Category Archives: Climate Change

David Gilmour, PPI & con artists

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

You may have heard about David Gilmour (Pink Floyd guitarist) auctioning off his most famous guitars the other day so he could donate the money to a group called ClientEarth.  He raised over $21 million.

Gilmour revealed that the money from the auction would benefit ClientEarth, which funds environmental lawyers and experts in the fight against climate change. “The global climate crisis is the greatest challenge that humanity will ever face, and we are within a few years of the effects of global warming being irreversible,” he said in a statement. “We need a civilized world that goes on for all our grandchildren and beyond in which these guitars can be played and songs can be sung.”

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/music-news/david-gilmour-guitars-christies-charity-auction-850597/

But, I’ve just learned that a so-called Democratic think tank is working against that ‘fight’.

Phil Goldberg, PPI’s director of its Center for Civil Justice, is leading the charge.

 

For over a year, PPI’s website has been showcasing Goldberg’s work attacking climate litigation, which he calls “copycat climate suits.” Goldberg is a former lobbyist for coal giant Peabody Energy, which his law firm still represents.

 

And while Goldberg’s bio on PPI’s website lists him as a partner in the corporate law firm Shook, Hardy & Bacon, there’s no mention of his hiring earlier this year by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) to serve as special counsel in its fight against climate litigation. NAM’s Manufacturers’ Accountability Project, which it launched in 2017, targets climate lawsuits against the manufacturing industry’s energy sector.

PPI stands for Progressive Policy Institute.

PPI’s website also does not disclose Goldberg’s recent work for Grow America’s Infrastructure Now (GAIN), a front group funded by several oil and gas trade associations. In a report for GAIN titled “Vigilante Regulation,” Goldberg, along with two other Shook, Hardy & Bacon attorneys, detail how tort law can be employed to stem what the authors call “anti-pipeline activism.”

 

It’s just plain freaky that a hired gun for the fossil fuel industry would pretend to be neutral or, shockingly, even perhaps ‘progressive’ under the guise of PPI, which has a good reputation as a think tank,” said Denise Antolini, an associate dean at the University of Hawai’i-Manoa’s School of Law.

So many sharks in the water..I mean front groups, to store in the brain!

Goldberg previously served as an adviser to the Civil Justice Task Force of the “corporate bill mill,” the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), where he published reports against state-led climate lawsuits in the group’s publication Inside ALEC.

ALEC!

How in the world can PPI get away with calling itself ‘progressive’ when the director of its Center for Civil Justice has done work for ALEC??

Aha, here’s how:

PPI’s website, which greets its visitors with the banner “radically pragmatic,” does not publicize its funding sources. But the group’s funding seems to come at least in part through its parent organization, the Third Way Foundation, whose tax forms states it is “doing business as the Progressive Policy Institute.”

I hope Gilmour’s beautiful guitars help with much needed funds to counter groups like PPI!

PPI and others’ pushback against climate litigation will only intensify, predicts Robert Brulle, a sociology professor at Drexel University, who studies environmental movements and climate science disinformation campaigns.

 

“As these cases move toward discovery and eventual trial, the architects of the campaign to obstruct climate action, such as the National Association of Manufacturers, are gearing up for a long battle in the courts,” he said.

 

https://truthout.org/articles/a-democratic-think-tank-is-promoting-pushback-against-climate-lawsuits/

I’m cool with Bernie calling Third Way out. They say they welcome the attention, but I suspect they’d prefer to be operating in the dark.

I, for one, only believe the last eight words of the above tweet. That’s what con artists do, they mix a lot of lies in with a little truth. They need to be called out at every turn.

 

Why is Sen. Feinstein offering a competing Climate Change proposal when GND polls at 81%?

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Senate Resolution 59 is the Green New Deal. It currently has 11 Senate co-sponsors (that’s roughly 25% of the Democratic Senate Caucus). The co-sponsors include Sen. Cory Booker, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Sen. Kamal Harris, Sen. Amy Klobuchar, Sen. Bernie Sanders and Sen. Elizabeth Warren. Every single senator running for President is co-sponsoring this legislation. More importantly, the measure is overwhelmingly popular among voters. And when I say overwhelmingly, I’m not kidding: More than 80 percent of registered voters support the Green New Deal proposal being pushed by progressional Democratic lawmakers, a new poll found. The survey conducted by the Yale Program on Climate Communication and the George Mason University Center for … Continue reading →

11/30 The Gathering Weekend; CNN Contributor Fired Over Defense of Palestine and More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

The Sanders Institute’s “The Gathering” is underway. Jimmy and Roslyn Carter sent their best wishes to the group. Sister Turner is up on deck first.

How We Win Medicare For All

LIVE at the Sanders Institute Gathering! How We Win Medicare For All: This panel frames our moral, political, and legislative struggle for Medicare for All in the United States as part of a broader international fight to realize health care as a universal human right. We will hear directly from caregivers on the frontlines about healthcare crisis created by the U.S. for-profit healthcare industry and by the trend toward privatization and corporatization of Britain’s National Health Service. The panel will also discuss the enormous potential of collective international struggle and the distributed model of organizing as paths to achieving Medicare for All.featuring Diane Archer, President, Just Care USA; Jo Beardsmore, Senior Advisor, Social Practice; Kelly Coogan-Gehr, Assistant Director of Public & Community Advocacy, National Nurses United (NNU); Libby Devlin, Southern Director, NNOC/NNU; Dr. Hosnieh Djafari-Marbini, Anesthesiologist & Labour City Councillor, Oxford, England; President Jean Ross RN, NNU; Former OH State Senator Nina Turner, President, Our Revolution

Posted by Sanders Institute on Friday, November 30, 2018

More news, tweets, and videos below in the comments section. TGIF.

Update: The FB link was for the first panel. Here’s a link to the Second Panel discussion.

Water Protector & Pipeline News – Red Terry Comes Down From Her Tree, Louisiana Court Declares Bayou Bridge Pipeline Permit Illegal & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Louisiana State Court Declares Bayou Bridge Pipeline Permit Illegal A Louisiana judge recently ruled that the state regulators violated guidelines when it issued Energy Transfer Partners’ controversial Bayou Bridge pipeline a coastal use permit. The permit was issued for the last 18-mile stretch of the fracked oil pipeline that would have run through the riverside town of St. James Parish, where dozens of refineries and industrial facilities are already fueling a public health crisis in the mostly African-American community. The proposed 162-mile Bayou Bridge pipeline would connect the contentious Dakota Access Pipeline to the Gulf of Mexico. As noted by … Continue reading →

Power The Future, a group whose Director has ties to the Kochs, tries to use Beto O’Rourke to its evil ends

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

This showed up on my twitter feed just now as a ‘Promoted’ tweet. Now, I don’t tend to squander any love on Bloomberg, Steyer, or Soros, but I was curious enough to look up this group, Power The Future, and look at what I found on the group’s timeline: Hmmm, I thought, something seems off. Here is the linked story: Beto O’Rourke to major Democratic super PAC donor: “Thanks, but no thanks” Tom Steyer, one of the biggest Democratic donors in the country, openly mulled spending on O’Rourke’s behalf via his environmental super PAC, NextGen America. Wait, is it..possible that O’Rourke said, “Thanks, but no thanks” for … Continue reading →

4/6 News Roundup – #ShellKnew About Climate Threat Decades Ago; Democrats Divided On Being In Disarray & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Shell Knew, Too: New Docs Show Oil Giant’s Scientists Secretly Warned About Climate Threat Decades Ago

Royal Dutch Shell’s scientists warned the oil giant about the threat that fossil fuel emissions pose to the planet as early as the 1980s, according to a trove of documents obtained by a Dutch journalist and published Thursday at Climate Files.

Environmental advocates say the documents—which bolster an investigative report published last year—demonstrate the “stunning” immorality of oil and gas companies. The records are expected to aid global efforts to hold the industry to account for its contributions to global warming.

One such document, a confidential 1988 report entitled “The Greenhouse Effect,” outlines a comprehensive study of climate science and the projected impact of fossil fuels, and reveals that the company secretly had been commissioning such analyses since at least 1981. The report acknowledges the central role that fossil fuels—especially oil—play in increasing CO2 emissions that drive global warming.

“Although CO2 is emitted to the atmosphere through several natural processes,” the report states, “the main cause of increasing CO2 concentrations is considered to be fossil fuel burning.”

This latest confirmation that Shell, for more than three decades, has been privately aware of its products’ contributions to the climate crisis but opted to publicly promote skepticism about climate science mirrored similar findings about ExxonMobil in 2015.

The new revelations on Thursday were met with both frustration and fresh demands by environmentalists for legal consequences.

Friends of the Earth Netherlands, or Milieudefensie, sent Shell—a Dutch company—a liability letter on Wednesday informing the oil giant that it has eight weeks to bring its policies into compliance with the goals outlined in the Paris Agreement, or it will be forced to face off against the environmental group in court.

3/22 News Roundup – Warren Introduces Bill To Curb Pain Of For Profit Healthcare System; Climate Science On Trial & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

‘We Need Medicare for All,’ Says Warren, But Until That’s Achieved Her New Bill Aims to Curb Pain of For-Profit System

Acknowledging that Medicare for All must be the end goal for an ultra-wealthy nation in which tens of thousands die each year due to lack of health insurance, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) introduced legislation on Wednesday aimed at making immediate fixes to the current system to protect consumers from the “nasty tricks” of the private insurance industry, lower prescription drug costs, and shield low-income families from premium hikes.

“So long as private health insurance exists, there is no reason to allow our health care to be held hostage by insurance companies that refuse to do better,” Warren said in a statement unveiled alongside her legislation, which is co-sponsored by Sens. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), and Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.). “Our bill will hold them accountable while significantly improving access to healthcare for millions of Americans.”

Warren is attempting to address problems in the short-term that are contributing to soaring healthcare costs and kicking Americans off their insurance entirely—from the Trump administration’s relentless sabotage efforts to the outlandish costs of prescription drugs.

Under Warren’s plan, for instance, insurance companies would “be barred from changing the kinds of drugs that they cover in the middle of the year, as well as how much of those drugs’ costs are born by consumers,” Marans notes. “Consumers would also be shielded from the effects of an insurer dropping a plan during their course of treatment.”

“Too many Americans have to battle with their insurance companies just to see their doctor or get a prescription filled,” Warren wrote on Twitter Wednesday. “We need a healthcare system that puts patients first—not insurance companies.”

More news/video/tweets/etc.

2/20 News Roundup – Youth Voices Lead Calls For Progressive Legislative Action, ‘RussiaGate’ Dividing Dems & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

At White House Lie-In, Teens Call on Congress to ‘Protect Kids, Not Guns’

Building on the nationwide mourning and outrage that followed a Florida school shooting last week that left 17 people dead, dozens of teenagers held a “lie-in” at the gates of the White House on Monday to protest years of congressional inaction on gun control and highlight the National Rifle Association’s pernicious influence on the political process.

The demonstration began with protesters—many of them from the group Teens for Gun Reform (TGR), which organized the event—lying on the ground in front of the White House for several minutes, symbolizing “how quickly someone, such as the Parkland shooter, is able to purchase a gun in America.”

“We have organized this protest in solidarity with all of those who were affected by the horrific school shooting in Florida,” TGR said in a statement. “We call on President Trump and leaders from both parties to finally act in the interest of America’s youth and end these tragic mass shootings. It is imperative that American children are safe in their classrooms, churches, malls, movie theaters, and streets.”

Hoisting signs that read “NRA: There Is Blood on Your Hands” and “Protect Kids, Not Guns,” demonstrators also directed “Shame on you!” chants at the White House.

But President Donald Trump—whose speech in the aftermath of the Florida shooting didn’t mention guns once—was not in the White House to hear the chants or listen to the protesters’ demands, as he spent President’s Day playing golf at his club in West Palm Beach, Florida.

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.

2/2 News Roundup – Sanders’ ‘State Of The Climate’ Address, Four Environmental Defenders Killed Per Week In 2017 & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Sanders, climate activists urge action to create grassroots environmental movement

Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and group of climate change activists spoke about the importance of reducing fossil fuel emissions at an event in Lisner Auditorium Wednesday.

Sanders along with Bill McKibben, the co-founder of the climate group 350.org, Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., the president and CEO of the community activism group Hip Hop Caucus and other activists discussed the importance of respecting the environment and staving off the impacts of climate change by moving away from fossil fuel and toward alternative energy sources.

The event, “Fossil Free Fast: The Climate Resistance,” was organized by a group of environmental organizations to discuss climate issues the day after President Donald Trump’s first State of the Union address.

…

Over the course of the night, activists from many different backgrounds — black, white, Native American, male, female, gender non-binary and undocumented immigrants – spoke about their experiences and how they related to climate change and environmental justice.

“We cannot separate climate and environmental justice from other struggles for justice,” said Jameka Hodnett, a national field organizer for the Sierra Club’s Ready for 100 Campaign, which aims to encourage cities and towns to commit to getting 100 percent of their energy from renewable sources.

Jacqueline Patterson, the director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program and the first person the NAACP ever hired to work solely on climate justice, took to the stage and said that minority groups are the ones that suffer the worst effects of climate change and pollution because major plants are often built in low-income and minority communities.

“At the NAACP, we know children, like Elijah, from Indiantown, Florida, who lives near a coal plant and has such severe asthma that he is dependent on taking a handful of drugs every day in order to be able to get through the day so that his air passages are open and he’ll be able to survive,” Patterson said.

The speakers also recognized that the movement for climate justice extended beyond the United States’ continental borders, adding that their organizations are challenging the use of coal-fired power plants all over the world.

https://youtu.be/1AKhJzmjLz4

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.

1/19 News Roundup – Sanders: “Congress Must Get Its Act Together”, Trend Continues as 2017 Among Hottest Years Recorded & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Starting the day off with Bernie’s speech from the Senate floor calling for Congress to do its job:

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments, including:

*Bernie Meets with Dreamers
*New office will help medical providers deny treatment on religious grounds
*Chelsea Manning: ‘I’m a very different person than I was 10 years ago’
*Amazon Short-List Proves Something “Deeply Wrong” With America’s Race-to-the-Bottom Economy: Ellison
*Pipeline news, Water Protector Updates & more

1/11 News Roundup – NYC To Divest $5bn From Fossil Fuels, 2018 Candidates Platforms Push For Climate Action & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

New York City plans to divest $5bn from fossil fuels and sue oil companies

New York City is seeking to lead the assault on both climate change and the Trump administration with a plan to divest $5bn from fossil fuels and sue the world’s most powerful oil companies over their contribution to dangerous global warming.

City officials have set a goal of divesting New York’s $189bn pension funds from fossil fuel companies within five years in what they say would be “among the most significant divestment efforts in the world to date”. Currently, New York City’s five pension funds have about $5bn in fossil fuel investments. New York state has already announced it is exploring how to divest from fossil fuels.

“New York City is standing up for future generations by becoming the first major US city to divest our pension funds from fossil fuels,” said Bill de Blasio, New York’s mayor.

“At the same time, we’re bringing the fight against climate change straight to the fossil fuel companies that knew about its effects and intentionally misled the public to protect their profits. As climate change continues to worsen, it’s up to the fossil fuel companies whose greed put us in this position to shoulder the cost of making New York safer and more resilient.”

De Blasio said that the city is taking the five fossil fuel firms – BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Shell – to federal court due to their contribution to climate change.

More news/videos/tweets/etc. in the comments.

1/9 News Roundup – Sanders Discusses A Potential Government Shutdown, 2017 Was Costliest Year Ever In U.S. For Weather Disasters & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

It’s on Republicans to stop a shutdown by Bernie Sanders

I do not know why President Trump and the Republican Party — which controls the White House, the Senate and the House — are so willing to shut down the government. Maybe they think it will be good for them politically. Maybe they believe the chaos created by a government shutdown would be a welcome distraction from the ongoing Russia investigation being conducted by special counsel Robert S. Mueller III. Whatever the motives of the Republican leadership, one thing is clear: A government shutdown would be disastrous for the American people.

A shutdown would harm tens of millions of working-class families who would be unable to access vital services. It would disrupt the lives of hundreds of thousands of federal employees who would not receive the paychecks they expected. It would endanger members of the U.S. military who are putting their lives on the line defending our nation.

As the middle class continues to shrink, cuts to non-defense spending would cause even worse economic pain to working families, the elderly, children, the sick and the most vulnerable. Meanwhile, as Trump and the Republicans demand an unbelievable $100 billion increase in military spending over the next two years, the Defense Department has been inoculated from budget cuts over the past several years because of the Overseas Contingency Operations loophole — a special account not subject to spending caps established by Congress in 2011.

Providing parity in these budget negotiations means, among other things, fully funding — without offsets — the Children’s Health Insurance Program for 9 million kids and community health centers for 27 million Americans. It means increased funding for the Social Security Administration and the Veterans Administration so they can provide guaranteed benefits to seniors and veterans who have earned them. It means keeping our obligations to more than 1.5 million workers and retirees who are about to lose a large part of the pensions they were promised. It means addressing the crisis of student debt, expanding child care, improving our crumbling infrastructure in rural America and protecting our national parks. It means providing help in the national struggle against opioid and heroin addiction.

…

The American people are increasingly disgusted with a government that protects the interests of the wealthy and the powerful, while ignoring the needs of the vulnerable. The U.S. government must do more than provide huge tax breaks to billionaires, callously deport young people, greatly expand military spending, end net neutrality, deny the reality of climate change and threaten to cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, education and nutrition programs. We must pass a budget agreement that addresses the needs of Americans and not just billionaire campaign contributors.

https://youtu.be/d0A4ZF4_Zac

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.

1/8 News Roundup – Sanders Talks Issues/Trump On ‘This Week’, Media Fails to Connect Extreme Weather to Climate Crisis & More

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Bernie Sanders: Americans ‘do not want to spend billions of dollars on a wall’

Independent Sen. Bernie Sanders took aim at President Donald Trump’s proposal to spend $18 billion over the next decade to extend a border wall with Mexico.

“The American people, in fact, do not want to spend billions of dollars on a wall which Trump told us would be paid for by the Mexican government, which, of course, is not going to be paid for by” Mexico, Sanders told ABC News Chief Anchor George Stephanopoulos on This Week Sunday.

..

Stephanopoulos also asked Sanders about his views of Trump’s fitness for office in light of allegations in an explosive new book, Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House.

The senator, who ran for the Democratic nomination for president in 2016, said what bothers him most about Trump is that he promised during the campaign to fight for working people, but “he governs now as a representative of the billionaire class.”

“Tax breaks for the wealthy, cutting people off of health insurance, ignoring the needs of children, not dealing with the prescription drug crisis in the country that he said he would deal with,” Sanders said. “I worry about him being a pathological liar. Those are some of the concerns I have.”

https://youtu.be/SI8HKZcbmP8

More news/video/tweets/etc. in the comments.

11/13 News Roundup – Sanders Discusses The Importance of Independents, Fossil Fuel Burning Set To Hit Record High & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Sen. Bernie Sanders says Democratic Party needs to “open up its doors” to Independents

Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has some advice for the Democratic Party as it begins to face the 2018 midterm elections: “open up its doors” to party outsiders.

“The truth is that neither the Democratic Party nor the Republican Party today are held in very high esteem by the American people. That’s just a fact,” Sanders said on CBS News’ “Face the Nation.”

“There are more people now who are Independents than Democrats or Republicans,” he said. “So to say to Independents, say to young people who are overwhelmingly Independent, say to working people, ‘We don’t want you to come into the Democratic Party,’ is totally absurd. And it’s a recipe for failure.”

After a rousing win for Democrats in two highly-anticipated gubernatorial races in New Jersey and Virginia, Sanders said he was “most excited” about the grassroots campaign that is helping elect a new round of local and state officials.

“You are seeing grassroots activists, people for the very first time, young people, working people, running for state legislature, running for city council, running for school board and winning those elections. And what I have always believed is that the only way we’re going to transform this country, the only way we’re going to take on the top 1 percent effectively, is when millions of people get involved in the political process,” said Sanders.

(The first segment of this interview can be in the comments)

More news/video/tweets/etc in the comments, including:

*Why Science Says You Should Be Reading Small Independent Media
*WHY ARE SO MANY NATIVE AMERICANS KILLED BY POLICE?
*From the Everglades to Kilimanjaro, climate change is destroying world wonders
*Northam’s Transition Team Leader Has Ties to Companies Behind Atlantic Coast Pipeline
*Progressive Gains in the Age of Trump
*Immigrants Fighting Off Deportation Just Got a Huge Boost in These 11 Cities and Counties
*Water Protector News, Pipeline Updates & More

10/26 News Roundup – Bernie To Rally With Mayor de Blasio, Sanders Introduces Bill To Lower Drug Prices & More

The Progressive Wing Posted on by

Good morning friends! I have a super extensive audit at the cubicle job today so will most likely not be around too very much but wanted to get a post going for the day. Of course I’ll start it with Bernie:

Bernie Sanders To Rally With Mayor De Blasio Before Election

Mayor Bill de Blasio will get a boost from U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders on Monday as he seeks to rally support from the left for his re-election campaign. The de facto leader of the Democratic Party’s left wing will headline a de Blasio campaign rally at the music venue Terminal 5 on Oct. 30.

Sanders, an independent from Vermont who ran for president as a Democrat last year, “highlight the Mayor’s strong record of progressive results, his vision for moving New York City forward, and the importance of voting for a Mayor who will stand up to Donald Trump,” de Blasio’s campaign said in an event announcement.

The rally will come a week before de Blasio, a Democrat finishing his first term, faces off with Republican state Assemblywoman Nicole Malliotakis in the Nov. 7 election.

De Blasio endorsed Hillary Clinton over Sanders in last year’s presidential primary, in which the senator ran as an anti-establishment outsider. But Sanders’ appearance could help increase de Blasio’s appeal to some of his progressive critics.

“Throughout his life, Sen. @BernieSanders has fought for change for working Americans,” de Blasio’s campaign tweeted Wednesday.

More news/video/etc. in the comments including:

*As Tensions Simmer, Poll Shows Majority of Democrats Want Bold Leftward Shift
*Why “Centrists” Will Sink the Democrats, If They Haven’t Already
*Arizona’s Democratic Socialists Inspired by Bernie Sanders Seek Political Left Turn
*U.S. Hospitals Wrestle With Shortages of Drug Supplies Made in Puerto Rico
*While Trump Opens National Parks to Fossil Fuel Drilling, Fee Hikes Would Lock Out Vacationing Families
*Pipeline updates, Water Protector News & More