Bill McKibben, others, at secret meeting
Excerpt:
A key meeting in the new push unfolded in January behind the closed doors of a Manhattan office building.
The session brought together about a dozen people, including Kenny Bruno, a veteran of environmental campaigns, and Bill McKibben, founder of 350.org, two activists who helped lead the successful fight to block the Keystone XL pipeline. The new campaign’s goals include “to establish in public’s mind that Exxon is a corrupt institution that has pushed humanity (and all creation) toward climate chaos and grave harm,” according to an agenda of the meeting viewed by The Wall Street Journal. This new legal strategy stems in part from environmentalists’ frustration at what they see as the inadequacy of recent climate deals.
Their hope is to encourage state attorneys general and the U.S. Justice Department to launch investigations and lawsuits that ultimately will change Exxon’s behavior, force it to pay big damages and drive public attention to climate change. “It’s about helping the larger public understand the urgencies of finding climate solutions,” said Lee Wasserman, director of the Rockefeller Family Fund, which hosted the January meeting. “It’s not really about Exxon.”
…
Exxon and its supporters dismiss the comparison with tobacco. Cigarettes are a harmful, addictive product used by a portion of the public, they say, while fossil fuels are fundamental to the world economy.
In Wednesday’s filing, Exxon’s lawyers say the company has confirmed for more than a decade that it sees the risks of climate change, and that it has publicly advocated for a carbon tax as the best way to regulate carbon emissions.
Full story:
http://www.wsj.com/articles/exxon-fires-back-at-climate-change-probe-1460574535
h/t to Matt Dempsey
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As if Bill McKibben isn’t bad enough, things aren’t getting any better on the Bernie Sanders front either folks. He stated recently that he now wants to completely kill fracking for oil and gas nationwide.
http://money.cnn.com/2016/04/13/investing/bernie-sanders-wants-to-kill-fracking-oil/index.html.
‘”If we are serious about combating climate change, we need to put an end to fracking, not only in New York and Vermont, but all over this country,” Sanders said during a speech in Binghamton, New York this week.’
Asuming he is serious about that (and I certainly hope he isn’t), he is insanely oblivious to the economic hit the U.S. would take if he succeeded in doing that. All in the name of combating a non-problem.
God help us if he wins in November.
A 1985 Environmental Science Text (Chiras, Benjamin/Cummins Publishing) in a short summary section on Air Pollution states– ”…. unfortunately, no one knows what the net effect of increasing particulates and carbon dioxide will be.“
So Exxon gets sued while GM gets a bail out.
LOL.
Exxon has had neither.
I very much doubt that they will be sued, not after the first appeal at any rate. Opens up a hole nobody wants to look down. Who’s next? Car manufacturers and consumers for aiding and abetting Exxon in their criminal activities? Governments for taking a cut (taxation) to overlook said criminal activity …
These people, like Shukla, may come to find that this is one can of worms that they come to wish that they hadn’t opened.
Let’s hope Al doesn’t get sentenced based upon his ‘knowing’ use of ‘Exxon product’. Al ‘Icarus’ Gore – man of the people (if ever they are allowed on one of his many aircraft).
There is another element that a Judge would have to consider. Dating back to Magna Carta, one cannot introduce a law and then prosecute an entity for breaking that law prior to its introduction. So even if bed wetters managed to make ‘(Global Warming) scepticism’ illegal tomorrow then, under traditional Anglo Law, they could not prosecute any entity that knowingly ‘warmed the Earth’. Warming was not against the Law at the time the offense was committed.
Ultimately, I believe that we are looking at ‘Last Chance Saloon’ levels of desperation among a ‘cult’ that would get off the Earth if only it would slow down enough.
And just for fun, Kuwait oil workers go on strike.
The government sends in the national guard, no not beat the workers back to work but to run the oil fields
So if Exxon stopped the flow of oil what do you think this administration would do.. power grab.
http://news.kuwaittimes.net/website/oil-workers-strike-payroll-dispute/
michael
Exxon should use this opportunity to expose the fraud. They have many posts exposing how the left lies about them on their blog. I don’t see why they don’t sue these groups for slander. If their blog posts are accurate, they should sue for damages. Exxon should also host/fund nationally televised debates on climate change and fund an Open Source Temperature Reconstruction and Climate Model. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, and Exxon has the resources to fight it.
http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/
http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2015/12/02/exxonmobil-and-the-carbon-tax/
http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2015/12/02/exxonmobil-on-the-u-n-climate-talks/
http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2015/10/15/exxonmobils-commitment-to-climate-science/
http://www.exxonmobilperspectives.com/2015/10/08/setting-the-record-straight-on-climate/
I wish to God every gas company would pull out of New York and force New York to pay the price for their stupidity. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. I say send progressive New York back to the horse and buggy era.
Absolutely, this thing needs to be brought down to the Skinnerian-Pavlovian level. It may be the only way to knock these idiots off their high horses and force them to at least pay some attention to the real world.
Ever notice how it is never the person that makes the money or wealth that joins these idiotic campaigns? It is always the trust fund children and heirs that get exploited by all these rent seeking Organizations. The case of Rockefeller attacking Exxon is right out of Atlas Shurgged, Hank Rearden’s Wife and younger Brother come to mind, Lillian and Philip.
Yep.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2984619/The-moment-knew-son-going-jail-swinging-Union-Jack-Cenotaph-wife-Pink-Floyd-guitarist.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/8854840/Pink-Floyd-guitarists-son-Charlie-Gilmour-loses-appeal-over-jail-sentence.html
Yes, it almost deserves to be call an “effect” of some sort. Such as the Beneficiary Effect.
McCarthyism is McCarthyism is McCarthyism.
We need to call “the practice of making unfair allegations or using unfair investigative techniques, especially in order to restrict dissent or political criticism” for what it is.
Just because it’s Exxon the AGs are going after in no way legitimizes their vindictive, unconstitutional behavior.
Shame on them.
Take a look at “Blacklisted by History” by M. Stanton Evans. If you do, you’re in for quite a surprise (as I was when I read it).
benben:
“And yes, fascism being left wing. That clearly shows your amazing grasp of history and political philosophy /s”
You really ARE a ditz. Read Goldberg’s “Liberal Fascism” and get your mind right.
Then, after flinging snot as you did above, you say:
“To all the other people here referencing Mussolini. Sure. But he was almost equally distasteful, so the point remains. Don’t use fascism so lightly.*** Keep things civil. Thank you.:***”
What a sanctimonious and hypocritical little twit.
ERFFFTTTTHHTHSPLAT!!!
Puter screen…dripping with coffee!!! I thought the sign said, “This Rump temporarily closed because…”
Temporarily closed……till he runs out of gas ,then they can open.
Du Pont, the prime beneficiary of the Montreal Protocol, spent years pretending to resist a ban on CFCs.
“Do anything you want, but please don’t throw me us that CFC-free briar patch,” they said, with crocodile tears welling in their eyes.
Republicans pretended they were opposed to the protocol…until they ratified it.
* * * * *
“That this occurred during the antienvironmental spasm of the Late Reagan administration was truly unexpected (unless, of course, the fear of DuPont’s European competitors is true.)”
-Carl Sagan, Billion & Billions
* * * * *
The “fear of DuPont’s European competitors”, especially in France, was that the U.S. government was pushing the protocol not to save the planet, but to give DuPont a competitive edge.
When the treaty was ratified, DuPont came out of the briar patch with a shiny new patent on HCFCs.
Sagan praised DuPont and Thatcher for saving the planet!
The U.S. government waged an international war against the hemp industry for the same reason – to protect DuPont’s patent on Nylon.
* * * *
“In Wednesday’s filing, Exxon’s lawyers say the company has confirmed for more than a decade that it sees the risks of climate change, and that it has publicly advocated for a carbon tax as the best way to regulate carbon emissions.”
* * * *
Fool me once, shame on you.
Fool me twice, errr…umm…you can’t get fooled again.
Dumbass conspiracy crap. Dupont quit resisting because the lib press beat them up over Freon. “Chemical company destroying the planet” headlines. It was the beginning of corporations not resisting the Green Blob.
I hope everyone read the article a few days ago about conspiracy against Free Speech being a crime itself. It’s at http://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2016/04/11/attorney-generals-conspire-free-speech-schneiderman-harris-exxon-cei-column/82878218/
Are the grants drying up, so they think they can fool everyone and rip-off the shareholders they pretend to be concerned about? If they used the courts to leave Exxon a husk, then they would keep raiding each oil and energy company. This is about money and power, using that skunk of climate change as an excuse. They are modern pirates exploiting the legal system.
Look at the way they talk. Potential this and perhaps that.
What about if Exxon took them to court and investigated the AGs link to climate scamming. Discovery might actually be very embarrassing.
What is most galling about this is their glib self-assured grandiosity that they can manipulate state AGs and the DOJ to their ends. And indeed they did, Kamala Harris in CA is already busy at work. Senators and Congressmen are talking about about and the DOJ is entertaining it.
This is what a fascist state and society looks like. The elites colluding with govt to use the power of the state to create their Utopia. It’s the worse kind illiberal, corrupt and morally bankrupt approach to governing and creating “change” in a free society one can imagine.
Saddest? Instead of being good honest human beings and admitting that maybe they have been wrong about some of this, based on the data and science which keeps emerging, instead they double down and just go straight to immoral tactics. They are actually evil.
What happened to the site ban of the invective “denier”?
I have a couple of suggestions:
1. Exxon should ban them from their products–for say a month. Nobody that has filed this complaint is allowed any Exxon product (or any product derived from Exxon) period. After 1 month, I’ll bet they will be singing a different tune.
2. All environmental close minded fanatics are required to spend a year in a developing country with no support structure for clean water, medicines, hospitals, transportation, energy OR any modern convenience they take for granted–including clothing. Cannibalistic areas are preferred but not required.
After a year in a mud hut, eeking out an existence of hauling dirty perhaps cholera laden water (maybe as much as 3 miles away) while being exposed to mass amounts of wood smoke due to cooking and heating fires in a small contained area…let’s see how well they hold onto their little view of the world.
It will never happen because these types of people never follow what they preach. They are too narrow minded to look at the larger picture and are too trapped in their own reality and too idle minded to realize how good they actually have it. But make no mistake. They know which side of the bread is buttered and despite what they may preach, they will never forget it.
What I hope Exxon does and the other energy companies do is show these idiots exactly how fragile their modern world is and how quickly their feet of clay can crack and rupture.
And I should strike “environmental” in suggestion number 2. Because I am an environmentalist–I believe in being responsible but unlike the fanatics I know human beings are part of the environment and not inherently evil (which is as far as I will go. Because I’ll start launching into the similarities of humans are the enemy of the Earth with the concept of original sin).
One of the side benefits of the historic climate con is the more efficient identification of media and organizational bias across the landscape. Think about it, how often does this scenario set up to observe this at local, national, and international levels simultaneously? I’ll stick with the WSJ and WUWT while taking in the view.
I’ve heard of kids who didn’t get their way trying to hold their breath until they do.
What does he expect to accomplish by closing his rump?
And just how long could he do it? He’s already full of….uh….it.
“The game of science is, in principle, without end. He who decides one day that scientific statements do not call for any further test, and that they can be regarded as finally verified, retires from the game.”
― Karl Popper
That “science is settled” meme should be one of the key teaching moments for millennials of what is wrong with the Climate Con. It draws heavily on them.
Speaking of collusion….
WSJ
Inside the Fall of SunEdison, Once a Darling of the Clean-Energy World:
The Justice Department and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now investigating whether management misled the public, as the company began to struggle, by giving investors a more positive picture of SunEdison’s finances than was circulated internally, according to people familiar with the matter.
Of course, this effort is being funded by the Rockefeller Family Fund, which of course would not exist, nor the numerous highly paid positions managing that fund, had it not been for the largess of John D. Rockefeller, the founder of Standard Oil and therefore Exxon. J.D. must be turning in his grave.
Sounds like there is racketeering and collusion but not on the part of ExxonMobil. False testimony is a crime as is filing false criminal complaints.