The Trump administration appointed a climate skeptic to a key climate program.
"David Legates, a controversial figure who joined the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) in September, will move into a new slot as head of the U.S. Global Change Research Program as early as Thursday, according to two people familiar with the move who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss it publicly,” our colleagues Andrew Freedman, Jason Samenow and Brady Dennis report.
Legates has claimed that excess carbon is good for plants and that global warming is harmless. The meteorologist has long criticized existing climate models, despite studies showing that they have a good record of predicting temperature changes.
“The shift would put Legates in position at least to influence the authors chosen to craft the National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report that periodically examines climate change damage and includes projections for the United States, down to regional and local levels,” they report.
Legates may not stay in for long. As a political appointee, he can be replaced by the next administration. Some environmentalists worry that he may skew the next assessment by recruiting authors who will play down climate change, while others expressed doubt that Legates would have much impact given the short window until the Biden administration is set to take over.
Staff from global consulting firm FTI masqueraded as grassroots activists to drive influence campaigns for big oil.
A number of initiatives that appeared to amplify local voices on energy issues were actually part of a larger corporate influence campaign designed and staffed by FTI consulting, the New York Times reports. A group called Texans for Natural Gas, an organization known as the Arctic Energy Center and the Main Street Investors Coalition all purported to represent local interests but were in fact directed in significant part by FTI.
“An examination of FTI’s work provides an anatomy of the oil industry’s efforts to influence public opinion in the face of increasing political pressure over climate change, an issue likely to grow in prominence, given President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr.’s pledge to pursue bolder climate regulations. The campaigns often obscure the industry’s role, portraying pro-petroleum groups as grass-roots movements,” the New York Times reports.
Based on interviews with a dozen former FTI employees and a review of hundreds of internal documents, the New York Times determined that the organization was involved in at least 15 influence campaigns promoting fossil fuel interests. FTI monitored environmental activists online, and in one case, create a fake Facebook persona to track protesters.
FTI has also promoted messages contrary to the scientific consensus on the role of fossil fuels in global warming, downplaying for instance, the magnitude of methane emissions.
Energy
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