Ro Khanna bak

bad code newsweek

===

event w zoe and sam licc

an 2 25

musk subpoena wd vote for vs don’t be a dick

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an 4 25

NBC News reports the 2028 election is already underway with U.S. Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) unleashing a blistering attack on Vice President JD Vance at the prestigious Connecticut university where he obtained his law degree.

“Let me say this as clearly as I can: JD Vance, your cold indifference to the lives of vulnerable immigrants betrays every principle that this law school was built to uphold,” Khanna said in a speech at Yale Law School. “Your affiliation with this law school is now a stain on the degree of every Yale graduate.”

“Vance has not only declared war on the courts, but on the universities. And it is no accident,” he continued. “As Stephen Kotkin observed in his study of Stalin, strongmen do not fear recessions or even failed wars as much as they fear the university.”

His speech came a day after the Trump administration froze more than $2 billion in grants to Harvard University after it rejected Trump’s demands to address so-called campus “antisemitism,” which also happens to mandate the elimination of Harvard’s diversity, equity and inclusion programs. The demands also include banning masks at campus protests, merit-based hiring and admissions reforms and the targeting and disempowering of faculty and administrators the administration views as “more committed to activism than scholarship.”

IFrame Content

Almost 900 Yale faculty members published a letter to their leadership this week expressing support for standing up to the Trump administration alongside Harvard.

“We stand together at a crossroads,” the letter read. “American universities are facing extraordinary attacks that threaten the bedrock principles of a democratic society, including rights of free expression, association, and academic freedom. We write as one faculty, to ask you to stand with us now.”

Khanna noted Vance’s response to the mistaken deportation and offsite incarceration of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. Vance falsely refers to Garcia as a “convicted MS-13 gang member,” despite Garcia having no record here or abroad. He also falsely calls him “an illegal immigrant with no right to be in our country,” despite a 2019 protection order against his removal from the U.S.

“When Americans asked for due process, [Vance] answered not with reason, but with feigned rage — accusing us of sympathy for a gang member,” Khanna said.

Read the full NBC article at this link.

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an 12 24

Lawmaker vows 'strong resistance' if Musk agency recommends Social Security or Medicare cuts

Alex Henderson

===

Geo Saba is the Chief of Staff for Congressman Ro Khanna. He graduated with a BA with honors and Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University where he played Varsity Baseball and was a research assistant for Dr. Condoleezza Rice. Geo also earned his MPhil in International Relations from Cambridge University where he was a Gates Cambridge Scholar. He was an Aspen Strategy Group Rising Leader, New America MENA Next Generation Leader, on the CSIS National Security & Foreign Affairs Top 50 Leadership List, and is a Middle East Policy Council 40 Under 40 awardee.

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https://www.alternet.org/democratic-reps/

medicare adv name

===

what were the 3 questions

1: MONEY: the easiest way to call out bad corp actor is Follow the Money [going all the way back to Exxon Secrets], promised to stop denial funding to 2 senators Exxon promise, so hide the money; mostly just fund trade group esp API NAM and they can funnel the money thru pass thru/cut outs

DONORS TRUST/DAFs

2: saab? BIG 4 CLAIMED TO ALIGN WITH PARIS, but basically stepped back and let buffer industry groups take the lead; woman BP comissioned a report and defected from some of the worst but NOT....(plus BP Susan she was fired?)

API: West Va ACB dad; amicus?

~ESG ,1st Amend, exceeds power of SEC (also Chevron no climate crisis?]

West Va divest: The Heritage Foundation, the Heartland Institute and the American Petroleum Institute are among the conservative groups with ties to the fossil fuel industry that have been working with the State Financial Officers Foundation and the treasurers to shape their national strategy. ~ Blackrock Fink; Heritage CRC Advisors Leo; ALEC Koch; ~ Omarova commie]

gas prices: “There are a lot of factors at play as to why energy prices are surging,” Mike Sommers, president of the American Petroleum Institute, or API, told CNBC at the time. “But certainly one of the key factors is that the Biden administration has made an effort to reduce production in the United States. One of their first acts, for example, was cutting off the Keystone XL pipeline. One of their second acts was cutting up leasing and permitting on federal lands, and then they cut off access to ANWR,” referring to the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska....

Ukraine invasion: infl map

The main actors identified in this briefing are the American Petroleum Institute, American Gas Association, National Association of Manufacturers, US Chamber of Commerce, and Consumer Energy Alliance

Some of the findings are to be expected. API went big, as did Chevron, ConocoPhillips, and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The usual suspects amplified the industry’s messaging: Breitbart News, Fox News, conservative commentator Ben Shapiro, Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, and Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn. All told, API placed 651 Facebook ads from the end of January to April 1, reaching more than 19 million people. On February 24, the day of the invasion, API and its network got busy. “There’s a huge peak where we get to 100 fossil fuel misinformation posts that yielded over 5 million likes, comments, and shares,” Arena noted. [“I think you could call it a disinformation-driven heist of public policy.”

... These narratives have also been heavily pushed on social media. For example, between February

4th and March 31st, 2022, the American Petroleum Institute created and ran an ad campaign

through its astroturf group, Energy Citizens, which consisted of 233 individual ads that were seen

roughly 19.6 million times, equivalent to around 10% of all US users of Facebook (Q1 2022). All of

these ads promoted 'American-made energy' or 'energy independence'.

---

Darren Woods Exxon CCS BS (said gov't subsidies would be req? in BBB? CA]

time stop year:

---

SHILLENBERGER: denialism --> delayism

~ Thacker, whole websites ~ book?

Hansen WSJ, Blue Grn?

astroturf Ohio nuke (spkr jail?)

calabrese hormesis

===

desmog 12 22

Congressional investigators released a new set of documents that underscored the oil and gas industry’s ongoing attempts to block climate policies and confuse the public about their long-term investments in fossil fuels. The latest tranche of documents caps off a nearly two-year investigation that appears set to come to an end with Republicans taking control of the House of Representatives in January.

On December 9, the U.S. House Oversight and Reform Committee published its latest set of documents as part of its ongoing investigation into the oil industry’s history of climate denial and obfuscation. The documents offer more evidence showing that the industry’s “greenwashing” continues up to the present day.

“They’re basically saying, ‘we’re going to increase production, we’re going to increase emissions, but we’re also going to be able to claim being this clean tech company, this green company, because we can take some symbolic actions that make it look like we’re in the climate fight,’” Rep. Ro Khanna, (D-CA), a member of the committee, told NBC News.

“The cynicism was breathtaking, and unfortunately, it was quite successful,” he said, “It’s been a successful PR strategy.”

[twt]

the framing over the role of methane gas offers one glaring example. For years, the industry and its supporters have claimed that methane gas serves as a “bridge fuel” due to its perceived climate benefit over burning coal. That claim has not been backed up by the science, which increasingly shows that methane leaks can erase the upside of gas compared to coal.

But even if true, internal communications show that despite their external claims, oil executives view gas not as a temporary “bridge,” but as something more permanent.

“For sure the bridge is very long in any event, but it is conceivable that gas could serve as a destination fuel to back up intermittent renewables (possibly with CCS) in the much longer term,” Bob Stout, a former BP vice president said in a 2017 email. “We would not want to spell all this out, but also not implicitly concede the point by referring to it mainly as a ‘bridge.’”

Another revelation points to the oil industry’s efforts to cultivate influence through its financial support for Ivy League universities. In another 2019 email from Stout, in which he discusses BP’s efforts at “nurturing” its relationship with Princeton University, he admits that ties with major American universities is part of a strategy of burnishing the industry’s image and also enhancing its influence.

“I would only add that in addition to the value in informing our understanding of climate science and policy, these relationships (along with those we have with Harvard, Tufts and Columbia) are key parts of our long-term relationship-building and outreach to policy makers and influencers in the US and globally,” Stout wrote. He added that BP gets “valuable intel” from its ties to the handful of prestigious universities, and that the company is able to “tell the story of what we are doing and why in a more personal and compelling way,” adding that “[i]n return they are able to give us valuable input on our strategies and messaging.”

DeSmog has previously reported on the oil industry’s attempts to push its agenda through Ivy League universities. And a podcast collaboration between Drilled and Earther explored how oil companies have long been influencing American education for corporate benefit, from elementary schools to universities like Harvard. The latest release adds even more explicit evidence of an intentional strategy.

BP and Princeton University did not respond to a request for comment.

These are just a few examples in the latest batch of revelations.

“New evidence released today further confirms what we know to be true—the companies and trade associations under investigation have followed a well-established playbook that includes greenwashing with misleading or outright false claims about their climate-related actions,” Kathy Mulvey, accountability campaign director at the Union of Concerned Scientists, said in a statement. “Such tactics aim to undermine the urgent need to sharply reduce heat-trapping emissions and to stall and obstruct oversight and accountability.”

Quest for Accountability Continues

In the latest document dump, executives at Shell discuss how they do not want to be associated with ExxonMobil, a company Shell apparently views as too toxic.

“I do not support Shell publicly participating in any announcements, press releases or other public engagement of any kind at this time with XOM,” Gretchen Watkins, the president of Shell Oil Co., said in a 2021 email, using Exxon’s stock symbol.

“Their reputation is severely damaged here, and we will only do harm to the strength of Shell’s US reputation,” she added.

The conflict within the industry is noteworthy, and points to more vulnerability than the public-facing messaging suggests, says Kert Davies, founder and director of Climate Investigations Center.

“Strategically, what we’ve learned is that they are more often on their backfoot than what we know. They pretend to have a unified front, one voice, and they are often doubting themselves and backbiting on each other, or trying to outdo each other, or worried about how others think about them in the industry,” Davies told DeSmog. “The them vs. them stuff is interesting.”

Shell did not respond to a request for comment.

Davies cited that as an example of one of the overarching themes that the House committee investigation has successfully demonstrated — that the oil industry says one thing in private and another thing in public. It also shows that the industry is very concerned about its future.

Republicans captured control of the House of Representatives in the midterm elections and will begin a new term in January. That means they will assume the majority on the Oversight Committee and presumably put an end to the investigation.

Even though the committee’s work in this realm will stop, the congressional investigation into the oil industry’s history of deception and its ongoing attempts to foil climate action notched some substantial achievements.

In 2021, the House Oversight and Reform Committee grilled oil executives on their roles in spreading disinformation in a historic public hearing. The investigation has also succeeded in obtaining a vast trove of documents and internal communications that illustrate in detail how oil companies continue to spread a public message about its good-faith efforts to cut greenhouse gas emissions while privately admitting that those efforts are misleading.

“[The committee] did more than anybody has to take this on. They issued pretty strong subpoenas, were rebuffed by and large, but stuck with it. They didn’t take no for an answer. They actually pressured enough to get some documents,” Davies said. “I think Ro Khanna and team deserved to be applauded for pushing a very tough play. Something that many would have never taken on. And the potential for it to go not well and to look bad was high.”

He added that the scope of the committee’s investigation was ambitious, perhaps overly so, and it didn’t have enough time to complete its work. “I wish they had gotten more because it was probably the last time we get a bite at this unless the Senate picks it up,” he said.

Representative Khanna said that millions of documents the committee obtained will be turned over to those that can carry the work forward. “That’s the only way we’re going to have accountability,” he told NBC News. “You can’t expect a House subcommittee to go up against oil companies that have been misleading the American public for 40 years and all of a sudden have accountability.”

It’s not clear what form this will take. The Democrats have a majority in the Senate, which means that Senate committees could conceivably take up the investigation in some form or another.

In a parallel investigation this year, another House committee, the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, shined a spotlight on FTI Consulting, and other PR firms, that have spent years helping its oil and gas clients mislead the public. That effort is also expected to end with the transition in power next month.

Even as the House probes have run their course, advocates praised the House Oversight Committee’s work over the past two years and the insights that have come out of it.

“This investigation is a critical step forward in holding Big Oil accountable for its decades of deception and harm,” Mulvey of the Union of Concerned Scientists said. “With clear evidence in hand, the path toward justice for communities harmed by oil and gas company misconduct is within reach.”

===

https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/06/02/house-republicans-climate-strategy-draws-democrats-jeers/

wapo

June 2, 2022

The Climate 202

House Republicans' climate strategy draws Democrats' jeers

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) plans to unveil a strategy today outlining how Republicans would address climate change, energy and environmental issues if the party gains control of the House in the midterm elections, according to three individuals familiar with the matter, Maxine and our colleague Jeff Stein scooped on Wednesday evening.

...

ni lnx

The strategy calls for streamlining the permitting process for large infrastructure projects, increasing domestic fossil fuel production and boosting exports of U.S. liquefied natural gas, which proponents say is cleaner than gas produced in other countries, according to the individuals, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe details that are not yet public.

However, the GOP plan drew immediate criticism from congressional Democrats, who noted that leading scientists have said the world must rapidly phase out fossil fuels to stave off catastrophic consequences of the climate crisis.

To meet the more ambitious goal of the 2015 Paris agreement, the world must eliminate coal use within 30 years, according to the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Gas dependence should be reduced by 45 percent, while oil use must fall 60 percent by the middle of the century, the IPCC said in a recent report that concluded humanity is running out of time to meet global climate goals.

“I welcome the efforts of anyone, regardless of party, who is willing to seriously tackle climate change — but on its face this does not look like a serious proposal,” said Rep. Don Beyer (D-Va.). “Most people understand that a serious climate solution requires a shift toward cleaner sources of energy, but the Republicans apparently want to take us in the opposite direction, with more dependence on dangerous, dirty energy sources.”

Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.), who has been participating in bipartisan energy talks led by Sens. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), echoed that sentiment.

“Any climate plan must be judged on whether it reduces emissions and invests in renewables to diversify energy sources and bring a long-term reduction and stability in prices for all Americans,” Khanna said. “Based on what's been reported, this plan is just a Big Oil wish list.”

Rep. Melanie Ann Stansbury (D-N.M.) cautioned against undermining the National Environmental Policy Act, which requires federal agencies to assess the environmental consequences of major actions, in order to accelerate the permitting process. “This plan is out of touch with reality and is an end-run around environmental protections that have been in place for decades,” she said.

McCarthy, who would probably become speaker if the GOP picks up enough seats in the midterms, last year tapped Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) to lead a task force on climate, energy and conservation. The strategy is the result of months of deliberations within that task force, which includes 17 GOP members.

Spokespeople for McCarthy and Graves declined to comment on the record ahead of today's official rollout.

The House GOP plan comes as Republicans seek to make gains with educated suburban voters in November’s elections. Some of these voters may want to see Republicans take a more proactive stance on climate change and energy policy, rather than letting Democrats dominate the debate, said George David Banks, a Republican climate policy expert who served as a White House climate adviser under President Donald Trump.

“It’s the competitive seats that make a difference,” he said. “And most of those run through the suburbs. So there’s certainly a recognition that you’ve got to win a critical mass of those to control the House.”

Correction: A previous version of this item incorrectly said Rep. Melanie Ann Stansbury represents a district in Arizona. She represents a district in New Mexico.

Extreme events

National Hurricane Center director expects another monster season

Wednesday marked the official start of the Atlantic hurricane season, and it's expected to be another active one.

In its annual seasonal outlook, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration forecast the seventh-straight above-normal Atlantic season, with 14 to 21 named storms — compared with 14 in an average year — and three to six major hurricanes.

The Climate 202 spoke virtually on Wednesday with Ken Graham, director of the National Hurricane Center, about the link between climate change and supercharged storms. The following Q&A has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity:

Climate 202: How is climate change playing a role in more intense hurricanes?

Graham: In a warmer climate, we're starting to see heavier rainfall — not just in terms of the total amount, but also in terms of the rainfall rates. That's important, because if you get three to five inches of rain in an hour, that's a big difference from getting three to five inches of rain over a 24-hour period. And that will continue to have a significant impact on inland flooding.

The other thing is that with sea-level rise, the water from storm surge could be higher and could push farther inland. So areas that never experienced storm surge in the past could experience storm surge in the future.

Climate 202: The 2021 hurricane season produced 21 named storms, the third-most on record, exhausting all of the names of the National Hurricane Center’s conventional naming list. Could that happen again this year?

Graham: Yes. I mean, look at the forecast. We're forecasting 14 to 21 named storms, and if we get 21, we'll run out of names once again. That's not a common thing. We've only run out of names in 2005 and then again in 2020 and 2021. To have that happen two years in a row was pretty significant.

That being said, scientists still aren't sure whether climate change is increasing the number of storms. We have technology now from aircraft data and satellite data, so we're actually seeing more storms and naming more storms than we were before.

The power grid

Much of the country could face blackouts this summer as temperatures rise

The nation's power grid is facing unprecedented stress, with regulators warning that rolling outages — familiar in states like Texas and California — could affect large areas of the country as an abnormally hot summer arrives, The Washington Post’s Evan Halper reports.

Already, New Mexico’s attorney general has launched a readiness task force to prepare for “worst-case scenarios,” while Arkansas power officials are establishing emergency conservation measures.

The unexpected warnings come as extreme weather tied to climate change strains the grid, and as the nation shuts down fossil fuel plants to help reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Pressure points

New York suspends its gas tax in response to rising costs

In an effort to address high gasoline prices, New York on Wednesday became the latest state to temporarily suspend its gas tax ahead of the travel-heavy summer months, The Post's Tony Romm reports.

The decision, which halted the state’s roughly 16-cents-per-gallon charge through the end of the year, came as the average cost of unleaded gasoline nationwide exceeded $4.67 per gallon, according to AAA.

At the same time, high fuel prices stem from a complicated combination of economic and geopolitical forces, Abha Bhattarai reports as part of The Post's ECON 101 series. The economy’s rapid recovery from the pandemic created more demand for gasoline, pushing prices higher. Then, the invasion of Ukraine led to a global backlash against Russia, which produces more oil than all but two other countries, so prices rose again.

Another oil company backs out of Arctic leases

Regenerate Alaska has canceled the lease that it purchased in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge last year, becoming the latest company to abandon plans for oil and gas drilling in the 19-million-acre refuge, Alex DeMarban reports for the Anchorage Daily News. The Trump administration had sold the lease in its final days in January 2021.

Last week, Hilcorp and Chevron also exited separate leases on Indigenous-owned land in the refuge. Those companies spent $10 million to withdraw from their deal with Arctic Slope Regional Corp.

Harris unveils plan to ‘elevate’ water security in foreign policy

Vice President Harris on Wednesday announced an action plan that considers water security as a national security issue, Rachel Frazin reports for the Hill.

The White House Action Plan on Global Water Security outlines how the United States will use diplomatic resources to help ensure access to safe drinking water and sanitation services around the world. It comes as America faces water issues of its own, with roughly 76 percent of the West suffering from a severe drought fueled by climate change.

In a speech, Harris noted that water insecurity can drive migration and armed conflicts. “This action plan will help our country prevent conflict and advance cooperation among nations, increase equity and economic growth, and make our world more inclusive and resilient,” she said.

Agency alert

Haaland tests positive for coronavirus

Interior Secretary Deb Haaland tested positive for the coronavirus on Wednesday and has mild symptoms, the agency said in a statement. She tested negative during a visit to the White House on Monday and was not in close contact with President Biden.

Haaland, who is fully vaccinated and has received two booster shots, is quarantining in Nevada, where she participated in a roundtable discussion on Tuesday about increasing clean energy development on public lands. She has canceled travel plans elsewhere in the American West.

In the atmosphere

In a small Dutch town, a fight with Meta over a massive data center — Tracy Brown Hamilton for The Post

Report: Denmark, U.K. on track for net-zero emissions by 2050 as U.S. lags — Claire Parker for The Post

When the heat is unbearable but there’s nowhere to go — Sarah Sax for High Country News

Viral

Thanks for reading!

===

Patrick McKercher is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

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===

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/14/climate/oil-industry-documents-disinformation.html

no lnx

Oil Executives Privately Contradicted Public Statements on Climate, Files Show

The documents, subpoenaed in a House investigation of climate disinformation, show company leaders contravening industry commitments.

By Hiroko Tabuchi

Sept. 14, 2022

Documents obtained by congressional investigators show that oil industry executives privately downplayed their companies’ own public messages about efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and weakened industry-wide commitments to push for climate policies.

Internal Exxon documents show that the oil giant pressed an industry group, the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative, to remove language from a 2019 policy statement that “could create a potential commitment to advocate on the Paris Agreement goals.” The Paris Agreement is the landmark 2015 pact among nations of the world to avert catastrophic global warming. The statement’s final version didn’t mention Paris.

At Royal Dutch Shell, an October 2020 email sent by an employee, discussing talking points for Shell’s president for the United States, said that the company’s announcement of a pathway to “net zero” emissions — the point at which the world would no longer be pumping planet-warming gases into the atmosphere — “has nothing to do with our business plans.”

These and other documents, reviewed by The New York Times, come from a cache of hundreds of thousands of pages of corporate emails, memos and other files obtained under subpoena as part of an examination by the House Committee on Oversight and Reform into the fossil fuel industry’s efforts over the decades to mislead the public about its role in climate change, dismissing evidence that the burning of fossil fuels was driving an increase in global temperatures even as their own scientists warned of a clear link.

On Thursday, the House committee is expected to discuss some of its early findings. “It’s well established that these companies actively misled the American public for decades about the risks of climate change,” said Representative Ro Khanna, a Democrat from California who spearheaded the investigation with Carolyn B. Maloney, the New York Democrat who leads the House committee. “The problem is that they continue to mislead,” Mr. Khanna said.

At a hearing last year, oil industry executives stressed their support for a transition to clean energy and denied that they have misled the public. They acknowledged that the burning of their products was driving climate change, although none pledged to end their financial support for efforts to block action on climate change, and they said that fossil fuels were here to stay.

The committee’s subpoena has sought documents related to companies’ role in contributing to climate change, their marketing and lobbying efforts on climate, and the funding of third parties accused of spreading climate disinformation. Several of the companies and organizations subpoenaed — which include Shell, Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP, the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — have yet to produce some of the key documents that have been requested, according to committee staff members.

According to the staff, a significant part of the material submitted so far includes news clippings and other materials that were already public. Still, the documents gathered so far show that the companies’ internal discussions in recent years haven’t always matched up with their public statements and marketing campaigns, and that some of the companies’ leading climate strategies rely on unproven technologies.

In the Exxon memo describing the edits it sought in the oil industry policy statement, which was drawn up ahead of the 2019 United Nations global climate talks, Peter Trelenberg, Exxon’s manager of environmental policy and planning, wrote: “Need to remove reference to Paris Agreement” from the statement because “Creating a tie between our advocacy/engagements and the Paris Agreement could create a potential commitment to advocate on the Paris Agreement goals.”

[The Spread of Misinformation and Falsehoods

Election Fraud Claims: A new report says that major social media companies continue to fuel false conspiracies about election fraud despite promises to combat misinformation ahead of the midterm elections.

Russian Falsehoods: Kremlin conspiracy theories blaming the West for disrupting the global food supply have bled into right-wing chat rooms and mainstream conservative news media in the United States.

Media Literacy Efforts: As young people spend more time online, educators are increasingly trying to offer students tools and strategies to protect themselves from false narratives.

Global Threat: New research shows that nearly three-quarters of respondents across 19 countries with advanced economies are very concerned about false information online.]

The memo, addressed to Exxon chief executive, Darren Woods, and other top executives, went on to indicate that Chevron had “expressed that they are generally aligned with these edits.”

Exxon and Chevron did not respond to requests for comment. A representative for the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative did not comment on the advocacy document but said that “advocacy for Paris goals underpins everything that O.G.C.I. does.”

Separate files from Exxon show the company grappling with a multimillion-dollar advertising campaign promoting the potential for fuels made from algae. The campaign focused on the promise of the technology and featured images of vast pools of algae, along with a scientist looking forward to calling herself an “energy farmer.” (Versions of the ads have appeared in The New York Times.)

A set of presentation notes that had been prepared for a September 2018 engineering talk by one of its executives stated that the technology is “still decades away from the scale we need.” And in a November 2016 email, an Exxon employee said that an early draft for the ad, prepared by the advertising agency BBDO Worldwide, needed to “replace any lines that imply the technology is live today.”

BBDO did not respond to a request for comment.

The Shell internal documents discussing the company’s “net zero” pathway also included guidelines for employees that stated, “Please do not give the impression that Shell is willing to reduce carbon dioxide emissions to levels that do not make business sense.”

[Algae at a greenhouse in La Jolla, Calif., in 2010. The operation was sponsored by Exxon Mobil.Credit...Sunday Huffaker for The New York Times

Curtis Smith, a spokesman for Shell, said in a statement that the company had provided nearly a half-million pages of documents to the committee and that “the small handful they chose to highlight are evidence of Shell’s extensive efforts to set aggressive targets.” Included in those documents are “challenging internal and external discussions,” he said.

He added that it was widely understood that Shell’s net zero scenarios “are not prescriptions, predictions or meant to represent Shell’s current business plan” and instead represent “the scale of the challenge and levers policymakers might pull.”

The committee’s work comes as Democrats’ climate agenda has been re-energized by the passage of a climate and tax bill that includes nearly $370 billion in tax incentives and programs intended to speed up the nation’s transition from an economy based on oil, gas and coal to one powered by wind, solar and other renewable forms of energy.

A number of cities and states have sued oil companies, alleging that they misled the public about fossil fuels’ role in warming the planet, with detrimental effects on local communities. Last year, a Dutch court ruled that Shell must substantially accelerate its efforts to reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Shell has appealed the ruling.

The House committee was scheduled to hold a hearing on Thursday to examine recent record-breaking oil industry profits, hear from industry experts and from people affected by recent extreme weather events. It had also requested board members from the oil companies to attend. The companies declined.

At Thursday’s hearing, members also plan to highlight emails that appear to show oil executives making light of climate extreme-heat records. In an August 2017 email exchange, for example, two BP executives found humor in the news at the time that scientists had reported Earth’s warmest year on record.

“I’ll buy the first round Monday night before we say our goodbyes,” Joe Ellis, then BP vice president and head of U.S. government affairs, wrote to colleagues.

“A ‘hot toddy’ maybe?” Bob Stout, then vice president and head of regulatory affairs, wrote back.

The former BP executives didn’t respond to requests for comment.

J.P. Fielder, head of U.S. communications at BP, described the exchange as “inartful attempts at humor that do not reflect the values of BP and should not distract from our actions.” He noted that BP has committed to a net zero emissions target across its sales, operations and production by 2050 or sooner.

Hiroko Tabuchi is an investigative reporter on the Climate desk. She was part of the Times team that received the 2013 Pulitzer Prize for explanatory reporting. @HirokoTabuchi • Facebook

===

https://www.politico.com/news/magazine/2022/08/26/ro-khanna-midwest-policy-democrat-00052660

...The Hindu grandson of a freedom fighter in the Mahatma Gandhi-led independence movement and the son of Indian immigrants, his father a chemical engineer and his mom a substitute teacher addressing the functional needs of children with disabilities, Khanna was born in 1976 in Philadelphia — in America’s bicentennial year, in the home of Independence Hall and the Liberty Bell, a historical coincidence I’m emphasizing only because he so frequently does. He grew up in Pennsylvania’s Bucks County, long a microcosmic, middle-of-the-road chunk of political territory, watching Rocky movies, rooting for the Eagles of the NFL and playing Little League and Strat-O-Matic baseball. “That was my upbringing,” Khanna told me as we ate dinner. “Americana.” His ninth grade English teacher told him he was “going to be the first Indian American president.”

The valedictorian of his class at Council Rock High, Khanna started college at Duke, graduated from the University of Chicago with the highest honors in economics and then went to Yale Law. As an undergrad in Chicago, with close friend and eventual law-school roommate Renato Mariotti, Khanna organized in April 1998 a conference called “The Challenge of Modern Democracy” — a three-day affair that drew to campus notables such as the former prime minister of Canada, the former president of Haiti, the presidents of Morehouse College and MIT, and a preeminent federal appellate judge. “He is definitely,” said Mariotti, a former federal prosecutor who now is the legal affairs columnist for POLITICO Magazine, “one of the most ambitious people that I’ve ever known.”...

https://readsludge.com/2022/02/16/months-after-claiming-to-divest-ro-khannas-spouse-keeps-trading-fossil-fuel-and-defense-stocks/#bio-link-603

donald Shaw Money-in-politics reporter. Co-founder of Sludge

Following reports from Sludge on the members of Congress who own stocks in defense contractors and fossil fuel companies, Congressional Progressive Caucus member Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.) announced that his spouse, Ritu Khanna, would divest from assets in those industries.

Khanna announced the defense stock divestments in December 2020 and the fossil fuel stock divestments in October 2021, making him one of the only members of Congress whose household has committed to steering clear of industries they find problematic.

But months later, Ritu Khanna’s trust continue to buy and sell stocks in both the fossil fuels and defense industries.

According to Khanna’s most recent transaction report, covering the month of January, Ritu bought and sold up to $100,000 worth of stock in fossil fuel companies Phillips 66 and Coterra, formerly known as Cabot Oil and Gas. She also bought up to $50,000 of stock in Atmos Energy, one of the largest natural gas distributors in the country, and the same amount in energy company Xcel Energy, which currently operates 13 coal power plants according to its most recent annual report.

Also in January, Ritu Khanna purchased up to $50,000 worth of shares in Department of Defense contractor General Dynamics and reported making a partial sale of her shares in the company later in the month.

In a comment provided after publication, Rep. Khanna told Sludge: “My wife’s financial advisor sold the stocks the very same month they were purchased by the independent money managers. So they are making every good faith effort to divest from defense and oil and gas industry and have done so with 98 percent of their assets.”

Last August, Sludge reported that Ritu Khanna’s trust bought stock in July 2021 in nuclear weapons developer Honeywell, and retained holdings in Defense contractor Leidos long after telling anti-war group Code Pink that she no longer has assets in weapons companies. Drone company Dynetics, a fully owned subsidiary of Leidos, designs and produces warheads for the U.S. military.

In a tweet, Ro Khanna said that he had not made any pledges or promises regarding divestments.

[twt]

last year, Rep. Khanna told Newsweek that his spouse’s investment portfolio was overseen by a money manager and that Chevron and ExxonMobil stock she had bought in August 2021 were “accidental purchases.”

Ritu Khanna’s trust makes hundreds of stock trades each month that are publicly reported through poorly scanned filings that make it difficult, and occasionally impossible, to fully analyze the trades.

“My wife’s financial decisions are independent, and there are independent financial planners who manage her account,” Khanna has told Sludge.

Ro Khanna co-sponsors two bills that have been proposed to ban members of Congress from trading stocks, but he does not cosponsor a bill from Rep. Spanberger that would also apply the stock trading ban to the spouses of members of Congress.

Still, Khanna says he will vote for any version of a stock ban that gets brought up for a vote.

“I support the strongest and most complete ban that the Speaker will put on the floor, and would comply with it,” Khanna told Sludge this week. “I will vote for whatever the Speaker brings to the floor.”

UPDATE: This article has been updated to include a comment that was provided by Rep. Ro Khanna after publication.

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no lnx ...Congressman Ro Khanna chairs the House Subcommittee on the Environment, supports a Green New Deal and backs the climate provisions in President Joe Biden's Build Back Better plan—but his family has thousands of dollars invested in some of the nation's top polluters.

Just this past August, according to the most recent transaction report he's filed to the U.S. House of Representatives clerk, Khanna's family purchased $30,000 to $100,000 worth of stock in ExxonMobil and Chevron.

It also bought $3,003 to $45,000 worth of shares in the natural gas companies Dominion Energy, Duke Energy, and ConocoPhillips. (The report lists ranges rather than specific amounts bought and sold.)

Chevron, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips are among the 20 companies responsible for a third of all carbon emissions in the world. Dominion and Duke rank among the top 10 greenhouse gas emitters in America, according to the Political Economy Research Institute.

"The money is my wife's property and was completely separate prior to marriage," Khanna told Newsweek. "There were apparently a few de minimis transactions that her financial firm engaged in in the last reporting period."

Khanna's office told Newsweek that these transactions were "accidental purchases" made in error, adding that they are part of a much larger investment portfolio overseen by a money manager.

The office said the next report will show that the family no longer holds these stocks.

The family of U.S. Representative Ro Khanna traded in some of the world's top polluters this year, despite intending to divest in 2020. Above, Khanna and Senator Bernie Sanders at a press conference on ending U.S. military involvement in the war in Yemen on April 4, 2019.

After criticism from progressives last year, his wife, Ritu Ahuja Khanna, divested "98 percent" of her assets from the sector, Khanna's office told Newsweek.

Along with the recent purchases, a number of trades in Dominion have occurred throughout this year.

The Khanna family purchased $2,002 to $30,000 worth of Dominion in February. In April, they purchased an additional $2,002 to $30,000 worth of Dominion, and $2,002 to $30,000 of Dominion was sold in two separate transactions in June. One of those listed a gain of over $200, according to the House report.

"I have zero fossil fuel investments," Khanna told Newsweek. "Any investments in question are my wife's from before we were married, and it is not my place to dictate what she does with her money."

Ritu Ahuja Khanna may trade her own assets, the California Democrat told Newsweek, but they do not trade through joint accounts. Khanna said he complies with the Ban Conflicted Trading Act, which, if passed, would prohibit lawmakers from buying or selling individual stocks and other investments while in office.

Rep. Ro Khanna's wife Ritu Ahuja Khanna, the daughter of owns the investment portfolio in question. attend the Grammys on the Hill Awards ceremony on April 5 in Washington, D.C.

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Khanna, who is ranked by Open Secrets as the 24th richest representative in the House, with a net worth of nearly $46 million, married in 2015. His wife's father, Monte Ahuja, is the chairman and founder of Transtar Industries, an automotive transmission parts supplier. Cleveland.com reports that the Ahuja name is "associated with prestige and wealth."

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not a complete wanker but goes for controv?

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Alex J. Rouhandeh is a congressional correspondent for Newsweek whose previous writing has appeared in Vice News, The American Prospect, and a number of regional publications. Alex is credentialed with both the Capitol Periodical Press Gallery and the U.S. Department of Defense. He is also a member of the National Press Club in Washington, D.C. and the Investigative Reporters & Editors (IRE) organization.

Email him at a.rouhandeh@newsweek.com and follow him on Twitter at @AlexRouhandeh

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Months After Divesting, Ro Khanna's Spouse Keeps Trading ...

https://readsludge.com › 2022/02/16 › months-after-cla...

Feb 16, 2022 — Khanna told Sludge: “My wife's financial advisor sold the stocks the very same month they were purchased by the independent money managers.

dad biz

Ritu Ahuja was born on February 9, 1979, in northern Ohio. According to her Linkedin profile, she attended Hathaway Brown, an all-girls private school in the Cleveland suburb of Shaker Heights.

Ahuja moved to Washington, D.C. for her undergraduate degree. She studied accounting and finance at Georgetown University’s Mcdonough School of Business and graduated in 2001. In 2004, Ahuja earned a master’s degree in strategic communications from Columbia University.

Ahuja’s resume included working as a Marketing Director Macy’s after finishing grad school. After nearly four years with the retailer, she became the Director of Strategic Development for Stern Advertising. Her next move was to the companyAudemars Piguet, which makes luxury watches. She worked as a Makrketing Manager there.

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