Category Archives: Oil/Gas Pipelines

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.

 

Water Protector & Pipeline News – Religious Leaders Oppose Enbridge Pipeline & Anti-Terrorism Agencies Monitoring Mountain Valley Protesters & More

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Mountain Valley Pipeline protesters lock themselves to drilling equipment Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline tried a new tactic Monday: chaining themselves to construction equipment. West Virginia state police arrested three people who were trying to slow down workers in Lindside, a community in Monroe County, West Virginia. They delayed construction for a few hours on Route 219. Police cut them out around 10 a.m., about two hours after they received a call. Police said Maxwell Shaw, 24, Evin Ugur, 21, and Sydney White, 18, are all from Massachusetts and are out on bond. Court documents showed they’re each facing … Continue reading →

Water Protector & Pipeline News – Federal Court Halts Atlantic Coast Pipeline Work, Raw Crude Oil Spews in Oklahoma City & More

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Federal appeals court orders halt to work on Atlantic Coast Pipeline A federal appeals court has ordered a halt to construction of Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline, finding that restrictions against harming wildlife are inadequate for the controversial 600-mile natural gas project. Three judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit said in a ruling issued late Tuesday that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service had failed to set clear limits for impact on threatened or endangered species. The judges said that “the limits set by the agency are so indeterminate that they undermine . . . the enforcement … Continue reading →

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

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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 →

Water Protector & Pipelines News – 133 First Nation Chiefs Join Fight Against Kinder Morgan; Death Threats Aimed At Trans Mountain Protestors & More

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Enbridge Fined for Failing to Fully Inspect Pipelines After Kalamazoo Oil Spill The Canadian oil pipeline company responsible for one of the largest inland oil spills on record has agreed to pay a $1.8 million fine for failing to thoroughly inspect its pipelines for weaknesses as required under a 2016 agreement. Federal officials say Enbridge, Inc., did not carry out timely and thorough inspections on one of its pipeline systems, as it had agreed to do as part of a consent decree reached with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and U.S. Department of Justice. The 2016 settlement stemmed from a … Continue reading →

Water Protector & Pipeline News – Supplies Cut Off To Mountain Valley Protestors; Judge Allows Case Against TigerSwan To Continue & More

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Judge Won’t Dismiss Complaint Against Pipeline Security Firm A state judge is refusing to throw out a complaint that a North Carolina-based private security firm operated illegally in North Dakota during protests against the Dakota Access oil pipeline. Judge John Grinsteiner also is declining for now to restrict evidence during TigerSwan’s upcoming civil trial or to dismiss company founder and President James Reese as a defendant. He ruled there are enough questions about the company’s actions and that Reese “is legally accountable for conduct performed by TigerSwan.” North Dakota’s Private Investigative and Security Board sued TigerSwan and Reese last June, … Continue reading →

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

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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 →

Water Protector & Pipeline News – Northam: Tree Sitters’ pipeline protest is ‘unlawful’; TransCanada acquiring land in Nebraska for Keystone XL & More

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Va. governor says tree sitters’ pipeline protest is ‘unlawful,’ cites health concern Gov. Ralph Northam said Wednesday that it’s unlawful for a mother and daughter to sit in trees and block a natural gas pipeline across their property outside Roanoke, and that he’s particularly worried about the older woman’s health. But Northam (D) stopped short of saying he would order state police to do anything to resolve the standoff. Theresa “Red” Terry, 61 and daughter Theresa Minor Terry, 30 have been on wooden platforms in trees on Bent Mountain since April 2, preventing workers for the Mountain Valley Pipeline from … Continue reading →

3/28 News Roundup – Pipeline Protestors ‘Not Guilty’ After Claiming ‘Legal Necessity”; Support For Medicare-For-All Surges & More

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Anti-pipeline campaigners found not guilty by judge because ‘protest against climate change crisis’ was legal ‘necessity’

More than a dozen protesters who clambered into holes dug for a high pressure gas pipeline said they had been found not responsible by a judge after hearing them argue their actions to try and stop climate change were a legal “necessity”.

Karenna Gore, the daughter of former Vice President Al Gore, was among more than 198 people who were arrested because of their 2015 actions protesting the pipeline in West Roxbury, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston. Thirteen people were to go on trial this week, though prosecutors downgraded their original criminal charges to one of civil infraction.

On Tuesday, Judge Mary Ann Driscoll of West Roxbury District Court, found all 13 defendants not responsible, the equivalent of not guilty in a criminal case. She did so after each of the defendants addressed the judge and explained why they were driven to try and halt the pipeline’s construction.

Speaking outside the court afterwards, Ms Gore, 44, Director of the Centre for Earth Ethics at Union Theological Seminary in New York, said the court’s decision was historic. “What happened today was really important,” she said.

“The people….were found not responsible by reason of necessity. The irony is that we are making ourselves responsible. We’re part of the the movement that is standing up and saying we won’t let this go by on our watch. We won’t act like nothing’s wrong.”

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The environmentalist and academic Bill McKibben, who was to appear as a defence witness for the defendants, said on Twitter: “Good golly! A few minutes ago a Boston judge acquitted 13 pipeline protesters on the grounds that the climate crisis made it necessary for them to commit civil disobedience. This may be a first in America.”

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

3/19 News Roundup – Sanders Is Telling The Story Corporate Media Fails To; Indigenous Leaders Begin A Week Of Civil Disobedience & More

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Bernie Sanders Wants to Tell the Story That Corporate Media Fails To Tell

For decades, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders has objected to the failure of major media outlets to cover the growth of economic inequality in America. As a presidential contender in 2016, he used every opportunity that was afforded him in the media to address poverty, plutocracy and the consolidation of wealth and power in the hands of “the billionaire class.”

Now, he’s doing something to tip the balance of the popular discourse away from the agendas of the super rich and toward the real life concerns of working-class Americans. Something big. On Monday, from 7 to 8:30 pm ET, he will host a livestreamed town hall meeting on “Inequality in America: The Rise of Oligarchy and Collapse of the Middle Class.” With Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren, filmmaker Michael Moore, economist Darrick Hamilton and others, Sanders will lead a discussion about the “growing power of corporate interests and how we can build economy that works for all Americans.” Livestreamed on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube by Sanders, Warren, Moore, The Guardian, NowThis, The Young Turks and Act.tv, the initiative will reach social media sites with a combined following of close to 50 million Americans.

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The Nation: You say there are two fundamental issues with inequality. What’s the first?

Sanders: The first one is that this country is moving into oligarchy. The three wealthiest people in this country own more wealth than the bottom half of American society. The top one-tenth of one percent now owns as much wealth as the bottom ninety percent. And then, politically, what we have seen since the Citizens United decision (by the U.S. Supreme Court in 2010) is billionaires like the Koch brothers and a few of their friends pouring hundreds and millions of dollars into the political process to elect candidates who represent the wealthy and the powerful. That is an issue of huge consequence to the future of America – in terms of the economic life of this country and the collapse of the middle class, and a political system which is being corrupted by big money and Citizens United.

And the second issue has to do with how the first is covered?

The second issue deals with the fact that we have a corporate media, which is not as Donald Trump defines it “fake news.” That’s not the issue. It’s not that you have people on CNN, or writing for The New York Times, who are deliberately lying or trying to destroy politicians – that’s not the case. Everyday there are very good and important articles that appear in The Washington Post and The New York Times, on CBS News and everywhere else.

The problem is that, to a very significant degree, corporate media ignores, or pays very little attention, to the most important issues facing working people. That is the problem with corporate media today.

If you look at just the issue I described to you – the movement in this country toward oligarchy – you will find very, very little discussion about that. Stormy Daniels will get ten times more print and video coverage than will the movement toward oligarchy in this country. You will see very little discussion about poverty in this country. “Poverty” is just not a word that is used on television very often.

Bernie also spoke to Ana Kasparian of TYT about inequality and his upcoming national town hall:

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

3/14 News Roundup – Pipeline Protestors Decry State Surveillance, Texas Dems Worry Bigger Rifts Ahead With National Party & More

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Via DemocracyNow!: Critics of Bayou Bridge Pipeline in Louisiana Decry State & Company Surveillance of Protesters In Louisiana, newly disclosed documents reveal a state intelligence agency regularly spied on activists opposing construction of the Bayou Bridge pipeline, which would carry nearly a half-million barrels of oil per day across Louisiana’s wetlands. The documents show the Louisiana Governor’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness regularly drafted intelligence memos on anti-pipeline activists, including a gathering of indigenous-led water protectors who’ve set up a protest encampment along the pipeline’s route. Other newly revealed documents show close coordination between Louisiana regulators and the … Continue reading →

2/19 News Roundup – Students to Take to Streets of Washington, Infrastructure Plan Will Make It Harder to Fight Pipelines & More

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“The Time Is Now”: Marjory Stoneman Douglas High Students to Take to Streets of Washington

Among growing calls for gun control legislation, students who survived the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School continue to deliver some of the most powerful statements in the wake of the tragedy, and on Sunday a group of them declared that “now is the time for us to stand up” and announced plans for a march in Washington, D.C.

The students, Jaclyn Corin, Emma Gonzalez, David Hogg, Cameron Kasky, and Alex Wind, made the statements to NBC’s “Meet the Press” and CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Gonzalez, who on Saturday gave a moving speech that went viral, told NBC, “This is our opportunity to talk to President Trump, Gov. Rick Scott, and state [sic] Senator Marco Rubio to make sure that they know we are talking directly to them and all other members of the United States government that are being funded by the NRA to tell them now is the time to get on the right side of this.”

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A call to action for the March 24 event, March For Our Lives, declares, “It doesn’t have to be this way…Refuse to allow one more needless death.”

“March For Our Lives,” its mission statement explains, “is created by, inspired by, and led by students across the country who will no longer risk their lives waiting for someone else to take action to stop the epidemic of mass school shootings that has become all too familiar. In the tragic wake of the seventeen lives brutally cut short in Florida, politicians are telling us that now is not the time to talk about guns. March For Our Lives believes the time is now.”

“The mission and focus of March For Our Lives,” it adds, “is to demand that a comprehensive and effective bill be immediately brought before Congress to address these gun issues.”

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

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

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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.

1/10 News Roundup – Judge Blocks Trump Move To End Daca Program, Sanders To Join Rev. Barber For Conversation On Race & More

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Judge blocks Trump move to end Daca program for immigrants

A judge has blocked Donald Trump from ending an Obama-era program that shielded from deportation children brought to the United States illegally by their parents.

US district judge William Alsup ruled in San Francisco on Tuesday that the program must “maintain the Daca program on a nationwide basis” while litigation over Trump’s decision unfolds.

The Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (Daca) program has allowed nearly 800,000 immigrants to work and go to school in the US without fear of deportation since it was authorised by former president Barack Obama in 2012.

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In his ruling, Alsup wrote that previous recipients of Daca protections who failed to register by the deadline must be allowed to renew their status in the program. However, he said the federal government did not have to process new applications from people who had never before received protection under the program.

Nearly 22,000 Daca recipients did not successfully apply to renew their eligibility, according to a study by the Center for American Progress, a left-leaning thinktank in Washington. The researchers estimate that on average 122 Daca recipients per day will lose their legal protections in the 181 days between 5 September 2017 and 5 March.

“In terminating Daca, the administrative record failed to address the 689,800 young people who had come to rely on Daca to live and to work in this country,” Alsup wrote.

“These individuals had submitted substantial personal identifying information to the government, paid hefty fees and planned their lives according to the dictates of Daca. The administrative record includes no consideration to the disruption a rescission would have on the lives of Daca recipients, let alone their families, employers and employees, schools and communities.”

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

*US to loosen nuclear weapons constraints and develop more ‘usable’ warheads
*’No One Should Be Fooled’: Warren Rips Trump’s HHS Pick Over Desire to Gut Medicaid
*Welcome to 2018: Another “Non-War Year” in Oblivious America
*For Zephyr Teachout, Losing an Election Was Just the Start of a New Fight
*Trump Administration Waives Punishment For Convicted Banks, Including Deutsche — Which Trump Owes Millions
*Pipepeline news, Water Protector Updates & More

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

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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.

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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.