Chevron wins $38m from Environmentalists behaving badly: extortion, fraud, witness tampering, corrupt practices

Score 1 for Chevron

In 2011, environmentalists won the worlds largest judgement against Chevron (holy moley $18 billion), but it turned out it was all based on fraud, fake witnesses and telling lies. Who would think people who say they like trees and human rights would be so self serving? The award has since been overturned — indeed the tables have turned, and last week Chevron was awarded $38 million in damages.

Strangely, bad behaviour of planet-saving-people doesn’t appear to rate highly in the news. Hands up who thinks the BBC/ABC/CBC would fail to mention it if environmentalists won a $38m suit against a money-laundering-witness-tampering oil company?

Gibraltar Supreme Court Awards Chevron $38 Million Against Ecuadorian Conspirators

[May 25th, 2018] SAN RAMON, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–May 25, 2018– The Supreme Court of Gibraltar has issued a judgment against Pablo Fajardo, Luis Yanza, Ermel Chavez, Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia (the “Front”) and Servicios Fromboliere for their role in a conspiracy to procure and attempt to enforce a fraudulent Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron. The court awarded Chevron Corporation$38 million in damages and interest and issued a permanent injunction against the defendants, preventing them from assisting or supporting the case against Chevron in any way.

Donziger and Fajardo, an Ecuadorian lawyer, were found by a U.S. Federal Court to have engaged in extortion, money laundering, wire fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. The Front, which has long been involved in peddling a dishonest public relations campaign against Chevron aimed at extorting a settlement from the company, and Servicios Fromboliere, an Ecuadorian law firm established by Fajardo, are both shareholders in Amazonia and part of the extensive web of obscure entities established by the participants in the fraud against Chevron to attempt to hide their misconduct and profit from it.

The backstory –thanks to The Daily Caller, and Tim Pearce

An Ecuador court issued an $18 billion judgement against Chevron in February 2011 for environmental and social harm the company allegedly caused to the Amazon. The amount was later reduced to $9.5 billion, but a U.S. district court in New York nullified the judgement due to fraudulent and illegal activities by Steven Donziger, the lead American lawyer behind the lawsuit, according to the district court ruling.

The New York district court found that while Donziger had initiated the case with good intentions, he corrupted the process through telling half-truths, outright lies, and using fake evidence and witnesses.

“If ever there were a case warranting equitable relief with respect to a judgment procured by fraud, this is it,” the district court ruling said.

The dark side of environmentalism has been turned into a play that’s too hot for at least one actor

The $18 billion dollar prize”  by the intrepid Phelim McAleer:

Haven’t heard about it?? Funny. The same media that reported endlessly on the so-called “pollution” went pretty quiet when the case turned out to be a fraud. And a load of Hollywood celebrities who helped promote the fraud have also gone very quiet recently. Yes I’m talking about you Sting, Mia Farrow and Danny Glover.

The play shows how the plaintiffs, led by Donziger, bribed the judge and ghost wrote the judgment that awarded them this massive amount. And they were helped on their fraud by a cheerleading media that reported the allegations as fact but have been silent as the truth was revealed.

The scope of the fraud was enormous and at times farcical. Along with bribing judges, they used ludicrous code words to describe the top secret payments. It was all revealed when a New York court, realizing that something was amiss, ordered Donziger to hand over his files. In those files and diaries, Donziger admitted illegal bribes to judges and court officials as he wondered if he had “done a deal with the devil.”

That is one heck of a carrot:

In one of the most outrageous examples, Donziger secretly fought and stopped the Ecuadorian government from cleaning up their pollution because it wouldn’t look good for his case. Donziger was also going to become very rich in the process. He stood to pocket $1.2 billion before the fraud was uncovered.

The actor who was hired to play the crooked environmentalist stormed off the stage:

The script is based on Donziger’s own diary, yet the actor couldn’t cope. It’s almost like it was a religious blasphemy…

Apparently, the actor had difficultly performing the part because it cast the environmental movement in a negative light, the sources say. But the facts attached to a lawsuit involving Chevron Corp. show that environmental activists colluded with Donziger to bribe a judge [in Ecuador] and ghostwrite a massive legal judgment against the company that initially totaled $18 billion. …

“The $18-Billion Prize reveals a dirty secret that many environmental lawsuits are frauds based on outrageous claims and sometimes outright lies and that the media are little more than stenographers for these liars,” McAleer said in an email.

You can support the play or go see it in San Francisco — click here for info.

Where are the media? The last story on “Donziger” on the BBC was 2014. The last story on Donziger on the ABC was never, though it did find time to report the fraudulent case in 2011 “Ecuador orders Chevron to pay $8.6b” and “Chevron ordered to pay for Amazon damage“.

h/t Scott of the Pacific and David E.

9.8 out of 10 based on 108 ratings

129 comments to Chevron wins $38m from Environmentalists behaving badly: extortion, fraud, witness tampering, corrupt practices

  • #
    sunsettommy

    Posted this at a forum filled with warmists apologists, will be interesting how they react to this.

    Will post this post at another forum as well.

    That will help spread the good news…….

    270

    • #
      sophocles

      RealClimate? 🙂

      40

    • #
      BruceC

      Seems like everyone is agreeing with you …… apart from the first poster, who is getting a right royal roasting.

      10

      • #
        sunsettommy

        Nope, they are avoiding this one so far in BOTH Forums I posted in, with one exception and HE is getting a “right royal beating”. He made a truly stupid comment, as quoted:

        Net loss of $17.96 billion for Chevron

        I never a get a beating in the linked forum because they are very deep into the twilight zone.

        20

    • #
      Sam Pyeatte

      The good guys win one for a change.

      00

  • #
    Yonniestone

    This entire climate fiasco has been one giant projection where the activists are concerned, whatever diabolical beast they made the so called big polluters out to be they were actually it all along.

    Considering the politics driving it this should never have come as any surprise.

    161

    • #
      PeterS

      Just the activists? Aren’t our leaders in agreement with the very same environmentalists who want to stop us using fossil fuel of any kind ASAP by way of renewables and electric cars? Who do you think put those leaders into office?

      172

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Spot on PeterS.

        No better example than the dopey environment Minister Josh Frydenberg pushing in “The Australian” today the nonsensical idea of instituting a “carbon-emissions” target of 105gmsCO2/km for motor vehicles. Even the label “carbon-emissions” is wrong.

        The Turnbull government is the dopiest government since Gillard’s corrupt one, and possibly even worse, because it purports to support Australian businesses. Clearly it doesn’t. That’s just another piece of its propaganda.

        If Toyota and Ford don’t jump-start these idiots then they deserve everything that happens to the motor industry. Australian business (especially the tradies and farming sectors) live on the reliability and longevity of Toyota Hiluxs.

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        • #
          Carbon500

          Sceptical Sam: regarding your comment “If Toyota and Ford don’t jump-start these idiots then they deserve everything that happens to the motor industry. Australian business (especially the trades and farming sectors) live on the reliability and longevity of Toyota Hiluxs.”
          I wouldn’t raise your hopes too high.
          About ten years ago, I worked for a while as a motoring magazine writer. I went to Toyota’s 70th anniversary celebrations, and asked one of Toyota’s senior management people why the motoring industry didn’t hire its own scientists to challenge the CO2 story. He simply shrugged his shoulders and said “We just do what governments tell us to.”
          A sorry state of affairs.

          30

      • #
        Yonniestone

        PeterS perhaps enablers would be apt? either way anyone who pushed or profited from this insanity should be ashamed as it could’ve been avoided with the application of basic reasoning.

        Second thoughts basic and reasoning don’t feature with some individuals.

        10

    • #
      OriginalSteve

      It all comes down to accountability – real scientists will debate the science, liars will try and shut down the debate coz they have something to hide….

      Adults or kids …they all shuffle their feet and look at the ground when they are fibbing….

      110

  • #
    Kinky Keith

    While this case of Justice finally being asserted is very welcome, it brings to mind a point brought out by one of the speakers at the recent Sydney conference.

    It was said that planning and compliance costs for businesses working on new projects were gigantic.

    Red tape and bending the knee to the new god of environmentalism meant enormous costs and I suspect often ignored many very real pollution issues.

    Certainly business needs to be kept in line but the false modern god of environmentalism has done nothing for the environment and weakened real environmental protection.

    This ruling seems to indicate a return to common sense.

    KK

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    • #
      Ted O'Brien.

      Yes, but!

      First Ecuador. Then Gibralter?

      There was mention of the much more realistic US justice system.

      This could be building. I wonder if those Hollywood identities might be called on for the balance of the $38 million after the fraudsters have been wrung out?

      20

      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        I wish I could be confident this is all fair and aboveboard.

        When you look at Ok Tedi and Freeport, who benefited?

        10

  • #

    It’s much nicer when Big Green and Big Oil club together for a common goal. To wage the War on Coal, for example. (You know coal. That’s Australia’s most critical resource after oxygen, water and soil.)

    Remember when Chesapeake Energy were shelling out tens of millions to Sierra for Beyond Coal? They only stopped when the likes of Greenpeace, possibly jealous, blew the whistle.

    Those were the days. People could come together regardless of what they were plundering. [Cue “Imagine”]

    200

  • #
    Mark M

    Money talks, doomsday global warming BS walks …

    Real Estate Sales Smash Records On Nantucket As Wealthy Americans Buy Beach Houses:

    https://www.forbes.com/sites/kathleenhowley/2018/05/30/nantucket-real-estate-smashes-records/#4f0a91ca1b1e

    Hunkering down for the failed UN/IPCC/Turnbull Govt global warming doomsday in style.

    80

    • #
      yarpos

      also in a recent thread we had a study that ranked US zip codes by wealth, No1 being an gated island development in Florida. Apparantly wealthy folk arent convinced about the accelerating rise of the acidic, boiling, plastic particle soup oceans.

      110

    • #
      Greg Cavanagh

      I read the article. The funniest thing about that is that Bill Gates bought a house on the island, and he’s one of the main advocates of sea level rise and catastrophic global warming.

      150

      • #
        Mary E

        I think some of the “supporters” of CAGW and the impending flood of seawaters are actually just trying to score some prime real estate from the gullible and worried. I don’t see the elites buying up land in the northern reaches, mountain tops or inland areas above the flood-plain. Nope, they are all buying coastal and river-side properties.

        00

    • #
      WXcycles

      As I look out my window at the beach and coral sea it has not changed in any perceptable way in 50 years, the beach is where it’s always been, the water level is the same as it has always been. Zero apparent change observed … putting away floaties and hiding my VHS Marine Boy videos.

      Sea level rise is like the second-coming—the no-show of your life tme.

      Yes, it’ll happen, but on a geological timescale.

      Cue next epic global kerfuffle.

      71

      • #
        sophocles

        Actually all the Second Coming believers have it wrong: it’s already happened.
        1. First Coming: born in the manger, died on the cross.
        2. Second Coming: resurrection
        3. ergo everyone yearning for His Second Coming are actually yearning for a Third Coming. That’s why it’s taking so long … and hasn’t happened yet.

        51

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          Actually, the second coming will be very public and from the clouds.

          It will also during a period of unprecedented historial extreme turmoil on the planet.

          “Men of Galilee,” they said, “Why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen Him go into heaven.”
          ( Acts 1:11 )

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          • #
            el gordo

            Did anyone see him go up into the heavens? Eye witness reports would be useful.

            32

          • #
            Kinky Keith

            The presence of Christianity which we experienced in the community sixty years ago has gone; to be replaced by the culture of “grievance” and victimhood which has led to uncertainty, which has led to exploitation by a corrupted leadership.

            In brief, Christianity is in operation when two or more people agree on the set of rules, the Ten Commandments would be a good start, and follow those rules and agree that their behavior should be judged according to those rules.

            There should also be punishment commensurate with the break made to those rules.

            At the moment, we have so many rules and sub rules, it is hard to know what is right and what is wrong. Politicians take advantage and we become enslaved with the added negative that our nation is spiraling downwards and to a poor future.

            Maybe it is Time.

            Time that we reacquainted ourselves with the essence of “good behaviour” and insist that our leadership sets the example and ensures that everyone follow.

            A pipe dream unlikely to be seen in our lifetimes.

            Unless the lights go out, and people finally get the message that our future lies with who we elect.

            KK

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            • #
              Yonniestone

              KK nice insights, also consider the motivations of both, Christianity promotes self improvement and forgiveness where the Culture enforces false moral causes and fear of retribution from the masses.

              The Godhead has been replaced by a base mortal fear offering no positive choices.

              10

        • #
          WXcycles

          Holly crap, yer right!

          20

  • #
    PeterS

    Who needs the environmentalists when we have both major parties in unison destroying our coal fired power stations and who already have destroyed our oil refinery industry? The real message in all this is that the actions of both major parties have shown they are in fact in total agreement with the environmentalists on the broader issues. One does not need a PhD to understand that environmentalists hate coal and oil so much their primary objective is to force us to stop using them. Anyone who votes for LNP or ALP+Greens is in that camp because there is a nothing more important and more critical to the health of Australia’s economy than our reliance on both coal and oil. Without either this nation’s economy would collapse in a heartbeat. Yet voters keep going to the polls and voting booth supporting them in great strength as though they are the only parties they can vote for. Voters either don’t care or don’t bother to open their eyes and see what’s happening. The only conclusion any critical thinker can possibly come to is that voters by and large are just mindless fools. The next federal election will either prove beyond any doubt that is a fact or voters will have woken up by then and vote accordingly as a protest to what the major parties are doing. It’s now all up to the voters and no one else. The buck stops there. All the excuses under the sun will not change that. We are not like China where popular high-ranking and information rich websites are blocked. If we as a people can’t be bothered to use such information to make informed decisions then we get what we deserve.

    282

    • #
      Drapetomania

      I agree with you PeterS..but we cannot do any form of protest vote that really counts.
      The minor party that I vote for..The Liberal Democrats for instance..will always give their preference vote to the Liberal party.
      The only way is a large third party to restore our energy policies and throw out all the garbage.
      Until that happens..we are stuffed..

      70

      • #
        PeterS

        You and I suspect most others misunderstood me. Sorry I wasn’t clear. Yes you are right about the traditional form of a protest vote. It’s of no value since under our preferential voting system they end up with one or the other major party. What I’m referring to is the exact opposite. Under the very same system of voting if enough voters support the same party then that party will win the seat (obviously) regardless of the distribution of preferences. So imagine if in the Senate the ACP, which is the best if not the only real party to support our cause, obtained a landslide support and obtained the majority of seats. Yes I know it’s impossible in a half Senate election but even then they could manage to gain so many seats the government will have no option but to listen and abide to the energy policies of the ACP simply because the government would realise the Senate would be representing the wishes of the voters loud and clear. Again I know that will not happen but that’s my point. The voters don’t rate the energy situation (oil as well as power) very high and in fact they rate it very low otherwise ACP would be far more popular by now and eventually would achieve a significant hold in the Senate. That’s how our democratic system of electing governments can work, and if the people were awake it would work very well. Unfortunately, the people are not awake through their own fault so we end up with the mess continuing, until the only other event happens that will wake them up; crash and burn. Of course there is the hope the so called ginger group in the LNP make their definitive move to oust Turnbull provided they put in place a leader with the same energy policies as those of the ACP otherwise it would be a total waste of time and like moving the deck chairs on the Titanic in which case it would be just an act of vengeance, which never achieves any worthwhile results.

        91

        • #
          el gordo

          ‘…the people are not awake through their own fault ….’

          Objection!

          The masses have been brainwashed by sophisticated propaganda and its up to us to educate them. Cory knows CO2 doesn’t cause global warming and should make it the main plank in his platform, for obvious reasons, this is the root cause of mass delusion.

          71

          • #
            PeterS

            So his views on energy polices are not enough? You are being very unfair and illogical. He is in total agreement with our views on coal fired power stations and renewables. It appears you dislike him for whatever reason.

            As for the masses, they are supposed to make informed decisions and not believe everything they see or hear on MSM. How do you think Trump won the election despite the extraordinary MSM bias? Cory is the closest thing to Trump wrt energy polices and a couple or so of other issues. Yet you treat him as if he’s a lefty. We should all vote for him to give him a go, not expect him to walk on water and perform miracles. He is far from perfect but he is far better than the likes of Turnbull, Shorten and even Abbott. So please stop being critical of him. At the moment he is our only real hope of a change on energy policy in Australia.

            40

            • #
              el gordo

              ‘How do you think Trump won the election despite the extraordinary MSM bias?’

              Its a Republic and Donald is charismatic, running on a platform of bringing the jobs back home. Cory cannot emulate his achievements.

              ‘So his views on energy polices are not enough?’

              No, its based on rational economic argument. The people have been brainwashed by emotive propaganda, thinking of the grandchildren they don’t know what to think

              When Cory first came back from America I supported him, but now that he is being ‘white anted’ it maybe time he had a chat with Tony Abbott about returning to the Liberal fold.

              31

              • #
                Sceptical Sam

                Or at least joining Abbott’s Monash Group.

                31

              • #
                el gordo

                Good point Sam, it would be a perfect fit, assuming its not just a Coalition cubby house.

                In other news, Maurice Newman pokes the ABC in the eye with a burnt stick.

                ‘How Four Corners skewed the facts to fit its global-warming catastrophe theme.’

                21

            • #
              sophocles

              “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”

              -Josef Goebbels. [Nazi Minister of Propaganda Publicity.]

              Gullibility. People without specialist knowledge in any area are easily taken in by anything plausible, especially consistent plausibility. Being lied to is not easily accepted by the victims and so skillfully crafted propaganda is difficult to reject.

              For some strange reason, hubris plays an important role, too. If the Big Lie blames human kind’s activities, like “the burning of fossil fuels” or Atmospheric Atomic testing” or “Man-made refrigerants (CFCs & CHCs) or Man-made herbicides (Glyphosate) or Man-made insecticides (DDT) or “Man-made Global Warming or Climate Change (man-made climate variation) or Witch Craft creating crop failures, rain, hail, and cold with very little, or without any, evidence except for occasional correlative relationships, then the Big Lie is more easily believed. Mankind has been, is and will for a long time to come, basically Superstitious. Anything which might be going wrong (or said to be wrong) must be Our Fault.

              Most of what I have quoted above have mostly opinion backing them, and are severely short of real evidence. Therefore, We, today, are no better than our (superstitious) seventeenth Century forebears who were little better than their (superstitious) Neolithic forebears. The only exception is that we toss the word “scientific” around even when it isn’t and omit any deities. In the Seventeenth Century they substituted “Witches, Black Magic and Satanism ” even when it wasn’t, and in the Neolithic Era it was “ gods, goddesses and spirits, demons and their magic.”

              Have we actually learnt anything of any value from these repeated social paroxysms? The repetition suggests we haven’t improved any. We still suffer from extraordinary popular delusions and the madness of crowds [free pdf], so the politicians can’t be totally excoriated. Their knees jerk to the puppeteer’s strings as most of ours do most of the time.

              How many of you have written to your pollies? To your newspapers? To the TV channels and made your points of view politely, correctly and supported by undeniable evidence? If you haven’t, now’s the time to start. And once you start, keep it going.

              Goebbels knew most of that.

              11

          • #
            PeterS

            Here are his policies on energy. I challenge Abbott to go as far as Cory on these matters.

            Key Points:

            Australians deserve the most reliable and affordable energy in the world.
            With electricity generation, we are technology-agnostic but subsidy-averse.
            We support nuclear power and a nuclear fuel cycle industry.
            We support all forms of electricity generation and will provide them with legislative certainty and legal protection.
            We do not support any renewable energy targets.
            We will remove all taxpayer and cross subsidies to electricity generation.
            We will require all electricity supplied to the grid to be useable – that is, predictable and consistent in output (kWhrs) and synchronous (at the required 50 Hz range).
            We will allow market forces to provide the most efficient power generation available.
            We will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord.

            Further Information:
            Electricity

            Australia should have the cheapest and most reliable electricity in the world. We have world-scale and world-class coal, gas and uranium reserves. Yet our electricity sector no longer reflects that.

            Australian Conservatives are open to any form of electricity generation, and will provide legislative certainty for the ongoing use of fossil fuels. We will remove the barriers to building more dams for hydro-power and clear the way for nuclear power as well as a nuclear fuel cycle industry.
            Gas

            Australia should also have the cheapest and most reliable gas supply in the world.

            We will support landholders’ rights to allow gas production on their properties, and to a reasonable return for that access and extraction, to help ensure there are sufficient quantities available for our domestic and export markets.
            Renewable Energy and Climate Change

            Australia produces less than 1.5% of global CO2 emissions. Even if our emissions were reduced to zero, it would make no perceptible difference to the climate.

            Ideological obsessions with uneconomic renewable technologies to meet unrealistic emissions targets to prevent ‘climate change’ have made our energy unreliable and expensive. Targets and subsidies for renewable energy distort the market and disadvantage consumers. Australian Conservatives are open to renewable energy as an option for electricity generation but we oppose taxpayer and cross-subsidies to support it.

            Australian Conservatives will scrap all taxpayer and cross-subsidies for electricity generation and allow market forces to determine the best outcomes for Australian consumers and business.
            https://www.conservatives.org.au/our_policies#energy

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            • #
              el gordo

              ‘Ideological obsessions ….’

              He needs to flesh this out, a short paragraph would be fine.

              11

              • #
                PeterS

                Why? I thought it was obvious given the context. People might be fools but they are not completely stupid.

                00

              • #
                el gordo

                ‘Why? I thought it was obvious given the context.’

                We know exactly what he means, but the average voter has no real interest in politics and large numbers would stop voting except that its compulsory.

                The ancient Greeks reckoned if you didn’t vote then you’re an ‘idiot’.

                So all I can suggest is that he becomes fully acquainted with climate change, through the proposed scientific Blue Team, then he can lead the charge with the Monash ginger group struggling to keep up.

                On the road to the next election he would be vilified by the media (which is better than being ignored) but if Donald could do it then so can Cory.

                21

              • #
                PeterS

                As I said before he is far from perfect but he’s the best we’ve got and in time he will improve. Of course he can do more, lots more. All I’m saying is ACP needs all the support we can muster to break the nexus. Otherwise, we are just you know what in the wind. By the sounds of it you won’t be voting for him if you can.

                10

              • #
                el gordo

                Probably won’t run in my electorate, the Nats have a strong hold on it.

                The new ACP candidate in Queensland is Lyle Shelton who opposes “political correctness, gender ideology and social Marxism”.

                Hear Hear

                21

            • #
              sophocles

              We support nuclear power and a nuclear fuel cycle industry.

              Do yourselves a big favour and introduce him to LFTR—he’s talking old-fashioned dangerous LWR technology. Australia could lead the world in modern nuclear technology, so why bother with the old-fashioned stuff?

              00

        • #
          OriginalSteve

          If Cory floated a candidate in the Riverina area of NSW or FNQ, I think he’d clean up.

          People who live outside the big urban centres live in the real world, and see the BS for what it is, but have no one to vote for to drain the eco-swamp.

          Cory – if you are reading this, get yourself a candidate in country NSW main regional areas at a minimum.

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          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            Run candidates (note the plural) for the Senate in all States/Territories.

            10

            • #
              Sceptical Sam

              And he needs to start tapping into the coal companies and the motor companies (Toyota/Ford) and fuel companies for funding.

              He needs big money. Big money to run a massive anti-propaganda campaign.

              He has to change the emotional attachment to the “feel-good” lie of Turnbull, Shorten and the enviro-fascists.

              10

        • #
          Ted O'Brien.

          One seat in the senate can hold the balance of power.

          10

      • #
        yarpos

        They dont give their preference votes, you do. They just dish out how to vote cards, nobody needs to follow them.

        50

        • #
          PeterS

          True. I was going to say that as well but I wanted to make my point as clear as possible. Either voters are awake and vote accordingly to support a party that’s on our side and in the end wins the seat so that party can have a real influence on the government, or the voters stay asleep and keep voting for the parties that are against us. It’s that simple. Everyone should just take a few minutes to think about it.

          20

        • #
          Graeme No.3

          But they change the voting rules to make it easy to vote ‘above the line’ and harder to do so below the line. Who knows what the Respect party really stands for, let alone some of the more obscure ones like the Motoring Enthusiasts party?

          21

          • #

            ? The rules changed from marking all boxes below the line to a minimum of 12. That seems easier to me. Maybe you find it hard to stop?

            20

        • #
          Greg Cavanagh

          After working in poling booths before I can say that the majority, like 100:1 or worse, just put a number 1 in the first box and ignore the rest. I got surprised when I saw someone filling out every box in the ballot.

          60

    • #
      glen Michel

      Any Party that forms government on the basis of minimal insertion into my life will get my support.Realistically, I’m on a losing run on that.There is little to enthuse about democracy as it is;disinterested ,apathetic and clueless are the people. We asa nation bumble along spending huge amounts of money for largely inefficient outcomes.Think defence procurements and spending on Health and Education.

      50

      • #
        PeterS

        Indeed. It’s a shame to see how the people abuse our democracy, which on paper (ballot as well) has the opportunity to make the necessary changes but for whatever reason, and there are a number of them no doubt, we abuse it and waste away the vote.

        30

      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Defence procurement. Now there’s a good one.

        Diesel submarines that won’t be available until 2031.

        Oh, I wonder if dopey Frydenberg’s “Carbon-emissions” target of 105grmsCO2/km will be the next piece of stupidity in that area?

        Make that 194.5 grmsCO2/NM.

        30

        • #
          PeterS

          What’s even more stupid is we have to import the diesel. So in a war situation we probably won’t be able to fuel them. What the??!! Stupid is as stupid does. Imagine of the US had to import their fossil and nuclear fuel to run their submarines. The person who would suggest that would be fairly and squarely put in their place, possibly behind bars as well.

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          • #
            Sceptical Sam

            She will be, with a bit of luck.

            Well, at least for 20% of it, anyway. Crooked is as crooked does.

            10

  • #
    Another Ian

    “The other 97% give us conservationists a bad name”

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  • #
    Jonesy

    We had our only little example of the lengths environmentalists will go

    ….but he never really meant to hurt investors…

    60

    • #
      PeterS

      So I look forward to the same ending to all the leaders who support the CAGW scam, who are in fact doing what the environmentalists want. Talk about irony.

      20

      • #
        OriginalSteve

        I was reading some interesting research into water dissociation ( to produce hydrogen ) using microwaves and UV.

        Once that tech gets up, who cares about CO2?

        H2 + O = H2O…unless they declare war on water vapour, and at that point the whole country will erupt into mass lynching of politicians…

        10

        • #
          PeterS

          That’s one reason why the leftists chose to point the finger at CO2 and not water vapour, which as it turns out has a much greater influence on the climate. They can’t cast their spells and witchcraft at water vapour since it’s so important for life here on earth but so is CO2. It’s much easier to claim that CO2 is bad but water vapour is good when the fact is both are critical to supporting life. We all know how the leftists claim CO2 is a poison, which of course it’s not, no more that water is a poison just because people also can die in a pool of water by drowning. Using their dumb logic everything is a poison so let’s ban everything including the air.

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      William

      Many people would have lost money in that, I wonder if they have any recourse against this environmental terrorist (I am a tired of them being called activists).

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      Greg Cavanagh

      “But he accepted Moylan had no concept of the ramifications of his deception upon the stockmarket…”

      An interesting read. Moylan got off lucky, he’d be very sorry if I was judging his case. This Moylan character is not at all sorry for his deception and hints that he’ll do something stupid again.

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      • #
        Hasbeen

        There are now too many of the big players hitching their wagon to the global warming fraud, for a few quality blogs, & even tens of thousands of informed people to stop it.

        We do have one large ally, Sol the giver of all warmth himself.

        It appears he is about to have a bit of fun at the greenies, lefties & other conspirators expense. If he continues in his current spotless direction, we are all going to feel his little jest at the global warming scam.

        It won’t be good for my hibiscus bushes, but a few more winters like this last in the northern hemisphere, & the number of easily duped in the general public will diminish quite rapidly. Nothing like freezing cold to stop a belief in global warming.

        We will however need to be ready to stop the scammers switching to global cooling being blamed on that poor little molecule of CO2

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    yarpos

    “Apparently, the actor had difficultly performing the part because it cast the environmental movement in a negative light, the sources say”

    Seriously, isnt the key word “actor” ? do they really think they will personally be aligned with every character they portray? This is like the BS Baldwin put out on his angst about playing Trump on Saturday Night Live. Just more ego centric preening and virtue signalling.

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  • #
    george

    And G-D smiled. <:o)

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    Roger

    Why would anyone expect honesty from ‘environmentalists’or green activists ?

    We know them for what they are

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    BruceC

    This is the second time that The Supreme Court of Gibraltar has issued a judgment against Amazonia Recovery Ltd. On December 16, 2015;

    “… the court awarded Chevron $28 million in damages and issued a permanent injunction against Amazonia, preventing the company from assisting or supporting the case against Chevron in any way.”

    https://chevroncorp.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/supreme-court-gibraltar-rules-against-donziger-offshore-company

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    BoyfromTottenham

    So did Donziger or anyone else do any jail time for his part in this criminal activity?

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    • #
      PeterS

      According to the link to the video I just posted above but is in moderation, he has carried out a number of illegal acts but as far as I can tell he has not been imprisoned for any of them.

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      • #
        glen Michel

        Might have mates like,say in high places. Shintons? Maybe. The Green environment monster has a wide grasp.

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  • #
    TdeF

    Meanwhile with the evil of oil companies like Chevron proven, our Federal Government is secretly planning to force everyone into little electric cars..

    “The Australian can reveal a 105gCO2/km emissions target, which only two of Australia’s top 20 cars come close to meeting, remains a live option for the government, which plans to sell the policy as a win for motorists.”

    As CO2 translates straight into litres/100km and if you wilfuly forget that our electricity really comes from coal, nothing less than a small hybrid or totally electric car will satisfy these new requirements. Even a small Toyota Corolla 4 1.6 litre cylinder driven sedately is 50% over this new limit. So a huge carbon tax again, this time on new cars and as evil as the RET. We no longer make cars, so all new cars are to be seriously punished with taxes, pushing the cost of all cars up $5000.

    So expect to take half a day to charge your little Toyota hybrid. Like lunchtime solar, an impossible load on a system and in fact, more CO2 by far than petrol cars. Wind driven cars.

    This is YOUR government planning to make you suffer more and pay much more for a new car. You see, the people of Australia are the problem. They are changing the Climate in China and the US and Europe. At least the people of Canberra are good caring Green people, wind driven. By giant hot air driven propellers in parliament where Malcolm and his appalling Green banker friends are plotting the demise of our quality of life. Green, the colour of money.

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    • #
      TdeF

      Now petrol produces 2.3Kg of CO2 per litre. So the new taxation target of 105gCO2/km is 10.5kgCO2/100km or a maximum of 4.6 litres per 100km.

      This is the new Federal benchmark to trigger another big carbon tax on cars. All to save the climates of the world and prevent sea level rise and more hurricanes by controlling CO2 levels. The only thing true is that your government run by Canberran public servants is planning to make you ride a Chinese bicycle to work in winter. Meanwhile the Chinese are driving new high performance petrol cars.

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      • #
        TdeF

        Again, you have to marvel at how devious this is. The framers of these taxes talk in grams per kilometer. Why? Consider that if they said 4.6litres per 100km, you would know it was an impossible, an outrageous ripoff.

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          OriginalSteve

          Correct, but the green Occultists always lie…its in their religion…..

          Yes, I would wonder how the canberra public servants will react to having to ride a push bike to work in -5C winters as the CO2 taxes are punative so you cant own a car…..unless of course The Cause is providing free electric cars but without the grid capacity to charge them.

          You have to marvel at the climate change pushing globalists – deceived-by-the-Devil fools, one and all….

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      Dennis

      When an elected government decides to implement changes impacting on society they should consult their constituents.

      I am one who is fed up with the adverse impact on our sovereignty by United Nations unelected officials and their compliant locally elected officials.

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  • #
    Greg Cavanagh

    I still believe the award to chevron (payable by Donziger) should have been $18 billion, or $9.5 billion whichever was the final verdict against chevron. The disparity is embarrassing.

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      wert

      I still believe the award to chevron (payable by Donziger) should have been $18 billion, or $9.5 billion whichever was the final verdict against chevron. The disparity is embarrassing.

      Plus damages. Because he won’t pay, I think one year in prison for a million is okay.

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    Peter Fitzroy

    I do not understand how a judgement made in Ecuador about the Amazon can be overturned in California. In any event, good luck in getting anyone to pay anything.

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      PeterS

      That’s because the operations in question that were allegedly conducted in Ecuador were actually by Ecuador and not Chevron since Ecuador owned and operated all the oil work at the time. So in effect he was after the wrong culprit. At least that’s the story from this guy: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-hoo4bOG-9I

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      • #
        Ted O'Brien.

        Apparently the Amazonia company was registered in Gibraltar. The US law declared the Ecuadorian judgement corrupt. And isn’t Donziger a US citizen?

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      TdeF

      The company Amazonia is part of a ‘web of obscure entities’ to launder the winnings. This one was setup in the British Overseas Territory of Gibraltar (South of Spain), presumably as a Spanish friendly distant tax haven far away from Ecuador or California. Amazonia Recovery Ltd. (“Amazonia”) was setup in Gibraltar specifically to receive and distribute funds that the co-conspirators hoped to obtain from the corrupt Ecuadorian judgment. Most would call that money laundering. Companies also use the Isle of Mann, Jersey, Monaco, Lichenstein and other small countries to make life difficult for money chasers including taxation. Australians like Malcolm Turnbull prefer the Carribbean islands.

      The people behind the “corrupt” judgement have been found in a separate US Federal court to have “engaged in extortion, money laundering, wire fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, witness tampering and obstruction of justice”. That’s a good list.
      Read all about it on the chevron site.

      This judgement is in Gibraltar against a company which will likely have no money anyway. It is probably a worthless shell set up to launder the proceeds for the criminals, so the judgement is worthless. Unless the money has already gone there, in which case it will have left and the chase is on. Either way, the company will be wound up overnight by the Ecuadorian legal firm which created it.

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    Betapug

    The Steve Donziger story reads like an overwrought Hollywood script…until you reach his actual 2009 movie “Crude” (ironic title?) which was to promote the case and reality leaks out. Shooting outtakes in which Donziger worries about his fraud being discovered and discusses bribing the Ecuadorean judge were used by Chevron in the NY trial. Google “Donziger” + “crude” to see the clips.

    Donziger managed to bring about the collapse of the senior Washington law firm Patton Boggs and intrigued me with the murky world of “Litigation Financing” where financial institutions bet on the outcome of legal cases. Burford Capital Group, the London based litigation financer sold on a chunk of the Donziger play to amongst others, Scottish Widows and IMF in Australia, as the practice is not legal in the US.
    Only Fortune and Forbes seem to have had much interest in following this case…for some reason. Would make a great movie.

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    WXcycles

    ” … Donziger and Fajardo, an Ecuadorian lawyer, were found by a U.S. Federal Court to have engaged in extortion, money laundering, wire fraud, Foreign Corrupt Practices Act violations, witness tampering and obstruction of justice. … ”
    —-

    So I expect these guys are going to prison for a decade, or so, soon? You wouldn’t just award damages for that, and let them off with a severe frown?

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      WXcycles

      Now what could send that to moderation?

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      • #
        Greg Cavanagh

        Most every word you quoted, particularly fraud. And using all of them in a sentence was like throwing a pallet burly overboard to the automatic burly detector.

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      TdeF

      You have to catch them first. This is international crime, like most Green schemes.

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    pat

    can’t see this posted in the thread, tho I haven’t had time to check every link. I posted this on “Weekend Unthreaded”:

    26 May: Forbes: Solid As The Rock of Gibraltar: Coup De Grâce To Ecuadorean Lawfare Against Chevron?
    by Michael I. Krauss
    (Michael Krauss is Professor of Law at the Antonin Scalia Law School of George Mason University, and is a nationally known scholar of Tort Law) and Legal Ethics)
    News about the lawfare campaign waged against Chevron Corp. is coming in regularly, and this news is good for those who believe in the Rule of Law. Following on the heels of this week’s Ontario high court decision, the Supreme Court of Gibraltar issued a default judgment against Messrs. Pablo Fajardo, Luis Yanza, and Ermel Chavez, and against two organizations, Frente de Defensa de la Amazonia (the “Front”) and Servicios Fromboliere, for their role in a conspiracy to procure and attempt to enforce the fraudulent Ecuadorian judgment against Chevron Corp. The Gibraltar court awarded Chevron $38 million in damages and issued a permanent injunction preventing defendants from assisting the case against Chevron in any way…

    This column has related the history of this sordid example of “lawfare” — I’ve linked to four of my many articles. In brief, Chevron Corporation never operated in Ecuador. An indirect subsidiary of Texaco Inc. was in a joint venture with an Ecuadorean government-owned corporation. When that joint venture ended 28 years ago, the government-owned corporation took over operations…

    I hope Chevron Corp. will be able to recover the damages it has been awarded in Gibraltar, but that’s far from certain. The news I still await is that of the New York State Bar Association, which I understand has been investigating Mr. Donziger.
    https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkrauss/2018/05/26/solid-as-the-rock-of-gibraltar-coup-de-grace-to-ecuadorean-lawfare-against-chevron/#722e494f4836

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    Dyspeptic Curmudgeon

    The title really should be SCORE 4 for Chevron:

    1 for the US Court decision on Donziger’s fraud.
    2 for the first Gibralter decision
    3 for the other Gibralter decision, and
    4 May 23, 2018, for the decision of the Ontario Court of Appeal which upheld the dismissal of the action on motion for summary judgement.

    The appellants will undoubtedly seek leave to appeal from the Supreme Court, but leave is unlikely given the factual situation.

    A summary from the Court’s reasons (from canlii.org)

    [3] The appellants first sought compensation for the environmental devastation through a class action in the United States. Texaco opposed that action, not on the merits, but on jurisdictional grounds. It was successful and ultimately the appellants commenced a new action in the Ecuadorian courts. There followed an eight-year trial and two appeals. The eventual result was a $9.5 billion USD judgment against Chevron Corporation.
    [4] The difficulty was that Chevron Corporation had no assets in Ecuador. So the appellants took the next logical step of seeking enforcement of their judgment in the United States. In its home jurisdiction, Chevron Corporation opposed the enforcement of the judgment on the ground that it had been obtained by fraud.
    [5] The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (“S.D.N.Y.”) accepted Chevron Corporation’s submission. In a comprehensive judgment, the court detailed a litany of fraudulent behaviour, not by the appellants, but by their counsel in the Ecuadorian proceeding. The court made an order enjoining any enforcement proceedings of the Ecuadorian judgment in the United States. That decision was upheld on appeal.
    [6] Having had no success in enforcing their judgment in the United States, the appellants commenced the present action in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice. The enforcement targets this time were the shares and assets of Chevron Canada Limited (“Chevron Canada”), a seventh-level subsidiary of Chevron Corporation, with its head office in Calgary. After a jurisdictional challenge by Chevron Corporation and Chevron Canada that was ultimately rejected by the Supreme Court of Canada, the parties agreed to determine by means of a summary judgment motion the issue of whether Chevron Canada’s shares and assets are exigible to satisfy the judgment debt of Chevron Corporation. Chevron Corporation and Chevron Canada were successful on that motion.
    [7] On appeal to this court, the appellants advance two primary submissions. First, they argue that the Execution Act, R.S.O., 1990, c. E.24 (the “Act”), permits execution on Chevron Canada’s shares and assets to satisfy the Ecuadorian judgment. Second, and in the alternative, they submit that this court should pierce the corporate veil in order to render Chevron Canada’s shares and assets exigible.
    [8] This is a tragic case. There can be no denying that, through no fault of their own, the appellants have suffered lasting damages to their lands, their health, and their way of life. Their frustration in obtaining justice is understandable. Notwithstanding those legitimate concerns, our courts must decide cases in a manner that is consistent with the common law as developed in our jurisprudence and the statutes enacted by our democratically elected legislatures.
    [9] The legal arguments advanced by the appellants cannot succeed.

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      Betapug

      Ecuadoreans should really go after their own government. Steve Donziger etc. should be pushed out to sea.

      “Texaco Petroleum Co. (TexPet) did operate in Ecuador, mostly in minority partnership with Ecuador’s state oil company, Petroecuador, which owned 62.5 percent. TexPet left Ecuador in 1992, and at that time it fully remediated its share of environmental impacts arising from oil production. The $40 million remediation operation was certified by all agencies of the Ecuadorian government responsible for oversight, and TexPet received a complete release from Ecuador’s national, provincial and municipal governments. Chevron acquired TexPet in 2001.”
      Petroecuador has been the sole owner for the last 20+ years. https://www.chevron.com/ecuador/background/

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      • #
        PeterS

        Yes that’s the message I got from that guy’s YuoTube I posted earlier. It appears Donziger went after the wrong culprit. It was Ecuador who is to blame for it. I suppose some people don’t know their right from their left.

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  • #
    Mark M

    Further evidence burning coal does not cause sea level rise …

    … “But few know that dotted around Magnetic Island, just 70km north, there are another 20 shipwrecks that have great tourism potential that has remained largely untapped.

    One of those is the City of Adelaide which ran aground at Cockle Bay in 1916 while being transported after sale.

    Just 300m offshore, it’s possible to wade out to the wreck during a low tide — however few visit it.

    In 1912 the coal caught fire and the City of Adelaide burned for two days.

    Three years after the fire, a Magnetic Island businessman named George Butler purchased the ship with a plan to refit her as accommodation for tourists, or as a breakwater in Picnic Bay.

    It was en route to her new home that she ran aground in Cockle Bay.”

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-31/forgotten-shipwrecks-of-magnetic-island-tourism-bid/9795918

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  • #
    pattoh

    Kinda brings to mind the report of Uranium being detected in a mudpit or bunded containment at a CSG/Frac well site in Northern NSW.

    Did anybody ever get to the bottom of whether that “detection” was real or even natural or just a a really convenient scary story?

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      • #
        Sceptical Sam

        Talk about lies.

        Shut the Gate is full of it. Have a look at this (from el gordo’s link):

        Water Impacts: The gasfield will drill through and de-water the aquifers beneath a recharge aquifer of the Great Artesian Basin, leading to loss of pressure and drawdown. There is a huge community campaign to stop it from proceeding.

        That statement demonstrates Shut the Gate‘s ignorance or its ethical turpitude.

        Don’t they know that a fracked well is cased through the strata?

        https://fracfocus.org/hydraulic-fracturing-how-it-works/casing

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        • #
          el gordo

          And their numbers are plucked from thin air, ‘97% of people’ is a classic example.

          ‘Narrabri community members warned there was unprecedented opposition to the Narrabri gas project amongst many groups throughout the region. According to surveys, 97% of people oppose the project in the five shires that span Narrabri. AGM attendees also warned that the project may become a liability rather than an asset.’

          Market Forces

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          • #
            glen Michel

            Yeah, they get the 97 from everywhere. I come from the land around Narrabri and can say the majority of people are pragmatic on the subject of CSG extraction. Some landownwers are not.There is alot of outside agitation going on’Others conflate the issue with open cut coal.That being said the old guard of cocky is heading with the sunset and being replaced by younger, indoctrinated generations. No nous I have to say.All beaut new clobber but no dirt on their hands.Big hats and no cattle.Sorry Randy.

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    pat

    3 pages: 30 May: SeekingAlpha: Chevron: Climate Lawsuit Would Create A New Oil And Gas Regulatory Scheme
    by Tristan R. Brown
    A lawyer for oil and gas producer Chevron (CVX), which is defending itself against federal nuisance claims brought by Oakland and San Francisco, argued in court last week that the plaintiff cities want to create “a new regime to regulate oil and gas production around the U.S. and around the world.”
    This is one of the starkest statements to date to have come from the company’s legal representation about the implications of a successful lawsuit given that it has already been replicated in New York City and Richmond. It is also one of the few aspects of the lawsuit, and one of the most important ones for the company’s investors, that both sides agree on…

    Now the judge wants both sides to submit briefs on the subject of the positive impacts of fossil fuel consumption on humanity (he explicitly mentioned World War II, which was both caused and determined by access to oil), and how these impacts should be considered in the context of the immediate lawsuit. Or, as the judge told the legal representation for the plaintiff cities, “You lived through the same period I did, and you understand how dependent our nation has been on oil.” The briefs are due by May 31…

    This latest line of inquiry should not be interpreted as meaning that the judge is siding with Chevron and its co-defendants; he said as much, stating that is open to damages being paid based on the harm posed by climate change. What it does mean, however, is that this lawsuit is intended to be precedent-setting regardless of how the court rules. Oakland and San Francisco have adopted an unorthodox and unprecedented legal argument in their effort to avoid being entangled by existing federal legal precedent, and the judge intends to consider this argument as a novel one before deciding whether or not to dismiss it…

    This fact also makes last week’s hearing notable for a second reason. The longer that it moves forward, the more unprecedented that it becomes in its own right. As the co-Executive Director of UCLA’s Emmitt Institute on Climate Change told the San Francisco Chronicle last week, similar cases “have not gotten beyond the motion-to-dismiss phase,” meaning that they have all ultimately been dismissed rather than allowed to move forward. While the Oakland and San Francisco lawsuit has not yet broken that threshold, the judge is clearly not ready to dismiss it at this point either.

    In addition to the subject of whether and how to offset any damages resulting from climate change against the benefits that accrue from the use of fossil fuels, the court will also have the opportunity to hear more about how any liability should be affected by the federal government’s past decisions to encourage and incentivize the extraction of fossil fuel resources for the purpose of combustion and conversion to greenhouse gases. A few weeks ago, the Department of Justice sided strongly on the side of Chevron and its peers in an amicus brief…

    At last week’s hearing, Chevron’s legal team reiterated the argument that Congress and the executive branch take precedence over the federal common law of nuisance. The cities, on the other hand, have requested permission from the court to directly respond to the U.S. government’s recent amicus brief, and the response will undoubtedly take a dim view of the legal arguments that it presented.

    The one aspect of the lawsuit that both parties seem to agree on, as indicated by Chevron’s lawyer in the quote above, is that its success would create a very different regulatory scheme for the oil and gas industry than the companies have operated within in the past.

    The fact that the plaintiffs’ argument has been adopted by a number of municipalities on both U.S. coasts as well as inland locations indicates, as I wrote last week, that climate activists are sending a message to the Trump administration in particular that similar lawsuits will become widespread if the White House does away with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “endangerment finding” on greenhouse gas emissions.

    I fully expect Oakland and San Francisco’s response to argue that a judicially-created regulatory scheme is required due to the federal government’s lack of substantive action to mitigate climate change following the Trump administration’s decision to end the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan. Both sides see the same outcome if the lawsuit is successful even if they view that outcome’s merits very differently.
    Disclosure: I am/we are long XLE.
    https://seekingalpha.com/article/4178182-chevron-climate-lawsuit-create-new-oil-gas-regulatory-scheme

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    pat

    31 May: ABC: BOM outlook: Winter is coming — but it’s looking hot and dry for south-east Australia
    ABC Weather By Kate Doyle and Marty McCarthy
    Hot and dry.
    The Bureau of Meteorology’s outlook for winter this year is not good news for anyone in the south-east of the mainland hoping for rain, and the jury is still out on what it will mean for the snow season…

    Both daytime and overnight temperatures are expected to be above-average for all of Australia apart from the very north…

    The drier and warmer-than-average forecast this winter is a mixed bag for Australia’s ski resorts, potentially bringing heavy snow later in the season in a repeat of 2017 conditions.
    “Snowfall is difficult to predict over long timeframes, but the dry outlook for June suggests a later-than-normal start for the snow season,” Jonathon Pollock, a climatologist with the Bureau of Meteorology, said.
    “However, when ENSO [El Nino Southern Oscillation] and IOD [Indian Ocean Dipole] are neutral we have historically seen deeper-than-average snow cover by mid-season.”…

    Warmer-than-average winter days and nights could make retaining snow more difficult, but dry conditions are ideal for snow making — even if conditions are warmer — according to Sophie Webber from Falls Creek in Victoria.
    “Dry conditions mean you can make snow at slightly warmer temperatures above zero. But the colder the better, and we hope mother nature brings plenty of cold weather to balance out the snow making,” she said.

    Bill Barker, head of Ski Patrol at Mt Hotham in Victoria, said he was not too worried about the dry prediction.
    “Last year we ended up with a bumper season after starting with a drier than average early season in June and July,” he said…

    Some resorts extended their ski season by an extra week last year, and Falls Creek’s Sophie Webber said she also hopes for a repeat this season.
    “Last year in September we cracked two metres [snow depth], and we closed in October with 1.5 metres of snow still on the ground,” she said.
    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-31/winter-looking-hot-and-dry-for-south-east-australia-bom-says/9819300

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    OriginalSteve

    Killing the country one eco-cut at a time…..

    Lets keep it in perspective – its a lump of bird-poo covered rock in the middle of the ocean….

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-05-31/proposal-to-expand-christmas-island-phosphate-mine-knocked-back/9820382

    “The community of Christmas Island could face an economic collapse after a proposal to expand the island’s phosphate mine was knocked back over fears of the impact to the island’s wildlife, including its world-famous red crabs.

    Phosphate Resources Limited has been mining on the Indian Ocean Territory for more than 100 years, but claims it needs to clear more crown land to access new deposits in order for the operations to remain viable.

    Under the expansion, the company wanted to clear an additional 6.83 hectares of land to undertake exploration drilling to determine the extent of more phosphate resources, in what has been described as a pristine area of the island.”

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    ROM

    Sometimes it does one good to go back in history and look at the sometime quite marked parallels that re-emerge every few generations or so
    The American prohibition period from 1920 to 1933 when alcohol was banned is the parallel today of the green and climate change adherents attitudes towards the law, the moral and ethical standards of society, the rights of others who do not believe as they believe and the welfare and respect towards their fellow man..

    A couple of quotes which draw some striking parallels to the Prohibition period.
    In this quote you can see the ideological fervour driven by an equally disaster predicting religious fervour similar to that that produced the Prohibition period in the USA and in some European nations resulting in the banning of alcohol in the USA.

    Compare that with and today’s equally religious fervour that drives the green and Climate Change ideology and its demands to drive out coal and other society dependent elements, the newest eco-nazi atempts to inflict Electrical vehicles on everybody regardless of the utter impractibility of such a course of action with todays technology and the longer term effects and consequences on society with what is now a major factor in our civilisation, the ability to transport of goods and services and people on a mass scale from having any role in our society.

    “Quoted”

    By the turn of the century, temperance societies were a common fixture in communities across the United States.
    Women played a strong role in the temperance movement, as alcohol was seen as a destructive force in families and marriages.
    In 1906, a new wave of attacks began on the sale of liquor, led by the Anti-Saloon League (established in 1893) and driven by a reaction to urban growth, as well as the rise of evangelical Protestantism and its view of saloon culture as corrupt and ungodly. In addition, many factory owners supported prohibition in their desire to prevent accidents and increase the efficiency of their workers in an era of increased industrial production and extended working hours.

    [ end ]

    You can see the parallels in thinking in the implementing of the banning of alchohol during the Prohibition period and the parallel thinking and ideology today of the demands to ban the so called “Carbon”, known by its correct chemicals description to those of a far more honest and thoughtful intellect as CO2 or “Carbon dioxide”.

    Prohibition led to the rapid rise of the Mafia in the USA.

    The Mafia of course hauling bootleg liquor across state borders from states that never enforced the Prohibition to States that did, all at a huge profit to the Mafia.

    The Mafia specialised in thuggery, murder, threats, shake downs of business, fr????d, false witness , protection rackets, cross border illegalities, the pedalling of influence in return for lucrative money in brown enevelopes, shifting and hiding of vast amounts of money, the outright and blatant corrupting of political figures and the society’s institutions and etc.
    ——————————
    So what is so different today with the green and climate change movement as it slips ever further down the very same slippery slope towards gross criminality, thuggery, false witness fr—-d, witness tampering, deliberate destruction of industrial equipment in forests and oil fields and coalmines and in plant development nurseries, the shake down and threats towards big business, the corrupting of governments as in Ecuador and thats just one government , money laundering on a grand multi billion scale , all of which is so evident in the attempts of the green and climate change movement to shake down the Chevron oil company and then to quite F—dently launder the proceeds of the illegal.f—dulent shake down of Chevron through the Gibraltar banks.

    About the only moral and ethical inhibition the green and climate change movement still seems to have at the moment is that they have not yet had any deliberate murders pinned specifically onto them.

    But as they continue their rapidly increasing slide down that very slippery moral and ethical slope towards a mafia like psychology where there is little in the way of moral restraint on the participants and given the extraordinary numbers of death threats against skeptics and those whom challenge the greens and clmate change activists and the complete lack of any response ormreigning in ofmsuch threats being made on the social media against those not in the green / climate change mafia families , it seems it is only a matter of time before those innumerable death threats become another reality and another morality free facet of the greens and climate movement’s unsatisfiable lust for total all out power.

    The consequences for society if this morality and ethically free attitude and the increasingly criminality of the green and climate change adherents as we see with Donizinger and his supporters is allowed to persist will , like the mafia of the prohibition era, take a couple of generations to return a semblence of those essential to the functioning of society attitudes towards tolerance and respect for both persons and the laws of the land..

    The social and moral costs of reigning in the increasingly uncontrollable Mafia trending tendencies of the greens and the climate change adherents gets higher and higher each day that goes by without government, .lawyers and media beginning to speak out and take direct action against the perpertrators of the increasing criminality of the rabidly radical greens and climate change adherents.

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    wert

    Where are the media? The last story on “Donziger” on the BBC was 2014. The last story on Donziger on the ABC was never, though it did find time to report the fraudulent case in 2011 “Ecuador orders Chevron to pay $8.6b” and “Chevron ordered to pay for Amazon damage“.

    Good question.

    The media is reading the Daily “Gosh” for news and hasn’t noticed yet. When they notice, it’s embarrassingly late to report, and they’ll go into cut damages mode. They’ll report, eventually, that Chevron won its case against environmentalists over pollution in Equador, giving false impression that Chevron polluted and that the Donziger fella was an environmentalist in the first place.

    The Big Oil, you know, is not a victim. Victims can be women and children, people in the third world, natives to a place if they are a minority, refugees and immigrants of colour, [SNIP “groups we are not allowed to discuss” thanks to 18C], paperless people (even if burnt their papers in an aeroplane to get an asylum), poor people (even if poverty was caused by pretty selfish motives), people in the death row (oh yes, this is a cool case), drug abusers, alcoholics, people who could not care less, people who like throwing stones between demonstrators, people who do illegal activities in the name of greater good, people who mutilate themselves, tattoo themselves, or just dress in a queer way, people who are not straight white men.

    So basically straight white Christian non-criminal employed men with wife and children (people considered the ‘norm’ in this discourse), and companies/organizations which have straight white male image are the only ones that may not be victims.

    But you all knew this already.

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    pat

    30 May: CNBC: Reuters: Exxon CEO urges New York prosecutor to rethink climate change probe
    •Former New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman alleged Exxon withheld information about its internal climate change discussions and misled the public about what it knew.
    •Exxon has long denied the charges.
    •Exxon CEO Darren Woods said he has not reached out to Barbara Underwood, who was appointed to replace Schneiderman
    Exxon Mobil’s chief executive said on Wednesday he hopes the new attorney general in New York “comes to a different conclusion” than predecessor Eric Schneiderman on a climate change probe into the world’s largest publicly traded oil producer…

    CEO Darren Woods, who spoke at Exxon’s annual shareholder meeting in Dallas, said he was “committed to being part of the solution on climate change.”…
    He said he was not sure if Exxon attorneys have talked to Underwood or her office.
    “I’m real confident on where we stand. I hope whoever comes in steps back and takes an objective look … and comes to a different conclusion,” Woods said.

    Underwood, a Democrat appointed by the New York State Legislature, has said she would not run for election to a full term this November. At least six candidates of various political backgrounds have announced their candidacies.
    “Let’s see what that election brings,” Woods said
    Underwood’s office said on Wednesday that the Exxon climate probe was ongoing.
    “Our office’s work has continued without interruption, and that certainly includes the Exxon investigation,” said Amy Spitalnick, spokeswoman for the New York attorney general…

    New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli, who oversees state pension funds that hold about 11.5 million Exxon shares, has also long criticized the company’s response to climate change and voted against a slate of 10 board nominees at the company’s annual meeting.
    “The fund cannot support board directors who refuse to acknowledge substantial risks to Exxon’s bottom line and fail to help it transition to a lower carbon future,” DiNapoli said in a statement. All 10 board nominees were approved by Exxon shareholders.
    https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/30/exxon-ceo-urges-new-york-prosecutor-to-rethink-climate-change-probe.html

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    pat

    31 May: AFR: Europe’s largest asset manager sees ‘tipping point’ on climate
    by Anna Hirtenstein, Bloomberg
    “We are really observing a tipping point among the institutional investors on climate change,” said Frederic Samama, co-head of institutional clients at the Paris-based firm (Amundi). “Until recently, that question was not on their radar screen. It’s changing, and it’s changing super fast.”…
    Amundi’s remarks hold weight because it has €1.4 trillion ($2.1 trillion) under management, making it the largest asset manager in Europe. It runs the world’s largest green bond fund with the International Finance Corp and is planning to deploy $US2 billion ($2.6 billion) into emerging markets…

    “If we have this major shift required in terms of how we manage the planet, for sure it will impact the asset prices,” he said. “Can we evaluate the automakers without taking into account the new bans of diesel cars? Can we evaluate the fossil fuel industry without taking into account the risks of regulation related to the drop of the price of renewable energy?”…
    Another reason that institutional investors’ views are evolving is the availability of green financial instruments, according to Amundi. The asset manager developed low-carbon equity indexes, removing the polluting companies from commonly used ones such as the S&P 500 and MSCI indexes. Investors from the California State Teachers’ Retirement System to Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund are shifting their portfolios to these indexes, according to Mr Samama…

    Green bonds are another avenue for redirecting institutional capital into environmental projects. The industry has soared from non-existence just over a decade ago to global issuance of $US163 billion last year.
    https://www.afr.com/news/policy/climate/europes-largest-asset-manager-sees-tipping-point-on-climate-20180531-h10te2

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    pat

    theirABC has a new idea for Big Ideas – CAGW! lol:

    31 May: ABC Big Ideas: Cooling the planet
    The race is on to keep global warming to under two degrees by the end of this century…
    So can we afford to wait or do we take extraordinary measures to cool the planet?
    Pushing the boundaries beyond traditional approaches recorded 8 May 2018 Climate Adaptation Conference
    Speakers:
    Hugh Hunt Reader in Engineering Dynamics and Vibration Cambridge University
    Tony Capon Professor of Planetary Health University of Sydney
    Sarah Boulter Research Fellow National Climate Change Adaptation Research Facility
    http://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/bigideas/geo-engineering-to-cool-the-planet/9819914

    behind paywall, by Maurice Newman:

    Climate propaganda parades as science on your leftist ABC
    The Australian-21 hours ago
    This was one of many exaggerated examples of so-called climate change. Perhaps none was worse than the blatant perpetuation of a false Bureau of Meteorology announcement that at Penrith on January 7, the…

    31 May: ABC: Statement: ABC response to Maurice Newman in The Australian
    The Australian has today published an opinion column by former ABC Chairman (2007-2012) Maurice Newman, headlined “Climate propaganda parades as science on your leftist ABC”, in which he reaches his familiar conclusion that “justification for public broadcasting (is ceasing) to apply”.

    Unfortunately, on his way there Mr Newman makes a litany of incorrect and misleading claims concerning the ABC, journalist Michael Brissenden, Four Corners and the 5 March Four Corners report “Weather Alert”.
    The ABC would like to correct the record. We note that all of this information was provided to The Australian prior to publication…

    Maurice Newman: This disregard for perception, let alone reality, was apparent when the Australian Communications and Media Authority upheld a complaint ruling the ABC had breached its impartiality rules with an unsubstantiated and opinionated attack on former prime minister Tony Abbott describing him as “the most destructive politician of his generation”. Rather than apologise, the ABC has not accepted the verdict.

    Response: To the contrary, the ABC has stated publicly that we accept the ACMA’s finding on this – as we do all its findings – and will incorporate it into our editorial compliance training programs. We note the ACMA ruled one line in the report breached ABC impartiality guidelines, but apart from that the ACMA found “the report demonstrated fair treatment and open-mindedness by providing the audience with a number of the views Mr Abbott had expressed over the last eight years for consideration and comparison. Mr Abbott’s views were clearly presented, primarily in his own words, with limited additional commentary by the reporter”. Mr Abbott has not complained to the ABC about the report…

    Maurice Newman: This was one of many exaggerated examples of so-called climate change. Perhaps none was worse than the blatant perpetuation of a false Bureau of Meteorology announcement that at Penrith on January 7, the Sydney Basin recorded its hottest day. The bur­eau, with lightning speed, ­corrected the record to acknowledge Richmond in 1939, but the ABC chose to ignore the correction.

    Response: The program included a news report that said Penrith had recorded its hottest day ever, not the Sydney Basin…
    http://about.abc.net.au/statements/abc-response-to-maurice-newman-in-the-australian/

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      pat

      response to ABC’s response to Maurice Newman:

      8 Jan: JoanneNova: Sydney “hottest ever” mistake generates fake news
      The original ABC Headline appears to have been and may have stood for three hours (hard to tell):
      “Sydney Hits Highest Temperature Ever Recorded”
      The original link (which contains the headline) now redirects to the newer story.
      “Sydney hits its highest temperature recorded since 1939 with Penrith reaching 47.3C”

      In a mass syndicated snafu, the news that “Sydney sizzles through its hottest day on record” was shared by the MSN.com site, the SMH Facebook page, The Daily Advertiser, The Herald, The West Australian, The LaTrobe Valley Express, The Port Lincoln Times, the Northern Daily Leader, The Penrith City Gazette, The Bendigo Advertiser, and so on and on to scores more outlets… Many of these publications have back edited or altered the stories post hoc sometimes leaving the headline in contradiction to the first line of the story. None of these news outlets did a google search, or a trove hunt for past hottest headlines. The mass of different mastheads gives the appearance of a free press, but all of them speak as one voice when it comes to the BOM…

      from COMMENTS:
      Mark M: Monday morning, and ABC24 breakfast is still running with the headline, leading some updates.
      http://joannenova.com.au/2018/01/sydney-hottest-ever-mistake-generates-fake-news/

      Twitter: Benjamin Law
      Tweet: Benjamin Law: 6 Jan 2018: Hello everyone, I am pleased to report the city is on fire and the planet is boiling.
      (LAW POSTED TWO TWEETS)
      Tweet: The Sydney Morning Herald: Sydney has recorded the hottest day in 158 years of records with the mercury reaching over 47 degrees in Penrith.

      Tweet: ABC: Sydney has reached its hottest day since records began reaching 47.1 degrees Celcius in Penrith. The previous record was 47C.
      https://twitter.com/mrbenjaminlaw/status/949862375292780544/photo/1?tfw_creator=pedestriandaily&tfw_site=pedestriandaily&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pedestrian.tv%2Fnews%2Fcase-hadnt-noticed-fairly-fucking-hot-sydney-today%2F

      8 Jan 2018: ABC: Sydney hits its highest temperature recorded since 1939 with Penrith reaching 47.3C
      Penrith in Sydney’s west has reached a top of 47.3 degrees Celsius, the highest temperature recorded by a weather station in the Sydney metropolitan area in 79 years.
      The temperature hit 47.3C at Penrith just after 3:00pm on Sunday.
      The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM) early Sunday said it had confirmed preliminary data and declared it was the highest temperature ever recorded by a weather station in the Sydney metropolitan area.

      However, the NSW BOM tweeted just after 4:00pm that they had missed a temperature in the north-western Sydney suburb of Richmond, at a now closed recording station.
      The 1939 high was 47.8C…
      http://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-01-07/sydney-hits-its-highest-temperature-recorded-in-79-years/9309552

      BBC inserted the update, but kept the headline:

      7 Jan: BBC: Sydney swelters on hottest day since 1939 as mercury hits 47.3C
      The Australian city of Sydney has experienced its hottest weather in 79 years with temperatures in the region hitting as high as 47.3C (117F)…
      Sunday’s temperatures fell short of the scorching heat to hit the area in 1939, when the mercury reached 47.8C…

      ABC reported that one charity, Mission Australia, helped transfer homeless people to hospital for treatment while taking others into shelters to avoid the heat.
      http://www.bbc.com/news/world-australia-42595180

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    pat

    response to ABC’s response to Maurice Newman has gone into moderation.

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    pat

    30 May: The Hill: Ex-Obama EPA chief to lead new center for climate change at Harvard
    By Miranda Green
    Former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Gina McCart is leading a newly launched center at Harvard University that will focus on climate change and policy.
    McCarthy, who served under former President Obama from 2013 to 2017, will lead the university’s Center for Climate, Health, and the Global Environment (C-CHANGE), first introduced Wednesday.
    In her role there, the former EPA head will help the center, which is part of Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, ensure that government and business officials have access to the best science to help them understand current health and environmental challenges.

    “Climate change isn’t about saving the planet and it’s not about politics, it’s about our kids and making sure they have the opportunity for a healthy, sustainable world,” said McCarthy in a statement. “C-CHANGE will ensure that cutting-edge science produced by Harvard Chan School is actionable—that the public understands it, and that it gets into the hands of decision-makers so that science drives decisions.”

    The center also announced Wednesday that one of its first initiatives will be a collaboration with Google to reduce the use of harmful chemicals in building products and materials, adding that many of the chemicals are scientifically shown to be harmful but current policy still allows them. Under the collaboration, they aim to develop a set of public tools and resources using the latest scientific research to help inform an drive decision-making by large institutions with the goal of ultimately transforming the marketplace…

    McCarthy has been a vocal critic of the Trump administration’s handling of environmental regulations…
    McCarthy, along with Janet McCabe, former acting assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, wrote a scathing critique of the EPA’s current chief, Scott Pruitt, in a New York Times op-ed in March, warning that his crackdown on certain scientific studies could have long-term damaging effects on the agency.
    http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/389930-former-obama-epa-chief-leads-newly-launched-center-for-climate

    Bloomberg unhappy, even when they appear to win!

    31 May: Bloomberg: Trump Helps More Than Double U.S. Solar Capacity With Duties
    By Brian Eckhouse and Chris Martin; With assistance by Justin Sink, and Feifei Shen
    (Updates with comments from China’s industry group in sixth paragraph.)

    President Donald Trump wanted more U.S. solar manufacturing — and now he’s getting it.

    Hanwha Q Cells Korea on Wednesday said it will build a factory in Georgia. JinkoSolar Holding Co. of China is planning one in Florida. And U.S. companies SunPower Corp. and First Solar Inc. say they’ll boost production in Oregon and Ohio.

    The expansion underscores how immediate the reaction has been to the tariffs Trump imposed on imported panels in January to spur domestic manufacturing. The duties could increase production capacity in the U.S. by at least 3.4 gigawatts, compared with 1.8 gigawatts at the end of last year, and would add to even more capacity already planned, based on Bloomberg New Energy Finance data. It remains to be seen whether these factories will create the jobs Trump is after, but analysts say his policies are having a clear impact.
    “Absent the Trump tariffs, this wouldn’t be happening,” Jeff Osborne, an analyst at Cowen & Co., said in an interview…

    “Trade disputes are forcing these companies to build capacity in the U.S.,” said Peng Peng, general secretary of China New Energy Investment & Financing Alliance, an industry group. However, only a handful will do so as production in the U.S. may predominantly target only Western markets and have higher costs than China, she said…

    “While the Trump Administration will claim this as a win, America’s victory is modest,” said Hugh Bromley, a New York-based analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “The profits will flow offshore, and the highly-automated production lines will bring few jobs.”
    The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment.
    https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-05-30/u-s-solar-manufacturing-poised-to-boom-in-wake-of-trump-tariffs

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    pat

    30 May: The Hill: Pruitt blames scandals on EPA staff, political left
    By Timothy Cama
    In a Wednesday interview on a Washington Free Beacon podcast, Pruitt said many of the most high-profile spending or ethics controversies involving him in recent months, like those involving his $43,000 secure phone booth and his frequent first-class travel, have been the fault of career staff.

    “Some of the things that have been in the media are decisions made by career staff, processes that were at the agency that there weren’t proper checks and balances. So I’ve actually made changes at the agency,” Pruitt told the conservative news outlet, pointing to a recent memo that asked three of his top aides to review any expenditures made on Pruitt’s behalf costing more than $5,000.
    “The whole secure phone system was not something I was involved with. I didn’t approve that,” he said. “And the same thing on travel. Different issues where I’m having to answer questions about decisions that others made. And that’s not an excuse, that’s just reality.”…

    But he said the political left and other opponents of his aggressive deregulatory agenda are also at fault, an argument he has put forth previously with other right-wing outlets.
    “This has been a bastion of the left for many years. This agency has been a safe haven in advancing against certain sectors of our economy,” he said.
    “And to change that creates a lot of controversy, creates a lot of division, creates a lot of uncomfortableness with those who have grown comfortable with the agency over the years and grown comfortable with the way the agency does business. So I think that’s contributed to this.”

    Asked if he remains in good standing with President Trump, Pruitt confidently answered in the affirmative.
    “I think he’s [Trump] been very consistent there. I mean, he’s spoken very strongly and very consistently about our relationship and the work we’re doing at the agency,” Pruitt said.
    “The president’s been very encouraging, very consistent, very strong and very supportive [of] me in this process.”
    http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/389963-pruitt-blames-scandals-on-epa-staff-left

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    pat

    ***are reporters reluctant to put their names to negative wind stories?

    30 May: UK Telegraph: Wind turbine catches fire during thunderstorm in Cambridgeshire
    ***By Telegraph Reporters
    An 89m (292ft) wind turbine caught fire after storms hit Cambridgeshire in the early hours of Wednesday…
    Parts of it have broken off, with debris scattered in the area but there was no danger to the public, the fire service said…

    The cause of the fire is unconfirmed despite some locals suggesting the turbine may have been struck by lightning.
    Mellisa Mathews who lives nearby said: “I heard a huge bang at about 7.30am and looked out and saw the turbine on fire. At the time there was a lot of thunder and lightning”…
    PIC: Aerial picture shows the damaged wind turbine …
    https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/30/wind-turbine-catches-fire-thunderstorm-cambridgeshire/

    31 May: BusinessStandard: ANI: Is climate change responsible for lightning-ignited fires?
    Climate change is responsible for many disasters across the world. A new catastrophe can now be added to the list.
    According to a study conducted by the Portland State University, fires ignited by lightning have and will likely continue to increase across the Mediterranean and temperate regions in the Southern Hemisphere under a warmer climate.

    The study examined the observed and forecasted relationship between lightning-ignited fires, rising temperatures across the Southern Hemisphere and natural climate variability in three leading climate drivers that affect weather worldwide: El Niño-La Niña, the Indian Ocean Dipole, and the Southern Annular Mode…

    The study found that of the three climate drivers, the SAM had the strongest impact on fire activity – both lightning- and human-caused wildfires – due to a combination of lower precipitation and higher temperatures, said (Andres Holz, the study’s co-lead author)…

    But Holz cautioned that it does not mean that there will be an increasing number of fires everywhere. Under warmer conditions, if precipitation stays constant, there will be increased fire activity in areas that already have plenty of fuel to burn but have historically been too humid or wet to burn.
    On the flip side, areas that are dry year-round will likely see a decline in fire activity with global warming unless there’s a strong increase in rainfall.
    “These trends are expected worldwide, not just in the Southern Hemisphere,” Holz said.
    The study appears in the journal Geophysical Research Letters.
    http://www.business-standard.com/article/news-ani/is-climate-change-responsible-for-lightning-ignited-fires-118053100598_1.html

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    pat

    30 May: Nature: Feature: Rating climate risks to credit worthiness
    by Karl Mathiesen
    Credit ratings agencies are now accounting for climate change risks in their ratings of credit worthiness. This could incentivize climate risk reduction efforts if it allows organizations access to cheaper credit. Karl Mathiesen investigates the extent to which this is happening in practice.
    http://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-018-0184-z.epdf?referrer_access_token=wLgGinCbbznkj89Off4Ba9RgN0jAjWel9jnR3ZoTv0PlWff5N0ZjPGJ5QnGvGhjiH9juEjgaRUyD7nWDvI_utBhVVzg264nC5wvFNoAvs3dO6ahVwGDbjXTDOmNJDBmZZ5gSf_nxqehoJFY-0LDAtAACwKMpegz6e9LOwEHReZGamCYULbgLX0tMzfbfPBJZYfZ315lsuGxA1sVcmYju_9ys69DDNsdTcli5AAEvc5FRxOTr5EOpes55aAr_59NiJiQSuE6oEXoeV8o3fgaN0n3fpvl9v_PShlR2jSR6MBw%3D&tracking_referrer=www.carbonbrief.org

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    Roy Hogue

    Score 1 for Chevron

    Now we need about 10,000 more and in the U.S. courts to make it something big…whopping big.

    How much do I wish? Let me count the ways…

    I know, someone else said it first but it’s still appropriate. It tells exactly how I feel.

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    Uncle Gus

    But, but, but… you’re ALLOWED to use ” half-truths, outright lies, and … fake evidence and witnesses” in defense of The Environment!

    Aren’t you?…

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    Louis de Villiers

    This would be the same Chevron that knew about climate change some 40 years ago and decided to rather spend money on denial and obfuscation than addressing the reality?
    It seems there’s a more recent twist in the saga and it’s Chevron again which has shown to be the bad apple:
    http://www.csrwire.com/press_releases/39642-With-New-Court-Decision-Against-Chevron-Ecuadorian-Villagers-Take-Major-Step-Forward-In-Ecuador-Pollution-Case
    “Chevron’s retaliatory lawsuit was predicated on the testimony of a corrupt witness, who has since admitted he lied in exchange for over $2 million from Chevron. Chevron’s “star witness,” disgraced Ecuadorian ex-judge Alberto Guerra, later recanted his testimony about the bribe he allegedly received from the Ecuadorians. Furthermore, he affirmed that he had not made an arrangement with Zambrano, the judge who presided over the Ecuadorian trial, and he had no evidence of a ghostwritten judgement. Guerra also admitted that he told Chevron what they wanted to hear to get a bigger payout. As reported by Vice News, “in testimony before the tribunal, Guerra admitted that at this point he tried to get more money from Chevron. ‘At some point, I said, well, why don’t you add some zeroes to that amount, and then later on I said, I think it could be 50,000.'”

    Further disproving Chevron’s claims of fraud, since the initial verdict in Chevron’s retaliatory counter suit the government of Ecuador has produced an independent expert forensic report of the computer of Judge Zambrano, which invalidates the company’s arguments that the judgement had been written by third parties. Now, the company will have to respond for those falsehoods before a Canadian judge.”

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