Welcome to “Feet to the Fire: Big Oil and the Climate Crisis,” a newsletter in which we share our latest reporting on how the fossil fuel industry drives climate change and influences climate policy in five of the nation’s most important oil and gas-producing states. In addition, we shine a spotlight on the financing of the fossil fuel industry, holding banks and other financial institutions accountable for their role and providing you with updates on their activities.
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$10 Billion Bond Measure Would More Than Restore $200 Million For Combating Extreme Heat and Other Climate Disasters
Though long-lasting extreme heat is the “primary climate hazard” faced by many Los Angeles residents, California’s Legislature recently rescinded or delayed $209.9 million for programs to prepare for such climate emergencies. Half of the cuts will hit programs intended to cope with extreme heat — by expanding the number of cooling centers and implementing solutions intended to increase the shade canopy and use building materials that deflect sunshine, reports Capital & Main’s Aaron Cantú. But voters have a chance to recover that funding via Proposition 4, a $10 billion bond on the ballot this November.
Pennsylvania Natural Gas Giant Attempts Makeover With Claim Its Fracking Causes “No Public Health Risks”
One of Pennsylvania’s biggest natural gas producers, CNX, has been hit with hundreds of air quality violations over the years and pleaded no contest to criminal charges of evading state pollution laws by misreporting air emissions. Those charges were brought by the state’s top prosecutor, then-Attorney General Josh Shapiro. Now the company is attempting a makeover, setting up a partnership with now-Gov. Shapiro and touting an industry-written study that says its fracking operations “pose no public health risks.” Environmental activists in the state are outraged, citing a 2020 grand jury report that found plenty of health problems, including “frack rash,” among people who lived near the company’s fracking facilities, reports Capital & Main’s Audrey Carleton.
Environmental Justice in California At Risk In a Second Trump Term
Environmental justice efforts in California might not survive a second Trump White House, given that federal civil rights protections against policies with discriminatory impacts are targeted in Project 2025, the much-discussed blueprint from the Heritage Foundation to guide policy in a future Republican presidency. Though the Trump campaign has distanced itself from the manifesto, most of its authors were part of his administration. Federal civil rights law has been used by environmental justice advocates in California to hold agencies accountable — for example, the state’s Department of Pesticide Regulation was hit with a successful federal civil rights claim in 1998 over a pesticide that was harmful to schoolchildren. Undoing those protections would make it harder for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to take on discriminatory policies that impact communities of color, reports Aaron Cantú.
New Mexico Cancels Well Injection Plans Due to Earthquake Link
In the wake of a study that found thousands of undocumented earthquakes in the Permian Basin, the country’s most productive oil basin, New Mexico has canceled plans to inject oilfield wastewater into dozens of wells. The briny water, which is full of hydrocarbons, is often pumped into underground formations to get rid of it. But injecting the water increases pressure in the often-porous rock, often causing earthquakes, reports Capital & Main’s Jerry Redfern.
New Index Reveals Full Extent of Texas’ Exposure to Climate Change
The full extent of Texas’ exposure to climate change is starkly described and detailed in a new vulnerability index — including deadly heat waves, freak freeze events, hurricanes, wildfires and rising residential energy costs. All 254 counties in the state, which spans two time zones, are vulnerable to these threats, according to the U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index, reports Capital & Main’s Elliott Woods. As the country’s leader in greenhouse gas emissions, Texas has a major role in its own peril. Its industries and 30 million residents are responsible for emitting an amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to 2.2 trillion gas-powered car miles, and it produces more oil and gas than any other state. Last year was the hottest on record in Texas — with residents of Austin enduring 45 consecutive days over 100 degrees.
Private Equity’s Massive Role In Fossil Fuel Finance Tallied In New Scorecard
The massive role of private equity firms in financing fossil fuel activity is starkly laid out in a new report that tallied the impact of energy investments by 21 such firms. The energy portfolios of these firms — including such giants as Apollo Global Management and TPG — are responsible for at least a combined 1.17 billion metric tons of annual emissions, “playing a significant role in propelling the climate crisis,” according to the Private Equity Stakeholder Project. That figure is limited to three categories — upstream oil and gas production, LNG terminals and coal plants. Investments in fossil fuels represented at least 67% of the energy portfolios of the firms analyzed in the report as of July 2024.
Citibank-Financed LNG Facilities Linked to Negative Health Impacts
Four LNG facilities financed by Citibank have allegedly caused “over $36 million in health costs, two deaths, and more than 1,600 incidences of asthma symptoms per year” in Louisiana and Texas, claims the grassroots environmental group Stand.Earth in a new report. The bank’s financed emissions from those facilities is equivalent to more than six coal plants operating or 6 million gasoline-powered cars driven for a year, per the report. The findings were strongly disputed by a Citibank spokesperson, who told Salon that the report “misrepresents and distorts our financing, exhibiting a disregard for the facts.”
‘Hall of Mirrors’ Around Fossil Fuel Financing Hides Details of Activities
About 68% of fossil fuel financing by the world’s biggest banks is going to subsidiaries in “secrecy jurisdictions” — those countries and cities that allow companies to hide details about their ownership structure and financial activities, according to a new report by Tax Justice Network. That secrecy creates a “hall of mirrors” effect that makes it very difficult for researchers, journalists, regulators and activists to identify the full extent of the banks’ financing of fossil fuel production. To illustrate these challenges, the report focuses on two major players — Aramco, the world’s largest oil company, and Glencore, the world’s largest coal producer and exporter. The companies’ responses are included in a note attached to the report.
Climate Finance for Poor Countries Could Be Accelerated Through Wealth Tax, Other Measures
Climate finance for poor countries will be a main topic at the 2024 United Nations Climate Change Conference to be held in Azerbaijan in November, with wealthy countries expected to contribute billions to a fund. But that amount could be much higher — five times what developing countries are demanding — if rich countries enacted taxes on fossil fuels and a wealth tax on billionaires while halting subsidies to oil and gas companies, according to new research. Wealthy countries could raise $5 trillion through such measures, according to the climate advocacy group Oil Change International. According to its research, increasing taxes on the wealthy globally could raise $5.64 trillion, a financial transaction tax could raise $327 billion, taxes on sales of big technology, arms and luxury fashion could raise $112 billion, and redistributing 20% of government military spending could generate $454 billion.
Citibank Tied to Indonesia Coal Giant That Has Ignored Environmental Regulations, Per Report
Indonesia’s second largest coal company, Adaro, which issued a $750 million bond underwritten by Citibank and UBS, has been ignoring environmental regulations and “flouting government-mandated permit areas to mine coal,” according to the Eko environmental movement in a new report. Using satellite photo analysis, the group said it found that eight square miles of mining activity are outside its permitted area and within a protected forest area where mining is forbidden. In addition, Eko claims that one of the company’s coal wastewater storage ponds is located just 492 feet from a village, apparently flouting rules that require a 1,640 foot setback between a mine hole and residential areas. The bond matures on Oct. 31, and it’s unclear if the banks will reup.
