As one of the climate activists quoted in @emorwee's excellent piece about @PeteButtigieg's volunteer advisor David Victor, I invite Victor to explain why he is testifying for the government in the @youthvgov lawsuit.
And I invite everyone else to study his testimony.
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And I invite everyone else to study his testimony.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov For the past few days I have been pulling statements from Victor's testemony and tweeting them out as polls asking if you think they are true or false.
By a wide margin you all read them as false or misleading.
Let's review them.
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By a wide margin you all read them as false or misleading.
Let's review them.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov Here Victor was contesting another expert's claim that fossil fuel subsidies are a key pillar of US energy policy, the elimination of which will play an important role in US climate policy.
@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov True that on a straight dollar 4 dollar basis, eliminating US subsidies for oil would not in fact lower global oil consumption or, therefore, emissions from oil.
But that accounting method ignores policy that repurposes subsidies into clean energy development/deployment &...
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But that accounting method ignores policy that repurposes subsidies into clean energy development/deployment &...
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov It also ignores how the US Govt's eliminating direct fossil fuel subsidies (not to mention imposing a Federal carbon price) would send a strong market signal that private investment in decarbonized energy would be safe and profitable.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov Now, I'm neither a political scientist nor an energy expert, but I can recognize how people craft sentences to shape your perception of information, and what Victor does in the finding above is make a decontextualized claim whose truth is complicated by a fuller context.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov Moving on: this sentence is part of Victor's attack on Joseph Stiglitz's claim that the US did not do enough to develop an energy system that was not dependent on fossil fuels.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov The truth of this statement depends on how you define "substantially."
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov Victor defines "substantially" as a large fraction of the US R&D budget (which by all accounts is woefully inadequate) in a timeframe since 1980 (when fossil fuel extraction was already well under way and no longer subject to seed research).
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov I'm going to skip over Victor's claim👇, since taking "an" affirmative action to eliminate fossil fuels at one point in history is so obviously an inadequate response to the climate crisis that it doesn't bear mentioning.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov Finally, let's look at this finding: that the US "has been at the forefront of efforts to build" the international "institutions" meant to produce the cooperation that will halt global warming.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov As anyone who's read Machiavelli can tell you, one reason to create an institution supposedly against your own narrow interests is to use it to promote your interests.
& the US has consistently used their institutions to block the ratification of robust international abatement.
& the US has consistently used their institutions to block the ratification of robust international abatement.
@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov There is so much literature on this fact it's absurd to think it's for debate.
Here is *Losing Earth*: smile.amazon.com/Losing-Earth-H…
👇Is a reference to a piece on the US opposition to legally binding targets and finance in Paris.
There is a ton of research on the years in between.
Here is *Losing Earth*: smile.amazon.com/Losing-Earth-H…
👇Is a reference to a piece on the US opposition to legally binding targets and finance in Paris.
There is a ton of research on the years in between.
@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov At any rate, lest anyone think I'm cherry picking, here is Victor's testimony. I encourage you to read it for yourself.
blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change…
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blogs2.law.columbia.edu/climate-change…
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov Victor argues that both it was historically inevitable that the US would develop the fossil fuel economy and that the US did everything it possibly could to prevent the development of the fossil fuel economy.
Yes, that's self-contradictory.
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Yes, that's self-contradictory.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov Victor further argues that the US will play such a small role in decarbonizing the global economy that the courts cannot find that the government's actions have contributed to climate change.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov Someone also told me this am that he also claims the courts are not the appropriate venue for deciding questions of climate liability due to separation of powers.
I'm not sure that's true, but if it is I'll just note that the FF industry mounted the same defense in CA last year.
I'm not sure that's true, but if it is I'll just note that the FF industry mounted the same defense in CA last year.
@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov So. Victor may claim that I live in "an imaginary world that is fun to think about."
But I am living in a world where someone deeply involved with international climate policy is misrepresenting history and having his work funded by BP.
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But I am living in a world where someone deeply involved with international climate policy is misrepresenting history and having his work funded by BP.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov If you think that BP funds people who do work counter to their business interests, I can only quote Mary Heglar.
Bitch, please.
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Bitch, please.
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov All that said, many good faith and brilliant people here insist that Victor is an ally. They see his behavior as an expression of a difference of opinion (or of an approach to global decarbonization?).
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@emorwee @PeteButtigieg @youthvgov Just for the sake of argument, I will grant that you might want to partner with fossil fuel companies and try to transform them from the inside.
But how does testifying for the government in Juliana v. U.S. help decarbonize the world?
Thanks in advance.
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But how does testifying for the government in Juliana v. U.S. help decarbonize the world?
Thanks in advance.
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