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CCI

Center for Climate Integrity on Big Oil’s Climate Deception | Center for Climate Integrity

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his week, we’re talking about how Big Oil is still deceiving the public about its role in the climate crisis while trying to stick communities with the ever-increasing bill.

In this issue:

A massive rate hike for California’s insurer of last resort ⬇️

Actually, Big Oil companies are not partners in the energy transition ⬇️

Maryland communities are fighting for their day in court ⬇️

Let's get into it.

Here's the Latest

Oil and gas majors contribute marginally to the creation of renewable energy, a new study found. Like, 1% or less in some cases — and they still have the audacity to claim to be partners in the energy transition.

California’s insurer of last resort is seeking a 36% average rate hike following a $4 billion loss from catastrophic and deadly wildfires. This is just the latest example of rising climate-driven insurance costs falling on everyday Americans instead of the Big Oil companies fueling the climate crisis.

Big Oil and its political allies are still trying to stop dozens of communities from putting the companies on trial for climate deception. While fossil fuel companies are urging the Supreme Court to intervene, industry backers are also lobbying Congress for a legal shield against accountability. "They have no shame," University of Vermont law professor Pat Parenteau told AFP about the move.

Minnesotans deserve their day in court against Big Oil, Minnesota Representative Larry Kraft said in a recent op-ed. Rep. Kraft applauded the state’s ongoing climate deception lawsuit and called on his state's congressional delegation to oppose a legal shield for Big Oil.

“No industry should be above the law, especially one that spent decades lying to the public. Say no to a legal shield for Big Oil.”

Minnesota Representative Larry Kraft

Evidence of Deception

Scientists and executives at fossil fuel companies knew more than 50 years ago that burning fossil fuels would raise global temperatures and could lead to "catastrophic" consequences — and we have the documents to prove it.

Explore the evidence of Big Oil’s deception, unearthed by journalists, researchers, and officials, on CCI’s website.

READ THE DOCS

Dig Deeper

Maryland Supreme Court weighs future of local climate deception lawsuits

Maryland communities are fighting to have their day in court with Big Oil companies. Last week, the Maryland Supreme Court heard arguments for why Baltimore, Annapolis, and Anne Arundel County should have the opportunity to move their climate deception cases forward in court.

“[The Big Oil companies] have an obligation to give warnings commensurate with the risk,” Vic Sher, a lawyer representing the communities, said. “None of them have ever given any warnings. In fact, the essence of the complaint is that they actively sought to undermine the science, the scientists, and the knowledge about this to minimize the effects or say that it isn’t real or doesn’t need addressing or there is no immediacy to it.”

Legal experts have urged the Maryland Supreme Court to reverse lower court decisions siding with the oil companies and allow the cases to move forward to trial where Maryland communities can present evidence of Big Oil’s lies to a jury.

READ THE BLOG

On The Record

TAP INTO THE CLIMATE ACCOUNTABILITY CONVERSATION

The fossil fuel companies want the courts to believe they are being sued for their greenhouse gas emissions. They are not. They are being sued for their deception, and for failing to warn consumers about the climate dangers associated with their products. Now, the Supreme Court of Maryland has an opportunity to weigh in and protect the rights of Marylanders to go to court and seek recovery for that conduct."

Former federal judge and Baltimore city solicitor Andre Davis in the Baltimore Sun.

Legal Action Against Big Oil

The Department of Justice wants to stop Michigan’s planned climate deception lawsuit against Big Oil before it’s even filed. Michigan filed a motion to dismiss the DOJ’s case on the basis that the state’s lawsuit doesn’t exist yet, and the Justice Department responded by asking the court to deny the state’s motion.

Big Oil and its allies are once again urging the U.S. Supreme Court to stop climate deception lawsuits against the companies before they reach trial. The Supreme Court has turned down requests to review cases against Big Oil five times since 2021, but now the companies are asking the justices to review a Colorado Supreme Court ruling that allowed Boulder’s lawsuit against ExxonMobil and Suncor Energy to proceed toward trial.

More than 100 House Republicans are supporting Big Oil’s call for the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene in Boulder’s case. Their amicus brief falsely claims that Boulder’s case aims to control national energy policy — an argument one judge in the case previously dismissed as “arguing against a case the Local Governments did not plead."

ICYMI

(IN CASE YOU MISSED IT)

🎤 CCI Director of Special Investigations Kert Davies appeared on a recent episode of Drilled, discussing how the fossil fuel industry sabotages climate action.

🙄 Big Oil’s cheerleaders are amplifying calls for the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn lower court decisions in favor of communities. Among those cheerleaders is John Yoo, a former George W. Bush administration official whose Wikipedia page has an entire section dedicated to “war crimes accusations."

♲ “Almost any solution that is based on the idea that plastics can widely be recycled just isn’t really going to work,” CCI’s Davis Allen told CalMatters as “advanced recycling” continues to be pushed as a plastic waste solution.

Check out this post ⬇️

Explore the internal documents on our website that show how Exxon (and other fossil fuel companies) deliberately sowed doubt to undermine scientific evidence on our website.

VIEW THE DOCS

Subsidizing Big Oil

The U.S. government will now provide more than $34 billion a year to the fossil fuel industry in subsidies — but Chris Wright, the country’s top energy official, is claiming that those subsidies… don’t exist.

Emily San

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A campaign accountant who served as the Maryland Republican Party comptroller since 2017 has been indicted, court records unsealed on Monday show.

The Baltimore Banner reported James Appel's name is no longer included on the GOP's website, and the details aren't immediately viewable online, but the indictment shows that he is being accused of wire fraud and money laundering.

Appel had been questioned in February by the FBI after a discrepancy of more than $100,000 popped up in Maryland Del. Kathy Szeliga’s campaign finance account.

"In a campaign finance report submitted at 2:30 a.m. on Jan. 21 to the Maryland Board of Elections, the Friends of Kathy Szeliga — the delegate’s campaign election committee — had a bank account balance of $287,481.55," reported FoxBaltimore in February. "The filing documents more than $106,000 in new campaign donations during the 2025 reporting period and slightly more than $52,000 in expenditures.

Appel managed as many as 40 campaign accounts as the campaign treasurer, including former Gov. Larry Hogan (R-Md.), his LinkedIn page confirms. Under an entity registered to Appel called GOP Compliance, it reported $1,900 in expenditures during the same period. However, "between January 2020 and February 2026, GOP Compliance received $239,453.02 in payments and reimbursements from 22 campaign committees."

Szeliga alone reported paying GOP Compliance $1,900 last year.

Maryland GOP executive director Ashleigh Presnar told the Banner that Appel is no longer at the party but wouldn't give details on when that changed.

He was also the original treasurer of the Maryland Freedom Caucus, the report said. It includes seven conservative state delegates who pooled money as a slate. The caucus has also removed Appel as the treasurer.

Del. Matt Morgan, who chairs the caucus, told the Banner that they've "gone through our account and I’m not aware of any money missing."

Appel's LinkedIn shows that he owned a sandwich shop until he was appointed to be the Chief Financial Officer at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration(NOAA) Marine Fisheries in March 2007.

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Maryland communities move one step closer to putting Big Oil on trial following appeals court ruling.

Communities in Maryland are closer than ever to putting Big Oil on trial after a federal appeals court this week once again rejected industry attempts to escape facing accountability for their climate lies. The ruling continues the unbroken string of judicial wins for local governments seeking to hold fossil fuel companies accountable for their decades-long campaign of climate deception in state court.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit unanimously rejected oil majors’ — including ExxonMobil, BP, Chevron, and the American Petroleum Institute — attempts to stop cases in Annapolis and Anne Arundel County, Maryland, from moving forward in state court, where they were originally filed. The Fourth Circuit issued a similar ruling in favor of the City of Baltimore’s climate accountability lawsuit in 2022.

Oil and gas companies have attempted to remove many of the climate accountability lawsuits they’re facing from state court, only to be repeatedly shut down by courts time and again.

Federal district courts across the nation have now rejected these same oil industry arguments a total of 17 times, including in Vermont, Minnesota, D.C., California, Hawai’i, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Delaware, South Carolina, and Colorado. Those rulings have been affirmed 11 times by eight separate federal appeals courts.

“The companies have sought—over and over and over—to remove the cases to federal court,” wrote Judge Toby Heytens in the unanimous ruling for Annapolis and Anne Arundel County. “By our count, that gambit has failed in at least ten cases already. The eleventh time is not the charm.”

In 2021, U.S. District Judge Derrick Watson wrote that Big Oil’s arguments for federal jurisdiction in accountability lawsuits brought by state and local governments have “a batting average of .000.” More than two years later, that’s still the case.

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Major US newspapers and broadcast TV news outlets often failed to report on Jim Jordan’s role in undermining the 2020 election – and ignored the risk to certification in 2024 if he becomes speaker | Media Matters for America

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david D. Smith, the executive chairman of Sinclair Broadcast Group (Sinclair), purchased the Baltimore Sun — the largest newspaper in Maryland — for an undisclosed sum. The acquisition means another powerful media outlet will be under the control of a wealthy conservative businessman with a history of using local media outlets to push an ideological agenda.

Smith is the son of Sinclair founder Julian Sinclair Smith and, along with his brothers, controls the company. Sinclair, a publicly traded company, owns or operates 185 local television stations across 86 markets. A 2018 study published in the American Political Science Review found that stations purchased by Sinclair "coverage of national politics at the expense of local politics" and undergo "a significant rightward shift in the ideological slant of coverage."

Sinclair regularly requires its local affiliates to run segments pushing right-wing talking points. In 2018, Sinclair affiliates were required to have local anchors read a script warning views about "fake stories" being published by other media outlets "to push their own personal bias and agenda." The trend was described as "extremely dangerous to a democracy." The argument, which included no actual examples, matched then-president Donald Trump's rhetoric about the media.

When Sinclair faced criticism for puppeteering its local anchors, Trump defended the company. "So funny to watch Fake News Networks, among the most dishonest groups of people I have ever dealt with, criticize Sinclair Broadcasting for being biased," Trump said. "Sinclair is far superior to CNN and even more Fake NBC, which is a total joke."

Sinclair stations were also required to run political commentary from Boris Epshteyn, who previously served as a Trump advisor and surrogate. Sinclair hired Epshteyn as its chief political analyst. Epshteyn's segments for Sinclair were mostly indistinguishable from his work for the Trump campaign. "The American people demand change, and they demand action, and that’s exactly what they’ll get from this administration going forward," Epshteyn declared in one piece.

Jared Kushner, Trump's son-in-law and advisor, said that in 2016, the Trump campaign provided Sinclair stations with extensive access to Trump in exchange for friendly coverage that did not include fact-checking. "We are here to deliver your message," Smith told Trump in a 2016 meeting. Sinclair executives denied there was anything unusual or unethical about its dealings with the Trump campaign. Sinclair affiliates have also promoted right-wing conspiracy theories, including claims that DNC staffer Seth Rich was murdered by a hitman as payback for sharing sensitive emails to Wikileaks.

The history of using Sinclair-owned stations to push a right-wing agenda predates Trump. In 2004, "Sinclair ordered its stations to broadcast an hour-long documentary — preempting prime-time programming — titled Stolen Honor: Wounds That Never Heal that blamed Democratic nominee John Kerry for the torture of American prisoners of war in Vietnam."

In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Smith defended Sinclair's news coverage "as balanced and apolitical." According to Smith, Sinclair is "not perfect" but overall is "much better than a lot of folk."

Smith, not Sinclair, is purchasing the Baltimore Sun — although that may be a distinction without a difference. Smith said, "he envisions opportunities for partnerships between The Sun and Sinclair, such as promoting each other’s stories, and other synergies in the future."

The checkered history of Smith's right-hand man

Smith did not purchase the Baltimore Sun alone. He brought along one partner: Armstrong Williams, a right-wing pundit and operative.

:{:{Williams has his own syndicated show on Sinclair stations. His social media accounts are full of incendiary statements about Democrats and liberals. "Each day Joe Biden has sat in office, we have gotten closer and closer to a fascist communist nation," Armstrong wrote on January 10. On January 5, he accused Biden of "destroy[ing] American democracy."}:

On December 19, Armstrong decried "the real time consequences of being infiltrated by radical left-wingers and the acceptance of their insane political agendas." (The issue was the Pope slightly softening his stance on same-sex marriages.) On December 6, Armstrong called Biden "a senile senior citizen" who "barely knows right from left." Armstrong also called the prosecutors pursuing cases against Trump as "terrorists" and promoted false narratives and conspiracy theories about the January 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol.}:

Armstrong served as an advisor to former presidential candidate and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Ben Carson. He claims to have paid for Justice Clarence Thomas' wedding reception. In 2005, Armstrong lost his syndicated column after it was revealed that he had been paid $240,000 by the George W. Bush administration to promote their signature education initiative, No Child Left Behind.

Follow the money

Smith has used his vast wealth to support a variety of far-right causes. The Baltimore Banner reports that since 2015, Smith, through his family foundation, has donated large sums to Young Americans for Liberty ($581,000), Project Veritas ($536,000), Turning Point USA ($150,000), and Moms for Liberty ($121,000).

Smith does not support Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott (D), and has sought to recruit opponents to unseat him. Sinclair stations have provided highly favorable coverage to former Mayor Shelia Dixon (D), who is running against Scott this year. Armstrong conducted an interview with Dixon on a Sinclair affiliate last summer that consisted mostly of "praise for Dixon and criticism of current elected officials."

In 2022, Smith backed a successful ballot initiative to impose term limits on Baltimore's elected officials. Currently, Smith is "underwriting Renew Baltimore, a ballot drive to cap and lower the property tax rate."

Now, Smith has a new tool in his arsenal to shape Baltimore's politics: the city's paper of record.

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Republican member of the Maryland State Board of Elections was arrested this week on both federal felony and misdemeanor charges relating to his alleged participation in the deadly January 6, 2021 siege of the US Capitol.

Nonprofit news outlet Maryland Matters reported Thursday that 52-year-old Carlos Ayala resigned from the board of elections following his apprehension by the Department of Justice (DOJ). Charging documents from the DOJ state that Ayala "was identified as among a group of rioters illegally gathered on restricted Capitol grounds near the scaffolding erected for the upcoming Inauguration," and "carried a distinctive black and white flag affixed to a PVC pipe flagpole bearing the words 'We the People' and 'DEFEND.'" Ayala's flag also featured an image of an M-16-style rifle.

"Ayala is seen on video footage climbing over police barricades and making his way to the Upper West Terrace of the Capitol as rioters overran the police lines on the stairs adjacent to the scaffolding," a DOJ press release read. "CCTV footage taken from inside the Capitol building shows a rioter positioned to the right side of the Senate Wing Door, the same area where Ayala was present, jabbing a flag and flagpole at a USCP officer... Court documents state that the flag matched the description of Ayala's flag, which he was holding moments before."

The DOJ has charged Ayala with felony civil disorder, and unnamed misdemeanor offenses. As of this writing, more than 1,200 participants in the January 6 insurrection have been charged, with prosecutors obtaining either guilty pleas or convictions from approximately 440 rioters.

Ayala's resignation comes less than a year after he was appointed to the board by Governor Wes Moore (D). According to Maryland Matters, Moore chose Ayala over Republican William Newton, who reportedly trafficked in conspiracy theories about the 2020 election and pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor embezzlement charge involving his mother in 2019. Ayala was also chosen over Christine McCloud, a hypnotherapist whose election experience is limited to working on a candidate's 2022 campaign.

Moore has not yet named a replacement for Ayala on the five-member Board of Elections. Maryland state law stipulates that while a majority of the board should be from the same political party as the governor, the other two members must come from the opposing party. The board's next meeting is scheduled for January 25 at 1:30 PM.

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u.S. Rep. David Trone (D-MD) recently announced his 2024 Senate run in the competitively Democratic state of Maryland, and spectators are wondering if the wealthy businessman can win the seat solely based on his "pledge to pour millions of his own money into the campaign."

The Daily Beast interviewed Trone, as well as his competition, Chief Executive of Prince George's County, Angela Alsobrooks, progressive Montgomery County councilman and activist Will Jawando, about their thoughts on Trone's run.

Nationally beloved U.S. Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) is also considering a senate run.

READ MORE: These states may be headed for 'single-party control' and 'intraparty squabbles' after the midterms: report

According to The Daily Beast, "As the owner of Total Wine & More," the "deep-pocketed booze baron's" run "will almost certainly elevate the amount of money any candidate hoping to win the nomination will have to spend, and he's already putting it to use in early advertising and travel around the state."

Furthermore, the news outlet notes, "That means the Democrat-on-Democrat race will be intense, expensive, and potentially nasty—something that party leaders surely aren’t relishing as they try to defend their Senate majority amid a brutal 2024 outlook."

Jawando, who ran for Congress in 2016 told the news outlet, "I expect [Trone] to spend a lot of money," adding, "I don't think that's what's going to win this race."

He continued, "Congress when I was elected, at that time, was the most expensive primary in the history of the country. And David Trone was in that race and he didn't win."

However, Trone, determined to exemplify his qualifications outside of his wealth, told The Daily Beast in an email, "I'm willing to do the work, and right now we’re spending an incredible amount of time in every corner of the state, from Western Maryland to the Eastern Shore, Baltimore and everywhere in between talking about our state's future."

READ MORE: Jamie Raskin blasts the GOP's 'moral agnosticism'

Maryland Democratic strategist Len Foxwell is betting on Alsobrooks – who would become the only Black woman in the Senate — as the current "front runner because of her established name recognition."

Democratic strategist Andrew Feldman emphasized, "Her diversity both as a woman and a woman of color, plus her geographic diversity and in the state being from Prince George’s County, she can put together the coalition that can win. It's not easy, but she has the profile to do it."

Still, Felman said, “There’s so many dynamics at play here. And I think it’s gonna get tense and expensive, and you'll probably have people jump in and then jump out."

Foxwell added, "David Trone is willing to spend whatever it takes, regardless of what that number is, to win this race. And that is not to be taken lightly."

READ MORE: Super PAC money has become an existential threat to Democrats — and democracy

The Daily Beast's full report is available at this link (subscription required).

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Baltimore Climate Case Passes Another Hurdle

The city of Baltimore is one step closer to holding fossil fuel companies liable for localized climate impacts. A federal appeals court on Friday rejected the companies’ appeal to move the suit to federal court; it will proceed in Maryland state court. It's big news for the handful of other cases awaiting decisions on jurisdiction, and comes on the heels of similar decisions in Colorado and Rhode Island. Climate liability cases have traditionally been easier to dismiss in federal court, which is why oil companies want to argue them there.

who does Maryland’s Republican governor really work for?

Eric Cortellessa / Washington MonthlyJanuary 6, 2020

Larry Hogan has more in common with Donald Trump than his reputation suggests.

https://www.climateliabilitynews.org/2018/07/20/baltimore-climate-damages-liability-lawsuit/

Baltimore became the second East Coast city to file a climate liability lawsuit against fossil fuel companies. Its suit, announced Friday, becomes the 12th suit filed across the country aiming to hold the industry accountable for flooding and other harms caused by climate change.

The mayor and city council of Baltimore filed a complaint in the Circuit Court for Baltimore City that ExxonMobil, Chevron, Shell and 23 other fossil fuel producers and distributors violated Maryland laws, including its consumer protection law.

“These oil and gas companies knew for decades that their products would harm communities like ours, and we’re going to hold them accountable,” Baltimore City Solicitor Andre M. Davis said. “Baltimore’s residents, workers, and businesses shouldn’t have to pay for the damage knowingly caused by these companies.”

Baltimore, the largest city in Maryland and the fifth-largest on the East Coast, is already experiencing the effects of sea level rise and extreme weather driven by climate change. The city absorbed a 7 ½-foot storm surge from Hurricane Isabel in 2003, causing a devastating flood, and had Superstorm Sandy’s track changed slightly, a 20-foot storm surge could have inundated the city in 2012. The city’s Inner Harbor, a tourist hub and a key economic driver for Baltimore, faces frequent flooding even without storms of that size. Nearby Ellicott City, 12 miles to the west, has been devastated by flash flooding twice in the last three years, with 1,000-year floods striking that community after extreme downpours in 2016 and earlier this year.

Baltimore needs to upgrade infrastructure to be ready for future flooding, although city officials are not yet certain what that will cost. “The City is in the final stages of its latest Disaster Preparedness and Planning Project, which be out for public comment in August and will have more details about the kinds of projects that Baltimore will have to undertake to address rising seas and other consequences of climate change,” Suzanne Sangree, chief of the Baltimore City Law Department’s public safety practice group, wrote in an email.

“All cities are behind in this kind of preparation, in large part because the fossil fuel industry has been burying information and preventing meaningful regulation and preparation,” Sangree said.

The city filed its suit in state court, where most legal experts say it has a better chance for success. New York City, the first East Coast city to sue the oil industry for climate damages, had its case dismissed by a federal judge on Thursday. San Francisco and Oakland also had their cases thrown out of U.S. District Court. All are expected to appeal those decisions, but have not yet done so.

Those roadblocks have not deterred other communities from joining the wave of suits, however. Rhode Island recently became the first state to file a suit. And now Baltimore joins the list of cities that believe the industry should pay for the damages it says have been overwhelmingly driven by its products.

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https://www.alternet.org/news-amp-politics/supreme-court-just-blocked-order-north-carolina-redraw-gerrymandered-congressional

North Carolinians may vote in the 2018 midterm elections under a congressional map that has been gerrymandered by Republicans. The U.S. Supreme Court has blocked a lower court ruling ordering the U.S. House of Representatives district lines be redrawn by January 24.

Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Sonia Sotomayor both objected to the order.

Reuters explains the initial ruling that ordered the district lines be redrawn:

"The three-judge panel ruled that the Republican-drawn districts violated the U.S. Constitution’s guarantee of equal protection under the law by intentionally hobbling the electoral strength of non-Republican voters. Two of the three judges also said the plan ran afoul of the Constitution’s First Amendment by discriminating based on political belief and association."

The Supreme Court is reviewing cases of alleged gerrymandering in Wisconsin andMaryland. The implications of these cases on other states, including North Carolina, remain to be seen.

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http://www.ecowatch.com/maryland-bans-fracking-2333222930.html

Maryland Senate, House Pass Two-Year Fracking Ban

A Maryland bill calling for a two-year fracking moratorium in the state heads to the governor's office. If Maryland passes this measure, it will become the first state to temporarily ban fracking twice.

new red: Josh Tulkin dep dir Chesapeake Climate Action Network Maryland database listed him as "terrorism-environmental extremism" 77 state pol superint says fmr congr cand, puppet-maker and someone who let anarchists use property for mtg fringe ppl who do not deserve 1st amend protection 77

gov favors http://grist.org/news/maryland-pushing-ahead-on-offshore-wind-farm/