From Blue Virginia: (video follows)
Unprecedented Coalition Vows To Defend Climate Change Progress Made Under President Obama And To Push The Next President For Even More Aggressive Action
NEW YORK – Attorney General Eric T. Schneiderman today joined Attorneys General from across the nation to announce an unprecedented coalition of top law enforcement officials committed to aggressively protecting and building upon the recent progress the United States has made in combatting climate change.
Attorneys General Schneiderman, William Sorrell of Vermont, George Jepsen of Connecticut, Brian E. Frosh of Maryland, Maura Healey of Massachusetts, Mark Herring of Virginia, and Claude Walker of the US Virgin Islands were joined by former Vice President Al Gore for the announcement in New York City. Today’s announcement took place during a one-day Attorneys General climate change conference, co-sponsored by Schneiderman and Sorrell.
The participating states are exploring working together on key climate change-related initiatives, such as ongoing and potential investigations into whether fossil fuel companies misled investors and the public on the impact of climate change on their businesses. In 2015, New York State reached a historic settlement with Peabody Energy – the world’s largest publicly traded coal company – concerning the company’s misleading financial statements and disclosures. New York is also investigating ExxonMobil for similar alleged conduct.
…
“We cannot continue to allow the fossil fuel industry or any industry to treat our atmosphere like an open sewer or mislead the public about the impact they have on the health of our people and the health of our planet. Attorneys General and law enforcement officials around the country have long held a vital role in ensuring that the progress we have made to solve the climate crisis is not only protected, but advanced. The first-of-its-kind coalition announced today is another key step on the path to a sustainable, clean-energy future,” said Vice President Al Gore.
Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell said, “We are happy to have worked closely with New York to organize this meeting. As we all know, global warming, if not reversed, will be catastrophic for our planet. We, the states, have a role to play in this endeavor and intend to do our part.”
Full story here
UPDATE: all is not well in Goreville
Democratic Attorneys General Refuse to Join Rockefeller-Backed Climate Investigation
3:03pm EDT March 29, 2016
by Steve Everley
steve@energyindepth.org , Dallas, Tex.
A press conference today featuring Al Gore and more than a dozen state attorneys general was expected to reveal new state-level investigations of U.S. energy companies regarding climate change. But the vast majority of AGs standing on stage refused to join such an effort, signaling a lack of interest in wasting their own states’ resources.
Last year, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced that he had launched an investigation into fossil fuel companies regarding what the New York Times called “possible climate change lies.” The investigation was based entirely on a series of controversial articles written by researchers at the Columbia School of Journalism and InsideClimate News, which selectively pulled statements from company documents to suggest Exxon Mobil’s public policy advocacy was inconsistent with its own research.
Unsurprisingly, environmental activists embraced the articles, and even began an online campaign – complete with the hash tag #ExxonKnew on Twitter – to pressure state and federal officials to launch investigations into so-called “climate denial.” To date, they have succeeded in convincing Schneiderman as well as the attorneys general for California and Massachusetts.
But Democratic attorneys general from New Mexico, Washington, D.C., Rhode Island, Maine, Illinois, Virginia, Maryland, Connecticut, and Vermont – all of whom stood on the stage next to Al Gore today – refused to announce that they would be launching their own investigations. In fact, reporters covering the event struggled to find much of anything new in what the officials were promising. The Huffington Post even conceded that the AGs “were vague on what exactly they have planned.”
Editorial boards across the country have criticized the #ExxonKnew campaign as an attempt to “stamp out all disagreement,” while also worrying about the legal precedent of pursuing “criminal penalties over those involved in a scientific debate.” An editorial from Bloomberg News called Schneiderman’s investigation a “dangerous arrogation of power.”
Legal experts have also questioned the merits of New York’s investigation. John Coffee, a law professor at Columbia University, told the New York Times that a “leading obstacle [to a conviction] would be the First Amendment, as climate change is a matter of robust public debate.”
Paying for Media, Policy Outcomes
Although Schneiderman’s office contends the investigation is based on allegations of “fraud,” one of the groups who funded the research underpinning Schneiderman’s investigation – the Rockefeller Family Fund – admitted last week that their funding of non-profit news entities, including Columbia and InsideClimate News, was geared toward achieving “better climate policy.”
Another video:
Joined by Attorneys General from six states, former Vice President Al Gore announces the formation of an ‘historic coalition’ to investigate “commercial interests that have been… deceiving the American people” about the reality of the “climate crisis and the dangers it poses to all of us”.
Gore announces coalition of Dem AGs to investigate climate denial: ‘They are violating the law’
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Al Gore being on one side of an issue is good reason to take the other side.
Another installment of the Animal Farm: “Fossil Fuels Bad, Renewables Good”
More NY science….
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/03/160329101031.htm
I hope this is not a spring, summer campaign of “Joe Btfsplk”, er Al Gore bringing his cloud of doom and gloom to the weather no matter were he goes. I’m looking forward to lots of SUN & FUN for everyone! These old bones need both.
– but nor must we neglect to recognise the immeasurable benefits that fossi-fuels have had in moving our civilisation out of the dark ages and into a world that can feed and clothe seven billion.
Oh….didn’t they go on to say that?
totalitarian takeover.
here we go.
This is my first attempt at a Scott Mandia poem. It references the famous picture of him dressed as Supermandia. Not surprisingly the last line of the poem could be said about all the people in the article above.
SCOTT MANDIA — SUPERMANDIA
The climate crusader
Our costumed savior
Supermandia, man of vinyl
Leaping over data
“Res judicata,”
He shouts! “Hockey stick up your anal.”
Found within the pages
Of long dead sages
We read — Some things have no concealing
Like a leopard’s marking
A dog his barking
And all idiots self-revealing
Eugene WR Gallun
A dog its barking
I fought the law and the law won!!
Seriously in the video when he said “man made climate change” did you live through that sense of how damn thick/stupid they actually are? they’re not engineers or scientists, they’re professional bull-shitters, they are being disrespectful on a whole new level, we have science under a spotlight, I think these mischievous lairs need to be under it 24/7.
When is Al Gore going to stop treating our atmosphere like an open sewer?
AW, thank you for the update and new links on this post. Even CPP proponent AGs mostly are not playing along. Waste of time and money.
Appears this kerfuffle is what I suspected. AG Schneiderman grandstanding to run for NY Gov, with Al Gore support. IIRC last one to try this tactic focused on Wall Street rather than Exxon (a much softer target given clear Wall Street complicity in the sub prime mortgage fiasco of 2008-9), got elected, then resigned when caught in a call girl scandal.
I remember well reading Orwell’s “1984” and thinking something that farfetched could never happen here. This sounds like the “Thought Police” and shivers run down my spine at just how close Al Gore came to being President of the United States. This man should NEVER be in a position of power. I think he’s truly lost his mind. That even ONE AG supported his stance is equally frightening. Where has my beloved country gone??????
I too read that book, in about 1981-ish (Just as Thatcher took the UK in to war with Argentina over the Falklands) and I came to a different conclusion. My conclusion was this was EXACTLY what our “rulers” want. Absolute control. And as is repeated throughout history, that level of control works for a while, but is eventually is broken down. Like English being banned in England by the French. And books being banned in the Fahrenheit 451 story.
But there is no real evidence that the efforts put forth to date have had any effect on global climate. Over more than the past two decades, the efforts of the IPCC have failed to refine their guestimate as to the climate sensitivity of CO2 one iota. Despite the hoopla, they really do not know the effect of CO2 on climate. The IPCC models have all been wrong so they really do not know if additional proposed efforts will have any effect on climate what so ever. There is no real evidence that CO2 has ever had or has now any effect on climate. The AGW conjecture is full of flaws and until those flaws are resolved the AGW conjecture should not re relied upon to affect government policy. There are good reasons to be conserving on the use of fossil fuels but climate change is not one of them. There is reason to believe that the climate change we have been experiencing is caused by the sun and the oceans and that Mankind does not have the power to change it. The real problem that we need to be addressing is Man’s out of control population in a world of finite space and finite resources. As opposed to global climate over which Man has no control, out of control human population is a problem that Mankind can solve if only we make the effort.
You can see what the AG are asking “Is it cold in here or as St Gore just walked into the room ”
St Gore the type of person the expression ‘what an arse ‘ was invited for .
They might want to take a look at this admission that its a farce to implement New World Order before they start their witch hunt. What a bunch of a$$ hat$
http://www.investors.com/politics/editorials/another-climate-alarmist-admits-real-motive-behind-warming-scare/
These AGs must be taken seriously. They are a menace.
Does anybody remember the child day-care sex abuse hysteria of the late 1980s-early 1990s. Hundreds of prosecutions on charges which were fabricated, and in many cases, clearly absurd. Lives ruined, people sent to prison, on and on. Even after the hysteria passed, and it was seen that the real crimes were the prosecutions themselves, no price was ever paid.
Massachusetts: Fells Acres, 3 people convicted served sentences from 8 to 20 years.
AG – Scott Harshbarger – Rode the case with a “Tough on Crime” theme in a campaign for the state Gov. (as part of his strategy for the presidency).
Martha Cokley – Lead prosecutor becomes Mass AG. Runs for Gov.
Dorothy Rabinowitz writing in the Wall Street Journal summed it up, even in MA
Florida: Country Walk, 1 person convicted – 165 years, currently serving.
Janet Reno – Lead prosecutor goes on to become US AG, the nations “Top Cop”.
Notable Event:
Now consider the IRS systematic abuse of Tea Party groups and audits of anybody who speaks out. Consider fully weaponized EPA, FDA, HUD and a slew of others, all after ideological enemies of the State.
Consider the formerly harmless USDA, that’s right, the US Department of Agriculture, now has fully militarized SWAT teams, complete with machine guns and Armored Personnel Carriers.
Anybody still think there is nothing to worry about here?
No. The country has gone quite mad.
Sea Level Rise in Coastal Virginia: Understanding Impacts to Archaeological Resources
“The reported one-foot of sea level rise over the past century in the Chesapeake Bay stated in Executive Order 01.01.2007.07 should have greatly altered the dimensions of the upland hummocks(see Figure 1.10) on Tangier Island, Virginia. However, the data presented in Figure 1.9 challenges the reported one-foot of sea level. Additional information also challenges the reported 20th century sea level pulse.”
http://www.academia.edu/2348853/Sea_Level_Rise_in_Coastal_Virginia_Understanding_Impacts_to_Archaeological_Resources
..The only word that comes to mind is ” delusional ” !
“Blue Virginia”?? Better think again there Bubba!!
The Virginia General Assembly and Senate is controlled by REPUBLICANS NOT DEMOCRAPS!!! Yes, we have a POS Democrap Governor and AG but he/they can’t so much without the VGA/Senate, who control the purse strings! IMHO governor McAwful can pound sand as far as I’m concerned!!
Using the courts to enforce an unproven hypothesis is a worrisome sign of intellectual tyranny.
Will the AG’s prosecute Deerocher and Joe Romm for claiming “polar bears are likely to go extinct by 2030 if not 2020” ?
Will the AG’s prosecute climate scientists who claimed children will not know what snow is?
Is advocating a bad hypothesis more criminal than rejecting it.
The AG’s missed their chance to put Gore in cuffs for his fraudulent fear mongering about Arctic Sea ice disappearing by now.
The height of ego – Al Gore floating down the Thames on his back with an “election” and shouting “Raise the draw bridge!” (original story was a flea – appropriate to humans on the back of Gaia I suppose.)
Rarely does one see a more sanctimonious, and insincere, assembly of money grubbers. And what’s with Al Gore? He’s a private citizen who has joined with the AGs to enrich himself further? We are rapidly heading back to a time before the enlightenment where the nobility simply stole whatever they wished, and the sovereign could not be brought to heel nor even touched. This is the Sheriff of Nottingham cloned a dozen times over. By the way, these are not states from across America. These are states from among the Bluest of America who simply cannot find enough money to pay for their profligacy.
Joker, “You gotta be ***** me. These, white Northeast Communists and their Designated Non-white Partial-American, give me a break! And Virgin Islands!? Ho Ho, Thats where the Northeast Communists vacation and blow their wad! Ha ha haha WEEEEe AHHHH.”
http://giphy.com/gifs/joker-heath-ledger-X9Z0O2bpi8GMU
Al Gore’s insistence on investigating fraud may backfire.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/earth/earthnews/3310137/Al-Gores-nine-Inconvenient-Untruths.html#article
Shukla all over again?
This is called independent justice in the US… Perhaps instead of lecturing the world, the US should start at home and let people in peace.
The “Big Oil” companies should make sure Al Gore’s aircraft is never refuelled… just as an (futile) attempt to making him honest…