Comments:
Pilot3:
Goebbels would be proud. No tactic is too slimy for big business.
asdfkjasldk:
Their new definition of green energy is “anything better than coal”. Their clean coal friends are going to be really pissed.
Voter Frog:
In other news, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed a bill this month to legally redefine rape as “alternative sex”.
Remainhumane:
Right wing dark money legislatures redefine “green energy” as energy fueled by greenhouse gasses.
Doncha love Orwellian Doublespeak?
This is how the corruption rolls:
2023 02 27: Oilpatch funds balloon for pro-Smith political group after she supports royalty break
Oilpatch support for Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s agenda ballooned after she won her party’s leadership and put the so-called RStar program — a plan to give tax breaks to energy companies for fulfilling cleanup work they are already obliged to do — high on the government agenda.
Elections Alberta records and an analysis by The Canadian Press suggest donations to the Alberta First Initiative, a pro-Smith advocacy group, increased eightfold from companies associated with the energy industry after Smith became premier. While the Initiative says it does not support RStar, its founder previously worked with a group that promoted it.
The Initiative also appears to have participated in Smith’s successful campaign to win the United Conservative Party leadership, which she sought after leaving Alberta Enterprise Group, a business group that lobbied in favour of RStar. The Initiative is now funding attack ads against the New Democrat Opposition and supporting Smith as the province gears up for a spring election.
“Alberta, we can’t afford the NDP,” says one of the ads on the Initiative’s website.
“Danielle Smith will make Alberta better for me and my family,” says another.
It’s an index of how close the governing party is to the province’s dominant industry — a relationship that also carries risks, said University of Alberta political science professor Jared Wesley.
“Entitlement is kind of the Conservatives’ kryptonite in Alberta,” he said. …
The founder of Alberta First said the group is exercising its rights.
“(Alberta First) has a mission to promote policies, educate activists and engage Albertans to participate in democracy,” Mackenzie Lee said in an emailed response to a series of questions from The Canadian Press.
The RStar proposal, developed by an industry group, has been criticized by legal experts, energy economists and some of the province’s own internal analysts. It’s been called a violation of the polluter pay principle, an incentive for companies to not fulfil their obligations and a reward for those who haven’t.
For more than a year, Smith and her cabinet have been outspoken advocates of the plan, which would enable companies to use reclamation spending to gain credits against future royalty payments, despite that reclamation being a condition of their original drilling licence.
“I love it,” Smith said on a 2021 YouTube broadcast, when she was a lobbyist for the Alberta Enterprise Group. She also wrote a supportive letter that July as group president to then-energy minister Sonya Savage.
On May 19, 2022, Smith announced she would leave her job as president of the Alberta Enterprise Group and run for the UCP leadership.
The Alberta First Initiative was incorporated six days later, timing Lee called “coincidental.”
… Elections Alberta public reports show the Initiative received donations of $37,500 in the third quarter of 2022, which would have arrived during Smith’s UCP leadership campaign. An analysis by The Canadian Press using public websites as well as corporate records searched by the NDP suggest about two-thirds of that came from energy sector firms or firms providing services to them.
… Oilpatch donations subsequently poured in to the Initiative.
Compared to the $37,500 the Initiative received in July through September of last year, Elections Alberta records show the group picked up $330,000 in the last three months of 2022. Of that, $200,000 was from energy companies or those providing services to them.
Maximum allowable donations to third-party groups such as the Initiative are almost seven times higher than limits for political parties or leadership contests. As well, corporations are allowed to donate.
Nearly one-third of the Initiative’s donations were for the $30,000 maximum. No donation was smaller than $5,000.
… Scotiabank recently concluded the four companies best placed to take advantage of the program were Canadian Natural Resources, Cenovus, Paramount Resources and Whitecap Resources. Those companies reported about $5 billion in net income in the last quarter.
“We also believe the program goes against the core capitalist principle that private companies should take full responsibility for the liabilities they willingly accept,” Scotiabank said. …
Ohio Slaps ‘Green’ Label on Natural Gas as ‘An Opinion Statement,’ Says Governor by Morgan Evans, February 1, 2023, Natural Gas Intel
Natural gas is officially labeled “green” in Ohio after Gov. Mike DeWine last month signed House Bill (HB) 507 into law, though the green stamp may not carry much legislative weight for funding or regulations, according to the governor’s office.
HB 507 passed the Ohio Senate in December, with the primary goal of ensuring state agencies would lease land for oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) activities.
After some holdups at the state’s Department of Natural Resources Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) to fully adopt a state code from September 2021 to establish a standard lease form by which state agencies could enter contract with E&Ps, the Ohio Senate rolled in an amendment to HB507 that would expedite the standard lease form.
No longer “may” state agencies lease land, but “shall lease, in good faith, a formation within a parcel of land” for oil and gas development, the legislation reads.
The bill contains a qualifier that “‘Green energy’ includes energy generated by using natural gas as a resource,” as well as an energy source that emits reduced air pollutants, and thus reduces cumulative air emissions and “is more sustainable and reliable relative to some fossil fuels,” according to HB507.
The green label for natural gas is unseen in the United States, but in Europe, regulators this summer voted to accept a proposal from the European Commission to classify new natural gas and nuclear power projects as green.
The European Union, facing what the International Energy Agency has called an “energy crisis,” would allow subsidies and low-cost loans for natural gas and nuclear projects deemed sustainable. 
“Sustainable” is a con word to enable polluting industries. Impossible for gas or nuclear to be sustainable.
But in Ohio, the green label may not do much.
As of December, permitting in the Utica Shale has declined by 43%, down by 19 permits, according to the latest data from Evercore ISI. Moving forward, it may be possible that the OGLMC’s issuance of permits rises as a result of other language in HB507, but not necessarily as a result of the green label.
“Our legal team reviewed the ‘green energy’ provision, and the legislative language did not affect any funding or regulations,” said Dewine’s Press Secretary Dan Tierney. “It was more of an opinion statement by the General Assembly than anything. This was not administration language from our office.
“Natural Gas is an important component of Ohio’s energy mix for many reasons, but of relevance here is the fact that natural gas is cleaner than coal and other fossil fuels,” he told NGI. Big frac’ing lie, pimped by billion dollar profit raping oil and gas lobby groups, companies, frac’d academics, and deregulating regulators. Frac’d gas is not clean, or safe, and it certainly is not green, no matter what you do with it or how you look at it. And, it loses money.
“Thus, when we move to natural gas, we are helping our country and the world. While wind and solar are cleaner energy sources, we cannot replace fossil fuel with wind and solar overnight, making natural gas all the more important to our energy mix.”
Arguments For And Against HB507
The Empowerment Alliance (TEA), a nonprofit that advocates for natural gas’ use for U.S. energy independenceWhat a vulgar mouthful of industry con words, applauded the declaration that natural gas is now considered a clean source of energy under Ohio law.
A spokesperson for TEA told NGI, “The label itself is an awareness thing, but it’s a first step toward letting people realize that natural gas has been around, in our estimation…, we feel it’s helped reduce emissions…”Your feely mealies are wrong. Try reading reading reality and thinking instead. I cringe to think what the next step of lies will be. Nice new trick – call the lies feelings so the propaganda agency can’t be called a liar.
According to the organization, switching from coal-fired electricity generation to natural gas-fired generation has “been the number one driver of lower emissions,” with carbon dioxide (C02) emissions from the power generation sector falling by about 32% since 2005.
“America leads the world in CO2 reductions and natural gas is responsible for 61% of carbon dioxide reductions in U.S. electricity generation,” according to TEA.Natural gas, notably frac’d with mystery trade secret toxic chemicals and forever PFAS, is not cleaner than coal, it increases pollution and harms dramatically, and is permanently removing drinking water from the hydrogeological cycle, including in communities with severe water shortages. It is devastating public health and health of livestock and wildlife. This boring “natural gas is cleaner than coal” lie has been spouted for years, including by notorious liar anti-science, anti vaxxer, self-serving Kennedy, and Sierra Club – another polluter pimp NGO (lies in exchange for $millions in “donations”).
The organization’s spokesperson also told NGI that, “The bigger issue also is consumer choice and affordable energy for working Pffft! Oil, gas and frac companies are automating to feed greed, decimating jobs by the hundreds of thousands Americans…That’s what we’ve been talking about, just fighting for affordable Pffft! Gas companies are robbing and poisoning families blind, across the USA and elsewhere in the world. Just wait til LNG is up and running everywhere. Ordinary North Americans will not be able to afford to heat their homes, never mind the poor. American-produced energy that is hopefully good for the environment and hopefully affordable to most people who are fighting inflation and all of the other things that are taking money out of your wallet.”That’s the most baloney-loaded paragraph I’ve ever read. They’d be great working for CAPP, Encana/Ovintiv, Pierre Pepperhead (Poilievre), Doug Ford, Alberta Premier Danielle Smith’s office and or AER, etc.
Meanwhile, the Ohio Environmental Council (OEC) voiced its disagreements with HB507. The OEC’s Law Center submitted a letter to DeWine noting the bill’s unconstitutionality, as under Article II, Section 15, subsection D, “No bill shall contain more than one subject, which shall be clearly expressed in its title…”
The OEC noted that HB507 was initially introduced as an act solely for the purpose of amending the number of poultry chicks that may be sold in lots.
HB507, as passed, contains provisions related to agriculture law, definitions of green energy, natural gas’ exclusion from receiving renewable energy credits and other miscellaneous legal revisions, as noted in the title of the legislation. Good old white man rule of law, bound to wipe humanity out sooner than later.
The OEC’s Chris Tavenor, associate general counsel, also told NGI that there are problems with labeling natural gas as green because when it’s “burned it produces the greenhouse gas” CO2.
Natural gas “is…contributing to climate change,” Tavenor said. “When leaked from pipelines and wells as just methane, it is 80 times more powerful than CO2 as a greenhouse gas. Simply put, no fossil fuel can be considered green energy.”
Legal reality check:
End legal reality check.
More States To Follow?
In related news, a four-member group of Republican legislators in New Mexico attempted to push a similar bill that would qualify combined cycle gas turbines (CCGT), as a renewable energy resource available to rural electric cooperatives (coops).
However, under the state’s Energy Transition Act (ETA), which passed in 2019, all New Mexico investor-owned utilities (IOU) and rural electric cooperatives are required to achieve a mix of renewable energy resources that comprises 80% of their portfolio by 2040, with IOUs then required to achieve 100% zero-carbon resource mixes by 2045, and rural coops by 2050.
According to the New Mexico Political Report, a nonprofit news organization for the state, the bill died in its first committee in a 7-4, party line vote.
A fiscal impact report released on the bill determined it conflicted with SB74, legislation also passed in 2019 related to public health.
The New Mexico Attorney General wrote in its analysis that CCGTs “are not ‘zero carbon’ resources, the proposed amendments to the definition of renewable energy would not exempt these electricity generating resources from the ETA’s mandates.”
While New Mexico’s ETA may have blocked HB96, it’s possible other states may attempt to push through similar measures.
“It could make sense to get those states,” the TEA spokesperson told NGI, referring to Pennsylvania, Texas and West Virginia.
“We have gotten emails back from legislators and regular residents saying, ‘We support the message’ and ‘We support American energy independence and natural gas.’ So, where it goes from here, I’m not completely sure…”
TEA’s “Declaration of Energy Independence,” which states that signatories “are committed to achieving” goals that would bolster natural gas production and use, has garnered attention in natural gas and oil-rich states.
In Pennsylvania, TEA’s declaration has received signatures from Sen. Pat Toomey (R), Treasurer Stacy Garrity (R) and five former and current Republican members of the state’s House.
Texas also has a slew of current and former Republican members of government that have signed on, including Gov. Greg Abott (R), Sen. Ted Cruz (R) and Sen. John Cornyn (R).
In West Virginia, four Republican-elected officials also are signatories on the declaration, according to TEA.
“There’s oil and gas there, and we’re simply pointing out that those are states that could follow suit,” the TEA spokesperson noted. “As to our involvement in it, I’m not sure where that’s at or where that’s headed, but not saying that couldn’t happen down the road.”
The Corporate Campaign To Greenwash Natural Gas by Naomi LaChance, Feb 14, 2023, Lever News
Fossil fuel-backed Democrats and Republicans are teaming up to promote natural gas as a clean energy source and maintain its use.
Last month, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed legislation to call natural gas a “green energy.” The law was pushed by conservative dark money groups and passed by Republican lawmakers backed by the oil and gas industry.
A few weeks later, former congressman and 2022 Ohio Democratic Senate candidate Tim Ryan joined a fossil fuel front group that claims “natural gas is accelerating our transition to a clean energy future.”
These greenwashing efforts are examples of how politicians from both parties are helping the fossil fuel industry’s campaign to promote the use of natural gas and brand it as a climate-friendly energy source. At times, this help has entailed former elected officials getting hired by the industry.
The efforts come as the Biden administration considers banning gas stoves, based on concerns about asthma. Some cities have banned natural gas hookups in new buildings, while others are considering a ban.
Despite the claims of the energy industry and their political allies that natural gas is a climate-friendly alternative to other fossil fuels, the production and use of natural gas, which is essentially methane, has a negative impact on both the planet and public health. Natural gas, which people use to heat their homes and power their stoves, contributes to increasing global temperatures. Experts warn the effects of natural gas leaks could make its use even worse for the planet than coal.
“Earth’s Cleanest Traditional Fuel”
The American Gas Association, a gas industry lobbying group, has described natural gas as “the earth’s cleanest traditional fuel,” claiming that its use cuts emissions. Oil and gas giant ExxonMobil’s website calls natural gas a cleaner fuel, while Chevron says it’s the “cleanest burning conventional fuel.” Other companies are pushing the idea of “green” liquified natural gas, the form in which gas is stored and transported. In 2019, the Trump Administration even tried to rebrand natural gas as “freedom gas.”
But research has shown that methane is worse for the environment than fossil fuel companies let on. Methane molecules, the main component of natural gas, are as much as 90 times more effective at trapping heat than carbon dioxide molecules are. While methane releases far less carbon than coal, its use contributes to rising global temperatures.
For years, energy companies have downplayed the amount of methane they are leaking into the atmosphere. Researchers have found that the effects of methane leaks during the fracking and transportation process could outweigh the supposed climate benefits of using natural gas over coal.
In addition to the broader climate impacts, there are also health and safety risks associated with using gas appliances in homes and workplaces. These factors have led some cities — and some state and federal policymakers — to look to move away from natural gas.
Berkeley and San Francisco, California, have banned natural gas hookups in new buildings. The U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission, a federal government agency that assesses risks associated with products and creates bans or recalls, is considering banning gas stoves, citing concerns about asthma.
In New York, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) recently voiced her support for a ban on the use of fossil fuels for heating beginning in 2030. She also said she supported a ban on gas stoves in new construction. Last year, New York City banned fossil fuel heating equipment in certain buildings starting in 2024.
The gas stove ban floated by the Biden administration quickly drew ire from conservatives concerned about a purported lack of personal freedom. Coal magnate Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) have now introduced legislation to preemptively block any federal ban on new gas stoves.
In many states, politicians have also already stepped in to protect the gas industry. In 2019, Flagstaff, Arizona, was focused on using electric power as a way to reduce emissions. The next year, the state legislature passed a preemption law barring cities and towns from banning natural gas on a local level.
Nineteen other states have followed Arizona’s lead and made it so cities and towns cannot ban natural gas — often with backing from the fossil fuel industry. For instance, former Utah state Rep. Steve Handy (R) told Stateline, an initiative of The Pew Charitable Trusts, that gas utility Dominion Energy requested that he propose legislation barring natural gas bans, which he sponsored and Utah passed in 2021.
“Model Legislation”
In Ohio, energy companies hold a notoriously strong influence. In 2020, the chair of the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio resigned after electric utility FirstEnergy Corp allegedly bribed Ohio lobbyists and political officials to try to get a $1.3 billion buyout for two Ohio power plants.
FirstEnergy and its affiliates allegedly passed $60 million through a dark money group to former Ohio House Speaker Larry Householder (R) and other politicians in exchange for the bailout. A federal corruption trial is underway.
There was also a dark money campaign behind the effort to develop and pass Ohio’s new law enshrining natural gas as a “clean energy.” Ohio lawmakers passed the legislation as part of a collaboration with dark money groups tied to the fossil fuel industry, according to documents obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute, a watchdog group focusing on renewable energ,.
The documents show one of the bill’s cosponsors, Ohio state Sen. George Lang (R), wrote from a conference held last summer by the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), a dark money group and policy hub for conservative politicians, that he would “be leaving the ALEC convention with some model legislation to define on the ORC [Ohio revised code] that natural gas is clean energy.”
One recipient of Lang’s email was Tom Rastin, executive vice president at the Ariel Corporation, the largest producer of natural gas compressors in the world. Natural gas compressors are crucial to pipelines because they make the gas easier to transport.
Rastin and his wife, Ariel CEO Karen Buchwald Wright, lead the Empowerment Alliance, a dark money group that supported the Ohio bill characterizing natural gas as clean energy. The couple has given money to the Republican Governors’ Association, which bankrolled ads supporting DeWine.
On their website, the Empowerment Alliance details its energy agenda. The first point is to “recognize natural gas as green.” They write: “American natural gas is affordable, clean, abundant, and reliable energy that improves the environment while securing American energy independence.”
Emails show Rastin corresponding with Lang as well as state Sen. Mark Romanchuk (R), another sponsor. Romanchuk has publicly claimed the bill was inspired by a 2022 E.U. decision to call natural gas “sustainable” in some instances.
According to the documents obtained by the Energy and Policy Institute, in October 2022, Romanchuk’s office sent language from the bill at least three times to Adam Hewitt, a lobbyist for the Empowerment Alliance.
Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute, told the Washington Post: “What the emails reveal is just how closely Ohio lawmakers coordinated with a natural gas industry group on the new law that misleadingly defines methane gas as green energy, as the first step of a plan to introduce similar legislation in multiple states.”
DeWine, Ohio’s Republican governor, has taken campaign contributions from several utilities that rely on or distribute natural gas, including American Electric Power, Duke Energy, NiSource, Dominion Energy, and FirstEnergy.
“We reviewed the ‘Green Energy’ language, and it has no effect on any state funding or regulations. The language is merely an opinion of the Ohio General Assembly,” Dan Tierney, DeWine’s press secretary, told The Lever.
“Pro-Climate, Pro-Affordability, and Pro-Natural Gas”
A prominent Ohio Democrat, meanwhile, is now aiding a separate fossil fuel industry campaign to greenwash natural gas.
Former congressman Tim Ryan, who lost the Ohio Senate race to J.D. Vance in November, recently joined the leadership council of Natural Allies for a Clean Energy Future, a front group for natural gas interests.
“I am excited to join Natural Allies and promote the role natural gas plays in meeting global climate goals faster, while advancing reliability and affordability here at home,” Ryan said in a press release. “These are kitchen table issues voters understand — people’s livelihoods and jobs often depend on rational energy policy. As Democrats, we can be pro-climate, pro-affordability, and pro-natural gas.”
During his Senate campaign, Ryan told the Washington Post that fracking, a process commonly used to extract natural gas, has “provided enormous economic benefits and moved the U.S. towards energy independence. Extravagant liar! Frac’ers lose money, they rely on massive handouts from their bought and dirty politicos, with the money coming out of the citizenry’s food, health and housing. We are essentially paying criminals to poison us and our loved ones in our communities and homes.However, we need to significantly ramp up our oversight and regulation of the industry and its practices, especially in regard to its use and disposal of water, as well as methane leaks.”
Natural Allies recently released a video ad narrated by young people that claims, “Replacing coal with natural gas is the best way to cut emissions, reach climate goals, [and] empower our future reliably, cleanly, and affordably.”
Ryan joined former Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) on Natural Allies’ leadership council. Landrieu, a conservative Democrat, became a lobbyist after losing her race in the 2014 election. She recently registered to lobby for the Williams Companies, a natural gas company supporting Natural Allies, on pipeline issues. Landrieu has also lobbied to help the oil and gas firm Enterprise Products obtain authorization to build a crude oil export hub off the coast of Texas.
How dark money groups led Ohio to redefine gas as ‘green energy’, Conservative groups helped Ohio lawmakers push the narrative that the fuel is clean, documents show. They are taking their campaign to other states by Maxine Joselow, January 17, 2023, The Washington Post
When Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) signed a bill this month to legally redefine natural gas as a source of “green energy,” supporters characterized it as the culmination of a grass-roots effort to recognize the Buckeye state’s largest energy source.
“It’s green. It’s clean. And it’s abundant right under our feet, right here in Ohio,” Rep. Troy Balderson (R-Ohio) wrote in an opinion piece in the Columbus Dispatch.
But Ohio’s new law is anything but homegrown, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post. The Empowerment Alliance, a dark money group with ties to the gas industry, helped Ohio lawmakers push the narrative that the fuel is clean, the documents show. The American Legislative Exchange Council, or ALEC, another anonymously funded group, assisted in the effort.
ALEC — a network of state lawmakers, businesses and conservative donors — circulated proposed legislation for Ohio lawmakers and has urged other states to follow suit, according to the documents, which were obtained via a public records request by the Energy and Policy Institute, a group that advocates for renewable energy.
“What the emails reveal is just how closely Ohio lawmakers coordinated with a natural gas industry group on the new law that misleadingly defines methane gas as green energy, as the first step of a plan to introduce similar legislation in multiple states,” said Dave Anderson, policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute.
Although Ohio Republicans say they are trying to promote their state’s energy industry, criticshave called the new law misleading and “Orwellian.” Unlike renewable energy sources such as wind and solar power, natural gas and other fossil fuels emit significant amounts of greenhouse gases. Leading scientists have said the world must rapidly phase out fossil fuels to avert the worst consequences of unchecked climate change.
The law also adds to afierce linguistic debate, one amped up by the recent furor over gas stoves and their health impacts.Climate activists have urged politicians and journalists to stop using the term “natural gas” and instead use the phrase “methane gas,” since its primary component is a powerful planet-warming pollutant.
The debate in Ohio comes as President Biden seeks to halve the nation’s greenhouse gas emissions by the end of the decade compared with 2005 levels, a move resisted by the fossil fuel industry on the federal, state and local levels.
Last summer, the documents show, a leader of the Empowerment Alliance emailed Ohio state Sens. George Lang (R) and Mark Romanchuk (R) to share a report from Goldman Sachs on the “importance of natural gas” in North America and globally.
“We are on the right track with natural gas is green energy,” wrote Tom Rastin, who leads the Empowerment Alliance with his wife, Karen Buchwald Wright.
As of last fall, Rastin and his wife were listed in Federal Election Commission filings as executives at Ariel Corporation, a manufacturer of natural gas compressors. The couple also are major Republican donors who have dined with former president Donald Trump. Under their leadership, the alliance spent more than $1 million supporting Ohio Republicans in the 2022 election.
Both lawmakers thanked Rastin for sending the report, with Romanchuk remarking that ithighlighted “Ohio’s prominent role” in energy production.
A week later, Lang emailed Rastin from the annual ALEC conference in Atlanta, saying he’d be leaving the convention “with some model legislation to define … that natural gas is clean energy.”
ALEC is known for drafting and disseminating “model” state legislation that tends to advance conservative, pro-business priorities. Several high-profile corporate members, however, have cut ties with the group over what they see as its opposition to climate action, including Google, BP and Facebook.
ALEC did not immediately respond to a request for comment. After this story published, however, the group disputed its involvement in the new law.
Joe Trotter, director of ALEC’s energy, Environment and Agriculture Task Force, said in an email that all model bills go through a “standard legislative process” that includes “member discussion, deliberation and voting.” The Ohio gas bill, he said, “has not gone through any of those steps at ALEC.”
Lang did not respond to a request for comment. Romanchuk declined to comment through a spokesman.
Anthony Conchel, a spokesman for the Empowerment Alliance (TEA), said in an email that “Natural Gas is Green is not an original TEA idea” and noted that natural gas has lower carbon dioxide emissions than coal, the dirtiest fossil fuel, helping the nation reduce some emissions.
“In our view, that is the very definition of green energy,” Conchel said.
‘Guess what? They are clean’
The legislative language that defined gas as green took an unusual path through the Ohio Senate, where it was an amendment to a bill focused on poultry purchases. Dubbed the “chicken bill,” the legislation originally sought to lower the minimum purchasing amount of poultry chicks from six to three.
But at the last minute, Republicans tacked on unrelated amendments aimed at assisting the fossil fuel industry, including another amendment that would make it easier to drill for oil and gas in state parks. By the time the bill reached DeWine’s desk, it was “stuffed” like a chicken, its backers acknowledged.
The final version of the gas amendment stated that “’green energy’ includes energy generated by using natural gas as a resource.” It added that an energy source can be considered green if it “is more sustainable and reliable relative to some fossil fuels,” an apparent reference to gas’s lower emissions than coal.
DeWine spokesman Dan Tierney said that, for the governor, the gas amendment was not worth vetoing the entire bill.
“We do understand the criticism of that language,” Tierney said. “That was put in by the General Assembly. It was not a bill pushed by the administration.”
Tierney added that the governor’s office had completed a legal review that found the gas amendment did not tie the new definition of “green energy” to any state funding or regulations.
In addition to circulating the model bill, ALEC helped broadcast a talking point for its proponents: The European Parliament had recentlyvoted to move ahead with a plan to label nuclear power and natural gas as “green” in some circumstances, a response to energy challenges created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
“Europe has now defined nuclear power and natural gas as clean energy sources of energy. And guess what? They are clean energy sources,” Stephen Moore, a conservative commentator, said on a panel at the ALEC conference, drawing loud applause from the audience.
“So what you need to do in your states is change your renewable energy requirements,” Moore added. “If you don’t get rid of them altogether, you should redefine what clean energy is to include yes, clean nuclear power and yes, natural gas.”
Romanchuk, the author of the amendment that defined gas as green, also looked across the Atlantic for inspiration. In a December email, one of his aides acknowledged that his amendment was “inspired by a European Union vote last summer to classify natural gas as green energy.”
It was not immediately clear if the Europe talking point originated with ALEC or Ohio lawmakers, or whether the ALEC model bill exactly mirrored the gas amendment. But in the emails, one aide to Romanchuk, Adam Landefeld, spelled out the possible benefits to Ohio industries.
The language, he said, could help gas companies in Ohio meet environmental, social and governance (ESG) investing standards. The amendment is an “anti ESG move that will help Gas users in our state,” he wrote.
The Empowerment Alliance, meanwhile, has barely paused to celebrate its victory in Ohio. The group is already targeting other energy-rich states, according to a newsletter with the subject line “Ohio is Red, Gas is Blue, and Green too!” sent to supporters on Friday.
“States like Texas, Louisiana, Pennsylvania, West Virginia are top energy producing states,” the group wrote in the newsletter. “They should follow suit, encouraging their local and state lawmakers to enact similar legislation.”
The Empowerment Alliance is also urging more officials to sign its “Declaration of Energy Independence,” which states that “affordable, clean and abundant energy is the birthright of every American.” So far, nearly 1,200 people have signed, including House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.).
Refer also to:
2023 02 28: Fossil fuels kill more people than Covid. Why are we so blind to the harms of oil and gas?
If fossil fuel use and impact had suddenly appeared overnight, their catastrophic poisonousness and destructiveness would be obvious. But they have so incrementally become part of everyday life nearly everywhere on Earth that those impacts are largely accepted or ignored (that they’ve also corroded our politics helps this lack of alarm). This has real consequences for the climate crisis. Were we able to perceive afresh the sheer scale of fossil fuel impact we might be horrified. I am horrified every day, and have been since I was a child. Now, at age 65, I see the problem as unsolvable because of ever escalating political and judicial-legal corruption (especially in Caveman Canada), human selfishness, greed, and toxic chemical created stupidity, and the rich and evil (eg Elon Musk, Zuckerberg, Putin, the fucker trucker lawyers and leaders and their dark money funders) exploiting humanity’s wilful ignorance via social media bots and paid humans (eg Rebel Media, Toronto Sun, and self serving racist anti-environment hate groups etc) on a scale never seen before.But because this is an old problem too many don’t see it as a problem. … I was born into humanity’s exploitative pollution and over population. Had I been asked if I wanted “life” and to add to the severely harmful problem of too many humans on a limited planet, I would have immediately said “NO!” As an adult, I see to my infinite horror, humans knowingly, intentionally forcing their offspring into an unimaginable hell scapes and worse – perpetuating the problem (gov’ts, churches and white supremacists, notably rich ones like Elon Musk, are over population pimps – churches need endless fresh kids to rape, gov’ts need infinite growth to keep inhumane corporations making ever more billions off over consumption creating deadly mountains of garbage and toxic waste, and white supremacists need more and more white kids to feed their insanity). I am even more shocked at the humans intentionally getting pregnant in a pandemic. I cannot understand the cruelty of these parents. They are willingly forcing their kids into a lifetime of horror. I shake my head at the ignorance, arrogance, selfishness and down right meanness. Humans are not the only species on earth. We are the most loathsome: we kill, maim and torture our own and other species for pleasure; we rape for power – including our own kids; we exploit and pollute and shit in our nest without giving a damn, and push all the clean-up on God, which is our responsibility to clean up).
2023 02 22: Video at link: ‘No excuse’: IEA tells energy firms as methane emissions rise
2019: The leaks that threaten the clean image of natural gas
