Drilled (Critical Frequency)

ExxonMobil, Chevron and other petrochemical giants are increasingly organizing against grassroots environmental justice activism in Louisiana that are part of the Beyond Petrochemicals campaign. The companies have joined with pro-industry politicians and local Chambers of Commerce to form a “sustainability council,” focused not on environmental sustainability but on the longevity of the petrochemical industry on Louisiana's Gulf Coast.  Jo Banner of The Descendants Project and Shamyra Lavigne of RISE St. James, two key organizers in the area, join us to talk about why the industry is suddenly organizing against them. Read more in The Guardian and Floodlight News exposé here: https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/may/04/cancer-alley-louisiana-environment-oil-industry-opposition Ad codes: tryfirstleaf.com/drilled - 50% off first 6 bottles plus free shipping from First Leaf athleticgreens.com/drilled - free year's supply of vitamin D + 5 free travel packs of AG1 from Athletic Greens earthbreeze.com/drilled - 40% off EarthBreeze laundry detergent Eco Sheets airdoctorpro.com and use promo code DRILLED and depending on the model, you’ll receive UP TO 39% off or UP TO $300 off expressvpn.com/drilled for 3 extra months free on your VPN subscription Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this episode of Generation Green New Deal, Drilled host Amy Westervelt co-hosts with Sam Eilertsen to look at what happened to block climate action in the 90s and and 2000s, why various fossil fuel industry strategies worked at the time, and what makes the youth climate movement's approach different and more effective.Check out Generation Green New Deal wherever you get your pods! https://www.podlink.to/generationgnd Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2015, West Coast crab fishermen were shut down by climate change. Atmospheric changes had warmed waters and upended everything from the food chain to ocean upwelling. They didn't realize it would be their new normal, or that scientists had been telling the oil industry this would happen since the 1960s. Welcome to season 2 of Drilled: Hot Water.  Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

After a year’s worth of pressure from local press and civil society groups, the Guyanese government released its contract with ExxonMobil to the public in December 2017. The IMF calls it an unfair deal for Guyana. Some local leaders start calling on government officials to try to renegotiate the contract, but others say that’s a fool’s errand and the only place to fight the contract is in court. Read more in Antonia Juhasz's Wired story on Guyana: https://www.wired.com/story/the-quest-to-defuse-carbon-bomb-guyana/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As the crabbers' 2018-2019 season comes to an abrupt close, they prepare for a year that could see the fishery close altogether. Meanwhile the oil industry is pushing to quash the crabbers' climate suit, forcing the question: Which industries do we protect, and which do we let go? As natural resources are increasingly impacted by climate change, who will pick the winners and losers and how will we survive?  Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The team at UnEarthed, an investigative journalism project funded by Greenpeace in the UK, went undercover and got ExxonMobil execs on tape talking through the company's climate playbook in detail. Today, an unpublished part of that report, in which a former Exxon lobbyist details the company's and the industry's plans on plastics.More from UnEarthed:Watch the ExxonMobil video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dNFBjcrU5Pc&ab_channel=GreenpeaceUnearthedRead the story: https://unearthed.greenpeace.org/2021/06/30/exxon-climate-change-undercover/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Chevron's legal team shocks the Ecuadorian plaintiffs with a massive racketeering claim in the U.S. alleging fraud, witness tampering, and even bribery.Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The fossil fuel industry's decades-long information war was so successful that even though oil companies themselves began publicly accepting climate science years ago, the public remains skeptical. Fewer Americans believe in the need to act on climate today than did 30 years ago, despite insurmountable evidence. Industry campaigns were so successful they've now landed oil companies in court, facing multiple suits attempting to hold them accountable for the damages inflicted by unchecked climate change.  Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In a new report, the Center for International Environmental Law looks at the way oil, gas and petrochemical companies are leveraging the pandemic to push policy and increase profits, and whether these efforts will ultimately be successful. Carroll Muffet, one of our S3 experts, joins to walk us through some of the key points of the report, including how the industry is using the pandemic to push more single-use plastics. Read the report: Pandemic Crisis, Systemic Decline: Why Exploiting the COVID-19 Crisis Will Not Save the Oil, Gas, and Plastics Industries  Support our work: https://www.drillednews.com/support-us Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows that not only did Exxon scientists suspect climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels was a growing problem that would lead to crisis if nothing changed, but they were terrifyingly accurate in their modeling and predictions. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial and Exxon's role in it, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance. In this episode, a look at how oil companies exploited various weaknesses in science, namely scientists' tendency toward not prioritizing or valuing good communication skills, and their absolute refusal to be certain about anything.  Support us: https://www.drilledpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steven Donziger went to trial for the criminal contempt charge that's kept him on house arrest for 600 days and counting. Paul Paz Y Mino of Amazon Watch brings us an update on the trial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fossil fuel industry influence campaigns ensured that we lost a critical 30 years not taking action on climate change. But all is not lost. The technology to address climate change exists, and if there's one thing history teaches us about America it's that radical social change is entirely possible here.  Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2015 a warm water "blob," the result of both warming oceans and shifting wind patterns, wreaked havoc on West Coast fishing towns. Three years into a new reality in which climate change has shifted the marine food web, they're fighting back. West Coast crab fishermen just became the first industry to take on Big Oil for its role in not only contributing to climate change but creating climate denial. Get the full story of these unlikely climate activists in a new six-part series, dropping April 22nd.  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What if you were told buying a piece of land in the Mojave Desert could help you be rich one day? That was the dream developers of California City sold to thousands of people. But the reality is much different. California City – the new podcast from LA-ist Studios – chronicles the dark side of the American Dream, where those thousands of people were left with land that is nearly worthless. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Around the world, climate and other environmental protestors are being harassed, attacked, and arrested at an alarming rate. Laws are being passed that levy life-altering prison sentences and fines on protestors arrested near anything deemed “critical infrastructure,” which is defined so broadly it’s hard to find a public space that wouldn’t be near it anymore. Corporations are suing protestors and NGOs, comparing protest to organized crime. Governments are growing increasingly comfortable branding environmental protestors as “domestic terrorists.” And so far the media is largely participating in the rhetorical “othering” of protestors, opting in most cases to focus on the disruption that protest causes rather than the change it seeks, and to marginalize activists. In this print and audio series we’ll take an in-depth look at how climate protest has evolved in recent years, where this backlash is coming from, how it’s grown so quickly, and what it feels like to be someone who’s concerned enough about the future of humanity to join a protest, only to find themselves facing police violence and several years in jail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The oil and gas industry was headed for broke long before COVID-19. Now the Trump administration wants to use the pandemic to put it on life support, while the American Petroleum Institute uses it to get the industry's deregulation wishlist. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Five years ago, Kiana Wilburg was a new reporter when ExxonMobil executives and Guyanese government officials announced they had found oil 40 miles offshore. Wilburg and her newsroom had to quickly learn about the industry and this company that was suddenly so influential in their country and were left with just one question: exactly what kind of a deal had the country signed onto? Visit https://brilliant.org/Drilled for 30 days free and 20% off a subscription. Subscribe to our newsletter for curated weekly climate news. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It's Earth Day 2021 and the first Congressional hearing of the day is focused on fossil fuel subsidies. Their elimination was written into Biden's infrastructure bill, and House Democrats want to make sure that provision stays in the bill. Today's hearing will detail what those subsidies are, why getting rid of them is critical to climate action, and how the government can pull it off without raising the cost of living for average Americans.Watch the hearing at 10am ET: https://oversight.house.gov/legislation/hearings/on-the-role-of-fossil-fuel-subsidies-in-preventing-action-on-the-climate-crisis Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

President Biden made his first trip to Vietnam as President this week, with the intention of "upgrading" diplomatic relations between the U.S. and Vietnam. Not on the agenda? The country's move to use trumped-up tax evasion charges to suppress civil society groups, including five climate activists that have been imprisoned using this tactic since 2021. Read The 88 Project's report on this practice: https://the88project.org/weaponizing-the-law-to-prosecute-the-vietnam-four/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

There's a lot of discourse happening about free speech in the context of "cancel culture" these days, but precious little coverage of the push all over the world to criminalize protest...particularly environmental and climate protest. We'll be digging into this trend in detail over the next several months, but first a look at what prompted extractive industries to start agitating for governments to crack down on protest, what tactics they use, and why they've been so effective. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil and Chevron have been amongst the biggest opponents to bailouts for shale gas companies as part of the coronavirus relief package. DeSmog's Justin Mikulka joins us to explain why. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

John Hill, founder of Hill & Knowlton, was an Ivy Lee devotee who worked for Standard Oil in the 1930s, strategized against labor movements and the New Deal, and wound up representing the American Petroleum Institute and the Tobacco Industry Research Committee—a fake research group formed by the CEOs of all the major tobacco companies in the 1950s—at the very same time. His manipulation skills were so good they even fooled the legendary Edward R. Murrow. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Ever since the Securities and Exchange Commission announced its intention to make Environmental Social and Governance metrics actually mean something to investors, polluting industries have suddenly turned on ESG. Now that fight has a legal strategy, being carried out by the Republican Attorneys General Association. Ad codes: tryfirstleaf.com/drilled - 50% off first 6 bottles plus free shipping from First Leaf athleticgreens.com/drilled - free year's supply of vitamin D + 5 free travel packs of AG1 from Athletic Greens earthbreeze.com/drilled - 40% off EarthBreeze laundry detergent Eco Sheets airdoctorpro.com and use promo code DRILLED and depending on the model, you’ll receive UP TO 39% off or UP TO $300 off expressvpn.com/drilled for 3 extra months free on your VPN subscription Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A special presentation of the podcast Hot Take, featuring investigative journalist Antonia Juhasz on all the many ways oil, war, and climate change intersect.Read more:https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/light-sweet-crude-a-former-us-ambassador-peddles-influence-in-afghanistan/https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/the-new-war-for-afghanistans-untapped-oil/https://antoniajuhasz.net/article/why-rex-tillerson-could-be-americas-most-dangerous-secretary-of-state/Subscribe to the Hot Take newsletter: http://realhottake.substack.com/subscribe Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

E. Bruce and Patricia Harrison launched the E. Bruce Harrison Company in 1973 and ran it until 1996, working for a mix of chemical companies, oil & gas companies, and tobacco companies. E. Bruce is considered the father of environmental public relations ... or by his critics, "the godfather of greenwashing." Together the Harrisons ran multiple cross-industry coalitions and front groups, aimed primarily at stopping regulation on everything from smoking to carbon emissions. Today, Ms. Harrison is the president and CEO of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, a position she's held since 2005. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Diane Wilson couldn't keep Formosa out of her town, but down the coast in Louisiana the community in St. James Parish, led by Sharon Lavigne, is fighting like hell to keep them out. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We talked about rights of nature a bit in the Ecuador-Chevron season, the Latin American country was the first in the world to integrate the concept of rights of nature in its Constitution. Now the Constitutional Court is reviewing its first rights of nature case. U.S. communities are pursuing the idea as well, and the fossil fuel industry is trying to block rights of nature laws from ever passing. Josh Boaz Pribanic and Melissa Troutman, co-founders of Public Herald join to talk about their new documentary on the rights of nature, Invisible Hand.Check out Invisible Hand: https://www.invisiblehandfilm.com/premiere/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In more than 30 climate cases making their way through U.S. courts today, oil companies are using an argument they've been laying the legal groundwork for since the 1970s: that since everything they've ever said about climate change was in the interest of shaping policy or blocking regulation, it's protected speech, even if it was misleading. In this episode we take a look at how those cases are playing out and the likelihood that this new take on "corporate free speech" could make it all the way to the Supreme Court. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The trial gets underway in Ecuador, an election changes the calculus, and a global PR war kicks into high gear.Support our work: patreon.com/drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From our pals over at Inherited, in today’s episode, Mo Isu looks at one of the reasons climate activists all over the world are protesting: they're already facing the impacts of climate change. Here, Isu traces the cycle of loss and rebuilding in the rural Niger Delta region of Nigeria as the country weathers extreme seasonal flooding. After meeting a flood survivor in his hometown of Lagos, Mo travels twelve hours to Lokoja – the town where Nigeria’s largest rivers converge – to explore how directly impacted flood survivors endure the region’s relentless cycle of damage and repair. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new season of Hazard-NJ is out now, this time diving into PFAS, or "forever chemicals." Find it everywhere you get your pods. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

While protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation garnered international news coverage, at the southern end of the pipeline, cops moonlighting as pipeline security were suppressing free speech with impunity. In this episode, reporter Karen Savage tells us what happened at Bayou Bridge, and what lessons the story holds for the climate movement and for anyone who believes in the importance of democracy. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We'll be back with the rest of our anti-protest season soon, but in the meantime, welcome to a new Drilled miniseries we're calling "Messy Conversations," getting into all the complicated nuance that unfortunately gets cut out of a lot of climate conversations. This week, Magatte Wade, who runs the Center for African Prosperity at the Atlas Network. She wasn't too happy with our recent coverage of Atlas, so we talked about that, the idea that solving poverty and addressing the climate crisis are mutually exclusive, where free speech ends and property rights begin for libertarians, and a whole lot more. Links: Alliance for Responsible Citizenship (ARC): https://www.arcforum.com/ DeSmog profile of ARC: https://www.desmog.com/alliance-for-responsible-citizenship-arc/ DeSmog coverage of ARC 2023 forum: https://www.desmog.com/2023/10/26/gop-climate-denier-vivek-ramaswamy-headlining-jordan-peterson-arc-conference/ Narasimha Rao's Decent Living Energy Project: https://www.decentlivingenergy.org/ Our Guyana season: https://drilled.media/podcasts/drilled#season-8 Center for African Prosperity: https://www.atlasnetwork.org/partners/center-for-african-prosperity Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In addition to S5 of Drilled (coming soon!), Critical Frequency is putting out a terrific slate of great climate and environment podcasts this fall. Check out this sampling, then go subscribe so you won't miss them!Inherited: http://podlink.to/inheritedHot Take: http://podlink.to/realhottakeGeneration Green New Deal: http://podlink.to/generationgndHazard: http://podlink.to/hazardNo Place Like Home: http://fanlink.to/noplacelikehome Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This time we're doing something a little different: a season in three parts, all about the gas industry and how it's managed to embed itself into society. First up, Part 1 Plastic Pipelines: A look at how the fracking boom led to a plastics boom, through the story of one petrochemical company operating on the Gulf Coast, and the two women—one in Texas, the other in Louisiana—taking them on. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Late last year, Brown University's Climate and Development Lab put out a comprehensive report looking at the opposition to wind energy on the east coast of the U.S., called "Against the Wind." Today, the lead author of that report, Isaac Slevin, walks us through what's real and what's manufactured in this opposition, which has not only continued to grow in the U.S. but now influenced a similar movement in Australia. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Globally, climate activism has shifted over the past few years. It’s more constant now and includes more direct action than ever before. Some of that action has critics, including climate scientists and climate advocates, clutching their pearls and worrying that protest will turn the public away from the urgent need to act on the climate crisis. But social science researchers who study structural change and protest say there’s no historical evidence to back that up; that in fact the only time social movements have ever affected change is when they’ve been wildly disruptive, and a whole lot of the people who love to quote MLK are missing a significant part of his approach to social change. In this week's ep we hear from social scientists on how radical or not climate protests really are, and what factors make direct action work or fail. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Because of their proximity to oil and gas operations, residents of Broomfield, Colorado were at risk of exposure to flowback-driven air pollution during shelter-in-place orders, so the city issued an emergency decree for local operations to cease fracking flowback during the pandemic. Extraction Oil filed for a temporary restraining order to block the city's decree. It's the first test of Colorado's 2019 law prioritizing public health and safety over oil and gas production, which allows local governments to set safeguards that are more stringent than state regulations. Climate-COVID-19 policy tracker: https://www.drillednews.com/post/the-climate-covid-19-policy-tracker Support our work: https://www.drillednews.com/support-us Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Fossil fuel companies can't push ideas like "low carbon gas" or overstate the emissions-reduction potential of technologies like carbon capture without the help of a whole system of folks who help them sell the idea. The role management consultancies play in that process has been largely under-covered, but today we dig into just how helpful they've been through the story of one consultancy in particular. Reporter Maddie Stone walks us through how multinational consultancy ICF, which is well known for its government climate work, also works to produce reports the fossil fuel industry uses to promote oil and gas. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The day after our season finale last week, we got some incredible news from Guyana: the High Court ruled against the oil company and the government in the big insurance case Melinda Janki filed. We caught up with Janki shortly after the verdict was released for this conversation. Ad codes: tryfirstleaf.com/drilled - 50% off first 6 bottles plus free shipping from First Leaf athleticgreens.com/drilled - free year's supply of vitamin D + 5 free travel packs of AG1 from Athletic Greens earthbreeze.com/drilled - 40% off EarthBreeze laundry detergent Eco Sheets airdoctorpro.com and use promo code DRILLED and depending on the model, you’ll receive UP TO 39% off or UP TO $300 off expressvpn.com/drilled for 3 extra months free on your VPN subscription Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Last year, headlines all over the world proclaimed victory for the environment: finally, after more than a decade of promises, there would be no more drilling in Yasuní National Park, a large swath of the Ecuadorian Amazon. But as Macy Lipkin reports, all wasn't what it seemed. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the final episode of part 1 in our Bridge to Nowhere season, we look at the chronic whack-a-mole problem in frontline communities. Just as one facility gets shut down or cleaned up, another is waiting to take its place. In a lot of ways, the plastic problem itself is a whack-a-mole issue catalyzed by progress in shifting away from fossil fuels in the transport and building sectors. How can policy makers and activists predict and prevent these sorts of problems? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Donziger is still on house arrest and disbarred, the settlement seems impossible to collect, now what? In this episode we look at what this case says about accountability and the power of oil companies, and what options remain for the Ecuadorians seeking justice.Support our work: Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today we're sharing an episode of the podcast Reclaimed. It centers on a group of Americans who’ve been denied a basic human right: water. I’m talking about the Navajo people. More than one-third of households in the Navajo Nation do not have access to clean water. Right now, there’s a landmark bill in front of Congress that could change this — but it took more than 150 years to get here. “Reclaimed” takes you back to the very beginning when the Navajo reservation was first created. And it reveals the history of oppression and exclusion that led the Navajo to this point — and why their future is still uncertain. You can listen to more episodes of Reclaimed at https://abcaudio.com/podcasts/reclaimed-navajo-nation/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Melinda Janki has filed seven separate cases aimed at blocking oil drilling in Guyana, but only one of them explicitly names climate change as a problem the project is guaranteed to exacerbate. It’s a constitutional case that invokes Guyana’s constitutional right to a healthy environment—an amendment Janki herself helped to write. Plaintiffs Dr. Troy Thomas and Quedad DeFreitas argue that the government’s choice to fast-track permits and oil production threatens their right to a healthy environment, and the rights of future generations too. The government of Guyana argues that, ironically, it needs oil money to adapt to climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Check out the limited-run series Hazard NYC from The City, all about how climate change intersects with Superfund sites in New York City. Start with episode one here: https://www.thecity.nyc/2024/02/14/newtown-creek-superfund-pollution-hazardnyc-faqnyc-podcast/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows that not only did Exxon scientists suspect climate change driven by the burning of fossil fuels was a growing problem that would lead to crisis if nothing changed, but they were terrifyingly accurate in their modeling and predictions. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance. In this episode, we look at how oil companies and their public relations firms shifted culture, influencing everything from civil discourse to how religious groups viewed the issue of climate change. Support us: https://www.drilledpodcast.com Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week we bring you an episode of our climate talk show, Spill, for a deep dive from Mary Annaïse Heglar and Amy Westervelt on what Project 2025 lays out for climate, what we might hear (and not hear) about climate in this week's presidential debate, rethinking the climate movement and politics, and more. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In November, a Dutch court ruled in Shell's favor on an appeal in a big international climate case. It got loads of headlines around the world, but it wasn't quite the win for Shell that a lot of media coverage has made it out to be. Although it walked back some things, the court reaffirmed a key component of the original ruling: that Shell is legally required to reduce its global emissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Dr. Julia Steinberger, professor of social ecology and ecological economics at the University of Leeds, has published some really interesting research recently debunking some classic fossil fuel narratives around the industry's importance to society and human wellbeing. Here we dig into her latest study, which found that while fossil fuel use has certainly grown GDP, it has had no effect on life expectancy ... in other words the industry's "benefit" has accrued to relatively few humans. Study: "Your Money or Your Life?" Environmental Research Letters https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ab7461/meta Support our work: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Transcript: https://www.drillednews.com/post/new-research-questions-societal-benefit-of-fossil-fuels Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A lawsuit filed against the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over a small project in Massachusetts could have big implications. It aims to force FERC to comply with an order the courts gave it back in 2017, and that it's been ignoring ever since: to evaluate the overall emissions and climate change impact of any new energy project. The case has particular relevance right now as FERC has been rapidly approving every project that crosses its desk. Adam Carlesco, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, joins to walk us through the case. Support our work: https://www.drillednews.com/support-us Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

New York District Court Judge Loretta Preska has denied repeated requests to delay Donziger's criminal contempt trial until at least one of his lawyers can be present. Barring any last-minute changes, he'll stand trial Monday, November 9th, after which he could be sent to jail for six months. In this ep, reporter Karen Savage brings us the latest and we hear from attorneys Lauren Regan and Ronald Kuby about what sort of precedent this sets. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two new reports highlight that, since the Paris Agreement in 2016, the fossil fuel industry has ramped up both oil production and greenwashing. Plus: why the heck are mainstream media outlets making Big Oil's ads for them? Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The U.S. government's definition of what constitutes an "ecoterrorist" has long driven backlash against environmental activists and in recent years that definition has only broadened. Investigative reporter and Drilled senior editor Alleen Brown dug into this recently and found that the Department of Homeland Security had been warning officials in Atlanta about the threat posed by "Defend the Atlanta Forest" for months before police raided the forest, ultimately killing one protestor, and charging dozens more with domestic terrorism and racketeering. It was such an overreaction that even mainstream media covered it. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In this season we're tackling Big Oil's big propaganda machine—its origins, the spin masters who created it, and why it's been so effective. It all began more than 100 years ago with Standard Oil, John D. Rockefeller and his son, a bloody miners' strike, and the very first P.R. guy, who swooped in to clean it all up. Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Read more: https://www.drillednews.com/ Extra tidbits in the Heated newsletter: https://heated.world/ Follow us: https://twitter.com/WeAreDrilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Launching November 14th, Drilled is a limited series investigative true-crime podcast about the crime of the century: the creation of climate denial. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In August 2019, an American lawyer was put on house arrest as he awaited trial on criminal contempt charges. The charges stem from a decades-long case that began with pollution in the Amazon and has since spanned continents and courtrooms while the victims—indigenous tribes in the Ecuadorian Amazon—continue to seek justice. Welcome to Season 5: La Lucha En La Jungla. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Shell announced in late 2023 that it would be shutting down all of its onshore activities in Nigeria and concentrating its efforts offshore. It leaves behind poisoned water, multiple political and economic crises, and a country that is measurably worse off today than when its oil industry began. Meanwhile the government continues to target environmental activists. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Local activists and legislators have been fighting the Enbridge natural gas compressor in Weymouth for years. It's too close to residents and businesses, and poses too many health risks to a community that's already borne the burden of too much pollution, they say. The project was approved by FERC in 2019, built and became operational in 2020. Then it had an emergency shutdown. And another. Now FERC is considering the unprecedented move of re-thinking its permit, a decision that could have broad ramifications.Check out Miriam Wasser's ongoing reporting on this at WBUR: https://www.wbur.org/earthwhile/2021/03/19/weymouth-compressor-ferc-precedent-enbridge-natural-gas Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Jake Bittle's book The Great Displacement looks at how extreme weather events are likely to drive Americans to move from one part of the country (or their state) to another. In this episode, he joins to talk through the complex web of factors that drive migration, and how policies might be changed to ease the burden on people and communities. Find out more about The Great Displacement and where to buy it: https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/The-Great-Displacement/Jake-Bittle/9781982178253 Ad codes: tryfirstleaf.com/drilled - 50% off first 6 bottles plus free shipping from First Leaf athleticgreens.com/drilled - free year's supply of vitamin D + 5 free travel packs of AG1 from Athletic Greens earthbreeze.com/drilled - 40% off EarthBreeze laundry detergent Eco Sheets airdoctorpro.com and use promo code DRILLED and depending on the model, you’ll receive UP TO 39% off or UP TO $300 off expressvpn.com/drilled for 3 extra months free on your VPN subscription Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new peer-reviewed study in the journal Science shows exactly how accurate oil company scientists' climate models were back in the 1970s and 80s. Alongside this special re-broadcast of Season 1 of Drilled, all about the origins of climate denial, we speak with the study's lead author Geoffrey Supran about its importance. In this episode, a look at how successful the fossil fuel industry's decades-long information war was at convincing the public there was nothing to worry about, and how that success led to dozens of lawsuits filed over the past five years. Sign up for our newsletter! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

It’s no coincidence that the backlash against climate protest looks the same from country to country. Not only is industry sharing tactics across borders, but also the Atlas Network—a global network of nearly 600 libertarian think tanks—has been swapping strategies and rhetoric for decades. This episode features reporting from Amy Westervelt, Lyndal Rowlands, and Julianna Merullo from Drilled, and Geoff Dembicki from DeSmog. You can see a print version of the story at The New Republic or an even longer print version on our site here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The case takes a bizarre turn with a sting operation, U.S. subpoenas, accusations of fraud and bribery, and finally a verdict in Ecuador. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Introducing…our first podcast crossover season! Later this year we’ll be bringing you a season in collaboration with the podcast Non-Toxic, hosted by journalist and culture critic Daniel Penny, about the intersection between masculinity and climate. In this episode we introduce Daniel and his work, and talk a bit about what you can expect from this season. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

One person in Guyana knows both the inner workings of oil companies and the intricacies of Guyanese environmental law better than most. Melinda Janki grew up in Guyana, but went to university at Oxford and then worked as in-house counsel for oil giant BP before returning home. Decades ago she started to help strengthen the country’s environmental laws. In 2018 she started filing suits against the government to block offshore drilling. Her latest suit demands that ExxonMobil be liable for any environmental damage caused to Guyana in case of an offshore catastrophe.  Read more in Antonia Juhasz's Wired story on Guyana: https://www.wired.com/story/the-quest-to-defuse-carbon-bomb-guyana/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Drilled will be back with bonus episodes soon. In the meantime, check out one of our other climate podcasts, Hot Take. In this episode, hosts Mary Annaise Heglar and Amy Westervelt talk to David Wallace Wells, author of The Uninhabitable Earth and deputy editor of New York magazine, about the intersection of climate change and the coronavirus pandemic.Get ad-free eps and support Drilled's reporting: https://www.patreon.com/DrilledMore reporting: https://www.drillednews.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When a report makes oil and gas companies—and the politicians they help elect—this mad, you know the author is on to something. Researcher Sean O'Leary, with the Ohio River Valley Institute, joins us to talk about his new report, which found that the local economic benefit of fracking to communities in the Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia gas corridor was slim to none. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, we bring you an episode from our climate litigation podcast, Damages, because we've been getting SO MANY emails about what sorts of legal strategies might still be available for climate accountability given everything happening at the Supreme Court. Public Citizen has been working with various prosecutors to explore the idea of using criminal law to hold oil companies accountable for climate change, but is it really viable? The group's senior climate policy counsel, Aaron Regunburg, joins us to discuss. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2007, the Supreme Court ruled in Massachusetts vs. EPA that when the U.S. Congress passed the Clean Air Act in 1970, climate science was “in its infancy,” implying that government officials could never have intended for the legislation to cover the regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. In 2022, SCOTUS doubled down on that idea, ruling in West Virginia v EPA that since the Clean Air Act didn't explicitly talk about climate change, the EPA cannot regulate greenhouse gas emissions. Now, new historical evidence unearthed by a team of Harvard University researchers led by Naomi Oreskes calls the court's understanding of the history of climate science into question, which could have major implications for the government's ability to regulate climate-changing emissions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the 1970s and early 1980s, Exxon wanted to be the Bell Labs of energy. It hired brilliant scientists who conducted cutting-edge research on everything from the "greenhouse effect" to renewable energy. At the time, there was bipartisan support around the idea of tackling global warming, and a sense that American innovation was up to the task. To see the documents referenced in this episode, check out the timeline on drilledpodcast.com.  Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2017, El Salvador became the first country in the world to pass an outright ban on mining. It was an effort to protect the country's water, and its people. Now, self-proclaimed "coolest dictator in the world" Nayib Bukele wants to bring mining back to boost the economy, which took a major hit thanks to his embrace of Bitcoin as the national currency in 2021. The activists who helped pass the ban are standing in his way. The solution? Accuse them of a decades-old unsolved murder. The activists go on trial this week. Reporter Sebastian Escalon brings us this story, narrated by Yessenia Funes. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Steven Donziger, the American attorney we profiled in S5 is scheduled for trial May 10th, but his lawyers have filed another motion to dismiss, alleging vindictive prosecution. Karen Savage joins for an update on this story. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This season we've traced the creation of Big Oil's big propaganda machine. In this episode, the season finale, we look at what can be done about it now that it has delivered us into an era of disinformation. NYU journalism professor Jay Rosen and former FCC commissioner Nicholas Johnson join us to talk about everything from the Fairness Doctrine to cable access to today's "post-fact" world, and where we can really go from here. Special thanks to Mary Catherine O'Connor for additional reporting. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week Amy's on the other side of the mic in an interview with Samantha Hodder, who writes the excellent Bingeworthy newsletter, all about narrative podcasts. The newsletter version of this interview, along with Samantha's take on Drilled will be in tomorrow's Bingeworthy, so make sure to subscribe here: https://bingeworthy.substack.com/ Ad links in this ep: First Leaf: tryfirstleaf.com/drilled for 50% off your first shipment of six bottles AG1 : athleticgreens.com/drilled for a year's supply of vitamin D plus 5 free travel packs of AG1 with your first order. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new study from Harvard science historians Naomi Oreskes and Geoffrey Supran points to the use of language targeted specifically to downplay the reality of climate change and shift responsibility entirely onto consumers. Geoffrey Supran, the lead author on the study, joins to discuss.Study: https://www.cell.com/one-earth/fulltext/S2590-3322(21)00233-5Read more: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-news/climate-change-exxonmobil-harvard-study-1169682/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, coined the term "public relations" when propaganda started to become a negative term. His specialty was using psychological know-how to manipulate the masses and orchestrate cultural shifts in his clients' favor (clients like Standard Oil, the American Tobacco Company, and General Motors). A few decades later, W. Howard Chase built onto that foundation with the idea of issues management—predicting an industry's potential issues, and manipulating political, social, and cultural forces to neutralize them. Chase is responsible for one of the best-known examples of greenwashing, the so-called "crying Indian ad," which introduced the idea of "litter bugs" and individual responsibility for pollution. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

To make media manipulation and lobbying truly effective, oil companies and their public relations firms also had to shift the culture, influencing everything from civil discourse to how religious groups viewed the issue of climate change.  Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

We have covered before how the fossil fuel industry created the advertorial and how it continues work with media on the modern incarnation: sponsored content, created by the media outlets themselves. To be clear, it’s outlets’ internal brand studios that write op-eds, craft slide shows and videos, and produce podcasts for fossil fuel companies, not their editorial staff. But these services are explicitly marketed as a way to make corporate content mirror the editorial content in style and approach, and when it comes to fossil fuel advertisers it often directly contradicts what the editorial staff is reporting. In late 2023, we published a report detailing the many examples of this and delving into the peer-reviewed research that shows how misleading this practice is to readers. This week, one of the researchers who has contributed the most to that body of evidence, Dr. Michelle Amazeen, at Boston University, published a new study looking at why this practice is particularly misleading on social media, and what media outlets might be able to do to make it less so. She joins us to speak about that research. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Two big new suits, in Minnesota and D.C., were filed within 24 hours of each other and allege the same thing: that fossil fuel companies misled consumers about climate change. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As part of our ongoing series looking into new climate problems the fossil fuel industry is peddling as solutions, we did a deep dive into the push to position liquefied natural gas—a fossil fuel—as "green" and discovered one particularly active lobbying group. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Electrification offers an opportunity to rethink how we use energy and how we get around. Researcher Thea Riofrancos wants to see the U.S. seize that opportunity and set the country on a path to a better, more equitable future. Promotions: Earth Breeze: earthbreeze.com/drilled for 40% off Athletic Greens: athleticgreens.com/DRILLED for a free 1-year supply of Vitamin D and 5 free travel packs Express VPN: expressvpn.com/drilled for an extra three months free on a one-year package Subscribe to our newsletter! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new season about the natural gas industry, presented in three parts. Coming soon, Part 1: Pipelines to Plastic about the direct connection between the fracking boom and the plastics boom, told through the story of Formosa Plastics, a company with an environmental record so bad it couldn't get permits in its own country so it searched the globe for a new home, with weaker environmental regulations, and found it in the American South. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In her new book, The Language of Climate Politics, Guenther digs into six key rhetorical devices that are being used to slow or block climate action. For an academic book, it's made some folks on the Internet awfully mad. In this episode we talk about why, what went into her research, and what it tells us about the coming months. Ad Notes: The first 150 of you will receive the first month of a Planet Wild membership from me for free. Click on this link https://planetwild.com/drilled, or use the code DRILLED9 later. Not satisfied anymore? You can cancel at any time. If you want to see how Planet Wild works first, check out their latest YouTube video link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jPbCjH45uwI&t=2s. Secure your privacy with Surfshark! Enter coupon code DRILLED for 4 months EXTRA at https://surfshark.com/DRILLED Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Field investigator Sharon Wilson has spotted a troubling increase in methane emissions from refineries in the Permian Basin, in Texas. Things went from bad to worse in January 2020, and really blew up in early March ... almost as though they knew regulators wouldn't be watching. Support our work: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled More reporting: https://www.drillednews.com/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new study out from Harvard University explores the health impacts of transitioning from coal to other combustible fuels. The findings are important for climate policy, particularly the fact that biomass is a huge contributor to air pollution despite representing only a small percentage of energy generation and that natural gas still contributes significantly to air pollution and its associated health impacts. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Carbon capture has always seemed a little scammy, but in a blockbuster investigation co-published with Vox this week, we discovered just *how* scammy. Carolyn Raffensperger, executive director of the Science and Environmental Health Network, joins to walk us through the many issues with the technology, from the fact that it delivers little to no climate benefit to the fact that it creates a massive new public health threat. Read more here: https://drilled.media/news/ccs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Reporters Alexander Beunder and Jilles Mast have been combing through 150+ boxes of documents from the personal archive of one of the Netherlands' top climate skeptics during the 1990s, a guy named Fritz Böttcher, and made a shocking discovery: throughout his career Böttcher received direct funding from Royal Dutch Shell. It's part of a large project called the Shell Papers at the Platform for Authentic Journalism, in the Netherlands.Read more:Shell Papers: https://www.ftm.nl/dutch-multinationals-funded-climate-scepticShorter summary of Böttcher report: https://desmog.co.uk/2020/05/14/bottcher-shell-funding-european-climate-science-denial Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

About a decade after UK courts made history with the first "climate necessity" ruling in history, the UK government has passed new laws that not only restrict what protesters can do, but also how protesters are allowed to defend themselves in court. Some judges don't apply the new laws so strictly, but others have held people in contempt for just trying to explain themselves. In some courtrooms, the climate necessity defense has been effectively outlawed. How did that happen? And how did it happen so quickly? That's our story today. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

From Ecuador to North Dakota, British Columbia to New Zealand, the backlash against Indigenous-led environmental protest is always particularly harsh, infused with colonialist entitlement to land, water, and other resources. Historian Nick Estes walks us through what that looks like in the U.S., and the great team behind the documentary The Territory brings us a recent example from Brazil. Check out the film here. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In April 2023, Joanna Oltman Smith walked into the National Gallery in Washington, D.C. with fellow activist Tim Martin, and smeared water-soluble kids' finger paint on the glass display case containing a Degas statue called "Little Dancer." The two read off a statement about the importance of protecting actual, living children as well as we do sculptures of them. Smith and Martin figured they would be charged with vandalism, but each is now facing two felony charges, including one of "conspiring against the United States government." As we covered last month, one thing that makes it easy to criminalize protest is the steady hum of content that paints climate activists as fringe weirdos or out-of-touch elitists. We think it's important to meet these people and bring their stories and voices to you directly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A new report from Carbon Tracker finds that not only have oil and gas companies not been budgeting for plugging and abandoning wells, they've been grossly underestimating the cost of that work, especially for fracking wells. The COVID-19 pandemic has only highlighted the problem. Report co-authors Rob Schuwerk and Greg Rogers join to talk about the size of the problem, the cost, and who will ultimately pay.Report: https://carbontracker.org/reports/its-closing-time/Support us: https://www.drillednews.com/support-us Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Lots of news lately on stories we've been following, so in today's episode: an update! The landmark Carbon Majors report has been updated with some surprising new data, and the European Court of Human Rights has sent down an historic ruling that will shape how EU legislators look at energy and climate. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

How did our democracy get replaced by a kleptocracy?  Discover the truth on Master Plan, a new podcast from The Lever. Hosted by David Sirota, former speechwriter for Bernie Sanders and Oscar-nominated co-writer of Don’t Look Up, Master Plan exposes the deliberate scheme to legalize corruption in the U.S., allowing the wealthy to buy policies that benefit themselves and screw everyone else.  The Lever has unearthed never-before-reported documents proving this 50-year plot was a coordinated effort by wealthy individuals and political ideologues. Over the course of 10 episodes, the series follows the historic thread from Watergate in the ’70s through the Citizens United decision and the current Supreme Court scandals. It’s a tale of famous villains you already know like President Richard Nixon, Senator Mitch McConnell, and Fox News boss Roger Ailes, plus operatives and oligarchs you’ve never heard of. Listen to more episodes of Master Plan at https://link.chtbl.com/sIXXlFys?sid=Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

A look at how those fossil fuel-backed deception campaigns are continuing today, behind a couple layers of energy industry organizations, alliances, and "news" sites. Documentation: Western Energy Alliance 990, showing global oil execs on its board: https://pdf.guidestar.org/PDF_Images/2016/840/700/2016-840700841-0e72e02b-9O.pdf More on the formation of Energy In Depth: https://www.desmogblog.com/%E2%80%98energy-depth%E2%80%99-was-created-major-oil-and-gas-companies-according-industry-memoSupport us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Since the 2019 passage of the "Dangerous Attachment Devices" bill in response to anti-coal protests in Queensland, Australia's states have moved quickly to follow suit. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

What's happening in Guyana isn't just happening there. All over the globe, oil companies are racing to tap as many of the remaining fossil fuel reserves as they can. This week, we're joined by Rolling Stone reporter Jeff Goodell for a story about what the global oil rush looks like in another part of the world: Namibia. Read Jeff's story: https://www.rollingstone.com/politics/politics-features/oil-drilling-africa-destroy-wild-land-namibia-recon-investors-1234697088/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

As climate disinformation campaigns ramped up in the 1990s, oil companies and their PR firms exploited weaknesses in the U.S. media system and propped up "contrarian" scientists to push the narrative of scientific uncertainty and shift how journalists covered the issue.  Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In France, the unthinkable has happened for polluting industries: the working-class Yellow Vest movement, racial equity movements, and progressive climate activists have joined forces in a multi-racial, cross-class coalition called Earth Uprisings. The response has been shockingly violent and extreme. Reporter Anna Pujol-Mazzini takes us there. Check out Fatima Ouassak's new book Pour Une Écologie Pirate Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In the Juliana vs. The United States case, a group of young people sued the government for incentivizing increased fossil fuel dependence, thereby robbing the next generation of the pursuit for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. The suit has been active for years now, and a handful of other youth suits have joined it. This year a group of young people, including Greta Thunberg, filed a complaint with the United Nations that top fossil fuel-producing countries were violating the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. As both move forward, they we take a look at how these suits differ from climate liability cases, what makes them so compelling, and where they might head next.Support us: https://www.patreon.com/Drilled Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The FBI arrested Speaker of the Ohio House of Representatives, Larry Householder, this month for racketeering, or as the state attorney general put it "bribery, that's what it was." Private utility First Energy bribed Householder and a handful of other state politicians to pass a corporate bailout that kept coal and nuclear plants open and crushed renewables. UC Santa Barbara political science professor Leah Stokes, author of the book Short Circuiting Policy, joins to tell us all about it.Leah's book: https://www.leahstokes.com/book Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices