Message From the Editor

In July, the Trump administration finalized a rule allowing liquefied natural gas (LNG) to be shipped by rail, a concerning precedent given the oil and rail industries’ history with unregulated, exploding oil trains. This week, a coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit challenging the rule, in the latest chapter of North America’s “bomb train” saga, writes Justin Mikulka.

In Massachusetts, a new state policy think tank opened at Tufts University but one of its main funders is tied to the petrochemical billionaire Koch family, which has a history of funding academic and policy centers to advance an anti-regulatory agenda that opposes climate action, reports Dana Drugmand.

Momentum is building in New Jersey for the state to join more than a dozen governments in suing fossil fuel companies to pay for the impacts of climate change. A recent panel of politicians and experts hosted by Monmouth University called on the state to hold polluters legally accountable for the climate crisis, reports Dana.
Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: editor@desmogblog.com.

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director
P.S. Don’t miss Justin Mikulka’s in-depth history of the rise and fall of the Bakken Shale and what the likely oil bust means for cleaning up what’s left behind.

Environmental Groups Sue Trump Admin to Stop LNG Trains

— By Justin Mikulka (6 min. read) —

Nonprofit environmental law firm Earthjustice has filed a lawsuit on behalf of a coalition of environmental groups against the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA), challenging a recently finalized Trump administration rule to allow the transportation of liquefied natural gas (LNG) by rail.

“It would only take 22 tank cars to hold the equivalent energy of the Hiroshima bomb,” Jordan Luebkemann, an Earthjustice attorney, said in a statement. “It’s unbelievably reckless to discard the critical, long-standing safety measures we have in place to protect the public from this dangerous cargo.”

Koch Academic Influence Returns to Massachusetts With New Tufts University Think Tank

— By Dana Drugmand (3 min. read) —

When a new Massachusetts think tank housed at Tufts University launched earlier this year, Boston-based media described it as a “CBO-like center” (referring to the Congressional Budget Office) that would offer an “independent analysis” of proposed state policy and legislation.

But one of the main funders of this think tank, called the Center for State Policy Analysis, is a program tied financially to the petrochemical billionaire Koch family. This apparent Koch-linked funding raises questions about just how independent the center’s policy analyses may be.

New Jersey Should Sue Fossil Fuel Companies Over Climate Costs, Panel Says

— By Dana Drugmand (4 min. read) —

Advocates for holding fossil fuel companies accountable in court for the substantial costs of climate change are urging New Jersey to sue oil majors like ExxonMobil, as over a dozen municipal and state governments have done over the past three years.

A month after a New Jersey senate committee passed a resolution calling on the state to take this kind of legal action, New Jersey’s Monmouth University hosted a virtual panel discussion on Wednesday, August 19 titled “Accountability for Climate Change Harms in New Jersey: Scientific, Legal and Policy Perspectives.” The discussion was intended to outline the case for New Jersey to file a climate accountability lawsuit ahead of the full state senate voting on the resolution, which could come later this month.

The Risk of Preterm Birth Rises Near Gas Flaring, Reflecting Deep-rooted Environmental Injustices in Rural America

— By Jill Johnston, University of Southern California and Lara Cushing, University of California (6 min. read) —

Through the southern reaches of Texas, communities are scattered across a flat landscape of dry brush lands, ranches and agricultural fields. This large rural region near the U.S.-Mexico border is known for its persistent poverty. Over 25 percent of the families here live in poverty, and many lack access to basic services like water, sewer and primary health care.

This is also home to the Eagle Ford shale, where domestic oil and gas production has boomed. The Eagle Ford is widely considered the most profitable U.S. shale play, producing more than 1.2 million barrels of oil daily in 2019, up from fewer than 350,000 barrels per day just a decade earlier.

Routine Gas Flaring Is Wasteful, Polluting and Under-measured

— By Gunnar W. Schade, Texas A&M University (6 min. read) —

If you’ve driven through an area where companies extract oil and gas from shale formations, you’ve probably seen flames dancing at the tops of vertical pipes. That’s flaring — the mostly uncontrolled practice of burning off a byproduct of oil and gas production. Over the past 10 years, the U.S. shale oil and gas boom has made this country one of the world’s top five flaring nations, just behind Russia, Iran and Iraq.

It’s a dubious distinction. Routine flaring gives the industry a black eye.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Partnership for Energy Progress

Partnership for Energy Progress is a Washington state-based group whose work parallels industry efforts across the United States to combat municipal and state level gas regulations. The 501(c)(4) nonprofit receives funding from the Pacific Northwest natural gas industry and portrays natural gas as part of “our shared goal of addressing climate change.” The group was recently featured in an investigation by The Guardian detailing how the gas industry is trying to counter local government climate actions to electrify buildings with public relations campaigns and consumer-facing groups like Partnership for Energy Progress.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database or our new Koch Network Database.