I wrote a short essay for
@pbs
interpreting a 1969 White House memo on climate change. A fascinating window into the moral clarity of the issue decades before the disinformation wars and politicization.
why is everyone talking about gas stoves?
is it really dangerous?
am i going to have to give up gas cooking?
isn't electric horrible?
what about gas boilers and furnaces?
doesn't electricity also run on fossil fuels?
got some answers for you >>>>
Found out today (by way of generic email) I'm getting laid off from Vox.
I would love to talk opportunities for an experienced climate journalist, editor, and investigative reporter.
Choice words from a gas exec in emails foiaed by by
@ccspatz
confirmed the hunch: the gas industry was worried about the public turning against the gas stove
there has already been more coverage of what looks to be an underwhelming Trump rally than there has ever been for any protest demanding action on climate change
I was interested in gas stoves in 2020, when I was startled that the gas industry was paying instagram influencers to promote
#cookingwithgas
.
I didn't understand why the industry cared about stoves enough to market them
The gas industry wants to build more pipelines to buildings, new and old. Yes, the power sector still runs on coal and gas but it's fast shrinking its GHG footprint. Laying more pipes in the ground locks us into fossil fuels for decades longer than we have
I've been working on this new feature for months.
It started with reporting on gas stove influencers. I got my hands on revealing industry emails & unpacked the layers of fossil fuel astroturf using America's favorite appliance to fight climate action
Say you have decided to ditch the gas. What are your alternatives? Enjoyed this interview with a chef who prefers induction (different from the old electric that most people hate)
A great starting point he recommends is a plug-in induction hotplate
Carbon dioxide levels have hit a record high at 419 parts per million. The last time carbon concentrations were this high, sea level was about 78 feet higher than today per
@noaa
I've written more than a dozen articles on gas stoves, and even more on the natural gas industry over the past 3 years. Will keep chipping away at this and appreciate your tips and commentary (lots of comments already on fireplaces... tbc...)
The reason all this blew up this week is because media picked up on the Consumer Product Safety Commissions' Dec decision to consider the health impacts of the stove. There is no regulation yet and never likely to be a ban. I catch up to speed here:
when I started reporting on this years ago, no one really suspected gas stoves to be a source of methane emissions. It turns out that might have been wrong. Methane leaks are more common than we realized, even when the stove is off.
I'm asked all the time about how not to leave people to despairing on climate change or what gives me hope. It feels like I'm expected to give others more excuses to not worry too much.
It's funny the gas industry always promotes the gas stove as "natural gas stove". I'm more mindful about how I use "natural gas" now in my writing. I still use it, because that's what people know it as, but always define it as methane, a fossil fuel
Before the uproar this week, there was already a big backlash brewing in red states after some cities passed bans on new gas lines to buildings.
20 Republican-led states passed preemption laws banning cities from passing gas bans when I wrote this
Gas stoves DID have an image problem & leading trade orgs were worried. RMI had reviewed the scientific literature that spring on the health risks of gas stoves, and the industry wanted 1) consumers devoted to gas cooking 2) to ward off climate campaigns
John Kerry injecting nuance into the conversation about how international climate action must work: You can't get strong global agreements without proof we mean it domestically.
"The world will measure us by what we can do at home."
There are plenty of barriers to electrifying the home. It's hard to report on one-size-fits all solutions, but I do feel pretty confident about things eventually getting easier now that IRA is incentivizing these kinds of products
The US could be run on clean energy in about a decade. But it's all riding on Dems going bold in reconciliation. My new story on the clean electricity standard:
overlooked news that >10% of shareholders at Bank of America, Wells Fargo, and Citigroup voted yesterday to end finance for fossil fuel development.
It doesn't sound like a lot but it's enough to get execs' attention- and it shows some momentum to gain ground next year
it's a struggle to report on climate in the summer season during a never-ending news cycle fires, extreme heat, drought, flooding. been quiet on here, maybe because I'm exhausted from years of reporting on these climate warnings
a new story! Kids’ biggest exposure to pollution can come on the school bus. That is finally on the cusp of change. But one arm of the fossil fuel industry has other ideas.
Caroline Dennett was a Shell safety consultant for 11 years and publicly quit today in an email to top execs.
Shell is “blindly ignoring all the alarm bells" and “failing on a massive planetary scale”
I interviewed Caroline about her public resignation:
40% of the US runs on nuclear and clean energy today. By 2030, Biden wants to get to 80%. Would get the US halfway towards big cuts in climate emissions.
These are wild numbers to imagine: Pollution from power plants mostly a thing of the past
BREAKING: Manchin says he’s opposed to Biden’s Build Back Better tax and spending plan.
“This is a no on this legislation,”
@Sen_JoeManchin
says on Fox News Sunday.
“I just can't. I've tried everything humanly possible. I can't get there.”
Trump today is finalizing a surprise rule that bars the EPA from regulating oil and gas and refineries, deeming them "necessarily insignificant" sources of greenhouse gas pollution.
the fun thing is i interviewed experts in summer 2019 about what a president could do on climate change without congress... now a few of those experts are on Biden's transition team.
here's a new look at the same question:
getting far less attention than Marjorie Taylor Greene but there is a GOP lawmaker who opened the Oregon capitol door to rioters who has refused to resign or apologize. He's been stripped of committee assignments
A few of you read my gas stoves feature when it first published this winter. It's now in print! Running now in the July/August issue of Mother Jones, and just republished online. It's my last, last story at
@MotherJones
icymi this weekend
Splitting the difference between doing nothing and doing everything in our power does not halt the crisis. The “moderate” path leads us somewhere between devastating warming and catastrophic warming.
MANCHIN asked by
@AriNatter
whether an energy company he founded is a conflict of interest as he negotiates reconciliation:
MANCHIN: "I've been in a blind trust for 20 years, I have no idea what they're doing.
Ari: You're still getting dividends.
MANCHIN: "You got a problem?"
My new story on the ticking climate time bomb in West Texas, and the difficult decisions ahead for the Biden administration. It could very well lead to a political showdown.
My favorite tweet of all time was a conservative outraged that raising the minimum wage to $15 would turn a $2 fast food burger into a $17 one. Then the guy had to respond to hundreds of tweets concerned he doesn't know how math or burgers work.
NEW STORY
Newly uncovered documents show how natural gas industry paid Julia Child and Hollywood for promotion, at a time the health risks of gas stoves were becoming clear
Big Oil companies have tried to escape blame for causing climate change. I dove into why it matters that investors and courts are saying that doesn’t cut it anymore.
Pence treats each climate disaster as isolated. Trump takes a similar approach with COVID-19: 200,000 deaths from COVID are unrelated to the White House’s actions—instead of a consequence science denial.
Pence doesn’t want people to see the pattern:
I have wanted to dive into the complex web of climate shame for a while, and excited for the opportunity to do so with
@NaomiOreskes
and
@GeoffreySupran
’s new research
literally spent the last three days trying to figure out if there's any possible way the US can still cut climate pollution because Manchin, et al won't support a $150 billion clean energy program
Absolutely embarrassing false equivalence from the
@washingtonpost
editorial board. Mother Jones deserves an apology (and financial support) for its investigative nonprofit journalism
The gas industry is paying Instagram influencers to promote gas stoves. Yes, you read that right! So
@AllanaHarkin
becomes an induction stove influencer to draw attention to the harmful effects of cooking with natural gas. Featuring
@bradytoday
and
@heidiismighty
!
Sometimes I entertain it because I don't want to depress people either. But you're also asking a journalist if they can make readers think a little less critically and soften the pressure on politicians to do more
Trump's damaging agenda on the environment is worse than most people realize. Like his corruption and disregard for other humans, his mission to dismantle the EPA was in plain sight before his 2016 election. Much of the media missed the story
There were 0 laws stopping city climate action at the beginning of 2020. Now there are TWENTY with three more bills pending this year.
Cities are falling behind on climate fight because of a partisan use of preemption
I've been hearing wild stories from people having a hard time trying to get fossil fuels OUT of their homes. I got to the bottom of one of the biggest barriers.
was watching an influencer review 12 swimsuits she just got, and at the last one, talked about how she bought a "sustainable brand" because "you know we have to care and do our part" and in that moment i felt doomed
You can walk into a store and come out confident that your dishwasher, fridge, or laundry machine are all reasonably efficient.
That’s not something to take for granted! We should recognize Carter’s legacy on energy efficiency.
programming note: lately, burnout & relentless climate news has been taking a toll on my health. I'm grateful that Vox managers encouraged me to take extra time off when I finally spoke up
So, I'm off work, Twitter & email until July 18. Please try to spare my inbox til I'm back
The Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments for an extremely important case today. SCOTUS is likely to restrict the EPA's powers to regulate water pollution.
Read
@imillhiser
on the case:
So the US Postal Service is replacing 165,000 trucks with more gas guzzlers.
<10 years it will be outmoded and unnecessarily polluting (consider all the idling).
And if history repeats, it will be decades before the US replaces THIS fleet
I remember 10 years ago writing about an all-male congressional GOP hearing trying to take away the right to abortion and a bunch of male journalists thought that criticism was going ~too far~
a shift in tone, even compared to the Obama years.
Workers have been fed a "false narrative...that somehow dealing with climate is at their expense."
"This is not a choice between having good jobs and having good quality of life."
I'm at the Senate Budget hearing today reporting for
@WeAreDrilled
. The hearing spotlights new revelations about Big Oil's climate disinformation campaigns.
Democrats released a bicameral report yesterday publishing thousands of pages of subpoenaed documents
When I first started reporting on gas stoves, I heard from scientists that they probably weren’t a big factor in climate change. Now new research is challenging that assumption. A new study finds stoves are leaking much more methane than expected.
A thread:
At the time I published an investigation into the natural gas industry early in 2021, only a few states had laws preventing pro-climate electrification campaigns. The industry was in an aggressive fight it appeared to be losing
It's been a month since the Texas disaster, and politicians are content with blaming it on ERCOT and the grid and moving on. They're blind to half the crisis—the fragility and pollution of the oil and gas supply chain
A historic and hopeful moment in the decades of US climate inaction. The Senate just passed $370 billion more to fight climate change. It's on track to becoming the first law to address fossil fuel pollution across the entire economy.