstein’s claims, which he first made in an email posted online last October, as part of a new report. Called the Climate Deception Dossiers, it uses internal memos to trace the denial and deception practiced by Big Oil over the nearly three decades since 1988, when NASA scientist James Hansen testified before Congress that man-made global warming had begun. And if Bernstein is to believed, then Exxon, at least, knew about it years earlier. “Whatever their public stance, internally they make very careful assessments of the potential for regulation, including the scientific basis for those regulations,” Bernstein wrote in the email. And while it did question some of the science being floated at the time, he added, “Exxon NEVER denied the potential for humans to impact the climate system.” We can consider that the start of a long-standing pattern. While none of the documents released by UCS are new, taken together they show that the world’s oil giants — ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Peabody Energy and Royal Dutch Shell – have been fully aware of their contributions to climate change and the danger that can result, and has at the same time been spending tens of millions to convince the public that that’s not at all the case.”
Damian Carrington – IEA report on benefits of coal is ‘deeply misleading’ – The Guardian, 23/10/2015 – http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2015/oct/23/iea-report-on-benefits-of-coal-is-deeply-misleading
“The report, seen by the Guardian, is “deeply confused and deeply misleading” and a “litany of errors and false assumptions, clearly written ultimately as a disinformation tool”, according to two financial experts. They said the legitimacy conferred by the respected IEA on the report raised serious questions. The report, the Socioeconomic Impacts of Advanced Technology Coal-Fuelled Power Stations, was produced by the IEA’s Coal Industry Advisory Board (CIAB), a group of coal industry executives that “provides advice to the IEA”. Peabody Energy, which says global warming is “an environmental crisis predicted by flawed computer models”, RWE and Shenhua were directly involved in the report while Anglo American, Rio Tinto, BHP Billiton, E.ON, Arch Coal, Alpha Natural Resources and Eskom all provided input. The report states it is “a complete and current set of facts, as well as a full and unbiased accounting of effects”, but fails to mention climate change at all. “Coal itself is not the cause of China’s air quality problem,” the report states. “What matters is not what goes in, but what comes out.” The report then analyses the social and environmental benefits that may be offered by new, cleaner coal-fired powered stations. But the report is “deeply confused and deeply misleading”, according to Richard Denniss, chief economist at the Australia Institute: “The paper pays scant attention to the health and social costs associated with coal mining and coal burning. The quality and quantity of analysis of the negative [effects] associated with coal mining and burning is fundamentally inadequate.” Denniss said the report confuses the benefits to people of electrification and grid expansion with the economic benefits of building new generation coal-fired power stations: “The benefits of grid expansion are unrelated to the source of the electricity that flow along that grid.” ”
José Luis de Haro – Nueva York investiga a Exxon Mobil por mentir sobre el cambio climático – El Economista, 05/11/2015 – http://www.eleconomista.es/energia/noticias/7126767/11/15/Nueva-York-investiga-a-Exxon-Mobil-por-sus-declaraciones-sobre-el-cambio-climatico.html
“Por su parte, el New York Times, que también se hizo eco de la investigación, dijo que la fiscalía de Nueva York también investigan desde hace dos años y de forma paralela a Peabody Energy, el mayor productor de carbón del país, por asuntos similares. Dicha investigación no se había revelado hasta la fecha ya que no ha dado lugar a ningún cargo concreto en contra de la compañía. Vic Svec, vicepresidente de Peabody, dijo en un comunicado, que la empresa «continúa colaborando con la oficina del fiscal general de Nueva York».”
Clifford Krauss – Peabody Energy Agrees to Greater Disclosures of Financial Risks – The New York Times, 08/11/2015 – http://www.nytimes.com/2015/11/09/business/energy-environment/peabody-energy-agrees-to-greater-disclosures-of-financial-risks.html
“This case represents an unprecedented first step in the absolutely critical work of forcing coal and other fossil fuel companies to start being honest about the damage they are doing to our planet,” Mr. Schneiderman said in a statement, “and the risks they create, both for the public and for shareholders.”
Emily Atkins – Investigation Finds World’s Largest Coal Company Misled Public On Climate Change – Climate Progress, 09/11/2015 – http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2015/11/09/3720519/peabody-energy-settlement-new-york-schneiderman/
“In a press release, Attorney General Eric Schneiderman said Peabody Energy violated New York laws prohibiting “false and misleading conduct” in public statements about its business. Specifically, Schneiderman found that Peabody failed to tell its investors about how regulations to fight climate change could hurt the coal industry. Instead, Peabody insisted it had no idea how climate regulations would affect its business, and provided its investors with “incomplete and one-sided discussions” of the future of coal in a climate-concerned world, Schneiderman said.”
Tim McDonnell (2015) – One of the World’s Largest Coal Companies Misled Investors About Climate Change Risk, Investigation Finds – Mother Jones, 09/11/2015 – http://www.motherjones.com/environment/2015/11/peabody-coal-climate-investors-attorney-general
“After several years of investigations, Schneiderman reached an agreement with Peabody Energy that won’t require the company to admit it broke the law and does not entail a fine or other penalty. Instead, Peabody must file revised shareholder disclosures to the Securities and Exchange Commission with new language acknowledging that «concerns about the environmental impacts of coal combustion…could significantly affect demand for our products or our securities.».”
Lawrence Carter and Maeve McClenaghan – Exposed: Academics-for-hire agree not to disclose fossil fuel funding – Energy Desk, 08/12/2015 – http://energydesk.greenpeace.org/2015/12/08/exposed-academics-for-hire/
“Citing industry-funded documents – including testimony to state hearings and newspaper articles – Professor Frank Clemente of Penn State said: “In none of these cases is the sponsor identified. All my work is published as an independent scholar.” Leading climate-sceptic academic, Professor William Happer, agreed to write a report for a Middle Eastern oil company on the benefits of CO2 and to allow the firm to keep the source of the funding secret. Happer is due to appear this afternoon as a star witness in Senate hearings called by Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz. In emails to reporters he also revealed Peabody Energy paid thousands of dollars for him to testify at a separate state hearing, with the money being paid to a climate-sceptic think-tank.”
Lawrence Carter and Maeve McClenaghan (2015) – Exposed: Academics-for-hire agree not to disclose fossil fuel funding – Unearthed, 08/12/2015 – https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2015/12/08/exposed-academics-for-hire/
“Leading climate sceptic who will testify at Ted Cruz senate hearing today agrees to write pro-fossil fuel paper secretly funded by oil company. An Unearthed undercover investigation has exposed how fossil fuel companies can secretly pay academics at leading American universities to write research that sows doubt about climate science and promotes the companies’ commercial interests. Posing as representatives of oil and coal companies, reporters from Unearthed asked academics from Princeton and Penn State to write papers promoting the benefits of CO2 and the use of coal in developing countries. The professors agreed to write the reports and said they did not need to disclose the source of the funding. Citing industry-funded documents – including testimony to state hearings and newspaper articles – Professor Frank Clemente of Penn State said: “In none of these cases is the sponsor identified. All my work is published as an independent scholar.” Leading climate-sceptic academic, Professor William Happer, agreed to write a report for a Middle Eastern oil company on the benefits of CO2 and to allow the firm to keep the source of the funding secret. Happer is due to appear this afternoon as a star witness in Senate hearings called by Republican Presidential candidate Ted Cruz. In emails to reporters he also revealed Peabody Energy paid thousands of dollars for him to testify at a separate state hearing, with the money being paid to a climate-sceptic think tank.” Read the emails with Professor Frank Clemente. Read the emails with Professor Happer and the Donors Trust.”
Lawrence Carter and Maeve McClenaghan (2015) – Exposed: Academics-for-hire agree not to disclose fossil fuel funding – Unearthed, 08/12/2015 – https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2015/12/08/exposed-academics-for-hire/
“The investigation also found: US coal giant Peabody Energy also paid tens of thousands of dollars to an academic who produced coal-friendly research and provided testimony at state and federal climate hearings, the amount of which was never revealed. The Donors Trust, an organisation that has been described as the “dark money ATM” of the US conservative movement, confirmed in a taped conversation with an undercover reporter that it could anonymously channel money from a fictional Middle Eastern oil and gas company to US climate sceptic organisations. Princeton professor William Happer laid out details of an unofficial peer review process run by the Global Warming Policy Foundation, a UK climate sceptic think tank, and said he could ask to put an oil-funded report through a similar review process, after admitting that it would struggle to be published in an academic journal. A recent report by the GWPF that had been through the same unofficial peer review process, was promoted as “thoroughly peer-reviewed” by influential columnist Matt Ridley – a senior figure in the organisation. The findings echo the case of Willie Soon, who was the subject of an investigation published in the New York Times earlier this year.”
Graham Readfearn – Major Climate Science Denial Groups Offer to Hide Fossil Fuel Funding, Greenpeace Investigation Finds – Desmogblog , 08/12/2015 – http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/12/08/leading-climate-science-denial-groups-offer-hide-fossil-fuel-funding-greenpeace-investigation-finds
“According to a report on the investigation at Greenpeace’s EnergyDesk website, Princeton’s Professor William Happer had revealed he had accepted cash from coal company Peabody Energy in return for providing testimony to US congress but had routed the cash through a climate denial group. Happer also offered his services but said that a new climate science denial group, CO2 Coalition, should be used to channel the funds. Groups including the Global Warming Policy Foundation and Donors Trust are also alleged to have been complicit in providing “peer review” services for fossil fuel clients and, in the case of Donors Trust, in providing an untraceable route for the fossil fuel payments. … A DeSmogBlog investigation into Donors Trust and its partner group Donors Capitall Fund found that between 2005 and 2012, some $479 million of income to the two groups was untraceable. Of the amounts that were traceable, DeSmog found that $7.65 million had come from the Knowledge and Progress Fund (KPF). On the KPF board are oil billionaire and major Republican benefactor Charles Koch, his wife Liz and son Charles Chase Koch. Richard Fink, a Koch company director and long-standing aide to Charles Koch, is also a KPF director.”
Javier Yanes – ¿De qué pasta está hecha la negación del cambio climático? – 20 minutos, 13/12/2015 – https://blogs.20minutos.es/ciencias-mixtas/2015/12/13/de-que-pasta-esta-hecha-la-negacion-del-cambio-climatico/
“Según Greenpeace, miembros de la organización se presentaron ante Frank Clemente, de la Universidad Penn State, y William Happer, de la Universidad de Princeton, fingiendo ser consultores que trabajaban para compañías petroleras o del carbón, y solicitándoles que escribieran artículos minimizando el efecto de las emisiones de los combustibles fósiles. Ambos accedieron, siempre que los términos del acuerdo fueran aceptables: Happer especificó que su tarifa era de 250 dólares la hora, lo que sumaría un total de 8.000 dólares por cuatro días de trabajo; por su parte, Clemente pedía 15.000 dólares por un estudio científico y 8.000 por un artículo de opinión en un periódico. … Ambos científicos, que han prestado testimonio en diversos comités gubernamentales sobre cambio climático en EEUU, discutieron con los falsos consultores cómo enmascarar estas generosas donaciones para que no tener que declararlas a la hora de publicar sus artículos, ya que hoy las revistas científicas obligan a los autores a revelar si están sujetos a posibles conflictos de intereses. Greenpeace cuenta también que ambos ya han recibido anteriormente grandes sumas de compañías como Peabody Energy, un gigante estadounidense del carbón. Pero los propios científicos eran conscientes de que sus artículos difícilmente pasarían el riguroso filtro de la revisión por pares de una revista.”
Steve Horn – ExxonMobil, Peabody Coal Lobbying for Bill Preventing Climate Change Accounting in US Trade Deals – Desmog, 20/12/2015 – http://www.desmogblog.com/2015/12/20/exxonmobil-peabody-coal-climate-change-accounting-us-trade-deals
“Koch-Funded Politician Inserts Language National Journal also detailed that U.S. Rep. James Sensenbrenner (R-WI) inserted the original language into the bill and he is content with the amended language, too. “He finds it acceptable because he received assurance from [U.S. Trade Representative Michael Froman] that the [Trade Promotion Authority] bill does not provide the administration any new authority to enter into climate-change agreements, Sensenbrenner spokeswoman Nicole Tieman told National Journal. Sensenbrenner, campaign finance records show, maintains Koch Industries as one of his top donors. He also has well over $1 million in fossil fuel industry investments. Those include: -$100,001 to $250,000 in BP stock -$39,253 in Chevron stock -$564,717 to $1,064,716 in ExxonMobil stock -$250,001 to $500,000 in General Electric stock ” -$100,001 to $250,000 in Wisconsin Energy Corporation stock.”
Richard Martin – Los negacionistas del cambio climático mienten o se autoengañan cegados por el poder – MIT Technology Review, 06/01/2016 – http://www.technologyreview.es/blog/347/31381/los-negacionistas-del-cambio-climatico-mienten-o/
“Sean cuales sean sus creencias personales acerca del cambio climático – un puzle psicológico que necesitaría de todo un departamento universitario para resolverse – está claro que los ejecutivos de Exxon Mobil, Peabody Energy, y otras empresas de combustibles fósiles han participado en una campaña larga, exhaustiva y penetrante de ignorancia y autoengaño. Pronto descubrirán lo que esas campañas les costarán.”
Steve Horn – Introducing the Corporate Front Groups That Helped Win a Supreme Court Stay of Obama’s Clean Power Plan – Desmog, 18/02/2016 – http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/02/18/corporate-front-groups-supreme-court-obama-clean-power-plan
“A DeSmog investigation of the dozens of legal challenges filed just before the holidays at the federal Appeals Court level reveals that big corporate interests sit at the center of a coordinated attack against the Obama administration’s regulatory attempt to curb emissions for coal-fired power plants. These plaintiffs include groups with ties to the Koch Brothers, Peabody Energy and other coal companies, trade associations, and front groups from the utility industry and major corporate law firms.”
Ed King – World’s top private coal company faces bankruptcy – Climate Change News, 16/03/2016 – http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/03/16/worlds-top-private-coal-miner-faces-bankruptcy/
“Peabody Energy, the largest US coal miner, has warned it could struggle to stay afloat and may look for bankruptcy protection. In a submission to the US Securities and Exchange Commission, the company said it had missed a US$71.1 million interest payment and revealed it may default on its debt.”
John Mashey – David Schnare and Jon Riches Mislead Arizona Court to Harass Climate Science Researchers – Desmogblog, 22/03/2016 – https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/03/22/david-schnare-and-jonathan-riches-mislead-arizona-court
“Paid by Alpha Natural Resources, Arch Coal, Peabody Energy and others undisclosed, David Schnare and Chris Horner of Energy and Environment Legal Institute* generate endless time-wasting Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests to harass climate scientists, as recently summarized by the Climate Science Legal Defense Fund. Reasonable FOIAs are valuable, but the rules can be abused with relatively low effort to impose large costs for “fishing expeditions.” It seems many state governments have not yet clarified rules well enough to avoid waste of taxpayers’ money. EELI’s open records litigation against the University of Arizona, for the emails of Malcolm Hughes and Jon Overpack, grinds on with another recent development, Schnare is not a member of the Arizona Bar, so involved Jonathan Riches of the Goldwater Institute. ”
Megan Darby – US coal major Peabody files for bankruptcy – Climate Home, 13/04/2016 – http://www.climatechangenews.com/2016/04/13/us-coal-major-peabody-files-for-bankruptcy/
“It cited a weak Chinese economy, competition from shale gas and “ongoing regulatory challenges” – a nod to climate protections – as factors. “This was a difficult decision, but it is the right path forward for Peabody. We begin today to build a highly successful global leader for tomorrow,” said Peabody CEO Glenn Kellow in a statement. It follows a string of US producers going bust, including the second largest, Arch Coal.”
Dana Nuccitelli – Coal made its best case against climate change, and lost – The Guardian, 11/05/2016 – http://www.theguardian.com/environment/climate-consensus-97-per-cent/2016/may/11/coal-made-its-best-case-against-climate-change-and-lost
“The losing case from the coal company witnesses (rebutted by John Abraham here and here) can be summarized as follows: Warming has been less than models predicted [False] This means the climate’s sensitivity to the increased greenhouse effect is low [False] Carbon pollution is great anyway and should be subsidized, not taxed [False] In between these primary arguments, Peabody coal’s witnesses made a variety of false and/or conspiratorial statements, dredging up numerous long-debunked climate myths.”
US Bankruptcy Court: In re Peabody Corporation – 27/05/2016 – http://www.documentcloud.org/documents/2859772-1642529160527000000000019-2.html
John Mashey – Peabody’s Outlier Gang Couldn’t Shoot Straight In Minnesota Carbon Case, Judge Rebuffs Happer, Lindzen, Spencer, Mendelsohn, Bezdek – Desmogblog, 07/06/2016 – https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/06/07/peabodys-outlier-gang-couldnt-shoot-straight
“Involved parties, sponsored witnesses, Findings p.1, pp.9-10, pp.140-144. Direct witnesses Bold, science-focused Italic. Although supposedly about economics, Peabody started by attacking mainstream science, even claiming fossil:CO2 in doubt. Peabody: Peabody Energy: William Happer, Richard Lindzen, Roy Spencer, Robert Mendelsohn, Roger Bezdek. Richard S.J. Tol was added to buttress economics and William Wecker to rebut Martin, but neither had much impact.”
Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson – Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change – The Guardian, 13/06/2016 – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denial-funding
“The company’s filings reveal funding for a range of organisations which have fought Barack Obama’s plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions, and denied the very existence of climate change. “These groups collectively are the heart and soul of climate denial,” said Kert Davies, founder of the Climate Investigation Center, who has spent 20 years tracking funding for climate denial. “It’s the broadest list I have seen of one company funding so many nodes in the denial machine.” Among Peabody’s beneficiaries, the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change has insisted – wrongly – that carbon emissions are not a threat but “the elixir of life” while the American Legislative Exchange Council is trying to overturn Environmental Protection Agency rules cutting emissions from power plants. Meanwhile, Americans for Prosperity campaigns against carbon pricing. The Oklahoma chapter was on the list. Contrarian scientists such as Richard Lindzen and Willie Soon also feature on the bankruptcy list. So does the Washington lobbyist and industry strategist Richard Berman, whose firm has launched a welter of front groups attacking the EPA rules.”
Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson – Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change – The Guardian, 13/06/2016 – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denial-funding
“Even so, the full extent of Peabody’s financial support for climate denial is unlikely to be revealed until the completion of bankruptcy proceedings. “The breadth of the groups with financial ties to Peabody is extraordinary. Thinktanks, litigation groups, climate scientists, political organisations, dozens of organisations blocking action on climate all receiving funding from the coal industry,” said Nick Surgey, director of research for the Center for Media and Democracy. “We expected to see some denial money, but it looks like Peabody is the treasury for a very substantial part of the climate denial movement.” ”
Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson – Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change – The Guardian, 13/06/2016 – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denial-funding
“Peabody’s filings revealed funding for the American Legislative Exchange Council, the corporate lobby group which opposes clean energy standards and tried to impose financial penalties on homeowners with solar panels, as well as a constellation of conservative thinktanks and organisations. These included the State Policy Network and the Franklin Center for Government and Public Integrity, which worked to defeat climate bills in Congress and are seeking to overturn Environmental Protection Agency rules to reduce carbon pollution from power plants, as well as the Congress for Racial Equality, which was a major civil rights organisation in the 1960s. The filings also revealed funding for the George C Marshall Institute, the Institute for Energy Research, and the Center for the Study of Carbon Dioxide and Global Change, which are seen as industry front groups. The names of a number of well-known contrarian academics also feature in the Peabody filings, including Willie Soon, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. Soon has been funded almost entirely by the fossil fuel industry, receiving more than $1.2m from oil companies and utilities, but this was the first indication of Peabody funding. Soon and the Smithsonian did not respond to requests for comment. Richard Lindzen and Roy Spencer, two contrarian scientists who appeared for Peabody at hearings in Minnesota last month on the social cost of carbon, were also included in the bankruptcy filings. Peabody refused to comment on its funding for climate denial groups, as revealed by the bankruptcy filings.”
Suzanne Goldenberg and Helena Bengtsson – Biggest US coal company funded dozens of groups questioning climate change – The Guardian, 13/06/2016 – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2016/jun/13/peabody-energy-coal-mining-climate-change-denial-funding
“Earlier this year, bankruptcy filings from the country’s second-biggest coal company, Arch Coal Inc, revealed funding to a group known mainly for its unsuccessful lawsuit against the climate scientist Michael Mann. The $10,000 donation to the Energy and Environment Legal Institute (E&E) was made in 2014, according to court documents filed in Arch’s chapter 11 bankruptcy protection case. Last October, court filings from another coal company seeking bankruptcy protection, Alpha Natural Resources, revealed an $18,600 payment to Chris Horner, a fellow at E&E.”
John Cook – A brief history of fossil-fuelled climate denial – The Conversation – 21/06/2016 – https://theconversation.com/a-brief-history-of-fossil-fuelled-climate-denial-61273 – autores «Latest revelations about Peabody’s funding of groups linked to climate denial are the tip of the iceberg.»
Graham Readfearn – Bankrupt Coal Miner Peabody Energy Paid Climate Denialist Craig Idso To Write Greenhouse Gas Reports – Desmog, 06/07/2016 – http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/07/06/bankrupt-coal-miner-peabody-energy-paid-climate-denialist-crag-idso-write-greenhouse-gas-reports
“Peabody Energy was revealed as a funder of a web of groups and organisations that have worked to spread doubt over human-caused climate change while fighting rules to cut greenhouse gas emissions. Dr Idso, the chairman and founder of CSCDGC, has written many reports claiming that extra carbon dioxide is a benefit to the planet, while ignoring or downplaying the many negatives. His work was used in a flawed report from the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity — a grouping of coal miners, transporters and burners — which argued greenhouse gas emissions were a large net financial benefit to society. Other reports from the center include “The Many Benefits of Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment”, “Problems with Model Predictions of Species Extinctions” and “Atmospheric CO2 Enrichment: Boon or Bane of the Biosphere?” Idso’s brother Keith and father Sherwood are the only personnel listed on the center’s website. A 2009 Mother Jones article described the Idsos as the “von Trapp family of climate science denial.” Craig Idso has been a regular speaker at Heartland Institute climate science denial conferences and was a driving force behind the organisation’s Non-Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change reports designed to challenged the UN’s IPCC. In December 2014 Idso appeared as a speaker at a conference of ALEC – the conservative corporate bill mill which faced acorporate exodus over its climate science denial.”
Graham Readfearn – Bankrupt Coal Miner Peabody Energy Paid Climate Denialist Craig Idso To Write Greenhouse Gas Reports – Desmog, 06/07/2016 – http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/07/06/bankrupt-coal-miner-peabody-energy-paid-climate-denialist-crag-idso-write-greenhouse-gas-reports
“In a 2014 radio interview, Idso was asked if he had “any ties to any energy companies.” He responded: “No I don’t, actually.” In a statement to DeSmog, Idso said he had been hired by Peabody to develop the company’s response to the Department of Energy’s Voluntary Greenhouse Gas reporting program. Idso was appointed Peabody’s director of environmental science in 2001. He said he left the company the following year but continued to work as a consultant “for a few more years” to prepare annual reports as part of the greenhouse gas reporting program. He had ended the consulting because he felt he was “too far removed from their company and that they needed someone within the company who better understood their ever-changing structure to take over the report.” Commenting on the Peabody bankruptcy papers, Idso said if the center was listed as a current creditor then “that would not be correct”. He added: “Our relationship in helping Peabody report their greenhouse gases has been over for a few years now and they owe us no money.”.”
Brendan DeMelle – Senators Launch Resolution, Speech Blitz Calling Out #WebOfDenial Blocking Climate Action – Desmog, 11/07/2016 – http://www.desmogblog.com/2016/07/11/senators-launch-resolution-and-speech-blitz-calling-out-climate-webofdenial
“Championed by Senators Whitehouse, Markey, Schatz, Boxer, Merkley, Warren, Sanders, and Franken, the resolution condemns what they are calling the #WebOfDenial — “interconnected groups – funded by the Koch brothers, major fossil fuel companies like ExxonMobil and Peabody Coal, identity-scrubbing groups like Donors Trust and Donors Capital, and their allies – developed and executed a massive campaign to deceive the public about climate change to halt climate action and protect their bottom lines.” Joined in the House of Representatives by Congressman Ted Lieu (D- CA), these champions for climate action and accountability in the Senate are calling out the use of think tanks and denier-for-hire front groups to create doubt about climate science. Read the resolution [PDF].”
Connor Gibson – ALEC 2016 Indianapolis Meeting Features ExxonMobil And The #WebOfDenial – Desmogblog, 30/07/2016 – http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/alec-in-indianapolis-exxonmobil-and-the-webofdenial/
“In the face of government investigations, public outrage, and bankruptcy, companies like ExxonMobil, Koch Industries, and Peabody Energy are plotting their self-defense strategies at the American Legislative Exchange Council‘s 2016 annual meeting in Indianapolis, Indiana.”
Fighting The War On Science: Author Explains Why We Need To Hold Media Accountable On Climate – Media Matters, 31/07/2016 – http://mediamatters.org/video/2016/08/01/fighting-war-science-author-explains-why-we-need-hold-media-accountable-climate/212072
«The book has several battle plans, I’m not going to go into them in detail here. I’m just going to skip over the surface of a couple of them. … Retraining the media and pro-evidence journalism and holding them to account as, for instance, Media Matters for America does by developing important metrics on skewed public policy reporting in the media. To provide that important back pressure on the media, to consider evidence as part of balanced reporting. As a friend of mine, Don Shelby says, he’s a Peabody- and Emmy-winning news anchor, “Really balanced reporting” is what he tells reporters when he talks to them, “is that you imagine it not as A and B but as a set of scales, and you report on the side of the story that has the preponderance of the evidence, the weight of the evidence on that side.”.»
Ben Jervey and Steve Horn – Heritage Foundation’s Climate and Energy Policy Summit: Science Deniers Emboldened by Trump’s Electoral Victory – Desmogblog, 08/12/2016 – https://www.desmogblog.com/2016/12/08/heritage-foundation-s-climate-and-energy-policy-summit-science-deniers-emboldened-trump-s-electoral-victory
“Patrick Forkin — Vice President of Strategy & Global Energy Analytics at Peabody Energy Forkin stepped up as perhaps the coal industry’s most credible spokesman, being from the industry itself. Coal is “affordable, secure, and widely available,” Forkin said, perhaps jubiliant that the incoming president has promised to bring back coal mining jobs. As The Washington Post reported today, many in coal country are “thrilled” about Trump’s looming presidency, though it remains doubtful as to whether he can live up to his promise. While praising the role of coal in the energy economy, Forkin also downplayed the future of renewable energy. “Our position is: There is a role for every source of energy. There is a role for renewables,” he stated. “But that role should be driven by unsubsidized free market economics. That’s not what’s been happening here in the U.S. In 2013, solar and wind received two-thirds of federal subsidies. In that same year, those sources only generated about 5% of electricity in the US.” Forkin also echoed the Peabody Energy talking point about “energy poverty” and how lack of access to energy — namely self-interested coal-powered electricity — can impact poor people. Saying he couldn’t phrasae it better himself, Forkin ended his talk by quoting from Trump’s energy plan, written by Tom Pyle, a Koch-funded former lobbyist.”
Graham Readfearn – Exclusive: Climate Science Denial Group Heartland Institute is «Reaching Out» to Fossil Fuel Industry for Funding – Desmogblog, 01/02/2017 – https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/02/01/climate-science-denial-group-heartland-institute-fossil-fuel-industry-funding-fred-palmer
“One of the world’s most notorious climate science denial groups is “reaching out to the fossil fuel community” to raise cash in the wake of President Donald Trump’s election. Coal industry veteran and new Heartland Institute senior fellow Fred Palmer believes the election of Donald Trump will transform the energy industry in the United States by leaving the science of climate change behind. And in a wide-ranging interview with DeSmog, Palmer claimed there was nothing wrong with fossil fuel companies secretly funding groups that push climate science denial. “I am reaching out to the fossil fuel community right now and raising money for Heartland,” he said. “Of course that’s acceptable.” Palmer spent more than 30 years as a lobbyist and public affairs professional for the coal industry, first with Western Fuels Association and then later for Peabody Energy. Palmer has long rejected the science linking fossil fuel burning to dangerous climate change. Instead, he says adding CO2 to the atmosphere will bring benefits. His position runs counter to credible scientists around the world and decades of peer-reviewed scientific literature, including the positions of every major scientific academy on the planet. In 1990, Palmer was asked to help organize a coal-funded PR campaign to “reposition global warming as theory (not fact).” Later Palmer established the Greening Earth Society to try to convince the public that the science linking dangerous climate change to fossil fuels was weak, but that adding CO2 to the atmosphere would help plant growth.” Palmer told DeSmog he believed coal and other fossil fuels were part of “a divine plan” because, he said, they were easy to access and improved people’s lives. He said there was nothing wrong with fossil fuel companies funding climate science denial groups, even if that funding was not disclosed. People who opposed those secretive arrangements, he said, “don’t understand advocacy.” In 2016 it emerged that Peabody had been funding a network of climate science denial groups. The Heartland Institute announced in early January that Palmer would become a senior fellow on energy and climate change.
Graham Readfearn – White House debate on Paris was never about climate change – Climate Home, 02/06/2017 – http://www.climatechangenews.com/2017/06/02/white-house-debate-paris-never-climate-change/
“At least two coal companies, Peabody Energy and Cloud Peak, had tried to convince Trump to remain in the Paris deal. Oil and gas giants Exxon and Conoco also voiced support for the Paris deal. This internal fight represented two different approaches from a fossil fuel industry trying to sustain itself. One approach is to bulldoze and cherry-pick your way through the science of climate change and attack the UN process — all to undermine your opponents’ core arguments. Another approach is to accept the science but work the system to convince governments that “clean coal” and efficiency gains are the way forward. The latter was exactly the rationale reportedly deployed by coal firms like Peabody Energy and Cloud Peak.”
Wiki – American Solutions for Winning the Future – Wikipedia – 24/08/2017 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Solutions_for_Winning_the_Future
“American Solutions for Winning the Future (often referred to as American Solutions) was a 527 organization created by former Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Newt Gingrich. The group first received national attention for its 2008 effort, «Drill Here. Drill Now. Pay Less», focused on the issue of offshore drilling. The organization closed in July 2011. American Solutions was established by Gingrich in 2007. Gingrich served as chairman of the group.[2] The group was a «fundraising juggernaut» that raised $52 million from major donors, such as Sheldon Adelson and the coal company Peabody Energy.[2] The group promoted deregulation and increased offshore oil drilling and other fossil-fuel extraction and opposed the Employee Free Choice Act; Politico reported in 2009 that, «The operation, which includes a pollster and fundraisers, promotes Gingrich’s books, sends out direct mail, airs ads touting his causes and funds his travel across the country.»[3] American Solutions closed in 2011 after he left the organization. … «Drill Here. Drill Now.» is an American political slogan coined on May 20, 2008 by former speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich and the organization to advocate for increased use of America’s domestic energy resources in a bid to lower the cost of oil. The slogan inspired the title of Gingrich’s 2008 book Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less: A Handbook for Slashing Gas Prices and Solving Our Energy Crisis.[8] ”
Institute for Energy Research – Wikipedia, 19/11/2017 – The Institute for Energy Research (IER) is a Washington, D.C.-based non-profit organization that conducts research and analysis on the functions, operations, and government regulation of global energy markets.[1] IER maintains that the free market provides the most inexpensive solutions to global energy and environmental challenges.[1] – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Energy_Research
“IER is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization and is funded by tax deductible contributions from individuals, foundations and corporations. IER has received funding from the Brown Foundation (started by founders of a construction and energy company), the Searle Freedom Trust and the Claude R. Lambe Charitable Foundation. They have also previously received funding from ExxonMobil, the American Petroleum Institute, the Center to Protect Patient Rights,[11] and Peabody Energy. IER says that it has not sought for or accepted financial support from the government.[1] IER has been described as a front group for the fossil fuel industry, since it has accepted financial donations from firms in that sector. ”
Leo Hickman – Fred Palmer interview: ‘We’re 100% coal. More coal. Everywhere’ – The Guardian, 08/03/2011 – https://www.theguardian.com/environment/blog/2011/mar/08/fred-palmer-peabody-coal-interview
“Fred Palmer is at the very heart of this story. Having worked in the US coal industry for more than 30 years, Palmer is the senior vice president of government relations at Peabody Energy, the world’s largest privately owned coal company which bases itself in St Louis, Missouri. Peabody – in large part through Palmer’s role as the company’s key lobbyist on Capitol Hill – is currently leading the energy sector’s attempts to neuter the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) efforts to curb carbon emissions in the US. This, in part, is the reason why Peabody is a notable target of attack for environmental groups in the US. But Palmer was known to environmentalists long before he joined Peabody in 2001. During the 1990s, Palmer was a central figure in the coal industry’s funding of climate sceptic scientists through a now-defunct organisation called the Greening Earth Society. As the-then president of a coal advocacy group called Western Fuels Association, which funded the Greening Earth Society, he claimed in a 1997 documentary that whenever you «burn fossil fuels, and you put CO2 in the air, you are doing God’s work». ”
Frederick D. Palmer – The Heartland Institute, 19/09/2020 – https://www.heartland.org/about-us/who-we-are/frederick-d-palmer
“Prior to joining Peabody Energy, Palmer served for five years as General Counsel and 15 years as chief executive officer of Western Fuels Association, Inc. While at Western Fuels, Palmer served on the Board of Directors of the National Mining Association and in that capacity served as chair of the NMA Legal Committee with a focus on coal and climate policies during the Clinton/Gore years in the 1990s. Palmer began his career in 1969 in Washington, D.C., on the staff of Arizona Congressman Morris K. Udall, where he served for two years. He was a partner in Duncan, Brown, Weinberg & Palmer, a Washington, D.C.-based law firm, for eight years where he specialized in utility, environmental, and resource law. … During his service to Peabody Energy, he was Peabody’s representative on the Board of Directors of the World Coal Association and served as its chairman from November 2010 to November 2012. He also represented Peabody on the Board of the FutureGen Alliance from its formation until June 2015. Additionally, he is a member of the California and D.C. Bar Associations. ”
Greening Earth Society – Wikipedian, 08/03/2020 – https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greening_Earth_Society
“The Greening Earth Society, now defunct, was a public relations organization which denied the effects of climate change and the impacts of increased levels of carbon dioxide. The Society published the World Climate Report, a newsletter edited by Patrick Michaels of the Cato Institute.[citation needed] It was a non-profit organization created by the Western Fuels Association,[1] with which it shared an office and many staff members.[2][3][4][unreliable source?] It has been called a «front group created by the coal industry»[5][full citation needed] and an «industry front».[6][full citation needed] Fred Palmer, a Society staffer, is a registered lobbyist for Peabody Energy, a coal company.[7] Although the Greening Earth Society generally rejected the science of climate change, it acknowledged some degree of global warming as real: «Fact #1. The rate of global warming during the past several decades has been about 0.18°C per decade».[8] Note that the actual increase in the global surface temperature during the 100 years ending in 2005 was 0.74 ± 0.18 °C.[9] … ”
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