I asked LinkedIn's @jessiwrites if she had any idea how her headshot wound up being used by Texans for Natural Gas. When both of us contacted the group, we heard nothing, they only swapped her photo for a new stock image.
I stumbled into a whole wide world of astroturfing and *terrible* memes set up by the oil and gas industry and its paid consultants
I mean
I never could track down any person behind Texans for Natural Gas to talk to. The consulting group FTI Consulting, subject to an amazing investigation by @HirokoTabuchi, told me to contact the oil and gas companies directly, which declined to comment.
earlier this year I also reported how gas utilities hired social media influencers to sell you on gas stoves. There's a lot happening in this underworld of consulting. motherjones.com/environment/20…
• • •
Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to
force a refresh
Trump faces a hard deadline in May to finalize environmental rollbacks to avoid easy reversal if Dems win the 2020 election through the Congressional Review Act. That's why you're seeing so many announced now, when few are paying attention: motherjones.com/environment/20…
In the last few weeks alone the EPA and Interior have moved ahead with their:
Auto pollution rule
"Censored science" rule
Delisting of sage grouse
Fossil fuel lease sales
Halting enforcement
Mercury pollution reversal also expected soon
In the fine print even the EPA has admitted it will cut jobs and lead to asthma and more deaths from air pollution every year. motherjones.com/environment/20…
1. Start with the uncertainty. It’s okay to admit what you don’t know.
2. Science is messy. Studies are being published based on small samples and pre-peer review, and expect some confusion and contradictions as a matter of course.
Trump is NOT changing his messaging around climate. It's a waste of time trying to read tea leaves. There has never been a greater meaning to his comments than inaction and delay.
THREE years ago the NYT editorial board breathlessly claimed Trump had shifted on climate post election. So Nov 2016 I wrote a line-by-line analysis why they were spun grist.org/politics/trump…
The electric utility sector spent decades promoting delay and uncertainty, despite understanding the dangers of CO2 as early as the 1960s. Don't forget that history in California's blackout crisis motherjones.com/environment/20…
PG&E was an early member of the industry denier group Global Climate Coalition 30 years ago, documents show. It's possible "that history becomes a relevant legal part" of its future motherjones.com/environment/20…