Internal documents revealed by committee show companies lobbied against climate laws they publicly claimed to support
...Major fossil-fuel firms have also pledged support for international climate efforts, but internally admit these efforts are incompatible with their own climate plans. And they have lobbied against climate laws and regulations they have publicly claimed to support, documents newly revealed by the committee show.
The tranche of subpoenaed communications were unveiled on Tuesday morning by Democrats on the House oversight committee before a Wednesday hearing.
“For decades, the fossil-fuel industry has known about the economic and climate harms of its products but has deceived the American public to keep collecting more than $600bn each year in subsidies while raking in record-breaking profits,” said Rhode Island Democrat Sheldon Whitehouse, who chairs the committee.
...“The evidence uncovered by oversight committee Democrats shows that big oil has run campaigns to confuse and mislead the public,” said Maryland Democrat Jamie Raskin, ranking member on the committee. “Today’s joint report demonstrates that big oil continues to conceal the facts about their business model and obscure the actual dangers of fossil fuels.”
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Cannabis would join drugs like testosterone and ketamine on Schedule III of the Controlled Substances Act.
On Tuesday, the Associated Press reported that the Drug Enforcement Administration is proposing that cannabis be reclassified from Schedule I of the Controlled Substances Act, a classification that comes with steep penalties, to the less severe Schedule III, for drugs with significant medical use. If the White House Office of Management and Budget approves the decision, the DEA would be able to offer its proposal for public comment.
Schedule I drugs, according to the DEA’s website, have “no currently accepted medical use and a high potential for abuse”; other Schedule I drugs include heroin and ecstasy. If the proposal moves along, its public comment period would need to be followed with approval by an administrative judge, and marijuana could then be reclassified alongside ketamine and testosterone on Schedule III. Just three states—Idaho, Kansas and Nebraska—currently do not have any laws that let residents use cannabis or cannabidiol for medical purposes.
...President Biden has repeatedly said he’d take steps to decriminalize marijuana—at a speech in Wisconsin, when asked what he would do to stop people from being imprisoned for possessing pot, he said, “I’m taking care of that.”
A deal to stop plastic pollution is moving forward, but negotiators can’t agree on whether to produce less of the stuff.
...Delegates made important progress on the treaty, the final version of which is due by the end of the year. They pared down a lengthy draft of the text and agreed on a formal agenda for “intersessional” work ahead of the next — and final — meeting, in Busan, South Korea, scheduled for November 25. That work will involve critical issues around funding the treaty’s provisions and identifying plastic-related chemicals that should be restricted.
The agenda, however, doesn’t mention the elephant in the room: whether and how the treaty will limit plastic production.
“Nothing happened that was particularly surprising, but this outcome is still quite demoralizing,” said Chris Dixon, an ocean campaign leader for the nonprofit Environmental Investigation Agency who attended the talks. Other groups called the outcome “disappointing” and said the negotiations had been “undermined by deep-rooted industry influence.”
"The inappropriately named 'Trust the Science Act' not only puts endangered gray wolves at risk for extinction, but it completely undermines the purpose of the Endangered Species Act," one wildlife advocate said.
The so-called Trust the Science Act, which was introduced by far-right election denier Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colo.), passed by a narrow 209-205 margin. It would reimpose a Trump administration decision to delist gray wolves that was later overturned in federal court.
"This move by extremists in Congress to push forward an anti-wolf, anti-science bill is irresponsible and emboldens cruelty towards gray wolves," said Endangered Species Coalition executive director Susan Holmes.
...Scientists have discovered that wolves are very beneficial for the ecosystems they inhabit; their reintroduction into Yellowstone National Park increased the park's biodiversity by controlling elk and deer that had overgrazed trees, allowing willows and aspens to thrive and attract the song birds and beavers that depend on them.
Lawmakers say investors that scooped up hundreds of thousands of houses to rent out are driving up home prices
Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House have sponsored legislation that would force large owners of single-family homes to sell houses to family buyers. A Republican’s bill in the Ohio state legislature aims to drive out institutional owners through heavy taxation.
...In some American cities, institutional investors hold a much larger share of homes than they hold nationally. In Atlanta, nearly 11% of all rental homes in the five-county area are now owned by three real-estate companies, a recent study by researchers at Georgia State University found. A 2022 analysis by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development said 21% of Atlanta rental homes were owned by some large institution.
Rep. Nikema Williams (D., Ga.), from the Atlanta area, in December co-sponsored the End Hedge Fund Control of American Homes Act in the U.S. House. The act "won’t solve all of the problems, but it will definitely make an impact," she said in an interview.
Tesla is also getting rid of its public policy team, despite robotaxi ambitions.
There's more chaos at Tesla this week. The Information reports that last night, the company's erratic CEO Elon Musk emailed workers with the news that he has dismissed a key pair of executives—one responsible for the Supercharger network, and the other head of new vehicle development.
...Customers not turned off by Musk's antics instead are losing interest with a product line up of two EVs that are ancient in car years (the Models S and X) and two EVs that are merely old (the Models 3 and Y). The Models 3 and Y are also the only two vehicles that Tesla sells in volume. Any other automaker would have a second-generation Model 3 ready to go either this year or next, but at Tesla the product pipeline is empty.
And yet, Tesla is not just laying off Daniel Ho, director of vehicle programs and new product introduction, but also his entire team.
...All of which makes the decision to get rid of senior director of EV charging Rebecca Tinucci—along with her entire team—a bit of a head-scratcher. If I were the driver of a non-Tesla EV expecting to get access to Superchargers this year, I'd probably expect this to result in some friction. Musk told workers that Tesla "will continue to build out some new Supercharger locations, where critical, and finish those currently under construction."
...Earlier this month Tesla engaged in another round of layoffs that decimated the company and also parted ways with longtime executive Drew Baglino, who was responsible for Tesla's battery development.
Elon Musk‘s move to lay off the department responsible for Tesla’s electric vehicle charging network has touched off worries in the auto industry about plans to open the chargers to EVs made by other automakers.
Several leaders of Tesla’s Supercharger team posted social media messages saying they were told Monday night that entire group of about 500 had been laid off by CEO Musk, who seemed to confirm the move in a posting Tuesday on X, the social media site he now owns.
… Cutting the charging department raised questions in the industry about whether adding EVs from other automakers would work with no staff to support the changes. But Ford, the first in the industry to sign up with Tesla, said its plans to join have not changed.
General Motors was a little more cautious. “We are continuing to monitor the situation regarding changes to the Supercharger team and the potential impacts,” it said in a statement.
… Sam Abuelsamid, principal e-mobility research analyst for Guidehouse Insights, said Musk’s decision is puzzling because gutting the charging department comes just as hardware and software from other automakers is being integrated into Tesla’s network. “To do that and maintain that, you need to have a staff that can go out there and keep the hardware running, keep the software working,” he said.
Tesla shocked the auto industry this week after its CEO Elon Musk fired the entire 500 person team working on its vaunted Supercharger network, a project that's considered instrumental in facilitating EV adoption across the country with its quick and convenient charging stations.
...Yet as far as benefiting from big government money goes, $17 million is a drop in the bucket for Musk, who's publicly criticized — if not smeared — other entities, including NPR, for receiving such funding.
...Musk's culling of the Supercharging team could raise questions about how those federal grants are being put to use. The decision is especially puzzling given that Tesla's charging network is by far the largest in the country. It's so dominant, in fact, that other automakers like Rivian and Ford have adopted Tesla's NCAS charging standard.They may be regretting that now.
The future of coal played a starring role in the 2016 presidential election. As an industry, an energy supply, and a source of jobs and identity in many communities, coal was both a practical and symbolic issue, one that helped solidify Donald Trump’s support among white working class voters not just in coal country itself but around the nation. It stood in for a deep divide between the parties, one that cast Trump as the champion of what he called “the forgotten men and women of our country,” while Hillary Clinton and her party were supposedly cruel elitists ready to condemn those Americans to a future of deprivation in pursuit of a radical and ruinous environmental agenda.
Eight years later, the future of coal — or more specifically, the shape and speed of its demise — is being decided through administration policy and the workings of the market. But on the campaign trail, no one is talking about it. Coal has almost disappeared as a political issue.
...More and more, coal seems like yesterday’s news; total production has declined by nearly 50%since 2008. While environmental regulations have had an impact, the biggest reason is competition, first from natural gas and then from renewables, which are now cheaper than coal for electricity generation. While every last voter may not be aware of that fact, years of headlines to that effect — and the steadily increasing number of jobs in the renewables industry — may be penetrating into public consciousness.
This is kind of an important twitter thread — an ex-Libertarian lays out how MAGA has demolished the national Libertarian Party in order to prevent it from syphoning off votes from Trump’s GOP. If the Dems had done something similar to the Green Party, it would be a national scandal on the front pages of the New York Times. But as always, IOKIYR.
Siemens Mobility has been selected as the “preferred bidder” to build the initial trainsets for the Brightline West high speed rail project, Brightline announced today (Wednesday, May 1).
Siemens will build 10 “American Pioneer 220” trainsets and receive a 30-year contract for maintenance at a facility in Sloan, Nev., under the agreement. The equipment was designed to consider future interoperability with the California High-Speed Rail project, and will meet “Buy America” requirements.
The new equipment will be based on the Siemens Velaro platform already operating in Europe. Siemens will develop a new facility to build the equipment at a location to be announced when the contract is finalized. The seven-car trainsets will have a capacity of 434 to 450 passengers, depending on final configuration. Brightline says they will be “designed to be the most accessible train on the market,” exceeding ADA requirements in allowing passengers in wheelchairs to move from car to car.
Boeing's 787 "Dreamliner" is manufactured far from the company's Seattle facility, in a non-union shop in Charleston, South Carolina. At that shop, there is a cage full of defective parts that have been pulled from production because they are not airworthy.
Hundreds of parts from that Material Review Segregation Area (MRSA) were secretly pulled from that cage and installed on aircraft that are currently plying the world's skies. Among them, sections 47/48 of a 787 – the last four rows of the plane, along with its galley and rear toilets. As Moe Tkacik writes in her excellent piece on Boeing's lethally corrupt culture of financialization and whistleblower intimidation, this is a big ass chunk of an airplane, and there's no way it could go missing from the MRSA cage without a lot of people knowing about it.
More: MRSA parts are prominently emblazoned with red marks denoting them as defective and unsafe. For a plane to escape Boeing's production line and find its way to a civilian airport near you with these defective parts installed, many people will have to see and ignore this literal red flag.
...Boeing is America's last aviation company and its single largest exporter. After the company was allowed to merge with its rival McDonnell-Douglas in 1997, the combined company came under MDD's notoriously financially oriented management culture. MDD CEO Harry Stonecipher became Boeing's CEO in the early 2000s. Stonecipher was a protege of Jack Welch, the man who destroyed General Electric with cuts to quality and workforce and aggressive union-busting, a classic Mafia-style "bust-out" that devoured the company's seed corn and left it a barren wasteland.
...the short film “aims to inspire a conversation around the stories we tell in our film and television culture in a time of climate and nature crisis. The hope is that the film will resonate with a broad range of viewers and act as a mechanism for inspiring talent engagement in a new wave of storytelling and a sense of possibility in addressing the climate crisis.”
Staci Roberts-Steele, managing director and producer at Yellow Dot Studios, said: “We are extremely excited to partner with Climate Spring and filmmaker Jack Cooper Stimpson on a project addressing the current critical moment in the climate crisis. Yellow Dot is always ready to support the idea of going against the status quo and shaking up narratives in the climate movement. Storytelling is one of the main areas where we can view concepts from fresh angles and we are thrilled to have the opportunity to collaborate with this incredible team.”
Watch “More Flames” and learn more about the #FlipTheScript campaign here.
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The crew of the Overnight News Digest consists of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, jeremybloom, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Rise above the swamp, Besame and jck. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) eeff, Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw