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Rebecca Leber Profile picture
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11 Feb, 9 tweets, 5 min read
I've been working on this new feature for months.

It started with reporting on gas stove influencers. I got my hands on revealing industry emails & unpacked the layers of fossil fuel astroturf using America's favorite appliance to fight climate action motherjones.com/environment/20…
It includes admissions by gas industry veterans downplaying how stoves can cause indoor air pollution linked to all sorts of health problems

“If we wait to promote natural gas stoves until we have scientific data that they are not causing any air quality issues we’ll be done."
An employee of Imprenta, a PR group working on behalf of SoCalGas, posed as a concerned neighbor on NextDoor to drive community opposition to electrification in one California city

Here are those NextDoor comments displayed on the front group's website:
One of the best parts of reporting this story was digging into the century of gas industry marketing telling us how great and wonderful the gas stove is.

My favorite has to be this "educational rap" from 1988:
One important takeaway: The fossil fuel industry doesn't really care about gas stoves. They are just using your love for an appliance to keep us hooked on gas and stop cities from cleaning up the building sector's climate pollution motherjones.com/environment/20…
The tables have started to turn on the gas industry; the work of @RockyMtnInst and @bradytoday exposing stove indoor air pollution a reason why. They were an invaluable resource in reporting out this story. See this report for more on health effects: rmi.org/insight/gas-st…
For an EXCELLENT thread unpacking my #longread, check out the @motherjones feed:
like 100 people who don't read the piece flooding me with "but gas stoves are better" and I could write another 5000 words on that but this sums it up:
anyway it's not about personal preference. The industry's entire argument is about consumer freedom to choose your gas appliances. This is a sham. Millions of people don't have a choice between gas and electric, and have to put up with the health and planetary consequences of it

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More from @rebleber

Rebecca Leber Profile picture
15 Jan
Trump's damaging agenda on the environment is worse than most people realize. Like his corruption and disregard for other humans, his mission to dismantle the EPA was in plain sight before his 2016 election. Much of the media missed the story
your evergreen reminder that Trump had already promised to dismantle the EPA, called climate change a hoax, and promised to leave the Paris agreement, yet none of this was deemed worth the public's attention in presidential debates.
[this will be a longer thread when I work up the energy to relive the past four years]
Read 4 tweets
Rebecca Leber Profile picture
13 Jan
Trump today is finalizing a surprise rule that bars the EPA from regulating oil and gas and refineries, deeming them "necessarily insignificant" sources of greenhouse gas pollution.
The idea Trump is finalizing these short-lived rules only to “to clog up the works and slow the Biden administration down" is sounding more likely every day motherjones.com/environment/20…
More from @alexcguillen on the surprise attack politico.com/states/califor…
Read 7 tweets
Rebecca Leber Profile picture
19 Dec 20
here's my rundown of the team and agencies tasked with carrying out Biden's climate plans motherjones.com/environment/20…
Gina McCarthy: "I'm here today because climate change isn't only a threat to the planet, but a threat to our health and well-being. It's a threat to people everywhere and the precious natural resources we depend on."
clear themes stuck out: Biden's Climate Cabinet is focused on addressing environmental injustices and coordinating throughout the administration. climate is not just a priority of the EPA's but in every agency.

motherjones.com/environment/20…
Read 4 tweets
Rebecca Leber Profile picture
14 Dec 20
Here's my new one on the mystery women of natural gas motherjones.com/environment/20…
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.

It only got weirder from there motherjones.com/environment/20…
I stumbled into a whole wide world of astroturfing and *terrible* memes set up by the oil and gas industry and its paid consultants
Read 10 tweets
Rebecca Leber Profile picture
31 Mar 20
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

motherjones.com/environment/20…
Environmental rollbacks costs lives.

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…

@yayitsrob has done great deep dives into the bad math:
theatlantic.com/science/archiv…
Read 4 tweets
Rebecca Leber Profile picture
18 Mar 20
everyone's suddenly trying to interpret science, decide who's a trusted expert, and navigate uncertainty.

you know who is just like you, but has tons of experience in having to navigate those situations?

science journalists. here are their tips: motherjones.com/media/2020/03/…
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.

motherjones.com/media/2020/03/…
3. Consider limiting your news consumption to trusted sources and vetted experts than the overwhelming social media timeline.

4. Remember that it's not always worth debunking misinformation, because you can manage to reinforce the original myth.

motherjones.com/media/2020/03/…
Read 6 tweets

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